Collaborative Development Project Research Articles

Phenobook: an open source software for phenotypic data collection.

BackgroundResearch projects often involve observation, registration, and data processing starting from information obtained in field experiments. In many cases, these tasks are carried out by several persons in different places, times, and ways, adding different levels of complexity and error in data collecting. Furthermore, data processing can be time consuming, and input errors may produce unwanted results. ResultsWe have developed a novel, open source software called Phenobook, an easy, flexible, and intuitive tool to organize, collect, and save experimental data for further analyses. Phenobook was conceived to collect phenotypic observations in a user-friendly, cost-effective way. It consists of a web-based software for experiment design, data input and visualization, and exportation, combined with a mobile application for remote data collecting. We provide in this article a detailed description of the developed tool. ConclusionPhenobook is a software tool that can be easily implemented in collaborative research and development projects involving data collecting and forward analyses. Adopting Phenobook is expected to improve the involved processes by minimizing input errors, resulting in higher quality and reliability of the research outcomes.

Evidence-informed innovation in schools: aligning collaborative research and development with high quality professional learning for teachers

Innovation efforts in schools commonly wrestle with two challenges: how to secure ownership of change among teachers and how to ensure that improvements are based on evidence. This paper draws on findings from a two-year collaborative research and development (R&D) project in England which involved 66 school clusters (teaching school alliances (TSAs)) in implementing and evaluating school-based innovations and a separate umbrella review of evidence on effective continuous professional development and learning (CPDL) for teachers. We find that collaborative R&D can enhance the ownership of change among participating teachers and ensure that innovations are based on evidence. We define a framework for integrating R&D and CPDL which could enable improvement to be scaled up, impacting on all staff. Drawing on Winch et al.'s (2015) model of teachers' professional knowledge we argue that the proposed framework could enhance the potential for teaching to be accepted as an evidence-informed professional endeavour.

Evidence-informed innovation in schools: aligning collaborative research and development with high quality professional learning for teachers

Innovation efforts in schools commonly wrestle with two challenges: how to secure ownership of change among teachers and how to ensure that improvements are based on evidence. This paper draws on findings from a two-year collaborative research and development (R&D) project in England which involved 66 school clusters (teaching school alliances (TSAs)) in implementing and evaluating school-based innovations and a separate umbrella review of evidence on effective continuous professional development and learning (CPDL) for teachers. We find that collaborative R&D can enhance the ownership of change among participating teachers and ensure that innovations are based on evidence. We define a framework for integrating R&D and CPDL which could enable evidence-informed improvement to be scaled up, impacting on all staff. Drawing on Winch et al.'s (2015) model of teachers' professional knowledge we argue that the proposed framework could enhance the potential for teaching to be accepted as an "evidence-informed professional endeavour".

Academic interaction with social partners in the case from the University of Limpopo

The purpose of this article is to describe the different dimensions of the community- university interactions that emanated from a Community Engagement Audit which was undertaken at the University of Limpopo (UL) in 2014. The Audit methodology followed a quantitative survey research approach. A sample of 278, out of a population of 559 academic staff at UL that included 196 with PhDs and 363 without PhDs, participated in the study. SPSS was used to compute factor analysis. The results indicated the dominant partners that faculties interact with across the spheres of engaged scholarship were multi-national companies, small, medium and micro-enterprises, national regulatory and advisory and sectorial organisations. The types of relationship with external social actors were contract research, continuing education and collaborative research and development projects. Channels of information were popular publications, public conferences, seminars or workshops, oral or written testimony or advice prominent. The outputs were new or improved products/processes, scientific discoveries and community infrastructure and facilities. The outcomes and benefits were regional development, improved quality of life for individuals and communities and research focus and research projects, theoretical and methodological development in an academic field, academic and institutional reputation. The main constrains experienced during engagement are lack of academic resources and institutional support and relationships with external social partners. The results provide guiding parameters to improve the scale and reach of CE at the UL and a snapshot of the architecture and terrain of engaged scholarship at a rural-based HEI in South Africa.

5kW級ホールスラスタRAIJINの性能解析

A Hall thruster system for in-space propulsion has been developed as a part of a Japanese collaborative research and development project aiming at practical use of a high power anode layer type Hall thruster. Its thrust was measured at the ISAS/JAXA vacuum chamber facilities using a dual-pendulum thrust stand developed at the University of Tokyo. In the low specific impulse mode operation, thrust efficiency of 64% and thrust to power ratio of 80mN/kW were achieved. In the high specific impulse mode operation, the thruster was successfully operated at the acceleration voltage of up to 1,000V.

A risk-based approach to drive conceptual design taking into account low-maturity products

The presence of immature concepts makes difficult decision making at upstream phase of a development project. Rework tasks in collaborative development projects dealing with immature design concepts are very frequent and are responsible of cost overruns and schedule delays. In addition, decisions taken during conceptual design stage have the most important influence on product life cycle cost. In this context, a useful practice is to develop two or more concepts in parallel and delay decision making. Even so, a first screening of concepts is usually needed because of the substantial resources and time required in development phase. In this paper, an approach of concepts screening is proposed at conceptual design phase on the basis of two metrics. The first assesses ability of concepts to meet requirements with integration of maturity. Fuzzy logic tools are used to capture and propagate imprecision in embodiment design choices and behavior models. The second metric aims to assess expected performance of novel concepts compared with an existent product. It uses generalized ordered weighted averaging operator. A parametric aggregation function is also proposed as a support when using the two metrics. The proposed approach was applied to the development of a solar collector.

Genetic and environmental effects on body mass index from infancy to the onset of adulthood: an individual-based pooled analysis of 45 twin cohorts participating in the COllaborative project of Development of Anthropometrical measures in Twins (CODATwins) study1–3

Both genetic and environmental factors are known to affect body mass index (BMI), but detailed understanding of how their effects differ during childhood and adolescence is lacking. We analyzed the genetic and environmental contributions to BMI variation from infancy to early adulthood and the ways they differ by sex and geographic regions representing high (North America and Australia), moderate (Europe), and low levels (East Asia) of obesogenic environments. Data were available for 87,782 complete twin pairs from 0.5 to 19.5 y of age from 45 cohorts. Analyses were based on 383,092 BMI measurements. Variation in BMI was decomposed into genetic and environmental components through genetic structural equation modeling. The variance of BMI increased from 5 y of age along with increasing mean BMI. The proportion of BMI variation explained by additive genetic factors was lowest at 4 y of age in boys (a(2) = 0.42) and girls (a(2) = 0.41) and then generally increased to 0.75 in both sexes at 19 y of age. This was because of a stronger influence of environmental factors shared by co-twins in midchildhood. After 15 y of age, the effect of shared environment was not observed. The sex-specific expression of genetic factors was seen in infancy but was most prominent at 13 y of age and older. The variance of BMI was highest in North America and Australia and lowest in East Asia, but the relative proportion of genetic variation to total variation remained roughly similar across different regions. Environmental factors shared by co-twins affect BMI in childhood, but little evidence for their contribution was found in late adolescence. Our results suggest that genetic factors play a major role in the variation of BMI in adolescence among populations of different ethnicities exposed to different environmental factors related to obesity.

MONO+KM: Knowledge Management in Collaborative Project Development

<p>In the dynamics of collaborative project management, participating organizations make great efforts and provide technical, technological and human resources to achieve a product they can hardly develop individually.</p><p>Although there are tools to integrate, monitor and manage processes for such projects, it is not uncommon to find technological support to manage the knowledge generated during their execution. Usually this knowledge is part of the experience of participants but it is not recovered or documented nor is it used an organizational level, thus losing an important asset.</p><p>In this study, we propose a technique in which a knowledge management approach is applied to the management of collaborative projects and where knowledge is expressed in terms of decisions.</p><p>This is achieved through the analysis of verbal interactions that occur among participants in these projects, the identification and recovery of decisions Grounded Theory Method (GTM) techniques, and the specification of a set of concrete usage scenarios.</p><p>The technique was applied in MONO, a framework for integration, control and optimization of production processes in which digital content companies in the creative industry work collaboratively.</p><p>The study provides an annotation model, which, without being intrusive, allows for the recovery and structuring of knowledge expressed as decisions, thus making possible its replication in other domains.</p>

