Abstract
This essay reviews Stefan Eich’s book, The Currency of Politics: The Political Theory of Money from Aristotle to Keynes, Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 2022. Eich reveals ...the political interventions, both theoretical and practical, that have led to the appearance that money is not to be politicized or subject to democratic control. Although mildly critical of Eich’s book, the review above all serves the constructive purpose of building upon Eich’s insights by selectively examining the theories of money and episodes from monetary history in and through which the politics of money has been contested.
To be monetised, a society requires a unit which measures the values of a wide range of goods. Being thus measurable, the values of goods are mutually commensurable, a point which Aristotle theorised ...in the Nicomachean Ethics (Book V). But whereas Aristotle gives rise to the impression that the stipulation of a currency unit suffices to make goods commensurable, societies themselves must undergo a process of commensurabilisation whereby people become habituated to valuing goods in terms of a unit of value. This essay examines the development of practices of valuation and commensurability in ancient Greece, paying particular attention to the rule of Solon and his division of the citizenry into census classes according to their yearly income. The assessment of citizens’ income presupposes a unit for measuring income. The stipulation of this unit, it is argued, had a decisive influence in developing practices of valuation and commensurability.
The ontology of money Peacock, Mark S.
Cambridge journal of economics,
08/2017, Volume:
41, Issue:
5
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Tony Lawson’s recent foray into social ontology in this Journal takes, as its subject, money. This essay examines Lawson’s ontological analysis of money with a view to clarifying the compatibility ...between his ontological position and credit theories of money, especially those which stand in the chartalist tradition. It also examines Lawson’s claims about commodity theories of money in light of credit theorists’ pronunciations on commodity theories.
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We present the first optical spectroscopy of five confirmed (or strong candidate) redback millisecond pulsar binaries, obtaining complete radial velocity curves for each companion star. The ...properties of these millisecond pulsar binaries with low-mass, hydrogen-rich companions are discussed in the context of the 14 confirmed and 10 candidate field redbacks. We find that the neutron stars in redbacks have a median mass of 1.78 0.09 M with a dispersion of = 0.21 0.09. Neutron stars with masses in excess of 2 M are consistent with, but not firmly demanded by, current observations. Redback companions have median masses of 0.36 0.04 M with a scatter of = 0.15 0.04 M , and a tail possibly extending up to 0.7-0.9 M . Candidate redbacks tend to have higher companion masses than confirmed redbacks, suggesting a possible selection bias against the detection of radio pulsations in these more massive candidate systems. The distribution of companion masses between redbacks and the less massive black widows continues to be strongly bimodal, which is an important constraint on evolutionary models for these systems. Among redbacks, the median efficiency of converting the pulsar spin-down energy to γ-ray luminosity is ∼10%.
ABSTRACT We present the X-ray luminosity function (XLF) of low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) in the globular clusters (GCs) and fields of seven early-type galaxies. These galaxies are selected to have ...both deep Chandra observations, which allow their LMXB populations to be observed to X-ray luminosities of 1037-1038 erg s−1, and Hubble Space Telescope optical mosaics that enable the X-ray sources to be separated into field LMXBs, GC LMXBs, and contaminating background and foreground sources. We find that at all luminosities the number of field LMXBs per stellar mass is similar in these galaxies. This suggests that the field LMXB populations in these galaxies are not effected by the GC specific frequency, and that properties such as binary fraction and the stellar initial mass function are either similar across the sample or change in a way that does not affect the number of LMXBs. We compare the XLF of the field LMXBs to that of the GC LMXBs and find that they are significantly different with a p-value of 3 × 10−6 (equivalent to 4.7 for a normal distribution). The difference is such that the XLF of the GC LMXBs is flatter than that of the field LMXBs, with the GCs hosting relatively more bright sources and fewer faint sources. A comparison of the XLF of the metal-rich and metal-poor GCs hints that the metal-poor clusters may have more bright LMXBs, but the difference is not statistically significant.
We investigate the integrated far-ultraviolet (FUV) emission from globular clusters. We present new FUV photometry of M87's clusters based on archival Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide Field ...Planetary Camera 2 F170W observations. We use these data to test the reliability of published photometry based on HST space telescope imaging spectrograph FUV-MAMA observations, which are now known to suffer from significant red-leak. We generally confirm these previous FUV detections, but suggest they may be somewhat fainter. We compare the FUV emission from bright (M sub( V) < -9.0) clusters in the Milky Way, M31, M81 and M87 to each other and to the predictions from stellar populations models. Metal-rich globular clusters show a large spread in FUV - V, with some clusters in M31, M81 and M87 being much bluer than standard predictions. This requires that some metal-rich clusters host a significant population of blue/extreme horizontal branch (HB) stars. These hot HB stars are not traditionally expected in metal-rich environments, but are a natural consequence of multiple populations in clusters -- since the enriched population is observed to be He enhanced and will therefore produce bluer HB stars, even at high metallicity. We conclude that the observed FUV emission from metal-rich clusters in M31, M81 and M87 provides evidence that He-enhanced second populations, similar to those observed directly in the Milky Way, may be a ubiquitous feature of globular clusters in the local Universe. Future HST FUV photometry is required to both confirm our interpretation of these archival data and provide constraints on He-enriched second populations of stars in extragalactic globular clusters.
