Cross-disciplinary Research Research Articles

100 Opportunities for More Inclusive Ocean Research: Cross-Disciplinary Research Questions for Sustainable Ocean Governance and Management

In order to inform decision making and policy, research to address sustainability challenges requires cross-disciplinary approaches that are co-created with a wide and inclusive diversity of disciplines and stakeholders. As the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development approaches, it is therefore timely to take stock of the global range of cross-disciplinary questions to inform the development of policies to restore and sustain ocean health. We synthesized questions from major science and policy horizon scanning exercises, identifying 89 questions with relevance for ocean policy and governance. We then scanned the broad ocean science literature to examine issues potentially missed in the horizon scans and supplemented the horizon scan outcome with 11 additional questions. This resulted in an unprioritized list of 100 general questions that would require a cross-disciplinary approach to inform policy. The questions fell into broad categories including: coastal and marine environmental change, managing ocean activities, governance for sustainable oceans, ocean value, and technological and socio-economic innovation. Each question can be customized by ecosystem, region, scale, and socio-political context, and is intended to inspire discussions of salient cross-disciplinary research directions to direct scientific research that will inform policies. Governance and management responses to these questions will best be informed by drawing upon a diversity of natural and social sciences, local and traditional knowledge, and engagement of different sectors and stakeholders.

STEARNS CENTER FEATURED SESSION [for deans, chairs, curriculum coordinators] : From COVID to Change: Rethinking Supporting Teaching in Your Unit (90 mins)

NOTE: This session is designed to be both an informative panel and a planning workshop for deans, chairs, and anyone leading a group of faculty/adjunct/GTAs, common course or curriculum effort in their unit.Description:Mason is actively engaged in changing the culture of teaching toward more active- and inquiry-based learning forms. These forms are viewed as superior mechanisms for improving student engagement, performance, and retention, especially in STEM-based classrooms (Kogan & Laursen, 2014; Freeman et al., 2014; Laursen, Hassi, Logan, & Weston, 2014; Nelson, 2010). Through Mason’s strategic plan and its building of new active learning classrooms, the opportunities to leverage this pedagogical form are ripe. Despite this commitment, teaching change is often difficult to engender in higher education organizations. Some of this difficulty lies in the challenge of changing faculty habits and norms related to their own teaching practices (Austin, 2011). However, even if individual faculty are committed to pedagogical change, that change is also highly dependent upon departmental and institutional norms and barriers, which can act to promote or constrain change (Austin, 2011; D’Avanzo, 2013; Brownell & Tanner, 2012; Henderson et al., 2012; Sunal et al., 2001; Fairweather, 2008). There are levers that go beyond the individual and their classroom to improve the likelihood of successful pedagogical change. Among these are the use of data-driven decision making and the fostering of data cultures (Bouwma-Gearheart & Hora, 2014; Hora & Bouwma-Gearhart, 2014, 2017) and the building and leveraging of collaborations across organizational units (Kezar & Lester, 2009; Klein, 2017; Leisyte & Dee, 2012) to help leverage the information, relationships, and resources needed to enact change. The purpose of this workshop is to use the context and learning from current work being done to enact pedagogical change to help attendees frame, consider, and plan for how relationships, resources, and data within and beyond their departments can be used in their own contexts to enact similar change. The presenters, members of a cross-disciplinary research team, are working alongside members of course-based communities of transformation (CCTs) in Mathematics and Physics at Mason, with CCTs in Biology and Computer Science to follow. These researchers will share empirical evidence, lessons learned, and practical implications related to their National Science Foundation funded project to create department and institution-level change that supports the adoption of active learning pedagogy at Mason. As a part of this work, CCT members have had to consider and act beyond the boundaries of their individual classrooms and departments to leverage organizational data and partnerships. This project is designed to develop a university culture that values the incorporation of active learning practices in undergraduate STEM courses and programs. Attendees will develop a better sense of how to find and use data in decision making and conversations with those within and beyond their departments, including understanding and identifying course taking and retention patterns, resource needs and opportunities, and student learning and preparedness. Attendees will identify key partnership and collaborations they can continue or begin to cultivate as they work to create change in their departments and learn how to improve cross-unit collaboration. Attendees will be given time to consider the needs, strategies, and resources necessary for change in their communities and craft plans for starting that change.

Organizations, Learning, and Sustainability: A Cross-Disciplinary Review and Research Agenda

Despite decades of attempts by government, civil society and private sector actors to tackle sustainability issues like climate change, progress is too slow, and we continue to see a tendency for actors across all sectors operating in their disciplinary silos. Addressing complex sustainability problems requires transdisciplinary action between private, public, and not-for-profit organizations. However, transdisciplinary action between cross-sector organizations involves inherent political and process-related tensions. Learning has been identified as a key organizing process for overcoming the challenges faced by transdisciplinary action. This paper explores the role of learning in organisational and transdisciplinary responses to sustainability issues. In particular, we focus on formal and/or informal learning that occurs outside of formal education systems. We conduct a cross-disciplinary systematic review of the literature on learning for sustainability. The review incorporates perspectives from diverse disciplines including business, management, environmental science, sociology, policy, urban planning, and development. This review explores how, when and where different disciplines are using learning as a tool for tackling sustainability. We identify the common themes and challenges of learning processes in the context of sustainability and lay out a clear path for future research.

Grid Design Under The Context Of Chinese

This study was carried out to investigate the history of Chinese character grid design. Still, it seldom involves the understanding and use of the grid in the Chinese context, that is, the information transmission of Chinese characters. There is little research on the grid design of Chinese information applied to multimedia. This research aims to conduct the cross-disciplinary, diachronic study and qualitative research with ethnography. Moreover, examining the history of the use and recognition of grids in design, and its relationship with visual design in different ages and historical transitions in China. Besides, this research outlines the unique change track of grid design consciousness in the context of Chinese visual communication and information transmission and the historical and cultural enlightenment from the perspective of cultural exchange and comparison between China and foreign countries. Question: Is there the “grid” concept in art and design of Chinese tradition? What are they? Use historical research methods to explore which traditional Chinese culture is related to the grid.

A conceptual model for university-society research collaboration facilitating societal impact for local innovation

PurposeThe purpose is to develop a work-integrated learning (WIL) model for university-society research collaboration facilitating societal impact toward short lag yet sustainable societal impact for local innovation.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology applied was engaged scholarship based on a WIL approach involving a network of collaborating partners from different sectors of society and cross-disciplinary university researchers. Mixed data collection methods were applied.FindingsConceptualization of university-society research collaboration for local innovation is presented as a WIL model including the elements of continuity and commitment, coordination, communication and relationships, trust, courage and creativity and co-creation opportunities. Short lag societal impact as local innovation was identified as product and process innovations.Research limitations/implicationsFurther validation of the model is encouraged for the model to be viable in various contexts and to generate different kinds of societal impact.Practical implicationsThe model may act as a governing tool for project management to facilitate co-creative and short lag societal impact for local innovation to ensure that engaged and learning activities are embedded in the collaborative process.Social implicationsThe model has implications for inclusiveness and co-creation fostering transparency, respect and mutuality in university-society research collaboration and to equate both academic and practice knowledge.Originality/valueThe conclusions drawn support the understanding of a WIL approach practicing engaged scholarship in research collaborations. The main theoretical and practical contributions of the article are the conceptual model for university-society research collaboration generating short lag societal implications and local innovation.

