Privacy and the Workplace: Technology and Public Employment

1997 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 515-527 ◽  
Author(s):  
Don A. Cozzetto ◽  
Theodore B. Pedeliski

One of the most interesting, yet controversial, areas concerning public personnel is employee privacy. What limits are there to employers' intrusions into, and control over, employees' behaviors and personal properties. Claims of privacy abuse come against an employer's prerogatives in establishing workplace standards, and ensuring the efficiency of administration. There are five major areas which trigger privacy matters in the area of public sector employment: background checks, cognizance of off duty conduct and life styles, drug testing, workplace searches, and monitoring of workplace activity. Of these, the fifth, monitoring of employees in the workplace, has raised a range of new conflicts between employer and employee. The problems are particularly acute as technological advances change the nature of work, communication, and supervisory functions in private and public agencies. These conflicts open anew the basic questions as to what is private, what is proprietary, what legal rights an employee possesses, and what an employee's obligations and responsibilities are within the sphere of public employment.

Micromachines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 884
Author(s):  
Marta Cherubini ◽  
Scott Erickson ◽  
Kristina Haase

Acting as the primary link between mother and fetus, the placenta is involved in regulating nutrient, oxygen, and waste exchange; thus, healthy placental development is crucial for a successful pregnancy. In line with the increasing demands of the fetus, the placenta evolves throughout pregnancy, making it a particularly difficult organ to study. Research into placental development and dysfunction poses a unique scientific challenge due to ethical constraints and the differences in morphology and function that exist between species. Recently, there have been increased efforts towards generating in vitro models of the human placenta. Advancements in the differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs), microfluidics, and bioprinting have each contributed to the development of new models, which can be designed to closely match physiological in vivo conditions. By including relevant placental cell types and control over the microenvironment, these new in vitro models promise to reveal clues to the pathogenesis of placental dysfunction and facilitate drug testing across the maternal–fetal interface. In this minireview, we aim to highlight current in vitro placental models and their applications in the study of disease and discuss future avenues for these in vitro models.


2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (9) ◽  
pp. 3304-3322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holger Pötzsch

This article reconceptualizes the archive in the context of digital media ecologies. Drawing upon archival theory and critical approaches to the political economy of the Internet, I account for new dynamics and implications afforded by digital archives. Operating at both a user-controlled explicit and a state- and corporate-owned implicit level, the digital archive at once facilitates empowerment and enables unprecedented forms of management and control. Connecting the politics and economy of digital media with issues of identity formation and curation on social networking sites, I coin the terms iArchive and predictive retention to highlight how recent technological advances both provide new means for self-expression, mobilization and resistance and afford an almost ubiquitous tracking, profiling and, indeed, moulding of emergent subjectivities.


Author(s):  
Betty J. Blythe ◽  
Elizabeth M. Tracy ◽  
Avis Kotovsky ◽  
Selma Gwatkin

In response to increased funding for programs to avoid unnecessary out-of-home placements, family preservation programs are being implemented by private and public agencies. The authors identify the organizational supports that are required to sustain family preservation programs over time. These supports include ongoing training, a broad view of supervisory responsibilities, and careful attention to maintaining relationships with referring and other agencies. Future issues facing family preservation programs also are discussed.


Author(s):  
Naoufel Khayati ◽  
Wided Lejouad-Chaari

In this paper, we present a distributed collaborative system assisting physicians in diagnosis when processing medical images. This is a Web-based solution since the different participants and resources are on various sites. It is collaborative because these participants (physicians, radiologists, knowledgebasesdesigners, program developers for medical image processing, etc.) can work collaboratively to enhance the quality of programs and then the quality of the diagnosis results. It is intelligent since it is a knowledge-based system including, but not only, a knowledge base, an inference engine said supervision engine and ontologies. The current work deals with the osteoporosis detection in bone radiographies. We rely on program supervision techniques that aim to automatically plan and control complex software usage. Our main contribution is to allow physicians, who are not experts in computing, to benefit from technological advances made by experts in image processing, and then to efficiently use various osteoporosis detection programs in a distributed environment.


