It’s leaving their images on a memory card. Sure, memory card capacities are so large that you may never have to offload them, but they end up becoming digital graveyards for your photos and videos. Canon has created a new device, called the Connect Station, that’s designed to put all that content on the big screen, and share it. The company debuted the new product category at the 2015 International CES Show. First previewed at Photokina in 2014 (codenamed Cross Media Station), the Connect Station CS100 ($300) is essentially a network-attached storage (NAS) device, a 1TB portable hard drive connected to a home network that lets you archive, display, and share images and videos taken with a digital camera and camcorder. Updated on February 14, 2017: Canon issued a firmware update that adds support for non-Canon cameras, improves smartphone compatibility, and allows for playback of videos that have been edited on a computer, making the device a bit more flexible. Updated on July 14, 2016: Canon released a new mobile app for the CS100 that would allow users to view and back-up images from their phones or tablets. This article, originally published on January 5, 2015, has been updated to reflect the changes. The idea for such a product isn’t new, as there are other similar media storage and sharing drives available (in fact, Canon had a prototype of it five years ago, although that early version used different technologies). But the CS100, with near-field communication (NFC) and Wi-Fi built in, was designed to help Canon camera and camcorder owners get content off their media cards and give them a viewing experience they can enjoy. The CS100 is a standalone product that doesn’t require a computer to function, although it does need to be connected to a TV in order to view content and menus; it supports Full HD displays via HDMI. To add content, you can transfer photos and videos wirelessly from Wi-Fi-enabled Canon cameras and camcorders (NFC helps to facilitate the pairing and download processes quickly); directly off an SD or Compact Flash card through the built-in card reader; or from a compatible camera or flash drive through the USB port. Although it uses the 802.11n Wi-Fi protocol, it’s much faster to insert a memory card. The CS100 also


We take deep images of four ultra faint dwarf (UFD) galaxies, Canes Venatici I (CVn I), Bootes I (Boo I), Canes Venatici II (CVn II), and Leo IV using the Suprime-Cam on the Subaru Telescope. The colour-magitude diagrams (CMDs) extend below the main sequence turn-offs (MSTOs) and yield measurements of the ages of stellar populations. The stellar populations of faint three galaxies, Boo I, CVn II and Leo IV dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs) are estimated as old as a Galactic globular cluster M92. We confirm that Boo I dSph has no intrinsic colour spread in the MSTO, and no spatial difference in the CMD morphology, which indicates that Boo I dSph is composed of an old single stellar population. One of the brightest UFDs, CVn I dSph, shows a relatively younger age (-12.6 Gyr) with respect to Boo I, CVn II, and Leo IV dSphs, and the distribution of red horizontal branch (HB) stars is more concentrated toward the centre than that of blue HB stars, suggesting that the galaxy contains complex stellar populations. Boo I and CVn I dSphs show the elongated and distorted shapes. CVn II dSph has the smallest tidal radius as a Milky Way satellite and has distorted shape, while Leo IV dSph shows less concentrated spherical shape. The simple stellar population of faint UFDs indicates that the gases in their progenitors were removed more effectively than those of brighter dSphs at an occurrence of their initial star formation. This is reasonable.


This work provides a statistical analysis of the massive star binary characteristics in the Cygnus OB2 Association using radial velocity information of 114 B3-O3 primary stars and orbital properties for the 24 known binaries. We compare these data to a series of Monte Carlo simulations to infer the intrinsic binary fraction and distributions of mass ratios, periods, and eccentricities. We model the distribution of mass ratio, log-period, and eccentricity as power-laws and find best fitting indices of alpha=0.1+/-0.5, beta=0.2+/-0.4, and gamma=-0.6+/-0.3 respectively. These distributions indicate a preference for massive companions, short periods, and low eccentricities. Our analysis indicates that the binary fraction of the cluster is 44+/-8% if all binary systems are (artificially) assumed to have P<1000 days; if the power-law period distribution is extrapolated to 10^4 years, a plausible upper limit for bound systems, the binary fraction is ~90+/-10%. Of these binary (or higher order) systems, ~45% will have companions close enough to interact during pre- or post-main-sequence evolution (semi-major axis ~/<4.7 AU). The period distribution for P<27 days is not well reproduced by any single power-law owing to an excess of systems with periods around 3-5 days (0.08-0.31 AU) and a relative shortage of systems with periods around 7-14 days (0.14-0.62 AU). We explore the idea that these longer-period systems evolved to produce the observed excess of short-period systems. The best fitting binary parameters imply that secondaries generate, on average, ~16% of the V-band light in young massive populations. This means that photometrically based distance measurements for young massive clusters & associations will be systematically low by ~8% (0.16 mag in the distance modulus).


Of 2003, is amended to read as follows: ``(3) Qualifying plan defined.--For purposes of this section, the term `qualifying plan' means a prescription drug plan offered by a PDP sponsor.''. SEC. 6. REPEAL OF MA REGIONAL PLAN STABILIZATION FUND. (a) In General.--Section 1858 of the Social Security Act, as added by section 221(c) of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, is amended-- (1) by striking subsection (e); (2) by redesignating subsections (f), (g), and (h) as subsections (e), (f), and (g), respectively; and (3) in subsection (e), as so redesignated, by striking ``subject to subsection (e),''. (b) Conforming Amendment.--Section 1851(i)(2) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395w-21(i)(2)), as amended by section 221(d)(5) of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, is amended by striking ``1858(h)'' and inserting ``1858(g)''. SEC. 7. REPEAL OF HEALTH SAVINGS ACCOUNTS. Section 1201 of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, and the amendments made by such section, are repealed. SEC. 8. EFFECTIVE DATE. (a) In General.--The amendments made by this Act shall take effect as if included in the enactment of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003. (b) Application of Laws.--If any amendment to any provision of any Act is repealed by this Act, such provision shall be applied and administered as.


Using a one-dimensional height integrated model, we calculate the evolution of an unequal mass binary black hole with a coplanar gas disk that contains a gap due to the presence of the secondary black hole. Viscous evolution of the outer circumbinary disk initially hardens the binary, while the inner disk drains onto the primary (central) black hole. As long as the inner disk remains cool and thin at low $\dot{M}_{\rm ext}$ (rather than becoming hot and geometrically thick), the mass of the inner disk reaches an asymptotic mass typically $\sim 10^{-3}-10^{-4}\Msun$. Once the semimajor axis shrinks below a critical value, angular momentum losses from gravitational waves dominate over viscous transport in hardening the binary. The inner disk then no longer responds viscously to the inspiraling black holes. Instead, tidal interactions with the secondary rapidly drive the inner disk into the primary. Tidal and viscous dissipation in the inner disk lead to a late time brightening in luminosity $L\propto t_{\rm minus}^{5/4}$, where $t_{\rm minus}$ is the time prior to the final merger. This late time brightening peaks $\sim 1$ day prior to the final merger at $\sim 0.1 L_{\rm Edd}$. This behavior is relatively robust because of self regulation in the coupled viscous-gravitational evolution of such binary systems. It constitutes a unique electromagnetic signature of a binary supermassive black hole merger and may allow the host galaxy to be identified.


Adjusted under section 8462. ``(3) A reduction under this section-- ``(A) shall become effective as of the effective date of the election under subsection (b) or (c) of section 8416 or section 8417(b), as the case may be; ``(B) shall not be terminated on account of a change in marital status or for any other reason; and ``(C) shall be in addition to any reduction under section 8419(a) or 8420. ``(c) Subsections (a) and (b) shall not apply with respect to an election under section 8416 or 8417(b) if-- ``(1) the employee or Member makes such election after having made an election under section 8420; and ``(2) the election under section 8420 becomes void under section 8416 (b)(3) or (c)(2). ``(d) That the total amount withheld under this section from the annuity of an employee or Member, as of time of death or other annuity- terminating event, is less than the amount described in subsection (a) (including interest) shall not affect either the entitlement of such employee's or Member's survivor to receive the annuity elected for such survivor under section 8416 (b) or (c) or section 8417 (as the case may be) or the amount of such survivor annuity.''. (b) Technical and Conforming Amendments.--(1) Section 8416(b)(2) of title 5, United States Code, is amended by striking ``be effective'' and inserting ``become effective''. (2) The first sentence of section 8416(c)(2) of title 5, United States Code, is amended to read as follows: ``The election and reduction shall become effective the first day of the second month after the election is received by the Office, but not less than 9 months after the date of the marriage.''. (3) Section 8417(b)(2) of title 5, United States Code, is amended to read as follows: ``(2) An election under this subsection-- ``(A) shall be made at the time of retirement or, if the marriage is dissolved after the date of retirement, within 2 years after the date on which the marriage of the former spouse to the employee or Member is dissolved; and ``(B) shall become effective the first day


Supernovae Ib/c are likely to be associated to long GRBs, therefore it is important to compare the SN rate in galaxies with the GRB rate. To do that we computed Type Ib/c SN rates in galaxies of different morphological type by assuming different histories of star formation and different supernova Ib/c progenitors. We included some recent suggestions about the dependence of the minimum mass of single Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars upon the stellar metallicity and therefore upon galactic chemical evolution. We adopted several cosmic star formation rates as functions of cosmic time, either observationally or theoretically derived, including the one computed with our galaxy models. Then we computed the cosmic Type Ib/c SN rates. We derived the following conclusions: i) the ratio cosmic GRB - Type Ib/c rate varies in the range 10^{-2}-10^{-4} in the whole redshift range, thus suggesting that only a small fraction of all the Type Ib/c SNe gives rise to GRBs. ii) The metallicity dependence of Type Ib/c SN progenitors produces lower cosmic SN Ib/c rates at early times, for any chosen cosmic star formation rate. iii) Different theoretical cosmic star formation rates, computed under different scenarios of galaxy formation, produce SN Ib/c cosmic rates which differ mainly at very high redshift. However, it is difficult to draw firm conclusions on the high redshift trend because of the large uncertainties in the data. iv) GRBs can be important tracers of star formation at high redshift.


