bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Tracing the interconnectedness of early childhood educators’ professional capital
Authors: Nolan Andrea 
Published: July 2023

PurposeSince the early 2000s there has been increased attention on the professionalisation of the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) workforce in many OECD countries. This study focuses on what Australian early childhood educators holding the lowest level of qualification – Certificate III are experiencing in relation to their professional capital in a sector that is experiencing wide-spread and ongoing reform. The study identifies the human capital, social capital and decisional capital of these educators, then explores the interconnections.Design/methodology/approachThis paper was funded by the Australian Research Council. The qualitative data consider the capabilities of certificate-qualified educators and how these are enabled or constrained within the workplace. The corpus of data for this study consists of 14 interviews with Certificate III-qualified educators from three locations across Victoria, Australia. Hargreaves and Fullan’s (2012) forms of professional capital (human, social and decisional) act as organisers for the themes identified through a thematic analysis.FindingsThemes identified in the data speak to inequity in access to professional learning, the valuing of life experiences, clear divisions of labour that impact what knowledge is valued, and differences in educator agency in the decision-making process. Many certificate-qualified educators experience a workplace culture that lacks trust in an individual’s professional competence and does not appreciate collegial knowledge and skill building as a collective enterprise.Originality/valueThe conceptual framing of this study provides a unique way to explore the experiences of certificate-trained educators. The study introduces the idea of using exploratory categories and the identification of levels of human, social and decisional capital. This type of study involving this cohort of educators is unique.
Artificial intelligence in customer retention: a bibliometric analysis and future research framework
Authors: Singh Chetanya , Dash Manoj Kumar , Sahu Rajendra , Kumar Anil 
Published: July 2023

PurposeArtificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly applied by businesses to optimize their processes and decision-making, develop effective and efficient strategies, and positively influence customer behaviors. Businesses use AI to generate behaviors such as customer retention (CR). The existing literature on “AI and CR” is vastly scattered. The paper aims to review the present research on AI in CR systematically and suggest future research directions to further develop the field.Design/methodology/approachThe Scopus database is used to collect the data for systematic review and bibliometric analysis using the VOSviewer tool. The paper performs the following analysis: (1) year-wise publications and citations, (2) co-authorship analysis of authors, countries, and affiliations, (3) citation analysis of articles and journals, (4) co-occurrence visualization of binding terms, and (5) bibliographic coupling of articles.FindingsFive research themes are identified, namely, (1) AI and customer churn prediction in CR, (2) AI and customer service experience in CR, (3) AI and customer sentiment analysis in CR, (4) AI and customer (big data) analytics in CR, and (5) AI privacy and ethical concerns in CR. Based on the research themes, fifteen future research objectives and a future research framework are suggested.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper has important implications for researchers and managers as it reveals vital insights into the latest trends and paths in AI-CR research and practices. It focuses on privacy and ethical issues of AI; hence, it will help the government develop policies for sustainable AI adoption for CR.Originality/valueTo the author's best knowledge, this paper is the first attempt to comprehensively review the existing research on “AI and CR” using bibliometric analysis.
Board structure, firm performance variability and national culture
Authors: Huang Peng , Lu Yue 
Published: July 2023

Purpose
The purpose of the study is to examine the relation between board structure and firm performance variability in an international setting. The authors further explore the effect of national culture in shaping such relations.

Design/methodology/approach
The authors’ international sample contains 4,911 firms across 49 countries over the 2002–2017 period. The authors use national culture values on individualism and power distance developed by Hofstede (1980, 2001, 2011). The authors focus on within-firm, over-time variability of firm performance and estimate multivariate linear regressions with fixed effects. The authors address the endogeneity concern using the instrumental variable approach, and the authors’ results are robust to alternative measures of variables and different subsamples.

Findings
The authors find that firms with larger board size, greater board independence and less powerful CEOs have less variable performance. Individualism has a magnifying effect while power distance has a mitigating effect in shaping such relations.

Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first to answer the call of Adams, Hermalin and Weisbach (2010) for research on corporate boards in an international setting. It is also one of the few studies which examine the variability of firm performance, while the majority of existing literature focuses on the level of firm performance. Most importantly, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to explore the role of national culture in shaping boardroom interactions that affect the decision-making process of corporate boards, which, in turn, affects firm performance variability.
Analytical solution and free vibration analysis for beams with step changes in stiffness
Authors: Li Lei , An Siqi 
Published: July 2023

