Research-by-design framework for integrating education and research in an intercultural parallel design studio

Intercultural student exchange can positively impact education, research, and society. Research-by-design has been put forward in design education as an approach to explicitly address the integration of education and research. The problem is that design schools develop their own interpretation of this approach, which brings difficulty in virtually comparing and learning from the generated design proposals. This case is evident in intercultural parallel design studios that deal with diverging socio-cultural and institutional traditions. In addressing this problem and maximizing the benefits of intercultural exchange, this study proposes to adopt a meta perspective and use the design as co-evolution model as a framework for analyzing and comparing design data generated by different research-by-design approaches. The study applies this meta perspective on an intercultural architectural design studio jointly organized by Ton Duc Thang University (Vietnam) and Hasselt University (Belgium).     

A field survey of metal binding to metallothionein and other cytosolic ligands in liver of eels using an on-line isotope dilution method in combination with size exclusion (SE) high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled to Inductively Coupled Plasma time-of-flight Mass Spectrometry (ICP-TOFMS)

The effect of metal exposure on the accumulation and cytosolic speciation of metals in livers of wild populations of European eel with special emphasis on metallothioneins (MT) was studied. Four sampling sites in Flanders showing different degrees of heavy metal contamination were selected for this purpose. An on-line isotope dilution method in combination with size exclusion (SE) high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled to Inductively Coupled Plasma time-of-flight Mass Spectrometry (ICP-TOFMS) was used to study the cytosolic speciation of the metals. The distribution of the metals Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn among cytosolic fractions displayed strong differences. The cytosolic concentration of Cd, Ni and Pb increased proportionally with the total liver levels. However, the cytosolic concentrations of Cu and Zn only increased above a certain liver tissue threshold level. Cd, Cu and Zn, but not Pb and Ni, were largely associated with the MT pool in correspondence with the environmental exposure and liver tissue concentrations. Most of the Pb and Ni and a considerable fraction of Cu and Zn, but not Cd, were associated to High Molecular Weight (HMW) fractions. The relative importance of the Cu and Zn in the HMW fraction decreased with increasing contamination levels while the MT pool became progressively more important. The close relationship between the cytosolic metal load and the total MT levels or the metals bound on the MT pool indicates that the metals, rather than other stress factors, are the major factor determining MT induction.     

The use of interorganisational ICT in United States construction projects

In recent research, the use of ICT applications in real time construction projects have been documented and analysed extensively. However, there is a need for identifying and analysing in-depth the mechanisms influencing the use of interorganisational ICT applications and for solutions to eliminate potential barriers to the successful use of ICT. A model is developed providing insights in these mechanisms. Based on this model and expert interviews in the United States construction industry directions for solutions to barriers to the successful use of interorganisational ICT — document management applications, workflow management applications, and product modelling applications — in construction projects are formulated. These solutions focus on stimulating the personal motivation to use ICT, the external motivation to use this technology, and facilitating conditions in terms of knowledge and skills and acting opportunities to use ICT.     

On information and communication technology and production cost in construction industry: evidence from the Netherlands

The interplay between information and communication technology (ICT) and the competitiveness of construction firms is considered. More specifically, the question is whether firms that invest in information and communication technology have a production cost advantage. The economics literature hypothesizes that ICT brings about a production cost advantage, as ICT brings flexibility and improves the planning, organization and control of work. To test this proposition for the construction industry, a production cost function allowing for the inclusion of ICT is formulated. Using statistical nearest-neighbour matching methods it is possible to identify the effect of ICT on production costs thereby controlling for economic moderators. Data from a sample of Dutch construction firms reveal that those firms that installed ICT capital do have a production cost advantage. The results indicate further that firms need a minimum level of ICT capital to fully benefit from its production cost advantage.     

Road safety risk evaluation and target setting using data envelopment analysis and its extensions

Currently, comparison between countries in terms of their road safety performance is widely conducted in order to better understand one's own safety situation and to learn from those best-performing countries by indicating practical targets and formulating action programmes. In this respect, crash data such as the number of road fatalities and casualties are mostly investigated. However, the absolute numbers are not directly comparable between countries. Therefore, the concept of risk, which is defined as the ratio of road safety outcomes and some measure of exposure (e.g., the population size, the number of registered vehicles, or distance travelled), is often used in the context of benchmarking. Nevertheless, these risk indicators are not consistent in most cases. In other words, countries may have different evaluation results or ranking positions using different exposure information. In this study, data envelopment analysis (DEA) as a performance measurement technique is investigated to provide an overall perspective on a country's road safety situation, and further assess whether the road safety outcomes registered in a country correspond to the numbers that can be expected based on the level of exposure. In doing so, three model extensions are considered, which are the DEA based road safety model (DEA-RS), the cross-efficiency method, and the categorical DEA model. Using the measures of exposure to risk as the model's input and the number of road fatalities as output, an overall road safety efficiency score is computed for the 27 European Union (EU) countries based on the DEA-RS model, and the ranking of countries in accordance with their cross-efficiency scores is evaluated. Furthermore, after applying clustering analysis to group countries with inherent similarity in their practices, the categorical DEA-RS model is adopted to identify best-performing and underperforming countries in each cluster, as well as the reference sets or benchmarks for those underperforming ones. More importantly, the extent to which each reference set could be learned from is specified, and practical yet challenging targets are given for each underperforming country, which enables policymakers to recognize the gap with those best-performing countries and further develop their own road safety policy.     

