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Abstract Background Informativeness, in the context of clinical trials, defines whether a study’s results definitively answer its research questions with meaningful next steps. Many clinical trials end uninformatively. Clinical trial protocols are required to go through reviews in regulatory and ethical domains: areas that focus on specifics outside of trial design, biostatistics, and research methods. Private foundations and government funders rarely require focused scientific design reviews for these areas. There are no documented standards and processes, or even best practices, toward a capability for funders to perform scientific design reviews after their peer review process prior to a funding commitment. Main body Considering the investment in and standardization of ethical and regulatory reviews, and the prevalence of studies never finishing or failing to provide definitive results, it may be that scientific reviews of trial designs with a focus on informativeness offer the best chance for improved outcomes and return-on-investment in clinical trials. A maturity model is a helpful tool for knowledge transfer to help grow capabilities in a new area or for those looking to perform a self-assessment in an existing area. Such a model is offered for scientific design reviews of clinical trial protocols. This maturity model includes 11 process areas and 5 maturity levels. Each of the 55 process area levels is populated with descriptions on a continuum toward an optimal state to improve trial protocols in the areas of risk of failure or uninformativeness. Conclusion This tool allows for prescriptive guidance on next investments to improve attributes of post-funding reviews of trials, with a focus on informativeness. Traditional pre-funding peer review has limited capacity for trial design review, especially for detailed biostatistical and methodological review. Select non-industry funders have begun to explore or invest in post-funding review programs of grantee protocols, based on exemplars of such programs. Funders with a desire to meet fiduciary responsibilities and mission goals can use the described model to enhance efforts supporting trial participant commitment and faster cures.

Background: Informativeness, in the context of clinical trials, defines whether a study's results definitively answer its research questions with meaningful next steps. Many clinical trials end uninformatively. Clinical trial protocols are required to go through reviews in regulatory and ethical domains: areas that focus on specifics outside of trial design, biostatistics, and research methods. Private foundations and government funders rarely require focused scientific design reviews for these areas. There are no documented standards and processes, or even best practices, toward a capability for funders to perform scientific design reviews after their peer review process prior to a funding commitment. Main body: Considering the investment in and standardization of ethical and regulatory reviews, and the prevalence of studies never finishing or failing to provide definitive results, it may be that scientific reviews of trial designs with a focus on informativeness offer the best chance for improved outcomes and return-on-investment in clinical trials. A maturity model is a helpful tool for knowledge transfer to help grow capabilities in a new area or for those looking to perform a self-assessment in an existing area. Such a model is offered for scientific design reviews of clinical trial protocols. This maturity model includes 11 process areas and 5 maturity levels. Each of the 55 process area levels is populated with descriptions on a continuum toward an optimal state to improve trial protocols in the areas of risk of failure or uninformativeness. Conclusion: This tool allows for prescriptive guidance on next investments to improve attributes of post-funding reviews of trials, with a focus on informativeness. Traditional pre-funding peer review has limited capacity for trial design review, especially for detailed biostatistical and methodological review. Select non-industry funders have begun to explore or invest in post-funding review programs of grantee protocols, based on exemplars of such programs. Funders with a desire to meet fiduciary responsibilities and mission goals can use the described model to enhance efforts supporting trial participant commitment and faster cures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Cost construction must be planned efficiently and optimally. Value Engineering is planned approach with the aim of identifying and streamlining unnecessary costs with functional limitations and work quality (Firda, 2018). In reality, structural work using concrete estimated to over design, overcost (Apriani, 2020). This research was Bengkalis Public Library project. This building consists of 3 floors with an area of 2250 m2. The structure of beams, columns and slabs reinforced concrete. Dimensions of column 40x40 cm, main beam dimensions 40x60 cm, joist beam dimensions 25x40 cm, roof beam dimensions 30x50 cm, and slabs 15 cm with D10-100. Cost of reinforced concrete Rp. 4.297.170.000,00. In value engineering, the conversion of reinforced concrete to profile steel, cost of profile steel Rp. 4.089.619.000,00. it is obtained that the column uses WF 250.250.11.11, WF 400.200.7.11 main beam, WF 200.150.6.9 joist beam and WF 250.125.6.9 roof beam and floor slabs are converted to flourdack plate using 0.75 thickness bondack mm with wiremesh reinforcement M10-150. Cost ratio reinforced concrete and steel profiles is Rp. 207,551,000, -. Steel profiles is 5.075% cheaper than reinforced concrete structures.

The metaverse is an immersive virtual space that enables users to meet each other virtually as an avatar and to interact with the virtual environment whatever their location. The metaverse approach is mainly based on the virtual reality (VR) technology enhanced with multiplayer capability. VR enables, due to its high immersive and interactive capabilities, a realistic experience of complex and abstract technical systems which leads to the support of the human cognitive abilities in observing their behavior. The advantages of VR have been recognized by the industry in the last few years. As a result, numerous industrial companies worldwide have founded initiatives with research institutions and start-ups to investigate the application of VR and the metaverse. This paper presents and discusses the implementation and the application of an industrial metaverse approach based on VR for the design review of a pharmaceutical vial filling machine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the design pedagogies developed through the alliance between disability activists at the Center for Independent Living (CIL) and a number of faculty led by Raymond Lifchez at U.C. Berkeley in the 1970s and 80s. Founded by Bay Area activists including disabled students at U.C. Berkeley, the CIL provided a critical platform for advocacy and services within the disability community. In a number of seminars and studios, Lifchez and others followed the initiatives of the CIL, documented the transformation of the built environment by disabled individuals in Berkeley, and incorporated their experiences in the design process. Rather than approaching disabled individuals as bearers of special needs, a number of specific pedagogical strategies explored their expertise and resourcefulness and incorporated them as informants, consultants, and designers. Supported by archival sources, oral histories, and publications of the period, this article contributes to ongoing discussions concerning the relationship between design and the environmental and social construction of disabilities as well as to the definition of design and architecture expertise. These pedagogies critically mobilized models to advance partial and flexible design interventions and simultaneously transformed the classroom into a model that challenged the naturalization of able-bodiedness in the built environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Off-Site Construction (OSC), which has the advantage of improving construction productivity, is being spotlighted as a solution to the limitations of conventional construction production methods. Despite the need for, and various advantages of, the introduction and utilization of OSC, however, several issues remain, such as design errors and reduction in design completeness, due to the lack of experience and expertise of project participants, as well as improper consideration of production environment and technical constraints. To resolve these issues, it is necessary to develop an optimal design plan that conforms to the OSC manufacturing environment and manufacturing efficiency; thus, there have been ongoing efforts in the construction industry to introduce Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA), to derive the optimal design plans for OSC projects. Some studies related to the application of DfMA to OSC have been conducted, however they neglected to present a checklist for reviewing the optimality of OSC design plans. This study has therefore developed an OSC–DfMA checklist, to review the optimality of design plans for OSC projects, by listing optimal design goals for OSC projects, the OSC process, and DfMA principles. This study utilized the systematic literature review, structured interview, and content validity analysis methods to develop the OSC–DfMA checklist presented herein. The developed OSC–DfMA checklist will be applicable to reviewing the optimality of the OSC design plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineering design review, which is a time-consuming task in the building permit process, faces challenges such as a scarcity of design review specialists, vulnerability to manipulation and corruption, and a lack of traceability and transparency. This paper explores the integration of blockchain and online service trading in addressing these challenges. This paper proposes a platform-based design review service trading scheme, engaging a distributed network of experts to overcome resource limitations and integrates blockchain technology to improve process traceability. The system model is presented, an access control model and a design version management method are proposed. A prototype system is developed, and a real-world project is used to illustrate the online design review process. Security, function, and performance evaluations show that the scheme is secure and efficient. This study highlights blockchain's potential in digital building permits. Future work can explore advanced service matching algorithms in online design review service trading platforms. • This study proposes a platform-based design review service trading scheme to engage a distributed network of design experts, aiming to overcome resource limitations. • The proposed scheme integrates blockchain technology to enhance immutability and traceability in the digital building permit process. • An access control model and design version management method are developed to achieve secure data transmission and trace design modifications in the design review process. • A real-world project is used as an example to simulated the proposed scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, researchers in the architecture field have explored VR technology for various purposes in the architectural design process. Current