Scholarship : PhD Studentship in Social Semantics, UK

Study Subject: Social Semantics

Employer: The Open University

Level: PhD

Scholarship Description: The explosive growth of online communities continues in all areas of society, and their use is now widespread in social, business, scientific and public service domains, enabling community members to collaborate through shared ideas, knowledge and opinion. Online communities now generate major economic value to business and can form pivotal parts of corporate expertise management, corporate marketing, product support, customer relationship management, product innovation and targeted advertising.

However, the micro and macro dynamics of online communities in terms of structure, information, behaviour and economics are not well understood. There is a real need for far better real-time tracking of individuals, sub-communities, interests, and behaviours, all supported by in-depth analytics and a framework for automated, speedy generation of rich user profiles.

This PhD project will focus on designing and developing tools to monitor and process users’ activities in online communities to identify and evaluate their interests and behaviour over time, using a combination of syntactical, statistical, and semantic analysis techniques. Semantic technologies will be used to model, structure, integrate, and process user profiles.

This studentship is funded by both the Open University and an EU project that involves several academic and industrial partners from various European countries. The aim of this project is to design and develop a platform for real-time monitoring and analysis of business online communities.

Academic Requirements: You should have a first or upper second-class honours undergraduate degree or a relevant Masters Degree or equivalent experience in a relevant computer science discipline. Knowledge of semantic web technologies is a clear advantage.

Scholarship Application Deadline: 08/11/2010

Further Scholarship Information and Application:
http://www3.open.ac.uk/employment/job-details.asp?id=5359

PhD funded studentship University of Leicester

The highly genotoxic UVR component of solar light is one of the most significant environmental agents that shaped the evolution of organisms. With increasing levels of UVR being reported on the earth's surface (not least due to degradation of the ozone layer), there is an urgent need to determine what effect this increase in radiation has on wild populations. The current project is aimed at identifying genes that contribute to genetic variation in UVR resistance in Drosophila. The project combines the expertise of the Tauber lab (Dept. Genetics) in population and quantitative genetics in Drosophila, with the knowledge and facilities at the Cooke lab (Dept. Cancer Studies) in UVR-induced DNA damage and repair, and the work will be carried in both labs.
Drosophila was previously used for testing UVR genotoxicity, but little is known about natural genetic variation that underlies UV sensitivity and how it segregates in wild populations. The current proposal builds from an early study showing that UVR sensitivity and DNA repair are heritable traits, and therefore associated with substantial genetic variation. Here, we will use quantitative trail loci mapping and genome-wide association studies to identify sequence variations that contribute to phenotypic variation in UVR sensitivity. Candidate polymorphisms in these areas will be tested by generating transgenic flies carrying the different alleles. The functional role of these polymorphisms in UVR sensitivity will be determined using assays of antioxidant capacity, DNA damage and repair. Overall, this project will (i) uncover the genetic architecture of this trait, (ii) shed light on the evolution of UVR-sensitivity in wild populations, and (iii) generate biomarkers that, in the long run, will aid measuring the impact of global change in solar UVR exposure.
The student will be trained in a broad range of techniques ranging from fly genetics, quantitative and population genetics, bioinformatics (Tauber lab), to various assays testing antioxidant capacity, DNA damage and repair (Cooke lab).
Study information

Qualification:

PhD
Study duration:

Up to 3.5 years
Study mode:

full time
Start month:

October 2010
Entry requirements:

First or Upper Second Class Honours degree from a UK University

Funding information

Funder:

NERC
Value:

Student stipend: Up to 3.5 years at Research Council rate starting at £13, 590pa
Funding applies to:
EU applicants (including UK)
Funding notes:

The candidate must satisfy UK residency-requirements of NERC; ie. be a UK national or have permanent UK residency, or be an EU national who has been resident in the UK for the three years immediately preceding the take up of the award.
EU nationals who do not fulfil the three years residency requirement are eligible for a fees-only award (ie. no stipend). International students are not eligible unless they have a UK visa that confers “indefinite leave to remain/permanent residency” status and they have been ordinarily resident in the UK for three years immediately prior to the start of their course.
Funding duration:

Duration of course

Contacts and how to apply

Academic contact:

Dr Eran Tauber 0116-252-3455 etauber@eudoramail.com http://www.le.ac.uk/ge/et22/
Administrative contact and how to apply:

Mrs Heather Smith
hs188@le.ac.uk +44 (0)116 252 3374