My research examines the extent to which features of ‘openness’ might usefully contribute to mechanisms of governance of human stem cell lines, with a view to the production of therapeutic stem cell treatments for the provision of health benefits. The impetus for the project is the UK Stem Cell Bank, a national repository for stem cell lines and the focal point of a unique set of publicly supported, non-statutory arrangements for the informal (but mandatory) oversight of human embryonic stem cell lines (hESCs) in the UK. The sharing of stem cells through this mechanism promotes public confidence in embryo and stem cell research, and supports research by making (ethically-sourced and quality-controlled) human stem cell lines widely available to researchers, but the structure and functions of the Bank also impose constraints on the imminent commercial development and manufacture of stem cell therapies for human application. My thesis examines the role of ‘openness’ in systems of governance designed to facilitate not just research but the whole trajectory of stem cell technology, from research to production and delivery of clinical treatments. What is openness and what function does it have in purposive attempts to design mechanisms that will advance stem cell technology? The bulk of my thesis maps out the conceptual foundations upon which systems of governance for the production of stem cell therapies may be grounded. It does not address the ethical and social debate surrounding embryo research and the embryonic derivation of stem cell lines, which are legally permissible in the UK. In Part I, I frame the problem of governance of ongoing use of stem cell lines as part of a larger policy endeavour related to the provision of public goods. Secondly, I propose a conception of reflexive governance that is capable of facilitation of technology in a multi-faceted heterogeneous environment. Part II explores traditional narratives of openness in science and technology, and how they might be reconceived in the context of modern scientific technology. In Part III, I apply my conception of facilitative governance to collective strategies or ‘commons’ approaches to facilitative governance. I then identify its applicability for the present UK system governing stem cell lines, and for the proposition of alternative structures and processes that might be better able to achieve the policy goal of provision of health benefits through delivery of therapeutic stem cell treatments.

Submitted by Jussara Moore (jussaramoore@id.uff.br) on 2017-02-15T12:21:29Z No. of bitstreams: 1 PPGCI UFF CARUSO DISSERTAÇÃO 2015.pdf: 2526703 bytes, checksum: 0170c20654ea0a5a6111413a6a160966 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Jussara Moore (jussaramoore@id.uff.br) on 2017-02-15T12:36:47Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 PPGCI UFF CARUSO DISSERTAÇÃO 2015.pdf: 2526703 bytes, checksum: 0170c20654ea0a5a6111413a6a160966 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-02-15T12:36:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 PPGCI UFF CARUSO DISSERTAÇÃO 2015.pdf: 2526703 bytes, checksum: 0170c20654ea0a5a6111413a6a160966 (MD5) / Busca analisar as ações de pesquisadores acadêmicos na web aberta. Para tanto faz uma revisão de literatura de problemas norteadores da pesquisa como o conceito de abertura (openness), a consumerização da tecnologia da informação, e as correntes de pensamento da ciência aberta. Faz uma introdução de questões relacionadas a produção do conhecimento na academia, como a dos pesquisadores e o ethos da ciência, as tradições de pesquisa acadêmicas e o ciclo de vida da pesquisa acadêmica. Para a criação da metodologia para análise das ações dos pesquisadores, a gestão do conhecimento é vista como uma disciplina que provê a definição de critérios para a utilização de tecnologias emergentes para a colaboração e a pirâmide do engajamento para identificar as ações possíveis na web. A partir da fundamentação teórica, desenvolve uma metodologia para avaliação das ações de engajamento acadêmico através da análise de sites de pesquisadores e da colaboração através do envio de um questionário. Em suas conclusões identificou a diversidade de ações dos acadêmicos em relação às formas de engajamento e adoção das tecnologias digitais, em consonância com a emergência de iniciativas relacionadas a própria ciência aberta. Além de sugerir direções para novas pesquisas em ciência da informação relacionadas ao tema. / This dissertation proposes to analyze the actions of academic researchers in the open web. It offers a literature review on the guiding problems of research such as the concept of openness, the consumerization of information technology, and the currents school of thought of open science. It introducts issues related to the production of knowledge in academia, the researchers and the ethos of science, academic research traditions and the life cycle of academic research. For the creation of a methodology for analysis of the actions of researchers, knowledge management is seen as a discipline that provides the definition of criteria for the use of emerging technologies for collaboration and the Pyramid of engagement was used to identify possible actions on the web. Based on theoretical foundation we develop a methodology for evaluation of academic engagement actions by analyzing researchers sites and also collaboration by sending an online questionnaire. In its conclusions identified the diversity of actions of researchers in relation to the forms of engagement and adoption of digital technologies, in line with the emergence of initiatives related to open science. And suggests directions for further research in Information Science related to the theme.

