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The dissertation provides an analysis of how the content and organization of explanations function to achieve communicative goals under potentially conflicting constraints, and applies this analysis to the design of a planner for generation of explanations by computer. An implementation of this planner as a multimedia question answering system is described. The functional analysis has four major subparts: (1) A theory of the kinds of knowledge that can provide the basis for "informatively satisfying" responses to a given question. (2) A theory of context sensitive constraints on the choice between alternate domain models that compete as the basis for answering a given question. (3) A theory of how supplemental explanations aid the comprehension and retention of the primary explanation. (4) A theory of how the sequencing of the parts of an explanation enhances the communicative functionality of those parts. The functional aspects of explanation just outlined imply a variety of explanation planning subtasks having distinct information processing requirements. A planning architecture is presented that matches these planning subtasks to appropriate mechanisms: (1) Top-down goal refinement translates queries into specifications of relevant knowledge on which a response can be based. (2) Prioritized preferences restrict competing domain models to those that are expected to be both informative and comprehensible to the questioner at a given point in the dialogue. (3) Plan critics examine the evolving plan and post new goals to supplement the explanation as needed. (4) A constrained graph traversal mechanism sequences the parts of an explanation in a manner respecting certain functional relationships between the parts. Contributions include: (1) the clarification and integration of a variety of functional aspects of explanatory text, (2) an analysis of the roles and limitations of various explanation planning mechanisms, (3) the design of a flexible explanation planner that applies various constraints on explanation independently of each other, and (4) an approach to selection between multiple domain models that is more general than previous approaches. Together these contributions clarify the correspondence between knowledge about communication, planning tasks, and types of discourse structure and provide improved interactive explanation capabilities.

This dissertation examines the structure of epistemological claims made about science within the field of science and technology studies (STS). The social constructivist invocation to put science in "context" necessarily implies a logic of justification. Made explicit, this logic of justification provides a basis on which to adjudicate meta-scientific claims. The appeal to context blurs internal and external references, offers an ontological starting point for STS accounts of science, serves as the basis for methodological debate, and refers to values which anchor a notion of scientific objectivity. Hence: Contexts are assumed to exist. Contexts can be accessed and demarcated from other contexts in which they may be embedded; as a result, contexts are not paradigm-bound. Since contexts exist, the elements composing them are taken to exist in some logical and ontological relation to one another. Contexts are taken to affect scientific practice. Since contexts affect scientific practice some logical and ontological relation exists among the elements of the context, a given scientific practice, and the world that practice describes. Contexts are taken as temporally stable; infinite regress is not an immediate consequence of a local explanation of scientific practice. Since contexts exist in a stable, ontological relationship to the scientific practice they interpret or explain, criteria for justifying one context-based perspective over another are necessarily implied. Contexts necessarily imply justificatory criteria and imply a means for adjudicating among contexts and context-based statements. Since contexts imply a logic of justification independent of the scientific practice being examined meta-scientific evidence consists of observation statements. Context-based observation statements can, initially, be adjudicated a priori. A form of meta-scientific realism exists. If a form of meta-scientific realism exists, we can determine which contexts explain scientific practice and which do not. As a result we have epistemological claims about science which can be adjudicated on realist grounds which are not just the product of designated contexts. The future of STS turns on articulating a meta-scientific realism in relation to scientific practice and truths about the world. Finally, I advocate a contingent foundationalism on which STS can be made relevant to an understanding of science and technology. / Ph. D.

Each year the Department of Defense spends over $10 billion on its science and technology development efforts. While deemed an investment by proponents (and beneficiaries) technology development programs are particularly vulnerable in times of budget cuts. As the government moves forward with efforts to reduce spending the Department of Defense will be pressed to sustain current levels of spending on technology efforts. This situation is similar to the post-Cold War phase in defense planning when savings in spending were sought as a peace dividend. This dissertation examines the Department of Defense efforts during 1989-1992 to define certain technologies as critical to national security. Inherent in the effort to identify critical technologies was the desire to articulate technology ideology; to establish asymmetries of power and resources; and to patrol the boundaries of policy and responsibility. The questions are: What are the ideologies associated with technology development planning? What are the discursive mechanisms used to secure and reinforce power? And, what evidence of boundary work and network construction emerges from the examination? First, I distill from four years of defense technology planning documentation the explicit ideologies, the ideologies masked in metaphor, and the discourse strategies used to secure and sustain power. Following the deconstruction of the discursive elements I use Science and Technology Studies tools including boundary work, boundary objects, the Social Construction of Technology, and network theory, to further understand the heterogeneous process of defense technology development planning. The tools help explain the mechanisms by which elements of Department of Defense technology development form a connected structure. Finally, the examination yields a spherical network model for innovation that addresses the weaknesses of prior innovation network models. I conclude that in the face of uncertain budgets, technology planning relies upon ideology, power strategies, and boundary-work to build a network that protects funding and influence. In the current budget climate it will be interesting to see if the strategies are resurrected. The examination should be of interest to both the Science and Technology Studies scholar and the policy practitioner. And hopefully, the review will stimulate further examination and debate. / Ph. D.

Philosophy of technology (PoT) analyzes the nature of technology, its significance and consequences, and its mediation of human experiences of the world. Classical philosophers of technology describe mechanization as alienating: Technology causes humans to lose their connection with the natural world. Tehno-rationality replaces critical engagement and creativity. Failing to comprehend the essence/nature of Technology, and its consequences, portends disastrous social, political, and economic consequences. Such perspectives, however, neglect individual experiences of technologies. Filling that lacuna, contemporary philosophers of technology challenge the sweeping determinism of their intellectual forerunners and investigate how specific technologies mediate particular human experiences. Their descriptive prowess, however, lacks the normative engagement of classical PoT, and they emphasize micro effects of technologies to the detriment of macro implications. This dissertation describes an 'un-disciplined' philosophy of technology (UPoT) that unites the macro and micro perspectives by providing narratives of human-technology symbiosis and co-development. Un-disciplined philosophers of technology present posthuman and transhuman perspectives that emphasize the symbiotic relationships between humans and technology. Thus, they deny disciplined philosophy's first critical maneuver: define and demarcate. UPoT enables conversations and debate regarding the ontological and moral consequences of imagining humans and technologies as hybrid, co-dependent things. UPoT builds upon environmental and animal rights movements, and postphenomenology, to emphasize pluralist accounts that emphasize the dynamism of human-technology relations. UPoT argues we should imagine technologies as extensions/parts of living things: they do the shaping and are shaped in turn. I argue that such thinking reinforces the habit, already proposed by contemporary PoT, that emerging human-technology relations demand active interpretation and engagement because the relationships constantly change. Thus, we need to imagine a moral theory that best matches the hybrid/connected condition of the present century. Increasing automation in agriculture and surgery, for instance, exemplify technologies mediating human experiences of food and health, thus affecting how we understand and define these categories. / Ph. D.

The purpose of the study is to describe how four New England state library media consultants are working within their respective states toward the promotion of excellence in school library media centers through the implementation of the elements of Information Power, the current national school library standards. Literature describing the evolution of these standards, the current standards Information Power, and the activities of the school library media specialist and state library consultant associated with accomplishing the desired goals described in these standards are reviewed. This quantitative research project is conducted over a period of three years. Data were gathered through a combination of surveys, field notes, interviews, and questionnaires. Verbatim transcriptions were made of the audiotaped interviews. From these data were gathered responses to nineteen questions designed to provide the framework for the study--implementation activities of the state consultants. Conclusions drawn from these data indicate that the state library media consultants, in spite of having no regulatory powers, work actively in a myriad of ways to promote quality school library programs. Their changing environment brought about by individual perceptions, economics, technology, and educational reform creates a challenge to each of these participants.

The purpose of this study is to review the use of educational resources at National Science and Technology Museum (NSTM) by Kaohsiung junior high school science & technology teachers. Using judgemental sampling, 260 questionnaires were sent out to science & technology teachers who taught at junior high schools in Kaohsiung. A total of 172 completed questionnaires were returned. Results were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test, one-way ANOVA and Pearson¡¦s correlation. Six insights were gained from this study. First, results show that in reality, the usage rates of the resources available at the NSTM among teachers are quite low. Second, The teachers possess a low level of knowledge and understanding with regard to the resources available at the NSTM. Third, The teachers have a very favorable view of the usage of the resources offered by the NSTM. Fourth, the use of the educational resources at NSTM, the knowledge associated and the attitude towards it vary depending on the teachers' gender, educational background and teaching experience. Fifth, the frequency of usage of the resources, the knowledge and attitude are all positively correlated. Sixth, NSTM¡¦s active involvement in providing more services, expanding its facilities and supporting the logistics of the field trip may increase the teachers¡¦ willingness to use its resources.

