Interest in the use of chatbots powered by large language models (LLMs) to support women and girls in conflicts and humanitarian crises, including survivors of gender-based violence (GBV), appears to be increasing. Chatbots could offer a last-resort solution for GBV survivors who are unable or unwilling to access relevant information and support in a safe and timely manner. With the right investment and guard-rails, chatbots might also help treat some symptoms related to mental health and psychosocial conditions, extending mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) to crisis-affected communities. However, the use of chatbots can also increase risks for individual users – for example, generating unintended harms when a chatbot hallucinates or produces errors. In this paper, we critically examine the opportunities and limitations of using LLM-powered chatbots1 that provide direct care and support to women and girls in conflicts and humanitarian crises, with a specific focus on GBV survivors. We find some evidence in the global North to suggest that the use of chatbots may reduce self-reported feelings of loneliness for some individuals, but we find less evidence on the role and effectiveness of chatbots in crisis counselling and treating depression, post-traumatic or somatic symptomology, particularly as it relates to GBV in emergencies or other traumatic events that occur in armed conflicts and humanitarian crises. Drawing on key expert interviews as well as evidence and research from adjacent scholarship – such as feminist AI, trauma treatment, GBV, and MHPSS in conflicts and emergencies – we conclude that the potential benefits of GBV-related, AI-enabled talk therapy chatbots do not yet outweigh their risks, particularly when deployed in high-stakes scenarios and contexts such as armed conflicts and humanitarian crises.

Recent debates have raised concerns about how academia and policy makers alike rely on country experts when trying to understand the politics of authoritarian regimes. This study argues that one possible source of bias is the experts’ network of affiliations and interactions with one another and that we therefore should make the social background and networks of country experts more transparent. We implemented this by examining experts on contemporary Chinese politics using a nomination process to establish a list of 2,200 such experts. We find that US-based and US-educated male academics continue to form the core of this community but that younger cohorts appear to be more diverse in terms of educational background, gender, and geographic location. Our findings provide not only the first analysis of the global China Watcher community but also speak to current debates about the reliability of aggregated expert assessments.

This article describes the publication and evaluation of a user-driven narrative module on the public-facing 3D platform Sketchfab, which comprises dozens of interlinked 3D models relating to the archaeology of the Faynan region of Southern Jordan. Models included in the project are archaeological sites, excavation units, and artifacts related to the Iron Age and Islamic period archaeology of the region. By interlinking these models according to their spatial, conceptual, and contextual relationships, this project facilitates the nonlinear exploration of archaeological data and replicates the process of archaeological knowledge generation, in which information is produced through examination of the relationship between object and its provenience. Through the inclusion of bilingual (Arabic and English) text in this project, we aim to increase the accessibility of archaeological data and interpretation to interested parties. We also invite participation in the development of multiple narratives based on user-driven, independent exploration of artifacts and context. Through free navigation within and between models, users can develop their own understanding of the archaeology of Faynan based on research-based content published in 3D. The effectiveness of the project is evaluated here through surveying Arabic-speaking Jordanians, a key group of interested parties.

A 2.05 μm holmium-doped yttrium lithium fluoride (Ho:YLF) master oscillator power amplifier system with both high average power and high pulse energy operating at a 1 kHz repetition rate is demonstrated, achieving a maximum output power of 280 W with a pulse width of 14.5 ns. The system comprises three-stage amplifiers, boosting a 20 W seed laser to output powers of 110, 205 and 280 W, corresponding to extraction efficiencies of 46.1%, 45.0% and 34.9%, respectively. At maximum output, the system exhibits excellent beam quality (Mx2 = 1.22 and My2 = 1.23) and power stability (root mean square = 0.5% over 30 min). To the best of our knowledge, this work reports the highest pulse energy (280 mJ) achieved for a 2 μm laser operating at a kHz repetition rate. In addition, a slice model of an end-pumped quasi-three-level laser amplifier was developed to analyze the output limitations of multi-stage Ho:YLF amplifiers based on rod geometry, providing theoretical support for the experimental results.

This article argues that the role of surrender in shaping international legitimacy has been largely overlooked – particularly its symbolic dimension. Challenging dominant views that reduce victory and defeat to moments of rupture, it adopts a long-term, relational perspective, reframing surrender as embedded in ongoing processes that shape and reshape legitimacy over time. It explores how symbols that become central during surrender – including foreign and domestic leaders – can mediate tensions between coercion–consent, pride–stigma, autonomy–dependence, while fostering social cohesion across domestic and international societies. Drawing on case studies, process sociology, complexity theory, the English School, and Thucydides, it demonstrates how the symbolic management of surrender can lead to path dependencies that influence state-formation, a defeated state’s identity, and regional integration. Emphasising the fluidity and political weight of symbolic meanings, it advances a relational understanding of hegemonic legitimacy. In doing so, it links the origins of legitimacy to its continuous development and critiques both simplistic victor’s peace narratives and process-reductive histories. Ultimately, it illuminates not only the challenges but also the symbolic opportunities for constructing legitimacy in an interdependent world – underscoring that power endures through its symbolic anchoring in meaning and, with it, the hope for reconciliation despite defeat.

