197 research outputs found
Ethical Marketing Controversial Products and Promotional Practices
In the field of business ethics, there has been much written and discussed about ethical matters in areas where there is a distinct right and wrong, but relatively little written about how to make decisions when the ethical issue isnât as black and white. When marketing a product, it is oneâs hope that ethical issues are typically not inherent to the marketer; however, when one has the unenviable task of marketing a controversial product, it becomes a true question of âgray-areaâ ethics that makes marketing decisions more difficult to make. Companies depend on marketing, as it is the one higher-level areas of corporate function that results in the sales of the actual product. In this particular situation, it becomes increasingly difficult for a marketer to make decisions about how to ethically promote their product to their customers while still being ethical in the decisions made. Therefore, this thesis explores the problems associated with marketing such products, and asks if current companies selling controversial products are ethical in their marketing practices? If these companies are currently unethical in their marketing practices, what steps should they take to be more ethical?
The method used to study these particular questions was a qualitative analysis of the opinions of both marketing professionals and business scholars in the field of marketing, finance, law and public policy, and entrepreneurship. By analyzing experts in these diverse backgrounds, it was the hope of this study to understand how companies selling controversial products are viewed by other business professionals and scholars in to determine their practices are accepted as ethical or unethical.
In this thesis, I will analyze three companies and their products, and prove which ones are ethical in their marketing practices and which ones need to make adjustments for their marketing practices to be ethical. I will further explore what actions these companies need to take in order to be more responsible in their marketing practices. Lastly, I will determine whether it is more important for a product to be ethical or for the promotional practices of a company to be ethical
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Determination of the Evaporation Coefficient of D2O
The evaporation rate of D{sub 2}O has been determined by Raman thermometry of a droplet train (12-15 {micro}m diameter) injected into vacuum ({approx}10{sup -5} torr). The cooling rate measured as a function of time in vacuum was fit to a model that accounts for temperature gradients between the surface and the core of the droplets, yielding an evaporation coefficient ({gamma}{sub e}) of 0.57 {+-} 0.06. This is nearly identical to that found for H{sub 2}O (0.62 {+-} 0.09) using the same experimental method and model, and indicates the existence of a kinetic barrier to evaporation. The application of a recently developed transition state theory (TST) model suggests that the kinetic barrier is due to librational and hindered translational motions at the liquid surface, and that the lack of an isotope effect is due to competing energetic and entropic factors. The implications of these results for cloud and aerosol particles in the atmosphere are discussed
Quantum phase transitions of light
Recently, condensed matter and atomic experiments have reached a length-scale
and temperature regime where new quantum collective phenomena emerge. Finding
such physics in systems of photons, however, is problematic, as photons
typically do not interact with each other and can be created or destroyed at
will. Here, we introduce a physical system of photons that exhibits strongly
correlated dynamics on a meso-scale. By adding photons to a two-dimensional
array of coupled optical cavities each containing a single two-level atom in
the photon-blockade regime, we form dressed states, or polaritons, that are
both long-lived and strongly interacting. Our zero temperature results predict
that this photonic system will undergo a characteristic Mott insulator
(excitations localised on each site) to superfluid (excitations delocalised
across the lattice) quantum phase transition. Each cavity's impressive photon
out-coupling potential may lead to actual devices based on these quantum
many-body effects, as well as observable, tunable quantum simulators. We
explicitly show that such phenomena may be observable in micro-machined diamond
containing nitrogen-vacancy colour centres and superconducting microwave
strip-line resonators.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures (2 in colour
Determining Effective Methadone Doses for Individual Opioid-Dependent Patients
