---
abstract: |
    We present measurements of the normalised redshift–space three–point correlation function ($Q_z$) of galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) main galaxy sample. These measurements were possible because of a fast new N–point correlation function algorithm (called [*npt*]{}) based on multi–resolutional k-d trees. We have applied [*npt*]{} to both a volume–limited (36738 galaxies with $0.05\le z\le 0.095$ and $-23 \le {M_{^{0.0}r}} \le -20.5$) and magnitude–limited sample (134741 galaxies over $0.05 \le z \le
      0.17$ and $\sim M^{*}\pm1.5$) of SDSS galaxies, and find consistent results between the two samples, thus confirming the weak luminosity dependence of $Q_z$ recently seen by other authors. We compare our results to other $Q_z$ measurements in the literature and find it to be consistent within the full jack–knife error estimates. However, we find these errors are significantly increased by the presence of the “Sloan Great Wall” (at $z\sim0.08$) within these two SDSS datasets, which changes the 3–point correlation function (3PCF) by 70% on large scales ($s\ge10h^{-1}$ Mpc). If we exclude this supercluster, our observed $Q_z$ is in better agreement with that obtained from the 2dFGRS by other authors, thus demonstrating the sensitivity of these higher–order correlation functions to large–scale structures in the Universe. This analysis highlights that the SDSS datasets used here are not “fair samples” of the Universe for the estimation of higher–order clustering statistics and larger volumes are required. We study the shape–dependence of $Q_z(s,q,\theta)$ as one expects this measurement to depend on scale if the large scale structure in the Universe has grown via gravitational instability from Gaussian initial conditions. On small scales ($s\le6h^{-1}$ Mpc), we see some evidence for shape–dependence in $Q_z$, but at present our measurements are consistent with a constant within the errors ($Q_z\simeq0.75\pm0.05$). On scales $>10h^{-1}$ Mpc, we see considerable shape–dependence in $Q_z$. However, larger samples are required to improve the statistical significance of these measurements on all scales.
author:
- |
    \
    $^{1}$Institute of Cosmology & Gravitation, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, PO1 2EG, UK\
    $^{2}$Dept. of Physics, Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, PA15217, USA\
    $^{3}$Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA15105, USA\
    $^{4}$Dept. of Physics, School of Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan\
    $^{5}$School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, PA15217, USA\
    $^{6}$Dept. of Physics and Astrophysics, Nagoya University, Chikusa, Nagoya 464-8602, Japan\
    $^{7}$Dept. of Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Chicago, 5640 S. Ellis Ave., Chicago, IL60637, USA\
    $^{8}$Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics, Dept. of Physics, New York University, NY10003, USA\
    $^{9}$Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, 3941 O’Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA15260, USA\
    $^{10}$Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, 4400 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, PA15213, USA\
    $^{11}$Cerro-Tololo Inter-American Observatory, NOAO, Casilla 603, LaSerena, Chile\
    $^{12}$Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, John Hopkins University, 400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD21218,USA\
    $^{13}$Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI96822, USA\
    $^{14}$Purple Mountain Observatory, Nanjing 210008, China\
    $^{15}$Dept. of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Penn State University, 525 Davey Lab, University Park, PA 16802, USA.\
    $^{16}$Dept. of Astronomy, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH44106, USA.\
    $^{17}$Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, 933 N. Cherry Ave., Tucson AZ85721, USA.\
    $^{18}$Dept. of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Peyton Hall, Ivy Lane, Princeton, NJ08544, USA\
    $^{19}$Department of Physics of Complex Systems, Eotvos University, Pazmany Peter setany 1, H-1518 Budapest\
    $^{20}$Apache Point Observatory, 2001 Apache Point Road, P.O. Box 59, Sunspot, NM88349, USA\
title: 'The Effect of Large-Scale Structure on the SDSS Galaxy Three–Point Correlation Function'
---

methods: statistical – surveys – galaxies: statistics – large-scale structure of Universe – cosmology: observations

Introduction
============

Correlation functions are some of the most commonly used statistics in cosmology. They have a long history in quantifying the clustering of galaxies in the Universe (see Peebles 1980). There is a hierarchy of correlation functions. The two–point correlation function (2PCF) compares the number of pairs of data points, as a function of separation, with that expected from a Poisson distribution. Next in the hierarchy is the 3–point correlation function (3PCF), which compares the number of data triplets, as a function of their triangular–configuration, to that expected from Poisson. Higher-order correlations are defined analogously.

As discussed by many authors, the higher–order correlation functions contain a variety of important cosmological information, which complements that from the 2PCF [@GP1977; @BS1989]. These include tests of Gaussianity and the determination of galaxy bias as a function of scale [@Suto1993; @JB1998; @TJ2003; @JB2004; @Kayo2004; @LS2004]. Such tests can also be performed using the Fourier-space equivalent of the 3PCF, the bi-spectrum [@PEEBLES1980; @Sc1999; @PSCz; @Verde2002] or other statistics such as the void probability distribution and Minkowski functionals[@MBW1994]. Recent results from these complementary statistics using the SDSS main galaxy sample include [@H2002; @H2003; @H2005] and [@Park2005].

While the 3PCF is easier to correct for survey edge effects than these other statistics, measurements of the 3PCF have been limited by the availability of large redshift surveys of galaxies (see Szapudi, Meiksin & Nichol 1996, Frieman & Gaztanaga 1999, Szapudi et al. 2002 for 3PCF analyses of large solid angle catalogues of galaxies) and the potentially prohibitive computational time needed to count all possible triplets of galaxies (naively, this count scales as $O(N^3)$, where $N$ is the number of galaxies in the sample).

In this paper, we resolve these two problems through the application of a new N–point correlation function algorithm [@MOORE2001] to the galaxy data of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS; York et al. 2000). We present herein measurements of the 3PCF from the SDSS main galaxy sample. Our measurements illustrate the sensitivity of the 3PCF to known large-scale structures in the SDSS [@Gott2005]. They are complementary to the work of [@Kayo2004] who explicitly explored the luminosity and morphological dependence of the 3PCF using SDSS volume–limited galaxy samples. These measurements of the 3PCF will help facilitate constraints on the biasing of galaxies and will aid in the development of theoretical predictions for the higher–order correlation functions [@Sc2001; @TJ2003]. Throughout this paper, we use the dimensionless Hubble constant $h \equiv H_{\rm 0}/100\,{\rm km\,s^{-1}\,Mpc^{-1}}$, the matter density parameter $\Omega_{\rm m}=0.3$, and the dimensionless cosmological constant $\Omega_\Lambda=0.7$, unless stated otherwise.

The 3PCF Computational Algorithm
================================

To facilitate the rapid calculation of the higher–order correlation functions, we have designed and implemented a new N–point correlation function (NPCF) algorithm based on k-d trees, which are multi–dimensional binary search tree for points in a k-dimensional space. The k-d tree is composed of a series of inter–connected nodes, which are created by recursively splitting each node along its longest dimension, thus creating two smaller child nodes. This recursive splitting is stopped when a pre-determined number of data points is reached in each node (we used $\leq20$ data points herein). For our NPCF algorithm, we used an enhanced version of the k-d tree technology, namely multi–resolutional k-d trees with cached statistics (mrkdtree), which store additional statistical information about the search tree, and the data points in each node, [*e.g.*]{}, we store the total count and centroid of all data in each node.

The key to our NPCF algorithm is to use multiple mrkdtrees together, and store them in main memory of the computer (rather than on disk), to represent the required N–point function, [*e.g.*]{}, we use 3 mrkdtrees to compute the 3PCF, 4 mrkdtrees for the 4PCF, and so on. The computational efficiency is increased by pruning these trees wherever possible, and by using the cached statistics on the tree as much as possible. The details of mrkdtrees and our NPCF algorithm (known as [*npt*]{}) have already been outlined in several papers [@MOORE2001; @NICHOL2003; @GRAY2004]. Similar tree–based computational algorithms have been discussed by [@Szapudi2001].

SDSS Data {#data}
=========

The details of the SDSS survey are given in a series of technical papers by [@fuk96; @gunn98; @Y2000; @hogg01; @Strauss2002; @smith02; @pier03; @B2003b; @ivezic04; @DR3]. For the computations discussed herein, we use two SDSS catalogues. The first is a volume–limited sample of 36738 galaxies in the redshift range of $0.05 \le z \le
0.095$ and absolute magnitude range of $-23 \le {M_{^{0.0}r}} \le
-20.5$ (for $h=0.7$ and the $z=0.0$ SDSS $r$ filter, or $^{0.0}r$ in [@B2003b] terminology[^1]), covering 2364 deg$^2$ of the SDSS photometric survey. All the magnitudes were reddening corrected using [@SFD98], and the [k-corrected v1\_16]{} software [@B2003b]. The second sample is the same as “Sample 12” used by [@Pope2004] and contains 134741 galaxies over 2406 deg$^2$. This latter sample is not volume–limited, but is constrained to the absolute magnitude range of $-22 \le {M_{^{0.1}r}}
\le -19$ (or $M^{*}\pm1.5$ magnitudes) for $h=1$, and using the $z=0.1$ SDSS r filter system, or $^{0.1}r$ [@B2003b; @Zehavi2005]. To compare the two samples, our volume–limited sample has the absolute magnitude range of $-23.54 \le {M_{^{0.1}r}} \le -21.04$ in the same $^{0.1}r$ filter as used for the Pope et al. sample; assuming a conversion of ${^{0.1}}r\simeq {^{0.0}}r + 0.23$ for the SDSS main galaxy sample with a median color at $z=0.0$ of ${^{0.0}}(g-r)\simeq
0.8$. This gives a mean space density of $8.25\times 10^{-3}\,h^{3}$ Mpc$^{-3}$, which is comparable to the space densities of the SDSS main galaxy sample given in Table 2 of [@Zehavi2005].

We have made no correction for missing galaxies due to fibre–collisions (i.e., two SDSS fibres can not be placed closer than 55 arcseconds on the sky). We do not expect this observational constraint to bias our correlation functions as the adaptive tilting of SDSS spectroscopic plates reduces the problem to $\simeq7\%$ of possible target galaxies being missed (see Blanton et al. 2003a for details). Furthermore, this bias will only affect pairs of galaxies separated by less than 100$h^{-1}$ kpc, which is significantly smaller than the scales studied herein. In each case, we also constructed catalogues of random data points (containing $8\times10^5$ points) over the same area of the sky and with the same selection function as discussed in [@Pope2004]. These random catalogues are then used to calculate edge effects on the N–point correlation functions using the estimators presented in [@SS1998].

Results
=======

There are two common parametrizations of $Q_z$. One defines $$s=s_{12}, \quad u=\frac{s_{23}}{s_{12}}, \quad{\rm and}
\quad v = \frac{s_{31} - s_{23}}{s_{12}},$$ where $s_{12}$, $s_{23}$ and $s_{31}$ are the three sides of a triangle in redshift space. Then $Q(s,u,v)$ is defined by the ratio of the 3PCF $\zeta(s_{12}, s_{23}, s_{31})$, to sums of products of 2PCFs (e.g. $\xi(s_{12})\xi(s_{13})$ and permutations): $$Q_z(s,u,v) \equiv \frac{\zeta(s_{12}, s_{23}, s_{31})}
  {\xi(s_{12})\xi(s_{23})+\xi(s_{23})\xi(s_{31})+\xi(s_{31})\xi(s_{12})}.
\label{eq:Qdef}$$ The second parametrization has $Q_z(s,q,\theta)$ with $s=s_{12}$ being the shortest side of the redshift-space triangle, $q=s_{23}/s_{12}$, and $\theta$ the angle between these two sides ($s_{12}$ and $s_{23}$).

Figure \[jingplot\] shows $Q_z(s,u,v)$ for both our volume–limited sample (filled circles) and the [@Pope2004] sample (filled stars). Different panels show results for a range of triangle configurations. To facilitate a direct comparison with results from the literature, we have used the same binning scheme as [@JB1998; @JB2004], in their analyses of the Las Campanas Redshift Survey (LCRS) and 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey (2dFGRS). The open circles show their results. Overall, our $Q_z(s,u,v)$ values are consistent with theirs, but with some obvious disagreements. For example, on large scales ($s_{12} > 10 h^{-1} {\rm Mpc}$), we find larger $Q_z\sim 1$, while [@JB2004] find much smaller values. Although the different selection passbands of the 2dFGRS ($b_j$) and SDSS ($r-$band) might account for this difference, it cannot account for the disagreement with the LCRS measurements of [@JB1998] since the LCRS was also $r$–band selected.

To quantify the disagreement, we estimated the covariances of our 3PCF estimates using the jack–knife re–sampling technique (discussed in detail in [@Scranton2002] and [@Zehavi2002; @Zehavi2005]). Briefly, the jack-knife resampling technique provides an estimate of the “cosmic variance” within a sample. It is calculated by splitting the dataset into sub–regions and then measuring the variance seen between the estimated correlation functions as sub–regions are omitted one-by-one (therefore, if there are $N$ subregions, there are $N$ correlation function estimates). As shown in Figure 2 of [@Zehavi2005], the jack-knife errors accurately reproduce the “true error” (the dispersion measured between 100 mock galaxy catalogues), especially for the diagonal terms of the covariance matrix of the 2PCF on large scales, (for $r>0.5h^{-1}$Mpc, the difference between the two error estimates is always $<10\%$). In what follows, we assume that the jack-knife error estimates are also accurate for the 3PCF.

The SDSS dataset is built-up of thin “wedge-shaped” regions that are 2.5 degrees thick in declination and hundreds of degrees wide in right ascension (see York et al. 2000). We divided the total volume of our volume limited catalogue up into 14 sub–regions when estimating the covariance matrix. These were selected in Right Ascension along the SDSS scans. To illustrate, Figure \[jk\] shows one of the redshift wedges; two of the sub–regions (namely sub–regions 3 and 4) are highlighted to provide an impression of the typical size of a subregion, but also because these two particular regions will feature prominently in what follows.

The error bars shown in Figure \[jingplot\] show the diagonal elements of the covariance matrices we estimate from the jack-knife method. The sizes of these diagonal elements (as well as the off–diagonal elements) are extremely sensitive to the inclusion or exclusion of sub–regions 3 and 4. This sensitivity is quantified in Figure \[plotcorr\] which shows the scatter between the 14 2PCFs and 3PCFs used to construct the covariance matrices. The scatter in the 2PCFs between 12 of the 14 jack–knife datasets, which contain the supercluster seen in Figure \[jk\], is less than 10% on all scales probed herein ($s\le
40\,h^{-1}$ Mpc) which is consistent with the findings of [@Zehavi2005]. The 2 datasets which exclude sub–regions 3 and 4, have significantly different 2PCFs, up to 40% different on the largest scales, which is again consistent with [@Zehavi2005] who find that this supercluster greatly affects their 2PCF on large scales and is not accounted for by their estimates of the jack–knife errors. The effect on the 3PCF of the “Sloan Great Wall” is much greater. The jack–knife datasets that exclude sub–regions 3 and 4 (which contain the supercluster) differ by up to 70% (on large scales) compared to all other 3PCFs.

In Figure \[jingplot\], we show the normalised 3PCF $Q_z$ for the whole dataset as well as for the datasets with sub–regions 3 and 4 excluded. With the bulk of this supercluster excluded, the SDSS 3PCF has much lower $Q_z(s,u,v)$ values on large scales and is now in good agreement with the [@JB2004] 2dFGRS 3PCF on these large scales. This is also demonstrated in the error bars shown in Figure \[jingplot\] which were estimated using all 14 jack–knife datasets (dot–dashed error bars) and for the 12 jack–knife datasets (solid error bars) which excluded the supercluster ([*i.e.*]{}, sub–regions 3 and 4 removed). As expected, the sizes of these error bars are sensitive to the inclusion of the supercluster: if we exclude the supercluster, then our error bars are similar to those of [@JB2004], who assume an analytical approximation for their errors. In addition, [@JB2004] used the 100k data release of the 2dFGRS and excluded areas of the 2dFGRS with $R(\theta)<0.1$ (areas with low redshift completeness). As shown in Figure 15 of [@Colless2001], the northern strip of the 2dFGRS 100k data release has a large hole in its coverage between 12.5hrs and 13.5hrs in RA (due mainly to tilting constraints), which coincides with sub–region 3 in Figure \[jk\]. Therefore, the sample used by [@JB2004] does [*not*]{} include the main core of the “Sloan Great Wall” and explains why our measurements of the 3PCF agree with theirs 3PCF when we exclude sub–regions 3 & 4.

[@Baugh2004], [@Croton2004], and [@Gaz2005] present an analysis of the higher–order correlation functions for the full 2dFGRS catalogue. In Figure 1 of [@Baugh2004], the “Sloan Great Wall” is visible in the NGP strip of the full 2dFGRS. [@Baugh2004] also found that the presence of this supercluster, and another in the 2dFGRS SGP area, significantly affected their measurement of the higher–order correlations on scales $>4\,{h^{-1}}$Mpc, consistent with our findings in Figures \[jingplot\] and \[plotcorr\] (see also [@Gaz2005]). The influence of these superclusters on the higher–order correlation functions indicates that we have not yet reached a “fair sample” of the Universe with the 2dFGRS and SDSS samples used herein. This was also examined by [@H2003] using the Minkowski Functions of the SDSS galaxy data (see their Fig.8).

Discussion
==========

In Figure \[jingplot\] we find similar $Q_z(s,u,v)$ values for the two different samples discussed in Section \[data\], even though the Pope et al. sample probes $\sim M^*$ galaxies, while our volume–limited sample traces more luminous galaxies at $M_{^{0.1}r}
\le -21$. This confirms the findings of [@Kayo2004] and [@JB2004] that there is no strong luminosity–dependence in the $Q_z(s,u,v)$ parameter (from $-23 \le M_{^{0.1}r} \le -19$). [@Croton2004] also reports a weak luminosity dependence in the volume–averaged 3PCF, which could be consistent with our measurements given the error bars (see also [@Gaz2005]). The lack of strong luminosity dependence in 3PCF may be surprising given the strong luminosity dependence seen in the 2dFGRS and SDSS 2PCFs [@Norberg2001; @Zehavi2005]. [@Kayo2004] discuss this behaviour further and conclude that galaxy bias must be complex on weakly non–linear to non–linear scales (but see [@Verde2002; @Croton2004; @Gaz2005] for alternative interpretations). We will explore this weaker luminosity dependence in future papers.

Figure \[tjplot\] presents the shape–dependence of $Q_z$ for the Pope et al. SDSS sample of galaxies, using the second of the two common conventions for $Q_z$. Recall that this parametrization has $Q_z(s,q,\theta)$ with $s=s_{12}$ being the shortest side of the redshift-space triangle, $q=s_{23}/s_{12}$ and $\theta$ the angle between $s_{23}$ and $s_{12}$. Our choice of triangles is motivated by Figure 5 in the halo-model [@CS2002] based analysis of [@TJ2003], (although their analysis was restricted to real-space rather than redshift-space triangles). To minimize overcrowding, we only show a subset of the error bars (the diagonal of the covariance matrix) on these data points. We also show the same error bars but with sub–regions 3 and 4 omitted from the calculation of the covariance matrix. (Figures \[jingplot\] and \[jk\] show that these two estimates of the error are similar on small scales but become significantly different on large scales.)

