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A categorical reframing approach to crisis communications
Get PDFIn this article, we argue that crisis communication studies can be developed by considering the self-categories speakers use in response to their behaviour being scrutinised. The use of such categories in response to reputational threat enables individuals and organisations to
draw on associations and meanings to reframe actions that audiences perceived to be offensive. Analysing statements from sporting personalities accused of complicity in sportswashing by Western Media outlets, we use discursive social psychology to animate how crisis communication rhetoric can draw on specific identities; an approach we label categorical reframing. Specifically, speakers articulated distance from diminished categories (e.g., sportswashers) to reduce responsibility and accentuated closeness to other categories (e.g., parent) to reduce offensiveness complementing distinct crisis communication strategies.
Based on our analysis, we provide propositions relating to the congruence between identity and rhetoric for observational and experimental analysis to better understand when and why social categories might be deployed during crisis communication to enhance their effectiveness
Analysis of threats to validity of the Competitive Product Development module: A case study
Get PDFWith advances in healthcare design settings and technology, previously established frameworks warrant to be revisited. A new framework based on the principles of holistic healing that integrates design theories and incorporates significant interior design components that help designers create healing spaces, through better understanding of user perception and preference of interior design elements is discussed. The holistic healing framework proposed is aimed at achieving satisfaction for single-occupancy room users with their hospital rooms. This framework appears to be particularly valuable in studying and understanding the physical setting and individual interactions within the environmental behaviour and how people perceive their surroundings. The onus is on designers to introduce design and décor to meet hospital room user requirements and showcase designer skills. Addressing a hospital room user’s satisfaction with healthcare facilities is only possible if these requirements are clearly documented and environmental behavior theories are fully understood
Generative AI and the Nationalization of US Politics
Get PDFArtificial Intelligence (AI) was seemingly everywhere by the end of 2024, and the 2024 US presidential election was the first American national election to be conducted wholly in an AI era. Nevertheless, relatively little is known about how effectively generative AI contributes to learning about politics. This study explores that question in the context of research on subnational US politics. Based on a novel methodology that combines the analysis of AI-generated profiles on several US states with interviews with state-level experts, this article identifies and analyses a prevalent national bias in the state-level content produced by generative AI. This bias is both a consequence of and a contributor to the problem of the nationalization of American politics, which itself undermines the principles of federalism that undergird Madisonian democracy in the United States
When children go missing: identifying risk factors to predict repeat incidents
Get PDFMissing children face significant risks, and although most return safely, several remain missing. Children who are repeatedly reported missing are especially vulnerable, being more susceptible to dangers, including alcohol and drug misuse, exploitation and sexual abuse. This study aims to identify risk factors associated with repeat missing children incidents, as this is an under-researched area.This study analysed police records of missing children from one UK police force, covering incidents reported from June 2018 to July 2019 (n = 907). Quantitative methods were used to investigate the characteristics and factors predicting repeat children disappearances reported to authorities.Over 80% of all missing child reports referred to repeat incidents. Notably, just 8.3% of children accounted for more than half the total incidents recorded. Several significant risk factors for repeated disappearances were identified, including prior criminal exploitation, violent behaviour, adverse childhood experiences previous arrests, and being in care. These factors were found to predict children at greater risk of repeatedly going missing.This study provides novel data-driven insights into the predictors of repeat reports of missing children based on police data. The findings have important implications for developing proactive policing risk assessments, enabling constabularies and policymakers to identify and support children at a greater risk of going missing before they go missing. This research contributes to improved safeguarding practices and more efficient allocation of police resources
