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Promoting sustainable and equitable transportation worldwide
Complete Streets and Parking Management
Pune – Pimpri-Chinchwad
India Cycles4Change Challenge
Streets for People Challenge
Urbanlogue
Urbanlogue Webinars – Series One
Urbanlogue Webinars – Series Two
Spotlight on Pune
Every year, the Sustainable Transport Award is given to a city that has implemented innovative projects to improve mobility, reduce air pollution and greenhouse emissions, and improve safety and access for pedestrians and cyclists. Pune was awarded the Sustainable Transport Award 2020, making it the second Indian city after Ahmedabad to win this award.
In the last two decades, Pune has shown an extraordinary commitment to improving sustainable mobility for its people by taking steps to improve walking, cycling, and public transport across the city. This transformation has only been possible through Pune's relentless efforts to expand sustainable transport infrastructure by allocating resources, implementing institutional reforms, and building capacity. Over the years, the city has forged partnerships with technical experts, civil society groups, and educational institutions to transform Pune into a lighthouse for other cities.
In this video, Pranjal Kulkarni—Senior Research Associate, Urban Development at the ITDP India Programme—takes you through Pune's journey of ensuring safe, affordable, and sustainable transport with a showcase of the city's achievements in non-motorised and public transport, and exclusive interviews with the city's officials who have enabled the city's dramatic transformation.
Written by Avishek Jha
This video is a part of MOBILIZE Virtual 2020: Building Collective Action for the Next Decade.
Filed Under: Uncategorised Tagged With: mobilize, Public Transport, Pune, sustainable transport award, Walking and Cycling
Santiago: Winner of STA, Host of MOBILIZE 2017
3rd June 2017 By admin Leave a Comment
Bus Rapid Transit (km) 92 | BRT Passengers (per day) 50,000 | Bike Share Stations 175 | Total Bike Share Bikes 2600 | Total Cyclist (per day) 40,000| Cycling Infrastructure (km) 36
Santiago, the Chilean capital with an urban population of five million, and a metro area population of over seven million, is a beautiful old-world city enjoying a modern day renaissance. Despite the city's attempt to improve transport for its people through its BRT Transantiago in 2006, it had been lagging behind other cities in the region on cycling and walking.
However, between 2015-16, non-motorised (walking and cycling) and public transportation in Santiago underwent significant development, transforming the city into a haven for its citizens. Santiago was thus announced as the winner of the 2017 Sustainable Transport Award (STA). The city will be hosting ITDP's annual sustrans summit MOBILIZE between June 28 – 30, 2017.
Our Indian government also aims to implement such people-friendly mobility initiatives through the Smart City Mission, and can draw on the lessons of Santiago at MOBILIZE. Amongst other attendees from India, Sameer Sharma, Additional Secretary & Smart City Mission Director, MoUD will also be at the summit. As a speaker, he will be sharing his thoughts on how a city can be made inclusive through principles of mobility and access.
https://itdp.in/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Santiago-Chile-2017-Sustainable-Transport-Award-Winner-SD.mp4
Car ownership has soared in Chile over the past decade along with the economy, with the number of cars bough increasing each year from 2003 to 2014. Greater Santiago is now home to seven million people, and four million cars. However, the last few years have seen considerable changes. Owing to the significant improvements in transit, cycling & walking, and the overall public realm, as a result of the city's Integrated Mobility Plan, more Santiaguinos have shifted to these modes to get around their city.
Santiago's Calle Aillavilú, in the central market of the city, has been transformed from a derelict, car-congested and unregulated parking lot to a pedestrian-friendly oasis. The street was repaved, lighting improved, new trees were planted, and most importantly, cars were removed. Except for the scheduled delivery of goods, no motorized traffic is allowed. Calle Placer, one of the busiest pedestrian streets during a popular weekend market, is now completely closed to cars on the weekends, with a 2.2 million USD investment by the city for improved sidewalks, lighting, and sanitation.
On Sunday mornings, cars are banned from 40 kilometers of Santiago's roads. Around 30,000 people take to those vehicle-free streets on bikes, skateboards, rollerblades, or simply on foot. The Car-Free days in many Indian cities have also been highly successful and can be scaled up, learning from Santiago.
The redesigned Plaza de Armas in the city centre, to prioritise pedestrians
Other public space improvements include an investment in 100 sqm. of new green spaces in historic residential neighborhoods, revitalizing a previously abandoned area, and the re-design of the Historical Center's main streets, featuring more sidewalk space, improved lighting, beautification, and a "complete streets" redesign for public transport exclusive corridors in the most active pedestrian zone in the country.
Cycling mode share has doubled since 2006, with the number of cyclists on major routes growing by 25 percent a year for the past two years. The City has backed up this achievement with new sustainable transport policy changes and education programs. In April 2015, the National Ministry of Housing and Urbanism created a detailed standard of design for high quality cycle lanes, even piloting it in a major street near the presidential palace. The policy redistributes road spaces to create more space for cyclist. This standard was quickly adopted by Santiago, and the city has managed to increase cycling trips from a negligible 150 per day to over 5000 per day.
Cycle Lanes in Santiago
This number is expected to further rise with the growing popularity of BikeSantiago, the city's bike share program, which accounts for 50 percent of the increase. Santiago also gave support to BMov Trici, a free bicycle taxi in the historic city center operated by a private company, supported by advertising, that encourages cycle use and provides a non-motorized alternative to taxis.
The city has also adopted a pilot program of cycling games in kindergarten to help introduce cycling early in life and a traffic education program at primary schools to create better cyclist behavior.
The cycling games program intends to familiarize children with cycling culture and safety
With all these efforts to improve the quality of life for the people, Santiago won STA 2017 and will be the site of Mobilize 2017, ITDP's annual Sustainable Transport Summit, supported by the Volvo Research and Education Foundations. This event will give international transportation researchers and professionals an opportunity to experience this emerging city as a learning lab for best practices in sustainable transport. For more information, visit mobilizesummit.org
Filed Under: Uncategorised Tagged With: Cycle sharing, mobilize, santiago, sustainable transport award, Walking and Cycling
ITDP's annual sustrans summit MOBILIZE in Santiago this year
30th May 2017 By admin Leave a Comment
For three days next month, 200 urban transport and development planners, practitioners, and officials, world-class researchers, and NGO representatives will convene in Santiago to share opportunities, challenges, and study the example of Santiago as an international best practice in pedestrian, cycling, public transit, and policy. Organizers expect representatives from around 20 nations to attend the MOBILIZE Summit, June 28-30, to be held at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.
Speakers will include Dr. Philipp Rode, Executive Director of LSE Cities at The London School of Economics, Laura Ballesteros, Undersecretary of Planning for the Secretariat of Mobility of Mexico City, Shin-pei Tsay, Executive Director of the Gehl Institute, and Dr. Sameer Sharma, Additional Secretary & Smart City Mission Director, Ministry of Urban Development, India.
(Left to Right) Philipp Rhode, Laura Ballesteros, Shin-pei Tsay and Sameer Sharma
MOBILIZE is an annual summit organized by ITDP. The summit aims to elevate the winner of the annual Sustainable Transport Award. MOBILIZE spotlights the achievements of the winning city and gives transport professionals and researchers from around the world an opportunity to experience the city as a learning lab with lessons on how to get world class projects implemented.
Last June, Santiago was announced as the winner of the Sustainable Transport Award, selected for major improvements in pedestrian space, cycling, and public transit, by a committee of international transport experts. Together, the STA and MOBILIZE highlight an elite group of international cities that inspire and catalyze more cities around the world to implement transport solutions of their own.
Director of Mobility Miguel Olivares accepting the award award from STA Committee Chair, Michael Kodransky, at the ceremony in Washington, DC
"MOBILIZE will bring together leading thinkers and city shapers for a capacity building opportunity using Santiago as a learning laboratory. Santiago was chosen this year for implementing strategic projects that focus on improving walking conditions as a top priority," said Michael Kodransky, Chair of the STA Committee and Head of MOBILIZE, "Walking infrastructure and access to transit stations are a big concern for cities all over the world. Santiago has made walking, cycling, and public transit in the city center a key component of improving quality of life and easing congestion. The lessons and challenges from Santiago will surely resonate with other municipalities."
Participants, including representatives from the Municipality of Santiago, Santiago Metro region, and the Chilean Ministries of Transport and Housing, will spend half the day in workshops sharing ideas and best practices in sustainable transport, development, and urban planning, and half the day on site visits in and around the city, including visits to Transantiago, the public bicycle and cycle network, and a walking tour of the newly-redesigned streets in the city center.
"We are very pleased to participate in MOBILIZE, and welcome participants to this key global summit on sustainable transport. This June, the eyes of the sustainable transport community will be on Santiago, and those who visit us will find a very interesting opportunity to learn from these new changes and advances that our municipality, and the city region, have made," said the Mayor of the Municipality of Santiago, Felipe Alessandri.
ITDP is organizing the summit in partnership with the Volvo Research and Education Foundation (VREF), and additional sponsors, and is consulting with a local host committee as planning moves forward.
Mayor Felipe Alessandri, Host
Juan Carlos Muñoz, Chair, Director of the Bus Rapid Transit Centre of Excellence
Claudio Orrego, Intendant of the Metropolitan Region
Paulina Saball, Minister of Housing and Urbanism
Claudio Olivares Medina, Bicivilizate
2017 will be the second annual MOBILIZE Summit. The first was held in 2016 in Yichang, China by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) in co-operation with VREF and the City of Yichang. More information on MOBILIZE Yichang is available.
Sustainable transport and development professionals interested in attending should contact Nora.Pena@itdp.org to request an invitation. Members of the press interested in attending should contact Jemilah.Magnusson@itdp.org . For more information, visit mobilizesummit.org.
Filed Under: Uncategorised Tagged With: mobilize, santiago, sustainable transport award
© 2021 ITDP


