German federal elections have long drawn international attention due to the country’s economic influence and its pivotal role in the European Union. Over time, forecasting these elections has evolved into a sophisticated discipline, incorporating diverse models and refined methodologies to improve accuracy. Since 2013, PS: Political Science & Politics has played a key role in tracking these developments by publishing three special symposia dedicated to forecasting German elections (Jérôme 2013, 2017; Jérôme and Graefe 2022). This 2025 symposium marks the fourth installment, continuing a tradition of providing scholars with a platform to share insights and reflect on the field’s ongoing expansion.

This essay opens JAS’s special issue on American Studies and the 2024 Election in which contributors explore issues that rose to prominence during the election campaign and the first months of the second Trump administration using a variety of disciplinary lenses and methodologies. It analyses why Trump became only the second president in history to win non-consecutive terms in office and assesses the transformative significance of his early second-term initiatives. At the same time, it advances the guiding premise of the special issue: that the broad objects of study, interdisciplinary approaches, and asynchronous perspectives of American Studies can combine with history and political science to help us better understand Trump’s victory, its causes, and its possible consequences. As demonstrated by It Can’t Happen Here, literature and other cultural outputs can enrich understanding of American history and politics at any given time. As an Area Studies discipline, with a geographical organising principle that compliments the traditional chronological frameworks of English and History, American Studies foregrounds relations between states and regions, and at a national and transnational scale that shape US politics and require consideration to better appreciate the complexity of the country that national aggregates may fail to reveal.

In this paper, we develop a model economy to study how financial innovations affect financial access and inequality. Financial innovations alter distribution of costs. In this way, the measure of buyers is endogenous regarding the payment method. In studying financial innovations in an economy with limited commitment, it is possible to bridge two existing literatures. When comparing stationary equilibria, we find that the results depend on the scarcity of collateral. Moreover, the expected welfare and inequality are affected by consumers access to the form of payment systems.

The recovery model of mental health care is distinct from the biomedical model of mental health care. To promote one runs the risk of marginalising the other. Both approaches have merit. Values of hope and optimism, social inclusion, collaborative decision-making, retaining a personal identity beyond an identity simply defined by a diagnosis of mental illness, are all central to the recovery model. A reorientation of mental health services is required, a change in culture which embodies the principles of a recovery model within which, the perspectives of patients and families are heard together with the perspectives of mental health professionals who have knowledge and expertise to offer. In Meath Community Mental Health Services we have implemented such a recovery model, the model of open dialogue where principles of dialogue, social inclusion, immediate help and collaborative decision-making are paramount. We began this service in 2019 and carried out an audit of the first 6 months of our implementation. The audit illustrated overwhelming satisfaction from service users and their families with the new approach. On foot of our successful pilot project we have extended the model of open dialogue to other teams in Meath and Louth, including the in-patient unit in Drogheda. Our open dialogue project illustrates how a recovery model of mental health care can be successfully implemented in a public mental health system.

Designing efficient and rigorous numerical methods for sequential decision-making under uncertainty is a difficult problem that arises in many applications frameworks. In this paper we focus on the numerical solution of a subclass of impulse control problems for the piecewise deterministic Markov process (PDMP) when the jump times are hidden. We first state the problem as a partially observed Markov decision process (POMDP) on a continuous state space and with controlled transition kernels corresponding to some specific skeleton chains of the PDMP. We then proceed to build a numerically tractable approximation of the POMDP by tailor-made discretizations of the state spaces. The main difficulty in evaluating the discretization error comes from the possible random jumps of the PDMP between consecutive epochs of the POMDP and requires special care. Finally, we discuss the practical construction of discretization grids and illustrate our method on simulations.

In the 1990s, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) emerged as the primary international forum for managing the interface between biodiversity and biotechnology. Three legally binding protocols to the Convention were concluded, all aiming to regulate bio-innovation. Despite the rapid pace of biotechnological innovation, however, and its implications for biodiversity and equity, CBD policy outcomes have recently shifted towards lower stringency in substance and weaker institutionalization in process. To confirm this trend, we examine decisions adopted by the CBD Conferences of the Parties in 2022 and 2024. We focus on outcomes on three key agenda items: (i) digital sequence information on genetic resources, (ii) risk assessment of living modified organisms, and (iii) synthetic biology. We analyze shifts towards lower stringency in the light of scholarship on legalization and de-legalization, including the softening of international law. We conclude by assessing the implications for the CBD, and for global biotechnology governance more generally.

French diachrony offers two textbook examples for negation studies: the evolution of ne…pas illustrating the Jespersen’s Cycle (Dahl, 1979) and the evolution of polarity-neutral items into negative indefinites (NIs), sometimes termed the Quantifier Cycle (Willis et al., 2013) and often exemplified by personne.

