Four alternatives (A1 to A4) were evaluated on six key criteria (C1 to C6) including communication clarity, relevance, customer engagement and digital integration. The analysis began with normalization, followed by pairwise comparisons and preference value calculations to determine the dominance relationships between the alternatives. The results showed that A1 consistently outperformed all others, achieving the highest net flow and retaining the first rank, indicating its superior marketing and communication strategy. A2 came in second place, showing strong but slightly less consistent performance, while A3 and A4 lagged behind, especially A4, which showed weak results on all measures. The PROMETHEE methodology provided a transparent, structured framework for evaluating strategic alternatives, providing banking institutions with valuable insights aimed at improving their communication performance. By combining multiple performance criteria, the methodology provides a structured and objective approach to decision-making. The findings help banks identify which strategies are most effective in engaging customers, improving outreach, and enhancing brand visibility. Furthermore, it helps in pointing out weak alternatives that need improvement. This study provides valuable insights to bank managers, policymakers, and marketers, which can help them adopt evidence-based strategies that align with customer expectations and competitive market demands. Bank A, Bank B, Bank C, Bank D, and Evaluation Parameters: Equity to Total Liabilities Ratio, Equity to Total Assets Ratio, Total Assets (Equity minus Fixed Assets) Ratio, Non-performing loans to total loan portfolio ratio. The findings show that Bank A, holds its first position with the highest ranking, while Bank D has the lowest ranking. The bank holds a leading position in the banking sector in marketing and communication analysis, based on the PROMETHEE methodology.

Abstract Identifying relationships between plant communities and soil characteristics is a critical step in understanding the consequences of species gains and losses in ecosystems. The mycorrhizal associated nutrient economy (MANE) hypothesis predicts that the degree to which tree species and their mycorrhizal associates affect soil properties is driven by the relative dominance of different mycorrhizal types (often measured by relative basal area). While this approach emphasizes the importance of canopy trees, it does not account for how other factors (e.g. the density and composition of understorey trees) may alter tree–soil relationships. We analysed tree–soil data from an eastern deciduous forest in southern Indiana, USA that contains >29,000 georeferenced stems, including 21 species that associate with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi and 14 that associate with ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi. We sampled soils (upper 5 cm) from across the plot and modelled soil characteristics to tree communities. Given differences in soil characteristics among AM‐dominated and ECM‐dominated neighbourhoods, we hypothesized that relationships between tree‐mycorrhizal dominance and soils would be affected by both the density of stems in the plot (owing to ‘Zinke’ individual plant effects) and composition of the understorey trees (owing to ‘trait divergence effects’) In support of our Zinke hypothesis, we found that the relationships between tree‐mycorrhizal dominance and soil variables (soil pH, nitrification rates and carbon to nitrogen ratio) were strengthened as stand density increased. In support of the trait divergence hypothesis, we found that as the mismatch between overstorey and understorey composition increased (e.g. AM‐dominated understories beneath ECM‐dominated overstories and vice versa), the relationship between tree dominance and soil variables weakened. We were able to use these insights to create mycorrhizal metrics to predict soil variables that were sensitive to the structural composition of neighbourhoods. Synthesis . Our results indicate that relationships between plants and soils in forests are not only shaped by dominant overstorey trees but also the density and composition of understorey trees. Thus, efforts to predict the ecosystem consequences of species gains and losses may benefit from considering these elements of forest structure and not only the basal area of the dominant trees.

Marketers can display their products horizontally or vertically in both online and offline settings. This display orientation has been shown to influence consumers’ judgments about individual products. The present research extends the literature by investigating the moderating impact of display orientation on the attraction effect, one of the most well-established context effects in choice. A total of eleven studies, including seven pre-registered experiments, document a novel finding that the attraction effect is stronger when choice alternatives are displayed horizontally rather than vertically. This moderating influence is replicated in both consequential choices and hypothetical scenarios and shown to generalize over diverse product categories. We explain this influence by proposing that a horizontal (vs. vertical) display increases the ease of comparing choice alternatives, leading consumers to notice the asymmetric dominance (AD) relationship among them more easily. Consistent with this mechanism, we find that the moderating influence of display orientation attenuates when individuals are guided to recognize the AD relationship or when their ability to compare vertically displayed products is momentarily enhanced. The present research thus demonstrates a significant effect of spatial orientation on the comparison and evaluation of alternatives. Theoretical and managerial implications of findings are discussed.

