Low-mass stars form from the gravitational collapse of dense molecular cloud cores. While a general consensus picture of this collapse process has emerged, many details on how mass is transferred from cores to stars remain poorly understood. MASSES (Mass Assembly of Stellar Systems and their Evolution with the SMA), an SMA large project, has just finished surveying all 74 Class 0 and Class I protostars in the nearby Perseus molecular cloud to reveal the interplay between fragmentation, angular momentum, and outflows in regulating accretion and setting the final masses of stars. Scientific highlights are presented in this proceedings, covering the topics of episodic accretion, hierarchical thermal Jeans fragmentation, angular momentum transfer, envelope grain sizes, and disk evolution.

The Kapalagulu intrusion displays the following sequence of cumulus phase layering in a stratigraphic sequence of 1400 m: Basal Zone (BZ) olivine ± chromite → Intermediate Zone (IZ) olivine + plag + opx →, olivine + plag + opx + cpx → Main Zone (MZ) plag + opx + cpx → plag + cpx + Fe/Ti oxide + apatite. The corresponding cryptic variation is olivine Fo83 − 77 (limited to BZ and IZ), orthopyroxene En82 − 56, clinopyroxene Ca46Mg45Fe9 to Ca43Mg37Fe21 and plagioclase An88 − 80. Reversals of the cryptic variation occur at the base of MZ (minor reversal) and in the middle of MZ (major reversal), and are attributed to the influx of relatively primitive magma. The major reversal indicates that progressive mixing of fresh and residual magmas occurred. Because of the major reversal, inverted pigeonite appears twice in the layered sequence, but at different compositions (En65 and En56). Unlike the cumulus olivine and pyroxene, cumulus plagioclase exhibits a wide range of composition (5−10% An) in individual rocks and even in single crystals.

Electron-microprobe analyses of cumulus olivine, chromite, pyroxene, and plagioclase from layered peridotites and allivalites of the Eastern and Western Layered Series of Rhum demonstrate the presence of cryptic variation. Olivine varies from Fo88-78 within individual units, and there are corresponding changes in the Mg/(Mg+Fe2+) ratios in the pyroxenes and chromites. Plagioclase changes are not so dramatic, but the An-content broadly follows the Mg/(Mg+Fe2+) ratio in the other minerals. The most Fe-(and Na-) rich phases do not occur at the top of lithological units, but some way below. The composition trend above them is reversed. The data are interpreted as the result of periodic infilling of a magma chamber, the new magma mixing with the remains of the previous pulse. Each pulse was followed by a period when fractional crystallization produced the layered rocks. New data on Ni in the olivines suggests that the ratio of the volume of initial magma to volume of layered rocks was about four to one, the initial magma being allied to the high-calcium low-alkali tholeiitic basalts of Skye.

Eight patients with myotonic dystrophy underwent comprehensive neuropsychological testing and overnight polysomnography to assess whether the waking cognitive impairment might be attributable to sleep structure abnormalities or to sleep-related respiratory problems. Patients showed substantial neuropsychological deficits, fragmented nocturnal sleep and, in half the patients, sleep apnea and/or hypopnea both mainly of central type. There was no statistically significant correlation between the degree of daytime cognitive deficit and the degree of sleep fragmentation or of respiratory problems at night. It was concluded that the neuropsychological deficit in mytonic dystrophy cannot be attributed to a secondary effect of nocturnal sleep apnea or sleep disruption but probably represents a direct effect of CNS lesions.

The widths of total solar eclipse paths depends on the diameter of the Sun, so if observations are obtained near both the northern and southern limits of the eclipse path, in principle, the angular diameter of the Sun can be measured. Concerted efforts have been made to obtain contact timings from locations near total solar eclipse path edges since the mid 19th century, and Edmund Halley organized a rather successful first effort in 1715. Members of IOTA have been making increasingly sophisticated observations of the Baily's bead phenomena near central solar eclipse path edges since 1970.

For 40 years, the sizes and shapes of many dozens of asteroids have been determined from observations of asteroidal occultations, and over a thousand high-precision positions of the asteroids relative to stars have been measured. Some of the first evidence for satellites of asteroids was obtained from the early efforts; now, the orbits and sizes of some satellites discovered by other means have been refined from occultation observations. Also, several close binary stars have been discovered, and the angular diameters of some stars have been measured from analysis of these observations. The International Occultation Timing Association (IOTA) coordinates this activity worldwide, from predicting and publicizing the events, to accurately timing the occultations from as many stations as possible, and publishing and archiving the observations.

The aim of the present experiment was to examine the influence of feeding diets containing a probiotic containing three Bacillus subtilis strains or zinc bacitracin (BMD) on bird performance, intestinal mucosa-associated avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC), intestinal morphology and litter water-soluble phosphorus (WSP) of broilers fed corn-based diets. Three treatments were employed, either a control diet; the control diet supplemented with probiotic at 7.5 × 104 colony forming units (cfu) /g of feed or the supplemented with BMD (50g/tonne feed). Broiler starter and finisher diets, based on corn and soybean meal, were formulated and fed ad libitum to seven pens of 50 male broilers per treatment from days 1 to 42. During the 1-35 d periods, feed intake and weight gain were not influenced (P > 0.05) by dietary treatments, but probiotic supplementation improved (P < 0.05) 35-d FCR compared to the control and BMD-supplemented diets (1.395, 1.447 and 1.484, respectively). During the 1-42d period, feed intake and weight gain were not influenced (P > 0.05) by dietary treatments. However, probiotic improved (P = 0.05) and BMD tended (P = 0.07) to improve FCR compared to control diet. Villus height and crypt depth in the duodenum and jejunum were not influenced (P > 0.05) by dietary treatment. The number of mucosa-associated APEC was not influenced (P > 0.05) by dietary treatments. Probiotic and BMD supplementation had no effect (P > 0.05) on litter total phosphorus. However, BMD reduced (P < 0.05) litter WSP compared to control and probiotic supplemented diet. In conclusion, probiotic supplementation had no effect on intestinal morphology or WSP but improved broiler performance and can be used as an alternative to antibiotic growth promoters.

The application of magnetic resonance techniques to biological systems has permitted a detailed study of the nature of the active sites of many proteins that had not been possible previously. Among these is the whole class of iron—sulphur proteins which have been implicated as electron transport proteins in a variety of fundamental processes: photosynthesis, hydroxylation and nitrogen fixation to name but a few.

The single-iron proteins in this class, the rubredoxins, have been studied extensively by chemical, spectroscopic and X-ray crystallographic techniques (Lovenberg, 1973), and the active site is composed of a single iron atom bound in a distorted tetrahedron of cysteine sulphur ligands. The iron is high-spin ferric in the oxidized state and high-spin ferrous in the reduced state. This structure is shown in Fig. I (α).

We discuss the potential contribution of the Discovery Channel Telescope (or a clone) to a detection program aimed at discovering 90% of potentially hazardous objects (PHOs) larger than 140 m in diameter. Three options are described, each involving different levels of investment. We believe that LSST, Pan-STARRS, and DCT, working in a coordinated fashion, offer a cost-effective, low-risk way to accomplish the objectives of the extended NEO search program.

In this work we investigate boron diffusion as a function of the Fermi-level position in crystalline silicon using ab-initio calculations and the nudged elastic band method to optimize diffusion paths. Based on our results, a new mechanism for B diffusion mediated by Si self-interstitials is proposed. We find a two-step diffusion process for all Fermi-level positions, which suggests a kick-out with a directly following kick-in process without extensive B diffusion on interstitial sites in-between. Our activation energy of 3.47 – 3.75 eV and diffusion-length exponent of -0.55 to -0.18 eV are in excellent agreement with experiment.

The Sun-Earth libration points, L1 and L2, are located 1.5 million kilometers from the Earth towards and away from the Sun. Halo orbits about these points have significant advantages for space observatories in terms of viewing geometry, thermal and radiation environment, and delta-V expediture.

Occultations of stars by minor planets and comets can be used to determine the diameter of the occulting body. With photoelectric equipment, it might also be possible to measure the diameter of the occulted star or to resolve close binary systems at the same time.

On 1983 May 29, (2) Pallas occulted the 4.7-mag. star 1 Vulpeculae. A star this bright is occulted by one of the four largest asteroids only once every 60 years. Timings were sent by 130 observers in Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Arizona, Sonora, and Baja California, making it the best-observed asteroidal occultation to date. Asteroidal grazing phenomena were confirmed for the first time. The star is a spectroscopic binary. Several observers timed contacts of the 6th-mag. companion, determining the separation to ± 0.0004 arcsec. An elliptical fit to the timings projected onto the plane of the sky has been made. Unfortunately, clouds prevented timings from near the southern limit, so about 100° of Pallas’ circumference was not observed.

Grazing occultations are always visible at the projections onto the surface of the Earth of the lines tangent to the lunar limb that are created by the motion of the Moon relative to the star being occulted.

Most information about the lunar profile continues to be provided by visual observers using simple equipment. Everyone is to be encouraged to join expeditions to observe grazes, because the accuracy of the observed profile is proportional to the number of stations. The use of grazes improves knowledge of the lunar profile (needed for the analysis of solar eclipse timings), data about close binaries, and galactic rotation from stellar reference-frame determination. Contact timings made near the edges of a solar eclipse track, for example, enable the diameter of the Sun to be derived relative to the lunar diameter, the latter being determined from occultations.

Up to about a century ago, occultations were often used to measure differences in geographical longitude. Extensive geodetic surveys, accurate chronometers, telegraphic communications, and later short-wave radio time services obviated the geodetic need for occultation observations, which are affected by geodetically severe uncertainties of stellar and lunar positions, lunar limb irregularities, and observers’ personal equations. More sophisticated methods of observation would be needed before the Moon could again be useful to geodesy.

During this century, cinematography of Bailey’s beads and the flash spectrum during total solar eclipses have been used to obtain the relative apparent position of the Sun and Moon to an accuracy which could be useful to geodesy. But observational opportunities were rare and few results of geodetic significance have been obtained.

The confirmation of the presence of potassium salts in the Permian evaporites beneath the Whitby district, first found in the D'Arey Exploration Co.'s Eskdale no. 2 (Aislaby) boring (G. M. Lees and A. H. Taitt, 1945), and the discovery by Imperial Chemical Industries in their Eskdale no. 3 (Sleights), no. 4 (Sneaton), and no. 6 (Upgang) borings that these salts exist in workable quality and quantity, has been recorded in a recent historic paper by Dr. A. Fleck (1950). The successful outcome of this boring campaign may well lead to the outstanding development of the present century in economic mineralogy in Britain.

Chamosite is a commonly occurring hydrous ferrous silicate frequently found in close association with chalybite in marine mudstone deposits, the composition of different beds ranging from almost pure chamosite to pure chalybite. In oolitic ironstones chamosite is found both in the ooliths themselves and also in the groundmass. It occurs as a constituent in shales, as a cementing mineral in sandstones, and is occasionally found in lateritic and other deposits. Mineralogically it is usually regarded as a chlorite, or akin to the chlorites, but evidence has been accumulating which tends to show that some varieties may not be chlorites at all, but are probably closely related to the kaolin group of minerals (Brindley, 1949).

So scarce are fifteenth-century descriptions of parliamentary activities that even a single sheet of notes assumes an importance that a similar one from a later century might not have. Not long ago a page of such notes was published as ‘A Parliamentary Debate of the Mid-Fifteenth Century.’ It was printed from a manuscript written by Sir William Dethick, Garter king-of-arms, for Sir Robert Cotton between 1603 and 1612. The content of the document falls into two distinct parts: a list of thirty-one lords presumably present ‘in parliament at Winchester’ in June or July 1449, and the remarks made by fourteen lords spiritual and temporal in the course of debate. Its editor has discussed both the manuscript and its contents, but there are three points on which, I believe, his exposition may be supplemented. One concerns the creation of peers and the admission of lords to parliament; another the nature of the body of lords who debated; and the last the fifteenth-century source from which Dethick derived his notes. First, the document itself had best be presented.

Depuis la dernière Assemblée générale, notre commission a eu le regret de perdre deux de ses membres les plus éminents: M. Paul Stroobant, directeur de l’Observatoire Royal de Belgique et M. W. H. Pickering, ancien directeur des succursales de l’Observatoire de Harvard à Arequipa (Pérou) et Mandeville (Jamaïque). Les recherches de M. Paul Stroobant se rapportent pour une grande partie aux planètes, notamment Mercure, Vénus, les petites planètes et Saturne dont il étudia pendant des années les anneaux. Il faisait partie de notre Union comme président de la 5e commission et membre de beaucoup d’autres.

The following work embodying researches coming within the scope of this commission has been published since the last meeting of the Union: La Planète Mercure et la Rotation des Satellites, by E. M. Antoniadi; Gauthier-Villars, Paris.

In addition to references to the work of other astronomers the author gives a summary of his own observations with the 0.83 m. refractor at Meudon and his conclusions.

The following Memoirs or papers not specifically referred to in the body of the Report have also been published since the last meeting of the Union: Cometa Halley. Vol. xxv of Resultados del Observatorio Nacional Argentino. This is a monograph on the Comet at its 1910 return. By C. D. Perrine. Les Comètes en 1930,1931 et 1932. By F. Baldet. (L’ Astronomie 46,497 et 48,175.) I Fondamenti Psicologici dell’ Indagine Visuale. By M. Maggini. (Memorie dellaSoc. Astron. Italiana, Vol. VIII, 2.) Théorie Photométrique des Eclipses de Lune. By F. M. Link. (Bulletin Astronomique,

8 fase. 11.) Relative Lunar Heights and Topography by means of the Motion Picture Negative.