Ethics of Human Resources Management in the Cameroonian Health System, Medical Nomadism and the Ineffectiveness of the Fight against High Blood Pressure

Context/objectives: The fight against Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) is a long-term undertaking, which requires available, motivated and well-managed human resources (HR). The administrative management of skills on both qualitative and quantitative levels is one of the essential functions of a health system. To better implement policies of fight against High Blood Pressure (HBP) and other chronic diseases, it is important to establish strategies to retain health personnel. This loyalty requires favorable working conditions and consideration of the contribution-reward couple. Good working conditions are likely to reduce the phenomenon of medical nomadism;conversely, poor HR management can contribute to their exodus towards exotic “green pastures”, thus leading to an additional crisis in the Cameroonian health system. The fight against HBP is a complex, multifaceted and multifactorial reality that requires appropriate management model for all types of resources mainly HR. The main objective of this research is to show the impact of poor management of human resources in Cameroon health system on medical nomadism and the ineffectiveness of the fight against High Blood Pressure. Method: A cross-sectional descriptive survey among five hundred (500) health facilities in the center region of Cameroon has been conducted. A stratified probabilistic technique has been used, and the number of health facilities to be surveyed has been determined using the “sample size estimation table” of Depelteau. The physical questionnaires have been printed and then distributed to data collectors. After data collection, the latter were grouped during processing in Excel sheets. The Chi-square test was used for data with a qualitative value and that of Kolmogorov-Sminorf for data with a quantitative value to assess the normality and reliability of data. The Crochach’s Alpha reliability test allowed us to have a summary of the means and variances and then to search for intragroup correlations between variables. Descriptive analysis was possible with the XLSTAT 2016 software. Results: 43.60% of Health Facilities (HF) managers were unqualified. 82.20% of HF managers have staff in a situation of professional insecurity. They are mainly contractual (49.00), decision-making agents (24.40%), casual agents (08.80). The proportion of unstable personnel is average of 22.00% and very unstable, 12.00%.

Exploring the intersection of the medical metaverse and healthcare ethics:future considerations and caveats

The medical metaverse and digital twin are set to revolutionise healthcare.Like all emerging technologies their benefits must be weighed against their ethical and social,impacts.If we consider the advances of medical technology as an expression of our values,such as the pursuit of knowledge,cures and healing,an ethical study allows us to align our values and steer the technology towards an agreed goal.However,to appreciate the long-term consequents of a technology,those consequences must be considered in the context of a society already shaped by that technology.This paper identifies the technologies currently shaping society and considers the ethical,and social consequences of the medical metaverse and digital twin in that future society.

Designing a medical ethics curriculum in ophthalmology

Ethical principles form a bedrock to medical practice in any specialty,guiding physicians to appropriate attitudes and behaviors.A formal ethics curriculum can be difficult to generate de novo in an ophthalmology training program.A number of barriers exist in most ophthalmology departments:trainees may think ethics is of secondary importance compared to core basic and clinical science topics;most ophthalmology faculty have no formal degree in medical ethics;there is limited didactic time with competing academic,clinical,and surgical priorities;work-hours regulations may limit the time available to deliver“para-professional”lectures;and there is a belief that the medical ethics lectures during medical school is a sufficient amount of coursework to last through a physician’s career with no need for continuing professional development.The four pillars of medical ethics are beneficence,non-maleficence,autonomy,and justice.In addition,morals,ethics,and professionalism are important aspects of sound medical practice.A curriculum specific to medical ethics in ophthalmology can be developed in any of our sub-specialties and include lectures,curated readings,case rounds,and clinic wrap-up sessions.Ethical considerations are part of everyday clinical practice,and a structured ethics curriculum can be incorporated into ophthalmology training programs.The concept of backward design can be used to structure the curriculum,starting with the expected outcome,then designing authentic assessments,and finally putting together a learning plan that has students actively involved in ethical discussions.This paper will provide a guide to developing an ethics curriculum for an ophthalmology training program utilizing the concept of backwards design and guide the reader through the process of developing expected learning outcomes,authentic assessments,and a unified learning plan.

On Evaluating University Teachers’ Morality and Ethics in the New Era

University teachers play an important role in promoting moral and political education among university students.Regular and long-term construction of teachers’morality and ethics will contribute to the success of the fundamental task of cultivating talents.The present study proposes that due to the multiple identities of university teachers,it is necessary to evaluate the construction of teachers’morality and ethics in terms of what to evaluate and how to evaluate?It is expected that the attempt will provide useful guidance for the construction of university teachers’morality and ethics.

