Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Validation of the Glover–Nilsson Smoking Behavioral Questionnaire (GN-SBQ) to Evaluate Nicotine Dependence in Spanish Clinical Settings

An assessment of the different aspects of tobacco addiction is central to adapting interventions to the profiles and needs of smokers. The Glover–Nilsson Smoking Behavioral Questionnaire (GN-SBQ) is one of the few and most used scales to evaluate the behavioral aspects of tobacco addiction. However, few studies involve the validation of the GN-SBQ in clinical settings. Thus, this study aimed to analyze the psychometric properties of the GN-SBQ in a sample of Spanish smokers. A total of 341 smokers attending clinical services in Spain participated in this cross-sectional study. Measures included the psychological factors related to tobacco addiction, assessed with the GN-SBQ, the physical factors of nicotine addiction, withdrawal symptoms, smoking-related variables, and alcohol use. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, internal consistency coefficients, confirmatory factor analyses, Spearman correlations, and the Kruskal–Wallis test. The GN-SBQ showed adequate reliability (α = 0.76 and ω = 0.76) and a unidimensional structure. GN-SBQ scores also provided evidence of convergent and concurrent validity. GN-SBQ scores significantly correlated with the physical symptoms of addiction, age, number of cigarettes, and withdrawal symptoms. The results of discriminant validity were also adequate, as no correlation was observed between GN-SBQ scores and CO levels or alcohol use. Significant differences were found between all levels of psychological addiction based on the GN-SBQ scores regarding physical nicotine addiction, withdrawal symptoms, and age. Thus, this questionnaire is a reliable and valid instrument to assess the psychological aspects of tobacco addiction in smokers in clinical settings. The short length of the GN-SBQ proves advantageous for its use in time-limited assessments, which are common in public health services.
Hibiscus sabdariffa tea improved the maximum oxygen uptake (VO2max) and blood pressure in normotensive participants

The heavy physical practice may escalate the production of reactive oxygen species, which eventually results in cell damage. Previous studies announced that treatment with antioxidants might decrease oxidative stress caused by physical practice. Studies on the ethanol and water extracts of Hibiscus sabdariffa calyces had proven their antioxidant activity. Our work is the first report on the effect of 30 days of daily intake of H. sabdariffa tea on the maximum oxygen uptake (VO 2 max) and blood pressure (BP) in healthy male and female normotensive participants. The VO 2 max, measured to obtain the participants’ cardiovascular fitness status, was performed by following the Young Men’s Christian Association step test. Our study revealed that H. sabdariffa tea intake decreased the BP of the participants in week 4 and increased the number of participants with average VO 2 max status, starting from week 2 to 4, compared to baseline. Taking these results together, H. sabdariffa tea may be beneficial to improve the maximum oxygen uptake status in normotensive participants.
Non-Destructive Detection of Soybean Pest Based on Hyperspectral Image and Attention-ResNet Meta-Learning Model

Soybean plays an important role in food, medicine, and industry. The quality inspection of soybean is essential for soybean yield and the agricultural economy. However, soybean pest is an important factor that seriously affects soybean yield, among which leguminivora glycinivorella matsumura is the most frequent pest. Aiming at the problem that the traditional detection methods have low accuracy and need a large number of samples to train the model, this paper proposed a detection method for leguminivora glycinivorella matsumura based on an A-ResNet (Attention-ResNet) meta-learning model. In this model, the ResNet network was combined with Attention to obtain the feature vectors that can better express the samples, so as to improve the performance of the model. As well, the classifier was designed as a multi-class support vector machine (SVM) to reduce over-fitting. Furthermore, in order to improve the training stability of the model and the prediction performance on the testing set, the traditional Batch Normalization was replaced by the Layer Normalization, and the Label Smooth method was used to punish the original loss. The experimental results showed that the accuracy of the A-ResNet meta-learning model reached 94.57 ± 0.19%, which can realize rapid and accurate nondestructive detection, and provides theoretical support for the intelligent detection of soybean pests.
Time‐scales of adjustment to radiative‐convective equilibrium in the tropical atmosphere

In the tropics the assumed existence of a balanced atmospheric state of radiative‐convective equilibrium is a useful and widely utilized concept. Given an atmospheric state of radiative‐convective equilibrium which is perturbed, this paper attempts to identify the mechanisms that determine the time‐scale for the restoration of the balanced state. The perturbation could arise from large‐scale atmospheric wave motions, local‐scale convective downdraughts or sea surface temperature perturbations for example. The resulting state immediately after the perturbation is applied can be one of suppressed or convective conditions, and it is the complex response under convective conditions that is explored in this paper.
Melatonin from Microorganisms, Algae, and Plants as Possible Alternatives to Synthetic Melatonin

