Introduction : special issue on ‘policing, migration and national identity’

For some time, the mobility of the global poor has been framed as a national security problem and policy priority for governments and inter-governmental institutions across the world (D’Appollonia and Reich, 2008; Guild, 2003; Huysmans, 2006). In this context, the police have been routinely tasked with detecting unwanted foreigners and routing them out of the country (Armenta, 2017; Weber, 2013) or, as Giulia Fabini (2017) explained in the case of Italy, with managing ‘illegality’. Increasingly, the policing of the border occurs inland and migration controls are becoming ingrained in ‘homeland policing’ (Gundhus and Aas, 2016; Weber and Bowling, 2004)

q-Differential equations for q-classical polynomials and q-Jacobi-Stirling numbers

We introduce, characterise and provide a combinatorial interpretation for the so-called q-Jacobi–Stirling numbers. This study is motivated by their key role in the (reciprocal) expansion of any power of a second order q-differential operator having the q-classical polynomials as eigenfunctions in terms of other even order operators, which we explicitly construct in this work. The results here obtained can be viewed as the q-version of those given by Everitt et al. and by the first author, whilst the combinatorics of this new set of numbers is a q-version of the Jacobi–Stirling numbers given by Gelineau and the second author

Unusual DNA binding modes for metal anticancer complexes

DNA is believed to be the primary target for many metal-based drugs. For example, platinum-based anticancer drugs can form specific lesions on DNA that induce apoptosis. New platinum drugs can be designed that have novel modes of interaction with DNA, such as the trinuclear platinum complex BBR3464. Also it is possible to design inert platinum(IV) pro-drugs which are non-toxic in the dark, but lethal when irradiated with certain wavelengths of light. This gives rise to novel DNA lesions which are not as readily repaired as those induced by cisplatin, and provides the basis for a new type of photoactivated chemotherapy. Finally, newly emerging ruthenium(II) organometallic complexes not only bind to DNA coordinatively, but also by H-bonding and hydrophobic interactions triggered by the introduction of extended arene rings into their versatile structures. Intriguingly osmium (the heavier congener of ruthenium) reacts differently with DNA but can also give rise to highly cytotoxic organometallic complexes

The Second Order Traffic Fine: Temporal Reasoning in European Transport Regulations

We argue that European transport regulations can be formalized within the Sigma^1_1 fragment of monadic second order logic, and possibly weaker fragments including linear temporal logic. We consider several articles in the regulation to verify these claims

Stochastic group selection model for the evolution of altruism

We study numerically and analytically a stochastic group selection model in which a population of asexually reproducing individuals, each of which can be either altruist or non-altruist, is subdivided into $M$ reproductively isolated groups (demes) of size $N$. The cost associated with being altruistic is modelled by assigning the fitness $1- \tau$, with $\tau \in [0,1]$, to the altruists and the fitness 1 to the non-altruists. In the case that the altruistic disadvantage $\tau$ is not too large, we show that the finite $M$ fluctuations are small and practically do not alter the deterministic results obtained for $M \to \infty$. However, for large $\tau$ these fluctuations greatly increase the instability of the altruistic demes to mutations. These results may be relevant to the dynamics of parasite-host systems and, in particular, to explain the importance of mutation in the evolution of parasite virulence.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure