Research Project Work Research Articles

GlobalSCAPE: successes and failures in connecting with science communicators around the world

The GlobalSCAPE research project was tasked with engaging people working in science communication to better understand their views of the field. While being a European-based research project, GlobalSCAPE aimed to connect with science communicators across the globe. This practice insight paper reflects on the lessons learned from GlobalSCAPE, the successes and failures, and what might be done to continue the work of global science communication research projects. It is hoped that such learnings will be of broad interest to research and practice communities grappling with ways to fund and support science communication around the world.

Осознанная саморегуляция и академическая мотивация как ресурсы выполнения обучающимися проектно-исследовательской работы

<p>The article presents the results of an empirical study of the relationship between the regulatory competencies of students, different types of academic motivation and successful performance of the research project work. Diagnostics of regulatory competencies was carried out by means of Morosanova’s "Self-regulation profile of learning activities questionnaire - SRPLAQ-M"; academic motivation was assessed using Gordeeva’s "Scales of academic motivation of schoolchildren". The diagnostics was carried out at the beginning of the academic year. Criteria-based assessments, set by the expert teachers, were used as indicators of the project work success. The study, performed on a sample of 9th grade students (N=187, 15-16 years old), provided evidence that regulatory competencies and motivation serve as prerequisites for the students’ success in research project work. The study allowed to empirically distinguish between the universal and special regulatory competencies. The data analysis revealed the resource role of regulatory competencies in performing an individual research project. It is shown that the general level of the conscious self-regulation development characterizes the universal resources for successful performance of an individual project and is positively associated with all expert criteria for assessment research project success. Special regulatory resources are the modeling of significant conditions and evaluating the results of actions. The study also revealed a mediator role of the regulatory competence of evaluating results in the relationship between the students’ academic motivation and the final assessment of the research project.</p>

Изучение лексики ограниченного употребления в курсе «Русский язык и культура речи» будущими переводчиками и преподавателями иностранного языка

The aim of the research is to substantiate that the students – future translators and teachers of foreign languages – should learn the rarely used vocabulary in the course of “Russian and Speech Culture”. This article demonstrates the possibilities of using interactive methods for teaching the course of “Russian and Speech Culture” to students. In the article the necessary theoretical minimum which includes terms, professionalisms, jargon, argotisms, dialectisms, regionalisms has been described. The examples of vivid illustrative classical and modern language material are given. The interactive practical tasks such as questions for interactive lecture, using audio and video materials, research project work have been suggested. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that the content of the module “Rarely used vocabulary” (theoretical material and practical tasks) has been worked out for the course “Russian and Speech Culture” in view of its learning addressee (future translators and teachers of foreign languages) so that it implies using actual pedagogical technologies. As a result, the volume of studied theoretical material has been defined; the examples of language illustrations have been introduced. The examples of practical tasks based on using of actual pedagogical technologies have been developed. These tasks are aimed not only at understanding the theoretical bases of the course but comprehending the value of this course for students’ future careers. This fact will promote the students’ motivation to study and their revitalization towards the development of their creative abilities and knowledge extension.

Sentimental Analysis using Bert Algorithm over LSTM

Sentiment analysis also referred to as opinion mining, is an approach to natural language processing (NLP) to find out whether the meaning of the given data is positive or negative. There has been a lot of research done in this sector to increase the accuracy of sentiment analysis systems, ranging from basic linear models to complicated neural network models. Other models or algorithms were checked previously but these took longer time for operations and had low accuracy scores overall. So, in this paper, the BERT model, which has been pre-trained on a huge corpus, is offered to address concerns with sentiment analysis systems. Further fine-tuning improves results according to the use cases. The BERT model gives high accuracy, and efficient performance with good predictions as compared to other models in experimental testing. We are particularly interested in performing sentiment mining techniques over transcribed audio recordings to detect the speakers' sentiment using a Google specialised algorithm BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers), which is a faster and more accurate algorithm for text fields because it can also consider the context of the text. Our study was initially driven by call centre use cases, but it can potentially have applications in other domains such as security and other areas. So in this research project work we will be giving input as an audio file from which the text will be generated, and out of which we will be finding the sentiment of that audio stream by using the BERT model.

