Blockchain and disruptive technologies in social sciences: Interdisciplinary perspectives

This special issue contains selected papers that cover a broad range of current trends and interdisciplinary approaches in the social research on Blockchain and disruptive technologies

Editorial: Homo Virtualis Inaugural Issue

Homo Virtualis is the conception of a humanity of sciences, cultures and socialities powered by the communicative technological innovations. Cyborgs, robots, avatars and virtual communities imagine, construct and create their lives within new technosocial or sociotechnical environments. [...

Ist eine Medea ohne Kindermord überhaupt denkbar? Medea-Morphosen bei Euripides und Christa Wolf. Oder: Freispruch für Euripides

Ziel der vorliegenden Studie ist, die Rolle und die Wichtigkeit des Kindermordmythologems im Rahmen des Medea-Mythos zu diskutieren. Dabei werden zwei der wichtigsten Bearbeitungen des Euripides’ Tragödie und Christa Wolfs Roman (1996). In einem ersten Schritt wird versucht, die Erfindung des Kindermordes von Seiten des Euripides von einem neuen Blickwinkel zu beleuchten. Im Gegensatz zur Annahme der überwiegenden Mehrheit der Forscher geht diese Studie davon aus, dass Euripides’ Medea nicht bloß ein bürgerliches Ehedrama, sondern eine politische und soziale Skizze des Mikrokosmos der Polis ist. In einer Art „Flaschenpost“ ist es dem großen Tragiker gelungen, die Bedürfnisse der Unterdrückten herauszustreichen und eine neue Perspektive für das weibliche Element zu eröffnen. Während jedoch in der männlichen Überlieferung von Euripides bis von Trier das Unterdrückte als Grausamkeit ans Licht kommt, schlägt Wolf ein anderes Modell von Weiblichkeit vor. Zu diesem Zweck braucht ihre Protagonistin den Kindermord nicht mehr. Der Mythos ist kein Kontext, sondern ein Rahmen. Demzufolge gehören alle Fassungen zum Mythos. In einer Zeit, die durch Gewalt und Angst gekennzeichnet ist, wirft Wolf Licht auf die Ursprünge von Gewalt, indem sie beim Erzählen der Geschichte einer Gestalt, die sowohl Männern als auch Frauen schlechthin Angst macht, andere Schwerpunkte setzt.The aim of this study is to discuss the significance of the child-murder for the Medea myth. For this purpose two of the most important adaptations of the myth are examined: Euripides’ tragedy and Christa Wolf’s novel (1996). The study attempts to shed new light on the invention of this mythologeme by Euripides. Contrary to the acceptance of the majority of the researchers this study assumes Euripides' Medea is not just a bourgeois marriage drama, but a political and social sketch of the microcosm of the Polis. Using various „messages in a bottle “Euripides succeeded in emphasizing on the needs of the suppressed ones and opening a new perspective for the female element. While however in the male tradition, from Euripides to von Trier, the suppressed comes to the light as cruelty, Wolf suggests another model of feminity. As a result her protagonist does not need the childmurder any longer. The myth is not a context, but a frame. Therefore all versions belong to the myth. In a time characterized by violence and fear, Wolf turns the attention to the origins of violence by setting other priorities, while telling the story of a person, which frightens both men and women.Ziel der vorliegenden Studie ist, die Rolle und die Wichtigkeit des Kindermordmythologems im Rahmen des Medea-Mythos zu diskutieren. Dabei werden zwei der wichtigsten Bearbeitungen des Euripides’ Tragödie und Christa Wolfs Roman (1996). In einem ersten Schritt wird versucht, die Erfindung des Kindermordes von Seiten des Euripides von einem neuen Blickwinkel zu beleuchten. Im Gegensatz zur Annahme der überwiegenden Mehrheit der Forscher geht diese Studie davon aus, dass Euripides’ Medea nicht bloß ein bürgerliches Ehedrama, sondern eine politische und soziale Skizze des Mikrokosmos der Polis ist. In einer Art „Flaschenpost“ ist es dem großen Tragiker gelungen, die Bedürfnisse der Unterdrückten herauszustreichen und eine neue Perspektive für das weibliche Element zu eröffnen. Während jedoch in der männlichen Überlieferung von Euripides bis von Trier das Unterdrückte als Grausamkeit ans Licht kommt, schlägt Wolf ein anderes Modell von Weiblichkeit vor. Zu diesem Zweck braucht ihre Protagonistin den Kindermord nicht mehr. Der Mythos ist kein Kontext, sondern ein Rahmen. Demzufolge gehören alle Fassungen zum Mythos. In einer Zeit, die durch Gewalt und Angst gekennzeichnet ist, wirft Wolf Licht auf die Ursprünge von Gewalt, indem sie beim Erzählen der Geschichte einer Gestalt, die sowohl Männern als auch Frauen schlechthin Angst macht, andere Schwerpunkte setzt

