Is moralized jurisprudence redundant?

This article criticizes the view espoused by Julie Dickson that the study of the nature of law should adopt an indirectly evaluative methodology, one that relies on judgments of importance rather than moral judgments. This view is the cornerstone of what has come to be called methodological positivism. The article argues that, even if indirect evaluation exists, it cannot furnish an argument against moralized jurisprudence, unless supplemented by an account that shows such evaluation is appropriate for the study of law. The article also assesses the claim that indirect evaluation is appropriate for law because law is a concept that figures in people’s beliefs and self-understandings. This claim is found wanting because those beliefs and self-understandings are varied and often conflicting, and indirect evaluation does not have the resources to navigate through the variety and conflict

Justifying constitutional review in the legitimacy register, A reply to Bello Hutt, Harel and Klatt

In this article I restate and sharpen key claims of my book Where Our Protection Lies, responding to the reviews written by Donald Bello Hutt, Alon Harel, and Matthias Klatt for this symposium. I first explicate the role that practice plays in my argument against critics of constitutional review and, more broadly, in my account of the value of democratic representation. This allows me to clarify and defend the general methodology I employ in the book, which I label moralised constitutional theory (MCT). Against Bello Hutt I argue that MCT does not merely rationalise existing practice; it heeds existing practice only to the extent that it can morally legitimate state power in the special way that constitutional law is meant to do. I then go on to evaluate Harel’s suggestion that constitutional review evinces the proper attitude towards rights; it expresses the idea that certain activities are off limits to government regulation. By contrast, legislative protection of our rights puts at the majority’s mercy. I contend that this suggestion has a problematic fit with contemporary constitutional practice. More importantly, it does not take into account that being subject to the authority of a judge also raises concerns about domination, and those concerns must be balanced against the expressive benefits of constitutional review, if there are any. Finally, I register a worry concerning the rapprochement that Klatt urges between our respective theories. Although both theories subscribe to the view that the content of our constitutional rights and duties is determined by the proper balance of moral considerations pertaining to the content of political decisions, on the one hand, and the features of the institutional structure that has produced them, on the other, I am sceptical that these considerations operate as optimisation requirements

Smart Sustainable Manufacturing Systems

With the advent of disruptive digital technologies, companies are facing unprecedented challenges and opportunities. Advanced manufacturing systems are of paramount importance in making key enabling technologies and new products more competitive, affordable, and accessible, as well as for fostering their economic and social impact. The manufacturing industry also serves as an innovator for sustainability since automation coupled with advanced manufacturing technologies have helped manufacturing practices transition into the circular economy. To that end, this Special Issue of the journal Applied Sciences, devoted to the broad field of Smart Sustainable Manufacturing Systems, explores recent research into the concepts, methods, tools, and applications for smart sustainable manufacturing, in order to advance and promote the development of modern and intelligent manufacturing systems. In light of the above, this Special Issue is a collection of the latest research on relevant topics and addresses the current challenging issues associated with the introduction of smart sustainable manufacturing systems. Various topics have been addressed in this Special Issue, which focuses on the design of sustainable production systems and factories; industrial big data analytics and cyberphysical systems; intelligent maintenance approaches and technologies for increased operating life of production systems; zero-defect manufacturing strategies, tools and methods towards online production management; and connected smart factories

Williams and Rawls in Philadephia

In A Theory of Justice John Rawls proposes that the two principles of justice should be realized through a four-stage sequence of institutional action that starts with a constitution agreed upon by delegates to a constitutional convention. A largely overlooked aspect of this proposal is that delegates are taken to hold conflicting opinions about justice. Their disagreement is one of the factors that determine their institutional choices. This paper employs Bernard Williams’ theory of the political value of liberty to explain and vindicate the role assigned to disagreement at the constitutional convention. Constitutional norms ought to be sensitive to the fact that the functioning of a political order, even one suitably ordered by the most reasonable conception of justice, inevitably involves loss of a precious liberty; the factoring of disagreement into the constitutional convention can fruitfully be understood as a way of modelling this requirement. This exegetical exercise enriches our understanding of the point of constitutions. At the same time it suggests that Rawls may not be as guilty of the cardinal sin of moralism that Williams famously accused him of

The Two Lives of Law’s Moral Aim

This chapter compares how moralized and positivist accounts of the joint activity of law construe the idea that law necessarily has a moral aim. This comparison sheds light on how the idea of a joint activity itself plays a very different role in moralized and positivist accounts. In the latter, this role is explanatory: It is meant to capture the way in which certain social institutions interact. In the former it is justificatory: It is meant to identify one of the factors (or cluster of factors) that bear on the legitimacy of certain salient uses of state power. The reason for explicating the idea of a joint activity is likewise different. In one case we want to understand the mechanism whereby a more or less stable social practice emerges from the intentions and actions of a multiplicity of actors. In the other we want to elucidate a dimension of moral worth in legal officials’ being under a duty to be responsive to and rely on what other officials say and do

A Semantic-driven Approach for Maintenance Digitalization in the Pharmaceutical Industry

The digital transformation of pharmaceutical industry is a challenging task due to the high complexity of involved elements and the strict regulatory compliance. Maintenance activities in the pharmaceutical industry play an essential role in ensuring product quality and integral functioning of equipment and premises. This paper first identifies the key challenges of digitalization in pharmaceutical industry and creates the corresponding problem space for key involved elements. A literature review is conducted to investigate the mainstream maintenance strategies, digitalization models, tools and official guidance from authorities in pharmaceutical industry. Based on the review result, a semantic-driven digitalization framework is proposed aiming to improve the digital continuity and cohesion of digital resources and technologies for maintenance activities in the pharmaceutical industry. A case study is conducted to verify the feasibility of the proposed framework based on the water sampling activities in Merck Serono facility in Switzerland. A tool-chain is presented to enable the functional modules of the framework. Some of the key functional modules within the framework are implemented and have demonstrated satisfactory performance. As one of the outcomes, a digital sampling assistant with web-based services is created to support the automated workflow of water sampling activities. The implementation result proves the potential of the proposed framework to solve the identified problems of maintenance digitalization in the pharmaceutical industry

Physics-Driven ML-Based Modelling for Correcting Inverse Estimation

When deploying machine learning estimators in science and engineering (SAE) domains, it is critical to avoid failed estimations that can have disastrous consequences, e.g., in aero engine design. This work focuses on detecting and correcting failed state estimations before adopting them in SAE inverse problems, by utilizing simulations and performance metrics guided by physical laws. We suggest to flag a machine learning estimation when its physical model error exceeds a feasible threshold, and propose a novel approach, GEESE, to correct it through optimization, aiming at delivering both low error and high efficiency. The key designs of GEESE include (1) a hybrid surrogate error model to provide fast error estimations to reduce simulation cost and to enable gradient based backpropagation of error feedback, and (2) two generative models to approximate the probability distributions of the candidate states for simulating the exploitation and exploration behaviours. All three models are constructed as neural networks. GEESE is tested on three real-world SAE inverse problems and compared to a number of state-of-the-art optimization/search approaches. Results show that it fails the least number of times in terms of finding a feasible state correction, and requires physical evaluations less frequently in general.Comment: 19 pages, the paper is accepted by Neurips 2023 as a spotligh

Gender specific association of decreased bone mineral density in patients with epilepsy

Objective To evaluate whether epilepsy or certain antiepileptic drugs render patients prone to develop low bone mineral density (BMD) and osteoporosis risk. Methods Thirty-eight (27 males, 11 females) consecutive adult epileptic patients receiving antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) and 71 control individuals matched for race, gender, age and body mass index (BMI) were subjected to dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Results The mean lumbar spine and total hip BMD values were lower in the patients compared to control group (0.90±0.24g/cm2 vs 1.04±0.14g/cm2, p<0.001 and 0.92±0.14g/cm2 vs 0.99±0.13g/cm2, p=0.02, respectively). At the same skeletal sites, male patients had significantly reduced BMD compared to control males (0.90±0.21g/cm2 vs 1.03±0.15g/cm2, p=0.004 and 0.93±0.14g/cm2 vs 1.02±0.13g/cm2, p=0.009, respectively) while there was a trend but no significant differences in females. This BMD reduction was independent of AED type. Conclusion Adult epileptic, predominantly male patients have lower BMD and could be screened with densitometry for early diagnosis and prevention of osteoporosis