Interdisciplinary Subject Research Articles

Health Care and Social Work Students' Experiences With a Virtual Reality Simulation Learning Activity: Qualitative Study.

Virtual reality is used to an increasing extent in various fields and is now making inroads into health and social education. Virtual reality simulation can provide a safe and controlled environment for students to practice and master skills that are transferable to real-world situations without putting patients, clients, or themselves at risk of any harm. Virtual reality simulation using 360° videos represents a novel approach to simulation in health care and social work education, and this inspired our interest in exploring students' experiences with such a learning activity. The aim of this study was to explore occupational therapy, social education, nursing, and social work students' experiences with virtual reality simulation as a learning activity in an interdisciplinary subject. The data were collected through 6 semistructured focus groups with 28 students. We conducted the focus groups after the students from the 4 education programs had participated in the virtual reality simulation at 3 campuses at a specialized university in Norway. Each focus group interview was facilitated by 1 moderator and 1 facilitator, a combination of experienced researchers and novices. We followed a qualitative design using the 6-step thematic analysis described by Braun and Clarke. The analysis revealed 3 overall themes for students' experiences with the virtual reality simulation. The first theme, 360° videos provide observations for individual learning, illustrates how learning can take place through the students' experiences with sensory inputs and observations from the 360° videos. Students experienced that the video enabled them to individually reflect and achieve learning from what was considered a clinically relevant video. The second theme, 360° videos activate emotional learning, demonstrates how the students experienced emotional engagement when watching the 360° videos. The degree of realism provided in the video was considered as important for the students' learning. The last theme, Debrief sessions enhance comprehensive learning, pinpoints how the students experienced learning through reflective discussions with other students after watching the 360° videos. Students claimed this process to be a vital part of the learning activity. Virtual reality simulation represents a promising learning activity to enhance the professional learning of health care and social work students. It offers opportunities for individualized learning through observations, and it also engages students emotionally in the learning process. The combination of 360° videos and group discussions in virtual reality appears promising to enhance professional learning outcomes and competence, which may contribute to improved health care and social work services.

Challenges Faced by International Students in Pursuing Doctoral Study: A Case Study of Saudi Students in American Higher Education Programs

Many international students aspire to seek admission to higher education and pursue their studies, especially in the US. Therefore, institutions in general and American institutions in particular must realize the students' perspectives and offer support so they can face their unique problems during their education. This review aims to look into specific learning and adaptation-related experiences of international higher education students during a challenging transition to a large, public research university in the United States. The study was conducted at an American university in the southwest. The program enrolls students worldwide seeking master's and doctoral degrees in languages and social studies. Students may select from a wide range of concentrations, such as teaching English as a Second Language, bilingual education, and social justice, to name a few. These students are often encouraged to study interdisciplinary subjects to improve their understanding of the realm of education and how it is affected by society and politics. Professors teaching these interdisciplinary subjects who descend from various countries and teach in multiple disciplines hold controversial and sometimes even contradicting visions on education and research issues. This review explored the challenges and problems that Saudi international students face while pursuing higher education. A qualitative data collection and analysis method was followed to arrive at conclusions. 6 Saudi students were interviewed in detail. Study findings revealed various academic, social, cultural, financial, and family implications. It is concluded that Saudi international students encounter specific difficulties in US institutions, such as mentoring hardships, adjustment to a new educational system, lack of administrative support, and communication gaps between the supervisors and the researchers.

Review of Nanotechnology’s Potential in Agricultural Applications

Nowadays, the fundamental concept of nanoscience and nanotechnology is used in a variety of fields for a numerous reasons, purposes, and applications at Nano scale. This is an interdisciplinary subject, and its applications include engineering, biotechnology, biomedical instruments, and composite materials; however, nanotechnology has recently become most imperative and exciting in the field of agriculture. Nanotechnology and nanoscale materials have the potential to provide solutions to many significant challenges confronting our farmers. This review paper summarizes some of the most promising and significant nanotechnology applications in agricultural products such as nanopesticides, nanourea, nanosensors, and other nanoscale processes. The current review concentrates on technical and financial challenges confronting achievement of nanotechnology in rural community development.