Weakly electric fish, like Gnathonemus petersii, use a remarkable electrical modality for active sensing and communication, but studying their rich electrosensing and electrocommunication behavior and associated neural activity in naturalistic settings remains experimentally challenging. Here, we present a novel biologically-inspired computational framework to study these behaviors, where recurrent neural network (RNN) based artificial agents trained via multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) learn to modulate their electric organ discharges (EODs) and movement patterns to collectively forage in virtual environments. Trained agents demonstrate several emergent features consistent with real fish collectives, including heavy tailed EOD interval distributions, environmental context dependent shifts in EOD interval distributions, and social interaction patterns like freeloading, where agents reduce their EOD rates while benefiting from neighboring agents' active sensing. A minimal two-fish assay further isolates the role of electro-communication, showing that access to conspecific EODs and relative dominance jointly shape foraging success. Notably, these behaviors emerge through evolution-inspired rewards for individual fitness and emergent inter-agent interactions, rather than through rewarding agents explicitly for social interactions. Our work has broad implications for the neuroethology of weakly electric fish, as well as other social, communicating animals in which extensive recordings from multiple individuals, and thus traditional data-driven modeling, are infeasible.

In the field of multi-objective evolutionary optimization, prior studies have largely concentrated on the scalability of objective functions, with relatively less emphasis on the scalability of decision variables. However, in practical applications, complex optimization problems often involve multiple objectives and large-scale decision variables. To address these challenges, this paper proposes an innovative large-scale multi-objective evolutionary optimization algorithm. The algorithm utilizes clustering techniques to categorize decision variables and introduces a novel dominance relation to enhance optimization efficiency and performance. By dividing decision variables into convergence-related and diversity-related groups and applying distinct optimization strategies to each, the algorithm achieves a better balance between convergence and diversity. Additionally, the algorithm incorporates a new angle-based dominance relationship to reduce dominance resistance during the optimization process. Experimental results on multiple mainstream multi-objective optimization test sets, such as standard DTLZ and UF problem sets, indicate that CLMOAS achieves smaller IGD values relative to mainstream algorithms such as MOEA/D and LMEA, thereby demonstrating that the proposed algorithm outperforms several existing multi-objective evolutionary algorithms and showcases its effectiveness in solving complex optimization problems with multiple objectives and large-scale decision variables.

The Tube Test fails to predict social dominance in across two strains of mice.

Enhancing digital manufacturing efficiency and dominance relation driven big Data analytics

ABSTRACT There is a general recognition in studies of association football in a Northern Irish context that the game has played its part in the reproduction of Protestant-Unionist hegemony in Northern Ireland. In the following study, an attempt is made to test the extent of football’s reproduction of dominant power relations in Northern Ireland by providing a profile of Liverpool Football Club’s support during the period of the Troubles. The English club has enjoyed huge and longstanding support in Northern Ireland. The objective here is to enquire whether their formal presence, in the shape of a network of supporter’s clubs set up in Northern Ireland from the late 1960s through to the 1990s, contributed to the consolidation and reproduction of ethno-religious rivalries in this sectarian-riven society and reproduced dominant power relations.

The Na+-pyrene and K+-pyrene complexes are investigated using two-color resonance enhanced photodissociation action spectroscopy in a cryogenic ion trap and through complementary density functional theory calculations. Both complexes are predicted to have π-bound structures in which the metal cation lies above the plane of the pyrene molecule, with calculated binding energies of 10570 and 8150 cm-1, respectively. Electronic spectra of Na+-pyrene and K+-pyrene over the 26,000-33,000 cm-1 range exhibit S1(B2u) ← S0(Ag) and S2(B1u) ← S0(Ag) band systems associated with excitation of the pyrene chromophore. The S1(B2u) ← S0(Ag) band systems of Na+-pyrene and K+-pyrene are dominated by progressions in Franck-Condon active ag vibrational modes, whereas transitions involving b3g vibrational modes, which are prominent in the spectrum of the bare pyrene molecule by virtue of Herzberg-Teller coupling, are relatively weak or absent altogether. The S1 ← S0 origin transitions are shifted to lower energy from the corresponding pyrene transitions by 273 cm-1 for Na+-pyrene and 246 cm-1 for K+-pyrene. Density functional theory calculations predict that an attached Na+ or K+ cation has a minor effect on the pyrene vibrational frequencies but enhances the intensity of the weak S1 ← S0 transition while reducing slightly the intensity of the S2 ← S0 transition, explaining the relative dominance of vibronic transitions involving ag vibrational modes in the S1 ← S0 spectra of Na+-pyrene and K+-pyrene. The strong, broad S2(B1u) ← S0(Ag) vibronic bands of Na+-pyrene and K+-pyrene are also displaced to lower energy compared to the corresponding bands of the bare pyrene molecule.

