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Jainism and Ethical Finance: A Timeless Business Model explains how Jain philosophy can improve financial decision-making. Jainism originated in Northern India several millennia ago. Today, Jainism...

In his introduction to The Philosophy of Autobiography, Christopher Cowley suggests that the impetus for this collection of essays is to inspire further work in a field whose lack of development is...

Background Sjogren´s syndrome (SS) is an autoimmune rheumatic disease that is characterised by decreased exocrine gland function and frequent ocular symptoms associated with eye dryness. Significantly, dry eyes can lead to corneal abrasions, infection, ulceration, chronic scarring and, in severe cases, perforation. The available conventional therapies have limited efficacy and there are no biologic therapies licensed for use in SS patients. Materials and methods A literature search of PubMed (MEDLINE) and EMBASE electronic data bases was performed covering the period from January 1994 to September 2014. Evidence was graded in categories I–IV and a treatment algorithm, comprising first line, second line and rescue therapies for ocular dryness associated with SS was proposed. It is based on the current evidence of efficacy of different therapies and explores their link with the pathogenesis of ocular dryness associated with SS. Results Recent developments in the understanding of the pathogenesis of SS provided evidence that the ocular dryness is associated with pathologic infiltration and dysfunction of the lacrimal glands and changes in the tear composition, together with abnormalities involving the neurosecreting circuits. There is good evidence for the efficacy of topical artificial tears, antiinflammatories and Cyclosporine, and oral Pilocarpine and Cevimeline in controlling the symptoms of ocular dryness associated with SS. Conclusions Conventional DMARDs are not particularly effective in addressing the symptoms of ocular dryness associated with SS, despite being commonly prescribed for other SS manifestations. Emerging evidence suggests that B cell and co-stimulatory targeted therapy may play a role in the future.

Michael Fried has returned to the distinction between “absorption” and “theatricality” in all of his art-historical criticism since he first introduced the dyad in 1980. This essay argues that the term “absorption” is rich with a philosophical significance that echoes central concerns long at play in philosophy’s thinking about the status of art objects and the singular, sometimes puzzling role of aesthetic experience in ordinary life. This essay focuses on how Fried dramatically reconceives the place of the beholder in the task of understanding what works of art are, so that he effectively shifts the burden of ontological definition from its traditional source in an object’s inherent qualities to, instead, the activity of a specific and uncommonly indirect kind of human responsiveness and engagement. The discussion takes up a range of Michael Fried’s writing in relation to the history of aesthetics, especially Kant’s Critique of Judgment, and artworks by Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Caspar David Friedrich, Jeff Wall, and Thomas Struth.

Background and Objectives Post-transfusion reactions with dyspnoea (PTR) are major causes of morbidity and death after blood transfusion. Transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI) and transfusion-associated circulatory overload (TACO) are most dangerous, while transfusion-associated dyspnoea (TAD) is a milder respiratory distress. We investigated blood components for immune and non-immune factors implicated in PTR. Material and Methods We analysed 464 blood components (RBCs, PLTs, L-PLTs, FFP) transfused to 271 patients with PTR. Blood components were evaluated for 1/antileucocyte antibodies, 2/cytokines: IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, TNF-α, sCD40L, 3/lysophosphatidylcholines (LysoPCs), 4/microparticles (MPs) shed from plateletes (PMPs), erythrocytes (EMPs) and leucocytes (LMPs). Results Anti-HLA class I/II antibodies or granulocyte-reactive anti-HLA antibodies were detected in 18·2% of blood components (RBC and FFP) transfused to TRALI and in 0·5% of FFP transfused to TAD cases. Cytokines and LysoPCs concentrations in blood components transfused to PTR patients did not exceed those in blood components transfused to patients with no PTR. Only EMPs percentage in RBCs transfused to patients with TRALI was significantly higher (P

Because of the presence of supramolecular bonds, the crystallization process of supramolecular pseudoblock copolymers (SPBCP) is more complex in comparison to conventional covalently bonded block copolymers (BCP). Thus, supramolecular binding motives included on the polymer chain-ends display additional dynamic effects as well as possible nuclei for the crystallization. In this article we systematically study nonisothermal crystallization processes in SPBCP’s consisting of a crystallizable poly(e-caprolactone) (PCL) connected via triple hydrogen bonds to either a short alkyl-modified 2,4-diaminotriazine, or bound to a large block of amorphous poly(isobutylene) (PIB). The crystallization of the PCL is studied with both groups acting as supramolecular barriers for the crystallization process, either during nucleation or during crystal growth. A strong influence of the short alkyl-modified 2,4-diaminotriazine barrier on the crystallization temperature of the PCL compared to the control sample devoid of this ...