Molecular dynamics simulation research on the interaction between plasma and living organisms: A comprehensive review

AbstractIn recent years, plasma biomedicine has developed into a new interdisciplinary subject. The interaction between plasma and organisms involves three aspects: “gas–liquid–living organisms.” Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation can simulate the interaction process between plasma and biological tissue with high temporal and spatial resolution. This article reviews the research on plasma biomedicine based on MD simulation and systematically summarizes the progress of MD simulation research on the interaction between plasma and water layer, cell membrane, intracellular substances, extracellular environment, and viruses. These simulations offer a unique opportunity to gain insights into the microscopic mechanisms of these interactions. This article also further looks forward to the opportunities and challenges of MD simulation research.

Cellular and Molecular Roles of Immune Cells in the Gut-Brain Axis in Migraine.

Migraine is a complex and multi-system dysfunction. The realization of its pathophysiology and diagnosis is developing rapidly. Migraine has been linked to gastrointestinal disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome and celiac disease. There is also direct and indirect evidence for a relationship between migraine and the gut-brain axis, but the exact mechanism is not yet explained. Studies have shown that this interaction appears to be influenced by a variety of factors, such as inflammatory mediators, gut microbiota, neuropeptides, and serotonin pathways. Recent studies suggest that immune cells can be the potential tertiary structure between migraine and gut-brain axis. As the hot interdisciplinary subject, the relationship between immunology and gastrointestinal tract is now gradually clear. Inflammatory signals are involved in cellular and molecular responses that link central and peripheral systems. The gastrointestinal symptoms associated with migraine and experiments associated with antibiotics have shown that the intestinal microbiota is abnormal during the attacks. In this review, we focus on the mechanism of migraine and gut-brain axis, and summarize the tertiary structure between immune cells, neural network, and gastrointestinal tract.

Speculative design for envisioning more-than-human futures in desirable counter-cities

The city has long been regarded as the domain of humans. Residing above the physical constraints of nature, such detached and dualistic anthropocentric perceptions tend to universalize, marginalize and de-politicize the value and possible co-benefits of human/nonhuman nature connections. Recognising a need to re-conceptualise the city as a multispecies space, we analyse outcomes from an interdisciplinary Master's subject that sought to encounter, restore, protect and co-exist with more-than-human species. Students were encouraged to step beyond their disciplinary boundaries to develop innovative strategies that could reconfigure human/nonhuman relationships within the city of Trondheim, Norway. Through their work, visions of alternative, possible futures emerged. Such alternative visions can be powerful: speculation can challenge and transform the linear, dualistic understandings of the city, and shape and redirect innovation practices. This article explores students' visions of multispecies cities to consider their contribution to just and sustainable transitions literature, analysing them with respect to design for sustainability transitions, teaching transdisciplinarity and the concept of the counter city.

Visualising the Research Process. The Case of Ambient Music Studies

The article addresses a project of visualization of research on ambient music, including the historically changing subject of this research, its theoretical background and qualitative studies arising from it. In this study, the visualization of the research process is related to the concept of graphesis, or visual interpretation, discussed and partly problematized in the context of visual representation of interdisciplinary topics at the interface of various knowledge systems.

Knowledge Graphs Querying

Knowledge graphs (KGs) such as DBpedia, Freebase, YAGO, Wikidata, and NELL were constructed to store large-scale, real-world facts as (subject, predicate, object) triples - that can also be modeled as a graph, where a node (a subject or an object) represents an entity with attributes, and a directed edge (a predicate) is a relationship between two entities. Querying KGs is critical in web search, question answering (QA), semantic search, personal assistants, fact checking, and recommendation. While significant progress has been made on KG construction and curation, thanks to deep learning recently we have seen a surge of research on KG querying and QA. The objectives of our survey are two-fold. First, research on KG querying has been conducted by several communities, such as databases, data mining, semantic web, machine learning, information retrieval, and natural language processing (NLP), with different focus and terminologies; and also in diverse topics ranging from graph databases, query languages, join algorithms, graph patterns matching, to more sophisticated KG embedding and natural language questions (NLQs). We aim at uniting different interdisciplinary topics and concepts that have been developed for KG querying. Second, many recent advances on KG and query embedding, multimodal KG, and KG-QA come from deep learning, IR, NLP, and computer vision domains. We identify important challenges of KG querying that received less attention by graph databases, and by the DB community in general, e.g., incomplete KG, semantic matching, multimodal data, and NLQs. We conclude by discussing interesting opportunities for the data management community, for instance, KG as a unified data model and vector-based query processing.

