1,244 research outputs found
Deciding the Criteria Is Not Enough: Moral Issues to Consider for a Fair Allocation of Scarce ICU Resources
During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, practitioners had to make tragic decisions regarding the allocation of scarce resources in the ICU. The Italian debate has paid a lot of attention to identifying the specific regulatory criteria for the allocation of resources in the ICU; in this paper, however, we argue that deciding such criteria is not enough for the implementation of fair and transparent allocative decisions. In this respect, we discuss three ethical issues: (a) in the Italian context, the treating physician, rather than a separate committee, was generally the one responsible for the allocation decision; (b) although many allocative guidelines have supported moral equivalence between withholding and withdrawing treatments, some health professionals have continued to consider it a morally problematic aspect; and (c) the health workers who have had to make the aforementioned decisions or even only worked in ICU during the pandemic often experienced moral distress. We conclude by arguing that, even if these problems are not directly related to the above-mentioned issues of distributive justice, they can nevertheless directly affect the quality and ethics of the implementation of allocative criteria, regardless of those chosen
Is Left Ventricular Assist Device Deactivation Ethically Acceptable? A Study on the Euthanasia Debate
In the last decades, new technologies have improved the survival of patients affected by chronic illnesses. Among them, left ventricular assist device (LVAD) has represented a viable solution for patients with advanced heart failure (HF). Even though the LVAD prolongs life expectancy, patients' vulnerability generally increases during follow up and patients' request for the device withdrawal might occur. Such a request raises some ethical concerns in that it directly hastens the patient's death. Hence, in order to assess the ethical acceptability of LVAD withdrawal, we analyse and examine an ethical argument, widely adopted in the literature, that we call the "descriptive approach", which consists in giving a definition of life-sustaining treatment to evaluate the ethical acceptability of treatment withdrawal. Focusing attention on LVAD, we show criticisms of this perspective. Finally, we assess every patient's request of LVAD withdrawal through a prescriptive approach, which finds its roots in the criterion of proportionality
Identification of human-infective trypanosomes in animal reservoir of sleeping sickness in Uganda by means of serum-resistance-associated (SRA) gene.
BACKGROUND: The expansion of sleeping sickness caused by Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense beyond its traditional focus in southeast Uganda has been linked with large-scale livestock restocking. To assess the risk presented to the human population by domestic livestock, human-infective T b rhodesiense must be distinguished from non-human-infective T brucei brucei, since both parasites can be present in cattle. We investigated the use of a simple genetic marker to characterise parasites collected from cattle in villages within the new sleeping sickness focus in Soroti District, Uganda. METHODS: 70 T brucei sl samples of known human infectivity status collected from human beings and cattle in Tororo District, Uganda, from 1989 to 1991 were screened for the presence of the human-serum-resistance-associated (SRA) gene by conventional PCR. In 2000-01, blood samples from 200 randomly selected cattle in six villages and two markets in Soroti District were screened for T brucei sl parasites by PCR; positive samples were screened for the presence of the SRA gene. FINDINGS: The SRA gene was present in all 29 samples from patients with sleeping sickness in Tororo District. Of the 41 samples collected from cattle at the same time, the SRA gene was present in the eight samples that tested resistant to human serum in vitro, whereas it was absent from all 33 isolates that were sensitive to human serum in vitro. Of the 200 cattle sampled in Soroti District, we estimated that up to 18% (95% CI 12-23) were infected with T b rhodesiense. INTERPRETATION: Detection of the SRA gene could provide the basis for a simple diagnostic test to enable targeted control of T b rhodesiense in the domestic livestock reservoir, thereby reducing the public-health burden of sleeping sickness in east Africa
Deblurring of frequency-wavenumber images from small-scale seismic arrays
Temporary arrays installed in urban areas for investigating the upper-most geological structure
typically comprised of a limited number of stations and are arranged in geometries constrained
by environmental boundaries. Therefore, it is expected that the frequency–wavenumber images
are significantly blurred by the array transfer function and are corrupted by noise.