This contribution provides a chronological overview which is the result of a research programme carried out over the last few years in Normandy and which is based, among other things, on recent discoveries made in this region during developer-funded excavations. The overview looks phase by phase at the different characteristics of the Middle Neolithic in Normandy, and sets them against the wider context of the Neolithic transition of north-west France. The geographical area covered by this study encompasses the margin of the Armorican Massif in the west and the sedimentary basins between the Armorican Massif and the Seine Valley in the east. The chronology used in this study largely refers to the sequence established in France and is discussed on the basis of absolute dates (in cal BC) for the sake of transparency. The main objective of this publication is to connect the recent advances made on either side of the Channel, in particular with regard to the chronology of the various Neolithic groups. By presenting our British colleagues with the current state of research in our area of study we want to spark discussion and develop new collaboration.

It is well-known that metapragmatic verbs exhibit leakage between representations of speech, thought and action, but details have remained opaque. The first half of this paper presents an account of the processes through which they do so. The second half describes the consequences of the existence of these processes (in speech) for social life (in general) by giving an account of how genres of “mentalese” are crafted from locutions involving such verbs and derived nominals, and of how these genres, in turn, are used to manufacture social constructs of various kinds. The discussion is organized around the manner in which four influential authors (Locke, Hume, Gibson, and Durkheim) crafted their own constructs through forms of mentalese. The overall goal is to develop tools for the analysis of all genres of mentalese, and of all social constructs fabricated through it, wherever we may find them.

The political representation and agency of young people in international politics is still poorly understood, notwithstanding sustained interest in the pluralisation and diversification of transnational civil society and the ‘opening up’ of IOs in international relations (IR) scholarship. In this article, we put forward a theoretical framework for the study of youth representation in IR that is at once responsive to the specificities of youth and, at the same time, contributes to theory-building on political representation of newly recognised constituencies in international institutions overall. Theoretically, we build on constructivist and performative theories of representation, and we use our empirical insights to extend and qualify these theories. Empirically, we provide the first in-depth study of youth representation in global health governance. Based on an interpretive analysis of policy documents and qualitative interviews with youth participants at three major global health events, our study explores prevalent portrayals of youth as a constituency and problematises the legitimising effects of these portrayals. Moreover, we expose how multiple barriers and intersecting inequalities constrain young people’s encounters with exclusive spaces of global health policy-making and we point to the reflective and ambiguous ways in which young people embrace, enact, and question ‘youth’ as a political category.

Why some chief executive officers (CEOs) pursue risk-taking at the firm level while others favor caution remains a foundational question in management. We adopt the microfoundations perspective to tackle this question. As we examine the impact of CEO origin on firm risk-taking, we further investigate how CEO origin interacts with contingencies – temporal orientation and cognitive focus – to shape firm risk-taking. We assert that outsider CEOs are more likely to pursue risk-taking, while such an effect is attenuated by the temporal orientation of short-termism, and reinforced by the temporal orientation of long-termism and the cognitive focus of broader attention. Using a 20-year panel dataset of the S&P top 100 firms, we offer insights into firm risk-taking particularly under the conditions that better explain why CEOs could differ in firm risk-taking. By linking executive characteristics to behavioral context from the microfoundations perspective, we offer an integrated framework of firm risk-taking.

This paper examines the impact of Sunday blue law reforms on small-scale wineries in the United States. Using establishment-level data from 2000 to 2020, we employ an event-study framework to analyze the impact of changes in Sunday alcohol sales regulations across states on the performance of small wineries. We find that deregulation is associated with substantial declines in the performance of small wineries. On average, sales fell by 25.5%, employment declined by 7.8%, and survival rates dropped by 5.2% following the repeal of Sunday sales restrictions. These adverse effects are particularly pronounced among the smallest wineries and those located in metropolitan counties. The results suggest that while deregulation increased consumer access to alcohol on Sundays, it also intensified competition from large-scale retail outlets, thereby undermining the direct-to-consumer sales channels that are critical to small wine producers.

