Following Black Hole Scaling Relations Through Gas-Rich Mergers

We present black hole mass measurements from kinematic modeling of high-spatial resolution integral field spectroscopy of the inner regions of 9 nearby (ultra-)luminous infrared galaxies in a variety of merger stages. These observations were taken with OSIRIS and laser guide star adaptive optics on the Keck I and Keck II telescopes, and reveal gas and stellar kinematics inside the spheres of influence of these supermassive black holes. We find that this sample of black holes are overmassive ($\sim10^{7-9}$ M$_{Sun}$) compared to the expected values based on black hole scaling relations, and suggest that the major epoch of black hole growth occurs in early stages of a merger, as opposed to during a final episode of quasar-mode feedback. The black hole masses presented are the dynamical masses enclosed in $\sim$25pc, and could include gas which is gravitationally bound to the black hole but has not yet lost sufficient angular momentum to be accreted. If present, this gas could in principle eventually fuel AGN feedback or be itself blown out from the system.Comment: accepted to Ap

Stabilisation Agriculture: Reviewing an Emerging Concept with Case Studies from Afghanistan and Iraq

Stabilisation Agriculture has been defined as a focus on enhancing the ecological and social resilience of agricultural communities to withstand and respond to adverse conditions in countries affected by disasters, ranging from climate events to conflict and complex emergencies. However, in this review paper, rather than taking a broad disaster risk management approach to the topic, a focus is made on the nexus between agriculture, food security and conflict. Food insecurity, for example, can trigger instability and conflict, leading to the collapse of agricultural infrastructure, the loss of farm labour, and local farming knowledge through loss of life and forced migration. This cycle becomes endemic and reinforcing, often resulting in chronic food shortages and eventually conflict-driven famine. Hence, why an emphasis on post-conflict "stabilisation" is made in this examination of the emerging concept of Stabilisation Agriculture. Case studies from Afghanistan and Iraq are used to illustrate the benefits of elevating agriculture as a critical response tool in post-conflict and stabilisation settings, and following a subsequent discussion that explores the critical synergies in this emerging field, a redefined definition of Stabilisation Agriculture is proposed along with recommendations for future development through policy inclusion and mainstreaming, post-conflict programming and applied research

Leaf:wood allometry and functional traits together explain substantial growth rate variation in rainforest trees

Plant growth rates drive ecosystem productivity and are a central element of plant ecological strategies. For seedlings grown under controlled conditions, a large literature has firmly identified the functional traits that drive interspecific variation in growth rate. For adult plants, the corresponding knowledge is surprisingly poorly understood. Until recently it was widely assumed that the key trait drivers would be the same (e.g. specific leaf area, or SLA), but an increasing number of papers has demonstrated this not to be the case, or not generally so. New theory has provided a prospective basis for understanding these discrepancies. Here we quantified relationships between stem diameter growth rates and functional traits of adult woody plants for 41 species in an Australian tropical rainforest. From various cost-benefit considerations, core predictions included that: (i) photosynthetic rate would be positively related to growth rate; (ii) SLA would be unrelated to growth rate (unlike in seedlings where it is positively related to growth); (iii) wood density would be negatively related to growth rate; and (iv) leaf mass:sapwood mass ratio (LM:SM) in branches (analogous to a benefit:cost ratio) would be positively related to growth rate. All our predictions found support, particularly those for LM:SM and wood density; photosynthetic rate was more weakly related to stem diameter growth rates. Specific leaf area was convincingly correlated to growth rate, in fact negatively. Together, SLA, wood density and LM:SM accounted for 52 % of variation in growth rate among these 41 species, with each trait contributing roughly similar explanatory power. That low SLA species can achieve faster growth rates than high SLA species was an unexpected result but, as it turns out, not without precedent, and easily understood via cost-benefit theory that considers whole-plant allocation to different tissue types. Branch-scale leaf:sapwood ratio holds promise as an easily measurable variable that may help to understand growth rate variation. Using cost-benefit approaches teamed with combinations of leaf, wood and allometric variables may provide a path towards a more complete understanding of growth rates under field conditions

Report on the State of Available Data for the Study of International Trade and Foreign Direct Investment

This report, prepared for the Committee on Economic Statistics of the American Economic Association, examines the state of available data for the study of international trade and foreign direct investment. Data on values of imports and exports of goods are of high quality and coverage, but price data suffer from insufficient detail. It would be desirable to have more data measuring value-added in trade as well as prices of comparable domestic and imported inputs. Value data for imports and exports of services are too aggregated and valuations are questionable, while price data for service exports and imports are almost non-existent. Foreign direct investment data are of high quality but quality has suffered from budget cuts. Data on trade in intellectual property are fragmentary. The intangibility of the trade makes measurement difficult, but budget cuts have added to the difficulties. Modest funding increases would result in data more useful for research and policy analysis.

Overview of nucleon structure studies

A brief overview of the recent activity in the measurement of the elastic electromagnetic proton and neutron form factors is presented. It is discussed how the quality of the data has been greatly improved by performing double polarization experiments, and the role of two-photon exchange processes will be highlighted. The spatial information on the quark charge distribibutions in the nucleon resulting from the form factors measurements will be discussed, as well as the steady rate of improvements made in the lattice QCD calculations. It is discussed how generalized parton distributions have emerged as a unifying theme in hadron physics linking the spatial densities extracted from form factors with the quark momentum distribution information residing in quark structure functions. The recent progress in the electromagnetic excitation of the $\Delta(1232)$ resonance will also briefly be discussed.Comment: prepared for Proceedings of International Nuclear Physics Conference (INPC07), typos corrected + references adde

Warm Molecular Gas Traced with CO J=7->6 in the Galaxy's Central 2 Parsecs: Dynamical Heating of the Circumnuclear Disk

We present an 11 arcsec resolution map of the central two parsecs of the Galaxy in the CO J =7->6 rotational transition. The CO emission shows rotation about Sgr A*, but also evidence for non-circular turbulent motion and a clumpy morphology. We combine our dataset with available CO measurements to model the physical conditions in the disk. We find that the molecular gas in the region is both warm and dense, with T~200-300 K, n_H2~50,000-70,000 cm^-3. The mass of warm molecular gas we measure in the central two parsecs is at least 2000 M_solar, about 20 times the UV-excited atomic gas mass, ruling out an UV heating scenario for the molecular material. We compare the available spectral tracers with theoretical models and conclude that molecular gas is heated with magneto-hydrodynamic shocks with v~10-20 kms and B~0.3-0.5 mG. Using the conditions derived with the CO analysis, we include the other important coolants--neutral oxygen and molecular hydrogen--to estimate the total cooling budget of the molecular material. We derive a mass to luminosity ratio of 2-3 M_solar/ L_solar, which is consistent with the total power dissipated via turbulent decay in 0.1 pc cells with v_rms~15 kms. These size and velocity scales are comparable to the observed clumping scale and the velocity dispersion. At this rate, the material near Sgr A* its dissipating its orbital energy on an orbital timescale, and cannot last for more than a few orbits. Our conclusions support a scenario in which the features near Sgr A* such as the CND and northern arm are generated by infalling clouds with low specific angular momentum.Comment: 31 pages, including 5 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Parents, children and the porous boundaries of the sexual family in law and popular culture

This article focuses on a perceived ideological overlap between popular cultural and judicial treatments of sex and conjugality that contributes to a discursive construction of parenthood and parenting. The author perceives that in both legal and popular cultural texts, there is a sense in which notions of ‘natural’ childhood are discursively constituted as being put at risk by those who reproduce outside of dominant sexual norms, and that signs of normative sexuality (typically in the form of heterosexual coupling) may be treated as a sign of safety. These ideas are rooted in ancient associations between fertility, sexuality and femininity that can also be traced in the historical development of the English language. With the help of commentators such as Martha Fineman, the article situates parents and children within a discourse of family which prioritises conjugality, with consequences for the ways in which the internal and external boundaries of families are delineated

We must become gatekeepers : editing indigenous writing

With the proliferation of Indigenous texts currently published by specialist and mainstream publishers, non-Indigenous editors increasingly find themselves negotiating the uncomfortable territories of race, politics and power for which current training (in an Australian context) leaves them poorly prepared. Indigenous writer Anita Heiss advocates the employment of Indigenous editors as an \u27ideal\u27 solution, though few are currently working in the Australian industry. Margaret McDonell, an experienced non-Indigenous editor of Indigenous texts, suggests non-Indigenous editors need to \u27undertake a journey of learning\u27 during which \u27assumptions, biases, tastes and preconceptions\u27 are examined. Yet this presents a difficult task within a postcolonial society, when, as identified by Clare Bradford, even the classification of texts into genres such as fiction and the short story represents an entirely Eurocentric construct, \u27not readily correspond[ing] with Aboriginal schemata\u27. The Australian Society of Authors\u27 discussion paper \u27Writing about Indigenous Australia: Some Issues to Consider and Protocols to Follow\u27 provides practical guidelines that may be adapted for editorial use. This article canvasses these and other ideas with a focus on establishing an ethical and appropriately sensitive cross-cultural approach to editing Indigenous writing.<br /