Parable is a literary genre. The knowledge of a literary parable makes us cognizant of the use of a technique used by the great philosophers to make known or transfer new ideas by making analogies or putting on one side a known fact to communicate a new or something incomprehensible. Jesus used the parable constantly, in his preaching and in the proclamation of the Kingdom of Heaven.

The prevailing model for encouraging innovation based on patents and market-oriented raises at least two economic and ethical issues: it imposes barriers on individuals and developing countries governments' access to medicines by defining prices that do not match their income, and the unavailability of new or appropriate products to address the health problems of these populations. In the last decade, this scenario has undergone some changes due to the emergence of new actors, the contribution of aid resources, the introduction to (...) the market of new products against neglected diseases, the development of new governmental healthcare policies and research programs, etc. One example of such initiatives is the Fixed-Dose Artesunate Combination Therapy (FACT) project consortium, which brought together institutions with different natures from both the North and the South, for the development of two antimalarial fixed-dose combinations recommended by the WHO – artesunate-amodiaquine (ASAQ) and artesunate-mefloquine (ASMQ). This paper proposes to describe and analyze the ASMQ consortium, which is the result of a new pharmaceutical development approach, based on a different paradigm – needs-driven instead of market-driven –, collaborative, with strategic participation of institutions from the South, funded by alternative resources (public and philanthropic). Thus, it represents an interesting object of study for bioethical debates on intellectual property and innovation, and its analysis is justified in light of the current debate on ways of stimulating needs-driven pharmaceutical innovation. (shrink)

Research on bias in peer review examines scholarly communication and funding processes to assess the epistemic and social legitimacy of the mechanisms by which knowledge communities vet and self-regulate their work. Despite vocal concerns, a closer look at the empirical and methodological limitations of research on bias raises questions about the existence and extent of many hypothesized forms of bias. In addition, the notion of bias is predicated on an implicit ideal that, once articulated, raises questions about the normative implications (...) of research on bias in peer review. This review provides a brief description of the function, history, and scope of peer review; articulates and critiques the conception of bias unifying research on bias in peer review; characterizes and examines the empirical, methodological, and normative claims of bias in peer review research; and assesses possible alternatives to the status quo. We close by identifying ways to expand conceptions and studies of bias to countenance the complexity of social interactions among actors involved directly and indirectly in peer review. (shrink)

The activity of the left and right central pattern generators is efficiently coordinated during locomotion. To achieve this coordination, the interplay between the CPG controlling one leg and that controlling another must be present. Previous findings in aquatic vertebrates and mammalians suggest that the alternate activation of the left and right CPGs is mediated by the commissural interneurons crossing the midline of the spinal cord. Especially, V0 commissural interneurons mediate crossed inhibition during the alternative activity of the left and right (...) CPGs. Even in humans, phase-dependent modulation of the crossed afferent inhibition during gait has been reported. Based on those previous findings, crossed inhibition of the CPG in one leg side caused by the activation of the contralateral CPG is a possible mechanism underlying the coordination of the anti-phase rhythmic movement of the legs. It has been hypothesized that the activity of the flexor half center in the CPG inhibits the contralateral flexor half center, but crossed inhibition of the extensor half center is not present because of the existence of the double limb support during gait. Nevertheless, previous findings on the phase-dependent crossed inhibition during anti-phase bilateral movement of the legs are not in line with this hypothesis. For example, extensor activity caused crossed inhibition of the flexor half center during bilateral cycling of the legs. In another study, the ankle extensor was inhibited at the period switching from extension to flexion during anti-phase rhythmic movement of the ankles. In this review article, I provide a critical discussion about crossed inhibition mediating the coordination of the anti-phase bilateral rhythmic movement of the legs. (shrink)

Crutchfield and Redinger (2024) maintain that “being conscious is a basic liberty,” and infer from this that without informed consent, deep sedation, by intruding upon one’s consciousness, is an in...

We consider the problem of fair allocation in economies with indivisible goods. Our primary concept is that of an envy-free allocation, that is, an allocation such that no agent would prefer anyone else's bundle to his own. Since there typically is a large set (a continuum) of such allocations, the need arises to identify well-behaved selections from the no-envy solution. First we establish the non-existence of ‘population monotonic’ selections. Then we propose a variety of selections motivated by intuitive considerations of (...) fairness. (shrink)

This is the translation of the so-called Morioka&Sugimoto proposal on brain death and transplantation. We proposed that the prior declaration of a brain dead child should be respected, and that when the child does not have a donor card the organ removal should be prohibited. A material for understanding an unprecedented bioethics debate now occurring in Japan.

