Ethical Requirements Research Articles

Establishing Adaptive Governance in NFDI Consortia:

There is widespread support for patient and public involvement (PPI) as an ethical requirement in biomedical research and policy development [1, 2], including research using personal health data, such as genomic data [3]. Sharing genomic and other personal health data is important for progress in health research [4], but poses ethical, legal and societal challenges for the governance of research and the institutions that conduct and support it. These challenges arise in part from the varied interests of the stakeholders involved, including patients, researchers, and funders [5]. In recent years, there has been a rise in collaborations between research institutions that conduct joint research programs. In these research consortia, the objectives and stakeholders in research are multiplied and more varied, making governance even more complex [6]. There has been debate about strengths and weaknesses of different forms of governance of research, with proponents of adaptive governance highlighting its responsiveness and flexibility to evolving goals and needs of stakeholders [5, 7]. However, there are no set standards for involving patients in the governance of health research. Moreover, as it is a highly context-specific process, cultural, legal and social contexts of the individual institutions or consortia must be considered. Within the German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI), there are consortia supporting research with personal health data, one of which is the German Human Genome-Phenome Archive (GHGA) [8]. We describe GHGA’s PaGODA Project (Patient Involvement in the Governance of an Omics Data Archive), whose goals are to gather patients’ views for their involvement in the governance of GHGA by conducting deliberative forums, and to implement these views. We focus here on the process of translating the findings from the forums into the GHGA governance policy, and identify procedural factors that were important for the process.

A Survey on Explainable Anomaly Detection

In the past two decades, most research on anomaly detection has focused on improving the accuracy of the detection, while largely ignoring the explainability of the corresponding methods and thus leaving the explanation of outcomes to practitioners. As anomaly detection algorithms are increasingly used in safety-critical domains, providing explanations for the high-stakes decisions made in those domains has become an ethical and regulatory requirement. Therefore, this work provides a comprehensive and structured survey on state-of-the-art explainable anomaly detection techniques. We propose a taxonomy based on the main aspects that characterise each explainable anomaly detection technique, aiming to help practitioners and researchers find the explainable anomaly detection method that best suits their needs.

Ethical responsibility of professional accountants in the context of supporting sustainable development goals

The article discusses the impact of professional accountants’ adherence to fundamental principles of ethics, their impact on supporting sustainable development, and responsibility for violations of ethical principles. The issue of ethical responsibility of professional accountants in the context of supporting the goals of sustainable development is one of the primary tasks and requires a solution. Modern conditions also require an appropriate response to changes in ethical codes of professional accountants in order to meet new challenges. In order to always have up-to-date knowledge and skills in a certain field, it is necessary to constantly monitor all changes that occur in regulatory legislation. Since the accounting profession has a responsibility to act in the public interest, accountants are required to act transparently to ensure proper compliance with both legal and ethical requirements, and to contribute to the sustainable development of both business and society in general. Traditionally, professionalism includes, among other things, commitment to the public interest; a complete set of knowledge supported by a strict education system; independence and professional code of conduct.

The importance of cybersecurity frameworks to regulate emergent AI technologies for space applications

Over the past decades, industries and governments have progressively been relying upon space data-centric and data-dependant systems. This led to the emergence of malicious activities, also known as cyber-threats, targeting such systems. To counter these threats, new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) have been implemented and deployed. Today, AI is highly capable of delivering fast, precise, and reliable command-and-control decision-making, as well as providing reliable vulnerability analysis using well-proven cutting-edge techniques, at least when applied to terrestrial applications. In fact, this might not yet be the case when used for space applications. AI can also play a transformative and important role in the future of space cybersecurity, and it poses questions on what to expect in the near-term future.Challenges and opportunities deriving from the adoption of AI-based solutions to achieve cybersecurity and later cyber defence objectives in both civil and military operations require rethinking of a new framework and new ethical requirements. In fact, most of these technologies are not designed to be used or to overcome challenges in space. Because of the highly contested and congested environment, as well as the highly interdisciplinary nature of threats to AI and Machine Learning (ML) technologies, including cybersecurity issues, a solid and open understanding of the technology itself is required, as well as an understanding of its multidimensional uses and approaches. This includes the definition of legal and technical frameworks, ethical dimensions and other concerns such as mission safety, national security, and technology development for future uses.The continuous endeavours to create a framework and regulate interdependent uses of combined technologies such as AI and cybersecurity to counter “new” threats require the investigation and development of “living concepts” to determine in advance the vulnerabilities of networks and AI.This paper defines a cybersecurity risk and vulnerability taxonomy to enable the future application of AI in the space security field. Moreover, it assesses to what extent a network digital twins’ simulation can still protect networks against relentless cyber-attacks in space against users and ground segments. Both concepts are applied to the case study of Earth Observation (EO) operations, which allows for conclusions to be drawn based on the business impact (reputational, environmental, and social) of a cyber malicious activity. Since AI technologies are developing on a daily basis, a regulatory framework is proposed using ethical and technical approaches for this technology and its use in space.

