Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pakistan’s Monetary Policy: Some Fundamental Issues

Over the last three decades, the landmark transformation of central banks from secrecy to openness and transparency has significantly enhanced their performance to successfully anchor inflation expectations and achieve price stability. The extent of such a transformation of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), especially in terms of statutory objectives, monetary policy mandate, conflicts of interest, disclosures, and dissemination of effective public economic information is assessed vis-a-vis the current popular central banking practices. The assessment indicates that the SBP is yet to be transformed to be able to achieve price stability which is a cornerstone for the achievement of sustainable economic growth. On the statutory front, such a transformation requires amending the SBP Act 1956, in line with the statutes for the best monetary policy frameworks by; (1) making price stability as the overriding objective of the SBP; (2) putting in place a clear mechanism for its accountability against price stability, consistent inflation targets, and; (3) elimination of the cushion for government’s involvement with the monetary policy decision making processes. Some of the other areas like, institutional capacity building of the SBP, in terms of the relevance and level of the academic qualification, research profiles, and experiences of the Board, higher as well as lower tier management need special attention. Such transformations may not only enhance assimilation, creation, sharing, and funnelling of existing as well as new knowledge into monetary policy formulation, but may help change the static mindset at the SBP, hence allowing the institution to flourish.
Do classified boards protect top management? : evidence from shareholder proposals

This paper examines the relationship between classified boards and managerial entrenchment by applying a panel regression discontinuity design to shareholder proposals on board declassification. We focus on shareholder proposals that pass or fail by a small margin of votes in order to provide a causal estimate of the impact of board declassification. We find that shareholder proposal approval leads to a reduction in CEO compensation, an increase in the likelihood of CEO replacement, a positive but insignificant impact on pay-performance elasticity, and an increase in firm value. The reduction in CEO compensation is strongest among firms who possess weaker levels of corporate governance. These findings suggest that classified boards protect top management and lead to higher levels of managerial entrenchment. Thesis Supervisor: David Thesmar Title: Professor of Finance
Molecular Probing of the HPV-16 E6 Protein Alpha Helix Binding Groove with Small Molecule Inhibitors

The human papillomavirus (HPV) HPV E6 protein has emerged as a central oncoprotein in HPV-associated cancers in which sustained expression is required for tumor progression. A majority of the E6 protein interactions within the human proteome use an alpha-helix groove interface for binding. The UBE3A/E6AP HECT domain ubiquitin ligase binds E6 at this helix-groove interface. This enables formation of a trimeric complex with p53, resulting in destruction of this tumor suppressor. While recent x-ray crystal structures are useful, examples of small molecule probes that can modulate protein interactions at this interface are limited. To develop insights useful for potential structure-based design of ligands for HPV E6, a series of 2,6-disubstituted benzopyranones were prepared and tested as competitive antagonists of E6-E6AP helix-groove interactions. These small molecule probes were used in both binding and functional assays to evaluate recognition features of the E6 protein. Evidence for an ionic functional group interaction within the helix groove was implicated by the structure-activity among the highest affinity ligands. The molecular topographies of these protein-ligand interactions were evaluated by comparing the binding and activities of single amino acid E6 mutants with the results of molecular dynamic simulations. A group of arginine residues that form a rim-cap over the E6 helix groove offer compensatory roles in binding and recognition of the small molecule probes. The flexibility and impact on the overall helix-groove shape dictated by these residues offer new insights for structure-based targeting of HPV E6.
THE ROCHE LIMIT FOR CLOSE-ORBITING PLANETS: MINIMUM DENSITY, COMPOSITION CONSTRAINTS, AND APPLICATION TO THE 4.2 hr PLANET KOI 1843.03

The requirement that a planet must orbit outside of its Roche limit gives a lower limit on the planet's mean density. The minimum density depends almost entirely on the orbital period and is immune to systematic errors in the stellar properties. We consider the implications of this density constraint for the newly identified class of small planets with periods shorter than half a day. When the planet's radius is accurately known, this lower limit to the density can be used to restrict the possible combinations of iron and rock within the planet. Applied to KOI 1843.03, a 0.6 R⊕ planet with the shortest known orbital period of 4.245 hr, the planet's mean density must be ≳ 7 g cm−3. By modeling the planetary interior subject to this constraint, we find that the composition of the planet must be mostly iron, with at most a modest fraction of silicates (≲ 30% by mass).
Maternal vaginorectal colonization by Group B Streptococcus and Listeria monocytogenes and its risk factors among pregnant women attending tertiary hospital in Mwanza, Tanzania

Background: Group B streptococcus (GBS) and Listeria monocytogenes are members of the normal microbes of the female genital tract. During labour GBS and Listeria monocytogenes may infect the new-borns, leading to neonatal sepsis and meningitis. So far, there is no report on prevalence of GBS and Listeria monocytogenes among pregnant women in Mwanza. The objective of the study was to determine the magnitude of Group B Streptococcus and Listeria monocytogenes and its associated factors at Bugando Medical Centre, Mwanza, Tanzania. Methods: The study was a cross section conducted from 1 st November 2011 to 31 st May 2012 at Bugando Medical Centre in Mwanza, Tanzania. Vaginal and rectal swabs were obtained and cultured on 5% sheep blood agar and susceptibility testing done using disk diffusion technique. Results: A total of 295 pregnant women participated in the study. GBS strains were isolated from 28 (9.49%) and only two (0.68%) had isolates of Listeria spp. All GBS and Listeria spp. isolates were sensitive to penicillin and ampicillin. Eight GBS isolates were resistant to erythromycin (28.6%), seven GBS isolates were resistant to clindamycin (25%) and 15 of GBS isolates were resistant to tetracycline (53.6%). One Listeria spp isolate was resistant to cotrimoxazole. Pregnant women with no formal education and those dwelling in rural areas were more frequently colonized by GBS. Conclusion: There is a significant prevalence rate of GBS culture positive at Bugando Medical Centre with demonstrable resistant to some common antibiotics (tetracycline, erythromycin and Clindamycin). Screening for GBS should be instituted in Tanzania between 35 and 37 weeks of gestation coupled with regular check up for antimicrobial susceptibility pattern due to emerging resistance toward existing antibiotics.
Prevalence of Fungal Infection of Vagina among the Pregnant Woman ’ s

Pregnant women can develop increased vaginal discharge leading to various complications such as abortions, premature birth and low birth weight. One of the reasons for the increased vaginal discharge is the presence of fungal infections. The present study was done to study the prevalence of vaginal fungal infection among pregnant women. Vaginal swabs were collated from the pregnant and non-pregnant women with the symptoms of vaginal infection. One swab was used for the preparation of the wet mount and thin smear on the microscopic slide for the gram staining. The other swab was inoculated under aseptic precautions on Sabouraud Dextrose agar (SDA) and incubated at 37 o C for 24 to 72 hours. Out of 188 patients examined, 120 were pregnant patients and 68 were non-pregnant woman. In case of pregnant patients, 51 (43.5%) were shown to had positive fungal infections. While in non-pregnant patients, 24 (35.2%) were shown to had positive fungal infections. Candida albicans was present in 93.4% of the positive patients, while yeast other than candida albicans was present in 6.6% of samples. As the pregnant woman showing more positive yeast infections, early detection and early diagnosis may improve the clinical condition of the pregnant women.
The Impact of Labor Mobility Restrictions on Managerial Actions: Evidence from the Mutual Fund Industry

This paper examines how labor mobility restrictions such as non-compete clauses in employment contracts affect the incentives and resulting behavior of employees. Using the investment industry as a testing laboratory, we find that mutual fund managers respond to heightened career concerns due to increased enforceability of non-compete clauses by increasing effort, reducing downside risk, engaging less in tournaments, making their portfolios similar to the portfolios of their benchmarks or peers, and increasing window-dressing. These concerns are, however, moderated by the presence of more developed internal labor markets, which allow managers to substitute restricted across-family mobility with within-family mobility.
On the training of recurrent neural networks

This paper proposes a new approach which combines unsupervised and supervised learning for training recurrent neural networks (RNNs). In this approach, the weights between input and hidden layers were determined according to an unsupervised procedure relying on the Kohonen algorithm and the weights between hidden and output layers were updated according to a supervised procedure based on dynamic gradient descent method. The simulation results show that the proposed method performs well in comparison with the back propagation through time algorithm.
Effect of anatomic realignment on muscle function during gait in patients with medial compartment knee osteoarthritis.

OBJECTIVE Individuals with medial compartment knee osteoarthritis (OA) and genu varum use different movement and muscle activation patterns to increase joint stability during gait. The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether opening-wedge high-tibial osteotomy (OW-HTO) corrected pathomechanical abnormalities associated with the progression of knee OA. METHODS Fifteen patients diagnosed with medial knee OA and genu varum who were scheduled for OW-HTO were tested prior to and 1 year following OW-HTO. Fifteen age- and sex-matched controls were also tested. Frontal plane laxity was measured from stress radiographs. All participants underwent quadriceps strength testing with a burst superimposition technique and gait analysis with surface electromyography to calculate knee joint kinematics and kinetics and muscle co-contraction during the stance phase of gait. Participants rated their knee function and instability using a self-report questionnaire. RESULTS Static alignment improved following the surgery. Medial laxity (P = 0.003) and instability (P = 0.002) significantly improved, and statistical reductions in the adduction moment resulted in lower levels of vastus medialis-medial gastrocnemius muscle co-contractions (P = 0.089). Despite improvements in global rating of knee function (P = 0.001), the OA group's ratings remained significantly lower than those of the healthy controls (P = 0.001). Quadriceps strength deficits and knee flexion impairments persisted. CONCLUSION Persistent quadriceps weakness and impaired knee kinematics after realignment suggest that the movement strategy may perpetuate joint destruction and impede the long-term success of realignment. Rehabilitation should focus on quadriceps strength and improving joint mobility to improve the long-term function of individuals with medial knee OA.
Clinical Nurse Specialist Practice: Facilitators and Barriers

RESPONDING TO A survey containing open-ended questions, 288 Master's-prepared CNSs across the United States identified role components that are a part of their practice, described health care system changes affecting implementation of their roles, and described resources that were or would be supportive of successful role implementation. Role categories related to patient care/consultation, education, research, administration, and professional development were ranked in that order according to time spent in each activity. Issues related to institutional cost containment and employment of CNSs were described most frequently as affecting role implementation. Nursing administrative support was indicated as the resource most crucial for role success. Specific suggestions for successful implementation of CNS role are described.
Activation of PDE10 and PDE11 Phosphodiesterases*

Background: The cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterases PDE10 and PDE11 contain putatively regulatory GAF domains with unknown function. Results: Synthetic GAF domain ligands can activate both PDEs. Conclusion: PDE10 is activated by cAMP, whereas the physiological ligand of the PDE11 GAF domains remains unknown. Significance: This is the first demonstration of a functional role of the PDE10 and PDE11 GAF domains. The most recently identified cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterases, PDE10 and PDE11, contain a tandem of so-called GAF domains in their N-terminal regulatory regions. In PDE2 and PDE5, the GAF domains mediate cGMP stimulation; however, their function in PDE10 and PDE11 remains controversial. Although the GAF domains of PDE10 mediate cAMP-induced stimulation of chimeric adenylyl cyclases, cAMP binding did not stimulate the PDE10 holoenzyme. Comparable data about cGMP and the PDE11 GAF domains exist. Here, we identified synthetic ligands for the GAF domains of PDE10 and PDE11 to reduce interference of the GAF ligand with the catalytic reaction of PDE. With these ligands, GAF-mediated stimulation of the PDE10 and PDE11 holoenzymes is demonstrated for the first time. Furthermore, PDE10 is shown to be activated by cAMP, which paradoxically results in potent competitive inhibition of cGMP turnover by cAMP. PDE11, albeit susceptible to GAF-dependent stimulation, is not activated by the native cyclic nucleotides cAMP and cGMP. In summary, PDE11 can be stimulated by GAF domain ligands, but its native ligand remains to be identified, and PDE10 is the only PDE activated by cAMP.
The landscape of corporate venturing in Germany: Insights on corporate venture capitals and corporate accelerators

This paper adds to the literature of external corporate venturing, especially corporate venture capitals (CVCs) and corporate accelerators (CAs) by providing an overview of the German corporate venturing market and by offering first intriguing findings based on a novel and unique hand-collected dataset. It presents insights regarding the set-up, organization and staffing of corporate venturing units, as well as characteristics of start-ups under management. This study distinguishes between the corporate venturing unit's mission, organization, governance and network as well as vehicle leads. Moreover, differences in the characteristics of start-ups supported by corporate venturing units are detected. This work offers unique insights on the German corporate venturing landscape and thereby serves as starting point for future and more elaborate research.
Monge–Ampère structures and the geometry of incompressible flows

We show how a symmetry reduction of the equations for incompressible hydrodynamics in three-dimensions leads naturally to Monge–Ampère (MA) structure, and Burgers’-type vortices are a canonical class of solutions associated with this structure. The mapping of such solutions, which are characterised by a linear dependence of the third component of the velocity on the coordinate defining the axis of rotation, to solutions of the incompressible equations in two-dimensions is also shown to be an example of a symmetry reduction. The MA structure for incompressible flow in two-dimensions is shown to be hyper-symplectic.
Probing novel allergenic proteins of commonly consumed legumes

Leguminous crops are the main source of protein in Asian subcontinent including India and their proteins may induce allergic reactions in sensitized individuals. Pepsin resistance of proteins is a characteristic feature of most of the allergens. Simulated gastric fluid (SGF) assay as validated by digestion of purified known allergenic and non-allergenic proteins was the basis of this study. Purified allergenic proteins were stable to SGF digestion contrary to rapidly digested non-allergenic proteins. Crude proteins extracts (CPE) of soybean, peanut, chickpea, black gram, kidney bean and Bengal gram were digested in vitro to detect their non-digestible proteins. Six proteins from soybean and seven from peanut remained undigested after SGF digestion. Likewise, seven proteins from chickpea (70, 64, 55, 45, 35, 20 and 18 kDa), ten from black gram (47, 30, 29, 28, 26, 24, 22, 16, 14 and 12 kDa), five from kidney bean (45, 29, 24, 20 and 6.5 kDa) and one from Bengal gram (20 kDa) remained undigested in SGF. Most of the proteins stable in SGF for more than 2 min showed similarity with characterized allergens on the basis of their molecular weights as in case of soybean, peanut, chickpea and black gram. Also, soybean and chickpea stable proteins showed IgE binding property with respective allergic patient’s sera. The non-digestible proteins from the chickpea, black gram, kidney bean and Bengal gram are being reported for the first time by our group. IgE binding of SGF resistant soybean and chickpea proteins is being reported first time as well.
Influence of Social Media Marketing on Customer Engagement

The study examined the influence social media marketing has on customer engagement. The study was decided to be investigated as we can see that organizations spending on social media continue to soar, but measuring its impact remains a challenge for most businesses. All in all, social networking sites facilitate active communication between companies and users and spur interactions among users. Here the need arrived to find out the factors influencing customer engagement; to explore what content they enjoy most on a Facebook brand page which drives them to re-visit. Data used for this study was obtained through questionnaires distributed to fans of a particular Facebook brand page. The results demonstrated that media and content type of posts exert a significant effect on customer online engagement. It also emphasized that higher the influence of social media marketing, higher would be the customer engagement. The findings of this study revealed the five factors that have a significant impact on customer engagement. SNSs are an additional medium through which information can be disseminated because it encourages a two-way communication between customers and firms. Hence, marketers need to be more cautious on what they post online as this is more likely to influence customers. The study also emphasizes the significance of ̳self-disclosure‘ as a major factor to intimate relationships among persons, as a strengthened brandconsumer relationship online will ultimately impact their purchase behavior in reality.
Importance of Receptor Flexibility in Binding of Cyclam Compounds to the Chemokine Receptor CXCR4

We have elucidated the binding sites of four moncyclam and one bicyclam antagonist AMD3100, in the human chemokine receptor CXCR4. Using the predicted structural models of CXCR4, we have further predicted the binding sites of these cyclam compounds. We used the computational method LITiCon to map the differences in receptor structure stabilized by the mono and bicyclam compounds. Accounting for the receptor flexibility lead to a single binding mode for the cyclam compounds, that has not been possible previously using a single receptor structural model and fixed receptor docking algorithms. There are several notable differences in the receptor conformations stabilized by monocyclam antagonist compared to a bicylam antagonist. The loading of the Cu(2+) ions in the cyclam compounds, shrinks the size of the cyclam rings and the residue D262(6.58) plays an important role in bonding to the copper ion in the monocylam compounds while residue E288(7.39) is important for the bicyclam compound.
CYP3A5*3 and POR*28 Genetic Variants Influence the Required Dose of Tacrolimus in Heart Transplant Recipients

Background: After heart transplantation (HTx), the interindividual pharmacokinetic variability of immunosuppressive drugs represents a major therapeutic challenge due to the narrow therapeutic window between over-immunosuppression causing toxicity and under-immunosuppression leading to graft rejection. Although genetic polymorphisms have been shown to influence pharmacokinetics of immunosuppressants, data in the context of HTx are scarce. We thus assessed the role of genetic variation in CYP3A4, CYP3A5, POR, NR1I2, and ABCB1 acting jointly in immunosuppressive drug pathways in tacrolimus (TAC) and ciclosporin (CSA) dose requirement in HTx recipients. Methods: Associations between 7 functional genetic variants and blood dose-adjusted trough (C0) concentrations of TAC and CSA at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months after HTx were evaluated in cohorts of 52 and 45 patients, respectively. Results: Compared with CYP3A5 nonexpressors (*3/*3 genotype), CYP3A5 expressors (*1/*3 or *1/*1 genotype) required around 2.2- to 2.6-fold higher daily TAC doses to reach the targeted C0 concentration at all studied time points (P ⩽ 0.003). Additionally, the POR*28 variant carriers showed higher dose-adjusted TAC-C0 concentrations at all time points resulting in significant differences at 3 (P = 0.025) and 6 months (P = 0.047) after HTx. No significant associations were observed between the genetic variants and the CSA dose requirement. Conclusions: The CYP3A5*3 variant has a major influence on the required TAC dose in HTx recipients, whereas the POR*28 may additionally contribute to the observed variability. These results support the importance of genetic markers in TAC dose optimization after HTx.
Adult Rhabdomyoma of the Extremity

Adult rhabdomyoma is a rare benign tumor. It mainly occurs in the head and neck region and rarely occurs outside the head and neck region. We present an extremely rare case of the adult rhabdomyoma arising in the left foot in a 46-year-old male. Microscopically, large polygonal cells and large strap-shaped cells were observed. This is the third case of adult rhabdomyoma arising in an extremity.