BACKGROUND: Randomized clinical trials of methadone maintenance have found that on average high daily doses are more effective for reducing heroin use, and clinical practice guidelines recommend 60 mg/d as a minimum dosage. Nevertheless, many clinicians report that some patients can be stably maintained on lower methadone dosages to optimal effect, and clinic dosing practices vary substantially. Studies of individual responses to methadone treatment may be more easily translated into clinical practice. METHODS AND FINDINGS: A volunteer sample of 222 opioid-dependent US veterans initiating methadone treatment was prospectively observed over the year after treatment entry. In the 168 who achieved at least 1 mo of heroin abstinence, methadone dosages on which patients maintained heroin-free urine samples ranged from 1.5 mg to 191.2 mg (median = 69 mg). Among patients who achieved heroin abstinence, higher methadone dosages were predicted by having a diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder or depression, having a greater number of previous opioid detoxifications, living in a region with lower average heroin purity, attending a clinic where counselors discourage dosage reductions, and staying in treatment longer. These factors predicted 42% of the variance in dosage associated with heroin abstinence. CONCLUSIONS: Effective and ineffective methadone dosages overlap substantially. Dosing guidelines should focus more heavily on appropriate processes of dosage determination rather than solely specifying recommended dosages. To optimize therapy, methadone dosages must be titrated until heroin abstinence is achieved
The Democratic Biopolitics of PrEP
PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis) is a relatively new drug-based HIV prevention technique and an important means to lower the HIV risk of gay men who are especially vulnerable to HIV. From the perspective of biopolitics, PrEP inscribes itself in a larger trend of medicalization and the rise of pharmapower. This article reconstructs and evaluates contemporary literature on biopolitical theory as it applies to PrEP, by bringing it in a dialogue with a mapping of the political debate on PrEP. As PrEP changes sexual norms and subjectification, for example condom use and its meaning for gay subjectivity, it is highly contested. The article shows that the debate on PrEP can be best described with the concepts âsexual-somatic ethicsâ and âdemocratic biopoliticsâ, which I develop based on the biopolitical approach of Nikolas Rose and Paul Rabinow. In contrast, interpretations of PrEP which are following governmentality studies or Italian Theory amount to either farfetched or trivial positions on PrEP, when seen in light of the political debate. Furthermore, the article is a contribution to the scholarship on gay subjectivity, highlighting how homophobia and homonormativity haunts gay sex even in liberal environments, and how PrEP can serve as an entry point for the destigmatization of gay sexuality and transformation of gay subjectivity. âBiopolitical democratizationâ entails making explicit how medical technology and health care relates to sexual subjectification and ethics, to strengthen the voice of (potential) PrEP users in health politics, and to renegotiate the profit and power of Big Pharma
Atmospheric Escape Processes and Planetary Atmospheric Evolution
The habitability of the surface of any planet is determined by a complex
evolution of its interior, surface, and atmosphere. The electromagnetic and
particle radiation of stars drive thermal, chemical and physical alteration of
planetary atmospheres, including escape. Many known extrasolar planets
experience vastly different stellar environments than those in our Solar
system: it is crucial to understand the broad range of processes that lead to
atmospheric escape and evolution under a wide range of conditions if we are to
assess the habitability of worlds around other stars. One problem encountered
between the planetary and the astrophysics communities is a lack of common
language for describing escape processes. Each community has customary
approximations that may be questioned by the other, such as the hypothesis of
H-dominated thermosphere for astrophysicists, or the Sun-like nature of the
stars for planetary scientists. Since exoplanets are becoming one of the main
targets for the detection of life, a common set of definitions and hypotheses
are required. We review the different escape mechanisms proposed for the
evolution of planetary and exoplanetary atmospheres. We propose a common
definition for the different escape mechanisms, and we show the important
parameters to take into account when evaluating the escape at a planet in time.
We show that the paradigm of the magnetic field as an atmospheric shield should
be changed and that recent work on the history of Xenon in Earth's atmosphere
gives an elegant explanation to its enrichment in heavier isotopes: the
so-called Xenon paradox
Use of a risk scoring tool to identify higher-risk HIV-1 serodiscordant couples for an antiretroviral-based HIV-1 prevention intervention
Graphemic complexity and multiple print-to-sound associations in visual word recognition
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