We investigate the interstellar medium towards seven TeV gamma-ray sources thought to be pulsar wind nebulae using Mopra molecular line observations at 7 mm [CS(1–0), SiO(1–0, v = 0)], Nanten CO(1–0) data and the Southern Galactic Plane Survey/GASS Hi survey. We have discovered several dense molecular clouds co-located to these TeV gamma-ray sources, which allows us to search for cosmic rays coming from progenitor SNRs or, potentially, from pulsar wind nebulae. We notably found SiO(1–0, v = 0) emission towards HESS J1809–193, highlighting possible interaction between the adjacent supernova remnant SNR G011.0–0.0 and the molecular cloud at d ∼ 3.7 kpc. Using morphological features, and comparative studies of our column densities with those obtained from X-ray measurements, we claim a distance d ∼ 8.6 − 9.7kpc for SNR G292.2–00.5, d ∼ 3.5 − 5.6 kpc for PSR J1418–6058 and d ∼ 1.5 kpc for the new SNR candidate found towards HESS J1303–631. From our mass and density estimates of selected molecular clouds, we discuss signatures of hadronic/leptonic components from pulsar wind nebulae and their progenitor SNRs. Interestingly, the molecular gas, which overlaps HESS J1026–582 at d ∼ 5 kpc, may support a hadronic origin. We find however that this scenario requires an undetected cosmic-ray accelerator to be located at d < 10 pc from the molecular cloud. For HESS J1809–193, the cosmic rays which have escaped SNR G011.0–0.0 could contribute to the TeV gamma-ray emission. Finally, from the hypothesis that at most 20% the pulsar spin down power could be converted into CRs, we find that among the studied pulsar wind nebulae, only those from PSR J1809–1917 could potentially contribute to the TeV emission.

The mid-IR spectrum of the interstellar medium contains both aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbon features. These are generally attributed to carbonaceous dust. The aliphatic component is of particular interest because it produces a significant 3.4 μm absorption feature. The optical depth of this feature is related to the number and type of aliphatic carbon C–H bonds in the line of sight. It is possible to estimate the column density of aliphatic carbon from quantitative analysis of the 3.4 μm interstellar feature, providing that the absorption coefficient of interstellar aliphatic hydrocarbon is known. We produced interstellar dust analogues with spectra closely matching astronomical observations. Using a combination of FTIR and 13C NMR spectroscopy, we determined an integrated absorption coefficient of the aliphatic component. The results thus obtained permit direct calibration of astronomical observations, providing rigorous estimates of the amount of aliphatic carbon in the ISM.

We present observations of 50 deg2 of the Mopra carbon monoxide (CO) survey of the Southern Galactic Plane, covering Galactic longitudes l = 300–350° and latitudes |b| ⩽ 0.5°. These data have been taken at 0.6 arcmin spatial resolution and 0.1 km s−1spectral resolution, providing an unprecedented view of the molecular clouds and gas of the Southern Galactic Plane in the 109–115 GHz J = 1–0 transitions of 12CO, 13CO, C18O, and C17O.

We present a series of velocity-integrated maps, spectra, and position-velocity plots that illustrate Galactic arm structures and trace masses on the order of ~106 M⊙ deg−2, and include a preliminary catalogue of C18O clumps located between l = 330–340°. Together with the information about the noise statistics of the survey, these data can be retrieved from the Mopra CO website and the PASA data store.

HESS J1614–518 and HESS J1616–508 are two tera-electron volt γ-ray sources that are not firmly associated with any known counterparts at other wavelengths. We investigate the distribution of interstellar medium towards the tera-electron volt γ-ray sources using results from a 7-mm-wavelength Mopra study, the Mopra Southern Galactic Plane CO Survey, the Millimetre Astronomer’s Legacy Team-45 GHz survey and [C i] data from the HEAT telescope. Data in the CO(1–0) transition lines reveal diffuse gas overlapping the two tera-electron volt sources at several velocities along the line of sight, while observations in the CS(1–0) transition line reveal several interesting dense gas features. To account for the diffuse atomic gas, archival H i data was taken from the Southern Galactic Plane Survey. The observations reveal gas components with masses ~103 to 105 M⊙ and with densities ~102 to 103 cm−3 overlapping the two tera-electron volt sources. Several origin scenarios potentially associated with the tera-electron volt γ-ray sources are discussed in light of the distribution of the local interstellar medium. We find no strong convincing evidence linking any counterpart with HESS J1614–518 or HESS J1616–508.

