Twenty years of population dynamics in European beech-oak forest at their rear range margin anticipate changes in its structure and composition

There is an increasing interest in restoring degraded forests,which occupy half of the forest areas.Among the forms of restoration,passive restoration,which involves the elimination of degrading factors and the free evolution of natural dynamics by applying minimal or no management,is gaining attention.Natural dynamics is difficult to predict due to the influence of multiple interacting factors such as climatic and edaphic conditions,composition and abundance of species,and the successional character of these species.Here,we study the natural dynamics of a mixed forest located in central Spain,which maintained an open forest structure,due to intensive use,until grazing and cutting were banned in the 1960s.The most frequent woody species in this forest are Fagus sylvatica,Quercus petraea,Quercus pyrenaica,Ilex aquifolium,Sorbus aucuparia,Sorbus aria and Prunus avium,with contrasting shade and drought tolerance.These species are common in temperate European deciduous forest and are found here near their southern distribution limit,except for Q.pyrenaica.In order to analyze forest dynamics and composition,three inventories were carried out in 1994,2005 and 2015.Our results show that,despite the Mediterranean influence,the natural dynamics of this forest has been mainly determined by different levels of shade tolerance.After the abandonment of grazing and cutting,Q.pyrenaica expanded rapidly due to its lower shade tolerance,whereas after canopy closure and forest densification,shade-tolerant species gained ground,particularly F.sylvatica,despite its lower drought and late-frost tolerance.If the current dynamics continue,F.sylvatica will overtake the rest of the species,which will be relegated to sites with shallow soils and steep slopes.Simultaneously,all the multi-centennial beech trees,which are undergoing a rapid mortality and decline process,will disappear.

ENSO impacts on litter stocks and water holding capacity in secondary forests in eastern Amazonia

Among the impacts of climate change,there is the intensification of phenomena such as the El Niño South-ern Oscillation(ENSO)responsible for El Niño and La Niña.However,understanding their effects on the functional pro-cesses of forests is limited.Therefore,this study evaluated the effects of ENSO on litter stock and water holding capac-ity(WHC)in a successional forest in eastern Amazonia.Evaluations occurred in periods with the most rainfall in El Niño(2019)and least in La Niña(2021)years.Twelve permanent plots were used to sample litter.ENSO effects were evident for WHC,higher during El Niño.However,this influence was not clear for litter,as only in the rainy season effects were found.There was a positive correlation of WHC with precipitation and humidity,while litter stocks were negatively correlated with temperature and wind speed.Although the subject of this study requires long-term assessments,preliminary results suggests that,depending on the intensity of ENSO,forest functional processes can be strongly impacted and altered.The conclusion reinforces warnings by the scientific community about the impacts of climate change on the maintenance of litter stocks,decomposition and,consequently,the biogeochemical cycle and essential ecosystem services for the maintenance of Amazonia biodiversity.The need to develop long-term research to understand the effects of climatic change on litter stocks and water holding capacity is highlighted,especially in Amazonia.

Correlation of personality with individual reproductive success in shrub-nesting birds depends on their life history style

Two questions in the research of animal personality—whether there is a correlation between a personality trait and individual reproductive success,and what is the genetic basis underlying a personality trait—remain unresolved.We addressed these two questions in three shrub-nesting birds,the Azure-winged Magpie(Cyanopica cyanus,AM),White-collared Blackbird(Turdus albocinctus,WB),and Brown-cheeked Laughingthrush(Trochalopteron henrici,BL).The personality type of an individual was first identified according to its response to a territorial intruder.Then,we compared the fleeing distance,breeding parameters,and differential expressed genes(DEGs) in the brain transcriptome between bold and shy breeders.In the three species,bold breeders exhibited more aggressiveness towards an intruder of their territory than did shy breeders.The reproductive success of bold breeders was significantly higher than that of shy breeders in AM but not in WB and BL.The three species shared one DEG,crabp1,which was up-regulated in bold relative to in shy individuals.By regulating the expression of corticotropin-releasing hormone,higher crabp1 gene expression can decrease cellular response to retinoic acid.Therefore,bold individuals are insensitive to external stresses and able to exhibit more aggressiveness to intruders than their shier counterparts.Aggressiveness is beneficial to bold individuals in AM but not in WB and BL because the former could evoke neighbors to make the same response of defending against intruders but the latter could not.Although a personality trait may have the same genetic basis across species,its correlation with reproductive success depends largely on the life history style of a species.

Recursive Filtering for Stochastic Systems With Filter-and-Forward Successive Relays

In this paper,the recursive filtering problem is considered for stochastic systems over filter-and-forward successive relay(FFSR)networks.An FFSR is located between the sensor and the remote filter to forward the measurement.In the successive relay,two cooperative relay nodes are adopted to forward the signals alternatively,thereby existing switching characteristics and inter-relay interferences(IRI).Since the filter-and-forward scheme is employed,the signal received by the relay is retransmitted after it passes through a linear filter.The objective of the paper is to concurrently design optimal recursive filters for FFSR and stochastic systems against switching characteristics and IRI of relays.First,a uniform measurement model is proposed by analyzing the transmission mechanism of FFSR.Then,novel filter structures with switching parameters are constructed for both FFSR and stochastic systems.With the help of the inductive method,filtering error covariances are presented in the form of coupled difference equations.Next,the desired filter gain matrices are further obtained by minimizing the trace of filtering error covariances.Moreover,the stability performance of the filtering algorithm is analyzed where the uniform bound is guaranteed on the filtering error covariance.Finally,the effectiveness of the proposed filtering method over FFSR is verified by a three-order resistance-inductance-capacitance circuit system.

The effect of Common Cuckoo parasitism on the annual productivity of a host population

Avian interspecific brood parasitism is an excellent system for studying coevolutionary processes in nature because brood parasites directly affect host reproductive success.Most research on avian brood parasitism has,therefore,focused primarily on specific host anti-parasite behaviours and parasite counter-adaptations.However,the population-level consequences of brood parasitism for host species are poorly understood.This study investigated the effect of Common Cuckoo(Cuculus canorus)parasitism on the productivity of a local population of the Great Reed Warbler(Acrocephalus arundinaceus)host in south-western Slovakia.A total of 495 females nesting at the studied site successfully fledged 1321 of their own young and 63 young of the Common Cuckoo over the course of 15 years(2008-2022),and the annual rate of successful parasitism ranged from 18% to 44% over this period.As predicted,higher rates of successful cuckoo parasitism significantly reduced the annual productivity of the local Great Reed Warbler population,and its contribution to decreased host reproductive success was at about the same rate as overall nest failure caused by predation and other environmental factors.Such a heavily parasitized population was probably maintained by immigrants from other populations and density-dependent selection,which is also consistent with source-sink dynamics.However,further long-term studies monitoring parasitized populations are required to confirm these findings.

Quantized Decoders that Maximize Mutual Information for Polar Codes

In this paper,we innovatively associate the mutual information with the frame error rate(FER)performance and propose novel quantized decoders for polar codes.Based on the optimal quantizer of binary-input discrete memoryless channels(BDMCs),the proposed decoders quantize the virtual subchannels of polar codes to maximize mutual information(MMI)between source bits and quantized symbols.The nested structure of polar codes ensures that the MMI quantization can be implemented stage by stage.Simulation results show that the proposed MMI decoders with 4 quantization bits outperform the existing nonuniform quantized decoders that minimize mean-squared error(MMSE)with 4 quantization bits,and yield even better performance than uniform MMI quantized decoders with 5 quantization bits.Furthermore,the proposed 5-bit quantized MMI decoders approach the floating-point decoders with negligible performance loss.

Malignant glaucoma treated by low-dose laser cycloplasty: a 1-year multicenter prospective noncomparative study

AIM:To report a one-year clinical outcomes of low-dose laser cycloplasty(LCP)among malignant glaucoma patients.METHODS:In this prospective,multicenter,noncomparative clinical study,participants with malignant glaucoma were recruited and underwent LCP at eight ophthalmic centers in China.Patients were followed up at 1wk,1,3,6,and 12mo.Intraocular pressure(IOP),number of glaucoma medications,anterior chamber depth(ACD),and complications were recorded.Anatomical success was defined as the reformation of the anterior chamber based on slit-lamp biomicroscopy.Recurrence was defined by the presence of a shallow orflat anterior chamber after initial recovery from treatment.RESULTS:A total of 34 eyes received LCP.Mean IOP and medications decreased from 36.1±11.5 mm Hg with 3.3±1.5 glaucoma medications pre-treatment to 20.9±9.8 mm Hg(P<0.001)with 2.9±1.6 medications(P=0.046)at 1d,and 17.4±6.7 mm Hg(P<0.001)with 1.3±1.7 medications(P<0.001)at 12mo.The ACD increased from 1.1±0.8 mm at baseline to 1.7±1.0 mm and to 2.0±0.5 mm at 1d and 12mo,respectively.A total of 32(94.1%)eyes achieved initial anatomical success.During follow-up,2(5.9%)eyes failed and 8(23.5%)eyes relapsed,yielding a 12-month anatomical success rate of 64.3%.Complications including anterior synechia(8.82%),choroidal/ciliary detachment(5.88%)and hypopyon(2.94%)were observed within 1wk.CONCLUSION:LCP is simple,safe,and effective in reforming the anterior chamber in malignant glaucoma.

Adaptive Successive POI Recommendation via Trajectory Sequences Processing and Long Short-Term Preference Learning

Point-of-interest(POI)recommendations in location-based social networks(LBSNs)have developed rapidly by incorporating feature information and deep learning methods.However,most studies have failed to accurately reflect different users’preferences,in particular,the short-term preferences of inactive users.To better learn user preferences,in this study,we propose a long-short-term-preference-based adaptive successive POI recommendation(LSTP-ASR)method by combining trajectory sequence processing,long short-term preference learning,and spatiotemporal context.First,the check-in trajectory sequences are adaptively divided into recent and historical sequences according to a dynamic time window.Subsequently,an adaptive filling strategy is used to expand the recent check-in sequences of users with inactive check-in behavior using those of similar active users.We further propose an adaptive learning model to accurately extract long short-term preferences of users to establish an efficient successive POI recommendation system.A spatiotemporal-context-based recurrent neural network and temporal-context-based long short-term memory network are used to model the users’recent and historical checkin trajectory sequences,respectively.Extensive experiments on the Foursquare and Gowalla datasets reveal that the proposed method outperforms several other baseline methods in terms of three evaluation metrics.More specifically,LSTP-ASR outperforms the previously best baseline method(RTPM)with a 17.15%and 20.62%average improvement on the Foursquare and Gowalla datasets in terms of the Fβmetric,respectively.

SAR regional all-azimuth observation orbit design for target 3D reconstruction

Three-dimensional(3D) synthetic aperture radar(SAR)extends the conventional 2D images into 3D features by several acquisitions in different aspects. Compared with 3D techniques via multiple observations in elevation, e.g. SAR interferometry(InSAR) and SAR tomography(TomoSAR), holographic SAR can retrieve 3D structure by observations in azimuth. This paper focuses on designing a novel type of orbit to achieve SAR regional all-azimuth observation(AAO) for embedded targets detection and holographic 3D reconstruction. The ground tracks of the AAO orbit separate the earth surface into grids. Target in these grids can be accessed with an azimuth angle span of360°, which is similar to the flight path of airborne circular SAR(CSAR). Inspired from the successive coverage orbits of optical sensors, several optimizations are made in the proposed method to ensure favorable grazing angles, the performance of 3D reconstruction, and long-term supervision for SAR sensors. Simulation experiments show the regional AAO can be completed within five hours. In addition, a second AAO of the same area can be duplicated in two days. Finally, an airborne SAR data process result is presented to illustrate the significance of AAO in 3D reconstruction.

Left atrial appendage occluder detachment treated with transthoracic ultrasound combined with digital subtraction angiography guided catcher:A case report

BACKGROUND There are very few cases of cardiac occluder detachment,and it is rare to completely remove the occluder using interventional methods without undergoing thoracotomy surgery after detachment.This case innovatively used ultrasound guidance combined with digital subtraction angiography(DSA)to completely remove the occluder,accumulating some experience.CASE SUMMARY The patient underwent left atrial appendage occlusion surgery in our hospital due to atrial fibrillation.After the surgery,the occluder fell off and became free in the left ventricle,which is very dangerous.We innovatively used ultrasound guidance,combined with DSA,and interventional surgery to successfully capture the free occluder using a catcher,completely remove it,and then re implant a new left atrial appendage occluder.After the surgery,the patient recovered very well.CONCLUSION The size selection of the occluder is slightly conservative,and the shape of the left atrial appendage opening is irregular.

The Emergence of Loving Pedagogy in the L2 Affective Domain:How Affective Pedagogy Accounts for Chinese EFL Teachers’Professional Success and Job Satisfaction?

The success of teachers in professional environments has a desirable influence on their mental condition.Simply said,teachers’professional success plays a crucial role in improving their mental health.Due to the invaluable role of professional success in teachers’mental health,personal and professional variables helping teachers succeed in their profession need to be uncovered.While the role of teachers’personal qualities has been well researched,the function of professional variables has remained unknown.To address the existing gap,the current investigation measured the role of two professional variables,namely job satisfaction and loving pedagogy,in Chinese EFL teachers’professional success.To do this,three validated scales were provided to 1591 Chinese EFL teachers.Participants’answers to the questionnaires were analyzed using the Spearman correlation test and structural equation modeling.The data analysis demonstrated a strong,positive link between the variables.Moreover,loving pedagogy was found to be the positive,strong predictor of Chinese EFL teachers’job satisfaction and professional success.The findings of the current inquiry may help educational administrators enhance their instructors’professional success,which in turn promotes their mental and psychological conditions at work.

