This paper presents a debate on the ethical implications of artificial intelligence in healthcare, particularly concerning its impact on disabled individuals. Roy advocates for the potential benefits of automated clinical decision-making, while Peter raises concerns about its risks and limitations for the disabled community. Through their discussion, they examine the promise and perils of AI, drawing on scientific literature and firsthand experiences. The paper illuminates the ethical implications of using AI in the healthcare domain.

AI is everywhere around us and affecting our lives in many ways, some of which we may not even be aware of. This paper discusses the advantages and disadvantages of AI and its impact upon society. The authors, Peter, and Laura are both disabled which means that, inevitably, they view AI and the ethical issues which it brings, through the lens of disabled people. However, they try as much as they can to discuss the ethical issues around AI in an unbiased manner. This commentary starts by introducing the concept of AI, the authors and their disabilities, the meanings of ethics and goes on to discuss the ethical issues which Peter and Laura see in their day-to-day lives. They then drawfromthe literature on AI and ethics to broaden the discussion to take account of current published work by others on the topic. Finally, they return to their own perspectives and conclude that AI offers many advantages to society and our future. However, they also warn of the dangers and ethical challenges which AI raises. It is hoped that this commentary frames a contribution to the field of AI and ethics which readers will find interesting, useful and, perhaps, challenging.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has heavily relied on foreign workers and has a significant shortage of skilled indigenous workers. Vocational colleges are vital in providing demand-led labour, quickly reducing over-reliance on foreign workers. Within an increasingly tighter fiscal climate, it is axiomatic that vocational colleges need to operate at optimum efficiency and effectiveness in Saudi Arabia. An enterprise resource planning (ERP) system enables organisations to operate at higher efficiency and effectiveness levels. This chapter addresses the question “What ERP system solution is best suited for vocational colleges in Saudi Arabia, enabling them to operate with enhanced efficiency and effectiveness?” Using a problem-solving methodology, namely design science research (DSR), the researchers have developed, implemented, and evaluated an ERP system within this context using a motivation case study. The research findings revealed that the ERP system functionality was 91% suitable from the organisation's perspective and had a global mean score of 55.07 for user satisfaction.

This paper presents a study of the experiences of five individuals who explore their unique relationship between music and spirituality. Each participant critically narrates their faith and beliefs and explores how these relate to their experiences with music. The paper begins with a brief exposition of the literature concerning music and spirituality and the linkages between the two. The methodology combines narrative and auto-ethnography, underpinned by a phenomenological approach to reflection on experiences. Using deep self-analysis, the five authors derive and discover lessons concerning their own relationship between faith, spirituality, and music. These are then analysed to produce common themes concerning the intertwining of spirituality with music. Finally, the conclusions present a novel contribution which includes lessons on how through self-exploration, one can use music and spirituality to repair and ultimately enrich the soul. The paper exposes the interplay between faith, spirituality and music, which will be of general interest and provide inspiration to those who intend to use music to enrich their lives and heal themselves.

This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0 .

In the field of artificial intelligence (AI) one of the main challenges today is to make the knowledge acquired when performing a certain task in a given scenario applicable to similar yet different tasks to be performed with a certain degree of precision in other environments. This idea of knowledge portability is of great use in Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) that face important challenges in terms of reliability and autonomy. This article presents a CPS where unmanned vehicles (drones) are equipped with a reinforcement learning system so they may automatically learn to perform various navigation tasks in environments with physical obstacles. The implemented system is capable of isolating the agents' knowledge and transferring it to other agents that do not have prior knowledge of their environment so they may successfully navigate environments with obstacles. A complete study has been performed to ascertain the degree to which the knowledge obtained by an agent in a scenario may be successfully transferred to other agents in order to perform tasks in other scenarios without prior knowledge of the same, obtaining positive results in terms of the success rate and learning time required to complete the task set in each case. In particular, those two indicators showed better results (higher success rate and lower learning time) with our proposal compared to the baseline in 47 out of the 60 tests conducted (78.3%).

AI is a rapidly advancing technology with the potential to hugely enrich and dramatically transform many aspects of today’s society. As well as being the focus of much excitement, anticipation and hope, the fast development and wide-spread deployment of AI technologies also raises ethical concerns, fears, risk and potential danger. Indeed, the array of positive and negative emotions attached to current AI development, design and implementation has placed AI at the epicentre of important technological, societal and cultural discourse. This paper discusses the idea that we are currently living, perhaps unnecessarily, through a period of intense AI hype. Drawing on the first author’s own experiences of working with AI systems in the 1980s through to the present day, as well as engaging with relevant literature, the paper examines whether the current AI narrative is unique and worthy of mass interest, or whether it is simply part of the natural ebb and flow of progressive technological advancement. The authors conclude that the current hype around AI has many positive aspects as it is raising public consciousness of the potential implications, applications and ethical issues.

