Narrow Results

To deliver on the 2030 Agenda and the seventeen development goals, while facing complex health challenges, we need research and education that extend across multiple scientific fields. This will enable researchers from a variety of disciplines to meet, identify research issues, apply for funding, and conduct interdisciplinary research. In addition, student involvement is key in achieving the 2030 Agenda’s global goals – and beyond. Challenges include, climate change and child health, non-peaceful societies, gender inequalities and health.

The Swedish Institute for Global Health Transformation (SIGHT) was founded in 2017 at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences with the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. SIGHT’s mission is to promote an interdisciplinary approach in research and education in the field of global health. In order to deliver on the commitment to global health among researchers and students in various scientific fields and at universities and colleges across Sweden, SIGHT has established SIGHT Fellows, a mentoring programme for academic researchers. In collaboration with universities, established research institutions, and other stakeholders, SIGHT Student Network holds dynamic meetings for students from a variety of disciplines and universities to contribute to delivering the UN’s sustainability goals.

This report presents an overview about the themes of the Topic Study Group 57 on the diversity of theories in mathematics education. Main topics, which were addressed, are the networking of theories in theories related to the use of technology, to design research and beyond. The program, format, contributions, discussions and the main results as well as some future implications are presented.

Machine learning predictive analytics (MLPA) are utilized increasingly in health care, but can pose harms to patients, clinicians, health systems, and the public. The dynamic nature of this technology creates unique challenges to evaluating safety and efficacy and minimizing harms. In response, regulators have proposed an approach that would shift more responsibility to MLPA developers for mitigating potential harms. To be effective, this approach requires MLPA developers to recognize, accept, and act on responsibility for mitigating harms. In interviews of 40 MLPA developers of health care applications in the United States, we found that a subset of ML developers made statements reflecting moral disengagement, representing several different potential rationales that could create distance between personal accountability and harms. However, we also found a different subset of ML developers who expressed recognition of their role in creating potential hazards, the moral weight of their design decisions, and a sense of responsibility for mitigating harms. We also found evidence of moral conflict and uncertainty about responsibility for averting harms as an individual developer working in a company. These findings suggest possible facilitators and barriers to the development of ethical ML that could act through encouragement of moral engagement or discouragement of moral disengagement. Regulatory approaches that depend on the ability of ML developers to recognize, accept, and act on responsibility for mitigating harms might have limited success without education and guidance for ML developers about the extent of their responsibilities and how to implement them.

Large Language Models (LLMs) are a type of artificial intelligence that has been revolutionizing various fields, including biomedicine. They have the capability to process and analyze large amounts of data, understand natural language, and generate new content, making them highly desirable in many biomedical applications and beyond. In this workshop, we aim to introduce the attendees to an in-depth understanding of the rise of LLMs in biomedicine, and how they are being used to drive innovation and improve outcomes in the field, along with associated challenges and pitfalls.

Human society is facing great challenges to address global climate change. How to move the international climate process forward is still a serious problem for politicians. Geoengineering's, so called Plan B to cope with climate change has attracted attentions of the international community with a lot of debate on its impact, risks from an ethical view as well as global governance at the level. In this paper, we focus on some important issues of geoengineering including the definition, characteristics, ethics and global governance, etc. and then put forward some suggestions for China's considerations.

Innovations in human-centered biomedical informatics are often developed with the eventual goal of real-world translation. While biomedical research questions are usually answered in terms of how a method performs in a particular context, we argue that it is equally important to consider and formally evaluate the ethical implications of informatics solutions. Several new research paradigms have arisen as a result of the consideration of ethical issues, including but not limited for privacy-preserving computation and fair machine learning. In the spirit of the Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing, we discuss broad and fundamental principles of ethical biomedical informatics in terms of Olelo Noeau, or Hawaiian proverbs and poetical sayings that capture Hawaiian values. While we emphasize issues related to privacy and fairness in particular, there are a multitude of facets to ethical biomedical informatics that can benefit from a critical analysis grounded in ethics.

