<Emphasis Type="Italic">Dis</Emphasis>closive Ethics and Information Technology: <Emphasis Type="Italic">Disclosing Facial Recognition Systems</Emphasis>

This paper is an attempt to present disclosive ethics as a framework for computer and information ethics – in line with the suggestions by Brey, but also in quite a different manner. The potential of such an approach is demonstrated through a disclosive analysis of facial recognition systems. The paper argues that the politics of information technology is a particularly powerful politics since information technology is an opaque technology – i.e. relatively closed to scrutiny. It presents the design of technology as a process of closure in which design and use decisions become black-boxed and progressively enclosed in increasingly complex socio-technical networks. It further argues for a disclosive ethics that aims to disclose the nondisclosure of politics by claiming a place for ethics in every actual operation of power – as manifested in actual design and use decisions and practices. It also proposes that disclosive ethics would aim to trace and disclose the intentional and emerging enclosure of politics from the very minute technical detail through to social practices and complex social-technical networks. The paper then proceeds to do a disclosive analysis of facial recognition systems. This analysis discloses that seemingly trivial biases in recognition rates of FRSs can emerge as very significant political acts when these systems become used in practice. Paper prepared for the Technology and Ethics Workshop at Twente     

Hyperlipidemia in guinea pigs induced by chronic vitamin C deficiency

Sixteen weeks of chronic vitamin C deficiency, induced in guinea pigs by restricted vitamin C intake, resulted in a marked increase in the serum total LDL- and VLDL- cholesterol, triglycerides and total lipids. HDL-cholesterol decreased resulting in a highly significant increase in LDL/HDL ratio. The results reconfirm that vitamin C deficiency causes changes in blood lipid profile which could promote atherogenesis.     

Experimental therapeutic intervention with alpha tocopherol in ethanol induced testicular injuries in rats

Infertility is well-established harmful effect in chronic alcoholism and so far, there is no effective treatment for this condition. The study was conducted to determine the effects of alpha tocopherol on ethanol induced testicular injuries in male albino rats of Wistar strain. Five groups (n=6) of animals were used. Group I served as control. Group II received daily 1.6g ethanol/kg body weight/day for 4 weeks orally. Group III received 1.6g ethanol+80mg alpha tocopherol/kg body weight/day for four weeks orally. Group IV received 1.6g ethanol/kg body weight for/day 4 weeks and followed by 80mg alpha tocopherol/kg body weight/day for four weeks orally. Group V received 1.6g ethanol/kg body weight/day orally for 4 weeks, followed by 4 weeks abstinence. Twently-four hours after the last treatment the rats were sacrificed using anesthetic ether. Testes were removed and used for the estimation of extent of lipid peroxidation and tissue levels of antioxidants and steroidogenic enzymes. Alpha tocopherol treatment increased the activities of testicularΔ ⁵, 3β-HSD. Moreover, the treatment was also associated with significant decrease in testicular oxidative stress. Ethanol-induced oxidative stress and decreased steroidogenesis can be reversed by treatment with alpha tocopherol.     

The treatment of uncertainty in the sciences

For some 300 years the modelling of uncertainty in the sciences has been totally dominated by probabilistic methods. Now, following major criticism of the theoretical foundations of probability theory, other approaches to dealing with uncertainty are being explored.     

Tackling Suboptimal Bachelor��s Degree Completion Rates Through Training in Self-Regulated Learning (SRL)

In response to both problematic and extant gaps in Bachelor??s degree completion rates, this mixed methods study investigated whether a theoretically based undergraduate course intervention measurably contributed to participants?? competence as self-regulated learners. Respective quantitative and qualitative analyses of data collected from two samples showed that intervention participants experienced growth in the targeted self-regulatory constructs. Moreover, differential effects by race/ethnicity and gender were not observed. We conclude with a discussion of this study??s implications for institutions of higher education, pertinent considerations in designing and implementing this self-regulated learning intervention, and a review of the literature on effective practices for doing so.     

Sundials: Ancestors of our clocks

This article deals with the timekeepers of the past, the sundials. Apart from discussing the structure of a few common sundials, we point out the reasons for the variation between sundial time and the time shown by mechanical timekeepers.     

Asynchronous and synchronous online teaching: Perspectives of Canadian high school distance education teachers

This paper presents the results of an inductive, interpretive analysis of the perspectives of 42 Canadian high school distance education (DE) teachers on asynchronous and synchronous online teaching. The paper includes a conceptual overview of the affordances and constraints of each form of teaching. Findings provided insight into the following aspects of asynchronous and synchronous online teaching: degree of use; the tools used; the contexts in which each occur; students' preferences; and limitations. Pedagogy emerged as more important than media for both asynchronous and synchronous online teaching. Synchronous online teaching relied on teacher‐ rather than student‐centred approaches. Asynchronous online teaching provided support for self‐paced, highly independent forms of secondary DE supplemented by synchronous online teaching for answering questions and troubleshooting.     

Intergenerational transmission of adaptive functioning: a test of the interactionist model of SES and human development

The interactionist model (IM) of human development (R. D. Conger & M. B. Donellan, 2007) proposes that the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and human development involves a dynamic interplay that includes both social causation (SES influences human development) and social selection (individual characteristics affect SES). Using a multigenerational data set involving 271 families, the current study finds empirical support for the IM. Adolescent personality characteristics indicative of social competence, goal-setting, hard work, and emotional stability predicted later SES, parenting, and family characteristics that were related to the positive development of a third-generation child. Processes of both social selection and social causation appear to account for the association between SES and dimensions of human development indicative of healthy functioning across multiple generations.