Religious experience and the probability of theism: comments on Swinburne

I discuss Richard Swinburne’s account of religious experience in his probabilistic case for theism. I argue, pace Swinburne, that even if cosmological considerations render theism not too improbable, religious experience does not render it more probable than not

Observations on web-invasion by the jumping spider Thyene imperialis in Israel (Araneae: Salticidae)

Observations on Thyene imperialis (Rossi, 1846) in Israel, Negev desert, invading a web of Cyclosa deserticola Levy, 1998 are reported. The female leapt into the orb-web to catch Cyclosa spiders. Photographs are provided, and a link to additional film material is given

Strictly positive definite kernels on the 22-sphere: beyond radial symmetry

The paper introduces a new characterisation of strictly positive definiteness for kernels on the 2-sphere without assuming the kernel to be radially (isotropic) or axially symmetric. The results use the series expansion of the kernel in spherical harmonics. Then additional sufficient conditions are proven for kernels with a block structure of expansion coefficients. These generalise the result derived by Chen et al. 2003 for radial kernels to non-radial kernels

Sparassidae - the valid scientific name for the huntsman spiders (Arachnida: Araneae)

The family name Sparassidae is recognized as available and valid according to the rules of the International Code for Zoological Nomenclature. Synonymies, diagnoses and descriptions are given for the family, subfamily, type genus and type species. The type species of Sparassus is assigned. Sparassus is synonymised with Micrommata.Aufgrund der unbefriedigenden Situation, daß drei wissenschaftliche Namen für die Familie der Riesenkrabbenspinnen in Gebrauch sind (Sparassidae Bertkau 1872, Heteropodidae Thorell 1873, Eusparassidae Jarvi 1912), wurden die nomenklatorischen und taxonomischen Hintergründe untersucht, wobei folgende Ergebnisse erbracht wurden: Der Familienname Sparassidae Bertkau 1872 ist nach ICZN (1962) verfügbar und gültig. Er wurde seit seiner Einführung 127 Jahre durchgehend benutzt, wohingegen Heteropodidae Thorell 1873 durch PLATNICK & LEVI (1973) eingeführt und fast ausschließlich in den letzten 25 Jahren gebraucht wurde. Sparassinae Bertkau 1872 ist gültiger Name für die Nominat-Unterfamilie. Die Gattung Sparassus Walckenaer 1805 hatte bis dato noch keine gültig festgelegte Typusart. Nach eingehendem Studium der Originalliteratur wird Aranea smaragdula Fabricius 1793 als Typusart festgelegt. Da sich diese Art in der Synonymie von Micrommata virescens (Clerck 1757) befindet und diese Typusart von Micrommata Latreille 1804 ist, ist Sparassus jüngeres Synonym von Micrommata (NEUE SYNONYMIE). Damit ist Micrommata virescens (Clerck 1757) Typusart der Familie Sparassidae Bertkau 1872

Working or stay-at-home mum? The influence of family benefits and religiosity

It is a well-established fact that mothers' labour force participation reacts differently todifferent types of family benefits. It is also already well-known that cultural and religiousfactors have an impact on their labour force participation. But does the labour forcereaction to family benefits differ among more religious mothers? In this paper, I analysehow both factors – benefits and religiosity – interact when it comes to the decision concerninglabour force participation. Firstly, I present a theoretical model which predicts thatthis difference exists. Secondly, I test this prediction in a sample of pooled cross-sectiondata from 10 OECD countries using different measures to assess the extent of religiosity.There is evidence that religious mothers react less than non-religious mothers toincreases in family benefits. I also find important differences among various religiousaffiliations. These results imply that trends in religiosity should be considered whendesigning labour market policies.Female labour force participation, public benefits, culture, family attitudes

Dynamical stabilisation of complex Langevin simulations of QCD

The ability to describe strongly interacting matter at finite temperature and baryon density provides the means to determine, for instance, the equation of state of QCD at non-zero baryon chemical potential. From a theoretical point of view, direct lattice simulations are hindered by the numerical sign problem, which prevents the use of traditional methods based on importance sampling. Despite recent successes, simulations using the complex Langevin method have been shown to exhibit instabilities, which cause convergence to wrong results. We introduce and discuss the method of Dynamic Stabilisation (DS), a modification of the complex Langevin process aimed at solving these instabilities. We present results of DS being applied to the heavy-dense approximation of QCD, as well as QCD with staggered fermions at zero chemical potential and finite chemical potential at high temperature. Our findings show that DS can successfully deal with the aforementioned instabilities, opening the way for further progress.Comment: 11 pages, 15 figures and 2 tables; Added acknowledgment

Nonautonomous saddle-node bifurcations: random and deterministic forcing

We study the effect of external forcing on the saddle-node bifurcation pattern of interval maps. By replacing fixed points of unperturbed maps by invariant graphs, we obtain direct analogues to the classical result both for random forcing by measure-preserving dynamical systems and for deterministic forcing by homeomorphisms of compact metric spaces. Additional assumptions like ergodicity or minimality of the forcing process then yield further information about the dynamics. The main difference to the unforced situation is that at the critical bifurcation parameter, two alternatives exist. In addition to the possibility of a unique neutral invariant graph, corresponding to a neutral fixed point, a pair of so-called pinched invariant graphs may occur. In quasiperiodically forced systems, these are often referred to as 'strange non-chaotic attractors'. The results on deterministic forcing can be considered as an extension of the work of Novo, Nunez, Obaya and Sanz on nonautonomous convex scalar differential equations. As a by-product, we also give a generalisation of a result by Sturman and Stark on the structure of minimal sets in forced systems.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figure