Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Determinants of Commercial Banks Profitability: Empirical Evidence from Ethiopian Commercial Banks

Commercial Banks play an important role in contributing to a country’s economic development. Accordingly understanding factors affecting commercial banks profitability is essential. The main objective of this study is pointing out the variables that have impact on the determination of Ethiopian commercial banks profitability. The data was collected from National bank of Ethiopia annual reports and from 17 Ethiopian commercial banks, which covers from 2005 to 2019. The explanatory variables covered under this study were Bank Specific (Capital Adequacy, Bank Size, Deposit Ratio, Credit Risk and Fund Cost), Macro-Economic (Inflation Rate, Real Economic Growth Rate & Foreign Exchange Rate) and industry specific (Lending Interest rate). ROA, ROE & NIM was used as dependent variables to measure profitability. Fixed effect model with bootstrap estimation was used to analyze the effect of those explanatory variables on ROA. On the other hand, PSCEs regression and PSCEs regression with transformation of the data to logarithmic value were done to ROE & NIM respectively. The STATA 14 output depicts bank size capital adequacy and deposit ratio has a positive and significant relationship with Ethiopian commercial banks profitability. The other important bank specific explanatory variable is liquidity, which has a negative and significant relationship with banks profitability (measured by NIM). the last significant variable is lending interest rate, which has a negative significant influence on ROA & ROE. Unexpectedly the three macro-economic variable haven’t a significant influence on ROA, ROE &NIM. So it is suggested that Ethiopian commercial banks should focus on bank specific and industry specific variables to increase their profitability.
Regulation of host gene expression by gastrointestinal tract microbiota in Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha)

Differences in gut microbiome composition are linked with health, disease and ultimately host fitness; however, the molecular mechanisms underlying that relationship are not well characterized. Here, we modified the fish gut microbiota using antibiotic and probiotic feed treatments to address the effect of host microbiome on gene expression patterns. Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) gut gene expression was evaluated using whole transcriptome sequencing (RNA‐Seq) on hindgut mucosa samples from individuals treated with antibiotic, probiotic and control diets to determine differentially expressed (DE) host genes. Fifty DE host genes were selected for further characterization using nanofluidic qPCR chips. We used 16S rRNA gene metabarcoding to characterize the rearing water and host gut microbiome (bacterial) communities. Daily administration of antibiotics and probiotics resulted in significant changes in fish gut and aquatic microbiota as well as more than 100 DE genes in the antibiotic and probiotic treatment fish, relative to healthy controls. Normal microbiota depletion by antibiotics mostly led to downregulation of different aspects of immunity and upregulation of apoptotic process. In the probiotic treatment, genes related to post‐translation modification and inflammatory responses were up‐regulated relative to controls. Our qPCR results revealed significant effects of treatment (antibiotic and probiotic) on rabep2, aifm3, manf, prmt3 gene transcription. Moreover, we found significant associations between members of Lactobacillaceae and Bifidobacteriaceae with host gene expression patterns. Overall, our analysis showed that the microbiota had significant impacts on many host signalling pathways, specifically targeting immune, developmental and metabolic processes. Our characterization of some of the molecular mechanisms involved in microbiome‐host interactions will help develop new strategies for preventing/ treating microbiome disruption‐related diseases.
T cell-mediated development of stromal fibroblasts with an immune-enhancing chemokine profile

