Unity in diversity : integrating differing linguistic data in TUSNELDA

This paper describes the creation and preparation of TUSNELDA, a collection of corpus data built for linguistic research. This collection contains a number of linguistically annotated corpora which differ in various aspects such as language, text sorts / data types, encoded annotation levels, and linguistic theories underlying the annotation. The paper focuses on this variation on the one hand and the way how these heterogeneous data are integrated into one resource on the other hand

Aggregate liquidity shortages, idiosyncracic liquidity smoothing and banking regulation

This paper develops a model of banking fragility driven by aggregate liquidity shortages. Inefficiencies arise because liquidity smoothing across banks breaks down when there is such a shortage, causing unnecessary and value-reducing transfer of assets between banks. We find that a Lender of Last Resort policy is ineffective in restoring efficiency as it leads to offsetting changes in the banks’ supply of liquidity. In contrast, subsidizing the purchase of assets from troubled banks increases welfare by improving the banks’ liquidity holdings. The first best, however, is achieved by redistributing liquidity from healthy to troubled banks in a crisis

Generalised model-independent characterisation of strong gravitational lenses IV: formalism-intrinsic degeneracies

Based on the standard gravitational lensing formalism with its effective, projected lensing potential in a given background cosmology, we investigate under which transformations of the source position and of the deflection angle the observable properties of the multiple images, i.e. the time delay differences, the relative image positions, relative shapes, and magnification ratios, remain invariant. As these observables only constrain local lens properties, we derive general, local invariance transformations in the areas covered by the multiple images. We show that the known global invariance transformations, e.g. the mass sheet transformation or the source position transformation, are contained in our invariance transformations, when they are restricted to the areas covered by the multiple images and when lens-model-based degeneracies are ignored, like the freedom to add or subtract masses in unconstrained regions without multiple images. Hence, we have identified the general class of invariance transformations that can occur, in particular in our model-independent local characterisation of strong gravitational lenses.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, in press in A&A, comments very welcome (update to accepted and improved version

\u27A Blood-Stained Corpse in the Butler\u27s Pantry’: The Queensland Bush Book Club

Lending libraries were not the norm in 1934 when the Carnegie Corporation of New York sent American librarian, Ralph Munn, to conduct a study of the condition of Australian libraries. In his initial survey Munn learned of the Queensland Bush Book Club, an organization of well-to-do, philanthropic women from Brisbane who had established a book lending service for settlers in the Outback. They hoped to ease the drudgery and lighten the burden faced by isolated women and their families in the rural areas. The antidote was a regular parcel of “proper” reading matter which included books, newspapers and magazines. They took advantage of a well-developed railway system to deliver the packages to rural families. Testimonials found in the Queensland Bush Book Club annual reports provide a snapshot of frontier life detailing drought, fire, flood and all manner of misfortune and privation. The reports also offer specifics of the type of books the settlers requested and the gratitude with which the parcels were received. Murder mysteries were at the top of the request list, as the title of this article suggests. This article also examines the relationships forged between town and country residents around the distribution of books, and the mechanics involved in providing a book lending service before free public libraries became commonplace

Generalised model-independent characterisation of strong gravitational lenses III: perturbed axisymmetric lenses

In galaxy-galaxy strong gravitational lensing, Einstein rings are generated when the lensing galaxy has an axisymmetric lensing potential and the source galaxy is aligned with its symmetry centre along the line of sight. Using a Taylor expansion around the Einstein radius and eliminating the unknown source, I derive a set of analytic equations that determine differences of the deflection angle of the perturber weighted by the convergence of the axisymmetric lens and ratios of the convergences at the positions of the arcs from the measurable thickness of the arcs. In the same manner, asymmetries in the brightness distributions along an arc determine differences in the deflection angle of the perturber if the source has a symmetric brightness profile and is oriented parallel to or orthogonal to the caustic. These equations are the only model-independent information retrievable from observations to leading order in the Taylor expansion. General constraints on the derivatives of the perturbing lens are derived such that the perturbation does not change the number of critical curves. To infer physical properties such as the mass of the perturber or its position, models need to be inserted. The same conclusions about the scale of detectable masses and model-dependent degeneracies as in other approaches are then found and supported by analysing B1938 as an example. Yet, the model-independent equations show that there is a fundamental degeneracy between the main lens and the perturber that can only be broken if their relative position is known. This explains the degeneracies between lens models already found in simulations from a more general viewpoint. Depending on the properties of the pertuber, this degeneracy can be broken by characterising the surrounding of the lens or by measuring the time delay between quasar images embedded in the perturbed Einstein ring of the host galaxy.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics, comments welcom

Lopez v. Gonzales & Toledo-Flores v. United States: State Felony Drug Convictions Not Necessarily Aggravated Felonies Requiring Deportation

The United States Courts of Appeals split over whether state felony drug convictions, which were punishable only as misdemeanors under federal law, constituted aggravated felonies under immigration law. The controversy was based upon the interpretation of the Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”). Under the Act, an alien who is convicted of an “aggravated felony” is automatically deported from the United States. According to the INA, an aggravated felony includes “illicit trafficking in a controlled substance . . . including a drug trafficking crime (as defined in section 924(c) of Title 18).” Although the INA does not define “illicit trafficking,” Title 18 of the U.S. Code defines “the term ‘drug trafficking crime’ [as] any felony punishable under the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. [§] 801 et seq.).” While the Controlled Substances Act (“CSA”) is a federal statute, the INA’s definition of aggravated felonies expressly includes crimes “whether in violation of state and federal law.” Since the INA was intended to include state convictions, the Court needed to clarify whether an “aggravated felony” under the INA included a felony conviction by state court that under federal law would be classified only as a misdemeanor