d) Semiannual Reports.--Section 3013 of title 39, United States Code, is amended-- (1) in paragraph (1), by inserting ``3002b(b) or'' before ``3005''; and (2) in paragraph (3), by striking ``section 3007 of this title'' and inserting ``section 3002b(c) or section 3007, respectively,''. (e) Clerical Amendment.--The table of sections for chapter 30 of title 39, United States Code, is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 3002a the following: ``3002b. Nonmailability of certain tobacco products.''. (f) Effective Dates.-- (1) In general.--Except as provided in paragraph (2), the amendments made by this section shall take effect on the 60th day after the date of the enactment of this Act, and shall apply with respect to any mail matter mailed on or after such 60th day. (2) Semiannual reports.--The amendments made by subsection (d) shall apply beginning with the report submitted for the reporting period in which occurs the 60th day after the date of the enactment of this Act. SEC. 2. TECHNICAL CORRECTION. (a) In General.--Sections 3007(a)(1), 3012(b)(1), and 3018(f)(1) of title 39, United States Code, are amended by striking ``409(d)'' and inserting ``409(g)(2)''. (b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by subsection (a) shall take effect as if included in the enactment of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (Public Law 109-435).


If $G$ is a looped graph, then its adjacency matrix represents a binary matroid $M_{A}(G)$ on $V(G)$. $M_{A}(G)$ may be obtained from the delta-matroid represented by the adjacency matrix of $G$, but $M_{A}(G)$ is less sensitive to the structure of $G$. Jaeger proved that every binary matroid is $M_{A}(G)$ for some $G$ [Ann. Discrete Math. 17 (1983), 371-376]. The relationship between the matroidal structure of $M_{A}(G)$ and the graphical structure of $G$ has many interesting features. For instance, the matroid minors $M_{A}(G)-v$ and $M_{A}(G)/v$ are both of the form $M_{A}(G^{\prime}-v)$ where $G^{\prime}$ may be obtained from $G$ using local complementation. In addition, matroidal considerations lead to a principal vertex tripartition, distinct from the principal edge tripartition of Rosenstiehl and Read [Ann. Discrete Math. 3 (1978), 195-226]. Several of these results are given two very different proofs, the first involving linear algebra and the second involving set systems or delta-matroids. Also, the Tutte polynomials of the adjacency matroids of $G$ and its full subgraphs are closely connected to the interlace polynomial of Arratia, Bollob\'{a}s and Sorkin [Combinatorica 24 (2004), 567-584].


Gronwall's function $G$ is defined for $n>1$ by $G(n)=\frac{\sigma(n)}{n \log\log n}$ where $\sigma(n)$ is the sum of the divisors of $n$. We call an integer $N>1$ a \emph{GA1 number} if $N$ is composite and $G(N) \ge G(N/p)$ for all prime factors $p$ of $N$. We say that $N$ is a \emph{GA2 number} if $G(N) \ge G(aN)$ for all multiples $aN$ of $N$. In arXiv 1110.5078, we used Robin's and Gronwall's theorems on $G$ to prove that the Riemann Hypothesis (RH) is true if and only if 4 is the only number that is both GA1 and GA2. Here, we study GA1 numbers and GA2 numbers separately. We compare them with superabundant (SA) and colossally abundant (CA) numbers (first studied by Ramanujan). We give algorithms for computing GA1 numbers; the smallest one with more than two prime factors is 183783600, while the smallest odd one is 1058462574572984015114271643676625. We find nineteen GA2 numbers $\le 5040$, and prove that a GA2 number $N>5040$ exists if and only if RH is false, in which case $N$ is even and $>10^{8576}$.


