Yuji Nakatsukasa
Math. Comp. 89 (2020), 1843-1866.
Abstract, references and article information

Many startups in Britain either do not intend to or cannot access the government's Coronavirus Business Interruption and Loan Scheme, and may be forced to respond with furloughs or layoffs, warns a report

The new rule, which will force payments platforms and online retailers to strongly authenticate purchases of £28 or more has been delayed by another six months amidst the COVID-19 pandemic

The challenger brand launched by the high street bank will be shutting down after informing customers that it is closing down the app-only bank

The relationship wellness app is seeing a significant uptick in interest as couples are locked down together during the COVID-19 pandemic

Burt Totaro
Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 373 (2020), 3609-3626.
Abstract, references and article information

Jungang Li, Guozhen Lu and Qiaohua Yang
Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 373 (2020), 3483-3513.
Abstract, references and article information

Kamen G. Ivanov and Pencho Petrushev
Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 373 (2020), 3117-3176.
Abstract, references and article information

D. V. Gusak and E. V. Karnaukh
Theor. Probability and Math. Statist. 99 (2020), 77-89.
Abstract, references and article information

T. Bodnar, S. Mazur, S. Muhinyuza and N. Parolya
Theor. Probability and Math. Statist. 99 (2020), 39-52.
Abstract, references and article information

G. Kresin and V. Maz'ya
St. Petersburg Math. J. 31 (2020), 495-507.
Abstract, references and article information

The Security Bureau today said that the last Hong Kong resident who had contracted COVID-19 while aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship and was hospitalised in Japan has returned to Hong Kong.

Immigration Department staff that assisted Hong Kong residents in Japan have completed their mission and returned to Hong Kong as well.

In early February, a cluster of COVID-19 infection cases occurred on the Diamond Princess cruise docked in Yokohama.

Of some 3,700 passengers and crew, about 370 were from Hong Kong. The 712 confirmed COVID-19 cases associated with the cruise included 76 Hong Kong residents who were hospitalised in Japan for isolation and treatment.

While three Hong Kong residents passed away, the remaining 73 patients returned to Hong Kong or their places of residence after being discharged from the hospital.

As for other Hong Kong residents on the cruise, the bureau noted that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government arranged three flights, between February 19 and 23, to escort 193 of them back to the city.

Upon arrival, they were transferred to the quarantine centre at Chun Yeung Estate to undergo 14 days of quarantine.

Another 144 Hong Kong residents returned on their own via other flights, including 25 close contacts of the patients who had completed quarantine in Japan.

For those who returned to Hong Kong on their own and did not complete 14 days of quarantine in Japan, they were required to complete the remaining quarantine period at a quarantine centre.

Of the 231 cruise passengers admitted to the quarantine centre at Chun Yeung Estate, nine tested positive for COVID-19 and were sent to hospitals for isolation and treatment.

The Hong Kong SAR Government expressed profound condolences on the passing of the Hong Kong patients and its deepest sympathies to their families.

The SAR Government emphasised that the incident could not have been resolved smoothly without the staunch support of the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Japan and Japanese authorities.

The SAR Government also thanked Cathay Pacific Airways and the Airport Authority for their assistance, the bureau added.

The banking sector today launched a scheme to alleviate the cashflow pressure faced by corporate customers in light of the economic challenges brought about by the COVID-19 outbreak.

Jointly announced by the Monetary Authority and the Banking Sector SME Lending Coordination Mechanism, the Pre-approved Principal Payment Holiday Scheme is estimated to cover more than 80% of all corporate borrowers in Hong Kong.

All corporate customers that have an annual sales turnover of $800 million or less and with no outstanding loan payments overdue for more than 30 days are eligible for the scheme.

Eligible customers’ loan principal payments due within a six-month period between May 1 and October 31 this year will be pre-approved for deferment.

The loans’ principal payments, including revolving facilities, will generally be deferred by six months, whereas trade facilities, given their short-term nature, will be deferred by three months.

The scheme does not cover syndicated loans or loans used for financing purchases of shares or other financial assets.

Banks will begin informing eligible customers of the pre-approval under the scheme as soon as practicable. Eligible customers do not need to apply. They only need to contact the bank within 14 days of the bank’s notice to confirm the detailed arrangements.

The authority has issued a circular requesting all banks to participate in the scheme and has received support from all 11 major lenders in the co-ordination mechanism.

