Applying a Conceptual Design Framework to Study Teachers' Use of Educational Technology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holmberg, Jörgen

2017-01-01

Theoretical outcomes of design-based research (DBR) are often presented in the form of local theory design principles. This article suggests a complementary theoretical construction in DBR, in the form of a "design framework" at a higher abstract level, to study and inform educational design with ICT in different situated contexts.…

On-Line Synchronous Scientific Argumentation Learning: Nurturing Students' Argumentation Ability and Conceptual Change in Science Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yeh, Kuan-Hue; She, Hsiao-Ching

2010-01-01

The purpose of this study is to examine the difference in effectiveness between two on-line scientific learning programs--one with an argumentation component and one without an argumentation component--on students' scientific argumentation ability and conceptual change. A quasi-experimental design was used in this study. Two classes of 8th grade…

Justification for the Subject of Congruence and Similarity in the Context of Daily Life and Conceptual Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dündar, Sefa; Gündüz, Nazan

2017-01-01

This study aims to examine prospective elementary mathematics teachers' conceptual knowledge level for congruence and similarity in triangles subject and to examine their ability to represent the knowledge, to associate the knowledge with daily life, and to justify and solve the geometry problems about this subject. The study is designed in a…

Handling Qualities Optimization for Rotorcraft Conceptual Design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lawrence, Ben; Theodore, Colin R.; Berger, Tom

2016-01-01

Over the past decade, NASA, under a succession of rotary-wing programs has been moving towards coupling multiple discipline analyses in a rigorous consistent manner to evaluate rotorcraft conceptual designs. Handling qualities is one of the component analyses to be included in a future NASA Multidisciplinary Analysis and Optimization framework for conceptual design of VTOL aircraft. Similarly, the future vision for the capability of the Concept Design and Assessment Technology Area (CD&A-TA) of the U.S Army Aviation Development Directorate also includes a handling qualities component. SIMPLI-FLYD is a tool jointly developed by NASA and the U.S. Army to perform modeling and analysis for the assessment of flight dynamics and control aspects of the handling qualities of rotorcraft conceptual designs. An exploration of handling qualities analysis has been carried out using SIMPLI-FLYD in illustrative scenarios of a tiltrotor in forward flight and single-main rotor helicopter at hover. Using SIMPLI-FLYD and the conceptual design tool NDARC integrated into a single process, the effects of variations of design parameters such as tail or rotor size were evaluated in the form of margins to fixed- and rotary-wing handling qualities metrics as well as the vehicle empty weight. The handling qualities design margins are shown to vary across the flight envelope due to both changing flight dynamic and control characteristics and changing handling qualities specification requirements. The current SIMPLI-FLYD capability and future developments are discussed in the context of an overall rotorcraft conceptual design process.

Exploring Nurse Leaders' Policy Participation Within the Context of a Nursing Conceptual Framework.

PubMed

Waddell, Ashley; Adams, Jeffrey M; Fawcett, Jacqueline

2017-11-01

This study was designed to describe and quantify the experiences of nurse leaders working to influence policy and to build consensus for priority skills and knowledge useful in policy efforts within the context of a nursing conceptual framework. The conceptual model for nursing and health policy and the Adams influence model were combined into a conceptual framework used to guide this two-round modified Delphi study. Twenty-two nurse leaders who were members of a state action coalition participated in the Round 1 focus group; 15 of these leaders completed the Round 2 electronic survey. Round 1 themes indicated the value of a passion for policy, the importance of clear communication, and an understanding the who and when of policy work. Round 2 data reinforced the importance of clear communication regarding policy engagement; knowing the who and when of policy closely followed, and having a passion for policy work was identified as least important. These themes inform learning objectives for nursing education and preparation for interactions with public officials because influencing policy requires knowledge, skills, and persistence. Study findings begin to describe how nurse leaders influence policy within the context of a nursing conceptual framework and generate implications for research, education, and professional practice.

Conceptual and Procedural Approaches to Mathematics in the Engineering Curriculum--Comparing Views of Junior and Senior Engineering Students in Two Countries

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bergsten, Christer; Engelbrecht, Johann; Kågesten, Owe

2017-01-01

One challenge for an optimal design of the mathematical components in engineering education curricula is to understand how the procedural and conceptual dimensions of mathematical work can be matched with different demands and contexts from the education and practice of engineers. The focus in this paper is on how engineering students respond to…

Comparing the influence of physical and virtual manipulatives in the context of the Physics by Inquiry curriculum: The case of undergraduate students' conceptual understanding of heat and temperature

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zacharia, Zacharias C.; Constantinou, Constantinos P.

2008-04-01

We compare the effect of experimenting with physical or virtual manipulatives on undergraduate students' conceptual understanding of heat and temperature. A pre-post comparison study design was used to replicate all aspects of a guided inquiry classroom except the mode in which students performed their experiments. This study is the first on physical and virtual manipulative experimentation in physics in which the curriculum, method of instruction, and resource capabilities were explicitly controlled. The participants were 68 undergraduates in an introductory course and were randomly assigned to an experimental or a control group. Conceptual tests were administered to both groups to assess students' understanding before, during, and after instruction. The result indicates that both modes of experimentation are equally effective in enhancing students' conceptual understanding. This result is discussed in the context of an ongoing debate on the relative importance of virtual and real laboratory work in physics education.

Learning from and with Museum Objects: Design Perspectives, Environment, and Emerging Learning Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vartiainen, Henriikka; Enkenberg, Jorma

2013-01-01

Sociocultural approaches emphasize the systemic, context-bound nature of learning, which is mediated by other people, physical and conceptual artifacts, and tools. However, current educational systems tend not to approach learning from the systemic perspective, and mostly situate learning within classroom environments. This design-based research…

Functional Contextualism in Context: A Reply to Fox

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Winn, William

2006-01-01

In this article, the author presents Fox (2005) argument on functional contextualism and his assessment of the current conceptual frameworks in the field of instructional design and technology. The often unquestioning espousal of constructivism in the field of instructional design and technology has caused problems for a number of reasons. Fox…

A Worksheet to Enhance Students’ Conceptual Understanding in Vector Components

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wutchana, Umporn; Emarat, Narumon

2017-09-01

With and without physical context, we explored 59 undergraduate students’conceptual and procedural understanding of vector components using both open ended problems and multiple choice items designed based on research instruments used in physics education research. The results showed that a number of students produce errors and revealed alternative conceptions especially when asked to draw graphical form of vector components. It indicated that most of them did not develop a strong foundation of understanding in vector components and could not apply those concepts to such problems with physical context. Based on the findings, we designed a worksheet to enhance the students’ conceptual understanding in vector components. The worksheet is composed of three parts which help students to construct their own understanding of definition, graphical form, and magnitude of vector components. To validate the worksheet, focus group discussions of 3 and 10 graduate students (science in-service teachers) had been conducted. The modified worksheet was then distributed to 41 grade 9 students in a science class. The students spent approximately 50 minutes to complete the worksheet. They sketched and measured vectors and its components and compared with the trigonometry ratio to condense the concepts of vector components. After completing the worksheet, their conceptual model had been verified. 83% of them constructed the correct model of vector components.

The Step approach to Message Design and Testing (SatMDT): A conceptual framework to guide the development and evaluation of persuasive health messages.

PubMed

Lewis, Ioni; Watson, Barry; White, Katherine M

2016-12-01

This paper provides an important and timely overview of a conceptual framework designed to assist with the development of message content, as well as the evaluation, of persuasive health messages. While an earlier version of this framework was presented in a prior publication by the authors in 2009, important refinements to the framework have seen it evolve in recent years, warranting the need for an updated review. This paper outlines the Step approach to Message Design and Testing (or SatMDT) in accordance with the theoretical evidence which underpins, as well as empirical evidence which demonstrates the relevance and feasibility of, each of the framework's steps. The development and testing of the framework have thus far been based exclusively within the road safety advertising context; however, the view expressed herein is that the framework may have broader appeal and application to the health persuasion context. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Analyzing prospective teachers' images of scientists using positive, negative and stereotypical images of scientists

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Subramaniam, Karthigeyan; Esprívalo Harrell, Pamela; Wojnowski, David

2013-04-01

Background and purpose : This study details the use of a conceptual framework to analyze prospective teachers' images of scientists to reveal their context-specific conceptions of scientists. The conceptual framework consists of context-specific conceptions related to positive, stereotypical and negative images of scientists as detailed in the literature on the images, role and work of scientists. Sample, design and method : One hundred and ninety-six drawings of scientists, generated by prospective teachers, were analyzed using the Draw-A-Scientist-Test Checklist (DAST-C), a binary linear regression and the conceptual framework. Results : The results of the binary linear regression analysis revealed a statistically significant difference for two DAST-C elements: ethnicity differences with regard to drawing a scientist who was Caucasian and gender differences for indications of danger. Analysis using the conceptual framework helped to categorize the same drawings into positive, stereotypical, negative and composite images of a scientist. Conclusions : The conceptual framework revealed that drawings were focused on the physical appearance of the scientist, and to a lesser extent on the equipment, location and science-related practices that provided the context of a scientist's role and work. Implications for teacher educators include the need to understand that there is a need to provide tools, like the conceptual framework used in this study, to help prospective teachers to confront and engage with their multidimensional perspectives of scientists in light of the current trends on perceiving and valuing scientists. In addition, teacher educators need to use the conceptual framework, which yields qualitative perspectives about drawings, together with the DAST-C, which yields quantitative measure for drawings, to help prospective teachers to gain a holistic outlook on their drawings of scientists.

Towards improving software security by using simulation to inform requirements and conceptual design

DOE PAGES

Nutaro, James J.; Allgood, Glenn O.; Kuruganti, Teja

2015-06-17

We illustrate the use of modeling and simulation early in the system life-cycle to improve security and reduce costs. The models that we develop for this illustration are inspired by problems in reliability analysis and supervisory control, for which similar models are used to quantify failure probabilities and rates. In the context of security, we propose that models of this general type can be used to understand trades between risk and cost while writing system requirements and during conceptual design, and thereby significantly reduce the need for expensive security corrections after a system enters operation

Effect of Algorithms' Multiple Representations in the Context of Programming Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Siozou, Stefania; Tselios, Nikolaos; Komis, Vassilis

2008-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to compare the effect of different representations while teaching basic algorithmic concepts to novice programmers. Design/methodology/approach: A learning activity was designed and mediated with two conceptually different learning environments, each one used by a different group. The first group used the…

Move-tecture: A Conceptual Framework for Designing Movement in Architecture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yilmaz, Irem

2017-10-01

Along with the technological improvements in our age, it is now possible for the movement to become one of the basic components of the architectural space. Accordingly, architectural construction of movement changes both our architectural production practices and our understanding of architectural space. However, existing design concepts and approaches are insufficient to discuss and understand this change. In this respect, this study aims to form a conceptual framework on the relationship of architecture and movement. In this sense, the conceptualization of move-tecture is developed to research on the architectural construction of movement and the potentials of spatial creation through architecturally constructed movement. Move-tecture, is a conceptualization that treats movement as a basic component of spatial creation. It presents the framework of a qualitative categorization on the design of moving architectural structures. However, this categorization is a flexible one that can evolve in the direction of the expanding possibilities of the architectural design and the changing living conditions. With this understanding, six categories have been defined within the context of the article: Topological Organization, Choreographic Formation, Kinetic Structuring, Corporeal Constitution, Technological Configuration and Interactional Patterning. In line with these categories, a multifaceted perspective on the moving architectural structures is promoted. It is aimed that such an understanding constitutes a new initiative in the design practices carried out in this area and provides a conceptual basis for the discussions to be developed.

Promoting Conceptual Coherence within Context-Based Biology Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ummels, Micha H. J.; Kamp, Marcel J. A.; De Kroon, Hans; Boersma, Kerst Th.

2015-01-01

In secondary science education, the learning and teaching of coherent conceptual understanding are often problematic. Context-based education has been proposed as a partial solution to this problem. This study aims to gain insight into the development of conceptual coherence and how context-embedded learning-teaching activities (LT) can promote…

[Design of a conceptual model on the transference of public health research results in Honduras].

PubMed

Macías-Chapula, César A

2012-01-01

To design a conceptual model on the transference of public health research results at the local, context level. Using systems thinking concepts, a soft systems approach (SSM) was used to analyse and solve what was perceived as a problem situation related to the transference of research results within Honduras public health system. A bibliometric analysis was also conducted to enrich the problem situation. Six root definitions were defined and modeled as relevant to the expressed problem situation. This led to the development of the conceptual model. The model obtained identified four levels of resolution as derived from the human activities involved in the transference of research results: 1) those of the researchers; 2) the information/documentation professionals; 3) health staff; and 4) the population/society. These actors/ clients and their activities were essential to the functioning of the model since they represent what the model is and does. SSM helped to design the conceptual model. The bibliometric analysis was relevant to construct the rich image of the problem situation.

Training Employees of a Public Iranian Bank on Emotional Intelligence Competencies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dadehbeigi, Mina; Shirmohammadi, Melika

2010-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the possibility of developing emotional intelligence (EI) as conceptualized in Boyatzis et al.'s competency model. Design/methodology/approach: Designing a context-based EI training program, the study utilized a sample of 68 fully-employed members of five branches of a public bank in Iran; each…

"Fab 13": The Learning Factory.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crooks, Steven M.; Eucker, Tom R.

2001-01-01

Describes how situated learning theory was employed in the design of Fab 13, a four-day simulation-based learning experience for manufacturing professionals at Intel Corporation. Presents a conceptual framework for understanding situated learning and discusses context, content, anchored instruction, facilitation, scaffolding, collaborating,…

Teaching the basic concepts of the Special Relativity in the secondary school in the framework of the Theory of Conceptual Fields of Vergnaud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rita Otero, Marıa; Arlego, Marcelo; Prodanoff, Fabiana

2016-05-01

In this work, we investigate the conceptualization of the basic aspects of Special Relativity (SR) at secondary school level. We have conducted our research along the lines of the Theory of Conceptual Fields (TCF) proposed by Vergnaud (Vergnaud G., Infancia y Aprendizaje, 36 (2013) 131). The investigation consisted in the design, implementation and evaluation of a didactic sequence specially elaborated to conceptualize the basic aspects of SR. The proposal is composed by eight situations, complemented with a set of exercises. It was carried out in two classrooms with students of the last year of secondary level (17years old, N = 43 . The conceptualization was analyzed in a classroom context, where the selected situations are essential to promote the emergence of the relevant concepts.

A User-Centered Framework for Deriving A Conceptual Design From User Experiences: Leveraging Personas and Patterns to Create Usable Designs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Javahery, Homa; Deichman, Alexander; Seffah, Ahmed; Taleb, Mohamed

Patterns are a design tool to capture best practices, tackling problems that occur in different contexts. A user interface (UI) design pattern spans several levels of design abstraction ranging from high-level navigation to low-level idioms detailing a screen layout. One challenge is to combine a set of patterns to create a conceptual design that reflects user experiences. In this chapter, we detail a user-centered design (UCD) framework that exploits the novel idea of using personas and patterns together. Personas are used initially to collect and model user experiences. UI patterns are selected based on personas pecifications; these patterns are then used as building blocks for constructing conceptual designs. Through the use of a case study, we illustrate how personas and patterns can act as complementary techniques in narrowing the gap between two major steps in UCD: capturing users and their experiences, and building an early design based on that information. As a result of lessons learned from the study and by refining our framework, we define a more systematic process called UX-P (User Experiences to Pattern), with a supporting tool. The process introduces intermediate analytical steps and supports designers in creating usable designs.

When Playing Meets Learning: Methodological Framework for Designing Educational Games

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Linek, Stephanie B.; Schwarz, Daniel; Bopp, Matthias; Albert, Dietrich

Game-based learning builds upon the idea of using the motivational potential of video games in the educational context. Thus, the design of educational games has to address optimizing enjoyment as well as optimizing learning. Within the EC-project ELEKTRA a methodological framework for the conceptual design of educational games was developed. Thereby state-of-the-art psycho-pedagogical approaches were combined with insights of media-psychology as well as with best-practice game design. This science-based interdisciplinary approach was enriched by enclosed empirical research to answer open questions on educational game-design. Additionally, several evaluation-cycles were implemented to achieve further improvements. The psycho-pedagogical core of the methodology can be summarized by the ELEKTRA's 4Ms: Macroadaptivity, Microadaptivity, Metacognition, and Motivation. The conceptual framework is structured in eight phases which have several interconnections and feedback-cycles that enable a close interdisciplinary collaboration between game design, pedagogy, cognitive science and media psychology.

Patient-by-treatment context interaction in chronic disease: a conceptual framework for the study of patient adherence.

PubMed

Christensen, A J

2000-01-01

Previous reviews have concluded that there is little or no evidence supporting a predictable association between patient characteristics and regimen adherence in chronic illness. The primary objective of this article is to propose an alternative conceptual framework for the interpretation and design of adherence research. The author's research involving adherence among patients with end-stage renal disease is reviewed and used to illustrate the patient-by-context interactive framework. Adherence is most favorable when the patient's characteristic or preferred style of coping with illness and treatment-related experiences is congruent with the contextual features or demands of the particular type of medical intervention the patient is undergoing. Among patients with end-stage renal disease, a more vigilant or active style of coping is associated with more favorable adherence only for patients undergoing home-based dialysis treatment modalities that are highly patient directed. Among patients receiving hospital-based, provider-controlled treatment, a less vigilant or more passive coping style is associated with more favorable dialysis regimen adherence. The patient-by-context interactive perspective can provide a useful framework for the interpretation and design of adherence research.

The community health clinics as a learning context for student nurses.

PubMed

Makupu, M B; Botes, A

2000-09-01

The purpose of the research study was to describe guidelines to improve the community health clinics as a learning context conductive to learning. The objectives of the study commenced by getting the perception of student nurses from a nursing college in Gauteng; community sisters from ten community health clinics in the Southern Metropolitan Local Council and college tutors from a college in Gauteng. The research design and method used, consisting of a qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual approach and the design was divided into two phases. Phase one consisted of a field/empirical study and phase two of conceptualization. In all the samples follow-up focus group interviews were conducted to confirm the findings. To ensure trustworthiness, Lincoln and Guba's model (1985) was implemented and data analysis was according to Tesch's model (1990 in Creswell 1994:155) based on a qualitative approach. The conceptual framework discussed, indicating a body of knowledge, was based on the study and empirical findings from phase one to give clear meaning and understanding regarding the research study.

Science, education and industry information resources complementarity as a basis for design of knowledge management systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maksimov, N. V.; Tikhomirov, G. V.; Golitsyna, O. L.

2017-01-01

The main problems and circumstances that influence the processes of creating effective knowledge management systems were described. These problems particularly include high species diversity of instruments for knowledge representation, lack of adequate lingware, including formal representation of semantic relationships. For semantic data descriptions development a conceptual model of the subject area and a conceptual-lexical system should be designed on proposals of ISO-15926 standard. It is proposed to conduct an information integration of educational and production processes on the basis of information systems technologies. Integrated knowledge management system information environment combines both traditional information resources and specific information resources of subject domain including task context and implicit/tacit knowledge.

Human-centred design in global health: A scoping review of applications and contexts.

PubMed

Bazzano, Alessandra N; Martin, Jane; Hicks, Elaine; Faughnan, Maille; Murphy, Laura

2017-01-01

Health and wellbeing are determined by a number of complex, interrelated factors. The application of design thinking to questions around health may prove valuable and complement existing approaches. A number of public health projects utilizing human centered design (HCD), or design thinking, have recently emerged, but no synthesis of the literature around these exists. The results of a scoping review of current research on human centered design for health outcomes are presented. The review aimed to understand why and how HCD can be valuable in the contexts of health related research. Results identified pertinent literature as well as gaps in information on the use of HCD for public health research, design, implementation and evaluation. A variety of contexts were identified in which design has been used for health. Global health and design thinking have different underlying conceptual models and terminology, creating some inherent tensions, which could be overcome through clear communication and documentation in collaborative projects. The review concludes with lessons learned from the review on how future projects can better integrate design thinking with global health research.

Human-centred design in global health: A scoping review of applications and contexts

PubMed Central

Martin, Jane; Hicks, Elaine; Faughnan, Maille; Murphy, Laura

2017-01-01

Health and wellbeing are determined by a number of complex, interrelated factors. The application of design thinking to questions around health may prove valuable and complement existing approaches. A number of public health projects utilizing human centered design (HCD), or design thinking, have recently emerged, but no synthesis of the literature around these exists. The results of a scoping review of current research on human centered design for health outcomes are presented. The review aimed to understand why and how HCD can be valuable in the contexts of health related research. Results identified pertinent literature as well as gaps in information on the use of HCD for public health research, design, implementation and evaluation. A variety of contexts were identified in which design has been used for health. Global health and design thinking have different underlying conceptual models and terminology, creating some inherent tensions, which could be overcome through clear communication and documentation in collaborative projects. The review concludes with lessons learned from the review on how future projects can better integrate design thinking with global health research. PMID:29091935

Linguistic Hegemony Today: Recommendations for Eradicating Language Discrimination

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scott, Lakia M.; Venegas, Elena M.

2017-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss issues of contemporary language conflict in educational contexts. Design/methodology/approach: This is a conceptual paper which examines current educational practices and policies through the lens of linguistic hegemony. Findings: The authors identify three primary areas in which linguistic hegemony…

Hardiness among Elderly Women.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wagnild, Gail; Young, Heather

Hardiness has been defined as a mediator in life stress and, within the health/illness context, has been conceptualized as a personality characteristic. This study used a descriptive exploratory design to examine the concept of hardiness among elderly women. The Stress, Appraisal, and Coping model developed by Lazarus and Folkman (1986) was the…

The Motivating Language of Principals: A Sequential Transformative Strategy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holmes, William Tobias

2012-01-01

This study implemented a Sequential Transformative Mixed Methods design with teachers (as recipients) and principals (to give voice) in the examination of principal talk in two different school accountability contexts (Continuously Improving and Continuously Zigzag) using the conceptual framework of Motivating Language Theory. In phase one,…

A Conceptual Framework for Examining Knowledge Management in Higher Education Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Hae-Young; Roth, Gene L.

2009-01-01

Knowledge management is an on-going process that involves varied activities: diagnosis, design, and implementation of knowledge creation, knowledge transfer, and knowledge sharing. The primary goal of knowledge management, like other management theories or models, is to identify and leverage organizational and individual knowledge for the…

Managing Risk in Complex Adult Professional Learning: The Facilitator's Role

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ince, Amanda

2017-01-01

This article reports on the recognition and management of risk within the context of an intensive literacy intervention professional development programme, designed to enable expert literacy teachers become teacher-educators. The article suggests a conceptual model for recognising risk within professional learning opportunities and skills for…

(Re)Conceptualizing Design Approaches for Mobile Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoven, Debra; Palalas, Agnieszka

2011-01-01

An exploratory study conducted at George Brown College in Toronto, Canada between 2007 and 2009 investigated language learning with mobile devices as an approach to augmenting ESP learning by taking learning outside the classroom into the real-world context. In common with findings at other community colleges, this study identified inadequate…

Structural and compositional features of high-rise buildings: experimental design in Yekaterinburg

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yankovskaya, Yulia; Lobanov, Yuriy; Temnov, Vladimir

2018-03-01

The study looks at the specifics of high-rise development in Yekaterinburg. High-rise buildings are considered in the context of their historical development, structural features, compositional and imaginative design techniques. Experience of Yekaterinburg architects in experimental design is considered and analyzed. Main issues and prospects of high-rise development within the Yekaterinburg structure are studied. The most interesting and significant conceptual approaches to the structural and compositional arrangement of high-rise buildings are discussed.

[Impact of small-area context on health: proposing a conceptual model].

PubMed

Voigtländer, S; Mielck, A; Razum, O

2012-11-01

Recent empirical studies stress the impact of features related to the small-area context on individual health. However, so far there exists no standard explanatory model that integrates the different kinds of such features and that conceptualises their relation to individual characteristics of social inequality. A review of theoretical publications on the relationship between social position and health as well as existing conceptual models for the impact of features related to the small-area context on health was undertaken. In the present article we propose a conceptual model for the health impact of the small-area context. This model conceptualises the location of residence as one dimension of social inequality that affects health through the resources as well as stressors which are inherent in the small-area context. The proposed conceptual model offers an orientation for future empirical studies and can serve as a basis for further discussions concerning the health relevance of the small-area context. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Are University Students Really Customers? When Illusion May Lead to Delusion for All!

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Svensson, Goran; Wood, Greg

2007-01-01

Purpose: The marketing concept is an idea that has been adopted in non-marketing contexts, such as the relationships between universities and their students. This paper aims to posit that marketing metaphors are inappropriate to describe the student-university relationship. Design/methodology/approach: The authors provide a conceptual discussion…

Evaluation in Cross-Cultural Contexts: Proposing a Framework for International Education and Training Project Evaluations.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

bin Yahya, Ismail; And Others

This paper focuses on the need for increased sensitivity and responsiveness in international education and training project evaluations, particularly those in Third World countries. A conceptual-theoretical framework for designing and developing models appropriate for evaluating education and training projects in non-Western cultures is presented.…

An Integrated Model for Effective Knowledge Management in Chinese Organizations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

An, Xiaomi; Deng, Hepu; Wang, Yiwen; Chao, Lemen

2013-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide organizations in the Chinese cultural context with a conceptual model for an integrated adoption of existing knowledge management (KM) methods and to improve the effectiveness of their KM activities. Design/methodology/approaches: A comparative analysis is conducted between China and the western…

Designing New Media Education Research: The Materiality of Data, Representation, and Dissemination

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Voithofer, Rick

2005-01-01

The current historical moment is marked by the gradual transition from a print culture to a digital new media culture, and this shift carries material effects for how education research contexts are perceived and represented. This discussion uses the concept of materiality to demonstrate how the conceptualization of inquiry through digital…

The Ethnic Context of Child and Adolescent Problem Behavior: Implications for Child and Family Interventions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yasui, Miwa; Dishion, Thomas J.

2007-01-01

This article links the empirical literature on race and ethnicity in developmental psychopathology with interventions designed to reduce adolescent problem behavior. We present a conceptual framework in which culture is endogenous to the socialization of youth and the development of specific self-regulatory strategies. The importance of cultural…

Effects of Leadership Style on Team Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bucic, Tania; Robinson, Linda; Ramburuth, Prem

2010-01-01

Purpose: This paper seeks to explore the effect of leadership style of a team leader on team-member learning in organizations, to conceptually extend an initial model of leadership and to empirically examine the new model of ambidextrous leadership in a team context. Design/methodology/approach: Qualitative research utilizing the case study method…

Purposes and Bibliographic Objectives of a Pioneer Library Catalog in China

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Hur-Li; Lan, Wen-Chin

2009-01-01

This research aims to ascertain the conceptual basics underlying the design of the "Seven Epitomes", the first library catalog to establish the bibliographic model in imperial China. The analytical framework for the study consists of a reconstructed version of the catalog and its historical contexts. In analyzing the surviving text of…

Research Trends in Turkish Distance Education: A Content Analysis of Dissertations, 1986-2014

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bozkurt, Aras; Kumtepe, Evrim Genc; Kumtepe, Alper Tolga; Aydin, Irem Erdem; Bozkaya, Müjgan; Aydin, Cengiz Hakan

2015-01-01

This paper presents a content analytic approach on doctoral dissertations in the field of distance education in Turkish Higher Education context from the years of 1986 through 2014. A total of 61 dissertations were examined to explore keywords, academic discipline, research areas, theoretical/conceptual frameworks, research designs, research…

Revisiting Instructional and Transformational Leadership: The Contemporary Norwegian Context of School Leadership

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aas, Marit; Brandmo, Christian

2016-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the taxonomy of two conceptual models of leadership roles for principals--instructional and transformational leadership (IL and TL)--can be traced empirically in a sample of Norwegian school leaders. Design/methodology/approach: The participants consisted of 149 school leaders attending a…

A Comprehensive Competence-Based Approach in Curriculum Development: Experiences from African and European Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parent, F.; Baulana, R.; Kahombo, G.; Coppieters, Y.; Garant, M.; De Ketele, J.-M.

2011-01-01

Objective: To describe the methodological steps of developing an integrated reference guide for competences according to the profile of the healthcare professionals concerned. Design: Human resources in healthcare represent a complex issue, which needs conceptual and methodological frameworks and tools to help one understand reality and the limits…

Psychological need thwarting in the sport context: assessing the darker side of athletic experience.

PubMed

Bartholomew, Kimberley J; Ntoumanis, Nikos; Ryan, Richard M; Thøgersen-Ntoumani, Cecilie

2011-02-01

Research in self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2002) has shown that satisfaction of autonomy, competence, and relatedness needs in sport contexts is associated with enhanced engagement, performance, and well-being. This article outlines the initial development of a multidimensional measure designed to assess psychological need thwarting, an under-studied area of conceptual and practical importance. Study 1 generated a pool of items designed to tap the negative experiential state that occurs when athletes perceive their needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness to be actively undermined. Study 2 tested the factorial structure of the questionnaire using confirmatory factor analysis. The supported model comprised 3 factors, which represented the hypothesized interrelated dimensions of need thwarting. The model was refined and cross-validated using an independent sample in Study 3. Overall, the psychological need thwarting scale (PNTS) demonstrated good content, factorial, and predictive validity, as well as internal consistency and invariance across gender, sport type, competitive level, and competitive experience. The conceptualization of psychological need thwarting is discussed, and suggestions are made regarding the use of the PNTS in research pertaining to the darker side of sport participation.

Evaluation of Students' Understanding of Thermal Concepts in Everyday Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chu, Hye-Eun; Treagust, David F.; Yeo, Shelley; Zadnik, Marjan

2012-01-01

The aims of this study were to determine the underlying conceptual structure of the thermal concept evaluation (TCE) questionnaire, a pencil-and-paper instrument about everyday contexts of heat, temperature, and heat transfer, to investigate students' conceptual understanding of thermal concepts in everyday contexts across several school years and…

Emerging HRD Issues: A Conceptual Framework for Corporate University in the Context of Chinese Organizations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Jie; Alagaraja, Meera

2007-01-01

The authors suggest a conceptual framework for developing CU's in the Chinese organizational context. We reviewed literature on existing conceptual frameworks and chose the CU wheel as proposed by Prince and Stewart. Four core processes identified in the CU wheel were realigned and readjusted in developing our framework of Corporate University in…

Constrained Stochastic Extended Redundancy Analysis.

PubMed

DeSarbo, Wayne S; Hwang, Heungsun; Stadler Blank, Ashley; Kappe, Eelco

2015-06-01

We devise a new statistical methodology called constrained stochastic extended redundancy analysis (CSERA) to examine the comparative impact of various conceptual factors, or drivers, as well as the specific predictor variables that contribute to each driver on designated dependent variable(s). The technical details of the proposed methodology, the maximum likelihood estimation algorithm, and model selection heuristics are discussed. A sports marketing consumer psychology application is provided in a Major League Baseball (MLB) context where the effects of six conceptual drivers of game attendance and their defining predictor variables are estimated. Results compare favorably to those obtained using traditional extended redundancy analysis (ERA).

Multiple and variable speed electrical generator systems for large wind turbines

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Andersen, T. S.; Hughes, P. S.; Kirschbaum, H. S.; Mutone, G. A.

1982-01-01

A cost effective method to achieve increased wind turbine generator energy conversion and other operational benefits through variable speed operation is presented. Earlier studies of multiple and variable speed generators in wind turbines were extended for evaluation in the context of a specific large sized conceptual design. System design and simulation have defined the costs and performance benefits which can be expected from both two speed and variable speed configurations.

Conceptual knowledge representation: A cross-section of current research.

PubMed

Rogers, Timothy T; Wolmetz, Michael

2016-01-01

How is conceptual knowledge encoded in the brain? This special issue of Cognitive Neuropsychology takes stock of current efforts to answer this question through a variety of methods and perspectives. Across this work, three questions recur, each fundamental to knowledge representation in the mind and brain. First, what are the elements of conceptual representation? Second, to what extent are conceptual representations embodied in sensory and motor systems? Third, how are conceptual representations shaped by context, especially linguistic context? In this introductory article we provide relevant background on these themes and introduce how they are addressed by our contributing authors.

Evaluating the Impact of Conceptual Knowledge Engineering on the Design and Usability of a Clinical and Translational Science Collaboration Portal

PubMed Central

Payne, Philip R.O.; Borlawsky, Tara B.; Rice, Robert; Embi, Peter J.

2010-01-01

With the growing prevalence of large-scale, team science endeavors in the biomedical and life science domains, the impetus to implement platforms capable of supporting asynchronous interaction among multidisciplinary groups of collaborators has increased commensurately. However, there is a paucity of literature describing systematic approaches to identifying the information needs of targeted end-users for such platforms, and the translation of such requirements into practicable software component design criteria. In previous studies, we have reported upon the efficacy of employing conceptual knowledge engineering (CKE) techniques to systematically address both of the preceding challenges in the context of complex biomedical applications. In this manuscript we evaluate the impact of CKE approaches relative to the design of a clinical and translational science collaboration portal, and report upon the preliminary qualitative users satisfaction as reported for the resulting system. PMID:21347146

Developing a conceptual model for the application of patient and public involvement in the healthcare system in Iran.

PubMed

Azmal, Mohammad; Sari, Ali Akbari; Foroushani, Abbas Rahimi; Ahmadi, Batoul

2016-06-01

Patient and public involvement is engaging patients, providers, community representatives, and the public in healthcare planning and decision-making. The purpose of this study was to develop a model for the application of patient and public involvement in decision making in the Iranian healthcare system. A mixed qualitative-quantitative approach was used to develop a conceptual model. Thirty three key informants were purposely recruited in the qualitative stage, and 420 people (patients and their companions) were included in a protocol study that was implemented in five steps: 1) Identifying antecedents, consequences, and variables associated with the patient and the publics' involvement in healthcare decision making through a comprehensive literature review; 2) Determining the main variables in the context of Iran's health system using conceptual framework analysis; 3) Prioritizing and weighting variables by Shannon entropy; 4) designing and validating a tool for patient and public involvement in healthcare decision making; and 5) Providing a conceptual model of patient and the public involvement in planning and developing healthcare using structural equation modeling. We used various software programs, including SPSS (17), Max QDA (10), EXCEL, and LISREL. Content analysis, Shannon entropy, and descriptive and analytic statistics were used to analyze the data. In this study, seven antecedents variable, five dimensions of involvement, and six consequences were identified. These variables were used to design a valid tool. A logical model was derived that explained the logical relationships between antecedent and consequent variables and the dimensions of patient and public involvement as well. Given the specific context of the political, social, and innovative environments in Iran, it was necessary to design a model that would be compatible with these features. It can improve the quality of care and promote the patient and the public satisfaction with healthcare and legitimate the representative of people they served for. This model can provide a practical guide for managers and policy makers to involve people in making the decisions that influence their lives.

Creating More Credible and Persuasive Recommender Systems: The Influence of Source Characteristics on Recommender System Evaluations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yoo, Kyung-Hyan; Gretzel, Ulrike

Whether users are likely to accept the recommendations provided by a recommender system is of utmost importance to system designers and the marketers who implement them. By conceptualizing the advice seeking and giving relationship as a fundamentally social process, important avenues for understanding the persuasiveness of recommender systems open up. Specifically, research regarding the influence of source characteristics, which is abundant in the context of humanhuman relationships, can provide an important framework for identifying potential influence factors. This chapter reviews the existing literature on source characteristics in the context of human-human, human-computer, and human-recommender system interactions. It concludes that many social cues that have been identified as influential in other contexts have yet to be implemented and tested with respect to recommender systems. Implications for recommender system research and design are discussed.

The Role of Context in Third Graders' Learning of Area Measurement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haris, Denny; Ilma, Ratu

2011-01-01

Many researches showed that the most of students find the difficulty in measuring area. The formula of area tends to be taught directly without involving the conceptual basis and the area measurement are separated from children's daily experiences. For this reason, the teaching and learning of area measurement was designed and link to a set of…

Nordic Children's Conceptualizations of Healthy Eating in Relation to School Lunch

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berggren, Linda; Talvia, Sanna; Fossgard, Eldbjørg; Arnfjörð, Unnur Björk; Hörnell, Agneta; Ólafsdóttir, Anna Sigríður; Gunnarsdóttir, Ingibjörg; Wergedahl, Hege; Lagström, Hanna; Waling, Maria; Olsson, Cecilia

2017-01-01

Purpose: Pupils' perspective should be better taken into account when developing nutrition education at school. The purpose of this paper is to explore Nordic children's perspectives on the healthiness of meals in the context of school lunches. Design/methodology/approach: In total, 78 focus group discussions were conducted with 10-11-year-old…

Conceptual and Methodological Issues in the Development of an Instrument To Assess the Impact of Culture on Interpreter Behavior.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Denise; Sussman, Lyle

In the context of rapid recent political, economic, and technological changes in the world, this paper examines the role of interpreters in international business. The study reported analyzes the development of a questionnaire designed to assess factors related to successful versus unsuccessful interpretations in cross-cultural business…

Teaching for clinical reasoning - helping students make the conceptual links.

PubMed

McMillan, Wendy Jayne

2010-01-01

Dental educators complain that students struggle to apply what they have learnt theoretically in the clinical context. This paper is premised on the assumption that there is a relationship between conceptual thinking and clinical reasoning. The paper provides a theoretical framework for understanding the relationship between conceptual learning and clinical reasoning. A review of current literature is used to explain the way in which conceptual understanding influences clinical reasoning and the transfer of theoretical understandings to the clinical context. The paper argues that the connections made between concepts are what is significant about conceptual understanding. From this point of departure the paper describes teaching strategies that facilitate the kinds of learning opportunities that students need in order to develop conceptual understanding and to be able to transfer knowledge from theoretical to clinical contexts. Along with a variety of teaching strategies, the value of concept maps is discussed. The paper provides a framework for understanding the difficulties that students have in developing conceptual networks appropriate for later clinical reasoning. In explaining how students learn for clinical application, the paper provides a theoretical framework that can inform how dental educators facilitate the conceptual learning, and later clinical reasoning, of their students.

A Conceptual Framework and a Toolkit for Supporting the Rapid Prototyping of Context-Aware Applications.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dey, Anind K.; Abowd, Gregory D.; Salber, Daniel

2001-01-01

Discusses the trend toward ubiquitous computing and the challenge to enhance the behavior of any application by informing it of the context of its use. Defines context related to the interaction between humans, applications, and the surrounding environment; and presents a conceptual framework and a toolkit for supporting the rapid prototyping of…

Complex Dynamic Systems View on Conceptual Change: How a Picture of Students' Intuitive Conceptions Accrue from Dynamically Robust Task Dependent Learning Outcomes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koponen, Ismo T.; Kokkonen, Tommi; Nousiainen, Maiji

2017-01-01

We discuss here conceptual change and the formation of robust learning outcomes from the viewpoint of complex dynamic systems (CDS). The CDS view considers students' conceptions as context dependent and multifaceted structures which depend on the context of their application. In the CDS view the conceptual patterns (i.e. intuitive conceptions…

Conceptual framework for behavioral and social science in HIV vaccine clinical research

PubMed Central

Lau, Chuen-Yen; Swann, Edith M.; Singh, Sagri; Kafaar, Zuhayr; Meissner, Helen I.; Stansbury, James P.

2011-01-01

HIV vaccine clinical research occurs within a context where biomedical science and social issues are interlinked. Previous HIV vaccine research has considered behavioral and social issues, but often treated them as independent of clinical research processes. Systematic attention to the intersection of behavioral and social issues within a defined clinical research framework is needed to address gaps, such as those related to participation in trials, completion of trials, and the overall research experience. Rigorous attention to these issues at project inception can inform trial design and conduct by matching research approaches to the context in which trials are to be conducted. Conducting behavioral and social sciences research concurrent with vaccine clinical research is important because it can help identify potential barriers to trial implementation, as well as ultimate acceptance and dissemination of trial results. We therefore propose a conceptual framework for behavioral and social science in HIV vaccine clinical research and use examples from the behavioral and social science literature to demonstrate how the model can facilitate identification of significant areas meriting additional exploration. Standardized use of the conceptual framework could improve HIV vaccine clinical research efficiency and relevance. PMID:21821083

Conceptual framework for behavioral and social science in HIV vaccine clinical research.

PubMed

Lau, Chuen-Yen; Swann, Edith M; Singh, Sagri; Kafaar, Zuhayr; Meissner, Helen I; Stansbury, James P

2011-10-13

HIV vaccine clinical research occurs within a context where biomedical science and social issues are interlinked. Previous HIV vaccine research has considered behavioral and social issues, but often treated them as independent of clinical research processes. Systematic attention to the intersection of behavioral and social issues within a defined clinical research framework is needed to address gaps, such as those related to participation in trials, completion of trials, and the overall research experience. Rigorous attention to these issues at project inception can inform trial design and conduct by matching research approaches to the context in which trials are to be conducted. Conducting behavioral and social sciences research concurrent with vaccine clinical research is important because it can help identify potential barriers to trial implementation, as well as ultimate acceptance and dissemination of trial results. We therefore propose a conceptual framework for behavioral and social science in HIV vaccine clinical research and use examples from the behavioral and social science literature to demonstrate how the model can facilitate identification of significant areas meriting additional exploration. Standardized use of the conceptual framework could improve HIV vaccine clinical research efficiency and relevance. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

University Students’ Conceptual Knowledge of Randomness and Probability in the Contexts of Evolution and Mathematics

PubMed Central

Fiedler, Daniela; Tröbst, Steffen; Harms, Ute

2017-01-01

Students of all ages face severe conceptual difficulties regarding key aspects of evolution—the central, unifying, and overarching theme in biology. Aspects strongly related to abstract “threshold” concepts like randomness and probability appear to pose particular difficulties. A further problem is the lack of an appropriate instrument for assessing students’ conceptual knowledge of randomness and probability in the context of evolution. To address this problem, we have developed two instruments, Randomness and Probability Test in the Context of Evolution (RaProEvo) and Randomness and Probability Test in the Context of Mathematics (RaProMath), that include both multiple-choice and free-response items. The instruments were administered to 140 university students in Germany, then the Rasch partial-credit model was applied to assess them. The results indicate that the instruments generate reliable and valid inferences about students’ conceptual knowledge of randomness and probability in the two contexts (which are separable competencies). Furthermore, RaProEvo detected significant differences in knowledge of randomness and probability, as well as evolutionary theory, between biology majors and preservice biology teachers. PMID:28572180

A Framework for Research on E-Learning Assimilation in SMEs: A Strategic Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Raymond, Louis; Uwizeyemungu, Sylvestre; Bergeron, Francois; Gauvin, Stephane

2012-01-01

Purpose: This study aims to propose an integrative conceptual framework of e-learning adoption and assimilation that is adapted to the specific context of small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Design/methodology/approach: The literature on the state of e-learning usage in SMEs and on the IT adoption and assimilation factors that can be…

Mathematical Objects through the Lens of Two Different Theoretical Perspectives: APOS and OSA

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Font Moll, Vicenç; Trigueros, María; Badillo, Edelmira; Rubio, Norma

2016-01-01

This paper presents a networking of two theories, the APOS Theory and the ontosemiotic approach (OSA), to compare and contrast how they conceptualize the notion of a mathematical object. As context of reflection, we designed an APOS genetic decomposition for the derivative and analyzed it from the point of view of OSA. Results of this study show…

A Multidimensional/Non-Linear Teaching and Learning Model: Teaching and Learning Music in an Authentic and Holistic Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crawford, Renée

2014-01-01

This article discusses the conceptual framework that leads to the design of a teaching and learning model as part of a recent ethnographic study that considered the effectiveness of current Victorian government secondary school music teaching and learning practices when engaged with technology. The philosophical and theoretical basis for this…

HBV-related health behaviors in a socio-cultural context: perspectives from Khmers and Koreans.

PubMed

Lee, Haeok; Kiang, Peter; Chea, Phala; Peou, Sonith; Tang, Shirley S; Yang, Jinhwang; Fawcett, Jacqueline; Hann, Hie-Won

2014-05-01

The aim of this study is to explore factors influencing health and health care within the sociocultural context of Cambodian Americans (CAs or Khmers) and Korean Americans (KA) and to examine intergroup similarities and differences between CAs and KAs, focusing on hepatitis B virus (HBV) and liver cancer prevention behaviors. The study used a qualitative design guided by the revised Network Episode Model (NEM) and informed by ethnographic analysis. Focus group interviews with key informants among CA community health leaders (CHLs, n=14) and individual interviews with key informants of KA CHLs (n=9) were audiotaped and transcribed. Three categories that influenced HBV and liver cancer prevention emerged from both CAs and KAs: the socio-cultural, individual, and behavioral. Four additional subcategories (sub-themes) of sociocultural were identified as socio-history, socio-medicine, socio-linguistic, and socio-health resources. Both CAs and KAs, however, have low levels of knowledge and significant misunderstandings about HBV infection. The study identifies and compares the social-cultural determinant for HBV and liver cancer and highlights the factors of education, intercultural communication, and interactions within socio-cultural contexts of CA and KA subgroups. In general, conceptual overlaps are apparent between Khmers (from now on, the terms, CA and Khmer, will be used interchangeably) and Koreans except for the sub-theme of socio-history. However, differences in concept-specific attributes point to the need to account for differing conceptualizations and implications of specific ethnic groups' sociocultural contexts, and to design contextually-relevant outreach and educational interventions for targeted AAPI subgroups. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

HBV-Related Health Behaviors in a Socio-Cultural Context: Perspectives from Khmers and Koreans

PubMed Central

Lee, Haeok; Kiang, Peter; Chea, Phala; Peou, Sonith; Tang, Shirley S.; Yang, JinHwang; Fawcett, Jacqueline; Hann, Hie-Won

2014-01-01

Purpose To explore factors influencing health and health care within the sociocultural context of Cambodian Americans (CAs or Khmers) and Korean Americans (KA) and to examine intergroup similarities and differences between CAs and KAs, focusing on hepatitis B virus (HBV) and liver cancer prevention behaviors. Methods The study used a qualitative design guided by the revised Network Episode Model (NEM) and informed by ethnographic analysis. Focus group interviews with key informants among CA community health leaders (CHLs, n=14) and individual interviews with key informants of KA CHLs (n=9) were audiotaped and transcribed. Results Three categories that influenced HBV and liver cancer prevention emerged from both CAs and KAs: the socio-cultural, individual, and behavioral. Four additional sub-categories (sub-themes) of sociocultural were identified as socio-history, socio-medicine, socio-linguistic, and socio-health resources. Both CAs and KAs, however, have low levels of knowledge and significant misunderstandings about HBV infection. Conclusions The study identifies and compares the social-cultural determinant for HBV and liver cancer and highlights the factors of education, intercultural communication, and interactions within socio-cultural contexts of CA and KA subgroups. In general, conceptual overlaps are apparent between Khmers (from now on, the terms, CA and Khmer, will be used interchangeably) and Koreans except for the sub-theme of socio-history. However, differences in concept-specific attributes point to the need to account for differing conceptualizations and implications of specific ethnic groups’ sociocultural contexts, and to design contextually-relevant outreach and educational interventions for targeted AAPI subgroups. PMID:24355416

The Proposal Concept of Development and Implementation in Strategy of Sustainable Corporate Social Responsibility in the Context of the HCS Model 3E

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sakál, Peter; Hrdinová, Gabriela

2016-06-01

This article is the result of a conceptual design methodology for the development of a sustainable strategy of sustainable corporate social responsibility (SCSR) in the context of the HCS model 3E formed, as a co-author within the stated grants and dissertation. On the basis of the use of propositional logic, the SCSR procedure is proposed for incorporation into the corporate strategy of sustainable development and the integrated management system (IMS) of the industrial enterprise. The aim of this article is the proposal of the concept of development and implementation strategy of SCSR in the context of the HCS model 3E.

What's behind a face: person context coding in fusiform face area as revealed by multivoxel pattern analysis.

PubMed

van den Hurk, J; Gentile, F; Jansma, B M

2011-12-01

The identification of a face comprises processing of both visual features and conceptual knowledge. Studies showing that the fusiform face area (FFA) is sensitive to face identity generally neglect this dissociation. The present study is the first that isolates conceptual face processing by using words presented in a person context instead of faces. The design consisted of 2 different conditions. In one condition, participants were presented with blocks of words related to each other at the categorical level (e.g., brands of cars, European cities). The second condition consisted of blocks of words linked to the personality features of a specific face. Both conditions were created from the same 8 × 8 word matrix, thereby controlling for visual input across conditions. Univariate statistical contrasts did not yield any significant differences between the 2 conditions in FFA. However, a machine learning classification algorithm was able to successfully learn the functional relationship between the 2 contexts and their underlying response patterns in FFA, suggesting that these activation patterns can code for different semantic contexts. These results suggest that the level of processing in FFA goes beyond facial features. This has strong implications for the debate about the role of FFA in face identification.

A prototype computerized synthesis methodology for generic space access vehicle (SAV) conceptual design

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Xiao

2006-04-01

Today's and especially tomorrow's competitive launch vehicle design environment requires the development of a dedicated generic Space Access Vehicle (SAV) design methodology. A total of 115 industrial, research, and academic aircraft, helicopter, missile, and launch vehicle design synthesis methodologies have been evaluated. As the survey indicates, each synthesis methodology tends to focus on a specific flight vehicle configuration, thus precluding the key capability to systematically compare flight vehicle design alternatives. The aim of the research investigation is to provide decision-making bodies and the practicing engineer a design process and tool box for robust modeling and simulation of flight vehicles where the ultimate performance characteristics may hinge on numerical subtleties. This will enable the designer of a SAV for the first time to consistently compare different classes of SAV configurations on an impartial basis. This dissertation presents the development steps required towards a generic (configuration independent) hands-on flight vehicle conceptual design synthesis methodology. This process is developed such that it can be applied to any flight vehicle class if desired. In the present context, the methodology has been put into operation for the conceptual design of a tourist Space Access Vehicle. The case study illustrates elements of the design methodology & algorithm for the class of Horizontal Takeoff and Horizontal Landing (HTHL) SAVs. The HTHL SAV design application clearly outlines how the conceptual design process can be centrally organized, executed and documented with focus on design transparency, physical understanding and the capability to reproduce results. This approach offers the project lead and creative design team a management process and tool which iteratively refines the individual design logic chosen, leading to mature design methods and algorithms. As illustrated, the HTHL SAV hands-on design methodology offers growth potential in that the same methodology can be continually updated and extended to other SAV configuration concepts, such as the Vertical Takeoff and Vertical Landing (VTVL) SAV class. Having developed, validated and calibrated the methodology for HTHL designs in the 'hands-on' mode, the report provides an outlook how the methodology will be integrated into a prototype computerized design synthesis software AVDS-PrADOSAV in a follow-on step.

Health by Design: Interweaving Health Promotion into Environments and Settings

PubMed Central

Springer, Andrew E.; Evans, Alexandra E.; Ortuño, Jaquelin; Salvo, Deborah; Varela Arévalo, Maria Teresa

2017-01-01

The important influence of the environmental context on health and health behavior—which includes place, settings, and the multiple environments within place and settings—has directed health promotion planners from a focus solely on changing individuals, toward a focus on harnessing and changing context for individual and community health promotion. Health promotion planning frameworks such as Intervention Mapping provide helpful guidance in addressing various facets of the environmental context in health intervention design, including the environmental factors that influence a given health condition or behavior, environmental agents that can influence a population’s health, and environmental change methods. In further exploring how to harness the environmental context for health promotion, we examine in this paper the concept of interweaving of health promotion into context, defined as weaving or blending together health promotion strategies, practices, programs, and policies to fit within, complement, and build from existing settings and environments. Health promotion interweaving stems from current perspectives in health intervention planning, improvement science and complex systems thinking by guiding practitioners from a conceptualization of context as a backdrop to intervention, to one that recognizes context as integral to the intervention design and to the potential to directly influence health outcomes. In exploring the general approach of health promotion interweaving, we examine selected theoretical and practice-based interweaving concepts in relation to four key environments (the policy environment, the information environment, the social/cultural/organizational environment, and the physical environment), followed by evidence-based and practice-based examples of health promotion interweaving from the literature. Interweaving of health promotion into context is a common practice for health planners in designing health promotion interventions, yet one which merits further intentionality as a specific health promotion planning design approach. PMID:29043248

Health by Design: Interweaving Health Promotion into Environments and Settings.

