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A class of strong lower bounds on the solution value of a Linearised Integer Programming reformulation is introduced for the binary quadratic optimisation model to assign origin and destination nodes to strip and stack doors, resp., in a cross-dock infrastructure. The goal is to minimise the transportation cost of the commodities to be handled at the cross-dock. Strip- and stack-related decomposition submodels are developed by taking benefit of the Integer Linearisation Property that appears in the new model. A linear search heuristic is also provided for obtaining feasible solutions by exploiting the special structure of the problem. We present an extensive computational study on a testbed of 55 instances to show that the proposed joint scheme for lower bounding and feasible solution providing is very efficient. The results obtained by our proposal are similar to those obtained by CPLEX in the 50 instances taken from the literature, but usually the time is much smaller for the large instances. The comparison with CPLEX is particularly good for the new five largest instances, which make it very promising for its application in real-life cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aimed to clarify the development of motor unit (MU) firing properties and the association between those neural properties and force steadiness (FS)/neurological tests in 6- to 12-year-old children. Fifty-eight school-aged children performed maximal voluntary knee extension contraction, a submaximal FS test at 10% of maximal voluntary knee extension contraction, knee extension reaction time to light stimulus test, and single-leg standing test, and data from 38 children who passed the criteria were subject to analysis. During the FS test, high-density surface electromyography was recorded from the vastus lateralis muscle to identify individual MU firing activity. FS was improved with an increase in age (r = −.540, P <.001). The MU firing rate (MUFR) was significantly decreased with an increase in age (r = −.343, P =.035). MUFR variability was not associated with age. Although there was no significant correlation between FS and MUFR, FS was significantly correlated with MUFR variability even after adjustment for the effect of age (r =.551, P =.002). Neither the reaction time nor the single-leg standing test was correlated with any MU firing properties. These findings suggest that MUFR variability makes an important contribution to precise force control in children but does not naturally develop with age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estuarine wetlands harbor considerable carbon stocks, but rising sea levels could affect their ability to sequester soil carbon as well as their potential to emit methane (CH4). While sulfate loading from seawater intrusion may reduce CH4 production due to the higher energy yield of microbial sulfate reduction, existing studies suggest other factors are likely at play. Our study of 11 wetland complexes spanning a natural salinity and productivity gradient across the San Francisco Bay and Delta found that while CH4 fluxes generally declined with salinity, they were highest in oligohaline wetlands (ca. 3-ppt salinity). Methanogens and methanogenesis genes were weakly correlated with CH4 fluxes but alone did not explain the highest rates observed. Taxonomic and functional gene data suggested that other microbial guilds that influence carbon and nitrogen cycling need to be accounted for to better predict CH4 fluxes at landscape scales. Higher methane production occurring near the freshwater boundary with slight salinization (and sulfate incursion) might result from increased sulfate-reducing fermenter and syntrophic populations, which can produce substrates used by methanogens. Moreover, higher salinities can solubilize ionically bound ammonium abundant in the lower salinity wetland soils examined here, which could inhibit methanotrophs and potentially contribute to greater CH4 fluxes observed in oligohaline sediments.IMPORTANCELow-level salinity intrusion could increase CH4 flux in tidal freshwater wetlands, while higher levels of salinization might instead decrease CH4 fluxes. High CH4 emissions in oligohaline sites are concerning because seawater intrusion will cause tidal freshwater wetlands to become oligohaline. Methanogenesis genes alone did not account for landscape patterns of CH4 fluxes, suggesting mechanisms altering methanogenesis, methanotrophy, nitrogen cycling, and ammonium release, and increasing decomposition and syntrophic bacterial populations could contribute to increases in net CH4 flux at oligohaline salinities. Improved understanding of these influences on net CH4 emissions could improve restoration efforts and accounting of carbon sequestration in estuarine wetlands. More pristine reference sites may have older and more abundant organic matter with higher carbon:nitrogen compared to wetlands impacted by agricultural activity and may present different interactions between salinity and CH4. This distinction might be critical for modeling efforts to scale up biogeochemical process interactions in estuarine wetlands.

The disparity in absenteeism between kindergarteners with and without disabilities is a persistent phenomenon across schools in the United States and reflects ongoing systemic inequities that disadvantage young children with disabilities. Yet, evidence of factors underlying this disparity remains less well understood, limiting the ability for schools to transform how they support students with disabilities in ways that could help narrow the disparity. In our study, we investigate how a set of factors, grounded in a socioecological framework of absenteeism, correlates with chronic absenteeism in kindergarteners with and without disabilities. Importantly, we examine the extent to which distributional differences in these factors between children with and without disabilities explain the attendance disparity. Our study draws upon a nationally representative sample of N = 13,860 kindergarteners (52 % male, 48 % female, M age = 5.5 years, n = 1240 with disabilities) from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey Kindergarten Class of 2010–11. We analyze our data using multiple logistic regression to identify significant factors that correlate with chronic absenteeism and leverage the Kitagawa-Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition method to describe how distributional differences in those factors contribute to absenteeism disparities. Results show that internalizing behaviors in students with disabilities and their parents’ health are significantly associated with chronic absenteeism as well as help explain the disparity (12 % and 3 % of the disparity, respectively). Importantly, since differences in internalizing behaviors can be generated, in part, by school practices and policies that treat early elementary students with disabilities inequitably, our work suggests that reducing gaps in early absenteeism may require schools to reduce exposure to experiences that can lead to internalizing problem behaviors in young children with disabilities.

Models estimating decomposition rates of dead wood across space and time are mainly based on studies carried out in temperate zones where microbes are dominant drivers of decomposition. However, most dead wood biomass is found in tropical ecosystems, where termites are also important wood consumers. Given the dependence of microbial decomposition on moisture with termite decomposition thought to be more resilient to dry conditions, the relative importance of these decomposition agents is expected to shift along gradients in precipitation that affect wood moisture. Here, we investigated the relative roles of microbes and termites in wood decomposition across precipitation gradients in space, time and with a simulated drought experiment in tropical Australia. We deployed mesh bags with non-native pine wood blocks, allowing termite access to half the bags. Bags were collected every 6 months (end of wet and dry seasons) over a 4-year period across five sites along a rainfall gradient (ranging from savanna to wet sclerophyll to rainforest) and within a simulated drought experiment at the wettest site. We expected microbial decomposition to proceed faster in wet conditions with greater relative influence of termites in dry conditions. Consistent with expectations, microbial-mediated wood decomposition was slowest in dry savanna sites, dry seasons and simulated drought conditions. Wood blocks discovered by termites decomposed 16–36% faster than blocks undiscovered by termites regardless of precipitation levels. Concurrently, termites were 10 times more likely to discover wood in dry savanna compared with wet rainforest sites, compensating for slow microbial decomposition in savannas. For wood discovered by termites, seasonality and drought did not significantly affect decomposition rates. Taken together, we found that spatial and seasonal variation in precipitation is important in shaping wood decomposition rates as driven by termites and microbes, although these different gradients do not equally impact decomposition agents. As we better understand how climate change will affect precipitation regimes across the tropics, our results can improve predictions of how wood decomposition agents will shift with potential for altering carbon fluxes. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Heart weight is a routine measurement at post-mortem examination. An increased heart weight is associated with pre-existing heart disease and sudden cardiac death. However, during decomposition, the heart weight measured at post-mortem examination may not reflect the weight at the time of death. A previous study showed that heart dimensions can be used to estimate heart weight. This study documents the changes in heart dimensions during decomposition using porcine and ovine animal models. It shows that, in contrast to heart weight, which decreases in the post-mortem interval, the heart dimensions increase. Heart width increases and subsequently plateaus at the end of the 18 days to a mean of 6 and 8 mm in ovine and porcine hearts, whereas the length continues to increase. Using the results of this study, in conjunction with previous published literature, the heart width may be used as a parameter to estimate heart weight and determine cardiac hypertrophy at the time of death in decomposed hearts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let Kn denote a complete graph on n vertices and Sk denote a complete bipartite graph K1,k. A Bowtie Bl is a graph formed by the union of two cycles Cn and Cm intersecting at a common vertex. A decomposition of a graph G is a collection of edge-disjoint subgraphs H, such that every edge of G belongs to exactly one H. Given non-isomorphic subgraphs H1 and H2 of G, a (H1,H2) — multi-decomposition of G is the decomposition of G into a copies of H1 and b copies of H2, such that aH1 ⊕ bH2 = G, for some integers a,b ≥ 0. In this paper, the multi-decomposition of Kn into Sk and Bl has been investigated and obtained a necessary and sufficient condition when k = l = 6. It is proved that for a given positive integer n, Kn can be decomposed into a copies of S6 and b copies of B6 for some pair of non-negative integers (a,b) if and only if 6(a + b) = n 2, for all n ≥ 9. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Terrestrial plants form primarily mutualistic symbiosis with mycorrhizal fungi based on a compatible exchange of solutes between plant and fungal partners. A key attribute of this symbiosis is the acquisition of soil nutrients by the fungus for the benefit of the plant in exchange for a carbon supply to the fungus. The interaction can range from mutualistic to parasitic depending on environmental and physiological contexts. This review considers current knowledge of the functionality of ectomycorrhizal (EM) symbiosis in the mobilisation and acquisition of soil nitrogen (N) in northern hemisphere forest ecosystems, highlighting the functional diversity of the fungi and the variation of symbiotic benefits, including the dynamics of N transfer to the plant. It provides an overview of recent advances in understanding 'mycorrhizal decomposition' for N release from organic or mineral-organic forms. Additionally, it emphasises the taxon-specific traits of EM fungi in soil N uptake. While the effects of EM communities on tree N are likely consistent across different communities regardless of species composition, the sink activities of various fungal taxa for tree carbon and N resources drive the dynamic continuum of mutualistic interactions. We posit that ectomycorrhizas contribute in a species-specific but complementary manner to benefit tree N nutrition. Therefore, alterations in diversity may impact fungal-plant resource exchange and, ultimately, the role of ectomycorrhizas in tree N nutrition. Understanding the dynamics of EM functions along the mutualism-parasitism continuum in forest ecosystems is essential for the effective management of ecosystem restoration and resilience amidst climate change. Key points: • Mycorrhizal symbiosis spans a continuum from invested to appropriated benefits. • Ectomycorrhizal fungal communities exhibit a high functional diversity. • Tree nitrogen nutrition benefits from the diversity of ectomycorrhizal fungi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased temperatures are altering rates of organic matter (OM) breakdown in stream ecosystems with implications for carbon (C) cycling in the face of global change. The metabolic theory of ecology (MTE) provides a framework for predicting temperature effects on OM breakdown, but differences in the temperature dependence of breakdown driven by different organismal groups (i.e., microorganisms vs. invertebrate detritivores) and litter species remain unresolved. Over two years, we conducted 12 60‐day leaf litterbag incubations in 20 headwater streams in the southern Appalachian Mountains (USA). We compared temperature dependence (as activation energy, Ea) between microbial and detritivore‐mediated breakdown, and between a highly recalcitrant (Rhododendron maximum) and a relatively labile (Acer rubrum) leaf species. Detritivore‐mediated breakdown had a higher Ea than microbial breakdown for both leaf species (Rhododendron: 1.48 > 0.56 eV; Acer: 0.97 > 0.29 eV), and Rhododendron breakdown had a higher Ea than Acer breakdown for both organismal groups. Similarly, the Ea of total (coarse‐mesh) Rhododendron breakdown was higher than the Ea of total Acer breakdown (0.89 > 0.52 eV). These effects for total breakdown were large, implying that the number of days to 95% mass loss would decline by 40% for Rhododendron and 26% for Acer between 12°C (our mean temperature value) and 16°C (+4°C, reflecting projected increases in global surface temperature due to climate change). Despite patterns in Ea, overall breakdown rates were higher for microbes than detritivores, and for Acer than Rhododendron over most of our temperature gradient. Additionally, the Ea for a subset of the microbial breakdown data declined from 0.40 to 0.22 eV when fungal biomass was included as a model predictor, highlighting the key role of fungi in determining the temperature dependence of litter breakdown. Our results imply that, as streams warm, routing of leaf litter C to detritivore‐mediated fates will increase faster than predicted by previous studies and MTE, especially for labile litter. As temperatures rise, earlier depletion of autumn‐shed, labile leaf litter combined with rapid breakdown rates of recalcitrant litter could exacerbate seasonal resource limitation and alter carbon storage and transport dynamics in temperate headwater stream networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vertebrate scavengers represent important taphonomic agents that can act on a body, particularly when in an outdoor environment. Understanding the effects of these agents will direct how and where to search for human remains and influence the likelihood of discovery in a particular region. The current study aimed to identify the taphonomic impact of scavenger guilds in the peri‐urban and rural regions of southeastern British Columbia. Vertebrate scavenger activity on pig carcasses was recorded remotely using trail cameras and analyzed to determine temporal scavenging profiles. Both the peri‐urban and rural environments produced comparable scavenger guilds, namely: turkey vultures, American crows/northern ravens (classified as “corvids”), American black bears, and coyotes. Although the two locations had different study lengths due to variable degrees of scavenging, for the period that was common to both locations (summer to early fall), the black bear was the most frequent scavenger followed by coyote. However, the dispersal of remains by the mammalian scavengers was distinctly different between sites. Only 12%–33% of skeletal elements were recovered at the rural sites compared to 80%–90% recovered at the peri‐urban sites, even though the latter sites had a longer study timeframe. The extended timeframe of the peri‐urban sites confirmed that certain scavengers (e.g., turkey vultures and black bears) are only seasonally active in this region. These findings demonstrate the variability of scavenger behavior and the need to assign caution and local ecological knowledge when predicting scavenger trends. Such taphonomic information is relevant for human remains searches in regions with comparable scavenger guilds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces a Wasserstein distance‐based distributionally robust optimization model to address the transmission expansion planning considering renewable‐based microgrids (MGs) under the impact of uncertainties. The primary objective of the presented methodology is to devise a robust expansion strategy that accounts for both long‐term uncertainty and short‐term variability over the planning horizon from the perspective of a central planner. In this framework, the central planner fosters the construction of appropriate transmission lines and the deployment of optimal MG‐based generating units among profit‐driven private investors. The Wasserstein distance uncertainty set is used to characterize the long‐term uncertainty associated with future load demand. Short‐term uncertainties, stemming from variations in load demands and production levels of stochastic units, are modeled through operating conditions. To ensure the tractability of the proposed planning model, the authors introduce a decomposition framework embedded with a modified application of Bender's method. To validate the efficiency and highlight the potential benefits of the proposed expansion planning methodology, two case studies based on simplified IEEE 6‐bus and IEEE 118‐bus systems are included. These case studies assess the effectiveness of the presented approach, its ability to navigate uncertainties, and its capacity to effectively optimize expansion decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Termites—one of the most abundant animal groups in tropical ecosystems—are vital in nutrient recycling, contributing significantly to maintaining ecosystem functioning. However, how selective they are in their litter food choice, and whether they prefer nutritious or less nutritious litter substrates, are still important unresolved questions.Here, we test the effect of litter traits on the removal of