1,720,955 research outputs found
Empowering Neurodiverse Researchers: Experiences, Outcomes, and Institutional Adaptations - Critical Literature Review
No full textThis report presents a critical literature review on neurodiverse postgraduate researchers (PGRs) in higher education. Recognizing neurodiversity and the unique demands of doctoral study, this review aims to enhance understanding, assess institutional policies, and recommend actions for inclusive academic environments. Using a critical narrative synthesis of 22 peer-reviewed papers and snowballing, it addresses a significant gap in literature often overlooking PGRs. Neurodiverse PGRs face distinct challenges: executive functioning, sensory processing, and communication in academic contexts. These are compounded by social isolation, stigma from disclosure, and significant mental health burdens like neurodivergent burnout, rooted in neurotypically-structured environments. Despite this, the literature consistently highlights unique cognitive strengths (e.g., attention to detail, analytical skills, innovative thinking) that are frequently undervalued. Formal and informal support systems exist but are inconsistent due to awareness gaps, bureaucracy, and variable quality. A critical empirical gap is the lack of robust outcome metrics (e.g., completion rates, publication data) and long-term career trajectories for this population.Findings strongly support the Social Model of Disability, indicating challenges stem from systemic barriers rather than individual deficits. However, practical reliance on diagnostic pathways reveals the Medical Model's persistent influence. A significant analytical void remains in intersectional analysis, as current literature largely neglects how neurodiversity interacts with identities like race, class, or gender to create compounded experiences. While Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and the Social Model are theoretically endorsed, their comprehensive and proactive application in individualised postgraduate research is a notable implementation gap.This report recommends fostering inclusive environments for neurodiverse PGRs by:•Mandatory, Comprehensive Neurodiversity Training for all staff, focusing on a strengths-based, social model approach.•Systematically integrate UDL in all PGR education aspects to reduce reliance on reactive accommodations.•Simplify diagnosis/disclosure, ensure easy access to resources, and create psychological safety.•Invest in accessible technology, sensory-friendly spaces, and robust peer/community networks.•Design EDI frameworks that address compounded experiences of neurodiverse PGRs with intersecting identities.•Implement systematic data collection on academic progression, well-being, and career trajectories.By understanding neurodiverse PGR experiences and implementing proactive, evidence-based practices, universities can cultivate environments where all researchers thrive and contribute
Punjab Agriculture Policy
No full textAs a country, in general and province in specific, inherited an agro-based economy, agriculture plays a major role in the economic development of Punjab. An increase in growth rate is a first step towards ensuring food security for all citizens. About 80% of the country’s exports originates from agriculture, with Punjab contributing a large part of this amount. Hence, the Agriculture sector is a top priority for the Government of Punjab being a major contributor to the national economy, accounting for over 19% of its GDP. Unlike before, the Agriculture sector has made conscious efforts to initiate and implement long- and short-term planning and strategy simultaneously. In this context, a dire need for a long-term Agriculture Policy to pave the way for sustainable and inclusive growth was identified.This Policy aims to put forward available human resources to sustainable and productive use. Our motto has remained to include all farmers across Punjab, whether landowners or landless, in the mainstream of the economic cycle with a spirit to provide benefit to all those working in the sector. The policy proposes to ensure inclusive growth by increasing the level of targeted assistance for small commercial farmers, with landholding between 3 and 75 acres, rural women and rural youth. A number of reforms are proposed in the legal and regulatory frameworks governing the agriculture produce markets, including reconstitution of Market Committees; attracting private-sector investment in operation of wholesale markets; and of course, arranging direct farmer credit and farming opportunities. These reforms will pave way for the private sector to operate in a fair and free manner for the benefit of the entire value chain including farmers and consumers alike.The Government, through the policy, promises unproductive and inefficient subsidies in agriculture to be phased out in a way that the productive ones are targeted towards small commercial farmers through cash transfers, and Government funds are utilized optimally with full benefits reachingthe intended beneficiaries. At present, many of these subsidies benefit larger farmers. The policy also recommends diverting ample funds to high priority areas including agriculture research and technology for sustainable increase in yields; promotion of high value and climate smart agriculture; and incentives for private sector in development of efficient agriculture produce markets. With the efforts of many minds in the form of exhaustive stakeholder consultations, we are proud to have achieved this milestone that will enable us to walk the path of sustainable growth and development in Agriculture of Punjab
Impact of Interoperable Technologies on Financial Inclusion of Smallholder Farmers in Pakistan
No full textFinancial institutions face persistent challenges in lending to smallholder farmers due to supply-side barriers such as limited outreach, information asymmetry, high operational costs, and restrictive eligibility criteria. Interoperable technologies, which is the ability of different systems, devices, or applications to communicate and work together effectively, provide promising solutions, fostering integration of lending systems and improved service delivery. However, little is known about how these technologies affect financial institutions’ operational and strategic behaviour. To address this gap, this study employs a case study approach to analyse how interoperable technologies influences the lending processes, operational strategies, and credit disbursement mechanisms of a group of financial institutions participating in a government-supported rural microcredit programme in Punjab, Pakistan (‘e-Credit’). By focusing on the ‘e-Credit’ initiative as a critical case study, the research provides an in-depth exploration of the adoption and impact of interoperable technologies within a real-world context. This approach enables this research to generate rich, context-specific insights into the challenges and opportunities of interoperable technologies adoption, offering valuable lessons for policymakers, practitioners, and researchers. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with stakeholders in ‘e-Credit’, this research investigates how interoperable technologies addresses supply-side barriers faced by a range of financial institutions in lending to smallholder farmers. The findings reveal that interoperable technologies enhance outreach, efficiency, and service quality through improved accuracy, reliability, and transparency in delivery, while also deepening usage by enabling more diverse and frequent financial interactions. However, adoption also poses constraints, including high implementation costs, lagging regulatory frameworks, and resistance from financial institutions staff resulting in marginalised financial services products for smallholder farmers. While interoperable technologies show transformative potential in reshaping financial institutions’ strategies, this research highlights the need for aligned policies, practice, and demand-side interventions, offering actionable insights for advancing digital financial inclusion
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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