Melatonin dietary supplements are widely consumed worldwide, with developed countries as the largest consumers, with an estimated annual growth rate of approximately 10% until 2027, mainly in developing countries. The wide use of melatonin against sleep disorders and particular problems, such as jet lag, has been added to other applications, such as anti-aging, anti-stress, immune system activation, anticancer, and others, which have triggered its use, normally without a prescription. The chemical industry currently covers 100% of the needs of the melatonin market. Motivated by sectors with more natural consumption habits, a few years ago, the possibility of obtaining melatonin from plants, called phytomelatonin, arose. More recently, the pharmaceutical industry has developed genetically modified microorganisms whose ability to produce biological melatonin in bioreactors has been enhanced. This paper reviews the aspects of the chemical and biological synthesis of melatonin for human consumption, mainly as dietary supplements. The pros and cons of obtaining melatonin from microorganisms and phytomelatonin from plants and algae are analyzed, as well as the advantages of natural melatonin, avoiding unwanted chemical by-products from the chemical synthesis of melatonin. Finally, the economic and quality aspects of these new products, some of which are already marketed, are analyzed.
A Corneal Surface Reflections-Based Intelligent System for Lifelogging Applications

Abstract Corneal Surface Reflections, or reflections on our eye-surface, have been shown as a valid and more socially acceptable source of information for passive lifelogging applications by prior work. However, automatic analysis of corneal surface reflections from a single RGB camera to support passive lifelogging is not extensively investigated in prior work. To address this, we developed a synthetic and self-supervised learning-based two-stage pipeline of deep learning models to detect objects in these reflections. Our prototype only consists a single RGB camera looking into the eye. We collected data from different users in uncontrolled environments using the prototype and trained our system to detect multiple classes of objects present in a typical office environment. We then evaluated our model in partially-controlled and in-the-wild scenarios. In addition, based on the findings from a follow up user study and prior work, we discuss strengths and weaknesses of our system and using corneal surface reflections for passive lifelogging. Finally, we opensource our source codes and trained checkpoints.
COVID-19 Effects on the Relationship between Cryptocurrencies: Can It Be Contagion? Insights from Econophysics Approaches

Cryptocurrencies are relatively new and innovative financial assets. They are a topic of interest to investors and academics due to their distinctive features. Whether financial or not, extraordinary events are one of the biggest challenges facing financial markets. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, considered by some authors a “black swan”, is one of these events. In this study, we assess integration and contagion in the cryptocurrency market in the COVID-19 pandemic context, using two entropy-based measures: mutual information and transfer entropy. Both methodologies reveal that cryptocurrencies exhibit mixed levels of integration before and after the onset of the pandemic. Cryptocurrencies displaying higher integration before the event experienced a decline in such link after the world became aware of the first cases of pneumonia in Wuhan city. In what concerns contagion, mutual information provided evidence of its presence solely for the Huobi Token, and the transfer entropy analysis pointed out Tether and Huobi Token as its main source. As both analyses indicate no contagion from the pandemic turmoil to these financial assets, cryptocurrencies may be good investment options in case of real global shocks, such as the one provoked by the COVID-19 outbreak.
Hydropriming and Nutripriming of Bread Wheat Seeds Improved the Flour’s Nutritional Value of the First Unprimed Offspring

Seed hydropriming or nutripriming has been used for wheat biofortification. Previously, the untreated S1 offspring of bread wheat S0 seeds hydro- and nutriprimed with FeSO4.7H2O and/or ZnSO4.7H2O showed improved yield relative to the offspring of untreated S0 seeds. We hypothesize that such improvement would have its origin in the higher quality of S1 seeds resulting from plants whose seeds were primed. In this work, we characterised biochemically the whole-wheat flour of unprimed S1 offspring whose S0 seeds were hydro- and nutriprimed with Fe and/or Zn and compared it to the offspring of untreated S0 seeds (control). We identified and quantified 16 free amino acids and five soluble sugars per offspring using high-performance liquid chromatography and the Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC) methods. The most abundant amino acids were glutamic acid and glutamine, proline, and glycine, presenting their highest contents in the offspring of seeds nutriprimed with 8 ppm Zn (0.351 mmol∙g−1), 8 ppm Fe + 8 ppm Zn (0.199 mmol∙g−1), and (0.135 mmol∙g−1), respectively. The highest contents of glucose (1.91 mg∙g−1 sample), ash (24.90 g∙kg−1 dry matter, DM), and crude protein (209.70 g∙kg−1 DM) were presented by the offspring resulting from 4 ppm Fe + 4 ppm Zn, 8 ppm Zn, and 8 ppm Fe + 8 ppm Zn, respectively. The highest total starch content (630.10 g∙kg−1 DM) was detected in the offspring of seeds soaked in 8 ppm Fe. The nutritional value of the flour of the S1 offspring resulting from nutripriming was significantly higher than the control. Overall, the novelty of our research is that seed priming can improve the quality of the wheat grain and flour, at least till the first offspring, without the need to repeat the presowing treatment. Beyond the study of subsequent generations, the unravelling of transgenerational mechanisms underlying the biochemical improvement of the offspring is approached.
Electronic and magnetic properties of the pyrite-structure compound NiS2: influence of vacancies and copper impurities

