scholarly journals THE NONRANDOM WALK OF KNOWLEDGE

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-264
Author(s):  
Jane R. Bambauer ◽  
Saura Masconale ◽  
Simone M. Sepe

AbstractA person’s epistemic goals sometimes clash with pragmatic ones. At times, rational agents will degrade the quality of their epistemic process in order to satisfy a goal that is knowledge-independent (for example, to gain status or at least keep the peace with friends.) This is particularly so when the epistemic quest concerns an abstract political or economic theory, where evidence is likely to be softer and open to interpretation. Before wide-scale adoption of the Internet, people sought out or stumbled upon evidence related to a proposition in a more random way. And it was difficult to aggregate the evidence of friends and other similar people to the exclusion of others, even if one had wanted to. Today, by contrast, the searchable Internet allows people to simultaneously pursue social and epistemic goals.This essay shows that the selection effect caused by a merging of social and epistemic activities will cause both polarization in beliefs and devaluation of expert testimony. This will occur even if agents are rational Bayesians and have moderate credences before talking to their peers. What appears to be rampant dogmatism could be just as well explained by the nonrandom walk in evidence-gathering. This explanation better matches the empirical evidence on how people behave on social media platforms. It also helps clarify why media outlets (not just the Internet platforms) might have their own pragmatic reasons to compromise their epistemic goals in today’s competitive and polarized information market. Yet, it also makes policy intervention much more difficult, since we are unlikely to neatly separate individuals’ epistemic goals from their social ones.

10.28945/4075 ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 001-021

Telemedicine technology had advanced rapidly with the growth of the internet in the 2000’s. The technology, also known as telehealth, allowed patients to receive medical care remotely rather than traditional in-person doctor visits at a facility. Consumer demand exploded throughout the 2010’s, and some of the best hospitals in the world started implementing some forms of telehealth technology; some were subtle, some overt. However, for many hospitals like Lakeland Regional Health (LRH), telehealth was yet to be offered as a wide-scale option for patients to use. Elizabeth, LRH’s Chief Information Officer (CIO), had just come from a committee meeting where she and other executives discussed how telemedicine could be best implemented at LRH, if at all. The technology had only just begun to be technologically reliable, and the price tag for offering such services was heavy. Their immediate objective was to properly align LRH’s entry into telemedicine services without sacrificing their high commitment to quality patient care. As Elizabeth began to unwind from work, she pondered questions regarding costs, government regulations, and how the telehealth adoption would affect LRH’s financial position. After jotting down a few notes, she suddenly received a call; it was her sister Cindy. Cindy explained that she was concerned about her daughter because she had displayed flu-like symptoms throughout the day and, unfortunately, she was not able to take her daughter to the emergency room (ER). Cindy remembered Elizabeth talking about telehealth, and how some of the local hospitals were offering telemedicine prescription services over the internet or phone app as an option instead of having to go to the ER for some medicine. Elizabeth referred her to the hospital offering the telemedicine services, but she wanted to be able to refer Cindy directly to LRH considering they were known for providing outstanding patient care. Elizabeth wished Cindy’s daughter well, and they said their goodbyes. Elizabeth knew that telemedicine could have been helpful for her sister that night. Now, even more, she was motivated to advocate for the project. She reflected on how LRH could offer telehealth services without compromising the quality of patient care and without negatively impacting the hospital’s financial standing. Was this even possible?


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-69
Author(s):  
Muhammad Zarlis ◽  
Sherly Astuti ◽  
Muhammad Salamuddin

In education, for educational instruments scientific writing is a very important thing. It requires an information management skill, information management is a library search, which can be done through a computer and guided by the internet. It can also be through the quality of reading used as a reference for scientific writing. In addition, in producing a paper also must know the management of writing, not only required to pay attention to the rules of standard language, but also must be able to convey ideas and ideas well and meet scientific criteria, such as making a quote or reference list used. This paper was written with the aim of improving the quality of research through reading material, making notes and avoiding plagiarism, references using the Harvard system for journals, books, and articles. Management of citing articles either CD or internet, writing, editing, storing references electronically, writing bibliography, and quotations.


Communicology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-179
Author(s):  
E.S. Nadezhkina

The term “digital public diplomacy” that appeared in the 21st century owes much to the emergence and development of the concept of Web 2.0 (interactive communication on the Internet). The principle of network interaction, in which the system becomes better with an increase in the number of users and the creation of user-generated content, made it possible to create social media platforms where news and entertainment content is created and moderated by the user. Such platforms have become an expression of the opinions of various groups of people in many countries of the world, including China. The Chinese segment of the Internet is “closed”, and many popular Western services are blocked in it. Studying the structure of Chinese social media platforms and microblogging, as well as analyzing targeted content is necessary to understand China’s public opinion, choose the right message channels and receive feedback for promoting the country’s public diplomacy. This paper reveals the main Chinese social media platforms and microblogging and provides the assessment of their popularity, as well as possibility of analyzing China’s public opinion based on “listening” to social media platforms and microblogging.


Author(s):  
Patrícia Rossini ◽  
Jennifer Stromer-Galley

Political conversation is at the heart of democratic societies, and it is an important precursor of political engagement. As society has become intertwined with the communication infrastructure of the Internet, we need to understand its uses and the implications of those uses for democracy. This chapter provides an overview of the core topics of scholarly concern around online citizen deliberation, focusing on three key areas of research: the standards of quality of communication and the normative stance on citizen deliberation online; the impact and importance of digital platforms in structuring political talk; and the differences between formal and informal political talk spaces. After providing a critical review of these three major areas of research, we outline directions for future research on online citizen deliberation.


2021 ◽  
pp. flgastro-2020-101713
Author(s):  
Mathuri Sivakumar ◽  
Akash Gandhi ◽  
Eathar Shakweh ◽  
Yu Meng Li ◽  
Niloufar Safinia ◽  
...  

ObjectivePrimary biliary cholangitis (PBC) is a progressive, autoimmune, cholestatic liver disease affecting approximately 15 000 individuals in the UK. Updated guidelines for the management of PBC were published by The European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) in 2017. We report on the first national, pilot audit that assesses the quality of care and adherence to guidelines.DesignData were collected from 11 National Health Service hospitals in England, Wales and Scotland between 2017 and 2020. Data on patient demographics, ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) dosing and key guideline recommendations were captured from medical records. Results from each hospital were evaluated for target achievement and underwent χ2 analysis for variation in performance between trusts.Results790 patients’ medical records were reviewed. The data demonstrated that the majority of hospitals did not meet all of the recommended EASL standards. Standards with the lowest likelihood of being met were identified as optimal UDCA dosing, assessment of bone density and assessment of clinical symptoms (pruritus and fatigue). Significant variations in meeting these three standards were observed across UK, in addition to assessment of biochemical response to UDCA (all p<0.0001) and assessment of transplant eligibility in high-risk patients (p=0.0297).ConclusionOur findings identify a broad-based deficiency in ‘real-world’ PBC care, suggesting the need for an intervention to improve guideline adherence, ultimately improving patient outcomes. We developed the PBC Review tool and recommend its incorporation into clinical practice. As the first audit of its kind, it will be used to inform a future wide-scale reaudit.


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