Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Impact of Credit and Liquidity Risk on Bank Performance

Banks exist to make a profit so that they can continue to operate, grow, and expand. Bank stability has been challenged over the previous two decades as a result of political intervention, nonperforming loans (NPLs), and interest rate changes. They need to monitor these micro and macro-level factors to identify and manage risk. Thus, the current study explores the impact of credit risk (NPL, Z-Score) and liquidity risk (LR) on the performance of South Asian banks measured with ROA and ROE. The sample of the study comprised a total of 35 listed banks of South Asian Countries (Pakistan (20) and India (15)) and the sample period spans 10 years from 2011 to 2020. The information was obtained from data stream and the financial statements of selected banks listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The findings show that credit and liquidity risk has a major impact on the performance of South Asian banks. Overall, credit risk has a negative impact on bank performance. However, the Z-score value in the estimation derived with ROE, on the other hand, demonstrates a positive connection with bank performance. The current study’s findings suggest that bank management in developing countries should provide timely monitoring and supervision of their long-term borrowers to control credit risk.
Water quality and ecosystem management: Data‐driven reality check of effects in streams and lakes

This study investigates nutrient‐related water quality conditions and change trends in the first management periods of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD; since 2009) and Baltic Sea Action Plan (BASP; since 2007). With mitigation of nutrients in inland waters and their discharges to the Baltic Sea being a common WFD and BSAP target, we use Sweden as a case study of observable effects, by compiling and analyzing all openly available water and nutrient monitoring data across Sweden since 2003. The data compilation reveals that nutrient monitoring covers only around 1% (down to 0.2% for nutrient loads) of the total number of WFD‐classified stream and lake water bodies in Sweden. The data analysis further shows that the hydro‐climatically driven water discharge dominates the determination of waterborne loads of both total phosphorus and total nitrogen across Sweden. Both water discharge and the related nutrient loads are in turn well correlated with the ecosystem status classification of Swedish water bodies. Nutrient concentrations do not exhibit such correlation and their changes over the study period are on average small, but concentration increases are found for moderate‐to‐bad status waters, for which both the WFD and the BSAP have instead targeted concentration decreases. In general, these results indicate insufficient distinction and mitigation of human‐driven nutrient components in inland waters and their discharges to the sea by the internationally harmonized applications of the WFD and the BSAP. The results call for further comparative investigations of observable large‐scale effects of such regulatory/management frameworks in different parts of the world.
Selection and explosive growth may hamper the performance of rare variant association tests

Much recent debate has focused on the role of rare variants in complex phenotypes. However, it is well known that rare alleles can only contribute a substantial proportion of the phenotypic variance when they have much larger effect sizes than common variants, which is most easily explained by natural selection constraining trait-altering alleles to low frequency. It is also plausible that demographic events will influence the genetic architecture of complex traits. Unfortunately, most rare variant association tests do not explicitly model natural selection or non-equilibrium demography. Here, we develop a novel evolutionary model of complex traits. We perform numerical calculations and simulate phenotypes under this model using inferred human demographic and selection parameters. We show that rare variants only contribute substantially to complex traits under very strong assumptions about the relationship between effect size and selection strength. We then assess the performance of state-of-the-art rare variant tests using our simulations across a broad range of model parameters. Counterintuitively, we find that statistical power is lowest when rare variants make the greatest contribution to the additive variance, and that power is substantially lower under our model than previously studied models. While many empirical studies have attempted to identify causal loci using rare variant association methods, few have reported novel associations. Some authors have interpreted this to mean that rare variants contribute little to heritability, but our results show that an alternative explanation is that rare variant tests have less power than previously estimated.
Pilot study of pegylated interferon alfa-2b and ribavirin for recurrent hepatitis C after liver transplantation

