Cross-institutional Research Research Articles

Cross-Institutional Research Engagement Network (CIREN): Initial Project Goals and Objectives in Support of Training, Mentoring, and Research Facilitation

Cross-Institutional Research Engagement Network (CIREN): Initial Project Goals and Objectives in Support of Training, Mentoring, and Research Facilitation

Academic integrity and the role of learning development

Learning Development (LD) is a supportive function within an educational environment. Learning Developers walk alongside students to develop academic skills and practice, and guide individuals throughout their academic journey through a variety of empowering approaches. One such function is raising awareness of academic integrity within academia and the role individuals can play to uphold it. Academic integrity is concerned with six key principles: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility, and courage (ICAI, 2021). Across the UK, many institutions and LD practitioners have designed and delivered courses, quizzes, tutorials, and events to promote academic integrity. These range from whole institution activities through piecemeal touchpoints. Academic integrity sessions are designed to encourage individual and original work, building on the shoulder of others, giving credit where due and avoiding plagiarism and unfair practice. Emerging from a global pandemic and experiencing a technological revolution, such as ChatGPT3, in this brave new rapidly expanding digital world, several questions arise: What is the role of Learning Developers in assessment design? What is the role of Learning Developers in academic offences panels? What training do Learning Developers need? How can Learning Development take leadership in promoting academic integrity? What forms of collaborative cross institutional research on academic integrity would be advantageous? This workshop provided participants with an opportunity to discuss the role of LD within the ever-developing world of academic integrity. Following a quick-fire quiz, participants had the opportunity to work in small groups. Each group was assigned one of the above questions in order to contribute to a 5-point action plan for how LD can be at the forefront of the academic integrity agenda. Participants took away ideas with them that they could apply within their own role and teams.

Enhancing the Undergraduate Research Experience by Engaging in Cross-Institutional Research

As studies repeatedly show the benefits of students participating in undergraduate research, off-campus research opportunities have become increasingly competitive. In order to provide our students with research experiences, students from Murray State University and Centre College engaged in a year-long cross-institutional undergraduate research experience. In this paper, we summarize our experience and provide some useful perspectives in mentoring students in cross-institutional undergraduate research. We present effective methods for improving distance collaboration and strategies for eliciting the best research from students.

A Multi-User Terminology Mapping Toolbox.

Semantic interoperability is a major challenge in multi-center data sharing projects, a challenge that the German Initiative for Medical Informatics is taking up. With respect to laboratory data, enriching site-specific tests and measurements with LOINC codes appears to be a crucial step in supporting cross-institutional research. However, this effort is very time-consuming, as it requires expert knowledge of local site specifics. To ease this process, we developed a generic manual collaborative terminology mapping tool, the MIRACUM Mapper. It allows the creation of arbitrary mapping workflows involving different user roles. A mapping workflow with two user roles has been implemented at University Hospital Erlangen to support the local LOINC mapping. Additionally, the MIRACUM LabVisualizeR provides summary statistics and visualizations of analyte data. We developed a toolbox that facilitates the collaborative creation of mappings and streamlines the review as well as the validation process. The two tools are available under an open source license.

Grief, vulnerability, and hope

For the four weeks prior to writing this editorial in mid-January, I have been on annual leave and have been determined to take those days for rest and recreation We are deeply grateful to those authors who have engaged with the call for papers and who have wrangled both with their own inner upsets - for there most certainly have been those - and with the additional complexities the pandemic has wrought Following these six articles is a small special section of three other articles based on work originally presented at the Royal Geographical Society/Institute of British Geographers Conference in Cardiff in 2018 [Extracted from the article] Copyright of Geographical Research is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use This abstract may be abridged No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract (Copyright applies to all Abstracts )

The potential use of crushed waste glass as a sustainable alternative to natural and manufactured sand in geotechnical applications