Relationship between Increased Student Enrolment and Delivery of Accommodation Services in Public Boarding Secondary Schools in Kisumu West Sub-County, Kenya

The study aimed at determining the relationship between increased student enrolment and delivery of accommodation services in public boarding secondary schools in Kisumu West Sub-county, Kenya. The study used a descriptive survey approach. The research findings will assist school administrators when making decisions about the development of school resources, focusing on those that have significant impact on the students' welfare. The sample size consisted of 357 students, 8 boarding mistresses/masters and 8 matrons from 8 public boarding secondary schools. The sample size of 357 students was arrived at using the Krejcie & Morgan table. A combination of census and proportionate sampling techniques was employed. Open-ended and closed-ended questionnaires were used. The validity of the data collection instruments was ascertained through content validity while the reliability was established using the test-retest method. Qualitative analyses was presented in narrative form while quantitative data was coded and entered into SPSS. The researcher adhered to the ethical research requirements. The results indicate that relationship between enrolment and accommodation was negative and statistically significant at .05 confidence level, r(292) = -.255, p = .000. It was concluded that increased enrolment negatively affects the quality of accommodation services provided to students.

Education on the culture of difference and acceptance of the other entrance to achieve coexistence

Difference is a cosmic year that does not contradict human unity, and it is one of the rights guaranteed by all religions and legal legislation and their enemy from natural laws, and made of mercy, justice, tolerance, coexistence and dialogue. The wisdom of God Almighty has decreed that making difference is as old as creation, and it is an eternal cosmic norm and human nature. It is an absolute impossibility to gather people on one word. The one who meditates on the history of mankind concludes that most wars and conflicts were caused primarily by the absence of dialogue, the lack of acceptance of the other, the attempt to impose a single opinion, and the failure to create a common space for mutual understanding and coexistence, which caused the spread of nervousness and racism in all its forms, and resulted in devastation, destruction and tragedies that humanity is still reaping. its woes to this day. With successive days, awareness of the importance of peaceful coexistence, acceptance of the other and management of difference increased, especially in the era of globalization in which the world has become a single village in which no party can be excluded. Education on dialogue and acceptance of the other is one of the basic approaches to achieving peaceful coexistence. Therefore, the educational curricula should take care of the students, provide them with material and moral requirements, and teach them methods of civili tance of differences in opinion. Through a modern educational plan aimed at achieving this lofty educational goal in the horizon of its extension in society to become a community practice and civilized behavior stemming from the individuality of man. In order to achieve the aforementioned goal, the school must be an example and a living model to be emulated, and make the school a living micro-society and a public space open for exchange, cooperation, participation, creativity, integration, taking initiatives and completing projects through building an educational curriculum that gives ample space for consolidating a culture of dialogue, acceptance of the other, peaceful coexistence and rejection of violence. And other values that twist in this direction. The purpose of this is to improve the school and the general community so that its children can coexist and accept differences among themselves.The importance of this research is mainly reflected in shedding light on this important topic, which was overlooked by a group of Arab and African countries, and this caused conflicts and wars, which disrupted the development and democratic process of these countries. The research also refers to the most important basic approaches to consolidating the values of coexistence and acceptance of the other, through procedural activities within the classroom, the family and society in general. The spread of war and violence between some countries and the spread of nervousness among individuals and groups have disrupted the comprehensive development process of these countries, and to solve these problems, a set of questions must be asked that will be a starting point in order to reach possible solutions. What are the reasons for intolerance of opinion and rejection of the other ? How do we address this through the intervention of state institutions and civil society ? How can this be achieved in educational institutions ? In order to answer these and other questions, it is necessary to follow a descriptive and analytical methodology based on a set of different studies related to the subject of coexistence and acceptance of the other, and to link them in order to reach tangible and practical results away from all self-bias. Therefore, we will try to start from major goals and how to implement them on the ground through society, and from within the educational institution through different study materials in order to achieve competencies that serve us dialogue and accept differences and peaceful coexistence.