Stromal fibroblasts reside in inflammatory tissues that are characterized by either immune suppression or immune activation, but whether these cells adapt to these contrasting microenvironments is not known. Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) mediate immune quiescence by producing the chemokine CXCL12 that coats cancer cells to suppress T cell infiltration. We examined whether CAFs can adopt an immune-promoting chemokine profile. Single-cell RNA-sequencing of CAFs from mouse pancreatic adenocarcinomas identified a sub-population with decreased expression of CXCL12 and increased expression of the T cell-attracting chemokine, CXCL9, that was expanded when tumors were infiltrated with T cells. Conditioned media from activated CD8+ T cells containing TNFα and IFNγ converted the chemokine profile of stromal fibroblasts from a CXCL12+/CXCL9- immune suppressive phenotype into a CXCL12-/CXCL9+ immune-activating phenotype. Studies with recombinant cytokines showed that TNFα acted synergistically with IFNγ to induce CXCL9 expression, and alone was mainly responsible for suppressing CXCL12 expression. This coordinated chemokine switch demonstrates that stromal fibroblasts have a phenotypic plasticity that allow their adaptation to contrasting immune tissue microenvironments. Summary It is unclear whether and how stromal fibroblasts adapt and contribute to varying tissue microenvironments. This study shows immune-suppressive cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) have the capacity to develop an immune-promoting chemokine profile in response to cytokines from infiltrating T cells.
Histological changes in liver and kidney of male mice by age after exposure to aluminum chloride

The informal aluminum industry is increasingly widespread in low- and middle-income countries, especially in Indonesia. Aluminum exposure is a serious public health problem, especially among workers in the informal aluminum foundry sector. Research on aluminum (Al) is important to advance our understanding of its impact on physiological systems. Here, we investigated the effect of exposure to aluminum longitudinal histological changes on the liver and kidneys of male mice. Mice were separated into six groups (4/group): group 1, group 2, group 3 received vehicles, and group 4, group 5, group 6 were administered a single dose of Al at 200 mg/kg b.w. by intraperitoneally every 3 days for 4 weeks. Post-sacrifice, kidneys and liver were isolated for examination. While Al did not impact the body weight gain of male mice across all groups, it caused liver damage including sinusoidal dilatation, enlarged central veins, vacuolar degeneration, and pyknotic nuclei in one-month-old mice. Furthermore, atrophied glomeruli, blood-filled spaces, and disintegration of renal tubular epithelium are evident at one-month-age. By contrast, sinusoidal dilatation and enlarged central veins were found in mice two- and three-months-old, including hemorrhage in mice (two-month-old) and atrophy of glomeruli. Lastly, the kidneys of three-month-old mice displayed interstitial fibrosis and increasing mesenchyme in the glomeruli. In summary, we demonstrated that Al provoked histological changes in the liver and kidneys with Al-treated 1-month mice being the most susceptible.
Effects of high‐resistance wheel running on hallmarks of endurance and resistance training adaptations in mice

Exercise effectively promotes and preserves cardiorespiratory, neuromuscular, metabolic, and cognitive functions throughout life. The molecular mechanisms underlying the beneficial adaptations to exercise training are, however, still poorly understood. To improve the mechanistic study of specific exercise training adaptations, standardized, physiological, and well‐characterized training interventions are required. Therefore, we performed a comprehensive interrogation of systemic changes and muscle‐specific cellular and molecular adaptations to voluntary low‐resistance wheel running (Run) and progressive high‐resistance wheel running (RR) in young male mice. Following 10 weeks of training, both groups showed similar improvements in body composition and peak oxygen uptake (V̇O2peak), as well as elevated mitochondrial proteins and capillarization markers in the M. plantaris. Run mice clearly outperformed RR mice in a forced treadmill running capacity test, while RR mice displayed increased grip strength as well as superior mass gains in the M. soleus, associated with distinct proteomic changes specifying the two paradigms. Thus, even though both training modalities induce overlapping adaptations, Run interventions preferably improve submaximal running performance, while progressive RR is a valid model to study training‐induced gains in grip strength and plantar flexor hypertrophy.
Two ways of encoding location in Greek: Locative applicatives and prepositions

Cross-linguistically, oblique theta roles such as location can be encoded by both adpositions and applicative morphemes. In this paper we argue that Standard Modern Greek (SMG), a language that encodes location primarily with prepositions, has a set of morphologically complex predicates that consist of an intransitive verbal root and a locative prefix, and behave like locative applicative constructions. We argue that this prefix is a low applicative head, licensing the addition of a locative DP argument to the intransitive verbal root. Specifically, this applicative head: (i) case-and theta-licenses the added argument, but being void of phi-features, it blocks its cliticization; (ii) is distinct from a homophonous free standing P semantically and syntactically; (iii) is undergoing grammaticalization, as evidenced by the emergence of a novel configuration, in which the locative predicates combine with locative PPs that retrieve semantic and syntactic information of the locative prefix. Our findings show that applicatives may come in various flavors, that a language may use both analytic and synthetic devices to encode location which are not derivationally related, and that lexical/inherent case does not necessarily reduce to a PP structure.
Semiprimitivity of Orthodox Semigroup Algebras

