Sir John Orde and the Trafalgar Campaign—A Failure of Information Sharing

When France’s Toulon Fleet appeared off Cádiz in April 1805, Orde possessed more information about the whereabouts and strength of the Combined Fleet than any other British flag officer, placing immense responsibility on him to share that information widely and quickly. But in this he failed, costing Lord Nelson a good chance of bringing the campaign to a halt six months before Trafalgar, and providing an example of a failure to achieve mission command

An argument for the use of Aristotelian method in bioethics

The main claim of this paper is that the method outlined and used in Aristotle's Ethics is an appropriate and credible one to use in bioethics. Here “appropriate” means that the method is capable of establishing claims and developing concepts in bioethics and “credible” that the method has some plausibility, it is not open to obvious and immediate objection. It begins by suggesting why this claim matters and then gives a brief outline of Aristotle's method. The main argument is made in three stages. First, it is argued that Aristotelian method is credible because it compares favourably with alternatives. In this section it is shown that Aristotelian method is not vulnerable to criticisms that are made both of methods that give a primary place to moral theory (such as utilitarianism) and those that eschew moral theory (such as casuistry and social science approaches). As such, it compares favourably with these other approaches that are vulnerable to at least some of these criticisms. Second, the appropriateness of Aristotelian method is indicated through outlining how it would deal with a particular case. Finally, it is argued that the success of Aristotle's philosophy is suggestive of both the credibility and appropriateness of his method.</p

ethical reasons and political commitment

Political commitments to resist oppression play a central role in the moral lives of many people. Such commitments are also a source of ethical reasons. They influence and organize ethical beliefs, emotions and reasons in an ongoing way. Political commitments to address oppression often contain a concern for the dignity and well-being of others and the objects of political commitments often have value, according to ideal moral theories, such as Kantian and utilitarian theory. However, ideal moral theories do not fully explain the ethical reasons political commitments engender. First, ideal moral theories do not explain the normative priority that agents give to politically committed ethical reasons. Their profound effect on a politically committed agent’s ethical deliberation and choice and the precedence they are given over other ends cannot be wholly understood through the moral obligations within ideal theories. Second, although politically committed reasons are valuable in ideal theory for the benefits they bring to others, they are not fungible with other reasons ideal theory would regard as having equal ethical value. A person might substitute another beneficial humanitarian aim for that to which she is politically committed and nevertheless regard herself as having done a morally wrong thing for failing or betraying her commitment. Politically committed ethical reasons are also motivated and informed by the social location of agents and their relationship to structures of oppression. Although there are universal ethical reasons to oppose oppression, this means that some of a person’s actual ethical reasons will be irreducibly particular

The Experience of Mental Health Service Use For African American Mothers and Youth

Little is known about African American families’ experiences with mental health services. A purposive sample of 40 dyads of African American youth (aged 13 to 19) and their mothers participated in a cross-sectional qualitative research design using semi-structured interviews that elicited information about their past experiences and satisfaction with mental health services. Though rarely received, group and family therapy were perceived favorably. However, both mothers and youth reported dissatisfaction centered on medication and lack of professionalism, confidentiality, and concern by providers. The failure of mental health services providers to meet basic standards of quality and professionalism may explain the low rate of service use by African Americans

Economics, Agency, and Causal Explanation

The paper considers three questions. First, what is the connection between economics and agency? It is argued that causation and explanation in economics fundamentally depend on agency. So a philosophical understanding of economic explanation must be sensitive to an understanding of agency. Second, what is the connection between agency and causation? A causal view of agency-involving explanation is defended against a number of arguments from the resurgent noncausalist tradition in the literature on agency and action-explanation. If agency is fundamental to economic explanation, it is argued, then so is causation. Third, what is the connection between causal explanation and the natural sciences? It is argued that, though the explanations given in economics and other social sciences are causal explanations, they are different in kind from the causal explanations of the natural sciences. On the one hand, then, the causal explanations of the social sciences are irreducible to those found in the natural sciences. On the other hand, the causal relations described by the social sciences are not completely autonomous; they do not float free of, or operate independently from, the causal relations charted by the natural sciences

