Key perennial weeds in arable crops in the Nordic countries

Our review on the most common perennial weeds in the Nordic countries draws on 1) a Nordic/Baltic joint desk-top study done in 1997-99, 2) information from national weed surveys and 3) expert opinions from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden

Alcohol consumption in heroin users, methadone-substituted and codeine-substituted patients - Frequency and correlates of use

This retrospective study aims to determine whether there is a difference in the additional consumption of alcohol between addicts treated with methadone or dihydrocodeine (DHC) and untreated addicts injecting heroin. 1,685 patients admitted for opioid withdrawal between 1991 and 1997 were reviewed. Cross-reference tables and multiple logistic regression analyses were carried out. 28% of patients take more than 40 g of alcohol daily (on average 176 g). We found that patients who are treated with methadone or DHC drink alcohol significantly more often daily than the heroin-dependent patients (p<0.01). Using multiple regression analyses, the results were confirmed. Additionally, we found that co-abuse of alcohol was predicted by male gender, longer duration of drug use, additional daily consumption of tetrahydrocannabinol and daily consumption of benzodiazepines. Alcohol consumption by opioid-addicted patients treated with methadone or DHC presents a serious medical problem. Co-abuse of alcohol will receive more attention Copyright (C) 2003 S. Karger AG, Basel

Platform Governance as Reflexive Coordination - Mediating Nudity, Hate Speech And Fake News On Facebook

Background Digital platforms have become dominant players in contemporary societies by positioning themselves as key sites for social communication and transactions (van Dijck, 2013). With platform governance becoming a major concern, scholars have increasingly turned their attention to the ways how platforms perform this intermediary role – most notably to algorithms, practices and policies (Gillespie, 2014; Roberts, 2016; DeNardis & Hackl, 2015). What is still scarce, is (a) research that frames and explains these phenomena with key concepts of social theory, and (b) longitudinal studies that track these developments over time. This paper contributes to the debate theoretically by establishing a concept of platform governance as reflexive coordination based on institutional theory, and empirically by presenting a longitudinal study (2005-2016) that combines the analysis of Facebook’s evolving policies and practices on controversial content (nudity, hate speech, fake news) with a policy and discourse analysis. Theorizing Platform Governance as Reflexive Coordination Governance is widely used as an umbrella term for all sorts of ordering and regulation processes. Yet, it is a notoriously slippery term that often remains vague and difficult to operationalize, repeatedly conflated with the term regulation. This conceptual weakness is reflected in the literature on platform governance. Governance of p latforms usually refers to public policy measures that try to steer platforms dynamics towards common good (safe harbor, tax and competition policy); governance by p latforms addresses companies’ own measures (policies, algorithms) to influence behavior on their platform But this conflation of governance and regulation diminishes the concepts’ analytical value. Neither the side effects of actions and processes pursuing non-regulatory goals (such as Facebook optimizing its platform for engagement), nor the role of public Platform Governance as Reflexive Coordination – Mediating Nudity, Hate Speech and Fake News on Platforms.PaperpresentedatAoIR2017:The18thAnnualConferenceoftheAssociationofInternet Researchers. Tartu, Estonia: AoIR. Retrieved from http://spir.aoir.org. debates and user complaints can be adequately captured with a regulatory perspective. Thus, following recent theoretical contributions we apply a broader concept of governance as ordering. Specifically, we propose to understand platform governance as reflexive coordination ( Hofmann et al., 2016) – integrating diverse modes of ordering (terms of service, public debate, algorithms) but focusing on controversies and those critical moments when routine activities become object of contestation and need to be revised. This enables us to understand platform governance as an encompassing social process that is not only exercised by platforms and regulatory agencies. Methods Bringing together a longitudinal analysis of the platforms evolving policies and community guidelines with an analysis of the public discourse on Facebook’s handling of controversial content, we investigate empirically how content rules on platforms evolve as a subject of public conflict and controversy. The analysis of Facebook’s terms of service and community guidelines is based on a corpus of 31 documents collected through the Internet Archive’s “Wayback Machine” ranging from 2005 to 2016. For the discourse analysis, we used the Dow Jones Factiva news database to extract all english-language articles of major news and business sources containing “facebook”, and “terms of service” or “community standards” as well as respective synonyms from 2004 to 2016. Applying thematic filtering and coding tools in order to identify relevant actors, statements and critiques resulted in three separate sets of documents: 257 on nudity, 240 on hate speech, and 29 on fake news. Results Despite recent spikes in public attention, our analysis reveals for all three cases a long-term processes, in which the distinction between legitimate and illegitimate content on the platform is negotiated, institutionalized and contested. In the case of nudity, a long-standing debate on the appropriateness of breastfeeding pictures constitutes a critical moment: Facebook’s routine of deleting photos displaying parts of female breasts regardless of context became contested for the first time in 2007 when more and more families started noticing the ban of breastfeeding pictures. Following public discourse turning the issue back and forth for years, fueled by repeated public outcries and online petitions, Facebook in 2013 introduced an explicit exemption for its content rules (with updated wording 2015) that “photos of women actively engaged in breastfeeding” are always allowed. Since then, our data shows a clear decrease in public debate. Finding adequate criteria for handling nudity on Facebook only became an issue again when Facebook removed an iconic Vietnam War photo (“Napalm Girl”) in 2016. This time, Facebook responded quickly to the international outcry, reinstated the photo, and later announced a change to its internal content moderation process allowing “more items that people find newsworthy [...] — even if they might otherwise violate our standards.” In the context of hate speech, Facebook’s policies have become more and more explicit and resolute over time: from “inappropriate content” that “simply [does] not belong in a community like Facebook” (2007) to constituting its own category in 2011 defined as a form of inappropriate behaviour that the platform “does not tolerate”. In 2015, the hate speech policy grew to 274 words in 13 paragraphs, most notably by adding language to explain and justify procedures. The discourse analysis shows clear spikes at the end of 2015 due to Europe’s refugee situation, and a push from politicians, above all in Germany, to act more diligently. However, Facebook’s official hate speech policy has remained unchanged; instead responses include public engagement campaigns (e.g. promoting counter-speech), and the adaptation of internal enforcement procedures (eg.“migrants” now constitute a “quasi-protected group” in Facebook’s internal content moderation guidelines). Albeit not termed fake news, false or misleading information has been identified as a problematic issue long before the 2016 US-election. Facebook prohibits users for a long time from using the platform “to do anything unlawful, misleading, malicious, or discriminatory”, and Facebook Pages “must not contain false, misleading, fraudulent, or deceptive claims or content.” Not surprisingly, our data shows an uptake of fake news discourse towards the end of 2016, displaying a strong frame that compares Facebook’s standards for handling fake news with the professional standards and regulations of journalism. While (yet) not present in its policies, Facebook has adapted its routines by integrating fake news into the categories that users tick to justify flagging of objectionable content. In the US and Germany, the company is partnering with journalistic organizations to fact-check flagged content. If there is no evidence for the facts presented, it will be flagged as “disputed”, reducing possibilities for further sharing and monetizing this content. Discussion Bringing together a new conceptual approach to governance and a longitudinal empirical study we were able to characterize platform governance as an evolving negotiation process. This process oscillates between Facebook’s unilateral provisions, user engagement, public discourse, and public policy measures – jointly and sometimes antagonistically institutionalizing distinctions between legitimate and illegitimate content. Critical moments occur when the parties involved disagree; in the controversies all stakeholders need to legitimize their perspectives and practices – abandoning their every-day routines. Thus, this process is not merely “governance by shock” (Annany & Gillespie, 2016), the changes in policies cannot always directly attributed to public demands. The critical moments highlighted in our empirical study are rather temporary tips of the iceberg that is the long-lasting ongoing negotiation process. Taken together, our analysis shows that attention in this negotiation process has shifted from platform policies to the practices of enforcement

