Values, objectivity and credibility of scientists in a contentious natural resource debate

In contentious natural resource debates, the credibility of scientists is at risk. In this case study, citizens in contending communities and scientists in a forest management controversy constructed the scientists' credibility differently. Shared values and views of the nature of science and objectivity were primary factors for constructing scientists' credibility. Citizens who expected value-free, objective scientists to authenticate their knowledge were concerned about how the values of scientists on the opposite side affected research framing. Citizens who emphasized limited objectivity were less skeptical of scientists. Scientists acknowledged their values but defended their credibility in terms of professional standards, balance and resource constraints. In short, scientists' credibility is relative because each individual has unique values and views of the nature of science and objectivity. Through a collaborative policymaking process, citizens and scientists should develop shared values and visions to reconstruct a temporary, intersubjective sense of credibility.     

Adverse events and placebo effects: African scientists, HIV, and ethics in the 'global health sciences'

This paper builds on the growing literature in 'postcolonial technoscience' by examining how science and ethics travel in transnational HIV research. I use examples of two controversial US-funded studies of mother-to-child transmission in Africa as case studies through which to explore quandaries of difference and inequality in global health research. My aim is not to adjudicate the debates over these studies, but rather to raise some questions about transnational research, science, and ethics that often get lost in public controversies over the moral status of such trials. Using interviews conducted with American and Ugandan HIV researchers as well as relevant material published in the popular and medical press, I argue that debates over research practice and the conditions under which practices are deemed ethically legitimate or questionable reflect the challenges faced by African researchers seeking to participate in global health science. In doing so, I show how questions of scientific legitimacy and authority are played out in debates over who decides what constitutes 'the normal' in human biological research and who can legitimately 'speak for Africa' regarding the ethics of research design and practice. I conclude that researchers from'resource-poor settings' must often walk a tightrope between claims of difference from the global North and assertions of sameness, in which a claim too forceful in either direction can undermine the ethical--and thus scientific--legitimacy of their research.     

Lay experts and the politics of breast implants

This paper discusses the controversy around breast implants in the United States and Europe. It focuses on the emergence of consumer and support groups for women and offers an analysis of the role they have played in recent policy developments in UK and Europe. The politics of breast implants is seen as a politics of knowledge in which scientific expertise has consistently been deployed in ways that minimize the credibility and legitimacy of women's accounts of their bodies and illness experiences. These women have been doubly disadvantaged in a policy debate that turns on scientific controversy and uncertainty. This implies a gendered dynamic to the changing relations of knowledge and expertise. The paper contributes to an understanding of the relations between regulators, manufacturers, users, and clinicians in the global medical device industry and to wider debates around the public understanding of science.     

Credibility assessment of good abandonment results in mobile search

Search engine optimization allows for users’ needs to be directly met by result snippets or a “knowledge map” without clicking any results. This behavior is called “good abandonment” and is found to frequently occur during mobile searching. Users exhibit such a behavior when they trust the result that addresses their information need without bothering to click it. Therefore, this study examines how users judge a result's credibility without clicking. This study proposes a model for assessing the credibility of good abandonment results, making a hypothesis about the measures that may affect credibility assessments in mobile searches. A credibility assessment experiment was conducted to collect users’ eye movements, perceived credibility and feedback on different credibility measures. Users’ search behaviors were recorded by a screen recorder, in order to see whether a search was good abandonment. Then the initially proposed model was validated in terms of users’ perceived credibility, search behaviors and feedback, and further improved. The revised model found that the credibility assessment of good abandonment results in mobile searching is determined by six credibility measures distributed across three aspects of content, operator and design. Content-related measures show that users tend to believe the results if there is detailed and updated context information and the content is neutral. Operator-related measures indicate the impact of trust in the search engine on the credibility assessment. Design-related measures indicate that users tend to trust results with interactive functions and optimal layouts. How each of the six measures influence users’ assessment of credibility is discussed in this paper.     

