Interdisciplinary Environment Research Articles

Racial and Ethnic Composition of Departments of Health Policy, Management, Education, and Behavioral Sciences.

The diversity of racial/ethnic representation in the health services and policy research (HSPR) workforce plays a crucial role in addressing the health needs of underserved populations. We assessed changes (between 2012 and 2022) in the racial/ethnic composition of students and faculty from departments of Health Policy & Management (HPM) and Health Education & Behavioral Sciences (HEBS) among the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health member institutions. We analyzed annual data from over 40 institutions that reported student and faculty data in 2012 and 2022 within each department. Racial/ethnic populations included American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN), Asian, Hispanic, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander (NH/PI), Black, White, Unknown, and Multiracial. We conducted analyses by department and examined racial/ethnic composition by student status, degree level, faculty rank, and tenure status. We found statistically significant increases in Black assistant professors (HPM and HEBS) and tenured faculty (HPM), Hispanic graduates and tenure-track faculty (HPM), Asian professors (HPM: full and tenured, HEBS: associate and tenured), and Multiracial students and graduates (HPM and HEBS). Statistically significant decreases were observed in White professors (HPM: assistant and full, HEBS: all ranks) and tenure-track faculty (HPM and HEBS), AI/AN associate professors and tenured faculty (HEBS), Hispanic associate professors (HPM), Asian assistant professors (HEBS), and NH/PI students (HPM and HEBS). Our findings highlight the importance of increasing racial/ethnic representation. Strategies to achieve this include facilitating workshops to raise awareness about the structural barriers encountered by Hispanic faculty, providing research support, evaluating promotion processes, establishing more pathway programs, and fostering interdisciplinary academic environments studying AI/AN or NH/PI populations.

Assessment style in interdisciplinary education – challenges in creating equitable assessment opportunities

ABSTRACT Interdisciplinary education has become increasingly prominent in the higher education landscape over the past several decades. However, it is unclear if interdisciplinary learning environments offer students an equitable learning opportunity. This research paper examines the performance of 435 undergraduate students from different disciplinary backgrounds who enrolled in and completed two interdisciplinary project-based courses. The results of this study indicate that different assessment styles in interdisciplinary courses tend to benefit students from certain disciplines while disadvantaging others. This paper goes on to consider this problem from an equity perspective, cautions educators to consider the challenges, and encourages inclusive assessment design to ensure students are presented with equal opportunity in interdisciplinary learning environments. This paper offers a substantive contribution to the field by highlighting a need for more research on inclusive assessments in interdisciplinary education.

Academia and society should join forces to make anti-cancer treatments more affordable.

Discovery research is the starting point for the development of more effective anti-cancer treatments. It requires an interdisciplinary research environment with first-class infrastructural support in which curiosity-driven research can lead to new concepts for treating cancer. Translating such research findings to clinical practice requires complementary skills and infrastructures, including high-quality clinical facilities, access to patient cohorts and participation of pharma. This complex ecosystem has yielded many new but also "me too" treatment regimens, especially in immuno-oncology resulting in an extremely high pricing of anti-cancer agents. The costs of antibodies, vaccines, and cell therapies charged by pharma stand out although the concepts and methodologies have been largely developed in academia, financed from public funds. Comprehensive Cancer Centres (CCCs) covering a coherent stretch of the cancer research continuum are well-positioned to make these personalized treatments more affordable, but this will require restructuring of the way the translational cancer research continuum is funded.

Development of pilot plants for engineering education

The rapid changes in social interactions and the easy access to information brought by technological advances require that professors rethink and rebuild teaching to maintain its quality. Active methodologies have been used to ensure the development of essential skills in professionals to deal with the current challenges and demands of the job market. This study presents the use of active project-based methodologies with undergraduate and postgraduate engineering students at the Federal University of Minas Gerais. This study aims to report on the implementation of a pilot plant for the causticizing stage of the pulp and paper Kraft Process and the development of two prototypes of industrial sludge drying equipment using solar energy and to evaluate the impact of the activities on the professional training of the people involved and the development of skills and competencies expected of engineering professionals according to the National Curriculum Guidelines, such as the ability to work in teams. The students could apply their technical knowledge in real situations in an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary collaborative environment that encourages the resolution of complex engineering problems innovatively, with a holistic and humanistic vision that also considers social and sustainable aspects. They also demonstrated increased motivation and experienced the connection between industry and academia, which is essential to demonstrate the applicability of the techniques learned during the courses.

