Search

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]

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]

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]

AbstractMore than two-thirds of jail inmates are unconvicted—i.e. detained pretrial. Detention status has been shown to have substantial downstream effects on criminal case processing, ranging from the likelihood of conviction to sentence outcomes. Yet, most sentencing studies lack information on detention status, leading to concerns of omitted variable bias as a possible explanation for any observed racial disparity. This study seeks to determine the extent to which pretrial status accounts for racial differences in sentencing. In addition to the standard release files from the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing, we incorporate supplemental data on bail decisions to determine whether—and why—defendants were detained pretrial. We use general linear models decomposition to determine the degree to which pretrial status differences and the differential impact of pretrial status across groups account for observed differences between Black, White, and Hispanic defendants’ likelihood of incarceration and departure and incarceration length. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measures that represent the degree of departure from symmetry, global symmetry, and conditional symmetry have been proposed to analyze square contingency tables. Additionally, a refined estimator of the symmetry measure has been suggested. This study provides refined estimators of the measures for global symmetry and conditional symmetry, and shows the relationship between the proposed estimators and the refined estimator. The proposed estimators can be obtained by the second-order term in the Taylor series expansion. Simulations studies demonstrate that as the sample size increases, the proposed estimators approach the true values faster than the former estimators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nitrocellulose is a vulnerable and sensitive energetic material that can easily be manufactured from ordinary household chemicals and used for illicit purposes. Hazards of this material can lead to incidents resulting from unplanned initiation in manufacturing, storage or handling.Thermal stability and hazard data for so-called improvised nitrocellulose (IN) are crucial to formulate guidance for storage and handling of such materials recovered from illegal possession. This study focused on the energy content, stability and safety properties of IN. The energy contents increase linearly with nitrogen contents of IN. Improvised nitrocellulose showed a similar sensitivity to impact and electrostatic discharge, but vacuum stability testing demonstrated more gas release (2.8–3.4 cm3 g−1) compared to commercial NC (1.7 cm3 g−1). Chemiluminescence analysis established activation energies for hydrolytic and thermolytic decomposition to be 36 and ~93 kJ mol-1, respectively. Results suggest that NC samples recovered from improvised devices or illegal possession should be handled with special care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decomposition of energetic materials, especially propellants, produces nitrous gas and free acid nitrates which accelerates its rate velocity. To inhibit this inconvenient autocatalytic reaction, molecules known as stabilizers are usually included in their composition. One of them, diphenylamine (DPA), is primarily used in single-base compositions. In this work, we used density functional theory, with the RI-B2PLYP-D3BJ exchange-correlation functional, to investigate the N-nitrosation mechanism corresponding to a reaction between DPA and a nitro compound producing N-nitroso-diphenylamine (NNDPA). For this purpose, geometry optimizations (equilibrium and transition states), minimum energy paths, Gibbs free activation energies, and rate constants of four reaction mechanisms were computed both in the gas phase and simulating the nitrocellulose environment, which produced similar results. We found that the N-nitrosation mechanism with HNO2 is the most favored, with a rate constant of 5.3 × 10−4 g·µmol−1·s−1. In contrast, the formation of NNDPA is less likely to depend on NO+ in agreement with the experimental results. Cationic reaction mechanisms are hardly viable, whereas interactions with NO or N2O3 are possible. Nonetheless, the former is too slow (1.02 × 10−35 g·µmol−1·s−1) and the latter depends on the scarcely available nitro compound as a reactant, despite being considerably fast (1.61 × 104 g·µmol−1·s−1). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Incorporation of soil amendments with high organic carbon content (HCA) can reduce losses of mineral nitrogen (N) from agricultural soils. The magnitude of N immobilization and remobilization is strongly controlled by the availability of carbon (C) and phosphorus (P). However, the exact mechanisms and interactions between C, N, and P availability are poorly understood. An eight-month incubation experiment was conducted on recultivated mine soil with low organic C, mineral N and P background concentrations to investigate the effects of HCA in combination with 13C-labelled glucose and mineral P fertilization on greenhouse gas emissions, soil nutrient status (dissolved organic C (DOC), nitrate (NO3–), extractable P), and microbial biomass growth. The experiment had a factorial design of one N level × two P levels × six C treatments (control, wheat straw, poplar sawdust, glucose, and combinations of wheat straw or sawdust with glucose). The HCA increased the cumulative CO2 and CH4 emissions but decreased N2O emission, except for wheat straw. Addition of 13C-labelled glucose decreased the cumulative CH4 emission by 59 and 85 % in the sawdust and sawdust + P treatment, respectively. Glucose application reduced the NO3– content in the HCA-amended soil by 26–64 %, while P fertilizer further decreased the NO3– content in the wheat straw and sawdust treatments by 20 and 24 %, respectively. Both HCA and glucose treatments promoted microbial biomass growth and reduced the soil mineral N content. The δ13C of microbial biomass (δ13CMB) showed an increasing trend during the whole experiment, although 13C-labelled glucose was added only once at the beginning of the experiment. Addition of HCA decreased δ13CMB, while P addition had the opposite effect. In conclusion, adding a readily available C source to HCA may increase the efficacy of retaining N in post-harvest soils, particularly of more recalcitrant types of HCA like sawdust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In urban metro systems, unexpected events often occur to cause discordance in the planned timetable and delay in passenger travel. Therefore, this study focuses on the timetable rescheduling