We have studied formation of planetesimals at a radial pressure bump in a protoplanetary disk created by radially inhomogeneous magnetorotational instability (MRI), through three-dimensional resistive MHD simulations including dust particles. In our previous papers, we showed that the inhomogeneous MRI developing in non-uniform structure of magnetic field or magnetic resistivity can transform the local gas flow in the disk to a quasi-steady state with local rigid rotation that is no more unstable against the MRI. Since the outer part of the rigid rotation is super-Keplerian flow, a quasi-static pressure bump is created and dust concentration is expected there. In this paper, we perform simulations of the same systems, adding dust particles that suffer gas drag and modulate gas flow via the back-reaction of the gas drag (dust drag). We use O(10^7) super-particles, each of which represents many dust particles with sizes of centimeter to meter. We have found that the dust drag suppresses turbulent motion to decrease the velocity dispersion of the dust particles while it broadens the dust concentrated regions to limit peaky dust concentration, compared with the simulation without the dust drag. We found that reduction in the velocity dispersion) is dominated over the suppression in particle concentration. For meter-size particles with the friction time ~1/Omega, where Omega is Keplerian frequency, the gravitational instability of the dust particles that may lead to planetesimal formation is expected. For such a situation, we further introduced the self-gravity of dust particles to the simulation to demonstrate that several gravitationally bound clumps are actually formed. Through analytical arguments, we found that the planetesimal formation from meter-sized dust particles can be possible at ~5AU.


The possibility of inducing topological superconductivity with cuprate high-temperature superconductors (HTSC) is studied for various heterostructures. We first consider a ballistic planar junction between a HTSC and a metallic ferromagnet. We assume that inversion symmetry breaking at the tunnel barrier gives rise to Rashba spin-orbit coupling in the barrier and allows equal-spin triplet superconductivity to exist in the ferromagnet. Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations are obtained by explicitly modeling the barrier, and taking account of the transport anisotropy in the HTSC. By making use of the self-consistent boundary conditions and solutions for the barrier and HTSC regions, an effective equation of motion for the ferromagnet is obtained where Andreev scattering at the barrier is incorporated as a boundary condition for the ferromagnetic region. For a ferromagnet layer deposited on a (100) facet of the HTSC, triplet p-wave superconductivity is induced. For the layer deposited on a (110) facet, the induced gap does not have the p-wave orbital character, but has an even orbital symmetry and an odd dependence on energy. For the layer on the (001) facet, an exotic f-wave superconductivity is induced. We also consider the induced triplet gap in a one-dimensional half-metallic nanowire deposited on a (001) facet of a HTSC. We find that for a wire axis along the a-axis, a robust triplet p-wave gap is induced. For a wire oriented 45 degrees away from the a-axis the induced triplet p-wave gap vanishes. For the appropriately oriented wire, the induced p-wave gap should give rise to Majorana fermions at the ends of the half-metallic wire. Based on our result, topological superconductivity in a semi-conductor nanowire may also be possible.


SGR 0418+5729 is a transient Soft Gamma-ray Repeater which underwent a major outburst in June 2009, during which the emission of short bursts was observed. Its properties appeared quite typical of other sources of the same class until long-term X-ray monitoring failed to detect any period derivative. The present upper limit on $\dot P$ implies that the surface dipole field is $B_p\lesssim 7.5\times 10^{12}\ {\rm G}$ (Rea et al 2010), well below those measured in other Soft Gamma-ray Repeaters (SGRs) and in the Anomalous X-ray Pulsars (AXPs), a group of similar sources. Both SGRs and AXPs are currently believed to be powered by ultra-magnetized neutron stars (magnetars, $B_p\approx 10^{14}$--$10^{15}\ {\rm G}$). SGR 0418+5729 hardly seems to fit in such a picture. We show that the magneto-rotational properties of SGR 0418+5729 can be reproduced if this is an aged magnetar, $\approx 1\ {\rm Myr}$ old, which experienced substantial field decay. The large initial toroidal component of the internal field required to match the observed properties of SGR 0418+5729 ensures that crustal fractures, and hence bursting activity, can still occur at present time. The thermal spectrum observed during the outburst decay is compatible with the predictions of a resonant compton scattering model (as in other SGRs/AXPs).


It’s probably that it’s the Mario game with actual humans in it. These people - as opposed to whatever kind of being the moustached one is - all reside in New Donk City: which marries New York with a litany of Donkey Kong references both obvious and obscure. For example, the mayor of city is the same Pauline that Jumpman (a.k.a. Mario) tried to rescue way back in 1981. While we didn’t catch sight of ol’ DK himself, it seems impossible that he won’t turn up in the final game. In the meantime, we were contented ourselves with collecting Power Moons that fuel Mario’s ship - the Odyssey - and further his quest to rescue the kidnapped Princess Peach from Bowser planned wedding to her. While it’s a shame that the most revolutionary Mario game yet is still happy to stick with Peach as a damsel-in-distress, the idea of scattering a load of collectables across one huge world is a good one. Even in our brief time with Odyssey, we found loads Power Moons scattered around New Donk City. From secret levels below manholes to the top of the Empire State Building, this game makes a great effort to reward your curiosity and the same went for our time in the sunny climes of the Sand Kingdom. That you can go from playing an 8-bit, 2D side-scrolling section to leaping about on a Sphinx-like taxi called a Jaxi in the space of a minute speaks volumes of the creativity that’s been crammed into the game. Better still, each world we delved into had its own unique art style and challenges. Rather than sticking to the usual formula of fire world, ice world, water world, it seems as though Nintendo has done its utmost to break conventions and confound expectations. Having gone into our time with Odyssey with some degree of suspicion how everything would fit together, we came out of it wanting to see just how ludicrous it might get.


The magnetic flux periodicity in superconducting loops is reviewed. Whereas quantization of the magnetic flux with hc/2e prevails in sufficiently thick loops with current free interior, the supercurrent in narrow loops is either hc/2e or hc/e periodic with the external magnetic flux. The periodicity depends on the properties of the condensate state, in particular on the Doppler shift of the energy spectrum. For an s-wave superconductor in a loop with diameter larger than the coherence length, the Doppler shift is small with respect to the energy gap, and the hc/2e periodic behavior of its flux dependent thermodynamic properties is maintained. However, for smaller s-wave loops and, more prominently, narrow d-wave loops of any diameter R, the Doppler shift has a strong effect on the supercurrent carrying state; as a consequence, the fundamental flux periodicity is in fact hc/e. It is shown analytically and numerically that the hc/e periodic component in the supercurrent decays only algebraically as 1/R for large d-wave loops. For nodal superconductors the discrete nature of the eigenergies close to the Fermi energy has to be respected in the evaluation of the Doppler shift. Furthermore, we investigate, whether the Doppler shift modifies the supercurrent through Josephson junctions with d-wave superconductors. For transparent junctions, the Josephson current behaves similar to the persistent supercurrent in a loop. These distinct physical phenomena can be compared.


Then you may want to check out the LattePanda Alpha. However, it's worth noting the LattePanda Alpha is not a Pi competitor. While the Pi costs just $35, the LattePanda Alpha starts at $289. The difference is reflected in the specs, with the LattePanda Alpha having more in common with a laptop than a low-cost board like the Pi. The LattePanda Alpha uses the same class of Intel processor as found in this year's 12-inch MacBook, a 7th generation, Intel Core m3. Backing up this processor is 8GB of DDR3 memory and 64GB Flash storage, alongside Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ac Wi-Fi and USB 3.0 ports, a USB Type-C port, 4K video out. While the board's makers DFRobot say the Alpha will ship with Windows 10 Pro, they add it will also be compatible with a range of Linux-based OSes. The board—which is about 70% the length of the iPhone 7 Plus—is designed to be used to be used by developers working in a wide range of fields, from robotics to internet of things, and as such has the necessary electronics for adding a wide-range of custom hardware to the board. SEE: Hardware spotlight: The Raspberry Pi The Alpha has 2 x 50-Pin headers for hooking up hardware, as well as an Arduino Leonardo co-processor. Alongside the Alpha, the board's makers will also release a version of the board without the eMMC storage for $269, as well as the lower-specced LattePanda Delta, which starts at $129. The Delta runs on an Intel Celeron N4100 processor, has 4GB of RAM but still keeps many of the advantages of the Alpha board, such as 802.11ac Wi-Fi and 3 x USB 3.0 ports. Both boards are being crowdfunded via Kickstarter, and as of publication have passed their £72,611 funding target, with just shy of £97,000 raised with 56 days left to go. DFRobot estimate that the boards, which are also available with a 7-inch touchscreen display, will ship in May next year. It is not the first Windows 10-based, developer board


Astrometric measurements of stellar systems are becoming significantly more precise and common, with many ground and space-based instruments and missions approaching 1 microarcsecond precision. We examine the multi-wavelength astrometric orbits of exoplanetary systems via both analytical formulae and numerical modeling. Exoplanets have a combination of reflected and thermally emitted light that cause the photocenter of the system to shift increasingly farther away from the host star with increasing wavelength. We find that, if observed at long enough wavelengths, the planet can dominate the astrometric motion of the system, and thus it is possible to directly measure the orbits of both the planet and star, and thus directly determine the physical masses of the star and planet, using multi-wavelength astrometry. In general, this technique works best for, though is certainly not limited to, systems that have large, high-mass stars and large, low-mass planets, which is a unique parameter space not covered by other exoplanet characterization techniques. Exoplanets that happen to transit their host star present unique cases where the physical radii of the planet and star can be directly determined via astrometry alone. Planetary albedos and day-night contrast ratios may also be probed via this technique due to the unique signature they impart on the observed astrometric orbits. We develop a tool to examine the prospects for near-term detection of this effect, and give examples of some exoplanets that appear to be good targets for detection in the K to N infrared observing bands.


We investigate the quantitative constraint on the triple-alpha reaction rate based on stellar evolution theory, motivated by the recent significant revision of the rate proposed by nuclear physics calculations. Targeted stellar models were computed in order to investigate the impact of that rate in the mass range of 0.8 < M / Msun < 25 and in the metallicity range between Z = 0 and Z = 0.02. The revised rate has a significant impact on the evolution of low- and intermediate-mass stars, while its influence on the evolution of massive stars (M >~ 10 Msun) is minimal. We find that employing the revised rate suppresses helium shell flashes on AGB phase for stars in the initial mass range 0.8 < M / Msun < 6, which is contradictory to what is observed. The absence of helium shell flashes is due to the weak temperature dependence of the revised triple-alpha reaction cross section at the temperature involved. In our models, it is suggested that the temperature dependence of the cross section should have at least nu > 10 at T = 1 - 1.2 x 10^8 K where the cross section is proportional to T^{nu}. We also derive the helium ignition curve to estimate the maximum cross section to retain the low-mass first red giants. The semi-analytically derived ignition curves suggest that the reaction rate should be less than ~ 10^{-29} cm^6 s^{-1} mole^{-2} at ~ 10^{7.8} K, which corresponds to about three orders of magnitude larger than that of the NACRE compilation. In an effort to compromise with the revised rates, we calculate and analyze models with enhanced CNO cycle reaction rates to increase the maximum luminosity of the first giant branch. However, it is impossible to reach the typical RGB tip luminosity even.


Then a significant fraction of AGNs should harbor binary massive black holes in their centers. We study the mass function of binary massive black holes in nearby AGNs based on the observed AGN black-hole mass function and theory of evolution of binary massive black holes interacting with a massive circumbinary disk in the framework of coevolution of massive black holes and their host galaxies. The circumbinary disk is assumed to be steady, axisymmetric, geometrically thin, self-regulated, self-gravitating but non-fragmenting with a fraction of Eddington accretion rate, which is typically one tenth of Eddington value. The timescale of orbital decay is {then} estimated as ~10^8yr for equal mass black-hole, being independent of the black hole mass, semi-major axis, and viscosity parameter but dependent on the black-hole mass ratio, Eddington ratio, and mass-to-energy conversion efficiency. This makes it possible for any binary massive black holes to merge within a Hubble time by the binary-disk interaction. We find that (1.8+-0.6%) for the equal mass ratio and (1.6+-0.4%) for the one-tenth mass ratio of the total number of nearby AGNs have close binary massive black holes with orbital period less than ten years in their centers, detectable with on-going highly sensitive X-ray monitors such as Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image and/or Swift/Burst Alert Telescope. Assuming that all binary massive black holes have the equal mass ratio, about 20% of AGNs with black hole masses of 10^{6.5-7}M_sun has the close binaries and thus provides the best chance to detect them.


5,000,000 for fiscal year 1999, $7,500,000 for fiscal year 2000, and $9,000,000 for fiscal year 2001 to carry out section 129 of the Foreign Assistance Act, as added by subsection (a). (2) Availability of funds.--Amounts appropriated pursuant to this subsection shall remain available until expended. (c) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a) shall take effect on October 1, 1998. SEC. 9. MULTILATERAL ASSISTANCE. (a) Funding.--Of the amounts authorized to be appropriated for fiscal years 1999, 2000, and 2001 pursuant to chapter 1 of part I of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, there are authorized to be appropriated to the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture (in this section referred to as the ``Fund'') the following amounts for the following fiscal years: (1) Fiscal year 1999.--For fiscal year 1999, $3,000,000. (2) Fiscal year 2000.--For fiscal year 2000, $3,000,000. (3) Fiscal year 2001.--For fiscal year 2001, $3,000,000. (b) Availability of Funds.--Amounts appropriated pursuant to subsection (a) shall remain available until expended. (c) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that the President, acting through the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations, should-- (1) request the Fund-- (A) to find new ways to support and protect treatment centers and programs that are carrying out rehabilitative services for victims of torture; and (B) to encourage the development of new such centers and programs; (2) use the voice and vote of the United States to support the work of the Special Rapporteur on Torture and the Committee Against Torture established under the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; and (3) use the voice and vote of the United States to establish a country rapporteur or similar procedural mechanism to investigate human rights violations in a country.


This dissertation focuses on phenomenological studies for possible signals for supersymmetric events at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). We have divided our endeavours into three separate projects. First, we consider SUSY models where the gluino production at the LHC should be rich in top and bottom quark jets. Requiring $b$-jets in addition to missing energy $\eslt$ should, therefore, enhance the supersymmetry signal relative to Standard Model backgrounds. We quantify the increase in the supersymmetry reach of the LHC from $b$-tagging in a variety of well-motivated models of supersymmetry. We also explore $top$-tagging at the LHC. Second, we explore the prospects for detecting the direct production of third generation squarks in models with an inverted squark mass hierarchy. This is signalled by $b$-jets + $\eslt$ events harder than in the Standard Model, but softer than those from the production of gluinos and heavier squarks. We find that these events can be readily separated from SM background (for third generation squark masses in the 200-400 GeV range), and the contamination from the much heavier gluinos and squarks although formidable can effectively be suppressed. Third, we attempt to extract model-independent information about neutralino properties from LHC data. assuming only the particle content of the MSSM and that all two-body neutralino decays are kinematically suppressed, with the neutralino inclusive production yielding a sufficient cross section. We show that the Lorentz invariant dilepton mass distribution encodes clear information about the relative sign of the mass eigenvalues of the parent and daughter neutralinos. We show that we can extract most neutralino mass matrix parameters.


With the legacy of Spitzer and current advances in (sub)mm astronomy, a large number of 'transitional' disks has been identified which are believed to contain gaps or have developped large inner holes, some filled with dust. This may indicate that complex geometries may be a key feature in disk evolution that has to be understood and modeled correctly. The disk around LkCa 15 is such a disk, with a gap ranging from ~5 - 50 AU, as identified by Espaillat et al. (2007) using 1+1D radiative transfer modelling. To fit the SED, they propose 2 possible scenarios for the inner (<5 AU) disk - optically thick or optically thin - and one scenario for the outer disk. We use the gapped disk of LkCa 15 as a showcase to illustrate the importance of 2D radiative transfer in transitional disks, by showing how the vertical dust distribution in dust-filled inner holes determines not only the radial optical depth but also the outer disk geometry. We use MCMax, a 2D radiative transfer code with a self-consistent vertical structure, to model the SED. We identify two possible geometries for the inner and outer disk, that are both different from those in Espaillat et al. (2007). An inner disk in hydrostatic equilibrium reprocesses enough starlight to fit the near infrared flux, but also casts a shadow on the inner rim of the outer disk. This requires the outer disk scale height to be large enough to rise out of the shadow. An optically thin inner disk does not cast such a shadow, and the SED can be fitted with a smaller outer disk scale height. For the dust in the inner regions to become optically thin however, the scale height would have to be so much larger than its hydrostatic equilibrium value that it effectively becomes a dust shell. It is currently unclear.


Clean Energy Leadership Act of 2009 is amended in the second sentence-- (1) in paragraph (6), by striking ``and'' after the semicolon at the end; (2) in paragraph (7), by striking the period at the end and inserting ``; and''; and (3) by adding at the end the following: ``(8) hydroelectric power technology.''. SEC. 14. REPORT ON MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING ON HYDROPOWER. Not later than 18 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the President shall submit to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate and the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives a report on actions taken by the Department of Energy, the Department of the Interior, and the Corps of Engineers to carry out the memorandum of understanding on hydropower entered into on March 24, 2010, with particular emphasis on actions taken by the agencies to work together and investigate ways to efficiently and responsibly facilitate the Federal permitting process for Federal and non-Federal hydropower projects at Federal facilities, within existing authority. SEC. 15. NONAPPLICATION TO FEDERAL POWER MARKETING ADMINISTRATIONS. (a) In General.--This Act and the amendments made by this Act shall not-- (1) apply to a hydroelectric project that provides power marketed by a Federal Power Marketing Administration; or (2) impact any additions, improvements, or replacements of hydroelectric generation at Federal projects carried out by a Federal Power Marketing Administration; (b) Modifications.--Nothing in this Act limits the authority under existing law of a Federal Power Marketing Administrator in the event that operations at Federal projects with hydropower facilities are modified. SEC. 16. BUDGETARY EFFECTS. The budgetary effects of this Act, for the purpose of complying with the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, shall be determined by reference to the latest statement titled ``Budgetary Effects of PAYGO Legislation'' for this Act, submitted for printing in the Congressional Record by the Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee.


Quenneville had a short answer: "We're going to have to." Chicago captain Jonathan Toews called it a very disappointing loss. His personal goal drought is now 12 straight postseason games, though he did have an assist. "We got to find a way to put pressure on them, got to make them realize that winning a fourth game is the toughest for any team in any series," Toews said. Fiala finally converted on his third chance in overtime. Crawford got a glove on a puck nearly midway through the extra period off Fiala's shot from the high slot. Crawford also got his left toe on a shot from Fiala in the slot with 6:00 left. Then James Neal found Fiala with a pass, and he beat Crawford to send fans home shortly after midnight local time. "It was a great save by Crawford," Fiala said of the toe save by the Chicago goalie. "I was pretty angry, I could have finished it there, but never mind, we won." The Predators brought out the star power with country singer Carrie Underwood, married to Nashville captain Mike Fisher, to sing the national anthem. Five catfish also were tossed onto the ice before the puck dropped and combined with a late start for a very loud standing-room only crowd of 17,204. Nashville outshot Chicago 49-36. Rinne's shutout streak ended when Rasmussen scored the first postseason goal of his career 65 seconds into the second period. He beat Rinne glove-side off an assist from Marcus Kruger. The goal also snapped a scoreless skid for Chicago that spanned 177:45 back to their first-round loss to St. Louis last postseason. Then the Blackhawks quickly made it a 2-0 lead with a power-play goal by Kane. He scored the 50th postseason goal of his career with a wrister from the right circle at 11:15 of the second, taking advantage of Marcus Kruger standing in front of Rinne. Forsberg started the rally. He scored on a wrister hitting the puck in the air past Crawford, who was caught having turned around in the crease, at 4:24. Blackhawks forward Richard Panik argued the puck went off the netting, but the play was called a good goal after a review. "It went off the shoulder and then off the glass and then straight in,


The lesser of-- ``(i) 50 percent of the portion of lifetime income payments (within the meaning of section 72(c)(5), applied with the substitutions described in subparagraph (B)) otherwise includible in gross income under this section (determined without regard to this paragraph), or ``(ii) the amount in effect under section 72(b)(5)(A). ``(B) Recapture and other special rules.--For purposes of this paragraph, rules similar to the rules of subparagraphs (D) and (E) of section 72(b)(5) and section 72(x) shall be applied by substituting `beneficiary of the life insurance contract' for `annuitant' and `life insurance contract' for `annuity contract' therein.''. (2) Conforming amendment.--Paragraph (1) of section 101(d) of such Code is amended by inserting ``or paragraph (3)'' after ``to the extent not excluded by the preceding sentence''. (e) Effective Date.-- (1) In general.--The amendments made by this section shall apply to amounts received in calendar years beginning after the date of the enactment of this Act. (2) Special rule for existing contracts.--In the case of a contract in force on the date of the enactment of this Act that does not satisfy the requirements of section 72(c)(5)(A) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (as added by this section), any modification to such contract (including a change in ownership) or to the payments thereunder that is made to satisfy the requirements of such section shall not result in the recognition of any gain or loss, any amount being included in gross income, or any addition to tax that otherwise might result from such modification, but only.


