This study analyzes how the dispersion of prior online ratings influences individual rating behavior in digital review platforms. Drawing on social learning theory, social conformity, and prospect theory, the empirical application examines over 3 million restaurant reviews in New York City (2010–2024). Using fixed-effects regression models, the results show that greater variance in prior ratings weakens the anchoring effect of the average, leading individuals to post more divergent evaluations. The results reveal a valence-based asymmetry in social influence, where informational ambiguity reduces conformity, especially in the loss domain. This finding represents an important theoretical contribution by demonstrating that prior rating variance functions as a contextual moderator of social influence, thereby introducing asymmetry into the conformity process.
Valorising sewage sludge (SS) into soil amendments aligns waste management with circular-economy principles. Here, a three-layer outdoor macrocosm system was designed to track the temporal and vertical redistribution of metal(loid)s under field-representative conditions. Six 1 m3 macrocosms containing polluted sandy soil overlying clean clayey soil and a sand drainage layer were amended with composted SS or SS-derived hydrochar, alone or combined with nanoscale zero-valent iron (nZVI), and monitored for one year. Hydrochar markedly increased porewater metal(loid) concentrations in the polluted layer: As increased from 77 µg L-1 in the control to 1493 µg L-1 at the beginning of experiment and peaked at 2679 µg L-1 at day 30, while Zn reached 307 mg L-1. Evidence of downward contaminant redistribution was observed; after one year, the sand layer receiving hydrochar plus nZVI contained 43 µg L-1 Cd and 9.3 mg L-1 Zn, compared with 0.2 µg L-1 and 2.9 mg L-1 in the control. Composted SS caused smaller changes in contaminant mobility and reduced porewater Cd and Zn in the polluted layer by 27% and 35%, respectively. It also supported the highest Lolium perenne biomass and bacterial diversity, whereas both were lower with hydrochar. nZVI generally reduced metal(loid) mobility, particularly for As, although its effectiveness varied among elements. Importantly, the stratified system showed that decreasing contaminant concentrations in topsoil did not necessarily indicate immobilisation, as deeper layers revealed redistribution in some treatments. Considering both contaminant control and biological performance, composted SS showed a more favourable remediation outcome than hydrochar.
The origin of consciousness constitutes one of the most enduring challenges in contemporary science, with implications for neuroscience, philosophy, medicine and ethics. Traditional accounts have emphasized the cerebral cortex as the seat of conscious awareness, largely due to its expansion and complexity in humans. However, converging evidence suggests that the foundations of consciousness lie not in higher cognition, but in more ancient subcortical systems responsible for affective experience. Central among these are the ascending arousal networks of the upper brainstem and the periaqueductal gray, which together sustain wakefulness and imbue it with valence. This reframing positions consciousness as an embodied biological function grounded in feeling, rather than as a component of higher cognition. From a developmental perspective, the relevant subcortical structures mature relatively early in gestation, raising the possibility that a primitive form of subjective feeling may emerge during the third trimester, well before cortical maturation. Such a view has far-reaching ethical consequences, informing debates on fetal pain perception, neonatal care, and the treatment of individuals with profound cognitive impairment. By synthesizing recent neuroscientific findings with developmental data, this paper argues for a subcortical basis of consciousness, and highlights the need for an integrative approach that situates the origins of consciousness within affective brainstem systems.
Aim Pinus sylvestris is the most widely distributed Pinus species in the world, highlighting its ecological, economic and socio-cultural importance. The Iberian Peninsula marks its south-western distribution limit, whose extent has been significantly reduced since the Mid-Holocene. In this study, we investigated the current diversity of native Pinus sylvestris forests in the Iberian Peninsula and their postglacial distribution and history.Location Iberian Peninsula, south-western Europe.Taxon Pinus sylvestris L.Methods We compiled 1299 vegetation plots from native Pinus sylvestris forests and performed a numerical classification, modified TWINSPAN, to identify major forest types. We characterized their floristic composition, diversity and environmental drivers. Ecosystem Distribution Models were fitted using climatic and edaphic variables to estimate their potential distributions during the Last Glacial Maximum (21 ka BP), Mid-Holocene (6 ka BP) and present. Model outputs were validated with palaeobotanical records.Results We identified four different forest types: acidophilous oromediterranean, acidophilous temperate, basophilous, and thermophilous mixed forests. These forests host unique assemblages of endemic, relict and broadly distributed plant species. Ecosystem Distribution Models revealed that, among the three studied periods, present climatic conditions are the most suitable for the development of Pinus sylvestris forests. Yet, their present-day distribution is considerably more restricted than predicted, a mismatch that agrees with palaeobotanical records.Main Conclusions Native Pinus sylvestris forests in the Iberian Peninsula display a wide ecological range. Their current distribution is more restricted than expected by suitable climatic conditions, suggesting the key role of anthropogenic historical pressures. Conservation strategies should not only consider future climate scenarios but also integrate historical land-use legacies.
The extension of magnetic nanostructures to three dimensions (3D) has been predicted to result in phenomena such as non-reciprocal collective dynamics and ultra-fast motion of textures. However, while first indications of dynamics in 3D have been explored in microstructures, the experimental investigation of magnetization dynamics in complex-shaped 3D nanostructures remains challenging. Here, 3D nanoprinted cobalt double-helix nanostructures are investigated with time-resolved X-ray microscopy at nanoscale spatial and picosecond temporal resolution to study their magnetization dynamics. Within the helices, the dynamics of coupled domain walls are observed, and a clear resonant response identified. Micromagnetic simulations confirm that the experimentally observed resonance arises from a harmonic oscillatory mode of the coupled domain walls and predict additional higher-frequency modes, revealing a rich dynamic spectrum. By systematically varying the helix geometry in simulations, we find that the resonant modes can be engineered. This geometrical control promises an alternative to conventional tuning strategies based on tailored magnetic anisotropies, DC bias, or externally applied fields. Together, these experimental and simulated results of magnetization dynamics in complex 3D nanostructures provide a pathway for programmable functionalities, relevant for potential technologies including information processing architectures based on tunable spin texture dynamics.
