bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Are restaurant customers ready for tablet-based menus?
Authors: Suarez Nataly , Berezina Katerina , Yang Wan , Gordon Susan
Published: July 2019

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to explain the impact of innovation characteristics (relative advantage, compatibility, complexity and perceived risk) and individual differences (inertia, technology anxiety, need for interaction and previous experience) on customer intentions to adopt tablet-based menus in various restaurants settings.

Design/methodology/approach

An experimental design was used in this study to explore tablet-based menu acceptance intentions across three restaurant settings: quick-service, midscale and upscale. A total of 415 participants were randomly assigned to one of the three scenarios describing a dining experience. Each scenario placed participants in a restaurant setting where a tablet-based menu was a part of the guests’ dining experience.

Findings

The study results indicated that out of the four innovation characteristics, compatibility and relative advantage are strong predictors of adoption intention of tablet-based menus. Among customer individual differences, technology anxiety and need for interaction were not found to have a statistically significant impact on intentions to adopt tablet-based menus. It was also found that customers dining at quick-service and midscale restaurants are more likely to adopt tablet-based menus than customers dining at upscale restaurants.

Practical implications

Managers in quick-service and midscale restaurants may consider investing in tablet-based menus, as customers of these restaurant types demonstrate higher adoption intentions compared to the customers of upscale dining establishments. The results of this study suggest that upscale restaurants should plan carefully before switching to table-based menus.

Originality/value

The findings of this study may assist restaurant managers in recognizing the importance of customer acceptance of new technologies such as tablet-based menus, which will lead to informed decisions about implementing tablet-based menus in their establishments.
Crafting a legacy: investigating the retired athlete brand image
Authors: Taniyev Olzhas , Gordon Brian S.
Published: July 2019

Purpose

The purpose of this paper exploratory study is to decipher sport consumer associations and sentiments connected to the brand image of retired athletes.

Design/methodology/approach

In total, 14 sport consumers, who demonstrated an in-depth knowledge of throwback branding tactics and expertise in athlete brand promotion, participated in in-depth semi-structured interviews.

Findings

The findings indicate there are three prevalent themes across the present data (i.e. epoch epitome, athlete-team connection and off-the-field persona).

Originality/value

While the proliferation of throwback merchandise and affinity for brands of retired athletes is evident, the internalization of associations related to retired athletes has escaped empirical investigation. Numerous questions concerning how specific facets of a retired athlete’s image (e.g. athletic skills or life off the field) activate nostalgic feelings, drive consumer loyalty and establish market permanence remain unanswered. The current study contributes to the understanding of the brand image of the retired athlete and the existing literature concerning athlete branding.
Is digitalization the only driver of convergence? Theorizing relations between libraries, archives, and museums
Authors: Rasmussen Casper Hvenegaard
Published: July 2019

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to theorize and discuss potential factors for convergence between libraries, archives and museums (LAMs).

Design/methodology/approach

This is a conceptual paper that criticizes existing research on the convergence between the LAMs for a lack of theoretical reflection and a sacralization of technology. Therefore, concepts such as convergent evolution, isomorphism, social fields and autonomy are used to analyze other potential factors for convergence.

Findings

The paper demonstrates that digitalization is not the only potential driver of convergence between the LAMs. Indeed, other changes in institutions’ environments, such as societal changes, shifts in cultural policy and increasingly common practices among cultural institutions can represent important drivers.

Research limitations/implications

Given that this paper is primarily based on theoretical reflections, future research should empirically investigate the non-digital factors suggested for convergence.

Originality/value

The paper represents an attempt to detect a “blind spot” in existing research on convergences between the LAM institutions and to identify some potential paths for future research to follow.
Empirical research on mergers’ leverage dynamics and post-merger integration duration
Authors: Cheng Yao
Published: July 2019

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of the post-merger integration duration on acquiring firms’ leverage behavior before and after a merger, using a dynamic model in which full merger benefits cannot be consumed at the instant of a merger, but rather after a pre-specified post-merger integration period.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper presents a dynamic model and empirical tests that describe the impact of the post-merger integration period on the capital structure dynamics of the acquiring and target ﬁrms prior to a merger and during the post-merger integration period. By incorporating costs associated with the post-merger integration period, the model can provide new implications for the leverage behavior around the merger.

Findings

Empirical tests support the model implications by showing that the longer the expected post-merger integration process, the less likely the acquirer will structure the financing of the combined firm in a manner that increases firm leverage. Since integration takes time to complete, an acquirer tends to retain financial flexibility during the integration process by assuming lower levels of debt when determining the capital structure of the merged entity.

Originality/value

The model generates new implications related to acquiring firms’ leverage dynamics along with the method of payment choice. The analysis of the duration of the post-merger integration period extends both the theoretical and empirical literature that tacitly assumes that the merger-related synergy is realized immediately at the merger date. This is the first model in the literature that assumes that both the acquiring and the target firms can change their capital structure overtime, which allows us to analyze both the financing structure and the merger timing. Previous empirical studies also ignore the integration period in the analysis of the method of payment choice and leverage behavior around mergers. The model in this paper can be extended along a number of dimensions.
Content in the context of welfare configurations: a comparative institutional analysis of self-reporting on corporate social responsibility
Authors: Backlund Rambaree Brita
Published: July 2019

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine corporate social responsibility (CSR) content in the context of four differing national institutional arrangements for welfare. An analysis is presented on how self-reported CSR differs in content across two western welfare states (the UK and Sweden) and two emerging economies in southern Africa (South Africa and Mauritius).

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is based on a qualitative content analysis of the CSR self-reporting of 40 companies. This involved 10 of the largest companies incorporated in four countries, namely, Sweden, the UK, South Africa and Mauritius. The content is categorised into community involvement, socially responsible production and socially responsible employee relations. For each category, an analysis is provided of the reported issues (the question of what), the geographic focus of reported issues (the question of where) and ways of working with these issues (the question of how), as well as the extent of reporting and level of reporting (the question of how much).

Findings

The study shows that companies place focus on aspects, issues and localities in ways that differ between countries and can be understood in relation to current institutional arrangements for welfare. The content of self-reported CSR can be both complementing and mirroring the welfare arrangements. Differences in self-reported CSR agendas are particularly evident between the two western welfare states on the one hand and the two emerging economies on the other, as these represent two distinct contexts in terms of welfare arrangements.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to research on the institutional embeddedness of CSR in three ways: first, by going beyond measures of country differences in terms of extent of CSR to consider differences in CSR content; second, by focusing on the social aspects of CSR and placing these differences in relation to welfare configurations; and third, by contributing with empirical findings on how CSR content differs across national settings and across the established/emerging economy divide.
Skin microbiome differences relate to the grade of acne vulgaris
Authors: Li Chun‐xi , You Zhi‐xuan , Lin Yan‐xia , Liu Hai‐yue , Su Jin
Published: July 2019

The skin microbiome plays important roles in the pathogenesis and development of acne. We aimed to investigate the facial skin microbiome of acne and microbiome differences related to different grades of acne. Skin swabs from nine healthy controls and 67 acne patients were collected, and the skin microbiomes were analyzed using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Compared with healthy controls, acne patients harbored significantly altered skin microbiomes. The skin microbiomes of patients with grade 1–3 acne were similar, but patients with grade 4 acne showed a significantly different skin microbiome compared with grade 1–3 acne, including increased alpha diversity and increased proportions of four Gram‐negative bacteria (Faecalibacterium, Klebsiella, Odoribacter and Bacteroides). In conclusion, acne patients harbored an altered skin microbiome, and more significant dysbiosis was found in patients with grade 4 acne (severe acne). Our findings may provide evidence for the pathogenic mechanisms of acne and microbial‐based strategies to avoid and treat acne, especially grade 4 acne.
Heat‐killed Salmonella typhimurium mitigated radiation‐induced lung injury
Authors: Kun Cao , Tao Luo , Leiyuan Hu , Yunhao Fang , Ning Wu , Zhe Liu , Yuanyuan Chen , Xiao Lei , Hongran Qin , Jianming Cai , Fu Gao , Yanyong Yang
Published: July 2019

Radiation‐induced lung injury (RILI) is a serious complication in thoracic tumour radiotherapy. It often occurs in clinical chest radiotherapy and acute whole‐body irradiation (WBI) caused by nuclear accidents or nuclear weapon attack. Some radioprotective agents have been reported to exert protective effects when given prior to radiation exposure, however, there is no treatment strategy available for preventing RILI. In this study, we demonstrated that heat‐killed Salmonella typhimurium (HKST), a co‐agonist of Toll‐like receptors 2 (TLR2), Toll‐like receptors 4 (TLR4) and Toll‐like receptors 5 (TLR5), mitigated radiation‐induced lung injury through the transforming growth factor‐β (TGF‐β) signalling pathway. We found that HKST alleviated lung hyperaemia and pathological damage after irradiation, indicated that HKST inhibits the early inflammatory reaction of radiation‐induced lung injury. Then, for the first time, we observed HKST reduced collagen deposit induced by irradiation in the later phase (7‐14 week) of RILI, and we found that HKST inhibited radiation‐induced cell apoptosis in lung tissues. We found that HKST reduced the level of TGF‐β and regulated its downstream signalling pathway. Finally, it was found that HKST inhibited radiation‐induced epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) in lung tissues. In conclusion, our data showed that HKST effectively mitigated RILI through regulating TGF‐β, provide novel treatment strategy for RILI in whole‐body irradiation and radiotherapy.
Water, power, and refusal: confronting evasive accountability in a Palestinian village
Authors: McKee Emily
Published: July 2019

This article interprets the meanings and motivations of refusal to pay water bills within a context of fragmented sovereignty. Residents of a village in the occupied Palestinian West Bank call for solutions to water shortages and failed infrastructure, but do so amidst capricious power, where would‐be sovereigns evade accountability. Lacking avenues for direct engagement with authorities, residents speak in generalized ethical terms of their legitimate water claims, and they resort to bill refusal. Setting villagers’ bill refusals within the broader set of interactions between would‐be sovereigns and subjects, this article contributes to anthropological scholarship on refusal by demonstrating how it can be a way of not only dismantling state power, but also summoning a responsible sovereign. Furthermore, it highlights how common dilemmas faced by refusers – dismissal and co‐optation – can be exacerbated by the same evasive accountability against which they protest.
The trade in human liver lobes: bioviolence against organ sellers in Bangladesh
Authors: Moniruzzaman Monir
Published: July 2019

The rapid growth in organ transplantation has created an illicit trade in human organs. The kidney trade has flourished in the last few decades, but in the last few years this has been coupled with an emerging liver trade. This article examines the liver trade sourced from poor sellers in Bangladesh. Through ethnographic fieldwork, I investigate how a landless farmer and a village housewife both sell their liver lobes on the black market, and how the recipients undergo liver transplants in Bangladesh and India. I reveal that liver selling, like kidney selling, is primarily driven by the sellers’ debt. What is surprising, though, in this anthropological analysis is that microcredit, a Nobel Prize‐winning economic operation, has negatively contributed to organ selling in Bangladesh. I discover that the liver trade leads to tragic outcomes for both sellers and recipients: the sellers could not repay their loans by selling a liver lobe, while one of the recipients died just over a month after the surgery. I therefore argue that liver trade is advancing through a series of disturbing ironies, resulting in bioviolence, exploitation, and suffering for the vulnerable victims.
Marriage as a Marker of Secular Inclusion? Oral History and Lesbian and Gay Narratives on Marriage in Contemporary Australia
Authors: Reynolds Robert , Robinson Shirleene
Published: July 2019

Same‐sex marriage has been one of the most widely discussed social issues in contemporary Australia for some time. In late 2017, after holding a contentious national postal survey that year, the Australia government introduced legislation allowing same‐sex couples to marry. This article draws on a major national lesbian and gay oral history project conducted in partnership with the National Library of Australia between 2012 and 2015, when discussions of same‐sex marriage were becoming increasingly widespread. It investigates the way interview subjects incorporated marriage into their narratives. In doing so, it highlights how understandings of marriage — both amongst lesbian and gay people and heterosexual people — have shifted and evolved over time. While some subjects saw marriage as a somewhat outdated, religious, and patriarchal concept, many others invested personal significance in the institution, arguing that allowing gay men and lesbians access to marriage would be a strong symbol of social progress and equality in a secular society. We conclude with one young interviewee who had managed to reconcile his faith with his sexuality and desire for marriage equality.
Teacher attitudes towards the inclusion of students with support needs
Authors: Saloviita Timo
Published: July 2019

Teachers’ positive attitudes towards inclusive education are a prerequisite for its successful implementation. This study surveyed the attitudes of Finnish classroom, subject, resource room and special education class teachers (N = 4567) towards inclusive education. The results indicated very low support for the concept. Its acceptance was strongly associated with the specific teacher categories and the concern that inclusive placements would cause extra work for teachers. Teachers who were confident in their support networks and had sufficient access to educational resources, such as an in‐classroom teaching assistant, were more positive towards inclusion than other teachers. Attitudinal variables, including self‐efficacy and child‐centredness, and demographic variables, including age and gender, were also associated with attitudes towards inclusion. It is argued that vicious circle exists between resources and teacher attitudes. The negative climate towards inclusion prevents the legislation that would guarantee adequate resources for mainstream teachers who have students with support needs in their classrooms. The lack of legal guarantees, in turn, prevents negative teacher attitudes towards inclusive education from changing. Although the overall progress in inclusive education is tied to the development of cultural values, the promise of more inclusion in schools goes hand‐in‐hand with the availability of adequate resources.
Hydrocarbon and Fatty Acid Composition from Blowfly Eggs Represents a Potential Complementary Taxonomic Tool of Forensic Importance,
Authors: Lunas Belisa M. , de Paula Michele C. , Michelutti Kamylla B. , Lima‐Junior Sidnei E. , Antonialli‐Junior William F. , Cardoso Claudia A. L.
Published: July 2019

One of the most important contributions of forensic entomology is to assist criminal expertise to determine the postmortem interval, which depends on the duration of the immature stages of insects of forensic interest. On the other hand, the time of development of the different stages varies according to the species; therefore, its identification is essential. Currently, few studies have investigated the use of cuticular hydrocarbons, and none regarding fatty acids, as complementary taxonomic tools to expedite species identification. Therefore, we evaluated whether cuticular hydrocarbons together with fatty acids of eggs of flies of the family Calliphoridae, main group of forensic interest, can be used to distinguish species. The analyses were performed by chromatographic techniques. The results show that there are significant differences between the composition of cuticular hydrocarbons and fatty acids between species and, therefore, they can be used to provide a complementary taxonomic tool to expedite the forensic expertise.
In Vitro Evaluation of Resistance and Warming Performance of a Small Blood Warmer on a Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy Circuit
Authors: Roy Jean‐Philippe , Reagor James , Klein Tom , Morgan Jolyn , Palazzolo Alisa , Ratcliff Joseph , Goldstein Stuart L
Published: July 2019

Children on extracorporeal devices are at increased risk of hypothermia and require circuits with lower extracorporeal volume to avoid blood priming. We performed an in vitro study of the enFlow blood warmer to assess its warming performance and impact on circuit resistance at a high blood flow rate. The enFlow was added on the return line of a continuous renal replacement therapy circuit in a closed circuit primed with expired packed red blood cells (40% Hct). Return venous pressure and temperature pre‐ and post‐ both enFlow and Prismaflo II were measured at varying blood flow with different combination of the two blood warmers. Each variable was recorded eight times over 2 min. Return venous pressure was higher with the enFlow but was still within clinically usable range (127.5 ± 4.6 vs. 45.3 ± 1.4 mm Hg at 200 mL/min, P < 0.05). The enFlow was able to achieve post‐warmer temperature between 34.1 and 35.2°C even at 200 mL/min with blood, lower than what was observed with crystalloid, but still more effective than the Prismaflo II (P < 0.05 vs. enFlow post‐warmer temperature) achieving between 32.8 and 34.0°C. Combining both warmers achieved a higher post‐warmer temperature between 35.1 and 36.5°C. The enFlow can warm blood at high flow rates with minimal extracorporeal volume increase (~5 mL) and improve hypothermia prevention but may have resistance issues at the highest flows. The use of this device could benefit pediatric practice where smaller extracorporeal volumes are needed and patients are at increased risk of hypothermia.
Safety of Direct‐Acting Antiviral Therapy for Renal Function in Post‐Kidney Transplant Patients Infected with Hepatitis C Virus and a 100% 12‐Week Sustained Virologic Response: A Single‐Center Study
Authors: Kawagishi Naoki , Nakamura Atsushi , Takayama Tetsuro , Haga Izumi
Published: July 2019

Treatment of chronic hepatitis C infection after renal transplantation has been controversial due to the high rate of graft rejections with interferon (IFN)‐based therapies. The aim of this study is to review our experience of direct acting antiviral therapy for the recipients of renal transplantation. Eleven recipients who were hepatitis C virus‐polymerase chain reaction (PCR) positive were eligible for the treatment with direct acting antivirals. Six recipients were treated with sofosbuvir and ledipasvir, three were treated with elbasvir and grazoprevir, and one was treated with sofosbuvir and ribavirin for 12 weeks. One recipient was treated with glecaprevir and pibrentasvir for 8 weeks. All of the 11 recipients exhibited sustained virologic response at week 12 after the end of treatment. Adverse events were scarce including the two recipients who switched to tacrolimus from cyclosporine at the beginning of the treatment. The direct acting antiviral therapy including new agents appears to be safe and highly efficacious for the recipients after renal transplantation.
Aquatic microbial diversity associated with faecal pollution of Norwegian waterbodies characterized by 16S rRNA gene amplicon deep sequencing
Authors: Paruch Lisa , Paruch Adam M. , Eiken Hans Geir , Sørheim Roald
Published: July 2019

Faecal contamination is one of the major factors affecting biological water quality. In this study, we investigated microbial taxonomic diversity of faecally polluted lotic ecosystems in Norway. These ecosystems comprise tributaries of drinking water reservoirs with moderate and high faecal contamination levels, an urban creek exposed to extremely high faecal pollution and a rural creek that was the least faecally polluted. The faecal water contamination had both anthropogenic and zoogenic origins identified through quantitative microbial source tracking applying host‐specific Bacteroidales 16S rRNA genetic markers. The microbial community composition revealed that Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes (70–90% relative abundance) were the most dominant bacterial phyla, followed by Firmicutes, especially in waters exposed to anthropogenic faecal contamination. The core archaeal community consisted of Parvarchaeota (mainly in the tributaries of drinking water reservoirs) and Crenarchaeota (in the rural creek). The aquatic microbial diversity was substantially reduced in water with severe faecal contamination. In addition, the community compositions diverge between waters with dominant anthropogenic or zoogenic pollution origins. These findings present novel interpretations of the effect of anthropo‐zoogenic faecal water contamination on microbial diversity in lotic ecosystems.
Point‐of‐care analyses of blood samples from intraosseous access in pre‐hospital critical care
Authors: Jousi Milla , Björkman Johannes , Nurmi Jouni
Published: July 2019

Background

Intraosseous (IO) access is used for fluid and medication administration in emergency situations when difficulties with vascular access are encountered. IO access would be readily available to take samples for point‐of‐care (POC) analysis, but there is scarce evidence about the reliability of POC analysis of IO samples among emergency patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and reliability of POC analysis of IO samples in critically ill pre‐hospital patients.

Methods

We performed a prospective, observational study in 35 critically ill pre‐hospital patients. After inserting a humeral IO needle, we immediately drew an IO sample. We compared the results to an arterial sample drawn from the same patient within 5 (blood gases) or 15 (other parameters) minutes. Samples were analysed with an i‐STAT® POC analyser for blood gases, acid‐base balance, electrolytes, glucose and haemoglobin. The agreement between each patient’s IO and arterial samples was analysed using the Bland‐Altman method. The results were compared to responses about acceptable bias on a questionnaire sent to 16 experienced emergency physicians.