This camera has the best feature set of any DSLR around. While those two full-frame rivals tend to be used more for action and sports than landscape, macro or portrait shots (largely due to their lower resolution sensors), the D850 is a genuine all-rounder, and a great one at that. You get both a super high resolution sensor, and a camera which copes reasonably well with fast-moving subjects. That’s thanks to an upgrade in frame rate – it can now shoot at 7.5fps (or 9fps if you attach the additional D850 grip), and the AF system is the same used in the fantastic D5. The D850 is capable of locking onto your subject very quickly and easily, even in lower light conditions. Moving subjects are also dealt with easily, especially for ones that have a reasonably predictable pattern of movement. The only complaint we have about autofocus is that all of the AF points are grouped towards the centre of the frame - that means that there will be occasions when you need to focus and recompose. To facilitate fast frame rates, the D850 has two memory card slots. One for SD, which is compatible with the fast UHS-II format. The other is for the even faster XQD format, though cards of this type can set you back upwards of £70 for 32GB, as right now they’re made by very few manufacturers. One of the downsides of having such a high resolution sensor is massive file sizes. In short, if you’re shooting both JPEGs and RAW files, you’re gonna need a bigger hard drive. Still, if you’re a professional working in the field who needs to get shots of a football match or a news event across quickly, you’ll be pleased to know that you can shoot in lower resolution modes and still have access to raw files. You can also use the great DX crop mode, which essentially works with the central part of the sensor as if you were using an APS-C sensor. If you’re wondering why you might want this, it basically means that your long lenses can appear even longer and get you closer to the action. Since you have all those extra megapixels to play with, effectively cropping into the image still leaves you with an incredibly useable 19 megapixels. Silent shooting is another feature that’s very useful in certain situations, such as


Will have to play at Dallas anyway – not that the Cowboys are the end-all, be-all of the NFC. Winning at the Georgia Dome isn’t exactly an easy task either. (Getty Images) Getty Images/Getty Images The only game that matters is the one in front of you, but if you’re the look-ahead type (like all those Redskins fans who spent this week figuring out where they’d travel as that No. 6 seed) the scenario looks like this: No. 4 Green Bay: vs. Giants, at Cowboys or Falcons No. 6 Detroit: at Seahawks, at Cowboys (Getty Iages) Getty Images/Stacy Revere I’m taking the “worse” draw every time. The Packers are on a six-game winning streak and Aaron Rodgers may have just clinched the MVP with a four-touchdown night in Detroit. Who or where they play may be irrelevant. But it’s now the NFL playoffs and nothing will come easy nor will anything be handed to you. The Green Bay Packers were going to have a tough ride to their ultimate destination – Houston on Feb. 5 for Super Bowl LI – no matter what happened on Sunday night. It just so happens that the tougher ride came with the spoils of victory. So if Green Bay lost by winning, did Detroit win by losing? Eh, not so much. The Lions have lost three straight games and didn’t defeat a single team in the 2016 playoff field. At this point, I’m not sure I’d pick them to win their wild-card game even.


The association of an electromagnetic signal with the merger of a pair of supermassive black holes would have many important implications. For example, it would provide new information about gas and magnetic field interactions in dynamical spacetimes as well as a combination of redshift and luminosity distance that would enable precise cosmological tests. A proposal first made by Bode & Phinney (2007) is that because radiation of gravitational waves during the final inspiral and merger of the holes is abrupt and decreases the mass of the central object by a few percent, there will be waves in the disk that can steepen into shocks and thus increase the disk luminosity in a characteristic way. We evaluate this process analytically and numerically. We find that shocks only occur when the fractional mass loss exceeds the half-thickness (h/r) of the disk, hence significant energy release only occurs for geometrically thin disks which are thus at low Eddington ratios. This strongly limits the effective energy release, and in fact our simulations show that the natural variations in disk luminosity are likely to obscure this effect entirely. However, we demonstrate that the reduction of luminosity caused by the retreat of the inner edge of the disk following mass loss is potentially detectable. This decrease occurs even if the disk is geometrically thick, and lasts for a duration on the order of the viscous time of the modified disk. Observationally, the best prospect for detection would be a sensitive future X-ray instrument with a field of view of on the order of a square degree, or possibly a wide-field radio array such as the Square Kilometer Array.


Ponoka RCMP are looking for this man alleged to have taken some items from Main Street Hardware in Ponoka without paying. When asked, the man told the clerk he was ‘borrowing’ the items. RCMP photo Ponoka RCMP are looking for a man claiming he was ‘borrowing’ items from Main Street Hardware. Police were called to the hardware store March 17 after the man allegedly left the store with several items without paying. It appears that the suspect left the store with a hammer and scraper. When asked by the clerk to pay for them he said he was borrowing the items. “The store manager explained that the items had to be paid for before leaving but the male left with the merchandise,” say police. Investigators say they are looking for a Caucasian man in his 30s. At the time he was wearing a black hoodie. Ponoka man arrested for impaired driving Police charged a 56-year-old Ponoka man with impaired driving last week. At about 10 a.m. on March 16 witnesses called the police of an erratic driver heading westbound into Ponoka on Highway 53. Police say two witnesses reported a white Dodge Ram driving erratically into oncoming traffic. Police say he travelled at a high rate of speed through the Mecca Glen school zone and almost hit the ditch. “RCMP located the vehicle at the intersection of Highway 2A and Highway 53 and proceeded to observe the occupant’s driving pattern,” states a Ponoka RCMP release. He was arrested and charged with impaired driving. A court date is yet to be set. -Heyden-Kaye If you have information, please call the Ponoka RCMP at 403-783-4472. If you want to remain anonymous, you can contact Crime Stoppers by phone at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS), or by internet at www.tipsubmit.com. You do not have to reveal your identity to Crime Stoppers, and.


The video below [COARSE LANGUAGE WARNING]: Angry homosexual kicks Christian customers out of coffee shop. WARNING! This video includes extremely graphic, hate-filled, blasphemous language.Watch and Share before Facebook takes it down! And let us know what YOU think. Posted by Abolish Human Abortion on Sunday, October 1, 2017 So can someone explain to me why Christian bakers are taken to court and publicly demeaned because they refuse to service a homosexual wedding, but when a gay liberals kicks a group of Christians out of their coffee shop, nobody in the mainstream media is reporting on it? Does anyone else see the double standard here? I still hold the belief that anyone in just about any business (except the healthcare profession and other emergency services) and choose who they do and don’t serve based on any factor, because the market will take care of itself. If a white guy walks into a shop, and the owner says “Get out, I don’t serve white people,” he should have that right, but as the guy has the right to go on social media and blast her and convince people to stop spending their money there. The owner will then have to decide if he wants to serve white people, or lose his business. That’s the way it should be in a free market. I think this guy has every right to do what he did, but the fact is that we’re living in a society that gives one person a pass while demonizing the other. Liberals wouldn’t tolerate it?


We investigate the magnetic field dependence of the physical properties of f^2-configuration systems with a crystalline-electric field (CEF) singlet ground state, which gives rise to a non- Fermi liquid (NFL) fixed point due to the competition between the Kondo-Yosida singlet and CEF singlet states. On the basis of the numerical renormalization group method, we find that the magnetic field breaks this NFL fixed point via two mechanisms: one causing the polarization of f-electrons and the other giving the "channel" anisotropy. These two mechanisms induce a difference in the magnetic field dependence of the characteristic temperature T_F^{*}(H), the crossover temperature from NFL to Fermi-liquid behavior. While the polarization of f-electrons gives T_F^{*}(H) \propto H^x (x\sim2.0), the "channel" anisotropy gives the H-independent T_F^{*}(H). These two mechanisms cross over continuously at approximately the crossover magnetic field H_c, where an anomalous H-dependence of T_F^{*}(H) appears. Such T_F^{*}(H) well reproduces the NFL behaviors observed in Th_{1-x}U_xRu_2Si_2. We also find that the H-dependence of the resistivity and the magnetic susceptibility are in good agreement with the experimental results of this material. These results suggest that the NFL behaviors observed in Th_{1-x}U_xRu_2Si_2 can be understood.


