Search Results (1,821)

Chiranthodendron pentadactylon Larreat (“flor de manita”) is traditionally used for gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, and neurological disorders. Objective: This study comprehensively integrated phytochemical characterization, in silico toxicological profiling, an exposure-informed Integrative Toxicity Prediction Model (ITPM), uncertainty analysis, and acute testing of a fresh flower aqueous extract (FFAE). Methods: Thirty-six phytochemicals were screened for hepatotoxicity, nephrotoxicity, Ames mutagenicity, carcinogenicity, hERG inhibition, reproductive-effects alerts, and acute oral toxicity. Five organ- or effect-specific endpoints were integrated into an exploratory Toxicological Alert Score (TAS), whereas reproductive alerts and predicted LD₅₀ were reported separately. Seventeen compounds quantified in the FFAE were compared with a 20-compound literature-informed profile through 50,000 Monte Carlo iterations. Male CD-1 mice received a single FFAE dose of 300–5000 mg/kg and were observed for 14 days. Results: Positive predictions occurred for hERG inhibition in 33 compounds (91.7%), hepatotoxicity in 29 (80.6%), nephrotoxicity and carcinogenicity in 28 each (77.8%), and mutagenicity in 21 (58.3%). Six compounds had predicted LD₅₀ values ≤ 1000 mg/kg. The proportional ITPM toxicity-evidence index was 6.91% for the experimental profile and 19.34% for the literature-informed profile. Monte Carlo means were 6.98% (95% uncertainty interval, 5.65–8.44%) and 19.32% (16.76–22.37%), respectively. No mortality, overt clinical signs, or treatment-related body weight differences occurred up to 5000 mg/kg. Conclusions: Compound-level predictions identified priorities for confirmatory testing, while the extract-specific model yielded a lower comparative toxicity-evidence proportion, and the animal study showed low overall acute toxicity under the evaluated conditions. These findings do not establish general or long-term safety, calibrated risk probabilities, or biological neutralization of toxicological liabilities. Full article

Metal additive manufacturing based on Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) of metal-filled polymers is emerging as a cost-effective alternative to conventional processes such as Metal Injection Molding (MIM), but its industrial relevance remains limited by challenges in densification and mechanical performance. This study presents an exploratory investigation of a low-cost FFF process using 316L stainless steel filament for industrial applications in railway maintenance. A Taguchi L8 design was employed as a screening approach to evaluate the influence of key printing parameters, followed by sintering using both internal and external configurations. The mechanical response depended strongly on sintering temperature: sintering at 1350 °C increased the ultimate tensile strength to 216–278 MPa and Young’s modulus to 63–109 GPa, while the apparent porosity remained between 12.6% and 16.9%. In the exploratory main-effects analysis of variance ANOVA, none of the investigated printing parameters had a statistically significant effect on the measured responses (p > 0.05). For porosity at 1350 °C, nozzle diameter nevertheless showed the largest descriptive contribution (23.81%, F = 2.06, p = 0.2241). Overall, porosity introduced during the printing stage remained a major limitation of the process. Although the achieved properties remain below those of conventionally processed 316L, the process demonstrates potential for non-structural and cost-sensitive applications. Because each factor combination was tested once, the ANOVA and signal-to-noise S/N results are interpreted as exploratory screening and response ranking rather than confirmatory inference or independent evidence of robustness. Full article

