The Legal Framework for the Fight against Female Circumcision: From Cultural Indulgence to Human Rights Violations. The French Example.

The harmful consequences of female circumcision for women's health have been demonstrated and are regularly recalled by the World Health Organisation. Whereas in the past, the cultural dimension of the practice was emphasised, which result in impunity or absence of guilt, it is now considered by the United Nations as a violation of human rights, especially of the right to health. In 2012, the General Assembly asked States for a total ban on the practice. Despite the consensus on the punishability of female circumcision, its enforcement diverges, in particular in Western Europe. France is considered as a model in this area, that's why this study focuses on it. Yet, under French law, there is no special legislation criminalising the practice: female circumcision is punishable on grounds of mutilation. However, the French success is not complete: the prevention of such acts could be improved.

Supersonic jet spectroscopy of parent hemiporphycene: Structural assignment and vibrational analysis for S0 and S1 electronic states.

Hemiporphycene (HPc), a constitutional isomer of porphyrin, is studied under supersonic expansion conditions by means of laser-induced fluorescence, visible-visible hole-burning experiments, single vibronic level fluorescence techniques, and quantum chemical calculations. Only one trans form of jet-cooled HPc is observed, in contrast to solution studies that evidence a mixture of two trans tautomeric forms separated in energy by ∼1 kcal/mol. Reliable structural assignment is provided by simulating absorption and emission patterns at the density functional theory and time-dependent density functional theory levels of theory. The vibronic spectra are nicely reproduced for both electronic ground and lowest excited singlet states for the most stable trans form. In contrast to another porphyrin isomer, porphycene (Pc), no tunneling or photo-induced hydrogen transfer is detected. The lower symmetry of HPc compared with Pc and the concomitant non-equivalent positions of the inner-cavity nitrogen atoms result in a non-symmetric double minimum potential for tautomerization, larger energy barrier, and a longer tunneling distance, with the average intramolecular hydrogen bond length larger in HPc than in Pc. HPc readily forms hydrates that show red-shifted absorption relative to the bare molecule.

Tiled-grating compression of multiterawatt laser pulses.

High-energy petawatt lasers require large diffraction gratings for pulse compression. As an alternative to meter-sized gratings, we demonstrate the capability of a tiled-grating system to compress multiterawatt subpicosecond laser pulses. Using a 100 TW-class Nd:glass chirped-pulse amplification laser facility, we report on the performance of a two-grating mosaic to compress high-energy pulses to 2.5 J, 450 fs (5.5 TW) in air with a beam size of 50 mm and energy transmission of 63%. Stability of the grating mosaic alignment was realized by use of an accurate nanopositioning optomechanical system. The output Gaussian spectrum was preserved from grating-gap spectral clipping and was free of modulation.