Participatory approaches for the design and the introduction of computer systems are drawing increasingly more attention among researchers as well as among practitioners. While participatory design (Schuler and Namioka 1993) might be considered as only "helpful" for the development of single-userapplications it can offer significant benefits for the design of systems in collaborative contexts, ...

Although the process of public and stakeholder participation continues to be intensively investigated and discussed in academic circles, the implementation of participatory methods in practice remains problematic. This can be attributed to the lack of knowledge transfer on the one hand, and the general underestimation of participatory approaches in planning processes on the other. A possible so...

Evaluating Communication for Development presents a comprehensive framework for critically thinking about and understanding development, social change, and the evaluation of communication for development (C4D). This framework combines the latest thinking from a number of fields in new ways. The authors critique dominant measurement-oriented and upward accountability approaches to development an...

at the beginning of 20th century, psychology got a special status in contemporary criticism (or critical approaches) through the theories of freud and jung. literary works were being criticized by such approaches on the basis of the text sender (author or poet), after a while, with the rise of other psychological schools – such as gestalt- they started to be criticized on the basis of their inf...

background and purpose: various approaches to learning are suggested & practiced. the traditional medical education were more teacher centered oriented . in this method the students’ involvement in the process of learning is not remarkable, but the new approach to medical education supports the students involvement. this study evaluated the various method of lecturing considering students invol...

The strategies to reduce the consumption of non-renewable energies in buildings are becoming increasingly important. In the meantime, nature-inspired approaches have emerged as a new strategy to achieve thermal comfort in the interiors. However, the use of these approaches in architecture and buildings requires a proper understanding regarding the features of ecosystems. Although acquiring this...

The operation planning problem encounters several uncertainties in terms of the power system’s parameters such as load, operating reserve and wind power generation. The modeling of those uncertainties is an important issue in power system operation. The system operators can implement different approaches to manage these uncertainties such as stochastic and fuzzy methods. In this paper, new ...