Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Factors Affecting Food Consumers’ Behavior during COVID-19 in Romania

Crisis periods such as the COVID-19 pandemic may reshape consumers’ behavior and challenge all food chain actors on how to assure and better respond to consumers’ needs and wants. This study aimed to reveal the main concerns of consumers related to food consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic and to identify factors that may influence their behavior. An online survey was performed among 859 Romanian consumers. The Principal Component Analysis revealed five factors: ecofriendly, socio-economic aspects, food waste, plant-based food, and easily accessible food, which affected consumers’ food behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was noticed that females tended to be more preoccupied with the socio-economic aspects and food waste components, compared to males. At the same time, older people were more concerned about the ecofriendly, socio-economic aspects and health concerns, compared with the younger group, the differences being statistically significant. These insights provide information on crucial aspects that shape consumers’ behavior during crisis periods.
“Let’s Read Together”: A Parent-Focused Intervention on Dialogic Book Reading to Improve Early Language and Literacy Skills in Preschool Children

Many children are at risk for reading difficulties because of inadequate emergent literacy skills. It is widely accepted that development of emergent literacy skills is strictly related to children’s early literacy experiences at home and school. Dialogic reading is an evidence-based intervention to promote the language skills of preschool children. This study examined the feasibility and efficacy of a parent-focused dialogic book reading intervention that aimed to foster the early language and literacy skills of pre-school children. A sample of 40 Italian preschoolers (Mage = 62.9 months, SD = 6.3) and their parents were divided into three groups: treatment group (n = 12); information group (n = 12) and control group (n = 16). The efficacy of the intervention for oral language skills was examined by analyzing the improvements from pre- to post-intervention in children’s oral language outcomes, through ad hoc and standardized tasks; specifically, by measuring proximal and distal abilities. Additionally, we analyzed the intervention effects on parent–child interaction and dialogic behaviors during shared book reading. Results suggest that a relatively brief intervention (6 weeks) using dialogic book reading strategies can lead to sustained improvements in early language and literacy skills in preschoolers (both proximal and distal) and in parent dialogic behaviors during shared book reading.
The Impact of Polymer Electrolyte Properties on Lithium-Ion Batteries

In recent decades, the enhancement of the properties of electrolytes and electrodes resulted in the development of efficient electrochemical energy storage devices. We herein reported the impact of the different polymer electrolytes in terms of physicochemical, thermal, electrical, and mechanical properties of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Since LIBs use many groups of electrolytes, such as liquid electrolytes, quasi-solid electrolytes, and solid electrolytes, the efficiency of the full device relies on the type of electrolyte used. A good electrolyte is the one that, when used in Li-ion batteries, exhibits high Li+ diffusion between electrodes, the lowest resistance during cycling at the interfaces, a high capacity of retention, a very good cycle-life, high thermal stability, high specific capacitance, and high energy density. The impact of various polymer electrolytes and their components has been reported in this work, which helps to understand their effect on battery performance. Although, single-electrolyte material cannot be sufficient to fulfill the requirements of a good LIB. This review is aimed to lead toward an appropriate choice of polymer electrolyte for LIBs.
Different Cryotherapy Modalities Demonstrate Similar Effects on Muscle Performance, Soreness, and Damage in Healthy Individuals and Athletes: A Systematic Review with Metanalysis

Background: There are extensive studies focusing on non-invasive modalities to recover physiological systems after exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD). Whole-body cryotherapy (WBC) and Partial-body cryotherapy (PBC) have been recommended for recovery after EIMD. However, to date, no systematic reviews have been performed to compare their effects on muscle performance and muscle recovery markers. Methods: This systematic review with metanalysis compared the effects of WBC and PBC on muscle performance, muscle soreness (DOMS), and markers of muscular damage following EIMD. We used Pubmed, Embase, PEDro, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials as data sources. Two independent reviewers verified the methodological quality of the studies. The studies were selected if they used WBC and PBC modalities as treatment and included muscle performance and muscle soreness (DOMS) as the primary outcomes. Secondary outcomes were creatine kinase and heart rate variability. Results: Six studies with a pooled sample of 120 patients were included. The methodological quality of the studies was moderate, with an average of 4.3 on a 0–10 scale (PEDro). Results: Both cryotherapy modalities induce similar effects without difference between them. Conclusion: WBC and PBC modalities have similar global responses on muscle performance, soreness, and markers of muscle damage.
Reducing vulnerability to weather shocks through social protection – Evidence from the implementation of Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) in Ethiopia

This article uncovers the mechanisms shaping the impact of the public work component of Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) on beneficiaries and communities’ food security and vulnerability to various shocks. Using three waves of a national representative household survey, this study provides quantitative evidence on the pathways through which the social protection intervention affects direct beneficiaries and their community peers. The empirical findings show that the PSNP beneficiaries are less likely to be food insecure and experience harvest losses in the aftermath of droughts. Moreover, the beneficial effects of the programme spill over to the community peers. This is likely to reflect the nature of the public works implemented through the programme, such as the integrated community-based watershed development, including soil and water conservation measures and rangeland management (in pastoral areas). Also, no significant impacts have been found when households self-report stresses not related to adverse weather events. The results of this study provide evidence to inform the debate on the effectiveness of the PSNP. From a policy perspective, they suggest to explicitly integrate environmental and climate considerations to design social protection programmes targeting poor agricultural households that are highly vulnerable and exposed to weather shocks.
An MDL-Based Wavelet Scattering Features Selection for Signal Classification

Wavelet scattering is a redundant time-frequency transform that was shown to be a powerful tool in signal classification. It shares the convolutional architecture with convolutional neural networks, but it offers some advantages, including faster training and small training sets. However, it introduces some redundancy along the frequency axis, especially for filters that have a high degree of overlap. This naturally leads to a need for dimensionality reduction to further increase its efficiency as a machine learning tool. In this paper, the Minimum Description Length is used to define an automatic procedure for optimizing the selection of the scattering features, even in the frequency domain. The proposed study is limited to the class of uniform sampling models. Experimental results show that the proposed method is able to automatically select the optimal sampling step that guarantees the highest classification accuracy for fixed transform parameters, when applied to audio/sound signals.
Pre-Service Teachers Literacy of Assessment for Learning

: This study set out to compare the literacy of assessment for learning (AfL) of preservice English teachers in Indonesia and Malaysia. The focus was on how pre-service teachers majoring in English education in the two countries understood the concept of AfL which includes the six dimensions- framework, namely teachers as assessors, teachers as pedagogists, teachers as student partners, teachers as motivators, teachers as learners, and teachers as a stakeholder partner. It involved 451 pre-service English teachers. A total of 42 items of the AfL questionnaire developed by Alonzo (2016) was used in this study. Confirmatory factor analysis with Mplus version 7.2 were used to see whether the pre-service English teachers had the same perception in terms of the six dimensions. Subsequently, MANOVA was used to see whether dimensions that emerged differed significantly by the respondents' gender and their highest expected education. The results showed that the six dimensions of assessment for learning emerged from the data collected from the preservice English teachers in the two countries. Some significant differences on the six dimensions were found in relation to their gender and expected education. see and test construct dimensions to ensure that the developed tools meet analytical requirements and analytic factors. The results of the study was an instrument to assess teachers literacy of assessment for learning with a new framework in the Assessment for Learning, which includes ‘Teachers as Assessors’, ‘Teachers as Pedagogists’, ‘Teachers as Student Partners’, ‘Teachers as Motivators’, ‘Teachers as Learners’, and ‘Teachers as Stakeholder Partners’.
Justice, Quality and Sacredness in Marriage as Seen by German Lawyers, Counselors, and Clergy

ABSTRACT Justice, relationship quality, and sacredness are interconnected facets in the discussion of marriage as a legal, social, and religious institution. Professional interactions with couples, however, are often allocated to specialized individuals: clergy in marital preparation programs and wedding ceremonies, counselors during marital challenges, or lawyers in divorce proceedings. This study explores how cultural and societal values influence the attitudes of such professionals toward marriage. In this work, 172 German lawyers, counselors, and Christian clergy answered an online survey. Results from statistical analysis revealed that attitudes differed significantly between professions, denominations, and genders. This article discusses these differences and how interdisciplinary collaboration may benefit couples during marriage, divorce, and remarriage.
Small Bowel Detection for Wireless Capsule Endoscopy Using Convolutional Neural Networks with Temporal Filtering

By automatically classifying the stomach, small bowel, and colon, the reading time of the wireless capsule endoscopy (WCE) can be reduced. In addition, it is an essential first preprocessing step to localize the small bowel in order to apply automated small bowel lesion detection algorithms based on deep learning. The purpose of the study was to develop an automated small bowel detection method from long untrimmed videos captured from WCE. Through this, the stomach and colon can also be distinguished. The proposed method is based on a convolutional neural network (CNN) with a temporal filtering on the predicted probabilities from the CNN. For CNN, we use a ResNet50 model to classify three organs including stomach, small bowel, and colon. The hybrid temporal filter consisting of a Savitzky–Golay filter and a median filter is applied to the temporal probabilities for the “small bowel” class. After filtering, the small bowel and the other two organs are differentiated with thresholding. The study was conducted on dataset of 200 patients (100 normal and 100 abnormal WCE cases), which was divided into a training set of 140 cases, a validation set of 20 cases, and a test set of 40 cases. For the test set of 40 patients (20 normal and 20 abnormal WCE cases), the proposed method showed accuracy of 99.8% in binary classification for the small bowel. Transition time errors for gastrointestinal tracts were only 38.8 ± 25.8 seconds for the transition between stomach and small bowel and 32.0 ± 19.1 seconds for the transition between small bowel and colon, compared to the ground truth organ transition points marked by two experienced gastroenterologists.
Field-Emission Resonances in Thin Metallic Films: Nonexponential Decrease of the Tunneling Current as a Function of the Sample-to-Tip Distance

