Locke's Answer to Molyneux's Thought Experiment

Philosophical discussions of Molyneux's problem within contemporary philosophy of mind tend to characterize the problem as primarily concerned with the role innately known principles, amodal spatial concepts, and rational cognitive faculties play in our perceptual lives. Indeed, for broadly similar reasons, rationalists have generally advocated an affirmative answer, while empiricists have generally advocated a negative one, to the question Molyneux posed after presenting his famous thought experiment. This historical characterization of the dialectic, however, somewhat obscures the role Molyneux's problem has played in spawning debates within the empiricist tradition. Fortunately, the differences between various empiricist accounts have been widely recognized and discussed among historians of philosophy working on the topic. The focus of the present essay is to develop an interpretation of John Locke's views on Molyneux's problem that best coheres with his other views on human understanding as well as with the predominant scientific opinion about the nature of perception during the period in which he lived

Gravity wave turbulence revealed by horizontal vibrations of the container

We experimentally study the role of the forcing on gravity-capillary wave turbulence. Previous laboratory experiments using spatially localized forcing (vibrating blades) have shown that the frequency power-law exponent of the gravity wave spectrum depends on the forcing parameters. By horizontally vibrating the whole container, we observe a spectrum exponent that does not depend on the forcing parameters for both gravity and capillary regimes. This spatially extended forcing leads to a gravity spectrum exponent in better agreement with the theory than by using a spatially localized forcing. The role of the vessel shape has been also studied. Finally, the wave spectrum is found to scale linearly with the injected power for both regimes whatever the forcing type used

Legal Interpretative Process and Litigants’ Cognitive Biases

For contemporary legal theory, law is essentially an interpretative and hermeneutic practice (Ackerman (1991), Horwitz (1992)). A straightforward consequence is that legal disputes between parties are motivated by their divergent interpretations regarding what law says on their case. This point of view fits well the growing evidence showing that litigants' cognitive performances display the optimistic bias or self-serving bias (Babcock and Lowenstein (1997)). This paper provides a theoretical analysis of the influence of such a cognitive bias on pretrial negotiations. However, we also consider that this effetcs is mitigated because of litigants' confidence about their own ability to predict the verdict; we model this issue assuming that litigants are risk averse in the sense of Yaari (1987), i.e. they display a kind of (rational) probability distorsion which is also well documented in experimantal economics. In a model à la Bebcuck (1984), we show that the consequences of the self-serving bias are partially consistent with the "optimistic model", but that parties' risk aversion has more ambiguous/unpredictable effects. These results contribute to explain that the believes about the result of the trial are not sufficient by themselves to understand the behaviors of litigants. As suggested by legal theory, the confidence the parties have in their believes is probably more important.litigation, self-serving bias, risk aversion

Informational Externalities and Settlements in Mass Tort Litigations

This paper elaborates on a basic model of mass tort litigation, highlighting the existence of positive informational externalities afforded by the discovery process (as a general technology of production of evidences) in order to study when a class action is formed, or when a sequence of individual trials is more likely. We illustrate the argument that when several plaintiffs file individually a lawsuit against the same tortfeasor, the resolution of the various cases through repeated trials produces positive informational externalities. When class actions are forbidden, these externalities only benefit to the later plaintiffs (through precedents, jurisprudence...). When they are allowed, the first filers may have an incentive to initiate a class action as far as it enables him to benefit from these externalities, through the sharing of information with later filers. We provide sufficient conditions under which a class action is formed, assuming a perfect discovery process. We also show that when contingent fees are used to reward attorneys' services, plaintiffs become neutral to the arrival of new information on their case.Mass Tort Class Action, information sharing, repeated litigation, contingent fees.

