A Defense of Free-Roaming Cats from a Hedonist Account of Feline Well-being

There is a widespread belief that for their own safety and for the protection of wildlife, cats should be permanently kept indoors. Against this view, I argue that cat guardians have a duty to provide their feline companions with outdoor access. The argument is based on a sophisticated hedonistic account of animal well-being that acknowledges that the performance of species-normal ethological behavior is especially pleasurable. Territorial behavior, which requires outdoor access, is a feline-normal ethological behavior, so when a cat is permanently confined to the indoors, her ability to flourish is impaired. Since cat guardians have a duty not to impair the well-being of their cats, the impairment of cat flourishing via confinement signifies a moral failing. Although some cats assume significant risks and sometimes kill wild animals when roaming outdoors, these important considerations do not imply that all cats should be deprived of the opportunity to access the outdoors. Indeed, they do not, by themselves, imply that any cat should be permanently kept indoors

Sheep complexity outside the laboratory

Marino & Merskin’s review shows that sheep are intelligent and highly social but their methodology has some shortcomings. I describe five problems with reviewing only the academic and scientific literature and suggest how one might provide an even more compelling case for the complexity of sheep minds

Don’t Demean “Invasives”: Conservation and Wrongful Species Discrimination

It is common for conservationists to refer to non-native species that have undesirable impacts on humans as “invasive”. We argue that the classification of any species as “invasive” constitutes wrongful discrimination. Moreover, we argue that its being wrong to categorize a species as invasive is perfectly compatible with it being morally permissible to kill animals—assuming that conservationists “kill equally”. It simply is not compatible with the double standard that conservationists tend to employ in their decisions about who lives and who dies

Isotropic properties of the photonic band gap in quasicrystals with low-index contrast

We report on the formation and development of the photonic band gap in two-dimensional 8-, 10- and 12-fold symmetry quasicrystalline lattices of low index contrast. Finite size structures made of dielectric cylindrical rods were studied and measured in the microwave region, and their properties compared with a conventional hexagonal crystal. Band gap characteristics were investigated by changing the direction of propagation of the incident beam inside the crystal. Various angles of incidence from 0 \degree to 30\degree were used in order to investigate the isotropic nature of the band gap. The arbitrarily high rotational symmetry of aperiodically ordered structures could be practically exploited to manufacture isotropic band gap materials, which are perfectly suitable for hosting waveguides or cavities.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, submitted to PR

Rediscovering the scientific and didactic value of minor herbarium collections: the seeds and fruits collection by Gustavo Bonaventura

Seeds and fruits collections are very important from a systematic point of view and represent useful references in several disciplines and research fields. The Herbarium of Sapienza University of Rome (RO) hosts a Spermoteque/Carpoteque, which was organized by Gustavo Bonaventura (1902-1976). The purpose of this paper is to describe the heritage of Bonaventura's collection. It consists of 42 wooden boxes, globally hosting 3411 glass tubes containing seeds, fruits, and other materials. The collection was first of all catalogued; then, analysis were conducted regarding taxonomic composition, temporal and geographic coverage, institutions of provenience, collectors, content, and preservation status. The specimens refer to 2740 taxa, belonging to 890 genera and 135 families. Many genera of agricultural interest are present, each one with different cultivars. The collection spans across 130 years (1843-1975) and hosts specimens coming from all over the world. Materials were provided by several herbaria, botanical gardens and agrarian institutes, and by 50 collectors. The Bonaventura's collection is still a useful reference collection, testifying biodiversity over times and thus being useful for diachronic studies; moreover, it documents the interests of collectors and the past network activity between institutions

Interleukin-18 mediates cardiac dysfunction induced by western diet independent of obesity and hyperglycemia in the mouse

