Impacts of light direction and window properties on students’ perceptual evaluations in design studios

This study aimed to determine how light direction, window proximity and window dimensions could affect students' perceptual evaluations in design studios. The design studios of the Nuh Naci Yazgan University in Kayseri were selected as the research setting. The ‘semantic differential scale’ composed of 10 adjective pairs was used for determining subjects’ perceptual evaluations of design studios having two different window dimensions. According to the results obtained, when making drawings, right-handed students who received light from a window on the left side were determined to perceive the physical environmental factors of design studios more positively compared to students who received light from a window on the right side. In addition, students sitting near a window in design studios were observed to generally perceive the physical environmental factors more positively than those sitting in the middle close to the window, in the middle away from the window and inside. Furthermore, students who sat in an area with floor to ceiling window were determined to perceive the place more positively compared to those who sat in an area with parapet to ceiling window. These results generally confirmed that light direction, window proximity and window dimensions in design studios are effective on students’ perceptual evaluations.

Portrayal of Yorùbá Socio-cultural Heritage in the Practice of the Kegite Movement in Nigerian Tertiary Institutions

This essay examines some aspects of the Yorùbá socio-cultural heritage portrayed in the practice of the Kegite Movement in Nigerian tertiary institutions. The Kegite is one of the student organizations in institutions of higher learning in Nigeria. Membership of the organization is open to only those who support the promotion and culture of palmwine drinking. Participant observation method of data collection which involved the researcher himself in the research setting was adopted. The paper relies on the socio-cultural theory for its analysis. Among the findings revealed in the study are that the Kegite Movement promotes aspects of the Yorùbá heritage which involved entrenching associations, teaching and enhancing morals through songs, method of selecting a king and his chiefs, use of language, and use of palmwine for entertainment purpose. Tis paper concludes that the Kegite Movement has been a virile organization towards the promotion of the Yorùbá socio-cultural heritage and in uniting the youth in Nigerian tertiary Institutions.

Research Setting

How does Protestantism influence competitiveness and transparency compared to Roman Catholicism in Europe and the Americas? This book answers the research question by applying a “Mixed Methods approach to Grounded Theory” (MM-GT). This chapter expands on the research aims, research question, hypotheses, and research model in this study. The research model synthesises understanding and serves as a rationale for the entire book. The model exhibits the main exogenous theoretical determinants of corruption and prosperity, which are tested empirically.

Ethical Development of Artificial Amniotic Sac and Placenta Technology: A Roadmap

In this paper we present an initial roadmap for the ethical development and eventual implementation of artificial amniotic sac and placenta technology in clinical practice. We consider four elements of attention: (1) framing and societal dialogue; (2) value sensitive design, (3) research ethics and (4) ethical and legal research resulting in the development of an adequate moral and legal framework. Attention to all elements is a necessary requirement for ethically responsible development of this technology. The first element concerns the importance of framing and societal dialogue. This should involve all relevant stakeholders as well as the general public. We also identify the need to consider carefully the use of terminology and how this influences the understanding of the technology. Second, we elaborate on value sensitive design: the technology should be designed based upon the principles and values that emerge in the first step: societal dialogue. Third, research ethics deserves attention: for proceeding with first-in-human research with the technology, the process of recruiting and counseling eventual study participants and assuring their informed consent deserves careful attention. Fourth, ethical and legal research should concern the status of the subject in the AAPT. An eventual robust moral and legal framework for developing and implementing the technology in a research setting should combine all previous elements. With this roadmap, we emphasize the importance of stakeholder engagement throughout the process of developing and implementing the technology; this will contribute to ethically and responsibly innovating health care.

Migrations and diversifications in the UK and Japan

Japan and the UK are long-established countries of immigration which although having different histories both share experience as colonial powers which have shaped their somewhat hostile attitudes towards migration alongside a need for migrant labour and negative public attitudes towards migrants. This paper sets the context to the Special Issue of the same name. It examines the migration and diversification histories and scholarships of Japan and the UK identifying common themes as well as divergences noting the ongoing diversifications of populations in both countries albeit on different scales. It then examines the key features which shape processes underpinning the emergence of superdiversity: super-mobility, and the scale, speed and spread of diversification, arguing the need to think about such processes outside of UK and Europe and considering the ways in which shifting scholarly gaze of superdiversity researchers to Japan can address some of the critiques of its Western-centric bias. The paper then outlines four main themes in superdiversity research setting out how they are addressed in this special issue before describing the key contributions of the ten papers which form the content of the collection.

Befähigung zu gesellschaftlicher und politischer Verantwortungsübernahme als Teil Globalen Lernens – Was heißt hier Neutralität?

Education for Sustainable Development and in particular Global Learning as political education fundamentally offer a wide range of thematic possibilities for shaping and stimulating political learning and education processes. In school practice, this potential often remains untapped as there is a great deal of uncertainty among teachers as to when the discussion of these topics will become “political” and thus, supposedly, not “neutral” but, under certain circumstances, overwhelming. The demand for neutrality, which is addressed to teachers, but which is also adopted by (prospective) teachers themselves as part of their pedagogical professionalism, leads to a focus in educational practice or in the preparation for this, on “non-controversial” ecological conditions. Addressing politically evolved structures and global injustices, which are central to Global Learning, seems to be in conflict with the claim to be a professional, i.e. “neutral” teacher. Thereby it plays a role that the question of the normativity of the concepts is little reflected. With the help of an empirical research setting, this article explores the question of how the professional self-image of (prospective) teachers is shaped in the context of the debate about the political element and normativity in Global Learning and their treatment in relation to the supposed requirement of neutrality, and which challenges this poses for the area.

Are some feasibility studies more feasible than others? A review of the outcomes of feasibility studies on the ISRCTN registry

Background Feasibility studies are often conducted before committing to a randomised controlled trial (RCT), yet there is little published evidence to inform how useful feasibility studies are, especially in terms of adding or reducing waste in research. This study attempted to examine how many feasibility studies demonstrated that the full trial was feasible and whether some feasibility studies were inherently likely to be feasible or not feasible, based on the topic area and/or research setting. Methods Keyword searches were conducted on the International Standard Randomised Controlled Trials Number (ISRCTN) registry to identify all completed feasibility studies which had been conducted in the UK. Results A total of 625 records from the 1933 identified were reviewed before it became evident that it would be futile to continue. Of 329 feasibility studies identified, 160 had a known outcome (49%), 133 (83%) trials were deemed to be feasible and only 27 (17%) were reported to be non-feasible. There were therefore too few studies to allow the intended comparison of differences in non-feasible studies by topic and/or setting. Conclusions There were too few studies reported as non-feasible to draw any useful conclusions on whether topic and/or setting had an effect. However, the high feasibility rate (83%) may suggest that non-feasible studies are subject to publication bias or that many feasible studies are redundant and may be adding waste to the research pathway.

Is Cross-Shareholding Conducive to Corporate Sustainability? Evidence From the Environmental Investment of Chinese Listed Firms

This article examines the impact of cross-shareholding on corporate environmental investment (Env) using Chinese listed firms from 2014 to 2019 as the research setting. The results show that there is a positive impact of cross-shareholding on corporate environmental investment. The finding remains robust to a battery of robustness checks. In addition, the heterogeneity analysis illustrates that the positive impact of cross-shareholding on corporate environmental investment is more pronounced in state-owned firms and high-polluting industries when compared to non-state-owned firms and low-polluting industries, respectively. This study extends the research on cross-shareholding and provides practical implications for corporate sustainable development.