88 research outputs found
Does Writing Have a Future?
No full textProfessor David J. Gunkel is the Chair of the Department of Communication at Northern Illinois University – but that is his latest achievement in an extensive list of accomplishments. He is an award-winning educator, researcher, and the author of more than ninety scholarly articles and thirteen books. And it is his latest book, AI for Communication, and his latest thinking about what we have called artificial intelligence and writing that brought him to our 82nd annual conference.
In his keynote address on Saturday, October 9th, 2024, Dr. Gunkel argues that AI does not signal the “end of writing” as much as it suggests the twilight of a conception of writing that has been traditionally theorized as “logocentrism,” (a concept introduced by Jacques Derrida) that suggests that we in the West prioritize speech over writing, and that privilege is now questioned by “large language models” and generative AI. So, for Professor Gunkel, writing has a future but to enter that future, we have to, in his words, reconceptualize how we think about writing and write about thinking.”
Dr. Gunkel’s work and scholarship can be found at [email protected] and gunkelweb.com
Does Writing Have a Future?
No full textProfessor David J. Gunkel is the Chair of the Department of Communication at Northern Illinois University – but that is his latest achievement in an extensive list of accomplishments. He is an award-winning educator, researcher, and the author of more than ninety scholarly articles and thirteen books. And it is his latest book, AI for Communication, and his latest thinking about what we have called artificial intelligence and writing that brought him to our 82nd annual conference.
In his keynote address on Saturday, October 9th, 2024, Dr. Gunkel argues that AI does not signal the “end of writing” as much as it suggests the twilight of a conception of writing that has been traditionally theorized as “logocentrism,” (a concept introduced by Jacques Derrida) that suggests that we in the West prioritize speech over writing, and that privilege is now questioned by “large language models” and generative AI. So, for Professor Gunkel, writing has a future but to enter that future, we have to, in his words, reconceptualize how we think about writing and write about thinking.”
Dr. Gunkel’s work and scholarship can be found at [email protected] and gunkelweb.com
The Status of Robots in Moral and Legal Systems Review of David J. Gunkel (2018). Robot Rights. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
No full textDavid J. Gunkel in his latest book Robot Rights presents the opportunities and challenges of integrating robots into moral and legal systems. The research question asked by the author is “Can and should robots have rights”? Following the Humean distinction between “is” and “ought”, Gunkel creates four statements that either opt for or against incorporating robots into legal discourse. The four modalities group contrasting opinions developed by different scholars on the subject of the eponymous robot rights. The author provides readers with yet another alternative approach to the question of legal recognition of robots which is based on Levinasian philosophy.MNiSW grant 261/ WCN/2019/1 “Wsparcie dla Czasopism Naukowych
Review Of Thinking Otherwise: Philosophy, Communication, Technology By D. J. Gunkel
No full textThinking Otherwise promises more than it delivers, perhaps necessarily so. Gunkel (communication, Northern Illinois Univ.) provides endless documentation of how one is trapped within either/or thinking--only to conclude that it is inescapable. What to do? Throughout the author urges that one question the structure of various either/or controversies regarding information and computer technologies. Unfortunately, even according to Gunkel, escaping dualism is not possible. So all that questioning can do is to reconfigure the binaries, and that is not a negligible accomplishment if done well. To cite one example, machines are not limited to things but include a set of rules, instructions, and messages. The inference the author makes, however, is not justified: namely, that moral philosophy has been and is mechanic. It is untrue that Western conceptions of morality customarily consist in systematic rules of behavior that can be encoded, like an algorithm. This is untrue of any of the great moral traditions in Western moral philosophy, even rule utilitarianism. This said, Thinking Otherwise is clearly and accessibly written from a deeply responsible postmodernist perspective. Even where one disagrees, one will learn from this book. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-/upper-level undergraduates and general readers
Impaired aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 subfamily member 2A-dependent retinoic acid signaling is related with a mesenchymal-like phenotype and an unfavorable prognosis of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma
No full textBackground: An inverse correlation between expression of the aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 subfamily A2 (ALDH1A2) and gene promoter methylation has been identified as a common feature of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC). Moreover, low ALDH1A2 expression was associated with an unfavorable prognosis of OPSCC patients, however the causal link between reduced ALDH1A2 function and treatment failure has not been addressed so far. Methods: Serial sections from tissue microarrays of patients with primary OPSCC (n = 101) were stained by immunohistochemistry for key regulators of retinoic acid (RA) signaling, including ALDH1A2. Survival with respect to these regulators was investigated by univariate Kaplan-Meier analysis and multivariate Cox regression proportional hazard models. The impact of ALDH1A2-RAR signaling on tumor-relevant processes was addressed in established tumor cell lines and in an orthotopic mouse xenograft model. Results: Immunohistochemical analysis showed an improved prognosis of ALDH1A2high OPSCC only in the presence of CRABP2, an intracellular RA transporter. Moreover, an ALDH1A2highCRABP2high staining pattern served as an independent predictor for progression-free (HR: 0.395, p = 0.007) and overall survival (HR: 0.303, p = 0.002), suggesting a critical impact of RA metabolism and signaling on clinical outcome. Functionally, ALDH1A2 expression and activity in tumor cell lines were related to RA levels. While administration of retinoids inhibited clonogenic growth and proliferation, the pharmacological inhibition of ALDH1A2-RAR signaling resulted in loss of cell-cell adhesion and a mesenchymal-like phenotype. Xenograft tumors derived from FaDu cells with stable silencing of ALDH1A2 and primary tumors from OPSCC patients with low ALDH1A2 expression exhibited a mesenchymal-like phenotype characterized by vimentin expression. Conclusions: This study has unraveled a critical role of ALDH1A2-RAR signaling in the pathogenesis of head and neck cancer and our data implicate that patients with ALDH1A2low tumors might benefit from adjuvant treatment with retinoids
Addressing the human papillomavirus vaccine uptake: a multi-component culturally driven education intervention for parents of adolescent patients
No full textHuman Papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted disease worldwide with an estimated 14 million new cases each year (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 2019).
Purpose of Project: This study will examine the knowledge, perceptions, and beliefs parents of adolescent patients have regarding the Human Papillomavirus vaccine, and to give providers insight on the HPV vaccine educational needs and useful resources for Non-Hispanic black parents of adolescent patients.
Methodology: This study includes a pre- and post-education survey using a modified version of The Carolina HPV Immunization Attitudes and Beliefs Scale (CHIAS), and a 2 week follow up call to determine HPV vaccination intention. The Duration of the study was 6 weeks at a private family medicine practice in suburban New Jersey with 16 participants. Participants included parents of adolescent patients with a child aged 9 through 17 years who identify as Non-Hispanic black or African American excluding those English illiterate, and previous initiation or completion of the HPV vaccine series by their adolescent child.
Results: This study shows that despite formal education with multiple teaching modalities and culturally relative content, there is no significant change in knowledge acquisition, and although there was no significant change in parental knowledge following formal education, most parents of adolescent patients report the intent to vaccinate their adolescent child (76.9%).
Implications for Practice: This study provides medical practitioners with insight on the educational needs of African American parents of adolescent patients regarding the HPV vaccine and the need to promote informed decision making.DNPIncludes bibliographical reference
Gunkel’s Deconstruction: Between the Fetish and the Need for a Dialectical Renewal
No full textThe purpose of the essay is to critically analyze the influence of J. Derrida’s deconstruction on David J. Gunkel’s book Deconstruction (MIT Press 2021). Gunkel’s handbook is aimed at making deconstruction a tool of critical thinking accessible to non-professionals. It turns out that accomplishing this task comes at the expense of precisely the critical potential of deconstruction itself. Gunkel is well aware that his arguments are sometimes superficial and overlook deeper problems that should be addressed. Such a failure takes the form of a fetishistic denial, which in psychoanalysis is summarized by the formula “I know well, but all the same.” In turn, deconstruction itself, insofar as it is separated from Kant’s transcendental philosophy and Hegel’s dialectics, becomes an academic ideology. Restoring its proper subversive potential can only be done by returning to a philosophy of reflection, in which the thinker himself must ultimately consider his own position as an author and bring it under criticism. This is the path that Gunkel avoids, because he could then no longer be the author of a handbook on deconstruction, rather than someone who practices deconstruction.
