The social life of the novel idea: What did social psychologists ever do for us?

Purpose - The paper presents the extant literature relating to the social processes of innovation in built environment design teams. The paper connects the relevant and significant work in the field of Social Psychology and Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) to derive a theoretical framework which can be used to direct further research, towards development of the behavioural facet of design management. Design/methodology/approach - First, we establish which aspects of social processes of innovation are already present within the AEC field and examine concepts/ideas in Social Psychology that are likely to be important in understanding group processes within AEC, applying three emergent themes of 1) social climate; 2) risk attitudes and 3) motivation and reward. Second, we identify which elements of Social Psychology may be used to expand, consolidate and develop our understanding and identify gaps in AEC specific knowledge. Findings - The paper suggests that whilst the AEC literature has supplanted some key elements of Social Psychology, this discipline offers a further and significant theoretical resource. However, whilst some aspects of social climate and motivation/reward are well-represented in the AEC field, these have not yet been fully explored. Furthermore, how collective attitudes to risk can influence design decision-making is identified as having a limited presence. Originality/value - This paper is the first to bring together the two disciplines of AEC and Social Psychology to examine the social aspects of innovative design performance in built environment teams. The paper fulfils an identified need to examine the social processes that influence innovative design performance in constructio

Choose Your Future: A feminist perspective on Construction 4.0 as Techno-Utopia or Digital Dystopia

In 2017, the Chancellor of the Exchequer launched the UK Industrial Strategy, inviting us to “choose the future.” Via government support for and investment in digital innovation, particularly in the construction industry and public infrastructure, the Strategy aimed to stimulate the UK’s industrial productivity and wealth. This paper examines the Industrial Strategy by applying it within the context of the utopian/dystopian literature genre, and through a feminist lens. The paper finds that the Strategy looks set to deliver outcomes similar to themes of dystopian literature genre which imagine that technological progress can only achieved at the expense of social equity, suggesting that the currently gendered idea of Construction 4.0 could exacerbate current gender divisions and inequalities that currently blight the construction industry. Given more balanced strategic support and investment, Construction 4.0 might actually, in a new reality, offer opportunities to resolve issues of gender equity in the industry. The paper concludes with a timely call to researchers and industry professionals to intersect gender inclusivity across all aspects of future research, innovation, and strategy in relation to Construction 4.0, so that the chosen future will support the careers and contributions of all genders that choose to participate in i

An Exploratory Study of Collaboration In Built Environment Design Teams: A Social Psychology Perspective

In recent years, existing research and industry studies have noted that, whilst there has been significant progress in the performance of built environment teams, scant attention has been paid to the behavioural aspects of collaborative design. These recent performance improvements also tend to respond to a techno-operational and positivist dominance within the architecture, engineering, construction (AEC) domain. This has resulted in tools, technologies, and guidance which fail to address the socio-behavioural context of collaborative design in AEC. Alternatively, generic socio-behavioural management theories are applied with the aim of improving collaborative practices, despite operation in an industry that has critical differences to mainstream business. This thesis aims to counterbalance that positivist and techno-operational dominance, by conducting an exploratory study which expands and deepens knowledge relating to the social aspects of design collaboration in the built environment. To this end, the study begins with a systematic review of literature from the field of social psychology. This field maintains a long history of experimental and field study in relation to group interaction. The social psychology literature is examined to identify areas of knowledge and key themes which are likely to hold relevance for built environment design teams and may be supplanted within the AEC sector-specific research frame. Themes emerging from this review are: (1) motivation and reward, (2) risk attitudes, and (3) social climate. These themes, and the social phenomena described within them, are subsequently investigated in a series of studies. First, an exploratory survey of industry perceptions has been conducted. Findings from this survey direct and inform two further, complementary studies, which include focus group interviews and observations of a live design team in a case-study project. Resulting data sets are qualitatively analysed using a thematic analysis complemented by quantitative social network analysis. The proposed framework synthesises the findings from these studies. The framework comprises thematic content which is specific to collaborative practice in the built environment, rooted within a social psychology perspective. Findings detail a multiplicity in the role agency of project team members as actors in industry, discipline, company, and individual contexts. Normative and adaptive responses within the team interaction space, thus, transforms agency and thought to collective systems of meaning, within which creative thinking can flourish, and from which innovation can thrive. The framework enables the built environment sector to make progress in detailing its own critical success factors for effective collaboration. The framework can now be applied in research and practice, to establish clear directions for new research; development of interdisciplinary industry and practice guidance; and, industry-specific curricula content for professional practice training, teaching, and learning for cognisant disciplines. Thus, the current practice of applying generic theory to AEC collaborative practice can now be repealed in favour of a directed and industry appropriate approach

