Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Perceptions towards a healthy diet among a sample of university people in Portugal

A healthy diet has been recognized as one of the most important factors associated with maintaining human health and helping in preventing the development of some chronic diseases. Therefore, this paper aims to study the perceptions of a sample of university people regarding a healthy diet. ,It was undertaken a descriptive cross-sectional study on a non-probabilistic sample of 382 participants. The data were collected among a sample of Portuguese university people and measured whether people’s perceptions were compliant with a healthy diet. ,The results revealed that the participants’ perceptions were, in general, compliant with a healthy diet (scores between 0.5 and 1.5, on a scale from −2 to +2). However, significant differences were found between age groups (p = 0.004), with a higher average score for young adults, and also between groups with different levels of education (p = 0.025), with a higher score for university degree. The variable chronic diseases also showed significant differences (p = 0.017), so that people who did not have any chronic diseases obtained a higher score. ,This study is considered important because it provides evidences about the relation between nutrition knowledge and the perceptions towards a healthy diet. The study allowed concluding that the participants were aware about some nutritional aspects of their diets and, therefore, their perceptions were compliant with a healthy diet. This finding is very relevant because it could be a support for health policy initiatives directed at promoting healthy eating behaviours.
A cost-effective, multi-flash, "ghost" imaging technique for high temporal and spatial resolution imaging of cavitation using "still-frame" cameras.

This paper describes a method for acquiring high temporal and spatial resolution images of cavitation events using a multiple-flash-per-camera-exposure imaging technique. A primary challenge associated with imaging cavitation is that the velocity of the bubble wall reaches its maximum (∼1.5×103 m/s) as the bubble size approaches its minimum (≲1 μm). In order to adequately resolve dynamics on these scales, specialized-often prohibitively expensive-cameras with ultra-high frame-rates and resolutions are generally required. This paper describes low-cost, high-speed light emitting diode (LED) flash sources with minimum pulse widths of 20 ns that can be pulsed at rates of up to 17 MHz. The flashes are used to illuminate images of bubbles captured using high-resolution "still-frame" cameras wherein multiple flashes are issued from the LED(s) at known time intervals within a single camera exposure, resulting in overlapping snapshots of the same bubble at multiple unique time-points in a single image. The overlapping snapshots can be uniquely associated with the known time-points of the flashes based on their relative levels brightness. This paper demonstrate effective frame-rates up to 4 Mfps using this technique and the acquisition of snapshots at up to 13 unique time-points per exposure. Hardware descriptions of the flash sources and the programmable device used to control them are provided.
Soft-Lithography of Polyacrylamide Hydrogels Using Microstructured Templates: Towards Controlled Cell Populations on Biointerfaces

Polyacrylamide hydrogels are interesting materials for studying cells and cell–material interactions, thanks to the possibility of precisely adjusting their stiffness, shear modulus and porosity during synthesis, and to the feasibility of processing and manufacturing them towards structures and devices with controlled morphology and topography. In this study a novel approach, related to the processing of polyacrylamide hydrogels using soft-lithography and employing microstructured templates, is presented. The main novelty relies on the design and manufacturing processes used for achieving the microstructured templates, which are transferred by soft-lithography, with remarkable level of detail, to the polyacrylamide hydrogels. The conceived process is demonstrated by patterning polyacrylamide substrates with a set of vascular-like and parenchymal-like textures, for controlling cell populations. Final culture of amoeboid cells, whose dynamics is affected by the polyacrylamide patterns, provides a preliminary validation of the described strategy and helps to discuss its potentials.
Dog Steroidogenic Factor-1: Molecular cloning and analysis of epigenetic regulation

Steroidogenic factor 1 (SF-1) is a nuclear receptor that is important in steroid hormone production, and adrenal and gonad development. The SF-1 gene is highly conserved among most vertebrates. However, dog SF-1 registered in public databases, such as CanFam3.1, lacks the 5’ end compared to other mammals including mouse, human, bovine, and cat. Whether this defect is due to species differences or database error is unclear. Here, we determined the full-length dog SF-1 cDNA sequence and identified the missing 5’ end sequence in the databases. The coding region of the dog SF-1 gene has 1,386 base pairs, and the protein has 461 amino acid residues. Sequence alignment analysis among vertebrates revealed that the 5’ end sequence of dog SF-1 cDNA is highly conserved compared to other vertebrates. The genomic position of the first exon was determined, and its promoter region sequence was analyzed. The DNA methylation state at the basal promoter and the expression of dog SF-1 in steroidogenic tissues and non-steroidogenic cells were examined. CpG sites at the basal promoter displayed methylation kinetics inversely correlated with gene expression. The promoter was hypomethylated and hypermethylated in SF-1 expressing and non-SF-1 expressing tissues, respectively. In conclusion, we identified the true full sequence of dog SF-1 cDNA and determined the genome sequence around the first exon. The gene is under the control of epigenetic regulation, such as DNA methylation, at the promoter.
Transition-metal substitution induced lattice strain and electrical polarity reversal in monolayer WS2.

