Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Does market competition affect all banks equally? Empirical evidence on Montenegro

Abstract Bank stability is an important aspect of financial stability, especially in bank-centric systems like that of Montenegro. Hence, it is important to analyse risks affecting stability of both the banking and financial system as a whole. Rising competition among banks could pose a challenge and possibly change the level of credit risk, especially if the banks are small in size. This can affect both credit risk and financial stability. Small-sized banks could be the ones to react less nimbly to a changing market structure than bigger banks with stable market shares. This study tries to answer whether competition affects credit risk in Montenegro and whether banks differing in size react differently. Panel data techniques were applied to eleven banks which account for over 90 percent of the banking sector. The results indicate that market concentration could be particularly harmful when it comes to credit risk of small-sized banks, while large-sized banks are less affected. Overall, the increasing competition may positively affect credit risk in Montenegro.
Theoretical study of energy, inertia and nullity of phenylene and anthracene

Abstract Energy of a molecule plays an important role in physics, chemistry and biology. In mathematics, the concept of energy is used in graph theory to help other subjects such as chemistry and physics. In graph theory, nullity is the number of zeros extracted from the characteristic polynomials obtained from the adjacency matrix, and inertia represents the positive and negative eigenvalues of the adjacency matrix. Energy is the sum of the absolute eigenvalues of its adjacency matrix. In this study, the inertia, nullity and signature of the aforementioned structures have been discussed.
Introduction: The dual tracks of welfare and activation reform – Governance and conditionality

A decade after the financial crisis, another shock is deeply affecting the Irish welfare state. At the time of writing, in April 2021, the Covidadjusted unemployment rate is 24.2 per cent (Central Statistics Office, 2021) – well above the peak of the last crisis, when unemployment hovered at about 15 per cent. The contributions to this special issue were written in the throes of the pandemic. They reflect on a decade of intense social policy change during which mandatory job-search and other forms of conditionality have been intensified and extended to more people, including lone parents, as Ireland has followed other OECD countries in turning towards activation. The ‘activation turn’ (Bonoli, 2010, p. 435) is an umbrella term describing the reconfigura tion of labour market policies towards supply-side interventions designed to either enhance employability through training or, more commonly in liberal welfare states, to propel unemployed people into work via widening benefits conditionality, stronger worker incentives and toughened sanctions. The pursuit of this latter ‘workfare’ approach has often coincided, internationally, with a second track of ‘government and management reform’ (Brodkin, 2013b, p. 13). Countries have increasingly turned to outsourcing, competitive procurement and performance-based contracting, among other governance instruments, to streamline the delivery of Public
Marangoni convection under microgravity conditions

Mass transfer across fluid interfaces is important in chemical process technology. The properties of the interface can affect mass transfer and therefore they are relevant in mass transfer processes. This thesis concentrates on convective liquid flows driven by surface tension gradients along a gas/liquid interface (Marangoni convection). If the surface tension depends on a solute concentration, these gradients will be created as a result of inhomogeneous evaporation of a solute across the interface.
Precursor Abundance Influences Divergent Antigen-Specific CD8+ T Cell Responses after Yersinia pseudotuberculosis Foodborne Infection