Social Synthesis: A psycho-social perspective of the construction project team

This paper presents a framework resulting from systematic investigation within the field of social psychology, from which to derive new narratives, concepts, and relationships for collaborative design in architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC). A systematic literature review generated a series of themes that had potential for relevance to interdisciplinary built environment project teams. These were then explored, drawing on qualitative research conducted using focus groups drawn from three AEC organisations and observation of a live case-study industry project. The social psychology anchor themes of (1) motivation and reward; (2) risk attitudes; and (3) social climate were then recontextualised using the qualitative data, to derive construction-specific social and psychological factors that influence the collaborative design process. The resultant psycho-social framework applies psychology theory to describe a multiplicity in the role agency of project team members, as actors in industry, discipline, company, and individual contexts. Role agency and domain-specific themes are combined within the collective to influence normative and adaptive responses within the team interaction space, where collective systems of meaning are synthesised and design outcomes produced

Investigating the use of digital technology in Jewellery Design: A thematic analysis

According to Brynjolfsson and McAfee (2012), digital technologies are one of the most important driving forces in the economy today, thus an understanding of these phenomena and a discussion of their influences has to be developed. Brown (2009), notes that one of the technologies that can be seen as an important innovation in this era is Computer Aided Design (CAD), which has revolutionised the creative capabilities available to designers and engineers worldwide. Nonetheless, there is a distinct lack of questioning in regards to what influence digital technology has on the creativity of designers. As a field, jewellery design is heavily associated with traditional handcraft values such as labour, material and complexity. And such values are being challenged by digital technologies. MacLachlan, Earl and Eckert (2012) suggest that, in the case of designer makers, tools are embodiment of rules working alongside more conceptual rules and conventions, in order to transform a design problem towards a creative design solution

Pan-Cancer Analysis of lncRNA Regulation Supports Their Targeting of Cancer Genes in Each Tumor Context

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are commonly dys-regulated in tumors, but only a handful are known toplay pathophysiological roles in cancer. We inferredlncRNAs that dysregulate cancer pathways, onco-genes, and tumor suppressors (cancer genes) bymodeling their effects on the activity of transcriptionfactors, RNA-binding proteins, and microRNAs in5,185 TCGA tumors and 1,019 ENCODE assays.Our predictions included hundreds of candidateonco- and tumor-suppressor lncRNAs (cancerlncRNAs) whose somatic alterations account for thedysregulation of dozens of cancer genes and path-ways in each of 14 tumor contexts. To demonstrateproof of concept, we showed that perturbations tar-geting OIP5-AS1 (an inferred tumor suppressor) andTUG1 and WT1-AS (inferred onco-lncRNAs) dysre-gulated cancer genes and altered proliferation ofbreast and gynecologic cancer cells. Our analysis in-dicates that, although most lncRNAs are dysregu-lated in a tumor-specific manner, some, includingOIP5-AS1, TUG1, NEAT1, MEG3, and TSIX, synergis-tically dysregulate cancer pathways in multiple tumorcontexts

Pan-cancer Alterations of the MYC Oncogene and Its Proximal Network across the Cancer Genome Atlas

Although theMYConcogene has been implicated incancer, a systematic assessment of alterations ofMYC, related transcription factors, and co-regulatoryproteins, forming the proximal MYC network (PMN),across human cancers is lacking. Using computa-tional approaches, we define genomic and proteo-mic features associated with MYC and the PMNacross the 33 cancers of The Cancer Genome Atlas.Pan-cancer, 28% of all samples had at least one ofthe MYC paralogs amplified. In contrast, the MYCantagonists MGA and MNT were the most frequentlymutated or deleted members, proposing a roleas tumor suppressors.MYCalterations were mutu-ally exclusive withPIK3CA,PTEN,APC,orBRAFalterations, suggesting that MYC is a distinct onco-genic driver. Expression analysis revealed MYC-associated pathways in tumor subtypes, such asimmune response and growth factor signaling; chro-matin, translation, and DNA replication/repair wereconserved pan-cancer. This analysis reveals insightsinto MYC biology and is a reference for biomarkersand therapeutics for cancers with alterations ofMYC or the PMN

Genomic, Pathway Network, and Immunologic Features Distinguishing Squamous Carcinomas

This integrated, multiplatform PanCancer Atlas study co-mapped and identified distinguishing molecular features of squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) from five sites associated with smokin

Spatial Organization and Molecular Correlation of Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes Using Deep Learning on Pathology Images

Beyond sample curation and basic pathologic characterization, the digitized H&E-stained images of TCGA samples remain underutilized. To highlight this resource, we present mappings of tumorinfiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) based on H&E images from 13 TCGA tumor types. These TIL maps are derived through computational staining using a convolutional neural network trained to classify patches of images. Affinity propagation revealed local spatial structure in TIL patterns and correlation with overall survival. TIL map structural patterns were grouped using standard histopathological parameters. These patterns are enriched in particular T cell subpopulations derived from molecular measures. TIL densities and spatial structure were differentially enriched among tumor types, immune subtypes, and tumor molecular subtypes, implying that spatial infiltrate state could reflect particular tumor cell aberration states. Obtaining spatial lymphocytic patterns linked to the rich genomic characterization of TCGA samples demonstrates one use for the TCGA image archives with insights into the tumor-immune microenvironment