Nanotechnology applications in industry and medicine

Since some time ago, nanotechnology has become one of the most promising scientific hopes in several human domains. Countless scientific studies in several areas of knowledge have been made since the nanoscale emergence, bringing their contribution to the nanoscience development. The recent researches in this field allowed the union of interests from several areas, such as physical sciences, molecular engineering, biology, biotechnology and medicine for example, contributing to the investigation of Biosystems at a nanoscale. Nanotechnology and nanobiosystems are becoming a privileged domain in order to reach an advanced level in the human development in many fields, as: a) the biotechnology processes; b) the synthesis of new drugs and their delivery on a live bod; c) the regenerative medicine and the new technologies in medicine: biotechnology and nanotechnology, body area networks for telemedicine – nanomedicine, nanoimaging, nanotechnological implants, in-body diagnostic systems, nanobiomedical wired devices, etc. ;d) the application on the sustainability of the environment. Nanoscale can provide the tools to get better conditions to investigate Biosystems and to get advances with nanomaterials. These nanoscales, used in Biosystems, contribute to enhance very innovative and promising results in medical area. Improvements in the telemedicine and on health are expectable with new systems operations and new nanotechniques. Ethical, legal and social implications are posed and the need for discussing this theme shows the importance of nanotechnology to the society and the consequences, both positive and negative, that the development of nanotechnology will have to mankind in the future.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Representing Life, Resisting Power: a Comparative Approach to Contemporary Biopolitics Through the Lenses of Gonçalo M. Tavares, Francesco Verso, Ken Macleod, and Suzanne Collins

In this thesis I explore through literary texts new perspectives on the biopolitical devices and discourses that permeate contemporary western societies. To this end, I examine their representations in Jerusalem, A Man: Klaus Klump, and Joseph Walser’s Machine, by Gonçalo M. Tavares, in “Fernando Morales, This Is Your Death!”, The Walkers, and Nexhuman, by Francesco Verso, in Intrusion and The Execution Channel, by Ken MacLeod, and in The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins. I start from the idea that by the beginning of the 21st century, bios and polis, life and politics have become almost completely juxtaposed, and that although the body is submitted to a constant and ubiquitous control, its materiality also constitutes a site of resistance. I go on to assess through a comparative analysis the connections and the differences between the selected novels of these four writers, with the intention of understanding how their dystopian aesthetics and essayistic dimension may potentiate a discussion on current social-political and economic problems that otherwise would have gone unnoticed. I likewise consider in what ways the fictional worlds of the characters in these works can provide us valuable insights regarding the devices and discourses through which political and economic powers govern human life. Ultimately, I try to shed some light on cultural phenomena, such as an increasing medicalization of society, the spectacularization of everyday, or the disposability of human life, which are becoming increasingly common in contemporary western societies and have profoundly changed the relationships between people and institutions at a global level. In this way the present thesis hopes to make a small, yet significant, contribution to our understanding of a politics that now encompasses virtually every sphere of human life.Nesta tese, procuro explorar através de textos literários novas perspectivas sobre os dispositivos e discursos biopolíticos que permeiam as sociedades ocidentais contemporâneas. Para tal, examino as suas representações em Jerusalém, Um Homem: Klaus Klump, e A Máquina de Joseph Walser, de Gonçalo M. Tavares, em “La morte in diretta di Fernando Morales”, I Camminatori, e Livido, de Francesco Verso, em Intrusion e The Execution Channel, de Ken MacLeod, e na trilogia The Hunger Games, de Suzanne Collins. Parto da ideia de que, no início do século XXI, bios e polis, vida e política se justapõem quase completamente, e que embora o corpo seja submetido a um controle constante e ubíquo, a sua materialidade também constitui um espaço de resistência. Por via de um estudo comparatista, procuro analisar as ligações e os contrastes entre os romances escolhidos destes quatro escritores, com o intuito de compreender como a estética distópica e a dimensão ensaística destes podem potencializar uma discussão sobre alguns problemas sociopolíticos e económicos actuais que, de outro modo, passariam despercebidos. Indago igualmente de que forma os mundos ficcionais das personagens destas obras nos podem fornecer valiosas intuições sobre dispositivos e discursos através dos quais os poderes políticos e económicos governam a vida humana. Em última análise, tento lançar alguma luz sobre fenómenos culturais, como a crescente medicalização da sociedade, a espetacularização do quotidiano ou a descartabilidade da vida humana, que se estão tornando cada vez mais comuns nas sociedades ocidentais contemporâneas e mudaram profundamente as relações entre as pessoas e instituições a nível global. Espero, assim, que esta tese possa dar uma pequena, mas significativa, contribuição para a nossa compreensão de uma política que hoje abrange praticamente todas as esferas da vida humana

Reality Hackers: The Next Wave of Media Revolutionaries

Just as the printing press gave rise to the nation-state, emerging technologies are reshaping collective identities and challenging our understanding of what it means to be human. Should citizens have the right to be truly anonymous on-line? Should we be concerned about the fact that so many people are choosing to migrate to virtual worlds? Are injectible microscopic radio-frequency ID chips a blessing or a curse? Is the use of cognitive enhancing nootropics a human right or an unforgivable transgression? Should genomic data about human beings be hidden away with commercial patents or open-sourced like software? Should hobbyists known as biohackers be allowed to experiment with genetic engineering in their home laboratories? The time-frame for acting on such questions is relatively short, and these decisions are too important to be left up to a small handful of scientists and policymakers. If democracy is to continue as a viable alternative to technocracy, the average citizen must become more involved in these debates. To borrow a line from the computer visionary Ted Nelson, all of us can -- and must -- understand technology now. Challenging the popular stereotype of hackers as ciminal sociopaths, reality hackers uphold the basic tenets of what Steven Levy (1984) terms the hacker ethic. These core principles include a commitment to: sharing, openness, decentralization, public access to information, and the use of new technologies to make the world a better place.https://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/mono/1000/thumbnail.jp

Portrayals and perceptions of cinematic artificial intelligence: a mixed-method analysis of I, Robot (2004) and Chappie (2015)

This study investigates the portrayal and perception of artificial intelligence (AI) in I, Robot (2004) and Chappie (2015), providing one of the first accounts of the causality between attitudes and expectations in the representation and reception of films about AI. The findings suggest that the level of optimism of a film is likely to be linked to its socio-cultural context. The humanoid representation of each robotic protagonist prevented each film from skewing too far towards the extremes of technological optimism or pessimism. This affected respondents’ attitudes immediately after viewership, but this affect was short-lived. Additionally, while portrayals of the future somewhat aligned to contemporary developments regarding weak AI, they were overly optimistic or pessimistic about the future of strong AI. This had little impact on respondents’ fears and expectations, as respondents used the films as visual aids to mentally depict abstract concepts relating to AI that were arrived at elsewhere.Communication ScienceM.A. (Communication Science

Towards a Global Ethics: The Debate on Nanotechnology in the European Union and China

The primary aim of the thesis is to assess whether ethical governance of Science and Technology is feasible as a global approach, using the example of nanotechnology. The thesis firstly compares ethical issues identified by stakeholders in China and the EU relating to the rapid introduction of a potentially transformative technology, namely nanotechnology. Part One of this thesis explores how the ‘narratives’ of nanotechnology differ in each region, particularly given their different bioethics contexts, and examines how specific concerns translate into policymaking. In questioning whether Eastern and Western approaches to nanotechnology governance can be aligned, one can observe that Europe is increasingly cooperating and competing with China. Such new interdependences between global actors require new global approaches to S&T policy, including ethical governance. Part Two of this thesis explores the concept of ‘global ethics’ and discusses the feasibility of a global approach. Given criticism of both universalism and relativism, it is often argued that a universal approach that takes sufficient account of local context cannot be developed. On the assumption that global ethics are achieved by global actors, this thesis looks at global agency. The thesis connects discourse ethics and participatory Technology Assessment (pTA), arguing that a version of Habermasian discourse ethics can provide a theoretical framework for dialogue between West and East. Discourse ethics has developed around Habermas’s argument that social order depends on our capacity to recognize, through rational discourse, the intersubjective validity of different views. Habermas asks the basic question of global ethics, of how different views (particularly of social order) can be universally recognized and agreed, perhaps within an 'ideal community' of communication, one that may be global. The thesis adds to Habermas’s discourse model, utilising virtue ethics as well as the work of, for example, Taylor, Beck, Korsgaard and others on identity formation. It is argued that the significant factor in global ethics is the formation of the agent’s moral identity, the formation of which requires one to go beyond one’s context, to achieve an intercultural personhood. Habermas (as do Taylor, Beck and others) suggests identity as a dual concept, reflecting an interdependence of society and one’s inner self. This would mean that one can understand the cultural biases inherent in any act of communication, while acting autonomously of such bias. If such a model of dual identity/agency can be applied to the intercultural dialogue on the governance of nanotechnology between East and West, it could potentially provide a new tool or model within pTA