ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) names a mysteriously relaxing tingling sensation certain people experience in response to a range of stimuli, including the close, careful attention of others. Since 2010, a form of roleplay video has developed in which the performer addresses the camera/viewer in the guise of a medical or service professional. These relaxing enactments evoke fictional workplaces, raising questions about precarious and exploited labor in a globalized digital economy.

The results of a ground-penetrating radar survey and multiproxy studies of the sediment cores collected from two lakes in the Valdai Highlands (East European Plain) provide new insights into the late glacial and Holocene environmental history of the region situated in the marginal zone of the last Scandinavian ice sheet. The cores were analyzed for organic carbon and nitrogen content, as well as for pollen and diatoms. The chronology of the cores is based on radiocarbon dates and pollen-based stratigraphy. The studied records document that vast dead ice masses and associated ice-dammed lakes existed in the Valdai Highlands area until ∼14 cal ka BP. Open tundra-steppe communities dominated the study area during the Oldest Dryas, Bølling, and Older Dryas (between ca. 17 and 14 cal ka BP), but dwarf birch (Betula nana), shrub alder (Alnus fruticosa), and willow (Salix) were also common. Scots pine forest (Pinus sylvestris) became common for a short interval during the Bølling warming (ca. 14.9 and 14.4 cal ka BP). The appearance of spruce (Picea) forest in the landscape occurred in the beginning of the Allerød warming (∼14 cal ka BP), but the open steppe-like plant communities remained common until the onset of the Holocene. The modern lake systems emerged at ∼10 cal ka BP, marked by an onset of organic-type sedimentation and the appearance of modern-type forests. The Mid-Holocene (∼8–4 cal ka BP) was the warmest time, as documented by the maximal distribution of temperate and broadleaved taxa in the region. The onset of agricultural land use and simultaneous trend of increasing lake trophic state and increasing paludification in the area is recorded at ∼2.5 cal ka BP.

This study examines whether Americans are more supportive of immigration when migrants share their partisan preferences. To address this question, we embedded a preregistered experiment in a nationally representative survey that was fielded the week before the 2024 US Presidential Election. The main experimental treatment provided information that some immigrant groups tend to favor Donald Trump and the Republican Party. This information reduced support for immigration among Democrats and increased support for immigration among Republicans. Our findings suggest that immigrants’ political identities impact public support for immigration. They also suggest that Trump’s apparent gains among immigrant voters in the 2024 election have the potential to reduce partisan polarization over immigration in the future.

It was found that a significant number of patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) did not respond to the treatment, leading to high ongoing costs and disease burden. The main objective of this study was to find neurobiological indicators that can predict the effectiveness of antidepressant treatment using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). A group of 103 patients who were experiencing their first episode of MDD were included in the study. After 2 weeks of SSRI treatment, the group of patients was split into two categories: ineffectiveand effective. The FMRIB Software Library (FSL) was used for diffusion data preprocessing to obtain tensor-based parameters such as FA, MD, AD, and RD. Tract-Based Spatial Statistical (TBSS) voxel-wise statistical analysis of the tensor-based parameters was carried out using the TBSS procedure in FSL. We conducted an investigation to determine if there were notable variations in neuroimaging attributes among the three groups. Compared to HC, the effective group showed significantly higher AD and MD values in the left CgH. Correlating neuroimaging characteristics and clinical manifestations revealed a significant positive correlation between CgH-l FA and clinical 2-week HAMD-17 total scores and a significant positive correlation between CgH-r FA and clinical 2-week HAMD-17 total scores. Functional damage to the cingulum bundle in the hippocampal region may predispose patients to MDD and predict antidepressant treatment outcomes. More extensive multicenter investigations are necessary to validate these MRI findings that indicate treatment effectiveness and assess their potential significance in practical therapeutic decision-making.

This article considers the common law offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel; the development of the Law Commission’s recommendations on offences against religion and public worship in 1985 (which ultimately led to the abolition of the offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel in England and Wales in 2008); and proposals from various international bodies which now argue for similar reform.

This paper studies a long-standing problem of risk exchange and optimal resource allocation among multiple entities in a continuous-time pure risk-exchange economy. We establish a novel risk exchange mechanism that allows entities to share and transfer risks dynamically over time. To achieve Pareto optimality, we formulate the problem as a stochastic control problem and derive explicit solutions for the optimal investment, consumption, and risk exchange strategies using a martingale method. To highlight practical applications of the solution to the proposed problem, we apply our results to a target benefit pension plan, featuring the potential benefits of risk sharing within this pension system. Numerical examples show the sensitivity of investment portfolios, the adjustment item, and allocation ratios to specific parameters. It is observed that an increase in the aggregate endowment process results in a rise in the adjustment item. Furthermore, the allocation ratios exhibit a positive correlation with the weights of the agents.

An archaeological investigation at the western margin of the Cordillera de la Sal Formation in Catarpe (San Pedro de Atacama, northern Chile), revealed a series of pyrometallurgical furnaces from the Late period (AD 1400–1536). The furnaces, found at the Catarpe Túnel archaeological site, were used to reduce atacamite, clinoatacamite, brochantite, chrysocolla, and azurite to obtain unalloyed copper prills. Exceptional for the Atacama oasis and salt flats, Catarpe Túnel represents the only major archaeometallurgical site recorded in the area. Archaeometric analysis has determined the type of ore smelted, the composition of the metallic copper produced, and the characteristics of the fuel used by the operations. Although these operations are typical of the local metallurgical tradition, their proximity to a documented section of the Qhapaq Ñan and the Inka administrative center of Catarpe Este led us to wonder about the possible Tawantinsuyu influence in the region.

Banking supervisors rely on a set of indicators, such as the credit-to-Gross Domestic Product (GDP) gap, to evaluate the macro-financial environment and implement the countercyclical capital buffer. This paper proposes two supplementary indicators, based on forecast-based measures of the credit-to-GDP gap: forecast-augmented credit-to-GDP gaps and predicted credit-to-GDP gaps. While the former has already attracted attention from some banking supervisors, the latter represents a novel metric introduced here. These gaps are generated using singular spectrum analysis. We show that forecasting performance varies between countries and depends on credit market conditions. Furthermore, our results indicate that forecast-based credit-to-GDP gaps are effective in predicting the early stages of a credit boom.