An Escape from Language into Language: The Internal Exile of Louis Wolfson

This paper aims to show how the life and work of American francophone author Louis Wolfson - who suffered from schizophrenia and underwent a self-imposed exile from his own mother tongue - might serve to illuminate European émigré writers\u27 relationships to multilingualism

Method of Measuring the Economic Impact of a Radiological Dispersal Event within an Urban Environment

A radiological dispersal event (RDE) is the result of a Radiological Dispersal Device (RDD) or a dirty bomb. An RDD is a low‐yield conventional bomb surrounded by radiological material (RM) such as Cesium‐137 or Cobalt‐60. Upon detonation, the blast of the conventional explosive is designed to spread the RM over a wide area. The RM will then be inhaled or ingested by people, or otherwise absorbed into the environment. An RDD is an affordable, feasible, and economically devastating option for terrorist groups. Possible RM could be stolen or acquired cheaply from the millions of radioactive sources used worldwide in industry, for medical purposes and in academic applications. The purpose of this research is to develop a generalized methodology that can be used to assess economic impacts resulting from an RDE, occurring in any location and across any industry. Currently there is no universal approach for measuring the costs or economic impacts on businesses, nor a common framework for estimating an economic impact of a radiological event, leading to inaccurate and unverified estimates. The objective of this research is to aid in the RDE response effort by providing government planners, officials, and key stakeholders with an economic assessment tool which can be used to quantify the economic impacts arising from a RDE, thereby facilitating the strategic decision making process

Ensemble inequivalence, bicritical points and azeotropy for generalized Fofonoff flows

We present a theoretical description for the equilibrium states of a large class of models of two-dimensional and geophysical flows, in arbitrary domains. We account for the existence of ensemble inequivalence and negative specific heat in those models, for the first time using explicit computations. We give exact theoretical computation of a criteria to determine phase transition location and type. Strikingly, this criteria does not depend on the model, but only on the domain geometry. We report the first example of bicritical points and second order azeotropy in the context of systems with long range interactions.Comment: 4 pages, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Some remarks on quasi-Hermitian operators

A quasi-Hermitian operator is an operator that is similar to its adjoint in some sense, via a metric operator, i.e., a strictly positive self-adjoint operator. Whereas those metric operators are in general assumed to be bounded, we analyze the structure generated by unbounded metric operators in a Hilbert space. Following our previous work, we introduce several generalizations of the notion of similarity between operators. Then we explore systematically the various types of quasi-Hermitian operators, bounded or not. Finally we discuss their application in the so-called pseudo-Hermitian quantum mechanics.Comment: 18page

Becoming war: towards a martial empiricism

Under the banner of martial empiricism, we advance a distinctive set of theoretical and methodological commitments for the study of war. Previous efforts to wrestle with this most recalcitrant of phenomena have sought to ground research upon primary definitions or foundational ontologies of war. By contrast, we propose to embrace war’s incessant becoming, making its creativity, mutability, and polyvalence central to our enquiry. Leaving behind the interminable quest for its essence, we embrace war as mystery. We draw on a tradition of radical empiricism to devise a conceptual and contextual mode of enquiry that can follow the processes and operations of war wherever they lead us. Moving beyond the instrumental appropriations of strategic thought and the normative strictures typical of critical approaches, martial empiricism calls for an unbounded investigation into the emergent and generative character of war. Framing the accompanying special issue, we outline three domains around which to orient future research: mobilization, design, and encounter. Martial empiricism is no idle exercise in philosophical speculation. It is the promise of a research agenda apposite to the task of fully contending with the momentous possibilities and dangers of war in our time

A View from Labor

It will come as no surprise that our attitude, as union spokesmen, toward further extension of the antitrust laws over the activities of American labor organizations is much like the attitude of Calvin Coolidge\u27s minister toward sin: we\u27re against it. We feel our attitude is justified. But in contributing to a volume graced by so distinguished a company of scholars, it may be best that we do not confine ourselves merely to developing our own case in support of a conclusion which some might accuse us of having harbored all along. We therefore shall take two different approaches. First, we believe there has been enough discussion of labor and antitrust over the past decade to enable us now to state flatly that, except among certain popular publicists and certain ax-grinders, a large part of the argument has come to an end. A growing consensus exists among disinterested legal experts and labor economists on one simple but fundamental proposition. The antitrust laws as they now stand are not the appropriate vehicle for dealing generally with union economic power, and at least in the absence of much more proof of practical need they are probably not even the appropriate vehicle for dealing with certain alleged specific abuses of union economic power. The first portion of this paper will show why that proposition has properly come to command the assent of most nonpartisan labor specialists. As our second contribution we shall submit data indicating that, whatever theoretical avenues for union economic abuses have been left open by current interpretations of the antitrust laws, in actual practice such abuses simply have not occurred on a scale sufficient to justify further legislative regulation. This does not necessarily mean that unions have a more sensitive social conscience than corporations, much as we might like to persuade ourselves that this was the fact. It may just mean that some old economic laws are proving even harder to repeal or amend than the laws of Congress. But in any event we take it that no sensible person will insist on tinkering with such complex mechanisms as the antitrust laws or established labor relations procedures merely to satisfy a passion for eliminating some theoretical possibility of wrongdoing. If real, substantial, unremedied abuses cannot be pinpointed, proposals for altering the status quo should be rejected. In the course of our discussion we will also make a few passing remarks regarding labor\u27s attitude toward the antitrust laws in their application outside the labor field

Theory of double resonance magnetometers based on atomic alignment

We present a theoretical study of the spectra produced by optical-radio-frequency double resonance devices, in which resonant linearly polarized light is used in the optical pumping and detection processes. We extend previous work by presenting algebraic results which are valid for atomic states with arbitrary angular momenta, arbitrary rf intensities, and arbitrary geometries. The only restriction made is the assumption of low light intensity. The results are discussed in view of their use in optical magnetometers

Landau Levels in the noncommutative AdS2AdS_2

We formulate the Landau problem in the context of the noncommutative analog of a surface of constant negative curvature, that is $AdS_2$ surface, and obtain the spectrum and contrast the same with the Landau levels one finds in the case of the commutative $AdS_2$ space.Comment: 19 pages, Latex, references and clarifications added including 2 figure

Linearly bounded infinite graphs

Linearly bounded Turing machines have been mainly studied as acceptors for context-sensitive languages. We define a natural class of infinite automata representing their observable computational behavior, called linearly bounded graphs. These automata naturally accept the same languages as the linearly bounded machines defining them. We present some of their structural properties as well as alternative characterizations in terms of rewriting systems and context-sensitive transductions. Finally, we compare these graphs to rational graphs, which are another class of automata accepting the context-sensitive languages, and prove that in the bounded-degree case, rational graphs are a strict sub-class of linearly bounded graphs