Academic Projects Research Articles

Book Basket Project: Review

International Journal of Scientific Research in Engineering and Management, Welcomes research papers, case studies, survey papers, academic project works, scholarly articles, academic articles, original or extended version of previously published papers in conferences, scholarly journals, and basic advances in the fields of Engineering, Science, and Management. IJSREM provides an open access forum for scientists, scholars, researchers and engineers to exchange their research work, technical notes & surveying results among professionals throughout the world in e-journals publications. Papers reporting original research or extended versions of already published conference/journal papers are all welcomed. Papers for publication are selected through peer review to ensure originality, relevance, and readability. IJSREM ensures a wide indexing policy to make published papers highly visible to the scientific community. IJSREM is part of the eco-friendly community and favors e-publication mode for being an online ‘GREEN journal’.

Theorizing ‘The Gap’ Twenty Years Later: Global Development, Design, and Speculative Ethics in Edtech Research

AbstractDrawing from Feminist Science and Technology Studies, this paper explores how we might revisit and recuperate past academic research projects, theories, and relationships to design futures that matter for social good. As context, I begin by outlining a decade of research in Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICTD), which linked the United Nations Millennium Development Goals to innovations in telecommunications and computing. I then introduce the ‘theory of design-reality gaps’ that was proposed by Heeks to study ’wicked problems’ in this domain (2002). I revisit two strands of research that I carried out in relation to the ‘design-reality gap’. The first involved an ethnographic study of a participatory mobile phone based learning intervention for Kenyan health workers. I argued that instead of a singular ‘gap’ explained by geographic, sociocultural, or economic ‘divides’, there was a messy entanglement, constituted by sociomaterial practices that enacted a multiplicity (Mol in The body multiple: Ontology in medical practice, Duke University Press, 2002) of desired futures. In the second strand, I attempted to care for the practices that were abandoned by the learning intervention when one kind of justice was prioritized over others. This explored how the research could be more ‘speculative’ and how this ‘speculative commitment’ could generate new ethical questions and logics for living with technology (Puig de la Bellacasa in Social Studies of Science, 41(1), 85–106, 2011 and Matters of care: Speculative ethics in more than human worlds, University of Minnesota Press, 2017). I argue that approaching the design-reality ‘gap’ as a multiplicity instead of a void can support Tuck’s call for educational interventions that turn away from damage oriented theories of change to ones based on desire – approaching difference not as a lack, but as an ever-growing assemblage (2009). Tinkering with the original Heeks model, I conclude that in the postdigital era, the design-reality gap is now better-understood as a fluid space of multiplicities, and what is arguably most pressing is to study the differences in competing objectives and values, rather than disparities in information and technology.

Can We Apply Pomodoro Technique in Academic Publishing?

Background: Academic publishing and manuscript preparation, submission, and appropriate revision can be difficult tasks. Breaking a task such as academic writing or manuscript preparation into manageable segments can allow the author to concentrate more fully on the task at hand and complete the academic or scientific project on time. Aims and Objectives: We explore the role of “Pomodoro” technique: a time-management technique in academic writing. Materials and Methods: A literature search was conducted to explore the origin of the “Pomodoro” time management technique and its applicability in academic writing or manuscript preparation. Results: Currently there are no defined publications exploring the role of “Pomodoro” technique in academic publishing. However the “Pomodoro” time management technique can have applicability in academic publishing and manuscript preparation. Conclusion: “Pomodoro” time management technique can help break the manuscript preparation and research project in manageable segments. It can have applications in planning, data analysis, editing and revising of academic publications and manuscript preparation.

A flow cytometry method for safe detection of bacterial viability.