On small scales ($s_{12}<2.5{h^{-1}}$ Mpc), the shape of the normalised 3PCF is consistent (within the errors) for the different $q$ values (see Figures \[tjplot\] and \[tjplotjk4\]), and is close to a constant value (within the errors) as a function of $\theta$, [*i.e.,*]{} $Q_z(s_{12}<2.5h^{-1} {\rm Mpc}) \simeq
0.75\pm0.05$. We see some evidence for a “U-shaped” behaviour in $Q_z$ on these small-scales, which is predicted by recent theoretical models of the 3PCF [@GS2005]. For example, [@GS2005] see a strong “U–shaped” pattern in $Q_z$ on small scales, [*i.e.*]{}, in Figs 2 & 3 of their paper, they measure a factor of $\sim2$ increase in both the $Q_z(\theta\simeq5^{\circ})$ and $Q_z(\theta\simeq175^{\circ})$ values, relative to the $Q_z(\theta\simeq 90^{\circ})$ values. We do not see as strong an effect as they claim, but this could be due to our relatively coarse binning scheme as [@GS2005] claim. We will explore this further in a future paper, with large datasets from the SDSS, but our $Q_z$ does have the same qualitative shape as they witnessed. We also note that our small–scale $Q_z$ measurements are in excellent agreement with the 2dFGRS measurements of [@Gaz2005], who also see the same weak “U–shaped” behavour (compared to simulations) and also have a near constant value of $Q_z(s_{12}<6h^{-1} {\rm Mpc}) \simeq 0.75$ for their two different luminosity bins. This is remarkable agreement given the differences in the 2dFGRS and SDSS galaxy surveys. Finally, we comment that our values for $Q_z$ on small–scales are significantly smaller than the theoretical predictions for $Q$ in real–space (which are $Q\sim3$), but consistent with the expected decrease in $Q$ as one moves to redshift–space (see Figure 2 of [@GS2005]). The value and shape of our $Q_z$ measurements are robust to the omission of the supercluster (see Figure \[tjplotjk4\]).

The lack of any strong small–scale shape dependence of $Q_z$ is consistent with the 2dFGRS findings of [@Croton2004] and [@Baugh2004], using volume–averaged 3PCFs. They found that the volume–averaged 3PCF scaled as,

$$\xi_3(s)\simeq S_3\,\xi_2(s)^2,
\label{scaling}$$

where $S_3$ displayed an weak luminosity dependence. Assuming little shape–dependence in $Q_z(s,q,\theta)$, then we can relate $S_3$ to $Q_z$ by assuming the denominator in Eqn 1 of $Q_z$ simply becomes $\sim 3\langle\xi_2(s)\rangle^2$, and thus $S_3\simeq3\,Q_z$. The value of $S_3=1.95\pm0.18$ derived for $L^{\star}$ galaxies in the 2dFGRS volume–averaged 3PCF [@Baugh2004] is therefore in good agreement (within the errors) with our measured value of $Q_z\simeq0.75$ on small scales for the Pope et al. sample (Figure \[tjplot\]), which was designed to probe $\sim L^*$ in the SDSS. This again demonstrates the relative insensitivity of the 3PCF (in redshift–space) to the details of the selection of the galaxy sample. The simple scaling relationship given in Eqn \[scaling\] is expected for hierarchical structure formation models originating from Gaussian initial conditions [@PEEBLES1980; @Baugh2004].

On larger scales (10 $h^{-1}$ Mpc), the amplitude and shape–dependence of $Q_z$ changes significantly once the supercluster has been removed (comparing Figures \[tjplot\] and \[tjplotjk4\]). For example, for the $q=2$ triangle configurations (circle symbols), the “U–shape” in $Q_z$ is only seen once the core of the “Sloan Great Wall” has been removed. Likewise, “U–shape” behavour of $Q_z$ for the $q=3$ triangle configurations (star symbols) is enhanced (by nearly a factor of 3) when the supercluster is removed, and is then in better agreement with the numerical simulations of [@GS2005] and measurements for the 2dFGRS [@Gaz2005]. Therefore, the expected “U–shaped” signal in $Q_z$ due to filamentary stuctures in the Universe has been overwhelmed by the presence of the supercluster, and is only seen when the “Sloan Great Wall” is removed. This indicates that the “Sloan Great Wall” has a different topology than filaments ([*e.g.*]{} sheet–like) or this difference is caused by the orientation of this supercluster in the SDSS (it appears to be perpendicular to the line–of–sight). Overall, the 3PCF is hard to measure on these large scales using the samples presented herein, and the errors are dominated by the “Sloan Great Wall”. Larger samples, in both volume and numbers of galaxies, are required to explore the shape–dependence of the 3PCF in greater detail on these large scales, and that should be possible with future SDSS samples.

Acknowledgments {#acknowledgments .unnumbered}
===============

We thank an anonymous referee for their careful reading of the paper and useful comments. We thank Y.P. Jing for extensive discussions of his work and providing his data points. We also thank Carlton Baugh, John Lacey, Robert Crittenden and Shaun Cole for helpful comments and discussions about this work. We thank Quentin Mercer III, Rupert Croft and Albert Wong for their help and assistance in building and running the astrophysics Beowulf cluster at Carnegie Mellon University which was used to compute the SDSS 3PCF. We also thank Stuart Rankin and Victor Travieso for their assistance in running the NPT code on the UK COSMOS Supercomputer.

RN thanks the EU Marue Curie program for partial funding during this work. The work presented here was also partly funded by NSF ITR Grant 0121671. RKS was supported in part by NSF grant AST-0520647. YS was supported in part by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japan Society for Promotion of Science (Nos.14102004 and 16340053). IK acknowledges the support from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, Grant-in-Aid for Encouragement of Young Scientists (No. 15740151). RHW is supported by NASA through Hubble Fellowship grant HST-HF-01168.01-A awarded by the Space Telescope Science Institute.

Funding for the creation and distribution of the SDSS Archive has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Participating Institutions, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Japanese Monbukagakusho, and the Max Planck Society. The SDSS Web site is http://www.sdss.org/.

The SDSS is managed by the Astrophysical Research Consortium (ARC) for the Participating Institutions. The Participating Institutions are The University of Chicago, Fermilab, the Institute for Advanced Study, the Japan Participation Group, The Johns Hopkins University, the Korean Scientist Group, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy (MPIA), the Max-Planck-Institute for Astrophysics (MPA), New Mexico State University, University of Pittsburgh, University of Portsmouth, Princeton University, the United States Naval Observatory, and the University of Washington.

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Appendix A: The 3PCF Data
=========================

We present here the data points from Figures 4 & 5. We present the upper and lower limits of the bins used. We stress that these data are affected by large scale structures in the data and, therefore, should be used with caution. We present these data to aid in the comparison with other observations and theoretical predictions.

\[lastpage\]

[^1]: [@B2003b] use redshifted SDSS filters to minimise the effects of k–corrections. As discussed in their paper, they propose the use of an SDSS filter set redshifted to $z=0.1$ for their “rest–frame” quantities. These filters are written as $^{0.1}u,^{0.1}g,^{0.1}r,^{0.1}i,^{0.1}z $


Syed Fasihuddin Soharwardy

Syed Fasihuddin Soharwardy (; born 15 June 1957) is a leading nasheed  or Naat Khawan from Pakistan. Most of his work is in the Urdu
language. However he has performed nasheeds (Naats) in multiple languages including Punjabi, Persian and Arabic.

Early life and career
He was born on June 15, 1957 in Karachi, Pakistan. He has been performing nasheeds since the age of 5, and
was heavily influenced by his father, Syed Riazuddin Soharwardy. For his regular high school education, he did his high school from Government Secondary School and his Bachelor of Arts degree from Government
Islamia College, Karachi. Later on, he went and completed his law degree from Urdu Law College and a master's degree in Journalism. He
currently resides in Karachi, Pakistan but frequently travels to Europe and North America to perform in
different shows.

His singing style is considered to be unique
with a very powerful voice. He holds a distinct record of reciting over 5000 nasheeds (naats) with more than 160 albums.
He has travelled to 27 countries for various shows.

Some popular naats
'Khuda Ka Zikr Karein'
'Main to Panjtan ka ghulam hoon'
'Aye Subz gumbat walay'
'Mustafa Jane Rehmat Pe Lakhon Salaam'

References

Category:1957 births
Category:Living people
Category:Muhajir people
Category:People from Karachi
Category:Pakistani performers of Islamic music
Category:Islamic poetry
Category:Islamic music


Q:

I need help to an assignment in python 3. I need to create a function that Return the nucleotide's complement

The function returns a message like this:
<function contains_sequence at 0x04020270>

However it return the correct anwser but that message cant be in shell.
so my code is this:
def contains_sequence(dna1, dna2):
    """ (str, str) -> bool

    Return True if and only if DNA sequence dna2 occurs in the DNA sequence
    dna1.

    >>> contains_sequence('ATCGGC', 'GG')
    True
    >>> contains_sequence('ATCGGC', 'GT')
    False
    """

    if dna2 in dna1:
        print (True)
    else:
        print (False)

    return contains_sequence

A:

Your function is currently outputing the string "True" or "False", not return the boolean value True or False, then unconditionally returning a reference to the function itself.
You need to return the result of the in comparison, which you can do with
def contains_sequence(dna1, dna2):
    if dna2 in dna1:
        return True
    else
        return False

or more idiomatically
def contains_sequence(dna1, dna2):
    return dna2 in dna1


Altered adrenal gland cholesterol metabolism in the apoE-deficient mouse.
Previous studies suggest the hypothesis that apoE produced by adrenocortical cells modulates cellular cholesterol metabolism to enhance the storage of esterified cholesterol (EC) at the expense of cholesterol delivery to the steroidogenic pathway. In the present study, parameters of adrenal cholesterol metabolism and corticosteroid production were examined in wild type and apoE-deficient (apoe(-/-)) mice. Adrenal gland EC content and the EC/free cholesterol (FC) ratio in mice stressed by adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) treatment or saline injection were reduced in apoe(-/-) compared to apoe(+/+) mice. Relative to apoe(+/+) mice, apoE deficiency also resulted in increased levels of plasma corticosterone in the basal state, in response to acute or long-term ACTH treatment, and after a swim-induced neuroendocrine-directed stress test. Measurements of adrenal gland scavenger receptor class B, type I (SR-BI), LDL receptor, and LDL receptor related protein (LRP) levels and the activities of ACAT or HMG-CoA reductase showed no difference between genotypes. Apoe(-/-) and apoe(+/+) mice showed similar quantitative increases in LDL receptors, SR-BI, adrenal weight gain, and ACAT activities in response to ACTH, and both genotypes had similar basal plasma ACTH concentrations. These results suggest that the effects of apoE deficiency reflect events at the level of the adrenal gland and are specific to changes in cholesterol accumulation and corticosterone production. Further, these findings support the hypothesis that apoE acts to enhance adrenocortical EC accumulation and diminish corticosterone production.


