In his meta-ethics, ROBERT Adams endeavors to understand the nature of goodness in accordance with a platonic-theological viewpoint, and then to represent the components of a life of morality and well-being. Hence, inspired by Kripke-Putnam theory, he firstly explains semantic roles of goodness, and then tries to find what best plays those roles. In his view, God is good itself and goodness of things relies on their resemblance to God; things resemblance to God as infinite good makes their excellence. Excellence is a non-instrumental goodness which makes things suitable objects of admiration, love, honor, and even worship. According to Adams, well-being of human life relies on his enjoyment of the excellent: on the one hand, enjoyment of activities in life, and on the other hand the excellence of those enjoyable activities. There are different kinds of excellences (finite goods), including moral values as well as rational, religious and aesthetical values.

Background: The ROSS procedure has been known as a good method for aortic valve replacement. Pulmonary allograft postoperative stenosis subsequent to the ROSS procedure has been noted as an important disadvantage of this technique, although risk factors related to this complication are not clearly recognized. In this study we evaluate the risk factors of pulmonary allograft stenosis after ROSS procedure. Methods: This retrospective cohort study was carried out on 42 patients who underwent the ROSS procedure. Left ventricular outflow tract obstruction was repaired using pulmonary allografts 22.7±2.5 mm in diameter. Echocardiographic and clinical examinations were performed for all patients at six and 12 months after surgery. Echocardiographic data as well as data related to the allografts were recorded.Results: The mean age of the patients was 28.5±10 years. Postoperative pulmonary valve stenosis was detected in 13 patients (31%). Nine patients (21.4%) had mild stenosis and four patients (9.5%) had moderate stenosis. No relationship was detected between the degree of stenosis and the size of allograft (p=0.08). There was a significant correlation between postoperative pulmonary stenosis and donor age (p=0.04). Predictive variables of pulmonary allograft stenosis after the ROSS procedure were low donor and recipient age (p=0.03 and 0.05, respectively).Conclusions: This study shows that the ROSS procedure has a rather low incidence of postoperative stenosis and is a suitable substitute for aortic valve replacement. Low donor age is associated with pulmonary allograft stenosis formation, perhaps due to greater viability of tissue cells from younger donors.

Merton was born in the United States in 1910. After receiving his Ph.D. in Sociology from Harvard University, he accepted the invitation to work at the University of Columbia. He has written extensively on the theories and methods in sociology, particularly sociology of science, social problems and deviance. He was interested mostly in structural functionalism and functional analysis. Reviewing the rules and principles of classic functionalism, Merton tried to incorporate theoretical and empirical principles into the middle range theory, introduce samples of this theory from masters of classical sociology like Durkheim and Weber, present middle range theories in sociology of science and social deviance, and establish a link between sociology and everyday issues, all of which played a significant role in the development of sociology. After so many years of research, education and management in sociology and receiving Honorary Ph.D. degrees from twenty accredited universities and scientific centres worldwide, Merton died in 2003, at the ageof 93.

Oscar Wilde is considered today as one of the most influential writers of the last decade of the nineteenth century, and it is practically impossible to speak about this important period in English literature without mentioning his name. However, the fact is that Wilde was a relatively obscure literary figure at the time of his death in 1900, and had it not been for the untiring devotion and measured editorial activities of his first editor, ROBERT ROSS, his name would have been left to us not as the classic writer that he is but probably as a controversial cultural figure of the fin-de-siecle. Taking advantage of the powerful publishing medium of the nineteenth century collected edition and through the adoption of calculated editorial techniques, ROSS was able to rehabilitate his friend’s name against all odds and put it on the literary ‘classics’ map of his time and era; textual criticism would thus play a significant role in Wilde’s gradual rise to fame and ultimate canonicity in the twentieth century. The present article deals with the effect of the editorial strategies employed for Wilde’s first collected edition on his public perception for a large part the previous century.

Background - The ROSS operation, originally introduced as a scalloped subcoronary implant with an 80% survival and 85% freedom from reoperation, has recently been modified to a root replacement which is now the most commonly utilized implant technique. A review of our experience in assessing the mid-term results with the ROSS operation is presented. Methods - The records of 60 patients who had a ROSS operation at the Imam Khomeini Hospital of Tehran University of Medical Sciences (June 2001 to October 2002) were reviewed to assess the operative technique and patient-related factors on survival, autograft valve function, homograft valve function, valve-related complications, and need for reoperation. Results - Two patients were expired (one case in the operating room and the other one in hospital, 20 days after the operation with neurological disorder). The 2-year actuarial survival rate was 96.6%. At 2 years, 53 (91.3%) surviving patients were in New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class I and 5 (8.7%) were in NYHA functional class II. No significant aortic valve gradients were noted, and no pulmonary insufficiency, in all cases, was found. At 2 years, freedom from significant aortic regurgitation (grade 2 or more) was 98.3%. Freedom from significant pulmonary homograft stenosis (defined as a pulmonary gradient > 20 mmHg) was 100% at 2 years. Conclusion - The pulmonary autograft gives excellent mid-term results with low mortality and no morbidity. It completely relieves the abnormal loading conditions of the left ventricle, resulting in a complete recovery of left ventricular function in most patients.