bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Customer engagement with service providers: an empirical investigation of customer engagement dispositions
Authors: Sim Max , Conduit Jodie , Plewa Carolin , Hentzen Janin Karoli
Published: May 2022

Purpose

While businesses seek to engage customers, their efforts are often met with varied results, as some customers are more predisposed to engage than others. Understanding customers’ dispositions to engage is central to understanding customer engagement, yet research examining customer engagement dispositions remains sparse and predominantly focused on personality traits. This paper aims to consider the general nature of a disposition and draws on qualitative findings to depict a framework for customer engagement dispositions.

Design/methodology/approach

To investigate customer engagement dispositions comprehensively and in-depth, an exploratory qualitative approach was adopted. In total, 20 semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with customers in ongoing relationships with financial planners residing in Australia.

Findings

Nine attributes reflecting customer engagement dispositions emerge from the data. These include the customer’s internal tendency to engage (confidence, desire for control, extroversion and enthusiasm); a tendency to engage determined in the interaction with the service provider (sense of similarity, sense of social connection and trust in the service provider); and the capacity to engage (expertise and knowledge and time availability).

Research limitations/implications

This study provides a conceptual foundation for future empirical measurement of customer engagement dispositions and their nomological network.

Practical implications

This study establishes a foundation for managers to build distinct engagement disposition profiles and segments and target initiatives to maximize engagement activity.

Originality/value

This research challenges the view of customer engagement dispositions as largely personality factors, or exclusively cognitive and emotional dimensions of engagement, and offers a comprehensive framework reflecting a customer’s disposition to engage with a service provider.
A framework for measuring the adoption factors in digital mobile payments in the COVID-19 era
Authors: Jegerson Devid , Hussain Matloub
Published: May 2022

Purpose

This study aims to identify the acceptance factors in the UAE for the digital mobile payment market, introduces a new hierarchical framework based on the continuation intention factors and prioritises the importance of the acceptance criteria and sub-criteria.

Design/methodology/approach

The measurement of acceptance factors in payment systems is a complex and unstructured topic involving many criteria and sub-criteria, which requires breaking the problem down into several components organised in a hierarchical multi-level form. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) methodology manages the complexity of multi-criteria decision-making processes based on a new set of criteria connected to the adoption and continuance intention factors.

Findings

The AHP framework developed a ranking of 18 sustainability sub-factors based on evaluations by experienced payment professionals.

Research limitations/implications

The future directions of the research would be to investigate the impact of dynamic capabilities on the resilience of retail service networks, especially during COVID-19, where supply and demand are highly indeterminate.

Practical implications

Through successive stages of data collection, measurement analysis and refinement, the contribution of this research is a reliable and valid framework that can be used to conceptualise and prioritise sustainability strategies in payment management.

Originality/value

Given the lowest mobile payment products penetration rates of the UAE and the scarcity of literature on this topic, this study aims to contribute to the knowledge by including UTAUT, the IS success model and the impact of COVID-19 as adoption and continuance intention factor in the digital mobile payment case in the UAE.
Measuring country of origin effects in online shopping implicitly: a discrete choice analysis approach
Authors: Brand Benedikt M. , Baier Daniel
Published: May 2022

Purpose

To examine whether the country of origin (COO) effect actually exists in an e-commerce context, the authors intend to contribute to the ongoing debate by measuring the COO effect through a series of connected studies.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on cue utilization theory, the authors emphasize the urge to investigate the COO effect in multiple cue settings in order to reveal a more realistic picture of its actual effect size. In contrast to most prior research, which often does not analyze COO using methodological plurality and neglects important contextual factors, the authors employed a four-staged research design in an attempt to trigger and measure the COO’s implicit effect size in today’s pervasive context of online shopping. The importance of brands (inhering the COO) is decompositionally calculated relative to other extrinsic cues by applying a Hierarchical Bayes estimation, with the COO impact being extracted subsequently.

Findings

The results deepen concerns that the COO effect actually does not exist, particularly in the more contemporary context of online shopping. Specifically, preferences for previously favored German products faded when controlling for brand attitude for both high-involvement (p = 0.003) and low-involvement products (p = 0.024).

Research limitations/implications

The study focused on consumers of Generation Y, as they represent one of the most important segments in online shopping. Findings might be replicated for other consumer generations. The study focused on Chinese consumers, as the Chinese e-commerce market represents the world’s largest one. Future studies might investigate other markets.

