Eta Carinae is one of the most massive observable binaries. Yet determination of its orbital and physical parameters is hampered by obscuring winds. However the effects of the strong, colliding winds changes with phase due to the high orbital eccentricity. We wanted to improve measures of the orbital parameters and to determine the mechanisms that produce the relatively brief, phase-locked minimum as detected throughout the electromagnetic spectrum. We conducted intense monitoring of the He ii λ4686 line in η Carinae for 10 months in the year 2014, gathering ~300 high S/N spectra with ground- and space-based telescopes. We also used published spectra at the FOS4 SE polar region of the Homunculus, which views the minimum from a different direction. We used a model in which the He ii λ4686 emission is produced by two mechanisms: a) one linked to the intensity of the wind-wind collision which occurs along the whole orbit and is proportional to the inverse square of the separation between the companion stars; and b) the other produced by the ‘bore hole’ effect which occurs at phases across the periastron passage. The opacity (computed from 3D SPH simulations) as convolved with the emission reproduces the behavior of equivalent widths both for direct and reflected light. Our main results are: a) a demonstration that the He ii λ4686 light curve is exquisitely repeatable from cycle to cycle, contrary to previous claims for large changes; b) an accurate determination of the longitude of periastron, indicating that the secondary star is ‘behind’ the primary at periastron, a dispute extended over the past decade; c) a determination of the time of periastron passage, at ~4 days after the onset of the deep light curve minimum; and d) show that the minimum is simultaneous for observers at different lines of sight, indicating that it is not caused by an eclipse of the secondary star, but rather by the immersion of the wind-wind collision interior to the inner wind of the primary.

Significant new opportunities for astrophysics and cosmology have been identified at low radio frequencies. The Murchison Widefield Array is the first telescope in the southern hemisphere designed specifically to explore the low-frequency astronomical sky between 80 and 300 MHz with arcminute angular resolution and high survey efficiency. The telescope will enable new advances along four key science themes, including searching for redshifted 21-cm emission from the EoR in the early Universe; Galactic and extragalactic all-sky southern hemisphere surveys; time-domain astrophysics; and solar, heliospheric, and ionospheric science and space weather. The Murchison Widefield Array is located in Western Australia at the site of the planned Square Kilometre Array (SKA) low-band telescope and is the only low-frequency SKA precursor facility. In this paper, we review the performance properties of the Murchison Widefield Array and describe its primary scientific objectives.

Digital signal processing is one of many valuable tools for suppressing unwanted signals or inter-ference. Building hardware processing engines seems to be the way to best implement some classes of interference suppression but is, unfortunately, expensive and time-consuming, especially if several miti-gation techniques need to be compared. Simulations can be useful, but are not a substitute for real data. CSIRO’s Australia Telescope National Facility has recently commenced a ‘software radio telescope’ project designed to fill the gap between dedicated hardware processors and pure simulation. In this approach, real telescope data are recorded coherently, then processed offline. This paper summarises the current contents of a freely available database of base band recorded data that can be used to experiment with signal processing solutions. It includes data from the following systems: single dish, multi-feed receiver; single dish with reference antenna; and an array of six 22 m antennas with and without a reference antenna. Astronomical sources such as OH masers, pulsars and continuum sources subject to interfering signals were recorded. The interfering signals include signals from the US Global Positioning System (GPS) and its Russian equivalent (GLONASS), television, microwave links, a low-Earth-orbit satellite, various other transmitters, and signals leaking from local telescope systems with fast clocks. The data are available on compact disk, allowing use in general purpose computers or as input to laboratory hardware prototypes.

The Dawn spacecraft orbited Asteroid (4) Vesta for a year, and returned disk-resolved images and spectra covering visible and near-infrared wavelengths at scales as high as 20 m/pix. The visible geometric albedo of Vesta is ~ 0.36. The disk-integrated phase function of Vesta in the visible wavelengths derived from Dawn approach data, previous ground-based observations, and Rosetta OSIRIS observations is consistent with an IAU H-G phase law with H=3.2 mag and G=0.28. Hapke's modeling yields a disk-averaged single-scattering albedo of 0.50, an asymmetry factor of -0.25, and a roughness parameter of ~20 deg at 700 nm wavelength. Vesta's surface displays the largest albedo variations observed so far on asteroids, ranging from ~0.10 to ~0.76 in geometric albedo in the visible wavelengths. The phase function of Vesta displays obvious systematic variations with respect to wavelength, with steeper slopes within the 1- and 2-micron pyroxene bands, consistent with previous ground-based observations and laboratory measurement of HED meteorites showing deeper bands at higher phase angles. The relatively high albedo of Vesta suggests significant contribution of multiple scattering. The non-linear effect of multiple scattering and the possible systematic variations of phase function with albedo across the surface of Vesta may invalidate the traditional algorithm of applying photometric correction on airless planetary surfaces.

Language rights represent claims of entitlement not only on behalf of individuals, but also on behalf of linguistic communities. As such, they raise deep questions of identity and affinity for Canadians. This study, the first report of the Charter Project, investigates mass and elite attitudes toward language rights in Canada. Beginning with the problem of double standards—whether anglophones and francophones want to affirm certain rights for their own group but not for the other—this study finds that attitudes toward language rights are shaped by an interplay between core values to which citizens subscribe and their concern for the status of the groups, both linguistic and partisan, with which they identify.

