We report a high-power, high-repetition-rate, Yb-doped fiber femtosecond master-oscillator power-amplifier (MOPA) system. Based on an all-fiber-based chirped pulse amplification configuration comprising a Yb fiber mode-locked seed source, a five-stage repetition-rate multiplier, three Yb-doped fiber amplifiers and a pulse compressor, the MOPA system yielded 1.06 kW of femtosecond pulsed output at 1040 nm with a pulse duration of 356 fs at a repetition rate of 1.83 GHz. Furthermore, a modified seed source incorporating spectral reshaping and additional pulse stretching enabled an improved compressed pulse shape with significantly reduced sidelobes, leading to a shorter pulse duration of 275 fs at the maximum output power. The prospects for a further increase in power and energy via this approach are considered.

Health care providers (HCPs) with histories of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are at increased risk for burnout, which can threaten healthcare quality. This study examines the relation between ACEs and burnout among HCPs in primary care clinics at a safety-net hospital and whether this association is buffered by resilience. Sixty-seven HCPs (68.7% women; 44.8% White; Mage = 36.7 years, SDage = 9.8) recruited from a large, public U.S. healthcare system participated in an anonymous study assessing their ACE history, resilience, and burnout symptoms. ACE scores were positively correlated with burnout, r =.25, p =.048. A moderation analysis revealed main effects of ACEs, B = .17, SE = .07, p = .013, and resilience, B = −.34, SE = .08, p = .000, on HCP burnout, when controlling for years in healthcare. ACEs and resilience interacted to predict burnout, n = 55, B = −.11, SE=.05, p = .029. A positive relation was found between ACEs and burnout for HCPs who reported low, t = 3.21, p = .002, and average, t = 2.57, p = .013, resilience levels. Resilience appears to mitigate, or even prevent, burnout among HCPs, although it may be most helpful for those with ACE histories. Healthcare systems can build a more resilient workforce by offering routine, system-wide exposure to trauma-informed professional development or self-care opportunities to their HCPs.

In this paper, we study the self-normalized Cramér-type moderate deviation of the empirical measure of the stochastic gradient Langevin dynamics (SGLD). Consequently, we also derive the Berry–Esseen bound for the SGLD. Our approach is by constructing a stochastic differential equation to approximate the SGLD and then applying Stein’s method to decompose the empirical measure into a martingale difference series sum and a negligible remainder term.

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) reduced transmission of other infections. We quantified changes in hospital admission rates for respiratory and gastrointestinal infections among young children in England during and after implementation of NPIs, compared to pre-pandemic, and variations by sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. Children aged <5 years at any time between 1 January 2017 and 31 January 2022 were followed from birth or 1 January 2017, until their 5th birthday, death, or 31 January 2022, within a birth cohort based on Hospital Episode Statistics data. Quarterly emergency admission rates for respiratory and gastrointestinal infections from April-June 2020 onwards were compared to corresponding quarters in 2017–2019 using Poisson regression, with and without interaction terms for time period and sociodemographic/clinical characteristics. Admission rates for respiratory and gastrointestinal infections were lower in April–June 2020 compared to this quarter pre-pandemic (incidence rate ratio (99% CI) 0.17 (0.17–0.18) for respiratory; 0.29 (0.28–0.31) for gastrointestinal). Rates remained below pre-pandemic levels until April–June 2021 (respiratory infections) and July–September 2021 (gastrointestinal infections), subsequently increasing above the corresponding pre-pandemic quarters. Changes in rates did not differ by sociodemographic/clinical characteristics. These results can inform planning for future pandemics and their aftermath.

This article outlines the Italian experience with the offence of abuse of office as a lens through which to analyse broader questions of accountability and discretion in public governance informed by the rule of law. While rooted in domestic legal history, the long-standing controversies surrounding this offence illuminate the political and legal sensitivities that have recently emerged in response to the proposed European directive on corruption, particularly the resistance voiced by several founding Member States. Beyond this contingent trigger, the contribution advances a more general claim: criminal misconduct in office lies at the core of the problem of holding public officials – both national and European – accountable in accordance with rule of law standards. The article argues that abuse of office occupies a distinctive position at the intersection of political discretion, administrative decision-making, and judicial review. Alongside acknowledging that the formulation of such an offence faces concerns relating to legality, fair trial guarantees, and the subsidiary role of criminal law, the article underlines that behaviour amounting to abuse carries a specific and serious wrongfulness that may justify criminalisation. Finally, drawing upon authoritative legal scholarship and interdisciplinary insights, the article offers an unorthodox account of abuse of office, suggesting that – even more than bribery – it undermines not only the legality but the very legitimacy of public power, thereby occupying a prominent position within the broader constellation of corruption-related crimes.

We investigate the long-time behaviour of solutions with small initial data to the viscoelastic Klein–Gordon equation with general smooth nonlinearity. Our analysis relies on the space-time resonances method to eliminate all nonresonant quadratic and cubic terms. A key difficulty arises from the viscous damping, which introduces a nonzero real part in the coefficient of the remaining critical resonant term. By carefully decomposing the solution into a Gaussian profile and a zero-mean remainder, we isolate the leading-order resonant dynamics. We identify a sign condition under which these dynamics are of absorption type. In this case, we prove global-in-time existence and enhanced diffusive decay for solutions with small initial data, and we characterize their leading-order asymptotics. Conversely, when this condition fails, the reduced resonant dynamics exhibit finite-time blow-up. In this regime, global existence is not expected, but solutions with small initial data persist and decay diffusively over exponentially long time intervals.

The inability of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) to reach agreement on a legally binding Global Plastics Treaty at INC-5.2 in August 2025 reflects deep geopolitical and economic divisions that limit international environmental governance. While most countries in the High-Ambition Coalition supported upstream interventions, including capping plastic production and phasing out hazardous chemical additives, oil-producing states (members of the Like-Minded group) pushed to limit the treaty to waste management and recycling (downstream measures). This deadlock carries profound implications: escalating plastic pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, impacting the trust in multilateral institutions that rely on consensus and the growing influence of petrochemical lobbies. Moving forward may require reforming negotiation procedures that do not rely on consensus, making evidence-based policymaking a priority, supporting equity and just transition principles and leveraging regional leadership and civil society mobilisation. Despite the current stalemate, the urgency of the plastics crisis underscores the necessity of renewed global commitment to an ambitious and equitable Global Plastics Treaty.

In Madagascar, a three-year mixed-methods research approach was conducted through a partnership with a network of neighboring farmers. The objective was to explore the integration of legumes into biannual rice-based rotations. Thirty-six legume integration scenarios were jointly selected and assessed on field at the rotation scale over two cropping seasons, crossing (1) cropping intensity, represented by four legume integration modalities: sole crop (SC), intercropped with maize (IM), intercropped with cassava (IC), and intercropped with both maize and cassava (IMC); and (2) legume type, consisting of nine cropping options: four pulses, four cover crops, and four controls without legumes. Over the two cropping seasons, mean gross incomes per rotation were significantly higher in SC (US$273) and IC (US$301) systems compared to IM (US$210) and IMC (US$228). Carbon inputs were significantly greater in SC (1.16 t C ha−1) and IM (1.06 t C ha−1) systems than in IC (0.84 t C ha−1) and IMC (0.90 t C ha−1). During participatory field sessions, farmers gave the highest acceptance scores to SC systems (score: 809), followed by IC (610), IM (575), and IMC (428). Regardless of cropping intensity, the two traditional pulse species led to higher gross incomes and greater farmer acceptance, but with lower carbon inputs compared to the introduced pulse and cover crops. A composite assessment revealed that economic and social performances may match, while economic and environmental performances are never related. This original approach provided valuable insights for both researchers and farmers for feasible solutions at both regional and farm levels.

Agents frequently engage with multiple principals simultaneously – for example, when borrowing from several banks or peers. In such settings, principals typically possess less information about the agent’s ability or intentions (e.g., to repay a loan) and must rely on trust. This paper presents experimental evidence from trust games framed in a credit market context to examine the role of reciprocity in interactions involving multiple principals (lenders) and a single agent (borrower). Agents were asked to decide whether to act trustworthily and repay, or to default and act selfishly, after receiving the same credit amount from either one or multiple principals. The results show that reciprocity declines when the number of trusting principals increases. A key mechanism appears to be the reduced marginal harm that an agent’s default imposes on each individual principal. Additionally, agents seem less sensitive to the negative consequences of their actions when multiple principals are affected. These findings suggest that interactions involving multiple principals are behaviorally riskier than bilateral ones. The results have implications for the design of incentive structures in multi-principal-agent environments, such as crowdlending platforms.

We present a novel mechanism in which plasma electrons and ions optically acquire angular momentum during local pump depletion of an azimuthally polarised laser, despite the laser carrying none. Using theoretical considerations and multi-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, we find that this process is enabled by a strong frequency downshift at the gradually eroding laser pulse front. We further show that the angular momentum gained by the plasma electrons is compensated by the ions and by the combined electromagnetic fields of the laser and nonlinear plasma wave. By varying key laser parameters such as phase, frequency and polarisation, we demonstrate that the transverse momentum of high-energy electrons can be effectively controlled.

