I/O: Reinforcing Newsmaking Practices Through Algorithmic Media

Recent developments in communication and information technology have disrupted the long-established dominance of mass media over the production and distribution of news. As an effort to reclaim their role of society’s information gatekeeper, media companies absorb digital technology as instruments of institutional power to reproduce its own logic in the digital space. This paper dis-cusses two interrelated modalities of algorithmic news: economically efficient production, where news outlets utilize quantitative metrics to improve content effectiveness and desirability; and shared-gatekeeping, where visibility and distribution of information are contextual and based on users’ behaviour. The paper proposes that algorithmic media hides under its supposed objectivity and neutrality to become a new gatekeeper “organism”, which not only regulates flows of infor-mation, but also interprets and negotiates both public interests and the value of the news

Knowing Ourselves: Building an Interactive Researcher Map at the University of Alberta

Despite claims to interdisciplinarity, universities typically organize knowledge along disciplinary lines in departments and faculties. Institutes like KIAS at the University of Alberta (UofA) have been set up to encourage the development of interdisciplinary research projects, but what do we really know about the research of our colleagues and the connections among them other than their departmental affiliation? How is an institute or interdisciplinary group to know what research directions are pursued by its constituency? Knowledge is vital, and yet Universities struggle to know their own research community This paper describes the development of a research network map of the interests of the humanists, social scientists, and artists at the UofA, which is part of KIAS’ project to understand where there were interdisciplinary strengths at the university and to help connect researchers. In particular, we will describe the challenges around gathering information at an institutional level, and demonstrate the Research Map. The Research Map is a web-based network visualization that shows the connections between faculty members, their research interests, and their departmental affiliation. The outcome is a visualization showing clusters of knowledge and webs of intersectionality, revealing not only the richness of the academic production but also the possibilities of future collaboration between scholars and departments. We are now in the process of adapting the Research Map to be used by others research groups like the Digital Synergies research group. It is a “signature area” for research and creative collaboration focused on digital society, digital methodology, and digital literacies. Adapting the Research Map to be embedded in a website streamlines the process of organizing and visualizing the connections between researchers. We are, in effect, using digital social network analysis methods to help people understand the interdisciplinary network itself

The Beginning, The Middle, and The End: New Tools for the Scholarly Edition

This article discusses a set of prototypes currently being designed and created by the Interface Design team of the Implementing New Knowledge Environments (INKE) project. These prototypes attempt to supplement the user experience in reading digital scholarly editions, by supporting a set of tasks that are straightforward in a digital environment but in a print edition would be sufficiently more difficult as to be prohibitive. We therefore offer these experimental prototypes as a collection of new affordances for the scholarly edition, although they may reasonably be extended, with some variation, to other kinds of digital text

The Beginning, The Middle, and The End: New Tools for the Scholarly Edition

This article discusses a set of prototypes currently being designed and created by the Interface Design team of the Implementing New Knowledge Environments (INKE) project. These prototypes attempt to supplement the user experience in reading digital scholarly editions, by supporting a set of tasks that are straightforward in a digital environment but in a print edition would be sufficiently more difficult as to be prohibitive. We therefore offer these experimental prototypes as a collection of new affordances for the scholarly edition, although they may reasonably be extended, with some variation, to other kinds of digital text

Subclinical Myocardial Fibrosis in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus as Assessed by Pulse-Cancellation Echocardiography: A Pilot Study

The aim of this study was to examine whether scar imaging echocardiography with ultrasound multi-pulse scheme (eSCAR) can detect subclinical myocardial involvement in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). We consecutively recruited SLE patients and controls matched for age, sex, and cardiovascular risk factors. Participants with cardiac symptoms or a prior history of heart disease were excluded. All participants underwent eSCAR and speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) with global longitudinal strain (GLS) assessment. SLE patients were assessed for disease activity and were followed up for 12 months. Myocardial scars by eSCAR were observed in 19% of SLE patients, almost exclusively localized at the inferoseptal myocardial segments, and in none of the controls. GLS was significantly lower in most myocardial segments of SLE patients compared with the controls, especially in the inferoseptal segments. eSCAR-positive SLE patients received a higher cumulative and current dose of prednisone, and had significantly higher levels of anti-dsDNA antibodies (p = 0.037). eSCAR-positive patients were at higher risk of having SLE flares over follow-up (hazard ratio: 4.91; 95% CI 1.43-16.83; p = 0.0001). We identified inferoseptal myocardial scars by eSCAR in about one-fifth of SLE patients. Subclinical myocardial involvement was associated with glucocorticoid use and anti-dsDNA antibodies

Tuberculosis in migrants from 106 countries to Italy, 2008-2014

Tuberculosis (TB) is a major infectious disease worldwide. Over recent years, TB caused by multidrug-resistant (MDR) Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains (resistant to at least isoniazid and rifampicin) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) strains (MDR strains resistant to any fluoroquinolone and to at least one injectable second-line drug (SLD), i.e. kanamycin, capreomycin or amikacin) has emerged as a public health concern in industrialised countries, due to increasing migration from regions where TB is endemic. In migrants coming to Italy from 106 countries, MDR-TB was high from the former Soviet Union and low from Afric