Construction and practice of student evaluation system in cultural tourism courses at universities

This paper aims to investigate the construction and implementation of a student evaluation system in cultural tourism courses at universities. Cultural tourism courses, as interdisciplinary subjects, place high demands on students' overall qualities. To better assess students' performance and achievements in the courses, it is necessary to establish an effective evaluation system. Through literature review and field surveys, this study explores the theoretical framework and practical methods to evaluate students in cultural tourism courses at universities. The research findings indicate that building a scientifically sound evaluation system can promote students' better understanding and mastery of course content, enhancing their academic level and overall abilities. Therefore, universities should prioritize the development of student evaluation systems for cultural tourism courses to improve education quality and cultivate outstanding talents with expertise in cultural tourism.

Injection anatomy-a new discipline in aesthetic medicine

The basic anatomical understanding of aesthetic medicine has changed fundamentally since the turn of the millennium. With the advent of modern minimally invasive injection procedures using botulinum toxin and hyaluronic acid fillers, anatomical structures that had previously received little attention and were not considered relevant have steadily gained in importance and moved into the scientific focus. Understanding the three-dimensional arrangement of the face with its defined anatomical layers and compartments serves the procedural dermatologist in the sense of anavigation system to optimize treatment success and patient safety when performing aesthetic injections in the facial region. The principles of the biomechanical interaction of the structures are of elementary importance in the creation of individual treatment plans for the implementation of natural and balanced therapeutic results. Modern injection anatomy as an interdisciplinary subject of the three fields of anatomy, dermatology and plastic surgery makes adecisive contribution here.

Women in Engineering Education: Five Strategies to Promote Women in Engineering Education

The article explores diverse approaches to advancing women in engineering education, a crucial topic given the pervasive gender imbalance in this domain. The review emphasizes the implementation of educational modifications in the field of engineering with the objective of increasing its attractiveness to female students. These modifications include the incorporation of practical applications and interdisciplinary topics, as well as the utilization of active learning methodologies. The present article suggests the potential of the Maker Movement to promote gender equality in engineering education by highlighting its experiential and innovative pedagogical approach. This study emphasizes the importance of cultivating educational environments that are inclusive and supportive, as they are crucial in advancing gender diversity in engineering education. These learning environments promote participation and facilitate success, especially for female students, by fostering a sense of belonging, addressing unconscious bias, and establishing a hospitable physical setting. Additionally, the significance of introducing engineering concepts at an early stage of K-12 education is presented, arguing that this exposure has the potential to spark the interest of female students, challenge existing stereotypes, and influence their career goals. Finally, this mini review highlights the impact that mentorship can have on encouraging women to pursue careers in engineering. The provision of personalized guidance, assistance in navigating challenges, and demonstration of successful behaviors and attitudes by mentors and role models can greatly enhance the pursuit and persistence of women in engineering careers. In summary, this review article provides strategies for advancing women in engineering education, highlighting the need for a multifaceted approach in order to attain a more diverse and inclusive engineering labor force.

Identifying interdisciplinary topics and their evolution based on BERTopic

Identifying interdisciplinary topics and their evolution based on BERTopic

Design and synthesis of bioinspired nanomaterials for biomedical application.

Natural materials and bioprocesses provide abundant inspirations for the design and synthesis of high-performance nanomaterials. In the past several decades, bioinspired nanomaterials have shown great potential in the application of biomedical fields, such as tissue engineering, drug delivery, and cancer therapy, and so on. In this review, three types of bioinspired strategies for biomedical nanomaterials, that is, inspired by the natural structures, biomolecules, and bioprocesses, are mainly introduced. We summarize and discuss the design concepts and synthesis approaches of various bioinspired nanomaterials along with their specific roles in biomedical applications. Additionally, we discuss the challenges for the development of bioinspired biomedical nanomaterials, such as mechanical failure in wet environment, limitation in scale-up fabrication, and lack of deep understanding of biological properties. It is expected that the development and clinical translation of bioinspired biomedical nanomaterials will be further promoted under the cooperation of interdisciplinary subjects in future. This article is categorized under: Implantable Materials and Surgical Technologies > Nanomaterials and Implants Therapeutic Approaches and Drug Discovery > Emerging Technologies.