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate analytical solutions of natural frequencies and mode shapes of Euler-Bernoulli beams with step changes in the stiffness.Design/methodology/approachIn this work, analytical solutions for a beam with a single discontinuity was performed. Subsequently, based on an effective matrix formulation, the closed-form expressions of the single discontinuity beam could be conveniently extended to stepped beams with multiple stiffness discontinuities.FindingsThe results of the study show that the natural frequency of the beam can be adjusted by the local stiffness variation, and step location plays a significant role in free vibration responses.Originality/valueThe effects of the stiffness of the segment and step location on the natural frequencies of the stepped beams under different boundary conditions were examined using the proposed analytical scheme. This study provides insights into the design of variable-stiffness beam structures with the capability to adjust natural frequencies.
Robot task programming in complex task scenarios based on spatio-temporal constraint calculus
Authors: Li Jinzhong , Cong Ming , Liu Dong , Du Yu 
Published: July 2023

Purpose
Robots face fundamental challenges in achieving reliable and stable operations for complex home service scenarios. This is one of the crucial topics of robotics methods to imitate human beings’ advanced cognitive characteristics and apply them to solve complex tasks. The purpose of this study is to enable robots to have the ability to understand the scene and task process in complex scenes and to provide a reference method for robot task programming in complex scenes.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper constructs a task modeling method for robots in complex environments based on the characteristics of the perception-motor memory model of human cognition. In the aspect of episodic memory construction, the task execution process is included in the category of qualitative spatio-temporal calculus. The topology interaction of objects in a task scenario is used to define scene attributes. The task process can be regarded as changing scene attributes on a time scale. The qualitative spatio-temporal activity graphs are used to analyze the change process of the object state with time during the robot task execution. The tasks are divided according to the different values of scene attributes at different times during task execution. Based on this, in procedural memory, an object-centered motion model is developed by analyzing the changes in the relationship between objects in the scene episode by analyzing the scene changes before and after the robot performs the actions. Finally, the task execution process of the robot is constructed by alternately reconstructing episodic memory and procedural memory.

Findings
To verify the applicability of the proposed model, a scenario where the robot combines the object (one of the most common tasks in-home service) is set up. The proposed method can obtain the landscape of robot tasks in a complex environment.

Originality/value
The robot can achieve high-level task programming through the alternating interpretation of scenarios and actions. The proposed model differs from traditional methods based on geometric or physical feature information. However, it focuses on the spatial relationship of objects, which is more similar to the cognitive mechanism of human understanding of the environment.
Investigation on the indentation performance of 3D printed re-entrant diamond auxetic metamaterial: printability and tailorability for futuristic applications
Authors: Chikkanna Niranjan , Krishnapillai Shankar , Ramachandran Velmurugan 
Published: July 2023

Purpose
Auxetics are the class of cellular materials with a negative Poisson’s ratio. This paper aims to study the low-cost 3D printing capabilities and printing variations and improve the indentation performance of the re-entrant diamond auxetic metamaterial by tuning the structural parameters that have not been reported.

Design/methodology/approach
The design of experiment strategy was adopted to study the influence of re-entrant angle, diamond angle and thickness-to-length ratio on relative density, load, stiffness and specific energy absorption (SEA) during indentation experimentally. Grey relational analysis was chosen as a multi-objective optimisation technique to optimise structural performance. Surrogate models were proposed to uphold the metamaterial’s tailorability for desired application needs. The fit and efficacy of the proposed models were tested using specific statistical techniques. The predominant deformation mechanisms observed with the alteration in structural parameters were discussed.

Findings
The improvements noticed are 48 times hike in load, 112 times improvement in stiffness and 10 times increase in SEA for optimised structures. The surrogate models are proven to predict the outputs accurately for new input parameters. In-situ displacement fields are visualised with an image processing technique.

Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the indentation performance of the re-entrant diamond auxetic metamaterials has not been reported and reported for the first time. The influence of geometrical parameters on the newly developed structure under concentrated loading was evaluated. The geometry-dependent printing variations associated with 3D printing have been discussed to help the user to fabricate re-entrant diamond auxetic metamaterial.
The informal tripart relationship between the state, neighbourhood police and community groups: community safety perceptions and practices in a Midlands neighbourhood in the UK
Authors: Page Sarah , Griffin Sean 
Published: July 2023

Purpose
This paper aims to explore the tripart relationship between British police officers, Local Authority representatives and community members based on a Midlands neighbourhood case study. It focuses on experiences of the strengths and challenges with working towards a common purpose of community safety and resilience building.

Design/methodology/approach
Data was collected in 2019 prior to enforced COVID lockdown restrictions following Staffordshire University ethical approval. An inductive qualitative methods approach of semi-structured individual and group interviews was used with community members (N = 30) and professionals (N = 15), using a purposive and snowball sample. A steering group with academic, police and Local Authority representation co-designed the study and identified the first tier of participants.

Findings
Community members and professionals valued tripart working and perceived communication, visibility, longevity and trust as key to addressing localised community safety issues. Challenges were raised around communication modes and frequency, cultural barriers to accessing information and inadequate resources and responses to issues. Environmental crime was a high priority for community members, along with tackling drug-related crime and diverting youth disorder, which concurred with police concern. However, the anti-terrorism agenda was a pre-occupation for the Local Authority, and school concerns included modern slavery crime.

Originality/value
When state involvement and investment in neighbourhoods decline, community member activism enthusiasm for neighbourhood improvement reduces, contrasting with government expectations. Community members are committed partnership workers who require the state to visibly and demonstrably engage. Faith in state actors can be restored when professionals are consistently present, communicate and follow up on actions.
Limited range shifting in biocrusts despite climate warming: A 25‐year resurvey
Authors: Mallen‐Cooper Max , Cornwell William K. , Slavich Eve , Sabot Manon E. B. , Xirocostas Zoe A. , Eldridge David J. 
Published: July 2023

Abstract

The ranges of many species globally have already shifted to maintain climatic equilibrium in the face of climate change.

Biocrusts—soil surface dwelling communities of lichens, bryophytes and microbes—play important functional roles in many ecosystems, particularly in drylands. Compared to better studied animal and plant taxa, dryland biocrusts have different establishment requirements and have never been assessed for historical range shifts.

Here, we revisited the sites (N = 204) of a 25‐year‐old biocrust survey across a large area (400,000 km2) of drylands in south‐eastern Australia. We used quadratic models to quantify changes in the climate niches of 15 lichen, eight moss and five liverwort taxa, as well as biocrust cover and richness.

Our models showed that the observed climatic niches of most taxa have become hotter and drier in the past quarter century, yet the responses of the vast majority of taxa are consistent with remaining in the same geographic space. A similar pattern was observed at the community level, where the peak of biocrust cover and richness now occurs in a hotter, drier environment. Notable exceptions were the liverwort Riccia lamellosa and lichens in the genera Cladonia and Xanthoparmelia, which showed signs of contraction at their arid range edges.

Unlike more mobile taxa, most biocrust species have yet to shift geographically and may already be lagging behind the pace of climate change. One explanation for the mortality lag is that long‐term climate variability in the system is extensive, which may have selected for the ability to withstand multi‐year warm periods as long as there is an eventual return to milder conditions. However, no forecasts of future climate include a return to milder conditions, suggesting there will be an eventual loss of ecosystem multifunctionality at the contracting front. Expansion lags are most likely due to delays in the mortality of competing vascular plants.

Synthesis: Our study provides a valuable contribution to the knowledge of range shifts in understudied taxa and highlights a future need to promote the expansion of biocrusts to maintain the provision of ecosystem functions and services across their range.
Genes and genome‐resolved metagenomics reveal the microbial functional make up of Amazon peatlands under geochemical gradients
Authors: Pavia Michael J. , Finn Damien , Macedo‐Tafur Franco , Tello‐Espinoza Rodil , Penaccio Christa , Bouskill Nicholas , Cadillo‐Quiroz Hinsby 
Published: July 2023

AbstractThe Pastaza‐Marañón Foreland Basin (PMFB) holds the most extensive tropical peatland area in South America. PMFB peatlands store ~7.07 Gt of organic carbon interacting with multiple microbial heterotrophic, methanogenic, and other aerobic/anaerobic respirations. Little is understood about the contribution of distinct microbial community members inhabiting tropical peatlands. Here, we studied the metagenomes of three geochemically distinct peatlands spanning minerotrophic, mixed, and ombrotrophic conditions. Using gene‐ and genome‐centric approaches, we evaluate the functional potential of the underlying microbial communities. Abundance analyses show significant differences in C, N, P, and S acquisition genes. Furthermore, community interactions mediated by toxin–antitoxin and CRISPR‐Cas systems were enriched in oligotrophic soils, suggesting that non‐metabolic interactions may exert additional controls in low‐nutrient environments. Additionally, we reconstructed 519 metagenome‐assembled genomes spanning 28 phyla. Our analyses detail key differences across the geochemical gradient in the predicted microbial populations involved in degradation of organic matter, and the cycling of N and S. Notably, we observed differences in the nitric oxide (NO) reduction strategies between sites with high and low N2O fluxes and found phyla putatively capable of both NO and sulfate reduction. Our findings detail how gene abundances and microbial populations are influenced by geochemical differences in tropical peatlands.
Timing of antibiotics in febrile children meeting sepsis criteria at a paediatric emergency department
Authors: Mwanza Zondiwe V , White Brent S , Britton Philip N , McCaskill Mary E 
Published: July 2023

