The discovery of cumulative knowledge: Strategies for designing and communicating qualitative research.

Purpose: this paper provides guidance for designing and generating cumulative knowledge based on qualitative research. Design/methodology/approach: the paper draws on the philosophy of science and specific examples of qualitative studies in accounting that have claimed a cumulative contribution to knowledge to develop a taxonomy of theoretically-justified approaches to generating cumulative knowledge from qualitative research. Findings: the paper argues for a definition of cumulative knowledge that is inclusive of anti-realist research, i.e. knowledge is cumulative if it increases the extent and density of intertextual linkages in a field. It identifies the possibility of cumulative qualitative research based on extensions to the scope of our knowledge and the depth of our knowledge. Extensions to the scope of our knowledge may include expanding the time periods, context, and/or theoretical perspective used to explore a phenomenon. Extensions to the depth of our knowledge may include new empirical knowledge, methodological pluralism, theory elaboration or analytic generalization. Individual studies can demonstrate their contribution to cumulative knowledge by locating their research within a typology/taxonomy that makes explicit the relationship of current research to past, and potential, research. Research limitations/implications: the taxonomy may be useful to qualitative researchers designing and reporting research that will have impact on the literature. Social implications: the increased use of research impact as an evaluation metric has the potential to handicap the development of qualitative research which has been characterized as generating non-cumulative knowledge. The taxonomy and the strategies for establishing cumulative impact may provide a means for this approach to research to establish its importance as a contribution to knowledge. Originality/value: The concept of cumulative knowledge has not been systematically applied to research based on qualitative methods in accounting

Nano-Bio-Genesis: tracing the rise of nanotechnology and nanobiotechnology as 'big science'.

RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are.Nanotechnology research has lately been of intense interest because of its perceived potential for many diverse fields of science. Nanotechnology's tools have found application in diverse fields, from biology to device physics. By the 1990s, there was a concerted effort in the United States to develop a national initiative to promote such research. The success of this effort led to a significant influx of resources and interest in nanotechnology and nanobiotechnology and to the establishment of centralized research programs and facilities. Further government initiatives (at federal, state, and local levels) have firmly cemented these disciplines as 'big science,' with efforts increasingly concentrated at select laboratories and centers. In many respects, these trends mirror certain changes in academic science over the past twenty years, with a greater emphasis on applied science and research that can be more directly utilized for commercial applications.We also compare the National Nanotechnology Initiative and its successors to the Human Genome Project, another large-scale, government funded initiative. These precedents made acceptance of shifts in nanotechnology easier for researchers to accept, as they followed trends already established within most fields of science. Finally, these trends are examined in the design of technologies for detection and treatment of cancer, through the Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer initiative of the National Cancer Institute. Federal funding of these nanotechnology initiatives has allowed for expansion into diverse fields and the impetus for expanding the scope of research of several fields, especially biomedicine, though the ultimate utility and impact of all these efforts remains to be seen

Horsepox and Hype: A Science Journalism Experiment

This thesis utilized model-based test journalism (Amend, Capurro and Secko 2014) to study how synthetic biology was reported by science journalists within a hype context. It explored whether it was possible to create a new model of science journalism which was resistant to critiques of hype. Synthetic biology is a rapidly emerging field of scientific inquiry that seeks to engineer and redesign biological parts and organisms. Many definitions of ‘synthetic biology’ are found in scholarly literature. This thesis defines synthetic biology as “the design and construction of new biological parts, devices and systems, and the re-design of existing natural biological systems for useful purposes with a strong focus on engineering” (Bogner et al. 2014). This project limited its scope to textual journalism focused on synthetic biology vaccine research associated with the threat of bioterrorism. Bioterrorism is cited as a serious concern for harmful outcomes of synthetic biology, including the release of dangerous re-engineered pathogens (Schmidt et al. 2009) and is therefore sensitive to the issue of hype. Theoretically, this thesis built on past research into models of science journalism (Secko, Amend and Friday, 2012), expanding this work to address issues of hype in science journalism production. Methodologically, this thesis recruited four professional science journalists to create test stories that varied in their approach to hype, followed by analyzing how this journalism was read and perceived by non-specialist audience focus groups. The results show that the communication of synthetic biology could be improved moving forward by altering the criteria surrounding hype in textual journalism that was developed for this thesis to include issues of scientific language, purposes of research and intended uses of new technologies. The outcomes of this thesis will prove useful in the design of hype resistant guidelines that will help address the major challenge of misinformation in science journalism

Outside the school: A review of the non-formal short-term architectural workshops

Over the last fifteen years, apart from compulsory curricular studios, extracurricular intensive studios in architectural design (ISAD) have become a mainstream educational environment worldwide. ISADs cover an actual weight in non-formal architectural education. However, to date, there is no review on the methods, processes, or implementation of extracurricular ISADs. The field needs to enhance the visibility of workshop results with regular reporting of workshop activities to raise awareness among future professionals and the wider public. This review aims to make visible existing learning-teaching-experiencing environments and pedagogical conditions, practices, tendencies, and implementations in ISADs. The study follows three stages. It first conducts a scoping study to examine the research outputs on ISADs indexed in SCOPUS and Web of Science from January 1975 to September 2020. Second, it expands the workshop pool by including past ISADs reached via websites/papers. It codes each workshop with the codes and themes determined through the scoping study. Finally, it creates an interactive mapping detailing the following analysis: (1) Quantitative analysis of ISADs (Geographical distribution; outputs; principles, as elements creating the atmosphere and tactics); (2) Qualitative analysis to reveal the impact of workshop outputs on the interested stakeholders. The review suggests that ISADs, including their processes and outputs, contribute to the knowledge triangle in architecture by serving two fundamental roles: (1) A research-by-design activity to address socio-economic-ecological problems caused by the built environment; (2) A pioneering venture in improving the curriculum and practices of teaching and learning. Within the scope of the exigencies of the education field, this review uncovers the potential of ISADs in overcoming time-related, geographical, economic limitations; providing fresh perspectives on content and methods concerning architectural education; expanding the intellectual resources of students; enabling international collaboration between HEIs; breeding an experimental/flexible learning and research environment in the 1st and 2nd cycles to absorb ever-changing tools/methods promoted in professional/research sides of the field. This review provides the reader with an array of diverse teaching and learning practices on these non/informal grounds. The number of workshops included in this study is relatively small, therefore, researchers are encouraged to expand the number of workshops for further analysis

An Overview of the Space Environments and Spacecraft Effects Organization Concept

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is embarking on a course to expand human presence beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO) while also expanding its mission to explore our Earth, and the solar system. Destinations such as Near Earth Asteroids (NEA), Mars and its moons, and the outer planets are but a few of the mission targets. Each new destination presents an opportunity to increase our knowledge on the solar system and the unique environments for each mission target. NASA has multiple technical and science discipline areas specializing in specific space environments fields that will serve to enable these missions. To complement these existing discipline areas, a concept is presented focusing on the development of a space environment and spacecraft effects (SESE) organization. This SESE organization includes disciplines such as space climate, space weather, natural and induced space environments, effects on spacecraft materials and systems, and the transition of research information into application. This space environment and spacecraft effects organization will be composed of Technical Working Groups (TWG). These technical working groups will survey customers and users, generate products, and provide knowledge supporting four functional areas: design environments, engineering effects, operational support, and programmatic support. The four functional areas align with phases in the program mission lifecycle and are briefly described below. Design environments are used primarily in the mission concept and design phases of a program. Environment effects focuses on the material, component, sub-system, and system-level response to the space environment and include the selection and testing to verify design and operational performance. Operational support provides products based on real time or near real time space weather to mission operators to aid in real time and near-term decision-making. The programmatic support function maintains an interface with the numerous programs within NASA, other federal government agencies, and the commercial sector to ensure that communications are well established and the needs of the programs are being met. The programmatic support function also includes working in coordination with the program in anomaly resolution and generation of lessons learned documentation. The goal of this space environment and spacecraft effects organization is to develop decision-making tools and engineering products to support all mission phases from mission concept through operations by focusing on transitioning research to application. Products generated by this space environments and effects application are suitable for use in anomaly investigations. This paper will describe the scope and purpose of the space environments and spacecraft effects organization and describe the TWG's and their relationship to the functional areas