Flow cytometry is a relevant tool to meet the requirements of academic and industrial research projects aimed at estimating the features of a bacterial population (e.g., quantity, viability, activity). One of the remaining challenges is now the safe assessment of bacterial viability while minimizing the risks inherent to existing protocols. In our core facility at the Paris-Saclay University, we have addressed this issue with two objectives: measuring bacterial viability in biological samples and preventing bacterial contamination and chemical exposure of the staff and cytometers used on the platform. Here, we report the development of a protocol achieving these two objectives, including a viability labeling step before bacteria fixation, which removes the risk of biological exposure, and the decrease of the use of reagents such as propidium iodide (PI), which are dangerous for health (CMR: carcinogenic, mutagenic, and reprotoxic). For this purpose, we looked for a non-CMR viability dye that can irreversibly label dead bacteria before fixation procedures and maintain intense fluorescence after further staining. We decided to test on the bacteria, eFluor Fixable Viability dyes, which are usually used on eukaryotic cells. Since the bacteria had size and granularity characteristics very similar to those associated with flow cytometry background signals, a step of bacterial DNA labeling with SYTO or DRAQ5 was necessarily added to differentiate them from the background. Three marker combinations (viability-DNA) were tested on LSR Fortessa and validated on pure bacterial populations (Gram+ , Gram- ) and polybacterial cultures. Any of the three methods can be used and adapted to the needs of each project and allow users to adapt the combination according to the configuration of their cytometer. Having been tested on six bacterial populations, validated on two cytometers, and repeated at least two times in each evaluated condition, we consider this method reliable in the context of these conditions. The reliability of the results obtained in flow cytometry was successfully validated by applying this protocol to confocal microscopy, permeabilization, and also to follow cultures over time. This flow cytometry protocol for measuring bacterial viability under safer conditions also opens the prospect of its use for further bacterial characterization.

Mantodea of Iran: A review-based study

Scattered taxonomic data can be used to determine the geographic distribution of arthropods such as Mantodea (mantids). The distribution of mantids is not well known in Iran and not readily determined because the literature has been published in a mix of Persian-language and non-Persian-language scientific references, including books, journals, annual congress proceedings, and final reports of academic projects. To create a national checklist of mantids in Iran, I reviewed 35 Persian and non-Persian (English, German, and Italian) publications. I recorded 57 praying mantid species from 9 families described from localities across Iran. I identified 18 species—Ameles decolor, Ameles heldreichi, Ameles picteti, Ameles spallanzania, Elaea marchali, Empusa pennata, Eremiaphila andresi, Eremiaphila cerisy, Eremiaphila turcica, Geomantis larvoides, Iris coeca, Iris pitcheri, Oxyothespis wagneri, Pareuthyphlebs palmonii, Pseudoyersinia paui, Rivetina baetica, Severinia nigrofasciata, and Severinia turcomaniae—with records in Iran that may be incorrect based on geographic ranges that do not include Iran and similarity to other species that do occur in Iran. In the proposed checklist comprising 39 species, the family Rivetinidae, with 9 species, and the 2 families Amorphoscelidae and Nanomantidae, with 1 species each, comprised the greatest and least diversity, respectively. This checklist can facilitate future studies on Iran’s mantodeans.

Analysing Waste in the Development Process of Technological Innovation Projects in a Brazilian Public University

Technological innovation assumes a strategic role in organisational competitiveness. In this sense, it is perceived that universities represent a point of reference for the development of technological projects. The academic innovations arising from these projects are the result of three processes: product development process, business process and technology transfer. During the development of these projects, the team of researchers-entrepreneurs experiences different types of waste. This waste can be studied from the Lean Production Development (LPD) perspective. The LPD constitutes a set of practices capable of mitigating the waste that affects the new product development process (NPD). Aiming to address the scarcity of studies that address incident waste in the NPD of academic projects, this research aims to identify the frequency with which researcher-entrepreneurs experience each category and subcategory of waste during the development of the three processes (technology planning process - TPP; ii) technology transfer planning process - TTPP, and business planning process - BPP), from the perspective of the LPD. These three processes were subdivided into phases: i) initial, ii) intermediate and iii) final. Based on a quali-quantitative approach and using the methodological strategy of multiple case studies, this research analysed the context of nine technological innovation projects developed in a Brazilian federal university. Data were collected using a questionnaire prepared on a Likert scale. Eleven categories and 47 subcategories of waste were analysed in these projects. As a result, it was observed that during NPD, the waste category “waiting” was the most experienced in the different stages of the development of technological innovation, especially the subcategory “unavailability of resources”. Regarding business development and technology transfer processes, the “waiting” category was also the most experienced, except in the initial phase when the “defects” category was more significant. However, analysing the 11 categories of waste, it was observed that the category “defect”, especially the subcategory “information with insufficient quality” was the most experienced in the phases of technological innovation. From the identification of the different categories and subcategories of waste experienced in the context of technological innovation projects, it is clear that this research provides important elements to help identify LPD practices capable of mitigating the waste experienced during the NPD process in the academic environment.

