Chinese college students' understanding of Internet ethical issues: A survey of awareness

Purpose: This study examines Chinese college students’ awareness of ethical issues surrounding the use of information resources and the Internet and their attitude to these issues. Design/methodology/approach: A survey was conducted. Two hundred questionnaires were distributed to students of 9 universities at different levels in Tianjin, China; 171 were returned. Descriptive statistics were performed to analyze the data. Findings: The results indicate that Chinese college students usually ignored the negative influence of fake or pornographic or other indecent information, invasion of privacy and theft of confidential information, and violation of intellectual property rights. Although they could distinguish to some extent between ethical and unethical behavior, they were not concerned about others’ unethical behavior on the Web. The study also indicates that gender, age, academic major and expertise in using computers were related to the students’ awareness of ethical issues relating to the use of the Internet and their attitude to these issues.Research limitations: The sample is limited to the universities in Tianjin. A larger sample, which includes colleges and universities in the western or other developing areas in China, is needed to further validate our findings.Practical implications: The study helps educators and academic librarians better understand Chinese college students’ awareness of and attitude to ethical issues surrounding the use of the Internet. It thus could assist them in the improvement of information ethics education for college students.Originality/value: This study was one of the first empirical studies to investigate the factors influencing Chinese college students’ awareness of and attitude to Internet ethical issues.

The Environmental and Ethical Issues of Nuclear Power and Ionizing Radiation

As we enter the new millennium, population explosion, increasing worldwide energy demands and rapid global increase in ionizing radiation are all now threatening our fragile environment like no other time in known history. There is an urgent need for research and education to focus on the complex and direct link between ionizing radiation and its irreversible impact on the environment. Hence, nuclear energy and ionizing radiation issues can no longer be viewed in isolation. Historical facts and official reports prove that a code of ethics did not previously exist in nuclear industry： the risks of ionizing radiation are too great and unpredictable. Elimination of existing man-made ionizing radiation sources in this century is untenable and unsustainable. The intent of this paper is to review and demonstrate that ＇Atoms for Peace＇ is a false and unethical enterprise, and offers insights into the social and ethical aspects of ionizing radiation as a result of nuclear power development. The unethical nature of nuclear weapons, along with risk perception and ethical dilemmas of atom for peace, nuclear weapon tests, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the International Court of Justice＇s opinion and the World Economic Forum-Global Risk Landscape will be discussed.

Peritoneal carcinomatosis from advanced ovarian cancer: To treat or not to treat ethical issues suggested by a case study

This article provides a brief description of an epithelial ovarian cancer （EOC） case （stage Ⅳ） treated with the association of complete CytoReductive Surgery and hy-pertermic intraPEritoneal chemotherapy （HIPEC）. The use of HIPEC in EOC makes theoretic sense in view of the high rates of recurrence following standard treat-ment, but there are no randomized clinical trial to date and HIPEC for these patients still represents a radical treatment where the choice of no treatment may be acceptable since defnitive cure is unlikely. We reviewed the entire decision making process considering the risk/beneft of the procedure in term of mortality/morbidity, the quality of life and the psychological profile of the patient 1 year after surgery. The platform World Health Organization-International Classification of Function-ing, Disability and Health that permits evaluation of the person in relation to the psycho-social context is pre-sented. A person-centred approach and assessment of health-related quality-of-life and disability in EOC survi-vors are of central importance for decision making.

Five Major Ethical Issues Concerning Extended Cognitive Technology

Extended cognitive technology refers to technology that extends cognitive activity from the human brain,or body,to an external cognitive environment.This technology is best represented by the Internet.While significantly benefiting humanity and social development,extended cognitive technology has also triggered a range of ethical controversies.This paper first defines extended cognitive technology and analyzes related concepts,then explores five major ethical issues it raises.Suggestions regarding ethical governance are then proposed.

ETHICAL ISSUES IN ELT RESEARCH:PRACTITIONER’S PERSPECTIVES

在阅读研究方法专著和国内学术期刊之后,笔者发现外语教师研究者对于科研伦理没有给予充分的关注。为了调查教师研究者对于研究对象知情权、是否采取局内人或局外人视角以及对研究素材的所属权等伦理问题的看法,笔者进行了小规模的问卷调查和半结构性访谈。结果表明大部分教师研究者对英语教学科研中的伦理问题既不关注,又没有全面的认识。

A Comparative Study of Pre-Service Teachers’ Views on Ethical Issues in Classroom Assessment in China and the United States

The purpose of this study was to compare pre-service teachers’views of ethical issues in assessment practices in the US and China.Focus group interviews were conducted among 16 pre-service teachers from the US and 15 pre-service teachers from China.Results indicated that the inclusion of effort in grading is a key issue for the pre-service teachers in both the US and China.American pre-service teachers have more consistent views with experts regarding using multiple assessment methods and communications about grading.Pre-service teachers in both countries appeared to have consistent views with experts regarding the confidentiality and standardized test preparation.The findings of this study can help build guidelines regarding ethical issues in classroom assessment.

Helping People and Changing the World with CS

What should academic institutions be doing in order to benefit students,the community at large,and society in the new era?Particularly,as computing is impacting all aspects of human society,it also brings many challenges and opportunities for the academic departments of computer science.Some of these challenges include the increasing impact of software on society,issues involving privacy and data abuse,and ethical issues concerning AI.Towards addressing these challenges,the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology(KAIST)leverages its position as an educator in order to train the future computing workforce to be more aware of these issues.To achieve this goal,KAIST mainly adopts three strategies:Combining science&technology and humanities together;putting academy and industry together;training software experts while making them understand people and the world.

Analysis of Ethical Problems in China＇s Engineering Activities and Countermeasures

Engineering ethics is generated from the research on ethical issues caused by engineering activities. The development of engineering ethics in China was compared with that of European countries and the United States. Problems such as non-standard evaluation of registered engineers,weak ethical awareness,and lack of scientific understanding in engineering activities were discussed. Establishing and improving the system of registered engineers,strengthening education in engineering ethics,and promoting public participation will be the only way for the development of engineering ethics in China.

Trends of Robot Application——Ethical Response

With the rapid development of science and technology and the arrival of the information age,computer technology has also gained rapid development,and has a very wide application prospect in the current social environment.But at the same time,robots may also induce a variety of ethical problems,the existence of these ethical problems also affect the sustainable development of robots.This paper mainly aims at the change of robot application trend and related ethical issues,hoping to provide some reference for robot application and development.

Stem cell therapy for heart failure:Medical breakthrough,or dead end?

Heart failure continues to be one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide.Myocardial infarction is the primary causative agent of chronic heart failure resulting in cardiomyocyte necrosis and the subsequent formation of fibrotic scar tissue.Current pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapies focus on managing symptoms of heart failure yet remain unable to reverse the underlying pathology.Heart transplantation usually cannot be relied on,as there is a major discrepancy between the availability of donors and recipients.As a result,heart failure carries a poor prognosis and high mortality rate.As the heart lacks significant endogenous regeneration potential,novel therapeutic approaches have incorporated the use of stem cells as a vehicle to treat heart failure as they possess the ability to self-renew and differentiate into multiple cell lineages and tissues.This review will discuss past,present,and future clinical trials,factors that influence stem cell therapy outcomes as well as ethical and safety considerations.Preclinical and clinical studies have shown a wide spectrum of outcomes when applying stem cells to improve cardiac function.This may reflect the infancy of clinical trials and the limited knowledge on the optimal cell type,dosing,route of administration,patient parameters and other important variables that contribute to successful stem cell therapy.Nonetheless,the field of stem cell therapeutics continues to advance at an unprecedented pace.We remain cautiously optimistic that stem cells will play a role in heart failure management in years to come.

Survey of Environmental Ethics on Project Activities

The concepts of project activity and environmental ethics are analyzed. It indicates that project activity is a kind of ＂creation＂ event transforming nature, and is bound to generate a series of bad consequences, such as environmental pollution, biosphere destruction, natural resource waste and ignoring ecological value. Environmental ethics takes natural environment as research object, advocates valuing nature own value, and initiates concerning ethical responsibility of project activity on natural environment. Finally, we put forward countermeasures to ethical issues, such as sustainable development and enhancing ethic education of project.