合成生物学的伦理争论:根源、维度与走向

合成生物学对生命现象的探讨从认知转向合成,研究对象从自然生命转向合成生命,由此引发大量伦理问题与争论。目前学术界对此的探讨涉及多个维度,但对不同维度特点与关系,以及各维度争论与合成生物学发展阶段内在关联的讨论相对薄弱。本文梳理合成生物学的伦理争论,归纳得出伦理争议发生的五个主要维度及其特点,具体包括：制造生命有机体的正当性问题,技术发展对宗教文化的挑战,生物安全性的伦理问题,利益风险分配的公平问题,行动自由与伦理监管的冲突。同时本文从合成生物学发展阶段出发,分析不同维度的伦理争论渐次展开并相互影响的内在逻辑。本文的探讨有助于厘清合成生物学伦理研究的混乱状态,深化理解合成生物学伦理争论中不同伦理立场的核心主张及其根据,进而明晰合成生物学伦理治理要解决的关键问题。     

Visions of a cure. Visualization, clinical trials, and controversies in cardiac therapeutics, 1968-1998

In the early 1970s physicians engaged in fierce debates over the most appropriate method of evaluating the efficacy of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). With millions of patients and billions of dollars at stake, CABG sparked fierce controversy. Skeptics demanded that randomized controlled trials (RCTs) be performed, while enthusiasts argued that they already had visual proof of CABG's efficacy. When RCTs appeared, they did not settle the controversy. Participants simply reasserted their preconceptions, defending a trial's strengths or exploiting its flaws. The debate centered on standards of knowledge for the evaluation of therapeutic efficacy. Specifically, cardiologists and cardiac surgeons struggled to assess the relevance of different measures of therapeutic success: physiological or clinical, visual or statistical. Many factors contributed to participants' decisions, including disciplinary affiliation, traditions of research, personal experience with angiography, and assessments of the history of cardiac therapeutics. Physicians had to decide whether angiography provided a meaningful representation of the disease and its treatment or whether demonstrations of therapeutic success could come only from long-term statistical evaluation of mortality data.     

高校大学生党员、积极分子党史认知问题初探

目前高校大学生党员和入党积极分子党史知识匮乏,存在一系列认知问题,极大地影响了党员发展工作的质量.针对当前高校党史教育研究现状,本文对大学生党员和入党积极分子的党史认知问题进行了具体调查分析,对当前高校党员的党史教育提出了一些建议.     

中美两国有关Bolar例外的理论与实践

在对药品专利的保护上,中美两国均在作出持续的努力以更好地平衡专利权人和公众的利益。经过近200年的发展,美国的案例法和成文法对相关问题有着较为详细的表述。中国则已经制定亚正在努力完善有关这方面的法律规定。本文将对美国和中国有关新药临床试验专利侵权例外的典型案例和规定作一介绍和对比,主要涉及“实验使用”例外、Bolar例外以及非生产经营目的的非专利侵权行为,为读者了解中美这一例外的现状和预期其未来的可能发展提供一些参考。     

网络突发事件的风险分析与管理:一个建议性框架

通过对网络突发事件生命周期的分析,认为蔓延期对整个事件的发生机理、发展趋势产生着至关重要的影响,网络突发事件的风险主要源于其蔓延与变异性,对网络突发事件的风险分析可以从其蔓延危险性的分析入手。正确评估网络突发事件蔓延的可能性,是阻止其危害性后果产生的先决条件,其蔓延可能性主要受初始事件吸引力、积极分子推动力和传统媒体参与度等因素的影响。网络突发事件的风险管理是预防其产生和发展,减轻其危害性后果的具体手段。政府需在网络突发事件的管理方法上建立共识,并在对其风险管理的基础上,制定出切实有效且操作性强的应急管理指南。     

Boundaries,breaches, and bridges: The case of Climategate

We examine the incident known as “Climategate” in which emails and other documents relating to climate scientists and their work were illegitimately accessed and posted to the Internet. The contents of the files prompted questions about the credibility of climate science and the legitimacy of some of the climate scientists’ practices. Multiple investigations unfolded to repair the boundary that had been breached. While exonerating the scientists of wrongdoing and endorsing the legitimacy of the consensus opinion, the investigating committees suggested revisions to some scientific practices. Despite this boundary repair work, the credibility and legitimacy of the scientific enterprise were not fully restored in the eyes of several stakeholders. We explore why this is the case, identify boundary bridging approaches to address these issues, and highlight policy implications.     

中医治疗艾滋病的疗效与前景

基于中医学是理论医学及在“非典”防治中的重要作用,本文就民间中医生在疫区治疗艾滋病的情况以及目前中医治疗艾滋病遇到的问题进行了研究,结果发现民间中医治疗艾滋病的疗效较为肯定,中医药治疗艾滋病的前景广阔。但存在忽视中医学自身标准、传染病法等法律不利于中医药参与治疗艾滋病等问题。为了13亿中国人健康,弘扬中医药应该成为国家战略。     

