Critical Spirituality, Moral Philosophy, and Business Ethics

Critical ethics, according to David Boje, require a restoration of moral philosophy as a core value to the theory and practice of business ethics. Managerial business ethics often lack an answerability that challenges systemicity, which produces inhumane unethics. This essay supports answerability for the administered world of organization, power and politics. We join critical post-modern theorists in rejecting managerialism and the cultural industry. We advocate an ethics of responsibility that is drawn from moral philosophy and a free spirituality (by which we mean a trust in human potential, consciousness and human evolution). Just as ethics is often a grey area constantly being rethought, so too moral philosophy is being questioned and revised in post- modern theorizing. Disciplines relating to ethics are deconstructing the philosophical and ideological theories in order to move into the future. Critical theory is a work always and already partial in its progress. (Boje 2007) The assumptions of critical theory, as well as ethics and moral philosophy, therefore remain in a flow state. Each area of theory must function in a dialectical fashion - allowing for the unknown, the unseen and the unimaginable. Only in this state of mind can a truly creative co-mingling of unfinished ethics and evolving critical theory occur

A system for measuring bubble voidage and frequency around tubes immersed in a fluidized bed of particles

Journal ArticleGas-solid fluidized beds are common in chemical processing and energy production industries. These types of reactors frequently have banks of tubes immersed within the bed to provide heating or cooling, and it is important that the fluid dynamics within these bundles is efficient and uniform. This paper presents a simple, low-cost method for quantitatively analyzing the behavior of gas bubbles within banks of tubes in a fluidized bed cold flow model. Two probes, one containing an infrared emitter and one containing an infrared (IR) detector, are placed into adjacent glass tubes such that the emitter and detector face each other. As bubbles pass through the IR beam, the detector signal increases due to less solid material blocking the path between the emitter and detector. By calibrating the signal response to known voidage of the material, one can measure the bubble voidage at various locations within the tube bundle. The rate and size of bubbles passing through the beam can also be determined by high frequency data collection and subsequent analysis. This technique allows one to develop a map of bubble voidage within a fluidized bed, which can be useful for model validation and system optimization

Accountability principles for policy oriented research organisations : a guide to the framework and online database

After years of empirical research and collaborative engagement with a wide variety of organisations, the accountability framework supports research organisations’ ability to respond, in a structured way, to the challenges of increasing attention and demands for accountability. The Accountability Principles for Research Organisations (APRO) explores the meaning and use of concepts of accountability among organisations that conduct research which are influential in the formation of public policy. The accountability framework identifies core principles, work processes and types of stakeholders that are relevant to all policy-oriented research organisations

Geographical and temporal trends in imported infections from the tropics requiring inpatient care at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, London - a 15 year study.

BACKGROUND: Understanding geographic and temporal trends in imported infections is key to the management of unwell travellers. Many tropical infections can be managed as outpatients, with admission reserved for severe cases. METHODS: We prospectively recorded the diagnosis and travel history of patients admitted between 2000 and 2015. We describe the common tropical and non-tropical infectious diseases and how these varied based on region, reason for travel and over time. RESULTS: A total of 4362 admissions followed an episode of travel. Falciparum malaria was the most common diagnosis (n=1089). Among individuals who travelled to Africa 1206/1724 (70.0%) had a tropical diagnosis. The risk of a tropical infection was higher among travellers visiting friends and relatives than holidaymakers (OR 2.8, p<0.001). Among travellers to Asia non-tropical infections were more common than tropical infections (349/782, 44.6%), but enteric fever (117, 33.5%) of the tropical infections and dengue (70, 20.1%) remained important. The number of patients admitted with falciparum malaria declined over the study but those of enteric fever and dengue did not. CONCLUSIONS: Most of those arriving from sub-Saharan Africa with an illness requiring admission have a classical tropical infection, and malaria still predominates. In contrast, fewer patients who travelled to Asia have a tropical diagnosis but enteric fever and dengue remain relatively common. Those visiting friends and relatives are most likely to have a tropical infection

The Ignatian Pedagogy Paradigm and the Global Imperative of Biotechnology

The potential of the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm (IPP) is realized in the reflective actions of students after they leave the Jesuit educational setting and go out into the world. With developments in science and technology accelerating, and worldwide dissemination immediate, the imperative to infuse the IPP into areas driven by science and technology is clear. It is this imperative which draws us to the global biotechnology industry. This paper presents a short overview of the industry, describes how “science-business” differs from traditional business, and discusses the process by which the IPP – context, experience, reflection, action and evaluation – has been developed in the Business of Biotechnology program at the University of San Francisco (USF). The cases developed to exemplify the IPP are “Organized Religion and the Business of Biotechnology,” “Humanist Measures for Success in Bio-Business,” and “The Poor and Marginalized.” In addition, the Business of Biotechnology program utilizes the Biotechnology Innovation Expertise Model (BIEM 2.0), which identifies a recognized complement of the disciplines needed to bring breakthrough bioscience to a commercial product. These disciplines are readily present at Jesuit universities, which can, in turn, directly support education of value to the global biotechnology industry

Ethical and Social Challenges with developing Automated Methods to Detect and Warn potential victims of Mass-marketing Fraud (MMF)

Mass-marketing frauds (MMFs) are on the increase. Given the amount of monies lost and the psychological impact of MMFs there is an urgent need to develop new and effective methods to prevent more of these crimes. This paper reports the early planning of automated methods our interdisciplinary team are developing to prevent and detect MMF. Importantly, the paper presents the ethical and social constraints involved in such a model and suggests concerns others might also consider when developing automated systems

Rapid testing for malaria in settings where microscopy is available and peripheral clinics where only presumptive treatment is available: a randomised controlled trial in Ghana

Objective To test in West Africa the impact of rapid diagnostic tests on the prescription of antimalarials and antibiotics both where microscopy is used for the diagnosis of malaria and in clinical (peripheral) settings that rely on clinical diagnosis

Multimorbidity and quality of life at mid-life: A systematic review of general population studies

There is substantial multimorbidity at mid-life but little is known about the strength of evidence on multimorbidity and health-related quality of life (HrQoL) at mid-life. This review addresses this gap, focusing on studies of the general population. PubMed, Web of Science, Embase and APA PsycNET databases were screened on 6 March 2017 for original research on multimorbidity and HrQoL in adults aged 40-65 years from the general population. Studies focused on index conditions, using single-item HrQoL measures, unlikely to represent the general population (e.g. primary care), and papers that were not in the English language were excluded. A narrative synthesis was presented due to heterogeneity in the measurement of multimorbidity. Of the 2557 articles, 83 underwent full text screening and 8 were included in the review. Included studies were of moderate to high quality and no exclusions were made on the basis of quality or bias. Multimorbidity was associated with poorer HrQoL at mid-life. Two cross-sectional studies found that adults with multimorbidity at early mid-life reported poorer HrQoL than adults with multimorbidity at late mid-life, while another found the reverse. Two distinct disease clusters were identified: mental health conditions and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Those in the mental health cluster reported poorer HrQoL than those in the CVD cluster, women more so than men. Limitations of the selected studies include lack of longitudinal evidence, use of self-reported conditions and no assessment of disease severity. Multimorbidity is associated with poor HrQoL at mid-life at the population level, with some evidence of differences in association with age and disease cluster and sparse evidence on sex differences. Longitudinal research using a weighted disease severity index and multimorbidity trajectories is needed to strengthen the evidence base

Cost-effectiveness analysis of introducing RDTs for malaria diagnosis as compared to microscopy and presumptive diagnosis in central and peripheral public health facilities in Ghana.

Cost-effectiveness information on where malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) should be introduced is limited. We developed incremental cost-effectiveness analyses with data from rural health facilities in Ghana with and without microscopy. In the latter, where diagnosis had been presumptive, the introduction of RDTs increased the proportion of patients who were correctly treated in relation to treatment with antimalarials, from 42% to 65% at an incremental societal cost of Ghana cedis (GHS)12.2 (US$8.3) per additional correctly treated patients. In the "microscopy setting" there was no advantage to replacing microscopy by RDT as the cost and proportion of correctly treated patients were similar. Results were sensitive to a decrease in the cost of RDTs, which cost GHS1.72 (US$1.17) per test at the time of the study and to improvements in adherence to negative tests that was just above 50% for both RDTs and microscopy