Interbank contagion: an agent-based model approach to endogenously formed networks

The potential impact of interconnected financial institutions on interbank financial systems is a financial stability concern for central banks and regulators. In examining how financial shocks propagate through contagion effects, we argue that endogenous individual bank choices are necessary to properly consider how losses develop as the interbank lending network evolves. We present an agent-based model to endogenously reconstruct interbank networks based on 6,600 banks' decision rules and behaviors reflected in quarterly balance sheets. We compare the results of our model to the results of a traditional stationary network framework for contagion. The model formulation reproduces dynamics similar to those of the 2007-09 financial crisis and shows how bank losses and failures arise from network contagion and lending market illiquidity. When calibrated to post-crisis data from 2011-14, the model shows the U.S. banking system has reduced its likelihood of bank failures through network contagion and illiquidity, given a similar stress scenario

Dramatic shifts in intestinal fungal community between wintering Hooded Crane and Domestic Goose

Abstract Background The intestinal microbiota play remarkable roles in maintaining the health of their hosts. Recent studies focused on gut bacterial diversity in birds and poultry, with little information about the ecological functions of their gut fungal community. Methods The high-throughput sequencing was applied to compare intestinal fungal community structure between Hooded Crane (Grus monacha) and Domestic Goose (Anser anser domesticus), and infer the potential pathogens of each species at Shengjin Lake of China. Results Intestinal fungal alpha diversity was higher in Hooded Crane than Greylag Goose (Anser anser). Gut fungal community composition showed dramatic shifts between the two species. Hooded Cranes mainly eat Vallisneria natans and Potamogeton malaianus, while artificial hurl food (i.e., paddy) was the main food resource for Domestic Geese, suggesting that the variations in fungal community might be induced by different diets between the two hosts. Two enriched genera (i.e., Acremonium and Rhodotorula) which could increase host’s digestion were detected in guts of Hooded Cranes. In addition, there were 42 pathogenic amplicon sequence variants (ASVs), 17% of which shared in Hooded Crane and Greylag Goose. The Hooded Crane had higher gut fungal pathogenic diversity and abundance relative to Greylag Goose. Conclusions The study demonstrated that divergence in intestinal fungal community structure might be induced by different diets between wintering Hooded Crane and Domestic Goose. Hooded Crane might rely more on their gut fungal taxa to acquire nutrients from indigestible food resources. Our study also implied that more research should focus on intestinal pathogens in wild birds and domestic poultry, as they might increase risk of disease in other animals, even human beings. The degree of cross infection in pathogens among wild birds and sympatric poultry should be clearly verified in future study

Reduced Degrees of Freedom in Space-Time Adaptive Processing for Space-based Early Warning Radar

The clutter of space-based early warning radar exhibits tight coupling in the azimuth-elevation-Doppler domain due to the high speed of satellites and the Earth’s rotation. As a result, conventional Space-Time Adaptive Processing (STAP) suffers significant performance degradation when detecting slow moving targets. The azimuth-elevation-Doppler three-dimensional STAP method provides the ability to decouple clutter and thus can achieve sub-optimal performance for clutter suppression. However, in contrast to the situation in non-sidelooking airborne early warning radar, this method requires large system degrees of freedom when applied to space-based early warning radar. Therefore, in practice, both the computational load and the sample requirement are too large to meet. In this study, the space-time signal model of the planar array for space-based early warning radar is first constructed. Then, the tight coupling characteristic of clutter in the azimuth-elevation-Doppler domain is analyzed in detail. On this basis, a novel three-dimensional STAP method with reduced degrees of freedom with factored structure is proposed. The sidelobe clutter is first suppressed via amplitude taper in azimuth, and the mainlobe clutter responding to each ambiguous range is further canceled by adaptive processing in the elevation-Doppler domain. The simulation results show that the proposed method can achieve sub-optimal performance under low computational load and limited sample conditions. Therefore, the proposed method is suitable for practical application in space-based early warning radar

A Method of Removing Reflected Highlight on Images Based on Polarimetric Imaging

A method of removing reflected highlight is proposed on polarimetric imaging. Polarization images (0 degrees, 45 degrees, 90 degrees, and 135 degrees) and the reflection angle are required in this reflected light removal algorithm. This method is based on the physical model of reflection and refraction, and no additional image processing algorithm is necessary in this algorithm. Compared to traditional polarization method with single polarizer, restricted observation angle of Brewster is not demanded and multiple reflection areas of different polarization orientations can be removed simultaneously. Experimental results, respectively, demonstrate the features of this reflected light removal algorithm, and it can be considered very suitable in polarization remote sensing

The Adverse Effects of Thyrotropin Absence on Pancreatic β Cell Function in Mice

Thyrotropin (TSH) is a modulator of glucose metabolism by binding to its receptor on pancreatic cells. We used thyrotropin receptor (TSHR) knockout mice (Tshr-/-) as a model of TSH deletion to study its function in pancreatic β cells. Tshr-/- mice had a similar body weight at birth compared with Tshr+/+ mice, but grew at a significantly slower rate until adulthood with adequate thyroxine supplementation. TSH deletion led to lower fasting and postprandial blood glucose, insulin secretion impairment, and atrophy of islets in adult mice. Transcription factors and markers of pancreatic β cell maturation, Pdx1, Nkx6.1, Glut2, and insulin, together with cell proliferation marker Ki67 showed no differences at the mRNA level between the two groups. However, the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio was remarkably elevated in Tshr-/- mice at both mRNA and protein levels. We hypothesized that pancreatic cell apoptosis, rather than abnormal cell proliferation and maturation, is associated with pancreatic dysfunction and glucose intolerance in the absence of TSH modulation

