Computational Controversy

Climate change, vaccination, abortion, Trump: Many topics are surrounded by fierce controversies. The nature of such heated debates and their elements have been studied extensively in the social science literature. More recently, various computational approaches to controversy analysis have appeared, using new data sources such as Wikipedia, which help us now better understand these phenomena. However, compared to what social sciences have discovered about such debates, the existing computational approaches mostly focus on just a few of the many important aspects around the concept of controversies. In order to link the two strands, we provide and evaluate here a controversy model that is both, rooted in the findings of the social science literature and at the same time strongly linked to computational methods. We show how this model can lead to computational controversy analytics that have full coverage over all the crucial aspects that make up a controversy.Comment: In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Social Informatics (SocInfo) 201

Diffusion tensor imaging of Parkinson's disease, multiple system atrophy and progressive supranuclear palsy: a tract-based spatial statistics study

Although often clinically indistinguishable in the early stages, Parkinson's disease (PD), Multiple System Atrophy (MSA) and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) have distinct neuropathological changes. The aim of the current study was to identify white matter tract neurodegeneration characteristic of each of the three syndromes. Tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) was used to perform a whole-brain automated analysis of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data to compare differences in fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) between the three clinical groups and healthy control subjects. Further analyses were conducted to assess the relationship between these putative indices of white matter microstructure and clinical measures of disease severity and symptoms. In PSP, relative to controls, changes in DTI indices consistent with white matter tract degeneration were identified in the corpus callosum, corona radiata, corticospinal tract, superior longitudinal fasciculus, anterior thalamic radiation, superior cerebellar peduncle, medial lemniscus, retrolenticular and anterior limb of the internal capsule, cerebral peduncle and external capsule bilaterally, as well as the left posterior limb of the internal capsule and the right posterior thalamic radiation. MSA patients also displayed differences in the body of the corpus callosum corticospinal tract, cerebellar peduncle, medial lemniscus, anterior and superior corona radiata, posterior limb of the internal capsule external capsule and cerebral peduncle bilaterally, as well as the left anterior limb of the internal capsule and the left anterior thalamic radiation. No significant white matter abnormalities were observed in the PD group. Across groups, MD correlated positively with disease severity in all major white matter tracts. These results show widespread changes in white matter tracts in both PSP and MSA patients, even at a mid-point in the disease process, which are not found in patients with PD

The Kafkaesque Pursuit of ‘World Class’: Audit Culture and the Reputational Arms Race in Academia

Since the 1980s universities have been subjected to a seemingly continuous process of policy reforms designed to make them more economical, efficient and effective, according to yardsticks defined by governments and university managers. The pursuit of ‘excellence’, ‘international standing’ and ‘world class’ status have become key drivers of what Hazelkorn (High Educ Pol 21(2):193–215, 2008) has termed the ‘rankings arms race’ that now dominates the world of academia. These policies are changing the mission and meaning of the public university and, more profoundly, the culture of academia itself. While some authors have sought to capture and analyse these trends in terms of ‘academic capitalism’ and the ‘enterprise university model’, we suggest they might also be usefully understood theoretically as illustrations of the rise of audit culture in higher education and its effects. Drawing on ethnographic examples from the UK, Denmark and New Zealand, we ask: how are higher education institutions being reconfigured by these new disciplinary regimes of audit? How are ranking and performance indicators changing institutional behaviour and transforming academic subjectivities? What possibilities are there for alternative university futures? And what insights can anthropology offer to address these questions

