We present results of frequency tripling experiments performed at the Hilase facility on a cryogenically gas cooled multi-slab ytterbium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet laser system, Bivoj/DiPOLE. The laser produces high-energy ns pulses at 10 Hz repetition rate, which are frequency doubled using a type-I phase-matched lithium triborate (LBO) crystal and consequently frequency summed using a type-II phase-matched LBO crystal. We demonstrated a stable frequency conversion to 343 nm at 50 J energy and 10 Hz repetition rate with conversion efficiency of 53%.

During the past 30 yr an impasse has developed in the discovery and commercialization of synthetic herbicides with new molecular targets and novel chemistries. Similarly, there has been little success with bioherbicides, both microbial and chemical. These bioherbicides are needed to combat fast-growing herbicide resistance and to fulfill the need for more environmentally and toxicologically safe herbicides. In response to this substantial and growing opportunity, numerous start-up companies are utilizing novel approaches to provide new tools for weed management. These diverse new tools broaden the scope of discovery, encompassing advanced computational, bioinformatic, and imaging platforms; plant genome–editing and targeted protein degradation technologies; and machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI)-based strategies. This review contains summaries of the presentations of 10 such companies that took part in a symposium held at the WSSA annual meeting in 2024. Four of the companies are developing microbial bioherbicides or natural product–based herbicides, and the other six are using advanced technologies, such as AI, to accelerate the discovery of herbicides with novel molecular target sites or to develop non-GMO, herbicide-resistant crops.

Energy access is often considered a catalyst for development. Yet, the binary classification of household electrification misses important variation in service quality and in how households use electricity. To examine the benefits of household electrification and illustrate the importance of using more nuanced classifications of energy access, this article develops a metric called the Energy Access Dividend (EAD), which quantifies the electrification benefits forgone due to slow and incomplete energy transitions. This framework is flexible, allowing for the estimation of a variety of electrification benefits such as reduced lighting and cell phone charging expenditures, environmental improvements, time use and asset ownership changes, and improvements associated with productive energy use. To demonstrate the applicability of this framework, we calculate the EAD for several proposed electrification trajectory alternatives in Honduras. We find that in Honduras, a country with high rates of basic electricity access, achieving immediate universal, high-quality electricity would generate nearly $697 million in benefits over the period leading up to 2050. We also estimate the EADs associated with more limited immediate electrification as well as geographically based electrification scenarios, demonstrating that these calculations can inform priorities for energy policy design.

We report on frequency doubling of high-energy, high repetition rate ns pulses from a cryogenically gas cooled multi-slab ytterbium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet laser system, Bivoj/DiPOLE, using a type-I phase matched lithium triborate crystal. We achieved conversion to 515 nm with energy of 95 J at repetition rate of 10 Hz and conversion efficiency of 79%. High conversion efficiency was achieved due to successful depolarization compensation of the fundamental input beam.

Yarkoni argues that researchers making broad inferences often use impoverished statistical models that fail to include important sources of variation as random effects. We argue, however, that for many common study designs, random effects are inappropriate and insufficient to draw general inferences, as the source of variation is not random, but systematic.

In contrast to Clarke and Beck's claim that that the approximate number system (ANS) represents rational numbers, we argue for a more modest alternative: The ANS represents natural numbers, and there are separate, non-numeric processes that can be used to represent ratios across a wide range of domains, including natural numbers.

This response argues that when you represent others as knowing something, you represent their mind as being related to the actual world. This feature of knowledge explains the limits of knowledge attribution, how knowledge differs from belief, and why knowledge underwrites learning from others. We hope this vision for how knowledge works spurs a new era in theory of mind research.

High dietary phosphorus (P), particularly soluble salts, may contribute to chronic kidney disease development in cats. The aim of the present study was to assess the safety of P supplied at 1 g/1000 kcal (4184kJ) from a highly soluble P salt in P-rich dry format feline diets. Seventy-five healthy adult cats (n 25/group) were fed either a low P control (1·4 g/1000 kcal [4184kJ]; Ca:P ratio 0·97) or one of two test diets with 4 g/1000 kcal (4184 kJ); Ca:P 1·04 or 5 g/1000 kcal (4184kJ); Ca:P 1·27, both incorporating 1 g/1000 kcal (4184 kJ) sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP) – for a period of 30 weeks in a randomised parallel-group study. Health markers in blood and urine, glomerular filtration rate, renal ultrasound and bone density were assessed at baseline and at regular time points. At the end of the test period, responses following transition to a commercial diet (total P – 2·34 g/1000 kcal [4184kJ], Ca:P 1·3) for a 4-week washout period were also assessed. No adverse effects on general, kidney or bone (skeletal) function and health were observed. P and Ca balance, some serum biochemistry parameters and regulatory hormones were increased in cats fed test diets from week 2 onwards (P ≤ 0·05). Data from the washout period suggest that increased serum creatinine and urea values observed in the two test diet groups were influenced by dietary differences during the test period, and not indicative of changes in renal function. The present data suggest no observed adverse effect level for feline diets containing 1 g P/1000 kcal (4184 kJ) from STPP and total P level of up to 5 g/1000 kcal (4184 kJ) when fed for 30 weeks.