Let S be a finite orthodox semigroup or an orthodox semigroup where the idempotent band E(S) is locally pseudofinite. In this paper, by using principal factors and Rukolaǐne idempotents, we show that the contracted semigroup algebra R0[S] is semiprimitive if and only if S is an inverse semigroup and R[G] is semiprimitive for each maximal subgroup G of S. This theorem strengthens previous results about the semiprimitivity of inverse semigroup algebras.
Respiratory syncytial virus surge in 2022 caused by lineages already present before the COVID‐19 pandemic

In 2022, Austria experienced a severe respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) epidemic with an earlier‐than‐usual start (Weeks 35/2021–45/2022) and increased numbers of pediatric patients in emergency departments. This surge came 2 years after a season with no cases detected as a result of coronavirus disease 2019 nonpharmaceutical interventions. We analyzed epidemiologic patterns and the phylodynamics of RSV based on approximately 30 800 respiratory specimens collected year‐round over 10 years from ambulatory and hospitalized patients from 248 locations in Austria. Genomic surveillance and phylogenetic analysis of 186 RSV‐A and 187 RSV‐B partial glycoprotein sequences collected from 2018 to 2022 revealed that the 2022/2023 surge was driven by RSV‐B in contrast to the surge in the 2021/2022 season that was driven by RSV‐A. Whole‐genome sequencing and phylodynamic analysis indicated that the RSV‐B strain GB5.0. 6a was the predominant genotype in the 2022/2023 season and emerged in late 2019. The results provide insight into RSV evolution and epidemiology that will be applicable to future monitoring efforts with the advent of novel vaccines and therapeutics.
Advances in natural killer cell therapies for breast cancer

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cause of cancer death in women. According to the American Cancer Society's yearly cancer statistics, BC constituted almost 15% of all the newly diagnosed cancer cases in 2022 for both sexes. Metastatic disease occurs in 30% of patients with BC. The currently available treatments fail to cure metastatic BC, and the average survival time for patients with metastatic BC is approximately 2 years. Developing a treatment method that terminates cancer stem cells without harming healthy cells is the primary objective of novel therapeutics. Adoptive cell therapy is a branch of cancer immunotherapy that utilizes the immune cells to attack cancer cells. Natural killer (NK) cells are an essential component of innate immunity and are critical in destroying tumor cells without prior stimulation with antigens. With the advent of chimeric antigen receptors (CARs), the autologous or allogeneic use of NK/CAR–NK cell therapy has raised new hopes for treating patients with cancer. Here, we describe recent developments in NK and CAR–NK cell immunotherapy, including the biology and function of NK cells, clinical trials, different sources of NK cells and their future perspectives on BC.
Developing a New Phylogeny-Driven Random Forest Model for Functional Metagenomics

Metagenomics is an unobtrusive science linking microbial genes to biological functions or environmental states. Classifying microbial genes into their functional repertoire is an important task in the downstream analysis of Metagenomic studies. The task involves Machine Learning (ML) based supervised methods to achieve good classification performance. Random Forest (RF) has been applied rigorously to microbial gene abundance profiles, mapping them to functional phenotypes. The current research targets tuning RF by the evolutionary ancestry of microbial phylogeny, developing a Phylogeny-RF model for functional classification of metagenomes. This method facilitates capturing the effects of phylogenetic relatedness in an ML classifier itself rather than just applying a supervised classifier over the raw abundances of microbial genes. The idea is rooted in the fact that closely related microbes by phylogeny are highly correlated and tend to have similar genetic and phenotypic traits. Such microbes behave similarly; and hence tend to be selected together, or one of these could be dropped from the analysis, to improve the ML process. The proposed Phylogeny-RF algorithm has been compared with state-of-the-art classification methods including RF and the phylogeny-aware methods of MetaPhyl and PhILR, using three real-world 16S rRNA metagenomic datasets. It has been observed that the proposed method not only achieved significantly better performance than the traditional RF model but also performed better than the other phylogeny-driven benchmarks (p < 0.05). For example, Phylogeny-RF attained a highest AUC of 0.949 and Kappa of 0.891 over soil microbiomes in comparison to other benchmarks.
Neural circuit-wide analysis of changes to gene expression during deafening-induced birdsong destabilization