Response Monitoring in De Novo Patients with Parkinson's Disease

BACKGROUND: Parkinson's disease (PD) is accompanied by dysfunctions in a variety of cognitive processes. One of these is error processing, which depends upon phasic decreases of medial prefrontal dopaminergic activity. Until now, there is no study evaluating these processes in newly diagnosed, untreated patients with PD ("de novo PD"). METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here we report large changes in performance monitoring processes using event-related potentials (ERPs) in de novo PD-patients. The results suggest that increases in medial frontal dopaminergic activity after an error (Ne) are decreased, relative to age-matched controls. In contrast, neurophysiological processes reflecting general motor response monitoring (Nc) are enhanced in de novo patients. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: It may be hypothesized that the Nc-increase is at costs of dopaminergic activity after an error; on a functional level errors may not always be detected and correct responses sometimes be misinterpreted as errors. This pattern differs from studies examining patients with a longer history of PD and may reflect compensatory processes, frequently occurring in pre-manifest stages of PD. From a clinical point of view the clearly attenuated Ne in the de novo PD patients may prove a useful additional tool for the early diagnosis of basal ganglia dysfunction in PD

Overview of IFMIF-DONES diagnostics: Requirements and techniques

The IFMIF-DONES Facility is a unique first-class scientific infrastructure whose construction is foreseen in Granada, Spain, in the coming years. Strong integration efforts are being made at the current project phase aiming at harmonizing the ongoing design of the different and complex Systems of the facility. The consolidation of the Diagnostics and Instrumentation, transversal across many of them, is a key element of this purpose. A top-down strategy is proposed for a systematic Diagnostics Review and Requirement definition, putting emphasis in the one-of-a-kind instruments necessary by the operational particularities of some of the Systems, as well as to the harsh environment that they shall survive. In addition, other transversal aspects such as the ones related to Safety and Machine Protection and their respective requirements shall be also considered. The goal is therefore to advance further and solidly in the respective designs, identify problems in advance, and steer the Diagnostics development and validation campaigns that will be required. The present work provides an overview of this integration strategy as well as a description of some of the most challenging Diagnostics and Instruments within the facility, including several proposed techniques currently under study

Structural cerebellar correlates of cognitive functions in spinocerebellar ataxia type 2

Spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 (SCA2) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disease involving the cerebellum and characterized by a typical motor syndrome. In addition, the presence of cognitive impairment is now widely acknowledged as a feature of SCA2. Given the extensive connections between the cerebellum and associative cerebral areas, it is reasonable to hypothesize that cerebellar neurodegeneration associated with SCA2 may impact on the cerebellar modulation of the cerebral cortex, thus resulting in functional impairment. The aim of the present study was to investigate and quantitatively map the pattern of cerebellar gray matter (GM) atrophy due to SCA2 neurodegeneration and to correlate that with patients' cognitive performances. Cerebellar GM maps were extracted and compared between SCA2 patients (n = 9) and controls (n = 33) by using voxel-based morphometry. Furthermore, the relationship between cerebellar GM atrophy and neuropsychological scores of the patients was assessed. Specific cerebellar GM regions were found to be affected in patients. Additionally, GM loss in cognitive posterior lobules (VI, Crus I, Crus II, VIIB, IX) correlated with visuospatial, verbal memory and executive tasks, while additional correlations with motor anterior (V) and posterior (VIIIA, VIIIB) lobules were found for the tasks engaging motor and planning components. Our results provide evidence that the SCA2 neurodegenerative process affects the cerebellar cortex and that MRI indices of atrophy in different cerebellar subregions may account for the specificity of cognitive symptomatology observed in patients, as result of a cerebello-cerebral dysregulation

Ultrafast electronic read-out of diamond NV centers coupled to graphene

Nonradiative transfer processes are often regarded as loss channels for an optical emitter1, since they are inherently difficult to be experimentally accessed. Recently, it has been shown that emitters, such as fluorophores and nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond, can exhibit a strong nonradiative energy transfer to graphene. So far, the energy of the transferred electronic excitations has been considered to be lost within the electron bath of the graphene. Here, we demonstrate that the trans-ferred excitations can be read-out by detecting corresponding currents with picosecond time resolution. We electrically detect the spin of nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond electronically and con-trol the nonradiative transfer to graphene by electron spin resonance. Our results open the avenue for incorporating nitrogen vacancy centers as spin qubits into ultrafast electronic circuits and for harvesting non-radiative transfer processes electronically