Psychosociology of Addiction and Rehabilitation: Construction of a Psychometric Instrument for screening problem and pathological gambling

Gambling and gambling disorders have received solicitous attention by clinicians and researchers during the past three decades. The majority of existing psychometric instruments relevant to problem gambling are based on the clinical evaluation of symptomatology. The aim of this study was the development and evaluation of a self report instrument that comprehends elements based on three main factors: a. psychological, b. biological, c. sociological. In the first phase of this research, structured and semi-structured interview was conducted in 16 individuals. In the second phase, a pilot inventory that consisted of 227 items, was administered in 91 individuals of general population. In the last phase of this study participated 200 individuals from the community and completed the short form of the inventory that included 148 items. Factor analysis was conducted in all items and 115 statistically significant questions were derived which comprise the final form. The present instrument, which has demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties, provides a first step in self evaluation of problem and pathological gambling in Greece and aims at effective counseling in order to reduce or even prevent addictive gambling behaviors

In Vivo Suppression of Precore mRNA Synthesis Is Associated with Mutations in the Hepatitis B Virus Core Promoter

AbstractWe have examined the in vivo effect of hepatitis B virus (HBV) core promoter mutations on the expression of precore mRNA and pregenomic RNA transcripts in the liver of 24 patients with chronic HBV infection, applying a novel transcript-specific RT-PCR assay. The double A1762T/G1764A mutation in the basic core promoter was detected in 11 cases. This mutation was in all cases associated with absence or low levels of precore mRNA transcripts without significantly affecting the levels of total core promoter-directed transcription in the liver of infected patients. Precore mRNA synthesis was suppressed by the A1762T/G1764A mutation regardless of the presence of the precore stop codon mutation G1896A, suggesting that in addition to downregulating an immunomodulatory protein this double basic core promoter mutation may also confer a replication advantage to the virus. Additional mutations detected in the core promoter may also contribute to the observed changes in precore mRNA levels. Our in vivo study shows therefore that the double A1762T/G1764A mutation is associated with the specific suppression of precore mRNA synthesis directed by the HBV core promoter

Cooperative Magneto-Inductive Localization

Wireless localization is a key requirement for many applications. It concerns position estimation of mobile nodes (agents) relative to fixed nodes (anchors) from wireless channel measurements. Cooperative localization is an advanced concept that considers the joint estimation of multiple agent positions based on channel measurements of all agent-anchor links together with all agent-agent links. In this paper we present the first study of cooperative localization for magneto-inductive wireless sensor networks, which are of technological interest due to good material penetration and channel predictability. We demonstrate significant accuracy improvements (a factor of 3 for 10 cooperating agents) over the non-cooperative scheme. The evaluation uses the Cram\'er-Rao lower bound on the cooperative position estimation error, which is derived herein. To realize this accuracy, the maximum-likelihood estimate (MLE) must be computed by solving a high-dimensional least-squares problem, whereby convergence to local minima proves to be problematic. A proposed cooperative localization algorithm addresses this issue: first, preliminary estimates of the agent positions and orientations are computed, which then serve as initial values for a gradient search. In all our test cases, this method yields the MLE and the associated high accuracy (comprising the cooperation gain) from a single solver run. The preliminary estimates use novel closed-form MLE formulas of the distance, direction and orientation for single links between three-axis coils, which are given in detail.Comment: To appear at the IEEE PIMRC 2021 conference. This work has been submitted to the IEEE for publication. Copyright may be transferred without notic