The United States Government if the agency-- (1) demonstrates through a business case that it can provide the administrative service more efficiently; and (2) agrees to provide the administrative service to all other International Cooperative Administrative Support Services customer agencies at the overseas post. SEC. 6. REPORTING REQUIREMENTS. (a) Biennial Report.-- (1) In general.--Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, and every 2 years thereafter, the Secretary of State, in consultation with the International Cooperative Administrative Support Services Executive Board, shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report on the International Cooperative Administrative Support Services system. (2) Content.--The report required under paragraph (1) shall-- (A) establish performance goals to define the level of performance to be achieved in providing efficient, effective, and equitable administrative services to International Cooperative Administrative Support Services customer agencies; (B) establish a balanced set of performance indicators to be used in measuring or assessing progress toward each performance goal; (C) describe how the International Cooperative Administrative Support Services system ensures the accuracy and reliability of the data used to measure progress; and (D) identify strategies and the resources required to achieve performance goals. (b) Comptroller General Review.-- (1) In general.--Not later than 2 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a review of the International Cooperative Administrative Support Services system. (2) Content.--The review required under paragraph (1) shall include-- (A) an evaluation of whether requiring agencies to participate in the International Cooperative Administrative Support Services system for household furniture, furnishings, and appliance pools services and motor pools services has increased cost-efficiency and reduced administrative redundancies; (B) recommendations, if warranted, for further consolidation of services in the International Cooperative Administrative Support Services system; (C) an evaluation of how implementation of this Act is affecting the performance of International Cooperative Administrative Support Services customer agencies; and (D) recommendations.


A violation of this subsection as a claim or defense in a judicial proceeding. ``(4) Remedies.-- ``(A) Federal jurisdiction.--The Federal courts shall have jurisdiction to prevent and redress actual or threatened violations of this subsection by granting all forms of legal or equitable relief, including, but not limited to, injunctive relief, declaratory relief, damages, costs, and attorney fees. ``(B) Initiating party.--An action under this subsection may be instituted by the Attorney General of the United States, or by any person or entity having standing to complain of a threatened or actual violation of this subsection, including, but not limited to, any actual or prospective plan sponsor, issuer, or other entity offering a plan, any actual or prospective purchaser or beneficiary of a plan, and any individual or institutional health care provider. ``(C) Interim relief.--Pending final determination of any action under this subsection, the court may at any time enter such restraining order or prohibitions, or take such other actions, as it deems necessary. ``(5) Administration.--The Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Health and Human Services is designated to receive complaints of discrimination based on this subsection and coordinate the investigation of such complaints. ``(6) Definition.--For purposes of this subsection, the term `entity' includes a group health plan, a health insurance issuer offering group or individual health insurance coverage, and an employer or other sponsor of such plan or coverage.''. (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a) shall be effective as.


We investigate the formation and evolution of satellite galaxies using smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations of a Milky Way(MW)-like system, focussing on the best resolved examples, analogous to the classical MW satellites. Comparing with a pure dark matter simulation, we find that the condensation of baryons has had a relatively minor effect on the structure of the satellites' dark matter halos. The stellar mass that forms in each satellite agrees relatively well over three levels of resolution (a factor of ~64 in particle mass) and scales with (sub)halo mass in a similar way in an independent semi-analytical model. Our model provides a relatively good match to the average luminosity function of the MW and M31. To establish whether the potential wells of our satellites are realistic, we measure their masses within observationally determined half-light radii, finding that the most massive examples have somewhat higher mass-to-light ratios than those derived for the MW dSphs from stellar kinematic data. A statistical test yields a ~9 percent probability that the simulated and observationally derived distributions of masses are consistent. Our results may suggest that either the MW halo is less massive than assumed in our simulations (~1.4e12 M_sun) or that there is substantial scatter in the satellite luminosity function or distribution of mass-to-light ratios at fixed host halo mass. Alternatively, feedback processes not properly captured by our simulations may have reduced the central densities of (sub)halos, or the subhalos may have initially formed with lower concentrations as would be the case, for example.


For extrasolar planets with orbital periods, P>10 days, radial velocity surveys find non-circular orbital eccentricities are common, <e>~0.3. Future surveys for extrasolar planets using the transit technique will also have sensitivity to detect these longer period planets. Orbital eccentricity affects the detection of extrasolar planets using the transit technique in two opposing ways: an enhancement in the probability for the planet to transit near pericenter and a reduction in the detectability of the transit due to a shorter transit duration. For an eccentricity distribution matching the currently known extrasolar planets with P>10 day, the probability for the planet to transit is ~1.25 times higher than the equivalent circular orbit and the average transit duration is ~0.88 times shorter than the equivalent circular orbit. These two opposing effects nearly cancel for an idealized field transit survey with independent photometric measurements that are dominated by Poisson noise. The net effect is a modest ~4% increase in the transiting planet yield compared to assuming all planets have circular orbits. When intrinsic variability of the star or correlated photometric measurements are the dominant source of noise, the transit detectability is independent of the transit duration. In this case the transit yield is ~25% higher than that predicted under the assumption of circular orbits. Since the Kepler search for Earth-sized planets in the habitable zone of a Solar-type star is limited by intrinsic variability, the Kepler mission is expected to have a ~25% higher planet yield than that predicted for circular orbits.


Consider the use of $\ell_{1}/\ell_{\infty}$-regularized regression for joint estimation of a $\pdim \times \numreg$ matrix of regression coefficients. We analyze the high-dimensional scaling of $\ell_1/\ell_\infty$-regularized quadratic programming, considering both consistency in $\ell_\infty$-norm, and variable selection. We begin by establishing bounds on the $\ell_\infty$-error as well sufficient conditions for exact variable selection for fixed and random designs. Our second set of results applies to $\numreg = 2$ linear regression problems with standard Gaussian designs whose supports overlap in a fraction $\alpha \in [0,1]$ of their entries: for this problem class, we prove that the $\ell_{1}/\ell_{\infty}$-regularized method undergoes a phase transition--that is, a sharp change from failure to success--characterized by the rescaled sample size $\theta_{1,\infty}(n, p, s, \alpha) = n/\{(4 - 3 \alpha) s \log(p-(2- \alpha) s)\}$. An implication of this threshold is that use of $\ell_1 / \ell_{\infty}$-regularization yields improved statistical efficiency if the overlap parameter is large enough ($\alpha > 2/3$), but has \emph{worse} statistical efficiency than a naive Lasso-based approach for moderate to small overlap ($\alpha < 2/3$). These results indicate that some caution needs to be exercised in the application of $\ell_1/\ell_\infty$ block regularization:.


CAL83 is a prototype of the class of Super Soft X-ray Sources (SXS). It is a binary consisting of a low mass secondary that is transferring mass onto a white dwarf primary and is the only known SXS surrounded by an ionisation nebula, made up of the interstellar medium (ISM) ionised by the source itself. With the VIMOS IFU we obtained spectra over a 25\times25" field of view, encompassing one quarter of the nebula. Emission line maps - H I, He II, [O III], [N II], and [S II] - are produced in order to study the morphology of the ionised gas. We include CAL83 on diagrams of various diagnostic ion ratios to compare it to other X-ray ionised sources. Finally we computed some simple models of the ionised gas around CAL83 and compare the predicted to the observed spectra. CAL83 appears to have a fairly standard ionisation nebula as far as the morphology goes: the edges where H is recombining are strong in the low stage ionisation lines and the central, clumpy regions are stronger in the higher stage ionisation lines. But the He II emission is unusual in being confined to one side of CAL83 rather than being homogeneously distributed as with the other ions. We model the CAL83 nebula with cloudy using model parameters for SXSs found in the literature. The He II emission does not fit in with model predictions; in fact none of the models is able to fit the observed spectrum very well. The spectral line images of the region surrounding CAL83 are revealing and instructive. However, more modelling of the spectrum of the ionised gas is necessary, and especially for the high-ionisation level emission from CAL83. In particular, we wish to know.


In this paper we report the results of high-resolution circular spectropolarimetric monitoring of the Herbig Ae star V380 Ori, in which we discovered a magnetic field in 2005. A careful study of the intensity spectrum reveals the presence of a cool spectroscopic companion. By modelling the binary spectrum we infer the effective temperature of both stars: $10500\pm 500$ K for the primary, and $5500\pm500$ K for the secondary, and we argue that the high metallicity ($[M/H] = 0.5$), required to fit the lines may imply that the primary is a chemically peculiar star. We observe that the radial velocity of the secondary's lines varies with time, while that of the the primary does not. By fitting these variations we derive the orbital parameters of the system. We find an orbital period of $104\pm5$ d, and a mass ratio ($M_{\rm P}/M_{\rm S}$) larger than 2.9. The intensity spectrum is heavily contaminated with strong, broad and variable emission. A simple analysis of these lines reveals that a disk might surround the binary, and that a wind occurs in the environment of the system. Finally, we performed a magnetic analysis using the Least-Squares Deconvolved (LSD) profiles of the Stokes $V$ spectra of both stars, and adopting the oblique rotator model. From rotational modulation of the primary's Stokes $V$ signatures, we infer its rotation period $P=4.31276\pm0.00042$ d, and find that it hosts a centred dipole magnetic field of polar strength $2.12\pm0.15$ kG, with a magnetic obliquity $\beta = 66\pm5^{\circ}$, and a rotation axis inclination $i=32\pm5^{\circ}$. However, no magnetic field is detected in the secondary, and.