A male patient is described whose loss of sexual interest and activity was due to gonadal failure, presumably the result partly of Klinefelter's syndrome and partly of orchitis, though the latter was unilateral. He showed no change during a placebo control period, but within a few days of starting replacement treatment with testosterone he reported a return of sexual interest and showed a response to sexually arousing stimuli; sexual attitudes also improved. This case is of interest because of the specific and rapid psychological response to the correction of an androgen deficiency.

This is a prognostic study on 41 patients with anorexia nervosa (including three males) who satisfied defined diagnostic criteria. The patients had all been admitted to a metabolic unit where the mainstay of treatment was nursing care aimed at rapid restoration of body weight. A follow-up was conducted after a minimum lapse of four years after each patient's discharge from hospital. The outcome of the patient's illness was expressed in terms of an ‘average outcome score’ and a ‘general outcome’. The series included a relatively high proportion of patients with a long illness who had received previous psychiatric treatment. Their families tended to come from higher social classes; a disturbed relationship with the patient was frequent. Premorbid disturbances in personality development were also common. The immediate response to treatment was excellent, with the majority of the patients returning to a normal weight, but relapses after discharge were common and readmissions were necessary in half the patients. At follow-up, the patients fell into the following defined categories: ‘good’ (39%), ‘intermediate’ (27%), ‘poor’ (29%), died (5%). Most of the patients who failed to recover continued to display the clinical features characteristic of anorexia nervosa. Among predictors of an unfavourable outcome were found a relatively late age of onset, a longer duration of illness, previous admissions to psychiatric hospitals, a disturbed relationship between the patient and other members of the family, and premorbid personality difficulties. It is suggested that the long-term outcome found in a series will depend more on factors influencing patient referral according to the severity of their illness, rather than on the method of treatment itself. The illness may last several years before eventual improvement or recovery, and a follow-up study must be extended over at least four years to be meaningful. An accurate prediction of eventual outcome is almost impossible, but late recoveries justify an optimistic outlook and continued therapeutic endeavour.

Vertical hauls between surface and 45 metres depth were made with a measuring net, throughout 1934, at a position 5 miles S.W. of Plymouth Breakwater in circa 50 metres depth of water.

The phytoplankton organisms were counted and also assessed from their content of plant pigments.

A close relation was found between numbers of diatoms and their pigment contents after making allowance for the small size of three species.

The phosphorus content of the phytoplankton was estimated on several occasions.

The zooplankton organisms per cubic metre of sea were counted and estimations were made of their phosphorus content.

The diatom population differed from that found in 1933, in which year the spring outburst was shorter but more intense, the sporadic summer outbursts were more intense, the autumn one lasted longer; and more phosphate was utilised by the plants during the first half of the year.

Since the seminal studies of Stouffer and McClosky it has become accepted that political elites are markedly more committed to civil liberties and democratic values than is the public at large; so much so that political elites should be recognized, in McClosky's words, as ‘the major repositories of the public conscience and as carriers of the Creed’. The argument of this article is that previous analyses have erred by focusing on the contrast between elites taken as a whole and the mass public. The crucial contrast is not between elites and citizens, but rather between groups of elites that are competing one with another for political power.

Drawing on large-scale surveys of two modern democracies, Canada and the United States, this article demonstrates that differences among elites in support for civil liberties eclipse, both in size and political significance, differences between elites and citizens. The fallacy of democratic elitism, as this study shows, is its indifference to which elites prevail in the electoral competition for power.

At the IAU XXVI General Assembly in 2006, the Division I decided to create the Working Group on Astrometry by Small Ground-Based Telescopes (WG-ASGBT). Its scientic goals are to foster the follow-up of small bodies detected by the large surveys including the NEOs; to set-up a dedicated observation network for the follow-up of objects which will be detected by Gaia; to contribute to the observation campaigns of the mutual events of natural satellites, stellar occultations, and binary asteroids; and to encourage teaching astrometry for the next generation. The present report gives the main activities carried out in these areas with small telescopes (diameter less than 2m).

As we have noted before, the WG-IR was created following a Joint Commission Meeting at the IAU General Assembly in Baltimore in 1988, a meeting that provided both diagnosis and prescription for the perceived ailments of infrared photometry at the time. The results were summarized in Milone (1989). The challenges involve how to explain the failure to systematically achieve the milli-magnitude precision expected of infrared photometry and an apparent 3% limit on system transformability. The proposed solution was to re-define the broadband Johnson system, the passbands of which had proven so unsatisfactory that over time effectively different systems proliferated although bearing the same JHKLMNQ designations; the new system needed to be better positioned and centered in the atmospheric windows of the Earth's atmosphere, and the variable water vapour content of the atmosphere needed to be measured in real time to better correct for atmospheric extinction.

The WG-IR was created following a Joint Commission Meeting at the IAU General Assembly in Baltimore in 1988, a meeting that provided both diagnosis and prescription for the perceived ailments of infrared photometry at the time. The results were summarized in Milone (1989). The challenges involve how to explain the failure to systematically achieve the milli-magnitude precision expected of infrared photometry and an apparent 3% limit on system transformability. The proposed solution was to redefine the broadband Johnson system, the passbands of which had proven so unsatisfactory that over time effectively different systems proliferated although bearing the same JHKLMNQ designations; the new system needed to be better positioned and centered in the atmospheric windows of the Earth's atmosphere, and the variable water vapour content of the atmosphere needed to be measured in real time to better correct for atmospheric extinction.