scholarly journals Bioethical Quandaries during the Period of a Pandemic

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Fereniki Panagopoulou-Koutnatzi
Keyword(s):  
Individual Responsibility ◽  
Medical Testing ◽  
Experimental Drugs ◽  
Critical Issues ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Mandatory Vaccination ◽  
Restrictive Measures

The period of the pandemic gave rise to multiple and intractable bioethical quandaries arising. In the context of the present study, we will limit ourselves to the examination of the critical issues of mandatory vaccination to manage the pandemic; compulsory medical testing, including temperature screening of the population; the use of experimental drugs; making the wearing of face masks mandatory; and the individual responsibility of each of us for the prevention of the pandemic. Participation stresses the importance of education in bioethics. Accordingly, it supports the notion that, once we win the fight for life and health, constitutional lawyers ought to take the reins and determine that the character of restrictive measures and healthcare policies adopted in periods of crisis, when a prime opportunity for their formulation presented itself because of the pandemic, is one of extraordinariness.

scholarly journals Omics in a Digital World: The Role of Bioinformatics in Providing New Insights Into Human Aging

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Serena Dato ◽  
Paolina Crocco ◽  
Nicola Rambaldi Migliore ◽  
Francesco Lescai
Keyword(s):  
High Throughput ◽  
Aging Process ◽  
Single Cell Analysis ◽  
Physiological Age ◽  
Data Types ◽  
Aging Research ◽  
Digital World ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Critical Issues ◽  
The Individual

BackgroundAging is a complex phenotype influenced by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Although many studies addressed its cellular and physiological age-related changes, the molecular causes of aging remain undetermined. Considering the biological complexity and heterogeneity of the aging process, it is now clear that full understanding of mechanisms underlying aging can only be achieved through the integration of different data types and sources, and with new computational methods capable to achieve such integration.Recent AdvancesIn this review, we show that an omics vision of the age-dependent changes occurring as the individual ages can provide researchers with new opportunities to understand the mechanisms of aging. Combining results from single-cell analysis with systems biology tools would allow building interaction networks and investigate how these networks are perturbed during aging and disease. The development of high-throughput technologies such as next-generation sequencing, proteomics, metabolomics, able to investigate different biological markers and to monitor them simultaneously during the aging process with high accuracy and specificity, represents a unique opportunity offered to biogerontologists today.Critical IssuesAlthough the capacity to produce big data drastically increased over the years, integration, interpretation and sharing of high-throughput data remain major challenges. In this paper we present a survey of the emerging omics approaches in aging research and provide a large collection of datasets and databases as a useful resource for the scientific community to identify causes of aging. We discuss their peculiarities, emphasizing the need for the development of methods focused on the integration of different data types.Future DirectionsWe critically review the contribution of bioinformatics into the omics of aging research, and we propose a few recommendations to boost collaborations and produce new insights. We believe that significant advancements can be achieved by following major developments in bioinformatics, investing in diversity, data sharing and community-driven portable bioinformatics methods. We also argue in favor of more engagement and participation, and we highlight the benefits of new collaborations along these lines. This review aims at being a useful resource for many researchers in the field, and a call for new partnerships in aging research.

scholarly journals SUPPORT OF SELF-EDUCATION IN A DISTANCE RETRAINING PROGRAM OF TUTORS

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 719-728
Author(s):  
T. A. Klimova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Educational Environment ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Educational Activity ◽  
Self Organization ◽  
Digital Environment ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Restrictive Measures

Introduction. The paper addresses the issue of support of the students involved in a fully online retraining program, which imposes special requirements on the development of the self-education ability. The study aims to establish the conditions for organizing the support of self-education in a digital educational environment. Materials and methods. The study relies on the methodology proposed by G.N. Prozumentova for reconstructing the innovative experience to analyze the reflexive text materials of the Logbook of students of the retraining program; to identify the points of stress, misunderstanding, breaks, and transitions during training; and make an analytical generalization. Results of the study. Categories of difficulties encountered by students of the program in their self-educational activity were identified, and the conditions necessary to support self-education were established. These are points of self-determination, professional trials, points of reflection, and individual educational route. Conclusion. In the context of restrictive measures during the pandemic and the transition to the online educational process, self-skills related to self-education, i.e., self-organization, independence, and self-determination, become essential. These competences are an indispensable part of the work of a tutor. However, before the tutor can support someone, they need to build these self skills themselves. The established conditions in the retraining programs will facilitate this process. At the same time, additional studies are required to reveal in more detail the individual progress of a person under these conditions for building a model for supporting the development of self-education ability, and to determine the methods for tutors to provide the support of this progress. Keywords. Self-education, self-determination, individual educational route, professional retraining, tutor, digital environment, self skills.

scholarly journals “When I Steal, it is for the Benefit of Me and You”: Is Collectivism Engendering Corruption in Uganda?

