Lateral Expansion of the Bridges of Cygnus A and other Powerful Radio Sources

Measurements of the width of the radio bridge at several locations along the bridge for each of four powerful extended radio sources are presented. Adopting a few simple assumptions, these measurements may be used to predict the radio surface brightness as a function of position across the radio bridge. The predicted and observed surface brightnesses across the bridges are compared and found to agree fairly well. The results are consistent with a simple picture in which the radio power and size of the radio lobe at the forward edge of the radio bridge are roughly time-independent for a given source, and the expansion of the bridge in the lateral direction is adiabatic. There is no indication that reacceleration or energy transport is important in the bridges of these sources. The rate of lateral expansion of the bridge just behind the radio lobe and hotspot in terms of the rate of forward propagation is compared with that predicted, and found to be in good agreement with the predicted value.Comment: 7 pages, uuencoded compressed postscript. To appear in the Proceding of the Cygnus A workshop, May 1-4, Green Bank, W

Evidence, Miracles, and the Existence of Jesus: Comments on Stephen Law

We use Bayesian tools to assess Law’s skeptical argument against the historicity of Jesus. We clarify and endorse his sub-argument for the conclusion that there is good reason to be skeptical about the miracle claims of the New Testament. However, we dispute Law’s contamination principle that he claims entails that we should be skeptical about the existence of Jesus. There are problems with Law’s defense of his principle, and we show, more importantly, that it is not supported by Bayesian considerations. Finally, we show that Law’s principle is false in the specific case of Jesus and thereby show, contrary to the main conclusion of Law’s argument, that biblical historians are entitled to remain confident that Jesus existed

How to Estimate Custom Machinery Rates

Specialization in agriculture, along with larger farm sizes and bigger equipment, has resulted in more custom machinery work being conducted on farms. Often, there is limited data about the current custom rate. The Mississippi State Budget Generator (MSBG) is a tool that uses a cost approach to allocating machinery cost on a per acre basis and can be used in situations where custom rates are not well known. When compared to actual custom work surveys, the MSBG provides rates that are lower than the survey results. One explanation is that the MSBG does not include any built-in profit.Agribusiness, Production Economics,

Type Classes for Lightweight Substructural Types

Linear and substructural types are powerful tools, but adding them to standard functional programming languages often means introducing extra annotations and typing machinery. We propose a lightweight substructural type system design that recasts the structural rules of weakening and contraction as type classes; we demonstrate this design in a prototype language, Clamp. Clamp supports polymorphic substructural types as well as an expressive system of mutable references. At the same time, it adds little additional overhead to a standard Damas-Hindley-Milner type system enriched with type classes. We have established type safety for the core model and implemented a type checker with type inference in Haskell.Comment: In Proceedings LINEARITY 2014, arXiv:1502.0441

Beyond product markets: new insight on liability of foreignness from capital markets

We expand the Liability of Foreignness (LOF) construct beyond the product market domain to include liabilities faced by firms attempting to secure resources in host capital markets. Drawing from institutional theory and research in finance, we identify institutional distance, information asymmetry, unfamiliarity, and cultural differences as the main sources of capital market LOF (CMLOF). We then propose that the impact of these antecedent factors can be moderated through bonding, signaling, organizational isomorphism, and reputational endorsements