Vietnam National University, Hanoi

The standard bootstrap (SBS), despite being computationally intensive, is widely used in maximum likelihood phylogenetic analyses. We recently proposed the ultrafast bootstrap approximation (UFBoot) to reduce computing time while achieving more unbiased branch supports than SBS under mild model violations. UFBoot has been steadily adopted as an efficient alternative to SBS and other bootstrap approaches. Here, we present UFBoot2, which substantially accelerates UFBoot and reduces the risk of overestimating branch supports due to polytomies or severe model violations. Additionally, UFBoot2 provides suitable bootstrap resampling strategies for phylogenomic data. UFBoot2 is 778 times (median) faster than SBS and 8.4 times (median) faster than RAxML rapid bootstrap on tested data sets. UFBoot2 is implemented in the IQ-TREE software package version 1.6 and freely available at http://www.iqtree.org.

Humans express a wide array of ideal mate preferences. Around the world, people desire romantic partners who are intelligent, healthy, kind, physically attractive, wealthy, and more. In order for these ideal preferences to guide the choice of actual romantic partners, human mating psychology must possess a means to integrate information across these many preference dimensions into summaries of the overall mate value of their potential mates. Here we explore the computational design of this mate preference integration process using a large sample of n = 14,487 people from 45 countries around the world. We combine this large cross-cultural sample with agent-based models to compare eight hypothesized models of human mating markets. Across cultures, people higher in mate value appear to experience greater power of choice on the mating market in that they set higher ideal standards, better fulfill their preferences in choice, and pair with higher mate value partners. Furthermore, we find that this cross-culturally universal pattern of mate choice is most consistent with a Euclidean model of mate preference integration.

Consistent, cross-mission retrievals of near-surface concentration of chlorophyll-a (Chla) in various aquatic ecosystems with broad ranges of trophic levels have long been a complex undertaking. Here, we introduce a machine-learning model, the Mixture Density Network (MDN), that largely outperforms existing algorithms when applied across different bio-optical regimes in inland and coastal waters. The model is trained and validated using a sizeable database of co-located Chla measurements (n = 2943) and in situ hyperspectral radiometric data resampled to simulate the Multispectral Instrument (MSI) and the Ocean and Land Color Imager (OLCI) onboard Sentinel-2A/B and Sentinel-3A/B, respectively. Our performance evaluations of the model, via two-thirds of the in situ dataset with Chla ranging from 0.2 to 1209 mg/m3 and a mean Chla of 21.7 mg/m3, suggest significant improvements in Chla retrievals. For both MSI and OLCI, the mean absolute logarithmic error (MAE) and logarithmic bias (Bias) across the entire range reduced by 40–60%, whereas the root mean squared logarithmic error (RMSLE) and the median absolute percentage error (MAPE) improved two-to-three times over those from the state-of-the-art algorithms. Using independent Chla matchups (n < 800) for Sentinel-2A/B and -3A, we show that the MDN model provides most accurate products from recorded images processed via three different atmospheric correction processors, namely the SeaWiFS Data Analysis System (SeaDAS), POLYMER, and ACOLITE, though the model is found to be sensitive to uncertainties in remote-sensing reflectance products. This manuscript serves as a preliminary study on a machine-learning algorithm with potential utility in seamless construction of Chla data records in inland and coastal waters, i.e., harmonized, comparable products via a single algorithm for MSI and OLCI data processing. The model performance is anticipated to enhance by improving the global representativeness of the training data as well as simultaneous retrievals of multiple optically active components of the water column.