problem by adopting a stop-skipping strategy during the off-peak period. In addition, there are a number of existing optimization models that minimize the total passenger waiting time, which can cause fairness issues for a small group of passengers having longer waiting time at some stations. In this study, a rescheduling model is proposed to consider passenger waiting time fairness and train travel time cost. This model is tested with a randomly designed delay scenario of Nanjing Metro Line 2, which can be efficiently solved by a designed iterative algorithm based on decomposition method. Compared to the standard stop pattern, the result shows that the stop-skipping pattern can better alleviate the impact of sudden delays, while simultaneously ensuring the passenger waiting time fairness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We advance research on the 'gendered pandemic' and its implications for psychological well-being in three important ways. First, we focus on Japan, arguably the most gender-inegalitarian wealthy country. Second, we focus on gender differences in both hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Third, we use demographic decomposition tools to evaluate the extent to which observed gender differences in decline in psychological well-being reflect differences in pre-pandemic characteristics, differences in life changes during the pandemic, differences in pandemic-related worry, and differences in men's and women's responses to these characteristics and experiences. Results show that decline in both dimensions of psychological well-being was significantly greater for women and that the contributions of differences in relationships were larger than those of differences in composition. We also show that reduction in well-being derived from social interaction was particularly pronounced for women and that gender differences in age patterns of decline in both dimensions of psychological well-being are large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compost Me: A More-Than-Humanifesto speaks to my desire to be composted, exploring what human composting is and how the process works, in addition to what human composting can teach us about being and becoming more-than-human. As part of this more-than-humanifesto, I advocate for an extended sense of self – one that mixes and mingles with other beings and bodies – to compost discourses that present humans as separate from, and superior to, the ecologies in which they are intimately a part. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional model of factor-driven economic growth can no longer be maintained due to an increasing demand to save energy and reduce emissions and a rapid rise in the cost of related factors. The concept of green total factor productivity (GTFP) has emerged as an essential component of high-quality economic growth; consequently, how to boost GTFP through the development of technical advancement has become an important question in recent years. An improved CES production function of labor, capital, and energy is created using the theoretical framework for biased technological growth as its foundation. Subsequently, the mechanisms resulting from the synergy of factor structure, factor efficiency and biased technological progress (BTP) on GTFP are theoretically deduced and empirically analyzed. The conclusion shows that the types of technical advancement are mainly net labor-enhancing and net energy-enhancing technical advancement in China from 2001 to 2017. Due to the biased effect of technical advancement, the relative comparison of the three elements is determined predominantly by excessive capital investment and less by labor and energy. Factor-enhancing technical advancement led to the growth of GTFP, while the synergistic effect of BTP, factor structure and factor efficiency hindered the growth of GTFP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

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]

Many real-life applications are modelled using hierarchical decision-making in which: an upper-level optimisation task is constrained by a lower-level one. Such class of optimisation problems is referred in the literature as Bi-Level Optimisation Problems (BLOPs). Most of the proposed methods tackled the single-objective continuous case adhering to some regularity assumptions. This is at odds with real-world problems which involve mainly discrete variables and expensive objective function evaluations. Besides, the optimisation process becomes exorbitantly time-consuming, especially when optimising several objectives at each level. For this reason, the Multi-objective variant (MBLOP) remains relatively less explored and the number of methods tackling the combinatorial case is much reduced. Motivated by these observations, we propose in this work an elitist decomposition-based evolutionary algorithm to solve MBLOPs, called ECODBEMA. The basic idea of our proposal is to handle, decomposition, elitism and multithreading mechanisms to cope with the MBLOP's high complexity. ECODBEMA is applied to the production–distribution problem and to a sustainable end-of-life products disassembly case-study based on real-data of Aix-en-Provence French city. We compared the optimal solutions of an exact method using CPLEX solver with near-optimal solutions obtained by ECODBEMA. The statistical results show the significant outperformance of ECODBEMA against other multi-objective bi-level optimisation algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HIV/AIDS knowledge deprivation fosters fear, discrimination, and stigma and, thus, reduces the impact of prevention efforts. This article investigates the socioeconomic determinants of HIV/AIDS knowledge deprivation in Bangladesh, a country largely affected by HIV incidence, using the 2011 and 2014 waves of the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey. To analyze the factors impacting the unequal distribution of HIV/AIDS knowledge deprivation among socioeconomic groups, the study proposes a multidimensional knowledge deprivation index and constructs a knowledge deprivation concentration index. Results show that the concentration of knowledge deprivation among the most disadvantaged groups (those with low household wealth) significantly correlates with the concentration of women's empowerment among the least economically disadvantaged. These findings highlight the role of institutional support for programs improving women's agency as an important complement to programs that focus on traditional forms of deprivation and disadvantage. HIGHLIGHTS In Bangladesh, women are disproportionally exposed to the risk of HIV/AIDS. Multidimensional HIV/AIDS knowledge deprivation is concentrated among disadvantaged women. Key prevention strategies are those