A compact steep spectrum radio source in NGC1977

A compact steep spectrum radio source (J0535-0452) is located in the sky coincident with a bright optical rim in the HII region NGC1977. J0535-0452 is observed to be $\leq 100$ mas in angular size at 8.44 GHz. The spectrum for the radio source is steep and straight with a spectral index of -1.3 between 330 and 8440 MHz. No 2 \mu m IR counter part for the source is detected. These characteristics indicate that the source may be either a rare high redshift radio galaxy or a millisecond pulsar (MSP). Here we investigate whether the steep spectrum source is a millisecond pulsar.The optical rim is believed to be the interface between the HII region and the adjacent molecular cloud. If the compact source is a millisecond pulsar, it would have eluded detection in previous pulsar surveys because of the extreme scattering due to the HII region--molecular cloud interface. The limits obtained on the angular broadening along with the distance to the scattering screen are used to estimate the pulse broadening. The pulse broadening is shown to be less than a few msec at frequencies \gtsim 5 GHz. We therefore searched for pulsed emission from J0535-0452 at 14.8 and 4.8 GHz with the Green Bank Telescope (GBT). No pulsed emission is detected to 55 and 30 \mu Jy level at 4.8 and 14.8 GHz. Based on the parameter space explored by our pulsar search algorithm, we conclude that, if J0535-0452 is a pulsar, then it could only be a binary MSP of orbital period \ltsim 5 hrs.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A (3pages, 1 fig

BANKRUPTCY - CORPORATE REORGANIZATION - EFFECT OF RELEASE OF COLLATERAL OBLIGOR ON DISSENTING CREDITORS

The federal district court confirmed a plan of reorganization of debtor corporation, under section 77B of the Bankruptcy Act, which expressly released defendant from liability as guarantor of bonds of the corporation and provided for cancellation of the bonds and substitution of new certificates of stock. The plaintiff, a bondholder, made no objection when the plan was submitted to the court; objection by other bondholders was overruled. The plaintiff brought suit in municipal court on the defendant\u27s guaranty. Defendant pleaded the confirmation of the plan by the district court as res adjudicata. The trial court denied the plea and entered judgment for the plaintiff. Held, trial court reversed and plea of res adjudicata allowed, it not appearing that the federal district court was wholly without jurisdiction to cancel the guaranty and release the defendant. Gottlieb v. Crowe, 289 Ill. App. 595, 7 N. E. (2d) 469 (1937)

CRIMINAL LAW AND PROCEDURE - APPEAL BY STATE - CONSTITUTIONALITY OF STATUTES-DUE PROCESS OF LAW

Developing as a result of a period when an accused person was placed at a tremendous disadvantage at the hands of tyrannical judges exercising an unconscionable abuse of power, the concept that no person shall be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb was put into the Fifth Amendment of the Federal Constitution and into many of the state constitutions. As a part of this double jeopardy concept, the American courts, from the first, established the rule that the state should not be allowed to appeal in a criminal prosecution. The accused, rather than being imposed upon, was granted many other aids and safeguards. But in recent years there has been a reaction against the idea that the punishment of crime is a sort of invasion of natural right, and, a realization that, as Holmes put it, at the present time in this country there is more danger that criminals will escape justice than that they will be subjected to tyranny

WILLS - PROBATE - CONTEST - APPEARANCE BY TRUSTEE AND EXECUTOR NAMED IN EARLIER WILL

Petitioner, who was the widow of the testator, sought probate of a will dated December 1934 which gave her practically the entire estate. The bank filed opposition to the will. The bank was named both as executor and as trustee in an earlier alleged will. The earlier will contained certain legacies not included in the later one and a trust of the residue for various beneficiaries. The probate court denied appearance of the bank both as executor and as trustee. Held, the bank is not entitled to contest the will as executor but may as trustee. Reed v. Home National Bank of Brockton, (Mass. 1937) 8 N. E. (2d) 601

BILLS AND NOTES - FALSE IMPERSONATION - EFFECT OF ABSENCE OF PRIOR NEGOTIATIONS WITH IMPOSTOR

The plaintiff obtained a draft drawn on defendant bank with the plaintiff as payee, and indorsed by her in blank. The draft was for payment of a condemnation award to be sold at a discount through a broker. The plaintiff\u27s husband, acting as her agent, went to the broker\u27s office with his attorney. A man came in and was introduced, by one acting as his attorney, as Harry Wolter, the owner of the award. Thereupon plaintiff\u27s husband handed the draft to his attorney, who wrote over the blank indorsements pay to the order of Harry Wolter. There were no further negotiations. The one representing himself to be Harry Wolter was an impostor. He indorsed the draft in the name of Harry Wolter to one Jacoby, who paid value for it, presented it to the defendant bank and was paid. The defendant charged the plaintiff\u27s account and the plaintiff now sues to recover against the bank. Jacoby was joined as defendant, being the one who would ultimately have to pay if the plaintiff was successful. Held, the defendant drawee bank had no right to charge the plaintiff\u27s account for the amount of the draft. The signature was treated as a forgery since the real payee intended was the one named and not the impostor, there being no prior negotiations with the impostor. Cohen v. Lincoln Savings Bank of Brooklyn, 275 N. Y. 399, 10 N. E. (2d) 457 (1937)