Integrating Authentic Research, Peer Learning, and High-Impact Project Work into the General Chemistry Laboratory

For the past several decades, high-enrollment undergraduate chemistry laboratory experiences have favored traditional approaches involving disparate daily experiments with optimized protocols provided to students. This model often results in poor learning outcomes and low student engagement, and it lacks any attention to scientific inquiry. Here, we present the structure and early outcomes of a complete redesign of our general chemistry sequence laboratory components to address these shortcomings. The approach includes the following: a requirement of student choice and design of protocols, increase in lab contact hours, authentic open-ended research experiences, and a course series with increasing challenge leading to a capstone. Emphasis is placed on student engagement, the value of experimental failure and redesign, an increase in technical skill through revision, peer learning, and faculty mentoring of students. While students almost universally recognize that this approach to laboratory science is more work, a great deal of feedback indicates they acknowledge its value. In addition to anecdotal evidence, course evaluation data show a marked increase in the perceived intellectual challenge of this new approach (mean of 4.00 on a 5 point scale before redesign (2016/2017, N = 416), increased to 4.19 (2017/2018, N = 592) afterward) along with an attendant increase in time-on-task. Notably, data from cohorts moving to higher-level laboratory courses show improved outcomes and adaptivity to experimental rigor. We believe this approach represents a strong improvement over a more traditional laboratory structure; at a slightly lower cost to deploy, an equivalent number of faculty members, and some institutional/departmental buy-in, this design is readily transferable to other schools.

Assessing Pre-service Teachers' Attitudes towards Research Courses in Colleges of Education

Research plays a critical role in the building of knowledge and solving of societal problems. This study seeks to assess pre-service teachers for research courses in the Colleges of Education in the Oti region of Ghana. The study aims to assess pre-service teachers' attitudes towards research courses in the Colleges of Education in the Oti Region of Ghana. The study adopted a quantitative design. The survey research method was, however, used because it helps to collect data on attitudes. Simple random sampling was used to select 200 respondents. The data collection instrument used was a questionnaire. The data were analysed using descriptive and correlational statistical analysis. It was found that pre-service teachers have negative attitudes toward studying research methods and writing research project work. They see both research method and writing of research project work as complex and difficult, hence, they have high anxiety about research and dislike the research courses. It was concluded that the general attitudes toward studying research methods are directly linked to the perceived challenges of research. It is recommended that the challenges pre-service teachers face in learning research courses should be addressed to improve their attitudes towards research.

Evaluation on the Effect of Cost Effective Cow Dung (in Bio-Fertlizers Form) on the Growth and Yield of Maize (Zea Mays) Production in the Niger Delta Area (Bayelsa State) of Nigeria

Evaluation on the effect of cost effective cow dung in bio-fertilizer form on growth and yield of Maize (Zea mays) production in the Niger Delta Area, was conducted, in 2017 cropping season of Bayelsa State, at the Niger Delta University Teaching and Research Farm, Wilberforce Island, Bayelsa State, Nigeria, located within latitude 50N and longitude 6.050E of the equator. Treatments adopted for the experiment was cow dung in bio-fertilizer form, which was applied with different rates 0, 5, 10, 15, and 20 t/ha, and replicated 5 times, experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD). The least significant difference (LSD) was used to compare the means at 5% level of significance. Parameters assessed were growth and yield components of maize which included plant height, leaf area, cob length and girth, average number of kernels per cob, weight of 1000 kernels and yield in t/ha. Parameters, generally, increased significantly with an increase in the rate of application of cow dung on the experimental plots. The result obtained from the yield (t/ha) showed that, there was no significant differences between the application rates of 20, 15, 10 and 5 t/ha of cow dung, whereas only at 20 t/ha differed significantly when compared to the untreated (Control), but 20t/ha, had more yield than the rest rates of application. However, twenty (20 t/ha) application rate of cow dung bio-fertilizer produced the highest yield with a mean value of 6.45 t/ha when compared to the control (0 t/ha) which had the least mean yield value of 4.05 t/ha. Furthermore, the control had the lowest mean values in all the growth and yield parameters tested throughout the period of assessment, whereas application rate of 20t/ha produced the highest mean values and differed significantly from the rest application rates of cow dung in all of the growth parameters of maize of production. Therefore, 20t/ha of cow dung was recommended for small scale farmers in the study area and other parts of the Bayelsa State and the Global World which had similar soil characteristics and environmental conditions, that are found in the arable area of land for maize production. In fact, this research work has created positive awareness to the people of Niger Delta Area on the danger of inorganic fertilizer application in our soils, because they are hazardous to the ecosystem that affected the biodiversity of some beneficiary soil microbes, because the type of maize farmers in the area which had little or no adequate knowledge on the negative chemical residual impact of inorganic fertilizer, to our crops and the soil microbes, which affected the biodiversity of some beneficiary soil microbes, hence the evaluation on this research project work to create the awareness on the importance of cow dung bio-fertilizer that are readily available in our environment at the Niger Delta Area of Nigeria.

Abstract PO-046: Building the country's first gynecologic cancer disparity SPORE: A labor of love

Abstract The NCI P20 SPORE aims to support the feasibility, development and planning activities to build cancer research programs with a dedicated translational focus. The Northwestern University Cancer Health Equity Research SPORE (NU-CHERS) is entering its second year of collaboration with the Lurie Cancer Center and John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County (SHCC). NU-CHERS is dedicated to conducting translational research on gynecologic cancer disparities experienced by women of color in Chicago. This presentation will report the challenges and successes of establishing the nation's first gynecologic cancer disparity SPORE, focused on understanding the clinical disparities experienced by women in Chicago, to improve health outcomes and build trusting reciprocal relationships with the community. Success of NU-CHERS hinges on local partnerships to achieve the elimination of gynecologic cancer disparities. The Lurie Cancer Center has thirty years of experience in developing and implementing cancer research programs and infrastructure. SHCC is a publicly funded hospital that provides access to healthcare to patients, including the uninsured, through a sliding scale based on income or inability to afford insurance deductibles. SHCC also serves a diverse patient population, making it an ideal community partner to facilitate a deeper understanding of gynecologic cancer disparities in the region and develop a richly diverse specimen biobank. NU-CHERS leverages these partnerships to advance research specific to underrepresented groups most impacted by gynecologic cancer disparities that will ultimately establish equitable access to precision medicine oncologic treatments. Through partnerships and infrastructure development, our team has identified lessons learned, opportunities for improvement and challenges requiring even more courage to achieve mandated milestones. For example, for the crucial step of building a robust biobank of annotated specimens, NU-CHERS supported SHCC in adapting protocols to meet local site constraints, as well as aligning data collection capabilities within clinical constraints versus research interests. Other important program achievements fall under the categories of fostering collaborations with communities through partnership with trusted healthcare organizations to facilitate education and reciprocity; best practices for establishing a multi-site research initiative with a Single Institutional Review Board (sIRB); and advancing the work of research projects during a pandemic. Sharing these findings advances the work of eliminating cancer disparities by providing a blueprint for researchers to improve upon for their collaborative cancer disparities programs. NU-CHERS is committed to establishing strong local partnerships and infrastructure in the community and thus legitimizing translational research to leverage basic science discoveries into clinical practice improvements through all the tools afforded by basic and population science researchers. Citation Format: Denisha R. Brown, Laura Tom, Magdalena Nava, Catherine A. O'Brian, Ivy Leung, Rabih Dahdouh, Edgardo Ramirez, Araceli Estrada, Sankirtana Danner, Cassandra Osei, Will Dunne, Sharon Post, Nihmot Adebayo, Ann Yau, Terri Fraterrigo, Melissa A Simon. Building the country's first gynecologic cancer disparity SPORE: A labor of love [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Virtual Conference: 14th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2021 Oct 6-8. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2022;31(1 Suppl):Abstract nr PO-046.