efforts have supported the growing knowledge of VR utilization, specifically for the architectural design review process. In this study, we adapt the affordance concept from the ecological psychology study to add further evidence on VR utilization for the design review process. This study aims to develop an affordance-based design review method in architectural design by utilizing immersive VR technology. It sits at the crossroads of architecture design, virtual reality, and affordance research. This project aimed to create an affordance-based review method framework, a VR system to support the method, test both the method and the VR system, and assess the VR system's effectiveness as a companion system for the affordance-based design method process. The study was conducted in the scope of architectural education settings only. It used a third-year architectural design studio course as a case. This study confirms that the affordance-based design review method using virtual reality helps students improve their design work. The method reveals the presence of positive and negative affordances in their work. It also shows the differences between a student and supervisor in perceiving the affordances for reviewing design works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human-centered system design is one way of ensuring required flexibility in assembly through cognitive and motor capabilities of humans. Human factors and ergonomics must be considered at an early stage in system development to improve productivity, quality and to secure well-being of workers. The paper presents a model-based approach for design reviews to ensure the ergonomics of assembly systems at an early stage enabled by different models of mixed reality. An information model is proposed to enable standardized review reports for the combined use of physical, digital and virtual models. System designers are supported by actionable knowledge gathered in MR enabled design reviews. Thus, efforts limiting the economic applicability of Hybrid Prototyping can be significantly reduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtual reality (VR) can potentially enhance various design and construction assessment intensive tasks, such as construction design and review. However, it may lead to cognitive overload, adversely affecting the participants' performance. It is critical to understand the effects of VR cognitive behavior for implementing VR technology in the construction industry. The principal objective of this study was to investigate the participants' cognitive load (CL), task performance (TP), and situational awareness (SA) in the VR environment for the evaluation of building design review tasks. Participants were asked to review the design task based on their memory knowledge and understanding in one of the three environments: paper-based, monitor-based, and immersive virtual environment. Participants' CL was measured using the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index (NASA TLX), TP was evaluated on completion time and the number of errors correctly detected, and situational awareness (SA) was assessed using the Situational Awareness and Review Technique (SART). The statistical results show a high CL and better performance in the immersive virtual environment. These findings can contribute to a better understanding of cognitive process characteristics and capabilities for design review activities in the VR environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The automatic safety review of substation design model greatly depends on the formal representation of the safety constraints residing in the building codes written in natural language. In order to overcome the difficulties arising from the hard coding and semantic web approaches, the visual coding method has been studied for representing safety constraints. Nevertheless, very little research explores the formal representation of safety constraints from the query intent viewpoint. Therefore, seven basic query intents are categorized, and simultaneously their mapping with Gremlin query segments is also defined. Then, the visually coding framework is also developed to simplify the representation of query intents. The case study implies that the visual coding of query intents provides an effective and explicit vehicle to describe the safety constraints. In this way, the natural language safety constraints can be automatically converted into Gremlin codes, and moreover the declarative manner of integrating Gremlin queries not only further save time on manually sequencing multiple query tasks, but also can optimize the traversal of graph database. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Japan, 700–800 food products are recalled each year. Food product recalls affect consumer health as well as businesses, depending on the content and scale of the recalls. Approximately 10% of food loss from food manufacturers was generated in 2018 and 2019. In Japan, food product recalls and measures to prevent them have not been sufficiently studied. Therefore, to investigate this issue, about 2300 recalls instigated by regulatory bodies in Japan from 2018 to 2020 were classified based on product category, responsibility, reason for recall, and violation of laws and regulations, and the trends were analyzed. Recalls were primarily associated with violation of the Food Sanitation Law and Food Labeling Act, due to contamination by microorganisms or foreign materials, mis- or non-declaration of expiration or best-before date, and mis- or non-labeling of allergens. Therefore, better management by adopting the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point and food safety management systems as preventive measures and the design review of ISO 9001: 2018 may be effective in reducing recalls. Moreover, better communication between manufacturing and importing countries to ensure compliance with laws on safety limits of ingredients and label preparation may reduce the number of recalls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the initial design review has the effect of minimizing the design changes needed in the later stages of an architectural project, a process of collaboration between architects, clients, and engineers in this design review is very important. Recently, design review using 3D models rendered in VR or AR, going beyond simple simulation, has been addressed in many studies. However, a synchronization function that provides immediate visualization of design changes is the focus, which has limitations in its ability to review factors required by law related to safety and design. The purpose of this study was, therefore, to develop AR-based design checklist linkage and visualization review technology that facilitates decision making by clients and architects during design review. For this purpose, a method for linking a design checklist in an AR environment using a game engine (Unity 3D) is proposed and various design review visualization functions are developed with consideration paid to the user interface. The efficiency of the design checklist linkage technology and visualization function developed in this study was verified in the pilot project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The appearance of the built environment is an important matter for most people, as it can affect their physical, financial and psychological wellbeing. Many studies have been conducted to understand people's visual preferences for buildings and streetscapes and the majority have used photographic or video representations to stimulate responses. Few have asked people for their preferences as they walk along the street. This research addresses that gap in knowledge, utilising a mixed methods research methodology. People were invited to indicate their preferences while walking along three streets in New Zealand cities. The survey responses were supplemented by two focus group discussions. This research found that people prefer streetscapes where differences in height and architectural composition vary within a narrow band of difference along the length of the street. At the scale of the individual building façade, people were found to prefer traditional cladding materials such as brick and those that could be painted or refinished. Compositionally, people preferred buildings with discrete window openings, a finding that was strongly supported by a dislike for horizontally banded façade treatments. The findings invite questions around contemporary architectural design practices and how these can be directed toward creating a better liked built environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the introduction of new devices, industries are turning to virtual reality to innovate their product development processes. However, before the technology's possibilities can be fully harnessed, certain constraints must be overcome. This study identifies the benefits and challenges of virtual-reality-based usability testing and design reviews in industry through a patents and articles review. We searched Derwent Innovation, Scopus, and Web of Science and identified 7 patent filings and 20 articles. We discovered an increase in patent filings since 2016 and strong development in the technology space, offering opportunities to enter an area while it is still young. The most frequently researched field is the automotive industry and the most used device is the HTC VIVE head-mounted display, which is frequently paired with motion capture systems and Unity 3D game engines. Virtual reality benefits design reviews and usability testing by providing the visualization of new angles that stimulate novel insights, increasing team engagement, offering more intuitive interactions for non-CAD specialists, saving redesign cost and time, and increasing participants' safety. The challenges faced by virtual-reality-based prototypes are a lack of realism due to unnatural tactile and visual interactions, latency and registration issues, communication difficulties between teams, and unpleasant symptoms. While these constraints prevent virtual reality from replacing conventional design reviews and usability testing in the near future, it is already a valuable contribution to the industrial product development process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Operation and Maintenance (O&M) phase can account for as much as 80% of the overall lifecycle cost of a project. The inputs from O&M practitioners are often not incorporated during the design phase leading to maintainability issues during the O&M phase, which results in significant costs and hinders building performance. Traditionally, design communication with practitioners is conducted using 2D drawings and in some more advanced projects, with Building Information Models (BIMs). Virtual Reality (VR) has the potential to facilitate maintainability-focused design input from O&M practitioners, but this application has not been studied in detail. This paper addresses the gap by examining the usability of VR for providing access-related maintainability inputs. A quasi-experimental approach was adopted to evaluate the difference in access-related inputs provided by sixteen O&M practitioners, once using 2D drawings and BIM and again using VR. We assessed the variation in time for O&M practitioners to provide the inputs and the perceived quality of the inputs using the two design communication methods. We also examined the effect of practitioners' years of experience on providing access-related maintainability inputs using