Relationship between increased student enrolment and delivery of catering services in public boarding secondary schools in Kisumu West Sub-County, Kenya

This study sought to investigate the relationship between increased student enrolment and the delivery of catering services in public boarding secondary schools in Kisumu West Sub-County, Kenya. A descriptive survey approach was utilised to gather relevant data. The outcomes of this research will offer valuable insights to school administrators when making decisions concerning the allocation of school resources, with a particular focus on areas that have a significant impact on student catering services. The study involved a sample of 357 students and eight cateresses from eight public boarding secondary schools. The sample size of 357 students was determined using the Krejcie & Morgan table. A combination of census and proportionate sampling techniques was employed to select participants. Both open-ended and closed-ended questionnaires were utilised as data collection instruments. The qualitative data was presented in a narrative form, while the quantitative data was coded and entered into SPSS for analysis. Ethical research requirements were strictly adhered to throughout the study. The research findings indicated a negative and statistically significant relationship between student enrolment and the quality of accommodation services provided, with a confidence level of 0.05, r(294) = -.255, p = .000. These findings concluded that increased enrolment has an adverse impact on the standard of catering services offered to students.

The limits of the just‐too‐different argument

AbstractAccording to moral non‐naturalism, the kind of genuine or robust normativity that is characteristic of moral requirements cannot be accounted for within a wholly naturalistic worldview, but requires us to posit a domain of non‐natural properties and facts. The main argument for this core non‐naturalist claim appeals to what David Enoch calls the ‘just‐too‐different intuition’. According to Enoch, robust normativity cannot be natural, since it is just too different from anything natural. Derek Parfit makes essentially the same claim under the heading of ‘the normativity objection’, and several other non‐naturalists have said similar things. While some naturalists may be tempted to reject this argument as methodologically or dialectically illegitimate, we argue instead that there are important limits to what the just‐too‐different intuition can show, even setting all other worries aside. More specifically, we argue that the just‐too‐different argument will backfire on any positive, independent specification of the distinction between the natural and the non‐natural. The upshot is that the just‐too‐different argument can show significantly less than non‐naturalists have suggested.

Social Acceleration: A Challenge for Companies? Insights for Business Ethics from Resonance Theory

In modern capitalist societies, companies are exposed to enormous pressure to accelerate. However, it has increasingly become apparent that the social and economic acceleration which is the result of systemic imperatives tends to produce conflict both on the micro-level of personal temporal patterns and rhythms and on the macro-ecological level, where it tends to undermine the proper times for natural regeneration and reproduction. Corporations are increasingly called upon as corporate citizens to fulfil their responsibilities to stakeholders such as employees or ecosystems. Business ethics approaches therefore seek to develop strategies for fulfilling this responsibility in view of these conflicts created by social acceleration. In this contribution, we first present a diagnosis of acceleration imperatives for companies based on a sociological analysis of social acceleration. Then we examine the normative aspects of conflicts created by acceleration for employees and the ecosphere using the sociological conception of resonance. We attempt to articulate conceptually the normative requirements for a business ethics which are capable of dealing with the problems of social acceleration in corporations with a particular focus on a resonant stakeholder approach.

