Matching Items (19)
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- All Subjects: ethics
- All Subjects: Soft actuator
- Creators: Harrington Bioengineering Program
Description
Romania is in the midst of an identity emergency due to its relatively recent departure from a communist dictatorship. This paper will take a look at identities within Romania while paying close attention to the way that emerging political, economic, religious and gender identities have been and are being used to oppress the Romanian queer population. This paper seeks to justify an application of Western values towards the call for enfranchisement of Romanian queers. Western values, in this sense, will be based on Enlightenment notions of equality in all people and based on philosophers whose writings and paradigms are centered in the Western world. Furthermore, it will discuss violence and masculinity in hopes that understanding and critically examining these topics may be used in application towards the emerging Romanian identities and statistics which highlight and implicate queer oppression. Again, this paper will not seek to definitely link as causal any one emerging identity towards the oppression of the queer minority in Romania nor will it seek to undermine any single Romanian institution, but rather question the correlative elements of Romanian society that may be implicated in potential oppression, violences, and a neglect of the Romanian queer minority.
ContributorsWoodmansee, Jon Wessley (Author) / Montesano, Mark (Thesis director) / Brake, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
At Arizona State University (ASU), there is a perceived lack of interdisciplinary symposiums for student presenters and a lack of understanding about the university's "#1 in Innovation" title awarded by U.S. News & World report. In addition, ASU focuses on advertising innovation in a few select fields, such as astronomy and space exploration. To address these issues, a team of Lincoln Undergraduate Scholars planned an Ethics & Innovation Symposium with the theme of "Defining Our Future" for April 11, 2018. I chose to conduct a post-event analysis of logistics, successes, and failures. This additional evaluation was meant to serve as a measure of the symposium's sustainability for future years. This thesis addresses the methods of event planning (incl. marketing, gathering student presenters, catering, room reservation), results, and analysis of outcomes specifically for the Ethics & Innovation Symposium. Overall, the thesis document will benefit anyone interested in planning some event at the university level. Additional reference documents are included in this report to provide help with creating a general checklist, developing marketing deliverables, and contacting university departments/organizations.
ContributorsJagadish, Ishitha (Author) / Coursen, Jerry (Thesis director) / Kenney, Sean (Committee member) / O'Neil, Erica (Committee member) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-12
Description
Perhaps the most common and forceful criticism directed at absolutist deontological theories is that they allow for the occurrence of morally catastrophic events whenever such events could only and certainly be prevented by the violation of a deontological constraint. Some deontologists simply bite the bullet, accept this implication of their theory, and give their best arguments as to why it does not undermine absolutism. Others, I think more plausibly, opt for an alternative deontological theory known as ‘moderate deontology’ and are thereby able to evade the criticism since moderate deontology permits violations of constraints under certain extreme circumstances. The goal of this thesis is to provide a defense of moderate deontology against three worries about the view, namely, that it is more accurately interpreted as a kind of pluralism than as a deontology, that there is no non-arbitrary way of setting thresholds for deontological constraints, and that the positing of thresholds for constraints would lead to some problematic results in practice. I will respond to each of these worries in turn. In particular, I will argue that moderate deontology is properly understood as a deontological theory despite its partial concern for consequentialist considerations, that thresholds for deontological constraints can be successfully located without arbitrariness by democratic appeal to people’s commonsense moral intuitions, and that the alleged problematic results of positing thresholds for constraints can be effectively explained away by the moderate deontologist.
ContributorsCook, Tyler Blake (Author) / Calhoun, Cheshire (Thesis advisor) / Portmore, Douglas (Committee member) / Brake, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Memory augmentation will play a vital role in the development of our future. The predicted introduction of downloadable brains will be the first of many neurocognitive technologies that will alter our lives at both the societal and individual levels. These technologies can affect everything from educational institutions to the judicial system, meanwhile raising issues such as autonomy, human psychology, and selfhood. Because of its tremendous potential, memory augmentation and its implications should thoroughly be examined.
ContributorsKim, Jinkyu (Author) / McGregor, Joan (Thesis director) / Robert, Jason (Committee member) / Helms Tillery, Stephen (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Division of Educational Leadership and Innovation (Contributor) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
The development of computational systems known as brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) offers the possibility of allowing individuals disabled by neurological disorders such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and ischemic stroke the ability to perform relatively complex tasks such as communicating with others and walking. BCIs are closed-loop systems that record physiological signals from the brain and translate those signals into commands that control an external device such as a wheelchair or a robotic exoskeleton. Despite the potential for BCIs to vastly improve the lives of almost one billion people, one question arises: Just because we can use brain-computer interfaces, should we? The human brain is an embodiment of the mind, which is largely seen to determine a person's identity, so a number of ethical and philosophical concerns emerge over current and future uses of BCIs. These concerns include privacy, informed consent, autonomy, identity, enhancement, and justice. In this thesis, I focus on three of these issues: privacy, informed consent, and autonomy. The ultimate purpose of brain-computer interfaces is to provide patients with a greater degree of autonomy; thus, many of the ethical issues associated with BCIs are intertwined with autonomy. Currently, brain-computer interfaces exist mainly in the domain of medicine and medical research, but recently companies have started commercializing BCIs and providing them at affordable prices. These consumer-grade BCIs are primarily for non-medical purposes, and so they are beyond the scope of medicine. As BCIs become more widespread in the near future, it is crucial for interdisciplinary teams of ethicists, philosophers, engineers, and physicians to collaborate to address these ethical concerns now before BCIs become more commonplace.
ContributorsChu, Kevin Michael (Author) / Ankeny, Casey (Thesis director) / Robert, Jason (Committee member) / Frow, Emma (Committee member) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School for the Future of Innovation in Society (Contributor) / Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Falls are known to be a common occurrence and a costly one as well, as they are the second leading cause of unintentional deaths and millions of other injuries worldwide. Falls often occur due to an increase in trunk flexion angle, so this experiment aims to reduce the trunk flexion received while stepping over an obstacle. To achieve this a soft actuator was attached to the trunk and pressure was sent as subjects walked and stepped over an obstacle presented on a treadmill. The pressure is meant to stiffen the back which should in theory reduce the trunk flexion angle and lower the chances of falling. In this experiment, two groups were tested: three participants from a control group (healthy young adults) and three participants from an experimental group (healthy elderly adults). Since elderly adults have the highest fall risk due to overall lack of stability, they are the experimental group and the focus for this experiment. The results from the study showed that elderly adults had a beneficial effect with the soft actuator as there was a noticeable difference in trunk flexion when the device was attached. The experiment also supported prior research that stated that trunk flexion was greater in elderly adults than younger adults. Despite the positive results, further studies should be done to prove that the soft devices influence lowering trunk flexion angle as well as to see if the device has any noticeable effect on younger adults.
ContributorsFisher, Caleb (Author) / Lee, Hyunglae (Thesis director) / Olivas, Alyssa (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor)
Created2023-05
ContributorsFisher, Caleb (Author) / Lee, Hyunglae (Thesis director) / Olivas, Alyssa (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor)
Created2023-05
ContributorsFisher, Caleb (Author) / Lee, Hyunglae (Thesis director) / Olivas, Alyssa (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor)
Created2023-05
ContributorsFisher, Caleb (Author) / Lee, Hyunglae (Thesis director) / Olivas, Alyssa (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor)
Created2023-05
ContributorsFisher, Caleb (Author) / Lee, Hyunglae (Thesis director) / Olivas, Alyssa (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor)
Created2023-05