focused on knowledge deprivation. Policies targeting women's education and employment will reduce the risk of infection. Women's empowerment and agency improve HIV/AIDS knowledge deprivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Life expectancy for females has exceeded that of males globally this century. There is considerable within-country variation in life expectancy related to education. Sex gaps in life expectancy can be decomposed into two components: sex differences in education-specific mortality and sex differences in educational composition. We illustrate this using Australian data for 2016, when the sex gap in life expectancy at age 25 was 3.8 years. The sex gap would be as large as 4.5 years if males and females had the same educational composition; however, it is reduced by 0.7 years, given the lower levels of education among women than men. In a hypothetical scenario accounting for recent increases in females' educational achievement (holding the educational composition at all ages constant at that observed at ages 25–39 for both sexes), we estimate a potential increase in the sex gap (to 4.1 years) in favour of females. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide) plays an increasingly significant role in various synthetic processes by generating diverse active intermediates in situ, which actively participate in reactions. It is crucial to control the formation of these active intermediates to prevent their mutual interference during utilization. Our previous research identified methyl methanethiosulfonate (MMTS) as a major decomposition product of DMSO when catalyzed by small amounts of (COCl)2 in CH3CN. In the current study, we investigated how different solvents and additives can mediate the formation of MMTS. Complete avoidance of MMTS formation was achieved in 1,4-dioxane, while only trace amounts were observed in toluene, MTHF, or CHCl3. Moreover, the decomposition pathway of DMSO in these solvents was effectively mediated through the addition of strong acids (HX, where X = TfO, ClO4, I, Br, or Cl) or in the presence of LiI, CH3I, or Br2. The effects of solvents and additives on the decomposition of DMSO were explored. The possible mechanisms for the decomposition of DMSO under different conditions were proposed and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study identifies the sources of convergence/divergence of Russian regions in per capita budget revenues in the period 2010–19. Budget inequality is assessed using the Theil–Bernoulli index and then decomposed by stages of budgeting and sources. The research shows that inequality, initially formed at the production stage, more than doubles at the stage of tax collection due to the progressiveness of the tax rate in relation to the tax base in the Russian regions. The tax distribution system makes the largest contribution to the convergence of Russian regions in terms of per capita budget revenues, while the contribution of the budget transfer system decreases over time due to its ever growing deviation from the real position of the regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image denoising is one of the significant approaches for extracting valuable information in the required images without any errors. During the process of image transmission in the wireless medium, a wide variety of noise is presented to affect the image quality. For efficient analysis, an effective denoising approach is needed to enhance the quality of the images. The main scope of this research paper is to correct errors and remove the effects of channel degradation. A corrupted image denoising approach is developed in wireless channels to eliminate the bugs. The required images are gathered from wireless channels at the receiver end. Initially, the collected images are decomposed into several regions using Adaptive Lifting Wavelet Transform (ALWT) and then the “Symmetric Convolution-based Residual Attention Network (SC-RAN)” is employed, where the residual images are obtained by separating the clean image from the noisy images. The parameters present are optimized using Hybrid Energy Golden Tortoise Beetle Optimizer (HEGTBO) to maximize efficiency. The image denoising is performed over the obtained residual images and noisy images to get the final denoised images. The numerical findings of the developed model attain 31.69% regarding PSNR metrics. Thus, the analysis of the developed model shows significant improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on income inequality in developing economies has scarcely looked at the regional dimension. This is important, as progress in reducing income inequality at national level can only be partially successful if a country consists of very unequal regions alongside relatively equal ones. Using newly assembled Luxembourg Income Study data, we study the evolution of income inequality within Egyptian regions during 1999–2015. The analysis offers three findings. First, income inequality has generally increased. Second, regional differences in income inequality tended to decrease, but less unequal regions are converging to similar levels of inequality of more unequal regions. Third, there has been a decrease in the income share of the bottom 40% and an increase in the proportion of people living below 50% of median income. Hence, geographically diffused progress on the first two targets of SDG 10 depends on reversing these trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying the determinants of social mobility for children of non-Western immigrants is of vital concern as immigration pressures grow across the West. Prior studies have minimized the role of place as one such determinant but suffers from several unsupportable assumptions. We interrogate this issue by quantifying the relative contributions made by family and neighborhood characteristics in explaining the educational attainments of young adults, paying special attention to how effects differ by gender and parental immigrant status. Our statistical models provide plausibly causal estimates by controlling for geographic selection bias. We estimate model parameters using several cohorts of children raised in Oslo, Norway, for whom government registers provide exceptionally detailed information about cumulative exposures of children to family and neighborhood contexts. Our decomposition demonstrates that differences in childhood neighborhood have a substantial effect on male (but not female) immigrant-native gaps in the probabilities of completing secondary school and of enrolling in university, though these effects are smaller than those reflecting differences in family background. We discuss implications of our findings for people- and place-based social policies aimed at enhancing immigrant opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A classical theorem of Wonenburger, Djokovič, Hoffmann and Paige [2, 3, 7] states that an element of the general linear group of a finite-dimensional vector space is the product of two involutions if and only if it is similar to its inverse. We give a very elementary proof of this result when the underlying field F is algebraically closed with characteristic other than 2. In that situation, the result is generalized to the group of invertibles of any finite-dimensional algebra over F. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study revisits the puzzle of the gender happiness gap in China based on data from the China General Social Survey between 2008 and 2017. Decomposition analyses in this study indicate that women are happier than men mainly due to women's higher positive responsiveness to happiness determinants (the coefficient effect) rather than a higher level of objective achievements (the composition effect). Women obtain happiness from education despite not having a higher education, and women get more happiness from spousal income instead of personal income. Within families, the study finds that the greater the income gap between husband and wife, the greater the gender happiness gap. To help explain this gap, the study demonstrates that women living under traditional gender norms have higher evaluation of their education when they obtain lower levels of education than those living under egalitarian norms. HIGHLIGHTS In China, women's objective achievements in education and income have improved but remain lower than men's. Women are happier than men due to higher responsiveness to achievements. The income gap between husbands and wives increases women's subjective well-being and reduces men's. The traditional belief that men are more capable leaves women worse off in education. The gender happiness gap is much larger in urban areas and eastern regions of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ozone decomposition kinetics varies significantly in the presence of biological commodity. This variation depends on many factors but primarily on the active sites in agricultural commodities and storage environments. Ozone decomposition kinetics in onion bulbs at temperatures (2, 10, and 18°C) and relative humidity (RH) (35 & 85%) for different ozone concentrations (100, 200, 300 ppm) and number of exposures (1, 2, 3) were investigated. Zero-order, first-order, and second-order kinetic models were fitted to the ozone decomposition data with respect to time. It was found that the decomposition kinetics follows a first-order reaction and the decomposition rate constant ($${{\rm{k}}_{\rm{d}}}$$ k d ) varies from 1.712 × 10−3 s−1 − 5.181 × 10−3 s−1 in the presence of onion. The half-life period ($${{\rm{t}}_{1/2}}$$ t 1 / 2 ) was found to increase with concentration and number of exposures and decrease with temperature and relative humidity. The activation energy was found to vary between 1.840 and 10.216 kJ mole−1 and 6.271–12.461 kJ mole−1 for the relative humidity of 85% and 35%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper decomposes the Spanish aggregate R&D distribution to disentangle the contributions of R&D public financing, gazelle firms, and financial constraints. Applying the Chernozhukov, Fernández-Val and Melly (2013) distribution regression approach, we estimate the contributions of these components at each point of the distribution. The analysis is carried out for two periods, pre-crisis 2004–2008 and post-crisis 2009–2014. We thereby introduce a comparative perspective that allows us to consider possible business cycle effects. Our findings show that the main explanatory factors of the significant post-crisis drop in Spanish aggregate R&D are changes in the public financing scheme and the decreased contribution of gazelles. Our results provide a rigorous analysis of Spanish R&D, hint at a possible transmission channel for reduced business dynamism, and offer interesting insights for policymaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to investigate the differences in the agricultural productivity of male and female cereal growers in rural Ghana. This study uses data from the Ghana Socioeconomic Panel Survey (GSPS) conducted in 2017/2018. The paper employs the Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition method to decompose the unconditional gender productivity gap into endowment effects and structural effects. The findings show that the total cereal production of female plot managers is 46% lower than that of their male counterparts. The results from the study reveal that the gender productivity gap varies across productivity distributions. Access to agricultural lands and inputs was found to be the principal factor driving the gender productivity gap. The paper contribute to literature by using actual harvest per acre of land for the yield function instead of using sales revenue which has been adopted by most earlier. Unlike several earlier studies that rely on dataset from small localized communities that cannot provide much information on external validity of their findings, the study uses a national representative dataset for its analysis. The study is the first study in Ghana that tries to investigate the dynamics of the endowment effect and structural effect at different quintiles of the yield function of farm produce. Impact statement: Even though it is widely acknowledged that productivity gap exists between female and male farmers, the available evidence has often relied on samples from small localized communities. Unlike earlier studies this paper uses data from Ghana that covers a wide geographical area and therefore findings and policy recommendations are nationalistic in nature. Thus, any policy to improve access to agricultural land and inputs by women will greatly contribute to the reduction of the gender productivity gaps among cereal growers in rural Ghana and other similar rural communities in sub-Sahara Africa that share similar cultural, religious and socio-economic characteristics like that of rural Ghana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deadwood in forests is becoming an important topic globally for forest management and carbon markets. While deadwood volume is now routinely assessed by forest inventories and can be even monitored using remote sensing, data about deadwood carbon and density depending on the extent of decay is scarce. We propose a simple concept for estimating deadwood carbon using data from a pilot study in selected coniferous and broadleaf forests covering different climate zones in Austria. We measured deadwood volume and decay classes and calculated deadwood density and carbon fraction from destructive field samples. We found that decay reduces deadwood density significantly, while