This Article examines ethical issues posed by imperfections in legal texts. More particularly, it addresses "legal loopholes," carefully defining the term and then exploring whether there is anything wrong with exploiting loopholes for private gain. Focusing on corporate settings, the analysis considers both the obligation of a business leader to support reasonably just social institutions and the professional obligation of corporate counsel advising on such issues. Although the notion of a legal loophole enjoys widespread colloquial use, the term is typically used quite loosely and without critical reflection. Perhaps in an adversarial system, one becomes accustomed to taking full advantage of any and all effective legal recourse, including but not limited to the exploitation of loopholes. Loopholes often generate arguments over interpretation. This Article addresses the ethics of legal interpretation head on. It examines the scope of the social obligation to abide by a good faith interpretation of a legal text, rather than to exploit inevitable imperfections in those texts to advance private interests. The analysis proceeds in three parts followed by a conclusion. Part II portrays a loophole as a style of argument that pits a literal inter- pretation of a text against a more purposeful one. Because literal interpretations sometimes prevail, loopholes have economic value. Part III examines the ethics of a corporate legal strategy to construct strained interpretations of the law as guides to corporate conduct. The discussion embraces both the libertarian insights of Milton Friedman and the democratic liberalism of John Rawls, drawing useful ideas from each. Part IV considers the role of corporate counsel, concluding that in an adversarial setting, corporate counsel must argue for the legal interpretation that best suits the corporation's needs. In a transactional setting, by contrast, where advising rather than advocacy is the norm, ethics require a more balanced interpretation. The Article concludes with a brief summary.

Alignment of microphase separated block copolymers (BCP) has been achieved by shear-fields in order to achieve a deeper understanding of the melt-infiltration of BCP into nanopores (30–400 nm). BCP’s composed of different perfluorinated sidechains, namely A m -b-D n -, A 100 -b-D 100 - and A 140 -b-D 60 - and A m -b-C n –BCPs and A 50 -b-C 8 and A 50 -b-C 13 have been studied by rheology coupled to in situ-SAXS. BCP’s were prepared by ROMP-methods, generating the BCP’s with low polydispersities and the expected molecular weights. A strong macroscopic orientation of the investigated block copolymer domains A 50 -b-C 13 occurs upon applying oscillatory shear forces at temperatures significantly above the T g ’s using shear amplitudes of 10% and angular frequencies of 10 rad/s for an already short period of time like 100 s. Coupled Rheology to SAXS-measurements on block copolymer A 100 -b-D 100 at 180 °C revealed a similar picture when sheared at 10% shear amplitude and an angular frequency of 10 rad/s over a time of 100 s. In both BCP’s a slow relaxation of the oriented microphases was observed, which can be explained by the nanophase-separation of the respective fluorinated chains.

The crystallization of block copolymers (BCPs) under homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation is currently well understood revealing the strong interplay of crystallization in competition to microphase separation. This article reports investigations on synthesis and crystallization processes in weakly interacting supramolecular pseudo-BCPs, composed of poly(e-caprolactone) (PCL) and poly(isobutylene) (PIB) blocks, connected by a specifically interacting hydrogen bond (thymine/2,6-diaminotriazine). Starting from ring opening polymerization of e-caprolactone, the use of “click”-chemistry enabled the introduction of thymine endgroups onto PCL polymer, thus generating the fully thymine-substituted pure PCLs (1a, 1b) as judged via NMR and MALDI analysis. Physical mixing of 1a, 1b with a bivalent, bis(2,6-diaminotriazine)-containing molecule (2) generated the bivalent polymers BC1 and BC2, whereas mixing of 1a or 1b with the 2,6-diaminotriazine-substituted PIB (3) generated the supramolecular pseudo-BCPs BC3 and BC4. Thermal investigations (DSC, Avrami analysis) revealed only minor changes in the crystallization behavior of BC1–BC4 with Avrami exponents close to three, indicative of a confluence of the growing crystals during the crystallization process. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2011

We report on the investigation of cyclic and comparable linear poly(e-caprolactone)s (PeCL) with molecular weight between 50 and 80 kg/mol with regard to chain mobility in the melt and crystallinity using low-field solid-state 1H NMR. Our results from NMR Hahn echo and more advanced multiquantum measurements demonstrate a higher segmental mobility of cyclics in the melt as compared to their linear counterparts. Rheological experiments indicate that the cyclics are less viscous than the linear analogues by about a factor of 2, confirming the NMR results. FID component analysis shows higher crystallinities of the cyclic samples by some percent under the condition of isothermal crystallization at 48 °C, suggesting that due to their enhanced overall mobility in the melt, the cyclics reach a more perfect morphology leading to higher crystallinity. We compare this finding with results from DSC measurements obtained under identical conditions and critically evaluate the applicability of polymer crystallinity det...

SUMMARY: ... In discussing corporate legal strategies, the word "law" will typically be used in its strict formal sense, essentially equating law with the legal rules embodied in judicial precedents, statutes, regulations, and other formal legal texts together with the formal reasoning techniques needed to interpret those rules. ... The irony, of course, resides in the fact that adopting a compliance program appears consistent both with a strategy of compliance, where the firm seeks to maximize profits subject to law and with a strategy of breach and pay, where the firm intentionally violates law because the reduction of fines has rendered the law underenforced. ... Comparing the ethics in the two cases, note that for many commentators insider trading provides a classic example of malum prohibitum, that is, it is wrong only because the law says it is wrong. ... In the extreme, a court can order legal sanctions against both lawyer and client who press loopholes too far. ... When all parties are heard, lobbying approximates an adversarial setting with the various lobbyists playing the roles of competing advocates and the government officials playing the role of judges. ... This gives firms with acute interests a strategic opportunity to shape the law for their own private gain, with little or no reference to the common good. ... Both stockholders and executives have general ethical obligations to obey reasonably just laws, and this often means abiding by laws that are not effectively enforced, living up to ideal interpretations of the law even when self-serving interpretations are available, and exercising self-restraint in lobbying activities.

Fraud is a generic term that encompasses the multifarious and often ingenious means by which one individual can gain an advantage over another through deliberate false suggestion, concealment, or misrepresentation of the truth. Fraudulent acts include the submitting of false claims, tampering with scales and measures, false bookkeeping, tax evasion, and intentionally lying in contractual negotiations. In ethical terms, fraud combines deliberate falsehoods with a conscious willingness to prey on the trusting nature and reliance needs of others; hence, fraud carries strong moral disapprobation. In law, fraud constitutes a defense to a breach of contract action, an affirmative cause of action in tort, and a crime.

This article explores the law and ethics of lobbying. The legal discussion examines disclosure regulations, employment restrictions, bribery laws, and anti-fraud provisions as each applies to the lobbying context. The analysis demonstrates that given the social value placed on the First Amendment, federal law generally affords lobbyists wide latitude in determining who, what, when, where, and how to lobby. The article then turns to ethics. Lobbying involves deliberate attempts to effect changes in the law. An argument is advanced that because law implicates the use of force and because law ideally reflects the values of a democratic society, seeking to slant the law to serve a client's narrow interests cannot provide an adequate ethical end for a lobbyist. On the contrary, a lobbyist has an affirmative moral duty to seek reasonably balanced and just laws. The article examines, refines, and defends this proposition in a number of settings.

Is it unethical to sell a good or service at too high a price? Is it illegal to lie, coerce or abuse the trust of one's trading partner? Is it appropriate to take advantage of market power to determine price? Ethical reasoning demands that parties treat one another with respect, providing full disclosure of relevant information, and not taking undue advantage. Keywords: pricing; coercion; monopoly; competitive pricing; market pricing