Supporting Pluralism by Artificial Intelligence: Conceptualizing Epistemic Disagreements as Digital Artifacts

A crucial concept in philosophy and social sciences, epistemic disagreement, has not yet been adequately reflected in the Web. In this paper, we call for development of intelligent tools dealing with epistemic disagreements on the Web to support pluralism. As a first step, we present Polyphony, an ontology for representing and annotating epistemic disagreements

Exceptional sperm cooperation in the wood mouse

Spermatozoa from a single male will compete for fertilization of ova with spermatozoa from another male when present in the female reproductive tract at the same time. Close genetic relatedness predisposes individuals towards altruism, and as haploid germ cells of an ejaculate will have genotypic similarity of 50%, it is predicted that spermatozoa may display cooperation and altruism to gain an advantage when inter-male sperm competition is intense. We report here the probable altruistic behaviour of spermatozoa in an eutherian mammal. Spermatozoa of the common wood mouse, Apodemus sylvaticus, displayed a unique morphological transformation resulting in cooperation in distinctive aggregations or 'trains' of hundreds or thousands of cells, which significantly increased sperm progressive motility. Eventual dispersal of sperm trains was associated with most of the spermatozoa undergoing a premature acrosome reaction. Cells undergoing an acrosome reaction in aggregations remote from the egg are altruistic in that they help sperm transport to the egg but compromise their own fertilizing ability

Quantifying Bar Strength: Morphology Meets Methodology

A set of objective bar-classification methods have been applied to the Ohio State Bright Spiral Galaxy Survey (Eskridge et al. 2002). Bivariate comparisons between methods show that all methods agree in a statistical sense. Thus the distribution of bar strengths in a sample of galaxies can be robustly determined. There are very substantial outliers in all bivariate comparisons. Examination of the outliers reveals that the scatter in the bivariate comparisons correlates with galaxy morphology. Thus multiple measures of bar strength provide a means of studying the range of physical properties of galaxy bars in an objective statistical sense.Comment: LaTeX with Kluwer style file, 5 pages with 3 embedded figures. edited by Block, D.L., Freeman, K.C., Puerari, I., & Groess,

Perbandingan Validitas Alat Ukur Nyeri antara Self-report Pain Scale dan Observational Pain Scale pada Nyeri Akut Anak Usia 3-7 Tahun

The purpose of this study was to compare the validity of pain scales between self-report pain scale and observational pain scale in acute pain of 36 children aged 3-7 years old receiving intravenous canullation procedure in pediatric unit at Arifin Achmad General Hospital. This study was an observational analitical study toward diagnostic test. This study design was cross-sectional with consecutive sampling method. The level of pain was measured by using Faces Pain Rating Scale (FPRS) as self-report method and FLACC scale as observational method. CHEOPS was used as the gold-standard. The data were analysed by using concurrent validity, sensitivity-specificity, and Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve. In concurrent validity, FLACC showed a better positive correlation compared to FPRS (r=0.946 : r=0.387). FLACC also had higher value of sensitivity and specificity (100%, 95%) which were higher compared to FPRS (93%, 40%). ROC analysis also showed higher value of the Area Under Curve (AUC) of FLACC (100%) compared to FPRS (89.4%). The result of this study performed a statistically better validity for FLACC as an observational pain scale to measure acute pain of children aged 3-7 years old. This study suggests the using of FLACC as the better scale in pain assessment of children aged 3-7 years old