PubMed

Springer, Andrew E; Evans, Alexandra E; Ortuño, Jaquelin; Salvo, Deborah; Varela Arévalo, Maria Teresa

2017-01-01

The important influence of the environmental context on health and health behavior-which includes place, settings, and the multiple environments within place and settings-has directed health promotion planners from a focus solely on changing individuals, toward a focus on harnessing and changing context for individual and community health promotion. Health promotion planning frameworks such as Intervention Mapping provide helpful guidance in addressing various facets of the environmental context in health intervention design, including the environmental factors that influence a given health condition or behavior, environmental agents that can influence a population's health, and environmental change methods. In further exploring how to harness the environmental context for health promotion, we examine in this paper the concept of interweaving of health promotion into context , defined as weaving or blending together health promotion strategies, practices, programs, and policies to fit within, complement, and build from existing settings and environments. Health promotion interweaving stems from current perspectives in health intervention planning, improvement science and complex systems thinking by guiding practitioners from a conceptualization of context as a backdrop to intervention, to one that recognizes context as integral to the intervention design and to the potential to directly influence health outcomes. In exploring the general approach of health promotion interweaving, we examine selected theoretical and practice-based interweaving concepts in relation to four key environments ( the policy environment, the information environment, the social/cultural/organizational environment , and the physical environment ), followed by evidence-based and practice-based examples of health promotion interweaving from the literature. Interweaving of health promotion into context is a common practice for health planners in designing health promotion interventions, yet one which merits further intentionality as a specific health promotion planning design approach.

Along the way to developing a theory of the program: a re-examination of the conceptual framework as an organizing strategy.

PubMed

Helitzer, Deborah L; Sussman, Andrew L; Hoffman, Richard M; Getrich, Christina M; Warner, Teddy D; Rhyne, Robert L

2014-08-01

Conceptual frameworks (CF) have historically been used to develop program theory. We re-examine the literature about the role of CF in this context, specifically how they can be used to create descriptive and prescriptive theories, as building blocks for a program theory. Using a case example of colorectal cancer screening intervention development, we describe the process of developing our initial CF, the methods used to explore the constructs in the framework and revise the framework for intervention development. We present seven steps that guided the development of our CF: (1) assemble the "right" research team, (2) incorporate existing literature into the emerging CF, (3) construct the conceptual framework, (4) diagram the framework, (5) operationalize the framework: develop the research design and measures, (6) conduct the research, and (7) revise the framework. A revised conceptual framework depicted more complicated inter-relationships of the different predisposing, enabling, reinforcing, and system-based factors. The updated framework led us to generate program theory and serves as the basis for designing future intervention studies and outcome evaluations. A CF can build a foundation for program theory. We provide a set of concrete steps and lessons learned to assist practitioners in developing a CF. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sources and sinks of plastic debris in estuaries: A conceptual model integrating biological, physical and chemical distribution mechanisms.

PubMed

Vermeiren, Peter; Muñoz, Cynthia C; Ikejima, Kou

2016-12-15

Micro- and macroplastic accumulation threatens estuaries worldwide because of the often dense human populations, diverse plastic inputs and high potential for plastic degradation and storage in these ecosystems. Nonetheless, our understanding of plastic sources and sinks remains limited. We designed conceptual models of the local and estuary-wide transport of plastics. We identify processes affecting the position of plastics in the water column; processes related to the mixing of fresh and salt water; and processes resulting from the influences of wind, topography, and organism-plastic interactions. The models identify gaps in the spatial context of plastic-organisms interactions, the chemical behavior of plastics in estuaries, effects of wind on plastic suspension-deposition cycles, and the relative importance of processes affecting the position in the water column. When interpreted in the context of current understanding, sinks with high management potential can be identified. However, source-sink patterns vary among estuary types and with local scale processes. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mediating Relationship of Differential Products in Understanding Integration in Introductory Physics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Amos, Nathaniel; Heckler, Andrew F.

2018-01-01

In the context of introductory physics, we study student conceptual understanding of differentials, differential products, and integrals and possible pathways to understanding these quantities. We developed a multiple choice conceptual assessment employing a variety of physical contexts probing physical understanding of these three quantities and…

"Urban" Schooling and "Urban" Families: The Role of Context and Place

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gadsden, Vivian L.; Dixon-Román, Ezekiel J.

2017-01-01

Conceptualizations of urban context and place in research, practice, and policy are relational, ranging from spatial dimensions to cultural practices of children, families, and communities in metropolitan areas. In this article, we focus on the inherent complexity of these conceptualizations and long-standing debates in education and social…

A Comparison of Approaches to the Teaching and Learning of Science in Chinese and Australian Elementary Classrooms: Cultural and Socioeconomic Complexities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tao, Ying; Oliver, Mary; Venville, Grady

2013-01-01

Set in the context of today's globalized approaches to curriculum reform, the purpose of this study was to compare the teaching and learning of science in Chinese and Australian Grade 6 classrooms. A conceptual framework based on notions of culture and socioeconomic status informed the research design. Case study participants were three teachers…

Is the Closet Door Still Closed in 2014? A CIPP Model Program Evaluation of Preservice Diversity Training Regarding LGBT Issues

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woodruff, Joseph

2014-01-01

The purpose of this program evaluation was to examine the four components of the CIPP evaluation model (Context, Input, Process, and Product evaluations) in the diversity training program conceptualization and design delivered to College of Education K-12 preservice teachers at a large university in the southeastern United States (referred to in…

A conceptual framework for cost management training in the Limpopo Province of South Africa.

PubMed

Jooste, Karien; Mothiba, Tebogo Maria

2014-10-01

This paper describes the perceptions of nurse managers about their dual role in nursing units as cost centres. The tertiary hospital in the Limpopo province is the first institution to appoint nurse managers with a dual role in cost centres. The development of a conceptual framework for a context-specific programme for Cost Centre Managers is the first of its nature in South Africa. A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive design was followed. The target population included nurse managers (n = 35) formally appointed as cost centre managers with a dual role of delivering quality care and cost management. A focus group and individual interviews were conducted until data saturation occurred. Personal and professional distress, an empowering potential of being a cost centre manager, and the need for decentralized cost centre management were indicated as barriers for nurse managers that led to a framework for a context-specific training programme. There is a need for a context-specific training programme for cost centre managers in a hospital with cost centres. The training of cost centre managers for their dual role in cost centres could enhance cost effectiveness, quality care and staff satisfaction. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Situated conceptualization and semantic processing: effects of emotional experience and context availability in semantic categorization and naming tasks.

PubMed

Moffat, Michael; Siakaluk, Paul D; Sidhu, David M; Pexman, Penny M

2015-04-01

It has been proposed that much of conceptual knowledge is acquired through situated conceptualization, such that both external (e.g., agents, objects, events) and internal (e.g., emotions, introspections) environments are considered important (Barsalou, 2003). To evaluate this proposal, we characterized two dimensions by which situated conceptualization may be measured and which should have different relevance for abstract and concrete concepts; namely, emotional experience (i.e., the ease with which words evoke emotional experience; Newcombe, Campbell, Siakaluk, & Pexman, 2012) and context availability (i.e., the ease with which words evoke contexts in which their referents may appear; Schwanenflugel & Shoben, 1983). We examined the effects of these two dimensions on abstract and concrete word processing in verbal semantic categorization (VSCT) and naming tasks. In the VSCT, emotional experience facilitated processing of abstract words but inhibited processing of concrete words, whereas context availability facilitated processing of both types of words. In the naming task in which abstract words and concrete words were not blocked by emotional experience, context availability facilitated responding to only the abstract words. In the naming task in which abstract words and concrete words were blocked by emotional experience, emotional experience facilitated responding to only the abstract words, whereas context availability facilitated responding to only the concrete words. These results were observed even with several lexical (e.g., frequency, age of acquisition) and semantic (e.g., concreteness, arousal, valence) variables included in the analyses. As such, the present research suggests that emotional experience and context availability tap into different aspects of situated conceptualization and make unique contributions to the representation and processing of abstract and concrete concepts.

Conceptual knowledge in the interpretation of idioms.

PubMed

Nayak, N P; Gibbs, R W

1990-09-01

The authors examined how people determine the contextual appropriateness of idioms. In Experiment 1, idioms referring to the same temporal stage of a conceptual prototype were judged to be more similar in meaning than idioms referring to different temporal stages. In Experiment 2, idioms in a prototypical temporal sequence were more meaningful than idioms in sentences that violated the temporal sequence. In Experiment 3, idioms referring to the same stage of a conceptual prototype were differentiable on the basis of conceptual information. The conceptual coherence between idioms and contexts facilitated the processing speed of idioms in Experiment 4. Experiment 5 showed that speakers can recover the underlying conceptual metaphors that link an idiom to its figurative meaning. Experiment 6 showed that the metaphoric information reflected in the lexical makeup of idioms also determined the metaphoric appropriateness of idioms in certain contexts.

The science of quality improvement implementation: developing capacity to make a difference.

PubMed

Alexander, Jeffrey A; Hearld, Larry R

2011-12-01

Quality improvement (QI) holds promise to improve quality of care; however, organizations often struggle with its implementation. It has been recommended that practitioners, managers, and researchers attempt to increase systematic understanding of the structure, practices, and context of organizations that facilitate or impede the implementation of QI innovations. To critically review the empirical research on QI implementation in health care organizations. A literature review of 107 studies that examined the implementation of QI innovations in health care organizations. Studies were classified into 4 groups based on the types of predictors that were assumed to affect implementation (content of QI innovation, organizational processes, internal context, and external context). Internal context and organizational processes were the most frequently studied categories. External context and organizational process categories exhibited the highest rate of positive effects on QI implementation. The review revealed several important gaps in the QI implementation literature. Studies often lacked clear conceptual frameworks to guide the research, which may hinder efforts to compare relationships across studies. Studies also tended to adopt designs that were narrowly focused on independent effects of predictors and did not include holistic frameworks to capture interactions among the many factors involved in implementation. Other design limitations included the use of cross-sectional designs, single-source data collection, and potential selection bias among study participants.

How Can Information and Communication Technology Improve Healthcare Inequalities and Healthcare Inequity? The Concept of Context Driven Care.

PubMed

Yee, Kwang Chien; Bettiol, Silvana; Nash, Rosie; Macintyrne, Kate; Wong, Ming Chao; Nøhr, Christian

2018-01-01

Advances in medicine have improved health and healthcare for many around the world. The challenge is achieving the best outcomes of health via healthcare delivery to every individual. Healthcare inequalities exist within a country and between countries. Health information technology (HIT) has provided a mean to deliver equal access to healthcare services regardless of social context and physical location. In order to achieve better health outcomes for every individual, socio-cultural factors, such as literacy and social context need to consider. This paper argues that HIT while improves healthcare inequalities by providing access, might worsen healthcare inequity. In order to improve healthcare inequity using HIT, this paper argues that we need to consider patients and context, and hence the concept of context driven care. To improve healthcare inequity, we need to conceptually consider the patient's view and methodologically consider design methods that achieve participatory outcomes.

Optimisation of simulated team training through the application of learning theories: a debate for a conceptual framework.

PubMed

Stocker, Martin; Burmester, Margarita; Allen, Meredith

2014-04-03

As a conceptual review, this paper will debate relevant learning theories to inform the development, design and delivery of an effective educational programme for simulated team training relevant to health professionals. Kolb's experiential learning theory is used as the main conceptual framework to define the sequence of activities. Dewey's theory of reflective thought and action, Jarvis modification of Kolb's learning cycle and Schön's reflection-on-action serve as a model to design scenarios for optimal concrete experience and debriefing for challenging participants' beliefs and habits. Bandura's theory of self-efficacy and newer socio-cultural learning models outline that for efficient team training, it is mandatory to introduce the social-cultural context of a team. The ideal simulated team training programme needs a scenario for concrete experience, followed by a debriefing with a critical reflexive observation and abstract conceptualisation phase, and ending with a second scenario for active experimentation. Let them re-experiment to optimise the effect of a simulated training session. Challenge them to the edge: The scenario needs to challenge participants to generate failures and feelings of inadequacy to drive and motivate team members to critical reflect and learn. Not experience itself but the inadequacy and contradictions of habitual experience serve as basis for reflection. Facilitate critical reflection: Facilitators and group members must guide and motivate individual participants through the debriefing session, inciting and empowering learners to challenge their own beliefs and habits. To do this, learners need to feel psychological safe. Let the group talk and critical explore. Motivate with reality and context: Training with multidisciplinary team members, with different levels of expertise, acting in their usual environment (in-situ simulation) on physiological variables is mandatory to introduce cultural context and social conditions to the learning experience. Embedding in situ team training sessions into a teaching programme to enable repeated training and to assess regularly team performance is mandatory for a cultural change of sustained improvement of team performance and patient safety.

Increasing the Translation of Evidence Into Practice, Policy, and Public Health Improvements: A Framework for Training Health Professionals in Implementation and Dissemination Science

PubMed Central

Gonzales, Ralph; Handley, Margaret A.; Ackerman, Sara; O’Sullivan, Patricia S.

2012-01-01

The authors describe a conceptual framework for implementation and dissemination science (IDS) and propose competencies for IDS training. Their framework is designed to facilitate the application of theories and methods from the distinct domains of clinical disciplines (e.g., medicine, public health), population sciences (e.g., biostatistics, epidemiology) and translational disciplines (e.g., social and behavioral sciences, business administration education). They explore three principles that guided the development of their conceptual framework: Behavior change among organizations and/or individuals (providers, patients) is inherent in the translation process; engagement of stakeholder organizations, health care delivery systems, and individuals is imperative to achieve effective translation and sustained improvements; and IDS research is iterative, benefiting from cycles and collaborative, bidirectional relationships. The authors propose seven domains for IDS training--team science, context identification, literature identification and assessment, community engagement, intervention design and research implementation, evaluation of effect of translational activity, behavioral change communication strategies--and define twelve IDS training competencies within these domains. As a model, they describe specific courses introduced at the University of California, San Francisco, which they designed to develop these competencies. The authors encourage other training programs and institutions to use (or adapt) the design principles, conceptual framework, And proposed competencies to evaluate their current IDS training needs and to support new program development. PMID:22373617

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Flood, A.M.

This study investigates the theoretical extension of moral development theory from the strictly human, anthropocentric context to the environmental or ecological context in terms of Care and Justice orientations of moral development theory. A theoretical conceptualization of moral orientation to the environment was developed, based on the framework of Lyons' conceptualization of self and morality, and designed to fit her scoring method. This allowed for the testing of moral orientations in an environmental context to determine if moral orientation would remain the same in spite of contextual differences. A new scoring method, the Flood Relative Presence Scoring Method, was developed.more » This research serves as the theoretical basis for this new scoring method, which is designed to more accurately assess the relative presence of moral orientations among subjects than previously reported methods of Predominance of Orientations or Presence of Orientations. Gender differences in moral orientation which were found in subjects' responses to Human dilemmas were also found in their responses to Environmental dilemmas. This research looked at contextual variations of moral orientations and contains strong evidence that the present view of moral development theory is incomplete, as well as unnecessarily limited to the human domain. These findings underlie the need for further research to (1) reconceptualize our models of moral development to include relationships not only to humans, but also to the environment; (2) empirically derive within a framework of moral considerations concerning the environment; (3) examine how these orientations may be related to each other within the context of environmentally responsive behavior; (4) determine whether and how the relationship between these orientations and environmental ethical behavior varies over the life cycle; (5) investigate cross-cultural differences between moral orientation and environmentally responsive behavior.« less

Analyzing Prospective Teachers' Images of Scientists Using Positive, Negative and Stereotypical Images of Scientists

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Subramaniam, Karthigeyan; Harrell, Pamela Esprivalo; Wojnowski, David

2013-01-01

Background and purpose: This study details the use of a conceptual framework to analyze prospective teachers' images of scientists to reveal their context-specific conceptions of scientists. The conceptual framework consists of context-specific conceptions related to positive, stereotypical and negative images of scientists as detailed in the…

Thematic Review on Adult Learning: Spain. Background Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fernandez, Florentino Sanz; Prudenciano, Julio Lancho

This report on adult learning in Spain first establishes a series of socioeconomic, historical, and conceptual coordinates. Chapter 1 has three parts dedicated to the context. Part 1 has a conceptual map showing the different terms and categories used in adult education and training (AET). Part 2 shows the present socioeconomic context in which…

A Case Study of White Teacher Candidates' Conceptions of Racial Profiling in Educational Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baggett, Hannah Carson; Simmons, Crystal G.

2017-01-01

This qualitative case study explored how two White teacher candidates understood and conceptualized racial profiling in the wake of Trayvon Martin's murder. The teacher candidates were interviewed about their experiences with profiling in educational contexts. One participant conceptualized racial profiling as intrinsic to her understanding of the…

How to Study Chronic Diseases-Implications of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities for Research Designs.

PubMed

von Peter, Sebastian; Bieler, Patrick

2017-01-01

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) has been received considerable attention internationally. The Convention's main arguments are conceptually analyzed. Implications for the development of research designs are elaborated upon. The Convention entails both a human rights and a sociopolitical dimension. Advancing a relational notion of disability, it enters a rather foreign terrain to medical sciences. Research designs have to be changed accordingly. Research designs in accordance with the CRPD should employ and further develop context-sensitive research strategies and interdisciplinary collaboration. Complex designs that allow for a relational analysis of personalized effects have to be established and evaluated, thereby systematically integrating qualitative methods.

Innovation and design approaches within prospective ergonomics.

PubMed

Liem, André; Brangier, Eric

2012-01-01

In this conceptual article the topic of "Prospective Ergonomics" will be discussed within the context of innovation, design thinking and design processes & methods. Design thinking is essentially a human-centred innovation process that emphasises observation, collaboration, interpretation, visualisation of ideas, rapid concept prototyping and concurrent business analysis, which ultimately influences innovation and business strategy. The objective of this project is to develop a roadmap for innovation, involving consumers, designers and business people in an integrative process, which can be applied to product, service and business design. A theoretical structure comprising of Innovation perspectives (1), Worldviews supported by rationalist-historicist and empirical-idealistic dimensions (2) and Models of "design" reasoning (3) precedes the development and classification of existing methods as well as the introduction of new ones.

Individual nurse and organizational context considerations for better Knowledge Use in Pain Care.

PubMed

Latimer, Margot A; Ritchie, Judith A; Johnston, Celeste C

2010-08-01

Nurses are involved in many of the painful procedures performed on hospitalized children. In collaboration with physicians, nurses have an exceptional responsibility to have knowledge to manage the pain; however, the evidence indicates this is not being done. Issues may be twofold: (a) opportunities to improve knowledge of better pain care practices and/or (b) ability to use knowledge. Empirical evidence is available that if used by health care providers can reduce pain in hospitalized children. Theory-guided interventions are necessary to focus resources designated for learning and knowledge translation initiatives in the area of pain care. This article presents the Knowledge Use in Pain Care (KUPC) conceptual model that blends concepts from the fields of knowledge utilization and work life context, which are believed to influence the translation of knowledge to practice. The four main components in the KUPC model include those related to the organization, the individual nurse, the individual patient, and the sociopolitical context. The KUPC model was conceptualized to account for the complex circumstances surrounding nurse's knowledge uptake and use in the context of pain care. The model provides a framework for health care administrators, clinical leaders, and researchers to consider as they decide how to intervene to increase knowledge use to reduce painful experiences of children in the hospital. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Acquisition of new concepts by two amnesic patients.

PubMed

Van der Linden, M; Meulemans, T; Lorrain, D

1994-06-01

Two Korsakoff amnesics (A.G. and G.S.) and two control subjects were taught six new concepts. Each concept was composed of three parts: the name of the concept, the context in which the concept originated and its definition. The learning procedure consisted of two phases: (1) learning the concept names and definitions by means of the vanishing-cues method; (2) practice on examples of the concepts through a classification task: examples were either set in the same context as that given in the original definition or in mixed contexts (same and new contexts). Subjects were then tested after 24 hours, a week and a month on their ability to identify new examples as belonging to one of the conceptual rules studied (transfer tests). Both patients showed substantial learning. Patient A.G. was slow and dependent of the first letter cues in the vanishing-cues learning phase but nevertheless, she acquired a large and flexible conceptual knowledge and this was especially true for concepts that were practised by means of mixed-context examples. Patient G.S. easily learned to associate the definitions with the concept names but her conceptual knowledge remained more limited. These results confirm the existence of a semantic learning ability in amnesic patients. They also suggest that under appropriate learning conditions, amnesics may eventually acquire a new flexible conceptual knowledge.

Ergonomics action research II: a framework for integrating HF into work system design.

PubMed

Neumann, W P; Village, J

2012-01-01

This paper presents a conceptual framework that can support efforts to integrate human factors (HF) into the work system design process, where improved and cost-effective application of HF is possible. The framework advocates strategies of broad stakeholder participation, linking of performance and health goals, and process focussed change tools that can help practitioners engage in improvements to embed HF into a firm's work system design process. Recommended tools include business process mapping of the design process, implementing design criteria, using cognitive mapping to connect to managers' strategic goals, tactical use of training and adopting virtual HF (VHF) tools to support the integration effort. Consistent with organisational change research, the framework provides guidance but does not suggest a strict set of steps. This allows more adaptability for the practitioner who must navigate within a particular organisational context to secure support for embedding HF into the design process for improved operator wellbeing and system performance. There has been little scientific literature about how a practitioner might integrate HF into a company's work system design process. This paper proposes a framework for this effort by presenting a coherent conceptual framework, process tools, design tools and procedural advice that can be adapted for a target organisation.

Self-organization versus Watchmaker: ambiguity of molecular recognition and design charts of cellular circuitry.

PubMed

Kurakin, Alexei

2007-01-01

A large body of experimental evidence indicates that the specific molecular interactions and/or chemical conversions depicted as links in the conventional diagrams of cellular signal transduction and metabolic pathways are inherently probabilistic, ambiguous and context-dependent. Being the inevitable consequence of the dynamic nature of protein structure in solution, the ambiguity of protein-mediated interactions and conversions challenges the conceptual adequacy and practical usefulness of the mechanistic assumptions and inferences embodied in the design charts of cellular circuitry. It is argued that the reconceptualization of molecular recognition and cellular organization within the emerging interpretational framework of self-organization, which is expanded here to include such concepts as bounded stochasticity, evolutionary memory, and adaptive plasticity offers a significantly more adequate representation of experimental reality than conventional mechanistic conceptions do. Importantly, the expanded framework of self-organization appears to be universal and scale-invariant, providing conceptual continuity across multiple scales of biological organization, from molecules to societies. This new conceptualization of biological phenomena suggests that such attributes of intelligence as adaptive plasticity, decision-making, and memory are enforced by evolution at different scales of biological organization and may represent inherent properties of living matter. (c) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Trust in automation: designing for appropriate reliance.

PubMed

Lee, John D; See, Katrina A

2004-01-01

Automation is often problematic because people fail to rely upon it appropriately. Because people respond to technology socially, trust influences reliance on automation. In particular, trust guides reliance when complexity and unanticipated situations make a complete understanding of the automation impractical. This review considers trust from the organizational, sociological, interpersonal, psychological, and neurological perspectives. It considers how the context, automation characteristics, and cognitive processes affect the appropriateness of trust. The context in which the automation is used influences automation performance and provides a goal-oriented perspective to assess automation characteristics along a dimension of attributional abstraction. These characteristics can influence trust through analytic, analogical, and affective processes. The challenges of extrapolating the concept of trust in people to trust in automation are discussed. A conceptual model integrates research regarding trust in automation and describes the dynamics of trust, the role of context, and the influence of display characteristics. Actual or potential applications of this research include improved designs of systems that require people to manage imperfect automation.

A developmental psychopathology perspective on adolescence.

PubMed

Cicchetti, Dante; Rogosch, Fred A

2002-02-01

Developmental psychopathology offers an integrative framework for conceptualizing the course of development during adolescence, with particular relevance for understanding continuity and the emergence of psychopathology during this and subsequent developmental periods. In this article, the utility of a developmental psychopathology perspective for informing the design of research, prevention, and intervention is highlighted. Interdisciplinary, organizational models of development, emphasizing the dynamic relations between the developing individual and internal and external contexts, are discussed. Examination of boundaries between abnormal and normal development during adolescence offers important vantage points for articulating diversity in the developmental course during this period. Conceptualizing divergence and convergence in developmental pathways, continuity and discontinuity in development, and the transactions of risk and protective processes leading to maladaptation, psychopathology, and resilience are highlighted.

Exploring Grade 11 Students' Conceptual Pathways of the Particulate Nature of Matter in the Context of Multirepresentational Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adadan, Emine; Trundle, Kathy Cabe; Irving, Karen E.

2010-01-01

This study investigated the conceptual pathways of 19 Grade 11 introductory chemistry students (age 16-17) as they participated in a multirepresentational instruction on the particulate nature of matter (PNM). This study was grounded in contemporary conceptual change theory, in particular, research on students' conceptual pathways that focuses on…

Mitigating Surprise Through Enhanced Operational Design: Civilian Conceptual Planning Models

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-01-01

political, historical, cultural , and economic contexts. If we are going to fight among the people, we must understand them.1 When evaluating US military...represents both the Christian and Yoruba minorities as well as the military, continues to compete against rival elites representing disparate elements...undeniably have to learn a new culture , the physical battlespace would not be alien since MS-13 maintains a large presence in areas that are home to

Nature-based supportive care opportunities: a conceptual framework.

PubMed

Blaschke, Sarah; O'Callaghan, Clare C; Schofield, Penelope

2018-03-22

Given preliminary evidence for positive health outcomes related to contact with nature for cancer populations, research is warranted to ascertain possible strategies for incorporating nature-based care opportunities into oncology contexts as additional strategies for addressing multidimensional aspects of cancer patients' health and recovery needs. The objective of this study was to consolidate existing research related to nature-based supportive care opportunities and generate a conceptual framework for discerning relevant applications in the supportive care setting. Drawing on research investigating nature-based engagement in oncology contexts, a two-step analytic process was used to construct a conceptual framework for guiding nature-based supportive care design and future research. Concept analysis methodology generated new representations of understanding by extracting and synthesising salient concepts. Newly formulated concepts were transposed to findings from related research about patient-reported and healthcare expert-developed recommendations for nature-based supportive care in oncology. Five theoretical concepts (themes) were formulated describing patients' reasons for engaging with nature and the underlying needs these interactions address. These included: connecting with what is genuinely valued, distancing from the cancer experience, meaning-making and reframing the cancer experience, finding comfort and safety, and vital nurturance. Eight shared patient and expert recommendations were compiled, which address the identified needs through nature-based initiatives. Eleven additional patient-reported recommendations attend to beneficial and adverse experiential qualities of patients' nature-based engagement and complete the framework. The framework outlines salient findings about helpful nature-based supportive care opportunities for ready access by healthcare practitioners, designers, researchers and patients themselves. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Culture, Interface Design, and Design Methods for Mobile Devices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Kun-Pyo

Aesthetic differences and similarities among cultures are obviously one of the very important issues in cultural design. However, ever since products became knowledge-supporting tools, the visible elements of products have become more universal so that the invisible parts of products such as interface and interaction are getting more important. Therefore, the cultural design should be extended to the invisible elements of culture like people's conceptual models beyond material and phenomenal culture. This chapter aims to explain how we address the invisible cultural elements in interface design and design methods by exploring the users' cognitive styles and communication patterns in different cultures. Regarding cultural interface design, we examined users' conceptual models while interacting with mobile phone and website interfaces, and observed cultural difference in performing tasks and viewing patterns, which appeared to agree with cultural cognitive styles known as Holistic thoughts vs. Analytic thoughts. Regarding design methods for culture, we explored how to localize design methods such as focus group interview and generative session for specific cultural groups, and the results of comparative experiments revealed cultural difference on participants' behaviors and performance in each design method and led us to suggest how to conduct them in East Asian culture. Mobile Observation Analyzer and Wi-Pro, user research tools we invented to capture user behaviors and needs especially in their mobile context, were also introduced.

A conceptual framework for understanding HIV risk behavior in the context of supporting fertility goals among HIV-serodiscordant couples

PubMed Central

Crankshaw, Tamaryn L.; Matthews, Lynn T.; Giddy, Janet; Kaida, Angela; Ware, Norma C.; Smit, Jennifer A.; Bangsberg, David R.

2013-01-01

Integrated reproductive health services for people living with HIV must address their fertility intentions. For HIV-serodiscordant couples who want to conceive, attempted conception confers a substantial risk of HIV transmission to the uninfected partner. Behavioral and pharmacologic strategies may reduce HIV transmission risk among HIV-serodiscordant couples who seek to conceive. In order to develop effective pharmaco-behavioral programs, it is important to understand and address the contexts surrounding reproductive decision-making; perceived periconception HIV transmission risk; and periconception risk behaviors. We present a conceptual framework to describe the dynamics involved in periconception HIV risk behaviors in a South African setting. We adapt the Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skill Model of HIV Preventative Behavior to address the structural, individual and couple-level determinants of safer conception behavior. The framework is intended to identify factors that influence periconception HIV risk behavior among serodiscordant couples, and therefore to guide design and implementation of integrated and effective HIV, reproductive health and family planning services that support reproductive decision-making. PMID:23177680

Supporting user-defined granularities in a spatiotemporal conceptual model

USGS Publications Warehouse

Khatri, V.; Ram, S.; Snodgrass, R.T.; O'Brien, G. M.

2002-01-01

Granularities are integral to spatial and temporal data. A large number of applications require storage of facts along with their temporal and spatial context, which needs to be expressed in terms of appropriate granularities. For many real-world applications, a single granularity in the database is insufficient. In order to support any type of spatial or temporal reasoning, the semantics related to granularities needs to be embedded in the database. Specifying granularities related to facts is an important part of conceptual database design because under-specifying the granularity can restrict an application, affect the relative ordering of events and impact the topological relationships. Closely related to granularities is indeterminacy, i.e., an occurrence time or location associated with a fact that is not known exactly. In this paper, we present an ontology for spatial granularities that is a natural analog of temporal granularities. We propose an upward-compatible, annotation-based spatiotemporal conceptual model that can comprehensively capture the semantics related to spatial and temporal granularities, and indeterminacy without requiring new spatiotemporal constructs. We specify the formal semantics of this spatiotemporal conceptual model via translation to a conventional conceptual model. To underscore the practical focus of our approach, we describe an on-going case study. We apply our approach to a hydrogeologic application at the United States Geologic Survey and demonstrate that our proposed granularity-based spatiotemporal conceptual model is straightforward to use and is comprehensive.

Integrated Tools for Future Distributed Engine Control Technologies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Culley, Dennis; Thomas, Randy; Saus, Joseph

2013-01-01

Turbine engines are highly complex mechanical systems that are becoming increasingly dependent on control technologies to achieve system performance and safety metrics. However, the contribution of controls to these measurable system objectives is difficult to quantify due to a lack of tools capable of informing the decision makers. This shortcoming hinders technology insertion in the engine design process. NASA Glenn Research Center is developing a Hardware-inthe- Loop (HIL) platform and analysis tool set that will serve as a focal point for new control technologies, especially those related to the hardware development and integration of distributed engine control. The HIL platform is intended to enable rapid and detailed evaluation of new engine control applications, from conceptual design through hardware development, in order to quantify their impact on engine systems. This paper discusses the complex interactions of the control system, within the context of the larger engine system, and how new control technologies are changing that paradigm. The conceptual design of the new HIL platform is then described as a primary tool to address those interactions and how it will help feed the insertion of new technologies into future engine systems.

Characterizing Distributed Concurrent Engineering Teams: A Descriptive Framework for Aerospace Concurrent Engineering Design Teams

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chattopadhyay, Debarati; Hihn, Jairus; Warfield, Keith

2011-01-01

As aerospace missions grow larger and more technically complex in the face of ever tighter budgets, it will become increasingly important to use concurrent engineering methods in the development of early conceptual designs because of their ability to facilitate rapid assessments and trades in a cost-efficient manner. To successfully accomplish these complex missions with limited funding, it is also essential to effectively leverage the strengths of individuals and teams across government, industry, academia, and international agencies by increased cooperation between organizations. As a result, the existing concurrent engineering teams will need to increasingly engage in distributed collaborative concurrent design. This paper is an extension of a recent white paper written by the Concurrent Engineering Working Group, which details the unique challenges of distributed collaborative concurrent engineering. This paper includes a short history of aerospace concurrent engineering, and defines the terms 'concurrent', 'collaborative' and 'distributed' in the context of aerospace concurrent engineering. In addition, a model for the levels of complexity of concurrent engineering teams is presented to provide a way to conceptualize information and data flow within these types of teams.

The magnet designation process: a qualitative approach using Donabedian's conceptual framework.

PubMed

Upenieks, Valda V; Abelew, Sheryl

2006-01-01

Twelve nurse leaders and 12 registered nurses from 2 hospitals were interviewed to gain an understanding on the process for preparing for magnet designation. These leaders and nurses provided insight into whether a cultural shift within the organization was occurring while striving for magnet designation and the level of staff nurses' engagement during the process. Donabedian's framework provided the conceptual context for this study. According to Donabedian, stable organizational structures will influence professional nursing processes and result in better outcomes as measured by magnet status. The authors discuss how a magnet culture is achieved when structural factors such as adequate staffing and pay are present before building the processes, as well as the ways certain ingredients such as professional governance councils need to be primed to achieve the desired magnet outcome. However, transforming the culture into a "valued-practice" magnet organization entails a paradigm shift marked by the willingness to share information and the depth and breadth of commitment toward staff engagement in fulfilling the mission of a culture that truly values nursing expertise.

Can the Neuman Systems Model be adapted to the Malaysian nursing context?

PubMed

Shamsudin, Nafsiah

2002-04-01

Nursing in Malaysia is still developing as a profession. Issues such as using nursing conceptual models or frameworks in the delivery of nursing care have not been addressed by the majority of nurses. One reason for this has been the level of education and preparation of nurses, while another reason lies with the origins of existing nursing conceptual models. Most nursing conceptual models have their origins in North America. Their utility by nurses of different cultures and academic preparations might not be appropriate. Nursing is a social activity, an interaction between the nurse and the patient. It is carried out in a social environment within a particular culture. Conceptual models developed in one culture might not be readily implanted into another culture. This paper discusses how a conceptual model developed in North America; that is, the Neuman Systems Model, can be adapted into the Malaysian nursing context.

Predicting fifth-grade students' understanding of ecological science concepts with motivational and cognitive variables

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alao, Solomon

The need to identify factors that contribute to students' understanding of ecological concepts has been widely expressed in recent literature. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between fifth grade students' prior knowledge, learning strategies, interest, and learning goals and their conceptual understanding of ecological science concepts. Subject were 72 students from three fifth grade classrooms located in a metropolitan area of the eastern United States. Students completed the goal commitment, interest, and strategy use questionnaire (GISQ), and a knowledge test designed to assess their prior knowledge and conceptual understanding of ecological science concepts. The learning goals scale assessed intentions to try to learn and understand ecological concepts. The interest scale assessed the feeling and value-related valences that students ascribed to science and ecological science concepts. The strategy use scale assessed the use of two cognitive strategies (monitoring and elaboration). The knowledge test assessed students' understanding of ecological concepts (the relationship between living organisms and their environment). Scores on all measures were examined for gender differences; no significant gender differences were observed. The motivational and cognitive variables contributed to students' understanding of ecological concepts. After accounting for interest, learning goals, and strategy use, prior knowledge accounted for 28% of the total variance in conceptual understanding. After accounting for prior knowledge, interest, learning goals, and strategy use explained 7%, 6%, and 4% of the total variance in conceptual understanding, respectively. More importantly, these variables were interrelated to each other and to conceptual understanding. After controlling for prior knowledge, learning goals, and strategy use, interest did not predict the variance in conceptual understanding. After controlling for prior knowledge, interest, and strategy use, learning goals did not predict the variance in conceptual understanding. And, after controlling for prior knowledge, interest, and learning goals, strategy use did not predict the variance in conceptual understanding. Results of this study indicated that prior knowledge, interest, learning goals, and strategy use should be included in theoretical models design to explain and to predict fifth grade students' understanding of ecological concepts. Results of this study further suggested that curriculum developers and science teachers need to take fifth grade students' prior knowledge of ecological concepts, interest in science and ecological concepts; intentions to learn and understand ecological concepts, and use of cognitive strategies into account when designing instructional contexts to support these students' understanding of ecological concepts.

Leisure and Quality of Life in an International and Multicultural Context: What Are Major Pathways Linking Leisure to Quality of Life?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Iwasaki, Yoshitaka

2007-01-01

This paper aims at advancing the conceptualization of leisure as a contributor to quality of life (QOL) in an international and multicultural context, based on an extensive and critical review of literature on leisure and QOL from a global, international perspective. Given the central role of culture in conceptualizing this notion, this paper…

Electronic Tutoring as a Tool for Promoting Conceptual Change: A Case Study of In-Service Science Teacher Workshops

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stott, Angela; Case, Jennifer M.

2014-01-01

Electronic tutors able to respond appropriately to a user's input have been shown to be effective in improving learning in a number of contexts. This study extends this research into the context of conceptual change during in-service science teacher workshops. Quantitative data were collected from 1,049 South African grade 12 physical sciences…

Realist theory construction for a mixed method multilevel study of neighbourhood context and postnatal depression.

PubMed

Eastwood, John G; Kemp, Lynn A; Jalaludin, Bin B

2016-01-01

We have recently described a protocol for a study that aims to build a theory of neighbourhood context and postnatal depression. That protocol proposed a critical realist Explanatory Theory Building Method comprising of an: (1) emergent phase, (2) construction phase, and (3) confirmatory phase. A concurrent triangulated mixed method multilevel cross-sectional study design was described. The protocol also described in detail the Theory Construction Phase which will be presented here. The Theory Construction Phase will include: (1) defining stratified levels; (2) analytic resolution; (3) abductive reasoning; (4) comparative analysis (triangulation); (5) retroduction; (6) postulate and proposition development; (7) comparison and assessment of theories; and (8) conceptual frameworks and model development. The stratified levels of analysis in this study were predominantly social and psychological. The abductive analysis used the theoretical frames of: Stress Process; Social Isolation; Social Exclusion; Social Services; Social Capital, Acculturation Theory and Global-economic level mechanisms. Realist propositions are presented for each analysis of triangulated data. Inference to best explanation is used to assess and compare theories. A conceptual framework of maternal depression, stress and context is presented that includes examples of mechanisms at psychological, social, cultural and global-economic levels. Stress was identified as a necessary mechanism that has the tendency to cause several outcomes including depression, anxiety, and health harming behaviours. The conceptual framework subsequently included conditional mechanisms identified through the retroduction including the stressors of isolation and expectations and buffers of social support and trust. The meta-theory of critical realism is used here to generate and construct social epidemiological theory using stratified ontology and both abductive and retroductive analysis. The findings will be applied to the development of a middle range theory and subsequent programme theory for local perinatal child and family interventions.

An integrated model of social environment and social context for pediatric rehabilitation.

PubMed

Batorowicz, Beata; King, Gillian; Mishra, Lipi; Missiuna, Cheryl

2016-01-01

This article considers the conceptualization and operationalization of "social environment" and "social context" with implications for research and practice with children and youth with impairments. We first discuss social environment and social context as constructs important for understanding interaction between external environmental qualities and the individual's experience. The article considers existing conceptualizations within psychological and sociological bodies of literature, research using these concepts, current developmental theories and issues in the understanding of environment and participation within rehabilitation science. We then describe a model that integrates a person-focused perspective with an environment-focused perspective and that outlines the mechanisms through which children/youth and social environment interact and transact. Finally, we consider the implications of the proposed model for research and clinical practice. This conceptual model directs researchers and practitioners toward interventions that will address the mechanisms of child-environment interaction and that will build capacity within both children and their social environments, including families, peers groups and communities. Health is created and lived by people within the settings of their everyday life; where they learn, work, play, and love [p.2]. Understanding how social environment and personal factors interact over time to affect the development of children/youth can influence the design of services for children and youth with impairments. The model described integrates the individual-focused and environment-focused perspectives and outlines the mechanisms of the ongoing reciprocal interaction between children/youth and their social environments: provision of opportunities, resources and supports and contextual processes of choice, active engagement and collaboration. Addressing these mechanisms could contribute to creating healthier environments in which all children, including children with impairments, have experiences that lead to positive developmental benefits.

Examining the Conceptualizations, Perceptions, and Practices of Adolescent Writers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Werderich, Donna E.; Armstrong, Sonya L.

2013-01-01

In this article, the authors describe a mixed-methods study in which an adapted Motivation to Write Profile (MWP)--the CLMWP--was used to investigate the conceptualizations, perceptions, and practices of adolescent writers. Results of this study suggested that participants held differing conceptualizations of writing, depending on the context. In…

Artificial Intelligence (AI), Operations Research (OR), and Decision Support Systems (DSS): A conceptual framework

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Parnell, Gregory S.; Rowell, William F.; Valusek, John R.

1987-01-01

In recent years there has been increasing interest in applying the computer based problem solving techniques of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Operations Research (OR), and Decision Support Systems (DSS) to analyze extremely complex problems. A conceptual framework is developed for successfully integrating these three techniques. First, the fields of AI, OR, and DSS are defined and the relationships among the three fields are explored. Next, a comprehensive adaptive design methodology for AI and OR modeling within the context of a DSS is described. These observations are made: (1) the solution of extremely complex knowledge problems with ill-defined, changing requirements can benefit greatly from the use of the adaptive design process, (2) the field of DSS provides the focus on the decision making process essential for tailoring solutions to these complex problems, (3) the characteristics of AI, OR, and DSS tools appears to be converging rapidly, and (4) there is a growing need for an interdisciplinary AI/OR/DSS education.

CPD and KT: Models Used and Opportunities for Synergy.

PubMed

Sargeant, Joan; Borduas, Francine; Sales, Anne; Klein, Doug; Lynn, Brenna; Stenerson, Heather

2017-01-01

The two fields of continuing professional development (CPD) and knowledge translation (KT) within the health care sector, and their related research have developed as somewhat parallel paths with limited points of overlap or intersection. This is slowly beginning to change. The purpose of this paper is to describe and compare the dominant conceptual models informing each field with the view of increasing understanding and appreciation of the two fields, how they are similar and where they differ, and the current and potential points of intersection. The models include the "knowledge-to-action" (KTA) cycle informing KT, models informing CPD curriculum design and individual self-directed learning, and the Kirkpatrick model for evaluating educational outcomes. When compared through the perspectives of conceptual designs, processes, and outcomes, the models overlap. We also identify shared gaps in both fields (eg, the need to explore the influence of the context in which CPD and KT interventions take place) and suggest opportunities for synergies and for moving forward.

Understanding Children and Adolescents’ Victimizations at Multiple Levels: An Ecological Review of the Literature

PubMed Central

Sabri, Bushra; Hong, Jun Sung; Campbell, Jacquelyn C.; Cho, Hyunkag

2013-01-01

This article examines children and adolescent exposure to violence in various contexts. A systematic review of the literature was conducted to identify the definitions and types of violence reported in studies on victimization using the ecological systems framework. Sources included research studies and/or reports from scholarly journals (n = 140), books (n = 9), conference/workshops (n = 5), and web sources, such as Uniform Crime Reports (n = 23). The findings indicated that research differed in terminologies, conceptual and operational definitions, sample sizes and age group classification for children and adolescents. Further, studies lacked focus on the co-occurrence and inter-relatedness of victimization, and how these factors might affect the outcomes. Many studies employed a cross-sectional design, which limits strong conclusions about the temporal order of victimization experiences and outcomes. Future research efforts need more consistency among researchers in conceptual and operational definitions and the use of more rigorous designs. Increased holistic assessments are critical for effective prevention and intervention strategies for at-risk children and adolescents PMID:24065867

Understanding Children and Adolescents' Victimizations at Multiple Levels: An Ecological Review of the Literature.

PubMed

Sabri, Bushra; Hong, Jun Sung; Campbell, Jacquelyn C; Cho, Hyunkag

2013-05-01

This article examines children and adolescent exposure to violence in various contexts. A systematic review of the literature was conducted to identify the definitions and types of violence reported in studies on victimization using the ecological systems framework. Sources included research studies and/or reports from scholarly journals ( n = 140), books ( n = 9), conference/workshops ( n = 5), and web sources, such as Uniform Crime Reports ( n = 23). The findings indicated that research differed in terminologies, conceptual and operational definitions, sample sizes and age group classification for children and adolescents. Further, studies lacked focus on the co-occurrence and inter-relatedness of victimization, and how these factors might affect the outcomes. Many studies employed a cross-sectional design, which limits strong conclusions about the temporal order of victimization experiences and outcomes. Future research efforts need more consistency among researchers in conceptual and operational definitions and the use of more rigorous designs. Increased holistic assessments are critical for effective prevention and intervention strategies for at-risk children and adolescents.

Modes of independence while informal caregiving.

PubMed

Tellioğlu, Hilda; Hensely-Schinkinger, Susanne; Pinatti De Carvalho, Aparecido Fabiano

2015-01-01

This paper is about understanding and conceptualizing the notion of independence in the context of caregiving. Based on the current studies and on our ethnographic and design research in an AAL project (TOPIC) we introduce a model of independence consisting of four dimensions: action, finance, decision, and emotion. These interrelated dimensions are described and discussed in the setting of informal caregiving. Some additional examples are shown to illustrate how to reduce the dependence of informal caregivers before concluding the paper.

[Theoretical and conceptual contribution to evaluative research in health surveillance context].

PubMed

Arreaza, Antônio Luis Vicente; de Moraes, José Cássio

2010-08-01

Initially this article revises some of the conceptual and operational elements on evaluative research by gathering knowledge and action fields on public health practices. Such concepts are taken according to a wider conception of quality. Then, the article intends to arrange a theoretical model design considering the proposition for implementation of health surveillance actionsAn image-objective definition of organization and integration of health polices and practices based on hierarchic and local logic also take place. Finally, becomings and challenges around the theory in the health evaluation field turn to be the aim of our reflection in order to enable the production of knowledge and approaches to construct logic models which reveals the complexity of interventionist objects as well as its transforming nature of social practices.

The Pan American Health Organization and international health: a history of training, conceptualization, and collective development.

PubMed

Auer, Annella; Guerrero Espinel, Juan Eduardo

2011-08-01

A constantly changing and increasingly complex global environment requires leaders with special competencies to respond effectively to this scenario. Within this context, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) goes beyond traditional leadership training models both in terms of its design as well as its conceptual approach to international health. As an intergovernmental, centenary organization in health, PAHO allows participants a unique vantage point from which to conceptualize, share experiences and develop projects relevant to international health. Derived from over two decades of experience (1985-2006) training professionals through its predessor Training Program in International Health, the Leaders in International Health Program "Edmundo Granda Ugalde" (LIHP) utilizes an innovative design, virtual and practical learning activities, and a problem-based approach to analyze the main concepts, theories, actors, forces, and processes relevant to international health. In collaboration with PAHO/WHO Representative Offices and national institutions, participants develop country projects based on priority health issues, many of which are integrated into the Organization's technical cooperation and/or implemented by relevant ministries and other entities in their respective countries/subregions. A total of 185 participants representing 31 countries have participated in the LIHP since its inception in 2008, building upon the 187 trained through its predecessor. These initiatives have contributed to the development of health professionals in the Region of the Americas devoted to international health, as well as provided important input towards a conceptual understanding of international health by fostering debate on this issue.

Design as dream and self-representation: Philip Johnson and the Glass House of Atreus.

PubMed

Tutter, Adele

2011-06-01

Philip Johnson's masterpiece--the Glass House--is compared to a dream and conceptualized as containing encrypted and embedded representations of the self. Freud's masterpiece--The Interpretation of Dreams--is the theoretical and methodological model for this approach to design-as-dream. Drawing on Johnson's words and forms set in biographical, historical, and cultural context, interpretive paths are traced from manifest design elements of the Glass House to overdetermined latent meanings, yielding new and surprising insights into the Glass House, its elusive architect, and the process of its design. A mirror that reflects an image, a lens that focuses it, and a prism that reveals its components, the Glass House turns a lucid eye onto its maker.

Re-Conceptualizing Teachers' Continuous Professional Development within a New Paradigm of Change in the Indian Context: An Analysis of Literature and Policy Documents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Subitha, G. V.

2018-01-01

Located within the context of Indian education reforms, this study is a critique of the current model of continuous professional development of teachers. The study, by reviewing national policy documents and research literature, argues that there is a need to re-conceptualize and re-define the current model of professional development of teachers.…

Optimisation of simulated team training through the application of learning theories: a debate for a conceptual framework

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background As a conceptual review, this paper will debate relevant learning theories to inform the development, design and delivery of an effective educational programme for simulated team training relevant to health professionals. Discussion Kolb’s experiential learning theory is used as the main conceptual framework to define the sequence of activities. Dewey’s theory of reflective thought and action, Jarvis modification of Kolb’s learning cycle and Schön’s reflection-on-action serve as a model to design scenarios for optimal concrete experience and debriefing for challenging participants’ beliefs and habits. Bandura’s theory of self-efficacy and newer socio-cultural learning models outline that for efficient team training, it is mandatory to introduce the social-cultural context of a team. Summary The ideal simulated team training programme needs a scenario for concrete experience, followed by a debriefing with a critical reflexive observation and abstract conceptualisation phase, and ending with a second scenario for active experimentation. Let them re-experiment to optimise the effect of a simulated training session. Challenge them to the edge: The scenario needs to challenge participants to generate failures and feelings of inadequacy to drive and motivate team members to critical reflect and learn. Not experience itself but the inadequacy and contradictions of habitual experience serve as basis for reflection. Facilitate critical reflection: Facilitators and group members must guide and motivate individual participants through the debriefing session, inciting and empowering learners to challenge their own beliefs and habits. To do this, learners need to feel psychological safe. Let the group talk and critical explore. Motivate with reality and context: Training with multidisciplinary team members, with different levels of expertise, acting in their usual environment (in-situ simulation) on physiological variables is mandatory to introduce cultural context and social conditions to the learning experience. Embedding in situ team training sessions into a teaching programme to enable repeated training and to assess regularly team performance is mandatory for a cultural change of sustained improvement of team performance and patient safety. PMID:24694243

Expert recommendations for implementing change (ERIC): protocol for a mixed methods study

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Identifying feasible and effective implementation strategies that are contextually appropriate is a challenge for researchers and implementers, exacerbated by the lack of conceptual clarity surrounding terms and definitions for implementation strategies, as well as a literature that provides imperfect guidance regarding how one might select strategies for a given healthcare quality improvement effort. In this study, we will engage an Expert Panel comprising implementation scientists and mental health clinical managers to: establish consensus on a common nomenclature for implementation strategy terms, definitions and categories; and develop recommendations to enhance the match between implementation strategies selected to facilitate the use of evidence-based programs and the context of certain service settings, in this case the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) mental health services. Methods/Design This study will use purposive sampling to recruit an Expert Panel comprising implementation science experts and VA mental health clinical managers. A novel, four-stage sequential mixed methods design will be employed. During Stage 1, the Expert Panel will participate in a modified Delphi process in which a published taxonomy of implementation strategies will be used to establish consensus on terms and definitions for implementation strategies. In Stage 2, the panelists will complete a concept mapping task, which will yield conceptually distinct categories of implementation strategies as well as ratings of the feasibility and effectiveness of each strategy. Utilizing the common nomenclature developed in Stages 1 and 2, panelists will complete an innovative menu-based choice task in Stage 3 that involves matching implementation strategies to hypothetical implementation scenarios with varying contexts. This allows for quantitative characterizations of the relative necessity of each implementation strategy for a given scenario. In Stage 4, a live web-based facilitated expert recommendation process will be employed to establish expert recommendations about which implementations strategies are essential for each phase of implementation in each scenario. Discussion Using a novel method of selecting implementation strategies for use within specific contexts, this study contributes to our understanding of implementation science and practice by sharpening conceptual distinctions among a comprehensive collection of implementation strategies. PMID:24669765

The effect of activity-based nanoscience and nanotechnology education on pre-service science teachers' conceptual understanding

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Şenel Zor, Tuba; Aslan, Oktay

2018-03-01

The purpose of the study was to examine the effect of activity-based nanoscience and nanotechnology education (ABNNE) on pre-service science teachers' (PST') conceptual understanding of nanoscience and nanotechnology. Within this context, the study was conducted according to mixed methods research with the use of both quantitative and qualitative methods. The participants were 32 PST who were determined by using criterion sampling that is one of the purposive sampling methods. ABNNE was carried out during 7 weeks as 2 h per week in special issues at physics course. Design and implementation of ABNNE were based on "Big Ideas" which was found in literature and provided guidance for teaching nanoscience and nanotechnology. All activities implemented during ABNNE were selected from literature. "Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Concept Test (NN-CT)" and "Activity-Based Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Education Assessment Form (ABNNE-AF)" were used as data collection tools in research. Findings obtained with data collection tools were discussed with coverage of literature. The findings revealed that PST conceptual understanding developed following ABNNE. Various suggestions for increasing PST conceptual understanding of nanoscience and nanotechnology were presented according to the results of the study.