2019 ◽  
pp. 74-78
Author(s):  
T.V. Malanchuk ◽  
E.A. Zaitsev

The article analyzes the complex state of the modern legislative regulation of quality and product safety issues in the context of ensuring consumers’ rights to the proper quality of goods (works, services). It is stated that in view of the variety of different properties that make up the notion of quality, the most important are the defects, which are capable of damaging the life, health, or property of the consumer, that is, the defects, which indicate that the goods are dangerous. The safety of goods works, and services as a legal category are of particular importance and is one of the functions of the state to ensure public safety. State measures of influence on manufacturers and sellers of goods, persons who perform work and provide services should be aimed at ensuring the protection of fundamental civil rights. In most cases, these are imperative requirements for safety, which are approved by special legal acts, as well as measures of state supervision and control to ensure the safety of manufactured goods, works, and services. The legislator, when defining security, uses the term “safety of goods (works, services)”, but it would be advisable to carry out graduation of these concepts since the safety of goods is a state of goods that allows it to be sold, used, stored, transported, disposed of without harm for life, health, the property of the consumer and the environment in normal conditions, and the safety of works and services is the quality of protection of the legal rights of the consumer in carrying out the activities of persons who perform work and provide services, danger to life, health, the property should not manifest itself either in their implementation and providing or later. It is noted that quality requirements should be made mandatory when designing production specifications. It is stated that in order to ensure the effectiveness of legal regulation, the safety of a product, work, or service must be considered as a full-fledged property within the legal notion of quality. It is concluded that product safety is an integral feature of any product, work, and service, acting as an integral element of the quality category. Lack of safety features indicates that the product is of poor quality. Keywords: quality, safety, proper quality, improper quality, specifications, consumers.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 183-205
Author(s):  
Paul Tap

Surveillance was extensively analyzed in the literature from multiple standpoints. Some studies looked to the temporal development of surveillance, while others analyzed the traditional theories that influenced many of the contemporary surveillance studies. All these studies define surveillance as an activity that is ubiquitous and performed globally, by multiple private and public institutions, through the involvement of specific technologies. However, little attention was paid to the perceptions of citizens about surveillance. This article addresses this gap in the literature and analyses how state surveillance is perceived by the Romanian citizens according to the socio-demographic factors (i.e., age, education, income, gender and medium of residence). The aim of the study is to explain how socio-demographic factors influence the acceptance of state surveillance. It also controls for the left-right self-placement, and the use of Facebook as source of information. The statistical analysis uses individual level data from an original survey conducted between October-November 2020. The survey was completed by 1,140 respondents, and the article uses correlation and linear regression to analyze the data. The findings illustrate that the acceptance of state surveillance is influenced by the gender, level of education and medium of residence of the individuals. The age and income of the citizens have no effect on the acceptance of state surveillance.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehrie Harshad Patel ◽  
Shrikanth Sampath ◽  
Anoushka Kapoor ◽  
Devanshi Narendra Damani ◽  
Nikitha Chellapuram ◽  
...  

Cardiac arrhythmias constitute a tremendous burden on healthcare and are the leading cause of mortality worldwide. An alarming number of people have been reported to manifest sudden cardiac death as the first symptom of cardiac arrhythmias, accounting for about 20% of all deaths annually. Furthermore, patients prone to atrial tachyarrhythmias such as atrial flutter and fibrillation often have associated comorbidities including hypertension, ischemic heart disease, valvular cardiomyopathy and increased risk of stroke. Technological advances in electrical stimulation and sensing modalities have led to the proliferation of medical devices including pacemakers and implantable defibrillators, aiming to restore normal cardiac rhythm. However, given the complex spatiotemporal dynamics and non-linearity of the human heart, predicting the onset of arrhythmias and preventing the transition from steady state to unstable rhythms has been an extremely challenging task. Defibrillatory shocks still remain the primary clinical intervention for lethal ventricular arrhythmias, yet patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators often suffer from inappropriate shocks due to false positives and reduced quality of life. Here, we aim to present a comprehensive review of the current advances in cardiac arrhythmia prediction, prevention and control strategies. We provide an overview of traditional clinical arrhythmia management methods and describe promising potential pacing techniques for predicting the onset of abnormal rhythms and effectively suppressing cardiac arrhythmias. We also offer a clinical perspective on bridging the gap between basic and clinical science that would aid in the assimilation of promising anti-arrhythmic pacing strategies.


1989 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 196-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Marcello ◽  
Steven J. Danish ◽  
Arnold L. Stolberg

Substance abuse by the collegiate athlete has become a major concern. Drug testing programs are viewed as one method of combatting this problem; however, more emphasis should be placed upon developing effective drug prevention programs. The current study addresses this need by (a) designing a multifocused prevention program specifically for student-athletes based on the previous literature, (b) evaluating its overall effectiveness as well as that of its individual components, and (c) identifying factors associated with preintervention usage patterns of student-athletes for the purpose of guiding future program development efforts. Although 110 student-athletes indicated a willingness to participate in the study, only 58 completed the assessment packet. These 58 were randomly assigned to intervention and control conditions. Few differences were found between the treatment and control groups. Perhaps the most important finding was that social-environmental factors and pro-usage attitudes were related to previous patterns of alcohol, drug, and tobacco use prior to the student-athlete’s arrival at college. Results are discussed in terms of their impact upon future program development and evaluation.


2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 188-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison V. Schlosser

Addiction, a cultural construct long framed in moral, psychological, and social terms, is increasingly understood as biological and treated with medications. In the United States, methadone, buprenorphine, and a variety of psychopharmaceuticals are now commonly used to treat addiction alongside long-standing approaches such as 12-Step mutual aid. These biomedical interventions reshape the very condition they intervene on, influencing the ways treatment clients understand and experience addiction. Clients often experience medication treatment in tension with embodied and social practices of addiction: bodily routines, sensory experiences, temporalities, and social contexts of use. This article examines these tensions through theories of the social flesh and embodied citizenship. This analysis is based on a 20-month ethnography in and around “Sunrise” residential center in Northeast Ohio. Sunrise merges biomedical interventions with 12-Step, psychological and juridical approaches. These data show how biomedical practices alter client bodies and subjectivities, promoting body alienation at stark odds with the intense bodily connection clients established through drug use. This alienation results from rapid weight gain and heavy sedation clients attribute to medication effects, as well as mandated medication and adherence practices that strip clients of a sense of control of medication use. Many clients describe feeling “medicated out” of life: estranged from treatment peers and kin who oppose medications, counselors and other powerful authorities who demand their undivided attention, and friends with whom they are unable to relate when heavily medicated. Clients, however, do not passively accept this estrangement. They alter their bodily experiences by leveraging embodied practices developed during drug use. Through practices such as selectively taking medications based on historical bodily experience and illegal drug “testing” in the underground economy, clients reassert bodily connection and control, deriving a modicum of power—albeit constrained and risky—in a treatment system that strictly limits it.


2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 191-208
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Kubacka

The aim of this article is to show the home as an emotional place. The sphere of social conditions, which has been neglected until recently, can help explain emotion as a social construct. Many researchers have pointed to the emotional dimension of the experience of the home and living practices. A home is a complex place, a conglomerate of three aspects: material, symbolic, and relational. The experience of domesticity can be considered to have multiple aspects and to be variable. Taking emotions into account enables a fuller understanding of the duality of household practices, in connection with both their “function” and their role in creating, recreating, and changing the rules of the social order. In this sense, a home is located between the private and public sphere, emotional authenticity and emotional work, freedom and control, socialization and de-socialization, everyday life and celebration.


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