7. REGULATIONS. (a) In General.--Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall revise Department of Defense regulations, and shall issue such new regulations as may be necessary, to implement section 656 of title 10, United States Code, as added by section 4(a). The Secretary of Defense shall further direct the Secretary of each military department to revise regulations of that military department in accordance with section 656 of title 10, United States Code, as added by section 4(a), not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act. Such revisions shall include the following: (1) Revision of all equal opportunity and human relations regulations, directives, and instructions to add sexual orientation nondiscrimination to the Department of Defense Equal Opportunity policy and to related human relations training programs. (2) Revision of Department of Defense and military department personnel regulations to eliminate procedures for involuntary discharges based on sexual orientation. (3) Revision of Department of Defense and military department regulations governing victims' advocacy programs to include sexual orientation discrimination among the forms of discrimination for which members of the Armed Forces and their families may seek assistance. (b) Regulation of Conduct.--The Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of Homeland Security with respect to the Coast Guard when it is not operating as a service in the Navy, shall ensure that regulations governing the personal conduct of members of the Armed Forces shall be written and enforced without regard to sexual orientation. (c) Definition.--In this section, the term ``sexual orientation'' has the meaning given that term in section 656(f) of title 10, United States Code, as added by section 4(a).


We present measurements of the triaxial dark matter halo shapes and alignment correlation functions in the Millennium and Millennium-2 dark matter N-body simulations. These two simulations allow us to measure the distributions of halo shapes down to 10% of the virial radius over a halo mass range of 6E9 - 2E14 M_sun/h. We largely confirm previous results on the distributions of halo axis ratios as a function of halo mass, but we find that the median angle between halo major axes at different halo radii can vary by a factor of 2 between the Millennium-1 and 2 simulations because of the different mass resolution. Thus, error in the shape determinations from limited resolution is potentially degenerate with the misalignment of halo inner and outer shapes used to constrain Brightest Cluster Galaxy alignments in previous works. We also present simplifying parameterizations for the 3-D halo-mass alignment correlation functions that are necessary ingredients for triaxial halo models of large-scale structure and models of galaxy intrinsic alignments as contaminants for cosmic shear surveys. We measure strong alignments between halos of all masses and the surrounding dark matter overdensities out to several tens of Mpc/h, in agreement with observed shear-galaxy and cluster shape correlations. We use these measurements to forecast the contribution to the weak lensing signal around galaxy clusters from correlated mass along the line-of-sight. For prolate clusters with major axes aligned with the line-of-sight the fraction of the weak lensing signal from mass external to the cluster can be twice that predicted if the excess halo alignment correlation is assumed to be zero.


If any streetwise academic desires to pitch into the world of “perception and deception,” there’s good news: Carleton University in Ottawa has conjured a position just for you. The university is hiring someone to establish a research and teaching program in the “conjuring arts” for graduates and undergraduates. “It is a very opportune time to have somebody like this because we’re experiencing people doing all kinds of things that are deceptive, you know,” said the school’s interim president Alastair Summerlee. “They persuade lots of people and we really don’t understand how people can be drawn into those things, so this creates an opportunity to look at that.” Whoever fills the role will have to dig in and find out what it is about our nature that makes people both good at deceiving and at being deceived. In other words, what makes deception work like magic? “Whether it’s fake news or whether it’s politicians convincing people,” Summerlee said a major theme will be “understanding something about the illusion that they created, how do they work?” So far, the Faculty of Arts and Social Science has received about 80 applicants from a variety of backgrounds, Summerlee said. The announcement is expected this summer. The chair position is named after Allan Slaight, who in addition to being one Canada’s richest people, has been an avid magic buff, even editing and helping to write a tome on the work of Stewart James, one of Canada’s most productive magicians. The job description asks Carleton’s resident sorcerer to game-plan aspects of the history of magic, the history of perception and, of course, to investigate perception and deception. Carleton is matching a $2 million grant from The Slaight Family Foundation for the new post. The money will cover everything from the chair’s salary and hiring graduates to travel to investigate magic archives around the world. Summerlee said a major task will be for the resident sorcerer to link the “enormous amount of information” that has been gathered and printed worldwide about magic, which he or she would do through a digital archive, he said. The chair position is for a five-year renewable term with the possibility of tenure. Summerlee said he wants people to explore, “what is it about our psyches that make us so gullible?” In an effort to figure out what magic can reveal about our beliefs, researchers at the University of London asked people to explain a magic trick where the solution is


