Since its inception in 2009, Argentina’s Universal Child Allowance (AUH) has become the country’s most comprehensive social protection policy for children, emphasising standardisation and objectivity. However, its implementation occurs in contexts of poverty and inequality, leading to uneven outcomes across communities. This study examines how street-level bureaucrats adapt large-scale policies like the AUH to local contexts marked by deep social disparities. Although the AUH is designed for standardized and automated implementation, frontline workers play a critical role in adjusting the policy to specific territorial needs. These bureaucrats employ informal strategies and policy improvisation to mitigate institutional weaknesses and address gaps in the AUH’s rigid framework. By analysing the interplay between the policy’s institutional design, frontline workers, and adaptations, this study sheds light on how street-level bureaucracies at multiple levels enable these workers to navigate local challenges and partially compensate for broader institutional fragility.

‘Tropicalization’, the phenomenon of species shifting their ranges, has become increasingly prevalent as a response to environmental modifications induced by global change. This study points to an accelerated tropicalization process of marine fish species in the Gulf of Cadiz, a bioinvasion hotspot adjacent to the Strait of Gibraltar. We report accelerated, unusual, and rare occurrences of 15 fish species expanding and potentially establishing their ranges in the Gulf of Cadiz, driven by ocean warming over the past decade. These new insights are the combined consequence of a range expansion of some species, likely facilitated by temperature increases, an intensification of maritime traffic (with a consequent rise in propagule pressure), and a possible increase in sampling efforts and citizen science.

Although fundamental advances in the life sciences raise the exciting possibility of novel translational therapies, optimal evidence-based usage of established treatments should be the bedrock of current clinical care. The authors argue that there are instances where well-established treatments are ‘underused’ in psychiatry; electroconvulsive therapy, clozapine and lithium are exemplars of this. This article explores possible reasons for, and strategies to address, this underuse.

Many marine invertebrates are intermediate hosts to parasites. As some of these parasites may influence host behaviour and act as cryptic agents involved in mass mortality, knowledge of their presence, dynamics, and life cycles is important. Our aim with the present study is to provide a survey of parasites in subtidal cockles in the Limfjorden (Denmark), to examine their influence on cockles, and to assess their possible role in the surfacing of cockles, as this phenomenon is considered a prelude to mortality. The trematode fauna of the studied subtidal population was poor in species, but about 19% of the examined cockles in late summer and autumn were infected by Monorchis parvus – a species not previously reported from cockles in Danish waters. Heavily infected cockles were filled with small, undulating, worm-like sporocysts, each filled with metacercariae. From August to November, the number of metacercariae in sporocysts increased, and at a certain point, the growing stock of sporocysts is supposed to reach a level where the cockle is unable to perform vital life functions. Our data show that infected individuals exhibit less annual shell growth than uninfected ones. There was no significant difference in the prevalence of M. parvus between unburied and buried cockles. Cockle-eating fish from the family Sparidae are known as final hosts to M. parvus, but these fish do not occur in Danish waters. Therefore, the record-high presence of M. parvus in cockles from the Limfjorden is surprising, and we consider alternative life cycle options for this trematode.

This paper compares concerted efforts to unify early instructional practice in the US in the early twentieth century and in the twenty-first century. The first effort began with the founding of the National Council for Primary Education in 1915; the second began in 2005 with calls for pre-K-3 alignment. Analysis of relevant sources indicates that today’s unifiers are attempting to achieve three of the same goals that their predecessors pursued in 1915: increased child activity, teacher autonomy, and use of early instructional practices up through grade 3. During the early twentieth century, kindergarten served as both the model for the upward extension of activity-based early instructional practice into the early primary grades and the locus of efforts to defend against the downward extension of skill-based elementary practice from the primary to the lower levels. During the second round of unification in the twenty-first century, however, preschool has become the model for extending and the locus of defending early instructional methodology.

