Trumpeting M Dwarfs with CONCH-SHELL: a Catalog of Nearby Cool Host-Stars for Habitable ExopLanets and Life

We present an all-sky catalog of 2970 nearby ($d \lesssim 50$ pc), bright ($J< 9$) M- or late K-type dwarf stars, 86% of which have been confirmed by spectroscopy. This catalog will be useful for searches for Earth-size and possibly Earth-like planets by future space-based transit missions and ground-based infrared Doppler radial velocity surveys. Stars were selected from the SUPERBLINK proper motion catalog according to absolute magnitudes, spectra, or a combination of reduced proper motions and photometric colors. From our spectra we determined gravity-sensitive indices, and identified and removed 0.2% of these as interloping hotter or evolved stars. Thirteen percent of the stars exhibit H-alpha emission, an indication of stellar magnetic activity and possible youth. The mean metallicity is [Fe/H] = -0.07 with a standard deviation of 0.22 dex, similar to nearby solar-type stars. We determined stellar effective temperatures by least-squares fitting of spectra to model predictions calibrated by fits to stars with established bolometric temperatures, and estimated radii, luminosities, and masses using empirical relations. Six percent of stars with images from integral field spectra are resolved doubles. We inferred the planet population around M dwarfs using $Kepler$ data and applied this to our catalog to predict detections by future exoplanet surveys.Comment: Accepted to MNRAS 22 figures, 3 tables, 2 electronic tables. Electronic tables are available as links on this pag

An examination of gaming platform policies for law enforcement support

The problems faced with regulating social media platforms are well known and documented, where frequent abuses of these platforms occur. In addition to this issue, the use of gaming platforms and their inbuilt communication facilities to carry out malicious acts including hate crimes and grooming is now an increasing concern. The regulation of gaming applications is now arguably a necessity with acts of criminal behaviour on these platforms starting to be reported. This work examines the terms and conditions, privacy policies and sign up and account validation processes for 40 gaming applications. The results are presented and examined, highlighting weaknesses in data retention periods, account validation and a lack of clarity with regards to law enforcement cooperation. This work aims to support law enforcement who are undertaking investigations involving these platforms