Knowledge Acquisition Technology Research Articles

Assessing the Use of Virtual Reality as a Tool for Teaching Body Responses to Hypoxia in Pre-clinical Medical Education: A Mixed-Methods Study Focusing on Student Experience and Learning

Virtual reality (VR) has revolutionized medical education, yet its specific effcacy in teaching medical physiology remains underexplored. Conveying the complexities of physiological responses to hypoxia through traditional teaching methods poses logistical challenges, potentially hindering students’ deep understanding. This study investigates the impact of incorporating VR into pre-clinical medical physiology teaching, focusing on students’ self-reported 1) knowledge acquisition and understanding of body responses to hypoxia, 2) VR technology acceptance and satisfaction, and 3) overall learning experience. Methods: In 2022, an ANU Medical School teaching enhancement grant funded data collection to develop a comprehensive storyboard for a VR hypoxia simulation program. With support from the school’s Technology-enhanced Learning and Teaching team and the university’s Centre for Learning and Teaching, we created an in-house limited prototype focusing on key aspects of the scripted VR simulation program to test its feasibility and perceived usefulness within our MCHD program. The tool was integrated into a year 1 practical session, followed by a two-part series of data collection, comprising a questionnaire and video interviews. The questionnaire used a mixed-methods approach, including 5-point Likert scale closed-ended questions rating VR perceived usefulness and ease of use, and open-ended questions allowing participants to provide qualitative responses. Interviews delved deeper into users’ experience, interactivity, collaboration, realism, practicality, knowledge acquisition, improvement suggestions, and overall technology and learning satisfaction. Results: Although the implemented intervention did not represent the full range of features envisioned for the final program, preliminary findings from the first round of data collection via questionnaires (n=45/96) reported positive user experiences. Sixty percent of responses showed agreement (agree (n=22) and strongly agree (n=5)) that learning outcomes were clear and aided by VR. Qualitative findings revealed higher motivation to use VR for learning and an intuitive interface. Thematic analysis identified improvement opportunities, including enhancing hypoxia symptom discernibility and refining visual resolution. These insights will inform the next study phase, refining features to improve the overall learning experience and address technical challenges. Conclusion: Grounded in constructivist learning theory and technology acceptance frameworks, our findings leverage realistic VR simulations to enhance knowledge acquisition and understanding of complex physiological responses. We express gratitude to the hypoxia simulation development project team (Dr Katie Freund, Yili Peng, Dr Siddarth Iyer, Dr Benjamin Mead, Prof Kevin Saliba and Dr Suzanne Estaphan) for their exceptional contributions. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2024 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.

How External Knowledge Acquisition Contribute to Innovation Performance: A Chain Mediation Model

It has become a common way for enterprises to use external knowledge to reduce the development bottleneck caused by internal resource constraints. How does external knowledge develop inside enterprises and then promote the innovation performance? Drawing upon resource-based view and dynamic capability theory, this study proposes a chain mediation model of how firms’ opportunity identification and R&D, as two distinctive microfoundations of dynamic capabilities, mediate the relationship between external knowledge acquisition and firms’ innovation performance. Through the questionnaire survey of Chinese high-tech enterprises, the results show that both external market knowledge acquisition and external technological knowledge acquisition influence the level of opportunity identification and internal R&D activities, so that the internal knowledge base of the enterprise can be updated or reconstructed, and the innovation performance can be improved. This further confirms that enterprises transform external knowledge with the role of dynamic capabilities, which enriches the research on open innovation from the perspective of dynamic capabilities.

Customer Knowledge Acquisition Channels and Technology Investment

Customer Knowledge Acquisition Channels and Technology Investment

Use of Arduino in Primary Education: A Systematic Review

In the last two decades, technological advances have been spectacular, and their transcendence has touched all areas of society. Specifically, in the field of education, these advances have allowed projects and approaches such as computational thinking to be taken up more strongly through interdisciplinary visions such as the STEM subjects and technological devices such as Arduino. The main objective of this article is to analyse the uses of Arduino and the achievements it has attained at primary-education level. To this end, a systematic review was carried out in the SCOPUS and Web of Science databases. The methodology used was the PRISMA statement and the SALSA framework. In accordance with the exclusion criteria applied, nine scientific papers from the last seven years were obtained. The qualitative software ATLAS.ti was used to extract the results. These papers reveal that the most commonly used methodology for incorporating the Arduino board into teaching is problem based learning (PBL) in the context of STEM subjects. In addition, programming environments, such as Scratch, and other electronic components have been used, which have enabled the development of computational thinking and the acquisition of technological knowledge, among other achievements.

The role of international networks in upgrading national innovation systems

Technological learning within national innovation systems (NIS) stands at the core of technological upgrading at the firm and economy level. The common understanding is that NIS are the primary source of technological knowledge acquisition for innovating firms, but the opening of economies, the globalization of innovation networks, and the rapid internationalization of innovative firms challenge this view -- especially with respect to small open economies in transition. We applied PLS-SEM to data from 131 R&D intensive firms responding to a survey investigating the mediating role of international networks for technological learning within Lithuania's NIS. The findings demonstrate a full mediating role of global innovation system networks in facilitating technological learning within NIS, partially contradicting the prevailing understanding of the primary importance of NIS based networks for firm learning. Technological learning of firms, and thus the upgrading of the NIS they are embedded in, relies more on international networks than previously assumed. These results call for a more careful design and facilitation of technological learning networks, recognizing global networks as a complementary and necessary component in NIS upgrading. This study contributes to the literature of technological learning within national innovation systems, with a special focus on R&D intensive firms leading the technological upgrading of a country's NIS.

Construction and Application Technology Architecture of Domain-specific Knowledge Graphin Military Field

Domain-specific Knowledge Graph in Military Field is a bridge to connect all kinds of battle factors, such as combat forces, command system, weapon platforms. It’s also an important means to break through the information gap between different areas of different services. Most of the existing knowledge graph is general knowledge graph for general fields, but there is no mature method of knowledge graph construction and expression for the industry data of military specific fields. So based on the special needs for military knowledge acquisition, storage, representation, query and other technologies in the future information and intelligent operations, and application scenarios, this paper discusses the current opportunities and challenges of the knowledge graph in military domain. Then the construction of knowledge graph in military domain and application technology framework are proposed.

The need for financial knowledge acquisition tools and technology by small business entrepreneurs

Knowledge management tools and technology are the main factors bringing competitive advantage to organisations. This study extends the depth of study on small business entrepreneurs by examining the effect of knowledge acquisition, in particular financial knowledge that leads to the need for knowledge acquisition tools and technology. There is evidence to support that a lower level of existing financial knowledge in small business entrepreneurs encourages them to acquire more financial knowledge since they tend to be responsible for all tasks related to business survival. This finding is not consistent with several other previous studies. In addition, relevant knowledge on how to raise adequate capital to establish their business and the accurate calculation of cost are the two most important aspects of financial knowledge for encouraging small business entrepreneurs to seek effective knowledge acquisition tools and technology. The evidence provides insight for the government authorities supporting small businesses to provide financial knowledge to small business entrepreneurs during the pre-start-up phase and thereafter by providing the relevant knowledge on financing and cost calculation to strengthen and sustain these businesses. This will ultimately lead to an improvement in small business failure and increase the country’s economic growth.

Analysing Social Capital and Product Innovativeness in the Relationship Evolution of Born-Global Companies the Mediating Role of Knowledge Acquisition

Relatively little is known about how born-global companies (BGs) innovate abroad during their lifecycle or about how the international innovation activities of BGs are related to their social capital. The network concepts of relational, structural, and cognitive social capital are almost completely neglected in the international business literature on BGs’ innovation activities according to a dynamic approach. The aim of this research is to study the direct and indirect effects of structural, cognitive and relational social capital on BGs’ product innovation by including the mediating role of market and technological knowledge acquisition. We develop a set of hypotheses that we combine and test in a structural equation model. We provide results with theoretical and practical implications for BGs in terms of both social capital and innovation abroad.

A performance assessment approach for integrated solid waste management using a sustainable balanced scorecard approach

Abstract This study aims to explore integrated solid waste management hierarchical interrelationships using a sustainable balance scorecard approach. The proposed analysis using the fuzzy Delphi method to exclude invalid attributes, interpretive structural modeling to arrange attributes into an extensive hierarchical model, and using a fuzzy decision-making trial-and-evaluation laboratory to examine the causal interrelationships among attributes. The solid waste management systems in Vietnam are generally inefficient due to a lack of proper administrative oversight, infrastructure, and adequate resource utilization. Integrated solid waste management is an important provision in public service systems. There is a need to propose and evaluate better management approaches to enhance waste process activities and increase sustainable performance. Collected qualitative information is converted into a crisp value for the evaluation process, and the qualitative data stem from the operations. This study measures 6 aspects and 24 criteria. The results showed that financial investment, stakeholder involvement, and innovation capacity are decisive causal aspects in which stakeholder involvement and innovation capacity are interrelated. The cost efficiency, stakeholder collaboration, flexibility/adaptability to environmental changes, availability of local technical skills, and knowledge acquisition and communication technologies are identified as the linkage criteria that present the highest driving and dependence powers to help decision makers achieve better operational performance.

Augmented reality head-up displays effect on drivers’ spatial knowledge acquisition

Background: Drivers gather most of the information they need to drive by looking at the world around them and at visual displays within the vehicle. Navigation systems automate the way drivers navigate. In using these systems, drivers offload both tactical (route following) and strategic aspects (route planning) of navigational tasks to the automated SatNav system, freeing up cognitive and attentional resources that can be used in other tasks (Burnett, 2009). Despite the potential benefits and opportunities that navigation systems provide, their use can also be problematic. For example, research suggests that drivers using SatNav do not develop as much environmental spatial knowledge as drivers using paper maps (Waters & Winter, 2011; Parush, Ahuvia, & Erev, 2007). With recent growth and advances of augmented reality (AR) head-up displays (HUDs), there are new opportunities to display navigation information directly within a driver’s forward field of view, allowing them to gather information needed to navigate without looking away from the road. While the technology is promising, the nuances of interface design and its impacts on drivers must be further understood before AR can be widely and safely incorporated into vehicles. Specifically, an impact that warrants investigation is the role of AR HUDS in spatial knowledge acquisition while driving. Acquiring high levels of spatial knowledge is crucial for navigation tasks because individuals who have greater levels of spatial knowledge acquisition are more capable of navigating based on their own internal knowledge (Bolton, Burnett, & Large, 2015). Moreover, the ability to develop an accurate and comprehensive cognitive map acts as a social function in which individuals are able to navigate for others, provide verbal directions and sketch direction maps (Hill, 1987). Given these points, the relationship between spatial knowledge acquisition and novel technologies such as AR HUDs in driving is a relevant topic for investigation. Objectives: This work explored whether providing conformal AR navigational cues improves spatial knowledge acquisition (as compared to traditional HUD visual cues) to assess the plausibility and justification for investment in generating larger FOV AR HUDs with potentially multiple focal planes. Methods: This study employed a 2x2 between-subjects design in which twenty-four participants were counterbalanced by gender. We used a fixed base, medium fidelity driving simulator for where participants drove while navigating with one of two possible HUD interface designs: a world-relative arrow post sign and a screen-relative traditional arrow. During the 10-15 minute drive, participants drove the route and were encouraged to verbally share feedback as they proceeded. After the drive, participants completed a NASA-TLX questionnaire to record their perceived workload. We measured spatial knowledge at two levels: landmark and route knowledge. Landmark knowledge was assessed using an iconic recognition task, while route knowledge was assessed using a scene ordering task. After completion of the study, individuals signed a post-trial consent form and were compensated $10 for their time. Results: NASA-TLX performance subscale ratings revealed that participants felt that they performed better during the world-relative condition but at a higher rate of perceived workload. However, in terms of perceived workload, results suggest there is no significant difference between interface design conditions. Landmark knowledge results suggest that the mean number of remembered scenes among both conditions is statistically similar, indicating participants using both interface designs remembered the same proportion of on-route scenes. Deviance analysis show that only maneuver direction had an influence on landmark knowledge testing performance. Route knowledge results suggest that the proportion of scenes on-route which were correctly sequenced by participants is similar under both conditions. Finally, participants exhibited poorer performance in the route knowledge task as compared to landmark knowledge task (independent of HUD interface design). Conclusions: This study described a driving simulator study which evaluated the head-up provision of two types of AR navigation interface designs. The world-relative condition placed an artificial post sign at the corner of an approaching intersection containing a real landmark. The screen-relative condition displayed turn directions using a screen-fixed traditional arrow located directly ahead of the participant on the right or left side on the HUD. Overall results of this initial study provide evidence that the use of both screen-relative and world-relative AR head-up display interfaces have similar impact on spatial knowledge acquisition and perceived workload while driving. These results contrast a common perspective in the AR community that conformal, world-relative graphics are inherently more effective. This study instead suggests that simple, screen-fixed designs may indeed be effective in certain contexts.

