Situational Context, Philosophical Belief, and Moral Constructs: The Multifaceted Nature of Moral Judgment

Recent studies have shown that different free will beliefs affect moral behavior. The purpose of the current study was to investigate whether different free will beliefs also influence moral judgment. College students (N = 56) were randomly assigned to one of three framing manipulations: free will, determinism, or neutral. They then read three morally questionable scenarios that differed by situational context. Following each scenario, participants completed a moral judgment questionnaire that measured four moral constructs: moral evaluation, moral responsibility, justification, and punishment. Finally, participants completed a Free Will & Determinism Questionnaire (FWD-Q) that measured their lay beliefs in free will and determinism. For analysis, we grouped participants according to their reported FWD-Q scores into one of three groups: free will, determinism, or compatibilism. We found that different free will beliefs influenced moral judgment to a small degree, but not in the ways that we predicted. Our results show that situational context affects moral judgment much more than lay philosophical beliefs regarding free will. Future studies should examine whether this still holds true for older adults with more developed worldviews

Commercial Displacement in Vaughan’s Emerging Downtown

This paper addresses issues of commercial gentrification using the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre as a case study. For the purpose of this research, commercial gentrification will be defined as, “higher value, more competitive business or more profitable residential conversion/ redevelopment typical of the post-industrial era” (Ferm 2016, pp. 402). The Vaughan Metropolitan Centre is a transit-oriented development (TOD) area currently undergoing massive redevelopment encouraged by planning and smart growth policies in order to support economic growth. TODs have the tendency to raise surrounding land values and rent costs, displacing long-running businesses. A literature review was conducted in order to provide background knowledge and explore the themes of transit-oriented gentrification, commercial gentrification/displacement, and its connections to city branding. This paper also employed the use of a media content analysis and semi-structured interviews, to provide perspective on the commercial changes occurring throughout the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre. The research has found the existence of commercial gentrification and displacement pressures in the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre area. A majority of existing businesses are operating in low-rise and single-use commercial units, which are no longer supported under municipal policy. As a result, many of these commercial spaces are set to be redeveloped into more profitable high-rise and mixed-use commercial towers. This paper concludes with a discussion on the inherent contradiction between how the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre is dictated by policy to commercially develop and how the market economy is actually responding

TESS Discovery of a Transiting Super-Earth in the pi Mensae System

We report the detection of a transiting planet around π Men (HD 39091), using data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). The solar-type host star is unusually bright (V = 5.7) and was already known to host a Jovian planet on a highly eccentric, 5.7 yr orbit. The newly discovered planet has a size of 2.04 ± 0.05 R⊕ and an orbital period of 6.27 days. Radial-velocity data from the High-Accuracy Radial-velocity Planet Searcher and Anglo-Australian Telescope/University College London Echelle Spectrograph archives also displays a 6.27 day periodicity, confirming the existence of the planet and leading to a mass determination of 4.82 ± 0.85 M⊕. The star's proximity and brightness will facilitate further investigations, such as atmospheric spectroscopy, asteroseismology, the Rossiter–McLaughlin effect, astrometry, and direct imaging

Investigation of dose perturbations and the radiographic visibility of potential fiducials for proton radiation therapy of the prostate

Image guidance using implanted fiducial markers is commonly used to ensure accurate and reproducible target positioning in radiation therapy for prostate cancer. The ideal fiducial marker is clearly visible in kV imaging, does not perturb the therapeutic dose in the target volume and does not cause any artifacts on the CT images used for treatment planning. As yet, ideal markers that fully meet all three of these criteria have not been reported. In this study, 12 fiducial markers were evaluated for their potential clinical utility in proton radiation therapy for prostate cancer. In order to identify the good candidates, each fiducial was imaged using a CT scanner as well as a kV imaging system. Additionally, the dose perturbation caused by each fiducial was quantified using radiochromic film and a clinical proton beam. Based on the results, three fiducials were identified as good candidates for use in proton radiotherapy of prostate cancer. © 2011 Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine

Diagnostic accuracy of motor evoked potentials to detect neurological deficit during idiopathic scoliosis correction:a systematic review

OBJECTIVE The goal of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of intraoperative transcranial motor evoked potential (TcMEP) monitoring in predicting an impending neurological deficit during corrective spinal surgery for patients with idiopathic scoliosis (IS). METHODS The authors searched the PubMed and Web of Science database for relevant lists of retrieved reports and/or experiments published from January 1950 through October 2014 for studies on TcMEP monitoring use during IS surgery. The primary analysis of this review fit the operating characteristic into a hierarchical summary receiver operating characteristic curve model to determine the efficacy of intraoperative TcMEP-predicted change. RESULTS Twelve studies, with a total of 2102 patients with IS were included. Analysis found an observed incidence of neurological deficits of 1.38% (29/2102) in the sample population. Of the patients who sustained a neurological deficit, 82.8% (24/29) also had irreversible TcMEP change, whereas 17.2% (5/29) did not. The pooled analysis using the bivariate model showed TcMEP change with sensitivity (mean 91% [95% CI 34%-100%]) and specificity (mean 96% [95% CI 92-98%]). The diagnostic odds ratio indicated that it is 250 times more likely to observe significant TcMEP changes in patients who experience a new-onset motor deficit immediately after IS correction surgery (95% CI 11-5767). TcMEP monitoring showed high discriminant ability with an area under the curve of 0.98. CONCLUSIONS A patient with a new neurological deficit resulting from IS surgery was 250 times more likely to have changes in TcMEPs than a patient without new deficit. The authors' findings from 2102 operations in patients with IS show that TcMEP monitoring is a highly sensitive and specific test for detecting new spinal cord injuries in patients undergoing corrective spinal surgery for IS. They could not assess the value of TcMEP monitoring as a therapeutic adjunct owing to the limited data available and their study design

TESS Discovery of a Transiting Super-Earth in the pi Mensae System

We report the detection of a transiting planet around π Men (HD 39091), using data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). The solar-type host star is unusually bright (V = 5.7) and was already known to host a Jovian planet on a highly eccentric, 5.7 yr orbit. The newly discovered planet has a size of 2.04 ± 0.05 R⊕ and an orbital period of 6.27 days. Radial-velocity data from the High-Accuracy Radial-velocity Planet Searcher and Anglo-Australian Telescope/University College London Echelle Spectrograph archives also displays a 6.27 day periodicity, confirming the existence of the planet and leading to a mass determination of 4.82 ± 0.85 M⊕. The star's proximity and brightness will facilitate further investigations, such as atmospheric spectroscopy, asteroseismology, the Rossiter–McLaughlin effect, astrometry, and direct imaging

Application of a fast proton dose calculation algorithm to a thorax geometry

Treatment planning in proton therapy requires the calculation of absorbed dose distributions on beam shaping components and the patient anatomy. Analytical pencil-beam dose algorithms commonly used are not always accurate enough. The Monte Carlo approach is more accurate but extremely computationally intensive. The Fast Dose Calculator, a track-repeating algorithm, has been proposed as an alternative fast and accurate dose calculation. In this work FDC is applied to a proton therapy patient thoracic anatomy. © 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Incidence and risk factors for AIDS-related mortality in HIV patients in China: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: To estimate the incidence and risk factors for mortality in HIV-1-infected patients in China. METHODS: Information on AIDS-related deaths was collected from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Disease Surveillance Information Reporting System and AIDS Prevention and Control Information System. RESULTS: A total of 379,348 HIV cases were recorded in the databases from 2006. Among those, 138,288 patients were reported as having developed AIDS and 72,616 (19%) died of AIDS after data was extracted from the databases in January 2011. Mortality was higher among those patients aged 50 years old or older (AOR: 3.41, CI: 1.47-7.91) who had been infected by intravenous drug use (AOR: 1.65, CI: 1.28-2.14) or blood transfusion/donation (AOR: 2.18: 1.18-3.99). Compared to patients who had not initiated highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), those who had initiated HAART were more likely to have a long interval of time between infection confirmation and AIDS-related death. CONCLUSIONS: The effective reduction of AIDS mortality could be improved through timely treatment