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Background: Controlled vocabularies in the molecular biology domain exist to facilitate data integration across database resources. One such tool is the Gene Ontology (GO), a classification designed to act as a universal index for gene products from any species. The Gene Ontology is used extensively in annotating gene products and analysing gene expression data, yet very little research exists from a library and information science perspective exploring the design principles, philosophy and social role of ontologies in biology. Aim: To explore how molecular biologists, in creating the Gene Ontology, devised guidelines and rules for determining which scientific concepts are included in the ontology, and the criteria for how these concepts are represented. Methods: A domain analysis approach was used to devise a mixed methodology to study the design of the Gene Ontology. Concept analysis of a GO term and a critical discourse analysis of GO developer mailing list texts were used to test whether ontological realism is a tenable basis for constructing objective ontologies. A comparison of the current GO vocabulary construction guidelines and a study of the reasons why GO terms are removed from the ontology further explored the justifications for the design of the Gene Ontology. Finally, a content analysis of published GO papers examined how authors use and cite GO data and terminology. Results: Gene Ontology terms can be presented according to different epistemologies for concepts, indicating that ontological realism is not the only way objective ontologies can be designed. Social roles and the exercise of power were found to play an important role in determining ontology content, and poor synonym control, a lack of clear warrant for deciding terminology and arbitrary decisions to delete and invent new terms undermine the objectivity and universal applicability of the Gene Ontology. Authors exhibited poor compliance with GO data citation policies, and in re-wording and misquoting GO terminology, risk exacerbating the semantic problems this controlled vocabulary was designed to solve. Conclusions: The failure of the Gene Ontology to define what is meant by a molecular function, the exercise of power by GO developers in clearing contentious concepts from the ontology, and the strict adherence to ontological realism, which marginalises social and subjective ways of classifying scientific concepts, limits the utility of the ontology as a tool to unify the molecular biology domain. These limitations to the Gene Ontology design could be overcome with the development of lighter, pluralistic, user-controlled ‘open ontologies’ for gene products that can work alongside more traditional, ‘top-down’ developed vocabularies.

Oral administration is the most common route for administration of drugs. With the growing cost of drug discovery, the development of Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationships (QSAR) as computational methods to predict oral absorption is highly desirable for cost effective reasons. The aim of this research was to develop QSAR models that are highly accurate and interpretable for the prediction of oral absorption. In this investigation the problems addressed were datasets with unbalanced class distributions, feature selection and the effects of solubility and permeability towards oral absorption prediction. Firstly, oral absorption models were obtained by overcoming the problem of unbalanced class distributions in datasets using two techniques, under-sampling of compounds belonging to the majority class and the use of different misclassification costs for different types of misclassifications. Using these methods, models with higher accuracy were produced using regression and linear/non-linear classification techniques. Secondly, the use of several pre-processing feature selection methods in tandem with decision tree classification analysis – including misclassification costs – were found to produce models with better interpretability and higher predictive accuracy. These methods were successful to select the most important molecular descriptors and to overcome the problem of unbalanced classes. Thirdly, the roles of solubility and permeability in oral absorption were also investigated. This involved expansion of oral absorption datasets and collection of in vitro and aqueous solubility data. This work found that the inclusion of predicted and experimental solubility in permeability models can improve model accuracy. However, the impact of solubility on oral absorption prediction was not as influential as expected. Finally, predictive models of permeability and solubility were built to predict a provisional Biopharmaceutic Classification System (BCS) class using two multi-label classification techniques, binary relevance and classifier chain. The classifier chain method was shown to have higher predictive accuracy by using predicted solubility as a molecular descriptor for permeability models, and hence better final provisional BCS prediction. Overall, this research has resulted in predictive and interpretable models that could be useful in a drug discovery context.

High-impact academic papers are not necessarily the most cited. For example, Einstein's 'Special Relativity' paper from 1905 received (and continues to receive) fewer citations from other papers than his 'Brownian Motion" paper of the same year, despite the former radically changing the course of an entire scientific discipline to a much greater extent. Similarly, 'impact' metrics using citation count alone are, it is argued, not adequate for determining the scientific influence of papers, authors or small groups of authors. Although valid, they remain controversial when used to determine influence of larger groups or journals. While the term 'impact' has become closely linked to a journal's citation-based Journal Impact Factor score, this thesis uses the term 'influence' to describe the wider effectiveness of research, combining citation and metadata analysis to allow richer calculations to be performed over large-scale document networks. As a result, more qualitative influence ratings can be determined and a broader outlook on scientific disciplines can be produced. These ratings are best applied using an ontology-based data source, allowing more efficient inference than under a traditional RDBMS system, and allowing easier integration between heterogeneous data sources. These metrics, termed 'Semantic Bibliometrics' or 'Semiometrics', can be applied at a variety of levels of granularity, allowing a compositional framework for impact and influence analysis. This thesis describes the process of data preparation, systems architecture, metric value and data integration for such a system, introducing novel approaches at all four stages, thereby creating a working semiometrics system for determining influence at different semantic levels of granularity.