BACKGROUND: For more than three decades, the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) has provided a framework to quantify health loss due to diseases, injuries, and associated risk factors. This paper presents GBD 2023 findings on disease and injury burden and risk-attributable health loss, offering a global audit of the state of world health to inform public health priorities. This work captures the evolving landscape of health metrics across age groups, sexes, and locations, while reflecting on the remaining post-COVID-19 challenges to achieving our collective global health ambitions. METHODS: The GBD 2023 combined analysis estimated years lived with disability (YLDs), years of life lost (YLLs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) for 375 diseases and injuries, and risk-attributable burden associated with 88 modifiable risk factors. Of the more than 310 000 total data sources used for all GBD 2023 (about 30% of which were new to this estimation round), more than 120 000 sources were used for estimation of disease and injury burden and 59 000 for risk factor estimation, and included vital registration systems, surveys, disease registries, and published scientific literature. Data were analysed using previously established modelling approaches, such as disease modelling meta-regression version 2.1 (DisMod-MR 2.1) and comparative risk assessment methods. Diseases and injuries were categorised into four levels on the basis of the established GBD cause hierarchy, as were risk factors using the GBD risk hierarchy. Estimates stratified by age, sex, location, and year from 1990 to 2023 were focused on disease-specific time trends over the 2010-23 period and presented as counts (to three significant figures) and age-standardised rates per 100 000 person-years (to one decimal place). For each measure, 95% uncertainty intervals [UIs] were calculated with the 2·5th and 97·5th percentile ordered values from a 250-draw distribution. FINDINGS: Total numbers of global DALYs grew 6·1% (95% UI 4·0-8·1), from 2·64 billion (2·46-2·86) in 2010 to 2·80 billion (2·57-3·08) in 2023, but age-standardised DALY rates, which account for population growth and ageing, decreased by 12·6% (11·0-14·1), revealing large long-term health improvements. Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) contributed 1·45 billion (1·31-1·61) global DALYs in 2010, increasing to 1·80 billion (1·63-2·03) in 2023, alongside a concurrent 4·1% (1·9-6·3) reduction in age-standardised rates. Based on DALY counts, the leading level 3 NCDs in 2023 were ischaemic heart disease (193 million [176-209] DALYs), stroke (157 million [141-172]), and diabetes (90·2 million [75·2-107]), with the largest increases in age-standardised rates since 2010 occurring for anxiety disorders (62·8% [34·0-107·5]), depressive disorders (26·3% [11·6-42·9]), and diabetes (14·9% [7·5-25·6]). Remarkable health gains were made for communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional (CMNN) diseases, with DALYs falling from 874 million (837-917) in 2010 to 681 million (642-736) in 2023, and a 25·8% (22·6-28·7) reduction in age-standardised DALY rates. During the COVID-19 pandemic, DALYs due to CMNN diseases rose but returned to pre-pandemic levels by 2023. From 2010 to 2023, decreases in age-standardised rates for CMNN diseases were led by rate decreases of 49·1% (32·7-61·0) for diarrhoeal diseases, 42·9% (38·0-48·0) for HIV/AIDS, and 42·2% (23·6-56·6) for tuberculosis. Neonatal disorders and lower respiratory infections remained the leading level 3 CMNN causes globally in 2023, although both showed notable rate decreases from 2010, declining by 16·5% (10·6-22·0) and 24·8% (7·4-36·7), respectively. Injury-related age-standardised DALY rates decreased by 15·6% (10·7-19·8) over the same period. Differences in burden due to NCDs, CMNN diseases, and injuries persisted across age, sex, time, and location. Based on our risk analysis, nearly 50% (1·27 billion [1·18-1·38]) of the roughly 2·80 billion total global DALYs in 2023 were attributable to the 88 risk factors analysed in GBD. Globally, the five level 3 risk factors contributing the highest proportion of risk-attributable DALYs were high systolic blood pressure (SBP), particulate matter pollution, high fasting plasma glucose (FPG), smoking, and low birthweight and short gestation-with high SBP accounting for 8·4% (6·9-10·0) of total DALYs. Of the three overarching level 1 GBD risk factor categories-behavioural, metabolic, and environmental and occupational-risk-attributable DALYs rose between 2010 and 2023 only for metabolic risks, increasing by 30·7% (24·8-37·3); however, age-standardised DALY rates attributable to metabolic risks decreased by 6·7% (2·0-11·0) over the same period. For all but three of the 25 leading level 3 risk factors, age-standardised rates dropped between 2010 and 2023-eg, declining by 54·4% (38·7-65·3) for unsafe sanitation, 50·5% (33·3-63·1) for unsafe water source, and 45·2% (25·6-72·0) for no access to handwashing facility, and by 44·9% (37·3-53·5) for child growth failure. The three leading level 3 risk factors for which age-standardised attributable DALY rates rose were high BMI (10·5% [0·1 to 20·9]), drug use (8·4% [2·6 to 15·3]), and high FPG (6·2% [-2·7 to 15·6]; non-significant). INTERPRETATION: Our findings underscore the complex and dynamic nature of global health challenges. Since 2010, there have been large decreases in burden due to CMNN diseases and many environmental and behavioural risk factors, juxtaposed with sizeable increases in DALYs attributable to metabolic risk factors and NCDs in growing and ageing populations. This long-observed consequence of the global epidemiological transition was only temporarily interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The substantially decreasing CMNN disease burden, despite the 2008 global financial crisis and pandemic-related disruptions, is one of the greatest collective public health successes known. However, these achievements are at risk of being reversed due to major cuts to development assistance for health globally, the effects of which will hit low-income countries with high burden the hardest. Without sustained investment in evidence-based interventions and policies, progress could stall or reverse, leading to widespread human costs and geopolitical instability. Moreover, the rising NCD burden necessitates intensified efforts to mitigate exposure to leading risk factors-eg, air pollution, smoking, and metabolic risks, such as high SBP, BMI, and FPG-including policies that promote food security, healthier diets, physical activity, and equitable and expanded access to potential treatments, such as GLP-1 receptor agonists. Decisive, coordinated action is needed to address long-standing yet growing health challenges, including depressive and anxiety disorders. Yet this can be only part of the solution. Our response to the NCD syndemic-the complex interaction of multiple health risks, social determinants, and systemic challenges-will define the future landscape of global health. To ensure human wellbeing, economic stability, and social equity, global action to sustain and advance health gains must prioritise reducing disparities by addressing socioeconomic and demographic determinants, ensuring equitable health-care access, tackling malnutrition, strengthening health systems, and improving vaccination coverage. We live in times of great opportunity. FUNDING: Gates Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Abstract Green consumption has become an important academic and practical topic. However, a recurring theme in the literature has been the attitude‐behavior gap in green consumption. Taking the cognitive view in studying consumer behaviors, this study theoretically developed and tested two key moderators to the relationship between green consumption intention and behavior, namely green product availability and perceived consumer effectiveness. Under high levels of the moderators, the relationship between the intention and the behavior were hypothesized to be stronger. Our data sample of 416 consumers in two large cities in Vietnam provided support for the hypotheses. Our study results thus contribute to the green consumption literature by explaining the attitude‐behavior gap. Our study also contributes to the broader literature by explaining the inconsistency in consumer behavior. Implications and recommendations for further research are also discussed.