This research examines the stories and experiences of the Yazidis, the Indigenous population of Mesopotamia. It especially focuses on the intersections of their political resistance, cultural resilience and the impact of long-lasting epistemic and colonial violence. Although the Yazidi community has been subject to external invasion and systemic persecution since the 3rd century CE (Potts, D. T. (2014) Nomadism in Iran: From antiquity to the modern era (Vol. xxv, p. 558). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978 0 19 933079 9; Usman (2021a) Yazidis: A tale of a lost, found and misunderstood legacy in the light of mimetic theory. Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis and Culture (Vol. 28). Michigan State University Press, (2021b) History of Shia, Sunnis and Yazidi Conflict: A Political, Social or Religious Conflict and its Impact on the Peace Process in the Middle East (Ph.D dissertation, University of Innsbruck, Austria)), they were forgotten by most until they were last attacked in 2014 by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which resulted in abductions, mass murders, forced conversion and using rape as a genocidal tool to demoralise and humiliate the entire community and erase their identity. It is important to understand the voices and stories of Yazidi survivors and experts; therefore, while using a qualitative research methodology, this research gathers data through semi-structured interviews and a thorough literature review, which will then be analysed with the help of thematic analysis. As one of the objectives of this study is to deconstruct the idea of epistemic violence suffered by the Yazidis throughout their history, investigating and identifying recurring patterns of persecution, trauma and violence helps us understand the motives behind such atrocities. It is often observed that deep-rooted colonial legacies lack empathy and hinder the process of understanding the victims’ narratives, and Yazidis have suffered the same. Finally, this research contributes to an already scarce literature on the history of Yazidi sufferings and documents the stories of a marginalised community. It also encourages the international community to understand the complexity of Yazidi sufferings and treat the Yazidi genocide as a resistance of survival.

The trajectory of Allied control in occupied Italy was characterised by the easing of pressure on local institutions in its progression from military government to institutional supervision. The structure of control was imagined as following three institutional steps, according to which the Allied Military Government would be succeeded – upon the re-establishment of a functioning Italian government – by an Allied Control Commission tasked with maintaining a supervisory role. A lesser-known institution, the Advisory Council for Italy, was established with the external contribution of Russian, French and subsequently Greek and Yugoslav representatives. This third body contributed to the political management of Italian affairs through a series of recommendations which helped shape the direction of the Allied occupation. By analysing the Council’s documentation, this article outlines its political objectives, institutional practices and internal tensions, while highlighting the development of a more widely co-ordinated Allied control policy for Italy.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a pressing global health challenge, with sub-Saharan Africa experiencing the highest burden of AMR-related deaths. Inappropriate prescribing and rising antibiotic consumption drive AMR, while limited local data hampers antimicrobial stewardship efforts. This study analysed Global Point Prevalence Survey of Antimicrobial Consumption and Resistance (Global-PPS) data from Tygerberg Hospital to identify antimicrobial use trends and inform stewardship priorities. Standard Global-PPS methodology was employed at three distinct time points. All inpatients prescribed at least one antimicrobial on the day of each survey were included in the analysis. Among 3,524 hospitalized patients, 25.9% (911/3,524) received antimicrobial therapy. Overall antimicrobial use decreased significantly (p < 0.05), with the largest reduction among paediatric patients (p < 0.01). Community-acquired infections accounted for the majority of prescriptions (50.7%; 483/952) and empirical antibiotic use was high (85.3%, 872/1022). ‘Access’ antibiotics constituted 62.7% (750/1196) of prescriptions. Single-dose prescriptions for surgical prophylaxis accounted for 17.6% (15/85). This study demonstrates progress in stewardship, particularly among paediatric inpatients. Ongoing monitoring of broad-spectrum antibiotic use and adherence to single-dose surgical prophylaxis guidelines are essential priorities. Continued Global-PPS surveillance is crucial to track trends and guide future AMS interventions.

Global health law as a field has been deeply unequal, reflecting colonial histories, geopolitics, and power plays. The current turmoil and fundamental shifts occurring in international politics has uncertain outcomes for global public health. Looking at the field from the prism of recent and ongoing global health negotiations serves to illustrate the unpredictability of the direction the governance of global health can take. Recent global health law reforms in the aftermath of COVID-19 have aimed to create obligations governing health emergencies. While much of the discussions have unfolded in the realm of health emergencies, many of the resulting legal obligations will have a normative impact on the field. Some of these new obligations are considerably caveated and weakened compared to what was originally articulated by some member states of the World Health Organization (WHO).