Random walks on mutual microRNA-target gene interaction network improve the prediction of disease-associated microRNAs

Background: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been shown to play an important role in pathological initiation, progression and maintenance. Because identification in the laboratory of disease-related miRNAs is not straightforward, numerous network-based methods have been developed to predict novel miRNAs in silico. Homogeneous networks (in which every node is a miRNA) based on the targets shared between miRNAs have been widely used to predict their role in disease phenotypes. Although such homogeneous networks can predict potential disease-associated miRNAs, they do not consider the roles of the target genes of the miRNAs. Here, we introduce a novel method based on a heterogeneous network that not only considers miRNAs but also the corresponding target genes in the network model. Results: Instead of constructing homogeneous miRNA networks, we built heterogeneous miRNA networks consisting of both miRNAs and their target genes, using databases of known miRNA-target gene interactions. In addition, as recent studies demonstrated reciprocal regulatory relations between miRNAs and their target genes, we considered these heterogeneous miRNA networks to be undirected, assuming mutual miRNA-target interactions. Next, we introduced a novel method (RWRMTN) operating on these mutual heterogeneous miRNA networks to rank candidate disease-related miRNAs using a random walk with restart (RWR) based algorithm. Using both known disease-associated miRNAs and their target genes as seed nodes, the method can identify additional miRNAs involved in the disease phenotype. Experiments indicated that RWRMTN outperformed two existing state-of-the-art methods: RWRMDA, a network-based method that also uses a RWR on homogeneous (rather than heterogeneous) miRNA networks, and RLSMDA, a machine learning-based method. Interestingly, we could relate this performance gain to the emergence of "disease modules" in the heterogeneous miRNA networks used as input for the algorithm. Moreover, we could demonstrate that RWRMTN is stable, performing well when using both experimentally validated and predicted miRNA-target gene interaction data for network construction. Finally, using RWRMTN, we identified 76 novel miRNAs associated with 23 disease phenotypes which were present in a recent database of known disease-miRNA associations. Conclusions: Summarizing, using random walks on mutual miRNA-target networks improves the prediction of novel disease-associated miRNAs because of the existence of "disease modules" in these networks

CAMELLIA SPHAMII (THEACEAE, SECT. PIQUETIA), A NEW TAXON OF YELLOW FLOWER FROM LANGBIANG BIOSPHERE RESERVE, VIETNAM

Camellia sphamii is described and illustrated as a new species of section Piquetia from Hamasin village, D’ran town, Don Duong district, Lam Dong province, Vietnam. C. sphamii is similar to C. proensis (Quach, Luong et al., 2021) but differs from it in several morphological features: mature leaves cordate at base, young leaves purple; pericarp 7–8 mm thick with dense hair on the outer surface, flower buds ovate, ferruginous; sepals 5, hemisphere, concave, finely hairy on the outer surface, sparsely hairy on the inside, petals 7, finely hairy on the outer surface, with translucent margin, concave; style 5, ½ basally united; capsule 5 locular. Information on its phenology, distribution, ecology, and conservation status is also provided

CAMELLIA PYRIFORMIS (THEACEAE, SECTION CALPANDRIA), A NEW SPECIES FROM NORTHERN VIETNAM

Camellia pyriformis is described, illustrated, and placed in section Calpandria. Morphological features of this new species are young branches villous; leaves above pubescent, a long midrib, below pubescent; petiole falcate, densely villous; flowers solitary or geminate; pedicel very short, pubescent; bracteoles sparsely pubescent on both sides; sepals, pubescent on both sides; petals, white, glabrous; androecium 5–6 stamens, filaments completely united to form a truncated cone, glabrous, basal adnate to the petal, shallowly dentate at the apex, each filament bearing an anther; gynoecium 3-locular, densely white silky strigose tomentose, styles glabrous; capsule pyriform, pubescent; seed broad pyriform, densely villou

THE DIVERSITY OF YELLOW CAMELLIAS IN THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS, VIETNAM

The Central Highlands (Tây Nguyên) is a center of yellow camellia diversity in Vietnam and the world. The Central Highlands contains 18 of Vietnam’s yellow camellia species, accounting for 37% of yellow camellia species in Vietnam and 28% of yellow camellia species worldwide. Moreover, all 18 yellow camellia species in the Central Highlands are endemic to Vietnam. The camellias of the Central Highlands belong to nine sections, accounting for 75% of the world. The yellow colors occur in three groups: pale yellow, yellow, and yellow with compound colors. The yellow camellia distribution is dispersed at 500–1600 m elevation in evergreen broadleaf forests and mixed wood-bamboo forests

Analyzing Effects of Institutional Quality on Banking Stability: Evidence from Asean Countries

Purpose: The aim of this study is to examine the effect of institutional quality on bank stability using bank-level data from 2010 to 2020.   Theoretical framework: The study considers institutions from the perspective of governance institutions. Accordingly, the concept of government institutions is related to the country's organizational foundation in terms of governance, implying institutional quality.   Design/methodology/approach: The study uses GMM method and also choose the Zscore as the primary variable for bank stability.   Findings: The results show that institutional quality increases the stability of banks. Moreover, with the threshold model, the results show that countries with institutional quality above the threshold will increase the stability of banks. In addition, macroeconomic and banking characteristics variables such as total assets, income diversification, quality of control, inflation, and GDP growth rate have a high significance in the model.   Research, Practical & Social implications: The study shows The study's empirical results have specific policy implications for the Government in implementing policies related to institutional quality to improve bank stability.   Originality/value:   there are not many researches done to investigate institutional quality to improve bank stability. Moreover, from economic crisis, the matter of banking stability is among main concerns of many researches. Second, previous researches just focus on the aspect of corruption and ignore other aspects or other factors. That’s why authors conduct this research