amudu

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

IT system improves workflow

QUEENSLAND UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

YAWL allowed hospitals to more efficiently manage the co-ordination of expensive surgery-related resources.

Image: beerkoff/iStockphoto

A new customised IT business management system developed by Queensland University of Technology (QUT) researchers and capable of improving the scheduling of resources and workflow in surgical theatres has been successfully demonstrated in a German hospital.

Dr Chun Ouyang, from QUT's Business Process Management (BPM) group, said the system was built based on an automated workflow system known as YAWL, and allowed hospitals to more efficiently manage the co-ordination of expensive surgery-related resources.

The project is being undertaken in partnership with German software company GECKO.

"Essentially an automated workflow system ensures the right task is assigned to the right person at the right time," Dr Ouyang said.

"Because hospitals rely on the availability of scarce and shared resources, both human and non-human, it is inevitable there will be constraints on their availability.

"The benefit of this system, over a human-run system, is that it is more accurate, efficient and quicker and is able to adapt to any changes in the availability of staff, equipment, or delays immediately.

"For example, surgical procedures can go overtime, staff can be off sick and equipment can fail, all of which can cause delays. This system is able to automatically revise the schedule of tasks in a way that maintains efficiency and assists in the decision making process."

Dr Ouyang said because the workflow system can improve scheduling of hospital resources as well as the quality of the surgical processes, there was the potential for hospital patients and budgets to benefit.

"If resource utilisation in operating theatres can be more efficient, there is the potential to save time and increase the numbers of patients through the doors," she said.

"Also because the system has the potential to identify equipment under-use and over-use, it provides evidence in support of the need to purchase additional equipment or save money by not purchasing under-used equipment. The benefits are far-reaching."

Dr Ouyang said a prototype of the system had undergone a first demonstration in a real-life surgical setting at Hetzelstift Hospital in Neustadt/Weinstrasse in Germany, proving the functionality of the system worked.

"We were informed by GECKO that the demonstration was successful in that the system was generally assessed by the participating clinicians as useful," she said.

"This positive assessment by the Hetzelstift clinicians is backed up by clinicians from another hospital to whom the system was demonstrated on a single laptop, but without deploying the system in the hospital's environment.

"Our next step could be to further test the system over an extended period of time to get a real clinical evaluation and validation."

The system is an outcome of a successful university-industry collaboration where software was donated back by GECKO, as part of the PERIKLES project, to the YAWL initiative which is one of QUT's largest open source initiatives.

How to use gold as a potential treatment for cancer

THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Using gold as a potential treatment for cancer could become a reality thanks to a combination of imaging techniques.

In work published recently in The Royal Society of Chemistry journal Metallomics, researchers at The University of Western Australia and Griffith University's Institute for Glycomics describe how using two imaging techniques allows scientists to see where gold complexes used in potential chemotherapeutic treatments end up in cells.

They are also able to monitor the gold's effects on the cells in a non-destructive way. Previous methods for this type of analysis were destructive to the cell.

Lead author, Dr Louise Wedlock, who carried out the work while at UWA's School of Biomedical, Biomolecular and Chemical Sciences, and her colleagues, write that one technique - nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry - enabled the visualisation of the gold at a subcellular level. The other technique - energy filtered transmission electron microscopy - gave element maps for the gold, allowing the scientists to see nuclear and mitochondrial morphology.

The analysis was undertaken by UWA's Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation and Analysis.

"In the past few years, there has been a resurgence of interest in the medicinal chemistry of gold compounds, particularly as anticancer agents," they write.

"A stimulus for this research has been the increasing realisation that the unique properties of metal ions can be exploited in the design of new drugs. Certain gold compounds are selectively toxic to cancer cells but not to normal cells. However, the development of gold-based chemotherapeutics requires a much deeper understanding of the subcellular biochemical pathways involved."

The combination of methods could also be used to study the subcellular distribution of other types of metal-based drugs, such as platinum anticancer drugs, say the researchers.

Reference: L E Wedlock, M R Kilburn, J B Cliff, L Filgueira, M Saunders and S J Berners-Price, Metallomics, 2011, DOI: 10.1039/c1mt00053e

Seniors undermine skin cancer

UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO

"As people got older, they saw themselves as having lower risk of melanoma..."

Image: Squaredpixels/iStockphoto

New Zealanders aged 60 and over appear to wrongly believe they are at low risk of the fatal form of skin cancer melanoma, according to a new University of Otago study conducted for the Cancer Society of New Zealand.

