Course Of Project Research Articles

“AI and Content in Marketing”- Correlations on Perception

The project course was an exploration on ‘AI and content in marketing’. Given the presence of AI in everyday lives today, the research was focused on understanding the usage of AI in the domain of marketing from both the perspectives, that of marketing professionals and the consumers who are the perceiver of the content produced. The research delved deeper using different processes like in-depth interviews and survey and an extensive study of existing literature to form a strong foundation and find ideas that can be used to further the scope of AI by finding different metrics to study its perception and making AI a part of the domain of marketing.

Mobilising in the face of large-scale urban change: a conversation between two community organisers from Johannesburg and London

Large-scale and long-term urban development projects often cause sizeable transformations in the built and social fabric, raising questions about the impacts on existing neighbourhoods and communities, and how they might try to shape the development. There are significant challenges to achieving community-based engagement at a large scale involving mobilising a wide range of stakeholders with different positionalities, agendas and priorities across multiple and diverse areas of a city. In this interview, two experienced organisers reflect together on their different but resonant experiences in building community networks to engage with large-scale developments. Between 2016 and 2018, the research project ‘Governing the Future City’ explored the governance of large-scale developments in three urban areas—London, Johannesburg and Shanghai. In Johannesburg and London, the research process directly funded and supported community-based organising in relation to the planning and implementation of the developments. The organisers and researchers worked with existing community-based organisations to try to influence the planning process, drawing together a wide range of affected community and neighbourhood groups. During the course of the research project, the two community coordinators, Mike Makwela (Planact, Johannesburg), focusing on the Corridors of Freedom project, and Sharon Hayward (London Tenants Federation and Grand Union Alliance), working on the Old Oak Park Royal development, visited the other city to explore possibilities to learn from each other’s experiences and contexts. In 2017, while Sharon was in Johannesburg, project researcher Romain Dittgen interviewed them together, twice, on 18 and 20 July, about their experiences of organising and mobilising in their respective cities, specifically in relation to large-scale development projects and in the context of highly diverse communities. Key issues that emerged concerned shared values of community self-organising, the benefits of building consensus or working with different views, and different approaches to relations with government officials and elected representatives. In parallel, they also reflected about working and collaborating with academics, as well as about possibilities for critical analysis of the developments and mutual learning across the two cases.

The lived experience of co-production: Reflective accounts from the InCLUDE project

BackgroundThe value of co-produced research in health and social care is increasingly recognised, but accounts into the processes and individual experiences of co-producing research are lacking. This paper describes the personal journeys of four researchers (two experts by foster caring experience and two experts by profession) throughout the life course of a co-produced research project exploring the barriers and facilitators to inclusive research in foster caring, the InCLUDE project.MethodsEach researcher kept a diary throughout the InCLUDE project of their personal reflections, questions, and learning. These were synthesised and reviewed by the researchers and two colleagues external to the team, and key themes were extracted.ResultsNarratives constructed from the diaries are presented in relation to distinct aspects of the co-production journey, alongside illustrative quotes. These aspects include: motivations for starting the project; making sense of the project; defining roles and responsibilities; challenges; and reflections on acquired knowledge and skills. From these insights, the researchers present recommendations for others endeavouring to engage in co-produced research. These include: recognising vulnerabilities and challenges during the early stages of a project; creating safe spaces; seeing the value of diversity; harnessing individual strengths; establishing a strong routine; and ensuring equal voice.ConclusionsThis paper presents a novel perspective on the realities of co-produced research by documenting the lived experiences of researchers within the context of foster care research. It highlights the importance of both measurable, tangible project outcomes, and the personal and skills growth of team members. The consistent use of diaries is encouraged as a valuable practice to capture learning, progress and achievements throughout the co-production process.

Towards the adoption of a balanced approach to literacy instruction in LESLLA classrooms in Québec, Canada

The current study reports on an action research project taking place in two Quebec adult education centres and aiming to create learning opportunities for LESLLA learners of French to pursue their literacy development journey beyond the advancement of their technical skills. More specifically, our research objective was to highlight the challenges and affordances faced by the participating teachers during the study in order to show how instructional change in favour of a more balanced approach to literacy instruction can occur during an action research project involving close mentoring for teachers. To do so, we first described the participating teachers’ meaning-focused literacy teaching practices during non-participant observation sessions in four teachers’ classrooms over the course of 6 weeks, totalizing 25 hours of observed teaching practices. Although the vast majority of all practices observed were code-focused, some instances of meaning-focused teaching practices were identified. During two training sessions, these practices acted as a starting point for exploring new meaning-focused practices that were then piloted with their students. We observed that, in the course of an action research project consisting of iterative cycles of reflection, action, and evaluation, implementing activities aligned with a more balanced approach to literacy instruction seems possible among teachers who typically rely on code-focused activities.

