A Survival Analysis of Islamic and Conventional Banks

Are Islamic banks inherently more stable than conventional banks? We address this question by applying a survival analysis based on the Cox proportional hazard model to a comprehensive sample of 421 banks in 20 Middle and Far Eastern countries from 1995 to 2010. By comparing the failure risk for both bank types, we find that Islamic banks have a significantly lower risk of failure than that of their conventional peers. This lower risk is based both unconditionally and conditionally on bank-specific (microeconomic) variables as well as macroeconomic and market structure variables. Our findings indicate that the design and implementation of early warning systems for bank failure should recognize the distinct risk profiles of the two bank types

DEAD-box protein facilitated RNA folding in vivo

In yeast mitochondria the DEAD-box helicase Mss116p is essential for respiratory growth by acting as group I and group II intron splicing factor. Here we provide the first structure-based insights into how Mss116p assists RNA folding in vivo. Employing an in vivo chemical probing technique, we mapped the structure of the ai5γ group II intron in different genetic backgrounds to characterize its intracellular fold. While the intron adopts the native conformation in the wt yeast strain, we found that the intron is able to form most of its secondary structure, but lacks its tertiary fold in the absence of Mss116p. This suggests that ai5γ is largely unfolded in the mss116-knockout strain and requires the protein at an early step of folding. Notably, in this unfolded state misfolded substructures have not been observed. As most of the protein-induced conformational changes are located within domain D1, Mss116p appears to facilitate the formation of this largest domain, which is the scaffold for docking of other intron domains. These findings suggest that Mss116p assists the ordered assembly of the ai5γ intron in vivo

Long-term simulation of in situ biostimulation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon-contaminated soil

A continuous-flow column study was conducted to evaluate the long-term effects of in situ biostimulation on the biodegradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in soil from a manufactured gas plant site. Simulated groundwater amended with oxygen and inorganic nutrients was introduced into one column, while a second column receiving unamended groundwater served as a control. PAH and dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations, as well as microbial community profiles, were monitored along the column length immediately before and at selected intervals up to 534 days after biostimulation commenced. Biostimulation resulted in significantly greater PAH removal than in the control condition (73% of total measured PAHs vs. 34%, respectively), with dissolution accounting for a minor amount of the total mass loss (~6%) in both columns. Dissolution was most significant for naphthalene, acenaphthene, and fluorene, accounting for >20% of the total mass removed for each. A known group of PAH-degrading bacteria, ‘Pyrene Group 2’ (PG2), was identified as a dominant member of the microbial community and responded favorably to biostimulation. Spatial and temporal variations in soil PAH concentration and PG2 abundance were strongly correlated to DO advancement, although there appeared to be transport of PG2 organisms ahead of the oxygen front. At an estimated oxygen demand of 6.2 mg O(2)/g dry soil and a porewater velocity of 0.8 m/day, it took between 374 and 466 days for oxygen breakthrough from the 1-m soil bed in the biostimulated column. This study demonstrated that the presence of oxygen was the limiting factor in PAH removal, as opposed to the abundance and/or activity of PAH-degrading bacteria once oxygen reached a previously anoxic zone

RNA folding in living cells

RNA folding is the most essential process underlying RNA function. While significant progress has been made in understanding the forces driving RNA folding in vitro, exploring the rules governing intracellular RNA structure formation is still in its infancy. The cellular environment hosts a great diversity of factors that potentially influence RNA folding in vivo. For example, the nature of transcription and translation is known to shape the folding landscape of RNA molecules. Trans-acting factors such as proteins, RNAs and metabolites, among others, are also able to modulate the structure and thus the fate of an RNA. Here we summarize the ongoing efforts to uncover how RNA folds in living cells

The Cellular Environment Stabilizes Adenine Riboswitch RNA Structure

There are large differences between the intracellular environment and the conditions widely used to study RNA structure and function in vitro. To assess the effects of the crowded cellular environment on RNA, we examined the structure and ligand-binding function of the adenine riboswitch aptamer domain in healthy, growing Escherichia coli cells at single-nucleotide resolution on the minute timescale using SHAPE. The ligand-bound aptamer structure is essentially the same in cells and in buffer at 1 mM Mg(2+), the approximate Mg(2+) concentration we measured in cells. In contrast, the in-cell conformation of the ligand-free aptamer is much more similar to the fully folded ligand-bound state. Even adding high Mg(2+) concentrations to the buffer used for in vitro analyses did not yield the conformation observed for the free aptamer in cells. The cellular environment thus stabilizes the aptamer significantly more than does Mg(2+) alone. Our results show that the intracellular environment has a large effect on RNA structure that ultimately favors highly organized conformations