However, a significant disparity exists between the detailed research on ne…pas and the vagueness surrounding personne’s as NI origins. While its medieval origin is accepted, the dating of first attestations and definitive grammaticalization varies (Déprez, 2011; Vachon, 2012; GGHF, 2020), and predominant noun use and data scarcity hinder firm conclusions (Déprez, 2011; Larrivée & Kallel, 2020). Consequently, assumptions about personne’s development as an NI rely heavily on parallels with rien and aucun, lacking support from quantified data.

Through a corpus study of personne in Medieval and early Pre-Classical French (9th–16th centuries), focusing on its evolution into an NI, this article reveals a unique trajectory for personne, further demonstrating the variety characterizing the macro-construction of French NIs (Hansen in GGHF, 2020). Methodologically, the communicative immediacy-distance theory (Koch & Oësterreicher, 1985) and the “represented speech” perspective (Marchello-Nizia, 2012) prove relevant for tracing innovation in written diachronic corpora.

The Christian Holy Land is defined by and through representation. Images of Christ’s life, death and resurrection draw on scriptural details to set sacred events in a Palestinian landscape. A desire to witness locations marked by divine presence propels Christian travellers towards monuments built to enshrine the terrestrial traces of the faith’s central mysteries. Shortly after the fourth-century construction of Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea declared that the sight of Christ’s empty tomb in the structure testified to the truth of the Gospels ‘by facts louder than any voice’.1 Textual descriptions, visual depictions and monumental designs soon began to reference the church’s characteristic architectural features. This intentional layering of structure and Scripture enabled readers, viewers and users to activate these associations from afar.

The 2023 Barbie movie became an unexpected touchstone in my clinical practice. In the months after the film’s general release, children, young people and adults quoted from the film’s comedic moments and inspirational monologues, using them as a shorthand for complex emotional experiences, and to identify struggles and experiences of care and recovery. The film’s playful tone and layered themes allowed for moments of humour alongside serious introspection. This paper describes an exploration of the Barbie movie as a shared cultural language that facilitated therapeutic conversations and provided a narrative framework for self-exploration. Drawing upon concepts from narrative medicine, psychoanalytic theory and the enduring cultural symbolism of Barbie, this discussion positions the Barbie film as a displacement object, a transitional space, a narrative tool and a fitting metaphor for adolescent development as well as recovery. I consider the impact of the film’s rich cineliteracy on clinical practice, against a background of historical psychiatric discourses around the Barbie doll, and her enduring cultural symbolism. Fictionalised clinical encounters illustrate how young people engaged with Barbie to explore issues of gender, trauma and institutional structures. This paper argues that an openness to integrating popular media into psychiatric practice expands the scope of assessment and therapeutic engagement, allowing children, young people and adults to express their experiences through culturally familiar, accessible narratives.

This article explains why the Netherlands, uniquely among major European states, issued a sovereign apology for its role in transatlantic slavery in December 2022 while comparable states, notably the United Kingdom, have not. Using process tracing and an analytically eclectic framework, the apology activation model, or AAM, identifies three interlocking conditions that activate sovereign apologies: institutional openness that admits minoritized voices into competitive politics; influential domestic allies who translate transnational pressure into parliamentary and executive action; and a cohesive, domestically represented victim constituency able to sustain claims and shape framing. The Dutch case shows how forward-looking framing and strategic localization converted CARICOM and EU pressure into parliamentary commitment, a policy package, and a durable reparative agenda despite mixed public opinion; the UK comparison demonstrates that international advocacy alone is insufficient. The article advances theory by integrating normative and material explanations, foregrounding elite interest convergence and domestic opportunity structures, and offering a practical template for analyzing reparations politics across diverse political systems.

The UK Government’s new 10-year health plan encourages a move to digital strategies. Digital mental health interventions (DMHIs) may reduce symptoms and impairments in people who have mental health conditions. While many apps have been produced, few undergo formal evaluation and fewer still are regulated as medical devices. Service providers struggle to know which to deploy. DMHIs could reduce distress and preserve or improve function among young people, as well as prepare young people on waiting lists to engage in psychotherapy once seen. However, it is essential that DMHIs are rigorously evaluated, co-developed with all major stakeholders and then monitored during implementation.

Functional neurological disorder (FND) presents with a range of neurological symptoms. Therefore, these patients are usually referred to the neurology team, although mental health liaison teams are also commonly involved in their care as in-patients. This article gives an overview of FND in adults, its diagnosis and management strategies, in the acute hospital. It discusses the common diagnoses it can be mistaken for, some techniques for psychoeducation and the value of the patient perspective. It emphasises the significance of clear communication, appropriate use of resources and considerate discharge planning. The role of liaison psychiatry is key, as an advocate for an improved multidisciplinary approach, establishment of local integrated multidisciplinary pathways, enhanced education for all clinicians and ongoing research to optimise treatment. FND needs an individualised, patient-centred approach to address the complex needs of this patient cohort.