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 27-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Bukuluki
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Individual Responsibility ◽  
Principal Agent ◽  
Moral Issues ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
The Family ◽  
Collectivistic Cultures ◽  
The Individual

This paper examines the beliefs and practices that collectivism engenders in Uganda and how they may influence the principal-agent relationships present in the situation of “corruption”. Within some specific contexts of collectivism, vices that may qualify to be corruption may be interpreted otherwise as long as they are perceived not only serve only individual but also group or community goals. The paper shows that in some societies in Uganda, corruption or even theft can be acceptable as long as it is perceived to bring benefits to the family, kinship or community. The paper argues that the drivers and manifestations of corruption in Uganda cannot be understood without reference to beliefs and practices engendered by collectivism. It provides examples that show that in quite many collectivistic cultures, acceptance or rejection of corruption depends on the contextual interpretations of the act and the perception and meaning attached to the party to whom the act has been committed. In some cases, especially where the state has either lost or has never gained legitimacy among some sections of the population; stealing state funds may be interpreted as being “smart” rather than immoral. This tendency towards conceptualizing „corruption‟ as something that takes place only when the individual does not share his loot with others but enjoys its benefits alone contributes to making individuals shun the individual responsibility for their corrupt actions and complicates the moral issues related to corruption in the context of collectivism. It could be that the level of individuals‟ sense of responsibility for their actions in collectivistic environments is lower thus making interventions that solely focus on individual retribution less effective in combating corruption

Italian Practice in the Implementation of International Targeted Sanctions: Enhanced Protection or Additional Complexities?

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-114
Author(s):  
Elena Carpanelli
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Individual Rights ◽  
Practical Application ◽  
Private Interests ◽  
Critical Issues ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
Restrictive Measures ◽  
Domestic Level

The proliferation of UN and EU targeted sanctions and their potential impact on individual rights and private interests require constantly monitoring how Member States implement such restrictive measures within their own domestic legal systems. This article focuses specifically on Italian practice in the implementation of UN and EU-mandated targeted sanctions. In so doing, it first dissects the relevant legal framework currently in place at the domestic level, taking into particular account the main novelties brought about by legislative decree (D. Lgs.) No. 90/2017. It then underscores some critical issues and shortcomings potentially stemming from its practical application. Finally, this article purports to examine the recent institution of a “domestic sanctions regime” and questions whether it might, in practice, end up rising additional grounds of concern, other then those already emerging from the implementation of UN and EU-mandated targeted sanctions, especially in terms of lack of adequate procedural guarantees for alleged human rights violations.

“Face-to-Face”: The State, the Individual, and the Citizen in Russian Taxation, 1863-1917

Slavic Review ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanni Kotsonis
Keyword(s):  
Collective Identity ◽  
Income Tax ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Individual Responsibility ◽  
New Techniques ◽  
Direct Taxation ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Late Imperial ◽  
Imperial Russia ◽  
The Individual

From the 1860s to 1917, direct taxation provides a window onto the paradoxes of reform in late imperial Russia. The new systems of assessment that culminated in the income tax of 1916 aimed to individualize government in a regime still ordered by legal estate and collective identity; to recognize the autonomy of the individual while disassembling and reintegrating the person by way of comprehensive assessment; and to promote a sense of citizenship, participation, and individual responsibility while still defending autocracy. Yanni Kotsonis suggests that these tensions were borrowed, along with the new techniques of taxation and of government, from European and transatlantic practice, but Kotsonis also locates the distinctiveness of the Russian case in the historical context and the set of ideological premises into which the practices were introduced.