1. Un premier apport de notre travail consiste à proposer un cadre théorique, analytique et conceptuel original, permettant d'approcher la notion de qualité des publications en SHS (sciences humaines et sociales) et en sciences de la communication de façon à la fois holistique et dynamique, en tant qu'elle fait l'objet de descriptions et de jugements multiples, émis par une diversité de parties prenantes, au sein et en dehors des milieux académiques. Pour ce faire, il s'agira de considérer la qualité dans ses différentes dimensions constitutives (approche holistique) tout en l'inscrivant dans le cadre d'évolutions tendancielles en matière de publication scientifique (approche dynamique) et en tenant compte de la qualité telle qu'elle est prescrite, souhaitée et mise en oeuvre par les différentes parties prenantes (chercheurs et entités prescriptrices, aux niveaux politique et managérial). En croisant de façon systématique ces trois approches - approche multidimensionnelle, rapport aux prescrits et aux souhaits, et étude des évolutions tendancielles -, il s’avérera possible d'évaluer l'incidence des différentes tendances en matière de publication scientifique – i.e. tendances à la massification, à l'internationalisation, à l' « exotérisation » (i.e. à l'ouverture vers le monde extérieur, au-delà des pairs), à la « gestionnarisation » (i.e. à l'usage des publications dans la gestion dela recherche et des chercheurs, en particulier en situation d'évaluation), à la commercialisation et à l' « enlignement » (i.e. à la mise en ligne, sur Internet) – ainsi que des prescriptions managériales et politiques qui les initient, les stimulent ou les prolongent à des degrés divers, sur la qualité de l'activité même de publier, et sur celle des différents types génériques et spécifiques d'objets publiés.2. En appliquant cette triple approche aux SHS et, plus particulièrement, au cas des sciences de la communication, nous montrerons comment la plupart des évolutions tendancielles qui sont discutées ici ainsi que des prescrits politiques et managériaux qui y affèrent aboutissent à valoriser principalement, en situation d'évaluation de la recherche et des chercheurs, la publication d'un grand nombre d'articles dans des revues savantes internationales de premier plan, destinés avant tout aux pairs, et à dévaloriser les publications, ouvertes à des publics plus locaux, rédigées en langue vernaculaire, ou qui se consacreraient à la résolution de problèmes de société. En particulier, à la faveur de la tendance à la « gestionnarisation » des publications, l'article de revue savante internationale de premier plan, ainsi que les citations qui lui sont faites par les seuls pairs, sont posés en indicateurs de performance de tout premier plan, « fixant » ainsi les pratiques de recherche et de publication des chercheurs. Cette « fixion » sera d'autant plus marquée que les indicateurs bibliométriques, à l'échelon national, seront intégrés à des processus de financement public de la recherche fondés sur les performances, et que, à l'échelon international, les indicateurs joueront un rôle prépondérant dans l'établissement des rankings des universités ainsi que des benchmarks des systèmes nationaux et régionaux de recherche. Pour autant, des prescriptions politiques sont également édictées, principalement au niveau européen, dans l'optique de la mise en oeuvre, au sein de l'Espace européen de la recherche et, dans une moindre mesure, de l'Espace européen de l'enseignement supérieur, d'une économie de la connaissance compétitive à l'échelon global et, plus particulièrement, d'un « mode 2 » de production des connaissances, qui insistent sur l'importance de davantage valoriser les résultats de la recherche, interdisciplinaire et coopérative, auprès de parties prenantes extra-académiques. En résulte une relation paradoxale entre la tendance à l'exotérisation de la recherche et des publications, et les prescrits de gestionnarisation des publications, ainsi qu'entre les prescriptions qui les sous-tendent respectivement.3. Or l'enquête que nous avons menée auprès des membres de trois sociétés savantes internationales en sciences de la communication montre combien les chercheurs de cette discipline ont désormais bien intégré les critères de qualité promus par les prescrits politiques et managériaux soutenant l'instauration d'une nouvelle « culture de la publication », à la croisée des tendances à la massification, à l'internationalisation et à la gestionnarisation des publications. Pour autant, des entretiens approfondis menés auprès de chercheurs en sciences de la communication actifs en Belgique francophone et néerlandophone n'en révèlent pas moins que ces derniers développent une attitude foncièrement ambivalente envers la culture du « publish or perish » et à l'égard de prescriptions qui sur-valorisent les revues savantes internationales de premier plan, en situation d'évaluation de la recherche et des chercheurs. D'une part, en effet, les chercheurs avec qui nous nous sommes entretenus estiment que la nouvelle culture de la publication joue un rôle bénéfique dans la professionnalisation et dans le développement d'une culture véritablement scientifique dans les sciences de la communication. Partant, la plupart d'entre eux développent des stratégies visant à aligner leurs pratiques de publication sur les prescrits. D'autre part, plusieurs répondants n'en