Application of an Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Model for Estimating Potential US Prevalence of WHIM Syndrome, a Rare Immunodeficiency, from Insurance Claims Data

Introduction: WHIM (Warts, Hypogammaglobulinemia, Infections, and Myelokathexis) syndrome is an inborn error of immunity characterized as a primary immunodeficiency with neutropenia-but the acronym does not reflect the broad spectrum of disease manifestations that patients may experience. A WHIM syndrome diagnosis may be confirmed clinically by the presence of myelokathexis, the retention of white blood cells in the bone marrow, or by identification of a known pathogenic gain-of-function mutation in the CXCR4 gene coding for the CXCR4 receptor. Diagnosis of WHIM syndrome is thought to be frequently missed because of low disease awareness, missed identification of myelokathexis, and lack of routine genetic testing (Al Ustwani O, et al. Br J Haematol. 2014:164;15-23; Dotta L, et al. Curr Mol Med. 2011;11:317-325; Heusinkveld L, et al. Exp Opin Orphan Drugs. 2017;5(10):813-825). The prevalence of WHIM syndrome has never been systematically studied and is unknown. Determination of prevalence via insurance claims data is hindered by the absence of an International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-10 code for WHIM syndrome as well as inconsistent coding for key symptoms of WHIM syndrome, which are variably penetrant. This study applied an artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) model to estimate the potential prevalence of WHIM syndrome using a large US insurance claims database.Methods: A deidentified, longitudinal, patient-level US claims database of >300 million lives was used for this study. Thirty-two patients with genetically confirmed WHIM syndrome were identified from the claims database by linking deidentified patients to known physicians and matching clinical and demographic features. Using this group as a positive training class, an AI/ML model was deployed to identify patients with WHIM look-alike clinical phenotypes in the database. Patients were further filtered based on clinical features to generate low (presence of warts, history of infections, and hypogammaglobulinemia) and high (presence of warts, history of infections, and coding associated with immunodeficiency) prevalence estimates; a final prevalence number for the US was projected to account for incomplete coverage of the US population in the claims database. Finally, insurance codes for disease symptoms, treatments, and management were analyzed to investigate the burden of disease in patients identified by the model.Results: The model showed a high predictive value for distinguishing patients with known WHIM syndrome from a random sample of age-matched patients in the database (area under the curve [AUC] of receiver operating characteristic [ROC] plot, >0.99) as well as a control group of patients with ICD-10 codes defining immunodeficiency conditions (AUC of ROC plot, 0.99). The model generated estimates ranging from 1803 (low) to 3718 (high) patients with WHIM look-alike phenotype in the US. Analysis of medical history in the high-estimate WHIM look-alike group revealed symptomatic and severe disease, as evidenced by ≥1 instance of use of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (41%) or intravenous immunoglobulin (46%) therapy (both <1% in control group), need for respiratory services (82% vs 8% in control group), presence of hearing loss (18% vs 1% in control group), and high annual utilization of emergency (51%) and hospital (44%) services (vs 8% and 1%, respectively, in control group).Conclusions: The methodology used here provides an approach to explore the prevalence of rare diseases that are often mis- or under-diagnosed and are not captured with a unique ICD-10 code. This study estimates a prevalence of 1803 to 3718 WHIM look-alike patients in the US, supporting the possibility that there may be ≤~3700 patients with either diagnosed or undiagnosed WHIM syndrome in the US. An analysis of the medical history of the WHIM look-alike patients revealed a history of symptomatic and severe disease and a high unmet medical need. Since it is not feasible to definitively confirm a WHIM diagnosis in the look-alike group, it is possible that some of these look-alike patients may have diagnosed or undiagnosed WHIM syndrome, while others may have a clinical phenotype consistent with WHIM syndrome without meeting its classic diagnostic criteria. DisclosuresGarabedian: X4 Pharmaceuticals: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Neri: X4 Pharmaceuticals: Current Employment. Seng: X4 Pharmaceuticals: Current Employment. Jones: Real Chemistry (Formerly Swoop/IPM): Current Employment, Other: I was paid salary to perform secondary research project work for client “X4” which resulted in this publication.

Academics' perception of systems engineering and applied research projects

AbstractThere is an increased complexity in applied research projects that demand more researcher skills, especially in managing the research project and interdisciplinary work. Researchers receive little training in how to manage such projects, yet most manage to deliver project results. There is a tradition of project management and systems engineering which benefits complex development projects in industrial settings. Despite the apparent benefits, we found limited application of either project management or systems engineering practices in academia. Furthermore, we found barriers to applying these practices in the first place, such as a lack of clear guidance or tools for their execution. A case study based on 18 semi‐structured interviews provides a perspective on academic research projects, and how the application of project management and systems engineering in an academic setting shows promise to improve the realization of concept design.

„МИТ – ФОЛКЛОР – ИСТОРИЯ“ – ИНТЕРДИСЦИПЛИНАРЕН УРОК В V КЛАС

The modern way of living, full of a lot of information and high technologies, changes the reality and places in front of the teachers more and more challenges related to the motivation for acquiring lasting knowledge and developing research skills in their students. This requires the use of various innovative methods. The lesson – „Myth – Folklore – History“ allows fifth-graders through research tasks, role-playing games and project work understand the relationship between time – calendar – faith – art, to acknowledge that the ancient people in our lands had spatial thinking and developed symbolism, on the basis of which they create rituals, arts and calendars. This is a lesson that provokes not only exploratory thinking, but also children’s imagination. It allows the human mind to begin an incredible journey through time. Students, exploring verbal creativity, ancient images and interesting facts about the caves „Kozarnika“, „Magura“, „Altamira“, „Lascaux“, comprehend the concepts of chaos, space, myth, opposition pair, folklore, time, science, history. They understand the structure of the world according to ancient people and relate it to the modern world.

Современные писательские блоги в литературном, научном и образовательном пространстве

We consider the phenomenon of network literature as an integral part of the modern literary process. We analyze such a phenomenon as a “writing blog” for its compliance with the basic requirements of the neterature: hypertextuality, interactivity, multimedia, informality and pro-cessuality of the text, as well as its semantic content. We conduct a study of the author’s blogs of D. Glukhovsky, E. Vodolazkin, E. Grishkovets, on the one hand, as methods of creating an artistic work, on the other, as ways of promoting the personality and creativity of the writer. Meanwhile, we identify not only the author’s peculiarities of blogging and communication of writers with the readership, but also the individual approaches of particular artistic individuals to the creation and popularization of their works (collective texts writing, combining an artistic work with multimedia content, etc.). We consider the issue of studying online literature in secondary educational institu-tions, and also develop ways to solve it. In particular, we propose an introduction to the educational process of research project work on topical issues of neterature, modern interactive teaching methods, as well as communication of schoolchildren with modern network writers in the format of forums and blogs.

Spatial Rainfall Variability in Urban Environments—High-Density Precipitation Measurements on a City-Scale

Rainfall runoff models are frequently used for design processes for urban infrastructure. The most sensitive input for these models is precipitation data. Therefore, it is crucial to account for temporal and spatial variability of rainfall events as accurately as possible to avoid misleading simulation results. This paper aims to show the significant errors that can occur by using rainfall measurement resolutions in urban environments that are too coarse. We analyzed the spatial variability of rainfall events from two years with the validated data of 22 rain gauges spread out over an urban catchment of 125 km2. By looking at the interstation correlation of the rain gauges for different classes of rainfall intensities, we found that rainfall events with low and intermediate intensities show a good interstation correlation. However, the correlation drops significantly for heavy rainfall events suggesting higher spatial variability for more intense rainstorms. Further, we analyzed the possible deviation from the spatial rainfall interpolation that uses all available rain gauges when reducing the number of rain gauges to interpolate the spatial rainfall for 24 chosen events. With these analyses we found that reducing the available information by half results in deviations of up to 25% for events with return periods shorter than one year and 45% for events with longer return periods. Assuming uniformly distributed rainfall over the entire catchment resulted in deviations of up to 75% and 125%, respectively. These findings are supported by the work of past research projects and underline the necessity of a high spatial measurement density in order to account for spatial variability of intense rainstorms.

