bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Free sugar intake and associated factors among Sri Lankan preschool children
Authors: Mututanthri Shanika , Thoradeniya Tharanga , Samaranayake Anil , Harris Rebecca 
Published: November 2022

Abstract
Background
Excessive free sugar intake tends to be associated with unpleasant health consequences, such as dental caries and unhealthy weight gain in children, as well as a number of noncommunicable diseases in adults. The WHO suggests that the best method for addressing these issues is to reduce free sugar consumption throughout life, in order to be successful, these measures should be implemented as early as possible. This makes the early formative years of preschool an important point for possible intervention. To confirm this, baseline information on current sugar intake levels is needed, as well as identification of factors associated with high levels of consumption.

Methods
This cross-sectional study was conducted in the district of Colombo, Sri Lanka. The probability proportionate to size technique combined with cluster sampling was used to select a representative sample of 813 children aged 4-5-years from 82 preschools. We developed, and validated a quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) to assess free sugar consumption. Data on correlated factors were collected from caregivers using a pre-tested self-administered questionnaire.

Results
Based on the data, the daily median (IQR) free sugar intake of preschool children was 57.9 (33.2-95.8) grams/day (approximately to 14.5 (8.3-23.9) teaspoons/day) or 21.1% (12.5-34.9%) of their daily energy requirements. The WHO recommends limiting sugar intake to less than 5% of total energy intake; however, the current level is fourfold, and 96% of children consume higher percentage of energy from free sugar than recommended. In terms of total daily sugar consumption, bakery products accounted for 27%, followed by biscuits (15%), and table sugar (15%). Increasing maternal education level significantly reduced sugar intake (p = 0.04). Children of other ethnicities ate more sugar than the Sinhala children (p = 0.01). There was higher sugar intake among those who ate while returning from preschool (p < 0.001), while watching television (p < 0.001), and those who had school-going siblings (p = 0.02).

Conclusion
Among preschool children, free sugar consumption levels were very high and most of the children consumed more sugar than is recommended; which warranted urgent actions to curb sugar intake among them.
Cascade controller based modeling of a four area thermal: gas AGC system with dependency of wind turbine generator and PEVs under restructured environment
Authors: Saha Debdeep , Saikia Lalit Chandra , Rahman Asadur 
Published: November 2022

AbstractThis paper investigates automatic generation control (AGC) of a realistic hybrid four-control area system with a distinct arrangement of thermal units, gas units and additional power generation. A proportional-integral-double derivative cascaded with proportional-integral (PIDD-PI) controller is employed as secondary controller in each control area for robust restructured AGC considering bilateral transactions and contract violations. The Harris Hawks algorithm is used to determine the optimal controller gains and system parameters under several scenarios. Electric vehicle (EV) aggregators are employed in each area to participate fully along with thermal and gas units to compensate for the unscheduled system demand in the local area. A comparison of non-cascaded controllers such as PI-PD, PD-PID and the proposed PIDD-PI proves the superiority of the last. The effect of the decline in inertia is closely examined because of the sudden outage of a generating unit while at the same time considering the change in area frequency response characteristics and area control error. EV fleets make significant contributions to improving the system dynamics during system inertia loss. The use of EVs in the presence of a wind energy-supported grid can provide a stable efficacy to the power grid. Numerous simulations with higher load demands, stochastic communication delays in presence of the WTG plant, and violations in system loadings and changes in gas turbine time constants in the absence of WTG demonstrate the robustness of the proposed control approach.
Neurobiological substrates of chronic low back pain (CLBP): a brain [99mTc]Tc-ECD SPECT study
Authors: Lia Erica Negrini , Papassidero Priscila Colavite , Coelho Eduardo Barbosa , Dach Fabíola , Alexandre-Santos Leonardo , Trevisan Ana Carolina , Santos Lucas Emmanuel Lopes e , Silvah Jose Henrique , Lanchote Vera Lúcia , Pasqua Oscar Della , Wichert-Ana Lauro 
Published: November 2022