Argumentation as a Strategy for Conceptual Learning of Dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eskin, Handan; Ogan-Bekiroglu, Feral

2013-10-01

Researchers have emphasized the importance of promoting argumentation in science classrooms for various reasons. However, the study of argumentation is still a young field and more research needs to be carried out on the tools and pedagogical strategies that can assist teachers and students in both the construction and evaluation of scientific arguments. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of argumentation on students' conceptual learning in dynamics. True-experimental design using quantitative research methods was carried out for the study. The participants of the study were tenth graders studying in two classes in an urban all-girls school. There were 26 female students in each class. Five argumentations promoted in the different contexts were embedded through the dynamics unit over a 10-week duration. The study concludes that engaging in the argumentative process that involves making claims, using data to support these claims, warranting the claims with scientific evidence, and using backings, rebuttals, and qualifiers to further support the reasoning, reinforces students' understanding of science, and promotes conceptual change. The results suggest that argumentation should be employed during instruction as a way to enable conceptual learning.

Looking Through a Social Lens: Conceptualising Social Aspects of Knowledge Management for Global Health Practitioners.

PubMed

Limaye, Rupali J; Sullivan, Tara M; Dalessandro, Scott; Jenkins, Ann Hendrix

2017-04-13

Knowledge management plays a critical role in global health. Global health practitioners require knowledge in every aspect of their jobs, and in resource-scarce contexts, practitioners must be able to rely on a knowledge management system to access the latest research and practice to ensure the highest quality of care. However, we suggest that there is a gap in the way knowledge management is primarily utilized in global health, namely, the systematic incorporation of human and social factors. In this paper, we briefly outline the evolution of knowledge management and then propose a conceptualization of knowledge management that incorporates human and social factors for use within a global health context. Our conceptualization of social knowledge management recognizes the importance of social capital, social learning, social software and platforms, and social networks , all within the context of a larger social system and driven by social benefit . We then outline the limitations and discuss future directions of our conceptualization, and suggest how this new conceptualization is essential for any global health practitioner in the business of managing knowledge.

The role of organizational context in moderating the effect of research use on pain outcomes in hospitalized children: a cross sectional study.

PubMed

Yamada, Janet; Squires, Janet E; Estabrooks, Carole A; Victor, Charles; Stevens, Bonnie

2017-01-23

Despite substantial research on pediatric pain assessment and management, health care professionals do not adequately incorporate this knowledge into clinical practice. Organizational context (work environment) is a significant factor in influencing outcomes; however, the nature of the mechanisms are relatively unknown. The objective of this study was to assess how organizational context moderates the effect of research use and pain outcomes in hospitalized children. A cross-sectional survey was undertaken with 779 nurses in 32 patient care units in 8 Canadian pediatric hospitals, following implementation of a multifaceted knowledge translation intervention, Evidence-based Practice for Improving Quality (EPIQ). The influence of organizational context was assessed in relation to pain process (assessment and management) and clinical (pain intensity) outcomes. Organizational context was measured using the Alberta Context Tool that includes: leadership, culture, evaluation, social capital, informal interactions, formal interactions, structural and electronic resources, and organizational slack (staff, space, and time). Marginal modeling estimated the effects of instrumental research use (direct use of research knowledge) and conceptual research use (indirect use of research knowledge) on pain outcomes while examining the effects of context. Six of the 10 organizational context factors (culture, social capital, informal interactions, resources, and organizational slack [space and time]) significantly moderated the effect of instrumental research use on pain assessment; four factors (culture, social capital, resources and organizational slack time) moderated the effect of conceptual research use and pain assessment. Only two factors (evaluation and formal interactions) moderated the effect of instrumental research use on pain management. All organizational factors except slack space significantly moderated the effect of instrumental research use on pain intensity; informal interactions and organizational slack space moderated the effect of conceptual research use and pain intensity. Many aspects of organizational context consistently moderated the effects of instrumental research use on pain assessment and pain intensity, while only a few influenced conceptual use of research on pain outcomes. Organizational context factors did not generally influence the effect of research use on pain management. Further research is required to further explore the relationships between organizational context and pain management outcomes.

University Students' Conceptual Knowledge of Randomness and Probability in the Contexts of Evolution and Mathematics.

PubMed

Fiedler, Daniela; Tröbst, Steffen; Harms, Ute

2017-01-01

Students of all ages face severe conceptual difficulties regarding key aspects of evolution-the central, unifying, and overarching theme in biology. Aspects strongly related to abstract "threshold" concepts like randomness and probability appear to pose particular difficulties. A further problem is the lack of an appropriate instrument for assessing students' conceptual knowledge of randomness and probability in the context of evolution. To address this problem, we have developed two instruments, Ra ndomness and Pro bability Test in the Context of Evo lution (RaProEvo) and Ra ndomness and Pro bability Test in the Context of Math ematics (RaProMath), that include both multiple-choice and free-response items. The instruments were administered to 140 university students in Germany, then the Rasch partial-credit model was applied to assess them. The results indicate that the instruments generate reliable and valid inferences about students' conceptual knowledge of randomness and probability in the two contexts (which are separable competencies). Furthermore, RaProEvo detected significant differences in knowledge of randomness and probability, as well as evolutionary theory, between biology majors and preservice biology teachers. © 2017 D. Fiedler et al. CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2017 The American Society for Cell Biology. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). It is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0).

A guiding framework to maximise the power of the arts in medical education: a systematic review and metasynthesis.

PubMed

Haidet, Paul; Jarecke, Jodi; Adams, Nancy E; Stuckey, Heather L; Green, Michael J; Shapiro, Daniel; Teal, Cayla R; Wolpaw, Daniel R

2016-03-01

A rich literature describes many innovative uses of the arts in professional education. However, arts-based teaching tends to be idiosyncratic, depending on the interests and enthusiasm of individual teachers, rather than on strategic design decisions. An overarching framework is needed to guide implementation of arts-based teaching in medical education. The objective of this study was to review and synthesise the literature on arts-based education and provide a conceptual model to guide design, evaluation and research of the use of the arts in medical education. A systematic literature review using the PubMed and ERIC databases. Search terms included humanism, art, music, literature, teaching, education, learning processes, pedagogy and curriculum. We selected empirical studies and conceptual articles about the use of creative arts, imagery and symbolism in the context of professional education. Data synthesis involved a qualitative content analysis of 49 included articles, identifying themes related to educational characteristics, processes and outcomes in arts-based education. Four common themes were identified describing (i) unique qualities of the arts that promote learning, (ii) particular ways learners engage with art, (iii) documented short- and long-term learning outcomes arising from arts-based teaching and (iv) specific pedagogical considerations for using the arts to teach in professional education contexts. The arts have unique qualities that can help create novel ways to engage learners. These novel ways of engagement can foster learners' ability to discover and create new meanings about a variety of topics, which in turn can lead to better medical practice. At each of these steps, specific actions by the teacher can enhance the potential for learners to move to the next step. The process can be enhanced when learners participate in the context of a group, and the group itself can undergo transformative change. Future work should focus on using this model to guide process design and outcome measurement in arts-based education. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

An Integrated Conceptual Framework for the Development of Asian American Children and Youth.

PubMed

Mistry, Jayanthi; Li, Jin; Yoshikawa, Hirokazu; Tseng, Vivian; Tirrell, Jonathan; Kiang, Lisa; Mistry, Rashmita; Wang, Yijie

2016-07-01

The diversity of circumstances and developmental outcomes among Asian American children and youth poses a challenge for scholars interested in Asian American child development. This article addresses the challenge by offering an integrated conceptual framework based on three broad questions: (a) What are theory-predicated specifications of contexts that are pertinent for the development of Asian American children? (b) What are the domains of development and socialization that are particularly relevant? (c) How can culture as meaning-making processes be integrated in conceptualizations of development? The heuristic value of the conceptual model is illustrated by research on Asian American children and youth that examines the interconnected nature of specific features of context, pertinent aspects of development, and interpretive processes. © 2016 The Authors. Child Development © 2016 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

Further Conceptualizing Ethnic and Racial Identity Research: The Social Identity Approach and Its Dynamic Model.

PubMed

Verkuyten, Maykel

2016-11-01

This article proposes a further conceptualization of ethnic and racial identity (ERI) as a fundamental topic in developmental research. Adding to important recent efforts to conceptually integrate and synthesize this field, it is argued that ERI research will be enhanced by more fully considering the implications of the social identity approach. These implications include (a) the conceptualization of social identity, (b) the importance of identity motives, (c) systematic ways for theorizing and examining the critical role of situational and societal contexts, and (d) a dynamic model of the relation between ERI and context. These implications have not been fully considered in the developmental literature but offer important possibilities for moving the field forward in new directions. © 2016 The Author. Child Development © 2016 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

Sorting Tasks and Vocabulary-in-Context Activities for Assessing Introductory Astronomy Understanding

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Slater, Timothy F.; Loranz, D.; Prather, E. E.

2006-12-01

One of the most ardent challenges for astronomy teachers is to deeply and meaningfully assess students’ conceptual and quantitative understanding of astronomy topics. In an effort to uncover students’ actual understanding, members and affiliates of the Conceptual Astronomy and Physics Education Research (CAPER) Team at the University of Arizona and Truckee Meadows Community College are creating and field-testing innovative approaches to assessment. Leveraging from the highly successful work from physics education research, we are creating a series of tasks where students categorize a list describing common astronomical events or phenomenon; or vocabulary terms into context rich categories or conceptually rich sentences. These intellectually challenging tasks are being created to span the entire domain of topics in introductory astronomy for non-science majoring undergraduates. When completed, these sorting tasks and vocabulary-in-context activities will be able to be delivered via a drag-and-drop computer interface.

Mathematical vs. conceptual understanding: Where do we draw the line?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sadaghiani, Homeyra; Aguilera, Nicholas

2013-01-01

This research involved high school physics students and how they learn to understand Newton's laws as they relate to falling bodies and projectile motion. Students in introductory, algebra-based, high school physics classes were evaluated based on their prior knowledge through a pretest, designed to assess their initial comprehension of the motion of falling bodies and projectiles. Groups were divided and taught separately with an emphasis on either mathematical derivation of equations, followed by brief conceptual discussions, or on thorough conceptual analysis, followed by a brief mathematical verification. After a posttest was given, an evaluation of the responses and explanations of each group of students was used to determine which method of instruction was more effective. Results indicate that after the conceptual group and math groups achieved similar scores on the pretest, the conceptual group obtained a slightly higher normalized gain of 25% on the posttest, compared to the mathematical group's normalized gain of 16% (unpaired two-tailed t-test P value for posttest results was 0.1037) and, while within standard deviations, also achieved higher overall scores on all posttest questions and higher normalized gains on all but one posttest question. Further, most students, even thoes in the mathematically-instructed group, were more inclined to give conceptually-based responses on postest questions than mathematically-based ones. In the context of this topic, the dominating difficulty for both groups was in analyzing two-dimensional projectile motion and, more specifically, the behavior of each onedimensional component of such motion.

Mapping the terrain: A conceptual schema for a mental health medication support service in community pharmacy

PubMed Central

Scahill, Shane; Fowler, Jane L; Hattingh, H Laetitia; Kelly, Fiona; Wheeler, Amanda J

2015-01-01

Objective: Mental health–related problems pose a serious issue for primary care, and community pharmacy could make a significant contribution, but there is a dearth of information. Methods: This article reports synthesis of the literature on mental health interventions across a range of pharmacy models, and pharmacy services in contexts beyond mental health. To best inform the design of a community pharmacy medication support intervention for mental health consumers, the literature was reported as a conceptual schema and subsequent recommendations for development, implementation and evaluation of the service. A broad conceptualisation was taken in this review. In addition to mental health and community pharmacy literature, policy/initiatives, organisational culture and change management principles, and evaluative processes were reviewed. Key words were selected and literature reviews undertaken using EMBASE, PubMed, CINAHL and Web of Science. Results: Recommendations were made around: medication support intervention design, consumer recruitment, implementation in community pharmacy and evaluation. Surprisingly, there is a scarce literature relating to mental health interventions in community pharmacy. Even so, findings from other pharmacy models and broader medicines management for chronic illness can inform development of a medication support service for mental health consumers. Key learnings include the need to expand medicines management beyond adherence with respect to both intervention design and evaluation. Conclusion: The conceptual framework is grounded in the need for programmes to be embedded within pharmacies that are part of the health system as a whole. PMID:26770802

Does Classroom Explicitation of Initial Conceptions Favour Conceptual Change or Is It Counter-Productive?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Potvin, Patrice; Mercier, Julien; Charland, Patrick; Riopel, Martin

2012-01-01

This research investigates the effect of classroom explicitation of initial conceptions (CEIC) on conceptual change in the context of learning electricity. Eight hundred and seventy five thirteen year-olds were tested in laboratory conditions to see if CEIC is or is not a productive step toward conceptual change. All students experienced a…

Conceptualizing Debates in Learning and Educational Research: Toward a Complex Systems Conceptual Framework of Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jacobson, Michael J.; Kapur, Manu; Reimann, Peter

2016-01-01

This article proposes a conceptual framework of learning based on perspectives and methodologies being employed in the study of complex physical and social systems to inform educational research. We argue that the contexts in which learning occurs are complex systems with elements or agents at different levels--including neuronal, cognitive,…

Personality, emotion, and individual differences in physiological responses.

PubMed

Stemmler, Gerhard; Wacker, Jan

2010-07-01

A dominant paradigm in biopsychological personality research seeks to establish links between emotional and motivational traits and habitual, transsituationally consistent individual differences in measures of physiological activity. An alternative approach conceptualizes traits as dispositions that are only operative in certain situational contexts and consequently predicts associations between emotional and motivational traits and physiological activity only for trait-relevant situational contexts in which the physiological systems underlying the traits in question are engaged. In the present paper we first examine and contrast these personistic and interactionistic conceptualizations of personality and personality-physiology associations and then present data from several large studies (N>100) in which electrocortical (e.g., frontal alpha asymmetry) and somatovisceral parameters were measured in various situational contexts (e.g., after the induction of either anger, or fear, or anxiety). As predicted by the interactionistic conceptualization of traits as dispositions the situational context and its subjective representation by the participants moderated the personality-physiology relationships for measures of both central and peripheral nervous system activity. We conclude by outlining the implications of the interactionistic approach for biopsychological personality research. Copyright © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Theory and Practice Meets in Industrial Process Design -Educational Perspective-

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aramo-Immonen, Heli; Toikka, Tarja

Software engineer should see himself as a business process designer in enterprise resource planning system (ERP) re-engineering project. Software engineers and managers should have design dialogue. The objective of this paper is to discuss the motives to study the design research in connection of management education in order to envision and understand the soft human issues in the management context. Second goal is to develop means of practicing social skills between designers and managers. This article explores the affective components of design thinking in industrial management domain. In the conceptual part of this paper are discussed concepts of network and project economy, creativity, communication, use of metaphors, and design thinking. Finally is introduced empirical research plan and first empirical results from design method experiments among the multi-disciplined groups of the master-level students of industrial engineering and management and software engineering.

A methodological framework to support the initiation, design and institutionalization of participatory modeling processes in water resources management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Halbe, Johannes; Pahl-Wostl, Claudia; Adamowski, Jan

2018-01-01

Multiple barriers constrain the widespread application of participatory methods in water management, including the more technical focus of most water agencies, additional cost and time requirements for stakeholder involvement, as well as institutional structures that impede collaborative management. This paper presents a stepwise methodological framework that addresses the challenges of context-sensitive initiation, design and institutionalization of participatory modeling processes. The methodological framework consists of five successive stages: (1) problem framing and stakeholder analysis, (2) process design, (3) individual modeling, (4) group model building, and (5) institutionalized participatory modeling. The Management and Transition Framework is used for problem diagnosis (Stage One), context-sensitive process design (Stage Two) and analysis of requirements for the institutionalization of participatory water management (Stage Five). Conceptual modeling is used to initiate participatory modeling processes (Stage Three) and ensure a high compatibility with quantitative modeling approaches (Stage Four). This paper describes the proposed participatory model building (PMB) framework and provides a case study of its application in Québec, Canada. The results of the Québec study demonstrate the applicability of the PMB framework for initiating and designing participatory model building processes and analyzing barriers towards institutionalization.

The Impact of Active and Context-Based Learning in Introductory Chemistry Courses: An Early Evaluation of the Modular Approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gutwill-Wise, Joshua P.

2001-05-01

This study evaluates new materials, "modules", for teaching introductory chemistry courses. The modules, under development by faculty from two NSF-funded consortia, employ real-world contexts and an interactive class format to foster conceptual understanding, scientific thinking, and improved attitudes toward science. The evaluation studies were conducted at two institutions, a small college and a large university. The experimental design at each school compared students in a course section taught with modules to those in a section that used a textbook and lecture format. At both schools, students in the modular section outperformed the control group on conceptual problems in chemistry and on scientific thinking problems. Modular section students at the large university also outperformed their peers on the first midterm exam in the subsequent organic chemistry course. Regarding attitudes, the modular section students were more positive about chemistry and the course than their peers in the control section at the small college. However, at the large school, the opposite attitudinal pattern was found. An analysis of informal focus group data provides insight into the negative attitudes in the modular section of the large course. Possible remedies for the issues raised are discussed.

'I am an Intensive Guy': The Possibility and Conditions of Reconciliation Through the Ecological Intensification Framework.

PubMed

Levain, Alix; Vertès, Françoise; Ruiz, Laurent; Delaby, Luc; Gascuel-Odoux, Chantal; Barbier, Marc

2015-11-01

The need for better conciliation between food production and environmental protection calls for new conceptual approaches in agronomy. Ecological intensification (EI) is one of the most encouraging and successful conceptual frameworks for designing more sustainable agricultural systems, though relying upon semantic ambivalences and epistemic tensions. This article discusses abilities and limits of the EI framework in the context of strong social and environmental pressure for agricultural transition. The purpose is thus to put EI at stake in the light of the results of an interdisciplinary and participatory research project that explicitly adopted EI goals in livestock semi-industrialized farming systems. Is it possible to maintain livestock production systems that are simultaneously productive, sustainable, and viable and have low nitrate emissions in vulnerable coastal areas? If so, how do local stakeholders use these approaches? The main steps of the innovation process are described. The effects of political and social dynamics on the continuity of the transition process are analyzed, with a reflexive approach. This experiment invites one to consider that making EI operational in a context of socio-technical transition toward agroecology represents system innovation, requiring on-going dialogue, reflexivity, and long-term involvement by researchers.

`I am an Intensive Guy': The Possibility and Conditions of Reconciliation Through the Ecological Intensification Framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Levain, Alix; Vertès, Françoise; Ruiz, Laurent; Delaby, Luc; Gascuel-Odoux, Chantal; Barbier, Marc

2015-11-01

The need for better conciliation between food production and environmental protection calls for new conceptual approaches in agronomy. Ecological intensification (EI) is one of the most encouraging and successful conceptual frameworks for designing more sustainable agricultural systems, though relying upon semantic ambivalences and epistemic tensions. This article discusses abilities and limits of the EI framework in the context of strong social and environmental pressure for agricultural transition. The purpose is thus to put EI at stake in the light of the results of an interdisciplinary and participatory research project that explicitly adopted EI goals in livestock semi-industrialized farming systems. Is it possible to maintain livestock production systems that are simultaneously productive, sustainable, and viable and have low nitrate emissions in vulnerable coastal areas? If so, how do local stakeholders use these approaches? The main steps of the innovation process are described. The effects of political and social dynamics on the continuity of the transition process are analyzed, with a reflexive approach. This experiment invites one to consider that making EI operational in a context of socio-technical transition toward agroecology represents system innovation, requiring on-going dialogue, reflexivity, and long-term involvement by researchers.

System Modeling of a large FPGA project: the SKA Tile Processing Module

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Belli, C.; Comoretto, G.

Large projects like the SKA have an intrinsic complexity due to their scale. In this context, the application of a management design system becomes fundamental. For this purpose the SysML language, a UML customization for engineering applications, has been applied. As far as our work is concerned, we focused on the SKA Low Telescope - Tile Processing Module, designing diagrams at different detail levels. We designed a conceptual model of the TPM, primarily focusing on the main interfaces and the major data flows between product items. Functionalities are derived from use cases and allocated to hardware modules in order to guarantee the project's internal consistency and features. This model has been used both as internal documentation and as job specification, to commit part of the design to external entities.

Perceived Context of Reception among Recent Hispanic Immigrants: Conceptualization, Instrument Development, and Preliminary Validation

PubMed Central

Schwartz, Seth J.; Unger, Jennifer B.; Lorenzo-Blanco, Elma I.; Des Rosiers, Sabrina E.; Villamar, Juan A.; Soto, Daniel W.; Pattarroyo, Monica; Baezconde-Garbanati, Lourdes; Szapocznik, José

2013-01-01

Context of reception has been discussed widely in the sociological and anthropological literature, but no measures of this construct exist. We designed a measure of perceived context of reception and provide initial support for the factorial validity, internal consistency reliability, and incremental and discriminant validity of scores generated by this measure. A sample of 302 recent-immigrant Hispanic parent-adolescent dyads from Miami and Los Angeles completed the new perceived context of reception measure, as well as measures of perceived discrimination; Hispanic/American cultural practices, values, and identifications; and depressive symptoms. In Phase 1, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses extracted a factor for negative perceived context of reception. A subscale corresponding to this factor was used in Phase 2; for parents and adolescents, negative perceived context of reception and perceived discrimination were differentially associated with acculturation-related variables – suggesting discriminant validity between perceived discrimination and negative perceived context of reception. For adolescents at both sites and for parents in Los Angeles only, the negative perceived context of reception dimensions were significantly associated with depressive symptoms six months later, over and above the contribution made by perceived discrimination – suggesting incremental validity. Results are discussed in terms of perceived context of reception as a new and emerging construct. PMID:24099485

Perceived context of reception among recent Hispanic immigrants: conceptualization, instrument development, and preliminary validation.

PubMed

Schwartz, Seth J; Unger, Jennifer B; Lorenzo-Blanco, Elma I; Des Rosiers, Sabrina E; Villamar, Juan A; Soto, Daniel W; Pattarroyo, Monica; Baezconde-Garbanati, Lourdes; Szapocznik, José

2014-01-01

Context of reception has been discussed widely in the sociological and anthropological literature, but no measures of this construct exist. We designed a measure of perceived context of reception and provide initial support for the factorial validity, internal consistency reliability, and incremental and discriminant validity of scores generated by this measure. A sample of 302 recent-immigrant Hispanic parent-adolescent dyads from Miami and Los Angeles completed the new perceived context of reception measure, as well as measures of perceived discrimination; Hispanic/American cultural practices, values, and identifications; and depressive symptoms. In Phase 1, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses extracted a factor for negative perceived context of reception. A subscale corresponding to this factor was used in Phase 2; for parents and adolescents, negative perceived context of reception and perceived discrimination were differentially associated with acculturation-related variables-suggesting discriminant validity between perceived discrimination and negative perceived context of reception. For adolescents at both sites and for parents in Los Angeles only, the negative perceived context of reception dimensions were significantly associated with depressive symptoms 6 months later, over and above the contribution made by perceived discrimination--suggesting incremental validity. Results are discussed in terms of perceived context of reception as a new and emerging construct.

A Conceptual Examination of College Athletes' Role Conflict through the Lens of Conservation of Resources Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wendling, Elodie; Kellison, Timothy B.; Sagas, Michael

2018-01-01

In this conceptual article, we seek to extend the domain of the conservation of resources (COR) theory to the collegiate student-athlete population in the context of academic-athletic role conflict and stress. Aside from reviewing the direct effects academic-athletic role conflict may have on psychological strain, this conceptual study also…

Sweeping the Floor or Putting a Man on the Moon: How to Define and Measure Meaningful Work.

PubMed

Both-Nwabuwe, Jitske M C; Dijkstra, Maria T M; Beersma, Bianca

2017-01-01

Meaningful work is integral to well-being and a flourishing life. The construct of "meaningful work" is, however, consistently affected by conceptual ambiguity. Although there is substantial support for arguments to maintain the status of conceptual ambiguity, we make a case for the benefits of having consensus on a definition and scale of meaningful work in the context of paid work. The objective of this article, therefore, was twofold. Firstly, we wanted to develop a more integrative definition of meaningful work. Secondly, we wanted to establish a corresponding operationalization. We reviewed the literature on the existing definitions of meaningful work and the scales designed to measure it. We found 14 definitions of meaningful work. Based on these definitions, we identified four categories of definitions, which led us to propose an integrative and comprehensive definition of meaningful work. We identified two validated scales that were partly aligned with the proposed definition. Based on our review, we conclude that scholars in this field should coalesce rather than diverge their efforts to conceptualize and measure meaningful work.

Sweeping the Floor or Putting a Man on the Moon: How to Define and Measure Meaningful Work

PubMed Central

Both-Nwabuwe, Jitske M. C.; Dijkstra, Maria T. M.; Beersma, Bianca

2017-01-01

Meaningful work is integral to well-being and a flourishing life. The construct of “meaningful work” is, however, consistently affected by conceptual ambiguity. Although there is substantial support for arguments to maintain the status of conceptual ambiguity, we make a case for the benefits of having consensus on a definition and scale of meaningful work in the context of paid work. The objective of this article, therefore, was twofold. Firstly, we wanted to develop a more integrative definition of meaningful work. Secondly, we wanted to establish a corresponding operationalization. We reviewed the literature on the existing definitions of meaningful work and the scales designed to measure it. We found 14 definitions of meaningful work. Based on these definitions, we identified four categories of definitions, which led us to propose an integrative and comprehensive definition of meaningful work. We identified two validated scales that were partly aligned with the proposed definition. Based on our review, we conclude that scholars in this field should coalesce rather than diverge their efforts to conceptualize and measure meaningful work. PMID:29033867

Using Photographic Images to Enhance Conceptual Development in Situations of Proportion

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hilton, Annette; Hilton, Geoff; Dole, Shelley; Goos, Merrilyn

2015-01-01

Find out how to use photographic images to support the conceptual development of proportional thinking. This paper provides insight into a sequenced activity that promotes student engagement and makes links to familiar and unfamiliar contexts.

Young children learning about living things: A case study of conceptual change from ontological and social perspectives

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Venville, Grady

2004-05-01

Although research from a developmental/psychological perspective indicates that many children do not have a scientific understanding of living things, even by the age of 10 years, little research has been conducted about how students learn this science topic in the classroom. This exploratory research used a case-study design and qualitative data-collection methods to investigate the process of conceptual change from ontological and social perspectives when Year 1 (5- and 6-year-old) students were learning about living things. Most students were found to think about living things with either stable, nonscientific or stable, scientific framework theories. Transitional phases of understanding also were identified. Patterns of conceptual change observed over the 5-week period of instruction included theory change and belief revision as well as reversals in beliefs. The predominant pattern of learning, however, was the assimilation of facts and information into the students' preferred framework theory. The social milieu of the classroom context exposed students' scientific and nonscientific beliefs that influenced other individuals in a piecemeal fashion. Children with nonscientific theories of living things were identified as being least able to benefit from socially constructed, scientific knowledge; hence, recommendations are made for teaching that focuses on conceptual change strategies rather than knowledge enrichment.

Multilevel corporate environmental responsibility.

PubMed

Karassin, Orr; Bar-Haim, Aviad

2016-12-01

The multilevel empirical study of the antecedents of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been identified as "the first knowledge gap" in CSR research. Based on an extensive literature review, the present study outlines a conceptual multilevel model of CSR, then designs and empirically validates an operational multilevel model of the principal driving factors affecting corporate environmental responsibility (CER), as a measure of CSR. Both conceptual and operational models incorporate three levels of analysis: institutional, organizational, and individual. The multilevel nature of the design allows for the assessment of the relative importance of the levels and of their components in the achievement of CER. Unweighted least squares (ULS) regression analysis reveals that the institutional-level variables have medium relationships with CER, some variables having a negative effect. The organizational level is revealed as having strong and positive significant relationships with CER, with organizational culture and managers' attitudes and behaviors as significant driving forces. The study demonstrates the importance of multilevel analysis in improving the understanding of CSR drivers, relative to single level models, even if the significance of specific drivers and levels may vary by context. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Building the body: active learning laboratories that emphasize practical aspects of anatomy and integration with radiology.

PubMed

Zumwalt, Ann C; Lufler, Rebecca S; Monteiro, Joseph; Shaffer, Kitt

2010-01-01

Active learning exercises were developed to allow advanced medical students to revisit and review anatomy in a clinically meaningful context. In our curriculum, students learn anatomy two to three years before they participate in the radiology clerkship. These educational exercises are designed to review anatomy content while highlighting its relevance to the study of radiology. Laboratory exercises were developed using inexpensive materials in the form of hands-on stations designed for use by students working together in small groups. Station exercises include model building, exploring relevant radiological imaging, and practicing clinical techniques. Students are encouraged to move from abstract conceptualization of the anatomy using models to applying knowledge to living tissues by using a portable ultrasound to explore superficial anatomy on each other. Stations are designed to integrate knowledge and reemphasize concepts in different contexts, so that upon completion students have a reinforced understanding of the three-dimensional anatomy of the region in question, the appearance of the anatomy on radiological images, and an appreciation of the relevance of the anatomy to radiological procedures. (c) 2010 American Association of Anatomists.

Probing student reasoning approaches through the lens of dual-process theories: A case study in buoyancy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gette, Cody R.; Kryjevskaia, Mila; Stetzer, MacKenzie R.; Heron, Paula R. L.

2018-06-01

A growing body of scholarly work indicates that student performance on physics problems stems from many factors, including relevant conceptual understanding. However, in contexts in which significant conceptual difficulties have been documented via research, it can be difficult to pinpoint and isolate such factors because students' written and interview responses rarely reveal the full richness of their conscious and, perhaps more importantly, subconscious reasoning paths. In this investigation, informed by dual-process theories of reasoning and decision making as well as the theoretical construct of accessibility, we conducted a series of experiments in order to gain greater insight into the factors impacting student performance on the "five-block problem," which has been used in the literature to probe student thinking about buoyancy. In particular, we examined both the impact of problem design (including salient features and cueing) and the impact of targeted instruction focused on density-based arguments for sinking and floating and on neutral buoyancy. The investigation found that instructional modifications designed to remove the strong intuitive appeal of the first-available response led to significantly improved performance, without improving student conceptual understanding of the requisite buoyancy concepts. As such, our findings represent an important first step in identifying systematic strategies for using theories from cognitive science to guide the development and refinement of research-based instructional materials.

Interparental Violence, Maternal Emotional Unavailability and Children’s Cortisol Functioning in Family Contexts

PubMed Central

Sturge-Apple, Melissa L.; Davies, Patrick T.; Cicchetti, Dante; Manning, Liviah G.

2011-01-01

The goal of the present study was to examine the specificity of pathways among interparental violence, maternal emotional unavailability, and children’s cortisol reactivity to emotional stressors within the interparental and parent-child relationships. The study also tested whether detrimental family contexts were associated on average with hypocortisolism or hypercortisolism responses to stressful family interactions in young children. Participants included 201 toddlers and their mothers from impoverished backgrounds who experienced disproportionate levels of family violence. Assessments of interparental violence were derived from maternal surveys and interviews, whereas maternal emotional unavailability was assessed through maternal reports and observer ratings of caregiving. Salivary cortisol levels were sampled at three timepoints before and after laboratory paradigms designed to elicit children’s reactivity to stressful interparental and parent-child contexts. Results indicated that interparental violence and mother’s emotional unavailability were differentially associated with children’s adrenocorticol stress reactivity. Furthermore, these family risk contexts predicted lower cortisol change in response to distress. The results are interpreted in the context of risky family and emotional security theory conceptualizations that underscore how family contexts differentially impact children’s physiological regulatory capacities. PMID:21967568

A Structural View on the Emergence of a Conception: Conceptual Change as Radical Reconstruction of Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Larsson, Asa; Hallden, Ola

2010-01-01

Conceptual change is often described as a causal process in which changes in an embraced system of beliefs result in a new system of beliefs. Here, it is argued that conceptual change is better understood as an intentional activity with regard to the learner, that is, what the learner is doing when trying to understand something. Children were…

"Egg-Streme" Egg Crashes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ward, Lauren; Lyden, Sarah; Fitzallen, Noleine

2016-01-01

Context based learning (CBL) is a powerful tool that utilises areas of student interest framed in meaningful contexts to foster development of new skills and understanding. For middle school students, engineering activities that relate to real-world problems provide suitable CBL contexts for acquiring conceptual scientific and mathematical…

Understanding context in knowledge translation: a concept analysis study protocol.

PubMed

Squires, Janet E; Graham, Ian D; Hutchinson, Alison M; Linklater, Stefanie; Brehaut, Jamie C; Curran, Janet; Ivers, Noah; Lavis, John N; Michie, Susan; Sales, Anne E; Fiander, Michelle; Fenton, Shannon; Noseworthy, Thomas; Vine, Jocelyn; Grimshaw, Jeremy M

2015-05-01

To conduct a concept analysis of clinical practice contexts (work environments) that facilitate or militate against the uptake of research evidence by healthcare professionals in clinical practice. This will involve developing a clear definition of context by describing its features, domains and defining characteristics. The context where clinical care is delivered influences that care. While research shows that context is important to knowledge translation (implementation), we lack conceptual clarity on what is context, which contextual factors probably modify the effect of knowledge translation interventions (and hence should be considered when designing interventions) and which contextual factors themselves could be targeted as part of a knowledge translation intervention (context modification). Concept analysis. The Walker and Avant concept analysis method, comprised of eight systematic steps, will be used: (1) concept selection; (2) determination of aims; (3) identification of uses of context; (4) determination of defining attributes of context; (5) identification/construction of a model case of context; (6) identification/construction of additional cases of context; (7) identification/construction of antecedents and consequences of context; and (8) definition of empirical referents of context. This study is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (January 2014). This study will result in a much needed framework of context for knowledge translation, which identifies specific elements that, if assessed and used to tailor knowledge translation activities, will result in increased research use by nurses and other healthcare professionals in clinical practice, ultimately leading to better patient care. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Mediating relationship of differential products in understanding integration in introductory physics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Amos, Nathaniel; Heckler, Andrew F.

2018-01-01

In the context of introductory physics, we study student conceptual understanding of differentials, differential products, and integrals and possible pathways to understanding these quantities. We developed a multiple choice conceptual assessment employing a variety of physical contexts probing physical understanding of these three quantities and administered the instrument to over 1000 students in first and second semester introductory physics courses. Using a regression-based mediation analysis with conceptual understanding of integration as the dependent variable, we found evidence consistent with a simple mediation model: the relationship between differentials scores and integral scores may be mediated by the understanding of differential products. The indirect effect (a quantifiable metric of mediation) was estimated as a b =0.29 , 95% CI [0.25, 0.33] for N =1102 Physics 1 students, and a b =0.27 , 95% CI [0.14, 0.48] for N =65 Physics 2 students. We also find evidence that the physical context of the questions can be an important factor. These results imply that for introductory physics courses, instructional emphasis first on differentials then on differential products in a variety of contexts may in turn promote better integral understanding.

Expression of interest: transcriptomics and the designation of conservation units.

PubMed

Hansen, Michael M

2010-05-01

An important task within conservation genetics consists in defining intraspecific conservation units. Most conceptual frameworks involve two steps: (i) identifying demographically independent units, and (ii) evaluating their degree of adaptive divergence. Whereas a plethora of methods are available for delineating genetic population structure, assessment of functional genetic divergence remains a challenge. In this issue, Tymchuk et al. (2010) study Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) populations using both microsatellite markers and analysis of global gene expression. They show that important gene expression differences exist that can be interpreted in the context of different ecological conditions experienced by the populations, along with the populations' histories. This demonstrates an important potential role of transcriptomics for designating conservation units.

Color, context, and cognitive style: variations in color knowledge retrieval as a function of task and subject variables.

PubMed

Hsu, Nina S; Kraemer, David J M; Oliver, Robyn T; Schlichting, Margaret L; Thompson-Schill, Sharon L

2011-09-01

Neuroimaging tests of sensorimotor theories of semantic memory hinge on the extent to which similar activation patterns are observed during perception and retrieval of objects or object properties. The present study was motivated by the hypothesis that some of the seeming discrepancies across studies reflect flexibility in the systems responsible for conceptual and perceptual processing of color. Specifically, we test the hypothesis that retrieval of color knowledge can be influenced by both context (a task variable) and individual differences in cognitive style (a subject variable). In Experiment 1, we provide fMRI evidence for differential activity during color knowledge retrieval by having subjects perform a verbal task, in which context encouraged subjects to retrieve more- or less-detailed information about the colors of named common objects in a blocked experimental design. In the left fusiform, we found more activity during retrieval of more- versus less-detailed color knowledge. We also assessed preference for verbal or visual cognitive style, finding that brain activity in the left lingual gyrus significantly correlated with preference for a visual cognitive style. We replicated many of these effects in Experiment 2, in which stimuli were presented more quickly, in a random order, and in the auditory modality. This illustration of some of the factors that can influence color knowledge retrieval leads to the conclusion that tests of conceptual and perceptual overlap must consider variation in both of these processes.

A four-culture study of self-enhancement and adjustment using the social relations model: do alternative conceptualizations and indices make a difference?

PubMed

Church, A Timothy; Katigbak, Marcia S; Mazuera Arias, Rina; Rincon, Brigida Carolina; Vargas-Flores, José de Jesús; Ibáñez-Reyes, Joselina; Wang, Lei; Alvarez, Juan M; Wang, Congcong; Ortiz, Fernando A

2014-06-01

In the self-enhancement literature, 2 major controversies remain--whether self-enhancement is a cultural universal and whether it is healthy or maladaptive. Use of the social relations model (SRM; Kenny, 1994) might facilitate resolution of these controversies. We applied the SRM with a round-robin design in both friend and family contexts in 4 diverse cultures: the United States (n = 399), Mexico (n = 413), Venezuela (n = 290), and China (n = 222). Results obtained with social comparison, self-insight, and SRM conceptualizations and indices of self-enhancement were compared for both agentic traits (i.e., egoistic bias) and communal traits (i.e., moralistic bias). Conclusions regarding cultural differences in the prevalence of self-enhancement vs. self-effacement tendencies, and the relationship between self-enhancement and adjustment, varied depending on the index of self-enhancement used. For example, consistent with cultural psychology perspectives, Chinese showed a greater tendency to self-efface than self-enhance using social comparison and self-insight indices, particularly on communal traits in the friend context. However, no cultural differences were observed when perceiver and target effects were controlled using the SRM indices. In all cultures, self-enhancement indices were moderately consistent across friend and family contexts, suggesting traitlike tendencies. To a similar extent in all 4 cultures, self-enhancement tendencies, as measured by the SRM indices, were moderately related to self-rated adjustment, but unrelated, or less so, to observer-rated adjustment.

A conceptual framework for assessing interorganizational integration and interprofessional collaboration.

PubMed

Willumsen, Elisabeth; Ahgren, Bengt; Ødegård, Atle

2012-05-01

The need for collaboration in health and social welfare is well documented internationally. It is related to the improvement of services for the users, particularly target groups with multiple problems. However, there is still insufficient knowledge of the complex area of collaboration, and the interprofessional literature highlights the need to develop adequate research approaches for exploring collaboration between organizations, professionals and service users. This paper proposes a conceptual framework based on interorganizational and interprofessional research, with focus on the concepts of integration and collaboration. Furthermore, the paper suggests how two measurement instruments can be combined and adapted to the welfare context in order to explore collaboration between organizations, professionals and service users, thereby contributing to knowledge development and policy improvement. Issues concerning reliability, validity and design alternatives, as well as the importance of management, clinical implications and service user involvement in future research, are discussed.

Student conceptualizations of the nature of science in response to a socioscientific issue

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sadler, Troy D.; Chambers, William F.; Zeidler, Dana L.

2004-04-01

This study investigates student conceptualizations of the nature of science (NOS) and how students interpret and evaluate conflicting evidence regarding a socioscientific issue. Eighty-four high school students participated in the study by reading contradictory reports about the status of global warming and responding to questions designed to elicit ideas pertinent to the research goals. A subsample of 30 students was interviewed in order to triangulate data from the written responses. Data were analyzed using a qualitative methodological approach. The participants displayed a range of views on three distinct aspects of NOS: empiricism, tentativeness, and social embeddedness. Findings indicate that interpretation and evaluation of conflicting evidence in a socioscientific context is influenced by a variety of factors related to NOS such as data interpretation and social interactions including individuals' own articulation of personal beliefs and scientific knowledge. Implications for science teaching and learning are discussed.

Adults' decision-making about the electronic waste issue: The role of the nature of science conceptualizations and moral concerns in socio-scientific decision-making

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Yuqing

Socio-scientific issues have become increasingly important in Science-Technology-Society (STS) education as a means to make science learning more relevant to students' lives. This study used the e-waste issue as a context to investigate two aspects of socio-scientific decision-making: (1) the relationship between the nature of science (NOS) conceptualizations and decision-making; and (2) moral concerns involved in the process of decision-making. This study contributes to the field of socio-scientific issue research and STS education in the following ways. First, it is the first study that performed meta-analysis to seek the relationship between the NOS understanding and decision-making. This study concludes that valuable NOS conceptualizations that are highly related to the socio-scientific issue under investigation, rather than general NOS understanding, exert statistically significant influences on decision-making. Second, this study empirically examined the Multiple Responses Model (MRM), which enables the transfer of qualitative NOS responses into quantitative data, and hence, inferential statistics. The current study justifies the significance of unidimensionality to the application of the MRM. It addresses the limitations associated with the MRM and provides implications for future use of the MRM in other contexts. Finally, the study explores the role of moral concerns in socio-scientific decision-making. Eight participants engaged in interviews that were designed to elicit their reactions and feelings regarding the issue of exporting e-waste to poor countries. Qualitative analyses demonstrated that moral considerations were significant influences on decision-making. In addition, participants' action responses revealed that they were motivated to take action to help the environment. The study has implications for socio-scientific issue studies in other contexts and for teacher education programs that use socio-scientific issues to advance teachers' reasoning and discourse skills.

[Analysis of health terminologies for use as ontologies in healthcare information systems].

PubMed

Romá-Ferri, Maria Teresa; Palomar, Manuel

2008-01-01

Ontologies are a resource that allow the concept of meaning to be represented informatically, thus avoiding the limitations imposed by standardized terms. The objective of this study was to establish the extent to which terminologies could be used for the design of ontologies, which could be serve as an aid to resolve problems such as semantic interoperability and knowledge reusability in healthcare information systems. To determine the extent to which terminologies could be used as ontologies, six of the most important terminologies in clinical, epidemiologic, documentation and administrative-economic contexts were analyzed. The following characteristics were verified: conceptual coverage, hierarchical structure, conceptual granularity of the categories, conceptual relations, and the language used for conceptual representation. MeSH, DeCS and UMLS ontologies were considered lightweight. The main differences among these ontologies concern conceptual specification, the types of relation and the restrictions among the associated concepts. SNOMED and GALEN ontologies have declaratory formalism, based on logical descriptions. These ontologies include explicit qualities and show greater restrictions among associated concepts and rule combinations and were consequently considered as heavyweight. Analysis of the declared representation of the terminologies shows the extent to which they could be reused as ontologies. Their degree of usability depends on whether the aim is for healthcare information systems to solve problems of semantic interoperability (lightweight ontologies) or to reuse the systems' knowledge as an aid to decision making (heavyweight ontologies) and for non-structured information retrieval, extraction, and classification.

Conceptual and epistemological undercurrents of learning as a process of change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Montfort, Devlin B.

2011-12-01

In the preparation and education of civil engineers it is essential to both increase student knowledge of the world (conceptual understanding), but also to establish and develop new ways of thinking (epistemology). Both of these processes of change can be considered learning, but they are vastly different in the time, energy and resources they require to accomplish. The second type of learning (conceptual change) is more difficult, and is only rarely accomplished in traditional university education. The purpose of this research is to apply existing research approaches from cognitive science and educational psychology to explain why by investigating conceptual change in the contexts of student learning and faculty adoption of new pedagogies. In each context, the difficulty with conceptual change was associated with the ways in which people categorize fundamental phenomena in the world around them, and with epistemological expectations of how those categorizations should be applied in new contexts. While attempts to encourage change often focus on "educating" people by providing them with more knowledge, the change processes seem to be primarily limited by people's existing knowledge and how it is structured. Because civil engineers interact closely with societal goals and processes (such as human safety and environmental policies), they adopt epistemological stances that are as-yet unaccounted for in most research on the subject, which assumes a strong distinction between epistemological stances toward the physical world compared to the social world. These differences suggest that civil engineers' conceptual change could be enhanced by more directly addressing their particular epistemological stances---which incorporate high needs for certainty in guaranteeing human safety, as well as high flexibility when being applied to human systems.

Context and implementation: A concept analysis towards conceptual maturity.

PubMed

Pfadenhauer, Lisa Maria; Mozygemba, Kati; Gerhardus, Ansgar; Hofmann, Bjørn; Booth, Andrew; Lysdahl, Kristin Bakke; Tummers, Marcia; Burns, Jacob; Rehfuess, Eva Annette

2015-01-01

Context and implementation of health interventions have received increasing attention over the past decade, in particular with respect to their influence on the effectiveness and reach of complex interventions. The underlying concepts are both considered partially mature, limiting their operationalization in research and practice. We conducted systematic literature searches and pragmatic utility (PU) concept analyses to provide a state-of-the-art assessment of the concepts of "context" and "implementation" in the health sciences to create a common understanding for their use within systematic reviews and HTA. We performed two separate searches, one for context (EMBASE, MEDLINE) and the other for implementation (Google Scholar) to identify relevant models, theories and frameworks. 17 publications on context and 35 articles on implementation met our inclusion criteria. PU concept analysis comprises three guiding principles: selection of the literature, organization and structuring of the literature, and asking analytic questions of the literature. Both concepts were analyzed according to four features of conceptual maturity, i.e., consensual definitions, clear characteristics, fully described preconditions and outcomes, and delineated boundaries. Context and implementation are highly intertwined, with both concepts influencing and interacting with each other. Context is defined as a set of characteristics and circumstances that surround the implementation effort. Implementation is conceptualized as a planned and deliberately initiated effort with the intention to put an intervention into practice. The concept of implementation presents largely consensual definitions and relatively well-defined boundaries, while distinguishing features, preconditions and outcomes are not yet fully articulated. In contrast, definitions of context vary widely, and boundaries with neighbouring concepts, such as setting and environment, are blurred; characteristics, preconditions and outcomes are ill-defined. Therefore, the maturity of both concepts should be further improved to facilitate operationalization in systematic reviews and HTAs. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier GmbH.

Conceptual design of an in-space cryogenic fluid management facility, executive summary

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Willen, G. S.; Riemer, D. H.; Hustvedt, D. C.

1981-01-01

The conceptual design of a Spacelab experiment to develop the technology associated with low gravity propellant management is summarized. The preliminary facility definition, conceptual design and design analysis, and facility development plan, including schedule and cost estimates for the facility, are presented.

Decoding the "CoDe": A Framework for Conceptualizing and Designing Help Options in Computer-Based Second Language Listening

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cardenas-Claros, Monica Stella; Gruba, Paul A.

2013-01-01

This paper proposes a theoretical framework for the conceptualization and design of help options in computer-based second language (L2) listening. Based on four empirical studies, it aims at clarifying both conceptualization and design (CoDe) components. The elements of conceptualization consist of a novel four-part classification of help options:…

Multiparadigm Design Environments

DTIC Science & Technology

1992-01-01

following results: 1. New methods for programming in terms of conceptual models 2. Design of object-oriented languages 3. Compiler optimization and...experimented with object-based methods for programming directly in terms of conceptual models, object-oriented language design, computer program...expect the3e results to have a strong influence on future ,,j :- ...... L ! . . • a mm ammmml ll Illlll • l I 1 Conceptual Programming Conceptual

Children's Temperaments and Their Relation to Behaviour and Emotion across Different Contexts.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kean, June

This observational study investigated children's temperaments and their relation to behavior and emotion across different contexts. Temperament, or individual behavioral style, was conceptualized as the manifestation of affect displays and social behaviors in context, with emotions acting as signals for interactions. Ratings of child temperament…

Couple Consensus during Marital Joint Decision-Making: A Context, Process, Outcome Model.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Godwin, Deborah D.; Scanzoni, John

1989-01-01

Tested conceptual model of context, processes, and outcomes of joint marital decision making of married couples (N=188) which specified spouses' process variables as individual-level measures and partners' consensus as a couple construct. Found context factor of spouses' emotional interdependence influenced both partners' coerciveness and degree…

Social Context Effects on School Effects.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hallinger, Philip; Murphy, Joseph

In this two-part paper, an attempt is made to examine the relationship between social contexts and effective schools and specifically to contribute to the development of a conceptual model for understanding how social contexts influence the operation of effective schools and student learning. In the first part, school effects research is drawn…

Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) Engineering Test Facility (ETF) 200 MWe power plant. Conceptual Design Engineering Report (CDER) supplement. Magnet system special investigations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1981-01-01

The results of magnet system special investigations listed below are summarized: 4 Tesla Magnet Alternate Design Study; 6 Tesla Magnet Manufacturability Study. The conceptual design for a 4 Tesla superconducting magnet system for use with an alternate (supersonic) ETF power train is described, and estimated schedule and cost are identified. The magnet design is scaled from the ETF 6 T Tesla design. Results of a manufacturability study and a revised schedule and cost estimate for the ETF 6 T magnet are reported. Both investigations are extensions of the conceptual design of a 6 T magnet system performed earlier as a part of the overall MED-ETF conceptual design described in Conceptual Design Engineering Report (CDER) Vol. V, System Design Description (SDD) 503 dated September, 1981, DOE/NASA/0224-1; NASA CR-165/52.

Open Vehicle Sketch Pad Aircraft Modeling Strategies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hahn, Andrew S.

2013-01-01

Geometric modeling of aircraft during the Conceptual design phase is very different from that needed for the Preliminary or Detailed design phases. The Conceptual design phase is characterized by the rapid, multi-disciplinary analysis of many design variables by a small engineering team. The designer must walk a line between fidelity and productivity, picking tools and methods with the appropriate balance of characteristics to achieve the goals of the study, while staying within the available resources. Identifying geometric details that are important, and those that are not, is critical to making modeling and methodology choices. This is true for both the low-order analysis methods traditionally used in Conceptual design as well as the highest-order analyses available. This paper will highlight some of Conceptual design's characteristics that drive the designer s choices as well as modeling examples for several aircraft configurations using the open source version of the Vehicle Sketch Pad (Open VSP) aircraft Conceptual design geometry modeler.

Visual context modulates potentiation of grasp types during semantic object categorization.

PubMed

Kalénine, Solène; Shapiro, Allison D; Flumini, Andrea; Borghi, Anna M; Buxbaum, Laurel J

2014-06-01

Substantial evidence suggests that conceptual processing of manipulable objects is associated with potentiation of action. Such data have been viewed as evidence that objects are recognized via access to action features. Many objects, however, are associated with multiple actions. For example, a kitchen timer may be clenched with a power grip to move it but pinched with a precision grip to use it. The present study tested the hypothesis that action evocation during conceptual object processing is responsive to the visual scene in which objects are presented. Twenty-five healthy adults were asked to categorize object pictures presented in different naturalistic visual contexts that evoke either move- or use-related actions. Categorization judgments (natural vs. artifact) were performed by executing a move- or use-related action (clench vs. pinch) on a response device, and response times were assessed as a function of contextual congruence. Although the actions performed were irrelevant to the categorization judgment, responses were significantly faster when actions were compatible with the visual context. This compatibility effect was largely driven by faster pinch responses when objects were presented in use-compatible, as compared with move-compatible, contexts. The present study is the first to highlight the influence of visual scene on stimulus-response compatibility effects during semantic object processing. These data support the hypothesis that action evocation during conceptual object processing is biased toward context-relevant actions.

Visual context modulates potentiation of grasp types during semantic object categorization

PubMed Central

Kalénine, Solène; Shapiro, Allison D.; Flumini, Andrea; Borghi, Anna M.; Buxbaum, Laurel J.

