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Journal articleHana Frade JL, Engracia Giraldi JDM, Porat T, 2025,
The influence of national origin cues in HPV vaccination advertising: an eye-tracking study of visual attention and vaccine perception using quantitative and qualitative analysis
, Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics, Vol: 21, ISSN: 2164-5515This study is among the first to investigate how national origin cues influence visual attention and perception in HPV vaccine advertisements, using eye-tracking technology to provide objective insights into consumer responses. By integrating methods from public health, psychology, and advertising research, this study explores how visual attention is shaped by national affiliation cues. In a controlled experimental setting with a sample of 40 UK university students, we investigated visual attention and effectiveness of HPV vaccination advertisements by comparing ads disclosing the national origin of the vaccine and without any origin information. We assessed total fixation duration and time to first fixation to various elements of the ad, along with intention and attitude measures. Contrary to one of our hypotheses, we did not find significant differences in intention (p = .758) and attitude (p = .620) measures. However, there was significant difference in total fixation duration toward one of the ad images between conditions (p = .043). The qualitative analysis reveals the role of country-of-origin (COO) in HPV vaccination advertising, suggesting a shift in attention from that image to the COO cue. Furthermore, eight out of the 20 participants in the treatment condition did not fixate at the COO cue. Findings provide critical insights for public health communication strategies, suggesting that the use (or omission) of national origin cues in vaccine advertisements could influence vaccine perception and hesitancy. These results highlight the need for strategic messaging approaches to enhance HPV vaccine acceptance and improve public trust in domestic and international vaccines.
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Journal articleBoufelja Y S, Quinn A, Shorten R, 2025,
Randomized transport plans via hierarchical fully probabilistic design
, Information Sciences, Vol: 718, ISSN: 0020-0255An optimal randomized strategy for design of balanced, normalized mass transport plans is developed. It replaces—but specializes to—the deterministic, regularized optimal transport (OT) strategy, which yields only a certainty-equivalent plan. The incompletely specified—and therefore uncertain—transport plan is acknowledged to be a random process. Therefore, hierarchical fully probabilistic design (HFPD) is adopted, yielding an optimal hyperprior supported on the set of possible transport plans, and consistent with prior mean constraints on the marginals of the uncertain plan. This Bayesian resetting of the design problem for transport plans—which we call HFPD-OT—confers new opportunities. These include (i) a strategy for the generation of a random sample of joint transport plans; (ii) randomized marginal contracts for individual source-target pairs; and (iii) consistent measures of uncertainty in the plan and its contracts. An application in fair market matching is outlined, in which HFPD-OT enables the recruitment of a more diverse subset of contracts—than is possible in classical OT—into the delivery of an expected plan.
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Journal articleQi N, Pinson P, Almassalkhi MR, et al., 2025,
Capacity credit evaluation of generalized energy storage considering strategic capacity withholding and decision-dependent uncertainty
, Applied Energy, Vol: 397, ISSN: 0306-2619This paper proposes a novel capacity credit evaluation framework to accurately quantify the contribution of generalized energy storage (GES) to resource adequacy, considering both strategic capacity withholding and decision-dependent uncertainty (DDU). To this end, we establish a market-oriented risk-averse coordinated dispatch method to capture the cross-market reliable operation of GES. The proposed method is sequentially implemented along with the Monte Carlo simulation process, coordinating the pre-dispatched price arbitrage and capacity withholding in the energy market with adequacy-oriented re-dispatch during capacity market calls. In addition to decision-independent uncertainties in operational states and baseline behavior, we explicitly address the inherent DDU of GES (i.e., the uncertainty of available discharge capacity affected by the incentives and accumulated discomfort) during the re-dispatch stage using the proposed data-driven distributionally robust chance-constrained approach. Furthermore, a capacity credit metric called equivalent storage capacity substitution is introduced to quantify the equivalent deterministic storage capacity of uncertain GES. Simulations on the modified IEEE RTS-79 benchmark system with 20 years real-world data from Elia demonstrate that the proposed method yields accurate capacity credit and improved economic performance. We show that the capacity credit of GES increases with more strategic capacity withholding but decreases with more DDU levels. Key factors, such as capacity withholding and DDU structure impacting GES's capacity credit are analyzed with insights into capacity market decision-making.
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Journal articleBaker CE, Ghajari M, 2025,
How do demographic factors, non-standard and out-of-position seating affect vehicle occupant injury outcomes in road traffic collisions?
, Safety Science, Vol: 187, ISSN: 0925-7535Advancements in smart, adaptive vehicle safety features offer significant potential to improve occupant safety by detecting and responding to diverse seating positions in real-time. Yet, current safety designs and crash testing primarily focus on occupants of distinct demographics statically seated in standard positions, raising challenges of equity and real-world representability. We investigated the link between out-of-position (OOP) occupants and injury severity in British road traffic collisions, using the comprehensive Road Accident In-Depth Studies (RAIDS) dataset. We quantified injury risks for unbelted and OOP occupants by analysing factors such as seat belt use, seat back recline angle, dashboard proximity and head restraint height in 5,362 RAIDS occupants from over 2,200 collisions. Unbelted occupants had a 1.88 times higher risk of severe injuries (maximum abbreviated injury scale - (MAIS3+) compared to belted occupants. Male occupants had overall lower seat belt use than female occupants and tended to be younger. Reclined seating angles over 110° were associated with a 3.99 times higher risk. For male occupants, not wearing a seat belt was associated with higher seat back recline angle and younger age. Occupant height and sex were observed to have a nuanced interaction with far back/forward seating positions. This shows even end-range manufacturer-approved seating positions had increased injury risk, emphasising the importance of protecting diverse occupant postures and populations. Our work highlights the potential for advanced sensing technologies to mitigate seating position related injury risks and guide research, testing and innovation to ensure equitable protection for all occupants in future vehicle systems featuring increased automation.
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Journal articleZhou H, Zhao Y, Li H, et al., 2025,
A multi-level graph-based surrogate model for real-time high-fidelity sheet forming simulations
, Advanced Engineering Informatics: the science of supporting knowledge-intensive activities, Vol: 66, ISSN: 0954-1810Surrogate models with structured data representations, mainly images and graphs, have been widely investigated in various domains, including automotive manufacturing. Despite advances, existing approaches still face significant challenges in terms of accuracy, efficiency, and generalisability. To address these challenges, a promising direction is to combine the advantages of both images and graphs. This study proposes a graph-based surrogate model, which has a multi-level architecture with enhanced graph convolutional operations using image-inspired spatial edge weights. To evaluate its performance, three additional graph-based surrogate models are developed for comparison, each differing in the formulation of spatial edge weights. All four models are assessed on a real-world hot-stamping B-pillar case study, which involves variations in blank shapes under multiple parameterisations and post-stamped thickness distributions exhibiting complicated local patterns. The proposed architecture significantly outperforms the three comparison models, achieving high accuracy with a relatively low computational burden during training and deployment. Furthermore, it demonstrates strong robustness in hyperparameter calibration and shows the potential for generalisation to other manufacturability-related real-time simulation problems. This study presents an effective methodology for future surrogate model development by integrating the advantages of different structured data representations.
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Journal articleZhou H, Li H, Zhao Y, et al., 2025,
Image-based Artificial Intelligence-driven modelling for blank shape optimisation in sheet metal forming
, Materials and Design, ISSN: 0264-1275Design for manufacturing is essential to fully exploit the potential of emerging materials and processing technologies. However, traditional trial-and-error optimisation often exhibits inferior performance in manufacturability-driven problems, particularly when handling complex shapes. Surrogate modelling and optimisation have been widely investigated for efficiently predicting simulation results and enhancing manufacturability. Nevertheless, existing methods are mostly constrained by fixed shape parameterisation schemes, limiting their flexibility and effectiveness. To overcome this limitation, this research develops a non-parametric optimisation framework, validated on a sheet metal forming case study, specifically the blank shape optimisation of a hot-stamped B-pillar. The framework integrates an auto-decoder, serving as a differentiable blank shape generator, a convolutional neural network (CNN)-powered surrogate model for manufacturability evaluation, and an Adam optimiser for automated shape optimisation. The surrogate model predicts thickness distributions from the signed distance fields (SDFs) of blank shapes, which are generated by the auto-decoder from latent vectors; based on the predictions, the optimiser iteratively updates the latent vectors to acquire a blank shape with optimised manufacturability. The proposed framework demonstrates superior performance in terms of the accuracy of thickness distribution prediction, the fidelity of blank shape generation, and the efficiency of blank shape optimisation.
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Journal articleWang Z, Gupta S, Page F, et al., 2025,
Group project practices and guidance in higher education contexts
, Frontiers in Education, ISSN: 2504-284XAnecdotal good practice in group projects is widely available. In the academic context group project work offers potential for real world experience development along with enabling activities to be undertaken within limited resources. Nevertheless, concerns exist regarding aspects such as fairness, burden and unpopularity. This paper provides a review of commonly cited best practice for group projects, supplemented by a cross-university review undertaken by students of group projects at Imperial in combination with guidance from three other universities. Arising highlighted good practice principles include prioritisation, holding a kick-off meeting, establishment of project scope and objectives, attention to group composition, resource planning, change management, project planning, risk management, documentation, communication, cooperation, culture and psychological safety, dependability, sense of purpose, conflict management and feedback. From the extensive body of guidance available it is evident that we could learn more from industrial approaches to project management. However, it is also acknowledged that maximising outcomes may not maximise learning, especially for academically weaker and stronger students. A recommendation arising from practice in some modules and industry includes ongoing attention to project management training and role development during a project so that practitioners can continue to learn and upskill within a project and specific role, rather than relying on training sessions before a project.
