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Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus causing the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, is not only highly infectious but can induce serious outcomes in vulnerable individuals including dental patients and dental health care personnel (DHCPs). Responses to COVID-19 have been published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Dental Association, but a more specific response is required for the safe practice of oral and maxillofacial radiology. We aim to review the current knowledge of how the disease threatens patients and DHCPs and how to determine which patients are likely to be SARS-CoV-2 infected; consider how the use of personal protective equipment and infection control measures based on current best practices and science can reduce the risk of disease transmission during radiologic procedures; and examine how intraoral radiography, with its potentially greater risk of spreading the disease, might be replaced by extraoral radiographic techniques for certain diagnostic tasks. This is complemented by a flowchart that can be displayed in all dental offices.

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are increasingly enabling firms to develop services that utilize autonomous vehicles (AVs). Yet, there are significant psychological barriers to adoption, and insights from extant literature are insufficient to understand customer emotions regarding AV services. To allow for a holistic exploration of customer perspectives, we synthesize multidisciplinary literature to develop the Customer Responses to Unmanned Intelligent-transport Services based on Emotions (CRUISE) framework, which lays the foundation for improved strategizing, targeting, and positioning of AV services. We subsequently provide empirical support for several propositions underpinning the CRUISE framework using representative multinational panel data ( N = 27,565) and an implicit association test ( N = 300). We discover four distinct customer segments based on their preferred degree of service autonomy and service risk. The segments also differ in terms of the valence and intensity of emotional responses to fully autonomous vehicle services. Additionally, exposure to positive information about AV services negatively correlates with the likelihood of membership in the two most resistant segments. Our contribution to service research is chiefly twofold; we provide: 1) a formal treatise of AV services, emphasizing their uniqueness and breadth of application, and 2) empirically validated managerial directions for effective strategizing based on the CRUISE framework.

Marketing research shows that good customer relationship management can reduce the consequences of service failures. The question is how long a former customer engagement can still have an effect on a current critical incident. In extreme cases, this means whether and how interactions between a company and a customer during childhood can still influence the effects of a service failure This paper proposes that engagement with a company during childhood (childhood engagement) can affect later perceptions of the relationship. An online experiment with 152 participants showed that perceived controllability and childhood engagement moderated the effect of disappointment on repurchase intention. Customers with childhood engagement experiences evaluate a service failure incident more favorably than customers without any childhood experiences. Further, customers are likely to react negatively if the responsibility for the failure is attributed to the company. Accordingly, from a managerial perspective, childhood engagement and credible communication can prevent the ending of a customer relationship after a failure.

Journal of service management 33(2), 389-414 (2021). doi:10.1108/JOSM-12-2020-0435, Published by Emerald, Bingley

The rise of humanoid robots in hospitality services accelerates the need to understand related consumer reactions. Four scenario-based experiments, building on social presence and social cognition theories, examine how humanoid robots (vs. self-service machines) shape consumer service perceptions vis-a-vis concurrent presence/absence of human staff. The influence of consumers' need for human interaction and technology readiness is also examined. We find that anthropomorphizing service robots positively affects expected service quality, first-visit intention, willingness to pay, as well as increasing warmth/competence inferences. However, these effects are contingent on the absence of human frontline staff, explained by viewing anthropomorphism as a relative concept. Humanoid robots increase psychological risk, but this poses no threat to expected service quality when consumers' need for human interaction is controlled for. Additionally, we show that a humanoid robot's effect on expected service quality is positive for all but low technology readiness levels. Further implications for theory/practice are discussed.

Purpose – Digital media has revolutionized societies and changed forever how we do business. This paper aims to determine the current scope of service research in the area of digital media, identifying research gaps, and introducing new research contributions to complement our knowledge of digital media. Approach – Based on all service articles of the SERVSIG literature alert system from 2016 to 2019 a subset of digital media articles was identified and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) text-mining methods were used on the abstracts and titles of the articles for topic modeling of the field. Dominant research topics were identified and depicted in a two-dimensional space. Findings – The study identifies eight distinct topic areas of digital media in service research and shows their relationship to each other in a two-dimensional space. A clear tendency in service research has emerged that is primarily taking a customer versus business perspective for digital media. Further, for some journals, they showed a trend that was detected toward a specialization with respect to particular topics. Implications – This article advocates for more digital media research with a stronger business perspective. Further, although particular new technologies are exciting to discuss, it seems that the importance of customer relationship topics in digital media is not reflected in the current digital media research as needed. Originality/value – The article uses a quantitative-explorative approach to determine the current state of research in regard to digital media in services. We introduce 11 new studies that aims to close the knowledge gap in critical areas of digital media.

