A Revision of Power: Religion in Fionn Mac Colla’s And the Cock Crew

Discusses the treatment of the central character, the Gaelic-speaking minister Maighstir Sachairi, in the novel And the Cock Crew (1945), by Fionn Mac Colla (Thomas Donaldson, 1906-1975), about the Highland clearances, the evictions of the local crofting inhabitants in the north of Scotland to make way for sheep-farming, and argues that, although the novel condemns the Presbyterian clergy for colluding in the evictions and preaching submission to those evicted, Mac Colla\u27s novel is deeply imbued with the Calvinism it might seem to reject, and that the central scene, a debate between Sachairi and Gaelic bard, is structured around the Scottish Catechism, inverting the conventional power-relationship between the minister and the his parishioner

John Stuart Blackie\u27s Altavona: A Late Victorian Reaction to the Highland Clearances

Reviews the career of John Stuart Blackie (1809-1895), poet, professor successively of humanity in Aberdeen and of Greek in Edinburgh, and a tireless advocate for the Scottish Highlands and Celtic culture; sketches his growing criticism of Highland landlords and the eviction of crofters from Scottish estates, in relation to more recent perspectives; and discusses his successive literary treatments of the Clearances in his Highland Sonnets, his long poem The Highlander\u27s Lament, and, most fully, in his \u27novel\u27 or mixed-genre prose work Altavona: Fact and Fiction from My Life in the Highlands (1882), commenting also on Blackie\u27s revisions to the book for later editions in light of the Crofters\u27 Commission report and related reforms

A Study of Single Pulses in the Parkes Multibeam Pulsar Survey

We reprocessed the Parkes Multibeam Pulsar Survey, searching for single pulses out to a DM of 5000 pc cm$^{-3}$ with widths of up to one second. We recorded single pulses from 264 known pulsars and 14 Rotating Radio Transients. We produced amplitude distributions for each pulsar which we fit with log-normal distributions, power-law tails, and a power-law function divided by an exponential function, finding that some pulsars show a deviation from a log-normal distribution in the form of an excess of high-energy pulses. We found that a function consisting of a power-law divided by an exponential fit the distributions of most pulsars better than either log-normal or power-law functions. For pulsars that were detected in a periodicity search, we computed the ratio of their single-pulse signal-to-noise ratios to their signal-to-noise ratios from a Fourier transform and looked for correlations between this ratio and physical parameters of the pulsars. The only correlation found is the expected relationship between this ratio and the spin period. Fitting log-normal distributions to the amplitudes of pulses from RRATs showed similar behaviour for most RRATs. Here, however, there seem to be two distinct distributions of pulses, with the lower-energy distribution being consistent with noise. Pulse-energy distributions for two of the RRATS processed were consistent with those found for normal pulsars, suggesting that pulsars and RRATs have a common emission mechanism, but other factors influence the specific emission properties of each source class.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in MNRA

Distribution and Migration of the Bowhead Whale, Balaena mysticetus, in the Eastern North American Arctic

