Agaat's Law. Reflections on Law and Literature with Reference to Marlene Van Niekerk's novel Agaat

This essay explores the relation between law and literature from the literary Marxist position that Jean-Luc Nancy develops in his work La Communauté Désoeuvrée. It does so with specific reference to Marlene van Niekerk’s novel Agaat and to the Lacanian problematic of imaginary selves caught up in the confines of their speculative or mirroring images of others. It takes leave of approaches to law and literature studies such as Martha Nussbaum’s in terms of which literature can be invoked to edify or improve the law. It argues that law and literature can both benefit from a comparative exchange, provided this exchange takes seriously the fundamental and irreducible tension and hiatus between characteristically “legal” and characteristically “literary” discourses

Pumping of the 4.8 GHz H2_{\text{2}}CO masers and its implications for the periodic masers in G37.55+0.20

Periodic or regular flaring of class II methanol masers in nine high mass star forming regions is now a well established phenomenon. Amongst the nine star forming regions, G37.55+0.20 is the only case at present where apart from the presence of a periodic class II methanol maser, correlated flaring of another masing species, formaldehyde in this case, has been detected. We perform numerical calculations to investigate under which conditions the 4.8 GHz transition of ortho-formaldehyde is inverted in order to address the question of the correlated flaring of the 6.7 GHz methanol and 4.8 GHz formaldehyde masers in G37.55+0.20. We developed a numerical code to study the population inversion of o-formaldehyde. Equilibrium solutions for the level populations are found by integrating the rate equations using Heun's method. It is found that collisional excitation with H$_2$ as well as radiative excitation by the free-free radio continuum radiation from a nearby ultra- or hyper-compact HII region can invert the 4.8 GHz transition. It is also found that radiative excitation by the dust infrared radiation field does not lead to an inversion of the 4.8 GHz transition. The 14.5 GHz and 28.9 GHz transitions are inverted only in the presence of the free-free continuum radiation field of a very compact HII region. Due to the different pumping mechanisms of the formaldehyde and methanol masers it is unlikely that the near simultaneous flaring of the methanol and formaldehyde masers in G37.55+0.20 is due to changes in the pumping of the masers.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

A near-infrared study of the star forming region RCW 34

We report the results of a near-infrared imaging study of a $7.8 \times 7.8$ arcmin$^2$ region centered on the 6.7 GHz methanol maser associated with the RCW 34 star forming region using the 1.4m IRSF telescope at Sutherland. A total of 1283 objects were detected simultaneously in J, H, and K for an exposure time of 10800 seconds. The J-H, H-K two-colour diagram revealed a strong concentration of more than 700 objects with colours similar to what is expected of reddened classical T Tauri stars. The distribution of the objects on the K {\it vs} J-K colour-magnitude diagram is also suggestive that a significant fraction of the 1283 objects is lower mass pre-main sequence stars. We also present the luminosity function for the subset of about 700 pre-main sequence stars and show that it suggests ongoing star formation activity for about $10^7$ years. An examination of the spatial distribution of the pre-main sequence stars shows that the fainter (older) part of the population is more dispersed over the observed region and the brighter (younger) subset is more concentrated around the position of the O8.5V star. This suggests that the physical effects of the O8.5V star and the two early B-type stars on the remainder of the cloud out of which they formed, could have played a role in the onset of the more recent episode of star formation in RCW 34.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journa

Development of an advanced pitch active control system for a wide body jet aircraft

An advanced PACS control law was developed for a commercial wide-body transport (Lockheed L-1011) by using modern control theory. Validity of the control law was demonstrated by piloted flight simulation tests on the NASA Langley visual motion simulator. The PACS design objective was to develop a PACS that would provide good flying qualities to negative 10 percent static stability margins that were equivalent to those of the baseline aircraft at a 15 percent static stability margin which is normal for the L-1011. Also, the PACS was to compensate for high-Mach/high-g instabilities that degrade flying qualities during upset recoveries and maneuvers. The piloted flight simulation tests showed that the PACS met the design objectives. The simulation demonstrated good flying qualities to negative 20 percent static stability margins for hold, cruise and high-speed flight conditions. Analysis and wind tunnel tests performed on other Lockheed programs indicate that the PACS could be used on an advanced transport configuration to provide a 4 percent fuel savings which results from reduced trim drag by flying at negative static stability margins

On the Road to Half a Century of Cross-Cultural Psychology: Foundations, Current Status, and Forecasts

The modern movement of cross-cultural psychology began in the mid-1960s. Shortly after those earlier activities, two conferences were building blocks in helping to develop and institutionalize the field. The first was a NATO-sponsored conference held in Istanbul in 1971. Organized by Lee J. Cronbach and Pieter J. D. Drenth, it resulted in a book that they edited, Mental tests and cultural adaptation (Mouton Press, 1972). The second was the inaugural IACCP conference held in Hong Kong in 1972. It was organized by John Dawson and resulted in the first IACCP proceedings volume, Readings in cross-cultural psychology (Dawson and Lonner, published by the University of Hong Kong Press in 1974) In addition, a number of other activities spanning the mid-1960s to the early 1970s were important in setting the stage for the rapid ascent of contemporary culture-oriented psychology. For example, the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology was inaugurated in 1970. Unit 1 of IACCP’s Online Readings in Psychology and Culture contains further information about the first half century of IACCP (IACCP.org)