The compounds NiSx (1.91 or approximately=2.0. The transition to the paramagnetic state occurs at a temperature which increases roughly proportional to x. The presence of at least two sites characterized by different hyperfine fields indicates the existence of some inhomogeneity in the antiferromagnetic phase for T>31K.
Corpora Amylacea in Aging Brain and Age-Related Brain Disorders 

Corpora amylacea (CA) are glycoprotein-based hyaline-like bodies that accumulate in normal aging brain, and to an even greater extent, in the brains of patients suffering from a variety of neurodegenerative disorders. Although many of the histochemical, tinctorial and structural properties of CAs have been described for more than a century and a half since their discovery, their pathogenic mechanisms, their subcellular origins and their functions are still debated. Two main theories have been advanced to explain the formation of CA, respectively the vascular and the metabolic theories, although pathogenically both mechanisms can be involved. The exact cellular source of CA in the nervous system is still under debate, although both a neuronal and glial origin has been suggested due to the presence of cell specific proteins. CAs contain around 90% glucose polymers (polyglucosan or polysaccharides), 3% phosphates and 5% proteins, most of them being aging or stress-related proteins. Ultrastructurally, CAs were described as masses of randomly oriented short linear electron-dense areas, situated in the cytoplasm of fibrous astrocytes, mainly in their distal processes. In transmission light microscopy they appear as circular bodies ranging from less than 2 µm to about 20 µm in diameter, with smooth surface or ragged appearance that typically have a concentric laminated or target-like patterns, with the cores staining rather more densely than the periphery. Besides their presence in aging brain, in many neurodegenerative disorders some similar structures called polyglicosan bodies, are morphologically indistinguishable from normal CAs, and were described in: Anderson’s disease, adult polyglucosan body disease, inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, diabetic neuropathy, and in the neurons of patients with Lafora progressive myoclonus epilepsy. The differential diagnosis may include all the neuropathological diseases characterized by the production of peculiar materials with special morphology in the elderly. All together, these data come to show that these “enigmatic bodies” are far from being completely understood, thus further investigations are needed to better explain the brain aging and the pathogenesis of different degenerative neurological diseases, and perhaps they could provide novel therapeutic targets to counteract age-related brain disorders.
Carryover of domain-dependent risk preferences in a novel decision-making task

We investigated whether people’s risk taking tendency established in one domain (gains or losses) carries over to the other domain. Participants played a game in which they made repeated decisions between a fixed payoff and a risky option, where the outcome of the risky option depended on whether they had responded correctly on a difficult perceptual-memory task. In some trials, participants played to gain points; on others, they played to avoid losing points. In two studies, we observed the following pattern of results. 1) Participants risked less on gain trials than on loss trials. 2) This difference in risk taking persisted (carried over) when the domain changed from gains to losses and vice versa (with the effect of experiencing losses first being stronger than the effect of experiencing gains first). 3) There was no analogous carryover effect on responses to a delay discounting measure, but there was a carryover effect on responses on a risk attitude measure. We compare these results with those from other recent studies and discuss various ways of explaining them.
Biomaterial Inks from Peptide-Functionalized Silk Fibers for 3D Printing of Futuristic Wound-Healing and Sensing Materials

This study illustrates the sensing and wound healing properties of silk fibroin in combination with peptide patterns, with an emphasis on the printability of multilayered grids, and envisions possible applications of these next-generation silk-based materials. Functionalized silk fibers covalently linked to an arginine–glycine–aspartic acid (RGD) peptide create a platform for preparing a biomaterial ink for 3D printing of grid-like piezoresistors with wound-healing and sensing properties. The culture medium obtained from 3D-printed silk fibroin enriched with RGD peptide improves cell adhesion, accelerating skin repair. Specifically, RGD peptide-modified silk fibroin demonstrated biocompatibility, enhanced cell adhesion, and higher wound closure rates at lower concentration than the neat peptide. It was also shown that the printing of peptide-modified silk fibroin produces a piezoresistive transducer that is the active component of a sensor based on a Schottky diode harmonic transponder encoding information about pressure. We discovered that such biomaterial ink printed in a multilayered grid can be used as a humidity sensor. Furthermore, humidity activates a transition between low and high conductivity states in this medium that is retained unless a negative voltage is applied, paving the way for utilization in non-volatile organic memory devices. Globally, these results pave the way for promising applications, such as monitoring parameters such as human wound care and being integrated in bio-implantable processors.
Trivial and non‐trivial machines in the animal and in man

