bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Clinical attachment loss is cross‐sectionally associated with elevated glucose among adults without diabetes
Authors: Adam Hamdi S. , Molinsky Rebecca , Bohn Bruno , Roy Sumith , Rosenbaum Michael , Paster Bruce , Yuzefpolskaya Melana , Colombo Paolo C. , Papapanou Panos N. , Desvarieux Moïse , Jacobs David R. , Demmer Ryan T. 
Published: February 2024

AbstractAimWe investigated whether periodontal measures are cross‐sectionally associated with prediabetes and cardiometabolic biomarkers among non‐diabetic younger adults.Materials and MethodsOne thousand seventy‐one participants (mean age = 32.2 years [SE = 0.3]; 73% female) from the Oral Infections, Glucose Intolerance and Insulin Resistance Study were enrolled. Full‐mouth clinical attachment loss (fm‐CAL), probing depth (fm‐PD) and bleeding on probing were ascertained. Interproximal CAL (i‐CAL) and probing depths (i‐PD) served as our primary exposures. Glucose, HbA1c, insulin and insulin resistance (HOMA‐IR) outcomes were assessed from fasting blood. Prediabetes was defined per American Diabetes Association guidelines. Prediabetes prevalence ratios (PR [95% CI]) and mean [SE] cardiometabolic biomarkers were regressed on periodontal variables via multivariable robust variance Poisson regression or multivariable linear regression.ResultsPrevalence of prediabetes was 12.5%. Fully adjusted prediabetes PR in Tertiles 3 versus 1 of mean i‐CAL was 2.42 (1.77, 3.08). Fully adjusted fasting glucose estimates across i‐CAL tertiles were 83.29 [0.43], 84.31 [0.37], 86.48 [0.46]; p for trend <.01. Greater percent of sites with i‐PD ≥3 mm showed elevated natural‐log‐HOMA‐IR after adjustment (0%–12% of sites = 0.33 [0.03], 13%–26% of sites = 0.39 [0.03], ≥27% of sites = 0.42 [0.03]; p for trend = .04).Conclusionsi‐CAL (vs. fm‐CAL) was associated with elevated fasting glucose and prediabetes, whereas i‐PD (vs. fm‐PD) was associated with insulin resistance. Future studies are needed to examine periodontal disease and incident prediabetes.
Understanding the gastrointestinal tract in obesity: From gut motility patterns to enzyme secretion
Authors: Steenackers Nele , Eksteen Gabriel , Wauters Lucas , Augustijns Patrick , Van der Schueren Bart , Vanuytsel Tim , Matthys Christophe 
Published: February 2024

AbstractBackground and PurposeThe pathophysiology of obesity has been the product of extensive research, revealing multiple interconnected mechanisms contributing to body weight regulation. The regulation of energy balance involves an intricate network, including the gut–neuroendocrine interplay. As a consequence, research on the gut–brain–microbiota axis in obesity has grown extensively. The physiology of the gastrointestinal tract, far from being underexplored, has significant implications for the development of specific complications in people living with obesity across the fields of gastroenterology, nutrition, and pharmacology. Clinical research indicates higher fasting bile acids serum levels, and blunted postprandial increases in bilious secretions in people living with obesity. Findings are less straightforward for the impact of obesity on gastric emptying with various studies reporting accelerated, normal, or delayed gastric emptying rates. Conversely, the effect of obesity on gastrointestinal pH, gastrointestinal transit, and gastric and pancreatic enzyme secretion is largely unknown. In this review, we explore the current evidence on the gastrointestinal physiology of obesity.
Responses of continuous cadmium exposure on some biological and physiological performance of cotton bollworm Helicoverpa armigera
Authors: Azizi Roya , Jalali Sendi Jalal 
Published: February 2024