litter by fungus‐growing termites, a dominant group of macrodetritivores in the Serengeti‐Mara ecosystem. We used metal‐mesh litterbags to measure the mass loss of stem and leaf litter from 23 grass species after an incubation period of 61 days.Sheeting—soil deposits indicating termite presence—strongly increased with tannin and phenolic compounds, especially in leaf litter (R2 = 0.54), where highly aromatic species like Cymbopogon caesius and Bothriochloa insculpta exhibited the highest sheeting rates. Litterbags with sheeting displayed 66% higher mass loss on average compared to those without. Once termites had selected the substrate, mass loss increased consistently irrespective of litter traits.Quantifying the combined effects of sheeting frequency and differential mass loss, we found that fungus‐growing termites predominantly increased the mass loss of high‐nutrient litter. This was mainly due to additional mass loss in leaf litter, not stem litter, with tannin concentration being the primary predictor of enhanced overall decomposition by termites. This suggests termites ameliorate the otherwise adverse influence of plant secondary compounds on litter decomposition.Synthesis: Our results support the idea that fungus‐growing termites are generalists, as termites collected organic substrates with varying quality. The strong effect of phenolic compounds on sheeting rate implies that secondary compounds play an important role in termite substrate selection. The selective removal of substrates high in secondary compounds suggests fungus‐growing termites lift important constraints to microbial breakdown, potentially enhancing ecosystem‐level carbon and nutrient recycling rates. Termites play crucial roles in recycling organic matter across tropical biomes and our study highlights that the role of secondary compounds in their selection and detection in decomposition studies needs more attention [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate daily streamflow forecasts remain challenging in arid regions. A Bayesian model averaging (BMA) ensemble learning strategy was proposed to forecast 1-, 2-, and 3-day-ahead streamflow in Dunhuang Oasis, northwest China. The efficiency of BMA was compared with four decomposition-based machine learning and deep learning models. Satisfactory forecasts were achieved with all proposed models at all lead times; however, based on Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency values of 0.976, 0.967, and 0.957, BMA achieved the greatest accuracy for 1-, 2-, and 3-day-ahead streamflow forecasts, respectively. Uncertainty analysis confirmed the reliability of BMA in yielding consistently accurate streamflow forecasts. Thus, BMA could provide an efficient alternative approach to multistep-ahead daily streamflow forecasting. The incorporation of data decomposition techniques (e.g. variational mode decomposition) and deep learning algorithms (e.g. deep belief network) into BMA may provide worthy technical references for supervised learning of streamflow systems in data-scarce regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flow lines are often used to perform assembly operations in multi-stage processes. During these assembly operations, components that are relatively small, compared to the work pieces travelling down the flow line, are mounted to the work pieces at a given stage. Those components, or more generally, any kind of auxiliary material, are provisioned to the corresponding production stage in a repetitive but not necessarily deterministic manner using a certain delivery frequency, each time filling the local storage up to a predetermined order-up-to level. Just like random processing times, machine failures, and repairs, the randomness of the provisioning process can impact the long-term throughput of such a flow line. In this paper, we develop a fast and accurate analytical performance evaluation method to estimate the long-term throughput of a Markovian flow line of this type for the practically important case of limited buffer capacities between the production stages. We first give an exact characterization of a two-machine line of that type and show how to determine system state probabilities and aggregate performance measures. Furthermore, we show how to use this two-machine model as the building block of an approximate decomposition approach for longer flow lines. As opposed to previous decomposition approaches, even the state space of the two-machine lines can become so large that an exact solution of the Markov chains can become impractical. We hence show how to set up, train, and use an artificial neural network to replace the Markov chain solver embedded in the decomposition approach, which then leads to an accurate and extremely fast flow line evaluation tool. The proposed methodology is evaluated by a comparison with simulation results and used to characterize the structural patterns describing the behaviour of flow lines of this type. The method can be used to systematically consider the combined impact of the delivery frequency and the local order-up-to levels for the auxiliary material when designing a flow line of this type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measuring the chemical traits of leaf litter is important for understanding plants' influence on nutrient cycles, including through nutrient resorption and litter decomposition, but conventional leaf trait measurements are often destructive and labor-intensive. Here, we develop and evaluate the performance of partial least-squares regression models that use reflectance spectra of intact or ground leaves to estimate leaf litter traits, including carbon and nitrogen concentration, carbon fractions, and leaf mass per area (LMA). Our analyses included more than 300 samples of senesced foliage from 11 species of temperate trees, including both needleleaf and broadleaf species. Across all samples, we could predict each trait with moderate-to-high accuracy from both intact-leaf litter spectra (validation R2 = 0.543–0.941; %root mean squared error (RMSE) = 7.49–18.5) and ground-leaf litter spectra (validation R2 = 0.491–0.946; %RMSE = 7.00–19.5). Notably, intact-leaf spectra yielded better predictions of LMA. Our results support the feasibility of building models to estimate multiple chemical traits from leaf litter of a range of species. In particular, intact-leaf spectral models allow non-destructive trait estimation in a matter of seconds, which could enable researchers to measure the same leaves over time in studies of nutrient resorption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the fundamental parameters of drugs and pharmaceutical products is, in addition to their physiological effects, also their shelf-life. Even pharmaceuticals are subject to the effects of time, which gradually degrades and deteriorates them. This results in a reduction or even a serious change in the effects, or the development of toxicity. Therefore, the determination of the shelf-life of any drug or pharmaceutical product is of paramount importance. Unused drugs or pharmaceutical products after the expiry date have to be disposed of in a costly manner, which means financial losses and also imposes an unnecessary burden on the environment. There has recently been considerable discussion about the possible extension of the shelf-life of pharmaceuticals. The results of analyses of the historical remains of pharmaceuticals play an important role in this discussion. Therefore, an overview of recent results in this field is given here. In the first part, the review focuses on historical medicinal preparations (from antiquity to the early 19th century), which represent interesting, valuable, and often unique material for the study of the stability of medicinal substances over a long period (despite the uncertainty we have about their initial composition). The second part of the review gives an overview of articles on the stability of modern medicinal products, mostly already industrially produced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research suggests that the standard model used to detect opportunistic shifting of core expenses to special items is potentially biased. Such bias has been attributed to the use of accruals, including special item related accruals, as a control for the impact of performance on core earnings in this model. This paper provides an improved classification shifting model which both tests for such accruals-related bias and controls for other sources of error in the measurement of shifting. The paper also modifies conventional market rationality tests in accounting research to examine new dimensions of rationality in relation to measurement and valuation of shifting. The main empirical findings are as follows. First, the improved classification shifting model provides strong evidence of shifting and rejects the hypothesis that inclusion of accruals in the model causes bias. Second, estimates of shifted core expenses generated by the improved model exhibit forecasting properties of shifted earnings. Third, rationality test results are broadly consistent with rationality in relation to shifted core expenses but indicate possible partial (ir)rationality in relation to adjusted special items (i.e., special items excluding shifted core expenses). Further analysis of the latter findings, however, suggests they are more likely related to risk than irrationality. Overall, the paper contributes to improved measurement of shifting and highlights the importance of considering rational expectations when examining stock returns associated with shifting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the product and labour market imperfections reveal efficiency losses, they may influence