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) with continuously tunable physical and chemical properties achieved by doping or alloying methods are critical for practical applications. However, the microstructure evolutions and their effects on the physical properties induced by alloying from heteroatoms with different outermost electronic structures are still unclear. Here, we demonstrate that an abnormal change of optical behavior and continuous electrical polarity reversal in WS2 can be induced by Nb substitution, where the totally softened Raman phonon vibration, rapidly quenched photoluminescence and the severe electron scattering can be attributed to not only the doping effect but also the lattice strain or distortion caused by atomic Nb doping. Three types of substitution modes and distorted Nb atoms in WS2 lattice were confirmed directly from the atomic-resolution scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) images. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations further confirm the role of lattice strain in the change of optical and electrical characteristics. With the increase of Nb concentration, n-type, ambipolar type and p-type field-effect transistor (FET) devices have been achieved, indicating the capacity of this doping method to engineer the controllable properties of two-dimensional materials for electrical applications.
Exploring the association between food insecurity and food skills among school-aged children

Abstract Objective: To examine the relationship between household food insecurity (FI) and children’s involvement in family meal choices and food preparation, used as proxies for children’s food skills, and to explore gender differences within these associations. Design: Households were classified as food-secure or food-insecure using the six-item, short-form Household Food Security Survey Module. Children’s involvement in family meal choices and food preparation were treated as proxies for children’s food skills. Mixed-effects multinomial logistic regression models were used. Setting: Public schools in Nova Scotia, Canada. Participants: 5244 children in the fifth grade (10–11 years old) participating in the Children’s Lifestyle and School Performance Study (CLASS). Results: Most children reported being involved in family meal choices or food preparation at least weekly (74 and 68 %). The likelihood of helping choose family meals once a week was 33 % lower among girls from food-insecure households compared to girls from food-secure households. No differences in boys’ involvement in family meal choices were observed according to household FI status. Boys from food-insecure households were 65 % more likely than boys from food-secure households to assist with food preparation/cooking four times per week. No differences in girls’ involvement in food preparation were observed according to household FI status. Conclusions: Findings support that household FI is not due to a lack of food skills but most likely due to inadequate access to resources. This supports the call for upstream policies targeting the structural issues underpinning household FI such as low income.
Validation of a modified ambiance scale in nursing homes

Abstract Objectives We translated and modified an ambiance scale for use by (in)formal caregivers in Dutch nursing homes. We tested validity and reliability of the modified Ambiance Scale. Method Convenience sampling was used to enrol (in)formal caregivers in three nursing homes in the Netherlands. 104 questionnaires were filled in; 45 by informal caregivers, 46 by formal caregivers. Ten caregivers filled in the questionnaire twice for test-retest purposes. Three original items were used, and seven newly were added to form the modified Ambiance Scale. Each item consisted of an adjective pair assessing an aspect of ambiance on a scale of 1 (homelike) to 5 (institutional). Caregivers filled in the questionnaire on two different days to assess intra rater reliability. Differences in scoring between formal and informal caregivers and between original and new items were analyzed. Results The questionnaire was easy to comprehend and fill in. Internal consistency was good (a = 0.93). Validity was found to be good. Factor analysis demonstrated that eight items identified as one factor. No differences in scoring between the first and second assessment were found (p<.001). Formal caregivers scored ambiance more chaotic than informal caregivers did (p<.01). No differences in scoring between original and new items were found (p =.06). Conclusion This study demonstrated that the modified Ambiance Scale had good internal consistency, moderate replicability and both informal and formal caregivers’ overall ratings were comparable. The modified Ambiance Scale is a valid, reliable and easy to use tool to assess ambiance in nursing home settings.
Total saponin of Dioscorea collettii attenuates MSU crystal-induced inflammation via inhibiting the activation of the NALP3 inflammasome and caspase-1 in THP-1 macrophages

