In decision problems, often, utilities and probabilities are hard to determine. In such cases, one can resort to so-called choice functions. They provide a means to determine which options in a particular set are optimal, and allow incomparability among any number of options. Applying choice functions in sequential decision problems can be highly non-trivial, as the usual properties of maximising expected utility may no longer be satisfied. In this paper, we study one of these properties: we revisit and reinterpret Selten's concept of subgame perfectness in the context of decision trees, leading us to the concept of subtree perfectness, which basically says that the optimal solution of a decision tree should not depend on any larger tree it may be embedded in. In other words, subtree perfectness excludes counterfactual reasoning, and therefore may be desirable from some philosophical points of view. Subtree perfectness is also desirable from a practical point of view, because it admits efficient algorithms for solving decision trees, such as backward induction. The main contribution of this paper is a very simple non-technical criterion for determining whether any given choice function will satisfy subtree perfectness or not. We demonstrate the theorem and illustrate subtree perfectness, or the lack thereof, through numerous examples, for a wide variety of choice functions, where incomparability amongst strategies can be caused by imprecision in either probabilities or utilities. We find that almost no choice function, except for maximising expected utility, satisfies it in general. We also find that choice functions other than maximising expected utility can satisfy it.


We calculate the emission line spectrum produced by the debris released when a white dwarf (WD) is tidally disrupted by an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH; $M\sim 10^{2}-10^{5}\msun$) and we explore the possibility of using the emission lines to identify such events and constrain the properties of the IMBH. To this end, we adopt and adapt the techniques developed by Strubbe & Quataert to study the optical emission lines produced when a main sequence (MS) star is tidally disrupted by a supermassive black hole. WDs are tidally disrupted outside of the event horizon of a $< 10^{5}\msun$ black hole, which makes these tidal disruption events good signposts of IMBHs. We focus on the optical and UV emission lines produced when the accretion flare photoionizes the stream of debris that remains unbound during the disruption. We find that the spectrum is dominated by lines due to ions of C and O, the strongest of which are \ion{C}{4} $\lambda$1549 at early times and [\ion{O}{3}] $\lambda$5007 at later times. Furthermore, we model the profile of the emission lines in the [\ion{O}{3}] $\lambda\lambda$4959, 5007 doublet and find that it is highly asymmetric with velocity widths of up to $\sim 2500 \rm{\;km\;s^{-1}}$, depending on the properties of the WD-IMBH system and the orientation of the observer. Finally, we compare the models with observations of X-ray flares and optical emission lines in the cores of globular clusters and propose how future observations can test.


Context. After the launch of the Swift satellite, the Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) optical light-curve smoothness paradigm has been questioned thanks to the faster and better sampled optical follow-up, which has unveiled a very complex behaviour. This complexity is triggering the interest of the whole GRB community. The GROND multi-channel imager is used to study optical and near-infrared (NIR) afterglows of GRBs with unprecedented optical and near-infrared temporal and spectral resolution. The GRB 081029 has a very prominent optical rebrightening event and is an outstanding example of the application of the multi-channel imager to GRB afterglows. Aims. Here we exploit the rich GROND multi-colour follow-up of GRB 081029 combined with XRT observations to study the nature of late-time rebrightenings that appear in the optical-NIR light-curves of some GRB afterglows. Methods. We analyse the optical and NIR observations obtained with the seven-channel Gamma-Ray burst Optical and Near-infrared Detector (GROND) at the 2.2 m MPI/ESO telescope and the X-ray data obtained with the XRT telescope on board the Swift observatory. The multi-wavelength temporal and spectral evolution is discussed in the framework of different physical models. Results. The extremely steep optical and NIR rebrightening observed in GRB 081029 cannot be explained in the framework of the standard forward shock afterglow model. The absence of a contemporaneous X-ray rebrightening and the evidence of a strong spectral evolution in the optical-NIR bands during the rise suggest two separate components that dominate in the early and late-time lightcurves, respectively. The steepness of the optical rise cannot be explained even in the framework of the alternative scenarios proposed in the literature.


A portion of such dividend shall be treated as interest on a public benefit bond based on the portion of the company's gross income which consists of such interest. ``(B) Notice to shareholders.--The amount of any distribution by a regulated investment company which may be taken into account as interest on a public benefit bond for purposes of this section shall not exceed the amount so designated by the company in a written notice to its shareholders mailed not later than 45 days after the close of its taxable year. ``(C) Gross income.--For purposes of this section, the term `gross income' does not include gain from the sale or other disposition of stock or securities. ``(7) Definitions.--In this section, the following definitions apply: ``(A) Entity.--The term `entity' means an individual, corporation, partnership, joint venture, trust or governmental entity or instrumentality. ``(B) Infrastructure facility.--The term `infrastructure facility' means a road, highway, bridge, tunnel, airport, mass transportation vehicle or system, passenger rail vehicle or system, intermodal transportation facility, waterway, commercial port, drinking or waste water treatment facility, solid waste disposal facility, pollution control system, hazardous waste facility, federally designated national information highway facility, school, and any ancillary facility which forms a part of any such facility or is reasonably related to such facility, whether owned, leased or operated by a public entity or a private entity or by a combination of such entities, and the financing or refinancing of the development of which is, or will be, supported in whole or in part by user fees or other dedicated revenue sources. ``(C) Public-private partnership.--The term `public-private partnership' means any entity-- ``(i) which is undertaking the development of all or part of any infrastructure facility-- ``(I) pursuant to requirements established in 1 or more contracts between such entity and a State or an instrumentality of a State, or ``(II) the activities of which with respect to such facility are subject to regulation by a State or any instrumentality of a State, and ``(ii) which owns, leases, or operates, or will own, lease, or operate, such infrastructure facility in whole or in part, and at least 1 of the participants in such entity is a nongovernmental entity.''. (b) Conforming Amendment.--Subsection (w) of section 72 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986


The theoretical need to study the properties of the Fe-based high-T_c superconductors with reliable many-body techniques requires us to determine the minimum number of orbital degrees of freedom that will capture the physics of these materials. While the shape of the Fermi surface (FS) obtained with the local density approximation (LDA) can be reproduced by a two-orbital model, it has been argued that the bands that cross the chemical potential result from the strong hybridization of three of the Fe 3d orbitals. For this reason, a three-orbital Hamiltonian obtained with the Slater-Koster formalism by considering the hybridization of the As p orbitals with the Fe d_xz,d_yz, and d_xy orbitals is discussed here. This model reproduces qualitatively the FS shape and orbital composition obtained by LDA calculations for undoped pnictides when four electrons per Fe are considered. Within a mean-field approximation, its magnetic and orbital properties in the undoped case are described. With increasing Coulomb repulsion, four regimes are obtained: (1) paramagnetic, (2) magnetic (pi,0) spin order, (3) the same (pi,0) spin order but now including orbital order, and finally (4) a magnetic and orbital ordered insulator. The spin-singlet pairing operators allowed by the lattice and orbital symmetries are also constructed. It is found that for pairs of electrons involving up to diagonal nearest-neighbors sites, the only fully gapped and purely intraband spin-singlet pairing operator is given by Delta(k)=f(k)\sum_{alpha} d_{k,alpha,up}d_{-k,alpha,down} with f(k)=1 or f(k)=cos(k_x)cos(k_y) which would arise only.


To construct a Paley graph, we fix a finite field and consider its elements as vertices of the Paley graph. Two vertices are connected by an edge if their difference is a square in the field. We will study some important properties of the Paley graphs. In particular, we will show that the Paley graphs are connected, symmetric, and self-complementary. Also we will show that the Paley graph of order q is (q-1)/2 -regular, and every two adjacent vertices have (q-5)/4 common neighbors, and every two non-adjacent vertices have q-1/4 common neighbors, which means that the Paley graphs are strongly regular with parameters(q,q-1/2,q-5/4, q-1/4). Paley graphs are generalized by many mathematicians. In the first section of Chapter 3 we will see three examples of these generalizations and some of their basic properties. In the second section of Chapter 3 we will define a new generalization of the Paley graphs, in which pairs of elements of a finite field are connected by an edge if and only if there difference belongs to the m-th power of the multiplicative group of the field, for any odd integer m > 1, and we call them the m-Paley graphs. In the third section we will show that the m-Paley graph of order q is complete if and only if gcd(m, q - 1) = 1 and when d = gcd(m, q - 1) > 1, the m-Paley graph is q-1/d -regular. Also we will prove that the m-Paley graphs are symmetric but not self-complementary. We will show also that the m-Paley graphs of prime order are connected but the m-Paley graphs of order p^n, n > 1 are not necessary connected, for example they are disconnected.


If the credit allowable under subsection (a) for a taxable year exceeds the amount of the limitation under subsection (f)(1) for such taxable year (in this paragraph referred to as the `unused credit year'), such excess shall be a credit carryback to each of the 3 taxable years preceding the unused credit year and a credit carryforward to each of the 20 taxable years following the unused credit year. ``(B) Rules.--Rules similar to the rules of section 39 shall apply with respect to the credit carryback and credit carryforward under subparagraph (A). ``(6) Certain rules to apply.--Rules similar to the rules of subsections (c), (d), and (e) of section 52 shall apply.''. (b) Conforming Amendment.--Section 55(c)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by inserting ``30B(f)(1),'' after ``30(b)(3),''. (c) Clerical Amendment.--The table of sections for subpart B of part IV of subchapter A of chapter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end 30A the following new item: ``Sec. 30B. Employer wage credit for activated military reservists.''. (d) Effective Date; Special Rule.-- (1) Effective date.--The amendments made by this section shall apply to amounts paid after September 11, 2001, in taxable years ending after such date. (2) Waiver of limitations.--If refund or credit of any overpayment of tax resulting from the amendments made by this section is prevented at any time before the close of the 1-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act by the operation of any law or rule of law (including res judicata), such refund or credit may nevertheless be made or allowed.


