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Despite the extensive scholarship on women's empowerment and gender equality in the Global South, few studies have examined how changing livelihoods create new challenges and opportunities for women seeking access to intra-household decision-making. Here we examine pastoralist Maasai women's access to a range of household-level decisions that span more longstanding and more recent aspects of changing social and economic life. Our team conducted a mixed-methods data collection in 10 Maasai communities in northern Tanzania in 2018 and 2022. We (1) interviewed groups of women and men (n = 18) to identify key types of household decisions and the factors affecting women's access to them; and (2) conducted a survey of married women (n = 321) to identify individuals' perceptions of access to intra-household decision-making and other characteristics. We applied an information theoretic approach to model selection of fitted cumulative link mixed effects models. Our findings show that newer sources of human, social, and physical capital for women, including school-based education, land tenure, and community group membership, are associated with access to more contemporary decision types, including income generation, children's schooling, and children's health care. Alternatively, we find fewer pathways to decision-making for more longstanding decision types, including livestock management and children's marriage. Notably, agricultural land has a complex relationship with decision-making wherein basic access to land is associated with lower access to decision-making, but land tenure is associated with greater access. This study shows how marginalized women can leverage changing social and economic contexts to gain greater access to intra-household decision-making. • Changing livelihoods create new decisions for pastoralist households and women. • New decisions involve income generation, children's schooling, and health care. • Women's access to these is linked to education, land tenure, and women's groups. • Access to older decisions, including livestock and marriage, is more limited. • Women's growing access to land undermines and supports access to decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aquatic and terrestrial organisms are being exposed to a number of anthropogenically-induced environmental stresses as a consequence of climate change. In addition, climate change is altering various linkages that exist between ecosystems on land and in water. Here we compare and contrast how climate change is altering aquatic and terrestrial environments and address some of the ways that the organisms in these ecosystems, especially the primary producers, are being affected by climate change factors, including changes in temperature, moisture, atmospheric carbon dioxide and solar UV radiation. Whereas there are some responses to climate change in common between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems (e.g., changes in species composition and shifting geographic ranges and distributions), there are also responses that fundamentally differ between these two (e.g., responses to UV radiation). Climate change is also disrupting land-water connections in ways that influence biogeochemical and hydrologic cycles, and biosphere-atmosphere interactions in ways that can modify how aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems are affected by climate change and can influence climate change. The effects of climate change on these ecosystems are having wide-ranging effects on ecosystem biodiversity, structure and function and the abilities of these systems to provide essential services. Unlabelled Image • Aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems are affected by anthropogenic climate change • Organisms respond by poleward migrations and upward migration • CO 2 negatively affects many aquatic organisms by ocean acidification • Increased water temperatures result in shoaling of the upper mixed layer • Changes in precipitation, hurricane frequency and rising seawater affect terrestrial habitats [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rhino rays, such as guitarfishes, are increasingly targeted or retained as incidental catch and have become an economically important component in fisheries worldwide. Despite their importance, information about the catch and socioeconomics of these fisheries are virtually non-existent in West Africa. We address a significant knowledge gap about the characteristics and drivers of guitarfish fisheries in four key ray-fishing communities in the Western and Central Regions in Ghana. We conducted landing and market surveys of guitarfishes over 80 days from November 2020 to August 2021. We also interviewed 51 fishers actively involved in the guitarfish fishery across the four communities during this period using semi-structured interviews. The findings confirm the likely disappearance of sawfishes Pristis spp., as most fishers have not captured any in their lifetime. We also confirm no known catches of the African wedgefish Rhynchobatus luebberti. Our surveys documented 537 individuals from four guitarfish species across the various landing and market sites. The spineback guitarfish (Rhinobatos irvinei) was the most frequently landed species comprising 71 % (n = 383) of all guitarfishes, with 57 % of the specimens not yet sexually mature. Most fishers (71 %) stated that catches of the two larger guitarfishes (blackchin guitarfish Glaucostegus cemiculus and common guitarfish Rhinobatos rhinobatos) have declined by 80–90 % based on their recollection. At the same time, over half (59 %) of the fishers indicated that the catches of the smaller guitarfishes (spineback guitarfish and whitespotted guitarfish Rhinobatos albomaculatus) have declined by 40–60 %. The main drivers for the catch or retention of guitarfishes were for both international trade of their fins, and meat which are both traded locally (45 % of 51 fishers) and used as a source of food for local consumption (37 %). While we know high economic value drives the catch and trade of giant guitarfishes and wedgefishes, we show that this trade extends to the other guitarfish species. The interviews and contemporary pattern of catches are consistent with a serial depletion of rhino rays from the largest, most valuable species to the remaining smaller-bodied, less valuable guitarfishes. We recommend the development of national regulations for their protection complemented by education programs to ensure that fishers are aware of the threatened status of guitarfishes. • Fisher knowledge surveys reveal likely disappearance of sawfishes and a decline in guitarfishes in Ghana. • Trade is driving fisheries for guitarfishes, as the larger rhino rays have disappeared. • Guitarfish meat consumption was common among fishers in the study communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accumulation of UV-absorbing compounds (flavonoids and other phenylpropanoid derivatives) and resultant decrease in the UV transmittance of the epidermis in leaves (T UV ), is a primary protective mechanism against the potentially deleterious effects of UV radiation and is a critical component of the overall acclimation response of plants to changing UV environments. Traditional measurements of T UV were laborious, time-consuming and destructive or invasive, thus limiting their ability to efficiently make multiple measurements of the optical properties of plants in the field. The development of rapid, nondestructive optical methods of determining T UV has permitted the examination of UV optical properties of leaves with increased replication, on a finer time scale, and enabled repeated sampling of the same leaf over time. This technology has therefore allowed for studies examining acclimation responses to UV in plants in ways not previously possible. Here we provide a brief review of these earlier studies examining leaf UV optical properties and some of their important contributions, describe the principles by which the newer non-invasive measurements of epidermal UV transmittance are made, and highlight several case studies that reveal how this technique is providing new insights into this UV acclimation response in plants, which is far more plastic and dynamic than previously thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The litigation cost rule relates to which of the two parties in a civil lawsuit has to pay the legal costs. In those countries where the American system applies, each has to pay their own legal costs. In most other countries, the British system applies and the loser pays all the legal costs. By means of a single person decision-theoretic model, I examine the effects of this on auditing and financial statements under certainty and uncertainty conditions. Generally, the American system has the effect of restraining shareholders from suing unless they are able to cover their legal costs, thereby providing scope for under- or over-statements, depending on management’s wishes. This scope is denied under the British system and, as a result, audited financial statements will not be similarly biased. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The technique of synchrotron energy dispersive diffraction has been developed for in situ studies of cement hydration under autoclave conditions. This has been applied to oilwell cements hydrating at typical oilwell temperatures up to 130 °C. The results show clearly the detailed interplay between 11 detectable phases, from which a phase transformation scheme has been derived; this illustrates the progression of hydration up to 130 °C for two extreme cases, with and without conservation of water content and autoclave pressure. The monosulphate hydrate phases are found to exhibit different stability bounds, with a surprising sequence of the 14-water, 10-water then 12-water monosulphate as temperature/time increases; the latter form is particularly associated with conditions of water/pressure loss. The effect of retarders on C3S dissolution and CH formation is negligible above 70 °C, whereas the effect on the calcium sulphoaluminate hydrates is more complex, and possible reasons for this are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This work focuses on the development of high power density generators for airborne applications by bridging the chasm between generator and high temperature superconducting (HTS) wire developmental efforts. Benefits of HTS power generation include improved efficiency, thermal management reduction, improved power handling, reduced life cycle costs, and size and weight reduction. Superconducting generator development from the 1970s is outlined, and the basic types of ac synchronous generators are described. The benefits of HTS conductors in general and HTS coated conductors in particular are discussed. Critical issues for the employment of HTS coated conductors are then considered and recommendations made for enhancements to the HTS coated conductor for implementation in the more advanced superconducting power generators. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Magnetization vs. applied field measurements (M–H loops) were taken on short samples of YBa2Cu3O7−δ (YBCO) thin films which were divided into narrow filaments. The YBCO was deposited using pulsed laser deposition onto single-crystal LaAlO3 substrates, with a range of film thicknesses from 0.25 to 0.33 μm. Using a YAG laser, the thin films were patterned into linear striations by removing strips of the superconductor by laser ablation. The resulting striated filamentary structure serves to reduce the effective width of the YBCO films and hence the hysteresis loss in the superconducting samples. The magnetization measurements were taken over the temperature range of 4.2–77 K in applied fields of 0–17 kOe using a vibrating sample magnetometer. The measured hysteresis losses show a highly linear relationship between superconductor filament width and hysteresis loss as anticipated. However, the laser ablation process did result in the redeposition of YBCO along the edges of individual filaments. Degradation of Tc and Jc due to the ablation process is discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Epitaxial growth of YBa2Cu3O7−x (YBCO) layers on TiN(001) surfaces was explored, both with and without CeO2 intermediate layers. The epitaxial TiN layers were grown on MgO(001) and textured Ni substrates. Thin CeO2 (∼200 nm thick) and YBCO (∼300 nm thick) layers were grown on TiN-coated MgO substrates, using pulsed laser deposition. While YBCO grown directly on TiN was of poor quality, a good epitaxial YBCO layer was obtained using a thin CeO2 cap layer on the TiN. A superconducting critical transition temperature (Tc) of 89 K was measured by AC susceptibility. The critical current density (Jc) was 6×105 A/cm2 obtained at 77 K by whole body transport current measurement in self-field using a 1 μV/cm criteria. These results suggest that transition metal nitrides, such as TiN, are potentially useful as buffer layers for YBCO thin films. Advantages of the nitride buffer layers compared to conventional oxide buffers include high electrical and thermal conductivity, better mechanical toughness, good diffusion barrier characteristics, and relative ease of deposition. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• The non-regulated cyclic imine toxins are potent antagonists of muscle/neuronal nAChRs. • Robust bioassay for fast & early detection of cyclic imine toxins in shellfish samples. • High incidence of cyclic imine toxins in shellfish collected in eight european countries. • First report showing the bioaccumulation of the apoptosis-inducer portimine in mussels. • We determined the mode of action of 28- O -palmitoyl ester of pinnatoxin-G on nAChR. Cyclic imine toxins exhibit fast acting neurotoxicity and lethality by respiratory arrest in mice explained by their potent antagonistic activity against muscular nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. We performed a survey of gymnodimine-A, 13-desmethyl spirolide-C, 13,19-didesmethyl spirolide-C, 20-methyl spirolide-G, pinnatoxin-A, pinnatoxin-G, portimine-A and 28- O -palmitoyl ester of pinnatoxin-G in 36 shellfish samples collected in coastal areas of 8 European countries using a microplate receptor binding assay and UPLC-MS/MS for toxin identification and quantification. The major toxins found in these samples were pinnatoxin-G, 20-methyl spirolide-G, 13-desmethyl spirolide-C, gymnodimine-A and portimine-A. Traces of 13,19-didesmethyl spirolide-C, pinnatoxin-A and 28- O -palmitoyl ester of pinnatoxin-G were also detected. The rapid death of mice was correlated with higher pinnatoxin-G concentrations in mussel digestive gland extracts injected intraperitoneally. Our survey included nontoxic control samples that were found to contain moderate to trace amounts of several cyclic imine toxins. Shellfish may bioaccumulate not only cyclic imine toxins but also a large number of acyl derivatives as a product of metabolic transformation of these neurotoxins. This is the first report in which portimine-A and 28- O -palmitoyl ester of pinnatoxin-G were detected in shellfish extracts from digestive glands of mussels collected in Ingril lagoon. The bioaccumulation of portimine-A is particularly of concern because it is cytotoxic and is able to induce apotosis. The mode of action of 28- O -palmitoyl ester of pinnatoxin-G was studied by receptor binding-assay and by two-electrode voltage clamp electrophysiology. The antagonistic behavior of the acylated pinnatoxin-G towards nicotinic acetylcholine receptor of muscle type is shown here for the first time. Since cyclic imine toxins are not regulated further monitoring of these emerging toxins is needed to improve evidence gathering of their occurrence in shellfish commercialized for human consumption in Europe given their potent antagonism against muscle and neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Tetrodotoxin (TTX) is one of the most potent marine neurotoxins reported. The global distribution of this toxin is spreading with the European Atlantic coastline now being affected. Climate change and increasing pollution have been suggested as underlying causes for this. In the present study, two different sample preparation techniques were used to extract TTX from Trumpet shells and pufferfish samples. Both extraction procedures (accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) and a simple solvent extraction) were shown to provide good recoveries (80–92%). A UPLC–MS/MS method was developed for the analysis of TTX and validated following the guidelines contained in the Commission Decision 2002/657/EC for chemical contaminant analysis. The performance of this procedure was demonstrated to be fit for purpose. This study is the first report on the use of ASE as a mean for TTX extraction, the use of UPLC–MS/MS for TTX analysis, and the validation of this method for TTX in gastropods. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