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Received: 4/11/2022. Reviewed: 13/12/2022. Accepted: 20/12/2022.The purpose of the essay is to critically analyze the influence of J. Derrida’s deconstruction on David J. Gunkel’s book Deconstruction (MIT Press 2021). Gunkel’s handbook is aimed at making deconstruction a tool of critical thinking accessible to non-professionals. It turns out that accomplishing this task comes at the expense of precisely the critical potential of deconstruction itself. Gunkel is well aware that his arguments are sometimes superficial and overlook deeper problems that should be addressed. Such a failure takes the form of a fetishistic denial, which in psychoanalysis is summarized by the formula “I know well, but all the same.” In turn, deconstruction itself, insofar as it is separated from Kant’s transcendental philosophy and Hegel’s dialectics, becomes an academic ideology. Restoring its proper subversive potential can only be done by returning to a philosophy of reflection, in which the thinker himself must ultimately consider his own position as an author and bring it under criticism. This is the path that Gunkel avoids, because he could then no longer be the author of a handbook on deconstruction, rather than someone who practices deconstruction.
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Received: 4/11/2022. Reviewed: 13/12/2022. Accepted: 20/12/2022
Does Writing have a Future?
No full textIn opposition to much of the current scholarly and popular publications on the subject, this essay argues that what large language models (LLM) signify is not the end of writing but the terminal limits of a particular conceptualization of writing that has been called logocentrism. Toward this end, the essay will 1) review three fundamental elements of logocentric metaphysics and the long shadow that this way of thinking has cast over the conceptualization and critique of LLMs and generative AI; 2) trace the contours of a deconstruction of this standard operating procedure that interrupts influential and often-unquestioned assumptions about the concept of the author, the meaning of truth, and the meaning of what we mean by the word “meaning;” and 3) formulate the terms and conditions of an alternative way to think and write about LLMs and generative AI that escape the conceptual grasp of logocentrism and its hegemony
The effects of 1:1 individualized diabetes self-management education and support on glycemic control
No full textPurpose of Project: Diabetes self-management education and support (DSMES) has been shown to improve the management and health of people living with diabetes, improve their knowledge, reduce HBA1c and hospital readmission rates. The purpose of this DNP project was to evaluate the effectiveness of 1:1 diabetes self-management education and support (DSMES) on knowledge, HbA1c and hospital readmission rates of diabetic patients.
Methodology: Pretest – posttest study. Participants completed two paper questionnaires – the modified Revised Michigan Diabetes Knowledge Test (DKT2) and the diabetes self-management questionnaire (DSMQ) – before and after the intervention. Hospital charts were reviewed for HbA1c, admission glucose levels, and 90 days past admission records. All data were de-identified and stored on Rutgers University password protected cloud storage. Intervention included inpatient diabetes self-management education (DSME) followed by outpatient phone support. Outcome measured were pre-/post-intervention diabetes knowledge, HbA1c level, and 90 -day-readmission rates. Coding and analysis of the data was done using SPSS. Data analyses included descriptive statistics and nonparametric tests- Wilcoxon ranks sum and Mann-Whitney U due to the small sample size.
Results: The findings include statistically significant improvements in knowledge (p = .011), HbA1c (p= .027) and diabetes related hospital readmission rates (p = .008).
Implications for Practice: The findings of this project support the need for a greater focus on patient/caregiver centered care. The creation of patient centered medical homes and hospital to home transitional support. It supports the need for primary care providers to continually refer their diabetic patients/caregivers for DSME as part of their routine management. DNPIncludes bibliographical reference
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