The overall aim of this thesis is to show how some ideas in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics can be interpreted and used as a productive way to approach a number of pressing issues in bioethics. Articles I-II introduce, and endorse, a social constructivist perspective on rights (as opposed to the more traditional natural rights idea). It is investigated if the existence of property-like rights to biological material would include the moral right to commodification and even commercialisation. Articles III-V discuss similar questions and more specifically champion the application of an Aristotelian virtue ethics perspective. The articles are preceded by an introductory essay on some of the central themes in the Nicomachean Ethics. This section also includes a very brief account of what the connection between virtue ethics and a theory of social construction, including rights, could look like. The thesis seeks to show that if read somewhat creatively many of the ideas in the Nicomachean Ethics make for a highly useful approach to modern moral problems. It should be noted, however, that this thesis in no way claims to be an exegetic, or a complete, study of the Nicomachean Ethics. Article I deals with ownership of biological material from a philosophical, as opposed to a legal, perspective. It is argued that a strand in liberal political theory that treats property relations as socially constructed bundles of rights, as developed by e.g. Felix Cohen and Tony Honoré, is well suited for discussions on ownership of biological material. Article II investigates which differences in biological material might motivate differences in treatment and ownership rights. The article draws on the social constructivist theory of ownership which was developed in Article I. Article III employs virtue ethics to explain why it is morally permissible to donate but not to sell organs such as kidneys. It is suggested that the former action will bring the agent closer to a state of human flourishing. Article IV argues that virtues like philia, justice, beneficence and generosity — traditionally all seen as other-regarding — contain strong self-regarding aspects. The central claim is that these self-regarding aspects of the other-regarding virtues are necessary components of complete virtue and thus that the fully virtuous agent has to act virtuously both in her dealings with herself and others. Article V applies the ideas that were developed in Article IV to the case of living organ donations to next of kin. It is proposed that such an act, although noble and fine, is supererogatory, rather than obligatory, as the donor is morally entitled to be partial to herself. This argument is made against the backdrop of a discussion on some Aristotelian ideas on philia and partiality. / QC 20100709

En operationssjuksköterska kan under sin yrkesverksamma tid förväntas att ansvara vid en operation där patienten konstaterats hjärndöd och det beslutats att organdonation ska genomföras. Syftet med denna studie var att beskriva operationssjuksköterskors erfarenheter vid organdonation när donatorn är hjärndöd. Studien har en kvalitativ ansats, där forskarna strävar efter en helhetsförståelse av det studerade intresseområdet. Datainsamling utfördes via ostrukturerade intervjuer med öppna frågor. Sju intervjuer genomfördes med operationssjuksköterskor som medverkat vid organdonation när donatorn var hjärndöd. Innehållsanalys genomfördes och fyra huvudkategorier framträdde: Inför donation, Genomförande av donation, Efter donation och Etiska aspekter vid donation. Resultatet visade att operationssjuksköterskorna hade liknande erfarenheter vid organdonation när donatorn var hjärndöd som vid andra operationer angående arbetsuppgifter och ansvarsområden. Teamarbete hade en central roll och vikten av värdighet i vården framträdde tydligt. Många olika tankar och känslor väcktes hos operationssjuksköterskorna i samband med en organdonation. En operationssjuksköterska kan under sin yrkesverksamma tid förväntas att ansvara vid en operation där patienten konstaterats hjärndöd och det beslutats att organdonation ska genomföras. Syftet med denna studie var att beskriva operationssjuksköterskors erfarenheter vid organdonation när donatorn är hjärndöd. Studien har en kvalitativ ansats, där forskarna strävar efter en helhetsförståelse av det studerade intresseområdet. Datainsamling utfördes via ostrukturerade intervjuer med öppna frågor. Sju intervjuer genomfördes med operationssjuksköterskor som medverkat vid organdonation när donatorn var hjärndöd. Innehållsanalys genomfördes och fyra huvudkategorier framträdde: Inför donation, Genomförande av donation, Efter donation och Etiska aspekter vid donation. Resultatet visade att operationssjuksköterskorna hade liknande erfarenheter vid organdonation när donatorn var hjärndöd som vid andra operationer angående arbetsuppgifter och ansvarsområden. Teamarbete hade en central roll och vikten av värdighet i vården framträdde tydligt. Många olika tankar och känslor väcktes hos operationssjuksköterskorna i samband med en organdonation.

