A Critical Review of Ian Barbour's Analysis of Discussions on the Mind/Body Problem

The concepts of mind, soul, and consciousness are key to an understanding of ourselves and how we interact with the universe around us. Ian Barbour names the mind/body problem as one of the major subjects of long-term discussion among religion, philosophy, and science, including cognitive psychology. However, his treatment of the traditional philosophical positions on this topic is wanting. What is most intriguing is that, after years of discussion, newer approaches to the mind/body problem seem to have come full circle, sharing many commonalities with the much older approach of property dualism

Estimation of the ocean geoid near the Blake Escarpment using GEOS-3 satellite altimetry

The accuracy with which the local ocean geoid structure could be determined using satellite altimetry data was investigated. The undulation and along-track component of the vertical deflection for selected passes of GEOS-3 near the Blake Escarpment were estimated and compared with independent analogous estimates based on U. S. Navy surface gravimetric survey data. The results of these comparisons show agreement in the geoid undulation values generally to within one or two meters. The nature of the discrepancy in the undulation values was primarily that of a bias error believed to be due essentially to radial orbit uncertainties. The agreement between the vertical deflection estimates was not significantly affected by orbit uncertainties over the track lengths considered in this study (100 - 1500 km), and the comparisons show typical rms differences of between one and two arc secs. In addition, the capability of the altimeter to resolve short wavelength features of the geoid was determined. This analysis involved spectrum and cross spectrum analysis of sets of closely spaced parallel subtracks to determine statistically significant short wavelength geoid resolution capability. The results of this analysis show that resolution can be achieved down to wavelengths as short as 30 km - 80 km depending on regional geoid variations

The real-time acquisition and tracking program for the USNS Vanguard

The computer program for the real-time acquisition and tracking program uses a variety of filtering algorithms including an extended Kalman filter to derive real-time orbit determination (position-velocity state vectors) from shipboard tracking and navigation data. Results from Apollo missions are given to show that orbital parameters can be estimated quickly and accurately using these methods

Corporate Reputation and Stock Returns; are good firm good for investors?

This paper employs a unique dataset from the UK based on ten years of surveys of company directors and analysts conducted for Management Today to examine the relationship between a firm’s reputation and the returns on its shares. We find that investors who purchase stocks with reputation scores that have risen significantly can make abnormal returns. Also, firms whose scores have fallen substantially still exhibit positive abnormal returns in both the short and long run when the market index is employed as a benchmark. However, when a more appropriate comparator is used, evidence of out-performance entirely disappearsManagement today, most admired firms, stock returns

The Stock Performance of America’s 100 Best Corporate Citizens

This study considers the stock performance of America’s 100 Best Corporate Citizens following the annual survey by Business Ethics. We examine both possible short-term announcement effects around the time of the survey’s publication, and whether longer-term returns are higher for firms that are listed as good citizens. We find some evidence of a positive market reaction to a firm’s presence in the Top 100 firms that are made public, and that holders of the stock of such firms earn small abnormal returns during an announcement window. Over the year following the announcement, companies in the Top 100 yield negative abnormal returns of around 3%. However, such companies tend to be large and with stocks exhibiting a growth style, which existing studies suggest will tend to perform poorly. Once we allow for these firm characteristics, the poor performance of the highly rated firms declines. We also find companies that are newly listed as good citizens can provide considerable positive abnormal returns to investors, even after allowing for their market capitalisation, price-to-book ratios, and sectoral classification.Corporate citzenship, business ethics 100 best corporate citzens, corporate social responsibility, stock returns, trading rule performance

The diminishing importance of major galaxy mergers at higher redshifts

Using mass-selected galaxy samples from deep multiwavelength data we investigate the incidence of close galaxy pairs between z=0.4-2. Many such close pairs will eventually merge, and the pair fraction is therefore related to the merger rate. Over this redshift range the mean pair fraction is essentially constant (evolving as f_pair (1+z)^{-0.4 +/- 0.6}) with about 6+/-1% of massive galaxies having a 1:4 or greater companion within 30h^-1 kpc. Assuming the timescale over which pairs merge is not a strong function of redshift, this implies a similarly constant merger rate (per unit time) out to z=2. Since about three times as much cosmic time passes at z<1 as between z=1-2, this implies that correspondingly more mergers occur in the low-redshift universe. When minor companions (1:10 mass ratio or greater) are included, the pair fraction increases to ~20% and still does not evolve strongly with redshift. We also use a rest-frame color criterion to select pairs containing only quiescent galaxies (major "dry merger" progenitors), and find them to be similarly rare and constant with 4-7% of massive quiescent galaxies exhibiting a nearby companion. Thus, even though other studies find major mergers to be relatively uncommon since z=1, our results suggest that few additional mergers occur in the 1<z<2 range and other mechanisms may be required to explain the mass and size growth of galaxies over this epoch.Comment: ApJ Letters in press; minor changes to title and text per referee's comments. 7 pages, 3 figure

Enhancing the Impact of Cross-Sector Partnerships. Four Impact Loops for Channeling Partnership Studies

This paper addresses the topic of this special symposium issue: how to enhance the impact of cross-sector partnerships. The paper takes stock of two related discussions: the discourse in cross-sector partnership research on how to assess impact and the discourse in impact assessment research on how to deal with more complex organizations and projects. We argue that there is growing need and recognition for cross-fertilization between the two areas. Cross-sector partnerships are reaching a paradigmatic status in society, but both research and practice need more thorough evidence of their impacts and of the conditions under which these impacts can be enhanced. This paper develops a framework that should enable a constructive interchange between the two research areas, while also framing existing research into more precise categories that can lead to knowledge accumulation. We address the preconditions for such a framework and discuss how the constituent parts of this framework interact. We distinguish four different pathways or impact loops that refer to four distinct orders of impact. The paper concludes by applying these insights to the four papers included in this special issue

Halogen bonding, chalcogen bonding, pnictogen bonding, tetrel bonding: origins, current status and discussion

The role of the closing lecture in a Faraday Discussion is to summarise the contributions made to the Discussion over the course of the meeting and in so doing capture the main themes that have arisen. This article is based upon my Closing Remarks Lecture at the 203(rd) Faraday Discussion meeting on Halogen Bonding in Supramolecular and Solid State Chemistry, held in Ottawa, Canada, on 10-12(th) July, 2017. The Discussion included papers on fundamentals and applications of halogen bonding in the solid state and solution phase. Analogous interactions involving main group elements outside group 17 were also examined. In the closing lecture and in this article these contributions have been grouped into the four themes: (a) fundamentals, (b) beyond the halogen bond, (c) characterisation, and (d) applications. The lecture and paper also include a short reflection on past work that has a bearing on the Discussion