Responsible domestic robotics:Exploring ethical implications of robots in the home

Purpose: The vision of robotics in the home promises increased convenience, comfort, companionship, and greater security for users. The robot industry risks causing harm to users, being rejected by society at large, or being regulated in overly prescriptive ways if robots are not developed in a socially responsible manner. The purpose of this paper is to explore some of the challenges and requirements for designing responsible domestic robots.Design/methodology/approach: The paper examines definitions of robotics and the current commercial state of the art. In particular it considers the emerging technological trends, such as smart homes, that are already embedding computational agents in the fabric of everyday life. The paper then explores the role of values in design, aligning with human computer interaction and considers the importance of the home as a deployment setting for robots. The paper examines what responsibility in robotics means and draws lessons from past home information technologies. An exploratory pilot survey was conducted to understand user concerns about different aspects of domestic robots such as form, privacy and trust. The paper provides these findings, married with literature analysis from across technology law, computer ethics and computer science.Findings: By drawing together both empirical observations and conceptual analysis, this paper concludes that user centric design is needed to create responsible domestic robotics in the future.Originality/value: This multidisciplinary paper provides conceptual and empirical research from different domains to unpack the challenges of designing responsible domestic robotics

Enhancing diabetes care for the most vulnerable in the 21st century::Interim findings of the National Advisory Panel on Care Home Diabetes (NAPCHD)

Older adults with diabetes may carry a substantial health burden in Western ageing societies, occupy more than one in four beds in care homes, and are a highly vulnerable group who often require complex nursing and medical care. The global pandemic (COVID-19) had its epicentre in care homes and revealed many shortfalls in diabetes care resulting in hospital admissions and considerable mortality and comorbid illness. The purpose of this work was to develop a national Strategic Document of Diabetes Care for Care Homes which would bring about worthwhile, sustainable and effective quality diabetes care improvements, and address the shortfalls in care provided. A large diverse and multidisciplinary group of stakeholders (NAPCHD) defined 11 areas of interest where recommendations were needed and using a subgroup allocation approach were set tasks to produce a set of primary recommendations. Each subgroup was given 5 starter questions to begin their work and a format to provide responses. During the initial phase, 16 key findings were identified. Overall, after a period of 18 months, 49 primary recommendations were made, and 7 major conclusions were drawn from these. A model of community and integrated diabetes care for care home residents with diabetes was proposed, and a series of 5 ‘quick-wins’ were created to begin implementation of some of the recommendations that would not require significant funding. The work of the NAPCHD is ongoing but we hope that this current resource will help leaders to make these required changes happen

Structures Related to the Emplacement of Shallow-Level Intrusions

A systematic view of the vast nomenclature used to describe the structures of shallow-level intrusions is presented here. Structures are organised in four main groups, according to logical breaks in the timing of magma emplacement, independent of the scales of features: (1) Intrusion-related structures, formed as the magma is making space and then develops into its intrusion shape; (2) Magmatic flow-related structures, developed as magma moves with suspended crystals that are free to rotate; (3) Solid-state, flow-related structures that formed in portions of the intrusions affected by continuing flow of nearby magma, therefore considered to have a syn-magmatic, non-tectonic origin; (4) Thermal and fragmental structures, related to creation of space and impact on host materials. This scheme appears as a rational organisation, helpful in describing and interpreting the large variety of structures observed in shallow-level intrusions

SOUTHERN AUSTRALIAN SPECIES OF CHAMPIA AND CHYLOCLADIA RHODYMENIALES RHODOPHYTA

Volume: 100Start Page: 75End Page: 10