Collective Knowledge Research Articles

Epistemes of Palestine

Abstract The conflict resulting from settler colonialism in historic Palestine has entered its second century. Behind the conflicting narratives and socio-political ideologies and doctrines are collective cognition or knowledge systems (epistemes). Both Palestinian and Zionist minds, being multi-centric, with their main bases focusing on historic Palestine, are undergoing dynamic changes. The Nakba of 1948, and the dispersion of the Palestinian population ever since, divided and diversified the Palestinian knowledge system in and outside historic Palestine. This article is an attempt to “epistemize” the narration and interpretation of this highly political and ideological struggle. It attempts to identify the building units of the Palestinian identity, which have directed the past and could determine paradigms of Palestinian struggle in the decades to come. It also tries to highlight the urgency and feasibility of networking dispersed Palestinian communities towards a new, reunited, Palestinian epistemic body.

Utility of anticoagulation, pre-smearing and post-smearing hemolytic techniques on morphological assessment and reproducibility in fluid cytology.

Knowledge of proper collection, storage, preservation, and processing techniques is critical to ensuring proper handling and analysis of fluid cytology specimens. This study was conducted to determine the effect of anticoagulation, pre-smearing acetic acid treatment technique, and saline rehydration technique on morphological assessment, reproducibility, and reporting in fluid cytology. The study was carried out in the cytopathology laboratory over 2 months (April-May 2022), where 100 effusion samples were analyzed. At least 20-40 mL of fluid was collected in heparinized and non-heparinized containers for each patient. Samples were processed in cytospin and stained with Giemsa and Papanicolaou stains. For 70 hemorrhagic specimens, an extra smear was prepared from the sediment and subjected to the saline rehydration technique as per the Indian Academy of Cytologists (IAC) guidelines. Seventy-three hemorrhagic specimens whose quantity received was more than 35 mL were subjected to the pre-smearing technique. These smears were evaluated for (a) the presence or absence of blue background/any other background staining, (b) cellularity, (c) cell morphology and (d) the presence/absence of microclots. Heparinized samples showed no compromise in cellular morphology or cellularity although a blue background was observed in an occasional case. The pre-smearing technique had less background hemorrhage and preserved cell characteristics. The post-smearing saline rehydration technique did not compromise the cellularity but distorted morphology and showed background staining. The pre-smearing acetic acid treatment showed better-preserved cellularity and cytomorphology with the absence of background staining when compared to the post-smearing saline rehydration technique.

To Study the Importance of Staff Training and Development in the Front Office Through Collaborations

"Effective staff training and development in the front office is crucial for enhancing customer service, improving operational efficiency, and fostering a positive work environment. By incorporating collaborations, employees can learn from each other, share best practices, and collectively contribute to the success of the organization. “By fostering collaborations among front office staff, organizations can unlock a myriad of benefits. Firstly, it promotes a culture of continuous learning and improvement. Through collaborative training initiatives, employees have the opportunity to share their knowledge, skills, and best practices with one another. This not only enhances individual capabilities but also builds a collective knowledge base within the organization. Moreover, collaborations in staff training and development foster teamwork and synergy among front office employees. By working together, they can develop a deeper understanding of each other's roles, responsibilities, and challenges. This enables them to provide seamless and consistent service to customers, creating a positive and memorable experience.

Privacy-preserving culvert predictive models: A federated learning approach

In recent years, transportation agencies have shown a growing interest in the adoption of machine learning (ML) models as a means to improve the efficiency of their infrastructure asset management practices. Their limited inventory can, however, hinder the development of robust ML models. Moreover, transportation agencies may be reluctant to share their raw inventory data with others. To address these challenges, we employed a new ML paradigm, federated learning (FL), and demonstrated its potential in the case study of Utah culvert management. The Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) only owned a limited culvert inventory, but we were able to obtain additional data from five other state DOTs’ inventories. Rather than employing a conventional centralized ML method, we opted for FL. This approach ensured that while UDOT did not directly access raw data from five other DOTs, it could still benefit from their combined insights. The FL-based model with 80.4 % accuracy showed a promising performance between the two centralized learning models developed based on the consolidated and the Utah-only datasets. The federated approach demonstrates that it is possible to develop high-performance ML models without compromising data confidentiality by centralizing data. This pioneering approach sets a precedent for other transportation agencies, suggesting they can navigate data scarcity and privacy concerns while reaping the benefits of collective knowledge.

Knowledge objects and knowledge practices in interdisciplinary learning: Example of an organization simulation in higher education

ABSTRACT Background Higher education is expected to prepare students with interdisciplinary learning (IDL), which is important for their educational and working life opportunities. The cocreation of knowledge in interdisciplinary teams offers multiple opportunities for the emergence of collective knowledge objects (KOs) and knowledge practices (KPs). Methods During iterations of an organization simulation course, interdisciplinary student teams created an offer of human resource services for a client. To analyze the students’ IDL (84 students in 12 teams), we conducted an interaction analysis, drawing on sociocultural and knowledge practice perspectives on technology-mediated learning. First, video-recordings of two teams’ meetings were analyzed to trace the tensions, negotiations, and cocreation of KOs. Second, students’ reflective diaries were analyzed to identify collective KPs. Findings The negotiation and cocreation of KOs were mediated by multiple material resources and participants’ disciplinary knowledge. In their diaries, students described the following collective KPs: 1) attending to interdisciplinary problems, 2) responsibility taking, 3) framing expertise and contribution, 4) crossing interdisciplinary boundaries, 5) exploring and concretizing new knowledge, and 6) reflecting and expanding upon practices and knowledge. Contributions The study widens our understanding of the intertwined dynamics of KOs and KPs through which students collectively create and engage in interdisciplinary learning.

The Investigation Related to Application of Federated Learning’s in Chest X-ray Detection

Following the global emergence of COVID-19 in 2020, the significance of Chest X-ray detection has grown exponentially as it plays a crucial role in diagnosing respiratory conditions. Concurrently, the evolving federated learning framework has been progressively integrated into the medical field, particularly in conjunction with Chest X-ray detection. This integration reflects a promising trend in enhancing collaborative diagnostic capabilities and leveraging collective knowledge across diverse medical institutions. Based on this background, this article provides a thorough review of medicine detection related federated learning frameworks and federated models, summarizes the characteristics and methods of federated models that have been widely used in various experiments in recent years, discusses and analyzes their advantages and disadvantages, and compares their performance with existing other machine learning models. In conclusion, the federated model outperforms non-federated machine learning models when it comes to analyzing Chest X-ray images and predicting symptoms. Lastly, this article outlines potential risks and offers improvement suggestions for the implementation of federated learning in chest X-ray detection.

Dialogues with AI: Comparing ChatGPT, Bard, and Human Participants’ Responses in In-Depth Interviews on Adolescent Health Care

This study explores the feasibility of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Bard as virtual participants in health-related research interviews. The goal is to assess whether these models can function as a “collective knowledge platform” by processing extensive datasets. Framed as a “proof of concept”, the research involved 20 interviews with both ChatGPT and Bard, portraying personas based on parents of adolescents. The interviews focused on physician–patient–parent confidentiality issues across fictional cases covering alcohol intoxication, STDs, ultrasound without parental knowledge, and mental health. Conducted in Dutch, the interviews underwent independent coding and comparison with human responses. The analysis identified four primary themes—privacy, trust, responsibility, and etiology—from both AI models and human-based interviews. While the main concepts aligned, nuanced differences in emphasis and interpretation were observed. Bard exhibited less interpersonal variation compared to ChatGPT and human respondents. Notably, AI personas prioritized privacy and age more than human parents. Recognizing disparities between AI and human interviews, researchers must adapt methodologies and refine AI models for improved accuracy and consistency. This research initiates discussions on the evolving role of generative AI in research, opening avenues for further exploration.

Associative linking for collaborative thinking: Self-organization of content in online Q&A communities via user-generated links.

