The Return of Quarantinism and How to Keep It in Check: From Wishful Regulations to Political Accountability

Concerns about emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases have given a new lease of life to quarantinist measures: a series of time-honoured techniques for controlling the spread of infectious diseases through breaking the chain of human contagion. Since such measures typically infringe individual rights or privacy their use is subject to legal regulations and gives rise to ethical and political worries and suspicions. Yet in some circumstances they can be very effective. After considering some case studies that show how epidemics are unique, fluid and affected by a multitude of contingent factors, it is argued that the legal and ethical guidelines may not always be the best approach to discipline the use of quarantinist measures. An alternative model based on ex-post political accountability for reasonableness is proposed. This model restores the centrality of political decision and expert judgement in situations characterized by high risk, uncertainty and contingency. It is argued that such alternative model affords quicker and more flexible responses to serious outbreaks of infections, while providing adequate protection against abuses

Computer simulation of the phase diagram for a fluid confined in a fractal and disordered porous material

We present a grand canonical Monte Carlo simulation study of the phase diagram of a Lennard-Jones fluid adsorbed in a fractal and highly porous aerogel. The gel environment is generated from an off-lattice diffusion limited cluster-cluster aggregation process. Simulations have been performed with the multicanonical ensemble sampling technique. The biased sampling function has been obtained by histogram reweighting calculations. Comparing the confined and the bulk system liquid-vapor coexistence curves we observe a decrease of both the critical temperature and density in qualitative agreement with experiments and other Monte Carlo studies on Lennard-Jones fluids confined in random matrices of spheres. At variance with these numerical studies we do not observe upon confinement a peak on the liquid side of the coexistence curve associated with a liquid-liquid phase coexistence. In our case only a shouldering of the coexistence curve appears upon confinement. This shoulder can be associated with high density fluctuations in the liquid phase. The coexisting vapor and liquid phases in our system show a high degree of spatial disorder and inhomogeneity.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.

The Rise (and Fall?) of Normative Ethics. A Critical notice of Sergio Cremaschi’s L’etica del Novecento

Sergio Cremaschi’s L’etica del Novecento offers a clear and careful account of the development of ethical theory in English-language and German Philosophy. The focus on meta-ethics and normative concerns allows the author to offer a very concise, reliable and comprehensive overview of philosophical ethics. In this respect the book effectively fills the gap left by the lack of a good, updated history of ethics. Although those qualities establish Cremaschi’s work as a valuable reference book, a few doubts are raised about the highly theoretical approach adopted. On the one hand this choice proves not to be very hospitable to some traditions (like most of French philosophy, Marxism, Virtue ethics etc.) and overlooks the connections between ethics and the socio-historical world, with the effect of giving a picture of moral philosophy as a very abstract and academic discipline. On the other hand it is not clear whether the emergence of applied ethics is to be greeted as the culmination of the resurgence of normative ethics, or whether it is conspiring with other trends to undermine the whole enterprise of constructing normative theories. If, as I suspect, the latter is the case, the moral of Cremaschi’s narrative may be different from the one he suggests

Un maquillage molto leggero. Considerazioni sulla riformulazione della giustizia come equità di John Rawls.

In this review of Rawls’ last publication two aims are pursued. First, an attempt is made to clarify how this new work makes the deep structure of the theory emerge, thus indicating the way the different arguments, assumptions and conceptions are strictly intertwined. The main point is to show that the overlapping consensus does not bear a foundational role, since justification rests on the combined work of reflective equilibrium and of the original position. The possibility of an overlapping consensus simply shows that the theory is neither utopian nor pointless. Second, an assessment is made about the supposed new features of the book. It is argued that, rather than real novelties, improvements and clarifications are to be found. Moreover, some interesting topics never thoroughly explored before are not satisfyingly developed. The conclusion is that the book may be of some help to the interpretation of the scope and frame of Rawls’ political liberalism, but however it does not add any particularly significant development or novelty to his theory