The increasing price and diminishing reserves of construction sand encourage a need to develop its sustainable and cost-effective replacement, helping the transition towards a circular economy. Waste glass is a derivative of natural sand and could potentially show similar geotechnical behaviour. Using crushed waste glass (CWG) as an alternative to traditional sand would potentially offer a double-duty benefit by helping to address the geo-environmental challenges of natural sand depletion and disposal of ever-increasing waste glass, together. This study investigated the geotechnical, mineralogical and morphological behaviour of CWG and compared it with that of natural sand (NS) and manufactured sand (MS). The geotechnical characterisation results showed that the behaviour of CWG is similar to the other two sands studied, with CWG showing the highest permeability and abrasion resistance. Surprisingly, the shear strength testing showed that the friction angle of CWG was higher under saturated conditions than under dry conditions, indicating the stability of CWG under saturated conditions. The mineralogical analysis was conducted using x-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy and revealed that silica is the dominant mineral in all three materials, indicating a similarity in their chemical composition. The morphological analysis was performed to quantify the particle shape of each material in terms of roundness index using digital images obtained through an optical microscope. The results demonstrated that MS showed the highest particle angularity, followed by CWG and NS. Overall, it was concluded that CWG could potentially act as a next-generation alternative and smart geomaterial, replacing traditional sands in several geotechnical applications. Video AbstractThe authors in this video abstract present the key motivations, analyses performed, and conclusions of cross-institutional research published in the Journal of Cleaner Production (JCR: Q1, SJR: Q1, 2019 journal impact factor: 7.2, ranked number# 1 worldwide in Sustainable Development according to Google Scholar metrics at the time of this article publication).This research investigated the potential use of ever-increasing waste glass as a sustainable alternative to depleting natural and manufactured sand in geotechnical construction. The study compared the geotechnical, mineralogical and morphological behaviour of crushed waste glass with that of two traditional types of construction sand. The findings showed that the geotechnical behaviour of crushed waste glass is similar, or sometimes even superior, to traditional construction sands. Overall, it was concluded that crushed waste glass could potentially serve as an alternative and smart geomaterial, ultimately promoting the recycling of waste glass, reducing the burden on landfill and conserving natural resources, all helping the transition towards a circular economy.youtube link: https://youtu.be/pGVoJ1QYWUA [Display omitted]

Impacts of a Cross-Institutional Undergraduate Research Experience Workshop on Student Understanding of and Self-Efficacy for Research

There are many perceived benefits to undergraduate student research; however, students may not have a full understanding of the research process prior to engaging in a project. In this paper, we analyze the impact of an undergraduate research workshop on students' understanding of academic research as well as the impact on their self-efficacy for conducting research through an analysis of the 2018 and 2019 Intercollegiate Biomathematics Alliance Cross-Institutional Research Experience (CURE) workshops. Students were asked to complete a survey at the start and end of the three-day workshop, which included both Likert-type scale questions as well as free response questions addressing their understanding of research and effective collaboration in conducting research, their perceived role in conducting research, and their perception of their own skills specific to biomathematics research. We observed improved self-efficacy in specific research skills where students had not already indicated a high level of self-efficacy prior to the workshop. Additionally, student responses indicated a shift in perception of research from solving a particular problem to contributing to a field by discovering or creating new knowledge. Other shifts in student perceptions are discussed in the paper as well as recommendations for the workshop organizers.

Abstract PO-061: Data harmonization for COVID-19 and cancer research registries

Abstract Introduction: The need to rapidly collect, integrate, and share data on COVID-19 patients with cancer at scale has given rise to multiple internal and cross-institutional research registries. These registries support use cases that require data at different levels of granularity and are built using mixed standards. Ensuring semantic interoperability and quality of this data is critical for generating reliable and reproducible evidence. At MSK, we created a framework that enabled the rapid development of semantically compatible COVID and cancer registries and data exchange. Background: Handling and harmonizing real-world data for COVID and cancer research presented with typical challenges: maintenance of complex patient cohorts; reconciling different levels of temporal and semantic granularity; supporting crosswalks between different representations without information loss; and sharing it internally and with research consortia. Solving these challenges for COVID and cancer studies necessitated advanced infrastructure and harmonization solutions. Methods: We used MSK Extract, our research platform, to create an integrated COVID and cancer data research framework. It included a library of reusable standardized REDCap used in multiple RedCap instances supporting individual research studies; PostgreSQL database containing patient cohorts and data from Electronic Health Records (EHR) standardized to OMOP; and ETL pipelines. Our approach to the REDCap design and data management allowed for combined sets of detailed, atomic, and aggregate-level data through a combination of abstraction, curation, and extraction of data from different sources. We developed reconciliation methodology between initial curation, available raw data, and the subsequent abstraction. We enforced consistent temporal constraints on data extraction and curation. We used the OMOP vocabulary for semantic harmonization, mapping metadata from internal and external registries to OMOP concepts. We linked procedure and medication codes to high-level treatment groups leveraging classifications available in the OMOP vocabulary. Results: Our approach to the REDCap design supported various analytical use cases and enabled data sharing between different investigators and registries. Reuse of the data that was previously abstracted complemented with the data extracted from EHR allowed investigators and their teams to quickly review, validate, and update the prior curation. Explicit temporal constraints supported alignment between different registries. Using the OMOP standards and high-level treatment classifications supported data conversion between various registries and integration of the data collected via REDCap and sourced from EHR. Conclusion: Using real-world data for observational COVID and cancer research presented us with opportunities to improve and mature our evolving research infrastructure and better support internal and distributed research, and highlighted the need for uniform data standards in the cancer domain. Citation Format: Rimma Belenkaya, Adam Watson, Shantha Bethusamy, Meera Patel, Tatyana Sandler, Julian Schwartz, James Park, Maggie Dobbins, Molly Maloy, Michael Lam, Nadia Bahadur, John Philip. Data harmonization for COVID-19 and cancer research registries [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Virtual Meeting: COVID-19 and Cancer; 2020 Jul 20-22. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2020;26(18_Suppl):Abstract nr PO-061.

Increasing interoperability for research clouds: CS3APIs for connecting sync&share storage, applications and science environments

Cloud Services for Synchronization and Sharing (CS3) [14] have become increasing popular in the European Education and Research landscape in the last years. Services such as CERNBox, SWITCHdrive, SURFdrive, PSNCBox, Sciebo, CloudStor and many more have become indispensable in everyday work for scientists, engineers, educators and other users in public research and education sector. CS3 services are currently too fragmented and lack interoperability. To fix this problem and interconnect storage-, applicationand research services a set of interoperable interfaces, CS3APIs [10], has been developed. CS3APIs enable creation of easily-accessible and integrated science environments, facilitating cross-institutional research activities and avoiding fragmented silos based on ad-hoc solutions. In this paper we introduce the CS3APIs and its reference implementation, Reva [16].

Right-wing populism and safe identities

ABSTRACTRecent events such as the US presidential campaign have polarised public opinion, particularly in terms of support for ‘populist’ political figures, e.g. Donald Trump, and the seemingly non-egalitarian ideologies that they promote. One might anticipate that disempowered social groups, such as women or sexual minorities, would reject ‘rightwing populism’, as it rarely appears to advocate their interests or facilitate their empowerment. Yet the existence of movements like ‘Gays for Trump’ and ‘#WomenWhoVoteTrump’ indicate more complex patterns of support. How might we understand this from gender and sexualities perspectives? This paper presents the proceedings of a round table discussion. Our contributors, members of a crossinstitutional social psychological Gender and Sexualities Research Group, each presented a brief five-minute interpretation of the phenomenon. They did so from gender and/or sexualities perspectives, drawing upon different social psychological theory. A chaired debate followed. Key themes from the round table are identified which are potentially helpful in understanding the phenomenon. The broader implications of these themes for practice and theory are considered in terms of the concept of ‘safe identities’.

Unleashing the Value of Lifelong Learning Institutes: Research and Practice Insights From a National Survey of Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes

Lifelong learning as a field has leapt forward, but work remains to inform the structuring and practice of lifelong learning institutes. This study furthers the field of institution-based lifelong learning by utilizing cross-institutional research regarding the value of lifelong learning to older adults. A content analysis coding approach is undertaken to categorize and organize 4,400 lifelong learners’ responses to the question: “What about your Osher Institute has been valuable/important to you?” Responses came from 12 institutes across the United States. The organization and interpretation of the themes fell along four dimensions: (a) learning experience, (b) community environment, (c) learning quality, and (d) learning access. Subthemes within each of the four broad themes are identified and discussed. Slight demographic differences regarding codes assigned are highlighted. Institutional differences were more notable demonstrating that the structures and practices of institutes warrant more research.

The Impact of Investment Treaties and ISDS Provisions on Foreign Direct Investment: A Baseline Econometric Analysis

Based on an interdisciplinary and cross-institutional research project (2014-7) assessing international investment treaty dispute management more broadly, this paper (abridged from a related project) introduces part of our joint project examining key questions around the effect of investment treaties and some of their provisions on direct investment flows. It focuses on the vexed question of whether offering treaty-based Investor-State Dispute Settlement (‘ISDS’) leads to significant increases in inbound foreign direct investment (FDI), in light of the persistent public debate about the merits of this procedural option for enforcing substantive commitments made by host states. Overall, our econometric analysis generates complex implications for policy-makers reassessing the historical impact of ISDS in order to decide whether and how to include different forms of such procedural provisions in future investment treaties. Skeptics can point to counter-intuitive results indicating that weaker-form ISDS and/or substantive provisions seem to have stronger and more robust impact, especially since the turn of this century. Proponents can point to results indicating that there has still been a positive and significant impact from stronger provisions, including from full-scale ISDS provisions in promptly ratified treaties concluded between OECD and non-OECD countries. Although our baseline model specification has generally dealt effectively with the endogeneity problem characteristic of this field, further variables impacting on FDI may be investigated (notably, double tax treaties) and data limitations remain (notably, FDI outflows from non-OECD countries and sectoral-level data). This econometric analysis can therefore be usefully complemented by the qualitative research component of our ongoing project.

Promoting a Culture of Engaged Scholarship and Mentoring Junior Faculty in the Reappointment, Tenure, and Promotion Process at a ‘Teaching First’ University

This paper analyzes the processes and outcomes involved with mentoring junior faculty in the reappointment, promotion, and tenure (RPT) process at a comprehensive state university and creating a culture supportive of engaged research. Although the university in this case study is governed by a collective bargaining agreement that prohibits the development of new written policies on RPT, the deans and other academic leaders can promote significant change through cultural means. The article will examine: the place of engaged scholarship within the reappointment, tenure, and promotion processes of the university; the university’s commitment to a cross-institutional research approach; the mentoring of faculty conducting innovative community projects; the university’s recent strategic plan initiative funding of collaborative cross-college and community projects; partnership with the city of Worcester’s Department of Public Health on applied scholarship related to five domains of public health currently establishedas the focus of efforts by the city and the region; and the innovative CitySpeak devised theater project. At this state university, strong leadership helped support a deepening culture of engaged teaching and scholarship and helped faculty negotiate the road of RPT.

Reflections on online learning designs and cross-institutional research collaborations: Revisiting “classrooms without walls” in two Australian universities

The article on which this paper reflects presented elements of a research project investigating learning interactions in online courses at two Australian universities. This paper revisits that earlier account of researching “classrooms without walls” by distilling and updating the authors’ propositions and by examining these propositions’ potential wider applicability. The twin foci of this examination relate to effective online learning designs and innovative cross-institutional research collaborations.

Organizational profile: UK regenerative medicine platform immunomodulation hub.

The UK Regenerative Medicine Platform was launched in 2013 as a jointly funded venture by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Medical Research Council (MRC) to address the technical and scientific challenges associated with translating promising scientific discoveries into the clinical setting. The first stage of the Platform involved the establishment of five interdisciplinary and cross-institutional research Hubs and the final Hub, the Immunomodulation Hub, was formed in 2014. The Immunomodulation Hub comprises scientists from diverse clinical and nonclinical research backgrounds. Collectively, they provide expertise in tissues for which there is an unmet clinical need for regenerative treatments, in innate and adaptive immunity and in whole organ transplantation. Their vision is that by working together to determine how regenerative medicine cell therapies in a laboratory setting are affected by the immune system, they will make a substantial contribution to long-term clinical deliverables that include improved efficacy of photoreceptor cell therapy to treat blindness; improved repair of damaged heart tissue; and improved survival and functionality of transplanted hepatocytes as an alternative to liver transplantation.

Digital ethnography and the social dimension of introspection: an empirical study in two Colombian schools.