Human-Centered AI in FinTech: A Conceptual Model and Strategic Research Agenda
Get PDFThe introduction of human-centered artificial intelligence (HCAl) in the financial technology (Fin Tech) industry was borne out of the need to have an AI system that has the interest of humans at its heart. The deployment of HCAl thus heralded a new ease of doing work. This paper presents a conceptual model on the applications of human-centered AI within the Fin Tech domain, drawing on insights from an interactive management workshop. Three trigger questions were raised with experts in the field in developing a conceptual model for applying HCAl in the FinTech industry to understand the ongoing research efforts; current challenges, limitations and gaps that are restricting research in this domain; and key areas that should be prioritized in developing a strategic research agenda for HCAl in Fin Tech. Our findings, based on the output from the 1M session revealed that focus in HCAl should focus more on areas such as ethics, fairness and bias, transparency and accountability, regulation and governance, cost of implementing AI-driven systems, cybersecurity, trust, maliciously developed AI systems, climate change challenges, and expertise of AI model developer
Taming High-Resolution Auxiliary G-Buffers for Deep Supersampling of Rendered Content
Get PDFHigh-resolution images come with rich color information and texture details. Due to the rapid upgrading of display devices and rendering technologies, high-resolution real-time rendering faces the computational overhead challenge. To address this, the current mainstream solution is to render at a lower resolution and then upsample to the target resolution by supersampling techniques. However, while many prior supersampling approaches have attempted to exploit rich rendered data such as color, depth, motion vectors at low resolution, there is little discussion on how to harness high-frequency information that is readily available in the high-resolution (HR) G-buffers of modern renders. In this article, we seek to investigate how to fully leverage information from HR G-buffers to maximize the visual quality of supersampling results. We propose a neural network for real-time supersampling of rendered content, which is based on several core designs, including gated G-buffers encoder, G-buffers attended encoder and reflection-aware loss. These designs are especially made for the sake of effectively using HR G-buffers, enabling faithful recovery of a variety of high-frequency scene details from low-resolution, highly aliased inputs. Furthermore, a simple occlusion-aware blender is proposed to efficiently rectify dis-occluded features in the warped previous frame, allowing us to better exploit history information to improve temporal stability. The experiments show that our method, equipped with strong ability to harness HR G-buffer information, significantly improves the visual fidelity of high-resolution reconstructions upon previous state-of-the-art methods, even for challenging 4×4 upsampling, while still being compute-efficient
Evidence for the major role of PH4⍺EFB in the prolyl 4-hydroxylation of Drosophila collagen IV.
Get PDFCollagens are fundamental components of extracellular matrices, requiring precise intracellular post-translational modifications for proper function. Among the modifications, prolyl 4-hydroxylation is critical to stabilise the collagen triple helix. In humans, this reaction is mediated by collagen prolyl 4-hydroxylases (P4Hs). While humans possess three genes encoding these enzymes (P4H⍺s), Drosophila melanogaster harbour at least 26 candidates for collagen P4H⍺s despite its simple genome, and it is poorly understood which of them are actually working on collagen in the fly. In this study, we addressed this question by carrying out thorough bioinformatic and biochemical analyses. We demonstrate that among the 26 potential collagen P4H⍺s, PH4⍺EFB shares the highest homology with vertebrate collagen P4H⍺s. Furthermore, while collagen P4Hs and their substrates must exist in the same cells, our transcriptomic analyses at the tissue and single cell levels showed a global co-expression of PH4⍺EFB but not the other P4H⍺-related genes with the collagen IV genes. Moreover, expression of PH4⍺EFB during embryogenesis was found to precede that of collagen IV, presumably enabling efficient collagen modification by PH4⍺EFB. Finally, biochemical assays confirm that PH4⍺EFB binds collagen, supporting its direct role in collagen IV modification. Collectively, we identify PH4⍺EFB as the primary and potentially constitutive prolyl 4-hydroxylase responsible for collagen IV biosynthesis in Drosophila. Our findings highlight the remarkably simple nature of Drosophila collagen IV biosynthesis, which may serve as a blueprint for defining the minimal requirements for collagen engineering
When genetics prevail: brain stimulation fails to overcome learning deficits from brain-derived neurotrophic factor Val66Met
