Kontingenz, Kontextualität und Potentialität von Lebensgeschichten in Sergej Bolmats Roman "V vozduche" / "In der Luft"

»Wenn es einen Wirklichkeitssinn gibt, dann muß es« – so folgerte Robert Musil zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts – »auch einen Möglichkeitssinn geben.« Darunter versteht er die Fähigkeit, »alles, was ebenso gut [auch] sein könnte, zu denken und das, was ist, nicht wichtiger zu nehmen, als das, was nicht ist.« Mit dem Begriff des Möglichkeitssinns, der auf die Relativität und Alternativität des individuellen Denkens sowie auf die Utopie eines anderen, hypothetischen Lebens verweist, hat Robert Musil in seinem Jahrhundertroman Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften dem Kontingenzbewusstsein des modernen Menschen Ausdruck gegeben, welches am Ende des 20. Jahrhunderts zum Grundmodus der Existenz und der Verfasstheit des Individuums überhaupt werden sollte. Dem Begriff der Kontingenz liegt bei aller Unschärfe ein grundlegendes, auf Aristoteles zurückgehendes Verständnis zugrunde, welches Niklas Luhmann folgendermaßen definiert: Kontingent ist etwas, was weder notwendig ist, noch unmöglich ist; was also so, wie es ist (war, sein wird), sein kann, aber auch anders möglich ist. Der Begriff bezeichnet mithin Gegebenes (zu Erfahrendes, Erwartetes, Gedachtes, Phantasiertes) im Hinblick auf mögliches Anderssein; er bezeichnet Gegenstände im Horizont möglicher Abwandlungen

(Re)Presenting Eichmann: One Man, Many Murders

This thesis argues that the act of recording the trial of Adolf Eichmann was an interpretation by director Leo Hurwitz, and that at the time it was recorded, and since then, the material has been used by different actors for different purposes. I examined the use made of that material by six individuals/countries: Leo Hurwitz, the accused, director Eyal Sivan, screenwriter Simon Block, West German presenters Joachim Besser and Peter Schier-Gribowsky, and the Israeli government under David Ben-Gurion. To understand the intent of Leo Hurwitz, footage of trial sessions was analyzed as were interviews with him by Professor Susan Slyomovics of UCLA and the work of Professors Sylvie Lindeperg and Annette Wieviorka. To see what Eichmann hoped to accomplish by his self-representation, his performance was analyzed using the work of Hajo Adam and Adam D. Galinsky. To appreciate the intention of Eyal Sivan, his writings, presentations, and interviews were examined as was his film The Specialist: A Modern Criminal Mind. Simon Block’s dialogue for The Eichmann Show and interviews with him were also studied to see his intention. To gain an insight into the West Germany program showing the trial, the work of Judith Keilbach of Utrecht University, and the first eight broadcasts of the program Eine Epoche vor Gericht were considered. Finally, to get an overview of the aim of Israel in having the trial video-taped and broadcast, its history, and the work of writers like Ari Shavit, Amos Oz, Tom Segev, and Haim Gouri were studied. This research shows that all six actors used the tapes for different purposes. Hurwitz tried to show the dangers of fascism. Eichmann worked to present himself a law-abiding German. Eyal Sivan countered the narrative established by the original recording. Simon Block revealed the dynamics of the two people most concerned with capturing the trial for posterity. The presenters of Eine Epoche vor Gericht revealed a reformed Germany that was still aware of its past misdeeds, and finally the Israeli government made used the recording to educate others about the Holocaust, pull Israelis together, and substantiate Israel’s right to exist

Human Perceptions of Fairness in Algorithmic Decision Making: A Case Study of Criminal Risk Prediction

As algorithms are increasingly used to make important decisions that affect human lives, ranging from social benefit assignment to predicting risk of criminal recidivism, concerns have been raised about the fairness of algorithmic decision making. Most prior works on algorithmic fairness normatively prescribe how fair decisions ought to be made. In contrast, here, we descriptively survey users for how they perceive and reason about fairness in algorithmic decision making. A key contribution of this work is the framework we propose to understand why people perceive certain features as fair or unfair to be used in algorithms. Our framework identifies eight properties of features, such as relevance, volitionality and reliability, as latent considerations that inform people's moral judgments about the fairness of feature use in decision-making algorithms. We validate our framework through a series of scenario-based surveys with 576 people. We find that, based on a person's assessment of the eight latent properties of a feature in our exemplar scenario, we can accurately (> 85%) predict if the person will judge the use of the feature as fair. Our findings have important implications. At a high-level, we show that people's unfairness concerns are multi-dimensional and argue that future studies need to address unfairness concerns beyond discrimination. At a low-level, we find considerable disagreements in people's fairness judgments. We identify root causes of the disagreements, and note possible pathways to resolve them.Comment: To appear in the Proceedings of the Web Conference (WWW 2018). Code available at https://fate-computing.mpi-sws.org/procedural_fairness

Dimensions of Diversity in Human Perceptions of Algorithmic Fairness

Algorithms are increasingly involved in making decisions that affect human lives. Prior work has explored how people believe algorithmic decisions should be made, but there is little understanding of which individual factors relate to variance in these beliefs across people. As an increasing emphasis is put on oversight boards and regulatory bodies, it is important to understand the biases that may affect human judgements about the fairness of algorithms. Building on factors found in moral foundations theory and egocentric fairness literature, we explore how people's perceptions of fairness relate to their (i) demographics (age, race, gender, political view), and (ii) personal experiences with the algorithmic task being evaluated. Specifically, we study human beliefs about the fairness of using different features in an algorithm designed to assist judges in making decisions about granting bail. Our analysis suggests that political views and certain demographic factors, such as age and gender, exhibit a significant relation to people's beliefs about fairness. Additionally, we find that people beliefs about the fairness of using demographic features such as age, gender and race, for making bail decisions about others, vary egocentrically: that is they vary depending on their own age, gender and race respectively.Comment: Presented at the CSCW 2019 workshop on Team and Group Diversit

Unterstützung informellen Lernens Studierender. Möglichkeiten studentischen Arbeitens mit Social Software

Innerhalb des Projektes „Learner Communities of Practice“ (LCP) wurde mit Förderung durch das Sächsische Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst ein Schulungskonzept entwickelt, welches das informelle Lernen Studierender in der Studieneingangsphase mittels Social-Software-Tools unterstützt. Der Beitrag beschreibt die didaktische und technische Umsetzung des Schulungskonzeptes, stellt die Ergebnisse einer testweisen Durchführung dar und skizziert generelle Herausforderungen beim Einsatz von Social Software in der akademischen Aus- und Weiterbildung. (DIPF/Orig.

MiR-16-5p is frequently down-regulated in astrocytic gliomas and modulates glioma cell proliferation, apoptosis, and response to cytotoxic therapy

AIMS Aberrant expression of microRNAs (miRNAs) is frequent in various cancers including gliomas. We aimed to characterize the role of miR-16-5p as a candidate tumour suppressor miRNA in gliomas. METHODS Real-time PCR-based approaches were used for miRNA and mRNA expression profiling of glioma and non-neoplastic brain tissues as well as glioma cell lines. Protein levels were determined by Western blotting. In vitro analyses were performed following overexpression of miR-16-5p, trichostatin A treatment, and siRNA-mediated knock-down of HDAC3 in glioma cells. Effects of miR-16-5p on glioma cell viability, apoptosis and response to irradiation and temozolomide were assessed. RESULTS Expression of miR-16-5p was reduced relative to control brain tissue in isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH)-mutant astrocytomas of World Health Organization (WHO) grades II, III, and IV, and a subset of IDH-wildtype glioblastomas WHO grade IV. MiR-16-5p expression was lower in IDH-mutant than in IDH-wildtype gliomas, and down-regulated in IDH-wildtype glioma lines. MiR-16-5p overexpression reduced expression of important cell cycle and apoptosis regulators in glioma cells, including CDK6, CDC25A, CCND3, CCNE1, WEE1, CHEK1, BCL2, and MCL1. In line, CDK6, WEE1, CHEK1, BCL2, and MCL1 transcript levels were increased in WHO grade III or IV gliomas. Trichostatin A treatment and HDAC3 knockdown in glioma cells induced miR-16-5p up-regulation and reduced expression of its targets. Moreover, miR-16-5p overexpression inhibited proliferation and induced apoptosis in various glioma cell lines and increased sensitivity of A172 glioma cells to irradiation and temozolomide. CONCLUSION Reduced expression of miR-16-5p contributes to glioma cell proliferation, survival, and resistance to cytotoxic therapy. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Catalysis of Strand Exchange by the HSV-1 UL12 and ICP8 Proteins: Potent ICP8 Recombinase Activity is Revealed upon Resection of dsDNA Substrate by Nuclease

The replication of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) is associated with a high degree of homologous recombination, which is likely to be mediated, in part, by HSV-1-encoded proteins. We have previously shown that the HSV-1 encoded ICP8 protein and alkaline nuclease UL12 are capable of catalyzing an in vitro strand-exchange reaction. Here, we show, by electron microscopy, that the products of the strand exchange reaction between linear double-stranded DNA and circular single-stranded DNA consist of the expected joint molecule forms: sigma, alpha, and gapped circles. Other exonucleases, such as lambda Red α, which, like UL12, digests 5′-3′, as well as Escherichia coli exonuclease III (ExoIII), which digests 3′-5′, could substitute for UL12 in the strand exchange reaction by providing a resected DNA end. ICP8 generated the same intermediates and strand exchange products when the double-stranded DNA substrate was preresected by any of the nucleases. Using substrates with large regions of non-homology we found that pairing by ICP8 could be initiated from the middle of a DNA molecule and did not require a homologous end. In this reaction, the resection of a DNA end by the nuclease is required to reveal homologous sequences capable of being paired by ICP8. This study further illustrates the complexity of the multi-functional ICP8 protein

Spatial analysis of the glioblastoma proteome reveals specific molecular signatures and markers of survival

Molecular heterogeneity is a key feature of glioblastoma that impedes patient stratification and leads to large discrepancies in mean patient survival. Here, we analyze a cohort of 96 glioblastoma patients with survival ranging from a few months to over 4 years. 46 tumors are analyzed by mass spectrometry-based spatially-resolved proteomics guided by mass spectrometry imaging. Integration of protein expression and clinical information highlights three molecular groups associated with immune, neurogenesis, and tumorigenesis signatures with high intra-tumoral heterogeneity. Furthermore, a set of proteins originating from reference and alternative ORFs is found to be statistically significant based on patient survival times. Among these proteins, a 5-protein signature is associated with survival. The expression of these 5 proteins is validated by immunofluorescence on an additional cohort of 50 patients. Overall, our work characterizes distinct molecular regions within glioblastoma tissues based on protein expression, which may help guide glioblastoma prognosis and improve current glioblastoma classification