ALMA detects signs of star formation surprisingly close to galaxy's supermassive black hole

ALMA detects signs of star formation surprisingly close to galaxy's supermassive black hole

Friday, April 5, 2013

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope have discovered signs of star formation perilously close to the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. If confirmed, this would be the first time that star formation was observed so close to the galactic center.

The center of our galaxy, 27,000 light-years away in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius, is home to a monstrous black hole with a mass of four million suns. Extending outward from this gravitational behemoth for many light-years is a turbulent region of space that is thought to be wracked by such extreme tidal forces that any star-forming clouds of dust and gas would be stretched thin and shredded long before infant stars could emerge.

Yet against these extreme odds, ALMA spotted telltale jets of material bursting out of what appear to be dense cocoons of gas and dust. These jets, if they were observed in more placid surroundings, would indicate the formation of a young star. The results were accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

"People think it is very hard to form stars near a supermassive black hole," said Farhad Yusef-Zadeh of Northwestern University. "This is because the gravity of the black hole produces extreme tidal forces that would stretch and elongate molecular clouds, preventing them from ever accumulating enough mass to trigger star formation. But what we seem to have found are patches of dust and gas that have become so dense that they are able to overcome their inhospitable surroundings."

Yusef-Zadeh and his colleagues speculate that these molecular clouds have become so massive and dense, possibly by colliding together, that they cross the all-important threshold that allows internal gravity to take over, starting a chain of events that inexorably leads to the birth of a new star. As this process evolves, material in these clouds clumps together and collapses into an ever denser mass that begins to rotate faster and faster. This rapid rotation, possibly coupled with the star's magnetic field, accelerates some of the material and shoots it out into space along the nascent star's axis of rotation. The astronomers were able to detect these characteristic jets of material by tracing the presence of the molecule silicon monoxide (SiO), which is relatively abundant in molecular clouds. When excited during star formation, SiO emits a very specific set of wavelengths of light in the microwave, or millimeter range. This is precisely the window of light that ALMA was designed to study.

"SiO is an excellent tracer of molecular outflows," said Yusef-Zadeh. "What we see in these images from ALMA are outflows that appear very much like what we see in star-forming regions elsewhere in galaxy. So the environments may be very different, but once you get the right conditions, collapse takes place and you're able to create what we would observe to be run-of-the-mill massive or intermediate mass stars."

For more than a decade, astronomers have puzzled over the origin of stars seen whipping around the black hole that lurks at the center of our galaxy. These massive, young stars (less than 10 million years old) are rocketing through an area of space where it was thought they had no business being. Astronomers believe that they either formed elsewhere under more placid conditions and migrated inward or they somehow overcame their turbulent childhoods to emerge as relatively normal and well-adjusted stellar objects. "Though this question of stars near the galactic center is still open ended, ALMA will definitely have the power and sensitivity to shed more light on the mystery," said Al Wootten, the North America ALMA Project Scientist with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Charlottesville, Virginia. "These latest studies do suggest that the conditions necessary for star formation could extend much closer to the galactic center than we previously believed."

These results were part of the ALMA Science Verification program. The data were taken with only 12 of ALMA's eventual full complement of 66 antennas. Earlier data from CARMA, the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy, contributed to this research.

###

National Radio Astronomy Observatory: http://www.nrao.edu

Thanks to National Radio Astronomy Observatory for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127615/ALMA_detects_signs_of_star_formation_surprisingly_close_to_galaxy_s_supermassive_black_hole

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US adds just 88K jobs; rate drops to 7.6 pct.

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A streak of robust job growth came to a halt in March, signaling that U.S. employers may have grown cautious in a fragile economy.

The gain of 88,000 jobs was the smallest in nine months. Even a decline in unemployment to a four-year low of 7.6 percent was nothing to cheer: It fell only because more people stopped looking for work and were no longer counted as unemployed.

The weak jobs report Friday from the Labor Department caught analysts by surprise and served as a reminder that the economy is still recovering slowly nearly four years after the Great Recession ended.

"This is not a good report through and through," Dan Greenhaus, chief economic strategist at brokerage firm BTIG, said in a note to clients.