ORCHESTRATION AS A TEXTUAL INTERPRETATION OF A WORK (BASED ON V. PANCHENKO’S ARRANGEMENT OF THE CLAVIER OF E.-T.-A. HOFFMAN’S OPERA “UNDINE” FOR SOLOISTS, CHORUS AND SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA)

The continuing development of the composing technique is associated with the interpretation of timbre and other expressive possibilities of instruments and voices. At the same time, the displacement of concert performances of symphony orchestras and the tradition of creating “classical” orchestration by the practice of chamber-ensemble musicmaking and electronic musical creativity become topical problems. The question arises: has the attitude to the orchestration of music of the 18th-19th centuries changed today? What compromises are permissible, and what goes beyond the designated type of creative work? Do the ethical requirements to the composer’s text interpretation decrease when referring to the works of little-known authors? And if correctness and responsibility to the creator of the composition and the audience are great, then the role of research and analytical analysis multiplied by the mastery of the orchestration technology and talent compensate for the need to adapt the score to the proposed conditions of the work’s performance.

Актуальные вопросы соотношения морали и права в юридической деятельности

This article discusses the main aspects of the relationship between morality and law in a certain area of professional legal activity. It is concluded that the moral and psychological preparedness of a lawyer is a characteristic of his moral education, professional qualifications, and competence. It is noted that the Codes of professional ethics are designed to adapt the requirements of morality to a specific area of legal activity, to form standards of professional conduct.

Ethical soundness of health technology assessment reports in Islamic Republic of Iran.

Health technology assessment (HTA) is a conventional method for evaluating reasonable use of health technologies in many countries. To investigate the ethical soundness of HTA studies in Islamic Republic of Iran. All HTA reports published by the HTA office until 2020 were reviewed using the HTA Core Model and the Q-SEA questionnaires. We evaluated 91 reports for ethical soundness. The research question, literature search and inclusion/exclusion criteria were included in 91.2%, 83.5% and 82.4% of the HTA reports, respectively. Only 13.2% of the reports explicitly stated the objective of the analysis and 6.6% stated the ethics framework. Only 2.2%, 4.4%, 9.9%, 9.9%, 14.3%, and 2.2%, respectively, of the reports, complied with the completeness, bias, policy implications, other implications, conceptual clarification, and conflicting values. HTA reports in the Islamic Republic of Iran require coordinated and integrated framework acceptable to all stakeholders to ensure their compliance with sound ethical requirements.

Designing a Positive Psychological Intervention (PPI) Program for Persons Who Use Drugs (PWUDs)

This manuscript explored the integration of positive psychological science in the context of treatment and rehabilitation of persons who use drugs (PWUDs). Banking on the psychological needs of PWUDs based on the initial investigation conducted by Masanda et., al. (2022), this study endeavors to design a Positive Psychology Intervention (PPI) program that aims to harness the Character Strengths and Virtues (CSV) of the PWUDs as supplemental to their drug abuse treatment and rehabilitation. Guided by Positive Psychology, only the exclusive psychologically relevant data were included in creating the comprehensive psychological program. Specifically, the session activities of PPI are designed to enhance the following CSVs of the PWUDs: conformity, hope, self-acceptance, assertiveness, self-esteem, self-regulation, openness to change, motivation, personal strength, patience, happiness, and belongingness. The designed PPI is a 14-session program intended to be delivered once a week within three months. It was subjected to the scrutiny of three expert psychologists with decades of forensic psychological experience. Based on their judgments guided by the evaluation standards stipulated by Yarbrough et al. (2010), the designed PPI serves the psychological needs of the PWUDs in terms of their drug abuse treatment and rehabilitation, with its session activities deemed as realistic, prudent, diplomatic, and frugal. The program also shows and conveys technically adequate activities relative to drug addiction that merits good service. Finally, PPI also secures legal and ethical requirements with due regard for the welfare of the PWUDs and other stakeholders. Pertinent implications and recommendations germane to the designed program are provided.

