CTCF blocks anti-sense transcription initiation at divergent gene promoters

Transcription at most promoters is divergent, initiating at closely spaced oppositely oriented core promoters to produce sense transcripts along with often unstable upstream antisense (uasTrx). How antisense transcription is regulated and to what extent it is coordinated with sense transcription is largely unknown. Here by combining acute degradation of the multi-functional transcription factor CTCF and nascent transcription measurements, we find that CTCF specifically suppresses antisense but not sense transcription at hundreds of divergent promoters, the great majority of which bear proximal CTCF binding sites. Genome editing, chromatin conformation studies, and high-resolution transcript mapping revealed that precisely positioned CTCF directly suppresses the initiation of uasTrx, in a manner independent of its chromatin architectural function. Primary transcript RNA FISH revealed co-bursting of sense and anti-sense transcripts is disfavored, suggesting CTCF-regulated competition for transcription initiation. In sum, CTCF shapes the transcriptional landscape in part by suppressing upstream antisense transcription.

Biden’s China policy: concepts, events, preliminary results

Biden’s foreign policy team worked out the new concept of its relations with China. The main idea of this concept is more nuanced approach to China’s behavior, reassessing bilateral ties with China to separate the spheres of confrontation, regulated competition and possible cooperation for commonly shared goals. However, this concept and ideology still failed to be applied to practical policy. Biden’s many steps towards China, especially in economic and military realms, are in fact showing the inertia and obvious continuity with Trump’s policies. In political sphere, Biden’s stress for «human rights» issues, so typical for Democratic Party, make the dialogue with China the same unproductive, as it was in the Trump’s era. In economic relations Biden’s administration is not cancelling high trade tariffs on China goods, being oriented on “regulated trade” approach in its ties with PRC. Biden’s administration is more successful and active than Trump in pushing through Congress the legislation for spending on innovation and technological upgrading of the U.S. economy, that is vital to successful competition with China.

Free and Regulated Competition: Two Forms of the Competitive Principle Implementation

Although interference in the competitive mechanism is a fact of economic reality, the controversy around free and regulated competition does not subside. In contrast to opposing these forms of competition to each other, the author views them as ensuring re-creation of competitive relations at qualitatively different stages of competition development. Based on the reproduction approach, the objective nature of these forms’ existence is revealed, and the reasons for transition from free to regulated competition are shown. Free competition is interpreted as a way of the competitors selection mechanism, acting without regard to position occupied by competitors in the market. Regulated competition is characterised by external interference, carried out by influencing the mechanism and results of the competitive process, in competitive selection. Considering free and regulated competition as a means of maintaining the competitive principle and restoring rivalry relationships, the author concludes that each form reflects the specifics of the implementation of this principle at different stages of the competitive system development. At the same time, the transition from free competition to its regulated form is interpreted as a way of resolving the internal contradiction within the competition, and at the same time as an evidence of its evolution. This interpretation is not only of theoretical significance related to justification of the need to regulate competition. It is a methodological key to determine areas and boundaries of intervention in the competitive process for competitive policy. The current stage of competition development is characterised by a high rate of change, ultimate and unpredictable, and requires a transition to new regulatory measures affecting the competitive principle itself. The study of this side of regulated competition seems to be the most promising. This article focuses on the subjective side of macrocompetition represented by institutions (antitrust laws) and actors (rivals and regulators). However, the evolution of competitive conditions and competitors also change the content of the competitive principle. This requires regulation of competition from within.

Gemeinsame Selbstverwaltung: Bedingungen der Aufgabenwahrnehmung

Zusammenfassung Ein vielgestaltiger Wandel in Gesundheitssystem und Gesundheitspolitik erschwert den Verbänden der Ärzte und Krankenkassen die Wahrnehmung ihrer Aufgaben im Rahmen der gemeinsamen Selbstverwaltung. Erstens steigert die mit der Einrichtung des Gemeinsamen Bundesausschusses verbundene transsektorale Ausweitung der korporatistischen Verhandlungssystemen die Komplexität der Akteurs- und Interessenkonstellationen in der gemeinsamen Selbstverwaltung. Zweitens trägt der ordnungspolitische Wandel in Richtung auf einen regulierten Wettbewerb zu einer Binnendifferenzierung der Interessen in der Ärzteschaft und bei den Krankenkassen bei. Drittens erschwert auf der Seite der Ärzteschaft zusätzlich die Ausdifferenzierung von Disziplinen, Versorgungseinrichtungen und -formen sowie von beruflichen Identitäten die für das Funktionieren der gemeinsamen Selbstverwaltung erforderliche Aggregation von Interessen und die Kompromissfindung. Abstract A multi-faceted change in the health system and health policy makes it difficult for associations of doctors and health insurance companies to carry out their tasks within the framework of joint self-government. First, the transsectoral expansion of corporatist bargaining systems associated with the establishment of the Joint Federal Committee increases the complexity of stakeholder and stakeholder constellations in joint self-government. Second, regulatory change towards regulated competition contributes to an internal differentiation of interests in the medical profession and in the health insurance funds. Third, on the side of the medical profession, the differentiation of disciplines and care as well as of occupational identities further complicates the aggregation of interests and compromise-finding necessary for the functioning of joint self-administration.

Conditions for the functioning of regulated competition on the public urban transport market in Poland

The public urban transport market takes the form of a natural monopoly. In some cases, especially in the situation of supply of a relatively large volume of operation work, the implementation of competitive solutions may result in: improving the quality of services or reducing the cost of vehicle-kilometers. The purpose of the article is to present the determinants of functioning of regulated competition on the public urban transport market in Poland. The conducted analysis focuses on the issue of market openness and access to participation in competitive procedures of private operators. The research covered urban transport markets in cities over 200.000 inhabitants and their characteristics in the scope of: the model of public transport organization (with particular emphasis on the level of opening of markets), the level of competition on the operator market and the method of selecting operators. On the basis of the conducted research, the scope of applying pro-competitive solutions in the scope of contracting services by the largest organizers of public urban transport in Poland was characterized.