Orientador: Sérgio Luiz Monteiro Salles Filho / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Geociencias / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-15T00:04:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rio_CarolinaThais_M.pdf: 1682109 bytes, checksum: e779c915f3c9b2b64834ca5b06e894ef (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / Resumo: O objetivo do trabalho é analisar o processo de criação e consolidação do modelo de gestão da Agência Paulista de Tecnologia dos Agronegócios (APTA), buscando identificar e compreender os resultados e impactos na gestão institucional e organizacional da pesquisa agrícola paulista. A APTA é um órgão da administração direta da Secretaria de Agricultura e Abastecimento, criada em 2000 em substituição à Coordenadoria de Pesquisa Agrícola, formada por seis institutos públicos de pesquisa agrícola e 15 Pólos Regionais. Foi considerado como hipótese inicial que a criação da APTA teria representado uma inovação institucional na estrutura de pesquisa agrícola paulista, pois alterou a forma de organização da pesquisa ao descentralizar a geração do conhecimento (regionalizando a pesquisa por meio dos Pólos) e ao inserir conceitos de cadeias produtivas e de gestão estratégica nas políticas institucionais. Para comprovar se houve inovação institucional é necessário identificar se ocorreu internalização de um modelo de gestão que projete as mudanças nas organizações, por meio de alteração de rotinas e de trajetórias institucionais e organizacionais. Para tanto, o modelo de gestão da APTA foi analisado com base no referencial teórico evolucionista e institucionalista, utilizando questionários e entrevistas presenciais que contribuíram para mensurar o impacto das ações reestruturantes. A principal conclusão é que a APTA pode ser considerada, de fato, como inovação institucional, no entanto, de baixo impacto no âmbito da reorganização da pesquisa, pois não conseguiu consolidar grande parte dos instrumentos que propôs, dentre os quais a articulação interna para desenvolvimento conjunto de pesquisas multidisciplinares. / Abstract: The aim of this dissertation is analyses the creation process and consolidation of the management model of the São Paulo State Agribusiness Technology Agency (APTA), in search of identify and understand the results and impact on institutional management and organization of agricultural research in São Paulo. APTA was established in 2000, formed by six public agricultural research institutes and 15 regional clusters. The initial hypothesis consider the creation of the APTA an institutional innovation, because it had rearranged the structure of agricultural research by decentralization in clusters the knowledge generation and had input the concepts of production chains and strategic management policies. The institutional innovation occurs supported by a internalization of a management model that design changes in the organizations through change of routine and institutional and organizational trajectories. Therefore, the management model of APTA was analyzed based on evolutionary and institutional theoretical framework, using questionnaires and interviews that contributed to measure the impact of the restructuration proceedings. The main conclusion is that the APTA may be regard as institutional innovation, however, a low impact one, because it failed to consolidate a large part of the instruments that proposed, among which the internal link for joint development of multidisciplinary research. / Mestrado / Mestre em Política Científica e Tecnológica

“Makers” around the world cohere in a digital and physical network of technology hobbyists. “Makers" are open-source hardware enthusiasts who use machines like 3D printers and laser cutters - manufacturing tools that have only recently become accessible to laypeople - to make things. “Makers" share a vision for a world where everyone would be able to make almost anything, supplanting top-down economic systems and channels of production. This ethnographic research examines a subset of the “maker” community: “makers” in “FabLabs” in Japan. These “FabLabs” are small workshops that house the machines that “makers” need and make them open to the public. Drawing on 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Japan, this dissertation argues that the network of people, spaces, and machines remains coherent not because of common cultural forces like capitalist ambition, religion, geographic proximity, or even nationality. Rather, the coherence is more precisely understood - in the frame of science and technology studies - by examining the cohesive force of newly invented rituals and “active” ideas that engender hope and spur action toward a shared vision. Furthermore, the FabLab community in Japan exemplifies a novel culture of expertise wherein laypeople call on experts as-needed to accomplish their personal ambitions, flipping the usual understanding of expertise as a guarded product of insular cultural systems. I examine this unique culture of expertise and outline types of expertise developing from this dynamic, disparate, and impressively coherent FabLab network in Japan. Drawing on my ethnographic observations, I argue that laypeople, still bounded by political-economic forces in Japan, nevertheless are exercising a degree of agency that was previously the domain only of experts in manufacturing. This action by laypeople is what activates sufficient cohesive activity to sustain the community in the absence of more traditional social cohesive forces.

Master of Science / Department of Grain Science and Industry / Yong Cheng Shi / Isolation of hemicellulose from distillers dry grain with solubles (DDGS) was investigated. Hemicellulose fiber gum (HFG) is a mixture of hemicelluose, protein, ash and starch. It was extracted from a commercial DDGS by heating with or without alkali. Three extraction methods (water heating, alkaline heating and alkaline hydrogen peroxide heating) were evaluated. Yield of HFG and the recovery of hemicellulose were obtained. High heating temperature (100 and 120°C), alkali or hydrogen peroxide facilitated the release of hemicellulose from the cell wall matrix. However combining alkali with 2.5% H2O2 did not extract more hemicellulose out than did alkali alone. The highest hemicellulose recovery was 32% achieved by cooking at 120°C with 2% alkaline solution. Hemicellulose can function as an emulsifier in the oil-in-water emulsions, such as beverage, and potentially replace gum arabic. HFGs obtained by a series of extracting methods were applied in both the concentrated emulsion with the gum: oil: water ratio of 0.5:1: 8.5 and the diluted emulsion with the gum: oil: water ratio of 0.005: 0.01: 1. The emulsion stability was evaluated by turbidity and creaming test. HFG extracted by 2% NaOH solution at 120°C and HFG extracted by 2% NaOH and 2.5% H2O2 solution at 100°C showed the best emulsifying ability among 15 HFG samples. DDGS was produced from corn, sorghum, wheat in the lab. HFGs extracted from sorghum and wheat DDGS were compared with that from corn DDGS. The composition of the three DDGS varied in protein, fat and non-starch carbohydrate contents. Sorghum and wheat DDGS contained higher levels of protein and lower levels of fat and non-starch carbohydrate than corn DDGS. HFG was extracted by 2% NaOH solution at 100°C for one hour and purified by 100% ethanol. The yield of HFG from corn, sorghum and wheat DDGS was 21.08, 11.07, 11.64% respectively, while the hemicellulose recovery was 30.95, 29.74, 22.71% respectively. The water extractable hemicelluloses from all three DDGS had similar ratios of arabinose to xylose.