Evaluating the Impact of Professional Development on STEAM Education Competency in the Industrial Revolution 5.0 Era

This research evaluates the impact of the Teacher Professional Education (PPG) program for Kindergarten educators on their understanding of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) education in the context of the Industrial Revolution 5.0 and Society 5.0. Utilizing a quantitative approach with a pretest-posttest design, the study involved fifty kindergarten teachers from the PPG Daljab (In-Service Teacher Professional Education) at FITK, UIN Sunan Kalijaga. The assessment of participants, conducted through validated instruments, focused on measuring the enhancement of pedagogical competencies in STEAM before and after the program. Results indicated a notable improvement in the teachers' competencies post-intervention. The statistical analysis, including a paired t-test, showed a significant increase in test scores from the pretest to the post-test with a t-statistic of -53.58 and a p-value of 8.54 x 10^-44, highlighting a highly significant difference and validating the effectiveness of the PPG program in bolstering STEAM educational skills. Further tests for normality and homoscedasticity confirmed the reliability and validity of the data. Despite these positive outcomes, variations in test item reliability suggest the need for ongoing evaluation and refinement of assessment tools. The study underscores the potential of structured professional development programs in enhancing teacher capabilities, particularly in adapting to the demands of modern technological and interdisciplinary educational environments. It recommends further research to explore the long-term effects of such interventions on teacher competencies and to fine-tune the assessment methodologies used. This study contributes to the understanding of effective professional development in preparing educators to integrate and excel in STEAM disciplines, aligning with the educational imperatives of contemporary technological revolutions.

Maximizing Mentorship Throughout Your Breast Imaging Career.

Unlike many other subspecialties in radiology, breast radiologists practice in a patient-facing and interdisciplinary environment where team building, communication, and leadership skills are critical. Although breast radiologists can improve these skills over time, strong mentorship can accelerate this process, leading to a more successful and satisfying career. In addition to providing advice, insight, feedback, and encouragement to mentees, mentors help advance the field of breast radiology by contributing to the development of the next generation of leaders. During the mentorship process, mentors continue to hone their listening, problem-solving, and networking skills, which in turn creates a more supportive and nurturing work environment for the entire breast care team. This article reviews important mentorship skills that are essential for all breast radiologists. Although some of the principles apply to all mentoring relationships, ensuring that every breast radiologist has the skills to be both an effective mentor and mentee is key to the future of the profession.

Features of teaching social humanitarian disciplines at the university for students studying in English

The article is devoted to the description of the research conducted within the framework of teaching the course “Political Science” at the Karaganda Medical University using CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) technology. In the last decade, CLIL technology has become widely used. This is a dual educational approach in which an additional language is used to study and teach a general education subject, both its content and language. Authentic materials have a special role in this approach. They help to enrich students' learning experience, broaden their horizons and acquire knowledge not only about the subject, about the contextual interdisciplinary environment, but also about specific terms in the study of the subject and their use within authentic texts. According to the results of the work the positive dynamics of the understanding of authentic texts was observed in all students to varying degrees. It should be noted that in the oral survey students repeatedly expressed interest in the prepared tasks with Indian content, which undoubtedly confirms the high motivation of students to the developed lessons with authentic material, and, consequently, to the subject and language being studied, which can serve as an incentive for further development and use of this experience.

An Undergraduate Laboratory Module Integrating Organic Chemistry and Polymer Science.

Polymer science is receiving wider acceptance in the organic chemistry community; thus, it is imperative to include it in the undergraduate organic chemistry curriculum. Despite the ever-increasing popularity of the topic of polymer chemistry in undergraduate curricula, a comprehensive laboratory experiment module describing a polypeptide synthesis by ring-opening polymerization of N-carboxyanhydride (NCA ROP) and a homopolymer synthesis by activators-regenerated by electron-transfer for atom transfer radical polymerization (ARGET ATRP) has yet to be proposed. Herein, we report a semester-long, ten week undergraduate laboratory module focusing on the synthesis and analytical characterization of polyalanine and polystyrene for an advanced organic chemistry class. Students received hands-on-experiences in synthesizing polymers followed by their characterization via proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) spectroscopy, electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), gel permeation chromatography (GPC), thermogravimetry (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), which are not well-presented in the typical organic chemistry curricula. These engaging hands-on lessons in the newly designed laboratory module not only increase students' interests in an interdisciplinary environment of organic chemistry and polymer science but also cultivate their research interests and communication skills and promote critical thinking.