BANK OF TEETH

Endodontics is the dental specialty responsible for the study of the dental pulp, the entire system of root canals and periapical tissues, as well as the diseases that affect them. for professional training. The purpose of this article was to address didactic-scientific issues regarding the use of human teeth in laboratory teaching and pre-clinical training in the discipline of Endodontics in Dentistry and to report the experience of the Faculdade de Saúde de Petrolina-SOBERANA with the Human Teeth Bank project , implemented as an academic extension project (PEA), with a multidisciplinary character, resulting from the work of the students, under the guidance of the guiding professor. Of the 10 students eligible for this research, 9 used teeth provided by BioBancoVasf, with a 90% success rate. With this, it is concluded that BioBancoVasf is of paramount importance for the university, valuing the tooth as an organ and enabling the execution of more effective practical studies.

An activity-based approach for the early identification and resolution of problems in the development of IoT systems in academic projects

The development of Internet of Things (IoT) systems in university courses encourages students to use multiple skills. Hence, the importance of applying teaching methods like Project Based Learning (PBL) in the development of these kinds of systems for integrating hardware and software components while facing numerous real-life problems. This study presents an activity-based Approach for the Early Identification and Resolution of problems, in a checklist format, to be used by students for preventing them from wasting time in IoT academic projects. The checklist is based on an adapted taxonomy of problems in IoT systems. This study analyzed problems identified in 48 projects carried out by 183 engineering students registered in two courses in 2020 and 2021. For designing the structured checklist, we categorized 14 types of IoT problems, analyzed root causes and solutions, and created and evaluated a taxonomy of problems.

Creating new pathways for sharing knowledge to support restoration initiatives

In response to pressing global threats, nations worldwide have committed to restore vast areas of degraded land. But many nations, particularly in the Global South, are experiencing challenges in planning and managing these programs. Access to knowledge from the scientific literature is limited by barriers such as paywalls and language issues for non‐English speakers. Limited accessibility to the scientific literature can impair the ability of restoration managers and practitioners to apply scientific knowledge on the ground, jeopardizing local and global restoration efforts. We present the case of an education and training project Restaura Consciencia, which is a website featuring multilingual summaries of published scientific articles on restoration, conservation, and related disciplines. This not‐for‐profit academic project promotes the application of research findings and increases the visibility of the authors of articles, including often marginalized authors who publish in their native languages but want to share summaries in English and other languages. Restaura Consciencia promotes collective academic collaborations to support restoration initiatives.

University-Industry Technology Transfer and Coproduction: A Case Study

Universities can promote entrepreneurship and innovation both by training professionals and by offering knowledge resulting from their research. Traditionally, industrial development has benefited from technology transfer (TT) from universities. Although the TT is very known and used, co-ownership and economic exploitation after a TT process remain a challenge to formal University-Industry agreements. In this study we discuss the notion of university-industry coproduction as a means to address formal agreement after TT. The case study is a Brazilian national Program, called CEURS - “Training and Studies for Urban and Regional Sustainability”. The main goal of CEURS is to provide practical training to individuals and teams on sustainability matters, focused on how to fulfill the UN's SDG 2030 Agenda locally (i.e., how to empower projects that are already at the community level so that they can become city programs). To do so, CEURS project was led by an academic network, sponsored by national government agencies. The project was developed at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) by academics and students of the Graduate Program in Engineering and Knowledge Management, from the research group on Co-production in Digital Commons, in Brazil. CEURS team has developed CEURS Platform, a digital education platform, currently in the process of being publicly transferred to be augmented and operated at a national level. In this article, we analyze the institutional technology transfer agreements available to CEURS regarding the need to meet project demands for technology licensing, technology transfer, open innovation, and joint patents. We offer a critical analysis of a current regulatory process in technology transfer in an academic project that combines education, development, and social demand fulfillment. We conclude that a technology transfer licensing agreement can include principles that may fulfill CEURS project needs for nationalization through university-industry co-production. This study contributes to academics, innovation offices, policymakers, and university managers in formulating diligent and fast processes and strategies through technology transfers.

