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Not all who integrate are academics: zooming in on extra-academic integrative expertise
Solving complex problems requires integrating knowledge and skills from various domains. The importance of cross-domain integration has motivated researchers to study integrative expertise: what knowledge and skills help achieve cross-domain integration? Much of the existing research focuses on the integrative expertise of academic researchers who perform inter- and transdisciplinary research. However, academics are not the only ones facilitating integration. In transdisciplinary research, where academics collaborate with professionals, stakeholders, and policymakers, these extra-academic actors can contribute significantly to cross-domain integration. Moreover, many complex problems are addressed entirely outside of universities. This paper contributes to a broader, more inclusive understanding of integrative expertise by drawing attention to the diversity of extra-academic integrative expertise, providing examples of what this expertise looks like in practice, and reflecting on differences with its academic counterpart. The contributions are based on a case study of integrative expertise in Oosterweel Link, a large urban development project in Antwerp, Belgium.
Empowering music education with technology: a bibliometric perspective
As technology becomes an integral part of educational content and methodology, its research significance continues to grow, particularly in the relationship between music and technology. The primary aim of this study is to quantify and analyze academic research outcomes concerning the use of technology in music education. The selected sample is drawn from the WoS core database, encompassing academic achievements from 1991 to 2024. Various bibliometric software tools and three major laws were employed for the analysis, examining publication distribution, relevant journals and authors, research countries, keywords, and current and future research themes. Presently, research is mainly focused on four themes: technology integration and interaction, adaptive learning and creative teaching methods, educational frameworks and performance, and the diverse inclusion of children and adolescents. Looking ahead, the two frontier hot topics in this field are remote and online education, and innovation in higher education and educational models. This study aims to contribute to the comprehensive bibliometric analysis literature on the use of technology in music education.
User-specified inverse kinematics taught in virtual reality reduce time and effort to hand-guide redundant surgical robots
Medical robots should not collide with close by obstacles during medical procedures, such as lamps, screens, or medical personnel. Redundant robots have more degrees of freedom than needed for moving endoscopic tools during surgery and can be reshaped to avoid obstacles by moving purely in the space of these additional degrees of freedom (null space). Although state-of-the-art robots allow surgeons to hand-guide endoscopic tools, reshaping the robot in null space is not intuitive for surgeons. Here we propose a learned task space control that allows surgeons to intuitively teach preferred robot configurations (shapes) that avoid obstacles using a VR-based planner in simulation. Later during surgery, surgeons control both the endoscopic tool and robot configuration (shape) with one hand. In a user study, we found that learned task space control outperformed state-of-the-art naive task space control in all the measured performance metrics (time, effort, and user-perceived effort). Our solution allowed users to intuitively interact with robots in VR and reshape robots while moving tools in medical and industrial applications.
Investigating the role of psychological elements in advancing IT skills among accounting students: insights from Saudi Arabia
Psychological factors are among the multiple influences on people’s daily behavior. The outcomes of various daily activities, ranging from success to failure, are often determined by these psychological aspects. The purpose of this research is to determine how psychological factors influence the skill of accounting students in Saudi Arabia with regard to information technology (IT). In order to achieve the research objectives, a descriptive and explanatory research design incorporating a quantitative approach is utilized. The study’s target population comprises accounting students from government universities in Saudi Arabia. Data collection employed a combination of convenient and snowball sampling strategies, ensuring broader applicability of the findings. A total of 306 accounting students from these universities participated in an online survey. Data analysis is conducted using partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), and the significance of path coefficients is assessed through bootstrapping tests. Results indicated that motor skills, visual processing, fatigue, and stress positively influence IT skill development in these students. Conversely, ergonomics and cognitive abilities appeared to have no significant effect. The model accounted for approximately 65% of the variance in IT skill development among university students. These insights can guide educational institutions in formulating strategic plans for IT skill development, ensuring students acquire the necessary competencies on campus. Additionally, the findings offer valuable information for government bodies developing standards to foster IT skill growth.
Professional demand analysis for teaching Chinese to speakers of other languages: a text mining approach on internet recruitment platforms
The rapid development of international education in China highlights the growing importance of employment analysis in Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages (TCSOL). This study explores the enterprise demands for TCSOL professionals using text mining techniques to analyze recruitment data collected from four major platforms: Boss Zhipin, Zhaopin.com, 51job.com, and Liepin.com. Combining descriptive statistics, LDA topic modeling, BERT-BiLSTM-CRF-based named entity recognition, and co-occurrence network analysis were used. Results show that there is a high demand for TCSOL professionals, especially for small-scale enterprises located in first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. Employers tend to favor candidates with at least a bachelor’s degree and 1–3 years of work experience. The topic model highlighted three central themes in job descriptions, emphasizing a shift toward a more diverse skill set. Named entity recognition identified essential attributes such as “communication ability”, “teaching experience”, “bachelor’s degree or above” and “responsibility” as core recruitment requirements. The co-occurrence network analysis revealed the importance of “teaching” and “priority” as core skill nodes. Time series analysis showed seasonal fluctuations in recruitment demand, peaking during spring recruitment and graduation periods. A hierarchical model of talent demand and development in TCSOL is proposed, integrating the perspectives of employers, job seekers, educators, and policymakers. This study provides valuable insights for aspiring TCSOL professionals, offering guidance to better align talent training with market needs and improve employment prospects.
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