Project Emphasis Research Articles

Life Integrate: Unify Your Life, Simplify Your Success

Abstract: Efficient management and organization of personal and commercial data is critical for reducing stress and increasing productivity in the fast-paced digital environment we live in. An inventive smartphone software called "Life Integrate" attempts to meet this requirement by effectively managing duties and merging different facets of life. The project aims to mimic the effectiveness of an AI personal assistant by bridging the gap between contemporary lives and efficient organizing. The software smoothly distinguishes between personal and professional data by utilizing technologies like machine learning and natural language processing, which improves the user experience and efficiency. One to three clicks can easily share data with the app, which adds to its effectiveness and user-friendliness. Aiming to streamline processes, key features include real-time editing, interactive chats, speech-activated assistants, and contextual awareness. The project's emphasis on developing a personal bot that excels at data collection and generates intelligent ideas based on collected data exemplifies an intriguing combination of customization and artificial intelligence. With its 13 primary sub-tabs and extensive questionnaires for storing both personal and professional data, the app offers an approach to organization and management that is user-centric. Effective app development and deployment are ensured by the use of the Flutter and Dart platforms. In general, "Life Integrate" seeks to transform the information landscape, making it easier to acquire and use, and facilitating more enjoyable interactions between humans and machines. With this project, we hope to create a future in which people can easily incorporate technology into their daily lives, increasing productivity and lowering stress levels

Accident Prevention and Alerting System

The project addresses the increased demand for vehicle tracking systems in the embedded systems industry by providing a solution that combines accident avoidance and real-time tracking capabilities. The system takes a holistic approach to road safety by integrating components such as the Arduino microcontroller, alcohol sensor MQ2, heartbeat sensor, limit switch, relay, Liquid Crystal Display, Global Positioning Satellite, and Global system for mobile communication module. The system's ability, in particular, to detect and prevent drunk driving incidents makes a substantial contribution to road safety. The project's goal is to avoid accidents and fatalities by automatically alerting drivers when they attempt to operate a car while intoxicated. Finally, the project's emphasis on improving road safety through proactive monitoring and intervention highlights its potential to make a significant contribution to reducing traffic accidents and saving lives.

Continental Collaboration: Consulting, Institution Building, and Mentoring Across Africa

Continental Collaboration: Consulting, Institution Building, and Mentoring Across Africa

The Millennium Villages Project: a retrospective, observational, endline evaluation.

The Millennium Villages Project (MVP) was a 10 year, multisector, rural development project, initiated in 2005, operating across ten sites in ten sub-Saharan African countries to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In this study, we aimed to estimate the project's impact, target attainment, and on-site spending. In this endline evaluation of the MVP, we retrospectively selected comparison villages that best matched the project villages on possible confounding variables. Cross-sectional survey data on 40 outcomes of interest were collected from both the project and the comparison villages in 2015. Using these data, as well as on-site spending data collected during the project, we estimated project impacts as differences in outcomes between the project and comparison villages; target attainment as differences between project outcomes and prespecified targets; and on-site spending as expenditures reported by communities, donors, governments, and the project. Spending data were not collected in the comparison villages. Averaged across the ten project sites, we found that impact estimates for 30 of 40 outcomes were significant (95% uncertainty intervals [UIs] for these outcomes excluded zero) and favoured the project villages. In particular, substantial effects were seen in agriculture and health, in which some outcomes were roughly one SD better in the project villages than in the comparison villages. The project was estimated to have no significant impact on the consumption-based measures of poverty, but a significant favourable impact on an index of asset ownership. Impacts on nutrition and education outcomes were often inconclusive (95% UIs included zero). Averaging across outcomes within categories, the project had significant favourable impacts on agriculture, nutrition, education, child health, maternal health, HIV and malaria, and water and sanitation. A third of the targets were met in the project sites. Total on-site spending decreased from US$132 per person in the first half of the project (of which $66 was from the MVP) to $109 per person in the second half of the project (of which $25 was from the MVP). The MVP had favourable impacts on outcomes in all MDG areas, consistent with an integrated rural development approach. The greatest effects were in agriculture and health, suggesting support for the project's emphasis on agriculture and health systems strengthening. The project conclusively met one third of its targets. The Open Society Foundations, the Islamic Development Bank, and the governments of Japan, South Korea, Mali, Senegal, and Uganda.

Developing preceptorship through action research: part 2.

Clinical preception in practice plays a significant role in the education of both Registered Nurses and practical nurses. This study presents the evaluation of an interprofessional research and development project (2009-2103) on clinical preceptorship between two universities of applied sciences, two vocational institutes and four healthcare organisations in western Finland. The research question was as follows: How did the participants evaluate the process and outcomes of developing preceptorship through an action-research approach? The primary target group consisted of professionals within the healthcare sector and nursing teachers at the universities of applied sciences and the vocational institutes. The five units represented in the healthcare organisations functioned as clinical practice placements for both nursing and practical nursing students, with Registered Nurses and practical nurses acting as their preceptors. Each unit developed a unique preceptorship model to answer their specific needs. The models were implemented and tested during one academic year followed by a quantitative (a 4-point scale) and qualitative evaluation of the process. The models are presented in another article, and the evaluation results are presented in this article. The evaluation showed that preceptorship has become an important and accepted part of work, including the practice of starting any preception at a unit with a thorough introduction. The project's emphasis on critical thinking, reflection and focus on ethics were valued by the staff. Pedagogical further education should be arranged on a regular basis to strengthen the knowledge base of the preceptors. Furthermore, enough time for preceptorship should be allocated, as it is a pedagogical duty. The implication of this project is that more cooperation between different stake holders is needed, in order to narrow the gap between theory and praxis.

Introduction: understanding the re-articulations of privilege over time and space

This special issue is based entirely on the research project called ‘Elite independent schools in globalising circumstances: a multi-sited global ethnography' and this opening essay introduces both the project and the essays to follow. It offers a justification for studying elite schools, elites and elitism and explains some of the project's guiding premises not the least being its deliberate departure from those studies of elite schools that are nation bound. It clarifies the project's emphasis on the complexities of elite formation and expression as they are caught up in changing modalities of globalisation over time and place.

Exploring Weaving Structures in the Andes: Reflections on the Creation of a Digital Archive

In this article, we describe the challenges encountered in creating a digital archive for Andean textiles.1 Developed at Birkbeck, University of London, within a three-year Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)-funded project (2009–2012) titled “Weaving Communities of Practice. Textiles, Culture and Identity in the Andes: A Semiotic and Ontological Approach,” this archive goes beyond providing a mere repository for digital documents. Our focus has been to improve accessibility by enriching the data related to textiles' production (consisting of texts, images, and videos) with information describing the social, historical, and cultural contexts. This allows researchers in the area of textile studies to gain new insights that go beyond the immediate functional utility of cloth. We have also addressed practical aspects, such as providing a platform for museums to manage and showcase their collections, introducing local weaving repertoires into educational curricula, and offering regional weavers a venue to protect their cultural patrimony from piracy. At the heart of the system is a knowledge base, the core of which is an ontology mapping the knowledge of domain experts into a machine-readable format. The development of the ontology is crucial for the provision of contextual information, which on this scale is new for Andean textiles. Other important components of the system, the editors Sawu-3D and InaSawu, are tools for modeling, visualizing, and capturing the semantics of the complex patterns found in Andean textiles. While traditionally art historians have focused their analysis on the iconography of textiles, this project's emphasis on local weavers' techniques opens up new ways of understanding and classifying textiles. This system is our contribution to preserving the rich cultural heritage of Andean weaving.

Implementation Evaluation of an Integrated Healthcare Delivery Initiative for Diabetic Patients

The aim of this in-depth, longitudinal, qualitative case study was to understand and explain the dynamics of implementing a pilot project to deliver integrated healthcare for type 2 diabetic patients. Data gathering included in-depth, face-to-face interviews with family physicians, nurses and other healthcare providers, managers and policy makers (n = 25) at various points during the research period, and focus groups (n = 3) with patients. These data were complemented by onsite observations of numerous committee meetings, and analysis of project documentation. Benson's (1975) political economy perspective provided a valuable conceptual framework for tracking the complex dynamics of implementing service integration. Manipulative strategies (continuing medical education, new information technology) did not engage physicians. Of the cooperative strategies attempted (disease management, patient education, community mobilization), only patient education appears to have succeeded: patients acknowledged that project educational activities enabled them to improve self-management of their disease. However, the project's emphasis on patient education effectively increased nurses' bargaining power within the healthcare team, to the detriment of the focus on integrated care. Integrating care is a laborious process that takes time to reach fruition. This one-year pilot project was insufficient for mobilizing health professionals away from fragmented practices toward integrated ones. New resources mostly allowed them to maintain or increase their power positions within the network of care providers. Nevertheless, this initiative raised physicians' awareness and appreciation of the care that other health professionals provided to their patients.

Frontiers at the Interface between Computing and Biology

Intelligent systems in biology raises questions about the interface between computing and biology. What does it look like? How does it engage the two disciplines? What will it take to grow that interface productively? The Computer Science and Telecommunications Board at the National Academies' new project focuses on these and related questions. CSTB's project, Frontiers at the Interface between Computing and Biology, is both comprehensive and exploratory. Launched in September 2000, it is examining the intersections of computer science and biology research. The project's emphasis is on finding truly interdisciplinary opportunities and new directions in which to extend information technology and biology research.

Frontiers at the Interface between Computing and Biology

Intelligent systems in biology raises questions about the interface between computing and biology. What does it look like? How does it engage the two disciplines? What will it take to grow that interface productively? The Computer Science and Telecommunications Board at the National Academies' new project focuses on these and related questions. CSTB's project, Frontiers at the Interface between Computing and Biology, is both comprehensive and exploratory. Launched in September 2000, it is examining the intersections of computer science and biology research. The project's emphasis is on finding truly interdisciplinary opportunities and new directions in which to extend information technology and biology research.

From diatribe to dialogue on divisive public issues: Approaches drawn from family therapy

AbstractPublic discourse on divisive issues is often dominated by destructive debate between polarized opponents. Applying family therapy ideas, the Public Conversations Project fosters constructive dialogue on such conflicts. Their approach includes (1) collaborating with participants, starting with extensive premeeting exchanges, (2) using ground rules and formats that prevent reen‐actment of the “old” conversation, and (3) fostering respectful inquiry to stimulate a “new” conversation that increases understanding of the “other” as a person, not a stereotype or position. The project's emphasis is not on resolving specific disputes but on improving the way people with strong differences relate to each other.

Extraordinary Vienna: Identity and the Metropolitan Project

THE KNOWLEDGE VIENNESE have of their public parks and private gardens re‐enforces their sense of belonging to the city. While place attachment may account for identification with a neighborhood or district, the sense of connection to the larger metropolis is another matter. Identification becomes possible through a “metropolitan project”—a mission or goal set by city leaders. The project's emphasis changes over time, yet commitment to it often transcends class, gender and ethnicity. Parks and gardens are shaped by the same forces that shape the metropolitan project in any given era. Green spaces become a medium through which their designers or gardeners express identification with the project, and through it, with the metropolis as a whole.

Towards community self-help in higher education

Abstract The development of a peer counselling programme by students at the University of Birmingham and by counsellors in training at the nearby University of Aston is described. The growth and development of the programme in terms of content, structure and rationale over the past two years are outlined, as are the results and implications of the development of new communication channels that it has facilitated on campus. The project's emphasis has shifted from providing services for others to concern for self development, and the implications both of this and of the programme's contribution to community development within the campus are discussed.

Towards community self-help in higher education

Abstract The development of a peer counselling programme by students at the University of Birmingham and by counsellors in training at the nearby University of Aston is described. The growth and development of the programme in terms of content, structure and rationale over the past two years are outlined, as are the results and implications of the development of new communication channels that it has facilitated on campus. The project's emphasis has shifted from providing services for others to concern for self development, and the implications both of this and of the programme's contribution to community development within the campus are discussed.

Building research capacity in a practitioner community: framing and evaluating the 'National Action Research Network on Researching and Evaluating Personal Development Planning and e-Portfolio Practice'

This paper evaluates key aspects of the National Action Research Network on Researching and Evaluating Personal Development Planning and e-Portfolio Practice (NARN). This was a National Teaching Fellowship Scheme funded project which ran from 2007-1010 and involved sixteen English Higher Education institutions (HEIs). The context, purposes, theoretical underpinnings and framework for the NARN are briefly explained before the experience of members is explored through an analysis of their own accounts. The NARN was proposed in response to widespread calls for more research evidence to underpin our understanding and implementation of Personal Development Planning (PDP) and e-Portfolio practices, taking its lead from Clegg's (2004) invitation to produce more researched examples of situated PDP and e-Portfolio practice. The NARN was primarily a capacity-building project aimed at developing a community of PDP and e-portfolio practitioners into practitioner researchers. Borrowing heavily on ideas of community and participative inquiry as well as concepts about developing communities of practice, the project placed an emphasis on promoting collegiality, a sense of belonging and the establishment of the project as a safe space in which to discuss research work. It is evaluated here through the thematic analysis of a particular data set of twelve anonymous accounts provided by project members. The NARN project's emphasis on process rather than product or output, mark it apart from most Higher Education (HE) learning and teaching funded projects. Its success carries an important lesson for fundholders, educational developers and HE managers about the funding of more process-based learning and teaching development in HE. It also provides a possible framework for similar capacity-building projects across other communities.