Institutions in the context of implementing the CSR concept and social trust

Purpose: The purpose of considerations undertaken in this paper is to emphasize the importance of public trust in institutions and to draw attention to the important (but often marginalized) relationship between institutions and the implementation of the CSR concept. Approach/Methodology/Design: The following research methods will be used in the article: wide range review of literature sources, descriptive method and selected methods of descriptive statistics (taxonomic measure of development and measures of correlation). Findings: The presented analysis shows that the perception of benefits associated with integration with the EU is not conditioned by trust in it as an institution. Importantly, trust in the EU is not affected by respondents’ perception of national and regional centers of power. Practical Implications: Changes in economies that took place recently caused the need for an interdisciplinary approach to economic research and a new definition of economics as a research field. They also make it necessary to recognize and identify social, economic, technical and cultural issues. The subject matter discussed in the paper refers to issues related to social initiatives such as the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the importance of institutions in the effective implementation of the CSR idea. The analyzed issues are considered in the cultural and institutional cognitive perspective. Originality/Value: The article raises an important social problem of public trust in institutions and the impact of institutions on the speed of dissemination of the concept of corporate social responsibility.peer-reviewe

The similarity of European Union countries in terms of the structure of the unemployed

Purpose: The purpose of this work is to assess the degree of similarity in the structure of the unemployed according to various categories (gender, age, education, the duration of unemployment) in the EU countries. Approach/Methodology/Design: As a research tool, the vector elimination method was used, which facilitates a division of a set of objects into subgroups with similar structures. Statistical data on the structure of the unemployed due to selected features in 28 European Union countries come from the Eurostat database and relate to 2018. Findings: The spatial distribution of groups of EU countries in 2018 confirms the authors' observations formulated at the beginning of the work that the structures of the unemployed by selected categories are similar in most countries, but it is also possible to distinguish countries in which these structures are significantly different. Practical Implications: The knowledge about the regularities of the structures of the unemployed in individual EU countries is necessary when developing strategies to combat unemployment, especially among people in a particular situation on the labor market. Originality/Value: There are no comprehensive analyzes in the literature to determine the similarity of the structure of the unemployed in EU countries, taking into account various demographic features that are typically taken into account in this type of research (e.g., gender, age, or level of education). The presented studies fill a gap in this area, they can also complement existing studies focusing mainly on the level of unemployment.peer-reviewe

CFIm-mediated alternative polyadenylation remodels cellular signaling and miRNA biogenesis

The mammalian cleavage factor I (CFIm) has been implicated in alternative polyadenylation (APA) in a broad range of contexts, from cancers to learning deficits and parasite infections. To determine how the CFIm expression levels are translated into these diverse phenotypes, we carried out a multi-omics analysis of cell lines in which the CFIm25 (NUDT21) or CFIm68 (CPSF6) subunits were either repressed by siRNA-mediated knockdown or over-expressed from stably integrated constructs. We established that >800 genes undergo coherent APA in response to changes in CFIm levels, and they cluster in distinct functional classes related to protein metabolism. The activity of the ERK pathway traces the CFIm concentration, and explains some of the fluctuations in cell growth and metabolism that are observed upon CFIm perturbations. Furthermore, multiple transcripts encoding proteins from the miRNA pathway are targets of CFIm-dependent APA. This leads to an increased biogenesis and repressive activity of miRNAs at the same time as some 3' UTRs become shorter and presumably less sensitive to miRNA-mediated repression. Our study provides a first systematic assessment of a core set of APA targets that respond coherently to changes in CFIm protein subunit levels (CFIm25/CFIm68). We describe the elicited signaling pathways downstream of CFIm, which improve our understanding of the key role of CFIm in integrating RNA processing with other cellular activities

Differential inflammatory microRNA and cytokine expression in pulmonary sarcoidosis

