Genetic testing and its implications: human genetics researchers grapple with ethical issues

To better understand ethical issues involved in the field of human genetics and promote debate within the scientific community, the author surveyed scientists who engage in human genetics research about the pros, cons, and ethical implications of genetic testing. This study contributes systematic data on attitudes of scientific experts. The survey finds respondents are highly supportive of voluntary testing and the right to know one's genetic heritage. The majority consider in utero testing and consequent pregnancy termination acceptable for cases involving likelihood of serious disease but disapprove for genetic reasons they consider arbitrary, leaving a gray area of distinguishing between treatment of disorders and enhancement still to be resolved. While safeguarding patient confidentiality versus protecting at-risk third parties (kin, reproductive partners) presents a dilemma, preserving privacy from misuse by institutional third parties (employers, insurers) garners strong consensus for legislation against discrimination. Finally, a call is made for greater genetic literacy.     

Granny and the robots: ethical issues in robot care for the elderly

The growing proportion of elderly people in society, together with recent advances in robotics, makes the use of robots in elder care increasingly likely. We outline developments in the areas of robot applications for assisting the elderly and their carers, for monitoring their health and safety, and for providing them with companionship. Despite the possible benefits, we raise and discuss six main ethical concerns associated with: (1) the potential reduction in the amount of human contact; (2) an increase in the feelings of objectification and loss of control; (3) a loss of privacy; (4) a loss of personal liberty; (5) deception and infantilisation; (6) the circumstances in which elderly people should be allowed to control robots. We conclude by balancing the care benefits against the ethical costs. If introduced with foresight and careful guidelines, robots and robotic technology could improve the lives of the elderly, reducing their dependence, and creating more opportunities for social interaction     

Ethical frontiers of ICT and older users: cultural, pragmatic and ethical issues

The reality of an ageing Europe has called attention to the importance of e-inclusion for a growing population of senior citizens. For some, this may mean closing the digital divide by providing access and support to technologies that increase citizen participation; for others, e-inclusion means access to assistive technologies to facilitate and extend their living independently. These initiatives address a social need and provide economic opportunities for European industry. While undoubtedly desirable, and supported by European Union initiatives, several cultural assumptions or issues related to the initiatives could benefit from fuller examination, as could their practical and ethical implications. This paper begins to consider these theoretical and practical concerns. The first part of the paper examines cultural issues and assumptions relevant to adopting e-technologies, and the ethical principles applied to them. These include (1) the persistence of ageism, even in e-inclusion; (2) different approaches to, and implications of independent living; and (3) the values associated with different ethical principles, given their implications for accountability to older users. The paper then discusses practical issues and ethical concerns that have been raised by the use of smart home and monitoring technologies with older persons. Understanding these assumptions and their implications will allow for more informed choices in promoting ethical application of e-solutions for older persons.     

National Systems of Entrepreneurship: Measurement issues and policy implications

We introduce a novel concept of National Systems of Entrepreneurship and provide an approach to characterizing them. National Systems of Entrepreneurship are fundamentally resource allocation systems that are driven by individual-level opportunity pursuit, through the creation of new ventures, with this activity and its outcomes regulated by country-specific institutional characteristics. In contrast with the institutional emphasis of the National Systems of Innovation frameworks, where institutions engender and regulate action, National Systems of Entrepreneurship are driven by individuals, with institutions regulating who acts and the outcomes of individual action. Building on these principles, we also introduce a novel index methodology to characterize National Systems of Entrepreneurship. The distinctive features of the methodology are: (1) systemic approach, which allows interactions between components of National Systems of Entrepreneurship; (2) the Penalty for Bottleneck feature, which identifies bottleneck factors that hold back system performance; (3) contextualization, which recognizes that national entrepreneurship processes are always embedded in a given country's institutional framework.     

Mainstreaming the e-excluded in Europe: strategies,good practices and some ethical issues

E-inclusion is getting a lot of attention in Europe these days. The European Commission and EU Member States have initiated e-inclusion strategies aimed at reaching out to the e-excluded and bringing them into the mainstream of society and the economy. The benefits of mainstreaming the excluded are numerous. Good practices play an important role in the strategies, and examples can be found in e-health, e-learning, e-government, e-inclusion and other e-domains. So laudable seems the rationale for e-inclusion, few have questioned the benefits. In fact, e-inclusion does raise ethical issues, and this paper discusses a few of the key ones. The paper draws several conclusions, principally regarding the need for some empirical research on what happens to the e-excluded once they have access to information and communications technologies, notably the Internet.     

Improving ethical attitudes to animals with digital technologies: the case of apes and zoos

Ethics and Information Technology - This paper examines how digital technologies might be used to improve ethical attitudes towards nonhuman animals, by exploring the case study of nonhuman apes...     

中国科研人力资本补偿:问题、成因与对策

人力资本是科研活动中最宝贵的资源,科研人力资本的补偿力度深刻影响着科研人员开展科研工作的积极性与行为,乃至决定着整个国家科技创新体系的产出水平与产出质量。本文深入分析了当前中国科研人力资本补偿存在的问题与成因,科研人员工资收入低、人力资本双轨制以及重物轻人等现象的存在严重制约了中国科学研究的长期发展,而造成这些问题的原因在于保障性拨款比例过低、工资管理政策未能做到分类指导以及与时俱进、科研劳动价值尚未得到足够尊重等。本文最后提出了优化中国科研人力资本补偿体制的政策建议。     

从合作角度看中欧科技计划的区别及其启示

科技计划是一国或地区提高创新绩效的重要措施.在欧盟,三大科技计划都明确要求科技项目的参与者必须来自不同的成员国.这种强制规定极大促进了欧盟成员国之间的科技合作,加速了"欧洲研究区"的建设步伐.欧盟作为世界上科技最发达的地区之一,其科技计划中有关科技合作的理念和条款能给我国以诸多启示,有助于我国探索建设创新型国家的新路.     

