Bostonia: The Boston University Alumni Magazine. Volume 37

Founded in 1900, Bostonia magazine is Boston University's main alumni publication, which covers alumni and student life, as well as university activities, events, and programs

New Directions in Philosophy of Medicine

The purpose of this chapter is to describe what we see as several important new directions for philosophy of medicine. This recent work (i) takes existing discussions in important and promising new directions, (ii) identifies areas that have not received sufficient and deserved attention to date, and/or (iii) brings together philosophy of medicine with other areas of philosophy (including bioethics, philosophy of psychiatry, and social epistemology). To this end, the next part focuses on what we call the “epistemological turn” in recent work in the philosophy of medicine; the third part addresses new developments in medical research that raise interesting questions for philosophy of medicine; the fourth part is a discussion of philosophical issues within the practice of diagnosis; the fifth part focuses on the recent developments in psychiatric classification and scientific and ethical issues therein, and the final part focuses on the objectivity of medical research

An Examination of Attitudes Toward Sexualized Advertising in Las Vegas

This study explores the attitudes of college-level criminal justice students as to their perception of sexualized advertising in Las Vegas, and if these attitudes have any correlation with the participant’s length of residency. The study also correlates college-level student’s attitudes toward sexualized advertising and how religious they rate themselves. Female participants who lived in Las Vegas for 5 years or more on average agreed advertisements in Las Vegas are too sexualized. In contrast, female participants who were either born in Las Vegas or lived there less than 5 years neither agreed nor disagreed that advertising was too sexualized. As for the males, only those who lived in Las Vegas for 5 to 9 years on average agreed that advertisements in Las Vegas are too sexualized. Those participants who considered themselves very religious on average agreed that advertising in Las Vegas were too sexualized

Field of Dreams

In this movie, Ray, the lead character, is a Berkley University graduate from the sixties turned corn farmer in Iowa with a wife and one daughter. Ray is afraid of turning into his father. He is afraid that he will live and die and never pursue his dreams. When Ray does decide to pursue his dreams, he does so believing that he is helping others and that he is doing it for someone else, but in the end, it is his own hurt and pain that he ends up reconciling and his own dreams that he fulfills. People remember the haunting voice out in the middle of the field saying, If you build it, they will come. Others remember when Terrance Mann, played by James Earl Jones, stands in the way of Ray\u27s van after a baseball game. Other people remember when Doc Moonlight Graham steps off the baseball diamond back into his old self to help save little Karen, Ray\u27s daughter, who was choking on a hot dog. Everyone remembers the speech that Terrance Mann gives to Ray at the end of the movie, and they remember the famous line, People will come. Why do these lines and. images burn themselves into our minds? How and why do they have this effect on us? Is it the words and actions themselves that effect us, or is it based on our own interpretation and understanding of the words and events? This movie speaks to the audience on a number of different levels, and these levels are not always clear or distinct. However, this does not mean that it isn\u27t worthwhile to try to separate the various levels at which this movie speaks to us from each other and then to break them apart and see why they affect us like they do. To this end, the analysis of this paper will focus on the Terrance Mann People Will Come speech but will also include the scene in the movie leading up to the speech and some dialog after the speech\u27s conclusion. The basic conflict lies in the fact that Ray and his wife, Annie, do not have enough money to keep their farm. In spite of this, Ray has built a baseball field after continuously hearing a voice say, If you build it, they will come; the field takes up a large portion of land which would otherwise be used to grow corn. Mark, Annie\u27s brother and Ray\u27s brother-in -law, is trying to convince Ray to sell his farm; Terrance Mann takes the opposite tack

Response of geostationary communications satellite solid-state power amplifiers to high-energy electron fluence.

The key components in communications satellite payloads are the high-power amplifiers that amplify the received signal so that it can be accurately transmitted to the intended end user. In this study, we examine 26 amplifier anomalies and quantify the high-energy electron environment for periods of time prior to the anomalies. Building on the work of Lohmeyer and Cahoy (2013), we find that anomalies occur at a rate higher than just by chance when the >2 MeV electron fluence accumulated over 14 and 21 days is elevated. To try to understand “why,” we model the amplifier subsystem to assess whether the dielectric material in the radio frequency (RF) coaxial cables, which are the most exposed part of the system, is liable to experience electrical breakdown due to internal charging. We find that the accumulated electric field over the 14 and 21 days leading up to the anomalies is high enough to cause the dielectric material in the coax to breakdown. We also find that the accumulated voltages reached are high enough to compromise components in the amplifier system, for example, the direct current (DC) blocking capacitor. An electron beam test using a representative coaxial cable terminated in a blocking capacitor showed that discharges could occur with peak voltages and energies sufficient to damage active RF semiconductor devices