technology adoption and its change, raising the endogeneity issue of productivity and efficiency estimates. Using a two-step approach, this work offers the endogeneity-corrected stochastic frontier for such a contemporaneous relation and accounts for efficiency and productivity losses due to market imperfections. A modified frontier function, defined as the residue per capital unit, has been drawn from the Cobb–Douglas function to estimate the terms containing the product and labour market imperfections along with other factors capturing the levels of technology, scale and technical efficiency. First, a standard frontier panel model estimates technology and technical efficiency terms with a proxy function in polynomials of market imperfection terms used for the contemporaneous relation, and then a GMM approach applies to the residue to estimate the parameters containing market imperfections. The estimated results using the three-digit industries across 17 major Indian states for 2008–2016 reveal a strong presence of product and labour market imperfections and associated efficiency losses. The efficiency in the product market has been lower and has further deteriorated in most industries, but not in the labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As electronic waste poses environmental challenges, exploring eco-friendly alternatives becomes imperative. In this review, the introduction reveals the disposal problem of existing printed circuit boards (PCBs) and the potential impacts of implementing biodegradable PCBs towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Various biodegradable materials, including polylactic acid, cellulose/cellulose acetate, silk proteins, gelatin, polyvinyl alcohol, mycelium, and wood, were evaluated for their properties and suitability in PCB manufacturing. Each material is scrutinised for its suitability in creating environmentally friendly circuit boards. The study meticulously analyses these biodegradable PCBs' electrical, mechanical, thermal and decomposition properties, providing insights into their performance under various conditions. The article also explores different fabrication methods and their advantages and limitations for manufacturing biodegradable PCBs. Solvent and non-solvent based decomposition of the biodegradable PCBs were revealed. The research outcome on a balance between hygroscopic property and degradability of biodegradable PCBs is revealed. The narrative extends to encompass the challenges and issues associated with the Design-for-Manufacturing processes and life cycle assessment of biodegradable PCBs, shedding light on potential hurdles and areas for improvement. The article concludes with a forward-looking perspective on the future of biodegradable printed circuit boards, environmentally friendly fire-retardants, a proposal for alternative standards for biodegradable PCBs, and their increasing role in sustainable electronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The motherhood wage penalty is often cited as a contributor towards the gender earnings gap. A common explanation involves women's labor supply reductions after having children. Yet, the literature says little about whether mothers' labor supply reductions are entirely voluntary. This study utilizes two US longitudinal panels to measure children's impact on parent job loss. Mothers are significantly more likely than fathers to involuntarily lose their jobs. The gap is substantial, persists over time, is robust to various model specifications, exists among a host of demographic sub-samples, and is driven by gender differences in characteristic effects rather than levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased gender equality in the labor market and the home are both cited as stabilizers to income inequality between households, but shifts in the economic organization of families over the life course instead appear to amplify household income inequality. Using the case of Sweden, where men have taken longer parental leave in recent years and the age at parenthood continues to advance, we analyze between‐family income inequality for couples with a young child. Based on income data from population registers, we decompose how changes in family dynamics, pre‐ and postparenthood, contributed to income inequality in families with children between the years 1995 and 2018. Analyses show no evidence that assortative mating has increased and that a minor decline in inequality between couples over this 24‐year period resulted from two opposing trends: Dis‐equalizing changes related to women's postbirth income advancements were eclipsed by equalizing changes related to the postponement of parenthood. Postbirth income trends reveal how between‐family inequality increased through women's income development and decreased through men's. Our findings confirm the importance of family processes to household inequality and show the complex effects of both changes in the timing of parenthood and improved gender equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Histotaphonomic analysis, through thin section microscopy, SEM and micro-CT scanning, has become an increasingly popular approach for archaeologists in recent years. The method relies on assessing the character of degradation in bone microstructure, placing particular importance on the degree and nature of bacterial bioerosion. However, there remains considerable disagreement about the origins and timing of bacterial bioerosion and this has major ramifications for the interpretative potential of the approach. Turner-Walker et al. (2023) p resent a firm case for the origins of bacteria being exclusively exogenous (from the soil) with bioerosion occurring only after skeletonisation. This scenario means that information gained from analysis of histotaphonomy relates entirely to the nature of the burial environment and its suitability for collagenolytic bacteria to thrive and thus provides very little useful information about human behaviour and mortuary practice. This contrasts with the common position that the origins of bacteria can be enteric (from the gut) and can effect bioerosion during putrefaction in the early post-mortem phase, thus potentially informing on mortuary practice. In this response, we present the alternative view to Turner-Walker et al. (2023) and demonstrate strong and wide-ranging evidence for bacteria from the gut microbiome to have the potential to cause bioerosion. A review of previous studies is used to evidence the impact of mortuary practice on variable microstructural preservation. We counter some of Turner-Walker et al.'s key lines of evidence and present alternative, evidence-based explanations. Importantly, we acknowledge that the origins of bacteria are not always enteric and that current interpretations that only consider bacteria as either enteric or exogenous cannot account for the variability seen in the archaeological record. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Termites are important ecosystem engineers in many ecosystems globally. Hence, surveys of termite species composition, abundance and activity can be important for understanding ecosystem function—especially in biomes where they tend to be abundant, such as tropical savannas. However, comprehensively surveying termites can be challenging due to their cryptic nature and varied feeding and nesting habits, which strongly influence the effectiveness of different survey methods. Baiting and active searches of reduced transects are two methods commonly used to sample termites, and while these methods have been evaluated in the savannas of South Africa, this has not occurred in the extensive tropical savannas of northern Australia. Thus, this study evaluated the effectiveness of baits and reduced transects to assess termite species richness and activity across 18 × 1 ha experimental plots in a tropical savanna near Darwin, Australia. Surveys in each plot consisted of two 60 × 2 m transects and a 9 × 3 baiting grid of alternating buried wood and paper baits and surface straw baits. Baits were checked three times: at 4‐, 7‐ and 10‐week intervals following placement. Upon survey completion, the sampling effort, efficacy and costs of each method were compared. Reduced transects detected all 32 species recorded in this study, representing four feeding groups (from undecayed wood to highly decayed organic material in the soil). Baiting detected 20 species, but failed to detect some of the species that fed on decayed materials. Paper baits, checked only twice (at 4 and 10 weeks following placement), were required to detect all species sampled at both wood and paper baits. Therefore, overall baiting costs could be reduced (without data loss) by using paper baits only and reducing the number of bait checks. Compared with baiting using all three bait types, reduced transects detected the most species and had the lowest per‐species cost. Consequently, reduced transect surveys are the most effective method in these northern Australian savannas when assessing species composition. However, if the abundance of species that feed on undecayed wood or levels of termite activity are being assessed, then reduced baiting is a more appropriate method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bamboo flowering occurs over a long cycle, yet the precise mechanisms and consequences of this phenomenon remain unknown. Although several studies have investigated the dynamics of forest communities post‐flowering, the effects of flowering on the material cycle remain unclear. Recent reports have documented the first flowering of Phyllostachys nigra var. henonis in 120 years across several regions of Japan. P. nigra var. henonis flowers exhibit higher nitrogen