Acorn Poisoning in Cattle

During the month of October reports of acorn poisoning have been widespread through Iowa and neighboring states. Representative animals from some herds were presented to the clinic. Other herds were described by practitioners in telephone conversations. When the first cases were encountered there was understandable hesitation in making the diagnosis since the problem was occurring on pastures that had been supporting trouble free grazing for years. As evidence continued to mount, however, it appeared that the heavy acorn production, together with abundant rainfall, may have resulted in an unusual problem this year

Algebraic Principles for Rely-Guarantee Style Concurrency Verification Tools

We provide simple equational principles for deriving rely-guarantee-style inference rules and refinement laws based on idempotent semirings. We link the algebraic layer with concrete models of programs based on languages and execution traces. We have implemented the approach in Isabelle/HOL as a lightweight concurrency verification tool that supports reasoning about the control and data flow of concurrent programs with shared variables at different levels of abstraction. This is illustrated on two simple verification examples

Formal verification techniques for model transformations: A tridimensional classification

In Model Driven Engineering (Mde), models are first-class citizens, and model transformation is Mde's "heart and soul". Since model transformations are executed for a family of (conforming) models, their validity becomes a crucial issue. This paper proposes to explore the question of the formal verification of model transformation properties through a tridimensional approach: the transformation involved, the properties of interest addressed, and the formal verification techniques used to establish the properties. This work is intended for a double audience. For newcomers, it provides a tutorial introduction to the field of formal verification of model transformations. For readers more familiar with formal methods and model transformations, it proposes a literature review (although not systematic) of the contributions of the field. Overall, this work allows to better understand the evolution, trends and current practice in the domain of model transformation verification. This work opens an interesting research line for building an engineering of model transformation verification guided by the notion of model transformation intent

Speckle-free laser imaging

Many imaging applications require increasingly bright illumination sources, motivating the replacement of conventional thermal light sources with light emitting diodes (LEDs), superluminescent diodes (SLDs) and lasers. Despite their brightness, lasers and SLDs are poorly suited for full-field imaging applications because their high spatial coherence leads to coherent artifacts known as speckle that corrupt image formation. We recently demonstrated that random lasers can be engineered to provide low spatial coherence. Here, we exploit the low spatial coherence of specifically-designed random lasers to perform speckle-free full-field imaging in the setting of significant optical scattering. We quantitatively demonstrate that images generated with random laser illumination exhibit higher resolution than images generated with spatially coherent illumination. By providing intense laser illumination without the drawback of coherent artifacts, random lasers are well suited for a host of full-field imaging applications from full-field microscopy to digital light projector systems.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Public understandings of addiction: where do neurobiological explanations fit?

Developments in the field of neuroscience, according to its proponents, offer the prospect of an enhanced understanding and treatment of addicted persons. Consequently, its advocates consider that improving public understanding of addiction neuroscience is a desirable aim. Those critical of neuroscientific approaches, however, charge that it is a totalising, reductive perspective–one that ignores other known causes in favour of neurobiological explanations. Sociologist Nikolas Rose has argued that neuroscience, and its associated technologies, are coming to dominate cultural models to the extent that 'we' increasingly understand ourselves as 'neurochemical selves'. Drawing on 55 qualitative interviews conducted with members of the Australian public residing in the Greater Brisbane area, we challenge both the 'expectational discourses' of neuroscientists and the criticisms of its detractors. Members of the public accepted multiple perspectives on the causes of addiction, including some elements of neurobiological explanations. Their discussions of addiction drew upon a broad range of philosophical, sociological, anthropological, psychological and neurobiological vocabularies, suggesting that they synthesised newer technical understandings, such as that offered by neuroscience, with older ones. Holding conceptual models that acknowledge the complexity of addiction aetiology into which new information is incorporated suggests that the impact of neuroscientific discourse in directing the public's beliefs about addiction is likely to be more limited than proponents or opponents of neuroscience expect

What does 'acceptance' mean? Public reflections on the idea that addiction is a brain disease

Public responses to the dissemination of neuroscientific explanations of addiction and other mental disorders are an interesting sociocultural phenomenon. We investigated how 55 members of the Australian public deliberated on the idea that 'addiction is a brain disease'. Our findings point to the diverse ways in which the public understands and utilises this proposition. Interviewees readily accepted that drugs affect brain functioning but were ambivalent about whether to label addiction as a 'disease'. Contrary to the prediction of neuroscientific advocates and social science critics, acceptance of a neurobiological conception of addiction did not necessarily affect beliefs about addicted persons' responsibility for their addiction. We discuss the theoretical and applied implications of these findings. Theoretically, we examine the complexity surrounding how people adopt new knowledge and its role in reshaping ethical beliefs. We also discuss the implications of these findings for the ethics of communication of neuroscientific information to reduce stigma and enhance social support for the treatment of addicted individuals

Special Relativity-on-a-Photonic-Chip: Applying Circuits’ Analysis to Characterize Einstein Velocity Addition Law

We demonstrate, for the first time to best of our knowledge, the usefulness of the analytical toolbox developed from a disparate field like Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) and now applied in the study of the Einstein Velocity Addition (EVA) in Special Relativity (SR). EVA is a central concept in SR that underlies many relativistic effects. The recently established analogy between the EVA and the PICs-based Optical Add-drop Filter (OADF) [J. Modern Optics 66, 679, (2019)] allows us to apply the “Critical Coupling, Over-Coupling and Under-Coupling” (or CC-OC-UC) analytical toolbox to systematically categorize, analyze, and visualize the different behaviors of EVA. We focus on the (i) relative magnitude and (ii) relative direction of the two non-collinear velocities of EVA. This analysis uncovers “not-too-obvious” features that are overlooked or would not have been discussed, otherwise, in the normal treatment of EVA in SR. Other important consequences are briefly discussed

Acorn Poisoning in Cattle

During the month of October reports of acorn poisoning have been widespread through Iowa and neighboring states. Representative animals from some herds were presented to the clinic. Other herds were described by practitioners in telephone conversations. When the first cases were encountered there was understandable hesitation in making the diagnosis since the problem was occurring on pastures that had been supporting trouble free grazing for years. As evidence continued to mount, however, it appeared that the heavy acorn production, together with abundant rainfall, may have resulted in an unusual problem this year.</p