Total saponins extracted from Dioscorea collettii (TSD), extracts of the Chinese herb Dioscorea, are thought to exhibit therapeutic benefit in gouty arthritis. However, its exact mechanism remains unclear. The current study aimed to elucidate the underlying mechanisms by investigating the effects of TSD on the inflammation induced by monosodium urate (MSU) crystals in THP-1 macrophages. The viability of THP-1 macrophages was examined using the MTT assay and the levels of inflammatory cytokines, including interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-18 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, released by the cells were quantitatively measured using ELISA kits. The results revealed that the protein level of cluster of differentiation 11b increased in THP-1 cells treated with 100 ng/ml phorbol ester, suggesting that monocytic THP-1 cells were successfully differentiated into macrophages. TSD decreased the levels of inflammatory cytokines, including TNF-α, IL-18 and IL-1β, secreted by THP-1 macrophages. As the release of IL-1β and IL-18 is dependent on the NLR family pyrin domain containing 3 (NALP3) inflammasome and caspase-1, the current study investigated the effect of TSD on the aforementioned proteins. The results revealed that TSD decreased the protein levels of NALP3 and apoptosis-associated speck-like, which serve important roles in the assembly of the NALP3 inflammasome. Furthermore, NALP3 inflammasome-related proteins were also decreased by TSD in rotenone induced THP-1 macrophages, TSD inhibited the activation of caspase-1 and rotenone-induced NALP3 inflammasome activation in THP-1 macrophages. The results obtained in the current study revealed that TSD attenuated MSU crystal-induced inflammation by inhibiting rotenone-induced activation of the NALP3 inflammasome and caspase-1, suggesting that these two proteins may be novel targets for the treatment of gouty arthritis.
IoT Framework for Smart Irrigation using Machine Learning Technique

The scarcity of freshwater around the world is becoming a serious issue, so there is a dire need to come up with a solution for effective utilization of water resources. Basically, agriculture depends on monsoon which is not a sufficient water source. The Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine Learning (ML) based smart irrigation system is employed in the field of agriculture to overcome the problem of water resource management. In this work, a smart irrigation system is proposed to predict the irrigation requirement of the field using several environmental parameters along with weather forecasting that assists the growth of the crop. This system proposes the idea of training the ensemble method in ML using the collected real-time data to make an optimized decision. This prediction model helps in reducing the traditional irrigation methods, thereby conserving water, labor and plant nutrients. This system provides a low-cost prototype model with advanced technological features with a fully functional system and the observed results are optimal with 90% accuracy.
Relationship Between Apolipoprotein E Gene Polymorphism and Lipid Parameters in Patients with Behçets Disease

Behcet's Disease (BD) is a rare, autoimmune, chronic and inflammatory disorder whose cause is not fully understood. This study was aimed to determine apolipoprotein E gene (APOE) polymorphism, and its relationship with serum lipid levels in BD. The study group consisted of 30 BD patients (18 male, 12 female) and 51 healthy volunteers (29 male, 22 female). Levels of serum lipids were determined by enzymatic, and apolipoproteins by the immunonephelometric methods. Genetic analysis of the APOEpolymorphism was carrried out using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based assay. Although the levels of total and low density lipoprotein cholesterol (TC and LDL-C respetively), apolipoprotein B (APOB) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) had significantly (p<0.05) higher in patients than healthy volunteers, the levels of APOA-I, APOE, triglyceride (TG), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDLC), polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNL) and frequencies of APOE alleles were not significantly different in both healthy and in patient groups.In conclusion, APOE gene polymorphism could not show a distinctive feature in BD patients.
Improved the Monitoring Performance of Oil Pipeline Using Underwater Wireless Sensor Network

The continuous progress in communications and integrated systems has led to significant development in the field of industrial tasks and greater control. The great scientific advances in information and communication technology, the improvement of microelectromechanical systems, industrial intelligence, and process control have improved all areas of industrial practices related to oil processing. Underwater acoustic wireless sensor networks (UAWSN) are used in different applications such as data collection, coastal monitoring, earthquake forecasting, oil pipeline monitoring, and pollution detection. The harsh underwater environments impose various constraints, most notably high bit error, propagation delay, low bandwidth, and short-range communications [1]. All of these limitations reduce the performance and lifetime of sensor nodes, therefore require the deployment of nodes in different ways. Deployment strategies play an important role in the success of underwater sensor networks because they need safeguards to address key objectives such as improving network life and full connectivity [2]. In addition, deployment strategies should address the key factors associated with the node or network, such as delay, throughput, packet reception rate, transmission and reception capacity, and energy consumption [3]. The linearity of oil pipelines requires the establishment of a linear sensor network along the pipeline for monitoring. Underwater linear networks characterized by limited routing protocols due to the linearity of the network thus, the simple algorithm is required to reduce energy consumption [4].
A Pitfall of Cautiousness in Monetary Policy

Central banks are often reluctant to take immediate or forceful actions in the face of new information on the economic outlook. To rationalize this cautious approach, Brainard’s attenuation principle is often invoked: when a policy-maker is unsure of the effects of his policies, he should react less than he would under certainty. We show that the Brainard principle, while a wise recommendation for policy-making in general, runs into a pitfall when it is applied to a central bank setting monetary policy. For a central bank, concerns over uncertainty create a cautiousness bias: acting less is justified when taking as given the private sector’s expectations of inflation, but acting less shifts these inflation expectations away from the central bank’s inflation target. In response to the de-anchoring of expectations, the central bank can easily end up acting as much as it is initially reluctant to do, but without succeeding in putting inflation back on target. This pattern is a feature of policy under discretion: the central bank would often be better off tying its hands not to listen to its concerns about uncertainty.
Dying to Bomb: An Interactive Triangular Approach to Suicide Terrorism

