bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
European vs. American approaches to institutionalisation of business ethics: the Spanish case
Authors: Guillén Manuel , Melé Domènec , Murphy Patrick
Published: March 2003

This paper reports on a study of the largest Spanish corporations concerning the status of corporate ethics policies. The research project, the first of its kind in Spain, has two parts. First, the types of formal documents the companies use are analysed, including those dealing with ethical values or norms. Three groups of companies are distinguished: the first group has no formal documents dealing with ethical values, and the reasons given for not having any ethical statement are discussed. A second group has one document mentioning ethical values (generally the vision and/or mission statement), and a third group has in place two or more documents (one generic and the other more detailed, such as a code of conduct). The findings show that the latter group is more proactive than the former in implementing measures for promoting business ethics throughout the organisation. In the second part of the research, the study analyses the differences between companies whose headquarters are in Spain, Europe and USA regarding the arguments, the focus and the practices used to formalise business ethics.
Strategic Decision Making: from Crisis to Opportunity
Authors: Papadakis Vassilis M. , Kaloghirou Yiannis , Iatrelli Maria
Published: March 2003

Managers can perceive and categorise problems as crisis, threat, familiar everyday nuisance or even opportunity. This article focuses on the extent to which this categorisation determines the process the organisation goes through in tackling the problem. Using the case history of a big externally‐triggered decision in a chemical company to illustrate these distinctions, the authors show that the characteristics of the processes can vary a lot according to how the problem is perceived: and across many dimensions – procedural rationality, generation of alternatives, politicisation, timing and lateral and horizontal communication. They argue that top managers should not only pay particular attention to the manner in which strategic issues are perceived and labelled within the company and its systems, but even in some circumstances should ‘manipulate’ the information provided from external or internal systems. The case described here also illustrates the crucial role of middle managers in providing expertise and information during the making of strategic decisions. Finally, it points to ways in which management teams can avoid destructive conflict and engage in constructive conflict.
The Global Corporation: Sharing the Regulatory Responsibility
Authors: Currie David
Published: March 2003

This article, based on the first of the 1999 Stockton Lectures, argues that the effective management of the global economy cannot be left to government: that international corporations have a crucial role too. Corporations that play this role can shape and be ahead of the public policy curve and thereby often gain competitive advantage. The public policy game between governments and international business can be co‐operative and a positive sum game. If it is not, both sides will be weakened. Success is likely to elude companies adopting strategies that run against the grain of public policy. marketplace, and that it is to society’s benefit that they should so do.
A Framework for Managing Environmental Strategy
Authors: Escoubès Frank
Published: March 2003

Over the last ten years, environmental strategy has taken an increasing amount of top management time, and the trend seems likely to continue. This article argues that most firms’ environmental strategy is based on the overly simplistic model of quantitative Environmental Performance Indicators (EPI) which basically aims merely to minimise emissions relative to inputs (energy, materials). The author outlines a broader framework based on identifying priority stakeholders, including future stakeholders and future alliances between stakeholders. Whilst recognising the practical difficulties, he argues that direct stakeholder consultation is a net gain to companies because it helps to identify in advance the limits for what they can and cannot achieve in practice: getting approval from stakeholders in advance will often make action easier and becomes a critical success factor in industries which are intensively scrutinised. Changing to this approach also converts environmental strategy from being purely a potential source of costs to a potential source of market value creation, making it more likely that the Board will view it within a positive framework.
KPMG: Revitalising Culture through Values
Authors: Thornbury Jan
Published: March 2003

The global accounting and consulting firm KPMG relies for much of its earnings on advising other companies on how to change. What happens when such anorganisation needs to change itself? A key element of KPMG’s globalisation process over the last two years has been an intense programme of culture change. Unusually, no special project team or steering group was set up to work on the culture change, and no separate Board or local meetings were held. Instead, one person, Jan Thornbury, was made responsible for designing and leading the process and it was fully integrated into the existing organisational programme. In this article, she describes the thinking behind the process and how it was introduced and implemented. She also discusses the culture model and the range of techniques used, emphasising the need for change agents to be sensitive to the dynamics of the organisation and to be creative in their approach. She appeals for pragmatism in culture change, identifying practical steps in implementation – the phase which many organisations find most difficult.She concludes by assessing what has been achieved in KPMG so far and theimplications for other organisations.
Knowledge and Competence Management: Ericsson Business Consulting
Authors: Baladi Peter
Published: March 2003

This article describes a new knowledge and competence management initiative at Ericsson Business Consulting (EBC) which uses an intranet as its main means of implementation. Telecoms giant Ericsson has traditionally been decentralized and technology‐minded to a degree rare even among technology multinationals, and the author shows how the development of the EBC business unit reflects the company’s recognition of the need for more globalization in business processes, culture, and knowledge‐sharing. He concludes by discussing the problems faced by EBC in its first year and the learning points for other businesses.
The Triumph of American Capitalism: An Assyrian Perspective
Authors: Moore Karl , Lewis David
Published: March 2003

