Beyond the cognitive and the virtue approaches to moral

This study is an attempt to examine the possibility of an account of morality and moral psychology that can be accepted from an integrated perspective within the context of moral education. Recently, attempts have been made to integrate two typical approaches to moral education — the cognitive and the virtue approaches. Before this can be done, however, a preliminary exploration to examine whether there is any theoretical foundation for attempting such an integrated approach would appear necessary. An integrated approach to moral education means to teach both virtues and forms and to cultivate both knowledge and behavior. This study analyzes what kinds of moral judgments a human being as a rational agent makes and what are the motivations for ethical action. It then attempts to demonstrate two things: moral values which a rational human being recognizes aim for universality and simultaneously reflect diverse situations; and his or her motivation is activated through all of habit, emotion, and understanding.     

Microfluidic-based measurement of erythrocyte sedimentation rate for biophysical assessment of blood in an in vivo malaria-infected mouse

This study suggests a new erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) measurement method for the biophysical assessment of blood by using a microfluidic device. For an effective ESR measurement, a disposable syringe filled with blood is turned upside down and aligned at 180° with respect to gravitational direction. When the blood sample is delivered into the microfluidic device from the top position of the syringe, the hematocrit of blood flowing in the microfluidic channel decreases because the red blood cell-depleted region is increased from the top region of the syringe. The variation of hematocrit is evaluated by consecutively capturing images and conducting digital image processing technique for 10 min. The dynamic variation of ESR is quantitatively evaluated using two representative parameters, namely, time constant (λ) and ESR-area (A_ESR). To check the performance of the proposed method, blood samples with various ESR values are prepared by adding different concentrations of dextran solution. λ and A_ESR are quantitatively evaluated by using the proposed method and a conventional method, respectively. The proposed method can be used to measure ESR with superior reliability, compared with the conventional method. The proposed method can also be used to quantify ESR of blood collected from malaria-infected mouse under in vivo condition. To indirectly compare with the results obtained by the proposed method, the viscosity and velocity of the blood are measured using the microfluidic device. As a result, the biophysical properties, including ESR and viscosity of blood, are significantly influenced by the parasitemia level. These experimental demonstrations support the notion that the proposed method is capable of effectively monitoring the biophysical properties of blood.