Effects of Bank Mergers on Risk Leading Up to the 2007-2008 Mortgage Crisis

Recent highly-publicized bank mergers following the home mortgage crisis of 2007-2008, often the result of bank failure or insolvency, brought attention to the issue of consolidation within the banking industry. The banking system has seen increases in consolidation at national levels, with the largest banks gaining increasingly greater proportions of market share. This merger activity and the existence of such “too big to fail” institutions has attracted concern about potential moral hazard due to perceptions about government bailouts and dangers posed by under-capitalized banks. Literature on the topic has found connections between merger activity and increased leverage, as well as a positive association between risk-taking and leverage, exacerbated in larger banks; together, this suggests that mergers may indirectly have an effect on risk-taking behavior in financial firms. This paper explores a possible link between M&A and risk in the context of the financial crisis of 2007-2008

Printing three-dimensional tissue analogues with decellularized extracellular matrix bioink

The ability to print and pattern all the components that make up a tissue (cells and matrix materials) in three dimensions to generate structures similar to tissues is an exciting prospect of bioprinting. However, the majority of the matrix materials used so far for bioprinting cannot represent the complexity of natural extracellular matrix (ECM) and thus are unable to reconstitute the intrinsic cellular morphologies and functions. Here, we develop a method for the bioprinting of cell-laden constructs with novel decellularized extracellular matrix (dECM) bioink capable of providing an optimized microenvironment conducive to the growth of three-dimensional structured tissue. We show the versatility and flexibility of the developed bioprinting process using tissue-specific dECM bioinks, including adipose, cartilage and heart tissues, capable of providing crucial cues for cells engraftment, survival and long-term function. We achieve high cell viability and functionality of the printed dECM structures using our bioprinting method.open11349353sciescopu

Primary Cilium Depletion Typifies Cutaneous Melanoma In Situ and Malignant Melanoma

Cutaneous melanoma is a lethal malignancy that arises spontaneously or via in situ precursor neoplasms. While melanoma in situ and locally invasive malignant melanoma can be cured surgically, these lesions can sometimes be difficult to distinguish from melanocytic nevi. Thus, the identification of histolopathologic or molecular features that distinguish these biologically distinct lesions would represent an important advance. To this end, we determined the abundance of melanocytic primary cilia in a series of 62 cases composed of typical cutaneous melanocytic nevi, melanoma in situ, invasive melanoma, and metastatic melanoma. Primary cilia are sensory organelles that modulate developmental and adaptive signaling and notably, are substantially depleted from the neoplastic epithelium of pancreatic carcinoma at a stage equivalent to melanoma in situ. In this series, we find that while nearly all melanocytes in 22 melanocytic nevi possessed a primary cilium, a near-complete loss of this organelle was observed in 16 cases of melanoma in situ, in 16 unequivocal primary invasive melanomas, and in 8 metastatic tumors, each associated with a cutaneous primary lesion. These findings suggest that the primary cilium may be used to segregate cutaneous invasive melanoma and melanoma in situ from melanocytic nevi. Moreover, they place the loss of an organelle known to regulate oncogenic signaling at an early stage of melanoma development

Application of Polynomial Regression Model for Joint Stiffness

International Journal of Exercise Science 15(1): 1236-1245, 2022. Quasi-stiffness (joint stiffness) is often used to characterize leg properties during athletic and other activities and has been reported by a single slope of angle-moment curve. However, the joint angle-moment relationship of some relationship are not effectively represented by a simple linear regression model. Thus, the purpose of this analysis was to investigate the benefits of utilizing a 2nd order polynomial regression (quadratic) model as compared to the linear model when calculating lower extremity joint stiffness incorporating subdivided eccentric phases. Thirty healthy and active college students performed 15 drop jumps from a 30-cm platform. The eccentric phase was identified as the time from initial foot contact (IC) to the lowest vertical position of the center of mass and subdivided into the loading and attenuation phases, separated by the peak vertical ground reaction force. Lower extremity joint stiffnesses (hip, knee, and ankle) for the loading and attenuation phases were calculated using a linear and quadratic model. Multiple 2 by 2 repeated measures ANOVAs were performed. In the post-hoc analyses, the quadratic model had greater goodness-of-fit ( and RMSE) than the linear model (p \u3c .05) for all joints. The quadratic model revealed differences between the loading and attenuation phases for both hip (p = .001) and knee stiffness (p \u3c .001). These results suggest that the quadratic model is more representative of the angle-moment relationship while subdividing the eccentric phase of a drop jump into the loading and attenuation phases

Adult restoration of Shank3 expression rescues selective autistic-like phenotypes

Because autism spectrum disorders are neurodevelopmental disorders and patients typically display symptoms before the age of three, one of the key questions in autism research is whether the pathology is reversible in adults. Here we investigate the developmental requirement of Shank3 in mice, a prominent monogenic autism gene that is estimated to contribute to approximately 1% of all autism spectrum disorder cases. SHANK3 is a postsynaptic scaffold protein that regulates synaptic development, function and plasticity by orchestrating the assembly of post synaptic density macromolecular signalling complex. Disruptions of the Shank3 gene in mouse models have resulted in synaptic defects and autistic-like behaviours including anxiety, social interaction deficits, and repetitive behaviour. We generated a novel Shank3 conditional knock-in mouse model, and show that re-expression of the Shank3 gene in adult mice led to improvements in synaptic protein composition, spine density and neural function in the striatum. We also provide behavioural evidence that certain behavioural abnormalities including social interaction deficit and repetitive grooming behaviour could be rescued, while anxiety and motor coordination deficit could not be recovered in adulthood. Together, these results reveal the profound effect of post-developmental activation of Shank3 expression on neural function, and demonstrate a certain degree of continued plasticity in the adult diseased brain.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant R01MH097104

The Contribution of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Depression to Insomnia in North Korean Refugee Youth

Refugees are exposed to multiple traumatic and stressful events and thereby are at higher risk for developing a variety of psychological sequelae including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, the relation of PTSD to other mental health conditions has not been fully revealed in refugee populations. The present study investigated relationships among trauma exposure, PTSD, depression, and insomnia in North Korean refugee youth. Seventy-four refugee youth were assessed for exposure to traumatic events, PTSD, depression, and insomnia symptoms. The results showed high rates of multiple trauma exposures among the refugee youth and high incidences of co-occurring symptoms of PTSD and insomnia in those who have multiple trauma. Furthermore, the overall symptoms and four cluster symptoms of PTSD were strongly correlated with insomnia in addition to depression. In the path model to predict insomnia, PTSD affected insomnia only through depression, indicating that the greater the levels of PTSD suffered, the greater the likelihood for developing sleep problems via depression. The present study indicates how sleep problems relate to trauma-related symptoms, i.e., PTSD and depression in refugee populations, and highlights the need for further investigation of the specific relation between sleep problems and trauma-related symptoms for effective evaluation and intervention