The HDR gene involved in the TIA pathway from Rauvolfia verticillata: Cloning, characterization and functional identification

1-hydroxy-2-methyl-2-(E)-butenyl 4-diphosphate reductase (HDR, EC 1.17.1.2) catalyzes the last reaction of the methylerythritol phosphate (MEP) pathway. The full-length cDNA sequence of HDR was cloned and characterized from terpenoid-indole-alkaloid-producing Rauvolfia verticillata. The new cDNA was named as RvHDR and submitted to GenBank® to be assigned with an accession number: EU034699. The full-length cDNA of RvHDR was 1679-bp containing a 1389-bp open reading frame (ORF) encoding a polypeptide of 462-amino acids with a calculated molecular mass of 52 kDa and an isoelectric point of 5.26. Comparative and bioinformatic analyses revealed that RvHDR had extensive homology with HDRs from other plant species and contained a conserved transit peptide for plastids. The phylogenetic indicated that all HDRs could be divided into three groups and RvHDR belonged to plant HDRs family. RvHDR was found to be expressed in all tested tissues including roots, stems, leaves, flowers and fruits but at different levels. The highest expression level was found in flowers, and higher expression level in leaves and fruits; the expression level was low in roots and lowest in stems. Expression profiling analyses revealed that RvHDR expression was induced by exogenous elicitors including methyl jasmonate, acetyl salicylic acid, abscisic acid and UV, and showed the transcription levels were all up-regulated compared to the control. Finally, RvHDR was transformed into the E. coli HDR mutant strain MG1655 araHDR, which was able to rescue the lethal phenotype of the E. coli HDR mutant. This confirmed that RvHDR had the typically function of HDR gene. The cloning, characterization and functional identification of RvHDR will be helpful to understand more about the function of HDR at the level of molecular genetics and help to unveil the biosynthetic mechanism of TIAs precursor and provides a candidate gene for metabolic engineering of the TIAs pathway in R. verticillata

Extracting Coal Liquids from Direct Coal Liquefaction Residue Using Subcritical Water

Efficient recovery of coal liquids from direct coal liquefaction residue (DCLR) is beneficial for improving the economics of the direct coal liquefaction process. An attempt was made to evaluate the possibility of extracting coal liquids from DCLR using subcritical water (SBCW). The properties of water are compared with those of typical organic solvents. With regard to the ability of dissolving/emulsifying organic components, SBCW compares favorably with some typical organic solvents under certain conditions. This is evidenced by the fact that the SBCW3 (320 °C/11.7 MPa) extraction yield is similar to the <i>n</i>-hexane extraction yield, although the SBCW1 (250 °C/5.2 MPa) and SBCW2 (300 °C/8.9–11.6 MPa) extraction yields are lower than the <i>n</i>-hexane extraction yields under comparable conditions. The recovery rate of coal liquids from DCLR by SBCW3 extraction can be higher than the maximum recovery rate by <i>n</i>-hexane or methanol extraction when the (SBCW3/DCLR)_mass is high enough. In comparison with <i>n</i>-hexane-extractable, SBCW-extractable contains more high-molecular-weight and heteroatom-containing components. The group composition balances of several SBCW extractions reveal that SBCW-extractable is mainly from the <i>n</i>-hexane-extractable fraction of the parent DCLR, with a small amount of components from the asphaltene-type materials. The solvent utilization index decreases with the increase of extraction yield, indicating that the overall solubility/emulsibility of coal liquids in SBCW3 decreases as the extraction proceeds. This implies that more and more high-molecular-weight and low-solubility/emulsibility components are extracted from DCLR with the increase of extraction yield. Similar phenomena are found when <i>n</i>-hexane and methanol are used as the extraction solvents. It is also found that the SBCW3 extraction yield can be higher than the 320 °C-pyrolysis extraction yield when the (SBCW3/DCLR)_mass is high enough

Oral history, migration and soccer in Australia, 1880-2000

Relative abundance of dominant bacterial phyla/classes and archaeal phyla across the soils (North China Plain). Soils are grouped by sampling sites. Figure S2. Variation of the standardized effect sizes of MNTD (ses.MNTD) of bacterial communities within each site in the North China Plain soils. Figure S3. Boxplots of AIC values for six rank abundance distribution models. AIC, Akaike Information Criterion; ZS, zero-sum multinomial; Nu, Null model; Pr, Pre-emption; Lo, Log normal; Zipf, Zi; Ma, Mandlebrot (North China Plain). Figure S4. Distance-decay curves of similarity for bacterial communities. Environmental distance (presented as a color gradient) were fitted to bacterial community similarity (North China Plain). Figure S5. Scatter plot of βNTI values grouped by spatial scales (Tibetan Plateau). Dash blue lines represent the median value of each scale. Figure S6. Multivariate Regression Tree (MRT) analysis indicating soil pH constraints on soil bacterial community (North China Plain). Figure S7. Soil sampling locations based on soil pH (A), precipitation (B), and temperature (C) maps. Maps including corresponding soil pH across the NCP were acquired from http://www.soil.csdb.cn /, and corresponding annual mean precipitation and temperature data were acquired from www.worldclim.org for years 1970 to 2000. Figure S8. Locations of sampling map and quadrat sets of North China Plain. Figure S9. The conceptual diagram for determining the relative role of deterministic and stochastic process in each spatial scale. (DOC 6052 kb