An ontology-based approach to engineering ethicality requirements

In a world where Artificial Intelligence (AI) is pervasive, humans may feel threatened or at risk by giving up control to machines. In this context, ethicality becomes a major concern to prevent AI systems from being biased, making mistakes, or going rogue. Requirements Engineering (RE) is the research area that can exert a great impact in the development of ethical systems by design. However, proposing concepts, tools and techniques that support the incorporation of ethicality into the software development processes as explicit requirements remains a great challenge in the RE field. In this paper, we rely on Ontology-based Requirements Engineering (ObRE) as a method to elicit and analyze ethicality requirements (‘Ethicality requirements’ is adopted as a name for the class of requirements studied in this paper by analogy to other quality requirements studied in software engineering, such as usability, reliability, and portability, etc. The use of this term (as opposed to ‘ethical requirements’) highlights that they represent requirements for ethical systems, analogous to how ‘trustworthiness requirements’ represent requirements for trustworthy systems. To put simply: the predicates ‘ethical’ or ‘trustworthy’ are not meant to be predicated over the requirements themselves). ObRE applies ontological analysis to ontologically unpack terms and notions that are referred to in requirements elicitation. Moreover, this method instantiates the adopted ontology and uses it to guide the requirements analysis activity. In a previous paper, we presented a solution concerning two ethical principles, namely Beneficence and Non-maleficence. The present paper extends the previous work by targeting two other important ethicality principles, those of Explicability and Autonomy. For each of these new principles, we do ontological unpacking of the relevant concepts, and we present requirements elicitation and analysis guidelines, as well as examples in the context of a driverless car case. Furthermore, we validate our approach by analysing the requirements elicitation made for the driverless car case in contrast with a similar case, and by assessing our method’s coverage w.r.t European Union guidelines for Trustworthy AI.

Exploring the Decision-Making Process of People Living with HIV Enrolled in Antiretroviral Clinical Trials: A Qualitative Study of Decisions Guided by Trust and Emotions

The informed consent is an ethical and legal requirement for potential participants to enroll in a study. There is ample of evidence that understanding consent information and enrollment is challenging for participants in clinical trials. On the other hand, the reasoning process behind decision-making in HIV clinical trials remains mostly unexplored. This study aims to examine the decision-making process of people living with HIV currently participating in antiretroviral clinical trials and their understanding of informed consent. We conducted a qualitative socio-constructivist study using semi-structured interviews. Eleven participants were selected by purposive sampling in Argentina until data saturation was reached. A content analysis was performed. The findings highlight the fact that some participants decided to enroll on the spot, while others made the decision a few days later. In all cases, the decision was based on different aspects of trust (in doctors, in the clinical research site, in the clinical trials system) but also on emotions associated with HIV and/or treatment. Moreover, while people living with HIV felt truly informed after the consent dialogue with a researcher, consent forms were unintelligible and unfriendly. The immediacy of patient decision-making has rarely been described before. Enrollment in an HIV clinical trial is mainly a trust-based decision but this does not contradict the ethical values of autonomy, voluntariness, non-manipulation, and non‐exploitation. Thus, trust is a key issue to be included in reshaping professional practices to ensure the integrity of the informed consent process.

Informed consent for medical student involvement in patient care: an updated consensus statement.

Enabling patients to consent to or decline involvement of medical students in their care is an essential aspect of ethically sound, patient-centred, mana-enhancing healthcare. It is required by Aotearoa New Zealand law and Te Kaunihera Rata o Aotearoa Medical Council of New Zealand policy. This requirement was affirmed and explored in a 2015 Consensus Statement jointly authored by the Auckland and Otago Medical Schools. Student reporting through published studies, reflective assignments and anecdotal experiences of students and teachers indicate procedures for obtaining patient consent to student involvement in care remain substandard at times. Between 2020 and 2023 senior leaders of Aotearoa New Zealand's two medical schools, and faculty involved with teaching ethics and professionalism, met to discuss these challenges and reflect on ways they could be addressed. Key stakeholders were engaged to inform proposed responses. This updated consensus statement is the result. It does not establish new standards but outlines Aotearoa New Zealand's existing cultural, ethical, legal and regulatory requirements, and considers how these may be reasonably and feasibly met using some examples.