Graduation, Vista, Chocolate and Cheese!

Once again I cannot believe how quickly time has flown. It has been over a month since I last updated Hans’ Milieu. So much has happened since then. I have officially graduated, I have a new computer, I’ve started my Honours year and so much more. So, let us begin…

Graduation: Monash Alumnus 2006

Yes Milieu Pals I, Hans Haupt, have officially graduated with my first degree from Monash University (the photographs have been uploaded to Hans’ Milieu and are within the album – Graduation 2006: Monash Alumni). I am now the proud owner of a Bachelor of Arts with a double major in Communications with Media Studies; and Marketing. It is such a satisfying emotion knowing that I have attained my degree, and with distinction. To officially be part of only five percent of the world’s population is simply extraordinary.

To all fellow alumni (I love that word), the world over, I would like to say congratulations! You have worked hard to achieve an idiosyncratic mindset that will indefinitely set your cognitive abilities above most others. For those who are in the process of attaining a higher education, kudos to you, and remember to continue to persevere no matter what obstacles may be thrown your way.

An education is one of life’s greatest gifts. If you are given the opportunity to further your mindset make sure to embrace it with arms wide open for an "Education is a companion which no future can depress, no crime can destroy, no enemy can alienate it and no nepotism can enslave" (Ropo Oguntimehin).

The official graduation ceremony took place on the 24th February 2007 at the Ballroom in the Sandton Convention centre. Graduates were, unfortunately, only given four tickets (excluding themselves) which went to my parents and my cousins Freddy and Terrence W (if I could have, I would have invited my entire family to attend). It was a fantastic event that was attended by various esteemed guests including: the graduates (heh heh heh), the High Chancellor and Pro-Vice Chancellor of Monash Australia (Global), various members of the Australian parliament, all lecturers and academic staff of Monash South Africa and Emeritus Professor the Lord Desai of St Clement Danes. As is usually the scenario for a graduation the event was intensely formal in nature however, since this ceremony took place in Africa, the yelps and shouts of parents undulating their enjoyment of their progenies achievements resonated throughout the ballroom (my mother was one of those parents ). After the main event we all posed for our professional graduate photographs, made sure to taste every available refreshment and induced a fair share of networking with other like-minded alumni. After locating our families a couple of friends and I decided to head out to this exclusive and somewhat unheard of venue known as the Kitchen Bar within the Design Quarter.

Ah, the Design Quarter. I simple love this place. So exclusive and unknown, the perfect place for esteemed graduates (lol)! Once we had arrived we made our way to a restaurant known as the Kitchen Bar. Simply put they make exquisite cuisine and it has since become one of my favourite places to dine at (I have been there at least three additional times since graduation). The vibe at the Kitchen Bar could be described as eclectically cosmopolitan with an air of modernity. Honestly, that night at the Kitchen Bar, within the Design Quarter with my family and some of my best friends, was simply… mind-blowing! That entire day especially that night has to be, without a doubt, one of the best nights of my life.

"The better part of one’s life consists of his [sic] friendships" (Abraham Lincoln) thus I would like to offer a very special thank you to Marika, Mark and Laura for making the last three years at Monash some of the most memorable in my life!

Hans Vento

One of the major reasons as to why I have not updated Hans’ Milieu as frequently as I should have, has been because of my new computer: Hans’ Vento. My dad felt it was time I could get a brand new computer, not just an upgrade, and let me tell you… he spoilt me rotten!

I mentioned in a previous post that I had upgraded to Windows Vista (for my main PC and our media centre). I am currently running Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate (64bit) which, despite mixed reviews and driver incompatibility issues, is simply superb. I have likened it to the Mac OS X with the major difference being that it is Windows and not Apple. I also have Microsoft Encarta Premium/Reference Suite 2007 and Microsoft Office 2007 Professional which I cannot live without. Honestly I am incredibly pro Microsoft. I have actually decided to get rid of my iPod (my 60GB Video iPod now acts as a glorified storage device) and purchase a Microsoft Zune (whenever it eventually becomes available in SA). The reason? Simply because of its flawless integration into the Windows platform (especially with Vista) and because of my incredibly favourable experience with the Xbox 360 and other forms of Microsoft Hardware. Additionally I am contemplating getting myself a Windows Mobile device with Windows Mobile 6 and leaving Nokia as my brand of choice for mobile phones. Again this is because of the seamless integration of Windows products and hardware with Windows software. I cannot stand having to download additional software for my mobile device just to enable features that Windows Vista should be able to just get from the device through the integrated Sync Centre. If I could I would actually like to work for Microsoft perhaps within the Marketing, gaming or product development departments.

Right, Hans’ Vento. That is the name of my new computer. It took almost three weeks for all the parts to arrive and only about a day to assemble the entire machine myself. Yes Milieu Pals this was the first time I had attempted to build a computer and I managed to do it without any help (well… minus the occasional call to a Computers Only about simple and seemingly stupid queries such as "I’ve got a fan but from which side does it blow the air since its covered by a magnetic strip and I can’t see the air flow markers?"). A part from grossly injuring my right thumb and practically frying the CPU (the original fan I used wasn’t making contact with the CPU properly, so ended up using the stock CPU fan) I managed to build my own computer, which I am so very proud of! I think I may add the art of ‘computer assembly’ to my list of hobbies.

If it wasn’t for my dad I would not have Hans’ Vento and so I just want to say "Thank you so much daddy for allowing me to have this ultra extreme setup!"

Chocolate Surprise and Cheese Wizz Extravaganza!

On Friday the 16th February (a week before graduation and a few days after Valentines) I decided to have a Chocolate Surprise and Cheese Wizz evening (you can see the photographs of that day within the album entitled – A Chocolate Surprise and Cheese Wizz Time)! It was pretty much a spur of the moment function brought on by the prospect of using our newly purchased chocolate fountain and the discovery of ‘the best’ Fruit and Veg city I have been to (and I do not particularly enjoy shopping for groceries but this place is something else ).

Having been to the stunning new Fruit and Veg city in Rynfield (feels like I am shopping in Australia when I am there) earlier that week I felt that I had to do something fun and different. So I promptly made my way to this delicious new grocery shopping experience and proceeded to purchase various cheeses (Brie, Camembert, Beer Cheese, Roquefort…), dips (pesto and garlic, cream cheese and garlic, caramelised onions and garlic… we like garlic ), various fruits (cut into spheres and displayed within a watermelon shell for dipping into chocolate) and a copious amount of chocolates (four of every truffle they make and three packets of chocolate fountain chocolate).

Once those who could make it had arrived I took out the cheese platter, dips and crackers. We then proceeded to play on the Nintendo Wii which is by far the most entertaining games console for a multi-player experience. After creating Mii’s for everyone that arrived (Marika, Laura, Mark, Wickus, Terence F. and Robyn) we started up Wii Sports and, as the age old adage goes, the rest was history. I must be honest watching people come to grips with their dormant hand and eye coordination skills is simply hilarious especially when they are maniacally waving their arms and legs in an attempt to prevent themselves from being knocked out. I laughed so hard at times that I could not breathe. I actually candidly video recorded my friends and myself playing the Wii but have yet to transfer it to my PC due to fire wire difficulties.

After the Wii we made our way to the kitchen to eat supper and then try out the chocolate fountain. By this time everyone was so stuffed with cheese, crackers and dip, despite the rigorous Wii sessions, that most could not eat supper yet politely accepted my mother’s generous helpings (you guys are real troopers)! After supper and a lengthy and intimate discussion between us all I decided it was time for the chocolate fountain. Amidst the protesting groans from our stomachs ‘being too full’ were the delightfully audible squeals unconsciously released at the sight of the fully functional chocolate fountain. For a few short moments all was well until the bright idea of adding some Amarula to the chocolate concoction came to be. It was at that moment that the fountain seemed to cease due to an immediate increase in viscosity. Regardless we enjoyed what became a chocolate ‘fudge’ fountain .

Overall though the evening was a fantastic success with profuse amounts of fun had by all and is definitely something I will do again. Seriously though it is hard to have a bad time when the company is so good .

What else?!

Well after the tantamount success of the ‘Chocolate Surprise and Cheese Wizz extravaganza’ and the exuberant celebratory night out at the Kitchen Bar, Mark felt that we just had to all get together again (the week after graduation) at his place for another ‘kuier’. This time though my mom tagged along and so did Mik’s as our mother’s finally all met each other for the first time at graduation. Mik made an absolutely decadent Tiramisu, which just so happens to be one of my favourite desserts, Mark’s mom made this special Portuguese potato dish (which rocked) while Mark did the traditional South African thing and braaied (BBQ). I also met two of Wickus’ friends (Merina and Anton) who, upon Laura’s arrival and the allocation of groups, played against us all in a game of Cranium. This game is ridiculously fun as it mixes Pictionary, 30 Seconds and Charades all into one wickedly addictive game (definitely one of my next board game purchases). Once again we all had a good time and look forward to getting together again soon.

This past Saturday (16th March) I was invited to Kirsty’s place for a ‘bring and braai’ which also acted as a partial ‘going away’ get together as she is going away with her family to Melbourne (one of my favourite places and the place within which I want to live once we immigrate) for a little over two months. I met a variety of different people at her ‘house party’ (whose names evade me) but spent most of my time with Candida, David, Dale, Kirsten and Kirsty (friends I have known for years from both primary and high school). We ended up playing ‘Jenga’ for most of the evening until the blocks started to lose their form, a little too frequently, due to alcohol tolerance levels having been reached . Once again a good evening was had with the promise of more to come.

This coming Friday, 23rd March 2007, is the official Launch date of the Sony Playstation 3 in South Africa (as well as Europe and Australia). As I have previously mentioned within this post I have an affinity for Microsoft products, particularly hardware, however this does not mean that I would not enjoy products from other manufacturers. Unlike many other individuals (I know this is a stereotype of game playing individuals) I do not consider myself a ‘fanboy’ of any particular game industry corporation. I prefer to remain as neutral as possible so I may effectively offer an unbiased and somewhat objective truth regarding the differences between the gaming console platforms. This is to ensure that when individuals ask for my opinion regarding the current ‘console wars’ I am able to answer them to the best of my abilities from my own objective experiences. So on Friday night at 23:59 I will be in line (with my cousin Freddy) to collect my pre-ordered Playstion 3 which is retailing all over South Africa for R6299 (US $853), excluding games and accessories (an additional R2500 aka US $340). I have my reservations about the Playstation 3 console and believe that the Xbox 360 will be this gaming generation’s platform of choice, but this remains to be seen.

Wow! This must be one of the lengthiest posts I have written in a very long time (no pun intended). This post has effectively taken most of the day to complete and I am thus suitably fatigued at this moment in time but it was definitely worth the effort. There was more I wanted to write about and discuss, particularly with regard to the strange weather we have been having in South Africa along our coastlines, but that story will have to wait for another post. So Milieu Pals, it seems as if we have reached the end of yet another eventful post, but rest assured I will update again as soon as I can.

3 Comments

Yay!!! An update! I was starting to wonder if both you and Freddy had given up on blogging completely. ;-)Congratulations on the graduation…*sigh*…wish I could have that behind me too, but still a way to go.All your parties sound really nice, it\’s hard to know where to start wth the commenting on your looooooong post. Love the fountain!One question – how to you get the chocolate once you cry "uncle"?Actually make it two questions…do you get the melting chocolate in dark as well or do you just whack in any old slab?Kitchen bar is a nice place with freaky bathrooms (don\’t you think?) and a peculiar tendency to put roses in their cocktails/mocktails or at least rose water, I\’m not sure which. Can\’t beleive you\’re getting the PS3 too!!! You must tell us all about this fudging blue ray stuff that I keep hearing about (and I\’m not even a gamer – at all), and your new computer looks very pretty (ooooooooohhh…shineeey!), sorry about you hand and hope you feel better soon. 🙂

Yeah it was about time that I updated my blog. Been too long. LOL!
Thank you for the congratulations, I really appreciate it.

The chocolate fountain is fantastic. Everyone should have one. You need a special kind of chocolate to use with it though. You should be able to buy some at any Fruit and Veg City (the one in Rynfield has this delicious chocolate bar which is where I got our packets of chocolate from).

About me

Hi, I'm Hans. A Ludologist by education; writer, marketer and ecommerce curator by trade; foodie by nature; and a tech, gadget and gamer geek in my spare time. This blog is where I share my personal thoughts on almost everything and anything.


Gair Rhydd Interview: Ed Miliband

March 23, 2015

6 Min Read

Last Thursday Ed Miliband came to People’s Questions at the Millennium Stadium, speaking on a range of issues Miliband stated to the Cardiff audience, “Welsh Labour needs a partnership in Westminster.”

There was an obvious theme on the agenda for Miliband, to differentiate himself and the Labour party from the Conservatives, saying: “Tories want wealth to trickle down, however I believe that the people with the broadest shoulders should hold the broadest burden.”

Emphasising this point, Miliband continued with what appears to be his latest campaigning line: “They’re succeeding due to the success of a few. I don’t think the success of a few is good enough. We need to all do well for the country to be succeeding.”

With tuition fees trebled, the vast amount of zero hour contracts in the economy, benefit reduction, the bedroom tax, and the stripping of services, young people feel that the last five years have been tough, leading to mass apathy regarding voting, critics say. In the last General Election, 44 per cent of 18-24 year olds voted, lower than the national turnout, suggesting they are disillusioned and uninspired. One factor here is that people don’t believe there is any real difference between the major parties.

Gair Rhydd asked Miliband why students should believe that Labour is different, and he answered saying:

“I think on so many levels there’s a huge difference between Labour and the Tories. They think that if the rich and powerful do well then the country is succeeding. I think what actually matters is that working people succeed. For students and young people, listen to what we’ve got to say on tuition fees. Now obviously the situation in Wales is different because of what the government has done. And this decision we’ve made in England will also bring more money to the Welsh budget. Look at what we’ve got to say about jobs, putting people back to work and the minimum wage. And look at what we’ve got to say about raising the minimum wage and zero hours contracts. These are a massive issue for many students. And then I would say to people this: there is one party that is willing to put trust in young people and give the vote to 16 and 17 year olds and that’s Labour. So coming up to this election, the message should be made clear to young people that we have a better offer for their future.”

Labour recently announced they would lower tuition fees to £6,000, separating themselves aside as the party who will right the wrongs in the minds of students.

Critics of this plan are sceptical that Miliband is making a false promise, and that this does not reverse the Tories policy of trebling the fees, and therefore Labour aren’t going far enough. The Chancellor announced yesterday that he had reviewed lowering tuition fees at the expense of pensioners, and it was not a viable option. Since 2012, the Welsh Government has been partially subsidising tuition fee for Welsh students, and we asked Miliband why his plans didn’t go this far.

“£6,000 is what is affordable”, he said, “We’ve got to make our plans add up. It will make a difference for the Welsh government because at the moment they’ve got to pay a bigger difference than they will once we lower the fees. The one important lesson to take from Nick Clegg’s broken promise is to make promises you can keep, and that’s what we’re doing”, although saying he would like to go further, but can’t promise this.

During the talk, it seemed at points Mr Miliband was avoiding answering certain questions and deflecting onto different topics. These included questions on his dismissal of an SNP coalition, the Barnett formula, asylum seekers and climate change.

In response to this Gair Rhydd questioned why he was ruling out a coalition with the SNP when it’s unlikely he’ll secure a majority government:

“There are too many fundamental disagreements between ourselves and the SNP for us to have a coalition government. But I want there to be a majority Labour government. I think this election is still to be decided. There are seven weeks to go and people are still focusing on this election. They’re thinking about their options for this election and I’d say to people that there is a big choice: a Labour government or a Conservative government. We know what a Conservative government would mean now for public services. We’ve seen the devastating impact on our public services and that’s just one of the many reasons why I hope people vote Labour.”

On devolution, Miliband said he didn’t think an English Assembly was the answer but being in favour of greater devolution across the UK. He linked changes to the House of Lords into this stating: “I want a democratically elected senate of the nations. This would increase the democratic principle and reduce hereditary power.” He went on to say that devolution was “a tussle over power”, and we need to find the right balance of sharing power.

Interesting topics were covered across the day as a whole. Miliband joked that such a range of bases had been covered in a relatively small amount of questions and that he’d never had people so keen. There was a light atmosphere throughout the event, while from the audience there was clapping and praise. Various members who took to the microphone announced their pride for Miliband and offered their hopes that he would be the next Prime Minister. One woman in the audience said, “I’m proud of you for protecting our NHS. After all it was Aneurin Bevan who founded the movement for us and he’s our Labour man. I really believe the Conservatives would eventually privatise the NHS and I hope you can stop that.”

Miliband ended by urging people to talk to friends and family coming up to the campaign. He convinced that we would have to work hard to see a Labour government. To register to vote online before the 20th of April deadline, follow this link: https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote


886 A.2d 1197 (2005)
Maria ESPOSITO, as Executrix of the Estate of Marion T. Thomson
v.
James P. O'HAIR et al.
No. 2004-186-Appeal.
Supreme Court of Rhode Island.
December 19, 2005.
*1198 Christopher P. Sheehan, Jacqueline G. Kelley, Providence, for Plaintiff.
Thomas R. Bender, Michael G. Sarli, Providence, for Defendants.
Present: WILLIAMS, C.J., GOLDBERG, FLAHERTY, SUTTELL, and ROBINSON, JJ.

OPINION
Justice FLAHERTY, for the Court.
In this medical malpractice dispute, we must determine whether Medicaid is a "state income disability" act, and thus falls within a list of collateral source payments that are admissible to reduce a plaintiff's damages under G.L.1956 § 9-19-34.1.

I

Background
In March 2001, Marion Thomson filed suit against Atmed Treatment Center, Inc., Hani Zaki, M.D., Inc., and three physiciansJames P. O'Hair, Daniel Regan, and Hani Zakialleging that the defendants were negligent in failing to diagnose her with Hodgkins Lymphoma. Thomson died from this disease on March 15, 2003. When the complaint was amended to substitute Maria Esposito, executrix of Thomson's estate, as plaintiff, Dr. Zaki's insurer, the Medical Malpractice Joint Underwriting Association of Rhode Island (MMJUA), was added as a defendant.[1]
In September 2003, the parties reached a somewhat unusual settlement agreement in which $440,000 was paid to Thomson's estate, and an additional sum of $381,689.26, which was the amount of the decedent's medical expenses, was set aside. The defendants filed a motion for judgment as a matter of law as to this amount, arguing that plaintiff was not entitled to recover these expenses because they were paid by Rhode Island's Medicaid program, and under § 9-19-34.1,[2] recovery should be reduced by collateral source payments made pursuant to a state income disability act. Esposito filed a cross motion, arguing that Medicaid benefits are not a state income disability act, and therefore defendants were liable to her for the decedent's medical expenses.[3] Esposito further claimed that, even if the language of § 9-19-34.1 were to permit defendants to offset their liability with evidence of the decedent's Medicaid benefits, the statute would be preempted by federal law, and further would be unconstitutional because it violates principles of due process and equal protection.
The parties' motions came before the *1199 Superior Court on December 1, 2003,[4] and in April 2004 the court entered judgment in favor of Esposito. The court reasoned that § 9-19-34.1 must be strictly construed because it abrogates the common law collateral source rule by allowing defendants to reduce their liability by presenting evidence that the plaintiff's medical expenses were paid by third parties. Strictly construing § 9-19-34.1, the court held that Medicaid was not a state income disability act within the meaning of the statute because it does not compensate individuals for lost income, and recipients need not be disabled to receive benefits. Because the court agreed with plaintiff that § 9-19-34.1 did not include Medicaid benefits as a collateral source payment that was admissible to offset damages, it declined to address the constitutional arguments she had raised.
The defendants timely appealed. As grounds for appeal, defendants contend that § 9-19-34.1 is a remedial statute that should have been construed liberally to include Medicaid payments. Such a construction, defendants say, is consistent with the Legislature's goal of controlling the cost of medical malpractice insurance premiums. For the reasons set forth herein, we affirm the judgment of the Superior Court.

II

Standard of Review
This Court applies de novo review to questions of statutory interpretation. Webster v. Perrotta, 774 A.2d 68, 75 (R.I.2001). When a statute fails to define a term, "the words of a statute will be given their usual meaning." Carlson v. McLyman, 77 R.I. 177, 180, 74 A.2d 853, 855 (1950). In construing a statute "this Court will not broaden statutory provisions by judicial interpretation unless such interpretation is necessary and appropriate in carrying out the clear intent or defining the terms of the statute." Simeone v. Charron, 762 A.2d 442, 448-49 (R.I.2000).

III

Analysis

A. The Common Law Collateral Source Rule
"The collateral source rule is a well-established principle of Rhode Island law." Moniz v. Providence Chain Co., 618 A.2d 1270, 1271 (R.I.1993). Absent a statutory provision to the contrary, this common law rule prevents defendants in tort actions from reducing their liability with evidence of payments made to injured parties by independent sources. Votolato v. Merandi, 747 A.2d 455, 463 (R.I.2000). Although this rule may allow plaintiffs to recover damages in excess of their injuries, the rationale underlying the rule is that it is better for the windfall to go to the injured party rather than to the wrongdoer. Colvin v. Goldenberg, 108 R.I. 198, 202, 273 A.2d 663, 666 (1971); Oddo v. Cardi, 100 R.I. 578, 584-85, 218 A.2d 373, 377 (1966).

B. Medical Malpractice Reforms
In 1976, the General Assembly enacted the Medical Malpractice Reform Act in response to growing concerns over the limited availability and rising cost of medical malpractice insurance. See P.L. 1976, ch. 244; see also Boucher v. Sayeed, 459 A.2d *1200 87, 88-89 (R.I.1983) (outlining legislative history of medical malpractice reforms). Part of this act included the creation of a collateral source statute, codified as § 9-19-34. Prior to this legislation, defendants could not reduce their liability by introducing evidence of payments made to injured parties by independent sources. See Colvin, 108 R.I. at 202, 273 A.2d at 666. Section 9-19-34 made collateral benefits received by a plaintiff admissible in medical malpractice actions against physicians, effectively abrogating the common law collateral source rule in such actions.
As originally enacted, § 9-19-34 allowed defendants to introduce payments from "the United States social security act, any state or federal income disability or workers' compensation act, any health, sickness or income-disability insurance, accident insurance that provides health benefits or income-disability coverage, and any contract or agreement of any group, organization, partnership, or corporation to provide, pay for, or reimburse the cost of medical, hospital, dental, or other health care services."
During that same 1976 legislative session, the General Assembly also enacted G.L.1956 § 42-14.1-1, which authorized the creation of the MMJUA. See P.L. 1976, ch. 1, § 1. The General Assembly explained that this enactment was based "[u]pon a finding by the director of business regulation that there exists a lack of competitive, stable market for medical malpractice insurance in the state of Rhode Island and that as a consequence thereof, there is peril to the public health safety and welfare of the people of the state * * *." Id. To address these concerns, the MMJUA was formed to stabilize the cost of medical malpractice insurance by pooling expenses and losses in insurance coverage. See St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Co. v. Barry, 438 U.S. 531, 537 n. 6, 98 S.Ct. 2923, 57 L.Ed.2d 932 (1978) (discussing the rationale for creation of Rhode Island's MMJUA).
By 1986, concerns over the cost of medical malpractice insurance had not subsided. The Legislature took further action with its passage of P.L. 1986, ch. 350, "An Act Relating to Malpractice." The preamble to the act states as follows:
"WHEREAS, The number of medical and dental malpractice claims being made and the cost of settling such claims by the Medical Malpractice Joint Underwriting Association of Rhode Island, an agency of state government designed to provide a continuing stable institution for medical and dental malpractice liability insurance and the dominant such insurance carrier in this state, has continued to increase significantly; and
"WHEREAS, As a result, the Medical Malpractice Joint Underwriting Association has recently experienced an accelerated negative financial position resulting in a fund deficit as of December 31, 1985; and
"WHEREAS, Insolvency of said Association would have an adverse financial effect upon the citizens of Rhode Island who purchase liability insurance of any type as their premiums would increase in order to offset the deficit or, alternatively, such insolvency would adversely affect all the taxpayers of Rhode Island; and
* * *
"WHEREAS, The General Assembly finds that a significant number of medical and dental malpractice claims have been filed against a relatively few health care providers; and
* * *
"WHEREAS, the General Assembly acting within the scope of its police power finds the statutory remedy herein *1201 provided is intended to be an adequate and reasonable remedy now and into the foreseeable future." P.L. 1986, ch. 350.
Like the 1976 act, the 1986 act also included a collateral source statute, § 9-19-34.1, that was markedly similar to its predecessor, but that applied only to medical malpractice actions occurring after January 1, 1987. See P.L. 1986, ch. 350, § 7. This updated version of the collateral source statute, § 9-19-34.1, provides:
"In the event the defendant so elects, in a legal action based upon a cause of action arising after January 1, 1987, for personal injury against a licensed physician, hospital, clinic, health maintenance organization, professional service corporation providing health care services under chapter 5.1 of title 7, dentist, or dental hygienist based upon professional negligence, the defendant may introduce evidence of any amount payable as a benefit to the plaintiff as a result of the personal injury pursuant to any state income disability or workers' compensation act, any health, sickness or income disability insurance, accident insurance that provides health benefits or income disability coverage, and any contract or agreement of any group, organization, partnership, or corporation to provide, pay for, or reimburse the cost of medical, hospital, dental, or other health care services. Where the defendant elects to introduce such evidence, the plaintiff may introduce evidence of any amount which the plaintiff has paid or contributed to secure his or her right to any insurance benefits concerning which the defendant has introduced evidence. When such evidence is introduced, the jury shall be instructed to reduce the award for damages by a sum equal to the difference between the total benefits received and the total amount paid to secure the benefits by the plaintiff or the court may ascertain the sum by special interrogatory and reduce the award for damages after verdict. Whenever an award is so reduced, the lien of any first party payor who has paid such a benefit against the judgment shall be foreclosed and the plaintiff shall have no legal obligation to reimburse the payor."
Section 9-19-34.1 differed from the earlier version of the collateral source statute in three material ways. First, the updated statute extended its coverage to include the professional malpractice of dentists and dental hygienists. Second, the General Assembly removed reference to payments made pursuant to the "United States social security act" and "federal" income disability or workers' compensation acts. Finally, the General Assembly added a clause stating, "[w]henever an award is [reduced by collateral source payments], the lien of any first party payor who had paid such a benefit against the judgment shall be foreclosed and the plaintiff shall have no legal obligation to reimburse said payor." Id.[5] Apart from these changes, the revised version of the collateral source statute was essentially the same as its predecessor.

C. Rhode Island's Medicaid Program
At issue before this Court is whether § 9-19-34.1's reference to "any state income disability" act is intended to include Medicaid benefits as one of the collateral source payments that defendants may introduce into evidence to offset their liability to plaintiff. Rhode Island's medical assistance *1202 program, commonly known as Medicaid, is designed to assist low income persons with the cost of medical care. G.L.1956 § 40-8-1.[6] To be eligible for Medicaid assistance, a person must have "insufficient income and resources" and fall within one of five categories of recipients. Section 40-8-3. In relevant part, § 40-8-3 provides as follows:
"Eligibility requirements.  Medical care benefits shall be provided under this chapter to at least any person (1) who has attained the age of sixty-five (65) years, or (2) who has no vision or whose vision is so defective as to prevent performance of ordinary activities for which eyesight is essential, or (3) who is at least eighteen (18) years of age and who is permanently and totally disabled, or (4) who is under the age of eighteen (18) years, and who has been deprived of parental support or care by reason of the death, continued absence from the home, unemployment or physical or mental incapacity of a parent (called hereafter `dependent child') and who is living with a relative in a place of residence maintained by one or more of such relatives as his or her or their own home, or is in foster boarding care, or (5) the relative as defined in subsection (8) of § 40-8-2, with whom any such dependent child is living * * *."

