Catharine Trotter and the Claims of Conscience

Although Catherine Trotter, later Cockburn, has begun to receive increased critical attention, the role of religious themes in her writing remains largely unexplored. A key tendency in critical accounts, in fact, has been to ally her with the secular contractarian philosophy of John Locke, whom she defended in print. Biographical evidence suggests, however, that Trotter was not unconcerned with religious questions; raised an Anglican, she converted to Catholicism in her youth and returned to the Church of England in her early thirties. Her later philosophical works remain preoccupied with theological issues, notably voluntarism. This article proposes that we can identify religious concerns in Trotter’s early plays by recognizing how her tragedies dramatize cases of conscience. Her characters often struggle to accept the binding nature of vows and question the power of private conscience to govern conduct. In The Unhappy Penitent (1701), the influence of the Catholic casuistical tradition is seen as Trotter casts doubt on the adequacy of private moral judgment, suggesting that individuals will judge right only when aided by an authoritative and external guide. Emphasizing the tragic consequences that follow from pursuing one’s interests, the dramas qualify assessments of Trotter that align her modernity with secularity

THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT

Public Economics,

Adaptive guidance and control for future remote sensing systems

A unique approach to onboard processing was developed that is capable of acquiring high quality image data for users in near real time. The approach is divided into two steps: the development of an onboard cloud detection system; and the development of a landmark tracker. The results of these two developments are outlined and the requirements of an operational guidance and control system capable of providing continuous estimation of the sensor boresight position are summarized

Postnatal depression and reproductive success in modern, low-fertility contexts

Background and objectives: Postnatal depression (PND) presents a puzzling phenomenon to evolutionary anthropologists as it is highly prevalent and yet detrimental to child development and maternal health. Adaptive explanations have been proposed, but have not been tested with data that directly link PND to female fertility. Methodology: A survey was designed to gather complete reproductive histories and retrospective measures of PND to measure the effects of PND on fitness. Respondents were born between 1930 and 1967, with the majority based in the UK during their childrearing years. The hypothesis that PND is detrimental to fitness is assessed using Mann–Whitney U tests on completed fertility. Binary logistic regression modelling is used to test the hypothesis that PND reduces the likelihood of parity progression. Results: Women experiencing PND at their first or second birth have lower completed fertility, with PND at the first birth leading to lowered fertility. Logistic regression analyses show that this is the result of reductions in the likelihood of parity progression to a third birth when PND is experienced at the first birth or when repeat bouts occur. Conclusions and implications: Our results call into question adaptationist arguments, contribute to the growing understanding of the importance of emotional wellbeing to fertility decision making, and given the economic consequences of markedly below replacement fertility, highlight a potential new source of financial incentive to invest in screening and preventative measures to ensure good maternal mental health

Towards an Improved Test of the Standard Model's Most Precise Prediction

The electron and positron magnetic moments are the most precise prediction of the standard model of particle physics. The most accurate measurement of a property of an elementary particle has been made to test this result. A new experimental method is now being employed in an attempt to improve the measurement accuracy by an order of magnitude. Positrons from a "student source" now suffice for the experiment. Progress toward a new measurement is summarized

Properties of the conjugate gradient and Davidon methods, part 5 Final report

Quadratically convergent gradient methods for minimizing unconstrained function of several variable

Expanded Quantum Cryptographic Entangling Probe

The paper [Howard E. Brandt, "Quantum Cryptographic Entangling Probe," Phys. Rev. A 71, 042312 (2005)] is generalized to include the full range of error rates for the projectively measured quantum cryptographic entangling probe.Comment: 4 page

Dilution jet mixing program, phase 3

The main objectives for the NASA Jet Mixing Phase 3 program were: extension of the data base on the mixing of single sided rows of jets in a confined cross flow to discrete slots, including streamlined, bluff, and angled injections; quantification of the effects of geometrical and flow parameters on penetration and mixing of multiple rows of jets into a confined flow; investigation of in-line, staggered, and dissimilar hole configurations; and development of empirical correlations for predicting temperature distributions for discrete slots and multiple rows of dilution holes

e+e−→H+H−e^+e^-\to H^+H^- signals at LEP2 energies in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model

In this paper we compare $H^+H^-$ and $W^+W^-$ into four-fermion production at centre-of-mass energies typical of LEP2 and somewhat larger. The theoretical framework considered is the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. The interest in exploiting the $e^+e^-$ CERN collider at values of $\sqrt s$ greater than 192 GeV could come from the discovery of Supersymmetric signals during runs at lower energy. If these indicate that a charged Higgs boson exists in the mass range \MH\approx95-105 GeV, then a few years of running at $\sqrt s=205-215$ GeV and nominal luminosity could make the detection of such scalars feasible, in the purely leptonic channel $\tau\nu_\tau\tau\nu_\tau$ and, for small \tb's, also in the semi-hadronic(leptonic) one ${jj}\tau\nu_\tau$. Charged Higgs bosons of the above nature cannot be produced by the beam energies approved at present for LEP2. However, if runs beyond the so-called `192 GeV cryogenic limit' will be approved by the CERN Council, our selection procedure will enable us to establish the presence, or otherwise, of charged Higgs bosons in the mentioned mass rangeComment: 30 pages, latex, epsfig, 12 postscript figures, complete paper available at ftp://axpa.hep.phy.cam.ac.uk/stefano/cavendish_9615 and at http://www.hep.phy.cam.ac.uk/theory/papers