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This paper aims to present a mosaicking method for underwater robotic applications, whose result can be provided to other perceptual systems for scene understanding such as real-time object recognition.

This method is called robust and large-scale mosaicking (ROLAMOS) and presents an efficient frame-to-frame motion estimation with outlier removal and consistency checking that maps large visual areas in high resolution. The visual mosaic of the sea-floor is created on-the-fly by a robust registration procedure that composes monocular observations and manages the computational resources. Moreover, the registration process of ROLAMOS aligns the observation to the existing mosaic.

A comprehensive set of experiments compares the performance of ROLAMOS to other similar approaches, using both data sets (publicly available) and live data obtained by a ROV operating in real scenes. The results demonstrate that ROLAMOS is adequate for mapping of sea-floor scenarios as it provides accurate information from the seabed, which is of extreme importance for autonomous robots surveying the environment that does not rely on specialized computers.

The ROLAMOS is suitable for robotic applications that require an online, robust and effective technique to reconstruct the underwater environment from only visual information.

The study compares how distinct mechanisms that connect pre-established policy objectives to professionals' practices, and the health policy implementation context influenced different approaches to frontline staff participation. The authors analysed 26 teams in six cities from two Brazilian states, during the last cycle of the National Program for Improving Access and Quality of Primary Care (PMAQ).

About 172 in-depth interviews were conducted with frontliners – community health workers (78), nurses (37), doctors (30) – and managers (27). Interview guides were based on key issues identified in the implementation and pay-for-performance (P4P) literature. Drawing on thematic analysis and synthesis of the literature, three types of participation mechanisms were identified: relational, motivational and incremental learning. They were analysed considering distinct contexts at the local level to understand how they influenced different forms of participation: mere adherence, result-oriented and transformative.

Administrations with stronger institutional organizational structures were able to control work processes and reduce professional discretion. However, sustained participation was more likely where there was greater integration between management and frontline health care teams. Motivation based only on financial incentives could not bring about transformative participation. This depended on the degree of professional's ideational motivation towards primary care. Finally, contexts with unfavourable working conditions tend to demotivate professionals, but incremental learning helps teams cope with these obstacles.

The study overcomes gaps in the literature in relation to PMAQ's implementation process. Overall, the study delves into which/how mechanisms alter frontliners participation in performance-oriented health programs.

The purpose of this article’s research was threefold. Firstly, it aimed to investigate how social services professionals coped during the pandemic period by comparing their involvement in five different national contexts. Secondly, it analysed how these professionals have performed their duties according to the street-level bureaucracy theory. Finally, the third question examines social workers' strategies to guide their professional role when they may have had more discretion in their actions. The research also examined whether discretion has increased during this phase and, if so, how it has been exercised.

This article is based on the findings of the project called “Theory and Practice of Social Work in the World in Times of Pandemic”, which was funded by the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW). The project involved 11 universities across five countries in Europe and Latin America, including Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Spain and Sweden. The research was conducted over 24 months to analyse the practices and measures taken to protect vulnerable people by adapting social services during the extraordinary period of the pandemic. In addition, the research explored how the awareness of emergency arose among social workers and how it influenced the services delivered from the perspective of the street-level bureaucracy theory. In different countries, the level of resourcefulness of services has varied based on their recognition of the severity of the pandemic and the impact of the government’s narratives. In some cases, these narratives have been conspiratorial or even anti-scientific. Additionally, there has been a reduction in the distance between professionals and clients, increased inequalities in access to services and a positive reassessment of the potential of new professional tools, such as digital social work, in establishing a trusting relationship.

As revealed in the interviews, the elements shaping this high degree of discretion among social workers can be classified into three levels: macro- and micro- (Saruis, 2015) plus a meso-level. Each level has four significant aspects. At the macro-level, these are legislation, public information, large associationism and integration of the social services-health system. At the meso-level, these are interpretations of role performance by managers technical equipment, self-organization and community action. The micro-level pertains to personal and family situations, emotions, ethics and social workers' direct relationships with those in charge.

This study investigated how social workers responded to the Covid-19 pandemic. The data gathered sheds light on their understanding of the situation, as well as the differences in experiences across the five countries studied. However, it is essential to note that the findings may not apply to all situations or countries. Nevertheless, this research serves as a stepping stone for future studies to delve deeper into the results and explore them in greater detail .