The current paper answers an open question of abs/1007.2426 We say that a countable model M characterizes an infinite cardinal kappa, if the Scott sentence of M has a model in cardinality kappa, but no models in cardinality kappa plus. If M is linearly ordered by <, we will say that the linear ordering (M,<) characterizes kappa. It is known that if kappa is characterizable, then kappa plus is characterizable by a linear ordering. Also, if kappa is characterizable by a dense linear ordering with an increasing sequence of size kappa, then 2^kappa is characterizable. We show that if kappa is homogeneously characterizable, then kappa is characterizable by a dense linear ordering, while the converse fails. The main theorems are: 1) If kappa>2^lambda is a characterizable cardinal, lambda is characterizable by a dense linear ordering and lambda is the least cardinal such that kappa^lambda>kappa, then kappa^lambda is also characterizable, 2) if aleph_alpha and kappa^(aleph_alpha) are characterizable cardinals, then the same is true for kappa^(aleph_(alpha+beta)), for all countable beta. Combining these two theorems we get that if kappa>2^(aleph_alpha) is a characterizable cardinal, aleph_alpha is characterizable by a dense linear ordering and aleph_alpha is the least cardinal such that kappa^(aleph_alpha)>kappa, then for all beta<alpha+omega_1, kappa^(aleph_beta) is characterizable. Also if kappa is a characterizable cardinal, then kappa^(aleph_alpha) is characterizable, for all countable alpha.


If you were lucky enough to unwrap a DSLR or mirrorless camera kit this holiday season, you’re probably excited (and owe somebody a big thank you). But if this is your first interchangeable lens camera (ILC), you may also be unsure where things go from here. Such a camera is the centerpiece of an ecosystem of lenses and other accessories that can be as confusing as they are desirable. But before you begin adding to your kit, it’s important to know what you really want. It’s equally important to understand your current gear and what it can and can’t do. We’ve compiled a short list of next steps for the first-time DSLR or mirrorless camera owner. This list is by no means exhaustive, but it may help point you in the right direction toward a rewarding journey into the world of photography. Study and practice Bill Roberson/Digital Trends Regardless of your camera, you will get more out of it by improving your skill rather than trying to buy better gear. Today’s cameras are like supercomputers with a lens attached, and they can do much more than simply point and take a picture. Reading the manual – yes, we know it’s boring – is probably the best way to get acquainted with your particular camera’s features and controls, but it’s also worth looking elsewhere for general knowledge on photography and how cameras work. An ILC lets you control the various exposure settings. If you’re looking for a quick guide, we have one. We also recommend Bryan Peterson’s book, Understanding Exposure, which has been the go-to guide for beginning photographers for the past two-and-a-half decades. In it, you’ll learn how to take control over your camera – rather than relying on its autoexposure mode – and create better pictures as a result. Related: Get pro-quality photos with your pop-up flash by using a white balloon If book learning isn’t your thing, there are ample online video courses for studying anything from the basics of exposure to how to run a photography business. CreativeLive and Lynda.com offer a wealth of knowledge on these topics. There is also plenty of free educational content on YouTube, with channels like the Cooperative of Photography (COOPH) offering creative tips and tricks and The Camera Store TV providing more gear-centric knowledge. But nothing is more helpful than simply getting out there and shooting. Take photos of your dog, bring you camera on a hike, or ask your significant other to (begrudgingly) pose for you.


We propose a simple model for dark energy useful for comparison with observations. It is based on the idea that dark energy and inflation should be caused by the same physical process. As motivation, we note that Linde's simple chaotic inflation $V=(1/2)m^{2}\phi^{2}$ produces values of $n_{s}=0.967$ and $r=0.13$, which are consistent with the WMAP 1-sigma error bars. We therefore propose $V=(1/2)m_{2}^{2}\phi_{2}^{2}+(1/2)m_{1}^{2}\phi_{1}^{2}$ with $m_{1}\sim10^{-5}$ and $m_{2}\leq10^{-60}$, where $c=1=\hbar$ and the reduced Planck mass is set to unity. The field $\phi_{1}$ drives inflation and has damped by now ($\phi_{1,0}=0$), while $\phi_{2}$ is currently rolling down its potential to produce dark energy. Using this model, we derive the formula $\delta w(z)\equiv w(z)+1=\delta w_{0}(H_0/H(z))^2$ via the slow-roll approximation. Our numerical results from exact and self-consistent solution of the equations of motion for $\phi_2$ and the Friedmann equations support this formula, and it should hold for any slow-roll dark energy. Our potential can be easily realized in N-flation models with many fields, and is easily falsifiable by upcoming experiments -- for example, if Linde's chaotic inflation is ruled out. But if $r$ values consistent with Linde's chaotic inflation are detected then one should take this model seriously indeed.


An EMT revealed a poignant detail Friday in the police shooting death of emotionally disturbed Bronx woman Deborah Danner — testifying that he’d been about to move her to safety moments before shots rang out. Danner had calmed down and was seated on her bed as EMT Patrick Moore left the bedroom to get a chair in which to transport her out of her castle Hill apartment, he testified. Suddenly, a half-dozen cops rushed past him into the bedroom, he testified. “I heard a lot of commotion,” Moore said. “I heard yelling, ‘Get down!’ I heard the word ‘bat,’ he added. Defendant Sgt. Hugh Barry has contended through his lawyer that he shot the schizophrenic Danner, 66, as she swung a bat at him. “Then I heard gunshots,” Moore said. He heard Danner let out one scream, he said. Inside the bedroom, the dying woman was “Lying on the bed … unconscious,” he said. “There was blood spewing out of her left chest and her left arm was mangled,” he said. “The patient was taking her last agonal respirations,” he said, using the medical terms for her deep, dying breaths. There was no pulse, he said — and instead of the chair he’d intended to transport her in, Moore and his fellow EMTs carried the near-dead woman from the apartment in a stretcher. Prosecution testimony is slated to continue Monday before Bronx Supreme Court Justice Robert Neary, who is presiding over the non-jury trial. Barry faces up to life in prison if convicted of murder.


If you are age 45 to 79, ask your PCP if you should take aspirin ever day to help lower your risk of a heart attack. Mammogram: If you are age 45 to 54, get a screening every 1 to 2 years. Talk with your PCP about your personal risk factors, together you can decide when you should start getting mammograms and how often. @ 50 years of age Colorectal Cancer: If you are age 50 to 75, get tested for colorectal cancer. You and your PCP can decide which test is best. If you have a family history of colorectal cancer, you may need to be tested before you turn 50. @ 60 years of age Vision Disorders: Starting at age 60 (age 40 if you are African American), have a full eye exam with dilated pupils at least every 2 years. This will check for glaucoma and other eye problems. If you have diabetes, you should have an eye exam each year no matter what age you are. Talk to your primary care provider (PCP) about how to prioritize preventive health screenings, and the frequency in which you should schedule them based on risk factors associated with your family history and age. About AmeriHealth Caritas AmeriHealth Caritas is part of the Independence Health Group in partnership with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. AmeriHealth Caritas is one of the nation’s leaders in health care solutions for those most in need. Operating in 16 states and the District of Columbia, AmeriHealth Caritas serves approximately 5.6 million Medicaid, Medicare and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) members through its integrated managed care products, pharmaceutical benefit management and specialty pharmacy services, behavioral health services, and other administrative services. Headquartered in Philadelphia, AmeriHealth Caritas is a mission-driven organization with more than 35 years of experience serving low-income and chronically ill populations. For more information, visit www.amerihealthcaritas.com. View source version on businesswire.com:https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180530006422/en/ CONTACT: AmeriHealth Caritas Jawanza Keita, 267-298-5702 jkeita@amerihealthcaritas.com KEYWORD: UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA PENNSYLVANIA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: WOMEN HEALTH CONSUMER GENERAL HEALTH SOURCE: AmeriHealth Caritas Copyright


the year the percentage of such professionals employed by such agency to furnish primary care services who during such previous year completed 6 credits of continuing medical education courses relating to nutrition (as described in subsection (c)). (c) Continuing Medical Education Relating to Nutrition.--For purposes of subsections (a) and (b), continuing medical education courses relating to nutrition shall include at least courses on the role of nutrition in the prevention, management, and, as possible, reversal of obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer. (d) Definitions.--For purposes of this Act: (1) Primary care health professional.--The term ``primary care health professional'' means a physician or nurse practitioner who furnishes primary care services. (2) Nurse practitioner.--The term ``nurse practitioner'' has the meaning given such term in section 1861(aa)(5) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395x(aa)(5)). (3) Physician.--The term ``physician'' has the meaning given such term in section 1861(r)(1) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395x(r)(1)). (4) Primary care services.--The term ``primary care services'' has the meaning given such term in section 1842(i)(4) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395u(i)(4)), but shall include such services furnished by a nurse practitioner as would otherwise be included if furnished by a physician.