We present the resolved stellar populations in the inner and outer halo of the nearby lenticular galaxy NGC 3115. Using deep Hubble Space Telescope observations, we analyze stars 2 mag fainter than ...the tip of the red giant branch (TRGB). We study three fields along the minor axis of this galaxy, 19, 37, and 54 kpc from its center-corresponding to 7, 14, and 21 effective radii (re). Even at these large galactocentric distances, all of the fields are dominated by a relatively enriched population, with the main peak in the metallicity distribution decreasing with radius from Z/H ~ -0.5 to -0.65. The fraction of metal-poor stars (Z/H < -0.95) increases from 17% at 16-37 kpc to 28% at ~54 kpc. We observe a distinct low-metallicity population (peaked at Z/H ~ -1.3 and with total mass 2 x 10 super(10) M sub(middot in circle) ~ 14% of the galaxy's stellar mass) and argue that this represents the detection of an underlying low-metallicity stellar halo. Such halos are generally predicted by galaxy formation theories and have been observed in several late-type galaxies, including the Milky Way and M31. The metallicity and spatial distribution of the stellar halo of NGC 3115 are consistent with the galaxy's globular cluster system, which has a similar low-metallicity population that becomes dominant at these large radii. This finding supports the use of globular clusters as bright chemodynamical tracers of galaxy halos. These data also allow us to make a precise measurement of the magnitude of the TRGB, from which we derive a distance modulus of NGC 3115 of 30.05 + or - 0.05 + or - 0.10 sub(sys) (10.2 + or - 0.2 + or - 0.5 sub(sys) Mpc).
ABSTRACT
We have identified seven ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) that are coincident with globular cluster candidates (GC) associated with M87. ULXs in the old GC environment represent a new ...population of ULXs, and ones likely to be black holes. In this study, we perform detailed X-ray spectroscopic follow-up to seven GC ULXs across a wealth of archival Chandra observations and long time baseline of 16 yr. This study brings the total known sample of GC ULXs to 17. Two of these sources show variability in their X-ray luminosity of an order of magnitude over many years, and one of these sources shows intra-observational variability on the scale of hours. While the X-ray spectra of the majority of GC ULXs are best fit by single-component models, one of the sources studied in this paper is the second GC ULX to be best fit by a two-component model. We compare this new sample of GC ULXs to the previously studied sample, and compare the X-ray and optical properties counterparts across the samples. We find that the clusters that host ULXs in M87 have metallicities from g − z = 1.01 to g − z = 1.70. The best-fitting power-law indices of the X-ray spectra range from Γ = 1.37 to 2.21, and the best-fitting inner blackbody disc temperatures range from kT = 0.56 to 1.90 keV.
ABSTRACT
RZ2109 is the first of several extragalactic globular clusters shown to host an ultraluminous X-ray source. RZ2109 is particularly notable because optical spectroscopy shows it has broad, ...luminous O iii λλ4959,5007 emission, while also having no detectable hydrogen emission. The X-ray and optical characteristics of the source in RZ2109 make it a good candidate for being a stellar mass black hole accreting from a white dwarf donor (i.e. an ultracompact black hole X-ray binary). In this paper we present optical spectroscopic monitoring of the O iii5007 emission line from 2007 to 2018. We find that the flux of the emission line is significantly lower in recent observations from 2016 to 2018 than it was in earlier observations in 2007–2011. We also explore the behaviour of the emission line shape over time. Both the core and the wings of the emission line decline over time, with some evidence that the core declines more rapidly than the wings. However, the most recent observations (in 2019) unexpectedly show the emission line core rebrightening
Objectives
Vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency is a worldwide public health issue that has been linked to numerous inflammatory disorders, including periodontitis. There is increasing support for a ...role for adequate vitamin D levels in overall health. Populations with darker skin color have a higher prevalence of vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency and periodontitis. The purpose of this small pilot study was to investigate the influence of 12 weeks of 25(OH)D vitamin D supplementation (VDS) on mediators of systemic inflammation in dark‐skinned, periodontitis patients.
Materials and Methods
A total of 23 patients with moderate to severe periodontitis were randomly assigned to the vitamin D group or placebo group and received intensive single visit scaling and root planning to elicit a systemic inflammatory response.
Results
Vitamin D supplementation increased serum 25(OH)D levels approximately 2‐fold over baseline levels; moreover, VDS group had reduced peripheral blood CD3 and CD3+CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTLs) counts and reduced pro‐inflammatory salivary cytokines. In contrast, VDS group had higher levels of the autophagy‐related proteins and other proteins crucial for anti‐microbial autophagy in whole blood PBMCs.
Conclusion
In conclusion, VDS has multiple benefits for reducing systemic inflammation and promoting induction of autophagy‐related proteins related to anti‐microbial functions.
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CMK, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
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