MOTIVATION: The BioTIME database contains raw data on species identities and abundances in ecological assemblages through time. These data enable users to calculate temporal trends in biodiversity within and amongst assemblages using a broad range of metrics. BioTIME is being developed as a community-led open-source database of biodiversity time series. Our goal is to accelerate and facilitate quantitative analysis of temporal patterns of biodiversity in the Anthropocene. MAIN TYPES OF VARIABLES INCLUDED: The database contains 8,777,413 species abundance records, from assemblages consistently sampled for a minimum of 2 years, which need not necessarily be consecutive. In addition, the database contains metadata relating to sampling methodology and contextual information about each record. SPATIAL LOCATION AND GRAIN: ). TIME PERIOD AND GRAIN: BioTIME records span from 1874 to 2016. The minimal temporal grain across all datasets in BioTIME is a year. MAJOR TAXA AND LEVEL OF MEASUREMENT: BioTIME includes data from 44,440 species across the plant and animal kingdoms, ranging from plants, plankton and terrestrial invertebrates to small and large vertebrates. SOFTWARE FORMAT: .csv and .SQL.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic causes fear, as its immediate consequences for the public have produced unprecedented challenges for the education and healthcare systems. We aimed to validate the fear of COVID-19 scale (FCoV-19S) and examine the association of its scores with health literacy and health-related behaviors among medical students. A cross-sectional study was conducted from 7 to 29 April 2020 on 5423 students at eight universities across Vietnam, including five universities in the North, one university in the Center, two universities in the South. An online survey questionnaire was used to collect data on participants’ characteristics, health literacy, fear of COVID-19 using the FCoV-19S, and health-related behaviors. The results showed that seven items of the FCoV-19S strongly loaded on one component, explained 62.15% of the variance, with good item–scale convergent validity and high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.90). Higher health literacy was associated with lower FCoV-19S scores (coefficient, B, −0.06; 95% confidence interval, 95%CI, −0.08, −0.04; p &lt; 0.001). Older age or last academic years, being men, and being able to pay for medication were associated with lower FCoV-19S scores. Students with higher FCoV-19S scores more likely kept smoking (odds ratio, OR, 1.11; 95% CI, 1.08, 1.14; p &lt; 0.001) or drinking alcohol (OR, 1.04; 95% CI, 1.02, 1.06; p &lt; 0.001) at an unchanged or higher level during the pandemic, as compared to students with lower FCoV-19S scores. In conclusion, the FCoV-19S is valid and reliable in screening for fear of COVID-19. Health literacy was found to protect medical students from fear. Smoking and drinking appeared to have a negative impact on fear of COVID-19. Strategic public health approaches are required to reduce fear and promote healthy lifestyles during the pandemic.

We make use of the auxiliary problem principle to develop iterative algorithms for solving equilibrium problems. The first one is an extension of the extragradient algorithm to equilibrium problems. In this algorithm the equilibrium bifunction is not required to satisfy any monotonicity property, but it must satisfy a certain Lipschitz-type condition. To avoid this requirement we propose linesearch procedures commonly used in variational inequalities to obtain projection-type algorithms for solving equilibrium problems. Applications to mixed variational inequalities are discussed. A special class of equilibrium problems is investigated and some preliminary computational results are reported.

Abstract The standard bootstrap (SBS), despite being computationally intensive, is widely used in maximum likelihood phylogenetic analyses. We recently proposed the ultrafast bootstrap approximation (UFBoot) to reduce computing time while achieving more unbiased branch supports than SBS under mild model violations. UFBoot has been steadily adopted as an efficient alternative to SBS and other bootstrap approaches. Here, we present UFBoot2, which substantially accelerates UFBoot and reduces the risk of overestimating branch supports due to polytomies or severe model violations. Additionally, UFBoot2 provides suitable bootstrap resampling strategies for phylogenomic data. UFBoot2 is 778 and 8.4 times (median) faster than SBS and RAxML rapid bootstrap on tested datasets, respectively. UFBoot2 is implemented in the IQ-TREE software package version 1.6 and freely available at http://www.iqtree.org .

IQ-TREE (https://iqtree.github.io/) is a widely used open-source software tool for efficiently inferring phylogenetic trees under maximum likelihood. Here, we present IQ-TREE version 3, the third major release of the software. IQ-TREE 3 significantly extends version 2 with new features, including mixture models as an alternative to partitioned models, gene and site concordance factors to quantify discordance between genomic regions, integration with phylogenomic divergence time estimation, and a fully featured sequence simulator. The IQ-TREE 3 source code is available at https://github.com/iqtree/iqtree3.

Considerable research has examined human mate preferences across cultures, finding universal sex differences in preferences for attractiveness and resources as well as sources of systematic cultural variation. Two competing perspectives—an evolutionary psychological perspective and a biosocial role perspective—offer alternative explanations for these findings. However, the original data on which each perspective relies are decades old, and the literature is fraught with conflicting methods, analyses, results, and conclusions. Using a new 45-country sample ( N = 14,399), we attempted to replicate classic studies and test both the evolutionary and biosocial role perspectives. Support for universal sex differences in preferences remains robust: Men, more than women, prefer attractive, young mates, and women, more than men, prefer older mates with financial prospects. Cross-culturally, both sexes have mates closer to their own ages as gender equality increases. Beyond age of partner, neither pathogen prevalence nor gender equality robustly predicted sex differences or preferences across countries.