This research study evaluates the effect of four different sources of waste low-density polyethylene (LDPE) on the rheological performance of plastic-modified binders. LDPE is widely used in packaging, primarily as a single-use plastic, and because of its low economic value after recycling, it holds the largest share among the non-recycled plastic waste. The optimum plastic source was identified using a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach based on eight different parameters. The findings indicate that the melt flow index (MFI) and degree of crystallinity (DOC) are the most sensitive parameters to variations in plastic sources. Binder modification with plastics reduces the J nr 3.2 values by 58.6%, 60%, 60%, and 70% at 60°C for LDP, LDF, LDS, and LDPU, respectively, compared with the base binder. Conversely, recovery values increased by 214, 130, 426, and 486 times for LDP, LDF, LDS, and LDPU, respectively, at 60°C. LDPE sources with higher MFI showed relatively lower mixing time, higher plastic dosages, and improved storage stability. LDPE sources containing functional groups of ketone and aldehyde, resulting from microbial degradation, showed superior processing parameters but lower performance compared with other LDPE sources. Additionally, MFI of polymers exhibited an inverse correlation with fatigue performance at lower temperatures, while DOC had a direct correlation with fatigue life (N f ). The study identifies that both DOC and MFI are crucial in defining the rheological performance of modified binders, especially at high temperatures, although their relative dominance remains undetermined. Overall, the modified binder exhibits improved performance at higher and intermediate service temperatures.

Interactions between biotic and abiotic components in ecosystems influence insect mortality, natality, and dispersal, thereby making species composition dynamic. The presence and abundance of arthropods in agricultural systems cannot be precisely predicted, as they are affected by numerous factors such as cropping practices, habitat type, plant age, and interspecific interactions among arthropods. This study aimed to examine the diversity, abundance, and community composition of arthropods across four agricultural habitat types: maize, soybean, weeds, and soil surface. Arthropod samples were collected through direct observation, sweep netting, and pitfall traps. The findings revealed that insects from the order Hemiptera had the highest abundance in comparison to other orders, with 51 individuals recorded on maize and 409 on soybean. In contrast, 244 insects were found on weeds, dominated by the order Diptera. On the soil surface, a total of 482 insects were collected, predominantly from the order Collembola. The Collembola order exhibited the lowest values in terms of relative diversity index (H′), dominance (D), and evenness (E) compared to other habitats. The Bray–Curtis similarity index between soybean and weed habitats was the highest (0.205), indicating a greater similarity in arthropod composition between these two habitats. Conversely, the lowest similarity value (0.043) was observed between soybean and soil surface habitats, suggesting a greater difference in arthropod community composition.

At 47° S in Argentine Patagonia, the interaction between the Southern Westerly Winds (SWW) and the Andean barrier generates a steep climatic gradient, providing an ideal setting to evaluate Holocene vegetation responses. This study focuses on the extra-Andean sector, where new pollen records from La Tapera (LTap) and Cisne 7 provide insights into steppe vegetation dynamics under dry conditions. These sequences are contrasted with previously studied records further west (LF, ZB, CMN1, CMN2, and COCU) to assess west–east gradients in vegetation change and moisture availability throughout the Holocene. Western records indicate that the Early Holocene was dominated by grass–dwarf-shrub steppe under arid conditions, followed by increased humidity around 7600 cal yr BP that promoted the development of forest–steppe ecotonal environments. The Middle Holocene was characterised by aridity, reflected in shrub dominance and reduced forest signals, whereas the Late Holocene included a humid pulse between ~1750 and 1000 cal yr BP, followed by renewed aridity over the last millennium. In contrast, eastern records show persistent shrub–dwarf-shrub steppes since ~4700 cal yr BP, with vegetation changes expressed mainly as shifts in the relative dominance of shrubs and dwarf–shrubs rather than floristic replacements. Archaeological sites corroborated and complemented the continuous records, strengthening the reconstruction of environmental variability across different temporal windows. Overall, this west–east comparison highlights the differential sensitivity of ecosystems to SWW fluctuations, reinforcing their role as an important forcing of hydrological balance and vegetation dynamics in mid-latitude Patagonia.

