Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Disulfiram is an Inhibitor of Human Purified Monoacylglycerol Lipase, the Enzyme Regulating 2‐Arachidonoylglycerol Signaling

Monoacylglycerol lipase (MAGL) is a key enzyme responsible for the termination of endocannabinoid signaling. Its crucial role in 2‐arachidonoylglycerol (2‐AG) metabolism, together with the numerous pharmacological properties mediated by this endocannabinoid, emphasize the interest in MAGL as therapeutic target, along with the need to design potent and selective inhibitors. Meanwhile, the complexity of 2‐AG degradation pathways underscores the need to use a purified source of enzyme in evaluation studies of new inhibitors. We report here the first heterologous expression and purification of human MAGL. A highly pure protein was obtained and allowed us to measure the affinity of several MAGL inhibitors for the human enzyme. Importantly, disulfiram (tetraethylthiuram disulfide), a compound used to treat alcoholism, and other disulfide‐containing compounds were shown to inhibit MAGL with good potency, likely through an interaction with cysteine residues.
Demonstration of laser induced magnetization reversal in GdFeCo nanostructures

Magnetization switching by a single femtosecond laser heat pulse is demonstrated for out-of-plane domains with sizes down to 200 nm in GdFeCo nanostructures. A complex magnetic domain configuration was revealed with a photoemission electron microscope employing x-ray magnetic circular dichroism at the Fe L3 edge and consisted of in-plane magnetized rims and out-of-plane domains, which results from the structuring process. No influence of this complex domain pattern on the switching efficiency of the structures was detected, constituting an important step towards the application of laser induced magnetization switching in storage devices.
Effects of perfluoroalkyl compounds (PFCs) on the mRNA expression

There is a growing interest in assessing the neurotoxic potential and endocrine disrupting properties of perfluoroalkyl compounds (PFCs). Several studies have reported in vitro and in vivo effects related to neuronal development, neural cell differentiation, preand postnatal development and behaviour. PFC exposure altered hormone levels (e.g. thyroid hormone, estrogen, and testosterone) and the expression of hormoneresponsive genes in mammalian and aquatic species. Hormone-mediated events are critical in central nervous system development and function, especially those controlled by thyroid hormones (THs). The studies presented in this thesis are the first to assess the effects of PFCs on primary cultures of neuronal cells in two avian species; the domestic chicken (Gallus domesticus) and herring gull (Larus argentatus). The following TH-responsive genes were examined using real-time RT-PCR: type II iodothyronine 5’-deiodinase (D2), D3, transthyretin (TTR), neurogranin (RC3), octamer motif binding factor (Oct-1), and myelin basic protein (MBP). Several PFCs were shown to alter mRNA expression levels of genes associated with the TH pathway in avian neuronal cells. It was determined that short-chained PFCs (<8 carbons) altered the expression of TH-responsive genes to a greater extent than long-chained PFCs (≥8 carbons). Although several significant changes in mRNA expression were observed in TH-responsive genes following PFC exposure in chicken embryonic neuronal (CEN) cells (Chapter 2), there were fewer changes in herring gull embryonic neuronal (HGEN) cells (Chapter 3). The mRNA levels of D2, D3, TTR, and RC3 were altered following treatment with several short-chained PFCs in CEN cells. Oct-1 and RC3 expression were induced following treatment with several shortchained PFCs in HGEN cells. These studies are the first to report that PFC exposure alters mRNA expression in primary cultures of avian neuronal cells and provide insight into the possible mechanisms of action of PFCs in the avian brain.
STATISTICAL EVIDENCE OF BALANCED AND UNBALANCED GROWTH

JN recent years we have witnessed mounting controversy regarding balanced and unbalanced growth as competing policy objectives. Increasingly active theoretical discussions and political concern with this aspect of economic growth warrants a probe into the development experience of different countries. The virtual neglect, so far, of empirical investigation 1 into the nature and process of sectoral growth-rate dispersion can be partly explained by the paucity of relevant data and partly by the fact that precise operational concepts required for the study of the problem have not yet evolved. The purpose of this paper is to present sectoral growth-rate imbalances of different countries as related to the process of national overall development. Our concern will be with the dispersion of sectoral growth rates and their relation to the over-all growth rate on the one hand and to the level of national development on the other. For this purpose cross-sectional and time-series analyses have been used employing such data as are readily available. The various alternative versions of the doctrine of balanced growth (the uniformity concept of balance, the income elasticity concept of balance, etc.) are presented in section III and empirically tested. However, before embarking on this task, it is necessary to postulate the relationship between the over-all growth rate and the sectoral growth rate and specify precisely the nature of the variables entering into the postulated relationship. This is done in section II. Countries are classified according to their pattern of growth in section IV and the broad conclusions as to the relationship between the level of national development and sectoral imbalance are listed in section VI. It may be mentioned at the outset that the study is not meant to examine the causes of balanced and unbalanced growth. Sectoral "balance" or "imbalance" is taken as given. The affect of sectoral balance or imbalance on a country's over-all rate of growth is what is being investigated. In order to examine, with any thoroughness, the effects of variations in sectoral growth rates on the over-all growthrate, we must remove from consideration the causes of sectoral imbalance. It may also be mentioned that the present study does not take into account the affect of foreign trade on sectoral growth rates. Nurkse holds that
Modeling Diverse Relevance Patterns in Ad-hoc Retrieval