BACKGROUND: Timely and comprehensive analyses of causes of death stratified by age, sex, and location are essential for shaping effective health policies aimed at reducing global mortality. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2023 provides cause-specific mortality estimates measured in counts, rates, and years of life lost (YLLs). GBD 2023 aimed to enhance our understanding of the relationship between age and cause of death by quantifying the probability of dying before age 70 years (70q0) and the mean age at death by cause and sex. This study enables comparisons of the impact of causes of death over time, offering a deeper understanding of how these causes affect global populations. METHODS: GBD 2023 produced estimates for 292 causes of death disaggregated by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 660 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2023. We used a modelling tool developed for GBD, the Cause of Death Ensemble model (CODEm), to estimate cause-specific death rates for most causes. We computed YLLs as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. Probability of death was calculated as the chance of dying from a given cause in a specific age period, for a specific population. Mean age at death was calculated by first assigning the midpoint age of each age group for every death, followed by computing the mean of all midpoint ages across all deaths attributed to a given cause. We used GBD death estimates to calculate the observed mean age at death and to model the expected mean age across causes, sexes, years, and locations. The expected mean age reflects the expected mean age at death for individuals within a population, based on global mortality rates and the population's age structure. Comparatively, the observed mean age represents the actual mean age at death, influenced by all factors unique to a location-specific population, including its age structure. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 250-draw distribution for each metric. Findings are reported as counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2023 include a correction for the misclassification of deaths due to COVID-19, updates to the method used to estimate COVID-19, and updates to the CODEm modelling framework. This analysis used 55 761 data sources, including vital registration and verbal autopsy data as well as data from surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. For GBD 2023, there were 312 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 3 country-years of surveillance data, 51 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 144 country-years of other data types that were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS: The initial years of the COVID-19 pandemic caused shifts in long-standing rankings of the leading causes of global deaths: it ranked as the number one age-standardised cause of death at Level 3 of the GBD cause classification hierarchy in 2021. By 2023, COVID-19 dropped to the 20th place among the leading global causes, returning the rankings of the leading two causes to those typical across the time series (ie, ischaemic heart disease and stroke). While ischaemic heart disease and stroke persist as leading causes of death, there has been progress in reducing their age-standardised mortality rates globally. Four other leading causes have also shown large declines in global age-standardised mortality rates across the study period: diarrhoeal diseases, tuberculosis, stomach cancer, and measles. Other causes of death showed disparate patterns between sexes, notably for deaths from conflict and terrorism in some locations. A large reduction in age-standardised rates of YLLs occurred for neonatal disorders. Despite this, neonatal disorders remained the leading cause of global YLLs over the period studied, except in 2021, when COVID-19 was temporarily the leading cause. Compared to 1990, there has been a considerable reduction in total YLLs in many vaccine-preventable diseases, most notably diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, and measles. In addition, this study quantified the mean age at death for all-cause mortality and cause-specific mortality and found noticeable variation by sex and location. The global all-cause mean age at death increased from 46·8 years (95% UI 46·6-47·0) in 1990 to 63·4 years (63·1-63·7) in 2023. For males, mean age increased from 45·4 years (45·1-45·7) to 61·2 years (60·7-61·6), and for females it increased from 48·5 years (48·1-48·8) to 65·9 years (65·5-66·3), from 1990 to 2023. The highest all-cause mean age at death in 2023 was found in the high-income super-region, where the mean age for females reached 80·9 years (80·9-81·0) and for males 74·8 years (74·8-74·9). By comparison, the lowest all-cause mean age at death occurred in sub-Saharan Africa, where it was 38·0 years (37·5-38·4) for females and 35·6 years (35·2-35·9) for males in 2023. Lastly, our study found that all-cause 70q0 decreased across each GBD super-region and region from 2000 to 2023, although with large variability between them. For females, we found that 70q0 notably increased from drug use disorders and conflict and terrorism. Leading causes that increased 70q0 for males also included drug use disorders, as well as diabetes. In sub-Saharan Africa, there was an increase in 70q0 for many non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Additionally, the mean age at death from NCDs was lower than the expected mean age at death for this super-region. By comparison, there was an increase in 70q0 for drug use disorders in the high-income super-region, which also had an observed mean age at death lower than the expected value. INTERPRETATION: We examined global mortality patterns over the past three decades, highlighting-with enhanced estimation methods-the impacts of major events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to broader trends such as increasing NCDs in low-income regions that reflect ongoing shifts in the global epidemiological transition. This study also delves into premature mortality patterns, exploring the interplay between age and causes of death and deepening our understanding of where targeted resources could be applied to further reduce preventable sources of mortality. We provide essential insights into global and regional health disparities, identifying locations in need of targeted interventions to address both communicable and non-communicable diseases. There is an ever-present need for strengthened health-care systems that are resilient to future pandemics and the shifting burden of disease, particularly among ageing populations in regions with high mortality rates. Robust estimates of causes of death are increasingly essential to inform health priorities and guide efforts toward achieving global health equity. The need for global collaboration to reduce preventable mortality is more important than ever, as shifting burdens of disease are affecting all nations, albeit at different paces and scales. FUNDING: Gates Foundation.

Cupric oxide (CuO), having a narrow bandgap of 1.2 eV and a variety of chemophysical properties, is recently attractive in many fields such as energy conversion, optoelectronic devices, and catalyst. Compared with bulk material, the advanced properties of CuO nanostructures have been demonstrated; however, the fact that these materials cannot yet be produced in large scale is an obstacle to realize the potential applications of this material. In this respect, chemical methods seem to be efficient synthesis processes which yield not only large quantities but also high quality and advanced material properties. In this paper, the effect of some general factors on the morphology and properties of CuO nanomaterials prepared by solution methods will be overviewed. In terms of advanced nanostructure synthesis, microwave method in which copper hydroxide nanostructures are produced in the precursor solution and sequentially transformed by microwave into CuO may be considered as a promising method to explore in the near future. This method produces not only large quantities of nanoproducts in a short reaction time of several minutes, but also high quality materials with advanced properties. A brief review on some unique properties and applications of CuO nanostructures will be also presented.

As the incidence of this disease has increased significantly in the recent years, expert systems and machine learning techniques to this problem have also taken a great attention from many scholars. This study aims at diagnosing and prognosticating breast cancer with a machine learning method based on random forest classifier and feature selection technique. By weighting, keeping useful features and removing redundant features in datasets, the method was obtained to solve diagnosis problems via classifying Wisconsin Breast Cancer Diagnosis Dataset and to solve prognosis problem via classifying Wisconsin Breast Cancer Prognostic Dataset. On these datasets we obtained classification accuracy of 100% in the best case and of around 99.8% on average. This is very promising compared to the previously reported results. This result is for Wisconsin Breast Cancer Dataset but it states that this method can be used confidently for other breast cancer diagnosis problems, too.

This study investigates the determinants of bank profitability in 23 countries from 2002 to 2016 using the system generalized method of moments. The findings indicate that the number of bank cards issued, the number of automated teller machines (ATMs) and the number of point of sale (POS) terminals can improve bank profitability. Hence, this suggests a need for further expansion of these delivery channels. Also, the findings show the negative impact of market power on bank profitability, implying that competition improves bank profitability. Further, the positive relationship between capital market development and bank profitability suggests that they should be considered as complementary to one another.

