Master's paper (MSLS)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2001. / Also available in PDF via the World Wide Web.

The aim of this study was to investigate factors affecting the adoption of open access in research activities within Tanzanian public universities in order to device mechanisms of enhancing the use of this mode of scholarly communication. The study adopted the UTAUT model to formulate an open access research model comprising of six constructs and five moderators for guidance of this investigation. A triangulation approach for data gathering was adopted. In the first instance, a semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 398 respondents selected using the stratified random sampling from a population of 1088 university researchers from six public universities in Tanzania. The interview involving 63 policy makers and structured records review were also conducted to complement the questionnaire survey. The descriptive and binary logistic regression statistics of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) were used for data analysis. The study established that majority of the policy makers (90.5%) and researchers (72.1%) were aware of open access. Attitude, awareness, effort expectancy, and performance expectancy were established as the key determinants for researchers’ behavioural intention of open access usage while age, awareness, behavioural intention, facilitating conditions and social influence were found to significantly affect researchers’ actual usage of open access. It was concluded that researchers’ and policy makers’ general perceptions about open access were very positive signifying the acceptance of this mode of scholarly communication in the study area. Current poor research conditions and researchers’ low Internet self-efficacy such as inadequate information search and online publishing skills were cited as the main hindrances for researchers to use open access in scholarly communication. The study recommends institutionalisation of open access publishing in Tanzanian public universities and other similar research institutions so as to improve the dissemination of research output emanating from such institutions. Six areas for further research to establish more insights regarding the feasibility for open access development in the country are also recommended. / Information Science / D. Litt. Phil. (Information Science)

A lei periódica é uma ideia central na Química, relevante na educação científica, pois permite explicar e prever diversas propriedades da matéria, sendo que a tabela periódica, que consiste em sua representação gráfica, é considerada um dos ícones fundamentais da ciência. Para o ensino deste tema, textos literários de divulgação científica (TLDC) podem trazer contribuições, pois além de fomentarem o desenvolvimento das competências de leitura e escrita, podem promover uma boa problematização do conhecimento científico com aspectos socioculturais por possibilitarem discutir questões referentes à ciência e à tecnologia e suas relações com outras áreas da cultura, e, por isso, favorecem uma abordagem interdisciplinar. Desta forma, o objetivo deste trabalho é elaborar, aplicar e validar uma sequência didática (SD) para o ensino da lei periódica, a qual foi elaborada utilizando excertos de textos literários de divulgação científica, para assim verificar potencialidades e limitações dos TLDC em contextos de sala de aula de Química. A SD foi desenvolvida fundamentada no Modelo Topológico de Ensino e avaliada mediante o processo de Elaboração, Aplicação e Reelaboração. O resultado da aplicação foi avaliado principalmente de acordo interações discursivas observadas nos registros audiovisuais das aulas, nos quais foram caracterizados episódios de ensino em que ocorreram retextualizações dos TLDC. Nessas retextualizações foi constatado que foi predominante a abordagem comunicativa do tipo interativa de autoridade, o que sugere uma forma específica de adaptação do discurso de divulgação científica à esfera escolar. Além disso, embora tenham sido observadas dificuldades de interpretação de metáforas presentes nos TLDC, o que exigiu um esforço dos professores e alunos para transposição do discurso de divulgação científica para a linguagem científica escolar, também foram observadas reflexões sobre propriedades de elementos químicos, o que sugere uma potencialidade didática dos TLDC. / The periodic law is a central idea in Chemistry and also relevant in scientific education because it allows to explain and predict several properties of matter, and the periodic table, which consists of its graphical representation, is considered one of the fundamental icons of science. For teaching this topic, literary texts of scientific communication (LTSC) have been applied in this research because besides fomenting the development of reading and writing skills, they might promote a good problematization of the scientific knowledge with sociocultural aspects, allowing the discussion of many questions related to science and Technology and their relationships with others areas of culture, as well as promoting an interdisciplinary approach. In this way, the objective of this work is to elaborate, apply and validate a didactic sequence (DS) for the teaching of the periodic law, which was elaborated using excerpts from LTSC, in order to verify the affordances of the LTSC in contexts of Chemistry classroom. DS was developed based on the Topological Model of Teaching and evaluated through the Elaboration, Application and Re-elaboration process. The result of the application was evaluated mainly according to discursive interactions that were observed in the audiovisual records of the classes, from where teaching episodes were characterized in terms of the occurrency of retextualizations of the LTSC. In these retextualizations it was observed that the interactive/authoratative communicative approach has prevailed, which suggests a particular form of adaptating the discourse of public communication of science to the school sphere. In addition, although difficulties were observed in the interpretation of metaphors present in the LTSC, which has required an effort by teachers and students to translate the discourse of public communication of science into scientific school language, reflections on the properties of chemical elements were also observed, which suggests a didactic potentiality of the LTSC.