AbstractA detailed effect of continuous exposure of Cd on an important pest of crops like Helicoverpa armigera is lacking in the current literature. The cadmium was provisioned at 1.25, 2.5 and 5 mg/kg in the artificial diet and fed to newly hatched larvae for at least three subsequent generations. The total developmental period and fecundity were severely affected with no larval hatching in treated insects. Total haemocyte count and differential haemocyte count (i.e., granulocytes and plasmatocytes) were decreased significantly compared to controls in treated insects. The antioxidant system (i.e., catalase, glucose‐6‐phosphate dehydrogenase, superoxide dismutase and peroxidase), and the two detoxifying agents glutathione‐s‐transferase showed increased activity compared to controls. The results of the acetylcholinesterase assay showed a decrease in activity. Increased rate of aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, uric acid and decreased rate of alkaline phosphatase and lactate dehydrogenase in the first generation but showing an increasing trend in next two generations. The acid phosphatase activity was increased in the first two generations but significantly reduced in the third generation. The discrepancy in all physiological activities corresponded with the histological study of midgut infrastructure. It is inferred from the obtained results that cadmium continuous exposure affects every system of any organism that may perform irreparable damages.
Genetic Signature Controlling Root System Architecture in Diverse Spring Wheat Germplasm
Authors: Zaman Zahra , Iqbal Rubab , Jabbar Abdul , Zahra Nageen , Saleem Bilal , Kiran Aysha , Maqbool Saman , Rasheed Awais , Naeem Muhammad Kashif , Khan Muhammad Ramzan 
Published: February 2024

AbstractRoots are the main sensing organ, initiating multiple signaling pathways in response to abiotic factors, including nutrients, drought, and salt stress. A focus on improving the root system architecture is a key strategy to mitigate these stresses in wheat crop. In the present study, a diversity panel comprising indigenous landraces and historical cultivars from Pakistan was characterized for the root system architecture (RSA) and important loci were identified using a genome‐wide association study (GWAS). RSA of the diversity panel was characterized 30 days after sowing in brunch tubes, and root images were taken. A high‐throughput root imaging analysis using Rhizovision software was performed by setting the scale to extract the eight RSA traits and four plant biomass‐related traits. GWAS identified 323 association signals for 12 root and biomass traits present on all wheat chromosomes, while the most important and reliable genetic loci (based on pleotropic loci and candidate genes) were identified on chromosomes 2A, 2B, 5A, 5D, 6A, 7B, and 7D for RSA. SNP annotation and transcriptome profiling identified nine candidate genes regulating the RSA and plant biomass traits, including ROOTLESS WITH UNDETECTABLE MERISTEM1, MYB TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR4, BRASSINOSTEROID INSENSITIVE1, SLENDER RICE1, AUXIN‐RESPONSIVE FACTOR25, SCARECROW, NARROW LEAF2, PIN‐FORMED1 AND PHOSPHATE TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR1. This study provided pre‐breeding information for deep‐rooting genotypes and associated markers that will accelerate the incorporation of such traits in breeding.
Policy convergence in authoritarian regimes: A comparative analysis of welfare state trajectories in post‐Soviet countries
Authors: Panaro Angelo Vito 
Published: February 2024

AbstractDo authoritarian regimes adopt similar or equal policies? Despite the large literature on policy convergence in democracies, we know little about whether and to what extent authoritarian regimes follow analogous paths. This article argues that similar policy legacy, political and institutional context, and international influences lead to policy convergence among nondemocratic regimes. Analyzing welfare state trajectories in Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, and Tajikistan, the empirical analysis finds that the welfare state in the three post‐Soviet countries has converged at the level of social spending and the source of welfare financing, while divergence persists in disaggregated levels of social spending; configuration of key welfare programs, particularly in old‐age pensions and unemployment; and the extent of welfare state reforms. Overall, the findings provide important insights into the determinants of policy convergence in nondemocratic regimes and yield critical implications for future research on the welfare state's trajectory in former Soviet countries.
Everyday digital dis/connection: Locating slow violence in (non)encounters with the UK asylum state
Authors: Morgan Hannah 
Published: February 2024