This chapter unpacks the challenges faced in marketing sustainable fashion products within an industry fuelled by perpetual reinvention and growth. In recent decades, the fashion industry, but most notably fast fashion, has been mired in controversies ranging from environmental sustainability to the exploitation of cheap labour and disregard for workers’ health and safety. In parallel, increasing consumer demand has emerged for sustainable fashion options, which has led to a rapidly growing but diverging market. Adopting the three R’s — Reduce, Reuse and Recycle — this chapter explores the complexities involved in (1) the promotion of reduced consumption and demarketing, (2) the rising popularity of second-hand/vintage clothing, fashion libraries and the use of deadstock fabrics, and (3) recycling and upcycling. Barriers faced by marketers in promoting these more sustainable options are examined in considering paths forward to more sustainable practices.

Large language models (LLMs) and biomedical annotations have a symbiotic relationship. LLMs rely on high-quality annotations for training and/or fine-tuning for specific biomedical tasks. These annotations are traditionally generated through expensive and time-consuming human curation. Meanwhile LLMs can also be used to accelerate the process of curation, thus simplifying the process, and potentially creating a virtuous feedback loop. However, their use also introduces new limitations and risks, which are as important to consider as the opportunities they offer. In this workshop, we will review the process that has led to the current rise of LLMs in several fields, and in particular in biomedicine, and discuss specifically the opportunities and pitfalls when they are applied to biomedical annotation and curation.

This paper analyses the Sikh religious tradition in light of research on the connections between religion, morality, and economics. Sikhism provides a compact and well-documented example of the creation and evolution of a religious community, in which moral guidance is paramount, but interacts with material incentives and material conditions. The time scale of this case, and its geographic and conceptual location in juxtaposition to Hinduism and Islam, make Sikh tradition a useful additional data point for analyses of the relationship of religion, morality, and economics. At the same time, considering the Sikh tradition in these more general conceptual frameworks provides a clearer understanding of this specific case.

This article presented empirical information to explore and examine the advocacy activities conducted by social workers in Hong Kong. The effectiveness of the advocacy activities as perceived by the social workers are measured and matched with the actual practice. Reasons for undertaking advocacy are collected. The determinants of advocacy include: recognition of the importance of empowerment and relationship building between social workers and service users, helping service users exercise their rights and broaden their life options are instrumental in driving advocacy efforts. The sense of guilt is also a contributing factor behind certain advocacy activities. The importance of research and education in advocacy are emphasized.

With decreasing cost of biomedical technologies, the scale of the genetic and healthcare data have exponentially increased and become available to wider audiences. Hence, privacy of patients and study participants has garnered the attention of researchers and regulators alike. Availability of genetic and health care information for uses not anticipated at the time of collection gives rise to privacy concerns such that people suffer dignitary harm when their data is used in ways they did not desire or intend, even if no concrete economic damage results. In this workshop, we explore the issues surrounding data use to advance human health from a privacy perspective. Broadly this field can be considered in two encompassing areas: (1) Ethics and regulation of privacy: The ethical and regulatory frames through which we can consider privacy, the existing regulations regarding privacy and what is on the horizon, and implementation of such ethical considerations for data with the new Common Rule. (2) Approaches to ensuring privacy using technology: The technologies that allow responsible use and sharing of data such as encryption and the quantification of privacy leakages in publicly available data through privacy attacks for better risk-assessment tools.

Synopsis

The research problem

Many diversified multinational professional service firms utilize a global professional service network (GPS network or network) to deliver assurance and other types of consulting services worldwide. This research investigates and analyzes the complex interactions between members of such GPS networks and their management in the execution of an international consulting/advisory engagement.

Motivation

Few studies have discussed the nature and characteristics of GPS networks, including the relationships among their members and the management of the network when providing assurance, tax, or consulting services. Also, limited studies have provided insights into the nature, complexity, and challenges associated with referral engagements for such GPS networks’ members. Even though networks serve as a coordinating platform in implementing the network’s policies, member firms who are legally independent may have incentives to deviate from these policies. Thus, evidence is needed on how such GPS networks monitor and ensure appropriate compliance and interpretation of the operating methodologies by disparate member firms, and the effectiveness of such practices to achieve the networks’ global strategies and objectives.