There is scant information about seed germination and seedling emergence of common evening primrose (Oenothera biennis L.), even though it is a common and widespread weed in North America. This study was conducted to determine the influence of several environmental factors on its seed germination and seedling emergence from three North American populations in autumn. In alternating light (12 h)/darkness (12 h), maximum germination (89.7% to 97.7%) of freshly matured seeds occurred at alternating temperature regimes ≥25/15 C, and germination was lowest (0% to 80.3%) at the coolest temperature regime of 15/5 C. In comparison to seeds incubated with an alternating light/dark photoperiod, germination was lower when seeds were exposed to continuous darkness, indicating that seeds were positively photoblastic. Cold stratification at 4 C enhanced germination, with seed dormancy alleviated after 4 to 8 wk, depending on the study population. For freshly matured seeds, germination exceeded 67% in test solutions ranging from pH 3 to 10, and was highest (80% to 100%) at neutral or near-neutral pH. Germination exceeded 84% in solutions with osmotic potentials ranging from 0 to −0.4 MPa, and germination was observed at osmotic potentials as low as −0.8 to −1.0 MPa, depending on the study population. Seedling emergence was only observed for seeds sown on the surface of soil or buried to depths ≤2 cm. Thus, seeds of O. biennis are positively photoblastic and exhibit germination characteristics associated with type 2 non–deep physiological dormancy at maturity, with seeds being capable of germinating under a variety of climatic and edaphic conditions.

In this paper we investigate large-scale linear systems driven by a fractional Brownian motion (fBm) with Hurst parameter $H\in [1/2, 1)$. We interpret these equations either in the sense of Young ($H>1/2$) or Stratonovich ($H=1/2$). In particular, fractional Young differential equations are well suited to modeling real-world phenomena as they capture memory effects, unlike other frameworks. Although it is very complex to solve them in high dimensions, model reduction schemes for Young or Stratonovich settings have not yet been much studied. To address this gap, we analyze important features of fundamental solutions associated with the underlying systems. We prove a weak type of semigroup property which is the foundation of studying system Gramians. From the Gramians introduced, a dominant subspace can be identified, which is shown in this paper as well. The difficulty for fractional drivers with $H>1/2$ is that there is no link between the corresponding Gramians and algebraic equations, making the computation very difficult. Therefore we further propose empirical Gramians that can be learned from simulation data. Subsequently, we introduce projection-based reduced-order models using the dominant subspace information. We point out that such projections are not always optimal for Stratonovich equations, as stability might not be preserved and since the error might be larger than expected. Therefore an improved reduced-order model is proposed for $H=1/2$. We validate our techniques conducting numerical experiments on some large-scale stochastic differential equations driven by fBm resulting from spatial discretizations of fractional stochastic PDEs. Overall, our study provides useful insights into the applicability and effectiveness of reduced-order methods for stochastic systems with fractional noise, which can potentially aid in the development of more efficient computational strategies for practical applications.

Can a scandal in one political sphere tarnish – or unexpectedly polish – the reputation of leaders in another? This study investigates the impact of political scandals in multilevel political systems and explores three possibilities: contagion, where trust erodes across all political levels; containment, where evaluations are limited to the specific institutions involved; and contrast, where actors at other levels appear more trustworthy in comparison. We present the first experimental test of vertical contagion, containment, and contrast effects following real-world scandals in UK and Scottish politics: Partygate and Campervangate. We find weak evidence of contagion in the Scottish-level ‘Campervangate’ scandal, although trust reductions were small and often not significant. However, the ‘Partygate’ scandal reveals a distinct contrast effect: trust decreased in UK political actors but increased at the Scottish level. These results suggest that scandals in multilevel polities can influence evaluations of ‘innocent’ political actors, with troubling consequences for democratic accountability mechanisms.

We present a simple, analytically solvable magnetohydrodynamics model of current sheet formation through X-point collapse under optically thin radiative cooling. Our results show that cooling accelerates the collapse of the X-point along the inflows, but strong cooling can arrest or even reverse the current sheet elongation in the outflow direction. Hence, we detail a modification to the radiatively cooled Sweet–Parker model developed by Uzdensky & McKinney (Phys. Plasmas, 1962, vol. 18, issue 4, p. 042105) to allow for varying current sheet length. The steady-state solution shows that, when radiative cooling dominates compressional heating, the current sheet length is shorter than the system size, with an increased reconnection rate compared with the classical Sweet–Parker rate. The model and subsequent results lay out the groundwork for a more complete theoretical understanding of magnetic reconnection in regimes dominated by optically thin radiative cooling.

Where are the missing long barrows of eastern England? Do they exist as the original earthwork form of cropmark long enclosures? Or do these represent a distinct tradition? To explore this, geophysical surveys were carried out on the region’s rare surviving long barrows. Comparable signals suggest that most long enclosures are indeed likely to have been long barrows. Other morphological factors, however, differ from long barrows elsewhere and, coupled with evidence from excavation, suggest different origins and histories. Ditches may have been markedly secondary rather than primary features, for example, and other elements hint at Continental connections. However it originated, the form appears to have subsequently emerged as a symbol in its own right and been expanded to cursus dimensions.