The collapse of communism, the success of the US economy and the rise of the internet have led many to argue that the rest of the world should adopt American capitalism. This article uses evidence from the ancient Mediterranean and Middle East to argue that the most successful form of capitalism in each area (and era) depends on the context of the time, the culture of the people and the history of the region.
The Softer Side of Strategy Dynamics
Authors: Warren Kim
Published: March 2003

Intangible resources like the feelings of staff, customers and investors have an indirect but powerful impact on firms' performance. They grow or decline alongside the more tangible resources in the firm's armoury. Capabilities too must be accumulated and retained, and may be reinforced by learning mechanisms within the business. This third and last article on the dynamics of strategy discusses how dynamic resource system view (DRSV) techniques can be applied to these intangibles to improve the firm's performance. (The first two articles on DRSV were published in the Autumn and Winter 1999 issues of Business Strategy Review).
Toyota Story 2: Still Winning the Productivity Game
Authors: Vaghefi M. Reza , Woods Louis A. , Huellmantel Allen
Published: March 2003

The main features of the Toyota Production System (TPS) have been widely publicised and discussed since the 1980s. By now, other car manufacturers might reasonably have been expected to have learned the lessons and fully caught up with Toyota's productivity levels. This has still not happened. Part of the explanation is simply Toyota's high investment in plant and equipment. This article focuses on the complementary human aspects, the subtle elements of Toyota's organisation and culture which have ensured the continuing success of the TPS.
How Industries Evolve
Authors: McGahan Anita M.
Published: March 2003

Firms can improve their performance by tailoring investments to ride industry trends rather than to fight them. This article sheds light on how. It argues that better corporate performance hinges on understanding how industries evolve and that the main frameworks currently in use (the five forces and the S‐curve/product life cycle models) are incomplete for this purpose. Building on an extensive body of fieldwork and statistical research, the author identifies four basic models of industry evolution which she calls ‘receptive’, ‘blockbuster’, ‘radical organic’, and ‘intermediating’. Each kind of evolution involves specific kinds of risks, and each carries different implications for the relevance of established capabilities and investment priorities.
The Unlearning Organisation
Authors: Sherwood Dennis
Published: March 2003

Business innovation involves multiple, often‐repeated phases of idea generation, evaluation, development and implementation. This article focuses on the first of these, idea generation. The author describes a technique for converting our existing knowledge, learning and experience – often the main barrier to innovation – into the raw material for innovation. Illustrating the argument with examples of cases where the technique has been successfully applied, he concludes by setting out five steps ‘which make up the unlearning process’.
FreeMarkets and Online Auctions
Authors: Anderson Jamie , Frohlich Mark
Published: March 2003

Before last year's dot‐com meltdown, one of the most hyped areas was large industry‐based business‐to‐business (B2B) marketplaces. Most of these have either failed or are struggling. Instead, the growth today is in less ambitious online auctions where individual firms, increasingly having to focus on costs, seek suppliers of the products or services they need. FreeMarkets, growing fast though still unprofitable, is the leader in this growing field. This case discusses the problems and potential not only for FreeMarkets itself but also for the buying and selling companies which use it.
An Adoption Study of the Etiology of Teacher and Parent Reports of Externalizing Behavior Problems in Middle Childhood
Authors: Deater‐Deckard Kirby , Plomin Robert
Published: March 2003

Twin studies of externalizing behavior problems in middle childhood and early adolescence suggest that there is moderate‐to‐substantial genetic variance and modest‐to‐moderate shared environmental variance in these behaviors. The present study is novel in three ways: it is a sibling adoption study, it employs both teacher and parent ratings of children's behaviors averaged over five assessments, and it explores aggression and delinquency separately. The sample included 78 adoptive sibling pairs and 94 biologically related sibling pairs in the Colorado Adoption Project. Parents and teachers completed ratings of the children's externalizing behavior problems at ages 7, 9, 10, 11, and 12 years. Boys and adopted children were rated as being somewhat higher in externalizing behavior problems. Sex differences in delinquency were more pronounced in adoptive than in nonadoptive families. Teachers' ratings showed evidence for moderate heritability and no shared environment for aggression and showed modest shared environment for delinquency. Parents' ratings showed evidence for moderate amounts of heritability and shared environment for both aggression and delinquency.
A Prospective Study of the Effects of Marital Status and Family Relations on Young Children's Adjustment among African American and European American Families
Authors: Shaw Daniel S. , Winslow Emily B. , Flanagan Clare
Published: March 2003

The present study investigated the effects of divorce and family relations on young children's development prospectively, using an ethnically diverse sample of approximately 300 low‐income families. We also were able to examine the moderating effects of ethnicity on child adjustment in always two‐parent, to‐be‐divorced, already‐divorced, and always single‐parent families. Results indicated that to‐be‐divorced European American and African American families demonstrated higher rates of preschool‐age behavior problems, and already‐divorced families showed similar trends. Parental conflict and behavior problems accounted for predivorce differences in child behavior problems, whereas rejecting parenting accounted for differences in problem behavior between always single‐parent and always two‐parent families. The results are discussed in terms of the importance of ethnicity in influencing young, low‐income children's adjustment to different family structures.
Theory of Mind, Emotion Understanding, Language, and Family Background: Individual Differences and Interrelations
Authors: Cutting Alexandra L. , Dunn Judy
Published: March 2003

Individual differences in young children's social cognition were examined in 128 urban preschoolers from a wide range of backgrounds. Comprehensive assessments were made of children's false‐belief understanding, emotion understanding, language abilities, and family background information was collected via parent interview. Individual differences in children's understanding of false‐belief and emotion were associated with differences in language ability and with certain aspects of family background, in particular, parental occupational class and mothers' education. The number of siblings that children had did not relate to their social cognition. Individual differences in false‐belief and emotion understanding were correlated, but these domains did not contribute to each other independently of age, language ability, and family background. In fact, variance in family background only contributed uniquely to false‐belief understanding. The results suggest that family background has a significant impact on the development of theory of mind. The findings also suggest that understanding of false‐belief and understanding of emotion may be distinct aspects of social cognition in young children.
Children's Social and Scholastic Lives in Kindergarten: Related Spheres of Influence?
Authors: Ladd Gary W. , Birch Sondra H. , Buhs Eric S.
Published: March 2003

Evidence from two studies conducted with kindergarten samples (N = 200, M age = 5.58 years; N = 199, M age = 5.47 years) supported a series of interrelated hypotheses derived from a child × environment model of early school adjustment. The findings obtained were consistent with the following inferences: (1) Entry factors, such as children's cognitive maturity and family backgrounds, directly as well as indirectly influence children's behavior, participation, and achievement in kindergarten; (2) as children enter school, their initial behavioral orientations influence the types of relationships they form with peers and teachers; (3) stressful aspects of children's peer and teacher relationships in the school environment adversely impact classroom participation and achievement; and (4) classroom participation is an important prerequisite for achievement during kindergarten. Collectively, these findings illustrate the need to revise prevailing theories of school adjustment, and the research agendas that evolve from these perspectives, so as to incorporate interpersonal risk factors that operate within the school environment.
Measurement Properties of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories at Ages One and Two Years
Authors: Feldman Heidi M. , Dollaghan Christine A. , Campbell Thomas F. , Kurs‐Lasky Marcia , Janosky Janine E. , Paradise Jack L.
Published: March 2003

In a prospective study of child development in relation to early‐life otitis media, we administered the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories (CDI) to a large (N = 2,156), sociodemographically diverse sample of 1‐ and 2‐year‐old children. As a prerequisite for interpreting the CDI scores, we studied selected measurement properties of the inventories. Scores on the CDI/Words and Gestures (CDI‐WG), designed for children 8 to 16 months old, and on the CDI/Words and Sentences (CDI‐WS), designed for children 16 to 30 months old, increased significantly with months of age. On several scales of both CDI‐WG and CDI‐WS, standard deviations approximated or exceeded mean values, reflecting wide variability in results. Statistically significant differences in mean scores were found according to race, maternal education, and health insurance status as an indirect measure of income, but the directionality of differences was not consistent across inventories or across scales of the CDI‐WS. Correlations between CDI‐WG and CDI‐WS ranged from .18 to .39. Our findings suggest that the CDI reflects the progress of language development within the age range 10 to 27 months. However, researchers and clinicians should exercise caution in using results of the CDI to identify individual children at risk for language deficits, to compare groups of children with different sociodemographic profiles, or to evaluate the effects of interventions.
Reply: Measuring Variability in Early Child Language: Don't Shoot the Messenger
Authors: Fenson Larry , Bates Elizabeth , Dale Philip , Goodman Judith , Reznick J. Steven , Thal Donna
Published: March 2003

Feldman et al. criticize the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories (CDIs) as having too much variability, too little stability, and insufficient ability to predict early language delay. We present data showing that these characteristics of the CDI are authentic reflections of individual differences in early language development rather than measurement deficiencies. We also respond to their critical assertions concerning sociodemographic influences on the CDI scores.
Human Development in the United States and Japan: New Ways to Think about Continuity across the Lifespan
Authors: Lewis Catherine C.
Published: March 2003

The work of Rothbaum and colleagues integrates more than 200 studies conducted in two countries over four stages of development. Their method of integrating studies provides a promising way to overcome some of the most vexing methodological difficulties of cross‐cultural research.
Remembering and Understanding: The Effects of Changes in Underlying Knowledge on Children's Recollections
Authors: Greenhoot Andrea Follmer
Published: March 2003

This study was designed to explore the influence of changes in children's knowledge on earlier constructed memories. Kindergartners' (N= 102) recall of a series of stories was examined as a function of their interpersonal knowledge about the main story character. Children's knowledge about the protagonist was manipulated prior to presentation of the stories, and the effects of their impressions on story recall were examined. A change in some of the children's impressions was then promoted, and the impact of this second knowledge manipulation on recall of previously heard stories was assessed. The results indicated that children's story recall was affected by their prior impressions. Moreover, following the second knowledge manipulation, children revised their story reports in ways that were consistent with their newly acquired impressions, which suggests that they had reconstructed their memories of previously heard stories. These findings provide evidence for both prospective and retrospective effects of knowledge on memory.
The Role of Peers in the Emergence of Heterosexual Romantic Relationships in Adolescence
Authors: Connolly Jennifer , Furman Wyndol , Konarski Roman
Published: March 2003

Adolescents' peer structures and the quality of their friendships were explored as antecedents of romantic relationships. Longitudinal data were gathered in a sample of 180 high school students over a 3‐year period from grade 9 to grade 11. Consistent with Dunphy (1963), small groups of close friends were predictive of other‐sex peer networks which were, in turn predictive of the emergence of future romantic relationships. Indirect effects were found for same‐sex groups of close friends and same‐sex networks. Consistent with Furman and Wehner (1994), the qualitative features of relationships with both friends and romantic partners were predictive of the qualitative features of subsequent romantic experiences. These linkages suggest ways in which peer relationships may support romantic development at this stage of the life cycle.
Inability of Five‐Month‐Old Infants to Retrieve a Contiguous Object: A Failure of Conceptual Understanding or of Control of Action?
Authors: Diamond Adele , Lee EunYoung
Published: March 2003

Infants of 5 to 6 months of age can retrieve a free‐standing object, but fail to retrieve the same object from atop a slightly larger object. The accepted explanation has been that the infants do not understand that an object continues to exist independently when placed upon another. Predictions based on that explanation were tested against the hypothesis that infants' problem consists of lack of precision in visually guided reaching and lack of ability to inhibit reflexive reactions to touch. Twelve infants each at 5 and 7 months of age were tested on 16 trials. More 5‐month‐olds succeeded, in less time, and with fewer touches to an edge of the base, on trials more forgiving of an imprecise reach than on less forgiving trials. Success in retrieving objects close in size and fully contiguous with their bases was seen even at 5 months when the demands on skill in reaching were reduced. It is proposed that when 5‐month‐old infants fail to retrieve one object placed upon another, it is not because of a lack of conceptual understanding, but because they lack the skill to reach to the top object without accidentally touching an edge of the base en route.
Adolescents' Sex‐Typed Friendship Experiences: Does Having a Sister versus a Brother Matter?
Authors: Updegraff Kimberly A. , McHale Susan M. , Crouter Ann C.
Published: March 2003

This study examines the connections between having a sister versus a brother and coming from a same‐sex versus an opposite‐sex sibling dyad and the degree of sex‐typing in adolescents' friendship experiences, including the qualities of their friendships (i.e., intimacy, control) and their friends' personal attributes (i.e., sex‐typed leisure interests, expressive and instrumental personality qualities). Participants were 159 firstborn – secondborn adolescent sibling pairs (M= 14.94 years and M= 12.43 years, respectively) and a close friend of each sibling (N= 636, including siblings and friends). Data were collected during home visits with siblings and telephone interviews with friends of siblings. The results suggested that sisters may learn control tactics from their brothers that they apply in their friendships; boys, however, were less likely to model the emotional intimacy that characterized their sisters' experiences with friends. In addition, coming from an opposite‐sex sibling dyad was linked to sex‐typing in friends' personal attributes, particularly their masculine leisure interests and instrumental personality qualities. Sisters and brothers may provide unique opportunities to learn about sex‐typed relationship experiences in early adolescence, a time when gender segregation in the peer context is pervasive.
Children's Judgments of Psychological Harm in Normal and Noncanonical Situations
Authors: Helwig Charles C. , Zelazo Philip David , Wilson Mary
Published: March 2003

This study investigated children's (3‐, 5‐, and 7‐year‐olds) and adults' (total N = 92) integration of information about intentions, acts, and outcomes in moral judgments of psychological harm. Behavioral and emotional predictions and judgments of act acceptability and punishment were made under normal and noncanonical causal conditions. Participants at all ages judged it wrong to inflict negative psychological reactions of fear or embarrassment on unwilling participants, even when these reactions were idiosyncratic or noncanonical. When assigning punishment, younger children tended to use an outcome rule, whereas older participants were more likely to use an intention rule or a conjunction rule (if outcome is negative and intention is negative, then punish). The results show that children as young as 3 years are able to take into account other people's idiosyncratic perspectives when making moral judgments of psychological harm.
Longitudinal Study of Young Children's Responses to Challenging Achievement Situations
Authors: Ziegert Dannah I. , Kistner Janet A. , Castro Rafael , Robertson Bruce
Published: March 2003

Three studies were conducted to replicate and extend Dweck's findings regarding young children's responses to challenging achievement situations. Dweck's dichotomous helplessness classification system (i.e., task choice, task choice reason) was replicated with kindergartners, n= 235 (50% male), and first graders, n=70 (46% male). To test whether individual differences in young children's responses to challenging situations are stable over time, 1‐ and 5‐year follow‐ups of the kindergartners were conducted. On the basis of children's responses on age‐appropriate behavioral tasks, a composite of cognitive, behavioral, and affective helplessness indices predicted helplessness at 1 and 5 years later, n= 114 (50% male), above and beyond kindergarten task ability and gender, p < .05. Kindergarten helplessness predicted teacher ratings of children's helplessness 5 years later as well, p < .05. The implications of these findings for early intervention are discussed.
Infants Parse Dynamic Action
Authors: Baldwin Dare A. , Baird Jodie A. , Saylor Megan M. , Clark M. Angela
Published: March 2003

As observers of human behavior, infants are faced with a complex flow of motion in which pauses are rare and only occasionally coincide with boundaries between intentional actions. Two studies investigated whether, despite such complexity, 10‐ to 11‐month‐old infants (N= 16 for each study) possess skills for parsing ongoing behavior along boundaries correlated with the initiation and completion of intentions. After being familiarized with digitized sequences of continuous everyday action, infants showed renewed interest in test versions in which motion paused in the midst of an actor's pursuit of intentions (interrupting test videos). In contrast, pauses that suspended motion at intention boundary points (completing test videos) sparked no such renewed interest on infants' part. Moreover, basic salience differences between the two types of test videos were not the source of infants' increased interest when intentions were interrupted (Study 2). These findings demonstrate that infants readily detect disruptions of the structure inherent in intentional action, and hence parse ongoing behavior with respect to such structure. Such parsing skill is likely a prerequisite to the development of genuine intentional understanding.
Assessing Children’s Emotional Security in the Interparental Relationship: The Security in the Interparental Subsystem Scales
Authors: Davies Patrick T. , Forman Evan M. , Rasi Jennifer A. , Stevens Kristopher I.
Published: March 2003

Guided by the emotional security hypothesis, this study reports on the development of a new self‐report measure that assesses children’s strategies for preserving emotional security in the context of interparental conflict. Participants were 924 sixth, seventh, and eighth graders and a subset of their mothers, fathers, and teachers. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of the Security in the Interparental Subsystem (SIS) Scale supported a seven‐factor solution, corresponding well to the three component processes (i.e., emotional reactivity, regulation of exposure to parent affect, and internal representations) outlined in the emotional security hypothesis. The SIS subscales demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency and test–retest reliability. Support for the validity of the SIS Scale is evidenced by its significant links with parent reports of children’s overt reactivity to conflict, children’s responses to interparental conflict simulations 6 months later, and children’s psychological maladjustment and experiential histories with interparental conflict across multiple informants (i.e., child, mother, father, and teacher). Results are discussed in the context of developing recommendations for use of the SIS and advancing the emotional security hypothesis.
Temperament, Tympanum, and Temperature: Four Provisional Studies of the Biobehavioral Correlates of Tympanic Membrane Temperature Asymmetries
Authors: Boyce W. Thomas , Essex Marilyn J. , Alkon Abbey , Smider Nancy A. , Pickrell Tyler , Kagan Jerome
Published: March 2003

Previous research in both humans and nonhuman primates suggests that subtle asymmetries in tympanic membrane (TM) temperatures may be related to aspects of cognition and socioaffective behavior. Such associations could plausibly reflect lateralities in cerebral blood flow that support side‐to‐side differences in regional cortical activation. Asymmetries in activation of the left and right frontal cortex, for example, are correlates of temperamental differences in child behavior and markers of risk status for affective and anxiety disorders. Tympanic membrane temperatures might thus reflect the neural asymmetries that subserve individual differences in temperament and behavior. This report merged findings from four geographically and demographically distinctive studies, which utilized identical thermometry methods to examine associations between TM temperature asymmetries and biobehavioral attributes of 4‐ to 8‐year‐old children (N= 468). The four studies produced shared patterns of associations that linked TM temperature lateralities to individual differences in behavior and socioaffective difficulties. Warmer left TMs were associated with “surgent,” affectively positive behaviors, whereas warmer right TMs were related to problematic, affectively negative behaviors. Taken together, these findings suggest that asymmetries in TM temperatures could be associated with behavior problems that signal risk for developmental psychopathology.
Children's and Adults’ Evaluation of the Certainty of Deductive Inferences, Inductive Inferences, and Guesses
Authors: Pillow Bradford H.
Published: March 2003

Two experiments investigated kindergarten through fourth‐grade children's and adults’ (N= 128) ability to (1) evaluate the certainty of deductive inferences, inductive inferences, and guesses; and (2) explain the origins of inferential knowledge. When judging their own cognitive state, children in first grade and older rated deductive inferences as more certain than guesses; but when judging another person's knowledge, children did not distinguish valid inferences from invalid inferences and guesses until fourth grade. By third grade, children differentiated their own deductive inferences from inductive inferences and guesses, but only adults both differentiated deductive inferences from inductive inferences and differentiated inductive inferences from guesses. Children's recognition of their own inferences may contribute to the development of knowledge about cognitive processes, scientific reasoning, and a constructivist epistemology.
Mother–Child Conflict in the Toddler Years: Lessons in Emotion, Morality, and Relationships
Authors: Laible Deborah J. , Thompson Ross A.
Published: March 2003

Sixty–three mother–toddler dyads took part in a 6–month prospective study that examined how differences in the frequency and nature of early mother–toddler conflict related to individual differences in children’s subsequent socioemotional development. When the children were 30 months, mothers and children participated in a series of laboratory tasks and in a 1.5–hr unstructured home observation. All episodes of verbal conflict between mothers and their children were identified from these sessions, transcribed, and coded for certain elements (e.g., strategy, discussion of emotion, and resolution). At 36 months, children participated in measures of emotional understanding, social competence, and early conscience development. Mothers’ use of justification, resolution, and mitigation in conflict at 30 months predicted high levels of socioemotional development at age 3. These findings suggest that conflict may be an important context for children’s socioemotional development.
The Relation of Unimanual and Bimanual Reaching to Crossing the Midline
Authors: Van Hof P. , Van Der Kamp J. , Savelsbergh G.J.P.
Published: March 2003

The present study assessed the development of reaching for objects positioned in front of the contralateral shoulder. In particular, it examined how the development of crossing the midline is related to the development of bimanual reaching. Twenty infants were observed longitudinally at 12, 18, and 26 weeks of age while reaching for two balls (3 cm and 8 cm in diameter) located at three positions (ispsilateral, midline, and contralateral). The reaches were analyzed from video recordings. With age, the infants increasingly adapted the number of hands used to the size of the object. The number of reaches crossing the body midline increased with age. Furthermore, the majority of the midline crossings were part of two–handed reaches for the large ball and occurred at or after onset of bimanual reaching. Together, these findings strongly suggest that the development of crossing the body midline emerges in the context of bimanual reaching. It was concluded that the need to grasp a large ball positioned contralaterally with two hands induces midline crossing. Hence, the development of midline crossings is not exclusively dependent on organismic constraints (e.g., the maturation of hemispheric connections), but rather on their interaction with environmental constraints (e.g., object size).
Emergence and Construct Validation of the Big Five Factors in Early Childhood: A Longitudinal Analysis of Their Ontogeny in Sweden
Authors: Lamb Michael E. , Chuang Susan S. , Wessels Holger , Broberg Anders G. , Hwang Carl Philip
Published: March 2003

Researchers have shown that the five major dimensions of personality (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience) and two additional factors (irritability and positive activity) are evident from adolescence. This study attempted to replicate and extend these results in a longitudinal study of 102 Swedish children, followed from 2.3 to 15.2 years of age. Item analyses revealed consistently reliable irritability, conscientiousness, and positive activity factors, whereas the internal reliability of the extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, and openness to experience factors increased over time. Irritability and positive activity were not independent of the other factors. Scores on most of the personality factors were fairly stable over time. Over time, children became less extraverted, more agreeable, and more conscientious. Neuroticism and openness to experience increased in Phase III, although openness then decreased in Phase V. Validity of the original factors was demonstrated by correlations with independent assessments of the children’s cognitive performance and adjustment to school.
Want That is Understood Well before Say That, Think That, and False Belief: A Test of de Villiers's Linguistic Determinism on German–Speaking Children
Authors: Perner Josef , Sprung Manuel , Zauner Petra , Haider Hubert
Published: March 2003

Two experiments with 79 monolingual German speaking children between 2.5 and 4.5 years showed a consistent developmental gap between children's memory/inference of what someone wanted and what someone wrongly said or thought. For instance, when John is still playing and mother says, “John should be going to bed,” more than 70% answered correctly that mother wanted John to go to bed. However, when mother said, “John is going to bed,” about 70% answered wrongly that she thought/said that he was still playing. Correct answers emerged with the mastery of the false–belief task. In German, want sentences (about something to happen) obligatorily take the same grammatical that complement as say or think sentences. Therefore, the observed gap constrains de Villier's (1995) linguistic determinism, which claims that acquisition of the necessary grammatical structures for talking about the mind drives children's ability to think about the mind.
Applying Rounding‐Up Integral Linear Interpolation to the Scan‐Conversion of Filled Polygons
Authors: Yao Chengfu , Rokne Jon G.
Published: March 2003

This paper is motivated by a special linear interpolation problem encountered in scan‐line algorithms for scan‐conversion of filled polygons. rounding‐up integral linear interpolation is defined and its efficient computation is discussed. The paper then incorporates rounding‐up integral linear interpolation into a scan‐line algorithm for filled polygons, and it discusses the implementation of the algorithm. This approach has the advantage of only requiring integer arithmetic in the calculations. Furthermore, the approach provides a unified treatment for calculating span extrema for left and right edges of the polygon that guarantees the mutual exclusiveness of the ownership of boundary pixels of two filled polygons sharing an edge.
Perceptually‐Driven Radiosity
Authors: Gibson S. , Hubbold R. J.
Published: March 2003

We present a new approach to radiosity simulation that uses perceptually‐based measures to control the generation of view‐independent radiosity solutions. This enables computational effort to be moved away from areas that are deemed to have a visually insignificant effect on the solution's appearance, into those that are more noticeable. We achieve this with an a‐priori estimate of the real‐world adaptation luminance, and use a tone‐reproduction operator to transform luminance values to display colours during the solution process. The distance between two colours in a perceptually‐uniform colour space is then used as a numerical measure of their perceived difference. We describe an oracle that stops patch refinement once the difference between successive levels of elements becomes perceptually unnoticeable. We also show how the perceived importance of any potential shadow falling across a receiving element can be determined. This is then used to control the number of rays that are cast during visibility computations, giving reductions of almost 93% in the total number of rays required for a solution without any significant loss in image quality. Finally, we discuss how perceptual knowledge can be used to optimise the element mesh for faster interactive display and to save memory during computation.
Orthogonal Decomposition of Non‐Uniform Bspline Spaces using Wavelets
Authors: Kazinnik Roman , Elber Gershon
Published: March 2003

We take advantage of ideas of an orthogonal wavelet complement to produce multiresolution orthogonal decomposition of nonuniform Bspline (NUB) spaces. The editing of NUB curves and surfaces can be handled at different levels of resolutions.

Applying Multiresolution decomposition to possibly C1 discontinuous surfaces, one can preserve the general shape on one hand and local features on the other of the free‐form models, including geometric discontinuities. The Multiresolution decomposition of the NUB tensor product surface is computed via the symbolic computation of inner products of Bspline basis functions. To find a closed form representation for the inner product of the Bspline basis functions, an equivalent interpolation problem is solved.

As an example for the strength of the Multiresolution decomposition, a tool demonstrating the Multiresolution editing capabilities of NUB surfaces was developed and is presented as part of this work, allowing interactive 3D editing of NUB free‐form surfaces.
Animation by Deformation of Space‐Time Objects
Authors: Aubert Fabrice , Bechmann Dominique
Published: March 2003

This article presents the properties of animation with space‐time objects. A space‐time object means here a geometrical object embedded in R4 with a volumic topology. Resulting animations are obtained by deforming space‐time objects with a free‐form deformation model. In this way topological modifications, such as disconnecting or hole making, as well as classical geometrical modifications, can be created in an animated object.
A Multiscale Approach to Integrated Volume Segmentation and Rendering
Authors: Westermann Rüdiger , Ertl Thomas
Published: March 2003

A number of techniques have been proposed for rendering volumetric scalar data sets. Techniques have also been proposed for analyzing the three dimensional information contents of the underlying domain, but traditionally the data analysis part is left as a post‐processing step which only involves the rendered two dimensional images. In this paper, we describe a visualization method for scalar volume data which integrates explicit knowledge of the underlying domain into the rendering process. The key of this approach lies in a hierarchical description of the discrete signal, which is decomposed into a sequence of multiscale representations. We describe a technique for the analysis of structures within the data. This allows for the segmentation and classification of the relevant features and can be used to improve their visual sensation. We also address the problem of accelerating the final rendering pass by integrating the extracted object space information into the ray traversal process.
Growing and Animating Polygonal Models of Animals
Authors: Walter Marcelo , Fournier Alain
Published: March 2003

While there exist many computer models of animal bodies, as polygonal meshes and parametric surfaces, these are difficult to modify to take growth into account, or to animate. Growth data available from the literature usually is expressed as very sparse measurements over the body at various ages of the animal. We present here basic techniques to transfer growth data to computer models (especially polygonal meshes), which allows animation of the growth as well as animation of the body in the traditional sense.

The main technique consists of defining local coordinate systems around the growing parts of the body, each one being transformed according to the relevant growth data while maintaining their relationship with the adjoining parts and the continuity of the surface. The local coordinates also permit ordinary animation mainly as relative rotation such as in articulated objects.

We present examples with polygonal models of horses and cows, growth data from same, and motion from Muybridge’s classic photographic data.
A Flexible Architecture for Virtual Humans in Networked Collaborative Virtual Environments
Authors: Sunday Pandzic Igor , Lee Elwin , Magnenat Thalmann Nadia , Capin Tolga K. , Thalmann Daniel
Published: March 2003

Complex virtual human representation provides more natural interaction and communication among participants in networked virtual environments, hence it is expected to increase the sense of being together within the same virtual world. We present a flexible framework for the integration of virtual humans in networked collaborative virtual environments. A modular architecture allows flexible representation and control of the virtual humans, whether they are controlled by a physical user using all sorts of tracking and other devices, or by an intelligent control program turning them into autonomous actors. The modularity of the system allows for fairly easy extensions and integration with new techniques making it interesting also as a testbed for various domains from “classic” VR to psychological experiments. We present results in terms of functionalities, example applications and measurements of performance and network traffic with an increasing number of participants in the simulation.
Building Telepresence Systems: Translating Science Fiction Ideas into Reality
Authors: Fuchs Henry
Published: March 2003

Many people feel that at some time in the distant future it will be possible to see and interact with remote individuals so realistically that they will appear to be standing next to us, that it will also be possible for physicians to look inside their patients and see organs and tumors, as if they possessed Superman’s X‐ray vision.

Although we are far from the realization of such dreams, we are witnessing some encouraging progress toward them. For example, we understand that two aspects common to these systems are a) the acquisition and synthesis of complex 3D information (whether from cameras at a distant scene or medical imaging devices inside a patient), and b) reconstruction and presentation of the 3D information to the observer (whether a distant collaborator or a nearby physician). Early results from several institutions are encouraging.

It is now possible to walk around distant scenes, although the visual data still needs to be preprocessed, the scene still needs to be static and the reconstruction still has gaps. It is possible to look inside patients, although with crude ultrasound imaging and with very limited visualization, or not naturally from the physician’s own point of view. It is not yet possible to view any of this kind of information with high degree of immersive 3D realism without wearing cumbersome visualization aids. Truly compelling realization of these long‐held dreams will take careful analysis of the remaining problems, creative thinking about new approaches, and innovative and sustained development of the required acquisition and display technologies.
Automatic Hierarchical Level of Detail Optimization in Computer Animation
Authors: Mason Ashton E.W. , Blake Edwin H.
Published: March 2003

We show that the hierarchical level of detail optimization problem is equivalent to a constrained version of the Multiple Choice Knapsack Problem, and present a new algorithm whose solution to it is at least half as good as the optimal one. The advantage of the hierarchical algorithm is that it allows the use of hierarchical level of detail descriptions in which shared representations may be provided for groups of objects. Rendering cost may then be saved to afford better renderings of more important objects, and the algorithm is capable of providing a complete representation of the visible scene even when the visible scene complexity is very high. Our algorithm has a worst case time complexity of O(nlogn), and is incremental so that it typically completes in only a few iterations. We introduce the use of perceptual evaluation to demonstrate the effectiveness of the use of representations for groups of objects that our algorithm allows.
Using Subdivision on Hierarchical Data to Reconstruct Radiosity Distribution
Authors: Kobbelt Leif , Stamminger Marc , Seidel Hans‐Peter
Published: March 2003

Computing global illumination by finite element techniques usually generates a piecewise constant approximation of the radiosity distribution on surfaces. Directly displaying such scenes generates artefacts due to discretization errors. We propose to remedy this drawback by considering the piecewise constant output to be samples of a (piecewise) smooth function in object space and reconstruct this function by applying a binary subdivision scheme. We design custom taylored subdivision schemes with quadratic precision for the efficient refinement of cell‐ or pixel‐type data. The technique naturally allows to reconstruct functions from non‐uniform samples which result from adaptive binary splitting of the original domain (quadtree). This type of output is produced, e.g., by hierarchical radiosity algorithms. The result of the subdivision process can be mapped as a texture on the respective surface patch which allows to exploit graphics hardware for considerably accelerating the display.