Very Long Baseline Interferometry Observations of the Proposed Radio Counterpart of an EGRET Source

We present high-resolution radio interferometric imaging observations of the radio source NVSS J182659+343113 (hereafter J1826+3431), the proposed radio counterpart of the γ-ray source, 3EG J1824+3441 detected by the Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) on board the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory satellite. We analyzed eight epochs of archival multi-frequency very long baseline interferometry data. We imaged the asymmetric core–jet structure of the source, and detected apparent superluminal motion in the jet. At the highest observing frequency, 15.3 GHz, the core shows high brightness temperature indicating Doppler boosting. Additionally, the radio features undergo substantial flux density variability. These findings strengthen the previous claim of the association of the blazar J1826+3431 with the possible γ-ray source, 3EG J1824+3441.

A Compton-thick nucleus in the dual active galactic nuclei of Mrk 266

We present the results from our analysis of NuSTAR data of the luminous infrared galaxy Mrk 266, which contains two nuclei, south-western (SW) and north-eastern (NE), which were resolved in previous Chandra imaging. Combining this with the Chandra data, we intepret the hard X-ray spectrum obtained from a NuSTAR observation to result from a steeply rising flux from a Compton-thick active galactic nuclei (AGN) in the SW nucleus which is very faint in the Chandra band, confirming the previous claim. This hard X-ray component is dominated by reflection, and its intrinsic 2–10 keV luminosity is likely to be ∼1 × 1043 erg s−1. Although it is bright in soft X-ray, only a moderately absorbed NE nucleus has a 2–10 keV luminosity of 4 × 1041 erg s−1, placing it in the low-luminosity AGN class. These results have implications for understanding the detectability and duty cycles of emission from dual AGN in heavily obscured mergers.

Hugo Grotius and Samuel Pufendorf on Last Wills and Testaments

Hugo Grotius believed that last wills belonged to the Law of Nature, whereas Samuel Pufendorf argued that testamentary succession was a mere creation of human laws. I argue that Pufendorf’s rejection of the Natural Law origins for wills lacks internal consistency in both his Natural Law system and his proprietary rights theory. Pufendorf even contradicts his own previous claim stating wills are recognised by the Law of Nature as useful to the promotion of social peace. Grotius’s analysis of testaments, on the other hand, brief though it may be, is entirely consistent with his previous arguments: that the Law of Nature can attach itself to human creation; and that a human creation such as testamentary succession belongs to Natural Law when derived from, or when it agrees with, human reason and sociability.

Possession and Precedence: Juxtaposing Customary and Legal Events to Establish Land Authority

Land restitution carries implicit recognition of some previous claim to ownership, but when are first claims recognized? The concepts of first possession and original acquisition have long been used as entry points to Western concepts of property. For Austronesia, the concept of precedence is used in customary systems to justify and describe land claims and Indigenous authority. Conflict and political change in Timor-Leste have highlighted the co-existence of multiple understandings of land claims and their legitimacy. Considering customary principles of precedence brings into relief important elements of first possession important in land restitution processes. This paper juxtaposes the concept of original acquisition in property theory to two different examples of original claims from Timor-Leste: a two-part customary origin narrative from Oecusse and the development of a national land law for the new state. In these three narratives, we identify three different establishment events from which land authority develops. The article then uses this idea of the establishment event to explore five points of customary-statutory intersection evident from the land restitution process: (1) legitimate sources of land authority; (2) arbitrary establishment dates; (3) privileging of social order; (4) recognition of spiritual ties to land; and (5) the possibility for reversal.

Asymmetries in sub-extraction out of np in Slovenian: a magnitude estimation study

In this work, we aim to clarify the empirical paradigm that bears on two aspects of syntactic locality in Slovenian. First, building on previous work, we investigate how robustly Slovenian observes the syntactic locality constraint precluding constituent sub-extraction out of subject noun phrases. Second, we ask whether Slovenian allows Left Branch Extraction in interrogative and non-interrogative sentences. To elucidate both issues, we conducted a magnitude estimation study, the results of which support our previous claim that there is a subject island effect in Slovenian. Furthermore, our results suggest that Slovenian disallows Left Branch Extraction, in contrast with some other Slavic languages. We also discuss theoretical consequences of our empirical findings.

The Good and the True (or the Bad and the False)

It is commonplace to claim that it is good to believe the truth. In this paper, I reject that claim and argue that the considerations which might seem to support it in fact support a quite distinct though superficially similar claim, namely, that it is bad to believe the false. This claim is typically either ignored completely or lumped together with the previous claim, perhaps on the assumption that the two are equivalent, or at least that they stand or fall together. Such assumptions, I argue, are mistaken. While it is not always good to be right, it is always bad to be wrong. This is an interesting and overlooked asymmetry, which calls for further investigation.

The Spectra of Certain Classes of Room Frames: The Last Cases

In this paper we study the spectra of certain classes of Room frames. The three spectra which we study are incomplete Room squares, uniform Room frames and Room frames of type $2^ut^1$. These problems have been studied in numerous papers over the years; in this paper, we complete the three spectra. In addition we find a Howell cube of type $H_3(6,10)$. This corrects a previous claim of nonexistence of this design.

Masked Primes Can Be Genuinely Semantically Processed

Van den Bussche and Reynvoet (2007) argued that since significant priming was observed for novel primes from a large category, subliminal primes can be processed semantically. However, a possible confound in this study was the presence of nonsemantic effects such as orthographic overlap between primes and targets. Therefore, the first aim of this study was to validate our previous claim when nonsemantic influences are avoided. The second aim was to investigate the impact of nonsemantic stimulus processing on priming effects by manipulating target set size. The results showed that when nonsemantic effects are eliminated by presenting primes as pictures and targets as words, significant priming emerged for large stimulus categories and a large target set. This cannot be explained by nonsemantic accounts of subliminal processing and shows that subliminal primes can be truly semantically processed. However, when using a limited amount of targets, stimulating nonsemantic processing, priming disappeared. This indicates that the task context will determine whether stimuli will be processed semantically or nonsemantically, which in turn can influence priming effects.

The nature of the schwa/zero alternation in French clitics: experimental and non-experimental evidence

This article examines the phonological status of schwa in clitics, in particular whether or not schwa should be included in their lexical representation. Several distributional and experimental arguments pointing to the lexical status of clitic schwas are reviewed and are shown to be inconclusive, due to the existence of additional data that suggest a different interpretation not involving underlying schwas. The discussion includes experimental results that fail to show residual lip rounding in the vicinity of an omitted schwa at clitic boundaries, contra Barnes and Kavitskaya's (2002) previous claim. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, the non-contrastive nature of clitic schwas militates against their underlying status.

Can Expected Utility Theory Explain Gambling?

We investigate the ability of expected utility theory to account for simultaneous gambling and insurance. Contrary to a previous claim that borrowing and lending in perfect capital markets removes the demand for gambles, we show expected utility theory with nonconcave utility functions can explain gambling. When the rates of interest and time preference are equal, agents seek to gamble unless income falls in a finite set of values. When they differ, there is a range of incomes where gambles are desired. Different borrowing and lending rates can account for persistent gambling provided the rates span the rate of time preference.