Let $G$ be a permutation group acting on $[n]=\{1, ..., n\}$ and $\mathcal{V}=\{V_{i}: i=1, ..., n\}$ be a system of $n$ subsets of $[n]$. When is there an element $g \in G$ so that $g(i) \in V_{i}$ for each $i \in [n]$? If such $g$ exists, we say that $G$ has a $G$-marriage subject to $\mathcal{V}$. An obvious necessary condition is the {\it orbit condition}: for any $\emptyset \not = Y \subseteq [n]$, $\bigcup_{y \in Y} V_{y} \supseteq Y^{g}=\{g(y): y \in Y \}$ for some $g \in G$. Keevash (J. Combin. Theory Ser. A 111(2005), 289--309) observed that the orbit condition is sufficient when $G$ is the symmetric group $\Sym([n])$; this is in fact equivalent to the celebrated Hall's Marriage Theorem. We prove that the orbit condition is sufficient if and only if $G$ is a direct product of symmetric groups. We extend the notion of orbit condition to that of $k$-orbit condition and prove that if $G$ is the alternating group $\Alt([n])$ or the cyclic group $C_{n}$ where $n \ge 4$, then $G$ satisfies the $(n-1)$-orbit condition subject to $\V$.


Then standup veteran Mike MacDonald was a healer in the minds of many Canadian comedians. Members of Canada’s comedy scene were remembering MacDonald on Monday, not only for his ability to bring down the house with laughter, but also for the way broke down barriers by making wisecracks about his struggles with drug addiction, mental health and liver damage. MacDonald died Saturday of heart complications at the Ottawa Heart Institute, according to his brother J.P. MacDonald. He was 62. “There was always some kind of lesson buried in his comedy,” said J.P. MacDonald, who is also known by his stage name Johnny Vegas. “It was more about the message, and sort of wrapping it in a joke.” After kicking a drug problem, Mike MacDonald started joking on stage about his struggles with bipolar disorder around the early 1990s, his brother said. J.P. MacDonald said the decision temporarily deflated Mike’s career, but the comic “groundbreaker” persisted in using jokes as a vehicle to dismantle the stigma surrounding mental illness. David Granirer, founder of Stand Up For Mental Health, said Mike MacDonald headlined shows across the country to support the organization that teaches people with mental illness to perform comedy. Granirer said MacDonald would spend hours after his shows helping amateur comedians hone their humorous takes on personal hardship, a technique he helped pioneer. “Mike’s legacy is that he opened the door for a lot of other people to talk about mental health through their comedy acts,” he said. “Just the fact that someone with his stature was doing it certainly … inspired (our comics) to be able to tell their stories in a more direct way.” Coming up in Ottawa comedy clubs, comedian Ben Miner said MacDonald was a hometown hero and often credited as Canada’s first standup star, having appeared on the “Late Show with David Letterman” and the “Arsenio Hall Show” as well as several CBC and Showtime specials. While MacDonald had a larger-than-life presence on the stage, Miner said his ability to be vulnerable allowed him to connect with audiences on a deeper level, and in some cases, even help save lives. Miner, 37, pointed to a 2016 interview in which MacDonald told CBC’s “Mainstreet P.E.I.” that a member of the audience approached him after a show to tell him he had decided against committing suicide after laughing at the comedian’s jokes on the subject. “You’re never


You've lost your prophetic witness, Christian. And, that’s a tragedy. We need to be free to critique any politician, president, or pundit when their actions are divisive, unjust, or unhelpful. Why? Because we are Christians. Prophetic Witness I don’t think everyone needs to speak up on everything, but I’m talking about those who defend that which Trump saw that he needed to correct— with him (finally) condemning racism in this instance. Christians have a prophetic witness, but we can lose that witness when we are unable to see (or speak to) the errors or failings of leaders. And, if Christians feel the need to defend even an obvious and divisive mistake (and my Twitter feed is filled with those people), they hurt the church’s witness and tying it to closely to a person, not the truth. Now, if that’s your job in the White House, I get it. You have to defend everything. But, if Christians do, it shows the world that our loyalty is to the person in the White House rather than the Person who said He is the Truth. If you are a Christian, you need to speak out against error, injustice, and the depraved strategy of silence. Many did, some said nothing, but some went to the defense of something the President two days later felt the need to correct. If you’re a Christian who thinks that President Trump can do no wrong, you’re giving the message that he’s the savior. He’s not. He is fallible, human, and makes mistakes that we, as responsible Christians and members of Christ’s household, should not be afraid to address. So, rather than defending his error, which he, himself, felt the need to correct today, search your heart and ask, have I become too connected to a secular leader? There are many godly Christians, committed to Christ and His work, who voted for and supported President Trump. They had two choices and chose now-President Trump. And, I am thankful for some of the choices and policies he has made. But, I can, must, and will critique him when his lack of words divides the nation as they did this week. As I tweeted, if you are a Christian Trump supporter, but cannot critique him when he is wrong, the world is watching and sees your primary loyalty. Furthermore, if you can’t critique, but must also defend


So it's a watch then, in look and feel. What it does over and above a standard £80 Timex is step and distance counting and stopwatch or timer alerts. If you’re after phone notifications, apps or GPS tracking, that’s not the Timex IQ+ Move’s bag. When you boot-up the Timex app you get to choose whether the little extra dial displays how close you are to either reaching your distance or steps goal for the day. The seconds hand can take on the same task if you don’t need the time to the second, and it can display the date too. Look carefully and you’ll see a little “1” just after the 12 o’ clock mark and a “31” just after the 6 o’ clock spot, denoting the days of the month. Subtle, right? Sure, in tech terms this is about as flashy as an abacus, but you have to appreciate how low-key it all is. You get a fitness tracker geek-out on the sly. Another neat hidden feature is the night light. Press the crown for a second and the whole screen glows blue thanks to some hidden LEDs behind it. You won’t be able to see the effects in daylight, but it means you can at least see the time in the dark. As with any fitness tracker worn on your wrist, you’re not going to judge your marathon training off the Timex IQ+ Move’s step counts. But if you find its readings way off you can set the app to nudge the totals up and down. That said, it’s been within perfectly normal reading bounds for me, so.


In South San Francisco right now, engineers are growing diamonds. We are not talking cubic zirconia - these are real diamonds. The manmade gems are virtually identical to diamonds mined from deep in the earth.High tech is now transforming high-end jewelry and a number of bay area businesses are early adopters.Husband and wife team Lindsay Reinsmith and Jason Payne started learning about manmade diamonds when they got engaged five years ago.Reinsmith did not want a traditional diamond because of the difficulty of tracking its origin. She wanted to be sure no environmental damage or human rights issues were associated with the gemstones in her engagement ring.Eventually, she and Payne settled on man-made diamonds, but they were hard to find - so the couple decided to start their own business.A few months ago they launched Ada Diamonds , an on-line business based in Sunnyvale. They sell custom jewelry using man-made diamonds.Sophisticated equipment can now grow gem quality diamonds in just a few weeks. "It's a paragon of human achievement that we can recreate the conditions with which carbon becomes diamond" according to Payne.Ada Diamonds sells diamonds grown in several different laboratories. Advances in technology now allow labs to grow diamonds in a wide range of colors and sizes.But is a diamond grown in a lab real? Brenda Harwick with the Gemological Institute of America says yes. Lab diamonds "have the same physical, chemical and optical properties as a natural diamond that's grown in the earth over billions of years" according to Harwick.Prices for manmade diamonds are generally 20 to 40 percent less than mined diamonds. But Martin Roscheisen of the Diamond Foundry in South San Francisco says it actually costs more to grow a diamond in a lab than to dig it out of the ground. Roscheisen says growing diamonds is extremely difficult which is why companies like his keep the exact details secret. Brilliant Earth in San Francisco sells both diamonds that are certified as "ethically mined" and lab grown diamonds. The lab diamonds are still just a tiny slice of the business, but interest is growing.Kathryn Money with Brilliant Earth says manmade gems are "are resonating particularly well with millennials because they are beautiful, responsible and affordable.Lab-grown diamonds still have the same type of imperfections as mined diamonds. So.


Just wait until President Trump presents his budget proposal to congress; that’s when the UniParty is really going to go bananas, and every crony-conservative pundit and radio talker will simultaneously demand Trump immediately spend more money. These politicians will demand more spending. Notice anything familiar about them? The federal fiscal year runs from October 1st to September 31st annually. The Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 requires the President to submit his budget request for the upcoming fiscal year no later than the first Monday of February. However, in the first year of the first term of each administration – congress waives the statutory deadline because so much of the election and campaign is structured around fiscal budget and tax policy. The waiver gives the incoming administration time to construct their budget after the inauguration. Historic reference: Year One Bill Clinton budget was delivered on 4/8/93 (66 days past deadline). Year One GW Bush budget was delivered on 4/9/01 (63 days past deadline). Year One Barack Obama budget was delivered on 5/11/09 (98 days past deadline). Currently President Trump is in the process of putting his budget together. Heck, the Senate hasn’t even confirmed Trump’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director, Mick ‘Cantalopes‘ Mulvaney. But one thing is abundantly clear President Trump has already stated his expressed intention to bring the federal budget to balance within his first term. To comprehend the scope of this budgetary dynamic, consider the first four months of fiscal year 2017 (October 1, 2016 through Jan 31, 2017) which was just announced: ♦ Receipts through January totaled $1,084 billion [$1.08 trillion], CBO estimates—$5 billion more than the amount for the same period last year. ♦ Outlays for the first four months of fiscal year 2017 were $1,243 billion [$1.24 trillion], CBO estimates—$4 billion more than they were during the same period last year. If not for shifts in the timing of certain payments from October 2016 to September 2016 because October 1 fell on a weekend, outlays would have been $45 billion (or 4 percent) greater. The Federal Government took in a record $1.08 Trillion, and yet spent $1.24 Trillion


Massive stars form deeply embedded in dense molecular gas, which they stir and heat up and ionize. During an early phase, the ionization is confined to hypercompact HII regions, and the stellar radiation is entirely absorbed by dust, giving rise to a hot molecular core. To investigate the innermost structure of such high-mass star-forming regions, we observed vibrationally excited HCN (via the direct $\ell$-type transition of v2=1, $\Delta J$=0, J=13, which lies 1400 K above ground) toward the massive hot molecular cores G10.47+0.03, SgrB2-N, and SgrB2-M with the Very Large Array (VLA) at 7 mm, reaching a resolution of about 1000 AU (0.1"). We detect the line both in emission and in absorption against HII regions. The latter allows to derive lower limits on the column densities of hot HCN, which are several times $10^{19}$ cm$^{-2}$. We see indication of expansion motions in G10.47+0.03 and detect velocity components in SgrB2-M at 50, 60, and 70 km/s relative to the Local Standard of Rest. The emission originates in regions of less than 0.1 pc diameter around the hypercompact HII regions G10.47+0.03 B1 and SgrB2-N K2, and reaches brightness temperatures of more than 200 K. Using the three-dimensional radiative transfer code RADMC-3D, we model the sources as dense dust cores heated by stars in the HII regions, and derive masses of hot (>300 K) molecular gas of more than 100 solar masses (for an HCN fractional abundance of 10$^{-5}$), challenging current simulations of massive star formation. Heating only by the stars in the HII regions is sufficient to produce such large quantities of hot molecular gas.


