Form and Content: An Introduction to Formal Logic

Derek Turner, Professor of Philosophy, has written an introductory logic textbook that students at Connecticut College, or anywhere, can access for free. The book differs from other standard logic textbooks in its reliance on fun, low-stakes examples involving dinosaurs, a dog and his friends, etc. This work is published in 2020 under a Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may share this text in any format or medium. You may not use it for commercial purposes. If you share it, you must give appropriate credit. If you remix, transform, add to, or modify the text in any way, you may not then redistribute the modified text.https://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/oer/1000/thumbnail.jp

It's Working: How the Internet Access and Online Video Markets Are Thriving in the Title II Era

Financial and marketplace evidence demonstrates that the FCC's 2015 Open Internet Order is an absolute success, accomplishing its stated goal of preserving and promoting the online ecosystem's "virtuous cycle of investment." ISP investments accelerated following the vote (e.g., aggregate capital expenditures by publicly traded ISPs have risen by more than 5 percent during the two-year period since the FCC's February 2015 vote; investments in core network technology at cable companies during that same time period are up by more than 48 percent). Investments in the edge, including those by online video providers and edge computing firms, are up as well (e.g., capital expenditures by firms in the U.S. data-processing sector increased 26 percent in the year following the FCC's order while there was just 4 percent growth in the year prior). More new U.S. "over-the-top" video services launched in the two years following the vote than in the seven years prior. Furthermore, the certainty the FCC's action created spurred the entry of numerous pay-TV full replacement providers, with vertical carriers such as AT&T now distributing (and others poised to distribute) their pay- TV services via other ISPs' last mile networks.In sum, the 2015 Open Internet Order and accompanying legal classification decision settled the prior uncertainty about open, nondiscriminatory broadband telecom service access. What followed that decision was a historic period of U.S. investment and innovation

Archaeological test pit excavations at Shillington, Bedfordshire

This report presents the results of a programme of archaeological excavation of 23 1m2 ‘test pits’ in the Bedfordshire village of Shillington carried out in summer 2013. The programme was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) through its ‘All Our Stories’ programme and supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Connected Communities theme which funded the Cambridge Community Heritage programme at the University of Cambridge in 20012-13. Over three days, more than 300 residents of the village of Shillington and the local area took part in the excavations in 23 different locations throughout the present village. The results provided new evidence for the development of the area now occupied by the village, which mostly lies alongside a small stream, from the prehistoric period onwards. The landscape was used by humans in the prehistoric period, apparently favouring the area nearer the small brook running west of the prominent hill which dominates the land around the parish. One test pit near this stream produced convincing evidence for undisturbed settlement remains in the immediate vicinity. Small quantities of pottery of Roman date came from five different sites, two of them away from the Brookside area hinting at a pattern of settlement or agricultural land use moving beyond the lower lying zones. No evidence was found for any activity dating to the period between the 5 th – 9 th centuries AD, but Saxo-Norman pottery of 10th – 11th century date was found in two distinct concentrations, suggesting more than one hamlet present, possibly part of a nucleated pattern of settlement, at this time. The high medieval period saw settlement at these sites grow and that at three other ‘ends’ appear, indicating a pattern of mixed dispersed and nucleated settlement. This growth ceases in the late medieval period, with Shillington particularly badly affected in this period of widespread demographic and settlement contraction compared to many settlements in the eastern region. In the postmedieval period, however, the test pit data indicates that Shillington gradually recovered, with former dispersed settlements mostly reoccupied, although it did not achieve its pre-14th century levels and some of the medieval ‘ends’ remained uninhabited until the 19th century

Investigating the effects of 5.5 mmoL vs 25 mmoL glucose concentration in culture media on LHCN-M2 cell viability, proliferation, metabolism and differentiation

Introduction: In vitro skeletal muscle cell models are vitally important for investigating the molecular mechanisms of skeletal muscle in metabolic and endocrine diseases, such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. Culture media for skeletal muscle cells can often contain glucose concentrations (GC) five times higher than what’s considered normal in fasting human plasma, thus is not representative of the in vivo environment. Hyperglycaemia in culture media may negatively impact metabolic function, by creating a model of cell toxicity that’s representative of diseases such as diabetes mellitus. The aim of these experiments was to determine the impact of media containing GC of 5.5 mmol (physiological) vs 25 mmol (supraphysiological) on cell viability, proliferation, ATP production and differentiation in human LHCN-m2 myoblasts.Methods: LHCN-m2 myoblasts were cultured in 5.5 mmol or 25 mmol glucose growth media and cell viability, ATP production, and proliferation were determined. Differentiation of LHCN-m2 myoblasts into multinucleated myotubes was induced by reducing levels of human serum within the culture media and analysed by immunofluorescence following 10 days of differentiation.Results: We observed no differences in the viability, proliferation or basal ATP production rates of LHCN-m2 cells grown in 5.5 mmol compared to 25 mmol glucose (P> 0.05 for all). However cells had a trend of higher ATP production rates and faster proliferation in 5.5 mmol compared to 25 mmol. Fluorescence microscopy revealed the formation of multinucleated myotubes differentiated in 5.5 mmol glucose media containing various concentrations of human serum (0.5%, 1% and 2%).Conclusions: Our data demonstrates the ability to differentiate LHCN-m2 cells in 5.5 mmol GC, which allows our in vitro model to be more physiologically-relevant and more comparable to what is observed in vivo in humans. Further work is required to determine the implications of GC on the wider metabolic function in LHCN-m2 myoblasts

Living fossils and conservation values

Horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus) have been in decline in Long Island Sound, and recently there has been discussion of whether the state of Connecticut should stop issuing licenses for commercial harvesting. This paper argues that in spite of concerns about the living fossil concept, the fact that the horseshoe crabs are living fossils should count in favor of more stringent protection. The paper distinguishes four different views about the status of the living fossil concept: 1) eliminativism; 2) redefinition; 3) reframing; and 4) conceptual pluralism. Approaches 2–4 all treat the criteria associated with living fossils as picking out distinctive features of evolutionary history. Those distinctive features of evolutionary history link up with conservation values in several ways. More generally, drawing upon relevant work in environmental philosophy, it is argued that evolutionary history is relevant to aesthetic and environmental value. Moreover, eliminativists have trouble rendering intelligible a striking pattern in the recent scientific literature. Researchers undertaking conservation-relevant work frequently highlight the living fossil status of the taxa under study