Yet the incidence of and deaths from melanoma in middle-aged to elderly people in New Zealand has been rising.

Lead researcher Dr Mary Jane Sneyd, from the University of Otago’s Hugh Adam Cancer Epidemiology Unit, says the Cancer Society of New Zealand, which funded the study, sought to explore the attitudes towards melanoma across the age-groups.

Dr Sneyd looked at the attitudes of a random sample of 777 men and women aged 40 to 70 and found that participants aged 60-plus seem to regard themselves at lower risk of melanoma than younger people, and yet their risk is considerably higher.

“What we found is that in general, people are estimating their risk reasonably well on the basis of their phenotype, such as that if you are fair or red haired, and blue eyed you have a greater risk, and if you have dark hair, darker skin colour and dark eyes you have a lower risk,” she says.

“But, as people got older, they saw themselves as having lower risk of melanoma and yet the risk of melanoma goes up greatly with age – as with most cancers.”

Data published in 2011 by the Ministry of Health showed that in 2008, of all new melanomas diagnosed, 58.8 per cent occurred in people aged 60 plus, and only 2.4 per cent occurred in people under 30.

“Anecdotally, it seems that a lot of people seem to think that melanoma is a young persons’ disease. That is probably because the media have often concentrated on this age group, and promotion of sun safety seems to be aimed at the young,” Dr Sneyd says.

“Yet cancer is actually quite rare in young people, it is just that when young people get cancer, melanoma is one of the most common types and it can be deadly.”

She says no matter what age people are, they need to understand that with early diagnosis, death from melanoma is preventable. If it is left too long, and the lesion becomes too thick, this greatly decreases chances of survival of this cancer.

It was also originally thought that excessive exposure to sun only as a child and adolescent increased the chance of developing melanoma. But evidence increasingly shows that over-exposure to sun in older years also continues to increase the risk of melanoma.

“Early diagnosis of suspicious lesions is crucial and excessive sun exposure at any age should be avoided,” she says.

Ministry of Health figures from 2008 show that melanoma at that time was the fourth most common cancer to be diagnosed, and the sixth most common cause of cancer death.

Other University of Otago researchers who worked on the study were Dr Claire Cameron and Assistant Research Fellow Aimee Ward.

What counts in bacteria groups

THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES

For bacteria, it matters less who you are than what you can do and who you hang out with.

Image: Eraxion/iStockphoto

When you're a tiny creature in a vast ocean it pays to hang out with the right crowd, regardless of whether they are related to you or not, a new study into the amazingly diverse world of marine microbes has found.

For bacteria at least, it seems that what matters more than your species identity is whether you have specific genes that let you work with other species to form a functioning community.

The study looked at the rich communities of bacteria that form on the surface of a common seaweed known as sea lettuce (Ulva australis) and found surprisingly large variations in the 400 or so member species that make up each community.

Despite offering the same habitat, each seaweed played host to many different bacterial species, with only about 15 per cent of species in common from community to community.

Despite this great variety and high species diversity within them, each community has similar core functions, such as the ability to attach to the seaweed's surface and gather nutrients from the host, says a new study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, led by Dr Catherine Burke of the UNSW Centre for Marine Bio-Innovation (CMB) and School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences (BABS).

Genetic studies using high-throughput DNA sequencing confirmed that this likeness in the core functions of the community was not reflected in the identity of the member species of the community. Different species performed the same functions in different communities, because they shared particular genes.

Regardless of whether these genes independently evolved or were swapped between species through a process known as a horizontal gene transfer, possessing them was the key to being able to be part of a particular community.

"I guess this shows that for bacteria it matters less who you are – that is, your species - than what you can do and who you hang out with," says co-author Dr Torsten Thomas, a BABS senior lecturer and CMB member.

For ecologists, the finding challenges long-held theoretical ideas about how communities of organisms are established, says co-author Professor Peter Steinberg, Director of the Sydney Institute of Marine Science and staff at UNSW School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences and the CMB.

"Species are usually the fundamental unit by which communities are characterised in higher organisms," says Professor Steinberg. "But in these systems the important thing is to know what genes the bacteria have, not what species those genes are packaged in. This flies in the face of a hundred years of studies of the community ecology of higher organisms."

The team also included scientists from the J. Craig Venter Institute and the Singapore Centre on Environmental Life Sciences Engineering.

Pink disease: autism risk

SWINBURNE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

One in 25 grandchildren of pink disease survivors aged 6-12 had been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder.

Image: Tramper2/iStockphoto

A family history of pink disease is a significant risk factor for developing autism spectrum disorder (ASD), new research from Swinburne University of Technology has found.

The results of the study, conducted by Associate Professor David Austin and Ms Kerrie Shandley from the Swinburne Autism Bio-Research Initiative (SABRI), have been published in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health.

Pink disease was a form of mercury poisoning prevalent in the first half of the 20th century. Affecting 1 in 500 young children with a hyper-sensitivity to mercury, it caused a range of severe symptoms including loss of speech, loss of interest in usual activities, hypersensitivity to light, pain and, in up to 20 per cent of cases, death. When mercury was identified as the culprit and removed as an ingredient in teething powders in the 1950s, the disease was essentially wiped out.

For the current study the Swinburne researchers surveyed over 500 Australian survivors of Pink Disease, asking them about the health of their descendents. This allowed them to collect detailed data about the survivors, as well as their 1100 children and 1360 grandchildren.

"We asked the pink disease survivors to report any health conditions that their children or grandchildren had been diagnosed with," Austin said. "The survey included questions about Down syndrome, fragile X syndrome, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), epilepsy and autism."

The prevalence rate of most disorders was comparable to general population figures, however, the rate for autism was extremely high.

"Staggeringly, we found that one in 25 grandchildren of pink disease survivors aged 6-12 had been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. This compares to the current Australian prevalence rate for that age group of one in 160.

Given that these children are known to have a family history of mercury sensitivity, the finding could have significant implications for the emotionally-charged autism debate.

"Since autism was first recognised as a disorder, scientists have been trying to identify its cause. There have been two warring camps; one that attributes autism to genetics and the other which claims it is caused by an environmental trigger," Austin said.

"This study suggests that it may actually be a combination of the two. That is, genetic susceptibility to a trigger (mercury) and then exposure to that trigger. In this sense, it is like a peanut allergy. For most of us peanuts are completely harmless but, for those who are allergic, there can be serious consequences if there is exposure."

Researchers at SABRI are now extending their research by examining cellular and genetic characteristics of Pink Disease survivors and people with autism. The results are expected to be released in 2012.

In the meantime, Austin suggests those with a suspected family history of pink disease to minimise their exposure to mercury. This is particularly important for young children and women who are pregnant or breastfeeding.

"This can be done by observing the recommendations of Food Standards Australia regarding seafood consumption, opting for non-amalgam dental fillings and requesting preservative-free vaccines from your doctor," he said.

The paper, Ancestry of Pink Disease (Infantile Acrodynia) Identified as a Risk Factor for Autism Spectrum Disorder can be viewed at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15287394.2011.590097

From an Anthill

“Just as within the earth are found every kind of seed and within the sky live all the stars, Tulsidas knows that Shri Rama’s holy name is the reservoir of all dharma.” (Dohavali, 29)

jathā bhūmi saba bījamaya nakhata nivāsa akāsa |
rāmanāma saba dharamamaya jānata tulasīdāsa ||

To convey the wonders of the integral component of bhakti, the chanting of the holy name, Tulsidas makes the beautiful comparison to the earth and the sky, which are both filled with so much potential. From the tiny seeds within the earth come the future trees, flowers, fruits, grains and grass that sustain life. Even for those who live primarily off eating meat, like the tigers and the human beings doing their best impersonation of animals, there is still a dependency on the earth, for without grass and grains the animals that are eaten would not be able to mature. The magnanimous cow, the free giver of milk who asks nothing in return but to be protected, can survive simply on the grass found on the pasturing grounds. But the first step to understanding the wonders of the earth, and also the sky which houses the innumerable planets and the almighty sun, is faith. Without a little faith in the beginning, one can’t take the necessary steps to maintain life on earth. That a single seed found within the sacred ground can lead to so much is known only to those who trust fully in the process of cultivation. Similarly, to one who has firm faith in the holy name and its power to deliver the results of every single dharma, or system of religiosity, ever created, the fruit of the human birth, the benefit to having an existence, is very quickly realized.

For a more comprehensive understanding on the issue of faith, we can look to a historical incident documented in Vedic literature pertaining to the travels of Narada Muni, who is arguably the greatest reformer in history. By singing songs glorifying the Supreme Lord a poet can make tremendous progress in his own spiritual advancement. The sound vibrations travelling through the ether can penetrate the thick wall of nescience surrounding the thoughts of those who are conditioned by material life. The welfare workers can also make a difference by feeding the poor and helping the downtrodden through different, albeit temporary, struggles, but the guru, or spiritual master, is uniquely benevolent, because he can assertively rescue a person from the clutches of maya, or that which is not Brahman.

On the most basic level, the jiva souls, we living entities who search after and worship God, can be looked at as the marginal potency of the Supreme Spirit. The spiritual energy consists of God and His direct energy expansions, while the material energy is a separate force consisting of dull matter and the like, those objects which don’t have any direct presence of the Divine. Similar to how our arms and legs are part of our body but our identities are not in them, the material energy does not carry God’s personal influence.

The jivas are on the marginal side because they have a choice as to which energy to take shelter of. By constitution, jivas are on the spiritual side, therefore their natural home is in the spiritual world alongside God and His eternally liberated associates. When drowned in the ocean of material suffering, however, which continues to impose discomfort like a wheel that never stops spinning, knowledge of the marginal position remains far, far away. Therefore the same liberated souls whose association gives us great pleasure in the spiritual sky must be sought out in our present habitation to gain rescue from the sinking ship that is material life and the activities it encompasses.

The guru is the most benevolent welfare worker because he can give personal recommendations aimed at delivering the human mind from its sufferings. At the heart of unhappiness is fear, which is strengthened through attachment and ignorance. We fear the day of death because we have grown accustomed to the body we acquired through virtually no effort of our own. We don’t remember taking birth from the womb of our mother, nor do we even know where we were prior to being born. In the grand scheme of things we are virtually powerless, yet through experiences accumulated in the temporary dwelling known as the body we create attachments and hence fear losing everything.

The guru is a wise man who has seen the light, as he has taken shelter of the Supreme Lord and realized that life’s mission is to serve Him. What to speak of this specific instance, every single go around within a specific life form is meant for finding that same engagement; hence religionis known as dharma in the Vedic tradition. Religion may change, as the faith system an individual subscribes to can be influenced by experiences and outside teachings, but one’s dharma cannot be altered. The intrinsic dharma is thus described as sanatana, or “that which has no beginning or end”. Dharma is an essential characteristic, and when it applies to the soul, the individual functioning unit of life, it speaks to the spiritual spark’s tendency towards divine love, or devotional service. The service mentality never leaves us; it just can take on different natures.

The many welfare workers perform some type of service to their fellow man, but only the guru aims to rekindle the spiritual spark’s true dharma, its natural tendency towards service to God. In this connection, Narada Muni was once travelling the world, as he is known to do. As a sannyasi, one in the renounced order of life, Narada doesn’t stay in one place; he likes to go around and chant the glories of Narayana, which is another name for God. There is only one Supreme Lord, but devotees like to address Him by different names, as this practice not only serves to further glorify their beloved, but it also brings tremendous pleasure to the chanter, for the holy name and the person addressed are non-different from one another.

This particular incident involving Narada is nicely described by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in his book, Raja-vidya, which is a short, summary study of the Bhagavad-gita, providing the essence of the classic work to those who are not yet ready to delve deep into studying the many verses of the sacred text. Narada Muni passed by two different men, both of whom posed a similar question. They knew that Narada often visits Narayana, the source of all men and the Supreme Lord Vishnu Himself, so they wanted to see if he could find out from the Lord when their salvation would come. One man was a cobbler and the other was a brahmana, or one of the priestly class. The question was a little strange coming from the cobbler, as his occupation was seen as not being conducive to immediate salvation. Karma and guna, or work and qualities, determine the type of birth we take. A brahmana is considered a high birth, the result of many pious deeds from previous lives. If one is purely God conscious, however, they don’t take birth again; they immediately return to the spiritual sky. Yet on the material sphere, when desires and work are not wholly surrendered unto the lotus feet of the sweet and transcendent Lord, pious activities lead to a promotion in birth in the next life, circumstances more conducive to spiritual understanding and ultimate liberation from the cycle of birth and death.

Narada then made his way to Vaikuntha, the spiritual realm where Narayana always resides. The beloved saint asked his questions, and he was a little surprised by the answers given. Narayana said that the cobbler would attain salvation very quickly, while the brahmana would have to wait for a very long time. Narada couldn’t understand this, as he hadn’t seen any glaring distinction between the two men aside from their occupations. Lord Narayana then told Narada to tell both men that in Vaikuntha the Lord was threading the eye of a needle with an elephant. By relaying this information to both men, Narada would be able to tell the reason for the difference in their future outcomes.

