Exemplarist Virtue Ethics

In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle introduces the concept of virtue, states of character that allow an agent to perform her function well, and gives a practical account of how someone can become virtuous. I will argue that Aristotle manages to be vague with respect to two epistemic questions: First, how can we identify virtuous people? Second, how can we know which states of character are virtuous? Recently, Linda Zagzebski has introduced a moral theory called exemplarism, which answers that we may identify virtuous people via the emotion of admiration, and that by studying virtuous people, we may come to know which states of character are virtuous. But, Zagzebski’s exemplarism is unmediated; there is no difference between a moral concept and what an exemplar would do or feel in certain circumstances. Problematically, on this account it appears that the more moral experience we have, the murkier our moral concepts become. In what follows, I propose what I call a mediated exemplarism, an account that answers our questions about virtue in the same way as Zagzebski, but on which an exemplar’s actions or feelings do not constitute moral concepts. Rather, on my account, exemplars serve the pedagogical purpose of indicating virtues to an agent, who may then construct a theory of virtue from which moral concepts may be inferred that are divorced from the actions and feelings of a particular exemplar

Temporal trends in genetic data and effective population size support efficacy of management practices in critically endangered dusky gopher frogs ( Lithobates sevosus )

Monitoring temporal changes in population genetic diversity and effective population size can provide vital information on future viability. The dusky gopher frog, Lithobates sevosus, is a critically endangered species found only in coastal Mississippi, with low genetic variability as a consequence of isolation and population size reduction. Conservation management practices have been implemented, but their efficacy has not been addressed. We genotyped individuals collected 1997–2014 to determine temporal trends in population genetic variation, structure, and effective size. Observed and expected heterozygosity and allelic richness revealed temporally stable, but low, levels of genetic variation. Positive levels of inbreeding were found in each year. There was weak genetic structure among years, which can be attributed to increased effects of genetic drift and inbreeding in small populations. L. sevosus exhibited an increase in effective population size, and currently has an estimated effective size of 33.0– 58.6 individuals, which is approximately half the census size. This large ratio could possibly be explained by genetic compensation. We found that management practices have been effective at maintaining and improving effective size and genetic diversity, but that additional strategies need to be implemented to enhance viability of the species

Effect of the boundary layer upon the flow in a conical hypersonic nozzle

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/76641/1/AIAA-2269-288.pd

Homelessness Coverage in Major Canadian Newspapers, 1987 – 2007

This article describes how the Canadian printed news media depicted the homeless and their situations between 1987 and 2007. Our study used a descriptive, cross-sectional design and a content analysis was conducted on selected newspaper articles on homelessness issues. The main themes were housing-related issues, profiling of homelessness, health-related issues, economic factors, illegal activities, community aid and support, and social factors as cause of homelessness. Housing related issues, community aid and support, profiling of homelessness and economic factors were addressed in 85.3% of the stories. This study provides a retrospective examination of the media’s interests in and portrayal of the homeless and homelessness issues

The skull of Epidolops ameghinoi from the early Eocene Itaboraí fauna, southeastern Brazil, and the affinities of the extinct marsupialiform order Polydolopimorphia