carbon fraction increases moderately with decay. Partitioning the explained variation confirmed that size and site parameters are more important for explaining deadwood carbon fraction than for deadwood density. These patterns were consistent for coniferous and broadleaf tree species. We also show how to estimate deadwood carbon stocks using standard forest inventory measurements or country statistics, without information on decay classes. We found differences in decay classes of standing versus lying deadwood, and our proposed method allows considering this in large-scale deadwood carbon assessments. We highlight research gaps and missing deadwood information, to provide more accurate carbon assessments of deadwood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To assess the trends in non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) incidence in Hong Kong from 1990 to 2019 and the associations of age, calendar period, and birth cohort, to make projections to 2030, and to examine the drivers of NMSC incidence. We assessed the age, calendar period, and birth cohort effects of NMSC incidence in Hong Kong between 1990 and 2019 using an age-period-cohort model. Using Bayesian age-period-cohort analysis with integrated nested Laplace approximations, we projected the incidence of NMSC in Hong Kong to 2030. From 1990 to 2019, the age-standardized incidence rate of NMSC increased from 6.7 per 100,000 population to 8.6 per 100,000 population in men and from 5.4 per 100,000 to 5.9 per 100,000 population in women, among the 19,568 patients in the study (9812 male patients [50.14%]). The annual net drift was 2.00% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.50–2.50%) for men and 1.53% (95% CI: 0.95–2.11%) for women. Local drifts increased for both sexes above the 35–39-year age group. The period and cohort risk of developing NMSC tended to rise but slowed gradually in the most recent period and post-1975 birth cohort. From 2019 to 2030, it is projected that the number of newly diagnosed NMSC cases in Hong Kong will increase from 564 to 829 in men and from 517 to 863 in women. Population aging, population growth, and epidemiologic changes contributed to the increase in incident NMSCs, with population aging being the most significant contributor. The slowing of the period and cohort effects suggests that the rising incidence of NMSC is partly attributable to increased awareness and diagnosis. The increasing prevalence of NMSC among the elderly and an aging population will significantly impact the clinical workload associated with NMSC for the foreseeable future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Korea's total fertility rate reached 1.3 in 2001 and hit a record low (0.92) in 2019. The total number of births shrank even faster, recording a 45.9 per cent drop between 2001 and 2019. To understand the declining births and the contributing demographic factors, I decompose the change in the birth rate into mean generation size, fertility quantum, and tempo distortions, and evaluate their relative contributions to the decline. The remarkable birth decline since 2001 is largely explained by fertility quantum decline, especially for second births, and shrinking generation size caused by the decline in female population size. Tempo distortions were strong, but given the marginal change since 2001, they contributed less and only in recent years. This study highlights unique features of East Asia's low fertility, such as continued fertility decline and the long-term negative effects of reproducing generations' low fertility. Findings might have implications for developing countries experiencing rapid fertility decline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we investigate how the Benders decomposition, Lagrangean relaxation, and Dantzig–Wolfe reformulation techniques can be accelerated when intertwined with the corridor method. We test the approaches on the capacitated lot sizing problem with setups. Due to the computational complexity of this lot sizing problem, one would expect to find a number of approaches based on decomposition techniques in the literature. While this is true for Lagrangean relaxation and Dantzig–Wolfe reformulation, we could not find any paper proposing the use of Benders decomposition for the problem at hand. Consequently, with this study, we pursue a two-fold goal: First, and foremost, we want to determine how effective the corridor method is as acceleration scheme for these decomposition techniques; second, we aim at gaining some insight into why Benders has not been proposed for this class of problems. Our results shed light on both issues. On the one hand, we show that all the decomposition methods benefit from the hybridisation with the corridor method. On the other hand, a thorough analysis on the behaviour and limitations of Benders algorithm is provided. We conclude the study with a statistical analysis to determine whether significant differences in performance among the different implementations arise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Open systems have been of interest to the research and industrial community for decades, e.g. software development, telecommunication, and innovation. The presence of open manufacturing enterprises in a cloud calls for broadly interpretable models. Though there is no global standard for representation of digital models of processes and systems in a cloud, the existing process modelling methodologies and languages are of interest to the manufacturing cloud. The models residing in the cloud need to be configured and reconfigured to meet different objectives, including complexity reduction and interpretability which coincide with the resilience requirements. Digitisation, greater openness, and growing service orientation of manufacturing offer opportunities to address resilience at the design rather than the operations stage. An algorithm is presented for complexity reduction of digital models. The complexity reduction algorithm decomposes complex structures and enhances interpretability and visibility of their components. The same algorithm and its variants could serve other known concepts supporting resilience such as modularity of products and processes as well as delayed product differentiation. The ideas introduced in the paper and the complexity reduction algorithm of digital models are illustrated with examples. Properties of the graph and matrix representations produced by the algorithm are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines serial production lines with unreliable non-identical parallel machines at each workstation and intermediate buffers with finite capacities. All machines are assumed to have exponential service times, times to failure and repair times. An efficient decomposition