An important element in retailing is the use of impulse purchases; generally small items that are bought by consumers on the spur of the moment. By some estimates, impulse purchases make up approximately 50 percent of all spending by consumers. While impulse purchases have been studied in the brick-and-mortar retail environment, they have not been researched in the online retail environment. With e-commerce growing rapidly and approaching $20 billion per year in the Canadian and US markets, this is an important unexplored area. Using real purchasing behaviour from visitors to the Reunion website of Huntsville High School in Ontario Canada, I explored factors that influence the likelihood of an impulse purchase in an online retail environment. Consistent with diminishing sensitivity (mental accounting and the psychophysics of pricing), the results indicate that the likelihood of a consumer purchasing the impulse item increases with the total amount spent on other items. The results also show that presenting the offer in a popup is a more effective location and presentation mode than embedding the offer into the checkout page and increases the likelihood of the consumer making an impulse purchase. In addition, the results confirm that providing a reason to purchase by linking a $1 donation for a charity to the impulse item increases the frequency of the impulse purchase.

An important element in retailing is the use of impulse purchases; generally small items that are bought by consumers on the spur of the moment. By some estimates, impulse purchases make up approximately 50 percent of all spending by consumers. While impulse purchases have been studied in the brick-and-mortar retail environment, they have not been researched in the online retail environment. With e-commerce growing rapidly and approaching $20 billion per year in the Canadian and US markets, this is an important unexplored area. Using real purchasing behaviour from visitors to the Reunion website of Huntsville High School in Ontario Canada, I explored factors that influence the likelihood of an impulse purchase in an online retail environment. Consistent with diminishing sensitivity (mental accounting and the psychophysics of pricing), the results indicate that the likelihood of a consumer purchasing the impulse item increases with the total amount spent on other items. The results also show that presenting the offer in a popup is a more effective location and presentation mode than embedding the offer into the checkout page and increases the likelihood of the consumer making an impulse purchase. In addition, the results confirm that providing a reason to purchase by linking a $1 donation for a charity to the impulse item increases the frequency of the impulse purchase.

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Syftet med studien är att utföra en receptionsstudie där fem stycken kampanjbilder från utländska organdonationsorganisationer studeras från ett mottagarperspektiv, i den här studien syftar det till en svensk målgrupp. Studien är uppdelad i två huvudmoment, en semiotisk bildanalys och fokusgruppsintervjuer. Med hjälp av dessa insamlingsmetoder besvaras studiens frågeställningar”Hur är de utvalda kampanjbilderna komponerade ur ett semiotiskt perspektiv?” samt ”Hur uppfattas de utvalda bilderna av en svensk målgrupp?”. Socialpsykologi utgör det teoretiska ramverket i studien och används för att nå en högre förklaringskraft i analysdiskussionen. Den semiotiska bildanalysen genomförs med de semiotiska begreppen konnotation, denotation, ikon, index och symbol. Fokusgruppsintervjuerna analyseras med hjälp av McGuires påverkansmodell och kompletteras med en relevansformel, omnämnd av Bo Bergström. Studiens resultat visar att den sociala kontexten har en stor inverkan på hur kampanjbilden mottages av den svenska målgruppen. Resultatet visar att det är av stor vikt att text och bild samspelar för att budskapet ska kommuniceras till mottagaren, annars finns en risk att budskapet inte uppnår den relevans som krävs för att bilden ska ha effekt. / The aim of this study is to examine five campaign images from foreign organ donation organizations studied from a user’s perspective, in this study it refers to the Swedish audience. The study is a perception analysis that is viewed from a receiver’s point of view. It is divided into two main parts, a semiotic analysis and interviews with focus groups. Using these methods the questions of the study "How are the selected campaign images composed from a semiotic perspective?" and "How is the selected images of a Swedish audience?" were answered. Social Psychology is the theoretical framework used to achieve a higher explanatory power in analysing the discussion. The semiotic image analysis is based on the semiotic concepts of connotation, denotation, icon, index and symbol. The focus group interviews were analysed by McGuire ́s model of influence and were supplemented by the formula of relevance, mentioned by Bo Bergström. Our findings suggested that the social context has a large impact on how the images are being interpreted by the Swedish audience. The result shows that it is of great importance that text and visual image are integrated for the message to be communicated to the receiver, otherwise there is a risk that the message does not reach the relevance required for the image to be effective.

Indirect reciprocity describes a class of reputation-based mechanisms which may explain the prevalence of cooperation in groups where partners meet only once. The first model for which this has analytically been shown was the binary image scoring mechanism, where one's reputation is only based on one's last action. But this mechanism is known to fail if errors in implementation occur. It has thus been claimed that for indirect reciprocity to stabilize cooperation, reputation assessments must be of higher order, i.e. contingent not only on past actions, but also on the reputations of the targets of these actions. We show here that this need not be the case. A simple image scoring mechanism where more than just one past action is observed provides ample possibilities for stable cooperation to emerge even under substantial rates of implementation errors. (authors' abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

Bibliography : leaves 273-293. / iv, 293 leaves ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / A study, from a Foucauldian perspective, of the discourses that surround organ donation and transplantation. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Clinical Nursing, 2000?

