Using Implementation Science Active Implementation Frameworks to Implement an Instructional Framework to Increase Teacher Capacity for Instructional Access for Students With Disabilities

This article discusses the use of the Active Implementation Frameworks (AIF; Fixsen et al., 2005; Fixsen & Blasé, 2011) in a grant-funded project to implement the use of Universal Design for Learning as an instructional intervention to improve the access to quality instruction for students with disabilities. The discussion is based upon data specific to the AIF Implementation Drivers that facilitate and ensure the success of initiatives. The data illustrate the extent that characteristics of the respective schools and districts participating in the project impacted the fidelity of implementation processes and their associated outcomes.

Four-wave Mixing Using Silicon Microring CROWs (Project Report 0642603-Y4)

This NSF-funded project [0642603] is a five-year (60 months) CAREER (Faculty Early Career Development Program) unified research and education development program. The project’s focus is the science, engineering and applications of low-power (milliwatt class) nonlinear optics using a novel type of waveguide, the Coupled Resonator Optical Waveguide (CROW). Examples of applications of the nonlinear effects that were studied in this project are wavelength conversion of high speed modulated signals and correlated photon-pair generation.

Accomplishments in Integrated Nonlinear Optics using Silicon Microring CROWs (Project Report 0642603-Y5)

This NSF-funded project is a five-year (60 months) CAREER (Faculty Early Career Development Program) unified research and education development program. The project’s focus is the science, engineering and applications of low-power (milliwatt class) nonlinear optics using CROWs. Coupled resonator optical waveguides (CROWs) are linear sequences of micro-resonators fabricated on a chip that guide light from one end of the chain to the other by nearest-neighbor coupling.

Design and Fabrication of Long Silicon Microring CROWs (Project Report 0642603-Y3)

This NSF-funded project [0642603] is a five-year (60 months) CAREER (Faculty Early Career Development Program) unified research and education development program, with a focus on the physics and applications of optical waveguiding in the CROW (Coupled Resonator Optical Waveguide) device structure. The CROW structure is suitable as the foundation of this project because it offers a very high four-wave mixing nonlinearity based on the slow-light effects on each of the pump, signal and idler modes. Since the output depends quadratically on the propagation length (in the low power regime), it is important to realize long CROWs.

Integrated Nonlinear Photonics Using CROWs (Project Report 0642603-Y1)

This NSF-funded project [0642603] is a five-year (60 months) CAREER (Faculty Early Career Development Program) unified research and education development program. The full title of this project is “CAREER: Chip-scale low-power nonlinear optics using coupled resonators and CROWs”. The focus of this project is a study of the waveguiding principles and applications of a novel type of integrated photonics waveguide, the Coupled Resonator Optical Waveguide (CROW), in nonlinear optics at the milliwatt-scale power level, which is relevant for optical communications and signal processing.

An Equifinality Energy Management Framework in Terms of Benchmarking Practices and Expectations: The EnerMan Project Outlook

Background: The Industry 4.0 wave is leading the changes in existing manufacturing and industrial processes across the world. This is especially important in the formulation of the smart-factory concept with an outlook to energy sustainable processes. In viewing and identifying the foundational elements of such a transformation, the initial conditions and current practices in a cross-sectoral manner is considered a first, yet crucial step in the EU-funded project EnerMan. Methods: In this paper, we identify and analyse the key common features and characteristics of industrial practices set in a perspective of similar and identical functions with a focus to three key energy areas: sustainability, management, and footprint. The examination of different industrial sector cases is performed via distributed questionnaires and then viewed under the prism of the equifinality state via a text-mining analysis approach. Results: identification of common themes and benchmarking of current practices in a cross-industry manner led to the creation of a common systemic framework within energy management related aspects, which is hereby presented. Conclusions: use of an equifinality approach in energy management practices should be further pursued to open up new methods of ideation and innovation and communicate systems’ design in tandem with each industrial set goals.

Italian Adolescent Young Caregivers of Grandparents: Difficulties Experienced and Support Needed in Intergenerational Care-Giving: Qualitative Findings from a European Union Funded Project

The article aims to describe the experiences of 87 Italian adolescent young caregivers (AYCs) of grandparents (GrPs), with reference to the caregiving stress appraisal model (CSA) that provides a theoretical lens to explore the difficulties encountered and support needed in their caring role. Qualitative data were drawn from an online survey conducted within an EU Horizon 2020 funded project. An inductive thematic analysis was carried out, and the findings were critically interpreted within the conceptual framework of the CSA model. The analysis highlighted three categories of difficulties: material, communication and emotional/psychological. The most common material difficulty was the physical strain associated with moving “uncooperative” disabled older adults. The types of support needed concerned both emotional and material support. The study provides a deeper understanding of the under-studied experiences of AYCs of GrPs. Based on these findings, policies and support measures targeted at AYCs of GrPs should include early needs detection, emotional support and training on intergenerational caring in order to mitigate the stress drivers. Moreover, the study advances the conceptualisation of the CSA model by considering the above-mentioned aspects related to intergenerational caregiving.

A roadmap to becoming a smart village: Experiences from living labs in rural Bavaria

This paper illustrates the measures and digital integrations being made in the course of digitalization, using the example of existing rural pilot communities in Bavaria, Germany. The participating communities were selected as part of the government-funded project "Digitales Dorf" (Engl. digital village). Since 2016, digital solutions as well as complementary actions have been identified and implemented to make everyday life in the community equal to that in the city: the main intention is to push digitalization to create equivalent living conditions to urban areas. This paper is intended to provide an overview of the requirements and steps that need to be taken in digital transformation, in order to develop a generalized blueprint for other communities. Furthermore, it introduces the pilot projects, provides an insight into best practices to promote digitalization in traditional rural areas, and focuses on the transformation process rather than on digital solutions.

BIM-SPEED Inhabitant’s App: A BIM-Based Application for Crowdsourcing of Inhabitants’ Input in Renovation Projects

This report summarizes the conceptual framework and the technical implementation of a BIM-based user-friendly application to gather inhabitant’s input in the context of renovation projects developed in the European funded project BIM-SPEED. It starts with the underlying objectives and the role of data acquisition in the project. Then, it explains and outlines the conceptual framework and the methodology used in relation to the identified use cases, where inhabitants’ input is required. Furthermore, it describes the implementation and the development of the proposed methods as a user-friendly app and, finally, it ends with ethical and privacy considerations, specifically the measures taken for safe handling of privacy-sensitive data.