The efficacy of online distance learning (ODL) versus conventional learning mode in the final year project (FYP) course of engineering undergraduate

Periodic positive carrier data from the COVID-19 outbreak in Malaysia intensified government efforts to enforce the movement control order (MCO); Malaysians must remain at home to prevent the virus from spreading fast. The sequence of movement control has an impact on the undergraduates of the Final Year Project (FYP). Undergraduate students from the College of Engineering were instructed to stay at home and utilising the Online Distance Learning (ODL) mode as they were unable to continue their FYP in a conventional approach. The repercussions of the online approach as a teaching and learning tool were implemented as an alternative for student to perform their FYP accordingly. A survey was done among the 302 undergraduate students to assess their satisfaction with the ODL approach during the pandemic, to highlight the challenges they experienced, and to determine the most effective learning mode for FYP. The ODL mode has been implemented globally and does not impair future immersive learning and foster exceptional accomplishment of the FYP. The effectiveness of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) in the Final Year Project (FYP) was demonstrated by the survey results, which indicated the students' satisfaction with their accomplishments. The findings reveal a clear inclination towards Open and Distance Learning (ODL), with 45.7% of participants indicating contentment, in contrast to only 20.2% for traditional classroom-based learning. It may be inferred that the majority of respondents in the Engineering Program's Final Year Project (FYP) are more satisfied with Open and Distance Learning (ODL) compared to traditional classroom learning.

Обзор научно-педагогической деятельности и вклада отечественного ученого М. Н. Гернета в развитие уголовно-правовой и криминологической науки

Introduction. This scientific study provides a brief overview of the creative path of the great Russian and Soviet scientist, Professor of Lomonosov Moscow State University – Mikhail Nikolaevich Gernet. Based on the analysis of scientific works written during the Soviet period of M. N. Gernet’s life and activity, the author outlined his personal point of view on his role in the evolving of a number of legal branches, as well as in the development of Russian legal science. This research will enable young Russian scholars and practitioners, as well as specialists interested in studying the origins of Russian law, to gain better and more thorough understanding of the content of legal phenomena, events, as well as legislative processes unfolding at the present time. Methods. The methodological basis of this study was formed by private-scientific methods, primarily content analysis of documents and legal methods, as well as general scientific methods, including historical, system analysis, generalisation, modelling and others. Results. In the course of this research project, it was possible to convincingly prove that that M. N. Gernet made a significant contribution to the development of criminology within legal science. His profound, fundamental, and advanced scientific research, both theoretical and practical, not only advanced the field for his time but also had a lasting impact on the field. Today, criminology is a sub-branch of criminal law, and its influence on Russian criminal legal theory is substantial. In addition, the author concludes that in the scientific works written by M. N. Gernet, most of the author’s points of view are based solely on humanistic approaches. Even when considering issues related to criminal punishment, the author endeavoured to expand the use of the parole system. Most of Professor M. N. Gernet’s scientific ideas are imbued with the principles of justice. Throughout his life, he sought to bridge the gap between theoretical scientific concepts and practical applications.

A Basecamp for Student Group Projects: Analysis of the Use of Project Management Software in the Advertising, Public Relations, and Marketing Classroom

Integration of project management collaboration software has been suggested for group experiential project courses in advertising, public relations (PR), marketing, and strategic communications. But little research has been conducted on using these tools. This study sought to gauge student perceptions toward the use of project management collaboration software Basecamp on improved experience in group projects, team collaboration, and learning outcomes. A survey of 177 students in seven course sections across two semesters at two universities reveals that most students agree project management and collaboration software is a valuable learning tool. Suggestions for course and program implementation and the self-directed learning model are considered.

Theories and hypotheses: The forgotten plane of the multiverse

Multiverse analyses—the systematic examination of the effects of decisions that researchers can take over the course of a research project—became more common in recent psychophysiological research. However, multiverse analyses in psychophysiology almost exclusively focus on methodological and statistical decisions that can have a considerable impact on the findings. The role of the conceptual multiverse regarding theory-related research decisions is largely ignored. We argue that the choice of a theory that guides hypotheses, study design, measurement methods, and statistical analyses is the first plane of the psychophysiological multiverse. Depending on the chosen theoretical framework, researchers will choose different methods, and statistical analyses will emphasize specific aspects. We illustrate this process with a research example studying the effects of task difficulty manipulations on cardiovascular effects reflecting effort. We argue in favor of an approach that explicitly acknowledges the various theoretical accounts that can constitute the background of a study and demonstrate how a comparative analytical approach can provide a comprehensive multiverse without increasing type I error due to mere exploration.

Variational prior replacement in Bayesian inference and inversion

SUMMARY Many scientific investigations require that the values of a set of model parameters are estimated using recorded data. In Bayesian inference, information from both observed data and prior knowledge is combined to update model parameters probabilistically by calculating the posterior probability distribution function. Prior information is often described by a prior probability distribution. Situations arise in which we wish to change prior information during the course of a scientific project. However, estimating the solution to any single Bayesian inference problem is often computationally costly, as it typically requires many model samples to be drawn, and the data set that would have been recorded if each sample was true must be simulated. Recalculating the Bayesian inference solution every time prior information changes can therefore be extremely expensive. We develop a mathematical formulation that allows the prior information that is embedded within a solution, to be changed using variational methods, without recalculating the original Bayesian inference. In this method, existing prior information is removed from a previously obtained posterior distribution and is replaced by new prior information. We therefore call the methodology variational prior replacement (VPR). We demonstrate VPR using a 2-D seismic full waveform inversion example, in which VPR provides similar posterior solutions to those obtained by solving independent inference problems using different prior distributions. The former can be completed within minutes on a laptop computer, whereas the latter requires days of computations using high-performance computing resources. We demonstrate the value of the method by comparing the posterior solutions obtained using three different types of prior information: uniform, smoothing and geological prior distributions.

Pemanfaatan Minyak Jelantah sebagai Bahan Dasar Pembuatan Lilin Aromaterapi di Panti Asuhan Vallery

Indonesia is one of the largest consumers of cooking oil in the world. Cooking oil functions to conduct heat in frying food. Used cooking oil or used cooking oil can be used and utilized. Disposal of used cooking oil can also cause environmental damage. Therefore, we need to be able to utilize used cooking oil into something that has economic value for society. This program is implemented to educate children at the Vallery orphanage so they can make an innovative aromatherapy candle product using used cooking oil. This activity aims to provide understanding to the children of the Vallery Orphanage as partners in the use of used cooking oil as an ingredient for making aromatherapy candles. This aromatherapy candle can provide a step that can potentially be developed as an alternative income for nursing home managers because it has economic value. This program is implemented as a real action from the leadership project course which aims to train the ability of PPG Pre-service students to lead through service learning activities or the ability to serve the community or society. Through this program, students are expected to be able to contribute to solving problems that exist in society. The implementation method for this activity is socialization by means of a presentation and followed by training in making aromatherapy candles made from used cooking oil.

Enhancing Students’ Performance in Integrated Project Course through Collaborative Learning and Open Artificial Intelligence Chatbot

Numerous students faced challenges related to specific concepts, deeming it essential to seek supplementary guidance for the successful completion of their mandatory final semester projects within the Integrated Project Course. This need arose early in the project development phase, and these individuals consistently encountered difficulties in bringing their projects to fruition. The challenges stemmed from the intricate nature of the course material and the inadequacy of suitable guidance. As a result, some students occasionally delivered incomplete and below-par project outcomes. Consequently, this research endeavors to enhance students' final semester project performance by employing collaborative learning methods and integrating an Open Artificial Intelligence Chatbot as interventions. The study was conducted during the session II 2022/2023 in the Department of Information and Communication Technology at Polytechnic Sultan Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah, involving 12 students enrolled in the Integrated Project Course and receive score mark below five during their Demonstration One presentation session. Data collection included rubric scores and reflective journals, which were analyzed based on rubric percentages before and after the intervention. The findings of the study indicated an improvement in rubric scores before and after the intervention, signifying an enhancement in students' project-related performance. Additionally, the reflective journal provided insights into the students' learning experiences with both interventions. This research contributes to educators' comprehension of effective methods for elevating students' performance in Integrated Project Course by leveraging contemporary technologies and approaches. Future research initiatives could further diversify teaching and learning methods in Integrated Project through the organization of workshops specifically addressing current technology and knowledge pertinent to the development of final semester projects.

Enabling interdisciplinary research capacity for sustainable development: self-evaluation of the Blue Communities project in the UK and Southeast Asia.

Global challenges such as climate change, food security and human health and well-being disproportionately impact people from low-income countries. These challenges are complex and require an international and transdisciplinary approach to research, with research skills and expertise from different disciplines, sectors and regions. In addressing this, a key goal of the research project, Blue Communities, was to create and expand mutual interdisciplinary capacity of both United Kingdom and Southeast Asian Partners. An existing questionnaire on research capacity was uniquely adapted to include interdisciplinary and international aspects and distributed for the first time as an online survey to the participants of the Blue Communities project comprising researchers across all career stages. Participants were asked about their perceptions of the research capacity and culture of their organisation, team and self and whether they believed any aspects have changed since their involvement with the project. Greatest improvement was seen at the self-level where results indicated a positive relationship between an individual's current success or skill and their improvement over the course of the research project across 18 out of 22 aspects of research capacity for Southeast Asian, and two for UK respondents. The conflict between achieving research aims, building research capacity and making societal impact was evident. Institutional support is required to value these core aspects of interdisciplinary research.

Creating authentic remote work integrated learning: A new approach using HyFlex classrooms

This article reflects on the experience of a multi-disciplinary teaching team delivering an applied project course in a business master’s program. This capstone course was developed to address industry and government expectations for work-ready graduates. In the course students act as consultants for business clients, completing a project over two semesters to recommend solutions for real business issues. The focus of this article is on the innovative delivery of the course utilizing newly built HyFlex technology-enabled classrooms and how this multimedia technology presented opportunities and learnings for future work-integrated learning (WIL) courses.

The Biomedicine Project Course: Promoting Young Scientists at School and University

This article presents a cooperation project between science and schools, which aims to provide high-achieving students with initial research experience at university and at the same time to encourage these students to take up medical or scientific courses of study. This is linked to the university's perspective of being able to attract potentially outstanding young scientists, especially in biomedical research. Thus, the project offers a win-win effect for all parties involved from school and university (Irmer, 2012). Feedback from an online survey of participating project students illustrates that even high demands can be motivating for students if the offer meets the students' interest and leads to experiences of self-efficacy. This article is intended to encourage the search for such opportunities for cooperation between schools and universities and to focus more strongly on their importance in generating young scientists.

Mimetic Teaching Strategy in Design Education: Relationship Between Students Learning Style and Creativity

Mimetic Teaching Strategy in Design Education: Relationship Between Students Learning Style and Creativity

An efficient solver for large-scale onshore wind farm siting including cable routing

Existing planning approaches for onshore wind farm siting and grid integration often do not meet minimum cost solutions or social and environmental considerations. In this paper, we develop an exact approach for the integrated layout and cable routing problem of onshore wind farm planning using the Quota Steiner tree problem. Applying a novel transformation on a known directed cut formulation, reduction techniques, and heuristics, we design an exact solver that makes large problem instances solvable and outperforms generic MIP solvers. In selected regions of Germany, the trade-offs between minimizing costs and landscape impact of onshore wind farm siting are investigated. Although our case studies show large trade-offs between the objective criteria of cost and landscape impact, small burdens on one criterion can significantly improve the other criteria. In addition, we demonstrate that contrary to many approaches for exclusive turbine siting, grid integration must be simultaneously optimized to avoid excessive costs or landscape impacts in the course of a wind farm project. Our novel problem formulation and the developed solver can assist planners in decision-making and help optimize wind farms in large regions in the future.

Seafarers’ attitudes and chances to improve the nutrition on merchant ships from the crews’ and cooks’ perspective

BackgroundSeafarers’ diets are often high in fat, sugar and calories, thus contributing to an increased risk of obesity, metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease. The multitude of obstacles to healthy eating in the on-board environment on merchant ships makes it essential to find new approaches for health promotion. This study explored seafarers’ attitudes, the status quo of support measures and chances to improve nutrition on merchant ships from the perspective of crews and cooks.MethodsIn the course of the EU-funded project “e-healthy ship”, European and Southeast Asian seafarers (N = 810) and ship cooks (N = 62) were examined by using two questionnaires on 68 ships of two German shipping companies.ResultsAlmost all seafarers (98.8%) considered a healthy diet important for their well-being and the majority of seafarers reported being open-minded about changing their eating habits (88.4%). However, European seafarers were less likely to respond that they are willing to eat less meat [OR 0.11; 95%CI (0.07–0.17); p < .001], more vegetables [OR 0.10; 95%CI (0.02–0.49); p = .005] and more fruits [OR 0.11; 95%CI (0.02–0.61); p = .011] than their Southeast Asian colleagues. On the one hand, 82.3% of the ship cooks reported having taken part in at least one cooking course organized by their employer (1: 33.9%, 2: 25.8%, 3: 14.5%, 4 or more: 8.1%), on the other hand, slightly above half stated that the last of these courses had taken place more than 2 years ago. Furthermore, the ship cooks showed a positive attitude towards the use of a tablet-based digital platform that supports the ship cooks in daily and complex tasks (> 85% agreement).ConclusionsTo improve nutrition on board merchant ships, various parameters need to be adjusted, such as ensuring a demand-oriented food supply on board or supporting seafarers’ healthy food choices through target group-specific nutrition education. Ship cooks would be able to play a crucial role if they receive support. The development of a tablet-based digital platform that supports the ship cooks in their daily tasks, offers training and empowers them to implement health-promoting measures themselves seems to be an accepted and promising approach.

ENSURING INCLUSIVITY THROUGH CRITICAL THINKING IN EFL CONTEXTS

This paper examines the extent to which students in a supervised undergraduate research project course felt equipped to work independently using a range of critical thinking skills developed within the course. As critical thinking is an important but challenging component in EFL (English as a Foreign Language) context, empowering students to engage in process-driven reading and writing can be seen to be inclusive. In this sense, inclusivity embraces the quality of embracing diverse skills, interests, competency levels and corresponding outcomes. Based on a qualitative study of student questionnaires and focus group interviews, this study concludes that students are able to comprehend, analyze and apply ideas and theories when given training and practice in these areas. Findings from an extensive questionnaire and student interviews show that EFL learners in the Arab world are capable of thinking critically, particularly when they research areas of significance to themselves and their society. Critical thinking should thus be seen as a series of teachable skills which enable the EFL student to create an individual piece of work which successfully incorporates academic writing skills and enables them to find their own voice. Providing opportunities for independent learning thus ensures inclusivity, equipping students with required skills.

Literacy and health education: analysis of pedagogical projects of health courses

The present study aimed to analyze political-pedagogical projects of higher education courses in the health field to identify how literacy and health education have been included in the training of students. A cross-sectional and documentary study was performed through the analysis of political-pedagogical projects of higher education courses in the health field in force in 2023. Political-pedagogical projects of nursing, medicine, and dentistry courses of a public university and a private university center in the city of Montes Claros, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, were analyzed through detailed readings conducted by three independent researchers. The private university center has more up-to-date projects, apart from the medical course. There were no direct mentions of health literacy in the political-pedagogical projects. The nursing program at the private university center had the highest number of cataloged courses within this spectrum. The nursing and dentistry courses at the private university center presented more topics related to health education than the same courses at the public university. Weaknesses were observed in the approach to health literacy in the political-pedagogical projects of the courses evaluated, considering their relevance for professional training and for the autonomy of citizens in making decisions related to their own health. However, the documents included subjects related to health education, particularly in the initial and intermediate periods, which allows the sensitization of future professionals to the topic.

Nutrition and movement to improve quality of life in patients with knee osteoarthritis: the NUMOQUA study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

BackgroundOsteoarthritis (OA) has long been considered as a degenerative disease of cartilage tissue resulting from bodily wear and tear. However, there is accumulating evidence that inflammation plays a key role in the pathogenesis of OA. In knee OA, the most common form of OA, exercise therapy as an effective component of early treatment addresses functional deficits, pain and inflammation. Since inflammation is critical for the development and progress of OA, anti-inflammatory therapies must be combined strategically.In the course of the NUMOQUA project, an anti-inflammatory therapeutic diet named ‘Austrian Osteoarthritis Cuisine’ was developed. It is based on the framework of the New Nordic Diet combined with the food-based dietary guidelines of Austria, the guidelines for OA, the Austrian food culture and the principles of a sustainable diet. The present study examines the implementation of the ‘Austrian OA Cuisine’ combined with the evidence-based training programme GLA:D® (Good Life with osteoArthritis in Denmark) in Austrian patients with knee OA and the effects on quality of life, nutritional and inflammatory status, as well as oxidative stress parameters.MethodsA total of 60 participants aged 50 to 75 with knee OA will be included and randomly assigned either to the intervention group or the control group. All participants will undergo the GLA:D® programme in the first 6 weeks. Additionally, the intervention group will receive nutritional group training and individual nutritional counselling on the ‘Austrian OA Cuisine’ over 9 months. The control group will receive general information about a healthy lifestyle. Measurements at baseline and at 4 follow-up dates include nutritional, inflammatory and oxidative stress markers. Furthermore, anthropometric, behavioural and clinical data will be obtained. The recruitment process lasted from autumn 2022 to January 2024, followed by the intervention until October 2024.DiscussionThe prevalence of OA is expected to increase in the future due to ongoing demographic changes and rising obesity rates. The expected results will provide important evidence on whether this interdisciplinary therapeutic approach could be a new, cost-effective and sustainable strategy to address the disease process of OA without negative side effects.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT05955300. Date of registration: 23rd of October 2023.