Construction of the hemagglutinin (HA) epitope tags for Subunit H of Complex I in Escherichia coli

Complex I is a member of the respiratory chain in both bacteria and human mitochondria. Studies have shown that many human mitochondria disorders are related to the poor assembly of Complex I, rather than simple enzymatic malfunction [1,2,3,4]. For the purpose of analyzing the assembly of the thirteen subunits (A-N) found in the Escherichia coli homolog of the Complex I enzyme, antibodies are needed to recognize the individual subunits. Since the H subunit is the only subunit without an antibody, high-affinity antibodies are needed to be produced from the HA epitope tags. The tags were introduced separately by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method in two different plasmids, one containing genes G-H, and the other containing H-I-J-K. DNA sequencing indicated high confidence in HA complexes. After growth of cell cultures, an induced expression of these genes by arabinose verified expression of the protein with induced tag. Then, a western blot was done to test both constructs ability to yield single proteins, of the correct size, that were recognized by the HA-antibody. Therefore, these constructs can be further tested for suitability in the analysis of Complex I assembly

Labor markets during war time:Evidence from online job advertisements

This study examines the short- and medium-term impacts of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war on the labor market for Ukrainian workers. Using a unique dataset of 5.4 million online job advertisements for Ukrainian job seekers in Poland and Ukraine over the 2021–2022 period, we show a short-term surge in demand for Ukrainians to work in Poland, while the number of jobs available in Ukraine is relatively stable. Since February 2022, the demand for soft and analytical skills in Ukraine has increased, while the demand for such skills in Poland has remained the same. Moreover, the increase in Polish jobs available to Ukrainian workers is largest for medium/high-skilled jobs and female-oriented jobs. Further analysis suggests a persistent shift (to the left) in wage distribution driven by both the decline of wages within job titles and the change in the composition of jobs across Poland

Approche poro-mécanique au fluage non linéraire du béton : expérimentation et modélisation

La connaissance du comportement différé du béton soumis aux charges élevées est nécessaire pour prévoir la durée de vie des structures à long terme. En particulier dans le cas des ouvrages d’art, cette connaissance est primordiale pour prédire les flèches, l’ouverture de fissure, la redistribution des contraintes dans les structures hyperstatiques et les pertes de précontrainte dans des structures en béton précontraint. Par ailleurs, la prédiction de l’évolution de la fissuration dans le temps, dans le but d’estimer la durée de vie des structures, est une perspective avantageuse et prometteuse que seuls les modèles numériques pertinents au regard des mécanismes de fissuration du béton peuvent offrir. L'objectif de ce travail, pour premier temps, s’intéresse aux mécanismes de fluage non linéaire dans le béton, puis développer un modèle numérique permettant de simuler le fluage tertiaire qui est supposé être à l’origine de l’interaction entre humidité relative et la microfissuration afin de prédire la flèche et l’ouverture de fissure et, a fortiori, la durée de vie. Ce modèle a été développé dans le code aux éléments finis OOFEM, se basant sur le modèle de réseau (lattice model). Pour ce faire, trois programmes ont été mis en route. Le premier consiste à valider le problème de couplage hydro-mécanique en étudiant l’évolution de la perméabilité du béton lors de la traction d’une barre d’armature. La deuxième vise à développer et implémenter les équations non linéaires de transfert de l’humidité relative couplées avec l’endommagement pour prévoir l’ouverture de fissure des poutres préfissurées en flexion quatre points soumis à une charge maintenue élevée. Finalement, le programme expérimental a été réalisé sur des poutres entaillées en flexion quatre points pour valider le modèle proposé, en utilisant la technique de corrélation d’images. Les effets de l’hétérogénéité et le rapport Eau / Ciment (E/C) ont été considérés lors de l’évolution de l’ouverture de fissure. Les résultats montrent que le modèle proposé est capable de simuler l’ouverture de fissure dans le temps des bétons renforcés de fibres (BRF) sous des charges maintenues élevées.Knowledge of the delayed behaviour of concrete subjected to a high load is necessary for predicting the serviceability of concrete structures. In particular, in the case of civil engineering structures, this knowledge is an influential aspect for predicting deflection, development of microcracking in concrete structures, stress redistribution in hyperstatic structures and prestressing losses in pre-stressed concrete structures. Moreover, the prediction of the evolution of cracking with time in order to estimate the lifetime of structures is an advantageous and promising prospect that only numerical models relevant to the mechanisms of cracking of concretes can offer. The objective of this work is first to investigate the mechanisms of tertiary creep in concrete and then to develop a numerical model to simulate the nonlinear creep behaviour which is supposed to cause the interaction between relative humidity and microcracking in order to predict the deflection and the crack opening as well as the lifetime. This model was developed in the OOFEM finite element code, based on the lattice method. To perform this, three programs were launched. The first one was to validate the hydromechanical coupling problem by examining the evolution of the permeability of reinforced concrete under tensile loading. The second program aimed at developing and implementing the non-linear equations of the relative humidity transfer coupled with damage mechanics to predict the crack opening of the four points bending test on pre-cracked beam subjected to a high sustained load. Lastly, the experimental program was carried out on beams notched to validate the proposed model, using the digital image correlation technique. The effects of heterogeneity and the water-to-cement ratios (E/C) were considered to estimate the effect of those parameters during the evolution of the crack opening. The results show that the proposed numerical model is capable of simulating the deflection and crack opening with time of fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) under high sustained loads