As critical infrastructure such as transportation hubs continue to grow in complexity, greater importance is placed on monitoring these facilities to ensure their secure and efficient operation. In order to achieve these goals, technology continues to evolve in response to the needs of various infrastructure. To date, however, the focus of technology for surveillance has been primarily concerned with security, and little attention has been placed on assisting operations and monitoring performance in real-time. Consequently, solutions have emerged to provide real-time measurements of queues and crowding in spaces, but have been installed as system add-ons (rather than making better use of existing infrastructure), resulting in expensive infrastructure outlay for the owner/operator, and an overload of surveillance systems which in itself creates further complexity. Given many critical infrastructure already have camera networks installed, it is much more desirable to better utilise these networks to address operational monitoring as well as security needs. Recently, a growing number of approaches have been proposed to monitor operational aspects such as pedestrian throughput, crowd size and dwell times. In this paper, we explore how these techniques relate to and complement the more commonly seen security analytics, and demonstrate the value that can be added by operational analytics by demonstrating their performance on airport surveillance data. We explore how multiple analytics and systems can be combined to better leverage the large amount of data that is available, and we discuss the applicability and resulting benefits of the proposed framework for the ongoing operation of airports and airport networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] In situ synchrotron imaging reveals new insights into a continuous hydrothermal flow synthesiser. [•] First comparative images of nano-CeO2 synthesis at 3 (sub- and) supercritical water temperatures. [•] The supercritical water crystallisation of CeO2 nanoparticles in the flow path spatially mapped. [•] Distinct intensity distribution shown of crystalline content inside the counter-current mixer. [•] Particle size maps and HRTEM confirming marginal increase in CeO2 particle size with temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We report the significant enhancement of the power factor of Ca3Co4O9+δ through Yb doping. The pellets were prepared by pressing under 0.5GPa and 2GPa. The highest power factor of 553μWm−1 K−2 due to the significant increase of electrical conductivity was obtained for Ca2.9Yb0.1Co4O9+δ pressed at 0.5GPa. This is 2.3 times higher than that of Ca3Co4O9+δ (246μWm−1 K−2). Nanostructure examinations show that the pellets pressed at 0.5 and 2GPa have different nano-lamella structures. This work suggests that Yb is an effective doping element for enhancing the electrical transport properties of Ca3Co4O9+δ , and the optimum doping level is related to the nanostructure of the bulk pellets. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We have studied the transport current distributions in striated YBa2Cu3O7−x (YBCO) films and coated conductors using variable temperature scanning laser microscopy (VTSLM). VTSLM images reveal the location of incomplete separation between filaments due to un-optimized sample processing parameters. When the current flows parallel to the completely separated striations, the current seems to flow within a strip without inter-mixing via the substrate. Initial resistivity measurements on metallic inter-filamentary connections (gold dots) exhibit a semiconducting behavior. VTSLM images clearly show that the current flows between filaments via the metallic inter-connect, indicating the semiconducting resistive behavior is due to the interface between YBCO and metallic layer. The results demonstrate the potential of VTSLM technique in investigating current sharing and normal metal inter-connect issues for the coated conductor development for ac applications. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We have studied the local transport properties in an epitaxial YBa2Cu3O7-x (YBCO) film on LaAlO3 (LAO) using variable temperature scanning laser microscope (VTSLM) near the superconducting transition. A map of the superconducting transition temperature (Tc*) is generated from a series of VTSLM images. The map of Tc* indicates there are inhomogeneities in the film large enough to create nonuniform current flow near the superconducting transition. The evaluated Tc* varies between 90.3 and 91.0 K in the film. Even though such change in Tc* is not large enough to be detected by other localized compositional and structural characterization techniques, this along with an area of lower Tc* and/or higher resistance affects current flow near the superconducting transition temperature as shown in VTSLM images. This inhomogeneity may be caused by slight variations of the stoichiometry and/or oxidation of the YBCO film. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]