Often the best way to make progress in solving a philosophical problem is to offer a robust account of the problem itself. Here I try to do that for a core issue of temporal moral distance.
Gardiner discusses several issues about environmental ethics and education, including the corresponding need for a transitional ethics. He opines that the main task of an ethics for the transition ...lies somewhere between grand theory and pragmatism. Moreover, what people are hoping for is a way to transform serious environmental concern into social change. However, they want this transformation to be responsive to, reflective of, and integrated with wider values. Sensing that modern life has significant vices, but also major virtues, they wish to see environmental ethics synthesize their concerns in new and creative ways. In summary, like a Socratic midwife, they want environmental philosophy to help them to articulate the way forward.
•Light-scattering devices based on binary mixtures of smectic A and nematic LC.•Induced clear state requires less applied electric filed for high dielectric mixtures.•Pyrromethene 597 laser dye has ...been used as a gain medium for the random laser.•Dye’s life span and repeatable electro-optic behaviour has been enhanced.•This study demonstrates the random laser emission with an improved stability.
In this paper, we focus on the development of liquid crystal (LC) visible-light scattering devices for random lasers. These light-scattering devices are based upon binary mixtures that consist of an organosiloxane smectic A LC and a wide temperature range nematogen LC. Both the temperature range of the smectic A phase and the dielectric anisotropy of the binary mixture are increased compared with that of the neat organosiloxane compound. In the latter case, the increase in the dielectric anisotropy results in a reduction of the magnitude of the electric field required to induce a clear state. Furthermore, it is found that the electric field threshold continues to decrease with increasing concentration of the nematic compound. For the random laser devices, the Pyrromethene 597 laser dye was added to a mixture that was optimized for scattering and it was found that the absorption properties of the dye becomes unstable in the presence of the electro-hydrodynamic instabilities that are required to generate scattering in the LC cells. This is believed to be due to electro-chemical reactions that occur at the electrodes. To avoid dye degradation and ensure repeatable electro-optic behaviour, a reduction–oxidation (redox) couple is dispersed within the dye-doped binary mixture. It is shown that the addition of redox dopants helps to stabilize the dye in the scattering mixtures, and also increases the long-term repeatability of the scattering behaviour. Finally, we conclude by characterizing the random laser emission of the dye-doped binary mixture and demonstrate improved stability.
— The flexoelectro‐optic effect provides a fast‐switching mechanism (0.01–0.1 msec), suitable for use in field‐sequential‐color full‐motion‐video displays. An in‐plane electric field is applied to a ...short‐pitch chiral nematic liquid crystal aligned in the uniform standing helix (or Grandjean) texture. The switching mechanism is experimentally demonstrated in a single‐pixel test cell, and the display performance is investigated as a function of device parameters. A contrast ratio of 2000:1 is predicted.
Little is known about Traditional Vietnamese Medicine (TVM) and its use among Vietnamese immigrants in the United States. This study aimed to characterize TVM and improve understanding of its use ...among Vietnamese outpatients attending an urban clinic.
This cross-sectional observation study was performed by mailing bilingual surveys to a stratified random sample of 400 Vietnamese adult patients (≥18 years of age) who had visited a community health center in Boston, Massachusetts, at least once in the prior 12 months. The data were analyzed by using descriptive and multivariable regression statistics. The use of TVM and the factors influencing their use were reported.
Among the 216 respondents, 68% reported using TVM. Of those users, the median age was 56 years and 68% were female, 51% had lived in the United States for less than 13 years, and 91% spoke English "not well or not at all." Among the 89% who reported using TVM of indigenous origin, 62% used "wind scraping," 35% used herbal pills/products, and 30% used "wind snatching." Sixty-one percent used therapies of foreign origin; of those, 51% used Asian-originated TVM (herbs, 25%; Eastern massage, 23%) and 38% used Western-influenced TVM (diet supplements, 28%; Western massage, 8%). TVM was mostly used for pain conditions (57%), "staying well" (38%), and cough/colds (27%). Forty-five percent ignored the question on revealing TVM use to providers; of those who answered, 57% said "no." Fifty-one percent of TVM users reported using Western medicine for the same problem, while 46% used TVM and Western medicine within 2 days of each other. Self-rated health (odds ratio OR, 2.61; 95% confidence interval CI, 1.34-5.06), household size (OR, 2.09; 95% CI, 1.04-4.22), and education (OR, 2.65; 95% CI, 1.03-6.80) were associated with TVM use.
TVM is an important component of the healthcare of urban Vietnamese and needs to be further investigated. Healthcare providers need to encourage open discussion to better care for this population.
Objective: Intermittent Pneumatic Compression (IPC) use as a tool for recovery after exercise has recently become widespread among athletes. While there is anecdotal support for IPC, little research ...has been done to show its effectiveness in recovery. This study examined the impact of IPC use for recovery on performance, markers of inflammation, and a marker of muscle damage. Design: Eight university football athletes were recruited and subjected to IPC or passive recovery conditions in a randomized crossover manner following off-season training. Methods: Countermovement jump and 10 m sprint were evaluated before training, at 3 and 24 hours following training. Self reported soreness, blood markers of inflammation (interleukin-6, interleukin-10, and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1) and muscle damage (myoglobin) were measured before training, post-training, immediately after the recovery interventions, and at 3 and 24 hours post-training. Results: Significant time effects were observed in monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 and myoglobin suggesting an inflammatory response and muscle damage. No group differences were observed between recovery interventions for all measures. Conclusion: The results suggest that the IPC protocol used was not effective for the specific exercise paradigm and for the parameters measured in this population.
The peculiar features of the climate change problem pose substantial obstacles to our ability to make the hard choices necessary to address it. Climate change involves the convergence of a set of ...global, intergenerational and theoretical problems. This convergence justifies calling it a ‘perfect moral storm’. One consequence of this storm is that, even if the other difficult ethical questions surrounding climate change could be answered, we might still find it difficult to act. For the storm makes us extremely vulnerable to moral corruption.
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