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Enabling shared experiences could be key to managing technology projects successfully. The advantages gained from the experience of working together can be complemented, but also offset, by common aspects of technology projects—like the dispersion of team members and the integration of heterogeneous tasks across global sites. This study develops and tests a conceptual framework that scrutinizes the impact of team familiarity and task allocation challenges. It identifies three elements of task allocation in technology projects that affect the familiarization process: (i) team (im)balance, (ii) task (im)balance, and (iii) task heterogeneity. An examination of 27,948 software tasks in six projects involving teams working apart on heterogeneous and dispersed tasks in the Netherlands and India shows that the experience of working together apart reduces the average cost of software tasks. This positive effect is enhanced by task heterogeneity and team balance, despite being hampered by task balance. These findings shed new light on task allocation challenges in cross‐organizational technology projects distributed over the world. Highlights: Experience of working together involving teams operating remotely on technology projects increases the familiarization process, leading to a reduction in costs.Balancing team members across remote locations enhances this cost‐reducing familiarization process, while tasks should not be balanced across remote locations because this hampers familiarization.Task heterogeneity in globally distributed technology projects encourages knowledge sharing, which improves the cost‐reducing familiarization process.Managers can stimulate balancing team members and imbalanced task allocations within a technology project, while optimizing task‐personnel allocation across multiple technology projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Amidst the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) is mandatory for healthcare workers to remain protected against infection. The present study was undertaken to evaluate challenges faced by the healthcare workers while using level 3 PPE. Methods: This hospital-based study was conducted among resident doctors selected by convenience sampling method using a pretested, semi-structured, self-administered questionnaire after getting informed consent from the participants to collect data on the somatic, psychological, and technical problems faced while working in PPE. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression was done between outcome variables and other independent variables to check for the association. Results: Of the total, 252 resident doctors completed the survey, their age ranged from 22 to 36 years with 140 (55.6%) males and 112 (44.4%) females. One-twenty-nine (51.2%) residents were trained to work in ICU, 73 (29%) participants used PPE ≤10 times and the rest 179 (71%) used PPE more than 10 times. The difficulties faced were as follows: visual impairment (n = 244, 96.8%), headache (n = 226, 89.6%), breathing difficulty (n = 216, 85.7%), hearing impairment (n = 201, 79.8%), sweating (n = 242, 96%), and fear of being infected (n = 156,61.9%). Two-thirty-six (93.6%) participants felt that overall work quality reduced due to PPE. Headache, hunger, urge to micturate, anxiety, sleep disturbances, and need to change the timing of medication or diet were higher with increased duration of work with PPE. Conclusion: A longer duration of work is associated with headache, hunger, anxiety, and sleep disturbances. More research has to be done to improve the PPE to reduce problems like visual impairment, skin irritation, sweating, and breathing difficulty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the impact of a dynamic geometry environment, GeoGebra, in enabling grade 9 students to explore a geometrical task related to the Euler's line. The research subjects were grade 9 students in India and Sweden who had no prior experience of using dynamic geometry. Their approach to geometrical reasoning, argumentation and conjecture making has been analysed using Marton's theory of variation, Pea's theory of technology as amplifier and reorganizer and with Marrades and Gutiérrez categorization of proofs. Results indicate that when students of both countries worked on geometrical tasks in GeoGebra, they arrived at similar conclusions. For both groups of students, GeoGebra played the role of amplifier and reorganiser in enabling their explorations. Further, in some of the construction and dragging episodes it was observed that the four functions of variation, namely, contrast, generalisation, separation and fusion played a significant role in developing students' geometrical thinking. Results further indicate that the dynamic geometry environment (DGE) facilitated the making of conjectures and developing empirical proof. However, when it came to developing a deductive proof, students required adequate scaffolding. In general, it concluded that students perform adequately when given investigatory problems in such an environment. They learn new mathematics and learn to handle the DGE at the same time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]