The skull of the polydolopimorphian marsupialiform Epidolops ameghinoi is described in detail for the first time, based on a single well-preserved cranium and associated left and right dentaries plus additional craniodental fragments, all from the early Eocene (53-50 million year old) Itaboraí fauna in southeastern Brazil. Notable craniodental features of E. ameghinoi include absence of a masseteric process, very small maxillopalatine fenestrae, a prominent pterygoid fossa enclosed laterally by a prominent ectopterygoid crest, an absent or tiny transverse canal foramen, a simple, planar glenoid fossa, and a postglenoid foramen that is immediately posterior to the postglenoid process. Most strikingly, the floor of the hypotympanic sinus was apparently unossified, a feature found in several stem marsupials but absent in all known crown marsupials. "Type II" marsupialiform petrosals previously described from Itaboraí plausibly belong to E. ameghinoi; in published phylogenetic analyses, these petrosals fell outside (crown-clade) Marsupialia. "IMG VII" tarsals previously referred to E. ameghinoi do not share obvious synapomorphies with any crown marsupial clade, nor do they resemble those of the only other putative polydolopimorphians represented by tarsal remains, namely the argyrolagids. Most studies have placed Polydolopimorphia within Marsupialia, related to either Paucituberculata, or to Microbiotheria and Diprotodontia. However, diprotodonty almost certainly evolved independently in polydolopimorphians, paucituberculatans and diprotodontians, and Epidolops does not share obvious synapomorphies with any marsupial order. Epidolops is dentally specialized, but several morphological features appear to be more plesiomorphic than any crown marsupial. It seems likely Epidolops that falls outside Marsupialia, as do morphologically similar forms such as Bonapartherium and polydolopids. Argyrolagids differ markedly in their known morphology from Epidolops but share some potential apomorphies with paucituberculatans. It is proposed that Polydolopimorphia as currently recognised is polyphyletic, and that argyrolagids (and possibly other taxa currently included in Argyrolagoidea, such as groeberiids and patagoniids) are members of Paucituberculata. This hypothesis is supported by Bayesian non-clock phylogenetic analyses of a total evidence matrix comprising DNA sequence data from five nuclear protein-coding genes, indels, retroposon insertions and morphological characters: Epidolops falls outside Marsupialia, whereas argyrolagids form a clade with the paucituberculatans Caenolestes and Palaeothentes, regardless of whether the Type II petrosals and IMG VII tarsals are used to score characters for Epidolops or not. There is no clear evidence for the presence of crown marsupials at Itaboraí, and it is possible that the origin and early evolution of Marsupialia was restricted to the "Austral Kingdom" (southern South America, Antarctica, and Australia)

Adaptive Courseware Implementation: Investigating Alignment, Course Redesign, and the Student Experience

In this paper, four institutions share student and faculty feedback on the implementation of adaptive courseware through a common case study: biology for undergraduate non-majors. Additionally, each institution has provided a second case study of their choice. Together, researchers at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO, Portland State University in Portland, OR, University of Central Florida in Orlando, FL, and the University of Mississippi in Oxford, MS consider student perception of the benefits to the implementation of adaptive courseware, and how the deliberate alignment between adaptive courseware and course organization and structure impacts student experience. This paper highlights the collaboration of four public land grant Universities and includes data from thousands of students across the United States. Our findings indicate that adaptive blended courses with student engagement at the core multiplies opportunities afforded by emerging technologies within blended course design. This paper contributes multi-year data from four institutional approaches to implementing adaptive software to center student engagement

Visual systemizing preference in children with autism: A randomized controlled trial of intranasal oxytocin

Several studies have suggested that the neuropeptide oxytocin may enhance aspects of social communication in autism. Little is known, however, about its effects on nonsocial manifestations, such as restricted interests and repetitive behaviors. In the empathizing-systemizing theory of autism, social deficits are described along the continuum of empathizing ability, whereas nonsocial aspects are characterized in terms of an increased preference for patterned or rule-based systems, called systemizing. We therefore developed an automated eye-tracking task to test whether children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared to matched controls display a visual preference for more highly organized and structured (systemized) real-life images. Then, as part of a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study, we examined the effect of intranasal oxytocin on systemizing preferences in 16 male children with ASD, compared with 16 matched controls. Participants viewed 14 slides, each containing four related pictures (e.g., of people, animals, scenes, or objects) that differed primarily on the degree of systemizing. Visual systemizing preference was defined in terms of the fixation time and count for each image. Unlike control subjects who showed no gaze preference, individuals with ASD preferred to fixate on more highly systemized pictures. Intranasal oxytocin eliminated this preference in ASD participants, who now showed a similar response to control subjects on placebo. In contrast, control participants increased their visual preference for more systemized images after receiving oxytocin versus placebo. These results suggest that, in addition to its effects on social communication, oxytocin may play a role in some of the nonsocial manifestations of autism