UNLABELLED Recurrent hepatitis C is often treated with an interferon and ribavirin combination therapy, but the results have been disappointing. Given the promising results reported with pegylated interferon and ribavirin for hepatitis C, we were interested in evaluating the effectiveness of this treatment in liver transplant recipients with recurrent hepatitis C (HCV). METHODS Between November 2001 and September 2002, patients with recurrent HCV were screened to determine if they were eligible for treatment. Liver function tests, HCV-RNA, and liver biopsies were performed on all patients prior to treatment. HCV-RNA was repeated at 3 months, the end of treatment (EOT), and 6 months after EOT for patients who were HCV-RNA negative at EOT. Patients were prospectively followed after starting weekly pegylated interferon alfa-2b 1.5 mcg/kg per week and ribavirin 800 mg per day (Schering-Plough, Kenilworth, NJ, USA) with folic acid 1 mg per day. RESULTS Thirty-nine patients eligible for treatment displayed a median age of 50.4 years. Eighteen patients completed treatment, 4 remain on treatment, and 17 were intolerant. Sustained HCV-RNA eradication occurred in 66.7% of patients who completed treatment. Side effects led to treatment withdrawal in 17 patients (43.6%) In an intention-to treat analysis, sustained HCV-RNA eradication occurred in 30.8% of patients. CONCLUSION Side effects are an important limiting factor in the treatment of recurrent HCV with pegylated interferon and ribavirin. However, these results are encouraging as sustained HCV eradication occurred in at least 66.7% of patients who completed treatment. Prospective randomized trials are required to assess the effectiveness of this treatment and its impact on quality of life and histology.
Lack of sex effect on brain activity during a visuomotor response task: functional MR imaging study.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE As more individuals are enrolled in clinical functional MR imaging (fMRI) studies, an understanding of how sex may influence fMRI-measured brain activation is critical. METHODS We used fixed- and random-effects models to study the influence of sex on fMRI patterns of brain activation during a simple visuomotor reaction time task in the group of 26 age-matched men and women. We evaluated the right visual, left visual, left primary motor, left supplementary motor, and left anterior cingulate areas. RESULTS Volumes of activations did not significantly differ between the groups in any defined regions. Analysis of variance failed to show any significant correlations between sex and volumes of brain activation in any location studied. Mean percentage signal-intensity changes for all locations were similar between men and women. A two-way t test of brain activation in men and women, performed as a part of random-effects modeling, showed no significant difference at any site. CONCLUSION Our results suggest that sex seems to have little influence on fMRI brain activation when we compared performance on the simple reaction-time task. The need to control for sex effects is not critical in the analysis of this task with fMRI.
Reliable Unicasting in Faulty Hypercubes Using Safety Levels

We propose a unicasting algorithm for faulty hypercubes (including disconnected hypercubes) using the safety level concept. A faulty hypercube is a hypercube with faulty nodes and unicasting is a one-to-one communication between two nodes in the hypercube. Each node is associated with a safety level which is an approximated measure of the number and distribution of faulty nodes in the neighborhood. The safety level of each node in an n-dimensional hypercube (or n-cube) can be easily calculated through n-1 rounds of information exchange among neighboring nodes. Optimal unicasting between two nodes is guaranteed if the safety level of the source node is no less than the Hamming distance between the source and the destination. The proposed unicasting algorithm can also be used in disconnected hypercubes, where nodes in a hypercube are disjointed into two or more parts. The feasibility of an optimal or suboptimal unicasting can be easily determined at the source node by comparing its safety level, its neighbors' safety levels, and the Hamming distance between the source and the destination. The proposed scheme is the first attempt to address the unicasting problem in disconnected hypercubes. The safety level concept is also extended to be used in hypercubes with both faulty nodes and links and in generalized hypercubes.
Implementation of solidified carbon dioxide to anaerobic co-digestion of municipal sewage sludge and orange peel waste