We developed a teaching-led research project to empirically ground methodological reflection about digital ethnography. Drawing on Cordelois' collective ethnographic observation approach, fifteen emerging professionals (from a private general education university and a Police Academy in Bogota) collaborated in a method seminar on digital ethnography. They worked in cross-institutional research teams, each carrying SenseCams for 3 days. Students had a dual role as both participants and observers during self-confrontation interviews. The research design enabled emerging professionals to introspect about what it is to be a member of their institution. The SenseCam provided an additional opportunity for observation as it elicited different reactions in the two institutions. The fact that SenseCams produce sequential accounts of activity as well as its situated nature made apparent the autonomy to study and solve daily issues (e.g. transport, security, commitments) by students from the university, while students in the police academy are more focused on responding to unforeseen activities (e.g. police services, unexpected requests). Finally, our research highlights the relevance of the social dimension of introspection for digital ethnography. How digital data that captures an individual perspective is negotiated in a group becomes a key methodological question.

RMS: a platform for managing cross-disciplinary and multi-institutional research project collaboration.

BackgroundCross-institutional cross-disciplinary collaboration has become a trend as researchers move toward building more productive and innovative teams for scientific research. Research collaboration is significantly changing the organizational structure and strategies used in the clinical and translational science domain. However, due to the obstacles of diverse administrative structures, differences in area of expertise, and communication barriers, establishing and managing a cross-institutional research project is still a challenging task. We address these challenges by creating an integrated informatics platform to reduce the barriers to biomedical research collaboration.ResultsThe Request Management System (RMS) is an informatics infrastructure designed to transform a patchwork of expertise and resources into an integrated support network. The RMS facilitates investigators’ initiation of new collaborative projects and supports the management of the collaboration process. In RMS, experts and their knowledge areas are categorized and managed structurally to provide consistent service. A role-based collaborative workflow is tightly integrated with domain experts and services to streamline and monitor the life-cycle of a research project. The RMS has so far tracked over 1,500 investigators with over 4,800 tasks. The research network based on the data collected in RMS illustrated that the investigators’ collaborative projects increased close to 3 times from 2009 to 2012. Our experience with RMS indicates that the platform reduces barriers for cross-institutional collaboration of biomedical research projects.ConclusionBuilding a new generation of infrastructure to enhance cross-disciplinary and multi-institutional collaboration has become an important yet challenging task. In this paper, we share the experience of developing and utilizing a collaborative project management system. The results of this study demonstrate that a web-based integrated informatics platform can facilitate and increase research interactions among investigators.

Distance Education and Organizational Environment

As distance education models in social work education continue to grow, this study addresses prevalence and type of models in graduate social work programs and the perceptions of deans about the future of e-learning models of curriculum delivery. The study was an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design including a national survey of 121 deans/directors, followed by group interviews of 15 deans. Findings are that Web-based technology for delivering social work courses is increasing and predicted to grow. Interviews documented the difficulties of transforming organizational environments. Recommendations for social work leadership include convening curriculum leaders in schools of social work to work together to further technology innovations and cross institutional research.

Exploring a cross-institutional research collaboration and innovation: Deploying social software and Web 2.0 technologies to investigate online learning designs and interactions in two Australian Universities

One significant manifestation of the proposition of a ‘classroom without walls’ is the online learning environments evident in most contemporary Australian universities. A key element of the effectiveness of those environments is the quality of the interactions that they foster. Planning and implementing rigorous research into that quality is crucial if these particular ‘classrooms without walls’ are to deliver enhanced and sustained learning outcomes. This article explores selected aspects of a cross-institutional collaboration linking two Australian universities researching the quality of learning interactions in their online courses. In particular, the authors analyse the utility of the social software and Web 2.0 technologies that have been deployed to facilitate their collaborative research. Despite the constraints and tensions attendant on within- and cross-organisational learning, teaching and research activities, the article records evidence of a developing innovation in investigating both the online learning designs and the research project developed to evaluate the effectiveness and impact of those designs .

Tracing Discursive Resources: How Students Use Prior Genre Knowledge to Negotiate New Writing Contexts in First-Year Composition

While longitudinal research within the field of writing studies has contributed to our understanding of postsecondary students’ writing development, there has been less attention given to the discursive resources students bring with them into writing classrooms and how they make use of these resources in first-year composition courses. This article reports findings from a cross-institutional research study that examines how students access and make use of prior genre knowledge when they encounter new writing tasks in first-year composition courses. Findings reveal a range of ways student make use of prior genre knowledge, with some students breaking down their genre knowledge into useful strategies and repurposing it, and with others maintaining known genres regardless of task.