Practical implications

As brands, rather than a COO effect, impacted consumer preferences, companies selling their products to Chinese consumers online need to establish a reputation for quality early on. Chinese companies should emphasize their COO to make use of the ethnocentrism detected. Companies profit from the Best-Worst Scaling investigation revealing which product categories Chinese consumers most preferably buy online from German companies.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to capture the importance of COO in the contemporary context of ubiquitous online shopping. Moreover, a more realistic and less biased way of measuring the importance of COO is enabled by building upon three pre-connected studies. The findings allow to develop a generalization for both high- and low-involvement products.
A novel start-up method of sensorless passive lead-through programming for industrial robots
Authors: Guo Yuliang , Niu Jianwei , Hou Renluan , Ren Tao , Han Bing , Yu Xiaolong , Ma Qun
Published: May 2022

Purpose

Sensorless passive lead-through programming (LTP) is a promising physical human-robot interaction technology that enables manual trajectory demonstrations based on gravity and friction compensation. The major difficulty lies in static friction compensation during LTP start-up. Instead of static friction compensation, conventional methods only compensate for Coulomb friction after the joint velocity exceeds a threshold. Therefore, conventional start-up external torques must overcome static friction. When the static friction is considerable, it is difficult for conventional LTP to start up and make small movements. This paper aims to decrease the start-up external torque and improve the small movement performance.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper reveals a novel usage of a high-gain position-loop in industrial robot applications aimed at sensitively detecting external torque during start-up. Then, the static friction is partly compensated by Coulomb friction to facilitate start-up. In addition, a detailed transition method between the proposed start-up and conventional passive LTP is proposed based on a finite state machine.

Findings

Experiments are implemented on the ROKAE XB4 robot to verify the effectiveness of the proposed external torque detection. Compared with the conventional LTP method, the proposed LTP method significantly decreases the start-up external torque and facilitates small movements.

Originality/value

This paper proposes and verifies a novel start-up method of sensorless LTP based on a start-up external torque detection and a transition method between start-up and conventional LTP. This research improves the LTP start-up performance, especially for industrial robots with large static friction.
Information overload: a concept analysis
Authors: Belabbes Mohamed Amine , Ruthven Ian , Moshfeghi Yashar , Rasmussen Pennington Diane
Published: May 2022

Purpose

With the shift to an information-based society and to the de-centralisation of information, information overload has attracted a growing interest in the computer and information science research communities. However, there is no clear understanding of the meaning of the term, and while there have been many proposed definitions, there is no consensus. The goal of this work was to define the concept of “information overload”. In order to do so, a concept analysis using Rodgers' approach was performed.

Design/methodology/approach

A concept analysis using Rodgers' approach based on a corpus of documents published between 2010 and September 2020 was conducted. One surrogate for “information overload”, which is “cognitive overload” was identified. The corpus of documents consisted of 151 documents for information overload and ten for cognitive overload. All documents were from the fields of computer science and information science, and were retrieved from three databases: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Digital Library, SCOPUS and Library and Information Science Abstracts (LISA).

Findings

The themes identified from the authors’ concept analysis allowed us to extract the triggers, manifestations and consequences of information overload. They found triggers related to information characteristics, information need, the working environment, the cognitive abilities of individuals and the information environment. In terms of manifestations, they found that information overload manifests itself both emotionally and cognitively. The consequences of information overload were both internal and external. These findings allowed them to provide a definition of information overload.

Originality/value

Through the authors’ concept analysis, they were able to clarify the components of information overload and provide a definition of the concept.
Knowledge-based dynamic capabilities: a scientometric analysis of marriage between knowledge management and dynamic capabilities
Authors: Kaur Vaneet
Published: May 2022

Purpose

Several manuscripts are adopting knowledge-based dynamic capabilities (KBDCs) as their main theoretical lens. However, these manuscripts lack consistent conceptualization and systematization of the construct. Consequently, the purpose of this study is to advance the understanding of KBDCs by clarifying the dominant concepts at the junction of knowledge management and dynamic capabilities domains, identifying which emerging themes are gaining traction with KBDCs scholars, demonstrating how the central thesis around KBDCs has evolved and explaining how can KBDCs scholars move towards finding a mutually agreed conceptualization of the field to advance empirical assessment.

Design/methodology/approach

The Clarivate Analytics Web of Science Core Collection database was used to extract 225 manuscripts that lie at the confluence of two promising management domains, namely, knowledge management and dynamic capabilities. A scientometric analysis including co-citation analysis, bibliographic coupling, keyword co-occurrence network analysis and text mining was conducted and integrated with a systematic review of results to facilitate an unstructured ontological discovery in the field of KBDCs.

Findings

The co-citation analysis produced three clusters of research at the junction of knowledge management and dynamic capabilities, whereas the bibliographic coupling divulged five themes of research that are gaining traction with KBDCs scholars. The systematic literature review helped to clarify each clusters’ content. While scientific mapping analysis explained how the central thesis around KBDCs has evolved, text mining and keyword analysis established how KBDCs emerge from the combination of knowledge management process capabilities and dynamic capabilities.