The NSF has chosen the site for the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL) to be in Lead, South Dakota. In fact, the state of South Dakota has already stepped up to the plate and contributed its own funding for the proposed lab, see http://www.sanfordlaboratoryathomestake.org/index.html. The final decision by NSF for funding the Initial Suite of Experiments for DUSEL will be made early in 2009. At that time the NSF Science Board must make a decision. Of order 200 experimentalists have already expressed an interest in performing experiments at DUSEL. In order to assess the interest of the theoretical community, the Center for Cosmology and Astro-Particle Physics (CCAPP) at The Ohio State University (OSU) organized a 3-day DUSEL Theory Workshop in Columbus, Ohio from April 4 - 6, 2008. The workshop focused on the scientific case for six proposed experiments for DUSEL: long baseline neutrino oscillations, proton decay, dark matter, astrophysical neutrinos, neutrinoless double beta decay and N-Nbar oscillations. The outcome of this workshop is the DUSEL Theory White paper addressing the scientific case at a level which may be useful in the decision making process for policy makers at the NSF and in the U.S. Congress. In order to assess the physics interest in the DUSEL project we have posted the DUSEL Theory White paper on the following CCAPP link http://ccapp.osu.edu/whitepaper.html . Please read the white paper and.


You're sure to get an answer that can only be described as "hedged happiness." After all, BAC stock has run up some 35 percent since the November presidential election, running circles around the Standard & Poor's 500 index, which is up 12 percent since then. But the dual narrative of President Donald Trump's anti-regulation regime and Federal Reserve interest-rate hikes sending Bank of America to the moon hasn't quite materialized -- at least not nearly enough to match months' worth of hype. Bank of America, as a result, finds itself entering its first-quarter earnings report in a double-digit slide since its early March highs that has eaten all but 1 percent of its gains in 2017, versus a respectable 4 percent performance by the broader market. The question now is: What can BAC do to rekindle the kinds of go-go gains it earned in the "Trump Bump"? [See: 11 Ways to Buy Bank Stocks.] The headline numbers: Wall Street has some pretty optimistic views of what Bank of America will bring to the table for Tuesday's first-quarter earnings report. Revenues are expected to expand 9.6 percent from last year's quarter to $21.6 billion, while earnings should sprout by 25 percent to 35 cents per share. A beat should be... well, money in the bank. BAC has posted earnings beats for seven consecutive quarters, so it's managing expectations well on its own. But Wall Street also appears to have laid down a low bar for big-bank earnings this quarter. Citigroup ( C) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. ( JPM) beat first-quarter estimates by roughly 9 percent, and even beleaguered Wells Fargo & Co. ( WFC) managed to come in 3 percent ahead of the consensus mark. The flip side? Those three performances, all released last Thursday morning, were wasted as the U.S. dropped the "mother of all bombs" on Afghanistan in a strike against ISIS, sending markets (including bank stocks) into reverse. Bank of America's secret Is out: Citigroup analyst Keith Horowitz articulated the biggest problem for BAC shares going forward in an April 4 note: "Since the election, BAC has outperformed and has substantially closed that gap with JPM.... We believe


We consider the problem of obtaining sparse positional strategies for safety games. Such games are a commonly used model in many formal methods, as they make the interaction of a system with its environment explicit. Often, a winning strategy for one of the players is used as a certificate or as an artefact for further processing in the application. Small such certificates, i.e., strategies that can be written down very compactly, are typically preferred. For safety games, we only need to consider positional strategies. These map game positions of a player onto a move that is to be taken by the player whenever the play enters that position. For representing positional strategies compactly, a common goal is to minimize the number of positions for which a winning player's move needs to be defined such that the game is still won by the same player, without visiting a position with an undefined next move. We call winning strategies in which the next move is defined for few of the player's positions sparse. Unfortunately, even roughly approximating the density of the sparsest strategy for a safety game has been shown to be NP-hard. Thus, to obtain sparse strategies in practice, one either has to apply some heuristics, or use some exhaustive search technique, like ILP (integer linear programming) solving. In this paper, we perform a comparative study of currently available methods to obtain sparse winning strategies for the safety player in safety games. We consider techniques from common knowledge, such as using ILP or SAT (satisfiability) solving, and a novel technique based on iterative linear programming. The results of this paper tell us.


Donald Trump’s recent decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital shows how disenthralled his administration is with traditional pieties about the Middle East. It’s about time. One piety is that “Mideast peace” is all but synonymous with Arab-Israeli peace. Seven years of upheaval, repression, terrorism, refugee crises and mass murder in Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Iraq and Syria have put paid to that notion. Another piety is that only an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal could reconcile the wider Arab world to the Jewish state. Yet relations between Jerusalem and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Cairo; Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; and Manama, Bahrain, are flourishing as never before, even as the prospect of a Palestinian state is as remote as ever. Relations between Jerusalem and Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE, Bahrain are flourishing A third is that intensive mediation by the United States is essential to progress on the ground. Yet recent American involvement — whether at the Camp David summit in 2000 or John Kerry’s efforts in 2013 — has had mostly the opposite effect: diplomatic failure, followed by war. Which brings us to Jerusalem, and the piety that pretending it isn’t what it is can be a formula for anything except continued self-delusion. What Jerusalem is is the capital of Israel, both as the ancestral Jewish homeland and the modern nation-state. When Richard Nixon became the first American president to visit the country in 1974, he attended his state dinner in Jerusalem. It’s where President Anwar Sadat of Egypt spoke when he decided to make peace in 1977. It’s what Congress decided as a matter of law in 1995. When Barack Obama paid his own presidential visit to Israel in 2013, he too spent most of his time in Jerusalem. So why maintain the fiction that Jerusalem isn’t the capital? Why maintain the fiction that Jerusalem is not the capital? The original argument, from 1947, was that Jerusalem ought to be under international jurisdiction, in recognition of its religious importance. But Jews were not allowed to visit the Western Wall during the 19 years when East Jerusalem was under Jordanian occupation. Yasser Arafat denied that Solomon’s Temple was even in Jerusalem, reflecting an increasingly common Palestinian denial of history. Would Jews be allowed to visit Jewish sites, and would those sites be respected, if the city were redivided? Doubtful, considering Palestinian attacks on such


The Swift/XRT data of 179 GRBs (from 050124 to 070129) and the optical afterglow data of 57 pre- and post-Swift GRBs are analyzed, in order to systematically investigate the jet-like breaks in the X-ray and optical afterglow lightcurves. We find that not a single burst can be included in the ``Platinum'' sample, in which the data satisfy all the criteria of a jet break. By releasing one or more requirements to define a jet break, some candidates of various degrees could be identified. In the X-ray band, 42 out of the 103 well-sampled X-ray lightcurves have a decay slope of the post-break segment >1.5 (``Bronze'' sample), and 27 of them also satisfy the closure relations of the forward models (``Silver'' sample). The numbers of the ``Bronze'' and ``Silver'' candidates in the optical lightcurves are 27 and 23, respectively. Thirteen bursts have well-sampled optical and X-ray lightcurves, but only seven cases are consistent with an achromatic break, but even in these cases only one band satisfies the closure relations (``Gold'' sample). The observed break time in the XRT lightcurves is systematically earlier than that in the optical bands. All these raise great concerns in interpreting the jet-like breaks as jet breaks and further inferring GRB energetics from these breaks. By assuming that these breaks are jet breaks, we perform a similar analysis as previous work to calculate the jet opening angle (theta_j) and energetics (E_k) with the ``Silver'' and ``Gold'' jet break candidates. The derived E_K distribution reveals a much larger scatter than the pre-Swift sample. A tentative anti-correlation between theta_j and E_{K,iso} is found for both the pre-Swift and Swift GRBs, indicating that the E_K could still be quasi-universal.


1) a uniform application, or set of uniform applications, to be used by an applicant to apply for assistance from multiple Federal financial assistance programs that serve similar purposes and are administered by different Federal agencies; (2) ways to streamline and simplify Federal financial assistance administrative procedures and reporting requirements for grantees; (3) a uniform system wherein an applicant may apply for, manage, and report on the use of, funding from multiple Federal financial assistance programs across different Federal agencies; (4) a process for applicants to electronically apply for, and report on the use of, funds from Federal financial assistance programs; (5) use of common rules for multiple Federal financial assistance programs across different Federal agencies; (6) improved interagency and intergovernmental coordination of information collection and sharing of data pertaining to Federal financial assistance programs, including the development of a release form to be used by grantees to facilitate the sharing of information across multiple Federal financial assistance programs; (7) a process to strengthen the information resources management capacity of State, local, and tribal governments and qualified organizations pertaining to the administration of Federal financial assistance programs; and (8) specific annual goals and objectives to further the purposes of this Act. (b) Actions Consistent With Statutory Requirements.--The actions taken by the Director under subsection (a) shall be consistent with statutory requirements relating to any applicable Federal financial assistance program. (c) Lead Agency and Working Groups.--The Director may designate a lead agency to assist the Director in carrying out the responsibilities under this section. The Director may use interagency working groups to assist in carrying out such responsibilities. (d) Review of Plans and Reports.-- (1) In general.--The Director shall-- (A) review agency plans and reports developed under section 6 for adequacy; (B) monitor the annual performance of each agency toward achieving the goals and objectives stated in the agency plan; and (C) ensure that each agency plan does not diminish standards to measure performance and accountability of financial assistance programs. (2) Report.--Not later than 3 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the Director shall report to Congress on implementation of this section. Such a report may be included as part of any of the general management reports required under law. (e) Exemptions.-- (1) In general.--The Director may exempt any Federal agency from the requirements of this Act.


