We have compiled a sample of 16 orbits for very low-mass stellar (<0.1 Msun) and brown dwarf binaries, enabling the first comprehensive study of the eccentricity distribution for such objects. We find that very low-mass binaries span a broad range of eccentricities (0.03<e<0.83), with a median eccentricity of 0.34. We examine potential observational biases in this sample, and for visual binaries we show through Monte Carlo simulations that appropriate selection criteria result in all eccentricities being equally represented (<5% difference between input and output e distributions). The orbits of this sample of very low-mass binaries show some significant differences from their solar-type counterparts. They lack a correlation between orbital period and eccentricity and display a much higher fraction of near-circular orbits (e<0.1) than solar-type stars, which together suggest a different formation mechanism or dynamical history for these two populations. Very low-mass binaries also do not follow the e^2 distribution of Ambartsumian (1937), which would be expected if their orbits were distributed in phase space according to a function of energy alone (e.g., the Boltzmann distribution). We find that numerical simulations of very low-mass star formation do not completely reproduce the observed properties of our binary sample. The cluster formation model of Bate (2009) agrees very well with the overall e distribution, but lack any high-e (>0.6) binaries at orbital periods comparable to our sample. In contrast, the circumstellar disk fragmentation model of Stamatellos & Whitworth (2009) predicts only high-e binaries and thus is highly inconsistent with our sample. These discrepancies could be explained.


OTTAWA — A man has been charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder and 13 counts of attempted murder after a van struck pedestrians along one of Toronto's busiest thoroughfares, conjuring memories of recent similar attacks, including in France, Germany and Spain. Monday's events sent the city reeling, sowing confusion and fear. So why have no terrorism charges been laid in the case? Here's a look at the Canadian legal regime on terrorism: DEFINITION: The Criminal Code defines terrorism as an act carried out "for a political, religious or ideological purpose, objective or cause" intended to intimidate the public by causing death or serious bodily harm, endangering health and safety, or interfering with an essential service. OFFENCES: The code includes offences that target financing and participation in a terrorist group, as well as facilitating and instructing others to commit terrorist acts. WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY: When Criminal Code offences for terrorism were introduced as a part of the Anti-Terrorism Act in 2001, Parliament decided that one of the things that should help distinguish such offences from other forms of violent crime was the specific motivational definition, said Wesley Wark of the University of Ottawa's graduate school of public and international affairs. "Some violent crimes may have the same effect as terrorism but if the motivational element cannot be demonstrated then they are not considered, legally, acts of terrorism, even if they terrorize," Wark said. It can also be difficult for police and legal counsel to establish the motivation in a way that meets the evidentiary standards of a court, he added. The terrorism offences in Canadian law "do not work well" with so-called lone-wolf suspects who act on their own, given the code's emphasis on participating in or contributing to the activities of a terrorist group, said Kent Roach, a law professor at the University of Toronto who has written extensively about national security. OTHER CASES: There is expert consensus that whenever it's appropriate to lay terrorism charges, that should happen, even.


Amid multiple investigations and controversies over the cost of travel by Trump administration officials, two senators are asking the Office of Management and Budget to provide more detail about the administration's policies on travel spending. Several members of Trump's cabinet have been under scrutiny for the cost of their travel and other expensive purchases. The president asked former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price to resign last September after reports that his travel on private planes cost more than $1 million of taxpayer money. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Michigan, the ranking member of theFederal Spending Oversight and Emergency Management subcommittee, and Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, wrote to Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney on Monday asking him to explain how the Trump administration is enforcing rules on the cost of government travel and whether OMB has reviewed any other relevant guidance or rules. "It is our duty to provide oversight and ensure that taxpayer money is spent responsibly, without waste, fraud, or abuse," the senators wrote in the letter, which was reviewed by ABC News. "As you have said yourself about past issues with Administration travel, “just because something is legal doesn’t make it right.” We owe it to the American people to ensure with the utmost vigilance that tax dollars are being spent appropriately." The senators are also asking Mulvaney for documents on all travel approved by the White House Chief of Staff related to travel on government-owned or charter planes. OMB said in a memo issued after Price resigned that some travel would need to be approved by the chief of staff and that the chief of staff would provide further guidance on the use of government and private planes. There are multiple investigations pending from congressional committees and agency watchdogs seeking more information about whether officials' travel spending followed all the relevant rules. The inspectors general at the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Interior have ongoing investigations into travel spending and the IG from the Department of Veterans Affairs already published a report into Secretary David Shulkin's spending on a trip to Europe. Federal law says that government officials should use the least expensive travel option available and should use commercial flights.


2119(c) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300aa-19(c)) is amended by striking ``not less often than four times per year and''. SEC. 9. CONFORMING AMENDMENT TO TRUST FUND PROVISION. Section 9510(c)(1)(A) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by striking ``(as in effect'' and all that follows through ``for vaccine-related injury or death'' and inserting ``(as in effect on the effective date of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program Improvement Act of 2005) for vaccine-related injury or death''. SEC. 10. INCREASE IN LIMIT ON ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES. (a) Increase in Limit on Administrative Expenses.--Section 9510(c)(1)(B) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by striking ``(but not in excess of $9,500,000 for any fiscal year)'' and inserting ``(but not in excess of $10,000,000 for any fiscal year)''. (b) Administrative Expenses of Bureau of Public Debt.--Section 9510(c)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended by section 9 and subsection (a), is further amended-- (1) in subparagraph (A)(ii), by striking ``or'' at the end; (2) in subparagraph (B), by striking the period at the end and inserting ``, and''; and (3) by adding at the end the following: ``(C) the payment of administrative and personnel expenses that the Bureau of the Public Debt incurs for financial services for the Trust Fund.''. SEC. 11. PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT CAMPAIGN. Section 2110(c) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300aa- 10(c)) is amended by striking the period at the end and inserting ``, including by conducting a public service announcement campaign.''. SEC. 12. APPLICATION. The provisions of and amendments made by sections 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 9 apply to a petition filed under section 2111 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300aa-11).


Context. For accurately measuring intensities and determining magnetic field strengths of small-scale solar (magnetic) structure, knowledge of and compensation for the point spread function is crucial. For images recorded with the Swedish 1-meter Solar Telescope, restoration with Multi-Frame Blind Deconvolution and Joint Phase Diverse Speckle methods lead to remarkable improvements in image quality but granulation contrasts that are too low, indicating additional stray light. Aims. We propose a method to compensate for stray light from high-order atmospheric aberrations not included in MFBD and JPDS processing. Methods. To compensate for uncorrected aberrations, a reformulation of the image restoration process is proposed that allows the average effect of hundreds of high-order modes to be compensated for by relying on Kolmogorov statistics for these modes. The applicability of the method requires simultaneous measurements of Fried's parameter r0. The method is tested with simulations as well as real data and extended to include compensation for conventional stray light. Results. We find that only part of the reduction of granulation contrast in SST images is due to uncompensated high-order aberrations. The remainder is still unaccounted for and attributed to stray light from the atmosphere, the telescope with its re-imaging system and to various high-altitude seeing effects. Conclusions. We conclude that statistical compensation of high-order modes is a viable method to reduce the loss of contrast occurring when a limited number of aberrations is explicitly compensated for with MFBD and JPDS processing. We show that good such compensation is possible with only 10 recorded frames. The main limitation of the method is that already MFBD and JPDS processing introduces high-order compensation that.


The outer disk of the LMC is studied in order to unveil clues about its formation and evolution. Complementing our previous studies in innermost fields (3<R<7 kpc), we obtained deep color magnitude diagrams in 6 fields with radius from 5.2 to 9.2 kpc. The comparison with isochrones shows that while the oldest population is approximately coeval in all fields, the age of the youngest populations increases with increasing radius. Low-resolution spectroscopy in the infrared CaII triplet region has been obtained for about 150 stars near the tip red giant branch in the same fields. Radial velocities and stellar metallicities have been obtained from these spectra. The metallicity distribution of each field has been analyzed together with those previously studied. The metal content of the most metal-poor objects, which are also the oldest according to the derived age-metallicity relationships, is similar in all fields independently of the radius. However, while the metallicity of the most metal-rich objects measured, which are the youngest ones, remains constant in the inner 6 kpc, it decreases with increasing radius from there off. The same is true for the mean metallicity. According to the derived age-metallicity relationships, which are consistent with being the same in all fields, this result may be interpreted as an outside-in formation scheme in opposition with the inside-out scenario predicted by LCDM cosmology for a galaxy like the LMC. The analysis of the radial velocities of our sample of giants shows that they follow a rotational cold disk kinematics. The velocity dispersion increases as metallicity decreases indicating that the most metal-poor/oldest objects are distributed in a thicker disk than the most metal-rich/youngest ones in agreement with the findings in other disks such as that of the Milky Way. They do not seem to be part of a hot halo.


Shares. They can take advantage of technological advancements in voting platforms that allow them to leave standing instructions on how they want their votes cast on particular proposals. “Because they have such a huge work flow, institutions will flag certain types of proposals and will develop guidelines on how they want to vote on them,” Mr. Callan said. “Platforms for institutions integrate all that.” Ms. Fisch, the law professor, asked why a similar process couldn’t be set up for individual investors. In a coming article in the Minnesota Law Review, she argued that low individual investor turnout is a result of an antiquated voting system. In the article, “Standing Voting Instructions: Empowering the Excluded Retail Investor,” she contended that “current regulatory restrictions impede market-based innovation” that could allow individual investors’ voices to be heard. The Securities and Exchange Commission has weighed in on this problem recently. Acknowledging that the low level of voting by individual investors is a concern, it sponsored a roundtable on proxy voting in 2015. A major agenda item was how to increase individual investor participation. But proposals for a system that would allow individuals to leave standing instructions for the voting of their shares have gone nowhere. As Ms. Fisch noted, the commission has voiced concerns that such a system would require investors to make voting decisions before they had received proxy materials “containing the disclosures mandated under the federal securities laws and possibly without consideration of the specific issues to be voted upon.” The agency also warned that the availability of standing voting instructions might mean investors would not bother to read the proxy statement. Still, regulations have gotten in the way of what might be the natural market development of tools to encourage individual investor voting, Ms. Fisch said. “When the voting platforms and proxy advisers work with institutional investors, they provide tools for categorizing issues and proposals to accommodate investor voting preferences even though the issues might differ a little,” she added. “I would envision a platform being able to provide retail investors that same sort of functionality.” Ms. Fisch and others are convinced that individual investors are interested in the makeup of corporate boards, executive pay and other governance matters..


