The blue shark Prionace glauca is the most abundant species in the artisanal driftnet fishery off the coastal waters of Ivory Coast. The reproductive parameters were investigated with the aim of providing basic information on the reproductive biology for fisheries management. A total of 424 specimens (256 males and 168 females) ranging from 170–330 cm in total length (TL) were sampled between August 2014 and November 2016. Sample for embryonic sex ratio was obtained from 18 litters of 503 individuals (255 males and 248 females). The embryonic sex ratio was not significantly different from 1:1 (χ2 = 0.10, P > 0.05, N = 503). The size at 50% maturity (L50) was 218.1 cm TL for males and 223.3 cm TL for females. The litter size based on the number of embryos varied from 6 to 62, with an average of 30 embryos. Mating started in July whereas ovulation, fertilization and uterine eggs occurred in late October–November. Smallest embryos of 3–5 cm in stretch total length (STL) appeared in uterus from November to January. The embryo size varied widely among months, and well-pigmented embryos were already present in April–May samples, although most of them occurred in August–September, suggesting a gestation period of around 11 months. The absence of neonates in catches, as well as parturition females, does not support a hypothesis that parturition takes place in the Gulf of Guinea.

Rapid changes in agricultural systems call for profound changes in agricultural research and extension practices. The Diagnosis, Design, Assessment, Training and Extension (DATE) approach was developed and applied to co-design Conservation Agriculture-based cropping systems in contrasted situations. DATE is a multi-scale, multi-stakeholder participatory approach that integrates scientific and local knowledge. It emerged in response to questions raised by and issues encountered in the design of innovative systems. A key feature of this approach is the high input of innovative systems which are often although not exclusively based on conservation agricultural practices. Prototyping of innovative cropping systems (ICSs) largely relies on a conceptual model of soil–plant–macrofauna–microorganism system functioning. By comparing the implementation of the DATE approach and conservation agriculture-based cropping systems in Madagascar, Lao PDR, and Cambodia, we show that: (i) the DATE approach is flexible enough to be adapted to local conditions; (ii) market conditions need to be taken into account in designing agricultural development scenarios; and (iii) the learning process during the transition to conservation agriculture requires time. The DATE approach not only enables the co-design of ICSs with farmers, but also incorporates training and extension dimensions. It feeds back practitioners’ questions to researchers, and provides a renewed and extended source of innovation to farmers.

We provide an analogue of Gundy's decomposition for $L_1$-bounded non-commutative martingales. An important difference from the classical case is that for any $L_1$-bounded non-commutative martingale, the decomposition consists of four martingales. This is strongly related with the row/column nature of non-commutative Hardy spaces of martingales. As applications, we obtain simpler proofs of the weak type $(1,1)$ boundedness for non-commutative martingale transforms and the non-commutative analogue of Burkholder's weak type inequality for square functions. A sequence $(x_n)_{n \ge 1}$ in a normed space $\mathrm{X}$ is called 2-co-lacunary if there exists a bounded linear map from the closed linear span of $(x_n)_{n \ge 1}$ to $l_2$ taking each $x_n$ to the $n$th vector basis of $l_2$. We prove (using our decomposition) that any relatively weakly compact martingale difference sequence in $L_1 (\mathcal{M}, \tau)$ whose sequence of norms is bounded away from zero is 2-co-lacunary, generalizing a result of Aldous and Fremlin to non-commutative $L_1$-spaces.

We prove a weak-type (1,1) inequality for square functions of non-commutative martingales that are simultaneously bounded in $L^2$ and $L^1$. More precisely, the following non-commutative analogue of a classical result of Burkholder holds: there exists an absolute constant $K > 0$ such that if $\mathcal{M}$ is a semi-finite von Neumann algebra and $( \mathcal{M}_n )^{ \infty }_{n = 1}$ is an increasing filtration of von Neumann subalgebras of $\mathcal{M}$ then for any given martingale $x = ( x_n )^{\infty}_{n = 1}$ that is bounded in $L^2 ( \mathcal{M} ) \cap L^1 ( \mathcal{M} )$, adapted to $( \mathcal{M}_n )^{\infty}_{n = 1}$, there exist two martingale difference sequences, $a = ( a_n )_{n = 1}^\infty$ and $b = ( b_n )_{n = 1}^\infty$, with $dx_n = a_n + b_n$ for every $n \geq 1$,

\| ( \sum^\infty_{n = 1} a_n^* a_n )^{1/2} \|_{2} + \| ( \sum^\infty_{n = 1} b_n b_n^* )^{1/2} \|_{2} \leq 2 \| x \|_2,

and

\| ( \sum^\infty_{n = 1} a_n^* a_n )^{1/2} \|_{1, \infty} + \| ( \sum^\infty_{n = 1} b_n b_n^* )^{1/2} \|_{1, \infty} \leq K \| x \|_1.