Results

The analysis was successful for 23 patients (70%). Higher age was associated with failed analyses. The average bias was acceptable for base excess, pH, standard bicarbonate, glucose, ionized calcium and sodium. IO potassium values were systematically higher than arterial values. IO haemoglobin values had widely varying agreement.

Conclusion

When vascular access is challenging, IO access can be used for emergency POC analyses to help guide clinical decision‐making. However, the limitations of IO POC analyses must be carefully considered.
Chondrocyte‐like nested cells in the aged intervertebral disc are late‐stage nucleus pulposus cells
Authors: Mohanty Sarthak , Pinelli Robert , Pricop Paul , Albert Todd J. , Dahia Chitra Lekha
Published: July 2019

Aging is a major risk factor of intervertebral disc degeneration and a leading cause of back pain. Pathological changes associated with disc degeneration include the absence of large, vacuolated and reticular‐shaped nucleus pulposus cells, and appearance of smaller cells nested in lacunae. These small nested cells are conventionally described as chondrocyte‐like cells; however, their origin in the intervertebral disc is unknown. Here, using a genetic mouse model and a fate mapping strategy, we have found that the chondrocyte‐like cells in degenerating intervertebral discs are, in fact, nucleus pulposus cells. With aging, the nucleus pulposus cells fuse their cell membranes to form the nested lacunae. Next, we characterized the expression of sonic hedgehog (SHH), crucial for the maintenance of nucleus pulposus cells, and found that as intervertebral discs age and degenerate, expression of SHH and its target Brachyury is gradually lost. The results indicate that the chondrocyte‐like phenotype represents a terminal stage of differentiation preceding loss of nucleus pulposus cells and disc collapse.
Effects of Tobacco Smoking Status on Verbal Learning and Memory in Patients With Schizophrenia and Non‐Psychiatric Controls
Authors: Kozak Karolina , Lowe Darby J. E. , George Tony P.
Published: July 2019

Background and Objectives

Patients with schizophrenia have higher rates of tobacco smoking compared to the general population. Moreover, these patients have deficits in cognition, including verbal learning and memory. However, it is not clear whether smoking status alters verbal learning and memory in schizophrenia. We examined the effects of smoking abstinence and reinstatement on verbal learning and memory in people with schizophrenia and nonpsychiatric controls and other cognitive domains as exploratory.

Methods

Smoking participants (N = 28; 14 schizophrenia smokers; 14 nonpsychiatric smokers) were studied under smoking satiated, overnight abstinence and smoking reinstatement conditions. Nonsmokers (
n = 30; 15 schizophrenia nonsmokers; 15 nonpsychiatric nonsmokers) were also studied. A comprehensive cognitive battery was administered including verbal learning and memory using the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test‐Revised (HVLT‐R).

Results

A 2 (diagnosis) × 2 (smoking status) repeated measures analysis of variance with time (session) as the within‐subjects factor and diagnosis and smoking status as the between‐subject factors was performed for HVLT‐R and other cognitive outcomes. Smoking abstinence produced a decline in verbal memory of the HVLT discrimination index in smokers with schizophrenia that was partially revised by reinstatement, although trends for other HVLT measures were not statistically significant.

Conclusions and Scientific Significance

Acute cigarette smoking and abstinence may selectively alter verbal learning and memory deficits in smokers with schizophrenia compared to nonpsychiatric smoking controls and nonsmokers, but additional studies are needed to confirm the preliminary findings in this small sample. (Am J Addict 2019;00:1–9)
Numerical investigation on the effect of bileaflet mechanical heart valve's implantation tilting angle and aortic root geometry on intermittent regurgitation and platelet activation
Authors: Abbas Syed Samar , Nasif Mohammad Shakir , Al‐Waked Rafat , Meor Said Mior Azman
Published: July 2019

Platelet activation induced by shear stresses and non‐physiological flow field generated by bileaflet mechanical heart valves (BMHVs) leads to thromboembolism, which can cause fatal consequences. One of the causes of platelet activation could be intermittent regurgitation, which arises due to asynchronous movement and rebound of BMHV leaflets during the valve closing phase. In this numerical study, the effect of intermittent regurgitation on the platelet activation potential of BMHVs was quantified by modeling a BMHV in the straight and anatomic aorta at implantation tilt angles 0°, 5°, 10°, and 20°. A fully implicit Arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian‐based Fluid–Structure Interaction formulation was adopted with blood modeled as a multiphase, non‐Newtonian fluid. Results showed that the intermittent regurgitation and consequently the platelet activation level increases with the increasing implantation tilt of BMHV. For the straight aorta, the leaflet of the 20° tilted BMHV underwent a rebound of approximately 20° after initially closing, whereas the leaflet of the 10°, 5°, and 0° tilted BMHVs underwent a rebound of 8.5°, 3°, and 0°, respectively. For the anatomic aorta, the leaflet of the 20° tilted BMHV underwent a rebound of approximately 24° after initially closing, whereas the leaflet of the 10°, 5°, and 0° tilted BMHVs underwent a rebound of 14°, 10°, and 7°, respectively. For all the implantation orientations of BMHVs, intermittent regurgitation and platelet activation were always higher in the anatomic aorta than in the straight aorta. The study concludes that the pivot axis of BMHV must be implanted parallel to the aortic root's curvature to minimize intermittent regurgitation and platelet activation.
Best Practice Guidelines and Essential Methodological Steps to Conduct Rigorous and Systematic Meta‐Reviews
Authors: Hennessy Emily A. , Johnson Blair T. , Keenan Ciara
Published: July 2019

