The basic notions of the theory of term rewriting are defined for terms that may involve function letters of infinite arity. A sufficient condition for completeness is derived, and its use demonstrated by the example of abstract clones over infinitary signatures.

Define to be the smallest cardinality of a function f: X→Y with I, X, Y, ⊆ 2ω such that there is no Borel function g ⊇ f. In this paper we prove that it is relatively consistent with ZFC to have b < where b is, as usual, smallest cardinality of an unbounded family in Ωω. This answers a question raised by Zapletal.

We also show that it is relatively consistent with ZFC that there exists X ⊆ 2ω such that the Borei order of X is bounded but there exists a relatively analytic subset of X which is not relatively coanalytic. This answers a question of Mauldin.

Let T be an infinite pseudo-tree. In [2], we showed that the cellularity of the pseudo-tree algebra Treealg(T) was the maximum of four cardinals cT, lT, ϕT, and μT: roughly, cT is the “tallness” of T: lT is the “width” of T, ϕ is the number of “points of finite branching” in T: and μ is the number of “sections of no branching” in T. Here we ask: which inequalities among these four cardinals may be satisfied, in some sense, by a pseudo-tree? We show that the possible inequalities among cT, lT, ϕT, and μT attained by pseudo-trees T are closely related to the existence of generalized Suslin trees.

We point out that the theory of difference fields with algebraically closed fixed field has no model companion.

The fundamental role of the restricted calculus of predicates in applications of symbolic logic, and particularly in Hubert's Beweistheorie as summed up by Hilbert and Bernays, makes it important that this logical calculus should be accurately defined. The first standard formulation of the calculus was that of Hilbert and Ackermann's Grundzüge der theoretischen Logik. This employed (in the first three editions) a finite set of axioms and rules of derivation, with rules of substitution included. A reaction by Hilbert and Ackermann's successors to persistent difficulty encountered with the rules of substitution has been to omit these rules, and instead enlarge the set of axioms and the other rules of derivation so as to encompass all possible substitutions. Such an enlargement seems to me to be undesirable. As an alternative, this note is designed to put the original approach of Hilbert and Ackermann for once and for all on a sound basis.

Assume T is a small superstable theory. We introduce the notion of a flat Morley sequence, which is a counterpart of the notion of an infinite Morley sequence in a type p, in case when p is a complete type over a finite set of parameters. We show that for any flat Morley sequence Q there is a model M of T which is τ-atomic over {Q}. When additionally T has few countable models and is 1-based, we prove that within M there is an infinite Morley sequence I, with I ⊂ dcl(Q), such that M is prime over I.