Empathy as the Moral Sense?

In his recent work, Michael Slote argues that empathy is what Hutcheson called 'the moral sense'. The most innovative argument he offers for this claim is that our empathic reactions play a crucial role in fixing the reference of moral terms. I argue that Slote's bold proposal faces all the main problems of analytical naturalism, as well as some of its own. I suggest that empathy may nevertheless play a more modest and indirect role in acquiring moral knowledge

A Patterned Single Layer Graphene Resistance Temperature Sensor

Micro-fabricated single-layer graphenes (SLGs) on a silicon dioxide (SiO2)/Si substrate, a silicon nitride (SiN) membrane, and a suspended architecture are presented for their use as temperature sensors. These graphene temperature sensors act as resistance temperature detectors, showing a quadratic dependence of resistance on the temperature in a range between 283 K and 303 K. The observed resistance change of the graphene temperature sensors are explained by the temperature dependent electron mobility relationship (~T−4) and electron-phonon scattering. By analyzing the transient response of the SLG temperature sensors on different substrates, it is found that the graphene sensor on the SiN membrane shows the highest sensitivity due to low thermal mass, while the sensor on SiO2/Si reveals the lowest one. Also, the graphene on the SiN membrane reveals not only the fastest response, but also better mechanical stability compared to the suspended graphene sensor. Therefore, the presented results show that the temperature sensors based on SLG with an extremely low thermal mass can be used in various applications requiring high sensitivity and fast operation

A Compact Vertical Scanner for Atomic Force Microscopes

A compact vertical scanner for an atomic force microscope (AFM) is developed. The vertical scanner is designed to have no interference with the optical microscope for viewing the cantilever. The theoretical stiffness and resonance of the scanner are derived and verified via finite element analysis. An optimal design process that maximizes the resonance frequency is performed. To evaluate the scanner’s performance, experiments are performed to evaluate the travel range, resonance frequency, and feedback noise level. In addition, an AFM image using the proposed vertical scanner is generated

Effect of Electron Beam Irradiation and Storage on the Quality Attributes of Sausages with Different Fat Contents

Sausages with different fat contents (16 or 29%) were purchased from local stores, vacuum-packaged in oxygen-impermeable bags, and irradiated at 0 or 5 kGy using a linear accelerator. The changes in quality attributes of irradiated sausages were determined during storage at 4°C. The 2-thiobarbituric acid-reactive substance values of sausages were not affected by fat content but were increased after irradiation (5 kGy). Storage for 60 d increased the 2-thiobarbituric acid-reactive substance values of nonirradiated sausages (P \u3c 0.05) but had no effect on irradiated sausages. The numbers of volatile compounds and the amounts of total volatiles were increased by irradiation in both the high-fat (29% fat) and low-fat (16% fat) sausages. Dimethyl sulfide was detected only in irradiated sausages, regardless of fat content (P \u3c 0.05), but it disappeared after 60 d of storage. Pentane and 1-heptene were detected only in irradiated samples after 60 d of storage. Low-fat sausages had greater L* values, but had lesser a* and b* values than high-fat sausages. Irradiation and storage had little effect on either the exterior or interior color (L*, a*, and b* values) of sausages. Fat content had no effect on the sensory variables of sausages, regardless of irradiation and storage. However, irradiated sausages had significantly stronger off-odors and off-flavors than nonirradiated sausages regardless of fat content (P \u3c 0.05). This indicated that fat content in sausages had a minimal effect on the quality of irradiated sausages during storage

Simulation of the Indian Summer Monsoon Using Comprehensive Atmosphere-land Interactions, in the Absence of Two-way Air-sea Interactions

