Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
WiFi-Enabled User Authentication through Deep Learning in Daily Activities

User authentication is a critical process in both corporate and home environments due to the ever-growing security and privacy concerns. With the advancement of smart cities and home environments, the concept of user authentication is evolved with a broader implication by not only preventing unauthorized users from accessing confidential information but also providing the opportunities for customized services corresponding to a specific user. Traditional approaches of user authentication either require specialized device installation or inconvenient wearable sensor attachment. This article supports the extended concept of user authentication with a device-free approach by leveraging the prevalent WiFi signals made available by IoT devices, such as smart refrigerator, smart TV, and smart thermostat, and so on. The proposed system utilizes the WiFi signals to capture unique human physiological and behavioral characteristics inherited from their daily activities, including both walking and stationary ones. Particularly, we extract representative features from channel state information (CSI) measurements of WiFi signals, and develop a deep-learning-based user authentication scheme to accurately identify each individual user. To mitigate the signal distortion caused by surrounding people’s movements, our deep learning model exploits a CNN-based architecture that constructively combines features from multiple receiving antennas and derives more reliable feature abstractions. Furthermore, a transfer-learning-based mechanism is developed to reduce the training cost for new users and environments. Extensive experiments in various indoor environments are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed authentication system. In particular, our system can achieve over 94% authentication accuracy with 11 subjects through different activities.
Psychological Burden and Psycho-Oncological Interventions for Patients With Hepatobiliary Cancers–A Systematic Review

Background Worldwide, hepatobiliary cancers are frequent diseases and often accompanied by a poor prognosis. These cancers, with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and cholangiocarcinoma (CHC) being the most frequent, are often associated with a considerable amount of psychological burden such as anxiety, depressiveness, and reduced health-related quality of life (HRQOL) which may lead to psychiatric comorbidities. This systematic review gives an overview on psychological burden and on the effectiveness of psycho-oncological interventions for patients with HCC and CHC. Methods The databases PubMed, PubPsych, and PsycINFO were used and searched using the following combination of terms: (Neoplasm OR Cancer OR Tumor OR Carcinoma) AND (Psycho-Oncology OR Psychotherapy OR Psychiatr∗) AND (Liver OR Hepatic OR Hepatocellular OR Gallbladder OR Bile∗). Studies were eligible for inclusion if investigating patients affected with tumors of the liver (HCC/CHC) and using diagnostic instruments to assess mental health symptoms and research concerning specific psycho-oncological interventions. In total, 1027 studies were screened by one author with regard to title and abstracts. Afterward, the two authors of the paper discussed inclusion of possible articles. Results Twelve studies focusing on distress, anxiety, and depression symptoms as well as quality of life among patients with HCC/CHC and three studies on psycho-oncological interventions were included. Patients suffering from hepatobiliary cancers often experience considerable psychological burden. A quarter of patients suffer from depressive symptoms; anxiety is even more common among these patients with almost 40%. The HRQOL of those affected is reduced in almost all areas, suicide rates increased and the level of distress is considerably increased in one third of patients even in comparison to those with other kinds of cancer. By psycho-oncological intervention the prevalence of depressive symptoms and anxiety can be reduced, while the quality of life and also the survival rate of patients with hepatobiliary cancer can be increased. Discussion and Conclusion Psychological burden is high in patients with hepatobiliary cancers as reflected in high levels of depressiveness and anxiety as well as reduced quality of life. The use of psycho-oncological interventions can reduce psychological burden and increase quality of life compared to patients receiving standard support only. Systematic Review Registration (prospero), identifier (CRD42021243192).
Infanticide and Human Self Domestication

