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The authors examine work patterns in the United States from 1973 to 2018, with the novel focus on days per week, using intermittent CPS samples and one ATUS sample. Among full-time workers, the incidence of four-day workweeks tripled, adding 7 million four-day workers. Similar growth occurred in the Netherlands, Germany, and South Korea. The rise was not due to changes in demographics or industrial structure. Such schedules are more common among those who are 1) less educated, 2) younger, 3) white non-Hispanic, 4) men, 5) natives, 6) people with young children, 7) non-unionized, 8) police and firefighters, 9) health care workers, and 10) restaurant workers. Based on an equilibrium model, the authors show that the increase in four-day workweeks results more from workers' preferences and/or their daily fixed costs of working than production costs. The wage penalty for a four-day workweek is greater when such work is more prevalent, and the penalty has diminished over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Mummification refers to a process of desiccation with loss of up to 60–70% of the body weight. It may be unintentional when a body is exposed to dry heat, extreme cold or to reduced amounts of air, or it may be intentional from embalming or drying. To evaluate mummification in a contemporary medicolegal situation selected Pathology Files at Forensic Science SA (FSSA), Adelaide, Australia, were searched from 2004 to 2023 for autopsy cases where bodies had been described as completely mummified. Twenty-one cases were identified (out of a total of 2872 cases - <1%) consisting of 17 males and 4 females (M:F = 4:1) with an age range of 27 to 95 years (average 62 years). The estimated post mortem intervals ranged from 2 to 16 weeks (average 5 weeks) with 16 cases (76%) occurring during the warmer months. Nineteen bodies (91%) were found inside home addresses Causes of death were determined in only seven cases (33%) (3 drug toxicity; 3 cardiovascular disease and 1 hypothermia). Thus, the most typical case involved a socially isolated older male during summer at his home address. Changes to the body after mummification, with distortion and loss of tissues and organs, present challenges to forensic practitioners who may have difficulties in determining the time, cause and manner of death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study examined the wealth-related inequality in women healthcare seeking behaviour for under-five children illness in Afghanistan and its determinants. Methods: Data of 32409 mothers/caregivers of children under-five were extracted from Afghanistan Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey conducted in 2022. Wealth-related inequalities in women healthcare seeking behaviour for under-five children illness was investigated using Erreygers and Wagstaff concentration indices and curve. Contributions of selected factors to the total inequality were estimated using the Erreygers decomposition technique. Results: The Erreygers and Wagstaff normalized concentration indices for women healthcare seeking behaviour for under-five children illness was 0.040; p < 0.000 and 0.042; p < 0.000 respectively. Hence, women healthcare seeking behaviour for children under-five illness was heavily concentrated among women from richer households and disfavoured women from poorer households. The decomposition findings revealed that household wealth (265%), residency in rural areas (-125%), access to mobile phone (-83%), access to internet (67%) and mothers' education (26%) were the major determinants of pro-rich inequalities. Conclusion: Policy makers, the private and development actors in Afghanistan should promote inclusive income generation interventions and healthcare awareness programmes, including women from poor households to eliminate wealth-related inequalities in women healthcare seeking behaviour. There is need for decentralizing health facilities in both rural and urban areas to improve equitable access to healthcare services. There is scope for disseminating health education through mobile phones and internet, reaching out to all areas to improve knowledge on children's illnesses and subsequently reduce inequalities in women health seeking behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Existing evidence suggests a lower uptake of cervical cancer screening among Indian women. Coverage is lower in rural than urban women, but such disparities are less explored. So, the present study was conducted to explore the self-reported coverage of cervical cancer screening in urban and rural areas stratified by socio-demographic characteristics, determine the spatial patterns and identify any regional variations, ascertain the factors contributing to urban-rural disparities and those influencing the likelihood of screening among women aged 30–49 years factors residing in urban, rural, and overall Indian settings. Methods: We did a secondary analysis of the fifth round of the National Family Health Survey in India (2019-21) data with a sample size of 3,48,882 women. The coverage of cervical cancer screening was