Mutuals: An Area of Legal Climate Change

Underappreciated in its importance and often-misunderstood in its implications, the choice between a company limited by shares and a company organized as a mutual is an important decision in sectors ranging from agriculture to banking to insurance. Adding gravity to this particular decision is the difficulty and enormous cost of corporate metamorphosis between company types later in the company’s life. The authors examine the history of the mutual form, its popularity’s rise and fall during the twentieth century, and its advantages and disadvantages in today’s environment

Long-Term X-ray Monitoring of 1E 1740.7-2942 and GRS 1758-258

We report on long-term observations of the Galactic-bulge black hole candidates 1E 1740.7-2942 and GRS 1758-258 with the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer. 1E 1740.7-2942 has been observed 77 times and GRS 1758-258 has been observed 82 times over the past 1000 days. The flux of each object has varied by no more than a factor of 2.5 during this period, and the indices of the energy spectra have varied by no more than 0.4. The power spectra are similar to other black-hole candidates: flat-topped noise, breaking to a power law. Each object has exhibited a brightening that lasted for several months, and we have a found a time lag between the photon power-law index and the count rate. In both sources, the spectrum is softest during the decline from the brightening. This behavior can be understood in the context of thin-disk and advection-dominated accretion flows coexisting over a wide range of radii, with the implication that both sources have low-mass companions and accrete via Roche-lobe overflow.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

XTE J1739-302: An Unusual New X-ray Transient

A new x-ray transient, designated XTE J1739-302, was discovered with the Proportional Counter Array (PCA) on the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) in data from 12 August 1997. Although it was the brightest source in the Galactic Center region while active (about 3.0 x 10^-9 ergs/cm2/s from 2 to 25 keV), it was only observed on that one day; it was not detectable nine days earlier or two days later. There is no known counterpart at other wavelengths, and its proximity to the Galactic Center will make such an identification difficult due to source confusion and extinction. The x-ray spectrum and intensity suggest a giant outburst of a Be/neutron star binary, although no pulsations were observed and the outburst was shorter than is usual from these systems.Comment: 11 pages incorporating 6 figures, AAStex; accepted for The Astrophysical Journal, Part 2 (Letters

The Gamma-Ray Imaging Spectrometer (GRIS): A new balloon-borne experiment for gamma-ray line astronomy

High resolution gamma-ray spectroscopy is a relatively new field that holds great promise for further understanding of high energy astrophysical processes. When the high resolution gamma-ray spectrometer (GRSE) was removed from the GRO payload, a balloon program was initiated to permit continued development and improvement of instrumentation in this field, as well as continued scientific observations. The Gamma-Ray Imaging Spectrometer (GRIS) is one of the experiments selected as part of this program. The instrument contains a number of new and innovative features that are expected to produce a significant improvement in source location accuracy and sensitivity over previous balloon and satellite experiments

A coded aperture imaging system optimized for hard X-ray and gamma ray astronomy

A coded aperture imaging system was designed for the Gamma-Ray imaging spectrometer (GRIS). The system is optimized for imaging 511 keV positron-annihilation photons. For a galactic center 511-keV source strength of 0.001 sq/s, the source location accuracy is expected to be + or - 0.2 deg

What Can Information Encapsulation Tell Us About Emotional Rationality?

What can features of cognitive architecture, e.g. the information encapsulation of certain emotion processing systems, tell us about emotional rationality? de Sousa proposes the following hypothesis: “the role of emotions is to supply the insufficiency of reason by imitating the encapsulation of perceptual modes” (de Sousa 1987: 195). Very roughly, emotion processing can sometimes occur in a way that is insensitive to what an agent already knows, and such processing can assist reasoning by restricting the response-options she considers. This paper aims to provide an exposition and assessment of de Sousa’s hypothesis. I argue information encapsulation is not essential to emotion-driven reasoning, as emotions can determine the relevance of response-options even without being encapsulated. However, I argue encapsulation can still play a role in assisting reasoning by restricting response-options more efficiently, and in a way that ensures which options emotions deem relevant are not overridden by what the agent knows. I end by briefly explaining why this very feature also helps explain how emotions can, on occasion, hinder reasoning