Large catches of bowhead whales, Balaena mysticetus, were made in the Eastern Arctic of North America, principally in Davis Strait, Baffin Bay, the Lancaster Sound region, Hudson Bay, and southern Foxe Basin, between 1719 and 1915. Initial stock sizes have been estimated as 11 000 in 1825 for the "Davis Strait stock" and 680 in 1859 for the "Hudson Bay stock." The separate identity of these two putative stocks needs confirmation through direct evidence. Three sets of data were used to evaluate historic and present-day trends in the distribution of bowheads in the Eastern Arctic and to test hypotheses concerning the nature, timing, and routes of their migration. Published records from commercial whale fisheries prior to 1915, unpublished and some published records from the post-commercial whaling period 1915-1974, and reported sightings made mainly by environmental assessment personnel between 1975 and 1979, were tabulated and plotted on charts. Comments made by whalers and nineteenth-century naturalists concerning bowhead distribution and movements were summarized and critically evaluated. The major whaling grounds were: (1) the west coast of Greenland between ca. 60°N and 73°N, the spring and early summer "east side " grounds of the British whalers; (2) the spring "south-west fishing" grounds, including the northeast coast of Labrador, the mouth of Hudson Strait, southeast Baffin Island, and the pack ice edge extending east from Resolution Island; (3) the summer "west water" grounds, including Pond Inlet, the Lancaster Sound region, and Prince Regent Inlet; (4) the autumn "rock-nosing" grounds along the entire east coast of Baffin Island; (5) Cumberland Sound, a spring and fall ground; and (6) northwest Hudson Bay/southwest Foxe Basin. The belief of whalers that some segregation occurs within the "Davis Strait stock" cannot be refuted or confirmed on the above evidence. However, the evident predominance of young whales and females with calves in early season catches at the Pond Inlet floe edge and in summer catches well inside Lancaster Sound and Prince Regent Inlet suggests that the route and timing of their migration differs from that of adult males. Apparently most of the whales taken on the autumn "rock-nosing" grounds were large males. The possibility that females and calves circumnavigate Baffin Island, returning south by way of Fury and Hecla Strait, is neither proven nor unproven. Evaluation of harpoon recoveries did not yield irrefutable evidence of interchange between any presently recognized bowhead stocks; however, this evidence along with recognition of distinctive morphological features does indicate that bowheads exhibit site fidelity to some degree. The conclusion is that the bowhead population in the Eastern Arctic, severely reduced by whaling activities, continues to occupy much of its former range and follows the same migratory schedule. There is no reliable and consistent evidence of appreciable recovery in absolute abundance of any Eastern Arctic stock.Key words: bowhead whale, Balaena mysticetus, distribution, migration, population identity, whaling history, Davis Strait, Baffin Bay, Lancaster Sound, West Greenland, Hudson Bay, Foxe BasinMots clés: baleine boréale, Balaena mysticetus, distribution, migration, l'identité de la population, histoire de la pêche à la baleine, le détroit de Davis, la baie de Baffin, le détroit de Lancaster, ouest Groenland, la baie d'Hudson, le bassin de Fox

Determinants of Salary Dispersion among Political Science Faculty: The Differential Effects of Where You Work (Institutional Characteristics) and What You Do (Negotiate and Publish)

We evaluate hypotheses about human capital and structural theory-based predictors of variation in academic salaries. We use standard statistical models to explore differences in salary among full-time political science faculty, while also utilizing selection models to control for factors that place individuals on different trajectories stemming from their graduate school experience. We report on several findings, one of which is the positive effect on salary associated with graduation from a highly ranked PhD program; a second being the negative effect on salary of a high undergraduate teaching load. Other findings are that negotiation positively affects salary for men, but not for women, and that journal publications increase salaries amongst women, but not men. At the associate professor level, we find a significant gender gap in salary, even with controls for human capital, structural factors, and productivity. We also find a significant effect of race on the salaries of male faculty

Playing the long game: exploring the phenomenon of dementia friendly golf

As individuals age, participation in previously accessible leisure activities can be compromised through diminished capabilities and negative societal expectations. This study investigates the unexplored accessibility of golf for older people with dementia using interviews and observations of Scottish participants in social enterprise–led golfing activities. The resulting thematic analysis concluded that golf is an accessible activity for people living with dementia, and continued participation generates social connectedness and enhances well-being. However, there remain social barriers to participation including societal stigma surrounding the perceived abilities of people living with dementia and the perception of golf as a middle-class and male-dominated sport

A Giant Sample of Giant Pulses from the Crab Pulsar

We observed the Crab pulsar with the 43-m telescope in Green Bank, WV over a timespan of 15 months. In total we obtained 100 hours of data at 1.2 GHz and seven hours at 330 MHz, resulting in a sample of about 95000 giant pulses (GPs). This is the largest sample, to date, of GPs from the Crab pulsar taken with the same telescope and backend and analyzed as one data set. We calculated power-law fits to amplitude distributions for main pulse (MP) and interpulse (IP) GPs, resulting in indices in the range of 2.1-3.1 for MP GPs at 1.2 GHz and in the range of 2.5-3.0 and 2.4-3.1 for MP and IP GPs at 330 MHz. We also correlated the GPs at 1.2 GHz with GPs from the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT), which were obtained simultaneously at a higher frequency (8.9 GHz) over a span of 26 hours. In total, 7933 GPs from the 43-m telescope at 1.2 GHz and 39900 GPs from the GBT were recorded during these contemporaneous observations. At 1.2 GHz, 236 (3%) MP GPs and 23 (5%) IP GPs were detected at 8.9 GHz, both with zero chance probability. Another 15 (4%) low-frequency IP GPs were detected within one spin period of high-frequency IP GPs, with a chance probability of 9%. This indicates that the emission processes at high and low radio frequencies are related, despite significant pulse profile shape differences. The 43-m GPs were also correlated with Fermi gamma-ray photons to see if increased pair production in the magnetosphere is the mechanism responsible for GP emission. A total of 92022 GPs and 393 gamma-ray photons were used in this correlation analysis. No significant correlations were found between GPs and gamma-ray photons. This indicates that increased pair production in the magnetosphere is likely not the dominant cause of GPs. Possible methods of GP production may be increased coherence of synchrotron emission or changes in beaming direction.Comment: 33 pages, 10 figures, 6 tables, accepted for publication in Ap

The Creation and Expansion of the International Criminal Court: A Legal Explanation.

Abstract: International courts have proliferated in the international system in the past century, with one hundred judicial or quasi-judicial bodies currently in existence. While the supply of international courts has increased substantially, state level support for international courts varies across states, across courts, and over time. This paper focuses on the cross-sectional and temporal variation in state level support for a particular court, the International Criminal Court (ICC). The authors argue that domestic legal systems create different predispositions with respect to states' willingness to join adjudicatory bodies and the design of their commitments to international courts. Negotiators involved in the creation of the ICC pushed for rules and procedures that mimicked those of their domestic legal systems to help reduce uncertainty regarding the court's future behavior and decision-making processes. This interesting process of legal bargaining led to the creation of a sui generis court, one which represents a mixture of common law and civil law systems. The hybrid nature of the court's design enhanced the attractiveness of the court to civil and common law states, making them significantly more likely to sign and ratify the Rome Statute. Empirical models demonstrate that common and civil law states were fervent supporters of the ICC in preliminary negotiations and that they have shown higher levels of support for the Court since the ICC's inception in comparison to Islamic law or mixed law states

The spin axes orbital alignment of both stars within the eclipsing binary system V1143Cyg using the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect

Context: The Rossiter-McLaughlin (RM) effect, a rotational effect in eclipsing systems, provides unique insight into the relative orientation of stellar spin axes and orbital axes of eclipsing binary systems. Aims: Our aim is to develop a robust method to analyze the RM effect in an eclipsing system with two nearly equally bright components. This gives access to the orientation of the stellar rotation axes and may shed light on questions of binary formation and evolution. Methods: High-resolution spectra have been obtained both out of eclipse and during the primary and secondary eclipses in the V1143Cyg system, using the high-resolution Hamilton Echelle Spectrograph at the Lick Observatory. The Rossiter-McLaughlin effect is analyzed in two ways: (1) by measuring the shift of the line center of gravity during different phases of the eclipses and (2) by analysis of the line shape change of the rotational broadening function during eclipses. Results: The projected axes of both stars are aligned with the orbital spin within the observational uncertainties, with the angle of the primary rotation axis beta_p=0.3+-1.5 deg, and the angle of the secondary rotation axis beta_s=-1.2+-1.6 deg, thereby showing that the remaining difference between the theoretical and observed apsidal motion for this system is not due to a misalignment of the stellar rotation axes. Both methods utilized in this paper work very well, even at times when the broadening profiles of the two stars overlap.[abridged]Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A; 11 pages, 9 figures, 3 tables ; a typo in the abstract has been correcte

Give me a break! Unavoidable fatigue effects in cognitive pupillometry

Issue Online: 08 June 2023Pupillometry has a rich history in the study of perception and cognition. One perennial challenge is that the magnitude of the task-evoked pupil response diminishes over the course of an experiment, a phenomenon we refer to as a fatigue effect. Reducing fatigue effects may improve sensitivity to task effects and reduce the likelihood of confounds due to systematic physiological changes over time. In this paper, we investigated the degree to which fatigue effects could be ameliorated by experimenter intervention. In Experiment 1, we assigned participants to one of three groups—no breaks, kinetic breaks (playing with toys, but no social interaction), or chatting with a research assistant—and compared the pupil response across conditions. In Experiment 2, we additionally tested the effect of researcher observation. Only breaks including social interaction significantly reduced the fatigue of the pupil response across trials. However, in all conditions we found robust evidence for fatigue effects: that is, regardless of protocol, the task-evoked pupil response was substantially diminished (at least 60%) over the duration of the experiment. We account for the variance of fatigue effects in our pupillometry data using multiple common statistical modeling approaches (e.g., linear mixed-effects models of peak, mean, and baseline pupil diameters, as well as growth curve models of time-course data). We conclude that pupil attenuation is a predictable phenomenon that should be accommodated in our experimental designs and statistical models.Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Grant/Award Number: CEX2020-001010- S; Eusko Jaurlaritza; National Institutes of Health, Grant/ Award Number: R01 DC014281 and R01 DC019507; National Science Foundation, Grant/Award Number: DGE-174503