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"Shen, Simon"
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Engineered pegRNAs improve prime editing efficiency
Prime editing enables the installation of virtually any combination of point mutations, small insertions or small deletions in the DNA of living cells. A prime editing guide RNA (pegRNA) directs the prime editor protein to the targeted locus and also encodes the desired edit. Here we show that degradation of the 3′ region of the pegRNA that contains the reverse transcriptase template and the primer binding site can poison the activity of prime editing systems, impeding editing efficiency. We incorporated structured RNA motifs to the 3′ terminus of pegRNAs that enhance their stability and prevent degradation of the 3′ extension. The resulting engineered pegRNAs (epegRNAs) improve prime editing efficiency 3–4-fold in HeLa, U2OS and K562 cells and in primary human fibroblasts without increasing off-target editing activity. We optimized the choice of 3′ structural motif and developed pegLIT, a computational tool to identify non-interfering nucleotide linkers between pegRNAs and 3′ motifs. Finally, we showed that epegRNAs enhance the efficiency of the installation or correction of disease-relevant mutations.
Stabilizing pegRNAs with 3′ RNA structures increases prime editing efficiency.
Journal Article
A comparative study of the Belt and Road Initiative and the Marshall plan
Since the introduction of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013, both the mainstream media and professional analysts began to name the Initiative “China’s Marshall Plan”. While the rhetoric may simply be an eye-catching term constructed in journalist and consultancy circles, this paper examines the background and purposes behind these two grand projects in order to shed light on the similarities and the differences of their effects on the world order. By comparing the projects under five different aspects—boosting exports, exporting currency, countering a rival, fostering strategic divisions, and siphoning away diplomatic support—this paper argues that while the two projects may have similarities and aim to respond to the malfunctioning world order through macro political-economic investments and developmental aid, their outcomes (given the relative differences of the global position of rivalries—USSR in Marshall Plan; US in BRI) and the changing economic structures, could be very different. As a result, this paper concludes that it may be too early to suggest that the BRI could bring similar outcomes as the Marshall Plan, especially in competing for the global leadership in the 21st century.
Journal Article
Obamania＂ in China and Its Yielding to Nationalism: Quantitative Responses from Elitist Chinese Students in Beijing toward the 2008 U.S. Election and Structural Analysis
By drawing upon firsthand empirical sources, this article aims to discuss the various responses of elitist Chinese students in Beijing-who might have a direct future role to play in shaping China's perception of the United States-toward the 2008 U. S. presidential election, including questions like which candidate Chinese youth favored and why, what impact they saw the election having on future Sino-U. S. relations, and how they evaluated the American political system overall. The article uses these sources to illustrate the real essence of Obama's global popularity from the perspective of soft power and to evaluate the intrinsic limitations to ＂Obamania＂ being spread in China by assessing the response when U. S. values and Chinese nationalist sentiment are juxtaposed. Most importantly, the article finds that despite ＂Obamania,＂ U. S. values are found to lose out to nationalist sentiment in the minds of young Chinese, who seem to have a gradual tendency to favor the ＂China model＂ over its Western counterpart.
Journal Article
Online Chinese nationalism and China's bilateral relations
Since the Chinese were officially plugged into the virtual community in 1994, the usage of the internet in the country has developed at an incredible rate. By the end of 2008, there were approximately 298 million netizens in China, a number which surpasses that of the U.S. and ranks China the highest user in the world. The rapid development of the online Chinese community has not only boosted the information flow among citizens across the territory, but has also created a new form of social interaction between the state, the media, various professionals and intellectuals, as well as China's ordinary citizens. Although the subject of this book is online Chinese nationalism, which to a certain extent is seen as a pro-regime phenomenon, the emergence of an online civil society in China intrinsically provides some form of supervision of state power-perhaps even a check on it. The fact that the party-state has made use of this social interaction, while at the same time remaining worried about the negative impact of the same netizens, is a fundamental characteristic of the nature of the relationship between the state and the internet community. Many questions arise when considering the internet and Chinese nationalism. Which are the most important internet sites carrying online discussion of nationalism related to the author's particular area of study? What are the differences between online nationalism and the conventional form of nationalism, and why do these differences exist? Has nationalist online expression influenced actual foreign policy making? Has nationalist online expression influenced discourse in the mainstream mass media in China? Have there been any counter reactions towards online nationalism? Where do they come from? Online Chinese Nationalism and China's Bilateral Relations seeks to address these questions.
eBook
Special Issue: New Silk Road Project
Coinciding with the rise of Chinese economy, China’s foreign policy has become more assertive than ever. As part of the “Chinese Dream” promise, her new projects, the “New Maritime Silk Road” and the “New Silk Road,” have created a new chapter of China’s relations with her neighboring countries as well as the international communities. However, China’s hidden agenda of the two new projects, her challenges of achieving her goals, and how the international communities respond to the increasingly assertive Chinese foreign policy are yet to be discussed extensively among research on international relations. This introduction seeks to outline a wide spectrum of theoretical framework that is applicable to the subject and to highlight the importance of understanding the context of China’s strategic shifts in Xi Jinping’s era.
Journal Article
Reconstructing the Silent Player: the British Use of the “Soviet Card” in Handling the 1967 Riots in Hong Kong and in the Aftermath
Relying primarily on sources which reveal the mentality of the Britons and the rioters, this article aims at filling the vacuum by remapping how the Britons, both the London diplomats and the colonial bureaucrats in Hong Kong, interpreted the role of the Soviet Union before, during and after the riots. By covering three stages of evolution of the British assessment of the Soviets’ possible role in Hong Kong, from feeling strongly suspicious before the 1967 riots to silent cooperation in the Cold War setting between 1967 and 1979, with the 1967 riots serving as the turning point, the paper concludes that the Soviet Card was reconstructed to serve its governance purpose.
Journal Article
Ugandan Youths' Perceptions of Relations with China
Despite endeavoring to construct an image as a contributor to a \"harmonious world,\" China faces criticism for bringing neocolonialism back to Africa. This case study of Uganda offers a quantitative and qualitative basis for examining how young Ugandans understand and interpret \"China\" and \"the Chinese.\" It also suggests how these perceptions could be applied to Sino-African relations in general and the Beijing-Kampala relationship in particular.
Journal Article
Local Governments in Japan and Roles Played in Sino-Japanese Relations
The potential roles played by local governments in Japan regarding Sino-Japanese relations are often neglected. Drawing upon a few representative case studies by highlighting the interaction between local and international politics, the article aims at analyzing the possible impacts of Japan’s local governments on Sino-Japanese relations in the future. First, it reviews the theoretical framework of sub-national or paradiplomacy and the relevant literature on Japan’s local governments in such framework. Second, through showing how their local leaders attempted to pursue local or personal interests by taking Sino-Japanese relations as hostage, it uses four local governments in Japan that have peculiar interaction with China as case studies. Finally, it previews some patterns as derived from the cases, in order to draw some implications for both Tokyo and Beijing.
Journal Article