Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Physicochemical Position-Dependent Properties in the Protein Secondary Structures

Background: Establishing theories for designing arbitrary protein structures is complicated and depends on understanding the principles for protein folding, which is affected by applied features. Computer algorithms can reach high precision and stability in computationally designed enzymes and binders by applying informative features obtained from natural structures. Methods: In this study, a position-specific analysis of secondary structures (α-helix, β-strand, and tight turn) was performed to reveal novel features for protein structure prediction and protein design. Results: Our results showed that the secondary structures in the N-termini region tend to be more compact than C-termini. Decoying periodicity in length and distribution of amino acids in α-helices is deciphered using the curve-fitting methods. Compared with α-helix, β-strands do not show distinct periodicities in length. Also, significant differences in position-dependent distribution of physicochemical properties are shown in secondary structures. Conclusion: Position-specific propensities in our study underline valuable parameters that could be used by researchers in the field of structural biology, particularly protein design through site-directed mutagenesis.
Immunological methods for diagnosis and monitoring of IgE‐mediated allergy caused by industrial sensitizing agents (IMExAllergy)

Industrial sensitizing agents (allergens) in living and working environments play an important role in eliciting type 1 allergic disorders including asthma and allergic rhinitis. Successful management of allergic diseases necessitates identifying their specific causes (ie, identify the causative agent(s) and the route of contact to allergen: airborne, or skin contact) to avoid further exposure. Identification of sensitization by a sensitive and validated measurement of specific IgE is an important step in the diagnosis. However, only a limited number of environmental and occupational allergens are available on the market for use in sIgE testing. Accordingly, specific in‐house testing by individual diagnostic and laboratory centers is often required. Currently, different immunological tests are in use at various diagnostic centers that often produce considerably divergent results, mostly due to lack of standardized allergen preparation and standardized procedures as well as inadequate quality control. Our review and meta‐analysis exhibited satisfactory performance of sIgE detection test for most high molecular weight (HMW) allergens with a pooled sensitivity of 0.74 and specificity of 0.71. However, for low molecular weight (LMW) allergens, pooled sensitivity is generally lower (0.28) and specificity higher (0.89) than for HMW tests. Major recommendations based on the presented data include diagnostic use of sIgE to HMW allergens. A negative sIgE result for LMW agents does not exclude sensitization. In addition, the requirements for full transparency of the content of allergen preparations with details on standardization and quality control are underlined. Development of standard operating procedures for in‐house sIgE assays, and clinical validation, centralized quality control and audits are emphasized. There is also a need for specialized laboratories to provide a custom service for the development of tests for the measurement of putative novel occupational allergens that are not commercially available.
Colonic Mucosal Transcriptomic Changes in Patients with Long-Duration Ulcerative Colitis Revealed Colitis-Associated Cancer Pathways

Abstract Background and aims Patients with ulcerative colitis [UC] with long disease duration have a higher risk of developing colitis-associated cancer [CAC] compared with patients with short-duration UC. The aim of this study was to identify transcriptomic differences associated with the duration of UC disease. Methods We conducted transcriptome profiling on 32 colonic biopsies [11 long-duration UC, ≥20 years; and 21 short-duration UC, ≤5 years] using Affymetrix Human Transcriptome Array 2.0. Differentially expressed genes [fold change > 1.5, p < 0.05] and alternative splicing events [splicing index > 1.5, p < 0.05] were determined using the Transcriptome Analysis Console. KOBAS 3.0 and DAVID 6.8 were used for KEGG and GO analysis. Selected genes from microarray analysis were validated using qPCR. Results There were 640 differentially expressed genes between both groups. The top ten upregulated genes were HMGCS2, UGT2A3 isoforms, B4GALNT2, MEP1B, GUCA2B, ADH1C, OTOP2, SLC9A3, and LYPD8; the top ten downregulated genes were PI3, DUOX2, VNN1, SLC6A14, GREM1, MMP1, CXCL1, TNIP3, TFF1, and LCN2. Among the 123 altered KEGG pathways, the most significant were metabolic pathways; fatty acid degradation; valine, leucine, and isoleucine degradation; the peroxisome proliferator–activated receptor signalling pathway; and bile secretion, which were previously linked with CAC. Analysis showed that 3560 genes exhibited differential alternative splicing between long- and short-duration UC. Among them, 374 were differentially expressed, underscoring the intrinsic relationship between altered gene expression and alternative splicing. Conclusions Long-duration UC patients have altered gene expressions, pathways, and alternative splicing events as compared with short-duration UC patients, and these could be further validated to improve our understanding of the pathogenesis of CAC.
Effective Learning Strategies: Grading Rubric to Enhance Student Learning

