The Role of Bias in News Recommendation in the Perception of the Covid-19 Pandemic

News recommender systems (NRs) have been shown to shape public discourse and to enforce behaviors that have a critical, oftentimes detrimental effect on democracies. Earlier research on the impact of media bias has revealed their strong impact on opinions and preferences. Responsible NRs are supposed to have depolarizing capacities, once they go beyond accuracy measures. We performed sequence prediction by using the BERT4Rec algorithm to investigate the interplay of news of coverage and user behavior. Based on live data and training of a large data set from one news outlet "event bursts", "rally around the flag" effect and "filter bubbles" were investigated in our interdisciplinary approach between data science and psychology. Potentials for fair NRs that go beyond accuracy measures are outlined via training of the models with a large data set of articles, keywords, and user behavior. The development of the news coverage and user behavior of the COVID-19 pandemic from primarily medical to broader political content and debates was traced. Our study provides first insights for future development of responsible news recommendation that acknowledges user preferences while stimulating diversity and accountability instead of accuracy, only.Comment: Accepted for presentation at the 5th FAccTRec Workshop on Responsible Recommendation (FAccTRec '22). Revised based on the reviewers' feedbac

Highly Nonlinear Dynamics of In Vivo Deep-Tissue Interaction with Femtosecond Laser Pulses at 1030 nm

We report on the highly nonlinear behavior observed in the central nervous system tissue of zebrafish (Danio rerio) when exposed to femtosecond pulses at 1030 nm. At this irradiation wavelength, photo damage becomes detectable only after exceeding a specific peak intensity threshold, which is independent of the photon flux and irradiation time, distinguishing it from irradiation at shorter wavelengths. Furthermore, we investigate and quantify the role of excessive heat in reducing the damage threshold, particularly during high-repetition-rate operations, which are desirable for label-free and multi-dimensional microscopy techniques. To verify our findings, we examined cellular responses to tissue damage, including apoptosis and the recruitment of macrophages and fibroblasts at different time points post-irradiation. These findings substantially contribute to advancing the emerging nonlinear optical microscopy techniques and provide a strategy for inducing deep-tissue, precise and localized injuries using near-infrared femtosecond laser pulses

Large emergency-response exercises: qualitative characteristics - a survey

Exercises, drills, or simulations are widely used, by governments, agencies and commercial organizations, to simulate serious incidents and train staff how to respond to them. International cooperation has led to increasingly large-scale exercises, often involving hundreds or even thousands of participants in many locations. The difference between ‘large’ and ‘small’ exercises is more than one of size: (a) Large exercises are more ‘experiential’ and more likely to undermine any model of reality that single organizations may create; (b) they create a ‘play space’ in which organizations and individuals act out their own needs and identifications, and a ritual with strong social implications; (c) group-analytic psychotherapy suggests that the emotions aroused in a large group may be stronger and more difficult to control. Feelings are an unacknowledged major factor in the success or failure of exercises; (d) successful large exercises help improve the nature of trust between individuals and the organizations they represent, changing it from a situational trust to a personal trust; (e) it is more difficult to learn from large exercises or to apply the lessons identified; (f) however, large exercises can help develop organizations and individuals. Exercises (and simulation in general) need to be approached from a broader multidisciplinary direction if their full potential is to be realized

Sektorenkopplung mit Gas im Rahmen des BMBF-Vorhabens SEKO – Teil 2: Gasfachliche Untersuchungen

Die Kopplung der bislang weitgehend unabhängig voneinander existierenden Sektoren Wärme, Strom, Industrie und Mobilität wird Im Zuge der Energiewende eine wichtige Rolle spielen. ln dem vom Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) geforderten Forschungsvorhaben .SEKO" arbeiten mehrere Institute aus unterschiedlichen Fachrichtungen am Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT) daran. zukünftige Herausforderungen bei der Sektorenkopplung zu identifizieren und Lösungsvorschläge zu finden. Das Institut für Technische Chemie und das Engler-Bunte-lnstitut kümmern sich dabei um eine ganzheitliche Simulation der Kopplung von Strom- und Erdgasnetz, die Einbindung industrieller Produktion in diese Kopplung sowie eine experimentelle Validierung und Erprobung mithilfe von Pilotanlagen und Systemsimulationen

