Women's clubs: Dispersing Shakespeare across America

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2011 Symbiosis - A Transatlantic Journal.This article explains the importance of women's clubs in America and their role in the dissemination of Shakespeare in the 19th and 20th centuries

Discovery of A New Faint Radio SNR G108.2-0.6

A new faint and large shell-type radio Supernova Remnant (SNR) G108.2-0.6 has been discovered in the Canadian Galactic Plane Survey (CGPS). The SNR shows an elliptical shell-type structure at 1420 MHz, and has a 408-1420 MHz TT-plot spectral index of $\alpha$=-0.5$\pm$0.1 (S$_{\nu}$$\propto$$\nu$$^{\alpha}$), typical of a shell-type SNR. The remnant's flux density at 1420 MHz is 6.6$\pm$0.7 Jy, and at 408 MHz is 11.5$\pm$1.2 Jy. Both of these are corrected for compact sources. An integrated spectral index of $-0.45\pm$0.13 is determined. This new SNR has among the lowest surface brightness of any known remnant ($\Sigma$$_{1 GHz}$=2.4$\times10^{-22}$ W m$^{-2}$ Hz$^{-1}$ sr$^{-1}$). 21 cm Stokes Q and U CGPS data (plus preliminary Effelsberg Q and U maps) show some suggestive features that correlate with total power. \ion{H}{i} observations show structures associated with G108.2$-$0.6 in the radial velocity range $-$53 to $-$58 km s$^{-1}$, and indicate it is located in the Perseus arm shock at a distance of 3.2$\pm$0.6 kpc. At this distance the diameter of G108.2$-$0.6 is 58 pc. IRAS maps (12, 25, 60 and 100\mu m) of the new SNR show rich infrared emission surrounding G108.2$-$0.6.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figs, accepted by A&

The Importance of Collecting an Accurate Family Medical History

Family medical history has been recognized as an important non-modifiable risk factor for many chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and even several types of cancer. However, a number of studies have shown that patients’ recall of their family history is often inaccurate and missing important information such as family members’ age at onset or diagnosis of a disease. Additionally, there is substantial variation regarding how often family physicians are actually obtaining FMH during visits. Patients’ understanding of the importance of obtaining an accurate FMH and even their perception of familial risk of common chronic diseases is also highly variable based on personal experiences and education. Therefore, to assist physicians in acquiring a more accurate and detailed family medical history from patients it would appear that patients need to be educated on why collecting this information is an important part of understanding of their own health and risk for developing diseases. In addition, patients should be given the opportunity and the tools necessary to gather their family medical history prior to the scheduled visit with their physician, allowing the patient more time to have a conversation about health history with their family members. The purpose of this project was to design and implement an educational handout about the importance of collecting an accurate family medical history in addition to creating a form for patients to record their family medical history.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/fmclerk/1154/thumbnail.jp

An Analysis of the Broadband (22-3900 MHz) Radio Spectrum of HB3 (G132.7+1.3): The Detection of Thermal Radio Emission from an Evolved Supernova Remnant?

We present an analysis of the broadband radio spectrum (from 22 to 3900 MHz) of the Galactic supernova remnant (SNR) HB3 (G132.7+1.3). Published observations have revealed that a curvature is present in the radio spectrum of this SNR, indicating that a single synchrotron component appears is insufficient to adequately fit the spectrum. We present here a fit to this spectrum using a combination of a synchrotron component and a thermal bremsstrahlung component. We discuss properties of this latter component and estimate the ambient density implied by the presence of this component to be n \~ 10 cm^-3. We have also analyzed extracted X-ray spectra from archived {\it ASCA} GIS observations of different regions of HB3 to obtain independent estimates of the density of the surrounding interstellar medium (ISM). From this analysis, we have derived electron densities of 0.1-0.4 f^-1/2 cm^-3 for the ISM for the three different regions of the SNR, where f is the volume filling factor. By comparing these density estimates with the estimate derived from the thermal bremsstrahlung component, we argue that the radio thermal bremsstrahlung emission is emitted from a thin shell enclosing HB3. The presence of this thermal bremsstrahlung component in the radio spectrum of HB3 suggests that this SNR is in fact interacting with an adjacent molecular cloud associated with the HII region W3. By extension, we argue that the presence of thermal emission at radio wavelengths may be a useful tool for identifying interactions between SNRs and molecular clouds, and for estimating the ambient density near SNRs using radio continuum data.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, accepted for ApJ

Quark-Novae Ia in the Hubble diagram: Implications For Dark Energy

The accelerated expansion of the Universe was proposed through the use of Type-Ia SNe as standard candles. The standardization depends on an empirical correlation between the stretch/color and peak luminosity of the light curves. The use of Type Ia SN as standard candles rests on the assumption that their properties (and this correlation) do not vary with red-shift. We consider the possibility that the majority of Type-Ia SNe are in fact caused by a Quark-Nova detonation in a tight neutron-star-CO-white-dwarf binary system; a Quark-Nova Ia. The spin-down energy injected by the Quark Nova remnant (the quark star) contributes to the post-peak light curve and neatly explains the observed correlation between peak luminosity and light curve shape. We demonstrate that the parameters describing Quark-Novae Ia are NOT constant in red-shift. Simulated Quark-Nova Ia light curves provide a test of the stretch/color correlation by comparing the true distance modulus with that determined using SN light curve fitters. We determine a correction between the true and fitted distance moduli which when applied to Type-Ia SNe in the Hubble diagram recovers the Omega_M = 1 cosmology. We conclude that Type-Ia SNe observations do not necessitate the need for an accelerating expansion of the Universe (if the observed SNe-Ia are dominated by QNe-Ia) and by association the need for Dark Energy.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in Research in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Sexual abuse and the grooming process in sport: Learning from Bella's story

