This paper explores the relationship between dignity and robot companions for the elderly. It highlights concerns about the maintenance of the dignity of vulnerable elderly people, and points out some of the contradictory uses of the word ‘dignity’. Some authors have resolved the contradictions by identifying different senses; contrasting the inviolable dignity inherent in human life to other f...

Pets are important household members, and their welfare and safety are imperative to the emotional welfare of the family. Displacement of pets after disaster events is a serious matter to families and for public safety at large. People are not willing to evacuate without their non-human family members; many will break through evacuation zones to recover animals left behind. In the 2005 Hurrican...

Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) support is currently widely accepted to provide reliable and valid formal and informal educational practices as proven to benefit students in onsite as well as distant educational settings. However, some results from case studies indicate that privacy problems could negatively affect CSCL implementation in educational settings. Privacy Enhancing ...

The increasing prevalence of toxic substance-exposure in pets South Korea endangers the health and safety numerous companion animals, has become a cause for concern. Notably, annual incidence forensic analysis increased by more than 150% Korea, mainly populous regions such as Seoul, Incheon, Gyeonggi. In response to this growing issue, veterinary examinations were conducted on 549 dogs cats fro...

Pet ownership has historically been one of the biggest risk factors for evacuation failure prior to natural disasters. The forced abandonment of pets during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 made national headlines and led to the passage of the Pet Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act (PETS, 2006) which mandated local authorities to plan for companion animal evacuation. Hurricane Irene hit the E...

”Privacy as confidentiality” has been the dominant paradigm in computer science privacy research. Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) that guarantee confidentiality of personal data or anonymous communication have resulted from such research. The objective of this paper is to show that such PETs are indispensable but are short of being the privacy solutions they sometimes claim to be given cu...

The unique needs of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have implications for animal welfare. This nested pilot study examined the effects of a randomized trial of 10-week therapeutic horseback riding (THR) intervention versus a no-horse barn activity (BA) control group on children's behaviors with family pets. Sixty-seven (THR n = 31; BA n = 36) participants with ASD (ages 6-16 yea...

The vast majority of pet owners regard their companion animals as family members, yet the role of pets in family systems and family therapy has received little attention in research, training, and practice. This article first notes the benefits of family pets and their importance for resilience. It then examines their role in couple and family processes and their involvement in relational dynam...

In this paper we propose four models of unmanned blimps: Robots, Pets, Agents, and Puppets, according to whether they are autonomous or not and whether they are shown to people or not. Robots and Pets are autonomous and Agents and Puppets are not autonomous. Robots and Agents are shown to people and Pets and Puppets are not shown to people. Based on these models, we approach toward interactive ...