The black walnut Juglans neotropica is a forest species characterized by being a monoecious and deciduous tree with a long life. This species has great ecological, environmental, and economic value, playing a fundamental role in the ecosystem. According to the IUCN, J. neotropica is threatened by anthropogenic activities that have drastically affected its distribution. In this study, the plastid intergenic spacer marker trnS-trnfM was amplified from 74 J. neotropica samples from eight locations in Amazonas region (Peru) to determine its haplotype network, genetic diversity, and genetic divergence. The results revealed that J. neotropica from Amazonas region showed i) a lineage composed of the eight populations embedded into the Rhysocaryon section; ii) three genetic groups within the haplotype network with the presence of an ancestral haplotype (H1) and possibly candidates for new taxa; iii) a high divergence between the populations of Molinopampa and Luya (1.62–2.64% of p-distance); iv) populations with high genetic diversity indices (Levanto = 0.32, Molinopampa = 0.41) with constant threats from anthropogenic activities; and v) high genetic structuring within populations (Fst = 0.04). Overall, these results collectively support a scenario of high variability with limited interpopulation genetic exchange. Our findings provide previously unavailable insights into the vulnerability of the black walnut J. neotropica by (i) quantifying the genetic consequences of human-induced habitat fragmentation and (ii) establishing baseline diversity metrics for future monitoring. These results directly inform in situ conservation priorities by identifying populations harbouring unique alleles that warrant immediate protection. Finally, further research should include nuclear markers (e.g., microsatellites or RAD-seq) to support our findings.

Previous typification acts are reviewed herein, in light of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, to correct improper procedures while raising new type specimens for Theriosynoecum silvai, Darwinula martinsi and Cypridea araripensis, after loss of the original ones.

Since 2017, St. Catherine University has partnered with the Mapping Prejudice Project to build an interdisciplinary and community-engaged public humanities project that can serve as a model for other universities. The project, titled Welcoming the Dear Neighbor?, engages students, faculty, and staff across departments who work in collaboration with community partners to advance knowledge of systemic racism and its impact both historically and in present-day disparities. The result is mutually beneficial relationships that integrate high-impact practices for student success and retention and yield tangible resources for community groups in our city and surrounding suburbs. To date, more than 1,400 students have participated in the project. We report qualitative and quantitative evidence showing that the project enhanced students’ sense of place and enriched their learning. We describe challenges and lessons learned that will be of particular interest to universities interested in projects that undertake interdisciplinary, racial justice-focused public humanities work.

The artificial language of Esperanto would achieve remarkable success in early twentieth-century Europe. Its popularity there is not surprising: though designed as a universal language, Esperanto was essentially European in its grammar and lexicon. But this Europeanness – or, more precisely, this near-Europeanness – also spoke to communities living further afield. In India before the First World War, groups regarded as Europeanized by most Indians but as Indian by most Europeans found Esperanto a literal language with which to articulate their social location. As an ‘Esperantist’, there was no contradiction between being Indian and participating in European society, and to claim the label offered a shorthand that others (whatever their relationship to the movement) could readily grasp. This article considers these dynamics against the backdrop of a visit to India by the Irish Esperantist John Pollen, an event that sheds light on both the inner workings of the Indian movement and the importance that non-Indian Esperantists assigned to it. The popularity of Esperanto would eventually decline in India with the First World War, but until it did, the movement – indexical of Europe yet resonant in India – would promise a transnational community to which many in India felt they could aspire and belong.

This article introduces a dome-type soft tactile sensor that can autonomously adjust its stiffness to evaluate surface contact characteristics, including the elastic modulus, contact force, and the presence of abnormal hardness within soft materials, using a strain gauge as a single sensing element. The strain sensor element is placed at the tip of the dome to measure the deformations during contact that reflect the properties of the contacted object. Using machine learning techniques, the sensor system can accurately predict these characteristics in various materials with an error rate of less than approximately 8%. A hybrid approach that combines experimental and simulation data enables the sensor to be trained effectively, generating sufficient data for accurate predictions without extensive experiments. The high accuracy results of the machine learning models demonstrate that the sensor system can precisely calculate the elastic modulus and depth of the defect. The adaptability and precision of the proposed sensor make it ideal for applications in medical diagnostics and other fields requiring careful interaction with soft materials. Furthermore, its innovative approach can be referenced for exploiting the properties of soft materials to achieve task-specific morphology without redesigning soft sensors or soft robots.