Rationality as the Rule of Reason

The demands of rationality are linked both to our subjective normative perspective (given that rationality is a person-level concept) and to objective reasons or favoring relations (given that rationality is non-contingently authoritative for us). In this paper, I propose a new way of reconciling the tension between these two aspects: roughly, what rationality requires of us is having the attitudes that correspond to our take on reasons in the light of our evidence, but only if it is competent. I show how this view can account for structural rationality on the assumption that intentions and beliefs as such involve competent perceptions of downstream reasons, and explore various implications of the account

Normative Reference Magnets

The concept of moral wrongness, many think, has a distinctive kind of referential stability, brought out by moral twin earth cases. This article offers a new account of the source of this stability, deriving it from a metaphysics of content: “substantive” radical interpretation, and first-order normative assumptions. This story is distinguished from extant “reference magnetic” explanations of the phenomenon, and objections and replies are considered

African American Families\u27 Expectations and Intentions for Mental Health Services

A cross-sectional qualitative descriptive design was used to examine the links among expectations about, experiences with, and intentions toward mental health services. Individual face-to-face interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 32 African American youth/mothers dyads. Content analysis revealed that positive expectations were linked to positive experiences and intentions, that negative expectations were not consistently linked to negative experiences or intentions, nor were ambivalent expectations linked to ambivalent experiences or intentions. Youth were concerned about privacy breeches and mothers about the harmfulness of psychotropic medication. Addressing these concerns may promote African Americans’ engagement in mental health services

An Automated Technique for the Measurement of Limb Occlusion Pressure During Blood Flow Restriction Therapy Is Equivalent to Previous Gold Standard

PURPOSE: To evaluate the efficacy of an automated pneumatic torniquet pump and its ability to automatically calculate the limb occlusion pressure (LOP), as compared with the manual Doppler ultrasound technique. METHODS: Participants presenting to a Sports Medicine clinic were evaluated for study enrollment. Participants were fitted with a pneumatic tourniquet for the upper and lower extremity. LOP measurements were taken with a Doppler ultrasound or automated SmartCuffs PRO device in a randomized order. RESULTS: Final analysis was performed on 96 limbs (48 upper extremities and 48 lower extremities). The study population had a mean age 37.1 ± 14.7 years old and a mean body mass index of 25.47 ± 3.80. The mean measured LOP pressure on the upper extremity with Doppler ultrasound was 174.0 ± 48.7 mm Hg with a range from 120 to 282 mm Hg, whereas the mean measured LOP by the automated pump was 184.0 ± 44.9 mm Hg with a range from 135 to 266 mm Hg. There was no statistically significant difference found between the Doppler LOP and the Smart Cuff upper extremity LOP (P = .29). When evaluating LOP pressure on the lower extremity the mean LOP found with the Doppler ultrasound was 195.0 ± 31.9 mm Hg with a range from 160 to 272 mm Hg, whereas the automated pump the mean LOP was 205.0 ± 27.1 mm Hg with a range from 168 to 278 mm Hg. There was no statistically significant difference found between the Doppler LOP and the automated pump lower extremity LOP (P = .09). CONCLUSIONS: No difference in the personalized LOP measurement was found when comparing an automated pump with the current gold standard of manual Doppler ultrasound. No patients companied of pain or discomfort during the LOP measurement. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level II, diagnostic: prospective cohort study

Transforming Post-Secondary Education in Mathematics

In this manuscript, I introduce and describe the work of mathematicians and mathematics educators in the group Transforming Post-Secondary Education in Mathematics (TPSE Math or TPSE, pronounced "tipsy", for short). TPSE aims to coordinate and drive constructive change in education in the mathematical sciences at two-year colleges, four-year colleges, and universities across the nation. It seeks to build on the successes of the entire mathematical sciences community. This manuscript reviews the events that led to the founding of TPSE Math and articulates its vision and mission. In its first phase with national events, TPSE found broad consensus with the mathematical sciences community on the challenges facing the community. Learning from educational transformations experiences in other scientific fields, and with the support of the Mathematical Advisory Group of 34 mathematical sciences department chairs and leaders, TPSE moves into a second phase focused on action. This is a snapshot in time, and TPSE's ongoing activities will continue to be documented and disseminated. The piece concludes with a reflection of the impact that my involvement in this work has had on my career.Comment: 17 page