Influence of Social Media on Business Education Students’ Research Project Work in Universities in Enugu State of Nigeria

The study was carried out to determine the influence of social media on Business Education students’ research project writing in Universities in Enugu State. The study was carried out in public and private universities in Enugu State using a descriptive survey research method. Two research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. The population for the study comprised 91 Business Education students in three universities offering Business Education in Enugu State during the 2017/2018 academic session. There was no sampling because the population was manageable. The instrument used for data collection was a 17 item structured questionnaire developed by the researcher. The instrument was structured using a four point rating scale and was face validated by three experts, two of them from Business Education Department and one in Measurement and Evaluation from Department of Science and Computer Education both in the Faculty of Education, Enugu State University of Sciences and Technology. Cronbach Alpha was used to determine the reliability of the instrument which gave a value of .84. The data analysis was based on responses from 87 copies of questionnaire out of 91 copies distributed which represent 95.60% return rate. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions and t-test was used to test the hypotheses at .05 level of significance at 94 degree of freedom. The result of the findings showed that communicating with supervisors on the progress of project writing, retrieving of information from friends in other schools, collection of data on the research topic through opinion poll, receiving and sending instrument from validators, sending to and receiving from respondents the questionnaire and its response., receiving appointment days from the supervisor, and giving and receiving research based instructions from the supervisor to the student are some of the positive influences of social media on Business Education students’ research work. The null hypotheses tested showed no significant difference in the mean rating of male and female Business Education students on the entire variables. Based on the findings, some implications were deduced and it was recommended among others that the Business Education students should utilize the power of social media in conducting quality empirical studies before they graduate for the propagation of knowledge and business Education students should avoid using social media for academically inglorious activities such as watching of pornographic contents or use of social media to harass, embarrass, impersonate and insult elderly scholars. Keywords: social media, business education, research project, universities. DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-12-08 Publication date: April 30 th 2020

Római pénzek Jáváról

Studying extra regional trade networks in Antiquity can be considered a relatively popular field of research, but the intensity and patterns of such a complex system still leaves lot of questions unanswered, particularly in the case of Rome’s Far Eastern contacts. Due to the meticulous work of international joint research projects working in East and Southeast Asia followed by a raised interest in collecting ancient objects among local people, an increasing number of Roman artefacts have been discovered in the region. At the same time, one must keep in mind that Roman objects discovered in East and Southeast Asia have different backgrounds, and most cases – due to extensive looting – are lacking an archaeologically secure context. Moreover, it is still less recognized that many of these Roman items can only be considered as quite recent, even modern arrivals thus lacking any connection to ancient networks and interactions. Taking the above considerations into account, the paper not only aims to introduce fourteen Indonesia-discovered Roman and Byzantine coins, but also intends to provide possible explanation(s) on how they ended up in East Java, a region that is terra incognita in regards of Roman studies.

DEMOCRACY EDUCATION THE DIALOGOS WAY: THE CASE OF UKRAINEAN TEACHER EDUCATION

This paper takes its point of departure in action learning- and research carried out with teacher educators from six universities within the project Democracy Education in Ukraine, Norway and Palestine. The teacher educators received training in accordance with the Dialogos approach to dialogical philosophizing, and tried out the approach with colleagues and/or with students in their own teaching practices. However, the main concern of the article is the discussion the potential of action learning and action research in teacher education when it comes to the development of phronesis or practical wisdom as an element in democracy education. Democracy Education the Dialogos Way is part of the project Democracy Education in Ukraine, Norway and Palestine. The author stresses that the results of the project can be studied from many perspectives. In accordance to the author’s point of view, it is relevant to see the project as a new step in the bigger action research project work to justify and show the relevance of the Dialogos approach, regarding the enhancement of democratic ways of living together in a shared world. Important in this respect, is that edification towards wisdom and prudence cannot be taught directly. It requires active participation from the student, a will to wisdom and a willingness to put his or her horizon of understanding into play in the educational situation. It requires teacher educators who are willing to do the same. The teacher educators and the students are in the philosophical dialogues as well as in the action research together. The author describes how she let Socrates speak through the written dialogue of Plato’s Republic. The author concluded that according to Socrates the faculty of sight already exists in the human being. It needs only to be re-awakened. Key words

