“Putting Patients First”: Systematically Distorted Communication and Merck's Marketing of Vioxx

An estimated 27,000–60,000 patients died while taking Merck's drug Vioxx between 2000 and 2004. This essay uses Deetz's treatment of systematically distorted communication and Nilsen's significant choice to analyze Merck's communication about the drug. The company claimed publicly to be forthright about Vioxx's safety. The article shows, however, that Merck systematically distorted communication through neutralization, topical avoidance, and disqualification in ways that thwarted physicians’ and patients’ abilities to make an informed choice about Vioxx. The analysis shows that Merck employees’ consent to economic priorities framed these communication practices as legitimate and rational within the organization. The same practices, however, appeared socially irresponsible to members of the scientific community outside the company. In contrast to Merck's practices, the essay offers more participatory communication applications that uphold companies’ moral obligation to their stakeholders.     

Beyond the skin bag: on the moral responsibility of extended agencies

The growing prominence of computers in contemporary life, often seemingly with minds of their own, invites rethinking the question of moral responsibility. If the moral responsibility for an act lies with the subject that carried it out, it follows that different concepts of the subject generate different views of moral responsibility. Some recent theorists have argued that actions are produced by composite, fluid subjects understood as extended agencies (cyborgs, actor networks). This view of the subject contrasts with methodological individualism: the idea that actions are produced only by human individuals. This essay compares two views of responsibility: moral individualism (the ethical twin of methodological individualism), and joint responsibility (associated with extended agency theory). It develops a view of what joint responsibility might look like, and considers the advantages it might bring relative to moral individualism as well as the objections that are sure to be raised against it.     

面向工程安全生产的招投标管理探讨

招投标管理下的工程事故频发,针对招投标管理中存在的责任意识不强、监管不力等问题,分析了工程事故中招投标管理的直接和间接责任,同时结合调研与工作经验,提出了全程监督与责任追究对策,旨在强化工程招投标管理,为实现安全生产发挥积极作用。     

Gaussian particle filter based pose and motion estimation

Determination of relative three-dimensional (3D) position, orientation, and relative motion between two reference frames is an important problem in robotic guidance, manipulation, and assembly as well as in other fields such as photogrammetry. A solution to pose and motion estimation problem that uses two-dimensional (2D) intensity images from a single camera is de- sirable for real-time applications. The difficulty in performing this measurement is that the process of projecting 3D object features to 2D images is a nonlinear transformation. In this paper, the 3D transformation is modeled as a nonlinear stochastic system with the state estimation providing six degrees-of-freedom motion and position values, using line features in image plane as measuring inputs and dual quaternion to represent both rotation and translation in a unified notation. A filtering method called the Gaussian particle filter (GPF) based on the particle filtering concept is presented for 3D pose and motion estimation of a moving target from monocular image sequences. The method has been implemented with simulated data, and simulation results are provided along with comparisons to the extended Kalman filter (EKF) and the unscented Kalman filter (UKF) to show the relative advantages of the GPF. Simulation results showed that GPF is a superior alternative to EKF and UKF.     

“爱”与“责”并存,优化小学班级管理策略

小学生的成长是与国家和社会的发展息息相关的,更是每个家庭关注的重心。作为教育工作者,对小学生的成长和教育管理拥有不可推卸的责任。我们需要充分发挥创新思维,既要对学生有关怀和厚爱,也要对学生保持严格要求。如此才能真正发挥班级管理的作用,让小学生成长为时代需要的良好少年。     

“说明义务”与纠纷裁判:以司法归责标准为限度——兼论新《保险法》第17条之修改

特别说明义务是控制保险合约缔结信息披露的先契约法定义务,而我国新《保险法》在强化保险人说明义务时未对此制度履行内容和标准作出实质规范,实务中因此而产生的保险纠纷案件与日俱增。文章通过考察域外和我国相关立法学说及判例,在对该立法制度进行法理评析的基础上,总结论证了解决特别说明义务司法纠纷的归责标准。     

以学生为中心改进课堂教学

课堂教学是实施新课程的主阵地，是教书育人的主渠道，它对学生成才成长具有至关重要的作用。改进课堂教学，改革传统课堂教学模式，要以学生为中心，注重调动学生的兴趣、培养学生的能力、关注学生的全面成长。     

Precise navigation for a 4WS mobile robot

INTRODUCTION Precise navigation is being researched and ap- plied in various fields, especially for outdoor mobile robots (Wang et al., 1998; Lee, 1997; Iida et al., 2000), such as those used in cargo container trans- portation at seaport, in precision agriculture, military vehicles, etc. As we know, applied sensors and rele- vant data processing basically determine the accuracy of navigation. In our research, GPS and encoders are used as navigation sensors. As an absolute positioning s…     

营造德育氛围促进大学生责任感培养

责任感对构建和谐社会,推动国民经济的发展具有重要作用,而作为社会主义建设生力军的当代大学生,对社会负有更多特殊的责任。但由于一些社会的不和谐音,淡化了他们的责任意识。高校教育工作者要分析原因,营造良好的德育氛围,建立全方位的责任教育环境,培养大学生正确的世界观、人生观、价值观,使其真正成为一个有责任感的公民。     

Why unreal punishments in response to unreal crimes might actually be a really good thing

In this article I explore ways to argue about punishment of personal representations in virtual reality. I will defend the idea that such punishing might sometimes be morally required. I offer four different lines of argument: one consequentialistic, one appealing to an idea of appropriateness, one using the notion of organic wholes, and one starting from a supposed inability to determine the limits of the extension of the moral agent. I conclude that all four approaches could, in some cases, justify punishing a virtual reality representation; an avatar. As a consequence of my conclusion, I suggest that our institutionalized criminal justice system must be broadened in scope and punitive measures, in order to cover the new and difficult cases arising in virtual reality.