Assessing relevance between a query and a document is challenging in ad-hoc retrieval due to its diverse patterns, i.e., a document could be relevant to a query as a whole or partially as long as it provides sufficient information for users' need. Such diverse relevance patterns require an ideal retrieval model to be able to assess relevance in the right granularity adaptively. Unfortunately, most existing retrieval models compute relevance at a single granularity, either document-wide or passage-level, or use fixed combination strategy, restricting their ability in capturing diverse relevance patterns. In this work, we propose a data-driven method to allow relevance signals at different granularities to compete with each other for final relevance assessment. Specifically, we propose a HIerarchical Neural maTching model (HiNT) which consists of two stacked components, namely local matching layer and global decision layer. The local matching layer focuses on producing a set of local relevance signals by modeling the semantic matching between a query and each passage of a document. The global decision layer accumulates local signals into different granularities and allows them to compete with each other to decide the final relevance score.Experimental results demonstrate that our HiNT model outperforms existing state-of-the-art retrieval models significantly on benchmark ad-hoc retrieval datasets.
Computer-Aided Imagery in Sport and Exercise: A Case Study of Indoor Wall Climbing

Movement artificial intelligence of simulated humanoid characters has been advancing rapidly through joint efforts of the computer animation, robotics, and machine learning communitites. However, practical real-life applications are still rare. We propose applying the technology to mental practice in sports, which we denote as computer-aided imagery (CAI). Imagery, i.e., rehearsing the task in one's mind, is a difficult cognitive skill that requires accurate mental simulation; we present a novel interactive computational sport simulation for exploring and planning movements and strategies. We utilize a fully physically-based avatar with motion optimization that is not limited by a movement dataset, and customize the avatar with computer vision measurements of user's body. We evaluate the approach with 20 users in preparing for real-life wall climbing. Our results indicate that the approach is promising and can affect body awareness and feelings of competence. However, more research is needed to achieve accurate enough simulation for both gross-motor body movements and fine-motor control of the myriad ways in which climbers can grasp climbing holds or shapes.
Septal secretion of protein A in Staphylococcus aureus requires SecA and lipoteichoic acid synthesis

Surface proteins of Staphylococcus aureus are secreted across septal membranes for assembly into the bacterial cross-wall. This localized secretion requires the YSIRK/GXXS motif signal peptide, however the mechanisms supporting precursor trafficking are not known. We show here that the signal peptide of staphylococcal protein A (SpA) is cleaved at the YSIRK/GXXS motif. A signal peptide mutant defective for cleavage can be crosslinked to SecA, SecDF and LtaS. SecA depletion blocks precursor targeting to septal membranes, whereas deletion of secDF diminishes SpA secretion into the cross-wall. Depletion of LtaS blocks lipoteichoic acid synthesis and promotes precursor trafficking to peripheral membranes. We propose a model whereby SecA directs SpA precursors to lipoteichoic acid-rich septal membranes for YSIRK/GXXS motif cleavage and secretion into the cross-wall.
How Important are Foreign Shocks in Small Open Economy? The Case of Slovakia

In this paper, we provide evidence on the nature and the relative importance of domestic and foreign shocks in Slovak economy based on block-restriction vector autoregression model in 1999-2007. We document well-functioning monetary transmission mechanism in Slovakia. Subject to various sensitivity checks, we find that contractionary monetary policy shock has a temporary negative effect on the degree of economic activity and price level. We find that using output gap instead of GDP alleviates the price puzzle. In general, prices are driven mainly by foreign factors and the European Central Bank monetary policy shock on Slovak prices is more powerful than that of the National Bank of Slovakia. Slovak central bank interest rate policy seems to follow the ECB? s interest rates. On the other hand, spectacular Slovak economic growth is primarily driven by domestic factors suggesting the positive role of recently undertaken Slovak economic reforms.
Realization utility with adaptive reference points

Experimental studies have demonstrated that a typical investor derives utility of the gain and loss, relative to certain reference point, realized at each sale of a stock, and that the reference point adapts asymmetrically to the stock's prior gains and losses in that the adaptation to a gain is more substantial than to a comparable loss. This empirical finding motivates us to consider a dynamic trading problem in which an agent decides when to sequentially sell and buy a stock in order to maximize her utility of terminal wealth and realized gains and losses based on a reference point that adapts asymmetrically to the stock's prior gains and losses. We show that this agent is more reluctant to sell the stock at a loss than another agent whose reference point does not adapt to the stock gain or loss at all, leading to a higher percentage of gains realized (PGR) and a lower percentage of losses realized (PLR). We also show that when the agent weighs the utility of realized gains and losses more heavily in her investment criteria, she trades the stock more frequently, the PGR becomes lower, and the PLR becomes higher.
Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography in Glaucoma Care

ABSTRACT Purpose: To provide the reader with information on the principal techniques of optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA); the current literature on OCTA reproducibility; its applications to glaucoma detection and monitoring of progression; and the role of OCTA in the assessment of the vascular component in glaucoma pathogenesis.Methods: A literature review of the pertinent publications for the OCTA in relation to the development, techniques, and its use in glaucoma was carried out.Results: Rapid improvements in optical coherence tomography (OCT) technology have allowed for enhancement of both image resolution and scanning speed, and the development of vascular assessment modality. OCTA is the non-invasive in vivo imaging of the vasculature located within the retina and optic nerve head area. The principle of OCTA is to use the variations in OCT signals caused by moving particles as the contrast mechanism for imaging of flow. Several algorithms which aim to maximize the contrast signal and minimize the noise have been developed including the phase-based techniques, intensity-based techniques (e.g., split-spectrum amplitude decorrelation angiography (SSADA)), and complex-based techniques (e.g., optical microangiography (OMAG)). With its reliable technique, high image resolution, and current availability, OCTA has been widely used in the assessment of posterior segment diseases including glaucoma in which ocular perfusion dysfunction has been proposed as a pathophysiological mechanism.Conclusion: OCTA may enhance our knowledge of glaucoma pathogenesis and offer an improvement in our ability to detect glaucomatous change.
FACILITATING 21ST CENTURY SKILLS IN ENGINEERING STUDENTS

Engineering education is at an important juncture more than ever before – engineers need to play an important role in creatively solving global and complex challenges related to energy, health care and environment; they need to work with an understanding of multiple disciplines in collaborative teams that are culturally and philosophically diverse; cultivate complex communication and social skills; and, among other things, engineers need to be able to explain science and technology to a society that is increasingly more doubtful of its impact and intentions despite enjoying the comforts that come with the progress in engineering & technology. This growing pace of innovation, both in terms of products and business models, is also likely to make the job of an engineer quite challenging. Engineers must, therefore, learn to work with ambiguity, diversity of disciplines and with humility regarding their own skills and abilities. To prepare engineers for the global workplace, it is clear that a traditional engineering curriculum which is content heavy will not be sufficient. There are already indications that there is a significant gap between what undergraduate engineering students are taught and assessed and what the professional engineers and industry practitioners expect them to be capable of (Felder, R.M., On-theJob Training, Chemical Engineering Education, Vol. 42, No. 2, pp. 96-97, 2008). This gap will significantly widen unless intentional, well-targeted measures are put into place in engineering education to specifically foster 21st century skills. Learning outcomes, curriculum design, classroom practices, learning and assessment tasks all have to be coherently crafted and implemented so as to facilitate a flexible, personalized and significantly meaningful experience for the student. The paper begins by exploring students’ knowledge and skills of the 21st century that are needed for the modern engineer. We provide our perspective on aspects of curriculum design, impactful classroom practices and methods of assessment that can be expected to form the bedrock of engineering education for the next decade. Our paper will only attempt to throw light on the immediate path ahead based on progress made in understanding how learning works, how information and communications technology can augment good teaching and learning methods and how assessment practices (which remains a major handle to drive the learning process) may be re-envisioned to help students grapple with grand societal challenges and equip them with philosophies, concepts, ideas and imagination for contributing to the greater good of humankind.
The Politics of Rescuing the World's Financial System: The Federal Reserve as a Global Lender of Last Resort

During the financial crisis of 2007-10, the Federal Reserve (Fed) served as a global lender of last resort by establishing currency swap agreements with 14 foreign central banks, including several in East Asia. These agreements were controversial internationally because the Fed selectively established swaps with some central banks and not others, raising concerns about access to the Fed’s dollar-creating facilities. Within the United States, the swap agreements were controversial because they appeared to be a new and unauthorized kind of foreign aid to bankers. I analyze both the Fed’s decision to establish swap lines with certain central banks and the domestic political response to these agreements. I find that the Fed was more likely to establish swaps with central banks whose jurisdictions were important to U.S. commercial banks, suggesting that the Fed discriminated in ways that served U.S. interests. To analyze the domestic reaction to the foreign currency swaps, I examine voting in the House of Representatives on a proposal known as “Audit the Fed” that would open the Fed’s relations with foreign central banks to scrutiny and reduce the Fed’s independence from Congress. I find that campaign contributions from large commercial banks to representatives were negatively correlated with voting “yes” on this proposal. I also find that right-wing representatives were much more likely to support this proposal than left-wing representatives, which suggests that new congressional coalitions are forming on the role of the Fed in the (global) economy.
Is a 500-Cell Count Necessary for Bone Marrow Differentials?: A Proposed Analytical Method for Validating a Lower Cutoff