The average price of the brand of vaccine per dose offered by the seller during the 12-month period preceding such date; or (C) if the seller did not offer for sale the brand of vaccine on the date described in paragraph (1)(A) or during the period described in paragraph (1)(B), the price determined by the Secretary under paragraph (3). (2) Exception.--If the Secretary finds that the average price of a covered vaccine is substantially different at the time of a declaration of a shortage of that vaccine under subsection (c) than the average price of the vaccine during the 12-month period preceding such declaration because of factors wholly unrelated to the causes of the shortage, the Secretary may determine an appropriate baseline price of the vaccine. (3) Timing of determinations by secretary.--At the time of declaring a shortage of a covered vaccine under subsection (c), the Secretary shall determine an appropriate baseline price of the vaccine per dose for purposes of paragraph (1)(C) and, if applicable, for purposes of paragraph (2). (e) Penalties.-- (1) In general.--Any person who violates subsection (a) shall be imprisoned for not more than 30 days, fined in the amount described in paragraph (2), or both. Each violation of subsection (a) respecting a separate dose of a covered vaccine constitutes a separate offense. (2) Amount.--The amount of a fine under paragraph (1) shall be, for each dose of covered vaccine sold at a price in violation of this section, 3 times the amount of the difference between such price and the applicable baseline price. (f) Citizen Suits.-- (1) In general.--Except as provided in paragraph (2), any person may commence a civil action on his own behalf to compel compliance with subsection (a) against any person (including the United States and any other governmental instrumentality or agency to the extent permitted by the Eleventh Amendment to the Constitution) for any alleged violation of subsection (a). The United States district courts shall have jurisdiction, without regard to the amount in controversy or the citizenship of the parties, to compel compliance with such subsection. (2) Notice required.--No action may be commenced under this subsection-- (A) prior to 30 days after the plaintiff has given notice of the alleged violation (in such manner as the Secretary may require) to the


The long term time evolution of tidal dwarf satellite galaxies with two different initial densities orbiting a host galaxy that resembles the Milky Way has been studied using a large set of Newtonian N-Body simulations. From the simulations two maps of the orbital conditions that lead to quasi-equilibrium objects were constructed. It has been found that several orbits of the satellites allow for the existence, for about 1 Gyr or more, of out-of-equilibrium bodies with high apparent mass-to-light ratios. Within this framework the satellites in the quasi-stable phase reproduce the observed satellite properties for about 16% of the orbit for high density progenitors, and for about 66% for progenitors with lower densities An additional simulation for a single satellite with initial mass of 10^7 Msun and Plummer radius of 0.15 kpc leads to remnants in the quasi- equilibrium phase that simultaneously reproduce remarkably well the observational quantities of the UFDGs of the Milky Way. This satellite in the quasi-stable phase reproduces the observed satellite properties for about 42% of the orbit. The results suggest that a fraction of the observed satellites could plausibly be galaxies without dark matter that have true M/L ratios much lower than those measured. The inflated M/L ratios arise because they are observed at the right time, along the right orbit and during the quasi-equilibrium phase of their evolution. This is a viable explanation for the high M/L ratios observed in all satellites as long as the satellites are preferentially on certain orbits and are observed at certain times. This could arise within the TDG scenario.


You’re going to want to look at its OLED models, but they’re fairly expensive and not everyone wants to spend that kind of money on a TV — even a really good one. LG is aware of this, and is constantly working to improve its LCD models. The latest result of the company’s efforts to that end is the SJ9500 Super UHD TV, which LG says provides its best 4K LCD picture quality ever. To achieve this, LG uses a quantum dot film developed by the company’s display division that it calls Nano Cell, which allows for more accurate colors, deeper blacks, and a wider viewing angle. While conventional LCD displays can lose nearly 60 percent of their color and contrast when viewed from off to the side, LG says the SJ9500 maintains 95 percent at the same angles, meaning you don’t have to fight over the best seat in the house, at least not for picture-related reasons. More: LG debuts Tone Free headset and Tone Studio wearable speaker ahead of CES As expected in a premium TV these days, the SJ9500 supports high dynamic range (HDR), with both the HDR10 and Dolby Vision formats supported. The TV features Active HDR, which LG says analyzes and optimizes HDR10 content on a scene-by-scene basis, making for an even better HDR experience. The new models also include support for Advanced HDR, developed by Technicolor, as well as a feature LG calls HDR Effect. This feature has the further ability to process standard dynamic range content in order to simulate HDR, making for a more colorful picture, even with older content. The SJ9500 doesn’t use a front cover, which helps keep the thickness of the bezel down, making for a nearly edge-to-edge look. As LG’s premium UHD LCD TV, it uses a metal design and uniquely shaped stand that allow it to maintain an impressive look without dominating your living room — at least not until it’s turned on. More: LG’s levitating PJ9 Bluetooth speaker expected to take off at CES Alongside the SJ9500, the company is also introducing two other series, the SJ8500 and SJ8000. These offer the same type of display technology and features, though they aren’t quite as thin and lights as the SJ9500, which is just 6.9 mm thick at its thinnest point. As of yet, there is no word on the


Has its own names for many of its missiles. Determining what missiles are fired by North Korea after explosive launch failures can be an imprecise science. For example, officials said that no determination has been made for a North Korean missile that was fired on March 21 and exploded moments later. A description of the missile launched on April 4 has also been revised several times. It was initially described by a U.S. Pacific Command press release as a KN-15, a new land-based, multi-stage, medium-range missile that uses solid fuel. The new KN-15 designation was created to distinguish it from the KN-11, North Korea’s solid-fueled, submarine-launched missile, which the country tested last summer. However, the day after the launch, U.S. officials revised their assessment and described the missile as a SCUD missile with an existing range. Days later, it was re-designated again as the new KN-17 because it was different than existing single-stage SCUD missiles. Two of North Korea's five missile launches this year have involved failures shortly after liftoff. These failures have been similar to the series of explosions that occurred with the intermediate-range Musudan missile in 2016. Last year, North Korea conducted eight tests of the Musudan missile, but only one of the missiles achieved flight. The vast majority of the Musudan tests ended in failure. According to a New York Times report, the U.S. military sabotaged North Korea's missile program by using cyber and electronic strikes that caused missiles to explode seconds after launch in March. According to the Times, the Obama administration signed off on the Pentagon's use of so-called "left of launch" techniques. These are techniques that could electronically affect North Korean missiles before launch or as they lift off. The report has gained traction in the wake of Saturday's failed launch, although it remains unclear.


In Kaluza-Klein models, we investigate soliton solutions of Einstein equation. We obtain the formulas for perihelion shift, deflection of light, time delay of radar echoes and PPN parameters. We find that the solitonic parameter k should be very big: |k|\geq 2.3\times10^4. We define a soliton solution which corresponds to a point-like mass source. In this case the soliton parameter k=2, which is clearly contrary to this restriction. Similar problem with the observations takes place for static spherically symmetric perfect fluid with the dust-like equation of state in all dimensions. The common for both of these models is the same equations of state in our three dimensions and in the extra dimensions. All dimensions are treated at equal footing. To be in agreement with observations, it is necessary to break the symmetry between the external/our and internal spaces. It takes place for black strings which are particular examples of solitons with k\to \infty. For such k, black strings are in concordance with the observations. Moreover, we show that they are the only solitons which are at the same level of agreement with the observations as in general relativity. Black strings can be treated as perfect fluid with dust-like equation of state p_0=0 in the external/our space and very specific equation of state p_1=-(1/2)\epsilon in the internal space. The latter equation is due to negative tension in the extra dimension. We also demonstrate that dimension 3 for the external space is a special one. Only in this case we get the latter equation of state. We show that the black string equations of state satisfy the necessary condition of the internal space stabilization. Therefore, black strings are good candidates for a viable model of astrophysical objects (e.g., Sun).


Let $\mathcal{L}$ be a subspace lattice on a Banach space $X$ and let $\delta:\mathrm{Alg}\mathcal{L}\rightarrow B(X)$ be a linear mapping. If $\vee\{L\in \mathcal{L}: L_-\nsupseteq L\}=X$ or $\wedge\{L_-:L\in \mathcal{L}, L_-\nsupseteq L\}=(0)$, we show that the following three conditions are equivalent: (1) $\delta(AB)=\delta(A)B+A\delta(B)$ whenever $AB=0$; (2) $\delta(AB+BA)=\delta(A)B+A\delta(B)+\delta(B)A+B\delta(A)$ whenever $AB+BA=0$; (3) $\delta$ is a generalized derivation and $\delta(I)\in (\mathrm{Alg}\mathcal{L})^\prime$. If $\vee\{L\in \mathcal{L}: L_-\nsupseteq L\}=X$ or $\wedge\{L_-:L\in \mathcal{L}, L_-\nsupseteq L\}=(0)$ and $\delta$ satisfies $\delta(AB+BA)=\delta(A)B+A\delta(B)+\delta(B)A+B\delta(A)$ whenever $AB=0$, we obtain that $\delta$ is a generalized derivation and $\delta(I)A\in(\mathrm{Alg}\mathcal{L})^\prime$ for every $A\in \mathrm{Alg}\mathcal{L}$. We also prove that if $\vee\{L\in \mathcal{L}: L_-\nsupseteq L\}=X$ and $\wedge\{L_-:L\in \mathcal{L}, L_-\nsupseteq L\}=(0)$, then $\delta$ is a local generalized derivation.


Irtles and the Charmanders and the Bulbasaurs." She points to Nintendo's recent ventures into mobile development as evidence of a continued push to expand its player base. "Pokemon Go became this transitory nostalgic thing that brought people back into Pokemania," Samantha says. "They [Nintendo] saw a surge of new players that maybe hadn't picked up a Pokemon game for 20 years and wanted to get back in." Let's Go includes significant crossovers with Pokemon Go, which has received over 750 million mobile downloads to date. Players will be able to transfer caught Pokémon from the mobile game into the Switch experience. "I think Nintendo saw the success of Pokemon Go and wanted to cash in on it," Samantha says. Nintendo also confirmed that an "all-new core series" title is in development, which will continue the tradition of in-depth Pokemon RPGs begun by Red and Blue in 1996. Some Pokemon fans have reacted positively to the news online, but those who are passingly familiar with the brand will have to be convinced to buy a Nintendo Switch to play. Skip Twitter post by @Koil1990 Not hyped for the new Pokemon game on the switch, I want a proper Pokemon game ;( — Kyle (@Koil1990) May 30, 2018 Report The decision to release these new Pokemon games aims to dismantle any barriers to entry for those without a Switch by tempting them to purchase a Switch ahead of the core RPG launch next year. "Pokemon Let's Go Eevee and Pikachu have the Pokemon you know," Samantha says. "My Mum even knows who Pikachu is - she can't spell it, but she knows who Pikachu is - and that's the sort of experience they want to deliver people sort of to wean them back into the experience and maybe even get a few more people playing on Switch too." Nintendo remains tight-lipped on how Let's Go will actually play for now, with more information expected in the coming months. 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 -.