AbstractEncounters with, within and between digital technologies have become characteristic of life in the contemporary moment. This is, often, no different for displaced individuals seeking asylum across European states. Smartphones have become part of the everyday ‘doing’ of life for individuals governed through asylum systems which now includes routinely encountering the state. Whilst smartphones are commonly said to offer the promised affordances of increased connection or communication, this paper aims to explore how everyday encounters with the UK asylum state fall short of these imagined expectations. In its place, the paper identifies how a series of ongoing (non)encounters—encounters that fail to manifest in expected ways; characterised by pauses, delays or voids—become characteristic of the everyday experience of being a digitally connected asylum seeker in the UK. Drawing upon a year‐long ethnographic research project with people actively seeking asylum in the UK between 2022 and 2023, this paper thus explores how the increased uptake of smartphone affordances within the UK asylum system contributes to the ongoing administration of state slow violence: experienced as exhaustion through everyday digital (non)encounters. Developing the concept of the (non)encounter for geographic research, this paper outlines how forms of dis/connection become characteristic of the state encounter for asylum‐seeking individuals. These modes of dis/connection are traced as slow violence along the contours of neoliberalisation and hostile assemblages of asylum governance within the UK context.
Financial distance and FDI flows: Evidence from OECD economies
Authors: Dellis Konstantinos 
Published: February 2024

AbstractForeign direct investment (FDI) has grown dramatically as a major form of international capital transfer over the past decades. The unprecedented growth of cross‐country FDI flows has been attributed to a rich set of economic, geographical and institutional factors. In this paper, Ι examine the role of financial system heterogeneity as a potential detrimental factor to FDI flows across OECD economies. To do so, Ι use a panel dataset of the most recently updated bilateral FDI data at the country level according to OECD BMD4 definition and construct measures of financial distance using a broad set of financial indicators. The econometric approach consists of a gravity‐style model, estimated according to the latest advancements in econometric techniques in order to avoid omitted variable bias. The results indicate that financial system similarity is associated with increased bilateral FDI flows, a conclusion that is robust across different estimation strategies and financial distance measures. This insightful policy implication for advanced economies is that the restructuring of the financial system and harmonisation to best practices can contribute to economic recovery through the FDI channel as well. Finally, the results highlight the importance for the full implementation of the Banking Union and the Capital Markets Union in the EU.
Validated geographic search filters for bibliographic databases: a scoping review protocol
Authors: Muente Catharina , Pachanov Alexander , Hirt Julian , Ayiku Lynda , Pieper Dawid 
Published: February 2024

Objective:
The purpose of this scoping review is to identify validated geographic search filters and report their methodology and performance measures.

Introduction:
Data on specific geographic areas can be required for evidence syntheses topics, such as the investigation of regional inequalities in health care or to answer context-specific epidemiological questions. Search filters are useful tools for reviewers aiming to identify publications with common characteristics in bibliographic databases. Geographic search filters limit the literature search results to a specific geographic feature (eg, a country or region).

Inclusion criteria:
We will include reports on validated geographic search filters that aim to identify research evidence about a defined geographic area (eg, a country/region or a group of countries/regions).

Methods:
This review will be conducted in accordance with JBI methodology for scoping reviews. The literature search will be conducted in PubMed and Embase. The InterTASC Information Specialists’ Sub-Group Search Filter resource and Google Scholar will also be searched. Reports published in any language, from database inception to the present, will be considered for inclusion. Two researchers will independently screen the title, abstract, and full text of the search results. A third reviewer will be consulted in the event of any disagreements. The data extraction will include study characteristics, basic characteristics of the geographical search filter (eg, country/region), and the methods used to develop and validate the search filter. The extracted data will be summarized narratively and presented in a table.