Considerations for mental healthcare facility design in Indian context

With time, there has been a shift in the approach towards location and design of mental health establishments across the globe. In India, the situation changed significantly after the establishment of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017. The nature of change has been affected by the history, cultural norms, and climatic conditions of the country as well. However, today, India follows a generalized design guideline that is devoid of country-specific considerations. Moreover, there is a dearth of recent research work based on contextual design and site location considerations for a mental health establishment in India. This paper presents a study on the current policies of India, the existing design and location theories of mental health care facilities and contextualization of those theories on two primary case studies and two possible site locations. The findings are then applied to an academic design project with a discussion on the possible design and location considerations that need to be addressed in country or state-specific guidelines. It is concluded by highlighting the relevance of case-specific, rather than generalized, fit-for-every-place approach, today.

Assessments in accounting: experiences and perceptions of educators during COVID-19

ABSTRACT Globally, higher education institutions were forced to use online assessments during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the fast-paced transition to online assessments at the time, the authors saw a unique opportunity to explore accounting educators’ experiences and perceptions of assessments conducted in accounting courses in South Africa during this period. Qualitative data were collected using semi-structured interviews. The findings indicate that participants felt unprepared, echoing the importance of institutional and educator readiness as a key consideration for online assessments. Participants raised concerns over the suitability of the assessments for an online environment, noting that the diversity of the student body must be considered. Lastly, participants raised concerns over the threats to academic integrity and the impact of online assessments on the equity and integrity of the academic project and the accounting profession. The findings of this study emphasise the importance for HEIs to design and develop specific principles and guidelines for online assessments.

Repository for academic documents, algorithms and data: A utility in an educational context

Data repositories currently constitute essential programs within institutions. In fact, universities are the primary institutions that promote the creation, management and storage for the safekeeping of a variety of documents, data and/or projects. This work is carried out within the framework of institutional need and the application of knowledge by the students and professors in the software degree program at a university in Ecuador. This project centers on a web application that makes it possible to manage, upload and download resources. This initial version focuses on the resources related to academic projects, data sets and algorithms. The scalability characteristics have been carefully introduced to ensure a progressive evolution of other types of resources and functionalities, in accordance with educational needs. Several aspects of the web interfaces are based on the characteristics of other existing repositories, and a series of tests related to functionality have been conducted in order to move beyond the introductory stage of use, to begin with, by the university community. This project is carried out according to a conception based on contributions, in which the agents, in principle, are members of the institution. The intensive and collaborative use of this utility will contribute to the growth of a data culture within the institution. Furthermore, the collection and organization of data for the purposes of study and research by the different university degree programs makes it possible to analyze and contrast them from different perspectives.

Moving towards Quality Academic Project Development using Program Specific Research Activities in Engineering Education

Abstract: To improve engineering education quality of student, project is a major concern. Project experience provides a major pathway for student’s career either for their professional career or upgrading the qualification through Post Graduation or Ph.D. in Engineering. Being a very practical field, it requires experience and exposure to the real world to be expertise and successful in a certain domain. Project work integrates hands-on experiences with education which facilitate them while they are on their job desk and are being appreciated for their updated knowledge. Quality projects require effective project management. It is observed that there is very less studies done on the project management skills required for the engineering graduates. This will assist the students to learn and adequately apply their knowledge in their future project work which will help them to convey a superior focused on and more significant projects. To strengthen student project development, there is a need to incorporate innovative practices through set of program specific research activities with defined strategies. Also program specific research activities will attain higher values for program outcome. Keywords: Quality Academic Project Development, Program Specific Research Activities, Program Outcome

Analysis of Students’ Emotional Patterns Based on an Educational Course on Emotions Management

Based on the current research trends and academic applications, which suggest that emotional intelligence can be learned and enhanced through education and training, this academic project coded and analyzed the emotional patterns of 46 undergraduate students who attended an 18-week academic course on emotional management. A paired-sample t-test showed a significant increase from pre-course to post-course emotional intelligence scores, suggesting the importance of designing an academic course in formal educational settings. Analysis of students’ emotions journals indicated a total of 18 negative emotions, with the emotion of irritability occurring most frequently, followed by anger and anxiety. Loneliness, impatience, and guilt were some of the least felt negative emotions. The triggers for the arousal of negative emotions spanned family matters, interpersonal relations, academics, and communication skills, among others. The majority of the students used cognitive-behavioral and family systems theories in understanding and analyzing their emotional patterns. Students used various strategies to deal with the negative emotions, including developing communication skills, talking with family and friends, better time management, improving self-efficacy, cultivating a positive attitude, engaging in physical activities, etc. These results are discussed in this paper and the possible implications for practical purposes and further research are suggested.