This article attempts to examine Nihonjinron, the popular essentialist genre in Japan, which purports to analyse Japan's quintessence and cultural core by using three concepts - nationality, ethnicity and culture - synonymously. The focus of the paper will be placed on: (1) the widespread political bases of Nihonjinron and its internal divisions; (2) its changing features in the face of globalization; (3) the possible productive uses of Nihonjinron at both conceptual and theoretical levels; and (4) the dilemma of inter-societal and (...) intra-societal cultural relativism, which the Nihonjinron debate has highlighted. The paper presents an outline of an inductive, pluralistic, multicultural model of analysis as a possible alternative. (shrink)

This paper examines ethics in finance, specifically related to responsible investment. In recent years, socially responsible principles are becoming the de facto standard not only for socially responsible but also for profitable investing. For instance, the United Nations developed the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) in 2006, which require institutional investors to incorporate ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) issues into investment analysis and decision-making processes. This raises the following question: can responsible investments be justified from an ethical point of view? (...) In this paper I first explain responsible investments. Then, I turn to the ethical foundation of responsible investments. There are two arguments for responsible investments. I argue that both fail. Therefore, my conclusion is that the ethical foundation of responsible investments is not firm. (shrink)

In this paper, a system called Caretta that integrates personal and shared workspaces to support face-to-face collaboration is described. We use PDAs for individual users' personal workspaces that enable them to reflect on their own idea. A shared workspace has been implemented by using a multiple-input sensing board, which allows a group of users to simultaneously manipulate physical objects. In order to raise the level of awareness among users, we have used augmented reality technologies and created an immersive environment for (...) the users' shared workspace. Users of Caretta can discuss and negotiate with each other in the shared workspace, while they individually examine their ideas in their own personal workspaces. Therefore, Caretta allows users to participate in group activities interchangeably and seamlessly by using both these workspaces. Caretta can be used for several types of group activities. In this paper, it is used for supporting a group of users in urban planning tasks by allowing the users to actually construct a town on the shared space and evaluate the town through computer simulations. User studies to evaluate Caretta were conducted. Usage logs of Caretta, video analyses, and comments from users proved that each user could utilize personal and shared space interchangeably at their own pace and without being hindered by other users. (shrink)

In this study, Knauff and Johnson-Laird's visual impedance hypothesis is applied to the domain of external representations and diagrammatic reasoning. We show that the use of real objects and augmented real objects can control human interpretation and reasoning about conditionals. As participants made inferences, they also moved objects corresponding to premises. Participants who moved real objects made more invalid inferences than those who moved AR objects and those who did not manipulate objects. Our results showed that real objects impeded conditional (...) reasoning, but AR objects did not. These findings are explained by the fact that real objects may over-specify a single state that exists, while AR objects suggest multiple possibilities. (shrink)

In this study, we propose the Ankle-Worn Sensor Sleeve to help people maintain their health. Furthermore, our approach uses this sensor sleeve to improve walking motivation by making the walking motion more sensible. In this research, we pursue the design of a wearable device that users can wear as a “shoe accessory,” with the aim of promoting people’s walking motivation. This device is ankle-worn and generates electricity using the physical flexion and extension of the ankle, detects and acquires the amount (...) of electricity generated, and uses the resulting power to produce sound and light feedback while walking. The Sleeve is designed to support health problems, such as locomotive syndrome and dementia, which are caused by physical inactivity. This article presents the results of a questionnaire survey conducted on 172 people who experienced or observed the device during exhibitions. The results reveal that this device increased people’s interest and motivation to walk, including those who did not like to walk. (shrink)

昭和という動乱の時代に、その歴史の展開の中で、西田幾多郎は独自の思索を展開した。「歴史」という概念を軸に、「宗教」の問題に踏み込む西田哲学の全体像を描く。.

In my paper, I partially defend Philippa Foot’s view in answering the question ‘why be moral?’ In her book, Natural Goodness(2001) and her final paper, “Rationality and Goodness” (2004), Foot proposes two ideas: Ethical Naturalism and, what I call, the ‘Anti-Humean Theory of Practical Rationality’. In answering the question ‘why be moral?’, I argue that we should abandon the former and adopt the latter. In Section I, I discuss Foot’s Anti-Humean Theory of Practical Rationality. In Section II, I examine Foot’s (...) Ethical Naturalism. I argue that it is no longer defensible. In Section III, I examine other possible ways to integrate the categories of practical rationality. One is to take a utilitarian approach and another is to take a Kantian approach. I argue that the latter approach is in harmony with Foot’s Anti-Humean Theory of Practical Rationality. (shrink)

We present some ideas on logical process descriptions, using relations from the DIO (Drug Interaction Ontology) as examples and explaining how these relations can be naturally decomposed in terms of more basic structured logical process descriptions using terms from linear logic. In our view, the process descriptions are able to clarify the usual relational descriptions of DIO. In particular, we discuss the use of logical process descriptions in proving linear logical theorems. Among the types of reasoning supported by DIO one (...) can distinguish both (1) basic reasoning about general structures in reality and (2) the domain-specific reasoning of experts. We here propose a clarification of this important distinction between (realist) reasoning on the basis of an ontology and rule-based inferences on the basis of an expert’s view. (shrink)

