Supposition, Conditionals and Unstated Premises

Informal logicians recognise the frequent use of unstated assumptions; some (e.g. Fisher) also recognise entertained arguments and recommend a suppositional approach (such as Mackie's) to conditional statements. It is here argued that these two be put together to make argument diagrams more accurate and subtle. Philosophical benefits also accrue: insights into Jackson's apparent violations of modus tollens and contraposition and McGee's counterexamples to the validity of modus ponens

Environmental stimulation of 129/SvJ mice causes increased cell proliferation and neurogenesis in the adult dentate gyrus

AbstractNew neurons are continuously born in the dentate gyrus of the adult mouse hippocampus, and regulation of adult neurogenesis is influenced by both genetic and environmental determinants. Mice of the 129/SvJ strain have significantly less hippocampal neurogenesis than other inbred mouse strains [1] and do not perform well in learning tasks. Here, the impact of environmental stimuli on brain plasticity during adulthood of 129/SvJ mice was studied using ‘enriched environments’ where mice receive complex inanimate and social stimulation [2,3]. In contrast to our earlier reports on mice of the C57BL/6 strain – which are competent in learning tasks and in which environmental stimulation did not influence cell proliferation [4,5] – environmentally stimulated 129/SvJ mice were found to have twice as many proliferating cells in the dentate gyrus compared with mice in standard housing. Environmental stimulation fostered the survival of newborn cells in 129/SvJ mice; this effect had also been seen in C57BL/6 mice. Phenotypic analysis of the surviving cells revealed that environmental stimulation resulted in 67% more new neurons. In combination with our earlier results, these data indicate a differential impact of inheritable traits on the environmental regulation of adult hippocampal neurogenesis. In addition, we observed behavioral changes in environmentally stimulated 129/SvJ mice

Longitudinal compression of heavy-ion beams with minimum requirements on final focus

A method is developed to compress a heavy-ion beam longitudinally in such a way that the compressed pulse has a constant line-charge density profile and uniform longitudinal momentum. These conditions may be important from the standpoint of final focusing. By realizing the similarity of the equations that describe the 1-D charged-particle motion to the equations that describe 1-D ideal gas flow, the evolution of lambda and the velocity tilt can be calculated using the method of characteristics developed for unsteady supersonic gasdynamics. Particle simulations confirm the theory. Various schemes for pulse shaping have been investigated

Dynamics of heavy ion beams during longitudinal compression

Heavy ion beams with initially uniform line charge density can be compressed longitudinally by an order of magnitude in such a way that the compressed beam has uniform line charge density and velocity-tilt profiles. There are no envelope mismatch oscillations during compression. Although the transverse temperature varies along the beam and also varies with time, no substantial longitudinal and transverse emittance growth has been observed. Scaling laws for beam radius and transport system parameters are given

Approaching maximal performance of longitudinal beam compression in induction accelerator drivers

Longitudinal beam compression is an integral part of the US induction accelerator development effort for heavy ion fusion. Producing maximal performance for key accelerator components is an essential element of the effort to reduce driver costs. We outline here initial studies directed towards defining the limits of final beam compression including considerations such as: maximal available compression, effects of longitudinal dispersion and beam emittance, combining pulse-shaping with beam compression to reduce the total number of beam manipulations, etc. The use of higher ion charge state Z greater than or equal to 3 is likely to test the limits of the previously envisaged beam compression and final focus hardware. A more conservative approach is to use additional beamlets in final compression and focus. On the other end of the spectrum of choices, alternate approaches might consider new final focus with greater tolerances for systematic momentum and current variations. Development of such final focus concepts would also allow more compact (and hopefully cheaper) hardware packages where the previously separate processes of beam compression, pulse-shaping and final focus occur as partially combined and nearly concurrent beam manipulations