2013-01-01

Substantial evidence suggests that conceptual processing of manipulable objects is associated with potentiation of action. Such data have been viewed as evidence that objects are recognized via access to action features. Many objects, however, are associated with multiple actions. For example, a kitchen timer may be clenched with a power grip to move it, but pinched with a precision grip to use it. The present study tested the hypothesis that action evocation during conceptual object processing is responsive to the visual scene in which objects are presented. Twenty-five healthy adults were asked to categorize object pictures presented in different naturalistic visual contexts that evoke either move- or use-related actions. Categorization judgments (natural vs. artifact) were performed by executing a move- or use-related action (clench vs. pinch) on a response device, and response times were assessed as a function of contextual congruence. Although the actions performed were irrelevant to the categorization judgment, responses were significantly faster when actions were compatible with the visual context. This compatibility effect was largely driven by faster pinch responses when objects were presented in use- compared to move-compatible contexts. The present study is the first to highlight the influence of visual scene on stimulus-response compatibility effects during semantic object processing. These data support the hypothesis that action evocation during conceptual object processing is biased toward context-relevant actions. PMID:24186270

A Conceptual Framework Curriculum Evaluation Electrical Engineering Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Imansari, Nurulita; Sutadji, Eddy

2017-01-01

This evaluation is a conceptual framework that has been analyzed in the hope that can help research related an evaluation of the curriculum. The Model of evaluation used was CIPPO model. CIPPO Model consists of "context," "input," "process," "product," and "outcomes." On the dimension of the…

Vision: A Conceptual Framework for School Counselors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Watkinson, Jennifer Scaturo

2013-01-01

Vision is essential to the implementation of the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) National Model. Drawing from research in organizational leadership, this article provides a conceptual framework for how school counselors can incorporate vision as a strategy for implementing school counseling programs within the context of practice.…

Setting the research agenda for induced abortion in Africa and Asia.

PubMed

Scott, Rachel H; Filippi, Veronique; Moore, Ann M; Acharya, Rajib; Bankole, Akinrinola; Calvert, Clara; Church, Kathryn; Cresswell, Jenny A; Footman, Katharine; Gleason, Joanne; Machiyama, Kazuyo; Marston, Cicely; Mbizvo, Mike; Musheke, Maurice; Owolabi, Onikepe; Palmer, Jennifer; Smith, Christopher; Storeng, Katerini; Yeung, Felicia

2018-05-10

Provision of safe abortion is widely recognized as vital to addressing the health and wellbeing of populations. Research on abortion is essential to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Researchers in population health from university, policy, and practitioner contexts working on two multidisciplinary projects on family planning and safe abortion in Africa and Asia were brought together for a workshop to discuss the future research agenda on induced abortion. Research on care-seeking behavior, supply of abortion care services, and the global and national policy context will help improve access to and experiences of safe abortion services. A number of areas have potential in designing intervention strategies, including clinical innovations, quality improvement mechanisms, community involvement, and task sharing. Research on specific groups, including adolescents and young people, men, populations affected by conflict, marginalized groups, and providers could increase understanding of provision, access to and experiences of induced abortion. Methodological and conceptual advances, for example in the measurement of induced abortion incidence, complications, and client satisfaction, conceptualizations of induced abortion access and care, and methods for follow-up of patients who have induced abortions, will improve the accuracy of measurements of induced abortion, and add to understanding of women's experiences of induced abortions and abortion care. © 2018 International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics.

Exploring health navigating design: momentary contentment in a cancer context

PubMed Central

Sandén, Ulrika; Harrysson, Lars; Thulesius, Hans; Nilsson, Fredrik

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT Purpose: The technocratic and medicalized model of healthcare is rarely optimal for patients. By connecting two different studies we explore the possibilities of increasing quality of life in cancer care. Methods: The first study captures survival strategies in a historically isolated Arctic village in Norway resulting in Momentary contentment theory, which emerged from analysing four years of participant observation and interview data. The second study conceptualizes everyday life of cancer patients based on in-depth interviews with 19 cancer patients; this was conceptualized as Navigating a new life situation. Both studies used classic grounded theory methodology. The connection between the studies is based on a health design approach. Results: We found a fit between cancer patients challenging life conditions and harsh everyday life in an Arctic village. Death, treatments and dependence have become natural parts of life where the importance of creating spaces-of-moments and a Sense of Safety is imminent to well-being. While the cancer patients are in a new life situation, the Arctic people show a natural ability to handle uncertainties. Conclusion: By innovation theories connected to design thinking, Momentary contentment theory modified to fit cancer care would eventually be a way to improve cancer patients’ quality of life. PMID:28911272

Knowledge brokering for healthy aging: a scoping review of potential approaches.

PubMed

Van Eerd, Dwayne; Newman, Kristine; DeForge, Ryan; Urquhart, Robin; Cornelissen, Evelyn; Dainty, Katie N

2016-10-19

Developing a healthcare delivery system that is more responsive to the future challenges of an aging population is a priority in Canada. The World Health Organization acknowledges the need for knowledge translation frameworks in aging and health. Knowledge brokering (KB) is a specific knowledge translation approach that includes making connections between people to facilitate the use of evidence. Knowledge gaps exist about KB roles, approaches, and guiding frameworks. The objective of the scoping review is to identify and describe KB approaches and the underlying conceptual frameworks (models, theories) used to guide the approaches that could support healthy aging. Literature searches were done in PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO, EBM reviews (Cochrane Database of systematic reviews), CINAHL, and SCOPUS, as well as Google and Google Scholar using terms related to knowledge brokering. Titles, abstracts, and full reports were reviewed independently by two reviewers who came to consensus on all screening criteria. Documents were included if they described a KB approach and details about the underlying conceptual basis. Data about KB approach, target stakeholders, KB outcomes, and context were extracted independently by two reviewers. Searches identified 248 unique references. Screening for inclusion revealed 19 documents that described 15 accounts of knowledge brokering and details about conceptual guidance and could be applied in healthy aging contexts. Eight KB elements were detected in the approaches though not all approaches incorporated all elements. The underlying conceptual guidance for KB approaches varied. Specific KB frameworks were referenced or developed for nine KB approaches while the remaining six cited more general KT frameworks (or multiple frameworks) as guidance. The KB approaches that we found varied greatly depending on the context and stakeholders involved. Three of the approaches were explicitly employed in the context of health aging. Common elements of KB approaches that could be conducted in healthy aging contexts focussed on acquiring, adapting, and disseminating knowledge and networking (linkage). The descriptions of the guiding conceptual frameworks (theories, models) focussed on linkage and exchange but varied across approaches. Future research should gather KB practitioner and stakeholder perspectives on effective practices to develop KB approaches for healthy aging.

Conceptual ecological models to support detection of ecological change on Alaska National Wildlife Refuges

USGS Publications Warehouse

Woodward, Andrea; Beever, Erik A.

2011-01-01

More than 31 million hectares of land are protected and managed in 16 refuges by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) in Alaska. The vastness and isolation of Alaskan refuges give rise to relatively intact and complete ecosystems. The potential for these lands to provide habitat for trust species is likely to be altered, however, due to global climate change, which is having dramatic effects at high latitudes. The ability of USFWS to effectively manage these lands in the future will be enhanced by a regional inventory and monitoring program that integrates and supplements monitoring currently being implemented by individual refuges. Conceptual models inform monitoring programs in a number of ways, including summarizing important ecosystem components and processes as well as facilitating communication, discussion and debate about the nature of the system and important management issues. This process can lead to hypotheses regarding future changes, likely results of alternative management actions, identification of monitoring indicators, and ultimately, interpretation of monitoring results. As a first step towards developing a monitoring program, the 16 refuges in Alaska each created a conceptual model of their refuge and the landscape context. Models include prominent ecosystem components, drivers, and processes by which components are linked or altered. The Alaska refuge system also recognizes that designing and implementing monitoring at regional and ecoregional extents has numerous scientific, fiscal, logistical, and political advantages over monitoring conducted exclusively at refuge-specific scales. Broad-scale monitoring is particularly advantageous for examining phenomena such as climate change because effects are best interpreted at broader spatial extents. To enable an ecoregional perspective, a rationale was developed for deriving ecoregional boundaries for four ecoregions (Polar, Interior Alaska, Bering Coast, and North Pacific Coast) from the Unified Ecoregions of Alaska. Ecoregional models were then developed to illustrate resources and processes that operate at spatial scales larger than individual refuges within each ecoregion. Conceptual models also were developed for adjacent marine areas, designated as the North Pacific, Bering Sea, and Beaufort-Chukchi Sea Marine Ecoregions. Although many more conceptual models will be required to support development of a regional monitoring program, these definitions of ecoregions and associated conceptual models are an important foundation.

Application of the generalized reduced gradient method to conceptual aircraft design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gabriele, G. A.

1984-01-01

The complete aircraft design process can be broken into three phases of increasing depth: conceptual design, preliminary design, and detail design. Conceptual design consists primarily of developing general arrangements and selecting the configuration that optimally satisfies all mission requirements. The result of the conceptual phase is a conceptual baseline configuration that serves as the starting point for the preliminary design phase. The conceptual design of an aircraft involves a complex trade-off of many independent variables that must be investigated before deciding upon the basic configuration. Some of these variables are discrete (number of engines), some represent different configurations (canard vs conventional tail) and some may represent incorporation of new technologies (aluminum vs composite materials). At Lockheed-Georgia, the sizing program is known as GASP (Generalized Aircraft Sizing Program). GASP is a large program containing analysis modules covering the many different disciplines involved fin defining the aricraft, such as aerodynamics, structures, stability and control, mission performance, and cost. These analysis modules provide first-level estimates the aircraft properties that are derived from handbook, experimental, and historical sources.

Conceptualizations of clinical leadership: a review of the literature

PubMed Central

Mianda, Solange; Voce, Anna S

2017-01-01

Introduction Poor patient outcomes in South African maternal health settings have been associated with inadequately performing health care providers and poor clinical leadership at the point of care. While skill deficiencies among health care providers have been largely addressed, the provision of clinical leadership has been neglected. In order to develop and implement initiatives to ensure clinical leadership among frontline health care providers, a need was identified to understand the ways in which clinical leadership is conceptualized in the literature. Design Using the systematic quantitative literature review, papers published between 2004 and 2016 were obtained from search engines (Google Scholar and EBSCOhost). Electronic databases (CINHAL, PubMed, Medline, Academic Search Complete, Health Source: Consumer, Health Source: Nursing/Academic, ScienceDirect and Ovid®) and electronic journals (Contemporary Nurse, Journal of Research in Nursing, Australian Journal of Nursing and Midwifery, International Journal of Clinical Leadership) were also searched. Results Using preselected inclusion criteria, 7256 citations were identified. After screening 230 potentially relevant full-text papers for eligibility, 222 papers were excluded because they explored health care leadership or clinical leadership among health care providers other than frontline health care providers. Eight papers met the inclusion criteria for the review. Most studies were conducted in high-income settings. Conceptualizations of clinical leadership share similarities with the conceptualizations of service leadership but differ in focus, with the intent of improving direct patient care. Clinical leadership can be a shared responsibility, performed by every competent frontline health care provider, regardless of the position in the health care system. Conclusion Conceptualizations of clinical leadership among frontline health care providers arise mainly from high-income settings. Understanding the influence of context on conceptualizations of clinical leadership in middle- and low-income settings may be required. PMID:29355250

The ACTIVE conceptual framework as a structural equation model.

PubMed

Gross, Alden L; Payne, Brennan R; Casanova, Ramon; Davoudzadeh, Pega; Dzierzewski, Joseph M; Farias, Sarah; Giovannetti, Tania; Ip, Edward H; Marsiske, Michael; Rebok, George W; Schaie, K Warner; Thomas, Kelsey; Willis, Sherry; Jones, Richard N

2018-01-01

Background/Study Context: Conceptual frameworks are analytic models at a high level of abstraction. Their operationalization can inform randomized trial design and sample size considerations. The Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) conceptual framework was empirically tested using structural equation modeling (N=2,802). ACTIVE was guided by a conceptual framework for cognitive training in which proximal cognitive abilities (memory, inductive reasoning, speed of processing) mediate treatment-related improvement in primary outcomes (everyday problem-solving, difficulty with activities of daily living, everyday speed, driving difficulty), which in turn lead to improved secondary outcomes (health-related quality of life, health service utilization, mobility). Measurement models for each proximal, primary, and secondary outcome were developed and tested using baseline data. Each construct was then combined in one model to evaluate fit (RMSEA, CFI, normalized residuals of each indicator). To expand the conceptual model and potentially inform future trials, evidence of modification of structural model parameters was evaluated by age, years of education, sex, race, and self-rated health status. Preconceived measurement models for memory, reasoning, speed of processing, everyday problem-solving, instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) difficulty, everyday speed, driving difficulty, and health-related quality of life each fit well to the data (all RMSEA < .05; all CFI > .95). Fit of the full model was excellent (RMSEA = .038; CFI = .924). In contrast with previous findings from ACTIVE regarding who benefits from training, interaction testing revealed associations between proximal abilities and primary outcomes are stronger on average by nonwhite race, worse health, older age, and less education (p < .005). Empirical data confirm the hypothesized ACTIVE conceptual model. Findings suggest that the types of people who show intervention effects on cognitive performance potentially may be different from those with the greatest chance of transfer to real-world activities.

Matching food security analysis to context: the experience of the Somalia food security assessment unit.

PubMed

Hemrich, Günter

2005-06-01

This case study reviews the experience of the Somalia Food Security Assessment Unit (FSAU) of operating a food security information system in the context of a complex emergency. In particular, it explores the linkages between selected features of the protracted crisis environment in Somalia and conceptual and operational aspects of food security information work. The paper specifically examines the implications of context characteristics for the establishment and operations of the FSAU field monitoring component and for the interface with information users and their diverse information needs. It also analyses the scope for linking food security and nutrition analysis and looks at the role of conflict and gender analysis in food security assessment work. Background data on the food security situation in Somalia and an overview of some key features of the FSAU set the scene for the case study. The paper is targeted at those involved in designing, operating and funding food security information activities.

Firms navigating through innovation spaces: a conceptualization of how firms search and perceive technological, market and productive opportunities globally.

PubMed

McKelvey, Maureen

2016-01-01

The main contribution of this paper is a theory-based conceptual framework of innovation spaces, and how firms must navigate through them to innovate. The concept of innovation systems - at the regional, sectoral and national levels - have been highly influential. Previous literature developing the concept of innovation systems has stressed the importance of institutions, networks and knowledge bases at the regional, sectoral and national levels. This paper primarily draws upon an evolutionary and Schumpeterian economics perspective, in the following three senses. The conceptualization of 'innnovation spaces' focuses upon how and why firm search for innovations is influenced the opportunities within certain geographical contexts. This means that the firm create opportunities and can span different context, but they are influence by the context in term of the access, flow and co-evolution of ideas, resources, technology, people and knowledge, which help stimulate business innovation in terms of products, process and services. The paper concludes with an agenda for future research and especially the need to focus on globalization as a process of intensifying linkages across the globe.

Performance measurement for people with multiple chronic conditions: conceptual model.

PubMed

Giovannetti, Erin R; Dy, Sydney; Leff, Bruce; Weston, Christine; Adams, Karen; Valuck, Tom B; Pittman, Aisha T; Blaum, Caroline S; McCann, Barbara A; Boyd, Cynthia M

2013-10-01

Improving quality of care for people with multiple chronic conditions (MCCs) requires performance measures reflecting the heterogeneity and scope of their care. Since most existing measures are disease specific, performance measures must be refined and new measures must be developed to address the complexity of care for those with MCCs. To describe development of the Performance Measurement for People with Multiple Chronic Conditions (PM-MCC) conceptual model. Framework development and a national stakeholder panel. We used reviews of existing conceptual frameworks of performance measurement, review of the literature on MCCs, input from experts in the multistakeholder Steering Committee, and public comment. The resulting model centers on the patient and family goals and preferences for care in the context of multiple care sites and providers, the type of care they are receiving, and the national priority domains for healthcare quality measurement. This model organizes measures into a comprehensive framework and identifies areas where measures are lacking. In this context, performance measures can be prioritized and implemented at different levels, in the context of patients' overall healthcare needs.

Engineering design activities and conceptual change in middle school science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schnittka, Christine G.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the impact of engineering design classroom activities on conceptual change in science, and on attitudes toward and knowledge about engineering. Students were given a situated learning context and a rationale for learning science in an active, inquiry-based method, and worked in small collaborative groups. One eighth-grade physical science teacher and her students participated in a unit on heat transfer and thermal energy. One class served as the control while two others received variations of an engineering design treatment. Data were gathered from teacher and student entrance and exit interviews, audio recordings of student dialog during group work, video recordings and observations of all classes, pre- and posttests on science content and engineering attitudes, and artifacts and all assignments completed by students. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected concurrently, but analysis took place in two phases. Qualitative data were analyzed in an ongoing manner so that the researcher could explore emerging theories and trends as the study progressed. These results were compared to and combined with the results of the quantitative data analysis. Analysis of the data was carried out in the interpretive framework of analytic induction. Findings indicated that students overwhelmingly possessed alternative conceptions about heat transfer, thermal energy, and engineering prior to the interventions. While all three classes made statistically significant gains in their knowledge about heat and energy, students in the engineering design class with the targeted demonstrations made the most significant gains over the other two other classes. Engineering attitudes changed significantly in the two classes that received the engineering design intervention. Implications from this study can inform teachers' use of engineering design activities in science classrooms. These implications are: (1) Alternative conceptions will persist when not specifically addressed. (2) Engineering design activities are not enough to promote conceptual change. (3) A middle school teacher can successfully implement an engineering design-based curriculum in a science class. (4) Results may also be of interest to science curriculum developers and engineering educators involved in developing engineering outreach curricula for middle school students.

Discussing the Greenhouse Effect: Children's Collaborative Discourse Reasoning and Conceptual Change.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mason, Lucia; Santi, Marina

1998-01-01

Investigates fifth-grade students' conceptual changes toward the greenhouse effect and global warming due to sociocognitive interaction developed in small and large group discussion in an authentic classroom context during an environmental education unit. Classroom discussions led the children to integrate new scientific knowledge into their…

Personality Assessment of Global Talent: Conceptual and Methodological Issues

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van de Vijver, Fons J. R.

2008-01-01

The recruitment of managers who will operate in a culturally heterogeneous context (as expatriate managers, managers in a global company, or managers of a multicultural workforce) is increasingly important in an age of globalization. This article describes conceptual and methodological issues in the assessment of such managers, notably in the…

Collective (Team) Learning Process Models: A Conceptual Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Knapp, Randall

2010-01-01

Teams have become a key resource for learning and accomplishing work in organizations. The development of collective learning in specific contexts is not well understood, yet has become critical to organizational success. The purpose of this conceptual review is to inform human resource development (HRD) practice about specific team behaviors and…

Testing the Efficacy of a Tier 2 Mathematics Intervention: A Conceptual Replication Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Doabler, Christian T.; Clarke, Ben; Kosty, Derek B.; Kurtz-Nelson, Evangeline; Fien, Hank; Smolkowski, Keith; Baker, Scott K.

2016-01-01

The purpose of this closely aligned conceptual replication study was to investigate the efficacy of a Tier 2 kindergarten mathematics intervention. The replication study differed from the initial randomized controlled trial on three important elements: geographical region, timing of the intervention, and instructional context of the…

Graduate Employability: The Perspective of Social Network Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Yong

2017-01-01

This study provides a conceptual framework for understanding how the graduate acquire employability through the social network in the Chinese context, using insights from the social network theory. This paper builds a conceptual model of the relationship among social network, social network learning and the graduate employability, and uses…

Teaching for Social Justice: From Conceptual Frameworks to Classroom Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dover, Alison G.

2013-01-01

In this article, the author presents the results of a multistate study examining how teachers, and specifically secondary English Language Arts (ELA) teachers, conceptualize and implement teaching for social justice in standards-based contexts. Additional analysis underscores how this practice both reflects and extends earlier equity-oriented…

Mapping the Territory: A Conceptual Model of Scholastic Journalism.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arnold, Mary

1991-01-01

Describes scholastic journalism as the teaching of secondary school students to gather, process, and present information to an audience. Offers a model focusing upon scholastic journalism's conceptual areas of law and ethics, history and cultural diversity, technology and financial support, media and content, pedagogy, and working context as a…

Conceptualization and Linguistic Expression: Using Religious Poetry in ELT

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sharma, Amrita

2014-01-01

Religious poetry is, a heightened and impregnated form of expression. There is a marriage of form and sense. Linguistically speaking, religious poetry has a conceptual interface between syntax and semantics; a strong relationship between language and thought; universality and cultural specificity; the discourse context and the psychological…

University Professors and Teaching Ethics: Conceptualizations and Expectations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dean, Kathy Lund; Beggs, Jeri Mullins

2006-01-01

After the spectacular ethical breaches in corporate America emerged, business school professors were singled out as having been negligent in teaching ethical standards. This exploratory study asked business school faculty about teaching ethics, including conceptualizations of ethics in a teaching context and opinions of the extent to which…

Analyzing educational university students' conceptions through smartphone-based PDEODE*E tasks on magnetic field in several mediums

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zulfikar, Aldi; Girsang, Denni Yulius; Saepuzaman, Duden; Samsudin, Achmad

2017-05-01

Conceptual understanding is one of the most important aspects in the study of Physics because of it useful to understand principles behind certain phenomenon which happened. An innovative method was needed to strengthen and enhance student's conceptual understanding, especially regarding the abstract subject such as magnetic field. For this reason, worksheet and exploration sheet based on PDEODE*E (Predict, Discuss, Explain, Observe, Discuss, Explore, and Explain) that uses Gauss Meter application as the smartphone technology has been designed to answer the problem. The magnetic field strength in different mediums is the physics subject which covered in this research. The research was conducted with the aim to know how effective smartphone technology-based PDEODE*E could be implemented as a physics learning strategy. The result of this research shows that students could show improvements in conceptual understanding that shown by the conclusion that was constructed during the learning process. Based on this result, PDEODE*E could become a solution to strengthen students' conceptual understanding regarding physics subject, especially those that requires abstract thinking. This result also has shown that the application ofsmartphone technology could be used to support physics learning processes in the classroom, such as Gauss Meter in this research which used to measure the magnetic field, Light Meter which could be used in the concept of light, and Harmonicity Meter for the context of the sound wave.

Investigating the Relationship between Instructors’ Use of Active-Learning Strategies and Students’ Conceptual Understanding and Affective Changes in Introductory Biology: A Comparison of Two Active-Learning Environments

PubMed Central

Cleveland, Lacy M.; Olimpo, Jeffrey T.; DeChenne-Peters, Sue Ellen

2017-01-01

In response to calls for reform in undergraduate biology education, we conducted research examining how varying active-learning strategies impacted students’ conceptual understanding, attitudes, and motivation in two sections of a large-lecture introductory cell and molecular biology course. Using a quasi-experimental design, we collected quantitative data to compare participants’ conceptual understanding, attitudes, and motivation in the biological sciences across two contexts that employed different active-learning strategies and that were facilitated by unique instructors. Students participated in either graphic organizer/worksheet activities or clicker-based case studies. After controlling for demographic and presemester affective differences, we found that students in both active-learning environments displayed similar and significant learning gains. In terms of attitudinal and motivational data, significant differences were observed for two attitudinal measures. Specifically, those students who had participated in graphic organizer/worksheet activities demonstrated more expert-like attitudes related to their enjoyment of biology and ability to make real-world connections. However, all motivational and most attitudinal data were not significantly different between the students in the two learning environments. These data reinforce the notion that active learning is associated with conceptual change and suggests that more research is needed to examine the differential effects of varying active-learning strategies on students’ attitudes and motivation in the domain. PMID:28389428

Using Generic and Context-Specific Scaffolding to Support Authentic Science Inquiry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Belland, Brian R.; Gu, Jiangyue; Armbrust, Sara; Cook, Brant

2013-01-01

In this conceptual paper, we propose an heuristic to balance context-specific and generic scaffolding, as well as computer-based and teacher scaffolding, during instruction centered on authentic, scientific problems. This paper is novel in that many researchers ask a dichotomous question of whether generic or context-specific scaffolding is best,…

Conceptual Coherence Affects Phonological Activation of Context Objects during Object Naming

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oppermann, Frank; Jescheniak, Jorg D.; Schriefers, Herbert

2008-01-01

In 4 picture-word interference experiments, speakers named a target object that was presented with a context object. Using auditory distractors that were phonologically related or unrelated either to the target object or the context object, the authors assessed whether phonological processing was confined to the target object or not. Phonological…

Community Social Organization: A Conceptual Linchpin in Examining Families in the Context of Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mancini, Jay A.; Bowen, Gary L.; Martin, James A.

2005-01-01

The concept of social organization provides an important framework for understanding families in the context of communities and focuses our attention on norms, networks, and associated processes that typify community life. We discuss the significance of community for understanding family outcomes, discuss challenges in defining community context,…

Research Trends in Science Education from 2008 to 2012: A systematic content analysis of publications in selected journals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, Tzu-Chiang; Lin, Tzung-Jin; Tsai, Chin-Chung

2014-05-01

This paper presents the third study of research trends in science education. In this review, a total of 990 papers published in the International Journal of Science Education, the Journal of Research in Science Teaching, and Science Education from 2008 to 2012 were analyzed. The results indicate that in the recent five years (2008-2012), the top three research topics in the published papers were those regarding the context of students' learning, science teaching, and students' conceptual learning. The changes in the most popular research topics in the past 15 years also evidentially indicate shifts in the journals' preferences and researchers' interest. For example, in 2003-2007, context of students' learning replaced students' conceptual learning, which was the most published research topic from 1998 to 2002. The research topic of students' learning contexts continued to rank the first in 2008-2012. Moreover, there was an increasing trend of research papers regarding science teaching from 1998 to 2012. The analysis of highly cited papers revealed that research topics such as argumentation, inquiry-based learning, and scientific modeling were recently highlighted by science educators. In recent 15 years, productive researchers' publications also focused on the topics about context of students' learning, science teaching, and students' conceptual learning.

Looking Through a Social Lens: Conceptualising Social Aspects of Knowledge Management for Global Health Practitioners

PubMed Central

Limaye, Rupali J.; Sullivan, Tara M.; Dalessandro, Scott; Jenkins, Ann Hendrix

2017-01-01

Knowledge management plays a critical role in global health. Global health practitioners require knowledge in every aspect of their jobs, and in resource-scarce contexts, practitioners must be able to rely on a knowledge management system to access the latest research and practice to ensure the highest quality of care. However, we suggest that there is a gap in the way knowledge management is primarily utilized in global health, namely, the systematic incorporation of human and social factors. In this paper, we briefly outline the evolution of knowledge management and then propose a conceptualization of knowledge management that incorporates human and social factors for use within a global health context. Our conceptualization of social knowledge management recognizes the importance of social capital, social learning, social software and platforms, and social networks, all within the context of a larger social system and driven by social benefit. We then outline the limitations and discuss future directions of our conceptualization, and suggest how this new conceptualization is essential for any global health practitioner in the business of managing knowledge. Significance for public health Managing knowledge is essential for improving population health outcomes. Global health practitioners at all levels of the health system are bombarded with information related to best practices and guideline changes, among other relevant information to provide the best quality of care. Knowledge management, or the act of effectively using knowledge, has yet to capitalize on the power of social connections within the context of global health. While social elements have been incorporated into knowledge management activities, we suggest that systematically integrating key concepts that leverage social connections, such as social systems, social capital, social learning, and social software, will yield greater benefit with regard to health outcomes. As such, we outline a new conceptualization of knowledge management, focusing on the social aspects of the practice, and posit that such an approach can further the impact of global health interventions and is crucial for global health practitioners. PMID:28480173

Brownfields Green Avenue Sites: Technical Memorandum - Conceptual Design for Sustainable Redevelopment

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This technical memorandum briefly describes the site and proposed conceptual site plan, indicates conceptual design considerations, specifies recommended green and sustainable features, and offers other recommendations

Cultural ergonomics in interactional and experiential design: conceptual framework and case study of the Taiwanese twin cup.

PubMed

Lin, Chih-Long; Chen, Si-Jing; Hsiao, Wen-Hsin; Lin, Rungtai

2016-01-01

Cultural ergonomics is an approach that considers interaction- and experience-based variations among cultures. Designers need to develop a better understanding of cultural ergonomics not just to participate in cultural contexts but also to develop interactive experiences for users. Cultural ergonomics extends our understanding of cultural meaning and our ability to utilize such understanding for design and evaluate everyday products. This study aims to combine cultural ergonomics and interactive design to explore human-culture interaction in user experiences. The linnak is a typical Taiwanese aboriginal cultural object. This study examined the cultural meaning and operational interface of the linnak, as well as the scenarios in which it is used in interaction and user experiences. The results produced a cultural ergonomics interface for examining the manner in which designers communicate across cultures as well as the interweaving of design and culture in the design process. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd and The Ergonomics Society. All rights reserved.

Structural Analysis in a Conceptual Design Framework

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Padula, Sharon L.; Robinson, Jay H.; Eldred, Lloyd B.

2012-01-01

Supersonic aircraft designers must shape the outer mold line of the aircraft to improve multiple objectives, such as mission performance, cruise efficiency, and sonic-boom signatures. Conceptual designers have demonstrated an ability to assess these objectives for a large number of candidate designs. Other critical objectives and constraints, such as weight, fuel volume, aeroelastic effects, and structural soundness, are more difficult to address during the conceptual design process. The present research adds both static structural analysis and sizing to an existing conceptual design framework. The ultimate goal is to include structural analysis in the multidisciplinary optimization of a supersonic aircraft. Progress towards that goal is discussed and demonstrated.

Methodology issues in implementation science.

PubMed

Newhouse, Robin; Bobay, Kathleen; Dykes, Patricia C; Stevens, Kathleen R; Titler, Marita

2013-04-01

Putting evidence into practice at the point of care delivery requires an understanding of implementation strategies that work, in what context and how. To identify methodological issues in implementation science using 4 studies as cases and make recommendations for further methods development. Four cases are presented and methodological issues identified. For each issue raised, evidence on the state of the science is described. Issues in implementation science identified include diverse conceptual frameworks, potential weaknesses in pragmatic study designs, and the paucity of standard concepts and measurement. Recommendations to advance methods in implementation include developing a core set of implementation concepts and metrics, generating standards for implementation methods including pragmatic trials, mixed methods designs, complex interventions and measurement, and endorsing reporting standards for implementation studies.

Sense of place among New England organic farmers and commercial fishermen: How social context shapes identity and environmentally responsible behavior

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mueller, Anneliese Marie

Given the prominence of sense of place in new environmental education curricula, this study aims to strengthen the conceptual and empirical foundations of sense of place, and to determine how sense of place may be linked to environmentally responsible behavior. For this study, five commercial fishermen and five organic farmers from the New England Seacoast region participated in a series of in-depth phenomenological interviews and observations. The data was systematically coded in order to allow themes and categories to emerge. The results indicate that aspects of the existing conceptual framework of sense of place, such as place attachment, ecological knowledge, and public involvement, do in fact describe the relationship between people and place. However, the results also indicate that two conceptual elements---attention to social context and awareness of moral theory---are missing from the current conceptual framework in EE theory. These results suggest that the current framework should be expanded to emphasize the role of human and non-human communities: the development of a sense of place and the learning of environmentally responsible behavior must be situated within a social context. This study lends support to the view that for sense of place to move people to ethical action, it is crucial for them to recognize, and to participate in, a community of support and care.

Conceptual processing in music as revealed by N400 effects on words and musical targets.

PubMed

Daltrozzo, Jérôme; Schön, Daniele

2009-10-01

The cognitive processing of concepts, that is, abstract general ideas, has been mostly studied with language. However, other domains, such as music, can also convey concepts. Koelsch et al. [Koelsch, S., Kasper, E., Sammler, D., Schulze, K., Gunter, T., & Friederici, A. D. Music, language and meaning: Brain signatures of semantic processing. Nature Neuroscience, 7, 302-307, 2004] showed that 10 sec of music can influence the semantic processing of words. However, the length of the musical excerpts did not allow the authors to study the effect of words on musical targets. In this study, we decided to replicate Koelsch et al. findings using 1-sec musical excerpts (Experiment 1). This allowed us to study the reverse influence, namely, of a linguistic context on conceptual processing of musical excerpts (Experiment 2). In both experiments, we recorded behavioral and electrophysiological responses while participants were presented 50 related and 50 unrelated pairs (context/target). Experiments 1 and 2 showed a larger N400 component of the event-related brain potentials to targets following a conceptually unrelated compared to a related context. The presence of an N400 effect with musical targets suggests that music may convey concepts. The relevance of these results for the comprehension of music as a structured set of conceptual units and for the domain specificity of the mechanisms underlying N400 effects are discussed.

Conceptual Model Learning Objects and Design Recommendations for Small Screens

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Churchill, Daniel

2011-01-01

This article presents recommendations for the design of conceptual models for applications via handheld devices such as personal digital assistants and some mobile phones. The recommendations were developed over a number of years through experience that involves design of conceptual models, and applications of these multimedia representations with…

Resilience and Indigenous Spirituality: A Literature Review

PubMed Central

Fleming, John; Ledogar, Robert J.

2010-01-01

Indigenous spirituality is a more complex phenomenon than the term spirituality alone, as generally understood, implies. Spirituality is closely bound up with culture and ways of living in Indigenous communities and requires a more holistic or comprehensive research approach. Two conceptual frameworks could help to orient Indigenous resilience research. One is the enculturation framework. Enculturation refers to the degree of integration within a culture, which can be protective in social behaviour, academic achievement, alcohol abuse and cessation, substance abuse, externalizing behaviours, and depressive symptoms. Instruments for measuring enculturation generally have three components: traditional activities, cultural identification, and traditional spirituality. A second conceptual framework is cultural spiritual orientation which distinguishes between cultural spiritual orientations and tribal spiritual beliefs. Enculturation and cultural orientations are protective against alcohol abuse, suicide ideation, and suicide attempts. New tools are emerging for measuring the multidimensional nature of culturally rooted spirituality in Indigenous communities, tools that are context-specific and often the product of collaborative design processes. As the ability of researchers to measure these complex processes advances and Indigenous communities take increasing charge of their own research, it should become easier to design interventions that take advantage of the cultural/spiritual dimension of Indigenous traditions to promote individual, family, and community resilience. PMID:20963185

Design Patterns for Learning and Assessment: Facilitating the Introduction of a Complex Simulation-Based Learning Environment into a Community of Instructors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Frezzo, Dennis C.; Behrens, John T.; Mislevy, Robert J.

2010-04-01

Simulation environments make it possible for science and engineering students to learn to interact with complex systems. Putting these capabilities to effective use for learning, and assessing learning, requires more than a simulation environment alone. It requires a conceptual framework for the knowledge, skills, and ways of thinking that are meant to be developed, in order to design activities that target these capabilities. The challenges of using simulation environments effectively are especially daunting in dispersed social systems. This article describes how these challenges were addressed in the context of the Cisco Networking Academies with a simulation tool for computer networks called Packet Tracer. The focus is on a conceptual support framework for instructors in over 9,000 institutions around the world for using Packet Tracer in instruction and assessment, by learning to create problem-solving scenarios that are at once tuned to the local needs of their students and consistent with the epistemic frame of "thinking like a network engineer." We describe a layered framework of tools and interfaces above the network simulator that supports the use of Packet Tracer in the distributed community of instructors and students.

An approach to studying scale for students in higher education: a Rasch measurement model analysis.

PubMed

Waugh, R F; Hii, T K; Islam, A

2000-01-01

A questionnaire comprising 80 self-report items was designed to measure student Approaches to Studying in a higher education context. The items were conceptualized and designed from five learning orientations: a Deep Approach, a Surface Approach, a Strategic Approach, Clarity of Direction and Academic Self-Confidence, to include 40 attitude items and 40 corresponding behavior items. The study aimed to create a scale and investigate its psychometric properties using a Rasch measurement model. The convenience sample consisted of 350 students at an Australian university in 1998. The analysis supported the conceptual structure of the Scale as involving studying attitudes and behaviors towards five orientations to learning. Attitudes are mostly easier than behaviors, in line with the theory. Sixty-eight items fit the model and have good psychometric properties. The proportion of observed variance considered true is 92% and the Scale is well-targeted against the students. Some harder items are needed to improve the targeting and some further testing work needs to be done on the Surface Approach. In the Surface Approach and Clarity of Direction in Studying, attitudes make a lesser contribution than behaviors to the variable, Approaches to Studying.

Conceptual design of flapping-wing micro air vehicles.

PubMed

Whitney, J P; Wood, R J

2012-09-01

Traditional micro air vehicles (MAVs) are miniature versions of full-scale aircraft from which their design principles closely follow. The first step in aircraft design is the development of a conceptual design, where basic specifications and vehicle size are established. Conceptual design methods do not rely on specific knowledge of the propulsion system, vehicle layout and subsystems; these details are addressed later in the design process. Non-traditional MAV designs based on birds or insects are less common and without well-established conceptual design methods. This paper presents a conceptual design process for hovering flapping-wing vehicles. An energy-based accounting of propulsion and aerodynamics is combined with a one degree-of-freedom dynamic flapping model. Important results include simple analytical expressions for flight endurance and range, predictions for maximum feasible wing size and body mass, and critical design space restrictions resulting from finite wing inertia. A new figure-of-merit for wing structural-inertial efficiency is proposed and used to quantify the performance of real and artificial insect wings. The impact of these results on future flapping-wing MAV designs is discussed in detail.

Exploring the diversity of conceptualizations of work (dis)ability: a scoping review of published definitions.

PubMed

Lederer, Valérie; Loisel, Patrick; Rivard, Michèle; Champagne, François

2014-06-01

Researchers are confronted to numerous definitions of work ability/disability, influenced by their context of emergence, discipline, purpose, underlying paradigm and relationship to time. This study provides an in-depth analysis of the concept through a systematic scoping review and the development of an integrative concept map of work (dis)ability. The research questions are: How has work (dis)ability been conceptualized from the perspectives of research, practice, policy and industry in the published scientific literature? How has the conceptualization of work (dis)ability evolved over time? A search strategy was designed with a library scientist to retrieve scientific publications containing explicit definition(s) of work (dis)ability in leading-edge databases. The screening and the extraction of the definitions were achieved by duplicate assessment. The definitions were subject to a comparative analysis based on the grounded theory approach. In total, 423 abstracts were retrieved from the bibliographic databases. After removing duplicates, 280 unique records were screened for inclusion. A final set of 115 publications containing unique original conceptual definitions served as basis for analysis. The scientific literature does not reflect a shared, integrated vision of the exact nature and dimensions of work (dis)ability. However, except for a few definitions, there seems to be a consensus that work (dis)ability is a relational concept resulting from the interaction of multiple dimensions that influence each other through different ecological levels. The conceptualization of work (dis)ability also seems to have become more dynamic over time. The way work (dis)ability is defined has important implications for research, compensation and rehabilitation.

"My Mind Is Doing It All": No "Brake" to Stop Speech Generation in Jargon Aphasia.

PubMed

Robinson, Gail A; Butterworth, Brian; Cipolotti, Lisa

2015-12-01

To study whether pressure of speech in jargon aphasia arises out of disturbances to core language or executive processes, or at the intersection of conceptual preparation. Conceptual preparation mechanisms for speech have not been well studied. Several mechanisms have been proposed for jargon aphasia, a fluent, well-articulated, logorrheic propositional speech that is almost incomprehensible. We studied the vast quantity of jargon speech produced by patient J.A., who had suffered an infarct after the clipping of a middle cerebral artery aneurysm. We gave J.A. baseline cognitive tests and experimental word- and sentence-generation tasks that we had designed for patients with dynamic aphasia, a severely reduced but otherwise fairly normal propositional speech thought to result from deficits in conceptual preparation. J.A. had cognitive dysfunction, including executive difficulties, and a language profile characterized by poor repetition and naming in the context of relatively intact single-word comprehension. J.A.'s spontaneous speech was fluent but jargon. He had no difficulty generating sentences; in contrast to dynamic aphasia, his sentences were largely meaningless and not significantly affected by stimulus constraint level. This patient with jargon aphasia highlights that voluminous speech output can arise from disturbances of both language and executive functions. Our previous studies have identified three conceptual preparation mechanisms for speech: generation of novel thoughts, their sequencing, and selection. This study raises the possibility that a "brake" to stop message generation may be a fourth conceptual preparation mechanism behind the pressure of speech characteristic of jargon aphasia.

Conceptual design optimization study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hollowell, S. J.; Beeman, E. R., II; Hiyama, R. M.

1990-01-01

The feasibility of applying multilevel functional decomposition and optimization techniques to conceptual design of advanced fighter aircraft was investigated. Applying the functional decomposition techniques to the conceptual design phase appears to be feasible. The initial implementation of the modified design process will optimize wing design variables. A hybrid approach, combining functional decomposition techniques for generation of aerodynamic and mass properties linear sensitivity derivatives with existing techniques for sizing mission performance and optimization, is proposed.

Conceptualising engagement with digital behaviour change interventions: a systematic review using principles from critical interpretive synthesis.

PubMed

Perski, Olga; Blandford, Ann; West, Robert; Michie, Susan

2017-06-01

"Engagement" with digital behaviour change interventions (DBCIs) is considered important for their effectiveness. Evaluating engagement is therefore a priority; however, a shared understanding of how to usefully conceptualise engagement is lacking. This review aimed to synthesise literature on engagement to identify key conceptualisations and to develop an integrative conceptual framework involving potential direct and indirect influences on engagement and relationships between engagement and intervention effectiveness. Four electronic databases (Ovid MEDLINE, PsycINFO, ISI Web of Knowledge, ScienceDirect) were searched in November 2015. We identified 117 articles that met the inclusion criteria: studies employing experimental or non-experimental designs with adult participants explicitly or implicitly referring to engagement with DBCIs, digital games or technology. Data were synthesised using principles from critical interpretive synthesis. Engagement with DBCIs is conceptualised in terms of both experiential and behavioural aspects. A conceptual framework is proposed in which engagement with a DBCI is influenced by the DBCI itself (content and delivery), the context (the setting in which the DBCI is used and the population using it) and the behaviour that the DBCI is targeting. The context and "mechanisms of action" may moderate the influence of the DBCI on engagement. Engagement, in turn, moderates the influence of the DBCI on those mechanisms of action. In the research literature, engagement with DBCIs has been conceptualised in terms of both experience and behaviour and sits within a complex system involving the DBCI, the context of use, the mechanisms of action of the DBCI and the target behaviour.

Constructing a new theory from old ideas and new evidence

PubMed Central

Rhodes, Marjorie; Wellman, Henry

2014-01-01

A central tenet of constructivist models of conceptual development is that children’s initial conceptual level constrains how they make sense of new evidence and thus whether exposure to evidence will prompt conceptual change. Yet, little experimental evidence directly examines this claim for the case of sustained, fundamental conceptual achievements. The present study combined scaling and experimental microgenetic methods to examine the processes underlying conceptual change in the context of an important conceptual achievement of early childhood—the development of a representational theory of mind. Results from 47 children (M age = 3.7 years) indicate that only children who were conceptually close to understanding false belief at the beginning of the study, and who were experimentally exposed to evidence of people acting on false beliefs, reliably developed representational theories of minds. Combined scaling and microgenetic data revealed how prior conceptual level interacts with experience, thereby providing critical experimental evidence for how conceptual change results from the interplay between conceptions and evidence. PMID:23489194

A developmental examination of the conceptual structure of animal, artifact, and human social categories across two cultural contexts

PubMed Central

Rhodes, Marjorie; Gelman, Susan A.

2009-01-01

Previous research indicates that the ontological status that adults attribute to categories varies systematically by domain. For example, adults view distinctions between different animal species as natural and objective, but view distinctions between different kinds of furniture as more conventionalized and subjective. The present work (N = 435; ages 5-18) examined the effects of domain, age, and cultural context on beliefs about the naturalness vs. conventionality of categories. Results demonstrate that young children, like adults, view animal categories as natural kinds, but artifact categories as more conventionalized. For human social categories (gender and race), beliefs about naturalness and conventionality were predicted by interactions between cultural context and age. Implications for the origins of social categories and theories of conceptual development will be discussed. PMID:19524886

Integrating the fundamentals of care framework in baccalaureate nursing education: An example from a nursing school in Denmark.

PubMed

Voldbjerg, Siri Lygum; Laugesen, Britt; Bahnsen, Iben Bøgh; Jørgensen, Lone; Sørensen, Ingrid Maria; Grønkjaer, Mette; Sørensen, Erik Elgaard

2018-06-01

To describe and discuss the process of integrating the Fundamentals of Care framework in a baccalaureate nursing education at a School of Nursing in Denmark. Nursing education plays an essential role in educating nurses to work within healthcare systems in which a demanding workload on nurses results in fundamental nursing care being left undone. Newly graduated nurses often lack knowledge and skills to meet the challenges of delivering fundamental care in clinical practice. To develop nursing students' understanding of fundamental nursing, the conceptual Fundamentals of Care framework has been integrated in nursing education at a School of Nursing in Denmark. Discursive paper using an adjusted descriptive case study design for describing and discussing the process of integrating the conceptual Fundamentals of Care Framework in nursing education. The process of integrating the Fundamentals of Care framework is illuminated through a description of the context, in which the process occurs including the faculty members, lectures, case-based work and simulation laboratory in nursing education. Based on this description, opportunities such as supporting a holistic approach to an evidence-based integrative patient care and challenges such as scepticism among the faculty are discussed. It is suggested how integration of Fundamentals of Care Framework in lectures, case-based work and simulation laboratory can make fundamental nursing care more explicit in nursing education, support critical thinking and underline the relevance of evidence-based practice. The process relies on a supportive context, a well-informed and engaged faculty, and continuous reflections on how the conceptual framework can be integrated. Integrating the Fundamentals of Care framework can support nursing students' critical thinking and reflection on what fundamental nursing care is and requires and eventually educate nurses in providing evidence-based fundamental nursing care. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

QFD-ANP Approach for the Conceptual Design of Research Vessels: A Case Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Venkata Subbaiah, Kambagowni; Yeshwanth Sai, Koneru; Suresh, Challa

2016-10-01

Conceptual design is a subset of concept art wherein a new idea of product is created instead of a visual representation which would directly be used in a final product. The purpose is to understand the needs of conceptual design which are being used in engineering designs and to clarify the current conceptual design practice. Quality function deployment (QFD) is a customer oriented design approach for developing new or improved products and services to enhance customer satisfaction. House of quality (HOQ) has been traditionally used as planning tool of QFD which translates customer requirements (CRs) into design requirements (DRs). Factor analysis is carried out in order to reduce the CR portions of HOQ. The analytical hierarchical process is employed to obtain the priority ratings of CR's which are used in constructing HOQ. This paper mainly discusses about the conceptual design of an oceanographic research vessel using analytical network process (ANP) technique. Finally the QFD-ANP integrated methodology helps to establish the importance ratings of DRs.

Ranging and tracking system for proximity operations, phase 1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Udalov, S.; Nilsen, P. W.

1979-01-01

A study task is reported which is directed towards developing a conceptual design of a small, lightweight range and range rate radar sensor system to meet NASA's requirements for accurate short-range and velocity measurements in an orbital environment. Within the context of the requirements, the short range implies system operation at 0 m to 1850 m (6000 ft) and accurate implies a range measurement to within 1 sigma accuracy of 0.20 m (0.67 ft) and a range rate (velocity) measurement to within 1 sigma accuracy of 0.01 m/sec (0.033 ft/sec).

Risk Evaluation in the Pre-Phase A Conceptual Design of Spacecraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fabisinski, Leo L., III; Maples, Charlotte Dauphne

2010-01-01

Typically, the most important decisions in the design of a spacecraft are made in the earliest stages of its conceptual design the Pre-Phase A stages. It is in these stages that the greatest number of design alternatives is considered, and the greatest number of alternatives is rejected. The focus of Pre-Phase A conceptual development is on the evaluation and comparison of whole concepts and the larger-scale systems comprising those concepts. This comparison typically uses general Figures of Merit (FOMs) to quantify the comparative benefits of designs and alternative design features. Along with mass, performance, and cost, risk should be one of the major FOMs in evaluating design decisions during the conceptual design phases. However, risk is often given inadequate consideration in conceptual design practice. The reasons frequently given for this lack of attention to risk include: inadequate mission definition, lack of rigorous design requirements in early concept phases, lack of fidelity in risk assessment methods, and under-evaluation of risk as a viable FOM for design evaluation. In this paper, the role of risk evaluation in early conceptual design is discussed. The various requirements of a viable risk evaluation tool at the Pre-Phase A level are considered in light of the needs of a typical spacecraft design study. A technique for risk identification and evaluation is presented. The application of the risk identification and evaluation approach to the conceptual design process is discussed. Finally, a computational tool for risk profiling is presented and applied to assess the risk for an existing Pre-Phase A proposal. The resulting profile is compared to the risks identified for the proposal by other means.

The design of two sonic boom wind tunnel models from conceptual aircraft which cruise at Mach numbers of 2.0 and 3.0

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mack, Robert J.; Needleman, Kathy E.

1990-01-01

A method for designing wind tunnel models of conceptual, low-boom, supersonic cruise aircraft is presented. Also included is a review of the procedures used to design the conceptual low-boom aircraft. In the discussion, problems unique to, and encountered during, the design of both the conceptual aircraft and the wind tunnel models are outlined. The sensitivity of low-boom characteristics in the aircraft design to control the volume and lift equivalent area distributions was emphasized. Solutions to these problems are reported; especially the two which led to the design of the wind tunnel model support stings.

Designing for Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI): A Design Anthropological Perspective.

PubMed

Collier, Guy; Kayes, Nicola; Reay, Stephen; Bill, Amanda

2017-01-01

This paper will present a design anthropological perspective on an ongoing project called 'Living Well with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI)'. The project explores how people with MCI (and their families) manage and respond to changes in their memory and thinking. One of the primary aims of this project is to design an online resource that will support people to 'Live Well' within the context of possible cognitive decline. The resource was originally proposed to function as a kind of online community, where users could both share and learn about home-grown strategies for managing the cognitive changes associated with MCI in everyday life. Much of this project has been guided by the methodological approach of design anthropology, which encourages project researchers and stakeholders to critically examine underlying assumptions and conceptual frameworks, which in this case revolve around the disputed MCI category. In this paper we will provide some background to the Living Well project before highlighting a number of key insights attained from design anthropology.

[How can the impact of Health Technology Assessment (HTA) in the Austrian healthcare system be assessed? Design of a conceptual framework].

PubMed

Schumacher, I; Zechmeister, I

2012-04-01

In Austria research in Health Technology Assessment (HTA) has been conducted since the 1990s. Research in HTA aims at supporting an adequate and efficient use of health care resources in order to sustain a publicly financed and solidary health care system. Ultimately, HTA research should result in better health of the population. Research results should provide independent information for decision makers. For legitimizing further research resources and for prioritizing future HTA research and guaranteeing the value of future research, HTA research needs itself to undergo evaluation. Aim of the study is to design a conceptual framework for evaluating the impact of HTA research in Austria on the basis of the existing literature. An already existing review which presents methods and concepts how to evaluate HTA-impact was updated by a systematic research including literature of the years 2004-January 2010. Results were analysed in regard to 4 categories: definition of the term impact, target groups and system levels, operationalisation of indicators and evaluation methods. Overall, 19 publications were included. Referring to the 4 categories, an explanation of impact has to take into account HTAs multidisciplinary setting and needs a context related definition. Target groups, system levels, indicators and methods depend on the impact defined. Studies investigated direct and indirect impact and were focused on different target groups like physicians, nurses and decision makers on the micro-, and meso level, as well as politicians and reimbursement institutions on the macro level. Except for one reference all studies applied already known and mostly qualitative methods for measuring the impact of HTA research. Thus, an appropriate pool of instruments seems to be available. There is a lack of information about validity of applied methods and indicators. By adapting adequate methods and concepts a conceptual framework for the Austrian HTA-Impact evaluation has been designed. The paper presents an overview of existing methods for the evaluation of the HTA research. This has been used to identify useful approaches for measuring the HTA-impact in Austria. By providing a context sensitive framework for impact evaluation in Austria the Austrian HTA-research contributes to the international trend of impact-evaluation. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Promoting Conceptual Understanding via Adaptive Concept Maps

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moore, Jacob P.

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study is to explore the feasibility and effectiveness of a scalable concept map based navigation system for a digital textbook. A literature review has been conducted to identify possible methods to promote conceptual understanding in the context of a digital textbook, and these hypothesized solutions will be evaluated through…

Understanding and Theorizing the Role of Culture in the Conceptualizations of Successful Aging and Lifelong Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tam, Maureen

2014-01-01

Successful aging and lifelong learning are value-laden concepts that are culturally determined. To this effect, people with different value systems and cultural backgrounds may perceive and understand these two concepts differently, resulting in different definitions and conceptualizations by people in diverse cultural contexts. There have been…

Interpersonal Skills in MBA Admissions: How Are They Conceptualized and Assessed?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beenen, Gerard; Pichler, Shaun; Davoudpour, Shahin

2018-01-01

Employers and students concur that soft skills or interpersonal skills are critical to managerial success, yet we know little about how MBA program admissions professionals conceptualize and assess these skills in the context of global management education. Such practices have key implications for interpersonal skills curriculum and training in…

University Students' Conceptual Knowledge of Randomness and Probability in the Contexts of Evolution and Mathematics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fiedler, Daniela; Tröbst, Steffen; Harms, Ute

2017-01-01

Students of all ages face severe conceptual difficulties regarding key aspects of evolution-- the central, unifying, and overarching theme in biology. Aspects strongly related to abstract "threshold" concepts like randomness and probability appear to pose particular difficulties. A further problem is the lack of an appropriate instrument…

Facets of Academic Excellence in Management Education: Conceptualization and Instrument Development in India

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shukla, Amit; Singh, Shailendra

2016-01-01

The present work conceptualizes the idea of "Academic Excellence in Management Education" (AEM) in the Indian context. AEM is defined as a set of attributes that favourably and significantly contribute to a wide range of academic activities from faculty's perspective. The paper also describes grounded-theory approach for development of…

Educating Prospective Teachers of Biology: Introduction and Research Methods.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hewson, Peter W.; Tabachnick, B. Robert; Zeichner, Kenneth M.; Blomker, Kathryn B.; Meyer, Helen; Lemberger, John; Marion, Robin; Park, Hyun-Ju; Toolin, Regina

1999-01-01

Introduces an issue that details a complex study of a science-teacher-education program whose goal was to graduate teachers who held conceptual change conceptions of teaching science and were disposed to put them into practice. Presents a conceptual framework for science-teacher education, and describes the context and major questions of the…

Fostering Conceptual Change and Critical Reasoning About HIV and AIDS

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Keselman, Alla; Kaufman, David R.; Kramer, Sharon; Patel, Vimla L.

2007-01-01

One of the challenges of science education is for students to develop scientific knowledge that is personally meaningful and applicable to real-life issues. This article describes a middle-school science intervention fostering adolescents' critical reasoning in the context of HIV by strengthening their conceptual understanding of HIV biology. The…

From Graduate Employability to Employment: Policy and Practice in UK Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Minocha, Sonal; Hristov, Dean; Reynolds, Martin

2017-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to enrich the current conceptualization of graduate employability and employment through the lens of policy, academia and practice in UK higher education. We examine the UK policy context that is shaping graduate employability and employment debates before enriching this conceptualization through a discussion of key…

Developing a TPCK-SRL Assessment Scheme for Conceptually Advancing Technology in Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kohen, Zehavit; Kramarski, Bracha

2012-01-01

The present study aimed to: (a) develop a conceptual TPCK-SRL scheme for assessing teachers' integration of self-regulated learning (SRL) considerations while infusing technology into a TPCK classroom context (blending K = knowledge about T = technology, P = pedagogy, and C = content), which reflects all three knowledge components' dynamic…

Safe, Positive and Queering Moments in Teaching Education and Schooling: A Conceptual Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goldstein, Tara; Russell, Vanessa; Daley, Andrea

2007-01-01

This article introduces a conceptual framework for thinking about the development of anti-homophobia education in teacher education and schooling contexts. We bring the safe, positive, and queering moments framework to bear on three distinct anti-homophobia education practices: coming out stories, homophobic name-calling analysis, and Pride Week…

International Mindedness: Conceptualizations and Curriculum in an International School in Brazil

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dewey, Nelson Peter

2017-01-01

This dissertation is a qualitative, single case study of an international school in Brazil that explores how school administrators and teachers conceptualize international mindedness, and how it is developed within the curriculum of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program. I provide a rich description of the context, developing four themes…

Toward a Conceptual Model of Motive and Self-Control in Cyber-Aggression: Rage, Revenge, Reward, and Recreation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Runions, Kevin C.

2013-01-01

Despite widespread public attention to cyberbullying, online aggression and victimization have received scant conceptual development. This article focuses on how opportunities for aggression are distinct online from those of offline social contexts. The model developed here is informed by a recent aggression typology, which extends the…

The Devil is in the Concepts: Lessons Learned from World War II Planning Staffs for Transitioning from Conceptual to Detailed Planning

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-05-25

the planning process. Current US Army doctrine links conceptual planning to the Army Design Methodology and detailed planning to the Military...Decision Making Process. By associating conceptual and detailed planning with doctrinal methodologies , it is easy to regard the transition as a set period...plans into detailed directives resulting in changes to the operational environment. 15. SUBJECT TERMS Design; Army Design Methodology ; Conceptual

Integrating Flight Dynamics & Control Analysis and Simulation in Rotorcraft Conceptual Design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lawrence, Ben; Berger, Tom; Tischler, Mark B.; Theodore, Colin R; Elmore, Josh; Gallaher, Andrew; Tobias, Eric L.

2016-01-01

The development of a toolset, SIMPLI-FLYD ('SIMPLIfied FLight dynamics for conceptual Design') is described. SIMPLI-FLYD is a collection of tools that perform flight dynamics and control modeling and analysis of rotorcraft conceptual designs including a capability to evaluate the designs in an X-Plane-based real-time simulation. The establishment of this framework is now facilitating the exploration of this new capability, in terms of modeling fidelity and data requirements, and the investigation of which stability and control and handling qualities requirements are appropriate for conceptual design. Illustrative design variation studies for single main rotor and tiltrotor vehicle configurations show sensitivity of the stability and control characteristics and an approach to highlight potential weight savings by identifying over-design.

Conceptual and methodological challenges to integrating SEA and cumulative effects assessment

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gunn, Jill, E-mail: jill.gunn@usask.c; Noble, Bram F.

The constraints to assessing and managing cumulative environmental effects in the context of project-based environmental assessment are well documented, and the potential benefits of a more strategic approach to cumulative effects assessment (CEA) are well argued; however, such benefits have yet to be clearly demonstrated in practice. While it is widely assumed that cumulative effects are best addressed in a strategic context, there has been little investigation as to whether CEA and strategic environmental assessment (SEA) are a 'good fit' - conceptually or methodologically. This paper identifies a number of conceptual and methodological challenges to the integration of CEA andmore » SEA. Based on results of interviews with international experts and practitioners, this paper demonstrates that: definitions and conceptualizations of CEA are typically weak in practice; approaches to effects aggregation vary widely; a systems perspective lacks in both SEA and CEA; the multifarious nature of SEA complicates CEA; tiering arrangements between SEA and project-based assessment are limited to non-existing; and the relationship of SEA to regional planning remains unclear.« less

"It all depends": conceptualizing public involvement in the context of health technology assessment agencies.

PubMed

Gauvin, Francois-Pierre; Abelson, Julia; Giacomini, Mita; Eyles, John; Lavis, John N

2010-05-01

There have been calls in recent years for greater public involvement in health technology assessment (HTA). Yet the concept of public involvement is poorly articulated and little attention has been paid to the context of HTA agencies. This article investigates how public involvement is conceptualized in the HTA agency environment. Using qualitative concept analysis methods, we reviewed the HTA literature and the websites of HTA agencies and conducted semi-structured interviews with informants in Canada, Denmark, and the United Kingdom. Our analysis reveals that HTA agencies' role as bridges or boundary organizations situated at the frontier of research and policymaking causes the agencies to struggle with the idea of public involvement. The HTA community is concerned with conceptualizing public involvement in such a way as to meet scientific and methodological standards without neglecting its responsibilities to healthcare policymakers. We offer a conceptual tool for analyzing the nature of public involvement across agencies, characterizing different domains, levels of involvement, and types of publics. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Computer-based creativity enhanced conceptual design model for non-routine design of mechanical systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Yutong; Wang, Yuxin; Duffy, Alex H. B.

2014-11-01

Computer-based conceptual design for routine design has made great strides, yet non-routine design has not been given due attention, and it is still poorly automated. Considering that the function-behavior-structure(FBS) model is widely used for modeling the conceptual design process, a computer-based creativity enhanced conceptual design model(CECD) for non-routine design of mechanical systems is presented. In the model, the leaf functions in the FBS model are decomposed into and represented with fine-grain basic operation actions(BOA), and the corresponding BOA set in the function domain is then constructed. Choosing building blocks from the database, and expressing their multiple functions with BOAs, the BOA set in the structure domain is formed. Through rule-based dynamic partition of the BOA set in the function domain, many variants of regenerated functional schemes are generated. For enhancing the capability to introduce new design variables into the conceptual design process, and dig out more innovative physical structure schemes, the indirect function-structure matching strategy based on reconstructing the combined structure schemes is adopted. By adjusting the tightness of the partition rules and the granularity of the divided BOA subsets, and making full use of the main function and secondary functions of each basic structure in the process of reconstructing of the physical structures, new design variables and variants are introduced into the physical structure scheme reconstructing process, and a great number of simpler physical structure schemes to accomplish the overall function organically are figured out. The creativity enhanced conceptual design model presented has a dominant capability in introducing new deign variables in function domain and digging out simpler physical structures to accomplish the overall function, therefore it can be utilized to solve non-routine conceptual design problem.

An early start to STEM education among year 1 primary students through project-based inquiry learning in the context of a magnet

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Safiee, N.; Jusoh, Z. M.; Noor, A. M. H. M.; Tek, O. E.; Salleh, S. M.

2018-01-01

For the needs of the 21st century, the Government of Malaysia has conceptualized the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025 which embodies 11 strategic and operational shifts. In Shift 1, it is emphasized that the quality of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education will be enhanced. This study employed the mixed-method approach using the “one-group pre-test and post-test design”. Accordingly, this paper describes the pedagogical practice of Project-based Inquiry Learning (PIL) which promotes STEM Education among Year 1 students in the move to progress in tandem with Shift 1. Specifically, using the context of a magnet which has been stipulated in the Primary School Standard Curriculum, Year 1 students experienced the STEM Education through the STEM Pedagogy in which they raised questions upon the presentation of a relevant stimulus (Inquiry Phase), explored the ways in which a train carriage or coach could be assembled by means of recycled materials and magnets (Exploration Phase), designed a train carriage (Design Phase), and ultimately reflected on their inventions (Reflection Phase). The cognitive and affective impacts through the use of this Project-based Inquiry Learning are presented. Implications for the teaching and learning of science are discussed within the context of STEM Education.

A framework to analyse gender bias in epidemiological research

PubMed Central

Ruiz‐Cantero, María Teresa; Vives‐Cases, Carmen; Artazcoz, Lucía; Delgado, Ana; del Mar García Calvente, Maria; Miqueo, Consuelo; Montero, Isabel; Ortiz, Rocío; Ronda, Elena; Ruiz, Isabel; Valls, Carme

2007-01-01

The design and analysis of research may cause systematic gender dependent errors to be produced in results because of gender insensitivity or androcentrism. Gender bias in research could be defined as a systematically erroneous gender dependent approach related to social construct, which incorrectly regards women and men as similar/different. Most gender bias can be found in the context of discovery (development of hypotheses), but it has also been found in the context of justification (methodological process), which must be improved. In fact, one of the main effects of gender bias in research is partial or incorrect knowledge in the results, which are systematically different from the real values. This paper discusses some forms of conceptual and methodological bias that may affect women's health. It proposes a framework to analyse gender bias in the design and analysis of research carried out on women's and men's health problems, and on specific women's health issues. Using examples, the framework aims to show the different theoretical perspectives in a social or clinical research context where forms of selection, measurement and confounding bias are produced as a result of gender insensitivity. Finally, this paper underlines the importance of re‐examining results so that they may be reinterpreted to produce new gender based knowledge. PMID:18000118

A framework to analyse gender bias in epidemiological research.

PubMed

Ruiz-Cantero, María Teresa; Vives-Cases, Carmen; Artazcoz, Lucía; Delgado, Ana; García Calvente, Maria Mar; Miqueo, Consuelo; Montero, Isabel; Ortiz, Rocío; Ronda, Elena; Ruiz, Isabel; Valls, Carme

2007-12-01

The design and analysis of research may cause systematic gender dependent errors to be produced in results because of gender insensitivity or androcentrism. Gender bias in research could be defined as a systematically erroneous gender dependent approach related to social construct, which incorrectly regards women and men as similar/different. Most gender bias can be found in the context of discovery (development of hypotheses), but it has also been found in the context of justification (methodological process), which must be improved. In fact, one of the main effects of gender bias in research is partial or incorrect knowledge in the results, which are systematically different from the real values. This paper discusses some forms of conceptual and methodological bias that may affect women's health. It proposes a framework to analyse gender bias in the design and analysis of research carried out on women's and men's health problems, and on specific women's health issues. Using examples, the framework aims to show the different theoretical perspectives in a social or clinical research context where forms of selection, measurement and confounding bias are produced as a result of gender insensitivity. Finally, this paper underlines the importance of re-examining results so that they may be reinterpreted to produce new gender based knowledge.

Conceptual Design Optimization of an Augmented Stability Aircraft Incorporating Dynamic Response and Actuator Constraints

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Welstead, Jason; Crouse, Gilbert L., Jr.

2014-01-01

Empirical sizing guidelines such as tail volume coefficients have long been used in the early aircraft design phases for sizing stabilizers, resulting in conservatively stable aircraft. While successful, this results in increased empty weight, reduced performance, and greater procurement and operational cost relative to an aircraft with optimally sized surfaces. Including flight dynamics in the conceptual design process allows the design to move away from empirical methods while implementing modern control techniques. A challenge of flight dynamics and control is the numerous design variables, which are changing fluidly throughout the conceptual design process, required to evaluate the system response to some disturbance. This research focuses on addressing that challenge not by implementing higher order tools, such as computational fluid dynamics, but instead by linking the lower order tools typically used within the conceptual design process so each discipline feeds into the other. In thisresearch, flight dynamics and control was incorporated into the conceptual design process along with the traditional disciplines of vehicle sizing, weight estimation, aerodynamics, and performance. For the controller, a linear quadratic regulator structure with constant gains has been specified to reduce the user input. Coupling all the disciplines in the conceptual design phase allows the aircraft designer to explore larger design spaces where stabilizers are sized according to dynamic response constraints rather than historical static margin and volume coefficient guidelines.

Newman Unit 1 advanced solar repowering advanced conceptual design. Final report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

None

1982-04-01

The Newman Unit 1 solar repowering design is a water/steam central receiver concept supplying superheated steam. The work reported is to develop a refined baseline conceptual design that has potential for construction and operation by 1986, makes use of existing solar thermal technology, and provides the best economics for this application. Trade studies performed in the design effort are described, both for the conceptual design of the overall system and for the subsystem conceptual design. System-level functional requirements, design, operation, performance, cost, safety, environmental, institutional, and regulatory considerations are described. Subsystems described include the collector, receiver, fossil energy, electrical powermore » generating, and master control subsystems, site and site facilities. The conceptual design, cost, and performance of each subsystem is discussed at length. A detailed economic analysis of the repowered unit is made to realistically assess the economics of the first repowered unit using present cost data for a limited production level for solar hardware. Finally, a development plan is given, including the design, procurement, construction, checkout, startup, performance validation, and commercial operation. (LEW)« less

Space Station Furnace Facility. Volume 2: Requirements definition and conceptual design study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1992-01-01

The Space Station Freedom Furnace (SSFF) Project is divided into two phases: phase 1, a definition study phase, and phase 2, a design and development phase. TBE was awarded a research study entitled, 'Space Station Furnace Facility Requirements Definition and Conceptual Design Study' on June 2, 1989. This report addresses the definition study phase only. Phase 2 is to be complete after completion of phase 1. The contract encompassed a requirements definition study and culminated in hardware/facility conceptual designs and hardware demonstration development models to test these conceptual designs. The study was divided into two parts. Part 1 (the basic part of the effort) encompassed preliminary requirements definition and assessment; conceptional design of the SSFF Core; fabrication of mockups; and preparation for the support of a conceptional design review (CoDR). Part 2 (the optional part of the effort) included detailed definition of the engineering and design requirements, as derived from the science requirements; refinement of the conceptual design of the SSFF Core; fabrication and testing of the 'breadboards' or development models; and preparation for and support of a requirements definition review.

Children's Learning in Scientific Thinking: Instructional Approaches and Roles of Variable Identification and Executive Function

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blums, Angela

The present study examines instructional approaches and cognitive factors involved in elementary school children's thinking and learning the Control of Variables Strategy (CVS), a critical aspect of scientific reasoning. Previous research has identified several features related to effective instruction of CVS, including using a guided learning approach, the use of self-reflective questions, and learning in individual and group contexts. The current study examined the roles of procedural and conceptual instruction in learning CVS and investigated the role of executive function in the learning process. Additionally, this study examined how learning to identify variables is a part of the CVS process. In two studies (individual and classroom experiments), 139 third, fourth, and fifth grade students participated in hands-on and paper and pencil CVS learning activities and, in each study, were assigned to either a procedural instruction, conceptual instruction, or control (no instruction) group. Participants also completed a series of executive function tasks. The study was carried out with two parts--Study 1 used an individual context and Study 2 was carried out in a group setting. Results indicated that procedural and conceptual instruction were more effective than no instruction, and the ability to identify variables was identified as a key piece to the CVS process. Executive function predicted ability to identify variables and predicted success on CVS tasks. Developmental differences were present, in that older children outperformed younger children on CVS tasks, and that conceptual instruction was slightly more effective for older children. Some differences between individual and group instruction were found, with those in the individual context showing some advantage over the those in the group setting in learning CVS concepts. Conceptual implications about scientific thinking and practical implications in science education are discussed.

Science supervisors' conceptions of biology and the field of science: A qualitative study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Young, Jean Radcliff

1999-12-01

This study examined the nature, source and formation of science supervisors' cognitive frameworks for biology and for the field of science and the impact of these frameworks on their work in school divisions. The design for this qualitative study was an emergent case study using ethnographic methods. The purposeful sample consisted of five science supervisors selected from different school divisions in three geographic regions of a middle-Atlantic state. Each participant had a background in biology, classroom teaching and full-time supervisory experience. To collect data for this study, an open-ended questionnaire was used to gain an understanding of the nature of the supervisors' conceptions of biology and for the field of science. Two semi-structured interviews, each lasting 1--2 hours in length, were designed to explore the source and formation of the supervisors' conceptual frameworks, and the impact of these frameworks on their work in school divisions. Data were inductively analyzed using a constant comparative approach. The major findings of this study were: (1) All of the supervisors in this study were remarkably cognizant of possessing a framework for biology and for the field of science. (2) The supervisors' frameworks were well-formed, relatively highly complex and showed a variety of organizational patterns. (3) All of the supervisors' diagrams showed evidence of coherent, integrated themes with emphasis on the importance of connections and interrelationships. (4) The supervisors were able to readily articulate sound rationales for construction of their diagrams. (5) Instead of seeing biology as an isolated discipline, the supervisors view biology in the context of science. Overall, the supervisors no longer see their frameworks as biology-content related, but as science-related. (6) Major influences on the source and formation of the supervisors' conceptual frameworks were a result of selected work-related experiences. (7) The supervisors' conceptual frameworks, in the context of implementation of state Standards of Learning, have had a major impact on their work in their school divisions with teachers and indirectly with students, parents and the public. Results are discussed in comparison with prior studies of non-supervisors using a similar methodology. Implications for educational practice and further research are included.

Using concept mapping for assessing and promoting relational conceptual change in science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Xiufeng

2004-05-01

In this article, we adopted the relational conceptual change as our theoretical framework to accommodate current views of conceptual change such as ontological beliefs, epistemological commitment, and social/affective contexts commonly mentioned in the literature. We used a specific concept mapping format and process - digraphs and digraphing - as an operational framework for assessing and promoting relational conceptual change. We wanted to find out how concept mapping can be used to account for relational conceptual change. We collected data from a Grade 12 chemistry class using collaborative computerized concept mapping on an ongoing basis during a unit of instruction. Analysis of progressive concept maps and interview transcripts of representative students and the teacher showed that ongoing and collaborative computerized concept mapping is able to account for student conceptual change in ontological, epistemological, and social/affective domains.

Lunar surface transportation systems conceptual design lunar base systems study Task 5.2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1988-01-01

Conceptual designs for three categories of lunar surface transportation were described. The level of understanding for the capabilities and design approach varies between the vehicles representing these categories. A summary of the vehicle categories and current state of conceptual design is provided. Finally, a brief evaluation and discussion is provided for a systematic comparison of transportation categories and effectiveness in supporting transportation objectives.

Critical thinking in nursing: Scoping review of the literature.

PubMed

Zuriguel Pérez, Esperanza; Lluch Canut, Maria Teresa; Falcó Pegueroles, Anna; Puig Llobet, Montserrat; Moreno Arroyo, Carmen; Roldán Merino, Juan

2015-12-01

This article seeks to analyse the current state of scientific knowledge concerning critical thinking in nursing. The methodology used consisted of a scoping review of the main scientific databases using an applied search strategy. A total of 1518 studies published from January 1999 to June 2013 were identified, of which 90 met the inclusion criteria. The main conclusion drawn is that critical thinking in nursing is experiencing a growing interest in the study of both its concepts and its dimensions, as well as in the development of training strategies to further its development among both students and professionals. Furthermore, the analysis reveals that critical thinking has been investigated principally in the university setting, independent of conceptual models, with a variety of instruments used for its measurement. We recommend (i) the investigation of critical thinking among working professionals, (ii) the designing of evaluative instruments linked to conceptual models and (iii) the identification of strategies to promote critical thinking in the context of providing nursing care. © 2014 Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

'Conceiving kothis': men who have sex with men in India and the cultural subject of HIV prevention.

PubMed

Boyce, Paul

2007-01-01

HIV prevention with men who have sex with men in India has, in large part, been premised on the reification of "cultural categories"--kothi being among the most popularized terms in this context, broadly designating men who have a feminine sense of self and who enact "passive" sexual roles. Countering prevailing research trends, this article explores ways in which local, national, and global processes inform contemporary kothi sexual subjectivities--disrupting simplistic perspectives on the cultural coherence of the category. Derivative uses of anthropological knowledge in public health and activist milieux are seen to have propounded limited representations of men who have sex with men in India. Drawing on ethnographic research in Calcutta, conceptualization of time in ethnography is examined and a critique of positivist epistemologies is put forward as a basis for advancing more conceptually cogent and effective HIV prevention research and programming strategies, especially those that aim to address sexuality between men.

A conceptual framework for effectively anticipating water-quality changes resulting from changes in agricultural activities

USGS Publications Warehouse

Capel, Paul D.; Wolock, David M.; Coupe, Richard H.; Roth, Jason L.

2018-01-10

Agricultural activities can affect water quality and the health of aquatic ecosystems; many water-quality issues originate with the movement of water, agricultural chemicals, and eroded soil from agricultural areas to streams and groundwater. Most agricultural activities are designed to sustain or increase crop production, while some are designed to protect soil and water resources. Numerous soil- and water-protection practices are designed to reduce the volume and velocity of runoff and increase infiltration. This report presents a conceptual framework that combines generalized concepts on the movement of water, the environmental behavior of chemicals and eroded soil, and the designed functions of various agricultural activities, as they relate to hydrology, to create attainable expectations for the protection of—with the goal of improving—water quality through changes in an agricultural activity.The framework presented uses two types of decision trees to guide decision making toward attainable expectations regarding the effectiveness of changing agricultural activities to protect and improve water quality in streams. One decision tree organizes decision making by considering the hydrologic setting and chemical behaviors, largely at the field scale. This decision tree can help determine which agricultural activities could effectively protect and improve water quality in a stream from the movement of chemicals, or sediment, from a field. The second decision tree is a chemical fate accounting tree. This decision tree helps set attainable expectations for the permanent removal of sediment, elements, and organic chemicals—such as herbicides and insecticides—through trapping or conservation tillage practices. Collectively, this conceptual framework consolidates diverse hydrologic settings, chemicals, and agricultural activities into a single, broad context that can be used to set attainable expectations for agricultural activities. This framework also enables better decision making for future agricultural activities as a means to reduce current, and prevent new, water-quality issues.

Toward an African Definition of Resilience: A Rural South African Community's View of Resilient Basotho Youth

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Theron, Linda C.; Theron, Adam M. C.; Malindi, Macalane J.

2013-01-01

Resilience, or adaptive behavior in the face of adversity, has recently come to be understood as a phenomenon that should not be uniformly conceptualized across contexts and cultures. This emerging understanding has urged exploration of what resilience might mean in specific cultural contexts. As in other majority nation contexts, there is scant…

The religious foundations of health care: a conceptual approach.

PubMed Central

Sevensky, R L

1983-01-01

The relationship of religion and health is often misunderstood owing to a tendency to concentrate on the medical model and to ignore the wider context of heath care. A conceptual--as opposed to a historical--examination of this context reveals nine central religious ideas or categories which provide an ethical foundation and heritage for medical practice and health care delivery. These include doctrines of creation; dominion or stewardship; freedom and responsibility; human dignity or sanctity of life; love or compassion; covenant; justice; vocation; and finitude. A discussion of the complementarity of religion and medicine is necessary and should proceed from these shared values and common concerns. PMID:6620322

Exploring Conceptual Models for Community Engagement at Higher Education Institutions in South Africa

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bender, Gerda

2008-01-01

A critical conceptual analysis of the South African Higher Education context reflects the lack of a structural and functional framework for the conceptualisation of community engagement (CE) in higher education. The purpose of this article is to explore a framework and model for the conceptualisation of CE for a better understanding of community…

An Introduction to the Reform Strategy Which Stresses the Development of Urban School Capacities for Problem Solving.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilson, Stephen

An urban school reform strategy which stresses the development of local capacities for problem solving is described in this paper. The context which gave rise to this conceptualization of reform is analyzed and some difficulties with the conceptualization are discussed. Difficulties include ambiguities about the boundaries of "local,"…

The Effect of Peer Instruction Method on Pre-Service Teachers' Conceptual Comprehension of Methodology Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al-Hebaishi, Safaa Mohammad

2017-01-01

Peer teaching has become a productive learning strategy at all education levels. Peer Instruction Method is carried out in a range of forms and contexts like co-tutoring, reciprocal tutoring and discussion groups without teachers. To examine the effectiveness of using the peer instruction method to enhance the conceptual comprehension of…

The Effect of Concept Cartoon-Embedded Worksheets on Grade 9 Students' Conceptual Understanding of Newton's Laws of Motion

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Atasoy, Sengül; Ergin, Serap

2017-01-01

Background: A substantial review study of concept cartoons reports that few studies have indicated their functions. For this reason, the present study illuminates the extent to which concept cartoon-embedded worksheets (through constructivist context) accomplish these functions in conceptual learning. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to…

University Students' Academic Performance: An Integrative Conceptual Framework and Empirical Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fenollar, Pedro; Roman, Sergio; Cuestas, Pedro J.

2007-01-01

Background: The prediction and explanation of academic performance and the investigation of the factors relating to the academic success and persistence of students are topics of utmost importance in higher education. Aims: The main aim of the present study is to develop and test a conceptual framework in a university context, where the effects of…

The Dynamics of Non-Convergent Learning with a Conflicting Other: Internally Persuasive Discourse as a Framework for Articulating Successful Collaborative Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kolikant, Yifat Ben-David; Pollack, Sarah

2015-01-01

Successful collaborative learning is often conceptualized in terms of convergence, a process through which participants' shared understanding increases. This conceptualization does not capture certain successful collaborative learning processes, especially in the humanities, where multiple perspectives are often celebrated. Such is the context of…

The Coexistence Claim and Its Possible Implications for Success in Teaching for Conceptual "Change"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Potvin, Patrice

2017-01-01

This article presents recent research results in mental chronometry and neuroimaging that support the coexistence of multiple conceptions. It then presents and elaborates on six possible implications for an adherence to the coexistence claim within the context of scientific conceptual learning: (1) stop the war on misconceptions; (2) use a…

Probing Student Reasoning Approaches through the Lens of Dual-Process Theories: A Case Study in Buoyancy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gette, Cody R.; Kryjevskaia, Mila; Stetzer, MacKenzie R.; Heron, Paula R. L.

2018-01-01

A growing body of scholarly work indicates that student performance on physics problems stems from many factors, including relevant conceptual understanding. However, in contexts in which significant conceptual difficulties have been documented via research, it can be difficult to pinpoint and isolate such factors because students' written and…

Conceptualizing the African American Mathematics Teacher as a Key Figure in the African American Education Historical Narrative

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clark, Lawrence M.; Jones Frank, Toya; Davis, Julius

2013-01-01

Background/Context: Historians and researchers have documented and explored the work and role of African American teachers in the U.S. educational system, yet there has been limited attention to the specific work, role, and experiences of African American mathematics teachers. To meaningfully and responsibly conceptualize the role of African…

A Conceptual Application of Attachment Theory and Research to the Social Work Student-Field Instructor Supervisory Relationship

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bennett, Susanne; Saks, Loretta Vitale

2006-01-01

This article conceptualizes an attachment-based model of the student-field instructor relationship, based on empirical research concerning internal working models of attachment, which continue into adulthood and serve as templates for life-long relating. Supportive relationships within a noncritical context are salient for effective supervision;…

Building on Conceptual Interpretations of Aboriginal Literacy in Anishinaabe Research: A Turtle Shaker Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Debassige, Brent

2013-01-01

This article comes out of the larger context of my doctoral dissertation where I investigated my experiences as an academic who attempts to remain true to Indigenous Knowledge (IK) traditions while working within a Western European intellectual setting. In this current paper, I combine the conceptual frameworks of Aboriginal literacy and…

Canadian Contexts in Educational Leadership: A Hermeneutic Approach to Distributed Leadership for Teachers' Professional Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

White, Robert E.; Cooper, Karyn; Anwaruddin, Sardar M.

2017-01-01

Educational leadership in Canada has traditionally been conceptualized as a solo activity. However, in recent years, there has been a growing interest in the distributed character of leadership. Like any other theory or concept, distributed leadership has attracted praise as well as criticism. In this chapter, we conceptualize distributed…

Graduate Employability: A Review of Conceptual and Empirical Themes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tomlinson, Michael

2012-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of some of the dominant empirical and conceptual themes in the area of graduate employment and employability over the past decade. The paper considers the wider context of higher education (HE) and labour market change, and the policy thinking towards graduate employability. It draws upon various…

Conceptual Resources in Self-Developed Explanatory Models: The Importance of Integrating Conscious and Intuitive Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cheng, Meng-Fei; Brown, David E.

2010-01-01

This study explores the spontaneous explanatory models children construct, critique, and revise in the context of tasks in which children need to predict, observe, and explain phenomena involving magnetism. It further investigates what conceptual resources students use, and in what ways they use them, to construct explanatory models, and the…

Using Functional Analytic Therapy to Train Therapists in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, a Conceptual and Practical Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schoendorff, Benjamin; Steinwachs, Joanne

2012-01-01

How can therapists be effectively trained in clinical functional contextualism? In this conceptual article we propose a new way of training therapists in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy skills using tools from Functional Analytic Psychotherapy in a training context functionally similar to the therapeutic relationship. FAP has been successfully…

Affordability Engineering: Bridging the Gap Between Design and Cost

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reeves, J. D.; DePasquale, Dominic; Lim, Evan

2010-01-01

Affordability is a commonly used term that takes on numerous meanings depending on the context used. Within conceptual design of complex systems, the term generally implies comparisons between expected costs and expected resources. This characterization is largely correct, but does not convey the many nuances and considerations that are frequently misunderstood and underappreciated. In the most fundamental sense, affordability and cost directly relate to engineering and programmatic decisions made throughout development programs. Systems engineering texts point out that there is a temporal aspect to this relationship, for decisions made earlier in a program dictate design implications much more so than those made during latter phases. This paper explores affordability engineering and its many sub-disciplines by discussing how it can be considered an additional engineering discipline to be balanced throughout the systems engineering and systems analysis processes. Example methods of multidisciplinary design analysis with affordability as a key driver will be discussed, as will example methods of data visualization, probabilistic analysis, and other ways of relating design decisions to affordability results.

Towards Knowledge Management for Smart Manufacturing.

PubMed

Feng, Shaw C; Bernstein, William Z; Hedberg, Thomas; Feeney, Allison Barnard

2017-09-01

The need for capturing knowledge in the digital form in design, process planning, production, and inspection has increasingly become an issue in manufacturing industries as the variety and complexity of product lifecycle applications increase. Both knowledge and data need to be well managed for quality assurance, lifecycle-impact assessment, and design improvement. Some technical barriers exist today that inhibit industry from fully utilizing design, planning, processing, and inspection knowledge. The primary barrier is a lack of a well-accepted mechanism that enables users to integrate data and knowledge. This paper prescribes knowledge management to address a lack of mechanisms for integrating, sharing, and updating domain-specific knowledge in smart manufacturing. Aspects of the knowledge constructs include conceptual design, detailed design, process planning, material property, production, and inspection. The main contribution of this paper is to provide a methodology on what knowledge manufacturing organizations access, update, and archive in the context of smart manufacturing. The case study in this paper provides some example knowledge objects to enable smart manufacturing.

Cross-Cultural Communication Patterns in Computer Mediated Communication

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Panina, Daria; Kroumova, Maya

2015-01-01

There are important cultural differences in attitudes towards and use of electronic text communication. Consistent with Hall's high-context/low-context conceptualization of culture, electronic inter-cultural communication, just as verbal inter-cultural communication, is affected by the culturally-specific assumptions and preferences of message…

Rethinking "Ukama" in the Context of "Philosophy for Children" in Africa

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ndofirepi, Amasa Philip; Shanyanana, Rachel N.

2016-01-01

This paper is a critical conceptual exploration of the contribution of the "ukama" ethic in the context of "Philosophy for Children" (The "Philosophy for Children" movement is also variously known as "philosophy in schools," "philosophy with children" and "philosophical inquiry in the…

Health information systems: failure, success and improvisation.

PubMed

Heeks, Richard

2006-02-01

The generalised assumption of health information systems (HIS) success is questioned by a few commentators in the medical informatics field. They point to widespread HIS failure. The purpose of this paper was therefore to develop a better conceptual foundation for, and practical guidance on, health information systems failure (and success). Literature and case analysis plus pilot testing of developed model. Defining HIS failure and success is complex, and the current evidence base on HIS success and failure rates was found to be weak. Nonetheless, the best current estimate is that HIS failure is an important problem. The paper therefore derives and explains the "design-reality gap" conceptual model. This is shown to be robust in explaining multiple cases of HIS success and failure, yet provides a contingency that encompasses the differences which exist in different HIS contexts. The design-reality gap model is piloted to demonstrate its value as a tool for risk assessment and mitigation on HIS projects. It also throws into question traditional, structured development methodologies, highlighting the importance of emergent change and improvisation in HIS. The design-reality gap model can be used to address the problem of HIS failure, both as a post hoc evaluative tool and as a pre hoc risk assessment and mitigation tool. It also validates a set of methods, techniques, roles and competencies needed to support the dynamic improvisations that are found to underpin cases of HIS success.

A Conceptual Modeling Approach for OLAP Personalization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garrigós, Irene; Pardillo, Jesús; Mazón, Jose-Norberto; Trujillo, Juan

Data warehouses rely on multidimensional models in order to provide decision makers with appropriate structures to intuitively analyze data with OLAP technologies. However, data warehouses may be potentially large and multidimensional structures become increasingly complex to be understood at a glance. Even if a departmental data warehouse (also known as data mart) is used, these structures would be also too complex. As a consequence, acquiring the required information is more costly than expected and decision makers using OLAP tools may get frustrated. In this context, current approaches for data warehouse design are focused on deriving a unique OLAP schema for all analysts from their previously stated information requirements, which is not enough to lighten the complexity of the decision making process. To overcome this drawback, we argue for personalizing multidimensional models for OLAP technologies according to the continuously changing user characteristics, context, requirements and behaviour. In this paper, we present a novel approach to personalizing OLAP systems at the conceptual level based on the underlying multidimensional model of the data warehouse, a user model and a set of personalization rules. The great advantage of our approach is that a personalized OLAP schema is provided for each decision maker contributing to better satisfy their specific analysis needs. Finally, we show the applicability of our approach through a sample scenario based on our CASE tool for data warehouse development.

Leadership competencies in the context of health services.

PubMed

Jahrami, Haitham; Marnoch, Gordon; Gray, Ann Marie

2008-05-01

In a rapidly changing health-care environment, clinicians are increasingly called upon to assume complex leadership responsibilities. The research was undertaken to develop an understanding of the limits to the conceptual and methodological basis of leadership competency modelling in health services context. Data were collected from all of the clinicians in a Psychiatric Hospital, Bahrain using a researcher-developed questionnaire. Data were gathered to critically assess the validity of the competency-based approach to leadership on the basis of subjects' capacity to discriminate in terms of importance and accomplishment between the items featured in a research tool containing a comprehensive list of 124 leadership competencies. The results of the analyses indicate a weak identification with the competencies in the sense of revealing low levels of discriminatory sophistication on the part of subjects. The study design was limited to participants working in single hospital; therefore, the conclusions made cannot yet be regarded categorically as generalizable. Leadership selection, development and education activities may not achieve their ultimate outcomes due to the subject identification problem associated with the competence approach. It might be necessary to reconsider the efficiency of human resource activities that rely solely on the competency approach. The conceptual basis of leadership competence in health services has been previously neglected. This research casts doubt on competency approaches to leadership if based on subject identification with pre-defined items.

Predicting passenger seat comfort and discomfort on the basis of human, context and seat characteristics: a literature review.

PubMed

Hiemstra-van Mastrigt, Suzanne; Groenesteijn, Liesbeth; Vink, Peter; Kuijt-Evers, Lottie F M

2017-07-01

This literature review focused on passenger seat comfort and discomfort in a human-product-context interaction. The relationships between anthropometric variables (human level), activities (context level), seat characteristics (product level) and the perception of comfort and discomfort were studied through mediating variables, such as body posture, movement and interface pressure. It is concluded that there are correlations between anthropometric variables and interface pressure variables, and that this relationship is affected by body posture. The results of studies on the correlation between pressure variables and passenger comfort and discomfort are not in line with each other. Only associations were found between the other variables (e.g. activities and seat characteristics). A conceptual model illustrates the results of the review, but relationships could not be quantified due to a lack of statistical evidence and large differences in research set-ups between the reviewed papers. Practitioner Summary: This literature review set out to quantify the relationships between human, context and seat characteristics, and comfort and discomfort experience of passenger seats, in order to build a predictive model that can support seat designers and purchasers to make informed decisions. However, statistical evidence is lacking from existing literature.

Enabling Rapid Naval Architecture Design Space Exploration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mueller, Michael A.; Dufresne, Stephane; Balestrini-Robinson, Santiago; Mavris, Dimitri

2011-01-01

Well accepted conceptual ship design tools can be used to explore a design space, but more precise results can be found using detailed models in full-feature computer aided design programs. However, defining a detailed model can be a time intensive task and hence there is an incentive for time sensitive projects to use conceptual design tools to explore the design space. In this project, the combination of advanced aerospace systems design methods and an accepted conceptual design tool facilitates the creation of a tool that enables the user to not only visualize ship geometry but also determine design feasibility and estimate the performance of a design.

Organizational readiness for knowledge translation in chronic care: a Delphi study.

PubMed

Attieh, Randa; Gagnon, Marie-Pierre; Estabrooks, Carole A; Légaré, France; Ouimet, Mathieu; Vazquez, Patricia; Nuño, Roberto

2014-11-08

Health-care organizations need to be ready prior to implement evidence-based interventions. In this study, we sought to achieve consensus on a framework to assess the readiness of health-care organizations to implement evidence-based interventions in the context of chronic care. We conducted a web-based modified Delphi study between March and May 2013. We contacted 76 potentially eligible international experts working in the fields of organizational readiness (OR), knowledge translation (KT), and chronic care to comment upon the 76 elements resulting from our proposed conceptual map. This conceptual map was based on a systematic review of the existing frameworks of Organizational Readiness for Change (ORC) in health-care. We developed a conceptual map that proposed a set of core concepts and their associated 17 dimensions and 59 sub-dimensions. Experts rated their agreement concerning the applicability and importance of ORC elements on a 5-point Likert scale, where 1 indicates total disagreement and 5 indicates total agreement. Two rounds were needed to get a consensus from the experts. Consensus was a priori defined as strong (≥75%) or moderate (60-74%). Simple descriptive statistics was used. In total, 14 participants completed the first round and 10 completed the two rounds. Panel members reached consensus on the applicability and importance of 6 out of 17 dimensions and 28 out of 59 sub-dimensions to assess OR for KT in the context of chronic care. A strong level of consensus (≥75%) was attained on the Organizational contextual factors, Leadership/participation, Organizational support, and Motivation dimensions. The Organizational climate for change and Change content dimensions reached a moderate consensus (60-74%). Experts also reached consensus on 28 out of 59 sub-dimensions to assess OR for KT. Twenty-one sub-dimensions reached a strong consensus (≥75%) and seven a moderate consensus (60-74%). This study results provided the most important and applicable dimensions and sub-dimensions for assessing OR-KT in the context of chronic care. They can be used to guide the design of an assessment tool to improve knowledge translation in the field of chronic care.

Space and Architecture's Current Line of Research? A Lunar Architecture Workshop With An Architectural Agenda.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Solomon, D.; van Dijk, A.

The "2002 ESA Lunar Architecture Workshop" (June 3-16) ESTEC, Noordwijk, NL and V2_Lab, Rotterdam, NL) is the first-of-its-kind workshop for exploring the design of extra-terrestrial (infra) structures for human exploration of the Moon and Earth-like planets introducing 'architecture's current line of research', and adopting an architec- tural criteria. The workshop intends to inspire, engage and challenge 30-40 European masters students from the fields of aerospace engineering, civil engineering, archi- tecture, and art to design, validate and build models of (infra) structures for Lunar exploration. The workshop also aims to open up new physical and conceptual terrain for an architectural agenda within the field of space exploration. A sound introduc- tion to the issues, conditions, resources, technologies, and architectural strategies will initiate the workshop participants into the context of lunar architecture scenarios. In my paper and presentation about the development of the ideology behind this work- shop, I will comment on the following questions: * Can the contemporary architectural agenda offer solutions that affect the scope of space exploration? It certainly has had an impression on urbanization and colonization of previously sparsely populated parts of Earth. * Does the current line of research in architecture offer any useful strategies for com- bining scientific interests, commercial opportunity, and public space? What can be learned from 'state of the art' architecture that blends commercial and public pro- grammes within one location? * Should commercial 'colonisation' projects in space be required to provide public space in a location where all humans present are likely to be there in a commercial context? Is the wave in Koolhaas' new Prada flagship store just a gesture to public space, or does this new concept in architecture and shopping evolve the public space? * What can we learn about designing (infra-) structures on the Moon or any other space context that will be useful on Earth on a conceptual and practical level? * In what ways could architecture's field of reference offer building on the Moon (and other celestial bodies) a paradigm shift? 1 In addition to their models and designs, workshop participants will begin authoring a design recommendation for the building of (infra-) structures and habitats on celestial bodies in particular the Moon and Mars. The design recommendation, a substantiated aesthetic code of conduct (not legally binding) will address long term planning and incorporate issues of sustainability, durability, bio-diversity, infrastructure, CHANGE, and techniques that lend themselves to Earth-bound applications. It will also address the cultural implications of architectural design might have within the context of space exploration. The design recommendation will ultimately be presented for peer review to both the space and architecture communities. What would the endorsement from the architectural community of such a document mean to the space community? The Lunar Architecture Workshop is conceptualised, produced and organised by(in alphabetical order): Alexander van Dijk, Art Race in Space, Barbara Imhof; ES- CAPE*spHERE, Vienna, University of Technology, Institute for Design and Building Construction, Vienna, Bernard Foing; ESA SMART1 Project Scientist, Susmita Mo- hanty; MoonFront, LLC, Hans Schartner' Vienna University of Technology, Institute for Design and Building Construction, Debra Solomon; Art Race in Space, Dutch Art Institute, Paul van Susante; Lunar Explorers Society. Workshop locations: ESTEC, Noordwijk, NL and V2_Lab, Rotterdam, NL Workshop dates: June 3-16, 2002 (a Call for Participation will be made in March -April 2002.) 2

Towards a conceptual framework for preceptorship in the clinical education of undergraduate nursing students.

PubMed

Zilembo, Melanie; Monterosso, Leanne

2008-08-01

A recent study undertaken by the authors (2007) highlighted that undergraduate nursing students were subjected to varying experiences in clinical practice, which were mediated by a number of factors. Mediating factors included continuity of preceptors, student attitudes, the clinical setting environment, student and preceptor expectations of the clinical practice experience and interactions between the student and preceptor. Of note, interactions with preceptors were seen to 'make or break' the practical experience. Therefore, the relationship that is forged between preceptor and student is vital in shaping the student's experience of the clinical area and of the real world of nursing work. Early positive socialisation experiences have been shown to improve retention rates of new nurses (Greene & Puetzer 2002), which are issues of prime concern in an era of worsening nursing shortages at all levels of the profession. A conceptual framework designed to guide preceptorship may help alleviate some of the difficulties experienced by undergraduate nurses in building relationships within the complex interactions of the nursing environment. The framework proposed in this paper offers a conceptual model that links positive preceptor leadership qualities (such as compassion, care and empathy) with student characteristics. This model proposes that synergistic interactions between nursing students and preceptors results in positive implications for the nursing workforce. This framework also has the potential for further development to fill the void created by a lack of conceptual guidance for supervisory interactions within the undergraduate clinical context.

Selective functional integration between anterior temporal and distinct fronto-mesolimbic regions during guilt and indignation

PubMed Central

Green, Sophie; Lambon Ralph, Matthew A.; Moll, Jorge; Stamatakis, Emmanuel A.; Grafman, Jordan; Zahn, Roland

2010-01-01

It has been hypothesized that the experience of different moral sentiments such as guilt and indignation is underpinned by activation in temporal and fronto-mesolimbic regions and that functional integration between these regions is necessary for the differentiated experience of these moral sentiments. A recent fMRI study revealed that the right superior anterior temporal lobe (ATL) was activated irrespective of the context of moral feelings (guilt or indignation). This region has been associated with context-independent conceptual social knowledge which allows us to make fine-grained differentiations between qualities of social behaviours (e.g. “critical” and “faultfinding”). This knowledge is required to make emotional evaluations of social behaviour. In contrast to the context-independent activation of the ATL, there were context-dependent activations within different fronto-mesolimbic regions for guilt and indignation. However, it is unknown whether functional integration occurs between these regions and whether regional patterns of integration are distinctive for the experience of different moral sentiments. Here, we used fMRI and psychophysiological interaction analysis, an established measure of functional integration to investigate this issue. We found selective functional integration between the right superior ATL and a subgenual cingulate region during the experience of guilt and between the right superior ATL and the lateral orbitofrontal cortex for indignation. Our data provide the first evidence for functional integration of conceptual social knowledge representations in the right superior ATL with representations of different feeling contexts in fronto-mesolimbic regions. We speculate that this functional architecture allows for the conceptually differentiated experience of moral sentiments in healthy individuals. PMID:20493953

The Atomic Intrinsic Integration Approach: A Structured Methodology for the Design of Games for the Conceptual Understanding of Physics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Echeverria, Alejandro; Barrios, Enrique; Nussbaum, Miguel; Amestica, Matias; Leclerc, Sandra

2012-01-01

Computer simulations combined with games have been successfully used to teach conceptual physics. However, there is no clear methodology for guiding the design of these types of games. To remedy this, we propose a structured methodology for the design of conceptual physics games that explicitly integrates the principles of the intrinsic…

System analysis study of space platform and station accommodations for life sciences research facilities. Volume 2: Study results, attachment 2. Phase A: Conceptual design and programmatics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wiley, Lowell F.

1985-01-01

The study results from the conceptual design and programmatics segment of the Space Platform and Station Accommodation for Life Sciences Research Facilities. The results and significant findings of the conceptual design and programmatics were generated by these tasks: (1) the review and update engineering and science requirements; (2) analysis of life sciences mission transition scenario; (3) the review and update of key trade issues; (4) the development of conceptual definition and designs; and (5) the development of the work breakdown schedule and its dictionary, program schedule, and estimated costs.

Framing the Universal Design of Information and Communication Technology: An Interdisciplinary Model for Research and Practice.

PubMed

Giannoumis, G Anthony

2016-01-01

Research has yet to provide an interdisciplinary framework for examining ICT accessibility as it relates to Universal Design. This article assesses the conceptualizations and interdisciplinarity of ICT accessibility and Universal Design research. This article uses a grounded theory approach to pose a multilevel framework for Universal Design. The macro level, consists of scholarship that examines the context of Universal Design, and is typified by legal and sociological studies that investigate social norms and environments. The meso level, which consists of scholarship that examines activity in Universal Design as an approach to removing barriers for use and participation. The meso level is typified by studies of computer science and engineering that investigate the use of technology as a mechanism of participation. The micro level consists of scholarship that examines individuals and groups in Universal Design as an approach to understanding human characteristics. The micro level is typified by studies of human factors and psychology. This article argues that the multilevel framework for Universal Design may help remove the artificial separation between disciplines concerned with ICT accessibility and promote more fruitful research and development.

Promoting high school students' conceptual understandings of the particulate nature of matter through multiple representations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Adadan, Emine

This study mainly explored the efficacy of the two instructional interventions, namely Reform-Based Teaching with Multiple Representations (RBTw/MR) and Reform-Based Teaching (RBT) on stimulating change in students' conceptual understandings of the particulate nature of matter (PNM) and maintaining those scientific understandings constructed during the instruction over a three-month period. In this context, this study also examined the RBTw/MR and RBT students' types of conceptual understandings of the PNM before, immediately after and three-months after the interventions. This study was conducted in two introductory level chemistry classes of a suburban high school. The participants of the study included a total of 42 students who were enrolled in one of the two classes of the chemistry teacher who taught both of the classes. Both the RBTw/MR and the RBT group students were engaged in the same activities with the same sequence of experiences. However, the RBTw/MR instruction differed from the RBT instruction in terms of the frequency of using the multiple representations in relationship to the macroscopic phenomenon and the likely actions that occur at the submicroscopic level. A quasi-experimental control group research design with a pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest was employed by incorporating qualitative data collection and analysis methods. In order to assess students' conceptual understanding of the PNM, the open-ended questionnaire, namely Nature of Matter Diagnostic Questions, was administered to both groups just before, immediately after and three months after the instructional interventions. Fifteen of the 42 students were also interviewed following the posttest. The results of the study revealed the positive short- and long-term learning impacts on the RBTw/MR students' conceptual understandings of the PNM. Before the instruction, a majority of students in both groups (82.6%, RBTw/MR; 73.7%, RBT) held nonscientific types of conceptual understandings of the PNM. Immediately following the instruction, 52.1% of the RBTw/MR students held the types of conceptual understandings of either scientific or scientific fragments. Three months after the instruction, 34.8% of the RBTw/MR students held onto their scientific conceptual understandings of the PNM, only 15.8% of the RBT students' conceptual understandings of the PNM differed from their initial type of conceptual understandings.

Data management in an object-oriented distributed aircraft conceptual design environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lu, Zhijie

In the competitive global market place, aerospace companies are forced to deliver the right products to the right market, with the right cost, and at the right time. However, the rapid development of technologies and new business opportunities, such as mergers, acquisitions, supply chain management, etc., have dramatically increased the complexity of designing an aircraft. Therefore, the pressure to reduce design cycle time and cost is enormous. One way to solve such a dilemma is to develop and apply advanced engineering environments (AEEs), which are distributed collaborative virtual design environments linking researchers, technologists, designers, etc., together by incorporating application tools and advanced computational, communications, and networking facilities. Aircraft conceptual design, as the first design stage, provides major opportunity to compress design cycle time and is the cheapest place for making design changes. However, traditional aircraft conceptual design programs, which are monolithic programs, cannot provide satisfactory functionality to meet new design requirements due to the lack of domain flexibility and analysis scalability. Therefore, we are in need of the next generation aircraft conceptual design environment (NextADE). To build the NextADE, the framework and the data management problem are two major problems that need to be addressed at the forefront. Solving these two problems, particularly the data management problem, is the focus of this research. In this dissertation, in light of AEEs, a distributed object-oriented framework is firstly formulated and tested for the NextADE. In order to improve interoperability and simplify the integration of heterogeneous application tools, data management is one of the major problems that need to be tackled. To solve this problem, taking into account the characteristics of aircraft conceptual design data, a robust, extensible object-oriented data model is then proposed according to the distributed object-oriented framework. By overcoming the shortcomings of the traditional approach of modeling aircraft conceptual design data, this data model makes it possible to capture specific detailed information of aircraft conceptual design without sacrificing generality, which is one of the most desired features of a data model for aircraft conceptual design. Based upon this data model, a prototype of the data management system, which is one of the fundamental building blocks of the NextADE, is implemented utilizing the state of the art information technologies. Using a general-purpose integration software package to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed framework and the data management system, the NextADE is initially implemented by integrating the prototype of the data management system with other building blocks of the design environment, such as disciplinary analyses programs and mission analyses programs. As experiments, two case studies are conducted in the integrated design environments. One is based upon a simplified conceptual design of a notional conventional aircraft; the other is a simplified conceptual design of an unconventional aircraft. As a result of the experiments, the proposed framework and the data management approach are shown to be feasible solutions to the research problems.