Review registration:
Open Science Framework https://osf.io/5czhs
Excitatory action of low frequency depolarizing GABA/glycine synaptic inputs is prevalent in prenatal spinal SOD1G93A motoneurons
Authors: Zhu Hongmei , Dalvi Urvashi , Cazenave William , Cattaert Daniel , Branchereau Pascal 
Published: February 2024

AbstractAmyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal adult‐onset neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive motor neuron degeneration and muscle paralysis. Recent evidence suggests the dysfunction of inhibitory signalling in ALS motor neurons. We have shown that embryonic day (E)17.5 spinal motoneurons (MNs) of the SOD1G93A mouse model of ALS exhibit an altered chloride homeostasis. At this prenatal stage, inhibition of spinal motoneurons (MNs) is mediated by depolarizing GABAergic/glycinergic postsynaptic potentials (dGPSPs). Here, using an ex vivo preparation and patch clamp recording from MNs with a chloride equilibrium set below spike threshold, we report that low input resistance (Rin) E17.5 MNs from the SOD1G93A ALS mouse model do not correctly integrate dGPSPs evoked by electrical stimulations of GABA/glycine inputs at different frequencies. Indeed, firing activity of most wild‐type (WT) MNs with low Rin was inhibited by incoming dGPSPs, whereas low Rin SOD1G93A MNs were excited or exhibited a dual response (excited by low frequency dGPSPs and inhibited by high frequency dGPSPs). Simulation highlighted the importance of the GABA/glycine input density and showed that pure excitation could be obtained in SOD‐like MNs by moving GABA/glycine input away from the cell body to dendrites. This was in agreement with confocal imaging showing a lack of peri‐somatic inhibitory terminals in SOD1G93A MNs compared to WT littermates. Putative fast ALS‐vulnerable MNs with low Rin are therefore lacking functional inhibition at the near‐term prenatal stage.
imageKey points
We analysed the integration of GABAergic/glycinergic synaptic events by embryonic spinal motoneurons (MNs) in a mouse model of the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) neurodegenerative disease.
We found that GABAergic/glycinergic synaptic events do not properly inhibit ALS MNs with low input resistance, most probably corresponding to future vulnerable MNs.
We used a neuron model to highlight the importance of the GABA/glycine terminal location and density in the integration of the GABAergic/glycinergic synaptic events.
Confocal imaging showed a lack of GABA/glycine terminals on the cell body of ALS MNs.
The present study suggests that putative ALS vulnerable MNs with low Rin lack functional inhibition at the near‐term stage.
Constant Strain-Rate Garofalo Creep Behavior of Intermediate 83Pb/10Sb/5Sn/2Ag and 91.5Sn/8.5Sb Solder Materials
Authors: Stang E. , Lesko C. , Young D. 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
Modern electronics reliability prediction models require materials-specific failure data across a range of conditions. Garofalo models are preferred due to their ability to accurately predict performance over a wide temperature range. However, data on intermediate solders are sparse, especially regarding performance at cold temperatures. We report Garofalo creep data for 83Pb/10Sb/5Sn/2Ag (Indalloy 236) and 91.5Sn/8.5Sb (Indalloy 264). Indalloy 236 exhibits an activation energy of 54.5 kJ/mol, n = 4.5, and α = 0.043 while Indalloy 264 exhibits an activation energy of 70.04 kJ/mol, n = 2.705, and α = 0.099 from −20 °C to 175 °C. We show that modern curve-fitting analysis should be utilized for Garofalo analysis rather than traditional linearization methods. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) were used to characterize the changes in the alloy phases during testing. Microstructural analysis indicates that Indalloy 236 can experience void coalescence at high temperatures while Indalloy 264 precipitates antimony-rich phases on the grain boundaries.
Incidence of injury and illness at the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games held in a closed-loop environment: a prospective cohort study of 7332 athlete days
Authors: Derman Wayne , Runciman Phoebe , Eken Maaike , Boer Pieter-Henk , Blauwet Cheri , Bogdos Emmanouil , Hirschmueller Anja , Jordaan Esme , Kissick James , Lexell Jan , Mohammadi Fariba , Patricio Marcelo , Schwellnus Martin , Webborn Nick , Zhou Jian-Xin 
Published: February 2024

ObjectiveTo describe the epidemiology of injuries and illnesses sustained during the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games, organised in a closed-loop environment to adhere with COVID-19 restrictions.MethodsInjuries and illnesses from all teams were recorded on a daily basis by team medical staff on a web-based form and by local organising committee medical (polyclinic) facilities and venue medical support. Duplicates recorded on both systems were removed. Incidence of injuries and illnesses are reported per 1000 athlete days (95% CI).Results564 athletes (426 male and 138 female) representing 46 countries were monitored for the 13-day period of the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games (7332 athlete days). The overall incidences were 13.0 injuries (10.6–15.8) and 6.1 illnesses (4.5–8.4) per 1000 athlete days. The incidence of injury in alpine skiing (19.9; 15.2–26.1) was significantly higher compared with Nordic skiing, ice hockey and wheelchair curling (p<0.05), while the incidence of respiratory illness was significantly higher in Nordic skiing (1.6; 0.9–2.9) compared with alpine skiing, ice hockey and snowboarding (p<0.05).ConclusionThe incidence of both injury and illness at the Beijing 2022 Games were the lowest yet reported in the Paralympic Winter Games. The incidence of injury was highest in alpine skiing. These findings underscore the importance of ongoing vigilance and continued injury risk mitigation strategies to safeguard the well-being of athletes in these high-risk competitions. Respiratory illnesses were most commonly reported in Nordic skiing, which included the three cases of COVID-19 recorded at the games.
Building consensus on a set of ENDS-specific pictorial health warnings: a Delphi study among a tobacco control expert panel
Authors: Asfar Taghrid , Schmidt Michael , Oluwole Olusanya Joshua , Casas Alejandra , Friedman Lily , Ferdous Tarana , Noar Seth M , Eissenberg Thomas , Maziak Wasim 
Published: February 2024

BackgroundThis study reports on the development of pictorial health warning labels for electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) using the Delphi approach with a panel of tobacco control experts. Twenty-four evidence-based ENDS-specific warnings corresponding to three themes (toxicity, health risks and specific harm) were developed and used in the Delphi study.MethodsWe conducted a three-round online Delphi study among 60 experts (55% female) between June 2022 and April 2023. We balanced the panel in areas of expertise and positions relevant to ENDS (risks, benefits). In round 1, participants rated the warnings on attention, relevance to evidence and perceived effectiveness (harm perception, motivation to quit) and provided suggestions for improvement. In rounds 2 and 3, participants ranked the revised warnings based on importance in each theme. We assessed levels of agreement between participants using interquartile deviations and medians.ResultsWarnings in theme 1, toxicity, received the highest ratings for perceived effectiveness on harm perception and encouraging quitting ENDS (p<0.05). Experts recommended using clear and affirmative text paired with emotion-provoking pictures and avoiding the rare side effects of ENDS. Most of the top-ranked warnings were from theme 3, ENDS-specific harm, pertained to lung damage, dual use of ENDS and cigarettes, nicotine addiction among youth, anti-ENDS industry sentiment and toxicity.DiscussionThis study developed 24 evidence-based ENDS health warning labels using a systematic process that included several rounds of expert panel feedback. These warnings can be used to advance ENDS prevention and tobacco control policies and further target different populations.
The long mean-life-time-controlled and potentially scalable qubits composed of electric dipolar molecules based on graphene
Authors: Huang Yong-Yi 
Published: February 2024

AbstractWe propose a new kind of qubits composed of electric dipolar molecules. The electric dipolar molecules in an external electric field will take simple harmonic oscillations, whose quantum states belonging to the two lowest energy levels act as the states $|0\rangle$
|
0
〉
, $|1\rangle$
|
1
〉
of a qubit. The qubits’ excited states have a very long controlled mean life time about several seconds. We can perform quantum computations by manipulating the qubits of electric dipolar molecules just like those of neutral atoms. When the qubits are used for quantum computations, the dipolar moments’ orientations will harmonically oscillate along an external electric field and they will not change the directions: along or against the electric field, so the qubits can be large-scalely manufactured in graphene system. The radius of Rydberg blockade is about 100 nm.