Cosmopolitan Urbanism and Architecture & Paradigm Change in Research and Education in in Asia

The genesis of human settlements is a continuous process of production and layering of spaces in different scale levels across historical periods. The architectural production in our Asian context is always cosmopolitan, hybrid and eclectic, due to historical links and inclusive cultural attitude. Our common building typologies – and also our modernization processes - are the product of the cosmopolitan communities, the articulation of the multi-layered tangible and intangible traditions, and the direct response to local micro-climate of this region. Diversity, eclecticism, fusion, acculturation, adaptation, can perhaps best describe the nature of our architecture and urbanism. Our architectural education now is in dire needs to develop a design-research culture to deal with social and environmental changes. Contemporarily we are in an urgent need to find resolutions to address serious problems posed by the climate change, ideological conflicts, economic greed, depletion of resources, and social justice. Research in architecture should be based on the reality on the ground and not just based on alien theories. Design should be based on the understanding of the real contextual problems, to formulate sensible, sensitive, and holistic solutions. Learning the lessons and wisdoms from our cosmopolitan architecture and urbanism is an important and necessary step towards the improvements and paradigm change in architectural education, research, and practice in Asian context

Information Search Strategies Among Theological Faculty Members in Tamil Nadu

This research article studies the information seeking search strategies used by theological faculty members in Tamil Nadu. It is based on a structured questionnaire sent to 120 select faculty members, of which 101 questionnaires were returned, achieving a response rate of 84%. Major findings of this study contribute to understanding the awareness and use of search options among respondents. Basic and keyword search options are commonly used by respondents in online sources while preferences for references from books and journals are more popular among faculty members to locate bibliographic information in print sources. This study further noted that faculty members are generally seeking information for preparing class lectures and preaching sermons and respondents indicated that Google searching is highly used by them for locating online information. The respondents expressed that borrowing books and using reference books and journals are the most compelling reasons for visiting libraries. Reading table of contents and reading specific articles are common strategies used by faculty members while looking for information in print resources. The non-availability of full-text articles, lack of scholarly national publications and retrieving irrelevant articles are problems faculty members commonly face while searching online resources. The findings of this study have impact on library instruction, and for improving library services and collections in theological institutions in Tamil Nadu

YouTube Atherectomy Videos: What Industry is Telling Us About this Endovascular Procedure

BACKGROUND: Patients are turning to the Internet and YouTube for information about their providers, disease states and potential interventions. Endovascular atherectomy is a common procedure undertaken in the treatment of peripheral vascular disease especially in outpatient treatment centers despite its cost. Little is known how this procedure is portrayed in online video content. We set forth to search YouTube to gain insight to how industry and non-industry portrays this endovascular technology. METHODS: YouTube (www.youtube.com) website was accessed in July 2017 with a cleared cached web browser for the key search word “atherectomy”. The top 100 videos with greater than 100 views were examined. All results were separated into two categories - industry (I) or non-industry (NI) sources. The duration of video, age of video, total video views, academic information, cost information and if outpatient treatment center focused care were also collected. RESULTS: A total of 100 videos were examined. The videos were separated into two groups: Industry (n=20) and Non-Industry (n=80). Videos from Industry and Non-Industry were similar in content in terms of duration (4.8 ± 4.5 and 5.6 ± 4.4 minutes), creation time (3.3 ± 2.2 and 3.4 ± 1.9 years), and total views (7386 ± 14,593 and 5560 ± 13,181). Proportions of videos from each group that contained educational content were also similar (70% and 70%). However, only 7% (n=7) of the videos reference the procedure being linked to care in outpatient treatment center. Only 3% (n=3) mentioned the cost of the procedure. All of these videos from each of these categories were from non-industry sources. Conclusion: In our sampling of “Atherectomy” YouTube videos, we find similar video content in terms of duration, creation time, total views and educational content. Interestingly, the cost and its association with outpatient treatment labs is mentioned in only a minority of the videos and only from non-industry sources. These data should inform the vascular surgery community the lack of public understanding of this endovascular technology as evidenced in YouTube videos

Retheorising doctoral supervision as professional work

A competitive higher education environment marked by increased accountability and quality assurance measures for doctoral study, including the structured training of doctoral supervisors, has highlighted the need to clearly articulate and delineate the work of supervising doctoral students. This article responds to this imperative by examining the question: in the contemporary university, what do doctoral supervisors do and how might their work be theorized? The response draws on life history interviews with doctoral supervisors in five broad disciplines/fields, working in a large metropolitan university in Australia. Based on empirical analyses, doctoral supervision is theorized as professional work that comprises five facets: the learning alliance, habits of mind, scholarly expertise, techn&ecirc; and contextual expertise. The article proposes that this model offers a more precise discourse, language and theory for understanding and preparing for the work of doctoral supervision in the contemporary university.<br /

Building Reflexive Capacity for the Developing Specialized Literacy Professional through Praxis: Graduate Level Course-Based Assessments as Change Agents

This paper shares findings from a qualitative content analysis of twenty-three literacy specialist candidates\u27 (N=23) textual descriptions of transformative changes made to their pedagogical beliefs about reading/literacy theory and models after engaging in praxis. We found engaging in praxis or reflective practices resulted in awareness of critical incidents or critical realizations that validated and challenged their beliefs of literacy pedagogy, and student learning, as well as impacted their decision-making. We confirmed that when intentionally and meaningfully built into an assessment, critical pedagogy theory (specifically praxis) is a strong tool for both the professor and the literacy specialist candidate