The decline in orally negotiated news: Revisiting (again) the role of technology in reporting

This article summarizes a longitudinal study on the role of technology in obtaining the information behind print and online news in Israel, across 15 years. Rather than taking the benefits of innovation for granted, knowledge acquisition technologies should be evaluated according to their ‘epistemic bandwidth’, involving the scope of knowledge-seeking opportunities they afford, the convenience of challenging this information, and its verifiability via the same channel. Hence, innovative technologies are very likely to have broader bandwidth when bypassing human agents. However, when human sources are concerned, traditional channels, like face-to-face and telephone, have broader bandwidth. Findings show that telephone is losing its historical dominance and face-to-face is declining in favour of emails and messaging. Even though textualization may afford greater accuracy and less deniability, and emancipate journalists from functioning as ‘oral relays’ of sources, it provides them with less space to interrogate their sources and confront them with interview techniques.

Overview of The First Workshop on Knowledge Graphs and Semantics for Text Retrieval and Analysis (KG4IR)

Knowledge graphs have been used throughout the history of information retrieval for a variety of tasks. Advances in knowledge acquisition and alignment technology in the last few years have given rise to a body of new approaches for utilizing knowledge graphs in text retrieval tasks. This report presents the motivation, output, and outlook of the first workshop on Knowledge Graphs and Semantics for Text Retrieval and Analysis which was co-located with SIGIR 2017 in Tokyo, Japan. We aim to assess where we stand today, what future directions are, and which preconditions could lead to further performance increases.

Process innovation in milling stage in olive oil sector

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of the modes of organizing the technological knowledge (make, buy and hybrid organization) in the decision to innovate the production process.Design/methodology/approachThe study first develops a conceptual framework drawing the concept of mode of organization from the Transaction Cost Economics. The three research questions are coherently formulated which concern: the influence of the modes of organization on the decision to innovate and to invest in supporting instruments; the variability of this influence and the complementarity degree between the decision to innovate and to invest. The empirical analysis is carried out with respect to the olive oil sector considering a representative sample of olive millers (Umbria, Central Italy) and a complementary accidental sample drawn from an existing database.FindingsThe main results of the study provide evidence for the role of modes of organization in the knowledge acquisition finalized to the process innovation. The role of the “buy” option is important, while the collaboration – the “hybrid” organization – seems to influence strongly the innovation and the related investment decision. The important role of the information sources appears effective and articulated. Finally, despite the great economic importance of the quality requirements, the millers appear to be more sensitive to the difficulties to build up a clear process vision in terms of technology.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitation of the study is that it refers to a specific supply system including small enterprises and does not account for the pattern of innovation in other olive oil production systems. Moreover, one of the samples that was observed and analyzed is accidental in nature and does not allow a clear and robust comparison for the representative sample.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study can contribute to the identification of organizational constraints to the rate on process innovation.Originality/valueThe originality of the study is based on the main focus, i.e. the attention to the role of the modes of organization in the decision to innovate, which provides complementary information to the extant literature on the choice of modes of organizing the technological knowledge acquisition. Moreover, the conceptual framework and findings are connected to the current research on the variety of the agribusiness organizations which is still a partially explored field of inquiry.

Knowledge acquisition by university researchers through company collaborations: Evidence from South Korea

This study contributes to the debate on whether close interaction with industry partners in university–industry research collaborations (UICs) facilitates or hinders the acquisition of scientific knowledge by university researchers. The influence of relational mechanisms between UIC partners on university researchers’ technological and scientific knowledge acquisition is studied for a sample of 295 UICs in South Korea. The strength of pre-existing ties between university and industry partners, their shared project governance and decision process similarity contribute to the technological knowledge acquisition by university researchers. Moreover, the three mechanisms are also positively related to scientific knowledge acquisition indirectly through technological knowledge acquisition. The findings of this study indicate that university researchers can enhance their acquisition not only of technological knowledge, but also of scientific knowledge by developing and maintaining a strong working relationship with company partners in UICs.

Ownership identity, strategy and performance: Business group affiliates versus independent firms in India

We consider whether the impact of entrepreneurial orientation on business performance is moderated by the company affiliation with business groups. Within business groups, we explore the trade-off between inter-firm insurance that enables risk-taking, and inefficient resource allocation. Risk-taking in group affiliated firms leads to higher performance, compared to independent firms, but the impact of proactivity is attenuated. Utilizing Indian data, we show that risk-taking may undermine rather than improve business performance, but this effect is not present in business groups. Proactivity enhances performance, but less so in business groups. Firms can also enhance performance by technological knowledge acquisition, but these effects are not significantly different for various ownership categories.