Resources and research: An empirical study of the influence of departmental research resources on individual STEM researchers involvement with industry

This paper investigates the influence of departmental level characteristics and resources on individual involvement with industry using a national survey of STEM faculty. An integrative model of industry involvement is developed and tested that integrates a multi-level perspective on university–industry relations. Three measures of industry involvement are tested: the amount of time a researcher spends with industry, the number of activities a researcher engages in, and the intensity of those activities. Results of the model show that the quality of human capital in a researcher's home department is a significant influence on industry involvement. Non-federal R&D expenditures and direct industry funding also positively increase the likelihood of industry involvement. Policy and managerial implications of the results are discussed.     

Strategic risk management using complementary assets: Organizational capabilities and the commercialization of human genetic testing in the UK

Teece's complementary asset framework explains how firms use assets to appropriate the benefits of innovation. This paper extends Teece's framework to show how firms also use complementary assets to disappropriate the risks of technical change. Based on case studies of the commercialisation of genetic testing in the UK the paper shows how firms can strategically alter the social distribution of risk to their advantage by managing distinct types of risk using different institutions with diverse risk management capabilities. We highlight the specific risk management capabilities of the state that are not available to either firms or markets, and their role in supporting technical change. Implications for policy and the academic understanding of technical change are discussed.     

The IS–business relationship and its implications for performance: An empirical study of South African and Australian organisations

Lack of a close ‘Information systems (IS)–business relationship’ has been described as a potential inhibitor to improving the contribution that information systems (IS) make to business performance. Yet the value of specific attributes of an enduring relationship between IS and business remains to be demonstrated by empirically confirming their link to IS performance. Using data collected from 167 South African and Australian companies, this study examined the effect of three relational attributes, namely commitment, mutual understanding and shared vision, on the contribution of IS to business performance. The study also examines the interrelationship amongst the relational attributes. Results revealed that a strong IS–business relationship is a significant determinant of IS performance. Organisations more successful in their use of IS are characterised by strong commitment on the part of the business to IS efforts, higher levels of IS understanding of the business, and a long-term agreement, between business and IS executives, on IS priorities. Results have important implications for organisations looking to improve the contribution of IS to organisational performance.     

Co-ownership of intellectual property: Exploring the value-appropriation and value-creation implications of co-patenting with different partners

Combining both interview data and empirical analyses at the patent and firm levels, we explore the value-appropriation and value-creation implications of R&D collaboration resulting in the co-ownership of intellectual property (i.e. co-patents). We make an explicit distinction between three different types of co-patenting partners: intra-industry partners, inter-industry partners, and universities. Our findings indicate that the value-appropriation challenges of IP sharing are clearly evident with intra-industry co-patenting, where partners are more likely to encounter overlapping exploitation domains. Co-patenting with universities is associated with higher market value, since appropriation challenges are unlikely to play a role and collaboration may signal novel technological opportunities. Although we find some evidence that co-patenting corresponds to higher (patent) value, patents co-owned with firms are significantly less likely to receive self-citations, indicating constraints on the future exploitation and development of co-owned technologies.     

Fair use versus fair return: copyright legislation and its consequences.

The purpose of this article is to examine the ramifications of legislative recognition of the concept of fair use in the Copyright Act of 1976. The fair use concept, while of small consequence in its normative origins, has turned out to be the foundation of the most perplexing and divisive issues in the new legislative guidelines governing copyright. Legislative recognition of the concept of fair use, coupled with enormous growth of a new technology--extending from xerography to on-line database systems--creates de facto exemptions to both the intent and content of new copyright guidelines. The issue is not one of limiting use or suppressing information, but of mechanisms for safeguarding the rights of copyright holders, be they authors or publishers, and insuring the free flow of information by providing a proper return on both intellectual creativity and capital expenditures. The authors argue that the elimination, or at least curtailment of fair use doctrine, coupled with an increase in technological approaches to reporting of secondary use of copyrighted material, will benefit all sections of the knowledge industry. Authors will receive proper royalties on use; publishers will be able to sell more books and journals at lower prices; and librarians will be liberated from extensive chores such as monitoring usage or determining fee schedules and transferences. The issue is one of fair return--an issue obscured and ultimately subverted by fair use.     

人-组织匹配:三维模型的验证及其与个体结果变量的关系

针对国内有关人-组织匹配的实证研究相对较少的状况,研究通过对6家高科技企业157名员工开展的问卷调查,探讨了人-组织匹配的结构及其与工作投入、组织公民行为和组织承诺的关系。结果验证了人-组织匹配三维模型在中国管理情境下的适用性,并发现人-组织匹配程度对员工的工作投入、组织公民行为和组织承诺均有显著影响,其中一致性匹配对员工在工作和组织方面的态度和行为都有显著影响,要求-能力和需求-供给匹配对员工的工作相关表现有较强的预测力。     

Organizational culture and its relationship with knowledge management strategy: a case study

In this paper, we study the relationship between organizational culture and knowledge management strategy in Pars Oil, an Iranian oil refining public company. The Denison organizational culture model is used. The model measures four essential traits of culture and leadership: involvement, consistency, adaptability, and mission. Each of these traits has three indices providing a richness of detail about the trait. Data collection method is a survey using a suitable questionnaire. The results of data analysis show that there are significant relationships between four dimensions of knowledge management strategies (creation and transfer of knowledge) and organizational culture in the organization studied. Moreover, the results of ranking the factors influencing the knowledge management strategy show that the priority and importance of the organizational culture traits based on their effects on knowledge management strategy are, respectively, participation, adaptability, consistency, and mission cultures.