Scope

This study focuses specifically on consulting engagements in GPS networks. It is not intended to describe or research multinational assurance engagements, which are often referred to as group audits.

Research questions

RQ1: To what extent and how do member firms in a GPS network interact to provide their services for international consulting engagement, without giving up their autonomous management of their firms and related decision-making?

RQ2: To what extent and how do member firms and senior global leadership of a GPS network use power to influence member firms’ decisions in the provision of international consulting engagements?

RQ3: To what extent can senior global leadership sacrifice the membership ties in a GPS network to protect and safeguard the network’s interest?

Target population

Stakeholders include the academic community, practitioners, company managers, regulatory authorities, Forum of Firms, audit networks, and investors at large.

Adopted methodology

An interpretive real-life case study was conducted using a triangulation of theories to analyze and assess an actual referral engagement undertaken by member firms in one of the top 10 global professional service firms (with an assurance product offering).

Analyses

The data were composed of narratives from email correspondences and semistructured interviews with local partners, managers, and the regional director of the network.

Findings

The findings illustrate the disagreement and miscommunication among members of the GPS network, a lack of trust, and excessive use of power and authority from the lead partner and the regional director of the network. One member lost a vital consulting engagement when he insisted on asserting and maintaining autonomous management of elements of an engagement referred to him by an affiliated firm. Senior global leadership of the GPS network failed to appropriately intervene between the network and disregarded the autonomous status and welfare of the member firm when it conflicted with the financial benefits of the network.

The history and development of reproductive genetics span centuries of scientific exploration and technological innovation. Today, the importance of offspring health and further understanding of the relevant molecular mechanisms and interdisciplinary knowledge have led to significant advancements, which are gradually appearing in clinical settings. However, whether this rapid progress in reproductive genetics could lead to technical, ethical, and economic problems warrants evaluation. This brief review introduces a range of approaches to reproductive genetics, from the earliest to the most recent, and discusses future concerns regarding the large-scale use of emerging reproductive genetic tools.

Researchers and scientists face globally, and parallel to their core research activities, increased pressure to successfully lead or participate in fundraising activities. The field has been experiencing fierce competition with success rates of proposals falling dramatically down, while the complexity of the funding instruments and the need for acquiring a wide understanding of issues related to impacts, research priorities in connection to wider national and transnational (e.g. EU-wide) policy aspects, increase discomfort levels for the individual researchers and scientists. In this paper, we suggest the use of transdisciplinary AI tools to support (semi-)- automation of several steps of the application and proposal preparation processes.

This article reviews the political and ethical dimensions of technology applications in social work by focusing on a descriptive case study. The case study is of an initiative undertaken by the New Zealand government between 2011 and 2015 to develop an algorithm that would allow child protection services to predict future child maltreatment at the point of birth and to pre-empt it before it occurs. The paper explores the new threats to human rights and social justice associated with the rise of algorithmic governance and explores the sources of algorithmic injustice. It also outlines some of the key ethical issues and political challenges associated with algorithmic governance.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is moving into a new phase where it is demonstrating the ability to supplement or replace humans across a range of decision-making activities. The transformative power of AI will require sensible regulation and heightened ethical sensitivity to ensure that it enhances rather than undermines human capabilities and values. The successful management of AI will necessitate coordination at the national, international and supranational levels among stakeholders of all types. Moreover, the shape of an AI-supplemented world will be heavily influenced by the rivalry between China and the United States as the world’s leading economic and AI powers. This paper will weave together the above themes to outline the relevant issues and stakes and the manner in which they can be managed to yield a productive AI-supplemented future, wherein AI’s promise is maximized and its potential perils avoided or mitigated.