technique is introduced for the performance evaluation of such lines. Rather than replacing each parallel-machine workstation with an equivalent single-server workstation, the main contribution of this paper is the presentation of a direct approach to derive and apply decomposition equations directly for every parallel machine at each workstation. Experimental results indicate that such a method can provide a computationally efficient algorithm to analyse large serial unreliable multi-server production lines with a good accuracy compared against simulation and other available methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, the issue of traffic flow assignment has become an interdisciplinary topic that concerns multiple research areas and branches of science. This work is focussed on the mathematical and computational aspects of the equilibrium traffic assignment problem in the case when route flows are considered to be decision variables. Firstly, we obtain a fixed-point mapping with the explicit contraction operator, which is proven to equilibrate the journey times on feasible routes between a single origin-destination pair of nodes with the quadratic rate. Remarkable that from mathematical perspectives, the developed operator generalizes most path-equilibration operators already exploited by researchers. Secondly, we use the obtained fixed-point procedure to run the sequential path-equilibration algorithm for traffic flow assignment on well-known test urban road networks with arc-additive travel time functions. Our computational results appear to demonstrate higher accuracy of user-equilibrium traffic assignment solutions than the best ones known to us. In other words, developed within this paper sequential path-equilibration algorithm leads to solutions with less goal function values compared to the best solutions for today, according to our knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across European Union (EU) labour markets, immigrant and native populations exhibit disparate labour market outcomes, signifying widespread labour market hierarchies. Despite the considerable investment in migration and integration policies, it remains unclear whether these contribute to or alleviate labour market hierarchies between natives and immigrants. Using a longitudinal model based on individual-level EU LFS and country-level DEMIG POLICY and POLMIG databases, we explore variation in changes of immigration and integration policies across Western EU member states to study how they are linked to labour market hierarchies in terms of unemployment and employment quality gaps between immigrant and native populations. Our findings suggest that designing less restrictive immigration and integration policies could aid in reducing existing labour market disadvantages for immigrants, enabling them to realise their full potential and reduce the immigrant-native labour market hierarchies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper decomposes the components of wealth inequality and its change in the United States during the period 2006–2016. The results show that wealth inequality in the US is extremely high. Real estate, non-housing assets and financial investments are the first three important components of equivalent wealth and overall inequality. Financial investments, real estate liabilities and non-housing liabilities have positive marginal impacts on overall inequality, while other assets' marginal impacts are negative. Financial investments changes had the largest impact on the aggregate trends of wealth inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyse the education and wage gaps between Hindus and Muslims over the period 1983 to 2011–2012 in India. We find that Muslims are worse off than Hindus in terms of education and this disadvantage has increased over time. Our analysis shows that the wage gap is more pronounced at the higher end of the wage distribution which we interpret as a glass ceiling effect. We find that the wage gap has increased over time and the increase is more pronounced at the upper quantiles. Our decomposition analysis shows that difference in education has a significant contribution to the Hindu-Muslim wage gap. We find that the Hindu-Muslim gaps are more pronounced in urban areas relative to rural areas. Comparing Muslims with different Hindu castes, we find that while the disadvantaged castes have improved their condition relative to Muslims over time, the condition of Muslims relative to the advantaged castes has worsened. Dividing the sample into younger (aged 16–35) and older (36–65) cohorts, we find that the Hindu-Muslim gap in education is more acute in the younger cohort while the Hindu-Muslim wage gap is more pronounced for the older cohort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the significance of transition in the growth stages, there is a lack of evidence on the different characteristics of firm size in terms of the sources of TFP growth. This study applies a stochastic frontier analysis to Korean firms to decompose the sources of total factor productivity growth into technical progress, technical efficiency changes, scale changes and allocative efficiency changes. Specifically, this study analyses the determinants of TFP growth by firm size (i.e. small-, mid- and large-sized firms) and explores firm-size-specific factors that influence their productivity growth rates. Our results suggest that contributions of four components to TFP growth by firm-size classes show somewhat different patterns. These results imply that each class has different sets of challenges in terms of improving productivity growth potentials. The main findings are expected to lay foundations for designing elaborate firm-size-dependent policies to spur the evolutionary process of a firm's capacity building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Millions of lives in Asia were lost in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, causing a reduction of 1.66 years in life expectancy at birth (e0) in 2019–2021 and a reduction of 1.41 years in life expectancy at age 60 (e60). Using the World Population Prospects 2022, we decomposed mortality changes at older ages (ages 60+) that contributed to Asia's reduction in e0 and e60. Overall, changes in mortality at older ages contributed to more than 70 per cent of reduction in e0 for all its subregions, except Eastern Asia (<37 per cent), and changes in mortality at oldest-old ages (80+) led to a reduction in e60 by 25 per cent. The sex difference in reduction of e60 varied across Asian countries, despite a similar pattern across subregions. These findings helped us understand the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on human mortality and the large variations across subregions and countries, which