Towards a bioethics of innovation

In recent years, it has become almost axiomatic that biomedical research and clinical practice should be ‘innovative’—that is, that they should be always evolving and directed towards the production, translation and implementation of new technologies and practices. While this drive towards innovation in biomedicine might be beneficial, it also raises serious moral, legal, economic and sociopolitical questions that require further scrutiny. In this article, we argue that biomedical innovation needs to be accompanied by a dedicated ‘bioethics of innovation’ that attends systematically to the goals, process and outcomes of biomedical innovation as objects of critical inquiry. Using the example of personalised or precision medicine, we then suggest a preliminary framework for a bioethics of innovation, based on the research policy initiative of ‘Responsible Innovation’. We invite and encourage critiques of this framework and hope that this will provoke a challenging and enriching new bioethical discourse.NHMRC APP103653

Why might people donate tissue for cancer research? Insights from organ/tissue/blood donation and clinical research

Little is known about why patients with cancer do or do not donate their tissue for research. A review of the literature on motivations to participate in clinical research and to donate tissues/organs for therapeutic use may provide some insights relevant to tumour banking research. While more research is necessary, a better understanding of the reasons that motivate patients to give or refuse consent to tumour banking may ultimately improve consent practices, public trust and donation rates. Key Words: Tumour Banking, Bio-banking, Motivation, The Gift Relationship, Research Participation, Organ Donation, Trust.The Cancer Research Fund, University of Sydne

Cancer As Rubbish: Donation of tumor tissue for research.

Tissue banking (or biobanking), thought by many to be an essential form of medical research, has raised a number of ethical issues that highlight a need to understand the beliefs and values of tissue donors, including the motivations underlying consent or refusal to donate. Data from our qualitative study of the legal, social and ethical issues surrounding tumor banking in New South Wales, Australia, shows that participants’ attitudes to donation of tumor tissue for research are partially captured by theories of weak altruism and social exchange. However, we argue that the psychological rewards of value transformation described by Thompson’s rubbish theory provide additional insights into participants’ attitudes to tumor donation. We believe our data provides sufficient justification for an approach to regulation of tumor banking that is aimed at fostering a relationship based on the notions of virtuous reassignment and social exchange. Keywords Ethics; genetics; research participation; risk perceptionsUniversity of Sydney Cancer Research Fun

Participatory mobile- and web-based tools for eliciting landscape knowledge and perspectives: introducing and evaluating the Wisconsin geotools project

Despite synergistic goals across a wide breadth of fields and modalities, coastal landscape conservation projects that engage the lay public and integrate narratives of place remain elusive. This paper addresses these needs by introducing and evaluating the Wisconsin Geotools, an integrated pair of mobile-and web-based applications that allow users to generate and share spatially defined multimedia observations — including photos, short textual descriptions (or journals), and audio and video clips — of their surrounding bioregional landscapes. We followed a participatory, user-centered design process to develop a mobile application that uses GPS capabilities to geolocate multimedia observations of landscapes and feed them into a web-based application, which displays content through the structure of an interactive story map. The applications were piloted with coastal community user groups in Green Bay (Lake Michigan), Wisconsin, USA. Over 800 observations were recorded by participants in our study area. Results from a user evaluation survey indicate the geotools effectively engaged participants in learning about and exploring their surrounding coastal landscapes. A spatial analysis revealed participants’ affinity for water-related features in landscapes. We close by suggesting a variety of ways in which these tools can support future projects and existing methodologies that are advancing transdisciplinary approaches to engaging the public in coastal conservation

Sodium Density Associates with Nighttime Systolic Blood Pressure in Young Healthy Adults

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From chemical Langevin equations to Fokker-Planck equation: application of Hodge decomposition and Klein-Kramers equation

The stochastic systems without detailed balance are common in various chemical reaction systems, such as metabolic network systems. In studies of these systems, the concept of potential landscape is useful. However, what are the sufficient and necessary conditions of the existence of the potential function is still an open problem. Use Hodge decomposition theorem in differential form theory, we focus on the general chemical Langevin equations, which reflect complex chemical reaction systems. We analysis the conditions for the existence of potential landscape of the systems. By mapping the stochastic differential equations to a Hamiltonian mechanical system, we obtain the Fokker-Planck equation of the chemical reaction systems. The obtained Fokker-Planck equation can be used in further studies of other steady properties of complex chemical reaction systems, such as their steady state entropies.Comment: 6 pages, 0 figure, submitted to J. Phys. A: Math. Theo

Nontangential limits and Fatou-type theorems on post-critically finite self-similar sets

In this paper we study the boundary limit properties of harmonic functions on $\mathbb R_+\times K$, the solutions $u(t,x)$ to the Poisson equation $$\frac{\partial^2 u}{\partial t^2} + \Delta u = 0,$$ where $K$ is a p.c.f. set and $\Delta$ its Laplacian given by a regular harmonic structure. In particular, we prove the existence of nontangential limits of the corresponding Poisson integrals, and the analogous results of the classical Fatou theorems for bounded and nontangentially bounded harmonic functions.Comment: 22 page

On the exact solubility in momentum space of the trigonometric Rosen-Morse potential

The Schrodinger equation with the trigonometric Rosen-Morse potential in flat three dimensional Euclidean space, E3, and its exact solutions are shown to be also exactly transformable to momentum space, though the resulting equation is purely algebraic and can not be cast into the canonical form of an integral Lippmann-Schwinger equation. This is because the cotangent function does not allow for an exact Fourier transform in E3. In addition we recall, that the above potential can be also viewed as an angular function of the second polar angle parametrizing the three dimensional spherical surface, S3, of a constant radius, in which case the cotangent function would allow for an exact integral transform to momentum space. On that basis, we obtain a momentum space Lippmann-Schwinger-type equation, though the corresponding wavefunctions have to be obtained numerically.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Continuous-Time Classical and Quantum Random Walk on Direct Product of Cayley Graphs

In this paper we define direct product of graphs and give a recipe for obtained probability of observing particle on vertices in the continuous-time classical and quantum random walk. In the recipe, the probability of observing particle on direct product of graph obtain by multiplication of probability on the corresponding to sub-graphs, where this method is useful to determine probability of walk on complicated graphs. Using this method, we calculate the probability of continuous-time classical and quantum random walks on many of finite direct product cayley graphs (complete cycle, complete $K_n$, charter and $n$-cube). Also, we inquire that the classical state the stationary uniform distribution is reached as $t\longrightarrow \infty$ but for quantum state is not always satisfy.Comment: 21, page. Accepted for publication on CT