Primary infection of C57BL/6 mice with the bacterial pathogen Yersinia pseudotuberculosis elicits an unusually large H-2Kb-restricted CD8+ T cell response to the endogenous and protective bacterial epitope YopE69–77. To better understand the basis for this large response, the model OVA257–264 epitope was inserted into YopE in Y. pseudotuberculosis and antigen-specific CD8+ T cells in mice were characterized after foodborne infection with the resulting strain. ABSTRACT Primary infection of C57BL/6 mice with the bacterial pathogen Yersinia pseudotuberculosis elicits an unusually large H-2Kb-restricted CD8+ T cell response to the endogenous and protective bacterial epitope YopE69–77. To better understand the basis for this large response, the model OVA257–264 epitope was inserted into YopE in Y. pseudotuberculosis and antigen-specific CD8+ T cells in mice were characterized after foodborne infection with the resulting strain. The epitope YopE69–77 elicited significantly larger CD8+ T cell populations in the small intestine, mesenteric lymph nodes (MLNs), spleen, and liver between 7 and 30 days postinfection, despite residing in the same protein and having an affinity for H-2Kb similar to that of OVA257–264. YopE-specific CD8+ T cell precursors were ∼4.6 times as abundant as OVA-specific precursors in the MLNs, spleens, and other lymph nodes of naive mice, explaining the dominance of YopE69–77 over OVA257–264 at early infection times. However, other factors contributed to this dominance, as the ratio of YopE-specific to OVA-specific CD8+ T cells increased between 7 and 30 days postinfection. We also compared the YopE-specific and OVA-specific CD8+ T cells generated during infection for effector and memory phenotypes. Significantly higher percentages of YopE-specific cells were characterized as short-lived effectors, while higher percentages of OVA-specific cells were memory precursor effectors at day 30 postinfection in spleen and liver. Our results suggest that a large precursor number contributes to the dominance and effector and memory functions of CD8+ T cells generated in response to the protective YopE69–77 epitope during Y. pseudotuberculosis infection of C57BL/6 mice.
Construction of a 3-color prism-based TIRF microscope to study the interactions and dynamics of macromolecules

Single-molecule total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy allows for real-time visualization of macromolecular dynamics and complex assembly. Prism-based TIRF microscopes (prismTIRF) are relatively simple to operate and can be easily modulated to fit the needs of a wide variety of experimental applications. While building a prismTIRF microscope without expert assistance can pose a significant challenge, the components needed to build a prismTIRF microscope are relatively affordable and, with some guidance, the assembly can be completed by a determined novice. Here, we provide an easy-to-follow guide for the design, assembly, and operation of a 3-color prismTIRF microscope which can be utilized for the study macromolecular complexes, including the multi-component protein-DNA complexes responsible for DNA repair, replication, and transcription. Our hope is that this article can assist laboratories that aspire to implement single-molecule TIRF techniques, and consequently expand the application of this technology to a broader spectrum of scientific questions.
Frequent paternal mitochondrial inheritance and rapid haplotype frequency shifts in copepod hybrids

Mitochondria are assumed to be maternally inherited in most animal species, and this foundational concept has fostered advances in phylogenetics, conservation, and population genetics. Like other animals, mitochondria were thought to be solely maternally inherited in the marine copepod Tigriopus californicus, which has served as a useful model for studying mitonuclear interactions, hybrid breakdown, and environmental tolerance. However, we present PCR, Sanger sequencing, and Illumina Nextera sequencing evidence that extensive paternal mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) transmission is occurring in inter-population hybrids of T. californicus. PCR on four types of crosses between three populations (total sample size of 376 F1 individuals) with 20% genome-wide mitochondrial divergence showed 2% to 59% of F1 hybrids with both paternal and maternal mtDNA, where low and high paternal leakage values were found in different cross directions of the same population pairs. Sequencing methods further verified nucleotide similarities between F1 mtDNA and paternal mtDNA sequences. Interestingly, the paternal mtDNA in F1s from some crosses inherited haplotypes that were uncommon in the paternal population. Compared to some previous research on paternal leakage, we employed more rigorous methods to rule out contamination and false detection of paternal mtDNA due to non-functional nuclear mitochondrial DNA fragments. Our results raise the potential that other animal systems thought to only inherit maternal mitochondria may also have paternal leakage, which would then affect the interpretation of past and future population genetics or phylogenetic studies that rely on mitochondria as uniparental markers.
OsbZIP47 an integrator for meristem regulators during rice plant growth and development