The answer may surprise you: It's fear of missing out. According to recent report from Commvault and CITO Research, 81% of business leaders are embracing the cloud because they're concerned about missing out on cloud advancements. So, just how many executives are making that move? According to the report, 93% of respondents said that at least some of their processes were being moved to the cloud. Additionally, 56% said that they had already moved, or intended to move, all of their processes to the cloud. "The survey unequivocally confirms that Cloud FOMO is real and on the mind of C-level and other IT leaders who are grappling with bringing the value of this new frontier to their organizations, from increasing IT outcomes to being a strategic driver for increased business agility," Dan Woods, CTO of CITO Research, said in the release. "The research indicates the migration toward the cloud is underway in full force, even as companies struggle to understand cloud capabilities. Data protection and recovery was highlighted as a fundamental area where the cloud is having significant business impact." SEE: Special report: The cloud v. data center decision (free PDF) Don Foster, senior director of solutions marketing for Commvault, said in the report that cloud technologies are still seen as a key driver for digital transformation. As such, it makes sense that these business leaders would be concerned about getting to the cloud quickly. The most important cloud projects cited by the respondents were data protection and backup, and data recovery, as noted by 75% of the respondents and 63% respectively. However, there are some challenges holding these companies back from realizing their cloudy dreams. The sheer volume of data was cited by 68% of those surveyed as a key barrier, while 65% pointed to a struggle with skills and talent, and 55% said policies were the biggest barrier. These business leaders are putting their money on the line, too. Some 87% plan on putting more money in their budget for cloud investments. The reasons for why these respondents wanted to move to the cloud were varied. Of those surveyed, 33% noted that "customer focus through business agility" was their primary reason for moving to the cloud. Cost savings were the primary reason for 22% of respondents and 20% said "innovation and development of new apps, products and services" was the driving force behind their


Model independent reconstructions of dark energy have received some attention. The approach that addresses the reconstruction of the dimensionless coordinate distance and its two first derivatives using a polynomial fit in different redshift windows is well developed \cite{DalyDjorgovski1,DalyDjorgovski2,DalyDjorgovski3}. In this work we offer new insights into the problem by focusing on two types of observational probes: SNeIa and GRBs. Our results allow to highlight some of the intrinsic weaknesses of the method. One of the directions we follow is to consider updated observational samples. Our results indicate than conclusions on the main dark energy features as drawn from this method are intimately related to the features of the samples themselves (which are not quite ideal). This is particularly true of GRBs, which manifest themselves as poor performers in this context. In contrast to original works, we conclude they cannot be used for cosmological purposes, and the state of the art does not allow to regard them on the same quality basis as SNeIa. The next direction we contribute to is the question of how the adjusting of some parameters (window width, overlap, selection criteria) affect the results. We find again there is a considerable sensitivity to these features. Then, we try to establish what is the current redshift range for which one can make solid predictions on dark energy evolution. Finally, we strengthen the former view that this model is modest in the sense it provides only a picture of the global trend. But, on the other hand, we believe it offers an interesting complement to other approaches.


We use a semi-analytical model to study the impact of reionization, and the associated radiative feedback, on galaxy formation. Two feedback models have been considered: (i) a standard prescription, according to which star formation is totally suppressed in galaxies with circular velocity below a critical threshold (model CF06) and (ii) a characterization based on the filtering scale (model G00), allowing for a gradual reduction of the gas available for star formation in low-mass galaxies. In model CF06 reionization starts at z ~ 15-20, is 85% complete by z ~ 10; at the same z, the ionized fraction is 16% in model G00. The models match SDSS constraints on the evolution of the neutral hydrogen fraction at z < 7, but predict different Thomson optical depths, tau_e = 0.1017 (CF06), and 0.0631 (G00); such values are within 1 sigma of the WMAP 3-yr determination. Both models are in remarkable good agreement with additional existing data (evolution of Lyman-limit systems, cosmic star formation history, high-z galaxy counts, IGM thermal history), which therefore cannot be used to discriminate among different feedback models. Deviations among radiative feedback prescriptions emerge when considering the expected HI 21 cm background signal, where a ~ 15 mK absorption feature in the range 75-100 MHz is present in model G00 and a global shift of the emission feature preceding reionization towards larger frequencies occurs in the same model. Single dish observations with existing or forthcoming low-frequency radio telescopes can achieve mK sensitivity, allowing the identification of these features.


Competent jurisdiction; (4) to a consumer reporting agency, as defined in section 603 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act for inclusion in a consumer report that may be released to a third party only for a purpose permissible under section 604 of that Act; or (5) that is not personally identifiable. SEC. 4. CIVIL LIABILITY FOR NONCOMPLIANCE. (a) In General.--Any individual whose rights under this Act have been knowingly or negligently violated may bring a civil action to recover-- (1) such preliminary and equitable relief as the court determines to be appropriate; and (2) the greater of compensatory damages or liquidated damages of $5,000. (b) Punitive Damages.--In any action brought under this section in which the individual has prevailed because of a knowing violation of a provision of this Act, the court may, in addition to any relief awarded under subsection (a), award such punitive damages as may be warranted. (c) Attorney's Fees.--In the case of a civil action brought under subsection (a) in which the individual has substantially prevailed, the court may assess against the respondent a reasonable attorney's fee and other litigation costs and expenses (including expert fees) reasonably incurred. (d) Limitation.--No action may be commenced under this section more than 3 years after the date on which the violation was or should reasonably have been discovered. (e) Agency.--A principal is jointly and severally liable with the principal's agent for damages under this section for the actions of the principal's agent acting within the scope of the agency. (f) Additional Remedies.--The equitable relief or damages that may be available under this section shall be in addition to any other lawful remedy or award available. SEC. 5. RELATION TO STATE LAWS. (a) In General.--This Act shall not be construed as superseding, altering, or affecting the statutes, regulations, orders, or interpretations in effect in any State, except to the extent that such statutes, regulations, orders, or interpretations are inconsistent with the provisions of this Act, and then only to the extent of the inconsistency. (b) Greater Protection Under State Law.--For purposes of this Act, a State statute, regulation, order, or interpretation is not inconsistent with the provisions of this subtitle.


On a map entitled `Lewis Fork Addition and Little Wilson Creek Additions', dated March 23, 2005, and which are hereby incorporated in the Little Wilson Creek Wilderness; ``(19) certain lands in the Jefferson National Forest, which comprise approximately 2,456 acres, as generally depicted on a map entitled `Shawvers Run Additions', dated March 23, 2005, and which are hereby incorporated in the Shawvers Run Wilderness; ``(20) certain lands in the Jefferson National Forest, which comprise approximately 1,203 acres, as generally depicted on a map entitled `Peters Mountain Addition', dated March 23, 2005, and which are hereby incorporated in the Peters Mountain Wilderness; and ``(21) certain lands in the Jefferson National Forest, which comprise approximately 612 acres, as generally depicted on a map entitled `Kimberling Creek Additions', dated March 23, 2005, and which are hereby incorporated in the Kimberling Creek Wilderness;''. SEC. 3. SENG MOUNTAIN AND BEAR CREEK SCENIC AREAS, JEFFERSON NATIONAL FOREST, VIRGINIA. (a) Establishment of Scenic Areas.-- (1) Establishment.--The following National Forest System lands in the State of Virginia are hereby designated as National Scenic Areas (in this section referred to as the ``scenic areas''): (A) Certain lands in the Jefferson National Forest, which comprise approximately 6,455 acres, as generally depicted on a map entitled ``Seng Mountain and Raccoon Branch'', dated March 23, 2005, and which shall be known as the Seng Mountain National Scenic Area. (B) Certain lands in the Jefferson National Forest, which comprise approximately 5,503 acres, as generally depicted on a map entitled ``Bear Creek'' dated March 23, 2005, and which shall be known as the Bear Creek National Scenic Area. (2) Maps and descriptions.--As soon as practicable after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Agriculture shall file a map and boundary description of the scenic areas with the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry of the Senate and the Committee on Agriculture and the Committee on Resources of the House of Representatives. The map and description shall have the same force and effect as.


'. (b) Definition of Siblings.--Section 475 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 675) is amended by adding at the end the following: ``(9) The term `siblings' means individuals who satisfy at least one of the following conditions: ``(A) The individuals are considered by State law to be siblings. ``(B) The individuals would have been considered siblings under State law but for termination of parental rights or other disruption of parental rights, such as the death of a parent.''. SEC. 9. EFFECTIVE DATE. (a) In General.--Except as provided in subsection (b), the amendments made this Act shall take effect on October 1, 2013. (b) Delay Permitted if State Legislation Required.--In the case of a State plan approved under part B or E of title IV of the Social Security Act which the Secretary of Health and Human Services determines requires State legislation (other than legislation appropriating funds) in order for the plan to meet the additional requirements imposed by this Act, the State plan shall not be regarded as failing to comply with the requirements of such part solely on the basis of the failure of the plan to meet such additional requirements before the 1st day of the 1st calendar quarter beginning after the close of the 1st regular session of the State legislature that ends after the 1-year period beginning with the date of the enactment of this Act. For purposes of the preceding sentence, in the case of a State that has a 2-year legislative session, each year of the session is deemed to be a separate regular session of the State legislature. SEC. 10. DETERMINATION OF 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.


