Epidemiological data show that the use of alcohol and other psychoactive substances is higher among university students when compared with the general population and high school students. The use of psychotropic drugs by students in health courses deserve special attention due to because they will be responsible for the health education and care of the population. The present study aims to describe, through a cross-sectional study, the risks and the profile of consumption of psychoactive substances by students of the Biological and Health Sciences courses at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA). An online and anonymous questionnaire was applied from September 20, 2019 to June 15, 2021. 514 responses were obtained, of which 502 were considered according to the inclusion criteria. For recreational use of psychoactive substances, both for lifetime use and for use in the last 3 months, the prevalence of alcohol, cannabis and tobacco were the highest ones in that order. Only alcohol, cannabis and inhalants showed a percentage of individuals at high risk of developing problems. These results indicate the need for local intervention, in order to prevent risky behavior, damage to mental health and major consequences for society and university performance.

The majority of E-commerce transactions reveal private information such as customers' identities, order contents, and payment information during the transaction. Other personal information such as health conditions, religion, and even ethnicity may be also deduced. Even when deploying electronic cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, anonymity cannot be fully guaranteed. Also, many anonymous payment schemes suffer from possible double spending circumstances. E-commerce privacy is basically a difficult problem as it involves parties with concurring interests. Three major e-commerce requirements are highly difficult to resolve: anonymous purchase, anonymous delivery, and anonymous payment. This work presents a possible e-commerce system addressing all three anonymity requirements for electronic-items business on open networks. The system offers anonymous entities authentication mechanisms up to completing a fair anonymous e-commerce transaction. The system is based on deploying a physically clone-resistant hardware token for each relevant involved party. The tokens are made clone-resistant by accommodating a Secret Unknown Cipher (SUC) in each hardware-token as a digital PUF-like identity. A set of novel generic system-setups for units, protocols and e-commerce schemes is introduced. The proposed anonymization is basically attained by virtually-replacing relevant e-commerce entities by low-cost, unique and clone-resistant tokens/units using SUCs. The units act as trustable anonymous, authenticated and non-replaceable entities monitored by their acting users.

Abstract: Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is considered a lifelong disability that has been framed by neurobiological descriptions focused on the brain. These are important features but fail to tell the story of living with FASD. By surveying those with FASD, this work expands upon prior survey work which illustrated a multitude of early onset physiological issues occurring at rates much higher than typical of the general population. The current project, again using an anonymous survey methodology, seeks to open up other direct experiences to better understand the complexity of living with FASD. An anonymous online survey was used to gather data on advresity in childhood, schooling, employment, housing and finances, involvement with the criminal justice system as well as relationships and parenting. Results inform how supports can be enhanced and targeted with a goal of improving the quality of life. The survey was developed by adults living with FASD who have served as a long-standing advocacy and educational group influencing policy and practice in the field.

Many academics are critical of the current publishing system, but it is difficult to create a better alternative. This review relates to the Sciences and Social Sciences, and discusses the primary purpose of academic journals as providing a seal of approval for perceived quality, impact, significance, and importance. The key issues considered include the role of anonymous refereeing, continuous rather than discrete frequency of publications, avoidance of time wasting, and seeking adventure. Here we give recommendations about the organization of journal articles, the roles of associate editors and referees, measuring the time frame for refereeing submitted articles in days and weeks rather than months and years, encouraging open access internet publishing, emphasizing the continuity of publishing online, academic publishing as a continuous dynamic process, and how to improve research after publication. Citations and functions thereof, such as the journal impact factor and h-index, are the benchmark for evaluating the importance and impact of academic journals and published articles. Even in the very top journals, a high proportion of published articles are never cited, not even by the authors themselves. Top journal publications do not guarantee that published articles will make significant contributions, or that they will ever be highly cited. The COVID-19 world should encourage academics worldwide not only to rethink academic teaching, but also to re-evaluate key issues associated with academic journal publishing in the future.