Mr. Nisman was set to testify to the country’s Congress on Ms. Kirchner’s role in the cover up. The day before his testimony, on Jan. 18, 2015, he was found dead in his apartment in Buenos Aires, with a bullet in his head. This, despite the fact that he had a 10-man security detail paid to protect him. Within hours, Ms. Kirchner announced that Mr. Nisman had committed suicide. In the days that followed, she strangely claimed his death was part of a lovers’ spat. Finally, she changed her story once more: His death may have been the result of rogue intelligence operatives. When we heard the news of Mr. Nisman’s death and of Ms. Kirchner’s suspected cover-up, we were horrified, but not entirely shocked. Anyone who had followed Mr. Nisman’s pursuit of this case knew that he was assuming grave risks by taking on both a terrorist state and his own government. Through a decade of investigation, Mr. Nisman received death threats against not only him but his children as well. One email he told us about had a picture of bloodied and brutalized bodies lying on the ground, with a note saying this would be the fate of his young daughters if he did not cease his investigation. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Sign Up for the Opinion Today Newsletter Every weekday, get thought-provoking commentary from Op-Ed columnists, the Times editorial board and contributing writers from around the world. Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. None of it stopped him. Fearless and resolute, Mr. Nisman and his team had determined that former Iranian and Hezbollah officials planned the AMIA attack. He was able to show definitively that the plan included no less than Iran’s former president, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani; its minister of intelligence; its foreign minister; the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps; the head of the corps’ elite Quds force; the Iranian cultural attaché in Argentina; and the third


Relay networks having $n$ source-to-destination pairs and $m$ half-duplex relays, all operating in the same frequency band in the presence of block fading, are analyzed. This setup has attracted significant attention and several relaying protocols have been reported in the literature. However, most of the proposed solutions require either centrally coordinated scheduling or detailed channel state information (CSI) at the transmitter side. Here, an opportunistic relaying scheme is proposed, which alleviates these limitations. The scheme entails a two-hop communication protocol, in which sources communicate with destinations only through half-duplex relays. The key idea is to schedule at each hop only a subset of nodes that can benefit from \emph{multiuser diversity}. To select the source and destination nodes for each hop, it requires only CSI at receivers (relays for the first hop, and destination nodes for the second hop) and an integer-value CSI feedback to the transmitters. For the case when $n$ is large and $m$ is fixed, it is shown that the proposed scheme achieves a system throughput of $m/2$ bits/s/Hz. In contrast, the information-theoretic upper bound of $(m/2)\log \log n$ bits/s/Hz is achievable only with more demanding CSI assumptions and cooperation between the relays. Furthermore, it is shown that, under the condition that the product of block duration and system bandwidth scales faster than $\log n$, the achievable throughput of the proposed scheme scales as $\Theta ({\log n})$. Notably, this is proven to be the optimal throughput scaling even.


We present the first detections of the 3um water ice and 3.4um amorphous hydrocarbon (HAC) absorption features in z~2 ULIRGs. These are based on deep rest-frame 2-8um Spitzer IRS spectra of 11 sources selected for their appreciable silicate absorption. The HAC-to-silicate ratio for our z~2 sources is typically higher by a factor of 2-5 than that observed in the Milky Way. This HAC `excess' suggests compact nuclei with steep temperature gradients as opposed to predominantly host obscuration. Beside the above molecular absorption features, we detect the 3.3um PAH emission feature in one of our sources with three more individual spectra showing evidence for it. Stacking analysis suggests that water ice, hydrocarbons, and PAH are likely present in the bulk of this sample even when not individually detected. The most unexpected result of our study is the lack of clear detections of the 4.67um CO gas absorption feature. Only three of the sources show tentative signs of this feature and at significantly lower levels than has been observed in local ULIRGs. Overall, we find that the closest local analogs to our sources, in terms of 3-4um color, HAC-to-silicate and ice-to-silicate ratios, as well as low PAH equivalent widths are sources dominated by deeply obscured nuclei. Such sources form only a small fraction of ULIRGs locally and are commonly believed to be dominated by buried AGN. Our sample suggests that, in absolute number, such buried AGN are at least an order of magnitude more common at z~2 than today. The presence of PAH suggests that significant levels of star-formation are present even.


Heath Gardens, in Addiscombe, on October 6 when he saw a moped “driving at about 20pmh” approach him. Kouebitra and a then 15-year-old boy were on the moped. This youth, who is now 16 and cannot be named because of his age, has pleaded guilty to wounding with intent and admitted he was on the moped, but denied he was involved in the stabbing. Mr Dunham said: “[The youth] drove Kouebitra to Long Heath Gardens and when they arrived, Kouebitra chased him through the estate before cornering him and stabbed him with a machete four times to the chest, his side, his leg and arm.” He added: “Gadd was a close associate of Jack Harvey, who killed Daryl Kouebitra’s brother [Scotty]. One of the stab wounds was to the chest and if you stab someone to the chest, what could you possibly by trying to do?” Two men, who were on the estate at the time of the stabbing, desperately tried to help Kallum by applying pressure to his wounds before the emergency services were called. When helping him they asked him if he knew who had stabbed him, to which Kallum replied “Yes, Selhurst”. Kallum was taken to hospital, where he remained for five days, before coming home with “no significant disabilities” and made a “good recovery”. Kouebitra had previously been at a police custody suite earlier that day, for an unrelated crime. The court was told that he then left, changed his clothes and was picked up by the youth to go and collect a knife. Kouebitra denied attempting to kill Kallum, having pleaded not guilty at an earlier hearing. The jury unanimously found Kouebitra guilty of attempted murder and guilty of possessing an offensive weapon. They could not reach a verdict on a charge relating to wounding with intent, however. He will be sentenced at the same court on Thursday (May 31). It is not currently clear.


Take a look at its biological weapons The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse — Pestilence, War, Famine and Death — gallop through the Book of Revelation, and they’ve put in plenty of grim appearances elsewhere. Lately they’ve... North Korea soldier who defected had immunity to anthrax A North Korean soldier who defected to the South was found to have antibodies to anthrax — triggering concerns that the rogue regime has weaponized the deadly bacteria, according to... More than 100 hippos dead in suspected anthrax outbreak A sudden hippo die-off has sparked fears of an anthrax outbreak in Namibia. “Over 100 hippos died in the past week. The cause of death is unknown but the signs... Anthrax outbreak in Russia kills child, sends dozens to hospital MOSCOW — A child has died of anthrax in Siberia in the first fatal outbreak of the bacterial disease reported in Russia in 75 years, the regional governor’s office said... CDC mishandled bioterror germs A laboratory operated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had its permit suspended for three years for violating federal safety rules in its handling of bioterror pathogens,... Oops! Pentagon accidentally shipped more live anthrax than they thought The number of shipments of potentially live anthrax spores sent by mistake over the past decade now stands at 51. US shipped live anthrax to nine states The US Department of Defense inadvertently shipped live anthrax spores to as many as nine labs across the country, but officials insisted Wednesday that no one would be harmed by... Bacteria-filled subways leave riders feeling queasy Straphangers are worried sick over a new study that found traces of the bubonic plague and other bacteria — including ones that cause meningitis and staph infections — in the... Scientist finds lost vials of 'extinct' smallpox virus ATLANTA — A government scientist cleaning out an old storage room at a research center near Washington made a startling discovery last week — decades-old vials of smallpox packed away...


It would still progress in other industrialized nations all over the planet. The genetic modification of humans and animals is part of a larger trend we are currently witnessing. In the scientific community, there is a tremendous amount of excitement about the fact that humans can finally "take control of their own evolution." Many scientists believe we can use various forms of technology to give ourselves superhuman powers and radically extend our lifespans. And as technology continues to increase at an exponential rate, these scientists believe we will be able to ultimately create a "post-human society" where all sickness, disease, poverty and war are eradicated. So they aren't concerned about the potential dangers of these new technologies because they believe we are right on the verge of achieving immortality and transforming this planet into a technological utopia that will be perfect in every way. In other words, they believe humanity will no longer need "god" because we will be our own gods. Unfortunately for all the rest of us, in their relentless pursuit of this very foolish dream they are racing toward genetic Armageddon and they are opening up a Pandora's box of horrors that they simply do not understand. Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of End Of The American Dream. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled "The Rapture Verdict" is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. Leaders are readers! Subscribe now and get 3 magazines for the price of 1. Get Ministry Today, Charisma and SpiritLed Woman all for $24. YES - Sign me up! 3 Reasons Why you should read Life in the Spirit. 1) Get to know the Holy Spirit. 2) Learn to enter God's presence 3) Hear God's voice clearly! Click Here to draw closer to God! - See an error in this article? This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


We report observations of a possible young transiting planet orbiting a previously known weak-lined T-Tauri star in the 7-10 Myr old Orion-OB1a/25-Ori region. The candidate was found as part of the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) Orion project. It has a photometric transit period of 0.448413 +- 0.000040 days, and appears in both 2009 and 2010 PTF data. Follow-up low-precision radial velocity (RV) observations and adaptive optics imaging suggest that the star is not an eclipsing binary, and that it is unlikely that a background source is blended with the target and mimicking the observed transit. RV observations with the Hobby-Eberly and Keck telescopes yield an RV that has the same period as the photometric event, but is offset in phase from the transit center by approximately -0.22 periods. The amplitude (half range) of the RV variations is 2.4 km/s and is comparable with the expected RV amplitude that stellar spots could induce. The RV curve is likely dominated by stellar spot modulation and provides an upper limit to the projected companion mass of M_p sin i_orb < 4.8 +- 1.2 M_Jup; when combined with the orbital inclination, i orb, of the candidate planet from modeling of the transit light curve, we find an upper limit on the mass of the planetary candidate of M_p < 5.5 +- 1.4 M_Jup. This limit implies that the planet is orbiting close to.


Within the framework of the scalar-tensor theory (STT), its second post-Newtonian (2PN) approximation is obtained with Chandrasekhar's approach. By focusing on an $N$-point-masses system as the first step, we reduce the metric to its 2PN form for light propagation. Unlike previous works, at 2PN order, we abandon the hierarchized hypothesis and do not assume two parametrized post-Newtonian (PPN) parameters $\gamma$ and $\beta$ to be unity. We find that although there exist $\gamma$ and $\beta$ in the 2PN metric, only $\gamma$ appears in the 2PN equations of light. As a simple example for applications, a gauge-invariant angle between the directions of two incoming photons for a differential measurement is investigated after the light trajectory is solved in a static and spherically symmetric spacetime. It shows the deviation from the general relativity (GR) $\delta\theta_{\mathrm{STT}}$ does \emph{not} depend on $\beta$ even at 2PN level in this circumstance, which is consistent with previous results. A more complicated application is light deflection in a 2-point-masses system. We consider a case that the light propagation time is much less than the time scale of its orbital motion and thus treat it as a static system. The 2-body effect at 2PN level originating from relaxing the hierarchized hypothesis is calculated. Our analysis shows the 2PN 2-body effect in the Solar System is one order of magnitude less than future $\sim 1$ nas experiments, while this effect could be comparable with 1PN component of $\delta\theta_{\mathrm{STT}}$ in a binary system with two Sun-like stars and separation by $\sim 0.1$ AU.