Digitization, artificial intelligence (AI), and service robots will revolutionize virtually all service industries and have the potential to bring unprecedented improvements in customer experience, service quality, and productivity. However, these technological advances also carry serious ethical, fairness, and privacy risks. To explore these risks, this article builds on recent work on corporate digital responsibility (CDR). First, it uses a life-cycle stage perspective of data and technologies (i.e., their creation, operation, refinement, and retainment) as an organizing frame to better understand these risks. Second, to provide insights on where these risks originate, it examines an organization’s business model and its flows of money, service, data, insights, and technologies with customers at the front-end and the business partner ecosystem at the back-end. Third, this article identifies why CDR issues occur. It shows that trade-offs between good CDR practices and five organizational objectives and motivations are key underlying causes (e.g., incremental sales can be achieved with better data and analytics but carry a gamut of privacy, fairness, discrimination and psychological risks). Finally, this article proposes a set of strategies, tools and practices managers can use to address these trade-offs and build a CDR-strong service organization.

Based on fossil organism remains including plant macrofossils, charcoal, pollen, and invertebrates preserved in syngenetic deposits of the Batagay permafrost sequence in the Siberian Yana Highlands, we reconstructed the environmental history during marine isotope stages (MIS) 6 to 2. Two fossil assemblages, exceptionally rich in plant remains, allowed for a detailed description of the palaeo-vegetation during two climate extremes of the Late Pleistocene, the onset of the last glacial maximum (LGM) and the last interglacial. In addition, altogether 41 assemblages were used to outline the vegetation history since the penultimate cold stage of MIS 6. Accordingly, meadow steppes analogue to modern communities of the phytosociological order Festucetalia lenensis formed the primary vegetation during the Saalian and Weichselian cold stages. Cold-resistant tundra-steppe communities (Carici rupestris-Kobresietea bellardii) as they occur above the treeline today were, in contrast to more northern locations, mostly lacking. During the last interglacial, open coniferous woodland similar to modern larch taiga was the primary vegetation at the site. Abundant charcoal indicates wildfire events during the last interglacial. Zoogenic disturbances of the local vegetation were indicated by the presence of ruderal plants, especially by abundant Urtica dioica, suggesting that the area was an interglacial refugium for large herbivores. Meadow steppes, which formed the primary vegetation during cold stages and provided potentially suitable pastures for herbivores, were a significant constituent of the plant cover in the Yana Highlands also under the full warm stage conditions of the last interglacial. Consequently, meadow steppes occurred in the Yana Highlands during the entire investigated timespan from MIS 6 to MIS 2 documenting a remarkable environmental stability. Thus, the proportion of meadow steppe vegetation merely shifted in response to the respectively prevailing climatic conditions. Their persistence indicates low precipitation and a relatively warm growing season throughout and beyond the late Pleistocene. The studied fossil record also proves that modern steppe occurrences in the Yana Highlands did not establish as late as in the Holocene but instead are relicts of a formerly continuous steppe belt extending from Central Siberia to Northeast Yakutia during the Pleistocene. The persistence of plants and invertebrates characteristic of meadow steppe vegetation in interior Yakutia throughout the late Quaternary indicates climatic continuity and documents the suitability of this region as a refugium also for other organisms of the Pleistocene mammoth steppe including the iconic large herbivores. (C)2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Methods for investigating the Mode of Action (MoA) for rodent liver tumors via constitutive androstane receptor (CAR) activation are outlined here, based on current scientific knowledge about CAR and feedback from regulatory agencies globally. The key events (i.e., CAR activation, altered gene expression, cell proliferation, altered foci and increased adenomas/carcinomas) can be demonstrated by measuring a combination of key events and associative events that are markers for the key events. For crop protection products, a primary dataset typically should include a short-term study in the species/strain that showed the tumor response at dose levels that bracket the tumorigenic and non-tumorigenic dose levels. The dataset may vary depending on the species and the test compound. As examples, Case Studies with nitrapyrin (in mice) and metofluthrin (in rats) are described. Based on qualitative differences between the species, the key events leading to tumors in mice or rats by this MoA are not operative in humans. In the future, newer approaches such as a CAR biomarker signature approach and/or in vitro CAR3 reporter assays for mouse, rat and human CAR may eventually be used to demonstrate a CAR MoA is operative, without the need for extensive additional studies in laboratory animals.

© 2017 Elsevier Inc. The service encounter – one of the foundational concepts in service research – is fundamentally changing due to rapid evolutions in technology. In this paper, we offer an updated perspective on what we label the “Service Encounter 2.0”. To this end, we develop a conceptual framework that captures the essence of the Service Encounter 2.0 and provides a synthesis of the changing interdependent roles of technology, employees, and customers. We find that technology either augments or substitutes service employees, and can foster network connections. In turn, employees and customers are taking on the role of enabler, innovator, coordinator and differentiator. In addition, we identify critical areas for future research on this important topic. ispartof: JOURNAL OF BUSINESS RESEARCH vol:79 pages:238-246 status: published

A small-scale hydrothermal uranium mineralization hosted within the siderite deposit at Huttenberg (Eastern Alps, Austria) was re-investigated using modern scanning electron microscope (SEM) and microprobe (EMPA) methods. The uranium mineralization comprises brannerite, coffinite and uraninite, and is spatially associated with Fe-, Ni- and Co-arsenides (loellingite, rammelsbergite, safflorite), bismuth and bismuthinite, as well as rare accessory silver-bearing minerals and gold locally. The U-bearing fluids also carried P, Y and REEs, which precipitated as xenotime and P–Y coffinite. The uranium mineralization paragenetically postdates the metasomatic formation of the host siderite ore. Uraninite allows for precise single spot EMPA ages to be calculated (±2 Ma) due to its high radiogenic lead content. There is an excellent internal consistency in the uraninite data with calculated dates ranging between 77 and 84 Ma. We interpret that these record the crystallization age of the uraninite, and that any influences of lead loss or common Pb are minimal. Brannerite was also analyzed but U-total Pb microprobe data scatter (c.30–80 Ma) with evidence of lead loss, particularly in altered domains. It does, however, provide a minimum constraint on the timing of mineralization that is consistent with the crystallization age of the uraninite. Coffinite proved completely unsuitable for U-total Pb geochronology due to extreme lead loss. However, hydrothermal xenotime yields a U-total Pb age of 78 ± 5 Ma, consistent with the uraninite age. Therefore, the U-total Pb geochronological data support a late Cretaceous age for the U-mineralization of c. 80 Ma. Considering this timing constraint together with other geological and indirect thermochronological aspects, we conclude that the siderite deposit of Huttenberg is older and formed at c. 90−80 Ma.

The crystal structure of the mineral donharrisite, a rare nickel-mercury-sulfide reported in the literature with the formula Ni 8 Hg 3 S 9 , was solved and refined using intensity data collected from a crystal from Leogang, Salzburg Province, Austria. This study revealed that the structure is monoclinic, space group C 2/ m , with a = 11.574(3), b = 6.899(2), c = 5.419(1) A, β = 93.71(2)° and V = 431.8(2) A 3 . The refinement of an anisotropic model led to an R index of 0.044 for 383 independent reflections. In the crystal structure there are two Hg sites, four Ni sites and 2 S, with one Hg and one Ni site which are half-occupied. As typical of many intermetallic compounds, the donharrisite structure is characterized by atoms forming complex polyhedra as Hg[S 6 Ni 4 ], Hg[S 4 Ni 3 ], Ni[S 4 Ni 2 ], Ni[S 3 NiHg], Ni[S 6 Ni 2 Hg 2 ], Ni[S 4 Ni 3 Hg 2 ], showing exceedingly short bond distances. Electron microprobe analyses of the crystal used for the structural study led to the formula Ni 3.03 Hg 1.01 S 2.96 , on the basis of 7 atoms. On the basis of information gained from this characterization the crystal chemical formula was revised according to the structural results, yielding Ni 3 HgS 3 with Z = 4 (with a calculated density of 7.27 g/cm 3 ), instead of Ni 8 Hg 3 S 9 with Z = 2 (with a calculated density of 5.18 g/cm 3 ) as previously reported. Although neither reflection streaks nor structural disorder were observed for the selected donharrisite crystal, the possibility that the refined structure (with partially-occupied sites and exceedingly short bond distances) could be a superposition of different layers belonging to an OD (order-disorder) structure is also discussed.

Retailers can choose from a plethora of online marketing channels to reach consumers on the Internet, and potential customers often use a vast range of channels during their customer journey. However, increasing complexity and sparse data continue to challenge retailers. This study proposes a taxonomy-based approach to help retailers better understand how channel usage along the customer journey facilitates inferences about the underlying purchase decision processes. A test of this approach with a large, clickstream data set uses a proportional hazard model with time-varying covariates. Classifying online marketing channels along the dimensions of contact origin and brand usage uncovers several meaningful interaction effects between contacts across channel types. The proposed taxonomy also significantly improves model fit and outperforms alternative specifications. The results thus can help retailers gain a better understanding of customers’ decision-making progress in online, multichannel environments and optimize their channel structures.