BackgroundIn vulnerable urban contexts, neighborhood and associative movements often emerge as key responses to structural inequalities and social fragmentation. Recent global crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, have intensified the need to strengthen community-based responses and promote more inclusive and sustainable forms of development. Within this scenario, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has the potential to become a powerful driver of social transformation, particularly when applied from a grassroots, community-based perspective. This study examines the role of grassroots neighborhood initiatives in promoting the core principles of ESD, such as equity, inclusion, and democratic participation.MethodAdopting a socio-educational and participatory approach, this research employed a qualitative methodology based on semi-structured interviews with 40 key actors involved in neighborhood and associative networks. The data were analyzed using the qualitative software Atlas.ti, combining thematic coding with visual tools such as word clouds and semantic network analysis to identify dominant patterns and relationships. The study focused on understanding how fundamental principles of ESD—including equity, inclusion, co-responsibility, and respect for diversity—are integrated into the practices and discourses of these community initiatives.ResultsThe analysis reveals strong patterns of cooperation, mutual support, and democratic participation within neighborhood and associative movements. These networks serve not only as mechanisms to meet urgent material needs but also as spaces of informal education and civic empowerment. The incorporation of ESD principles into community dynamics has contributed to the strengthening of the social fabric and to the emergence of new forms of collective agency. In particular, the findings highlight how community-led practices of inclusion and co-responsibility foster critical reflection and shared decision-making, reinforcing social cohesion and contributing to the construction of more just and sustainable neighborhoods.ConclusionThe study provides evidence that Education for Sustainable Development, when applied from a bottom-up and participatory perspective, plays a strategic role in promoting social transformation in vulnerable settings. By supporting neighborhood and associative movements, ESD contributes not only to addressing immediate social needs, but also to fostering long-term processes of inclusion, empowerment, and sustainability. These findings suggest that ESD should be more widely recognized as a key lever for strengthening community resilience and advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the local level.

Abstract Did home help workers during the first lockdown in France have no choice but to continue working, and did they do so against their will? Sociological analyses which consider that the health crisis merely reproduced previous inequalities in working conditions and relations of domination suggest as much. However, by reconstructing the context in which the continuity of work was implemented in France, based on interviews and written sources, this article shows that home help workers continued to work, sometimes with an explicit sense of ‘choosing’ to do so, sometimes more with a sense of inner obligation, but always of their own free will and in a more thoughtful way than usual. Their dedication at the start of the pandemic is the result of a difficult decision taken in a situation where they could legally and factually stop working, and where they were in fear of Covid-19 infection.

Relative trajectories of economic and ecological activities during industrialization in the United Kingdom and China reveal a sustainable transition with frequent degradations.

Response surface optimization of anaerobic self-forming dynamic membrane (AnSFDM) formation: Dominant parameter, interaction relationship and experimental evidence.

Mangrove forests are vital coastal ecosystems that provide nursery grounds for marine life, protect shorelines, and support biodiversity. Currently, it is threatened by climate change and destructive human activities such as deforestation and fishpond conversion. The study aims to assess the status of the mangrove stand to determine its density, basal area, regeneration species, crown cover, height, canopy cover, relative dominance, and diversity. The transect plot technique was used in this study.A total of 17 mangrove species belonging to 8 families were recorded in the mangrove forest of seven (7) municipalities in Illana Bay, Zamboanga del Sur, with 12 species found within transect plots and 5 species outside. The largest number of species was family Rhizophoraceae, comprising 5 species, and the least were Palmae, Combretaceae, and Acanthaceae, with 1 species, respectively. The municipality of Dimataling has the most expansive mangrove forest area among the seven coastal municipalities. On the other hand, the municipality of Tabina registered the highest total basal area with a value of 2,900.36 m2 per hectare, with a corresponding density of 1,280 per hectare, respectively. The mangrove forest in seven (7) municipalities of Illana Bay was in good condition based on the average of crown cover, height, and regeneration species, except the municipality of San Pablo, with excellent condition.

The polarized realist debate over the causes of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine exposes the shortcomings of the Waltzian international structure. They include the analytical imprecision inherent to the appraisal of the distribution of capabilities and the capacity to comprehend only a limited number of macro-behaviors. These shortcomings have incited certain scholars to return to classical realism or to introduce unit-level factors within neoclassical realist constructs. Although these endeavors have merits, they distract scholarly attention from questioning our comprehension of the structure. To refine the systemic approach, I argue for a relationalist operationalization of the structure that mobilizes the literature on international hierarchies. Relationalism, as an analytical orientation, directs the inquiry into the transactions and practices that typify relationships between countries. The literature on international hierarchies, for its part, is suitable to comprehend relations of domination and subordination and helps formulate working hypotheses. These hypotheses, tested on the Russia-Ukraine relationship from the mid-2000s to the 2022 conflict, posit that a superordinate asserts influence on a subordinate through the provision of system services, like economic support and security commitments. The failure to satisfy the subordinate’s expectations leads the latter to undertake a rapprochement with extra-regional actors, a move that invites increasingly coercive measures by the superordinate to retain the subordinate under its yoke. The relationalist operationalization helps explore the means used by Moscow to assert influence on Kyiv and sheds a new light on the Russia-Ukraine case. It highlights Russia’s inability to act as a legitimate superordinate and depicts the 2022 invasion as a sign of weakness. It also emphasizes Ukraine’s agency. Western countries’ eastward expansion is reflective of the westward movements of Eastern European countries attracted by better system services. Therefore, Western countries should not be blamed for their eastward expansion but for having failed to deter Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Preterm birth is a major cause of perinatal mortality and morbidity in newborns, and its risk is increased by bacterial vaginosis (BV) during pregnancy. This multicenter prospective cohort study aimed to evaluate whether Flora select™ (FS), a newly developed real-time polymerase chain reaction test, is clinically useful for assessing the effectiveness of BV treatment during pregnancy. The vaginal microbiome characterized by relative dominance rates of Lactobacillus ≤ low (<50%), together with a positive test for Gardnerella, Prevotella, or Atopobium species, was defined as BV-FS A criterion. The vaginal microbiome characterized by Lactobacillus medium (50%≤, <80%), together with positive tests for Gardnerella plus either Prevotella species or Atopobium species, was defined as BV-FS B criterion. This study enrolled 25 pregnant women with classical BV (Nugent score ≥ 7) at initial examinations, and they met the BV-FS A (n = 23) and BV-FS B (n = 2) criteria. No woman with classical BV had a missed diagnosis of molecular BV. Treatments with metronidazole vaginal tablets resulted in the improvement of 88.0% (22/25) of classical BV, 65.2% (15/23) of BV-FS A, and 50.0% (1/2) of BV-FS B cases, whereas positive rates of Ureaplasma species in women with classical BV increased by 42.9%. Although most classical BV cases were cured following metronidazole treatments, a considerable proportion still harbored molecular BV detected by FS. Although the Nugent scoring system revealed that 80.0% (20/25) of women with classical BV (Nugent score ≥ 7) were sufficiently cured as BV-negative (Nugent scores 0–3), 5 (25%) of the 20 cured cases still met the BV-FS A/B criteria. FS particularly detected Ureaplasma species in 9 (45%) of the 20 cured cases. It could identify pregnant women who require additional treatments for residual molecular BV and Ureaplasma species. Therefore, the FS test may be clinically useful for assessing the vaginal microbiome and evaluating the effectiveness of BV treatments.

The study of women’s history in Chinese academia is undergoing a shift from narratives centered on the nation to narratives centered on gender, a shift that represents an effort to break free from the long-standing dominance and control of nationalist discourses over understandings of gender. Gender narratives critique the portrayal of women as mere victims in nationalist accounts, advocating instead for the restoration of women’s historical identities, emotions, and agency to reveal the complexities of women’s history that nationalist frameworks have obscured. In deconstructing nationalist narratives, however, the focus on discursive representation in gender narratives often reduces gender solely to relationships of power and domination, neglecting an analysis of the social structures that have historically restricted women and their rights. To construct a more inclusive narrative of women’s history, our research must be situated within the context of social history, examining the interplay between discursive representation and social structures. This approach will create broader, more inclusive gender narratives that will further advance the study of women’s history.