Gendered Violence and the Ethics of Social Science Research

The issue of ethical conduct in research settings is important and complex. As tenure-track researchers who study gendered violence, we found Clark and Walker’s discussion provocative, thoughtful, and interesting. They urge researchers to attend both to the structural dynamics of research carried out under the pressures of tenure and promotion while advocating an ethical frame that draws attention to the limited definition of risk or harm that animates typical human subjects research. Victims of violence, they argue, should not be subjected to a standardized understanding of risk. A broader framework is needed, one that brings into conversation virtue ethics with consequentialist and ontological frameworks. Given the impossible task of responding to the many points discussed by Clark and Walker, we chose to focus on four areas. In all likelihood, these areas of discussion reflect our own interests rather than Clark and Walker’s, but challenged to think seriously about research ethics in victimization studies, we attend to the following points. First, we seek to put virtue ethics in conversation with care ethics, in part because care ethics formed an important component of feminist discourse during the historical period in which institutional review boards came into being. Although virtue ethics may have lost its masculinist inflection after shedding its etymological roots,1 care ethics was explicitly seen as suited for the feminist subject. Following our discussion of care ethics, we address the question of setting victims of violence apart as a special class of vulnerable human research subjects. We argue that such a designation may yield more problems than it does solutions. Next, we turn to the violence of epistemology as a concern in research ethics. How do we come to an ethical definition of the research object, and to whom are we accountable? Finally, we turn to the relation of care when carrying out ethically and methodologically sound research

Targeting Agricultural Drainage to Reduce Nitrogen Losses in a Minnesota Watershed

Agricultural nitrogen losses are the major contributor to nitrogen loads in the Mississippi River, and consequently, to the existence of a hypoxic, or dead, zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Focusing on two small agricultural watersheds in southeast Minnesota, simulation results from the Agricultural Drainage And Pesticide Management (ADAPT) model were combined with a linear-optimization model to evaluate the environmental and economic impact of alternative land-use policies for reducing nitrogen losses. Of particular importance was the studys explicit focus on agricultural subsurface (tile) drainage, which has been identified as the major pathway for agricultural nitrogen losses in the upper Midwest, and the use of drainage-focused abatement policies. Results indicate that tile-drained land plays a key role in nitrogen abatement, and that a combined policy of nutrient management on tile-drained land and retirement of non-drained land is a cost-effective means of achieving a 20- or 30-percent nitrogen-abatement goal. Results also indicate that although it is cost-effective to abate on tile-drained land, it is not cost-effective to undertake policies that plug or remove tile drains from the landscape, regardless of whether the land would be retired or kept in production. Therefore, results imply that although tile-drained land is a major source of nitrogen lost to waterways, it is not cost-effective to remove the land from production or to remove the drainage from the land. Because of its value to agricultural production, it is better to keep tile-drained land in production under nutrient management and focus retirement policies on relatively less-productive, non-drained acres.Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use,

Attractants for Synanthropic Flies. 2. Response Patterns of House Flies to Attractive Baits on Poultry Ranches

A proteinaceous attractant, prepared by freeze-drying fermented whole egg solids, was found to attract Musca domestica L. and other synanthropic Diptera. In field experiments, a mixture of 2 g of the attractant and 2 g of dichlorvos sugar-bait increased fly collection two-fold on manure substrate in trays set on the ground and three-fold in suspended bait units over the sugar-toxicant bait alone. This increase was due primarily to the increased response of nulliparous and parous females in which vitellogenesis was about to occur. Attractancy of the bait declined sharply after 48 hours of field exposure. The location of bait stations significantly affected the number, sex ratio, and female age structure of the flies collected. Stations collecting the greatest number of flies were generally situated at the ends of the cage rows in sunlight-shade border areas. Fly collections from areas of greatest fly activity were characterized by a high proportion of hoth nulliparous and parous protein-searching females, and the sex ratio in these high-activity zones approached 1. East-west and north-south preferences of certain female age groups were manifested in the collection

Bait Units for Collection of House Flies

Lurtox™4 is a proteinaceous attractant for Musca domestica L. and other synanthropic Diptera (Mulla et al. 1973: Willson and Mulla 1973a) and is easily mixed with commercial poison sugar baits. The mixture of Lurtox and dichlorvos sugar bait (50:50 by wt) can be administered in measurable quantities into compact bait units where dead flies can be easily recovered for counting and for other studies. While developing Lurtox for control of Hippelates eye gnats, Mulla et al. (1973) found that moisture was essential for the emanation of the volatile attractants contained in the bait. Therefore, if the prevalent humidity level is not sufficient to activate the attractant, the bait unit designed for use with the bait mixture should include a moisture sourc

Novel Pseudo-Wavelet function for MMG signal extraction during dynamic fatiguing contractions

The purpose of this study was to develop an algorithm to classify muscle fatigue content in sports related scenarios. Mechanomyography (MMG) signals of the biceps muscle were recorded from thirteen subjects performing dynamic contractions until fatigue. For training and testing purposes, the signals were labeled in two classes (Non-Fatigue and Fatigue). A genetic algorithm was used to evolve a pseudo-wavelet function for optimizing the detection of muscle fatigue. Tuning of the generalized evolved pseudo-wavelet function was based on the decomposition of 70% of the conducted MMG trials. After completing 25 independent pseudo-wavelet evolution runs, the best run was selected and then tested on the remaining 30% of the data to measure the classification performance. Results show that the evolved pseudo-wavelet improved the classification rate of muscle fatigue by 4.70 percentage points to 16.61 percentage points when compared to other standard wavelet functions, giving an average correct classification of 80.63%, with statistical significance (p < 0.05). © 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Determination of Urinary Neopterin/Creatinine Ratio to Distinguish Active Tuberculosis from Latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection.