Sensory feedback is required for the stable execution of learned motor skills, and its loss can severely disrupt motor performance. The neural mechanisms that mediate sensorimotor stability have been extensively studied at systems and physiological levels, yet relatively little is known about how disruptions to sensory input alter the molecular properties of associated motor systems. Songbird courtship song, a model for skilled behavior, is a learned and highly structured vocalization that is destabilized following deafening. Here, we sought to determine how the loss of auditory feedback modifies gene expression and its coordination across the birdsong sensorimotor circuit. To facilitate this system-wide analysis of transcriptional responses, we developed a gene expression profiling approach that enables the construction of hundreds of spatially-defined RNA-sequencing libraries. Using this method, we found that deafening preferentially alters gene expression across birdsong neural circuitry relative to surrounding areas, particularly in premotor and striatal regions. Genes with altered expression are associated with synaptic transmission, neuronal spines, and neuromodulation and show a bias toward expression in glutamatergic neurons and Pvalb/Sst-class GABAergic interneurons. We also found that connected song regions exhibit correlations in gene expression that were reduced in deafened birds relative to hearing birds, suggesting that song destabilization alters the inter-region coordination of transcriptional states. Finally, lesioning LMAN, a forebrain afferent of RA required for deafening-induced song plasticity, had the largest effect on groups of genes that were also most affected by deafening. Combined, this integrated transcriptomics analysis demonstrates that the loss of peripheral sensory input drives a distributed gene expression response throughout associated sensorimotor neural circuitry and identifies specific candidate molecular and cellular mechanisms that support the stability and plasticity of learned motor skills.
A Variant of the Problem of the Thirteen Spheres

We use the term balls for congruent, closed spheres no two of which have interior points in common. In Euclidean n-space let Nn be the maximal number of balls which can touch a ball. Obviously, N2 = 6. R. Hoppe (see (1)) proved that N3 = 12, settling thereby a famous point of controversy between Newton and David Gregory, known as the problem of the thirteen spheres (see (3)). Simpler proofs were given by Günter (6), Schütte and van der Waerden (10), and Leech (7).
Endometrioid endometrial cancer treated with open or laparoscopic approach: is there a dilemma?

We thank you for your general appreciation of our manuscript and kind comments. Our data highlight the superiority of the laparoscopic approach over open surgery for the treatment of endometrioid endometrial cancer in terms of overall morbidity, intraoperative complications, blood loss, post-surgical recovery, as well as the incidence and severity of postoperative complications in this population. Both approaches permitted a systematic pelvic and para-aortic lymphadenectomy with a sufficient amount of resected lymph nodes. The laparoscopic approach appears to be as safe as the conventional open technique, but provides a better surgical outcome and might therefore be more beneficial for the patient.
Design, implementation, and analysis of maximal transversal algorithms

We report on careful implementations of seven algorithms for solving the problem of finding a maximum transversal of a sparse matrix. We analyse the algorithms and discuss the design choices. To the best of our knowledge, this is the most comprehensive comparison of maximum transversal algorithms based on augmenting paths. Previous papers with the same objective either do not have all the algorithms discussed in this paper or they used non-uniform implementations from different researchers. We use a common base to implement all of the algorithms and compare their relative performance on a wide range of graphs and matrices. We systematize, develop and use several ideas for enhancing performance. One of these ideas improves the performance of one of the existing algorithms in most cases, sometimes significantly.
Dynamical study of bubble expansion following laser ablation in liquids