Community Land Model version 2 (CLM2) as a comprehensive land surface model and a simple land surface model (SLM) were coupled to an atmospheric climate model to investigate the role of land surface processes in the development and the persistence of the South Asian summer monsoon. Two-way air-sea interactions were not considered in order to identify the reproducibility of the monsoon evolution by the comprehensive land model, which includes more realistic vertical soil moisture structures, vegetation and 2-way atmosphere-land interactions at hourly intervals. In the monsoon development phase (May and June). comprehensive land-surface treatment improves the representation of atmospheric circulations and the resulting convergence/divergence through the improvements in differential heating patterns and surface energy fluxes. Coupling with CLM2 also improves the timing and spatial distribution of rainfall maxima, reducing the seasonal rainfall overestimation by approx.60 % (1.8 mm/d for SLM, 0.7 mm/dI for CLM2). As for the interannual variation of the simulated rainfall, correlation coefficients of the Indian seasonal rainfall with observation increased from 0.21 (SLM) to 0.45 (CLM2). However, in the mature monsoon phase (July to September), coupling with the CLM2 does not exhibit a clear improvement. In contrast to the development phase, latent heat flux is underestimated and sensible heat flux and surface temperature over India are markedly overestimated. In addition, the moisture fluxes do not correlate well with lower-level atmospheric convergence, yielding correlation coefficients and root mean square errors worse than those produced by coupling with the SLM. A more realistic representation of the surface temperature and energy fluxes is needed to achieve an improved simulation for the mature monsoon period

In-situ fabrication of cobalt-doped SrFe2As2 thin films by using pulsed laser deposition with excimer laser

The remarkably high superconducting transition temperature and upper critical field of iron(Fe)-based layered superconductors, despite ferromagnetic material base, open the prospect for superconducting electronics. However, success in superconducting electronics has been limited because of difficulties in fabricating high-quality thin films. We report the growth of high-quality c-axis-oriented cobalt(Co)-doped SrFe2As2 thin films with bulk superconductivity by using an in-situ pulsed laser deposition technique with a 248-nm-wavelength KrF excimer laser and an arsenic(As)-rich phase target. The temperature and field dependences of the magnetization showing strong diamagnetism and transport critical current density with superior Jc-H performance are reported. These results provide necessary information for practical applications of Fe-based superconductors.Comment: 8 pages, 3figures. to be published at Appl. Phys. Let

Picture Quality and Sound Quality of OLED TVs

Unlike the past when cathode-ray tube (CRT) dominated display industry, many different types of flat panel displays (FPDs) are now leading the industry. Of these, organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display has recently become a next-generation display since this display is recognised as having advantages over other competing technologies in picture quality and form factor. With major attributes of picture quality considered, a series of evaluations based on objective measures was performed with an OLED TV compared to an LCD TV. OLED TV outperformed LCD TV 100 times in black, 20 times in colour contrast, 30% in dynamic range coverage, 50 times in local contrast and 20 times in viewing angle. In addition, sound quality of the OLED TV was assessed using both objective and subjective evaluation methods compared to conventional TV speakers since OLED panel speaker technology was recently commercialised. The OLED panel speaker showed better performance both in objective and subjective methods

Microspinning: Local Surface Mixing via Rotation of Magnetic Microparticles for Efficient Small-Volume Bioassays

The need for high-throughput screening has led to the miniaturization of the reaction volume of the chamber in bioassays. As the reactor gets smaller, surface tension dominates the gravitational or inertial force, and mixing efficiency decreases in small-scale reactions. Because passive mixing by simple diffusion in tens of microliter-scale volumes takes a long time, active mixing is needed. Here, we report an efficient micromixing method using magnetically rotating microparticles with patterned magnetization induced by magnetic nanoparticle chains. Because the microparticles have magnetization patterning due to fabrication with magnetic nanoparticle chains, the microparticles can rotate along the external rotating magnetic field, causing micromixing. We validated the reaction efficiency by comparing this micromixing method with other mixing methods such as simple diffusion and the use of a rocking shaker at various working volumes. This method has the potential to be widely utilized in suspension assay technology as an efficient mixing strategy