Integration of Effectiveness and Efficiency Indicators of State Support for Projects and Programmes for the Development of Higher Education in Russia

To achieve the set goal, the study employs expert-analytical methods of retrospective, deterministic, and factor analysis, as well as the tools of foresight technology, allowing the assessment of the impact of the system of factors on the effectiveness indicators of state financial support for universities. The key result of the study is a conceptual model for assessing the effectiveness and efficiency of state support for university development projects and programs, which is based on foresight methodology and establishes the interrelation between the system of factors and the indicators of efficiency and effectiveness of state funding for Russian universities. The proposed model not only offers a quality expert-analytical foundation for important financial decisions on state support for university development programs and academic excellence projects, but also encourages educational organizations to develop strategic development programs and roadmaps for their effective implementation.

An Analysis of the Contributions of Black Academics to Epistemology and Decolonisation in Higher Education in South Africa, 1940s-1990s

This paper looked at the contributions of black academics in the humanities and social sciences and uses their autobiographies as an analytical tool to help us understand their contribution to epistemology in the African higher education space. It also looks at debates on decolonisation and how their work has shaped these debates. Autobiography is one lens of doing critical analysis and understanding the progression of a scholar. This paper analyses different scholars in different generations and hopes to contribute to the search for genealogies of intergenerational Black South African scholars whose work has been forgotten and marginalised in the academic project in the humanities and social sciences curriculum in South Africa and beyond. Using autobiography as a critical method, the paper shows how black scholars from different generations navigated institutions of higher learning to achieve excellent results and produce knowledge that challenged racialised inferiority and white supremacy. The findings suggest that there is a body of work by black scholars and shows that where support is given, black scholars can shape discourse and take leadership positions in the academy.

Variability and discrepancies between Ethics Committees in the evaluation of academic research projects

Editorial: Variability and discrepancies between Ethics Committees in the evaluation of academic research projects.

DEVELOPMENT OF MEDIA LITERACY AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS BY MEANS OF DIGITAL STORYTELLING IN JAPAN

The research substantiates Japanese experience of media literacy and oral communication skills development by digital storytelling (DST); reveals theoretical background and current practical application of DST in higher education of Japan. DST has significant advantages as an individual- and situation-oriented tool of oral communication as well as the instrument of psychological and learning influence on society. It is continuously implemented into Japanese educational and social practice. Famous universities of Japan initiate and realize scientific and academic projects, extending communication connections of Japanese population, improving their skills of critical thinking and argumentation, developing desires and abilities to communicate freely, fluently, confidently and persuasively. At present DST shows a positive growing tendency as a teaching and learning tool in higher education of both Japan and Ukraine. This is primarily linked with the global processes of social digitalization, computerization of education and urgent transferring to distance learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Evidence-based studies prove the efficacy of DST as the learning and evaluation instrument of oral communication skills, i. e. in English. Moreover, the technology can be applied in different specialties, i. e. medical one. The healthcare branch was drastically influenced by quarantine restrictions, having resulted in fundamental transformations of teaching and learning approaches, implementation of e-learning and telemedicine. DST has a confirmed positive influence on public health and medical knowledge development. In higher medical education it can be used as a new type of virtual patients. DST can improve physician-patient communication skills, professional qualities, tolerance and empathy. Our research confirms the potential of DST as a powerful developmental tool of media literacy and oral communication skills, and proves the requirement for the implementation of Japanese experience into higher education of Ukraine.

A needs analysis for an english for occupational purposes (EOP) accounting course

The teaching of English for occupational purposes relies on the insights that a detailed needs analysis on the student-client population provides. The following paper reports the findings of a Needs Analysis conducted on the occupational purposes of accountants in Golfito county in the southern region of Costa Rica, describes the participant population, and narrates the historical development of this academic project. Some NA theoretical principles have been considered during the design and implementation of questionnaires, interviews, a desk analysis, and a focus group. The main objective has been to identify the communicative target situations that accountants and accounting employees face in their workplaces in this rural area. Therefore, adult learners with diverse English language proficiency levels enriched this NA by answering three questionnaires, providing two interviews, and contributing in a focus group. The main findings include the participants’ needs to explain financial statements in English, boost their L2 accounting vocabulary, and describe Costa Rican tax procedures to their stakeholders, especially those who are foreign business owners. In brief, this paper yields promising insights on their occupational needs that would support the language curriculum design process of a twelve-week EOP accounting course.