The notion of domestication has played a role in attempts to understand human evolution going right back to Darwin (1859) (see Hare, 2017). Two of the leading current proponents of human selfdomestication (HSD) are Hare andWrangham. Hare (2017) lays out his account in “Survival of the Friendliest” andWrangham has done much of the recent work on HSD; seeWrangham (2019) and references there. HSD starts from the premise that our species’ evolution in the later Pleistocene is consistent with a domestication syndrome, including traits such as a reduction in body mass, shortening of the face accompanied by a reduction in tooth size, reduced sexual dimorphism due to feminization, and a reduction in cranial capacity. Hare (2017 p. 157) argues that HSD, “draws on comparative, developmental, fossil, and neurobiological evidence to show that late human evolution was dominated by selection for intragroup prosociality over aggression. As a result, modern humans possess traits consistent with the syndrome associated with domestication in other animals (Table 1). An example is the long running silver fox experiments in Siberia. ” Sánchez-Villagra and van Schaik (2019) review the case for and against HSD. They accept some of the evidence but question the underlying theory. They make the important distinction between slow moving unintentional “domestication” and directional and intentional “selective breeding” to generate “improvement traits” as in the silver fox experiments. They argue that HSD as currently formulated is about unintentional domestication rather than selective breeding, and so using evidence for HSD from dog breeding, modern farm animals, and the silver fox data is misleading. Wrangham (2019) is focused on possible underlying hypotheses for HSD and, rather than “survival of the friendliest,” he emphasizes selection against reactive aggression as key to human evolution and HSD.1 According to Wrangham, “To account for the domestication syndrome, proposals must explain what led to a decline in fitness of highly aggressive males, and why the explanatory factor applies only to H. sapiens and not to other species of Homo (Wrangham, 2019, abstract). ” He presents nine alternative hypotheses which could underly selection against reactive aggression: genetic group selection; group-structured cultural selection; social selection by female mate choice; social selection by choice of cooperative task partners; self-control; cooperative breeding; population density; use of lethal weapons; and language based conspiracy. The paper considers strengths and weaknesses of the nine. His favored hypothesis is the last— “I conclude that the evolution of language-based conspiracy, which is a form of collective intentionality, was the key factor initiating and maintaining self-domestication in H. sapiens, because it is the most convincing mechanism for explaining the selective pressure against individually powerful fighters. Sophisticated language enabledmales of low fighting prowess
Mini-Review: Heat Transfer Mechanisms in MILD Combustion Systems

MILD combustion has a wide potential in enhancing thermal efficiency with nearly zero emissions. It has no visible flame since the radiation from the reacting zones is attenuated due to both the intermediate species at reduced temperatures, induced by intensely burned gas recirculation, and the absence of particulate emitters. Beyond these main features, there are other characteristics such as temperature uniformity and distributed ignition that have to be addressed and analyzed looking at the peculiar role of the heat transfer for such reactors. First, the category of combustion systems object of the study is described. Afterwards an analysis on the heat transfer mechanisms under MILD combustion of gaseous fuels is carried out. Therefore, in this Mini-Review, several literature findings highlighting the role of the heat transfer on the combustion peculiarities of MILD reactors (i.e., temperature uniformity, distributed ignition, low pollutant emissions) are reported and discussed. Heat exchange modes, in fact, contribute to providing MILD macroscopic characteristics by means of the strong interplay between wall and gas heat transfer, instead of the reactive structure. In particular, the thermal behavior of these systems is analyzed in order to stress the distinctive role of the heat loss and the relative contributions of the convective and radiative terms. Heat transfer mechanisms between gas and walls and their interactions, in fact, favor the wide temperature distribution within the chamber. In order to better understand the different effects of the heat transfer under MILD regime, the mechanisms regarding walls and recirculating gas are separately investigated.
Influences of Ocean Currents on the Diets of Demersal Fish Communities in the Western North Pacific Revealed by Their Muscle Carbon and Nitrogen Isotopic Compositions

To study the influence of different ocean currents on the trophic spectra found in a sympatric fish community, we analyzed the radiocarbon contents (Δ14C) and stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotopic compositions in their bulk muscle tissues and the δ15N of individual amino acids in 26 species of demersal fish collected from off Tohoku (Pacific coast), northeastern Japan. The Δ14C values of the fish varied from –42 to +41‰, consistent with the Δ14C of the dissolved inorganic carbon in the cold Oyashio Current (typically about –50‰) and the warm Kuroshio Current (typically about +50‰). The trophic positions (TPs) of the fish estimated from the δ15N values of amino acids increased from 3.1 to 4.5 with increasing snout length. A negative correlation was observed between Δ14C and TP in gadiform fish and flatfish, suggesting that the Oyashio Current delivers a high TP diet to these fish groups. These results suggest that the trophic ecology of marine fish in the coastal western North Pacific is primarily controlled by the two major surface water currents, but is also significantly influenced by a combination of species-specific feeding and migration strategies.
Protective Efficacy of Rhomboid-Like Protein 3 as a Candidate Antigen Against Eimeria maxima in Chickens

