The periodic table poses a difficulty for both scientific realists and anti-realists. The anti-realist has difficulty accounting for the success of the table during a period in chemistry when many theories and concepts changed; the spatial relations of current tables in use do not show fundamental changes from the original tables proposed by Mendeleev. Yet, most versions of scientific realism are based upon the understanding that theories are some collection of written propositions or equations. The table as an image successfully functions very much like a theory: it is an organization of known facts, has been used to make predictions, and is plastic enough to accommodate unforeseen novel facts. Assuming the truth of the representational relations between the table and the world poses interesting issues for the realist. Ian Hacking's entity realism and the structural realism of several philosophers are both possible versions of scientific realism that fail to account for the table. Hacking's version fails in this case because the role of representation is central to understanding the history of the table; structural realism fails because it diminishes to much the role that first order properties have as they relate to the formulation of the second order relationships that comprise the table. Philip Kitcher of Science, Truth, and Democracy leaves himself open to two interpretations about the metaphysics of pluralism. One of these is indefensible; the other is quite well supported by the plurality of successful periodic tables. / Master of Arts

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The aim of this thesis has been to argue, on the basis of primary sources, that Huygens was a pioneer in the field of mechanical engineering. He fits the definition of a mechanical engineer as somebody who develops a novel invention either empirically or theoretically, using known mechanical theories. In the same way, a new invention may come about through transforming an existing machine or instrument thus revolutionizing any future versions of it. Huygens did both he applied a pendulum to existing clocks and transformed the making of precision instruments from that moment onwards. The first chapter of the thesis presents Huygens' works on pendulum clocks and marine clocks. The second chapter is dedicated to Huygens' research and designs of the air pump and linking with the third chapter on matter theory. The fourth chapter focuses on Huygens' designs of various instruments (the telescope, the microscope, the level, the planetarium and others). The final chapter depicts Huygens in the societies in which he lived. Huygens was a pioneer of mechanical engineering because he presented a complete work on mechanics to explain instruments, 'automata', by mathematical axioms and laws. Furthermore, he developed a methodology for improving instruments and machines based on searching for the best materials to obtain the best working models. The Horologium Oscillatorium of 1673, was a textbook, which inspired others to continue a tradition of mechanics for the mechanical engineer. With geometrical ratios he was able to show the applicability of technology in everyday life. Therefore, Huygens took the foundations of mechanics further than his contemporaries did. The geometry he used was the basis, which could simplify and give a quantitative measure of nature and of any man-made instruments alike.

Developing explanations is a key inquiry practice in national science standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013) and essential for learning science content (McNeill & Krajcik, 2011) and is conceptualized as consisting of three aspects: claims, evidence, and reasoning (Toulmin, 1958). However, students often have difficulty with these tasks (McNeill & Krajcik, 2011; Schunn & Anderson, 1999). Prior work by our group (Sao Pedro et al., 2014) has shown that auto-scaffolding in Inq-ITS (Inquiry Intelligent Tutoring System; Gobert et al., 2013) can help students acquire inquiry skills and transfer them to a new science topic. These data provide a rationale for the work presented, namely, designing, developing, and evaluating a real-time scaffolding approach for the development of the inquiry practices specifically for data interpretation and warranting claims, which, to us, underlie the explanation practices necessary for communicating science findings. Unpacking these practices can help us better understand, assess, and, in turn, scaffold them. Specifically, this work addresses the: (1) design of scaffolds for data interpretation practices; (2) efficacy of scaffolds for supporting these practices using a modified Bayesian Knowledge Tracing framework that captures the complexities of science inquiry, and (3) transfer of these practices within one science topic to another. Results from this work show that the developed scaffolds were effective in aiding students’ acquisition and transfer of the assessed practices. As such, this research builds on prior work on the nature of explanation (McNeill & Krajcik, 2011) as well as prior work on the assessment and scaffolding of science inquiry skills (Gobert et al, 2013; Sao Pedro et al., 2014).

Resumo: Este trabalho investiga o histórico e o papel da comunicação científica, juntamente com as mudanças ocorridas diante do surgimento das redes eletrônicas de comunicação e computação. Em particular, resgata o processo evolutivo e as funções básicas do periódico científico - memória e disseminação - considerado como principal instrumento de comunicação da ciência. Apresenta o desenvolvimento e a validação do 'Modelo para análise de estrutura de periódicos científicos eletrônicos', que tem por finalidade verificar se essas funções básicas estão sendo mantidas no periódico científico eletrônico. Para desenvolvimento do modelo, tomaram-se por base trabalhos que tratam de avaliação de periódicos tradicionais, outros que apontam critérios de qualidade específicos para periódicos em linha, e os elementos da Arquitetura da Informação de web site a serem considerados durante o desenvolvimento da estrutura da página de revistas eletrônicas. O modelo inclui, ainda, elementos tradicionais da estrutura de periódicos científicos adaptados para a nova mídia. Para a validação do modelo proposto, foram selecionadas as revistas Ciência da Informação On-line e DataGramaZero. Como resultados, apresentam-se comparações entre as estruturas do periódico em transição da mídia impressa para a eletrônica (Ciência da Informação On-line) e do periódico eletrônico (DataGramaZero), apontando elementos estruturais que devem ser observados, de modo a garantir a permanência das funções memória e disseminação. O trabalho realizado poderá contribuir com profissionais bibliotecários, autores e usuários de revistas científicas, na identificação de periódicos eletrônicos de qualidade e com editores de revistas em linha, no desenvolvimento de seus projetos. O material resultante do estudo poderá ser... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: This paper presents the history and role of scientific communication, along with the changes that occurred after the appearance of electronic communication and computer networks. It describes the evolution and the archiving and dissemination functions of the scientific journal, the major tool for science communication. It introduces a 'Model for analysis of the structure of electronic scientific journals', with the aim of finding out if the basic functions are maintained in the electronic scientific journal. This model was developed based on studies dealing with: the evaluation of traditional journals; specific quality criteria for online journals; and the basic elements of web site information architecture, which should be considered when developing the page structure of electronic journals. This model also includes traditional structural elements from scientific journals adapted to the new media. The journals Ciência da Informação On-line and DataGramaZero were selected to validate this model. The results obtained include structure comparisons between a journal in transition from printed to electronic media (Ciência da Informação On-line) and an electronic journal (DataGramaZero), showing the structural elements that need to be kept in order to ensure maintenance of archival and dissemination functions. This study will contribute to the work of librarians, authors and users of scientific journals; to the identification of quality electronic journals; and to editors of on line journals in the development of their projects. The material obtained can be included in preservice and inservice Education of professionals in Information Science and support to editors of electronic scientific journals. / Orientador: Miriam Celi Pimentel Porto Foresti / Coorientador: Silvana Ap. B. Gregório Vidotti / Mestre

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Representing the human body ??? science as social meaning adopts and develops systemic functional social semiotics to analyse the popular science texts, The Human Body, Superhuman, Human Instinct, Brain Story, The Secret Life of Twins and How to Build a Human. These are predominantly produced through the resources of the Wellcome Trust and/or the BBC/TLC (The Learning Channel), and feature celebrity doctors (Robert Winston) or scientists (Susan Greenfield) as presenters. Adopting a modified and expanded systemic functional semiotics derived from Kress and van Leeuwen (1996, 2001), it is argued that these texts share a logic that displaces social/historical time (including broader historical and social struggles) by constructing the apparent timelessness of middle-class families, by metaphor and abstraction. Central to the temporalities of these programmes is the notion of ???going back??? to the familial in which conscious (patriarchal) time is seen as ???male??? and the unconscious timeless is seen as ???female???. Second, the penetrative digital modes of the programmes imagine different, if conventional, genders, emphasising the interior and inertial female. The popular medical science discourses highlighted in the analysis constitute an unconscious set of taken-for-granted socio-political contexts in which medical and bioscientific knowledge is paraded and celebrated. Narrative resolution of the contradictions inherent in the contextual refrain of contemporary global capitalism is largely achieved through time by the semiotic realisation of ???going back??? to evolutionary, genetic, and (hence to) essential time and to abstracted spatial metaphors. The production origins (British, multi-national) of the factual science documentary prefigure or pre-structure the genre???s conservative colonising discourse around gender, ???race??? and evolution that are developed as social, political or even military metaphors.

<p>This thesis comprises an investigation into a very well known and perennial philosophical debate over the interpretive status of our most well confirmed scientific theories, known as "scientific realism." I do not defend scientific realism; rather, I set out to determine what scientific realism is in the first place. My contention is that the thesis is not a single, unified view, but rather a conglomeration of loosely associated propositions that are highly conceptually interwoven, but rarely distinguished. These consist of several different metaphysical, epistemological, and semantic doctrines, which I examine in great detail. I then argue that the indeterminate nature of scientific realism muddles the issue (if there is any) and renders debates fruitless. I attempt to define a thesis with relatively more precise content, which I call the "Core Realist Commitment," CRC. I argue that the CRC prioritizes epistemology - with the thesis that we can and do have (some) theoretical knowledge. I then demonstrate the relatively minimal commitments of the CRC, namely, a minimalist and very undemanding metaphysics, and almost none of the semantic theses that have been traditionally associated with realism. I conclude that the CRC is a step forward in thinking about the debate, not just for its relative precision but also because it is consistent with, and even tolerant of, a wide array of disagreement over concerns that are, I argue, external to the debate and need to be decided on independent grounds.</p> / Dissertation