In this paper, the effect of theRichardson–Lucy regularization method applied to the problem
of deblurring frequency–wavenumber images is investigated. The images are computed by
analysing data from two small-aperture 2-D arrays, installed with different configurations in
a test-site within the town of Potenza (Southern Italy) for near-surface investigations. We
show that removing the effects of the array response from the frequency–wavenumber images
improve the phase-velocity estimation, reducing the relevant level of uncertainty. Furthermore,
the Richardson–Lucy regularization method is effective in reducing the level of noise related
to spatial aliasing by eliminating spurious peaks, allowing the maxima related to different
seismic sources to be better discriminated
Spin-phonon coupling effects in transition-metal perovskites:a DFT+ and hybrid-functional study
Spin-phonon coupling effects, as reflected in phonon frequency shifts between
ferromagnetic (FM) and G-type antiferromagnetic (AFM) configurations in cubic
CaMnO, SrMnO, BaMnO, LaCrO, LaFeO and La(CrFe)O,
are investigated using density-functional methods. The calculations are carried
out both with a hybrid-functional (HSE) approach and with a DFT+ approach
using a that has been fitted to HSE calculations. The phonon frequency
shifts obtained in going from the FM to the AFM spin configuration agree well
with those computed directly from the more accurate HSE approach, but are
obtained with much less computational effort. We find that in the MnO
materials class with =Ca, Sr, and Ba, this frequency shift decreases as the
A cation radius increases for the phonons, while it increases for
R-point phonons. In LaO with =Cr, Fe, and Cr/Fe, the phonon
frequencies at decrease as the spin order changes from AFM to FM for
LaCrO and LaFeO, but they increase for the double perovskite
La(CrFe)O. We discuss these results and the prospects for bulk and
superlattice forms of these materials to be useful as multiferroics.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, 9 table
Magneto-optics in pure and defective Ga_{1-x}Mn_xAs from first-principles
The magneto-optical properties of GaMnAs including their most
common defects were investigated with precise first--principles
density-functional FLAPW calculations in order to: {\em i}) elucidate the
origin of the features in the Kerr spectra in terms of the underlying
electronic structure; {\em ii}) perform an accurate comparison with
experiments; and {\em iii}) understand the role of the Mn concentration and
occupied sites in shaping the spectra. In the substitutional case, our results
show that most of the features have an interband origin and are only slightly
affected by Drude--like contributions, even at low photon energies. While not
strongly affected by the Mn concentration for the intermediately diluted range
( 10%), the Kerr factor shows a marked minimum (up to 1.5) occurring
at a photon energy of 0.5 eV. For interstitial Mn, the calculated
results bear a striking resemblance to the experimental spectra, pointing to
the comparison between simulated and experimental Kerr angles as a valid tool
to distinguish different defects in the diluted magnetic semiconductors
framework.Comment: 10 pages including 2 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
The multiferroic phase of DyFeO:an ab--initio study
By performing accurate ab-initio density functional theory calculations, we
study the role of electrons in stabilizing the magnetic-field-induced
ferroelectric state of DyFeO. We confirm that the ferroelectric
polarization is driven by an exchange-strictive mechanism, working between
adjacent spin-polarized Fe and Dy layers, as suggested by Y. Tokunaga [Phys.
Rev. Lett, \textbf{101}, 097205 (2008)]. A careful electronic structure
analysis suggests that coupling between Dy and Fe spin sublattices is mediated
by Dy- and O- hybridization. Our results are robust with respect to the
different computational schemes used for and localized states, such as
the DFT+ method, the Heyd-Scuseria-Ernzerhof (HSE) hybrid functional and the
GW approach. Our findings indicate that the interaction between the and
sublattice might be used to tailor ferroelectric and magnetic properties of
multiferroic compounds.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures-Revised versio
Load-carrying capacity of compressed wall-like RC columns strengthened with FRP
The analytical prediction of the effectiveness of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) in the confinement of a rectangular reinforced concrete (RC) column with a high aspect ratio (wall-like) still has an uncertain solution. In this paper, a numerical investigation of the axial response of RC wall-like columns strengthened with FRP systems was developed. Analytical solutions proposed in the literature for the assessment of the axial load capacity were presented and compared with each other and with the available experimental results. Moreover, non-linear finite element analysis was carried out, and the results were discussed, providing a simple model for the assessment of the axial compressive strength of wall-like RC columns strengthened with FRP
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