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Conference paperHollanek T, Pi Y, Fiorini C, et al., 2025,
A Toolkit for Compliance, a Toolkit for Justice: Drawing on Cross-sectoral Expertise to Develop a Pro-justice EU AI Act Toolkit
, FAccT '25: The 2025 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency, Publisher: ACM, Pages: 1184-1194 -
Journal articlePoole KC, Cappotto D, Martin V, et al., 2025,
Assessing behavioral and neural correlates of change detection in spatialized acoustic scenes
, Hearing Research, Vol: 462, ISSN: 0378-5955The ability to detect changes in complex auditory scenes is crucial for human survival, yet the neural mechanisms underlying this process remain elusive. This study investigates how the presence and location of sound sources impacts active auditory change detection as well as neural correlates of passive change detection. Stimuli were naturalistic temporal envelopes applied to synthesized broadband carriers designed to eliminate semantics and minimize contextual information while preserving naturalistic temporal envelopes and broadband spectra, presented in a spatial loudspeaker array. Behavioral change detection experiments tasked participants with detecting new sources added to spatialized and non-spatialized multi-source auditory scenes. In a passive listening experiment, participants were given a visual decoy task while neural data were collected via electroencephalography (EEG) during exposure to unattended spatialized scenes and added sources. Our two behavioral experiments (N = 21 and 21) demonstrated that spatializing sounds facilitated change detection compared to non-spatialized presentation, but that performance declined with increasing number of sound sources and higher hearing thresholds at mid-high frequencies, exclusively in spatialized conditions. Slower reaction times were also observed when changes occurred from above or behind the listener, exacerbated by a higher number of sources. Two EEG experiments (N = 32 and 30), using the same stimuli, showed robust change-evoked responses. However, no significant differences were detected in our analysis as a function of spatial location of the appearing source. These findings provide fresh insights into the mechanisms of spatial auditory change detection, emphasizing the dynamic interplay of spatial cues, change location, and scene complexity.
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Journal articleJagtap SS, Childs PRN, Stettler MEJ, 2025,
Comparative life cycle evaluation of alternative fuels for a futuristic subsonic long-range aircraft
, Sustainable Production and Consumption, Vol: 56, Pages: 431-446, ISSN: 2352-5509Liquid hydrogen (LH2) and 100 % synthetic paraffinic kerosene (SPK), or sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), represent viable alternatives to conventional Jet-A for long-haul aviation, provided they are produced via pathways enabling net-zero well-to-wake (WTWa) emissions. This study evaluates the WTWa performance, including non-CO2 emissions, of a blended wing body aircraft (300 passengers, 13,890 km range) powered by either LH2 or 100 % SPK. Use-phase emissions are quantified, and fuel production impacts are assessed using the GREET model. Analysis of over 100 production pathways reveals that LH2 can achieve net-zero or negative WTWa CO2-equivalent emissions when produced from biomass or integrated fermentation with carbon sequestration. Non-CO2 emissions are shown to contribute significantly to WTWa impacts. When miscanthus is used as a feedstock, 100 % SPK reduces WTWa CO2-equivalent emissions by 70–85 % compared to Jet-A. A high-level supply analysis indicates that SAF and hydrogen production in 2050 could meet the energy demands of long-haul aviation, assuming a 4 % annual traffic growth rate and full adoption of these fuels. These findings provide critical insights to guide R&D investments, fuel cost analyses, and aviation policy development for sustainable long-haul aviation.
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Journal articleWang P, Zhang X, Wei L, et al., 2025,
Human-AI co-ideation via combinational generative model
, Journal of Engineering Design, Pages: 1-37, ISSN: 0954-4828 -
Journal articleYang D, Hu Y, Liu S, et al., 2025,
Synthesis and assembly strategy of electroactive biomaterials and systems for soft tissue engineering applications
, Chem, ISSN: 2451-9294Soft tissue injuries are a common issue affecting human health, and the extent and duration of injuries often constrain the healing process. Electroactive biomaterials have become a key medium for tissue regeneration by modulating cellular behavior, but a systematic evaluation of their potential and challenges is still limited. This review comprehensively explores electroactive biomaterials, focusing on their chemical synthesis, assembly processes, application potential, challenges faced, and future directions. First, this work elaborates on the unique and innovative features of electroactive biomaterials’ chemical synthesis and preparation techniques. Subsequently, the principles of electroactive devices and their interactions with biological tissues are described to optimize tissue repair. Finally, the application prospects of electrical stimulation technology in soft tissue engineering are explored, emphasizing its role in cell and tissue regeneration and its clinical potential. In conclusion, this review provides theoretical and practical insights into the development and application of electroactive biomaterials.
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Journal articleXuyi H, Jian L, Picinali L, et al., 2025,
Head-related transfer function upsampling using an autoencoder-based generative adversarial network with evaluation framework
, Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, ISSN: 0004-7554Accurate Head-Related Transfer Functions (HRTFs) are essential for delivering realistic 3D audio experiences. However, obtaining personalised, high-resolution HRTFs for individual users is a time-consuming and costly process, typically requiring extensive acoustic measurements. To address this, spatial upsampling techniques have been developed to estimate high-resolution HRTFs from sparse, low-resolution acoustic measurements. This paper presents a novel approach leveraging the spherical harmonic (SH) domain and an Autoencoder Generative Adversarial Network (AE-GAN) to tackle the HRTF upsampling problem. Comprehensive evaluations are conducted using both perceptualmodels and objective spectral metrics to validate the accuracy and realism of the upsampled HRTFs. The results show that the proposed approach outperforms traditional barycentric interpolation in terms of log-spectral distortion (LSD), particularly in extreme sparsity scenarios involving fewer than 12 measurements. These results go some way to justifying that the proposed AE-GAN approach is able to create high-quality, high-resolution HRTFs from only a few acoustic measurements, helping pave the way for more accessible personalised spatial audio across a range of applications.
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Journal articleGuo H, Xiao Y, Pinson P, et al., 2025,
A negotiation-based incentive mechanism for efficient Transmission Expansion Planning considering generation investment equilibrium in deregulated environment
, Applied Energy, Vol: 386, ISSN: 0306-2619The current Transmission Expansion Planning (TEP) incentive mechanisms are inadequate. They either fail to ensure revenue sufficiency or achieve socially optimal investment. The non-negligible coordination between TEP and Generation Expansion Planning (GEP) in the deregulated environment introduces more computational challenges to the TEP problem. This paper proposes a novel negotiation mechanism that enables Generation Companies (GenCos) and Load-Serving-Entities (LSEs) to negotiate TEP strategies with Transmission Companies (TransCo) directly. The negotiation process is modeled based on the Nash Bargaining theory. We explore the intertwined relationship between TEP and GEP through a bi-level, single-leader-multi-follower model. We transform the upper-level problem for better tractability and introduce a modified Proximal-Message-Passing (PMP) decentralized algorithm to achieve generation investment equilibrium at the lower level. We then utilize an iterative solving approach to coordinate the two levels. The feasibility and efficiency of this mechanism and methodologies are demonstrated using an IEEE 24-bus test system. The numerical results verify that our mechanism ensures revenue sufficiency and achieves socially optimal TEP strategies comparable to state-of-the-art mechanisms. Additionally, our mechanism maintains transmission network user privacy, aligns the benefits of TransCo with those of transmission network users, and ensures a fair allocation of TEP costs and risks. The proactive participation of market players enabled by the negotiation mechanism can promote the transformation towards new market systems by mitigating the stranded cost issue. Moreover, our decentralized algorithm effectively addresses the non-cooperative nature of GEP, and the computational efficiency analysis justifies the model's scalability and practicality.
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Conference paperBinyamini Ben-Meir N, Healy PGT, Deterding S, 2025,
Domestic cultures of plant care: a moss terrarium probe
, New York, New York, Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ’25), Publisher: ACMHouseplants are increasingly being used as part of interactive sys- tems that aim to foster pro-environmental concern and awareness of more-than-human life. Yet such interventions rely on conflicting and untested assumptions about how people relate to houseplants. We therefore studied domestic plant care in 11 purposefully sampled households, applying a sensor-equipped moss terrarium as a living ‘thing ethnography’ probe, supplemented with semi-structured in- terviews. We find that social and intergenerational cultures of plant care inform people’s individual concern and accountability through constituents and mechanisms like gift-giving, signalling, knowledge transfer, or joint practical care. We identify five domestic cultures of plant care in our sample, each of which frames plants differently and leads to different practical approaches to plant care. We propose design considerations that emphasise enculturation and shared care over individual behaviour change and reframe houseplants from decorative objects into living household members.
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Conference paperBoguslavskiy M, Chappell D, Nanayakkara T, 2025,
Towards passively actuated short-range telehaptics for astronauts
, SpaceCHI 4.0 at the European Astronaut Centre, Publisher: Schloss DagstuhlHuman extra-vehicular activity (EVA) plays a vital role in current and near future space exploration for two reasons: the superior dexterity exhibited by human astronauts, and their flexible problem-solving and decision-making capabilities. However, the dexterity of astronauts during EVA is limited by the flexibility and tactility of their EVA suit gloves, which are primarily designed to provide thermal insulation and pressure for the hand. This creates a compromise between utility and protection. To address this compromise, a Passively Actuated Short-range Telehaptic (PAST) device is proposed. The PAST device couples the motion of fingers between a robotic hand and a human hand through a hydraulically actuated linkage. It also transfers tactile information, including pressure, direction of motion, and position of contact, via a taxel array. Results demonstrate that the proposed prototype PAST device surpasses an unpressurised benchmark heavy work glove(HWG) in tasks involving tactile position and motion direction identification. This provides evidence supporting the feasibility of enhancing astronaut dexterity during EVA through the use of PAST devices as an alternative paradigm to gloves.