It will monitor the scheme’s operation and maintain close dialogue with banks.

Asian Ethnic Cultural Performances 2019 will be staged on Sunday to demonstrate the diversity of Asia’s cultures.

The event will feature ethnic performances and activities with representatives from 19 Asian countries and places taking part.

Korean traditional Nongak and Taepyeongmu dances, a Japanese Tokushima Awa dance, Indian classical and Bollywood dances, and folk dance performances of countries such as Bangladesh, Laos, Vietnam, the Philippines and Sri Lanka will be showcased.

Hong Kong and Macau arts groups will stage a hip hop lion dance and a cheerleading performance.

Other activities include traditional arts and crafts, costume and food displays, as well as a bamboo musical instrument workshop.

A CIBS mobile studio supported by Radio Television Hong Kong will also be set up to let members of the public learn about broadcasting.

The event will be held from 2pm to 6pm at the Cultural Centre Piazza. Admission is free.

Click here for details.

The Leisure & Cultural Services Department’s Community Oral History Theatre Project will be launched in Kowloon City District on January 15.

An oral history theatre performance and a sharing session will kick off the project.

The performance will feature an excerpt from the production of Sai Kung, Therefore I Live.

It will be held at Hung Hom Community Hall.

Admission is free with tickets.

Click here for details.

The Science Museum is presenting the special Unlocking the Secrets - The Science of Conservation at The Palace Museum exhibition to tie in with the 600th anniversary of the Forbidden City in 2020.

More than 100 artefacts from the Palace Museum collection are being showcased to highlight the application of science and technology in conservation.

They include bronzes, clocks, textiles, thangkas, wood furniture, lacquerware and inlaid works along with ceramics, calligraphy and hand-painted copies of ancient paintings.

The show also presents the Conservation Office’s work by showcasing intriguing restoration cases so that visitors can learn more about the work and skills of conservators as well as their mission to preserve Hong Kong’s heritage assets.

The Science Museum will launch a series of interactive family activities, including demonstrations and workshops conducted by Palace Museum conservators, guided tours featuring theatrical plays and storytelling, and visits to conservation laboratories.

Jointly presented by the Leisure & Cultural Services Department and the Palace Museum, the exhibition will run until March 18 next year.

Call 2732 3232 for enquiries.

The Space Museum will present Turtle Odyssey 3D between January 1 and April 30 where audiences can join sea turtle Bunji for a remarkable adventure and meet an astonishing range of strange and fascinating creatures, including breaching whales, manta rays and clownfish.

Bunji's journey starts from the moment her fragile egg cracks open below the warm sand of an Australian beach.

Having traversed thousands of kilometres of open oceans, she returns after decades with mysterious precision back to the very beach where she was born to lay eggs and start the next generation.

Her journey reminds the audience of how interconnected all creatures are, moving them to cherish these beautiful and vulnerable sea turtles even more.

The 41-minute show will be screened daily at 2.40pm and 6.10pm. An additional show at 11.10am will be available on Sundays and public holidays.

Tickets are available at the Space Museum Box Office and URBTIX. The museum is closed on Tuesdays except public holidays.

Click here for details.

How do you determine whether or not to attend a particular conference? As a working example to see through to natural generalizations, let’s use the JMM. [Just to choose a conference we’ve all heard of, attend at least once in … Continue reading →

Required reading for any academic is Philip Roth’s “The Human Stain.” In the first few pages an older, tenured professor is “forced to retire.” Why? There were two students who never were present when he called roll. Even after roll … Continue reading →

Screw lemonade. If life gives you lemons, find someone who got vodka and make a martini. I have been teaching college classes online since March 21. Do I enjoy it? Not particularly. Is it a lot more work? God, yes. … Continue reading →

The Les Arcs Co-Production village, running December 13-16 within the Les Arcs European Film Festival (Dec 13-20), will present 25 projects in development and a further 10 works-in-progress. Several of the projects chosen for this year’s event are Irish films and films with Irish producers’ backing.

The Development Bureau today announced that the Land Sharing Pilot Scheme will open for applications tomorrow to help unleash the development potential of qualified private land.

The private land must be with consolidated ownership that is outside specified environmentally sensitive areas and not covered by the Government's development studies.

In connection with the pilot scheme’s launch, the Chief Executive has appointed 10 members from a wide spectrum of sectors to a Panel of Advisors to offer independent opinions on the applications received and advise on the scheme's operation.

Chaired by Dr David Wong, the panel members will serve a term of 3.5 years starting May 1.

Secretary for Development Michael Wong said while government-led planning and land resumption remains the mainstream and continues to dominate its land creation agenda, the pilot scheme seeks to complement such efforts by tapping into market resources and efficiencies to boost both public and private housing in the short to medium term.

Under the scheme, the Government will facilitate infrastructural improvements that will enhance the development intensity of the private lots under application.

In return, the applicants are required to hand over part of the lots they own in the form of formed land that is capable of delivering at least 70% of the increased domestic gross floor area for public housing or Starter Homes developments intended by the Government.

Each project under the scheme should be capable of delivering an increased domestic gross floor area of no less than 50,000 sq m in total and at least 1,000 additional housing units.

The application period lasts for three years until May 5, 2023, subject to a cap of 150 hectares on the total area of private land to be approved.

The development chief added that the Government’s target is to convert the agricultural lots into spade-ready sites ready for housing construction within four to 6.5 years from the time applications are received.

Amy P. Campbell
May 1, 2017; 30:76-81
From Research to Practice

Several fundamental weaknesses have been exposed in the most common Wi-Fi security protocols.

The partnership will join hands with four UK startups as it hopes to reduce plastic waste as part of its retail tech initiative, JLAB

Karin Melnick of the University of Maryland, College Park, has been awarded the AMS Joan and Joseph Birman Fellowship for Women Scholars for the 2020–2021 academic year.

Melnick’s research is on differential-geometric aspects of rigidity. This work comprises global and local results relating the automorphisms of a differential-geometric structure with the geometric and topological properties of the space. Melnick also works in smooth dynamics, in which an invariant differential-geometric structure plays an important role in the proof of rigidity theorems. Melnick is a leader in research on the Lorentzian Lichnerowicz conjecture, a statement about conformal transformations of compact Lorentzian manifolds. Together with collaborators, she has developed new techniques in the setting of Cartan connections that have facilitated progress on this problem, as well as many results for other differential-geometric structures and general parabolic Cartan geometries.  

Brief Biography of Karin Melnick:

Melnick received her PhD at the University of Chicago in 2006 under the direction of Benson Farb. With an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, she went to Yale University as a Gibbs Assistant Professor. She received a Junior Research Fellowship from the Erwin Schrödinger Institute in the spring of 2009 and that fall began at the University of Maryland, where she is now an associate professor. Previously, Melnick has been awarded an AMS Centennial Fellowship and an NSF CAREER grant. She divides her time between the U.S. and Germany with her partner and their young child, and is very grateful for the flexibility provided by the Birman Fellowship and the opportunities it provides to advance her research and career goals.  

About the Fellowship:

Established in 2017, the AMS Joan and Joseph Birman Fellowship for Women Scholars seeks to give exceptionally talented women extra research support during their mid-career years. The primary selection criterion for the Birman Fellowship, which carries a stipend of US$50,000, is the excellence of the candidate’s research. Read an interview with Joan Birman about her decision to create the Fellowship with the goal of "helping more women mathematicians to develop their creative voices." See more information about the Fellowship.

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The American Mathematical Society is dedicated to advancing research and connecting the diverse global mathematical community through our publications, meetings and conferences, MathSciNet, professional services, advocacy, and awareness programs.

The AMS is pleased to announce that Scott Hershberger has been chosen as the 2020 AMS Mass Media Fellow. Scott studied mathematics and physics at Washington University in St. Louis and will graduate in May 2020. He will be working at Scientific American this summer.

The Mass Media Science and Engineering Fellows program is organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). This program is designed to improve public understanding of science and technology by placing advanced undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate science, mathematics and engineering students in media outlets nationwide. The fellows work for ten weeks over the summer as reporters, researchers, and production assistants alongside media professionals to sharpen their communication skills and increase their understanding of the editorial process by which events and ideas become news.

Now in its 45th year, this fellowship program has placed more than 700 fellows in media organizations nationwide as they research, write, and report today’s headlines. The program is designed to report science-related issues in the media in easy-to-understand ways so as to improve public understanding and appreciation for science and technology.

For more information on the AMS Mass Media Fellowship, visit the website.