Homework is a formative assessment to provide feedback to students regarding the new concepts learned on a weekly or biweekly basis. It also acts as a tool for the instructor to gage student learning outcomes. It provides real-time information to the instructor to design the coursework for effective student learning. This study aims to center a conversation about homework grading for new educators and provide one example of a homework grading rubric that is efficient and effective at providing feedback. A grading rubric was created to achieve the objective. To effectively understand the dynamics of varying student populations and backgrounds, the homework grading rubric study spans multiple classes at two higher education institutions to provide a comparative analysis of the outcomes. Time studies as well as student surveys are conducted to assess two outcomes; efficiency of the rubric and, effectiveness of feedback regarding the strengths and weaknesses in learning the course content. The study showed a decrease in grading time spent on the homework as well as the feedback helped in getting higher exam scores. Student surveys are being conducted during the 2019-2020 academic year.
Advertising Spending by Incumbents and Challengers

Abstract As candidates spend increasing amounts of money on television advertising, it becomes critically important to assess the degree to which this advertising produces results. In an examination of a particularly hard fought primary for a major state-wide office, this study compares the impact made by each candidate's television advertising on voter intentions during the campaign and the votes ultimately received at the end. Results suggest that over the course of the campaign, television advertising benefited the challenger more than the incumbent.
Evaluation of New Polish Articulation Lists (NAL-93) in the Presence of Various Speech-Like Maskers

The main goal of the research was to obtain a set of data for ability of speech in noise recognition using Polish word test (New Articulation Lists – NAL-93) with two different masking signals. The attempt was also made to standardise the background noise for Polish speech tests by creating babble noise for NAL-93. Two types of background noise were used for Polish word test – the babble noise and the speech noise. The short method was chosen in the study as it provided similar results to constant stimuli method using less word material. The experiment using both maskers was presented to 10 listeners with normal hearing. The mean SRT values for NAL-93 were −3.4 dB SNR for speech noise and 3.0 dB SNR for babble noise. In this regard, babble noise provided more efficient results. However, the SRT parameter for speech noise was more similar to values obtained for other Polish speech tests. The measurement of speech recognition using Polish word test is possible for both types of masking signals presented in the study. The decision as to which type of noise would be better in practice of hearing aid prosthetics remains an open-end question.
Determinants of Intentions to Engage in Sustainability Accounting & Reporting (SAR) and Moderating Role of Internal Audit Function: The Perspective of Accountants

The purpose of this paper is to identify the determinants of engaging in sustainability accounting and reporting (SAR) and their impact on SAR. This paper also analyses the moderating role of internal audit function on engaging in SAR from the perspective of accountants. The paper has adopted quantitative design in which, data was collected from 315 accountants using survey questionnaire. The data is analysed using PLS-SEM technique along with CFA. The results revealed that only perceived behavioural control has a significant effect on intention to engage in SAR while internal audit function significantly moderates the relationship of perceived behavioural control and subjective norms with intention to engage in SAR. The study is useful for accountants and firms that intend to engage in SAR. The study is limited to perception of accountants and has only considered quantitative data.
Products of Euclidean Metrics, Applied to Proximity Problems among Curves

Approximate Nearest Neighbor (ANN) search is a fundamental computational problem that has benefited from significant progress in the past couple of decades. However, most work has been devoted to pointsets, whereas complex shapes have not been sufficiently addressed. Here, we focus on distance functions between discretized curves in Euclidean space: They appear in a wide range of applications, from road segments and molecular backbones to time-series in general dimension. For ℓp-products of Euclidean metrics, for any constant p, we propose simple and efficient data structures for ANN based on randomized projections: These data structures are of independent interest. Furthermore, they serve to solve proximity questions under a notion of distance between discretized curves, which generalizes both discrete Fréchet and Dynamic Time Warping distance functions. These are two very popular and practical approaches to comparing such curves. We offer, for both approaches, the first data structures and query algorithms for ANN with arbitrarily good approximation factor, at the expense of increasing space usage and preprocessing time over existing methods. Query time complexity is comparable or significantly improved by our methods; our algorithm is especially efficient when the length of the curves is bounded. Finally, we focus on discrete Fréchet distance when the ambient space is high dimensional and derive complexity bounds in terms of doubling dimension as well as an improved approximate near neighbor search.
Essays on Applied Information Economics Theory