Modulation of emotional appraisal by false physiological feedback during fMRI

BACKGROUND James and Lange proposed that emotions are the perception of physiological reactions. Two-level theories of emotion extend this model to suggest that cognitive interpretations of physiological changes shape self-reported emotions. Correspondingly false physiological feedback of evoked or tonic bodily responses can alter emotional attributions. Moreover, anxiety states are proposed to arise from detection of mismatch between actual and anticipated states of physiological arousal. However, the neural underpinnings of these phenomena previously have not been examined. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We undertook a functional brain imaging (fMRI) experiment to investigate how both primary and second-order levels of physiological (viscerosensory) representation impact on the processing of external emotional cues. 12 participants were scanned while judging face stimuli during both exercise and non-exercise conditions in the context of true and false auditory feedback of tonic heart rate. We observed that the perceived emotional intensity/salience of neutral faces was enhanced by false feedback of increased heart rate. Regional changes in neural activity corresponding to this behavioural interaction were observed within included right anterior insula, bilateral mid insula, and amygdala. In addition, right anterior insula activity was enhanced during by asynchronous relative to synchronous cardiac feedback even with no change in perceived or actual heart rate suggesting this region serves as a comparator to detect physiological mismatches. Finally, BOLD activity within right anterior insula and amygdala predicted the corresponding changes in perceived intensity ratings at both a group and an individual level. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE Our findings identify the neural substrates supporting behavioural effects of false physiological feedback, and highlight mechanisms that underlie subjective anxiety states, including the importance of the right anterior insula in guiding second-order "cognitive" representations of bodily arousal state

Can Latin America Move Forward after a Lost Decade in Technical Change? …Looking at Opportunities for Knowledge-based Change in Times of Increasing Uncertainty

In view of the current global context, which challenges are facing science- and technology-based developments and cooperation in a way to contribute for policies that stimulate localized learning, innovation and endogenous development in Latin America? This broad question has motivated the work behind the Special Issue introduced by this paper, which considers the development of case studies in selected Latin America regions. The analysis lead us to argue that value-based networks have the potential to make both public policies and markets more effective, promoting learning trajectories for the inclusive development of regions. But they require effective public investments to keep attracting and qualifying human resources, together with long-term developments towards technical industries and export capacity for emerging markets worldwide. Our analysis argues about the unique potential for further developing Latin America through strategic international, knowledge-based ventures, exploring the emerging role the internationalization of universities and scientific institutions may play at a global level. Above all, they require the systematic observation of science and technical change in international comparison, as well as a relational infrastructure for collective action, at an international level, in a context much influenced by a dynamic of change and a necessary balance between the creation and diffusion of knowledge towards the endogenous development of all parts involved. The role of Latin America Universities and science policies based on international cooperation are considered to be particularly important in this process.published_or_final_versio

Modulation of emotional appraisal by false physiological feedback during fMRI

BACKGROUND James and Lange proposed that emotions are the perception of physiological reactions. Two-level theories of emotion extend this model to suggest that cognitive interpretations of physiological changes shape self-reported emotions. Correspondingly false physiological feedback of evoked or tonic bodily responses can alter emotional attributions. Moreover, anxiety states are proposed to arise from detection of mismatch between actual and anticipated states of physiological arousal. However, the neural underpinnings of these phenomena previously have not been examined. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We undertook a functional brain imaging (fMRI) experiment to investigate how both primary and second-order levels of physiological (viscerosensory) representation impact on the processing of external emotional cues. 12 participants were scanned while judging face stimuli during both exercise and non-exercise conditions in the context of true and false auditory feedback of tonic heart rate. We observed that the perceived emotional intensity/salience of neutral faces was enhanced by false feedback of increased heart rate. Regional changes in neural activity corresponding to this behavioural interaction were observed within included right anterior insula, bilateral mid insula, and amygdala. In addition, right anterior insula activity was enhanced during by asynchronous relative to synchronous cardiac feedback even with no change in perceived or actual heart rate suggesting this region serves as a comparator to detect physiological mismatches. Finally, BOLD activity within right anterior insula and amygdala predicted the corresponding changes in perceived intensity ratings at both a group and an individual level. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE Our findings identify the neural substrates supporting behavioural effects of false physiological feedback, and highlight mechanisms that underlie subjective anxiety states, including the importance of the right anterior insula in guiding second-order "cognitive" representations of bodily arousal state