Virtuous reality: moral theory and research into cyber-bullying

This article draws on a study investigating how 11–14 year olds growing up in England understand cyber-bullying as a moral concern. Three prominent moral theories: deontology, utilitarianism and virtue ethics, informed the development of a semi-structured interview schedule which enabled young people, in their own words, to describe their experiences of online and offline bullying. Sixty 11–14 year olds from six schools across England were involved with the research. Themes emerging from the interviews included anonymity; the absence of rules, monitoring and guidance and, the challenges associated with determining the consequences of online actions. The findings demonstrate the advantages of adopting a character-based moral theory to compliment rules and/or consequence based moral theories as the basis for future research into cyber-bullying. The findings evoke some wider implications for future research into cyber-bullying that might equally be applied to investigations into other Internet related moral concerns.     

The study of systems and methods for scientometric analysis of scientific publications

This paper provides an overview of the methods and systems that are applied for scientometric analysis of scientific publications. Methods to identify promising research directions are described. The results of an experimental study aimed at determining the directions of scientific research within the subject area of “regenerative medicine” by using various methods are presented. Conclusions are made about the prospects and shortcomings of the applied methods. Directions for further research are proposed.     

Methods and means of intellectual planning: Implementation of the management of process control in the construction of an integrated expert system

The problems of intellectualization in the process development of integrated expert systems on the basis of the task-oriented methodology and the AT-TECHNOLOGY instrumental software complex are considered. The experience from carrying out intellectual planning for the synthesis of architectural layouts of prototypes in integrated expert systems, a usage-based intelligent scheduler, reusable components, typical project procedures, and other components of the intellectual software environment in the AT-TECHNOLOGY complex is described.     

Documentocentrism as a theoretical and methodological problem and methods for its solution

The problem of the emergence and development of documentocentrism as a theoretical and methodological approach that views a document as a basic principle is discussed.     

The use of economic classifiers for the indexing of scientific publications

The experience from the application of the OKVED 2 economic classifier for indexing scientific publications is considered. More than 9500 articles on the subject of “Automation. Computer Engineering” in authoritative Russian magazines were the material for the study. Some means for the comparative analysis of economic statistics and results of the classification of scientific publications are shown.     

Approximation of multidimensional dependences according to structured samples

We consider the problem of multidimensional approximation according to samples with a factorial experimental design (full or incomplete). Universal approximation methods do not take this peculiarity of a sample into account. In the present work, a structural approximation method is developed: the function class and the regularization are chosen in a special way and efficient methods for finding an optimal solution in this class are proposed.     

Microfluidic sampling system for tissue analytics

We have developed a microfluidics based sampling system for tissue analytics. The proof-of-concept of the sampling system was demonstrated by extracting lipid samples from tissue biopsies. The sample collection system consists of a disposable silicon based multiport microneedle integrated with polymer microfluidics. The polymethyl methacrylate polymer microfluidic chip has a 10 μl sample reservoir and actuation membranes for liquid pumping. A special automated robotic system was developed to control the positioning of the needle and the sampling procedure on preselected spots on the tissue. Real breast cancer tissue samples were used to test the feasibility of the sampling system. We successfully measured indicative cancer biomarkers from the tissue surface. Phosphatidylcholine and phosphoethanolamine were extracted from the tissue membrane with methyl tert-butyl ether solvent and detected by mass spectrometry. In the future, this tool could be used in characterization of preoperative biopsies and tumour tissues removed during surgery.     

Isolation and enrichment of low abundant particles with insulator-based dielectrophoresis

Isolation and enrichment of low-abundant particles are essential steps in many bio-analytical and clinical applications. In this work, the capability of an insulator-based dielectrophoresis (iDEP) device for the detection and stable capture of low abundant polystyrene particles and yeast cells was evaluated. Binary and tertiary mixtures of particles and cells were tested, where the low-abundant particles had concentration ratios on the order of 1:10 000 000 compared to the other particles present in the mixture. The results demonstrated successful and stable capture and enrichment of rare particles and cells (trapping efficiencies over 99%), where particles remained trapped in a stable manner for up to 4 min. A device with four reservoirs was employed for the separation and enrichment of rare particles, where the particles of interest were first selectively concentrated and then effectively directed to a side port for future collection and analysis. The present study demonstrates that simple iDEP devices have appropriate screening capacity and can be used for handling samples containing rare particles; achieving both enrichment and isolation of low-abundant particles and cells.     

Osmotically driven drug delivery through remote-controlled magnetic nanocomposite membranes

Implantable drug delivery systems can provide long-term reliability, controllability, and biocompatibility, and have been used in many applications, including cancer pain and non-malignant pain treatment. However, many of the available systems are limited to zero-order, inconsistent, or single burst event drug release. To address these limitations, we demonstrate prototypes of a remotely operated drug delivery device that offers controllability of drug release profiles, using osmotic pumping as a pressure source and magnetically triggered membranes as switchable on-demand valves. The membranes are made of either ethyl cellulose, or the proposed stronger cellulose acetate polymer, mixed with thermosensitive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) hydrogel and superparamagnetic iron oxide particles. The prototype devices'' drug diffusion rates are on the order of 0.5–2 μg/h for higher release rate designs, and 12–40 ng/h for lower release rates, with maximum release ratios of 4.2 and 3.2, respectively. The devices exhibit increased drug delivery rates with higher osmotic pumping rates or with magnetically increased membrane porosity. Furthermore, by vapor deposition of a cyanoacrylate layer, a drastic reduction of the drug delivery rate from micrograms down to tens of nanograms per hour is achieved. By utilizing magnetic membranes as the valve-control mechanism, triggered remotely by means of induction heating, the demonstrated drug delivery devices benefit from having the power source external to the system, eliminating the need for a battery. These designs multiply the potential approaches towards increasing the on-demand controllability and customizability of drug delivery profiles in the expanding field of implantable drug delivery systems, with the future possibility of remotely controlling the pressure source.