Get PDFBackground: The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is a key contributor to memory categorization. Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) Val66Met polymorphism affects the efficacy of neuronal plasticity induction. We investigated whether DLPFC-transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) influences categorization performance, and whether BNDF genotype modulates this effect. Methods: Sixty-two healthy individuals were randomized to receive 10 min of either anodal right DLPFC-tDCS at 1 mA, or sham tDCS during the training phase of a prototype distortion task. Categorization performance was assessed during, shortly after, and the morning following the stimulation. Val66Met polymorphism status was determined through BNDF genotyping. Results: Val66Met carriers showed poorer categorization ability than Val/Val homozygotes (p < 0.0001). tDCS did not enhance categorization performance overall, or reduce genotype-associated differences with these specific stimulation parameters. However, tDCS extinguished the prototype effect of the categorization task observed in our sample. Conclusions: Our findings underscore the importance of BDNF polymorphism in category learning. 1 mA anodal right DLPFC over the right DLPFC does not improve performance or offset genotype differences under tested conditions. Significance: BDNF Val66Met polymorphism influences category learning, and low-intensity tDCS does not counteract this effect, emphasizing the need to refine stimulation protocols for genotype-specific cognitive enhancement
Conceptualizing and Measuring Customer Luxury Experience in Hotels
Get PDFDespite the growing significance of customer luxury experience in tourism and hospitality, research on defining and measuring it remains scarce. Existing studies fail to distinguish luxury from ordinary experiences or rely on unidimensional approaches that overlook the complexity of customer luxury experiences. To address this gap, this study develops a multidimensional six-factor, 20-item customer luxury experience scale specific to luxury hospitality. Drawing on luxury and customer experience literature, three studies are conducted to develop and validate this scale. Study 1 collected and examined a large dataset of customer reviews from the Tripadvisor website to inform the domain specification and item generation process. Study 2 involved both academic and industry experts to validate the dimensions, as well as to review, refine, and suggest new items. Study 3 was a large-scale survey to calibrate and validate the scale. Findings suggest that luxury customer experience should be based on six dimensions: service quality, authenticity, escapism, exclusivity, status, and aesthetic refinement to elevate the overall perception of luxury experience. Tourism and hospitality managers can use this scale to assess and enhance customer luxury experience. This contribution enriches luxury tourism and hospitality, offering insights into how consumers perceive and experience luxury in hotels
Exploring the Role of MRCP+ for Enhancing Detection of High-Grade Strictures in Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis
Get PDFBackground: Identifying high-grade strictures (HGS) in patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) relies upon subjective assessments of magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP). Quantitative MRCP (MRCP+) provides objective evaluation of MRCP examinations, which may help make these assessments more consistent and improve patient management and selection for intervention. We evaluated the impact of MRCP+ on clinicians’ confidence in diagnosing HGS in patients with PSC. Methods: Three expert abdominal radiologists independently assessed 28 patients with PSC. Radiological reads of MRCPs were performed twice, in a random order, three weeks apart, then a third time with MRCP+. HGS presence was recorded on semi-quantitative confidence scales. The cases where readers definitively agreed on presence/absence of HGS were used to assess inter- and intra-reader agreement and confidence. Results: When using MRCP alone, high intra-reader agreement was observed in identifying HGS within both intra- and extrahepatic ducts (64.3% and 70.8%, respectively), while inter-reader agreement was significantly lower for intrahepatic ducts (42.9%) than extrahepatic ducts (66.1%) (p < 0.01). Using MRCP+ in the third read significantly improved inter-reader agreement for intrahepatic HGS detection to 67.9% versus baseline reads (p = 0.02) and was comparable with extrahepatic ducts. Reader confidence tended to increase when supplemented with MRCP+, and inter-reader variability decreased. MRCP+ metrics had good performance in identifying HGS in both extra-hepatic (AUC:0.85) and intra-hepatic ducts (AUC:0.75). Conclusions: MRCP evaluation supported by quantitative metrics tended to increase individual reader confidence and reduce inter-reader variability for detecting HGS. Our results indicate that MRCP+ might help standardize MRCP assessment and subsequent management for patients with PSC