Narada returned to earth and approached the same two men. Sure enough, they both asked what Narayana was doing in Vaikuntha. When the brahmana heard about the threading of the needle, he could not believe it. He perhaps thought Narada was speaking mythology or giving some symbolic lesson. The cobbler, on the other hand, was thrilled to hear such information. He remarked that from a tiny seed can come a large tree that provides endless fruits, so why couldn’t Narayana thread the eye of a needle with an elephant? In this way the cobbler was shown to have firm faith in religious practice and the mercy of the Supreme Lord, while the brahmana was merely going through the motions of spiritual life.

This wonderful historical incident supports the comparison made by Tulsidas. One who has faith in the holy name to deliver all results will soon realize that the rewards of every single type of religious practice, high or low, can be attained by chanting the name of Rama, which is another word that describes the same Narayana. Indeed, in the beginning of the Ramayana, Lord Vishnu states that He will descend to earth in the form of a human to do the work of the demigods, the elevated living beings in charge of the material creation, who were being harassed by the asura element at the time. The devas are also considered dehinam, or embodied, but through their elevated status they reap the rewards of past pious activities that weren’t done on the purely God conscious level.

Tulsidas not only had faith in the holy name to deliver results in the future, but he had past experience as well to support his belief. In his previous life Tulsidas was the venerable Valmiki Muni, the poet who compiled the original Ramayana, which describes the life and pastimes of Lord Rama. Valmiki too had a wonderful encounter with Narada Muni, a meeting which changed his life. In his youth he unfortunately got caught up in the wrong place at the wrong time and thus ended up being a hunter who stole for a living. While trying to rob Narada Muni one day, the dacoit was asked several pertinent questions by the sage to give justification for his rogue lifestyle. Narada doesn’t have any possessions, so the thief couldn’t get anything out of him. What he got instead was the most powerful spiritual instruction, words that would save him from the sinful life he was accustomed to.

Narada advised the dacoit to ask his friends and family if they would share in the sin of his theft. The thief had given the excuse that he was stealing only to support his family members. When they retorted that they didn’t know he was stealing and that they wouldn’t share in his sin, the dacoit’s eyes were opened. Narada had proved his worthiness not by citing his relationship to Narayana and not even by pulling rank as far as his knowledge of the Vedas went. Narada simply applied some logic to the situation and thus opened the eyes of the thief. Returning back to Narada, the puzzled dacoit wanted to know what to do next. Narada, as a wonderful spiritual master, instructed the thief to simply sit down and chant the name of Rama. He didn’t talk about the differences between matter and spirit, the mercy of the Lord, the marginal position of the jiva, the need for performing sacrifice and austerity, the intricacies of reincarnation, or the benefit of human life. Narada just asked the bewildered soul to sit down and chant the holy name.

But the dacoit couldn’t say “Rama”. He was so accustomed to hunting and stealing that all he could say was “Mara”, which means death. “Never mind”, Narada said, “Go ahead and chant ‘Mara’, but say it over and over again.” By saying death repeatedly, the dacoit was actually saying Rama’s name, though he was unaware of it. Since Tulsidas does not exaggerate about the power of the holy name of Rama, this chanting was all the dacoit needed to be delivered. He became so engrossed in his meditation on the holy name of Rama that many years passed by. Pretty soon the dacoit was covered in an anthill, which he hadn’t even noticed. Narada returned to the scene and then initiated the former thief by giving him the name “Valmiki”, which means one who comes from an anthill.

This chanting brought the initiated sage all the wisdom, knowledge and fortunes that spiritual life has to offer. Valmiki went on to become a great devotee of Rama, and his Ramayana is still worshiped, honored and respected to this day. It all started with a little faith, that the sound vibration representation of the Supreme Lord could provide the rewards and benedictions of every other system of dharma combined. The faith in God, or at least in his spiritual master, the guru, is required for success. The Vaishnava acharyas recommend the chanting of the holy names as the singular religious practice for the people living in the present age of Kali. No other aspect of spirituality better encapsulates the meaning of life and the purpose to our existence. In Rama’s name is found all dharma, so one who holds on to it for dear life and regularly hears it through explicit chanting will not be poor in any way. If we have Rama, the same person who can create the wonderful earth and the endless sky, what more could we ask for?

