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Copyright of Contemporary Accounting Research is the property of Canadian Academic Accounting Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic strongly influenced daily practices, and this manifested in social interactions, communications and consumption. This work addresses the relations between branding and cultural trends in strategic communication and advertising in different contexts of the pandemic. First, we reviewed the concepts of branding and cultural trends. From there, it was necessary to develop a methodological proposal to articulate a connotative semiotic analysis with the semiotic square and a cultural trend mapping. The analysis was carried out through an independent and comparative reading of two-time phases: confinement (2020) and end of constraints (2022). Three telecommunications brands in Portugal act as case studies in a random and probabilistic sample of two audiovisual texts from Christmas campaigns each. Finally, a theoretical-operational triangulation is obtained between branding, cultural trends and semiotic analysis in promoting local brands that redefine spaces, social relations, and identity expression during and after the COVID-19 pandemic confinements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop a theoretically grounded framework of boundary transitions and their effect on individuals working in dynamic teamwork settings. "Boundaries in teamwork," described here as the psychological limits that define one team as separate from another, have been examined in silos across a broad range of literatures. Consequently, we know little about the cognitive processes associated with the psychological shift in focus (or boundary transition) that occurs because of a change in people, roles, tasks, or technologies in the context of dynamic teamwork. Our comprehensive model of boundary transitions incorporates a broader perspective of boundary transitions, such as transitions across multiple types of boundaries, as well as dimensions of boundary transitions, such as the strength and meaning of the boundaries traversed, the number of boundaries crossed (transition breadth), and whether the context of the transition is within or between teams (transition context). We leverage this framework to explore the cognitive implications of boundary transitions (cognitive exertion and expansion) as well as their implications for individual contributions to teamwork and provide an agenda for future inquiry in boundary transitions in dynamic collaborative teamwork. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop a theory of non-monetary costs incurred by chief executive officers (CEOs) when deciding about layoffs and test its predictions on French data. Our results support the idea that, being embedded in their social environment, CEOs find it more difficult to fire employees closer to their own workplace. This effect is stronger whenever social interactions are less anonymous in the CEOs' local environment. It is weaker when CEOs live further away from where they work, because of limited exposure to local discontent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Contemporary Accounting Research is the property of Canadian Academic Accounting Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Despite the significant growth of online education worldwide, the online educational experiences of students living with disabilites (SWDs) have been largely overlooked. This research presents an analysis of themes that emerged from in-depth interviews related to the authentic experiences of SWDs. Derived from the experience territory matrix three types of educational experiences that students encounter in their online journey (enchantment, re-enchantment, and disenchantment) were contextualised using the psycho-emotional model of disability. The study identified varying degrees of both enabling and disabling factors (i.e., perceived student-customer orientation, respect, experience quality, structural barriers, and internalised oppression). These factors contribute to the education experiences of SWDs that go beyond the curriculum with implications for institutional guidelines and the design of specific interventions targeting the needs of SWDs. Findings revealed how educational experiences can be improved for SWDs when addressing structural barriers, social interactions, internalised oppressions, and by enhancing student-customer orientation dimensions, and respect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Design of next-generation membranes requires a nanoscopic understanding of the effect of biologically inspired heterogeneous surface chemistries and topologies (roughness) on local water and solute behavior. In particular, the rejection of small, neutral solutes, such as boric acid, poses a heretofore unsolved challenge. In prior work, a computational inverse design technique using an evolutionary optimization successfully uncovered new surface design strategies for optimized transport of water over solutes in smooth, model pores consisting of two surface chemistries. However, extending such an approach to more complex (and realistic) scenarios involving many surface chemistries as well as surface roughness is challenging due to the expanded design space. In this work, we develop a new approach that uses active learning to optimize in a reduced feature space of surface group interactions, finding parameters that lead to their assembly into ordered, optimal patterns. This approach rapidly identifies novel surface functionalizations that maximize the difference in water and boric acid transport through the nanopore. Moreover, we find that the roughness of the nanopore wall, independent of its chemistry, can be leveraged to enhance transport selectivity: oscillations in the pore wall diameter optimally inhibit boric acid transport by creating energetic wells from which the solute must escape to transport down the pore. This proof-of-concept demonstrates the potential for active learning strategies, in concert with molecular simulations, to rapidly navigate complex design spaces of aqueous interfaces and is promising as a tool for engineering water-mediated surface interactions for a broad range of applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interaction between humans and robots in the workplace garners interest in recent years due to the introduction of Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0 frameworks. A scoping review was performed aimed at investigating the effect of robot design features on their human counterparts. In the analysis of the 32 identified articles, the robot design features used in the literature are shown along with the effects on the operators. Results showcased the many to many relationships between robot design features and effects on operators. Robot appearance, for example, and capabilities play a role in the operators' perception and expectations of their capabilities based on the task and subsequently perceived reliability and safety. Communication capabilities between operators and robots is an integral part for teamwork and performance as it can affect work processes. The paucity of papers empirically addressing human robot interaction as a system is consistent with results from previous literature, indicating the need for more research. The results of this investigation can prove useful in the form of advice to designers and practitioners, such as the operator's involvement in implementation, knowledge on robots' capabilities and training. Research gaps identified are discussed, as well as future research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People often interact with groups (i.e., ensembles) during social interactions. Given that group-level information is important in navigating social environments, we expect perceptual sensitivity to aspects of groups that are relevant for personal threat as well as social belonging. Most ensemble perception research has focused on visual ensembles, with little research looking at auditory or vocal ensembles. Across four studies, we present evidence that (i) perceivers accurately extract the sex composition of a group from voices alone, (ii) judgments of threat increase concomitantly with the number of men, and (iii) listeners sense of belonging depends on the number of same-sex others in the group. This work advances our understanding of social cognition, interpersonal communication, and ensemble coding to include auditory information, and reveals peoples ability to extract relevant social information from brief exposures to vocalizing groups.

Social interactions unfold within networks of relationships. How do beliefs about others social ties shape-and how are they shaped by-expectations about how others will behave? Here, participants joined a fictive online game-playing community and interacted with its purported members, who varied in terms of their trustworthiness and apparent relationships with one another. Participants were less trusting of partners with untrustworthy friends, even after they consistently showed themselves to be trustworthy, and were less willing to engage with them in the future. To test whether people not only expect friends to behave similarly but also expect those who behave similarly to be friends, an incidental memory test was given. Participants were exceptionally likely to falsely remember similarly behaving partners as friends. Thus, people expect friendship to predict similar behavior and vice versa. These results suggest that knowledge of social networks and others behavioral tendencies reciprocally interact to shape social thought and behavior.

Role theory generally predicts that when the demands and norms of two roles are highly contrasted, individuals will construct a strong boundary to separate the roles. However, such predictions are grounded primarily in the Global North, emphasizing role pairings including "work–family" and hybrid "work–work." Comparatively, the Global South is characterized by a lack of public services that creates a highly contrasted, highly salient, and yet understudied role pairing—"work–community." Additionally, the socioeconomic features of the Global South (e.g., dense and overlapping community networks, financial poverty) call into question whether existing predictions surrounding boundary strength are likely to hold. We conducted a qualitative study of 73 Tanzanian participants who had both a self-employed work role and a family planning counselor community role. We found that highly contrasted roles can be simultaneously perceived as both incompatible and compatible. Specifically, the boundaries we observed were neither uniformly strong nor weak, but rather of asymmetric strength: strong when a social interaction was anchored in the community role, but weak when anchored in the work role. The specific role contrasts we identify, and the importance of role anchoring we observe, have important implications for role theory and boundary-setting more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the relationship between loneliness, sedentary behavior, physical exercise, and social participation in Chinese older adults, and provided ideas to formulate preventive strategies that can help reduce loneliness. Data on demographics, health behavior, social participation, and loneliness were collected from a cross-sectional study of 629 older adults in Hefei, Anhui province, from June to August 2020. After adjusting for age, income, religion, marital status, and chronic illness demographic variables, sedentary behavior (β = 0.111, SE = 0.671, p =.001), physical exercise (β = −0.229, SE = 0.358, p <.001), and social participation (β = −0.329, SE = 0.086, p <.001) were found to be significantly correlated with loneliness in older adults. These findings suggest that a higher level of loneliness may be linked to greater sedentary behavior, less social engagement, and decreased physical exercise among older men and women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on the embodied consumption literature, we draw on Merleau-Ponty's theory of art to consider how new modes of visibility arise in interactions between individuals online. Focusing on one particular virtual and collaborative museum programme, we use ethnomethodological analysis of interactions to analyse video recordings of virtual arts conversations. The analysis explores how participants render visible their orientation to each other and to the works of art discussed in the workshop. Thus, we can see how participants produce the sense and significance of works of art in, and through 'intercorporeal