DAVID FRAGOSO GONZALEZ: Essays on Applied Information Economics Theory. (Under the direction of Gary Biglaiser.) This dissertation contains two essays on applied microeconomic theory, each addressing situations of asymmetric information between economic agents. The first essay develops a theoretical model to illustrate how a short-termist board with positive inside information can use disclosed executive compensation to credibly signal its optimism to the less informed outsiders pricing the company’s stock. The board uses the fact that performance based pay is more valuable to the executive when prospects are good to give her a compensation package that she would not accept if the inside information were bad. Signaling does not always distort compensation packages away from optimal incentive provision; when it does, the distortion is magnified if the moral hazard in the agency relation between board and executive is large, the executive’s contribution to company performance is relatively unimportant, the company’s operations are relatively risky, and the enforcement of disclosure rules is weak. By outlining some conditions in which compensation is likely to be used as a signal and characterizing the distortions that such use induces in different circumstances, this paper proposes new explanations for the observed heterogeneity in compensation practices. The second essay develops a new theory of the organization of the financial audit market to explain the observed variation in market concentration across market segments. It provides a micro-founded model of audit demand whereby audit clients enjoy network benefits from having other clients audited by their auditor. Using two versions of the model, and under the assumption of diseconomies of scale in the audit sector, the essay derives two alternative explanations for audit market outcomes. The first is that, because they value the network
The Roles of Perseverance, Cognitive Ability, and Physical Fitness in U.S. Army Special Forces Assessment and Selection

Abstract : The U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences (ARI) conducted research for more than a decade in support of U.S. Army Special Operations Forces (ARSOF) assessment, selection, and training. This research was completed prior to the events of September 11, 2001. Leaders at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School (SWCS) at Fort Bragg, NC, requested that ARI begin updating research in support of Special Forces. This report documents a new effort to understand better the roles of cognitive ability, physical fitness, and performance events in the Special Forces Assessment and Selection (SFAS) process. In addition, researchers identified a measure of perseverance, viewed as an individual Soldier characteristic, to include in the investigation at the SWCS's request. The 824 Candidates who participated in this research completed a series of cognitive ability tests, physical fitness measures, SFAS performance events, and the test of perseverance. The results showed that almost all the tests and measures included in the analyses contributed to valid predictions of Soldier success with SFAS, but that their individual strengths of prediction varied. The SFAS performance events provided the greatest predictive strength, followed by the cognitive ability and physical fitness tests. While perseverance provided a unique contribution, its role was incremental, at best, and should not be used as a criterion for selection decisions in isolation from the other measures. Taken together, the tests and measures form an empirically-sound foundation upon which SFAS decisions can be based. Once obtained and analyzed, the outcome data from the Special Forces Qualification Course (SFQC) and subsequent training will provide a more complete view of how well the tests and measures included in this research predict long-term success in Army Special Forces.
Are There Thresholds of Current Account Adjustment in the G7?

We find evidence of threshold behavior in current account adjustment for the G7 countries, such that the dynamics of adjustment towards equilibrium depend upon whether the current-account/ net-output ratio breaches estimated, country specific current account surplus or deficit thresholds. Both the speeds of adjustment and the size of the thresholds are found to differ significantly across countries. In addition, we also find evidence of shifts in means and variances of exchange rate changes, stock returns, and interest differentials that coincide with the current account adjustment regimes identified by the model.
Organizational Citizenship Behavior and Faculty Mindset Amidst Professional Development Activities

Kristen Ferris is a student in Organization, Information, and Learning Sciences program University Mexico. Her research interests include faculty mindset change, change management, and organizational citizenship behavior. Much of her research is part of a National Science Foundation grant at UNM where the chemical and biological engineering department is redesigning curriculum to support diverse student retention and graduation. She intends to further her knowledge in the ﬁeld of change management and hopes to study social network analyses of higher education organizations undergoing change to track buy-in, barriers, and adoption. She NSF RET and NIFA grant, and is co-PI on three NSF-funded projects in engineering and computer science education, including a Revolutionizing Engineering Departments project. She was as a National Academy of Education / Spencer Post-doctoral Fellow and a 2018 NSF CAREER awardee in engineering education research. Dr. Svihla studies learning in authentic, real world conditions; this includes a two-strand research program focused on (1) authentic assessment, often aided by interactive technology, and (2) design learning, in which she studies engineers designing devices, scientists designing investigations, teachers designing learning experiences and students designing to learn. Abstract This research and theory paper explores the relationships between faculty mindset, participation in faculty development opportunities, and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs). Set in a Hispanic-serving research university engaged in a five-year change effort, the purpose of this case study is to adapt the OCB framework to higher education settings as a means to characterize how faculty participate in and benefit from professional development experiences, guided by a research question: Which OCBs are salient for understanding faculty participation in shifting from teacher-centered to learner-centered pedagogy in a chemical engineering department? We sought to investigate how OCBs related to faculty mindset and willingness to engage in professional development amidst department-wide curriculum change. Results indicated that none of the OCBs dimensions can be considered as discretionary in the higher education context because of the high degree of faculty autonomy in meeting the expectations set for tenure and promotion, and the depth and the breadth of faculty effort in teaching, scholarship, and service. Yet, OCBs provided a fruitful lens into how faculty participated in change efforts.
Perspectives on learning to teach