VR. The results suggest that there was no statistically significant difference in the access-related maintainability inputs provided using the two design communication methods, which demonstrates that O&M practitioners could provide similar access-related inputs using VR and traditional means of communication using 2D drawings and 3D models. The results also show that O&M practitioners were able to provide inputs significantly faster using VR. The O&M practitioners also reported that VR facilitated ease of use and high confidence in their inputs. Furthermore, the practitioners' years of experience did not lead to any variation in the access-related inputs provided and the time efficiency of providing the inputs. While the small sample size limits the generalizability of the results, the study acts as a proof of concept on the usability of VR for improving O&M practitioner input on the maintainability of building designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The City of Seattle created the Pike/Pine Conservation Overlay District in 2009 to preserve the character of the Pike/Pine Corridor (neighbourhood) while simultaneously accommodating substantial growth in the number of residents and the size of buildings. Pike/Pine is known for its adaptively reused collection of early twentieth century 'Auto Row' buildings and for the diversity of its population. Since the year 2000, proximity to downtown has made this area attractive for development, and the city has designated Pike/Pine as a growth centre in its comprehensive plan. The city's implementation of the Pike/Pine Conservation Overlay District (one of the first uses of a conservation district in a commercial/mixed-use neighbourhood in the United States) seeks to address the conflict inherent in accommodating growth while simultaneously trying to protect older architecture, small-scale local businesses, and a diverse mix of housing. This article analyses the elements and impacts of this unusual district, considering its application of façade retention for townscape conservation as well as analysing its broad approach within the framework of integrated conservation. This article argues that the Pike/Pine Conservation Overlay District offers a useful case study for other cities looking to support growth while also retaining elements of the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advances in Virtual Reality (VR) technologies have enhanced the possibility of including this tool in design review procedures intuitively for users. This exploratory research investigates the users’ perception of spatial dimensions and apparent surface temperature in HMD-based Immersive Virtual Environments (HIVE). It aims to raise new questions in the study of VR technologies during design evaluation procedures. The case study consisted of modelling the Pinacoteca building north atrium in São Paulo, Brazil, in VR to assess how users perceive the room according to its dimensions and sense of surface temperature (floor, walls, footbridges, elevators and roof). This exploratory study was conducted with 40 first-time visitors at the Pinacoteca building. The results revealed that users’ immediate position and viewpoint may induce different perceptions of spatial dimensions and sense of surface temperature. The first conclusion is that instant distance to viewpoint influenced users’ perception of width of the immersive virtual environment. The second conclusion was that virtual insolation influenced users’ sense of surface temperature despite the materiality. To sum up, the contribution of this paper is the associative study of spatial perception and sense of surface temperature with instant position and viewpoint of users immersed in HIVE.

This paper considers how planning authorities can achieve urban design ambitions in the context of deepening neoliberalism and fiscal austerity. Based upon a case study of West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, the paper reveals the innovative steps taken by the local authority to introduce new design governance tools in the face of significant resource constraints. The paper critically examines the role that the private sector plays in the governance of design and argues for a reconceptualisation of design governance that more rigorously attends to the challenge of delivering well-designed places in the public interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, researchers in the architecture field have explored VR technology for various purposes in the architectural design process. Current efforts have supported the growing knowledge of VR utilization, specifically for the architectural design review process. In this study, we adapt the affordance concept from the ecological psychology study to add further evidence on VR utilization for the design review process. This study aims to develop an affordance-based design review method in architectural design by utilizing immersive VR technology. It sits at the crossroads of architecture design, virtual reality, and affordance research. This project aimed to create an affordance-based review method framework, a VR system to support the method, test both the method and the VR system, and assess the VR system’s effectiveness as a companion system for the affordance-based design method process. The study was conducted in the scope of architectural education settings only. It used a third-year architectural design studio course as a case. This study confirms that the affordance-based design review method using virtual reality helps students improve their design work. The method reveals the presence of positive and negative affordances in their work. It also shows the differences between a student and supervisor in perceiving the affordances for reviewing design works.

