New Hampshire Got it Right: Statutes, Case Law and Related Issues Involving Post- Secondary Education Payments and Divorced Parents

[Excerpt] “Divorced parents in New Hampshire can rest a little easier these days. While there are a myriad of economic reasons why a divorce can become contentious, financing a child’s college education can no longer be included among those reasons. In January 2004, in a rather bold and unconventional move, the New Hampshire legislature overruled years of legal precedent and enacted a new statutory amendment that should alleviate some of the financial pressures divorced parents inevitably face. The amendment, RSA § 458:17(XI-a), is a victory for divorcees across the state because it prohibits superior court judges from issuing orders forcing divorced parents to contribute to their adult child’s college expenses. […] This article will use the recent New Hampshire amendment, prohibiting judges from ordering parents to pay for college expenses, as a backdrop for advocating that all states pass similar statutes. Part II of this article begins with a discussion of the state of the law in New Hampshire before the statute was amended in 2004. Next, the article discusses the relevant portions of the recent New Hampshire amendment. The article next outlines laws from various states in order to compare and contrast views from the rest of the country. In Part III, the focus shifts to the equal protection arguments both for and against divorced parents in relation to mandatory post-secondary education orders. Part IV of this article will analyze the laws from various states and address problems courts have either failed to address or have inadequately addressed. Finally, this article concludes by advocating in favor of the New Hampshire amendment and arguing that other states should follow New Hampshire’s lead and adopt similar versions of RSA § 458:17(XI-a).

Evidence for Extremely High Dust Polarization Efficiency in NGC 3184

Recent studies have found the Type II-plateau supernova (SN) 1999gi to be highly polarized (p_max = 5.8%, where p_max is the highest degree of polarization measured in the optical bandpass; Leonard & Filippenko 2001) and minimally reddened (E[B-V] = 0.21 +/- 0.09 mag; Leonard et al. 2002). From multiple lines of evidence, including the convincing fit of a ``Serkowski'' interstellar polarization (ISP) curve to the continuum polarization shape, we conclude that the bulk of the observed polarization is likely due to dust along the line of sight (l-o-s), and is not intrinsic to SN 1999gi. We present new spectropolarimetric observations of four distant Galactic stars close to the l-o-s to SN 1999gi (two are within 0.02 degrees), and find that all are null to within 0.2%, effectively eliminating Galactic dust as the cause of the high polarization. The high ISP coupled with the low reddening implies an extraordinarily high polarization efficiency for the dust along this l-o-s in NGC 3184: ISP / E(B-V) = 31^{+22}_{-9} % mag^{-1}. This is inconsistent with the empirical Galactic limit (ISP / E[B-V] < 9% mag^{-1}), and represents the highest polarization efficiency yet confirmed for a single sight line in either the Milky Way or an external galaxy.Comment: 27 pages, accepted for publication by the Astronomical Journa

Interstellar Polarization and the Position Angle Orientations of Seyfert 1 Galaxies

We comment on recent spectropolarimetric studies that compare the observed polarization position angles (PAs) of Seyfert 1 galaxies near H alpha with the observed orientations of their radio source axes on the sky. For a Seyfert galaxy in which scattering occurs mainly in an equatorial scattering region, one expects the polarization PA to be parallel to the radio axis, while in a case in which light scatters predominantly in the polar regions, the H alpha polarization PA should be perpendicular to the radio axis. In practice, these correlations are difficult to establish because a Galactic interstellar polarization contribution can introduce a significant uncertainty into the polarization PA determination, even when the magnitude of interstellar polarization is small. We show how such uncertainties may affect the analysis of PA alignments and present spectropolarimetric observations of a probe star along the line of sight to the Seyfert 1 galaxy Mrk 871 that allow us to assess the intrinsic H alpha polarization and PA of Mrk 871. These results suggest that spectropolarimetric observations of such probe stars should form an integral part of future Seyfert galaxy polarization studies.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, accepted by MNRAS; made small corrections to the derived ISP of Mrk 871 and other minor revisions in response to the referee's recommendation

Increasing the density of nanomedicines improves their ultrasound-mediated delivery to tumours