Space station Simulation Computer System (SCS) study for NASA/MSFC. Volume 3: Refined conceptual design report

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1989-01-01

The results of the refined conceptual design phase (task 5) of the Simulation Computer System (SCS) study are reported. The SCS is the computational portion of the Payload Training Complex (PTC) providing simulation based training on payload operations of the Space Station Freedom (SSF). In task 4 of the SCS study, the range of architectures suitable for the SCS was explored. Identified system architectures, along with their relative advantages and disadvantages for SCS, were presented in the Conceptual Design Report. Six integrated designs-combining the most promising features from the architectural formulations-were additionally identified in the report. The six integrated designs were evaluated further to distinguish the more viable designs to be refined as conceptual designs. The three designs that were selected represent distinct approaches to achieving a capable and cost effective SCS configuration for the PTC. Here, the results of task 4 (input to this task) are briefly reviewed. Then, prior to describing individual conceptual designs, the PTC facility configuration and the SSF systems architecture that must be supported by the SCS are reviewed. Next, basic features of SCS implementation that have been incorporated into all selected SCS designs are considered. The details of the individual SCS designs are then presented before making a final comparison of the three designs.

Low-cost housing design and provision: A case study of Kenya

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kabo, Felichism W.

Shelter is as basic a human need as food and water. Today, many people in Third World countries live in sub-standard housing, or lack shelter altogether. Prior research addresses either one of two housing dimensions: broader provision processes, or specific aspects of design. This dissertation is an effort at addressing both dimensions, the underlying premise being that their inter-connectedness demands an integrative approach. More specifically, this dissertation is a combined strategy case study of housing design and provision in Kenya, a sub-Saharan African country with serious shelter problems. A majority of Kenya's urban population lives in slums or squatter settlements. This dissertation covers four major areas of housing design and provision in Kenya: building materials, user preferences for building materials and housing designs, interior layouts, and the organizational context of the housing sector. These four areas are theoretically unified by Canter's (1977) model of place. Each of the first three areas (housing design) relates to one or more of the three domains in the model. The fourth area (housing provision) pertains to the model's context and framework. The technical building materials research reveals the feasibility of making low-cost materials (soil-cements) with satisfactory engineering performance. The research in preference for building materials reveals that the two independent variables, soil and mix, have a significant effect on potential users' ratings. The housing preference study reveals that of the four independent variables, design and type had a significant effect on potential users' ratings, while materials and construction method did not have a significant effect. The interior layout studies reveal important associations between spatial configurations and a key space (the kitchen), and between configuration and conceptualizations of living, cooking, and sleeping spaces. The findings from the studies of preferences and interior layouts are then synthesized in the development of a low-cost housing prototype. Lastly, analysis of the organizational context reveals notable links between nominal housing-related responsibilities, and the potential power and influence of key organizations. The potential effects of the spatial context on housing organizations are also explored. Later, the key organizations are restructured to address shortcomings identified at the organizational and sectoral levels.

Design for Safety - The Ares Launch Vehicles Paradigm Change

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Safie, Fayssal M.; Maggio, Gaspare

2010-01-01

The lessons learned from the S&MA early involvement in the Ares I launch vehicle design phases proved that performing an in-line function jointly with engineering is critical for S&MA to have an effective role in supporting the system, element, and component design. These lessons learned were used to effectively support the Ares V conceptual design phase and planning for post conceptual design phases. The Top level Conceptual LOM assessment for Ares V performed by the S&MA community jointly with the engineering Advanced Concept Office (ACO) was influential in the final selection of the Ares V system configuration. Post conceptual phase, extensive reliability effort should be planned to support future Heavy Lift Launch Vehicles (HLLV) design. In-depth reliability analysis involving the design, manufacturing, and system engineering communities is critical to understand design and process uncertainties and system integrated failures.

Use of theoretical and conceptual frameworks in qualitative research.

PubMed

Green, Helen Elise

2014-07-01

To debate the definition and use of theoretical and conceptual frameworks in qualitative research. There is a paucity of literature to help the novice researcher to understand what theoretical and conceptual frameworks are and how they should be used. This paper acknowledges the interchangeable usage of these terms and researchers' confusion about the differences between the two. It discusses how researchers have used theoretical and conceptual frameworks and the notion of conceptual models. Detail is given about how one researcher incorporated a conceptual framework throughout a research project, the purpose for doing so and how this led to a resultant conceptual model. Concepts from Abbott (1988) and Witz ( 1992 ) were used to provide a framework for research involving two case study sites. The framework was used to determine research questions and give direction to interviews and discussions to focus the research. Some research methods do not overtly use a theoretical framework or conceptual framework in their design, but this is implicit and underpins the method design, for example in grounded theory. Other qualitative methods use one or the other to frame the design of a research project or to explain the outcomes. An example is given of how a conceptual framework was used throughout a research project. Theoretical and conceptual frameworks are terms that are regularly used in research but rarely explained. Textbooks should discuss what they are and how they can be used, so novice researchers understand how they can help with research design. Theoretical and conceptual frameworks need to be more clearly understood by researchers and correct terminology used to ensure clarity for novice researchers.

Opportunities and Challenges in Supply-Side Simulation: Physician-Based Models

PubMed Central

Gresenz, Carole Roan; Auerbach, David I; Duarte, Fabian

2013-01-01

Objective To provide a conceptual framework and to assess the availability of empirical data for supply-side microsimulation modeling in the context of health care. Data Sources Multiple secondary data sources, including the American Community Survey, Health Tracking Physician Survey, and SK&A physician database. Study Design We apply our conceptual framework to one entity in the health care market—physicians—and identify, assess, and compare data available for physician-based simulation models. Principal Findings Our conceptual framework describes three broad types of data required for supply-side microsimulation modeling. Our assessment of available data for modeling physician behavior suggests broad comparability across various sources on several dimensions and highlights the need for significant integration of data across multiple sources to provide a platform adequate for modeling. A growing literature provides potential estimates for use as behavioral parameters that could serve as the models' engines. Sources of data for simulation modeling that account for the complex organizational and financial relationships among physicians and other supply-side entities are limited. Conclusions A key challenge for supply-side microsimulation modeling is optimally combining available data to harness their collective power. Several possibilities also exist for novel data collection. These have the potential to serve as catalysts for the next generation of supply-side-focused simulation models to inform health policy. PMID:23347041

Understanding How Domestic Violence Support Services Promote Survivor Well-being: A Conceptual Model.

PubMed

Sullivan, Cris M

2018-01-01

Domestic violence (DV) victim service programs have been increasingly expected by legislators and funders to demonstrate that they are making a significant difference in the lives of those using their services. Alongside this expectation, they are being asked to describe the Theory of Change guiding how they believe their practices lead to positive results for survivors and their children. Having a widely accepted conceptual model is not just potentially useful to funders and policy makers as they help shape policy and practice -- it can also help programs continually reflect upon and improve their work. This paper describes the iterative and collaborative process undertaken to generate a conceptual model describing how DV victim services are expected to improve survivors' lives. The Social and Emotional Well-Being Framework guiding the model is an ideal structure to use to describe the goals and practices of DV programs because this framework: (1) accurately represents DV programs' goal of helping survivors and their children thrive; and (2) recognizes the importance of community, social, and societal context in influencing individuals' social and emotional well-being. The model was designed to guide practice and to generate new questions for research and evaluation that address individual, community, and systems factors that promote or hinder survivor safety and well-being.

Narratives of community engagement: a systematic review-derived conceptual framework for public health interventions.

PubMed

Brunton, Ginny; Thomas, James; O'Mara-Eves, Alison; Jamal, Farah; Oliver, Sandy; Kavanagh, Josephine

2017-12-11

Government policy increasingly supports engaging communities to promote health. It is critical to consider whether such strategies are effective, for whom, and under what circumstances. However, 'community engagement' is defined in diverse ways and employed for different reasons. Considering the theory and context we developed a conceptual framework which informs understanding about what makes an effective (or ineffective) community engagement intervention. We conducted a systematic review of community engagement in public health interventions using: stakeholder involvement; searching, screening, appraisal and coding of research literature; and iterative thematic syntheses and meta-analysis. A conceptual framework of community engagement was refined, following interactions between the framework and each review stage. From 335 included reports, three products emerged: (1) two strong theoretical 'meta-narratives': one, concerning the theory and practice of empowerment/engagement as an independent objective; and a more utilitarian perspective optimally configuring health services to achieve defined outcomes. These informed (2) models that were operationalized in subsequent meta-analysis. Both refined (3) the final conceptual framework. This identified multiple dimensions by which community engagement interventions may differ. Diverse combinations of intervention purpose, theory and implementation were noted, including: ways of defining communities and health needs; initial motivations for community engagement; types of participation; conditions and actions necessary for engagement; and potential issues influencing impact. Some dimensions consistently co-occurred, leading to three overarching models of effective engagement which either: utilised peer-led delivery; employed varying degrees of collaboration between communities and health services; or built on empowerment philosophies. Our conceptual framework and models are useful tools for considering appropriate and effective approaches to community engagement. These should be tested and adapted to facilitate intervention design and evaluation. Using this framework may disentangle the relative effectiveness of different models of community engagement, promoting effective, sustainable and appropriate initiatives.

A Novel Implementation Strategy in Residential Care Settings to Promote EBP: Direct Care Provider Perceptions and Development of a Conceptual Framework.

PubMed

Slaughter, Susan E; Bampton, Erin; Erin, Daniel F; Ickert, Carla; Jones, C Allyson; Estabrooks, Carole A

2017-06-01

Innovative approaches are required to facilitate the adoption and sustainability of evidence-based care practices. We propose a novel implementation strategy, a peer reminder role, which involves offering a brief formal reminder to peers during structured unit meetings. This study aims to (a) identify healthcare aide (HCA) perceptions of a peer reminder role for HCAs, and (b) develop a conceptual framework for the role based on these perceptions. In 2013, a qualitative focus group study was conducted in five purposively sampled residential care facilities in western Canada. A convenience sample of 24 HCAs agreed to participate in five focus groups. Concurrent with data collection, two researchers coded the transcripts and identified themes by consensus. They jointly determined when saturation was achieved and took steps to optimize the trustworthiness of the findings. Five HCAs from the original focus groups commented on the resulting conceptual framework. HCAs were cautious about accepting a role that might alienate them from their co-workers. They emphasized feeling comfortable with the peer reminder role and identified circumstances that would optimize their comfort including: effective implementation strategies, perceptions of the role, role credibility and a supportive context. These intersecting themes formed a peer reminder conceptual framework. We identified HCAs' perspectives of a new peer reminder role designed specifically for them. Based on their perceptions, a conceptual framework was developed to guide the implementation of a peer reminder role for HCAs. This role may be a strategic implementation strategy to optimize the sustainability of new practices in residential care settings, and the related framework could offer guidance on how to implement this role. © 2017 Sigma Theta Tau International.

Episodic memories.

PubMed

Conway, Martin A

2009-09-01

An account of episodic memories is developed that focuses on the types of knowledge they represent, their properties, and the functions they might serve. It is proposed that episodic memories consist of episodic elements, summary records of experience often in the form of visual images, associated to a conceptual frame that provides a conceptual context. Episodic memories are embedded in a more complex conceptual system in which they can become the basis of autobiographical memories. However, the function of episodic memories is to keep a record of progress with short-term goals and access to most episodic memories is lost soon after their formation. Finally, it is suggested that developmentally episodic memories form the basis of the conceptual system and it is from sets of episodic memories that early non-verbal conceptual knowledge is abstracted.

[Self-Determination in Medical Rehabilitation - Development of a Conceptual Model for Further Theoretical Discussion].

PubMed

Senin, Tatjana; Meyer, Thorsten

2018-01-22

Aim was to gather theoretical knowledge about self-determination and to develop a conceptual model for medical rehabilitation- which serves as a basis for discussion. We performed a literature research in electronic databases. Various theories and research results were adopted and transferred to the context of medical rehabilitation and into a conceptual model. The conceptual model of self-determination reflects on a continuum which forms of self-determination may be present in situations of medical rehabilitation treatments. The location on the continuum depends theoretically on the manifestation of certain internal and external factors that may influence each other. The model provides a first conceptualization of self-determination focusing on medical rehabilitation which should be further refined and tested empirically. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Context-specific and/or context-free challenges and opportunities in writing scholarly reviews in health care management: a conceptual note.

PubMed

Blair, John D

2011-01-01

Challenges and opportunities arise from the significantly different perspectives of context-specific versus context-free researchers and the literatures they contribute to. Reviews of one type or the other or both types of literatures may provide different understandings of the state of the art in a particular area of health care management. Suggestions for writing quality reviews are also included along with suggested topics for future reviews.

Understanding and accounting for relational context is critical for social neuroscience

PubMed Central

Clark-Polner, Elizabeth; Clark, Margaret S.

2014-01-01

Scientists have increasingly turned to the brain and to neuroscience more generally to further an understanding of social and emotional judgments and behavior. Yet, many neuroscientists (certainly not all) do not consider the role of relational context. Moreover, most have not examined the impact of relational context in a manner that takes advantage of conceptual and empirical advances in relationship science. Here we emphasize that: (1) all social behavior takes place, by definition, within the context of a relationship (even if that relationship is a new one with a stranger), and (2) relational context shapes not only social thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, but also some seemingly non-social thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in profound ways. We define relational context and suggest that accounting for it in the design and interpretation of neuroscience research is essential to the development of a coherent, generalizable neuroscience of social behavior. We make our case in two ways: (a) we describe some existing neuroscience research in three substantive areas (perceiving and reacting to others’ emotions, providing help, and receiving help) that already has documented the powerful impact of relational context. (b) We describe some other neuroscience research from these same areas that has not taken relational context into account. Then, using findings from social and personality psychology, we make a case that different results almost certainly would have been found had the research been conducted in a different relational context. We neither attempt to review all evidence that relational context shapes neuroscience findings nor to put forward a theoretical analysis of all the ways relational context ought to shape neuroscience findings. Our goal is simply to urge greater and more systematic consideration of relational context in neuroscientific research. PMID:24723868

Understanding and accounting for relational context is critical for social neuroscience.

PubMed

Clark-Polner, Elizabeth; Clark, Margaret S

2014-01-01

Scientists have increasingly turned to the brain and to neuroscience more generally to further an understanding of social and emotional judgments and behavior. Yet, many neuroscientists (certainly not all) do not consider the role of relational context. Moreover, most have not examined the impact of relational context in a manner that takes advantage of conceptual and empirical advances in relationship science. Here we emphasize that: (1) all social behavior takes place, by definition, within the context of a relationship (even if that relationship is a new one with a stranger), and (2) relational context shapes not only social thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, but also some seemingly non-social thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in profound ways. We define relational context and suggest that accounting for it in the design and interpretation of neuroscience research is essential to the development of a coherent, generalizable neuroscience of social behavior. We make our case in two ways: (a) we describe some existing neuroscience research in three substantive areas (perceiving and reacting to others' emotions, providing help, and receiving help) that already has documented the powerful impact of relational context. (b) We describe some other neuroscience research from these same areas that has not taken relational context into account. Then, using findings from social and personality psychology, we make a case that different results almost certainly would have been found had the research been conducted in a different relational context. We neither attempt to review all evidence that relational context shapes neuroscience findings nor to put forward a theoretical analysis of all the ways relational context ought to shape neuroscience findings. Our goal is simply to urge greater and more systematic consideration of relational context in neuroscientific research.

Categorizing the social context of the wildland urban interface: Adaptive capacity for wildfire and community "archetypes"

Treesearch

Tavis B. Paveglio; Cassandra Moseley; Matthew S. Carroll; Daniel R. Williams; Emily Jane Davis; A. Paige Fischer

2015-01-01

Understanding the local context that shapes collective response to wildfire risk continues to be a challenge for scientists and policymakers. This study utilizes and expands on a conceptual approach for understanding adaptive capacity to wildfire in a comparison of 18 past case studies. The intent is to determine whether comparison of local social context and community...

Assessing recall, conceptualization, and transfer capabilities of novice biochemistry students' across learning style preferences as revealed by self-explanations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hilsenbeck-Fajardo, Jacqueline L.

2009-08-01

The research described herein is a multi-dimensional attempt to measure student's abilities to recall, conceptualize, and transfer fundamental and dynamic protein structure concepts as revealed by their own diagrammatic (pictorial) representations and written self-explanations. A total of 120 participants enrolled in a 'Fundamentals of Biochemistry' course contributed to this mixed-methodological study. The population of interest consisted primarily of pre-nursing and sport and exercise science majors. This course is typically associated with a high (<30%) combined drop/failure rate, thus the course provided the researcher with an ideal context in which to apply novel transfer assessment strategies. In the past, students within this population have reported very little chemistry background. In the following study, student-generated diagrammatic representations and written explanations were coded thematically using a highly objective rubric that was designed specifically for this study. Responses provided by the students were characterized on the macroscopic, microscopic, molecular-level, and integrated scales. Recall knowledge gain (i.e., knowledge that was gained through multiple-choice questioning techniques) was quantitatively correlated to learning style preferences (i.e., high-object, low-object, and non-object). Quantitative measures revealed that participants tended toward an object (i.e., snapshot) -based visualization preference, a potentially limiting factor in their desire to consider dynamic properties of fundamental biochemical contexts such as heat-induced protein denaturation. When knowledge transfer was carefully assessed within the predefined context, numerous misconceptions pertaining to the fundamental and dynamic nature of protein structure were revealed. Misconceptions tended to increase as the transfer model shifted away from the context presented in the original learning material. Ultimately, a fundamentally new, novel, and unique measure of knowledge transfer was developed as a main result of this study. It is envisioned by the researcher that this new measure of learning is applicable specifically to physical and chemical science education-based research in the form of deep transfer on the atomic-level scale.

Coordinating Known and Unknown Quantities in a Multiplicative Context: Problem Conceptualization, Affordances and Constraints

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ramful, Ajay

2012-01-01

In line with continuing efforts to explain the demanding nature of multiplicative reasoning among middle-school students, this study explores the fine-grained knowledge elements that two pairs of 7th and 8th graders deployed in their attempt to coordinate the known and unknown quantities in the gear-wheel problem. Failure to conceptualize the…

A Conceptual Framework for Mentoring in a Learning Organization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Klinge, Carolyn M.

2015-01-01

The purpose of this article is to provide a conceptual framework for mentoring as an added component of a learning organization in the context of adult learning and development theories. Mentoring is traditionally a process in which an experienced person (the mentor) guides another person (the mentee or protégé) in the development of her or his…

Comparison of Two Different Techniques of Cooperative Learning Approach: Undergraduates' Conceptual Understanding in the Context of Hormone Biochemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mutlu, Ayfer

2018-01-01

The purpose of the research was to compare the effects of two different techniques of the cooperative learning approach, namely Team-Game Tournament and Jigsaw, on undergraduates' conceptual understanding in a Hormone Biochemistry course. Undergraduates were randomly assigned to Group 1 (N = 23) and Group 2 (N = 29). Instructions were accomplished…

Using Conceptual Metaphor and Functional Grammar to Explore How Language Used in Physics Affects Student Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brookes, David T.; Etkina, Eugenia

2007-01-01

This paper introduces a theory about the role of language in learning physics. The theory is developed in the context of physics students and physicists talking and writing about the subject of quantum mechanics. We found that physicists' language encodes different varieties of analogical models through the use of grammar and conceptual metaphor.…

Conceptual Change from the Framework Theory Side of the Fence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vosniadou, Stella; Skopeliti, Irini

2014-01-01

We describe the main principles of the framework theory approach to conceptual change and briefly report on the results of a text comprehension study that investigated some of the hypotheses that derive from it. We claim that children construct a naive physics which is based on observation in the context of lay culture and which forms a relatively…

Corporate Supports for the Family Lives of Employees: A Conceptual Model for Program Planning and Evaluation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bowen, Gary L.

1988-01-01

Presents a conceptual model depicting the effects of family-oriented benefits, policies, and services in the corporate sector, on employees' work and family lives. Discusses the model in the context of the historical development of, and recent expansions in, corporate supports for employees and their families, and the need for a work-family model…

Eating Disorders as Social Justice Issues: Results from a Focus Group of Content Experts Vigorously Flapping Our Wings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Russell-Mayhew, Shelly; Stewart, Marion; MacKenzie, Stephanie

2008-01-01

Feminists have led the way in conceptualizing eating disorders as political issues and advocated for consideration of the larger socioeconomic context. Given the lack of research specific to the area of eating disorders and social justice, a focus group with professional women was conducted in an attempt to move beyond the conceptual contributions…

General Chemistry Students' Conceptual Understanding and Language Fluency: Acid-Base Neutralization and Conductometry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nyachwaya, James M.

2016-01-01

The objective of this study was to examine college general chemistry students' conceptual understanding and language fluency in the context of the topic of acids and bases. 115 students worked in groups of 2-4 to complete an activity on conductometry, where they were given a scenario in which a titration of sodium hydroxide solution and dilute…

L1 and L2 Picture Naming in Mandarin-English Bilinguals: A Test of Bilingual Dual Coding Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jared, Debra; Poh, Rebecca Pei Yun; Paivio, Allan

2013-01-01

This study examined the nature of bilinguals' conceptual representations and the links from these representations to words in L1 and L2. Specifically, we tested an assumption of the Bilingual Dual Coding Theory that conceptual representations include image representations, and that learning two languages in separate contexts can result in…

Researching Collective Bargaining Agreements: Building Conceptual Understanding in an Era of Declining Union Power

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Osborne-Lampkin, La'Tara; Cohen-Vogel, Lora; Feng, Li; Wilson, Jerry J.

2018-01-01

Here, we examine over two decades of empirical literature to explore the ways scholars have been working to reveal the changing set of policy and political conditions in which teachers unions are operating. In this context, we identify the conceptual models educational researchers have used to frame their research and the applications of these…

Conceptual Representations for Transfer: A Case Study Tracing Back and Looking Forward

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sinha, Suparna; Gray, Steven; Hmelo-Silver, Cindy E.; Jordan, Rebecca; Eberbach, Catherine; Goel, Ashok; Rugaber, Spencer

2013-01-01

A primary goal of instruction is to prepare learners to transfer their knowledge and skills to new contexts, but how far this transfer goes is an open question. In the research reported here, we seek to explain a case of transfer through examining the processes by which a conceptual representation used to reason about complex systems was…

Aptitude of psychiatric nurses: conceptual considerations and measurement difficulties.

PubMed

Haspeslagh, M; Delesie, L; Igodt, P

2008-06-01

Patient allocation is common practice in psychiatric nursing. This study investigates nurse aptitude, a sub-concept of competence, to validate and refine patient allocation. The focus is on operationalizing aptitude for daily management purposes. Aptitude varies in function of the tasks to be performed and the therapeutic relationship of each psychiatric nurse with her individual patients. Time, job context, socio-cultural context and semantic frame of reference have also to be taken into account when operationalizing aptitude. Self and peer opinions are a basis for aptitude measurement as patient care and its management are shared among a small team of nurses. A meticulous idio-graphic analysis is necessary. These constraints generate several measurement difficulties that are to be dealt with without too many unrealistic assumptions. The research design enabled reliable aggregation of peer 'on' and 'from' opinions. These allowed confrontation of opinions and identification of bias in these. Stepwise explorative experimentation led to gauging and calibrating a specific aptitude questionnaire to the context of psychiatric nursing. The final version is now being applied in practice in 14 wards of 11 hospitals in Flanders.

Exploring leadership in the context of dentistry in the UK.

PubMed

Willcocks, Stephen George

2016-05-03

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore selective leadership approaches in the context of dentistry in the UK. Design/methodology/approach This is a conceptual paper utilising published sources from relevant literature about leadership theory and practice and the policy background to dentistry in the UK. Findings This paper suggests that there is merit in identifying and applying an eclectic mix of leadership theory to the case of dentistry. It offers insight into individual aspects of the leadership role for dentists and applies this to the dental context. It also contrasts these individual approaches with shared leadership and suggests this may also be relevant to dentistry. It highlights the fact that leadership will be of growing concern for dentistry in the light of recent policy changes. Research limitations/implications This paper points out that there are developmental implications depending on the particular approach taken. It argues that leadership development will become increasingly important in dentistry in the UK. Originality/value This paper addresses a topic that has so far received limited attention in the literature.

Clients’ Perspectives of the Relationship of Vulnerability and Resilience in the Context of HIV Infection

PubMed Central

De Santis, Joseph P.; DeLeon, Diego A.

2013-01-01

Background Clients with HIV infection have been described as both vulnerable and resilient. In addition, the conceptualization of clients with HIV infection has also evolved. Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine this relationship among a sample of people with HIV infection. Method Qualitative description was the design used in this study. Interviews of 15 participants with HIV infection were conducted and analyzed using content analysis. Results All participants provided descriptions of the relationship of vulnerability and resilience in the context of HIV infection. Three different themes emerged from the data that were termed Simultaneity, Dichotomy, and Vacillation. These themes were used to describe the relationship of vulnerability and resilience for the participants’ perspectives. Conclusions/Implications Among people with HIV infection vulnerability and resilience are related concepts. In the context of HIV infection, the relationship of these concepts needs further work in order relate these concepts to physical and mental health of people living with HIV infection. The relationship of these concepts to physical and mental health may assist in making these concepts less abstract and more clinically useful. PMID:23663016

Lean thinking in hospitals: is there a cure for the absence of evidence? A systematic review of reviews

PubMed Central

Andersen, Hege; Røvik, Kjell Arne; Ingebrigtsen, Tor

2014-01-01

Objective Lean interventions aim to improve quality of healthcare by reducing waste and facilitate flow in work processes. There is conflicting evidence on the outcomes of lean thinking, with quantitative and qualitative studies often contradicting each other. We suggest that reviewing the literature within the approach of a new contextual framework can deepen our understanding of lean as a quality-improvement method. This article theorises the concept of context by establishing a two-dimensional conceptual framework acknowledging lean as complex social interventions, deployed in different organisational dimensions and domains. The specific aim of the study was to identify factors facilitating intended outcomes from lean interventions, and to understand when and how different facilitators contribute. Design A two-dimensional conceptual framework was developed by combining Shortell's Dimensions of capability with Walshes’ Domains of an intervention. We then conducted a systematic review of lean review articles concerning hospitals, published in the period 2000–2012. The identified lean facilitators were categorised according to the intervention domains and dimensions of capability provided by the framework. Results We provide a framework emphasising context by relating facilitators to domains and dimensions of capability. 23 factors enabling a successful lean intervention in hospitals were identified in the systematic review, where management and a supportive culture, training, accurate data, physicians and team involvement were most frequent. Conclusions In the absence of evidence, the two-dimensional framework, incorporating the context, may prove useful for future research on variation in outcomes from lean interventions. Findings from the review suggest that characteristics and local application of lean, in addition to strategic and cultural capability, should be given further attention in healthcare quality improvement. PMID:24435890

Rubber airplane: Constraint-based component-modeling for knowledge representation in computer-aided conceptual design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kolb, Mark A.

1990-01-01

Viewgraphs on Rubber Airplane: Constraint-based Component-Modeling for Knowledge Representation in Computer Aided Conceptual Design are presented. Topics covered include: computer aided design; object oriented programming; airfoil design; surveillance aircraft; commercial aircraft; aircraft design; and launch vehicles.

An Attempt to Design a Naturally Ventilated Tower in Subtropical Climate of the Developing Country; Pakistan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sohail, Maha

2017-12-01

A large proportion of the world's population resides in developing countries where there is a lack of rigorous studies in designing energy efficient buildings. This study is a step in designing a naturally ventilated high rise residential building in a tropical climatic context of the developing country, Pakistan. Karachi, the largest city of Pakistan, lies in the subtropical hot desert region with constant high temperature of average 32 °C throughout the summer and no particular winter season. The Design Builder software package is used to design a 25 storey high rise residential building relying primarily on natural ventilation. A final conceptual design is proposed after optimization of massing, geometry, orientation, and improved building envelope design including extensive shading devices in the form of trees. It has been observed that a reduction of 8 °C in indoor ambient temperature is possible to achieve with passive measures and use of night time ventilation. A fully naturally ventilated building can reduce the energy consumption for cooling and heating by 96 % compared to a building using air conditioning systems.

Postpartum smoking relapse and becoming a mother.

PubMed

Gaffney, Kathleen F

2006-01-01

To propose an innovative, theoretically-derived conceptual framework for studies of postpartum smoking relapse including concepts of smoking abstinence self-efficacy and becoming a mother. Presentation of an existing research paradigm followed by evidence from intervention research and studies of factors associated with postpartum smoking behavior, leading to a new approach to postpartum smoking relapse. Effectiveness of current interventions to prevent relapse is limited. Variables associated with becoming a mother are missing from studies of postpartum smoking relapse. Context-specific variables that influence a woman's progression through the stages of becoming a mother might include protective or risk factors that should be incorporated into the design of postpartum smoking relapse studies.

Design of a Neurally Plausible Model of Fear Learning

PubMed Central

Krasne, Franklin B.; Fanselow, Michael S.; Zelikowsky, Moriel

2011-01-01

A neurally oriented conceptual and computational model of fear conditioning manifested by freezing behavior (FRAT), which accounts for many aspects of delay and context conditioning, has been constructed. Conditioning and extinction are the result of neuromodulation-controlled LTP at synapses of thalamic, cortical, and hippocampal afferents on principal cells and inhibitory interneurons of lateral and basal amygdala. The phenomena accounted for by the model (and simulated by the computational version) include conditioning, secondary reinforcement, blocking, the immediate shock deficit, extinction, renewal, and a range of empirically valid effects of pre- and post-training ablation or inactivation of hippocampus or amygdala nuclei. PMID:21845175

Lex genetica: the law and ethics of programming biological code.

PubMed

Burk, Dan L

2002-01-01

Recent advances in genetic engineering now allow the design of programmable biological artifacts. Such programming may include usage constraints that will alter the balance of ownership and control for biotechnology products. Similar changes have been analyzed in the context of digital content management systems, and while this previous work is useful in analyzing issues related to biological programming, the latter technology presents new conceptual problems that require more comprehensive evaluation of the interplay between law and technologically embedded values. In particular, the ability to embed contractual terms in technological artifacts now requires a re-examination of disclosure and consent in transactions involving such artifacts.

Education for Sustainable Development: A Framework for Nigeria

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oni, Adesoji A.; Adetoro, J. A.

2012-01-01

This paper proposed a framework for conceptualizing, planning for and implementing an education agenda for sustainable development within the Nigerian context. The strategic questions informing this framework are: What is the context within which sustainable development is being proposed? What are the educational needs that arise within the given…

Learning in Professionally "Distant" Contexts: Opportunities and Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mausz, Justin; Tavares, Walter

2017-01-01

The changing nature of healthcare education and delivery is such that clinicians will increasingly find themselves practicing in contexts that are physically and/or conceptually different from the settings in which they were trained, a practice that conflicts on some level with socio-cultural theories of learning that emphasize" learning in…

Schools as Developmental Contexts during Adolescence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eccles, Jacquelynne S.; Roeser, Robert W.

2011-01-01

Considerable strides have been made in the past decade in recognizing the centrality of the cultural context of schooling to adolescent development. In this review, adopting a developmental systems conceptualization of schooling, we focus on selected new research findings from the past decade regarding how (a) teachers, curricular tasks, and…

A Conceptual Framework for Intercultural/International Communication.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weiss, Tim

The ambiguities of intercultural communication are examined in this paper. The concept posed is that although every culture sees the world according to that culture's heritage and history, immediate contexts also shape meanings. In multicultural contexts, those meanings must be constructed partly anew each time by speakers, writers, listeners, and…

Gender and Autonomy-Supportive Contexts: Theoretical Perspectives of Self-Determination and Goal Setting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Shinyi; Chen, Yu-Chuan

2013-01-01

In integrating theoretical perspectives of self-determination and goal-setting, this study proposes a conceptual model with moderating and mediating effects exploring gender issue in autonomy-supportive learning in higher education as research context. In the proposed model, goal-setting attributes, i.e., individual determinants, social…

FAST FLUX TEST FACILITY CONCEPTUAL FACILTY DESIGN DESCRIPTION FOR THE INERT GAS CELL EXAMINATION FACILITY NO. 71

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

None

1968-12-12

The purpose of this Conceptual Facility Design Description (CFDD) is to provide a technical description of the Inert Gas Cell Examination Facility such that agreement with RDT on a Conceptual Design can be reached . The CFDD also serves to establish a common understanding of the facility concept among all responsible FFTF Project parties including the Architect Engineer and Reactor Designer. Included are functions and design requirements, a physical description of the facility, safety considerations, principles of operation, and maintenance principles.

Lunar base launch and landing facility conceptual design, 2nd edition

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1988-01-01

This report documents the Lunar Base Launch and Landing Facility Conceptual Design study. The purpose of this study was to examine the requirements for launch and landing facilities for early lunar bases and to prepare conceptual designs for some of these facilities. The emphasis of this study is on the facilities needed from the first manned landing until permanent occupancy. Surface characteristics and flight vehicle interactions are described, and various facility operations are related. Specific recommendations for equipment, facilities, and evolutionary planning are made, and effects of different aspects of lunar development scenarios on facilities and operations are detailed. Finally, for a given scenario, a specific conceptual design is developed and presented.

New tools for investigating student learning in upper-division electrostatics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilcox, Bethany R.

Student learning in upper-division physics courses is a growing area of research in the field of Physics Education. Developing effective new curricular materials and pedagogical techniques to improve student learning in upper-division courses requires knowledge of both what material students struggle with and what curricular approaches help to overcome these struggles. To facilitate the course transformation process for one specific content area --- upper-division electrostatics --- this thesis presents two new methodological tools: (1) an analytical framework designed to investigate students' struggles with the advanced physics content and mathematically sophisticated tools/techniques required at the junior and senior level, and (2) a new multiple-response conceptual assessment designed to measure student learning and assess the effectiveness of different curricular approaches. We first describe the development and theoretical grounding of a new analytical framework designed to characterize how students use mathematical tools and techniques during physics problem solving. We apply this framework to investigate student difficulties with three specific mathematical tools used in upper-division electrostatics: multivariable integration in the context of Coulomb's law, the Dirac delta function in the context of expressing volume charge densities, and separation of variables as a technique to solve Laplace's equation. We find a number of common themes in students' difficulties around these mathematical tools including: recognizing when a particular mathematical tool is appropriate for a given physics problem, mapping between the specific physical context and the formal mathematical structures, and reflecting spontaneously on the solution to a physics problem to gain physical insight or ensure consistency with expected results. We then describe the development of a novel, multiple-response version of an existing conceptual assessment in upper-division electrostatics courses. The goal of this new version is to provide an easily-graded electrostatics assessment that can potentially be implemented to investigate student learning on a large scale. We show that student performance on the new multiple-response version exhibits a significant degree of consistency with performance on the free-response version, and that it continues to provide significant insight into student reasoning and student difficulties. Moreover, we demonstrate that the new assessment is both valid and reliable using data from upper-division physics students at multiple institutions. Overall, the work described in this thesis represents a significant contribution to the methodological tools available to researchers and instructors interested in improving student learning at the upper-division level.

Fostering creativity in product and service development: validation in the domain of information technology.

PubMed

Zeng, Liang; Proctor, Robert W; Salvendy, Gavriel

2011-06-01

This research is intended to empirically validate a general model of creative product and service development proposed in the literature. A current research gap inspired construction of a conceptual model to capture fundamental phases and pertinent facilitating metacognitive strategies in the creative design process. The model also depicts the mechanism by which design creativity affects consumer behavior. The validity and assets of this model have not yet been investigated. Four laboratory studies were conducted to demonstrate the value of the proposed cognitive phases and associated metacognitive strategies in the conceptual model. Realistic product and service design problems were used in creativity assessment to ensure ecological validity. Design creativity was enhanced by explicit problem analysis, whereby one formulates problems from different perspectives and at different levels of abstraction. Remote association in conceptual combination spawned more design creativity than did near association. Abstraction led to greater creativity in conducting conceptual expansion than did specificity, which induced mental fixation. Domain-specific knowledge and experience enhanced design creativity, indicating that design can be of a domain-specific nature. Design creativity added integrated value to products and services and positively influenced customer behavior. The validity and value of the proposed conceptual model is supported by empirical findings. The conceptual model of creative design could underpin future theory development. Propositions advanced in this article should provide insights and approaches to facilitate organizations pursuing product and service creativity to gain competitive advantage.

Mod-5A Wind Turbine Generator Program Design Report. Volume 2: Conceptual and Preliminary Design, Book 1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1984-01-01

The design, development and analysis of the 7.3 MW MOD-5A wind turbine generator is documented. There are four volumes. In Volume 2, book 1 the requirements and criteria for the design are presented. The conceptual design studies, which defined a baseline configuration and determined the weights, costs and sizes of each subsystem, are described. The development and optimization of the wind turbine generator are presented through the description of the ten intermediate configurations between the conceptual and final designs. Analyses of the system's load and dynamics are presented.

Conceptual Design Oriented Wing Structural Analysis and Optimization

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lau, May Yuen

1996-01-01

Airplane optimization has always been the goal of airplane designers. In the conceptual design phase, a designer's goal could be tradeoffs between maximum structural integrity, minimum aerodynamic drag, or maximum stability and control, many times achieved separately. Bringing all of these factors into an iterative preliminary design procedure was time consuming, tedious, and not always accurate. For example, the final weight estimate would often be based upon statistical data from past airplanes. The new design would be classified based on gross characteristics, such as number of engines, wingspan, etc., to see which airplanes of the past most closely resembled the new design. This procedure works well for conventional airplane designs, but not very well for new innovative designs. With the computing power of today, new methods are emerging for the conceptual design phase of airplanes. Using finite element methods, computational fluid dynamics, and other computer techniques, designers can make very accurate disciplinary-analyses of an airplane design. These tools are computationally intensive, and when used repeatedly, they consume a great deal of computing time. In order to reduce the time required to analyze a design and still bring together all of the disciplines (such as structures, aerodynamics, and controls) into the analysis, simplified design computer analyses are linked together into one computer program. These design codes are very efficient for conceptual design. The work in this thesis is focused on a finite element based conceptual design oriented structural synthesis capability (CDOSS) tailored to be linked into ACSYNT.

Fifth Graders as App Designers: How Diverse Learners Conceptualize Educational Apps

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Israel, Maya; Marino, Matthew T.; Basham, James D.; Spivak, Wenonoa

2013-01-01

Instructional designers are increasingly considering how to include students as participants in the design of instructional technologies. This study provides a lens into participatory design with students by examining how students conceptualized learning applications in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by designing paper…

Integrating MPI and deduplication engines: a software architecture roadmap.

PubMed

Baksi, Dibyendu

2009-03-01

The objective of this paper is to clarify the major concepts related to architecture and design of patient identity management software systems so that an implementor looking to solve a specific integration problem in the context of a Master Patient Index (MPI) and a deduplication engine can address the relevant issues. The ideas presented are illustrated in the context of a reference use case from Integrating the Health Enterprise Patient Identifier Cross-referencing (IHE PIX) profile. Sound software engineering principles using the latest design paradigm of model driven architecture (MDA) are applied to define different views of the architecture. The main contribution of the paper is a clear software architecture roadmap for implementors of patient identity management systems. Conceptual design in terms of static and dynamic views of the interfaces is provided as an example of platform independent model. This makes the roadmap applicable to any specific solutions of MPI, deduplication library or software platform. Stakeholders in need of integration of MPIs and deduplication engines can evaluate vendor specific solutions and software platform technologies in terms of fundamental concepts and can make informed decisions that preserve investment. This also allows freedom from vendor lock-in and the ability to kick-start integration efforts based on a solid architecture.

Results from conceptual design study of potential early commercial MHD/steam power plants

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hals, F.; Kessler, R.; Swallom, D.; Westra, L.; Zar, J.; Morgan, W.; Bozzuto, C.

1981-01-01

This paper presents conceptual design information for a potential early MHD power plant developed in the second phase of a joint study of such plants. Conceptual designs of plant components and equipment with performance, operational characteristics and costs are reported on. Plant economics and overall performance including full and part load operation are reviewed. Environmental aspects and the methods incorporated in plant design for emission control of sulfur and nitrogen oxides are reviewed. Results from reliability/availability analysis conducted are also included.

Cycle time reduction using lean six sigma in make-to-order (MTO) environment: Conceptual framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Man, Siti Mariam; Zain, Zakiyah; Nawawi, Mohd Kamal Mohd

2015-12-01

This paper outlines the framework for application of lean six sigma (LSS) methodology to improve semiconductor assembly cycle time in a make-to-order (MTO) business environment. The cycle time reduction is the prime objective in the context of an overall productivity improvement particularly in the MTO environment. The interaction of the production rate and cycle time is described, while the emphasis is on Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control (DMAIC) and Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) activities. A framework for the conceptual understanding is provided along with practical implementation issues. A relevant measure for the degree of flexibility (DOF) in the context of quick setup is also discussed.

The ACTIVE conceptual framework as a structural equation model

PubMed Central

Gross, Alden L.; Payne, Brennan R.; Casanova, Ramon; Davoudzadeh, Pega; Dzierzewski, Joseph M.; Farias, Sarah; Giovannetti, Tania; Ip, Edward H.; Marsiske, Michael; Rebok, George W.; Schaie, K. Warner; Thomas, Kelsey; Willis, Sherry; Jones, Richard N.

2018-01-01

Background/Study Context Conceptual frameworks are analytic models at a high level of abstraction. Their operationalization can inform randomized trial design and sample size considerations. Methods The Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) conceptual framework was empirically tested using structural equation modeling (N=2,802). ACTIVE was guided by a conceptual framework for cognitive training in which proximal cognitive abilities (memory, inductive reasoning, speed of processing) mediate treatment-related improvement in primary outcomes (everyday problem-solving, difficulty with activities of daily living, everyday speed, driving difficulty), which in turn lead to improved secondary outcomes (health-related quality of life, health service utilization, mobility). Measurement models for each proximal, primary, and secondary outcome were developed and tested using baseline data. Each construct was then combined in one model to evaluate fit (RMSEA, CFI, normalized residuals of each indicator). To expand the conceptual model and potentially inform future trials, evidence of modification of structural model parameters was evaluated by age, years of education, sex, race, and self-rated health status. Results Preconceived measurement models for memory, reasoning, speed of processing, everyday problem-solving, instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) difficulty, everyday speed, driving difficulty, and health-related quality of life each fit well to the data (all RMSEA < .05; all CFI > .95). Fit of the full model was excellent (RMSEA = .038; CFI = .924). In contrast with previous findings from ACTIVE regarding who benefits from training, interaction testing revealed associations between proximal abilities and primary outcomes are stronger on average by nonwhite race, worse health, older age, and less education (p < .005). Conclusions Empirical data confirm the hypothesized ACTIVE conceptual model. Findings suggest that the types of people who show intervention effects on cognitive performance potentially may be different from those with the greatest chance of transfer to real-world activities. PMID:29303475

Complex multidisciplinary systems decomposition for aerospace vehicle conceptual design and technology acquisition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Omoragbon, Amen

Although, the Aerospace and Defense (A&D) industry is a significant contributor to the United States' economy, national prestige and national security, it experiences significant cost and schedule overruns. This problem is related to the differences between technology acquisition assessments and aerospace vehicle conceptual design. Acquisition assessments evaluate broad sets of alternatives with mostly qualitative techniques, while conceptual design tools evaluate narrow set of alternatives with multidisciplinary tools. In order for these two fields to communicate effectively, a common platform for both concerns is desired. This research is an original contribution to a three-part solution to this problem. It discusses the decomposition step of an innovation technology and sizing tool generation framework. It identifies complex multidisciplinary system definitions as a bridge between acquisition and conceptual design. It establishes complex multidisciplinary building blocks that can be used to build synthesis systems as well as technology portfolios. It also describes a Graphical User Interface Designed to aid in decomposition process. Finally, it demonstrates an application of the methodology to a relevant acquisition and conceptual design problem posed by the US Air Force.

Conceptual Chemical Process Design for Sustainability.

EPA Science Inventory

This chapter examines the sustainable design of chemical processes, with a focus on conceptual design, hierarchical and short-cut methods, and analyses of process sustainability for alternatives. The chapter describes a methodology for incorporating process sustainability analyse...

CONCEPTUAL DESIGNS FOR A NEW HIGHWAY VEHICLE EMISSIONS ESTIMATION METHODOLOGY

EPA Science Inventory

The report discusses six conceptual designs for a new highway vehicle emissions estimation methodology and summarizes the recommendations of each design for improving the emissions and activity factors in the emissions estimation process. he complete design reports are included a...

A Conceptual Approach to the Problem of Action-Angle Variables

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zung, Nguyen Tien

2018-02-01

In this paper we develop a general conceptual approach to the problem of existence of action-angle variables for dynamical systems, which establishes and uses the fundamental conservation property of associated torus actions: anything which is preserved by the system is also preserved by the associated torus actions. This approach allows us to obtain, among other things: (a) the shortest and most easy-to-understand conceptual proof of the classical Arnold-Liouville-Mineur theorem; (b) basically all known results in the literature about the existence of action-angle variables in various contexts can be recovered in a unifying way, with simple proofs, using our approach; (c) new results on action-angle variables in many different contexts, including systems on contact manifolds, systems on presymplectic and Dirac manifolds, action-angle variables near singularities, stochastic systems, and so on. Even when there are no natural action variables, our approach still leads to useful normal forms for dynamical systems, which are not necessarily integrable.

Development of Conceptual Design Support Tool Founded on Formalization of Conceptual Design Process for Regenerative Life Support Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miyajima, Hiroyuki; Yuhara, Naohiro

Regenerative Life Support Systems (RLSS), which maintain human lives by recycling substances essential for living, are comprised of humans, plants, and material circulation systems. The plants supply food to the humans or reproduce water and gases by photosynthesis, while the material circulation systems recycle physicochemically and circulate substances disposed by humans and plants. RLSS attracts attention since manned space activities have been shifted from previous short trips to long-term stay activities as such base as a space station, a lunar base, and a Mars base. The present typical space base is the International Space Station (ISS), a manned experimental base for prolonged stays, where RLSS recycles only water and air. In order to accommodate prolonged and extended manned activity in future space bases, developing RLSS that implements food production and regeneration of resources at once using plants is expected. The configuration of RLSS should be designed to suit its own duty, for which design requirements for RLSS with an unprecedented configuration may arise. Accordingly, it is necessary to establish a conceptual design method for generalized RLSS. It is difficult, however, to systematize the design process by analyzing previous design because there are only a few ground-experimental facilities, namely CEEF (Closed Ecology Experiment Facilities) of Japan, BIO-Plex (Bioregenerative Planetary Life Support Systems Test Complex) of the U.S., and BIOS3 of Russia. Thus a conceptual design method which doesn’t rely on previous design examples is required for generalized RLSS from the above reasons. This study formalizes a conceptual design process, and develops a conceptual design support tool for RLSS based on this design process.

The development and validation of Science Learning Inventory (SLI): A conceptual change framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Seyedmonir, Mehdi

2000-12-01

A multidimensional theoretical model, Conceptual Change Science Learning (CCSL), was developed based on Standard Model of Conceptual Change and Cognitive Reconstruction of Knowledge Model. The model addresses three main components of science learning, namely the learner's conceptual ecology, the message along with its social context, and the cognitive engagement. A learner's conceptual ecology is organized around three clusters, including epistemological beliefs, existing conceptions, and motivation. Learner's cognitive engagement is represented by a continuum from peripheral processing involving shallow cognitive engagement to central processing involving deep cognitive engagement. Through reciprocal, non-sequential interactions of such constructs, the learners' conceptual change is achieved. Using a quantitative empirical approach, three studies were conducted to investigate the theoretical constructs based on the CCSL Model. The first study reports the development and validation of the hypothesized and factor-analytic scales comprising the instrument, Science Learning Inventory (SLI) intended for college students. The self-report instrument was designed in two parts, SLI-A (conceptual ecology and cognitive engagement) with 48 initial items, and SLI-B (science epistemology) with 49 initial items. The items for SLI-B were based on the tenets of Nature of Science as reflected in the recent reform documents, Science for All Americans (Project 2061) and National Science Education Standards. The results of factor analysis indicated seven factors for SLI-A and four factors for SLI-B. The second study investigated the criterion-related (conceptual change) predictive validity of the SLI in an instructional setting (a college-level physics course). The findings suggested the possibility of different interplay of factors and dynamics depending on the nature of the criterion (gain scores from a three-week intervention versus final course grade). Gain scores were predicted by "self-reflective study behavior" and "science self-efficacy" scales of SLI, whereas the course grade was predicted by "metacognitive engagement" and "dynamic scientific truth," (a factor from science epistemology). The third study investigated the effects of text-based conceptual-change strategy (Enhanced Refutational Text; ERT) on Newtonian Laws of Motion, and the efficacy of the SLI scales in a controlled setting. Also, initial divergent and convergent validity procedures are reported in the study. The results provided partial support for the superiority of ERT over expository text. The ERT was an effective intervention for students with no prior physics background but not for students with prior physics background.

Implementing Technology for Science Classrooms in Sao Tome and Principe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jardim, Maria Dolores Rodrigues

This qualitative bounded case study was designed to understand how technology integration in schools could be addressed in a first-wave country. The integration of educational technology in Sao Tome and Principe (STP), a first-wave agricultural civilization, can narrow the divide between STP and third-wave information age societies. The conceptual framework was based on theories of change, learning, and context. Toffler's wave theory described how societies changed while Fullan's change theory examined how the people might change. Roger's diffusion of innovations addressed how processes change. Bandura, Vygotsky, and Siemen provided the framework for the learning within the model of change. Finally, the context theories of Tessmer and Richey's instructional design, Lave and Wenger's situated learning, and Sticht's functional context theory were applied. Twenty five individuals from 5 schools, including teachers, school directors, key educational stakeholders, and the minister of education were involved in a pilot project to integrate technology into the science curriculum. The data were collected via interviews, reflective summaries, and confidential narratives. The resulting data were analyzed to find emerging patterns. The results of this analysis showed that a first-wave civilization can adopt a third-wave civilization's features in terms of technology integration, when there is the support of opinion leaders and most of the necessary contextual requirements are in place. The study contributes to social change by providing access to knowledge through technology integration, which empowers both teachers and students.

College physics students' epistemological self-reflection and its relationship to conceptual learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

May, David B.; Etkina, Eugenia

2002-12-01

Students should develop self-reflection skills and appropriate views about knowledge and learning, both for their own sake and because these skills and views may be related to improvements in conceptual understanding. We explored the latter issue in the context of an introductory physics course for first-year engineering honors students. As part of the course, students submitted weekly reports, in which they reflected on how they learned specific physics content. The reports by 12 students were analyzed for the quality of reflection and some of the epistemological beliefs they exhibited. Students' conceptual learning gains were measured with standard survey instruments. We found that students with high conceptual gains tend to show reflection on learning that is more articulate and epistemologically sophisticated than students with lower conceptual gains. Some implications for instruction are suggested.

Developing a case mix classification for child and adolescent mental health services: the influence of presenting problems, complexity factors and service providers on number of appointments.

PubMed

Martin, Peter; Davies, Roger; Macdougall, Amy; Ritchie, Benjamin; Vostanis, Panos; Whale, Andy; Wolpert, Miranda

2017-09-01

Case-mix classification is a focus of international attention in considering how best to manage and fund services, by providing a basis for fairer comparison of resource utilization. Yet there is little evidence of the best ways to establish case mix for child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). To develop a case mix classification for CAMHS that is clinically meaningful and predictive of number of appointments attended and to investigate the influence of presenting problems, context and complexity factors and provider variation. We analysed 4573 completed episodes of outpatient care from 11 English CAMHS. Cluster analysis, regression trees and a conceptual classification based on clinical best practice guidelines were compared regarding their ability to predict number of appointments, using mixed effects negative binomial regression. The conceptual classification is clinically meaningful and did as well as data-driven classifications in accounting for number of appointments. There was little evidence for effects of complexity or context factors, with the possible exception of school attendance problems. Substantial variation in resource provision between providers was not explained well by case mix. The conceptually-derived classification merits further testing and development in the context of collaborative decision making.

Development and verification of an agent-based model of opinion leadership.

PubMed

Anderson, Christine A; Titler, Marita G

2014-09-27

The use of opinion leaders is a strategy used to speed the process of translating research into practice. Much is still unknown about opinion leader attributes and activities and the context in which they are most effective. Agent-based modeling is a methodological tool that enables demonstration of the interactive and dynamic effects of individuals and their behaviors on other individuals in the environment. The purpose of this study was to develop and test an agent-based model of opinion leadership. The details of the design and verification of the model are presented. The agent-based model was developed by using a software development platform to translate an underlying conceptual model of opinion leadership into a computer model. Individual agent attributes (for example, motives and credibility) and behaviors (seeking or providing an opinion) were specified as variables in the model in the context of a fictitious patient care unit. The verification process was designed to test whether or not the agent-based model was capable of reproducing the conditions of the preliminary conceptual model. The verification methods included iterative programmatic testing ('debugging') and exploratory analysis of simulated data obtained from execution of the model. The simulation tests included a parameter sweep, in which the model input variables were adjusted systematically followed by an individual time series experiment. Statistical analysis of model output for the 288 possible simulation scenarios in the parameter sweep revealed that the agent-based model was performing, consistent with the posited relationships in the underlying model. Nurse opinion leaders act on the strength of their beliefs and as a result, become an opinion resource for their uncertain colleagues, depending on their perceived credibility. Over time, some nurses consistently act as this type of resource and have the potential to emerge as opinion leaders in a context where uncertainty exists. The development and testing of agent-based models is an iterative process. The opinion leader model presented here provides a basic structure for continued model development, ongoing verification, and the establishment of validation procedures, including empirical data collection.

SLUDGE TREATMENT PROJECT KOP CONCEPTUAL DESIGN CONTROL DECISION REPORT

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

CARRO CA

2010-03-09

This control decision addresses the Knock-Out Pot (KOP) Disposition KOP Processing System (KPS) conceptual design. The KPS functions to (1) retrieve KOP material from canisters, (2) remove particles less than 600 {micro}m in size and low density materials from the KOP material, (3) load the KOP material into Multi-Canister Overpack (MCO) baskets, and (4) stage the MCO baskets for subsequent loading into MCOs. Hazard and accident analyses of the KPS conceptual design have been performed to incorporate safety into the design process. The hazard analysis is documented in PRC-STP-00098, Knock-Out Pot Disposition Project Conceptual Design Hazard Analysis. The accident analysismore » is documented in PRC-STP-CN-N-00167, Knock-Out Pot Disposition Sub-Project Canister Over Lift Accident Analysis. Based on the results of these analyses, and analyses performed in support of MCO transportation and MCO processing and storage activities at the Cold Vacuum Drying Facility (CVDF) and Canister Storage Building (CSB), control decision meetings were held to determine the controls required to protect onsite and offsite receptors and facility workers. At the conceptual design stage, these controls are primarily defined by their safety functions. Safety significant structures, systems, and components (SSCs) that could provide the identified safety functions have been selected for the conceptual design. It is anticipated that some safety SSCs identified herein will be reclassified based on hazard and accident analyses performed in support of preliminary and detailed design.« less

Participatory Design of an Integrated Information System Design to Support Public Health Nurses and Nurse Managers

PubMed Central

Reeder, Blaine; Hills, Rebecca A.; Turner, Anne M.; Demiris, George

2014-01-01

Objectives The objectives of the study were to use persona-driven and scenario-based design methods to create a conceptual information system design to support public health nursing. Design and Sample We enrolled 19 participants from two local health departments to conduct an information needs assessment, create a conceptual design, and conduct a preliminary design validation. Measures Interviews and thematic analysis were used to characterize information needs and solicit design recommendations from participants. Personas were constructed from participant background information, and scenario-based design was used to create a conceptual information system design. Two focus groups were conducted as a first iteration validation of information needs, personas, and scenarios. Results Eighty-nine information needs were identified. Two personas and 89 scenarios were created. Public health nurses and nurse managers confirmed the accuracy of information needs, personas, scenarios, and the perceived usefulness of proposed features of the conceptual design. Design artifacts were modified based on focus group results. Conclusion Persona-driven design and scenario-based design are feasible methods to design for common work activities in different local health departments. Public health nurses and nurse managers should be engaged in the design of systems that support their work. PMID:24117760

Evaluating health inequity interventions: applying a contextual (external) validity framework to programs funded by the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation.

PubMed

Phillips, Kaye; Müller-Clemm, Werner; Ysselstein, Margaretha; Sachs, Jonathan

2013-02-01

Including context in the measurement and evaluation of health in equity interventions is critical to understanding how events that occur in an intervention's environment might contribute to or impede its success. This study adapted and piloted a contextual validity assessment framework on a selection of health inequity-related programs funded by the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (CHSRF) between 1998 and 2006. The two overarching objectives of this study were (1) to determine the relative amount and quality of attention given to conceptualizing, measuring and validating context within CHSRF funded research final reports related to health-inequity; and (2) to contribute evaluative evidence towards the incorporation of context into the assessment and measurement of health inequity interventions. The study found that of the 42/146 CHSRF programs and projects, judged to be related to health inequity 20 adequately reported on the conceptualization, measurement and validation of context. Amongst these health-inequity related project reports, greatest emphasis was placed on describing the socio-political and economical context over actually measuring and validating contextual evidence. Applying a contextual validity assessment framework was useful for distinguishing between the descriptive (conceptual) versus empirical (measurement and validation) inclusion of documented contextual evidence. Although contextual validity measurement frameworks needs further development, this study contributes insight into identifying funded research related to health inequities and preliminary criteria for assessing interventions targeted at specific populations and jurisdictions. This study also feeds a larger critical dialogue (albeit beyond the scope of this study) regarding the relevance and utility of using evaluative techniques for understanding how specific external conditions support or impede the successful implementation of health inequity interventions. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Selective functional integration between anterior temporal and distinct fronto-mesolimbic regions during guilt and indignation.

PubMed

Green, Sophie; Ralph, Matthew A Lambon; Moll, Jorge; Stamatakis, Emmanuel A; Grafman, Jordan; Zahn, Roland

2010-10-01

It has been hypothesized that the experience of different moral sentiments such as guilt and indignation is underpinned by activation in temporal and fronto-mesolimbic regions and that functional integration between these regions is necessary for the differentiated experience of these moral sentiments. A recent fMRI study revealed that the right superior anterior temporal lobe (ATL) was activated irrespective of the context of moral feelings (guilt or indignation). This region has been associated with context-independent conceptual social knowledge which allows us to make fine-grained differentiations between qualities of social behaviours (e.g. "critical" and "faultfinding"). This knowledge is required to make emotional evaluations of social behaviour. In contrast to the context-independent activation of the ATL, there were context-dependent activations within different fronto-mesolimbic regions for guilt and indignation. However, it is unknown whether functional integration occurs between these regions and whether regional patterns of integration are distinctive for the experience of different moral sentiments. Here, we used fMRI and psychophysiological interaction analysis, an established measure of functional integration to investigate this issue. We found selective functional integration between the right superior ATL and a subgenual cingulate region during the experience of guilt and between the right superior ATL and the lateral orbitofrontal cortex for indignation. Our data provide the first evidence for functional integration of conceptual social knowledge representations in the right superior ATL with representations of different feeling contexts in fronto-mesolimbic regions. We speculate that this functional architecture allows for the conceptually differentiated experience of moral sentiments in healthy individuals. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

DEMONSTRATION OF FUEL CELLS TO RECOVER ENERGY FROM LANDFILL GAS - PHASE I FINAL REPORT: CONCEPTUAL STUDY

EPA Science Inventory

The report discusses results of a conceptual design, cost, and evaluation study of energy recovery from landfill gas using a commercial phosphoric acid fuel cell power plant. The conceptual design of the fuel cell energy recovery system is described, and its economic and environm...

Design and Validation of the Quantum Mechanics Conceptual Survey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McKagan, S. B.; Perkins, K. K.; Wieman, C. E.

2010-01-01

The Quantum Mechanics Conceptual Survey (QMCS) is a 12-question survey of students' conceptual understanding of quantum mechanics. It is intended to be used to measure the relative effectiveness of different instructional methods in modern physics courses. In this paper, we describe the design and validation of the survey, a process that included…

Authentic Oral Language Production and Interaction in CALL: An Evolving Conceptual Framework for the Use of Learning Analytics within the SpeakApps Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nic Giolla Mhichíl, Mairéad; van Engen, Jeroen; Ó Ciardúbháin, Colm; Ó Cléircín, Gearóid; Appel, Christine

2014-01-01

This paper sets out to construct and present the evolving conceptual framework of the SpeakApps projects to consider the application of learning analytics to facilitate synchronous and asynchronous oral language skills within this CALL context. Drawing from both the CALL and wider theoretical and empirical literature of learner analytics, the…

Translating the Metaphor in Poetry: A Cognitive Approach to "Le Bateau Ivre" and Its Translation in Turkish

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Güçlü, Ruhan

2017-01-01

Lakoff and Johnson (1980) gave a cognitive point of view to metaphor study explaining that metaphor is not a mere literary stylistic device, rather a tool for conceptualization. According to this view, metaphors are conceptualized in man's mind with regard to source domain and target domain in different types of context. This study is an attempt…

Plasma facing components: a conceptual design strategy for the first wall in FAST tokamak

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Labate, C.; Di Gironimo, G.; Renno, F.

2015-09-01

Satellite tokamaks are conceived with the main purpose of developing new or alternative ITER- and DEMO-relevant technologies, able to contribute in resolving the pending issues about plasma operation. In particular, a high criticality needs to be associated to the design of plasma facing components, i.e. first wall (FW) and divertor, due to physical, topological and thermo-structural reasons. In such a context, the design of the FW in FAST fusion plant, whose operational range is close to ITER’s one, takes place. According to the mission of experimental satellites, the FW design strategy, which is presented in this paper relies on a series of innovative design choices and proposals with a particular attention to the typical key points of plasma facing components design. Such an approach, taking into account a series of involved physical constraints and functional requirements to be fulfilled, marks a clear borderline with the FW solution adopted in ITER, in terms of basic ideas, manufacturing aspects, remote maintenance procedure, manifolds management, cooling cycle and support system configuration.

Conceptual design of a laser fusion power plant. Part I. An integrated facility

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

This study is a new preliminary conceptual design and economic analysis of an inertial confinement fusion (ICF) power plant performed by Bechtel under the direction of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). The purpose of a new conceptual design is to examine alternatives to the LLNL HYLIFE power plant and to incorporate information from the recent liquid metal cooled power plant conceptual design study (CDS) into the reactor system and balance of plant design. A key issue in the design of a laser fusion power plant is the degree of symmetry in the illumination of the target that will be requiredmore » for a proper burn. Because this matter is expected to remain unresolved for some time, another purpose of this study is to determine the effect of symmetry requirements on the total plant size, layout, and cost.« less

Understanding environmental sounds in sentence context.

PubMed

Uddin, Sophia; Heald, Shannon L M; Van Hedger, Stephen C; Klos, Serena; Nusbaum, Howard C

2018-03-01

There is debate about how individuals use context to successfully predict and recognize words. One view argues that context supports neural predictions that make use of the speech motor system, whereas other views argue for a sensory or conceptual level of prediction. While environmental sounds can convey clear referential meaning, they are not linguistic signals, and are thus neither produced with the vocal tract nor typically encountered in sentence context. We compared the effect of spoken sentence context on recognition and comprehension of spoken words versus nonspeech, environmental sounds. In Experiment 1, sentence context decreased the amount of signal needed for recognition of spoken words and environmental sounds in similar fashion. In Experiment 2, listeners judged sentence meaning in both high and low contextually constraining sentence frames, when the final word was present or replaced with a matching environmental sound. Results showed that sentence constraint affected decision time similarly for speech and nonspeech, such that high constraint sentences (i.e., frame plus completion) were processed faster than low constraint sentences for speech and nonspeech. Linguistic context facilitates the recognition and understanding of nonspeech sounds in much the same way as for spoken words. This argues against a simple form of a speech-motor explanation of predictive coding in spoken language understanding, and suggests support for conceptual-level predictions. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Participatory design of an integrated information system design to support public health nurses and nurse managers.

PubMed

Reeder, Blaine; Hills, Rebecca A; Turner, Anne M; Demiris, George

2014-01-01

The objectives of the study were to use persona-driven and scenario-based design methods to create a conceptual information system design to support public health nursing. We enrolled 19 participants from two local health departments to conduct an information needs assessment, create a conceptual design, and conduct a preliminary design validation. Interviews and thematic analysis were used to characterize information needs and solicit design recommendations from participants. Personas were constructed from participant background information, and scenario-based design was used to create a conceptual information system design. Two focus groups were conducted as a first iteration validation of information needs, personas, and scenarios. Eighty-nine information needs were identified. Two personas and 89 scenarios were created. Public health nurses and nurse managers confirmed the accuracy of information needs, personas, scenarios, and the perceived usefulness of proposed features of the conceptual design. Design artifacts were modified based on focus group results. Persona-driven design and scenario-based design are feasible methods to design for common work activities in different local health departments. Public health nurses and nurse managers should be engaged in the design of systems that support their work. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Aircraft Conceptual Design Using Vehicle Sketch Pad

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fredericks, William J.; Antcliff, Kevin R.; Costa, Guillermo; Deshpande, Nachiket; Moore, Mark D.; Miguel, Edric A. San; Snyder, Alison N.

2010-01-01

Vehicle Sketch Pad (VSP) is a parametric geometry modeling tool that is intended for use in the conceptual design of aircraft. The intent of this software is to rapidly model aircraft configurations without expending the expertise and time that is typically required for modeling with traditional Computer Aided Design (CAD) packages. VSP accomplishes this by using parametrically defined components, such as a wing that is defined by span, area, sweep, taper ratio, thickness to cord, and so on. During this phase of frequent design builds, changes to the model can be rapidly visualized along with the internal volumetric layout. Using this geometry-based approach, parameters such as wetted areas and cord lengths can be easily extracted for rapid external performance analyses, such as a parasite drag buildup. At the completion of the conceptual design phase, VSP can export its geometry to higher fidelity tools. This geometry tool was developed by NASA and is freely available to U.S. companies and universities. It has become integral to conceptual design in the Aeronautics Systems Analysis Branch (ASAB) here at NASA Langley Research Center and is currently being used at over 100 universities, aerospace companies, and other government agencies. This paper focuses on the use of VSP in recent NASA conceptual design studies to facilitate geometry-centered design methodology. Such a process is shown to promote greater levels of creativity, more rapid assessment of critical design issues, and improved ability to quickly interact with higher order analyses. A number of VSP vehicle model examples are compared to CAD-based conceptual design, from a designer perspective; comparisons are also made of the time and expertise required to build the geometry representations as well.

The methodology of database design in organization management systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chudinov, I. L.; Osipova, V. V.; Bobrova, Y. V.

2017-01-01

The paper describes the unified methodology of database design for management information systems. Designing the conceptual information model for the domain area is the most important and labor-intensive stage in database design. Basing on the proposed integrated approach to design, the conceptual information model, the main principles of developing the relation databases are provided and user’s information needs are considered. According to the methodology, the process of designing the conceptual information model includes three basic stages, which are defined in detail. Finally, the article describes the process of performing the results of analyzing user’s information needs and the rationale for use of classifiers.

Suppression of Striatal Prediction Errors by the Prefrontal Cortex in Placebo Hypoalgesia.

PubMed

Schenk, Lieven A; Sprenger, Christian; Onat, Selim; Colloca, Luana; Büchel, Christian

2017-10-04

Classical learning theories predict extinction after the discontinuation of reinforcement through prediction errors. However, placebo hypoalgesia, although mediated by associative learning, has been shown to be resistant to extinction. We tested the hypothesis that this is mediated by the suppression of prediction error processing through the prefrontal cortex (PFC). We compared pain modulation through treatment cues (placebo hypoalgesia, treatment context) with pain modulation through stimulus intensity cues (stimulus context) during functional magnetic resonance imaging in 48 male and female healthy volunteers. During acquisition, our data show that expectations are correctly learned and that this is associated with prediction error signals in the ventral striatum (VS) in both contexts. However, in the nonreinforced test phase, pain modulation and expectations of pain relief persisted to a larger degree in the treatment context, indicating that the expectations were not correctly updated in the treatment context. Consistently, we observed significantly stronger neural prediction error signals in the VS in the stimulus context compared with the treatment context. A connectivity analysis revealed negative coupling between the anterior PFC and the VS in the treatment context, suggesting that the PFC can suppress the expression of prediction errors in the VS. Consistent with this, a participant's conceptual views and beliefs about treatments influenced the pain modulation only in the treatment context. Our results indicate that in placebo hypoalgesia contextual treatment information engages prefrontal conceptual processes, which can suppress prediction error processing in the VS and lead to reduced updating of treatment expectancies, resulting in less extinction of placebo hypoalgesia. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT In aversive and appetitive reinforcement learning, learned effects show extinction when reinforcement is discontinued. This is thought to be mediated by prediction errors (i.e., the difference between expectations and outcome). Although reinforcement learning has been central in explaining placebo hypoalgesia, placebo hypoalgesic effects show little extinction and persist after the discontinuation of reinforcement. Our results support the idea that conceptual treatment beliefs bias the neural processing of expectations in a treatment context compared with a more stimulus-driven processing of expectations with stimulus intensity cues. We provide evidence that this is associated with the suppression of prediction error processing in the ventral striatum by the prefrontal cortex. This provides a neural basis for persisting effects in reinforcement learning and placebo hypoalgesia. Copyright © 2017 the authors 0270-6474/17/379715-09$15.00/0.

Becoming Scholars in an Interdisciplinary, Feminist Learning Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pileggi, Victoria; Holliday, Joanna; de Santis, Carm; Lamarre, Andrea; Jeffrey, Nicole; Tetro, Maria; Rice, Carla

2017-01-01

It is within the overlap of three gaps in the literature on feminist classrooms (lack of initiation, student representation, and evaluation) that the authors situate this paper. In conceptualizing this paper, they wanted not only to describe a context from which others can consider their own present or future offerings of feminist,…

Self- and Social Regulation in Learning Contexts: An Integrative Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Volet, Simone; Vauras, Marja; Salonen, Pekka

2009-01-01

This article outlines the rationale for an integrative perspective of self- and social regulation in learning contexts. The role of regulatory mechanisms in self- and social regulation models is examined, leading to the view that in real time collaborative learning, individuals and social entities should be conceptualized as self-regulating and…

A Case Study of Dilemmas Encountered When Connecting Middle School Mathematics Instruction to Relevant Real World Examples

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sugimoto, Amanda T.; Turner, Erin E.; Stoehr, Kathleen J.

2017-01-01

The pedagogical practice of connecting mathematical content to real world contexts, particularly contexts relevant to students' knowledge and experiences, can positively impact student motivation as well as promote conceptual understanding. However, little is known about how middle school teachers actually make relevant world connections, and more…

Developing Culturally Responsive Surveys: Lessons in Development, Implementation, and Analysis from Brazil's African Descent Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bowen, Merle L.; Tillman, Ayesha S.

2015-01-01

Considerable empirical research, along with a growing body of conceptual and theoretical literature, exists on the role of culture and context in evaluation. Less scholarship has examined culturally responsive surveys in the context of international evaluation. In this article, the authors present lessons learned from the development,…

Towards a Theory of Mathematics Homework as a Social Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Landers, Mara G.

2013-01-01

This article presents a theoretical conceptualization of mathematics homework as a social practice. Rather than considering homework as a task or an artifact, this approach frames homework in terms of the social contexts in which students participate and how students participate in those contexts. This perspective has long been suggested by…

An Examination of Listening Concepts in the Healthcare Context: Differences among Nurses, Physicians, and Administrators

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davis, Janis; Thompson, Catherine R.; Foley, Amy; Bond, Christopher D.; DeWitt, Jean

2008-01-01

This study explores the perceived conceptualizations of listening in a healthcare context. The review of literature focusing on communication and listening in healthcare supports the belief that listening is an essential element in patient satisfaction. This study sought to determine which activities physicians, nurses and healthcare…

Inside Thai Private Higher Education: Exploring Private Growth in International Context. PROPHE Working Paper Series. WP No. 12

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Praphamontripong, Prachayani

2008-01-01

This paper examines different institutional characteristics of Thai private higher education in historical-organizational perspective. The analysis applies different conceptual categories of private emergence--Catholic, elite, demand-absorbing--drawn from international literature starting with Levy (1986) to the Thai case. The societal context of…

On the Outskirts of Education: The Liminal Space of Rural Teen Pregnancy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hunter, Cheryl

2007-01-01

The historical context of teen pregnancy in the US and its evolution to the present embodiment of the predominantly urban "welfare mother" developed from specific socio-historical contexts that deemed early childbirth, especially illegitimate pregnancies, as morally and socially deviant. Two conceptual elements missing within the literature on…

Navigating the Rural Terrain: Educators' Visions to Promote Change

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vaughn, Margaret; Saul, Melissa

2013-01-01

Advocates of rural education emphasize the need to examine supports which may promote rural educators given the challenging contexts of which they face. Teacher visioning has been conceptualized as a navigational tool to help sustain and promote teachers given high-challenging contexts. The current study explored 10 public school teachers from…

Intention, Subjective Norms, and Cancer Screening in the Context of Relational Culture

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pasick, Rena J.; Barker, Judith C.; Otero-Sabogal, Regina; Burke, Nancy J.; Joseph, Galen; Guerra, Claudia

2009-01-01

Research targeting disparities in breast cancer detection has mainly utilized theories that do not account for social context and culture. Most mammography promotion studies have used a conceptual framework centered in the cognitive constructs of intention (commonly regarded as the most important determinant of screening behavior), self-efficacy,…

"Views from the Nano Edge": Women on Doctoral Preparation Programmes in Selected African Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williamson, Charmaine

2016-01-01

The study explored the conceptual views of "critical mass", alongside micro experiences, of women, at a practice level, on a doctoral preparation programme which was implemented within the South African Development Community (SADC) and Ethiopian contexts. At the strategising level of policies, insufficient attention has been paid to the…

Cognitive Effort Is Modulated outside of the Explicit Awareness of Conflict Frequency: Evidence from Pupillometry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Diede, Nathaniel T.; Bugg, Julie M.

2017-01-01

Classic theories of cognitive control conceptualized controlled processes as slow, strategic, and willful, with automatic processes being fast and effortless. The context-specific proportion compatibility (CSPC) effect, the reduction in the compatibility effect in a context (e.g., location) associated with a high relative to low likelihood of…

Between the Nation and the Globe: Education for Global Mindedness in Finland

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Oliveira Andreotti, Vanessa; Biesta, Gert; Ahenakew, Cash

2015-01-01

This article explores some of the tensions at the interface of nationalist and global orientations in ideals of global mindedness and global citizenship looking specifically at the Finnish context. We engage with discussions related to the social-political and historical context of national identity in Finland and outline the conceptual framework…

Examining Mindfulness as a Conceptual Framework for Teaching and Learning: A Descriptive Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Michael, Christopher J.

2008-01-01

Mindfulness is ongoing scrutiny of existing expectations, continuous refinement of those expectations based on new experiences, appreciation of the subtleties of context, and identification of novel aspects of context that can improve foresight and functioning. This concept of mindfulness has been studied in the domain of business and in relation…

The organizational context of children's mental health services.

PubMed

Glisson, Charles

2002-12-01

This paper reviews what is known about the organizational context of children's mental health services and describes organizational constructs, conceptual models, research methods, and intervention strategies that can be used to link organizational context to service quality and outcomes. Using evidence from studies of business and industrial organizations as well as studies of children's service organizations, the paper presents a model of organizational effectiveness that depends on several contextual characteristics that include organizational culture, structure, climate, and work attitudes. These characteristics are believed to affect the adoption of efficacious treatments (EBPs [evidence-based practices]), adherence to treatment protocols, therapeutic alliance, and the availability, responsiveness, and continuity of services. Finally, 10 components of the ARC(Availability Responsiveness and Continuity) organizational intervention are described as examples of strategies that can be used to develop organizational contexts with the prescribed characteristics. Mental health researchers are encouraged to consider including these constructs, conceptual models, research methods, and intervention strategies in dissemination, effectiveness, and implementation studies that address the gap between research-based knowledge about mental health treatment and what is actually offered in the community.

Design Studios in Instructional Design and Technology: What Are the Possibilities?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Knowlton, Dave S.

2016-01-01

Design studios are an innovative way to educate Instructional Design and Technology (IDT) students. This article begins by addressing literature about IDT design studios. One conclusion from this literature is that IDT studios have been theoretically conceptualized. However, much of this conceptualization is insular to the field of IDT and only…

AI applications to conceptual aircraft design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chalfan, Kathryn M.

1990-01-01

This paper presents in viewgraph form several applications of artificial intelligence (AI) to the conceptual design of aircraft, including: an access manager for automated data management, AI techniques applied to optimization, and virtual reality for scientific visualization of the design prototype.

Conceptual or procedural mathematics for engineering students at University of Samudra

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saiman; Wahyuningsih, Puji; Hamdani

2017-06-01

This study we investigate whether the emphasis in mathematics courses for engineering students would benefit from being more conceptually oriented than more procedurally oriented way of teaching. In this paper, we report in some detail from twenty-five engineering students comes from three departements ; mechanical engineering, civil engineering and industrial engineering. The aim was to explore different kinds of arguments regarding the role of mathematics in engineering courses, as well as some common across contexts. The result of interview showed that most of engineering students feel that conceptual mathematics is more important than procedural mathematics for their job the future.

Geometric modeling for computer aided design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schwing, James L.

1992-01-01

The goal was the design and implementation of software to be used in the conceptual design of aerospace vehicles. Several packages and design studies were completed, including two software tools currently used in the conceptual level design of aerospace vehicles. These tools are the Solid Modeling Aerospace Research Tool (SMART) and the Environment for Software Integration and Execution (EASIE). SMART provides conceptual designers with a rapid prototyping capability and additionally provides initial mass property analysis. EASIE provides a set of interactive utilities that simplify the task of building and executing computer aided design systems consisting of diverse, stand alone analysis codes that result in the streamlining of the exchange of data between programs, reducing errors and improving efficiency.

Conceptual design and issues of the laser inertial fusion test (LIFT) reactor—targets and chamber systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Norimatsu, T.; Kozaki, Y.; Shiraga, H.; Fujita, H.; Okano, K.; Members of LIFT Design Team

2017-11-01

We present the conceptual design of an experimental laser fusion plant known as the laser inertial fusion test (LIFT) reactor. The conceptual design aims at technically connecting a single-shot experiment and a commercial power plant. The LIFT reactor is designed on a three-phase scheme, where each phase has specific goals and the dedicated chambers of each phase are driven by the same laser. Technical issues related to the chamber technology including radiation safety to repeat burst mode operation are discussed in this paper.

PDA: A coupling of knowledge and memory for case-based reasoning

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bharwani, S.; Walls, J.; Blevins, E.

1988-01-01

Problem solving in most domains requires reference to past knowledge and experience whether such knowledge is represented as rules, decision trees, networks or any variant of attributed graphs. Regardless of the representational form employed, designers of expert systems rarely make a distinction between the static and dynamic aspects of the system's knowledge base. The current paper clearly distinguishes between knowledge-based and memory-based reasoning where the former in its most pure sense is characterized by a static knowledge based resulting in a relatively brittle expert system while the latter is dynamic and analogous to the functions of human memory which learns from experience. The paper discusses the design of an advisory system which combines a knowledge base consisting of domain vocabulary and default dependencies between concepts with a dynamic conceptual memory which stores experimental knowledge in the form of cases. The case memory organizes past experience in the form of MOPs (memory organization packets) and sub-MOPs. Each MOP consists of a context frame and a set of indices. The context frame contains information about the features (norms) common to all the events and sub-MOPs indexed under it.

Identifying and managing inappropriate hospital utilization: a policy synthesis.

PubMed Central

Payne, S M

1987-01-01

Utilization review, the assessment of the appropriateness and efficiency of hospital care through review of the medical record, and utilization management, deliberate action by payers or hospital administrators to influence providers of hospital services to increase the efficiency and effectiveness with which services are provided, are valuable but relatively unfamiliar strategies for containing hospital costs. The purpose of this synthesis is to increase awareness of the scope of and potential for these approaches among health services managers and administrators, third-party payers, policy analysts, and health services researchers. The synthesis will assist the reader to trace the conceptual context and the historical development of utilization review from unstructured methods using individual physicians' professional judgment to structured methods using explicit criteria; to establish the context of utilization review and clarify its uses; to understand the concepts and tools used in assessing the efficiency of hospital use; and to select, design, and evaluate utilization review and utilization management programs. The extent of inappropriate (medical unnecessary) hospital utilization and the factors associated with it are described. Implications for managers, providers, and third-party payers in targeting utilization review and in designing and evaluating utilization management programs are discussed. PMID:3121538

How to practice person-centred care: A conceptual framework.

PubMed

Santana, Maria J; Manalili, Kimberly; Jolley, Rachel J; Zelinsky, Sandra; Quan, Hude; Lu, Mingshan

2018-04-01

Globally, health-care systems and organizations are looking to improve health system performance through the implementation of a person-centred care (PCC) model. While numerous conceptual frameworks for PCC exist, a gap remains in practical guidance on PCC implementation. Based on a narrative review of the PCC literature, a generic conceptual framework was developed in collaboration with a patient partner, which synthesizes evidence, recommendations and best practice from existing frameworks and implementation case studies. The Donabedian model for health-care improvement was used to classify PCC domains into the categories of "Structure," "Process" and "Outcome" for health-care quality improvement. The framework emphasizes the structural domain, which relates to the health-care system or context in which care is delivered, providing the foundation for PCC, and influencing the processes and outcomes of care. Structural domains identified include: the creation of a PCC culture across the continuum of care; co-designing educational programs, as well as health promotion and prevention programs with patients; providing a supportive and accommodating environment; and developing and integrating structures to support health information technology and to measure and monitor PCC performance. Process domains describe the importance of cultivating communication and respectful and compassionate care; engaging patients in managing their care; and integration of care. Outcome domains identified include: access to care and Patient-Reported Outcomes. This conceptual framework provides a step-wise roadmap to guide health-care systems and organizations in the provision PCC across various health-care sectors. © 2017 The Authors Health Expectations published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Resistance vs resilience to Alzheimer disease: Clarifying terminology for preclinical studies.

PubMed

Arenaza-Urquijo, Eider M; Vemuri, Prashanthi

2018-04-10

Preventing or delaying Alzheimer disease (AD) through lifestyle interventions will come from a better understanding of the mechanistic underpinnings of (1) why a significant proportion of elderly remain cognitively normal with AD pathologies (ADP), i.e., amyloid or tau; and (2) why some elderly individuals do not have significant ADP. In the last decades, concepts such as brain reserve, cognitive reserve, and more recently brain maintenance have been proposed along with more general notions such as (neuro)protection and compensation. It is currently unclear how to effectively apply these concepts in the new field of preclinical AD specifically separating the 2 distinct mechanisms of coping with pathology vs avoiding pathology. We propose a simplistic conceptual framework that builds on existing concepts using the nomenclature of resistance in the context of avoiding pathology, i.e., remaining cognitively normal without significant ADP, and resilience in the context of coping with pathology, i.e., remaining cognitively normal despite significant ADP. In the context of preclinical AD studies, we (1) define these concepts and provide recommendations (and common scenarios) for their use; (2) discuss how to employ this terminology in the context of investigating mechanisms and factors; (3) highlight the complementarity and clarity they provide to existing concepts; and (4) discuss different study designs and methodologies. The application of the proposed framework for framing hypotheses, study design, and interpretation of results and mechanisms can provide a consistent framework and nomenclature for researchers to reach consensus on identifying factors that may prevent ADP or delay the onset of cognitive impairment. © 2018 American Academy of Neurology.

Learning to Deflect: Conceptual Change in Physics during Digital Game Play

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sengupta, Pratim; Krinks, Kara D.; Clark, Douglas B.

2015-01-01

How does deep conceptual change occur when students play well-designed educational games? To answer this question, we present a case study in the form of a microgenetic analysis of a student's processes of knowledge construction as he played a conceptually-integrated digital game (SURGE Next) designed to support learning about Newtonian mechanics.…

A conceptual design study for the secondary mirror drive of the shuttle infrared telescope facility (SIRTF)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sager, R. E.; Cox, D. W.

1983-01-01

Various conceptual designs for the secondary mirror actuator system to be used in the Shuttle Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) were evaluated. In addition, a set of design concepts was developed to assist in the solution of problems crucial for optimum performance of the secondary mirror actuator system. A specific conceptual approach was presented along with a plan for developing that approach and identifying issues of critical importance in the developmental effort.

Space station accommodations for life sciences research facilities: Phase A conceptual design and programmatics studies for Missions SAAX0307, SAAX0302 and the transition from SAAX0307 to SAAX0302. Volume 1: Executive summary

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1986-01-01

The conceptual designs and programmatics for a Space Station Nonhuman Life Sciences Research Facility (LSRF) are highlighted. Conceptual designs and programmatics encompass an Initial Orbital Capability (IOC) LSRF, a growth or Follow-on Orbital Capability (FOC), and the transitional process required to modify the IOC LSRF to the FOC LSRF.

Conceptual design studies of 1985 commercial VTOL transports that utilized rotors, Volume 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Magee, J. P.; Clark, R.; Alexander, H. R.

1974-01-01

Results of conceptual design studies of tilt rotor and tandem helicopter aircraft for a 200 nautical mile commercial short haul transport mission are presented. The trade study data used in selecting the design point aircraft and technology details necessary to support the design conclusions are included.

Understanding Multidigit Whole Numbers: The Role of Knowledge Components, Connections, and Context in Understanding Regrouping 3+-Digit Numbers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thanheiser, Eva

2012-01-01

This case study of a PST's understanding of regrouping with multidigit whole numbers in base-10 and non-base-10 contexts shows that although she seems to have all the knowledge elements necessary to give a conceptually based explanation of regrouping in the context of 3-digit numbers, she is unable to do so. This inability may be due to a lack of…

Hearing impairment, cognition and speech understanding: exploratory factor analyses of a comprehensive test battery for a group of hearing aid users, the n200 study

PubMed Central

Rönnberg, Jerker; Lunner, Thomas; Ng, Elaine Hoi Ning; Lidestam, Björn; Zekveld, Adriana Agatha; Sörqvist, Patrik; Lyxell, Björn; Träff, Ulf; Yumba, Wycliffe; Classon, Elisabet; Hällgren, Mathias; Larsby, Birgitta; Signoret, Carine; Pichora-Fuller, M. Kathleen; Rudner, Mary; Danielsson, Henrik; Stenfelt, Stefan

2016-01-01

Abstract Objective: The aims of the current n200 study were to assess the structural relations between three classes of test variables (i.e. HEARING, COGNITION and aided speech-in-noise OUTCOMES) and to describe the theoretical implications of these relations for the Ease of Language Understanding (ELU) model. Study sample: Participants were 200 hard-of-hearing hearing-aid users, with a mean age of 60.8 years. Forty-three percent were females and the mean hearing threshold in the better ear was 37.4 dB HL. Design: LEVEL1 factor analyses extracted one factor per test and/or cognitive function based on a priori conceptualizations. The more abstract LEVEL 2 factor analyses were performed separately for the three classes of test variables. Results: The HEARING test variables resulted in two LEVEL 2 factors, which we labelled SENSITIVITY and TEMPORAL FINE STRUCTURE; the COGNITIVE variables in one COGNITION factor only, and OUTCOMES in two factors, NO CONTEXT and CONTEXT. COGNITION predicted the NO CONTEXT factor to a stronger extent than the CONTEXT outcome factor. TEMPORAL FINE STRUCTURE and SENSITIVITY were associated with COGNITION and all three contributed significantly and independently to especially the NO CONTEXT outcome scores (R2 = 0.40). Conclusions: All LEVEL 2 factors are important theoretically as well as for clinical assessment. PMID:27589015

TElehealth in CHronic disease: mixed-methods study to develop the TECH conceptual model for intervention design and evaluation.

PubMed

Salisbury, Chris; Thomas, Clare; O'Cathain, Alicia; Rogers, Anne; Pope, Catherine; Yardley, Lucy; Hollinghurst, Sandra; Fahey, Tom; Lewis, Glyn; Large, Shirley; Edwards, Louisa; Rowsell, Alison; Segar, Julia; Brownsell, Simon; Montgomery, Alan A

2015-02-06

To develop a conceptual model for effective use of telehealth in the management of chronic health conditions, and to use this to develop and evaluate an intervention for people with two exemplar conditions: raised cardiovascular disease risk and depression. The model was based on several strands of evidence: a metareview and realist synthesis of quantitative and qualitative evidence on telehealth for chronic conditions; a qualitative study of patients' and health professionals' experience of telehealth; a quantitative survey of patients' interest in using telehealth; and review of existing models of chronic condition management and evidence-based treatment guidelines. Based on these evidence strands, a model was developed and then refined at a stakeholder workshop. Then a telehealth intervention ('Healthlines') was designed by incorporating strategies to address each of the model components. The model also provided a framework for evaluation of this intervention within parallel randomised controlled trials in the two exemplar conditions, and the accompanying process evaluations and economic evaluations. Primary care. The TElehealth in CHronic Disease (TECH) model proposes that attention to four components will offer interventions the best chance of success: (1) engagement of patients and health professionals, (2) effective chronic disease management (including subcomponents of self-management, optimisation of treatment, care coordination), (3) partnership between providers and (4) patient, social and health system context. Key intended outcomes are improved health, access to care, patient experience and cost-effective care. A conceptual model has been developed based on multiple sources of evidence which articulates how telehealth may best provide benefits for patients with chronic health conditions. It can be used to structure the design and evaluation of telehealth programmes which aim to be acceptable to patients and providers, and cost-effective. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Adoption, adaptation, and abandonment: Appropriation of science education professional development learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Longhurst, Max L.

Understanding factors that impact teacher utilization of learning from professional development is critical in order maximize the educational and financial investment in teacher professional learning. This study used a multicase mixed quantitative and qualitative methodology to investigate the factors that influence teacher adoption, adaption, or abandonment of learning from science teacher professional development. The theoretical framework of activity theory was identified as a useful way to investigate the phenomenon of teacher appropriation of pedagogical practices from professional development. This framework has the capacity to account for a multitude of elements in the context of a learning experience. In this study educational appropriation is understood through a continuum of how an educator acquires and implements both practical and conceptual aspects of learning from professional development within localized context. The variability associated with instructional changes made from professional development drives this inquiry to search for better understandings of the appropriation of pedagogical practices. Purposeful sampling was used to identify two participants from a group of eighth-grade science teachers engaged in professional development designed to investigate how cyber-enabled technologies might enhance instruction and learning in integrated science classrooms. The data from this investigation add to the literature of appropriation of instructional practices by connecting eight factors that influence conceptual and practical tools with the development of ownership of pedagogical practices in the appropriation hierarchy. Recommendations are shared with professional development developers, providers, and participants in anticipation that future science teaching experiences might be informed by findings from this study.

An Integrated Approach to Diabetes Prevention: Anthropology, Public Health, and Community Engagement.

PubMed

Page-Reeves, Janet; Mishra, Shiraz I; Niforatos, Joshua; Regino, Lidia; Bulten, Robert

2013-01-01

Diabetes is an enormous public health problem with particular concern within Hispanic communities and among individuals with low wealth. However, attempts to expand the public health paradigm to include social determinants of health rarely include analysis of social and contextual factors considered outside the purview of health research. As a result, conceptualization of the dynamics of diabetes health disparities remains shallow. We argue that using a holistic anthropological lens has the potential to offer insights regarding the nature of the interface between broader social determinants, health outcomes and health disparity. In a primarily Hispanic, immigrant community in Albuquerque, New Mexico, we conducted a mixed methods study that integrates an anthropological lens with a community engaged research design. Our data from focus groups, interviews, a survey and blood sampling demonstrate the need to conceptualize social determinants more broadly, more affectively and more dynamically than often considered. These results highlight a need to include, in addition to individual-level factors that are traditionally the focus of public health and more innovative structural factors that are currently in vogue, an in-depth, qualitative exploration of local context, social environment, and culture, and their interactions and intersectionality, as key factors when considering how to achieve change. The discussion presented here offers a model for culturally situated and contextually relevant scientific research. This model achieves the objectives and goals of both public health and anthropology while providing valuable insights and mechanisms for addressing health disparity such as that which exists in relation to diabetes among Hispanic immigrants in New Mexico. Such an approach has implications for how research projects are designed and conceptualizing social determinants more broadly. The discussion presented provides insights with relevance for both disciplines.

Reconceptualizing public participation in environmental assessment as EA civics

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sinclair, A. John, E-mail: jsincla@umanitoba.ca; Diduck, Alan P., E-mail: a.diduck@uwinnipeg.ca

Notwithstanding the considerable attention placed on creating meaningful opportunities for public participation in environmental assessment (EA), many participants and those who have reviewed participation processes often find practice sorely wanting. This reality stands in stark juxtaposition to future environmental governance needs, which will require increased openness, deliberation and transdisciplinary knowledge in order to deal with environmental change that is ever more uncertain, complex and conflictual. In this paper, our purpose was to consider how to meet those needs through reconceptualizing public participation as EA civics, founded on an active citizen base, deliberative in nature and orientated toward learning. We domore » this through developing a new conceptual model of next generation participation processes that is relevant at multiple spatial scales and institutional levels, is applicable to the entire assessment cycle and spans temporal scales through feedback loops. Our EA civics model builds on the “civics approach” to environmental governance and “action civics” by extending their core ideas to participation in EA. We did this by conducting an integrative literature review (including numerous papers we have contributed over the years) and reflecting on our own experiences as EA participants. We apply current thinking on public participation design to our EA civics conceptualization and highlight important design features that have received scant attention. We conclude that EA civics holds promise for fairer and more robust participation processes if all aspects of the model are considered and the actions related to each are implemented. - Highlights: • Consideration of the ‘civics approach’ and ‘action civics’ in an EA context • Conceptualization of public participation as EA civics • Reflection on the EA civics as a model of participation suitable for next generation assessment.« less

A study of the conceptual comprehension of electric circuits that engineer freshmen display

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chang, Wheijen; Shieh, Ruey S.

2018-07-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent of students’ conceptual comprehension of electric circuits obtained during their high school years, as opposed to in recent class lectures. A total of 201 first-year university students majoring in Engineering in four introductory physics classes were involved in the study. A lecture demonstration of electric circuits was designed to achieve the study purpose. After observing the demonstration, the students were required to identify the associated phenomena and then explain the underlying physical laws. The students’ reasoning performance was used to examine their conceptual comprehension. Two instructional strategies, group discussion without prior lecture and individual reasoning with prior lecture, were implemented to assess student performance. The findings disclosed that although the students had studied the topic previously, most of them could only identify the key phenomena involving simple principles, but failed to identify those involving profound ones. The models most of them adopted were scientifically acceptable but inappropriate in the given context. The students who engaged in group discussion appeared to have a higher phenomenon identification rate than that of the individual-reasoning group. Contrarily, the individual-reasoning group was found to have adopted the valid principles more effectively than the discussion group, probably due to the prior instruction received in the current class. The topics recently lectured seemed to have guided the students’ cognitive orientations toward selecting principles, regardless of their validity. The study findings reveal that the concepts the students had acquired from their earlier learning were rather limited. That is, sophisticated instructional design is always pivotal, regardless of students’ prior learning experiences. Moreover, when adopting demonstration as a teaching tool, explicit instructional guidance is also crucial.

Development and validation of a mass casualty conceptual model.

PubMed

Culley, Joan M; Effken, Judith A

2010-03-01

To develop and validate a conceptual model that provides a framework for the development and evaluation of information systems for mass casualty events. The model was designed based on extant literature and existing theoretical models. A purposeful sample of 18 experts validated the model. Open-ended questions, as well as a 7-point Likert scale, were used to measure expert consensus on the importance of each construct and its relationship in the model and the usefulness of the model to future research. Computer-mediated applications were used to facilitate a modified Delphi technique through which a panel of experts provided validation for the conceptual model. Rounds of questions continued until consensus was reached, as measured by an interquartile range (no more than 1 scale point for each item); stability (change in the distribution of responses less than 15% between rounds); and percent agreement (70% or greater) for indicator questions. Two rounds of the Delphi process were needed to satisfy the criteria for consensus or stability related to the constructs, relationships, and indicators in the model. The panel reached consensus or sufficient stability to retain all 10 constructs, 9 relationships, and 39 of 44 indicators. Experts viewed the model as useful (mean of 5.3 on a 7-point scale). Validation of the model provides the first step in understanding the context in which mass casualty events take place and identifying variables that impact outcomes of care. This study provides a foundation for understanding the complexity of mass casualty care, the roles that nurses play in mass casualty events, and factors that must be considered in designing and evaluating information-communication systems to support effective triage under these conditions.

Individual differences in children's and parents' generic language

PubMed Central

Gelman, Susan A.; Ware, Elizabeth A.; Kleinberg, Felicia; Manczak, Erika M.; Stilwell, Sarah M.

2014-01-01

Generics (“Dogs bark”) convey important information about categories and facilitate children’s learning. Two studies with parents and their 2- or 4-year-old children (N=104 dyads) examined whether individual differences in generic language use are: (a) stable over time, contexts, and domains, and (b) linked to conceptual factors. For both children and parents, individual differences in rate of generic production were stable across time, contexts, and domains, and parents' generic usage significantly correlated with that of their own children. Furthermore, parents’ essentialist beliefs correlated with their own and their children’s rates of generic frequency. These results indicate that generic language use exhibits substantial stability and may reflect individual differences in speakers’ conceptual attitudes toward categories. PMID:24266531

Modular biowaste monitoring system conceptual design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fogal, G. L.

1974-01-01

The objective of the study was to define requirements and generate a conceptual design for a Modular Biowaste Monitoring System for specifically supporting shuttle life science experimental and diagnostic programs.

Effectiveness of Conceptual Change Text-Oriented Instruction on Students' Understanding of Energy in Chemical Reactions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tastan, Ozgecan; Yalcinkaya, Eylem; Boz, Yezdan

2008-01-01

The aim of this study is to compare the effectiveness of conceptual change text instruction (CCT) in the context of energy in chemical reactions. The subjects of the study were 60, 10th grade students at a high school, who were in two different classes and taught by the same teacher. One of the classes was randomly selected as the experimental…

Modeling Student Choice of STEM Fields of Study: Testing a Conceptual Framework of Motivation, High School Learning, and Postsecondary Context of Support. WISCAPE Working Paper

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Xueli

2012-01-01

This study draws upon social cognitive career theory and higher education literature to propose and test a conceptual framework for understanding the selection of postsecondary STEM fields of study by recent high school graduates who attend four-year institutions. Results suggest that high school math achievement, exposure to math and science…

A re-conceptualization of access for 21st century healthcare.

PubMed

Fortney, John C; Burgess, James F; Bosworth, Hayden B; Booth, Brenda M; Kaboli, Peter J

2011-11-01

Many e-health technologies are available to promote virtual patient-provider communication outside the context of face-to-face clinical encounters. Current digital communication modalities include cell phones, smartphones, interactive voice response, text messages, e-mails, clinic-based interactive video, home-based web-cams, mobile smartphone two-way cameras, personal monitoring devices, kiosks, dashboards, personal health records, web-based portals, social networking sites, secure chat rooms, and on-line forums. Improvements in digital access could drastically diminish the geographical, temporal, and cultural access problems faced by many patients. Conversely, a growing digital divide could create greater access disparities for some populations. As the paradigm of healthcare delivery evolves towards greater reliance on non-encounter-based digital communications between patients and their care teams, it is critical that our theoretical conceptualization of access undergoes a concurrent paradigm shift to make it more relevant for the digital age. The traditional conceptualizations and indicators of access are not well adapted to measure access to health services that are delivered digitally outside the context of face-to-face encounters with providers. This paper provides an overview of digital "encounterless" utilization, discusses the weaknesses of traditional conceptual frameworks of access, presents a new access framework, provides recommendations for how to measure access in the new framework, and discusses future directions for research on access.

Irony comprehension: social conceptual knowledge and emotional response.

PubMed

Akimoto, Yoritaka; Sugiura, Motoaki; Yomogida, Yukihito; Miyauchi, Carlos Makoto; Miyazawa, Shiho; Kawashima, Ryuta

2014-04-01

Verbal irony conveys various emotional messages, from criticism to humor, that differ from the meaning of the actual words. To understand irony, we need conceptual knowledge of irony in addition to an understanding of context. We investigated the neural mechanism of irony comprehension, focusing on two overlooked issues: conceptual knowledge and emotional response. We studied 35 healthy subjects who underwent functional MRI. During the scan, the subject examined first-person-view stories describing verbal interactions, some of which included irony directed toward the subject. After MRI, the subject viewed the stories again and rated the degree of irony, humor, and negative emotion evoked by the statements. We identified several key findings about irony comprehension: (1) the right anterior superior temporal gyrus may be responsible for representing social conceptual knowledge of irony, (2) activation in the medial prefrontal cortex and the right anterior inferior temporal gyrus might underlie the understanding of context, (3) modulation of activity in the right amygdala, hippocampus, and parahippocampal gyrus is associated with the degree of irony perceived, and (4) modulation of activity in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex varies with the degree of humor perceived. Our results clarified the differential contributions of the neural loci of irony comprehension, enriching our understanding of pragmatic language communication from a social behavior point of view. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Children's patterns of reasoning about reading and addition concepts.

PubMed

Farrington-Flint, Lee; Canobi, Katherine H; Wood, Clare; Faulkner, Dorothy

2010-06-01

Children's reasoning was examined within two educational contexts (word reading and addition) so as to understand the factors that contribute to relational reasoning in the two domains. Sixty-seven 5- to 7-year-olds were given a series of related words to read or single-digit addition items to solve (interspersed with unrelated items). The frequency, accuracy, and response times of children's self-reports on the conceptually related items provided a measure of relational reasoning, while performance on the unrelated addition and reading items provided a measure of procedural skill. The results indicated that the children's ability to use conceptual relations to solve both reading and addition problems enhanced speed and accuracy levels, increased with age, and was related to procedural skill. However, regression analyses revealed that domain-specific competencies can best explain the use of conceptual relations in both reading and addition. Moreover, a cluster analysis revealed that children differ according to the academic domain in which they first apply conceptual relations and these differences are related to individual variation in their procedural skills within these particular domains. These results highlight the developmental significance of relational reasoning in the context of reading and addition and underscore the importance of concept-procedure links in explaining children's literacy and arithmetical development.

Leisure as a context for active living, recovery, health and life quality for persons with mental illness in a global context

PubMed Central

Iwasaki, Yoshitaka; Coyle, Catherine P.; Shank, John W.

2010-01-01

SUMMARY Globally, the mental health system is being transformed into a strengths-based, recovery-oriented system of care, to which the concept of active living is central. Based on an integrative review of the literature, this paper presents a heuristic conceptual framework of the potential contribution that enjoyable and meaningful leisure experiences can have in active living, recovery, health and life quality among persons with mental illness. This framework is holistic and reflects the humanistic approach to mental illness endorsed by the United Nations and the World Health Organization. It also includes ecological factors such as health care systems and environmental factors as well as cultural influences that can facilitate and/or hamper recovery, active living and health/life quality. Unique to this framework is our conceptualization of active living from a broad-based and meaning-oriented perspective rather than the traditional, narrower conceptualization which focuses on physical activity and exercise. Conceptualizing active living in this manner suggests a unique and culturally sensitive potential for leisure experiences to contribute to recovery, health and life quality. In particular, this paper highlights the potential of leisure engagements as a positive, strengths-based and potentially cost-effective means for helping people better deal with the challenges of living with mental illness. PMID:20543204

A Study of Novice Science Teachers' Conceptualizations of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Redman, Elizabeth Horst

This qualitative study examined new science teachers' conceptualization of culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP). The study followed six novice science teachers from their preservice teaching placements into their first jobs as instructors of record, observing in their classrooms and interviewing them about their use of CRP. The study sought to understand (1) how the participating teachers conceptualize CRP in science, and (2) what challenges the teachers faced in trying to implement CRP. Findings suggest that the teachers conceptualized CRP in ways that were consistent with Enyedy, Danish and Fields' (2011) interpretations of relevance: relevance of authentic purpose, relevance of content and/or context, and relevance of practices. The teachers, however, translated those interpretations of relevance into their conceptualizations and classroom practice in a variety of ways. While they encountered difficulties in conceptualizing and practicing CRP, they also made productive moves in their practice and evidenced positive elements in their conceptualizations of CRP. In order to address the challenges these teachers faced in implementing CRP, I suggest an approach to teacher preparation in CRP that builds upon the understandings and productive moves the teachers evidenced in this study.

Decision-making about complementary and alternative medicine by cancer patients: integrative literature review.