A Comparison of Three Surrogacy Agreement Cases Using AHP

This paper builds on the previous work of Knott, Ninassi and Eisenhardt＇s 2009 paper, ＂Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process （AHP） to Look at the Tradeoffs Among Stakeholders in the Case of Surrogacy, when the Initial Intention of the Parties Involved Change After the Pregnancy Has Ensued＂. This paper proposes a new methodology for analyzing cases involving stakeholders in disputed surrogacy arrangement. The methodology utilized is the Analytic Hierarchy Process, which allows users to weigh different criteria based on their own opinions and background. Three case studies involved a surrogacy arrangement among three stakeholders： the biological mother, the biological father and the surrogate mother. The base for the model was that all parties had entered into an agreement, and that after the agreement had been made, a situation changed, such that a decision as to who had parental rights over the fetus became an issue. The criteria used in the decision making process in the three case studies were legal, health and ethical. The criteria differed based upon each stakeholder＇s point of view. In this paper, the three models were developed using the AI-tP methodology and judgments were gathered for each of the three cases to derive the priorities for the criteria in each model. Each author took the role of one of the three stakeholders.

Ethical and legal implications of gene editing in plant breeding:a systematic literature review

Biotechnology policies and regulations must be revised and updated to reflect the most recent advances in plantbreeding technology. New Plant Breeding Techniques(NPBT) such as gene editing have been applied to address the myriad of challenges in plant breeding, while the use of NPBT as emerging biotechnological tools raises legal and ethical concerns. This study aims to highlight how gene editing is operationalized in the existing literature and examine the critical issues of ethical and legal issues of gene editing for plant breeding. We carried out a systematic literature review(SLR) to provide the current states of ethical and legal discourses surrounding this topic. We also identified critical research priority areas and policy gaps that must be addressed when designing the future governance of gene editing in plant breeding.

Ethical considerations of cellular immunotherapy for cancer

With the rapid development of immunology, molecular biology, and associated technologies such as next-generation sequencing, cellular immunotherapy has recently become the fourth major cancer treatment. Immunotherapies based on T cells, natural killer cells, and dendritic cells play key roles in cancer immunotherapy. However, their application in clinical practice raises several ethical issues. Thus, studies should focus on proper adherence to basic ethical principles that can effectively guide and solve related clinical problems in the course of treatment, improve treatment effects, and protect the rights and interests of patients. In this review, we discuss cellular immunotherapy-related ethical issues and highlight the ethical practices and current status of cellular immunotherapy in China. These considerations may supplement existing ethical standards in cancer immunotherapy.

Mitochondrial transplantation as a promising therapy for mitochondrial diseases

Mitochondrial diseases are a group of inherited or acquired metabolic disorders caused by mitochondrial dysfunction which may affect almost all the organs in the body and present at any age.However,no satisfactory therapeutic strategies have been available for mitochondrial diseases so far.Mitochondrial transplantation is a burgeoning approach for treatment of mitochondrial diseases by recovery of dysfunctional mitochondria in defective cells using isolated functional mitochondria.Many models of mitochondrial transplantation in cells,animals,and patients have proved effective via various routes of mitochondrial delivery.This review presents different techniques used in mitochondrial isolation and delivery,mechanisms of mitochondrial internalization and consequences of mitochondrial transplantation,along with challenges for clinical application.Despite some unknowns and challenges,mitochondrial transplantation would provide an innovative approach for mitochondrial medicine.

Development of Rehabilitation and Assistive Robots in China: Dilemmas and Solutions

China is rapidly becoming an aging society, leading to a significant demand for chronic disease management and personalized healthcare. The development of rehabilitation and assistive robotics in China has gatheredsignificant attention not only in research fields but also in industries. Such robots aim to either guide patientsin completing therapeutic training or assist people with impaired functions in performing their daily activities.In the past decades, we have witnessed the advancement in rehabilitation and assistive robotics, with diversemechanical designs, functionalities, and purposes. However, the construction of dedicated regulations and policiesis relatively lagged compared with the flourishing development in research fields. Moreover, these kinds of robotsare working or collaborating closely with human beings, bringing unprecedented considerations on ethical issues.This paper aims to provide an overview of major dilemmas in the development of rehabilitation and assistiverobotics in China and propose several potential solutions.