Background

A growing body of primary study and systematic review literature evaluates interventions and phenomena in applied and health psychology. Reviews of reviews (i.e., meta‐reviews) systematically synthesise and utilise this vast and often overwhelming literature; yet, currently there are few practical guidelines for meta‐review authors to follow.

Objective

The aim of this article is to provide an overview of the best practice guidelines for all research synthesis and to detail additional specific considerations and methodological details for the best practice of conducting a rigorous meta‐review.

Methods

This article provides readers with six systematic and practical steps along with accompanying examples to address with rigor the unique challenges that arise when authors familiar with systematic review methods begin a meta‐review: (a) detailing a clear scope, (b) identifying synthesis literature through strategic searches, (c) considering datedness of the literature, (d) addressing overlap among included reviews, (e) choosing and applying review quality tools, and (f) appropriate options for handling the synthesis and reporting of the vast amount of data collected in a meta‐review.

Conclusions

We have curated best practice recommendations and practical tips for conducting a meta‐review. We anticipate that assessments of meta‐review quality will ultimately formalise best‐method guidelines.
Collagen deamidation in archaeological bone as an assessment for relative decay rates
Authors: Pal Chowdhury M. , Wogelius R. , Manning P. L. , Metz L. , Slimak L. , Buckley M.
Published: July 2019

Attempts to extend methods for dating archaeological bones beyond that of radiocarbon dating, such as amino acid racemization, have met with limited success owing to the dependence on multiple environmental factors and controls. Despite facing similar challenges, deamidation of glutamine has recently been investigated as a potential indicator of ‘thermal age' in archaeological bones, as well as a measure of their preservation quality. In this study, we undertook a series of simulated diagenetic experiments to understand the various factors affecting deamidation. Further, we analysed bones from different Middle Palaeolithic layers from Grotte Mandrin (France), with the results suggesting potential use of deamidation for relative dating, but only in case of extremely well‐preserved layers. The results also suggested the possible use of attenuated total reflectance‐Fourier transform infrared (ATR‐FTIR) spectroscopy as a screening test for soluble collagen before proteomic analysis.
Truncated Simes Tests
Authors: Lawrence John
Published: July 2019

It is known that the one-sided Simes’ test controls the error rate if the underlying distribution is multivariate totally positive of order 2 (MTP2), but not in general. The two-sided test also controls the error rate when the coordinate absolute value has an MTP2 distribution, which holds more generally. We prove mathematically that when the coordinate absolute value controls the error rate at level 2α, then certain kinds of truncated Simes’ tests also control the one-sided error rate at level α. We also compare the closure of the truncated tests with the Holms, Hochberg, and Hommel procedures in many scenarios when the test statistics are multivariate normal.
Teaching expertise reconsidered: The Technology, Pedagogy, Content and Space (TPeCS) knowledge framework
Authors: Kali Yael , Sagy Ornit , Benichou Maya , Atias Osnat , Levin‐Peled Rachel
Published: July 2019

School practitioners are increasingly expected to lead construction projects in their schools to create future learning spaces (FLSs) that support learning in today’s networked society. This study examined the process by which practitioners of one school developed their readiness to incorporate an FLS into the school via a long‐lasting research–practice partnership (RPP) that focused on co‐designing learning materials for contemporary teaching. To conceptualize this process, we introduce the Technology, Pedagogy, Content and Space (TPeCS) knowledge framework, which expands current conceptualizations of teaching expertise by tying them into the emerging field of FLSs. We interpret practitioners’ learning within a series of action–reaction progressive developments along a two‐year timeline of the partnership. Visits to an FLS, where researchers modeled, coached and then faded their guidance along this timeline played a key role in practitioners’ development of readiness to incorporate an FLS into their school. The pedagogical domain was the most challenging among all the dimensions of TPeCS. We conclude that school practitioners’ involvement leading FLS endeavors within their schools can serve as an unprecedented opportunity for practitioners to develop contemporary teaching skills, with FLSs serving as ideal spaces that make pedagogy visible.

Practitioner Notes

What is already known about this topic

School practitioners are increasingly expected to participate in construction/renovation projects of FLSs.

Teaching expertise is often conceptualized in terms of technological, pedagogical and content knowledge (TPaCK).