The waste production is closely related with human activity. Various approaches have been applied to manage and reduce its increasing volume (Paranjpe et al. 2023). One of the possibilities that comply with the assumptions of circular economy is utilization of wastes in anaerobic digestion (AD) process. This technology is common worldwide and it is recognized as the cost-effective methods of energy generation that also allow for nutrient recovery, as well as effective waste management (Alharbi et al. 2023). The biogas generated within this process is considered as a multifunctional renewable source that might be a promising alternative to the depleting traditional fuels. It finds various applications such as heat and power generation, fuel in automobiles, and substrate in chemical industry (Shitophyta et al. 2022, Pradeshwaran 2024). Typically, biogas contains 50–70% of CH4, 30–50% of CO2, and 1–10% of other trace gases like H2, H2S, CO, N2. Its composition mainly depends on the feedstock characteristics, operational conditions, and adopted technology (Gani et al. 2023, Archana et al. 2024). Considering further application, the priority action should be increasing its volume and methane content. There are several strategies to achieve these goals, including implementing codigestion strategy, adding additional component to the main substrate, introducing trace elements essential in AD, pretreatment strategies, and introducing enzymes and microbial strains to digesters (Zhang et al. 2019). Each method has limits related to the implementation costs, changes in the adopted technology, operator training needs, and additional energy input, which might negatively influence the energy balance of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) (Meng et al. 2022). Therefore, recent scientific attention has focused on combining various strategies to achieve intended goals. Moreover, such combinations might allow for an effective utilization of various wastes, the earlier use of which in AD was difficult. Orange waste could be an example of such a substrate. The previous studies indicated that its application in AD resulted in poor process efficiency, mainly due to the presence of limonene, recognized as the main inhibitor of biological activity (Calabro et al. 2020, Bouaita et al. 2022). In this study, the novel concept of implementing solidified carbon dioxide (SCO2) in the anaerobic co-digestion of municipal sewage sludge (SS) and orange peel waste (OPW) has been proposed. This approach may help overcome the disadvantages of the two-component AD of these wastes. Importantly, such studies have not been conducted thus far. However, the recent studies indicated that application of SCO2 to aerobic granular sludge improved biogas and methane yields and also enhanced the kinetics of biogas production (Kazimierowicz et al. 2023 a,b). Importantly, SCO2 might be generated in biogas upgrading technologies (Yousef 2019). Such solution is consistent with the principles of the circular economy and contributes to reducing the carbon footprint of WWTPs.
Salicylic Acid Spray Delays Sand Pear Fruit Senescence during Room Temperature Shelf Life by Regulating Antioxidant Capacity and Senescence-Related Genes

‘Whangkeumbae’ (Pyrus pyrifolia) is a variety of sand pear fruit well-known for its smooth surface and good taste. However, the fruit quality is adversely affected by postharvest ethylene production. Therefore, improving postharvest shelf life by regulating fruit senescence is critical to promoting the ‘Whangkeumbae’ fruit industry. Here, we investigated the effect of salicylic acid (SA) spray on fruit senescence in sand pears during room temperature shelf life. Exogenous SA reduced polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity and malondialdehyde (MDA) content during room temperature shelf life. Additionally, SA effectively maintained the fruit skin coloration and increased the activity of antioxidant enzymes, such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT), and ascorbate peroxidase (APX). SA treatment inhibited PpPPO1 expression and upregulated PpSOD1, PpAPX6, and PpGST2 expression. Furthermore, SA application downregulated the expression of PpACO2, PpEIN3a, PpNCED1, and PpAOC2, while upregulating PpNPR-1, PpTAR2, and PpCOMT1 during room temperature shelf life. SA treatment also influenced cell wall metabolism and modification genes by inhibiting PpPG1, PpPME2, and PpCEL3 and inducing PpPGIP1 expression. Additionally, SA treatment affected sugar and acid metabolism genes and increased the expression of PpSPS1, PpSUS1, PpSOT1, PpTMT4, PpSWEET15, and PpcyNAD-MDH, but suppressed the expression of PpcyNADP-ME. The Pearson correlation analysis indicated that PPO activity and MDA content were positively correlated with the expression of PpPPO1, PpACO2, PpEIN3a, PpNCED1, PpAOC2, PpPG1, PpPME2, PpCEL3, and PpcyNDA-MDH. Conversely, these factors were negatively associated with the activities of SOD, POD, CAT, and APX, as well as the expression levels of PpSOD1, PpPOD1, PpCAT1, PpAPX6, PpGST2, PpNPR-1, PpTAR2, PpCOMT1, PpPGIP1, PpSPS1, PpSUS1, PpSOT1, PpTMT4, PpSWEET15, and PpcyNAD-MDH. Our results reveal that exogenous SA could delay fruit senescence in sand pear fruit by regulating various biochemical and molecular mechanisms and can be used to effectively extend fruit shelf life during room temperature storage. However, further research is necessary to determine whether the fruits sprayed with SA are suitable for direct human consumption.
Human IgG2 Can Form Covalent Dimers1