Field-emission resonances (FERs) for two-dimensional Pb(111) islands grown on \mbox{Si(111)7$\times$7} surfaces were studied by low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy (STM/STS) in a broad range of tunneling conditions with both active and disabled feedback loop. These FERs exist at quantized sample-to-tip distances $Z^{\,}_n$ above the sample surface, where $n$ is the serial number of the FER state. By recording the trajectory of the STM tip during ramping of the bias voltage $U$ (while keeping the tunneling current $I$ fixed), we obtain the set of the $Z^{\,}_n$ values corresponding to local maxima in the derived $dZ/dU(U)$ spectra. This way, the continuous evolution of $Z^{\,}_n$ as a function of $U$ for all FERs was investigated by STS experiments with active feedback loop for different $I$. Complementing these measurements by current-distance spectroscopy at a fixed $U$, we could construct a 4-dimensional $I-U-Z-dZ/dU$ diagram, that allows us to investigate the geometric localization of the FERs above the surface. We demonstrate that (i) the difference $\delta Z^{\,}_n=Z^{\,}_{n+1}-Z^{\,}_n$ between neighboring FER lines in the $Z-U$ diagram is independent of $n$ for higher resonances, (ii) the $\delta Z^{\,}_{n}$ value decreases as $U$ increases; (iii) the quantized FER states lead to the \emph{periodic} variations of $\ln I$ as a function of $Z$ with periodicity $\delta Z$; (iv) the periodic variations in the $\ln I - Z$ spectra allows to estimate the absolute height of the tip above the sample surface. Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding on how the FER states affect various types of tunneling spectroscopy experiments and how they lead to a non-exponential decay of the tunneling current as a function of $Z$ at high bias voltages in the regime of quantized electron emission.
Can aerosols-generating dental, oral and maxillofacial, and orthopedic surgical procedures lead to disease transmission? An implication on the current COVID-19 pandemic

Various dental, maxillofacial, and orthopedic surgical procedures (DMOSP) have been known to produce bioaerosols, that can lead to the transmission of various infectious diseases. Hence, a systematic review (SR) aimed at generating evidence of aerosols generating DMOSP that can result in the transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), further investigating their infectivity and assessing the role of enhanced personal protective equipment (PPE) an essential to preventing the spreading of SARS-CoV-2 during aerosol-generating procedures (AGPs). This SR was performed according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses statement (PRISMA) guidelines based on a well-designed Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcomes and Study (PICOS) framework, and various databases were searched to retrieve the studies which assessed potential aerosolization during DMOSP. This SR included 80 studies (59 dental and 21 orthopedic) with 7 SR, 47 humans, 5 cadaveric, 16 experimental, and 5 animal studies that confirmed the generation of small-sized < 5 μm particles in DMOSP. One study confirmed that HIV could be transmitted by aerosolized blood generated by an electric saw and bur. There is sufficient evidence that DMOSP generates an ample amount of bioaerosols, but the infectivity of these bioaerosols to transmit diseases like SARS-CoV-2 generates very weak evidence but still, this should be considered. Confirmation through isolation and culture of viable virus in the clinical environment should be pursued. An evidence provided by the current review was gathered by extrapolation from available experimental and empirical evidence not based on SARS-CoV-2. The results of the present review, therefore, should be interpreted with great caution.
Lexicons of Key Terms in Scholarly Texts and Their Disciplinary Differences: From Quantum Semantics Construction to Relative-Entropy-Based Comparisons

Complex networks are often used to analyze written text and reports by rendering texts in the form of a semantic network, forming a lexicon of words or key terms. Many existing methods to construct lexicons are based on counting word co-occurrences, having the advantage of simplicity and ease of applicability. Here, we use a quantum semantics approach to generalize such methods, allowing us to model the entanglement of terms and words. We show how quantum semantics can be applied to reveal disciplinary differences in the use of key terms by analyzing 12 scholarly texts that represent the different positions of various disciplinary schools (of conceptual change research) on the same topic (conceptual change). In addition, attention is paid to how closely the lexicons corresponding to different positions can be brought into agreement by suitable tuning of the entanglement factors. In comparing the lexicons, we invoke complex network-based analysis based on exponential matrix transformation and use information theoretic relative entropy (Jensen–Shannon divergence) as the operationalization of differences between lexicons. The results suggest that quantum semantics is a viable way to model the disciplinary differences of lexicons and how they can be tuned for a better agreement.
Structure‐aware dehazing of sewer inspection images based on monocular depth cues