We report the results of N-body simulations of disrupting satellites aimed at exploring whether the observed features of dSphs can be accounted for with simple, mass-follows-light (MFL) models including tidal disruption. As a test case, we focus on the Carina dwarf Spheroidal (dSph), which presently has the most extensive data at large radius. We find that previous N-body, MFL simulations of dSphs did not sufficiently explore the parameter space of satellite mass, density and orbital shape to find adequate matches to Galactic dSph systems, whereas with a systematic survey of parameter space we are able to find tidally disrupting, MFL satellite models that rather faithfully reproduce Carina's velocity profile, velocity dispersion profile and projected density distribution over its entire sampled radius. The successful MFL model satellites have very eccentric orbits, currently favored by Cold Dark Matter (CDM) models, and central velocity dispersions that still yield an accurate representation of the bound mass and observed central M/L~40 of Carina, despite inflation of the velocity dispersion outside the dSph core by unbound debris. Our survey of parameter space also allows us to address a number of commonly held misperceptions of tidal disruption and its observable effects on dSph structure and dynamics. The simulations suggest that even modest tidal disruption can have a profound effect on the observed dynamics of dSph stars at large radii. Satellites that are well-described by tidally disrupting MFL models could still be fully compatible with L-CDM.


Type II-plateau supernovae (SNe IIP) are the results of the explosions of red supergiants and are the most common subclass of core-collapse supernovae. Past observations have shown that the outer layers of the ejecta of SNe IIP are largely spherical, but the degree of asphericity increases toward the core. We present evidence for high degrees of asphericity in the inner cores of three recent SNe IIP (SNe 2006my, 2006ov, and 2007aa), as revealed by late-time optical spectropolarimetry. The three objects were all selected to have very low interstellar polarization (ISP), which minimizes the uncertainties in ISP removal and allows us to use the continuum polarization as a tracer of asphericity. The three objects have intrinsic continuum polarizations in the range of 0.83-1.56% in observations taken after the end of the photometric plateau, with the polarization dropping to almost zero at the wavelengths of strong emission lines. Our observations of SN 2007aa at earlier times, taken on the photometric plateau, show contrastingly smaller continuum polarizations (~0.1%). The late-time H-alpha and [O I] line profiles of SN 2006ov provide further evidence for asphericities in the inner ejecta. Such high core polarizations in very ordinary core-collapse supernovae provide further evidence that essentially all core-collapse supernova explosions are highly aspherical, even.


Rules similar to the rules of paragraphs (2) and (4) of section 408(e) shall apply to dairy farm savings accounts, and any amount treated as distributed under such rules shall be treated as not used to pay qualified distributions. ``(f) Tax Treatment of Distributions.-- ``(1) In general.--Any amount paid or distributed out of a dairy farm savings account (other than a rollover contribution described in paragraph (4)) shall be included in gross income of the account beneficiary in the manner provided under section 72. Rules similar to the rules of paragraphs (2) and (3)(H) of section 408(d) shall apply for purposes of this paragraph. ``(2) Additional tax on non-qualified distributions.-- ``(A) In general.--The tax imposed by this chapter on the account beneficiary for any taxable year in which there is a payment or distribution from a dairy farm savings account of such beneficiary which is not a qualified distribution shall be increased by 15 percent of the amount of such payment or distribution which is not a qualified distribution. ``(B) Exception for disability or death.-- Subparagraph (A) shall not apply if the payment or distribution is made after the account beneficiary becomes disabled within the meaning of section 72(m)(7) or dies. ``(3) Excess contributions returned before due date of return.-- ``(A) In general.--If any excess contribution is contributed for a taxable year to a dairy farm savings account of an individual, paragraph (2) shall not apply to distributions from the dairy farm savings accounts of such individual (to the extent such distributions do not exceed the aggregate excess contributions to all such accounts of such individual for such year) if-- ``(i) such distribution is received by the individual on or before the last day prescribed by law (including extensions of time) for filing such individual's return for such taxable year, and ``(ii) such distribution is accompanied by the amount of net income attributable to such excess contribution. Any net income described in clause (ii) shall be included in the gross income of the individual for the taxable year in which it is received. ``(B) Excess contribution.--For purposes of subparagraph (A), the term `excess contribution' means any contribution (other than a rollover contribution) which is not deductible under this section. ``(4) Rollover contribution.--An amount is described in this paragraph as a rollover contribution.


We investigate the level of fine-tuning of neutralino Dark Matter below 200 GeV in the low-energy phenomenological minimal supersymmetric Standard Model taking into account the newest results from XENON100 and the Large Hadron Collider as well as all other experimental bounds from collider physics and the cosmological abundance. We find that current and future direct Dark Matter searches significantly rule out a large area of the untuned parameter space, but solutions survive which do not increase the level of fine-tuning. As expected, the level of tuning tends to increase for lower cross-sections, but regions of resonant neutralino annihilation still allow for a band at light masses, where the fine-tuning stays small even below the current experimental limits for direct detection cross-sections. For positive values of the supersymmetric Higgs mass parameter \mu large portions of the allowed parameter space are excluded, but there still exist untuned solutions at higher neutralino masses which will essentially be ruled out if XENON1t does not observe a signal.For negative \mu untuned solutions are not much constrained by current limits of direct searches and, if the neutralino mass was found outside the resonance regions, a negative \mu-term would be favored from a fine-tuning perspective. Light stau annihilation plays an important role to fulfill the relic density condition in certain neutralino mass regions. Finally we discuss, in addition to the amount of tuning for certain regions in the neutralino mass-direct detection cross-section plane, the parameter mapping distribution.


Of the amounts made available under subsection (a) may be used by the Secretaries for Federal administration the program described in that subsection, including providing technical assistance and carrying out evaluations for the program described in that subsection. ``(c) Period of Availability.--The funds appropriated pursuant to subsection (a) for a fiscal year shall be available for Federal obligation for that fiscal year and the succeeding 4 fiscal years. ``SEC. 199B. DEFINITIONS. ``For purposes of this subtitle: ``(1) Community college.--The term `community college' has the meaning given the term `junior or community college' in section 312(f) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1058(f)). ``(2) Educational or career training program.--The term `educational or career training program' means-- ``(A) a career pathway program, as defined in section 3; or ``(B) a program with an integrated education and training approach, as defined in section 203.''. (b) Conforming Amendment.--The table of contents for the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act is amended by inserting after the items relating to subtitle E of title I the following: ``Subtitle F--Community College to Career Fund ``Sec. 199. Community college and industry partnerships program. ``Sec. 199A. Authorization of appropriations. ``Sec. 199B. Definition.''. (c) Effective Date.--This Act, including the amendments made by this Act, takes effect as.


Evolutionary trends in the surface abundances of heavier elements have recently been identified in the globular cluster NGC 6397 ([Fe/H]=-2), indicating the operation of atomic diffusion in these stars. Such trends constitute important constraints for the extent to which diffusion modifies the internal structure and surface abundances of solar-type, metal-poor stars. We perform an independent check of the reality and size of abundance variations within this metal-poor globular cluster. Observational data covering a large stellar sample, located between the cluster turn-off point and the base of the red giant branch, are homogeneously analysed. The spectroscopic data were obtained with the medium-high resolution spectrograph FLAMES/GIRAFFE on VLT-UT2. We derive independent effective-temperature scales from profile fitting of Balmer lines and by applying colour-temperature calibrations to Str\"omgren uvby and broad-band BVI photometry. An automated spectral analysis code is used together with a grid of MARCS model atmospheres to derive stellar surface abundances of Mg, Ca, Ti, and Fe. We identify systematically higher iron abundances for more evolved stars. The turn-off point stars are found to have 0.13dex lower surface abundances of iron compared to the coolest, most evolved stars in our sample. There is a strong indication of a similar trend in magnesium, whereas calcium and titanium abundances are more homogeneous. Within reasonable error limits, the obtained abundance trends are in agreement with the predictions of stellar structure models including diffusive processes (sedimentation, levitation).


Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has revealed that he wants to strengthen his squad before the transfer window closes. The Reds’ defensive frailties were exposed during their 3-3 draw at Watford. Klopp’s interest in signing Southampton captain Virgil van Dijk is well known. While the German boss was keen to focus on the work that can be done on the training ground to solve his side’s difficulties with defending set-pieces and pointed out that signing one new player would not solve the problem, he acknowledged that reinforcements are needed. He suggested that current injury problems, which kept Adam Lallana, Nathaniel Clyne, Daniel Sturridge and wantaway attacking midfielder Philippe Coutinho out of the game at Vicarage Road, had accentuated a lack of depth in his squad. Asked if he needed a new centre-back, Klopp told the Liverpool Echo: “We are still working on all parts. We cannot build them. We have to have talks, we’re looking at all parts of the team. “The squad at the moment is not too wide for a lot of games because decisive players are not available. But that’s our situation.” He continued: “People will say I need to buy a new player in the position. I don’t know if that makes real sense. “We did well in the pre-season in this situation. We conceded goals, but we also did good things. We can’t only focus on one thing, but we know it’s an important thing, of course. “I don’t feel comfortable because I can’t change it at the moment. But I know what to do.” Klopp had previously revealed that he wants to sign a new midfielder before the transfer window closes, which suggests there could be at least two new arrivals at Anfield over the next few weeks. A further signing could be need.


Satiate their hunger for all things dino at Dinosaur Kingdom, a mobile dino-themed entertainment park that will be set-up at various locations around Malaysia. The first location is at Setia Ecohill, Semenyih where visitors can come on over starting 14 June 2018 until 8 July 2018. Organised by Themepaktu, Dinosaur Kingdom consists of more than 25 attractions that can be enjoyed by young and old alike. The main attraction at the Themepaktu Dinosaur Kingdom is the 40-minutes live show, featuring dinosaur animatronics depicting exciting scenes set in the Jurassic age. You and your kids can also explore the Raptor Maze, ride a Dinosaur Bumper Boat in “The Swamp”, join a drift race,or climb up to a Pterosaur’s Nest, among other interactive activities to be enjoyed here. With attractions such as a baby dinosaur trail to scope out, a triceratops train ride to go on, and raptor races to test your riding skills and dexterity, it’s a great opportunity to get the kids away from their gadgets and have an amazing time getting physically active in the outdoors. So if you’re thinking about where to bring the kids to during this Hari Raya school holidays, consider a trip to Dinosaur Kingdom to be included in your plans. Themepaktu Dinosaur Kingdom Duration: 14 June until 8 July 2018 Opening Hours: 12 pm to 10.30 pm daily Entrance fee: RM30 per person (includes entry to the park, exhibition, Live Show, Education Hub and Fossil Site) Tokens for rides: RM3 per token, also available in 10-token packs and Entrance + 10 Tokens package for RM30 Go to themepaktu.com for more information.


And metropolitan planning organizations under sections 5303 and 5304 of this title and sections 134 and 135 of title 23; ``(B) effective measures of the outcome or performance of transportation programs-- ``(i) across all modes of transportation; and ``(ii) with respect to the transportation program as a whole, rather than individual projects within the transportation program; and ``(C) a strategy to ensure that the Secretary continuously refines and standardizes data elements, models, and other estimating methods to steadily improve public and political confidence in the use of the outcome-oriented performance measures established under paragraph (1) as a basis for making transportation investments. ``(3) Availability of plan.--The Secretary shall make the plan developed under paragraph (1) available to the public on the website of the Department of Transportation. ``(e) Comprehensive Report to Congress.--Not later than 21 months after the date of enactment of this section, the Secretary shall submit to Congress a comprehensive report on the pilot program that includes-- ``(1) a summary of the results of the case studies under subsection (c); ``(2) the plan developed under subsection (d); ``(3) a summary of lessons learned with respect to challenges encountered by each program participant; and ``(4) recommendations, if any, for legislation to improve-- ``(A) the guidance provided to States and metropolitan planning organizations for generating and collecting sound, outcome-based data; and ``(B) data-based performance measurement, analysis, and accountability for transportation programs. ``(f) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized to be appropriated from the Highway Trust Fund to carry out this section, $15,000,000 for the 2-year period beginning on the date of enactment of this section.''. SEC. 2. 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 a finite difference method to solve a new type of nonlocal hydrodynamic equations that arise in the theory of spatially inhomogeneous Bloch oscillations in semiconductor superlattices. The hydrodynamic equations describe the evolution of the electron density, electric field and the complex amplitude of the Bloch oscillations for the electron current density and the mean energy density. These equations contain averages over the Bloch phase which are integrals of the unknown electric field and are derived by singular perturbation methods. Among the solutions of the hydrodynamic equations, at a 70 K lattice temperature, there are spatially inhomogeneous Bloch oscillations coexisting with moving electric field domains and Gunn-type oscillations of the current. At higher temperature (300 K) only Bloch oscillations remain. These novel solutions are found for restitution coefficients in a narrow interval below their critical values and disappear for larger values. We use an efficient numerical method based on an implicit second-order finite difference scheme for both the electric field equation (of drift-diffusion type) and the parabolic equation for the complex amplitude. Double integrals appearing in the nonlocal hydrodynamic equations are calculated by means of expansions in modified Bessel functions. We use numerical simulations to ascertain the convergence of the method. If the complex amplitude equation is solved using a first order scheme for restitution coefficients near their critical values, a spurious convection arises that annihilates the complex amplitude in the part of the superlattice that is closer to the cathode. This numerical artifact disappears.


The environment, or excavators that is equivalent to, or greater than, protection under a program that meets the minimum standards set forth in section 6103. ``(d) Report.--Within 3 years after the date of the enactment of the Comprehensive One-call Notification Act of 1997, the Secretary shall begin to include the following information in reports submitted under section 60124 of this title-- ``(1) a description of the extent to which each State has adopted and implemented the minimum Federal standards under section 6103 or maintains an alternative program under subsection (c); ``(2) an analysis by the Secretary of the overall effectiveness of the State's one-call notification program and the one-call notification systems operating under such program in achieving the purposes of this chapter; ``(3) the impact of the State's decisions on the extent of required participation in one-call notification systems on prevention of damage to underground facilities; and ``(4) areas where improvements are needed in one-call notification systems in operation in the State. The report shall also include any recommendations the Secretary determines appropriate. If the Secretary determines that the purposes of this chapter have been substantially achieved, no further report under this section shall be required. ``Sec. 6105. REVIEW OF ONE-CALL SYSTEM BEST PRACTICES ``(a) Study of Existing One-Call Systems.--Except as provided in subsection (d), the Secretary, in consultation with other appropriate Federal agencies, State agencies, one-call notification system operators, underground facility operators, excavators, and other interested parties, shall undertake a study of damage prevention practices associated with existing one-call notification systems. ``(b) Purpose of Study of Damage Prevention Practices.--The purpose of the study is to assemble information in order to determine which existing one-call notification systems practices appear to be the most effective in preventing damage to underground facilities and in protecting the public, the environment, excavators, and public service disruption. As part of the study, the Secretary shall at a minimum consider-- ``(1) the methods used by one-call notification systems and others to encourage participation by excavators and owners of underground facilities; ``(2) the methods by which one-call notification systems promote awareness of their programs, including use of public service announcements and educational materials and programs; ``(3) the methods by which one-call notification systems receive and distribute information from excavators and underground facility owners; ``(4) the use of any performance and service standards to verify the effectiveness of a


Including the evaluations conducted under subclauses (II) through (IV). ``(v) No changes to adjustment factors that prevent activities consistent with national health policy goals.--In making any changes to the adjustment factors, including adjustment for health status under paragraph (3), the Secretary shall ensure that the changes do not prevent Medicare Advantage organizations from performing or undertaking activities that are consistent with national health policy goals, including activities to promote early detection and better care coordination, the use of health risk assessments, care plans, and programs to slow the progression of chronic diseases. ``(vi) Opportunity for review and public comment regarding changes to adjustment factors.--For changes to adjustment factors effective for 2017 and subsequent years, in addition to providing notice of such changes in the announcement under subsection (b)(2), the Secretary shall provide an opportunity for review of proposed changes of not less than 60 days and a public comment period of not less than 30 days before implementing such changes.''. SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. It is the sense of Congress that-- (1) the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has inadvertently created a star rating system under section 1853(o)(4) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395w- 23(o)(4)) for Medicare Advantage plans that lacks proper accounting for the socioeconomic status of enrollees in such plans and the extent to which such plans serve individuals who are also eligible for medical assistance under title XIX of such Act; and (2) Congress will work with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and stakeholders, including beneficiary groups and managed care organizations, to ensure that such rating system properly accounts for the socioeconomic status of enrollees in such plans and the extent to which such plans serve such individuals described in paragraph (1).


We present a detailed analysis of 108 helium-line (DB) white dwarfs based on model atmosphere fits to high signal-to-noise optical spectroscopy. We derive a mean mass of 0.67 Mo for our sample, with a dispersion of only 0.09 Mo. White dwarfs also showing hydrogen lines, the DBA stars, comprise 44% of our sample, and their mass distribution appears similar to that of DB stars. As in our previous investigation, we find no evidence for the existence of low-mass (M < 0.5 Mo) DB white dwarfs. We derive a luminosity function based on a subset of DB white dwarfs identified in the Palomar-Green survey. We show that 20% of all white dwarfs in the temperature range of interest are DB stars, although the fraction drops to half this value above Teff ~ 20,000 K. We also show that the persistence of DB stars with no hydrogen features at low temperatures is difficult to reconcile with a scenario involving accretion from the interstellar medium, often invoked to account for the observed hydrogen abundances in DBA stars. We present evidence for the existence of two different evolutionary channels that produce DB white dwarfs: the standard model where DA stars are transformed into DB stars through the convective dilution of a thin hydrogen layer, and a second channel where DB stars retain a helium-atmosphere throughout their evolution. We finally demonstrate that the instability strip of pulsating V777 Her white dwarfs contains no nonvariables.