D. Is Medicaid a State Income Disability Act?
The defendants urge us to hold that Medicaid is a state income disability act within the meaning of § 9-19-34.1. Although § 9-19-34.1 does not explicitly refer to Medicaid, defendants maintain that we should consider the statute to be remedial in nature and therefore should construe it liberally because doing so is consistent with the Legislature's goal of controlling the cost of medical malpractice insurance premiums. As a result, argue defendants, Esposito's $381,689.26 claim for medical expenses should be reduced by the amount of medical bills that Medicaid paid on the decedent's behalf.
Conversely, Esposito asserts that because § 9-19-34.1 abrogates the common law collateral source rule, we should construe it strictly and conclude that Medicaid benefits are not covered by the statute. To support this position, Esposito presses this Court to adopt the rationale of a California case interpreting a similar statute, which held that Medicaid payments are not admissible as collateral source payments. See Brown v. Stewart, 129 Cal.App.3d 331, 341-42, 181 Cal.Rptr. 112 (1982).[7] She further notes that other jurisdictions have strictly construed collateral source statutes that limit a plaintiff's recovery. See, e.g., *1203 Jones v. Kramer, 267 Conn. 336, 838 A.2d 170, 177-78 (2004); Allstate Insurance Co. v. Rudnick, 761 So.2d 289, 293 (Fla.2000); Oden v. Chemung County Industrial Development Agency, 87 N.Y.2d 81, 637 N.Y.S.2d 670, 661 N.E.2d 142, 144 (1995). Esposito contends that these cases are consistent with this Court's well-established rule that statutes that abrogate the common law must be strictly construed. See, e.g., Gem Plumbing & Heating Co. v. Rossi, 867 A.2d 796, 803 (R.I.2005); Simeone, 762 A.2d at 445.
Despite this backdrop of cases holding that statutes in derogation of the common law should be strictly construed, defendants argue that the Legislature's use of the term "remedy" in the preamble to P.L. 1986, ch. 350, coupled with the statute's goal of controlling the cost of insurance premiums, makes clear that § 9-19-34.1 is a remedial statute. Thus, defendants urge, a liberal construction is necessary to effectuate the Legislature's intent.[8] It is our view, however, that a statute is not "remedial" simply because its goal is to improve societal woes. See Ayers-Schaffner v. Solomon, 461 A.2d 396, 399 (R.I.1983). If this were the case, all statutes would be remedial to some degree. In the parlance of statutory construction, a remedial statute is "one which affords a remedy, or improves or facilitates remedies already existing for the enforcement or rights of redress of wrongs * * *." Id. Section 9-19-34.1 does not fit this definition, however, because it narrows the common law collateral source rule by limiting a plaintiff's recovery.
Notwithstanding § 9-19-34.1's abrogation of the common law collateral source rule, defendants note that this Court previously has applied liberal construction to a statute in derogation of the common law. In Dias v. Cinquegrana, 727 A.2d 198, 200 (R.I.1999), we interpreted the word "accident" to include intentional acts because doing so was necessary to effectuate the Legislature's intent. The statute at issue in Dias abrogated the common law by extending potential liability for automobile accidents to a vehicle's owner, even in the absence of a common law agency relationship with the driver. In construing the statute, we explained that it was imperative to "determine and effectuate the Legislature's intent and to attribute to the enactment the meaning most consistent with its policies or obvious purposes." Id. at 199-200.
Relying on Dias, defendants urge that even though § 9-19-34.1 abrogates the common law collateral source rule, we should construe it liberally because doing so is necessary to effectuate legislative intent. We disagree for several reasons. First, Dias is inapposite to the present case because the statute at issue in that case afforded a remedy to a plaintiff, whereas § 9-19-34.1 potentially limits a plaintiff's recovery. Second, we see no evidence that the Legislature intended to control the cost of medical malpractice insurance premiums by diverting public Medicaid funds to tortfeasors or their insurers. Finally, and most importantly, whether we apply a strict or liberal reading to § 9-19-34.1, we are not persuaded that the Legislature intended the term "income disability act" to describe this state's Medicaid program.
Although it is true that some Medicaid recipients are disabled, we cannot construe Medicaid as an income disability act, because many Medicaid recipients are not *1204 disabled, such as those who are aged sixty-five or older. See § 40-8-3 (listing eligibility requirements for Medicaid). Others who are disabled may not qualify for benefits if their incomes or resources exceed a certain amount. Id. Therefore, disability is not the lynchpin to the receipt of Medicaid; having a disability does not guarantee that a person will receive Medicaid, nor is being disabled a necessary condition to receive Medicaid benefits. See id. Moreover, when a person is eligible to receive Medicaid benefits, the DHS does not provide income to the recipients, but instead makes payments directly to the medical care providers. Section 40-8-4(a) ("The [DHS] shall furnish medical care benefits to eligible beneficiaries through a direct vendor payment plan."). Therefore, even though some Medicaid recipients may be disabled, these individuals do not receive income under the program.
The defendants acknowledge that Medicaid does not provide income to its recipients and that not all recipients are disabled. They contend, however, that Medicaid is an income disability act within the meaning of § 9-19-34.1 because a person must be "income disabled" to qualify for benefits. In other words, defendants suggest that a lack of financial resources constitutes a form of disability within the meaning of the statute. This Court has held, however, that when a statute fails to define a term, as is the case with § 9-19-34.1, the "words of a statute will be given their usual meaning." Carlson, 77 R.I. at 180, 74 A.2d at 855. Applying this principle to the present case, we cannot accept the proposition that the Legislature intended the word "income" as an adjective to modify the word "disability." Whether we construe the collateral source statute liberally or strictly, we ultimately reach the same conclusion. See id. ("Even though a statute is held remedial, * * * the court cannot arbitrarily extend the ordinary meaning of its language"). We see no evidence the Legislature intended § 9-19-34.1 to relieve private tortfeasors and their insurers from liability at the taxpayers' expense, and therefore we conclude that the Legislature intended the term "income disability act" to mean an act that provides income to persons who are disabled. As noted above, Medicaid does not fit this definition.
Our holding that Medicaid is not an admissible collateral source payment under § 9-19-34.1 renders it unnecessary for us to address whether the statute is preempted by federal law or is otherwise unconstitutional.

IV

Conclusion
For the reasons stated herein, we affirm the judgment of the Superior Court. The record shall be remanded to the Superior Court.
NOTES
[1]  General Laws 1956 § 27-7-2 does not permit a plaintiff to bring a direct action against an insurer while the insured defendant is alive; however, Dr. Zaki passed away after the initial complaint was filed.
[2]  As discussed infra, G.L.1956 § 9-19-34.1 allows defendants in medical malpractice cases to offset their liability with evidence that a plaintiff's medical expenses have been paid by a third party.
[3]  Because the parties stipulated to the amount of damages and there were no issues of fact in dispute, the motion justice applied a summary judgment standard to the parties' motions.
[4]  On October 2, 2003, the Rhode Island Department of Human Services (DHS), which oversees the state's Medicaid program, was allowed to intervene as a party and filed a motion arguing that it was entitled to reimbursement of funds expended on behalf of the decedent. See G.L.1956 § 40-6-9 (Medicaid recipient is deemed to have assigned DHS "any and all rights and interests" in recovery of medical expenses).
[5]  The most recent amendment to the collateral source statute occurred during the 1997 legislative session. At that time, the General Assembly repealed the original statute, § 9-19-34, with P.L. 1997, ch. 326, § 101. There have been no amendments to the collateral source statute since 1997.
[6]  Medicaid is a cooperative federal and state welfare program. In re Grand Jury Investigation, 441 A.2d 525, 529 (R.I.1982). To receive federal funds, states must comply with the federal requirements, as set forth in title XIX of the federal Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1396 et seq. One such requirement is that the state establish income and resource requirements for its Medicaid recipients. See G.L.1956 § 40-8-3(v) (requiring DHS to establish eligibility requirements in accordance with federal law). These requirements are consistent with the state's declared policy of providing medical assistance to those persons "who possess the characteristics of persons receiving public assistance." Section 40-8-1(c).
[7]  The collateral source statute at issue in Brown, like Rhode Island's collateral source statute as it existed before 1986, applied to payments made "as a benefit to the plaintiff as a result of the personal injury pursuant to the United States Social Security Act, any state or federal income disability or worker's compensation act * * *." Cal. Civ.Code § 3333.1(a) (West 2005). With the exception of its references to the Social Security Act and the federal acts, the California statute is substantially similar to § 9-19-34.1.
[8]  The defendants correctly note that this Court previously has held that remedial statutes should be liberally construed to effectuate legislative intent. See, e.g., State v. Carter, 827 A.2d 636, 643 (R.I.2003).


Perspectives of dentists, families, and case managers on dental care for individuals with developmental disabilities in Kansas.
The status of dental care for individuals with developmental disabilities in Kansas was examined. Dentists, family members, and case managers reported general, but partial, satisfaction with the availability, accessibility, appropriateness, and affordability of such care. Reasons for the results and recommendations for further improvement are discussed.


The 46th Cairo Book Fair, which opens on Wednesday, will echo calls by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi for a renewal of religious discourse in Egypt.

Early this month, El-Sisi said "we need a religious revolution" and "some religious texts and ideas that have been made sacred throughout the years... oppose the whole world."

Reformist imam Mohammed Abdou (1849–1905) was chosen to be the fair's person of the year.

The Intellectual Meetings section of the fair has devoted 11 out of 12 talks to different aspects of religious reform.

The fair was historically known for hosting a varied and rich cultural programme, and this year the fair is regaining its reputation by hosting renowned Arab and international thinkers, something that it has lacked during the past few years.

The cultural programme this year will host many renowned thinkers, including: Egyptian philosopher Hassan Hanafi, Syrian poet Adonis, Lebanese thinker Ali Harb, Tunisian thinker Rajaa bin Salama, French journalist Alain Gresh and Egyptian thinker Abdel-Gawad Yassin.

Twenty-six countries will participate at this year's event, including 19 Arab and seven non-Arab. There will be 850 publishers, including 550 from Egypt, 250 Arab and 50 non-Arab.

Azbakeya market for second-hand books will have 100 kiosks.

Last year, 24 countries participated, 17 Arab and seven non-Arab. There were 755 publishers, 518 from Egypt, 210 Arab and 27 non-Arab, and the fair's theme was Culture and Identity.

Arab and African countries participating are, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain, Tunisia, Oman, Palestine, Jordan, Libya, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, Eretria, Ethiopia, Algeria, Iraq, Morocco, Syria and Lebanon. Non-Arab countries are Italy, Russia, India, Azerbaijan, Germany, France and Czech Republic.

Turkey is not participating in this year’s event, for the first time, which reflects the increasing political tension between Cairo and Ankara. However, the fair has denied any country had been excluded.

The fair will launch an Android App called (Amm Amin), that will provided the fair visitors with a map of the 80,000 square metre grounds, a database that has most of the books on display at the fair, and a calendar of events.

The Ministry of Culture will offer a big discount on all of its publications.

The fair will be open daily from 10am till 7pm for book selling and until 9pm for cultural events.

Short link:


---
abstract: 'The matrix completion problem consists in reconstructing a matrix from a sample of entries, possibly observed with noise. A popular class of estimator, known as nuclear norm penalized estimators, are based on minimizing the sum of a data fitting term and a nuclear norm penalization. Here, we investigate the case where the noise distribution belongs to the exponential family and is sub-exponential. Our framework alllows for a general sampling scheme. We first consider an estimator defined as the minimizer of the sum of a log-likelihood term and a nuclear norm penalization and prove an upper bound on the Frobenius prediction risk. The rate obtained improves on previous works on matrix completion for exponential family. When the sampling distribution is known, we propose another estimator and prove an oracle inequality the Kullback-Leibler prediction risk, which translates immediatly into an upper bound on the Frobenius prediction risk. Finally, we show that all the rates obtained are minimax optimal up to a logarithmic factor.'
bibliography:
- 'references\_all.bib'
title: Low Rank Matrix Completion with Exponential Family Noise
---

Low rank matrix estimation; matrix completion; exponential family model; nuclear norm


Independent Prognostic Value of Serum Markers in Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma in the Era of the NCCN-IPI.
Several serum parameters have been evaluated for adding prognostic value to clinical scoring systems in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), but none of the reports used multivariate testing of more than one parameter at a time. The goal of this study was to validate widely available serum parameters for their independent prognostic impact in the era of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network-International Prognostic Index (NCCN-IPI) score to determine which were the most useful. This retrospective bicenter analysis includes 515 unselected patients with DLBCL who were treated with rituximab and anthracycline-based chemoimmunotherapy between 2004 and January 2014. Anemia, high C-reactive protein, and high bilirubin levels had an independent prognostic value for survival in multivariate analyses in addition to the NCCN-IPI, whereas neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, high gamma-glutamyl transferase levels, and platelets-to-lymphocyte ratio did not. In our cohort, we describe the most promising markers to improve the NCCN-IPI. Anemia and high C-reactive protein levels retain their power in multivariate testing even in the era of the NCCN-IPI. The negative role of high bilirubin levels may be associated as a marker of liver function. Further studies are warranted to incorporate these markers into prognostic models and define their role opposite novel molecular markers.


Q:

Formulario con imagen, ajax y phpmailer

Estoy intentando hacer una petición POST pero todos los datos se envían excepto la imagen.
¿Cómo puedo solucionarlo?
JavaScript
$(function () {
$("#botonEnviar").click(function () {
    var nombre = document.getElementById("nombre").value;
    var correo = document.getElementById("correo").value;
    var mensaje = document.getElementById("mensaje").value;
    var telefono = document.getElementById("telefono").value;
    var foto = document.getElementById("foto");
    if (nombre == "") {
        $('#nombre').focus();
        $('#nombre').css('border-color', 'red');
        return false;
    } else if (correo == "") {
        $('#correo').focus();
        $('#correo').css('border-color', 'red');
        return false;
    } else if (mensaje == "") {
        $('#mensaje').focus();
        $('#mensaje').css('border-color', 'red');
        return false;
    } else if (telefono == "") {
        $('#telefono').focus();
        $('#telefono').css('border-color', 'red');
    } else {
        var formData = new FormData();
        formData.append('nombre', nombre);
        formData.append('correo', correo);
        formData.append('mensaje', mensaje);
        formData.append('telefono', telefono);
        formData.append('foto', foto);
        $('input').val('');
        $('textarea').val('');
        $.ajax({
            url: 'php/procesar.php',
            data: formData,
            processData: false,
            contentType: false,
            type: 'POST',
            dataType: 'JSON',
            success: function () {
            },
            error: function (xhr, ajaxOptions, thrownError) {
                $('.msg').text(thrownError);
            }
        });
        return false;
    }
});
});

procesar.php
<?php
require 'PHPMailerAutoload.php';

$phpMailer = new PHPMailer;
$phpMailer->isSMTP();
$phpMailer->SMTPDebug = 2;
$phpMailer->Debugoutput = 'html';
$phpMailer->Host = 'smtp.gmail.com';
$phpMailer->Port = 587;
$phpMailer->SMTPSecure = 'tls';
$phpMailer->SMTPAuth = true;

/*Datos Formulario*/
$nombre = $_POST['nombre'];
$correo = $_POST['correo'];
$mensaje = $_POST['mensaje'];
$telefono = $_POST['telefono'];
$fotoTmp = $_FILES['foto']['tmp_name'];
$fotoName = $_FILES['foto']['name'];

/*Cuenta Info*/
$phpMailer->Username = $info;
$phpMailer->Password =  $pswp;
$phpMailer->setFrom($info, $asunto);
$phpMailer->addAddress($correo, $nombre);
$phpMailer->addAddress($info, $nmb);

if(isset($_FILES['foto']) && $_FILES['foto']['error'] == UPLOAD_ERR_OK){
    $phpMailer->addAttachment($fotoTmp, $fotoName);
}

/*Mensaje para contacto*/
$phpMailer->isHTML(true);
$phpMailer->Subject = 'Asunto Mensaje';
$phpMailer->IsHTML(true);
$phpMailer->msgHTML(file_get_contents('mensaje.html'),dirname(__FILE__));

$phpMailer->AltBody = 'Cuerpo del Mensaje';

if (!$phpMailer->Send()) {
    echo "Error: ".$phpMailer->ErrorInfo;
}else{
    echo "Mensaje Enviado";
}
?>

A:

Debes usar new FormData(this); para facilitar la tarea de crear los datos del formulario que serán enviados a través de XHR, acceder campo a campo funciona con los de valores de texto, pero no con las imágenes:
$(function () {
$("body").on("submit", "form", function () {
    var nombre = document.getElementById("nombre").value;
    var correo = document.getElementById("correo").value;
    var mensaje = document.getElementById("mensaje").value;
    var telefono = document.getElementById("telefono").value;
    var foto = document.getElementById("foto");
    if (nombre == "") {
        $('#nombre').focus();
        $('#nombre').css('border-color', 'red');
        return false;
    } else if (correo == "") {
        $('#correo').focus();
        $('#correo').css('border-color', 'red');
        return false;
    } else if (mensaje == "") {
        $('#mensaje').focus();
        $('#mensaje').css('border-color', 'red');
        return false;
    } else if (telefono == "") {
        $('#telefono').focus();
        $('#telefono').css('border-color', 'red');
    } else {
        var formData = new FormData(this);
        $('input').val('');
        $('textarea').val('');
        $.ajax({
            url: 'php/procesar.php',
            data: formData,
            processData: false,
            contentType: false,
            type: 'POST',
            success: function () {
            },
            error: function (xhr, ajaxOptions, thrownError) {
                $('.msg').text(thrownError);
            }
        });
        return false;
    }
});
});

Deberás cambiar el <button> por un <input type="submit"> para que te funcione el evento submit. En caso contrario dime cómo acceder a tu formulario o pon su HTML para que te diga cómo acceder a sus datos.


Kansas Chamber PAC Endorses Candidates

The Kansas Chamber PAC announced Wednesday it is endorsing Republican candidates Kris Kobach for Governor and Derek Schmidt for Attorney General in the 2018 general elections.

“Kansas businesses compete with not only others in the same zip code but also with companies across the country and around the world. It is important that Kansans have elected leaders who truly understand the fundamental role business plays in the economic health of our state and who support a competitive business environment,” said Jennifer Baysinger, Kansas Chamber Vice President of Political Affairs.

Baysinger continued, “Kris Kobach and Derek Schmidt back policies and issues important to the Kansas business community. Issues that include legal reform, workers comp, tax policy, the school funding constitutional amendment, fair regulations and lowering the cost of doing business in Kansas. We appreciate their willingness to seek our members’ input and to work with the Chamber to resolve differences.”

As Kansas Attorney General, Schmidt has been a champion of the Kansas business community. Among his many efforts, he fought to preserve the state’s non-economic damage cap and to prevent a long list of increased federal regulations during the Obama era which would have made it more difficult to do business (EPA, NLRB, DOL, etc.).

Like the Chamber and its members, Kobach believes Kansans deserve to keep more of their own, hard-earned money. He has proactively campaigned on reducing the tax burden for all Kansas families and businesses.

“As proven by the recent federal tax cuts, a pro-growth tax policy gives families more money in their pockets to pay off debt, save for their children’s higher education or invest in a new home. It enables businesses to give employees raises and bonuses, lets them invest in and expand their enterprises, create more jobs and give more to their local communities,” said Alan Cobb, Kansas Chamber President and CEO.

Cobb continued, “But this election is about more than tax policy. It’s about keeping our state on the path of economic growth. Elections matter and the policy makers we send to Topeka determine whether Kansas businesses will thrive or suffer under the burden of an ever-expanding government. We must elect and maintain in office those who will lead the charge for business, so our state and local economies can grow and create more jobs and prosperity for all Kansans.”

The Kansas Chamber PAC bases its endorsements on several factors, including but not limited to candidate questionnaires, voting records, decisions made while in office, and candidate interviews and long term plans for the state.

###

The Kansas Chamber, with headquarters in Topeka, is the leading statewide pro-business advocacy group working to make Kansas a top state to live and work. The Chamber represents small, medium and large employers all across Kansas. The mission of the Kansas Chamber is to continually strive to improve the economic climate for the benefit of every business and citizen and to safeguard our system of free, competitive enterprise.