Theological Empowerment of Lay Leaders: A Citizen Science Project in Switzerland and Austria

The present research project addresses the question of how the theological literacy and agency of volunteer church leaders can be fostered so that cooperative church leadership can be achieved. The Protestant Churches of the Canton of St. Gallen (Switzerland) and Austria, together with the Centre for Church Development of the University of Zurich, designed a participatory research process. The aim was to increase the communicative and participative competence of volunteers. Together, through a creative and discursive process, the foundations, educational processes and tools necessary for theological empowerment were developed with the volunteer church leaders. The cooperative project combines research and practice in the sense that practitioners were actively involved in generating, evaluating and discussing the data. In addition, in this project we found ways to continue participatory research – for example through online discourse formats – and thus not lose the essence of such research in times of covid-19.

Cluster-cooperative project-the basis of rational use of forest food resources in the Amur region

The Amur region has a significant potential for non-wood plant resources: food, medicine, feed, and technology. The northern regions have a territorial advantage in the potential of forest production, where there is a low and average level of agricultural production against the background of a fairly high level of unemployment among the working-age population. Taking into account the cluster policy of the region in the implementation of the designed portfolio of pilot cluster projects, a cluster-cooperative project for the development of an agricultural consumer cooperative for the production, processing and marketing of berries, aimed at the production and production of a wide range of products using wild plants, the formation of a competitive level of price and quality that meets the demand and requirements of customers of export (international) markets, was developed. Through cooperation and integration of personal subsidiary farms within the framework of the project, it is planned to create a single logistics center of the cluster for managing commodity flows of products, ensuring product quality, and organizing certification of products for export. The project is fully integrated into the structure of the organizational and functional mechanism of the agro-industrial cluster of the Amur region, providing support for the project at all stages from the initial stage of project formation to the release of products for export. It is assumed that the implementation of the developed cluster-cooperative project will form the basis for the rational use of non-wood forest resources in the region and will serve not only as a source of income for the local population, the consolidation of permanent personnel in forestry, the development of small and medium-sized businesses, and will also contribute to increasing the productivity of forest plantations.

Descriptive and Quasi-Experimental Studies about Moral Emotions, Online Empathy, Anger Management, and Their Relations with Key Competencies in Primary Education

Background: Antisocial behaviours make social interactions difficult among students. Moral emotions, online empathy, and anger management are social and emotional variables related to prosocial and antisocial behaviours and health problems. This research aims to assess the impact of Cooperative Project-Based Learning intervention on these three variables for Primary Education students. Additionally, the relations of these variables with key competencies, such as social and emotional competencies and literacy competence, were studied. Method: This research is made up of two studies, descriptive and quasi-experimental, during regular school hours. The descriptive study was carried out with a sample of 516 primary school students and aimed to assess the development of the three variables, taking into account personal and ethnic-cultural factors. The quasi-experimental study, with pre-test and post-test data, had the participation of 145 students to study the incidence of these variables after Cooperative Project-Based Learning intervention in Primary Education. Results: The results show the relation among the cited variables and the positive impact of the intervention on moral emotions and anger management in the experimental group compared to the control group. Experimental group girls presented higher scores in moral emotions than control group girls. Conclusion: These results open new research lines in relation to the intervention as a programme to prevent the appearance of antisocial behaviours and health problems at school.

With a Little Help From Change Management

Change-management activities require extensive interventions, for which small and medium-sized companies often lack the expertise. Thus, we examined whether a short-term intervention could be an innovative approach that affects employees’ attitudes and behavior. In the cooperative project IviPep, a company developed digital tools for its own internal development process. Our intervention was part of the corresponding training and consisted of a 5-minute presentation about prototypical reactions to change and a 45-minute workshop. Employees could voice their concerns, reflect on advantages, and work on potential solutions to address their concerns. Results of a survey before and after the training ( N = 22) showed that the short-term intervention significantly increased readiness for change ( d = 0.72) but did not significantly increase overall attitude toward change ( d = 0.16) or behavioral resistance to change ( d = -0.37), although the effects pointed in the intended direction. Our results indicate that even small change efforts can make a difference.