scholarly journals Fair decomposition of group obligations

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (7) ◽  
pp. 2043-2062
Author(s):  
Natasha Alechina ◽  
Wiebe van der Hoek ◽  
Brian Logan
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Individual Responsibility ◽  
Group Norm ◽  
Organizational Norms ◽  
Simple Language ◽  
Fairness Constraints ◽  
The Individual

Abstract We consider the problem of decomposing a group norm into a set of individual obligations for the agents comprising the group, such that if the individual obligations are fulfilled, the group obligation is fulfilled. Such an assignment of tasks to agents is often subject to additional social or organizational norms that specify permissible ways in which tasks can be assigned. An important role of social norms is that they can be used to impose ‘fairness constraints’, which seek to distribute individual responsibility for discharging the group norm in a ‘fair’ or ‘equitable’ way. We propose a simple language for this kind of fairness constraints and analyse the problem of computing a fair decomposition of a group obligation, both for non-repeating and for repeating group obligations.

scholarly journals 儒家“誠”基礎上的器官家庭捐獻

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-74
Author(s):  
Yu CAI
Keyword(s):  
Organ Donation ◽  
Family Involvement ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Confucian Ethics ◽  
Next Of Kin ◽  
Digital Commons ◽  
The Gift ◽  
Critical Issues ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.本文首先探討了儒家的“誠”與作為人之本性的“仁”之間的關係，指出“誠”是“仁”的前提與基礎。筆者認為“誠”賦予“仁”三個基本特徵：“真摯性”、“無外在目的性”和“客觀性”。這三個特徵都與儒家家庭和家庭成員間的“親親之愛”緊密聯繫。其後，本文提出儒家排斥“鄉願”式的器官捐獻。同時，文章指出，由於“誠”的要求，儒家認為對家庭成員的“親親之愛”應該是對非家庭成員的仁愛的前提、基礎和不可或缺的必要條件。因而，個人捐獻原則是與“誠”的價值觀存在一定的矛盾，而家庭捐獻原則才是符合儒家倫理的。最後，本文對人體器官的家庭捐獻原則進行了制度設計。Organ donation is the gift of an organ to help someone who needs a transplant to survive. Yet with limited organs available, the following question arises. Who should be given priority in terms of donation procedures—the individual who has personally committed to offer his/her organs to anyone in need, or the legal next of kin, i.e., family members? This essay approaches this question with reference to the Confucian ethics of sincerity (cheng), which is viewed as a precondition for the ethics of humanness (ren), arguing that family members should be given priority in decisions on organ donation. The author recommends that a policy of family consent for organ donation be implemented, as such a policy would reflect the significant role that family should play in making decisions on critical issues such as organ donation. The essay concludes that rather than emphasizing the right of individuals to decide what will happen after they die, a policy of family involvement would encourage more people to become donors and avoid conflict in cases of disagreement between donors and family members.DOWNLOAD HISTORY | This article has been downloaded 75 times in Digital Commons before migrating into this platform.

scholarly journals Freedom of expression and protection of personal data on the Internet: The perspective of Internet users in Serbia

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (47) ◽  
pp. 5-34
Author(s):  
Marta Mitrović
Keyword(s):  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Personal Data ◽  
Individual Responsibility ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Snowball Sampling ◽  
Internet Users ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right

The paper examines the views of Internet users concerning the protection of their rights on the Internet. The Web survey, conducted by the snowball sampling, included 783 Internet users who expressed their views regarding the ways the state (Serbia) and private agents (Facebook and Google) relate to the right of freedom of expression and privacy on the Internet. Also, the survey was used to examine the individual responsibility of users when it comes to the use of Internet services. Several hypotheses suggested that Internet users in Serbia do not have confidence in the country and private actors on the issue of protecting their rights. However, users also do not demonstrate a satisfactory level of individual responsibility. The most important findings indicate that: 1) only one-sixth of the respondents consider that the Government of the Republic of Serbia does not violate the privacy of Internet users; 2) almost half of the respondents do not feel free to express their views criticizing the government; 3) almost 90% of users are not satisfied how Facebook protects their privacy, while it is 1% lower in the case of Google; 4) a third of respondents answered positively to the question whether they had read terms of use of the analyzed companies, but half of them did not give a correct answer to the main questions; 5) only 8.9% of respondents who claimed to have read terms of use are aware of the fact that Facebook shares their data with third parties.

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