The Value and Realization Strategy of Teacher Ethics Construction in Colleges and Universities under the Perspective of“Cultivating People by Virtue”

“Cultivating people by virtue”has become the foundation of China’s education,and is the top priority of college education.“Only the learned can become teachers,and only those who behave properly can become role models”.The construction of teachers’ethics in colleges and universities is the premise of realizing the fundamental task of moral education,the need of teachers,the key to realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,and it is also the way to correct the bad atmosphere in colleges and universities.In the construction of teachers’ethics,teachers should understand their roles and improve their professional ethics,schools should improve the guarantee system of teachers’ethics construction,meanwhile,improve the status of teachers and create a social environment of respecting teachers and valuing teachers.

Levinas on the Ethics of the Other

The traditional mainstream of political philosophy establishes its thoughts on the subjectivity of“I”,which also formats its ethics of justice and freedom on the ground of selfness for itself and by itself.Political philosophers also incline to generalize and neutralize in labelling persons into the abstract concepts which ignore their particularity and diversity;as a result,this led to devastative consequence politically for the other,and also jeopardized the“I”.Hence Emmanuel Levinas provides his solution to this dilemma in an attempt to put the ethics of justice on the ground of the other.Justice for the other is the starting point for the political ethics.The other is the absolute infinity which cannot be encompassed by any conceptual generalization.It is otherness of the other that actually constitutes the selfness of“I”.The freedom of the other guarantees the freedom of“I”.Human being is initially ethical being.Justice for the other is the real foundation in securing justice for“I”.This mutual horizon of the other and I has primitive implication for the genuine ethics.

Recognition of Ethics and Sustainability:A Case Study of Coca-Cola

Corporate ethics and sustainable development are receiving increasing attention in today’s society.More and more companies are realizing that ethical and sustainable development is not only a requirement for fulfilling social responsibility but also a key factor for achieving long-term growth and sustainable competitive advantage.As a result,companies are integrating ethics and sustainability into their strategies,decisions,and operations to achieve both business success and social benefit.However,some companies shout sustainability and environmental protection slogans;the actual practice differs from the claim.This paper combined the planning and actual data of the Coca-Cola Company and found that the Coca-Cola Company was suspected of greenwashing.While Coca-Cola does contribute to the environment,there is a difference between what it does and what it says.As for the possibility of this problem,the article also makes a relative solution and assessment.

Hierarchical Media Ethics in the Digital Age: An Analysis of the “Primary School Student Lost Homework in Paris” Incident

In the digital age,traditional media ethics norms lack sufficient explanatory power and binding force in practice.This paper uses the“Primary School Student Lost Homework in Paris”incident as a case study to explore the ethical controversies surrounding the dissemination of this event.By adopting a hierarchical media ethics perspective,the paper dynamically examines the ethical conduct of various communicators,elucidates the ethical responsibilities of each party involved,and reveals the complexity of communication ethics in the digital age.

Exploring the Long-Term Mechanism of the Construction of College Teachers’Ethics in the New Era Under the Concept of“Sanquan Education”

This paper takes the long-term mechanism exploration of the construction of teachers’ethics in the new era under the concept of“Sanquan education,”aiming to explore how to establish a long-term mechanism of the construction to meet the needs of college education development under the background of the new era.A series of targeted measures and suggestions are put forward,including improving the system and mechanism,strengthening the education and training of teachers’ethics,and establishing the evaluation and assessment mechanism.The implementation of these measures can promote the formation of the long-term mechanism of the construction of teachers’ethics in colleges and universities,improve teachers’ethics and behavior quality,and provide strong support for the development of education in colleges and universities.

The Price of Engineering Ethics, a Personal Story

There are costs for doing the right thing,but regret is not one of those costs.I learned this lesson the hard way throughout a 42-year engineering career.As a young engineer,raising a family,I was more adaptable to management mandates,i.e.,I was more willing to be unethical to keep my job to make money and have health insurance for my family.As I grew in age,experience,and stamina,I was less adaptable,i.e.,I was more ethical.This article tells this story through events at various times in my engineering career1.Ethics define how we do the right thing.

Challenges and Suggestions of Ethical Review on Clinical Research Involving Brain-Computer Interfaces

Brain-computer interface(BCI)technology is rapidly advancing in medical research and application.As an emerging biomedical engineering technology,it has garnered significant attention in the clinical research of brain disease diagnosis and treatment,neurological rehabilitation,and mental health.However,BCI also raises several challenges and ethical concerns in clinical research.In this article,the authors investigate and discuss three aspects of BCI in medicine and healthcare:the state of international ethical governance,multidimensional ethical challenges pertaining to BCI in clinical research,and suggestive concerns for ethical review.Despite the great potential of frontier BCI research and development in the field of medical care,the ethical challenges induced by itself and the complexities of clinical research and brain function have put forward new special fields for ethics in BCI.To ensure"responsible innovation"in BCI research in healthcare and medicine,the creation of an ethical global governance framework and system,along with special guidelines for cutting-edge BCI research in medicine,is suggested.

