Context Of Requirements Research Articles

Theory-driven Visual Design to Support Reflective Dietary Practice via mHealth: A Design Science Approach

Design for reflection in human-computer interaction (HCI) has evolved from focusing on an abstract and outcome-driven design subject towards exposing procedural or structural reflection characteristics. Although HCI research has recognized that an individual's reflection is a long-lasting, multi-layered process that can be supported by meaningful design, researchers have made few efforts to derive insights from a theoretical perspective about appropriate translation into end-user visual means. Therefore, we synthesize theoretical knowledge from reflective practice and learning and argue for a differentiation between time contexts of reflection that design needs to address differently. In an interdisciplinary design-science-research project in the mHealth nutrition promotion context, we developed theory-driven guidelines for “reflection-in-action” and “reflection-on-action”. Our final design guidelines emerged from prior demonstrations and a final utility evaluation with mockup artifacts in a laboratory experiment with 64 users. Our iterative design and the resulting design guidelines offer assistance for addressing reflection design by answering reflective practice’s respective contextual requirements. Based on our user study, we show that reflection in terms of “reflection- in-action” benefits from offering actionable choice criteria in an instant timeframe, while “reflection-on-action” profits from the structured classification of behavior-related criteria from a longer, still memorable timeframe.

Problematising current coaching strategies from a worldview perspective

Orientation: Leaders need goodness-of-fit with the context in which they are leading, and coaching is considered an effective strategy to achieve this.Research purpose: To critically problematise current dominant coaching strategies in terms of their underlying worldviews, in order to assess their potential effectiveness and relevance in enhancing context‒leadership goodness-of-fit, given the emerging context faced by leaders.Motivation for the study: The current ever-changing context of leaders requires different thinking, including with regard to coaching. The framework of the coaching landscape, with its associated building blocks, provides the conceptual framework for the review of current coaching strategies. Three dominant worldviews that have historically influenced the thinking in social sciences are employed in this review, namely Newtonian, general systems theory and complexity or chaos (second-order systemic thinking).Research approach/design and method: This was a critical conceptual study aimed at problematising the worldviews informing the currently dominant coaching strategies.Main findings: The problematising of the worldviews underlying the dominant coaching strategies revealed that these strategies are not always informed by a worldview congruent with that demanded by the qualities and features of the world that leaders currently face. There is a pressing need for a coaching strategy informed by a complexity or chaos (second-order systemic) worldview, which better meets the emerging contextual demands and requirements imposed on leaders in practice.Practical/managerial implications: A different coaching strategy, called systemic coaching, is proposed.Contribution/value-add: The proposed systemic coaching strategy is highly suitable to bringing about improved goodness-of-fit between the leader and the emerging context.

Needs Analysis to Design an English Blended Learning Program: Teachers’ and Administrators’ Voices

This needs analysis study sought to identify the contextual requirements to design and implement a blended learning program in English at a Colombian public university. Data on teachers’ and administrators’ perceptions were gathered through a questionnaire, interviews, and focus groups and analyzed using grounded theory. Findings revealed the need to invest considerably in new personnel and e-infrastructure. Likewise, students’ context should be considered to design EFL blended programs. Teachers and students should be offered ICT and methodological professional development. Finally, the program should carefully balance the integration of face-to-face and online modalities. This investigation can help the academic community of language educators and curriculum designers carry out needs analysis studies for creating contextualized blended learning programs.

Sustainability in Global Business: Analytical Framework for Selected Value Chains in Sub-Saharan Africa

During the last two decades, the dimensions of business sustainability have expanded from an environmental focus to a ‘triple bottom line (TBL)’ i.e. Economic, Social and Environmental. The analysis shows that the real challenge for businesses lies in balancing these three TBL dimensions. The TBL sustainability equation of any business is relative to the context in which it operates. In the case of global business value chains, it is observed that the TBL performance varies depending on the particular stage of the value-chain i.e. first sourcing to manufacturing, distribution, consumption and reverse logistics. There is no absolute formula for defining the TBL performance. Therefore, the issue requires contextual analysis of the different value chain levels in relation to the contextual considerations. The current paper focuses on analyzing three different value chains in Sub-Saharan Africa: Lithium Batteries; Coffee; and Pharmaceuticals. Based on the literature review, we first identify the important parameters for analyzing these three value chains. Two of the selected value chains focus on the sustainability issues in the inbound part of value chains (sourcing) while the third one focuses on the distribution (outbound) value chain. The paper explores how the considerations and approach of analysis shift depending on the contextual requirements. The paper offers insights for further developing the sustainability performance analysis framework in global value chains. instructions give you guidelines for preparing papers for this journal.