Geoengineering and the Accusation of Hubris

Geoengineering aims at a large-scale manipulation of the planetary environment in order to counteract climate change. Different ethical worries concerning geoengineering have been formulated. Amongst these a core wrong is often believed to be captured by a certain character trait, namely hubris. The value of referring to the concept of hubris, however, is not at all clear. What exactly does this concept entail, and what is its merit in evaluating proposals of geoengineering? This paper analyses the concept of hubris. It then argues that referring to this concept does indeed add an important perspective to an evaluation of the various proposals for geoengineering

Early Utilization Of The 6-Minute Walk Test (6MWT) In An Active Patient After Cardiac Surgery - A Case Report

Coronary artery disease affects more than 13 million Americans. A sub-population of these patients, despite exercising regularly, can develop cardiac disease. The 6-Minute Walk Test (6MWT) is a functional outcome measure that is easy to implement and has been used across multiple populations. There is limited literature that has investigated the use of the 6MWT on post-operative day one (POD1) after cardiac surgery. Patients participating in self motivated exercise programs prior to surgery are found to excel with early utilization of the 6MWT. For this active sub-population the 6MWT on POD1 may be a more specific and sensitive outcome measure. The purpose of this case report is to investigate the use of the 6MWT as an outcome measure POD1 in a patient after cardiac surgery who participated in a self-exercise pre-op program.https://dune.une.edu/pt_studcrposter/1099/thumbnail.jp

Price convergence in the enlarged internal market

The studies' main aim is to investigate the effects of the EU-10 enlargement on price convergence within the Internal Market. It distinguishes between the opposite forces provided by: (1) the catching up effect of the EU-10, expected to lead to a rise in price levels; and (2) increased competitiveness pressure on prices expected to lower price levels due to lower mark ups of prices over marginal costs. The study is based on comparative price levels for the EU-25, covering the period 1999-2004. Distinct variables were identified as proxies for the catching-up and competition forces. The following analysis proceeded in two steps. First, it is examined whether price convergence has occurred and, second, what are its main drivers. The results confirm the presence of price convergence. This process is particularly visible in the case of basic headings, most likely because they are related to more homogeneous products. Moreover, both catching up and competition have been important factors for explaining price convergence. In addition, both effects seem to be more pronounced for the EU-10 than for the EU-15.EU enlargement, Internal Market, price convergence, Balassa Samuelson effect, competition, Dreger, Kholodilin, Lommatzsch, Slacalek, Wozniak

The Turn to Artificial Intelligence in Governing Communication Online

Presently, we are witnessing an intense debate about technological advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) research and its deployment in various societal domains and contexts. In this context, media and communications is one of the most prominent and contested fields. Bots, voice assistants, automated (fake) news generation, content moderation and filtering – all of these are examples of how AI and machine learning are transforming the dynamics and order of digital communication. On 20 March 2018 the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society together with the non-governmental organisation Access Now hosted the one-day expert workshop “The turn to AI in governing communication online”. International experts from academia, politics, civil society and business gathered in Berlin to discuss the complex socio-technical questions and issues concerning subjects such as artificial intelligence technologies, machine learning systems, the extent of their deployment in content moderation and the range of approaches to understanding the status and future impact of AI systems for governing social communication on the internet. This workshop report summarises and documents the authors’ main takeaways from the discussions. The discussions, comments and questions raised and responses from experts also fed into the report. The report has been distributed among workshop participants. It is intended to contribute current perspectives to the discourse on AI and the governance of communication

Simplify Reporting through Spatial Data Infrastructures -the Example of the German Marine Data Infrastructure

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchiv