Search results for: mixed methods research design

Authors: Li Shiyue

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In an urban built environment, urban green space is scarce, especially around old residential areas. Due to the innate design deficiency and the non-core location of these areas, they lack green space, and the recreational opportunities of the surrounding residents are not guaranteed. Micro greenspace becomes a "patch" to compensate for the urban function. To realize the renewal and transformation of micro greenspace, and make it meet the use needs of most groups, this paper introduces the concept of inclusive design. Based on relevant research at home and abroad, this paper discusses the connotation and current situation of micro greenspace. Combining with the realistic conditions of China, this paper thinks about the planning path of inclusive renewal from the aspects of selecting micro greenspace transformation potential points and exploring the key points of site renewal. Among them, the key points of site renewal are explored from five angles: land guarantee, systematic coordination, refined design, and shared space creation, to provide useful references for related research and practice.

Keywords: inclusive design, micro greenspace, old city area, space renewal

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Authors: Yael Dubinsky, Orit Hazzan

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There is a constant need for hi-tech innovation to be decentralized to peripheral regions. This work describes how we applied design science research (DSR) principles to define what we refer to as the Sea of Galilee (SoG) method. The goal of the SoG method is to harness existing and new technological initiatives in peripheral regions to create a socio-technological network that can initiate and maintain hi-tech activities. The SoG method consists of a set of principles, a stakeholder network, and actual hi-tech business initiatives, including their infrastructure and practices. The three cycles of DSR, the Relevance, Design, and Rigor cycles, layout a research framework to sharpen the requirements, collect data from case studies, and iteratively refine the SoG method based on the existing knowledge base. We propose that the SoG method can be deployed by regional authorities that wish to be considered smart regions (an extension of the notion of smart cities).

Keywords: design science research, socio-technological initiatives, Sea of Galilee method, periphery stakeholder network, hi-tech initiatieves

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Authors: Nico Fuchs, Fabian Wüllhorst, Laura Maier, Dirk Müller

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The decarbonization of building stocks necessitates the modernization of existing buildings. Key measures for this include reducing energy demands through insulation of the building envelope, replacing heat generators, and installing solar systems. Given limited financial resources, it is impractical to modernize all buildings in a portfolio simultaneously; instead, prioritization of buildings and modernization measures for a given planning horizon is essential. Optimization models for modernization pathways can assist portfolio managers in this prioritization. However, modeling and solving these large-scale optimization problems, often represented as mixed-integer problems (MIP), necessitates simplifying the operation of building energy systems particularly with respect to system dynamics and transient behavior. This raises the question of which level of simplification remains sufficient to accurately account for realistic costs and emissions of building energy systems, ensuring a fair comparison of different modernization measures. This study addresses this issue by comparing a two-stage simulation-based optimization approach with a single-stage mathematical optimization in a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) formulation. The simulation-based approach serves as a benchmark for realistic energy system operation but requires a restriction of the solution space to discrete choices of modernization measures, such as the sizing of heating systems. After calculating the operation of different energy systems in terms of the resulting final energy demands in simulation models on a first stage, the results serve as input for a second stage MILP optimization, where the design of each building in the portfolio is optimized. In contrast to the simulation-based approach, the MILP-based approach can capture a broader variety of modernization measures due to the efficiency of MILP solvers but necessitates simplifying the building energy system operation. Both approaches are employed to determine the cost-optimal design and dimensioning of several buildings in a portfolio to meet climate targets within limited yearly budgets, resulting in a modernization pathway for the entire portfolio. The comparison reveals that the MILP formulation successfully captures design decisions of building energy systems, such as the selection of heating systems and the modernization of building envelopes. However, the results regarding the optimal dimensioning of heating technologies differ from the results of the two-stage simulation-based approach, as the MILP model tends to overestimate operational efficiency, highlighting the limitations of the MILP approach.

Keywords: building energy system optimization, model accuracy in optimization, modernization pathways, building stock decarbonization

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Authors: Aita Bishowkarma

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Ensuring quality education in primary level in multi-ethnic, multi- religious, multi-cultural and multilingual country Nepal which accommodates 123 ethnic languages (CBS 2011) has come across a big challenge. The discourse on the policies and practices to take advantage of the rich heritage of cultural and linguistic diversity in the pursuit of quality primary education to ethnic/linguistic minority children in Nepal gives in a critical observation of Nepalese perspective in the global academia. Situating the linguistic diversity of Nepal, primary education to children is better through mother tongue. Nepali as official or national language is another important language to be taught to the children. Similarly, craze for English has been inevitable for international communication and job opportunity in the global markets. This paper critically examines the current use of trilingual policy in mother tongue based multilingual education (MT-MLE) in Nepal from the perspective of exploiting linguistic diversity in classroom pedagogy. The researcher adopted mixed method research design applying descriptive measure and explanatory research methods. 24 teachers and 48 students from 6 multilingual schools were selected purposively to dig out their language use, language attitude and language preferences to reveal their preference and attitude towards mother tongue, Nepali and English through questionnaire, interview and focus group discussion. The study shows, in a true multilingual system, all languages (mother tongue, languages of region, nation and wider communication) can have their legitimate place; bridging from the mother tongue to the regional language and national to international language; further leading to meaningful participation in the wider democratic global context. Trilingual policy of mother tongue, national language and international language seemed pertinent however, not sufficient. The finding of the study shows that for quality education in primary education mother tongue based critical multilingual pedagogy through language coexistence approach with contextual variation seems enviable.