Addressing Complexity in the Pandemic Context: How Systems Thinking Can Facilitate Understanding of Design Aspects for Preventive Technologies

The COVID-19 pandemic constitutes a wicked problem that is defined by rapidly evolving and dynamic conditions, where the physical world changes (e.g., pathogens mutate) and, in parallel, our understanding and knowledge rapidly progress. Various preventive measures have been developed or proposed to manage the situation, including digital preventive technologies to support contact tracing or physical distancing. The complexity of the pandemic and the rapidly evolving nature of the situation pose challenges for the design of effective preventive technologies. The aim of this conceptual paper is to apply a systems thinking model, DSRP (distinctions, systems, relations, perspectives) to explain the underlying assumptions, patterns, and connections of the pandemic domain, as well as to identify potential leverage points for design of preventive technologies. Two different design approaches, contact tracing and nudging for distance, are compared, focusing on how their design and preventive logic are related to system complexity. The analysis explains why a contact tracing technology involves more complexity, which can challenge both implementation and user understanding. A system utilizing nudges can operate using a more distinct system boundary, which can benefit understanding and implementation. However, frequent nudges might pose challenges for user experience. This further implies that these technologies have different contextual requirements and are useful at different levels in society. The main contribution of this work is to show how systems thinking can organize our understanding and guide the design of preventive technologies in the context of epidemics and pandemics.

A Digital Twin System for Railway Infrastructure

This paper presents a concept and case study implementation for a system of digital twins (DTs) aimed at supporting the management of railway infrastructure maintenance. The system of DTs includes DTs and software services. The case study uses, as physical asset, a subset of the railway infrastructure managed by the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA). The DT system concept is evaluated, using a case study, to assess its ability to meet users' information requirements and contextual requirements. The paper also evaluates the generality of the case study results. The case study illustrates that the DT system can acquire and integrate data from diverse data sources and be adapted to a changing context (in terms of user requirements, infrastructural elements, and data sources). Even though the case study considers only a subset of infrastructure, the scalability of the DT system is illustrated, indicating its potential for larger implementations, within and beyond PRASA. The paper, therefore, shows that the DT system concept can provide an integrated view of the data on the railway infrastructure, thereby supporting data-led decision-making by infrastructure maintenance managers.

Indigenous or Biomedical Ethics, or Both? A Consideration From Health-Related Ethnographic Research Conducted in a Rural Setting

Generally, conventional biomedically rooted ethical guidelines developed in Western countries for ethnographic research in non-Western countries are often impractical and raise contention. Ethical approval from research ethics committees (RECs) is a significant aspect of the research process. However, for researchers wanting to conduct a research study in an African context in a culturally sensitive manner, identifying ethics procedures that meet the demands of RECs while acknowledging the indigenous ethics of the research context creates ethical dilemmas. In this article, we reflect on our experiences conducting a study on child feeding practices in a rural community in Ghana. The aim is to discuss some ethical dilemmas that confront researchers as they seek to adhere to conventional ethical protocols and regulations while respecting the indigenous ethics, values, and practices of the research setting. RECs need to acknowledge that while researchers must uphold core ethical principles, ethics procedures must also meet the contextual requirements of the research participants. Research ethics is an ongoing process subject to re-negotiation and re-interpretation; therefore, RECs should allow researchers to adapt their methods to local circumstances without needing further review. Consequently, RECs must allow for culturally sensitive ethics procedures. These suggestions have the potential to ensure that research projects in Africa are culturally appropriate, increasing the acceptability of research by indigenous communities.