“Nanostandardization” in Action: Implementing Standardization Processes in a Multidisciplinary Nanoparticle-Based Research and Development Project

Nanomaterials have attracted much interest in the medical field and related applications as their distinct properties in the nanorange enable new and improved diagnosis and therapies. Owing to these properties and their potential interactions with the human body and the environment, the impact of nanomaterials on humans and their potential toxicity have been regarded a very significant issue. Consequently, nanomaterials are the subject of a wide range of cutting-edge research efforts in the medical and related fields to thoroughly probe their potential beneficial utilizations and their more negative effects. We posit that the lack of standardization in the field is a serious shortcoming as it has led to the establishment of methods and results that do not ensure sufficient consistency and thus in our view can possibly result in research outputs that are not as robust as they should be. The main aim of this article is to present how NanoDiaRA, a large FP7 European multidisciplinary project that seeks to investigate and develop nanotechnology-based diagnostic systems, has developed and implemented robust, standardized methods to support research practices involving the engineering and manipulation of nanomaterials. First, to contextualize this research, an overview of the measures defined by different regulatory bodies concerning nanosafety is presented. Although these authorities have been very active in the past several years, many questions remain unanswered in our view. Second, a number of national and international projects that attempted to ensure more reliable exchanges of methods and results are discussed. However, the frequent lack of publication of procedures and protocols in research can often be a hindrance for sharing those good practices. Subsequently, the efforts made through NanoDiaRA to introduce standardized methods and techniques to support the development and utilization of nanomaterials are discussed in depth. A series of semi-structured interviews were conducted with the partners of this project, and the interviews were analyzed thematically to highlight the determined efforts of the researchers to standardize their methods. Finally, some recommendations are made toward the setting up of well-defined methods to support the high-quality work of collaborative nanoparticle-based research and development projects and to enhance standardization processes.

Improving mental and physical healthcare for older adults: An inpatient service development project by frontline staff

The complexities of working in older adults services where clients often experience co-morbid conditions can highlight the necessity for collaborative working between physical and mental healthcare providers. Three older adult mental and physical health wards based in a psychiatric and community hospital started a collaborative service development project to improve holistic patient care. This article discusses how providing staff with the authority and autonomy to make organisational changes can have a positive impact for patients, staff and the trust.

Market-, Firm-, and Project-Level Effects on the Innovation Impact of Collaborative R&D Projects

This study determines the factors that exert important influences on the success of collaborative research and development (R&D) projects. The study uses data from a cross-European sample of collaborative R&D projects under EU Framework Programs, supported with relevant qualitative evidence from a series of case studies, and focuses on three levels of possible factors: market, firm, and project levels. The results indicate that partnering firm innovation experience, innovation protection mechanisms, effective management of rules and regulations, and the existence of commercially driven projects that open up new technological areas are the factors with the strongest significant effect on product and/or process innovation. The findings contribute to understanding of how and under what conditions innovation can be developed in collaborative R&D projects.

Zygosity Differences in Height and Body Mass Index of Twins From Infancy to Old Age: A Study of the CODATwins Project.

A trend toward greater body size in dizygotic (DZ) than in monozygotic (MZ) twins has been suggested by some but not all studies, and this difference may also vary by age. We analyzed zygosity differences in mean values and variances of height and body mass index (BMI) among male and female twins from infancy to old age. Data were derived from an international database of 54 twin cohorts participating in the COllaborative project of Development of Anthropometrical measures in Twins (CODATwins), and included 842,951 height and BMI measurements from twins aged 1 to 102 years. The results showed that DZ twins were consistently taller than MZ twins, with differences of up to 2.0 cm in childhood and adolescence and up to 0.9 cm in adulthood. Similarly, a greater mean BMI of up to 0.3 kg/m2 in childhood and adolescence and up to 0.2 kg/m2 in adulthood was observed in DZ twins, although the pattern was less consistent. DZ twins presented up to 1.7% greater height and 1.9% greater BMI than MZ twins; these percentage differences were largest in middle and late childhood and decreased with age in both sexes. The variance of height was similar in MZ and DZ twins at most ages. In contrast, the variance of BMI was significantly higher in DZ than in MZ twins, particularly in childhood. In conclusion, DZ twins were generally taller and had greater BMI than MZ twins, but the differences decreased with age in both sexes.

APPLYING ONLINE PEER ASSESSMENT WITH TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT TO ELEVATE PROJECT-BASED LEARNING PERFORMANCE

Undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) curriculum emphasize project-based learning (PBL) with peer assessment/on-line peer assessment (PA/OPA). Many studies have stressed that students did not improve over two rounds in PBL with OPA studies and PBL with PA have to adopt team mutual cooperation to reap effective learning. This study proposed an innovative approach that incorporate OPA with TQM as a macro-level instructional tool to guide students in teacher's directing of collaborative project development as well as seeking continuous improvement to elevate Project-Based Learning Performance in a STEM course. The effects of OPA with TQM were examined through an experiment with PBL performances hypotheses. A total of 63 junior students in an university of Taiwan voluntarily participated in this study and a quasi-experimental approach with a two-group design was adopted. The results revealed that the team members using the OPA with TQM approach tended to have higher design skill performance, better cohesive teamwork and creative problem solving attitude. Thus, the proposed approach facilitated team members to collaborate for seeking continuous improvement. However, no significant difference was reported on the influence of enhancing students’ design concept. Implication and suggestions for educators to promote the PBL with OPA and TQM were also provided in the study. Key words: collaborative learning, online peer assessment, project-based learning, STEM course, Total Quality Management.

The CODATwins Project: The Cohort Description of Collaborative Project of Development of Anthropometrical Measures in Twins to Study Macro-Environmental Variation in Genetic and Environmental Effects on Anthropometric Traits.

For over 100 years, the genetics of human anthropometric traits has attracted scientific interest. In particular, height and body mass index (BMI, calculated as kg/m2) have been under intensive genetic research. However, it is still largely unknown whether and how heritability estimates vary between human populations. Opportunities to address this question have increased recently because of the establishment of many new twin cohorts and the increasing accumulation of data in established twin cohorts. We started a new research project to analyze systematically (1) the variation of heritability estimates of height, BMI and their trajectories over the life course between birth cohorts, ethnicities and countries, and (2) to study the effects of birth-related factors, education and smoking on these anthropometric traits and whether these effects vary between twin cohorts. We identified 67 twin projects, including both monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins, using various sources. We asked for individual level data on height and weight including repeated measurements, birth related traits, background variables, education and smoking. By the end of 2014, 48 projects participated. Together, we have 893,458 height and weight measures (52% females) from 434,723 twin individuals, including 201,192 complete twin pairs (40% monozygotic, 40% same-sex dizygotic and 20% opposite-sex dizygotic) representing 22 countries. This project demonstrates that large-scale international twin studies are feasible and can promote the use of existing data for novel research purposes.

T-CREST: Time-predictable multi-core architecture for embedded systems

Real-time systems need time-predictable platforms to allow static analysis of the worst-case execution time (WCET). Standard multi-core processors are optimized for the average case and are hardly analyzable. Within the T-CREST project we propose novel solutions for time-predictable multi-core architectures that are optimized for the WCET instead of the average-case execution time. The resulting time-predictable resources (processors, interconnect, memory arbiter, and memory controller) and tools (compiler, WCET analysis) are designed to ease WCET analysis and to optimize WCET performance. Compared to other processors the WCET performance is outstanding.The T-CREST platform is evaluated with two industrial use cases. An application from the avionic domain demonstrates that tasks executing on different cores do not interfere with respect to their WCET. A signal processing application from the railway domain shows that the WCET can be reduced for computation-intensive tasks when distributing the tasks on several cores and using the network-on-chip for communication. With three cores the WCET is improved by a factor of 1.8 and with 15 cores by a factor of 5.7.The T-CREST project is the result of a collaborative research and development project executed by eight partners from academia and industry. The European Commission funded T-CREST.

The researcher as a negotiator – exploring collaborative professional development projects with teachers

The purpose of this article is to explore the role of the researcher in facilitating collaborative professional development (CPD) projects with teachers in Finland. The article sheds light on the complex role of the researcher promoting professional development in educational sites through action research. The educational sites vary from individual classrooms to small schools and municipalities. The analysis builds on the creation of a communicative space in the form of a Teacher Talk group for researchers engaged in different CPD projects. The creation of sustainable arenas for communication is needed, not only at the educational sites among practitioners, but also among the researchers engaged in different CPD projects. Through our continuous communication and reflections and with help of practice theory we were able to grasp the meanings of the professional development work and our role as researchers at the intersection of action research, university and school. We found the complex researcher role to mainly be that of a negotiator concerning cultural-discursive, material-economic and socio-political arrangements.

Exploring design space in embodiment design with consideration of models accuracy

Rework tasks in collaborative development projects dealing with immature design concepts are very frequent and are responsible of cost overruns and schedule delays. Taking into account uncertainty and accuracy of models (and data) improves decision making according to strategic orientation for product development. Based on a real design of light, slender but rigid solar collector supports, multiple tools have been developed and tested to support decision making at different stages of development process. The objective of this paper is to investigate the integration of these accuracy evaluations into the design process. This proposal is validated by the industrial development and validation.

Rethinking the role of roadmaps in strategic planning

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to explore the problem of reconfiguring epistemic boundaries and the authority relationships that these boundaries represent in corporate R&D. The authors focus the analysis on the mediation of this reconfiguration by project management tools, specifically the development plan and its subsidiary roadmaps and timelines.Design/methodology/approach– The authors analyze discourse data from an ethnographic study to showin situthe communication about and through project management tools in collaborative project development. The concepts of organizational map and mapping from the perspective of the communicative constitution of organization (CCO) frame the close-up analysis of this communication.Findings– The analysis reveals how the plan and its subsidiary texts participate in the negotiation and legitimation of epistemic ownership and authority for a collaborative strategy to be implemented. The authors illustrate the material agency of these texts in the objectification and prioritization of strategic choices in this implementation.Research limitations/implications– To conclude, the authors discuss the significance of exploring the mapping function of supposedly mundane representational tools used in project management.Originality/value– The originality of this study comes from applying the organizational map concept to demonstrate the politically charged materiality of project management tools in the discursive establishment of authority and accomplishment of corporate strategy.

When Policy Structures Technology: Balancing upfront decomposition and in-process coordination in Europe׳s decentralized space technology ecosystem

This paper examines the decentralization of European space technology research and development through the joint lenses of policy, systems architecture, and innovation contexts. It uses a detailed longitudinal case history of the development of a novel astrophysics instrument to explore the link between policy-imposed institutional decomposition and the architecture of the technical system. The analysis focuses on five instances of collaborative design decision-making and finds that matching between the technical and institutional architectures is a predictor of project success, consistent with the mirroring hypothesis in extant literature. Examined over time, the instances reveal stability in the loosely coupled nature of institutional arrangements and a trend towards more integral, or tightly coupled, technical systems. The stability of the institutional arrangements is explained as an artifact of the European Hultqvist policy and the trend towards integral technical systems is related to the increasing complexity of modern space systems. If these trends persist, the scale of the mismatch will continue to grow. As a first step towards mitigating this challenge, the paper develops a framework for balancing upfront decomposition and in-process coordination in collaborative development projects. The astrophysics instrument case history is used to illustrate how collaborations should be defined for a given inherent system complexity.

Modular Student Learning Kit for Internet of Things

The term Internet of Things as a component of Future Internet is a recent fast growing global network infrastructure which extends Internet with a sensors and actuators shield. The paper presents a hands-on learning kit based on an open standard embedded computer connected to Internet enabling live data processing. The system uses cloud programming tools to add significant value to the education purpose, by including up-to-date innovative technical approaches and pedagogical values for improving the attractiveness and efficiency of the education activities in the engineering area. The learning goal intends to develop the Internet of things as new universe based on smart objects, connected to the Internet via adequate sensors and actuators. This can be an essential tool for a deeper understanding of the main concepts in physics, informatics and math, even in the early steps of learning. Based on cloud programming resources, the hardware-software components use the latest version of low power 32-bit embedded computer development platform and process interfaces to allow data monitoring, remote physical experiments, mobile world supervising, and collaborative project development. As an open standard learning tool, the kit offers a new computational framework able to serve in scientific experiments and discovery-based learning. This study was strongly motivated by the European Union recommendation to support and enrich the university curriculum by engaging students in hands-on engineering and design activities.