interactions' while participating in a virtual arts programme. Observations and findings from our research have significant implications for the strategic management of virtual consumer experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research on automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and Industry 4.0 has mainly focused on technical aspects, while the humans who work with AGVs as well as the influences on the organisation have received limited attention. This paper aims to explore human- and organisation-related challenges in the introduction of AGVs in production facilities. Two cases are examined and analysed using the Human, Technology, and Organisation (HTO) model, which highlights the interactions between the three subsystems: human, technology, and organisation. The paper shows that several human- and organisation-related challenges arise when introducing AGVs, such as supporting the AGVs with new work procedures for managing AGV errors, determining what different operators need to know about AGVs, and developing acceptance among employees. The identified challenges complement the technical focus in previous research. Actions are proposed to facilitate the introduction of AGVs to avoid or manage the identified challenges. The findings of this study can help managers involved in the introduction of AGVs to consider human- and organisation-related aspects to improve AGV performance and employee well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social technologies on online review platforms enable social interactions among users, such as establishing following relationships and commenting on others' posts. Although it is well recognized that more socially engaged reviewers tend to be more active and generate content of higher quality, our knowledge about the impact of social interactions on peer evaluations of reviews is limited. To address this issue, we use a unique dataset from a major online review platform and find that, ceteris paribus, reviews posted by more socially engaged users receive more helpfulness votes than those posted by less socially engaged users. Similarly, users tend to vote more for reviews written by their mutual followers than for those written by nonfollowers. In addition, we find that less socially engaged users review a broader range of products and services but are less likely to stay on a platform, which may further contribute to the inflation of peer evaluations (toward online reviews). Our study provides unique empirical evidence regarding the influence of social interactions on review evaluations. Furthermore, we caution researchers and practitioners against utilizing review helpfulness scores as a sole measure for review quality and diagnosticity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decades of research have demonstrated that social connection is fundamental to health and well-being. The benefits of connection are observed with both close and distant others, within both new and established relationships, and even with exchanges that unfold over a relatively short timeframe. Because social connection is fundamental to well-being, many existing measures in the literature aim to assess either a global sense of connection or partner-specific (relationship-specific) connection. What is missing are measures of connection felt in specific social interactions or conversations. In three studies (Study 1: N = 351; Study 2: Time 1 N = 397, Time 2 N = 336, Time 3 N = 299; Study 3: N = 235), we developed the Connection During Conversations Scale (CDCS), a 14-item measure of conversation-specific social connection that assesses connection experienced during a social interaction (or conversation). Confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated that a four-factor model fit our samples well, which resulted in four subscales: Shared Reality, Partner Responsiveness, Participant Interest, and Affective Experience. The overall CDCS measure, along with its four subscales, was significantly correlated with established measures of loneliness, partner responsiveness, relatedness, positivity resonance, and shared reality. Because of the importance of frequent interactions-whether with family, friends, coworkers, or strangers-our new scale will allow researchers to better understand how, when, and where such conversations may contribute to social connection and well-being. (225 words).

This paper analyses extant literature on how Industry 4.0 impacts Social Capital in Buyer-Supplier Relationships. We conduct a systematic literature review and identify 36 academic articles that are analysed in the research process. The study uncovers strategic changes Industry 4.0 implies for Social Capital in Buyer-Supplier Relationships. These include transformations in cognitive, structural and relational capital in terms of a shared vision, social interaction and trust. Therein, Social Capital in Buyer-Supplier Relationships is needed and further invested in aspects like common decision-making, information sharing and cross-company integration in Industry 4.0 contexts. We propose that Industry 4.0 implementation does require and foster Social Capital in Buyer-Supplier Relationships and that two diametrically opposed elementary forms of Buyer-Supplier Relationships co-exist in an Industry 4.0 context. The systematic literature review is the first to analyse the extant body of literature on Buyer-Supplier Relationships in Industry 4.0 to synthesise detailed transformations against the backdrop of Social Capital. It provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of research and develops several suggestions for future research and managerial practice, for example, concerning the role of humans in strategic tasks in Industry 4.0. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current research advances understanding of how consumers respond to embarrassing service encounters. Across a combination of field and online studies, the authors provide evidence that (1) consumers prefer self-service to human services when purchasing embarrassing products or services; (2) when self-service is not available, consumers respond more positively to a mechanistic service provider than to a personable service provider; and (3) if consumers must engage in embarrassing social interactions, they dehumanize service providers, perceiving them as more mechanistic and less capable of emotional reactions than when engaging in nonembarrassing service interactions. The authors also examine consumers' familiarity with the service provider as a boundary condition for the effect. Collectively, the results provide converging evidence for the proposed framework and have substantive implications for service management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As jobs become increasingly unstable and contingent and employees are increasingly geographically separated and likely to communicate via technology, employees may find it more difficult to feel connected with one another and to navigate work interactions. We theorize that, given such circumstances, employees are likely to engage in work-related imagined interactions, mental simulations of interactions with work-related others. Drawing on a core social motives framework, we propose two primary types of work-related imagined interactions: those aimed at helping employees feel more connected with others (i.e., imagined interactions concerning socio-emotional goals) and those aimed at helping employees gain confidence to influence others (i.e., imagined interactions concerning socio-instrumental goals). We explicate the conditions that motivate employees to engage in each type of imagined interaction and examine the content of these imaginings, explaining with whom they imagine interacting, what the imagined interaction is like, and when the imagined interaction occurs. Our theorizing sheds light on employees' intrapersonal relational landscape of work. In doing so, we contribute to the management literatures on relationships and social cognition and to the literature on imagined interactions. We conclude by highlighting important implications for both managers and employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author argues that living literacies—relational, embodied forms of literacy engagement—are an integral component of literacy engagement and hold the potential to disrupt and reconfigure the power structures embedded within schooled literacy. Drawing on affect theory and rhizomatic theory, the author analyzes youths’ literacy engagement in a seventh‐grade English Language Arts and Reading classroom in a New York City public school. This research addresses how schooled literacy, constructed through a sanctioned educational system, potentially dehumanizes students who diverge from the idealized curricular norm, while a focus on living literacies challenges these limitations. Central to this study is the rhizomatic approach of tracing and mapping to analyze the complexities between imposed schooled literacy engagement and living literacies engagement. The author presents findings through two sections: (1) an analysis of the sanctioning power of schooled literacy and (2) an analysis of living literacies through youths’ in‐class literate engagement. Findings demonstrate how schooled literacy practices become normalized and sanction what types of literacy engagement are valued in the classroom—and, therefore, transfer value to students themselves. However, by mapping assemblaging moments of living literacies, including socially charged interactions and spontaneous peer assistance, findings provide insight into how embodied, interrelational forms of literacy engagement offer opportunities for reconfiguring the sanctions of schooled literacy. The author concludes by discussing implications for policy, practice, and research, advocating for a shift toward more humanizing, interrelational, and embodied forms of literacy engagement in school spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Significant challenges are arising around how to best enable peer communities, broaden educational reach, and innovate in pedagogy. While digital education can address these challenges, digital elements alone do not guarantee effective learning. This study reports a blended learning approach integrating online and face-to-face components, guided by the Student Approaches to Learning framework. Methods: This study was carried out investigating learning in first and second year medical students over two academic years, 2019/20 and 2020/21. We evaluated: (1) comparison of students engaged with blended learning and traditional learning; and (2) student learning engaged with blended learning approach over a two-year preclinical curriculum. A revised two-factor study process questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F) evaluated students' surface/deep learning before and after an academic year. Learning experience (LE) questionnaire was administered over the domains of learning engagement, and outcomes of learning approach. In-depth interviews were carried out to understand the context of students' responses to the R-SPQ-2F and LE questionnaires. Results: The R-SPQ-2F analysis indicated first year students maintained deep learning but second year students became neutral across the academic year, regardless of learning approach, with workload contributing to this outcome. R-SPQ-2F sub-scales showed that students engaged with blended learning maintained an intrinsic interest to learning, as compared to traditional learning which led to surface learning motives. The LE questionnaire showed students engaged with blended learning had deeper subject interest, and more positive perceptions of workload, feedback, and effectively developed skills and knowledge. However, peer interactions from blended learning were significantly lacking. In-depth interviews revealed that the flexibility and multi-modality of blended learning enabled learning, but the best use of these features require teacher support. Online interactions could be cultivated through intentional institutional efforts. Conclusions: This study highlights the importance of designing blended learning that leverages technology-enabled flexibility while prioritising collaborative, learner-centred spaces for deep engagement and knowledge construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The eukaryotic replisome is assembled around the CMG (CDC45-MCM-GINS) replicative helicase, which encircles the leading-strand DNA template at replication forks. When CMG stalls during DNA replication termination, or at barriers such as DNA-protein crosslinks on the leading strand template, a second helicase is deployed on the lagging strand template to support replisome progression. How these 'accessory' helicases are targeted to the replisome to mediate barrier bypass and replication termination remains unknown. Here, by combining AlphaFold structural modelling with experimental validation, we show that the budding yeast Rrm3 accessory helicase contains two Short Linear Interaction Motifs (SLIMs) in its disordered N-terminus, which interact with CMG and the leading-strand DNA polymerase Polε on one side of the replisome. This flexible tether positions Rrm3 adjacent to the lagging strand template on which it translocates, and is critical for replication termination in vitro and Rrm3 function in vivo. The primary accessory helicase in metazoa, RTEL1, is evolutionarily unrelated to Rrm3, but binds to CMG and Polε in an analogous manner, revealing a conserved docking mechanism for accessory helicases in the eukaryotic replisome. Synopsis: Accessory DNA helicases are required to overcome replisome stalling during DNA replication. This study describes a mechanism for targeting the Rrm3 accessory helicase to the budding yeast replisome via interactions with the CMG replicative helicase and DNA polymerase ε. This binding mode positions Rrm3 close to the lagging strand DNA template and is highly similar to RTEL1 in the human replisome. Budding yeast Rrm3 contains an N-terminal Intrinsically Disordered Region (IDR) that mediates its recruitment to the replisome. The Rrm3 IDR contains adjacent motifs that interact with the CMG helicase and DNA polymerase ε, positioning Rrm3 close to the lagging strand DNA template. Rrm3 binding to DNA polymerase ε is critical for Rrm3 function during DNA replication in vitro and in vivo. The metazoan accessory helicase RTEL1 interacts with CMG and DNA polymerase ε in a highly similar manner to Rrm3. Short linear interaction motifs present in accessory DNA helicases from yeast and humans mediate their interaction with the CMG replicative helicase and DNA polymerase ε. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ten studies (N = 4192) demonstrated that individuals depicted as prosocial were judged to be more physically beautiful. This evaluation of prosocial individuals as more beautiful is influenced by a motivation to be associated with prosocial others. This phenomenon was observed in real‐world settings (Study 1) and applied to both men and women, both as targets and observers (Studies 2a–2b). The effect persisted in scenarios where participants imagined the target without any visual aid (Study 2c) and extended beyond metaphorical interpretations of beauty (Study 3). The effect weakened when prosocial behaviour was an isolated incident, not indicative of the target's prosocial personality (Study 4). The influence of prosociality on beauty evaluations surpassed that of other positive traits such as intelligence or humour (Study 5) and remained significant despite physical imperfections in the target's appearance (Study 6). The effect diminished in situations where forming a relationship was not feasible, thus supporting the motivated cognition rationale (Studies 7–8). These findings highlight the substantial role of prosocial behaviour in influencing evaluations of physical beauty, a crucial element in social interactions and relationship formation, often outweighing other attributes typically linked to physical appearance evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Introduction Aim Method Results Discussion Implications for Practice Relevance Statement Studies suggest that experiences of patient participation, as described by both patients and staff, are associated with a significant caring relationship of high quality.This study aimed to investigate staffs' and patients' self‐reported perceptions on participation and the frequency and importance of verbal and social interactions in high‐security forensic psychiatry.The questionnaire Verbal and Social Interactions (VSI) was used together with the subscale Participation from Quality in Psychiatric Care (QPC). The study was conducted at a large forensic psychiatric clinic in Sweden.Staff and patients rated the frequency of VSI differently while reporting the same perceived degree of patient participation. All categories of VSI were significantly correlated with perceived level of participation with medium or small effect size for the patients.Patients' perceived participation seems to depend on verbal and social interaction within the specific categories ‘Showing interest in the patients’ feelings, experiences, and behavior’ and ‘Helping the patients establish structure and routines in their everyday life’. There was, however, a negative association for the latter.The results give a better understanding of what kind of interactions that affect patients' perceived level of participation.Patient participant is a prioritised area for development in forensic psychiatry. The study contributes to a better understanding of what types of interactions that affect the perceived level of participation, while at the same time, it shows important similarities and differences between patient and staff perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has shown that the relationship between a supervisor and a subordinate is crucial in shaping employee voice behaviour. However, where these relationships originate needs to be clarified. Studies on relational schemas suggest that the quality of these relationships depends on the relational schemas held by both leaders and subordinates. Unfortunately, these two research areas have developed independently and have yet to intersect, which limits our understanding of how social interactions between leaders and subordinates impact employee voice behaviour. Based on research from both domains, the current study examines how the supervisor–subordinate relational schema affects employees' voice behaviour. Our proposal, grounded in complexity theory, suggests that the expectations of both leaders and subordinates about their relationship model determine whether employees choose to voice their opinions to their leaders. Analyses of data from a survey of 416 matched pairs of leaders and subordinates in China conducted using fsQCA and LPA largely support our view. The results indicate that the configuration of the supervisor–subordinate relational schema among leaders and subordinates can predict the level of employee voice behaviour. Additionally, this configuration is a natural subset of the population. These findings have important implications for improving employee voice behaviour in organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractPrior literature has shown that brands can use digital storytelling (DST) to reduce uncertainty among consumers and thus increase sales. As such, it is important to understand the elements of storytelling and its role in marketing a product. Extant studies have not explored the elements of DST in terms of the technological convenience of the consumer. This study, therefore, examines the mediating impact of DST elements through factors such as perceived efficiency, social interaction, effort expectancy, and facilitating conditions. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model was employed as a theoretical base for the study. A sample of 305 respondents who had made an online purchase were shown a digital story of a known brand. The results indicate that the elements of storytelling significantly impact the factors of the UTAUT model. Further, these factors mediate the relationship between DST and two dependent variables (behavioral intention and perceived brand image). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For better decisions in social interactions, humans often must understand the thinking of others and predict their actions. Since such predictions are uncertain, multiple predictions may be necessary for better decision-making. However, the neural processes and computations underlying such social decision-making remain unclear. We investigated this issue by developing a behavioral paradigm and performing functional magnetic resonance imaging and computational modeling. In our task, female and male participants were required to predict others' choices in order to make their own value-based decisions, as the outcome depended on others' choices. Results showed, to make choices, the participants mostly relied on a value difference (primary) generated from the case where others would make a likely choice, but sometimes they additionally used another value difference (secondary) from the opposite case where others make an unlikely choice. We found that the activations in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) correlated with the primary difference while the activations in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rdlPFC) correlated with the secondary difference. Analysis of neural coupling and temporal dynamics suggested a three-step processing network, beginning with the left amygdala signals for predictions of others' choices. Modulated by these signals, the PCC and rdlPFC reflect the respective value differences for self-decisions. Finally, the medial prefrontal cortex integrated these decision signals for a final decision. Our findings elucidate the neural process of constructing value-based decisions by predicting others and illuminate their key variables with social modulations, providing insight into the differential functional roles of these brain regions in this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractParticipating in online mathematical discussions is a beneficial strategy to improve online math learning. Research has examined online mathematical discussions from various aspects, focusing on the content discussed, student interaction, and the technical tools facilitating student participation, but few studies have investigated the interplay among these aspects. This study draws on Communicative Ecology Theory (CET, Foth & Hearn, 2007), which conceptualizes the sustainability of online communities as influenced by discursive, social, and technical factors, to explore how students’ discursive, social, and technical participation behaviors on an online mathematical discussion board are interacted. Leveraging a dataset including more than 90,000 students and two million online discussion interactions, this study indicated that students’ engagement with technical functions, especially a communication tool and a motivation system, within the discussion board significantly facilitated their social interactions and enhanced their demonstration of mathematical knowledge, mathematical literacy, and affective control in the discussions. These findings provide insights for educators and designers of educational applications to enhance student participation in online discussions thereby improving the effectiveness of these discussions in online learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractAimMethodResultsConclusionTo co-construct a dance class adapted for adolescents with cerebral palsy (CP).A three phase co-construction process with study collaborators was used to (1) define the objectives and the obstacles and opportunities related to offering a dance class in the community through three focus groups with adolescents, their parents and study partners; (2) co-create the dance class based on the results of step 1, the expertise of the research team and the logic model of the dance class; and (3) test the dance class to evaluate its effects in relation to the defined objectives.Three objectives were identified: to have fun, promote movement, and social interaction. A weekly dance class (60 min./10 wk) was continuously tested on the adolescents and adapted by the dance facilitators.To improve practices and support the implementation of dance classes for young people with CP, eight recommendations are proposed relating to the creation of adapted classes and the evaluation of their desired effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional domains of land, sea, and air warfare have long held prominence, while space and cyberspace have recently gained recognition as spheres of conflict. As conflicts continue to evolve, the domains of war must expand to accommodate new dimensions of engagement and integrate them alongside those human-centred factors that have previously held considerable sway. It is imperative, therefore, to recognise culture as the sixth domain and reflect upon its profound influence on group thinking, decision-making, and behaviour. Integrating culture into the Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Targeting (C5ISRT) framework acknowledges its strategic relevance in shaping military strategies and responses in an increasingly complex and interconnected world. This paradigm shift highlights that the modern landscape extends beyond physical and virtual theatres to encompass the cognitive and social dimensions that define human interactions and conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescence is a critical period for brain development in humans and stress exposure during this time can have lasting eects on behavior and brain development. Social isolation and loneliness are particularly salient stressors that lead to detrimental mental health outcomes particularly in females, although most of the preclinical work on social isolation has been done in male animals. Our lab has developed a model of post-weaning adolescent social isolation that leads to increased drug reward sensitivity and altered neuronal structure in limbic brain regions. The current study utilized this model to determine the impact of adolescent social isolation on a three-chamber social interaction task both during adolescence and adulthood. We found that while post-weaning isolation does not alter social interaction during adolescence (PND45), it has sexspecific eects on social interaction in young adulthood (PND60), potentiating social interaction in male mice and decreasing it in female mice. As early life stress can activate microglia leading to alterations in neuronal pruning, we next examined the impact of inhibiting microglial activation with daily minocycline administration during the first 3 weeks of social isolation on these changes in social interaction. During adolescence, minocycline dampened social interaction in male mice, while having no eect in females. In contrast, during young adulthood, minocycline did not alter the impact of adolescent social isolation in males, with socially isolated males exhibiting higher levels of social interaction compared to their group housed counterparts. In females, adolescent minocycline treatment reversed the eect of social isolation leading to increased social interaction in the social isolation group, mimicking what is seen in naïve males. Taken together, adolescent social isolation leads to sex-specific eects on social interaction in young adulthood and adolescent minocycline treatment alters the eects of social isolation in females, but not [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social interactions are often analyzed by scoring segments of predefined behavior and then statistically assessing numerical and sequential patterns to identify the structure of the encounters. However, this approach can miss the dynamics of the animals' relationship over the course of the encounter, one that often involves invariant bonds, say a nose-to-nose orientation, with many different movements performed by both partners acting to counteract each other's attempts to break or maintain the relationship. Moreover, these invariant bonds can switch from one configuration to another during an interaction, leading from one stable configuration to another. It is this stepwise sequence of configurational stabilities that lead to functional outcomes, such as mating, aggression, or predation. By focusing on the sequence of invariant relational configurations, the deep structure of interactions can be discerned. This deep structure can then be used to differentiate between compensatory movements, no matter how seemingly stereotyped they may appear, from movement patterns which are restricted to a particular form when more than one option is available. A dynamic perspective requires suitable tools for analysis, and such tools are highlighted as needed in describing particular interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study synthesizes 34 effect sizes from 18 articles involving 9,271 participants to investigate how media multitasking influences enjoyment under different circumstances. The moderating effects of task combination, sample demographics, and methodological artifacts are examined. Study results indicate that task relevance boosts the positive relationship between media multitasking and enjoyment, with sample mean age and gender ratio being controlled. Sample demographics also moderate the relationship between media multitasking and enjoyment, with community samples and men reporting higher levels of enjoyment than student samples and women. Lab studies yield lower enjoyment than their non-lab counterparts; single-item measures of enjoyment generate more positive results than multi-item measures. Moreover, when studies using non-media tasks are excluded, surveys, older generations, and studies with social media interaction as the secondary task report higher multi-screening enjoyment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many biological problems are understudied due to experimental limitations and human biases. Although deep learning is promising in accelerating scientific discovery, its power compromises when applied to problems with scarcely labeled data and data distribution shifts. We develop a deep learning framework—Meta Model Agnostic Pseudo Label Learning (MMAPLE)—to address these challenges by effectively exploring out-of-distribution (OOD) unlabeled data when conventional transfer learning fails. The uniqueness of MMAPLE is to integrate the concept of meta-learning, transfer learning and semi-supervised learning into a unified framework. The power of MMAPLE is demonstrated in three applications in an OOD setting where chemicals or proteins in unseen data are dramatically different from those in training data: predicting drug-target interactions, hidden human metabolite-enzyme interactions, and understudied interspecies microbiome metabolite-human receptor interactions. MMAPLE achieves 11% to 242% improvement in the prediction-recall on multiple OOD benchmarks over various base models. Using MMAPLE, we reveal novel interspecies metabolite-protein interactions that are validated by activity assays and fill in missing links in microbiome-human interactions. MMAPLE is a general framework to explore previously unrecognized biological domains beyond the reach of present experimental and computational techniques. MMAPLE, a semi-supervised meta-learning framework, effectively addresses data scarcity and