There is heated debate over the wisdom and effect of secrecy in international negotiations. This debate has become central to the process of foreign investment arbitration because parties to disputes nearly always can choose to hide arbitral outcomes from public view. Working with a new database of disputes at the world's largest investor-state arbitral institution, the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, the authors examine the incentives of firms and governments to keep the details of their disputes secret. The authors argue that secrecy in the context of investment arbitration works like a flexibility-enhancing device, similar to the way escape clauses function in the context of international trade. To attract and preserve investment, governments make contractual and treaty-based promises to submit to binding arbitration in the event of a dispute. They may prefer secrecy in cases when they are under strong political pressure to adopt policies that violate international legal norms designed to protect investor interests. Investors favor secrecy when managing politically sensitive disputes over assets they will continue to own and manage in host countries long after the particular dispute has passed. Although governments prefer secrecy to help facilitate politically difficult bargaining, secrecy diminishes one of the central purposes of arbitration: to allow governments to signal publicly their general commitment to investor-friendly policies. Understanding the incentives for keeping the details of dispute resolution secret may help future scholars explain more accurately the observed patterns of wins and losses from investor-state arbitration as well as patterns of investment.

Our knowledge of the universe comes from recording the photon and particle fluxes incident on the Earth from space. We thus require sensitive measurement across the entire energy spectrum, using large telescopes with efficient instrumentation located on superb sites. Technological advances and engineering constraints are nearing the point where we are recording as many photons arriving at a site as is possible. Major advances in the future will come from improving the quality of the site. The ultimate site is, of course, beyond the Earth’s atmosphere, such as on the Moon, but economic limitations prevent our exploiting this avenue to the degree that the scientific community desires. Here we describe an alternative, which offers many of the advantages of space for a fraction of the cost: the Antarctic Plateau.

Conditions on the high Antarctic Plateau would appear to be extremely favourable for a wide range of astronomical research. Before a decision can be made on constructing an observatory, data are required on site conditions at the most promising locations. To enable these data to be collected, a Lockheed Automated Geophysical Observatory is being purchased. This facility will be fitted with a suite of astronomical site-testing instruments, and deployed to several sites on the Antarctic Plateau. This program will allow a definitive assessment of the site conditions to be made by the end of this century.

In late 2011 the New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries reported an increase in confirmed laboratory diagnoses of salmonellosis in dairy herds. To identify risk factors for herd-level outbreaks of salmonellosis we conducted a case-control study of New Zealand dairy herds in 2011–2012. In a multivariable analysis, use of continuous feed troughs [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 6·2, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2·0–20], use of pelletized magnesium supplements (aOR 10, 95% CI 3·3–33) and use of palm kernel meal as a supplementary feed (aOR 8·7, 95% CI 2·5–30) were positively associated with a herd-level outbreak of salmonellosis between 1 July 2011 and 31 January 2012. We conclude that supplementary feeds used on dairy farms (regardless of type) need to be stored and handled appropriately to reduce the likelihood of bacterial contamination, particularly from birds and rodents. Magnesium supplementation in the pelletized form played a role in triggering outbreaks of acute salmonellosis in New Zealand dairy herds in 2011–2012.