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Journal articleDemirel P, Kesidou E, Gamze Ozturk D, 2025,
IT-enabled organisational transformation and green employment growth in microfirms
, Business Strategy and the Environment, Vol: 34, Pages: 5031-5058, ISSN: 0964-4733In this paper, we explore whether IT-enabled organisational transformation (ITOT) moderates the relationship between eco-innovation and the growth performance of microfirms. Our framework conceptualises ITOT in microfirms as a multistage process that includes: (i) setting a digitalisation strategy, (ii) adopting advanced information systems technology (IST) artefacts and (iii) developing in-house digital resources and capabilities. The analysis of a sample of 5015 microfirms from 39 countries indicates that eco-innovations boost firm growth when coupled with (i) a formalised digitalisation strategy, (ii) adoption of advanced IST artefacts (e.g., digital technologies that characterise Industry 4.0) and (iii) digital resources and capabilities in microfirms. These findings contribute to the growing digitalisation literature by highlighting the essential role that ITOT processes play in enabling sustainability-led growth pathways for microfirms. The paper advocates for the viability and performance benefits of a twin digital and ecological transformation and showcases the potential of ITOT for an economically successful net-zero transition that embraces microfirms.
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Journal articleIkeya K, Guerrero-Gonzalez FJ, Kiewiet L, et al., 2025,
Hybrid lunar ISRU plant: A comparative analysis with carbothermal reduction and water extraction
, Acta Astronautica, Vol: 230, Pages: 148-168, ISSN: 0094-5765To establish a self-sustained human presence in space and to explore deeper into the solar system, extensive research has been conducted on In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) systems. Past studies have proposed and researched many technologies to produce oxygen from regolith, such as carbothermal reduction and water extraction from icy regolith, to utilize it for astronauts’ life support and as the propellant of space systems. However, determining the most promising technology remains challenging due to uncertainties in the lunar environment and processing methods. To better understand the lunar environment and ISRU operations, it is crucial to gather more information. Motivated by this need for information gathering, this paper proposes a new ISRU plant architecture integrating carbothermal reduction of dry regolith and water extraction from icy regolith. Two different hybrid plant architectures integrating both technologies (1) in parallel and (2) in series are examined. The former involves mining and processing in both a Permanently Shadowed Region (PSR) and a peak of eternal light in parallel, while the latter solely mines in a PSR. In this series hybrid architecture, the dry regolith tailings from water extraction are further processed by carbothermal reduction. This paper conducts a comparative analysis of the landed mass and required power of each plant architecture utilizing subsystem-level models. Furthermore, based on uncertain parameters such as resource content in regolith, the potential performance range of each plant was discovered through Monte Carlo simulations. The result indicates the benefit of the series hybrid architecture in terms of regolith excavation rate and power consumption, while its mass cost seems the highest among the studied architectures.
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Journal articleDeady M, Collins DAJ, Glozier N, et al., 2025,
Naturalistic Evaluation of HeadGear: A Smartphone App to Reduce Depressive Symptoms in Workers
, Behavior Therapy, Vol: 56, Pages: 529-542, ISSN: 0005-7894Mobile health (mHealth) apps have the potential to expand access to evidence-based interventions for mental health conditions, including depression. HeadGear was developed to prevent depression and improve well-being among the working population and was associated with significant positive effects in an efficacy trial. This study presents the results from a naturalistic trial intended to evaluate real-world usage of the app. We examined the naturalistic use of HeadGear between March 2019 and March 2022, using app analytic data, in-app event data, and surveys assessing depressive symptoms, well-being, and work performance repeated at 30-day intervals over 5-month app usage. During the observation period, HeadGear was widely disseminated to the public, and downloaded 26,455 times. Of those who downloaded the app, 12,995 completed baseline. The mean age of users was 38.23 (SD = 12.39) and 60% were women. Approximately one in four met criteria for probable depression at baseline. Depressive symptoms showed consistent improvement at all time points (Cohen's d ranging from 0.24 at 1 month to 0.13 at 5 months). A similar pattern emerged for well-being. Work performance showed improvement to 2-month follow-up only. The strongest change was found for those with greater symptom severity at baseline, and those with high app engagement. Attrition at follow-up points was high. Findings regarding the real-world use of HeadGear are promising and highlight the use of such apps among those with higher symptom severity (despite the intended use of the app as a prevention tool). Further work is required to tailor mHealth apps to reach their full potential through an enhanced understanding of the utility of individual features for effectiveness and engagement.
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Journal articleFrade JLH, Giraldi JDME, Porat T, 2025,
The country-of-origin effect on vaccination: a systematic literature review and research agenda
, Management Review Quarterly, ISSN: 2198-1639The COVID-19 pandemic raised awareness and concerns regarding the country-of-origin of vaccines. During this period, we witnessed the emergence of a country-of-origin effect in vaccination perceptions. The country-of-origin effect is a well-documented marketing phenomenon where the origin country of a product influences consumer decisions, brand associations, and evaluations. To investigate this phenomenon, a systematic literature review was conducted using Scopus database, employing a diverse array of search terms. The review identified 52 articles that examined the country-of-origin effect on vaccination. These studies fall under different subject fields, such as Medicine and Social Science, and were published across 39 different journals, confirming the interdisciplinary nature of the topic. Moreover, the studies covered 48 countries, with some being multicultural. The results reveal the presence of a national bias, a preference for Western vaccines, distrust towards Chinese and Russian vaccines, and the impact of demographic factors, such as gender, age, and income. The national bias was observed across at least 17 countries, such as USA, China, UK, Germany, Turkey and Iran. It persists even in countries without early COVID-19 vaccine development (e.g., Brazil, Ghana, Japan, South Korea, Spain and Taiwan). The preference for Western vaccines and distrust towards Chinese and Russian vaccines was observed across diverse regions including Europe (e.g., France), Latin American (e.g., Brazil), Eastern Europe (e.g., Hungary), the Middle East (e.g., Turkey, Israel), and Asia (e.g., Japan). The authors discuss potential underlying reasons, implications for policy makers and health management, and propose a comprehensive agenda for future research, including the role of politics, media, endorsements, and other vaccines and medications.
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Conference paperYurman P, Malpass M, Balaam M, et al., 2025,
Maternal Machines: Imagining Experiences in Perinatal Care
Perinatal care is a term that broadly refers to the period of time from pregnancy up to a year after giving birth. Imaginaries, fictional scenarios, patents and actual designs to support affected stakeholders during this period reflect how this topic has for a long time fed into society’s dreams, fears and desires about care. Smart monitors of infants’ sleep, respiration, heart rate or temperature, cots with facial recognition, swing chairs that are ‘Alexa compatible’, chatbots for postpartum depression, ‘maternal’ Alexas or nanny robots are examples of the potentials that this topic offers for imagining scenarios for care and wellbeing. Often rich with insights about societal dreams, fears and desires about what we would like technologies to do for us, imagined scenarios can also indicate ways in which we regard those already engaged in roles of care, echoing cultural and gendered tropes. As AI and related technologies increasingly become entangled in situations of care, the imagined possibilities in contexts of such complex, sensitive and emotionally charged spaces are worth examining, whilst interrogating how HCI technologies in perinatal care could expand beyond quantifiable data and tap into sensorial, non-numerical forms of knowledge. In this workshop, we will look at ideated scenarios with technologies related to maternal and infant care in contemporary, historical and cultural contexts including those from Japan, and we will create our own imagined scenarios of care. Through a mixture of activities that include presentations, drawing, hands-on interactions and group conversations we will discuss opportunities and implications in the design of technologies for maternal/parental and infant care around the perinatal period. Our imagined scenarios will explore in particular two interrelated themes in the research: non-numerical forms of knowledge and touch.
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Conference paperChen L, Cheang W, Jiang Z, et al., 2025,
I-Card: A Generative AI-Supported Intelligent Design Method Card Deck
, CHI 2025: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Publisher: ACM, Pages: 1-22 -
Conference paperDa Re M, Espinoza F, Belón-Hercilla MV, et al., 2025,
Design and Development of a mHealth Dementia Screening Tool in Resource-Limited Settings Lessons Learned from Designing for and with Community Health Workers in Peru
Dementia impacts millions worldwide, with rural regions of Latin America facing notable challenges in diagnosis and care. Digital healthcare tools, while potentially transformative, often fail in these areas due to lack of cultural integration, usability issues, and missing features, resulting in ineffective top-down solutions. This case study explores how Community Engagement and Involvement (CEI) principles were applied in the design of a mobile health dementia screening system tailored for rural Peru. For 18 months, we engaged in an iterative participatory process with local community health workers (CHWs) and healthcare professionals. We detail how this process directly informed our design outcomes, ensuring the solution was adapted to the specific needs of the communities. In addition, the paper highlights key learnings for HCI practitioners and researchers working on similar projects. These insights underscore how participatory design approaches can lead to more effective socio-technical health solutions in resource-constrained settings.
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Journal articleCorbett F, Van Zalk N, 2025,
Speech perception and hearing outcomes following pediatric bilateral cochlear implants: a scoping review of developmental contextual influences
, Frontiers in Audiology and Otology, Vol: 3, ISSN: 2813-6055Introduction: Bilateral cochlear implantation is the typical intervention for children with severe-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss, but speech perception and hearing outcomes remain variable. This scoping review explores which contextual factors relate to speech perception and hearing outcomes following pediatric bilateral cochlear implantation based on themes aligned with Bronfenbrenner's bioecological systems theory: (1) individual; (2) microsystem; (3) mesosytem; (4) exosystem; (5) macrosystem; and (6) chronosystem.Method: PRISMA-ScR guidelines were followed to systematically search nine electronic databases with a keyword strategy. Eligible studies were published in English and included an analysis of contextual factors in relation to a behavioral speech perception or hearing outcome measure. Study quality was assessed using Quality Assessment with Diverse Studies (QuADS) criteria and the role of contextual factors in outcomes was explored with a narrative synthesis approach.Results: Twenty-three research articles met the criteria for inclusion. Contextual factors identified ranged from the proximal to distal context. Contextual factors such as non-verbal cognitive ability, social skills, cochlear implant usage, positive parent-child interactions, educational placement, auditory or oral therapy, ethnicity and prematurity were related to cochlear implant outcomes.Discussion: Relationships between contextual factors and outcomes were not consistent across developmental time or studies. Study quality and methodological limitations are discussed. Research on outcomes related to bilateral cochlear implantation should actively integrate and examine contextual factors in prospective, longitudinal designs. This approach will facilitate the development of interventions to target specific levels of the bioecological system, thereby improving outcomes for the pediatric bilateral cochlear implant recipient.
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Journal articleLim V, Khan S, Picinali L, 2025,
Towards a more accessible cultural heritage: challenges and opportunities in contextualization using 3D sound narratives
, Applied Sciences, Vol: 11, ISSN: 2076-3417This paper reports on the exploration of potential design opportunities for social media and technology to identify issues and challenges in involving people in generating content within a cultural heritage context. The work is divided into two parts. In the first part, arguments are informed by findings from 22 in-depth semi-structured interviews with representatives of cultural institutions and with people from a general audience who recently participated in a cultural activity. The key findings show that social media could be used more extensively to achieve a deeper understanding of cultural diversity, with opportunities in redefining the expert, extending the experience space, and decentralising collaboration. To further support these findings, a case study was set up evaluating the experience of a mini audio tour with user-generated (i.e., personal stories from a local audience) vs. non user-generated (i.e., professional stories including facts) narratives. These were delivered using text and 3D sound on a mobile device. The narratives were related to a built environment in central London near world-renown museums, cultural buildings, and a royal park. Observations, a standardised spatial presence questionnaire, and a short open interview at the end of the tour were used to gain insights about participants preferences and overall experience. Thematic analysis and triangulation were used as a means for understanding and articulating opportunities for social media to better involve and engage people using user-generated narratives presented through 3D sound.
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Book chapterHazeri K, Childs P, 2025,
Extension of the Consensual Assessment Technique to Consumer Products: Case Studies
, Creations The Nature of Creative Products in the 21st Century, Editors: Cropley, Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan, Pages: 161-186, ISBN: 9783031824142This edited book explores creative products (i.e. Creations) as part of the seven C's of creativity framework.
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Journal articleZhang Z, Sun S, Moradbakhti L, et al., 2025,
Health Care Professionals' Engagement With Digital Mental Health Interventions in the United Kingdom and China: Mixed Methods Study on Engagement Factors and Design Implications.
, JMIR Ment Health, Vol: 12BACKGROUND: Mental health issues like occupational stress and burnout, compounded with the after-effects of COVID-19, have affected health care professionals (HCPs) around the world. Digital mental health interventions (DMHIs) can be accessible and effective in supporting well-being among HCPs. However, low engagement rates of DMHIs are frequently reported, limiting the potential effectiveness. More evidence is needed to reveal the factors that impact HCPs' decision to adopt and engage with DMHIs. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to explore HCPs' motivation to engage with DMHIs and identify key factors affecting their engagement. Amongst these, we include cultural factors impacting DMHI perception and engagement among HCPs. METHODS: We used a mixed method approach, with a cross-sectional survey (n=438) and semistructured interviews (n=25) with HCPs from the United Kingdom and China. Participants were recruited from one major public hospital in each country. RESULTS: Our results demonstrated a generally low engagement rate with DMHIs among HCPs from the 2 countries. Several key factors that affect DMHI engagement were identified, including belonging to underrepresented cultural and ethnic groups, limited mental health knowledge, low perceived need, lack of time, needs for relevance and personal-based support, and cultural elements like self-stigma. The results support recommendations for DMHIs for HCPs. CONCLUSIONS: Although DMHIs can be an ideal alternative mental health support for HCPs, engagement rates among HCPs in China and the United Kingdom are still low due to multiple factors and barriers. More research is needed to develop and evaluate tailored DMHIs with unique designs and content that HCPs can engage from various cultural backgrounds.
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Journal articleEspinoza F, Cook D, Da Re M, et al., 2025,
Designing AI-powered chatbots for dementia care in Peru: stakeholder engagement and field observations
, Interacting with Computers, ISSN: 0953-5438In Peru, dementia caregivers face burnout, depression, stress and financial strain. Addressing their needs involves tackling the intricacies of resourcing, caregiving and managing emotional burdens. Chatbots could serve as a viable support mechanism for these issues in regions with limited resources. We study the perceptions of dementia caregivers in Peru regarding a chatbot tailored to offer care navigation and emotional support. We divided the study into four phases: the initial stage encompassed engaging stakeholders to understand potential design challenges; the second stage focused on the design of ‘Ana’, a chatbot for dementia caregivers; the third stage assessed the chatbot through interviews and a caregiver satisfaction survey and the fourth stage gathered contextual insights through a field study for culturally-sensitive recommendations for ‘Ana’. The findings reveal that caregivers seek immediate access to information on handling behavioural symptoms and a platform for emotional release. Moreover, ‘Ana’ was tested in two configurations—one employed predefined conversation patterns, while the other harnessed generative AI for more dynamic responses. Participants preferred the generative AI alternative of ‘Ana’ as it was perceived to be more empathic and human-like. The participants valued the generative approach despite knowing the potential risk of receiving inaccurate information. Lastly, the field observations challenge the practicality of offering care navigation due to the lack of resources available in the health system and highlight that ‘Ana’ needs to be accessible for the varying educational and technological literacy levels present in Peru. However, we found that WhatsApp could be leveraged to overcome the accessibility challenges due to its pervasiveness in Peruvian society and that Community Health Workers could play a vital role in dementia care interventions.
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Journal articleLazo-Porras M, Tateishi-Serruto FJ, Butler C, et al., 2025,
Assessment of Health System Readiness and Quality of Dementia Services in Peru: Protocol for a Qualitative Study With Stakeholder Interviews and Documentation Review.
, JMIR Res Protoc, Vol: 14BACKGROUND: Dementia is a global health priority with significant challenges due to its complex nature and increasing prevalence. Health systems worldwide struggle to address chronic conditions like dementia, often providing fragmented care. However, information about how health systems respond to the needs of people with dementia and their carers, and the quality of care provided, is scarce in low- and middle-income countries. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to assess the quality of the health system to provide diagnosis and care for people with dementia and their carers in Peru. In order to do this, the study will explore the response of the Peruvian health system to people with dementia and their carers, and explore the experiences of people with dementia of receiving their diagnosis, management, and quality of care for this condition. METHODS: This study is part of a research program called "IMPACT Salud: Innovations using Mhealth for people with dementia and Co-morbidities," aimed at strengthening health systems to provide care for people with dementia and their carers. The study has a descriptive, cross-sectional design that uses a qualitative methodology, including stakeholder interviews and documentation review, and consists of 2 substudies, a health system assessment (HSA) and an exploration of the patient journey. The first substudy uses an HSA methodology suitable for low- and middle-income countries, conducting 160 structured interviews with 12 different stakeholder types across 3 levels of the health system (micro, meso, and macro) in 4 Peruvian regions, each with distinct geographical and urbanization profiles. The second substudy uses a patient journey methodology, which involves conducting 40 in-depth interviews with people with dementia, carers, and health care workers from the same 4 regions. The insights into the people with dementia patient and caregiver experience within the health system from the interviews will be used to produce a patien
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Journal articleZou Y, Zhao C, Childs P, et al., 2025,
User experience design for online sports shoe retail platforms: an empirical analysis based on consumer needs
, Behavioral Sciences, Vol: 15, ISSN: 2076-328XDigital technologies represented by AR (Augmented Reality), VR (Virtual Reality), and digital twins, along with the expansion of metaverse platforms and digital marketing concepts, have attracted the attention of numerous sports fashion product consumers and brands, particularly in the category of sports shoes. Therefore, in the context of digital technologies, understanding the factors that affect consumer experience and the preferences in the online purchasing process of sports shoes is very important. This study employs Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic analysis to analyze 44,110 online user posts and comments from social platforms, extracting thematic elements of consumer experience needs for purchasing sports shoes online. The information obtained is further encoded and designed into a questionnaire, which is then utilized alongside the Kano model to analyze the overall preferences of consumer experience needs. The results indicate that webpage design and basic product information are considered as Must-be attributes for user experience needs; providing information on after-sales service policies and product comment, products’ special feature information, and online size testing are recognized as Performance attributes. Additionally, high-tech interaction methods, visual presentation, personalized customization, virtual try-on, apparel matching recommendations, and dressing scenario recommendations are identified as Attractive attributes. The study reveals that in the context of new digital technology development, the online shopping experience for sports shoes is enhanced across four dimensions: platform experience augmentation, product experience augmentation, user demand augmentation, and interactive experience augmentation. These four dimensions collectively constitute the holistic experience design for the online retail platform. Therefore, this research provides case references and theoretical insights for researchers and developers in the fields of
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