Originality/value

Minimal attention has been paid to systematizing the literature on KBDCs. Accordingly, KBDCs view has been investigated through complementary scientometric methods involving machine-based algorithms to allow for a more robust, structured, comprehensive and unbiased mapping of this emerging field of research.
Social bricolage and social business model in uncertain contexts: insights for the management of minor cultural heritage in Italy
Authors: Scuotto Adriana , Cicellin Mariavittoria , Consiglio Stefano
Published: May 2022

Purpose

This paper aims to analyse how social entrepreneurship organizations that use approach of social bricolage adapt their business model to develop social innovation. The past decade has witnessed a surge of research interest in social entrepreneurship organizations (SEOs). This has resulted in important insights concerning their role in fostering social challenges. The crisis of both public and private profit-driven models meet the arising of new initiatives designed to meet the minor and often abandoned cultural heritage consumption need. Drawing on the domain of SEOs and social bricolage framework, these initiatives are able to pursue the social and the economic mission together and to produce social innovation.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper aims to analyze how SEOs that use strategies of social bricolage can improve the development and diffusion of social innovation. Employing in-depth multiple comparative case studies of 15 cultural SEOs in the South of Italy, through the analysis of semi-structured interview, the study enhance current understanding of the social dimension of SEOs.

Findings

First results show that SEOs in the domain of minor cultural heritage adopt an innovative business model and in particular a social business model unraveling organizational dimensions falling into the social bricolage. The relation between social bricolage dimensions and social business model criteria produces outcomes in which social innovation can be expressed.

Originality/value

This study enhances current understanding of the social dimensions of business model involved in social innovation production of cultural SEOs. This research aims to be a benchmark of the social innovation initiatives in the field of minor cultural heritage management.
What drives electric vehicles in an emerging market?
Authors: Jaiswal Deepak , Kaushal Vikrant , Deshmukh Arun Kumar , Kant Rishi , Kautish Pradeep
Published: May 2022

Purpose

The study aims to investigate the consumers' adoption of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) using socio-cognitive perceptions and socio-demographic moderators in an emerging sustainable mobility market.

Design/methodology/approach

The conceptual model is analyzed via path analysis using online survey data collected from Indian respondents.

Findings

The findings substantiate to a greater extent the linkage of social-cognitive perceptions-attitude-intention with the moderation of socio-demographic variables and mediation of attitude towards BEV.

Research limitations/implications

The study advocates several interesting theoretical and policy implications offering guidance to academics, policymakers and corporate professionals to encourage the adoption of BEVs in the milieu of the budding transportation industry.

Originality/value

The study is built upon a social-psychological linkage framework of ‘perceptions-attitude-intention’. Previous studies have overlooked the impact of social-psychological attributes and the socio-demographic moderators in envisaging the adoption of BEV, which largely remained understudied in the Indian backdrop.
Accountability in the aftermath of police related deaths in the US and England and Wales: processes and outcomes
Authors: Baker David
Published: May 2022

Purpose

The article examines the apparent absence of accountability in the aftermath of police related deaths (PRDs) in the US and England and Wales. It considers regulatory mechanisms such as investigations by independent regulators and internal affairs departments; and legal mechanisms such as cases heard in criminal, civil and coroners' courts. The processes used by these approaches, and outcomes produced are examined in terms of their perceived effectiveness in holding police to account.

Design/methodology/approach

The article considers qualitative research based on interviews undertaken with the relatives of 59 people who died as a result of police contact in both countries. The research examined how families attempted to pursue justice and accountability in the aftermath of the death of a relative.

Findings

Whilst the mechanisms of legal and regulatory accountability employed in each country are somewhat different, the outcomes they produce are remarkably similar: few officers are sanctioned in the aftermath of such deaths in either country. The article argues these mechanisms can provide a façade of accountability in terms of process, but not in terms of outcome. They enable systemic issues that produce police related deaths to go more or less unchanged.

Research limitations/implications

As the research project is highly original, there are necessarily limitations in terms of the generalisability of its findings because it represents the subjective views of participants affected by PRDs. The article suggests that further research be conducted to extend our understanding of issues related to PRDs.

Practical implications

The article argues that the investigation and regulation of PRDs in both countries is essentially flawed. Consequently, there needs to be a fundamental rethink of how such deaths are investigated, and how police could be better held to account for PRDs.

Social implications

Without significant change to the processes and outcomes that occur in the aftermath of PRDs, it is argued that the legitimacy of police and the criminal justice system will continue to be questioned.

Originality/value

There is no known empirical academic research into PRDs that considers the views of family members in both the US and England and Wales. As such, the article produces unique insights from the perspectives of relatives of those who have died following contact with the police.
Vibration analysis and control of cracked beam using finite element method by using ANSYS
Authors: Toke Lalit K. , Patil Milind M.
Published: May 2022

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop an organized structure for damage detection of a cracked cantilever beam using finite element method and experimental method technique.

Design/methodology/approach

Due to presence of cracks the dynamic characteristics of structure change. The change in dynamic behavior has been used as one of the criteria of fault diagnosis for structures. Major characteristics of the structure which undergo change due to presence of crack are: natural frequencies, the amplitude responses due to vibration and the mode shapes. Therefore, an attempt has been made to formulate a smart technique for minimizing the amplitude of vibration for crack cantilever beam structures. In the analysis both single and double cracks are taken into account.

