Cephalopod populations have expanded over recent decades, both numerically and geographically. These expansions are particularly noteworthy because cephalopods are a taxon of quickly reproducing, high-metabolic rate predators that can have disproportionate impacts on naïve ecosystems. We report a new occurrence of an octopus species in 11.6 m of water in Burrows Bay, Washington, USA (coastal northeast Pacific Ocean). These newly identified individuals have several characteristics that clearly differentiate them from either of the two known octopus species that occur in shallow water within the area: Octopus rubescens and Enteroctopus dofleini. Instead, specimens superficially resemble Muusoctopus leioderma, a species which is found in the geographic area, but has never been reported at depths less than 70 m. Octopuses were collected for morphological and genetic comparison to known octopus species, focusing on other nominal Muusoctopus species. Genetic comparisons were conducted using three mitochondrial loci (12S ribosomal RNA, cytochrome oxidase subunit III, and cytochrome b) sequenced for the octopus along with two M. leioderma museum specimens, including the species' neotype. Observation of octopus behaviour revealed a unique burrowing behaviour. Morphology of the octopus found in Burrows Bay largely coincides with M. leioderma, with a few notable differences. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that Burrows Bay octopus forms a monophyletic clade with the M. leioderma neotype, but also suggested that M. leioderma is more closely related to Octopus californicus than to the other members of the genus Muusoctopus. These octopuses are thus attributed to M. leioderma but the generic placement of the species should be reviewed.

This study explores the impact that recent Bronze Age hoard finds have had on our understanding of hoarding practices across Britain and Northern Ireland. Changes to the legislation of Treasure and the onset of the Portable Antiquities Scheme in England and Wales have produced a wealth of new information on Bronze Age hoards. Beyond a handful of studies which have focused on specific groups of hoards or the distinction between dryland/wetland deposition, however, many of these more recent finds have been overlooked. Our regional understanding of hoarding practices across Britain is also largely based on studies which are now significantly out of date. This paper aims to address this problem by providing a snapshot of hoards and hoarding practices, based on a substantial dataset of 385 hoards (containing 7210 objects) that were reported on between 1997 and 2021. Broad chronological and spatial trends in the distribution are highlighted, with precedence given to characterising these enigmatic deposits based on their size and the categories of objects within them. This investigation provides fresh insights into the selection of certain object groups – particularly axes – during certain periods and within specific regions, whilst also exploring ideas so that we might better understand the scale of metalwork deposition. This research not only demonstrates how recent hoard finds fit into traditional narratives but also how they have the potential to enhance our understanding of regional hoarding practices, offering new and exciting avenues for future research.

Across Western European democracies, the last 20 years have seen a growth of precarious employment and the rise of challenger parties. Both trends are especially marked in Italy, where occupational insecurity has become the norm and over half of the electorate has turned to a challenger party. In this article, I investigate the relationship between these two phenomena, addressing the question of whether and how precarity in the labor market influenced vote choice in the 2018 general election. First, I provide descriptive evidence that the Italian labor market shifted from dualism to generalized precarization. Second, I empirically investigate the relationship between precarity and voting in this context. The results show that the perception of precarity, not formal employment status, influenced voting behavior: it fostered participation, increased support for the Five Star Movement, and decreased support for the Democratic Party. These findings challenge core assumptions in the literature, first and foremost about precarious workers' low turnout rate, difficult mobilization, and consequent political irrelevance. They indicate that the electoral weight of precarious workers has increased, and their representation can be electorally beneficial.

The West African giraffe is restricted to Niger, but historically it inhabited much of the Sudano-Sahelian zone. The population is concentrated in the ‘Giraffe Zone’ (GZ), an unprotected area with a high human population density. Since the mid-1990s, the giraffe population has steadily increased mainly due to the collective social and conservation initiatives of the government, non-governmental organizations and the local community. In 2018, the first West African giraffe satellite population was established through the reintroduction of eight individuals into Gadabedji Biosphere Reserve (GBR). In this study, we aimed to describe the current state of human–giraffe coexistence, human attitudes towards giraffe and human habits of natural resources use through a questionnaire survey conducted in the GZ and GBR. Although most of the GZ respondents highlighted crop damage caused by giraffe, we also found overall positive attitudes towards the animals. Most respondents from both sites expressed positive attitudes towards giraffe, highlighting that they do not see poaching as a major current threat. However, the giraffe population continues to be directly threatened by habitat loss through firewood cutting, livestock overgrazing and agriculture expansion. Long-term conservation of the West African giraffe is dependent on better habitat protection and understanding of current human–giraffe coexistence through ensuring that giraffe presence will benefit local communities across their range.

Let $f\;:\; M\rightarrow \mathbb{C}P^{2}$ be an isometric immersion of a compact surface in the complex projective plane $\mathbb{C}P^{2}$. In this paper, we consider the Helfrich-type functional $\mathcal{H}_{\lambda _{1},\lambda _{2}}(f)=\int _{M}(|H|^{2}+\lambda _{1}+\lambda _{2} C^{2})\textrm{d} M$, where $\lambda _{1}, \lambda _{2}\in \mathbb{R}$ with $\lambda _{1}\geqslant 0$, $H$ and $C$ are respectively the mean curvature vector and the Kähler function of $M$ in $\mathbb{C}P^{2}$. The critical surfaces of $\mathcal{H}_{\lambda _{1},\lambda _{2}}(f)$ are called Helfrich surfaces. We compute the first variation of $\mathcal{H}_{\lambda _{1},\lambda _{2}}(f)$ and classify the homogeneous Helfrich tori in $\mathbb{C}P^{2}$. Moreover, we study the Helfrich energy of the homogeneous tori and show the lower bound of the Helfrich energy for such tori.

When solving a complex problem in a group, should group members always choose the best available solution that they are aware of? In this paper, I build simulation models to show that, perhaps surprisingly, a group of agents who individually randomly follow a better available solution than their own can end up outperforming a group of agents who individually always follow the best available solution. This result has implications for the feminist philosophy of science and social epistemology.

Discrimination experiences are a salient contributor to the health disparities facing Latina/x/o youth. The biopsychosocial model of minority health posits that discrimination influences health through wear and tear on the biological stress responses, including the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which is a primary stress response system in the body. Emerging evidence suggests that discrimination alters the secretion of cortisol, the end product of the HPA axis, yet, whether the daily processes between discrimination and diurnal cortisol response influence mental and sleep health remains unanswered. This study integrated daily diary and post-diary survey data to examine whether daily diurnal cortisol responses to discrimination influence adolescents’ mental (depressive symptoms, anxiety) and sleep (sleep quality, duration) health in a sample of Mexican-origin youth (N = 282; Mage = 17.10; 55% female). Results showed that adolescents who experienced more discrimination across the four-day diary period exhibited steeper diurnal cortisol slopes and lower evening cortisol; however, such physiological responses tended to be associated with poorer adolescents’ mental and sleep health. The current study underscores the potential adaptation cost associated with short-term cortisol adaptation in the face of discrimination.

This article proposes a novel way to estimate consumer switching costs and uses Lithuanian credit register data and two bank closures to provide this estimate for the loan market. I show that when a distressed bank’s closure forced firms to switch, they started borrowing at lower interest rates instantly and permanently and that this drop revealed the lower bound of firms’ ex ante switching costs. A healthy bank’s closure showed no such effect. The article’s findings suggest that distressed banks hold up and overcharge firms and that by closing and resolving such banks with good-bank/bad-bank separation regulators can improve firm financing.

This paper is concerned with the study of the fine Selmer group of an abelian variety over a $\mathbb{Z}_{p}$-extension which is not necessarily cyclotomic. It has been conjectured that these fine Selmer groups are always torsion over $\mathbb{Z}_{p}[[ \Gamma ]]$, where $\Gamma$ is the Galois group of the $\mathbb{Z}_{p}$-extension in question. In this paper, we shall provide several strong evidences towards this conjecture. Namely, we show that the conjectural torsionness is consistent with the pseudo-nullity conjecture of Coates–Sujatha. We also show that if the conjecture is known for the cyclotomic $\mathbb{Z}_{p}$-extension, then it holds for almost all $\mathbb{Z}_{p}$-extensions. We then carry out a similar study for the fine Selmer group of an elliptic modular form. When the modular forms are ordinary and come from a Hida family, we relate the torsionness of the fine Selmer groups of the specialization. This latter result allows us to show that the conjectural torsionness in certain cases is consistent with the growth number conjecture of Mazur. Finally, we end with some speculations on the torsionness of fine Selmer groups over an arbitrary p-adic Lie extension.

Recent proposals that the substrate of memory is molecular raise questions about where this molecular model stands in relation to the dominant synaptic model of memory. In this article, we address the perceived rivalry between these models and ask whether they can be integrated. We argue that addressing rivalry or integration requires delineating the explananda of synaptic and molecular models, as well as revisiting assumptions about how these models account for their explananda. The perceived rivalry between these models exemplifies epistemic costs that arise when we try to pit explanatory models as rivals or integrate them.

The family Syngnathidae contains 52 seahorse species, which inhabit a range of habitats including coral reefs, seagrass beds and coastal estuaries. The seahorse Hippocampus kelloggi is among the most widely distributed species, occurring from Indo-West Pacific to East Africa. This species was included in the IUCN Red List in 2017 and is classified as vulnerable according to A2cd criteria. In this study, three specimens collected from the central coast of Mozambique were investigated and based on morphology and mitochondrial subunit of cytochrome oxidase I (COI) were identified as H. kelloggi. These results confirmed for the first time the extensive range of occurrence of H. kelloggi on the central coast of Mozambique.