could have important policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the origins and evolution of labor force participation rate differences between women from different ethnic groups in India. The data comes from the Indian National Sample Survey covering the period from 1983 to 2012. I use parametric and semi-parametric methods to study inter-group participation gaps and find that the caste gap has been narrowing over time, while the religion gap remains high. I find that Muslim women’s concentration in areas of low economic activity is the main driver of their low LFPR. I also test the role of culture in explaining inter-group gaps, using the India Human Development Survey. There has been a general fall in female participation in the labor market globally in recent years. These methods could advantageously be applied to data from other countries to investigate the employment and livelihood opportunities of women in other multi-ethnic contexts and regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we introduce and study the local version of the Menger property, namely locally Menger property (or, locally Menger space). We explore some preservation like properties in this space. We also discuss certain situations where this local property behaves somewhat differently from the classical Menger property. Some observations about the character of a point, network weight and weight in this space are also investigated carefully. We also introduce the notion of Menger generated space (in short, MG-space) and make certain investigations in these spaces. Several topological observations on the decomposition and the remain- der of locally Menger spaces are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The biodegradation of lignocellulosic materials in nature is a complex process. To investigate the fungal competition patterns and degradation on Moso bamboo (Phyllostachys edulis), four wood decay fungi, including white-rot and brown-rot fungi, were selected as the test fungi in this research. Bamboo blocks were pre-colonized by different fungi then paired to form dual cultures. The results showed different competition outcomes among these fungi on potato dextrose agar, forest soil, and bamboo. Whit-rot fungus Trametes versicolor was highly competitive on bamboo where it could replace brown-rot fungi, and the biodegradation of bamboo was more severe in dual cultures, especially in the combination of Trametes versicolor and Gloeophyllum trabeum. The degradation of the bamboo components also differed with the monocultures and dual cultures. In monocultures of brown-rot fungi, cellulose was the most severely degraded component among the three primary components; while in monocultures of white-rot fungi, lignin was the most severely degraded component instead. The degradation of hemicellulose and lignin was more significant than that of cellulose in the dual cultures containing white-rot fungi. These results suggest that dual culturing of decay fungi has the potential to improve biomass utilization of bamboo and reduce the chemical treatment cost of raw materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asynchronous Mixed-Model Assembly lines are common production layouts dedicated to large-scale manufacturing of similar products. Cyclically scheduling such products is an interesting strategy to obtain high and stable throughput. In order to best optimise these lines, it is necessary to combine line balancing, model sequencing, and buffer allocation. However, few works integrate these three degrees of freedom, and evaluating steady-state performance as a consequence of these decisions is challenging. This paper presents a mathematical model that allows an exact steady-state performance evaluation of these lines, and hence their optimisation. While the combination of degrees of freedom is advantageous, it is also computational costly. An iterative decomposition procedure based on alternation between two mathematical models and on optimality cuts is also presented. The decomposition is tested against the proposed mathematical model in a 700-instance dataset. The developed methods obtained 142 optimal answers. Results show that the decomposition outperforms the monolithic mathematical model, in particular for larger and harder instances in terms of solution quality. The optimality cuts are also shown to help the decomposition steps in terms of solution quality and time. Comparisons to a sequential procedure further demonstrate the importance of simultaneously optimising the three degrees of freedom, as both the proposed model and the decomposition outperformed such procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a cardinality constrained network flow structure whose special characteristics are used to analyse different risk aspects under an environment of uncertainty. The network structure developed is a suitable alternative to support financial planning and many other decision-making problems with limited resources. By setting a diversification level, we can manage systematic and non-systematic risks under a stochastic mixed integer linear programming framework. A dual decomposition method, Progressive Hedging (PH), is applied to more efficiently accommodate instances with large numbers of scenarios. We studied the impact of the level of the diversification on transaction costs and considered different factors that influence the performance of the algorithm. In particular, a Lagrangian bound is embedded to enhance the capacity of the method. Numerical results show the effectiveness of the proposed decision support approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing attention on environment issues, green scheduling in manufacturing industry has been a hot research topic. As a typical scheduling problem, permutation flow shop scheduling has gained deep research, but the practical case that considers both setup and transportation times still has rare research. This paper addresses the energy-efficient permutation flow shop scheduling problem with sequence-dependent setup time to minimise both makespan as economic objective and energy consumption as green objective. The mathematical model of the problem is formulated. To solve such a bi-objective problem effectively, an improved multi-objective evolutionary algorithm based on decomposition is proposed. With decomposition strategy, the problem is decomposed into several sub-problems. In each generation, a dynamic strategy is designed to mate the solutions corresponding to the sub-problems. After analysing the properties of the problem, two heuristics to generate new solutions with smaller total setup times are proposed for designing local intensification to improve exploitation ability. Computational tests are carried out by using the instances both