Animals, veterinarians and the sociology of diagnosis

While sociologists of medicine have focused their efforts on understanding human health, illness, and medicine, veterinary medical practice has not yet caught their attention in any sustained way. In this critical review paper, we use insights from the sociology of diagnosis literature to explore veterinary practice, and aim to demonstrate the importance of animals to sociological understandings of health, illness and disease. As in human medicine, our analysis shows the importance of diagnosis in creating and maintaining the power and authority of the veterinary professional. However, we then explore how diagnosis operates as a kind of dance, where professional authority can be challenged, particularly in light of the complex ethical responsibilities and clinical interactions that result from the triad of professional/owner/animal patient. Finally, we consider diagnosis via the precept of entanglement, and raise the intriguing possibility of interspecies health relations, whereby decision-making in human healthcare may be influenced by experiences in animal healthcare, and vice-versa. In our conclusion we argue that this analysis provides opportunities to scholars researching diagnosis in human healthcare, particularly around the impact of commercial drivers; has implications for veterinary and public health practitioners; and should help animate the emerging sociology of veterinary medicine

Statistical properties of the distribution and generation of kinetic-scale flux ropes in the terrestrial dayside magnetosheath

The generation of kinetic-scale flux ropes (KSFRs) is closely related to magnetic reconnection. Both flux ropes and reconnection sites are detected in the magnetosheath and can impact the dynamics upstream of the magnetopause. In this study, using the Magnetospheric Multiscale satellite, 12,623 KSFRs with a scale <20 RCi are statistically studied in the Earth's dayside magnetosheath. It is found that they are mostly generated near the bow shock (BS), and propagate downstream in the magnetosheath. Their quantity significantly increases as the scale decreases, consistent with a flux rope coalescence model. Moreover, the solar wind parameters can control the occurrence rate of KSFRs. They are more easily generated at high Mach number, large proton density, and weak magnetic field strength of the solar wind, similar to the conditions that favor BS reconnection. Our study shows a close connection between KSFR generation and BS reconnection

Whistler waves with angular momentum in space and laboratory plasmas and their counterparts in free space

Electromagnetic waves with helical phase surfaces arise in different fields of physics such as space plasmas, laboratory plasmas, solid-state physics, atomic, molecular and optical sciences. Their common features are the wave orbital angular momentum associated with the circular wave propagation around the axis of wave propagation. In plasmas these waves are called helicons. When particles or waves change the field momentum they experience a pressure and a torque which can lead to useful applications. In plasmas electrons can damp or excite rotating whistlers, depending on the electron distribution function in velocity space. A magnetized plasma is an anisotropic medium in which electromagnetic waves propagate differently than in space. Phase and group velocities are different such that wave focusing and wave reflections are different from those in free space. Electrons experience Doppler shifts and cyclotron resonance which creates wave damping and growth. All media exhibit nonlinear effects which do not occur in free space. Common and different features of vortex waves in different fields will be reviewed. However, a comprehensive review of this vast field is not possible and further readings are referred to the cited literature