Image Tagging and Gearing Resources applied to students’ graphic materials: Learning techniques in pursuit of Inclusiveness for Urban and Landscape Design

Inclusiveness can be considered a requirement for contemporary statements in urban and landscape design referring to age, condition, gender or nature. But how is inclusiveness influenced by spatial design? Can this relation be measured or proven? And more precisely, which interactions are considered across different generations or between human and non-human agents? This paper describes student’s work evaluation procedures through a methodology consisting of selecting picture-based content from initial reference materials provided by teaching staff, as well as graphic material designed and produced by the students, to further analyze these through data visualization techniques and the production of info-graphics. In a latter step, a gearing game – which is a type of sociogram used to understand agents and matters of interest – is utilized to drive a discussion about design statements for further stages of development concerning students’ design projects. The first stages of the methodology are strongly influenced by how the students perceive elements from reference materials and represent these in their own design productions. A literature review further investigates the dichotomy between representation and perception, and the generation of subjective images. As a final consideration, this work aims to create combined methodologies by incorporating participatory observation methods (e.g. photovoice and flow charts) from the social sciences into urban and landscape design, as they are understood through an accurate design of the learning experience. Similarly, non-representational design and dataviz diagrams from urban and landscape design could potentially be implemented in the teaching of social sciences

Implementing Gehl’s Theory to Study Urban Space. The Case of Monotowns

The paper presents a method to operationalize Jan Gehl’s questions for public space into metrics to map Russian monotowns’ urban life in 2017. With the use of social media data, it becomes possible to scale Gehl’s approach from the survey of small urban areas to the analysis of entire cities while maintaining the human scale’s resolution. When underperforming public spaces are detected, we propose a matrix for urban design interventions using Jane Jacobs’ typologies for good city life. Furthermore, this method was deployed to improve the conditions of public spaces in Russian monotowns through a series of architectural briefs for design competitions and urban design guidelines for local administrations.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

Evaluation of a quality improvement intervention to reduce anastomotic leak following right colectomy (EAGLE): pragmatic, batched stepped-wedge, cluster-randomized trial in 64 countries

Background Anastomotic leak affects 8 per cent of patients after right colectomy with a 10-fold increased risk of postoperative death. The EAGLE study aimed to develop and test whether an international, standardized quality improvement intervention could reduce anastomotic leaks. Methods The internationally intended protocol, iteratively co-developed by a multistage Delphi process, comprised an online educational module introducing risk stratification, an intraoperative checklist, and harmonized surgical techniques. Clusters (hospital teams) were randomized to one of three arms with varied sequences of intervention/data collection by a derived stepped-wedge batch design (at least 18 hospital teams per batch). Patients were blinded to the study allocation. Low- and middle-income country enrolment was encouraged. The primary outcome (assessed by intention to treat) was anastomotic leak rate, and subgroup analyses by module completion (at least 80 per cent of surgeons, high engagement; less than 50 per cent, low engagement) were preplanned. Results A total 355 hospital teams registered, with 332 from 64 countries (39.2 per cent low and middle income) included in the final analysis. The online modules were completed by half of the surgeons (2143 of 4411). The primary analysis included 3039 of the 3268 patients recruited (206 patients had no anastomosis and 23 were lost to follow-up), with anastomotic leaks arising before and after the intervention in 10.1 and 9.6 per cent respectively (adjusted OR 0.87, 95 per cent c.i. 0.59 to 1.30; P = 0.498). The proportion of surgeons completing the educational modules was an influence: the leak rate decreased from 12.2 per cent (61 of 500) before intervention to 5.1 per cent (24 of 473) after intervention in high-engagement centres (adjusted OR 0.36, 0.20 to 0.64; P < 0.001), but this was not observed in low-engagement hospitals (8.3 per cent (59 of 714) and 13.8 per cent (61 of 443) respectively; adjusted OR 2.09, 1.31 to 3.31). Conclusion Completion of globally available digital training by engaged teams can alter anastomotic leak rates. Registration number: NCT04270721 (http://www.clinicaltrials.gov)