Avian coccidiosis brings tremendous economic loss to the poultry industry worldwide. The third generation vaccine, including subunit and DNA vaccines, exhibited promising developmental prospects. In a previous study, we found rhomboid-like protein 3 of Eimeria maxima (EmROM3) was involved in infections by Eimeria species. However, the protective efficacy of EmROM3 against Eimeria maxima (E. maxima) remains unknown. In this study, chickens were intramuscularly immunized with the recombinant protein EmROM3 (rEmROM3) or pVAX1-EmROM3 to determine the EmROM3-induced immune response. The induced humoral immune response was determined by measuring serum IgG antibody levels in immunized chickens. The induced cellular immune response was detected by measuring the transcription level of immune related cytokines and the proportion of T cell subsets of the immunized chickens. Finally, the protective efficacy of the EmROM3 vaccine against E. maxima was evaluated by immunization-challenge trials. Results revealed that the purified rEmROM3 reacted with chicken anti-E. maxima serum. The recombinant plasmid of pVAX1-EmROM3 was transcribed and translated in the injected muscle from the vaccinated chickens. In experimental groups, the IgG titers, proportions of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, and transcription level of splenic cytokines were significantly increased compared with the control groups. The immunization-challenge trial revealed that immunization with rEmROM3 or pVAX1-EmROM3 led to restored weight gain, alleviated enteric lesion, decreased oocyst output as well as the higher anticoccidial index (ACI), indicating partial protection against E. maxima. These results indicate that EmROM3 is an effective candidate antigen for developing novel vaccines against infection by E. maxima.
Stability and Infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 and Viral RNA in Water, Commercial Beverages, and Bodily Fluids

The stability and infectivity of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in liquid samples are of great concern to virus transmission via common beverages and sewage water. Here, we investigated the stability of SARS-CoV-2 in 32 liquids including common beverages, bodily fluids, and commonly used viral transport media. Our results showed that the infectious virus could be recovered up to 77-days from common beverages including milk and water. Viral RNA could be detected at high levels in all samples up to 28-days, indicating that while viral RNA demonstrates higher stability than infectivity, viral RNA levels do not reflect the infectious capability of SARS-CoV-2. These results indicate that SARS-CoV-2 is highly stable in optimal conditions and a sufficient control measure is needed in reducing the risk of exposure and controlling and preventing future outbreaks.
Automatic Facial Expression Recognition in Standardized and Non-standardized Emotional Expressions

Emotional facial expressions can inform researchers about an individual's emotional state. Recent technological advances open up new avenues to automatic Facial Expression Recognition (FER). Based on machine learning, such technology can tremendously increase the amount of processed data. FER is now easily accessible and has been validated for the classification of standardized prototypical facial expressions. However, applicability to more naturalistic facial expressions still remains uncertain. Hence, we test and compare performance of three different FER systems (Azure Face API, Microsoft; Face++, Megvii Technology; FaceReader, Noldus Information Technology) with human emotion recognition (A) for standardized posed facial expressions (from prototypical inventories) and (B) for non-standardized acted facial expressions (extracted from emotional movie scenes). For the standardized images, all three systems classify basic emotions accurately (FaceReader is most accurate) and they are mostly on par with human raters. For the non-standardized stimuli, performance drops remarkably for all three systems, but Azure still performs similarly to humans. In addition, all systems and humans alike tend to misclassify some of the non-standardized emotional facial expressions as neutral. In sum, emotion recognition by automated facial expression recognition can be an attractive alternative to human emotion recognition for standardized and non-standardized emotional facial expressions. However, we also found limitations in accuracy for specific facial expressions; clearly there is need for thorough empirical evaluation to guide future developments in computer vision of emotional facial expressions.
Evaluation of Chronic Kidney Disease Progression in Dogs With Therapeutic Management of Risk Factors

This research was performed to describe the characteristics of the progression of naturally occurring chronic kidney disease (CKD) in dogs, together with the management of identified risk factors, following the International Renal Interest Society recommendations. Dogs diagnosed and staged with CKD, and with a longitudinal follow-up from the moment of diagnosis of up to a maximum of 730 days, were included. A total of 545 dogs that presented risk factors for the development of CKD were analyzed, out of which 36 met the inclusion criteria. Advanced age was identified in 80.6% of cases. Initiation risk factors were represented by inflammatory/infectious diseases, history of anesthetic-surgical procedures, heart disease, neoplasms, endocrinopathies, and exposure to nephrotoxic drugs. During the follow-up period, progression of CKD was identified in 47.2% of the cases, being more salient in advanced stages. Serum symmetric dimethyl arginine (SDMA) was the only glomerular filtration rate (GFR) marker which displayed differences among studied times during early stages of CKD, associated with the disease progression and decline of renal function. A significant difference between the survival curves in early and advanced CKD stages was observed. The factors related to decreased survival were hyperphosphatemia, anemia, and low body condition score (BCS). No differences were found between the presence of arterial hypertension and renal proteinuria and decreased survival. Furthermore, CKD diagnosis based on the persistent finding of abnormalities in early disease markers, such as serum symmetric dimethyl arginine increase and/or renal proteinuria, and timely therapeutic management of risk factors, allowed for CKD stabilization, reducing progression to advanced stages, and favoring higher survival rates.
White Matter Fractional Anisotropy Is a Superior Predictor for Cognitive Impairment Than Brain Volumes in Older Adults With Confluent White Matter Hyperintensities

