1,632 research outputs found
Moreauâs Law in The Island of Doctor Moreau in Light of Kantâs Reciprocity Thesis
In this paper, I explore a tension between the Law in the novel The Island of Doctor Moreau, by H. G. Wells, and Kant's reciprocity thesis. The Law is a series of prohibitions that Moreau has his beasts recite. Moreau devotes his time to transforming animals through a painful surgery into beings that resemble humans, but the humanized beasts are constantly slipping back into animalistic habits, and so Moreau promulgates the Law to maintain decorum. Kant's reciprocity thesis states that free will is the necessary and sufficient condition of moral practical laws. That is, in order for a moral practical law to be applicable, there must be free will, and, if free will is present, then there will be a moral practical law that sets a standard for the free will. However, in Wells's novel, the humanized beasts seem to lack free will. So, how can a law be applicable to them? By delving deeper into the mystery of Moreau's strange island, I will shed light on the otherwise cumbersome concepts of free will, natural impulses, and practical laws, as well as their interrelationships. The upshot will be a deeper understanding of personhood through an exploration of the instinctual nature of animals, moral law, and free will
Management of appendiceal pseudomyxoma peritonei diagnosed during pregnancy
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The incidence of cancer during pregnancy is approximately 1 in 1000. The most common types encountered during pregnancy are cervical, breast and ovarian. Epithelial tumors of the appendix on the other hand are rare and account for only approximately 1% of all colorectal neoplasms; the occurrence of this neoplasm during pregnancy is extremely rare.</p> <p>Case Presentation</p> <p>The medical history of a 30 year old woman diagnosed at 17 weeks gestation with an appendiceal mucinous tumor with large volume pseudomyxoma peritonei was presented. Her pregnancy was preserved and she had an early vaginal delivery of a healthy baby at 35 weeks. At 2 1/2 weeks postpartum the patient underwent extensive cytoreductive surgery and intraperitoneal chemotherapy. She remains disease-free 5 years after her initial diagnosis. A literature review of this clinical situation and a discussion of treatment plans were presented.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The management of an appendiceal tumor with pseudomyxoma peritonei diagnosed during pregnancy requires full knowledge of the natural history of this disease to achieve a balance of concern for maternal survival and fetal health.</p
Spectral variations of the X-ray binary pulsar LMC X-4 during its long period intensity variation and a comparison with Her X-1
We present spectral variations of the binary X-ray pulsar LMC X-4 using the
RXTE/PCA observations at different phases of its 30.5 day long super-orbital
period. Only out of eclipse data were used for this study. During the high
state of the super-orbital period of LMC X-4, the spectrum is well described by
a high energy cut-off power-law with a photon index in the range of 0.7-1.0 and
an iron emission line. In the low state, the spectrum is found to be flatter
with power-law photon index in the range 0.5-0.7. A direct correlation is
detected between the continuum flux in 7-25 keV energy band and the iron
emission line flux. The equivalent width of the iron emission line is found to
be highly variable during low intensity state, whereas it remains almost
constant during the high intensity state of the super-orbital period. It is
observed that the spectral variations in LMC X-4 are similar to those of Her
X-1 (using RXTE/PCA data). These results suggest that the geometry of the
region where the iron line is produced and its visibility with respect to the
phase of the super-orbital period is similar in LMC X-4 and Her X-1. A
remarkable difference between these two systems is a highly variable absorption
column density with phase of the super-orbital period that is observed in Her
X-1 but not in LMC X-4.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, Accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
Evidence for a Molecular Cloud Origin for Gamma-Ray Bursts: Implications for the Nature of Star Formation in the Universe
It appears that the majority of rapidly-, well-localized gamma-ray bursts
with undetected, or dark, optical afterglows, or `dark bursts' for short, occur
in clouds of size R > 10L_{49}^{1/2} pc and mass M > 3x10^5L_{49} M_{sun},
where L is the isotropic-equivalent peak luminosity of the optical flash. We
show that clouds of this size and mass cannot be modeled as a gas that is bound