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The National Law Journal Names Hector Torres a Mergers & Acquisitions and Antitrust Trailblazer
The National Law Journal has recognized name and co-founding partner Hector Torres as a "Mergers & Acquisitions and Antitrust Trailblazer." Mr. Torres is one of the nation's top lawyers for the prosecution of antitrust and other complex commercial cases. In pursuing antitrust and competition claims against global cartels over the past two decades, he combines aggressive litigation with a flexible ADR strategy including mediation, negotiation and international arbitration to obtain optimal recoveries and outcomes for companies victimized by anti-competitive conduct of global cartels.
The "Trailblazers" series honors individuals who have advanced their legal practice areas through the use of innovative strategies. The "Mergers & Acquisitions and Antitrust" list celebrates just 50 lawyers from throughout the country for exemplary achievements.
To read Hector Torres's "Mergers & Acquisitions and Antitrust Trailblazer" profile in its entirety, please click here.
Hector Torres
Partner / New York

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Responsible and ethical tourism is something that is becoming an increasing concern for many backpackers and independent travellers, but it is such a large umbrella term that there is often a lot of misinformation and confusion about what this means in practical terms.
All responsible travel means is essentially recognising the many diverse issues around ethical tourism and highlighting issues such as social injustice, human rights, animal welfare or ecotourism, and using that knowledge to change the way we travel.
Independent world travellers and backpackers are becoming increasingly aware of the footprint they leave behind on their travels, and are increasingly looking into minimising their carbon footprint, supporting parts of the tourist or gap year industries that adhere to international standards on various issues or travelling in such a way that travel can benefit local populations, the environment or animal and conservation efforts instead of damaging them.
Click here to read the Bemused Backpacker Code Of Responsible Travel.
Responsible travel is something I believe passionately about and the theme of that runs through every part of this site, including various sections where you can read more in depth about specific issues.
As a result, I have put together a guide, a code of conduct, that each and every traveller out there should try and uphold in every decision that they make on their own round the world adventures. I urge each and every traveller who reads the tips and advice on this site, or is inspired to take their own round the world trip from my backpacking adventures, to please read this and spread the word. I urge each and every one of you to do your research, be aware of the issues, make ethical choices and travel responsibly.
Are Camel Safari's Responsible Or Ethical?
How To Volunteer With Wildlife On Your Gap Year.
The Elephant In The Room: Why You Shouldn't Go On An Elephant Trek In Thailand.
Why Are People Still Visiting Thailand's Tiger Temple?
Should You Pay To Volunteer On Your Gap Year?
Spotlight On BAWA, Volunteering In Bali.
The Dark Truth About Orphanage Volunteering.
What Type Of Volunteer Are You?
How Responsible Travel Is Boosting Welsh Tourism.
How To Make Your Gap Year Responsible, Ethical And Sustainable.
Disaster Tourism And The Darker Side Of Travel.
Palm Oil Is Burning Borneo.
Travelling Through A Burning Hell In South East Asia, And No One Cares.
An Unconscionable Coffee Delicacy. Should Travellers Be Drinking Kopi Luwak?
Why I Walked Across Mount Bromo's Sea Of Sand.


text:
#ifndef SPARROW_NDDOMETHODWRAPPER_H
#define SPARROW_NDDOMETHODWRAPPER_H

#include <Sparrow/Implementations/GenericMethodWrapper.h>
#include <Utils/Technical/CloneInterface.h>
#include <Utils/UniversalSettings/SettingsNames.h>

namespace Scine {

namespace Utils {
class Settings;
class ScfMethod;
class SpinAdaptedMatrix;
} // namespace Utils

namespace Sparrow {
class CISData;
class DipoleMatrixCalculator;

/**
 * @class NDDOMethodWrapper
 * @brief Abstract class acting as a genericWrapper for NDDO methods.
 */
class NDDOMethodWrapper : public Utils::CloneInterface<Utils::Abstract<NDDOMethodWrapper>, GenericMethodWrapper> {
 public:
  /**
   * @brief Constructor.
   * It plays with the befriended states handler by giving it a *this reference.
   */
  NDDOMethodWrapper();
  ~NDDOMethodWrapper() override;
  /**
   * @brief Get the list of the possible properties to calculate analytically.
   * Since it is the same for all NDDO, have it stated here.
   * If they diverge, override this in each method wrapper.
   */
  Utils::PropertyList possibleProperties() const override;

  friend class NDDOStatesHandler;

  /**
   * @brief This function is needed in the calcualtion of the CIS matrix in
   *        linear response method.
   */
  CISData getCISData() const;

 protected:
  // Extracted method from all copy constructors and copy assignment operators.
  template<class NDDOMethod>
  void copyInto(NDDOMethod& instance, const NDDOMethod& classToCopy) {
    auto results = classToCopy.results();
    instance.settings() = classToCopy.settings();
    // Concurrent calling of the logger introduces race conditions
    // that eventually trigger a segfault
    instance.setStructure(*classToCopy.getStructure());
    instance.results() = std::move(results);
    instance.loadState(classToCopy.getState());
    instance.setLog(classToCopy.getLog());
  }
  virtual Eigen::MatrixXd getOneElectronMatrix() const = 0;
  virtual Utils::SpinAdaptedMatrix getTwoElectronMatrix() const = 0;
  virtual CISData getCISDataImpl() const = 0;
  void assembleResults(const std::string& description) final;

  void applySettings(std::unique_ptr<Utils::Settings>& settings, Utils::ScfMethod& method);
  bool getZPVEInclusion() const final;
};

} // namespace Sparrow
} // namespace Scine

#endif // SPARROW_NDDOMETHODWRAPPER_H

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Brand Health refers to more than just branding and brand image; it refers to a number of interrelated measures that can be linked to your business performance. Our Brand Health Monitoring research takes a 360° view of your brand and, by using both qualitative and quantitative market research techniques, you gain consumer insights into various aspects of your brand. Our Brand Health Monitoring research delves into company awareness, brand perceptions, performance drivers and inhibitors, customer expectations, and market segmentation. Insights gained from our Brand Health Monitoring Research reveals a way forward into developing a Branding Strategy to meet your organisation's goals.
Market segmentation is the process of dividing a market of existing or potential customers into sub-groups, also known as segments, based on a set of shared characteristics, such as location, age, gender, needs, interests, or beliefs. Market Segmentation Studies are designed to provide insights into how a market is structured and operates, what opportunities exist in the market, whether niche markets exist, and the wants and needs of different consumer segments. Market Segmentation Studies provide insights into your market to drive intelligent businesses decisions and tailored marketing messages, strategies, and offerings to meet specific needs of different targeted groups in the market. Businesses are often afforded an advantage over the competition by following creative market segmentation strategies.
Communication and Advertising Concept Testing is an effective way of identifying the best way to meet advertising and communication objectives. Through a combination of qualitative and quantitative research techniques, our Communication and Advertising Concept Testing research provides insights and understanding into what works and what does not work in relation to advertising and communications, including rebranding your business. Additionally, you will discover the best ways to connect with your target audience before campaigns go live, advertising concepts are published or your business rebrand is announced – saving time and money. Communication and Advertising Concept Testing can identify weak concepts, confusing words, language and ideas, visual styles preferred by your audience, and possible offending concepts or ideas. Communication and Advertising Concept Testing helps you get the best bang for your advertising buck.
The best way to test the effectiveness of advertising campaigns is by undertaking Pre- and Post Campaign Monitoring also referred to as Pre- and Post Campaign Tracking. Prior to campaigns going live, customers will be asked a series of questions. These questions are related to their awareness, perception, and intention to purchase your products or services. This provides a baseline for the research. At the conclusion of the campaign, further research will be undertaken along the same lines to measure the effectiveness of your campaign. Often Post Campaign monitoring is done in isolation as companies want to measure the reach and awareness of their campaign(s).
Digital marketing has now been so comprehensively mixed in with traditional marketing, that we are now able to promote our products and services 24-7 with a highly targeted approach in terms of our communications. The result is an 'always on' campaign, a calendar of tactical and brand strategy campaigns supported by digital promotions. We have developed methodologies to provide you with the feedback you need to strengthen your communications, whether they are for positioning or for acquisition. Our continuous measures are designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of the effectiveness across multiple channels. We do this through deploying a combination of market research and big data analytics. By setting clear goals we are able to provide transparent results across the multiple channels used by your organisation.


text:
\section{Introduction}
Cutoff, a phenomenon according to which a Markov chain converges abruptly to the stationary measure, has been a central question in Markov chain mixing (see \cite{JS} for a nice exposition on the history of cutoff and recent developements).
Recently, there has been exciting progress towards answering the even sharper question of determining the limit profile of various Markov chains. The limit profile captures the exact shape of the distance of the Markov chain from stationarity. In recent progress, Teyssier \cite{Teyssier} derived an exact formula for the limit profile of random transpositions, improving the seminal result of Diaconis and Shahshahani \cite{DiaSha} and proving a conjecture of Matthews \cite{M}. He extended the Fourier transform arguments of \cite{DiaSha} to use representation theory in order to study limit profiles of conjugacy class walks. In \cite{NT}, Teyssier's representation theory technique is generalized to study the limit profile of any general reversible Markov chain using its entire spectrum.

This paper focuses on determining the limit profile of a reversible Markov chain by comparing to another Markov chain on the same configuration space whose limit profile is known. The goal of this paper is to prove that the star transposition shuffle exhibits the same limit profile behavior as random transpositions. The assumptions needed for this new theory are that the two Markov chains are simultaneously diagonalizable, and that they both exhibit $\ell_2$ and total variation distance cutoff. The technique introduced in the present paper differs from the traditional comparison theory developed by Diaconis and Saloff-Coste (\cite{DS}, \cite{DS2}); it  compares total variation distances via purely algebraic techniques, while the Diaconis and Saloff-Coste technique compares $\ell^2$ norms via path techniques.

We now give a general introduction on mixing times, cutoff and limit profiles. Let $X$ be a finite state space with $\vert X \vert=n$, and let $P$ be the transition matrix of an aperiodic and irreducible Markov chain. In other words, the entry $P^t(x,y)$ is the probability of the walk starting at $x$ and being at $y$ after $t$ steps, for every $t \in \mathbb{N}$. The measure $P_x^t(\cdot)=P^t(x, \cdot)$ converges to a unique measure $\pi(\cdot)$ on $X$ as $t$ goes to infinity.
We study this convergence with respect to total variation distance, which is defined as
$$d_x(t)=\Vert P_x^t- \pi \Vert_{\textup{T.V.}} := \frac{1}{2} \sum_{y \in X} \vert P_x^t(y)- \pi(y) \vert .$$
 We set
\[d(t)=  \max_{x \in X} \lbrace d_x(t) \rbrace .\]
\begin{definition}
The mixing time with respect to the total variation distance is defined as
$$t_{\textup{mix}}(\varepsilon):= \min \{ t :   d(t)   \leq \varepsilon \},$$
for every $\varepsilon \in (0,1)$.
\end{definition}

Cutoff describes a phase transition: as we run the family of Markov chains, the total variation distance is almost equal to $1$, and then suddenly it drops and approaches zero as $n$ grows. We now give the formal definition of cutoff.
\begin{definition}
A family of Markov chains is said to have cutoff at time $t_n$ with window $w_n=o(t_n)$ if and only if
$$\lim_{c \rightarrow \infty} \lim_{n \rightarrow \infty} d^{(n)}(t_n-cw_n)= 1 \mbox{ and } \lim_{c \rightarrow \infty} \lim_{n \rightarrow \infty} d^{(n)}(t_n+cw_n)= 0,$$
where $d^{(n)}(t)$ denotes the total variation distance of the $n$--th Markov chain.
\end{definition}

Given a Markov chain exhibiting cutoff, one can ask for more precise control on the exact distance from stationarity. This is known as the limit profile, defined as:
\[ \Phi_x(c):=\lim_{n \rightarrow \infty} d_x^{(n)}\left( t_{n} + c w_{n} \right), \mbox{ for all $c \in \mathbb{R}$. } \]
If this limit does not exist, similar definitions apply for the $\limsup$ and the $\liminf$.

The limit profile is known for only a few  Markov chains, such as  the riffle shuffle \cite{BaD}, the asymmetric exclusion process on the segment \cite{BuN}, the simple exclusion process on the cycle \cite{Lacoin}, and the simple random walk on Ramanujan graphs \cite{LP}, etc. Teyssier \cite{Teyssier} determined the limit profile for random transpositions. Using representation theory of the symmetric group $S_n$, he used Fourier transform arguments for studying limit profiles that work for random walks on groups using a generating set that is a conjugacy class. In particular, he proved that for random transpositions, if $t= \frac{1}{2}n \log n + cn$, then
\[\Phi_x(c)=\Vert \textup{Poiss}(1+e^{-2c})- \textup{Poiss}(1) \Vert_{\textup{T.V.}},\]
for every $x\in S_n$ and $c \in \mathbb{R}$. In \cite{NT}, this limit profile behavior is proven to hold for the $k$-cycle card shuffle, under the assumption that $k=o(n/ \log n)$.

Our main result studies the limit profile of the star transpositions shuffle, which is not generated by a conjugacy class. One step of the star transpositions shuffle consists of picking a card of the deck uniformly at random and transposing it with the top card.  Flatto, Odlyzko and Wales \cite{FOW} found the eigenvalues of the transition matrix using representation theory of the symmetric group. Diaconis analysed the eigenvalue behavior in \cite{SFlour} to prove that star transpositions exhibit cutoff at $n \log n $ with window of order $n$. The following theorem discusses the limit profile of star transpositions.

\begin{theorem}\label{star}
For the star transpositions card shuffle at time $t= n(\log n +c)$, we have that
\[ \Phi_x(c) =d_{\textup{T.V.}} (\textup{Poiss}(1+e^{-c}), \textup{Poiss}(1)), \]
for every $x\in S_n$ and $c \in \mathbb{R}$.
\end{theorem}
The proof of Theorem \ref{star} requires a new idea, since Teyssier's technique works for conjugacy invariant random walks and the more general technique analyzed in \cite{NT} assumes the knowledge of certain eigenfunctions. The main ingredient of the proof of Theorem \ref{star} is that star transpositions and random transpositions are simultaneously diagonalizable. This allows us to only use the eigenvalues, found in \cite{FOW}, and not the eigenfunctions of star transpositions. We also need to use the eigenvalues \cite{DiaSha} and the limit profile \cite{Teyssier} of random transpositions.

To prove Theorem \ref{star}, we develop a technique that allows us to compare the limit profile of the shuffle in question to the limit profile of the random transpositions shuffle.
The following main lemma of this paper allows us to compare limit profiles of reversible Markov chains on the same space $X$, with the same stationary measure.
\begin{lemma} \label{l2}
Let $P$ and $Q$ be the transition matrices of two reversible Markov chains on a finite space $X$ that share the same eigenbasis and stationary measure $\pi$. In particular, we denote by $f_i: X \rightarrow \mathbb{C}$ the orthonormal eigenvectors satisfying
\[Pf_i= \beta_i f_i \mbox{ and } Qf_i= q_i f_i, \]
where $i=1, \ldots, \vert X \vert$ and $\beta_1=q_1=1$. We have that
\[4 \Vert P^t_x-Q^{t_*}_x \Vert^2_{T.V.} \leq \sum_{i=2}^{\vert X \vert} f_i(x)^2 (\beta_i^{t}- q_i^{{t_*}})^2,\]
for every $x\in X$. If $P,Q$ are the transition matrices of transitive Markov chains then
\[4 \Vert P^t_x-Q^{t_*}_x \Vert^2_{T.V.} \leq \sum_{i=2}^{\vert X \vert} (\beta_i^{t}- q_i^{{t_*}})^2,\]
for every $x\in X$.
\end{lemma}
Letting $ n$ approach infinity, we obtain the following general result.
\begin{theorem}\label{main}
Let $P$ and $Q$ be the transition matrices of two reversible Markov chains on a finite space $X$ that satisfy the original assumptions of Lemma \ref{l2}. Assume $P$ exhibits cutoff at $t_n$ with window $w_n$ and $Q$ exhibits cutoff at $\overline{t}_n$ with window $\overline{w}_n$.  For $t = t_n + c w_n$ and $t_* = \overline{t}_n + c \overline{w}_n$, we have that
\begin{equation}\label{ei}
 \vert \overline{\Phi}_x(c) - \Phi_x(c)  \vert \leq \frac{1}{2}  \lim_{n \rightarrow \infty}\left(\sum_{i=2}^{\vert X \vert} f_i(x)^2 (\beta_i^{t}- q_i^{{t_*}})^2 \right)^{1/2},
\end{equation}
for every $c \in \mathbb{R}$, $ x \in X$.
If $P,Q$ are furthermore the transition matrices of transitive Markov chains then
\begin{equation}\label{ei2}
 \vert \overline{\Phi}_x(c) -\Phi_x(c)  \vert \leq \frac{1}{2}  \lim_{n \rightarrow \infty}\left(  \sum_{i=2}^{\vert X \vert} (\beta_i^{t}- q_i^{{t_*}})^2 \right)^{1/2} ,
\end{equation}
for every $ c \in \mathbb{R}$, $ x\in X$.
\end{theorem}

The assumptions of Lemma \ref{l2} are equivalent to saying that $P$ and $Q$ commute, i.e. $PQ=QP$.
Even though the assumptions of Lemma \ref{l2} and Theorem \ref{main} sound restrictive, it is actually not rare that two reversible random walks on the same group are simultaneously diagonalizable.  As explained in Section \ref{rtra}, it is a standard fact that random transpositions commutes with any other symmetric random walk on $S_n$. In general, the transition matrix of a symmetric, conjugacy invariant random walk on a group $G$ commutes with any other symmetric transition matrix of a random walk on $G$ (Laurent Saloff-Coste, personnal communication).

In Section \ref{op}, we discuss possible conjectures and the difficulties that occur when trying to apply Theorem \ref{main} for the case of random-to-random.
Lemma \ref{l2} and Theorem \ref{main} are proven in Section \ref{next}. The proof of Theorem \ref{star} is contained in Section \ref{st}. Section \ref{rtra} summarizes the main tools that we need from representation theory and random transpositions.

\section{The proof of the main lemma}\label{next}
\begin{proof}[Proof of Lemma \ref{l2}]
Since $P$ and $Q$ are both reversible Markov chains with respect to the same stationary measure $\pi$ and share the same orthonormal eigenbasis $f_i$, we can write
\[\frac{P^t_x(y)}{\pi(y)} = 1 + \sum_{j=2}^{\vert X \vert} f_j(x) f_j(y) \beta_j^t\]
and similarly
\[\frac{Q^t_x(y)}{\pi(y)} = 1 + \sum_{j=2}^{\vert X \vert} f_j(x) f_j(y) q_j^{t},\]
as explained in Lemma 12.2 of \cite{LPW}. The orthonormality of the $\lbrace f_i \rbrace$ gives that
\begin{equation}\label{cs}
d_{2,x}(t)=\bigg \Vert \frac{Q^t_x-P^t_x}{\pi} \bigg \Vert_2^2= \sum_{j=2}^{\vert X \vert} f_j(x)^2 (\beta_j^t- q_j^{t_*})^2,
\end{equation}
where the $\ell^2$ norm is defined as
\[\Vert g \Vert_2^2= \sum_{x \in X} g^2(x) \pi(x).\]
Equation \eqref{cs} and Cauchy-Schwartz give \eqref{ei}.

Note that if $P$ and $Q$ are transitive, then $d_x(t)=d(t)$ for every $x \in X$. Summing over $x\in X$ on both sides of \eqref{ei}, we get
\[n  \vert \overline{\Phi}_x(c) - \Phi_x(c)  \vert \leq  \sum_{x \in X}\sum_{i=2}^{\vert X \vert} f_i(x)^2(\beta_j^t- q_j^{t_*})^2\]
The standard fact that $\sum_{x \in X}f_i(x)^2=n$ finishes the proof of \eqref{ei2}.
\end{proof}

Theorem \ref{main} follows from Lemma \ref{l2} by taking limits on both sides.

