Being Aristotelian: Using Virtue Ethics in an Applied Media Ethics Course

This essay explores the tendency of undergraduate media ethics students to do what Bernard Gert calls “morality by slogans” and their tendency to misuse Aristotle’s golden mean slogan. While not solving the dilemma of morality by slogans, the essay suggests some ways of rectifying the misuse of the golden mean and encouraging its more authentic application

True Confessions of The New York Times: Making Moral Meaning from the Discourse of Flawed Iraq Coverage

On the morning of May 26, 2004, New York Times readers found a note from the paper’s editors on Page A10. The headline read “From the Editors – The Times and Iraq,” and the 1,000-word article that followed served as a disclosure that the Times had failed in its duty of both aggressive information gathering and careful reporting with a critical eye. Response to the note was fast and widespread as newspeople across the country commented on the paper’s public admission of its flawed coverage. The editors’ note, together with the responses it generated, provides a glimpse into the state of American journalism and the way those enmeshed in it understand and expect the practice to operate. Beyond serving a descriptive purpose, however, the texts of the note and the responses can be used to start a discourse in the normative realm, to offer suggestions for how our understanding of journalism perhaps ought to change to better reflect the reality of what is truly a human institution. This paper provides both a descriptive and normative analysis of two themes that emerge within the New York Times editors’ note and the subsequent responses that it prompted. First, the failure at the Times seems to add another notch to the credibility crisis in which U.S. journalism currently finds itself. The disclosure and responses reveal new concerns about the press and its performance. While the first trend illuminates problems, the second illustrates progress by demonstrating that the press, or at least one of its most important organizations, recognizes that it is a fallible, human institution and one that should – is perhaps even morally required to – communicate with is audiences about the process of newstelling. It is through precedent-setting cases like this one that journalists can step back, take a look at their practice, and then continue moving forward in a landscape that is constantly in flux

Perspectives on Pornography Demand Ethical Critique

It takes no more than a cursory review of the literature on pornography to discover the very deep divides that permeate attitudes about the practice. Scholarship on pornography from the political, psychological, sociological, legal, economic, religious, and, of course, ethical traditions reveals that pornography has been hotly contested for years. And the debate shows little sign of ending. Like other disputed issues, most perspectives on pornography have come to represent one of two polarized positions: the strident anti-porn view and the equally strident anti-censorship view. Part I of this chapter examines the state of scholarship on pornography framed around the two polarized perspectives. First, we include a discussion of the competing views, and we lay out various definitions of pornography for consideration. We also summarize the actions and reactions that each side has pursued to further its agenda. We then turn to a critique of the current framing and raise issues that we believe need to be considered in any discussion of pornography’s ethical implications

The Carnegie Supernova Project: First Near-Infrared Hubble Diagram to z~0.7

The Carnegie Supernova Project (CSP) is designed to measure the luminosity distance for Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) as a function of redshift, and to set observational constraints on the dark energy contribution to the total energy content of the Universe. The CSP differs from other projects to date in its goal of providing an I-band {rest-frame} Hubble diagram. Here we present the first results from near-infrared (NIR) observations obtained using the Magellan Baade telescope for SNe Ia with 0.1 < z < 0.7. We combine these results with those from the low-redshift CSP at z <0.1 (Folatelli et al. 2009). We present light curves and an I-band Hubble diagram for this first sample of 35 SNe Ia and we compare these data to 21 new SNe Ia at low redshift. These data support the conclusion that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating. When combined with independent results from baryon acoustic oscillations (Eisenstein et al. 2005), these data yield Omega_m = 0.27 +/- 0.0 (statistical), and Omega_DE = 0.76 +/- 0.13 (statistical) +/- 0.09 (systematic), for the matter and dark energy densities, respectively. If we parameterize the data in terms of an equation of state, w, assume a flat geometry, and combine with baryon acoustic oscillations, we find that w = -1.05 +/- 0.13 (statistical) +/- 0.09 (systematic). The largest source of systematic uncertainty on w arises from uncertainties in the photometric calibration, signaling the importance of securing more accurate photometric calibrations for future supernova cosmology programs. Finally, we conclude that either the dust affecting the luminosities of SNe Ia has a different extinction law (R_V = 1.8) than that in the Milky Way (where R_V = 3.1), or that there is an additional intrinsic color term with luminosity for SNe Ia independent of the decline rate.Comment: 44 pages, 23 figures, 9 tables; Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Trial baseline characteristics of a cluster randomised controlled trial of a school-located obesity prevention programme; the Healthy Lifestyles Programme (HeLP) trial

This is the final version of the article. Available from BioMed Central via the DOI in this record.Background We have developed a healthy lifestyles programme (HeLP) for primary school aged children (9–10 years), currently being evaluated in a definitive cluster randomised controlled trial. This paper descriptively presents the baseline characteristics of trial children (BMI, waist circumference, % body fat, diet and physical activity) by gender, cluster level socio-economic status, school size and time of recruitment into the trial. Methods Schools were recruited from across the South West of England and allocated 1:1 to either intervention (HeLP) or control (usual practice) stratified by the proportion of children eligible for free school meals (FSM, 1 Year 5 class). The primary outcome is change in body mass index standard deviation score (BMI sds) at 24 months post-randomisation. Secondary outcomes are BMI sds at 18 months, waist circumference and percentage body fat sds at 18 and 24 months, proportion of children classified as underweight, overweight and obese at 18 and 24 months, physical activity (for a sub-sample) and food intake at 18 months. Results At baseline 11.4% and 13.6% of children were categorised as overweight or obese respectively. A higher percentage of girls than boys (25.3% vs 24.8%) and children from schools in FSM category 2 (28.2% vs 23.2%) were overweight or obese. Children were consuming a mean (range) of 4.15 (0–13) energy dense snacks (EDS) and 3.23 (0–9) healthy snacks (HS) per day with children from schools in FSM category 2 consuming more EDS and negative food markers and less HS and positive food markers. Children spent an average 53.6 min per day (11.9 to 124.8) in MVPA and thirteen hours (779.3 min) per day (11 h to 15 h) doing less than ‘light’ intensity activity. Less than 5% of children achieved the Departments of Health’s recommendation of 60 min of MVPA every day. Conclusion We have excellent completeness of baseline data for all measures and have achieved compliance to accelerometry not seen before in other large scale studies. Our anthropometric baseline data is representative of local and national data for children this age and reflects the gender and socio-economic variations expected of children this age in relation to physical activity and weight status.The definitive trial of HeLP is funded by the UK National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Public Health Research Programme (10/3010/01) and a full report will be published on the NIHR website. Intervention materials and delivery was funded by the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry. PenCLAHRC provided methodological support during the transition from the exploratory trial to the definitive evaluation

Low-frequency variation near common germline susceptibility loci are associated with risk of Ewing sarcoma

Background: Ewing sarcoma (EwS) is a rare, aggressive solid tumor of childhood, adolescence and young adulthood associated with pathognomonic EWSR1-ETS fusion oncoproteins altering transcriptional regulation. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified 6 common germline susceptibility loci but have not investigated low-frequency inherited variants with minor allele frequencies below 5% due to limited genotyped cases of this rare tumor. Methods We investigated the contribution of rare and low-frequency variation to EwS susceptibility in the largest EwS genome-wide association study to date (733 EwS cases and 1,346 unaffected controls of European ancestry). Results We identified two low-frequency variants, rs112837127 and rs2296730, on chromosome 20 that were associated with EwS risk (OR = 0.186 and 2.038, respectively;P-value < 5x10(-8)) and located near previously reported common susceptibility loci. After adjusting for the most associated common variant at the locus, only rs112837127 remained a statistically significant independent signal (OR = 0.200, P-value = 5.84x10(-8)). Conclusions: These findings suggest rare variation residing on common haplotypes are important contributors to EwS risk. Impact Motivate future targeted sequencing studies for a comprehensive evaluation of low-frequency and rare variation around common EwS susceptibility loci

Investigation of rheumatoid arthritis susceptibility loci in juvenile idiopathic arthritis confirms high degree of overlap

&lt;p&gt;Objectives: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) shares some similar clinical and pathological features with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA); indeed, the strategy of investigating whether RA susceptibility loci also confer susceptibility to JIA has already proved highly successful in identifying novel JIA loci. A plethora of newly validated RA loci has been reported in the past year. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate these single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) to determine if they were also associated with JIA.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Methods: Thirty-four SNP that showed validated association with RA and had not been investigated previously in the UK JIA cohort were genotyped in JIA cases (n=1242), healthy controls (n=4281), and data were extracted for approximately 5380 UK Caucasian controls from the Wellcome Trust Case–Control Consortium 2. Genotype and allele frequencies were compared between cases with JIA and controls using PLINK. A replication cohort of 813 JIA cases and 3058 controls from the USA was available for validation of any significant findings.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Results: Thirteen SNP showed significant association (p&#60;0.05) with JIA and for all but one the direction of association was the same as in RA. Of the eight loci that were tested, three showed significant association in the US cohort.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Conclusions: A novel JIA susceptibility locus was identified, CD247, which represents another JIA susceptibility gene whose protein product is important in T-cell activation and signalling. The authors have also confirmed association of the PTPN2 and IL2RA genes with JIA, both reaching genome-wide significance in the combined analysis.&lt;/p&gt

