To overcome the limitations of conventional robot task allocation algorithms, which often converge to suboptimal solutions, suffer from low computational accuracy, and produce excessively long execution paths as problem scales increase, we propose a novel marine predator algorithm (NMPA). By redesigning the predator–prey encoding mechanism in the traditional marine predator algorithm (MPA) and integrating information-based environmental search strategies with local search techniques, the proposed method substantially improves global exploration capability and solution precision. The NMPA is then evaluated on multiple benchmark and practical scenarios, including the traveling salesman problem (TSP), multi-traveling salesman problem (MTSP), single-robot task allocation with rigid time windows, and multi-robot task allocation. Experimental results on TSP and MTSP indicate that NMPA achieves more stable convergence, higher accuracy, and stronger robustness than ant colony optimization (ACO), simulated annealing, genetic algorithms (GAs), and their variants. Moreover, validation on real-world factory data in both single-robot and multi-robot task allocation scenarios confirms that NMPA delivers superior solution quality and overall performance compared with ACO, GAs, and their variants.

This study investigated the population dynamics of the symbiotic pea crab Austinixa aidae and its non-obligate host, the ghost shrimp Callichirus corruptus, on a sandy beach in Northeast Brazil, assessing the influence of the symbiotic relationship and environmental conditions on population traits. Monthly collections were conducted over 1 year at Cinelândia Beach, Aracaju, Sergipe, and specimens of both sexes were sexed and measured from individual burrows. We analysed size–frequency distributions, sex ratios, and reproductive periods, correlating them with each other and with environmental factors. A. aidae showed continuous seasonal reproduction, with peaks between June and August and in April, positively influenced by precipitation (the rainy season). Conversely, the host, C. corruptus, exhibited seasonal reproduction, peaking in February, which was correlated with higher temperatures (the dry season). This antagonistic reproductive pattern between the symbiont and host was confirmed by a significant negative correlation between their respective percentages of ovigerous females. Furthermore, a significant positive correlation was found between the number and size of crabs and the size of their host. Both species displayed smaller sizes than populations at higher latitudes, suggesting a latitudinal influence. This reproductive asynchrony may represent a coevolved strategy for the symbiont to avoid competition for resources during the host’s reproductive peak.

Migratory hosts are key vectors of long-distance parasite dispersal. In the North Atlantic, migratory connectivity of avian hosts suggests that diplostomid trematodes with broad host specificity could potentially exhibit widespread distributions. However, host migration does not necessarily result in successful parasite dispersal. We investigated the diversity and distribution of Diplostomum spp. infecting freshwater salmonids in Greenland and the Faroe Islands using a metabarcoding approach. In Greenland, infection prevalence in Arctic char and Atlantic salmon ranged from 0% to 100% across locations. Molecular analysis revealed four lineages, including the first records of Diplostomum sp. 6, 7, and 9 (Locke et al. 2010a; 2010b), and a novel lineage/species showing 92.6–94.2% sequence identity to its closest relatives. In contrast, no evidence of diplostomid infection was found in brown trout and Atlantic salmon collected from sixteen streams in the Faroe Islands. The presence of a novel, locally abundant (28.9% prevalence) parasite lineage/species in Greenland, the affinity of these parasite assemblages with those in North America, the lack of overlap with Icelandic and Norwegian communities, and the absence of diplostomids in Faroese salmonids indicate limited bird-mediated dispersal of diplostomids across the North Atlantic. We propose that a ‘short transmission window’ at high latitudes during the breeding season, combined with specific avian migration routes, may limit long-distance dispersal and promote regional isolation between Nearctic and Palearctic diplostomid communities across the North Atlantic.

This article provides a comparative overview of the establishment and trajectories of a number of national banks in the early financial markets of various Latin American countries from 1863 to 1914. The main focus of the paper is on the trajectories of such financial institutions in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile between 1870 and 1890. Their organizational models and some of their strategies for expanding their businesses are described and compared. It is argued that these firms were among the largest established in the respective countries where they operated and combined private business with close collaboration with the respective governments in fiscal and financial transactions.

Throughout the precolonial era, monumentality in the midcontinent was expressed through a variety of earthen constructions from circular mounds to animal effigies to geometric shapes to depictions of spiritual beings. Here, we describe an example of megalithic monumentality located at the Menominee Reservation in Wisconsin, USA. This archaeological feature uses a mix of the natural geology alongside anthropogenic efforts to depict the Menominee legend of a battle between the Thunderbird and Serpent. The encountering and documentation of this megalith were the result of ongoing collaborative efforts that brought together archaeological techniques with Menominee knowledge sets. We describe the megalith and draw on the only other known megalithic effigy from Wisconsin, a serpent effigy, located in ancestral Menominee territory and documented more than a century ago. Together, these two megalithic features illustrate currently unrecognized monumental construction efforts in the midcontinent and highlight the value and importance of collaborative approaches to documenting and preserving archaeological heritage.

We present simulation results of the macroeconomic effects of a green European Union (EU) public investment fund for the euro area using the macroeconometric simulation model National Institute Global Econometric Model. Our results show considerable negative gross domestic product (GDP) effects together with inflationary effects from CO2 taxation alone. Accounting for climate change and the corresponding long-term damage to GDP, however, our results show that not acting on climate change now causes far more severe damages in the future. An EU investment fund would significantly cushion the negative transitory GDP effects. Finally, our results highlight the importance of cooperation such that climate change policies are implemented on a global level.

For $N>1$, we constructed a canonical connected fundamental domain for $\Gamma _0(N)$ in Nie and Parent (2024, Connected fundamental domains for congruence subgroups), utilizing an interesting function $W: {\mathbb Z}/N\to {{\mathbb N}}$. In this article, we further study the function W, prove some identities, and use it to match the cusps, with widths, produced by our connected fundamental domain with the known cusp classes of $\Gamma _0(N)$. Furthermore, we list the boundary arcs and the gluing patterns of our connected fundamental domain, a key step in understanding the modular curve $X_0(N)$ by this approach.

En quittant Paris pour l’armée en 1939, Marc Bloch laisse sa bibliothèque dans son appartement de la rue de Sèvres. Celle-ci, riche de plusieurs milliers de volumes est saisie par les Allemands au début de 1942 et expédiée en Allemagne. Les restitutions, opérées principalement à la fin des années 1940, ne concernent qu’une fraction de l’ensemble des livres rassemblés par Bloch au cours de sa carrière. L’université de Paris, puis l’une de ses héritières, l’université Paris 1- Panthéon Sorbonne, ont acquis en plusieurs temps, par achat puis par un don de la famille, une grande partie des livres revenus d’Allemagne, soit environ 1 800 volumes. Ceux-ci furent affectés à la bibliothèque Halphen, bibliothèque de travail des médiévistes. L’article replace l’histoire de cette bibliothèque dans le contexte des relations entre Bloch et le monde universitaire français et étrangers. Il vise à restituer l’importance de la constitution du fonds dans l’histoire intellectuelle de Bloch. L’examen de cette partie substantielle, mais tout de même partielle, du fonds illustre les catégories scientifiques mobilisées par Bloch dans son travail. Les dédicaces et signatures permettent d’évaluer l’ampleur de son réseau d’amitiés et de relations dans le milieu académique français et, au-delà, à travers toute l’Europe. Ce fragment éclaire la consistance d’un outil de travail remarquable, construit patiemment, à coups de comptes rendus et d’achats par un savant d’une envergure exceptionnelle.