This study elucidates the litter dynamics including decomposition rate both in-situ and ex-situ, the initial acquisition traits (LATs), morphological traits (LMTs) and production rate of leaf litter of four economically important tree species viz. Terminalia arjuna (TA), Tectona grandis (TG), Eucalyptus citriodora (EC) and Psidium guajava (PG) with the major objective of restoration of degraded urban ecosystems in dry tropics. Annual litterfall production rates were observed as: TG > TA > EC > PG. LMTs, that is, specific leaf area followed the trend: TG > TA > PG > EC, whereas leaf mass per area followed the reverse trend. In TA, LATs involving carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and cellulose were highest but C/N and lignin/N ratios were lowest, whereas lignin, polyphenol, C/N and lignin/N ratios were highest in PG. In the leaf litter bag experiment, the decomposition rate followed the trend: TA > TG > EC > PG. In-situ and ex-situ rates of decomposition of all the four leaf litters were found to be similar. LATs especially lignin/N, N and C/N ratios rather than LMTs were found to be a better predictor of the litter decomposition rate. TA plantation having a higher litter decomposition rate, may be recommended for inclusion in the restoration strategies of degraded urban land.

In this work, we investigate the mixing of active scalars in two dimensions by the stirring action of stochastically generated weak shock waves. We use Fourier pseudospectral direct numerical simulations of the interaction of shock waves with two non-reacting species to analyse the mixing dynamics for different Atwood numbers (At). Unlike passive scalars, the presence of density gradients in active scalars alters the molecular diffusion term and makes the species diffusion nonlinear, introducing a concentration gradient-driven term and a density gradient-driven nonlinear dissipation term in the concentration evolution equation. We show that the direction of concentration gradient causes the interface across which molecular diffusion occurs to expand outwards or inwards, even without any stirring action. Shock waves enhance the mixing process by increasing the perimeter of the interface and by sustaining concentration gradients. Negative Atwood number mixtures sustain concentration gradients for a longer time than positive Atwood number mixtures due to the so-called nonlinear dissipation terms. We estimate the time until that when the action of stirring is dominant over molecular mixing. We also highlight the role of baroclinicity in increasing the interface perimeter in the stirring dominant regime. We compare the stirring effect of shock waves on mixing of passive scalars with active scalars and show that the vorticity generated by baroclinicity is responsible for the folding and stretching of the interface in the case of active scalars. We conclude by showing that lighter mixtures with denser inhomogeneities ($At\lt 0$) take a longer time to homogenise than the denser mixtures with lighter inhomogeneities ($At\gt 0$).

The present study aims to provide an understanding of the influence of an afterbody on the flow-induced vibration (FIV) of cylinders. This is achieved through experimental and numerical investigations into the FIV response of a reverse-D-cross-section cylinder of aspect ratio $AR=5$. By carefully monitoring the point of flow separation to show it always occurs at the sharp top and bottom edges and never further upstream, it is demonstrated that vortex-induced vibration (VIV) can occur without an afterbody. However, for other aspect ratios, an afterbody does play a crucial role in determining the type of fluid forces responsible for sustaining VIV from low to moderate Reynolds numbers in the range $100$–$4700$. For a cylinder without an afterbody, it is found that the viscous force originating from the presence of strong compact vortices forming close to the leeward side of the cylinder is responsible for sustaining strong transverse vibration. In contrast, for a cylinder with an afterbody, the dominant force component depends on the size of the afterbody. In cylinders with a small afterbody, such as a reverse-D semi-circular cylinder, the viscous force dominates, while in cylinders with a larger afterbody such as a circular cylinder, the pressure force dominates.

Oral argument is the most public and visible part of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision-making process. Yet what if some advocates are treated differently before the Court solely because of aspects of their identity? In this work, we leverage a causal inference framework to quantify the effect of an advocate’s gender on interruptions of advocates at both the Court-level and the justice-level. Examining nearly four decades of U.S. Supreme Court oral argument transcript data, we identify a clear and consistent gender effect that dwarfs other influences on justice interruption behavior, with female advocates interrupted more frequently than male advocates.

In 2022, the Centre for Global South Asia (CGSA) at Royal Holloway University of London developed a small research project entitled ‘Exhibit Asia’. The aim was to explore the use of exhibitions in nation-making in postcolonial South and East Asia in contrast to the scholarly preoccupation with investigating the region’s history of museums and exhibitions primarily in a colonial context. Its academic outcomes were to be a conference and related publication; but we also wanted our research to be relevant to our students. The resulting intervention in the teaching and learning of history took the form of a curatorial fellowship for an international cohort of ten students from Taiwan, Japan, India, Pakistan and the UK, leading to a co-curated online exhibition. The first section of this article sets out the development, design and delivery of the fellowship and discusses the viability and relevance of such projects. The subsequent three sections are co-authored by several of the participating students. They outline their methods, reflections and learnings; share their insights on the role of exhibitions in perceptions of Asia in the UK today; and analyse responses to ‘Tea and Tigers’, the online exhibition that was the outcome of the fellowship.

We present the case of a 9-year-old girl with a distal aortopulmonary window (APW) with anomalous origin of right coronary artery from the main pulmonary artery and an isolated left subclavian artery arising from the main pulmonary artery. This report highlights the unusual combination of the three anomalies and late presentation of APW.

The whitefly, Bemisia tabaci is a cryptic species complex in which one member, Middle East-Asia Minor 1 (MEAM1) has invaded globally. After invading large countries like Australia, China, and the USA, MEAM1 spread rapidly across each country. In contrast, our analysis of MEAM1 in India showed a very different pattern. Despite the detection of MEAM1 being contemporaneous with invasions in Australia, the USA, and China, MEAM1 has not spread widely and instead remains restricted to the southern regions. An assessment of Indian MEAM1 genetic diversity showed a level of diversity equivalent to that found in its presumed home range and significantly higher than that expected across the invaded range. The high level of diversity and restricted distribution raises the prospect that its home range extends into India. Similarly, while the levels of diversity in Australia and the USA conformed to that expected for the invaded range, China did not. It suggests that China may also be part of its home range. We also observed that diversity across the invaded range was primarily accounted for by a single haplotype, Hap1, which accounted for 79.8% of all records. It was only the invasion of Hap1 that enabled outbreaks to occur and MEAM1’s discovery.

We report simultaneous transcatheter closure of a secundum atrial septal defect, a perimembranous ventricular septal defect, and a patent ductus arteriosus in a 3-year-old female wıth symptoms of heart failure. As it was not possible to determine the impact of each defect on the patient’s symptoms, all of them were closed with good results, for a tiny residual venrricular septal defect.