Invited review

Generalized linear models

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is an important diagnostic scanning tool for the detection and monitoring of specific diseases and conditions. However, the equipment cost, maintenance and specialty training of the technologists make the examination expensive. Consequently, unnecessary scanner time caused by poor scheduling, repeated sequences, aborted sequences, scanner idleness, or capture of non-diagnostic or low-value sequences is an opportunity to reduce costs and increase efficiency. This paper analyzes data collected from log files on 29 scanners over several years. ‘Wasted’ time is defined and key performance indicators (KPIs) are identified. A decrease in exam duration results when actively modifying and monitoring the number of sequences that comprise the exam card for a protocol.

Larval dispersal is dependent on multiple physical and biotic factors and is a key driver of population connectivity. Connectivity is believed to be important in determining how species will cope in a changing climate by allowing species’ ranges to expand or constrict in response to environmental shifts. In the following study, we couple a 3D physical model system with an individual-based model to answer whether climate change effects on mussel larvae will affect the dispersal and the structure of the demographic connectivity in the Limfjorden. The Limfjorden in Denmark supports a large mussel fishery of the species Mytilus edulis and extensive mussel farming, which may be impacted by changes in larval supply under climate change. We produced scenarios changing the pelagic larval duration, spawning time, and presence of spawning mussels after events of hypoxia, and analysed the changes in potential larval recruitment. The results showed that only the 6-day and 36-day pelagic larval duration scenarios are significantly different from the reference scenario. There was no significant event on changes in spawning time. We described the hydrography of the basins to explain the connectivity results and concluded that severe events of hypoxia could potentially lead to the isolation of the fjord. Overall, this well-connected system is very stable to the changes addressed in this study. It is important to continue the research in this area since the adaptation and evolution of species in a changing ocean will bring discoveries that will be useful for future management and conservation decisions.

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) plays an essential role in the global lake carbon cycle. Understanding DOM composition and monitoring its spatiotemporal dynamics are of great significance for understanding the lake carbon cycle, controlling water pollution, and protecting water resources. However, previous studies have focused mainly on eutrophic freshwater lakes, with limited attention given to saline lakes. Based on in situ data collected in ten lakes in northwestern China, this study reported the changes in DOM components in different lake types. Parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) was used to analyze the three-dimensional excitation emission matrix (EEMs) to obtain the DOM fluorescence components. The contributions of different environmental factors to the changes in DOM components were quantified by the generalized linear model (GLM). The results showed that the eutrophication index was significantly positively related to dissolved organic carbon (DOC) (R² = 0.95, p < 0.01) and colored DOM (CDOM) (R² = 0.96, p < 0.01) concentrations. Terrestrial humic-like and tryptophan-like components, which are highly correlated with human activities, explained 62% and 64% of the variations in DOC and CDOM, respectively. In sum, the contributions of human activities to the DOC and CDOM variations were 61% and 57%, respectively. Salinity also showed significant positive correlations with both DOC (R² = 0.88, p < 0.01) and CDOM (R² = 0.87, p < 0.01). Lake salinization led to increases in DOM concentration, and salinity contributed 20% and 16% to the DOC and CDOM variations, respectively. Therefore, human activities and salinity codetermined the DOM concentration and its composition in the western arid lakes.

Based on these findings, this study proposed a feasible flowchart for remotely estimating DOM in saline lakes using satellite data. This study is significant for the long-term monitoring of the carbon cycle and the effective protection of lake water resources in saline lakes.

The combined effects of rising temperature, elevated atmospheric CO₂ levels and warming-induced droughts have led to an increase in tree intrinsic water use efficiency (iWUE). However, how and to what extent increasing iWUE compensates for tree growth in bioclimatic regions is not well understood. In this study, nine tree ring sampling sites of Chinese pine (Pinus tabulaeformis) plantations were selected along a precipitation gradient to explore the different contributions of iWUE to tree growth. The results showed that the coefficient of variation of tree ring chronology (TRI_cv) decreased significantly with the precipitation gradient. There was a significant increasing trend in iWUE over time at all sites, the rate of which decreased with the precipitation gradient. Tree growth in drier regions was positively correlated with the drought index, and TRI_cv showed an increasing trend as tree grew, which implies that tree growth in drier regions is unstable under the rapidly changing climate. At the three drier sites, drought was the dominant factor inducing increased iWUE, and iWUE explained between 17.51%, and 38.35% of tree growth. At the two wetter sites, there was a significant positive relationship between iWUE and temperature, and iWUE explained 18.61% and 12.10% of tree growth, respectively. Under dry conditions, the drier sites exhibited greater levels of reduced tree growth and maintained higher relative iWUE to adapt to the water deficit compared to other sites. Our results highlight that stomatal regulation has a critical role in maintaining tree growth and increasing iWUE could compensate for negative effects from drought in arid environments.

By integrating the boundary-spanning perspective with the expatriate staffing literature, we explore why and how temporal boundaries between multinational enterprise (MNE) parent and subsidiary locations affect MNEs’ deployment of expatriates in foreign subsidiaries. Temporal boundaries, defined as local work-time schedule differences, delimit the degree of work-time overlap between two locations. A lack of work-time overlap between MNE parent and subsidiary locations creates significant barriers in day-to-day, remote real-time communication, resulting in increased deployment of expatriates as intermediaries by parents to overcome these barriers. Conversely, greater parent–subsidiary work-time overlap enables more remote real-time communication via digital technologies, altering the cost–benefit analysis of deploying expatriates over local nationals, consequently reducing parents’ reliance on expatriates as intermediaries. Therefore, we posit a negative relationship between parent–subsidiary work-time overlap and the expatriate ratio in a subsidiary. Further, we posit that the negative relationship is weakened by home – host country distance in terms of information and communication technology development and linguistics because technological and semantic boundaries can reduce the effectiveness of parent–subsidiary real-time communication. Empirical analyses of 22,556 subsidiaries established by 5,912 Japanese MNEs operating in 31 host countries between 1990 and 2018 support our theorizing.

Launching crowdfunding campaigns for new products and ideas is popular, and quality signals, such as endorsement and past success, can indicate the likelihood of the success of future projects. However, as these signals are not always available, creators, especially new ones, must rely on other signals, such as narrative quality. Building on the emerging literature on rhetorical signaling, we investigate the moderating effect of narrative quality on the relationship between risk/reward rhetoric and crowdfunding success. We show that risk (reward) rhetoric negatively (positively) affects campaign success. Thereafter, we introduce two new signals (narrative structural quality and narrative wording quality). Using a sample of 331,060 Kickstarter campaigns from 2009 to 2018, we empirically show that the use of punctuation positively moderates the relationship between risk/reward rhetoric and success, whereas the use of informal language negatively moderates this relationship. Interestingly, this moderating effect is similar to that of traditional signals such as endorsement and past success.