Diversity Order Research Articles

Performance Analysis of Free Space Optical System Over Inverse Gaussian Gamma Turbulence Channel

ABSTRACTFree space optical (FSO) communication is a proficient technology with potential applications in the next generation of wireless communication. This article evaluates the performance of the FSO system under inverse Gaussian gamma (IGG) fading. A novel closed‐form equation for the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of the received signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) is presented by employing an intensity modulation/direct detection (IM/DD) scheme. The analytical expressions for various performance metrics such as outage probability (OP), amount of fading (AOF), and average bit error probability (ABEP) are derived for various digital modulation schemes based on the system's probability density function (PDF) and CDF. Additionally, this article presents an upper bound on OP and asymptotic analysis for the performance metrics to gain deeper insights. It is revealed that the small‐scale eddy turbulence parameter can affect the diversity order by a factor of β/2. The results demonstrate that atmospheric turbulence considerably reduces the system's performance. Finally, Monte‐Carlo simulation is performed to ascertain the correctness of the derived mathematical expressions.

The Economic and Geopolitical Significance of the Brics Nations: A Comparative Analysis of Their Global Influence in the 21st Century

The research investigates how BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) influence global economics and political leadership while noting the opportunities and obstacles the alliance encounters. As a powerful influence in finance and trade globally, BRICS confronts the Western institutions that used to dominate. The collective has challenges from its members' vast economic and political variation, even with important milestones like the setup of the New Development Bank. In addition, outside influences from political tensions, mainly with the G7 and global competition, obstruct detailed cooperation. This research examines how the future of BRICS might develop, especially with the BRICS+ initiative, which is designed to include members from the Global South. The growth shows BRICS's purpose to shape global governance more strongly. The study recognizes a requirement for better political and economic integration among BRICS and points out that greater collaboration within the group may promote sustainable growth and financial strength. Limitations in methodology and data quality are recognized along with time constraints relating to the trustworthiness of macroeconomic information from the BRICS countries. This study ends by suggesting ways to enhance BRICS collaboration and identifies new research inquiries regarding the alliance's future direction and its impact on a more diverse world order

Cross regional online food delivery: Service quality optimization and real-time order assignment

Online food delivery (OFD) represents a rapidly evolving e-business application that leverages cloud computing data centers, playing a crucial role in meeting the demands of urban lifestyles. With diverse order fulfillment features and increasing expectations for service quality, the task of effectively assigning riders for timely long-distance, cross-regional deliveries presents a significant engineering challenge. Previous studies often relied on traditional rider allocation methods that fail to account for varying capacities, or they utilized non-intelligent systems that did not adequately address fluctuating order demands and service delays. In this study, we introduce a robust Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) optimization framework designed to minimize the total service time and delivery cost for cross-regional orders. This framework divides a large OFD area into multiple regions and utilizes both transfer vehicles and riders to optimize deliveries. To enhance the predictive accuracy of our model, we incorporate advanced machine learning techniques. Specifically, we employ the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) model to forecast regional order demands accurately, reflecting the dynamic nature of the marketplace. Additionally, Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) is tailored to dynamically predict travel times from restaurants to customer locations, facilitating more precise scheduling and resource allocation within the MILP framework. These machine learning techniques significantly bolster the MILP framework by providing detailed, accurate predictions that improve decision-making processes and adaptability to real-time conditions. Acknowledging the complexity of this optimization problem, we further enhance our approach by integrating a meta-heuristic algorithm, Adaptive Large Neighbor Search (ALNS), which efficiently assigns orders to the appropriate transfer vehicles and riders within polynomial time. Our Cross Regional Online Food Delivery (XROFD) system is meticulously designed to optimize both customer satisfaction and rider incentives. Simulation experiments confirm that the XROFD system not only reduces service times and delivery costs but also markedly enhances customer satisfaction and provides superior incentives for riders, outperforming existing state-of-the-art methods.

Odonata Unveiled: A Differential Diagnosis of Recent Odonata Species Discovered in India

Odonata, commonly known as dragonflies and damselflies, represent a fascinating and diverse order of insects found throughout the world, with a rich evolutionary history dating back hundreds of millions of years. Odonates are diverse group of insects with around 6407 valid species throughout the world, out of which 498 species have been recorded in India. These insects are characterized by their striking, often vibrant, colors, large compound eyes, and elongated bodies. This review provides a concise overview of the various new Odonata species discovered in recent years in India. Odonata, like all living organisms, continue to evolve because evolution is a fundamental and ongoing process in the natural world. Several factors contribute to why Odonata, along with all species, are still evolving. In recent years different species have been discovered from both the suborders that is, Anisoptera and Zygoptera of the order Odonata. Different species have been mainly discovered from Kerala, and Maharashtra. The species are identified on the basis of their external features, markings and similarities and dissimilarities from the similar species. This also covers the importance of newly found species, their ecological value and their importance in the environment as a wetland marker.

