Singular spectrum of Lebesgue measure zero for one-dimensional quasicrystals

The spectrum of one-dimensional discrete Schr\"odinger operators associated to strictly ergodic dynamical systems is shown to coincide with the set of zeros of the Lyapunov exponent if and only if the Lyapunov exponent exists uniformly. This is used to obtain Cantor spectrum of zero Lebesgue measure for all aperiodic subshifts with uniform positive weights. This covers, in particular, all aperiodic subshifts arising from primitive substitutions including new examples as e.g. the Rudin-Shapiro substitution. Our investigation is not based on trace maps. Instead it relies on an Oseledec type theorem due to A. Furman and a uniform ergodic theorem due to the author.Comment: 14 page

Homotopy (Pre-)Derivators of Cofibration Categories and Quasi-Categories

We prove that the homotopy prederivator of a cofibration category is equivalent to the homotopy prederivator of its associated quasi-category of frames, as introduced by Szumi\l{}o. We use this comparison result to deduce various abstract properties of the obtained prederivators.Comment: Final version, incorporating suggestions by referee. Accepted for publication in Algebraic & Geometric Topolog

Freedom of choice or force of circumstance? : Eastern European sex-workers in the Republic of Cyprus ; paper for the conference 'Alltag der Globalisierung. Perspektiven einer transnationalen Anthropologie', January 16-18, 2003, Institute of Cultural Anthropology and European Ethnology, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main

This paper focuses on Eastern European migrants who, since the beginning of the 1990s, are entering the Republic Cyprus as “artistes”. This is a visa permit status as well as an euphemism for short-term work permits in the local sex industry. In addition to exploring the migrational experiences of these women and their living and working conditions in the Republic of Cyprus, the paper reconstructs, empirically and analyt ically, the connection between immigration and the local sex industry. Here, several categories of social actors and institutions in Cyprus are actively involved. The rhetoric of government representatives, entrepreneurs and clients in the sex business on the one hand is contrasted with the discourse of local NGO representatives concerned with immigrants’ rights on the other hand. The paper comes to the conclusion that all of these discursive positions ultimately do not do justice to the complex process of decisionmaking that women undergo who migrate into the sex industry. Either, freedom of choice is emphasized – such as by entrepreneurs and the government – or the domination of women – as in the public statements of the NGO. In order to analyze the ambivalent tension between freedom of choice and submission to force by which the women’s decision is characterized, the author employs Michel Foucault’s concept of governmentality, which describes forms of political regulation that use the individual’s freedom of action as an instrument to exercise power

Asteroseismology of stars on the upper main sequence

I review the properties of pulsators located on the upper main sequence in the HR diagram and discuss asteroseismic inferences on the internal structure of stars of spectral type A and B. Special attention is given to the problem of uncertainties in stellar opacities in modelling.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in the proceedings of the 2011 Frank N. Bash Symposium, "New Horizons in Astronomy