Most protein substitution models use a single amino acid replacement matrix summarizing the biochemical properties of amino acids. However, site evolution is highly heterogeneous and depends on many factors that influence the substitution patterns. In this paper, we investigate the use of different substitution matrices for different site evolutionary rates. Indeed, the variability of evolutionary rates corresponds to one of the most apparent heterogeneity factors among sites, and there is no reason to assume that the substitution patterns remain identical regardless of the evolutionary rate. We first introduce LG4M, which is composed of four matrices, each corresponding to one discrete gamma rate category (of four). These matrices differ in their amino acid equilibrium distributions and in their exchangeabilities, contrary to the standard gamma model where only the global rate differs from one category to another. Next, we present LG4X, which also uses four different matrices, but leaves aside the gamma distribution and follows a distribution-free scheme for the site rates. All these matrices are estimated from a very large alignment database, and our two models are tested using a large sample of independent alignments. Detailed analysis of resulting matrices and models shows the complexity of amino acid substitutions and the advantage of flexible models such as LG4M and LG4X. Both significantly outperform single-matrix models, providing gains of dozens to hundreds of log-likelihood units for most data sets. LG4X obtains substantial gains compared with LG4M, thanks to its distribution-free scheme for site rates. Since LG4M and LG4X display such advantages but require the same memory space and have comparable running times to standard models, we believe that LG4M and LG4X are relevant alternatives to single replacement matrices. Our models, data, and software are available from http://www.atgc-montpellier.fr/models/lg4x.

This paper investigates the impact of local banks and digital financial inclusion on Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) financing constraints. Using data from Chinese SMEs for the period 2007–2017, our robust results find that (1) SMEs’ financing constraints are negatively associated with the proportion of local bank branches and the degree of digital financial inclusion; (2) the effect of local banks is more pronounced for firms which are small, transparent, and located in the regions less dependent on bank credit; and (3) local bank branches and digital financial inclusion have a substitution effect on alleviating SMEs’ financial constraints. The findings shed light on how digital finance technologies could influence traditional SME-bank relationships and have important policy and managerial implications.

