In lung adenocarcinoma, antibodies against endogenous retroviruses promote anti-tumour activity, and expression of endogenous retroviruses can predict outcomes of immunotherapy. B cells are frequently found in the margins of solid tumours as organized follicles in ectopic lymphoid organs called tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS)^ 1 , 2 . Although TLS have been found to correlate with improved patient survival and response to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB), the underlying mechanisms of this association remain elusive^ 1 , 2 . Here we investigate lung-resident B cell responses in patients from the TRACERx 421 (Tracking Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer Evolution Through Therapy) and other lung cancer cohorts, and in a recently established immunogenic mouse model for lung adenocarcinoma^ 3 . We find that both human and mouse lung adenocarcinomas elicit local germinal centre responses and tumour-binding antibodies, and further identify endogenous retrovirus (ERV) envelope glycoproteins as a dominant anti-tumour antibody target. ERV-targeting B cell responses are amplified by ICB in both humans and mice, and by targeted inhibition of KRAS(G12C) in the mouse model. ERV-reactive antibodies exert anti-tumour activity that extends survival in the mouse model, and ERV expression predicts the outcome of ICB in human lung adenocarcinoma. Finally, we find that effective immunotherapy in the mouse model requires CXCL13-dependent TLS formation. Conversely, therapeutic CXCL13 treatment potentiates anti-tumour immunity and synergizes with ICB. Our findings provide a possible mechanistic basis for the association of TLS with immunotherapy response.

The performance commercial banks in the Croatia have been widely studied, but there is little known about the examination of the nature of competition. For these reasons, it is important to investigate whether the banking sector in Croatia exerts monopoly or monopolistic behavior.  This research empirically explores the nature of competition in the Croatian banking sector by covering 24 commercial banks between 2008 and 2018. In this vein, the panel data analysis was used along with H-Statistics. This study for Croatia and its findings confirms early findings of the existence of monopolistic competition in the most transition and developing countries. In fact, the findings obtained from this study reveals that the commercial banks in Croatia operate under monopolistic structure. Moreover, the results reveal that variable of RIETD, RLTA, RETA, and RDTA are statically significant. It indicates that banks operated in Croatia are focus more on traditional loans than other activities.

In order to determine the pollinizer success rates between twelve apple cultivars in 2021 and 2022, 671 apple embryos were collected from 19 different orchards in Ullensvang (southwestern Norway) and Svelvik (southeastern Norway). Genomic DNA was extracted from the collected embryos and, afterward, a genetic characterization with 15 polymorphic microsatellite markers was conducted. An identical set of markers was also used on all twelve mother cultivars, as well as on six crabapple pollinizers, which were found in the investigated orchards. The obtained molecular data enabled paternity analyses to be performed with the objective of assigning a male parent to each embryo. The paternity analyses identified pollen donors for all, except for 3% of the embryos. In most cases, it was possible to identify the most successful pollinizers for each cultivar, with ‘Aroma’ and ‘Discovery’ being the most efficient pollen donors overall. Tree abundance seems to be a major factor in pollinizer success, while semi-cross-compatible characteristics represent a hindrance. Only 7% of the analyzed embryos were determined to have been fertilized by pollinizers outside the orchard, confirming the significance of pollinizer proximity for efficient pollination.

Gesture recognition is a field of study that involves recognizing human movements and gestures through sensors. In this paper, a basic gesture recognition system is proposed that uses three Time-of-Flight (TOF) VL53L0X distance sensors positioned in an L-shape able to recognize gesture through cover glass and up to 40 cm of distance. The system is capable of recognizing four basic gestures: swipe right, swipe left, swipe up and swipe down. This system can be applied in various fields such as Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Gaming, Virtual Reality (VR) and Robotics, this paper will focus on the implementation and evaluation of the proposed system. The inspiration for the system is to simplify interaction with medical panel PCs and monitors while improving the hygienic aspect of the same, while taking into consideration data privacy.

Objective: To evaluate the prevalence of strabismus in premature children after the screening for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) and to determine whether the level of prematurity (birth weight and gestation age) can be used as a predictor for both strabismus development and disease activity. Methods: This is a retrospective study, conducted in the Clinic for Eye Disease, section for Pediatric Ophthalmology of the Clinical Centre University of Sarajevo during the period from December 2013 until January 2017. 126 patients were involved. The inclusion criteria were gestational age ≤ 34 weeks, birthweight ≤ 2000 g and performed screening test for ROP. Patients were divided into three groups: patients without ROP, patients with spontaneous regression and patients with active ROP. Results: 52.4% patients were suffering from strabismus (30.2% esotropia, 22.2% exotropia). All the patients with active ROP had esotropia (60.0%). The average birth weight and gestational age were lower in patients with strabismus (1371.3 ± 58.0 g and 29.7 ± 0.4 weeks respectively). Conclusion: Lower gestational age and birth weight of premature children showed the increased probability of strabismus development especially esotropia. Prematurity level was significantly lower in patients with active ROP compared to the rest of the patients. Abbreviations: ROP = Retinopathy of prematurity, ICROP = International Classification of Retinopathy of prematurity, BCVA = best corrected visual acuity

Supply chain management (SCM) is deeply affected by the COVID-19 pandemic besides breakdowns occurred in all sectors. Nowadays, managers need techniques for protecting supply chains from serious and costly disruptions, establishing permanent relationships with the customers and partners and preventing breakdowns throughout the process. Each firm needs to determine SCM strategies to be prepared for breakdowns in an intense competitive environment. With COVID-19, the change in business and trade environments has taken a different dimension, and it has revealed a new relationship between the efforts to perpetuate supply chains and strategies for supply chain management and enabled new models. In this study, it is aimed to prioritize the factors that lead to SCM breaks needed in project management and the realization of projects, and to choose the most successful SCM strategy considering COVID-19. For this purpose, rough SWARA was used for weighting factors and rough MARCOS was used for the alternative selection. According to the findings, the transportation capacity factor was found to be the most important factor leading to SCM breakdowns. The most ideal supply chain management strategy has been the “collaborative supply chain management strategy.” In the food manufacturing sector, the study can be considered as a roadmap in terms of preventing supply chain management breaks during the COVID-19 process and helping to ensure a sustainable production. As another theoretical and practical importance of the study, it is aimed to propose a robust, powerful, and practical decision-making model that can cope with the current uncertainties.

Using account-level credit card data from a large Turkish bank, we study the impact of a unique credit card policy that increases minimum payment on consumption and debt repayment. We show that the policy reduces credit card spending and debt, boosts existing debt repayment, and reduces credit card delinquency. The credit card debt of affected consumers falls on average by 50% two years into the policy’s implementation. An increase in minimum payment has a stronger effect than does a decrease of a similar magnitude. We build a benchmark life cycle model with soft liquidity constraint to explain the reduction in credit card spending.

Introduction International reports indicate that clozapine is under prescribed. Yet, this has not been explored in Southeast European (SEE) countries. This cross-sectional study investigates clozapine prescription rates in a sample of 401 outpatients with psychosis from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo by United Nations resolution, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. Methods Descriptive analysis was used to explore clozapine prescription rates; daily antipsychotic dosage was calculated and converted into olanzapine equivalents. Patients receiving clozapine were compared to those not receiving clozapine; next those that were on clozapine monotherapy were compared to those who were on clozapine polytherapy regime. Results It was showed that clozapine was prescribed to 37.7% of patients (with cross-country variation: from 25% in North Macedonia to 43.8% in Montenegro), with average dose of 130.7 mg/daily. The majority of patients on clozapine (70.5%) were prescribed at least one more antipsychotic (the most frequent combination was with haloperidol). Discussion Our findings suggested that clozapine prescription rate in SEE outpatients is higher than in Western Europe. The average dose is significantly below the optimal therapeutic dosage recommended by clinical guidelines, and clozapine polytherapy is common. This might indicate that clozapine is prescribed mainly for its sedative effect rather than antipsychotic. We hope that this finding will be taken up by relevant stakeholders to address this non-evidence-based practice.

The ancient Egyptian blue pigment was developed over 5000 years ago and was used extensively for around four millennia until its use mysteriously declined dramatically during the Early Middle Ages. It recently attracted a lot of attention along with some related materials, leading to a fast-growing number of applications in fields, such as sensors, solar concentrators, energy-saving, and medicine. The new surge in interest began in 1996 with the discovery of their intense NIR photoluminescence that surprisingly can be triggered even by visible light. In 2013, the possibility of exfoliating them and producing NIR luminescent nanosheets was established, expanding the family of 2D nanomaterials. More recently, the discovery of their high antibacterial effects and biocompatibility, and very promising optical, electric and magnetic properties, has further boosted their applications. The characteristics of Egyptian blue are due to its main component: the very stable crystalline compound CaCuSi_4O_10. This tetragonal sheet silicate is the synthetic analogous of the rare cuprorivaite mineral. In Part A of this review, we summarize the historical uses and main properties (i.e., composition, structure, color, stability, luminescence, and biological activity) of cuprorivaite and related 2D silicates, i.e., BaCuSi_4O_10 (the main constituent of the ancient pigment Chinese Blue), BaCuSi_2O_6 (the main constituent of the ancient pigment Chinese Purple), SrCuSi_4O_10 (synthetic analogous of wesselsite) and BaFeSi_4O_10 (synthetic analogous of gillespite). The Part B of the review will focus on the modern rediscovery of these materials, their modern synthesis and exfoliation, and the innovative applications based on their properties.

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least 4 m. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the 6.5 m James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 yr, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.