Organizing for Inbound Open Innovation: How External Consultants and a Dedicated R&D Unit Influence Product Innovation Performance

Firms increasingly acquire technological knowledge from external sources to improve their innovation performance. This strategic approach is known as inbound open innovation. The existing empirical evidence regarding the impact of inbound open innovation on performance, however, is ambiguous. The equivocal results are due to moderating factors that influence a firm's ability to acquire technological knowledge from external sources and to transform it into innovation outputs. This paper focuses on a relevant yet overlooked category of moderating factors: organization of research and development (R&D). It explores two organizational mechanisms: one informal and external‐oriented (involvement of external consultants in R&D activities) and one formalized and internal‐oriented (existence of a dedicated R&D unit), in the acquisition of technological knowledge through R&D outsourcing, a particular contractual form for inbound open innovation.Drawing on a capabilities perspective and using a longitudinal dataset of 841 Spanish manufacturing firms observed over the period 1999–2007, this paper provides a fine‐grained analysis of the moderating effects of the two organizational mechanisms. The involvement of external consultants in R&D activities strengthens the impact of inbound open innovation on innovation performance by increasing marginal benefits of acquiring external technological knowledge through R&D outsourcing. Moreover, it reduces the level of inbound open innovation to which the highest innovation performance corresponds. Instead, the existence of a dedicated R&D unit makes the firm less sensitive to changes in the level of inbound open innovation, by reducing marginal benefits of acquiring external technological knowledge through R&D outsourcing, and increases the level of inbound open innovation to which the highest innovation performance corresponds.The results regarding the role of informal and formalized R&D organizational mechanisms contribute to research on open innovation and absorptive capacity, and also inform managers as to what organizational mechanism is recommended to acquire external technological knowledge, depending on the objectives that the firm pursues.

Technological learning and innovation systems in developing countries: the example of Dubai

The aim of the present work is to understand the dynamics of formation and of development for innovation systems in emerging nations. Adopting a deductive approach we define a new model to describe the configuration of innovation systems in developing countries. Subsequently, we use the model to examine the process of creating systems of innovation in the Emirate of Dubai. The analysis confirms that in developing nations there is a profound interaction between the systemic dimension and the firm dimension of the innovative process. The systems of innovation become such only at the end of a process: they originate as systems within individual firms to support the acquisition of technological knowledge, then become systems serving in the assimilation of the acquired knowledge, and only establish at the last as systems that actually aid the development of new awareness and give rise to innovation.

New Method of Knowledge Acquisition of Aid Decision-Making for Missile-Launching

Acquiring causal knowledge of abnormity is essential to Missile-Launching reliably. There are lots of Knowledge Acquisition methods. But it is absence for usage and maintenance support process. So it is necessary to start the research on new knowledge acquisition technology of aid Decision-Making for Missile-Launching. Based on the Usage and Maintenance-Support Process, this thesis acquires knowledge with the ESD and CESD (Converse Event Sequence Diagram) method. First, this thesis gives the concept of CESD. Then, in order to adapt the CESD model of the complex systems more effectively, this paper expands the CESD framework and provides a software frame of computer aided ESD study. Finally, the operation of pulse power supply system is analyzed on the basis of the improved ESD and CESD. This sample shows the applicability of ESD and CESD methodology in knowledge acquisition technology of aid Decision-Making for Missile-Launching.

Migración de retorno y tecnología agrícola en el valle Morelia-Queréndaro, Michoacán, México.

Se muestra que durante la emigración hubo una apropiación y adquisición de conocimientos, habilidades y capacidades técnicas y tecnológicas, obtenidas a partir de las actividades laborales realizadas en el campo y ciudad, susceptibles de utilizarse en las comunidades de origen una vez que retornan. Ello se hizo en tres comunidades del valle Morelia-Queréndaro, utilizando el método del informante clave y una encuesta semiestructurada aplicada a 51 informantes. Se encontraron una gran cantidad de actividades productivas y tecnológicas, transportadas en forma de remesas, tangibles e intangibles (conocimiento, dinero y tecnologías). La respuesta inmediata a su posible aplicación, fue “no hay en donde hacerlo”, que se contrapone con la implementación de pequeños comercios relacionados con la comida rápida, la agricultura, la ganadería.

Research on Intelligent Fault Diagnosis Methods of Armored Vehicles Electrical System

For armored vehicles electrical system fault diagnosis of fault original data collection difficult situation, a new intelligent computing programs designed based on the fuzzy set theory and possibility distribution theory and fuzzy logic reasoning design, which realized the process of KA automatization through the combination of fault simulation technology and knowledge acquisition technology. The approach presented in this paper makes the work of knowledge acquisition (KA) engineer easier, and makes fast diagnosis fault location and fault reasons possible.