out-of-distribution challenges in deep learning. It uncovers novel drug-target, metabolite-enzyme, and microbiome-human interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Disease outbreaks are one of the key threats to great apes and other wildlife. Because the spread of some pathogens (e.g., respiratory viruses, sexually transmitted diseases, ectoparasites) are mediated by social interactions, there is a growing interest in understanding how social networks predict the chain of pathogen transmission. In this study, we built a party network from wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), and used agent‐based modeling to test: (i) whether individual attributes (sex, age) predict individual centrality (i.e., whether it is more or less socially connected); (ii) whether individual centrality affects an individual's role in the chain of pathogen transmission; and, (iii) whether the basic reproduction number (R0) and infectious period modulate the influence of centrality on pathogen transmission. We show that sex and age predict individual centrality, with older males presenting many (degree centrality) and strong (strength centrality) relationships. As expected, males are more central than females within their network, and their centrality determines their probability of getting infected during simulated outbreaks. We then demonstrate that direct measures of social interaction (strength centrality), as well as eigenvector centrality, strongly predict disease dynamics in the chimpanzee community. Finally, we show that this predictive power depends on the pathogen's R0 and infectious period: individual centrality was most predictive in simulations with the most transmissible pathogens and long‐lasting diseases. These findings highlight the importance of considering animal social networks when investigating disease outbreaks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper catalyses the academic urgency to understand agri-food system transformation pathways. Such transformation requires new food growing imaginaries of rooted in a change of thinking and ways of engaging with more-than-human perspectives. Urban spaces are hubs of human and more-than-human interactions, and urban organic farming offers an excellent site for exploring such new food growing imaginaries. The research presented here innovates theoretical and methodological knowledge in more-than-human geography. It develops alternative food growing imaginaries through a sensory ethnography at an urban organic workers’ cooperative Organiclea and visual arts methodologies. Through that, the paper brings to the fore the marginalized more-than-human perspectives by exploring more-than-human sensory Umwelts – taste and nutrition for the soil, sound for soil denizens, smell for honeybees, tactile perception for common weeds – and understanding human experience of food growing through sight. Attuning to a more-than-human sensorium broadens our knowledge of the life stories of other biotic and abiotic critters and recognizes that human and more-than-human world-making projects are interconnected. The paper concludes that sensory engagement is critical to the development of new imaginaries for a more sustainable food production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change affects ecosystems at several levels: by altering the spatial distribution of individual species, by locally rewiring interspecific interactions, and by reorganizing trophic networks at larger scales. The dynamics of marine food webs are becoming more and more sensitive to spatial processes and connections in the seascape. As a case study, we study the atlantification of the Barents Sea: we compare spatio-temporal subsystems at three levels: the identity of key organisms, critically important interactions and the entire food web. Network analysis offers quantitative measurements, including centrality indices, trophic similarity indices, a topological measure of interaction asymmetry and network-level measures. We found that atlantification alters the identity of key species (boreal demersals becoming hubs), results in strongly asymmetric interactions (dominated by haddock), changes the dominant regulation regime (from bottom-up to wasp-waist control) and makes the food web less modular. Since the results of food web analysis may be quite sensitive to network construction, the aggregation of food web data was explicitly studied to increase the robustness of food web analysis. We found that an alternative, mathematical aggregation algorithm better preserves some network properties (e.g. density) of the original, unaggregated network than the biologically inspired aggregation into functional groups. This article is part of the theme issue 'Connected interactions: enriching food web research by spatial and social interactions'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many lateral biases exist in human behavior, often implicit and not deliberated. Romantic kissing and embracing received experimental attention in the last three decades. We investigated laterality in paintings depicting these social interactions using two methodologies to assess whether painters depicted such biases and whether these biases could be due to observers’ aesthetic preferences or painters’ ability in portraying naturalistic interactions. In Study 1, we inspected about 190,000 artworks available online to classify leftward and rightward biases in romantic kisses and embraces. The comparison of 103 paintings depicting clearly lateralized interactions revealed a significant rightward bias in romantic kissing (66%) and a trend toward a leftward bias (62%) for embraces, aligning with naturalistic studies of human interactions. In Study 2, 128 participants expressed their aesthetic preference between the paintings selected in Study 1 and their vertically mirrored versions. A preference for the original paintings over their mirrored versions emerged, especially when presented in the upper portion of the screen, but no significant preference for the typical lateralization of kissing and embracing was found. These findings suggest that artists’ alignment with naturalistic biases could be due to familiarity and exposure to asymmetric interactions rather than observers’ aesthetic preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]