Cooperation for knowledge demands know-how for cooperation

Valedictory Address by Louk de la Rive Box, Professor of international cooperation and Rector of the International Institute of Social Studies (22 April 2010). Which Knowledge and for Which Development? Old Timers and New Players More than a decade ago the cyber-revolution gave rise to optimism that ICT would facilitate access to knowledge and promote “development”. The World Development Report 1998-99 promised “Knowledge for Development”, while the World Bank proclaimed itself the “Knowledge Bank”. There had been many “old” players in the knowledge field, including public research organizations for different sectors. During the 1980s and 1990s, however, private players had come to dominate the “knowledge market”, as dwindling public finances and government subsidies undermined public research and development, and related public goods such as education. While many of these “new” players effectively privatized knowledge, some contributed to knowledge becoming more widely available, in forms such as open-access journals and e-books, in a process referred to as “democratizing knowledge”. The question is whether this really translated into wider access to knowledge. In particular, did knowledge became accessible for the less privileged in the world, those seeking “development”, or has knowledge become a private good, with segmented access to information, for a particular form of (elite-driven) development? How can we explain, for instance, the lack of knowledge development for peasant agriculture, and the overall focus on development of technology for (and by) agri-business, with highly protected forms of access? Although civil society is contesting this way of restricting knowledge, it is not clear whether and how the current trend towards concentration in the “power of knowledge” can be reversed in the interest of broad-based access. Let the debate continue

Vulnerability for new episodes in recurrent major depressive disorder:protocol for the longitudinal DELTA-neuroimaging cohort study

Introduction Major depressive disorder (MDD) is widely prevalent and severely disabling, mainly due to its recurrent nature. A better understanding of the mechanisms underlying MDD-recurrence may help to identify high-risk patients and to improve the preventive treatment they need. MDD-recurrence has been considered from various levels of perspective including symptomatology, affective neuropsychology, brain circuitry and endocrinology/metabolism. However, MDD-recurrence understanding is limited, because these perspectives have been studied mainly in isolation, cross-sectionally in depressed patients. Therefore, we aim at improving MDD-recurrence understanding by studying these four selected perspectives in combination and prospectively during remission.Methods and analysis In a cohort design, we will include 60 remitted, unipolar, unmedicated, recurrent MDD-participants (35-65years) with 2 MDD-episodes. At baseline, we will compare the MDD-participants with 40 matched controls. Subsequently, we will follow-up the MDD-participants for 2.5years while monitoring recurrences. We will invite participants with a recurrence to repeat baseline measurements, together with matched remitted MDD-participants. Measurements include questionnaires, sad mood-induction, lifestyle/diet, 3T structural (T1-weighted and diffusion tensor imaging) and blood-oxygen-level-dependent functional MRI (fMRI) and MR-spectroscopy. fMRI focusses on resting state, reward/aversive-related learning and emotion regulation. With affective neuropsychological tasks we will test emotional processing. Moreover, we will assess endocrinology (salivary hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal-axis cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate) and metabolism (metabolomics including polyunsaturated fatty acids), and store blood for, for example, inflammation analyses, genomics and proteomics. Finally, we will perform repeated momentary daily assessments using experience sampling methods at baseline. We will integrate measures to test: (1) differences between MDD-participants and controls; (2) associations of baseline measures with retro/prospective recurrence-rates; and (3) repeated measures changes during follow-up recurrence. This data set will allow us to study different predictors of recurrence in combination.Ethics and dissemination The local ethics committee approved this study (AMC-METC-Nr.:11/050). We will submit results for publication in peer-reviewed journals and presentation at (inter)national scientific meetings.Trial registration number NTR3768.</p

Functional MRI correlates of emotion regulation in major depressive disorder related to depressive disease load measured over nine years

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) often is a recurrent and chronic disorder. We investigated the neurocognitive underpinnings of the incremental risk for poor disease course by exploring relations between enduring depression and brain functioning during regulation of negative and positive emotions using cognitive reappraisal.We used fMRI-data from the longitudinal Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety acquired during an emotion regulation task in 77 individuals with MDD. Task-related brain activity was related to disease load, calculated from presence and severity of depression in the preceding nine years. Additionally, we explored task related brain-connectivity. Brain functioning in individuals with MDD was further compared to 35 controls to explore overlap between load-effects and general effects related to MDD history/presence.Disease load was not associated with changes in affect or with brain activity, but with connectivity between areas essential for processing, integrating and regulating emotional information during downregulation of negative emotions. Results did not overlap with general MDD-effects. Instead, MDD was generally associated with lower parietal activity during downregulation of negative emotions. During upregulation of positive emotions, disease load was related to connectivity between limbic regions (although driven by symptomatic state), and connectivity between frontal, insular and thalamic regions was lower in MDD (vs controls).Results suggest that previous depressive load relates to brain connectivity in relevant networks during downregulation of negative emotions. These abnormalities do not overlap with disease-general abnormalities and could foster an incremental vulnerability to recurrence or chronicity of MDD. Therefore, optimizing emotion regulation is a promising therapeutic target for improving long-term MDD course.Pathways through Adolescenc

Rhetoric and reality: Critical perspective on education in a 3D virtual world

The emergence of any new educational technology is often accompanied by inflated expectations about its potential for transforming pedagogical practice and improving student learning outcomes. A critique of the rhetoric accompanying the evolution of 3D virtual world education reveals a similar pattern, with the initial hype based more on rhetoric than research demonstrating the extent to which rhetoric matches reality. Addressed are the perceived gaps in the literature through a critique of the rhetoric evident throughout the evolution of the application of virtual worlds in education and the reality based on the reported experiences of experts in the field of educational technology, who are all members of the Australian and New Zealand Virtual Worlds Working Group. The experiences reported highlight a range of effective virtual world collaborative and communicative teaching experiences conducted in members’ institutions. Perspectives vary from those whose reality is the actuation of the initial rhetoric in the early years of virtual world education, to those whose reality is fraught with challenges that belie the rhetoric. Although there are concerns over institutional resistance, restrictions, and outdated processes on the one-hand, and excitement over the rapid emergence of innovation on the other, the prevailing reality seems to be that virtual world education is both persistent and sustainable. Explored are critical perspectives on the rhetoric and reality on the educational uptake and use of virtual worlds in higher education, providing an overview of the current and future directions for learning in virtual worlds

Rhetoric and reality: Critical perspective on education in a 3D virtual world

The emergence of any new educational technology is often accompanied by inflated expectations about its potential for transforming pedagogical practice and improving student learning outcomes. A critique of the rhetoric accompanying the evolution of 3D virtual world education reveals a similar pattern, with the initial hype based more on rhetoric than research demonstrating the extent to which rhetoric matches reality. Addressed are the perceived gaps in the literature through a critique of the rhetoric evident throughout the evolution of the application of virtual worlds in education and the reality based on the reported experiences of experts in the field of educational technology, who are all members of the Australian and New Zealand Virtual Worlds Working Group. The experiences reported highlight a range of effective virtual world collaborative and communicative teaching experiences conducted in members’ institutions. Perspectives vary from those whose reality is the actuation of the initial rhetoric in the early years of virtual world education, to those whose reality is fraught with challenges that belie the rhetoric. Although there are concerns over institutional resistance, restrictions, and outdated processes on the one-hand, and excitement over the rapid emergence of innovation on the other, the prevailing reality seems to be that virtual world education is both persistent and sustainable. Explored are critical perspectives on the rhetoric and reality on the educational uptake and use of virtual worlds in higher education, providing an overview of the current and future directions for learning in virtual worlds