Older patients with confluent white matter hyperintensities (WMHs) on magnetic resonance imaging have an increased risk for the onset of vascular cognitive impairment (VCI). This study investigates the predictive effects of the white matter (WM) fractional anisotropy (FA) and brain volumes on cognitive impairment for those with confluent WMHs. This study enrolled 77 participants with confluent WMHs (Fazekas grade 2 or 3), including 44 with VCI-no dementia (VCIND) and 33 with normal cognition (NC). The mean FA of 20 WM tracts was calculated to evaluate the global WM microstructural integrity, and major WM tracts were reconstructed using probabilistic tractography. Voxel-based morphometry was used to calculate brain volumes for the total gray matter (GM), the hippocampus, and the nucleus basalis of Meynert (NbM). All volumetric assays were corrected for total intracranial volume. All regression analyses were adjusted for age, gender, education, and apolipoprotein E (ApoE) gene ε4 status. Logistic regression analysis revealed that the mean FA value for global WM was the only independent risk factor for VCI (z score of FA: OR = 4.649, 95%CI 1.576–13.712, p = 0.005). The tract-specific FAs were not associated with the risk of cognitive impairment after controlling the mean FA for global WM. The mean FA value was significantly associated with scores of Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Auditory Verbal Learning Test. A lower FA was also associated with smaller volumes of total GM, hippocampus, and NbM. However, brain volumes were not found to be directly related to cognitive performances, except for an association between the hippocampal volume and MMSE. In conclusion, the mean FA for global WM microstructural integrity is a superior predictor for cognitive impairment than tract-specific FA and brain volumes in people with confluent WMHs.
NF-κB and Its Regulators During Pregnancy

The transcriptional factor NF-κB is a nuclear factor involved in both physiological and pathological processes. This factor can control the transcription of more than 400 genes, including cytokines, chemokines, and their modulators, immune and non-immune receptors, proteins involved in antigen presentation and cell adhesion, acute phase and stress response proteins, regulators of apoptosis, growth factors, other transcription factors and their regulators, as well as different enzymes; all these molecules control several biological processes. NF-κB is a tightly regulated molecule that has also been related to apoptosis, cell proliferation, inflammation, and the control of innate and adaptive immune responses during onset of labor, in which it has a crucial role; thus, early activation of this factor may have an adverse effect, by inducing premature termination of pregnancy, with bad outcomes for the mother and the fetus, including product loss. Reviews compiling the different activities of NF-κB have been reported. However, an update regarding NF-κB regulation during pregnancy is lacking. In this work, we aimed to describe the state of the art around NF-κB activity, its regulatory role in pregnancy, and the effect of its dysregulation due to invasion by pathogens like Trichomonas vaginalis and Toxoplasma gondii as examples.
Circulating Carboxylated Osteocalcin Correlates With Skeletal Muscle Mass and Risk of Fall in Postmenopausal Osteoporotic Women

Background Bone and skeletal muscle represent a single functional unit. We cross-sectionally investigated body composition, risk of fall and circulating osteocalcin (OC) isoforms in osteoporotic postmenopausal women to test the hypothesis of an involvement of OC in the bone-muscle crosstalk. Materials and Methods Twenty-nine non-diabetic, non-obese, postmenopausal osteoporotic women (age 72.4 ± 6.8 years; BMI 23.0 ± 3.3 kg/m2) underwent to: 1) fasting blood sampling for biochemical and hormone assays, including carboxylated (cOC) and uncarboxylated (uOC) osteocalcin; 2) whole-body dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) to assess total and regional body composition; 3) magnetic resonance imaging to determine cross-sectional muscle area (CSA) and intermuscular adipose tissue (IMAT) of thigh muscles; 4) risk of fall assessment through the OAK system. Results Appendicular skeletal muscle index (ASMMI) was low in 45% of patients. Forty percent got a low OAK score, consistent with moderate-severe risk of fall, which was predicted by low legs lean mass and increased total fat mass. Circulating cOC levels showed significantly correlated with βCTx-I, lean mass parameters including IMAT, and OAK score. Fractured and unfractured women did not differ for any of the analyzed parameters, though cOC and uOC positively correlated with legs lean mass, OAK score and bone markers only in fractured women. Conclusions Data supported the relationship between OC and skeletal muscle mass and function in postmenopausal osteoporotic women. Serum cOC, but not uOC, emerges as mediator in the bone-muscle crosstalk. Circulating cOC and uOC levels may be differentially regulated in fractured and unfractured osteoporotic women, suggesting underlying differences in bone metabolism.