Findings

The results of the active vibration control experiments proved that piezoelectric sensor/actuator pair is an effective sensor and actuator configuration for active vibration control to reduce the amplitude of vibration for closed-loop system.

Originality/value

It is necessary that structures must safely work during its service life, but damages initiate a breakdown period on the structures which directly affect the industrial growth. It is a recognized fact that dynamic behavior of structures changes due to presence of crack. It has been observed that the presence of cracks in structures or in machine members leads to operational problem as well as premature failure.
Effectiveness of SARS‐CoV‐2 vaccines on hemodialysis patients in Japan: A nationwide cohort study
Authors: Kikuchi Kan , Nangaku Masaomi , Ryuzaki Munekazu , Yamakawa Tomoyuki , Yoshihiro Ota , Hanafusa Norio , Sakai Ken , Kanno Yoshihiko , Ando Ryoichi , Shinoda Toshio , Wakino Shu , Nakamoto Hidetomo , Takemoto Yoshiaki , Akizawa Tadao ,   COVID‐19 Task Force Committee of the Japanese Association of Dialysis Physicians, the Japanese Society for Dialysis Therapy, and the Japanese Society of Nephrology
Published: May 2022

Introduction

This study compared the outcomes of dialysis patients who received SARS‐CoV‐2 vaccine with those who did not use data from the Japanese COVID‐19 registry.

Methods

A total of 1260 dialysis patients with confirmed positive SARS‐CoV‐2 infection was included in this study. Patients were divided into two groups: patients who experienced breakthrough infection and those who were unvaccinated. The need of oxygen supplementation and mortality risks were compared using multivariate logistic regression analysis.

Results

The mortality rate was 24.2% in unvaccinated patients and 8.6% in breakthrough patients. The odds ratio of need of oxygen supplementation in the breakthrough patients relative to unvaccinated patients was 0.197. The hazard ratio of mortality in the breakthrough patients relative to unvaccinated patients was 0.464.

Conclusion

Our prospective observational study showed that SRAS‐CoV‐2 vaccination in hemodialysis patients is vital for reducing need of oxygen supplementation and mortality risk.
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast”: An in‐depth examination of police officer perceptions of body‐worn camera implementation and their relationship to policy, supervision, and training
Authors: Willis James J.
Published: May 2022

Research Summary

This study uses interviews with 23 police officers from a small police department to conduct an in‐depth examination of their perceptions of three critical but understudied areas related to body‐worn camera programs: the implementation and policy‐making process, supervision, and training. The focus is on understanding the factors which contribute to, or undermine, body‐worn camera integration and acceptance.

Policy Implications

Including patrol officers directly in the implementation and policy‐making processes might help increase officer acceptance of body‐worn cameras (BWCs), and the identification of potential implementation problems (especially around BWC activation, civilian notification, and minor violations of department policies). Moreover, police departments may need to anticipate resistance from features of the traditional police culture toward certain BWC uses and consider how these might be overcome. One suggestion is to conduct regular reviews of BWC footage with officers as a learning tool to help guide discretion on BWC use (especially around recording protocols), to help reframe BWCs as an innovative technology for improving street‐level performance, and to provide routine reminders to officers of the importance of BWC activation and civilian notification for achieving their potential benefits.
The quality of life in neoadjuvant versus adjuvant therapy of esophageal cancer treatment trial (QUINTETT): Randomized parallel clinical superiority trial
Authors: Malthaner Richard A. , Yu Edward , Sanatani Michael , Lewis Debra , Warner Andrew , Dar A. Rashid , Yaremko Brian P. , Bierer Joel , Palma David A. , Fortin Dalilah , Inculet Richard I. , Fréchette Eric , Raphael Jacques , Gaede Stewart , Kuruvilla Sara , Younus Jawaid , Vincent Mark D. , Rodrigues George B.
Published: May 2022

Background

We compared the health‐related quality of life (HRQOL) in patients undergoing trimodality therapy for resectable stage I‐III esophageal cancer.

Methods

A total of 96 patients were randomized to standard neoadjuvant cisplatin and 5‐fluorouracil chemotherapy plus radiotherapy (neoadjuvant) followed by surgical resection or adjuvant cisplatin, 5‐fluorouracil, and epirubicin chemotherapy with concurrent extended volume radiotherapy (adjuvant) following surgical resection.

