A Criticism of Criticism: In Re Meaning

Philosophers and literary critics have long discussed the meaning of words-or, more exactly, whether words themselves have any real meaning. The argument, Mr. Henson suggests, is relevant also to legal criticism. Words about words may generate and perpetuate arguments, but they do not solve problems involving people and things

Discreteness and the transmission of light from distant sources

We model the classical transmission of a massless scalar field from a source to a detector on a background causal set. The predictions do not differ significantly from those of the continuum. Thus, introducing an intrinsic inexactitude to lengths and durations - or more specifically, replacing the Lorentzian manifold with an underlying discrete structure - need not disrupt the usual dynamics of propagation.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figure. Version 2: reference adde

Discreteness without symmetry breaking: a theorem

This paper concerns sprinklings into Minkowski space (Poisson processes). It proves that there exists no equivariant measurable map from sprinklings to spacetime directions (even locally). Therefore, if a discrete structure is associated to a sprinkling in an intrinsic manner, then the structure will not pick out a preferred frame, locally or globally. This implies that the discreteness of a sprinkled causal set will not give rise to ``Lorentz breaking'' effects like modified dispersion relations. Another consequence is that there is no way to associate a finite-valency graph to a sprinkling consistently with Lorentz invariance.Comment: 7 pages, laTe

IASME: Information Security Management Evolution for SMEs

Most of the research in information risk and risk management has focused on the needs of larger organisations. In the area of standards accreditation, the ISO/IEC 27001 Information Risk Management standard has continued to grow in acceptance and popularity with such organisations, although not to a significant extent with SMEs. An interesting product recently developed for ENISA (European Nations Information Security Association) based on the Carnegie-Mellon maturity model and aimed at SMEs has not so far filled the gap. In this paper, a researcher and two practitioners from the UK discuss an innovative development in the UK for addressing the information assurance needs of smaller organisations. They also share their perceptions about the security of national information infrastructures, and concerns that SMEs do not get the priority that their position in the supply chain would suggest they should have. The authors also explore the development and roll out of IASME (Information Assurance for SMEs), which they have developed in the context of a tight market, where spare cash is in short supply, and many SMEs are still in survival mode. The question for the business is therefore not seen as “can we afford to spend on information security” but “can we afford not to spend…” As well as the effect on being able to do business at all of having an SMEs systems compromised, there are also matters of reputation, and the growing threat of fines as a result of not complying with laws and regulations. The paper concludes with achievements of real businesses using the IASME process to cost-effectively achieve information assurance levels appropriate for themselves

Long-term polarization observations of Mira variable stars suggest asymmetric structures

Mira and semi-regular variable stars have been studied for centuries but continue to be enigmatic. One unsolved mystery is the presence of polarization from these stars. In particular, we present 40 years of polarization measurements for the prototype o Ceti and V CVn and find very different phenomena for each star. The polarization fraction and position angle for Mira is found to be small and highly variable. On the other hand, the polarization fraction for V CVn is large and variable, from 2 - 7 %, and its position angle is approximately constant, suggesting a long-term asymmetric structure. We suggest a number of potential scenarios to explain these observations.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure, poster presented at IAU Symposium 301, Precision Asteroseismology, August 2013, Wroclaw, Polan

Osteochondrosis lesions of the lateral trochlear ridge of the distal femur in four ponies

Lesions of the lateral trochlear ridge (LTR) of the distal femur were investigated in four pony or pony cross horses. The animals were all geldings and were six to 15 months of age. Lesions were bilateral in three ponies and unilateral in one. Femoropatellar joint effusion and lameness were present in two ponies; clinical signs were absent in the others. The proximal LTR was affected in all four animals. The radiographic appearance of the lesions was a subchondral defect containing mineralised bodies. Arthroscopic and postmortem examination findings included an osteochondral flap, a fissured or irregular articular surface and a smooth surface overlying focally thickened cartilage that extended into subchondral bone. Thickened articular cartilage was a histological feature of all the lesions. Among the other histological features, the most common were chondronecrosis, chondrocyte clusters, phenotypically abnormal chondrocytes, horizontal fissures at the osteochondral junction and retained blood vessels. The signalment of the four ponies, their clinical signs and the pathological features of their lesions were consistent with osteochondrosis of the LTR in horses. The use of multiple criteria was considered to be important in making a specific diagnosis