Quantum Gravity, the Origin of Time and Time's Arrow

The local Lorentz and diffeomorphism symmetries of Einstein's gravitational theory are spontaneously broken by a Higgs mechanism by invoking a phase transition in the early Universe, at a critical temperature $T_c$ below which the symmetry is restored. The spontaneous breakdown of the vacuum state generates an external time and the wave function of the Universe satisfies a time dependent Schrodinger equation, which reduces to the Wheeler-deWitt equation in the classical regime for $T < T_c$, allowing a semi-classical WKB approximation to the wave function. The conservation of energy is spontaneously violated for $T > T_c$ and matter is created fractions of seconds after the big bang, generating the matter in the Universe. The time direction of the vacuum expectation value of the scalar Higgs field generates a time asymmetry, which defines the cosmological arrow of time and the direction of increasing entropy as the Lorentz symmetry is restored at low temperatures.Comment: 37 page

Differential interaction patterns of opioid analgesics with µ opioid receptors correlate with ligand-specific voltage sensitivity

The µ opioid receptor (MOR) is the key target for analgesia, but the application of opioids is accompanied by several issues. There is a wide range of opioid analgesics, differing in their chemical structure and their properties of receptor activation and subsequent effects. A better understanding of ligand-receptor interactions and the resulting effects is important. Here, we calculated the respective binding poses for several opioids and analyzed interaction fingerprints between ligand and receptor. We further corroborated the interactions experimentally by cellular assays. As MOR was observed to display ligand-induced modulation of activity due to changes in membrane potential, we further analyzed the effects of voltage sensitivity on this receptor. Combining and approaches, we defined discriminating interaction patterns responsible for ligand-specific voltage sensitivity and present new insights into their specific effects on activation of the MOR. [Abstract copyright: © 2023, Kirchhofer et al.

Lysosomal acid lipase regulates VLDL synthesis and insulin sensitivity in mice

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: Lysosomal acid lipase (LAL) hydrolyses cholesteryl esters and triacylglycerols (TG) within lysosomes to mobilise NEFA and cholesterol. Since LAL-deficient (Lal (-/-) ) mice suffer from progressive loss of adipose tissue and severe accumulation of lipids in hepatic lysosomes, we hypothesised that LAL deficiency triggers alternative energy pathway(s). METHODS: We studied metabolic adaptations in Lal (-/-) mice. RESULTS: Despite loss of adipose tissue, Lal (-/-) mice show enhanced glucose clearance during insulin and glucose tolerance tests and have increased uptake of [(3)H]2-deoxy-D-glucose into skeletal muscle compared with wild-type mice. In agreement, fasted Lal (-/-) mice exhibit reduced glucose and glycogen levels in skeletal muscle. We observed 84% decreased plasma leptin levels and significantly reduced hepatic ATP, glucose, glycogen and glutamine concentrations in fed Lal (-/-) mice. Markedly reduced hepatic acyl-CoA concentrations decrease the expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α (PPARα) target genes. However, treatment of Lal (-/-) mice with the PPARα agonist fenofibrate further decreased plasma TG (and hepatic glucose and glycogen) concentrations in Lal (-/-) mice. Depletion of hepatic nuclear factor 4α and forkhead box protein a2 in fasted Lal (-/-) mice might be responsible for reduced expression of microsomal TG transfer protein, defective VLDL synthesis and drastically reduced plasma TG levels. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: Our findings indicate that neither activation nor inactivation of PPARα per se but rather the availability of hepatic acyl-CoA concentrations regulates VLDL synthesis and subsequent metabolic adaptations in Lal (-/-) mice. We conclude that decreased plasma VLDL production enhances glucose uptake into skeletal muscle to compensate for the lack of energy supply