Orthoptera-specific target enrichment (OR-TE) probes resolve relationships over broad phylogenetic scales

Phylogenomic data are revolutionizing the field of insect phylogenetics. One of the most tenable and cost-effective methods of generating phylogenomic data is target enrichment, which has resulted in novel phylogenetic hypotheses and revealed new insights into insect evolution. Orthoptera is the most diverse insect order within polyneoptera and includes many evolutionarily and ecologically interesting species. Still, the order as a whole has lagged behind other major insect orders in terms of transitioning to phylogenomics. In this study, we developed an Orthoptera-specific target enrichment (OR-TE) probe set from 80 transcriptomes across Orthoptera. The probe set targets 1828 loci from genes exhibiting a wide range of evolutionary rates. The utility of this new probe set was validated by generating phylogenomic data from 36 orthopteran species that had not previously been subjected to phylogenomic studies. The OR-TE probe set captured an average of 1037 loci across the tested taxa, resolving relationships across broad phylogenetic scales. Our detailed documentation of the probe design and bioinformatics process is intended to facilitate the widespread adoption of this tool.

Tilia trees are preferred hosts of several ectomycorrhizal Ascomycota – New insights supported by the first community study of the endemic Tilia kiusiana

Asia is the center of Tilia (Malvaceae) species diversity. However, the ectomycorrhizal (ECM) relations of Asian Tilia are scarcely studied. This study provides the first description of ECM communities of Tilia kiusiana, a rare tree endemic to southwestern Japan. Across the natural distribution of T. kiusiana, ECM fungal communities hosted by the species were investigated in three study sites: Hyōgo (H) and Yamaguchi (Y) on Honshu Island, and Ōita (O) on Kyushu Island. Using molecular methods, T. kiusiana was revealed to host a high diversity of fungi belonging to 25 ECM lineages (16, 17, and 14 lineages on sites H, Y, and O, respectively). The ECM communities of T. kiusiana and the previously studied endemic T. japonica were compared to the available data on other ECM tree genera in Japan, revealing that three Ascomycota ECM lineages (/genea-humaria, marcelleina-peziza gerardii, /tuber-helvella) show a preference towards Tilia hosts. While the total lineage richness did not differ among the compared host tree genera, Tilia communities exhibited higher effective lineage richness at higher (less sensitive to rare taxa) diversity orders. Despite their relative rarity, Tilia trees might play an important role in mixed forests: maintaining the diversity of ECM Ascomycota and potentially buffering the ECM fungal biodiversity loss in cases of ECM tree host diversity decline.

THE PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF PRECODED SPACE-TIME FREQUENCY MIMO-GFDM OVER RAYLEIGH FADING CHANNELS

The physical layer is implemented in the present communication era with new multicarrier modulation schemes such as Generalized Frequency Division Multiplexing with Multi-Input and Multi-Output (MIMO-GFDM) antenna systems to achieve good spectral efficiency and diversity order. This paper presents precoded Space-Time-Frequency MIMO-GFDM performance analysis to improve the bit error rate performance without increasing transmission power and bandwidth compared to conventional techniques. The proposed system also enhances the diversity order over frequency selective fading channels. In general, we need to perform channel matrix inversion operations at the receiver or channel precoding matrix operations at the transmitter to detect the symbols of MIMO-GFDM systems. This paper's proposed scheme completes the same task without performing channel matrix inversion. Orthogonal transform techniques such as Haar, Harley, Walsh-Hadamard, and Slant transforms are used as precoders at the transmitter for the proposed scheme. The simulation results are validated on the MATLAB working platform. We have compared the bit error rate of the PSTF-MIMO-GFDM system with Space-Time (ST) and Space Frequency (SF) as baseline schemes and different orthogonal transform precoding techniques.

A general framework for generative self-supervised learning in non-invasive estimation of physiological parameters using photoplethysmography

Aligning physiological parameter labels with large-scale photoplethysmographic (PPG) data for deep learning is challenging and resource-intensive. While self-supervised representation learning (SSRL) can handle limited annotated data, the challenge lies in learning robust shared representations from vast unlabeled data and integrating various contextual cues to learn distinctive representations. To alleviate these challenges, a generative SSRL framework TS2TC is proposed to collaboratively utilize the temporal, spectrogram, and temporal-spectrogram mixed domains to explore and incorporate the unique features of PPG for universal and non-invasive physiological parameter estimation. Initially, a pretext task named Cross-Temporal Fusion Generative Anchor (CTFGA) is designed, modeling temporal dependencies and reconstructing independent segments at a coarse level to provide robust global feature extraction and local semantic contextual representation. The framework also includes sub-signals from PPG with diverse frequency scales and order derivatives reflecting hemodynamics to facilitate learning shared representations at varying semantic levels. Secondly, an advanced cognitive-inspired dual-process transfer (DPT) strategy is formulated, consisting of prior-dependent autonomous processes and posterior observation reasoning processes, to leverage the independent and integrated advantages of shared and specific representations. Furthermore, TS2TC introduces a novel bilinear temporal-spectrogram fusion method in the mixed domain, aligning latent representations from different domains, and establishing fine-grained contextual interactions at the feature level across multiple sources of information. Extensive experiments on physiological parameter estimation tasks showed that the joint performance of CTFGA and DPT outperforms standard generative learning significantly. TS2TC achieved an average 2.49% improvement in RMSE over the current state-of-the-art estimation methods with only 10% training data.

CRISPR/Cas9-Based Genome Editing of Fall Armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda): Progress and Prospects.

The fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) poses a substantial threat to many important crops worldwide, emphasizing the need to develop and implement advanced technologies for effective pest control. CRISPR/Cas9, derived from the bacterial adaptive immune system, is a prominent tool used for genome editing in living organisms. Due to its high specificity and adaptability, the CRISPR/Cas9 system has been used in various functional gene studies through gene knockout and applied in research to engineer phenotypes that may cause economical losses. The practical application of CRISPR/Cas9 in diverse insect orders has also provided opportunities for developing strategies for genetic pest control, such as gene drive and the precision-guided sterile insect technique (pgSIT). In this review, a comprehensive overview of the recent progress in the application of the CRISPR/Cas9 system for functional gene studies in S. frugiperda is presented. We outline the fundamental principles of applying CRISPR/Cas9 in S. frugiperda through embryonic microinjection and highlight the application of CRISPR/Cas9 in the study of genes associated with diverse biological aspects, including body color, insecticide resistance, olfactory behavior, sex determination, development, and RNAi. The ability of CRISPR/Cas9 technology to induce sterility, disrupt developmental stages, and influence mating behaviors illustrates its comprehensive roles in pest management strategies. Furthermore, this review addresses the limitations of the CRISPR/Cas9 system in studying gene function in S. frugiperda and explores its future potential as a promising tool for controlling this insect pest.

Calculating Within-Pair Difference Scores in the Co-twin Control Design. Effects of Alternative Strategies

Co-twin studies are an elegant and powerful design that allows controlling for the effect of confounding variables, including genetic and a range of environmental factors. There are several approaches to carry out this design. One of the methods commonly used, when contrasting continuous variables, is to calculate difference scores between members of a twin pair on two associated variables, in order to analyse the covariation of such differences. However, information regarding whether and how the different ways of estimating within-pair difference scores may impact the results is scant. This study aimed to compare the results obtained by different methods of data transformation when performing a co-twin study and test how the magnitude of the association changes using each of those approaches. Data was simulated using a direction of causation model and by fixing the effect size of causal path to low, medium, and high values. Within-pair difference scores were calculated as relative scores for diverse within-pair ordering conditions or absolute scores. Pearson’s correlations using relative difference scores vary across the established scenarios (how twins were ordered within pairs) and these discrepancies become larger as the within-twin correlation increases. Absolute difference scores tended to produce the lowest correlation in every condition. Our results show that both using absolute difference scores or ordering twins within pairs, may produce an artificial decrease in the magnitude of the studied association, obscuring the ability to detect patterns compatible with causation, which could lead to discrepancies across studies and erroneous conclusions.

Stacking-dependent Van Hove singularity shifts in three-dimensional charge density waves of kagome metals AV3Sb5 (A = K, Rb, Cs)

Vanadium-based kagomé systems AV3Sb5 (A = K, Rb, Cs) have emerged as paradigmatic examples exhibiting unconventional charge density waves (CDWs) and superconductivity linked to van Hove singularities (VHSs). Despite extensive studies, the three-dimensional (3D) nature of CDW states in these systems remains elusive. This study employs first-principles density functional theory and a tight-binding model to investigate the stacking-dependent electronic structures of 3D CDWs in AV3Sb5, emphasizing the significant role of interlayer coupling in behaviors of the VHSs associated with diverse 3D CDW orders. We develop a minimal 3D tight-binding model and present a detailed analysis of band structures and density of states for various 3D CDW stacking configurations, including those with and without a π-phase shift stacking of the inverse star of David, as well as alternating stacking of the inverse star of David and the star of David. We find that VHSs exist below the Fermi level even in 3D CDWs without π-phase shift stackings, and that these VHSs shift downward in the π-phase shift stacking CDW structure, stabilizing the 2×2×2π-shifted inverse star of David distortions in alternating vanadium layers as the ground state 3D CDW order of AV3Sb5. Our work provides the electronic origin of 3D CDW orders, paving the way for a deeper understanding of CDWs and superconductivity in AV3Sb5 kagomé metals.

Supralittoral isopod (Oniscidea) diversity at three ecoregions along the Colombian Caribbean: useful data for environmental management

Introduction: Terrestrial isopods (Oniscidea) play important roles in the ecological processes of the soil in tropical ecosystems and are employed as indicators of environmental impact. Despite their importance, studies on the ecology of this suborder in the Neotropics are scarce. Objective: To assess spatial changes in alpha and beta diversity of Oniscidea in the supralittoral zone across Archipiélagos Coralinos (ARCO), Magdalena (MAG), and Morrosquillo (MOR) ecoregions in the Colombian Caribbean. Methods: We conducted Direct Intuitive Searches of specimens and measured soil temperature and moisture in 19 transects with logs, leaf litter, coral remains, and decomposing plant material. Results: A total of 1 970 individuals representing 17 species were collected, with Tylidae, Halophilosciidae, and Ligiidae being the most abundant families. Alpha diversity orders were higher in ARCO than MAG and MOR ecoregions. MAG and MOR differed in observed richness. The structure of the assemblage varied in dominant species and abundances. In ARCO, the indicator species were Tylos niveus, Littorophiloscia denticulata, Halophiloscia trichoniscoides, and Ligia baudiniana; in MOR, it was Tylos marcuzzii, and in MAG, it was Littorophiloscia tropicalis. High beta diversity (> 60 %), with significant differences in the assemblage structure among ecoregions, was confirmed by the NMDS, which distinctly separated each group. CCA analysis revealed a negative relationship between most species with soil temperature and moisture, with a positive relationship observed with T. marcuzzii. Conclusions: This is the first effort to describe spatial changes in the diversity of oniscideans in the supralittoral zone of the Neotropical region, providing a baseline for future studies. This information could be instrumental in identifying priority areas for conservation efforts.

“Knowledge Strategies” for Indigenous Studies on Intercultural Communication in Non-Western Countries in the Global Power Structure

According to Michel Foucault’s power/knowledge theory, knowledge is not produced in a vacuum; the construction of any knowledge system implicitly contains power relations. The “knowledge strategies” for Indigenous studies on intercultural communication should evolve and improve in response to shifts in the global power structure. With the development of globalization and the evolution of communication technologies, this study interprets the current global power structure as a “dual structure” in which the international society and the world society coexist and develop together. This structure leads to a complex trend of simultaneous “centralization” and “decentralization”, as well as “homogenization” and “hybridization” in the global cultural order. For scholars from non-Western countries, Indigenous studies on intercultural communication need to interpret the new global power structure, expanding their research perspectives and topics to a global dimension. This approach links Indigenous conceptual resources and methodologies with an open and diverse global cultural order. This study proposes “knowledge strategies” for Indigenous studies on intercultural communication in non-Western countries and introduces a third level of significance for intercultural communication beyond daily interaction and cultural interaction: community building. Regarding the research purpose, this study aims to provide a new perspective for the study of intercultural communication theory, promoting an equal dialogue between Western and non-Western knowledge systems of intercultural communication, and enhancing the inclusiveness and humanistic awareness of this discipline.

Physical layer security in SWIPT-based cooperative vehicular relaying networks

The future of autonomous transportation systems depends on energy sustainability and secure information exchange from low-power vehicular sensors, hence the increased interest in vehicular sensor charging using simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT). This study investigates the physical layer security of a SWIPT-based radio frequency energy harvesting cooperative vehicular relaying network subjected to cascade Nakagami-m and double Nakagami-m (DN) fading channels. In the considered system model, a stationary source communicates with a mobile destination through a power-splitting-based decode-and-forward relay in the presence of a mobile passive eavesdropper. Based on the Gamma-distributed first term of the Laguerre series, new statistical probability density function (PDF) and cumulative distribution function (CDF) expressions for the DN are derived to accurately model the complex cascaded fading scenario. The secrecy performance metrics analyzed are the secrecy outage probability (SOP), the probability of non-zero secrecy capacity (PNZSC), and the intercept probability (IP). In addition, the asymptotic SOP (ASOP) is investigated in the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) to enhance the comprehension of the secrecy performance. Based on the derived ASOP, the secrecy diversity order (SDO) of the proposed system is determined and examined. Particularly, we present analytical closed-form expressions for the secrecy performance metrics and provide a detailed understanding of the impact of the system parameters under the cascade fading scenario. Then, a power splitting (PS) optimization problem is formulated to minimize the SOP. The results demonstrate a reduction in the SOP with the proposed PS scheme compared to the equal PS scheme. The obtained analytical findings are validated using Monte Carlo simulations.

Performance Evaluation of UOWC Systems from an Empirical Channel Model Approach for Air Bubble-Induced Scattering.

Underwater optical wireless communication (UOWC) systems provide the potential to establish secure high-data-rate communication links in underwater environments. The uniqueness of oceanic impairments, such as absorption, scattering, oceanic turbulence, and air bubbles demands accurate statistical channel models based on empirical measurements for the development of UOWC systems adapted to different types of water and link conditions. Recently, generalized Gamma and a mixture of two generalized Gamma probability density functions (PDF) were proposed to describe the statistical behavior of small and large air bubbles, respectively, when considering several levels of particle-induced scattering. In this paper, we derive novel closed-form analytic expressions to compute the bit error rate (BER) and outage performance using both proposed PDFs for various scattering conditions. Furthermore, simple asymptotic expressions are obtained to determine the diversity order of each scenario. Monte Carlo simulation results verify the obtained theoretical expressions. Our results also reveal that UOWC systems present lower BER and outage performance under more turbid water cases with respect to the tap water case due to the higher diversity order and despite the significant increases in pathloss at short link distances. Particle-induced scattering provides an inherent mechanism of turbid waters to mitigate air bubble-induced fluctuations and light blockages.

On the integral and derivative identities of bivariate Fox H-function and applications in performance analysis of wireless communications under generalized Gaussian noise

In conjunction with an algebraic, exponential, complementary error function, and a generalized Q-function, this paper provides analytical solutions for the integral of the bivariate Fox H-function (BFHF). The paper also includes derivative identities related to function arguments. The proposed formulations are then applied for analyzing the performance of point-to-point wireless communication subjected to fading, the characterization of which involves the bivariate Fox H-function, and additive white generalized Gaussian noise. Novel expressions are presented for evaluating the average symbol error probability performance considering different noise distributions, such as Gamma, Gaussian, and Laplacian. An asymptotic analysis is also conducted to determine the system’s potential diversity order. Finally, the accuracy of the analytical findings is confirmed via comparisons of numerical results with Monte-Carlo simulations.

Phylogenetic Insights Reveal New Taxa in Thyridariaceae and Massarinaceae.

Pleosporales is a highly diverse (and the largest) order in Dothideomycetes, and it is widespread in decaying plants in various environments around the world. During a survey of fungal diversity in Sichuan Province, China, specimens of hyphomycetous and Thyridaria-like fungi were collected from dead branches of pine trees and cherry trees. These taxa were initially identified as members of Massarinaceae and Thyridariaceae through morphological examination. Phylogenetic analyses of the Thyridariaceae, combining ITS, SSU, LSU, RPB2, and TEF1 sequence data, indicated a distinct clade sister to Pseudothyridariella and Thyridariella, distinct from any genus in the family. Thus, a new genus, Vaginospora, is proposed to accommodate the type species Vaginospora sichuanensis, which is characterized by semi-immersed globose to oblong ascomata with an ostiolar neck, cylindrical to clavate asci with an ocular chamber, and hyaline to dark brown, fusiform, 3-5-transversely septate ascospores with an inconspicuous mucilaginous sheath. Based on the morphological comparisons and multi-locus phylogenetic analyses (ITS, SSU, LSU, RPB2, and TEF1) of the Massarinaceae, we have identified three collections belonging to the genus Helminthosporium, leading us to propose H. filamentosa sp. nov., H. pini sp. nov., and H. velutinum as a new host record. According to Phylogenetic analysis, H. pini formed an independent clade sister to H. austriacum and H. yunnanense, and H. filamentosa represents the closest sister clade to H. quercinum. Helminthosporium pini is distinct from H. austriacum by the shorter conidiophores and H. yunnanense by the longer and wider conidia. The H. filamentosa differs from H. quercinum in having longer conidiophores and smaller conidia. This study extends our understanding of diversity within Thyridariaceae and Helminthosporium. Our findings underscore the rich biodiversity and potential for discovering novel fungal taxa within these groups.