Virtual collaborative Q&A communities generate shared knowledge through the interaction of people and content. This knowledge is often fragmented, and its value as a collective, collaboratively formed product, is largely overlooked. Inspired by work on individual mental semantic networks, the current study explores the networks formed by user-added associative links as reflecting an aspect of self-organization within the communities' collaborative knowledge sharing. Using eight Q&A topic-centered discussions from the Stack Exchange platform, it investigated how associative links form internal structures within the networks. Network analysis tools were used to derive topological indicator metrics of complex structures from associatively-linked networks. Similar metrics extracted from 1000 simulated randomly linked networks of comparable sizes and growth patterns were used to generate estimated sampling distributions through bootstrap resampling, and 99% confidence intervals were constructed for each metric. The discussion-network indicators were compared against these. Results showed that participant-added associative links largely led to networks that were more clustered, integrated, and included posts with more connections than those that would be expected in random networks of similar size and growth pattern. The differences were observed to increase over time. Also, the largest connected subgraphs within the discussion networks were found to be modular. Limited qualitative observations have also pointed to the impacts of external content-related events on the network structures. The findings strengthen the notion that the networks emerging from associative link sharing resemble other information networks that are characterized by internal structures suggesting self-organization, laying the ground for further exploration of collaborative linking as a form of collective knowledge organization. It underscores the importance of recognizing and leveraging this latent mechanism in both theory and practice.

SANe: Space adaptation network for temporal knowledge graph completion

Temporal Knowledge Graphs (TKGs) model time-dependent facts as relations between entities at specific timestamps, making them well-suited for real-world scenarios. However, TKGs are susceptible to incompleteness, necessitating Temporal Knowledge Graph Completion (TKGC) to predict missing facts. Prior methods often struggle to effectively handle two critical properties of TKGs, time-variability and time-stability, simultaneously, which hinders their performance. In this paper, we propose Space Adaptation Network (SANe), a novel approach for TKGC. SANe adapts facts at different timestamps to distinct latent spaces, effectively addressing time-variability. Our model introduces Parameter Generation Network to produce separate neural networks for each snapshot, which are then encoded into different latent spaces. A dynamic convolutional neural network processes entities and relations, utilizing different learned parameters generated by parameter generation network with respect to timestamps. By handling different temporal snapshots separately, TKGC is transformed into static KGC, enabling the modeling of time-variability. Dynamic convolutional neural network efficiently learns collective knowledge over large periods and supplements more specific knowledge gradually in smaller periods, facilitating time-stability. To strike a balance between learning time-variability and time-stability, we introduce a time-aware parameter generator to produce parameters hierarchically based on year, month, and day timestamps. Long-term knowledge is effectively shared across adjacent snapshots within the same year or month, while short-term knowledge within a day is preserved in specific parameters. However, in unbalanced TKGs, where many facts occur in small intervals, the large number of parameters generated by time-aware parameter generator may remain underutilized. To address this, we propose Adaptive Parameter Generation with a partition tree, ensuring parameter load balancing while maintaining time-stability. We conduct extensive experiments on five benchmark datasets, demonstrating the superiority of SANe over existing methods for TKGC, achieving state-of-the-art performance. Our contributions include pioneering TKGC from the perspective of space adaptation, achieving a balance between time-variability and time-stability through latent space overlap constraints, and substantiating the effectiveness of our model through comprehensive experiments on rich temporal datasets.

Indigenous Peoples’ Phronetic Leadership: A Trailblazing Case Study of Bacut Man-Made Lake for Agri-Eco-Tourism, Apayao, Philippines