Association of genetic variation with systolic and diastolic blood pressure among African Americans: the Candidate Gene Association Resource study

The prevalence of hypertension in African Americans (AAs) is higher than in other US groups; yet, few have performed genome-wide association studies (GWASs) in AA. Among people of European descent, GWASs have identified genetic variants at 13 loci that are associated with blood pressure. It is unknown if these variants confer susceptibility in people of African ancestry. Here, we examined genome-wide and candidate gene associations with systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) using the Candidate Gene Association Resource (CARe) consortium consisting of 8591 AAs. Genotypes included genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data utilizing the Affymetrix 6.0 array with imputation to 2.5 million HapMap SNPs and candidate gene SNP data utilizing a 50K cardiovascular gene-centric array (ITMAT-Broad-CARe [IBC] array). For Affymetrix data, the strongest signal for DBP was rs10474346 (P= 3.6 × 10−8) located near GPR98 and ARRDC3. For SBP, the strongest signal was rs2258119 in C21orf91 (P= 4.7 × 10−8). The top IBC association for SBP was rs2012318 (P= 6.4 × 10−6) near SLC25A42 and for DBP was rs2523586 (P= 1.3 × 10−6) near HLA-B. None of the top variants replicated in additional AA (n = 11 882) or European-American (n = 69 899) cohorts. We replicated previously reported European-American blood pressure SNPs in our AA samples (SH2B3, P= 0.009; TBX3-TBX5, P= 0.03; and CSK-ULK3, P= 0.0004). These genetic loci represent the best evidence of genetic influences on SBP and DBP in AAs to date. More broadly, this work supports that notion that blood pressure among AAs is a trait with genetic underpinnings but also with significant complexit

The First Post-Kepler Brightness Dips of KIC 8462852

We present a photometric detection of the first brightness dips of the unique variable star KIC 8462852 since the end of the Kepler space mission in 2013 May. Our regular photometric surveillance started in October 2015, and a sequence of dipping began in 2017 May continuing on through the end of 2017, when the star was no longer visible from Earth. We distinguish four main 1-2.5% dips, named "Elsie," "Celeste," "Skara Brae," and "Angkor", which persist on timescales from several days to weeks. Our main results so far are: (i) there are no apparent changes of the stellar spectrum or polarization during the dips; (ii) the multiband photometry of the dips shows differential reddening favoring non-grey extinction. Therefore, our data are inconsistent with dip models that invoke optically thick material, but rather they are in-line with predictions for an occulter consisting primarily of ordinary dust, where much of the material must be optically thin with a size scale <<1um, and may also be consistent with models invoking variations intrinsic to the stellar photosphere. Notably, our data do not place constraints on the color of the longer-term "secular" dimming, which may be caused by independent processes, or probe different regimes of a single process

Association of genetic variation with systolic and diastolic blood pressure among African Americans: the Candidate Gene Association Resource study.

The prevalence of hypertension in African Americans (AAs) is higher than in other US groups; yet, few have performed genome-wide association studies (GWASs) in AA. Among people of European descent, GWASs have identified genetic variants at 13 loci that are associated with blood pressure. It is unknown if these variants confer susceptibility in people of African ancestry. Here, we examined genome-wide and candidate gene associations with systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) using the Candidate Gene Association Resource (CARe) consortium consisting of 8591 AAs. Genotypes included genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data utilizing the Affymetrix 6.0 array with imputation to 2.5 million HapMap SNPs and candidate gene SNP data utilizing a 50K cardiovascular gene-centric array (ITMAT-Broad-CARe [IBC] array). For Affymetrix data, the strongest signal for DBP was rs10474346 (P= 3.6 × 10(-8)) located near GPR98 and ARRDC3. For SBP, the strongest signal was rs2258119 in C21orf91 (P= 4.7 × 10(-8)). The top IBC association for SBP was rs2012318 (P= 6.4 × 10(-6)) near SLC25A42 and for DBP was rs2523586 (P= 1.3 × 10(-6)) near HLA-B. None of the top variants replicated in additional AA (n = 11 882) or European-American (n = 69 899) cohorts. We replicated previously reported European-American blood pressure SNPs in our AA samples (SH2B3, P= 0.009; TBX3-TBX5, P= 0.03; and CSK-ULK3, P= 0.0004). These genetic loci represent the best evidence of genetic influences on SBP and DBP in AAs to date. More broadly, this work supports that notion that blood pressure among AAs is a trait with genetic underpinnings but also with significant complexity