estimated using sampling weights. Urban-rural differences were compared using the chi-square test. Spatial patterns were analysed using aggregated district-level data, and the contribution of different independent variables to the urban-rural disparities was estimated using multivariate decomposition analysis. Multivariable logistic regression was conducted using STATA 17 to obtain the significant factors of reported screening in urban and rural areas. Results: The nationwide coverage of cervical cancer screening was 2.0% (95% CI: 1.9-2.0). The urban (2.4%; 2.3–2.5) participants had higher screening coverage than their rural (1.8%; 1.7–1.8) counterparts. Moran's I statistic confirmed the presence of spatial dependence and geographical gradient. Decomposition analysis depicted small urban-rural differences in the screening coverage of 0.60% (0.4–0.8). Endowment and coefficient contributed to 88.15% and 11.85% of the disparities. Compositional changes were contributed majorly by regional differences, low education, scheduled tribes, and having living children > 2. Higher odds of having screening were associated with older age (AOR 1.45, 95% CI: 1.03–1.28), higher education (1.32; 1.13–1.55), higher age of first intercourse (1.60; 1.43–1.79), married (1.25; 1.08–1.45) and diabetic (1.39; 1.17–1.65) women, and those from South India (6.76; 5.90–7.75). The odds were lower among Muslims, scheduled tribes and participants using hormonal contraceptives. Conclusion: There are significant urban-rural disparities in cervical cancer screening uptake that can be attributed to regional variation, educational inequalities, tribal groups, socio-economic inequalities and parity, necessitating the need to comprehensively design tailor-made advocacy initiatives and simultaneously address the broader determinants of health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While studying abroad as part of a degree programme is increasingly common, there are widespread concerns about socioeconomic inequalities in participation. Using large-scale high-quality administrative data from Ireland, we show that students from affluent backgrounds are 1.5 times (46%) more likely to study abroad than non-affluent students. Applying a Gelbach decomposition, we find that prior academic performance and field of study explain most of the observed difference. We also show, for the first time, considerable heterogeneity in the relationship between participation and socioeconomic status by field of study and that inequalities are much greater for high-performing students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic decomposition is the natural process by which organic matter breaks down into simpler materials through the actions of decomposers such as fungi, microorganisms, and other decomposers that ultimately recycle nutrients back into an ecosystem. Despite having experiences with mold and decay, many students would benefit from developing a deep understanding of the biological science ideas that underpin decomposition. Moreover, with explicit attention, the ideas of organic decomposition can be used to engage students in thoughtful consideration of personal and community environmental habits, particularly with littering, disposing of waste, and avoiding unnecessary plastics. However, these connections are rarely intuitive and require concrete learning experiences with deliberate scaffolding to make connections between scientific ideas and environmental mindfulness. This composting inquiry activity with scaffolding promotes students' deep understanding of matter cycling and environmentally responsible mindfulness and action. While knowledge is not likely to result in environmental behaviors, it is a crucial predecessor to responsible action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known of how Neotropical freshwater ecosystems will respond to future climate scenarios. In Neotropical rainforests, a substantial fraction of the freshwater available to the aquatic fauna is found within phytotelmata, plant-held waters that form aquatic islands in a terrestrial matrix. We hypothesized that phytotelmata in close proximity have higher resilience capacity to severe drought than the isolated ones, under the assumption that immigration from nearby sources promotes faster recovery. We used rainshelters to emulate an extreme drought (67 days without rainfall) in tank-forming bromeliads arranged in patches of 1, 3 or 6 plants in a primary forest of French Guiana. Habitat size was a stronger determinant of invertebrate species richness and biomass per bromeliad than patch size. Larger bromeliad patches attenuated the adverse effect of drought on the biomass of predators, probably because short-range migration within dense patches allowed individuals to find moist refuges. However, the recovery of aquatic communities and ecosystem functions was mostly supported by in situ resistance, and a rescue effect of immigration was weak. Whilst environmental management plans tend to focus on dense networks of connected water bodies, our study shows that efforts should not omit the isolated ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]