Background/Objectives: Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is a prevalent neuropathy often associated with repetitive wrist movements, sustained wrist postures, and external compression. Although cycling offers numerous health benefits, prolonged handlebar contact may contribute to hand/wrist discomfort and cycling-related neuropathies. As a pilot study, the aim of this work was intended to (1) evaluate the feasibility of using pressure mapping to quantify glove-related pressure redistribution during cycling; (2) identify key confounding variables requiring improved control in future studies, including comfort/discomfort, posture, cycling experience, hand position, and anthropometric variability; and (3) provide preliminary estimates of pressure variability and effect magnitude between bare hands, conventional biking gloves, and Shock·Tek™ gloves to inform a larger confirmatory study. Methods: Thirteen right-handed adults were tested during low-intensity cycling using a stationary bike equipped with a pliance^®-x pressure sensor wrapped around the handlebar under three conditions: no gloves, traditional padded gloves, and Shock·Tek™ gloves. Results: This exploratory pilot study (1) demonstrated the feasibility of using pressure mapping, (2) identified confounding variables, and (3) showed that while traditional gloves did not significantly reduce surface pressure in the projected median nerve region as we hypothesized, the Shock·Tek™ gloves yielded a 61% reduction in pressure (mean: 20.23 kPa vs. 51.96 kPa with no gloves). Conclusions: These preliminary findings suggest that glove design can influence surface pressure distribution over the projected median nerve region at the hand–glove–handlebar interface during short-duration stationary cycling. Full article

Artificial intelligence (AI) is now woven into university communication, learning, and administration, exposing students, faculty, and professional staff to scalable cybercrime, social engineering, and personal-data risks. This study tested a Compliance Architecture–Legality–Trust–Vigilance (CALT–V) model in which legal literacy and AI-enabled risk perception act as upstream orientations, trust as a calibration mechanism, vigilance as the proximal behavioral-translation layer, and digital safety behaviors as the outcome. A cross-sectional, role-stratified, non-probability survey of 710 UAE higher-education stakeholders (300 students, 200 faculty members, and 210 administrative/professional staff) measured self-reported legal literacy, objective legal knowledge, AI risk perception, institutional and technology/AI trust, vigilance, digital safety behaviors, and perceived governance conditions. Respondents reported moderate objective legal knowledge alongside moderate-to-high self-reported literacy, risk awareness, trust, vigilance, and safety behavior. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were estimated with subscale-level indicators in IBM SPSS AMOS 29.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA), using maximum-likelihood estimation, complete scale-level cases, and 5000-sample bias-corrected bootstrapping for indirect and total effects. Because the model is multidimensional and the sample is role-balanced but non-probability, the results are read as cautious model-based evidence rather than definitive population evidence. AI risk perception was associated with digital safety behaviors both directly and indirectly through trust and vigilance, whereas trust was linked to safety mainly through vigilance. Legal literacy was associated with trust, but its total association with digital safety behavior was not statistically reliable. Rather than claiming that human oversight is a new idea, the findings specify how trust-with-verification can be operationalized in UAE university cyber-governance through concrete verification, reporting, and incident-escalation routines. Full article

Internal wall loss in hot-fluid pipelines is difficult to monitor during operation because weak thermal perturbations are masked by global heating, axial cooling, and external heat dissipation. This study develops an external thermometry framework combining a flexible-base fiber Bragg grating (FBG) array with residual-peak morphology analysis. A closed-loop hot-water rig with five artificial wall-loss regions was tested under exposed-air and buried-soil boundaries, and a validated conjugate heat-transfer model generated 269 controlled scenarios. Experiments showed residual anomalies above measurement uncertainty, with a maximum repeatability standard deviation of approximately 0.12 °C and the clearest signals at 90–120 s after hot-water injection. Boundary conditions strongly affected observability at 115 mm and 70 °C, and the residual peak increased from about 0–1 °C in exposed air to 8–9 °C under the buried boundary. Simulations showed that defect width expanded the disturbed region from approximately 100 to 210 mm, while peak amplitude remained coupled to width and depth. Six morphology descriptors jointly estimated position, width, and depth, with mean absolute errors (MAEs) of 0.547, 1.647, and 0.245 mm, respectively. The method provides a recalibratable early-screening route for locating suspicious wall-loss regions before confirmatory inspection. Full article