Evaluating the effectiveness of various diversity and combining techniques on an RF-FSO link

Abstract Diversity and combining is one of the robust techniques to mitigate multi-path fading in RF links and turbulence-induced scintillation in FSO links. This article evaluates the effect of different diversity and combining techniques on outage and BER performance of decode and forward RF-FSO link. We have utilized diversity and combining techniques over source to relay RF link and/or relay to destination FSO link. The selection combining, transmit antenna selection, maximal ratio combining, and maximum ratio transmission schemes are considered. The Monte-Carlo simulation results of outage probability and bit error rate are compared by considering different parameters affecting link quality like the strength of atmospheric turbulence, pointing error, FSO link detection scheme, RF link fading strength, diversity order, etc. It is found that configurations like SIMO-SISO, MISO-SISO, SISO-SIMO, and SISO-MISO, where diversity is applied in either source to relay link or relay to destination link, are improving the overall link performance provided that diversity is applied at the link experiencing stronger fading compared to another link. The link configurations SIMO-MISO or MISO-SIMO also improve the link performance and it can achieve BER of 10−5 at less than 15 dB SNR in favourable link conditions.

Extraction recovery and speciation of selenium in Se-enriched yeast.

The complete characterization of selenium-enriched yeast in terms of selenium species has been the goal of extensive research for the last three decades. This contribution addresses the two outstanding questions: the mass balance of the identified and reported selenium species and the possible presence of inorganic selenium. For this purpose, four procedures have been designed combining, in diverse order, the principal steps of selenium speciation analysis in Se-rich yeast: extraction of the Se-metabolome, derivatization of cysteine and Se-cysteine (SeCys) residues, proteolysis, and definitive Se recovery using SDS extraction, followed by mineralization. The recovery of selenium in each step and its speciation were controlled by ICP MS and by reversed-phase HPLC-ICP MS, respectively. The study, carried out for the SELM-1 reference material, demonstrated the presence of about 10% of inorganic selenium and a serious risk of losses of SeCys during derivatization and proteolysis. As result of our work, we postulate the following values for SELM-1: Se-metabolome fraction (SeMF) 14.8 ± 0.7%; total selenomethionine (SeMet) 66.2 ± 2.7% (including ca. 1.5% SeMet present in the SeMF); total SeCys 12.5 ± 1.5% (including 2% of SeCys present in the Se-MF); total inorganic selenium 9.7 ± 1.7%, accounting for > 99.8% of the selenium.

First record of the lobster cockroach Nauphoeta cinerea (Olivier, 1789) (Insecta: Blattodea) in Europe with remarks on synanthropic cockroaches of the Iberian Peninsula

AbstractGlobalization has facilitated the introduction and establishment of organisms beyond their natural ranges, leading to significant ecological and economic consequences. While many non‐native species are well documented, others remain understudied, either due to their unknown impact or morphological similarities with native species. This study addresses such a case, focusing on synanthropic cockroaches within the order Blattodea. Despite the order's diversity, less than 1% of known species are recorded in urban environments. While certain species like Periplaneta americana, Blatta orientalis and Blattella germanica are well distributed and studied, others remain largely unknown. This research unveils the first established population of Nauphoeta cinerea in Europe, specifically in Spain (Asturias, northern Iberian Peninsula), with specific genetic and morphological confirmation. This study also explores potential pathways of introduction for N. cinerea. Long‐distance transport by ships or escape/release from captivity are proposed as potential pathways for the newly established populations in Asturias. The species' high fecundity and parthenogenetic reproduction raise concerns about its potential invasiveness. Additionally, this study includes unpublished data on various synanthropic cockroaches in Asturias (with the first records of P. lateralis and Supella longipalpa for this area), drawn from specimens deposited in biological collections and some extra collections. An identification key for all Spanish non‐native synanthropic cockroach species is provided to assist in future detections. This research emphasizes the imperative need for robust monitoring systems, highlights the scarcity of scientific information regarding synanthropic cockroach distribution and underscores the pivotal role of biological collections in advancing our understanding of invasive species.