Moral enhancement: do means matter morally?

One of the reasons why moral enhancement may be controversial, is because the advantages of moral enhancement may fall upon society rather than on those who are enhanced. If directed at individuals with certain counter-moral traits it may have direct societal benefits by lowering immoral behavior and increasing public safety, but it is not directly clear if this also benefits the individual in question. In this paper, we will discuss what we consider to be moral enhancement, how different means may be used to achieve it and whether the means we employ to reach moral enhancement matter morally. Are certain means to achieve moral enhancement wrong in themselves? Are certain means to achieve moral enhancement better than others, and if so, why? More specifically, we will investigate whether the difference between direct and indirect moral enhancement matters morally. Is it the case that indirect means are morally preferable to direct means of moral enhancement and can we indeed pinpoint relevant intrinsic, moral differences between both? We argue that the distinction between direct and indirect means is indeed morally relevant, but only insofar as it tracks an underlying distinction between active and passive interventions. Although passive interventions can be ethical provided specific safeguards are put in place, these interventions exhibit a greater potential to compromise autonomy and disrupt identity

The operational window of carbon nanotube electrical wires treated with strong acids and oxidants

Conventional metal wires suffer from a significant degradation or complete failure in their electrical performance, when subjected to harsh oxidizing environments, however wires constructed from Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) have been found to actually improve in their electrical performance when subjected to these environments. These opposing reactions may provide new and interesting applications for CNT wires. Yet, before attempting to move to any real-world harsh environment applications, for the CNT wires, it is essential that this area of their operation be thoroughly examined. To investigate this, CNT wires were treated with multiple combinations of the strongest acids and halogens. The wires were then subjected to conductivity measurements, current carrying capacity tests, as well as Raman, microscopy and thermogravimetric analysis to enable the identification of both the limits of oxidative conductivity boosting and the onset of physical damage to the wires. These experiments have led to two main conclusions. Firstly, that CNT wires may operate effectively in harsh oxidizing environments where metal wires would easily fail and secondly, that the highest conductivity increase of the CNT wires can be achieved through a process of annealing, acetone and HCl purification followed by either H2O2 and HClO4 or Br2 treatment

The involvement of cancer patients in the four stages of decision-making preceding continuous sedation until death: A qualitative study

BACKGROUND: Involving patients in decision-making is considered to be particularly appropriate towards the end of life. Professional guidelines emphasize that the decision to initiate continuous sedation should be made in accordance with the wishes of the dying person and be preceded by their consent. AIM: To describe the decision-making process preceding continuous sedation until death with particular attention to the involvement of the person who is dying. DESIGN: Qualitative case studies using interviews. SETTING/PARTICIPANTS: Interviews with 26 physicians, 30 nurses and 24 relatives caring for 24 patients with cancer who received continuous sedation until death in Belgium, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. RESULTS: We distinguished four stages of decision-making: initiation, information exchange, deliberation and the decision to start continuous sedation until death. There was wide variation in the role the patient had in the decision-making process. At one end of the spectrum (mostly in the United Kingdom), the physician discussed the possible use of sedation with the patient, but took the decision themselves. At the other end (mostly in Belgium and the Netherlands), the patient initiated the conversation and the physician's role was largely limited to evaluating if and when the medical criteria were met. CONCLUSION: Decision-making about continuous sedation until death goes through four stages and the involvement of the patient in the decision-making varies. Acknowledging the potential sensitivity of raising the issue of end-of-life sedation, we recommend building into clinical practice regular opportunities to discuss the goals and preferences of the person who is dying for their future medical treatment and care

Expression of segment a of infectious bursal disease virus in pichia pastoris

Recombinant plasmid containing segment A open reading frame 2 (ORF2) gene of infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) of a very virulent subtype from local outbreak (strain 3529/92) was constructed. The gene encoding the IBDV structural polyprotein (N-VP2-VP3-VP4-C) was inserted into an expression vector, pPICZ prior to its transformation into Pichia pastoris by electroporation. After the induction of P. pastoris transformant with 0.5% methanol, the production of IBDV polyprotein was observed using Western blot. In P. pastoris, co- or post-translational processing of the large polyprotein occurred, generating a stable C-terminal product (VP3) of correct size, but without any detectable N-terminal product (VP2). The failure to observe the VP2 protein in Western blot analysis was probably due to the conformational epitope problem

The Effect of Square Finned Conformal Cooling (SFCC) on Cycle Time for Plastic Injection Moulding / K. Kamarudin ...[et al.]

Cooling system is a significant factor in productivity and quality in the plastic injection moulding process. Numerous researchers demonstrated that conformal cooling channel yields significant improvement of productivity and quality of plastic injection moulding process. Apart from that, the advancement of Solid Free Form Technology (SFF) allows a mould designer to design a variety of conformal cooling channel geometry rather than conventional designs. This paper presents the research work to enhance the efficiency of square shaped groove conformal cooling channels which uses fins concept. Existing conformal cooling channel design that uses square shape groove was improved by incorporating fins to meet the best design that can reduce the cooling time. The effect of Square Finned Conformal Cooling (SFCC) design on cooling time was investigated by using Autodesk Moldflow Insight software. The simulation results indicated that different number of fins influences the cooling time. From the analysis, it was found that time to reach the ejection temperature was reduced by 19.4% for the cooling channels with 4 fins compared to existing cooling channel