Three states, one common past: chance or malediction? The role of history and historiography in the formation of collective identities and mutual relations in Belarus, Lithuania and Poland

Common experiences and a common past offer a special possibility for good relations. But having a common past also can create disharmony. If one has to share traditions with others, it becomes more difficult to find specific elements to call one’s ‘own’. So especially in a situation of intensive search for identity a common past may be harmful to the formation of one’s own identity and to mutual relations as well. In the case of Belarus, Lithuania and Poland after 1989, both generalisations hold true. While Polish-Lithuanian relations are excellent, Lithuanian-Belarusian relations are rather complicated. The reasons for this are not only political or economic, but mainly a consequence of the important role history and historiography play in the process of collective identity formation. The present article will examine the structure of this process

Post-IPO Employment and Revenue Growth for U.S. IPOs, June 1996-2010

Analyzes employment and revenue growth, survival rate, sector, location, and venture capital involvement of U.S. companies that held initial public offerings on American markets from June 1996 through 2010, with a focus on firms younger than thirty years

Cygnus X-2, super-Eddington mass transfer, and pulsar binaries

We consider the unusual evolutionary state of the secondary star in Cygnus X-2. Spectroscopic data give a low mass (M_2 \simeq 0.5 - 0.7\msun) and yet a large radius (R_2 \simeq 7\rsun) and high luminosity (L_2 \simeq 150\lsun). We show that this star closely resembles a remnant of early massive Case B evolution, during which the neutron star ejected most of the \sim 3\msun transferred from the donor (initial mass M_{\rm 2i}\sim 3.6\msun) on its thermal time-scale $\sim 10^6$ yr. As the system is far too wide to result from common-envelope evolution, this strongly supports the idea that a neutron star efficiently ejects the excess inflow during super--Eddington mass transfer. Cygnus X-2 is unusual in having had an initial mass ratio $q_{\rm i} = M_{\rm 2i}/M_1$ in a narrow critical range near $q_{\rm i}\simeq 2.6$. Smaller $q_{\rm i}$ lead to long-period systems with the former donor near the Hayashi line, and larger $q_{\rm i}$ to pulsar binaries with shorter periods and relatively massive white dwarf companions. The latter naturally explain the surprisingly large companion masses in several millisecond pulsar binaries. Systems like Cygnus X-2 may thus be an important channel for forming pulsar binaries.Comment: 9 pages, 4 encapsulated figures, LaTeX, revised version with a few typos corrected and an appendix added, accepted by MNRA

Asymptotic Level Density of the Elastic Net Self-Organizing Feature Map

Whileas the Kohonen Self Organizing Map shows an asymptotic level density following a power law with a magnification exponent 2/3, it would be desired to have an exponent 1 in order to provide optimal mapping in the sense of information theory. In this paper, we study analytically and numerically the magnification behaviour of the Elastic Net algorithm as a model for self-organizing feature maps. In contrast to the Kohonen map the Elastic Net shows no power law, but for onedimensional maps nevertheless the density follows an universal magnification law, i.e. depends on the local stimulus density only and is independent on position and decouples from the stimulus density at other positions.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures. Link to publisher under http://link.springer.de/link/service/series/0558/bibs/2415/24150939.ht

STS-40 orbital acceleration research experiment flight results during a typical sleep period

The Orbital Acceleration Research Experiment (OARE), an electrostatic accelerometer package with complete on-orbit calibration capabilities, was flown for the first time aboard the Space Shuttle on STS-40. This is also the first time an accelerometer package with nano-g sensitivity and a calibration facility has flown aboard the Space Shuttle. The instrument is designed to measure and record the Space Shuttle aerodynamic acceleration environment from the free molecule flow regime through the rarified flow transition into the hypersonic continuum regime. Because of its sensitivity, the OARE instrument defects aerodynamic behavior of the Space Shuttle while in low-earth orbit. A 2-hour orbital time period on day seven of the mission, when the crew was asleep and other spacecraft activities were at a minimum, was examined. During the flight, a 'trimmed-mean' filter was used to produce high quality, low frequency data which was successfully stored aboard the Space Shuttle in the OARE data storage system. Initial review of the data indicated that, although the expected precision was achieved, some equipment problems occurred resulting in uncertain accuracy. An acceleration model which includes aerodynamic, gravity-gradient, and rotational effects was constructed and compared with flight data. Examination of the model with the flight data shows the instrument to be sensitive to all major expected low frequency acceleration phenomena; however, some erratic instrument bias behavior persists in two axes. In these axes, the OARE data can be made to match a comprehensive atmospheric-aerodynamic model by making bias adjustments and slight linear corrections for drift. The other axis does not exhibit these difficulties and gives good agreement with the acceleration model

The Common Core Debate

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) have ignited a passionate national debate about the standards that guide the education of our nation’s and state’s students. The purpose of this Arkansas Education Report is to add some clarity to the Common Core debate as well as offer a perspective that is specific to the Natural State

Short Interest and Stock Returns

Using a longer time period and both NYSE-Amex and Nasdaq stocks, this paper examines short interest and stock returns in more detail than any previous study and finds that many documented patterns are not robust. While equally weighted high short interest portfolios generally underperform, value weighted portfolios do not. In addition, there is a negative correlation between market returns and short interest over our whole period. Finally, inferences from short time periods, such as 1988-1994 when the underperformance of high short interest stocks was exceptional or 1995-2002, when high short interest Nasdaq stocks did not underperform, are misleading.