Stem cell homeostasis by the WUS-CLV negative feedback loop is generally conserved across species; however, its links with other meristem regulators may have species-specific distinctions, rice being an example. We characterize rice OsbZIP47 for vegetative and inflorescence phenotypes in knockdown (OsbZIP47KD) transgenics and uncover its role in meristem maintenance and developmental progression. The shoot apical meristem (SAM) size in five day old OsbZIP47KD seedlings, was reduced as compared to the wild-type (WT). Whereas SAM in older twenty-five-day OsbZIP47KD plants was larger with increased size for L1 and underlying cells. We tested protein interactions of OsbZIP47 with other transcription factors and found partnerships with OsMADS1, RFL, and OSH1. Results from meta-analysis of deregulated panicle transcriptome datasets, in OsbZIP47KD, OsMADS1KD and RFLKD knockdown transgenics, and OSH1 genome-wide binding sites divulge potential targets coregulated by OsbZIP47, OsMADS1, OSH1 and RFL. Transcript analysis in OsbZIP47KD SAM and panicles showed abnormal gene expression for CLAVATA peptide-like signaling FON2-LIKE CLE PROTEIN1 (FCP1), FLORAL ORGAN NUMBER 2 (FON2), and hormone pathway: cytokinin (CK) Isopenteyltransferase2 (OsIPT2), Isopenteyltransferase8 (OsIPT8); auxin biosynthesis OsYUCCA6, OsYUCCA7; gibberellic acid (GA) biosynthesis GA20Ox1, GA20Ox4 and brassinosteriod biosynthesis CYP734A4 genes. The effects on ABBERANT PANICLE ORGANIZATION1 (APO1), OsMADS16, and DROOPING LEAF relate to second and third whorl organ phenotypes in OsbZIP47KD florets. Further, we demonstrate that OsbZIP47 redox status affects its DNA binding to cis elements in the FCP1 locus. Taken together, we provide insights on unique functional roles for OsbZIP47 in rice shoot meristem maintenance, its progression through inflorescence branching and floret development. One sentence summary OsbZIP47 regulates rice shoot meristem size, panicle and floret development in concert with other meristem regulators such as OsMADS1, RFL and OSH1.
Kinesin-3 mediated delivery of presynaptic neurexin stabilizes growing dendritic spines and postsynaptic components in vivo

A high degree of cell and circuit-specific regulation has complicated efforts to precisely define roles for synaptic adhesion proteins in establishing circuit connectivity. Here, we take advantage of the strengths of C. elegans for cell-specific analyses to investigate molecular coordination of pre- and postsynaptic development. We show that developing dendritic spines emerge from the dendrites of wild type GABAergic motor neurons following the localization of active zone proteins and the formation of immature synaptic vesicle assemblies in presynaptic terminals. Similarly, clusters of postsynaptic receptors and F-actin are visible in GABAergic dendrites prior to spine outgrowth. Surprisingly, these developmental processes occur without a requirement for synaptic activity. Likewise, the initial stages of spine outgrowth and receptor clustering are not altered by deletion of the C. elegans ortholog of the transsynaptic adhesion protein, neurexin/NRX-1. Over time, however, dendritic spines and postsynaptic receptor clusters are destabilized in the absence of presynaptic NRX-1/neurexin and collapse prior to adulthood. The kinesin-3 family member, UNC-104, delivers NRX-1 to presynaptic terminals and ongoing UNC-104 delivery is required into adulthood for the maintenance of postsynaptic structure. Our findings provide novel insights into the temporal order of synapse formation events in vivo and demonstrate a requirement for transsynaptic adhesion in stabilizing mature circuit connectivity. Contributions Summary D.O. generated strains, transgenic lines, molecular constructs, confocal and electron microscopy images, and data analysis. S.R. performed all calcium imaging experiments and analysis. C.M. L. generated destination vectors and nrx-1 constructs. D.H. H. and K.C. Q.N. aided in electron microscopy experiments and analysis. M.M. F and D.O designed and interpreted results of all experiments and wrote the manuscript.
Deep learning generates custom-made logistic regression models for explaining how breast cancer subtypes are classified

