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Etica e professioni sanitarie in Europa. Un dialogo fra medicina e filosofia
No full textThis multilingual volume brings together some of the results of research conducted at the Department of Literature and Philosophy of the University of Trento (Italy), in collaboration with the Bruno Kessler Foundation (Trento, Italy). Topics related to ethics and professions in the healthcare and other fields were covered, analyzed both from a theoretical and an empirical perspective.
After presenting some introductory thoughts on the distinction between different levels and forms of ethical reflection on healthcare and the significance of the individual moral conscience as far as these levels are concerned, the first part of the book discusses some European traditions in healthcare professional ethics: it includes a Spanish account of different moral traditions in healthcare ethics, a reconstruction of the British experience and evolution of this field, a report on the Belgian contemporary situation, a presentation of the role of the Medical Associations in the German area, a description of the evolution of medical ethics in Croatia and a focus on nursing ethics and medical ethics in Italy.
Two empirical studies are then described: one qualitative based on 40 interviews with clinicians, and one quantitative based on a web survey of more than 1,000 physicians; the first was conducted in the Province of Trento, the second in that of Verona (Northern Italy). The book concludes with a number of interviews with clinicians and a philosophical reflection on the nature of the obligations related to the practice of caring.
The book is intended to cover the main moral questions faced by clinicians today and to offer a novel self-representation of their work and its ethical meaning in contemporary healthcare practice. Medicine and philosophy have a long history of dialogue: this volume continues that discussion, searching for new ways to combine a strong scientific approach with reflections on the moral and anthropological structures of clinical practic
Open innovation e patent: un'analisi comparata
No full textQuesta tesi si pone come obiettivo primario quello di esplorare le prospettive di riconciliazione di due mondi solitamente visti in insanabile antagonismo: la filosofia dell'Open Innovation e l'istituto brevettuale. Nonostante siano entrambi appartenenti al medesimo “terreno di gioco” – quello delle invenzioni, dello sviluppo tecnologico e del progresso – i fautori dell'Open Innovation hanno sempre guardato con diffidenza al patent, considerandolo uno strumento giuridico eccessivamente rigido e non suscettibile di essere utilizzato in un'ottica di apertura.
I primi due capitoli sono dedicati alla descrizione e all'approfondimento delle tematiche dell'Open Innovation e del brevetto per invenzione, al fine di fornire un quadro esauriente dei due poli della trattazione: nel primo capitolo si esamina il modello dell'Open Innovation, la sua evoluzione e le sue caratteristiche secondo Chesbrough ed altri suoi fautori, ma anche alcune critiche; inoltre, alcuni casi concreti aiutano a meglio comprendere gli effetti che un modello open può avere sulle imprese che lo adottano, rispetto a strategie di maggior chiusura. Il secondo capitolo si occupa invece del brevetto per invenzione, fornendo un'analisi della disciplina nazionale, internazionale, europea e statunitense e presentando le caratteristiche salienti di tale istituto della proprietà industriale. Si tratta di una figura fortemente armonizzata a livello internazionale, che tuttavia presenta alcuni interessanti spunti comparativi ove si mettano a confronto il sistema europeo e quello statunitense.Il terzo capitolo compie invece un doveroso approfondimento per quanto riguarda la brevettabilità di due categorie di invenzioni che negli ultimi decenni sono state, e sono tuttora, al centro del processo innovativo in ambito tecnologico: software e biotecnologie. Viene seguito un approccio incentrato sulle fonti normative e sulla casistica giurisprudenziale, mettendo a confronto l'evoluzione di tali settori tecnologici in ottica brevettuale, guardando al sistema europeo e a quello statunitense. Infine, gli ultimi due capitoli costituiscono il fulcro della trattazione: enucleano i principali punti di attrito tra Open Innovation e brevetti e tentano di fornire alcune soluzioni che si propongono di arginare tali problemi. La convivenza fra tali figure è infatti complicata dalla loro stessa natura, apparentemente antitetica: le caratteristiche proprie del brevetto rischiano infatti di generare una sedimentazione di titoli di proprietà industriale (c.d. patent thicket), la quale finisce per porre un freno all'innovazione e al progresso, impedendo lo sfruttamento e il miglioramento dell'invenzione.
Alcune soluzioni che vengono proposte si avvalgono dello strumento della licenza per rendere maggiormente elastico l'istituto brevettuale: cross licences e patent pools consentono infatti una maggior circolazione delle invenzioni protette da brevetto, permettendo così l'implementazione di strategie di Open Innovation nonostante la presenza di titoli di privativa. Le ultime soluzioni presentate, invece, incidono maggiormente sulla natura del brevetto e relative licenze, prevedendo due modalità “creative” mediante le quali la conoscenza e la tecnologia potranno circolare senza eccessivi impedimenti; si tratta della Defensive Patent License e dei quasi- e semi-patents, figure che costituiscono i Partial Patents. Nonostante questi ultimi siano istituti che necessitano di transitare da una dimensione ancora principalmente teorica ad un'effettiva loro messa in pratica, hanno tutte le carte in regola per poter edificare un solido ponte che colleghi il mondo dell'Open Innovation a quello del brevetto, con grandi benefici per la certezza del diritto, la collettività e l'innovazione
Practical Data Prediction for Real-World Wireless Sensor Networks
No full textData prediction is proposed in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) to extend the system lifetime by enabling the sink to determine the data sampled, within some accuracy bounds, with only minimal communication from source nodes. Several theoretical studies clearly demonstrate the tremendous potential of this approach, able to suppress the vast majority of data reports at the source nodes. Nevertheless, the techniques employed are relatively complex, and their feasibility on resource-scarce WSN devices often not ascertained. More generally, the literature lacks reports from real-world deployments, quantifying the overall system-wide lifetime improvements determined by the interplay of data prediction with the underlying network. These two aspects, feasibility and system wide gains, are key in determining the practical usefulness of data prediction in real-world WSN applications.
In this paper, we describe Derivative-Based Prediction (DBP), a novel data prediction technique much simpler than state-of-the-art ones. Evaluation with real data sets from diverse WSN deployments shows that DBP often performs better than the competition, with data suppression rates up to 99% and good prediction accuracy. However, experiments with real WSNs show that, when the network stack is taken into consideration, DBP only triples lifetime—a remarkable result per se, but a far cry from the data suppression rates above. To fully achieve the energy savings enabled by data prediction, the data and network layers must be jointly optimized. In our testbed, a simple tuning of the MAC and routing stack, taking into account the operation of DBP, yields a remarkable seven-fold lifetime improvement w.r.t. the mainstream periodic reporting
Spenden für ein seltenes Exemplar von Grimmelshausens „Springinsfeld“?
No full textNach Jahrzehnten wurde im Herbst 2012 wieder eine Erstausgabe von Grimmelshausens Roman Springinsfeld (1670) versteigert und vom Antiquariat Wolfgang Braecklein in Berlin für die stattliche Summe von 19.000 € gekauft. Es stammte aus der Privatbibliothek des Essayisten und Übersetzers Friedhelm Kemp (1914-2011). Im Katalog der Stuttgarter Antiquariatsmesse (Ende Januar 2014) wird das Springinsfeld-Exemplar vom selben Antiquariat für 35.000 € angeboten
An Experiment in Managing Language Diversity Across Cultures
No full textDeveloping ontologies from scratch appears to be very expensive in terms of cost and time required and often such efforts remain unfinished for decades. Ontology localization through translation seems to be a promising approach towards addressing this issue as it enables the greater reuse of the ontological (backbone) structure. However, during ontology localization, managing language diversity across cultures remains as a challenge that has to be taken into account and dealt with the right level of attention and expertise. Furthermore, reliability of the provided knowledge in the localized ontology is appearing as a non-trivial issue to be addressed. In this paper, we report the result of our experiment, performed on approximately 1000 concepts taken from the space ontology originally developed in English, consisted in providing their translation into Mongolian
From ER Models to the Entity Model
No full textIn this paper, a new knowledge representation formalism, called the entity model, is introduced. This model can be used to address knowledge diversity by making the modeling assumptions of different knowledge representations explicit and by rooting them in a world representation. The entity model can be used to: 1) detect the possible ways in which the diversity appears in ER models and therefore improving their representational adequacy; 2) make the modeling assumptions behind different ER models explicit; 3) combine the different ER models in a unified view, thus enabling data integration
Il GEIE "italiano" tra impresa e società
No full textA quasi trent’anni dall’emanazione del Regolamento comunitario 2137/1985 che ne segna la data di nascita, e a venticinque dalla effettiva possibilità di costituzione, il gruppo europeo di interesse economico (GEIE) è ancora percepito, nella migliore delle ipotesi, come una specie di “oggetto misterioso” nel panorama giuridico italiano ed europeo. Lo scopo di questo studio, che ha beneficiato del sostegno economico della Commissione Europea e della Provincia autonoma di Trento nell’ambito del Settimo Programma Quadro, Azione Marie Curie COFUND, progetto “TRENTINO”, è di tentare una riconduzione ragionata del GEIE a categorie che siano di maggiore familiarità per il giurista italiano, indagandone le problematiche principali (su tutte l’assenza del beneficio della responsabilità limitata dei membri per le obbligazioni assunte dal gruppo) ed offrendo ipotesi di soluzione
Creation of Software within the Academic Context: Knowledge Transfer, Intellectual Property Rights, and Licences
No full textUsing the method of comparative analysis, this paper explores different legal issues related to software management within universities. It is organized in two sections. The first section will deal with the crucial issue of ownership of intellectual property rights in copyrights and patents, outlining the discussion with reference to the specific objective of this review. The regulatory framework in this field, which is often opaque due to the different regulations that characterize the diverse forms of intellectual property rights, is made even more incomprehensible by providing different legal regimes according to the status of the person who has carried out the research (professors, lecturers, fellows, graduate students, etc.). The second section provides an explanation of the role that contract law, and specifically licensing, has in the exploitation of software. Finally, considerations of a general nature will be developed and some operational solutions proposed, primarily aimed at emphasizing the importance of a systematic approach to the transfer of knowledge in a university environment
Biodiversità agricola e tutela degli agricoltori dall'Hold-Up brevettuale: il caso degli OGM = Agricultural Biodiversity and the Protection of Farmers from Patent Hold-Up: The Case of GMOs
No full textThis paper analyzes the problems originating from patentability of modern agricultural biotechnology. The progressive and increasingly broad patent protection granted to such inventions, pose, in fact, serious risks in safeguarding biodiversity and protecting farmers.
In the first part of the paper - after clarifying what is meant by biotechnology, new plant varieties and genetically modified organisms - a few international instruments are taken into consideration. Since the seventies, the need to protect the environment has been an issue of increasing concern for the international community. Among the initiatives designed to benefit the environment, fundamental are those directed at the conservation of biodiversity. In this view, of particular importance is the Convention of Biological Diversity and its Protocols. Particularly interesting are the initiatives aimed at the protection of agricultural biodiversity, enshrined in the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), which create a system that seems in conflict with the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.
In the second part of the paper the U.S. patent system is compared with the EU patent system, with regard to the patentability of biotechnology, in particularly new plant varieties and genetically modified organisms. In this area, the U.S. patent system offers a wider protection than the European one: the second one provides a farmer’s privilege, which allows farmers to conserve part of the self-reproducing patented material, in order to reuse it. The U.S. system also extends, by judicial decision, the patent protection for genetically modified plants, reducing the scope of patent exhaustion doctrine. In this system the interests of big biotechnology companies, strongly prevail over the interests of farmers, more and more depending on the firsts. A possible way to rebalance these relationships, would be the application of the patent misuse doctrine. In the Italian legal system, through the application of the abuse of economic dependence, the creation of such imbalances could be avoided.
The patentability of agricultural biotechnology poses risks to biodiversity conservation and creates a situation where agriculture depends on biotechnology companies. To this end, some authors propose the creation of an open source system
Detecting Conflicts in Information Quality Requirements: the May 6, 2010 Flash Crash
No full textInformation Quality (IQ) is a key success factor for the efficient performance of any system, and it becomes a vital issue for critical systems, where low-quality information may lead to disasters. Despite this, most of the Requirements Engineering frameworks loosely define, or simply ignore such requirements, which may lead to different conflicts among the stakeholders' IQ requirements. In this paper, we propose a novel conceptual framework for modeling and reasoning about IQ at requirements level. The proposed framework is based on the secure Tropos methodology and extends it with the required concepts for modeling and analyzing IQ requirements since the early phases of software development. A running example concerning a U.S stock market crash (the May 6, 2010 Flash Crash) is used throughout the paper