Who Should Govern Congress? Access to Power and the Salary Grab of 1873

We examine the politics of the %u201CSalary Grab%u201D of 1873, legislation that increased congressional salaries retroactively by 50 percent. A group of New England and Midwestern elites opposed the Salary Grab, along with congressional franking and patronage-based civil service appointments, as part of reform effort to reshape %u201Cwho should govern Congress.%u201D Our analyses of congressional voting confirm the existence of this non-party elite coalition. While these elites lost many legislative battles in the short-run, their efforts kept reform on the legislative agenda throughout the late-nineteenth century and ultimately set the stage for the Progressive movement in the early-twentieth century.

Argentina\u27s Abandonment of the Rule of Law and Its Aftermath

In this Essay we show how, in the last sixty years, political and economic instability in Argentina have been accompanied by judicial instability. As a consequence, Argentina lacks adherence to the rule of law with deleterious effects on domestic business and foreign investment. We contend that in order to reach sustainable growth, Argentina has to solve this institutional problem. Otherwise, economic growth can surge in the short run but it will be unsustainable in the long run

Relativistic spectroscopy of the extreme NLS1 IRAS13224-3809

The narrow line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) IRAS 13224-3809 is the most X-ray variable active galactic nucleus (AGN), exhibiting 0.3-10 keV flux changes of over an order of magnitude within an hour. We report on the results of the 1.5 Ms 2016 XMM-Newton/NuSTAR observing campaign, which revealed the presence of a 0.24c ultra-fast outflow in addition to the well-known strong relativistic reflection. We also summarise other key results of the campaign, such as the first detection of a non-linear RMS-flux relation in an accreting source, correlations between outflow absorption strength/velocity and source flux, and a disconnect between the X-ray and UV emission. Our results are consistent with a scenario where a disk wind is launched close to the black hole, imprinting absorption features into the spectrum and variability.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, contributed talk at "Revisiting narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies and their place in the Universe" (Padova, April 2018). Accepted for publication in Proceedings of Science, PoS(NLS1-2018)03

Revealing the X-ray Variability of AGN with Principal Component Analysis

We analyse a sample of 26 active galactic nuclei with deep XMM-Newton observations, using principal component analysis (PCA) to find model independent spectra of the different variable components. In total, we identify at least 12 qualitatively different patterns of spectral variability, involving several different mechanisms, including five sources which show evidence of variable relativistic reflection (MCG-6-30-15, NGC 4051, 1H 0707-495, NGC 3516 and Mrk 766) and three which show evidence of varying partial covering neutral absorption (NGC 4395, NGC 1365, and NGC 4151). In over half of the sources studied, the variability is dominated by changes in a power law continuum, both in terms of changes in flux and power law index, which could be produced by propagating fluctuations within the corona. Simulations are used to find unique predictions for different physical models, and we then attempt to qualitatively match the results from the simulations to the behaviour observed in the real data. We are able to explain a large proportion of the variability in these sources using simple models of spectral variability, but more complex models may be needed for the remainder. We have begun the process of building up a library of different principal components, so that spectral variability in AGN can quickly be matched to physical processes. We show that PCA can be an extremely powerful tool for distinguishing different patterns of variability in AGN, and that it can be used effectively on the large amounts of high-quality archival data available from the current generation of X-ray telescopes.Comment: 25 pages, 27 figures, accepted to MNRAS. Analysis code available on request to lead author. Edit: Rogue table remove

From dimers to the solid-state: Distributed intermolecular force-fields for pyridine

A.A. thanks A.W.E. financial support through the EngDoc studentship from M3S Centre for Doctoral Training (EPSRC Grant No. EP/G036675/1). General computational infrastructure used is developed under No. EPSRC EP/K039229/1

Human rights and public education

This article attempts a contrast to the contribution by Hugh Starkey. Rather than his account of the inexorable rise of human rights discourse, and of the implementation of human rights standards, human rights are here presented as always and necessarily scandalous and highly contested. First, I explain why the UK has lagged so far behind its European neighbours in implementing citizenship education. Second, a comparison with France shows that the latest UK reforms bring us up to 1789. Third, the twentieth-century second-generation social and economic rights are still anathema in the UK. Fourth, the failure to come to terms with Empire and especially the slave trade means that the UK’s attitude to third-generation rights, especially the right of peoples to self-determination, is heavily compromised. Taking into account the points I raise, citizenship education in the UK might look very different

Increases in invasive melanoma in England, 1979-2006, by anatomical site

BACKGROUND: National melanoma incidence trends with details of anatomical site have not been previously described for England. OBJECTIVES: To describe site-specific trends in cutaneous melanoma for England as a whole during the last three decades. METHODS: Anonymized data, 1979–2006, were obtained from national cancer registrations of all patients in England up to age 89 years with incident primary invasive cutaneous melanomas (n = 124 055). Sex-specific age-standardized incidence rates and average annual percentage change in rates were calculated for each broad anatomical site. RESULTS: Overall incidence rates of cutaneous melanoma in England, 1979–2006, were 81 and 100 per million, in males and females, respectively. Site-specific rates were consistently highest on the lower limbs in females followed by the trunk in males. Greatest annual increases occurred on the trunk in both sexes over 45 years (males 9·9%, females 6·8%), then upper limbs (males 8·7%, females 6·8%). Incidence trends in males relative to females varied little across sites apart from a more rapid rise in head/neck melanomas in males than in females after the 1980s. CONCLUSIONS: Invasive melanoma rates continue to rise in England, particularly on the trunk and arms, and in males on the head/neck. The steeper increases in melanoma rates among males are consistent with their greater sun exposure and poorer compliance with sun protection measures than females

Simulation study of pressure and temperature dependence of the negative thermal expansion in Zn(CN)(2)

12 pages, 16 figures12 pages, 16 figures12 pages, 16 figures12 pages, 16 figure

High pressure ionic and molecular crystals of ammonia monohydrate within density functional theory

A combination of first-principles density functional theory calculations and a search over structures predicts the stability of a proton-transfer modification of ammonia monohydrate with space group P4/nmm. The phase diagram is calculated with the PBE density functional, and the effects of a semi-empirical dispersion correction, zero point motion, and finite temperature are investigated. Comparison with MP2 and coupled cluster calculations shows that the PBE functional over-stabilizes proton transfer phases because too much electronic charge moves with the proton. This over-binding is partially corrected by using the PBE0 hybrid exchange-correlation functional, which increases the enthalpy of P4/nmm by about 0.6 eV per formula unit relative to phase I of ammonia monohydrate (AMH-I) and shifts the transition to the proton transfer phase from the PBE pressure of 2.8 GPa to about 10 GPa. This is consistent with experiment as proton transfer phases have not been observed at pressures up to ~9 GPa, while higher pressures have not yet been explored experimentally.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figure