Or finds that the State has not implemented and provided adequate enforcement of the standards established under subsection (a) or (b), the Secretary shall notify the State and provide the State a period of 60 days in which to submit the report. ``(2) Implementation of alternative enforcement mechanism.-- ``(A) In general.--If, after the 60-day period, the Secretary finds that such a failure has not been corrected, the Secretary shall within 30 days provide for a mechanism for the implementation and enforcement of such standards in the State as the Secretary determines to be appropriate. ``(B) Civil penalty.--Under any implementation and enforcement mechanism established by the Secretary pursuant to this paragraph, the Secretary shall have the authority to impose on an insurer a civil monetary penalty in the amount of $10,000 for each day during which such insurer violates the requirements described in section 2701, or the standards developed under this section. Liability for such penalty shall begin to accrue on the 30th day after the Secretary has provided such insurer with notice of its noncompliance, if the insurer has failed to correct the deficiency by such date. ``(C) Effective period.--Any such implementation and enforcement mechanism established by the Secretary shall take effect with respect to insurers, and health insurance coverage offered or renewed, on or after 3 months after the date of the Secretary's finding under paragraph (1), and until the date the Secretary finds that such a failure has been corrected. ``(3) Federal civil right of action.-- ``(A) In general.--Any individual aggrieved as a result of conduct prohibited by section 2701 may bring a civil action in the appropriate United States district court against the insurer. ``(B) Relief.--Upon proof of such conduct by a preponderance of the evidence, the insurer shall be subject to a civil penalty that may include temporary, preliminary, or permanent injunctive relief and compensatory and punitive damages, as well as the costs of suit and reasonable fees for the aggrieved individual's attorneys. With respect to compensatory damages, the aggrieved individual may elect, at any time prior to the rendering of final judgment, to recover in lieu of actual damages, an award of statutory damages in the amount of $5,000 for each violation. ``SEC. 2703. APPLICATION TO GROUP HEALTH PLANS AND ENFORCEMENT. ``(a) Application.--Subject


In Montgomery (2009a), we show that accretion discs in binary systems could retrogradely precess by tidal torques like the Moon and the Sun on a tilted, spinning, non-spherical Earth. In addition, we show that the state of matter and the geometrical shape of the celestial object could significantly affect the precessional value. For example, a Cataclysmic Variable (CV) Dwarf Novae (DN) non-magnetic system that shows negative superhumps in its light curve can be described by a retrogradely precessing, differentially rotating, tilted disc. Because the disc is a fluid and because the gas stream overflows the tilted disc and particles can migrate into inner disc annuli, coupled to the disc could be a retrogradely precessing inner ring that is located near the innermost annuli of the disc. However, numerical simulations by Bisikalo et al. (2003, 2004) and this work show that an inner spiral density wave can be generated instead of an inner ring. Therefore, we show that retrograde precession in non-magnetic, spinning, tilted CV DN systems can equally be described by a retrogradely precessing and differentially rotating disc with an attached retrogradely precessing inner spiral density wave so long as the wave appears at the same radius as the ring and within the plane of the tilted disc. We find that the theoretical results generated in this work agree well with the theoretical results presented in Montgomery (2009a) and thus with the numerical simulations and select CV DN systems in Montgomery (2009b) that may have a main sequence secondary. Therefore, pressure effects do need to be considered in CV DN systems that exhibit negative superhumps.


We examine the dynamical destruction of binary systems in star clusters of different densities. We find that at high densities (10^4 - 10^5 Msun pc^-3) almost all binaries with separations > 10^3 AU are destroyed after a few crossing times. At low densities (order(10^2) Msun pc^-3) many binaries with separations > 10^3 AU are destroyed, and no binaries with separations > 10^4 AU survive after a few crossing times. Therefore the binary separations in clusters can be used as a tracer of the dynamical age and past density of a cluster. We argue that the central region of the Orion Nebula Cluster was around 100 times denser in the past with a half-mass radius of only 0.1 - 0.2 pc as (a) it is expanding, (b) it has very few binaries with separations > 10^3 AU, and (c) it is well-mixed and therefore dynamically old. We also examine the origin of the field binary population. Binaries with separations < 10^2 AU are not significantly modified in any cluster, therefore at these separations the field reflects the sum of all star formation. Binaries with separations in the range 10^2 - 10^4 AU are progressively more and more heavily affected by dynamical disruption in increasingly dense clusters. If most star formation is clustered, these binaries must be over-produced relative to the field. Finally, no binary with a separation > 10^4 AU can survive in any cluster and so must be produced by isolated star formation, but only.


Following the notion that the Titius-Bode rule (TBR) may also be applicable to some extra-solar planetary systems, although this number could be relatively small, it is applied to 55 Cancri, which is a G-type main-sequence star currently known to host five planets. Following a concise computational process, we tentatively identify four new hypothetical planetary positions given as 0.081, 0.41, 1.51 and 2.95 AU from the star. The likelihood that these positions are occupied by real existing planets is significantly enhanced for the positions of 1.51 and 2.95 AU in the view of previous simulations on planet formation and planetary orbital stability. For example, Raymond et al. (2008) [ApJ 689, 478] argued that additional planets would be possible between 55 Cnc f and 55 Cnc d, which would include planets situated at 1.51 and 2.95 AU. If two additional planets are assumed to exist between 55 Cnc f and 55 Cnc d, the deduced domains of stability would be given as 1.3-1.6 and 2.2-3.3 AU. The possible planet near 1.5 AU appears to be located at the outskirts of the stellar habitable zone, which is however notably affected by the stellar parameters as well as the adopted model of circumstellar habitability. We also compute the distance of the next possible outer planet in the 55 Cnc system, which if existing is predicted to be located between 10.9 and 12.2 AU, which is consistent with orbital stability constraints. The inherent statistical significance of the TBR is evaluated following the method by Lynch (2003) [MNRAS 341, 1174]. Yet it is up to future planetary search missions to verify or falsify the applicability of the TBR to the 55 Cnc system, and to attain information on additional planets.


The Director of the Office of Management and Budget, at such time or times as the Director shall provide, is authorized and directed to make such determinations as may be necessary with regard to the functions, entities or programs, or portions thereof transferred by this Act, and to make such additional incidental dispositions of personnel, assets, liabilities, grants, contracts, property, records, and unexpended balances of appropriations, authorizations, allocations, and other funds held, used, arising from, available to, or to be made available in connection with such functions, entities or programs, or portions thereof, as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this Act. The Director shall provide for the termination of the affairs of all entities and programs terminated by this Act and for such further measures and dispositions as may be necessary to effectuate the purposes of this Act. (B) Transfer of positions within senior executive service.--After consultation with the Director of the Office of Personnel Management, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget is authorized, at such time as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget provides, to make such determinations as may be necessary with regard to the transfer of positions within the Senior Executive Service in connection with functions and entities and programs transferred by this Act. (c) Savings Provisions.-- (1) Completed administrative actions.-- (A) In general.--Completed administrative actions of an entity or program shall not be affected by the enactment of this Act or the transfer of the functions of such entity or program to the Agency under section 4(c), but shall continue in effect according to their terms until amended, modified, superseded, terminated, set aside, or revoked in accordance with law by an officer of the United States or a court of competent jurisdiction, or by operation of law. (B) Definition.--For purposes of subparagraph (A), the term ``completed administrative action'' includes orders, determinations, rules, regulations, personnel actions, permits, agreements, grants, contracts, certificates, licenses, registrations, and privileges. (2) Pending civil actions.--Subject to the authority of the Under Secretary under this Act, pending civil actions shall continue notwithstanding the enactment of this Act or the transfer of the functions of an entity or program to the Agency under section 4(c), and in such civil actions, proceedings shall be had, appeals taken, and judgments rendered and enforced in the same manner and with the same effect as.


Recent analysis of five gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglow spectra reveal the absence of molecular hydrogen absorption lines, a surprising result in light of their large neutral hydrogen column densities and the detection of H$_2$ in similar, more local star-forming regions like 30 Doradus in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Observational evidence further indicates that the bulk of the neutral hydrogen column in these sight lines lies 100 pc beyond the progenitor and that H$_2$ was absent prior to the burst, suggesting that direct flux from the star, FUV background fields, or both suppressed its formation. We present one-dimensional radiation hydrodynamical models of GRB host galaxy environments, including self-consistent radiative transfer of both ionizing and Lyman-Werner photons, nine-species primordial chemistry with dust formation of H$_2$, and dust extinction of UV photons. We find that a single GRB progenitor is sufficient to ionize neutral hydrogen to distances of 50 - 100 pc but that a galactic Lyman-Werner background is required to dissociate the molecular hydrogen in the ambient ISM. Intensities of 0.1 - 100 times the Galactic mean are necessary to destroy H$_2$ in the cloud, depending on its density and metallicity. The minimum radii at which neutral hydrogen will be found in afterglow spectra is insensitive to the mass of the progenitor or the initial mass function (IMF) of its cluster.


2\}$ and $u\in \Sigma^*$, then $w$ is said to be a \textit{simple right extension}of $u$ and denoted by $u\prec w$. Let $k$ be a positive integer and $P^k(\epsilon)$ denote the set of all $C^\infty$-words of height $k$. Set $u_{1},\,u_{2},..., u_{m}\in P^{k}(\epsilon)$, if $u_{1}\prec u_{2}\prec ...\prec u_{m}$ and there is no element $v$ of $P^{k}(\epsilon)$ such that $v\prec u_{1}\text{or} u_{m}\prec v$, then $u_{1}\prec u_{2}\prec...\prec u_{m}$ is said to be a \textit{maximal right smooth extension (MRSE) chains}of height $k$. In this paper, we show that \textit{MRSE} chains of height $k$ constitutes a partition of smooth words of height $k$ and give the formula of the number of \textit{MRSE} chains of height $k$ for each positive integer $k$. Moreover, since there exist the minimal height $h_1$ and maximal height $h_2$ of smooth words of length $n$ for each positive integer $n$, we find that \textit{MRSE} chains of heights $h_1-1$ and $h_2+1$ are good candidates to be used to establish the lower and upper bounds of the number of smooth words of length $n$ respectively, which is simpler and more intuitionistic than the previous methods.