Abstract
Background
Recent neuroimaging studies have demonstrated pathological mechanisms related to cerebral neuroplasticity in chronic low back pain (CLBP). Few studies have compared cerebral changes between patients with and without pain in the absence of an experimentally induced stimulus. We investigated the neurobiological substrates associated with chronic low back pain using [99mTc]Tc-ECD brain SPECT and correlated rCBF findings with the numeric rating scale (NRS) of pain and douleur neuropathique en 4 questions (DN4). Ten healthy control volunteers and fourteen patients with neuropathic CLBP due to lumbar disc herniation underwent cerebral SPECT scans. A quantitative comparison of rCBF findings between patients and controls was made using the Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM), revealing clusters of voxels with a significant increase or decrease in rCBF. The intensity of CLBP was assessed by NRS and by DN4. RESULTS: The results demonstrated an rCBF increase in clusters A (occipital and posterior cingulate cortex) and B (right frontal) and a decrease in cluster C (superior parietal lobe and middle cingulate cortex). NRS scores were inversely and moderately correlated with the intensity of rCBF increase in cluster B, but not to rCBF changes in clusters A and C. DN4 scores did not correlate with rCBF changes in all three clusters. CONCLUSIONS: This study will be important for future therapeutic studies that aim to validate the association of rCBF findings with the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profiles of therapeutic challenges in pain.
Biosynthesized silver nanoparticles inhibit Pseudomonas syringae pv. tabaci by directly destroying bacteria and inducing plant resistance in Nicotiana benthamiana
Authors: Jiang Long , Xiang Shunyu , Lv Xing , Wang Xiaoyan , Li Fengwei , Liu Weina , Liu Changyun , Ran Mao , Huang Jin , Xu Xiaohong , Ma Xiaozhou , Jin Yabo , Sun Xianchao 
Published: November 2022

AbstractSilver (Ag)-containing agents or materials are widely used today in plant protection for their antimicrobial activity. In view of the superior inhibitory ability of biosynthesized (aldehyde-modified sodium alginate based) silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) against plant pathogenic fungi in our previous research, here we explored the antagonistic effect of biosynthesized AgNPs on plant pathogenic bacteria and the underlying mechanism. We selected Pseudomonas syringae pv. tabaci, the causal agent of tobacco wildfire disease, as the target and found that 1.2 μg/mL biosynthesized AgNPs completely inhibited the growth of P. syringae pv. tabaci in vitro and in vivo by partly destroying the cell membrane structure of the pathogen, resulting in cytoplasmic leakage. Moreover, Nicotiana benthamiana treated with 1.2 μg/mL biosynthesized AgNPs exhibited a significant upregulation of nonexpressor of pathogenesis-related genes 1 (NPR1) and pathogenesis-related gene 2 (PR2), the typical markers of the salicylic acid (SA)-mediated defense system, and an increase in peroxidase (POD) and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activities as well as the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Furthermore, biosynthesized AgNPs treatment increased the chlorophyll content and dry weight of N. benthamiana. Overall, we demonstrated that biosynthesized AgNPs at a low concentration have high inhibitory effect on the pathogen causing tobacco wildfire disease by destroying bacterial cell membrane and inducing defense resistance in host plant. These results lay a theoretical foundation for further application of biosynthesized AgNPs in the control of plant bacterial diseases.
Explore the distribution of (rs35742686, rs3892097 and rs1065852) genetic polymorphisms of cytochrome P4502D6 gene in the Moroccan population
Authors: El Akil Soumaya , Elouilamine Ezohra , Ighid Nassima , Izaabel El Hassan 
Published: November 2022

Abstract
Background
The CYP2D6 gene encodes a crucial enzyme involved in the metabolic pathways of many commonly used drugs. It is a highly polymorphic gene inducing an interethnic and interindividual variability in disease susceptibility and treatment response. The aim of this study is to evaluate the frequency of the three CYP2D6 most investigated alleles (CYP2D6*3, CYP2D6*4, and CYP2D6*10 alleles) in Morocco compared to other populations.
This study enrolled 321 healthy Moroccan subjects. CYP2D6 genotypes and allele frequencies were assessed using a restriction fragment length polymorphism–polymerase chain reaction genotyping method. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and dendrogram were conducted to evaluate genetic proximity between Moroccans and other populations depending on CYP2D6 allele frequencies.

