The case for a massive black hole in the center of the Galaxy is reassessed using improved modeling techniques and observational data. A dark mass of ~2 ×10 6 M⊙ is present within 0.2 pc of the Galactic center. However, the available data can be modeled, without appealing to a massive black hole, using an extended distribution of dark stellar remnants (neutron stars and stellar mass black holes) provided that the stellar initial mass function in the central parsec is deficient in stars less massive than ~1 M⊙. Such a situation may be a natural consequence of repeated gas build-up followed by starbursts in the central region. A clear distinction between this and the massive central black hole model cannot be made using red giant tracers outside 0.2 pc due to uncertainties in the radial velocity dispersion distribution. The cluster of massive early-type emission-line stars in the central parcsec more effectively probe the mass distribution close to Sgr A *, but their small number and partial rotational support complicate mass determinations. Proper motion determinations for stars within 0.5' of Sgr A * may be the most effective means of unambiguously determining the mass distribution in the immediate vicinity of the Galactic center.

Purpose- This study seeks to investigate the impact of foreign remittances on private sector investment and the moderating role of banking sector development in Sub-Saharan African Countries. Research design, data, and methodology-The study has used a sample of 15 Sub-Saharan African countries and data for the years 1986 – 2017. Data was obtained from the World Bank Development Indicator (WDI) Database. Panel data diagnostic tests were conducted to ascertain the suitability of the data for regression analysis. The data was analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics, while the hypothesis was tested through hierarchical regression analysis. Results- The finding of this study indicates that foreign remittances and banking sector development had a significant and positive effect on private investment in Sub-Saharan Africa. Besides, the banking sector development significantly moderated the foreign remittances and private sector investment relationship. Conclusions- Based on the results, the study concludes that banking sector development has an important influence on foreign remittances and private sector investment nexus. Due to the antagonistic interaction between foreign remittance and banking sector development, the study recommends the use of alternative ways of channeling remittances to private investment such as; issuance of diaspora bonds and appeal for direct investment by citizens living abroad.

I describe a series of processes, including hierarchical fragmentation, gravitational scattering, Kozai cycles within triple systems, tidal friction and magnetic braking, that I believe are responsible for producing the modest but significant fraction of stars that are observed as contact binaries. I also discuss further processes, namely heat transport, mass transport, nuclear evolution, thermal relaxation oscillations, and further magnetic braking with tidal friction, that influence the evolution during contact. The endpoint, for contact, is that the two components merge into a single star, as recently was observed in the remarkable system V1309 Sco. The single star probably throws off some mass and rotates rapidly at first, and then slows by magnetic braking to become a rather inconspicuous but normal dwarf or subgiant. If however the contact binary was part of a triple system originally–as I suggested above was rather likely–then the result could be a widish binary with apparently non-coeval components. There are several such known.

Research in theoretical linguistics is often driven by a goal of a reduction of theoretical postulates and the simplification of the overall system. Apparently disparate accounts of disparate phenomena may be shown to all full under one meta-principle, or the effects of some mechanism may be shown to follow from other independent components of the grammar. Specifically, I will only be concerned here with the part of X`-theory that distinguishes words from phrases-considering in what ways the syntax needs to make reference to the notions of minimal and maximal projection. We will see that non-saturated elements can be selected as X^0s, and that saturated elements may have special distribution of X^0, not XP. Adverbs, particles and pronouns lack valence or selectional properties, yet need not, and in some cases must not, behave as phrases. Consequently, the attempt to reduce phrasality to saturatedness seems misguided.