Muluchtzekel is a large site in the Puuc region of the northern Yucatan with construction episodes dating from the Middle Preclassic through the Terminal Classic period, strategically located on the border between the hilly Bolonchen district to the south and the Valle de Santa Elena to the north. Aided by lidar-derived digital terrain models, systematic survey of Muluchtzekel has led to the identification and ground-truthing of dozens of limestone quarries. The quarries range in size from a few meters in diameter for the smallest pit quarries to over 50 m in length for the longest ledge quarries. This paper presents spatial and contextual evaluations of quarry and annular pit-kiln shapes, sizes, and locations across the site, as well as excavation data from a large ledge quarry. Findings suggest that the higher status inhabitants of Muluchtzekel could count on having access to high-quality architectural stone regardless of where they chose to build their residences. The paper concludes with a discussion of two possible models for the socioeconomic organization of limestone quarrying at Muluchtzekel: one that posits a decentralized, household-level extraction industry, and the other, a highly centralized system in which authorities controlled stone processing and architectural display.

Adolescents, particularly today’s Generation Alpha, face uncertainty about whether, when and how their autonomy will be respected, especially in mental health contexts. Existing consent and confidentiality practices may not reflect adolescents’ preferences, potentially deterring help-seeking. This Feature examines the tension between adolescent autonomy and parental authority in mental healthcare. We synthesise interdisciplinary perspectives from the developmental sciences, medical ethics and law. We present data from 20 844 students (aged 11–18 years) in the 2023 OxWell Student Survey regarding barriers to accessing mental health support. Among those who wanted but had not accessed additional support (n = 2792), 72.3% reported privacy/confidentiality concerns, with half (50.3%) specifically citing that they did not want their parents to know. These concerns were particularly common among students reporting self-harm, gender-diverse adolescents and those in less stable home environments. We argue that respecting adolescent autonomy must be central to healthcare planning, not only as an ethical and legal imperative, but also to enable timely support. A capacity-based, adolescent-centred approach – grounded in greater transparency, clearer explanations of when and how information may be shared (including the option to involve a trusted adult) and consistent, aligned policies across institutions, especially around parental involvement, could help address a key barrier to care.

We consider a family $b_{s,\tau }$ of free multiplicative Brownian motions labeled by a real variance parameter s and a complex covariance parameter $\tau $. We then consider the element $xb_{s,\tau }$, where x is non-negative and freely independent of $b_{s,\tau }$. Our goal is to identify the support of the Brown measure of $xb_{s,\tau }$. In the case $\tau =s$, we identify a region $\Sigma _s$ such that the Brown measure is vanishing outside of $\overline {\Sigma }_s$ except possibly at the origin. For general values of $\tau $, we construct a map $f_{s-\tau }$ and define $D_{s,\tau }$ as the complement of $f_{s-\tau }(\overline {\Sigma }_s^c)$. Then, the Brown measure is zero outside $D_{s,\tau }$ except possibly at the origin. The proof of these results is based on a two-stage PDE analysis, using one PDE (following the work of Driver, Hall, and Kemp) for the case $\tau =s$ and a different PDE (following the work of Hall and Ho) to deform the $\tau =s$ case to general values of $\tau $.

Small-for-gestational age (SGA) is an important global public health issue because of its increasing prevalence and long-term effects. Maternal smoking is a known risk factor for SGA; however, the effect of grandmaternal smoking on the risk of SGA in grandchildren SGA remains unclear. In this study, we examined whether grandmaternal smoking during pregnancy was associated with small birth weight, length, and head circumference for gestational age. Data were obtained from 23,730 pregnant women and their offspring from the Tohoku Medical Megabank Project Birth and Three-Generation Cohort Studies. A total of 1,130 grandmaternal-maternal-child triads were identified. Grandmaternal smoking during pregnancy was defined by the Maternal and Child Health Handbook owned by the mothers at birth mothers when they were born. Birth outcomes of grandchildren were obtained from medical records and converted to SGA using the 10th percentile for weight, length, and head circumference. A multivariate logistic regression and propensity scores were used for the analysis. Prevalence of <10th percentile for birth weight, length, and head circumference in grandmaternal smokers were 10.2%, 2.0%, and 10.2%, respectively. Grandmaternal smoking during pregnancy was associated with the lower grandchild’s birth weight (odds ratio (OR) [95% (CI)]: 2.86 [1.05–7.82]) and remained consistent when adjusted by propensity score (OR [95% CI]: 2.87 [1.04–7.92]). Grandmaternal smoking should not be ignored when assessing the SGA risk. Future work should consider the complex mediating relationship between smoking and growth restriction across generations.