Digital Accessibility Education in Context: Expert Perspectives on Building Capacity in Academia and the Workplace

The social model of disability, accessibility legislation, and the digital transformation spurred by COVID-19 expose a lack of accessibility capacity in the workforce, indicating persistent gaps in academic and professional education. We adopt a socio-cultural lens to examine how the context of education and training influences teaching and learning in university and workplace sectors, and how expert educators manage and negotiate these contextual factors to build accessibility capacity. This paper reports qualitative research with 55 experienced educators using expert panel method and focus groups. Analysis highlights the important disconnects and contextual challenges that educators must navigate and negotiate to affect and embed cultural change. We find that faculty and workplace cultures frequently perpetuate precarity in accessibility education, individualising the responsibility to ‘heroes’ or ‘champions’, while disciplinary and role-based silos limit the scope for raising awareness and developing widescale competency. Conversely, centres of excellence and communities of practice can cultivate and sustain links between education and research, engage expert users, and promote interdisciplinary and cross-role learning environments, where accessibility is increasingly recognised as a shared endeavour. We conclude that greater collaboration between academia and industry can enhance pedagogical understanding, to transform accessibility educational practices and build and sustain capacity for the future.

Data sharing in modeling and simulation of biomechanical systems in interdisciplinary environments

AbstractAll digital objects that result from the modeling and simulation field are valid sets of research data. In general, research data are the result of intense intellectual activity that is worth communicating. This communication is an essential research practice that, whether with the aim of understanding, critiquing or further developing results, smoothly leads to collaboration, which not only involves discussions, and sharing institutional resources, but also the sharing of data and information at several stages of the research process. Data sharing is intended to improve and facilitate collaboration but quickly introduces challenges like reproducibility, reusability, interoperability, and standardization. These challenges are deeply rooted in an apparent reproducibility standard, about which there is a debate worth considering before emphasizing how the modeling and simulation workflow commonly occurs. Although that workflow is almost natural for practitioners, the sharing practices still require special attention because the principles (known as FAIR principles) that guide research practices towards data sharing also guide the requirements for machine actionable results. The FAIR principles, however, do not address the actual implementation of the data sharing process. This implementation requires careful consideration of characteristics of the sharing platforms for benefiting the most of the data sharing activity. This article serves as an invitation to integrate data sharing practices into the established routines of researchers and elaborates on the perspectives, and guidelines surrounding data sharing implementation.

Constructing in Minecraft in Primary School as a Boundary-Crossing Practice

This study explores the educational adoption of Minecraft as a boundary-crossing practice in primary schools. Previous research indicates that Minecraft can facilitate connections between educational activities and students’ out-of-school experiences, promoting the development of skills such as creativity, innovation, and collaboration. Using a qualitative approach, this study analyzed group interviews with 37 primary school students who participated in a Minecraft-based school project. The analysis focused on instances of boundary crossing associated with the Minecraft activity, allowing an examination of how various socio-cultural boundaries were overcome. The results suggest that educational activities in Minecraft can facilitate connections between school and out-of-school contexts. Moreover, the results indicate that Minecraft can serve as an interdisciplinary learning environment, enabling students to acquire knowledge and skills across diverse domains and disciplines. The analysis also underscores the significance of teachers’ design work in transforming the game into an educational resource. Overall, this article argues that the educational adoption of Minecraft has the potential to foster the construction of continuity between students’ different spheres of life, as well as prompting a reconsideration of students’ previous cultural classifications and social positions.

Interdisciplinary Approaches: Fog/Cloud Computing and IoT for AI and Robotics Integration

Fog/Cloud Computing and the Internet of Things have created intriguing opportunities for AI and robotics integration. This study examines interdisciplinary approaches that combine FCC, IoT, AI, and Robotics to construct sophisticated autonomous systems. These integrated systems may efficiently and intelligently conduct complicated tasks by using edge devices and cloud resources. Communication protocols, data management, security, and interoperability are studied in this interdisciplinary environment. Real-world case studies demonstrate the practicality and benefits of this integration. This study shows how interdisciplinary approaches will change AI and robotics integration. In conclusion, the intersection of Fog/Cloud Computing, IoT, AI, and Robotics is influencing autonomous systems. Edge devices and the cloud enable robots to become intelligent, adaptable, and essential parts of many industries. This research encourages researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to collaborate on innovation and widespread adoption of disruptive technologies. Interdisciplinary techniques are essential to maximizing AI and robotics integration and launching a new era of intelligent automation

