All 30 Major League teams will wear special "MLB 150" patches on their uniforms for the entire 2019 season in honor of the 150th anniversary of the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first openly all-salaried professional baseball team.

After seeing improved communication between pitchers and catchers last year, the "campfire" drill was put back on the D-backs' schedule and took place Friday at Salt River Fields.

The next five weeks will see lots of shuffling on Major League rosters. Here are the most intriguing positional battles on each of the 30 MLB clubs.

Histone H2B monoubiquitylation (H2Bub1) has central functions in multiple DNA-templated processes, including gene transcription, DNA repair, and replication. H2Bub1 also is required for the trans-histone regulation of H3K4 and H3K79 methylation. Although previous studies have elucidated the basic mechanisms that establish and remove H2Bub1, we have only an incomplete understanding of how H2Bub1 is regulated. We report here that the histone H4 basic patch regulates H2Bub1. Yeast cells with arginine-to-alanine mutations in the H4 basic patch (H42RA) exhibited a significant loss of global H2Bub1. H42RA mutant yeast strains also displayed chemotoxin sensitivities similar to, but less severe than, strains containing a complete loss of H2Bub1. We found that the H4 basic patch regulates H2Bub1 levels independently of interactions with chromatin remodelers and separately from its regulation of H3K79 methylation. To measure H2B ubiquitylation and deubiquitination kinetics in vivo, we used a rapid and reversible optogenetic tool, the light-inducible nuclear exporter, to control the subcellular location of the H2Bub1 E3 ligase, Bre1. The ability of Bre1 to ubiquitylate H2B was unaffected in the H42RA mutant. In contrast, H2Bub1 deubiquitination by SAGA-associated Ubp8, but not by Ubp10, increased in the H42RA mutant. Consistent with a function for the H4 basic patch in regulating SAGA deubiquitinase activity, we also detected increased SAGA-mediated histone acetylation in H4 basic patch mutants. Our findings uncover that the H4 basic patch has a regulatory function in SAGA-mediated histone modifications.

The Trump administration has been steadily building a case to penalize "sanctuary" cities—those jurisdictions that in some way limit their cooperation with federal immigration authorities—after threatening to cut federal funding. Despite court rulings that seemed to strike a blow against these efforts, the Justice Department is moving forward with its strategy, relying on a broad interpretation of a federal statute, as this article explores.

Former star quarterback Peyton Manning delivered some trash talk to Tampa Bay Buccaneers star Tom Brady while they promoted their May 24 charity golf match.

A Florida sheriff's office said a driver reversing out of a bank parking lot accidentally ended up backing up onto two other cars.

A young bull went wandering on a Massachusetts highway after escaping from a trailer and was captured without causing any incidents, police said.

A Florida TV station's weather radar detected a large mass between the state and Cuba that turned out to be something other than an unseasonable storm -- it was a flock of migrating birds.

A California 14-year-old who graduated high school at the age of 13 said she has now been accepted into the music programs at eight California universities.

Police in India said officers suspecting thieves were behind the damage to an ATM in a bank kiosk reviewed security camera footage and discovered the machine had been partially disassembled by a curious monkey.

A San Francisco rapper is attempting to break a Guinness World Record with a live-streamed performance featuring 33 hours, 30 minutes and 30 seconds of freestyle rapping.

A Utah man who lost his high school class ring in Germany in 1982 was reunited with the ring thanks to a man who found it on a beach in the United States.

A pair of Idaho men tackled an unusual Guinness World Record by most table tennis balls caught in shaving foam on the head in 30 seconds (team of 2).

A security guard at a Minnesota mall that's currently closed to the COVID-19 pandemic captured photos and video of his encounter with a bear that went window-shopping for pasta.

Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Schwartz and other celebrities read text messages from their mothers on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" in honor of Mother's Day.

Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber released their music video for "Stuck With U."

"Real Housewives of New York" star Tinsley Mortimer gave an update on her wedding plans amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Pete Davidson discussed on "The Tonight Show" how Bill Hader helped him land a spot on "Saturday Night Live."

Kelly Clarkson discussed the challenges of filming "The Voice" at home amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Do you let your kids watch Disney and Pixar movies? They're all created by liberals.

Two centuries ago, Napoleon Bonaparte sent his armies into Spain to overthrow a monarch who had once been a French ally. Napoleon, who believed he was touched by the hand of destiny, predicted his troops would be welcomed as liberators by ordinary Spaniards. He was wrong. The resulting Peninsular War from 1808 to 1814 seriously undermined French prestige, handed Napoleon a stinging defeat and produced a raft of unanticipated consequences that included the outbreak of deadly civil wars....

All 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have developed blueprints to meet their commitments under the Every Student Succeeds Act—including requirements that aim to raise the profile of English Learners (EL) in state accountability systems. This report breaks these plans down, comparing the significant diversity of approaches taken on everything from EL identification to tracking academic achievement.

Lovely sweet and easy to bake cookies.

A reader submitted the following question: “I recently discovered that my husband is attracted to transsexuals (MTF - non op). This is the only type of porn that he looks at. He also role plays online with men for sexual play and chat. I discovered this after I started snooping because I had some red flags. He is very embarrassed and uncomfortable discussing it. He has apologized for the online chatting (as we had agreed this was out of bounds for our relationship). He says he likes them because they are feminine but his primary attraction is to women (with female parts). However, I just am not sure I believe him. I am terrified that when we are intimate (which I have to pretty much beg for), he can only do it when its dark and I am fearful he is fantasizing that I have a penis. This bothers me deeply on a number of different levels. Are there men who are only interested in transsexuals? Is it possible he is no longer turned on by my female genitalia?” There’s a lot to unpack in this question, but let’s start here: over the years, I’ve received several emails from women describing similar stories and concerns, so you’re not alone in feeling the way that you do.

Officials have not done enough to prevent fraud in Head Start programs, the GAO said. The findings prompted Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., the ranking member of the House education and labor committee, to call for a hearing on the federally funded preschool program for low-income children.

Coronavirus has shut down schools across the country, forcing millions of students to learn at home. In this video, families from Seattle to Maine describe how they are adjusting to this new reality.

The U.S. Supreme Court will arguments in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, a case that's been closely watched by both friends and opponent of private school vouchers and tax-credit scholarship programs.

Federal watchdogs find that Utah inflated its high school graduation rate in the last of a series of reports warning states not to make end runs around the rules for calculating graduation rates.

There are 130 major college football teams, spread across 41 states and competing in 10 conferences, save for a handful of independents. The goal is to have all those teams start the upcoming season at the same time - whether that's around Labor Day as scheduled or later - and play the same number of games. Despite the best intentions of conference leaders, the possibility exists of college football being played in SEC country before it begins in Pac-12 territory - or something else entirely.

Weinstein, Harvey, 1952-

London : H.K. Lewis, 1890.

Bruxelles (rue de l'Industrie) : Félix Callewaert père, éditeur, 1875.

London (No. 32 Clipstone Street, Fitzroy Square) : Publish'd ... by S. Morgan, May 1st. 1802.

[London], [between 1820 and 1829?]

How to tune in to Tom Wilson's best games on Sunday.

A 24-team Stanley Cup Playoffs? Here's a look at the latest NHL buzz and a hypothetical Flyers matchup. By Jordan Hall

Troy Brouwer scored the game-winning goal as the Capitals beat the Blackhawks at Nationals Park on Jan. 1, 2015. Relive the excitement with Monday night's replay.

We develop an encompassing framework for matching, covariate balancing, and doubly-robust methods for causal inference from observational data called generalized optimal matching (GOM). The framework is given by generalizing a new functional-analytical formulation of optimal matching, giving rise to the class of GOM methods, for which we provide a single unified theory to analyze tractability and consistency. Many commonly used existing methods are included in GOM and, using their GOM interpretation, can be extended to optimally and automatically trade off balance for variance and outperform their standard counterparts. As a subclass, GOM gives rise to kernel optimal matching (KOM), which, as supported by new theoretical and empirical results, is notable for combining many of the positive properties of other methods in one. KOM, which is solved as a linearly-constrained convex-quadratic optimization problem, inherits both the interpretability and model-free consistency of matching but can also achieve the $sqrt{n}$-consistency of well-specified regression and the bias reduction and robustness of doubly robust methods. In settings of limited overlap, KOM enables a very transparent method for interval estimation for partial identification and robust coverage. We demonstrate this in examples with both synthetic and real data.

Seong-Hwan Jun, Samuel W. K. Wong, James V. Zidek, Alexandre Bouchard-Côté.

Source: The Annals of Applied Statistics, Volume 13, Number 3, 1678--1707.

Abstract:
In this paper, we consider the knot-matching problem arising in computational forestry. The knot-matching problem is an important problem that needs to be solved to advance the state of the art in automatic strength prediction of lumber. We show that this problem can be formulated as a quadripartite matching problem and develop a sequential decision model that admits efficient parameter estimation along with a sequential Monte Carlo sampler on graph matching that can be utilized for rapid sampling of graph matching. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our methods on 30 manually annotated boards and present findings from various simulation studies to provide further evidence supporting the efficacy of our methods.

Adriana Coutinho, Rodrigo Lambert, Jérôme Rousseau.

Source: Bernoulli, Volume 26, Number 3, 2021--2050.

Abstract:
We investigate the length of the longest common substring for encoded sequences and its asymptotic behaviour. The main result is a strong law of large numbers for a re-scaled version of this quantity, which presents an explicit relation with the Rényi entropy of the source. We apply this result to the zero-inflated contamination model and the stochastic scrabble. In the case of dynamical systems, this problem is equivalent to the shortest distance between two observed orbits and its limiting relationship with the correlation dimension of the pushforward measure. An extension to the shortest distance between orbits for random dynamical systems is also provided.

Genetic genealogy -- Handbooks, manuals, etc.

The Office of Special Counsel is recommending that ousted vaccine official Dr. Rick Bright be reinstated while it investigates his case, his lawyers announced Friday.Bright while leading coronavirus vaccine development was recently removed from his position as the director of the Department of Health and Human Services' Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, and he alleges it was because he insisted congressional funding not go toward "drugs, vaccines, and other technologies that lack scientific merit" and limited the "broad use" of hydroxychloroquine after it was touted by President Trump. In a whistleblower complaint, he alleged "cronyism" at HHS. He has also alleged he was "pressured to ignore or dismiss expert scientific recommendations and instead to award lucrative contracts based on political connections."On Friday, Bright's lawyers said that the Office of Special Counsel has determined there are "reasonable grounds to believe" his firing was retaliation, The New York Times reports. The federal watchdog also recommended he be reinstated for 45 days to give the office "sufficient time to complete its investigation of Bright's allegations," CNN reports. The decision on whether to do so falls on Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, and Office of Special Counsel recommendations are "not binding," the Times notes. More stories from theweek.com Outed CIA agent Valerie Plame is running for Congress, and her launch video looks like a spy movie trailer 7 scathing cartoons about America's rush to reopen Trump says he couldn't have exposed WWII vets to COVID-19 because the wind was blowing the wrong way

Elizabeth A. Stuart

Source: Statist. Sci., Volume 25, Number 1, 1--21.

Abstract:
When estimating causal effects using observational data, it is desirable to replicate a randomized experiment as closely as possible by obtaining treated and control groups with similar covariate distributions. This goal can often be achieved by choosing well-matched samples of the original treated and control groups, thereby reducing bias due to the covariates. Since the 1970s, work on matching methods has examined how to best choose treated and control subjects for comparison. Matching methods are gaining popularity in fields such as economics, epidemiology, medicine and political science. However, until now the literature and related advice has been scattered across disciplines. Researchers who are interested in using matching methods—or developing methods related to matching—do not have a single place to turn to learn about past and current research. This paper provides a structure for thinking about matching methods and guidance on their use, coalescing the existing research (both old and new) and providing a summary of where the literature on matching methods is now and where it should be headed.

Adobe just announced what it calls the first digital economy index. It seems like it's modeled after other indices usually kept by the federal government to measure economic output and consumption. The Adobe index captures only consumer consumption behavior though. Some of its insights include new shopping behavior, such as which products have become hot items or decreased in popularity over time.

Architects and designers restored royal ruins across Europe to their former glory