Does Non-Moral Ignorance Exculpate? Situational Awareness and Attributions of Blame and Forgiveness

In this paper, we set out to test empirically an idea that many philosophers find intuitive, namely that non-moral ignorance can exculpate. Many philosophers find it intuitive that moral agents are responsible only if they know the particular facts surrounding their action. Our results show that whether moral agents are aware of the facts surrounding their action does have an effect on people’s attributions of blame, regardless of the consequences or side effects of the agent’s actions. In general, it was more likely that a situationally aware agent will be blamed for failing to perform the obligatory action than a situationally unaware agent. We also tested attributions of forgiveness in addition to attributions of blame. In general, it was less likely that a situationally aware agent will be forgiven for failing to perform the obligatory action than a situationally unaware agent. When the agent is situationally unaware, it is more likely that the agent will be forgiven than blamed. We argue that these results provide some empirical support for the hypothesis that there is something intuitive about the idea that non-moral ignorance can exculpate

Inhibition of the Progesterone Nuclear Receptor during the Bone Linear Growth Phase Increases Peak Bone Mass in Female Mice

Augmentation of the peak bone mass (PBM) may be one of the most effective interventions to reduce the risk of developing osteoporosis later in life; however treatments to augment PBM are currently limited. Our study evaluated whether a greater PBM could be achieved either in the progesterone nuclear receptor knockout mice (PRKO) or by using a nuclear progesterone receptor (nPR) antagonist, RU486 in mice. Compared to their wild type (WT) littermates the female PRKO mice developed significantly higher cancellous and cortical mass in the distal femurs, and this was associated with increased bone formation. The high bone mass phenotype was partially reproduced by administering RU486 in female WT mice from 1–3 months of age. Our results suggest that the inhibition of the nPR during the rapid bone growth period (1–3 months) increases osteogenesis, which results in acquisition of higher bone mass. Our findings suggest a crucial role for progesterone signaling in bone acquisition and inhibition of the nPR as a novel approach to augment bone mass, which may have the potential to reduce the burden of osteoporosis

Reduced arousals following obstructive apneas in infants sleeping prone

SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Computational Modelling of Cancer Development and Growth:Modelling at Multiple Scales and Multiscale Modelling

MAJC and CKM gratefully acknowledge support of EPSRC grant no. EP/N014642/1 (EPSRC Centre for Multiscale Soft Tissue Mechanics – With Application to Heart & Cancer).In this paper, we present two mathematical models related to different aspects and scales of cancer growth. The first model is a stochastic spatiotemporal model of both a synthetic gene regulatory network (the example of a three-gene repressilator is given) and an actual gene regulatory network, the NF- κB pathway. The second model is a force-based individual-based model of the development of a solid avascular tumour with specific application to tumour cords, i.e. a mass of cancer cells growing around a central blood vessel. In each case, we compare our computational simulation results with experimental data. In the final discussion section, we outline how to take the work forward through the development of a multiscale model focussed at the cell level. This would incorporate key intracellular signalling pathways associated with cancer within each cell (e.g. p53–Mdm2, NF- κB) and through the use of high-performance computing be capable of simulating up to 109 cells, i.e. the tissue scale. In this way, mathematical models at multiple scales would be combined to formulate a multiscale computational model.PostprintPeer reviewe

Interpreting ethics: public relations and strong hermeneutics

This article suggests that public relations’ inadequate engagement with the complexities of ethical theory has contributed to public loss of trust in its activities. Instead of blaming this on publics, communicators could take more responsibility for their professional ethics. The author suggests that a hermeneutic approach to ethics opens up a new area for debate in the field. Public relations ethics have traditionally drawn on the major approaches of deontology (Kant) and consequentialism (Bentham and Mill), with marginal reference to the more recent revival of Aristotelian virtue ethics (MacIntyre, 1984), an approach that shifts attention from ethical action to ethical agent. Thus discussion of ethics in public relations literature (Fitzpatrick and Bronstein, 2006; S. A. Bowen, 2007; McElreath, 1996) concentrates on rational approaches to ethical decision making, based (respectively) in marketplace theory, Kantian approaches or systems theory. In these and other writings, there is an emphasis, as is common in approaches to professional ethics, on external rule-based ethics rather than attempts to focus on inner processes to assess ethical implications of practice. This article argues that as concepts of professionalism shift and buckle under global economic and social pressures, it might be timely to look less to systems and more to human experience for ethical guidance. A hermeneutic approach, drawing on the philosophy of interpretation developed in recent decades by thinkers such as Gadamer, Habermas and Riceour, offers an alternative, inner, path to an ethics drawn from the search for shared meaning. The article starts with a brief overview of the current state of public relations ethics, suggesting a reliance on somewhat superficial codes for guidance and the absence of reflexivity in ethical debates; it then introduces concepts from hermeneutics and its main schools or approaches, with a particular focus on hermeneutic ethics. Finally, the article links the two topics to show how ‘strong’ hermeneutic ethics might contribute to greater reflexivity in public relations ethics. It aims to shift the ethical debate away from notional reliance on codes and external guidance towards a deeper ethic. The approach taken is broadly critical (Hall, 1980; Heath, 1992) and is itself interpretative, making the article doubly-hermeneutic (Giddens, 1984) in both form and content