Revisiting 'Great Media Debate': Technology-Mediated Learning and Ground Realities Across the Indian Institutes of Technology

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, curriculum planners are giving more weightage to online learning. However, it would be incomplete to re-imagine curricula without considering the factors impacting learning. In this context, the ‘Great Media Debate’ (GMD), initiated between Richard Clark and Robert Kozma in the 1990s, discusses the factors influencing learning. While Clark focuses on instructional methods, Kozma posits that both methods and media impact learning. Our study re-visits the GMD in the present context of online learning and extends it, making it more heuristic by adding a specific contextual social factor, i.e., Availability and Accessibility of the Internet (A2I) at the individual/ household level to the debate.  We build our proposition based on the 11,489 learners’ responses collected as a part of the Pan-IIT study in India and focus on the case study of one specific institution, IIT Jammu. The analysis using chi-square tests, Fisher’s exact tests, and descriptive statistics finds strong evidence for A2I to impact online learning, thereby broadening the GMD. A2I also influences the media by shaping the learners’ preferences for the media used in traditional classrooms. Finally, it brings out the rural-urban divide due to unequal internet distribution, raising the possibility of a more exclusionary curriculum for the learners. We conclude that there is a need for the contextual social factor, i.e., A2I, among others, to be strongly acknowledged in the GMD, enabling it to take a more comprehensive form and consequently, holding the potential to enrich the curricular reimagination

A Comprehensive Survey of Potential Game Approaches to Wireless Networks

Potential games form a class of non-cooperative games where unilateral improvement dynamics are guaranteed to converge in many practical cases. The potential game approach has been applied to a wide range of wireless network problems, particularly to a variety of channel assignment problems. In this paper, the properties of potential games are introduced, and games in wireless networks that have been proven to be potential games are comprehensively discussed.Comment: 44 pages, 6 figures, to appear in IEICE Transactions on Communications, vol. E98-B, no. 9, Sept. 201

Two intracellular and cell type-specific bacterial symbionts in the placozoan Trichoplax H2

Placozoa is an enigmatic phylum of simple, microscopic, marine metazoans(1,2). Although intracellular bacteria have been found in all members of this phylum, almost nothing is known about their identity, location and interactions with their host(3-6). We used metagenomic and metatranscriptomic sequencing of single host individuals, plus metaproteomic and imaging analyses, to show that the placozoan Trichoplax sp. H2 lives in symbiosis with two intracellular bacteria. One symbiont forms an undescribed genus in the Midichloriaceae (Rickettsiales)(7,8) and has a genomic repertoire similar to that of rickettsial parasites(9,10), but does not seem to express key genes for energy parasitism. Correlative image analyses and three-dimensional electron tomography revealed that this symbiont resides in the rough endoplasmic reticulum of its host's internal fibre cells. The second symbiont belongs to the Margulisbacteria, a phylum without cultured representatives and not known to form intracellular associations(11-13). This symbiont lives in the ventral epithelial cells of Trichoplax, probably metabolizes algal lipids digested by its host and has the capacity to supplement the placozoan's nutrition. Our study shows that one of the simplest animals has evolved highly specific and intimate associations with symbiotic, intracellular bacteria and highlights that symbioses can provide access to otherwise elusive microbial dark matter

A brief report on older people's experience of cybercrime victimization in Mumbai, India

As internet penetration increases in Lower and Middle Income Countries (LMIC), more older people are now conducting financial transactions online and using social media to stay in touch with family and friends. We discuss concerns that existing financial regulations and controls in India may afford older people insufficient protection from cybercrime, using qualitative interviews from our recent study exploring older people’s experiences of cybercrime in Mumbai

Unveiling structure and dynamics of global digital production technology

This research pioneers the construction of a novel Digital Production Technology Classification (DPTC) based on the latest Harmonised Commodity Description and Coding System (HS2017) of the World Customs Organisation. The DPTC enables the identification and comprehensive analysis of 127 tradable products associated with digital production technologies (DPTs). The development of this classification offers a substantial contribution to empirical research and policy analysis. It enables an extensive exploration of international trade in DPTs, such as the identification of emerging trade networks comprising final goods, intermediate components, and instrumentation technologies and the intricate regional and geopolitical dynamics related to DPTs. In this paper, we deploy our DPTC within a network analysis methodological framework to analyse countries' engagements with DPTs through bilateral and multilateral trade. By comparing the trade networks in DPTs in 2012 and 2019, we unveil dramat ic shifts in the global DPTs' network structure, different countries' roles, and their degree of centrality. Notably, our findings shed light on China's expanding role and the changing trade patterns of the USA in the digital technology realm. The analysis also brings to the fore the increasing significance of Southeast Asian countries, revealing the emergence of a regional hub within this area, characterised by dense bilateral networks in DPTs. Furthermore, our study points to the fragmented network structures in Europe and the bilateral dependencies that developed there. Being the first systematic DPTC, also deployed within a network analysis framework, we expect the classification to become an indispensable tool for researchers, policymakers, and stakeholders engaged in research on digitalisation and digital industrial policy

Unveiling structure and dynamics of global digital production technology

This research pioneers the construction of a novel Digital Production Technology Classification (DPTC) based on the latest Harmonised Commodity Description and Coding System (HS2017) of the World Customs Organisation. The DPTC enables the identification and comprehensive analysis of 127 tradable products associated with digital production technologies (DPTs). The development of this classification offers a substantial contribution to empirical research and policy analysis. It enables an extensive exploration of international trade in DPTs, such as the identification of emerging trade networks comprising final goods, intermediate components, and instrumentation technologies and the intricate regional and geopolitical dynamics related to DPTs. In this paper, we deploy our DPTC within a network analysis methodological framework to analyse countries' engagements with DPTs through bilateral and multilateral trade. By comparing the trade networks in DPTs in 2012 and 2019, we unveil dramat ic shifts in the global DPTs' network structure, different countries' roles, and their degree of centrality. Notably, our findings shed light on China's expanding role and the changing trade patterns of the USA in the digital technology realm. The analysis also brings to the fore the increasing significance of Southeast Asian countries, revealing the emergence of a regional hub within this area, characterised by dense bilateral networks in DPTs. Furthermore, our study points to the fragmented network structures in Europe and the bilateral dependencies that developed there. Being the first systematic DPTC, also deployed within a network analysis framework, we expect the classification to become an indispensable tool for researchers, policymakers, and stakeholders engaged in research on digitalisation and digital industrial policy

A quantitative analysis of knowledge production

Mendonça, S., Damásio, B., Freitas, L. C. D., Oliveira, L., Cichy, M., & Nicita, A. (2022). The rise of 5G technologies and systems: A quantitative analysis of knowledge production. Telecommunications Policy, 46(4), 1-28. [102327]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2022.102327 --------------- Funding Information:The authors are thankful to the Special Issue editors and three reviewers for the iterations and advice. We would also like to express our gratitude to Erik Bohlin and Martin Richard Whitehead for their useful comments. Sandro Mendonça acknowledges support from FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia), Portugal, and the support provided by Business Research Unit (BRU-IUL) and Research Unit on Complexity and Economics (UECE-REM). The work also benefited from grants UID/GES/00315/2013,UIDB/00315/2020; UIDB/05069/2020; PTDC/EGE-ECO/30690/2017 and is part of the project PTDC/EGE-ECO/30690/2017. Bruno Damásio acknowledges the financial support provided by FCT Portugal under the project UIDB/04152/2020 - Centro de Investigação em Gestão de Informação (MagIC). Although some of the authors have professional links with regulators and international institutions, in the present (ANACOM, Anatel, ECB, RCB, Italy, OECD) or in the recent past (AGCOM, UKE), this piece is written in their personal and scientific capacities. All the views and shortcomings remain the responsibility of the authors alone.The advent of a new generation of wireless communications has punctuated the dawn of every decade in recent times. Upgrades to mobile electronic systems represent faster and more robust capabilities of data transfer but bring with it a wide set of complementary changes as they are underpinned by harmonised specific spectrum bands, fresh international technical standards, new network operation requirements, innovative cellular devices as well as new services and a broader array of potential commercial use applications. This paper presents a systematic outline of the development of 5G-related research until 2020 as revealed by over 10,000 science and technology publications. The exercise addresses the emergence, growth, and impact of this body of work and offers insights regarding disciplinary distribution, international performance, and historical dynamics. Findings reveal the progressive growth of the 5G research over the years after original contributions in 2010 and point to a “take-off” around 2014. A set of stylised facts regarding this technology since its infancy are of interest to engineers, regulators and innovation strategists and policy-makers.publishersversionpublishe