The ethical issues around the growing adoption of AI are many and varied. This article will focus on the growing use of AI in the context of professional decision-making within health care. It has been suggested that if automation and robotics threaten blue collar roles, then AI threatens the jobs of those in white collar or professional roles. This article will seek to consider the question "How well can AI meet the ethical requirements of being a health care professional?" The paper will begin by considering the fundamental technologies of AI and their limitations. It will then outline the fundamental ethical principles of professional codes of conduct which define what it means to be a professional and what professionals need to be able to do. This will be illustrated by the use of two case studies. Finally, it will consider whether AI systems can do this in light of their inherent limitations.

This article focuses on our personal experiences of the role of music and nature in healing. We explore ancient texts and more recent research in the area of music, neuromusicology and spirituality and correlate these with our experiences. One of us has suffered severe trauma in the form of a spinal cord injury; the other has experienced deep-vein thrombosis. We both present reflexive accounts which demonstrate how music played a part in the healing process; one of us also links this to the impact of the natural environment. We hope that others can benefit from the lessons we have learned from our experiences.

• Internet developers use an implicit quality model for web components. • Web components can be endowed with an explicit quality model based on ISO 25010. • The relationship between implicit / explicit models can be validated by end-users. • Quality of web components can be predicted based in explicit metrics. This article presents the application of a mixed method research in software engineering, developing an innovative quality model for web components. The research applies the qualitative analysis of open surveys in order to determine a set of internal/static and external/dynamic metrics of an empirical quality model. Subsequently, Delphi Method quantitatively analyses, by consensus amongst the members of a panel of experts, the level of coverage that these metrics offer of the product quality and quality in use characteristics included in standard ISO/IEC 25,000. Aiming a better understanding of the industry, the method applies to the software quality domain of web components developed in open repositories, where the fragmentation in the development processes has led to organic quality models of an implicit and collaborative nature. As a result of the research, a mixed methods methodology, exploratory sequential design, has been obtained that allows not only the assessment of web components hosted on public repositories, but also the systematisation of the coverage analysis amongst characteristics and metrics, essential for the development of software quality models in heterogeneous development environments.

Much has been written about the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to support, and even transform, the lives of disabled people. It is true that many advances have been made, ranging from robotic arms and other prosthetic limbs supported by AI, decision support tools to aid clinicians and the disabled themselves, and route planning software for those with visual impairment. Many individuals are benefiting from the use of such tools, improving our accessibility and changing lives. But what are the true limits of such tools? What are the ethics of allowing AI tools to suggest different courses of action, or aid in decision-making? And does AI offer too much promise for individuals? I have recently undergone a life changing accident which has left me severely disabled, and together with my daughter who is blind, we shall explore the day-to-day realities of how AI can support, and frustrate, disabled people. From this, we will draw some conclusions as to how AI software and technology might best be developed in the future.

Although several academic studies have explored international students’ academic issues in the host country, most explored either academic achievement or improving learning, teaching and assessment practices in isolation, not in concert. This study triangulates students’ academic issues, learning, teaching and assessment practices used by their lecturers, and the service provision at the host institution in tandem. Specifically, we investigated the factors affecting the academic performance of first-and second-year international students studying at a private higher education provider in London, UK. To establish the extent of Low Academic Achievement (LAA), briefly, where students do not meet the learning outcomes in any summative assessment, examination board data were examined. Two student focus groups were established, and eleven lecturers involved in teaching international students were interviewed. Data were analysed using Nvivo8. The results revealed that international students experience language, socio-cultural and financial difficulties, and they must adapt to a new educational environment and find it difficult to adjust to the teaching style of their host country. Nonetheless, learning approaches of the students can be mobilised, developed and utilised in a constructive environment. Student-centred approached are preferred by the students in the classroom and use of alternative assessments was recommended by the lecturers, especially in the transitionary phase.

The paper proposes a new approach to software evaluation, which takes into consideration cultural factors. We use Profile Theory to develop a model that captures the essential technical and cultural characteristics of contextually effective software evaluators. These evaluator-defining characteristics include cultural, organizational, technical, and individual attributes, and relationships among them. We used surveys and literature to identify the prevalent characteristics and then defined a formal model. An illustrative example is elaborated to show how our model can be integrated in a CASE tool. We surmise that identifying the profile of software evaluators is a necessary step to ensure the effectiveness and validity of the evaluation of software systems.

This chapter explores the issues which surround the development of a culture of research and scholarly activity within the college-based higher education sector in the United Kingdom. It uses as a case study the North East College Regional Scholarship Network (NECRSN), which contains a number of providers who are collaborating on the development of scholarly activity within, and across, their institutions. This chapter uses the experience of the participants in the NECRSN to explore the challenges at institutional and departmental levels of inculcating a culture of scholarly activity within college-based higher education. The activities of the network are used as an example to demonstrate how a collaborative approach at a regional level can stimulate innovation and alleviate some of the pressures on academics pursuing research within a vocational setting. The approach has now been operating for one year, and has seen some initial success.