Higher education in mysore city

Mapping of the subject

e-Research in the Life Sciences examines the use of online tools in the life sciences and finds that their use has significant impact, namely the formation of a Scientific/Intellectual Movement (SIM) (Frickel & Gross, 2005) complemented by a Computerisation Movement (CM) (Kling & Iacono, 1994) which is mobilising global electronic resources to form visible colleges of life science researchers, who are enrolling others and successfully promoting their open science goals via mainstream scientific literature. Those within this movement are also using these online tools to change their work practices, producing scientific knowledge in a highly networked and distributed group which has less regard for traditional institutional and disciplinary boundaries. This thesis, by combining ideas about SIMs and CMs, fills a gap in research that is typically confined to treating new tools as a part of scientific communication or in specialist areas like distributed collaboration but not in terms of broader changes in science. Case studies have been conducted for three types of online tools: the scientific social networking tool FriendFeed, open laboratory notebooks, and science blogs. Data have been collected from semi-structured interviews, and the online writings of research participants. The case studies of exemplary use by scientists of the web form a baseline for future studies in the area. Boundaries between formal and informal scholarly communication are now blurred. At the formal level, which peer-reviewed print journals continue, many academic publishers now also have online open access, frequently in advance of print publication. At the informal level, what used to be confined to water-cooler chat and the conference circuit is now also discussed on mailing lists, forums and blogs (Borgman, 2007). As these online tools generate new practices they have potential to affect future academic assessment and dissemination practices.

Citizen Cyberscience Projects (CCPs) are projects mediated through the Internet, in which teams of scientists recruit members of the public (volunteers) to assist in scientific research, typically through the processing of large quantities of data. This thesis presents qualitative ethnographic case studies of the communities that have formed around two such projects, climateprediction.net and Galaxy Zoo. By considering these social actors in the broader contexts in which they are situated (historical, institutional, social, scientific), I discuss the co-shaping of the interests of these actors, the nature of the relationships amongst these actors, and the infrastructure of the projects and the purposes and nature of the scientific work performed. The thesis focusses on two relationships in particular. The first is that between scientists and volunteers, finding that, although scientists in both projects are concerned with treating volunteers with respect, there are nevertheless considerable differences between the projects. These are related to a number of interconnecting factors, including the particular contexts in which each project is embedded, the nature of the scientific work that volunteers are asked to undertake, the possibilities and challenges for the future development of the projects as perceived by the scientists, and the tools at the disposal of the respective teams of scientists for mediating relationships with volunteers. The second is amongst the volunteers themselves. This thesis argues that volunteers are heterogeneous, from disparate backgrounds, and that they sustain their involvement in CCPs for very different purposes. In particular, they seek to pursue these through the way they negotiate and construct their relationships with other volunteers, drawing on particular features of the project to do so. This thesis contributes to two fields. The first is to Citizen Cyberscience itself, with a view to improving the running of such projects. Some social studies have already been conducted of CCPs to this end, and this thesis both extends the analysis of some of these pre-existing studies and also problematizes aspects of CCPs that these studies had not considered. I discuss the significance of my findings for those involved in setting up and running a CCP, and present some recommendations for practice. The second field is Science and Technology Studies, in particular studies of public engagement with scientific and technological decision- and knowledge-making processes. The modes of engagement found in CCPs differ in key ways from those that have already been documented in the existing literature (in particular, different power relationships) and thus offer new ways of understanding how the public might be engaged successfully in such processes.

The theme of this project was synthesis and the thesis encompasses knowledge generation and knowledge translation. Systematic review methodology was employed. The initial two systematic reviews compared antidepressant medication and cognitive-behaviour therapy for the acute treatment of depression. A further comparison of a combination of the two interventions with each treatment on its own was also conducted, with the bulk of the evidence favouring the psychotherapy. Moving to the topic of knowledge translation, the main theme of the thesis, the barriers, facilitators, and interventions impacting on systematic review uptake were identified. The evidence from these three systematic reviews, using diverse methodologies, was then combined to identify the interventions that overcame specific obstacles and built on highlighted facilitators in order to improve the uptake of evidence from systematic reviews. Juxtaposing barriers and facilitators alongside effectiveness studies in this final, mixed-methods systematic review allowed a number of interventions to be recommended. The synthesis also allowed strategies to be highlighted that required further development. Interventions with a statistically significant effect such as educational visits, summaries of systematic reviews, and targeted messaging, addressed a wide range of the identified barriers and facilitators. These interventions were recommended. Promising uptake strategies requiring further development were also identified. Furthermore, large gaps in the evidence base regarding systematic review utilization were highlighted. Fewer of the facilitators identified as part of this project, such as the medico-legal protection provided by systematic reviews, appear to have been built on in order to increase review uptake. Finally, all the preceding evidence was drawn on in order to develop a proposal focused on improving the uptake of evidence from systematic reviews and meta-analyses. This doctoral project offers a menu or range of evidence-based factors that can be considered by organisations and researchers when planning strategies aimed at increasing the uptake of pre-appraised, synthesized evidence.

