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The authors are developing a model for rural science teacher professional development, building teacher expertise and collaboration and creating high-quality science lessons: technology-mediated lesson study (TMLS).

TMLS provided the means for geographically distributed teachers to collaborate, develop, implement and improve lessons. TMLS uses technology to capture lesson implementation and collaborate on lesson iterations.

This paper describes the seven steps of the TMLS process with examples, showing how teachers develop their content and pedagogical knowledge while building relationships.

The TMLS approach provides an innovative option for teachers to collaborate across distances and form strong, lasting relationships with others.

The purpose of this paper is to review the evolution of inspection and maintenance (I&M) practices used for aging and newly built oil and gas (O&G) facilities. It also proposes a framework and an approach for mechanizing inspection planning to perform preventive maintenance (PM) activities, taking technical condition (TC) and relative degradation (RD) into consideration.

The paper systematically collects, categorizes, and analyzes the published literature of both researchers and practitioners. It also utilizes industrial experience that has been accrued and utilized from inspection planning practices for static mechanical equipment on aging O&G production plants.

The paper defines significant issues in I&M of O&G assets related to: different philosophies; stakeholders’ requirements trade-off; dependability and asset deterioration challenges; items interacting with inspection planning mechanization processes and I&M optimization approaches. A framework is identified to mechanize the inspection planning process in order to reduce the effect arising from human involvement, while improving the effective utilization of data from different sources. The suggested approach improves the quality of an inspection program, while minimizing the variability and cost to the engineering contractors as well as to the owners of O&G facilities.

The mechanization of inspection planning (MIP) is vital to have inspection programs with uniform quality. The currently employed inspection practices face challenges in maintaining uniform quality from one inspection program to another due to the variability present in the planning process, especially among the different inspection planning engineers. The suggested fuzzy logic-based MIP supports the minimization of the variability and increases the quality of inspection programs.

The paper provides a comprehensive review of research contributions and industrial development efforts. These will be useful to the life cycle stakeholders in both academia and industry in understanding the inspection planning problem and solution space within the O&G asset I&M context.

Points out that the small and cottage industry (SCI) sector is often neglected despite its potential for contributing to economic development, especially in the third world; and reports an investigation of the use of the Bai‐Muajjal (BM) method of financing in the Bangladesh SCI sector. Explains the theoretical basis and methodology of the study, the possible sources of funds for SCI owners, the particular characteristics of Islamic banks and the fund investment methods they offer. Describes the BM lending activities of one such bank with 40 “grass root level” SCIs (poultry farming and handloom industry), which require borrowers to create groups, undergo monitoring and open savings accounts; and assesses their effects on SCI owners’ saving habits and the mobilization of savings towards productive ends. Identifies many social and economic advantages in the BM system and welcomes it as a way to channel savings productively and reduce poverty.

The gradual increase in geriatric issues and global imbalance of the ratio between patients and healthcare professionals have created a demand for intelligent systems with the least error-prone diagnosis results to be used by less medically trained persons and save clinical time. This paper aims at investigating the development of image-based colourimetric analysis. The purpose of recognising such tests is to support wider users to begin a colourimetric test to be used at homecare settings, telepathology and so on.

The concept of an automatic colourimetric assay detection is delivered by utilising two cases. Training deep learning (DL) models on thousands of images of these tests using transfer learning, this paper (1) classifies the type of the assay and (2) classifies the colourimetric results.

This paper demonstrated that the assay type can be recognised using DL techniques with 100% accuracy within a fraction of a second. Some of the advantages of the pre-trained model over the calibration-based approach are robustness, readiness and suitability to deploy for similar applications within a shorter period of time.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to provide colourimetric assay type classification (CATC) using DL. Humans are capable to learn thousands of visual classifications in their life. Object recognition may be a trivial task for humans, due to photometric and geometric variabilities along with the high degree of intra-class variabilities, it can be a challenging task for machines. However, transforming visual knowledge into machines, as proposed, can support non-experts to better manage their health and reduce some of the burdens on experts.

The purpose of the paper is to present the result of an empirical review as to how and to what extent the interest‐free microfinance to micro entrepreneurs contributes in minimising different cots of both the lender and the borrowers. An institutional‐network theoretical approach is used to study the phenomenon. A qualitative nature of research methodology is used while studying this particular phenomenon. A multiple explanatory case study was adopted as a research strategy in order to focus on contemporary phenomenon within the real life context of different rural‐based micro entrepreneurs and their relationships with the lending organisations. Interest‐free microfinance by Islamic banks is characterised by a close supervision and an in‐kind type of financing, which contributes greatly in promoting lender‐borrower network relationships between the bank and the rural based micro entrepreneurs. Such network relationships result in minimising exchange costs and other business related costs of both the borrowers and the lending organisations. The study was mainly concerned with rural‐based micro entrepreneurs who are engaged in grass‐root type entrepreneurs like poultry and diary firm, handloom industry, etc. Particular reference is made here to the facts of rural‐based micro entrepreneurs and their relationships with Islamic banks in Bangladesh.

With a population of over 150¹ million, Bangladesh provides a large consumer market for potential industries. Moreover, it holds one of the lowest wage structures in the world. The comparative advantage of Bangladesh lies primarily in its agro-processing industries. But besides agriculture, the rural-based microenterprise (MEs) sector in Bangladesh is a potentially lucrative field of investment (IPPF, 2001). In spite of its major contributions toward economic development, the rural-based microentrepreneurs in Bangladesh suffer from lack in working capital, institutional credit facilities, and poor management. There are many formal and informal financing organizations that are functioning in the money market of Bangladesh. Formal financing institutions like government and privately owned commercial banks normally give loans to large- and medium-scale industries (Alam, 2009). Cooperative banks in the country, although giving loans to the rural-based microenterprises, confine their credit giving activities mainly to the members of the bank (BIDS, 1981, 1988, 1989, 1990). One of the specialized and well-known microcredit giving organizations in Bangladesh called “Grameen Bank” (Yunus, 1993; Nabi, 1990) also gives microcredit to the rural-based microentrepreneurs, especially to the rural poor women. Besides many NGOs, moneylenders in rural Bangladesh are also an important source of lending funds to the rural-based microentrepreneurs.

Team autonomy involves empowering employees to achieve greater control over organizational dynamics. Such empowerment may augment the employees’ vigor, dedication and absorption at work. However, there is limited evidence on the contents of the relationship between team autonomy and work engagement. This paper aims to fill in this gap, shedding light into the manifold implications of team autonomy on employees’ work engagement.

A serial mediation analysis was designed to collect evidence of the effects of team autonomy on work engagement. Drawing on self-determination theory, social comparison theory and social facilitation theory, team member-supervisor exchanges and organizational climate were contemplated in the analysis as mediating variables. An ordinary least square regression-based model relying on 5,000 bootstrap samples was implemented. The study focused on a large sample of Europeans employed in the manufacturing sector (n = 4,588).

Team autonomy had tiny, but statistically significant effects on work engagement. Good relationships between team members and supervisors positively mediated the effects of team autonomy on work engagement. Conversely, the organizational climate did not have a significant mediating role. A statistically significant serial mediation effect linked team autonomy and work engagement via team member-supervisor exchanges and organizational climate.

Team autonomy contributes to increasing the employees’ vigor, dedication and absorption at work. The enhancement of team member-supervisor relationships fosters the engagement of team members who experience a greater autonomy at work. The effects of team autonomy on organizational climate are ambiguous and mediated by an improvement of the relationships between team members and supervisors.

The paper originally investigates the implications of team autonomy on work engagement, emphasizing the importance of social exchanges at work to realize the full potential of team autonomy.