A long-standing concern has been whether epilepsy contributes to cognitive decline or so-called 'epileptic dementia'. Although global cognitive decline is generally reported in the context of chronic refractory epilepsy, it is largely unknown what percentage of patients is at risk for decline. This review is focused on the identification of risk factors and characterization of aberrant cognitive trajectories in epilepsy. Evidence is found that the cognitive trajectory of patients with epilepsy over time differs from processes of cognitive ageing in healthy people, especially in adulthood-onset epilepsy. Cognitive deterioration in these patients seems to develop in a 'second hit model' and occurs when epilepsy hits on a brain that is already vulnerable or vice versa when comorbid problems develop in a person with epilepsy. Processes of ageing may be accelerated due to loss of brain plasticity and cognitive reserve capacity for which we coin the term 'accelerated cognitive ageing'. We believe that the concept of accelerated cognitive ageing can be helpful in providing a framework understanding global cognitive deterioration in epilepsy.

Existing research on how consumers utilize online reviewers to make purchasing decisions has generally taken a Western viewpoint. However, the majority of new online consumers come from Eastern nations. Therefore, the present article takes a cross-cultural view of how consumers from Eastern nations, such as China and India, respond to expert and non-expert online reviewers, in comparison with consumers from Western nations, such as the United States and Canada. The results from an experimental study of 134 North American respondents and 132 Asian respondents reveal that Asians are more likely to rely on advice from an online reviewer, while North Americans are more skeptical of and less reliant on non-expert reviewers. Asians are more forgiving of non-experts and do not necessarily distinguish between experts and non-experts when deciding on whom to rely. This article thus highlights a clear difference between Asian and North American expectations of online reviewers.

Item does not contain fulltext Local arterial stiffness can be assessed with high accuracy and precision by measuring arterial distension on the basis of phase tracking of radiofrequency ultrasound signals acquired at a high frame rate. However, in clinical practice, B-mode ultrasound registrations are made at a low frame rate (20-50 Hz). We compared the accuracy and intra-subject precision of edge tracking and phase tracking distension in symptomatic carotid artery patients. B-mode ultrasound recordings (40 mm, 37 fps) and radiofrequency recordings (31 lines covering 29 mm, 300 fps) were acquired from the left common carotid artery of 30 patients (aged 45-88 y) with recent cerebrovascular events. To extract the distension, semi-automatic echo edge and phase tracking algorithms were applied to B-mode and radiofrequency recordings, respectively. Both methods exhibited a similar intra-subject precision for distension (standard deviation = 44 mum and 47 mum, p = 0.66) and mean distension (difference: -6 +/- 69 mum, p = 0.67). Intra-subject distension inhomogeneity tends to be larger for edge tracking (difference: 15 +/- 35 mum, p = 0.04). Standard B-mode scanners are suitable for measuring local artery characteristics in symptomatic carotid artery patients with good precision and accuracy.

The Paleolithic site of Schoningen is famous for the earliest known, completely preserved wooden weapons. Here we present recent results of an ongoing analysis of the nine spears, one lance, a double pointed stick, and a burnt stick dating to the Holsteinian, c. 300 kyr. Macroscopic and microscopic analyses, as well as studies of thin sections, contribute to a better understanding of the manufacture of the wooden weapons. They were deposited in organic sediments at a former lakeshore among numerous bones of butchered horses. In general, the spears are extremely well-preserved and show no or little sign of taphonomic alteration, although some of the weapons are broken and parts were slightly moved, probably by water action. The excellent preservation conditions provide considerable information on the operational sequence of production. The hunters selected thin trunks of spruce or pine and initially stripped off the bark. Traces of cutting, scraping, and smoothing can be observed on the spear surfaces in detail. In the case of spear X, repeated use of the weapon is implied by re-sharpening of the tip. Analyses of wood anatomy provide information on climatic conditions and contribute to the better understanding of the development of the site.

The growing trend of online travel communities connects travelers worldwide. This study addresses whether or not these relationships lead to offline interactions. The theoretical framework reflects cue utilization theory, social balance theory, and uncertainty reduction theory. A field experiment examines responses from 293 travel community members. Results show individual reputation, online communication, and perceived similarity among travelers play significant roles in offline relationships. Trust and sympathy among community members mediate this decision process. Study results offer several managerial implications and highlight the importance of vivid and complete participation profile in social media. Moreover, finding the right tone for effective communication in online communities is critical.