Indigenous Phronetic Leaders inspired and promoted immense developments in communities through collective organizational knowledge creation. The study aimed to identify the problem of farmers, determine how phronetic leadership was practiced by the key informant, and describe the present situation of Bacut, Santa Marcela, Apayao, Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), Philippines. Mr. Elorde P. Anniban, an indigenous phronetic leaders was the main participant and the protagonist. He is an indigenous respected elder or “pangat” who, despite being physically disabled, initiated reforms in Bacut. In-depth interviews and document reviews were applied in this management case study. Results revealed that the main problem of the farmers was low rice production because there was no water system to irrigate their farmlands. Without the knowledge of the key participant, he applied the socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization (SECI) model and encouraged the mining of bright ideas of the people, engaged stakeholders and relentlessly sought government intervention to address the problem of farmers. Through the phronetic leadership of the key informant, the farmers, and the government leaders, an environment-friendly dam, fondly called the Bacut Lake was constructed irrigating farmlands and doubling and even tripling rice production addressing poverty in Santa Marcela, Apayao. In addition, indigenous peoples' phronetic leadership, the province of Apayao has now an astounding agri-eco-tourism site, a national park, rich in biodiversity, and several existing organizations are working together to boost the economy of the farmers and the province. On the other hand, Ifugao State University, a government higher education institution in the country, crystallized a phronetic leadership framework as an offshoot of the study.
 
 Received: 28 September 2023 / Accepted: 23 February 2024 / Published: 5 March 2024

Improving the rigor and reproducibility of catalyst testing and evaluation in the laboratory

Experimental testing and evaluation of catalysts in reactors is a central feature of fundamental catalysis science and reaction engineering. Measurements must be reproducible and interpretable to provide evidence for mechanistic studies or structure–function relationships, or to yield robust and intrinsically meaningful parameters to enable reactor scale-up and process development. Consequently, catalysis practitioners should seek to plan and perform catalyst testing in a manner that distinguishes between the intrinsic chemical kinetics governed by the catalyst and hydrodynamic, transport, and deactivation processes introduced by the form of the catalyst, the reactor vessel, and the nature of the contacting fluid. We highlight the importance of clear testing procedures for both the individual practitioner and the catalysis community and then discuss the sources and methods to address key sources of artifacts in catalyst testing. We organize sections in the form of questions practitioners should ask themselves when planning a catalyst testing campaign. This article references the original literature but also recasts the catalyst testing procedure in the form of a workflow diagram and illustrated depictions of the control experiments implemented within our laboratories to minimize the occurrence of artifacts. The content reflects our collective knowledge in the design, set up, and use of laboratory scale reactors for catalyst testing.

A theoretical conceptualisation of connection to culture in Australian First Peoples children

Connection to culture in Australian First Peoples children is an important social determinant of health in child development and wellbeing. The current study draws upon the collective knowledge of Australian First Peoples Elders and community leaders to collaboratively develop the first theoretical conceptualisation of connection to culture in Australian First Peoples children. Through participatory action research, we integrated both Western and Indigenist methodologies. One-on-one qualitative narrative interviews were conducted with six Australian First Peoples Elders and community leaders. Their knowledge was summarised through a process of Western thematic analysis and Indigenist arts-based participatory analysis to identify core concepts and mechanisms of connection to culture in First Peoples children. The outcome was a theory of connection to culture in Australian First Peoples children. By better understanding how children connect to culture, we can better support children in connecting to culture, targeting an important factor of health and wellbeing.

Teachers’ Research Competence and Engagement: Basis for Research Development Plan

Teachers’ research and competence posited complementary synergy theorizing that teachers with higher research competence are engaged in research pursuits relevant to professional growth within the context of education. This research addressed six key objectives by profiling respondents, assessing teachers’ competence on framing questions and data collection, identifying literature and theoretical knowledge, and analyzing and presenting research data, and research engagement levels on motivation to write research, and difficulty in conducting research, determining significant relationships between competence and engagement, exploring the correlation between engagement and respondents’ profiles, and designing a research development plan. Employing an adapted survey questionnaire using a universal sampling method, 391 teachers across the two districts in the Division of El Salvador City were surveyed during the School Year 2023–2024. Statistical tools such as means, frequency, standard deviation, Pearson-r, and triangulations were applied for data analysis. Findings indicated a positive correlation between teachers’ research competence and engagement. A significant relationship was identified between engagement and moderating variables like related training and position. Despite the teachers being competent and engaged, their research work was hindered by the number of coordinatorships they handled. It is important to emphasize the research competence and engagement for educational improvement as it illuminates the current state of teachers’ research skills and lays the groundwork for a targeted Research Development Plan.

