The impact of oil price changes on efficiency of banks: An application in the Middle East oil exporting countries using SORM-DEA

This paper presents a novel application of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to analyze the impact of oil price changes on the efficiency of banks. Factors that affect the efficiency of banks have been of interest to researchers in various geographical regions. With a special focus on oil price changes, we investigate the determinants of bank efficiency in the Middle Eastern Oil-Exporting (MEOE) countries where macro-financial conditions are substantially affected by swings in oil prices. Our analysis consists of two stages: (i) measuring the efficiency scores of banks using the Semi-Oriented Radial Measure (SORM) DEA model, (ii) investigating the impact of alternative indicators of oil prices on the estimated efficiency scores after controlling for key bank-specific and country-specific variables. The analysis is based on an un-balanced panel data of banks operating in the Middle Eastern Oil-Exporting countries over the period of 2001–2011. Our findings reveal that oil price changes affect the efficiency of banks in the MEOE countries through both direct and indirect channels. In addition, we find that Islamic banks in the region are less responsive to oil price changes than commercial and investment banks

House prices and credit risk: Evidence from the United States

This paper investigates the determinants of nonperforming loans (NPL), with a special focus on house price fluctuations. Using a panel of U.S. banks, the analysis is carried out across different loan categories and different types of banks. It is found that house price fluctuations significantly affect the dynamics of NPL, while the magnitude of the impact varies across loan categories and bank types

Kinetics of Cd, Co and Ni Adsorption from Wastewater using Red and Black Tea Leaf Blend as a Bio-adsorbent

Every year there is deterioration in water quality. This is due to human activity. The current environmental strategies of many countries motivate the scientific community to develop reliable, economically viable and environmentally friendly technologies that are able to remove pollutants from the environment, including water. The study purpose is to determine of influence regularity of the bio-adsorbent composition and amount, which consists of red and black tea leaves mixture, on the Cd, Co and Ni adsorption process based on experimental data. As well as determine the most rational bio-adsorbent dose and the necessary red and black tea dose in bio-adsorbent to achieve MPC of heavy metals, with which process duration will be minimal. Initially, to study the adsorption process kinetics, the nature of the curve that describes the obtained experimental values was visually analyzed. To determine the adsorption process kinetic regularity, which most adequately and reliably describes the experimental data and to determine the values of the coefficients in the exponential regularity, the least squares method was used. It was observed that for Cd and Co, an increase in the black and red tea amount leads to a drastic reduction of the adsorption process time (up to 10 times); while for Ni the black tea addition slows down the adsorption process. Ni adsorption is the most complex and for certain bio-adsorbent composition values, complete Ni removal cannot be achieved in a technologically reasonable adsorption time. The technological process of Cd, Co and Ni adsorption can be expedient, if it is carried out in several stages with optimal red and black tea amounts for each of the metals. Adsorption process kinetic regularity, which was determined, can be used to calculate of adsorption process technological parameters in values wide range

Effect of Silymarin on Hepatic Complications Caused by Methotrexate and its Analgesic Effects in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Background and Aim: Methotrexate is an important drug for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) but is associated with adverse side effects on liver. In this study we evaluated the effect of silymarin on methotrexate induced hepatotoxicity and its analgesic effects in the patients taking this drug. Materials and Methods: This study inclouded 58 patients with RA. Patients who had been treated with 2.5 mg methotrexate three times a week for six months were randomly divided into two groups of A and B. Group A received methotrexate and group B treated with 280 mg of silymarin tablets daily (two doses for 2 months) in addition to methotrexate. At baseline (before tests) and after two months, both groups completed the VAS (Visual Analogue Scale) questionnaire and Cr (Creatinine), BUN (Blood Urea Nitrogen), ESR (Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate), Hemoglobin, WBC (white blood cell), PLT (Platelet) and the liver tests including ALT (Alanine Transaminase) and AST (Aspartate Aminotransferase) were evaluated. We used t-test for data analysis. Results: In the group B, ALT, AST and ESR, Cr and BUN decreased significantly. Also clinical signs of pain which were indicative of pain intensity were decreased. Conclusion: Use of silymarin in the patients with RA reduced liver enzymes, liver toxicity and renal complications, which may be due to its antioxidant and cell membrane stabilization properties

Noncoding RNAs and their therapeutics in paclitaxel chemotherapy: Mechanisms of initiation, progression, and drug sensitivity

The identification of agents that can reverse drug resistance in cancer chemotherapy, and enhance the overall efficacy is of great interest. Paclitaxel (PTX) belongs to taxane family that exerts an antitumor effect by stabilizing microtubules and inhibiting cell cycle progression. However, PTX resistance often develops in tumors due to the overexpression of drug transporters and tumor-promoting pathways. Noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) are modulators of many processes in cancer cells, such as apoptosis, migration, differentiation, and angiogenesis. In the present study, we summarize the effects of ncRNAs on PTX chemotherapy. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) can have opposite effects on PTX resistance (stimulation or inhibition) via influencing YES1, SK2, MRP1, and STAT3. Moreover, miRNAs modulate the growth and migration rates of tumor cells in regulating PTX efficacy. PIWI-interacting RNAs, small interfering RNAs, and short-hairpin RNAs are other members of ncRNAs regulating PTX sensitivity of cancer cells. Long noncoding RNAs (LncRNAs) are similar to miRNAs and can modulate PTX resistance/sensitivity by their influence on miRNAs and drug efflux transport. The cytotoxicity of PTX against tumor cells can also be affected by circular RNAs (circRNAs) and limitation is that oncogenic circRNAs have been emphasized and experiments should also focus on onco-suppressor circRNAs