Duty and liability

In his recent book, Killing in War, Jeff McMahan sets out a number of conditions for a person to be liable to attack, provided the attack is used to avert an objectively unjust threat: (1) The threat, if realized, will wrongfully harm another; (2) the person is responsible for creating the threat; (3) killing the person is necessary to avert the threat, and (4) killing the person is a proportionate response to the threat. The present article focuses on McMahan's second condition, which links liability with responsibility. McMahan's use of the responsibility criterion, the article contends, is too restrictive as an account of liability in general and an account of liability to be killed in particular. In order to defend this claim, the article disambiguates the concept of liability and explores its role in the philosophical analysis of the permission to cause harm to others

Unjust Wars Worth Fighting For

I argue that people are sometimes justified in participating in unjust wars. I consider a range of reasons why war might be unjust, including the cause which it is fought for, whether it is proportionate, and whether it wrongly uses resources that could help others in dire need. These considerations sometimes make fighting in the war unjust, but sometimes not. In developing these claims, I focus especially on the 2003 Iraq war

SHALLOW FLAT SOFFIT PRECAST CONCRETE FLOOR SYSTEM

A precast concrete floor system that eliminates the need for column corbels and beam ledges while being very shallow. The main advantages of the present system include a span to-depth ratio of 30, a flat soffit, economy, consistency with prevailing erection techniques, and fire and corrosion protection. The present system consists of continuous precast columns, prestressed rectangular beams, hollow-core planks, and cast-in-place composite topping. Testing results have indicated that a 12 inch deep flat soffit precast floor system has adequate capacity to carry gravity loads (including 100 psf live load) in a 30 ft x 30 ft bay size. Testing has also shown that shear capacity of the ledge-less hollow-core-beam connections can be accurately predicted using the shear friction theory

Power Spectrum Analysis of the Stromlo-APM Redshift Survey

We test estimators of the galaxy power spectrum $P(k)$ against simulated galaxy catalogues constructed from N-body simulations and we derive formulae to correct for biases. These estimators are then applied to compute the power spectrum of galaxies in the Stromlo-APM redshift survey. We test whether the amplitude of $P(k)$ depends on galaxy luminosity, but find no significant luminosity dependence except at absolute magnitudes brighter than M_{\bj} = -20.3, (H_{0} = 100 \kms) where there is some evidence for a rise in the amplitude of $P(k)$. By comparing the redshift space power spectrum of the Stromlo-APM survey with the real space power spectrum determined from the parent APM Galaxy Survey, we attempt to measure the distortion in the shape of $P(k)$ caused by galaxy peculiar motions. We find some evidence for an effect, but the errors are large and do not exclude a value of $\beta = \Omega^{0.6}/b = 1$, where $\Omega$ is the cosmological density parameter and $b$ is the linear biasing parameter relating galaxy fluctuations to those in the mass, $\left(\delta \rho/\rho\right)_{gal} = b \left(\delta \rho/\rho\right)_{m}$. The shape of the Stromlo-APM power spectrum is consistent with that determined from the CfA-2 survey, but has a slightly higher amplitude by a factor of about 1.4 than the power spectrum of IRAS galaxies.Comment: 14 pages, gziped and uuencoded postscript file. Submitted to MNRA

The Power Spectrum of Rich Clusters of Galaxies on Large Spatial Scales

We present an analysis of the redshift-space power spectrum, $P(k)$, of rich clusters of galaxies based on an automated cluster catalogue selected from the APM Galaxy Survey. We find that $P(k)$ can be approximated by a power law, P(k)\proptok^{n}, with $n\approx-1.6$ over the wavenumber range 0.04\hr. Over this range of wavenumbers, the APM cluster power spectrum has the same shape as the power spectra measured for optical and IRAS galaxies. This is consistent with a simple linear bias model in which different tracers have the same power spectrum as that of the mass distribution but shifted in amplitude by a constant biasing factor. On larger scales, the power spectrum of APM clusters flattens and appears to turn over on a scale k \sim 0.03\hmpcrev. We compare the power spectra estimated from simulated APM cluster catalogues to those estimated directly from cubical N-body simulation volumes and find that the APM cluster survey should give reliable estimates of the true power spectrum at wavenumbers k \simgt 0.02\hmpcrev. These results suggest that the observed turn-over in the power spectrum may be a real feature of the cluster distribution and that we have detected the transition to a near scale-invariant power spectrum implied by observations of anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background radiation. The scale of the turn-over in the cluster power spectrum is in good agreement with the scale of the turn-over observed in the power spectrum of APM galaxies.Comment: 9 pages, 7 ps figures, two style files, submitted to MNRAS. Un-xxx-ed version available at http://www-astro.physics.ox.ac.uk/research/preprints/aug97/cluspaper.ps.g

Measuring the Quality of Banking Regulation in Egypt

The free market economy most countries pursue nowadays is never entirely free from government intervention. Policy makers devote special attention to the regulation of financial markets and with the current financial crisis, the quality of the banking regulations need to be reconsidered. This paper aims to provide a tool to measure the quality of banking regulation and supervision. This is usually a difficult task because it is a qualitative analysis and is arbitrary. However, a regulation index has been modelled that is similar to the concept of a cost-benefit analysis. The input index resembles the cost signifying the efforts made by governments and supervisors to measure the intensity of the regulation. The output index resembles the benefit which shows the outcome of the governments’ efforts. Finally, applying this index on Egypt filled a research gap in this area.Banking regulation, Quality index, Egypt

Gravitational lensing and modified Newtonian dynamics

Gravitational lensing is most often used as a tool to investigate the distribution of (dark) matter in the universe, but, if the mass distribution is known a priori, it becomes, at least in principle, a powerful probe of gravity itself. Lensing observations are a more powerful tool than dynamical measurements because they allow measurements of the gravitational field far away from visible matter. For example, modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) has no relativistic extension, and so makes no firm lensing predictions, but galaxy-galaxy lensing data can be used to empirically the deflection law of a point-mass. MONDian lensing is consistent with general relativity, in so far as the deflection experienced by a photon is twice that experienced by a massive particle moving at the speed of light. With the deflection law in place and no invisible matter, MOND can be tested wherever lensing is observed. The implications are that either MONDian lensing is completely non-linear or that MOND is not an accurate description of the universe.Comment: PASA (OzLens edition), in press; 5 pages, 1 figur

Gravitational lensing and modified Newtonian dynamics

Gravitational lensing is most often used as a tool to investigate the distribution of (dark) matter in the universe, but, if the mass distribution is known a priori, it becomes, at least in principle, a powerful probe of gravity itself. Lensing observations are a more powerful tool than dynamical measurements because they allow measurements of the gravitational field far away from visible matter. For example, modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) has no relativistic extension, and so makes no firm lensing predictions, but galaxy-galaxy lensing data can be used to empirically the deflection law of a point-mass. MONDian lensing is consistent with general relativity, in so far as the deflection experienced by a photon is twice that experienced by a massive particle moving at the speed of light. With the deflection law in place and no invisible matter, MOND can be tested wherever lensing is observed. The implications are that either MONDian lensing is completely non-linear or that MOND is not an accurate description of the universe.Comment: PASA (OzLens edition), in press; 5 pages, 1 figur