Evidence against a redshift z > 6 for the galaxy STIS123627+621755

The identification of galaxies at extreme distances provides the most direct information about the earliest phases of galaxy formation. But at redshifts z > 5 even the most luminous galaxies appear faint; the interpretation of low signal-to-noise ratio data is difficult and misidentifications do occur. Here we report optical and near-infrared observations of the source STIS123627+621755, which was previously suggested to be at a redshift of 6.68 (ref. 1). At that redshift, and with the reported spectral energy distribution, the galaxy should be essentially invisible at wavelengths less than 9,300 A, because the intervening intergalactic medium absorbs almost all light energetic enough to ionize neutral hydrogen--that is, with wavelengths less than the redshifted Lyman limit of lambda = (1 + z) x 912A. At near-infrared wavelengths, however, the galaxy should be relatively bright. Here we report a detection of the galaxy at 6,700 A and a non-detection at a wavelength of 1.2 microm, contrary to expectations for z approximately 6.68. The data conservatively require that STIS123627+621755 has a redshift z < 6.     

SCHEDULING IN THE SERVICE INDUSTRIES:AN OVERVIEW

Scheduling plays an important role in many different service industries.In this paper we provide an overview of some of the more important scheduling problems that appear in the various service industries.We focus on the formulations of such problems as well as on the techniques used for solving those problems.We consider five areas of scheduling in service industries,namely(i) project scheduling,(ii) workforce scheduling,(iii) timetabling,reservations,and appointments,(iv)transportation scheduling,and(v) scheduling in entertainment.The first two areas are fairly general and have applications in many different service industries.The third,fourth and fifth areas are more related to some very specific service industries,namely the hospitality and health care industries,the transportation industries(of passengers as well as of cargo),and the entertainment industries.In our conclusion section we discuss the similarities and the differences between the problem formulations and solution techniques used in the various different industries and we also discuss the design of the decision support systems that have been developed for scheduling in the service industries.