6,957 research outputs found
Increased Gal‐3BP plasma levels in hospitalized patients infected with SARS‐CoV‐2
No full textCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has quickly turned into a health, fnancial and societal problem globally. The complex pathogenesis of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus centers on the unpredictable clinical progression of the
disease, which may evolve abruptly and results in critical and life-threatening clinical complications. Efective laboratory
biomarkers that can classify patients according to risk of progression to severe disease are essential for ensuring timely treatment. Gal-3BP is a human secreted protein with innate immune functions, which is upregulated in viral infections, promotes infammation and has been shown to induce IL-6 expression. In this study, Gal-3BP plasma levels were measured retrospectively in a cohort of 84 hospitalized COVID-19 patients. These were classifed as having either “non-severe” or “severe” disease. Compared to healthy controls, Gal-3BP plasma levels were markedly increased in COVID-19 patients (P< 0.0001). Moreover, the levels were higher in severe than in non-severe patients (P < 0.05). As expected, patients with severe disease had plasma levels of IL-6 higher than patients with non-severe disease (P < 0.01). In non-severe disease patients, Gal-3BP levels collected at a late stage (13.3 + 5.7 days after the frst positive PCR result) were signifcantly lower than those collected at an early stage (4.2 + 2.9 days form the frst positive PCR result). Larger prospective analyses are needed to strength our understanding of the prognostic utility of Gal-3BP in COVID-19 patients
The Effectiveness of Virtual R&D Teams in SMEs: Experiences of Malaysian SMEs
No full textThe number of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), especially those involved with research and development (R&D) programs and employed virtual teams to create the greatest competitive advantage from limited labor are increasing. Global and localized virtual R&D teams are believed to have a high potential for SMEs growth. Due to the fast growing complexity of the new product, coupled with new emerging opportunities of virtual teams, a collaborative approach is believed to be the future trend. This research explores the effectiveness of virtuality in SMEs virtual R&D teams. An online questionnaire emailed to Malaysian manufacturing SMEs and 74 usable questionnaires were received, representing a 20.8 percent return rate. To avoid the bias that may result from pre-suggested answer, a series of open-ended questions asked from expertise. This study based on analyzing an open-ended question; extract four main themes among expertise recommendations on the effectiveness of virtual teams for SMEs growth and performance. These are suitable for SMEs new product design manager to realize the key advantage and importance of virtual R&D teams in the process of NPD, which lead to increase the effectiveness of the new product's procedure.Virtual teams, New product development, Survey finding, Small and medium Enterprises.
The Size of Author Teams in the Social Sciences
No full textThe last decades have seen an unprecedented rise in the size of author teams across all academic disciplines. In the social sciences, existing literature highlights that the number of authors varies greatly between research fields, geographical regions, job positions and experience. Yet we lack comprehensive understandings of the specific effects of these factors. By employing data from a large-scaled worldwide survey, we shed light on this conundrum. Our results show that psychologists as well as information technologists and operations researchers work on average in larger author teams while sociologists and political scientists work in smaller author teams. In addition, we find that Eastern European scholars work in smaller author teams and that postdocs tend to have more single-authored publications. Based on our results we call upon those in charge of search and tenure procedures to focus more on multi-authored publications while keeping the applicants’ different research field and geographical backgrounds in mind. Furthermore, we highlight the importance of academic conferences as they allow scholars to establish fruitful networks for future collaborations
Teams for Teams: Performance in Multi-Human/Multi-Robot Teams
No full textThe present study addresses the interaction between automation and organization of human teams in controlling large robot teams performing an Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) task. We identify three subtasks: perceptual - visual search for victims, assistance - teleoperation to assist robot, and navigation -path planning and coordination. For the studies reported, navigation was selected for automation because it involves weak dependencies among robots making it more complex and because it was shown in an earlier experiment to be the most difficult. Two possible ways to organize operators were identified as assignment of robots to particular operators or as a shared pool in which operators service robots from the population as needed. The experiment compares two member teams of operators controlling teams of 12 robots each, in the assigned robots conditions or sharing control of 24 robots in the shared pool conditions using either waypoint control or autonomous path planning. Automating path planning improved system performance. Effects of team organization were equivocal
Artificial Trust as a Tool in Human-AI Teams
No full textMutual trust is considered a required coordinating mechanism for achieving effective teamwork in human teams. However, it is still a challenge to implement such mechanisms in teams composed by both humans and AI (human-AI teams), even though those are becoming increasingly prevalent. Agents in such teams should not only be trustworthy and promote appropriate trust from the humans, but also know when to trust a human teammate to perform a certain task. In this project, we study trust as a tool for artificial agents to achieve better team work. In particular, we want to build mental models of humans so that agents can understand human trustworthiness in the context of human-AI teamwork, taking into account factors such as human teammates', task's and environment's characteristics.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Interactive Intelligenc
Publication characteristics for first/last author same gender teams (2008 – 2019).
No full textPublication characteristics for first/last author same gender teams (2008 – 2019).</p
Publication characteristics for first/last author same gender teams (2002 – 2019).
No full textPublication characteristics for first/last author same gender teams (2002 – 2019).</p
Results of the classification of author teams (see Table 2 for an explanation of the categories).
No full textResults of the classification of author teams (see Table 2 for an explanation of the categories).</p
Maximising the performance of multi-diverse design teams
No full textIn our Integrated Product Design master at the Delft faculty of Industrial Design Engineering we see a growing diversity in our student population. Besides a growing number of different nationalities there are also significant differences in prior education, competences, and socioemotional aspects. Within the Advanced Embodiment Design (AED) course, students work in teams on a client-based design project for one full semester. In 2018-2019, 22 student-teams started out their endeavour, coached by eight coaches. Within the course an important learning objective we want to offer students is the opportunity to experience and perform in a successful team, acknowledge all students' input, and experience a successful result. During the process of embodiment design, the project teams come across several hurdles which challenges team performance and their project progress, and thereby influences the project results. To maximise the performance of student design-teams we have conducted two studies researching the challenges these teams come across over the course of the semester. One study was based on the coaches' experiences during the project (Flipsen & Persaud, 2016), and the other one on the students' individual reflections on the project (Flipsen, Persaud & Magyari, 2021). The challenges our students come across are analysed and relate to becoming a team, doing the project right, and finalising the project successfully. The results of both studies are used to develop a framework supporting coaches in maximising the performance of multi-diverse design teams. The framework is built around the Theory U (Scharmer 2016), a model describing how teams work with each other, following the right path to success (presencing) or off-tracking by muddling through, or by absencing. To track the different team's performances, we use a project-group tracking-system existing of seven Key Performance Indicators combined with a coach journal. The combination of KPI's help the team of coaches to pinpoint lower performing teams and intervene when needed. In this paper we will present the framework, consisting of (i) preparatory activities to initiate trust, teambuilding, and a successful student cooperation, (ii) a system to track the student-teams' health and performance and pinpoint troublesome groups, and (iii) responsive activities related to the hurdles teams might come across and how to reverse them. To assist the individual coach, we have developed several responsive activities the coach can use to intervene, slowing down the process of dysfunctionality and revert the process towards highly performing teams. The activities are tested in the two cohorts following our initial studies in 2018-2019.Circular Product DesignDesign for Sustainabilit
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