We present deep Keck spectroscopy for 17 morphologically-selected field spheroidals in the redshift range 1.05<z<1.60 in order to investigate the continuity in physical properties between the claimed massive compact red galaxies ("nuggets") at z~2 and well-established data for massive spheroidal galaxies below z~1. By combining Keck-based stellar velocity dispersions with HST-based sizes, we find that the most massive systems (Mdyn > 10^11 Msol) grew in size over 0<z<1.6 as (1+z)^(-0.75 +- 0.10) (i.e., x2 since z=1.5) whereas intermediate mass systems (10^11 Msol > Mdyn > 10^10 Msol) did not grow significantly. These trends are consistent with a picture in which more massive spheroidals formed at higher redshift via "wetter" mergers involving greater dissipation. To examine growth under the favored "dry" merger hypothesis, we also examine size growth at a fixed velocity dispersion. This test, uniquely possible with our dynamical data, allows us to consider the effects of "progenitor bias." Above our completeness limit (sigma > 200 km/s), we find size growth consistent with that inferred for the mass-selected sample, thus ruling out strong progenitor bias. To maintain continuity in the growth of massive galaxies over the past 10 Gyr, our new results imply that size evolution over 1.3<z<2.3, a period of 1.9 Gyr, must have been even more dramatic than hitherto claimed.


We give a generalization of the classical Bombieri--Schneider--Lang criterion in transcendence theory. We give a local notion of $LG$--germ, which is similar to the notion of $E$-- function and Gevrey condition, and which generalize (and replace) the condition on derivatives in the theorem quoted above. Let $K\subset \Bbb C$ be a number field and $X$ a quasi--projective variety defined over $K$. Let $\gamma\colon M\to X$ be an holomorphic map of finite order from a parabolic Riemann surface to $X$ such that the Zariski closure of the image of it is strictly bigger then one. Suppose that for every $p\in X(K)\cap\gamma(M)$ the formal germ of $M$ near $P$ is an $LG$-- germ, then we prove that $X(K)\cap\gamma(M)$ is a finite set. Then we define the notion of conformally parabolic Kh\"aler varieties; this generalize the notion of parabolic Riemann surface. We show that on these varieties we can define a value distribution theory. The complementary of a divisor on a compact Kh\"aler manifold is conformally parabolic; in particular every quasi projective variety is. Suppose that $A$ is conformally parabolic variety of dimension $m$ over $\Bbb C$ with Kh\"aler form $\omega$ and $\gamma\colon A\to X$ is an holomorphic map of finite order such that the Zariski closure of the image is strictly bigger then $m$. Suppose that for every $p\in X(K)\cap \gamma (A)$, the image of $A$ is an $LG$--germ. then we prove that there exists a current $T$ on $A$ of bidegree $(1,1)$ such that $\int_AT\wedge\omega^{m-1}$ explicitly bounded and with Lelong number bigger or equal then one on each point in $\gamma^{-1}(X(K))$. In particular.


Let $A$ be a finite dimensional hereditary algebra over an algebraically closed field $k$, $T_2(A)=(\begin{array}{cc}A&0 A&A\end{array})$ be the triangular matrix algebra and $A^{(1)}=(\begin{array}{cc}A&0 DA&A\end{array})$ be the duplicated algebra of $A$ respectively. We prove that ${\rm rep.dim}\ T_2(A)$ is at most three if $A$ is Dynkin type and ${\rm rep.dim}\ T_2(A)$ is at most four if $A$ is not Dynkin type. Let $T$ be a tilting A-$\module$ and $\ol{T}=T\oplus\ol{P}$ be a tilting $A^{(1)}$-$\module$. We show that $\End_{A^{(1)}} \ol{T}$ is representation finite if and only if the full subcategory $\{(X,Y,f)\ |\ X\in {\rm mod}\ A, Y\in\tau^{-1}\mathscr{F}(T_A)\cup{\rm add}\ A\}$ of ${\rm mod \ T_2(A)}$ is of finite type, where $\tau$ is the Auslander-Reiten translation and $\mathscr{F}(T_A)$ is the torsion-free class of ${\rm mod}\ A$ associated with $T$. Moreover, we also prove that ${\rm rep.dim\ End}_{A^{(1)}}\ {\ol T}$ is at most three.


Motivated by the discovery of extremely bright supernovae SNe1999as and 2006gy, we have investigated how much 56Ni mass can be synthesized in core-collapse massive supernovae (SNe). We calculate the evolution of several very massive stars with initial masses M <~ 100 Msun from the main-sequence to the beginning of the Fe-core collapse and simulate their explosions and nucleosynthesis. In order to avoid complications associated with strong mass-loss, we only consider metal-poor stars with initial metallicity Z = Zsun/200. However, our results are applicable to higher metallicity models with similar C+O core masses. The C+O core mass for the 100Msun model is M_CO = 42.6Msun and this is the heaviest model in the literature for which Fe-core collapse SN is explored. The synthesized 56Ni mass increases with the increasing explosion energy and progenitor mass. For the explosion energy of E_51 = E/10^{51} erg =30, for example, the 56Ni masses of M(56Ni) = 2.2, 2.3, 5.0, and 6.6 Msun can be produced for the progenitors with initial masses of 30, 50, 80 and 100 Msun (or C+O core masses M_CO = 11.4, 19.3, 34.0 and 42.6 Msun), respectively. We find that producing M(56Ni) ~ 4Msun as seen in SN1999as is possible for M_CO >~ 34 Msun and E_{51} >~ 20. Producing M(56Ni) ~ 13Msun as suggested for SN2006gy requires a too large explosion energy for M_CO <~ 43Msun, but it may be possible with a reasonable explosion energy.


I think there is a fair chance at some point people will determine that cellular Apple Watches cause cancer. Apple should investigate this possibility and do what it can to mitigate. Airplane Mode is Your Friend For a little perspective, don’t go running with your hair on fire to throw your Apple Watch into the trash. I own an Apple Watch. I even wear it every day. However, my Apple Watch is always in Airplane mode. Why? Well, first, because then I can wear it for long periods of time without needing to recharge it—it lasts 3 days between charges in Airplane mode. Second, because I find most Apple Watch apps useless. But third, and most importantly, I believe it is inevitable that people will discover that wireless technology causes cancer. The Math of: No it Doesn’t, Yes it Does In fact, I believe that this is more a math problem than it is a debate of scientific studies. The bottom line is, the more exposed you are to RF radiation, the more likely you are to have a random DNA-bit flipped that spawns a mutation, i.e., cancerous growth. Now there have been dozens of “yes, cellphones cause cancer”, “no, cellphones do not cause cancer” studies. To me, that sounds amazingly like what happened with the tobacco industry for decades. That includes one recent study by the US National Toxicology Program (NTP) that shows an increase in tumors in rats exposed to cellphone radiation (albeit at exposures which are at greater levels than most cell phone users experience). However, I think that there is something people are not paying attention to. The Apple Watch 3 now sports a cellular transceiver strapped to your arm as much as 24 hours a day. Every day. This seems beyond NTP rat-like exposure, and perhaps even beyond the long exposures that caused many Connecticut cops to contract testicular and brain cancer from their radar guns. With many radiation safety protocols, you reduce radiation injury by increasing distance, decreasing time exposed, and increasing shielding, whereas the Apple Watch seems to be doing the opposite. In my totally non-expert, non-learned, non-medically-trained, non-scientific, monkey-at-best opinion, it is a near certainty and inevitability that such constant close contact and exposure will increase the odds of a radiation-induced-DNA-bit-flip and cause cancer. [Update: Even the CDC is noting that the “International Agency for Research


Using deep infrared observations conducted with the MOIRCS on the Subaru Telescope in GOODS-N combined with public surveys in GOODS-S, we investigate the dependence on stellar mass, M_*, and galaxy type of the close pair fraction (5 kpc < r < 20 kpc) and implied merger rate. In common with some recent studies we find that the fraction of paired systems that could result in major mergers is low (~4%) and does not increase significantly with redshift to z~1.2, with (1+z)^{1.6 \pm 1.6}. Our key finding is that massive galaxies with M_* > 1E11 Msun are more likely to host merging companions than less massive systems (M_* ~ 1E10 Msun). We find evidence for a higher pair fraction for red, spheroidal hosts compared to blue, late-type systems, in line with expectations based on clustering at small scales. So-called "dry" mergers between early-type galaxies represent nearly 50% of close pairs with M_* > 3E10 Msun at z~0.5, but less than 30% at z~1. This result can be explained by the increasing abundance of red, early-type galaxies at these masses. We compare the volumetric merger rate of galaxies with different masses to mass-dependent trends in galaxy evolution, finding that major mergers cannot fully account for the formation of spheroidal galaxies since z~1. In terms of mass assembly, major mergers contribute little to galaxy growth below M_* ~ 3E10 Msun but are more significant among galaxies with M_* > 1E11 Msun, 30% of which have undergone mostly dry mergers over the observed redshift range. Overall, the relatively more rapid coalescence of high mass galaxies mirrors the expected hierarchical growth of halos and is consistent with recent model predictions, even.


Area -- just that he hadn't performed or flown there.This time around, the same prosecution team faced off against an entirely new defense team, led by celebrity attorney Tom Mesereau, who mounted a far more aggressive strategy in defending Cosby than the previous team by focusing on attacking the credibility of Constand.It remains to be seen whether that more muscular strategy will pay off or backfire.The primary difference between Cosby's first trial and his second was that at last summer's trial the judge in the case, O'Neill, allowed only one additional accuser to testify and support Constand's account, based on the prosecution's argument that it needed to show a common scheme or pattern to Cosby's alleged assault of Constand.This time around, the judge allowed five such women to take the stand.Another new element in this year's trial was O'Neill's decision to allow the testimony of Marguerite "Margo" Jackson, a former colleague of Constand's at Temple, who testified that Constand once mused about framing a celebrity. The judge had rejected her testimony in the first trial as hearsay. Constand has denied Jackson's claims.Unlike last summer, when a parade of Cosby accusers turned up inside and outside the courthouse, just three steadfast accusers -- Victoria Valentino, Therese Serignese and Lili Bernard -- sat quietly in the back of the court for virtually every moment of the lengthy pre-trial motions process, the jury selection and the trial.Cosby faces up to 10 years in prison for each count.


The distance dependence and atomic-scale contrast observed in nominal contact potential difference (CPD) signals recorded by KPFM on surfaces of insulating and semiconducting samples, have stimulated theoretical attempts to explain such effects. We attack this problem in two steps. First, the electrostatics of the macroscopic tip-cantilever-sample system is treated by a finite-difference method on an adjustable nonuniform mesh. Then the resulting electric field under the tip apex is inserted into a series of atomistic wavelet-based density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Results are shown for a realistic neutral but reactive silicon nano-scale tip interacting with a NaCl(001) sample. Bias-dependent forces and resulting atomic displacements are computed to within an unprecedented accuracy. Theoretical expressions for amplitude modulation (AM) and frequency modulation (FM) KPFM signals and for the corresponding local contact potential differences (LCPD) are obtained by combining the macroscopic and atomistic contributions to the electrostatic force component generated at the voltage modulation frequency, and evaluated for several tip oscillation amplitudes A up to 10 nm. Being essentially constant over a few Volts, the slope of atomistic force versus bias is the basic quantity which determines variations of the atomic-scale LCPD contrast. Already above A = 0.1 nm, the LCPD contrasts in both modes exhibit almost the same spatial dependence as the slope. In the AM mode, this contrast is approximately proportional to $A^{-1/2}$, but remains much weaker than the contrast in the FM mode, which drops somewhat faster as A is increased. These trends are a consequence of the macroscopic contributions to the KPFM signal, which are stronger in the AM-mode and especially important.


Bill Herndon, 83, of Acton is your man. He is a custom knife-maker. Herndon’s passion for creating art in steel began at his father’s side. His father’s hobby was photography and his job was engineering. Earning a degree in engineering, he then earned a degree one in illustrative design after serving as a photographer in the U.S. military while stationed in Germany in the 1950’s. After a lifetime in photography and career of selling movie film stock in San Francisco, he retired to Acton in 1997 where he began creating custom knives in his garage. “When I first started out, I sharpened everything in sight” Herndon said. He sharpened his lawn mower blades and then quickly cut off three toes with it. Creating his own steel Herndon wipes the sweat off his face as he stands in front of the 3,000-degree furnace roaring in his back yard. He is creating a piece of “Damascus” steel, a tedious process perfected in the Third Century in India and the Middle East. The process welds thin layers of steel together and creates distinctive design patterns in a blank of steel that will become a knife blade. After removing the glowing billet of steel from the white hot mouth of the forge, borax is added to bind the layers. Then 30 tons of force is applied in the nearby press, fusing the strips into one slab of steel. After repeating the process many times, he moves the blank blade to his power hammer. Activating the six foot tall, clanking, belt driven monster with his foot, Herndon pummels the steel with 50 pounds of pressure at a deafening 250 beats per minute to coax the steel to the thickness of a knife blade. “Using the power hammer saves my old arms,” he laughs. Heating the blade again, he then taps the edge with a blacksmith’s hammer on an anvil to give the blade the familiar curve of a bowie knife. Work continues in the machine shop Herndon weaves through the narrow isles between rows of grinders, band saws and drill presses in his garage. His workshop is literally “cutting edge,” with each piece of machinery focused on a specific task in creating his knives. “Don’t call it a hobby – it’s a vocation,” he said. Herndon pulls on his scratched glasses, tattered leather gloves


City politicians would be denouncing the cruelty of the “Republican war on the poor.” Yet Mayor de Blasio and the City Council are inflicting the same sort of pain on low-income New Yorkers by denying them access to one of the nation’s most effective anti-poverty programs: Walmart. When he was mayor, Michael Bloomberg supported Walmart’s efforts to open a store in New York, but the company faced unremitting resistance from unions and elected officials, and it gave up the fight once de Blasio moved into Gracie Mansion. “I have been adamant that I don’t think Walmart — the company, the stores — belong in New York City,” de Blasio said. Walmart’s benefits are obvious to shoppers and to economists like Jason Furman, who served in the Clinton administration and was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Barack Obama. In a paper, “Walmart: A Progressive Success Story,” Furman cited estimates that Walmart, by driving down prices, saved the typical American family more than $2,300 annually. That was about the same amount that a family on food stamps then received from the federal government. How could any progressive with a conscience oppose an organization that confers such benefits? How could de Blasio and the council effectively take money out of the pockets of the poorest families in New York? Because, though they would deny it, they care a lot more about pleasing powerful labor interests, especially the United Food and Commercial Workers, which helped lead the long fight to keep Walmart out of the five boroughs. Labor activists have been spreading horror stories for more than a decade about Walmart’s purported mistreatment of workers, yet somehow they haven’t dissuaded thousands of people in other cities from lining up for jobs whenever a Walmart opens. Often there are five or 10 applicants for each job. As the economist Richard Vedder has noted, the pay at Walmart is comparable with that of other large retailers. Some argue that Walmart exerts downward pressure on retail wages, but even if that’s true — and it’s debatable — the effect is tiny compared with the savings at the cash register. According to Furman, Walmart lowered American retail workers’ pay by less than $5 billion while saving shoppers more than $250 billion with lower prices. Anti-Walmart agitators complain about the government subsidies that some of the company’s workers receive for health insurance, which, they argue, burden taxpayers.


A mobile robot represented by a point moving in the plane has to explore an unknown terrain with obstacles. Both the terrain and the obstacles are modeled as arbitrary polygons. We consider two scenarios: the unlimited vision, when the robot situated at a point p of the terrain explores (sees) all points q of the terrain for which the segment pq belongs to the terrain, and the limited vision, when we require additionally that the distance between p and q be at most 1. All points of the terrain (except obstacles) have to be explored and the performance of an exploration algorithm is measured by the length of the trajectory of the robot. For unlimited vision we show an exploration algorithm with complexity O(P + D?k), where P is the total perimeter of the terrain (including perimeters of obstacles), D is the diameter of the convex hull of the terrain, and k is the number of obstacles. We do not assume knowledge of these parameters. We also prove a matching lower bound showing that the above complexity is optimal, even if the terrain is known to the robot. For limited vision we show exploration algorithms with complexity O(P + A + ?Ak), where A is the area of the terrain (excluding obstacles). Our algorithms work either for arbitrary terrains, if one of the parameters A or k is known, or for c-fat terrains, where c is any constant (unknown to the robot) and no additional knowledge is assumed. (A terrain T with obstacles is c-fat if R/r ? c, where R is the radius of the smallest disc containing T and r is the radius of the largest disc contained in T .) We also prove a matching lower bound ?(P + A + ?Ak) on the complexity of exploration for limited vision, even.


There's one potentially good reason behind it. It appears that Google recently updated how their SafetyNet detections work, and the new changes are able to pick up some previous root-hiding methods. If you are using Magisk, the current workaround is to set it to operate in "core only" mode via settings in Magisk Manager. Magisk developer topjohnwu issued a statement on the subject earlier today, in which he waxed for a bit on the perpetual cat-and-mouse game of hiding from SafetyNet checks. He stated that he has found a workaround for the new detection policy, but to wait for the next beta. It appears that the most likely method for detection now is app based. Rather than checking if su is present when it shouldn't be or if it can be invoked, it appears that Google might just be checking to see if a root manager application is installed. It's such a simple check that it's difficult to prevent since any app can call up a list of apps on the device, and technically it doesn't even check if a device has been modified or tampered with since a root manager can be present without having root. He could easily fix that by simply tweaking the name of his application, but that's not an ideal fix, as detection could just as easily change the name it looks for. Chainfire's suhide seems to be able to escape package name detection for the time being, as it uses another method to work, though the downloads page for suhide says it isn't currently working. So in the meantime, if you've been hiding root, right now you'll have to move Magisk over into core only mode for the time being if you still want to pass SafetyNet checks. We've reached out to topjohnwu for more information about a future workaround for the SafetyNet changes, or a release schedule for any fixes, and we will add any relevant information to this post when we get it.


31, 2013. (2) Expansion of election to accelerate amt credits in lieu of bonus depreciation.-- (A) In general.--The amendment made by subsection (c) (other than so much of such amendment as relates to section 168(k)(4)(D)(iii) of such Code, as added by such amendment) shall apply to taxable years ending after December 31, 2013. (B) Transitional rule.--In the case of a taxable year beginning before January 1, 2014, and ending after December 31, 2013, the bonus depreciation amount determined under section 168(k)(4) of such Code for such year shall be the sum of-- (i) such amount determined without regard to the amendments made by this section and-- (I) by taking into account only property placed in service before January 1, 2014, and (II) by multiplying the limitation under section 168(k)(4)(C)(ii) of such Code (determined without regard to the amendments made by this section) by a fraction the numerator of which is the number of days in the taxable year before January 1, 2014, and the denominator of which is the number of days in the taxable year, and (ii) such amount determined after taking into account the amendments made by this section and-- (I) by taking into account only property placed in service after December 31, 2013, and (II) by multiplying the limitation under section 168(k)(4)(B)(ii) of such Code (as amended by this section) by a fraction the numerator of which is the number of days in the taxable year after December 31, 2013, and the denominator of which is the number of days in the taxable year. (3) Technical amendment.--The amendment made by subsection (e) shall take effect as.


We present a {\it Chandra} observation of IRAS 19254--7245, a nearby ULIRG also known as {\it the Superantennae}. The high spatial resolution of {\it Chandra} allows us to disentangle for the first time the diffuse starburst emission from the embedded Compton-thick AGN. The 2-10 keV spectrum of the AGN emission is fitted by a flat power-law $\Gamma=1.3$) and a He-like Fe K$\alpha$ line with EW$\sim$1.5 keV, consistent with previous observations. The Fe K$\alpha$ line profile could be resolved as a blend of a neutral 6.4 keV line and an ionized 6.7 keV (He-like) or 6.9 keV (H-like) line. Variability is detected compared with the previous {\it XMM-Newton} and {\it suzaku} observations, demonstrating the compact size of the iron line emission. We fit the spectrum of the galaxy-scale extended emission excluding the AGN and other bright point sources with a soft thermal component with kT~0.8 keV. The luminosity of the extended emission is about one order of magnitude lower than that of the AGN. The basic physical and structural properties of the extended emission are fully consistent with a galactic wind being driven by the starburst (no contribution to the feedback by the AGN is required). A candidate ultra-luminous X-ray source is detected 8\arcsec\ south of the southern nucleus. The 0.3-10 keV luminosity of this off-nuclear point source is ~$6\times 10^{40}$ erg s$^{-1}$.


