Context Of Design Research Articles

PROACTIVE SUSTAINABLE APPROACHES BY MALAYSIAN FEEDER SERVICE COMPANIES IN THE DISRUPTIVE ERA

Feeder services play a significant role in Malaysian shipping economy. A total of 87.5 per cent of feeder companies have established themselves in Port Klang, as their focal point of service, while the remaining 12.5 per cent have chosen neighbouring Singapore Port as their base. Recently, the industry players have faced many challenges, such as hyper-competition, price wars, the COVID-19 pandemic, and threats of bankruptcy, which leads to the situation known as the disruptive era. While plenty of studies have discussed the issues of feeder services by focusing on the “hub and spoke” design, route design and environmental context, there is lack of research on proactive sustainable approach in the case of Malaysia feeder services. As a result, this paper reviews the impact of the United States-China trade war, COVID-19 pandemic and hyper-competition among feeder service companies in Malaysia. An extensive literature review and online interviews are conducted with feeder service operators, government agencies and port authorities, and the data analysed using Thematic Analysis. The results show that offering competitive freight rates, reliable services and alliance between feeder operators are important in business sustainability. Meanwhile, unstable oil prices, high chartering costs and less creativity in problem-solving are factors that reduce business sustainability. This paper hopes to assist feeder service operators, researchers and government agencies in understanding and planning sustainable strategies for the industry in the disruptive era.

Sensitivity Analysis of Uncertain Material RC Structure and Soil Parameters on Seismic Response of Soil-Structure Interaction Systems

In seismic performance based design context, engineers are faced to a difficult task to estimate the response of soil-structure interaction (SSI) systems. To accomplish this task successfully, all sources of random and epistemic uncertainties should be taken into account. However, the uncertain parameters have not the same influence on the model response; a sensitivity analysis is therefore required. This article treats the two following aspects: the first one is to perform a sensitivity analysis on all the parameters in order to study their influence on the structural response. The uncertainties effect is done by studying the sensitivity of the maximum structure displacement towards the used materials parameters variation (fc’, εc0, εcu, Es, fsy, α, εsu, A, ξ) and soil properties (ξg, ν) on the SSI seismic response. This study consists of determining, quantifying and analyzing how the outputs of the N2-SSI model are affected by input variables fluctuations. The second aspect is analysing the SSI system response by considering the correlation between the parameters (shear wave velocity and soil damping) and the influence of the lack knowledge of the uncertainties due to this correlation. The results of the sensitivity analysis indicate that the response of the structure is very sensitive to the concrete and steel parameters for larger values of the shear wave velocity. While, the soil damping and Poisson's ratio in the case of soil with shear wave velocity of 90 m/s, are the main inputs with the greatest influence on the maximum displacement output.

Bioluminescent micro-architectures: planning design in time, an eco-metabolistic approach to biodesign

By hybridising the principles of the living with the methods of design, the emerging field of biodesign is exploring how to radically transform the ecological imprint of contemporary material culture while questioning the creative opportunities induced by the appropriation of metabolic processes. This new bio-based foundation challenges architects and designers to rethink the way in which architecture is imagined, represented and materialised. This paper presents developments in the speculative collaborative project Imprimer la lumière examining living bioluminescent bacterial substrates as an architectural building material. In order to appropriate the light performance of these living organisms, the paper asks how to characterise and control these within an architectural design context and reports on efforts to develop computational models for simulating the behaviour, growth rates and life span of living materials and interface these with architectural representational framework. Within nature, bioluminescence is predominantly produced by marine organisms. In this context, the emitted light is a chemical reaction, part of a metabolic system that needs to be sustained. Working with bioluminescence therefore implies taking into consideration the ecosystem in which the light-emitting metabolisms take place as much as their limited lifespan. As a consequence, time must be understood as a key dimension of the architectural design process and wet lab tools and critically implemented into the palette of architectural design instruments and protocols.This paper reports on the examination of how living materials and their environment can be represented, simulated and predicted as part of an eco-metabolistic model developing mechanisms of functionalising and steering a living architectural material.

From the Green Zone to Havana Syndrome: Making Geographic Sense of Rotationality and Hardship in Diplomacy

Abstract Most foreign ministries use a rotational system in deploying personnel abroad, with diplomats moving between foreign posts every few years and earning salary premiums based on the risks, dangers, and hardships associated with different foreign posts. We examine rotationality and hardship in diplomacy, identifying these as spatial and institutional practices for managing a global network of diplomatic personnel and sites. These are institutionalized in foreign ministries’ processes for assessing and compensating hardship and danger, and embodied in the design, function, and locational contexts of embassy buildings in foreign capitals. We rely on empirical examples from the US and Canadian foreign services, looking at US embassies in Berlin and Baghdad, and “Havana syndrome” among American and Canadian diplomats and their family members. We conclude that security-heavy forms of hardship assessment and management can limit diplomats’ ability to build local knowledge and constrain the interaction and openness usually prized in diplomatic practice.