AbstractNanomedicines have provided fresh impetus in the fight against cancer due to their selectivity and power. However, these agents are limited when delivered intravenously due to their rapid clearance from the bloodstream and poor passage from the bloodstream into target tumours. Here we describe a novel stealthing strategy which addresses both these limitations and thereby demonstrate that both the passive and mechanically-mediated tumour accumulation of the model nanomedicine adenovirus (Ad) can be substantially enhanced. In our strategy gold nanoparticles were thoroughly modified with 2kDa polyethyleneglycol (PEG) and then linked to Ad via a single reduction-cleavable 5kDa PEG. The resulting Ad–gold–PEG construct was compared to non-modified Ad or conventionally stealthed Ad–poly[N-(2-hydroxypropyl)methacrylamide] (Ad–PHPMA). Notably, although Ad–gold–PEG was of similar size and surface charge to Ad–PHPMA the increase in density, resulting from the inclusion of the gold nanoparticles, provided a substantial enhancement of ultrasound-mediated transport. In an in vitro tumour mimicking phantom, the level and distance of Ad–gold–PEG transport was shown to be substantially greater than achieved with Ad–PHPMA. In in vivo studies 0.1% of an unmodified Ad dose was shown to accumulate in tumours, whereas over 12% of the injected dose was recovered from the tumours of mice treated with Ad–gold–PEG and ultrasound. Ultimately, a significant increase in anti-tumour efficacy resulted from this strategy. This stealthing and density-increasing technology could ultimately enhance clinical utility of intravenously delivered nanoscale medicines including viruses, liposomes and antibodies

Helium Emission in the Type Ic SN 1999cq

We present the first unambiguous detection of helium emission lines in spectra of Type Ic supernovae (SNe Ic). The presence of He I lines, with full width at half maximum ~ 2000 km/s, and the distinct absence of any other intermediate-width emission (e.g., Halpha), implies that the ejecta of SN Ic 1999cq are interacting with dense circumstellar material composed of almost pure helium. This strengthens the argument that the progenitors of SNe Ic are core-collapse events in stars that have lost both their hydrogen and helium envelopes, either through a dense wind or mass-transfer to a companion. In this way, SN 1999cq is similar to supernovae such as SN 1987K and SN 1993J that helped firmly establish a physical connection between Type Ib and Type II supernovae. The light curve of SN 1999cq is very fast, with an extremely rapid rise followed by a quick decline. SN 1999cq is also found to exhibit a high level of emission at blue wavelengths (< 5500 A), likely resulting from either an unusually large amount of iron and iron-group element emission or uncharacteristically low reddening compared with other SNe Ic.Comment: 17 pages (AASTeX V5.0), 4 figures, accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa

The Berkeley Sample of Stripped-Envelope Supernovae

We present the complete sample of stripped-envelope supernova (SN) spectra observed by the Lick Observatory Supernova Search (LOSS) collaboration over the last three decades: 888 spectra of 302 SNe, 652 published here for the first time, with 384 spectra (of 92 SNe) having photometrically-determined phases. After correcting for redshift and Milky Way dust reddening and reevaluating the spectroscopic classifications for each SN, we construct mean spectra of the three major spectral subtypes (Types IIb, Ib, and Ic) binned by phase. We compare measures of line strengths and widths made from this sample to the results of previous efforts, confirming that O I {\lambda}7774 absorption is stronger and found at higher velocity in Type Ic SNe than in Types Ib or IIb SNe in the first 30 days after peak brightness, though the widths of nebular emission lines are consistent across subtypes. We also highlight newly available observations for a few rare subpopulations of interest.Comment: 13 pages; 14 figures; 3 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Keck and ESO-VLT View of the Symmetry of the Ejecta of the XRF/SN 2006aj

Nebular-phase spectra of SN 2006aj, which was discovered in coincidence with X-ray flash 060218, were obtained with Keck in 2006 July and the Very Large Telescope in 2006 September. At the latter epoch spectropolarimetry was also attempted, yielding an upper limit of ~ 2% for the polarization. The spectra show strong emission lines of [OI] and MgI], as expected from a Type Ic supernova, but weak CaII lines. The [FeII] lines that were strong in the spectra of SN 1998bw are much weaker in SN 2006aj, consistent with the lower luminosity of this SN. The outer velocity of the line-emitting ejecta is ~ 8000 km/s in July and ~ 7400 km/s in September, consistent with the relatively low kinetic energy of expansion of SN 2006aj. All emission lines have similar width, and the profiles are symmetric, indicating that no major asymmetries are present in the ejecta at the velocities sampled by the nebular lines (v < 8000 km/s), except perhaps in the innermost part. The spectra were modelled with a non-LTE code. The mass of 56Ni required to power the emission spectrum is ~ 0.20 Msun, in excellent agreement with the results of early light curve modelling. The oxygen mass is ~ 1.5 Msun, again much less than in SN 1998bw but larger by ~ 0.7 Msun than the value derived from the early-time modelling. The total ejected mass is ~ 2 Msun below 8000 km/s. This confirms that SN 2006aj was only slightly more massive and energetic than the prototypical Type Ic SN 1994I, but also indicates the presence of a dense inner core, containing ~ 1 Msun of mostly oxygen and carbon. The presence of such a core is inferred for all broad-lined SNe Ic. This core may have the form of an equatorial oxygen-dominated region, but it is too deep to affect the early light curve and too small to affect the late polarization spectrum.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa