bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Deep learning applications in manufacturing operations: a review of trends and ways forward
Authors: Sahoo Saumyaranjan , Kumar Satish , Abedin Mohammad Zoynul , Lim Weng Marc , Jakhar Suresh Kumar
Published: August 2022

Purpose

Deep learning (DL) technologies assist manufacturers to manage their business operations. This research aims to present state-of-the-art insights on the trends and ways forward for DL applications in manufacturing operations.

Design/methodology/approach

Using bibliometric analysis and the SPAR-4-SLR protocol, this research conducts a systematic literature review to present a scientific mapping of top-tier research on DL applications in manufacturing operations.

Findings

This research discovers and delivers key insights on six knowledge clusters pertaining to DL applications in manufacturing operations: automated system modelling, intelligent fault diagnosis, forecasting, sustainable manufacturing, environmental management, and intelligent scheduling.

Research limitations/implications

This research establishes the important roles of DL in manufacturing operations. However, these insights were derived from top-tier journals only. Therefore, this research does not discount the possibility of the availability of additional insights in alternative outlets, such as conference proceedings, where teasers into emerging and developing concepts may be published.

Originality/value

This research contributes seminal insights into DL applications in manufacturing operations. In this regard, this research is valuable to readers (academic scholars and industry practitioners) interested to gain an understanding of the important roles of DL in manufacturing operations as well as the future of its applications for Industry 4.0, such as Maintenance 4.0, Quality 4.0, Logistics 4.0, Manufacturing 4.0, Sustainability 4.0, and Supply Chain 4.0.
The role of knowledge management in the tourism sector: a synthesis and way forward
Authors: Anand Amitabh , Shantakumar Varsha Pratibha , Muskat Birgit , Singh Sanjay Kumar , Dumazert Jean-Pierre , Riahi Youssra
Published: August 2022

Purpose

This study aims to explore and synthesize the role of knowledge management (KM) in tourism organizations (including micro, small, medium and large enterprises and destination management organizations).

Design/methodology/approach

This study adopts systematic review methods to synthesize the role of KM in tourism from 90 journal articles.

Findings

This study identifies the prominent theories adopted to explore the relation and impact of KM in the tourism sector, the geographic distribution of the literature and thorough qualitative synthesis. This study identifies the critical research themes investigated and the outcome of KM applications. Finally, through reviews, this study identifies critical gaps in the literature and offer promising avenues to advance the KM in tourism research.

Originality/value

This is one of the few papers that comprehensively review the role of KM in the tourism industry and offer implications.
Glocalizing tourism in Southeastern Nigeria: residents’ perspectives
Authors: Eyisi Afamefuna Paul , Okonkwo Emeka Emmanuel
Published: August 2022

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore and understand the perceptions of residents of Southeastern Nigeria about glocalizing tourism in the region to help improve their support for the sustainability of the industry. Emphasis is laid on their expectations and strategies to maximize the positive impacts while minimizing the negative aspects in a bid to address their specific local needs.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper adopts an ethnographic approach to explore the perspectives of key stakeholders in Southeastern Nigeria's tourism industry. These include traditional rulers, men, women and youth representatives, chief priests and local security agents. Decision-making theory is adopted to frame the study.

Findings

The findings identified residents' expectations from glocalizing tourism. They see tourism as an avenue for initiating community projects, creating jobs, patronizing farm produces, reviving cultural practices and addressing religious crises.

Research limitations/implications

This research focused only on selected communities within Southeastern Nigeria. The implication is that the findings do not represent what obtains in other communities within the region. Future research should extend to these areas to have a deeper understanding of how residents perceive the glocalization of tourism.

Practical implications

As the government and developers continue to invest in the tourism industry in the study area, glocalization could be a good way to address specific local needs and gain residents' support in the future.

Originality/value

This paper represents a new research approach for understanding the perceptions of residents about the Nigerian tourism industry.
Directors’ and officers’ liability insurance and accounting conservatism: empirical evidence from China
Authors: Jia Wanjiao , Bi Shuoshuo , Du Yingjie
Published: August 2022

Purpose

This study analyses Chinese data to revisit the relationship between directors’ and officers’ (D&O) insurance and accounting conservatism, aiming to investigate the impact of investors’ legal protection on the function of D&O insurance.

Design/methodology/approach

The study sample included all A-share firms listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2006 to 2019. Multiple regression was used to investigate the association between D&O insurance and accounting conservatism. The Heckman two-stage model and the propensity score matching method were used to check the robustness of the main results.

Findings

D&O insured companies exhibited greater accounting conservatism. The higher the indemnity limit, the more conservative a firm’s earnings reporting. The positive correlation was stronger when investor protection was relatively weak. The impact of D&O insurance on accounting conservatism was stronger for companies with weaker internal or external supervision mechanisms.

Originality/value

The study findings show that D&O insurance plays a positive role in the governance of listed companies when investors’ legal protection is weak, which supports the effective supervision hypothesis of D&O insurance.
Antidepressants promote the spread of antibiotic resistance via horizontally conjugative gene transfer
Authors: Ding Pengbo , Lu Ji , Wang Yue , Schembri Mark A. , Guo Jianhua
Published: August 2022

Antibiotic resistance is a global concern threatening public health. Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) between bacterial species contributes greatly to the dissemination of antibiotic resistance. Conjugation is one of the major HGT pathways responsible for the spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Antidepressant drugs are commonly prescribed antipsychotics for major depressive disorders and are frequently detected in aquatic environments. However, little is known about how antidepressants stress bacteria and whether such effect can promote conjugation. Here, we report that commonly prescribed antidepressants, sertraline, duloxetine, fluoxetine, and bupropion, can promote the conjugative transfer of plasmid‐borne multidrug resistance genes carried by environmentally and clinically relevant plasmids. Noteworthy, the transfer of plasmids across bacterial genera is significantly enhanced by antidepressants at clinically relevant concentrations. We also reveal the underlying mechanisms of enhanced conjugative transfer by employing flow cytometric analysis, genome‐wide RNA sequencing and proteomic analysis. Antidepressants induce the production of reactive oxygen species and the SOS response, increase cell membrane permeability, and upregulate the expression of conjugation relevant genes. Given the contribution of HGT in the dissemination of ARGs, our findings highlight the importance of prudent prescription of antidepressants and to the potential connection between antidepressants and increasing antibiotic resistance.
Comparative analysis of fetal pig decomposition processes in burials of variable depths and wrapping
Authors: Hill Megan A. , Pokines James T.
Published: August 2022

This research examined the effects that the variables of burial depth and presence of plastic wrapping had on the decomposition rate of fetal pig (Sus scrofa) remains in a New England environment. The decomposition of 56 fetal pigs was observed in four independent variable groups: 20 cm depth unwrapped, 20 cm wrapped, 60 cm unwrapped, and 60 cm wrapped, with exhumation at months 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 12, and 18. The authors hypothesized that the rate of decay would be slower for wrapped remains and/or for remains at a greater burial depth. Analysis of these remains consisted of preburial and postburial mass, adipocere coverage, skeletal exposure, and decomposition quantified as Total Body Score (TBS). The difference between preburial and postburial mass was reported as a loss percentage to account for varying preburial masses. Wrapping was a significant influencer of mass loss percentage, with p = 0.0298 but not for the TBS, with p = 0.17565. Burial depth did not have a significant effect on either mass loss percentage or TBS, with p = 0.1956 and 0.08969, respectively. This study suggests that wrapping has a greater influence on decomposition patterns than burial depth in this environment, particularly the mass loss percentage. It is suggested that there are limitations with the use of TBS in Postmortem Interval (PMI) estimation, such as variable burial conditions and body characteristics.
Seasonal impact of scavenger guilds as taphonomic agents in central and northern Ontario, Canada
Authors: Forbes Shari L. , Samson Clifford , Watson Christopher J.
Published: August 2022

The process of human decomposition is driven by biological decomposers, mainly bacteria, vertebrates, and invertebrate scavengers. When vertebrate scavengers have access to a body, they can considerably accelerate decomposition through consumption of soft tissue and dispersal of skeletal elements. Presently, there are limited data available on vertebrate scavenging activity in Canada, particularly in densely populated provinces such as Ontario. This study aimed to determine which vertebrate species belong to the scavenger guilds in central and northern Ontario, and the impact of season and habitat on these taphonomic agents. Seasonal trials were conducted in summer, fall, and spring of 2020/2021 with pig carcasses placed in open (grassland) and closed (forest) sites. Vertebrate scavenger activity was recorded continuously using cellular and non‐cellular trail cameras. Photographs were analyzed to identify species, quantify feeding intensity, and document scavenging behavior. We identified four mammalian scavengers, namely coyote, red fox, fisher, and pine marten, and three avian scavengers, namely bald eagle, turkey vulture, and American crows/northern ravens (grouped as corvids) across the trials. Season impacted scavenger presence with feeding and loss of soft tissue occurring more quickly in the summer, followed by spring and fall. None of the scavengers demonstrated a clear preference for the open versus closed sites. Our findings have identified the most prevalent vertebrate scavengers in central and northern Ontario and their taphonomic impact on soft and hard tissues. It is important to consider these agents and their ability to degrade and disperse remains during the search and recovery of human remains.
Development of DNA methylation‐based epigenetic age predictors in loblolly pine (Pinus taeda)
Authors: Gardner Steven T. , Bertucci Emily M. , Sutton Randall , Horcher Andy , Aubrey Doug , Parrott Benjamin B.
Published: August 2022

Biological ageing is connected to life history variation across ecological scales and informs a basic understanding of age‐related declines in organismal function. Altered DNA methylation dynamics are a conserved aspect of biological ageing and have recently been modelled to predict chronological age among vertebrate species. In addition to their utility in estimating individual age, differences between chronological and predicted ages arise due to acceleration or deceleration of epigenetic ageing, and these discrepancies are linked to disease risk and multiple life history traits. Although evidence suggests that patterns of DNA methylation can describe ageing in plants, predictions with epigenetic clocks have yet to be performed. Here, we resolve the DNA methylome across CpG, CHG, and CHH‐methylation contexts in the loblolly pine tree (Pinus taeda) and construct epigenetic clocks capable of predicting ages in this species within 6% of its maximum lifespan. Although patterns of CHH‐methylation showed little association with age, both CpG and CHG‐methylation contexts were strongly associated with ageing, largely becoming hypomethylated with age. Among age‐associated loci were those in close proximity to malate dehydrogenase, NADH dehydrogenase, and 18S and 26S ribosomal RNA genes. This study reports one of the first epigenetic clocks in plants and demonstrates the universality of age‐associated DNA methylation dynamics which can inform conservation and management practices, as well as our ecological and evolutionary understanding of biological ageing in plants.
Impaired CD8+ T cells in term pregnancy decidua with chronic hepatitis B virus infection
Authors: Ma Yanchen , Liu Xiaoyi , Lou Haonan , Chen Liang , He Weiying , Pan Qingqing , Liao Dandan , Li Juanhua , Wu Jingran , Xiong Rongzhu , Liu Sihua , Luo Manling , Wu Fei , Chen Jing , Liu Zhihua , Tang Libo , Li Yongyin , Gao Yunfei
Published: August 2022

Problem

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is more likely to develop a state of chronicity in early life, particularly mother‐to‐child transmission (MTCT) of HBV in the fetus during pregnancy. Till now, little is known about the impact of chronic HBV infection on the immune status of the maternal‐fetus interface, and the immune profile of placental lymphocytes in MTCT of HBV is poorly understood.

Method of Study

Thirteen term pregnant women with chronic HBV infection (HBV‐PW) and thirteen normal pregnant women as healthy control (HC‐PW) were enrolled. The profile of placental immune cells and paired peripheral blood were analyzed by flow cytometry and immunohistochemistry.

Results

Compared with HC‐PW, the frequency of CD8+ T cells from the term placenta of HBV‐PW was significantly reduced. These cells showed decreased expression of activation molecules CD69 and HLA‐DR; thus, decidual CD8+ T cells from HBV‐PW demonstrated hypofunctional signature as evidenced by significantly reduced production of IFN‐γ, as well as compromised ability of degranulation and proliferation.

Conclusions

These findings supported that hypoactivated decidual CD8+ T cells might possess compromised ability in chronically HBV‐infected term pregnant women. Our study provides robust evidence for the necessity and importance of antiviral intervention in HBV‐PW to prevent MTCT of HBV.
Predicting probability of tolerating discrete amounts of peanut protein in allergic children using epitope‐specific IgE antibody profiling
Authors: Suprun Maria , Kearney Paul , Hayward Clive , Butler Heather , Getts Robert , Sicherer Scott H. , Turner Paul J. , Campbell Dianne E. , Sampson Hugh A.
Published: August 2022

Background

IgE‐epitope profiling can accurately diagnose clinical peanut allergy.

Objective

We sought to determine whether sequential (linear) epitope‐specific IgE (ses‐IgE) profiling can provide probabilities of tolerating discrete doses of peanut protein in allergic subjects undergoing double‐blind, placebo‐controlled food challenges utilizing PRACTALL dosing.

Methods

Sixty four ses‐IgE antibodies were quantified in blood samples using a bead‐based epitope assay. A pair of ses‐IgEs that predicts Cumulative Tolerated Dose (CTD) was determined using regression in 75 subjects from the discovery cohort. This epitope‐based predictor was validated on 331 subjects from five independent cohorts (ages 4–25 years). Subjects were grouped based on their predicted values and probabilities of reactions at each CTD threshold were calculated.

Results

In discovery, an algorithm using two ses‐IgE antibodies was correlated with CTDs (rho = 0.61, p < .05); this correlation was 0.51 (p < .05) in validation. Using the ses‐IgE‐based predictor, subjects were assigned into “high,” “moderate,” or “low” dose‐reactivity groups. On average, subjects in the “high” group were four times more likely to tolerate a specific dose, compared with the “low” group. For example, predicted probabilities of tolerating 4, 14, 44, and 144 or 444 mg in the “low” group were 92%, 77%, 53%, 29%, and 10% compared with 98%, 95%, 94%, 88%, and 73% in the “high” group.

Conclusions

Accurate predictions of food challenge thresholds are complex due to factors including limited responder sample sizes at each dose and variations in study‐specific challenge protocols. Despite these limitations, an epitope‐based predictor was able to accurately identify CTDs and may provide a useful surrogate for peanut challenges.
Functions of G protein‐coupled receptor 56 in health and disease
Authors: Su Tiantian , Guan Qiuyun , Cheng Huijuan , Zhu Zhenduo , Jiang Chunru , Guo Paipai , Tai Yu , Sun Hanfei , Wang Manman , Wei Wei , Wang Qingtong
Published: August 2022

Human G protein‐coupled receptor 56 (GPR56) is encoded by gene ADGRG1 from chromosome 16q21 and is homologously encoded in mice, at chromosome 8. Both 687 and 693 splice forms are present in humans and mice. GPR56 has a 381 amino acid‐long N‐terminal extracellular segment and a GPCR proteolysis site upstream from the first transmembrane domain. GPR56 is mainly expressed in the heart, brain, thyroid, platelets, and peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Accumulating evidence indicates that GPR56 promotes the formation of myelin sheaths and the development of oligodendrocytes in the cerebral cortex of the central nervous system. Moreover, GPR56 contributes to the development and differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells, induces adipogenesis, and regulates the function of immune cells. The lack of GPR56 leads to nervous system dysfunction, platelet disorders, and infertility. Abnormal expression of GPR56 is related to the malignant transformation and tumor metastasis of several cancers including melanoma, neuroglioma, and gastrointestinal cancer. Metabolic disorders and cardiovascular diseases are also associated with dysregulation of GPR56 expression, and GPR56 is involved in the pharmacological resistance to some antidepressant and cancer drug treatments. In this review, the molecular structure, expression profile, and signal transduction of GPR56 are introduced, and physiological and pathological functions of GRP56 are comprehensively summarized. Attributing to its significant biological functions and its long N‐terminal extracellular region that interacts with multiple ligands, GPR56 is becoming an attractive therapeutic target in treating neurological and hematopoietic diseases.
Is beef quality affected by the inclusion of distiller grains in cattle diets?
Authors: Merayo Manuela , Pighin Darío , Cunzolo Sebastián , Grigioni Gabriela
Published: August 2022

This study aimed to analyze the effect of including increasing levels of distiller grains (DG) in beef cattle feeding diets on meat quality from an integral approach. To this end, we analyzed the meat from 36 yearling steers fed with four dietary treatments: 0DG (control corn‐based diet), 15DG, 30DG, and 45DG (containing 15%, 30%, or 45% of DG on DM basis). Crude protein, ash, and fat contents of diets increased with DG level. The fatty acid profile of DG diets was reflected in the fatty acid profile of plasma samples. Feeding diets with DG had no effect on the biochemical parameters analyzed in plasma. In addition, it did not influence the water holding capacity, the muscle or fat color at 72 h post mortem or at retail display, or the contents of SFAs, MUFAs, and PUFAs in beef. The DG diets led to lower values of cooking loss. Meat from 15DG and 30DG showed greater percentage of troponin C and fragments of 30 to 27 kDa than meat from 45DG. Also, meat from 30DG showed the lowest values of Warner‐Bratzler shear force. Hence, including up to 30% corn DG in beef cattle feeding diets had positive effects on meat quality.
Conservative management versus systematic suture of isolated vaginal or first‐degree perineal tears after delivery: A preliminary randomized efficacy trial
Authors: Lallemant Marine , D'Antona Aurélie , Vidal Chrystelle , Bourtembourg Aude , Toubin Claire , Chehab Malek , Vilchez Marie , Boiteux Guillaume , Ramanah Rajeev , Pazart Lionel , Riethmuller Didier , Mottet Nicolas
Published: August 2022

Background

The objective of this study was to assess the preliminary efficacy and safety of conservative management compared with systematic suture in isolated vaginal or first‐degree perineal tears after birth.

Methods

We conducted a preliminary efficacy, open‐label, randomized, controlled, and prospective trial. This study implemented Simon's 2‐step plan (interim analysis and final analysis) to test the success rate of the digital compression strategy group. Primiparous women aged ≥18 years with isolated vaginal or first‐degree perineal tears after spontaneous vaginal birth of a cephalic presenting term (≥37 weeks) neonate were randomly allocated to the conservative management (CM) group (digital compression if bleeding followed by suture if persistent bleeding) or a systematic suture (SS) group. The primary outcome was the success of the intervention 10 days after delivery, defined by pain as evaluated using a visual analog scale < 3, satisfactory healing defined by a REEDA score ≤ 2, and no bleeding or infection. Sexual well‐being was assessed at 2 and 6 months postpartum.

Results

Among 861/2209 eligible women, 143 consenting women with a superficial perineal tear were randomized: 72 in the systematic suture group and 71 in the conservative management group. Success rate was 87.8% (90% CI [70.5‐93.54]) (42/55) in the systematic suture group vs 90% (90% CI [78.3‐93.8]) (53/61) in the conservative management group. The REEDA score was significantly higher in the systematic suture group (1.4 vs 0.9; P = 0.036). Perineal pain was significantly higher at day 1 in the systematic suture group (2.38 vs 1.69; P = 0.034). For the Female Sexual Functional Index score, no significant difference was found between the two groups at inclusion or at 2 and 6 months postpartum.

Conclusions

Conservative management of superficial perineal tears shows an efficacy rate ≥90%. Women in the conservative management group had less pain at the 1st day follow‐up and lower REEDA scores at the 10th day follow‐up.
‘One size doesn't fit all’: Lessons from interaction analysis on tailoring Open Science practices to qualitative research
Authors: Huma Bogdana , Joyce Jack B.
Published: August 2022

The Open Science Movement aims to enhance the soundness, transparency, and accessibility of scientific research, and at the same time increase public trust in science. Currently, Open Science practices are mainly presented as solutions to the ‘reproducibility crisis’ in hypothetico‐deductive quantitative research. Increasing interest has been shown towards exploring how these practices can be adopted by qualitative researchers. In reviewing this emerging body of work, we conclude that the issue of diversity within qualitative research has not been adequately addressed. Furthermore, we find that many of these endeavours start with existing solutions for which they are trying to find matching problems to be solved. We contrast this approach with a natural incorporation of Open Science practices within interaction analysis and its constituent research traditions: conversation analysis, discursive psychology, ethnomethodology, and membership categorisation analysis. Zooming in on the development of conversation analysis starting in the 1960s, we highlight how practices for opening up and sharing data and analytic thinking have been embedded into its methodology. On the basis of this presentation, we propose a series of lessons learned for adopting Open Science practices in qualitative research.
White children's empathy‐related responding and prosocial behavior toward White and Black children
Authors: Spinrad Tracy L. , Eisenberg Nancy , Xiao Sonya Xinyue , Xu Jingyi , Berger Rebecca H. , Pierotti Sarah L. , Laible Deborah J. , Carlo Gustavo , Gal‐Szabo Diana E. , Janssen Jayley , Fraser Ashley , Xu Xiaoye , Wang Wen , Lopez Jamie
Published: August 2022

Relations among White (non‐Latinx) children's empathy‐related responding, prosocial behaviors, and racial attitudes toward White and Black peers were examined. In 2017, 190 (54% boys) White 5‐ to 9‐year‐old children (M = 7.09 years, SD = 0.94) watched a series of videos that depicted social rejection of either a White or Black child. Empathy‐related responses, prosocial behaviors, and racial attitudes were measured using multiple methods. Results showed that younger children showed less facial concern toward Black than White peers and greater increases with age in concern and prosocial behaviors (sharing a desirable prize) for Black, compared to White, targets. Children's facial anger increased with age for White but not Black targets. The findings can extend our understanding children's anti‐racism development.
How accessible is my visualization? Evaluating visualization accessibility with Chartability
Authors: Elavsky Frank , Bennett Cynthia , Moritz Dominik
Published: August 2022

Novices and experts have struggled to evaluate the accessibility of data visualizations because there are no common shared guidelines across environments, platforms, and contexts in which data visualizations are authored. Between non‐specific standards bodies like WCAG, emerging research, and guidelines from specific communities of practice, it is hard to organize knowledge on how to evaluate accessible data visualizations. We present Chartability, a set of heuristics synthesized from these various sources which enables designers, developers, researchers, and auditors to evaluate data‐driven visualizations and interfaces for visual, motor, vestibular, neurological, and cognitive accessibility. In this paper, we outline our process of making a set of heuristics and accessibility principles for Chartability and highlight key features in the auditing process. Working with participants on real projects, we found that data practitioners with a novice level of accessibility skills were more confident and found auditing to be easier after using Chartability. Expert accessibility practitioners were eager to integrate Chartability into their own work. Reflecting on Chartability's development and the preliminary user evaluation, we discuss tradeoffs of open projects, working with high‐risk evaluations like auditing projects in the wild, and challenge future research projects at the intersection of visualization and accessibility to consider the broad intersections of disabilities.
Interactively Assessing Disentanglement in GANs
Authors: Jeong Sangwon , Liu Shusen , Berger Matthew
Published: August 2022

Generative adversarial networks (GAN) have witnessed tremendous growth in recent years, demonstrating wide applicability in many domains. However, GANs remain notoriously difficult for people to interpret, particularly for modern GANs capable of generating photo‐realistic imagery. In this work we contribute a visual analytics approach for GAN interpretability, where we focus on the analysis and visualization of GAN disentanglement. Disentanglement is concerned with the ability to control content produced by a GAN along a small number of distinct, yet semantic, factors of variation. The goal of our approach is to shed insight on GAN disentanglement, above and beyond coarse summaries, instead permitting a deeper analysis of the data distribution modeled by a GAN. Our visualization allows one to assess a single factor of variation in terms of groupings and trends in the data distribution, where our analysis seeks to relate the learned representation space of GANs with attribute‐based semantic scoring of images produced by GANs. Through use‐cases, we show that our visualization is effective in assessing disentanglement, allowing one to quickly recognize a factor of variation and its overall quality. In addition, we show how our approach can highlight potential dataset biases learned by GANs.
Infographics Wizard: Flexible Infographics Authoring and Design Exploration
Authors: Tyagi Anjul , Zhao Jian , Patel Pushkar , Khurana Swasti , Mueller Klaus
Published: August 2022

Infographics are an aesthetic visual representation of information following specific design principles of human perception. Designing infographics can be a tedious process for non‐experts and time‐consuming, even for professional designers. With the help of designers, we propose a semi‐automated infographic framework for general structured and flow‐based infographic design generation. For novice designers, our framework automatically creates and ranks infographic designs for a user‐provided text with no requirement for design input. However, expert designers can still provide custom design inputs to customize the infographics. We will also contribute an individual visual group (VG) designs dataset (in SVG), along with a 1k complete infographic image dataset with segmented VGs in this work. Evaluation results confirm that by using our framework, designers from all expertise levels can generate generic infographic designs faster than existing methods while maintaining the same quality as hand‐designed infographics templates.
HyperNP: Interactive Visual Exploration of Multidimensional Projection Hyperparameters
Authors: Appleby G. , Espadoto M. , Chen R. , Goree S. , Telea A. C. , Anderson E. W. , Chang R.
Published: August 2022

Projection algorithms such as t‐SNE or UMAP are useful for the visualization of high dimensional data, but depend on hyperparameters which must be tuned carefully. Unfortunately, iteratively recomputing projections to find the optimal hyperparameter values is computationally intensive and unintuitive due to the stochastic nature of such methods. In this paper we propose HyperNP, a scalable method that allows for real‐time interactive hyperparameter exploration of projection methods by training neural network approximations. A HyperNP model can be trained on a fraction of the total data instances and hyperparameter configurations that one would like to investigate and can compute projections for new data and hyperparameters at interactive speeds. HyperNP models are compact in size and fast to compute, thus allowing them to be embedded in lightweight visualization systems. We evaluate the performance of HyperNP across three datasets in terms of performance and speed. The results suggest that HyperNP models are accurate, scalable, interactive, and appropriate for use in real‐world settings.
AirLens: Multi‐Level Visual Exploration of Air Quality Evolution in Urban Agglomerations
Authors: Qu Dezhan , Lv Cheng , Lin Yiming , Zhang Huijie , Wang Rong
Published: August 2022

The precise prevention and control of air pollution is a great challenge faced by environmental experts in recent years. Understanding the air quality evolution in the urban agglomeration is important for coordinated control of air pollution. However, the complex pollutant interactions between different cities lead to the collaborative evolution of air quality. The existing statistical and machine learning methods cannot well support the comprehensive analysis of the dynamic air quality evolution. In this study, we propose AirLens, an interactive visual analytics system that can help domain experts explore and understand the air quality evolution in the urban agglomeration from multiple levels and multiple aspects. To facilitate the cognition of the complex multivariate spatiotemporal data, we first propose a multi‐run clustering strategy with a novel glyph design for summarizing and understanding the typical pollutant patterns effectively. On this basis, the system supports the multi‐level exploration of air quality evolution, namely, the overall level, stage level and detail level. Frequent pattern mining, city community extraction and useful filters are integrated into the system for discovering significant information comprehensively. The case study and positive feedback from domain experts demonstrate the effectiveness and usability of AirLens.
CorpusVis: Visual Analysis of Digital Sheet Music Collections
Authors: Miller Matthias , Rauscher Julius , Keim Daniel A. , El‐Assady Mennatallah
Published: August 2022

Manually investigating sheet music collections is challenging for music analysts due to the magnitude and complexity of underlying features, structures, and contextual information. However, applying sophisticated algorithmic methods would require advanced technical expertise that analysts do not necessarily have. Bridging this gap, we contribute CorpusVis, an interactive visual workspace, enabling scalable and multi‐faceted analysis. Our proposed visual analytics dashboard provides access to computational methods, generating varying perspectives on the same data. The proposed application uses metadata including composers, type, epoch, and low‐level features, such as pitch, melody, and rhythm. To evaluate our approach, we conducted a pair‐analytics study with nine participants. The qualitative results show that CorpusVis supports users in performing exploratory and confirmatory analysis, leading them to new insights and findings. In addition, based on three exemplary workflows, we demonstrate how to apply our approach to different tasks, such as exploring musical features or comparing composers.
Streaming Approach to In Situ Selection of Key Time Steps for Time‐Varying Volume Data
Authors: Wu Mengxi , Chiang Yi‐Jen , Musco Christopher
Published: August 2022

Key time steps selection, i.e., selecting a subset of most representative time steps, is essential for effective and efficient scientific visualization of large time‐varying volume data. In particular, as computer simulations continue to grow in size and complexity, they often generate output that exceeds both the available storage capacity and bandwidth for transferring results to storage, making it indispensable to save only a subset of time steps. At the same time, this subset must be chosen so that it is highly representative, to facilitate post‐processing and reconstruction with high fidelity. The key time steps selection problem is especially challenging in the in situ setting, where we can only process data in one pass in an online streaming fashion, using a small amount of main memory and fast computation. In this paper, we formulate the problem as that of optimal piece‐wise linear interpolation. We first apply a method from numerical linear algebra to compute linear interpolation solutions and their errors in an online streaming fashion. Using that method as a building block, we can obtain a global optimal solution for the piece‐wise linear interpolation problem via a standard dynamic programming (DP) algorithm. However, this approach needs to process the time steps in multiple passes and is too slow for the in situ setting. To address this issue, we introduce a novel approximation algorithm, which processes time steps in one pass in an online streaming fashion, with very efficient computing time and main memory space both in theory and in practice. The algorithm is suitable for the in situ setting. Moreover, we prove that our algorithm, which is based on a greedy update rule, has strong theoretical guarantees on the approximation quality and the number of time steps stored. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first algorithm suitable for in situ key time steps selection with such theoretical guarantees, and is the main contribution of this paper. Experiments demonstrate the efficacy of our new techniques.
Hybrid Touch/Tangible Spatial Selection in Augmented Reality
Authors: Sereno Mickael , Gosset Stéphane , Besançon Lonni , Isenberg Tobias
Published: August 2022

We study tangible touch tablets combined with Augmented Reality Head‐Mounted Displays (AR‐HMDs) to perform spatial 3D selections. We are primarily interested in the exploration of 3D unstructured datasets such as cloud points or volumetric datasets. AR‐HMDs immerse users by showing datasets stereoscopically, and tablets provide a set of 2D exploration tools. Because AR‐HMDs merge the visualization, interaction, and the users' physical spaces, users can also use the tablets as tangible objects in their 3D space. Nonetheless, the tablets' touch displays provide their own visualization and interaction spaces, separated from those of the AR‐HMD. This raises several research questions compared to traditional setups. In this paper, we theorize, discuss, and study different available mappings for manual spatial selections using a tangible tablet within an AR‐HMD space. We then study the use of this tablet within a 3D AR environment, compared to its use with a 2D external screen.
Mobile and Multimodal? A Comparative Evaluation of Interactive Workplaces for Visual Data Exploration
Authors: Molina León G. , Lischka M. , Luo W. , Breiter A.
Published: August 2022

Mobile devices are increasingly being used in the workplace. The combination of touch, pen, and speech interaction with mobile devices is considered particularly promising for a more natural experience. However, we do not yet know how everyday work with multimodal data visualizations on a mobile device differs from working in the standard WIMP workplace setup. To address this gap, we created a visualization system for social scientists, with a WIMP interface for desktop PCs, and a multimodal interface for tablets. The system provides visualizations to explore spatio‐temporal data with consistent WIMP and multimodal interaction techniques. To investigate how the different combinations of devices and interaction modalities affect the performance and experience of domain experts in a work setting, we conducted an experiment with 16 social scientists where they carried out a series of tasks with both interfaces. Participants were significantly faster and slightly more accurate on the WIMP interface. They solved the tasks with different strategies according to the interaction modalities available. The pen was the most used and appreciated input modality. Most participants preferred the multimodal setup and could imagine using it at work. We present our findings, together with their implications for the interaction design of data visualizations.
DanmuVis: Visualizing Danmu Content Dynamics and Associated Viewer Behaviors in Online Videos
Authors: Chen S. , Li S. , Li Y. , Zhu J. , Long J. , Chen S. , Zhang J. , Yuan X.
Published: August 2022

Danmu (Danmaku) is a unique social media service in online videos, especially popular in Japan and China, for viewers to write comments while watching videos. The danmu comments are overlaid on the video screen and synchronized to the associated video time, indicating viewers' thoughts of the video clip. This paper introduces an interactive visualization system to analyze danmu comments and associated viewer behaviors in a collection of videos and enable detailed exploration of one video on demand. The watching behaviors of viewers are identified by comparing video time and post time of viewers' danmu. The system supports analyzing danmu content and viewers' behaviors against both video time and post time to gain insights into viewers' online participation and perceived experience. Our evaluations, including usage scenarios and user interviews, demonstrate the effectiveness and usability of our system.
Investigating the Role and Interplay of Narrations and Animations in Data Videos
Authors: Cheng Hao , Wang Junhong , Wang Yun , Lee Bongshin , Zhang Haidong , Zhang Dongmei
Published: August 2022

Combining data visualizations, animations, and audio narrations, data videos can increase viewer engagement and effectively communicate data stories. Due to their increasing popularity, data videos have gained growing attention from the visualization research community. However, recent research on data videos has focused on animations, lacking an understanding of narrations. In this work, we study how data videos use narrations and animations to convey information effectively. We conduct a qualitative analysis on 426 clips with visualizations extracted from 60 data videos collected from a variety of media outlets, covering a diverse array of topics. We manually label 816 sentences with 1226 semantic labels and record the composition of 2553 animations through an open coding process. We also analyze how narrations and animations coordinate with each other by assigning links between semantic labels and animations. With 937 (76.4%) semantic labels and 2503 (98.0%) animations linked, we identify four types of narration‐animation relationships in the collected clips. Drawing from the findings, we discuss study implications and future research opportunities of data videos.
Chart Question Answering: State of the Art and Future Directions
Authors: Hoque E. , Kavehzadeh P. , Masry A.
Published: August 2022

Information visualizations such as bar charts and line charts are very common for analyzing data and discovering critical insights. Often people analyze charts to answer questions that they have in mind. Answering such questions can be challenging as they often require a significant amount of perceptual and cognitive effort. Chart Question Answering (CQA) systems typically take a chart and a natural language question as input and automatically generate the answer to facilitate visual data analysis. Over the last few years, there has been a growing body of literature on the task of CQA. In this survey, we systematically review the current state‐of‐the‐art research focusing on the problem of chart question answering. We provide a taxonomy by identifying several important dimensions of the problem domain including possible inputs and outputs of the task and discuss the advantages and limitations of proposed solutions. We then summarize various evaluation techniques used in the surveyed papers. Finally, we outline the open challenges and future research opportunities related to chart question answering.
A Survey of Visualization and Analysis in High‐Resolution Connectomics
Authors: Beyer Johanna , Troidl Jakob , Boorboor Saeed , Hadwiger Markus , Kaufman Arie , Pfister Hanspeter
Published: August 2022

The field of connectomics aims to reconstruct the wiring diagram of Neurons and synapses to enable new insights into the workings of the brain. Reconstructing and analyzing the Neuronal connectivity, however, relies on many individual steps, starting from high‐resolution data acquisition to automated segmentation, proofreading, interactive data exploration, and circuit analysis. All of these steps have to handle large and complex datasets and rely on or benefit from integrated visualization methods. In this state‐of‐the‐art report, we describe visualization methods that can be applied throughout the connectomics pipeline, from data acquisition to circuit analysis. We first define the different steps of the pipeline and focus on how visualization is currently integrated into these steps. We also survey open science initiatives in connectomics, including usable open‐source tools and publicly available datasets. Finally, we discuss open challenges and possible future directions of this exciting research field.
Education of Afghan refugee children in Iran: A structured review of policies
Authors: Seddighi Hamed , Naseh Mitra , Rafieifar Maryam , Ilea Passion
Published: August 2022

Iran has been among the top ten largest refugee‐host countries worldwide, sheltering one of the largest groups of forced migrants from Afghanistan during the past four decades. This policy paper briefly examines and summarizes the policies related to education of Afghan children in Iran through a structured review. The results of this review suggest that higher education has been and continues to be heavily restricted for Afghans. While access to primary education has improved for Afghans in Iran, policies continue to neglect both cultural specificity and unique needs of this group. Therefore, enrolment has remained restricted. The findings of our policy analysis call for further attention to culturally relevant education, financial assistance for families living in poverty and interventions to subsidize the cost of education to ensure access of all Afghan children to primary education and retain enrolment. Results also call for reconsiderations in restrictive higher education policies for Afghans in Iran.
Advances in telemedicine using personal mobile devices: One patient at a time
Authors: Wac Katarzyna
Published: August 2022

This commentary is on the original article by Prelack et al. on pages 1351–1358 of this issue.
‘It Makes You Sit Back and Think Where You Wanna Go’: Veteran experiences in virtual whole health peer‐led groups
Authors: Anderson Ekaterina , Dvorin Kelly , Etingen Bella , Barker Anna M. , Rai Zenith , Herbst Abigail N. , Mozer Reagan , Kingston Rodger P. , Bokhour Barbara G.
Published: August 2022

Background

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is building a Whole Health system of care that aspires to empower and equip each Veteran to pursue a personally meaningful vision of health and well‐being. As part of this effort, VHA has developed Taking Charge of My Life and Health (TCMLH), a peer‐led, group‐based programme that seeks to support Veterans in setting and pursuing health and well‐being goals. Prior research showed TCMLH groups to positively impact Veteran outcomes; yet, little is known about Veterans' own experiences and perspectives.

Methods

We completed semi‐structured telephone interviews with 15 Veterans across 8 sites who had participated in TCMLH groups offered by the VHA in the virtual format between Summer 2020 and Fall 2021. Inductive thematic analysis was applied to interview transcripts to generate themes.

Findings

We identified five themes regarding Veterans' experiences with TCMLH: (1) navigating the virtual format; (2) internalizing the value of health engagement; (3) making healthy lifestyle changes; (4) forging social connections; and (5) taking on a more active role in healthcare.

Conclusion

Veterans perceived virtual TCMLH groups as meaningful and beneficial, yet also highlighted several challenges. Their perspectives speak to the need to supplement time‐limited programmes like TCMLH with ongoing, community‐based support. Virtual group‐based well‐being programmes are a promising innovation. Other healthcare systems may draw on VHA's experience while tailoring format and content to the needs of their patient populations.

Patient or Public Contribution

Veterans were involved as evaluation participants. A Veteran consultant, who is a coauthor on this paper, was engaged through the conceptualization of the evaluation, development of data collection materials (interview guide) and writing.
Characterisation of industrial potato waste for suitability in food applications
Authors: Singh Lovepreet , Kaur Sukhpreet , Aggarwal Poonam , Kaur Navjot
Published: August 2022

The present study aimed at exploring different properties of industrial potato waste for their possible utilisation in various food formulations as a functional ingredient. Potato waste (potato peel and mash) was processed into powders and studied for various biochemical, technological, and morphological characteristics. Analysis of potato mash powder exhibited high techno‐functional potential as water absorption capacity (4.11 g/g) and swelling capacity (4.84 cm3/g) while peel powder showed high crude fibre (13.05%), protein (13.15%), and mineral content along with bio‐functional attributes (834.24 mg GAE/100 g total phenolics and 247.18 mg QE/100 g flavonoids) which were further verified using HPLC and FTIR analysis. Colour coordinates showed darker colour of potato peel compared to mash powder. SEM micrographs of PMP revealed the presence of native starch granules while the presence of cellulose structure was confirmed in peel powder. Storage studies of waste powders revealed shelf stability of 6 months, indicating their high potential for valorisation.