Long non-coding RNA SENCR is a positive regulator of ETV2

Department of Biological SciencesAlthough long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have emerged as novel regulator of cell fate and gene expression, the regulation of vascular specific transcription factor by lncRNA in generation of induced endothelial cells (iEndo) has not been studied yet. In this study, ETS variant 2 (ETV2) converts human fibroblasts into iEndo, and smooth muscle and endothelial cell enriched migration/differentiationassociated long non-coding RNA (SENCR) was identified as a regulator of ETV2. iEndo showed similar morphology, endothelial cell markers, and tubular structure formation compared to human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC). Furthermore, over-expression of SENCR increased ETV2 gene and protein expression by enhancing ETV2 promoter activity through recruitment of PSPC1. This is the first study demonstrates the role of SENCR contributed to ETV2 activation in generation of iEndo.ope

Audit market concentration and audit fees: an international investigation

Several large auditor consolidations in the late 1980s-early 1990s, along with Arthur Andersen’s collapse in 2001, facilitated global audit market concentration. Subsequently, regulators have expressed serious concern over the potential detrimental effects of this concentration, including cartel pricing. This study investigates the association between audit market concentration and audit fees. Using a large sample from 17 countries, our study yields three principal findings. First, consistent with regulators’ concern, a significantly positive association exists between market concentration and fees. Second, the country-level legal regime changes this association dramatically: while significant and positive in countries with a weak legal regime, the association weakens and eventually becomes negative as the legal regime strengthens. Third, these associations are more pronounced among clients of non-Big 4 auditors than those of Big 4 auditors. These findings provide regulators and other stakeholders with important insights into the effects of audit market structure on audit pricing

A recentering approach for interpreting interaction effects from logit, probit, and other nonlinear models

Research SummaryStrategic management has seen numerous studies analyzing interaction terms in nonlinear models since Hoetker’s (Strat Mgmt J., 2007, 28(4), 331- 343) best- practice recommendations and Zelner’s (Strat Mgmt J., 2009, 30(12), 1335- 1348) simulation- based approach. We suggest an alternative recentering approach to assess the statistical and economic importance of interaction terms in nonlinear models. Our approach does not rely on making assumptions about the values of the control variables; it takes the existing model and data as is and requires fewer computational steps. The recentering approach not only provides a consistent answer about statistical meaningfulness of the interaction term at a given point of interest, but also helps to assess the effect size using the template that we offer in this study. We demonstrate how to implement our approach and discuss the implications for strategy researchers.Managerial SummaryIn industry settings, the relationship between multiple corporate strategy- related inputs and corporate performance is often nonlinear in nature. Furthermore, such relationships tend to vary for different types of firms represented within the broader population of firms in a given industry. It is thus imperative for managers to know how to take nonlinear relationships between related business factors into account when they make strategic decisions. We suggest a simple and easily implementable way of assessing and interpreting interactions in a nonlinear setting, which we term a recentering approach. We demonstrate how to apply our approach to a strategic management setting.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/163421/3/smj3202.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/163421/2/smj3202-sup-0001-Supinfo.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/163421/1/smj3202_am.pd

Comparative analysis of organelle genomes provides conflicting evidence between morphological similarity and phylogenetic relationship in diatoms

Diatoms (Bacillariophyta) are abundant phytoplankton groups in marine environments, which contribute approximately 20% of global carbon fixation through photosynthesis. Moreover, diatoms exhibit the highest species diversity (approximately 18,000 diatom species) among marine photosynthetic eukaryotes, which were identified by morphological characteristics. Molecular phylogenetic analyses could shed new insights into the evolutionary relationships of diverse diatom species. Nevertheless, a comprehensive understanding of the phylogenetic relationships of diatom species still remains unclear because the available molecular data are insufficient compared with their high species diversity. Furthermore, several novel diatom species were reported from field samples with no molecular evidence. In particular, the phylogenies of diatom species constructed using organelle genomes revealed that several diatom genera are paraphyletic with high supporting values. We constructed high-resolution phylogenetic trees of diatom species using organelle genomes (plastids and mitochondria) and compared the morphologies in several paraphyletic diatom genera. Especially, the clades Nitzschia and Thalassiosira include several different diatom genera with high phylogenetic supports. Our study demonstrated that some morphological characteristics (e.g., genus characters) of several diatom genera could not represent current genus boundaries. Based on the results, we highlight the necessity for taxonomic reinvestigation. To reestablish this in diatoms, it will be essential to incorporate more genome data from a broader range of taxon samples, along with a comparison of morphological characteristics