Shifting cultivation, or swidden farming, is often held to be the principle driving force for deforestation in tropical Asia (Myers 1993). National governments in Southeast Asia, notably in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, have been inclined to blame shifting cultivators, usually members of ethnic minorities, for rapid loss of forests (Dove 1984, Do Van Sam 1994, Le Trong Cuc 1996, Rambo 1996). In Vietnam, the official view of shifting cultivation has been particularly negative, reflecting a combination of the ethnocentric assumptions of the numerically dominant Kinh (lowland Vietnamese) about the cultural superiority of wet rice farming and the Marxist view that swiddening represents a primitive stage in the cultural evolutionary sequence (Jamieson 1991, Rambo 1995). Resource managers in these countries invariably see shifting cultivation as a single, simple system of farming in which the forest or scrub is slashed and burned to make swiddens. These fields are cultivated for only one or two seasons before soil fertility is exhausted or weed growth overwhelms the crops (Padoch et al. 1998). The field is then abandoned and the farmers move on to clear a new field elsewhere in the forest. From this perspective, swidden farmers are “forest eaters” whose unending search for new forests to clear is a major cause of deforestation. However, to view swiddens as just temporary fields surrounded by abandoned land under wild growth is wrong. More than four decades ago, Harold Conklin (1957) pointed out that “shifting cultivation may refer to any one of an undetermined number of agricultural systems” (p. 1). Spencer (1966) described 18 distinct types of shifting agriculture within Southeast Asia alone. Brookfield and Padoch (1994) argued that swidden agriculture is not one system but many hundreds or thousands of systems. This article seeks to describe the agroecosystems of a hamlet in northern Vietnam in which traditional shifting cultivation has not resulted in extensive deforestation, but it has altered the character of the vegetative cover. Through analyses of this agroecosystem, we seek to develop a better understanding of the swidden agricultural systems found in the region and the effects of these systems on land-cover change in the area over the last 40 years. Our findings have implications for understanding the role of shifting cultivation at more macro levels, including its contribution to global climate change. Shifting cultivation, the subject of this article, differs from the common practice of using fire simply to clear forests for permanent cultivation, pasture, or further development. The latter practice was employed on a massive scale during the European settlement of the frontiers of the eastern United States (Rambo 1990). This slash-and-burn cultivation, as practiced by the millions of lowland Vietnamese resettled in upland areas since the 1960s, turned large areas into virtual lunar landscapes (Le Trong Cuc et al. 1990). Of course, some traditional forms of shifting cultivation can also cause long-term environmental degradation. “Pioneer” shifting cultivation, for example, is a system in which new areas of forest are cleared for fields, allowed to remain under cultivation too long, and then abandoned in a degraded condition (Kunstadter et al. 1978). In northern Vietnam, Hmong farmers have converted large areas in the highlands to grasslands as a result of pioneer swiddening. Nevertheless, in focusing on destructive forms of slash- and-burn cultivation, national governments and resource managers have ignored the nature of more common and more sustainable forms of swidden cultivation. Alcorn (1990) calls swidden farming “managed deforestation,” a system built around patchy, pulsed removal of trees but not of the forest. She suggests that indigenous farmers work to manage deforestation in sequential agroforestry systems that integrate secondary successional vegetation—everything from grass and bushes to young open-canopy tree communities to mature closed-canopy tree communities. Brookfield and Padoch (1994) suggest that the concept of abandoned fallows is being displaced by research that shows that the plants found in any stage of secondary successional vegetation are in large measure the result of conscious planning. Even where the forest that succeeds farming is not closely managed, it is used. (The “fallow” is the period when land is left to recuperate and vegetation allowed to regenerate. It is not “abandoned”land, which the swidden farmer does not intend to use again. Rather, it is part of the land-use system in which the farmer will return to this plot again. Meanwhile, while it lies fallow, the farmer may use it to collect numerous food, timber, and nontimber forest products. Popular conception, however, is to view this land as “abandoned fallow.”) Failure to understand the swidden agricultural system, and its associated secondary vegetation, has led scientists to overestimate the amount of “deforestation” that has occurred in Southeast Asia. Potter et al. (1994) suggest that as much as 26% of all land in Southeast Asia falls into the “other” category, which includes scrub, brush, pasture, waste, and other land-use categories that often represent not deforestation but forest fallow or secondary regeneration. Likewise, Kummer and Turner (1994) suggest that approximately 33% of the land cover in the Philippines falls into the “other” category, and this category grew by more than 20,000 ha between 1948 and 1987. In Thailand, the field plan of the Tropics Program of the GEWEX Asian Monsoon Experiment (GAME-Tropics) is based on a land-use breakdown in which fully 49% of the nonforested land in northern Thailand is “unclassified” (GAME-Tropics 1996). Because swidden agricultural systems are so little understood, many governments have implemented (mostly unsuccessful) large-scale resettlement programs that are intended to convert swidden cultivators into farmers of permanent agricultural fields. Moreover, failure to understand the role played by secondary successional vegetation in swidden systems has meant that resource managers have not correctly identified the impacts, both positive and negative, of swidden agriculture on species diversity, watershed hydrology, and carbon sequestration (Skole et al. 1998), all of which have important implications for biodiversity conservation and global warming. Shifting cultivation has been practiced for centuries, if not millennia, in the northwestern highlands of Vietnam. Yet, contrary to the popular conception that shifting cultivation always causes deforestation, the area under forest cover in many parts of this region has not changed significantly, despite rapid population growth, over the past 50 years. Indeed, a recent study of the Da River watershed (Nguyen Duy Khiem and Van Der Poel 1993) found no correlation between the occurrence of shifting cultivation and the extent of deforestation. In those districts having the greatest extent of swiddening (12–36% of total area), the percentage of land under forest cover ranged from 6% to 48%, whereas in those districts having almost no shifting cultivation (less than 6% of total area), forest cover ranged from 8% to 48%. Tat, one of 10 hamlets in Tan Minh village (Da Bac district, Hoa Binh province) is representative of many swiddening villages in Southeast Asia. The hamlet is positioned alongside the Muong River, a tributary of the Da River, at an altitude of approximately 360 m above sea level. The Muong valley ranges from a few hundred meters to approximately 2 km wide and is surrounded by peaks reaching from 800 m to over 1100 m. The valley walls are extremely steep, with slopes often exceeding 60% crisscrossed by many small streams flowing into the Muong River. The valley is shaped like an amphitheater, with buttress-forming ridges extending up to the surrounding peaks. Our understanding of the hamlet's ecosystem is based on an integrated spatial database that incorporated topographic maps, aerial photographs, satellite images, and a digital elevation model with information on elevation, slope, and aspect. Information on land-use practices collected through interviews with farmers and other key informants was georeferenced to the spatial database. This database served as a framework for analyzing changes in land cover and forest patterns through time and as a tool for analyzing the information and insights collected in semistructured informal interviews. The spatial database was developed on the basis of aerial photographs (nominally 1:40,000) taken in 1952 by the French military, as well as a 1995 Landsat Thematic Mapper image. The aerial photographs were taken as part of a comprehensive mapping of Vietnam.1 The photographs were manually interpreted and classified into three land-cover categories—secondary regeneration, swidden, and paddy. The secondary regeneration or successional vegetation category was further subdivided into three classes: closed-canopy forest (closed-canopy forest mapped from the 1952 aerial photographs may or may not have been primary forest, but for our purposes we are classifying these forests as secondary vegetation); open-canopy forest; and grass, bamboo, and scrub. These photographs were registered on a map base, and the land-cover categories were digitized and entered into a geographical information systems (GIS) database (Arc/Info software on a Sun Sparc workstation). The Landsat image was classified into the same land-cover categories. Ground-truth points were collected in the field using differential GPS (global positioning system). The Landsat image was registered to the same map base as the 1952 photographs. Spectral signatures of the different land-cover types were derived from a subset of the ground-truth points that were then overlain on the imagery. A supervised classification of the image was done using a maximum-likelihood rule (ERDAS Imagine software). An accuracy assessment of the 1995 satellite-derived land-cover classification showed 95% of the 155 checkpoints correctly classified after accounting for GPS surveying and image registration error. The socioeconomic database was developed through interviews with many Tay residents of Tat hamlet and provincial, district, village, and hamlet government officials. Researchers documented changes in national and regional policies influencing land use (e.g., tenure, taxation, credit, import and export regulations) as well as changes in infrastructure (roads and markets). We interviewed residents of the village to learn more about the socioeconomic factors contributing to their decision to create or maintain forest fragments in their area. Key informants were used to assess, among other factors, local peoples' perception of the forest. Researchers conducted semistructured informal interviews with villagers to identify the socioeconomic and institutional factors influencing use and management decisions regarding forestland and