Differentiating the intrinsic subtypes of breast cancer is crucial for deciding the best treatment strategy. Deep learning can predict the subtypes from genetic information more accurately than conventional statistical methods, but to date, deep learning has not been directly utilized to examine which genes are associated with which subtypes. To clarify the mechanisms embedded in the intrinsic subtypes, we developed an explainable deep learning model called a point-wise linear (PWL) model that generates a custom-made logistic regression for each patient. Logistic regression, which is familiar to both physicians and medical informatics researchers, allows us to analyze the importance of the feature variables, and the PWL model harnesses these practical abilities of logistic regression. In this study, we show that analyzing breast cancer subtypes is clinically beneficial for patients and one of the best ways to validate the capability of the PWL model. First, we trained the PWL model with RNA-seq data to predict PAM50 intrinsic subtypes and applied it to the 41/50 genes of PAM50 through the subtype prediction task. Second, we developed a deep enrichment analysis method to reveal the relationships between the PAM50 subtypes and the copy numbers of breast cancer. Our findings showed that the PWL model utilized genes relevant to the cell cycle-related pathways. These preliminary successes in breast cancer subtype analysis demonstrate the potential of our analysis strategy to clarify the mechanisms underlying breast cancer and improve overall clinical outcomes.
Effect of plant tubulin kinetic diversification on microtubule lengths

Microtubules (MTs) are dynamic polymers vital for cellular physiology. Bulk tubulin polymerization is nucleation dependent, while individual filaments exhibit ‘dynamic instability’ driven by GTP hydrolysis rates. Although MTs assembled from well-studied animal brain tubulins have very comparable nucleation and GTP-hydrolysis rates, the kinetic rates of evolutionarily more distant species could diverge. Here we focus on a plant tubulin, the legume Vigna sp. (mung bean) to test the effect of kinetic diversification on MT polymerization. We activity purify tubulin from seedlings and find MT filaments are fewer and shorter than animal brain tubulin. We find mung tubulin polymerization kinetics is nucleation dependent with a high rate of GTP hydrolysis and a critical concentration lower than previously reported for tubulins. A computational model of the kinetics based on the relative influence of rates of nucleation and hydrolysis demonstrates increased rates of hydrolysis can affect MT filament numbers and their lengths, as compared to increasing nucleation rates. Our approach provides a framework to compare the effect of evolutionary diversification of MT nucleation and elongation.
Structure supports function: Informing directed and dynamic functional connectivity with anatomical priors

The dynamic repertoire of functional brain networks is constrained by the underlying topology of structural connections: the lack of a direct structural link between two brain regions prevents direct functional interactions. Despite the intrinsic relationship between structural (SC) and functional connectivity (FC), integrative and multimodal approaches to combine the two remain limited, especially for electrophysiological data. In the present work, we propose a new linear adaptive filter for estimating dynamic and directed FC using structural connectivity information as priors. We tested the filter in rat epicranial recordings and human event-related EEG data, using SC priors from a meta-analysis of tracer studies and diffusion tensor imaging metrics, respectively. Our results show that SC priors increase the resilience of FC estimates to noise perturbation while promoting sparser networks under biologically plausible constraints. The proposed filter provides intrinsic protection against SC-related false negatives, as well as robustness against false positives, representing a valuable new method for multimodal imaging and dynamic FC analysis.
Natural killer cell immunosuppressive function requires CXCR3-dependent redistribution within lymphoid tissues

Natural killer (NK) cell suppression of T cells is a key determinant of viral pathogenesis and vaccine efficacy. This process involves perforin-dependent elimination of activated CD4 T cells during the first three days of infection. Although this mechanism requires cell-cell contact, NK cells and T cells typically reside in different compartments of lymphoid tissues at steady state. Here, we show that NK-cell suppression of T cells is associated with a transient accumulation of NK cells within T cell-rich sites of the spleen during lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus infection. The chemokine receptor CXCR3 is required for relocation to T-cell zones and suppression of antiviral T cells. Accordingly, this NK-cell migration is mediated by type I interferon (IFN)-dependent promotion of CXCR3 ligand expression. In contrast, adenoviral vectors that weakly induce type I IFN and do not stimulate NK-cell inhibition of T cells also do not promote measurable redistribution of NK cells to T-cell zones. Provision of supplemental IFN could rescue NK-cell migration during adenoviral vector immunization. Thus, type I IFN and CXCR3 are critical for properly positioning NK cells to constrain antiviral T-cell responses. Development of strategies to curtail migration of NK cells between lymphoid compartments may enhance vaccine-elicited immune responses.
Accuracies of genomic predictions for disease resistance of striped catfish to Edwardsiella ictaluri using artificial intelligence algorithms

Assessments of genomic prediction accuracies using artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms (i.e., machine and deep learning methods) are currently not available or very limited in aquaculture species. The principal aim of this study was to examine the predictive performance of these new methods for disease resistance to Edwardsiella ictaluri in a population of striped catfish Pangasianodon hypophthalmus and to make comparisons with four common methods, i.e., pedigree-based best linear unbiased prediction (PBLUP), genomic-based best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP), single-step GBLUP (ssGBLUP) and a non-linear Bayesian approach (notably BayesR). Our analyses using machine learning (i.e., ML-KAML) and deep learning (i.e., DL-MLP and DL-CNN) together with the four common methods (PBLUP, GBLUP, ssGBLUP and BayesR) were conducted for two main disease resistance traits (i.e., survival status coded as 0 and 1 and survival time, i.e., days that the animals were still alive after the challenge test) in a pedigree consisting of 560 individual animals (490 offspring and 70 parents) genotyped for 14,154 Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNPs). The results using 6470 SNPs after quality control showed that AI methods outperformed PBLUP, GBLUP and ssGBLUP, with the increases in the prediction accuracies for both traits by 9.1 – 15.4%. However, the prediction accuracies obtained from AI methods were comparable to those estimated using BayesR. Imputation of missing genotypes using AlphaFamImpute increased the prediction accuracies by 5.3 – 19.2% in all the methods and data used. On the other hand, there were insignificant decreases (0.3 – 5.6%) in the prediction accuracies for both survival status and survival time when multivariate models were used in comparison to univariate analyses. Interestingly, the genomic prediction accuracies based on only highly significant SNPs (P < 0.00001, 318 - 400 SNPs for survival status and 1362 – 1589 SNPs for survival time) were somewhat lower (0.3 to 15.6%) than those obtained from the whole set of 6,470 SNPs. In most of our analyses, the accuracies of genomic prediction were somewhat higher for survival time than survival status (0/1 data). It is concluded that there are prospects for the application of genomic selection to increase disease resistance to Edwardsiella ictaluri in striped catfish breeding programs.
Mind blanking is associated with a rigid spatio-temporal profile in typical wakefulness

1 Mind-blanking (MB) is the inability to report mental contents, challenging the view of a constantly thought-oriented mind 2 during wakefulness. Using fMRI experience-sampling we show that MB is reported scarcely, fast, and has low transitional 3 dynamics, pointing to its role as a transient mental relay. MB’s cerebral profile is linked to an overall positive connectivity 4 pattern, bearing great resemblance to neural configurations observed in local sleeps, possibly reflecting neuronal silencing 5 during wakefulness. We also find less efficient information flow between the default mode (DMN) and other networks before 6 reporting MB. The DMN-salience network segregation was further able to classify MB from other reports in fewer steps, 7 suggestive of an early saliency evaluation of contentless phenomenology along the neurocognitive hierarchy. Collectively, 8 MB’s unique neurofunctional profile among thought-oriented reports supports the view of instantaneous mental absences 9 happening during wakefuless, paving the way for more mechanistic investigations of this particular phenomenology during 10 ongoing mentation. 11
Atmospheric plasma jet device for versatile electron microscope grid treatment

Atmospheric pressure plasmas have been widely applied in surface modification and biomedical treatment due to its ability to generate highly reactive radicals and charged particles. In cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM), plasmas have been used in eliminating the surface contaminants as well as generating the hydrophilic surface to embed the specimen on grids. Particularly, plasma treatment is a prerequisite for negative stain and quantifoil grids, which are coated with hydrophobic carbon on the grid surface. Here we introduce a non-thermal atmospheric plasma jet system as an alternative new tool for surface treatment. Unlike the conventional glow discharger, we found that the plasma jet system successfully cleans the grid surface and introduces hydrophilicity on grids in the ambient environment without introducing a vacuum. Therefore, we anticipate the plasma jet system will be beneficial in many aspects, such as cost-effective, convenient, versatile, and potential applications in surface modification for both negative stain and cryo-EM grid treatment.