In sewer pipes, haze caused by the humid environment seriously impairs the quality of closed‐circuit television (CCTV) images, which leads to poor performance of subsequent pipe defects detection. Meanwhile, the complexity of sewer images, such as steep depth change and extensive textureless regions, brings great challenges to the performance or application of general dehazing algorithms. Therefore, this study estimates sewer depth maps first with the help of the water–pipewall borderlines to produce the paired dehazing dataset. Then a structure‐aware nonlocal network (SANL‐Net) is proposed with the detected borderlines and the dehazing result as two supervisory signals. SANL‐Net shows its superiority over other state‐of‐the‐art approaches with 147 in mean square error (MSE), 27.28 in peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR), 0.8963 in structural similarity index measure (SSIM), and 15.47M in parameters. Also, the outstanding performance in real image dehazing implies the accuracy of depth estimation. Experimental results indicate that SANL‐Net significantly improves the performance of defects detection tasks, such as an increase of 23.16% in mean intersection over union (mIoU) for semantic segmentation.
Does the Contractile Capability of Pelvic Floor Muscles Improve with Knowledge Acquisition and Verbal Instructions in Healthy Women? A Systematic Review

Seventy percent of women with pelvic floor dysfunctions (PFDs) are estimated to present deficient consciousness of their pelvic floor muscles (PFMs) and poor ability to contract them. Improving the proprioception of PFMs, defined as the capacity to know the status and position of each body part, and adequately contracting them could be a protective factor to prevent the appearance of PFDs in the general female population. This study aimed to identify the effectiveness of educational interventions and verbal instructions on how to contract and exercise the PFMs to improve the proprioception of the PFMs in women. A systematic search of studies published in the last 20 years until March 2022 was conducted in the PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Scopus, PEDro, Lilacs, and Dialnet databases. A meta-analysis could not be performed due to the heterogeneity in the types of studies and included populations. This review followed the PRISMA guidelines for the design, search, and reporting of studies. The methodological quality was analysed via the PEDro and the Newcastle–Ottawa scales in the case of randomised clinical trials and non-randomised studies, respectively, while the quality of evidence was determined using the SIGN grading system for evidence-based guidelines. Descriptive and experimental studies published in English, Spanish, or Portuguese that evaluated the contractile capability of the PFMs in healthy women or women without a previous diagnosis of PFD were included. Seven articles that included a total of 2507 women were found, three of which were clinical trials with PEDro scores between 5 and 9 points out of 10 and four of which were non-randomised studies with NOS scores between 6 and 8 points out of 10. The outcomes were measured through vaginal palpation, visual observation, questionnaires for PFD symptoms, and self-perception reports. This review discriminated between two types of intervention, educational programmes and verbal instructions, and evaluated the changes observed in PFM strength and knowledgeability and the symptoms of PFDs. The findings showed that educational interventions and verbal instructions improve the proprioception of PFMs in women of all ages that are healthy or without a previous diagnosis of PFDs as well as their knowledge about the pelvic floor, healthy lifestyle habits, and symptoms that are potentially indicative of PFDs. Further high-quality randomised clinical trials are warranted to draw definitive conclusions about the effectiveness of educational interventions to improve the proprioception of the PFMs in women considered healthy or with mild symptoms that may be indicative of PFDs.
Evaluation of Marker Materials and Spectroscopic Methods for Tracer-Based Sorting of Plastic Wastes

Plastics are a ubiquitous material with good mechanical, chemical and thermal properties, and are used in all industrial sectors. Large quantities, widespread use, and insufficient management of plastic wastes lead to low recycling rates. The key challenge in recycling plastic waste is achieving a higher degree of homogeneity between the different polymer material streams. Modern waste sorting plants use automated sensor-based sorting systems capable to sort out commodity plastics, while many engineering plastics, such as polyoxymethylene (POM), will end up in mixed waste streams and are therefore not recycled. A novel approach to increasing recycling rates is tracer-based sorting (TBS), which uses a traceable plastic additive or marker that enables or enhances polymer type identification based on the tracer’s unique fingerprint (e.g., fluorescence). With future TBS applications in mind, we have summarized the literature and assessed TBS techniques and spectroscopic detection methods. Furthermore, a comprehensive list of potential tracer substances suitable for thermoplastics was derived from the literature. We also derived a set of criteria to select the most promising tracer candidates (3 out of 80) based on their material properties, toxicity profiles, and detectability that could be applied to enable the circularity of, for example, POM or other thermoplastics.