Shaping Sustainability in Architectural Education: The Integrated Design as a Tool

Climate change is bringing new challenges for architectural education and calls for a new paradigm in the way we teach architecture and urban design. Therefore, a shift has become crucial to enhance the implementation of sustainability within university programs. This paper is, an experimental study taking place, in the first year of master's degree in civil engineering and architecture at the University of Liège, and within the context of an integrated design. The interconnection between design studio and theoretical course on sustainability allows students to develop in-depth knowledge and understanding of sustainability issues by integrating the environmental quality of the building into their designs. During this studio, and to respond to their architectural choices, several tools are applied within the design process to help students develop their building designs, such as interdisciplinary contributions. Our study is constituted of data collected via questionnaires and interviews as well as examining learning activities, teaching methods, students’ outcomes, and their interactions with their instructors. The analysis reveals that sustainability and environmental quality criteria were developed in a holistic way of design thinking in coherence with all the functional, aesthetic, and technological aspects in the design process while respecting the specific contextual requirements… The findings provide evidence that integrated design plays an important role in shaping sustainability in architectural education. This can be achieved through an interdisciplinary collaborative approach that calls for more involvement from students, and that puts into practice their theoretical bases within the design studio.

Doing things with discourse in the mediated political arena

Abstract This paper examines the contextual constraints and requirements of discursive action in question-answer-sequences based discourse genres (interviews, Prime Minister’s Questions, People’s Prime Minister’s Questions) in mediated political discourse. It considers the multilayeredness of participation and pluralism of discursive action on the one hand, and the delimiting frame of the dialogic discourse genres on the other. It shows that both have a decisive impact on the participants’ meaning-making processes in context: the inherently unbounded participation framework contributes to pluralism of discursive action, while genre- and media constraints narrow down the scope of production and interpretation. This does not only hold for the stage at which a discursive action occurs in the discourse, but also for its degree of explicitness with regard to presuppositions and felicity conditions.

Getting Social

Knowledge acquired by end users through their social networks facilitates optimal use of a newly implemented enterprise system. Existing research has conceptualized end users as being the only actors within such networks. Knowledge ties between actors have been treated as unidimensional. The actor-network theory emphasizes the role of all actors in influencing networking outcomes; hence, this study proposes an expanded multimodal social network that includes four institutionally mandated knowledge actors: the technology champions, the help desk, the service desk, and the shared inbox. Knowledge ties are treated as bidimensional through incorporating both technical and business process knowledge. Data collected from an enterprise resource planning system implementation validated this approach; end users sourced knowledge from other end users and the institutionally mandated network actors based on contextual requirements. End user performance outcomes were significantly associated with knowledge source and knowledge dimension.

Evaluation of simple and multivariate linear regression models for exchangeable base cation conversion between seven measurement techniques on South African soils

Conversions of exchangeable base cation concentrations between different analytical methods are required for comparisons of soil test results with norm values developed using specific methods. Different methods vary in extraction efficiency due to underlying chemical mechanisms of cation exchange. There is a lack of knowledge pertaining to the combined effects of soil physicochemical properties on the accuracy and parsimony of conversion models. Thus, the aim of this study was to develop equations for conversion of exchangeable base cation (Ca, Mg, K and Na) concentrations between seven different methods of measurement for soils dominated by moderate-activity clays. Additional objectives included the discussion of chemical mechanisms influencing nutrient extraction efficiency, development of root mean square error (RMSE) thresholds for model selection, and evaluation of the effects of soil physicochemical properties on model performance. The ammonium acetate (1 M and 0.2 M, pH = 7), compulsive exchange, Ambic-I, Mehlich-III, Bray-II and Citric acid (1%) soil test methods were performed on 57 soils from a Mediterranean climatic zone. Simple linear regressions (SLR) as well as multivariate linear regressions (MLR) incorporating soil physicochemical properties as parameters were developed. The accuracy of cross-validated models was comparable to accuracy of predictions for samples included in calibration. MLR equations (RMSECV = 1.4–1.6 cmolc kg−1, 0.4 cmolc kg−1, 16–20 mg kg−1 and 25–40 mg kg−1 for Ca, Mg, Na and K, respectively) were generally more accurate than SLR models. Relationships between Ca content extracted by different methods depended on soil alkalinity. Use of the developed SLR or MLR models to convert nutrient quantities between different methods should be chosen based on contextual accuracy requirements.

