Statements Of Need Research Articles

Exploring the Influence of Requirement Representation on Idea Generation

Abstract The objective of this research is to understand how different representations of requirements influence idea generation in terms of quantity, addressment, novelty, and variety of conceptual sketches. Requirements are testable statements of need, desires, and wishes of the stakeholders that are used by engineers to frame the problem. Project success is highly dependent on well-defined requirements documents. An experimental study was conducted with 52 fourth-year mechanical engineering undergraduate students. Two design problems are used with three different representations: a problem statement with embedded requirements, a problem statement and a traditional requirement list, and a problem statement with contextualized scrum stories. Each student addressed both design problems with two different representations of requirements. It was found that the use of contextualized scrum story representations significantly affected the novelty of solution fragments and addressment of requirements, while no significant change in variety and quantity was seen. Finally, it was found that quantity is not directly related to the number of requirements addressed in the sketches.

Incoming International Medical Graduates and the COVID-19 Pandemic: More Than Meets the Eye.

Incoming International Medical Graduates and the COVID-19 Pandemic: More Than Meets the Eye.

A Qualitative Analysis of Middle and High School Teacher Perceptions of Schoolwide Positive Behavior Supports

Full stakeholder support for any innovation can be difficult to achieve, particularly in complex systems such as middle and high schools. Increasingly, obtaining middle and high school teacher support for Schoolwide Positive Behavior Supports (SWPBS) is identified as a challenging yet crucial element of implementation. The reasons behind these challenges are not well understood; thus, the purpose of this study was to attain a better understanding of the SWPBS-related needs and concerns of middle and high school teachers. Thematic analysis was used to analyze open-ended concerns statements and statements of need from teachers working in 19 middle and high schools. Regardless of SWPBS implementation level, the most prevalent concerns pertained to staff support and consensus, and the most prevalent needs were related to collaboration. There were high levels of consistency in concerns and needs, with a few differences found in the concerns and needs statements of teachers in implementing and low-implementing schools. Full results, limitations, and implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Practices used for recommending sickness certification by general practitioners: A conversation analytic study of UK primary care consultations

Existing research indicates that many patients and doctors find the process of negotiating sickness certification for time off work to be a difficult one. This study examined how patients and general practitioners (GPs) managed these negotiations in a sample of UK primary care consultations. The study made use of an existing dataset of audio-recorded consultations between 13 GPs and 506 unselected adult patients in five general practices in London. Forty-nine consultations included discussions for both initial and repeat sickness certification across a wide range of conditions. Here we report our findings on doctor practices for recommending, as opposed to patient practices for advocating for, sickness certification (n = 26 cases). All cases were transcribed in detail and analysed using conversation analytic methods. Four main communication practices were observed: (1) declarative statements of need for sickness certification; (2) ‘do you need’ offers for sickness certification; (3) ‘do you want’ offers for sickness certification; and (4) conditional ‘If X, Y’ offers for sickness certification. These different communication practices indexed doctor agency, doctor endorsement and patient entitlement to varying degrees. In the main, recommendations to patients presenting with biomedical problems or a repeat occurrence of a psychosocial problem displayed stronger doctor endorsement and patient entitlement. Contrastingly, recommendations to patients presenting with new psychosocial and biopsychosocial problems, displayed weaker endorsement and patient entitlement. This study offers new evidence to support the Parsonian argument that becoming sick involves entering a social role with special rights and obligations. Through documenting doctors' orientations to their gatekeeping role as well as patients' orientations to differential rights vis à vis legitimacy, we demonstrate the contrasting stances of doctors in situ when giving sick notes for biomedical problems as opposed to difficulties of a more psychosocial nature.

STRATEGIC PLANNING OF INNOVATION GOAL-SETTING IN DEVELOPMENT OF URBAN AREAS

This research focuses on the development of the goal setting concept in the strategic urban development and the identification of innovative priorities for sustainable development of urban areas, acting as catalysts for reforming of municipalities’ management. The purpose of this research is to establish an effective system of milestones of innovative development of urban areas in the process of strategic urban development. Methodological basis of the research is the complex of abstract and hypothetical and logical tools, as well as the axiomatic analysis of the problems and prospects of innovative development of urban areas. The research results include the study of terminological apparatus of urban innovations, formation of the main directions of innovation policy implementation in the process of urban development of urban areas, the development of a fundamental algorithm of strategic goal setting in the innovative development of urban areas. The scope of application of the research results is a system of planning of social and economic development of municipalities, as well as comprehensive programs of financing and investment support of social projects of the urban environment development. The main conclusion of this research is the statements of need for innovative orientation of plans for social and economic planning of the urban environment, revealing the negative effects of the inertial urban design, characteristic of most Russian cities, inattention to which can lead to a social and economic damage and even to a social, ecological and economic degradation of territories.