Purpose – It was the aim to apply basic epistemological concepts, as presented by Heinz von Foerster, to current problems of medicine and biology.Design/methodology/approach – The relation of genes and human behaviour is an important issue in current medical discourse. Many states and diseases are claimed to be caused by a genetical disposition. To prove the soundness of such claims, a strict methodology has to be applied.Findings – The usual approach of combining genetical findings with observed behaviour is based on an insufficient epistemology. The neglect of recursive processes leads to misinterpretations that have far‐reaching consequences, especially if disease and therapy are concerned.Research limitations/implications – A precise analysis of recursive traits would allow more reliable models of the relation between genetical disposition and environmental influence.Originality/value – The paper reflects trivial or non‐trivial relations in social behaviour that are often neglected.
The Ambivalent Nature of the Educational Process in Higher Educational Institutions in the COVID – 19 Pandemic

: The ambivalent nature of the educational process in higher educational institutions was clearly manifested during the COVID-19 pandemic. Such an organization of the learning process leads to building a new cognitive model of the educational process. The purpose of the study is to reveal the attitude of students to the new mode of learning and teaching and to characterize the ambivalent nature of the modern educational process. The following methods were used: the method of questioning the reference group (204 respondents of Russian Transport University); a qualitative and quantitative approach to the differentiation and integration of the data obtained made it possible to designate a probabilistic assessment of the educational process organization from the students` point of view; the dualism of the modern digital university educational environment was considered from the point of view of an ambivalent approach proposed by foreign and Russian scientists. Our hypothesis basing on a dissatisfaction with forced on-line learning, in which the implementation of various educational models (face-to-face and on-line) as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, was only partially confirmed. 7.5% of respondents expressed a dissatisfaction with online learning, 13% were satisfied with online learning, 79.5% of respondents showed ambivalent reactions (halfway reactions). Due to the empirical study we have determined 6 dualistic oppositions of the modern digital university environment: a) synchronous and asynchronous learning, b) simultaneous presence in two active areas (home - university), c) virtual presence with visual absence (when the camera is turned off), d) electronic communication in synchronous and asynchronous mode, e) interactive interaction a teacher – a student and a student – a teacher (the student teaches the teacher to communicate within the virtual environment, f) the opposition of generations “friend” – “alien”
A Generalized Euler Equation to Predict Theoretical Head of Turbomachinery

The transient performance of centrifugal pumps during transient operating periods, such as startup and stopping, has been drawn much attention in the past years due to the growing engineering needs. However, the prediction of the transient theoretical head of the impeller has not been satisfactorily established yet. In present study, a new generalized Euler equation for incompressible flow in turbomachinery is developed, which includes influences of the blade thickness and shape. Then, the proposed theoretical equation is compared with an existing one as well as the experimental data of two centrifugal volute pumps during startup periods. The results indicated that the proposed equation is feasible to estimate the transient theoretical head and the steady head rise. In addition, it is also found from both the theory and the experiments that the transient theoretical head is much higher than the steady one in the initial stage of startup period.
Evincing Offence: How Digital Forensics Turns Big Data into Evidence for Policing Sexual Abuse

A reader can expect the abstract, paper and keywords to discuss descriptions of evidence, classification schema, seizure rules and more generally the data frictions, constraints and limitations associated with the processing of digital forensic evidence involving children in England. The widespread availability and use of digital devices both enables criminal acts and helps to detect them. The production and circulation of indecent images of children has been one area of crime that has transformed in recent years because of developments in modern communication technologies. Through in-depth ethnographic observations and qualitative interviews with four police forces in England, this article examines the resources and labor required to turn digital footprints into evidence for the possession of indecent images. In doing so, our aim is twofold. One, we detail the formal and informal processes whereby large sets of data become discrete pieces of judicial evidence. A notable feature of these administrative and technical processes is that while criminal justice agencies often strive for linear investigations, such aspirations fail to acknowledge the messy interrelation of expertise and roles that underpin the transformation of digital devices into evidence. As a second aim, we seek to identify similarities and differences in the practices whereby evidence is constructed between digital and other areas of forensics. In particular, this analysis raises questions around the descriptive and normative adequacies of prevalent theories of objectivity for digital forensics.