Objectives: Juvenile systemic sclerosis is a rare childhood disease. Three disease activity indices have been published for adult patients with systemic sclerosis: the European Scleroderma Study Group Index, a modified version of the European Scleroderma Study Group Index and the revised European Scleroderma Trials and Research index. The objective of this study was to determine the feasibility and performance of the three disease activity indices in a prospectively followed cohort of patients with juvenile systemic sclerosis. Methods: The analysis cohort was selected from the prospective international inception cohort enrolling juvenile systemic sclerosis patients. The correlation of the disease activity indices with the physicians’ and the patients’ global assessment of disease activity was determined. The disease activity indices were compared between patients with active and inactive disease. Sensitivity to change between 6- and 12-month follow-up was investigated by mixed models. Results: Eighty percent of the 70 patients had a diffuse cutaneous subtype. The revised European Scleroderma Trials and Research index was highly correlated with the physician-reported global disease activity/parents-reported global disease activity (r = 0.74/0.64), followed by the European Scleroderma Study Group activity index (r = 0.61/0.55) and the modified version of the European Scleroderma Study Group activity index (r = 0.51/0.43). The disease activity indices significantly differed between active and inactive patients. The disease activity indices showed sensitivity to change between 6- and 12-month follow-up among patients who improved or worsened according to the physician-reported global disease activity and the parents-reported global disease activity. Conclusion: Overall, no disease activity score is superior to the other, and all three scores have limitations in the application in juvenile systemic sclerosis patients. Furthermore, research on the concept of disease activity and suitable scores to measure disease activity in patients with juvenile systemic sclerosis is necessary in future.

Abstract This study seeks to empirically explore whether the regulatory quality in the NMS-10 impacts deepening international financial integration and whether the strengthening of regulatory quality for NMS-10 has a causal effect on the level of international financial integration (IFI) in NMS-10. The study covers NMS-10 between 1995 and 2020. The estimation of parameters was made with descriptive statistics, the Breusch-Pagan test, the Pesaran test, the Granger causality test, and OLS regression to analyze the impact of REQ on IFI. The findings of the study reveal that regulatory quality has a statistically significant effect in deepening the process of financial integration for both periods, in the pre-accession and post-accession EU process. In addition, the results demonstrate that the regulatory quality of NMS-10 provides sound laws and policies that support the business environment, encourage cross-bordering financial transactions. Moreover, the results of the Granger causality test show that the level of global financial integration is causally impacted by the improvement in NMS-10 regulatory quality. This indicates that regulatory effectiveness might predicts international financial integration.

The main purpose of this paper is to present a systematic literature review of studies on the determinants of non-performing loans (NPLs) published over the period 1987–2022. This paper reviewed 76 studies in 58 peer-reviewed journals. The provocation for this analysis is that the issue of NPLs is attributed to close attention from policymakers and is currently addressed with various measures. The authors synthesize the literature according to the following main boards: macroeconomic factors, bank-specific factors, and industry factors. This study tries to construct the main findings from the numerous studies that are performed concerning NPLs and their determinants. The authors’ motivation is to provide a detailed perspective on NPLs. Hence, this study provides a complete and coherent framework for the researchers to examine the varied NPL literature.

This Collective article reports 17 introduced species and 22 new locations for these species in the Mediterranean Sea. The reports are from three different Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) subregions (Aegean-Levantine Sea, Adriatic Sea and Western Mediterranean Sea) and the Sea of Marmara and cover ten different countries. The goal of consistent and detailed reporting of introduced species is to complement the existing species inventories and serve as a basis for establishing monitoring strategies and other conservation measures. Some of the reports from this article are the first species records for the Mediterranean Sea, namely the green alga Udotea flabellum from the Aegean Sea (Turkey) and the deepbody boarfish Antigonia capros from the Balearic Sea (Spain). In addition, new records of introduced species are included for different seas, namely the moon crab Matuta victor for the Aegean Sea (Greece), the whale shark Rhincodon typus and the lionfish Pterois miles for the Alboran Sea (Spain), the almaco jack Seriola rivoliana for the Tyrrhenian Sea (Italy), and the hound needlefish Tylosurus crocodilus for the Adriatic Sea (Italy). Furthermore, reports on first country records are included: the red alga Colaconema codicola from Slovenia, the nudibranch Melibe viridis from Bosnia and Herzegovina, the lionfish Pterois miles from Montenegro, and the goldstripe sardinella Sardinella gibbosa from Syria, which also represents a second record for the Mediterranean Sea. Furthermore, the occurrence of the scleractinian coral Oculina patagonica was noted in Gulf of Lion (France). Four polychaete species, namely Leodice antennata, Timarete punctata and Branchiomma bairdi, are reported from the vermetid reef habitat and two of them (L. antennata and B. bairdi) are also recorded for the first time in Lebanon. Evidence for established populations of the Asian date mussel Arcuatula senhousia in the Sea of Marmara (Turkey) and the rayed pearl oyster Pinctada radiata around the island of Sardinia (Italy) is provided.