As an application, we obtain the optimal orders of growth for the constants involved in the Pisier–Xu non-commutative analogue of the classical Burkholder–Gundy inequalities.

Let $\mathcal{A}$ be a ${{C}^{*}}$ -algebra and $E$ be a Banach space with the Radon-Nikodym property. We prove that if $j$ is an embedding of $E$ into an injective Banach space then for every absolutely summing operator $T:\,\mathcal{A}\,\to \,E$ , the composition $j\,\circ \,T$ factors through a diagonal operator from ${{l}^{2}}$ into ${{l}^{1}}$ . In particular, $T$ factors through a Banach space with the Schur property. Similarly, we prove that for $2\,<\,p\,<\,\infty $ , any absolutely summing operator from $\mathcal{A}$ into $E$ factors through a diagonal operator from ${{l}^{p}}$ into ${{l}^{2}}$ .

Let ℳ be a semi-finite von Neumann algebra equipped with a faithful normal trace τ. We prove a Kadec-Pelczyński type dichotomy principle for subspaces of symmetric space of measurable operators of Rademacher type 2. We study subspace structures of non-commutative Lorentz spaces Lp, q, (ℳ, τ), extending some results of Carothers and Dilworth to the non-commutative settings. In particular, we show that, under natural conditions on indices, ℓp cannot be embedded into Lp, q (ℳ, τ). As applications, we prove that for 0 < p < ∞ with p ≠ 2, ℓp cannot be strongly embedded into Lp(ℳ, τ). This provides a non-commutative extension of a result of Kalton for 0 < p < 1 and a result of Rosenthal for 1 ≦ p < 2 on Lp [0, 1].

For a subset $\Lambda$ of the dual group of a compact metrizable abelian group, we introduce the type I-, II-, and III-$\Lambda$-Riemann–Lebesgue property of a Banach space. As an application we use these properties to characterize Rajchman sets.

A new species of the oligochaete family Parvidrilidae Erséus, 1999 is described from several subterranean waterbodies of southern Europe. A comparison with the type species suggests that the so called ‘genital body’ and ‘copulatory organ’ of the latter can be interpreted as the atrium and spermathecae, respectively. A critical analysis of the most important diagnostic features known is made to increase understanding of the real position of the Parvidrilidae in a natural system within the Oligochaeta. The parvidrilids seem to be closely related to the Phreodrilidae. Waiting for the results of molecular and ultrastructural analyses, and considering the dorsal crotchets ‘buried’ in the body wall as an autapomorphy for the phreodrilids, the rank of family for the parvidrilids is maintained on the basis of the three following autapomorphies: the location of the setae in a marked posterior position within the segments; the lateral development of the clitellum, with large clitellar cells in relation to the body diameter; the singular glandular pouches present in the mid-dorsal line of the mesosomial segments.

Let [Mscr ] be a von Neumann algebra (not necessarily semi-finite). We provide a generalization of the classical Kadec–Pełczyński subsequence decomposition of bounded sequences in Lp[0, 1] to the case of the Haagerup Lp-spaces (1 [les ] p < 1 ). In particular, we prove that if { φn}∞n=1 is a bounded sequence in the predual [Mscr ]∗ of [Mscr ], then there exist a subsequence {φnk}∞k=1 of {φn}∞n=1, a decomposition φnk = yk+zk such that {yk, k [ges ] 1} is relatively weakly compact and the support projections supp(zk) ↓k 0 (or similarly mutually disjoint). As an application, we prove that every non-reflexive subspace of the dual of any given C*-algebra (or Jordan triples) contains asymptotically isometric copies of [lscr ]1 and therefore fails the fixed point property for non-expansive mappings. These generalize earlier results for the case of preduals of semi-finite von Neumann algebras.