The paper aims to review the current state of the knowledge in an attempt to renew the interest in studying cognitive side of entrepreneurial ethics. The paper explores how the two streams of the literature — entrepreneurial cognition and entrepreneurial ethics — can possibly be integrated to guide future research. It also reviews the literature at the intersection of entrepreneurial cognitions and ethics. In doing so, the paper draws upon the extant literature to propose a set of questions for future research. Given the ethical implications of entrepreneurial behavior, this paper calls for future interdisciplinary work among entrepreneurial cognition scholars and business ethicists. The extant literature has generally focused on exploring the linkages among entrepreneurial cognitions, moral awareness, and moral judgment. It appears that relatively sparse attention is paid to explore the underlying cognitive patterns of an entrepreneur's actions pertaining to unethical business practices. This gap in the literature at the intersection of cognitions and ethics holds significant potential for future research. The proposed questions for future research include the following: How do cognitive biases and heuristics make an entrepreneur more susceptible to immoral judgment and reasoning? Which of the cognitive schemas is more likely to enhance moral intentions of entrepreneurs? How does distributed cognition shape socially responsible entrepreneurial behavior? Do entrepreneurs prefer rule-based or cost/benefit-based reasoning approach while making moral judgment? Which of the cognitive dimensions of socially responsible behavior — utilitarianism, just, and rights — is more common among entrepreneurs in developed countries in comparison to the entrepreneurs in developing and emerging economies? Do immigrant and/or ethnic entrepreneurs experience identity ambiguity and how does it relate to their unethical actions? How does the level of motivation affect an entrepreneur's reliance on heuristics rather than employing a systematic response to process information for ethical judgment? The proposed questions potentially offer insights into the way in which entrepreneurial cognitions and entrepreneurial ethics are interconnected. Entrepreneurship scholars may enrich their future research efforts by exploring how might insights from entrepreneurial ethics better inform the theoretical developments of entrepreneurial cognitions.

With the advancements in nanotechnology, the interaction between nanotechnology, society and environment has increased. Nanotherapeutics and nanopharmaceuticals have allowed facilitation of earlier and more precise diagnosis, reduced side effects, improved targeted therapies and efficacy of drugs. Likewise, nanotechnology has helped in improving the quality of environment by solving issues of air pollution, water remediation and waste management with the help of nanoproducts such as nanofilters, nanophoto catalysts, nanoadsorbents and nanosensors. Moreover, nanopesticides, nanofood, anti-bacterial nanopackaging, nanofertilizers and many other products have helped food and agriculture sector to grow. There are innumerable products on shelf based on nanotechnology impacting almost every sector. However, nanotechnology like any other technology if used unchecked and unregulated can be a cause of social, environmental, legal and ethical concerns. Therefore, it is crucial to consider these challenges in addition to the promises and opportunities nanotechnology has to offer. This review has highlighted the immense importance of nanotechnology by discussing its applications especially in medicine, environmental sciences and food and agriculture sectors. Closely studying these aspects will allow us to discover gaps, obstacles and potential solutions for responsible nanotechnology development and deployment. Understanding these concerns and challenges is also critical for policymakers, researchers, industrialists and society as a whole in order to promote ethical practices and informed decision-making. This review will help to contribute to the continuing discourse and raise ethical awareness in the field of nanotechnology thence minimizing the harm while maximizing the benefits.

Philosophy and AI have had a difficult relationship from the beginning. The “classic” period from 1950 to 2000 saw four major conflicts, first about the logical coherence of AI as an endeavor, and then about architecture, semantics, and the Frame Problem. Since 2000, these early debates have been largely replaced by arguments about consciousness and ethics, arguments that now involve neuroscientists, lawyers, and economists as well as AI scientists and philosophers. We trace these developments, and speculate about the future.

This chapter explores the concepts of ethics, morals and social responsibility from organisational and societal perspectives covering both marketing that is focused on profit and marketing focused on bringing about social benefit. It discusses the meanings of social responsibility from different paradigmatic viewpoints and highlights the advantages and limitations of particular approaches. The chapter also considers some aspects of legal and regulatory frameworks and the potential for the development of codes of conduct for socially responsible for-profit marketing and social marketing. The discussion is positioned in a global context and is grounded by intercultural considerations and the diversity of ethical perspectives and norms across cultures.