Automatic calibration system of thermo-hygrometers

Machine vision technology is an interdisciplinary subject involving plenty of fields such as artificial intelligence, neurobiology, psychophysics, computer science, image processing and pattern recognition, etc. In recent years, with rapid development of the technology, machine vision recognition is widely used in many fields of detection and control. For thermo-hygrometers calibration, the manual operation method is used traditionally. This has proven to be a cumbersome, time-consuming, and error-prone activity, as there are lots of models and quantities of thermo-hygrometers to be calibrated. Therefore, an automatic thermo-hygrometers calibration system was developed by using vision recognition technology in combination with automatic movement control as well as a purposely structured database management software. It can complete the calibration and the verification task accurately, timely and efficiently. It has drastically reduced the workload, improved accuracy, and realized the automatic calibration of the thermo-hygrometers.

Study of Abrar-ul- Haq's Punjabi Bhangra Songs in Pragmatics

The study of language and culture is known as linguistic anthropology. Etymological human sciences have become an interdisciplinary subject of study by utilizing the theoretical underpinnings of numerous disciplines. The current study investigated Punjabi songs using a qualitative analytical approach. The Relevance Theory of Pragmatics, proposed by Deirdre Wilson and Dan Sperber (2004), explained how Abrar-ul-Haq appeared on the horizon to promote Punjabi culture through his energetic Punjabi Bhangra songs. For this study, only two songs were chosen: Billo Day Ghar and Beh Ja Sakal Tay. The study’s findings revealed that Abrar ul Haq used singing as a medium of language to transport cultural norms in general and Punjabi culture in particular. Because he was a famous and world-famous singer, his message spread worldwide, and he became known not only as the Bhangra singer but also as the anthropologist who invented and promoted Punjabi culture through his singing. It is concluded that Punjabi Culture is rich in norms and values. MPhil scholars will expand the scope of the study to include a full-length version of these to promote Punjabi culture. It is suggested that other linguists investigate Punjabi culture to revive and preserve it.

Social studies teacher candidates' perceptions of cultural heritage

The social studies course is a multifaceted, interdisciplinary subject that encompasses the cultural wealth of societies and acts as a bridge between the past and the present. The concept of cultural heritage is crucial in the context of this course's rich material. Cultural heritage is described as all of the values that societies have passed down from generation to generation. Metaphors will be used to examine the perceptions of prospective social studies teachers regarding the concept of cultural heritage. In terms of structure and scope, the study, which examines teacher candidates' metaphors related to cultural heritage, is a descriptive study that employs qualitative research processes. In the data collection process of the research, the metaphor technique was used to determine the perceptions of social studies teacher candidates regarding the concept of cultural heritage. In the process of assessing the study's data, content analysis was used. The researcher generated particular topics for all of the metaphors developed by social studies teacher candidates connected to the concept of cultural heritage. Metaphors of treasure, precious stone, heritage, and entrusted stand out in the context of the concepts produced for cultural heritage through content analysis. The idea of 'cultural transmission' appears in the main categories developed.

Fostering pupils' critical health literacy: examining the potential of physical education in lower secondary school.

In Norway, the introduction of an interdisciplinary subject named Public Health and Life skills has brought about renewed attention to how health is conceptualized and taught within and across school subjects. Physical education (PE) is one subject that has traditionally been linked to health outcomes. However, a narrow focus on increased physical activity as the main outcome of PE could be counterproductive in the pursuit of health. Critical health literacy (CHL) is put forward as a resource for health that can be nurtured in the PE context; this study hypothesizes that academic achievement in PE is positively associated with some aspects of CHL. This cross-sectional study included 521 pupils aged 13-15 years old from five lower secondary schools in Norway. Structural equation models were used as the primary statistical analysis to test the hypothesis. The study controlled for parents' education, leisure physical activity, and participation in sports club activities. The results confirm the hypothesis, showing a positive and significant association between PE and CHL. The association remains when controlling for parents' education, leisure physical activity, and participation in sports club activities (PE→CHL-C1 = 0.264, p = 0.001; PE→CHL-C2 = 0.351, p < 0.000). In our sample, academic achievement in PE was associated with higher levels of CHL. This study contributes to the ongoing discussion on the health benefits of PE. We argue that a resource-based health perspective can produce the appropriate aims for health in PE contexts and that the CHL concept contributes to illuminating key areas, promoting suitable teaching strategies, and bringing balance between an individual and collective focus for future health education, both within PE and across different subjects in school contexts.

Integrated modeling of global change impacts on land and water resources

There is a common scientific understanding that global change impact analysis, mitigation, and adaptation require interdisciplinary work. Integrated modeling could help to address the challenges associated with the impacts of global change. Particularly, integrated modeling that takes feedback effects into account will allow for the derivation of climate resilient land use and land management. Here, we call for more of such integrated modeling work focusing on the interdisciplinary subject of water resources and land management. As a proof-of-concept, we tightly couple a hydrologic (SWAT) and a land use model (CLUE-s) and illustrate the benefits of this coupled land and water modeling framework (LaWaCoMo) with a scenario on cropland abandonment induced by water stress. As compared to standalone model runs of SWAT and CLUE-s for the past, LaWaCoMo performs slightly better regarding measured river discharge (PBIAS: +0.8% and +1.5% compared at two gauges) and land use change (figure of merit: +6.4% and +2.3% compared to land use maps at two points in time). We show that LaWaCoMo is suitable for global change impact analysis as it is sensitive to climate and land use inputs as well as to management decisions. Our results shed light on the importance of feedback effects between land use and hydrology to assess impacts of global change on land and water resources accurately and consistently. To facilitate that the developed methodology can serve as a blueprint for integrated modeling of global change impacts, we used two freely available models that belong to the most widely used models in their respective disciplines.

Philosophy: An Apologetic Etude

Philosophy as a cultural phenomenon, a type of worldview, an academic discipline has a difficult destiny. Society either raves about philosophical thought and practice or ostracizes and pompously distances itself from them. The authors attempt to understand the causes of this situation and highlight philosophy’s non-devaluated worth. The paper is based on existential dialectics in conjunction with a hermeneutic approach.The question of worldview’s genesis, essence and structure is addressed. The nature of philosophy’s relationships with worldview framework as a whole and its important elements, religion and science is clarified. The latter talk about providence or law. Unlike them, philosophy talks about fate – not blind, not manageable but capricious. Philosophy turns to a wayward man, supporting and strengthening his craving for autonomy in actions and thoughts as well as advising him to approach the traditions of world and national culture with intelligence and responsibility. The authors specify the interdisciplinary subject of philosophy equated with its problem field. The multi-faceted nature of philosophical problems and the irremovable subjectivity in its fixation determine ambiguity in ranking the range of issues. The authors give preference to the version rooted in Greek philosophical thought. The premises and the arguments presented in the text allow us to summarize: philosophy is neither a servant nor a mistress, but a life companion of an autonomous man. The pressure on philosophy is caused by the society’s and authorities’ ever-present suspicion towards an autonomous man.

An E-C Translation Study under the Theory of Eco-translatology: Children and Nature in The Secret Garden

Approaching the second decade of the 21 century, the theoretical translation field of China is gracing with a new theory that might open up a new paradigm for the discipline. Inspired by ancient Chinese wisdom on the harmonious relationships between man and environment, the theory of eco-translatology was published by Gengshen Hu. Eco-translatology is an interdisciplinary subject that involves the subject of translation and the ideas used in ecology. In most translated (English to Chinese) childrens literature, translators select different words under their translational environment and their own understanding of cross-cultural adaptation. Therefore, the ideal version of translation would achieve the harmonious relationships between linguistic, communicative, cross-cultural transition, and other translation-related factors, it would also achieve the harmonious relationships between authors original attempt, translators selection of words, and readers experience. This paper will make a specific analysis of the different E-C translated texts of the famous childrens literature The Secret Garden to explore translators different interpretations of authors unique ideas and translators selection for words under the theory of eco-translatology at that time period and social background. Finally, the author concludes how eco-translatology theory could be beneficial in serving practical use in translation.