concentrations compared to their leaves, suggesting potentially different decomposition patterns upon reaching the forest floor and subsequent contributions to the nitrogen cycle. Based on this observation, we conducted decomposition experiments using litter bags to investigate the dynamics of organic matter and nitrogen. After 1 year, litter bags containing both leaves and flowers were retrieved. The remaining mass of flower and leaf litter was 38% and 60%, respectively. On the other hand, the nitrogen remaining in flower and leaf litter was 54.9% and 98.2%, respectively. Net nitrogen release from the flower litter was estimated to be 36 kg/ha/year in the study site. The potential maximum nitrogen released from flower litter decomposition in a high‐density ramet stand was estimated to be 221 kg/ha/year. The results of this study suggest that the nitrogen addition through mass flowering of P. nigra var. henonis would have a significant impact on the nitrogen cycle of the ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to draw a research agenda for unveiling the underlying bottlenecks and possibilities for improving the agricultural total factor productivity in the European Union (EU). To this aim, the paper first surveys the key challenges for the modern agricultural economy. Then, the case of the EU is discussed by looking at the convergence in the partial productivity indicators (including the GHG emission) and growth efficiency that relate to the gap in the total factor productivity growth. The results suggest that the EU member states exhibited growth inefficiency (i.e., a gap in the total factor productivity growth) of 5–9% on average during 2004–2021. The paper also discusses the possibilities to utilize the production theory for assessing the pathways towards improvements in the productivity and sustainability of the EU agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seagrass meadows play pivotal roles in coastal biochemical cycles, with nitrogen fixation being a well-established process associated with living seagrass. Here, we tested the hypothesis that nitrogen fixation is also associated with seagrass debris in Danish coastal waters. We conducted a 52-day in situ experiment to investigate nitrogen fixation (proxied by acetylene reduction) and dynamics of the microbial community (16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing) and the nitrogen fixing community (nifH DNA/RNA amplicon sequencing) associated with decomposing Zostera marina leaves. The leaves harboured distinct microbial communities, including distinct nitrogen fixers, relative to the surrounding seawater and sediment throughout the experiment. Nitrogen fixation rates were measurable on most days, but highest on days 3 (dark, 334.8 nmol N g−1 dw h−1) and 15 (light, 194.6 nmol N g−1 dw h−1). Nitrogen fixation rates were not correlated with the concentration of inorganic nutrients in the surrounding seawater or with carbon:nitrogen ratios in the leaves. The composition of nitrogen fixers shifted from cyanobacterial Sphaerospermopsis to heterotrophic genera like Desulfopila over the decomposition period. On the days with highest fixation, nifH RNA gene transcripts were mainly accounted for by cyanobacteria, in particular by Sphaerospermopsis and an unknown taxon (order Nostocales), alongside Proteobacteria. Our study shows that seagrass debris in temperate coastal waters harbours substantial nitrogen fixation carried out by cyanobacteria and heterotrophic bacteria that are distinct relative to the surrounding seawater and sediments. This suggests that seagrass debris constitutes a selective environment where degradation is affected by the import of nitrogen via nitrogen fixation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most persistent challenges in walleye larviculture is the high rate of unobserved mortality occurring within the first 30 days post-hatch. Walleye larviculture is characterized by high mortality rates, but oftentimes, only a fraction of the total mortality in walleye larviculture is observed. Unobserved mortality is frequently attributed to a high rate of cannibalism, but decomposition of larvae and other factors may also be important contributors. Unobserved mortality can make walleye larviculture especially challenging as accurately estimating daily feed rations and forecasting larval production rely on accurate counts of surviving fish. Despite the importance of unobserved mortality, there is little empirical evidence available that assesses the temporal occurrence and causes of unobserved mortality in walleye larviculture. This study assessed when unobserved mortality occurs during walleye larviculture by examining survival at three timepoints (8, 15, and 30 days post-stocking). Tanks were cleaned daily and dead fry were enumerated to account for observed mortality. At the end of each treatment period, the tanks were drained, all remaining fry were enumerated, and the unobserved mortality rate was calculated. While observed mortality trended higher as trial duration increased, unobserved mortality did not increase significantly from the 8-day treatment suggesting that the bulk of unobserved mortality occurs during the first 8 days of walleye larviculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Minijobs are subsidized small jobs below a fixed earnings threshold. Since a reform in 2003, they are viewed as stepping stones to the first labor market. However, the Minijob subsidy generates a 'Minijob trap' that causes vast bunching at the Minijob earnings threshold. Therefore, Midijobs were designed to reduce this bunching and to eliminate the 'Minijob trap'. Midijobs are employments that earn between the Minijob earnings threshold and the Midijob earnings threshold. In this range, Midijobs subsidize social insurance contributions on a sliding scale. This paper describes time trends in the propensity to leave Minijobs for regular employment and studies the role of Midijobs for transitions out of Minijobs. We find a strong increase in transitions from Minijobs to regular employment over time. However, there is no convincing evidence that Midijobs are connected to this development. Instead, behavioral changes and aggregate developments such as the business cycle and a booming labor market may have contributed to this development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background There is a lack of research evidence on the quantitative relationship between symptom burden and health care seeking among individuals with presumptive tuberculosis (TB). Methods Data were derived from a cross-sectional population-based TB survey conducted between February 2021 and July 2022 in 32 districts of India. Eligible and consented participants (age >15 years) underwent TB symptom screening and history elicitation. Fairlie decomposition analysis was used to estimate the net differences in health care seeking due to varied symptom burden—from 1+ burden (>1 symptom) to 4+ burden (>4 symptoms)—and decomposed by observable covariates based on logit models with 95% CIs. Results Of the 130 932 individuals surveyed, 9540 (7.3%) reported at least 1 recent TB symptom, of whom 2678 (28.1%; 95% CI, 27.1%–28.9%) reportedly sought health care. The net differences in health care seeking among persons with symptom burden 1+ to 4+ ranged from 6.6 percentage points (95% CI, 4.8–8.4) to 7.7 (95% CI, 5.2–10.2) as compared with persons with less symptom burden. The presence of expectoration, fatigue, and loss of appetite largely explained health care seeking (range, 0.9–3.1 percentage points [42.89%–151.9%]). The presence of fever, cough, past TB care seeking, weight loss, and chest pain moderately explained (range, 5.3%–25.3%) health care seeking. Conclusions Increased symptom burden and symptoms other than the commonly emphasized cough and fever largely explained health care seeking. Orienting TB awareness and risk communications toward symptom burden and illness perceptions could help address population gaps in health care seeking for TB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the theory of nonisothermal chain reactions developed in the studies presented in the previous chapters, an experimentally verified explanation is given for the anomalous behavior of pyrolysis and combustion of a technically important product—hydrazine. The revealed kinetic features of N2H3 radicals, which led to the unusual properties of the hydrazine-oxygen ignition peninsula, are also explained. The mechanism of easy ignition and explosion has been clarified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Leaf decomposition varies widely across temperate forests, shaped by factors like litter quality, climate, soil properties, and decomposers, but forest heterogeneity may mask local tree influences on decomposition and litter‐associated microbiomes. We used a 24‐yr‐old common garden forest to quantify local soil conditioning impacts on decomposition and litter microbiology.We introduced leaf litter bags from 10 tree species (5 arbuscular mycorrhizal; 5 ectomycorrhizal) to soil plots conditioned by all 10 species in a full‐factorial design. After 6 months, we assessed litter mass loss, C/N content, and bacterial and fungal composition. We hypothesized that (1) decomposition and litter‐associated microbiome composition would be primarily shaped by the mycorrhizal type of litter‐producing trees, but (2) modified significantly by underlying soil, based on mycorrhizal type of the conditioning trees.Decomposition and, to a lesser extent, litter‐associated microbiome composition, were primarily influenced by the mycorrhizal type of litter‐producing trees. Interestingly, however, underlying soils had a significant secondary influence, driven mainly by tree