The interplanetary hydrogen and helium glow and the inferred interstellar gas properties

Observations of the interplanetary hydrogen and helium glow have been obtained by a number of spacecraft and rocket experiments during the past fifteen years. Important results have been established on the temperature, density, velocity, spatial dependence, and hydrogen to helium ratio. However, only four spacecraft launched to date are investigating the outer solar system and of these four the Pioneer 10 spacecraft is the farthest out at 28 A.U. Observations from this spacecraft at great distances have permitted an improved analysis of the effects which are only evident at large distances from the Sun. Perhaps the most significant result in this regard is the clear evidence of the importance of multiple scattering of solar Ly-alpha; an effect which has not been observed in earlier work. Ignoring this effect can lead to a gross overestimate of the local galactic glow. Current best estimates of the galactic glow and the local interstellar wind parameters obtained by the Pioneer 10 photometer at great distances are presented, in addition to complementary experimental observations of particular interest

Early days : the European parliament, codecision and the European union legislative process post-Maastricht

Since the European Parliament's first vote on a Council common position submitted under the co-decision procedure in January 1994 the practice of co-decision has been scrutinized carefully within Parliament and the other European Union (EU) institutions. However, such scrutiny has produced differing interpretations. This article seeks to assess these respective claims by analysing the first thirty-two legislative proposals processed under co-decision, and so to make an initial assessment of the legislative impact of the European Parliament under the new procedure. Under co-decision Parliament is a more equal partner in the EU's legislative process, and now has a rightful place alongside Council in several important policy areas - despite the weighting of the procedure towards Council. Certainly, informal inter-institutional linkages have expanded as a result of co-decision and, whatever their qualitative effect, there has been an undeniable quantitative increase in the interactions between Parliament and Council. The net result of the dialogue between Parliament and Council is the confirmation of an increasingly bipartite bargaining process and this, in turn, has placed the Commission in a considerably more ambiguous, and weaker, position than in the co-operation or consultation procedures

On the density of the odd values of the partition function, II: An infinite conjectural framework

We continue our study of a basic but seemingly intractable problem in integer partition theory, namely the conjecture that $p(n)$ is odd exactly $50\%$ of the time. Here, we greatly extend on our previous paper by providing a doubly-indexed, infinite framework of conjectural identities modulo 2, and show how to, in principle, prove each such identity. However, our conjecture remains open in full generality. A striking consequence is that, under suitable existence conditions, if any $t$-multipartition function is odd with positive density and $t\not \equiv 0$ (mod 3), then $p(n)$ is also odd with positive density. These are all facts that appear virtually impossible to show unconditionally today. Our arguments employ a combination of algebraic and analytic methods, including certain technical tools recently developed by Radu in his study of the parity of the Fourier coefficients of modular forms.Comment: 14 pages. To appear in the J. of Number Theor