Informational externalities and informational sharing in class action suits

When several plaintiffs file individually a lawsuit against the same tortfeasor, the resolution of the various cases through repeated trials produces positive informational externalities, which benefit to the later plaintiffs (since there exist precedents, jurisprudence...). Thus, the first filers may have an incentive to initiate a class action as far as it enables the various plaintiffs to share their information. This feature has not been stressed in the literature, and in contrast strategic uses of class actions have been studied in more details (Che (1996), Marceau and Mongrain (2003)). In this paper, we elaborate on a basic strategic model of litigation settlement, focusing on the interactions between the characteristics of the discovery process (as a general technology of production of evidences) in mass tort litigation, those of the compensation rules set by Courts, and the structure of litigation costs, in order to study when a class action fails to occur, and when sequential trials are more likely. We consider the case of a perfect discovery process. We provide sufficient conditions under which a class action is formed. We show that when victims have heterogeneous claims, the compensatory damages rule awarded by Courts is of major importance for the formation of the class action, whatever the degree of heterogeneity: all else equal, there always exists a degree of \textit{damage averaging} under which the class action occurs. We also show that when contingent fees are used to reward attorneys' services, plaintiffs become neutral to the arrival of new information on their case.Mass Tort Class Action; information sharing; repeated litigation; contingent fees

Informational Externalities and Settlements in Mass Tort Litigations

This paper elaborates on a basic model of mass tort litigation, highlighting the existence of positive informational externalities a¤orded by the discovery process (as a general technology of production of evidences) in order to study when a class action is formed, or when a sequence of individual trials is more likely. We illustrate the argument that when several plaintiffs file individually a lawsuit against the same tortfeasor, the resolution of the various cases through repeated trials produces positive informational externalities. When class actions are forbidden, these externalities only benefit to the later plaintiffs (through precedents, jurisprudence...). When they are allowed, the first filer may have an incentive to initiate a class action as far as it enables him to benefit from these externalities, through the sharing of information with later filers. We provide sufficient conditions under which a class action is formed, assuming a perfect discovery process. We also show that when contingent fees are used to reward attorneys' services, plaintiffs become neutral to the arrival of new information on their case.Mass Tort Class Action, information sharing, repeated litigation, contingent fees

Vaccination against ETEC in pigs

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) that bear F4 fimbriae on their surface (F4+ ETEC) are a major cause of postweaning diarrhoea (PWD) in pigs. The F4 fimbriae enable the bacteria to colonize the small intestine and subsequently, to produce enterotoxins causing diarrhoea. Consequently, an F4-specific secretory IgA response at the intestinal mucosa that neutralizes the fimbriae is desired for protection against postweaning diarrhoea

Running real time distributed simulations under Linux and CERTI

This paper presents some experiments and some results to enforce real time distributed simulations in accordance with the High Level Architecture (HLA). Simulations were run by using CERTI, an open source middleware, as the Run Time Infrastructure (RTI). Models were distributed over computers under various available versions of the 2.6 Linux kernel. Studies and experiments relied on a real case study. The chosen case study was the simulation of an "in formation" flight of observation satellites. This case study brings up some real applicative needs in real time distributed simulations and real configurations of simulators and models. Two simulations of "in formation" flight of satellites were studied. The study consisted in modeling the behaviour of the simulators and in running these models by using various kernel or middleware operating mechanisms and services. Time measurements were performed at each test giving some results on the ability of the simulation to meet its real time requirements

Pore-scale modeling of fluid-particles interaction and emerging poromechanical effects

A micro-hydromechanical model for granular materials is presented. It combines the discrete element method (DEM) for the modeling of the solid phase and a pore-scale finite volume (PFV) formulation for the flow of an incompressible pore fluid. The coupling equations are derived and contrasted against the equations of conventional poroelasticity. An analogy is found between the DEM-PFV coupling and Biot's theory in the limit case of incompressible phases. The simulation of an oedometer test validates the coupling scheme and demonstrates the ability of the model to capture strong poromechanical effects. A detailed analysis of microscale strain and stress confirms the analogy with poroelasticity. An immersed deposition problem is finally simulated and shows the potential of the method to handle phase transitions.Comment: accepted in Int. Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanic