Irrational War and Constitutional Design: A Reply to Professors Nzelibe and Yoo

This Reply proceeds as follows. Part I outlines the argument of the Nzelibe and Yoo paper. Part II considers their principal-agent analysis in the context of the American political system. Part III elaborates on the democratic peace literature, demonstrating that it does not support the conclusions that they draw. Part IV addresses the argument that we are in a new strategic situation, such that old rules ought not apply. Part V concludes

Irrational War and Constitutional Design: A Reply to Professors Nzelibe and Yoo

This Reply proceeds as follows. Part I outlines the argument of the Nzelibe and Yoo paper. Part II considers their principal-agent analysis in the context of the American political system. Part III elaborates on the democratic peace literature, demonstrating that it does not support the conclusions that they draw. Part IV addresses the argument that we are in a new strategic situation, such that old rules ought not apply. Part V concludes

A note on preservation of languages by transducers

An error in a previous paper is corrected. The rectified version involves pushdown transducers with accepting states instead of pushdown transducers. Some properties of pushdown transducers with accepting states are then noted

On the Commutative Equivalence of Context-Free Languages

The problem of the commutative equivalence of context-free and regular languages is studied. In particular conditions ensuring that a context-free language of exponential growth is commutatively equivalent with a regular language are investigated

Feedback from massive stars at low metallicities : MUSE observations of N44 and N180 in the Large Magellanic Cloud

Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 27 pages, 21 figuresWe present MUSE integral field data of two HII region complexes in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), N44 and N180. Both regions consist of a main superbubble and a number of smaller, more compact HII regions that formed on the edge of the superbubble. For a total of 11 HII regions, we systematically analyse the radiative and mechanical feedback from the massive O-type stars on the surrounding gas. We exploit the integral field property of the data and the coverage of the HeII$\lambda$5412 line to identify and classify the feedback-driving massive stars, and from the estimated spectral types and luminosity classes we determine the stellar radiative output in terms of the ionising photon flux $Q_{0}$. We characterise the HII regions in terms of their sizes, morphologies, ionisation structure, luminosity and kinematics, and derive oxygen abundances via emission line ratios. We analyse the role of different stellar feedback mechanisms for each region by measuring the direct radiation pressure, the pressure of the ionised gas, and the pressure of the shock-heated winds. We find that stellar winds and ionised gas are the main drivers of HII region expansion in our sample, while the direct radiation pressure is up to three orders of magnitude lower than the other terms. We relate the total pressure to the star formation rate per unit area, $\Sigma_{SFR}$, for each region and find that stellar feedback has a negative effect on star formation, and sets an upper limit to $\Sigma_{SFR}$ as a function of increasing pressure.Peer reviewe

Exploring ways to overcome barriers to mammography uptake and retention among South Asian immigrant women

South Asians comprise one of the fastest growing immigrant groups in North America. Evidence indicates that South Asian (SA) immigrant women are vulnerable to low rates of breast cancer screening. Yet, there is a dearth of knowledge pertaining to socio-culturally tailored strategies to guide the uptake of screening mammography in the SA community. In 2010, the authors conducted semi-structured focus groups to elicit perspectives of health and social service professionals on possible solutions to barriers identified by SA immigrant women in a recent study conducted in the Greater Toronto Area. Thirty-five health and social services staff members participated in five focus groups. The discussions were audio taped and detailed field notes were taken. All collected data was transcribed verbatim and thematic analysis was conducted using techniques of constant comparison within and across the group discussions. Three dominant themes were identified: 1) “Target and Tailor” focused on awareness-raising through multiple direct and indirect modes or approaches with underlying shared processes of involving men and the whole family, use of first language, and learning from peers; 2) “Enhancing Access to Services” included a focus on ‘adding ancillary services’ and ‘reinforcement of existing services’ including expansion to a one-stop model; and 3) “Meta-Characteristics” centred on providing ‘multi-pronged’ approaches to reach the community, and ‘sustainability’ of initiatives by addressing structural barriers of adequate funding, healthcare provider mix, inter-sectoral collaboration, and community voice. The findings simultaneously shed light on the grass-roots practical strategies and the system level changes in order to develop efficient programmes for the uptake of mammography among SA immigrant women. The parallel focus on the “Target and Tailor” and “Enhancing Access to Services” calls for coordination at the policy level so that multiple sectors work jointly to streamline resources, or meta-characteristics.The project funds were provided by the Canadian Cancer Society, Ontario Division

Interpretations of Presburger Arithmetic in Itself

Presburger arithmetic PrA is the true theory of natural numbers with addition. We study interpretations of PrA in itself. We prove that all one-dimensional self-interpretations are definably isomorphic to the identity self-interpretation. In order to prove the results we show that all linear orders that are interpretable in (N,+) are scattered orders with the finite Hausdorff rank and that the ranks are bounded in terms of the dimension of the respective interpretations. From our result about self-interpretations of PrA it follows that PrA isn't one-dimensionally interpretable in any of its finite subtheories. We note that the latter was conjectured by A. Visser.Comment: Published in proceedings of LFCS 201

Deformed quantum mechanics and q-Hermitian operators

Starting on the basis of the non-commutative q-differential calculus, we introduce a generalized q-deformed Schr\"odinger equation. It can be viewed as the quantum stochastic counterpart of a generalized classical kinetic equation, which reproduces at the equilibrium the well-known q-deformed exponential stationary distribution. In this framework, q-deformed adjoint of an operator and q-hermitian operator properties occur in a natural way in order to satisfy the basic quantum mechanics assumptions.Comment: 10 page

Skin effect with arbitrary specularity in Maxwellian plasma

The problem of skin effect with arbitrary specularity in maxwellian plasma with specular--diffuse boundary conditions is solved. A new analytical method is developed that makes it possible to to obtain a solution up to an arbitrary degree of accuracy. The method is based on the idea of symmetric continuation not only the electric field, but also electron distribution function. The solution is obtained in a form of von Neumann series.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure