2,171 research outputs found
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
How to Help when it Hurts: ACT Individually (and in Groups)
In a recent article, Corey Wrenn argues that in order to adequately address injustices done to
animals, we ought to think systemically. Her argument stems from a critique of the individualist
approach I employ to resolve a moral dilemma faced by animal sanctuaries, who sometimes must
harm some animals to help others. But must systemic critiques of injustice be at odds with
individualist approaches? In this paper, I respond to Wrenn by showing how individualist
approaches that take seriously the notion of group responsibility can be deployed to solve
complicated dilemmas that are products of injustice. Contra Wrenn, I argue that to adequately
address injustice, acting individually, often within groups, is significantly more important than
thinking systemically
Nonculpably Ignorant Meat Eaters & Epistemically Unjust Meat Producers
In my recent paper, “The Epistemology of Meat-Eating,” I advanced an epistemological theory that explains why so many people continue to eat animals, even after they encounter anti-factory farming arguments. I began by noting that because meat-eating is seriously immoral, meat-eaters must either (1) believe that eating animals isn’t seriously immoral, or (2) believe that meat eating is seriously immoral (and thus they must be seriously immoral). I argued that standard meat-eaters don’t believe that eating animals is seriously immoral because either they don’t believe that meat-eating causes serious and systematic harm to farmed animals, or they believe that meat-eating causes serious and systematic harm to farmed animals, but they don’t believe that this harm is unnecessary. In a response titled “Are Meat-Eaters Epistemically Unlucky?”, Bob Fischer presents five objections to my epistemic theory. In this paper, I offer responses to each of Fischer’s thought-provoking objections and develop his insightful suggestion that, according to my epistemic theory, animal protectionists are victims of epistemic injustice
Probing the formation history of the nuclear star cluster at the Galactic Centre with millisecond pulsars
The origin of the Nuclear Star Cluster in the centre of our Galaxy is still
unknown. One possibility is that it formed after the disruption of stellar
clusters that spiralled into the Galactic Centre due to dynamical friction. We
trace the formation of the Nuclear Star Cluster around the central black hole,
using state-of-the-art N-body simulations, and follow the dynamics of the
neutron stars born in the clusters. We then estimate the number of Millisecond
Pulsars (MSPs) that are released in the Nuclear Star Cluster, during its
formation. The assembly and tidal dismemberment of globular clusters lead to a
population of MSPs distributed over a radius of about 20 pc, with a peak near 3
pc. No clustering is found on the sub-parsec scale. We simulate the
detectability of this population with future radio telescopes like the MeerKAT
radio telescope and SKA1, and find that about of order ten MSPs can be observed
over this large volume, with a paucity of MSPs within the central parsec. This
helps discriminating this scenario from the in-situ formation model for the
Nuclear Star Cluster that would predict an over abundance of MSPs closer to the
black hole. We then discuss the potential contribution of our MSP population to
the gamma-ray excess at the Galactic Centre.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Motivation and personality traits for choosing religious tourism. A research on the case of Medjugorje.
Religion has long been a primary motivation for journeys and it is considered the oldest non-economic reason for travelling. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the reasons tourists choose to travel to sacred sites, with the specific aim of discovering relationships between personality traits and motivations for religious travel. Participating in the research were 679 Italian travellers to Medjugorje sanctuary, who completed the travel motivation scale and big five questionnaire. The results show that motivation is focused prevalently on the need for discovery in men and socialisation in women. Multiple regression analyses demonstrated that personality traits are predictive of motivation factors differently for males and females
A Vibrational Circular Dichroism Approach To The Determination Of The Absolute Configuration Of Flexible And Transparent Molecules: Fluorenone Ketals Of 1,N-Diols
The infrared absorption (IR) and vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) spectra for five ketal
molecules, three of which obtained from 1,2-diols and two from 1,3-diols, were recorded in the
mid-IR region. The spectra have been satisfactorily reproduced by DFT calculations, even with
not too large wavefunction basis sets, especially due to the low number of conformers to be
considered. The mobility of some moieties provides a recognizable signature. A characteristic
couplet of VCD bands attributed to normal modes involving the methine and a phenyl ring
bonded to the stereogenic carbon atom is evidenced for two ketals of the series as a signature
of the absolute configuration; due comparison with existing literature is made. A relation is
discussed of the present VCD data with the literature VCD data of simple alcohols and diols
A COMPARISON BETWEEN MOTIVATIONS AND PERSONALITY TRAITS IN RELIGIOUS TOURISTS AND CRUISE SHIP TOURISTS
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the motivations and the personality traits that characterize tourists who
choose religious travels versus cruises. Participating in the research were 683 Italian tourists (345 males and 338
females, age range 18–63 years); 483 who went to a pilgrimage travel and 200 who chose a cruise ship in the
Mediterranean Sea. Both groups of tourists completed the Travel Motivation Scale and the Big Five
Questionnaire. Results show that different motivations and personality traits characterize the different types of
tourists and, further, that motivations for traveling are predicted by specific —some similar, other divergent—
personality trait
Radiation and magnetic field effects on new semiconductor power devices for HL-LHC experiments
The radiation hardness of commercial Silicon Carbide and Gallium Nitride
power MOSFETs is presented in this paper, for Total Ionizing Dose effects and
Single Event Effects, under gamma, neutrons, protons and heavy ions. Similar
tests are discussed for commercial DC-DC converters, also tested in operation
under magnetic field
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