Old Stories, New Needs: The Multiple Appropriations of the Chinese-speaking Muslims’ Origin Narratives

The arrival of Islam in China is recounted in numerous narratives, both oral and written. “The Story of Wan Gars” (宛尕斯的故事). Three of these narratives trace it back to Muslim worthies that reached China during the early Tang dynasty. These narrative are recounted in He Qiaoyuan’s Book of Min (閩書), in The Origin of the Huihui (回回原來), and in latter two as a timeless “collective memory of Chinese Muslims” or as the “Chinese Muslims’ self-consciousness”. Such interpretations register the wide circulation of these origin narratives in China, yet omit where and when these narratives have circulated, thus obscuring the social dimensions of memory. Taking into account the agents involved in the transmission, selection, and crystallization of particular versions of the Chinese Muslims’ imagined past, I select three sites of memory—physical or textual—where individuals, groups, and institutions engage in the acts of remembering the arrival of Islam in China. These sites are the tombs of legendary Muslim ancestors, a pre-modern origin myth transmitted through manuscripts and wood block prints ranging from the seventeenth to the early twentieth century, and a myth in post-Mao collectanea Some scholars have referred to the of folk literature. Situating these case studies in their respective historical context, I argue that the same origin narratives have been transmitted by distinct yet overlapping communities for remarkably different reasons

Chapter Negotiating with the tradition: representations of fish in Alai’s fictional writing

Tibet has long been orientalized in fictional representations. Taking as a case study two texts by Alai, this paper investigates how a traditional Tibetan cultural trait–the fish taboo–is mobilized to complicate the representation of Tibetan culture. By describing the fish taboo Alai points at Tibet's cultural specificity, which in virtue of its exoticism can catch the attention of non-Tibetan readers. At the same time, however, Alai equips his characters with psychological depth, showing their contrasting inner emotions of attraction and repulsion toward fish. In this sense, Alai subtly points at the fallacies of flat representations of Tibet, thus dismantling them from within

Measuring Openness and Evaluating Digital Academic Publishing Models: Not Quite the Same Business

In this article we raise a problem, and we offer two practical contributions to its solution. The problem is that academic communities interested in digital publishing do not have adequate tools to help them in choosing a publishing model that suits their needs. We believe that excessive focus on Open Access (OA) has obscured some important issues; moreover exclusive emphasis on increasing openness has contributed to an agenda and to policies that show clear practical shortcomings. We believe that academic communities have different needs and priorities; therefore there cannot be a ranking of publishing models that fits all and is based on only one criterion or value. We thus believe that two things are needed. First, communities need help in working out what they want from their digital publications. Their needs and desiderata should be made explicit and their relative importance estimated. This exercise leads to the formulation and ordering of their objectives. Second, available publishing models should be assessed on the basis of these objectives, so as to choose one that satisfies them well. Accordingly we have developed a framework that assists communities in going through these two steps. The framework can be used informally, as a guide to the collection and systematic organization of the information needed to make an informed choice of publishing model. In order to do so it maps the values that should be weighed and the technical features that embed them. Building on our framework, we also offer a method to produce ordinal and cardinal scores of publishing models. When these techniques are applied the framework becomes a formal decision–making tool. Finally, the framework stresses that, while the OA movement tackles important issues in digital publishing, it cannot incorporate the whole range of values and interests that are at the core of academic publishing. Therefore the framework suggests a broader agenda that is relevant in making better policy decisions around academic publishing and OA

Conceptual and terminological confusion around Personalised Medicine: a coping strategy