species, not mycorrhizal type. This secondary influence was strongest under trees from the Pinaceae.Temperate trees can locally influence underlying soil to alter decomposition and litter‐associated microbiology. Understanding the strength of this effect will help predict biogeochemical responses to forest compositional change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In freshwater ecosystems, consumers can play large roles in nutrient cycling by modifying nutrient availability for autotrophic and heterotrophic microbes. Nutrients released by consumers directly support green food webs based on primary production and brown food webs based on decomposition. While much research has focused on impacts of consumer driven nutrient dynamics on green food webs, less attention has been given to studying the effects of these dynamics on brown food webs.Freshwater mussels (Bivalvia: Unionidae) can dominate benthic biomass in aquatic systems as they often occur in dense aggregations that create biogeochemical hotspots that can control ecosystem structure and function through nutrient release. However, despite functional similarities as filter‐feeders, mussels exhibit variation in nutrient excretion and tissue stoichiometry due in part to their phylogenetic origin. Here, we conducted a mesocosm experiment to evaluate how communities of three phylogenetically distinct species of mussels individually and collectively influence components of green and brown food webs.We predicted that the presence of mussels would elicit a positive response in both brown and green food webs by providing nutrients and energy via excretion and biodeposition to autotrophic and heterotrophic microbes. We also predicted that bottom‐up provisioning of nutrients would vary among treatments as a result of stoichiometric differences of species combinations, and that increasing species richness would lead to greater ecosystem functioning through complementarity resulting from greater trait diversity.Our results show that mussels affect the functioning of green and brown food webs through altering nutrient availability for both autotrophic and heterotrophic microbes. These effects are likely to be driven by phylogenetic constraints on tissue nutrient stoichiometry and consequential excretion stoichiometry, which can have functional effects on ecosystem processes. Our study highlights the importance of measuring multiple functional responses across a gradient of diversity in ecologically similar consumers to gain a more holistic view of aquatic food webs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integration of drones into the conventional truck delivery system has gained substantial attention in the business and academic communities. Most existing works restrict the launch and recovery of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to customer locations (or nodes) in the delivery network. Nevertheless, emerging technological advances can allow drones to autonomously launch/land from a moving vehicle. In addition, majority of the current literature assumes multiple UAVs to be deployed and/or recovered simultaneously, thereby ignoring the associated scheduling decisions, which are essential to ensure safe, collision-free operations. This research introduces the single truck multi-drone routing and scheduling problem with en route operations for last-mile parcel delivery. A mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model is developed to minimize the delivery completion time. In addition, a variant is introduced to minimize the total delivery cost. Since the problem under consideration is NP-hard, a relax-and-fix with re-couple-refine-and-optimize (RF-RRO) heuristic approach is proposed, where the associated decisions (truck routing and drone scheduling) are decomposed into two stages and solved sequentially. Besides, a deep learning-based clustering procedure is developed to establish an initial solution and accelerate the convergence speed of the RF-RRO heuristic. Notably, the proposed approach is extended to solve a multi-truck multi-drone variant using a deep learning-based cluster-first route-second heuristic. Our numerical results show that the proposed MILP model is able to solve problem instances with up to 20 customers optimally in a reasonable time. The proposed RF-RRO heuristic can achieve optimal (or near-optimal) solutions for small instances and is computationally efficient for large cases. Extensive experimental analysis shows 30% average savings in delivery completion time, and an average drone utilization of 62% if en route drone operations are considered. In addition, numerical results provide insights on the impact of heterogeneous drone fleet and customer density. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of invertebrates like termites and beetle larvae on dead wood could be time-dependent due to changes in wood traits and invertebrate species composition over time. This study assessed changes in the impact of termites and beetle larvae on dead wood decomposition in two tree species, Pinus densiflora and Quercus acutissima, in South Korea over a 6-year period (2016–2022). Wood samples were prepared, with half of them encased in a stainless-steel mesh to prevent access by invertebrates larger than 0.26 mm. These samples were placed in three regions representative of different environments in South Korea (southern, eastern, and western). Significant variations in the mass loss of dead wood were observed based on the tree species, region, and time (p < 0.05). The mean standardized invertebrate effect, assessed with Hedges' d and a 95% confidence interval, was 0.83 ± 2.19 for P. densiflora and 1.08 ± 2.26 for Q. acutissima. Termites were found in the southern and western regions, with the highest invertebrate effect after two years. Our results indicate that the influence of invertebrates, especially termites, on dead wood decomposition could be most significant during the initial decomposition stages, as noted in the southern region of this research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let s be an n -dimensional symplectic form over an arbitrary field with characteristic not 2, with n > 2. The simplicity of the group Sp (s) / { ± id } and the existence of a non-trivial involution in Sp (s) yield that every element of Sp (s) is a product of involutions. Extending and improving recent results of Awa, de La Cruz, Ellers and Villa with the help of a completely new method, we prove that if the underlying field is infinite, every element of Sp (s) is the product of four involutions if n is a multiple of 4, and of five involutions otherwise. The first part of this result is shown to be optimal for all multiples of 4 and all fields, and is shown to fail for the fields with three elements and for n = 4. Whether the second part of the result is optimal remains an open question. Finite fields will be tackled in a subsequent article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest deadwood is an important carbon reserve, estimated to contain 8% of the total forest carbon. This type of woody debris is recognized as a source of carbon dioxide (CO2), as the carbon is released back into the atmosphere by microbial decomposition. Production of methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) has also been reported. In managed forests, logging residues form a major source of fine deadwood, but its role in the greenhouse gas exchange of forest ecosystems is poorly understood. We studied the greenhouse gas production of spruce and birch left-over fine woody debris and estimated the residence time of these residues at 18 spruce-dominated boreal forest sites in Central Finland. The study areas consisted of clear-cut forest stands, totally covering approximately 47 hectares, with logging residue ages varying between 0 and 10 years. The research was carried out over eight months from May to December 2019. We observed that CO2 dominated the greenhouse gas production of the logging residues, with the production being regulated by air temperature, tree species, residue age, and wood moisture. Emission of CO2 continued throughout the research period with a clear seasonal pattern. Production of CH4 and N2O was also observed, but not in climatically-relevant amounts. Deadwood half-life was estimated at 18 years for spruce and 9 years for birch. Our study demonstrates that logging residues form a mid-term carbon reserve and suggests that global warming could reduce the lifetime of the residues as a result of elevated and temperature-dependent CO2 release in the studied Myrtillus type forest stands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measurements of net primary productivity (NPP) and litter decomposition from tropical peatlands are severely lacking, limiting our ability to parameterise and validate models of tropical peatland development and thereby make robust predictions of how these systems will respond to future environmental and climatic change. Here, we present total NPP (i.e., above‐ and below‐ground) and decomposition data from two floristically and structurally distinct forested peatland sites within the Pastaza Marañón Foreland Basin, northern Peru, the largest tropical peatland area in Amazonia: (1) a palm (largely Mauritia flexuosa) dominated swamp forest and (2) a hardwood dominated swamp forest (known as 'pole forest', due to the abundance of thin‐stemmed trees). Total NPP in the palm forest and hardwood‐dominated forest (9.83 ± 1.43 and 7.34 ± 0.84 Mg C ha−1 year−1, respectively) was low compared with values reported for terra firme forest in the region (14.21–15.01 Mg C ha−1 year−1) and for tropical peatlands elsewhere (11.06 and 13.20 Mg C ha−1 year−1). Despite the similar total NPP of the two forest types, there were considerable differences in the distribution of NPP. Fine root NPP was seven times higher in the palm forest (4.56 ± 1.05 Mg C ha−1 year−1) than in the hardwood forest (0.61 ± 0.22 Mg C ha−1 year−1). Above‐ground palm NPP, a frequently overlooked component, made large contributions to total NPP in the palm‐dominated forest, accounting for 41% (14% in the hardwood‐dominated forest). Conversely, Mauritia flexuosa litter decomposition rates were the same in both plots: highest for leaf material, followed by root and then stem material (21%, 77% and 86% of mass remaining after 1 year respectively for both plots). Our results suggest potential differences in these two peatland types' responses to climate and other environmental changes and will assist in future modelling studies of these systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this work is to analyze the changes in streamflow drought and flood distribution in Polish rivers through data decomposition and trend analysis. The study dataset constituted daily streamflow at 250 gauges located across Poland (eastern Europe) from January 1, 1965, to December 31, 2020. Hydrological extremes were identified by the means of the objective threshold method, and basic parameters such as occurrence frequency, duration times, and event volumes were calculated along with minimal and maximal flow information, aggregated on monthly and annual scales. The seasonal trend decomposition using Loess (STL) method was used to decompose long-term changes from raw datasets. Results indicated that the application of the STL decomposition significantly improved the ability to detect changes in the streamflow time series, which is crucial for further research on climate-induced changes in different parts of the world. The identified trends indicate a decrease in flooding and an increase in streamflow drought magnitudes across Poland, except for mountainous areas in southeastern Poland, where drought magnitudes increase during summer and decrease in winter, while flooding increases in late spring and early autumn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population aging is an important and increasingly relevant area of study for demographers. A growing body of research seeks to determine how long-term changes in births, mortality, and migration—the three drivers of any demographic process—have shaped the present aging situation. Using variable-r decomposition and cohort data, this research note presents a formula for the change in the old-age dependency ratio to determine the extent to which relative changes in births, as well as in mortality and migration rates, contribute to aging. This perspective provides a careful and in-depth picture of aging and contributes to the debate concerning whether changes in births or mortality have had the strongest effect on population aging. When applied to Australia, the United States, and several European populations, the decomposition of the old-age dependency ratio shows that aging occurred in all populations and that changes in both births and mortality contributed to this aging. Analysis of these populations demonstrates that although they differed regarding which of these factors contributed more, changes in births prevailed as the more significant factor. In nearly all populations, migration decreased the rate of population aging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In cocoa agroforestry systems, cycling of leaves, pods, and branches are key for organic matter sustenance. We investigated annual total litterfall, annual nutrient stocks in total litterfall, cocoa pods and beans, as well as cocoa leaf decomposition rates in cocoa agroforestry systems under conventional and organic management in Suhum Municipality, Eastern Region of Ghana. The study was conducted using six cocoa agroforests for each management selected from a total of four villages. Litterfall was collected monthly using litterboxes and a litterbag technique was employed to study the rates of leaf decomposition and nutrient release for 12 months. In June and July, total litterfall in organic farms were 94% and 65%, respectively, higher than in conventional farms, but management had no effect on average annual total litterfall of 8.8 t ha−1 yr−1 litterfall. Due to the trees' reduced transpiration, 61% of the annual total litterfall occurred during the dry season. Whereas average leaf litter nitrogen (N) concentration was 17% higher in the rainy season than dry season, potassium (K) concentration was 38% higher during the dry season than rainy season. This likely reflected the contribution of N rich green leaves to litterfall in the rainy season and plant coping strategy to drought leading to K accumulation. Cocoa leaf decomposition was not affected by management. Annual potassium (K) and calcium (Ca) stocks in cocoa pod husk were four and nine-fold, respectively, higher than in cocoa beans. We conclude that organic versus conventional management had no effect on litterfall and cocoa leaf decomposition rather season influenced litterfall quantity and chemistry. Irrespective of management the spreading of cocoa pod husk after harvest will improve internal nutrient cycling in cocoa agroforestry systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares mortality transition in China and India in the period 1950-2021, highlighting similarities and differences. Mortality transition has been inconsistent in both countries, but differences remain. In China, the transition has been spread evenly across the age range, while in India, it has primarily been confined to younger ages, being markedly slow in ages 35-90. This difference in the older ages appears to explain the main difference between the respective mortality transition in the two countries. To address its ongoing mortality transition, the paper concludes, India needs to reinvigorate its health-care delivery system to meet the health care needs of the old people. The paper also emphasises using geometric mean of the age-specific probabilities of death as an appropriate measure to analyse mortality transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By incubating the soil without living roots in situ at two spruce forest sites, we simulated the effects of tree dieback and interrupted mycorrhizal associations following forest disturbance on the soil microbiome and phosphorus leaching. We observed the retreat of ectomycorrhizal fungi and increased proportion of saprotrophs without changes in community richness and the Shannon diversity index. This was accompanied by a pronounced decomposition of organic matter, associated with an increased activity of carbon-mining hydrolases and acid phosphatase. The nonexistent phosphorus uptake and immobilization by ectomycorrhizal associations led to its substantial increase in the soil, in the labile fractions, such as microbial biomass and water-soluble reactive phosphorus, but also in the fraction bound to organometallics (extractable by oxalate), and caused considerable phosphate leaching, as estimated using ion-exchange resin traps. The results show that the retreat of the root-specific environment, characterized by the input of available carbon and effective nutrient uptake and by the specific microbiome, has profound effects on phosphorus dynamics and loss. Furthermore, we suggest that ectomycorrhiza plays an equally important role in controlling phosphorus-mining from organic matter and subsequent immobilization and/or leaching from soils concurrently to its known role in nitrogen cycling and immobilization in spruce forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In cooperative game theory, the concept of interaction index is an extension of the concept of one-point solution that takes into account interactions among players. In this paper, we focus on cardinal–probabilistic interaction indices that generalize the class of semivalues. We provide two types of decompositions. With the first one, a cardinal–probabilistic interaction index for a given coalition equals the difference between its external interaction index and a weighted sum of the individual impact of the remaining players on the interaction index of the considered coalition. The second decomposition, based on the notion of the "decomposer", splits an interaction index into a direct part, the decomposer, which measures the interaction in the coalition considered, and an indirect part, which indicates how all remaining players individually affect the interaction of the coalition considered. We propose alternative characterizations of the cardinal–probabilistic interaction indices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fungal traits can provide a mechanistic understanding of how wood‐inhabiting fungi interact with their environment and how that influences community assembly in deadwood. However, fungal trait exploration is relatively new and almost no studies measure fungal traits in their environment. In this study we tested species‐ and trait‐environment relationships in reproducing fungal communities inhabiting 571 Norway spruce (Picea abies) logs in 55 isolated forest patches (0.1–9.9 ha) of different naturalness types, located in Northern boreal Sweden. The studied patches were (1) semi‐natural set‐aside patches within highly managed landscapes, or (2) old‐growth natural patches located in an unmanaged landscape. We tested species and trait relationships to deadwood substrate and forest patch variables. We measured mean fruit body size and density for each of the 19 species within communities. Traits assembled in relation to log decay stage and forest patch naturalness, illustrating the important role of deterministic environmental filtering in shaping reproducing wood‐inhabiting fungal communities. Early decay stage communities had larger, less dense, annual fruiting bodies of half‐resupinate type and were more often white‐rot fungi. Species rich mid‐decay stage communities had mixed trait assemblages with more long lived perennial fruit bodies of intermediate size, and both brown‐ and white‐rot fungi equally represented. Finally, late decay stage communities had smaller, denser and perennial fruit bodies, more often of the brown‐rot type. The relationships between the studied traits and decay stages were similar in both set‐aside and natural patches. However, set‐aside semi‐natural patches in highly managed landscapes more frequently supported species with smaller, perennial and resupinate fruit bodies compared to natural patches in an unmanaged landscape. Synthesis. We found that log decay stage was the primary driver of fungal community assembly of species and traits in isolated forest patches. Our results suggest that decay stage filters four reproduction traits (fruit body density, size, lifespan and type) and one resource‐use trait (white or brown rot). Our results highlights, for the first time, that communities with diverse fungal reproductive traits are maintained foremost across all deadwood decay stages under different forest naturalness conditions. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key points Acute intermittent hypoxia (AIH) is an emerging technique for enhancing neuroplasticity and motor function in respiratory and limb musculature. Thus far, AIH‐induced improvements in strength have been reported for upper and lower limb muscles after chronic incomplete cervical spinal cord injury (iSCI), but the underlying mechanisms have been elusive. We used high‐density surface EMG (HDsEMG) to determine if motor unit discharge behaviour is altered after 15 × 60 s exposures to 9% inspired oxygen, interspersed with 21% inspired oxygen (AIH), compared to breathing only 21% air (SHAM). We recorded HDsEMG from the biceps and triceps brachii of seven individuals with iSCI during maximal elbow flexion and extension contractions, and motor unit spike trains were identified using convolutive blind source separation. After AIH, elbow flexion and extension torque increased by 54% and 59% from baseline (P = 0.003), respectively, whereas there was no change after SHAM. Across muscles, motor unit discharge rates increased by ∼4 pulses per second (P = 0.002) during maximal efforts, from before to after AIH. These results suggest that excitability and/or activation of spinal motoneurons is augmented after AIH, providing a mechanism to explain AIH‐induced increases in voluntary strength. Pending validation, AIH may be helpful in conjunction with other therapies to enhance rehabilitation outcomes after incomplete spinal cord injury, due to these enhancements in motor unit function and strength. Acute intermittent hypoxia (AIH) causes increases in muscular strength and neuroplasticity in people living with chronic incomplete spinal cord injury (SCI), but how it affects motor unit discharge rates is unknown. Motor unit spike times were identified from high‐density surface electromyograms during maximal voluntary contractions and tracked from before to after AIH. Motor unit discharge rates were increased following AIH. These findings suggest that AIH can facilitate motoneuron function in people with incomplete SCI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing emphasis on fostering green growth and lowering carbon emissions in order to achieve sustainable economic development. This study uses the Tapio decoupling model and analyzes the factors influencing changes in carbon emissions from manufacturing in India utilizing the log mean Divisia index (LMDI) techniques. Furthermore, the nexus between carbon emission intensity, information and communication technology (ICT), total factor productivity (TFP), skill, and energy intensity has been analyzed using the system-GMM approach. It is based on the plant-level Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) datasets for the organized manufacturing sector of India from 2001 to 2002 to 2019 2020 for the major 21 Indian states/UT. The findings reflect the presence of weak decoupling in the manufacturing sector both at the aggregate level and in states. This indicates that both output and emissions are increasing; however, output growth surpasses emission growth, which signifies an effort to transition towards more environmentally friendly production methods and enhanced energy efficiency. The output and population effect are found to be leading factors in carbon emissions, while energy intensity is found to be reducing the effect. Further, the system-GMM estimates show that ICT and energy intensity positively affect total factor productivity, while with an increase in carbon emission intensity, productivity declines. The study confirms the existence of an inverted N-shaped Kuznets curve in the sector. This present study will contribute to formulating energy and environmental strategies to reduce emissions and promote adopting cleaner energy sources. These efforts will facilitate the attainment of carbon neutrality and enhance energy efficiency within the sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a response of the coastal oceans to more severe anthropogenic disturbance, increasing coastal primary production has been more frequently observed in recent years. This raises the question of howthis progressive change reshapes the long-term carbonsequestration in thecoastal oceans. With this question inmind, we investigated the sediment organic matter (OM) preserved on the shelf of the northern SouthChina Sea (NSCS) where high primary production has been observed. Across this sediment core, relatively lowtotal organic carbon content of around 0.60%was observed. Fatty acids with less carbon numbers exhibit exponential decreases downward with degradation rate constants ranging from 0.10 to 0.17 y-1, no matter they were from single sources (14:0 presumably from marine OM and ai-15:0, i-15:0, 15:0 from bacterial OM) or mixed sources (16:0). Meanwhile fatty acids with more carbon numbers, either 18:0 and 24:0 from mixed sources, or 26:0 and 28:0 presumably fromterrestrial input, were less varied inconcentrationswithdepth. Thisdemonstrates a preferential decomposition of labile fatty acids during the early diagenesis of coastal sediment organicmatter. A decrease of labile fatty acids δ13Cvalueswas observed with the decomposition, from which kinetic isotope fractionations were predicted ranging from 0.7 to 1.5‰. This provides an isotopic constraint of the mixing model to quantify labile organicmatter from terrestrial input and local phytoplankton production, from which declined contribution of local phytoplankton production to labile fatty acids was identified in more recent sediment. This finding together with the low organic carbon content and rapid removal of fatty acids in the top sediment, demonstrates the poor preservation of labile organic matter on the shelf of NSCS, implying that the increasing primary production has not enhanced the coastal carbon sequest ration yet, but rather leads tomore intensified respiration with a potential risk toincrease the CO2 outgassing fromthe coastal oceans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the nonlinear nature of continuous phase modulation (CPM), most existing unambiguous acquisition algorithms are ineffective in eliminating the ambiguity threat faced by semi‐integer CPM signals. To address this issue, this letter proposes an unambiguous acquisition algorithm based on sub‐correlation functions combination (SCFC). The main idea of this algorithm is to decompose the first pulse amplitude modulation waveform derived from the Laurent decomposition into sub‐signal waveforms that are appropriate for CPM signals. The final unambiguous function is obtained by combining the autocorrelation function of the received CPM signal with the sub‐correlation functions derived from the sub‐signal waveforms and the received CPM signal. Simulation results demonstrate that the SCFC algorithm can eliminate the ambiguity threat of semi‐integer CPM signals with relatively minor detection loss. Moreover, the proposed algorithm successfully retains a narrow main peak and exhibits superior multipath resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital divide (DD) reflects the inequality of the digital economy, while existing research lacks a comprehensive framework for investigating the measurement of DD and its determinants. This study constructs a new framework with a five-dimensional comprehensive index system. City-level data are used to measure China's DD index from 2010 to 2020 at the national, regional, and provincial levels. Furthermore, this study investigates the decomposition of DD at both regional and provincial levels and the determinants of DD from the perspectives of physical, human, and social capital. The key results are: (1) China's DD has generally exhibited a fluctuating downward trend. While it remains high in the eastern and western regions, it has shown a decline year by year. However, the DD within most provinces is on the rise. (2) The intra-regional and inter-provincial are the primary drivers of changes in national DD, with both intra-regional and intra-provincial contribution rates on the rise. (3) Economic growth, infrastructure, foreign trade, education, and online interaction significantly impact DD, and these determinants may change at different periods. This study intends to provide empirical support for bridging the DD, fostering the balanced development of the digital economy, and reducing social inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]