sRNAfrag: A pipeline and suite of tools to analyze fragmentation in small RNA sequencing data

Fragments derived from small RNAs such as small nucleolar RNAs hold biological relevance. However, they remain poorly understood, calling for more comprehensive methods for analysis. We developed sRNAfrag, a standardized workflow and set of scripts to quantify and analyze sRNA fragmentation of any biotype. In a benchmark, it is able to detect loci of mature microRNAs fragmented from precursors and, utilizing multi-mapping events, the conserved 5' seed sequence of miRNAs which we believe may extraoplate to other small RNA fragments. The tool detected 1411 snoRNA fragment conservation events between 2/4 eukaryotic species, providing the opportunity to explore motifs and fragmentation patterns not only within species, but between. Availability: https://github.com/kenminsoo/sRNAfrag.

Business cycle clocks: Time to get circular

Assessing the momentum of the business cycle is of utmost importance for policymakers and private agents. In this respect, the use of business cycle clocks has gained prominence among national and international institutions to depict the current stage of the business cycle. Drawing on circular statistics, we propose a novel approach to business cycle clocks in a data-rich environment. The method is applied to the main euro area countries resorting to a large data set covering the last three decades. We document the usefulness of the circular business cycle clock to capture the business cycle stage, including peaks and troughs, with the findings being supported by the cross-country evidence.