Objectives By convention, 500 cells are counted for bone marrow aspirate differentials. Evidence supporting such a cutoff is lacking. We hypothesized that 300-cell counts could be sufficient. Methods Cell count results from 165 cases, for which values were recorded at 300 and 500 cells, were analyzed. We tested for statistical differences and changes in diagnostic classification between the two cutoffs. Results Three hundred cell counts did not produce diagnostically different results, particularly for myeloblasts and plasma cells, where cell percentages are critical for disease classification. Method comparison analysis did not reach statistical significance for any cell type when comparing the two methods. Bias plots showed narrow, even spread about the mean bias. Contingency table analysis yielded no significant diagnostic discrepancies. Conclusions Performing differential counts on 300 cells would produce clinically and statistically similar results to 500 cells. Reducing the cell number counted has potential cost/labor reductions without affecting quality of care.
Baseline and post-surgery endothelial progenitor cell levels in patients with early-stage non-small-cell lung carcinoma: impact on cancer recurrence and survival.

OBJECTIVES Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) are believed to play a role in promoting abnormal vascularization in neoplastic sites. We measured the number of circulating EPCs in treatment-naïve patients with early non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and healthy controls. The prospective influence of baseline and post-surgery EPC levels on cancer recurrence and survival was investigated. METHODS Circulating EPCs were quantified by FACS analysis in 34 patients with Stage I-II NSCLC and 68 healthy age- and sex-matched controls. Measurement of EPCs was repeated 48 h after thoracic surgery and at the hospital discharge. Cancer recurrence and survival was evaluated after 446 ± 106 days of follow-up (range 182-580 days). RESULTS The base 10 logarithmic [log] number of circulating EPCs was comparable between patients with NSCLC and controls [mean ± standard deviation (SD): 2.3 ± 0.32 vs 2.3 ± 0.26 n/ml, P = 0.776]. In regression analysis, smoking status [standardized coefficient beta (β) = -0.26, 95% confidence interval (CI) for B -0.29/-0.03, P = 0.014] and systolic blood pressure [β = -0.23, 95% CI for B -0.011/-0.001, P = 0.018] were independent predictors of the number of EPCs, irrespective of the NSCLC status. The mean number of EPCs did not change after surgical treatment. However, a post-surgery EPC increase was observed in 44% patients. Patients with a 48 h post-surgery EPC increase had a higher rate of cancer recurrence/death than patients with either stable or decreased post-surgery EPC levels [hazard ratio (HR) 4.4, 95% CI 1.1-17.3; P = 0.032], irrespective of confounders. CONCLUSIONS Circulating EPC levels are comparable between patients with early-stage NSCLC and healthy controls. Overall, surgical cancer resection was not associated with a significant early EPC change. However, an early post-surgery EPC increase is able to predict an increased risk of cancer recurrence and death.
Learning Movement Assessment Primitives for Force Interaction Skills

We present a novel, reusable and task-agnostic primitive for assessing the outcome of a force-interaction robotic skill, useful e.g.\ for applications such as quality control in industrial manufacturing. The proposed method is easily programmed by kinesthetic teaching, and the desired adaptability and reusability are achieved by machine learning models. The primitive records sensory data during both demonstrations and reproductions of a movement. Recordings include the end-effector's Cartesian pose and exerted wrench at each time step. The collected data are then used to train Gaussian Processes which create models of the wrench as a function of the robot's pose. The similarity between the wrench models of the demonstration and the movement's reproduction is derived by measuring their Hellinger distance. This comparison creates features that are fed as inputs to a Naive Bayes classifier which estimates the movement's probability of success. The evaluation is performed on two diverse robotic assembly tasks -- snap-fitting and screwing -- with a total of 5 use cases, 11 demonstrations, and more than 200 movement executions. The performance metrics prove the proposed method's capability of generalization to different demonstrations and movements.
Quiet T1‐weighted imaging using PETRA: Initial clinical evaluation in intracranial tumor patients

To compare the lesion contrast and signal to noise ratio (SNR) obtained with T1‐weighted pointwise encoding time reduction with radial acquisition (PETRA) to those of Magnetization‐Prepared RApid Gradient‐Echo (MPRAGE) for contrast‐enhanced imaging of primary and metastatic intracranial tumors, and to investigate whether PETRA is able to reduce acoustic noise for improved patient comfort.