Everyday design-driven innovation: Exploring meaning change in IKEA hacking

Although much work exists to describe design-driven meaning innovation, few provide objective tools to identify and measure meaning innovation. Within the context of everyday design and adopting conceptual blending theory, we identify and assesses design-driven innovation in meaning within cases of IKEA product hacking as examples of higher-level everyday design. Conceptual blending is used as a scaffold for a content analysis of 100 IKEA hacks to identify 60 cases of meaning change. These cases are further assessed through objective meaning innovation scores derived from conceptual blending theory. A user evaluation is then conducted through a pair-wise comparison of the 60 cases to derive meaning innovation scores. The results indicate, although personal biases, idiosyncrasies, and life experiences inevitably influence evaluation of innovation through conceptual blending, that the approach has potential as an objective means to identify and evaluate design-driven meaning innovation in cases of everyday design. Finally, broader implications for assessing meaning innovation are discussed.

The bacterial community of childcare centers: potential implications for microbial dispersal and child exposure

BackgroundBacterial communities within built environments reflect differences in sources of bacteria, building design, and environmental contexts. These communities impact the health of their occupants in many ways. Children interact with the built environment differently than do adults as a result of their unique behaviors, size, and developmental status. Consequently, understanding the broader bacterial community to which children are exposed will help inform public health efforts and contribute to our growing understanding of the bacterial community associated with childcare centers.MethodsWe sampled childcare centers to survey the variation in bacterial community composition across five surfaces found inside and outside twelve classrooms and six centers using 16S rRNA marker gene amplicon sequencing. We then correlated these bacterial community analyses of surfaces with environmental and demographic measures of illumination and classroom occupant density.ResultsThe childcare environment was dominated by human-associated bacteria with modest input from outdoor sources. Though the bacterial communities of individual childcare centers differed, there was a greater difference in the bacterial community within a classroom than among centers. Surface habitats—fomites—within the classroom, did not differ in community composition despite differing proximity to likely sources of bacteria, and possible environmental filters, such as light. Bacterial communities did correlate with occupant density and differed significantly between high and low usage surfaces.ConclusionsOur results suggest built environments inhabited by young children are similar to functionally equivalent built environments inhabited by adults, despite the different way young children engage with their environment. Ultimately, these results will be useful when further interrogating microbial dispersal and human exposure to microorganisms in built environments that specifically cater to young children.

Perceptions of Nursing Graduates regarding the Bachelor of Nursing Science Curriculum Offered by the University of Namibia

The curriculum forms the vital foundation for ensuring the success of a nursing programme. The theoretical content imparted to students and their practical competence rely on the curriculum offered by the institution. Accordingly, curriculum weaknesses and challenges do not only affect the institution, but also graduates’ competence. Nursing students’ perceptions of the curriculum can be used to align it to meet its intended outcomes and goals. Nursing graduates’ perceptions of the Bachelor of Nursing Science curriculum offered by the University of Namibia have not been extensively researched. This study sought to explore and describe the perceptions of nursing graduates regarding the Bachelor of Nursing Science curriculum offered by the University of Namibia, using a qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual design. Purposive sampling was used where a total of 18 fourth-year nursing graduates at the University of Namibia were approached individually to participate in the study. Data were collected using individual, semi-structured interviews and were analysed using qualitative thematic analysis. The following themes subsequently emerged from the study, namely: personal understanding of the curriculum; mode of delivery; challenges regarding theory and clinical competence; competence in readiness to start practising; and mechanisms for improvement. The findings of this study call for well-articulated plans from faculty management teams to use these study findings to inform future curriculum review processes. It is recommended that the first-aid module be offered as a core module in the first year of study. In addition, the existing two-week block system should be extended into a four-week system to enable theory to be integrated into practice.

The discourse of design: Patterns of TPACK Contribution during pre-service teacher learning design conversations.

Analysing pre-service teachers’ learning design conversations in relation to Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework to understand their learning design practices has remained unexplored. This paper presents findings from a study of pre-service teachers’ design discourses that identified how TPACK elements were used during their collaborative design of technology-enhanced lessons. Through thematic analysis of 81 design conversations in two cycles, it was found that pre-service teachers discussed design related issues, TPACK elements, and context in their design conversations with dominant references to design-related issues, substantial occurrences of single TPACK elements, and lower frequencies of integrated TPACK elements and context. Practical recommendations and a Design-TPACK or ‘D-TPACK’ framework were proposed to support pre-service teachers’ learning design practices.

A functional demonstration of adaptive reuse of waste into modular assemblies for structural applications: The case of bicycle frames

Can waste that possesses convenient structural properties be repurposed into modular structural assemblies and thus contribute to a circular economy in the built environment? This is a largely novel idea that is under-explored. A structured and generalized framework is presented to address and evaluate this idea. Validation of the efficacy of the framework is based on functional demonstration for a particularly compelling waste stream opportunity presented by the large number of discarded bicycle frames in many world economies. Key impediments include but are not limited to, efficient solutions to materials disassembly, sorting, structural properties assessment, markets, and re-assembly designs. Detailed analysis of modular structural truss assemblies from bicycle frames helps to demonstrate the solution steps included in the framework. In particular, the functional demonstration of the research concepts validates the feasibility of adaptively reusing bicycle frames into a modular assembly with a maximum load capacity of 3.6 kPa. The methodology presented can be used to add value to specific waste streams, contribute to reducing environmental impacts, and serve as a model for other adaptive reuse applications beyond the structural design context. The findings point to implications for product stewardship, as well as design for disassembly, and support future project development plans for policymakers. Barriers addressed by this research include those related to structural competency, lifecycle optimization, and economic feasibility. This research inspires new ideas to employ waste material for structural designs and encourage circular economy practices.

The Complexity of Contextuality: A Case Study on Vertical Housing Facilities in Surabaya, Indonesia

Vertical housing has been considered an effective way to provide low-income housing in many megacities. As part of an effort to implement contextual architectural design, vertical housing projects in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, incorporated shared kitchens and bathrooms as observed in Indonesian kampong (slum) settlements. However, the residents eventually converted their shared kitchen spaces to other uses and constructed kitchens in their individual units. This research study investigated the nature of and reasons for such transformations through quantitative and qualitative data collection among residents of three vertical housing projects in Surabaya. We found that disputes over upkeep and rules of use, along with perceived invasions of privacy, precipitated the abandonment of shared kitchens. Residents could not retrofit their shared bathrooms for structural reasons, but they renegotiated a payment system (based on flat fees rather than actual usage) that they considered unfair. Interviews revealed significant differences in implementation between the shared facilities in vertical housing and the voluntary shared arrangements in the kampongs. The facility and management modifications that occurred in vertical housing, which applied bottom-up contextual design by considering users’ needs and sensitivities, indicate the complexity of applying a contextual design process into practice.

Adaptive Robust Control for a Spatial Flexible Timoshenko Manipulator Subject to Input Dead-Zone

This article investigates the adaptive robust spatial vibration control for a flexible Timoshenko manipulator subject to input dead-zone nonlinearity characteristic. The “disturbance-like” terms and dead-zone nonlinearity are first incorporated into the context of control design, and the new boundary robust adaptive control laws are constructed to reduce the shear deformation and elastic oscillation, ensure the expected angle orientation, handle the input dead-zone, and estimate the upper bound of compound disturbances. The convergence of states and the stability of the system are analyzed and proven without simplifying the infinite dimensional dynamics. In the end, the effectiveness of the presented scheme is demonstrated by the result of simulation research.

Understanding EFL Teacher Engagement in TDTs' Collaborative Curriculum Design: A Chinese Case Study From the Activity Theory Perspective.

While collaborative curriculum design (CCD) has gained increasing attention in the field of education, there is scant research as to how EFL teachers implement it in authentic design contexts. The present case study places particular emphasis on teacher activities during collaborative EFL curriculum development in China. The researchers adopt Activity Theory as an analytical tool to understand the relationships between EFL teachers, reform goals, and various aspects of the sociocultural context in which CCD is advocated, highlighting the pivotal role that mediation of knowledge/experience plays in the teacher learning community. Research findings indicate that the TDTs’ collaborative process is a socially constructed and culturally mediated activity that promotes EFL teacher development. Moreover, in-service teachers are prone to take challenges through educational reforms out of teacher motives and external stimuli. Limitations of the CCD model are also discussed to shed light on future research.