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Over the past two decades (1980s and 1990s), changes in environmental factors demanded that higher education institutions should be managed more efficiently. It is necessary for library administrators to evaluate their organisational structures in order to meet their customers' rising expectation and parent institutions' vision, mission, and strategy for future development. The purpose of this study was to examine the extent oflibrary reorganisation within the UK and Taiwan universities, and the principal differences and similarities on organisational structure changes between 1985 and 2001. This study was a population study. This study was composed of two surveys (the initial survey and the follow-up survey) in the two countries. Quantitative data was gathered though a questionnaire. The researcher investigated general aspects of library reorganisation, then focused specific on eight research problems and conducted comparison between the UK and Taiwan. Thirteen hypotheses centered on the issues concerning organisational structure changes were tested. Of the thirteen hypotheses, some were supported by the study and others were not. Comparisons were made among organisational charts during this IS-year period. The main findings are: (1) The extent of library reorganisation for the two countries was high over the IS-year period (1985-2001). However, there had been an overall decline during the follow-up survey period. If the non-respondents represented a biassed set (they all had not conducted organisational structure change), then the extent of change in the two countries was actually not so high. The plans of organisational change will continue with 30% respondents from UK and 24% from Taiwan in the follow-up survey were considering the possibility. (2) There was no significant relationship between the extent of the library reorganisation and the selected background of libraries studied. (3) Of the environmental factors responsible for organisational structure changes, Service reasons and management reasons played the top two major roles. Economic and technological influences on organisational change declined over the survey time. 'Changes in higher Education', 'the development of digitized collection/digital library', 'change in human expectations', and 'changes in scholarly publishing/communication' became the important reasons for changes in the follow-up survey period. (4) Most of the libraries conducted internally reorganisation rather than externally. The top two methods adopted in internal reorganisation were: 'creating new functions/departments/units', and 'combination of functions'. Convergence activities were only reported by several responding libraries, the results showed that the extent of convergence activities seemed increased with time. The major reasons for the convergence were: shared vision; to pursue a more effective administration; to cooperate in supporting teaching, research, and learning; overlapping missions and strategies; exchanges of specialization between organisations; more economic administration; to cooperate in development of digital resources and digital collection; sharing of staff, facilities, and equipment. (5) After reorganisation, most university libraries in the UK adopted hierarchical structure and based on a combined functional/subject-based pattern. Team-based structure was the second favorite. Almost all respondents' libraries in Taiwan preferred a hierarchical structure and based on a functional pattern, however, 'teamwork' concept was adopted by some libraries. (6) The new organisations mostly emphasized user services, integration of the management of varied resources in libraries, and technological support. (7) The management levels of libraries in the UK tended to be flatter after reorganisation. However, most of the libraries in Taiwan retained the same management level after reorganisation. (8) The title of library managers within UK universities became more versatile after reorganisation. However, most of the library managers in Taiwan retained the same title even after reorganisation. (9) The considered important challenges of organisational change were: 'the parent institutional climate'; 'managerial support within and outside the library'; 'the climate of the libraries'; 'the staff strengths and weaknesses'; 'staff attitudes towards change'; 'the attitude of library directors'. (10) The results of library reorganisation have been mostly positive, and have provided lessons in organisational change from which other libraries may benefit.

Examines the historiographical and practical problems of using newspapers in historical research. Studies the methods of different types of professional and non-professional historians, to evaluate the value of newspapers as historical documents and the problems particular to them. Examines the difficulties associated with newspapers in library collections from both the perspectives of newspaper users and custodians. Seeks to provide recommendations for both groups to facilitate the use of newspapers. The research adopted essentially qualitative methods. Using questionnaires and interviews, the opinions and experiences of historians in Wales were studied. Case studies of newspaper collections in Wales were undertaken to examine current policies and strategies at a local level. The research was also undertaken with collaboration from the British Library Newspaper Library and with specific reference to the work of the NEWSPLAN project. Concludes that newspapers are an important source for all manner of historical enquiries, but that historians often require further guidance in order to search, use and evaluate them. Different patterns of use were observed among different types of historians. Also suggests that newspapers are unlike other historical documents, because of their nature and role in society. Specific techniques are provided to assist the historian using newspapers. The use of newspapers is also shaped by the policies and strategies of both local and national newspaper collections. Thus, guidelines and recommendations are provided to assist these organisations. Further work is urged, to understand the needs of historians and the specific problems that newspapers present, following the five million pound Heritage Lottery Fund Award for the NEWSPLAN project in March 1999.