In recent years, ethical questions related to the development of artificial intelligence are being increasingly discussed. However, there has not been enough corresponding increase in the research and development associated with AI technology that incorporates with ethical discussion. We therefore implemented an organic and dynamic tool for use with knowledge base of AI ethics for engineers to promote engineers’ practice of ethical AI design to realize further social values. Here, “organic” means that the tool deals with complex relationships among different (...) AI ethics. “Dynamic” means that the tool dynamically adopts new issues and helps engineers think in their own contexts. Data in the knowledge base of the tool is standardized based on the ethical design theory that consists of an extension of the hierarchical representation of artifacts to understand ethical considerations from the perspective of engineering, and a description method to express the design ideas. In addition, we apply the dynamic knowledge management model called knowledge liquidization and crystallization. To discuss the effects, we introduce three cases: a case for the clarification of differences in the structures among AI ethics and design ideas, a case for the presentation of semantic distance among them, and a case for the recommendation of the scenario paths that allow engineers to seamlessly use AI ethics in their own contexts. We discuss the effectiveness of the tool. We also show the probability that engineers can reconstruct AI ethics as a more practical one with professional ethicists. (shrink)

Researchers are able to estimate what subjects attend to by using eye tracking systems. Existing approaches for analyzing eye movements are very useful to estimate attention to still objects. But they are inadequate to estimate attention to moving objects, although paying attention to moving objects is usual human behavior. Thus, we propose a novel approach and algorithm to estimate attention to moving objects more precisely. Our approach is to extract "eye tracking movements". We phrase both saccadic eye movements and smooth (...) pursuit eye movements as "eye tracking movements". Because previous works reveal that humans often track a moving object by the eye movements when they pay attention to the object, our approach seems to be appropriate. Our algorithm used for extracting eye tracking movements is called Path Stitching (PS) algorithm. The PS algorithm is a kind of Longest Common Subsequence (LCS) discovery algorithms using Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) as a similarity measurement procedure. Eye tracking movements can be regarded as a situation that a subsequence of eye movements' trajectory is similar to a subsequence of the target's trajectory with a small or no time-difference. Because humans track a moving object by the eye movements with locally fluctuated time difference, we think the use of DTW is very appropriate. In addition, to make outputs more comprehensible, we employ the LCS discovery approach for the PS algorithm. The experimental results show that the PS algorithm is more able to extract eye tracking movements than the fixation extracting approach. The fixation extracting approach is the most popular and the strongest approach to analyze eye movements. Therefore, we conclude that our novel approach will advance the analysis of human behavior by the eye movements and human-computer interaction systems they utilize user's eye movements. (shrink)

Ethical aspects in engineering design have become increasingly important in recent years. A typical example is the recent rise of artificial intelligence ethics. This paper applies user studies of a design support tool to empirically verify that our ethical framework improves the creativity of an engineer’s design activity. The design support tool provides an environment for the promotion of ethical design perspectives and description. The experiments focus on two functionalities: semi-automatic generation and scenario path recommendation. These functions are designed around (...) the application of ethical design theory, which extends the hierarchical representation of artifacts. Doing this enables users to reconsider their themes at the highest level of the hierarchy and to apply a wider conceptual space of design solutions. For example, by reconsidering the positions of their research themes in the space of the representation field, users can semi-automatically edit them and identify focal areas. Using the scenario path recommendation, designers can update their research themes after considering the ethical impacts of those themes on stakeholders. Both functions are realized by exploiting a knowledge base of ethical and technological discourses. Finally, the ethical design theory is updated based on some unexpected results of our user studies with regards to the cyclic relationship among theory, tools, and observed data. For example, temporal dimensional aspects were confirmed as important. (shrink)

This study proposes a model of non-unitary time discounting and examines its welfare implications. A key feature of our model lies in the disparity of time discounting between multiple distinct goods, which induces an individual’s preference reversals even though she normally discounts her future utilities for each good. After characterizing the time-consistent decision-making by such an individual, we compare welfare achieved in the market economy and welfare in the planner’s allocation from the perspective of all selves across time. Under certain (...) situations, the selves in early periods strictly prefer the social planner’s allocation, whereas the selves in future periods strictly prefer the market equilibrium. Therefore, the welfare implications of our model are quite different from those in the canonical discounting model and in models of other time-inconsistent preferences. (shrink)

Scientific authorship serves to identify and acknowledge individuals who “contribute significantly” to published research. However, specific authorship norms and practices often differ within and across disciplines, labs, and cultures. As a consequence, authorship disagreements are commonplace in team research. This study aims to better understand the prevalence of authorship disagreements, those factors that may lead to disagreements, as well as the extent and nature of resulting misbehavior. Methods include an international online survey of researchers who had published from 2011 to (...) 2015. Of the 6673 who completed the main questions pertaining to authorship disagreement and misbehavior, nearly half reported disagreements regarding authorship naming; and discipline, rank, and gender had significant effects on disagreement rates. Paradoxically, researchers in multidisciplinary teams that typically reflect a range of norms and values, were less likely to have faced disagreements regarding authorship. Respondents reported having witnessed a wide range of misbehavior including: instances of hostility, undermining of a colleague’s work during meetings/talks, cutting corners on research, sabotaging a colleague’s research, or producing fraudulent work to be more competitive. These findings suggest that authorship disputes may contribute to an unhealthy competitive dynamic that can undermine researchers’ wellbeing, team cohesion, and scientific integrity. (shrink)