What this paper adds

A novel framework for conceptualizing teaching expertise as the competence to flexibly use knowledge that combines technological, pedagogical, content and space (TPeCS) considerations.

The pedagogical component within TPeCS has a bottleneck quality. Reducing pedagogical gaps accelerates the development of other TPeCS components.

Visits to state‐of‐the‐art FLSs, involving modeling, coaching and fading of expert guidance can foster practitioners’ development of TPeCS knowledge and competencies, increasing their readiness to incorporate FLSs into their schools. FLSs and specifically the use of large digital displays are ideal for making pedagogy visible.

Implications for practice and/or policy

School practitioners can, and should, be key players in leading FLS endeavors within their schools. When appropriately guided, this can serve as an unprecedented opportunity for practitioners to develop contemporary teaching skills
V‐Awake: A Visual Analytics Approach for Correcting Sleep Predictions from Deep Learning Models
Authors: Garcia Caballero Humberto S. , Westenberg Michel A. , Gebre Binyam , van Wijk Jarke J.
Published: July 2019

The usage of deep learning models for tagging input data has increased over the past years because of their accuracy and high‐performance. A successful application is to score sleep stages. In this scenario, models are trained to predict the sleep stages of individuals. Although their predictive accuracy is high, there are still mis classifications that prevent doctors from properly diagnosing sleep‐related disorders. This paper presents a system that allows users to explore the output of deep learning models in a real‐life scenario to spot and analyze faulty predictions. These can be corrected by users to generate a sequence of sleep stages to be examined by doctors. Our approach addresses a real‐life scenario with absence of ground truth. It differs from others in that our goal is not to improve the model itself, but to correct the predictions it provides. We demonstrate that our approach is effective in identifying faulty predictions and helping users to fix them in the proposed use case.
Follow The Clicks: Learning and Anticipating Mouse Interactions During Exploratory Data Analysis
Authors: Ottley Alvitta , Garnett Roman , Wan Ran
Published: July 2019

The goal of visual analytics is to create a symbiosis between human and computer by leveraging their unique strengths. While this model has demonstrated immense success, we are yet to realize the full potential of such a human‐computer partnership. In a perfect collaborative mixed‐initiative system, the computer must possess skills for learning and anticipating the users' needs. Addressing this gap, we propose a framework for inferring attention from passive observations of the user's click, thereby allowing accurate predictions of future events. We demonstrate this technique with a crime map and found that users' clicks can appear in our prediction set 92% ‐ 97% of the time. Further analysis shows that we can achieve high prediction accuracy typically after three clicks. Altogether, we show that passive observations of interaction data can reveal valuable information that will allow the system to learn and anticipate future events.
A framework for GPU‐accelerated exploration of massive time‐varying rectilinear scalar volumes
Authors: Marton Fabio , Agus Marco , Gobbetti Enrico
Published: July 2019

We introduce a novel flexible approach to spatiotemporal exploration of rectilinear scalar volumes. Our out‐of‐core representation, based on per‐frame levels of hierarchically tiled non‐redundant 3D grids, efficiently supports spatiotemporal random access and streaming to the GPU in compressed formats. A novel low‐bitrate codec able to store into fixed‐size pages a variable‐rate approximation based on sparse coding with learned dictionaries is exploited to meet stringent bandwidth constraint during time‐critical operations, while a near‐lossless representation is employed to support high‐quality static frame rendering. A flexible high‐speed GPU decoder and raycasting framework mixes and matches GPU kernels performing parallel object‐space and image‐space operations for seamless support, on fat and thin clients, of different exploration use cases, including animation and temporal browsing, dynamic exploration of single frames, and high‐quality snapshots generated from near‐lossless data. The quality and performance of our approach are demonstrated on large data sets with thousands of multi‐billion‐voxel frames.
An Interactive Visualization System for Large Sets of Phase Space Trajectories
Authors: Neuroth T.A. , Sauer F. , Ma K.L.
Published: July 2019

We introduce a visual analysis system with GPU acceleration techniques for large sets of trajectories from complex dynamical systems. The approach is based on an interactive Boolean combination of subsets into a Focus+Context phase‐space visualization. We achieve high performance through efficient bitwise algorithms utilizing runtime generated GPU shaders and kernels. This enables a higher level of interactivity for visualizing the large multivariate trajectory data. We explain how our design meets a set of carefully considered analysis requirements, provide performance results, and demonstrate utility through case studies with many‐particle simulation data from two application areas.
Examining Implicit Discretization in Spectral Schemes
Authors: Quinan P. S. , Padilla L. M. , Creem‐Regehr S. H. , Meyer M.
Published: July 2019

Two of the primary reasons rainbow color maps are considered ineffective trace back to the idea that they implicitly discretize encoded data into hue‐based bands, yet no research addresses what this discretization looks like or how consistent it is across individuals. This paper presents an exploratory study designed to empirically investigate the implicit discretization of common spectral schemes and explore whether the phenomenon can be modeled by variations in lightness, chroma, and hue. Our results suggest that three commonly used rainbow color maps are implicitly discretized with consistency across individuals. The results also indicate, however, that this implicit discretization varies across different datasets, in a way that suggests the visualization community's understanding of both rainbow color maps, and more generally effective color usage, remains incomplete.
Bridging the Data Analysis Communication Gap Utilizing a Three‐Component Summarized Line Graph
Authors: Yau C. , Karimzadeh M. , Surakitbanharn C. , Elmqvist N. , Ebert D. S.
Published: July 2019