forest vegetation. The people of Ban (hamlet) Tat are mostly members of the Tay ethnic minority.2 They speak a language belonging to the T'ai family. Local oral history maintains that migrants from Son La settled the hamlet a little over 100 years ago. Mobility appears to have been relatively high, with several waves of immigration and emigration. A large group of people migrated from Ban Tat to Nghia Lo, just across the hamlet's northern boundary in Phu Tho province, and kinship ties are still maintained today between these two hamlets. According to one elderly informant, only seven households, or approximately 50 people, lived in the village in 1954. Today the hamlet has grown to 69 households with a population of 389 people. This represents a population growth rate of roughly 4.9% annually—probably the result of a natural growth rate of 3–3.5% and in-migration. During this period, population density grew from approximately 10 people to 75 people per km2, which is approximately twice the average population density for the Da River watershed. For as far back as any can the Tay of Tat hamlet have been (Rambo that households manage permanent wet rice fields in the valley and shifting swidden fields on the and wild of the forest. as practiced by the Tay is an of the total agricultural system, not an of an more swiddening that is in the of being by more is swiddening a recent to rapid population growth that has the of the wet rice fields and people to their farming the as the Tay have practiced both wet rice farming and swidden agriculture as an integrated system of for and is a in Ban Tat at the of the fields are in the with cleared swidden fields in the surrounded by secondary vegetation. systems are found among the of and northern Thailand 1998), the of in and the of the in the Philippines (Dove In the of Ban Tat, elderly informants that their that employed both systems when to the valley at 100 years ago. that the area was by closed-canopy forest and was no of land on which to make fields in the valley The area of fields was much than it is and forestland was and for the It have been for households to have only cultivated fields or only cleared but are to have done are in a more Indeed, the resource system of the Tay is for its of a wide of A Tay a The of Ban Tat is a of cultivated and fields with forest areas by the 2 shows the of swidden fields, secondary vegetation, and tree cover that the Ban Tat does not to be any to this fields can be found on the from the of the to the A village that is for land and regarding forest use the This land to villagers from the two large areas Ban Tat where swiddening is and In villagers their swidden fields between the two areas several one of the areas to fallow and regenerate. In however, land is both are used at the same the fields more than 2 ha per the villagers manage their patterns of between cultivated crops and fallow in the hamlet to the forests to their fields under the of the village The use of a however, no long-term or use over that and after one of cultivation it is not to return to the same relatively to the when the soil is the common of swidden cultivation is years of rice and 2 years of by years of The of the fallow appears to be by the for and households can to maintain a The fallow period has been in recent reflecting the of land for swiddening by population density and by government to the and tree and are also important of the agricultural are used to and plants for More as and have been to of recent are from the in areas used also for swiddens. are grown for local and for as and and in fields, and swiddens and secondary forest also and between of the (Rambo and Le Trong Cuc the spatial of land use is settlement and wet rice fields at the of the on the above the tree and swiddens up the slope, rice swiddens on the and secondary forest on the which are by the can be found across the as well as the and tree The three types of primary forests primary or secondary secondary and watershed a national the government households to secondary forest to their and scrub not classified in one of these categories can be cleared for swiddens. The for forest is 800 in per however, the of being are relatively and the high, so the system is not an to forest in the more areas where government is forests are on the part of the some are found on the part of the above the with swidden fields on the and some are found on the of the with swidden fields on both forests are also found in the These are under the of the hamlet and swidden is not In some particularly on slopes above their farmers the forest to maintain for The and of the United deforestation as of forest land to and includes all land where the forest cover has been and the land converted to as permanent cultivation, shifting cultivation, and of on the other to a in the extent and of the forest cover to factors as and forest that deforestation as both a change in land cover loss of forest and a change in land use converted to other permanent on the other is simply a change in the of forest cover. have that of tropical deforestation for several including surrounding the of forests that have been a of forests is the rate of deforestation is in the of the rate of change in areas et al. Turner et al. et al. In other if the forest the be forest not deforestation. changes in land cover and in Ban Tat between 1952 and 1995 are in and in During this period, the area by secondary regeneration or successional vegetation from to of the The area by and open-canopy forests from to and to of the while the area by grass, bamboo, and scrub from to of the Our that of the of Tat hamlet under secondary more than a of shifting that traditional swiddening does not permanent but only temporary use of we not describe the secondary regeneration that after shifting cultivation as deforestation. We found only deforestation in land used for from to for the study area over the years between 1952 and the amount of land under secondary regeneration relatively over the period, and open-canopy forests have degraded to of Ban Tat as many swidden agricultural landscapes in Southeast Asia, is not so much deforestation as a change from a forest cover and to a cover of secondary vegetation. Our work suggests that the other major land-cover change from the long-term practice or of shifting cultivation is a in the of forest changes have also occurred in the spatial of that land cover. 1952 and the number of secondary regeneration fragments grew from 18 to and the from ha to 2 ha 1). et al. found in northern The of forest is well also in the on (e.g., et al. 1991, and et al. and 1996). have only to study the effects of on biodiversity in on species of forest and on forest in Southeast Asia have that the of species in forest fragments is often with that in more mature forests al. 1998). in (Padoch and et al. 1998), showed that of both plants and is in swidden areas than in the primary forest, some have of the of natural wild (e.g., are more by forest The in more (e.g., wild at Ban Tat is more the result of than it is a of The effects of forest on the and of in across a forest to effects extending the of a forest and 1995). the spatial of from forest can changes in and and et al. 1993). and cultural factors important in both the and of forest fragments and 1996). the between factors and the and of forest fragments are not understood, to that the of a when many have traditional agricultural with from or migrated to areas in search of in land use and land cover in Ban Tat are at with the that shifting cultivation, under of population in extensive deforestation. of the is to we deforestation as to forest but two other factors are if not and is the of the swiddening system employed by the which have not Because can be as population density fields with swiddens in a system some of the to clear more forest. in Tat hamlet approximately of their from their fields, these fields are much in area than the swiddens. The also to the Tay system, is the of secondary and the to maintain a of land cover across the of the of forest This indigenous land-use system both the of and the percentage of the by secondary vegetation. Our work to too much has been on the swiddening has on land cover from forest to cover of secondary and too little on the of swidden agriculture as the land-use system in this In other if not just forest agriculture result in land cover by trees (e.g., or or in one of (e.g., and upland tree that the hamlet may be to maintain a percentage of tree cover. In the or however, as by the number of species found on the et al. 1998). be more than those under secondary vegetation of the traditional swidden system et al. sequestration be approximately the same under an system as it is under but it be under an system et al. 1998). The of from secondary vegetation to a however, be than under the swidden the a global well a move from swidden to permanent agriculture over the few Tat hamlet has been in being to the changes of the last several decades with in the total area by secondary vegetation 1). and to that the of tropical forest has been a change from a relatively forest to a and cover of secondary vegetation. The land cover may be degraded in of However, this secondary vegetation, a of the swidden land-use system, well be the species and and land cover In swiddening is the land-use system for the of the local suggests that tropical biodiversity conservation is a in which forest and secondary growth forests are being for their in the conservation of These a new in the management of tropical biodiversity that conservation to al. 1998). Failure to see the as well as the of secondary vegetation and the swidden agricultural system has led to government policies for swidden of which have been A more as well as be to in research on of the biodiversity associated with swidden fallows while their and Failure to understand secondary successional vegetation has also meant that resource managers have often to the both positive and negative, of swidden agriculture on watershed hydrology, and carbon sequestration (Skole et al. 1998). of global change have been based on an of forest to degraded or 1996). Failure to for the effects of may that effects of land-cover change are not being cultivation is an built around the temporary removal of trees but not of the forest. we the new we well to the of this for tropical forest This is based on research conducted in Tat hamlet since by the for and of the Vietnam National and the for our field research has been by to from the of the the and the National and by a to and the from the and of on land-cover change in Tat hamlet was by a to from the cover and in Ban Tat in 1952 and The swidden system in the fields are in the with swidden fields in the surrounded by secondary vegetation. The of Ban Tat in the wet the of swidden fields, secondary vegetation, and tree cover. cover and in Ban Tat in 1952 and in The Ban Tat land-cover classification map is in

