Against Hirose's Argument for Saving the Greater Number

Faced with the choice between saving one person and saving two others, what should we do? It seems intuitively plausible that we ought to save the two, and many forms of consequentialists offer a straightforward rationale for the intuition by appealing to interpersonal aggregation. But still many other philosophers attempt to provide a justification for the duty to save the greater number without combining utilities or claims of separate individuals. I argue against one such attempt proposed by Iwao Hirose. Despite being consequentialist, his argument is aggregation-free since it relies on a non-aggregative value judgement method, instead of interpersonal aggregation, to establish that (other things being equal) a state of affairs is better when more people survive therein. I do not take issue with its consequentialist element; rather, I claim that there is no good reason to adopt the method in question, and thus no good reason to be moved by his argument overall. What we are in search of is not merely a logically possible method that can produce the conclusion that we already want, but one that we have good reason to adopt. Hirose's argument elegantly demonstrates how it could possibly be true that it is right to save the greater number; but it fails to show that we have reason to believe so - even when we do not combine the interests of different individuals

Genomic Analysis of Mitochondria of Metschnikowia

Genomic Analysis of Mitochondria of Metschnikowia Background Our current understanding of mitochondrial genomes is biased toward metazoans, which represent the majority of sequenced mitochondrial DNAs (mtDNAs). The high diversity in size, shape, and gene synteny among yeast mitochondrial genomes make them an appealing alternative to those of metazoans for studying genomic diversity and evolution. Recently, more than 60 draft-genome assemblies of large-spored Metschnikowia species have been determined. Complete mitochondrial genomes of these yeasts, however, are yet to be constructed and characterized. Therefore, I propose to construct and analyze the mitochondrial genomes of all 61 strains of large-spored Metschnikowia species. Hypothesis The initial hypothesis is that the features of the mitochondrial genomes will follow species relatedness. Methods I have found that the sequencing read databases of these species are highly enriched in mitochondrial sequences with a high adenine and thymine content. These properties will be used to help isolate mitochondrial reads and assemble them into intact and complete genome sequences. Results The preliminary analyses showed that the mtDNAs from Metschnikowia can be circular or linear, and it will be of interest to find out whether the distribution of circular and linear forms follows phylogenetic lines. Also, genome sizes have shown a four-fold range so far, but it is not yet known if the size distribution will be consistent with the phylogeny. Similarly, patterns of both gene synteny and genome topology varies between early and late emerging species. Furthermore, cox1 and cob contain multiple introns that varies extensively in numbers and can be incredibly high (≈20)

Current-induced domain wall motion in a nanowire with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy

We study theoretically the current-induced magnetic domain wall motion in a metallic nanowire with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. The anisotropy can reduce the critical current density of the domain wall motion. We explain the reduction mechanism and identify the maximal reduction conditions. This result facilitates both fundamental studies and device applications of the current- induced domain wall motion

Current-Induced Resonant Motion of a Magnetic Vortex Core: Effect of Nonadiabatic Spin Torque

The current-induced resonant excitation of a magnetic vortex core is investigated by means of analytical and micromagnetic calculations. We find that the radius and the phase shift of the resonant motion are not correctly described by the analytical equations because of the dynamic distortion of a vortex core. In contrast, the initial tilting angle of a vortex core is free from the distortion and determined by the nonadiabaticity of the spin torque. It is insensitive to experimentally uncontrollable current-induced in-plane Oersted field. We propose that a time-resolved imaging of the very initial trajectory of a core is essential to experimentally estimate the nonadiabaticity.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Taste profile characterization of white ginseng by electronic tongue analysis

We conducted taste profile analysis of white ginseng (Panax ginseng) using a taste-sensing system. Taste such as sourness, bitterness, astringent, aftertaste, umami, richness, and saltiness of the four subfractions (n-hexane fr. = Pg1; EtOAc fr. = Pg2; CHCl3 fr. = Pg3; n-BuOH fr. = Pg4) from white ginseng was checked using an electronic tongue. The bitterness and aftertaste-B of Pg3 were perceived as significantly higher than those of the other subfractions. The sourness of Pg2 had the highest rating compared to that of the other subfractions. The umami of Pg4 was higher than that of the other subfractions, but bitterness was lowest. As a result, the Pg3 subfraction of the white ginseng ch oroform fraction showed the largest variation in taste. Medium pressure liquid chromatography of the white ginseng chloroform fraction led to the isolation of two phytosterols, which were identified as β-sitosterol and daucosterol by spectral analysis. Additional study of these compounds on taste should be conducted.Key words: Electronic tongue, Panax ginseng, phytosterol, taste, white ginseng