Results
According to the current study, the results observed the homozygous wild type of the three studied SNPs were predominant among the Moroccan population, while 1.4% of Moroccans carried the CYP2D6*4 allele responsible for a Poor Metabolizer phenotype and associated with low enzyme activity which may induce a treatment failure. The PCA and cluster dendrogram tools revealed genetic proximity between Moroccans and Mediterranean, European and African populations, versus a distancing from Asian populations.

Conclusion
The distribution of CYP2D6 polymorphisms within Morocco follows the patterns generally found among the Mediterranean, European and African populations. Furthermore, these results will help to lay a basis for clinical studies, aimed to introduce and optimize a personalized therapy in the Moroccan population.
Artificial double-zero-index materials
Authors: Xu Changqing , Lyu Keqiang , Wu Ying 
Published: November 2022

Abstract
Materials with near-zero refractive index have attracted much attention over the past decade due to the fascinating phenomena they enabled, such as energy squeezing in thin waveguides, engineering of wavefronts, and “photonic doping”. These materials are not directly available in nature, but can be realized in periodic artificial structures. Among near-zero refractive index materials, double-zero-index materials are a special type with both constitutive parameters vanishing simultaneously, leading to intriguing applications including arbitrarily shaped high-transmission waveguides, cloaking of inclusions, nonlinear enhancement, and directional emissions. This perspective focuses on the recent developments on double-zero-index materials, including their fundamental physics, design principles, experimental realizations, and potential applications.
Animals, Angelenos, and the Arbitrary
Authors: Altrudi Soledad , Kelty Christopher M. 
Published: November 2022

AbstractMultispecies entanglement has been a major research focus in environmental humanities, aiming to rethink ontological and ethical possibilities, especially in urban settings, by attending to speculative other-than-human futures. This article dwells on already existing entanglements of multiple species of animals in Los Angeles, using empirical data (conversations from the social media platform Nextdoor) to describe these entanglements according to a fourfold framework—spatial, emotional, behavioral, and political. Drawing on the political philosophy of nondomination, it argues that existing entanglements are primarily arbitrary in a political sense, and that moving beyond them will require reducing this arbitrariness, even it if it means restricting human freedom or introducing new forms of control over animals, for a more-than-human city to be just.
Damned Ecologies
Authors: O’Donnell S. Jonathon 
Published: November 2022

AbstractThis article uses a queer ecocritical methodology to analyze constructions of the environment and subjectivity in American spiritual warfare demonologies (discourses about the reality and activity of demons) published in 2008–18. There has been a surge in critical research on evangelical climate skepticism, the ecological thought of far-right movements, and the growing influence of Christian nationalism and charismatic evangelicalism on the US political landscape. Spiritual warfare, which constructs reality as a battle between divine and demonic forces, is a key part of this landscape. This article shows how spiritual warfare demonology operates as a tool for the construction of entwined social, political, and environmental ecologies, combining notions of deviant nature and deviant culture. Such ecologies both reinforce and destabilize biopolitical hierarchies that enshrine a normative (white, settler, cisheteropatriarchal) model of the human over both other (racialized, queered) humans and the nonhuman world. Critically rereading spiritual warfare demonologies through queer ecology, the article shows that such texts frame the fights against climate change and for queer and racialized subjects as prongs of a demonic assault on the futurity of white Christian America. Such texts reveal spiritual warfare demonology to rest on an ecological ultimatum: that nature will be normative or it will not be at all.
Animal Sex in Public
Authors: Szczygielska Marianna 
Published: November 2022

AbstractContemporary zoological gardens are hoping to delay the sixth mass extinction through captive breeding of endangered species. This article explores the dominant temporal orders invoked by managing animal sex in captivity in order to unfold unnatural histories of the zoo. Departing from the queer critique of reproductive futurism, it demonstrates that in the modern zoo, reproduction is removed from sexuality. By mapping out the more-than-human dimensions of chronopolitics at the zoo, this article unravels the complex process of transposing sexual acts into temporally fixed sexuality. To account for multiple pasts and futures of captive sex, this analysis employs the category of queer animality. Tracing the fascination with animal homosexuality to early sexological taxonomies, this article argues that anchoring sexual identity in animality is an anachronistic move that rests on the myth of timeless nature. At the same time, the sexological distinction between constitutional and circumstantial homosexuality relies on two types of teleological temporality: developmental and degenerative time of evolutionary change. The zoo is not only a place where education of desire occurs along the deep time line of natural history but also a contested terrain of captivity that can cancel any claim to atemporal naturalness.
Broadly tunable two-color lasing of Cr:LiCAF with on-surface and off-surface optical axis birefringent filters: performance comparison
Authors: Erturk Zekican , Okuyucu Serdar , Kilinc Muharrem , Ozturk Yusuf , Pergament Mikhail , Kärtner Franz X. , Demirbas Umit 
Published: November 2022

We studied the two-color lasing performance of a Cr:LiCAF laser using crystal quartz on-surface and off-surface optical axis birefringent filters (BRFs). Four different on-surface optical axis BRFs with thicknesses of 2 mm, 4 mm, 8 mm, and 16 mm, and three different off-surface optical axis BRFs with a diving angle of 25° and thicknesses of 2 mm, 4 mm, and 8 mm have been tested. Two-color lasing operation could be achieved in tens of different pairs of wavelengths using both types of BRFs. Regular on-surface optical axis BRFs provided two-color lasing in the 772–810 nm interval, with a discretely tunable wavelength separation of 1 to 37 nm (0.5 to 17 THz). In comparison, the off-surface optical axis BRFs enabled scanning of two-color lasing spectra in a much broader wavelength range between 745 nm and 850 nm with a discretely tunable wavelength separation of 0.8 to 99 nm (0.4 to 46 THz). The results clearly demonstrate the advantages of using off-surface optical axis BRFs to achieve two-color lasing with broadly tunable wavelength separation.
Coherent-detection radio-over-fiber link with high spectral efficiency based on digital phase noise cancellation
Authors: Li Guangyi , Meng Xiangyan , Wang Lu , Li Ming , Zhu Ninghua , Li Wei 
Published: November 2022

A radio-over-fiber (RoF) link with high spectral efficiency using digital phase cancellation is proposed and experimentally verified. The link can be utilized to transmit four microwave vector signals. The four microwave vector signals are modulated on optical signals by using a dual-polarization dual-parallel Mach–Zehnder modulator at the transmitter. The optical signals subsequently pass through a spool of single-mode fiber (SMF) and are sent into a coherent receiver. A digital signal processing (DSP) algorithm is proposed to eliminate the phase noise and frequency difference caused by two free-running lasers at transmitter and receiver. Two 16-quadrature amplitude modulation (16-QAM) vector signals at 6 GHz and another two 16-QAM vector signals at 7 GHz transmit over a 10-km SMF and are successfully recovered after a DSP algorithm. In order to evaluate the transmission performance of the RoF link, error vector magnitudes and bit error rates are also estimated.
HE1,1 mode excited surface plasmon resonance for high-sensitivity sensing by photonic crystal fibers
Authors: Zeng Yanshu , Lv Jingwei , Fu Haihao , Wu Xianwen , Yang Lin , Liu Wei , Yi Zao , Liu Qiang , Hu Chunjie , Lv Yan , Chu Paul K. , Liu Chao 
Published: November 2022

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is widely used in photonic crystal fiber sensors. In this work, a photonic crystal fiber sensor based on

H
E

1
,
1

mode excited SPR is designed and analyzed by the finite element method. The maximum wavelength sensitivity, optimal resolution, and amplitude sensitivity of the optical fiber sensor are 24,600 nm/RIU,

4.07

×

10

−
6

R
I
U

, and

1164.13

R
I
U

−
1

, respectively, for the refractive index range between 1.29 and 1.39. The sensor has excellent properties and wide application prospects in bimolecular and biochemical sensing, environmental monitoring, food safety, and other fields.
Parity-pair-mixing effects in nonlinear spectroscopy of HDO
Authors: Diouf Meissa L. , Tóbiás Roland , Cozijn Frank M. J. , Salumbides Edcel J. , Fábri Csaba , Puzzarini Cristina , Császár Attila G. , Ubachs Wim 
Published: November 2022

A non-linear spectroscopic study of the HDO molecule is performed in the wavelength range of 1.36–1.42

μ

m using noise-immune cavity-enhanced optical-heterodyne molecular spectroscopy (NICE-OHMS). More than 100 rovibrational Lamb dips are recorded, with an experimental precision of 2–20 kHz, related to the first overtone of the O–H stretch fundamental of HD16O and HD18O. Significant perturbations, including distortions, shifts, and splittings, have been observed for a number of Lamb dips. These spectral perturbations are traced back to an AC-Stark effect, arising due to the strong laser field applied in all saturation-spectroscopy experiments. The AC-Stark effect mixes parity pairs, that is pairs of rovibrational states whose assignment differs solely in the K
c
quantum number, where K
c
is part of the standard

J

K
a

,

K
c

asymmetric-top rotational label. Parity-pair mixing seems to be especially large for parity pairs with K
a
≥ 3, whereby their energy splittings become as small as a few MHz, resulting in multi-component asymmetric Lamb-dip profiles of gradually increasing complexity. These complex profiles often include crossover resonances. This effect is well known in saturation spectroscopy, but has not been reported in combination with parity-pair mixing. Parity-pair mixing is not seen in H

2

16

O and H

2

18

O, because their parity pairs correspond to ortho and para nuclear-spin isomers, whose interaction is prohibited. Despite the frequency shifts observed for HD16O and HD18O, the absolute accuracy of the detected transitions still exceeds that achievable by Doppler-limited techniques.
A natural history study to track brain and spinal cord changes in individuals with Friedreich’s ataxia: TRACK-FA study protocol
Authors: Georgiou-Karistianis Nellie , Corben Louise A. , Reetz Kathrin , Adanyeguh Isaac M. , Corti Manuela , Deelchand Dinesh K. , Delatycki Martin B. , Dogan Imis , Evans Rebecca , Farmer Jennifer , França Marcondes C. , Gaetz William , Harding Ian H. , Harris Karen S. , Hersch Steven , Joules Richard , Joers James J. , Krishnan Michelle L. , Lax Michelle , Lock Eric F. , Lynch David , Mareci Thomas , Muthuhetti Gamage Sahan , Pandolfo Massimo , Papoutsi Marina , Rezende Thiago J. R. , Roberts Timothy P. L. , Rosenberg Jens T. , Romanzetti Sandro , Schulz Jörg B. , Schilling Traci , Schwarz Adam J. , Subramony Sub , Yao Bert , Zicha Stephen , Lenglet Christophe , Henry Pierre-Gilles 
Published: November 2022

Introduction
Drug development for neurodegenerative diseases such as Friedreich’s ataxia (FRDA) is limited by a lack of validated, sensitive biomarkers of pharmacodynamic response in affected tissue and disease progression. Studies employing neuroimaging measures to track FRDA have thus far been limited by their small sample sizes and limited follow up. TRACK-FA, a longitudinal, multi-site, and multi-modal neuroimaging natural history study, aims to address these shortcomings by enabling better understanding of underlying pathology and identifying sensitive, clinical trial ready, neuroimaging biomarkers for FRDA.

Methods
200 individuals with FRDA and 104 control participants will be recruited across seven international study sites. Inclusion criteria for participants with genetically confirmed FRDA involves, age of disease onset ≤ 25 years, Friedreich’s Ataxia Rating Scale (FARS) functional staging score of ≤ 5, and a total modified FARS (mFARS) score of ≤ 65 upon enrolment. The control cohort is matched to the FRDA cohort for age, sex, handedness, and years of education. Participants will be evaluated at three study visits over two years. Each visit comprises of a harmonized multimodal Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Spectroscopy (MRS) scan of the brain and spinal cord; clinical, cognitive, mood and speech assessments and collection of a blood sample. Primary outcome measures, informed by previous neuroimaging studies, include measures of: spinal cord and brain morphometry, spinal cord and brain microstructure (measured using diffusion MRI), brain iron accumulation (using Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping) and spinal cord biochemistry (using MRS). Secondary and exploratory outcome measures include clinical, cognitive assessments and blood biomarkers.

Discussion
Prioritising immediate areas of need, TRACK-FA aims to deliver a set of sensitive, clinical trial-ready neuroimaging biomarkers to accelerate drug discovery efforts and better understand disease trajectory. Once validated, these potential pharmacodynamic biomarkers can be used to measure the efficacy of new therapeutics in forestalling disease progression.

Clinical trial registration
ClinicalTrails.gov Identifier: NCT04349514.