\section{Representation theory of the symmetric group and Random transpositions}\label{rtra}
In this section, we summarize features of the random transposition shuffle that are important for the analysis of the limit profile of star transpositions. The transition matrix of random transpositions is given by
\[Q(x,y)= \begin{cases}
\frac{1}{n} & \mbox{ if } y=x,\\
\frac{2}{n^2} & \mbox{ if } y=xs, \mbox{ where $s$ is a transposition,} \\
 0 & \mbox{ otherwise.}
\end{cases}\]
It is easy to check that $Q$ is a symmetric matrix. Diaconis and Shahshahani \cite{DiaSha} found all the eigenvalues of $Q$ and their multiplicities. Their formulas are in terms of standard Young tableaux, which we now introduce.

By a \emph{partition} $\lambda=(\lambda_1,\ldots, \lambda_k)$ of $n$ we mean a sequence of natural numbers such that $\lambda_1\geq \lambda_2 \geq\ldots \geq \lambda_k>0$ and $\sum_{i=1}^k \lambda_i=n$. Every partition coressponds to a \emph{Young diagram}, which has $\lambda_i$ boxes in row $i$. We will also consider the transpose partition $\lambda'$ of $\lambda$ to be the partition occuring by transposing the Young diagram of $\lambda$.
\begin{example}
We can think of $\lambda=(3,2)$ as
$\lambda=
\young(~~~,~~)
$.
In this case, $\lambda'= (2,2,1)=
\young(~~,~~,~)
$.
\end{example}
To describe the eigenvalues of many shuffles and their multiplicities, we will need the notion of \emph{standard Young tableaux} (SYT) of type $\lambda$, which is a filling of the Young diagram $\lambda$ with all the numbers in $[ n]$, so that the entries of each row and column of the diagram appear in increasing order.
\begin{example}
One SYT of $\lambda=(3,2)$ is
$\lambda=
\young(124,35)
$.
\end{example}

The following notion will be important when counting the multiplicities of the eigenvalues of $Q$.
\begin{definition}
Let $\lambda$ be a \emph{partition} of $n$. We define $d_{\lambda}$ to be the number of SYT of $\lambda$.
\end{definition}

The following lemma provides a useful bound on $d_{\lambda}.$
\begin{lemma}[Corollary 2 of \cite{DiaSha}] \label{j2}
Let $\lambda $ be a partition of $n$. Let $j=n- \lambda_1$, then
$d_{\lambda} \leq {n \choose j} \sqrt{j!}$.
\end{lemma}

The following lemma presents the eigenvalues of random transpositions.
\begin{lemma}[Lemma 7 of \cite{DiaSha}]\label{rteig}
Let $\lambda=(\lambda_1,\ldots, \lambda_k)$ be a partition of $n$. The eigenalues of $Q$ are given by
\[s_{\lambda}= \frac{1}{n} + \frac{n-1}{n} r_{\lambda},\]
where
\[r_{\lambda} = \frac{1}{{n \choose 2}} \sum_{i=1}^k\bigg [{\lambda_i \choose 2} - {\lambda_i' \choose 2} \bigg].\]
Each eigenvalue $s_{\lambda}$ occurs with multiplicity $d_{\lambda}^2$.
\end{lemma}
The formula for the $s_{\lambda}$ gives the following standard fact which is used in both \cite{DiaSha} and \cite{Teyssier}.
\begin{corollary}\label{j}
Let $\lambda $ be a partition of $n$. If $j=n- \lambda_1$ is constant, then
\[s_{\lambda}= 1-\frac{2j}{n} +O \left(\frac{1}{n^2}\right). \]
Similarly, if $j=n- \lambda'_1$ is constant, then
\[s_{\lambda}= -1+\frac{2(j+1)}{n} +O \left(\frac{1}{n^2}\right). \]
\end{corollary}

Finally, the following lemma discusses the limit profile of random transpositions.
\begin{lemma}[Teyssier \cite{Teyssier}]
For random transpositions, we have that at $t= \frac{1}{2} n (\log n +c)$
\[\overline{\Phi}(c)=d_{T.V.} (\textup{Poiss}(1+e^{-c}), \textup{Poiss}(1)),\]
where $c \in \mathbb{R}$.
\end{lemma}

The following lemma will allow us to compare the limit profile of star transpositions to the limit profile of random transpositions. As pointed out by Laurent Saloff-Coste, it is a standard fact that the transition matrix of a symmetric random walk on a group $G$ generated by a union of conjugacy classes commutes with the transition matrix of any symmetric random walk on $G$. For completeness, we include the proof of this statement for the case of $Q$.
\begin{lemma}\label{commute}
Let $P$ be the transition matrix of a symmetric random walk on $S_n$. The transition matrix $Q$ of random transpositions commutes with $P$.
\end{lemma}
\begin{proof}
Let $\mu$ be the probability measure on $S_n$, such that $P(x,w)= \mu(x^{-1} w)$ and define $\nu$ to be the probability measure on $S_n$, such that $Q(x,w)= \nu(x^{-1} w)$.

Let $x, y \in S_n$. We write
\[(PQ)(x,y)=\sum_{w \in S_n}P(x,w) Q(w,y) .\]
Let $S'$ be the set of all transpositions and let $S=S' \cup \{\text{id}\}$. We have that
\[(PQ)(x,y)=\sum_{s \in S}P(x,ys) Q(ys,y)=\sum_{s \in S}\mu(x^{-1} ys)\nu(s^{-1}). \]
We want to use the fact that $\nu $ is constant on all transpositions, which form a conjugacy class. Because of this, we write
\[(PQ)(x,y)=\sum_{s \in S}\mu((x^{-1} y)s(y^{-1}x )(x^{-1}y))\nu(s^{-1}). \]
Let $\overline{s}= (x^{-1} y)s(y^{-1}x  )\in S$ and recall that $\nu(s)=\nu(s^{-1})= \nu(\overline{s})= \nu(\overline{s}^{-1})$.
Therefore,
\[(PQ)(x,y)=\sum_{\overline{s} \in S}\mu(\overline{s}x^{-1}y)\nu(\overline{s}^{-1})=\sum_{\overline{s} \in S} P(x \overline{s}^{-1}, y)  Q(x , x \overline{s}^{-1})= (QP)(x,y), \]
which finishes the proof.
\end{proof}

\section{Star transpositions}\label{st}
The goal of this section is to prove Theorem \ref{star} using Theorem \ref{main}.

In the following lemma, we recall the eigenvalues of star transpositions.
\begin{lemma}[Theorem 3.7 of \cite{FOW}]\label{steig}
Let $\lambda =(\lambda_1,\ldots, \lambda_k)$ be a partition of $n$. Let $\lambda^{(i)}$ be a partition of $n-1$ occurring by deleting the last box in the $i$-th row of $\lambda$ (if this results to a partition). The eigenvalues of $P$ corresponding to $\lambda$ are given by $\overline{s}_{\lambda^{(i)}}=\frac{1}{n}(\lambda_i -i +1) $, and they occur with multiplicity $d_{\lambda}d_{\lambda^{(i)}}$.
\end{lemma}

To prove Theorem \ref{star} we will need the following lemma.
\begin{lemma}\label{dim}
Let $\lambda$ be a partition of $n$. Let $i>1$ and denote $j= n- \lambda_1$. Then
\[d_{\lambda^{(i)}} \leq \frac{4^j}{n} d_{\lambda} \quad \mbox{ and } \quad - \frac{j}{n} \leq \overline{s}_{\lambda^{(i)}}  \leq \frac{n-j}{n}.\]
\end{lemma}
\begin{proof}
In the diagram associated to $\lambda$, the hook $h_{i,j}$ of the $(i,j)$ box is the number of boxes which are below or on the right of
our box (including our box). We call $\operatorname{\acute equ}( \lambda)$ the product of the hooks of the partition $\lambda$. It is a standard fact that
 \[d_{\lambda}=\frac{n!}{\operatorname{\acute equ}( \lambda)}.\]
For example, the entry of each box in
$\lambda=
\young(431,21)
$ gives the corresponding hook. Then $d_{\lambda}=5$.

For $\lambda^{(i)}$ to be a valid partition, we have that $h_{i, \lambda_i}=1$.  We have that
\[\frac{d_{\lambda^{(i)}}}{d_{\lambda}} = \frac{1}{n} \prod_{\ell=1}^{i-1} \frac{h_{\ell,\lambda_{i}} }{h_{\ell,\lambda_{i}} -1}  \prod_{k=1}^{\lambda_i-1} \frac{ h_{i,k} }{h_{i,k}-1 }.\]
Notice that each $h_{a,b}$ appearing in the above products has to be at least equal to $2$, since the $(i, \lambda_i)$ box and the $(a,b)$ box contribute to $h_{a,b}$. Therefore, each ratio $ \frac{ h_{a,b} }{h_{a,b}-1 }$ is at most $2$, which gives that
\[d_{\lambda^{(i)}}\leq \frac{2^{i + \lambda_i-2}}{n} d_{\lambda}. \]
Using the fact that $i+ \lambda_i \leq 2j+2$ for every $i>1$ finishes the proof of the first statement.

The final claim holds because $i \leq j+1$ and therefore
$$ -\frac{j}{n} \leq \overline{s}_{\lambda^{(i)}}=\frac{1}{n}(\lambda_i -i +1)  \leq  \frac{\lambda_1}{n} =  \frac{n-j}{n},$$
for every $i>1$.
\end{proof}

The following standard fact is a consequence of the branching rule for the irreducible representations of $S_n$. We refer to Theorem 3.6 of \cite{FOW} for the exact statement of the branching rule.
\begin{lemma}\label{branch}
Let $\lambda $ be a partition of $n$. Then
$d_{\lambda}= \sum_i d_{\lambda^{i}}$ and $d_{\lambda^{(i)}} = d_{\lambda'^{(\lambda_i)}} $.
\end{lemma}

We are now ready to prove Theorem \ref{star}.
\begin{proof}[Proof of Theorem \ref{star}]
Lemma \ref{commute} allows us to use Theorem \ref{main}.
Therefore, the goal is to prove that
\[
  \lim_{n \rightarrow \infty} \sum_{\lambda } d_{\lambda} \sum_{i} d_{\lambda^{(i)}}(s_{\lambda}^{t}- \overline{s}_{\lambda^{(i)}}^{{t_*}})^2 =0,\]
where $s_{\lambda}$ and $\overline{s}_{\lambda^{(i)}}$ are the eigenvalues of random transpositions and star transpositions respectively. Recalling Lemmas \ref{rteig} and \ref{steig}, we have
\[s_{\lambda} = \frac{1}{n} + \frac{n-1}{n} r_{\lambda} \text{ and } \overline{s}_{\lambda^{(i)}}=\frac{1}{n} + \frac{n-1}{n} \overline r_{\lambda^{(i)}},\]
where
\[r_{\lambda} = \frac{1}{{n \choose 2}} \sum_{i=1}^k\bigg [{\lambda_i \choose 2} - {\lambda_i' \choose 2} \bigg] \text{ and } \overline{r}_{\lambda^{(i)}}= \frac{\lambda_i-i}{n-1}.\]
Note that
\begin{equation}\label{transpose}
r_{\lambda'}= - r_{\lambda}  \mbox{ and }\overline r_{(\lambda')^{(\lambda_i)}}= - \overline{r}_{\lambda^{(i)}},
\end{equation}
where $\lambda'$ is the transpose diagram of $\lambda$.

Our strategy is to prove that for every $\varepsilon>0$ and $c \in \mathbb{R}$, there is an $M=M(c, \varepsilon)$ such that
\begin{enumerate}
\item $\sum_{\lambda_1 \leq n-M} d_{\lambda}^2 \vert s_{\lambda} \vert^{2t} \leq \varepsilon,  $
\item $\sum_{\substack{\lambda_1 \leq n-M \\ \lambda'_1 \leq n-M }} d_{\lambda} \sum_{i \geq 1} d_{\lambda^{(i)}} \vert \overline{s}_{\lambda^{(i)}} \vert^{2t_*} \leq \varepsilon,  $
\item $\sum_{\substack{\lambda_1 \leq n-M \\ \lambda'_1 \leq n-M }} d_{\lambda}   \vert s_{\lambda} \vert^t  \sum_{i \geq 1} d_{\lambda^{(i)}} \vert \overline{s}_{\lambda^{(i)}} \vert^{t_*}\leq \varepsilon, \mbox{ and } $
\item $\sum_{\lambda_1 > n-M} d_{\lambda} \sum_{i} d_{\lambda^{(i)}} \vert s^t_{\lambda}- \overline{s}_{\lambda^{(i)}}^{t_*} \vert^{2} \leq \varepsilon , \mbox{ and }\sum_{\lambda'_1 > n-M} d_{\lambda} \sum_{i} d_{\lambda^{(i)}} \vert s^t_{\lambda}- \overline{s}_{\lambda^{(i)}}^{t_*} \vert^{2} \leq \varepsilon$
\end{enumerate}
for sufficiently large $n.$

Lemma 4.1 of Teyssier \cite{Teyssier} states that for every $\varepsilon \in (0,1)$ and $c \in \mathbb{R}$, there is an $M_1=M_1(c, \varepsilon)$ such that at $t= \frac{1}{2}n( \log n +c )$ we have that
\[\sum_{\lambda_1 \leq n-M_1} d_{\lambda} \vert s_{\lambda} \vert^t \leq \varepsilon,\]
where $n $ is sufficiently large.
This implies that
\[\sum_{\lambda_1 \leq n-M_1} d_{\lambda}^2 \vert s_{\lambda} \vert^{2t} \leq \varepsilon,\]
where $n $ is sufficiently large. This gives 1.

Now, we want to prove 2. Let $M_2=M_2(c, \varepsilon)$ be such that $ \sum_{j \geq M_2} \frac{e^{-2cj}}{j!}  \leq \varepsilon/2$. Equation \eqref{transpose} implies that if $\overline{r}_{\lambda^{(i)}}  \geq 0$ then $\overline{s}_{\lambda^{(i)}}= \vert \overline{s}_{\lambda^{(i)}} \vert \geq  \vert \overline{s}_{\lambda'^{(\lambda_i)}} \vert $. Therefore, it suffices to consider only the cases where $\overline{r}_{\lambda^{(i)}}  \geq 0$, which implies that $\overline{s}_{\lambda^{(i)}} \geq 0$.
Lemmas \ref{j2}, \ref{dim} and \ref{branch} give
\[\sum_{\substack{\lambda_1 \leq n-M_2 \\ \lambda'_1 \leq n-M_2 }} d_{\lambda} \sum_{\substack{i \geq 1  \\ \overline{s}_{\lambda^{(i)}} \geq 0 }} d_{\lambda^{(i)}} \vert \overline{s}_{\lambda^{(i)}} \vert^{2t_*} \leq  \sum_{j \geq M_2} d_{\lambda}^2 \left(1- \frac{j}{n} \right)^{2t} \leq    \sum_{j \geq M_2} \frac{n^{2j}}{j!} e^{-\frac{2tj}{n}} .\]
For $t=n \log n + cn$, we have
\[\sum_{\substack{\lambda_1 \leq n-M_2 \\ \lambda'_1 \leq n-M_2 }} d_{\lambda}  \sum_{\substack{i \geq 1  \\ \overline{s}_{\lambda^{(i)}} \geq 0 }} d_{\lambda^{(i)}} \vert \overline{s}_{\lambda^{(i)}} \vert^{2t_*} \leq  \sum_{j \geq M_2} \frac{e^{-2cj}}{j!}  \leq \varepsilon/2.\]
This gives 2.

We now focus on 3. Let $M_3= \max{ \lbrace M_1, M_2 \rbrace }$. Just like in 2, it suffices to consider only the partitions $\lambda$ where $\overline{r}_{\lambda^{(i)}}  \geq 0$. In combination with Lemma \ref{dim}, this implies that $0 \leq \overline{s}_{\lambda^{(i)}}\leq  \overline{s}_{\lambda^{(1)}} = 1- \frac{j}{n}$, where $j=n- \lambda_1$. Therefore, Lemma \ref{branch} gives that
\[\sum_{\lambda_1 \leq n-M_3} d_{\lambda} \vert s_{\lambda} \vert^t  \sum_{\substack{i \geq 1  \\ \overline{s}_{\lambda^{(i)}} \geq 0 }} d_{\lambda^{(i)}} \vert \overline{s}_{\lambda^{(i)}} \vert^{t_*} \leq\sum_{\lambda_1 \leq n-M_3} d_{\lambda}^2 \vert s_{\lambda} \vert^t  \left( 1- \frac{j}{n} \right)^{t_*}.\]
Applying Cauchy-Schwartz on the right hand side gives
\[(\sum_{\lambda_1 \leq n-M_3} d_{\lambda} \vert s_{\lambda} \vert^t  \sum_{\substack{i \geq 1  \\ \overline{s}_{\lambda^{(i)}} \geq 0 }} d_{\lambda^{(i)}} \vert \overline{s}_{\lambda^{(i)}} \vert^{t_*})^2 \leq \sum_{\lambda_1 \leq n-M_3} d_{\lambda}^2 \vert s_{\lambda} \vert^{2t}\sum_{\lambda_1 \leq n- M_3} d_{\lambda}^2 \left(1- \frac{j}{n} \right)^{2t_*} . \]

We set $M_3= \max{ \lbrace M_1, M_2 \rbrace }$ so that both $\sum_{\lambda_1 \leq n-M_3} d_{\lambda}^2 \vert s_{\lambda} \vert^{2t}$ and $\sum_{\lambda_1 \leq n-M_3} d_{\lambda}^2 \left(1- \frac{j}{n} \right)^{2t_*}$ are less than $\varepsilon$ as we saw in 1 and 2. This gives 3.

We now focus on proving 4. Let $M= \max{ \lbrace M_1,M_2,M_3\rbrace }$. We start by writing
\[\sum_{\lambda_1 > n-M} d_{\lambda} \sum_{i} d_{\lambda^{(i)}} \vert s^t_{\lambda}- \overline{s}_{\lambda^{(i)}}^{t_*} \vert^{2} = \sum_{\lambda_1 > n-M} d_{\lambda} \sum_{i>1} d_{\lambda^{(i)}} \vert s^t_{\lambda}- \overline{s}_{\lambda^{(i)}}^{t_*}  \vert^2+ \sum_{\lambda_1 > n-M} d_{\lambda} d_{\lambda^{(1)}} \vert s^t_{\lambda}- \overline{s}_{\lambda^{(1)}}^{t_*} \vert^{2} . \]

Notice that for  $j=n-\lambda_1$, with $j$ constant Lemma \ref{dim} gives that $\vert \overline{s}_{\lambda^{(i)}} \vert \leq \max \{ \frac{j}{n} , 1-\frac{j}{n}\}=1-\frac{j}{n} $, for sufficiently large $n$. Therefore,
\begin{align} \label{per}
\sum_{\lambda_1 > n-M} d_{\lambda} \sum_{i>1} d_{\lambda^{(i)}} \vert s^t_{\lambda}- \overline{s}_{\lambda^{(i)}}^{t_*} \vert^{2} & \leq \frac{4^MM}{n} \sum_{j<M} d_{\lambda}^2 \left( \vert s^{t}_{\lambda} \vert+ \left(1- \frac{j}{n} \right)^{t_*} \right)^2
\end{align}
for sufficient large $n$. Using Corollary \ref{j},  and the facts that $t= \frac{1}{2}n(\log n +c)$ and $t_*= n(\log n +c)$, we have that
\[ \left( 1- \frac{j}{n} \right)^{t_*}  \leq\frac{e^{-cj}}{n^j} \mbox{ and } s^{t}_{\lambda}= \left(1-\frac{2j}{n} +O \left(\frac{1}{n^2}\right) \right)^t \leq 3\frac{e^{-cj}}{n^j}  \]
for sufficiently lareg $n$. Therefore, we have that
\begin{equation}\label{ff}
\eqref{per}
 \leq \frac{4^{M+2}M}{n} \sum_{j<M} \frac{e^{2cj}}{j!}  \leq \varepsilon/2,
\end{equation}
for sufficient large $n$.

Finally, Corollary \ref{j} and Lemma \ref{branch} give that
\begin{align*}
\sum_{\lambda_1 > n-M} d_{\lambda} d_{\lambda^{(1)}} \vert s^t_{\lambda}- \overline{s}_{\lambda^{(1)}}^{t_*} \vert^{2} & \leq \sum_{j<M} d_{\lambda}^2 \left(  \left(1-\frac{2j}{n} +O \left(\frac{1}{n^2}\right) \right)^t - \left(1-\frac{j}{n} \right)^{t_*} \right)^2\cr
&  \leq \sum_{j<M} d_{\lambda}^2 \left(  \frac{e^{-cj}}{n^j}\left(1+ O \left( \frac{\log n}{n} \right) \right)- \frac{e^{-cj}}{n^j}\left(1+O\left(\frac{j^2}{n} \right) \right) \right)^2,
\end{align*}
where in the last inequality, we plug in the values for $t$ and $t_*$ and we use the fact that $ e^{x} \left(1- \frac{x^2}{n} \right)\leq \left( 1+\frac{x}{n}\right)^n \leq e^{x}$ for $\vert x \vert \leq n$. Using Lemma \ref{j2}, we get that
\begin{align*}
\sum_{\lambda_1 > n-M} d_{\lambda} d_{\lambda^{(1)}} \vert s^t_{\lambda}- \overline{s}_{\lambda^{(1)}}^{t_*} \vert^{2} =O \left(\frac{\log^2 n}{n^2}\right).
\end{align*}
Therefore
\begin{align}\label{fff}
\sum_{\lambda_1 > n-M} d_{\lambda} d_{\lambda^{(1)}} \vert s^t_{\lambda}- \overline{s}_{\lambda^{(1)}}^{t_*} \vert^{2} \leq \varepsilon/2,
\end{align}
for sufficiently large $n$.
Equations \eqref{ff} and \eqref{fff} give the first inequality in 4. To prove the second inequality, we write
\[\sum_{\lambda'_1 > n-M} d_{\lambda} \sum_{i} d_{\lambda^{(i)}} \vert s^t_{\lambda}- \overline{s}_{\lambda^{(i)}}^{t_*} \vert^{2} = \sum_{\lambda'_1 > n-M} d_{\lambda'} \sum_{i} d_{\lambda'^{(\lambda_i)}} \bigg \vert s^t_{\lambda}- \left( \frac{2}{n}-\overline{s}_{\lambda'^{(\lambda_i)}}\right)^{t_*}\bigg \vert^{2} \]
and we proceed similarly as before, using the second part of Corollary \ref{rteig} and the fact that $\overline{s}_{\lambda'^{(1)}}= \frac{\lambda'_1}{n}$. We note that at this point it is important that $t$ and $t_*$ are either both odd or both even, so that the corresponding eigenvalues have the same sign. To achieve this, we could have considered $t$ to be $\frac{1}{2}n (\log n+c) +1 $, which doesn't affect the limit profile behavior.
\end{proof}

\section{Open Questions}\label{op}
\subsection{Conjugacy class shuffles with cutoff}
We are now looking at the case where $G=S_n$ and we want to apply Theorem \ref{main} when $Q$ is the transition matrix of random transpositions.
Let $P$ be the transition matrix of a lazy random walk on $S_n$ generated by a conjugacy class (or a union of conjugacy classes).

A standard application of Schur's lemma gives that
\[D=
\begin{pmatrix}
 \hat{P}(\rho_1)
  & \hspace*{-\arraycolsep}\vline\hspace*{-\arraycolsep} & \mbox{\normalfont\Large\bfseries 0}  & \hspace*{-\arraycolsep}\vline\hspace*{-\arraycolsep} & \mbox{\normalfont\Large\bfseries 0} \\
\hline
 \mbox{\normalfont\Large\bfseries 0} & \hspace*{-\arraycolsep}\vline\hspace*{-\arraycolsep} & \ldots &  \hspace*{-\arraycolsep}\vline\hspace*{-\arraycolsep} &  \mbox{\normalfont\Large\bfseries 0}\\
\hline
  \mbox{\normalfont\Large\bfseries 0}  & \hspace*{-\arraycolsep}\vline\hspace*{-\arraycolsep} & \mbox{\normalfont\Large\bfseries 0} & \hspace*{-\arraycolsep}\vline\hspace*{-\arraycolsep} &
  \hat{P}(\rho_k)
\end{pmatrix},
\]
is a diagonal matrix and in fact each Fourier transform $\hat{P}(\rho_i)$ is a multiple of the identity.
Since each irreducible representation contributes only one eigenvalue, we form the following conjecture.
\begin{conjecture}
Let $P$ be the transition matrix of a lazy random walk on $S_n$ generated by a conjugacy class (or a union of conjugacy classes) with number of fixed points of order $n-o(n)$. If $P$ exhibits total variation cutoff and $\ell^2$ cutoff at $t_n$ with window $w_n$, then
\[ \Phi_x(c) = d_{T.V.} (\mbox{Poiss}(1+e^{-c}), \mbox{Poiss}(1)).\]
\end{conjecture}
To support this claim, we point out that the card shuffle generated by $k$--cycles with $k=o(n)$ satisfies this conjecture as proven in \cite{NT}.
\subsection{Random-to-Random}
One step of the random-to-random card shuffle consists of picking a card and a position of the deck uniformly and independently at random and moving that card to that position.
This shuffle was introduced by Diaconis and Saloff-Coste \cite{DS}, who proved that the mixing time is $O(n \log n)$. It has been studied by (\cite{JC}, \cite{LZ}, \cite{Lower}, \cite{MorrisQin}), since cutoff at $\frac{3}{4} n \log n - \frac{1}{4} n \log \log n $ was conjectured by Diaconis for fifteen years \cite{DiaConj}. Recently, Bernstein and Nestoridi \cite{BN} proved the upper bound for the mixing time, which in combination with Subag's \cite{Lower} lower bound resolved the desired conjecture.

The main open question of this section is the following.
\begin{op}
What is the limit profile of random-to-random?
\end{op}

Even though Theorem \ref{main} can be applied for random transpositions and random-to-random (due to Lemma \ref{commute}), it is not clear if it can lead to determining the limit profile of random-to-random. In fact the limit profile of random-to-random seems to be different from the limit profile of random transpositions.

We can see this by looking at just at the $n-1$ dimensional representation $\rho$. For random transpositions, $\rho$ contribute the eigenvalue $1- \frac{2}{n} $ with multiplicity $n^2$. For random-to-random, we have $n^{3/2}$ eigenvalues that are roughly equal to $1- \frac{1}{n}$  and the rest are negligible. When we study the error, we get a term that is roughly equal to
\[n^{3/2}\left( \left(1- \frac{2}{n} \right)^t-  \left(1- \frac{1}{n} \right)^{t_*}\right)^2 + n^{2}\left(1- \frac{2}{n} \right)^{2t},\]
where $t, t_ *$ are the corresponding cutoff times. This term does not converge to zero as $n$ approches infinity, thus suggesting that the limit profiles of the two shuffles are different.

\textbf{Acknowledgements.}
The author would like to thank Sam Olesker-Taylor, Sarah Peluse, Laurent Saloff-Coste and Dominik Schmid for helpful discussions and comments.

 \bibliographystyle{plain}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


Law school: University of the District of Columbia, David A. Clarke School of Law, J.D.
Personal: Teresa resides in the East Bay with her husband and children. She enjoys going to amusement parks with her children, whitewater rafting, swimming, and playing the piano. When she's not working or spending time with her family, she mentors former foster youth who have aged out of the foster care system.


Okay, so this will be an easy guide about how to add a 3rd party crosshair that also works with other games IT ONLY WORKS IN BORDELESS WINDOW OR WINDOWED MODE... 4/11/2015 · I would like the ability to specify on the commandline the location of the rainmeter.ini file. The reasoning is so I can keep the program folder and skins static via deployment software, and allow a user to move the skin on screen.
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Okay, so this will be an easy guide about how to add a 3rd party crosshair that also works with other games IT ONLY WORKS IN BORDELESS WINDOW OR WINDOWED MODE how to add a column to mssqldatabase So this is my newest Rainmeter suite, almost completely polished except for the lack of an easy configuration tool for the launcher skins. I based the suite around the Google Now app for Android, for those who don't know it.
The user can create a layout using the Manager, which copies the settings in Rainmeter.ini to the layout file. These settings can later be restored using the Manager or the !LoadLayout bang . Layouts may also be installed with 3rd-party skins . how to add a worldboarded in minecraft Rainmeter documentation website. Contribute to rainmeter/rainmeter-docs development by creating an account on GitHub. Contribute to rainmeter/rainmeter-docs development by creating an account on GitHub.
21/10/2012 · Re:using Rainmeter for GPU monitoring *has upload to skin now* 2012/04/22 00:09:13 Rain meter and the skins are free from deviantart. I got it running on my 2 monitors for the past 3yrs.


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Cody Lansdown, 20, Lockport. Domestic abuse battery with child endangerment; simple battery.
William Theriot, 36, Raceland. Theft of goods.
John Wiggins, 63, Metairie. Violation of protective disorders.
Jorge Elizondo, 30, Thibodaux. Contempt of court (2 cts); unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling; telephone communications; improper language; harassment (2 cts).
Wilbert Fusilier, 39, Houma. Cyberstalking; stalking.
William Hebert, 59, Bunkie. Contempt of court (2 cts).
Todd Trahan, 52, Galliano. Domestic abuse battery.
Glen Pitre, 25, Bayou Blue. Simple Burglary; attempted theft (2 cts).
Jai Fonseca, 26, Lockport. Creation or operation of a clandestine lab for unlawful manufactured of controlled dangerous substance; driving on roadway laned for traffic; fugitive of Terrebonne Parish; illegal possession of stolen firearm.
Reginald Chatman, 56, Gray. Simple battery.
Amanda Brown, 29, Thibodaux. Unauthorized use of a moveable.
Dwayne Harris, 29, Thibodaux. Fugitive from justice.
Jardney Bell, 26, Thibodaux. Possession of marijuana (1st); illegal carrying of weapon in presence of controlled dangerous substance; nuisance; possession or distribution of drug paraphernalia.
Chantelle Smith, 35, Galliano. Contempt of court; theft of assets of aged/disabled person; unauthorized use of "access card" as theft.
Dathan Guidry, 41, Thibodaux. Fugitive of Terrebonne Parish; hit and run driving; careless operation; obstruction public passages.
Leah Carlos, 37, Thibodaux. Fugitive of Terrebonne Parish.
Jordan Molaison, 21, Thibodaux. Contempt of court.
Jamal Price, 27, Thibodaux. Contempt of court.
Paul Falgout, 50, Raceland. Careless operation; possession of alcoholic beverage in motor vehicle; DWI (3rd).
Christen Lavender, 23, Houma. Criminal damage to coin-operated devices; theft.
Paul Lirette, 23, Raceland. Fugitive of Assumption Parish.
Summer Gillot, 35, Raceland. Domestic abuse battery with child endangerment.


I pulled together an installation howto for Symfony PHP Framework on OpenShift Express, you can follow the Readme file to push this into your very own OpenShift Express instance!
# Create a php-5.3 application.
That's it, you can now checkout your application at http://sympfonyphp-$your_domain.rhcloud.com, isn't that easy!
GIT_ROOT/.openshift/action_hooks/build: This has a few lines to ensure that the cache dir exists and is writable for the web server.
Security: Nothing has been done to secure this installation.
Choosing symfony will always be a good choice as it allows you to launch your programs earlier than you might be expecting, it even host and range them without issue, and sustain them eventually without any surprise.
Hello. Thank you for helping.


Cleaning your home has never been this easy!
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Your home will look professionally clean!
Our carpets are subject to a great deal of wear and tear so whether you've spilled something on the carpet or you simply need professional Clapham cleaner to give it a once over, look no further than our fantastic carpet cleaning services in the SW4 and SW11 regions. We can look after all forms of Clapham carpet cleaning at the very best prices and in no time at all so simply call us today to arrange a visit from a professional. We have all of the equipment that you'll need to deal with the trickiest of stains or marks so don't tackle it alone, give us a ring.
If you have stained or soiled any of your upholstery you could do more harm than good by attempting to fix it with homemade remedies so do the sensible thing and call our outstanding cleaner Clapham. Throughout our years of experience in the industry we've seen everything so rest assured, we'll have your upholstery cleaning finished in no time. Customers are amazed when they realise what colour their upholstery used to be, and you can find out too with our reasonably priced Clapham upholstery cleaning services. Look no further for the finest upholstery cleaning service in town.
As moving day approaches, the end of tenancy cleaning seems to be an increasingly daunting task. You will be amazed at the prices that we can offer you for a comprehensive Clapham end of tenancy cleaning that will take all of the stress and hassle away from your moving day. We know all of the spots that landlords love to check so we will guarantee you'll get your full deposit back for cleanliness. Simply give us a call today to arrange your move out cleaning to be performed by the professionals with an eye for detail.
Many people simply can't find the time to look after all of their domestic cleaning, so that's why our domestic cleaners Clapham are so highly sought after. If you're living a busy lifestyle and you're in the same predicament, give us a call to arrange a one-off blitz clean or a regular service. All of our staff in the SW4 and SW11 regions are incredibly friendly and professional, as well as being experienced in all forms of home cleaning so find out the difference that we could make to your home by calling now. You'll love coming home to a fresh, clean home each time you walk in the door.
For cleaner SW4 that leaves no stone unturned in his cleaning work, look no further than our professional and proficient house cleaning Clapham. There is nothing that we can't do and believe us when we say that in our experience, we've seen everything! You could save money by organising a regular cleaning visit from one of our hard-working home cleaners in the SW4 district or simply call us in for a one off blast! We will do a great job each and every time so you can count on us to look after all of your home cleaning work.
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Every Clapham cleaner is specially educated to suit every cleaning needs and every budget. Call today and pay less for the assistance that i second to none.
Description: If you had a bad day at work, the last thing on your mind is all those cleaning chores piling up in Clapham, SW4. We are here to help you at 020 3743 3659.
Copyright © 2013 - 2017 Clapham Cleaner All Rights Reserved.


With the start of school quickly approaching, what better time to run another back to school giveaway, this time for a couple of personalized backpacks, great if you have two kids. Continental US only here and giveaway ends 8/30. Good luck.
Holiday Contest and Sweeps is pleased to team up with GiftsForYouNow.com to bring you the "GiftsForYouNow.com Back To School Giveaway". One lucky winner will be able to send their children back to school in style this year with a Personalized Back Pack. Children of any age would be happy to start school with this cool 14" x 19" black duck and nylon Backpack. The 11 square inch outside flap can be personalized with any name.
This unique backpack will give your child plenty of room for their books in the main compartment along with three additional zipper pockets of various sizes that can hold their pens, pencils or personal items securely. It also comes with a mesh pocket that ideal for your child to store their name or School ID in along with special holders for their cell phone, water bottles or pens and pencils without having to worry that they will get lost.
This backpack comes with adjustable back straps to fit any size along with an easy loop that allows them to carry it by hand or hang on a hook when they are not using it.
GiftsForYouNow.com is your place to go when you want products that gives you that personalized style. They have just about anything your child would need to kick off the school year from personalized lunch totes, backpacks, water bottles, pencil cases, duffel bags and much much more.
Don't wait another second, head over to the GiftsForYouNow.com Back To School Page and start planning how your child will start the new school year with a little touch of personalization.
This giveaway is in no way associated, endorsed or affiliated with Facebook, Twitter or any other Social Media Networking Site. This giveaway will be valid in the Continental United States only. Entrants must be 18+ years of age to enter. This giveaway will come to a end at 12:00 AM (EST) 8/31/2014.
Holiday Contest and Sweeps did not receive any form of compensation for this giveaway. GiftsForYouNow.com will be responsible for awarding and the shipping of the prize directly to the winner.
Wow there are so many awesome products on that page! I love the personalized Monkey Backpack but it's so hard to choose!


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Q: what is the difference between allowed_hosts and cors_origin_regex_whitelist in django? What is the difference between this two django settings :

*

*ALLOWED_HOSTS

*CORS_ORIGIN_REGEX_WHITELIST

A: ALLOWED_HOSTS

A list of strings representing the host/domain names that this Django site can serve. This is a security measure to prevent HTTP Host header attacks, which are possible even under many seemingly-safe web server configurations

CORS_ORIGIN_REGEX_WHITELIST
This is actually a variable expecting a third party package django-cors-headers.So the thing is when a browser starts a request through javascript to another domain (cross domain), browser will send a OPTIONS request first to get to know whether server is allowing the domain to accept request by checking Access-Control-Allow-Origin header.
Note
There are some other headers also using this like Access-Control-Allow-Headers , etc.

A: ALLOWED_HOSTS as the docs say is

A list of strings representing the host/domain names that this Django
  site can serve.

So, if ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['www.mysite.com', 'mysite.com'] and you try to access from your browser blog.mysite.com then Django will be unable to serve this page. You should ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['www.mysite.com', 'mysite.com', 'blog.mysite.com'] Read the docs related to ALLOWED_HOSTS. They are pretty straightforward!
CORS_ORIGIN_REGEX_WHITELIST as the docs say (again):

A list of regexes that match origin regex list of origin hostnames
  that are authorized to make cross-site HTTP requests.

This setting is most used when you have an API that exposes some endpoints for clients to consume. It allows browser's requests to these URLs patterns. So, if CORS_ORIGIN_REGEX_WHITELIST = [r'images.mysite.com', ] then the " will load successfully, but if " then it would fail.
More about CORS in Mozilla MDN.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


My experience with the Caspian sea in Azerbaijan. Did not go swimming.
After leaving Tbilisi, it only took me a couple of hours to hit the border of Azerbaijan. I'd decided on going for the most direct route to Iran. In hindsight, that might've not ben the best plan. It turned out to be a really boring route through nothing but flat fields and dirt desert. I'd gone for the most direct route though, as I'd gotten a deadline for China. Since then I've come up with a slightly different route, which means I won't be in quite so much of a hurry, but more about that later. Though the landscape in Azerbaijan was somewhat boring, and the heat was brutal, I did get a few cool experiences out of my time there anyway. I visited the city of Ganja, which is the second largest city in Azerbaijan. It was a pretty odd experience. Every city in Azerbaijan has a park dedicated to one of the former leaders, and the park in Ganja was an absolutely massive complex of monuments and attractions. They even had an entire theme park. However, it was all completely empty. I was the practically the only visitor. It had a bit of an eerie feel to it. I met a couple of Italians in Ganja though, whom I had a great time with that evening. Cycling on from there, I was warned about poor road conditions by some of the locals. I'm often warned about bad roads, but most of the time they are really not that bad after all. This road though, was almost 50 km of relentless course gravel road. It took me most of the day battling my way through the road, as I could go much faster than 10 km/h. Often times I also had to get off and walk instead. Throughout Azerbaijan I was constantly stopped by people who wanted to take pictures with me. While on the gravel road, a guy on a horse even came galloping to catch up with me, just to get a selfie. By now, I must be on hundreds of random people's phone galleries. In Azerbaijan, it actually ended up annoying me a bit as I would constantly be stopped whenever I was getting into a good rhythm. Sometimes people would wave try to wave me in, but if I then kept going they would get into their car, track me down, and stop the car right in front of me to get that selfie. The moment they'd then gotten the selfie, they would get back in their car and be off. Very little talking. It was pretty weird to me, but I just sort of went along with it most of the time. Before leaving Azerbaijan, I spent a day in the town of Lankaran. When I arrived in the evening, it seemed like a pretty dull place, but the morning after the entire place turned into a massive outdoor market. It was one of the busiest, most confusing markets I have ever been to, and I was constantly getting lost. It was a great experience though. It took me about one week to cycle through the plains of Azerbaijan.
I then entered Iran. Usually when crossing borders, I'm treated like a car. But at the Iranian border, I was put in line with all the pedestrians. It was by far the rowdiest border crossing I have ever been at. People were pushing each other so hard, jumping fences and screaming at each other. It was comparable to being in a giant mosh-pit at the main stage of a festival. I ended up standing at the very back, hopelessly staring at the chaos unfolding in front of me. After a while, one of the few workers came to me, and helped me carve a way through the madness. I ended up being one of the first people to go through the border that day! As I was let through, I was approached by couple of guys offering to exchange my money. Because of sanctions, foreign credit cards cannot be used in Iran, so everything is paid in cash. The exchange rate is pretty hard to get your head around though. I had brought Euros to exchange to Rials. The guys asked me too Google the exchange rate for them, and so I did. They exchanged my money to the exact rate with no commissions. It was a bit strange, but I didn't put much in it. After a while, I realize that the official exchange rate is totally off compared to the real exchange rate. I was given 48,500 Rials for 1 Euro at the border. Since then I've exchanged money for 115,000 Rials for 1 Euro. Since the actual rate is so far off the official rate at the moment, everything is mind-blowingly cheap. When travelling in Iran, money is generally not a problem. But since everyone is running around with millions in cash, it often gets confusing when asking about prices. People can't be bothered to give you the entire number of what you have to pay in Rial, so instead, they might simply tell you 500. You eventually get a feel for it, but on your first couple of days in Iran, it's actually really hard to figure out what 500 means. It could be hundreds, thousands, or even hundreds of thousands.
As a blonde cyclist in Iran, you are quite obviously not local. A lot of people in the country-side have a hard time understanding that you don't actually speak Farsi though, so the language barrier is often pretty extreme. You do, however, attract English-teachers. After a week in Iran, I've met about 5 English-teachers, all very eager to speak with me. On my very first night I was even taken in by Asgar, an awesome teacher, for the night. He invited me to stay for as long as I wanted and would've then brought me to speak with all his students. I've got limited time in Iran though, so I only ended up staying one night. Iranian hospitality and helpfulness are in a league of its own though, and I feel completely safe anywhere I go. They've got the same curiosity and urge to take selfies as the people in Azerbaijan, difference being that they really seemed to care about your well-being at the same time. People often stop to give you water and fruits, and at least just to check whether you've got what you need. Cycling in to Tehran was really intense, on par with the challenge of Istanbul albeit a bit shorter.
Yesterday I went on a quest to apply for my Turkmenistan visa. The Turkmens are known to be quite strict when it comes to visas and traveling within their country. A guy had been denied his visa because he had a beard, which he did not have in his passport. So before going to the Embassy of Turkmenistan, I rocked up at the Danish embassy to get a letter stating that my passport was indeed legitimate. I went in and told them about my trip and what I needed, and they all seemed to be pretty astounded. The two interns, Emil and Andreas, came out to speak with me, helped me out with money exchanging, and eventually invited me to dinner that evening. Legends! We went to a really nice restaurant in the high-class part of Tehran, and I felt absolutely spoiled as we munched over 7 different dishes. Just speaking with a couple of Danish strangers was really nice, and hearing about their lives at the embassy was super cool and interesting.
At the moment, I am seriously considering a slightly different route to what I had planned from the start. The countries will be the same, but I will have a shorter distance to China, meaning I can take my time to explore Central Asia. I have decided that I will in fact be going to Tajikistan. I'll be sticking to the northern route, as opposed to the Pamir Highway. The attacks that a lot of you have heard and warned me about have all happened on the Pamir Highway. The highway runs a long the border with Afghanistan, and since the security of Afghanistan is deteriorating, so is the border areas in Tajikistan. So, even though the Pamir Highway is supposedly on of the best roads in the world for cycle-touring, I will be avoiding it. If everything goes according to plan, I will be entering Uzbekistan from Turkmenistan on the 23rd of September. From there I will go to Samarkand before cycling towards Dushanbe in Tajikistan. The route then takes me along the north of the country, in to a bit of Kyrgyzstan before hitting the border with China. This way, I will have shaved off 600 km of the way to China. The shaved off kilometers will then be made up for after China in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. I then plan on flying from Almaty to New Delhi to continue cycling from there. I've come to this route after prolonged discussions with several other cycle-tourers, and everything considered, I don't think it is a particularly risky route, despite the recent attacks in southern Tajikistan.
Like always, I'm cycling for The Association for Greenlandic Children. Please do click on the link below to read more about the cause and my motivation for supporting. The fundraising aspect of this entire project is a massive motivational factor for me, so please do consider donating to the cause, spreading the word, or both. Everything helps! Thank you to everyone who have supported the cause so far!


text:
Home » TIMag.com news » Awards » USTA Awards $1 Million + in Grants in 2010
USTA Awards $1 Million + in Grants in 2010
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — USTA Serves, the National Charitable Foundation of the United States Tennis Association, announced today that it has awarded 33 year-end grants totaling $420,650. The number of program grants awarded in 2010 was 59, totaling $855,150. Combined with scholarship awards, USTA Serves distributed more than $1 million in 2010.
The bi-annual granting process, a national initiative of USTA Serves, was developed to provide people with disabilities and disadvantaged, at-risk children in underserved communities the opportunity to learn to play tennis and improve their academic skills in a structured format, and also to help combat obesity by promoting healthy lifestyles. To date, USTA Serves has disbursed more than $10 million to a variety of programs that share those aims.
At funded program sites, children between the ages of 5-18 learn about healthy nutrition and lifestyles, responsible citizenship, study skills, and computer literacy. The grant recipients are chosen by a Grant Proposal Review Committee comprised of Foundation Board Members and USTA National staff, with important input from USTA Sections. They are awarded to programs that successfully combine tennis and education and help children pursue their goals and highest dreams by leading healthier lives, succeeding in school and becoming healthier citizens. The current year-end grants include one award supporting the children of deployed military personnel who are at particular risk for emotional and behavioral difficulties, and four adaptive awards granted to organizations that teach people with disabilities the importance of physical activity and life skills.
"USTA Serves is excited to continue investing financial and other resources to support organizations that believe in the powerful combination of tennis and education," said Deborah Slaner Larkin, Executive Director, USTA Serves. "We are proud of each organization's expertise, commitment and passion, and commend them for making an impact in the lives of the people they serve."
The following programs were awarded 2010 year-end grants by USTA Serves:
Abundant Waters, Inc., New York, N.Y.
A's & Aces, New Orleans, La.
Azleway, Inc., Tyler, Texas
Boston Inner City Youth Tennis Program, Dorchester, Mass.
Boys & Girls Clubs of Camden County, Inc., Camden, N.J.
Boys & Girls Club of Martin County, Inc., Hobe Sound, Fla.
CREATE Tennis, Inc., Washington, D.C.
Ethel Walker School, Inc., Simsbury, Conn.
Harlem Junior Tennis Program, Inc., New York, N.Y.
Harper for Kids, San Francisco, Calif.
Hebni Nutrition Consultants, Inc., Orlando, Fla.
HERO, Inc., Purchase, N.Y.
I Have a Dream Foundation of Boulder County, Boulder, Colo.
International Rescue Committee, Inc., San Diego, Calif.
KIPP Endeavor Academy, Kansas City, Mo.
Latin American Youth Center, Washington, D.C.
MACH Academy, Inc., Augusta, Ga.
Mentoring USA, Inc., New York, N.Y.
New York Junior Tennis League, Woodside, N.Y.
Orthotic and Prosthetic Assistance Fund, Waterloo, Iowa
Our Military Kids Inc., McLean, Va.
Portland After-School Tennis & Education, Inc., Portland, Ore.
Project Lovematch, Inc., Saddle River, N.J.
Reach for College Inc., Washington, D.C.
Rodney Street Tennis & Tutoring Association, Wilmington, Del.
Say Yes to Education, Inc., Syracuse, N.Y.
Sportsmens Tennis Club, Inc., Dorchester, Mass.
Tennis for Charity, Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio
United Neighbors, Inc., Davenport, Iowa
University of Akron, Akron, Ohio
Up A Break, Inc., Marietta, Ga.
Youth Tennis Advantage, Oakland, Calif.
Zina Garrison All Court Tennis Academy, Houston, Texas
USTA Serves, the National Charitable Foundation of the USTA, provides financial support for disadvantaged youth and people with disabilities through tennis and education programs designed to improve health, build character, teach life skills and motivate students to strive for academic excellence. For more information on USTA Serves, visit ustaserves.com.
The USTA is the national governing body for the sport of tennis in the U.S. and the leader in promoting and developing the growth of tennis at every level — from local communities to the highest level of the professional game. A not-for-profit organization with 750,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds in growing the game. It owns and operates the US Open, and launched the Olympus US Open Series linking 10 summer tournaments to the US Open. In addition, it owns the 90-plus Pro Circuit events throughout the U.S., is a minority owner and promotional partner of World TeamTennis, and selects the teams for the Davis Cup, Fed Cup, Olympic and Paralympic Games. USTA Serves, the National Charitable Foundation of the USTA, provides financial support for disadvantaged youth and people with disabilities through tennis and education programs. For more information on the USTA, log on to usta.com.