We present spectral data cubes of the [CI] 809 GHz, 12CO 115 GHz, 13CO 110 GHz and HI 1.4 GHz line emission from a ~1° region along the l = 328° (G328) sightline in the Galactic Plane. The [CI] data comes from the High Elevation Antarctic Terahertz telescope at Ridge A on the summit of the Antarctic plateau, where the extremely low levels of precipitable water vapour open atmospheric windows for THz observations. The CO data comes from the Southern Galactic Plane Survey being conducted with the Mopra telescope. Emission arises principally from gas in three spiral arm crossings along the sight line. The distribution of the emission in the CO and [CI] lines is found to be similar, with the [CI] slightly more extended, and both are enveloped in extensive HI. Spectral line ratios are similar across the entire extent of the Galaxy. However, towards the edges of the molecular clouds the [CI]/13CO and 12CO/13CO line ratios rise by ~ 50%, and the [CI]/Hi ratio falls by ~ 10%. We attribute this to sightlines passing predominantly through the surfaces of photodissociation regions (PDRs), where the carbon is found mainly as C or C+ rather than CO, while the gas is mostly molecular. This is the signature of dark molecular gas.

We present observations of the first 10° of longitude in the Mopra CO survey of the southern Galactic plane, covering Galactic longitude l = 320–330° and latitude b = ±0.5°, and l = 327–330°, b = +0.5–1.0°. These data have been taken at 35-arcsec spatial resolution and 0.1 km s−1 spectral resolution, providing an unprecedented view of the molecular clouds and gas of the southern Galactic plane in the 109–115 GHz J = 1–0 transitions of 12CO, 13CO, C18O, and C17O. Together with information about the noise statistics from the Mopra telescope, these data can be retrieved from the Mopra CO website and the CSIRO-ATNF data archive.

Why do some decision makers prefer big multilateral agreements while others prefer cooperation in small clubs? Does enforcement encourage or deter institutional cooperation? We use experiments drawn from behavioral economics and cognitive psychology—along with a substantive survey focused on international trade—to illustrate how two behavioral traits (patience and strategic reasoning) of individuals who play key roles in negotiating and ratifying an international treaty shape their preferences for how treaties are designed and whether they are ratified. Patient subjects were more likely to prefer treaties with larger numbers of countries (and larger long-term benefits), as were subjects with the skill to anticipate how others will respond over multiple iterations of strategic games. The presence of an enforcement mechanism increased subjects' willingness to ratify treaties; however, strategic reasoning had double the effect of adding enforcement to a trade agreement: more strategic subjects were particularly likely to favor ratifying the agreement. We report these results for a sample of 509 university students and also show how similar patterns are revealed in a unique sample of ninety-two actual US policy elites. Under some conditions certain types of university student convenience samples can be useful for revealing elite-dominated policy preferences—different types of people in the same situation may prefer to approach decision-making tasks and reason through trade-offs in materially different ways.

We present the first results from a new carbon monoxide (CO) survey of the southern Galactic plane being conducted with the Mopra radio telescope in Australia. The 12CO, 13CO, and C18O J = 1–0 lines are being mapped over the $l = 305^{\circ }\text{--} 345^{\circ }, b = \pm 0.5^{\circ }$ portion of the fourth quadrant of the Galaxy, at 35 arcsec spatial and 0.1 km s−1 spectral resolution. The survey is being undertaken with two principal science objectives: (i) to determine where and how molecular clouds are forming in the Galaxy and (ii) to probe the connection between molecular clouds and the ‘missing’ gas inferred from gamma-ray observations. We describe the motivation for the survey, the instrumentation and observing techniques being applied, and the data reduction and analysis methodology. In this paper, we present the data from the first degree surveyed, $l = 323^{\circ } \text{--} 324^{\circ }, b = \pm 0.5^{\circ }$ . We compare the data to the previous CO survey of this region and present metrics quantifying the performance being achieved; the rms sensitivity per 0.1 km s−1 velocity channel is ~1.5 K for ${\rm ^{12}CO}$ and ~0.7 K for the other lines. We also present some results from the region surveyed, including line fluxes, column densities, molecular masses, ${\rm ^{12}CO/^{13}CO}$ line ratios, and ${\rm ^{12}CO}$ optical depths. We also examine how these quantities vary as a function of distance from the Sun when averaged over the 1 square degree survey area. Approximately 2 × 106M⊙ of molecular gas is found along the G323 sightline, with an average H2 number density of $n_{\text{H}_2} \sim 1$ cm−3 within the Solar circle. The CO data cubes will be made publicly available as they are published.