The dominant discourse surrounding academic research libraries today is one of change and scholarship in the humanities has seen a similar revolution in practice. Yet, most of the documented changes in either have been ascribed to the availability of online journal materials. Despite the accessibility of millions of rare, digitized primary resources freely available on the web, little has been done to understand the impact of these materials on either the practice of scholarship or on libraries. The research described in this proposal is an investigation into digitization projects involving rare and closely guarded materials and the effects of these projects on humanities scholarship. This thesis uses both qualitative and quantitative measures to: Assess the impact of digitized primary resources on the work of humanities scholars; To construct a model based on the findings that explains current use of digitized primary sources; and, To discuss the implications of these findings for academic research libraries. The research questions are answered through a detailed analysis of the role of digitization in the field of Tibetan and Himalayan studies. The author presents detailed evidence of how digitization is changing the inputs, practice, and outputs of scholarship in this field, as well as the characteristics of digitization that have led to these changes. Importantly, these findings separate out the success of individual projects from the success of digitization across the field as a whole. Support for community and innovation as well as the presence of critical mass across the field are stressed as the three most significant factors. Finally, the implications of these findings are assessed within a newly proposed model of academic libraries. This “scholar-centric” model is intended to provide both a theoretical framework for the research findings as well as a normative provocation for structuring future research and discussions about the role of academic libraries and their presence online.

The question of how the Internet affects existing geo-cultural or geo-linguistic communities in relation to nation-states has continued to receive attention among academics and policymakers alike. Language-based technologies and services that aggregate, index, and distribute materials online may reshape pre-existing boundaries of the relationship between users and content, for instance with different language versions of user-generated encyclopaedias or different local versions of search engines. By comparing two major Chinese online encyclopaedias, Baidu Baike and Chinese Wikipedia, this thesis investigates whether the Internet overcomes, shifts, or reinforces boundaries among Chinese language users. The Chinese language provides an excellent case for examining the boundary question. While the Internet can potentially connect the largest number of native speakers around the world, the majority (i.e. those from mainland China) face an Internet censorship and filtering regime that may limit this very potential. Modern Chinese history has also complicated the cultural-political boundaries among the regions of mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. This thesis compares the conditions and outcomes of their respective editorial processes, content features, and users’ reception. Multiple findings emerge from a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, including content analysis, webometrics, and search engine result visibility tests. These methods show that boundaries are drawn in the process of creating, linking, and searching content on the Chinese Internet. Their geolinguistic extent differs, a phenomenon that reflects the cultural-political division between mainland China and the rest of Chinese-speaking world. Both the findings and methods of the thesis have important implications for research and policy for understanding the globalizing regionalization and nationalization effects of the Internet.

The research presented in this thesis is based in the Humanities discipline of Ancient History and begins by attempting to understand the interpretation process involved in reading ancient documents and how this process can be aided by computer systems such as Decision Support Systems (DSS). The thesis balances between the use of IT tools to aid Humanities research and the understanding that Humanities research must involve human beings. It does not attempt to develop a system that can automate the reading of ancient documents. Instead it seeks to demonstrate and develop tools that can support this process in the five areas: remembering complex reasoning, searching huge datasets, international collaboration, publishing editions, and image enhancement. This research contains a large practical element involving the development of a DSS prototype. The prototype is used to illustrate how a DSS, by remembering complex reasoning, can aid the process of interpretation that is reading ancient documents. It is based on the idea that the interpretation process goes through a network of interpretation. The network of interpretation illustrates a recursive process where scholars move between reading levels such as ‘these strokes look like the letter c’ or ‘these five letters must be the word primo’. Furthermore, the thesis demonstrates how technology such as Web Services and XML can be used to make a DSS even more powerful through the development of the APPELLO word search Web Service. Finally, the conclusion includes a suggestion for a future development of a working DSS that incorporates the idea of a layer-based system and focuses strongly on user interaction.

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