You might be out of luck. The State Theatre announced Monday that "Boak's Bash," the Jan. 6 tribute concert for C.F. Martin and Co.'s retiring Director of Museum and Archives Dick Boak, sold out before tickets became available to the general public. The show, first announced on Dec. 4, is slated to feature Boak's celebrity friends and clients like iconic blues rocker Steve Miller and blues/pop star John Mayer. State Theatre members did get a chance to grab a seat: Tickets, which cost $85 to $184, went on sale to the venue's members on Tuesday, Dec. 5. But the sale for the general public, which had been announced for Dec. 12 at 10 a.m., has been scrapped because of the sell-out. In the initial announcement for the show, the State Theatre cautioned that "limited tickets" had been made available to the venue for the event. Other stars scheduled to appear at the event include country legend Marty Stuart, former Wings lead guitarist Laurence Juber, former Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen, singer-songwriter David Bromberg, local musician Craig Thatcher and guitarist Trevor Gordon Hall. Boak earned these high-profile fans throughout a career at Martin Guitar that spanned four decades and included a number of different roles. He is known for launching the company's signature guitar series. A retrospective art show looking back on Boak's career in the State Theatre's Easton Hospital Gallery will accompany the concert. Proceeds from the concert will benefit the State Theatre. Andrew Doerfler may be reached at adoerfler@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @adoerfler or on Facebook.


We combine the CfA3 supernova Type Ia (SN Ia) sample with samples from the literature to calculate improved constraints on the dark energy equation of state parameter, w. The CfA3 sample is added to the Union set of Kowalski et al. (2008) to form the Constitution set and, combined with a BAO prior, produces 1+w=0.013 +0.066/-0.068 (0.11 syst), consistent with the cosmological constant. The CfA3 addition makes the cosmologically-useful sample of nearby SN Ia between 2.6 and 2.9 times larger than before, reducing the statistical uncertainty to the point where systematics play the largest role. We use four light curve fitters to test for systematic differences: SALT, SALT2, MLCS2k2 (R_V=3.1), and MLCS2k2 (R_V=1.7). SALT produces high-redshift Hubble residuals with systematic trends versus color and larger scatter than MLCS2k2. MLCS2k2 overestimates the intrinsic luminosity of SN Ia with 0.7 < Delta < 1.2. MLCS2k2 with R_V=3.1 overestimates host-galaxy extinction while R_V=1.7 does not. Our investigation is consistent with no Hubble bubble. We also find that, after light-curve correction, SN Ia in Scd/Sd/Irr hosts are intrinsically fainter than those in E/S0 hosts by 2 sigma, suggesting that they may come from different populations. We also find that SN Ia in Scd/Sd/Irr hosts have low scatter (0.1 mag) and reddening. Current systematic errors can be reduced by improving SN Ia photometric accuracy, by including the CfA3 sample to retrain light-curve fitters, by combining optical SN Ia photometry with near-infrared photometry to understand host-galaxy extinction, and by determining.


At the point of sale. Such information shall also include information on recycling old televisions and other consumer electronics. ``(3) Other devices.--For devices other than television sets that are included in section 303(s) and that contain an analog tuner, but not a digital tuner, the Commission shall require the clear and conspicuous placement of a comparable consumer advisory label on such devices, as well as on the outside of the retail packaging of such devices. ``(4) Additional disclosures.-- ``(A) Announcements and notices required.--From November 1, 2007, through March 31, 2009-- ``(i) each television broadcaster shall air, at a minimum, 120 seconds per day of public service announcements between the hours of 6 a.m. and 11:35 p.m., at variable time slots throughout the week, with at least half aired between the hours of 5 p.m. and 11:35 p.m.; and ``(ii) any multichannel video program distributor shall include a notice in or with each periodic bill. ``(B) Content of announcements and notices.--The announcements and notices required by this paragraph shall educate consumers about the deadline for termination of analog television broadcasting and the equipment options consumers have after such termination. Announcements aired and notices distributed after January 1, 2008, shall also educate consumers about the need for and availability of the converter box voucher program and the steps to redeem the voucher. ``(5) Advisory committee.-- ``(A) Establishment.--The Commission shall, after consultation with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Federal Trade Commission, create a DTV Transition Federal Advisory Committee to lead the effort to educate the public about the digital television transition and to ensure that the public knows the information described in paragraph (3)(B). Such consumer education shall commence no later than September 1, 2007. ``(B) Composition.--The committee shall be composed of representatives from the following groups: commercial broadcasters, noncommercial broadcasters, cable operators, satellite providers, retailers and manufacturers of consumer electronics equipment, electronic recyclers, minority groups, Hispanic Americans, Americans whose primary language is not English, Americans with disabilities, Americans living in rural communities, general business, senior citizens, commercial advertising, and consumers in general. ``(C) Advisory committee role.--The committee shall-- ``(i) develop a comprehensive education plan for consumers regarding the digital television transition which includes-- ``(I) specific and targeted messages to reach


We calculate the masses of bottom mesons using an improved relativistic action for the b-quarks and the RBC/UKQCD Iwasaki gauge configurations with 2+1 flavors of dynamical domain-wall light quarks. We analyze configurations with two lattice spacings: a^{-1} = 1.729 GeV (a ~ 0.11 fm) and a^{-1} = 2.281 GeV (a ~ 0.086 fm). We use an anisotropic, clover-improved Wilson action for the b-quark, and tune the three parameters of the action nonperturbatively such that they reproduce the experimental values of the B_s and B_s* heavy-light meson states. The masses and mass-splittings of the low-lying bottomonium states (such as the eta_b and Upsilon) can then be computed with no additional inputs, and comparison between these predictions and experiment provides a test of the validity of our method. We obtain bottomonium masses with total uncertainties of ~0.5-0.6% and fine-structure splittings with uncertainties of ~35-45%; for all cases we find good agreement with experiment. The parameters of the relativistic heavy-quark action tuned for b-quarks presented in this work can be used for precise calculations of weak matrix elements such as B-meson decay constants and mixing parameters with lattice discretization errors that are of the same size as in light pseudoscalar meson quantities. This general method can also be used for charmed meson masses and matrix elements.


The article was published electronically by a peer-reviewed scientific journal, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers did some mathematical modeling and computer simulations to determine how likely people were to come close to a hypothetical infectious passenger sitting in an aisle seat on the 14th row of a single-aisle airplane. They concluded that on average, only one person on a flight of about 150 passengers would be infected. Researchers who were not involved said it would be difficult to use the relatively small study to make any general conclusions about the risks of an airline passenger getting a cold or flu, let alone other diseases like measles or tuberculosis. But it’s a novel study about a subject that hasn’t been well researched, they said. Studies have looked at how respiratory viruses spread in labs and in homes, but “this is the first time I’ve seen it done for airplanes,” said Seema Lakdawala, a University of Pittsburgh biologist who studies how flu spreads. She and others not involved in the research were intrigued by the study’s findings about how people moved about the cabin and came in contact with each other. It found: About 38 percent of passengers never left their seat, 38 percent left once, 13 percent left twice, and 11 percent left more than twice. Not surprisingly, a lot of the people getting up had an aisle seat. About 80 percent of people sitting on the aisle moved at least once during their flights, compared with 62 percent in middle seats and 43 percent in window seats. The 11 people sitting closest to a person with a cold or flu are at the highest risk. That included two people sitting to their left, the two to their right, and people in the row immediately in front of them and those in the row behind. A lot of frequent fliers will be interested in the study’s results, said Edward Pizzarello, an investor in a Washington-area venture-capital firm who also writes a travel blog. “It’s absolutely a fear I hear from people all the time. They just believe that they’re going to get sick from going on an airplane, or they got sick from being on an airplane,” he said. Pizzarello said he’s an aisle person, because he doesn’t want to feel trapped in the window seat if he needs to get up. Will he now go for the window? Maybe, he said.


Low temperature specific heat, C, in magnetic fields up to Hc2 is reported for underdoped Ba(Fe0.955Co0.045)2As2 (Tc=8 K) and for three overdoped samples Ba(Fe1-xCox)2As2 (x=0.103, 0.13, and 0.15, Tc=17.2, 16.5, and 11.7 K respectively). Previous measurements of thermal conductivity (as a function of temperature and field) and penetration depth on comparable composition samples gave some disagreement as to whether there was fully gapped/nodal behavior in the under-/overdoped materials respectively. The present work shows that the measured behavior of the specific heat gamma (proportional to C/T as T->0, i. e. a measure of the electronic density of states at the Fermi energy) as a function of field approximately obeys gamma proportional to H**(0.5 +- 0.1), similar to the Volovik effect for nodal superconductors, for both the underdoped and the most overdoped Co samples. However, for the two overdoped compositions x=0.103 and 0.13, the low field (H < 10 T) data show a Volovik-like behavior of gamma proportional to H**(0.3-0.4), followed by an inflection point, followed at higher fields by gamma proportional to H**1. We argue that within the 2-band theory of superconductivity, an inflection point may occur.


We present the first results from a near-IR spectroscopic campaign of the Cl1604 supercluster at z~0.9 and the cluster RX J1821.6+6827 at z~0.82 to investigate the nature of [OII] 3727A emission in cluster galaxies at high redshift. Of the 401 members in the two systems, 131 galaxies have detectable [OII] emission with no other signs of current star-formation, as well as strong absorption features indicative of a well-established older stellar population. The combination of these features suggests that the primary source of [OII] emission in these galaxies is not the result of star-formation, but rather due to the presence of a LINER or Seyfert component. Using the NIRSPEC spectrograph on the Keck II 10-m telescope, 19 such galaxies were targeted, as well as six additional [OII]-emitting cluster members that exhibited other signs of ongoing star-formation. Nearly half (~47%) of the 19 [OII]-emitting, absorption-line dominated galaxies exhibit [OII] to Ha equivalent width ratios higher than unity, the typical value for star-forming galaxies. A majority (~68%) of these 19 galaxies are classified as LINER/Seyfert based on the emission-line ratio of [NII] and Ha, increasing to ~85% for red [OII]-emitting, absorption-line dominated galaxies. The LINER/Seyfert galaxies exhibit L([OII])/L(Ha) ratios significantly higher than that observed in populations of star-forming galaxies, suggesting that [OII] is a poor indicator of star-formation in a large fraction of high-redshift cluster members. We estimate that at least ~20% of galaxies in high-redshift clusters contain a LINER/Seyfert component that can be revealed with line ratios. We also investigate the effect this population has on the star formation rate of cluster galaxies and the post-starburst fraction, concluding that LINER/Seyferts must be accounted for.