Virtual reality (VR) can potentially enhance various design and construction assessment intensive tasks, such as construction design and review. However, it may lead to cognitive overload, adversely affecting the participants’ performance. It is critical to understand the effects of VR cognitive behavior for implementing VR technology in the construction industry. The principal objective of this study was to investigate the participants’ cognitive load (CL), task performance (TP), and situational awareness (SA) in the VR environment for the evaluation of building design review tasks. Participants were asked to review the design task based on their memory knowledge and understanding in one of the three environments: paper-based, monitor-based, and immersive virtual environment. Participants’ CL was measured using the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index (NASA TLX), TP was evaluated on completion time and the number of errors correctly detected, and situational awareness (SA) was assessed using the Situational Awareness and Review Technique (SART). The statistical results show a high CL and better performance in the immersive virtual environment. These findings can contribute to a better understanding of cognitive process characteristics and capabilities for design review activities in the VR environment.

Head-mounted display (HMD)–based virtual reality (VR) applications can potentially facilitate various visualization-intensive tasks in the construction industry, such as design and constructability review. However, the lack of quantitative validation on the theoretical benefits of VR has impeded its industry implementation. This paper designed four construction design review-related tasks and performed user tests with 24 construction engineering novices and 24 industry experts. Participants were randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, performing four tasks via HMD-based VR or desktop-based VR, respectively. Experimental results and statistical analysis show that users' performance was significantly enhanced by the HMD in detecting design errors and planning for construction sequence. The scale of performance improvement varied from 18.22% to 59.01%. The implementation of HMD-based VR applications should be intentional because its benefits are only significant in specific use cases. The intellectual contribution of this paper includes quantifying the impact of HMD to the tested VR applications and developing the technology assessment framework. Meanwhile, the findings from this paper can facilitate the implementation of effective VR applications in the construction industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proliferation of high-immersion technologies might change the way virtual prototypes are used in the design process. This paper investigates the effect of immersion on reviews – critical design situations where many decisions are made. More specifically, the paper analyses the effect of immersion on spatial (intrinsic or extrinsic) and design space (problem or solution) aspects of the review. The effects have been tested in an experimental study comparing low- (computer screen) and high- (head-mounted display) immersion collaborative virtual environments (CVEs). In the experiment, four-member distributed teams conducted early-phase reviews with virtual prototypes represented in one of the two environments. Results show that the high-immersion CVE did not significantly affect the number of feedback items. Next, there was a non-significant but medium effect on the number of extrinsic feedback items, i.e., items that consider relations between the design and surroundings (e.g., users, environment). Finally, there was a significantly higher number and proportion of problem-related feedback items. Therefore, a high-immersion CVE might be more suitable if designers would like to get more problem-related or extrinsic feedback – essential aspects for the early design phases. These findings suggest that low-immersion and high-immersion CVEs are not substitutable but rather complementary technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the initial design review has the effect of minimizing the design changes needed in the later stages of an architectural project, a process of collaboration between architects, clients, and engineers in this design review is very important. Recently, design review using 3D models rendered in VR or AR, going beyond simple simulation, has been addressed in many studies. However, a synchronization function that provides immediate visualization of design changes is the focus, which has limitations in its ability to review factors required by law related to safety and design. The purpose of this study was, therefore, to develop AR-based design checklist linkage and visualization review technology that facilitates decision making by clients and architects during design review. For this purpose, a method for linking a design checklist in an AR environment using a game engine (Unity 3D) is proposed and various design review visualization functions are developed with consideration paid to the user interface. The efficiency of the design checklist linkage technology and visualization function developed in this study was verified in the pilot project.