Modeling and Analysis of OFDMA-NOMA-RA Protocol Considering Imperfect SIC in Multi-User Uplink WLANs

To address the problems of network congestion and spectrum resources shortage in multi-user large-scale scenarios,this paper proposes a twice random access OFDMA-NOMA-RA protocol combining the advantages of orthogonal frequency division multiple access(OFDMA)and non-orthogonal multiple access(NOMA).The idea of this protocol is that OFMDA is used to divide the entire frequency field into multiple orthogonal resource units(RUs),and NOMA is used on each RU to enable more users to access the channel and improve spectrum efficiency.Based on the protocol designed in this paper,in the case of imperfect successive interference cancellation(SIC),the probability of successful competition subchannels and the outage probability are derived for two scenarios:Users occupy the subchannel individually and users share the subchannel.Moreover,when two users share the channel,the decoding order of the users and the corresponding probabilities are considered.Then,the system throughput is obtained.To achieve better outage performance in the system,the optimal power allocation algorithm is proposed in this paper,which enables the optimal power allocation strategy to be obtained.Numerical results show that the larger the imperfect SIC coefficient,the worse the outage performance of weak users.Compared with pure OFDMA and NOMA,OFDMA-NOMA-RA always maintains an advantage when the imperfect SIC coefficient is less than a specific value.

Long-term trends in the abundance and breeding performance in Adélie penguins:the Argentine Ecosystem Monitoring Program

In this work,we report long-term trends in the abundance and breeding performance of Adélie penguins(Pygoscelis adeliae)nesting in three Antarctic colonies(i.e.,at Martin Point,South Orkneys Islands;Stranger Point/Cabo Funes,South Shetland Islands;and Esperanza/Hope Bay in the Antarctic Peninsula)from 1995/96 to 2022/23.Using yearly count data of breeding groups selected,we observed a decline in the number of breeding pairs and chicks in crèche at all colonies studied.However,the magnitude of change was higher at Stranger Point than that in the remaining colonies.Moreover,the index of breeding success,which was calculated as the ratio of chicks in crèche to breeding pairs,exhibited no apparent trend throughout the study period.However,it displayed greater variability at Martin Point compared to the other two colonies under investigation.Although the number of chicks in crèche of Adélie penguins showed a declining pattern,the average breeding performance was similar to that reported in gentoo penguin colonies,specifically,those undergoing a population increase(even in sympatric colonies facing similar local conditions).Consequently,it is plausible to assume a reduction of the over-winter survival as a likely cause of the declining trend observed,at least in the Stranger Point and Esperanza colonies.However,we cannot rule out local effects during the breeding season affecting the Adélie population of Martin Point.

Gas Exchange Rates of Texas Persimmon (Diospyros texana) in Central Texas Woodlands

Diospyros texana (Texas persimmon) is a secondary species in most Juniperus ashei/Quercus fusiformis woodlands in central Texas. It has high density, but plants are mostly in the community understory. Light response curves at ambient and elevated levels of CO2 and temperature were measured for D. texana. The Anet (photosynthetic rate) increased significantly as both light level and CO2 levels increased but not temperature. The Amax (maximum photosynthetic rate) of D. texana in full sun at elevated levels of CO2 was increased for all treatments. Stomatal conductance increased with levels of CO2 but only if the interaction was removed from the model. Intercellular levels of CO2 increased with both temperature and CO2 treatments as did water use efficiency (WUE). Furthermore, light saturation (Lsat) increased with CO2 treatments and light compensation (Lcp) increased with temperature. The dark respiration (Rd) increased with both temperature and CO2 treatments. Markov population models suggested D. texana populations would remain ecologically similar in the future. However, sub-canopy light levels and herbivory should be considered when examining population projections. For example, Juniperus ashei juveniles are not recruited into any canopy unless there are high light levels. Herbivory reduces the success of Quercus juveniles from reaching the canopy. These factors do not seem to be a problem for D. texana juveniles which would allow them to reach the canopy without need of a high light gap and are not prevented by herbivory. Thus, Juniperus/Quercus woodlands will change in the future to woodlands with D. texana a more common species.

Prospects,Challenges,and Recommendations for New Energy Development

Since nearly 200 parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change reached the Paris Agreement at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris in 2015,the parties have successively established goals to achieve carbon neutrality by the middle of the 21st century.Therefore,transforming from high-carbon-emitting fossil fuels to low-carbon or even zero-carbon-emitting renewable energy sources has become a crucial pathway for reducing carbon emissions and achieving carbon peak and neutrality.

美国制造业回流政策:实施效果与制约因素

For over a decade,successive US administrations have made manufacturing reshoring a priority of their policy agendas,with multi-pronged measures to bring both manufacturing operations and jobs back to America.With economic,political,strategic,and security considerations behind the push,it has witnessed some progress but still falls short of expectations.Driven by the US reshoring policy,the race for local manufacturing among major global economies will intensify their competition and fragment the once-globalizing supply chain cooperation network.

On English Teaching From the Scope of China's Mainland

In China,English is required in every school of China and many achievements have been made in this part of the world.The English level of Chinese has been greatly improved but the problems still exist in this country.Communicative approach and many other successful teaching methods have been employed;however,the problems in English teaching still occur and last to the present time.Many efforts have been made to have outstanding and successful results in English teaching.We therefore hope much success will be achieved as quickly as possible.

Succession Plan for Nursing Academic Program Administrators

Leadership succession in nursing academic programs poses a significant challenge, primarily due to the limited availability of professionals with the competencies required for effective leadership [1]. This study aims to address this gap by investigating the critical factors in succession planning for nursing program administrators. The research objectives include identifying the competencies necessary for academic administrators, assessing the experience of current administrators, and developing a comprehensive succession plan framework. The research uses qualitative methods, including literature review, interviews with nursing administrators, and analysis of existing succession models. Results highlight the importance of integrating strategic planning into succession processes to ensure smooth transitions and organizational stability. Conclusions suggest that a formalized succession plan, incorporating mentorship and leadership development, can mitigate leadership gaps in nursing academia [2].

Numerical Study of the Vibrations of Beams with Variable Stiffness under Impulsive or Harmonic Loading

The behavior of beams with variable stiffness subjected to the action of variable loadings (impulse or harmonic) is analyzed in this paper using the successive approximation method. This successive approximation method is a technique for numerical integration of partial differential equations involving both the space and time, with well-known initial conditions on time and boundary conditions on the space. This technique, although having been applied to beams with constant stiffness, is new for the case of beams with variable stiffness, and it aims to use a quadratic parabola (in time) to approximate the solutions of the differential equations of dynamics. The spatial part is studied using the successive approximation method of the partial differential equations obtained, in order to transform them into a system of time-dependent ordinary differential equations. Thus, the integration algorithm using this technique is established and applied to examples of beams with variable stiffness, under variable loading, and with the different cases of supports chosen in the literature. We have thus calculated the cases of beams with constant or variable rigidity with articulated or embedded supports, subjected to the action of an instantaneous impulse and harmonic loads distributed over its entire length. In order to justify the robustness of the successive approximation method considered in this work, an example of an articulated beam with constant stiffness subjected to a distributed harmonic load was calculated analytically, and the results obtained compared to those found numerically for various steps (spatial h and temporal τ ¯ ) of calculus, and the difference between the values obtained by the two methods was small. For example for ( h=1/8 , τ ¯ =1/ 64 ), the difference between these values is 17%.

An Evaluation of the Critical Success Factors in Sustainable Food Supply Chains in Developing Countries

Food is one of the biggest industries in developed and underdeveloped countries. Supply chain sustainability is essential in established and emerging economies because of the rising acceptance of cost-based outsourcing and the growing technological, social, and environmental concerns. The food business faces serious sustainability and growth challenges in developing countries. A comprehensive analysis of the critical success factors (CSFs) influencing the performance outcome and the sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) process. A theoretical framework is established to explain how they are used to examine the organizational aspect of the food supply chain life cycle analysis. This study examined the CSFs and revealed the relationships between them using a methodology that included a review of literature, interpretative structural modeling (ISM), and cross-impact matrix multiplication applied in classification (MICMAC) tool analysis of soil liquefaction factors. The findings of this research demonstrate that the quality and safety of food are important factors and have a direct effect on other factors. To make sustainable food supply chain management more adequate, legislators, managers, and experts need to pay attention to this factor. In this work. It also shows that companies aiming to create a sustainable business model must make sustainability a fundamental tenet of their organization. Practitioners and managers may devise effective long-term plans for establishing a sustainable food supply chain utilizing the recommended methodology.