Evaluation in experimental research articles

This thesis examines evaluation in experimental research articles in terms of the meanings made and their contribution to the organisation of the articles. After an introduction to the phenomenon of evaluation in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 surveys recent work concerning the process of scientific discovery and the writing of research articles. Chapter 3 returns to evaluation and its place in various theories of discourse, mainly those of Sinclair and of Halliday. The model of evaluation proposed in this thesis is set out in the next three chapters, dealing in turn with the Status, Value and Relevance functions of evaluation. Status is the function of evaluation which bestows entity, assessing along a certain-uncertain parameter. Value bestows quality and assesses along a good-bad parameter. Evaluation of Relevance is meta-discoursal and marks significance. Relevance Markers are identified, which progressively chunk and organise the text. Comparisons between texts analysed for Status, Value and Relevance demonstrate a movement towards the theoretical and an increase in complexity of argument as the sub-discipline under discussion progresses. Chapter 7 investigates the contribution of evaluation towards text structure and notes a number of ways in which discourse units in experimental research articles may be organised. The concluding chapter, Chapter 8, discusses some of the practical and theoretical implications of the work described in the thesis. The Appendix contains the research articles which comprise the corpus

Experimental making in multi-disciplinary research

For the past 3 years, Graham Whiteley has been using making in a project to develop a mechanical analogy for the human skeletal arm to inform the future development of prostheses and other artefacts. Other aspects of the work such as use of drawings and the use of a principled approach in the absence of concrete design goals have been documented elsewhere, this paper concentrates on the central role of making in the process. The paper will discuss the role of making in multi-disciplinary research; craft skills and resources appropriate to each stage of a practice centred research project in this area; the use of models in an iterative experimental investigation and the value of models in eliciting knowledge from a broad community of interested parties and experts.</p

Typographical Experimental Research in Audiovisual Spaces [T.E.R.A.S. lab]

Emmanouil Kanellos and Anastasios Maragiannis, PhD researchers, are co-founders of TERASlab; an online virtual project that demonstrates how the amalgamation of virtual typography and visual sound, influences the process of design communication, within creative media practices. One of the key roles of typography is to visually communicate spoken language. In this project letterforms are employed as visual elements to represent the sounds. The sounds that are utilized for the experimental projects are mainly real world recordings, electro-acoustic or vocal

Experimental aerothermodynamic research of hypersonic aircraft

Wind tunnel tests were conducted to establish a benchmark experimental data base for a genetic hypersonic aircraft vehicle. Comprehensive measurements were made at Mach 7 to give flow visualization, surface pressure, surface convective heat transfer, and flow field Pitot pressure for a delta platform all-body vehicle. The tests were conducted in the NASA/Ames 3.5-Foot Hypersonic Wind Tunnel at Reynolds numbers sufficient to give turbulent flow. Comparisons are made of the experimental results with computational solutions of the flow by an upwind parabolized Navier-Stokes code developed at Ames. Good agreement of experiment with solutions by the code is demonstrated

Experimental pharmacological research regarding some new quinazolin-4-ones derivatives

A series of new compounds with quinazolin-4-one structure, synthesized by the Pharmaceutical Chemistry Department of the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Carol Davila” Bucharest, was studied. Five of them were selected, conventionally named S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, and investigated in terms of their potential influence on the central nervous system (CNS). For this purpose, the antidepressant effect was determined using the forced swimming test; the anxiolytic/ anxiogenic effect was determined using the suspended plus-shaped maze (Ugo Basile); the effect on the motor activity was determined using the Ugo Basile activity cage; and the potential analgesic effect was investigated using the hot plate test (Ugo Basile). Compounds S3 and S5 lowered the motor activity and showed an anxiolytic effect, while S1 and S2 proved to have antidepressant and analgesic effects. A good correlation between antidepressant and analgesic effects was observed, consistent with the fact that analgesic drugs, by increasing norepinephrine and serotonin levels in the pain inhibiting descendent pathways, can be used as co-analgesics in therapy