Inter-Students: Students’ Opinions and Ethical Perceptions on Environment and Sustainability

This research has been examined in terms of determining the views and ethical perceptions of students studying at middle school, high school and university levels towards the environment and sustainability. The research was carried out with a total of 150 students, 50 students from each education level. The interview form for the environment and sustainability developed by the researcher was used as a data collection tool in the research. As a result of the research, it was determined that the students' environmental awareness and ethical perceptions were high, but they had insufficient knowledge within the scope of sustainability. It is thought that the research data will be an example for future studies on the interdisciplinary environment or sustainability concepts.

KRŪTIES VĖŽIO RADIOTERAPIJA TAIKANT INOVATYVŲ GILAUS KVĖPAVIMO KONTROLĖS METODĄ: KLINIKINIAI VAKARŲ LIETUVOJE SUKAUPTOS PATIRTIES ASPEKTAI

Radiation therapy is an important part of breast cancer treatment, reducing local recurrence and improving overall survival. About 1,500 cases of breast cancer are diagnosed in Lithuania every year. About 30% of all newly diagnosed cancers in women are breast cancer, and about 80% of early-stage breast cancers are treated with radiotherapy. New modern radiation techniques have been evaluated with a better understanding of the effects of radiation on the heart. The article reviews the implementation of the deep inhalation breath hold technique in the clinical practice of Klaipėda University Hospital. The purpose of this article is to analyse the results of the first two years after the implementation of the new methods. Assessing the importance of radiotherapy, the author reveals the importance of the innovative deep breathing method in the article, and shares the experience she has gathered. At the same time, scientific and practical assumptions are made that, after the introduction of innovative radiotherapy technologies into practice, new opportunities for optimising the treatment of patients by individualising it open up. The results of the study reveal the need for a prospective cohort study in order to optimise patient education, clarify selection criteria, and increase the availability of modern radiotherapy services. The presentation of this method in an interdisciplinary environment of social and health care specialists allows specialists to familiarise themselves with the achievements of oncological radiotherapy in west Lithuania.

BIODEMOGRAPHY OF AGING, CELEBRATING JAMES W. VAUPEL, PHD

Abstract James W. Vaupel, PhD (1945 – 2022), was an international leader in demography and aging research and a pioneer in the field of biodemography. He was a highly creative researcher and very entrepreneurial in the development of new interdisciplinary research environments. This symposium highlights a few of the biodemographic research areas that Dr. Vaupel has been a catalyst for. Denmark was Dr. Vaupel’s home country during the last third of his life, and Dr. Christensen reports on findings from Danish nationwide genetic-epidemiological studies on twins and the oldest old: familial influence on aging phenotypes, cohort differences in health among the oldest old, associations of early life events with late life health, as well as tongue-in-cheek research on perceived age and teeth. Dr. Alberts discusses the ‘invariant rate of aging’ hypothesis that was developed by Vaupel and others. She presents comparative analyses from multiple nonhuman primate populations showing that, while life expectancy can continue to improve, we probably can’t slow the demographic rate of aging. Dr. Campos presents evidence from a wild baboon population in Kenya that glucocorticoid levels—biological markers of stress responses—are strong prognostic indicators of survival and may be key explanations of life span disparities. Dr. Carey presents key discoveries from large-scale studies involving the Mediterranean fruit fly. These include the slowing of mortality at older ages, context-specific sex mortality differentials, a behavioral biomarker for morbidity, dietary conditions for maximizing lifespan versus reproduction and a stationary population identity whereby life lived equals life left.

ARKAIM READINGS 2010-2023: ISSUES OF CIVILIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT THROUGH THE PRISM OF INTERDISCIPLINARY DIALOGUE

The article is an overview of the previous issues of the journal “Horizons of Civilization”, representing the materials of the annual scientifi c and practical conference Arkaim readings. The main topics of the issues combining the research of scientists – representatives of various fi elds of humanities: history, archeology, philology, sociology, as well as practitioners – representatives of public initiatives are outlined. The thematic groups of published reports are highlighted, the problems raised in the most interesting studies are listed. It is traced how the conference developed, the journal publishing the conference materials changed. A feature of the Arkaim readings is a scientifi c polylogue, the creation of a platform where the problem is discussed not in a narrow scientifi c community, but in an interdisciplinary environment.

METHODOLOGY FOR THE FORMATION OF THE EDUCATIONAL BASE OF STEM IN THE PREPARATION OF FUTURE BIOLOGY TEACHERS

The contemporary educational landscape necessitates the integration of science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) into the preparation of future biology teachers. This study presents a comprehensive methodology for establishing a robust educational base in STEM, tailored to the specific needs of biology teacher training. Recognizing the interdisciplinary nature of STEM and its growing significance in biology education, this research employs a mixed-methods approach to explore effective strategies for embedding STEM principles within the biology teacher curriculum. The methodology encompasses both quantitative and qualitative analyses, utilizing surveys and interviews with teacher educators and STEM experts. The research highlights a significant gap in current teacher education programs regarding STEM integration, underscoring the need for innovative teaching methods such as project-based learning and collaborative educational models. These approaches aim to enhance the proficiency of future biology teachers in both STEM concepts and their application in educational settings. The findings suggest that a holistic and integrated approach to STEM education is imperative for developing future teachers who are not only well-versed in biological sciences but also skilled in the pedagogical application of STEM principles. The study emphasizes the importance of continuous professional development and institutional support for teacher educators to facilitate this integration. The proposed methodology offers a strategic framework for effectively incorporating STEM into biology teacher education, fostering a generation of educators equipped to navigate and teach in an increasingly interdisciplinary academic environment.

Interdisciplinary approach to defining outdoor places of knowledge work: quantified photo analysis.

Working outdoors is an emerging, sparsely studied phenomenon in knowledge work. Office tasks have traditionally been considered to belong to indoor environments. The worldwide pandemic of COVID-19 has increased and changed attitudes toward multilocational working. The aim of this method study is 2-fold: first to define for interdisciplinary context outdoor environments when they are used as places of outdoor knowledge work and second to quantify the thematic photo analysis to support interdisciplinary understanding of the places of outdoor knowledge work. The review of literature has been one of the methods to support the interdisciplinary approach of this article. The photographs of outdoor knowledge workplaces and views from the workstations are studied through photo analysis customized from the existing press photograph analysis. First, we defined outdoor environments when used as places of outdoor knowledge work, as unconditioned outdoor or semi-outdoor places (opposite to closed indoor spaces with stable, conditioned indoor climate) providing favorable action possibilities as sources of comfort and mitigating unfavorable conditions, for example, by microclimatic solutions. Instead of defining all spaces as outdoor environments not fulfilling a stable indoor climate (conditioned) definition, adaptation to thermal and physical environments also brought semi-outdoor space into the definition. In this context, favorable latent action possibilities (affordance) in the built environment are often related to microclimate as a source of comfort. Second, we focussed on photo analysis. The proposed model is based on journalistic photo analysis PPSA and the pOKW model, which have been further developed in this study to pOKW2 model for analyzing mobile-based collected self-reported photographs by the occupants. In this pOKW2 model, the photographs would have time-location information enabling the combining of data from other datasets and thereby reducing the number of characteristics to be analyzed from the photograph. We proposed rating (in numeric form) to detect the favorable and unfavorable characteristics in the photographs most likely supporting or hindering conditions of outdoor knowledge work. This quantification would enable the use of machine vision analysis and would support handling large quantities of photographs and their combination with other datasets in interdisciplinary research. The quantification of the photo analysis (pOKW2) includes the readiness to combine the analysis results with other time-location-specific datasets in an interdisciplinary research collaboration to advance our understanding of latent action possibilities for outdoor knowledge work.

Interdisciplinary multilingual environment as facilitator of managing educational processes

Interdisciplinary multilingual environment as facilitator of managing educational processes

Navigating Genres in Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Doctoral Programs

ABSTRACT This article explores how doctoral writers in interdisciplinary life sciences programs navigate genre-ing activities across multiple disciplines. In interdisciplinary environments, approaches to doing and teaching writing may benefit from a reimagining, particularly as findings suggest that writing at interdisciplinary boundaries is unsuited to apprenticeship models of pedagogy. I argue that meta-genre is a productive way of engaging with the destabilization of existing knowledge in technical communication in interdisciplinary spaces and of fostering interdisciplinary writing knowledge.