A Bibliographical Survey of Utilitarian Ethics

Classic Texts

The classic texts for utilitarianism are those of Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, and Henry Sidgwick. Among Bentham's works, see, in particular, Bentham's A Fragment on Government, edited by J. H. Burns and H. L. A. Hart (London: Athline Press, 1977) and his The Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, edited by J. H. Burns and H. L. A. Hart (London: Athline Press, 1970). (These are also available in other, less expensive editions.) For excellent introductions to Bentham's moral and political thought, see John Dinwiddy, Bentham (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989) and Ross Harrison, Bentham (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1984). Also see David Lyons, In the Interest of the Governed (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973) and H. L. A. Hart, Essays on Bentham: Jurisprudence and Political Theory (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982). Ross Harisson's "Bentham, Mill and Sidgwick," The Blackwell Companion to Philosophy, edited by Nicholas Bunnin and E. P. Tsui-James (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1996), pp. 627-42.

John Stuart Mill

Many of John Stuart Mill's works are relevant, especially his Utilitarianism and On Liberty. These are available on the World Wide Web (http://ethics.sandiego.edu/books.html) and in various bound editions, including several that also contain critical essays. See John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism: Text with Critical Essays, edited by Samuel Gorovitz (Indianapolis, Indiana: Bobbs-Merrill, 1971); Mill's Utilitarianism: Text and Criticism, edited by James M. Smith and Ernest Sosa (Belmont, California: Wadsworth, 1969); and On Liberty: Annotated Text, Sources and Background, edited by David Spitz (New York: Norton, 1975). For an excellent selection of Mill's writings on ethics, see Mill's Ethical Writings, edited by J. B. Schneewind (New York: Collier, 1965). Among the best books on Mill's philosophy is Fred Berger's Happiness, Justice, and Freedom: The Moral and Political Philosophy of John Stuart Mill (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984). For a brief but comprehensive overview of Mill's thought, see Henry West, "Mill, John Stuart," Encyclopedia of Ethics, edited by Lawrence C. Becker and Charlotte B. Becker (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1992), II, pp. 809-16.

Henry Sidgwick

Book IV of Henry Sidgwick's The Methods of Ethics, 7th edition (Indianapolis, Indiana: Hackett Publishing Company, 1981) is also a classic source of utilitarian thought. For a fine introduction to Sidgwick's thought and times, see J. B. Schneewind, Sidgwick's Ethics and Victorian Moral Philosophy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977). For a brief introduction to Sidgwick's thought, see Marcus G. Singer, "Sidgwick," Encyclopedia of Ethics, edited by Lawrence C. Becker and Charlotte B. Becker (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1992), Vol. II, pp. 1149-52.

Critical Essays

Several of the editions of Mill's Utilitarianism and On Liberty contain excellent collections of critical essays. In addition to these anthologies, see The Limits of Utilitarianism, edited by Harlan B. Miller and William H. Williams (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1982) as well as the collection of essays in the Canadian Journal of Philosophy, supplementary volume 5 (1979). One of the more recent books that often provides a good starting-point for studying utilitarianism is Utilitarianism: For and Against (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973), which contains an explication and defense of act utilitarianism by J.J.C. Smart and an interesting critique by Bernard Williams. The essay by Williams has been one of the most influential in raising the issue of moral alienation. One of the most nuanced and powerful replies to Williams and others on this issue is Peter Railton's "Alienation, Consequentialism, and the Demands of Morality," Philosophy and Public Affairs, Vol. 13, No. 2 (Spring, 1984), pp. 134-71. This essay, along with a number of other important pieces, has been reprinted in an excellent anthology edited by Samuel Scheffler, Consequentialism and Its Critics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988); also see David O. Brink, "Utilitarian Morality and the Personal Point of View," Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 83 (1986), pp. 417-38. The anthology that Bernard Williams and Amartya Sen edited, Utilitarianism and Beyond (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982) contains a number of perceptive articles. For a helpful anthology of essays on the place of rights in utilitarian moral theory, see Utility and Rights, edited by R. G. Frey (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984); Richard B. Brandt, Morality, Utilitarianism, and Rights (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992); and Rationality, Rules, and Utility: New Essays on the Moral Philosophy of Richard B. Brandt, edited by Brad Hooker (Boulder: Westview Press, 1993).

Overviews of Utilitarian Thought

For a very reliable, brief overviews of utilitarian thought, see David Lyons, "Utilitarianism," Encyclopedia of Ethics, edited by Lawrence C. Becker and Charlotte B. Becker (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1992), Vol. II, pp. 1261-68; Philip Pettit, "Consequentialism," A Companion to Ethics, edited by Peter Singer (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1991) pp. 230-240. Anthony Quinton's Utilitarian Ethics (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1973) provides a helpful overview of classical utilitarian thought. Also see David Lyons, Forms and Limits of Utilitarianism (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965) and D. H. Hodgson's Consequences of Utilitarianism (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967). Russell Hardin's Ethics within the Limits of Reason (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988) develops a defense of utilitarianism that relies heavily on game theory. Robert E. Goodin provides a strong defense of a utilitarian approach to public policy issues in Utilitarianism as a Public Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995). For a very perceptive discussion of well-being in relationship to utilitarianism, see James Griffin, Well-Being: Its Meaning, Measurement and Moral Importance (Oxford: Clarendon, 1986).

The Distinction Between Act and Rule Utilitarianism

Richard Brandt introduced the distinction between act and rule utilitarianism in his Ethical Theory (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1959). On this distinction, also see A. C. Ewing, "What Would Happen if Everyone Acted Like Me?", Philosophy, Vol. 28 (1953), pp. 16-29 and A. K. Stout's "But Suppose Everybody Did the Same?", Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 32, pp. 1-29. On the tendencies toward rule utilitarianism in Mill's work, see J. O. Urmson, "The Interpretation of the Philosophy of J. S. Mill," Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 3 (1953), pp. 33-39 and Henry West, "Mill's Moral Conservatism," Midwest Studies in Philosophy, Vol. 1 (1976), pp. 71-80.

The discussion of utilitarianism often takes place within the context of a contrast with Kantian and other deontological accounts of morality. John Rawls' "Two Concepts of Rules," Philosophical Review, Vol. 64 (1955), pp. 3-22 is an important attempt to reconcile partially these two traditions. Samuel Scheffler's The Rejection of Consequentialism (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982) provides a provocative rethinking of some of these issues, as does Michael Slote's Common-Sense Morality and Consequentialism (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1985), which contains an extended discussion of satisficing consequentialism.

China Mainly Blames US and India for 500,000 Cyber Attacks Last Year

China claimed on Tuesday that it was hit by nearly 500,000 cyber attacks last year,

The South China Morning Post is a Hong Kong-based English newspaper published by the SCMP group.

Out of half a million cyber attacks reported by China, nearly half of the attacks originated from overseas countries which included United States and India as the main perpetrators.

According to a government report, most of the attacks on China came in the form of Trojan software - a malicious programme that masquerades as an application, Xinhua News Agency reported.

National Computer Network Emergency Response Co-ordination Centre reports that nearly 15 percent of the destructive programmes came from IP addresses in the United States while 8 percent originated in India.

This news comes amidst the latest information provided by McAfee, a computer security company, who discovered an unprecedented series of cyber attacks on networks of 72 global organizations, including the United Nations, governments and corporations over a period of five years. And the main state actor behind these attacks according to many security experts points towards China. United States, Taiwan, India, South Korea, Vietnam and Canada, including defense contractors to high tech enterprises have been affected by these attacks.

“Even we were surprised by the enormous diversity of the victim organisations and were taken aback by the audacity of the perpetrators.” He further stated “What is happening to all this data … is still largely an open question. However, if even a fraction of it is used to build better competing products or beat a competitor at a key negotiation, the loss represents a massive economic threat,” voicing concern over the hacking, McAfee vice president of threat research Dmitri Alperovitch said.

But China refuted the claim through People’s Daily, an organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China that “Linking China to the Internet hacking attacks is irresponsible.”

“The McAfee report claims that a ‘state actor’ engaged in hacking for a large-scale Internet espionage operation, but its analysis clearly does not stand up to scrutiny.”

Even Google in early June suspected mainland hackers being responsible for stealing passwords of hundreds of Google e-mail account holders which included those of U.S. government officials, China rights activists and journalists. There again People’s Daily acted as the closest to an official response saying that Google had become a political tool used to defame the government in Beijing and warned that U.S. Internet giant’s statements could hurt its business.

Also Jay Carney, White House spokesman earlier stated that U.S. President Barack Obama viewed cyber security as a top priority and was working to tighten the defenses of both the government and private sector