How is the School Library Used? Mapping the Use of an Upper Secondary School Library

To be able to secure an evidence-based development of the library service at a large upper secondary school in Norway, a multi method study was conducted to map the use of the library. Findings show that the library is used a lot by the students from all different branches. The main use is by students working on schoolwork sitting together with others. A stable part of the users prefers to work in the quiet area. Both teachers and students expressed a high degree of satisfaction with the library staff and emphasised the importance of the librarians' presence and availability for the users, both professionally and as responsible adults. Teachers and students alike perceived the library space as an attractive and very important physical place for students to work. A discussion of strengths and challenges of adequate methods for mapping school library use is included. Most research on school libraries concentrate on student achievement and cooperation between librarians and teachers. These are of course essential areas of concern and importance when it comes to discussing the position and function of school libraries. Nevertheless, the use of the libraries has had much less focus yet constitutes an important research area to understand the health of any library and its services. In this article we present results from a study of the use of an upper secondary school library. From 2016 to 2019, several studies were conducted relating to the use of the library at a Norwegian upper secondary school. These studies were a cooperative project between staff at the library and the Oslo Metropolitan University. The school management staff were also involved in choosing the research focus of the study. In this paper, the methods used and some of the findings are presented.

Characterizing Team Orientations and Academic Performance in Cooperative Project-Based Learning Environments

Information technology professionals are required to possess both technical and professional skills while functioning in teams. Higher education institutions are promoting teamwork by engaging students in cooperative and project-based learning environments. We characterized teams based on their collective orientations and evaluated their team performance in a cooperative project-based learning environment situated in a sophomore-level systems analysis and design course. We explored the orientation patterns in terms of goals, roles, processes, and interpersonal relations (GRPI). Specifically, we analyzed team retrospectives of 23 teams using a mixed-method approach. Findings characterized teams into balanced and unbalanced orientations. Teams with balanced orientations demonstrated a higher level of team performance in terms of academic achievement than the unbalanced category.

ELI – Unidroit Model European Rules of Civil Procedure

This volume was developed as part of a cooperative project of the European Law Institute (ELI) and the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT), dealing with civil procedure law. The long-term project began in February of 2014 and ended in February of 2020, concluding in an ELI-UNIDROIT Instrument. The volume consists of the ELI-UNIDROIT Instrument on the European Rules of Civil Procedure, which features Rules and accompanying comments. It explores the diverse traditions in Europe concerning civil procedure law and aims to find a common thread in them. Therefore, it not only considers the similarities but also the differences in order to gain a solution that does not favour one legal system but combines aspects of all legal systems.

Tübingen Publications in Prehistory

Tübingen Publications in Prehistory reflect the work of a cooperative project between the Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology of the University of Tübingen’s Institute for Pre- and Protohistory and Medieval Archaeology and Kerns Verlag to provide the results of current research in prehistoric archaeology and all its allied fields to a broad international audience.

Development experience of Cooperative Project Management System in an Engineering Company

The article deals with the problems of developing a corporate project management system in an engineering company that implements "full-cycle" projects - from object design to commissioning in the field of industrial water treatment and water treatment. The problems are connected, first of all, with the achieved level of maturity of the business, the fear of any changes, when the stability of the result is more important than further development. The analysis of the process of working on the project from the stage of initiation to completion was carried out, the most problematic, bottlenecks in the current project management system were identified. Based on the conducted research, the company's management has developed and approved a plan for the development of CSU for the next year and for the future.

UP4DREAM CAPACITY BUILDING PROJECT: UAS BASED MAPPING IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

UP4DREAM (UAV Photogrammetry for Developing Resilience and Educational Activities in Malawi) is a cooperative project cofounded by ISPRS between the Polytechnic University of Turin and the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) Malawi, with the support of two local Universities (Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, and Mzuzu University), and Agisoft LLC (for the use of their photogrammetry and computer vision software suite). Malawi is a flood-prone landlocked country constantly facing natural and health challenges, which prevent the country's sustainable socio-economic development. Frequent naturals shocks leave vulnerable communities food insecure. Moreover, Malawi suffers from high rates of HIV, as well as it has endemic malaria. The UP4DREAM project focuses on one of the drone project's critical priorities in Malawi (Imagery). It aims to start a capacity-building initiative in line with other mapping missions in developing countries, focusing on the realization and management of large-scale cartography (using GIS - Geographic Information Systems) and on the generation of 3D products based on the UAV-acquired data. The principal aim of UP4DREAM is to ensure that local institutions, universities, researchers, service companies, and manufacturers operating in the humanitarian drone corridor, established by UNICEF in 2017, will have the proper knowledge and understanding of the photogrammetry and spatial information best practices, to perform large-scale aerial data acquisition, processing, share and manage in the most efficient, cost-effective and scientifically rigorous way.