Results

There was no significant difference in the functional assessment of cancer therapy‐esophageal (FACT‐E) total scores between arms at 1 year (p = 0.759) with 36% versus 41% (neoadjuvant vs. adjuvant), respectively, showing an increase of ≥15 points compared to pre‐treatment (p = 0.638). The HRQOL was significantly inferior at 2 months in the neoadjuvant arm for FACT‐E, European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer quality of life questionnaire (EORTC QLQ‐OG25), and EuroQol 5‐D‐3 L in the dysphagia, reflux, pain, taste, and coughing domains (p < 0.05). Half of patients were able to complete the prescribed neoadjuvant arm chemotherapy without modification compared to only 14% in the adjuvant arm (p < 0.001). Chemotherapy related adverse events of grade ≥2 occurred significantly more frequently in the neoadjuvant arm (100% vs. 69%, p < 0.001). Surgery related adverse events of grade ≥2 were similar in both arms (72% vs. 86%, p = 0.107). There were no 30‐day mortalities and 2% vs. 10% 90‐day mortalities (p = 0.204). There were no significant differences in either overall survival (OS) (5‐year: 35% vs. 32%, p = 0.409) or disease‐free survival (DFS) (5‐year: 31% vs. 30%, p = 0.710).

Conclusion

Trimodality therapy is challenging for patients with resectable esophageal cancer regardless of whether it is given before or after surgery. Newer and less toxic protocols are needed.
Survival of rural telehealth services post‐pandemic in Australia: A call to retain the gains in the ‘new normal’
Authors: Caffery Lisa A. , Muurlink Olav T. , Taylor‐Robinson Andrew W.
Published: May 2022

Aim

COVID‐19 rapidly transformed how Australians access health care services. This paper considers how the inability for urban patients to access in‐person care expediated the introduction of virtual solutions in health service delivery thus creating a new access paradigm for rural and remote Australians.

Context

‘Physical distancing’ is a phrase synonymous with public health responses to COVID‐19 in Australia, but distance is a decades‐long problem for rural health access. Counterintuitively, the pandemic and associated restrictions on mobility have reduced in real terms the distance from, and therefore the time taken to access, critical public services. ‘Lockdowns’ have unlocked health access for rural and remote Australians in ways that had been rejected prior to 2020. The pandemic has disrupted traditional delivery models and allowed the piloting of novel solutions, at the same time as stress‐testing current delivery systems. In the process, it has laid bare a myopia we term ‘urban paternalism’ in understanding and delivering rural health.

Approach

This commentary outlines how the COVID‐19 operating environment has challenged traditional urban‐dominated policy thinking about virtual health care delivery and how greater availability of telehealth appointments goes some way to reducing the health access gap for rural and remote Australians.

Conclusion

Australian Commonwealth Government policy changes to expand the Medical Benefit Scheme (MBS) to include telephone or online health consultations are a positive initiative towards supporting Australians through the ongoing public health crisis and have also created access parity for some rural and remote patients. Although initially announced as a temporary COVID‐19 measure in March 2020, telehealth has now become a permanent feature of the Medicare landscape. This significant public health reform has paved the way for a more flexible and inclusive universal health care system but, more importantly, taken much needed steps towards improving access to primary health care for patients in rural and remote areas. Now the question is: Can the health care system integrate this virtual model of delivery into ‘business as usual’ to ensure the long‐term sustainability of telehealth services to rural and remote Australia?
Survival impact of immune cells infiltrating peritumoral area of hepatocellular carcinoma
Authors: Yusa Toshihiko , Yamashita Yo‐ichi , Okabe Hirohisa , Nakao Yosuke , Itoyama Rumi , Kitano Yuki , Kaida Takayoshi , Miyata Tatsunori , Mima Kosuke , Imai Katsunori , Hayashi Hiromitsu , Baba Hideo
Published: May 2022

Inflammatory and immune cells in the tumor microenvironment are reported to be associated with tumor progression in several cancers. In total, 225 patients who underwent initial and curative hepatectomy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) from 2004 to 2013 were enrolled in this study. Tumor‐associated neutrophils (TANs), M2 macrophages (TAMs; tumor‐associated macrophages), CD8+ T cells, and regulatory T cells (Tregs) were evaluated by immunohistochemistry (IHC), and their relationships with patient clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis were evaluated. IHC was performed focusing on TANs first. We could not find a relationship between intratumoral and peritumoral TANs and clinicopathological features except for the fibrous capsule and infiltration of tumors into capsule. Next, TAMs, CD8+ cells and Tregs were evaluated by IHC. At the peritumoral area, TANs and TAMs (r = 0.36, p = 0.001) or Tregs (r = 0.16, p = 0.008) showed a positive correlation, whereas TANs and CD8+ cells showed a negative correlation (r = −0.16, p = 0.02). As for survival outcomes, at the peritumoral area, high TANs (p = 0.0398), low CD8+ cells (p = 0.0275), and high TAMs (p = 0.001) were significantly associated with worse overall survival (OS). In addition, high TANs (p = 0.010), and high TAMs (p = 0.00125) were significantly associated with worse disease‐free survival (DFS). Finally, we established a risk signature model by combining the expression patterns of these cells. The high‐risk signature group had significantly worse OS (p = 0.0277) and DFS (p = 0.0219) compared with those in the low‐risk signature group. Our risk signature based on immune cells at the peritumoral area of the HCC can predict patient prognosis of HCC after curative hepatectomy.
Testing the effectiveness of the Developing Inclusive Youth program: A multisite randomized control trial
Authors: Killen Melanie , Burkholder Amanda R. , D'Esterre Alexander P. , Sims Riley N. , Glidden Jacquelyn , Yee Kathryn M. , Luken Raz Katherine V. , Elenbaas Laura , Rizzo Michael T. , Woodward Bonnie , Samuelson Arvid , Sweet Tracy M. , Stapleton Laura M.
Published: May 2022

