737 research outputs found
Easing Restrictions During Vaccine Scarcity. How Mitigation Measures Help Tackling Associated Moral and Behavioral Challenges
Background: When vaccines became first available during the Covid-19 pandemic, their demand significantly exceeded their supply. In consequence, the access to vaccines, initially, was distributed unequally. At the same time, governments started easing pandemic restrictions for vaccinated and recovered persons and restoring their freedoms since their risk of transmitting the virus is significantly reduced.
Evidence: We show that restoring freedoms for vaccinated and recovered persons – while upholding restrictions for the rest of the population – is morally unfair during vaccine scarcity. Further, it may yield unintended side-effects, including perverse incentives, growing rifts in society, and the expansion of marginalization.
olicy Options & Recommendations: We recommend accompanying easing for vaccinated and recovered individuals by mitigation measures for those who are neither vaccinated nor recovered. We propose, first, to temporarily lift the same restrictions for negative-tested individuals, as for vaccinated or recovered people. Second, the state must ensure broad and easy access to testing for everyone – free of charge.
Conclusion: If done right, these mitigation measures create (at least temporarily) equal access to freedom for everybody – solving the moral problem of unfair access to freedoms and counteracting possible negative consequences
Limiting medical certainties? Funding challenges for German and comparable public healthcare systems due to AI prediction and how to address them
Current technological and medical advances lend substantial momentum to efforts to attain new medical certainties. Artificial Intelligence can enable unprecedented precision and capabilities in forecasting the health conditions of individuals. But, as we lay out, this novel access to medical information threatens to exacerbate adverse selection in the health insurance market. We conduct an interdisciplinary conceptual analysis to study how this risk might be averted, considering legal, ethical, and economic angles. We ask whether it is viable and effective to ban or limit AI and its medical use as well as to limit medical certainties and find that neither of these limitation-based approaches provides an entirely sufficient resolution. Hence, we argue that this challenge must not be neglected in future discussions regarding medical applications of AI forecasting, that it should be addressed on a structural level and we encourage further research on the topic
Recommended from our members
Spectral surface albedo over Morocco and its impact on radiative forcing of Saharan dust
In May-June 2006, airborne and ground-based solar (0.3-2.2 μm) and thermal infrared (4-42 μm) radiation measurements have been performed in Morocco within the Saharan Mineral Dust Experiment (SAMUM). Upwelling and downwelling solar irradiances have been measured using the Spectral Modular Airborne Radiation Measurement System (SMART)-Albedometer. With these data, the areal spectral surface albedo for typical surface types in southeastern Morocco was derived from airborne measurements for the first time. The results are compared to the surface albedo retrieved from collocated satellite measurements, and partly considerable deviations are observed. Using measured surface and atmospheric properties, the spectral and broad-band dust radiative forcing at top-of-atmosphere (TOA) and at the surface has been estimated. The impact of the surface albedo on the solar radiative forcing of Saharan dust is quantified. In the SAMUM case of 19 May 2006, TOA solar radiative forcing varies by 12 W m-2 per 0.1 surface-albedo change. For the thermal infrared component, values of up to +22 W m-2 were derived. The net (solar plus thermal infrared) TOA radiative forcing varies between -19 and +24 W m-2 for a broad-band solar surface albedo of 0.0 and 0.32, respectively. Over the bright surface of southeastern Morocco, the Saharan dust always has a net warming effect. © 2008 The Author Journal compilation © 2008 Blackwell Munksgaard
Synthesis of Alkaline Earth Diazenides MAEN2 (MAE = Ca, Sr, Ba) by Controlled Thermal Decomposition of Azides under High Pressure
The alkaline earth diazenides MAEN2 with MAE = Ca, Sr and Ba were synthesized by a novel synthetic approach, namely, a controlled decomposition of the corresponding azides in a multianvil press at highpressure/ high-temperature conditions. The crystal structure of hitherto unknown calcium diazenide (space group I4/mmm (no. 139), a = 3.5747(6) Å, c = 5.9844(9) Å, Z = 2, wRp = 0.078) was solved and refined on the basis of powder X-ray diffraction data as well as that of SrN2 and BaN2. Accordingly, CaN2 is isotypic with SrN2 (space group I4/mmm (no. 139), a = 3.8054(2) Å, c = 6.8961(4) Å, Z = 2, wRp = 0.057) and the corresponding alkaline earth acetylenides (MAEC2) crystallizing in a tetragonally distorted NaCl structure type. In accordance with literature data, BaN2 adopts a more distorted structure in space group C2/c (no. 15) with a = 7.1608(4) Å, b = 4.3776(3) Å, c = 7.2188(4) Å, β = 104.9679(33)°, Z = 4 and wRp = 0.049). The N−N bond lengths of 1.202(4) Å in CaN2 (SrN2 1.239(4) Å, BaN2 1.23(2) Å) correspond well with a double-bonded dinitrogen unit confirming a diazenide ion [N2]2−. Temperature-dependent in situ powder X-ray diffractometry of the three alkaline earth diazenides resulted in formation of the corresponding subnitrides MAE2N (MAE = Ca, Sr, Ba) at higher temperatures. FTIR spectroscopy revealed a band at about 1380 cm−1 assigned to the N−N stretching vibration of the diazenide unit. Electronic structure calculations support the metallic character of alkaline earth diazenides
Telomere shortening may be associated with human keloids
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Keloids are benign skin tumors that are the effect of a dysregulated wound-healing process in genetically predisposed patients. They are inherited with an autosomal dominant mode with incomplete clinical penetrance and variable expression. Keloids are characterized by formation of excess scar tissue beyond the boundaries of the wound. The exact etiology is still unknown and there is currently no appropriate treatment for keloid disease.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We analyzed sample tissues were obtained from 20 patients with keloid skin lesions and normal skin was obtained from 20 healthy donors. The telomeres were measured by Terminal Restriction Fragment (TRF) analysis and Real-Time PCR assay. Quantitative Real-Time RT-PCR analysis of hTERT gene expression was performed and intracellular ROS generation was measured.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this study, we determined whether telomeric shortening and the expression of human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) occurs in keloid patients. Using Terminal Restriction Fragment (TRF) analysis and Real-Time PCR assay, we detected a significant telomere shortening of 30% in keloid specimens compared to normal skin. Using quantitative Real-Time RT-PCR, telomerase activity was found absent in the keloid tissues. Moreover, an increase in ROS generation was detected in fibroblasts cell cultures from keloid specimens as more time elapsed compared to fibroblasts from normal skin.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Telomere shortening has been reported in several metabolic and cardiovascular diseases. We found that telomere shortening can also be associated with human keloids. Chronic oxidative stress plays a major role in the pathophysiology of several chronic inflammatory diseases. Here we found increased ROS generation in fibroblasts from keloid fibroblasts cell cultures when compared to normal skin fibroblasts. Hence we conclude that oxidative stress might be an important modulator of telomere loss in keloid because of the absence of active telomerase that counteracts telomere shortening.</p
Branching Fractions of tau Leptons to Three Charged Hadrons
From electron-positron collision data collected with the CLEO detector
operating at CESR near \sqrt{s}=10.6 GeV, improved measurements of the
branching fractions for tau decays into three explicitly identified hadrons and
a neutrino are presented as {\cal
B}(\tau^-\to\pi^-\pi^+\pi^-\nu_\tau)=(9.13\pm0.05\pm0.46)%, {\cal B}(\tau^-\to
K^-\pi^+\pi^-\nu_\tau)=(3.84\pm0.14\pm0.38)\times10^{-3}, {\cal B}(\tau^-\to
K^-K^+\pi^-\nu_\tau)=(1.55\pm0.06\pm0.09)\times10^{-3}, and {\cal B}(\tau^-\to
K^-K^+K^-\nu_\tau)<3.7\times10^{-5} at 90% C.L., where the uncertainties are
statistical and systematic, respectively.Comment: 10 pages postscript, also available through
http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLNS, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let
Improved Measurement of the Form Factors in the Decay Lambda_c^+ --> Lambda e^+ nu_e
Using the CLEO detector at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring, we have studied
the distribution of kinematic variables in the decay Lambda_c^+ -> Lambda e^+
nu_e. By performing a four-dimensional maximum likelihood fit, we determine the
form factor ratio, R = f_2/f_1 = -0.31 +/- 0.05(stat) +/- 0.04(syst), the pole
mass, M_{pole} = (2.21 +/- 0.08(stat) +/- 0.14(syst)) GeV/c^2, and the decay
asymmetry parameter of the Lambda_c, alpha_{Lambda_c} = -0.86 +/- 0.03(stat)
+/- 0.02(syst), for = 0.67 (GeV/c^2)^2. We compare the angular
distributions of the Lambda_c^+ and Lambda_c^- and find no evidence for
CP-violation: A_{Lambda_c} = (alpha_{Lambda_c^+} + alpha_{Lambda_c^-})/
(alpha_{Lambda_c^+} - alpha_{Lambda_c^-}) = 0.00 +/- 0.03(stat) +/- 0.01(syst)
+/- 0.02, where the third error is from the uncertainty in the world average of
the CP-violating parameter, A_{Lambda}, for Lambda -> p pi^-.Comment: 8 pages postscript,also available through
http://www.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLNS/2004/, submitted to PR
Correlated /\c-/\cbar production in e+e- annihilations at sqrt{s}~10.5 GeV
Using 13.6/fb of continuum two-jet e+e- -> ccbar events collected with the
CLEO detector, we have searched for baryon number correlations at the primary
quark level. We have measured the likelihood for a /\c+ charmed baryon to be
produced in the hemisphere opposite a /\c- relative to the likelihood for a
/\c+ charmed baryon to be produced opposite an anticharmed meson Dbar; in all
cases, the reconstructed hadrons must have momentum greater than 2.3 GeV/c. We
find that, given a /\c- (reconstructed in five different decay modes), a /\c+
is observed in the opposite hemisphere (0.72+/-0.11)% of the time (not
corrected for efficiency). By contrast, given a Dbar in one hemisphere, a /\c+
is observed in the opposite hemisphere only (0.21+/-0.02)% of the time.
Normalized to the total number of either /\c- or Dbar ``tags'', it is therefore
3.52+/-0.45+/-0.42 times more likely to find a /\c+ opposite a /\c- than a Dbar
meson. This enhancement is not observed in the JETSET 7.3 e+e- -> ccbar Monte
Carlo simulation.Comment: 19 pages, Latex, one figure separat
Measurements of the Branching Fractions and Helicity Amplitudes in B --> D* rho Decays
Using 9.1 fb-1 of e+ e- data collected at the Upsilon(4S) with the CLEO
detector using the Cornell Electron Storage Ring, measurements are reported for
both the branching fractions and the helicity amplitudes for the decays B- ->
D*0 rho- and B0bar -> D*+ rho-. The fraction of longitudinal polarization in
B0bar -> D*+ rho- is found to be consistent with that in B0bar -> D*+ l- nubar
at q^2 = M^2_rho, indicating that the factorization approximation works well.
The longitudinal polarization in the B- mode is similar. The measurements also
show evidence of non-trivial final-state interaction phases for the helicity
amplitudes.Comment: 11 pages postscript, also available through
http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLNS, submitted to PR
- …