Research on the capacity to understand others' minds has tended to focus on representations of beliefs, which are widely taken to be among the most central and basic theory of mind representations. Representations of knowledge, by contrast, have received comparatively little attention and have often been understood as depending on prior representations of belief. After all, how could one represent someone as knowing something if one does not even represent them as believing it? Drawing on a wide range of methods across cognitive science, we ask whether belief or knowledge is the more basic kind of representation. The evidence indicates that nonhuman primates attribute knowledge but not belief, that knowledge representations arise earlier in human development than belief representations, that the capacity to represent knowledge may remain intact in patient populations even when belief representation is disrupted, that knowledge (but not belief) attributions are likely automatic, and that explicit knowledge attributions are made more quickly than equivalent belief attributions. Critically, the theory of mind representations uncovered by these various methods exhibits a set of signature features clearly indicative of knowledge: they are not modality-specific, they are factive, they are not just true belief, and they allow for representations of egocentric ignorance. We argue that these signature features elucidate the primary function of knowledge representation: facilitating learning from others about the external world. This suggests a new way of understanding theory of mind – one that is focused on understanding others' minds in relation to the actual world, rather than independent from it.

We report on the successful demonstration of a 150 J nanosecond pulsed cryogenic gas cooled, diode-pumped multi-slab Yb:YAG laser operating at 1 Hz. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest energy ever recorded for a diode-pumped laser system.

In framing investment treaty claims against host states, foreign investors routinely assert that the state’s conduct was ‘politically’ motivated. Arbitral tribunals must then grapple with these allegations. Yet, tribunals lack both a coherent conception of what constitutes politically motivated conduct and a consistent understanding of the relevance, if any, of such motivations for the disposition of an investor’s legal claims. This uncertainty points to an underlying tension within the investment treaty regime between the protection of investors’ interests on the one hand, and the legitimate scope for democratic decision-making and responsive politics on the other.

Using concepts drawn from political science, we develop a new framework to map the variety of conduct that tribunals characterize as ‘political’. Our framework draws attention to different types of influence over government decision-making, as well as differences between government actors responsible for the conduct. We use this framework to show that tribunals have adopted different conceptions of what constitutes illegitimate political influence over government decision-making in factually similar cases. We then evaluate tribunals’ competing approaches in light of normative theories spanning both public law and private law. Engaging with multiple normative theories allows us to examine whether tribunals’ different approaches to politically motivated conduct might reflect diverse underlying normative commitments. We argue, however, that many arbitral tribunals demonstrate a reflexive distrust of domestic political contestation that is difficult to justify within any of the theories that we consider.

Short-term feeding studies have highlighted a phenomenon in Ca regulation that raises concerns around Ca absorption in dogs that may make an impact on commercial diets near to the maximum recommended level. A recent study to determine responses in dogs fed one of two diets differing in dietary Ca over 40 weeks found no evidence to suggest a concern across a range of biological parameters hypothesised to be affected by Ca. Unforeseen consequences of dietary Ca could have occurred and metabolic profiling was deemed a suitable data-driven approach to identify effects of dietary Ca. The objectives were to compare the fasted plasma metabolome (sampled at 8-week intervals over 40 weeks) of dogs fed one of two diets, near to the minimum and maximum recommended levels of dietary Ca. Comparisons with the control diet were also investigated across the postprandial time course (1–4 h) following acute (1 d) and long-term (24 weeks) feeding of the test diet. Comparing fasted plasma samples at each time point, no significant effect (adjusted P < 0·05) of diet on metabolites was observed. In the postprandial state, only phosphate was consistently different between diets and was explained by additional dietary P to maintain Ca:P. Metabolic profiling analysis supports the view that the dietary Ca upper limit is safe. Additionally, the canine plasma metabolome was characterised, providing insights into the stability of individual profiles across 40 weeks, the response to consumption of a nutritionally complete meal over a 4 h postprandial time course and different kinetic categories of postprandial absorption.

Renal disease has a high incidence in cats, and some evidence implicates dietary P as well. To investigate this further, two studies in healthy adult cats were conducted. Study 1 (36 weeks) included forty-eight cats, stratified to control or test diets providing 1·2 or 4·8 g/1000 kcal (4184 kJ) P (0 or approximately 3·6 g/1000 kcal (4184 kJ) inorganic P, Ca:P 1·2, 0·6). Study 2 (29 weeks) included fifty cats, stratified to control or test diets, providing 1·3 or 3·6 g/1000 kcal (4184 kJ) P (0 or approximately 1·5 g/1000 kcal (4184 kJ) inorganic P, Ca:P 1·2, 0·9). Health markers, glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and mineral balance were measured regularly, with abdominal ultrasound. Study 1 was halted after 4 weeks as the test group GFR reduced by 0·4 (95 % CI 0·3, 0·5) ml/min per kg, and ultrasound revealed changes in renal echogenicity. In study 2, at week 28, no change in mean GFR was observed (P >0·05); however, altered renal echogenicity was detected in 36 % of test cats. In agreement with previous studies, feeding a diet with Ca:P <1·0, a high total and inorganic P inclusion resulted in loss of renal function and changes in echogenicity suggestive of renal pathology. Feeding a diet containing lower total and inorganic P with Ca:P close to 1·0 led to more subtle structural changes in a third of test cats; however, nephrolithiasis occurred in both diet groups, complicating data interpretation. We conclude that the no observed adverse effects level for total dietary P in adult cats is lower than 3·6 g/1000 kcal (4184 kJ), however the effect of inorganic P sources and Ca:P require further investigation.

In this paper we review the design and development of a 100 J, 10 Hz nanosecond pulsed laser, codenamed DiPOLE100X, being built at the Central Laser Facility (CLF). This 1 kW average power diode-pumped solid-state laser (DPSSL) is based on a master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) design, which includes two cryogenic gas cooled amplifier stages based on DiPOLE multi-slab ceramic Yb:YAG amplifier technology developed at the CLF. The laser will produce pulses between 2 and 15 ns in duration with precise, arbitrarily selectable shapes, at pulse repetition rates up to 10 Hz, allowing real-time shape optimization for compression experiments. Once completed, the laser will be delivered to the European X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) facility in Germany as a UK-funded contribution in kind, where it will be used to study extreme states of matter at the High Energy Density (HED) instrument.