BACKGROUND: Biomarkers to distinguish latent from active Mycobacterium (M.) tuberculosis infection in clinical practice are lacking. The urinary neopterin/creatinine ratio can quantify the systemic interferon-gamma effect in patients with M. tuberculosis infection. METHODS: In a prospective observational study, urinary neopterin levels were measured by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay in patients with active tuberculosis, in people with latent M. tuberculosis infection, and in healthy controls and the urinary neopterin/creatinine ratio was calculated. RESULTS: We included a total of 44 patients with M. tuberculosis infection and nine controls. 12 patients had active tuberculosis (8 of them culture-confirmed). The median age was 15 years (range 4.5 to 49). Median urinary neopterin/creatinine ratio in patients with active tuberculosis was 374.1 micromol/mol (129.0 to 1072.3), in patients with latent M. tuberculosis infection it was 142.1 (28.0 to 384.1), and in controls it was 146.0 (40.3 to 200.0), with significantly higher levels in patients with active tuberculosis (p < 0.01). The receiver operating characteristics curve had an area under the curve of 0.84 (95% CI 0.70 to 0.97) (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Urinary neopterin/creatinine ratios are significantly higher in patients with active tuberculosis compared to patients with latent infection and may be a significant predictor of active tuberculosis in patients with M. tuberculosis infection

Border Alert System for Fishermen Using GPS System

The livelihood of fishermen is such that he crosses the country border unknowingly and poses threats to them by being killed or captured. The sea borders between countries are not easily identifiable which is the main reason behind this problem. ldquoBorder alert system for fisherman using GPSrdquo describes about a system which helps the fishermen by notifying the country border. Global Positioning System (GPS) and Global system for mobile communication (GSM) are used for this purpose. Here GPS receiver is used to find the current location of the fishing boat. Using GPS, present latitude and longitude values are sent to microcontroller unit. Later the controller unit identifies the current location by comparing the present latitude and longitudinal values with the predefined value. After the comparison, border alert system aware the fishermen that they are about to reach the nautical border. The region is divided into normal zone and warning zone. When the boat is in normal area, the LCD displays normal zone. Thus they can make it clear that the boat is in normal area. In case if it moves further and reaches the warning zone, the LCD displays warning zone

Determinants of drug absorption in different ECMO circuits

Purpose: The aim of this in vitro study was to evaluate potential determinants of drug loss in different ECMO circuits. Methods: Midazolam, morphine, fentanyl, paracetamol, cefazolin, meropenem and vancomycin were injected into three neonatal roller pump, two paediatric roller pump and two clinically used neonatal roller pump circuits, all with a silicone membrane, and two neonatal centrifugal pump circuits with polypropylene hollow-fibre membranes. Serial blood samples were taken from a post-oxygenator site. Drug recovery was calculated as the ratio between the determined and the theoretical maximum concentration. The latter was obtained by dividing dose by theoretical circuit volume. Results: Average drug recoveries at 180 min in three neonatal silicone membrane roller pump circuits were midazolam 0.62%, morphine 23.9%, fentanyl 0.35%, paracetamol 34.0%, cefazolin 84.3%, meropenem 82.9% and vancomycin 67.8%. There was a significant correlation between the lipophilicity of the drug expressed as log P and the extent of drug absorption, p < 0.001. The recovery of midazolam and fentanyl in centrifugal pump circuits with hollow-fibre membrane oxygenator was significantly higher compared to neonatal roller pump circuits with silicone membranes: midazolam 63.4 versus 0.62%, fentanyl 33.8 versus 0.35%, p < 0.001. Oxygenator size and used circuits do not significantly affect drug losses. Conclusions: Significant absorption of drugs occurs in the ECMO circuit, correlating with increased lipophilicity of the drug. Centrifugal pump circuits with hollow-fibre membrane oxygenators show less absorption for all drugs, most pronounced for lipophilic drugs. These results suggest that pharmacokinetics and hence optimal doses of these drugs may be altered during ECMO

Powering the Hydrogen Economy from Waste Heat: A Review of Heat‐to‐Hydrogen Concepts

Ever‐increasing energy demands and environmental concerns require new and clean energy supplies, many of which are intermittent and do not correlate with demand. To balance supply with demand, a universal energy vector should be employed such that intermittent renewable energy can be stored and transported and then used when needed. Hydrogen is the perfect universal energy vector and a possible solution that ensures environmental cleanliness, maximum utilization of renewable energy sources, and high efficiency, whereby the combustion of the fuel yields only water. One abundant and freely available energy source—both anthropogenic and natural—is heat. Heat can be obtained from industrial processes and is indeed often viewed as a waste product with a premium to remove but is notoriously difficult to capture, store, and transport. Capturing and storing low‐grade heat therefore provides a significant opportunity and can be achieved by coupling thermoelectric generators and water electrolyzers. A thermoelectric generator is placed within a thermal energy gradient and produces a flow of current that is fed to the electrolysis unit with which it produces hydrogen and oxygen as the final products. The hydrogen can be stored for long periods and transported for “on‐demand” use in fuel cells for electricity from hydrogen burners for a return to thermal energy. This Review summarizes the current state‐of‐the‐art research into implementing thermoelectric generators and utilizing heat as a primary energy source to produce hydrogen, which could replace the need for extra electric power to run hydrogen production units. Furthermore, suitable requirements, modifications, and other related aspects associated with such a new and novel method of hydrogen generation are discussed. Hydrogen produced from otherwise‐wasted energy sources can be considered to be green