Dijagnostička pravda: testiranje na Covid-19

Diagnostic testing can be used for many purposes, including testing to facilitate the clinical care of individual patients, testing as an inclusion criterion for clinical trial participation, and both passive and active surveillance testing of the general population in order to facilitate public health outcomes, such as the containment or mitigation of an infectious disease. As such, diagnostic testing presents us with ethical questions that are, in part, already addressed in the literature on clinical care as well as clinical research (such as the rights of patients to refuse testing or treatment in the clinical setting or the rights of participants in randomized controlled trials to withdraw from the trial at any time). However, diagnostic testing, for the purpose of disease surveillance also raises ethical issues that we do not encounter in these settings, and thus have not been much discussed. In this paper we will be concerned with the similarities and differences between the ethical considerations in these three domains: clinical care, clinical research, and public health, as they relate to diagnostic testing specifically. Via an examination of the COVID-19 case we will show how an appeal to the concept of diagnostic justice helps us to make sense of the (at times competing) ethical considerations in these three domains.Dijagnostičko testiranje može se koristiti u mnoge svrhe, uključujući testiranje za olakšavanje kliničke skrbi pojedinačnih pacijenata, testiranje kao kriterij uključivanja za sudjelovanje u kliničkim ispitivanjima i pasivno i aktivno nadzorno testiranje opće populacije kako bi se olakšali ishodi javnog zdravlja, kao što su kao obuzdavanje ili ublažavanje zarazne bolesti. Kao takvo, dijagnostičko testiranje nam postavlja etička pitanja koja su dijelom već obrađena u literaturi o kliničkoj skrbi, kao i kliničkim istraživanjima (kao što su prava pacijenata da odbiju testiranje ili liječenje u kliničkom okruženju ili prava sudionika u randomiziranim kontroliranim ispitivanjima da se povuku iz ispitivanja u bilo kojem trenutku). Međutim, dijagnostičko testiranje, u svrhu nadzora bolesti, postavlja i etička pitanja s kojima se ne susrećemo u ovim okruženjima, pa se o njima nije puno raspravljalo. U ovom radu bavit ćemo se sličnostima i razlikama između etičkih razmatranja u ove tri domene: klinička skrb, klinička istraživanja i javno zdravstvo, jer se oni posebno odnose na dijagnostičko testiranje. Kroz ispitivanje slučaja COVID-19 pokazat ćemo kako nam pozivanje na pojam dijagnostičke pravde pomaže da shvatimo (ponekad suparnička) etička razmatranja u ove tri domene

The Sorghum bicolor reference genome: improved assembly, gene annotations, a transcriptome atlas, and signatures of genome organization.

Sorghum bicolor is a drought tolerant C4 grass used for the production of grain, forage, sugar, and lignocellulosic biomass and a genetic model for C4 grasses due to its relatively small genome (approximately 800 Mbp), diploid genetics, diverse germplasm, and colinearity with other C4 grass genomes. In this study, deep sequencing, genetic linkage analysis, and transcriptome data were used to produce and annotate a high-quality reference genome sequence. Reference genome sequence order was improved, 29.6 Mbp of additional sequence was incorporated, the number of genes annotated increased 24% to 34 211, average gene length and N50 increased, and error frequency was reduced 10-fold to 1 per 100 kbp. Subtelomeric repeats with characteristics of Tandem Repeats in Miniature (TRIM) elements were identified at the termini of most chromosomes. Nucleosome occupancy predictions identified nucleosomes positioned immediately downstream of transcription start sites and at different densities across chromosomes. Alignment of more than 50 resequenced genomes from diverse sorghum genotypes to the reference genome identified approximately 7.4 M single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and 1.9 M indels. Large-scale variant features in euchromatin were identified with periodicities of approximately 25 kbp. A transcriptome atlas of gene expression was constructed from 47 RNA-seq profiles of growing and developed tissues of the major plant organs (roots, leaves, stems, panicles, and seed) collected during the juvenile, vegetative and reproductive phases. Analysis of the transcriptome data indicated that tissue type and protein kinase expression had large influences on transcriptional profile clustering. The updated assembly, annotation, and transcriptome data represent a resource for C4 grass research and crop improvement

Facing the Future: New directions for the reference desk based on findings from mixed-methods survey of United States academic libraries

This interactive program will give attendees the opportunity to think critically about the future of the physical reference desk while challenging their own assumptions about reference. The presenters will lead a discussion based on their results from a national, mixed-methods survey of 239 academic libraries from the United States. The survey focused on reference desk models and librarian perceptions of the value of a physical reference desk as well as their opinions on the future of the desk. Attendees will have the opportunity to collaborate in a Google Doc brainstorming ideas for the future

Reference Reborn: Challenges Facing Academic Libraries in New Jersey and the Nation, Update 2020

Libraries need to challenge their perceptions to meet the needs of all users. From our national mixed-methods survey on the status of United States academic libraries’ reference services (260 respondents) we received 40 responses from libraries in New Jersey. This presentation seeks to compare the current reference models and perceptions of librarians in New Jersey with those around the country, based on our survey results. We will highlight strengths and weaknesses of New Jersey librarian attitudes towards reference as well as the steps we can take to do better. Attendees will be invited to join the conversation using interactive technology