The presence of extremely compact galaxies at z~2 and their subsequent growth in physical size has been the cause of much puzzlement. We revisit the question using deep infrared Wide Field Camera 3 data to probe the rest-frame optical structure of 935 host galaxies selected with 0.4<z<2.5 and stellar masses M* > 10^10.7 Msol using optical and near-infrared photometry in the UKIRT Ultra Deep Survey and GOODS-South fields of the CANDELS survey. At each redshift, the most compact sources are those with little or no star formation, and we find that the mean size of these systems grows by a factor of 3.5 +- 0.3 over this redshift interval. The new data are sufficiently deep to enable us to identify companions to these hosts whose stellar masses are ten times smaller, while still yielding suitably accurate photometric redshifts to define a likely physical association. By searching for faint companions around 404 quiescent hosts within a projected physical annulus 10 < R < 30 kpc/h, we estimate the minor merger rate over the redshift range 0.4 < z < 2. After correcting for contamination from projected pairs, we find that 13-18% of quiescent hosts have likely physical companions with stellar mass ratios of 0.1 or greater. Mergers of these companions will typically increase the host mass by 6+-2% per merger timescale. We estimate the minimum growth rate necessary to explain the declining abundance of compact galaxies. Using a simple model of merging motivated by recent numerical simulations, we then assess whether mergers of the faint companions with their hosts are sufficient to explain this minimal rate. We find that mergers with mass ratios > 0.1 may explain most of the size evolution observed at z >~ 1.


Results are presented from NIR spectroscopy of a sample of BzK-selected, massive star-forming galaxies (sBzKs) at 1.5<z<2.3 that were obtained with OHS/CISCO at Subaru and with SINFONI at VLT. Among the 28 sBzKs observed, Ha emission was detected in 14 objects, and for 11 of them the [NII]6583 was also measured. Multiwavelength photometry was also used to derive stellar masses and extinction parameters, whereas Ha and [NII] have allowed us to estimate SFR, metallicities, ionization mechanisms, and dynamical masses. In order to enforce agreement between SFRs from Ha with those derived from rest-frame UV and MIR, additional obscuration for the emission lines (that originate in HII regions) was required compared to the extinction derived from the slope of the UV continuum. We have also derived the stellar mass-metallicity relation, as well as the relation between stellar mass and specific SFR, and compared them to the results in other studies. At a given stellar mass, the sBzKs appear to have been already enriched to metallicities close to those of local star-forming galaxies of similar mass. The sBzKs presented here tend to have higher metallicities compared to those of UV-selected galaxies, indicating that NIR selected galaxies tend to be a chemically more evolved population. The sBzKs show specific SFRs that are systematically higher, by up to ~2 orders of magnitude, compared to those of local galaxies of the same mass. The empirical correlations between stellar mass and metallicity, and stellar mass and specific SFR are then compared with those of population synthesis models constructed either with the simple closed-box assumption, or within an infall scenario. Within the assumptions that are built-in such models, it appears that a short timescale for the star-formation (~100 Myr) and large initial gas mass appear to be required.


Then you should — at least if you want food stamps. That’s what more than 80 percent of voters think, a new poll for the Foundation for Government Accountability finds. And it’s actually already the law. That’s right: Officially, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program requires able-bodied adults without dependents to work, train or volunteer — at least part-time. That SNAP requirement was part of the 1996 welfare-reform package that President Bill Clinton worked out with a Republican Congress. But it was undermined from the start, since it allowed the secretary of agriculture to waive work requirements in times of need. Yet while it might make sense to give waivers in areas with high unemployment, the Clinton-era bureaucrats who wrote the enabling regulations ensured that waivers would be ridiculously easy to get. New York’s latest request cites unemployment data from several years ago to justify its waiver. Just about every state plays some game. But President Trump can have his Agriculture Department get going to write much tougher regulations, with no need to go to Congress. It’s something the public will clearly support — as it has backed sensible welfare reform for decades. And SNAP — now delivered via Electronic Benefit Cards rather than the old food-stamp coupons — has become a huge welfare program, booming under the last two presidents. Indeed, enrollment has soared to over 42 million, 13 percent of the US population. And roughly half are able-bodied adults, who account for $34 billion of the program’s benefits. That’s nuts. If ever there was a time to push these folks back into the workforce, it’s now: The economy is booming and employers are looking to hire, with 6 million jobs open across the country and unemployment at just 4.1 percent. Requiring the able-bodied to do some kind of work in exchange for federal aid doesn’t impose a hardship; it pushes them onto a path toward self-sufficiency. The 1996 reforms for regular welfare proved that. Though liberals warned the new rules would lead to mass suffering, the reverse was true: Just from 1996 to 2000, 2.4 million of Americans formerly trapped in dependency went out and found jobs. Team Trump is already offering states the chance to impose work requirements on those enrolled in Medicaid. Taking a similar step on food stamps should be a no-brainer.


You can’t say that Warner Bros. and TellTale Games don’t know how to take advantage of the blockbuster superhero movie release schedules. Back in February, Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 released a special Black Panther DLC pack just in time for that film’s premiere. Now they’re following suit again for the biggest Marvel movie yet. On Tuesday, you will be able to pick up the Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War Character and Level Pack for just $2.99 — provided you already own Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2, of course. As you can see in the trailer above, the main draw is an astonishingly adorable Thanos in minifig form, with whom you’ll be able to terrorize the itty-bitty little Lego Marvel Universe. That sounds and looks way more delightful than it probably should be. From the TT Games press release: This action-packed level offers players the chance to control Thanos, one of the most dangerous Super Villains in the Marvel Universe, and his ruthless army. The Mad Titan and the Children of Thanos have invaded Attilan to take on Black Bolt and the Inhumans in an all-new original game level. Working as a team, the menacing crew must work their way through the various levels of Attilan before they are given the opportunity to break through to Black Bolt’s throne. New unlockable characters Thanos, Corvus Glaive, Cull Obsidian, Proxima Midnight, Ebony Maw, Hulkbuster 2.0, and Groot (Avengers: Infinity War) add to the main game’s roster of over 200 Super Heroes and Super Villains. While $2.99 certainly sounds like a good deal, the Season Pass option for $14.99 gives you themed DLC for the already-released Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Black Panther, Runaways, and Cloak & Dagger content, and the upcoming Champions, Out of Time, and Agents of Atlas packs. That’s a whooole lot of Marvel goodies and goodness.


This is the second of the two related papers analysing origins and possible explanations of a paradoxical phenomenon of the quantum potential (QP). It arises in quantum mechanics'(QM) of a particle in the Riemannian $n$-dimensional configurational space obtained by various procedures of quantization of the non-relativistic natural Hamilton systems. Now, the two questions are investigated: 1)Does QP appear in the non-relativistic QM generated by the quantum theory of scalar field (QFT) non-minimally coupled to the space-time metric? 2)To which extent is it in accord with quantization of the natural systems? To this end, the asymptotic non-relativistic equation for the particle-interpretable wave functions and operators of canonical observables are obtained from the primary QFT objects. It is shown that, in the globally-static space-time, the Hamilton operators coincide at the origin of the quasi-Euclidean space coordinates in the both altenative approaches for any constant of non-minimality $\tilde\xi$, but a certain requirement of the Principle of Equivalence to the quantum field propagator distinguishes the unique value $\tilde\xi = 1/6$. Just the same value had the constant $\xi$ in the quantum Hamiltonians arising from the traditional quantizations of the natural systems: the DeWitt canonical, Pauli-DeWitt quasiclassical, geometrical and Feynman ones, as well as in the revised Schr\"{o}dinger variational quantization. Thus, QP generated by mechanics is tightly related to non-minimality of the quantum scalar field. Meanwhile, an essential discrepancy exists between the non-relativistic QMs derived from the two altenative approaches: QFT generate a scalar QP, whereas various quantizations of natural mechanics, lead to PQs depending on choice of space coordinates as physical observables and non-vanishing even in the flat space.


Heights Half Marathon and 5K now registering HUBER HEIGHTS — The Y at the Heights is hosting the 5th Annual Heights Half Marathon & 5K Fun Run on May 19, 2018 The Half Marathon will begin at 7 a.m. followed by the 5K at 7:30 a.m. You may pick up your race packet on Friday, May 18 from Noon – 7 p.m. at the Y or Saturday, May 19 from 6-6:45 a.m. at the start line near the Aquatic Center at the Heights. All Half Marathon finishers will receive a medal and dri-fit shirt. 5K participants will receive a medal and t-shirt. For more information please visit http://www.theheightshalf.com/ Bingo offered at Huber Heights Athletic Foundation HUBER HEIGHTS — Come on out and play bingo at the Huber Heights Athletic Foundation, a volunteer run charitable Bingo located at 5367 Fishburg Road in Huber Heights. Games start at 1 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday with doors opening at 11 a.m. Ticket sales/paper sales start at 11:30 a.m. at $20 to play up to 36 faces and $5 buys three faces for the ‘Break the Bank/Callers Choice’ game for players 18 and older. No one under 18 is permitted during Bingo play/ticket sales. There are guaranteed payouts for the day from the bingo games of $4,600 and there are many Instant tickets and jackpots in addition to that to be won. All proceeds remain in Huber Heights and go to support youth in their school and athletic functions/pursuits within Huber Heights. No Bingo on holidays or.


Cold steady-state disk wind theory from near Keplerian accretion disks requires a large scale magnetic field at near equipartition strength. However the minimum magnetization has never been tested. We investigate the time evolution of an accretion disk threaded by a weak vertical magnetic field. The strength of the field is such that the disk magnetization falls off rapidly with radius. Four 2.5D numerical simulations of viscous resistive accretion disk are performed using the magnetohydrodynamic code PLUTO. In these simulations, a mean field approach is used and turbulence is assumed to give rise to anomalous transport coefficients (alpha prescription). The large scale magnetic field introduces only a small perturbation to the disk structure, with accretion driven by the dominant viscous torque. A super fast magnetosonic jet is observed to be launched from the innermost regions and remains stationary over more than 953 Keplerian orbits. The self-confined jet is launched from a finite radial zone in the disk which remains constant over time. Ejection is made possible because the magnetization reaches unity at the disk surface, due to the steep density decrease. However, no ejection is reported when the midplane magnetization becomes too small. The asymptotic jet velocity remains nevertheless too low to explain observed jets due to the negligible power carried away by the jet. Astrophysical disks with superheated surface layers could drive analogous outflows even if their midplane magnetization is low. Sufficient angular momentum would be extracted by the turbulent viscosity to allow the accretion process to continue. The magnetized outflows would be no more than byproducts, rather than a fundamental driver of accretion. However.


By Fungi Kwaramba The ruling Zanu PF party’s supreme decision-making organ in between congresses, the politburo, meets in Harare today for another crunch meeting that could end the uncertainty surrounding Saviour Kasukuwere’s future as the revolutionary party’s national political commissar. The 47-year-old Mount Darwin legislator goes into today’s potentially explosive meeting unsure whether he will keep his job, which he assumed only three years ago. Kasukuwere has been skating on thin ice ever since an insurrection against his leadership broke out in his home province of Mashonaland Central, with eight other regions throwing their weight behind calls for his ouster. Those baying for his blood accuse the party’s chief organiser and strategist of plotting a bloodless coup against the Zanu PF leader; causing mayhem in the party by interfering with party structures and imposing leaders at various levels. Also under fire is his brother Dickson Mafios, who is the acting Zanu PF chairperson for Mashonaland Central — a ruling party stronghold. Kasukuwere has his sympathisers as well, who have formed his rearguard, including Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko who believe that the brouhaha was being sponsored by a rival faction out to decimate President Robert Mugabe’s foot soldiers before launching a final assault for the high pressure job. In a bid to resolve the impasse, Mugabe set up a committee led by politburo member, Jacob Mudenda, to get to the bottom of the standoff and recommend a way forward. The committee has since finalised its report, which will be tabled at today’s crunch meeting. Zanu PF insiders said the report could be debated along factional lines hence Mugabe would, in the final analyses, be forced to take a stand. The ruling party is dominated by two factions namely Generation 40 (G40), which is sympathetic to Kasukuwere, and Team Lacoste, which has been sharpening its knives, ready to finish off the embattled political commissar. Analysts said the Zanu PF leader is caught between a rock and a hard place as he tries to balance the factional interests playing out in his party. Political analyst, Ibbo Mandaza, believes that Mugabe may not act on Kasukuwere. He said: “I am not sure.


(Abridged) We aim to determine the degrees of CO depletion, deuterium fractionation, and ionisation in a sample of seven massive clumps associated with IRDCs. The APEX telescope was used to observe the C17O(2-1), H13CO+(3-2), DCO+(3-2), N2H+(3-2), and N2D+(3-2) transitions towards the clumps. The CO molecules do not appear to be significantly depleted in the observed clumps. The DCO+/HCO+ and N2D+/N2H+ column density ratios are about 0.0002-0.014 and 0.002-0.028, respectively. The former ratio is found to decrease as a function of gas kinetic temperature. A simple chemical analysis suggests that the lower limit to the ionisation degree is in the range x(e)~10^{-8}-10^{-7}, whereas the estimated upper limits range from a few 10^{-6} up to ~10^{-4}. Lower limits to x(e) imply the cosmic-ray ionisation rate of H2 to lie between zeta_H2~10^{-17}-10^{-15} s^{-1}. These are the first estimates of x(e) and zeta_H2 towards massive IRDCs reported so far. The finding that CO is not depleted in the observed sources conforms to the fact that they show evidence of star formation activity which is believed to release CO from the icy grain mantles back into the gas phase. The observed degree of deuteration is lower than in low-mass starless cores and protostellar envelopes. Decreasing deuteration with increasing temperature is likely to reflect the clump evolution. On the other hand, the association with young high-mass stars could enhance zeta_H2 and x(e) above the levels usually found in low-mass star-forming regions. On the scale probed by our observations, ambipolar diffusion cannot be a main driver of clump evolution.


Deflagration models poorly explain the observed diversity of SNIa. Current multidimensional simulations of SNIa predict a significant amount of, so far unobserved, carbon and oxygen moving at low velocities. It has been proposed that these drawbacks can be resolved if there is a sudden jump to a detonation (delayed detonation), but this kind of models has been explored mainly in one dimension. Here we present new three-dimensional delayed detonation models in which the deflagraton-to-detonation transition (DDT) takes place in conditions like those favored by one-dimensional models. We have used a SPH code adapted to SNIa with algorithms devised to handle subsonic as well as supersonic combustion fronts. The starting point was a C-O white dwarf of 1.38 solar masses. When the average density on the flame surface reached 2-3x10^7 g/cm^3 a detonation was launched. The detonation wave processed more than 0.3 solar masses of carbon and oxygen, emptying the central regions of the ejecta of unburned fuel and raising its kinetic energy close to the fiducial 10^51 ergs expected from a healthy Type Ia supernova. The final amount of 56Ni synthesized also was in the correct range. However, the mass of carbon and oxygen ejected is still too high. The three-dimensional delayed detonation models explored here show an improvement over pure deflagration models, but they still fail to coincide with basic observational constraints. However, there are many aspects of the model that are still poorly known (geometry of flame ignition, mechanism of DDT, properties of detonation waves traversing a mixture of fuel and ashes). Therefore, it will be worth pursuing its exploration to see.


The Day of the Dead is a holiday observed in Mexico and other Latin American countries that celebrates and honours the memory of deceased loved ones. Falling on Nov. 1, just a day after Halloween celebrations, the holiday shares some of the sentiment of Halloween, but it is a very different occasion. Where Halloween views the dead as spooky haunts, the day known locally as Dia de los Muertos remembers them as beloved citizens of the afterlife. Through the building of altars, lively fiestas, and offerings of the departed’s favourite foods, Dia de los Muertos is a true celebration, shared between the living and the dead. And while there are many ways to celebrate, here at The Culinary Institute of America we have a habit of focusing on the dinner table. Luckily, the rich cultures surrounding the day are a wealth of traditional recipes and ingredients. Day of the Dead bread and tamales are a good place to start, but we especially love the ritual involved in creating flavourful and traditional moles, as in CIA Chef Sofia Sada’s recipe for Mole Poblano. Today, Mexico has identified more than 50 different moles, but a mole is really whatever you want your sauce to be. Of course, this traditional Mole Poblano is the most well-known variety, and so it’s a perfect representation of Mexico’s culinary tradition. If you’re looking at the ingredient list and thinking, “Wow, that’s a lot of ingredients,” you’re right. This complex sauce is not something you can throw together quickly on a Wednesday night, but for a special occasion, it is well worth the effort. Luckily, the sauce can be made well ahead of time and frozen, which means any weeknight can be that special occasion. Not all moles contain chocolate, but this recipe calls for Mexican chocolate, which is a unique ingredient that you can easily find at Latin American markets or from online retailers. Cacao, the large bean from which chocolate is produced, is native to Mexico, and chocolate has a long history in the many ancient cultures of the region. Today, Mexican chocolate is unique in that it contains cinnamon and other spices, and helps bring out the flavours of the mole. You may not use dried chilies every day, but they offer a more intense flavour than their fresh counterparts. Just like the chocolate, they are abundant at markets.


We perform some experimental simulations in spherical symmetry and axisymmetry to understand the post-shock-revival evolution of core-collapse supernovae. Assuming that the stalled shock wave is relaunched by neutrino heating and employing the so-called light bulb approximation, we induce shock revival by raising the neutrino luminosity by hand up to the critical value, which is also de- termined by dynamical simulations. A 15M_{sun} progenitor model is employed. We incorporate nuclear network calculations with a consistent equation of state in the simulations to account for the energy release by nuclear reactions and their feedback to hydrodynamics. Varying the shock-relaunch time rather arbitrarily, we investigate the ensuing long-term evolutions systematically, paying particular attention to the explosion energy and nucleosynthetic yields as a function of this relaunch time, or equivalently the accretion rate at shock revival. We study in detail how the diagnostic explosion energy approaches the asymptotic value and which physical processes contribute to the explosion energy in what proportions as well as their dependence on the relaunch time and the dimension of dynamics. We find that the contribution of nuclear reactions to the explosion energy is comparable to or greater than that of neutrino heating. In particular, recombinations are dominant over burnings in the contributions of nuclear reactions. Interestingly 1D models studied in this paper cannot produce the appropriate explosion energy and nickel mass simultaneously, overproducing nickels, whereas this problem is resolved in 2D models.


Barry Manilow postpones shows to rest vocal cords Manilow postponed two concerts in Los Angeles and Chicago on doctor's orders because of sprained vocal cords. Barry Manilow's late-in-life coming-out experience was 'beautiful' Barry Manilow was touched by the public’s reaction to him coming out as gay. The 73-year-old “Copacabana” hitmaker spoke about the positive experience on the red carpet at the BMI... Barry Manilow: 'I cannot spot a hit song — even if I write it' In 1976, just as his career as a pop superstar was taking off, Barry Manilow moved into an apartment in the San Remo on Central Park West. His neighbor was... Aretha Franklin battles illness to sing for Clive Davis There are few people that Aretha Franklin would ever bow to, but on Wednesday night, she did exactly that for her mentor Clive Davis at Radio City Music Hall. The... Why Barry Manilow hid his sexuality for 40 years He said of the clandestine nature of his nearly 40-year romance with Garry Kief, “I’m so private. I always have been.” Barry Manilow joins concert to help human rights groups Proceeds will benefit the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Southern Poverty Law Center, National Immigration Law Center and the Sierra Club Foundation. Inside the Grammy bash that even Kanye 'begged to get in' On Grammy night, the biggest names in music gather at the Staples Center in Los Angeles — but if you look closely, most seem a bit bleary-eyed. That’s because they... Barry Manilow hospitalized for oral surgery complications It's unclear what type of oral surgery he underwent and.


Odds are you helped Link rescue Princess Zelda or Mario defeat King Bowser on a Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Thirty-plus years later, Nintendo is helping those gamers relive their old-school victories with the NES Classic Edition. Released in November 2016, the NES Classic Edition is a pint-size version of the original system. It comes with a single two-button controller and 30 preloaded games, including old favorites like Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, Metroid and Ghosts'n Goblins. The original NES Classic Edition was discontinued in April 2017. Nintendo has said that that console will return to stores on June 29, 2018. How did Nintendo pack so much 8-bit fun into a single box? To find out, I broke out my tools. Note: This story originally ran in the Fall 2017 issue of CNET Magazine. We're publishing the story online to coincide with our Cracking Open video of the NES Classic and the original NES. Cracking open the NES Classic Edition I started with the four rubber pads, or feet, on the console's bottom. Using a thin Phillips screwdriver, I removed the pads and the tiny screw hidden underneath each one. I then lifted off the upper half of the system's plastic case to reveal the tech inside. Though it's less than a quarter the size of the original NES, the Classic Edition's interior is far less cramped. Gone are the front-loading, VCR-esque cartridge tray, the 72-pin cartridge connector that failed so often and the bulky video, audio and power circuitry. All that 1980s tech has been condensed down to a single main circuit board that's about the size of a drink coaster. After disconnecting the cables for the two game controller ports and a thin cable for the power and reset buttons, I removed a few more screws, lifted off the metal shield that covers the main circuit board and took out the board itself. Next, I removed the two controller ports, each held in place with a small bracket and single screw. To finish, I only had to disconnect a black, plastic housing that contains a small circuit board to which the contacts for the power and reset buttons are mounted along with the front LED. My teardown of the console was complete. Turning my attention to the game controller, I removed six screws from the bottom of its clam


Kaplanski's Zero Divisor Conjecture envisions that for a torsion-free group G and an integral domain R, the group ring R[G] does not contain non-trivial zero divisors. We define the length of an element a in R[G] as the minimal non-negative integer k for which there are ring elements r_1,...,r_k in R and group elements g_1,...,g_k in G such that a = r_1 g_1+...+r_k g_k. We investigate the conjecture when R is the field of rational numbers. By a reduction to the finite field with two elements, we show that if ab = 0 for non-trivial elements in the group ring of a torsion-free group over the rationals, then the lengths of a and b cannot be among certain combinations. More precisely, we show for various pairs of integers (i,j) that if one of the lengths is at most i then the other length must exceed j. Using combinatorial arguments we show this for the pairs (3,6) and (4,4). With a computer-assisted approach we strengthen this to show the statement holds for the pairs (3,16) and (4,7). As part of our method, we describe a combinatorial structure, which we call matched rectangles, and show that for these a canonical labeling can be computed in quadratic time. Each matched rectangle gives rise to a presentation of a group. These associated groups are universal in the sense that there is no counterexample to the conjecture among them.


Conversion of positions identified pursuant to subparagraph (D) as described in that subparagraph. (5) Report to secretary of defense.--Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the working group shall submit to the Secretary of Defense a report on the comprehensive review undertaken pursuant to paragraph (4). The report shall include the following: (A) A comprehensive description of the review and the results of the review. (B) The percentage of military technician (dual status) positions whose conversion to positions of Federal civilian employment under title 5, United States Code, would best ensure the achievement of objectives for full time support of the reserve components of the Armed Forces as an operational reserve. (C) A transition plan for implementing a new force structure for full time support of the reserve components, including for the conversion of positions as described in subparagraph (B) which mitigates any risks to readiness identified pursuant to paragraph (4)(E). (D) Recommendations for the reform of personnel management policy for military technician (dual status) positions that address-- (i) the eligibility of military technicians (dual status) for civilian retirement upon retirement from the Armed Forces; and (ii) the process for appealing employment decisions. (E) Recommendations for reforms of compensation and benefits policies for military technician (dual status) positions in order to provide military technicians (dual status) with parity in compensation and benefits with other Federal civilian employees of the Department of Defense under title 5, United States Code. (6) Transmittal of report to congress.--The Secretary shall transmit to the congressional defense committees the report of the working group under paragraph (5), together with such discussion and recommendations in connection with the report as the Secretary considers appropriate. The Secretary shall publish the report, and any such discussions and recommendations, in the Federal Register at the time of transmittal. (7) Congressional defense committees defined.--In this subsection, the term ``congressional defense committees'' has the meaning.


Such as striking the pleadings, dismissing the suit, or other directives of a nonmonetary nature, or, if warranted for effective deterrence, an order directing payment of a penalty into the court. TITLE IV--LAWSUIT ABUSE REDUCTION SEC. 401. SHORT TITLE. This title may be cited as the ``Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act''. SEC. 402. ATTORNEY ACCOUNTABILITY. (a) Sanctions Under Rule 11.--Rule 11(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure is amended-- (1) in paragraph (1), by striking ``may'' and inserting ``shall''; (2) in paragraph (2), by striking ``Rule 5'' and all that follows through ``motion.'' and inserting ``Rule 5.''; and (3) in paragraph (4), by striking ``situated'' and all that follows through the end of the paragraph and inserting ``situated, and to compensate the parties that were injured by such conduct. Subject to the limitations in paragraph (5), the sanction shall consist of an order to pay to the party or parties the amount of the reasonable expenses incurred as a direct result of the violation, including reasonable attorneys' fees and costs. The court may also impose additional appropriate sanctions, such as striking the pleadings, dismissing the suit, or other directives of a nonmonetary nature, or, if warranted for effective deterrence, an order directing payment of a penalty into the court'' ; and (4) by adding at the end the following: ``(7) Appeal.--An attorney has the right to appeal a sanction under this subdivision. While such an appeal is pending, the sanction shall be stayed.''. (b) Rule of Construction for Civil Rights Claims.--Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure is amended by adding at the end the following: ``(e) Rule of Construction for Civil Rights Claims.--Nothing in subdivisions (a) through (c) of this rule shall be construed to bar or impede the assertion or development of new claims or remedies under Federal, State, or local civil rights law.''. SEC. 403. PREVENTION OF INTERSTATE FORUM-SHOPPING. (a) Generally.--A person may not bring a personal injury claim in the court of a State if the person is not a resident of that State.


We present the final results from our ultra-deep spectroscopic campaign with FORS2 at the ESO/VLT for the confirmation of z~7 "z--band dropout" candidates selected from our VLT/Hawk-I imaging survey over three independent fields. In particular we report on two newly discovered galaxies at redshift ~6.7 in the NTT deep field: both galaxies show a Ly-alpha emission line with rest-frame EWs of the order 15-20 A and luminosities of 2-4 X 10^{42} erg/s. We also present the results of ultra-deep observations of a sample of i-dropout galaxies, from which we set a solid upper limit on the fraction of interlopers. Out of the 20 z-dropouts observed we confirm 5 galaxies at 6.7 < z < 7.1. This is systematically below the expectations drawn on the basis of lower redshift observations: in particular there is a significant lack of objects with intermediate Ly-alpha EWs (between 20 and 55 A). We conclude that the trend for the fraction of Ly-alpha emission in LBGs that is constantly increasing from z~3 to z~6 is most probably reversed from z~6 to z~7. Explaining the observed rapid change in the LAE fraction among the drop-out population with reionization requires a fast evolution of the neutral fraction of hydrogen in the Universe. Assuming that the Universe is completely ionized at z=6 and adopting the semi-analytical models of Dijkstra et al. (2011), we find that our data require a change of the neutral hydrogen fraction of the order Delta chi_{HI} ~ 0.6 in a time Delta z ~ 1.


We carried out extremely sensitive Submillimeter Array (SMA) 340 GHz continuum imaging on two submillimeter galaxies (SMGs): GOODS 850-11 and GOODS 850-13. The observations reach sub-mJy rms sensitivities and, interestingly, resolve both sources into multiple, physically unrelated SMGs. GOODS 850-11 is resolved into two sources at different redshifts. GOODS 850-13 is resolved into three sources, two with different spectroscopic redshifts and one only with a photometric redshift. All the SMA sources have fluxes in the 3-5 mJy range and all are detected at 1.4 GHz. Three of them are detected by Chandra, and one is a previously unknown X-ray SMG. This is the first time that single-dish SMGs are resolved into multiple unrelated sources and also the first time that the SMA has discovered new SMGs. Our results show that identifications of SMGs at any wavelengths other than the submillimeter itself can be misleading, since such identifications usually only pick up one of the real counterparts. Using simulations that mimic our SCUBA and SMA observations, we find that the number of triple systems detected in our SMA survey is much higher than that expected from the current best-determined number counts. We tentatively attribute this to clustering. We also predict that ALMA will find ~1/3 of >5 mJy 850 um SCUBA sources to be multiple systems. Based on our SMA observations and simulations, we suggest that large samples of existing SMGs should be imaged with sensitive interferometric observations, even.


Minnesota, you'll eventually find yourself in Rochester, home of the world-renowned Mayo Clinic. For more than 100 years, the city and the hospital have been synonymous. And now, a massive economic development project backed by Mayo, the city and the state aims to transform the city of more than 100,000 into a magnet for startups and entrepreneurs in medicine and other fields. Mayo BioBusiness Center Chair Jim Rogers said Rochester’s transformation is already apparent. "I can count — just about every building has a new business in the last four of five years, it seems,” he said. "It's incredible what's occurring here." In an effort to turn the region into the “Silicon Valley of medicine,” Rogers said change is happening inside the clinic's walls, too. Recently, Mayo lifted policies that blocked employees from owning or holding an executive position with a medical company, and a business accelerator helps employees develop new products. Rogers pointed to a couple of examples: a health records system for the intensive care unit and a less-invasive procedure to treat carpal tunnel syndrome, both products of Mayo's efforts to support innovation. In the Rochester of the future, Rogers said more products like these will be developed in Discovery Square, a downtown tech park where the idea is for Mayo employees, startups and major medical firms to collaborate. "Gone are the days where a company comes, wants to talk to a few physicians, thinks they have a good idea and they run off and develop a product that doesn't meet the patient need,” Rogers said. “Gone are the days we think we can just do it ourselves. It needs to be partnership." Discovery Square is part of a 20-year economic development effort to remake Rochester so Mayo can better compete for patients and top talent. The state, city and Mayo, as well as other private investors, will contribute a total of about $6.5 billion over the life of the project. The effort is also meant to help diversify southeast Minnesota's economy beyond health care. Right now, Mayo is the state's largest employer, with more than 30,000 people in the region on its payroll. But to build its reputation as something more than a medical hub, some believe Rochester's culture needs to change. "When you have a large medical institution like the Mayo Clinic — a world renowned, top medical institution in the world — you get that way by eliminating risk,” said Jamie Sund


Vox has a few answers. The American culture and politics website has put together a video looking at Donald Trump’s campaign manager/counsellor/chief defender Kellyanne Conway and her interview techniques. Host Carlos Maza (who describes the process of interviewing her as “like trying to staple Jell-O to a wall”) interviews former US national debate champion Seth Gannon to breakdown Conway’s superhuman ability to answer questions she has not been asked, and not answer questions she has. They identify four key techniques: First, Conway’s ability to detect an opening in the question that will allow her to take her answer somewhere else. She will mirror a keyword or phrase in the question at the start of her answer, to give the vague impression she’s addressing the question, before veering off onto whatever topic she’d rather discuss. This is so blatant that at one point, Conway actually pauses and winks as it’s happening. Second, as happened with much of the Trump campaign, Conway exploits the understood accord between media and politician; in this case, the natural politeness of an interviewer. She knows if she obfuscates enough times, an interviewer is more likely to move on to the next topic than appear rude. (Side note: would an interview between Conway and Jeremy Paxman ever actually end?) Third, the classic political trick of passing the buck. She has no responsibility for policy and can, in the face of tricky questions on that policy, simply say she doesn’t know. And finally, she can fall back on the fundamental Trump tactic of simply making something up. Her key role since the start of the administration has been massaging Trump statements into more palatable versions of what they are — see her re-invention of his baseless voter fraud claims as concerns around registration. The video is light-hearted, but maddening and faintly ominous, because Conway’s gymnastics and refusal to give any clarity on White House positions has not cost her or the administration their platform. As Maza says “just remember, she’s doing her job — it’s the news shows that keep booking her that are letting you down”. Something to bear in mind as Conway is inevitably trotted out on various news shows explaining the Michael Flynn situation, or whatever the most recent scandal is by the time this goes to print. — Charlie Lewis


We present a framework to obtain photometric redshifts (photo-zs) for gamma-ray burst afterglows. Using multi-band photometry from GROND and Swift/UVOT, photo-zs are derived for five GRBs for which spectroscopic redshifts are not available. We use UV/optical/NIR data and synthetic photometry based on afterglow observations and theory to derive the photometric redshifts of GRBs and their accuracy. Taking into account the afterglow synchrotron emission properties, we investigate the application of photometry to derive redshifts in a theoretical range between z~1 and z~12. The measurement of photo-zs for GRB afterglows provides a quick, robust and reliable determination of the distance scale to the burst, particularly in those cases where spectroscopic observations in the optical/NIR range cannot be obtained. Given a sufficiently bright and mildly reddened afterglow, the relative photo-z accuracy is better than 10% between z=1.5 and z~7 and better than 5% between z=2 and z=6. We detail the approach on 5 sources without spectroscopic redshifts observed with UVOT on-board Swift and/or GROND. The distance scale to those same afterglows is measured to be $z=4.31^{+0.14}_{-0.15}$ for GRB 080825B, $z=2.13^{+0.14}_{-0.20}$ for GRB 080906, $z=3.44^{+0.15}_{-0.32}$ for GRB 081228, $z=2.03^{+0.16}_{-0.14}$ for GRB 081230 and $z=1.28^{+0.16}_{-0.15}$ for GRB 090530. Combining the response from UVOT with ground-based observatories and in particular GROND operating in the optical/NIR wavelength regime, reliable photo-zs can be obtained from z ~ 1.0 out to z ~ 10, and possibly even at higher redshifts in some favorable cases.


On a list of 2,746 Cubans who were alleged criminals and could be returned to the island. When the U.S. abandoned the "wet foot, dry foot" policy in January, the two nations agreed that the list could be revised to add other Cuban "marielitos" who were subject to active deportation orders. Rudy Blanco was 8 when he was brought from the port of Mariel by his parents in 1980. He now has a family and owns a home-remodeling business in Perry, Florida. But because he was convicted of attempting to sell cocaine in 1998, he wasn't allowed to become a U.S. citizen and instead received an order of deportation by mail in 2005. Blanco was allowed to stay as long as he made routine visits to ICE. However, he was arrested on May 9 and is now awaiting deportation. An ICE spokeswoman said only that the agency intends to deport him based on the 2005 order. Blanco's wife, Shelly, said that both Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and the family's congressman, Rep. Neal Dunn, have told her they are trying to gather information on the case. Both men are Republicans. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, pardoned another Cuban immigrant for an armed robbery committed 19 years ago, in an effort to stave off his deportation. Rene Lima-Marin, 38, arrived as a toddler in the boatlift and 20 years later received a deportation order after his conviction. Apart from the Mariel list, Cuba has agreed to review deportations on a case-by-case basis. Fifty-seven Cubans have been deported since October, while 335 were arrested between Jan. 22 and April 29. Susan Eckstein, a sociology professor at Boston University, argues that Cubans' immigration privileges should end to make immigration policy more equitable for all foreign nationals. "I would be very surprised.


Recent observational studies have revealed that the Galactic bulge has cylindrical rotation and a steeper vertical metallicity gradient. We adopt two representative models for the bulge formation and thereby investigate whether the two models can explain both the observed cylindrical rotation and vertical metallicity gradient in a self-consistent manner. One is the "pure disk scenario" (PDS) in which the bulge is formed from a pure thin stellar disk through spontaneous bar instability. The other is the "two-component disk scenario" (TCDS) in which the bulge is formed from a disk composed of thin and thick disks through bar instability. Our numerical simulations show that although PDS can reproduce the cylindrical rotation, it shows a rather flatter vertical metallicity gradient that is inconsistent with observations. The derived flatter metallicity gradient is due to the vertical mixing of stars with different initial metallicities by the stellar bar. This result implies that the bulge can not be simply formed from a pure thin stellar disk. On the other hand, the bulge formed from the two-component disk in TCDS can explain both the observed cylindrical rotation and vertical metallicity gradient of the Galactic bulge reasonably well. In TCDS, more metal-poor stars at higher |z| (vertical distance) which originate from the already dynamically hotter thick disk can not be strongly influenced by vertical mixing of the bar so that they can stay in situ for longer timescales and thus keep the lower metallicity at higher |z|. Consequently, the vertical metallicity gradient of the bulge composed of initially thin and thick disk stars can not be so flattened, even.


Then opponents of Catawba College are in trouble. Phillips began his senior season at North Surry as a returning All-Conference performer on a team expected to defend its Western Piedmont Athletic Conference title. Then he gunned in 41 points, along with nine rebounds and five assists, in a win over Westchester Country Day on the day after Thanksgiving. The win came in a showcase in front of dozens of talent scouts and college recruiters, and marked the 6’3” guard as a man to watch in the upcoming season. And there was plenty to watch. Phillips displayed an all-around game better than he ever had before. During the course of the season, he had six more games of 30 or more points, averaged 22.9 points and 7.9 rebounds for the season, and won WPAC Player of the Year honors even though his only real rival for the honor was a teammate. He was nominated to the AP All-State team, and ultimately led the Greyhounds all the way to the 2A state championship game. The only thing that Phillips might want to change about his senior season was the ending, when North Surry lost in the finals to Northside-Jacksonville. Still, it was a 27-5 season that featured more success than any Greyhound team had enjoyed since the 1980s. “Going to the state championship game my senior year was the highlight of my time here,” Phillips said. “We had a really good year. It would have been great to win the state championship, but we still had a good year.” It was the final chapter of a journey that began when Phillips and his partner in the North Surry backcourt, Mason Hawks, first teamed up on a youth basketball team. The two, along with fellow senior Kendal Tucker, spent all of the next several years as teammates. All three of them made the North Surry varsity as freshmen. The Hounds won just 10 games that season, but vaulted to 21-5 in their sophomore season, which saw Phillips as the third-leading scorer on the team at 10 points per game. The 2015-16 season saw another 21 wins and another conference title, with Phillips pumping in 15.6 points and leading the team in rebounding at 6.7. He would have been a Player of


B) Line-of-credit loans.--In guaranteeing business and industry loans, the Secretary shall guarantee line-of-credit loans in accordance with section 316(c). ``(C) Refinancing.-- ``(i) In general.--A business and industry loan may be used by a small business to refinance debt in existence as of the day before the date on which the loan was made or guaranteed, if-- ``(I) the project for which the debt was incurred is viable and will create or save jobs, as determined by the Secretary; and ``(II) as of the date of application for refinancing-- ``(aa) the underlying loan has been current for at least 1 year; and ``(bb) the lender is providing better rates and longer terms than under the original loan. ``(ii) Subordinated owner debt.-- Subordinated owner debt shall not be eligible for inclusion in debt described in clause (i). ``(D) Audit standards.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary-- ``(i) shall not require audited financial statements consistent with generally accepted accounting principles for business and industry loans of less than $1,000,000; and ``(ii) may waive any requirement for audited financial statements consistent with generally accepted accounting principles for business and industry loans of at least $1,000,000. ``(E) Calculation of delinquency rates.--To allow accurate comparison of delinquency rates among Federal agencies, in calculating the delinquency rate for business and industry loans, the Secretary shall use the calculation method used by the Administrator of the Small Business Administration.''. (c) Sense of Congress Relating to the Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program.--It is the sense of Congress that in allocating discretionary funds of the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Agriculture should give priority to the rural microentrepreneur assistance program established under section 379E of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act (7 U.S.C. 2008s). (d) 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.