Evaluating the effectiveness of a post-license education program for young novice drivers in Belgium

The disproportionately large number of traffic accidents of young novice drivers highlights the need for an effective driver education program. The Goals for Driving Education (GDE) matrix shows that driver education must target both lower and higher levels of driver competences. Research has indicated that current education programs do not emphasize enough the higher levels, for example awareness and insight. This has raised the importance of insight programs. On the Road (OtR), a Flemish post-license driver education program, is such an insight program that aims to target these higher levels. The program focus is on risky driving behavior like speeding and drink driving. In addition, the program addresses risk detection and risk-related knowledge. The goal of the study was to do an effect evaluation of this insight program at immediate post-test and 2 months follow-up. In addition, the study aimed to generalize the results of this program to comparable programs in order to make usable policy recommendations. A questionnaire based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was used in order to measure participants’ safety consciousness of speeding and drink driving. Moreover, we focused on risk detection and risk-related knowledge. Participants (N = 366) were randomly assigned to a baseline—follow-up group or a post-test—follow-up group.     

Does attention capacity moderate the effect of driver distraction in older drivers?

With age, a decline in attention capacity may occur and this may impact driving performance especially while distracted. Although the effect of distraction on driving performance of older drivers has been investigated, the moderating effect of attention capacity on driving performance during distraction has not been investigated yet. Therefore, the aim was to investigate whether attention capacity has a moderating effect on older drivers’ driving performance during visual distraction (experiment 1) and cognitive distraction (experiment 2). In a fixed-based driving simulator, older drivers completed a driving task without and with visual distraction (experiment 1, N = 17, mean age 78 years) or cognitive distraction (experiment 2, N = 35, mean age 76 years). Several specific driving measures of varying complexity (i.e., speed, lane keeping, following distance, braking behavior, and crashes) were investigated. In addition to these objective driving measures, subjective measures of workload and driving performance were also included. In experiment 1, crash occurrence increased with visual distraction and was negatively related to attention capacity. In experiment 2, complete stops at stop signs decreased, initiation of braking at pedestrian crossings was later, and crash occurrence increased with cognitive distraction. Interestingly, for a measure of lane keeping (i.e., standard deviation of lateral lane position (SDLP)), effects of both types of distraction were moderated by attention capacity. Despite the decrease of driving performance with distraction, participants estimated their driving performance during distraction as good. These results imply that attention capacity is important for driving. Driver assessment and training programs might therefore focus on attention capacity. Nonetheless, it is crucial to eliminate driver distraction as much as possible given the deterioration of performance on several driving measures in those with low and high attention capacity.     

Bond behaviour of reinforcing bars in self-compacting concrete: experimental determination by using beam tests

The force transfer between concrete and reinforcement depends on the bond characteristics between the two materials. Bond influences crack widths and the deflections of RC members and also determines anchorage and splice lengths. Self-compacting concrete (SCC) is characterized by a smaller amount of coarse aggregates when compared to conventional vibrated concrete. To investigate whether this change in mix design has a significant influence on the bond behaviour, a series of beam tests (according to RILEM recommendation RC6) was performed. A total of 36 specimens were cast using 3 different concrete types: one conventional vibrated concrete (CVC) and two powder-type SCC’s. The bond stress—slip behaviour of reinforcing bars with diameters ranging from 12 to 40 mm has been recorded. From these tests, it can be concluded that the bond strength of SCC is even higher than it is for CVC for small bar diameters, but the difference becomes smaller for larger bar diameters.     

Benchmarking road safety: Lessons to learn from a data envelopment analysis

Road safety performance indicators (SPI) have recently been proposed as a useful instrument in comparing countries on the performance of different risk aspects of their road safety system. In this respect, SPIs should be actionable, i.e. they should provide clear directions for policymakers about what action is needed and which priorities should be set in order to improve a country’s road safety level in the most efficient way. This paper aims at contributing to this issue by proposing a computational model based on data envelopment analysis (DEA). Based on the model output, the good and bad aspects of road safety are identified for each country. Moreover, targets and priorities for policy actions can be set. As our data set contains 21 European countries for which a separate, best possible model is constructed, a number of country-specific policy actions can be recommended. Conclusions are drawn regarding the following performance indicators: alcohol and drugs, speed, protective systems, vehicle, infrastructure and trauma management. For each country that performs relatively poor, a particular country will be assigned as a useful benchmark.