A Research Agenda for Tradespace Exploration and Analysis of Engineered Resilient Systems

This paper describes the activity of a workshop on Data-Driven Tradespace Exploration and Analysis: A Key Technical Thrust of Engineered Resilient Systems (ERS). The workshop was attended by 40 academic, government, and industry researchers and practitioners involved in tradespace exploration for a variety of engineering domains. The one-and-one-half day workshop sought to develop near and far term tradespace technology research recommendations for the ERS Priority Steering Council (PSC) Lead. To determine promising research areas, workshop attendees were asked to describe desired tradespace capabilities, the associated current approach and its deficiencies, and gaps between the two states. These research areas were summarized in statements of need, supporting rationale, and investment timeframe. Resilience in the context of ERS is more than robustness; resilience implies that when the system is placed into an environment in which it was not originally intended to operate, after some degradation in performance, the system can be adapted or reconfigured to perform at its intended levels. To support design for resilience, more alternatives must be generated earlier, considered longer, explored over multiple, dynamic alternative futures, and searched exhaustively. The workshop described in this paper was organized to discuss current methods, process, and tools for performing these tradespace analysis related tasks and to better understand existing tradespace capabilities and their suitability for ERS.

10.2.1 “Composable Capability” – Principles, strategies and methods for capability systems engineering

AbstractCurrent systems engineering approaches for Capability Systems Engineering are difficult to understand and are not deployed consistently. Language is a barrier to understanding. A top‐down approach to “capability” still seems intractable. The traditional system focus of defence acquisition has been the “equipment”. Force elements have been constructed bottom up from equipment. Inevitably such bottom‐up integration leads to unintended emergent properties in operational “force elements”.This paper proposes that: improved operational readiness, performance and interoperability can be achieved by applying a systems engineering methodology in which the “system focus” is the force element, not the individual equipment; it is possible to identify a finite set of stable, well characterised building blocks (Force Elements) from which a wide variety of task force structures can be put together, providing almost infinite variety of capability solutions; that by thus re‐framing the problem we can contain the complexity explosion, giving more benefit with less difficulty; and that using such an approach top‐down will allow better statements of need, requirements and acceptance criteria to be passed to the acquisition community and supply chain.

(P1-106) Scarce Resources Planning Summit for Pediatric Critical Care and Transport Stakeholders

There are six children's hospitals in Chicago, Illinois and the surrounding region. These hospitals often have bed limitations due to high censuses in daily operations. The Pediatric Committee of the Chicago Healthcare System Coalition for Preparedness and Response had provided two conferences in pediatric emergency preparedness in Spring 2010 that identified a need to examine scarce critical care resources in the region. A “Pediatric Critical Care and Transport Stakeholder's Summit” was convened in April 2010. This meeting brought together the Pediatric Critical Care Medical and Nursing Directors along with Transport Team representatives from major hospitals to identify the key issues related to pediatric emergency preparedness and scarce resources. The four-hour Summit, was held in a Conference Center, away from any hospital or clinical setting, was organized into seven sections: (1) Welcome & Introductions; (2) Issues Identification; (3) Scenario Introduction; (4) Specific Issues Indentification; (5) Prioritization of Specific Issues; (6) Development of Action Steps; and (7) Moving Forward. A Facilitator with specific knowledge of hospital-based preparedness led the Summit process. He utilized a pediatric scenario to engage the participants in discussion, interaction, and planning. Action steps, with statements of need and specific action items were developed, based on the following prioritized issues: (1) lack of pediatric training and experience for front line personnel; (2) alternate care sites/bed capacity/surge planning; (3) ethical issues; (4) transport; (5) credentialing/pediatric specialist availability; (6) incident command/community integration; (7) pediatric supplies and equipment; (8) patient indentification; (9) financial tracking/reimbursement; and (10) Crisis Standards of Care/Crisis Operation Standards Moving forward, the participants of the Summit will reconvene into small workgroups to develop plans and training for the areas specified above. In May, 2011 a statewide exercise utilizing the special population of children will occur to test these plans.

The interpretation of children's needs at home and in school

Statements of need are used promiscuously by caretakers and children. The term may refer to mere wants (desire), to wants that have become socialized into secondary needs, to needs inferred by adults based on interpretations of future adaptive requirements, as well as to fundamental needs required for a child's well-being. It is important to distinguish the various uses of the term, first, because need carries an imperative–it would be unethical to frustrate a child's basic needs. Second, when confounding meanings, there is the risk that what appears as an expression of concern–‘you need to’–is more arbitrarily coercive than benevolent. Because even genuine needs are multiple and often in tension (protection and independence), separating meanings does not necessarily determine appropriate responses. Caretakers are advised to critically refine and reflect their need statements and, when balancing, remain faithful to the fundamental human need for autonomy.