Keywords: critical pedagogy, language co-existence, linguistic diversity, quality education

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Authors: M. Mohammed Raoof, A. Enkhtaivan, H. Aljuaid

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This study follows the design science research methodology to design and implement a smartphone application artifact. The developed artifact was evaluated through three phases. The System Usability Scale (SUS) metric was used for the evaluation. The designed artifact aims to spread awareness about reducing air pollution, decreasing lung cancer development, and checking the air quality status in Southern California Counties. Participants have been drawn for a pilot study to facilitate awareness of air pollution. The study found that smartphone applications have a beneficial effect on the study’s aims.

Keywords: air pollution, design science research, indoor air pollution, lung cancer, outdoor air pollution, smartphone application

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Authors: Carolina S. Correia, Thalita V. Thomé, Andersen Boniolo, Dhayana I. Veiga

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Evidence-based practices (EBP) in education is a set of principles and practices used to raise educational policy, it involves the integration of professional expertise in education with the best empirical evidence in making decisions about how to deliver instruction. The purpose of this presentation is to describe and characterize studies about EBP in education in elementary classroom setting. Data here presented is part of an ongoing systematic review research. Articles were searched and selected from four academic databases: ProQuest, Scielo, Science Direct and Capes. The search terms were evidence-based practices or program effectiveness, and education or teaching or teaching practices or teaching methods. Articles were included according to the following criteria: The studies were explicitly described as evidence-based or discussed the most effective practices in education, they discussed teaching practices in classroom context in elementary school level. Document excerpts were extracted and recorded in Excel, organized by reference, descriptors, abstract, purpose, setting, participants, type of teaching practice, study design and main results. The total amount of articles selected were 1.185, 569 articles from Proquest Research Library; 216 from CAPES; 251 from ScienceDirect and 149 from Scielo Library. The potentially relevant references were 178, from which duplicates were removed. The final number of articles analyzed was 140. From 140 articles, are 47 theoretical studies and 93 empirical articles. The following research design methods were identified: longitudinal intervention study, cluster-randomized trial, meta-analysis and pretest-posttest studies. From 140 articles, 103 studies were about regular school teaching and 37 were on special education teaching practices. In several studies, used as teaching method: active learning, content acquisition podcast (CAP), precision teaching (PT), mediated reading practice, speech therapist programs and peer-assisted learning strategies (PALS). The countries of origin of the studies were United States of America, United Kingdom, Panama, Sweden, Scotland, South Korea, Argentina, Chile, New Zealand and Brunei. The present study in is an ongoing project, so some representative findings will be discussed, providing further acknowledgment on the best teaching practices in elementary classroom setting.

Keywords: best practices, children, evidence-based education, elementary school, teaching methods

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Authors: Ida Fatimawati Adi Badiozaman, Augustus Raymond Segar

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The Covid-19 pandemic transformed teaching contexts at an unprecedented level. Although studies have focused mainly on its impact on students, little is known about how emergency online teaching affects faculty members in higher education. Given that the pandemic has robbed teachers of opportunities for adequate preparation, it is vital to understand how teaching competencies were perceived in the crisis-response transition to online teaching and learning (OTL). Therefore, the study explores how academics perceive their readiness for OTL and what competencies were perceived to be central. Therefore, through a mixed-methods design, the study first explores through a survey how academics perceive their readiness for OTL and what competencies were perceived to be central. Emerging trends from the quantitative data of 330 academics (three public and three private Higher learning institutions) led to the formulation of interview guides for the subsequent qualitative phase. The authors use critical sensemaking (CSM) to analyse interviews with twenty-two teachers (n = 22) (three public; three private HEs) toward understanding the interconnected layers of influences they draw from as they make sense of their teaching competence. The sensemaking process reframed competence and readiness in that agentic competency emerged as crucial in shaping resilience and adaptability during the transition to OTL. The findings also highlight professional learningcriticalto teacher competence: course design, communication, time management, technological competence, and identity (re)construction. The findings highlight opportunities for strategic orientation to change during crisis. Implications for pedagogy and policy are discussed.

Keywords: online teaching, pedagogical competence, agentic competence, agency, technological competence

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Authors: Xiaoxu Liu, Yuwen Chen

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In this study, we investigated ethnic minority students’ perception of the implementation of preferential policies in China. Using a mixed methods design, we surveyed 320 students from an institute of education for ethnic minorities and conducted further in-depth interviews with seven respondents. Although interviewees were from 30 ethnic groups, most of them were from mainstream high schools. We found that minority students from preparatory classes have an overall positive attitude towards preferential policies and preparatory class but lack sense of belonging to the university for various reasons. Findings indicate that although preparatory class is regarded as being helpful for minority students’ academic development, there are differences of attitude mainly depending on the high schools they graduated from and their ethnic identities. Our analyses suggest that ethnicity, high school graduated from, hometown and family income are more important than gender, religion, and political affiliation when accounting for their perceptions of the implementation of preferential policies in China.

Keywords: Chinese minority education, higher education, preferential policies, survey analysis

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Authors: Victoria H. Hamilton

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Charles Bonnet Syndrome (CBS) is when a person experiences pseudohallucinations that fill in visual information from any type of sight loss. CBS arises from an epiphenomenal process, with the physical actions of sight resulting in the mental formations of images. These pseudohallucinations—referred to as visions by the CBS community—manifest in a wide range of forms, from complex scenes to simple geometric shapes. To share these unique visual experiences, a remote co-creation website was created where CBS participants communicated their lived experiences. This created a reflexive process, and we worked to produce true representations of these interesting and little-known phenomena. Digital reconstruction of the visions is utilised as it echoes the vivid, experiential movie-like nature of what is being perceived. This paper critically analyses co-creation as a method for making digital assets. The implications of the participants' vision impairments and the application of ethical safeguards are examined in this context. Important to note, this research is of a medical syndrome for a non-medical, practice-based design. CBS research to date is primarily conducted by the ophthalmic, neurological, and psychiatric fields and approached with the primary concerns of these specialties. This research contributes a distinct approach incorporating practice-based digital design, autoethnography, and phenomenology. Autoethnography and phenomenology combine as a foundation, with the first bringing understanding and insights, balanced by the second philosophical, bigger picture, and established approach. With further refining, it is anticipated that the research may be applied to other conditions. Conditions where articulating internal experiences proves challenging and the use of digital methods could aid communication. Both the research and CBS communities will benefit from the insights regarding the relationship between cognitive perceptions and the vision process. This research combines the digital visualising of visions with interest in the link between metaphor, embodied cognition, and image. The argument for a link between CBS visions and metaphor may appear evident due to the cross-category mapping of images that is necessary for comprehension. They both are— CBS visions and metaphors—the experience of picturing images, often with lateral connections and imaginative associations.

Keywords: Charles Bonnet Syndrome, digital design, visual hallucinations, visual perception

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Authors: Younghoon Kim, Seoung Bum Kim

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One-class classification plays an important role in detecting outlier and abnormality from normal observations. In the previous research, several attempts were made to extend the scope of application of the one-class classification techniques to statistical process control problems. For most previous approaches, such as support vector data description (SVDD) control chart, the design of the control limits is commonly based on the assumption that the proportion of abnormal observations is approximately equal to an expected Type I error rate in Phase I process. Because of the limitation of the one-class classification techniques based on convex optimization, we cannot make the proportion of abnormal observations exactly equal to expected Type I error rate: controlling Type I error rate requires to optimize constraints with integer decision variables, but convex optimization cannot satisfy the requirement. This limitation would be undesirable in theoretical and practical perspective to construct effective control charts. In this work, to address the limitation of previous approaches, we propose the one-class classification algorithm based on the mixed integer programming technique, which can solve problems formulated with continuous and integer decision variables. The proposed method minimizes the radius of a spherically shaped boundary subject to the number of normal data to be equal to a constant value specified by users. By modifying this constant value, users can exactly control the proportion of normal data described by the spherically shaped boundary. Thus, the proportion of abnormal observations can be made theoretically equal to an expected Type I error rate in Phase I process. Moreover, analogous to SVDD, the boundary can be made to describe complex structures by using some kernel functions. New multivariate control chart applying the effectiveness of the algorithm is proposed. This chart uses a monitoring statistic to characterize the degree of being an abnormal point as obtained through the proposed one-class classification. The control limit of the proposed chart is established by the radius of the boundary. The usefulness of the proposed method was demonstrated through experiments with simulated and real process data from a thin film transistor-liquid crystal display.

Keywords: control chart, mixed integer programming, one-class classification, support vector data description

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Authors: L. Atif, C. Rosenthal-Sabroux, M. Grundstein

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The requirements engineering process is a crucial phase in the design of complex systems. The purpose of our research is to present a collaborative problem-driven requirements engineering approach that aims at improving the design of a Decision Support System as an Analytics application. This approach has been adopted to design a Human Resource management DSS. The Requirements Engineering process is presented as a series of guidelines for activities that must be implemented to assure that the final product satisfies end-users requirements and takes into account the limitations identified. For this, we know that a well-posed statement of the problem is “a problem whose crucial character arises from collectively produced estimation and a formulation found to be acceptable by all the parties”. Moreover, we know that DSSs were developed to help decision-makers solve their unstructured problems. So, we thus base our research off of the assumption that developing DSS, particularly for helping poorly structured or unstructured decisions, cannot be done without considering end-user decision problems, how to represent them collectively, decisions content, their meaning, and the decision-making process; thus, arise the field issues in a multidisciplinary perspective. Our approach addresses a problem-driven and collaborative approach to designing DSS technologies: It will reflect common end-user problems in the upstream design phase and in the downstream phase these problems will determine the design choices and potential technical solution. We will thus rely on a categorization of HR’s problems for a development mirroring the Analytics solution. This brings out a new data-driven DSS typology: Descriptive Analytics, Explicative or Diagnostic Analytics, Predictive Analytics, Prescriptive Analytics. In our research, identifying the problem takes place with design of the solution, so, we would have to resort a significant transformations of representations associated with the HR Analytics application to build an increasingly detailed representation of the goal to be achieved. Here, the collective cognition is reflected in the establishment of transfer functions of representations during the whole of the design process.

Keywords: DSS, collaborative design, problem-driven requirements, analytics application, HR decision making

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Authors: Marcel Rojahn, Edzard Weber, Norbert Gronau

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Terminology is a critical instrument for each researcher. Different terminologies for the same research object may arise in different research communities. By this inconsistency, many synergistic effects get lost. Theories and models will be more understandable and reusable if a common terminology is applied. This paper examines the terminological (in) consistency for the research field of job-shop scheduling through a literature review. There is an enormous variety in the choice of terms and mathematical notation for the same concept. The comparability, reusability, and combinability of scheduling methods are unnecessarily hampered by the arbitrary use of homonyms and synonyms. The acceptance in the community of used variables and notation forms is shown by means of a compliance quotient. This is proven by the evaluation of 240 scientific publications on planning methods.

Keywords: job-shop scheduling, terminology, notation, standardization

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Authors: Vitor Carneiro, Augusto Barata Da Rocha, Barbara Rangel, Jorge Lino Alves

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In the European Union countries, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SME’s) have an important contribution to economic activity and to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The implementation of design practices in SME’s is often a difficult task due to resources limitations. Unlike large companies, their product development and innovation processes frequentlylack adequate planning and systematic procedures. Design management interest has grown exponentially in recent years, but as it is a recent topic there is an absence of systematic methodologies to implement design management in SME’s with little or no design experience. This work presents a contribution to improve and optimize the process of design integration and management in SME’s. A review analysis is presented to select relevant articles on the subject, review and classify the main published contributions. Based on the selected articles content it was possible to identify five main themes related to the subject under analysis: Design Function Organization, Design Management Integration, Design Management Capabilities, Managing Design Projects, and Tools and Methods. Design management is discussed from different perspectives depending on the focus on which it is placed, whether in a design or management perspective, leading to different visions and definitions: from a more upstream strand at the intersection of design and the organization's strategic management (strategic design management) to a more downstream strand related to project management and design process (design management operational). The review analysis of the selected articles allowed the identification of a high level of complexity of connections and parameters in the design management during the product development process in the context of SME’s. Within each group of the five main themes, several sub-themes, directly or indirectly related, should be considered.Sub-connections also occur between sub-themes of different themes creating a complex and intricate web of connections. This complexity of connections is often the main obstacle to conduct design management and product development efficiently. This work proposes a formulation of a systematic methodological approach to optimize the integrated project and the management and control of the product development process among SME's. The implementation of this formulation will improve the integration of design management in the product development and innovation process in SME’s.

Keywords: design management, product development, product innovation, SME’s.

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Authors: A. V. Varfolomeeva, N. S. Tkachenko, A. G. Tishchenko

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The problem of violation of internal validity in studies of psychological structures is considered. The role of epistemological attitudes of researchers in the planning of research within the methodology of the system-evolutionary approach is assessed. Alternative programs of psychological research involving representatives of different biological species are presented. On the example of the results of two research series the variants of solving the problem are discussed.

Keywords: epistemological attitudes, experimental design, validity, psychological structure, learning

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Authors: Yan Wang; Mathis Stock

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The World Heritage Site of Honghe Hani rice terrace, also a marginal rural region in Southern China, is undergoing rapid change because of urbanization and heritage tourism. Influenced by out-migration and changing ways of living in the urbanization process, the place sees a tendency of losing its rice terrace landscape, traditional housings and other forms of cultural traditions. However, heritage tourism tends to keep the past, valorize them for tourism purposes and diversifies rural livelihood strategies. The place stands at this development trajectories, where the same resources are subjected to different uses by different actors. The research seeks to answer the questions of how the site is transformed and co-constructed by different institutions, practices and actors, and the how heritage tourism affects local livelihood. The research aims to describe the transformation of villages, rice terraces, and cultural traditions, analyze the place-making process, and assess the role of heritage tourism in local livelihood transition. The research uses a mixed of methods including direct observation, participant observation, interviews; collects various data of images, words, narratives, and statistics, and analyze them qualitatively and qualitatively. Theoretically, it is hoped that the research would reexamine the concept of heritage, the world heritage practice from UNESCO, reveal the conflicts it entails in development and brings more thoughts from a functional perspective on heritage in relation to rural development. Practically, it is also anticipated that the research could access the linkage between heritage tourism and local livelihood, and generate concrete suggestions on how tourism could engage locals and improve their livelihood.

Keywords: cultural landscape, Hani rice terraces, heritage tourism, livelihood strategy, place making, rural development, transformation

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Authors: Christena Stephen, Biju Kunnumpurath

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This study intends to comprehend the effect of the Tilt Brush (TB) Virtual Reality 3D Painting application on creativity among final year architecture students. The research was done over the course of 30 hours and evaluated the performance of a group of 20 university students. Using a Structured Observation Form (SOF), the researcher assessed the research's progress. Four recently graduated artists, educators, and researchers used a Rubric to assess student designs. During the training, the study group was instructed in the fundamentals of virtual Reality, design principles, and TB. The design process, which began with the construction of a 3D design, progressed with the addition of texture, color, and script to items and culminated in the creation of a finished project. The group in the design process is rated as "Good" by the researcher based on feedback from SOF. The creativity evaluation rubric used by the experts rates their work as "Accomplished." According to the researcher's assessment, the group received a "Good" rating. Based on these findings, it can be said that including virtual reality 3D painting in the curriculum for art and design classes will help students improve their imagination and creativity as well as their 21st-century skills in education.

Keywords: creativity, virtual reality, 3D painting, tilt brush, education

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Authors: Ayedh Alqahtani

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Many construction firms in Saudi Arabia dedicated to building projects agree that the most important factor in the real estate market is the value that they can give to their customer. These firms understand the value of their client in different ways. Value can be defined as the size of the building project in relationship to the cost or the design quality of the materials utilized in finish work or any other features of building rooms such as the bathroom. Value can also be understood as something suitable for the money the client is investing for the new property. A quality tool is required to support companies to achieve a solution for the building project and to understand and manage the customer’s needs. Quality Function Development (QFD) method will be able to play this role since the main difference between QFD and other conventional quality management tools is QFD a valuable and very flexible tool for design and taking into the account the VOC. Currently, organizations and agencies are seeking suitable models able to deal better with uncertainty, and that is flexible and easy to use. The primary aim of this research project is to incorporate customer’s requirements in the conceptual design of construction projects. Towards this goal, QFD is selected due to its capability to integrate the design requirements to meet the customer’s needs. To develop QFD, this research focused upon the contribution of the different (significantly weighted) input factors that represent the main variables influencing QFD and subsequent analysis of the techniques used to measure them. First of all, this research will review the literature to determine the current practice of QFD in construction projects. Then, the researcher will review the literature to define the current customers of residential projects and gather information on customers’ requirements for the design of the residential building. After that, qualitative survey research will be conducted to rank customer’s needs and provide the views of stakeholder practitioners about how these needs can affect their satisfy. Moreover, a qualitative focus group with the members of the design team will be conducted to determine the improvements level and technical details for the design of residential buildings. Finally, the QFD will be developed to establish the degree of significance of the design’s solution.

Keywords: quality function development, construction projects, Saudi Arabia, quality tools

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Authors: Zolzaya Badmaavanchig, Shoko Miyamoto

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In recent years, universal design for learning (hereinafter referred to as "UDL"), which aims to establish an inclusive education system and to make all children, regardless of their disabilities, experts in learning, has been attracting attention, and there have been some attempts to incorporate it into regular classrooms where children with developmental disabilities and those who show such tendencies are enrolled. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness and challenges of implementing UDL in Japanese elementary schools based on the previous literature. As a method, we first searched for articles on UDL for learning and UDL in the classroom from 2010 to 2022. In addition, we selected practice studies that targeted children with special educational support needs and the classroom as a whole. In response to the extracted literature, this bridge examined the following five perspectives: (1) subjects and grades in which UDL was practiced, (2) methods to grasp the actual conditions of the children, (3) consideration for children with special needs during class, (4) form of class, and (5) effects of the practice. Based on the results, we would like to present issues related to future UDL efforts in Japanese elementary schools.

Keywords: universal design for learning, regular elementary school class, children with special education needs, special educational support

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Authors: Seong-Ho Ha, Young-Ok Yoon, Shae K. Kim

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Oxide layer of normal Al-Mg alloy can be characterized by upper MgO and lower MgAl2O4 spinel. The formation of the MgO outmost layer occurs by the surface segregation of Mg in the initial oxidation. After then, the oxidation is proceeded with the formation of MgA12O4 spinel beneath the MgO. Growth of the oxide layer is accelerated by constant formation of MgA12O4 spinel. On the other hand, the oxidation resistance of Al-Mg alloys can be significantly improved simply by Mg+Al2Ca master alloy use as the Mg alloying element and such an improvement is attributed to the CaO/MgO mixed layer. Al-Mg alloy containing Al2Ca shows CaO as the upper layer and MgO as the lower one without MgA12O4 spinel. Such a dense oxide film acts as a protective layer. However, the CaO/MgO scale has the outmost MgO, partly, after a long time exposure to a harsh oxidation condition. The aim of this study is to investigate the inter-filling behaviour of CaO and MgO mixed layer in oxidation resistance mechanism of Al-Mg alloys containing Al2Ca. The process of outmost MgO layer formation will be clarified.

Keywords: Al-Mg alloy, Al2Ca, oxidation, MgO

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Authors: G. S. Androulakis, G. Deli, M. Kaisari, N. Mihos

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Teaching practices at the university level have changed and developed during the last decade. Implementation of inverted classroom method in secondary education consists of a well-formed basis for academic teachers. On the other hand, distance learning is a well-known field in education research and widespread as a method of teaching. Nonetheless, the new pandemic found many Universities all over the world unprepared, which made adaptations to new methods of teaching a necessity. In this paper, we analyze a model of an inverted university classroom in a distance learning context. Thus, the main purpose of our research is to investigate students’ difficulties as they transit to a new style of teaching and explore their learning development during a semester totally different from others. Our teaching experiment took place at the Business Administration department of the University of Patras, in the context of two courses: Calculus, a course aimed at first-year students, and Statistics, a course aimed at second-year students. Second-year students had the opportunity to attend courses in the university classroom. First-year students started their semester with distance learning. Using a comparative study of these two groups, we explored significant differences in students’ learning procedures. Focused group interviews, written tests, analyses of students’ dialogues were used in a mixed quantity and quality research. Our analysis reveals students’ skills, capabilities but also a difficulty in following, non-traditional style of teaching. The inverted classroom model, according to our findings, offers benefits in the educational procedure, even in a distance learning environment.

Keywords: distance learning, higher education, inverted classroom, mathematics teaching

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Authors: Abiodun Ezekiel Adesina, Ijeoma Ginikanwa Akubugwo

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Information and Communication Technology, ICT can heighten pre-service teachers’ attitudes toward learning and metacognitive learning; however, there is a dearth of literature on the perception of the pre-service teachers on heightening their attitude toward learning and metacognitive learning. Thus, this study investigates the perception of pre-service science teachers on heightening their attitude towards learning and metacognitive learning through ICT. Two research questions and four hypotheses guided the research. A mixed methods research was adopted for the study in concurrent triangulation type of integrating qualitative and quantitative approaches to the study. The cluster random sampling technique was adopted to select 250 pre-service science teachers in Oyo township. Two self-constructed instruments: Heightening Pre-service Science Teachers’ Attitude towards Learning and Metacognitive Learning through Information and Communication Technology Scale (HPALMIS, r=.73), and an unstructured interview were used for data collection. Thematic analysis, frequency counts and percentages, t-tests, and analysis of variance were used for data analysis. The perception level of the pre-service science teachers on heightening their attitude towards learning and metacognitive learning through ICT is above average, with the majority perceiving that ICT can enhance their thinking about their learning. The perception was significant (mean=92.68, SD=10.86, df=249, t=134.91, p<.05). The perception was significantly differentiated by gender (t=2.10, df= 248, p<.05) in favour of the female pre-service teachers and based on the first time of ICTs use (F(5,244)= 9.586, p<.05). Lecturers of science and science related courses should therefore imbibe the use of ICTs in heightening pre-service teachers’ attitude towards learning and metacognitive learning. Government should organize workshops, seminars, lectures, and symposia along with professional bodies for the science education lecturers to keep abreast of the trending ICT.

Keywords: pre-service teachers’ attitude towards learning, metacognitive learning, ICT, pre-service teachers’ perspectives

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Authors: T. T. K. Nguyen, T. H. Doan

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The study investigates students’ perceptions and students’ use of vocabulary learning strategies (VLS) among non-English majors at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HUTECH). Three main issues addressed are (1) to determine students’ perception in terms of their awareness and the level of the importance of vocabulary learning strategies; (2) students’ use in terms of frequency and preference; (3) the correlation between students’ perception in terms of the level of the importance of vocabulary learning strategies and their use in terms of frequency. The mixed method is applied in this investigation; additionally, questionnaires focus on social groups, memory groups, cognitive groups, and metacognitive groups with 350 sophomores from four different majors, and 10 sophomores are invited to structured interviews. The results showed that the vocabulary learning strategies of the current study were well aware. All those strategies were perceived as important in learning vocabulary, and four groups of vocabulary were used frequently. Students’ responses in terms of preference also confirmed students’ use in terms of frequency. On the other hand, students’ perception correlated with students’ use in only the cognitive group of vocabulary learning strategies, but not the three others.

Keywords: vocabulary learning strategies, students' perceptions, students' use, mixed methods, non-English majors

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Authors: Ricky Munyaradzi Mukonza

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E-government literature continues to grow as scholars and practitioners endeavour to understand this phenomenon. There are many facets of e-government that have been written about including its definition, adoption, and implementation and so on. However, more still needs to be known particularly in relation to how e-government is being adopted in different contexts. There could be many context specific factors that have a bearing on e-government adoption and in this paper focus is on attitudes and perceptions. Association between usage of e-government services and various perceptions such as ease of use, transparency, security, ease of understanding, communication, reliability, relevancy, perceived usefulness and perceived trust is examined. Within the Zimbabwean context and in particular the country’s local government sphere, such a study has not been done. The main aim of the paper is therefore to establish perceptions and attitudes towards e-government services among residents in Zimbabwe’s two local authorities. In terms of research methodology the paper is based on a Mixed Methods Approach (MMA) to collect and analyse data giving the researcher a holistic picture of the phenomenon being investigated. A sample of 785 residents from the two local authorities was used and these were selected using a combination of cluster and purposive sampling methods. A key finding in this paper is that a majority of respondents who have had the opportunity to use e-government services perceive the services to be easy to use, transparent, secure, easy to understand, reliable, relevant, useful and trustworthy. The paper, therefore, makes an important contribution on the relationship between residents’ perceptions and attitudes and e-government usage within the chosen cases.

Keywords: adoption, attitudes, e-government, perceptions

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Authors: Adaobi Anakwe, Wilson Majee, Kari White, Rhonda BeLue

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Background: Black men in the U.S. have overall poorer health, are more likely to experience unintended pregnancies, and have pregnancies (with their partner) at younger ages than other racial/ethnic groups. These factors increase the likelihood that pregnancies among Black fathers will occur at suboptimal paternal health. Although several community-based programs exist to support low-income Black fathers’ involvement with their families, little is known about the sexual and reproductive health, and family planning needs of fathers enrolled in these programs. The objective of this study was to quantitatively examine the relationship between Black fathers’ fertility desires and pregnancy prevention strategies and qualitatively explore the nuances of this relationship. Methods: A concurrent mixed-methods approach was used to survey 36 and interview 13 Black fathers from low-income backgrounds, who were participating in a community-based fatherhood program in a Midwestern urban area. Fathers in this study were ≥18 years old with at least one child. Differences between groups were compared using Fisher’s Exact tests and thematic analyses to examine the relationship between participants' fertility desires and reproductive planning practices. Results: Participants had a median age of 33 years, and 72% were non-residential biological parents. About 40% of men desired pregnancy, and 69% reported they or their partner always used contraception. In bivariate analysis, participants’ fertility desires were not associated with pregnancy prevention (p=0.251). Although most interview participants desired pregnancies, several factors contributed to their ability to plan for a pregnancy. Men felt that using contraception to prevent pregnancies was dependent on navigating trust with a partner. Health before pregnancy and financial stability were also important. Overall, participants thought that using an adult mindset, in which they considered the consequences of unprotected sex, was key to family planning. Conclusion: Black fathers may not desire pregnancy and consider a variety of factors, but this does not always result in active pregnancy prevention/contraceptive use. Community-based organizations already working with Black fathers can be leveraged to increase reproductive health awareness and facilitate reproductive planning for fathers.

Keywords: reproductive planning, reproductive health, preconception health, Black fathers, fertility desires, pregnancy

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Authors: Muhammad Iqbal, Edi Istiyono

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Misconceptions are one of the problems in physics learning where students' understanding is not in line with scientific theory. The aim of this research is to find diagnostic tools to identify misconceptions and how to remediate physics misconceptions. In this research, the articles that will be reviewed come from the Scopus database related to physics misconceptions from 2013-2023. The articles obtained from the Scopus database were then selected according to the Prisma model, so 29 articles were obtained that focused on discussing physics misconceptions, especially regarding diagnostic tools and remediation methods. Currently, the most widely used diagnostic tool is the four-tier test, which is able to measure students' misconceptions in depth by knowing whether students are guessing or not and from then on, there is also a trend toward five-tier diagnostic tests with additional sources of information obtained. So that the origin of students' misconceptions is known. There are several ways to remediate student misconceptions, namely 11 ways and one of the methods used is digital practicum so that abstract things can be visualized into real ones. This research is limited to knowing what tools are used to diagnose and remediate misconceptions, so it is not yet known how big the effect of remediation methods is on misconceptions. The researcher recommends that in the future further research can be carried out to find out the most appropriate remediation method for remediating student misconceptions.

Keywords: misconception, remediation, systematic review, tools

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Authors: Sudikshya Bhandari, Jonathan K. London

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Barpak in northern Nepal represents a unique identity expressed through the local rituals, values, lifeways and the styles of vernacular architecture. The traditional residential buildings and construction practices adopted by the dominant ethnic groups: Ghales and Gurungs, reflect environmental, social, cultural and economic concerns. However, most of these buildings did not survive the Gorkha earthquake in 2015 that made many residents skeptical about their strength to resist future disasters. This led Barpak residents to prefer modern housing designs primarily for the strength but additionally for convenience and access to earthquake relief funds. Post-earthquake reconstruction has transformed the cohesive community, developed over hundreds of years into a haphazard settlement with the imposition of externally-driven building models. Housing guidelines provided for the community reconstruction and earthquake resilience have been used as a singular template, similar to other communities on different geographical locations. The design and construction of these buildings do not take into account the local, historical, environmental, social, cultural and economic context of Barpak. In addition to the physical transformation of houses and the settlement, the consequences continue to develop challenges to sustainability. This paper identifies the major challenges for environmental sustainability with the construction of new houses in post-earthquake Barpak. Mixed methods such as interviews, focus groups, site observation, and documentation, and analysis of housing and neighborhood design have been used for data collection. The discernible changing situation of this settlement due to the new housing has included reduced climatic adaptation and thermal comfort, increased consumption of agricultural land and water, minimized use of local building materials, and an increase in energy demand. The research has identified that reconstruction housing practices happening in Barpak, while responding to crucial needs for disaster recovery and resilience, are also leading this community towards an unsustainable future. This study has also integrated environmental, social, cultural and economic parameters into an assessment framework that could be used to develop place-based design guidelines in the context of other post-earthquake reconstruction efforts. This framework seeks to minimize the unintended repercussions of unsustainable reconstruction interventions, support the vitality of vernacular architecture and traditional lifeways and respond to context-based needs in coordination with residents.

Keywords: earthquake, environment, reconstruction, sustainability

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Authors: Weldeabrha Kiros Kidanemaryam

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The investigation is to examine intra-organizational supply chain relationships of firms, which will help to look at and give an emphasis on internal processes and operations strength and achievements to make an influence even for external relationship management and outstanding performances of organizations. The purpose of the study is to scrutinize the internal supply chain relationships within manufacturing companies located in Tigray. The qualitative and quantitative data analysis methods were employed during the study by applying the primary data sources (questionnaires & interviews) and secondary data sources (organizational reports and documents) with the purposive sampling method. Thus, a descriptive research design was also applied in the research project in line with the cross-sectional research design which portrays simply the magnitude of the issues and problems by collecting the required and necessary data once from the sample respondents. This is because the study variables don’t have any cause-and-effect relationship in the research project that requires other types of research design than a descriptive research design; it already needs to be assessed and analyzed with a detailed description of the results after quantifying the outcomes and degree of the issues and problems based on the data gathered from respondents. The collected data was also analyzed by using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS Version 20). The intra-organizational relationships of the companies are moderately accomplished, which requires an improvement for enhancing the performances of each unit or department within the firms so as to upgrade and ensure the progress of the companies’ effectiveness and efficiency. Moreover, the manufacturing companies have low industrial discipline and working culture, weak supervision of manpower, delayed delivery in the process within the companies, unsatisfactory quality of products, underutilization of capacity, and low productivity and profitability, which in turn results in minimizing the performance of intra-organizational supply chain relationships and to reduce the companies’ organizational efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability. Hence, the companies should have to give emphasize building and managing the intra-organizational supply chain relationships effectively because nothing can be done without creating successful and progressive relationships with internal units or functional areas and individuals for the production and provision of the required and qualified products that permits to meet the intended customers’ desires. The study contributes to improving the practical applications and gives an emphasis on the policy measurements and implications of the manufacturing companies with regard to intra-organizational supply chain relationships.

Keywords: supply chain, supply chain relationships, intra-organizational relationships, manufacturing companies

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Authors: Majid Davoodi Makinejad, Reza Ghaeli

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Developing sustainable and environment-friendly products has become a major concern in the car manufacturing industry. New legislation ‘End of Life Vehicle’ increased design complexities of bumper system parameters e.g. design for disassembly, design for remanufacturing and recycling. ELV processing employs dismantling, shredding and landfill. The bumper is designed to prevent physical damage, reduce aerodynamic drag force as well as being aesthetically pleasing to the consumer. Design for dismantling is the first step in ELVs approach in the bumper system. This study focused on the analysis of ELV value in redesign solutions of the bumper system in comparison with the conventional concept. It provided a guideline to address the critical consideration in material, manufacturing and joining methods of bumper components to take advantages in easy dismounting, separation and recycling.

Keywords: sustainable development, environmental friendly, bumper system, end of life vehicle

Procedia PDF Downloads 372

Authors: D. Li

Abstract:

Optical thin films are used in a wide variety of optical components and there are many software tools programmed for advancing multilayer thin film design. The available software packages for designing the thin film structure may not provide optimum designs. Normally, almost all current software programs obtain their final designs either from optimizing a starting guess or by technique, which may or may not involve a pseudorandom process, that give different answers every time, depending upon the initial conditions. With the increasing power of personal computers, functional methods in optimization and synthesis of optical multilayer systems have been developed such as DGL Optimization, Simulated Annealing, Genetic Algorithms, Needle Optimization, Inductive Optimization and Flip-Flop Optimization. Among these, DGL Optimization has proved its efficiency in optical thin film designs. The application of the DGL optimization technique to the design of optical coating is presented. A DGL optimization technique is provided, and its main features are discussed. Guidelines on the application of the DGL optimization technique to various types of design problems are given. The innovative global optimization strategies used in a software tool, OnlyFilm, to optimize multilayer thin film designs through different filter designs are outlined. OnlyFilm is a powerful, versatile, and user-friendly thin film software on the market, which combines optimization and synthesis design capabilities with powerful analytical tools for optical thin film designers. It is also the only thin film design software that offers a true global optimization function.

Keywords: optical coatings, optimization, design software, thin film design

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Authors: Emi̇ne Yuksel, Murat Kiliç, Onur Ülker

Abstract:

Although minimalism has been coming into being in the field of interior design for a long time, it also brought a wide range of reaction. The more simple and feeling of emptiness usage of minimalism in space and furniture design has been found extremely boring so far, as a reaction to minimalism, a movement of maximalism was emerged. Thus more extravagant, splendid, magnificent and comfortable design approach was substituted by the greatest, largest and the extreme. Thus, the philosophy of “less is bore” of minimalism was replaced by “less is more” giving rise to a new interpretation in the field of interior design. While maximalism reminded us the Victorian, Rococo, Arts and Crafts and Neoclassic styles in interior design, it drew attention to the furniture designs that covered all areas of space all in one. In this study, we search the effect of maximalist approach which was born as a reaction to minimalism in furniture. Firstly, it is explained how did the maximalism emerge and its philosophy, a literature investigation was scanned and investigated. As a research method, it is concerned with the investigation of studies undertaken by the pioneers of interior space designers and architects. The findings of this study have been evaluated in the conclusion section.

Keywords: furniture design, maximalism, minimalism, texture

Procedia PDF Downloads 309