Biogas utilization and its socioeconomic implications: exploring the drivers of energy selection in Southern Ethiopia’s Gurage zone

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore the potential and challenges of biogas utilization as an alternative and sustainable energy source in the Gurage zone of Southern Ethiopia, where traditional energy sources such as firewood and charcoal are widely used.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopts a mixed-methods approach to collect and analyze data from different sources and perspectives. The research collects quantitative data from structured interviews with 200 rural households who use biogas or other energy sources, and qualitative data from key informant interviews and focus group discussions with biogas experts, local authorities and community leaders. Socioeconomic analysis is conducted to assess the importance of biogas in terms of income, expenditure, health and environmental benefits, and a multivariate probit model is used to identify the factors influencing biogas energy adoption among rural households.FindingsThe findings indicate that biogas users are more likely to substitute traditional energy sources with biogas for cooking, lighting and heating purposes. The model reveals that age, sex, education level, land size and livestock quantity influence biogas energy adoption, whereas income, distance to market and access to credit do not have a significant effect. The findings also show that biogas users have higher income, lower expenditure, better health and lower greenhouse gas emissions than nonusers.Research limitations/implicationsThe study concludes that the socioeconomic impact of biogas varies among households based on location and lifestyle. The study also highlights the need for further research on the technical, institutional and behavioral aspects of biogas utilization in different contexts.Practical implicationsTo address the challenges faced by biogas users and their energy choices, such as lack of awareness, maintenance, quality control and affordability, the study suggests exploring biogas energy to meet the diverse needs of cattle owners in different regions. The study also recommends enhancing the capacity of local stakeholders, promoting public–private partnerships, and developing supportive policies and regulations for biogas development in Ethiopia.Social implicationsThe study implies that biogas utilization can contribute to social development by improving the living standards, health status and gender equality of rural households. The study also suggests that biogas utilization can foster social cohesion and empowerment by creating opportunities for collective action, knowledge sharing and income generation among biogas users and their communities.Originality/valueThe study provides a comprehensive and empirical analysis of the socioeconomic landscape of biogas utilization and the determinants of energy choice in the Gurage zone of Southern Ethiopia. The study also offers valuable insights and recommendations for policymakers, practitioners, researchers and other stakeholders involved in biogas development in Ethiopia and other developing countries.

Revisiting testimonio as critical race feminista methodology in educational research

This study is a review of educational scholarship that has utilized testimonio as a methodological approach. We begin with a brief overview of testimonio, highlighting its discursive subversions that align with longstanding traditions of storytelling within Communities of Color, and in critical race storytelling. We then describe how testimonio is an important tool within a broader Critical Race Feminista Methodology—a space of theorizing humanizing, anti-colonial methodological approaches that disrupt structural oppression and are guided by “a nostalgia for wholeness” (Delgado Bernal, Pérez Huber, & Malagon, 2019). Testimonio as a Critical Race Feminista Methodology allows for an interweaving of Chicana feminist and critical race epistemological and theoretical tools with qualitative research methods to cultivate methodological space for convivencia, critical reflection, collective knowledge production, and healing. Through this literature review, we see how this methodology brings mutual validation, shared humanity, and imperatives of social justice to the fore, shifting our research praxis from one that reproduces the colonial project, to one that seeks to transform and lead to collective well-being.

Exploring relationality in African knowledge systems as a contribution to decoloniality in sustainability science

ABSTRACT The current solutions offered by Western sustainability science to address prevailing global environmental destruction and social injustice are still largely embedded in the Western knowledge system established by colonisation, limiting the efficacy of these solutions for a large part of the planet. Conversely, it may be reasonable to imagine that the concept of relationality is beneficial in all cultures and knowledge systems. Relationality, elementally referring to a web of relationships, as considered from an African Indigenous and local knowledge perspective, could play an important role in decolonising Western sustainability science. Two valuable approaches, namely ubuntu (humanness) and ukama (relatedness), as predominantly observed in southern Africa, are essentially immersed in human-nature relationality. This type of relationality considers everything as interconnected, and therefore that nothing happens in isolation, and that the well-being of humans is inextricable from the well-being of nature. The way relationality is approached in African Indigenous knowledge systems is inclusive, holistic and perpetual, broadening its usefulness to a large audience, making it a sensible contributor to decoloniality in sustainability science. A collective knowledge could emerge, including cooperative, multidirectional interactions with different types of information from diverse human and non-human sources, increasingly eradicating the relational divide among knowledge systems caused by persistent colonial discourse and attitudes.

Productive classroom dialogue and its association with student achievement in knowledge-building environments

The first purpose of the present study was to characterize progressive and metacognitive dialogue in knowledge-building classrooms. The second purpose was to examine the association between the quality of classroom dialogue and students’ learning outcomes, including domain knowledge and conception of collaboration. One hundred thirty college students and their teacher participated in this study. A total of 73 lessons were video-recorded. Qualitative analysis of ­classroom dialogue identified dialogic moves into three categories—articulation and elaboration, building-on and connection, and reflection and coordination. The findings provide a rich illustration of how students engage in metacognitive and progressive dialogue. Quantitative analysis indicated that student engagement in classroom dialogue was positively associated with their domain knowledge and conception of collaboration. The results revealed that considering student involvement in classroom dialogue is essential for understanding how knowledge building occurs in classroom contexts and how collective knowledge and conception of collaboration are developed through classroom dialogue.

Consuming responsibly: Prioritising responsible consumption behaviours in Australia

Human behaviour is at the centre of unsustainable consumption and production. Responsible consumption behaviours must therefore be at the centre of the solution. However, because it is inefficient for policymakers and practitioners, and ineffective for users, to attempt to target all responsible consumption behaviours simultaneously in a given initiative, some form of prioritisation is necessary. Through a combination of collaborative workshops and surveys with key stakeholders, this study applied established methods of prioritisation to identify a ‘long list’ of 84 responsible consumption behaviours across three material streams – fashion, electronics and furniture. The ‘long list’ was then taken to a prioritisation summit with government, academic, business, and community stakeholders. The behaviours were rated against explicit prioritisation criteria related to likelihood of adoption, timing, impact and potential system reach. This yielded a final ‘short list’ of seven prioritised behaviours, including a mixture of achievable consumer behaviours that can be realised in the short-term, as well as larger-scale and longer-term manufacturer- and government-related behaviours supporting fundamental design and policy shifts. By drawing on the collective knowledge and expertise of academic and non-academic experts, the study identified and prioritised behaviours to reduce material resource consumption in Australia that are impactful and transformative, while also being practical and realistic to implement.

Introductory Overview of Layer Formation Techniques of Ag Nanowires on Flexible Polymeric Substrates

Ag nanowire electrodes are promising substitutes for traditional indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes in optoelectronic applications owing to their impressive conductivity, flexibility, and transparency. This review provides an overview of recent trends in Ag nanowire electrode layer formation, including key developments, challenges, and future prospects. It addresses several challenges in integrating Ag nanowires into practical applications, such as scalability, cost-effectiveness, substrate compatibility, and environmental considerations. Additionally, drawing from current trends and emerging technologies, this review explores potential avenues for improving Ag nanowire layer-forming technologies, such as material advancements, manufacturing scalability, and adaptability to evolving electronic device architectures. This review serves as a resource for researchers, engineers, and stakeholders in nanotechnology and optoelectronics, and underscores the relationship between advancements in patterning and the application of Ag nanowire electrodes. Through an examination of key developments, challenges, and future prospects, this review contributes to the collective knowledge base and encourages continued innovation in the ever-evolving realm of Ag nanowire-based optoelectronics.

Investigating the mechanisms of analytics-supported reflective assessment for fostering collective knowledge

Investigating the mechanisms of analytics-supported reflective assessment for fostering collective knowledge