Former Chicago Police Chief Slams BLM… Blames Them For Violent Crime Wave [AUDIO] A former Chicago police chief has finally said what the rest of us are thinking and called out the Black Lives Matter movement. Since the rise of this famous group, we’ve seen a rise in the amount of police-targeted crimes. While many are afraid to call it what it is for fear of being labeled “racist” or a “bigot,” Garry McCarthy took to the airwaves to prove that not everyone will be bullied into silence. Coming from Chicago, he’s seen more than his fair share of crime, so if anyone would know the effect of BLM on police interaction with the public, it would be him. While speaking with John Catsimatidis on AM 970 in New York, McCarthy blamed the movement for the “political atmosphere of anti-police sentiment.” McCarthy explained that the movement has created an environment that has “emboldened” violent criminals, while “hamstringing” police officers, which McCarthy said contributes to increased “lawlessness” and violent crime. “So what’s happening, and this is ironic, is that a movement with the goal of saving black lives at this point is getting black lives taken, because 80 percent of our murder victims here in Chicago are male blacks,” he explained. “Less than half of 1 percent of all the shootings in this city involve police officers shooting civilians.” McCarthy went on to explain that the murder rate has skyrocketed 90 percent in Chicago over the past two years, which he said is “simply unacceptable.” “We are very clearly going down the wrong path,” he added. Listen to the audio below: I’m hoping that Trump’s election with embolden the police to go after criminals and stop being afraid of the media’s reaction to their difficult decisions. There is no reason an officer should feel like they couldn’t do their job because people would harass them and their family.


956 (relating to conspiracy to injure property of a foreign government), 1030(a)(1), 1030(a)(5)(A), or 1030(a)(7) (relating to protection of computers), 1362 (relating to destruction of communication lines, stations, or systems), 1366 (relating to destruction of an energy facility), 1992 (relating to trainwrecking), 2152 (relating to injury of fortifications, harbor defenses, or defensive sea areas), 2155 (relating to destruction of national defense materials, premises, or utilities), 2156 (relating to production of defective national defense materials, premises, or utilities), 2280 (relating to violence against maritime navigation), 2281 (relating to violence against maritime fixed platforms), 2339A (relating to providing material support to terrorists), 2339B (relating to providing material support to terrorist organizations), or 2340A (relating to torture). ``(2) Any of the following provisions of title 49: the second sentence of section 46504 (relating to assault on a flight crew with a dangerous weapon), section 46505(b)(3), (relating to explosive or incendiary devices, or endangerment of human life by means of weapons, on aircraft), section 46506 if homicide or attempted homicide is involved, or section 60123(b) (relating to destruction of interstate gas or hazardous liquid pipeline facility) of title 49.''. (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of sections at the beginning of chapter 213 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by amending the item relating to section 3286 to read as follows: ``3286. Terrorism offenses.''. (c) Application.--The amendments made by this section shall apply to the prosecution of any offense committed before, on, or after the date of enactment of this section. SEC. 402. ALTERNATIVE MAXIMUM PENALTIES FOR TERRORISM CRIMES. Section 3559 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding after subsection (d) the following: ``(e) Authorized Terms of Imprisonment for Terrorism Crimes.--A person convicted of any Federal terrorism offense may be sentenced to imprisonment for any term of


The characteristic mass M_c in the stellar initial mass function (IMF) is about constant for most star-forming regions. Numerical simulations consistently show a proportionality between M_c and the thermal Jeans mass M_J at the time of cloud fragmentation, but no models have explained how it can be the same in diverse conditions. Here we show that M_J depends weakly on density, temperature, metallicity, and radiation field in three environments: the dense cores where stars form, larger star-forming regions ranging from GMCs to galactic disks, and the interiors of HII regions and super star clusters. In dense cores, the quantity T^{3/2}n^{-1/2} that appears in M_J scales with core density as n^{0.25} or with radiation density as U^{0.1} at the density where dust and gas come into thermal equilibrium. On larger scales, this quantity varies with ambient density as n^{-0.05} and ambient radiation field as U^{-0.033} when the Kennicutt-Schmidt law of star formation determines U(n). In super star clusters with ionization and compression of pre-stellar globules, M_J varies as the 0.13 power of the cluster column density. These weak dependencies on n, U, and column density imply that most environmental variations affect the thermal Jeans mass by at most a factor of ~2. Cosmological increases in M_J, which have been suggested by observations, may be explained if the star formation efficiency is systematically higher at high redshift for a given density and pressure, if dust grains are smaller at lower metallicity, and so hotter for a given radiation field, or.


; and ``(C) any other information necessary to enable the public to accurately compute the Federal retirement benefits of each Member based on various assumptions of years of service and age of separation from service by reason of retirement.''. (b) Effective Date.--This section shall take effect 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act. SEC. 4. ELIMINATION OF AUTOMATIC ANNUITY ADJUSTMENTS FOR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS. The portion of the annuity of a Member of Congress which is based solely on service as a Member of Congress shall not be subject to a cost-of-living adjustment under section 8340 or 8462 of title 5, United States Code. SEC. 5. ELIMINATION OF AUTOMATIC PAY ADJUSTMENTS FOR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS. (a) Pay Adjustments.--Paragraph (2) of section 601(a) of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 (2 U.S.C. 31) is repealed. (b) Conforming Amendment.--Section 601(a)(1) of such Act is amended-- (1) by striking ``(a)(1)'' and inserting ``(a)''; (2) by redesignating subparagraphs (A), (B), and (C) as paragraphs (1), (2), and (3), respectively; and (3) by striking ``, as adjusted by paragraph (2) of this subsection''. SEC. 6. ROLLCALL VOTE FOR ANY CONGRESSIONAL PAY RAISE. It shall not be in order in the Senate or the House of Representatives to dispose of any amendment, bill, resolution, motion, or other matter relating to the pay of Members of Congress.


, rule, or regulation, each individual occupying a Senior Executive Service position (as that term is defined in section 3132(a)(2) of title 5, United States Code) on the date of enactment of this Act shall, beginning on the first day of the first pay period beginning after the date that the applicable appointing authority makes the determination under section 5383(a) of title 5, United States Code (as amended by subsection (a)), receive the rate of pay applicable to such position, as determined by the appointing authority under such section. SEC. 3. SEMIANNUAL REPORTS ON TRANSFERS OF SENIOR EXECUTIVES OF DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS. (a) Semiannual Reports.--On a semiannual basis, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall submit to the Committees on Veterans' Affairs of the House of Representatives and the Senate a report on covered senior executives who transfer from one senior executive position in the Department of Veterans Affairs to another senior executive position in the Department during the period covered by the report. (b) Matters Included.--Each report under subsection (a) shall include, with respect to each covered senior executive who transfers from one senior executive position in the Department to another senior executive position in the Department during the period covered by the report, the following: (1) The name of the covered senior executive. (2) A description of the senior executive position from which the covered senior executive transferred, including the annual rate of basic pay received by the covered senior executive in such position. (3) A description of the senior executive position to which the covered senior executive transferred, including the annual rate of basic pay received by the covered senior executive in such position. (4) A description of the purpose of the transfer. (5) Justification for any increase or decrease in the annual rate of basic pay received by the covered senior executive by reason of such transfer. (6) Information regarding any relocation expenses and any incentives provided to the covered senior executive as part of such transfer. (c) Definitions.--In this section: (1) The term ``covered senior executive'' means an individual (as such term is defined in section 713(g)(1) of title 38, United States Code). (2) The term ``senior executive position'' has the meaning.


Two years after the date of the enactment of this section and at least once every five years thereafter (or more frequently as appropriate), the Inspector General of the Peace Corps shall perform an audit of Peace Corps implementation of safety and security protocols, including the status of any Inspector General findings and recommendations from previous audits that have not been adequately remediated or implemented. SEC. 6. PORTFOLIO REVIEWS. (a) In General.--The Director of the Peace Corps shall, at least once every three years (or more frequently as appropriate), perform a review to evaluate the allocation and delivery of resources across the countries the Peace Corps serves or is considering for service. Such portfolio reviews shall at a minimum include the following with respect to each such country: (1) An evaluation of the country's commitment to the Peace Corps program. (2) An analysis of the safety and security of volunteers. (3) An evaluation of the country's need for assistance. (4) An analysis of country program costs. (5) An evaluation of the effectiveness of management of each post within a country. (6) An evaluation of the country's congruence with the Peace Corps' mission and strategic priorities. (b) Report.--The Director of the Peace Corps shall prepare a report on each portfolio review required under subsection (a). Each such report shall discuss performance measures and sources of data used (such as project status reports, volunteer surveys, impact studies, reports of Inspector General of the Peace Corps, and any relevant external sources) in making such review's findings and conclusions. The Director shall make each such report available upon request to the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate in a manner consistent with the protection of classified information.


Nothing preventing local NHS organisations from setting their own limit." Image caption Greg says he lost his hair 'overnight' Greg Burnet, who's 26, completely lost his hair when he was 13. "I scratched my head in music class and some hair came out and I remember the girl next to me being like 'What the hell?' "It was an overnight thing," he says. Despite seeing multiple doctors, dermatologists and specialists over the years, no-one has ever offered to prescribe him a wig. "I would've been a different person. The alopecia has completely changed me and if I had an option of a wig it might not have done. "Whether it's for better or worse - I wasn't given a choice and that's not fair." Image copyright Greg Burnet Image caption Greg says he wishes he'd been given the option of a wig Human hair wigs can cost several hundred pounds and the charity says it's heard from people who've had to cut back on essentials just to afford theirs. Jen, who has alopecia herself, used to get real hair wigs prescribed to her on the NHS - but in recent years she says the service has been cut. "I remember when they told me - I just couldn't hold it together and I burst into tears," she says. Image copyright Getty Images The British Association of Dermatologists has echoed the call for a consistent NHS wig policy. "Wig provision should be equal across the NHS, regardless of where you live. "Alopecia can have an enormous impact on quality of life and should not be considered a cosmetic issue." Both NHS England and the body that represents CCGs (NHSCC) have refused to comment. Catch me up hide Follow Newsbeat on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 every weekday on BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra -.