scholarly journals Interdisciplinary Research and Pandemics

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clare Anderson ◽  
Michael Barer ◽  
Timothy Coats ◽  
Sarah Davies ◽  
William Green ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Research Programme ◽  
Interdisciplinary Teams ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Global Challenge ◽  
Working Paper ◽  
New Ways Of Working ◽  
Exciting Opportunity ◽  
Research Problems ◽  
The University

The Leicester Institute for Advanced Studies (LIAS) was established in 2017 to provide a stimulating and collaborative environment for interdisciplinary research at the University of Leicester, and beyond. The programme of activity in LIAS has been designed to encourage and support researchers from across all academic disciplines to explore new ways of working together, and we have celebrated some amazing successes with interdisciplinary teams over the past three years. With the LIAS vision and values firmly embedded in the university’s research culture, we are always looking for new ways to support interdisciplinary excellence – and 2020 presented a new challenge and opportunity for LIAS in the form of the global COVID-19 pandemic.The COVID-19 crisis is a global challenge that highlights why interdisciplinary research is so important, and it provides LIAS with an exciting opportunity to launch our first thematic programme of activity. The aim of this approach is to catalyse and galvanise an ambitious, challenge-led interdisciplinary research programme focused on pandemics (including, but not exclusive to, COVID-19). LIAS’ goal is to provide a platform for colleagues from all three faculties to build a thematic research community who will, together, develop and deliver transformative research.Our first step was to convene an ‘Advanced Study Group’ (ASG). An ASG comprises research leaders across a range of disciplines, and provides an opportunity to work on ideas or interlinked research problems in order to set the landscape, priorities and potential sub-themes for the future programme. The ASG is intended to provide its members with the opportunity to think in new interdisciplinary ways, discuss and test ideas, and align the pandemics theme with University of Leicester research strengths. In order to support this goal, and provide independent and external feedback, we invited Dr Laura Meagher (Edinburgh) to be the ASG ‘Critical Friend’ and facilitator.This Working Paper is the product of the ASG conversations, held in July 2020. It is evidence of the University of Leicester’s exceptionally collegiate and inclusive research environment, and the extraordinarily creative, confident thinkers who operate across our Colleges. It also speaks to the three values that underpin the pandemics thematic programme, and LIAS’s mission within Leicester more widely: interdisciplinarity, inclusivity, and integrity.As we navigate our way through the pandemic as a university – and indeed as a city – the ASG has shown that by providing structures and processes by which we can work together, we can achieve more collectively than we can individually. I am excited to see what the pandemics programme will deliver in the coming months. We are, in this moment, Citizens of Change.

User Evaluation of an Integrated Medical Workstation for Clinical Data Analysis

1993 ◽  
Vol 32 (05) ◽  
pp. 365-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Timmeis ◽  
J. H. van Bemmel ◽  
E. M. van Mulligen
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Clinical Research ◽  
Clinical Data ◽  
University Hospital ◽  
User Evaluation ◽  
Scientific Staff ◽  
Medical Institutions ◽  
Clinical Data Analysis ◽  
Research Problems ◽  
The University

AbstractResults are presented of the user evaluation of an integrated medical workstation for support of clinical research. Twenty-seven users were recruited from medical and scientific staff of the University Hospital Dijkzigt, the Faculty of Medicine of the Erasmus University Rotterdam, and from other Dutch medical institutions; and all were given a written, self-contained tutorial. Subsequently, an experiment was done in which six clinical data analysis problems had to be solved and an evaluation form was filled out. The aim of this user evaluation was to obtain insight in the benefits of integration for support of clinical data analysis for clinicians and biomedical researchers. The problems were divided into two sets, with gradually more complex problems. In the first set users were guided in a stepwise fashion to solve the problems. In the second set each stepwise problem had an open counterpart. During the evaluation, the workstation continuously recorded the user’s actions. From these results significant differences became apparent between clinicians and non-clinicians for the correctness (means 54% and 81%, respectively, p = 0.04), completeness (means 64% and 88%, respectively, p = 0.01), and number of problems solved (means 67% and 90%, respectively, p = 0.02). These differences were absent for the stepwise problems. Physicians tend to skip more problems than biomedical researchers. No statistically significant differences were found between users with and without clinical data analysis experience, for correctness (means 74% and 72%, respectively, p = 0.95), and completeness (means 82% and 79%, respectively, p = 0.40). It appeared that various clinical research problems can be solved easily with support of the workstation; the results of this experiment can be used as guidance for the development of the successor of this prototype workstation and serve as a reference for the assessment of next versions.

scholarly journals Internally Incentivized Interdisciplinarity: Organizational Restructuring of Research and Emerging Tensions

Minerva ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikko Salmela ◽  
Miles MacLeod ◽  
Johan Munck af Rosenschöld
Keyword(s):  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Interdisciplinary Collaboration ◽  
Scientific Output ◽  
Green Technology ◽  
Academic Careers ◽  
Organizational Restructuring ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The University ◽  
Internal Funding

AbstractInterdisciplinarity is widely considered necessary to solving many contemporary problems, and new funding structures and instruments have been created to encourage interdisciplinary research at universities. In this article, we study a small technical university specializing in green technology which implemented a strategy aimed at promoting and developing interdisciplinary collaboration. It did so by reallocating its internal research funds for at least five years to “research platforms” that required researchers from at least two of the three schools within the university to participate. Using data from semi-structured interviews from researchers in three of these platforms, we identify specific tensions that the strategy has generated in this case: (1) in the allocation of platform resources, (2) in the division of labor and disciplinary relations, (3) in choices over scientific output and academic careers. We further show how the particular platform format exacerbates the identified tensions in our case. We suggest that certain features of the current platform policy incentivize shallow interdisciplinary interactions, highlighting potential limits on the value of attempting to push for interdisciplinarity through internal funding.

Effect of Plasma Cutting on the Fatigue Resistance of Fe510 D1 Steel

1999 ◽  
Vol 122 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Chiarelli ◽  
A. Lanciotti ◽  
M. Sacchi
Keyword(s):  
Fatigue Resistance ◽  
Low Carbon Steel ◽  
Physical And Mechanical Properties ◽  
Research Programme ◽  
Fatigue Tests ◽  
Automatic Process ◽  
Plasma Cutting ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
The University

The paper describes the results of a research programme, carried out at the Department of Aerospace Engineering of the University of Pisa, for the assessment of the influence of plasma cutting on the physical and mechanical properties of Fe510 D1, a low carbon steel widely used in carpentry. The activity started by observing that several industries rework plasma cut edges, particularly in the case of fatigue structures, in spite of the good quality of the plasma cut edges in a fully automatic process. Obviously, reworking is very expensive and time-consuming. Comparative fatigue tests demonstrated that the fatigue resistance of plasma cut specimens in Fe510 steel was fully comparable to that of milled specimens, as the consequence of the beneficial residual stresses which formed in the plasma cut edges. [S0094-4289(00)02201-5]

“Systems”, Strengths, Weaknesses and Challenges

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-59
Author(s):  
Frank Stowell
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Systems Thinking ◽  
Research Funding ◽  
Cumulative Effect ◽  
Research Programme ◽  
Common Reason ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The University

Systems and Cybernetics no longer occupies the position, in academic circles, it once did. There are many reasons why this is the case but a common reason given is the lack of research funding for the subject. The knock-on effect is that the subject has fewer 'champions' and as a consequence is less prominent then it once was. There are many factors that mitigate against research funding for the domain but the cumulative effect is that there are few (if any) new ideas generated now which in turn is having an impact upon the number of academics attracted to it. In this paper the author revisits the action research programme at the University of Lancaster. This project contributed valuable insights into organisational inquiry and the nature of Systems thinking for over 30 years. In this paper the author revisits the programme to discover if there are lessons to be learnt that may be adopted to help provide a means of re-establishing the profile of the domain.

The Masks of Greek Tragedy as Point of Departure for Modern Performance

2001 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 254-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Vervain ◽  
David Wiles
Keyword(s):  
Greek Tragedy ◽  
Research Programme ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
Performance Space ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The University ◽  
Near Future ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
Valuable Point ◽  
New Comedy

In this article, David Wiles and Chris Vervain stake out the ground for a substantial programme of continuing research. Chris Vervain, coming from a background in visual and performance art, is in the first instance a maker of masks. She is also now writing a thesis on the masks of classical tragedy and their possibilities in modern performance, and, in association with the University of Glasgow, working on an AHRB research programme that involves testing the effect of Greek New Comedy masks in performance. David Wiles, Professor of Theatre at Royal Holloway, University of London, has published books on the masks of Greek New Comedy and on Greek performance space, and lectured on Greek masks. Most recently, his Greek Theatre Performance: an Introduction (Cambridge University Press, 2000) included an investigation of the classical mask and insights provided by the work of Lecoq. He is now planning a book on the classical Greek mask. Wiles and Vervain are both committed to the idea that the mask was the determining convention which gave Greek tragedy its identity in the ancient world, and is a valuable point of departure for modern practitioners engaging with the form. They anticipate that their research will in the near future incorporate a symposium and a further report on work-in-progress.

scholarly journals The challenges of adopting BIM for setting and infrastructure management of University of Minho

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 02002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulo J. S. Cruz ◽  
Miguel Azenha
Keyword(s):  
Shared Knowledge ◽  
Facilities Management ◽  
Infrastructure Management ◽  
Knowledge Resources ◽  
Global Challenge ◽  
Modelling Framework ◽  
Building Information ◽  
Relevant Role ◽  
The University

The University of Minho (UMinho) is aware of the relevant role of higher education institutions in the global challenge of sustainability. The integration of sustainability values into its strategy encompasses all the fields of its activity. Taking into account the growing importance of shared knowledge resources as a reliable basis for decisions during infrastructures life cycle, the UMinho is currently undergoing an important process of implementing a ‘Building Information Modelling’ framework (BIM). This paper briefly describes the implementation steps that are current towards such a goal, in particular in terms of facilities management aspects.

View From the Penthouse: Epistemological Bumps and Emergent Metaphors as Method for Team Reflexivity

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 408-417 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Park ◽  
Hiba Zafran
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Data Analysis ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Interdisciplinary Teams ◽  
Reflexive Attention ◽  
Complex Processes ◽  
Collaborative Analysis

Research in health care occurs within interdisciplinary teams that include clinician–researchers who have multiple epistemological orientations. Rigor in collaborative projects requires reflexive attention to how the paradigmatic questions raised by diverse epistemological orientations, and the ethical stances of each researcher, shape findings. This methodological article draws on three events during an ethnography of stigma in psychiatry to define and illustrate how we used double hermeneutics in data analysis. This allowed us to examine the metaphors that emerged from what we are conceptualizing as “epistemological bumps.” This heightened the team’s awareness of the epistemological horizons and mixing that occurred, as well as revealing what mattered to each researcher, during the crafting of our research decisions and findings. We argue that interdisciplinary research on complex processes in health care requires this close examination of team experiences and moral stakes during collaborative analysis, and offer conceptual suggestions for reflexivity and rigor.

scholarly journals Cafe Delphi: Strategies for successful remote academic collaboration

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andy Jolly ◽  
Laura Caulfield ◽  
Rachel Massie ◽  
Bozena Sojka ◽  
Steve Iafrati ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Cooperative Research ◽  
Remote Collaboration ◽  
Online Tools ◽  
World Cafe ◽  
Academic Researchers ◽  
Combination Of Methods ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Online Methods ◽  
The University

<div>Developing collaborative and cooperative research across academic disciplines and university administrative boundaries can be a challenge. In an attempt to understand and propose solutions to this challenge, the authors of this paper set out to: test an innovative combination of methods to generate and evaluate ideas and strategies; and to write about the findings using collaborative online methods. During this process Universities in the UK moved to online working and so the authors completed this paper through entirely online means.</div><div>The authors - a team of academic researchers from the University of Wolverhampton - came together in sessions designed as a hybrid of World Café and Delphi technique approaches to discuss challenges and solutions. The findings were written up drawing on insights from the use of massively authored papers (also known as ‘massively open online papers’, MOOPs), and online tools to enable remote collaboration. This paper presents details of the process, the findings, and reflections on this collaborative and cooperative exercise. That this paper was written using the methods discussed within it, highlights the value and success of the approach.</div><div>In light of the current Coronavirus pandemic and the increased need to work remotely, this paper offers academics useful strategies for meaningful and productive online collaboration.</div>

scholarly journals “Antiquity” and “Archeology”: the Evolution of Concepts and its Using in an Educational Process (on the Example of Kharkiv University 1805–1884)

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Teaching Staff ◽  
Historical Education ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
The University ◽  
Qualitative Changes ◽  
Scientific Achievements

The article is devoted to the formation of historical education at Kharkiv Сlassic University especially such academic discipline as «Archeology». The author aims to discover the terminology of educational courses and the development of its concept for tracing the process of beginning teaching the elements of archeology and its formation as a separate discipline in the educational courses of the University. It is mentioned that from the first half of the ХІХ century the term «Archeology» was only appeared in scientific turnover and rarely appeared in the names of an educational courses. The term «antiquity» was used for the academic disciplines which were connected with the distant past. In this period the courses with the similar names had literary-philological and historical character and nearly connected with the archeology in its modern meaning. From the second half of the ХІХ century the situation changed. The question about the development of archeology was sharply rose in the Russian Empire, Archeological Congresses were conducted. Systematic archaeological excavations began, so qualified specialists were needed. But there were not such separate academic discipline as «Archeology» because of the lack of the specialists and teaching staff. The basis for archeology knowledge was the teaching of the disciplines of philological profile. Particular attention to the ancient languages oriented students to the acquisition of ancient social and cultural values. In the second half of the ХІХ century, there were qualitative changes in the archeological science itself. The first generalizations appear, but teaching has fallen short of scientific achievements. The author points that professor M. Aristov (1834–1882) was the first who taught the courses which had archeological specialization, but there were no term «archeology» in its name.

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