Research on Information Seeking and Use in Pakistan: An Assessment
The paper describes the beginning of research activity on information needs and presents an analysis of the literature on information needs in Pakistan to discover that no research has so far been published. It reviews 14 student-research projects produced from 1975 to 1982 at the University of the Punjab which have remained unpublished; Laments the loss of impetus given to this topic in 1974-75; and urges the LIS academics and practitioners to promote and conduct research on this critical topic.
Information seeking by Pakistani farmers: A review of published research
The purpose of this article is to provide a critical review of published research on information seeking by Pakistani farmers, with a view to inform the relevant departments and individuals of the existing situation. The results from the related research are summarized by noting major methodological features and reviewing practical and theoretical implications of major findings. Although the findings from related studies were not directly comparable due to variations in research methods and geographical contexts, it was nevertheless possible to draw some common conclusions regarding the farmers’ information seeking. The results from these studies overwhelmingly show that Pakistani farmers rely very much on interpersonal relationships with friends, relatives, fellow or progressive farmers, and neighbors for obtaining agricultural information. The use of mass-media, both print and electronic, and agricultural extension agents as sources of information was lower than expected. The results indicate the necessity for a need-based information infrastructure for farmers in Pakistan.
Multi-layer inpainting on Chinese artwork
Digital inpainting uses spatial or frequency information to restore partially damaged/removed photos and artworks. Most restoration algorithms take a picture as a single layer. We propose a new approach, which subdivides a Chinese painting into several layers. Each layer is inpainted separately. The layer fusion mechanism then finds the optimal inpaint among layers, which are restored layer-bylayer. We apply the algorithm on Chinese and western drawing. The result shows a high PSNR value as well as a high user satisfaction. The demonstration of our work is available at: http://www.mine.tku.edu.tw/demos/inpaint.