Thesis. 1976. Ph.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Alfred P. Sloan School of Management. / Microfiche copy available in Archives and Dewey. / Vita. / Bibliography: leaves 230-242. / Ph.D.

A lei periódica é uma ideia central na Química, relevante na educação científica, pois permite explicar e prever diversas propriedades da matéria, sendo que a tabela periódica, que consiste em sua representação gráfica, é considerada um dos ícones fundamentais da ciência. Para o ensino deste tema, textos literários de divulgação científica (TLDC) podem trazer contribuições, pois além de fomentarem o desenvolvimento das competências de leitura e escrita, podem promover uma boa problematização do conhecimento científico com aspectos socioculturais por possibilitarem discutir questões referentes à ciência e à tecnologia e suas relações com outras áreas da cultura, e, por isso, favorecem uma abordagem interdisciplinar. Desta forma, o objetivo deste trabalho é elaborar, aplicar e validar uma sequência didática (SD) para o ensino da lei periódica, a qual foi elaborada utilizando excertos de textos literários de divulgação científica, para assim verificar potencialidades e limitações dos TLDC em contextos de sala de aula de Química. A SD foi desenvolvida fundamentada no Modelo Topológico de Ensino e avaliada mediante o processo de Elaboração, Aplicação e Reelaboração. O resultado da aplicação foi avaliado principalmente de acordo interações discursivas observadas nos registros audiovisuais das aulas, nos quais foram caracterizados episódios de ensino em que ocorreram retextualizações dos TLDC. Nessas retextualizações foi constatado que foi predominante a abordagem comunicativa do tipo interativa de autoridade, o que sugere uma forma específica de adaptação do discurso de divulgação científica à esfera escolar. Além disso, embora tenham sido observadas dificuldades de interpretação de metáforas presentes nos TLDC, o que exigiu um esforço dos professores e alunos para transposição do discurso de divulgação científica para a linguagem científica escolar, também foram observadas reflexões sobre propriedades de elementos químicos, o que sugere uma potencialidade didática dos TLDC. / The periodic law is a central idea in Chemistry and also relevant in scientific education because it allows to explain and predict several properties of matter, and the periodic table, which consists of its graphical representation, is considered one of the fundamental icons of science. For teaching this topic, literary texts of scientific communication (LTSC) have been applied in this research because besides fomenting the development of reading and writing skills, they might promote a good problematization of the scientific knowledge with sociocultural aspects, allowing the discussion of many questions related to science and Technology and their relationships with others areas of culture, as well as promoting an interdisciplinary approach. In this way, the objective of this work is to elaborate, apply and validate a didactic sequence (DS) for the teaching of the periodic law, which was elaborated using excerpts from LTSC, in order to verify the affordances of the LTSC in contexts of Chemistry classroom. DS was developed based on the Topological Model of Teaching and evaluated through the Elaboration, Application and Re-elaboration process. The result of the application was evaluated mainly according to discursive interactions that were observed in the audiovisual records of the classes, from where teaching episodes were characterized in terms of the occurrency of retextualizations of the LTSC. In these retextualizations it was observed that the interactive/authoratative communicative approach has prevailed, which suggests a particular form of adaptating the discourse of public communication of science to the school sphere. In addition, although difficulties were observed in the interpretation of metaphors present in the LTSC, which has required an effort by teachers and students to translate the discourse of public communication of science into scientific school language, reflections on the properties of chemical elements were also observed, which suggests a didactic potentiality of the LTSC.

by Philip M. Morse.