科学的可信性基础——对约翰·齐曼《真科学》的一种解读

关于科学可信性问题的讨论由来已久。科学的真理性与有用性都不是我们信赖科学的充分必要条件,它们只是构成科学可信性基础的因素。科学值得信赖的基础在于它的"客观实在性",这是约翰·齐曼《真科学》一书给我们的一个基本结论。我们信赖科学,是因为科学同时是真实的、有用的、合乎逻辑的、系统连贯的、精确的、为科学共同体所认同的。     

Understanding the emergence and deployment of “nano” S&T

As an introduction to the special issue on “emerging nanotechnologies”, this paper puts in perspective contemporary debates and challenges about nanotechnology. It presents an overview of diverse analyses and expectations about this presumably revolutionary set of technological, scientific and industrial developments. Three main lines of argument can then be delineated: first of all, the degree of cumulativeness of science and technologies and the respective roles of newcomers and incumbents in the industrial dynamics; second the knowledge dynamics in nanotechnologies, especially the linkages by science and technology and third the role of institutions (network, geographic agglomeration and job market). It finally discusses methodologies to delineate the field of nanotechnologies and to collect data.     

Dissecting the social body: social inequality through AIDS counter-narratives

HIV/AIDS conspiracy theories constitute a loosely grouped set of meanings that share the notion of secret collusion among allied parties. This paper traces one woman's etiological narrative of HIV/AIDS. Such embodied experience and cultural understanding when placed against the backdrop of current thinking on the topic in the United States builds a new framework for understanding the emergence and circulation of HIV/AIDS conspiracy theories as "counter-narratives" employed by individuals and publics in the face of the AIDS pandemic. Such counter-narrative creates a rhetorical space for challenges to power through the articulation of oppositional ideas about dominant scientific knowledge. Without a critical exploration of HIV/AIDS conspiracy theories that examines their emergence and effects as a form of discourse circulating in the public domain, public health advocates will not be able to trace and respond to these narratives' impact on HIV prevention efforts or consider their relevance for other emerging infectious diseases.     

社交媒体信息可信度评估研究综述

社交媒体信息可信度评估研究不仅有助于发展与完善网络信息资源管理理论,而且有助于提高社交媒体舆情监控、社交媒体搜索、社会化推荐等方面的效果。本文通过梳理国内外相关文献,从社交媒体信息研究、信息可信度研究、社交媒体信息可信度评估研究对国内外研究情况进行综述,指出国内社交媒体信息可信度评估研究存在的研究面窄、定性研究多、缺乏系统性等问题,并提出应对中文社交媒体信息可信度进行系统研究、进行自动评估等解决方法。     

Reducing the effects of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria: The role of libraries and information centres

HIV/AIDS is a deadly disease which kills people everywhere in the world. The purpose of this paper is to show that libraries and information centres in Nigeria can be actively used in the campaign and war against the spread of HIV/AIDS. It shows how HIV/AIDS is reducing the population of Nigeria through deaths. It highlights factors responsible for the rapid spread of the disease and shows how provision of education and information supported by library and information services can help reduce the spread of the disease. Libraries and information centres should involve audio–visual materials, and information communication technologies in educating and dissimilating relevant information to the people against HIV/AIDS in the country. The paper has discussed problems hindering effective library services to Nigerians.     

移动社交媒体中健康信息可信度的影响因素研究 ——以微信为例

[目的/意义]旨在探索移动社交媒体中健康信息可信度的影响因素及其作用机制,以期为提升健康信息可信度提供理论借鉴。[方法/过程]借鉴精细加工可能性模型和Hilligoss提出的整合信息可信度评估框架,基于用户感知视角,结合社会诚信现状引入社会背景维度构建健康信息可信度的研究模型,以微信为例,采用问卷调查法和结构方程模型法进行实证研究。[结果/结论]健康信息媒介可信度和健康信息内容可信度越高,健康信息总体可信度越高;健康信息源可信度对健康信息总体可信度的影响不大;健康信息接收者的自身特征会影响健康信息源可信度、健康信息内容可信度和健康信息媒介可信度的感知,从而间接影响健康信息总体可信度,其中影响最大的是对健康信息内容可信度感知;社会背景对健康信息接收者自身特征有显著影响,其次是健康信息媒介的可信度和健康信息源的可信度,对健康信息内容的可信度无影响。     

语义环境中信息可信度计算方法研究

模拟社会网络中人际交互过程,提出一种基于本体理论的计算信息可信度的方法。该方法从两个方面考虑信息可信度,一是信息所含内容本身的可信度;二是发布信息节点的可信度。同时考虑时间因素的影响以及对恶意节点的惩罚。分析和模拟实验表明,该方法具有比较好的可行性。