This study examined the mediating role of intrinsic motivation in the relationships among curiosity and exploration, sensation seeking, and leisure time motivation among nature sports participants. A quantitative cross-sectional design was employed, and the proposed relationships were tested using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The sample consisted of 513 individuals actively participating in nature sports. Data were analyzed using SPSS and AMOS, and the validity and reliability of the measurement model were assessed through Confirmatory Factor Analysis. The results demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties of the measurement model and excellent overall model fit (CFI = 0.99, TLI = 0.99, RMSEA = 0.010, SRMR = 0.013). Curiosity and exploration and sensation seeking were positively associated with intrinsic motivation, while intrinsic motivation was positively associated with leisure time motivation. In addition, both curiosity and exploration and sensation seeking showed significant direct associations with leisure time motivation. Mediation analyses revealed significant indirect associations between curiosity and exploration, sensation seeking, and leisure time motivation through intrinsic motivation. These findings suggest that leisure time motivation among nature sports participants is associated with exploratory tendencies, sensation-seeking tendencies, and intrinsically rewarding psychological experiences. The study highlights intrinsic motivation as a theoretically relevant link within the tested structural model. Full article

Introduction: Sexual consent is a multidimensional construct involving both internal willingness and external communication, yet validated French-language instruments assessing these dimensions remain scarce. Objective: This study aimed to validate French versions of the Internal and External Consent Scales (IECS-FV) and examine their associations with sociodemographic and intimate relationship variables. Methods: A sample of 649 French-speaking emerging adults (18–25 years) completed translated versions of the Internal Consent Scale (ICS-FV) and External Consent Scale (ECS-FV), alongside measures of sociodemographic characteristics and intimate relationship factors. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA), gender invariance testing, reliability analyses, ANOVAs, and correlational analyses were conducted. Results: The revised ICS-FV demonstrated excellent psychometric properties with a 19-item four-factor structure: physical response/arousal, agreement/wantedness, safety/comfort, and readiness. The ECS-FV showed satisfactory psychometric properties with a refined 15-item five-factor structure: non-verbal behavior, passive behavior, communicative/initiator behavior, borderline pressure, and non-response signals. Almost all factors demonstrated good internal consistency (α ≥ 0.70). Gender invariance was supported for the ECS-FV but not for the ICS-FV. Positive internal and external consent dimensions were significantly associated with higher sexual satisfaction, romantic relationship satisfaction, sexual frequency, and relationship commitment; whereas non-response and passive behaviors were linked to less favorable outcomes. Conclusions: The French versions of the IECS-FV are reliable and valid tools for assessing multidimensional sexual consent in French-speaking emerging adults. These instruments offer valuable resources for research, prevention, and clinical interventions targeting sexual health, relational functioning, and sexual violence prevention. Full article

Background/Objectives: The transition toward healthier and more sustainable diets has increased the need for reformulated bakery and confectionery products formulated with alternative ingredients. However, validated instruments for assessing consumer acceptance of these products remain limited. This study aimed to develop and psychometrically validate a multidimensional assessment framework integrating food choice motives, green (environmental) values, health consciousness, perceived nutritional value, willingness to pay a premium, and purchase intention. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 504 consumers in Romania using an online questionnaire. The instrument was developed by adapting established scales and by developing a new Perceived Nutritional Value scale. Dimensionality was evaluated using exploratory (EFA) and confirmatory (CFA) factor analyses. Temporal stability was assessed in an independent test–retest subsample (n = 30; 14-day interval), and the proposed conceptual model was evaluated using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with 5000 bootstrap resamples. Robustness was examined through a sensitivity analysis excluding respondents younger than 18 years (N = 441). Results: EFA (KMO = 0.933) and CFA (CFI = 0.965, TLI = 0.959, RMSEA = 0.061, SRMR = 0.033) supported the proposed six-factor structure. All constructs demonstrated excellent internal consistency (Cronbach’s α: 0.898–0.938), convergent validity (AVE: 0.790–0.889), discriminant validity (HTMT < 0.77), and good-to-excellent test–retest reliability (ICC: 0.82–0.91). Perceived nutritional value was positively and significantly associated with both willingness to pay and purchase intention, and willingness to pay partially mediated the association between perceived nutritional value and purchase intention. The structural model explained 46.1% of the variance in purchase intention; all hypothesized relationships were supported, and the findings remained stable in the sensitivity analysis. Conclusions: The proposed framework demonstrated good psychometric performance and provides a theory-informed measurement framework for assessing consumer acceptance of reformulated bakery and confectionery products. It may support future nutrition research, consumer studies, and the evaluation of food reformulation strategies aimed at promoting healthier and more sustainable dietary choices. Full article

Background: Census data in Hungary indicate a substantial decline in declared religious affiliation, with Christian identification falling from 74.4% in 2001 to 42.5% in 2022, underscoring the need for culturally validated measures of religious faith. Methods: This study examined the psychometric properties of the Hungarian versions of the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire (SCSORF-10) and its 5-item short form (SCSORF-5) in a cross-sectional online sample of 430 participants (M_age = 22.28, SD = 9.23). Results: Confirmatory factor analysis supported a unidimensional structure for both scales, with acceptable support when considering the full pattern of indices, but with elevated RMSEA as a limitation. All models were estimated with the mean- and variance-adjusted weighted least squares estimator (WLSMV) on polychoric correlations, under which fit improved markedly for the SCSORF-10 (CFI = 0.992, TLI = 0.989, SRMR = 0.040, RMSEA = 0.080). Modification indices identified a single interpretable residual covariance between the two explicitly devotional items, which did not alter the solution and was not retained. Measurement invariance across gender was tested with the sequence appropriate to ordered categorical indicators, and configural, threshold, threshold-and-loading, and strict invariance were all supported. Internal consistency was high (SCSORF-10: α = 0.95, ω = 0.95; SCSORF-5: α = 0.89, ω = 0.89). Convergent validity was demonstrated by strong associations with spiritual well-being, while correlations with self-esteem were weak, providing limited discriminant evidence against a conceptually distant construct. Conclusion: The short form showed psychometric properties closely comparable to the full scale; because its items are a subset of the full version, this correspondence is partly expected. Both instruments appear to be reliable and valid for assessing religious faith in Hungary. Known-group evidence was strong: scores separated self-described religious respondents from atheists (d = 1.37) and from believing-but-not-religious respondents (d = 1.17), and the religiosity category accounted for 27.5% of score variance, whereas scores were unrelated to gender and age. Full article

Direct-acting antiviral (DAA) therapy has dramatically transformed the management of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in chronic kidney disease (CKD). Severe renal impairment and dialysis dependence are no longer considered major barriers to virologic cure. The main difficulties have shifted toward efficient diagnosis, choosing the regimen in the presence of cirrhosis and drug interactions, coordinating treatment with kidney transplantation, managing HCV-associated immune-complex kidney disease, and providing treatment in dialysis and resource-limited settings. This narrative review aims to discuss these issues in a decision-oriented manner, using verified guidelines, systematic reviews, important clinical trials, transplant cohorts, and studies of cryoglobulinemic disease, while explicitly comparing the strength and consistency of the underlying evidence and highlighting areas of genuine clinical uncertainty. Present evidence supports using the recommended DAA regimens without renal dose adjustment, while ribavirin needs dose modification when kidney function is reduced and can result in hemolytic anemia. Kidneys from HCV-viremic donors can be transplanted to recipients without HCV infection when proper informed consent, rapid access to DAA treatment, and organized post-transplant monitoring are available, although the minimum effective duration of peri-transplant antiviral prophylaxis remains unresolved. Antiviral therapy is the first-line treatment for HCV-associated glomerular disease, while rituximab-based immunosuppression is largely reserved for severe, rapidly progressive, or persistent cryoglobulinemic vasculitis. Future progress will depend less on proving antiviral efficacy and more on closing the gaps between screening, confirmatory testing, starting treatment, transplantation pathways, and long-term follow-up, gaps that stem from inequities in diagnostic infrastructure, drug reimbursement, and healthcare-system organization as much as from any remaining biomedical uncertainty. Full article

Undiagnosed diabetes and prediabetes are common among trauma patients and increase perioperative complication rates, yet routine glycemic screening at hospital admission is rarely performed. We compared 10 supervised machine learning (ML) algorithms for early detection of impaired glucose metabolism in 1789 trauma surgery patients (1095 normal; 694 prediabetes/diabetes) using questionnaire data and preoperative laboratory values within a nested cross-validation framework with hyperparameter optimization. On the combined feature set, XGBoost achieved the highest area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC-AUC; 0.815), followed by multilayer perceptron (0.814) and Gradient Boosting (0.813); adding blood parameters significantly improved performance for nine of ten algorithms (DeLong’s test, p < 0.05). SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) and XGBoost feature gains identified six overlapping predictors, yielding a simplified model with comparable mean discrimination. Inter-model differences were small, and a fully interpretable logistic regression model remained within one percentage point of XGBoost. The best-performing model demonstrated strong calibration and a higher net benefit than either universal testing or no testing across the evaluated threshold probabilities. In routine trauma practice, such a model could identify patients who would benefit from confirmatory glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) testing, enabling earlier detection of dysglycemia, risk-stratified glucose management, and timely referral for lifestyle intervention in patients with prediabetes. Full article

Retrieval-augmented fine-tuning (RAFT) can improve small language models (sLMs) on retrieval-grounded question answering, but the synthetic training data produced by commercial large language models (LLMs) vary in quality. This paper contributes a quality-aware selection protocol—rather than a new RAFT or QLoRA method—that scores LLM-generated alternatives along four embedding-based dimensions (question relevance, answer faithfulness, QA coherence, and semantic similarity) and selects one alternative per task before parameter-efficient fine-tuning. Under pre-specified paired-bootstrap contrasts with Holm correction, the parameter-free faithfulness-based selector only-AF significantly exceeds random selection on Gemma-2-9B-IT (ΔF1 = +0.106, 95% CI [+0.043, +0.174], Holm-corrected p = 0.019), and its pre-specified weighted companion af-70 (w_AF = 0.70) shows the same confirmed pattern (Holm-corrected p = 0.002). Both effects persist under a Korean character-level F1 that removes particles and punctuation (Holm-corrected p = 0.004 and p = 0.042), indicating robustness to the choice of lexical metric. Relative to training on the full 150-row augmented pool, the quality-selected 50-row sets are statistically indistinguishable while using one third of the training data, which we interpret as data efficiency rather than superiority. Across six instruction-tuned models (2B–27B), a significant selector-by-model interaction indicates that the optimal quality axis is model-dependent, and the two smallest models show no benefit from selection. The study’s confirmatory contrasts use a small controlled Korean corpus under a transductive design; two pre-registered validation experiments probe external validity. On an independent five-fold larger corpus with a passage-level train/test split, fine-tuning transfers strongly and the selected one-third subsets show no significant difference from the full pool, while the advantage over random selection is directionally positive but small and not significant; under controlled corruption of 35% of the pool, the metrics detect the damaged rows, and for the score-sum selector the selection-versus-random benefit is significantly larger than on the clean pool (difference-in-differences p = 0.0014; directionally consistent but not significant for the faithfulness selectors). Within this scope, quality-aware selection is a promising, data-efficient safeguard for synthetic RAFT data—performing comparably to full-pool training at one third of the cost, with growing value as pool quality degrades—and larger-scale external validation remains future work. Full article

A fixed-odds contract on short-horizon price direction has a positive expected value only when its win probability exceeds the break-even rate implied by the payout ratio. A deployable predictor must also produce signals at a sufficiently stable rate. We formulate this setting as selective prediction with a coverage constraint and combine a five-seed gradient-boosting ensemble over a 90-dimensional causal feature panel with daily adaptive quantile thresholds, each estimated from the preceding 14 to 28 days of model scores, with parameters selected on training data alone. Configurations are frozen after three chronological pseudo-out-of-sample folds and evaluated on a held-out period from 1 January to 10 June 2026, and the whole procedure is then repeated on a quarterly re-freezing cadence over seven successive windows. Across BTC and ETH at 5- and 10-min horizons, with a payout of 0.8 and a 55.56% break-even rate, the models execute 10.4 to 11.0 trades per day, and all four selective win rates exceed break-even. Under a dependence-aware block bootstrap, three of four remain significant, and within a 32-test confirmatory family, two survive Holm–Bonferroni correction. Coverage stays inside the operational band in 26 of 28 re-frozen windows. Compared under one execution protocol, a fixed calibration slice drifts out of band while a trailing window does not, and adaptive conformal inference (ACI) matches the proposed rule on coverage when its step size is tuned but not otherwise, whereas an outcome-driven conformal controller reduces coverage by more than an order of magnitude. The expected value is insensitive to exchange fees, which consume under 5% of the measured edge, and sensitive to the payout term. Under matched feature sets, training pools, and coverage, most of the apparent cross-asset difference does not persist. This paper presents a proof of concept for the framework rather than making any claim about cryptocurrency predictability. Full article