from a real-world manufacturing enterprise and generated randomly with larger sizes. The comparisons show that dynamic mating strategy and local intensification are effective in improving performances and the proposed algorithm is more effective than the existing algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of attitude stabilization of a rigid body is under consideration. The issue of realizing such a control system of the PID-controller type with distributed delay (integral term) is addressed. A theorem on the asymptotic stability of the stabilized position of the body, which justifies the possibility of constructing the desired control system, has been proven. The effectiveness of the constructed control with a distributed delay is confirmed by numerical modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For dealing with uncertain optimization problems, interval programming is a common model that can provide a risk range for decision makers between the best and the worst optimal solutions. Among all interval programming problems, the interval bilevel programming problem has always known as one of the hardest problems to solve. In this work, an efficient solution method is developed for general interval linear bilevel programs in which all coefficients and right-hand vectors are given by intervals. Firstly, a decomposition scheme is adopted to transform the original problem into two simplified subproblems in which only the follower's problem involves interval coefficients. Secondly, a genetic algorithm, one of the more effective evolutionary algorithms, is designed to search these intervals, and linear program optimality conditions are utilized to evaluate each individual in populations. Finally, by comparing the fitness values according to pre-determined rules, the best and the worst optimal solutions to the interval linear bilevel programming problem can be achieved. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm is efficient and can obtain larger intervals of the optimal values on some computational examples than those in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fretting corrosion as one of the leading causes for failure of modular hip prostheses has been associated with micromotion at head-neck taper junction. Decomposition of micromotion is helpful to promote the development of more realistic experiments investigating failure mechanisms of the head-neck junction in total hip arthroplasty. The aim of this study was to decompose the complex three-dimensional micromotion at the head-neck junction into multiple fundamental modes, including three translational and three rotational components. A three-dimensional finite element model composed of head-neck junction, liner and acetabular cup with a typical 12/14 taper size, as well as the taper mismatch of −4', was developed during walking. The analysis was divided into three procedures: a) the assembly simulation of the head and neck during surgery, b) verification with a simplified axisymmetric model, and c) three-dimensional modelling under normal walking. This study revealed that the main forms of micromotion contained circumferential, longitudinal micromotion and longitudinal rolling toggling, and were closely related to the state of motion. The maximum translational micromotion was predicted to be 10.9 μm during the walking gait, with the predominant modes of the circumferential translation of 9.6 μm, the longitudinal translation of 5.5 μm and the longitudinal rotation of 0.29° along the taper junction. These findings may provide design considerations for further experimental testing about fretting and facilitate the understanding of the fretting mechanisms in hip prostheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The burden of stomach cancer remains high in Hong Kong. We sought to evaluate the associations of age, period, and birth cohort with the changing trend in the incidence of stomach cancer and to provide projections through 2030. We performed an age-period-cohort analysis and projections up to 2030 using data from the Hong Kong Cancer Registry. Additionally, we used a population decomposition algorithm to assess the drivers in the number of incident cases of stomach cancer in Hong Kong. Among the 26,813 stomach cancer patients, from 1994 to 2018, the age-standardized incidence rate of stomach cancer decreased for both sexes. The incidence increased with age and was highest for those aged 85 years or older. Period relative risk (RR) showed a monotonic decreasing pattern throughout the study period for both sexes before 2010. Cohort RR for males was monotonically decreasing but changed little after the 1967–1971 birth cohort. In contrast, cohort RR for females declined in the pre-1927–1931 birth cohort but slowed down since. It is projected that there will be 906 male patients and 954 female patients in 2030. Decomposition analysis suggested that population growth and aging were associated with substantial changes in the number of incident cases of stomach cancer in Hong Kong. Both period and cohort risk of developing stomach cancer in Hong Kong have slowed down or plateaued. Our study demonstrates that population aging and growth are the main drivers of the increased number of incident cases of stomach cancer in Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examined whether the number of manipulatives used in arithmetic strategy instruction influences learning. First graders were randomly assigned to one of the following conditions for learning a decomposition strategy to solve arithmetic problems: intervention with a single manipulative, intervention with multiple manipulatives, and a business-as-usual control condition. Both intervention conditions produced a greater increase in the use of decomposition for mental calculation than the control condition. The pattern of results across the intervention conditions varied as a function of the outcome examined. In terms of children's mastery of strategy execution with the manipulatives, there was no difference between these conditions. In terms of generalization, children whose instruction involved two complementary manipulatives tended to generalize the base-10 strategy to mental calculation to a greater extent than children whose instruction involved a single manipulative. Most noteworthy was that the findings indicated path-dependent transfer: children who mastered decomposition in the multiple-manipulatives condition were more likely to generalize this knowledge to mental calculation than those who achieved mastery via practice with a single manipulative. The implications of these findings for better understanding the conditions under which manipulatives are likely to affect learning for different outcomes is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]