detailed investigation would lead to no recommendations for change. At the other end of this wide spectrum is the possibility of professional malfeasance (see the paper by Graham Neale on p 14837), and even purposeful harmful acts are not impossible. Unlike the airline pilot, medical professionals do not share the fate of those in their care. Even if the patient dies because the hospital bums d...

Occupational gender segregation--the tendency for women and men to work in different occupations--is an important feature of all societies, and particularly the wealthy industrialized ones. To understand this segregation, and to explain its significance, we need to distinguish between vertical segregation entailing inequality and horizontal segregation representing difference without inequality...

Among the differences between 'real' gaps and parasitic gaps (PGaps) that have been noted in the literature two kinds of asymmetries have received much attention: (i) PGaps, unlike real gaps, are restricted to (certain kinds of) NPs (Cinque 1990, Postal 1993b) and (ii) PGaps, unlike real gaps, do not show Weak Crossover (WCO) effects (Lasnik and Stowell 1991). An implicit assumption of these wo...

From the late 1950s until 1975, cognition was understood mainly as disembodied symbol manipulation in cognitive psychology, linguistics, artificial intelligence, and the nascent field of Cognitive Science. The idea of embodied cognition entered the field of Cognitive Linguistics at its beginning in 1975. Since then, cognitive linguists, working with neuroscientists, computer scientists, and exp...

In this paper we use a modified neoclassical business cycle model to test two competing explanations of the expansion of the 1990s. The model can have indeterminate, multiple equilibria that give rise to expectation-driven business cycles. We fit into the model series of estimated speculative and productivity shocks and compare its predictions with empirical data. Our results suggest that the s...

Dutch municipalities have the right to decide on Sunday shop opening hours since 1996. Despite positive effects on economic growth and employment, many municipalities restrict Sunday trading in one way or another. Based on 2003 data we show that especially religious and political affiliation, regional differences and the size of the municipalities explain the variation between municipalities. T...

The physical origin of holographic dark energy (HDE) is investigated. The main existing explanations, namely the UV/IR connection argument of Cohen et al, Thomas’ bulk holography argument, and Ng’s spacetime foam argument, are shown to be not satisfactory. A new explanation of the HDE model is then proposed based on the ideas of Thomas and Ng. It is suggested that the dark energy might originat...

Contemporary psychology of music approaches musical imagination in terms of either cognitive system’s specific (voluntary, involuntary or anticipatory) behavior or capacity. Musical imagination-as-behaviour allows us, for example, to consciously experience the phenomenon of “musical earworms” (e.g., Beaman & Williams, 2010). However, we do not have to be conscious of the workings of musical ima...

The debate between compatibilists and incompatibilists depends in large part on what ordinary people mean by ‘free will’, a matter on which previous experimental philosophy studies have yielded conflicting results. In Nahmias, Morris, Nadelhoffer, and Turner (2005, 2006), most participants judged that agents in deterministic scenarios could have free will and be morally responsible. Nichols and...

What factors determine national differences in the size and industry distribution of employment? We stress the role of the economic policy environment as determined by business taxes, employment security laws, credit market regulations, the national pension system, wage-setting institutions and the size of the public sector. We characterize these aspects of the policy environment in Sweden prio...