Towards cost-benefit evaluation for continuous software engineering activities

Context:Software companies must become better at delivering software to remain relevant in the market. Continuous integration and delivery practices promise to streamline software deliveries to end-users by implementing an automated software development and delivery pipeline. However, implementing or retrofitting an organization with such a pipeline is a substantial investment, while the reporting on benefits and their relevance in specific contexts/domains are vague.Aim:In this study, we explore continuous software engineering practices from an investment-benefit perspective. We identify what benefits can be attained by adopting continuous practices, what the associated investments and risks are, and analyze what parameters determine their relevance.Method:We perform a multiple case study to understand state-of-practice, organizational aims, and challenges in adopting continuous software engineering practices. We compare state-of-practice with state-of-the-art to validate the best practices and identify relevant gaps for further investigation.Results:We found that companies start the CI/CD adoption by automating and streamlining the internal development process with clear and immediate benefits. However, upgrading customers to continuous deliveries is a major obstacle due to existing agreements and customer push-back. Renegotiating existing agreements comes with a risk of losing customers and disrupting the whole organization.Conclusions:We conclude that the benefits of CI/CD are overstated in literature without considering the contextual and domain complexities rendering some benefits infeasible. We identify the need to understand the customer and organizational perspectives further and understand the contextual requirements towards the CI/CD.

INFORMATION AND ANALYTICAL SUPPORT OF GENDER AUDIT OF EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Contemporary requirements for a gender-responsive educational management system with an emphasis on the STEM industry is outlined. The need for the use of gender audit of higher education institutions (HEI) is indicated. It is noted that the management system should be capable of greater integration of gender-sensitive components. A matrix of parameters of gender maturity of the organizational system of HEI is proposed. It includes five basic principles of gender equality defined by the World Economic Forum (“gender equality in the workplace”, “gender-balanced management”, “gender-equitable organizational processes”, “promoting equal participation of women and men in decision-making”, “promoting development of the leadership potential of women”). The contextual requirements for a gender-responsive educational management system are structured. G. Kerzner's project management maturity model was applied to improve the author's method of measuring gender activity in HEI. The results of an experimental study of assessing the gender maturity of the management system are presented on the example of Ukrainian universities.

The Power to Structure

Information systems are developed by people with intent—they are designed to help creators and users tell specific stories with data. Within information systems, the often invisible structures of metadata profoundly impact the meaning that can be derived from that data. The Linked Infrastructure for Networked Cultural Scholarship project (LINCS) helps humanities researchers tell stories by using linked open data to convert humanities datasets into organized, interconnected, machine-processable resources. LINCS provides context for online cultural materials, interlinks them, andgrounds them in sources to improve web resources for research. This article describes how the LINCS team is using the shared standards of linked data and especially ontologies—typically unseen yet powerful—to bring meaning mindfully to metadata through structure. The LINCS metadata—comprised of linked open data about cultural artifacts, people, and processes—and the structures that support it must represent multiple, diverse ways of knowing. It needs to enable various means of incorporating contextual data and of telling stories with nuance and context, situated and supported by data structures that reflect and make space for specificities and complexities. As it addresses specificity in each research dataset, LINCS is simultaneously working to balance interoperability, as achieved through a level of generalization, with contextual and domain-specific requirements. The LINCS team’s approach to ontology adoption and use centers on intersectionality, multiplicity, and difference. The question of what meaning the structures being used will bring to the data is as important as what meaning is introduced as a result of linking data together, and the project has built this premise into its decision-making and implementation processes. To convey an understanding of categories and classification as contextually embedded—culturally produced, intersecting, and discursive—the LINCS team frames them not as fixed but as grounds for investigation and starting points for understanding. Metadata structures are as important as vocabularies for producing such meaning.

Oscillation/Coincidence-Detection Models of Reward-Related Timing in Corticostriatal Circuits

Abstract The major tenets of beat-frequency/coincidence-detection models of reward-related timing are reviewed in light of recent behavioral and neurobiological findings. This includes the emphasis on a core timing network embedded in the motor system that is comprised of a corticothalamic-basal ganglia circuit. Therein, a central hub provides timing pulses (i.e., predictive signals) to the entire brain, including a set of distributed satellite regions in the cerebellum, cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus that are selectively engaged in timing in a manner that is more dependent upon the specific sensory, behavioral, and contextual requirements of the task. Oscillation/coincidence-detection models also emphasize the importance of a tuned ‘perception’ learning and memory system whereby target durations are detected by striatal networks of medium spiny neurons (MSNs) through the coincidental activation of different neural populations, typically utilizing patterns of oscillatory input from the cortex and thalamus or derivations thereof (e.g., population coding) as a time base. The measure of success of beat-frequency/coincidence-detection accounts, such as the Striatal Beat-Frequency model of reward-related timing (SBF), is their ability to accommodate new experimental findings while maintaining their original framework, thereby making testable experimental predictions concerning diagnosis and treatment of issues related to a variety of dopamine-dependent basal ganglia disorders, including Huntington’s and Parkinson’s disease.

Determinants of rural hand-pump functionality through maintenance provision in the Central African Republic

While preventive maintenance services have emerged as promising interventions to improve the continuity of water service delivery, the operational and contextual requirements for sustained functionality within maintenance models are not well understood. This paper uses data analysis to better understand factors influencing the success of rural water service delivery within the circuit rider maintenance model in fragile contexts. Incorporating operational data from a large scale circuit rider hand-pump maintenance program in the Central African Republic, mixed-effect logistic regression models were used to identify determinants of water point functionality and payment compliance. Models were informed by data from over 16,000 maintenance visits across nine years. Faster response time, proximity to urban centers, and proximity to other hand-pumps emerged as significant factors for improving water point functionality, while proximity to maintenance program headquarters, pump functionality, and frequency of maintenance visits significantly influenced payment compliance. The observed high functionality rates of hand-pumps serviced by the maintenance program indicates the potential benefits of professionalized maintenance through the circuit rider model at promoting water system reliability in fragile contexts. Despite adaptability and resilience in implementation of the circuit rider model, insecurity and conflict remain barriers to sustaining service delivery in the Central African Republic.

DPCat: Specification for an Interoperable and Machine-Readable Data Processing Catalogue Based on GDPR

The GDPR requires Data Controllers and Data Protection Officers (DPO) to maintain a Register of Processing Activities (ROPA) as part of overseeing the organisation’s compliance processes. The ROPA must include information from heterogeneous sources such as (internal) departments with varying IT systems and (external) data processors. Current practices use spreadsheets or proprietary systems that lack machine-readability and interoperability, presenting barriers to automation. We propose the Data Processing Catalogue (DPCat) for the representation, collection and transfer of ROPA information, as catalogues in a machine-readable and interoperable manner. DPCat is based on the Data Catalog Vocabulary (DCAT) and its extension DCAT Application Profile for data portals in Europe (DCAT-AP), and the Data Privacy Vocabulary (DPV). It represents a comprehensive semantic model developed from GDPR’s Article and an analysis of the 17 ROPA templates from EU Data Protection Authorities (DPA). To demonstrate the practicality and feasibility of DPCat, we present the European Data Protection Supervisor’s (EDPS) ROPA documents using DPCat, verify them with SHACL to ensure the correctness of information based on legal and contextual requirements, and produce reports and ROPA documents based on DPA templates using SPARQL. DPCat supports a data governance process for data processing compliance to harmonise inputs from heterogeneous sources to produce dynamic documentation that can accommodate differences in regulatory approaches across DPAs and ease investigative burdens toward efficient enforcement.