Aims: We estimate stellar masses of galaxies in the high redshift universe with the intention of determining the influence of newly available Spitzer/IRAC infrared data on the analysis. Based on the results, we probe the mass assembly history of the universe. Methods: We use the GOODS-MUSIC catalog, which provides multiband photometry from the U--filter to the 8 mum Spitzer band for almost 15,000 galaxies with either spectroscopic (for ~7 % of the sample) or photometric redshifts, and apply a standard model fitting technique to estimate stellar masses. We then repeat our calculations with fixed photometric redshifts excluding Spitzer photometry and directly compare the outcomes to look for systematic deviations. Finally we use our results to compute stellar mass functions and mass densities up to redshift z = 5. Results: We find that stellar masses tend to be overestimated on average if further constraining Spitzer data are not included into the analysis. Whilst this trend is small up to intermediate redshifts z < 2.5 and falls within the typical error in mass, the deviation increases strongly for higher redshifts and reaches a maximum of a factor of three at redshift z = 3.5. Thus, up to intermediate redshifts, results for stellar mass density are in good agreement with values taken from literature calculated without additional Spitzer photometry. At higher redshifts, however, we find a systematic trend towards lower mass densities.


Channel polarization is a phenomenon in which a particular recursive encoding induces a set of synthesized channels from many instances of a memoryless channel, such that a fraction of the synthesized channels becomes near perfect for data transmission and the other fraction becomes near useless for this task. Mahdavifar and Vardy have recently exploited this phenomenon to construct codes that achieve the symmetric private capacity for private data transmission over a degraded wiretap channel. In the current paper, we build on their work and demonstrate how to construct quantum wiretap polar codes that achieve the symmetric private capacity of a degraded quantum wiretap channel with a classical eavesdropper. Due to the Schumacher-Westmoreland correspondence between quantum privacy and quantum coherence, we can construct quantum polar codes by operating these quantum wiretap polar codes in superposition, much like Devetak's technique for demonstrating the achievability of the coherent information rate for quantum data transmission. Our scheme achieves the symmetric coherent information rate for quantum channels that are degradable with a classical environment. This condition on the environment may seem restrictive, but we show that many quantum channels satisfy this criterion, including amplitude damping channels, photon-detected jump channels, dephasing channels, erasure channels, and cloning channels. Our quantum polar coding scheme has the desirable properties of being channel-adapted and symmetric capacity-achieving along with having an efficient encoder, but we have not demonstrated that the decoding is efficient. Also, the scheme may require entanglement assistance, but we show that the rate of entanglement consumption vanishes in the limit of large blocklength.


Such services that would have been made in such fiscal year if such cost limits (as those limits would otherwise be in effect on September 30, 1999) had been reduced by 15 percent; and ``(B) for such cost reporting periods that begin on or after October 1, 2002, a reduction by 15 percent in such cost limits (as so in effect). ``(2) Applicable amount defined.--In paragraph (1) the term `applicable amount' means, with respect to a fiscal year, the following amount: ``(A) For fiscal year 2000, $19,000,000,000. ``(B) For fiscal year 2001, $21,400,000,000. ``(C) For fiscal year 2002, $23,100,000,000.''. (b) Temporary Restoration of Periodic Interim Payment for Home Health Services.--Section 1815(e)(2) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395g(e)(2)) is amended-- (1) in subparagraph (C), by striking ``and'' at the end; (2) by redesignating subparagraph (D) as subparagraph (E); and (3) by inserting after subparagraph (C) the following: ``(D) home health services until the end of the 12-month period following the date that the prospective payment system for such services is implemented under section 1895; and''. SEC. 4. EFFECTIVE DATE. The amendments made by this Act shall take effect as.


For the second week in a row, Queen Elizabeth II was a no-show at church with a bad cold that forced her to skip the New Year’s Day holiday service, according to the palace. “The Queen does not yet feel ready to attend church as she is still recuperating from a heavy cold,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement Sunday. The Queen also missed the royal family’s traditional Christmas service at St. Mary Magdalene Church on the Sandringham estate due to a cold. That was reportedly the first time in 28 years the Queen did not attend the Christmas service. On New Years Day, he stayed inside again prompting increased concerns about her health. Joe Giddens/AP Photo Princess Anne, the monarch’s daughter, reassured well-wishers who braved the cold, rainy weather Sunday outside the church that the queen was on the mend. Queen Elizabeth was last seen more than two weeks ago to pre-record her annual Christmas message. Her prolonged absence since has heightened speculation and concern about the severity and extent of her illness. The Queen: "I wish you all a very happy Christmas" #QueensSpeech pic.twitter.com/KHn3CWD1e4 — The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) December 25, 2016 Royal sources are saying, however, that the palace is simply being cautious and practical given the cold weather, and that the queen is said to be up and about working inside the warmth of her home. “We’re talking about a 90-year-old woman with a lingering cold,” ABC News contributor on the royal family, Victoria Murphy, said. “She didn’t want to be standing inside a cold church for up to an hour braving that terrible rain and didn’t want to risk getting worse and she was advised by her doctors to not take the risk.” Before Christmas, the Queen and Prince Philip postponed their trip to Sandringham by 24 hours because they were ill. They later elected to take a helicopter instead of boarding the royal train in London as they typically do each year. Prince Philip, who was also suffering from a cold, according to the palace, was well enough to make the traditional walk to church with the rest of the family on Christmas while the queen remained at home. The public will have to wait one more week for a glimpse of their monarch. Her next scheduled public appearance is at church next Sunday.


We study the additivity property of three multipartite entanglement measures, i.e. the geometric measure of entanglement (GM), the relative entropy of entanglement and the logarithmic global robustness. First, we show the additivity of GM of multipartite states with real and non-negative entries in the computational basis. Many states of experimental and theoretical interests have this property, e.g. Bell diagonal states, maximally correlated generalized Bell diagonal states, generalized Dicke states, the Smolin state, and the generalization of D\"{u}r's multipartite bound entangled states. We also prove the additivity of other two measures for some of these examples. Second, we show the non-additivity of GM of all antisymmetric states of three or more parties, and provide a unified explanation of the non-additivity of the three measures of the antisymmetric projector states. In particular, we derive analytical formulae of the three measures of one copy and two copies of the antisymmetric projector states respectively. Third, we show, with a statistical approach, that almost all multipartite pure states with sufficiently large number of parties are nearly maximally entangled with respect to GM and relative entropy of entanglement. However, their GM is not strong additive; what's more surprising, for generic pure states with real entries in the computational basis, GM of one copy and two copies, respectively, are almost equal. Hence, more states may be suitable for universal quantum computation, if measurements can be performed on two copies of the resource states. We also show that almost all multipartite pure states cannot be produced reversibly with the combination multipartite GHZ states under asymptotic LOCC.


Stellar kinematics in the external regions of globular clusters can be used to probe the validity of Newton's law in the low acceleration regimes without the complication of non-baryonic dark matter. Indeed, in contrast with what happens when studying galaxies, in globular clusters a systematic deviation of the velocity dispersion profile from the expected Keplerian falloff would provide indication of a breakdown of Newtonian dynamics rather than the existence of dark matter. We perform a detailed analysis of the velocity dispersion in the globular cluster omega Centauri in order to investigate whether it does decrease monotonically with distance as recently claimed by Sollima et al. (2009), or whether it converges toward a constant value as claimed by Scarpa Marconi and Gilmozzi (2003B). We combine measurements from these two works to almost double the data available at large radii, in this way obtaining an improved determination of the velocity dispersion profile in the low acceleration regime. We found the inner region of omega Centauri is clearly rotating, while the rotational velocity tend to vanish, and is consistent with no rotation at all, in the external regions. The cluster velocity dispersion at large radii from the center is found to be sensibly constant. The main conclusion of this work is that strong similarities are emerging between globular clusters and elliptical galaxies, for in both classes of objects the velocity dispersion tends to remain constant at large radii. In the case of galaxies, this is ascribed to the presence of a massive halo of dark matter, something physically unlikely in the case of globular clusters. Such similarity.


Striking regularities are found in the northwestern arm of the M31 galaxy. Star complexes located in this arm are all spaced 1.2 kpc apart and have similar sizes of about 0.6 kpc. Within the same arm region Beck et al. (1989) detected a regular magnetic field, and we found that its wavelength is the spacing between the complexes. In this arm, groups of HII regions lie inside star complexes, which, in turn, are located inside the gas and dust lane. In contrast, the southwestern arm of M31 splits into a gas and dust lane upstream and a dense stellar arm downstream, with HII regions located mostly along the boundary between these components of the arm. The stellar density in the southwestern arm is much higher than in the northwestern arm, and the former is not fragmented into star complexes. The age gradient across this arm have been found in earlier observations. According the classical SDW theory, these drastic differences may be due due to their different pitch angles: about 0 degree for northwestern part of the arm and about 30 degree for the southwestern segment. Data on M31, M51, M74, and some other galaxies suggest that star complexes are mostly located in the arm segments that are not accompanied by a dust lane upstream, i.e. do not host spiral shock wave. The regularities in the distribution of complexes along a density wave spiral arm are most probably due to the development of the Parker-Jeans instability, which builds up star complexes.