by pressure equilibrium with a warm or hot phase of the interstellar medium
(i.e., a diffuse cloud): Such a cloud would be unstable to gravitational
collapse, resulting in the collapse and fragmentation of the cloud until a
burst of star formation re-establishes pressure equilibrium within the
fragments, and the fragments are bound by self-gravity (i.e., a molecular
cloud). Consequently, dark bursts probably occur in molecular clouds, in which
case dark bursts are probably a byproduct of this burst of star formation if
the molecular cloud formed recently, and/or the result of lingering or latter
generation star formation if the molecular cloud formed some time ago. We then
show that if bursts occur in Galactic-like molecular clouds, the column
densities of which might be universal, the number of dark bursts can be
comparable to the number of bursts with detected optical afterglows: This is
what is observed, which suggests that the bursts with detected optical
afterglows might also occur in molecular clouds. We confirm this by modeling
and constraining the distribution of column densities, measured from absorption
of the X-ray afterglow, of the bursts with detected optical afterglows: We find
that this distribution is consistent with the expectation for bursts that occur
in molecular clouds, and is not consistent with the expectation for bursts that
occur in diffuse clouds. More...Comment: Accepted to The Astrophysical Journal, 22 pages, 6 figures, LaTe
Perioperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy for peritoneal surface malignancy
The treatment of peritoneal surface malignancy mainly focuses on diffuse malignant peritoneal mesothelioma, pseudomyxoma peritonei from appendiceal cancer, and peritoneal dissemination from gastrointestinal and ovarian cancers. Cancer progression causes peritoneal implants to be distributed throughout the abdominopelvic cavity. These nodules plus the ascitic fluid result in abdominal distension. As the disease progresses, these tumors cause intestinal obstruction leading to debilitating symptoms and a greatly impaired quality of life. In the past, the prognosis of patients with peritoneal surface malignancy was regarded dismal and cure was not an option. Recently, cytoreductive surgery combined with perioperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy has shown an improved survival in selected patients with this disease. To date, multiple different treatment regimens of perioperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy have been used. This review focuses on the perioperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy currently in use in conjunction with cytoreductive surgery for the treatment of peritoneal surface malignancy at the Washington Cancer Institute
Langage intermĂ©diaire et transformations de modĂšles pour le dĂ©veloppement de systĂšmes temps-rĂ©el : retour d'expĂ©rience sur la chaĂźne de vĂ©riïŹcation formelle Fiacre
6 pagesInternational audienceWe discuss the results obtained during the development of a formal veriïŹcation toolchain for AADL based on a model driven engineering approach. Our approach is characterized by the use of the pivot language FIACRE to facilitate veriïŹcation activities and transformations between models. We quickly analyse the ïŹrst return on experience and present ongoing work started in the scope of the Quarteft project to improve the veriïŹcation chain.Nous prĂ©sentons les rĂ©sultats obtenus durant le dĂ©veloppement dâune chaĂźne de vĂ©rifi-cation formelle pour le langage dâarchitecture AADL basĂ© sur une approche ingĂ©nierie dirigĂ©epar les modĂšles. Notre approche se caractĂ©rise par lâutilisation du langage pivot FIACRE pourfaciliter les activitĂ©s de vĂ©rification et de transformations entre modĂšles. Nous commentonsles premiers retours dâexpĂ©rience issus de la mise en oeuvre de cette chaĂźne de vĂ©rification etprĂ©sentons en conclusion les travaux en cours dans le cadre du projet Quarteft qui visent Ă lâamĂ©liore
Formal VeriïŹcation of AADL models with Fiacre and Tina
9 pagesInternational audienceThis paper details works undertaken in the scope of the Spices project concerning the behavioral verification of AADL models. We give a high-level view of the tools involved and describe the successive transformations performed by our verification process. We also report on an experiment carried out in order to evaluate our framework and give the first experimental results obtained on real-size models. This demonstrator models a network protocol in charge of data communications between an airplane and ground stations. From this study we draw a set of conclusions about the integration of model-checking tools in an industrial development process
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