March's job gain was less than half the average of 196,000 jobs in the previous six months. This could be the fourth straight year that the economy and hiring have shown strength early in the year, only to weaken afterward. Some economists say weak hiring may persist into summer before rebounding by fall.

The percentage of working-age Americans with a job or looking for one fell to 63.3 percent in March, the lowest such figure in nearly 34 years.

Stocks plummeted after the report but then narrowed their losses later in the day. The Dow Jones industrial average closed down about 41 points. Broader indexes also declined.

The Labor Department uses a survey of mostly large businesses and government agencies to determine how many jobs are added or lost each month. That's the survey that produced the gain of 88,000 jobs for March.

The government uses a separate survey of households to calculate the unemployment rate. It counted 290,000 fewer people as unemployed ? not because they found a job but because they stopped looking for one. That's why the unemployment rate fell.

The percentage of working-age adults with a job or looking for one is a figure that economists call the participation rate. At 63.3 percent, it's the lowest since 1979. Normally during an economic recovery, an expanding economy lures job seekers back into the labor market. This time, many have stayed on the sidelines, and more have joined them.

Longer-term trends have helped keep the participation rate down. The vast generation of baby boomers has begun to retire. The share of men 20 and older in the labor force has dropped as manufacturing has shrunk.

The share of women working or looking for work, after expanding from the early 1950s through the mid-1990s, has plateaued. Fewer teenagers are working. And some who have left the job market are getting by on government aid, particularly Social Security's program for the disabled.

Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the liberal Economic Policy Institute, said the labor force participation among those ages 25 to 54 ? "prime age" workers ? has dropped to 81.1 percent. It hasn't been lower since 1984.

Gary Burtless, senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution, noted that some Americans have likely stopped looking for work because their unemployment benefits have run out. People must be looking for a job to qualify for unemployment benefits.

"If people aren't collecting benefits, they have one less reason to be out pounding the pavement looking for a job," Burtless said.

If the economy slows this spring, it would follow a pattern of recent years.

An intensifying European financial crisis depressed hiring in 2010. Japan's earthquake and tsunami also disrupted U.S. manufacturing in 2011. Last year, an unusually warm winter caused employers to do more hiring early in the year, cutting into hiring that normally happens in spring.

This year, steep government spending cuts that began taking effect March 1 could have the same effect. But some economists say they expect any weakening this spring to be milder. The economy has a stronger foundation now. Housing is recovering, and consumers are spending more.

Rising home prices and near-record-level stock prices are making consumers feel wealthier. Construction firms have also added 169,000 jobs in the past six months as home building has accelerated.

"The recovery is on much better footing this year than in the last few springs, and the recovery in the housing market will do much to support growth," said Sophia Koropeckyj, an economist at Moody's Analytics.

Economists also cautioned against reading too much into a one-month slowdown in hiring. The higher revised job totals for January and February suggest that some hiring might have again occurred earlier in the year than usual. Job gains have averaged 168,000 in the past three months, close to the trend of the past two years.

Sluggish job growth could embolden the Federal Reserve to keep borrowing costs low for the long run. The Fed has said it plans to keep short-term interest rates at record lows at least until unemployment falls to 6.5 percent ? and Chairman Ben Bernanke has said a 6.5 percent rate is a threshold, not a "trigger," for any rate increase. The Fed wants to see sustained improvement in the job market.

Friday's report showed hiring was stronger in January and February than previously estimated. January job growth was revised up from 119,000 to 148,000. February was revised from 236,000 to 268,000.

Several industries cut back sharply on hiring. Retailers cut 24,000 jobs, manufacturers 3,000 jobs.

Some economists said retailers might have held back on hiring in part because March was colder than normal. That likely meant that Americans bought fewer spring clothes and less garden equipment.

The oil and gas industry has been adding jobs fast over the past several years but cut jobs in March for the first time in 2? years. Oil drilling and exploration is booming, but low natural gas prices over the last year have made natural gas drilling in some areas unprofitable.