‘All that glitters is not Roman’ - Roman coins discovered in East Java, Indonesia

Studying extra regional trade networks in Antiquity can be considered a relatively popular field of research, but the intensity and patterns of such complex system still leave lot of questions, particularly in the case of Rome’s Far Eastern trade. There is still a trend to visualize a kind of globalized commercial activity between the Imperium and communities on the eastern edge of the Silk Road(s). However, the facts provide us a more comprehensive picture. Due to the meticulous work of international joint research projects working in East and Southeast Asia followed by a raised interest in collecting ancient objects among local people, an increasing number of Roman objects have been discovered in the region. These finds prove the significance of mediator cultures in transferring Roman artifacts beyond India – with their own imprints on forming evaluation/acceptance of these non-local goods by the receiving culture.

Development of an Aluminium-Reduced Niobium-Microalloyed Case Hardening Steel for Heavy Gear Manufacturing

Abstract Fatigue strength is a key mechanical property for heavy transmission components, which are subjected to dynamic loading conditions. Oxidic steel cleanliness is known to greatly influence the fatigue strength of steel. The underlying research project work aimed to improve the oxidic cleanliness of the case hardening steel grade 18CrNiMo7-6 (DIN EN ISO 10084), whilst maintaining a fine austenite grain size during high temperature carburising. The hypothesis thereby is to lower the aluminium content of steel in order to reduce the probability of formation of aluminium oxide inclusions. In the absence of aluminium nitride precipitates, the prevention of undue austenite grain coarsening has been ensured in this work by alloying the steel with the appropriate amount of niobium. The optimum content of niobium was selected based on thermodynamic calculations using Thermo-Calc®. The results indicate the basic feasibility of obtaining fine grain stability on an industrial scale for application to high temperature carburising at 995°C for 14.4 hours.

A social recommendation system for academic collaboration in undergraduate research

AbstractAcademic collaboration plays an important role in undergraduate research. Current methods rely on offline social contacts for undergraduate students to collaborate with academic staff members in universities and research institutions. In big data era, it is difficult for undergraduate students to find suitable research project opportunities and supervisors to work with. This paper proposes a social recommendation system for undergraduate students to find research project opportunities and work with research project teams on an academic collaboration network. The proposed recommendation method integrates relevance, connectivity, and quality modules, where profiles of undergraduates are constructed with their self‐claimed information, research activities (e.g., studying and reading research publications and reading research projects), and social connections in the academic collaboration network. Suitable research projects are recommended based on the undergraduates' profiles. Experiments are conducted, and the results have shown that the proposed social recommendation system can facilitate undergraduates' selection of research projects.

Simulation provides deep learning opportunities for medical students intercalating in the biosciences.

Intercalation in the biosciences is popular with medical undergraduates in the UK and is mandatory at some institutions. It is considered important that medical students develop skills and an interest in innovation and research1 and is recognised as one way to enhance the knowledge of research methodology.2 The intercalated year helps to meet these aims by including research project work as part of the core course content. Projects are often practical and laboratory-based, as well as other out-of-laboratory options such as literature review or producing a grant proposal. Projects must fulfil a set of intended learning outcomes, for example, in final-year degree courses in this School: ‘deep understanding of a scientific or educational question; the ability to gather information from the scientific and/or educational literature and critically evaluate and appraise competing theories; the ability to present original findings and ideas to a specialist audience’. We offer projects that fulfil these outcomes exploring key areas of integrative, human physiology using high-fidelity human patient simulators.3 The simulators used here are manikin-based with an integrated and real-time model that provides …