Classification is a fundamental tool in the organisation of any library collection for effective information retrieval. Several classifications exist, yet the pioneering Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) still constitutes the most widely used scheme and international de facto standard. Although once used for the dual purpose of physical organisation and subject retrieval in the printed library catalogue, library classification is now relegated to a singular role of shelf location. Numerous studies have highlighted the problem of subject access in library online public access catalogues (OPACs). The library OPAC has changed relatively little since its inception, designed to find what is already known, not discover and explore. This research aims to enhance OPAC subject searching by deriving facets of the DDC and populating these with a library collection for display at a View-based searching OPAC interface. A novel method is devised that enables the automatic deconstruction of complex DDC notations into their component facets. Identifying facets based upon embedded notational components reveals alternative, multidimensional subject arrangements of a library collection and resolves the problem of disciplinary scatter. The extent to which the derived facets enhance users' subject searching perceptions and activities at the OPAC interface is evaluated in a small-scale usability study. The results demonstrate the successful derivation of four fundamental facets (Reference Type, Person Type, Time and Geographic Place). Such facet derivation and deconstruction of Dewey notations is recognised as a complex process, owing to the lack of a uniform notation, notational re-use and the need for distinct facet indicators to delineate facet boundaries. The results of the preliminary usability study indicate that users are receptive to facet-based searching and that the View-based searching system performs equally as well as a current form fill-in interface and, in some cases, provides enhanced benefits. It is concluded that further exploration of facet-based searching is clearly warranted and suggestions for future research are made.

Este trabajo nació de la inquietud personal de la autora a partir de algunos cursos y lecturas en torno al binómio litaratura-mujeres. En el primer capítulo la autora hace una revisión del feminismo y las teorías literarias feministas, las cuales sirvieron para respaldar la bibliografía contenida en esta tesis. En el segundo capítulo se presenta un estudio sobre la sintaxis, semántica y los principios de la división del conocimiento a los que obedece el sistema el Clasificación LC, particularmente la subclase HQ, de la clase H, a partir de implicaciones ideológicas y la reproducción de esquemas de dominación a través de instrumentos técnicos. En el tercer capítulo se muestran las relaciones bibliográficas de las obras de cinco escritoras latinoamericanas y una bibliografía de textos escritos por mujeres en América Latina. Estas cinco escritoras fueron elegidas basandose en conocimiento y gustos personales de la autora. El alcance de esta tesis termina con una aproximación bibliografía de carácter geográfico-temporal de la mujeres latinoamericanas del siglo XX.

The emergence of third-generation, technology-based public bikeshare schemes offers new opportunities for researching cycling behaviour. In this study, data from one such scheme, the London Cycle Hire Scheme (LCHS), are analysed. Algorithms are developed for summarising and labelling cyclists’ usage behaviours and tailored visual analysis applications are designed for exploring their spatiotemporal context. Many of the research findings provide support to existing literature, particularly around gendered cycling behaviour. As well as making more discretionary journeys, women appear to preferentially select parts of London associated with greater levels of safety; and this is true even after controlling for geodemographic differences and levels of LCHS cycling experience. One hypothesis is that these differences represent diverging attitudes and perceptions. After developing a technique for identifying cyclists’ workplaces, these differences might also be explained by where cyclists need to travel for work and other facilities. An additional explanation is later offered that relates to the nature of cyclists’ estimated routes. The size and precision of the LCHS dataset allows under-explored aspects of behaviour to be investigated. Group cycling events – instances where two or more cyclists make journeys together in space and time – are labelled and analysed on a large scale. For certain types of cyclist, group cycling appears to encourage more extensive spatiotemporal cycling behaviour and there is some evidence to suggest that group cycling may help initiate scheme usage. The domain-specific findings, emerging research questions and also behavioural classifications are this study’s principal and unique contribution. A second contribution relates to the analysis approach. This is a data-driven study that takes a large dataset, measuring use of a relatively new cycle facility, and uses it to engage with research questions that are typically answered with very different datasets. There is some uncertainty around how discriminating and generalisable LCHS cycle behaviours may be and which variables, either directly measured or derived, might delineate those behaviours. Visual analysis techniques are shown to be effective in this more speculative research context: numerous behaviours are very quickly explored and understood. These techniques also enable a set of colleagues with relatively limited analysis experience, but substantial domain knowledge, to participate in the analysis and a general argument is made for their use in other, interdisciplinary analysis contexts.