This paper looks at issues subsumed by the phrase "learning to teach" that have implications for the design and conduct of teacher education. The first section lays out a temporal perspective by examining the times and places of learning to teach. The second section brings together disparate strands of research on the learners of teaching, looking at who prospective teachers are, orientations to learning, experience with dive:sity, and prospective teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning, subject matter, students, and preservice and beginning teachers. The third section examinei different ways people have conceptualized the content of learning to teach, including domains of professional knowledge, the tasks of teaching, professional standards, and lessons for teacher educators". The fourth section discusses processes and opportunities in learning to teach. By presenting ideas about the when/where, who, what and how af learning to teach, the study hopes to raise teacher educators' consciousness about a neglected part of the conceptual and practical foundations of their work. (Contains 107 references.) (Author/ND) * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ************************* *
Matching with Compatibility Constraints: The Case of the Canadian Medical Residency Match

The Canadian medical residency match has received considerable attention in the medical community as several students go unmatched every year. Simultaneously, multiple residency positions go unfilled, largely in Quebec, the Francophone province of Canada. In Canada, positions are designated with a language restriction, a phenomenon that has not been described previously in the matching literature. We develop a model of matching with compatibility constraints, where, based on a dual-valued characteristic, a subset of students is incompatible with a subset of hospitals, and show how such constraints lead to inefficiency. We derive a lower bound for the number of Anglophone and Francophone residency positions such that every student is matched for all instances of (a form of) preferences. Our analysis suggests that to guarantee a stable match for every student, a number of positions at least equal to the population of bilingual students must be left unfilled.
Measuring conditional segregation: methods and empirical examples

In empirical studies of segregation it is often desirable to quantify segregation that cannot be explained by underlying characteristics. To this end, we propose a fully non-parametric method for accounting for covariates in any measure of segregation. The basic idea is that given a set of discrete characteristics, there is a certain probability that a person belongs to a particular group, which can be used to compute an expected level of segregation. We also demonstrate that a modified index of exposure has both favorable analytical features and interpre-tational advantages in such settings. The methods are illustrated by an applica-tion to ethnic workplace segregation in Sweden. We also show how one can use a measure of exposure to study the earnings consequences of segregation stemming from different sources.
Image and sport: exhibition of brazilian athletes on the instagram social network

Background: Social networks have changed the dynamics of society in communication, commercial and social relations, advertising, among others. In sports, this would not be different. Along with this, the new media open up new possibilities for exploration of the image of the athlete, since traditional media conduct different treatments for male and female athletes. Objective: To verify the posts made on Instagram by Brazilian athletes and to verify if there are differences related to the gender of the athletes in the contents posted. Methods: The subjects selected for this research were Brazilian athletes and medalists of the 2012 Summer Olympics. The data were obtained through the collection of the images that the athletes posted on the Instagram and after that, the analysis of the images were made with the use of a checklist created for that study. Results: The results indicated that male and female did not present differences between categories of posted images. The most common type of images posted are the images in which the athlete is present, in places related to their work and in moments of relaxation. It also highlights the fact that most of the images posted do not make any reference to the sponsorships of the athletes. Conclusion: Therefore, it can be concluded that male and female have the same behavior of photo posting on social networks. It is also observed that the potential of social networks for advertising is still little explored by Brazilian athletes. Due to the originality of this work and because it seems to be a very pertinent theme in the present day, it is suggested the extension of this study.
One-step Reversal Technique towards Hydrophilic Surface Modification of Polydimethylsiloxane-co-Polyurethane (PDMS-PU)

Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) has in the last few decades been considered as the most prevalent molding materials for the fabrication of various micro devices for biological and biomedical research and applications, due to the prominent features of non-toxicity, low cost, chemical inertness, gas permeability, optical transparency, functionalized surface and mold ability [1-4]. Despite the above appealing properties, PDMS is naturally hydrophobic and this confines its wide use in several applications including biocompatible devices, due to its tendency to absorb some hydrophobic molecules, cells and proteins onto its surface. Therefore, there is pressing need to improve the hydrophilicity of PDMS materials’ surface.