Fostering Natural World Engagements: Design Lessons and Issues from the My Naturewatch Training Program

Abstract Nature's welfare is intertwined with humankinds' welfare, requiring mass citizen-led action. According to wildlife advocate David Attenborough, “we share responsibility for the future of life on earth, [we all have] the power to change.” To this end, the My Naturewatch project (MNW) follows research-through-design approaches: It deploys do-it-yourself (DIY) devices to support new methods of engagement between nature, technology, and humans. The MNW cameras help participants to capture images of their “back garden” wildlife. Through the MNW project, we (the authors) position cameras as agents, enabling “designed engagement(s)” that engender agency, serendipity, and impact. This article recounts a training scheme used in the MNW project to provide nature organizations with methods to foster public engagement through DIY, accessible digital technologies. The scheme encourages appropriation that suits contextual, environmental, and organizational requirements. The authors unpack the experiences and issues realized (through practice) by 14 nationally acclaimed wildlife and conservation organizations, independently running workshops using the MNW project tools. Our findings report the issues and opportunities of designed community engagements for practitioners engaged with defining more sustainable practices.

Principal Factors Affecting Couples' Childbearing Policies: A Roadmap for Policymaking.

The concept of negative population growth, population aging, and the need to implement child-encouraging policies is an important concern in many countries. As this issue is completely cultural and country-based, this study is designed to assess and prioritize the perception of newly married couples to the policies that may have a crucial role in the childbearing intention around the world. Through a descriptive cross-sectional study, 300 couples were selected by a simple random sampling method. Multilevel binary logistic regression was used for investigating the relationships among dimensions of family policies, socio-demographic variables, and childbearing intention. Childbearing perception positively correlated with education and permanent job in both genders, maternal age range of 25-35, the higher length of marriage, having more children, and living in a government settlement. The most important family policies that couples preferred were contextual requirements (mean rank of 4.50%). Positive childbearing perception negatively correlated with higher age categories in women, the number of children, rental housing status, no insurance access, higher educational attainment, and low employment ranks in both men and women. This study cleared that family policies affect the childbearing intention of young couples. Polices involved contextual requirements, supporting couples to integrate work and home, health promotion plans, child-centered social support, and promoting the level of social and cultural relations.

The RAIS Device for Global Surgery: Using a Participatory Design Approach to Navigate the Translational Pathway to Clinical Use.

Background: Over 5 billion people worldwide have no access to surgery worldwide, typically in low-resource settings, despite it being a primary life-saving treatment. Gas Insufflation-Less Laparoscopic Surgery (GILLS) can address this inequity, by improving current GILLS instrumentation to modern surgical standards. Objective: to develop and translate a new Retractor for Abdominal Insufflation-less Surgery (RAIS) into clinical use and thus provide a context-appropriate system to advance GILLS surgery. Methods: A collaborative multidisciplinary team from the UK and India was formed, embedding local clinical stakeholders and an industry partner in defining user and contextual needs. System development was based on a phased roadmap for ‘surgical device design in low resource settings’ and embedded participatory and frugal design principles in an iterative process supported by traditional medical device design methodologies. Each phase of development was evaluated by the stakeholder team through interactive workshops using cadaveric surgical simulations. A Commercialisation phase undertook Design to Manufacture and regulatory approval activities. Clinical validation was then conducted with rural surgeons performing GILLS procedures using the RAIS system. Semi-structured questionnaires and interviews were used to evaluate device performance. Results: A set of user needs and contextual requirements were defined and formalised. System development occurred across five iterations. Stakeholder participation was instrumental in converging on a design which met user requirements. A commercial RAIS system was then produced by an industry partner under Indian regulatory approval. This was successfully used in clinical validation to conduct 12 surgical procedures at two locations in rural India. Surgical feedback showed that the RAIS system provided a valuable and usable surgical instrument which was appropriate for use in low-resource contexts. Conclusions: Using a context-specific development approach with close engagement of stakeholders was crucial to develop the RAIS system for low-resource regions. The outcome is translation from global health need into a fully realized commercial instrument which can be used by surgeons in low-resource regions across India.