The Developing Inclusive Youth program is a classroom‐based, individually administered video tool that depicts peer‐based social and racial exclusion, combined with teacher‐led discussions. A multisite randomized control trial was implemented with 983 participants (502 females; 58.5% White, 41.5% Ethnic/racial minority; Mage = 9.64 years) in 48 third‐, fourth‐, and fifth‐grade classrooms across six schools. Children in the program were more likely to view interracial and same‐race peer exclusion as wrong, associate positive traits with peers of different racial, ethnic, and gender backgrounds, and report play with peers from diverse backgrounds than were children in the control group. Many approaches are necessary to achieve antiracism in schools. This intervention is one component of this goal for developmental science.
Dressi: A Hardware‐Agnostic Differentiable Renderer with Reactive Shader Packing and Soft Rasterization
Authors: Takimoto Yusuke , Sato Hiroyuki , Takehara Hikari , Uragaki Keishiro , Tawara Takehiro , Liang Xiao , Oku Kentaro , Kishimoto Wataru , Zheng Bo
Published: May 2022

Differentiable rendering (DR) enables various computer graphics and computer vision applications through gradient‐based optimization with derivatives of the rendering equation. Most rasterization‐based approaches are built on general‐purpose automatic differentiation (AD) libraries and DR‐specific modules handcrafted using CUDA. Such a system design mixes DR algorithm implementation and algorithm building blocks, resulting in hardware dependency and limited performance. In this paper, we present a practical hardware‐agnostic differentiable renderer called Dressi, which is based on a new full AD design. The DR algorithms of Dressi are fully written in our Vulkan‐based AD for DR, Dressi‐AD, which supports all primitive operations for DR. Dressi‐AD and our inverse UV technique inside it bring hardware independence and acceleration by graphics hardware. Stage packing, our runtime optimization technique, can adapt hardware constraints and efficiently execute complex computational graphs of DR with reactive cache considering the render pass hierarchy of Vulkan. HardSoftRas, our novel rendering process, is designed for inverse rendering with a graphics pipeline. Under the limited functionalities of the graphics pipeline, HardSoftRas can propagate the gradients of pixels from the screen space to far‐range triangle attributes. Our experiments and applications demonstrate that Dressi establishes hardware independence, high‐quality and robust optimization with fast speed, and photorealistic rendering.
ZoomShop: Depth‐Aware Editing of Photographic Composition
Authors: Liu Sean J. , Agrawala Maneesh , DiVerdi Stephen , Hertzmann Aaron
Published: May 2022

We present ZoomShop, a photographic composition editing tool for adjusting relative size, position, and foreshortening of scene elements. Given an image and corresponding depth map as input, ZoomShop combines a novel non‐linear camera model and a depth‐aware image warp to reproject and deform the image. Users can isolate objects by selecting depth ranges and adjust their scale and foreshortening, which controls the paths of the camera rays through the scene. Users can also select 2D image regions and translate them, which determines the objective function in the image warp optimization. We demonstrate that ZoomShop can be used to achieve useful compositional goals, such as making a distant object more prominent while preserving foreground scenery, or making objects both larger and closer together so they still fit in the frame.
Dynamic Combination of Crowd Steering Policies Based on Context
Authors: Cabrero‐Daniel B. , Marques R. , Hoyet L. , Pettré J. , Blat J.
Published: May 2022

Simulating crowds requires controlling a very large number of trajectories of characters and is usually performed using crowd steering algorithms. The question of choosing the right algorithm with the right parameter values is of crucial importance given the large impact on the quality of results. In this paper, we study the performance of a number of steering policies (i.e., simulation algorithm and its parameters) in a variety of contexts, resorting to an existing quality function able to automatically evaluate simulation results. This analysis allows us to map contexts to the performance of steering policies. Based on this mapping, we demonstrate that distributing the best performing policies among characters improves the resulting simulations. Furthermore, we also propose a solution to dynamically adjust the policies, for each agent independently and while the simulation is running, based on the local context each agent is currently in. We demonstrate significant improvements of simulation results compared to previous work that would optimize parameters once for the whole simulation, or pick an optimized, but unique and static, policy for a given global simulation context.
Meshlets and How to Shade Them: A Study on Texture‐Space Shading
Authors: Neff T. , Mueller J. H. , Steinberger M. , Schmalstieg D.
Published: May 2022