AbstractObjectiveDelay in antibiotic administration in paediatric sepsis is associated with increased mortality and prolonged organ dysfunction. This pre‐intervention study evaluated performance in paediatric sepsis management.MethodsRetrospective cohort study of febrile children admitted through the ED at The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, between 1 May and 31 July 2017. Participants were children aged 29 days to 60 months excluding children with simple febrile seizures, neonates and children who had received intravenous antibiotics elsewhere. We assessed the timing of antibiotic administration in children meeting local sepsis guidelines. We conducted a survey of clinicians in ED in 2018 to describe contributing factors.ResultsThere were 160 febrile children admitted and 144 presentations were included in the analysis. Male 53% (n = 76); median age 20.1 months (interquartile range [IQR] 3.9–37 months). Thirty‐seven (26%) febrile children met local sepsis criteria. The median time from triage to first dose of intravenous antibiotic was 109 min (IQR 62–183 min). Delay (>60 min) occurred in 26 (76%) children. Reported reasons contributing to delay included high patient load, long waiting times, difficult intravenous access, delayed prescribing, inadequate staffing and difficulty distinguishing between a viral infection and serious bacterial infection.ConclusionThere was frequent delay in administering antibiotics in children meeting local sepsis criteria, more commonly in young infants. Reasons contributing to delay were specific to young children along with departmental factors that will require addressing through targeted quality improvement interventions.
The United Arab Emirates and the New Development Bank: Mutual interests and first‐mover advantages
Authors: Cooper Andrew F. , Cannon Brendon J. 
Published: July 2023

AbstractThe United Arab Emirates (UAE) joined the BRICS‐led New Development Bank (NDB) as part of its first expansion in terms of membership. Questions regarding the interests and rationale of the UAE in joining the Bank, on the one hand, and the NDB's logic in granting membership to the UAE, on the other, immediately jump out. This article sheds light on the BRICS' cautious move away from exceptionality via the expanded NDB in the context of its membership criteria and approach. It does so by also highlighting the UAE's exceptionality, with a focus on the combination of fiscal resources and strategic geography, in the context of shifting global distributions of power. It finds that the UAE's membership in the NDB dovetails with its memberships in other MDBs, which, in turn, are part of the country's ambition to be seen as a globally influential actor. In turn, the NDB was attracted to the UAE fiscal acumen, credit rating and its carefully cultivated culture of cutting‐edge, sustainable, infrastructure and connectivity projects, as well as innovation.
Intravenous vitamin C therapy in adult patients with sepsis: A rapid practice guideline
Authors: Reintam Blaser Annika , Alhazzani Waleed , Belley‐Cote Emilie , Møller Morten Hylander , Adhikari Neill K. J. , Burry Lisa , Coopersmith Craig M. , Al Duhailib Zainab , Fujii Tomoko , Granholm Anders , Gunst Jan , Hammond Naomi , Ke Lu , Lamontagne Francois , Loudet Cecilia , Morgan Matt , Ostermann Marlies , Reinikainen Matti , Rosenfeld Ricardo , Spies Claudia , Oczkowski Simon 
Published: July 2023

AbstractBackgroundThis Rapid Practice Guideline provides an evidence‐based recommendation to address the question: in adults with sepsis or septic shock, should we recommend using or not using intravenous vitamin C therapy?MethodsThe panel included 21 experts from 16 countries and used a strict policy for potential financial and intellectual conflicts of interest. Methodological support was provided by the Guidelines in Intensive Care, Development, and Evaluation (GUIDE) group. Based on an updated systematic review, and the grading of recommendations, assessment, development, and evaluation approach, we evaluated the certainty of evidence and developed recommendations using the evidence‐to‐decision framework. We conducted an electronic vote, requiring >80% agreement among the panel for a recommendation to be adopted.ResultsAt longest follow‐up, 90 days, intravenous vitamin C probably does not substantially impact (relative risk 1.05, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.94 to 1.17; absolute risk difference 1.8%, 95% CI −2.2 to 6.2; 6 trials, n = 2148, moderate certainty). Effects of vitamin C on mortality at earlier timepoints was of low or very low certainty due to risk of bias of the included studies and significant heterogeneity between study results. Few adverse events were reported with the use of vitamin C. The panel did not identify any major differences in other outcomes, including duration of mechanical ventilation, ventilator free days, hospital or intensive care unit length of stay, acute kidney injury, need for renal replacement therapy. Vitamin C may result in a slight reduction in duration of vasopressor support (MD −18.9 h, 95% CI −26.5 to −11.4; 21 trials, n = 2661, low certainty); but may not reduce sequential organ failure assessment scores (MD −0.69, 95% CI −1.55 to 0.71; 24 trials, n = 4002, low certainty). The panel judged the undesirable consequences of using IV vitamin C to probably outweigh the desirable consequences, and therefore issued a conditional recommendation against using IV vitamin C therapy in sepsis.ConclusionsThe panel suggests against use of intravenous vitamin C in adult patients with sepsis, beyond that of standard nutritional supplementation. Small and single center trials on this topic should be discouraged.