Genome-wide association studies have been successful in identifying genes involved in polygenic traits and are valuable for crop improvement. Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is a major crop and is highly appreciated worldwide for its health value. We used a core collection of 163 tomato accessions composed of S. lycopersicum, S. lycopersicum var cerasiforme, and Solanum pimpinellifolium to map loci controlling variation in fruit metabolites. Fruits were phenotyped for a broad range of metabolites, including amino acids, sugars, and ascorbate. In parallel, the accessions were genotyped with 5,995 single-nucleotide polymorphism markers spread over the whole genome. Genome-wide association analysis was conducted on a large set of metabolic traits that were stable over 2 years using a multilocus mixed model as a general method for mapping complex traits in structured populations and applied to tomato. We detected a total of 44 loci that were significantly associated with a total of 19 traits, including sucrose, ascorbate, malate, and citrate levels. These results not only provide a list of candidate loci to be functionally validated but also a powerful analytical approach for finding genetic variants that can be directly used for crop improvement and deciphering the genetic architecture of complex traits.

The present article is a review of research works on promising applications of graphene and graphene-based nanostructures. It contains five main scientific subjects. The first one is the research on graphene-based transparent and flexible conductive films for displays and electrodes: efficient method ensuring uniform and controllable deposition of reduced graphene oxide thin films over large areas, large-scale pattern growth of graphene films for stretchble transparent electrodes, utilization of graphene-based transparent conducting films and graphene oxide-based ones in many photonic and optoelectronic devices and equipments such as the window electrodes of inorganic, organic and dye-sensitized solar cells, organic light-emitting diodes, light-emitting electrochemical cells, touch screens, flexible smart windows, graphene-based saturated absorbers in laser cavities for ultrafast generations, graphene-based flexible, transparent heaters in automobile defogging/deicing systems, heatable smart windows, graphene electrodes for high-performance organic field-effect transistors, flexible and transparent acoustic actuators and nanogenerators etc. The second scientific subject is the research on conductive inks for printed electronics to revolutionize the electronic industry by producing cost-effective electronic circuits and sensors in very large quantities: preparing high mobility printable semiconductors, low sintering temperature conducting inks, graphene-based ink by liquid phase exfoliation of graphite in organic solutions, and developing inkjet printing technique for mass production of high-quality graphene patterns with high resolution and for fabricating a variety of good-performance electronic devices, including transparent conductors, embedded resistors, thin-film transistors and micro supercapacitors. The third scientific subject is the research on graphene-based separation membranes: molecular dynamics simulation study on the mechanisms of the transport of molecules, vapors and gases through nanopores in graphene membranes, experimental works investigating selective transport of different molecules through nanopores in single-layer graphene and graphene-based membranes toward the water desalination, chemical mixture separation and gas control. Various applications of graphene in bio-medicine are the contents of the fourth scientific subject of the review. They include the DNA translocations through nanopores in graphene membranes toward the fabrication of devices for genomic screening, in particular DNA sequencing; subnanometre trans-electrode membranes with potential applications to the fabrication of very high resolution, high throughput nanopore-based single-molecule detectors; antibacterial activity of graphene, graphite oxide, graphene oxide and reduced graphene oxide; nanopore sensors for nucleic acid analysis; utilization of graphene multilayers as the gates for sequential release of proteins from surface; utilization of graphene-based electroresponsive scaffolds as implants for on-demand drug delivery etc. The fifth scientific subject of the review is the research on the utilization of graphene in energy storage devices: ternary self-assembly of ordered metal oxide-graphene nanocomposites for electrochemical energy storage; self-assembled graphene/carbon nanotube hybrid films for supercapacitors; carbon-based supercapacitors fabricated by activation of graphene; functionalized graphene sheet-sulfure nanocomposite for using as cathode material in rechargeable lithium batteries; tunable three-dimensional pillared carbon nanotube-graphene networks for high-performance capacitance; fabrications of electrochemical micro-capacitors using thin films of carbon nanotubes and chemically reduced graphenes; laser scribing of high-performance and flexible graphene-based electrochemical capacitors; emergence of next-generation safe batteries featuring graphene-supported Li metal anode with exceptionally high energy or power densities; fabrication of anodes for lithium ion batteries from crumpled graphene-encapsulated Si nanoparticles; liquid-mediated dense integration of graphene materials for compact capacitive energy storage; scalable fabrication of high-power graphene micro-supercapacitors for flexible and on-chip energy storage; superior micro-supercapacitors based on graphene quantum dots; all-graphene core-sheat microfibres for all-solid-state, stretchable fibriform supercapacitors and wearable electronic textiles; micro-supercapacitors with high electrochemical performance based on three-dimensional graphene-carbon nanotube carpets; macroscopic nitrogen-doped graphene hydrogels for ultrafast capacitors; manufacture of scalable ultra-thin and high power density graphene electrochemical capacitor electrodes by aqueous exfoliation and spray deposition; scalable synthesis of hierarchically structured carbon nanotube-graphene fibers for capacitive energy storage; phosphorene-graphene hybrid material as a high-capacity anode material for sodium-ion batteries. Beside above-presented promising applications of graphene and graphene-based nanostructures, other less widespread, but perhaps not less important, applications of graphene and graphene-based nanomaterials, are also briefly discussed.