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While blood products are a critical resource in healthcare systems, providing sufficient blood products is a worldwide challenge, especially so since the COVID-19 pandemic. As easy and timely access to information is crucial to convince (potential) donors to change their behaviour and become regular donors, chatbots can offer fast and easy access to information whenever (potential) donors need it. Due to their human-like design, chatbots can help motivating and convincing users to donate blood regularly to work against the ongoing, post-pandemic challenges in providing sufficient blood supply. Based on previous findings, we assume that users’ perception of a blood donation chatbot can vary worldwide, in relation to the incorporated design features. As part of a design science study, we conducted an online between-subject experiment with participants from USA, Germany, South Africa and India. We could show a significant negative moderating effect of horizontal individualism in terms of the chatbot’s individualistic conversation style and the perceived similarity in social group membership, implicating the so-called “contribution conflict” with regard to IS and culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing intercultural mobility in academia necessitates the culturally-specific design of digital learning artifacts such as Pedagogical Conversational Agents (PCAs). We coded two PCA prototypes and manipulated the variable "power distance" adapted to Chinese versus German (learning) culture. We measured perceived competence, usefulness, identification, social presence, enjoyment, and trust in each PCA among the two groups of German and Chinese university students in an online experiment, ran statistical analyses, and reflected thereupon in a qualitative follow-up workshop. Our findings show significant differences in comparing the measured constructs between the two cultures and PCAs. We essentially demonstrate that German students prefer a PCA as a Learning Companion with a low power distance, strong social bonding, and vivid interactions, while Chinese students ascribe more value to a superior PCA instructor, that emphasizes power distance through structure and high efficiency. We conclusively discuss the need for a more culture-specific and value-driven design of PCAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the results of correlation analyses between the lower limb load conditions and a risk of trauma for various load variants. A simplified model of a distal lower limb has been developed, taking into account stiffness characteristics of the footwear. The influence of footwear stiffening on the effort occurring in the bone structures and ligaments under the axial impact force for different configurations of the leg position has been analysed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this work was to determine the influence of ligaments and soft tissue on the mechanism of pelvic injuries resulting from shear forces caused by vertical impactors with velocity in the range 1–10 m/s. The elaborated finite element model of the human pelvis (LPC) contains a bi-layered structure of bone, varying stiffness of pelvic ligaments and hyperelastic behavior of cartilage. The performed analysis indicates two limiting values: a velocity of 5 m/s as a limit for bone injuries and a velocity of 3 m/s as a limit for ligament and cartilage destruction. The ligaments having the main role in stabilizing the pelvic girdle under vertical impact load are: sacrospinous, anterior and posterior sacroiliac, iliolumbar, and inferior and posterior pubic. Obtained stress distribution in the pelvis confirms the mechanism of Malgaigne type fracture as described in the literature, indicating the transverse process as a precursor of this fracture causing the stress concentration in the lower part of the pelvis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) is applied for the investigation of polymer nanocomposites. Solid-state NMR is applied to study the modification steps to compatibilize layered double hydroxides with non-polar polymers. ¹H relaxation NMR gives insight on the polymer dynamics over a wide range of correlation times. For the polymer chain dynamics the transverse relaxation time T2 is most suited. In this presentation we report on two applications of T2 measurements under external mechanical stress. In a low-field system relaxation NMR studies are performed in-situ under uniaxial stress. High-temperature experiments in a Couette cell permit the investigation of the polymer dynamics in the melt under shear flow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]