This work examines the initial growth and collapse stages of bubbles induced by laser ablation in liquids. First, the bubble shape and size are tracked using an ultrafast camera in a shadowgraph imaging setup. The use of an ultrafast camera ensures a high control of the reproducibility, because a thorough measurement of each bubble lifetime is performed. Next, an analytical cavitation-based model is developed to assess the thermodynamic bubble properties. This study demonstrates that the bubble evolution is adiabatic and driven by inertial forces. Surprisingly, it is found that the bubbles consist of significantly more solvent molecules than ablated matter. These results are valuable to the field of nanoparticle synthesis as they provide insight into the mechanics of laser ablation in liquids.
Cardiac effects 2 years after successful non‐myeloablative human leukocyte antigen‐matched related donor hematopoietic cell transplants in sickle cell disease

informative. In conclusion, we have shown for the first time that cardiac mor-phology and TRV improve 2 years after HLA-matched sibling HCT for SCD. As diastolic dysfunction and TRV have been associated with early mortality in adults with SCD, our results suggest that successful HCT may impact survival. A larger multicenter study with longer follow-up is indicated.
The Application of Ultrasound to Quantify Hyoid Motion During Drug‐Induced Sleep Endoscopy

The significance of hyoid dynamics in OSA pathophysiology remains unclear. Drug‐induced sleep endoscopy (DISE) is often used for evaluating patients intolerant to positive airway pressure (PAP) therapy. We performed DISE with concurrent hyoid‐focused ultrasonography to quantify hyoid dynamics during obstructive and non‐obstructive breathing.
Plane wave scattering and absorption by flat gratings of impedance strips

The problem of the plane wave scattering by a flat impedance-strip grating located in free space is considered. The formulation involves a set of generalized boundary conditions relating limiting values of the fields to effective electric and magnetic currents. We develop an accurate numerical solution to this problem using the dual series equations and the method of analytical regularization (MAR) based on the main part inversion. This guarantees a fast convergence and controlled accuracy of computations. Reflected, transmitted, and absorbed power fractions as a function of the frequency and the grating parameters are analyzed. Sharp resonances are revealed in the H-polarized scattering near to the grazing of the higher-order modes; these resonances are absent for the perfect electrically conducting strip grating. Low-frequency asymptotics for the reflectance and transmittance in the single-mode regime are presented and compared with numerical solutions.
Testosterone is lower in men with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and alcohol-related cirrhosis and is associated with adverse clinical outcomes

SUMMARY Background/aims Low serum testosterone is common in cirrhotic men, but the impact of disease aetiology remains uncertain. This study compares serum total testosterone (TT) levels by disease aetiology and assesses its prognostic value. Methods Single-centre retrospective study of cirrhotic men who had TT levels measured between 2002 and 2020. A cut-off of 12 nmol/L was used to define low TT and 230 pmol/L for calculated free testosterone (cFT). Linear and logistic regression used to adjust for variables known to affect testosterone levels and assess for an association between levels and outcomes. Results Of 766 cirrhotic men, 33.3% had alcohol-related liver disease (ALD) and 11.9% had non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The median age was 56 years (interquartile range (IQR) 50–61), and the model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) score 14 (IQR 9-20). TT levels were low in 53.3% of patients, (median 11.0 nmol/L; IQR 3.7–19.8) and cFT low in 79.6% (median 122 pmol/L; IQR 48.6-212). Median TT was lower in men with ALD (7.6 nmol/L; IQR 2.1–16.2) and NAFLD (9.8 nmol/L; IQR 2.75-15.6) compared to other aetiologies (11.0 nmol/L; IQR 3.73-19.8) (p < 0.001 for all), which remained true after adjustment for age and MELD score. TT was inversely associated with 12-month mortality or transplant (381 events, p = 0.02) and liver decompensation (345 events, p = 0.004). Conclusions Low serum testosterone is common in cirrhotic men and is associated with adverse clinical outcomes. TT levels are significantly lower in ALD and NAFLD compared to other disease aetiologies. Further large-scale studies are required to assess the potential benefits of testosterone therapy.