Purpose: This study investigates the structural pathways driving the startup potential of Generation Z students in Romania’s post-transition economy. It examines the sequential relationship between Entrepreneurial Mindset (EM), Entrepreneurial Intentions (EIs), and Entrepreneurial Behavior (EB), focusing on the mediating role of intentions in bridging the gap between cognition and action. Design/methodology/approach: Using a quantitative explanatory design, data were collected through a two-stage hybrid framework from a sample of 215 Romanian business students associated with the Hackathon Innovation Labs (HILs), selected via a non-probability purposive sampling method. Hypotheses were tested using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with maximum likelihood estimation, supported by Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to ensure statistical rigor. Findings: Results confirm that EM is a robust predictor of EI, which significantly drives EB, explaining 45.2% of its variance. The findings highlight that intentions fully mediate the relationship, suggesting that a growth-oriented mindset turns into firm intentions to overcome institutional and cultural barriers. Originality: This research applies a rigorous SEM framework to a cohort of digital natives in an underrepresented Eastern European emerging market. It integrates mindset as a foundational cognitive precursor and provides empirical evidence of the sequential path to entrepreneurial behavior. Research limitations/implications: The study is limited by its sample size and geographic focus on Romanian business students. Future longitudinal research should explore external contingency factors, such as access to capital and ecosystem support, to validate model generalizability. Practical and social implications: Higher education should shift toward experiential programs like HILs, embedding credit-bearing hackathons and micro-credentials to foster an entrepreneurial mindset. Socially, sustaining this momentum with structured mentorship bridges the intention–action gap, transforming Gen Z’s digital potential into tangible economic value for the post-transition ecosystem. Full article

Background/Objectives: South Korea faces one of the world’s most rapid demographic transitions. As population ageing accelerates, creating environments that support healthy ageing-in-place has become a critical public health priority. Grounded in environmental gerontology and the WHO Age-Friendly Cities framework, Ko and colleagues developed the Age-Friendly City Index to assess physical, social, and service environments influencing older adults’ health and well-being; however, the index had only undergone face validity testing. This study empirically evaluated and refined the Index at the district level and examined regional disparities in age-friendliness across South Korean municipalities. Methods: Data from 89 randomly selected municipal (si-gun-gu) districts across 7 metropolitan and 8 provincial cities were drawn from 2020 national public administrative sources. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted using Mplus 7.0. The retained indicators were standardized and aggregated into dimension and total scores. Exploratory comparisons between metropolitan and non-metropolitan municipalities were conducted using Welch’s t-tests. Results: The refined Index retained ten indicators across the three dimensions, including four for the physical environment, three for the social environment, and three for the service environment. The physical environment showed the strongest empirical coherence, whereas the social and service environments were weakly defined. Non-metropolitan municipalities had higher observed scores across all three dimensions and in the total score. Effect sizes ranged from moderate to large, with the largest difference observed in the physical environment. Conclusions: The refined Index offers a preliminary diagnostic framework for benchmarking age-friendliness, with the physical environment score providing the most dependable basis for comparison. Findings reveal pronounced regional disparities in per-older-resident environmental provision and underscore the need for region-specific public health and urban planning strategies to foster inclusive, supportive, and health-promoting communities for older adults. Full article