Pragmatic development in the Spanish as a FL classroom: A cross-sectional study of learner requests

This study investigates the development of requests from the beginning of foreign language instruction to advanced levels of proficiency in face-to-face interactions. Data were collected from three learner groups (American learners of Spanish) (45 learners [15 per group: beginning, intermediate, advanced]). Open role plays were used to collect data in four request situations. Data were analyzed for request head acts (direct, conventional indirect, non-conventional indirect), the request perspective, and internal and external modification. Findings indicate that the beginner group produced the largest number of direct requests. They, thus, showed little competence in situational variation. These direct requests were often realized by means of verbless requests, statements of need, imperatives, and requests with an infinitive used as a main verb. In contrast, a strong preference for conventionally indirect requests was observed among intermediate and advanced learners in formal and informal situations, with a decline in direct requests noted to appear with increasing proficiency. Four stages of pragmatic development among learners in a FL context were identified and discussed in light of existing research in pragmatic development. This study also addresses the issue of the primacy of pragmatics over grammar in expressing pragmatic intent, formula research in interlanguage pragmatics, and pragmatic development in the FL classroom.

Evaluating the self-assessed support needs of women with breast cancer.

The first aim of the study was to identify the self-assessed support needs of women with breast cancer at various points of illness and, secondly, to establish if these needs formed clusters which could provide the basis for developing a standardized scale of needs for use by breast care teams in the evaluation of care. It has been found that support given to women with breast cancer has a positive effect upon their reactions to the illness and may even prolong their survival. Given that breast cancer affects a large number of women it is obviously important that those affected receive, in addition to the best available medical treatment, the type of support that best meets their needs. This study aimed to provide information on the impact of breast cancer and the need for various types of support by examining women's own assessment of their needs at different stages of their illness. A purposive sample of 12 women with a diagnosis of breast cancer was selected in one health authority in England, United Kingdom (UK). Women selected represented a wide age range (between 26 and 58), were married or in long-term cohabiting relationships and were at different points on the illness trajectory. Women were invited to take part in a semi-structured interview about their experiences of breast cancer. The data from these interviews were analysed using the software package Qualitative Solutions and Research, Nonnumerical Data Indexing, Searching and Theorizing (QSR*NUDIST). Following this content analysis, a questionnaire was formulated which divided statements into seven categories: diagnosis, treatment, support, femininity and body image, family and friends, information and after care, to be rated on a Likert scale ranging from "of no importance" to "extremely important". Questionnaire data were analysed by means of a one-way analysis of variance (for three independent variables) or t-test for two independent variables. Results. The questionnaire was sent to 971 women and achieved a response rate of 50.4%. The mean score for statements of need reached the level of point 4 on the Likert scale (important) with three exceptions: having professional help with family problems and domestic upheaval, coping with feelings of anger and dealing with the question "why me?" With the above three exceptions, women experienced a high level of need associated with a diagnosis of breast cancer. Studies of this kind should enable resources to be targeted to areas of highest need.

The Evolving Syntheses of Program Value

In this paper, we object to Michael Scriven's claim that the basic logic of evaluation is criterial and standards-based. We note that valuing is an integral part of perception and that valuing within perception, repeatedly refined, is an even more basic logic of evaluation. We find unpersuasive his claim that making the final synthesis “governed” will diminish bias, noting that bias will find its way into the required statements of need, function, standards and weighting. We offer our alternative for disciplining the synthesis process, by urging more systematic and demanding critiques of emerging interpretations and values, and by more deliberately using competing conceptual organizers (e.g., goals, issues, decisions and elements of the rules Scriven advocates) as temporary and dialectical grounds for reconsidering the evolving meanings of the program, including its merit and shortcoming.

The evolving syntheses of program value

In this paper, we object to Michael Scriven's claim that the basic logic of evaluation is criterial and standards-based. We note that valuing is an integral part of perception and that valuing within perception, repeatedly refined, is an even more basic logic of evaluation. We find unpersuasive his claim that making the final synthesis “governed” will diminish bias, noting that bias will find its way into the required statements of need, function, standards and weighting. We offer our alternative for disciplining the synthesis process, by urging more systematic and demanding critiques of emerging interpretations and values, and by more deliberately using competing conceptual organizers (e.g., goals, issues, decisions and elements of the rules Scriven advocates) as temporary and dialectical grounds for reconsidering the evolving meanings of the program, including its merit and shortcoming.

The Evolving Syntheses of Program Value

In this paper, we object to Michael Scriven's claim that the basic logic of evaluation is criterial and standards-based. We note that valuing is an integral part of perception and that valuing within perception, repeatedly refined, is an even more basic logic of evaluation. We find unpersuasive his claim that making the final synthesis "governed" will diminish bias, noting that bias will find its way into the required statements of need, function, standards and weighting. We offer our alternative for disciplining the synthesis process, by urging more systematic and demanding critiques of Robert Stake emerging interpretations and values, and by more deliberately using competing conceptual organizers (e.g., goals, issues, decisions and elements of the rules Scriven advocates) as temporary and dialectical grounds for reconsidering the evolving meanings of the program, including its merit and shortcoming.