EVIDENCE - JUDICIAL NOTICE OF MEDICAL FACTS - JUDGE\u27S RIGHT OF PRIVATE INVESTIGATION

A recent case, Anderson v. Jersey Creamery Co., invokes a discussion of the problems of judicial knowledge particularly as it is pertinent to cases involving medical science. This was an action under the Survival Act for electrocution of defendant\u27s employee, who, while working in a wet truck, came in contact with a charged conduit. To maintain the action it was necessary to show that the death was not instantaneous. The father of the deceased testified that he saw his son\u27s face twitch and fingers move while resuscitation was being attempted with a pulmotor. The plaintiff produced no medical testimony to show that the acts testified to were evidences of life. Verdict for the plaintiff. The trial judge granted a motion non obstante veredicto, concluding, after an examination of the law and an extensive independent investigation upon the general subject of electrocution, that death was instantaneous. Held, inter alia, that the trial court erred in basing its decision upon the contents of scientific books

CORPORATIONS - CORPORATE SEAL - WHEN AFFIXING SEAL MAKES THE INSTRUMENT A SPECIALTY

The plaintiff contracted to buy gasoline from a subsidiary of the defendant. The lengthy contract was signed at the end by the proper officers and in juxtaposition to the signatures were the corporate seals of both parties. The contract contained a recital of sealing. On a separate page, but attached to the contract, was a guaranty by the defendant of the subsidiary\u27s performance. This also was sealed with the corporate seals of both parties adjacent to the signatures of the officers. No mention of sealing was contained in the guaranty. On default by the subsidiary, the plaintiff sued on the guaranty as a specialty. The defendant answered with the defense of the three-year period of limitations for simple contracts. The plaintiff demurred to this answer. Held, demurrer sustained on the technical ground that the declaration on a specialty cannot be answered by a plea of statute of limitations as to simple contracts. But the court, per dicta, intimates that the defendant is correct in contending that the instrument sued on is a simple contract. General Petroleum Corp. v. Seaboard Terminals Corp., (D. C. Md. 1937) 19 F. Supp. 882

A High-Frequency Search for Pulsars Within the Central Parsec of SgrA*

We report results from a deep high-frequency search for pulsars within the central parsec of Sgr A* using the Green Bank Telescope. The observing frequency of 15 GHz was chosen to maximize the likelihood of detecting normal pulsars (i.e. with periods of $\sim 500$\,ms and spectral indices of $\sim -1.7$) close to Sgr A*, that might be used as probes of gravity in the strong-field regime; this is the highest frequency used for such pulsar searches of the Galactic Center to date. No convincing candidate was detected in the survey, with a $10\sigma$ detection threshold of $\sim 10 \mu$Jy achieved in two separate observing sessions. This survey represents a significant improvement over previous searches for pulsars at the Galactic Center and would have detected a significant fraction ($\gtrsim 5%) of the pulsars around Sgr A*, if they had properties similar to those of the known population. Using our best current knowledge of the properties of the Galactic pulsar population and the scattering material toward Sgr A*, we estimate an upper limit of 90 normal pulsars in orbit within the central parsec of Sgr A*.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in the ApJ

VLBI for Gravity Probe B. VII. The Evolution of the Radio Structure of IM Pegasi

We present measurements of the total radio flux density as well as very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) images of the star, IM Pegasi, which was used as the guide star for the NASA/Stanford relativity mission Gravity Probe B. We obtained flux densities and images from 35 sessions of observations at 8.4 GHz (wavelength = 3.6 cm) between 1997 January and 2005 July. The observations were accurately phase-referenced to several extragalactic reference sources, and we present the images in a star-centered frame, aligned by the position of the star as derived from our fits to its orbital motion, parallax, and proper motion. Both the flux density and the morphology of IM Peg are variable. For most sessions, the emission region has a single-peaked structure, but 25% of the time, we observed a two-peaked (and on one occasion perhaps a three-peaked) structure. On average, the emission region is elongated by 1.4 +- 0.4 mas (FWHM), with the average direction of elongation being close to that of the sky projection of the orbit normal. The average length of the emission region is approximately equal to the diameter of the primary star. No significant correlation with the orbital phase is found for either the flux density or the direction of elongation, and no preference for any particular longitude on the star is shown by the emission region.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Serie