Manda suppresses emotional stress-induced stomach ulcers in rats

Manda, a natural product made by yeast fermentation of many fruits and black sugar, has antioxidant activity. In the present study, manda prevented stomach ulcers caused by immobilization-induced emotional stress. Manda [5% manda solution (w/v)] and saline as control, were administered by a canula into the stomach of each experimental animal subsequently after 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 hours from the start of the emotional stress. We classified the severity of gastric lesion formation induced by immobilization with each rat lying on its back for 6 hours at room temperature on a five-grade scale. The control rats all showed congestion and some degree of bleeding in the mucosa of the stomach. However, of the experimental rats, one showed no hemorrhagic lesions only congestion in four cases, and slight or moderate bleeding in eight cases with no massive bleeding cases. The distribution of these data significantly differ from that of the control rats, which suffered the greater damage (X²=10.589,p<0.05). In light microscopic examinations, the control rats showed necrosis in the gastric mucous membranes, desquamation, and bleeding of gastric mucosa. However, the rats treated with manda showed only congestion and did not show erosion or hemorrhage. These results suggest that manda or manda metabolite(s) was absorbed from the stomach and may have produced these action. In the meantime, we are analyzing manda components to try to isolate the active ingredient(s)     

医疗体制改革应该以二级制为基础——评《哈佛报告》

香港特别行政区政府委托美国哈佛大学一个专家小组对香港的医疗制度作了一个全面评估,并就目前的融资安排（ｆｉｎａｎｃｉａｌａｒｒａｎｇｅｍｅｎｔ）提出改革方案。小组发表的报告对香港医疗制度作了很多中肯批评,但所提出的融资改革方案却极受争议。方案的主要缺点是违背医疗二级制的精神,令自由选择、关怀和社会公义（ｓｏｃｉａｌｊｕｓｔｉｃｅ）等价值难以得到实现。     

Alternative Possibilities and Moral Responsibility: The Flicker of Freedom

Some defenders of the principle of alternative possibilities (PAP) have responded to the challenge of Frankfurt-style counterexamples (FSCs) to PAP by arguing that there remains a flicker of freedom -- that is, an alternative possibility for action -- left to the agent in FSCs. I argue that the flicker of freedom strategy is unsuccessful. The strategy requires the supposition that doing an act-on-one's-own is itself an action of sorts. I argue that either this supposition is confused and leads to counter-intuitive results; or, if the supposition is acceptable, then it is possible to use it to construct a FSC in which there is no flicker of freedom at all. Either way, the flicker of freedom strategy is ineffective against FSCs. Since the flicker of freedom strategy is arguably the best defense of PAP, I conclude that FSCs are successful in showing that PAP is false. An agent can act with moral responsibility without having alternative possibilities available to her.     

Responses

This essay consists in my replies to Professors John Martin Fischer, Patricia Greenspan, Eleonore Stump, Peter van Inwagen and Gary Watson regarding various aspects of my analysis of moral responsibility.     

RALPH WENDELL BURHOE: HIS LIFE AND HIS THOUGHT

Abstract. This third installment in David Breed's intellectual biography of Ralph Wendell Burhoe focuses upon the impact of his thought on the Unitarian Universalist Association and that group's role in Burhoe's career. Dana McLean Greeley, elected president of the American Unitarian Association in 1958, was a key figure in Burhoe's eventual participation in the project, "The Free Church in a Changing World." Burhoe's emphasis on the need for doctrine that could communicate religious wisdom in terms of science stood in tension with free-church tradition. Nevertheless, the section of the project's final report, titled "Theology and the Frontiers of Learning," largely accepted Burhoe's program for a new natural theology based on science. This project brought Burhoe's program to the attention of the denomination and led to the invitation in 1964 from Malcolm Sutherland, on behalf of Meadville/Lombard Theological School in Chicago, of which he was president, for Burhoe to implement his program in the new curriculum of that school. Burhoe accepted.     

Rapid determinations of preference in multiple concurrent-chain schedules.

With concurrent chains arranged for a pigeon's key pecks, pecks on two concurrently available initial-link keys (left and right) respectively produce separately operating terminal links (A and B). Preferences for terminal link A over terminal link B are usually calculated as deviations of relative initial-link response rates (left divided by total pecks) from those during baseline conditions, when A equals B. Baseline preferences, however, are often variable and typically are determined indirectly (e.g., with unequal A and B, reversing left-right assignments of A and B over sessions and estimating the baseline from differences between the relative rates generated). Multiple concurrent-chain schedules, with components each consisting of a pair of concurrent chains, speed the determination of preferences by arranging A and B and their reversal within sessions. In two experiments illustrating the feasibility of this procedure, one component operated with circles projected on initial-link keys and the other with pluses; when left and right initial-link pecks respectively produced terminal links A and B in one component, they produced B and A in the other. Even as the baselines fluctuated, preference was observable within sessions as the difference between relative initial-link response rates in the two components. The first experiment demonstrated the rapid development of preferences when terminal links A and B consisted of fixed-interval 15-s and 30-s schedules. The second demonstrated the sensitivity of the procedure to preference for a fixed-interval 30-s schedule operating for pecks on either of two keys (free choice) over its operating for pecks on only a single key (forced choice).     

Does the Gats Undermine Democratic Control Over Health?

This paper examines the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), which is one of the World Trade Organisations free trade agreements. In particular, I examine the extent to which the GATS unduly restricts the scope for national democratic choice. For purposes of illustration, I focus on the domestic health system as the subject of policy choice. I argue that signatories to the GATS effectively acquire a constitutional obligation to maintain a domestic health sector with a certain minimum degree of privatisation. Like constitutional obligations, the restrictions the GATS imposes on the freedom of future generations to structure their domestic health sector are (i) very difficult, though not strictly impossible, to alter; and (ii) not chosen in any ordinary sense by the subject generation. To gain democratic legitimacy, therefore, the relevant provisions of the GATS must pass some higher standard of democratic scrutiny, such as ratification by a super-majority. Ordinary legislative ratification does not suffice.     

不同权力关系对消极特质否定句使用偏向的影响

采用固定反应范式和自由反应范式, 通过创设语用情景, 考察不同权力关系对消极特质否定句使用偏向的影响。结果表明：(1)低权力者评价高权力者时, 被试倾向于使用否定方式(如“不聪明的”), 并认为否定的表述方式合适性较高, 出现否定偏向; 而高权力者评价低权力者, 或者权力平级时则没有否定偏向的出现, 肯定表述(如“愚蠢的”)被更多使用; (2)权力平级时, 社会距离会影响消极特质否定句的使用, 社会距离越远, 消极特质否定句的使用越少; 社会距离越近, 消极特质否定句的使用越多。结果表明, 权力关系与社会距离是影响消极特质否定句使用偏向的重要因素。