Space Environments and Spacecraft Effects Organization Concept

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is embarking on a course to expand human presence beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO) while also expanding its mission to explore the solar system. Destinations such as Near Earth Asteroids (NEA), Mars and its moons, and the outer planets are but a few of the mission targets. Each new destination presents an opportunity to increase our knowledge of the solar system and the unique environments for each mission target. NASA has multiple technical and science discipline areas specializing in specific space environments disciplines that will help serve to enable these missions. To complement these existing discipline areas, a concept is presented focusing on the development of a space environments and spacecraft effects (SENSE) organization. This SENSE organization includes disciplines such as space climate, space weather, natural and induced space environments, effects on spacecraft materials and systems and the transition of research information into application. This space environment and spacecraft effects organization will be composed of Technical Working Groups (TWG). These technical working groups will survey customers and users, generate products, and provide knowledge supporting four functional areas: design environments, engineering effects, operational support, and programmatic support. The four functional areas align with phases in the program mission lifecycle and are briefly described below. Design environments are used primarily in the mission concept and design phases of a program. Engineering effects focuses on the material, component, sub-system and system-level selection and the testing to verify design and operational performance. Operational support provides products based on real time or near real time space weather to mission operators to aid in real time and near-term decision-making. The programmatic support function maintains an interface with the numerous programs within NASA, other federal government agencies, and the commercial sector to ensure that communications are well established and the needs of the programs are being met. The programmatic support function also includes working in coordination with the program in anomaly resolution and generation of lessons learned documentation. The goal of this space environment and spacecraft effects organization is to develop decision-making tools and engineering products to support all mission phases from mission concept through operations by focusing on transitioning research to application. Products generated by this space environments and effects application are suitable for use in anomaly investigations. This paper will describe the scope of the TWGs and their relationship to the functional areas, and discuss an organizational structure for this space environments and spacecraft effects organization

Uncovering blindspots in the policy debate on platform power:Final report

This report maps different sources and types of power in the platform economy by bringing together existing insights from various disciplines such as law, economics, political science and business strategy. The various strands of research are connected with current policy discussions on how to design and implement platform regulation. The objective is to uncover elements of platform power that deserve more attention, both in relation to the application of current legal regimes and with regard to the development of future regulatory frameworks. The control exercised by platforms can no longer be adequately captured by merely looking at economic characteristics (such as network effects, and economies of scale and scope) and the existing notion of ‘market power’. The power held by platforms goes beyond control over markets and also directly impacts businesses, consumers and our society at large. While current policy debates focus mainly on concerns relating to the control held by platforms over their business users, attention also needs be paid to the extent of control exercised over consumers and citizens. The ability of platforms to influence consumer behaviour is a source of power that deserves better understanding. In addition, more awareness needs to be created about the societal and infrastructural aspects of platform power. The COVID-19 crisis has shed new light on our dependence on platforms and digital technologies in spheres of key public consideration, such as healthcare and education. Digital platforms are also increasingly acting as gatekeepers of public interests, including through their ability to influence democracy through their control over how human rights and freedoms can be exercised via their services. As the impact of the platform economy on vital public interests like innovation, healthcare and democracy keeps expanding, these are decisive moments for establishing the priorities of EU policy and regulation

Design Implications of Model-Generated Urban Data

Published by the Architectural Research Centers Consortium under the terms of the Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.The staggering complexity of urban environment and long timescales in the causal mechanisms prevent designers to fully understand the implications of their design interventions. In order to investigate these causal mechanisms and provide measurable trends, a model that partially replicates urban complexity has been developed. Using a cellular automata approach to model land use types and markets for products, services, labour and property, the model has enabled numerical experiments to be carried out. The results revealed causal mechanisms and performance metrics obtained in a much shorter timescale than the real-life processes, pointing to a number of design implications for urban environments.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Expanding Paramedicine in the Community (EPIC): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

BackgroundThe incidence of chronic diseases, including diabetes mellitus (DM), heart failure (HF) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is on the rise. The existing health care system must evolve to meet the growing needs of patients with these chronic diseases and reduce the strain on both acute care and hospital-based health care resources. Paramedics are an allied health care resource consisting of highly-trained practitioners who are comfortable working independently and in collaboration with other resources in the out-of-hospital setting. Expanding the paramedic's scope of practice to include community-based care may decrease the utilization of acute care and hospital-based health care resources by patients with chronic disease.Methods/designThis will be a pragmatic, randomized controlled trial comparing a community paramedic intervention to standard of care for patients with one of three chronic diseases. The objective of the trial is to determine whether community paramedics conducting regular home visits, including health assessments and evidence-based treatments, in partnership with primary care physicians and other community based resources, will decrease the rate of hospitalization and emergency department use for patients with DM, HF and COPD. The primary outcome measure will be the rate of hospitalization at one year. Secondary outcomes will include measures of health system utilization, overall health status, and cost-effectiveness of the intervention over the same time period. Outcome measures will be assessed using both Poisson regression and negative binomial regression analyses to assess the primary outcome.DiscussionThe results of this study will be used to inform decisions around the implementation of community paramedic programs. If successful in preventing hospitalizations, it has the ability to be scaled up to other regions, both nationally and internationally. The methods described in this paper will serve as a basis for future work related to this study.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02034045. Date: 9 January 2014