3C 216: A Powerful FRII Seyfert 1 Galaxy

3C 216 has a weak accretion flow luminosity, well below the Seyfert1/QSO dividing line, weak broad emission lines (BELs) and powerful radio lobes. As a consequence of the extreme properties of 3C 216, it is the most convincing example known of an FR II radio source that is kinetically dominated: the jet kinetic luminosity, $Q$, is larger than the total thermal luminosity (IR to X-ray) of the accretion flow, $L_{bol}$. Using three independent estimators for the central black hole mass, we find that the jet in 3C 216 is very super-Eddington, $3.3 L_{Edd}<\bar{Q}< 10 L_{Edd}$, where $\bar{Q}$ is the long term time averaged $Q(t)$, calculated at 151 MHz. It is argued that 3C 216 satisfies the contemporaneous kinetically dominated condition, $R(t)\equiv Q(t)/L_{bol}(t)>1$, either presently or in the past based on the rarity of $L_{bol}>L_{Edd}$ quasars. The existence of $R(t)>1$ AGN is a strong constraint on the theory of the central engine of FRII radio sources

The inner radio jet region and the complex environment of SS433

We present multi-frequency VLBA+VLA observations of SS433 at 1.6, 5 and 15 GHz. These observations provide the highest angular resolution radio spectral index maps ever made for this object. Motion of the components of SS433 during the observation is detected. In addition to the usual VLBI jet structure, we detect two radio components in the system at an anomalous position angle. These newly discovered radio emitting regions might be related to a wind-like equatorial outflow or to an extension of the accretion disk. We show that the radio core component is bifurcated with a clear gap between the eastern and western wings of emission. Modelfitting of the precessing jets and the moving knots of SS433 shows that the kinematic centre -- i.e. the binary -- is in the gap between the western and eastern radio core components. Spectral properties and observed core position shifts suggest that we see a combined effect of synchrotron self-absorption and external free-free absorption in the innermost AU-scale region of the source. The spatial distribution of the ionized matter is probably not spherically symmetric around the binary, but could be disk-like.Comment: Accepted for publication by Astronomy and Astrophysic

Gallstone Ileus, Bouveret's Syndrome and Choledocholithiasis in a Patient with Billroth II Gastrectomy – A Case Report of Combined Endoscopic and Surgical Therapy

Intestinal obstruction due to gallstone is a rare, but quite severe gastrointestinal disorder, which always requires a rapid and correct diagnosis to achieve optimal therapy. Digestive endoscopy is an important method to determine the level of the bowel obstruction and to plan an optimal therapeutic strategy. Our present case demonstrates that in a high-risk patient, a combined endoscopic and surgical therapy is the best choice to solve the obstruction of the colon, of the stomach and of the common bile duct caused by multiple gallstones

The strong thirteen spheres problem

The thirteen spheres problem is asking if 13 equal size nonoverlapping spheres in three dimensions can touch another sphere of the same size. This problem was the subject of the famous discussion between Isaac Newton and David Gregory in 1694. The problem was solved by Schutte and van der Waerden only in 1953. A natural extension of this problem is the strong thirteen spheres problem (or the Tammes problem for 13 points) which asks to find an arrangement and the maximum radius of 13 equal size nonoverlapping spheres touching the unit sphere. In the paper we give a solution of this long-standing open problem in geometry. Our computer-assisted proof is based on a enumeration of the so-called irreducible graphs.Comment: Modified lemma 2, 16 pages, 12 figures. Uploaded program packag

The galactic magnetic field in the quasar 3C216

Multifrequency polarimetric observations made with the Very Long Baseline Array of the quasar 3C216 reveal the presence of Faraday rotation measures (RMs) in excess of 2000 rad/m**2 in the source rest frame, in the arc of emission located at ~ 140 mas from the core. Rotation measures in the range -300 - +300 rad/m**2 are detected in the inner 5 mas (~30 parsecs). while the rotation measures near the core can be explained as due to a magnetic field in the narrow line region, we favor the interpretation for the high RM in the arc as due to a ``local'' Faraday screen, produced in a shock where the jet is deflected by the interstellar medium of the host galaxy. Our results indicate that a galacit magnetic field of the order of 50 microGauss on a scale greater than 100 pc must be present in the galactic medium.Comment: 23 pages, 3 tables, 11 figures. To appear on The Astronomical Journal, November 1999 Issu

Achieving Good Angular Resolution in 3D Arc Diagrams

We study a three-dimensional analogue to the well-known graph visualization approach known as arc diagrams. We provide several algorithms that achieve good angular resolution for 3D arc diagrams, even for cases when the arcs must project to a given 2D straight-line drawing of the input graph. Our methods make use of various graph coloring algorithms, including an algorithm for a new coloring problem, which we call localized edge coloring.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures; to appear at the 21st International Symposium on Graph Drawing (GD 2013

Robust Algorithm to Generate a Diverse Class of Dense Disordered and Ordered Sphere Packings via Linear Programming

We have formulated the problem of generating periodic dense paritcle packings as an optimization problem called the Adaptive Shrinking Cell (ASC) formulation [S. Torquato and Y. Jiao, Phys. Rev. E {\bf 80}, 041104 (2009)]. Because the objective function and impenetrability constraints can be exactly linearized for sphere packings with a size distribution in $d$-dimensional Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^d$, it is most suitable and natural to solve the corresponding ASC optimization problem using sequential linear programming (SLP) techniques. We implement an SLP solution to produce robustly a wide spectrum of jammed sphere packings in $\mathbb{R}^d$ for $d=2,3,4,5$ and $6$ with a diversity of disorder and densities up to the maximally densities. This deterministic algorithm can produce a broad range of inherent structures besides the usual disordered ones with very small computational cost by tuning the radius of the {\it influence sphere}. In three dimensions, we show that it can produce with high probability a variety of strictly jammed packings with a packing density anywhere in the wide range $[0.6, 0.7408...]$. We also apply the algorithm to generate various disordered packings as well as the maximally dense packings for $d=2,3, 4,5$ and 6. Compared to the LS procedure, our SLP protocol is able to ensure that the final packings are truly jammed, produces disordered jammed packings with anomalously low densities, and is appreciably more robust and computationally faster at generating maximally dense packings, especially as the space dimension increases.Comment: 34 pages, 6 figure