AIMS: We present the optical classification and redshift of 348 X-ray selected sources from the XMM-Newton Bright Serendipitous Survey (XBS) which contains a total of 400 objects (identification level = 87%). About 240 are new identifications. In particular, we discuss in detail the classification criteria adopted for the Active Galactic Nuclei population. METHODS: By means of systematic spectroscopic campaigns and through the literature search we have collected an optical spectrum for the large majority of the sources in the XBS survey and applied a well-defined classification ``flow-chart''. RESULTS: We find that the AGN represent the most numerous population at the flux limit of the XBS survey (~10^-13 erg cm^-2 s^-1) constituting 80% of the XBS sources selected in the 0.5-4.5 keV energy band and 95% of the ``hard'' (4.5-7.5 keV) selected objects. Galactic sources populate significantly the 0.5-4.5 keV sample (17%) and only marginally (3%) the 4.5-7.5 keV sample. The remaining sources in both samples are clusters/groups of galaxies and normal galaxies (i.e. probably not powered by an AGN). Furthermore, the percentage of type2 AGN (i.e. optically absorbed AGNs with A_V>2mag) dramatically increases going from the 0.5-4.5 keV sample (f=N_AGN2/N_AGN=7%) to the 4.5-7.5 keV sample (f=32%). We finally propose two simple diagnostic plots that can be easily used to obtain the spectral classification for relatively low redshift AGNs even if the quality of the spectrum is not good.


If you were walking the exhibition hangars at Sun ‘n Fun last week, you might have come across Hangarswap.com, and its creator, pilot and aviation entrepreneur Rachel Payne. What she’s up to with her site, hangarswap.com, is cool, but it could be a lot more than that, too. Payne, a hot-pink haired ball of enthusiasm for aviation, got into the airplane business when she was just 15 years old by selling used plane parts on eBay. She has turned that part time high school job into a mini empire. Her salvage yard near Orlando, Florida, is a must-visit destination for those hard-to-find parts for our GA aircraft. But for the past couple of years, Payne has been promoting a whole new kind of online experience. After getting frustrated by eBay’s high commission (10 percent and a max of $750 per sale), Payne decided to start her own dedicated auction site, hangarswap.com, that’s just now getting a facelift. The site charges only five percent commission, it has a max fee of $300 per transaction, and when you search for “Beechcraft,” it doesn’t autocorrect it to “Beach House.” Payne also insists on opening the flow of conversation among hangarswap.com buyers and sellers, a practice that eBay controls for fear of losing commissions to direct sales between the buyers and sellers. This allows easy exchange of questions and answers between the parties, so there are fewer misunderstandings, says Payne. Being smaller, Rachel and her friendly staff can also help arbitrate disputes, though she says that because her crowd is friendlier and more knowledgeable than the typical eBayers, there’s usually not much to arbitrate. Unlike eBay, hangarswap.com is run by airplane nuts, including Payne, who currently flies a Cessna 210. She admits to being a bit of a packrat when it comes to things like plane parts, vintage motorcycles and funky art, though she denies she has a problem. Her motto, and that of hangarswap.com, says it all, “It’s not hoarding if your stuff is cool.” Amen.