Review of Current Simple Ultrasound Hardware Considerations, Designs, and Processing Opportunities

Ultrasound is one of the most widely used imaging tools for non-destructive testing (NDT) and non-invasive medical diagnosis. Since its beginnings in the 1950s, ultrasound imaging research has led to innovations such as new sensors, signal processing, and hardware development. After more than fifty years, the field continues to evolve, aided by advances in electronics and digital hardware. However, the field remains under-researched in terms of experimental open-source hardware. An open, flexible, and cost-efficient platform is still needed for many basic medical and testing applications. A platform of this kind would support the efforts of researchers, makers, and device developers in accelerating ultrasound research and development. The aim of this review is to identify literature relevant to the understanding, design, and operation of simple ultrasound devices and to present this body of knowledge in a format that is easily accessible to ultrasound system designers. It also provides a summary of current ultrasound research to introduce readers to trends of interest. We capture design and use considerations from classical and modern instruments. We cover both NDT and medical applications, starting with a review of the design context, followed by a review of existing architectures and analog buildings blocks, followed by a survey of digital options available to support and complement the hardware.

Framing to reduce present bias in infrastructure design intentions

SummaryInfrastructure professionals (N = 261) were randomly assigned to either a future or present-framed project description and asked to recommend design attributes for an infrastructure project. The future-framed condition led professionals to propose a significantly longer infrastructure design life, useful life to the community, and acceptable return on financial investment. The findings suggest a straightforward and inexpensive way to lessen present bias in various design contexts

Initiatives Addressing Precarious Employment and Its Effects on Workers' Health and Well-Being: A Systematic Review.

The prevalence of precarious employment has increased in recent decades and aspects such as employment insecurity and income inadequacy have intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this systematic review was to identify, appraise, and synthesise existing evidence pertaining to implemented initiatives addressing precarious employment that have evaluated and reported health and well-being outcomes. We used the PRISMA framework to guide this review and identified 11 relevant initiatives through searches in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and three sources of grey literature. We found very few evaluated interventions addressing precarious employment and its impact on the health and well-being of workers globally. Ten out of 11 initiatives were not purposefully designed to address precarious employment in general, nor specific dimensions of it. Seven out of 11 initiatives evaluated outcomes related to the occupational health and safety of precariously employed workers and six out of 11 evaluated worker health and well-being outcomes. Most initiatives showed the potential to improve the health of workers, although the evaluation component was often described with less detail than the initiative itself. Given the heterogeneity of the 11 initiatives regarding study design, sample size, implementation, evaluation, economic and political contexts, and target population, we found insufficient evidence to compare outcomes across types of initiatives, generalize findings, or make specific recommendations for the adoption of initiatives.

Homophobia and Transphobia Among Spanish Practicing and Future Teachers

The institution of schooling is a key socializing agent, and teachers’ attitudes toward gender and sexual diversity play a crucial role in the education of all children, shaping in particular the school experience of LGBT + children and youth. Our research used a survey of Early Childhood and Primary teachers (N = 182) and university students studying these degree programs (N = 1,133) in northwestern Spain (Galicia) to analyze transphobic and homophobic attitudes, and their relationship with other professional and academic variables, such as years of experience or study, specialization or degree program, and place of work or study. Results showed that practicing teachers generally displayed less tolerant attitudes than students studying to be teachers, although tolerance increased with the numbers of years of teaching experience. We also found differences among students according to their course of study, with those preparing to teach at the Early Childhood Education level showing more positive attitudes, and also depending on the location of their university campus, suggesting that the program design and local sociocultural context may be contributing factors.

Sampling Validation Data to Achieve a Planned Precision of the Bias-Adjusted Estimate of Effect.

Data collected from a validation substudy permit calculation of a bias-adjusted estimate of effect that is expected to equal the estimate that would have been observed had the gold standard measurement been available for the entire study population. In this paper, we develop and apply a framework for adaptive validation to determine when sufficient validation data have been collected to yield a bias-adjusted effect estimate with a prespecified level of precision. Prespecified levels of precision are decided a priori by the investigator, based on the precision of the conventional estimate and allowing for wider confidence intervals that would still be substantively meaningful. We further present an applied example of the use of this method to address exposure misclassification in a study of transmasculine/transfeminine youth and self-harm. Our method provides a novel approach to effective and efficient estimation of classification parameters as validation data accrue, with emphasis on the precision of the bias-adjusted estimate. This method can be applied within the context of any parent epidemiologic study design in which validation data will be collected and modified to meet alternative criteria given specific study or validation study objectives.

Design rules application in manufacturing industries: a state of the art survey and proposal of a context-aware approach

In manufacturing industries, the design of a product needs to comply with many design rules. These rules are essentials as they help industrial designers to create high quality designs in an efficient way. [Problem] However, the management of an ever-increasing number of design rules becomes a real problem, especially for novice designers. Even if there exists some knowledge engineering tools for managing design rules, their capabilities are still limited and many companies continue to store their design rules in unstructured documents. Nowadays, the application of design rules remains a difficult task that needs a circular validation process between many experts in a manufacturing company. [Proposition] In this paper, we will analyze the main existing approaches for the application of design rules and we will demonstrate the need of a new approach to improve the current state-of-the-art practices. To minimize rule application impact on the design process, we propose to develop a Context-Aware Design Assistant that will recommend design rules on the fly while using computer-aided design software. Our design assistant relies on the modelling of the design rules and the design context in a single knowledge graph that can fuel a recommendation engine. [Future Work] In future work, we will describe the technical structure of the Context-Aware Design Assistant and develop it. The potential outcome of this research are: a better workflow integration of design rules application, a proactive verification of design solutions, a continuous learning of design rules and the detection and automation of design routines.

Designing rule-based conversational agents with behavioral programming: a study of human subjects

PurposeIn this work, the authors propose to harness the advantages of behavioral programming as a new technique for designing rule-based conversational agents.Design/methodology/approachTo examine the study’s hypotheses, the authors perform a first-of-its-kind user study through which the authors examine how potential designers, both expert designers, computationally-oriented designers, and otherwise, leverage behavioral programming (BP) and dialog graphs for designing conversational agents (CAs). The authors also use two standard CA settings common in the literature: designing a CA representative for a user in an online dating service and a non-character player in a role-playing game (RPG).FindingsThe study’s results indicate that BP can be successfully utilized by computationally-oriented designers, with or without prior knowledge in CA design, and can facilitate the design of better CAs (i.e. more accurate and more robust). However, to capitalize on these potential advantages, designers may be required to devote more time to the design process and are likely to encounter higher temporal demand levels. These results suggest that BP, which was initially proposed and evaluated in the general context of software design, can constitute a valuable alternative to the classic rule-based CA design technique commonly practiced today.Research limitations/implicationsAn important limitation of this study is the relatively small participant pool. While the authors do plan to extend this study in the future, the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) situation makes it ever more complex to conduct formal user studies of this kind. It is, however, important to note that despite the low number of participants, many of the results are found to be statistically significant.Practical implicationsThe authors plan to continue this line of work and conduct human studies for additional design techniques in other popular agent-based settings. Specifically, the authors seek to explore how people of different backgrounds should design agents for various tasks such as automated negotiation (e.g. how should a person design a representative agent to negotiate on her behalf?) and social choice (e.g. how should a person design a voting bot to represent her in online voting systems?).Originality/valuePeople are increasingly interacting with conversational agents in various settings and for a variety of reasons, as the market size of those agents keeps on growing every year. Through a first-of-its-kind human study (N = 41), consisting of both expert designers, computationally-oriented designers, and otherwise, the authors demonstrate a few key advantages and limitations of BP in the realm of conversational agents and propose its consideration as an alternative to the classic dialog graph technique.

Multi-fidelity weight analyses for high aspect ratio strut-braced wings preliminary design

In the wake of ”flygskam” movement that emerged in Sweden a couple of years ago many voices recently raised denounce the environmental footprint of aviation. Even if the real impact of the sector could appear rather limited the critics reveal the necessity to propose cleaner aircraft to both meet public expectations and environmental goals. Because the classical wing-tube configuration seems to have reached its limits, disruptive designs must be considered. Among the perspectives to reduce emissions, high-aspect ratio wings represent a promising path to be explored within the European CleanSky2 project U-HARWARD. Indeed, substantial diminution of induced drag are expected from those new configurations resulting in fewer fuel consumption. To achieve high-aspect ratio without compromising the structural weight strut can be introduced. They allow for an alleviation of the bending moment at the wing root and therefore lighter structures. However, the consideration of those new wing configuration at early design stages is not straightforward and new methods have to be introduced. In this paper, we present three different fidelity approaches to tackle with (ultra) high-aspect ratio strut-braced wings sizing and weight estimation in preliminary design context. Already existing analytical formulations for the wings are extended, intermediate fidelity aero-structural coupling has been developed and high-fidelity structural representation are considered. Depending on the maturity of the concept these methods could be used to explore the design space, to refine the optimum or to analyse the final concept. Validation with respect to reference configurations is provided. Then the methods are applied to the analysis of strut-braced wings.