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As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, face coverings were introduced as a safety measure in certain environments in England and some research suggests that they can affect emotion recognition. Factors such as own-ethnicity bias (e.g. whether people perceiving and expressing emotions are of the same ethnicity) and social biases are also known to influence emotion recognition. However, it is unclear whether these factors interact with face coverings to affect emotion recognition. Therefore, this study examined the effects of face coverings, own-ethnicity biases, and attitudes on emotion recognition accuracy. In this study, 131 participants viewed masked and unmasked emotional faces varying in ethnicity and completed a questionnaire on their attitudes towards face masks. We found that emotion recognition was associated with masks and attitudes: accuracy was lower in masked than unmasked conditions and attitudes towards masks Inside and Outside were associated with emotion recognition. However, a match between perceiver and stimulus ethnicity did not have a significant effect on emotion recognition. Ultimately, our results suggest that masks, and negative attitudes towards them, were associated with poorer emotion recognition. Future research should explore different mask-wearing behaviours and possible in-group/out-group biases and their interaction with other social cues (e.g. in-group biases).

Artificial Intelligence is poised to transform all facets of marketing. In this study, we examine the link between firms' focus on AI in their 10-K reports and their gross and net operating efficiency. 10-K reports are a salient source of insight into an array of issues in accounting and finance research, yet remain relatively overlooked in marketing. Drawing upon economic and marketing theory, we develop a guiding framework to show how firms' AI focus could be related to gross and net operating efficiency. We then use a system of simultaneous equations to empirically test the relationship between AI focus and operating efficiency. Our findings confirm that US-listed firms are in a state of impending transformation with regards to AI. We show how AI focus is associated with improvements in net profitability, net operating efficiency and return on marketing-related investment while reducing adspend and creating jobs., Author(s): Sagarika Mishra [sup.1] , Michael T. Ewing [sup.2] , Holly B. Cooper [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.1021.2, 0000 0001 0526 7079, Department of Finance, Deakin University, , Burwood, Australia [...]

Most western countries face either existing or looming teacher shortages. No doubt there are many and varied reasons for this and no simple remedy. Contemporaneously, film and television can have profound, often unintended attitudinal and behavioural consequences. As reflectors and creators of societal values, axiomatically, they provide insight into the construction and management of both personal and professional identities. The portrayal of various occupations on screen is therefore of perennial importance. Indeed, several professions have struggled with the implications of their representation in popular culture. Teachers have been variously portrayed on screen. However, a consistent and significant negative shift has taken place this century. Consequently, a descriptive analysis is undertaken of teacher characters streaming on Netflix in 2019. Pattern coding reveals three equally disturbing themes: incompetence/character flaws; promiscuity; and substance abuse. Conclusions are drawn and future research directions outlined.

The majority of Australian students learned remotely in term two (April-June 2020), in response to state government directives to close schools during the 'first wave' of COVID-19. This created myriad challenges for students, teachers and parents. Accordingly, this study seeks to capture these multiple perspectives of the remote learning experience. Forty interviews were conducted at the end of term two, with students, teachers and parents. The findings represent an integrated framework for engagement in the context of remote education. Engaging students was a top priority for teachers -- albeit students felt less engaged with teachers. Student-peer engagement varied considerably. Lack of social interaction was a challenge for many students. Parents remained pragmatic, but largely unengaged with teachers. For the most part, students found online learning to be less personalised. While the pandemic has expedited emergency technology adoption in schools, this is not equivalent to the purposeful integration of technology over time.

In early 2020, UNESCO acknowledged that the scale of educational disruption associated with COVID-19 was unparalleled. Schools were forced to react swiftly. However, while remote learning has received considerable attention, less is understood of how educational leaders communicated during the COVID crisis. The study of school leaders' initial crisis communications in response to government-mandated school closures is thus warranted. Accordingly, this study analyses a cross-section of seventeen Australian schools for the period late February through early April 2020 (i.e. term 1), with a focus on the emergency stage of schools' crisis response, rather than the later remote learning continuity planning phase. A mixed-method research approach was adopted. Phase one involved quantitative content analysis of e-mail frequency, words per-sentence, readability (as measured by Flesch), and grade-level communication pitched at (as measured by Flesch-Kinkaid). Surprisingly, parents required university education to effectively comprehend the e-mails. Phase two confirmed that schools performed well in the first four of Smith & Riley's (2012) five-step school crisis response model (getting the facts, implementing contingency plans, being decisive, showing concern), but were less effective at facilitating two-way communication. An additional (sixth) insight emerged in the form of school community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Storytelling is a significant vehicle for the transferral of knowledge, perpetuation of collective memories and construction of meaning. Stories and cultural storytellers are attracting dedicated research attention across a number of disciplines, including cognitive science. Yet few examine family storytellers, an avenue of arguable equal import. Nor, their role in perpetuating and regulating the system of shared values that underpin the family structure. Indeed, family sporting narratives are largely absent. Thus, through narrative inquiry, we examine the significance of storytelling practices and sporting stories, to one family which spans four generations and three continents. The findings, which centre on the five themes of narrative resources, identity construction, socialisation, traditions and transcendence, clarify the influence of family storytelling processes on value governance and collective identity construction. They emphasise the significance of individual cricket stories in constructing their own identities. These stories provided an important collective resource that was a source of social capital, enhancing the family's narrative equity.

Here, we report an individual, eventually diagnosed with HMG-CoA synthase deficiency, who presented with a cyclic vomiting phenotype. HMG-CoA synthase deficiency is a rare disorder affecting ketone body synthesis in which affected individuals typically present at a young age with hypoketotic hypoglycemia, lethargy, encephalopathy, and hepatomegaly, usually triggered by catabolism (e.g., infection or prolonged fasting). This individual presented with recurrent episodes of vomiting and lethargy, often associated with hypoglycemia or hyperglycemia, at 3 years of age. Metabolic labs revealed nonspecific abnormalities in her urine organic acids (showing mild elevation of dicarboxylic acids with relatively low excretion of ketones) and a normal acylcarnitine profile. Given her clinical presentation, as well as a normal upper gastrointestinal series, esophagogastroduodenoscopy with biopsies, and abdominal ultrasound, she was diagnosed with cyclic vomiting syndrome at 3 years of age. Molecular testing completed at 7 years of age revealed a previously reported pathogenic sequence variant (c.1016+1G>A) and a novel likely pathogenic deletion (1.57 kB deletion, including exon 1) within HMGCS2 consistent with HMG-CoA synthase deficiency. This individual's presentation, mimicking cyclic vomiting syndrome, widens the clinical spectrum of HMG-CoA synthase deficiency. In addition, this case highlights the importance of molecular genetic testing in such presentations, as this rare disorder lacks specific metabolic markers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the Early Braille Readers Project, which provided a Mountbatten Pro Brailler and peripheral equipment to 20 kindergarteners, first-, and second graders in Texas. The project included training and support in the form of site visits and teacher training for both teachers of students with visual impairments and classroom teachers, group workshops, and an electronic discussion group. The project had a positive impact on the students' writing and reading skills and participation in instruction and social interaction.

In two developing nations, technology enhanced marketing communication education in the classroom, both during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. However, in what ways did enhancement occur, and to what ends? This research examines the reasons for and impacts of digitalisation on academic delivery of marketing communication education across two BRICS nations: South Africa and India. We use a comparative, narrative-based approach that challenges the ways that marketing communication educators often describe the significant teaching and learning agencies and incidents involving the place of technology in classroom learning. We show how the concepts of technological augmentation and paradox, the 'TikTok effect´, and symbiotic pedagogies explain and help present a post-pandemic theory of marketing communication education in developing nations. We highlight the active learning and student-centred learning styles as symbiotic pedagogies that were regarded as best practice. Our findings show that educators were able to skilfully move across both styles depending on student need and skills required. We discuss how educators' flexibility across contexts allowed them to maintain best practice technology-mediated teaching and learning strategies during the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined perceptions of 12 students of a distance education training program in teaching students with visual impairments. Participants discussed their experiences with courses delivered via interactive video, over the Internet, and by live instructors. Participants had a strong preference for interaction with the instructor and other students. (Contains 10 references.) (Author/CR)

While interest in international advertising campaigns continues to attract considerable research interest, the management of advertising agencies internationally has been largely overlooked. In response, the current research examines the interaction between creativity and performance measurement systems in an international advertising agency network (China, Hong Kong, Japan and Australia). The notion of a 'performance carousel´, where different performance measurement systems are favoured across location and time, represents a significant contribution, explaining how a unified culture of creativity could emerge despite regional variations in performance measurement. The performance carousel enhances Kaplan and Norton's more static Balanced Scorecard, in favour of an equifinal approach in which different performance measures (profit, creative awards, staff and client satisfaction) can be emphasised and yet still reflect the same underlying organisational logic and culture of creativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporate heritage brands embrace the seemingly contradictory concepts of continuity and change. This tension between constancy and change represents a core paradox. Brand management must maintain the allure and magic of a corporate brand while concurrently being relevant. Scholars suggests that paradoxes 'require resolution' if a corporate brand is to be successful. Yet, how brand management can strategically manage conflicting brand elements remains convoluted. Thus, through qualitative enquiry, we examine the management of heritage brand paradox in the context of luxury corporate heritage brands. The three cases Paspaley, the Huka Lodge and Percy Marks, offer evidence supporting the resolution of brand paradox through strategic brand management. The study provides insight into how management can remain true to the brand's authentic core and innovatively extend the brand's heritage, developing a three-part strategic luxury brand-heritage management framework. The framework enhances understanding of the paradox between brand heritage and innovation, as well as resolving the paradox. Additionally, the study develops three specific brand guidelines for managing the brand paradox. Our principal contribution is demonstrating how corporate heritage brands, in the luxury category, change but appear to stay the same - how to remain constant yet relevant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]