Given that the creation and deployment of autonomous vehicles is likely to continue, it is important to explore the ethical responsibilities of designers, manufacturers, operators, and regulators of the technology. We specifically focus on the ethical responsibilities surrounding autonomous vehicles that these stakeholders have to protect the safety of non-occupants, meaning individuals who are around the vehicles while they are operating. The term “non-occupants” includes, but is not limited to, pedestrians and cyclists. We are...

Single-strand oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs) containing unmethylated cytosine-phosphate-guanine (CpG) are recognized by the toll-like receptor 9, a component of the innate immunity. Therefore, they could act as immunotherapeutic agents. Chemically modified CpG ODNs containing a phosphorothioate backbone instead of phosphodiester (PD) were developed as immunotherapeutic agents resistant to nuclease degradation. However, they cause adverse side effects, and so there is a necessity to generate novel CpG ODNs. In the present study, we designed a nuclease-resistant nonmodified CpG...

Limiting development in known high-hazard areas is among one of the most effective tools available to local governments to reduce future hazard risk and increase resilience, and yet, the widespread practice of acquiring hazard-prone properties and converting the land to open space in New Zealand remains highly varied. This report outlines Aotearoa New Zealand examples of hazard-prone housing acquisition (or buyout) processes, based on four legislative mechanisms: special legislation (Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Act 2011), the...

Autonomous vehicle manufacturers, people inside an autonomous vehicle (occupants), and people outside the vehicle (non-occupants) are among the distinct stakeholders when addressing ethical issues inherent in systems that include autonomous vehicles. As responses to recent tragic cases illustrate, advocates for autonomous vehicles tend to focus on occupant safety, sometimes to the exclusion of non-occupant safety. Thus, we aim to examine ethical issues associated with non-occupant safety, including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists, and riders of motorized scooters....

In less than one decade the open-access data journal Earth System Science Data (ESSD, a member of the Copernicus Open Access Publisher family) grew from a start-up venture into one of the highest-rated journals in global environmental science. Stimulated by data needs of the International Polar Year 2007-2008, ESSD now serves a very broad community of data providers and users, ensuring that users get free and easy access to quality data products and that providers...