scholarly journals Design Methods, Tools, and Outcome Measures: A Survey of Practitioners

Author(s):  
Maria C. Yang

Several tools and methods drawn from research in design and manufacturing have been successfully transplanted into industry. This paper describes a survey conducted of practicing designers and engineers in fields ranging from product development to aerospace to better understand the methodologies and metrics they employ. Preliminary results suggest that respondents found methodologies such as need finding, storyboarding, and brainstorming useful, but were less familiar with approaches such as systematic design, axiomatic design, or TRIZ. There was wide variation in what respondents felt were appropriate design outcome measures, but positive customer feedback in particular was deemed important in evaluating project performance. Finally, a broad range of design tools was cited as useful by respondents, but computer aided drawing applications in particular were rated highly. It is hoped that this survey can be of value in formulating future research goals in design theory and tool development.

1996 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly A. Lonsway

Emerging information that rape primarily occurs between acquaintances has not only exploded our understanding of this problem, but forced a reexamination of our notions of prevention. In recent years, the vast majority of rape prevention programs have taken the format of educational workshops, with the underlying assumption that change in rape-supportive ideologies will decrease the actual incidence of sexual aggression. This article critically reviews such rape prevention education with particular focus on common techniques such as: “debunking” rape mythology, generating participant interaction, providing sexuality education and a feminist orientation, and avoiding confrontational approaches. Finally, theoretical and practical concerns are discussed regarding previous experiences of sexual victimization or perpetration, the conceptualization and use of outcome measures, issues of program facilitation, and processes underlying change in rape-supportive ideologies. It is concluded that future research must seriously address these many issues through thoughtful conceptualization and rigorous experimentation, so that the promise of rape prevention can be fully realized.


2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 239-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cameron J. Powden ◽  
Kathleen K. Hogan ◽  
Erik A. Wikstrom ◽  
Matthew C. Hoch

Context:Talocrural joint mobilizations are commonly used to address deficits associated with chronic ankle instability (CAI).Objective:Examine the immediate effects of talocrural joint traction in those with CAI.Design:Blinded, crossover.Setting:Laboratory.Participants:Twenty adults (14 females; age = 23.80 ± 4.02 y; height = 169.55 ± 12.38 cm; weight = 78.34 ± 16.32 kg) with self-reported CAI participated. Inclusion criteria consisted of a history of ≥1 ankle sprain, ≥2 episodes of giving way in the previous 3 mo, answering “yes” to ≥4 questions on the Ankle Instability Instrument, and ≤24 on the Cumberland Ankle Instability Tool.Intervention:Subjects participated in 3 sessions in which they received a single treatment session of sustained traction (ST), oscillatory traction (OT), or a sham condition in a randomized order. Interventions consisted of four 30-s sets of traction with 1 min of rest between sets. During ST and OT, the talus was distracted distally from the ankle mortise to the end-range of accessory motion. ST consisted of continuous distraction and OT involved 1-s oscillations between the mid and end-range of accessory motion. The sham condition consisted of physical contact without force application. Preintervention and postintervention measurements of weight-bearing dorsiflexion, dynamic balance, and static single-limb balance were collected.Main Outcome Measures:The independent variable was treatment (ST, OT, sham). The dependent variables included pre-to-posttreatment change scores for the WBLT (cm), normalized SEBTAR (%), and time-to-boundary (TTB) variables(s). Separate 1-way ANOVAs examined differences between treatments for each dependent variable. Alpha was set a priori at P < .05.Results:No significant treatment effects were identified for any variables.Conclusion:A single intervention of ST or OT did not produce significant changes in weight-bearing dorsiflexion range of motion or postural control in individuals with CAI. Future research should investigate the effects of repeated talocrural traction treatments and the effects of this technique when combined with other manual therapies.


2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamie M. Clem ◽  
Thomas E. Smith ◽  
Kristin V. Richards

Substance abuse researchers identify self-efficacy and group cohesion as important components in alcohol and other drug-dependency treatment. Objectives: The purpose of this single-group, pretest–posttest study is to explore the therapeutic value of a challenge course intervention on the self-efficacy and group cohesion of nine chemically dependent, adult females. Methods: Data were collected using two validated outcome measures administered before and after the intervention. Focus groups provided insight into the experiences of participants and were examined using manifest and latent theme analysis. Results: Findings indicate statistically significant improvements on both outcome measures with medium to large effect sizes. Several themes were identified including group unity, trust, interpersonal growth, and self-confidence. Conclusions: Suggestions for practice and future research are provided.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
Jian S Dai ◽  
Yan Jin ◽  
Clément Gosselin

Abstract This Editorial is for the Focused Section with 11 papers aiming to share research efforts in design, theory, development, and applications for Reconfigurable Parallel Mechanisms (RPMs) building on work first presented at the 4th International Conference on Fundamental Issues, Applications and Future Research Directions for Parallel Mechanisms / Manipulators / Machines (World Parallel 2020).


