3,251 research outputs found
What Emotions Really Are (In the Theory of Constructed Emotion)
Recently, Lisa Feldman Barrett and colleagues have introduced the Theory of Constructed Emotions (TCE), in which emotions are constituted by a process of categorizing the self as being in an emotional state. The view, however, has several counterintuitive implications: for instance, a person can have multiple distinct emotions at once. Further, the TCE concludes that emotions are constitutively social phenomena. In this article, I explicate the TCE*, which, while substantially similar to the TCE, makes several distinct claims aimed at avoiding the counterintuitive implications plaguing the TCE. Further, because of the changes that comprise the TCE*, emotions are not constitutively social phenomena
Upper Limits on the 21 cm Power Spectrum at z = 5.9 from Quasar Absorption Line Spectroscopy
We present upper limits on the 21 cm power spectrum at calculated
from the model-independent limit on the neutral fraction of the intergalactic
medium of derived from dark
pixel statistics of quasar absorption spectra. Using 21CMMC, a Markov chain
Monte Carlo Epoch of Reionization analysis code, we explore the probability
distribution of 21 cm power spectra consistent with this constraint on the
neutral fraction. We present 99 per cent confidence upper limits of
to over a range of from 0.5 to $2.0\
h{\rm Mpc}^{-1}kz=5.9$ in excess of this value is highly suggestive of residual foreground
contamination or other systematic errors affecting the analysis.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, accepted to MNRAS letter
Constraints on the temperature of the intergalactic medium at z=8.4 with 21-cm observations
We compute robust lower limits on the spin temperature, , of the
intergalactic medium (IGM), implied by the upper limits on the 21-cm
power spectrum recently measured by PAPER-64. Unlike previous studies which
used a single epoch of reionization (EoR) model, our approach samples a large
parameter space of EoR models: the dominant uncertainty when estimating
constraints on . Allowing to be a free parameter and
marginalizing over EoR parameters in our Markov Chain Monte Carlo code 21CMMC,
we infer (corresponding approximately to ) for
a mean IGM neutral fraction of . We
further improve on these limits by folding-in additional EoR constraints based
on: (i) the dark fraction in QSO spectra, which implies a strict upper limit of
; and (ii) the
electron scattering optical depth,
measured by the Planck satellite. By restricting the allowed EoR models, these
additional observations tighten the approximate lower limits on the
spin temperature to K. Thus, even such preliminary 21-cm
observations begin to rule out extreme scenarios such as `cold reionization',
implying at least some prior heating of the IGM. The analysis framework
developed here can be applied to upcoming 21-cm observations, thereby providing
unique insights into the sources which heated and subsequently reionized the
very early Universe.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, accepted to MNRAS (matches online version
A Sensitivity and Array-Configuration Study for Measuring the Power Spectrum of 21cm Emission from Reionization
Telescopes aiming to measure 21cm emission from the Epoch of Reionization
must toe a careful line, balancing the need for raw sensitivity against the
stringent calibration requirements for removing bright foregrounds. It is
unclear what the optimal design is for achieving both of these goals. Via a
pedagogical derivation of an interferometer's response to the power spectrum of
21cm reionization fluctuations, we show that even under optimistic scenarios,
first-generation arrays will yield low-SNR detections, and that different
compact array configurations can substantially alter sensitivity. We explore
the sensitivity gains of array configurations that yield high redundancy in the
uv-plane -- configurations that have been largely ignored since the advent of
self-calibration for high-dynamic-range imaging. We first introduce a
mathematical framework to generate optimal minimum-redundancy configurations
for imaging. We contrast the sensitivity of such configurations with
high-redundancy configurations, finding that high-redundancy configurations can
improve power-spectrum sensitivity by more than an order of magnitude. We
explore how high-redundancy array configurations can be tuned to various
angular scales, enabling array sensitivity to be directed away from regions of
the uv-plane (such as the origin) where foregrounds are brighter and where
instrumental systematics are more problematic. We demonstrate that a
132-antenna deployment of the Precision Array for Probing the Epoch of
Reionization (PAPER) observing for 120 days in a high-redundancy configuration
will, under ideal conditions, have the requisite sensitivity to detect the
power spectrum of the 21cm signal from reionization at a 3\sigma level at
k<0.25h Mpc^{-1} in a bin of \Delta ln k=1. We discuss the tradeoffs of low-
versus high-redundancy configurations.Comment: 34 pages, 5 figures, 2 appendices. Version accepted to Ap
The Eighth Amendment\u27s Proscription against Cruel and Unusual Punishments Requires a Categorical Rejection of the Death Penalty as Imposed on Juvenile Offenders under the Age of Eighteen: \u3cem\u3eRoper v. Simmons\u3c/em\u3e
The Supreme Court of the United States held that the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments prohibit the execution of individuals who were under eighteen years of age at the time of their capital crimes.
Roper v. Simmons, 125 S. Ct. 1183 (2005)
Gender Representation in Austrian Legislative Texts: The Challenge of Gender Equality, Comprehensibility, and Practicality in German
(Beitrag 5. Europäisches Symposium zur Verständlichkeit von Rechtsvorschriften des Bundesministeriums der Justiz und für Verbraucherschutz)
Art. 7 para 1 of the Austrian Federal Constitutional Act decrees: “All citizens are equal before the law. Privileges of birth, gender, civil status, class and creed are ruled out” (original: „Alle Staatsbürger sind vor dem Gesetz gleich. Vorrechte der Geburt, des Geschlechtes, des Standes, der Klasse und des Bekenntnisses sind ausgeschlossen“, authors’ emphasis and translation). Research on the representation of gender in normative texts is scarce for legislative drafting in Austria. This paper focuses on the three interconnected issues of comprehensibility, gender inclusivity and practicality in legislative drafting. 600 Austrian normative texts were collected by random sampling and subsequently XML-annotated. The texts were then subjected to a corpus-aided quantitative and qualitative analysis of all gender references attested. The following research questions form the basis of the inquiry:
RQ1: Which tendencies of gender representation are identifiable in normative texts
currently in effect?
RQ2: Can the predominance of androcentric representation in Austrian normative texts
be empirically observable? If so, how?
It is found that representation of gender in Austrian normative texts tends to be encoded by means of the generic masculine (GM) and only in exceptional cases by a generic feminine (GF). The GM functions as an umbrella concept used to refer to all legal subjects. This in turn creates groups of those who are named in the law and those who remain silenced or marginalised. It is therefore argued that a critique of the masculine used in general such as citizen (Staatsbürger M) is reasonable in legislative drafting practices. The high frequency of the GM in normative texts may be explained by the socially constructed gender-sex congruence and the morpho-semantic coincidence of the nomen agentis with the GM
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