Made available in DSpace on 2014-08-13T14:50:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2013-02-28Bitstream added on 2014-08-13T18:00:32Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 000758423.pdf: 387299 bytes, checksum: e1e2ab570b813a368d9fbf9b88984285 (MD5) / O transplante de face é um procedimento cirúrgico no qual as estruturas da face de uma pessoa são transplantadas para outra. É uma cirurgia ousada do ponto de vista médico, moral e psicológico, pois, proporciona enorme benefício em termos de melhora da função estética e integração social. Avaliar o conhecimento e a opinião da população sobre o transplante e a doação dos tecidos da face. No período de agosto de 2011 a outubro de 2012 foi aplicado um questionário a 430 pessoas, escolhidas aleatoriamente, na faixa etária acima de vinte e um anos de idade, numa sistemática de coleta seguida em todas as regiões (norte, sul, centro, leste e oeste) da cidade de Botucatu, interior do Estado de São Paulo. O estudo das respostas dos participantes nas diferentes questões objetivas apresentadas foi realizado estabelecendo-se a distribuição frequencial dos dados apresentada por meio de tabelas ou gráficos e analisadas pelo teste do Qui quadrado ( א) para uma amostra. A análise das respostas obtidas foram discutidas ao nível de 5% de significância e consideradas significativas quando o valor de p foi < 0,05, mostrando que a distribuição não é uniforme, mas uma distribuição uniforme das classes. Nas questões dissertativas a análise foi realizada a partir da leitura das mesmas, com elaboração de um resumo das respostas e análise preferencial por região. Dos participantes, 65,8% não possuem conhecimento a respeito da doação dos tecidos da face; 90,1% têm conhecimento que o transplante de face está indicado nos casos de deformidades faciais; 51,7% doariam a face; 67,7% não saberiam como seus familiares reagiriam frente a sua manifestação em vida de doar os tecidos da face; 84% não sabem as implicações sobre as cerimônias fúnebres. Dos participantes, 359 aceitariam conviver com outra face caso fosse necessário e 375 apoiariam se algum familiar manifestasse vontade em ser um doador. A população demonstrou ... / The face transplantation is a surgical procedure in which facial structures are transplanted from one person to another. It's a complex procedure on a medical point of view, moral and psychological, therefore provides many benefits in terms of improving aesthetic function and social integration. To evaluate the knowledge and opinion of the population about the donation and transplantation of facial tissues. From August 2011 to October 2012 a questionnaire was administered to 430 people, randomly selected, with twenty-one years of age or older, systematically collected in all regions (north, south, center , east and west) of the city of Botucatu, state of São Paulo. The study of the objective responses of all participants in the different issues was accomplished by establishing a frequential distribution data presented using tables and graphs and analyzed by chi square (à) for a sample. The analysis of the responses were discussed at the 5% level of significance and considered significant when the p value was <0.05, showing that the distribution is not uniform, but uniformly distributed of the classes. The answers to the descriptive questions were analyzed by reading them and preparation of a summary with analysis by region. Of the participants, 65.8% did not have any knowledge about facial tissue donation, 90.1% knows that face transplantation is indicated in cases of facial deformities, 51.7% are able to donate tissues of the face, 67.7% are not aware how their families would react against its manifestation in life to give tissues of the face, 84% have no knowledge about the implications on the funeral ceremonies. Of all participants, 359 would accept to live with other face if necessary and 375 would support any family members in being a donor. The population showed a limited knowledge about the implications on the donation and transplantation of face tissues, but would accept to live with if necessary and support any family members ...

Indirect reciprocity describes a class of reputation-based mechanisms which may explain the prevalence of cooperation in large groups where partners meet only once. The first model for which this has been demonstrated was the image scoring mechanism. But analytical work on the simplest possible case, the binary scoring model, has shown that even small errors in implementation destabilize any cooperative regime. It has thus been claimed that for indirect reciprocity to stabilize cooperation, assessments of reputation must be based on higher-order information. Is indirect reciprocity relying on frst-order information doomed to fail? We use a simple analytical model of image scoring to show that this need not be the case. Indeed, in the general image scoring model the introduction of implementation errors has just the opposite effect as in the binary scoring model: it may stabilize instead of destabilize cooperation.