This thesis focuses on the evolution and framing of xenotransplantation (XTP) policy debate in New Zealand from 1998 to 2011. Its aim is providing a better understanding of both the science-society interface and the importance of issue framing policy debate in understanding of the scientific debate in New Zealand and its relationship with the public. A qualitative study, this thesis draws upon a variety of public science commentary and debate and poses the research question: How did xenotransplantation’s introduction and explanation to the New Zealand public inform its current status as a Restricted Procedure under New Zealand law; and what ethical implications arise from this public policy debate for public participation in bio-medical research in New Zealand?

<p> Freshman Sen. William H. Seward of New York was not expected to say anything noteworthy in his "Freedom in the New Territories" speech against the Compromise bills on March 11, 1850. The venerated "Great Triumvirate" had previously addressed the Senate&mdash;Sen. Henry Clay on Jan. 29, Sen. John C. Calhoun on March 4, and Sen. Daniel Webster on March 7&mdash;so everything there was to say was thought to have been said. Seward's "Freedom in the New Territories" speech, however, is recalled as one of the more divisive of Compromise orations and most significant of Senate maiden speeches in history because of its appeal to "a higher law than the Constitution." The utterance drew a maelstrom of criticism from the partisan press and congressional adversaries and colleagues; however, Seward's rhetoric introduced a reformist interpretation of the phrase "higher law" to the slavery discourse. </p><p> This thesis applies concepts from the literature on rhetoric of agitation and control and ideographs to define Seward's rhetoric as managerial, show his motives as socio-economic, and discover how the senator's reformist arguments were controlled by the establishment after the Christiana Riot in 1851. The researcher suggests that the establishment employed a kind of denial of rhetorical means to obstruct Seward's reformist rhetoric of its solidifying slogans. Future research into the control response to agitative rhetoric is suggested to understand the strategies and tactics used to control reformist rhetoric. </p>

This study seeks to undertake an analysis of the topic of 'science and the media' as it has been constituted in academic discourse since the end of the Second World War. It finds that concern has polarized in two distinct camps: The larger, participant in the traditional project of North American media studies, blames the press for what it perceives as a widespread and deleterious "scientific illiteracy" on the part of the laity. The more recent, indebted to critical developments in social theory, philosophy of science, and the study of mass communication, works to expose the assumptions on which press coverage of science has been based and the interests which have benefited. / The thesis argues that the adequacy of the dominant concern to its object of analysis is at best suspect, but that nevertheless its agitations have been chiefly responsible for the form which popular science has predominantly assumed.

One of the legacies of the apartheid system was the discrepancy in funding and support for various activities, including research work in science and technology based on racial grounds. Some institutions of higher learning and research institutes were favoured more than others in terms of resources. Presently, despite the fact that there is national democracy, previously disadvantaged institutions with their culture of minimal research and poor publication output continue to produce inadequate quantities of research and publications while the historically developed universities are at the forefront of research and publication.This research is a bibliometric study of the publication patterns of South African scientists. The subjects were academic scientists from ten selected universities of the Eastern Cape, Western Cape and KwaZulu Natal, which vary considerably, with regard to standards of education, quantity of publications, development and overall progress. The general purpose of this study was to investigate the patterns used by scientists in publishing the results of their research, provide valuable information and play a significant role in evaluating the research and publication patterns of scientists from these different institutions The study collected two sets of data through lists of publications and a questionnaire. The questionnaire was pretested and the comments of the respondents enabled the investigator to make the necessary revisions in the subsequent questionnaire. The questionnaire was sent to 350 full-time academic scientists in the departments of physics, chemistry, botany, zoology and biochemistry / microbiology in the selected universities. Out of the 350 scientists, 174 responded. Twenty one returns were discarded, hence only 153 were used in the data analysis. Further data was obtained from the Science Citation Index and the Foundation for Research Development. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, one way ANOVA and Pearson Chi-Square test. The results obtained in this study showed that the five null hypotheses were rejected. It was found that there was a : - • direct relation between academic rank and productivity; academic status and productivity. • direct relation correlation between prestige and productivity. • higher impact of "A" grade scientists over non-"A" grade scientists. • significant difference in productivity between areas of science that are funded and areas which receive little or no funding. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1998.