Remote Working during the Pandemic: A Q&A with Gillian Isaacs Russell

In this interview by email, Gillian Isaacs Russell, author of the influential Screen Relations: The Limits of Computer‐Mediated Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, responds to a set of questions from the BJP. The interview focuses on the impact of remote working during the coronavirus epidemic, starting with the question of whether an effective therapeutic process can occur without physical co‐presence. Isaacs Russell shares her immediate thoughts about the virtually overnight changes to our practice that came with the epidemic, and the work of the American Psychoanalytic Association's Covid‐19 Advisory Team, on which she sits. Her responses are informed by recent cross‐disciplinary and neuropsychological research on the digital age. She considers what happens to free association, evenly suspended attention and reverie when working by phone or online; the loss of the consulting room as a containing physical space for both clinician and patient; the relationship between place and time; and whether (and how) we can maintain a focus on transference and countertransference in the presence of the threat of death. The interview ends with her thoughts on whether we should assume that the landscape of analytic therapy will be permanently altered by Covid‐19, and with her hope that general awareness of the impact of trauma on our mental health has been raised.

Theory, Cultural Studies And Cross-Disciplinary Research: A Dialogue With Jonathan Arac

ABSTRACT Jonathan Arac is one of the leading American post-modernists who once taught at Columbia University and served as Andrew W. Mellon Professor of English as well as the founding director of the Humanities Center at the University of Pittsburgh. He is considered to be one of the most notable “New Americanists” with an eclectic range of interests in literary theory, US literature (with an emphasis on the controversy of Huckleberry Finn). His research methods range from theoretical framing, cultural study to interdisciplinary study. This interview, which was conducted in oral and written form at the University of Pittsburgh from December 2019 to December 2020, touches upon such topics as Arac’s academic connection with Chinese academia, the essence of literary theory and its relationship with cultural studies and interdisciplinary research. Arac perceives his studies on literary theory, “new literary history,” and cross-disciplinary research since the 1960s as an integrated whole which “opens boundaries” and “extends our powers.”

Being Outdoors: What Educators can Learn from Cross Disciplinary Research on the Benefits of the Outdoors on Health

As people living in a modern world, our connection with nature is varied, which has an impact on health. This paper looks at cross-disciplinary research conducted on the impact the outdoors has on health, more specifically mental, physical, social and spiritual benefits. Results from different fields of research collectively strengthen claims made for the positive influence time outdoors has on health, and prompt educators to ask how Christian schools can take this knowledge and apply it in an educational setting for the benefit of students.

Training the animator anew: Developing cross-disciplinary opportunities for puppetry in arts, health and education1

This positioning article explores a reimagining within the field of applied theatre where through the medium of puppetry, the art and artist may become one as a way of healing. Building upon conceptual principles of animism, transference and embodiment, it is proposed that puppeteer training be usefully integrated into the higher education applied arts and health curriculum as an extension to existing programmes. Value is given to the metaphorical use of the puppet in both education and therapy. It is proposed that puppeteers may gain value from engaging with cross-disciplinary art-based research as a way to further understand puppetry’s uses and furthering their own practices.

Using a survey to initiate and sustain productive group dialogue in focus groups

ABSTRACT Interaction is the distinctive feature of focus groups, yet little attention has been devoted to understanding techniques for enhancing the quality of interactions. We argue that using a quantitative survey instrument with focus groups has specific benefits beyond traditional open-ended topic lists or questions. We describe particular features of a survey that provoke reflection and reaction by participants, thereby deepening dialogue. When using this approach, we recommend that individuals complete the survey privately first, reflecting and taking a position on the statements individually, and then engage in discussion, which can surface differences and similarities. Drawing on our work with the Toolbox Dialogue Initiative involving collaborative cross-disciplinary research, we demonstrate the benefits of such a survey instrument to initiate and sustain productive dialogue, in this case regarding scientific beliefs and values. We conclude with a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of this approach, as well as recommendations for designing and using survey items for focus groups.

The contextual effect of trust on perceived support: Evidence from Roma and non-Roma in East-Central Europe.

In recent years, trust has been conceptualized as an important source of social capital, setting off cross-disciplinary research on both the benefits and predictors of trust at the individual and contextual level. In this paper, we turn to the individual outcomes of living in a trustful context, and explore the relationship between trust, itself one of the main components of social capital, and social support, seen as one of the most important effects of social capital. In particular, we ask how social capital-and the relationship between trust and social support-functions in the context of unequal societies. We model perceived support as an outcome across three levels, from no support to proximate to distal support, and using a cross-national study of Roma and non-Roma across 12 European countries, we track the relationship between trust and support across both mainstream and marginalized populations. Our findings suggest that living in contexts with more trust has protective effects particularly for members of marginalized groups: the Roma are more likely to have distal support in contexts with higher trust. We conclude that contextual trust helps to broaden the circle of support beyond family and friends; thus, trust can indeed be a synthetic force that binds individuals together in broadened structures of support.

Comparative analysis of methods and types of creolization in English and Russian scientific and technical texts: the case of railway discourse texts

English and Russian scientific and technical texts of railway discourse are analyzed in the article in order to detect, describe and compare specific methods and types of such texts creolization. In the research the author draws on the up-to-date theory of creolized texts problematics, emphasizing texts in scientific language as the particular object under study. The scientific and technical text ordonnance is analyzed here for purposes of special texts satiation with verbal and non-verbal communicating means and their quantitative relation. The author concretizes the cohesion of the constituents of the scientific and technical texts (arrangement, textuality, functionality). The goal of the research is to study creolization methods and types of highly-specialized English and Russian scientific texts (in the context of railway discourse) followed by the comparative analysis, searching out certain similarities and differences in ways and means of informative value of the English and Russian texts forming. English and Russian teaching-learning materials, scientific publications and periodicals were used as empiric material source. The railway discourse is an understudied linguistic phenomenon. The results of the scientific railway texts comparative analysis for purposes of non-verbal communicating means using, creolized texts classification according to their components interaction, linguistic and visual means description are more likely for present cross-disciplinary researches. The conclusions drawn from the study will help the researchers who would like his/her article to be published in an oversea periodical to make the ordonnance of his/her text in the authentic manner.

Dating lightning: Dendrochronological and magnetic analyses of lightning scars

Lightning impacts on forests and trees are still understudied from a tree-ring perspective. Lighting causes direct and indirect damages on forests and trees. Trees struck by lightning can show a growth reduction and lightning storms also trigger wildfires in seasonally dry areas such as Mediterranean mountains. Here we combined dendroecological and magnetic analyses to reconstruct and assess the impact of lightning on radial growth and the magnetic properties of wood in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) and Black pine (Pinus nigra) in two sites with a high density of lightning impacts located in eastern Spain. We dated several lightning scars, particularly in Scots pine, formed during 1982, when a wildfire was initiated by lightning during a dry summer storm. Growth was reduced during the year when the scar was formed in both pine species, albeit this effect could be masked or amplified by other disturbances (drought, outbreaks). However, despite that short-term growth reduction scarred trees showed higher growth rates than non-scarred trees in the case of Scots pine. The intensity of magnetization did not significantly differ in wood produced before and after the lightning scar was formed. This could be due to multiple lightning hits in the same or nearby stands affecting the magnetization of wood. Wood magnetic properties should be further explored as proxies of lightning impacts in sites where scars are not formed and tree-ring information is limited such as tropical forests. Further cross-disciplinary research is required to assess the impacts of lightning on tree growth and magnetism.

The Infographic Model of Design Thinking Process

Purpose Creativity as an outcome of our thoughts and actions is a controversial concept that has been discussed by many disciplines in different ways. In the light of cognitive research on creativity, this study aims to deal with the components of the idea generation process specific to interior design education. Based on the study conducted in the interior design studio, this paper introduces the infographic model of design thinking. the main purpose of the model is to summarize how design students initiate the design process, create their own design ideas, and also how they lead design thinking for a spatial solution. Design/Methodology/Approach The cross-disciplinary research paper within the context of the psychological studies on creative cognition consists of a detailed analysis of the design process in the design studio. A case study was conducted in the second-year undergraduate interior design studio at Hacettepe University in order to observe the students’ experiences during one semester. In the wake of this qualitative research, the data obtained from 15 design students selected have been analyzed gradually and a design thinking model has been generated with the findings. Findings In addition to the interpretation of the creativity models from the literature, initial analyses showed that design thinking can be explained in three main stages as preparation, conceptualization, and spatialization that underlie the internal and external process of design thinking in the design studio. With subsequent analyses, these stages have been divided into different strategical layers according to students’ experiences. As a result, the infographic model of the design thinking process is structured based on the evaluations of these components and the design approaches identified. Research Limitations/Implications The data acquired from the case study undertaken by the author were compared so as to identify the similarities and diversities of these processes. More research on different stages of the design process can shed more light on design thinking. In addition to this, qualitative data are based on a small group of students to get detailed information about the process. The proposed model can be adapted for different studies in the context of the design studio with more participants. Practical/Social Implications The proposed model in the research is intended to be used as a content map that shows the alternative ways of thinking in design ideation, and also an analysis method of the design process for future studies. In other words, the paper shows the two-way implications of the design thinking model on design education. One of which is a guide for practical use for design students and the other is an analytical tool for studio instructors or researchers. Originality/Value This study brings to focus on conceptualization and spatialization for creative idea generation in design studio education. On the basis of drawn from creativity models, the paper introduces a new process model that provides an original interpretation of existing models in design. The proposed model differs from previous cognitive studies, as it expands the ideation process with both internal and external operations.

Reconnecting the Brain With the Rest of the Body in Musculoskeletal Pain Research

A challenge in understanding chronic musculoskeletal pain is that research is often siloed between neuroscience, physical therapy/rehabilitation, orthopedics, and rheumatology which focus respectively on 1) neurally mediated effects on pain processes, 2) behavior and muscle activity, 3) tissue structure, and 4) inflammatory processes. Although these disciplines individually study important aspects of pain, there is a need for more cross-disciplinary research that can bridge between them. Identifying the gaps in knowledge is important to understand the whole body, especially at the interfaces between the silos—between brain function and behavior, between behavior and tissue structure, between musculoskeletal and immune systems, and between peripheral tissues and the nervous system. Research on “mind and body” practices can bridge across these silos and encourage a “whole person” approach to better understand musculoskeletal pain by bringing together the brain and the rest of the body. PerspectiveResearch on chronic musculoskeletal pain is limited by significant knowledge gaps. To be fully integrated, musculoskeletal pain research will need to bridge across tissues, anatomical areas, and body systems. Research on mind and body approaches encourages a “whole person” approach to better understand musculoskeletal pain.

Scaling Comparative Industry and Stratum Economics

Through a functional approach relying on an information-energy duality of functions, markets economics is explored from the technological maturity viewpoint. The investment success probabilistic condition enables to calculate innovation-based investment functions which lead to a comparative study of maturity-based firms’ assessment. Economic activity strata defined as an extension of the principle of Technology Readiness Level scaling, show different kinds of cycles conditioned by the oscillations of entropies characterizing evolutions between ordered and disordered business phases. Cycle-dependent investment is quantized according to a scale which integrates relativity and gauge principles. An inter-cycle analysis leads to the identification of stable kernels of functions while some of them are created and others are destroyed. A saturation condition gives an alternative structure of markets where the destruction of functions appears marginal. Differentiating a function value leads to express the close relation between work and intelligence: at first according to a fractal formulation within the linearity of values, and eventually through a model using the diminishing and relative sensitivity, to work outcomes, that characterizes the state of the art of those values. Changing study scale enables, in certain circumstances, cross-disciplinary and successful researches for a discovery at a given scale, which is a rediscovery at another one.

The use of technology in the subcategorisation of osteoarthritis: a Delphi study approach

ObjectiveThis UK-wide OATech Network + consensus study utilised a Delphi approach to discern levels of awareness across an expert panel regarding the role of existing and novel technologies in osteoarthritis research. To direct future cross-disciplinary research it aimed to identify which could be adopted to subcategorise patients with osteoarthritis (OA). DesignAn online questionnaire was formulated based on technologies which might aid OA research and subcategorisation. During a two-day face-to-face meeting concordance of expert opinion was established with surveys (23 questions) before, during and at the end of the meeting (Rounds 1, 2 and 3, respectively). Experts spoke on current evidence for imaging, genomics, epigenomics, proteomics, metabolomics, biomarkers, activity monitoring, clinical engineering and machine learning relating to subcategorisation. For each round of voting, ≥80% votes led to consensus and ≤20% to exclusion of a statement. ResultsPanel members were unanimous that a combination of novel technological advances have potential to improve OA diagnostics and treatment through subcategorisation, agreeing in Rounds 1 and 2 that epigenetics, genetics, MRI, proteomics, wet biomarkers and machine learning could aid subcategorisation. Expert presentations changed participants’ opinions on the value of metabolomics, activity monitoring and clinical engineering, all reaching consensus in Round 2. X-rays lost consensus between Rounds 1 and 2; clinical X-rays reached consensus in Round 3. ConclusionConsensus identified that 9 of the 11 technologies should be targeted towards OA subcategorisation to address existing OA research technology and knowledge gaps. These novel, rapidly evolving technologies are recommended as a focus for emergent, cross-disciplinary osteoarthritis research programmes.

Depression and political predispositions: Almost blue?

This article explores the relationship between depression—one of the most common mental health problems in our societies—and political predispositions. Drawing on cross-disciplinary research from psychology, psychiatry, and political science, the article uses data from Understanding Society and the European Social Survey to test this relationship with party identification, vote intentions and left–right orientation, and two different measures of self-rated clinical depression and depressive symptoms. Empirical analyses find a modest but significant, common tendency: individuals vulnerable to depression are less likely to identify with mainstream conservative parties, to vote for them, or to place themselves on the right side of the political spectrum (a “bias against the right”). No clear evidence is found that they also identify less with political parties. These findings contribute to our understanding of differences in political predispositions and raise important implications for political engagement.

A Digital Pornography Literacy Resource Co-Designed With Vulnerable Young People: Development of "The Gist".

BackgroundThe impact of viewing pornography at a young age on the sexual health of subgroups of young people is an important public health issue. However, the topic is complex and extremely sensitive, and best practices for research and harm reduction are yet to be defined. Drawing on cross-disciplinary approaches, such as co-design, is one way to achieve a better understanding of the issue among vulnerable young people and to create needs-based and evidence-informed digital resources to promote pornography literacy.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to co-design a relevant, usable, and acceptable digital prototype to address the pornography literacy needs of vulnerable young people.MethodsIn total, 17 young people aged between 14 and 23 years who were engaged in youth services programs or alternative education programs were recruited to participate in 4 co-design workshops with a multidisciplinary design team.ResultsAlthough the participants could identify problems with pornography and critique its messages, they lacked the information to understand alternative healthy attitudes and behaviors. A digital resource that provides detailed and practical information about sex, sexual ethics, and relationships may help vulnerable young people to identify and contrast with any problematic messages they receive from both pornography and society. Embedding this information with pornography literacy messages may be a more effective way of addressing underlying attitudes. Acknowledging information-seeking patterns and leveraging user interaction patterns from commonly used digital platforms among users may enhance engagement with resources. Importantly, digital platforms are perceived among this group as a source of anonymous secondary information but would not be organically accessed among this group without face-to-face conversations as an access point.ConclusionsThis paper highlights the potential for pornography literacy to be embedded within real and practical information about having sex, navigating sexuality, and healthy relationships. The study findings include important recommendations for the conceptualization of digital pornography literacy programs and opportunities for cross-disciplinary co-design research to address complex and emerging health issues.

Benefits of Using Lesson Study for SoTL, Cross-Disciplinary Research, and Assessment

Benefits of Using Lesson Study for SoTL, Cross-Disciplinary Research, and Assessment