2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. gahmj.2015.012. ◽  
Author(s):  
Dean Radin ◽  
Marilyn Schlitz ◽  
Christopher Baur

This article provides a broad overview of “distant healing intention” (DHI) therapies, ie, intentional healing modalities claimed to transcend the usual constraints of distance through space or time. We provide a summary of previous reviews and meta-analyses that have explored a diverse array of DHI modalities, outcome measures, and experimental protocols. While some significant experimental effects have been observed, the evidence to date does not yet provide confidence in its clinical efficacy. The purported “nonlocal” nature of DHI raises significant methodological and theoretical challenges. We recommend several avenues for improving future research.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 195
Author(s):  
Fathi Bashier

This article presents the initial findings of the design research carried out during the last semester by the master of architecture students at Wollega University, Ethiopia. The research goal is the creation of new knowledge to improve the design process. The dissatisfaction with the outcomes of the conventional design approach has led to rising concern and growing awareness of the need to evaluate design outcomes and to learn from the failure. That inadequate understanding of design problems leads frequently to design failure suggests that the evaluation of design outcomes can be made by assessing the way architects develop understanding of design problems, and how they use that understanding for developing knowledge base of the design process. The assumption is that architects’ understanding of design problems can be assessed by examining the way data is used for developing the knowledge base of the design process. The students surveyed the architects’ views in order to produce knowledge, which can be used to develop methods for discovering how inadequate data contributes to miss-informed design decisions; and methods for assessing the architects’ understanding of design problems. In this article the survey findings are analyzed and documented; and, the way the insight drawn from the inquiry can be used in future research for developing design theory, is discussed.Keywords: design outcomes, failure, evaluation, questionnaire, analyze


2021 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-108
Author(s):  
Thiago Blanch Pires ◽  
Augusto Velloso dos Santos Espindola

The aim of this article is to report on recent findings concerning the use of Google Translate outputs in multimodal contexts. Development and evaluation of machine translation often focus on verbal mode, but accounts by the area on the exploration text-image relations in multimodal documents translated automatically are rare. Thus, this work seeks to describe just what are such relations and how to describe them, organized in two parts: firstly, by exploring the problem through an interdisciplinary interface, involving Machine Translation and Multimodality to analyze some examples from the Wikihow website; secondly, by reporting on recent investigation on suitable tools and methods to properly annotate these issues from within a long-term purpose to assemble a corpus. Finally, this article provides a discussion on the findings, including some limitations and perspectives for future research.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nolan Herssens ◽  
Bieke Dobbels ◽  
Julie Moyaert ◽  
Raymond Van de Berg ◽  
Wim Saeys ◽  
...  

Patients with bilateral vestibulopathy (BVP) present with unsteadiness during standing and walking, limiting their activities of daily life and, more importantly, resulting in an increased risk of falling. In BVP patients, falls are considered as one of the major complications, with patients having a 31-fold increased risk of falling compared to healthy subjects. Thus, highlighting objective measures that can easily and accurately assess the risk of falling in BVP patients is an important step in reducing the incidence of falls and the accompanying burdens. Therefore, this study investigated the interrelations between demographic characteristics, vestibular function, questionnaires on self-perceived handicap and balance confidence, clinical balance measures, gait variables, and fall status in 27 BVP patients. Based on the history of falls in the preceding 12 months, the patients were subdivided in a “faller” or “non-faller” group. Results on the different outcome measures were compared between the “faller” and “non-faller” subgroups using Pearson's chi-square test in the case of categorical data; for continuous data, Mann–Whitney U test was used. Performances on the clinical balance measures were comparable between fallers and non-fallers, indicating that, independent from fall status, the BVP patients present with an increased risk of falling. However, fallers tended to report a worse self-perceived handicap and confidence during performing activities of daily life. Spatiotemporal parameters of gait did not differ between fallers and non-fallers during walking at slow, preferred, or fast walking speed. These results may thus imply that, when aiming to distinguish fallers from non-fallers, the BVP patients' beliefs concerning their capabilities may be more important than the moderately or severely affected physical performance within a clinical setting. Outcome measures addressing the self-efficacy and fear of falling in BVP patients should therefore be incorporated in future research to investigate whether these are indeed able to distinguish fallers form non-fallers. Additionally, information regarding physical activity could provide valuable insights on the contextual information influencing behavior and falls in BVP.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 301-320
Author(s):  
Rajan Roshan ◽  
Ambujakumari Santhosh

Most of the IT organizations are facing various challenges such as technological advancement, new customer requirements, merger & acquisition, and changing market demands, which should be addressed to survive in the industry. For enhancing more value to the customer in the project, the best option is to choose Agile Methodology for managing the project, which helps to accommodate the ad-hoc business requirement than pre-planned. Though, most of the organization, especially in the IT industry is shifting to Agile methodology practice, which helps to enjoy the benefit of better collaboration and customer experience. The study was conducted among 404 IT professionals from the IT corridors of India to understand the influence of Agile methodology on IT project performance. Most responses received from people who have sound experience in IT project management which assures the quality of results obtained. From study, it has been found that Agile methodology (b= 0.630, p<0.00) has a significant and positive impact on the project performance. Also, the study proves that people who are working in Scrum framework (Agile methodology) improves the project quality as well as business value. Based on Stepwise regression results, Product ownership has higher degree of importance than other independent variable for the individual work performance which solidifies the requirement for software development. Multicollinearity Assessment shows Product Ownership and Development Practice have more impact on project performance than Team considered for the study. Previous studies didn't cover the aspect as well as areas proposed in this study to arrive the conclusion of Scrum framework for project performance, and it opens the pathway for future research work.


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