Although suicide terrorism is still intuitively seen as inherently defiant to the very premise of liberal society (Michelsen, 2003), academic efforts are increasingly being made to make sense of the phenomenon as a product of endogenous and exogenous circumstances. Because its definition bears consequences on the understanding of its causality, the contentious nature of the term ‘suicide terrorism’ bears clarification. This essay will understand suicide terrorism as a tactic amongst others deployed by a specific organisation consisting in “the targeted use of self-destructing humans against non-combatant populations to effect political change” (Atran, 2003: 1534). Whereas Assaf Moghadam (2006: 707) considers the perpetrator’s death as a necessary criterion, this essay will concur with Ariel Merari (1998: 192) in lowering the benchmark to simply the expectation of nonsurvival.
Interactive effects of gender and sexual orientation on cortical thickness, surface area and gray matter volume: a structural brain MRI study.

Background Testosterone is thought to play a crucial role in sexual differentiation of the brain, and sexual orientation is programmed into our brain structures even when we are still fetuses. Although gender and sexual orientation differences have been shown respectively in many brain structures, the mechanism underlying the sexual differentiation of the brain is still unknown. The study is to investigate the interactive effects of gender and sexual orientation on cerebral structures in homosexual and heterosexual people. Methods Sexual orientation was evaluated by the Kinsey scale. We collected structural magnetic resonance image (MRI) data of local cortical thickness, surface area, and gray matter volume in all the subjects (29 homosexual and 29 heterosexual men, 17 homosexual and 17 heterosexual women). Statistical maps were generated using a general linear model (GLM) using FreeSurfer's Query, Design, Estimate, Contrast (QDEC) interface. We had sexual orientation and gender as 2 discrete factors with 2 levels, allowing for the generation of the interaction between sexual orientation and gender: homosexual women and heterosexual men versus heterosexual women and homosexual men. Coordinates were in Talairach space. All the cluster sizes were calculated with a P value of 0.01. Results Results revealed interactions concerning the area and gray matter volume between the factors of sexual orientation and gender. Regarding the thickness, an interaction was not found in any regions of the clusters. Regarding the area, an interaction was found in region of left middle temporal lobe, inferior temporal lobe, lateral occipital lobe, fusiform [(-58.1, -38.6, -14.7), maximum vertex-wise (MV) log10(P) =3.30, cluster size (CS) =1,286.90 mm2], and left rostral middle frontal lobe, pars opercularis, caudal middle frontal lobe [(-37.3, 23.6, 24.8), MV log10(P) =2.92, CS =1,194.40 mm2]. Regarding the gray matter volume, an interaction was found in the region of the left pars opercularis (inferior frontal gyrus) [(-42.9, 6.3, 18.5), MV log10(P) =1.31, CS =526.79 mm2]. Conclusions The present study extends our understandings of how structural features differ in homosexual men, heterosexual men, homosexual women, and heterosexual women. Furthermore, it highlights the interactions between sexual orientation and gender in the left inferior frontal gyrus, bilateral temporal lobe, and the right rostral anterior cingulate cortex, which are suggested to play a critical role in the sexual differentiation of the human brain.
The relationship between plasma total antioxidant capacity and dietary antioxidant status in adults with type 2 diabetes

Background and aim: There is limited information available on the association of plasma total antioxidant capacity (TAC) with dietary TAC in DM. The aim of this study was to evaluate the plasma TAC and its association with dietary antioxidant status in adults with Type 2 diabetes. Methods: Thirty outpatients diagnosed with type 2 DM (diabetics, n = 29) and 15 healthy subjects (control, n = 15) aged 40-70 with BMI≤ 30 kg/m2 were recruited to the study. Energy and nutrients intake, anthropometric measurements, dietary and plasma TAC, and some biochemical parameters were evaluated. The calculation of dietary TAC was based on previously published databases in which modified version of the FRAP. Results: Serum triglyceride, uric acid, and HbA1c levels in diabetics were higher than controls. A negative and statistically significant correlation was found between plasma TAC and HbA1c for diabetics. A negative and statistically significant correlation was observed between dietary TAC, HbA1c and fasting plasma glucose in diabetics. A positive and statistically significant correlation was found between plasma TAC and dietary intake of niacin in diabetics. No remarkable differences were found between dietary and plasma TAC in either group.Conclusion: This study provides evidence that dietary TAC is not an important modulator of antioxidant status in diabetic subjects. But, it showed that the increase in niacin and antioxidant taken with foods can be effective in controlling HbA1c and fasting plasma glucose.