Mechanisms and Constraints Underpinning Ethically Aligned Artificial Intelligence Systems: An Exploration of Key Performance Areas

The unpredictability of artificial intelligence (AI) services and products pose major ethical concerns for multinational companies as evidenced by the prevalence of unfair, biased, and discriminate AI systems. Examples including Amazon’s recruiting tool, Facebook’s biased ads, and racially biased healthcare risk algorithms have raised fundamental questions about what these systems should be used for, the inherent risks they possess, and how they can be mitigated. Unfortunately, these failures not only serve to highlight the lack of regulation in AI development, but it also reveals how organisations are struggling to alleviate the dangers associated with this technology. We argue that to successfully implement ethical AI applications, developers need a deeper understanding of not only the implications of misuse, but also a grounded approach in their conception. Judgement studies were therefore conducted with experts from data science backgrounds who identified six performance areas, resulting in a theoretical framework for the development of ethically aligned AI systems. This framework also reveals that these performance areas require specific mechanisms which must be acted upon to ensure that an AI system implements and meets ethical requirements throughout its lifecycle. The findings also outline several constraints which present challenges in the manifestation of these elements. By implementing this framework, organisations can contribute to an elevated trust between technology and people resulting in significant implications for both IS research and practice. This framework will further allow organisations to take a positive and proactive approach in ensuring they are best prepared for the ethical implications associated with the development, deployment and use of AI systems.

The Role of the Internal Auditor in Strengthening the Governance of Economic Organizations Using the Three Lines of Defense Model

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the impact of the three lines of defense (TLOD) in strengthening corporate governance in industrial companies in the Sultanate of Oman. Methodology: A questionnaire was used to collect data from industrial companies in the Sultanate of Oman. A total of 300 questionnaires were distributed; for the 159 valid questionnaires used for analysis, PLS-SEM was used in the data analysis. Results: The results showed a significant impact of the three variables (commitment of operational management to legal, regulatory, and ethical requirements; risk management, compliance, and quality functions; and the role of assertive internal auditing according to the third line of defense model) in strengthening corporate governance. Practical implications: The study indicates that the TLOD model plays a more decisive role in determining the strengthening of corporate governance, and therefore, the results of the study can help industrial companies to understand the role of the TLOD model in strengthening control procedures, risk management, and governance. Originality/value: The study constitutes a management strategy that assists organizations in diagnosing the degree of corporate compliance with the TLOD and identifying weaknesses in their procedures.

Discussing the Relationship between Father and Son, Ruler and Subjects in the Xiaojing: Based on the Dunhuang Manuscripts

It has long been accepted that the ancient Chinese ruler–subjects relationship was a metaphorical extension of the father–son relationship, where loyalty and family reverence were considered synonymous. The Confucian classic the Xiaojing is taken as a significant piece of evidence supporting this view. However, based on the annotated version of the Xiaojing discovered in Dunhuang, it is evident that during the Han Dynasty and the Six Dynasties period, Confucian scholars made clear distinctions between father–son relationships and ruler–subjects relationships. They also made a clear differentiation between the moral connotations of loyalty and family reverence. The father–son relationship is a bond of blood, while the ruler–subjects relationship is a bond of duty and appropriateness, meaning that the ethical requirements for the father–son relationship and ruler–subjects relationship are fundamentally different. Therefore, expressions such as “service to ruler with family reverence is loyalty” does not mean to unify loyalty and family reverence, but means that the governor should select people who have already cultivated the virtue of family reverence to become officials because they have learnt how to show respect in their family life.

A Comprehensive Review of the Evolution and Future Directions of Digital Forensic Investigation Model

Digital forensics investigations play an essential role in modern law enforcement, national security, and civil litigation. To conduct a successful investigation, it is crucial to choose an appropriate digital forensics investigation model that fits the investigation's context, scope, purpose, and methods. This paper presents an overview of the main factors that should be considered when selecting a digital forensics investigation model, including the type of incident, legal and ethical requirements, technical and operational capabilities, and complexity of the scenario. Additionally, this paper describes 11 digital forensics investigation models, ranging from simple to complex, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. By understanding the advantages and limitations of each model, digital forensics professionals can choose the most suitable model for their specific investigation. Keywords—Digital forensics investigations, Forensic analysis, Investigation models, Forensics Model