Unlike IgA and IgM, IgG has not yet been shown to form covalent polymers. However in the presence of specific Ag, murine IgG3 has been shown to polymerize through noncovalent interactions. In contrast to the noncovalent oligomers found with murine IgG3, we have detected covalent dimers in three different recombinant human IgG2 Abs produced in myeloma cells. Both IgG2,κ and IgG2,λ can form dimers. In addition, analysis of pooled human γ globulin and several normal sera revealed the presence of IgG2 dimers. The IgG2 dimers are in contrast to the noncovalent IgG dimers found in pooled sera of multiple donors resulting from idiotype/anti-idiotype (Id/anti-Id) interactions. Cyanogen bromide cleavage analysis suggests that one or more Cys residues in the γ2 hinge are involved in dimer assembly. The potential role of IgG2 dimers in immunity against carbohydrate Ags is discussed.
Affect Recognition in Ads with Application to Computational Advertising

Advertisements (ads) often include strongly emotional content to leave a lasting impression on the viewer. This work (i) compiles an affective ad dataset capable of evoking coherent emotions across users, as determined from the affective opinions of five experts and 14 annotators; (ii) explores the efficacy of convolutional neural network (CNN) features for encoding emotions, and observes that CNN features outperform low-level audio-visual emotion descriptors[9] upon extensive experimentation; and (iii) demonstrates how enhanced affect prediction facilitates computational advertising, and leads to better viewing experience while watching an online video stream embedded with ads based on a study involving 17 users. We model ad emotions based on subjective human opinions as well as objective multimodal features, and show how effectively modeling ad emotions can positively impact a real-life application.
Amphotericin B Colloidal Dispersion Combined with Flucytosine with or without Fluconazole for Treatment of Murine Cryptococcal Meningitis

ABSTRACT Studies with animals and in vitro studies have demonstrated that flucytosine plus amphotericin B or fluconazole has significantly improved mycologic activity against meningitis caused byCryptococcus neoformans compared to the activity of amphotericin B or fluconazole used alone. However, few doses have been tested in combination. This study evaluated the antifungal efficacy of amphotericin B colloidal dispersion (ABCD) combined with flucytosine with and without fluconazole in a murine model of cryptococcal meningitis. The following dosages were tested: ABCD at 0 to 12.5 mg/kg of body weight given intravenously 3 days/week, flucytosine at 0 to 110 mg/kg/day, and fluconazole at 0 to 50 mg/kg/day. Meningitis was established in male BALB/c mice by intracerebral injection of C. neoformans. Treatment with flucytosine with or without fluconazole dissolved in the sole source of drinking water was started on day 2; animals were sacrificed at 16 days, and the numbers of fungal colonies in the brain were quantified. A survival rate of 100% was achieved with ABCD plus flucytosine without fluconazole; however, the addition of fluconazole was required to prevent weight loss (P < 0.00001) and to achieve the maximum antifungal effect (P < 0.00001). The only region of dose combinations for which the 99% confidence intervals were less than 100 CFU/g of brain was defined by ABCD at 5.0 to 7.5 mg/kg combined with flucytosine at 20 to 60 mg/kg/day and fluconazole at 30 to 40 mg/kg/day. The triple combination of ABCD plus flucytosine and fluconazole was necessary to achieve the greatest antifungal activity.
Impactos de El Niño y La Niña en las lluvias del Perú (1965-2007)