Functional descriptions used in computer support for qualitative scheme generation—“Schemebuilder”

AbstractWith increased pressures coming from global competition and requirements for greater innovation in product development, designers are hard pressed to deliver designs of higher quality and variety using a repertoire of technological options from different disciplines. This interdisciplinary product development approach has not only removed many of the traditional constraints to design but has now given designers a much wider freedom of choice as to the best solution to a design problem. The focus of this paper is a knowledge-based design environment called Schemebuilder, which is a comprehensive and integrated suite of software tools aimed at supporting the designer in the rapid development of product design models in the conceptual, through embodiment stages of design. Illustrated is the use of the software tools in the qualitative generation of alternative schemes, by application of stored working and decomposition principles in the development of a function-means tree-like information structure. With mechatronic product development as the main theme, this paper describes a closely integrated methodology that incorporates a bond graph approach to continuous-time energetic systems and high-level Petri nets for the rigorous description of discrete-time information systems. Additionally, a technique is suggested for the decomposition of free format statements of need into the rigorously defined design context and required functions, which form the starting point of the function-means development process.

The Report of the Ecological Society of America Committee on the Scientific Basis for Ecosystem Management

The Report of the Ecological Society of America Committee on the Scientific Basis for Ecosystem Management

The first year of working as reported by consultants in child and adolescent psychiatry

The Education Act (1981) was brought into effect on 1 September 1983. Explanatory and guidance documents were published in 1983. The Education Act has effects on the work of child and adolescent psychiatrists in two ways. Firstly it affects those in-patient and day units that have education on the premises. Secondly it affects the placement of children who have special educational needs because of emotional or behavioural problems, the children who in the past would have been deemed maladjusted. While child psychiatrists should be involved in all cases where emotional and behavioural problems are the main issue, they will also be involved with some of the children who have special educational needs because of intellectual and learning difficulties, children who in the past were deemed educationally subnormal. These children between them constitute a high proportion of those who will, under the new Act, be subjects of statements of need.

Do 2½‐year‐olds hint? A study of directive forms in the speech of 2½‐year‐old children to adults∗

Transcripts of eleven 2½‐year‐olds’ speech to adults were found to include hints and question directives, the least coercive directive forms in adult speech according to Ervin‐Tripp (1976). However, while these forms occurred, whether the children used them so that they functioned to express politeness is questioned, using several criteria suggested by Ervin‐Tripp (1977). These included the following: 1. Most of the directives contained some reference to a desired action or object. 2. Many of the directives were identifications of problem situations in which adult help was needed, closely resembling statements of need in the social context of adult‐child interaction. 3. Several sentence frames were used frequently enough that they appeared to be routines. In addition, children rarely dropped the issue when adults failed to comply with their hints and question directives. Analyses of sequences of directive forms showed that children were somewhat more likely to harden than to soften the form, but that repetition at the same level of politeness was the predominant strategy. [Agrave] few instances of hints and question directives which appeared truly subtle were, however, identified, as well as a few instances of addressee‐based variation in directive choice.

Ecce Homo: Narcissism, Power, Pathos, and the Status of Autobiographical Representations

The rhetoric of crisis for contemporary criticism contains within itself a basic source of criticism's problems. On the one hand the critic expects and is expected to spell out the contradictions, failures, and achievements of a culture. But each of his or her assessments depends on invoking standards that are usually problematic-partially because of the difficulty of securing authority but even more perniciously because of the inevitable self-staging and self-idealizing that go into positing standards of judgment. Thus to describe conditions of crisis is usually to stage oneself as ennobled both by one's perceptions and by one's courage to live with those perceptions. Critical ideals then can easily appear as primarily disguised statements of need and mirrors not of the society but of the critic's self-regard. Nietzsche once said that if one wants to dwell very long over an abyss one had better be an eagle. Even Nietzsche did not see how we invent abysses in order to convince ourselves we can take on the eagle's powers of sight and of flight. My subject in this essay is the imperative in Nietzsche's antiidealizing strategies for rendering autobiography and the problems it produces. But I shall proceed somewhat slowly and indirectly because I think that a central element in our lack of confidence in traditional humanistic

Federal funds for the improvement of mathematics education

Congress has authorized a large sum of money for the improvement of education by passing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. Since these funds will be available for projects in all subject areas, teachers and mathematics educators should make every effort to see that school planning makes provision for improved mathematics programs. This can be done by providing school and state leaders with the necessary information and statements of need which can be incorporated into their requests for funds.