Incentivization and the moral problem of involuntary consent in medical research

The legal and moral permissibility of clinical research entails that researchers must secure the voluntary,informed consent of prospective research participants before enrolling them in studies.In seeking the consent of potential participants,researchers are also allowed to incentivise the recruitment process because many studies would fail to meet enrollment goals without a financial incentive for participation.Some philosophers and bioethicists contend that the use of incentives to secure consent from research subjects is problematic because it constitutes undue inducement and a coercive offer.Some proponents of this view are Ruth Macklin(1981,1989)and Joan McGregor(2005).Macklin claims that it is ethically inappropriate to pay research subjects.The payment is likely to coerce the research subject,thereby violating the ethical requirement on the voluntariness of research participation.Also,such offers can prompt subjects to lie,deceive or conceal information that,if known,would disqualify them as participants.For McGregor,incentives could be undue and coercive because they make offerees better off relative to their baseline as well as constrain them to accept the offer of incentives as the only eligible choice or option.I argue that coercive offers are distinct from undue inducement.Coercive offers are essentially morally objectionable because by making people accept an offer through threats for the sake of some interests or ends,the offeror vitiates the offeree’s capacity to make informed,voluntary,and rational decisions and choices.I further claim that the quantity of an incentive does not render an inducement undue.I contend that the only condition under which incentives are regarded as an undue inducement and as such vitiates an agent’s voluntary consent is if they are offered through deceptive or manipulative means.

即食沙虫干加工工艺优化河北省部分水产品市场价格

为优化即食沙虫(方格星虫Sipunculs undus)干加工工艺,在单因素试验的基础上,采用Box-Benhnken设计原理,选定腌制时间、烘干时间、烘干温度、油炸时间4个因素对即食沙虫干加工工艺进行优化。结果显示,最佳配方为腌制时间20 min,烘干温度100℃,烘干时间38.39 min,油炸时间15.94 s。用此方法制备出的即食沙虫干色泽金黄,口感香脆,无其他明显的异味。

The Non-Equivalence of Pyramids and Their Pseudo-Cones: Important New Insights

The simulation of indentations with so called “equivalent” pseudo-cones for decreasing computer time is challenged. The mimicry of pseudo-cones having equal basal surface and depth with pyramidal indenters is excluded by basic arithmetic and trigonometric calculations. The commonly accepted angles of so called “equivalent” pseudo-cones must not also claim equal depth. Such bias (answers put into the questions to be solved) in the historical values of the generally used half-opening angles of pseudo-cones is revealed. It falsifies all simulations or conclusions on that basis. The enormous errors in the resulting hardness HISO and elastic modulus Er-ISO values are disastrous not only for the artificial intelligence. The straightforward deduction for possibly ψ-cones (ψ for pseudo) without biased depths’ errors for equal basal surface and equal volume is reported. These ψ-cones would of course penetrate much more deeply than the three-sided Berkovich and cube corner pyramids (r a/2), and their half-opening angles would be smaller than those of the respective pyramids (reverse with r > a/2 for four-sided Vickers). Also the unlike forces’ direction angles are reported for the more sideward and the resulting downward directions. They are reflected by the diameter of the parallelograms with length and off-angle from the vertical axis. Experimental loading curves before and after the phase-transition onsets are indispensable. Mimicry of ψ-cones and pyramids is also quantitatively excluded. All simulations on their bases would also be dangerously invalid for industrial and solid pharmaceutical materials.

Variation Analysis of mtDNA D-loop Sequence of Cheilinus undulatus

[ Objective] The aim of this paper was to investigate the genetic diversity of mitochondrial DNA D-loop sequences of Cheilinus undulatus populations. [Method] Twenty-five individuals of C. undu/atus were collected from the offshore area of Hainan Province. PCR and cloning techniques were used to clone and purify the mtDNA D-loop sequences of C. undu/atus populations （n =25）, about 1 400 bp long PCR product was obtained. ClustalX software was adopted for sequence alignment, and results were imported into MEGAS. 0. [ Result] According to experimental results, 66 mutation sites were detected from 25 individuals, including 0 deletion, 4 inserts, 59 transition sites, 2 transversion sites and 1 transition-transversion site. Pairwise genetic distances of these 25 individuals were calcu- lated by using MEGA5.0 software. Based on that, NJ phylogenetic tree of these 25 individuals was constructed. Analysis of C. undulatus populations using DNASP software showed that the polymorphic site number （S） was 62, nucleotide diversity （Pi） was 0.006 06, and average number of nucleotide differences （K） was 6. 907. [ Conclusion] Overall, there was no significant variation among mtDNA D-loops of C. undulatus populations. Key words