The idea of personalised medicine (PM) has gathered momentum recently, attracting funding and generating hopes as well as scepticism. As PM gives rise to differing interpretations, there have been several attempts to clarify the concept. In an influential paper published in this journal, Schleidgen and colleagues have proposed a precise and narrow definition of PM on the basis of a systematic literature review. Given that their conclusion is at odds with those of other recent attempts to understand PM, we consider whether their systematic review gives them an edge over competing interpretations. We have found some methodological weaknesses and questionable assumptions in Schleidgen and colleagues’ attempt to provide a more specific definition of PM. Our perplexities concern the lack of criteria for assessing the epistemic strength of the definitions that they consider, as well as the logical principles used to extract a more precise definition, the narrowness of the pool from which they have drawn their empirical data, and finally their overlooking the fact that definitions depend on the context of use. We are also worried that their ethical assumption that only patients’ interests are legitimate is too simplistic and drives all other stakeholders’ interests—including those that are justifiable—underground, thus compromising any hope of a transparent and fair negotiation among a plurality of actors and interests. As an alternative to the shortcomings of attempting a semantic disciplining of the concept we propose a pragmatic approach. Rather than considering PM to be a scientific concept in need of precise demarcation, we look at it as an open and negotiable concept used in a variety of contexts including at the level of orienting research goals and policy objectives. We believe that since PM is still more an ideal than an achieved reality, a plurality of visions is to be expected and we need to pay attention to the people, reasons and interests behind these alternative conceptions. In other words, the logic and politics of PM cannot be disentangled and disagreements need to be tackled addressing the normative and strategic conflicts behind them

Manejo del efluente en el tambo

Trabajo final integrador. (Area de Consolidación Sistemas de Producción Pecuarios)--UNC- Facultad de Ciencias Agropecuarias, 2015.En el siguiente trabajo experimental se realizó una descripción del manejo de los efluentes en dos establecimientos lecheros ubicados en las provincias de Córdoba y Santa Fe. El objetivo del trabajo fue comprender la importancia del tratamiento, además de evaluar y comparar la calidad de los efluentes generados con los límites máximos admisibles para la descarga de efluentes líquidos a cuerpos de agua superficial descriptos en la legislación vigente de cada provincia. Fueron estimadas la cantidad de heces en corrales de espera y la demanda de agua en las distintas operaciones realizadas durante el ordeño. Se tomaron muestras de las lagunas de tratamiento, analizando la calidad fisicoquímica y microbiológica. Los resultados obtenidos expresan que se produce diariamente por vaca en ordeño alrededor de 30 litros de efluente y quedan en las instalaciones un total de 35000 Kg de materia seca de excretas anualmente. Las lagunas de almacenamiento no resultaron eficientes ya que no lograron al final del tratamiento ser compatibles con la normativa de vertido para evitar la contaminación de cursos de agua. Se encontraron diferencias significativas (p<0.05) entre el inicio y final de los tratamientos, mostrando variabilidad de los parámetros analizados, relacionado a las diferentes características de las lagunas. Las necesidades de una gestión ambiental adecuada en los sistemas de producción animal, requiere de un manejo apropiado de estos residuos dentro del mismo establecimiento. Por lo cual se realizaron propuestas para cada establecimiento a fin de mejorar el tratamiento de los efluentes generados

Is regulatory innovation fit for purpose? A case study of adaptive regulation for advanced biotherapeutics

The need to better balance the promotion of scientific and technological innovation with risk management for consumer protection has inspired several recent reforms attempting to make regulations more flexible and adaptive. The pharmaceutical sector has a long, established regulatory tradition, as well as a long history of controversies around how to balance incentives for needed therapeutic innovations and protecting patient safety. The emergence of disruptive biotechnologies has provided the occasion for regulatory innovation in this sector. This article investigates the regulation of advanced biotherapeutics in the European Union and shows that it presents several defining features of an adaptive regulation regime, notably institutionalized processes of planned adaptation that allow regulators to gather, generate, and mobilize new scientific and risk evidence about innovative products. However, our in-depth case analysis highlights that more attention needs to be paid to the consequences of the introduction of adaptive regulations, especially for critical stakeholders involved in this new regulatory ecosystem, the capacity and resource requirements placed on them to adapt, and the new tradeoffs they face. In addition, our analysis highlights a deficit in how we currently evaluate the performance and public value proposition of adaptive regulations vis-à-vis their stated goals and objectives