regrettent pas moins le caractère réducteur de la survalorisation des revues savantes internationales de premier plan dans l'évaluation, et souhaitent qu'une plus grande diversité de types de publication soit prise en compte par les évaluateurs. Afin de concilier « qualité prescrite » et « qualité souhaitée » dans la qualité de leur activité effective de publication et dans celle des objets effectivement publiés (« qualité réelle »), il arrive dès lors à ces chercheurs de « bricoler » avec les prescriptions. Par ailleurs, la plupart des répondants, davantage cependant en FédérationWallonie-Bruxelles qu'en Flandre, où le financement public de la recherche est d'ores et déjà fondé en partie sur des indicateurs bibliométriques et revue-métriques, regrettent le manque d'explicite dans la formulation des prescriptions – ces dernières prenant régulièrement la forme de « scripts » plus indirects et/ou implicites, plutôt que de normes et de règles stricto sensu –, ainsi que l'absence de seuil quantitatif minimal à atteindre.4. Il nous semble par conséquent, dans une optique plus normative, que le dépôt systématique des différents types de publication produits par les chercheurs en SHS et en sciences de la communication sur des répertoires numériques institutionnels (Open Access Green) serait de nature à (contribuer à) résoudre le paradoxe des prescriptions en matière de « qualité prescrite », ainsi que l'ambivalence des perceptions des chercheurs en matière de « qualité souhaitée ». En effet, le dépôt des publications sur des répertoires institutionnels ouvre des opportunités inédites de renouveler la conversation savante qui se structure autour des objets publiés, au sein de la communauté argumentative (Kommunikationsgemeinschaft) des pairs, par le biais notamment de la revue par les pairs ouverte et grâce à la possibilité de commenter ad libitum les publications disséminées en Open Access. mais également en rendant les résultats de la recherche aisément accessibles et ré-utilisables par des parties prenantes extra-académiques. Les opportunités liées au dépôt des publications sur des répertoires Open Access (Green), en termes de qualité tant épistémique que pragmatiquede ces dernières, seront d'autant plus fécondes que le dépôt des travaux sur les répertoires institutionnels s'articulera à l'usage, par le chercheur, des instruments idoines, génériques ou dédiés, du Web participatif (Wikis, blogues, micro-blogues, réseaux sociaux, outils de partage de signets et de listes bibliographiques). Par ailleurs, les dépôts numériques fonctionnent désormais en tant qu'« outils de transparence », susceptibles de donner davantage de visibilité à des productions de recherche et des types de publication diversifiés. En situation d'évaluation de la recherche et des chercheurs, le recours aux dépôts institutionnels - pour autant qu'un mandat prescrive le dépôt de tous les travaux produits par les chercheurs de l'institution – permettrait aux évaluateurs de fonder leur jugement sur une gamme plus large et plus représentative de types de publication et de formes de communication en SHS et en sciences de la communication. De plus, grâce à la dissémination en Open Access, en conjonction avec l'usage d'une diversité d'outils du Web participatif, il devient mieux possible de soumettre les différents types de publication archivés et publiés en libre accès à des indicateurs de performance eux-mêmes diversifiés – bibliométriques, mais également « webométriques » et « altmétriques » -, fondés sur les articles plutôt que sur les revues et mieux adaptés à la diversité de leurs impacts, tant au sein qu'en dehors du cercle des pairs.5. Partant, l'Open Access (Green) nous apparaît in fine comme étant doté d'un potentiel important, en matière d'intégration de la recherche et des chercheurs en SHS et en sciences de la communication à la mise en place – au-delà d'une économie de la connaissance - d'une véritable société de la connaissance, ainsi qu'aux processus d'innovation techno-industrielle, sociale et intellectuelle qui la sous-tendent. / Doctorat en Information et communication / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Since 2000, digital technology and other technological advances such as 3D printing have improved non-traditional scientists’ participation in biotechnology and life science research and development. Non-traditional scientists, including amateur scientists, students and graduates from the life sciences, artists, programmers, engineers, and entrepreneurs, have rapidly increased under the Do-It-Yourself biotechnology (DIY bio) movement. These DIY biotechnologists or DIYers increase biotechnology research and life science inventions in society by encouraging open and cooperative development. Biotechnology research and development (R&D), especially in healthcare and agricultural biotechnology, suffers from patent proliferation with fragmented and overlapping rights that cover upstream research resources and research tools which can enable downstream developments. The proliferation of patents and related rights protecting upstream research can be detrimental to progress and citizens’ welfare because they can increase the cost of R&D, interfere with access to upstream research tools, and allow R&D to be concentrated around the issues found in developed nations. Many DIYers depend on self-funding and community resources to experiment