Sarcoidosis is a granulomatous disease of unknown etiology. The disease has an important inflammatory and immune component; however, its immunopathogenesis is not completely understood. Recently, the role of microRNAs (miRNAs), the small non-coding RNAs, has attracted attention as both being involved in pathogenesis and serving as disease markers. Accordingly, changes in the expression of some miRNAs have been also associated with different autoimmune pathologies. However, not much is known about the role of miRNAs in sarcoidosis. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare the level of expression of selected miRNAs in healthy individuals and patients with sarcoidosis. We detected significantly increased level of miR-34a in peripheral blood mononuclear cells isolated from sarcoidosis patients. Moreover, significantly up-regulated levels of interferon (IFN)-γ, IFN-γ inducible protein (IP-10) and vascular endothelial growth factor were detected in sera of patients when compared to healthy subjects. Our results add to a known inflammatory component in sarcoidosis. Changes in the levels of miR-34a may suggest its involvement in the pathology of this disease

Measurement of the azimuthal anisotropy of Y(1S) and Y(2S) mesons in PbPb collisions at root s(NN)=5.02 TeV

The second-order Fourier coefficients (v(2)) characterizing the azimuthal distributions of Y(1S) and Y(2S) mesons produced in PbPb collisions at root s(NN) = 5.02 TeV are studied. The Y mesons are reconstructed in their dimuon decay channel, as measured by the CMS detector. The collected data set corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 1.7 nb(-1). The scalar product method is used to extract the v2 coefficients of the azimuthal distributions. Results are reported for the rapidity range vertical bar y vertical bar < 2.4, in the transverse momentum interval 0 < pT < 50 GeV/c, and in three centrality ranges of 10-30%, 30-50% and 50-90%. In contrast to the J/psi mesons, the measured v(2) values for the Y mesons are found to be consistent with zero. (C) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.Peer reviewe

Computational analyses of RNA-Sequencing data to identify splicing and polyadenylation regulatory elements

The following dissertation presents my scientific contributions to computational research in the field of RNA biology, carried out in the group of Professor Mihaela Zavolan at the Biozentrum, University of Basel, Switzerland. The projects in which I was involved focused on splicing and polyadenylation, two crucial steps in the maturation of eukaryotic mRNAs, and targets of post-transcriptional mechanisms for regulating gene expression. In the following sections I provide five concise summaries of scientific articles (published, under revision and in preparation) that I co-authored, providing my knowledge and expertise in bioinformatics. Briefly, these manuscripts cover the following aspects. Together with other colleagues from our group we developed a general purpose RNA-seq data processing workflow which utilizes best-practices in scientific software development for reproducible research. I further helped in analyzing the molecular impact of the LARP7 protein on the whole transcriptome, identifying splicing events that are deregulated upon changes in LARP7 expression level. Anal- ogously, I worked with other members of our group in defining targets of the CFIm complex that is involved in alternative polyadenylation and in characterizing the downstream effects on CFIm-dependent polyadenylation on cellular pathways. Further, based on a previously published probabilistic framework for predicting binding sites of nucleic acid-binding proteins, I developed a user-friendly bioinformatics tool to search for binding sites of RNA-binding proteins on mRNAs. Finally, in my main PhD project I combined all the aforementioned expertise together to develop a complex computational workflow to infer the activity of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) on alternative splicing and alternative polyadenylation from RNA-seq data. The core of my work consisted of a novel computational method to assess the impact of binding sites of RBP regulators on the inclusion of cassette exons in mature transcripts. We validated this method on various RBP knock-down datasets and uncovered proteins which are plausible drivers of differential mRNA processing in glioblastoma cancer. The workflow is implemented in a modular fashion, leaving room for expansion in potential subsequent research projects which are discussed in the final section of this dissertation. In conclusion, I present my novel scientific contribution to understanding the regulatory impact of RNA-binding proteins on mRNA processing from a computational perspective. This work is relevant not only for the results we present but also for creating an opportunity for other scientists to investigate RNA maturation in their research projects. I hope my work will aid others pursuing their scientific passion and that I indirectly contribute to many fascinating discoveries in the future