Combination of Domain Knowledge and Deep Learning for Sentiment Analysis of Short and Informal Messages on Social Media

Sentiment analysis has been emerging recently as one of the major natural language processing (NLP) tasks in many applications. Especially, as social media channels (e.g. social networks or forums) have become significant sources for brands to observe user opinions about their products, this task is thus increasingly crucial. However, when applied with real data obtained from social media, we notice that there is a high volume of short and informal messages posted by users on those channels. This kind of data makes the existing works suffer from many difficulties to handle, especially ones using deep learning approaches. In this paper, we propose an approach to handle this problem. This work is extended from our previous work, in which we proposed to combine the typical deep learning technique of Convolutional Neural Networks with domain knowledge. The combination is used for acquiring additional training data augmentation and a more reasonable loss function. In this work, we further improve our architecture by various substantial enhancements, including negation-based data augmentation, transfer learning for word embeddings, the combination of word-level embeddings and character-level embeddings, and using multitask learning technique for attaching domain knowledge rules in the learning process. Those enhancements, specifically aiming to handle short and informal messages, help us to enjoy significant improvement in performance once experimenting on real datasets.Comment: A Preprint of an article accepted for publication by Inderscience in IJCVR on September 201

First Principles Prediction Unveils High-Tc_c Superconductivity in YSc2_2H24_{24} Cage Structures

The quest for room-temperature superconductivity has been a long-standing aspiration in the field of materials science, driving extensive research efforts. In this work, we present a novel hydride, YSc$_2$H$_{24}$, which is stable at high pressure using a crystal structure prediction approach with a fixed composition based on known structures. The discovered material is crystalline in a hexagonal unit cell with space group P6/mmm and has a fastinating structure consisting of two distinct cages: Sc@H$_{24}$ and Y@H$_{30}$. By conducting an extensive numerical investigation of lattice dynamics, electron-phonon coupling, and solving the isotropic Eliashberg equation, we have revealed a significant value of $\lambda$ = 2.96 as the underlying factor responsible for the remarkably high critical temperature (T$_c$) of 306-332 K in YSc$_2$H$_{24}$. As pressure increases, the T$_c$ remains above the ambient temperature. Our work has the potential to enhance the existing understanding of high-temperature superconductors, with implications for practical applications. The unique network of these cage-like structures holds great promise for advancing our understanding of high-temperature superconductors, potentially leading to innovative applications

Aromatic character of planar boron-based clusters revisited by ring current calculations

