'Is climate science taking over the science?': A corpus-based study of competing stances on bias, dogma and expertise in the blogosphere
HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS
Authors: Perez-Gonzalez, Luis
Abstract
Climate change science has become an increasingly polarized site of controversy, where discussions on epistemological rigour are difficult to separate from debates on the impact that economic and political interests have on the production of evidence and the construction of knowledge. Little research has been conducted so far on the antagonistic discursive processes through which climate knowledge is being contested and traditional forms of expertise are being (de-)legitimized-whether by members of the scientific community or non-scientist actors. This corpus-based study contributes to previous scholarship on the climate science controversy in a number of respects. Unlike earlier studies based on the analysis of mainstream media articles, this paper interrogates a corpus of climate change blog posts published by scientists, journalists, researchers and lobbyists laying claim to core, contributory and interactional forms of expertise-as conceptualized within the third wave of science studies. Further, the corpus informing this study has been designed to reflect the complex and multivoiced nature of the climate knowledge production process. Drawn from five different blogs, the views represented are not confined to the two poles between which the entrenched dialectic of 'alarmists' versus 'deniers' is typically played out in the climate science debate. Following a systemic functional conceptualization of dialogic engagement as a means of positioning authorial voices vis-a-vis competing perspectives construed and referenced in a text, this paper reports on bloggers' use of three lexical items (bias, dogma and peer review) to expose their reliance on (non-)epistemic values. Concordances and a range of visualization tools are used to gain systematic insights into the network of lexical choices that obtain around these items, and to gauge whether/how bloggers construct coherent authorial subjectivities in a bid to claim expert status and/or question the recognition of other players in the debate.
The resolution of carotid arterial thrombus by oral anticoagulation after IV thrombolysis for chemotherapy-induced stroke A case report
MEDICINE
Authors: Wu, Bo-Chang; Hu, Ming-Hung; Wang, Vinchi
Abstract
Rationale: Cancer-related stroke has been regarded as an emerging subtype of ischemic event. Acute treatment for this subtype may include the antiplatelet agents, anticoagulants, or endovascular intervention. Patient concerns: A 63-year-old woman with sudden-onset right hemiparesis and conscious change was sent to our emergency department. The patient had underlying sigmoid adenocarcinoma and received chemotherapy FOLFIRI (FOL, folinic acid; F, fluorouracil; and IRI, irinotecan) with targeted therapy cetuximab following lower anterior resection since the diagnosis was made. Diagnoses: Brain magnetic resonance angiography revealed a filling defect in left carotid bulb, and neurosonography showed a thick atherosclerotic plaque (size 4.9 mm) in the left internal carotid artery on day 5 after the onset of stroke. Interventions: During the first three hours after onset, administration of IV tissue plasminogen activator did not resolve the thrombus. Dabigatran (110 mg bid) started on day 7. Outcomes: The atherosclerotic plaque dissolved on day 24. The patient recovered her muscle strength but still had nonfluent speech in mild extent. Lessons: Thrombolytic and anticoagulant medications in this patient suggested the thrombus formation with fibrin-rich content which may be attributable to both cancer and chemotherapy. Dabigatran, an oral anticoagulant, had a benefit for this subtype of ischemic stroke among patients with cancer.