The study of the broad-band emission of GHz-Peaked-Spectrum (GPS) radio galaxies is a powerful tool to investigate the physical processes taking place in the central, kpc-sized region of their active hosts, where the jets propagate and the lobes expand, interacting with the surrounding interstellar medium (ISM). We recently developed a new dynamical-radiative model to describe the evolution of the GPS phenomenon (Stawarz et al. 2008): as the relativistic jets propagate through the ISM, gradually engulfing narrow-line emitting gas clouds along their way, the electron population of the expanding lobes evolves, emitting synchrotron light, as well as inverse-Compton radiation via up-scattering of the photon fields from the host galaxy and its active nucleus. The model, which successfully reproduces the key features of the GPS radio sources as a class, provides a description of the evolution of their spectral energy distribution (SED) with the lobes' expansion, predicting significant and complex X-ray to gamma-ray emission. We apply here the model to the broad-band SED's of a sample of known, X-ray emitting GPS galaxies, and show that: (i) the free-free absorption mechanism enables us to reproduce the radio continuum at frequencies below the turnover; (ii) the lobes' non-thermal, inverse-Compton emission can account for the observed X-ray spectra, providing a viable alternative to the thermal, accretion-dominated scenario. We also show that, in our sample, the relationship between the X-ray and radio hydrogen column densitities, N_H and N_HI, is suggestive of a positive correlation, which, if confirmed, would support the scenario of high-energy emitting lobes.


We consider the Casimir effect of the electromagnetic field in a higher dimensional spacetime of the form $M\times \mathcal{N}$, where $M$ is the 4-dimensional Minkowski spacetime and $\mathcal{N}$ is an $n$-dimensional compact manifold. The Casimir force acting on a planar piston that can move freely inside a closed cylinder with the same cross section is investigated. Different combinations of perfectly conducting boundary conditions and infinitely permeable boundary conditions are imposed on the cylinder and the piston. It is verified that if the piston and the cylinder have the same boundary conditions, the piston is always going to be pulled towards the closer end of the cylinder. However, if the piston and the cylinder have different boundary conditions, the piston is always going to be pushed to the middle of the cylinder. By taking the limit where one end of the cylinder tends to infinity, one obtains the Casimir force acting between two parallel plates inside an infinitely long cylinder. The asymptotic behavior of this Casimir force in the high temperature regime and the low temperature regime are investigated for the case where the cross section of the cylinder in $M$ is large. It is found that if the separation between the plates is much smaller than the size of $\mathcal{N}$, the leading term of the Casimir force is the same as the Casimir force on a pair of large parallel plates in the $(4+n)$-dimensional Minkowski spacetime. However, if the size of $\mathcal{N}$ is much smaller than the separation between the plates, the leading term of the Casimir force is $1+h/2$ times the Casimir force on a pair of large parallel plates in the 4-dimensional Minkowski spacetime, where $h$ is the first Betti number of $\mathcal{N}$. In the limit the manifold $\mathcal{N}$ vanishes, one does not obtain the Casimir force in the 4-dimensional Minkowski spacetime if $h$ is nonzero.


We present new B, V and I CCD time-series photometry for 177 variable stars in a 13'X 13' field centered on the globular cluster M54 (lying at the center of the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy), 94 of which are newly identified variables. The total sample is composed of 2 anomalous Cepheids, 144 RR Lyrae stars (108 RR0 and 36 RR1), 3 SX Phoenicis, 7 eclipsing binaries (5 W UMA and 2 Algol binaries), 3 variables of uncertain classification and 18 long-period variables. The large majority of the RR Lyrae variables likely belong to M54. Ephemerides are provided for all the observed short-period variables. The pulsational properties of the M54 RR Lyrae variables are close to those of Oosterhoff I clusters, but a significant number of long-period ab type RR Lyrae are present. We use the observed properties of the RR Lyrae to estimate the reddening and the distance modulus of M54, E(B-V)=0.16 +/- 0.02 and (m-M)_0=17.13 +/- 0.11, respectively, in excellent agreement with the most recent estimates. The metallicity has been estimated for a subset of 47 RR Lyrae stars, with especially good quality light curves, from the Fourier parameters of the V light curve. The derived metallicity distribution has a symmetric bell shape, with a mean of <[Fe/H]>=-1.65 and a standard deviation sigma=0.16 dex. Seven stars have been identified as likely belonging to the Sagittarius galaxy, based on their too high or too low metallicity. This evidence, if confirmed, might suggest that old stars in this galaxy span a wide range of metallicities.