Through a process of collaborative autoethnography, we explore the experiences of one female athlete named Bella who was groomed and then sexually abused by her male coach. Bella’s story signals how the structural conditions and power relationships embedded in competitive sporting environments, specifically the power invested in the coach, provide a unique sociocultural context that offers a number of potentialities for sexual abuse and exploitation to take place. We offer Bella’s story as a pedagogical resource for those involved in the world of sport to both think about and with as part of a process of encouraging change at the individual and institutional levels

Discovery of a Peculiar Dip from GX 301-2

We present temporal and spectral properties of a unique X-ray dip in GX 301-2 as seen with Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer in May 2010. The X-ray pulsation from the source gradually declined prior to the dip, disappears for one spin cycle during the dip and is abruptly restored in the spin cycle immediately after the dip. Moreover, the phase-integrated spectrum of the source becomes softer before and during the dip and it quickly hardens again following the dip. Our findings indicate the fact that the mechanism for pulsations gradually turned off briefly and underlying dim and softer emission likely from the accretion column became observable in the brief absence of high level emission due to wind accretion.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A Letter

The Status and Legitimacy of M’Naghten’s Insane Delusion Rule

This Article investigates jurisdictions’ compliance with M’Naghten’s directive for how to treat delusions in insanity cases and assesses the validity and reasonableness of courts’ application of the law. Most U.S. jurisdictions employ an insanity test roughly modeled on the rule articulated in the 1843 M’Naghten’s Case. This test focuses on a defendant’s inability to know, because of a mental disease, the nature of her act or its wrongfulness. But the M’Naghten judges also issued a second rule — particular to delusions — that has received much less attention. This rule holds that, when the defendant labors under a “partial delusion only,” her culpability must be assessed as if the factual content of her delusion were true. Thus, if a person with delusions killed as she believed in self-defense, she should be acquitted. But if she killed anticipating future harm, she would be convicted of intentional murder. Commentators have long dismissed the delusion rule as obsolete, and the last examination of states’ use of the rule was sixty years ago.This Article excavates the insane delusion rule and assesses its current force. Its review reveals the rule maintains its vibrancy, continues to evolve, and in some places is growing in influence. Nine jurisdictions — California, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and the federal and military systems — give special significance to delusions. These jurisdictions vary in their understanding of how the rule relates to general insanity; whether the rule functions only to establish (not defeat) insanity; and whether it operates as a background principle or manifests in jury instructions. The status of the rule is currently in flux, so understanding its permutations may inspire movement in the law.Next, the Article subjects the insane delusion rule and its current variants to the crucible of modern science. The justness of the rule turns on whether a defendant with delusions likely possessed — and could have fairly been expected to exercise — adequate reasoning abilities while in the throes of psychosis. To examine this question, the Article applies insights from the cognitive sciences on how delusions are formed, are maintained, and may affect moral decision-making. Research in psychology and cognitive neuroscience suggests that the cognitive biases and emotional impairments that contribute to the origin and maintenance of delusions impair the capacity for moral decision-making in delusional individuals, at least in the context of decisions connected to those delusions. The scientific findings demonstrate the inseparability of cognition, emotion, and volition and thus hold implications for the insane delusion rule, insanity more generally, and the broader legal treatment of individuals with psychosis

Psychosis, Heat of Passion, and Diminished Responsibility

This Article calls for the creation of a generic partial excuse for diminished rationality from mental disability. Currently, most jurisdictions recognize only one partial excuse: the common law heat-of-passion defense. Empirical research demonstrates that populations with delusions experience similar impairments to decision-making capacities as people confronted with sudden, objectively adequate provocation. Yet, current law affords significant mitigation only to the latter group, which only applies in murder cases. Adoption of the Model Penal Code’s “extreme mental or emotional disturbance” (EMED) defense could extend mitigation to other forms of diminished responsibility. However, examination of jurisdictions’ adoption and utilization of the EMED defense shows that, of the few states that have adopted it, most have rejected its diminished responsibility potential. Instead, most retain key features of heat of passion such as requiring an external provoking event, rendering the defense inapplicable to many delusion-driven crimes. A better solution would be to create a generic partial excuse for diminished rationality from mental disability. Over the decades, several prominent scholars have offered proposals for generic partial excuses for partial responsibility, but, as of yet, none has inspired legislative action. This Article’s proposal differs from prior proposals in four key respects. First, it limits its purview to rationality impairments from mental disabilities, a traditionally recognized form of diminished blameworthiness. Second, to be workable and attractive to states, this proposal recommends that states draw definitions of partial responsibility from existing statutory frameworks, namely existing insanity or Guilty But Mentally Ill (GBMI) standards. Such an understanding of partial responsibility should carry greater local legitimacy, and the popularity of GBMI verdicts with legislatures and juries may mean that extending those statutes into the realm of partial responsibility would be more palatable to state legislatures than wholly new language. Third, in light of the realities of mental disorder and its lived experience, our proposal does not advocate for a lesser degree of mitigation for defendants who contributed to their irrationality through failure to comply with medical directives. Fourth, our proposal draws from GBMI statutes and partial responsibility standards outside the United States to suggest sentencing, treatment, and post-sentence options to accompany a partial responsibility verdict and respond to any possible threat to public safety. This Article examines the first two distinctive components of the partial excuse; the third and fourth aspects of the proposal will be developed in a future work