Equations of low-degree Projective Surfaces with three-divisible Sets of Cusps

Let Y be a surface with only finitely many singularities all of which are cusps. A set of cusps on Y is called three-divisible, if there is a cyclic global triple cover of Y branched precisely over these cusps. The aim of this note is to determine the equations of surfaces $Y \subset P_3$ of degrees $\leq 6$ carrying a minimal, non-empty, three-divisible set.Comment: 13 pages; a discussion of the family of quintics with 12 three-divisible cusps adde

Will Parent Training Reduce Abuse, Enhance Development, and Save Money? Let's Find Out

Outlines a strategy for testing the feasibility of community-developed parent training initiatives to prevent child abuse and neglect. Calls for a federal grant program to test community-wide implementation of parent training programs in stages

Racial Disproportionality, Race Disparity, and Other Race-Related Findings in Published Works Derived from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being

Draws on articles based on the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being to examine the relationship between race/ethnicity and the child welfare agency-supervised services received, such as early intervention- and reunification-related services

Cusps and Codes

We study a construction, which produces surfaces $Y \subset P_3$ with cusps. For example we obtain surfaces of degree six with 18, 24 or 27 three-divisible cusps. For sextic surfaces in a particular family of up to 30 cusps the codes of these sets of cusps are determined explicitly.Comment: 13 page

A simple remark on a flat projective morphism with a Calabi-Yau fiber

If a K3 surface is a fiber of a flat projective morphisms over a connected noetherian scheme over the complex number field, then any smooth connected fiber is also a K3 surface. Observing this, Professor Nam-Hoon Lee asked if the same is true for higher dimensional Calabi-Yau fibers. We shall give an explicit negative answer to his question as well as a proof of his initial observation.Comment: 8 pages, main theorem is generalized, one more remark is added, mis-calculation and typos are corrected etc

A Search for Optical Variability of Type 2 Quasars in SDSS Stripe 82

Hundreds of Type 2 quasars have been identified in Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data, and there is substantial evidence that they are generally galaxies with highly obscured central engines, in accord with unified models for active galactic nuclei (AGNs). A straightforward expectation of unified models is that highly obscured Type 2 AGNs should show little or no optical variability on timescales of days to years. As a test of this prediction, we have carried out a search for variability in Type 2 quasars in SDSS Stripe 82 using difference-imaging photometry. Starting with the Type 2 AGN catalogs of Zakamska et al. (2003) and Reyes et al. (2008), we find evidence of significant g-band variability in 17 out of 173 objects for which light curves could be measured from the Stripe 82 data. To determine the nature of this variability, we obtained new Keck spectropolarimetry observations for seven of these variable AGNs. The Keck data show that these objects have low continuum polarizations (p<~1% in most cases) and all seven have broad H-alpha and/or MgII emission lines in their total (unpolarized) spectra, indicating that they should actually be classified as Type 1 AGNs. We conclude that the primary reason variability is found in the SDSS-selected Type 2 AGN samples is that these samples contain a small fraction of Type 1 AGNs as contaminants, and it is not necessary to invoke more exotic possible explanations such as a population of "naked" or unobscured Type 2 quasars. Aside from misclassified Type 1 objects, the Type 2 quasars do not generally show detectable optical variability over the duration of the Stripe 82 survey.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in A

Iron Emission in the z=6.4 Quasar SDSS J114816.64+525150.3

We present near-infrared J and K-band spectra of the z = 6.4 quasar SDSS J114816.64+525150.3 obtained with the NIRSPEC spectrograph at the Keck-II telescope, covering the rest-frame spectral regions surrounding the C IV 1549 and Mg II 2800 emission lines. The iron emission blend at rest wavelength 2900-3000 A is clearly detected and its strength appears nearly indistinguishable from that of typical quasars at lower redshifts. The Fe II / Mg II ratio is also similar to values found for lower-redshift quasars, demonstrating that there is no strong evolution in Fe/alpha broad-line emission ratios even out to z=6.4. In the context of current models for iron enrichment from Type Ia supernovae, this implies that the SN Ia progenitor stars formed at z > 10. We apply the scaling relations of Vestergaard and of McLure & Jarvis to estimate the black hole mass from the widths of the C IV and Mg II emission lines and the ultraviolet continuum luminosity. The derived mass is in the range (2-6)x10^9 solar masses, with an additional uncertainty of a factor of 3 due to the intrinsic scatter in the scaling relations. This result is in agreement with the previous mass estimate of 3x10^9 solar masses by Willott, McLure, & Jarvis, and supports their conclusion that the quasar is radiating close to its Eddington luminosity.Comment: To appear in ApJ Letter

Review of \u3cem\u3eClinical and Practice Issues in Adoption: Bridging the Gap Between Adoptees Placed as Infants and as Older Children.\u3c/em\u3e Victor Groza and Karen F Rosenberg (Eds.). Reviewed by Richard P. Barth, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Book review of Victor Groza and Karen E Rosenberg (Eds.), Clinical and Practice Issues in Adoption: Bridging the Gap Between Adoptees Placed as Infants and as Older Children. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1998. $55.00 (hardcover)