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


If nothing else, Donald Trump’s recent decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital shows how disenthralled his administration is with traditional pieties about the Middle East. It’s about time. One piety is that “Mideast peace” is all but synonymous with Arab-Israeli peace. Seven years of upheaval, repression, terrorism, refugee crises and mass murder in Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Iraq and Syria have put paid to that notion. Another piety is that only an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal could reconcile the wider Arab world to the Jewish state. Yet relations between Jerusalem and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Cairo; Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; and Manama, Bahrain, are flourishing as never before, even as the prospect of a Palestinian state is as remote as ever. Relations between Jerusalem and Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE, Bahrain are flourishing A third is that intensive mediation by the United States is essential to progress on the ground. Yet recent American involvement — whether at the Camp David summit in 2000 or John Kerry’s efforts in 2013 — has had mostly the opposite effect: diplomatic failure, followed by war. Which brings us to Jerusalem, and the piety that pretending it isn’t what it is can be a formula for anything except continued self-delusion. What Jerusalem is is the capital of Israel, both as the ancestral Jewish homeland and the modern nation-state. When Richard Nixon became the first American president to visit the country in 1974, he attended his state dinner in Jerusalem. It’s where President Anwar Sadat of Egypt spoke when he decided to make peace in 1977. It’s what Congress decided as a matter of law in 1995. When Barack Obama paid his own presidential visit to Israel in 2013, he too spent most of his time in Jerusalem. So why maintain the fiction that Jerusalem isn’t the capital? Why maintain the fiction that Jerusalem is not the capital? The original argument, from 1947, was that Jerusalem ought to be under international jurisdiction, in recognition of its religious importance. But Jews were not allowed to visit the Western Wall during the 19 years when East Jerusalem was under Jordanian occupation. Yasser Arafat denied that Solomon’s Temple was even in Jerusalem, reflecting an increasingly common Palestinian denial of history. Would Jews be allowed to visit Jewish sites, and would those sites be respected, if the city were redivided? Doubtful, considering Palestinian attacks on such


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


irtles and the Charmanders and the Bulbasaurs." She points to Nintendo's recent ventures into mobile development as evidence of a continued push to expand its player base. "Pokemon Go became this transitory nostalgic thing that brought people back into Pokemania," Samantha says. "They [Nintendo] saw a surge of new players that maybe hadn't picked up a Pokemon game for 20 years and wanted to get back in." Let's Go includes significant crossovers with Pokemon Go, which has received over 750 million mobile downloads to date. Players will be able to transfer caught Pokémon from the mobile game into the Switch experience. "I think Nintendo saw the success of Pokemon Go and wanted to cash in on it," Samantha says. Nintendo also confirmed that an "all-new core series" title is in development, which will continue the tradition of in-depth Pokemon RPGs begun by Red and Blue in 1996. Some Pokemon fans have reacted positively to the news online, but those who are passingly familiar with the brand will have to be convinced to buy a Nintendo Switch to play. Skip Twitter post by @Koil1990 Not hyped for the new Pokemon game on the switch, I want a proper Pokemon game ;( — Kyle (@Koil1990) May 30, 2018 Report The decision to release these new Pokemon games aims to dismantle any barriers to entry for those without a Switch by tempting them to purchase a Switch ahead of the core RPG launch next year. "Pokemon Let's Go Eevee and Pikachu have the Pokemon you know," Samantha says. "My Mum even knows who Pikachu is - she can't spell it, but she knows who Pikachu is - and that's the sort of experience they want to deliver people sort of to wean them back into the experience and maybe even get a few more people playing on Switch too." Nintendo remains tight-lipped on how Let's Go will actually play for now, with more information expected in the coming months. Follow Newsbeat on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 every weekday on BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra - if you miss us you can listen back here.


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


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


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


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


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


'. (b) Definition of Siblings.--Section 475 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 675) is amended by adding at the end the following: ``(9) The term `siblings' means individuals who satisfy at least one of the following conditions: ``(A) The individuals are considered by State law to be siblings. ``(B) The individuals would have been considered siblings under State law but for termination of parental rights or other disruption of parental rights, such as the death of a parent.''. SEC. 9. EFFECTIVE DATE. (a) In General.--Except as provided in subsection (b), the amendments made this Act shall take effect on October 1, 2013. (b) Delay Permitted if State Legislation Required.--In the case of a State plan approved under part B or E of title IV of the Social Security Act which the Secretary of Health and Human Services determines requires State legislation (other than legislation appropriating funds) in order for the plan to meet the additional requirements imposed by this Act, the State plan shall not be regarded as failing to comply with the requirements of such part solely on the basis of the failure of the plan to meet such additional requirements before the 1st day of the 1st calendar quarter beginning after the close of the 1st regular session of the State legislature that ends after the 1-year period beginning with the date of the enactment of this Act. For purposes of the preceding sentence, in the case of a State that has a 2-year legislative session, each year of the session is deemed to be a separate regular session of the State legislature. SEC. 10. DETERMINATION OF BUDGETARY EFFECTS. The budgetary effects of this Act, for the purpose of complying with the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, shall be determined by reference to the latest statement titled ``Budgetary Effects of PAYGO Legislation'' for this Act, submitted for printing in the Congressional Record by the Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, provided that such statement has been submitted prior to the vote on passage.


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


We give a generalization of the classical Bombieri--Schneider--Lang criterion in transcendence theory. We give a local notion of $LG$--germ, which is similar to the notion of $E$-- function and Gevrey condition, and which generalize (and replace) the condition on derivatives in the theorem quoted above. Let $K\subset \Bbb C$ be a number field and $X$ a quasi--projective variety defined over $K$. Let $\gamma\colon M\to X$ be an holomorphic map of finite order from a parabolic Riemann surface to $X$ such that the Zariski closure of the image of it is strictly bigger then one. Suppose that for every $p\in X(K)\cap\gamma(M)$ the formal germ of $M$ near $P$ is an $LG$-- germ, then we prove that $X(K)\cap\gamma(M)$ is a finite set. Then we define the notion of conformally parabolic Kh\"aler varieties; this generalize the notion of parabolic Riemann surface. We show that on these varieties we can define a value distribution theory. The complementary of a divisor on a compact Kh\"aler manifold is conformally parabolic; in particular every quasi projective variety is. Suppose that $A$ is conformally parabolic variety of dimension $m$ over $\Bbb C$ with Kh\"aler form $\omega$ and $\gamma\colon A\to X$ is an holomorphic map of finite order such that the Zariski closure of the image is strictly bigger then $m$. Suppose that for every $p\in X(K)\cap \gamma (A)$, the image of $A$ is an $LG$--germ. then we prove that there exists a current $T$ on $A$ of bidegree $(1,1)$ such that $\int_AT\wedge\omega^{m-1}$ explicitly bounded and with Lelong number bigger or equal then one on each point in $\gamma^{-1}(X(K))$. In particular if $A$ is affine $\gamma^{-1}(X(K))$ is not Zariski dense.


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


Motivated by the discovery of extremely bright supernovae SNe1999as and 2006gy, we have investigated how much 56Ni mass can be synthesized in core-collapse massive supernovae (SNe). We calculate the evolution of several very massive stars with initial masses M <~ 100 Msun from the main-sequence to the beginning of the Fe-core collapse and simulate their explosions and nucleosynthesis. In order to avoid complications associated with strong mass-loss, we only consider metal-poor stars with initial metallicity Z = Zsun/200. However, our results are applicable to higher metallicity models with similar C+O core masses. The C+O core mass for the 100Msun model is M_CO = 42.6Msun and this is the heaviest model in the literature for which Fe-core collapse SN is explored. The synthesized 56Ni mass increases with the increasing explosion energy and progenitor mass. For the explosion energy of E_51 = E/10^{51} erg =30, for example, the 56Ni masses of M(56Ni) = 2.2, 2.3, 5.0, and 6.6 Msun can be produced for the progenitors with initial masses of 30, 50, 80 and 100 Msun (or C+O core masses M_CO = 11.4, 19.3, 34.0 and 42.6 Msun), respectively. We find that producing M(56Ni) ~ 4Msun as seen in SN1999as is possible for M_CO >~ 34 Msun and E_{51} >~ 20. Producing M(56Ni) ~ 13Msun as suggested for SN2006gy requires a too large explosion energy for M_CO <~ 43Msun, but it may be possible with a reasonable explosion energy if M_CO >~ 60Msun.