The planarity of small boron-based clusters is the result of an interplay between geometry, electron delocalization, covalent bonding and stability. These compounds contain two different bonding patterns involving both sigma and pi delocalized bonds, and up to now, their aromaticity has been assigned mainly using the classical (4N + 2) electron count for both types of electrons. In the present study, we reexplored the aromatic feature of different types of planar boron-based clusters making use of the ring current approach. B3(+/-), B-4(2-), B-5(+/-), B-6, B-7(-), B-8(2-), B-9(-), B-10(2-), B-11(-), B-12, B-13(+), B-14(2-) and B-16(2-) are characterized by magnetic responses to be doubly sigma and pi aromatic species in which the pi aromaticity can be predicted using the (4N + 2) electron count. The triply aromatic character of B-12 and B-13(+) is confirmed. The pi electrons of B-18(2-), B-19(-) and B-20(2-) obey the disk aromaticity rule with an electronic configuration of [1 sigma(2)1 pi(4)1 delta(4)2 sigma(2)] rather than the (4N + 2) count. The double aromaticity feature is observed for boron hydride cycles including B@B5H5+, Li7B5H5 and M@BnHnq clusters from both the (4N + 2) rule and ring current maps. The double pi and sigma aromaticity in carbon-boron planar cycles B7C-, B8C, B6C2, B9C-, B8C2 and B7C3- is in conflict with the Huckel electron count. This is also the case for the ions B11C5+/- whose ring current indicators suggest that they belong to the class of double aromaticity, in which the pi electrons obey the disk aromaticity characteristics. In many clusters, the classical electron count cannot be applied, and the magnetic responses of the electron density expressed in terms of the ring current provide us with a more consistent criterion for determining their aromatic character

Self-employment, financial development and well-being: evidence from China, Russia and Ukraine

This study investigates the association between financial development and entrepreneurs’ well-being in China, Ukraine, and Russia. We find that Chinese and Russian entrepreneurs have a higher level of well-being, while Ukrainian self-employed individuals have more dissatisfaction. The link between financial development and the utility of entrepreneurs varies as well. The utility differences between the self-employed and paid workers in Russia reduce with financial development and the effect is stronger for job satisfaction. However, financial development barely correlates with Ukrainian entrepreneurs’ happiness while having no correlation with life satisfaction of Chinese self-employed. Further investigation suggests that the financial development – entrepreneurial utility association works through both monetary and non-monetary channels

Multimarket Competition and Profitability: Evidence from Ukrainian banking

This paper examines the impacts of non-price competition on bank performance in the Ukrainian banking industry from 2009 Q1 to 2015 Q4. The competition is proxied by three measures of multimarket contacts. Our data reveal that banks with higher level of multiple market contacts are more likely to be profitable. The findings support the mutual forbearance hypothesis. When banks compete with rivals that are similar in size in multiple markets, they have incentives to cooperate instead of competing aggressively. Moreover, the effect is stronger when multimarket competitors are highly similar in size and interact in more competitive markets. Furthermore, we develop an identification strategy in which military actions are treated as an exogenous shock to banks with branches in those regions. The results suggest that after the conflict, the less affected banks do not have incentives to mutual forbear with more affected banks that experienced a sharper decline in number of branches

Multimarket Competition and Profitability: Evidence from Ukrainian banking

This paper examines the impacts of non-price competition on bank performance in the Ukrainian banking industry from 2009 Q1 to 2015 Q4. The competition is proxied by three measures of multimarket contacts. Our data reveal that banks with higher level of multiple market contacts are more likely to be profitable. The findings support the mutual forbearance hypothesis. When banks compete with rivals that are similar in size in multiple markets, they have incentives to cooperate instead of competing aggressively. Moreover, the effect is stronger when multimarket competitors are highly similar in size and interact in more competitive markets. Furthermore, we develop an identification strategy in which military actions are treated as an exogenous shock to banks with branches in those regions. The results suggest that after the conflict, the less affected banks do not have incentives to mutual forbear with more affected banks that experienced a sharper decline in number of branches