Errata regarding missing Ethical Statements in previously published articles:Part 3

Ethical statements were not included in the published version of the following articles that appeared in previous issues of Journal of Integrative Agriculture.The appropriate statements provided by the Authors are included below.

Errata regarding missing Ethical Statements in previously published articles:Part 5

Ethical statements were not included in the published version of the following articles that appeared in previous issues of Journal of Integrative Agriculture.The appropriate statements provided by the Authors are included below.

Errata regarding missing Ethical Statements in previously published articles:Part 4

Ethical statements were not included in the published version of the following articles that appeared in previous issues of Journal of Integrative Agriculture.The appropriate statements provided by the Authors are included below.

Errata regarding missing Ethical Statements in previously published articles:Part 1

Ethical statements were not included in the published version of the following articles that appeared in previous issues of Journal of Integrative Agriculture.The appropriate statements provided by the Authors are included below.

Errata regarding missing Ethical Statements in previously published articles:Part 2

Ethical statements were not included in the published version of the following articles that appeared in previous issues of Journal of Integrative Agriculture.The appropriate statements provided by the Authors are included below.

Ethical Decision-Making Framework Based on Incremental ILP Considering Conflicts

Humans are experiencing the inclusion of artificial agents in their lives,such as unmanned vehicles,service robots,voice assistants,and intelligent medical care.If the artificial agents cannot align with social values or make ethical decisions,they may not meet the expectations of humans.Traditionally,an ethical decision-making framework is constructed by rule-based or statistical approaches.In this paper,we propose an ethical decision-making framework based on incremental ILP(Inductive Logic Programming),which can overcome the brittleness of rule-based approaches and little interpretability of statistical approaches.As the current incremental ILP makes it difficult to solve conflicts,we propose a novel ethical decision-making framework considering conflicts in this paper,which adopts our proposed incremental ILP system.The framework consists of two processes:the learning process and the deduction process.The first process records bottom clauses with their score functions and learns rules guided by the entailment and the score function.The second process obtains an ethical decision based on the rules.In an ethical scenario about chatbots for teenagers’mental health,we verify that our framework can learn ethical rules and make ethical decisions.Besides,we extract incremental ILP from the framework and compare it with the state-of-the-art ILP systems based on ASP(Answer Set Programming)focusing on conflict resolution.The results of comparisons show that our proposed system can generate better-quality rules than most other systems.

Tackling the Existential Threats from Quantum Computers and AI

Although AI and quantum computing (QC) are fast emerging as key enablers of the future Internet, experts believe they pose an existential threat to humanity. Responding to the frenzied release of ChatGPT/GPT-4, thousands of alarmed tech leaders recently signed an open letter to pause AI research to prepare for the catastrophic threats to humanity from uncontrolled AGI (Artificial General Intelligence). Perceived as an “epistemological nightmare”, AGI is believed to be on the anvil with GPT-5. Two computing rules appear responsible for these risks. 1) Mandatory third-party permissions that allow computers to run applications at the expense of introducing vulnerabilities. 2) The Halting Problem of Turing-complete AI programming languages potentially renders AGI unstoppable. The double whammy of these inherent weaknesses remains invincible under the legacy systems. A recent cybersecurity breakthrough shows that banning all permissions reduces the computer attack surface to zero, delivering a new zero vulnerability computing (ZVC) paradigm. Deploying ZVC and blockchain, this paper formulates and supports a hypothesis: “Safe, secure, ethical, controllable AGI/QC is possible by conquering the two unassailable rules of computability.” Pursued by a European consortium, testing/proving the proposed hypothesis will have a groundbreaking impact on the future digital infrastructure when AGI/QC starts powering the 75 billion internet devices by 2025.

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.

Integrating GPT into the Journalism and Communication Industries:The Technological Logic,Ecosystem Reconstruction,and Ethical Chal enges

Generative AI,represented by GPT(Generative Pre-trained Transformer),is now leading the technological revolution and is reconstructing the journalism and communication industries'ecosystems because of its powerful generative capacity and diverse range of outputs.While GPT is busy revolutionizing and innovating the production of news content,working patterns,and operation modes,it has also given rise to ethical concerns in regard to news authenticity,data security,humanistic values,and other related aspects.Therefore,it is imperative to initiate strategies and approaches,such as establishing a mechanism for verifying information authenticity,enhancing data security and privacy regulations,and instituting an ethical supervision and governance framework for AI,in order to facilitate the systematic advancement of AI-based news production while reinstating public trust.