PubMed

Weeks, Laura; Balneaves, Lynda G; Paterson, Charlotte; Verhoef, Marja

2014-01-01

Patients with cancer consistently report conflict and anxiety when making decisions about complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatment. To design evidence-informed decision-support strategies, a better understanding is needed of how the decision-making process unfolds for these patients during their experience with cancer. We undertook this study to review the research literature regarding CAM-related decision-making by patients with cancer within the context of treatment, survivorship, and palliation. We also aimed to summarize emergent concepts within a preliminary conceptual framework. We conducted an integrative literature review, searching 12 electronic databases for articles published in English that described studies of the process, context, or outcomes of CAM-related decision-making. We summarized descriptive data using frequencies and used a descriptive constant comparative method to analyze statements about original qualitative results, with the goal of identifying distinct concepts pertaining to CAM-related decision-making by patients with cancer and the relationships among these concepts. Of 425 articles initially identified, 35 met our inclusion criteria. Seven unique concepts related to CAM and cancer decision-making emerged: decision-making phases, information-seeking and evaluation, decision-making roles, beliefs, contextual factors, decision-making outcomes, and the relationship between CAM and conventional medical decision-making. CAM decision-making begins with the diagnosis of cancer and encompasses 3 distinct phases (early, mid, and late), each marked by unique aims for CAM treatment and distinct patterns of information-seeking and evaluation. Phase transitions correspond to changes in health status or other milestones within the cancer trajectory. An emergent conceptual framework illustrating relationships among the 7 central concepts is presented. CAM-related decision-making by patients with cancer occurs as a nonlinear, complex, dynamic process. The conceptual framework presented here identifies influential factors within that process, as well as patients' unique needs during different phases. The framework can guide the development and evaluation of theory-based decision-support programs that are responsive to patients' beliefs and preferences.

The concept of research utilization as understood by Swedish nurses: demarcations of instrumental, conceptual, and persuasive research utilization.

PubMed

Strandberg, Elisabeth; Catrine Eldh, Ann; Forsman, Henrietta; Rudman, Ann; Gustavsson, Petter; Wallin, Lars

2014-02-01

The literature implies research utilization (RU) to be a multifaceted and complex phenomenon, difficult to trace in clinical practice. A deeper understanding of the concept of RU in a nursing context is needed, in particular, for the development of instruments for measuring nurses' RU, which could facilitate the evaluation of interventions to support the implementation of evidence-based practice. In this paper, we explored nurses' demarcation of instrumental RU (IRU), conceptual RU (CRU), and persuasive RU (PRU) using an item pool proposed to measure IRU, CRU, and PRU. The item pool (12 items) was presented to two samples: one of practicing registered nurses (n = 890) in Sweden 4 years after graduating and one of recognized content experts (n = 7). Correlation analyses and content validity index (CVI) calculations were used together with qualitative content analysis, in a mixed methods design. According to the item and factor analyses, CRU and PRU could not be distinguished, whereas IRU could. Analyses also revealed problems in linking the CRU items to the external criteria. The CVIs, however, showed excellent or good results for the IRU, CRU, and PRU items as well as at the scale level. The qualitative data indicated that IRU was the least problematic for the experts to categorize, whereas CRU and PRU were harder to demarcate. Our findings illustrate a difficulty in explicitly demarcating between CRU and PRU in clinical nursing. We suggest this overlap is related to conceptual incoherence, indicating a need for further studies. The findings constitute new knowledge about the RU concepts in a clinical nursing context, and highlight differences in how the concepts can be understood by RNs in clinical practice and experts within the field. We suggest that the findings are useful for defining RU in nursing and further development of measures of RU. © 2013 Sigma Theta Tau International.

PubMed Central

Weeks, Laura; Balneaves, Lynda G; Paterson, Charlotte

2014-01-01

Background: Patients with cancer consistently report conflict and anxiety when making decisions about complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatment. To design evidence-informed decision-support strategies, a better understanding is needed of how the decision-making process unfolds for these patients during their experience with cancer. We undertook this study to review the research literature regarding CAM-related decisionmaking by patients with cancer within the context of treatment, survivorship, and palliation. We also aimed to summarize emergent concepts within a preliminary conceptual framework. Methods: We conducted an integrative literature review, searching 12 electronic databases for articles published in English that described studies of the process, context, or outcomes of CAM-related decision-making. We summarized descriptive data using frequencies and used a descriptive constant comparative method to analyze statements about original qualitative results, with the goal of identifying distinct concepts pertaining to CAM-related decision-making by patients with cancer and the relationships among these concepts. Results: Of 425 articles initially identified, 35 met our inclusion criteria. Seven unique concepts related to CAM and cancer decision-making emerged: decision-making phases, information-seeking and evaluation, decision-making roles, beliefs, contextual factors, decision-making outcomes, and the relationship between CAM and conventional medical decision-making. CAM decision-making begins with the diagnosis of cancer and encompasses 3 distinct phases (early, mid, and late), each marked by unique aims for CAM treatment and distinct patterns of informationseeking and evaluation. Phase transitions correspond to changes in health status or other milestones within the cancer trajectory. An emergent conceptual framework illustrating relationships among the 7 central concepts is presented. Interpretation: CAM-related decision-making by patients with cancer occurs as a nonlinear, complex, dynamic process. The conceptual framework presented here identifies influential factors within that process, as well as patients' unique needs during different phases. The framework can guide the development and evaluation of theorybased decision-support programs that are responsive to patients' beliefs and preferences. PMID:25009685

Improvement Science: conceptual and theoretical foundations for its application to healthcare quality improvement.

PubMed

Portela, Margareth Crisóstomo; Lima, Sheyla Maria Lemos; Martins, Mônica; Travassos, Claudia

2016-11-03

The development and study of healthcare quality improvement interventions have been reshaped, moving from more intuitive approaches, dominated by biomedical vision and premised on easy transferability, to gradually acknowledge the need for more planning and systematization, with greater incorporation of the social sciences and enhancement of the role of context. Improvement Science has been established, with a conceptual and methodological framework for such studies. Considering the incipient of the debate and scientific production on Improvement Science in Brazil, this article aims to expound its principal conceptual and theoretical fundamentals, focusing on three central themes: the linkage of different disciplines; recognition of the role of context; and the theoretical basis for the design, implementation, and evaluation of interventions. Resumo: O desenvolvimento e estudo de intervenções para a melhoria do cuidado de saúde tem ganhado novo contorno, movendo-se das abordagens mais intuitivas, com domínio da visão biomédica e assentadas no pressuposto de fácil transferibilidade, para gradativamente reconhecer a necessidade de mais planejamento e sistematização, com maior incorporação das ciências sociais e valorização do papel do contexto. A Ciência da Melhoria do Cuidado de Saúde vem se estabelecendo, propiciando referencial conceitual e metodológico para tais estudos. Considerando a incipiência do debate e produção sobre Ciência da Melhoria do Cuidado de Saúde no Brasil, este artigo objetiva discorrer sobre as principais bases conceituais e teóricas que a sustentam, com foco em três temas centrais: a articulação de diferentes disciplinas; o reconhecimento do papel do contexto; e o embasamento teórico para o desenho, implementação e avaliação das intervenções.

Moving from Efficacy to Effectiveness Trials in Prevention Research

PubMed Central

Marchand, Erica; Stice, Eric; Rohde, Paul; Becker, Carolyn Black

2013-01-01

Efficacy trials test whether interventions work under optimal, highly controlled conditions whereas effectiveness trials test whether interventions work with typical clients and providers in real-world settings. Researchers, providers, and funding bodies have called for more effectiveness trials to understand whether interventions produce effects under ecologically valid conditions, which factors predict program effectiveness, and what strategies are needed to successfully implement programs in practice settings. The transition from efficacy to effectiveness with preventive interventions involves unique considerations, some of which are not shared by treatment research. The purpose of this article is to discuss conceptual and methodological issues that arise when making the transition from efficacy to effectiveness research in primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention, drawing on the experiences of two complimentary research groups as well as the existing literature. We address (a) program of research, (b) intervention design and conceptualization, (c) participant selection and characteristics, (d) providers, (e) context, (f) measurement and methodology, (g) outcomes, (h) cost, and (i) sustainability. We present examples of research in eating disorder prevention that demonstrate the progression from efficacy to effectiveness trials. PMID:21092935

Teachable Moments Matter for: An analysis of the use of Pharmacy Curriculum Outcomes Assessment (PCOA) scores within one professional program.

PubMed

Peeters, Michael J; Garavalia, Linda S

Editors Note: The Teachable Moments Matter category of articles is designed to offer readers insight into a methodological issue identified within a companion article. Written in collaboration with one of these authors, these articles provide an opportunity to focus on a challenge experienced by the authors and, in the process, provide one or more perspectives as to how to successfully navigate this issue. Notably, this "issue" is not necessarily a problem (as this first paper in this series demonstrates). The Journal hopes this case-based approach will help highlight an issue nuance in context, something that might get "lost" in the entirety of a full-length article. This article discusses the importance of communicating a conceptual framework (i.e., theory) as a basis for scholarly articles. A specific example in the companion article is use of validity theory. In our community of researchers, we need to better communicate a conceptual framework as a basis to allow others to build on and grow our knowledge in pharmacy education. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Differential processing of thematic and categorical conceptual relations in spoken word production.

PubMed

de Zubicaray, Greig I; Hansen, Samuel; McMahon, Katie L

2013-02-01

Studies of semantic context effects in spoken word production have typically distinguished between categorical (or taxonomic) and associative relations. However, associates tend to confound semantic features or morphological representations, such as whole-part relations and compounds (e.g., BOAT-anchor, BEE-hive). Using a picture-word interference paradigm and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we manipulated categorical (COW-rat) and thematic (COW-pasture) TARGET-distractor relations in a balanced design, finding interference and facilitation effects on naming latencies, respectively, as well as differential patterns of brain activation compared with an unrelated distractor condition. While both types of distractor relation activated the middle portion of the left middle temporal gyrus (MTG) consistent with retrieval of conceptual or lexical representations, categorical relations involved additional activation of posterior left MTG, consistent with retrieval of a lexical cohort. Thematic relations involved additional activation of the left angular gyrus. These results converge with recent lesion evidence implicating the left inferior parietal lobe in processing thematic relations and may indicate a potential role for this region during spoken word production. 2013 APA, all rights reserved

Theory and knowledge translation: setting some coordinates.

PubMed

Rycroft-Malone, Jo

2007-01-01

In a healthcare context in which research evidence is not used routinely in practice, there have been increasingly loud calls for the use of theory from investigators working in the field of knowledge translation. Implementation researchers argue that theory should be used to guide the design of testable and practical intervention strategies, and thus, contribute to generalizable knowledge about implementation interventions. The purpose of this commentary is to critique model papers writing by a team of scholars who aimed to disentangle some of the relationships determining research utilization, by scrutinizing an existing conceptual framework that acknowledges, along with other factors, the importance of contextual factors in knowledge translation. These papers are used as a vehicle to explore theory application in knowledge translation research. As theory use and development is in its infancy, some key issues, including different ideological perspectives, factors for and against theory use, ensuring conceptual clarity, selecting coherent overarching frameworks, and choosing appropriately among theories, are considered. Finally, an agenda for theory-informed research is outlined, which highlights the need for scholarly, pluralistic, and collaborative activity if the state of knowledge translation science is to advance.

Block 2 Solid Rocket Motor (SRM) conceptual design study, volume 1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1986-01-01

Segmented and monolithic Solid Rocket Motor (SRM) design concepts were evaluated with emphasis on joints and seals. Particular attention was directed to eliminating deficiencies in the SRM High Performance Motor (HPM). The selected conceptual design is described and discussed.

Shuttle/tethered satellite system conceptual design study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1976-01-01

A closed-loop control system was added to the tether reel which improves control over the tethered satellite. In addition to increasing the stability of the tethered satellite along local vertical, this control system is used for deployment and retrieval of tethered satellites. This conceptual design study describes a tether system for suspending a science payload at an altitude of 120 km from space shuttle orbiter flying at an altitude of 200 km. In addition to the hardware conceptual designs, various aspects concerning Orbiter accommodations are discussed.

Function-based design process for an intelligent ground vehicle vision system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nagel, Robert L.; Perry, Kenneth L.; Stone, Robert B.; McAdams, Daniel A.

2010-10-01

An engineering design framework for an autonomous ground vehicle vision system is discussed. We present both the conceptual and physical design by following the design process, development and testing of an intelligent ground vehicle vision system constructed for the 2008 Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition. During conceptual design, the requirements for the vision system are explored via functional and process analysis considering the flows into the vehicle and the transformations of those flows. The conceptual design phase concludes with a vision system design that is modular in both hardware and software and is based on a laser range finder and camera for visual perception. During physical design, prototypes are developed and tested independently, following the modular interfaces identified during conceptual design. Prototype models, once functional, are implemented into the final design. The final vision system design uses a ray-casting algorithm to process camera and laser range finder data and identify potential paths. The ray-casting algorithm is a single thread of the robot's multithreaded application. Other threads control motion, provide feedback, and process sensory data. Once integrated, both hardware and software testing are performed on the robot. We discuss the robot's performance and the lessons learned.

Using a Systematic Conceptual Model for a Process Evaluation of a Middle School Obesity Risk-Reduction Nutrition Curriculum Intervention: "Choice, Control & Change"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Heewon; Contento, Isobel R.; Koch, Pamela

2013-01-01

Objective: To use and review a conceptual model of process evaluation and to examine the implementation of a nutrition education curriculum, "Choice, Control & Change", designed to promote dietary and physical activity behaviors that reduce obesity risk. Design: A process evaluation study based on a systematic conceptual model. Setting: Five…

Conceptual design of a synchronous Mars telecommunications satellite

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Badi, Deborah M.; Farmer, Jeffrey T.; Garn, Paul A.; Martin, Gary L.

1989-01-01

Future missions to Mars will require a communications system to link activities on the Martian surface with each other and with mission controllers on Earth. A conceptual design is presented for an aerosynchronous communications satellite to provide these links. The satellite provides the capability for voice, data/command, and video transmissions. The mission scenario assumed for the design is described, and a description of a single aerosynchronous satellite is explained. A viable spacecraft design is then presented. Communication band selection and channel allocation are discussed. The communications system conceptual design is presented along with the trades used in sizing each of the required antennas. Also, the analyses used to develop the supporting subsystem designs are described as is the communications impact on each subsystem design.

Exploring Sources and Influences of Social Capital on Community College Students' First-Year Success: Does Age Make a Difference?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Xueli; Wickersham, Kelly; Lee, Yen; Chan, Hsun-Yu

2018-01-01

Background/Context: Although numerous studies have emerged shedding light on community college student success, the enduring role of social capital is often overlooked. Furthermore, when conceptualizing social capital in the community college context and its diverse student population, age represents a unique form of diversity in these…

A Data-Driven Conceptualization of Language Teacher Identity in the Context of Public High Schools in Iran

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Namaghi, Seyyed Ali Ostovar

2009-01-01

Teaching must be recognized "as a socially constructed activity that requires the interpretation and negotiation of meanings embedded within the context of the classroom." As part and parcel of this interpretation and negotiation, there is a continual redefinition of teacher identity. "Teaching and teacher identity are socially…

Beliefs about Post-Tenure Review; the Influence of Autonomy, Collegiality, Career Stage, and Institutional Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Meara, Kerry Ann

2004-01-01

This article draws upon the literature on academic culture and the academic profession to provide a context for beliefs about post-tenure review. Schein's (1992) theory of organizational culture and Kuh & Whitt's (1988) application of cultural theory to higher education settings divides culture into a conceptual hierarchy comprised of three…

Promoting International Posture through History as Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in the Japanese Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lockley, Thomas

2015-01-01

This article uses the conceptual framework of second language willingness to communicate (L2 WTC), and in particular the contributory construct of international posture (IP; Yashima, 2002), to report on a content and language integrated learning (CLIL) course taught in the Japanese university context. The research follows up an exploratory,…

Considering the Social Context of Schools: A Framework for Investigating New Teacher Induction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pogodzinski, Ben

2012-01-01

This work presents a conceptual framework rooted in social capital theory which can be utilized to guide future research of new teacher induction, as well as inform school and district leaders about important elements of a school's social context which may mediate the effects of new teacher induction. Specifically, this work elaborates on the…

Youth Sexual Offending: Context, Good-Enough Lives, and Engaging with a Wider Prevention Agenda

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smallbone, Stephen; Rayment-Mchugh, Susan; Smith, Dimity

2013-01-01

In this article we reflect on developments in our thinking and practice concerning youth sexual offending. We put the case that context is critical to understanding and responding to the problem, and accordingly that a social ecological model provides the most suitable conceptual and practice framework for clinical efforts with this population. We…

Family Context and Five-Year-Old Children's Attitudes toward Literacy When They Are Learning to Read

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ozturk, Gulsah; Hill, Susan; Yates, Gregory

2016-01-01

This study explored associations in the family context, conceptualized as comprising parent-child practices and parental expectations, and five-year-old children's attitudes toward literacy. A total of 94 children from four primary schools and their parents participated in the study. Each child completed an individually administered Literacy…

Comparison and Context: The Interdisciplinary Approach to the Comparative Study of Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Steiner-Khamsi, Gita

2014-01-01

Because educational research has grown more global in nature over the course of the last few decades, researchers find themselves questioning how best to conceptualize content and establish distinct levels in educational research. Globalization has exacerbated the need to rethink culture and context, to understand how and why similar content are,…

Are We "Reading the World"? A Review of Multicultural Literature on Globalization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gibson, Melissa L.

2010-01-01

Given its commitment to "reading" the social context, how is multicultural education accounting for the shifting context of our globalized world? A conceptual review of multicultural journals reveals limited engagement. However, a more sustained analysis could fuel re-articulations and contestations of the purpose of education in the 21st century.…

Inhabiting the "Tragic Gap": Pre-Service Teachers Practicing Racial Literacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mosley, Melissa; Rogers, Rebecca

2011-01-01

Set in the context of a teacher education program, this study examined how three White pre-service teachers participate in book club discussions of children's literature. We asked: When White pre-service teachers are in a context that enables talk about race, racism and anti-racism, what do they talk about? What conceptual and discursive tools do…

In Principle, It Is Not Only the Principal! Teacher Leadership Architecture in Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ghamrawi, Norma

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to lay the foundations of a conceptual model of the role dimensions of teacher leaders within the Lebanese private school context. Besides, the study aimed at distinguishing the prime architects of teacher leadership in such a context, highlighting the critical issues confronting its nourishment and development. The…

The Effect of Family Processes on School Achievement as Moderated by Socioeconomic Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oxford, Monica L.; Lee, Jungeun Olivia

2011-01-01

This longitudinal study examined a model of early school achievement in reading and math, as it varies by socioeconomic context, using data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. A conceptual model was tested that included features of family stress, early parenting, and school readiness, through both a single-group…

On the (In)Validity of Tests of Simple Mediation: Threats and Solutions

PubMed Central

Pek, Jolynn; Hoyle, Rick H.

2015-01-01

Mediation analysis is a popular framework for identifying underlying mechanisms in social psychology. In the context of simple mediation, we review and discuss the implications of three facets of mediation analysis: (a) conceptualization of the relations between the variables, (b) statistical approaches, and (c) relevant elements of design. We also highlight the issue of equivalent models that are inherent in simple mediation. The extent to which results are meaningful stem directly from choices regarding these three facets of mediation analysis. We conclude by discussing how mediation analysis can be better applied to examine causal processes, highlight the limits of simple mediation, and make recommendations for better practice. PMID:26985234

A Bayesian context fear learning algorithm/automaton

PubMed Central

Krasne, Franklin B.; Cushman, Jesse D.; Fanselow, Michael S.

2015-01-01

Contextual fear conditioning is thought to involve the synaptic plasticity-dependent establishment in hippocampus of representations of to-be-conditioned contexts which can then become associated with USs in the amygdala. A conceptual and computational model of this process is proposed in which contextual attributes are assumed to be sampled serially and randomly during contextual exposures. Given this assumption, moment-to-moment information about such attributes will often be quite different from one exposure to another and, in particular, between exposures during which representations are created, exposures during which conditioning occurs, and during recall sessions. This presents challenges to current conceptual models of hippocampal function. In order to meet these challenges, our model's hippocampus was made to operate in different modes during representation creation and recall, and non-hippocampal machinery was constructed that controlled these hippocampal modes. This machinery uses a comparison between contextual information currently observed and information associated with existing hippocampal representations of familiar contexts to compute the Bayesian Weight of Evidence that the current context is (or is not) a known one, and it uses this value to assess the appropriateness of creation or recall modes. The model predicts a number of known phenomena such as the immediate shock deficit, spurious fear conditioning to contexts that are absent but similar to actually present ones, and modulation of conditioning by pre-familiarization with contexts. It also predicts a number of as yet unknown phenomena. PMID:26074792

The Influence of Context on Quality Improvement Success in Health Care: A Systematic Review of the Literature

PubMed Central

Kaplan, Heather C; Brady, Patrick W; Dritz, Michele C; Hooper, David K; Linam, W Matthew; Froehle, Craig M; Margolis, Peter

2010-01-01

Context: The mixed results of success among QI initiatives may be due to differences in the context of these initiatives. Methods: The business and health care literature was systematically reviewed to identify contextual factors that might influence QI success; to categorize, summarize, and synthesize these factors; and to understand the current stage of development of this research field. Findings: Forty-seven articles were included in the final review. Consistent with current theories of implementation and organization change, leadership from top management, organizational culture, data infrastructure and information systems, and years involved in QI were suggested as important to QI success. Other potentially important factors identified in this review included: physician involvement in QI, microsystem motivation to change, resources for QI, and QI team leadership. Key limitations in the existing literature were the lack of a practical conceptual model, the lack of clear definitions of contextual factors, and the lack of well-specified measures. Conclusions: Several contextual factors were shown to be important to QI success, although the current body of literature lacks adequate definitions and is characterized by considerable variability in how contextual factors are measured across studies. Future research should focus on identifying and developing measures of context tied to a conceptual model that examines context across all levels of the health care system and explores the relationships among various aspects of context. PMID:21166868

The Conceptual Design of the Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buscher, D. F.; Creech-Eakman, M.; Farris, A.; Haniff, C. A.; Young, J. S.

We describe the scientific motivation for and conceptual design of the Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer, an imaging interferometer designed to operate at visible and near-infrared wavelengths. The rationale for the major technical decisions in the interferometer design is discussed, the success of the concept is appraised, and the implications of this analysis for the design of future arrays are drawn out.

Design considerations for fiber composite structures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chamis, C. C.

1972-01-01

An overview of the design methodology for designing structural components from fiber composites is presented. In particular, the need for new conceptual structural designs for the future is discussed and the evolution of conceptual design is illustrated. Sources of design data, analysis and design procedures, and the basic components of structural fiber composites are cited and described. Examples of tradeoff studies and optimum designs are discussed and a simple structure is described in some detail.

A piece of the action: Modulation of sensory-motor regions by action idioms and metaphors

PubMed Central

Desai, Rutvik H.; Conant, Lisa L.; Binder, Jeffrey R.; Park, Haeil; Seidenberg, Mark S.

2013-01-01

The idea that the conceptual system draws on sensory and motor systems has received considerable experimental support in recent years. Whether the tight coupling between sensory-motor and conceptual systems is modulated by factors such as context or task demands is a matter of controversy. Here, we tested the context sensitivity of this coupling by using action verbs in three different types of sentences in an fMRI study: literal action, apt but non-idiomatic action metaphors, and action idioms. Abstract sentences served as a baseline. The result showed involvement of sensory-motor areas for literal and metaphoric action sentences, but not for idiomatic ones. A trend of increasing sensory-motor activation from abstract to idiomatic to metaphoric to literal sentences was seen. These results support a gradual abstraction process whereby the reliance on sensory-motor systems is reduced as the abstractness of meaning as well as conventionalization is increased, highlighting the context sensitive nature of semantic processing. PMID:23891645

Measures of societal risk and their potential use in civil aviation.

PubMed

Horn, Mark E T; Fulton, Neale; Westcott, Mark

2008-12-01

This article seeks to clarify the conceptual foundations of measures of societal risk, to investigate how such measures may be used validly in commonly encountered policy contexts, and to explore the application of these measures in the field of civil aviation. The article begins by examining standard measures of societal and individual risk (SR and IR), with attention given to ethical as well as analytical considerations. A comprehensive technical analysis of SR is provided, encompassing scalar risk measures, barrier functions, and a utility-based formulation, and clarifications are offered with respect to the treatment of SR in recent publications. The policy context for SR measures is shown to be critically important, and an extension to a hierarchical setting is developed. The prospects for applying SR to civil aviation are then considered, and some technical and conceptual issues are identified. SR appears to be a useful analytical tool in this context, provided that careful attention is given to these issues.

Calibration of skill and judgment in driving: development of a conceptual framework and the implications for road safety.

PubMed

Horrey, William J; Lesch, Mary F; Mitsopoulos-Rubens, Eve; Lee, John D

2015-03-01

Humans often make inflated or erroneous estimates of their own ability or performance. Such errors in calibration can be due to incomplete processing, neglect of available information or due to improper weighing or integration of the information and can impact our decision-making, risk tolerance, and behaviors. In the driving context, these outcomes can have important implications for safety. The current paper discusses the notion of calibration in the context of self-appraisals and self-competence as well as in models of self-regulation in driving. We further develop a conceptual framework for calibration in the driving context borrowing from earlier models of momentary demand regulation, information processing, and lens models for information selection and utilization. Finally, using the model we describe the implications for calibration (or, more specifically, errors in calibration) for our understanding of driver distraction, in-vehicle automation and autonomous vehicles, and the training of novice and inexperienced drivers. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

A piece of the action: modulation of sensory-motor regions by action idioms and metaphors.

PubMed

Desai, Rutvik H; Conant, Lisa L; Binder, Jeffrey R; Park, Haeil; Seidenberg, Mark S

2013-12-01

The idea that the conceptual system draws on sensory and motor systems has received considerable experimental support in recent years. Whether the tight coupling between sensory-motor and conceptual systems is modulated by factors such as context or task demands is a matter of controversy. Here, we tested the context sensitivity of this coupling by using action verbs in three different types of sentences in an fMRI study: literal action, apt but non-idiomatic action metaphors, and action idioms. Abstract sentences served as a baseline. The result showed involvement of sensory-motor areas for literal and metaphoric action sentences, but not for idiomatic ones. A trend of increasing sensory-motor activation from abstract to idiomatic to metaphoric to literal sentences was seen. These results support a gradual abstraction process whereby the reliance on sensory-motor systems is reduced as the abstractness of meaning as well as conventionalization is increased, highlighting the context sensitive nature of semantic processing. © 2013.

Describe yourself to improve your autobiographical memory: A study in Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

El Haj, Mohamad; Antoine, Pascal

2017-03-01

This study investigated whether retrieval of information related to conceptual self (i.e., self-images that encompass general factual and evaluative knowledge of one's identity) would improve autobiographical memory in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Participants with AD and controls were asked to retrieve autobiographical memories after providing statements to the question "Who am I? and after a control condition consisting of reading a general text. Autobiographical recall was analyzed with respect to specificity (general vs specific event), context recall (information describing the "when, where, and who" as well as affective states), and reliving (the subjective experience of recall). AD participants showed higher specificity, context recall and reliving after the "Who am I?" statements than after the text reading, and controls showed higher context recall after the former than after the latter condition. These findings highlight the relationship between self and autobiographical memory in AD and demonstrate how retrieval of information related to conceptual self may influence autobiographical memory in the disease. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Temporal Dynamics of Activation of Thematic and Functional Knowledge During Conceptual Processing of Manipulable Artifacts

PubMed Central

Kalénine, Solène; Mirman, Daniel; Middleton, Erica L.; Buxbaum, Laurel J.

2012-01-01

The current research aimed at specifying the activation time course of different types of semantic information during object conceptual processing and the effect of context on this time course. We distinguished between thematic and functional knowledge and the specificity of functional similarity. Two experiments were conducted with healthy older adults using eye tracking in a word-to-picture matching task. The time course of gaze fixations was used to assess activation of distractor objects during the identification of manipulable artifact targets (e.g., broom). Distractors were (a) thematically related (e.g., dustpan), (b) related by a specific function (e.g., vacuum cleaner), or (c) related by a general function (e.g., sponge). Growth curve analyses were used to assess competition effects when target words were presented in isolation (Experiment 1) and embedded in contextual sentences of different generality levels (Experiment 2). In the absence of context, there was earlier and shorter lasting activation of thematically related as compared to functionally related objects. The time course difference was more pronounced for general functions than specific functions. When contexts were provided, functional similarities that were congruent with context generality level increased in salience with earlier activation of those objects. Context had little impact on thematic activation time course. These data demonstrate that processing a single manipulable artifact concept implicitly activates thematic and functional knowledge with different time courses and that context speeds activation of context-congruent functional similarity. PMID:22449134

Student Conceptions of Ionic Bonding: Patterns of thinking across three European contexts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Taber, Keith S.; Tsaparlis, Georgios; Nakiboğlu, Canan

2012-12-01

Previous research has reported that students commonly develop alternative conceptions in the core topic of chemical bonding. Research in England has reported that students there commonly demonstrate an alternative 'molecular' conceptual framework for thinking about ionic bonding: in terms of the formation of molecule-like ions pairs through electron transfer, which are internally bonded, but not bonded to other ions. The present study reports the use of translated versions of a diagnostic instrument to elicit the conceptions of bonding in NaCl (commonly used as the teaching example of an ionic compound) from two samples of students setting out on university courses in Greece and Turkey. The study reports that students in these two contexts displayed high levels of support for statements based upon the alternative conceptual framework identified in the English context. Students commonly develop similar alternative conceptions of ionic bonding in these three different educational contexts. The study also found some quite large differences in the specific response patterns across these three contexts, some of which could reflect specific features of the different curriculum contexts. The study reinforces the cross-national nature of the challenge of effectively teaching the abstract models of chemistry at the submicroscopic level. It also provides intriguing suggestions that a close study of the interactions between specific curriculum contexts and specific patterns in students' thinking offers much potential for identifying particular aspects of subject pedagogy that either support or impede the learning of accepted scientific models.

The conceptual model and guiding principles of a supported-education program for Orthodox Jewish persons with severe mental illness.

PubMed

Shor, Ron; Avihod, Guy; Aivhod, Guy

2011-10-01

An innovative culturally-oriented supported-education program has been established in Israel to address the needs of religious Jewish persons with severe mental illness. This program is utilizing a highly regarded institution in the Orthodox communities, a Beit Midrash, a study hall for religious studies, as a context for rehabilitation. Based on open-ended interviews conducted with the staff members of this program, its conceptual framework and guiding principles have been identified and analyzed. In this program common principles of psychiatric rehabilitation have been adapted and incorporated into a context which has not been known so far as a context for psychiatric rehabilitation. In addition, innovative supported-education methods of work which are compatible with the cultural context of Orthodox Jewish persons have been implemented, such as opportunities provided to the participants to reconstruct their views of their daily struggles and enhance their sense of spirituality via the discussion of socially-oriented religious texts. The culturally-oriented context of the Beit Midrash enables outreach to a population which might otherwise not receive any services. This is a promising model for addressing the unique needs of religious persons with severe mental illness and for filling a gap in the resources available for the rehabilitation of this population in the community.

Yellow and social perceptions of racing cyclists' sportspersonship: Proposing an inter-contextual analysis.

PubMed

Chantal, Yves; Bernache-Assollant, Iouri

2017-03-01

Through inter-contextual designs, the present set of experiments sought to explore whether the colour yellow would impact on social perceptions of sportspersonship exclusively in relation to competitive cycling. In Experiment 1 (N = 149), a silhouette image of a cyclist on a yellow background yielded lower perceptions of sportspersonship in comparison to grey or to the context of motocross, regardless of the colour. That interaction was conceptually replicated in Experiment 2 (N = 146) while changing measures (i.e., adaptation of the World Anti-Doping Code) and the context of comparison to sprinting. Furthermore, female and male observers' scores did not differ significantly thereby suggesting that yellow impacted on perceived sportspersonship similarly across gender. On the whole, those findings suggest that yellow can generate negative impressions of racing cyclists because, with years, this colour took on a meaning of opportunism from frequent pairings with doping. We close with discussing a number of limitations and future research avenues.

Patient participation, a prerequisite for care: A grounded theory study of healthcare professionals' perceptions of what participation means in a paediatric care context.

PubMed

Carlsson, Ing-Marie; Nygren, Jens M; Svedberg, Petra

2018-01-01

To explore healthcare professionals' perceptions of what patient participation means in a paediatric care context . A qualitative explorative design with grounded theory. Fifteen healthcare professionals who worked in paediatric care settings were either interviewed or asked open-ended questions in a survey, during December 2015-May 2016. Grounded theory was used as a method. The study results provide a theoretical conceptualization of what patient participation meant for healthcare professionals in paediatric care and how participation was enabled. The core category "participation a prerequisite for care" emerged as the main finding explaining the concept as ethical, practical and integrated in the care givers way of working. However, the concept was implicit in the organization. Four additional categories illustrated the healthcare professionals' different strategies used to enhance patient participation; "meeting each child where the child is," "building a relationship with the child," "showing respect for each individual child" and "making the most of the moment."

Self-Determination Theory Applied to Health Contexts: A Meta-Analysis.

PubMed

Ng, Johan Y Y; Ntoumanis, Nikos; Thøgersen-Ntoumani, Cecilie; Deci, Edward L; Ryan, Richard M; Duda, Joan L; Williams, Geoffrey C

2012-07-01

Behavior change is more effective and lasting when patients are autonomously motivated. To examine this idea, we identified 184 independent data sets from studies that utilized self-determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 2000) in health care and health promotion contexts. A meta-analysis evaluated relations between the SDT-based constructs of practitioner support for patient autonomy and patients' experience of psychological need satisfaction, as well as relations between these SDT constructs and indices of mental and physical health. Results showed the expected relations among the SDT variables, as well as positive relations of psychological need satisfaction and autonomous motivation to beneficial health outcomes. Several variables (e.g., participants' age, study design) were tested as potential moderators when effect sizes were heterogeneous. Finally, we used path analyses of the meta-analyzed correlations to test the interrelations among the SDT variables. Results suggested that SDT is a viable conceptual framework to study antecedents and outcomes of motivation for health-related behaviors. © The Author(s) 2012.

Excess capacity: markets regulation, and values.

PubMed Central

Madden, C W

1999-01-01

OBJECTIVE: To examine the conceptual bases for the conflicting views of excess capacity in healthcare markets and their application in the context of today's turbulent environment. STUDY SETTING: The policy and research literature of the past three decades. STUDY DESIGN: The theoretical perspectives of alternative economic schools of thought are used to support different policy positions with regard to excess capacity. Changes in these policy positions over time are linked to changes in the economic and political environment of the period. The social values implied by this history are articulated. DATA COLLECTION: Standard library search procedures are used to identify relevant literature. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Alternative policy views of excess capacity in healthcare markets rely on differing theoretical foundations. Changes in the context in which policy decisions are made over time affect the dominant theoretical framework and, therefore, the dominant policy view of excess capacity. CONCLUSIONS: In the 1990s, multiple perspectives of optimal capacity still exist. However, our evolving history suggests a set of persistent values that should guide future policy in this area. PMID:10029502

The emergence of understanding in a computer model of concepts and analogy-making

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mitchell, Melanie; Hofstadter, Douglas R.

1990-06-01

This paper describes Copycat, a computer model of the mental mechanisms underlying the fluidity and adaptability of the human conceptual system in the context of analogy-making. Copycat creates analogies between idealized situations in a microworld that has been designed to capture and isolate many of the central issues of analogy-making. In Copycat, an understanding of the essence of a situation and the recognition of deep similarity between two superficially different situations emerge from the interaction of a large number of perceptual agents with an associative, overlapping, and context-sensitive network of concepts. Central features of the model are: a high degree of parallelism; competition and cooperation among a large number of small, locally acting agents that together create a global understanding of the situation at hand; and a computational temperature that measures the amount of perceptual organization as processing proceeds and that in turn controls the degree of randomness with which decisions are made in the system.

When stress gets into your head: Socioeconomic risk, executive functions, and maternal sensitivity across childrearing contexts.

PubMed

Sturge-Apple, Melissa L; Jones, Hannah R; Suor, Jennifer H

2017-03-01

Socioeconomic adversity has been targeted as a key upstream mechanism with robust pathogenic effects on maternal caregiving. Although research has demonstrated the negative repercussions of socioeconomic difficulties, little research has documented potential mechanisms underlying this association. Toward increasing understanding, the present study examined how maternal working memory capacity and inhibitory control may mediate associations between socioeconomic risk and change in maternal sensitivity across free-play and discipline caregiving contexts. This study used a longitudinal design, and utilized a socioeconomically diverse sample of 185 mothers and their 3.5-year-old toddlers. Multi-informants and methods were used to assess constructs. Findings revealed that maternal EF mediated associations between socioeconomic risk and parenting sensitivity with specific effects for working memory and baseline sensitivity and inhibitory control and change in sensitivity as childrearing demands increased. Results are interpreted within emerging conceptual frameworks regarding the role of parental neurocognitive functioning and caregiving. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Shuttle mission simulator software conceptual design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burke, J. F.

1973-01-01

Software conceptual designs (SCD) are presented for meeting the simulator requirements for the shuttle missions. The major areas of the SCD discussed include: malfunction insertion, flight software, applications software, systems software, and computer complex.

Mapping the Terrain of Homosexually-Themed Language

PubMed Central

McCormack, Mark

2011-01-01

In this article, I present a new model for understanding homosexually-themed language. By detailing how old conceptualizations of homophobic language no longer maintain heuristic utility in explaining the social dynamics of many sport and educational settings, I situate other conceptualizations of homosexually-themed language depending on the cultural context. I argue that whether language is considered homophobic, or whether it is better conceptualized as fag discourse, gay discourse or pro-gay language, is primarily dependent on the homohysteria of a setting. This model should enable scholars and educators to understand the operation of homosexually-themed language in society and properly evaluate the homophobia of a setting. PMID:21534076

The Effects of Classic and Web-Designed Conceptual Change Texts on the Subject of Water Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tas, Erol; Gülen, Salih; Öner, Zeynep; Özyürek, Cengiz

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study is to research the effects of traditional and web-assisted conceptual change texts for the subject of water chemistry on the success, conceptual errors and permanent learning of students. A total of 37 8th graders in a secondary school of Samsun participated in this study which had a random experimental design with…

HESS Opinions: A conceptual framework for assessing socio-hydrological resilience under change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mao, Feng; Clark, Julian; Karpouzoglou, Timothy; Dewulf, Art; Buytaert, Wouter; Hannah, David

2017-07-01

Despite growing interest in resilience, there is still significant scope for increasing its conceptual clarity and practical relevance in socio-hydrological contexts: specifically, questions of how socio-hydrological systems respond to and cope with perturbations and how these connect to resilience remain unanswered. In this opinion paper, we propose a novel conceptual framework for understanding and assessing resilience in coupled socio-hydrological contexts, and encourage debate on the inter-connections between socio-hydrology and resilience. Taking a systems perspective, we argue that resilience is a set of systematic properties with three dimensions: absorptive, adaptive, and transformative, and contend that socio-hydrological systems can be viewed as various forms of human-water couplings, reflecting different aspects of these interactions. We propose a framework consisting of two parts. The first part addresses the identity of socio-hydrological resilience, answering questions such as resilience of what in relation to what. We identify three existing framings of resilience for different types of human-water systems and subsystems, which have been used in different fields: (1) the water subsystem, highlighting hydrological resilience to anthropogenic hazards; (2) the human subsystem, foregrounding social resilience to hydrological hazards; and (3) the coupled human-water system, exhibiting socio-hydrological resilience. We argue that these three system types and resiliences afford new insights into the clarification and evaluation of different water management challenges. The first two types address hydrological and social states, while the third type emphasises the feedbacks and interactions between human and water components within complex systems subject to internal or external disturbances. In the second part, we focus on resilience management and develop the notion of the resilience canvas, a novel heuristic device to identify possible pathways and to facilitate the design of bespoke strategies for enhancing resilience in the socio-hydrological context. The resilience canvas is constructed by combining absorptive and adaptive capacities as two axes. At the corners of the resulting two-dimensional space are four quadrants which we conceptualise as representing resilient, vulnerable, susceptible, and resistant system states. To address projected change-induced uncertainties, we recommend that efforts now be focused on shifting socio-hydrological systems from resistant towards resilient status. In sum, the novel framework proposed here clarifies the ambiguity inherent in socio-hydrological resilience, and provides a viable basis for further theoretical and practical development.

Using engineering control principles to inform the design of adaptive interventions: a conceptual introduction.

PubMed

Rivera, Daniel E; Pew, Michael D; Collins, Linda M

2007-05-01

The goal of this paper is to describe the role that control engineering principles can play in developing and improving the efficacy of adaptive, time-varying interventions. It is demonstrated that adaptive interventions constitute a form of feedback control system in the context of behavioral health. Consequently, drawing from ideas in control engineering has the potential to significantly inform the analysis, design, and implementation of adaptive interventions, leading to improved adherence, better management of limited resources, a reduction of negative effects, and overall more effective interventions. This article illustrates how to express an adaptive intervention in control engineering terms, and how to use this framework in a computer simulation to investigate the anticipated impact of intervention design choices on efficacy. The potential benefits of operationalizing decision rules based on control engineering principles are particularly significant for adaptive interventions that involve multiple components or address co-morbidities, situations that pose significant challenges to conventional clinical practice.

Using Engineering Control Principles to Inform the Design of Adaptive Interventions: A Conceptual Introduction

PubMed Central

Rivera, Daniel E.; Pew, Michael D.; Collins, Linda M.

2007-01-01

The goal of this paper is to describe the role that control engineering principles can play in developing and improving the efficacy of adaptive, time-varying interventions. It is demonstrated that adaptive interventions constitute a form of feedback control system in the context of behavioral health. Consequently, drawing from ideas in control engineering has the potential to significantly inform the analysis, design, and implementation of adaptive interventions, leading to improved adherence, better management of limited resources, a reduction of negative effects, and overall more effective interventions. This article illustrates how to express an adaptive intervention in control engineering terms, and how to use this framework in a computer simulation to investigate the anticipated impact of intervention design choices on efficacy. The potential benefits of operationalizing decision rules based on control engineering principles are particularly significant for adaptive interventions that involve multiple components or address co-morbidities, situations that pose significant challenges to conventional clinical practice. PMID:17169503

The impact and effectiveness of health impact assessment: A conceptual framework

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Harris-Roxas, Ben, E-mail: ben@harrisroxashealth.com; Harris, Elizabeth, E-mail: e.harris@unsw.edu.au

2013-09-15

The use of health impact assessment (HIA) has expanded rapidly and there are increasing demands for it to demonstrate its effectiveness. This paper presents a conceptual framework for evaluating HIA and describes its development through (i) a review of the literature, (ii) a review of work undertaken as part of a major HIA capacity building project and (iii) an in-depth study of seven completed HIAs. The framework emphasises context, process and impacts as key domains in understanding and evaluating the effectiveness of an HIA. This new framework builds upon the existing approaches to evaluating HIA and extends them to reflectmore » the broad range of factors that comprise and influence the effectiveness of HIAs. It may be of use in evaluating completed HIAs and in planning HIAs that are yet to be undertaken. -- Highlights: ► The first empirically-derived conceptual framework for evaluating HIA ► It may also be useful for planning and reporting on HIAs. ► The framework emphasises context, process and impacts as key domains. ► A broad range of factors influence the effectiveness of HIAs.« less

Developing a cultural context for conducting a neuropsychological evaluation with a culturally diverse client: the ECLECTIC framework.

PubMed

Fujii, Daryl E M

2018-02-20

With the increasing diversification of the American population, the discipline of neuropsychology is challenged to develop appropriate tools and conceptual models to meet its evolving client base. Thus far, the focus has been on developing appropriate tests and norms to obtain accurate testing data. By contrast, far less attention has been paid to the contextual impact of culture on an evaluation. This paper attempts to address this shortcoming. This manuscript introduces the ECLECTIC framework for conceptualizing different facets of culture pertinent for understanding a culturally diverse client when conducting a neuropsychological evaluation. Individual components of the framework (E: education and literacy; C: culture and acculturation; L: language; E: economics; C: communication; T: testing situation: comfort and motivation; I: intelligence conceptualization; and C: context of immigration) are introduced and potential biases to fairness in testing are described. In this manner, the framework specifies how individual facets of culture can impact neuropsychological test performance. Clinical implementation of the framework will be illustrated with a case sample. Strengths and weaknesses of the framework are discussed as well as recommendations for implementation.

Distinguishing perceived competence and self-efficacy: an example from exercise.

PubMed

Rodgers, Wendy M; Markland, David; Selzler, Anne-Marie; Murray, Terra C; Wilson, Philip M

2014-12-01

This article examined the conceptual and statistical distinction between perceived competence and self-efficacy. Although they are frequently used interchangeably, it is possible that distinguishing them might assist researchers in better understanding their roles in developing enduring adaptive behavior patterns. Perceived competence is conceived in the theoretical framework of self-determination theory and self-efficacy is conceived in the theoretical framework of social-cognitive theory. The purpose of this study was to empirically distinguish perceived competence from self-efficacy for exercise. Two studies evaluated the independence of perceived competence and self-efficacy in the context of exercise. Using 2 extant instruments with validity and reliability evidence in exercise contexts, the distinctiveness of the 2 constructs was assessed in 2 separate samples (n = 357 middle-aged sedentary adults; n = 247 undergraduate students). Confirmatory factor analysis supported the conceptual and empirical distinction of the 2 constructs. This study supports the conceptual and statistical distinction of perceived competence from perceived self-efficacy. Applications of these results provide a rationale for more precise future theorizing regarding their respective roles in supporting initiation and maintenance of health behaviors.

Advanced Usage of Vehicle Sketch Pad for CFD-Based Conceptual Design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ordaz, Irian; Li, Wu

2013-01-01

Conceptual design is the most fluid phase of aircraft design. It is important to be able to perform large scale design space exploration of candidate concepts that can achieve the design intent to avoid more costly configuration changes in later stages of design. This also means that conceptual design is highly dependent on the disciplinary analysis tools to capture the underlying physics accurately. The required level of analysis fidelity can vary greatly depending on the application. Vehicle Sketch Pad (VSP) allows the designer to easily construct aircraft concepts and make changes as the design matures. More recent development efforts have enabled VSP to bridge the gap to high-fidelity analysis disciplines such as computational fluid dynamics and structural modeling for finite element analysis. This paper focuses on the current state-of-the-art geometry modeling for the automated process of analysis and design of low-boom supersonic concepts using VSP and several capability-enhancing design tools.

Faculty Development in Context: Changing Learning Cultures in Higher Education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Feixas, Mònica; Zellweger, Franziska

At present, research on the effectiveness of initial training programs for novice faculty is limited, and results fail to offer apparent evidences on the impact of such programs in changing teachers' practices and, at a larger scale, teaching and learning cultures at universities. In addition to faculty development initiatives, the wider organizational context should be considered in order to foster transfer of acquired teaching competences into teaching practice. In this article, we suggest a conceptual framework that includes a description of prevailing teaching cultures in European higher education; a discussion on what we mean by faculty development and its relationship to teaching cultures; a definition of learning cultures; and a framework of the environmental factors affecting learning transfer. Among the outcomes, we expect to adapt Holtons' model to the higher education context and design a set of instruments to identify primarily environmental factors influencing the impact of faculty development. Results might show the necessity to pay greater attention to the conditions under which novice teachers teach, the importance of peer and coordinator support, and all aspects that contribute in the end to changed teaching and learning cultures in higher education.

Conceptual Learning in a Principled Design Problem Solving Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Prusak, Naomi; Hershkowitz, Rina; Schwarz, Baruch B.

2013-01-01

To what extent can instructional design be based on principles for instilling a culture of problem solving and conceptual learning? This is the main focus of the study described in this paper, in which third grade students participated in a one-year course designed to foster problem solving and mathematical reasoning. The design relied on five…

Designing Public Library Websites for Teens: A Conceptual Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Naughton, Robin Amanda

2012-01-01

The main goal of this research study was to develop a conceptual model for the design of public library websites for teens (TLWs) that would enable designers and librarians to create library websites that better suit teens' information needs and practices. It bridges a gap in the research literature between user interface design in human-computer…

Optomechanical design concept for the Giant Magellan Telescope Multi-object Astronomical and Cosmological Spectrograph (GMACS)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prochaska, Travis; Sauseda, Marcus; Beck, James; Schmidt, Luke; Cook, Erika; DePoy, Darren L.; Marshall, Jennifer L.; Ribeiro, Rafael; Taylor, Keith; Jones, Damien; Froning, Cynthia; Pak, Soojong; Mendes de Oliveira, Claudia; Papovich, Casey; Ji, Tae-Geun; Lee, Hye-In

2016-08-01

We describe a preliminary conceptual optomechanical design for GMACS, a wide-field, multi-object, moderate resolution optical spectrograph for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT). This paper describes the details of the GMACS optomechanical conceptual design, including the requirements and considerations leading to the design, mechanisms, optical mounts, and predicted flexure performance.

Block 2 SRM conceptual design studies. Volume 1, Book 1: Conceptual design package

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smith, Brad; Williams, Neal; Miller, John; Ralston, Joe; Richardson, Jennifer; Moore, Walt; Doll, Dan; Maughan, Jeff; Hayes, Fred

1986-01-01

The conceptual design studies of a Block 2 Solid Rocket Motor (SRM) require the elimination of asbestos-filled insulation and was open to alternate designs, such as case changes, different propellants, modified burn rate - to improve reliability and performance. Limitations were placed on SRM changes such that the outside geometry should not impact the physical interfaces with other Space Shuttle elements and should have minimum changes to the aerodynamic and dynamic characteristics of the Space Shuttle vehicle. Previous Space Shuttle SRM experience was assessed and new design concepts combined to define a valid approach to assured flight success and economic operation of the STS. Trade studies, preliminary designs, analyses, plans, and cost estimates are documented.

Design and testing of an assessment instrument to measure understanding of protein structure and enzyme inhibition in a new context.

PubMed

Villafañe, Sachel M; Heyen, Bruce J; Lewis, Jennifer E; Loertscher, Jennifer; Minderhout, Vicky; Murray, Tracey Arnold

2016-01-01

Assessment instruments designed to measure student conceptual understanding and skills proficiency related to biochemistry are important to transform undergraduate biochemistry education. The purpose of this study was to develop an assessment instrument to measure student understanding of protein structure and enzyme inhibition in a new context, that of saturable binding. A community of biochemistry educators was involved in an iterative process of designing and testing of this assessment, which consists of true/false and open-ended questions that map to low and high levels in Bloom's taxonomy. A total of 188 students' responses were collected from seven different institutions and were graded by two independent raters using a rubric. Results from this administration indicate that most students were able to answer the questions related to lower-levels in Bloom's taxonomy; however for higher-level questions, students had more difficulty. The results from this assessment can give instructors insight into the ways in which persistent incorrect or incomplete ideas related to protein structure and binding events can hinder knowledge application. Also, the use of a community of practice to develop assessment instruments of this type and the format of the instrument itself could be a useful model for development of assessment instruments in the future. © 2015 The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Developing a comprehensive conceptual arhictecture to support Earth sciences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, C. P.; Xu, C.; Sun, M.; Li, Z.

2014-12-01

Global challenges require the comprehensive understanding of the earth system to make smarter descisions about scientific research, operational management, and educational activities. We conducted in the one and half year a comprehensive investigation about how to develop a comprehensive conceptual architecture for developing a cyberinfrastructure that can help address such global challenges. This includes three aspects of research and outreach: we first analyzed the conceptual architecture requirements from the earth science domains and the exisiting global and national systems from different agencies and organizations to consolidate a list of requirements from scientific, technological, and educational aspects. A conceptual design by considering these reqquirements and the latest development in enterprise arhictecture was conducted based on our past decade's investigation about cyberinfrastructure architecture for supporting different aspects. We also organized several levels of reviews by different levels of experts from different organizations and background to help us comment the completeness, reasonability, and practicality of the design. A comprehensive conceptual design will be released for public comments this spring to solicit the general comments for reaching a design as comprehensive as possible. The final design is scheduled to be published in 2015 to contribute to the general world wide scientists and CI builders in the geoscience domain and beyond.

Conceptual designs of NDA instruments for the NRTA system at the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Li, T.K.; Klosterbuer, S.F.; Menlove, H.O.

The authors are studying conceptual designs of selected nondestructive assay (NDA) instruments for the near-real-time accounting system at the rokkasho Reprocessing Plant (RRP) of Japan Nuclear Fuel Limited (JNFL). The JNFL RRP is a large-scale commercial reprocessing facility for spent fuel from boiling-water and pressurized-water reactors. The facility comprises two major components: the main process area to separate and produce purified plutonium nitrate and uranyl nitrate from irradiated reactor spent fuels, and the co-denitration process area to combine and convert the plutonium nitrate and uranyl nitrate into mixed oxide (MOX). The selected NDA instruments for conceptual design studies are themore » MOX-product canister counter, holdup measurement systems for calcination and reduction furnaces and for blenders in the co-denitration process, the isotope dilution gamma-ray spectrometer for the spent fuel dissolver solution, and unattended verification systems. For more effective and practical safeguards and material control and accounting at RRP, the authors are also studying the conceptual design for the UO{sub 3} large-barrel counter. This paper discusses the state-of-the-art NDA conceptual design and research and development activities for the above instruments.« less