Cognitive foundations of impartial punitive decision making in organizations: attribution and abstraction

Partial decision making about disciplinary responses to misbehavior is generally considered unfair and undermines the effectiveness of punishment. Nonetheless, organizational actors often struggle to remain impartial in situations that call for punishment. Impartiality appears specifically hard to obtain when some element of the transgression reflects badly upon the punisher themselves, for instance, when in the past the punisher has benefited from the misbehavior, even if just derivatively. In this paper, we argue that in such cases, punishers tend to defensively attribute causes of the transgression to the circumstances in order to protect their own self‐image, thus leading them to relatively lenient punishments. However, we also suggest that psychological impartiality can be obtained through cognitive abstraction. An abstract understanding (high‐level construal) of the punitive situation puts the focus squarely on the gist of the situation and makes circumstantial details less likely to be cognitively available. This hinders defensive circumstantial attribution. We show in a field study and an experiment that partiality in making decisions about punishments occurs under conditions of low‐level (i.e., concrete) construal, whereas impartiality is facilitated by high‐level (i.e., abstract) construal

Cognitive representations of disability behaviours in people with mobility limitations : consistency with theoretical constructs

Disability is conceptualised as behaviour by psychological theory and as a result of bodily impairment by medical models. However, how people with disabilities conceptualise those disabilities is unclear. The purpose of this study was to examine disability representations in people with mobility disabilities. Thirteen people with mobility disabilities completed personal repertory grids (using the method of triads) applied to activities used to measure disabilities. Ten judges with expertise in health psychology then examined the correspondence between the elicited disability constructs and psychological and medical models of disability. Participants with mobility disabilities generated 73 personal constructs ofdisability. These constructs were judged consistent with the content of two psychological models, namely the theory of planned behaviour and social cognitive theory and with the main medical model of disability, the International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health.Individuals with activity limitations conceptualise activities in a manner that is compatible with both psychological and medical models. This ensures adequate communication in contexts where the medical model is relevant, e.g. clinical contexts, as well as in everyday conversation about activities and behaviours. Finally, integrated models of disability may be of value for theory driven interdisciplinary approaches to disability and rehabilitation

“A peculiar time in my life”: making sense of illness and recovery with gynaecological cancer

Purpose: Worldwide there are nearly 1.1 million new cases of gynaecological cancer annually. In England, uterine, ovarian and cervical cancers comprize the third most common type of new cancer in women. Research with gynaecological cancer patients within 6 months of diagnosis is rare, as is data collection that is roughly contemporaneous with treatment. Our aim was to explore the experiences of women who were, at study entry, within 6 weeks of surgery or were undergoing chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Methods: An interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) of data from 16 women in five focus groups was conducted in the UK, exploring women’s experiences of being diagnosed with and treated for gynaecological cancer. Results: Participants conceptualized their experiences temporally, from the shock of diagnosis, through their cancer treatment, to thinking about recovery. They tried to make sense of diagnosis, even with treatment being complete. In the context of the Self-Regulation Model, these women were struggling to interpret a changing and multi-faceted illness identity, and attempting to return to pre-illness levels of health. Conclusions: This study adds to this under-studied time period in cancer survivorship. The results suggest that survivors’ goals may change from returning to pre-illness status to reformulating goals as survival time increases.N/

The Invisible Disease: Making Sense of an Osteoporosis Diagnosis in Older Age

Osteoporosis (low bone density) is a potentially serious disease which mainly affects women older than 50 years. National screening programs for osteoporosis are being developed in the United Kingdom. It is important to assess the psychological experience of receiving a positive diagnosis from a population-based screening program so that psychological distress does not outweigh medical benefits. Little research has been conducted in this field. In our study, we explored the experience of being diagnosed with osteoporosis following screening. We interviewed 10 women aged 68 to 79 who were recruited from a population-based osteoporosis screening trial. Four themes emerged from our interpretative phenomenological analysis of the interviews: osteoporosis is a routine medical condition, lack of physical evidence creates doubt, the mediating role of medical care, and protecting the self from distress. Our findings emphasize the complexity attached to receiving a positive screening result. We suggest considerations for health care providers