Commonly used image‐space layouts of shading points, such as used in deferred shading, are strictly view‐dependent, which restricts efficient caching and temporal amortization. In contrast, texture‐space layouts can represent shading on all surface points and can be tailored to the needs of a particular application. However, the best grouping of shading points—which we call a shading unit—in texture space remains unclear. Choices of shading unit granularity (how many primitives or pixels per unit) and in shading unit parametrization (how to assign texture coordinates to shading points) lead to different outcomes in terms of final image quality, overshading cost, and memory consumption. Among the possible choices, shading units consisting of larger groups of scene primitives, so‐called meshlets, remain unexplored as of yet. In this paper, we introduce a taxonomy for analyzing existing texture‐space shading methods based on the group size and parametrization of shading units. Furthermore, we introduce a novel texture‐space layout strategy that operates on large shading units: the meshlet shading atlas. We experimentally demonstrate that the meshlet shading atlas outperforms previous approaches in terms of image quality, run‐time performance and temporal upsampling for a given number of fragment shader invocations. The meshlet shading atlas lends itself to work together with popular cluster‐based rendering of meshes with high geometric detail.
A‐ULMPM: An Adaptively Updated Lagrangian Material Point Method for Efficient Physics Simulation without Numerical Fracture
Authors: Su Haozhe , Xue Tao , Han Chengguizi , Aanjaneya Mridul
Published: May 2022

We present an adaptively updated Lagrangian Material Point Method (A‐ULMPM) to alleviate non‐physical artifacts, such as the cell‐crossing instability and numerical fracture, that plague state‐of‐the‐art Eulerian formulations of MPM, while still allowing for large deformations that arise in fluid simulations. A‐ULMPM spans MPM discretizations from total Lagrangian formulations to Eulerian formulations. We design an easy‐to‐implement physics‐based criterion that allows A‐ULMPM to update the reference configuration adaptively for measuring physical states, including stress, strain, interpolation kernels and their derivatives. For better efficiency and conservation of angular momentum, we further integrate the APIC [JSS*15] and MLS‐MPM [HFG*18] formulations in A‐ULMPM by augmenting the accuracy of velocity rasterization using both the local velocity and its first‐order derivatives. Our theoretical derivations use a nodal discretized Lagrangian, instead of the weak form discretization in MLS‐MPM [HFG*!!18], and naturally lead to a “modified” MLS‐MPM in A‐ULMPM, which can recover MLS‐MPM using a completely Eulerian formulation. A‐ULMPM does not require significant changes to traditional Eulerian formulations of MPM, and is computationally more efficient since it only updates interpolation kernels and their derivatives during large topology changes. We present end‐to‐end 3D simulations of stretching and twisting hyperelastic solids, viscous flows, splashing liquids, and multi‐material interactions with large deformations to demonstrate the efficacy of our new method.
Vectorizing Line Drawings of Arbitrary Thickness via Boundary‐based Topology Reconstruction
Authors: Zhang Zibo , Liu Xueting , Li Chengze , Wu Huisi , Wen Zhenkun
Published: May 2022

Vectorization is a commonly used technique for converting raster images to vector format and has long been a research focus in computer graphics and vision. While a number of attempts have been made to extract the topology of line drawings and further convert them to vector representations, the existing methods commonly focused on resolving junctions composed of thin lines. They usually fail for line drawings composed of thick lines, especially at junctions. In this paper, we propose an automatic line drawing vectorization method that can reconstruct the topology of line drawings of arbitrary thickness. Our key observation is that no matter the lines are thin or thick, the boundaries of the lines always provide reliable hints for reconstructing the topology. For example, the boundaries of two continuous line segments at a junction are usually smoothly connected. By analyzing the continuity of boundaries, we can better analyze the topology at junctions. In particular, we first extract the skeleton of the input line drawing via thinning. Then we analyze the reliability of the skeleton points based on boundaries. Reliable skeleton points are preserved while unreliable skeleton points are reconstructed based on boundaries again. Finally, the skeleton after reconstruction is vectorized as the output. We apply our method on line drawings of various contents and styles. Satisfying results are obtained. Our method significantly outperforms existing methods for line drawings composed of thick lines.
Computational Design of Kinesthetic Garments
Authors: Vechev V. , Zarate J. , Thomaszewski B. , Hilliges O.
Published: May 2022

Kinesthetic garments provide physical feedback on body posture and motion through tailored distributions of reinforced material. Their ability to selectively stiffen a garment's response to specific motions makes them appealing for rehabilitation, sports, robotics, and many other application fields. However, finding designs that distribute a given amount of reinforcement material to maximally stiffen the response to specified motions is a challenging problem. In this work, we propose an optimization‐driven approach for automated design of reinforcement patterns for kinesthetic garments. Our main contribution is to cast this design task as an on‐body topology optimization problem. Our method allows designers to explore a continuous range of designs corresponding to various amounts of reinforcement coverage. Our model captures both tight contact and lift‐off separation between cloth and body. We demonstrate our method on a variety of reinforcement design problems for different body sites and motions. Optimal designs lead to a two‐ to threefold improvement in performance in terms of energy density. A set of manufactured designs were consistently rated as providing more resistance than baselines in a comparative user study.
State‐of‐the‐Art in the Architecture, Methods and Applications of StyleGAN
Authors: Bermano A.H. , Gal R. , Alaluf Y. , Mokady R. , Nitzan Y. , Tov O. , Patashnik O. , Cohen‐Or D.
Published: May 2022

Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) have established themselves as a prevalent approach to image synthesis. Of these, StyleGAN offers a fascinating case study, owing to its remarkable visual quality and an ability to support a large array of downstream tasks. This state‐of‐the‐art report covers the StyleGAN architecture, and the ways it has been employed since its conception, while also analyzing its severe limitations. It aims to be of use for both newcomers, who wish to get a grasp of the field, and for more experienced readers that might benefit from seeing current research trends and existing tools laid out. Among StyleGAN's most interesting aspects is its learned latent space. Despite being learned with no supervision, it is surprisingly well‐behaved and remarkably disentangled. Combined with StyleGAN's visual quality, these properties gave rise to unparalleled editing capabilities. However, the control offered by StyleGAN is inherently limited to the generator's learned distribution, and can only be applied to images generated by StyleGAN itself. Seeking to bring StyleGAN's latent control to real‐world scenarios, the study of GAN inversion and latent space embedding has quickly gained in popularity. Meanwhile, this same study has helped shed light on the inner workings and limitations of StyleGAN. We map out StyleGAN's impressive story through these investigations, and discuss the details that have made StyleGAN the go‐to generator. We further elaborate on the visual priors StyleGAN constructs, and discuss their use in downstream discriminative tasks. Looking forward, we point out StyleGAN's limitations and speculate on current trends and promising directions for future research, such as task and target specific fine‐tuning.
Transracial adoption practice in South Africa: The Western Cape as a case study
Authors: Luyt Jean , Swartz Leslie
Published: May 2022

Transracial adoption (TRA) represents the largest number of non‐disclosed adoptions in South Africa but remains under researched. This exploratory research investigates practices in the Western Cape, via semi‐structured interviews with adoption social workers and magistrates. Thematic analysis of data revealed the following themes: knowledge and attitudes towards the legal/policy framework of TRA; influences on placement decisions; preparation before and support offered after transracial placement; problems faced by adoption practitioners; and the Western Cape as supportive of TRA. A reluctance to engage with race and a de facto acceptance of TRA undermines a critical view of current practice.
Group‐based trajectory modeling of intracranial pressure in patients with acute brain injury: Results from multi‐center ICUs, 2008–2019
Authors: Yang Fan , Peng Chi , Peng Liwei , Wang Peng , Cheng Chao , Zuo Wei , Zhao Lei , Jin Zhichao , Li Weixin
Published: May 2022

Objective

The objective of the study was to characterize the longitudinal, dynamic intracranial pressure (ICP) trajectory in acute brain injury (ABI) patients admitted to intensive care unit (ICU) and explore whether it added sights over traditional thresholds in predicting outcomes.

Methods

ABI patients with ICP monitoring were identified from two public databases named Medical Information Mart for the Intensive Care (MIMIC)‐IV and eICU Collaborative Research Database (eICU‐CRD). Group‐based trajectory modeling (GBTM) was employed to identify 4‐h ICP trajectories in days 0–5 post‐ICU admission. Then, logistic regression was used to compare clinical outcomes across distinct groups. To further validate previously reported thresholds, we created the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve in our dataset.

Results

A total of 810 eligible patients were ultimately enrolled in the study. GBTM analyses generated 6 distinct ICP trajectories, differing in the initial ICP, evolution pattern, and number/proportion of spikes >20/22 mmHg. Compared with patients in “the highest, declined then rose” trajectory, those belonging to the “lowest, stable,” “low, stable,” and “medium, stable” ICP trajectories were at lower risks of 30‐day mortality (odds ratio [OR] 0.04; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.01, 0.21), (OR 0.04; 95% CI 0.01, 0.19), (OR 0.08; 95% CI 0.01, 0.42), respectively. ROC analysis demonstrated an unfavorable result, for example, 30‐day mortality in total cohort: an area under the curve (AUC): 0.528, sensitivity: 0.11, and specificity: 0.94.

Conclusions

This study identified three ICP trajectories associated with elevated risk, three with reduced risks for mortality during ICU hospitalization. Notably, a fixed ICP threshold should not be applied to all kinds of patients. GBTM, a granular method for describing ICP evolution and their association with clinical outcomes, may add to the current knowledge in intracranial hypertension treatment.