Communication‐minded visualizations are designed to provide their audience—managers, decision‐makers, and the public—with new knowledge. Authoring such visualizations effectively is challenging because the audience often lacks the expertise, context, and time that professional analysts have at their disposal to explore and understand datasets. We present a novel summarized line graph visualization technique designed specifically for data analysts to communicate data to decision‐makers more effectively and efficiently. Our summarized line graph reduces a large and detailed dataset of multiple quantitative time‐series into (1) representative data that provides a quick takeaway of the full dataset; (2) analytical highlights that distinguish specific insights of interest; and (3) a data envelope that summarizes the remaining aggregated data. Our summarized line graph achieved the best overall results when evaluated against line graphs, band graphs, stream graphs, and horizon graphs on four representative tasks.
Visual‐Interactive Preprocessing of Multivariate Time Series Data
Authors: Bernard Jürgen , Hutter Marco , Reinemuth Heiko , Pfeifer Hendrik , Bors Christian , Kohlhammer Jörn
Published: July 2019

Pre‐processing is a prerequisite to conduct effective and efficient downstream data analysis. Pre‐processing pipelines often require multiple routines to address data quality challenges and to bring the data into a usable form. For both the construction and the refinement of pre‐processing pipelines, human‐in‐the‐loop approaches are highly beneficial. This particularly applies to multivariate time series, a complex data type with multiple values developing over time. Due to the high specificity of this domain, it has not been subject to in‐depth research in visual analytics. We present a visual‐interactive approach for preprocessing multivariate time series data with the following aspects. Our approach supports analysts to carry out six core analysis tasks related to pre‐processing of multivariate time series. To support these tasks, we identify requirements to baseline toolkits that may help practitioners in their choice. We characterize the space of visualization designs for uncertainty‐aware pre‐processing and justify our decisions. Two usage scenarios demonstrate applicability of our approach, design choices, and uncertainty visualizations for the six analysis tasks. This work is one step towards strengthening the visual analytics support for data pre‐processing in general and for uncertainty‐aware pre‐processing of multivariate time series in particular.
Interactive Volumetric Visual Analysis of Glycogen‐derived Energy Absorption in Nanometric Brain Structures
Authors: Agus M. , Calì C. , Al‐Awami A. , Gobbetti E. , Magistretti P. , Hadwiger M.
Published: July 2019

Digital acquisition and processing techniques are changing the way neuroscience investigation is carried out. Emerging applications range from statistical analysis on image stacks to complex connectomics visual analysis tools targeted to develop and test hypotheses of brain development and activity. In this work, we focus on neuroenergetics, a field where neuroscientists analyze nanoscale brain morphology and relate energy consumption to glucose storage in form of glycogen granules. In order to facilitate the understanding of neuroenergetic mechanisms, we propose a novel customized pipeline for the visual analysis of nanometric‐level reconstructions based on electron microscopy image data. Our framework supports analysis tasks by combining i) a scalable volume visualization architecture able to selectively render image stacks and corresponding labelled data, ii) a method for highlighting distance‐based energy absorption probabilities in form of glow maps, and iii) a hybrid connectivitybased and absorption‐based interactive layout representation able to support queries for selective analysis of areas of interest and potential activity within the segmented datasets. This working pipeline is currently used in a variety of studies in the neuroenergetics domain. Here, we discuss a test case in which the framework was successfully used by domain scientists for the analysis of aging effects on glycogen metabolism, extracting knowledge from a series of nanoscale brain stacks of rodents somatosensory cortex.
Hybrid Touch/Tangible Spatial 3D Data Selection
Authors: Besançon Lonni , Sereno Mickael , Yu Lingyun , Ammi Mehdi , Isenberg Tobias
Published: July 2019

We discuss spatial selection techniques for three‐dimensional datasets. Such 3D spatial selection is fundamental to exploratory data analysis. While 2D selection is efficient for datasets with explicit shapes and structures, it is less efficient for data without such properties. We first propose a new taxonomy of 3D selection techniques, focusing on the amount of control the user has to define the selection volume. We then describe the 3D spatial selection technique Tangible Brush, which gives manual control over the final selection volume. It combines 2D touch with 6‐DOF 3D tangible input to allow users to perform 3D selections in volumetric data. We use touch input to draw a 2D lasso, extruding it to a 3D selection volume based on the motion of a tangible, spatially‐aware tablet. We describe our approach and present its quantitative and qualitative comparison to state‐of‐the‐art structure‐dependent selection. Our results show that, in addition to being dataset‐independent, Tangible Brush is more accurate than existing dataset‐dependent techniques, thus providing a trade‐off between precision and effort.