with biotechnology. Proprietary research tools and equipment are harder to access. Some of them operate alongside proprietary R&D in a research area by building on off-patent technologies and inventing around patents. Some DIYers have made significant contributions in science that benefit other biotechnology researchers and developers, such as developing and manufacturing open source versions of proprietary research tools and equipment. Nonetheless, they can risk inadvertent patent infringement by working in competitive biotechnology research areas with heavy patent coverage. The presence of patent thickets in biotechnology can also discourage volunteers’ initial participation in open R&D. When third party patents develop around open and cumulative development, the risk of patent infringement increases for downstream development and commercial activities based on upstream open R&D. Alternative knowledge management strategies, such as open source patent licensing, clearinghouses and contract-based compensatory liability regimes, allow open innovation communities to create a protected commons of shared resources. However, these do not resolve problems in biotechnology patent law, such as fragmented and overlapping rights on cumulative technologies and strategic patent use. Government actions can address these problems, such as broadening outdated patent law exceptions, which can discourage unnecessary patenting and reduce the risk of infringement in alternative innovation environments.

abstract: Open Design is a crowd-driven global ecosystem which tries to challenge and alter contemporary modes of capitalistic hardware production. It strives to build on the collective skills, expertise and efforts of people regardless of their educational, social or political backgrounds to develop and disseminate physical products, machines and systems. In contrast to capitalistic hardware production, Open Design practitioners publicly share design files, blueprints and knowhow through various channels including internet platforms and in-person workshops. These designs are typically replicated, modified, improved and reshared by individuals and groups who are broadly referred to as ‘makers’. This dissertation aims to expand the current scope of Open Design within human-computer interaction (HCI) research through a long-term exploration of Open Design’s socio-technical processes. I examine Open Design from three perspectives: the functional—materials, tools, and platforms that enable crowd-driven open hardware production, the critical—materially-oriented engagements within open design as a site for sociotechnical discourse, and the speculative—crowd-driven critical envisioning of future hardware. More specifically, this dissertation first explores the growing global scene of Open Design through a long-term ethnographic study of the open science hardware (OScH) movement, a genre of Open Design. This long-term study of OScH provides a focal point for HCI to deeply understand Open Design's growing global landscape. Second, it examines the application of Critical Making within Open Design through an OScH workshop with designers, engineers, artists and makers from local communities. This work foregrounds the role of HCI researchers as facilitators of collaborative critical engagements within Open Design. Third, this dissertation introduces the concept of crowd-driven Design Fiction through the development of a publicly accessible online Design Fiction platform named Dream Drones. Through a six month long development and a study with drone related practitioners, it offers several pragmatic insights into the challenges and opportunities for crowd-driven Design Fiction. Through these explorations, I highlight the broader implications and novel research pathways for HCI to shape and be shaped by the global Open Design movement. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Media Arts and Sciences 2020

The Diploma Thesis deals with the water pollution entering the Protected Landscape Area Moravian Karst via surface streams. In order to quantify the extent of the pollution surface streams entering the Moravian Karst were selected. A survey of a region of interest was done. Actual volume flow rate, measurements of physicochemical parameters, water samplings, laboratory analyses of samples were done monthly from April to November 2019. Conductivity, pH, temperature, oxidation-reduction potential, concentration of dissolved oxygen, and oxygen saturation were measured in situ. Afterwards, COD, BOD, phosphate, total phosphorus, ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and Kjeldahl nitrogen were determined in the laboratory. Organic nitrogen and total nitrogen were also calculated. The results were evaluated with a respect of Government Decree No. 401/2015 Coll. Material flows were calculated for selected parameters and used as other criterion that evaluate the water pollution of monitoring surface streams. Areas out of the PLA needing an enhanced protection of watercourses were proposed based on quantified pollution. Cooperation with two primary schools in the Moravian Karst supported the research. Pupils and their teachers were trained, and they measured phosphate in surface streams from April to November 2019. The website related to phosphorus in surface water were created and results of phosphate measurement were uploaded there.

Europäische Heimatforschung: grenzüberschreitende Forschung mit europäischen Quellen und Geschichten, um dieses Wissen mit Open Sience wieder sichtbar und zugänglich zu machen

Conferencia realizada en el marco de la "III Conferencia Latinoamericana de Analíticas de Aprendizaje LALA2020 Project", del 1 al 2 de Octubre de 2020 en Cuenca, Ecuador. / The aim of this paper is to investigate the perceptions of learning analytics re-searchers in Peru about the barriers to publication of their research data. A review of the relevant legislation was done. Semi-structured interviews were used as a research method, the focus being on the presumed conflict between the publica-tion of research data and the protection of personal data. The results show a range of individual factors that influence the behaviour of scientists in relation to the publication of research data, emphasizing the barriers related to data protection in different disciplines.

We experience the world through our senses. But we can only make sense of the incoming information because it is weighted and interpreted against our perceptual experience which we gather throughout our lives. In this thesis I present several approaches we used to investigate the learning of prior-experience and its utilization for prediction-based computations in decision making. Teaching participants new categories is a good example to demonstrate how new information is used to learn about, and to understand the world. In the first study I present, we taught participants new visual categories using a reinforcement learning paradigm. We recorded their brain activity before, during, and after prolonged learning over 24 sessions. This allowed us to show that initial learning of categories occurs relatively late during processing, in prefrontal areas. After extended learning, categorization occurs early during processing and is likely to occur in temporal structures. One possible computational mechanism to express prior information is the prediction of future input. In this thesis, I make use of a prominent theory of brain function, predictive coding. We performed two studies. In the first, we showed that expectations of the brain can surpass the reliability of incoming information: In a perceptual decision making task, a percept based on fill-in from the physiological blind spot is judged as more reliable to an identical percept from veridical input. In the second study, we showed that expectations occur between eye movements. There, we measured brain activity while peripheral predictions were violated over eye movements. We found two sets of prediction errors early and late during processing. By changing the reliability of the stimulus using the blind spots, we in addition confirm an important theoretical idea: The strength of prediction-violation is modified based on the reliability of the prediction. So far, we used eye-movements as they are useful to understand the interaction between the current information state of the brain and expectations of future information. In a series of experiments we modulated the amount of information the visual system is allowed to extract before a new eye movement is made. We developed a new paradigm that allows for experimental control of eye-movement trajectories as well as fixation durations. We show that interrupting the extraction of information influences the planning of new eye movements. In addition, we show that eye movement planning time follow Hick's law, a logarithmic increase of saccadic reaction time with increasing number of possible targets. Most of the studies presented here tried to identify causal effects in human behavior or brain-computations. Often direct interventions in the system, like brain stimulation or lesions, are needed for such causal statements. Unfortunately, not many methods are available to directly control the neurons of the brain and even less the encoded expectations. Recent developments of the new optogenetic agent Melanopsin allow for direct activation and silencing of neuronal cells. In cooperation with researchers from the field of optogenetics, we developed a generative Bayesian model of Melanopsin, that allows to integrate physiological data over multiple experiments, include prior knowledge on bio-physical constraints and identify differences between proteins. After discussing these projects, I will take a meta-perspective on my field and end this dissertation with a discussion and outlook of open science and statistical developments in the field of cognitive science.

abstract: Although most Americans support capital punishment, many people have misconceptions about its efficacy and administration (e.g., that capital punishment deters crime). Can correcting people’s inaccurate attitudes change their support for the death penalty? If not, are there other strategies that might shift people’s attitudes about the death penalty? Some research suggests that statistical information can correct misconceptions about polarizing topics. Yet, statistics might be irrelevant if people support capital punishment for purely retributive reasons, suggesting other argumentative strategies may be more effective. In Study 1, I compared how two different interventions shifted attitudes towards the death penalty. In Studies 2 - 4 I examined what other attitudes shape endorsement of capital punishment, and used these findings to develop and test an educational intervention aimed at providing information about errors in the implementation of the death penalty. Altogether, these findings suggest that attitudes about capital punishment are based on more than just retributive motives, and that correcting misconceptions related to its administration and other relevant factors reduces support for the death penalty. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Psychology 2019