Obesity and diabetes are independent risk factors for heart failure and are associated with the consumption of diet rich in saturated fat and sugar, Western diet (WD), known to induce cardiac dysfunction in the mouse through incompletely characterized inflammatory mechanisms. We hypothesized that the detrimental cardiac effects of WD are mediated by interleukin-18 (IL-18), pro-inflammatory cytokine linked to cardiac dysfunction. C57BL/6J wild-type male mice and IL-18 knockout male mice were fed high-saturated fat and high-sugar diet for 8 weeks. We measured food intake, body weight and fasting glycemia. We assessed left ventricular (LV) systolic and diastolic function by Doppler echocardiography and cardiac catheterization. In wild-type mice, WD induced a significant increase in isovolumetric relaxation time, myocardial performance index and left ventricular end-diastolic pressure, reflecting an impairment in diastolic function, paired with a mild reduction in LV ejection fraction. IL-18 KO mice had higher food intake and greater increase in body weight without significant differences in hyperglycemia. Despite displaying greater obesity, IL-18 knockout mice fed with WD for 8 weeks had preserved cardiac diastolic function and higher left ventricular ejection fraction. IL-18 mediates diet-induced cardiac dysfunction, independent of food intake and obesity, thus highlighting a disconnect between the metabolic and cardiac effects of IL-18

Experimental Methods for Measuring Optical Rotatory Dispersion:Survey and Outlook

The measurement of optical rotation (OR) and optical rotatory dispersion has been finding renewed interest for some years, because of advancement in computational methods and in the performance of new experiments. Here, we shortly review the traditional and most-used experimental methods. We define and discuss the two main types of approaches in measuring OR: the intensity method and the optical null method. We report on some new results obtained by redesigning experiments based on the first approach, by adapting nonsophisticated hardware to current circular dichroism instrumentation

NIR-VCD, vibrational circular dichroism in the near-infrared: Experiments, theory and calculations

The first well documented experiments of Near Infrared Vibrational Circular Dichroism (NIR-VCD) were performed around 1975. We review the thirty year history of NIR-VCD, encompassing both instrumental development and theoretical/computational methods that allow interpretation of experimental spectra, harvesting useful structural information therefrom. We hope to stimulate interest in this still scarcely explored spectroscopy of chiral molecule

Compensation temperatures and exchange bias in La1.5Ca0.5CoIrO6

We report on the study of magnetic properties of the La1.5Ca0.5CoIrO6 double perovskite. Via ac magnetic susceptibility we have observed evidence of weak ferromagnetism and reentrant spin glass behavior on an antiferromagnetic matrix. Regarding the magnetic behavior as a function of temperature, we have found that the material displays up to three inversions of its magnetization, depending on the appropriate choice of the applied magnetic field. At low temperature the material exhibit exchange bias effect when it is cooled in the presence of a magnetic field. Also, our results indicate that this effect may be observed even when the system is cooled at zero field. Supported by other measurements and also by electronic structure calculations, we discuss the magnetic reversals and spontaneous exchange bias effect in terms of magnetic phase separation and magnetic frustration of Ir4+ ions located between the antiferromagnetically coupled Co ions.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures and supplemental materia

Harmonic and Anharmonic Features of IR and NIR Absorption and VCD Spectra of Chiral 4-X-[2.2]Paracyclophanes

The vibrational absorption spectra and vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) spectra of both enantiomers of 4-X-[2.2]paracyclophanes (X ) COOCD3, Cl, I) have been recorded for a few regions in the range of 900- 12000 cm-1. The analysis of the VCD spectra for the two IR regions, 900-1600 cm-1 and 2800-3200 cm-1, is conducted by comparing with DFT calculations of the corresponding spectra; the latter region reveals common motifs of vibrational modes for the three molecules for aliphatic CH stretching fundamentals, whereas in the mid-IR region, one is able to identify specific signatures arising from the substituent groups X. In the CH stretching region between 2900 and 2800 cm-1, we identify and interpret a group of three IR VCD bands due to HCH bending overtone transitions in Fermi resonance with CH stretching fundamental transitions. The analysis of the NIR region between 8000 and 9000 cm-1 for X ) COOCD3 reveals important features of the aromatic CH stretching overtones that are of value since the aromatic CH stretching fundamentals are almost silent. The intensifying of such overtones is attributed to electrical anharmonicity terms, which are evaluated here by ab initio methods and compared with literature data