In March, average hourly pay rose a penny, the smallest gain in five months. Average pay is just 1.8 percent higher than a year earlier, trailing the pace of inflation, which rose 2 percent in the past 12 months.

Most analysts think the economy strengthened from January through March, helped by the pickup in hiring, a sustained housing recovery and steady consumer spending. Consumers stepped up purchases in January and February, even after Social Security taxes rose this year.

At the same time, some small businesses say they've grown more cautious about hiring. The government spending cuts could cut into sales at companies with federal contracts and at small retailers located near government facilities. And small business owners worry about increased health insurance costs next year, when the government's health care overhaul is fully implemented.

A survey released Wednesday by the National Federation of Independent Business showed that fewer small businesses plan to hire.

As federal agencies and contractors cut back in coming months, Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS Global Insight, expects job growth to average 100,000 to 150,000 a month, down from an average 212,000 from December through February.

"The good news is that this is happening at a time when the private economy is gaining momentum," Behravesh said. He expects hiring to pick up after mid-year.

Craig Alexander, chief economist with TD Bank Financial Group, said the economy isn't growing fast enough to generate enough jobs. He expects the economy to grow around 2 percent this year, a sluggish pace. He thinks it would be growing faster, perhaps at a 3 percent annual rate, if not for the Social Security tax increase and the federal budget cuts.

"Fiscal austerity is having an impact," Alexander said.

___

AP Business Writers Jonathan Fahey and Joyce M. Rosenberg in New York contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-adds-just-88k-jobs-rate-drops-7-161233737--finance.html

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Is this a limited edition BlackBerry Z10 in blue or just a very nice custom paint job?

Red might be the limited edition color of choice for the BlackBerry Z10, but how would you feel about a blue one? That's exactly what rapper (and avid BB10 fan) Lil 'E has flourished to his Twitter followers. Looking just as bright as the developer-only red version, we can't quite make out whether we're dealing with an (admittedly eye-catching) customized handset or a special gift to one of the company's biggest fans. We've reached out to BlackBerry to check, but until we hear back, there's another fuzzy shot to ogle after the break.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Blackberry

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/04/blue-limited-edition-blackberry-z10/

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How the New York Mayor's Race Scandal Comes Off Like a Cheesy Gangster Movie

The unfolding New York political scandal is the stuff of movies: an alleged attempt to rig the city?s mayoral election that got six politicians?both Republicans and Democrats?arrested. It's complete with tales of bribery and, of course, a land deal.

And if anyone does want to write a movie about it, they can just use the criminal complaint by federal prosecutors. The dialogue therein includes a gold mine of quotable lines from the defendants that sound like they belong in a cheesy gangster flick.

Here?s the gist of what happened, according to prosecutors: Democratic state Sen. Malcolm Smith wanted to run as a Republican in the New York City mayoral race, and he?s accused of bribing GOP leaders with the help of Queens Republican City Councilman Dan Halloran. An undercover agent posing as a real-estate developer provided the money, and Halloran also allegedly accepted money from him in connection with a Spring Valley land deal. The mayor of that town, Noramie Jasmin, is accused of taking bribes to support the project.

Now, on to the most quotable parts of the investigation, according to the criminal complaint:

?That's politics, that's politics, it's all about how much. Not about whether or will, it's about how much, and that's our politicians in New York, they're all like that, all like that. And they get like that because of the drive that the money does for everything else. You can't do anything without the f---ing money." ? Halloran?

A cooperating witness, who taped many conversations, met with Halloran at a Manhattan restaurant in September. Halloran said he needed money for his congressional campaign. The witness offered him money, and Halloran, in turn, said he could help secure money within the city budget for the witness. This line arose in the course of their conversation.

?Money is what greases the wheels?good, bad, or indifferent.? ? Halloran?

Halloran, who allegedly got $7,500 from the witness, capped off their meeting with this line.

?I?d say, ?If I even give you a nickel more, you?d have to stand on the Empire State Building, and drop every person you endorsed, and hold Malcolm up and say he?s the best thing since sliced bread. Matter of fact, he?s better than sliced bread.? ? ? Smith

Smith talked with an undercover agent, posing as a real-estate developer, and a cooperating witness about bribes they made on his behalf to party committee leaders. He wondered if the leaders were delaying providing a certificate that would help Smith get on the GOP ticket because they wanted more money. Smith told the agent not to give any more money to the leaders, adding this bit of advice.

"The one that I like I'm going to pick. So, if I like yours, I pick you.... If I don't like it you can stick [it] where the sun doesn't shine." ? Jasmin

Spring Valley Mayor Jasmin met with the cooperating witness in August 2011 about a parcel of land she wanted to acquire for the town, that would then go to bid among private developers. She dropped this line when discussing how she would she pick a developer.

?Oh, I can assure you, I don?t know you at all.? ? Jasmin

Jasmin allegedly coached undercover agents on how to present themselves at a board of trustees meeting about the land project. She was asked if the main undercover agent, posing as a real-estate developer, should act as if he had met Jasmin before. This is how she answered.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/york-mayors-race-scandal-comes-off-cheesy-gangster-144201157--politics.html

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Leap Motion hacks show what 3D gesture sensing can do

Gamers, designers and photographers have innovative treats in store when the Leap Motion 3D gesture-sensing computer interface is launched next month

THE launch could be a watershed. Since last May, Leap Motion has shipped 12,000 of its 3D gestural interfaces to eager developers around the world. Now, a little over a month before the device's commercial release, we're getting the first glimpses of its enormous potential.

The Leap Motion sensor, which is 100 times more accurate than Microsoft's Kinect and less than half the price, will have a big launch-day head start on its predecessor. Where Microsoft closed off its device and threatened to prosecute anyone who reverse-engineered the $150 Kinect, Leap Motion has provided all that information up front to developers.

This means there will be a host of applications available ? from Leap-compatible versions of smartphone games to weather and creativity apps ? right from the off on 13 May.

Although it is initially aimed at desktop computers, researchers are already finding ways to jury-rig the Leap to smaller devices, to open up a new realm of interaction. "The idea we envision in the near future is that a Leap Motion-like device will be integrated into a smartphone," says Mingming Fan of the University of California, Irvine. "Instead of just interacting on the touchscreen, the space around the smartphone will be available too."

Fan has already hacked Leap and a smartphone together into a basic demo, but says that his goal is to use the hand tracking to allow a user to reach into the screen by going behind the phone. With Leap tracking the user's hand and displaying its image on the screen, the virtual hand could then be augmented with a gun, say, for first-person shooter games, or with Photoshop tools.

Another group of developers, LabViewHacker in Austin, Texas, needed just 24 hours with the Leap development kit to be able to rig it up to control a quadcopter using hand gestures.

Larger tech firms have also recognised Leap's potential. Brian Pene, a researcher at 3D design company Autodesk in San Francisco, has built a prototype using Leap which lets users manipulate a digital model of an engine with their own hands. "Let's say you wanted to disassemble and reassemble a 3D engine model," he says. "Using a mouse you'd have to pick up everything in 2D space while constantly manipulating the view. With Leap you can reach in and grab much like you do in the physical world."

Meanwhile, developer Vedran ?karica of Croatian firm divIT, has hacked Leap Motion into a basic photo management system, taking advantage of the extra dimension it provides in and out of the screen to make it easier to handle large volumes of photos. He plans to have the software, currently called Project Agatha, ready for Leap's commercial launch.

?karica points out that it will take some time for the truly game-changing 3D interfaces to appear, as 2D controls are so ingrained with computer users ? developers included. "You have to force yourself to forget what you knew, and it takes time to cancel those paradigms. Most Leap demos are just adjustments of multitouch demos," he says.

He also suggests that the enhanced interaction possibilities that Leap offers will trigger a new generation of much more useful 3D displays. "This is the first time that input technology has jumped ahead of display technology," ?karica says. "I've been waiting a while for something that can surpass the mouse, and Leap is definitely it."

This article appeared in print under the headline "A grand Leap forward"

Make your avatar wave

In January, Jason Gholston reached out and touched a virtual universe. A senior producer at Linden Labs, the company behind virtual world Second Life, Gholston has hacked the Leap Motion gestural device. His prototype lets Second Life players control flight, manipulate objects and get their avatar to make gestures. "It's very neat to just wave your hands and see things respond in the world, and with an acceptable amount of latency," says Gholston. Linden Labs has now handed over further Leap development to Second Life's open-source community. Gholston says the Leap has the potential to give Second Lifers full control over their virtual hands and fingers through their real ones.

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N. Korea vows to restart nuke facilities

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? North Korea said Tuesday it will escalate production of nuclear weapons material, including restarting a long-shuttered plutonium reactor, in what outsiders see as Pyongyang's latest attempt to extract U.S. concessions by raising fears of war.

A spokesman for the North's General Department of Atomic Energy said scientists will quickly begin work "readjusting and restarting" a uranium enrichment plant and a graphite-moderated, 5-megawatt reactor that could produce a bomb's worth of plutonium each year. Experts considered the uranium announcement to be a public declaration from Pyongyang that it will make highly enriched uranium that could be used for bomb fuel.

The plutonium reactor began operations in 1986 but was shut down in 2007 as part of international nuclear disarmament talks that have since stalled. It wasn't immediately clear if North Korea had already begun work to restart facilities at its main Nyongbyon nuclear complex. Experts estimate it could take anywhere from three months to a year to reactivate the reactor.

The announcement will boost concerns in Washington and among its allies about North Korea's timetable for building a nuclear-tipped missile that can reach the United States, although it is still believed to be years away from developing that technology.

The nuclear vows and a rising tide of threats in recent weeks are seen as efforts by Pyongyang to force disarmament-for-aid talks with Washington and to increase domestic loyalty to young North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by portraying him as a powerful military commander.

Hwang Jihwan, a North Korea expert at the University of Seoul, said the North "is keeping tension and crisis alive to raise stakes ahead of possible future talks with the United States."

"North Korea is asking the world, 'What are you going to do about this?'" he said.

The unidentified North Korean atomic spokesman said the measure is meant to resolve the country's acute electricity shortage but is also for "bolstering up the nuclear armed force both in quality and quantity," according to a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

The statement suggests the North will do more to produce highly enriched uranium, which like plutonium can be used to make nuclear weapons. Uranium worries outsiders because the technology needed to make highly enriched uranium bombs is much easier to hide than huge plutonium facilities. North Korea previously insisted that its uranium enrichment was for electricity ? meaning low enriched uranium.

Kim Jin Moo, a North Korea expert at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in South Korea, said that by announcing it is "readjusting" all nuclear facilities, including a uranium enrichment plant, North Korea "is blackmailing the international community by suggesting that it will now produce weapons-grade, highly enriched uranium."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday that North Korea appears to be "on a collision course with the international community." Speaking in Andorra, the former South Korean foreign minister said the crisis has gone too far and international negotiations are urgently needed.

China, Pyongyang's only major economic and diplomatic supporter, expressed unusual disappointment with Pyongyang. "We noticed North Korea's statement, which we think is regrettable," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei. Seoul also called it "highly regrettable."

The North's plutonium reactor generates spent fuel rods laced with plutonium and is the core of Nyongbyon. It was disabled under a 2007 deal made at now-dormant aid-for-disarmament negotiations involving the North, the U.S., South Korea, Japan, China and Russia.

In 2008, North Korea destroyed the cooling tower at Nyongbyon in a show of commitment, but the deal later stalled after North Korea balked at allowing intensive international fact-checking of its past nuclear activities. Pyongyang pulled out of the talks after international condemnation of its long-range rocket test in April 2009.

North Korea "is making it clear that its nuclear arms program is the essence of its national security and that it's not negotiable," said Sohn Yong-woo, a professor at the Graduate School of National Defense Strategy of Hannam University in South Korea.

Pyongyang conducted its third nuclear test in February, prompting a new round of U.N. sanctions that have infuriated its leaders. North Korea has since declared that the armistice ending the Korean War in 1953 is void, shut down key military phone and fax hotlines with Seoul, threatened to launch nuclear and rocket strikes on the U.S. mainland and its allies and, most recently, declared at a high-level government assembly that making nuclear arms and a stronger economy are the nation's top priorities.

The Korean Peninsula is technically is a state of war because a truce, not a peace treaty, ended the Korean War. The United States stations 28,500 troops in South Korea as a deterrent to North Korea.

Washington has said it takes the threats seriously, though White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday the U.S. has not detected any military mobilization or repositioning of forces from Pyongyang.

The North's rising rhetoric has been met by a display of U.S. military strength, including flights of nuclear-capable bombers and stealth jets at annual South Korean-U.S. military drills that the allies call routine but that Pyongyang claims are invasion preparations.

South Koreans are familiar with provocations from the North, but its rhetoric over the last few weeks has raised worries.

"This is a serious concern for me," said Heo Jeong-ja, 70, a cleaning lady in Seoul. "The country has to stay calm, but North Korea threatens us every day."

Earlier Tuesday, a senior South Korean official told foreign journalists that there had been no sign of large-scale military movement in North Korea, though South Korea remains alert to the possibility of a provocation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly to the media.

North Korea added its 5-megawatt plutonium reactor to its nuclear complex at Nyongbyon in 1986, and Pyongyang is believed to have exploded plutonium devices in its first two nuclear tests, in 2006 and 2009.

There had long been claims by the U.S. and others that Pyongyang was also pursuing a secret uranium program. In 2010, the North unveiled to visiting Americans a uranium enrichment program at Nyongbyon.

Analysts say they don't believe North Korea currently has mastered the miniaturization technology needed to build a warhead that can be mounted on a missile, and the extent of its uranium enrichment efforts is also unclear.

Scientist and nuclear expert Siegfried Hecker, one of the Americans on the 2010 visit to Nyongbyon, has estimated that Pyongyang has 24 to 42 kilograms of plutonium ? enough for perhaps four to eight rudimentary bombs similar to the plutonium weapon used on Nagasaki in World War II.

It's not known whether the North's latest atomic test, in February, used highly enriched uranium or plutonium stockpiles. South Korea and other countries have so far failed to detect radioactive elements that may have leaked from the test and which could determine what kind of device was used.

__

Associated Press writers Sam Kim and Jean H. Lee in Seoul and AP researcher Zhao Liang in Beijing contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/north-korea-vows-restart-nuclear-facilities-053100771.html

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Obama to propose $100M brain mapping project

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is proposing a new research investment to map the human brain in hopes of eventually finding treatments for traumatic injuries and disorders like Alzheimer's disease and epilepsy.

The president planned to propose an initial $100 million investment next year during remarks Tuesday morning. The White House said in a statement that the goal of the project ? called the BRAIN Initiative for Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies ? is "to revolutionize our understanding of the human mind" and create jobs.

Obama mentioned the idea in his State of the Union address, comparing the scientific and economic potential to the Human Genome Project that was launched as an international effort in 1990 to better understand the genetic impact on health and disease.

"Every dollar we invested to map the human genome returned $140 to our economy. Every dollar," Obama said in the address to Congress in February. "Today, our scientists are mapping the human brain to unlock the answers to Alzheimer's.

"Now is not the time to gut these job-creating investments in science and innovation," Obama said. "Now is the time to reach a level of research and development not seen since the height of the Space Race."

The BRAIN Initiative will require the development of new technology that can record the electrical activity of individual cells and complex neural circuits in the brain "at the speed of thought," the White House said.

Obama wants the $100 million to support research at the National Institutes of Health, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the National Science Foundation. He also wants private companies, universities and philanthropists to partner with the federal agencies in support of the research. And he wants a study of the ethical, legal and societal implications of the research.

The goals of the work are unclear at this point. A working group at NIH, co-chaired by Cornelia "Cori" Bargmann of The Rockefeller University and William Newsome of Stanford University, would work on defining the goals and developing a multi-year plan to achieve them that included cost estimates.

___

Follow Nedra Pickler on Twitter at https://twitter.com/nedrapickler

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2013-04-02-US-Obama-Human-Brain/id-761ca977346f4da883382d932157fcf0

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