Experimental evidence in cognitive psychology and behavioral economics is transforming the way political science scholars think about how humans make decisions in areas of high complexity, uncertainty, and risk. Nearly all those studies utilize convenience samples of university students, but in the real world political elites actually make most pivotal political decisions such as threatening war or changing the course of economic policy. Highly experienced elites are more likely to exhibit the attributes of rational decision-making; and over the last fifteen years a wealth of studies suggest that such elites are likely to be more skilled in strategic bargaining than samples with less germane experience. However, elites are also more likely to suffer overconfidence, which degrades decision-making skills. We illustrate implications for political science with a case study of crisis bargaining between the US and North Korea. Variations in the experience of US elite decision-makers between 2002 and 2006 plausibly explain the large shift in US crisis signaling better than other rival hypotheses such as “Iraq fatigue.” Beyond crisis bargaining other major political science theories might benefit from attention to the attributes of individual decision-makers.

PILOT (the Pathfinder for an International Large Optical Telescope) is a proposed 2.5-m optical/infrared telescope to be located at Dome C on the Antarctic plateau. The atmospheric conditions at Dome C deliver a high sensitivity, high photometric precision, wide-field, high spatial resolution, and high-cadence imaging capability to the PILOT telescope. These capabilities enable a unique scientific potential for PILOT, which is addressed in this series of papers. The current paper presents a series of projects dealing with the distant (redshift >1) Universe, that have been identified as key science drivers for the PILOT facility. The potential for PILOT to detect the first populations of stars to form in the early Universe, via infrared projects searching for pair-instability supernovae and gamma-ray burst afterglows, is investigated. Two projects are proposed to examine the assembly and evolution of structure in the Universe: an infrared survey searching for the first evolved galaxies at high redshift, and an optical survey aimed at characterising moderate-redshift galaxy clusters. Finally, a large-area weak-lensing survey and a program to obtain supernova infrared light-curves are proposed to examine the nature and evolution of dark energy and dark matter.

The near infrared sky spectral brightness has been measured at the South Pole with the Near Infrared Sky Monitor (NISM) throughout the 2001 winter season. The sky is found to be typically more than an order of magnitude darker than at temperate latitude sites, consistent with previous South Pole observations. Reliable robotic operation of the NISM, a low power, autonomous instrument, has been demonstrated throughout the Antarctic winter. Data analysis yields a median winter value of the 2.4μm (Kdark) sky spectral brightness of ˜120μJy arcsec−2 and an average of 210 ± 80μJy arcsec−2. The 75%, 50%, and 25% quartile values are 270 ± 100, 155 ± 60, and 80 ± 30μJy arcsec−2, respectively.

PILOT (the Pathfinder for an International Large Optical Telescope) is a proposed 2.5-m optical/infrared telescope to be located at Dome C on the Antarctic plateau. The atmospheric conditions at Dome C deliver a high sensitivity, high photometric precision, wide-field, high spatial resolution, and high-cadence imaging capability to the PILOT telescope. These capabilities enable a unique scientific potential for PILOT, which is addressed in this series of papers. The current paper presents a series of projects dealing with the nearby Universe that have been identified as key science drivers for the PILOT facility. Several projects are proposed that examine stellar populations in nearby galaxies and stellar clusters in order to gain insight into the formation and evolution processes of galaxies and stars. A series of projects will investigate the molecular phase of the Galaxy and explore the ecology of star formation, and investigate the formation processes of stellar and planetary systems. Three projects in the field of exoplanet science are proposed: a search for free-floating low-mass planets and dwarfs, a program of follow-up observations of gravitational microlensing events, and a study of infrared light-curves for previously discovered exoplanets. Three projects are also proposed in the field of planetary and space science: optical and near-infrared studies aimed at characterising planetary atmospheres, a study of coronal mass ejections from the Sun, and a monitoring program searching for small-scale Low Earth Orbit satellite debris items.