The Power of Sound (TPoS): Audio Reactive Video Generation with Stable Diffusion

In recent years, video generation has become a prominent generative tool and has drawn significant attention. However, there is little consideration in audio-to-video generation, though audio contains unique qualities like temporal semantics and magnitude. Hence, we propose The Power of Sound (TPoS) model to incorporate audio input that includes both changeable temporal semantics and magnitude. To generate video frames, TPoS utilizes a latent stable diffusion model with textual semantic information, which is then guided by the sequential audio embedding from our pretrained Audio Encoder. As a result, this method produces audio reactive video contents. We demonstrate the effectiveness of TPoS across various tasks and compare its results with current state-of-the-art techniques in the field of audio-to-video generation. More examples are available at https://ku-vai.github.io/TPoS/Comment: ICCV202

The dynamic transcriptional and translational landscape of the model antibiotic producer Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2)

Individual Streptomyces species have the genetic potential to produce a diverse array of natural products of commercial, medical and veterinary interest. However, these products are often not detectable under laboratory culture conditions. To harness their full biosynthetic potential, it is important to develop a detailed understanding of the regulatory networks that orchestrate their metabolism. Here we integrate nucleotide resolution genome-scale measurements of the transcriptome and translatome of Streptomyces coelicolor, the model antibiotic-producing actinomycete. Our systematic study determines 3,570 transcription start sites and identifies 230 small RNAs and a considerable proportion (∼21%) of leaderless mRNAs; this enables deduction of genome-wide promoter architecture. Ribosome profiling reveals that the translation efficiency of secondary metabolic genes is negatively correlated with transcription and that several key antibiotic regulatory genes are translationally induced at transition growth phase. These findings might facilitate the design of new approaches to antibiotic discovery and development

Primary transcriptome and translatome analysis determines transcriptional and translational regulatory elements encoded in the Streptomyces clavuligerus genome

Determining transcriptional and translational regulatory elements in GC-rich Streptomyces genomes is essential to elucidating the complex regulatory networks that govern secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene cluster (BGC) expression. However, information about such regulatory elements has been limited for Streptomyces genomes. To address this limitation, a high-quality genome sequence of β-lactam antibiotic-producing Streptomyces clavuligerus ATCC 27 064 is completed, which contains 7163 newly annotated genes. This provides a fundamental reference genome sequence to integrate multiple genome-scale data types, including dRNA-Seq, RNA-Seq and ribosome profiling. Data integration results in the precise determination of 2659 transcription start sites which reveal transcriptional and translational regulatory elements, including -10 and -35 promoter components specific to sigma (σ) factors, and 5'-untranslated region as a determinant for translation efficiency regulation. Particularly, sequence analysis of a wide diversity of the -35 components enables us to predict potential σ-factor regulons, along with various spacer lengths between the -10 and -35 elements. At last, the primary transcriptome landscape of the β-lactam biosynthetic pathway is analyzed, suggesting temporal changes in metabolism for the synthesis of secondary metabolites driven by transcriptional regulation. This comprehensive genetic information provides a versatile genetic resource for rational engineering of secondary metabolite BGCs in Streptomyces

Photometric Selection of Unobscured QSOs in the Ecliptic Poles: KMTNet in the South Field and Pan-STARRS in the North Field

We search for quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) in a wide area of the south ecliptic pole (SEP) field, which has been and will continue to be intensively explored through various space missions. For this purpose, we obtain deep broadband optical images of the SEP field covering an area of $\sim$$14.5\times14.5$ deg$^2$ with the Korea Microlensing Telescope Network. The 5$\sigma$ detection limits for point sources in the $BVRI$ bands are estimated to be $\sim$22.59, 22.60, 22.98, and 21.85 mag, respectively. Utilizing data from Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, unobscured QSO candidates are selected among the optically point-like sources using the mid-infrared (MIR) and optical-MIR colors. To further refine our selection and eliminate any contamination not adequately removed by the color-based selection, we perform the spectral energy distribution fitting with archival photometric data ranging from optical to MIR. As a result, we identify a total of 2,383 unobscured QSO candidates in the SEP field. We also apply a similar method to the north ecliptic pole field using the Pan-STARRS data and obtain a similar result of identifying 2,427 candidates. The differential number count per area of our QSO candidates is in good agreement with those measured from spectroscopically confirmed ones in other fields. Finally, we compare the results with the literature and discuss how this work will be implicated in future studies, especially with the upcoming space missions.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