The impacts of El Nino (EN) and La Nina (LN) in rainfall in Peru are evaluated using monthly data (1965-2007) of 155 stations distributed over the three hydrographic drainages of Peru: 85 in the Pacific (VP), 21 in the Lake Titicaca (VT) and 49 in the Amazon (VA). To classify El Nino and La Nina is used the Index Troup Southern Oscillation (SOI) based on hydrological years (September to August). Using these values was reclassified as strong El Nino (ENF) moderate El Nino (ENM), moderate La Nina (LNM) and strong La Nina (LNF). The results show that only during ENF and LNF events exhibit a high percentage of stations with significant anomalies of precipitation and mainly located in the VP and VT during the December to May period. Our analysis confirms that the northern part of the VP has an increased rainfall during ENF, while the southern Andean region of the VP has decreased (increased) rainfall during ENF (LNF). The VT presents a significant rainfall deficit during ENF. The precipitation variation in the VA is instead more sensitive to LNF events, during which major rainfall are observed than usually. In a second step, we analyze the main modes of interannual variability of rainfall in Peru using the technique of empirical orthogonal functions (EOF). The results are related to the variability of sea surface temperature and IOS, E and C indices of the equatorial Pacific. It was found that the main mode of rainfall variability (PC1, 37% of the total variance) is associated with two extraordinary events EN (1983 and 1998), which generated heavy rain in the north of the VP and droughts in the VT and VA. On the other hand, the second mode of variability of rainfall (PC2, 25%) correlates with anomalies of sea surface temperature in the central equatorial Pacific, cold conditions in this region (LN) causes more rainfall than normal in the Andean region of the VP, VT and in VA. In conclusion, it appears that the variability of the Pacific Ocean not explain the entire rainfall variability in Peru. Thus, perspectives are described considering other regions such as the Tropical Atlantic Ocean.
Subionospheric VLF observations of transmitter‐induced precipitation of inner radiation belt electrons

Ionospheric effects of energetic electron precipitation induced by controlled injection of VLF signals from a ground based transmitter are observed via subionospheric VLF remote sensing. The 21.4 kHz NPM transmitter in Lualualei, Hawaii is keyed ON‐OFF in 30 minute periodic sequences. The same periodicity is observed in the amplitude and phase of the sub ionospherically propagating signals of the 24.8 kHz NLK (Jim Creek, Washington) and 25.2 kHz NLM (LaMoure, North Dakota) transmitters measured at Midway Island. Periodic perturbations of the NLK signal observed at Palmer, Antarctica suggest that energetic electrons scattered at longitudes of NPM continue to be precipitated into the atmosphere as they drift toward the South Atlantic Anomaly. Utilizing a model of the magnetospheric wave‐particle interaction, ionospheric energy deposition, and subionospheric VLF propagation, the precipitated energy flux induced by the NPM transmitter is estimated to peak at L ∼ 2 and ∼ 1.6 × 10−4 ergs s−1 cm−2.
Variations of O 3 and CO in summertime at a rural site near Beijing

Large intra-season differences in mixing ratios of CO and O3 were detected at Miyun, a rural site north of Bei- jing, in summer 2006. Despite an increase in mean daytime mixing ratio of CO from 500 ppbv in June to 700 ppbv in July, mean daytime O3 dropped from 67 ppbv in June to 50 ppbv in July and August. The observed changes in CO and O3 are attributed to the influence of the summer monsoonal circulation that develops over the North China Plain in July. Photochemical production of O3 is reduced as a consequence of increased cloudiness during July and August, as indicated by the strong negative correlation observed between O3 and satellite observations of cloud optical depth, with cloudiness having little effect on CO. The analysis suggests a strategy for emission controls that could be implemented in an eco- nomically efficient manner to minimize the frequency of high levels of O3 during summer in Beijing.
Impaired Sequential Egocentric and Allocentric Memories in Forebrain-Specific–NMDA Receptor Knock-Out Mice during a New Task Dissociating Strategies of Navigation

The hippocampus is considered to play a role in allocentric but not in egocentric spatial learning. How does this view fit with the emerging evidence that the hippocampus and possibly related cortical areas are necessary for episodic-like memory, i.e., in all situations in which events need to be spatially or sequentially organized? Are NMDA receptor-dependent mechanisms crucial for the acquisition of spatiotemporal relationships? To address this issue, we used knock-out (KO) mice lacking hippocampal CA1 NMDA receptors and presenting a reduction of these receptors in the deep cortical layers (NR1-KO mice). A new task (the starmaze) was designed, allowing us to distinguish allocentric and sequential-egocentric memories. NR1-KO mice were impaired in acquiring both types of memory. Our findings suggest that memories composed of multiple spatiotemporal events require intact NMDA receptors-dependent mechanisms in CA1 and possibly in the deep cortical layers.