AMICAI: A Method Based on Risk Analysis to Integrate Responsible Research and Innovation into the Work of Research and Innovation Practitioners

The integration of ethics into the day-to-day work of research and innovation (R&I) is an important but difficult challenge. However, with the Aachen method for identification, classification and risk analysis of innovation-based problems (AMICAI) an approach from an engineering perspective is presented that enables the integration of ethical, legal and social implications into the day-to-day work of R&I practitioners. AMICAI appears in particular capable of providing a procedural guidance for R&I practitioners based on a method established in engineering science, breaking down the object of consideration into partial aspects and prioritizing the innovation-based problems in dependence of potential risk. This enables the user to apply AMICAI continuously during all stages of the research and development (R&D) process and to analyze and choose between certain sociotechnical alternatives. In this way, problems that affect ethical, legal, and social aspects can be understood, reflected and considered in the mostly technically focused R&D process. The paper gives a general guidance about AMICAI by describing principles and assumptions, providing the steps of analysis and application aids, giving an example application, explaining the necessary adjustments of AMICAI compared to the methodical basis of failure mode, effects, and criticality analysis and discussing the advantages and limits. AMICAI's simple applications can stimulate interdisciplinary cooperation in the R&D process and be a starting point for the development of an "open RRI risk analysis platform" allowing society to evaluate innovation-based problems.

Human–Robot Collaboration Acceptance Model: Development and Comparison for Germany, Japan, China and the USA

The use of robots in the national economy—especially in industrialized countries—is growing. At the same time, the interdependency between humans and robots is getting increasingly closer: they are engaging in direct contact with each other as more and more organizations let robots and humans work hand-in-hand. One factor that predicts successful human–robot interdependency is the acceptance of the robot by the human. Generally, only when an innovative assistive working system covers human needs and expectations, it is perceived to be useful and hence accepted. Furthermore, it has been found that cultural context has an impact on human–robot interaction, as people feel more comfortable interacting with a robot in a culturally normative way. Therefore this paper aims at presenting a human–robot collaboration acceptance model (HRCAM) with regard to the collaboration between humans and robots that is based on prior acceptance models, while also considering technology affinity and ethical, legal and social implications. Additionally, similarities and differences in robot acceptance are shown for four selected countries—both in comparison to the overall human–robot collaboration acceptance model and between the countries. The HRCAM additionally shows which variables influence perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, and thus behavioral intention to use and use behavior. A further distinction is made between anchor variables, which can be influenced in the long term, and adjustment variables, which can be influenced in the short to medium term. The model therefore offers practitioners in the field of human–robot collaboration recommendations to increase the acceptance of robots.

Development of auditory information integration abilities

The ability of normal-hearing children (aged 4 through 7 years) and adults to integrate information was measured in an auditory sample discrimination task. On each trial a pair of tonal sequences was played whose component frequencies were randomly drawn from two equal-variance, Gaussian distributions with different means. The listeners task was to identify the sequence drawn from the distribution with the higher mean frequency. Performance was first evaluated as a function of the number of components in each sequence. Results showed that discrimination accuracy improved with increasing age until age 7, at which time performance was adult-like. The 7-year-olds and the adults discriminated the sequences with increasing accuracy as the sequence length was increased, but the 4-to 6-year-old listeners, as a group, did not. Data were fitted with a model with two free parameters, one representing resolution of the components and presumed to reflect peripheral processing, and another representing central noise added to the decision process after the component information is combined [R. Lutfi, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 86, 934-944 (1989)]. On average, both parameters showed gradual changes as age increased, with adult-like values by 7 years of age. Individual data however suggest that the changes in central noise with age may be less gradual than the changes in peripheral resolution. In a second condition, increases in component duration produced improved performance for the 7-year-olds and the adults, while that of the younger listeners remained the same. Fitted parameters suggested improvements in component resolution for the older children, with no changes in central noise levels. In a third condition, reducing the overlap in the distributions improved performance for only a few of several younger children. This improvement was attributable to lower levels of central noise. Overall, these results suggest that with increasing age children are better able to discriminate between sounds that are variable and have overlapping acoustic characteristics. This age-related improvement may be attributed both to improvements in the ability to resolve the components and to reductions in central noise.

Divergence of ethanol and acetaldehyde kinetics and of the disulfiram-alcohol reaction between subjects with and without alcoholic liver disease

Despite standardization, marked interindividual variation in the severity of the disulfiram-alcohol reaction (DAR) has been observed. We studied the DAR in 51 consecutive alcoholics with (n = 16) and without (n = 35) significant alcoholic liver disease. Clinical signs of the DAR were much weaker in the patients with compared with those patients without liver disease. Because acetaldehyde is thought to be the main cause of the DAR, we studied ethanol and acetaldehyde kinetics in 13 patients (6 females, 7 males) with alcoholic liver disease (documented by biopsy, clinical and/or radiological findings, and by quantitative liver function) [galactose elimination capacity (GEC) 4.2 +/- SD 1.0 mg/min/kg; aminopyrine breath test (ABT) 0.14 +/- 0.10% dose x kg/mmol CO2] and 13 age- and sex-matched controls (alcoholics without significant liver disease, GEC 7.1 +/- 0.7; ABT 0.81 +/- 0.35). Clinical signs of acetaldehyde toxicity during the DAR (flush, nausea, tachycardia, and blood pressure drop) were absent in alcoholic liver disease, but clearly evident in controls. Blood ethanol kinetics were similar in both groups, Cmax and area under the concentration-time curve (AUC) being 6.27 +/- 1.82 and 368.9 +/- 72.9 mmol x min/liter in alcoholic liver disease, and 6.62 +/- 1.71 and 377.6 +/- 124.5 in controls, respectively. In contrast, there was a strong (p < 0.001) difference in Cmax and AUC of acetaldehyde, respective values being 33.46 +/- 21.52 and 1463.8 +/- 762.5 mumol x min/liter in alcoholic liver disease, and 110.87 +/- 56.00 and 4162.0 +/- 2424.6 in controls.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Ethanol decreases plasma sulphydryls in man: effect of disulfiram

Based on animal experiments, interactions of ethanol and its metabolites with sulphydryls have been implicated in the toxicity of ethanol, but acute effects of ethanol on sulphydryls have not been documented in man. Plasma free glutathione and cysteine were therefore measured following the administration of 0.2 g kg-1 ethanol to normal healthy volunteers and chronic alcoholics on disulfiram, where the effects of high concentrations of acetaldehyde can be observed. In both groups, plasma glutathione decreased shortly following ethanol, and a sustained decreased in glutathione was seen in the subjects on disulfiram. In patients on disulfiram, but not the healthy controls, plasma cysteine decreased significantly. The decrease in plasma cysteine was correlated to the rise in acetaldehyde, suggesting that cysteine, but not glutathione, forms an adduct with acetaldehyde in man. We conclude that even moderate doses of ethanol may disturb the sulphydryl homeostasis and could interfere with biologically important processes that depend on sulphydryl groups.