The study highlights the crucial role of social workers as street-level workers in managing, negotiating and creating meaning in the interaction between professionals and the people they serve. This is especially relevant in Latin America. Additionally, the study emphasizes the significance of social workers as policy actors and the political nature of social work practice. The findings also underscore the importance of effective communication and collaboration between social workers, their teams and the organizations they work for. The sources cited in the study are Barberis and Boccagni (2014) and Cuadra and Staaf (2014). The research has also underscored the potential of social service workers to build networks and cooperate. Such networking can play a vital role in implementing their acquired knowledge. The study has, therefore, emphasized the importance of social workers being an integral part of the societies they serve. They need to continuously enhance their communication skills, using all the necessary tools to gain a comprehensive and updated understanding of the evolving needs of their clients. Integrating digital social work as a mode of service provision has emerged as a crucial aspect, especially in the three European countries observed. This approach has demonstrated its potential and is expected to continue being a part of services to some extent, even after the return to normalcy. However, it is essential to ensure that the accessibility and proximity of services are not compromised in any way.

An unexpected result was observed during the research: the pandemic circumstances have led to valuable reflections. These reflections can help in rethinking and recreating social services. Social workers have been given a unique opportunity to return to the essence of their profession and develop less bureaucratic and more humane ways of working. This experience has also enabled them to recover a closer relationship with the people they serve. To sum up, this study emphasizes that social workers, when given more leeway in their work, rely on cultivating and upholding relationships with other professionals, organizations and stakeholders to stay connected with the community they serve. This is crucial for ensuring the delivery of effective and sustainable social services.

The research employed a thematic analysis approach (Bazeley, 2007) to identify themes related to the concept of consciousness as derived from the field experiences of social workers. Additionally, an in-case and cross-case analysis method (Fereday and Muir-Cochrane, 2006) was used to connect themes related to individual experiences with those gathered from the overall experiences.

Organisations operate in diverse cultural environment, which is a challenging task due to absence of cultural knowledge and difficulty in adapting the native culture that usually leads to expatriate failure. In this context cultural intelligence plays an important role in the adjustment of employees. The purpose of the study is to examine the mediating role played by cultural intelligence between cross-cultural training and cross-cultural adjustment relationship. It further analyses the moderating role of cross-cultural training and types of expatriate between cultural intelligence and cross-cultural adjustment relationship.

Set in a large culturally diverse emerging economy context, data have been gathered from 530 managers working in banking sector. Data have been duly assessed for reliability and validity.

The results revealed that cultural intelligence mediates cross-cultural training and cross-cultural adjustment relationship. Evidence from the analysis further suggests that cross-cultural training and types of expatriate moderate the relationship between cultural intelligence and cross-cultural adjustment. Lastly, the managerial and theoretical implications have been put forth for practical and academic perusal.

The study is cross-sectional in nature and data have been collected from single source.

Organisations should design such training programmes, which motivate the managers to successfully complete out of home state assignment and help them to adapt in the cross-cultural situations.

Culturally intelligent employees/managers are able to communicate with people belonging to diverse culture, which results in building trust, loyalty and cordial relationship amongst the people. This will create the feeling of unity in the society thereby bringing national as well as global peace.

The study develops the extant literature on cross-cultural training and types of expatriate as effective intercultural instruments to enhance the capability of the managers to interact and adjust in host region environment.

The aim of this paper is to present an initiative to apply the principles of Linked Data to enhance the search and discovery of OpenCourseWare (OCW) contents created and shared by the universities.

This paper is a case study of how linked data technologies can be applied for the enhancement of open learning contents.

Results presented under the umbrella of OCW-Universia consortium, as the integration and access to content from different repositories OCW and the development of a query method to access these data, reveal that linked data would offer a solution to filter and select semantically those open educational contents, and automatically are linked to the linked open data cloud.

The new OCW-Universia integration with linked data adds new features to the initial framework including improved query mechanisms and interoperability.

This paper aims to analyse the extent to which the sustainable development goals (SDGs) are being considered at higher education institutions (HEIs) and propose and test the possible acceptance of a list of indicators to evaluate the contribution of HEIs to the SDGs.

The methodology consisted of the collection of indicators of sustainable development based on the existing bibliography. Afterwards, a set of indicators related to the SDGs were selected, based on the most frequent SDGs’ expressions found in the selected indicators. A sample of researchers was also asked to indicate to which extent this set of indicators is perceived as relevant.

The results indicated an initial list with 432 indicators, of which 268 were selected for having at least one of the keywords searched for, related to the SDG descriptions and targets. Thus, redundant indicators were excluded and, when necessary, indicators were aggregated, resulting in a final list of 61 indicators.

The set of indicators resulted from this analysis was considered appropriate to evaluate the contribution of HEIs towards the SDGs, demonstrating that it might not be necessary to create new indicators for that purpose.

This study aims to follow a rigorous approach to identify, critically analyze and synthesize 75 papers published from 2000 to 2022.

The study presents a systematic literature review on identity expressiveness (IE), clarifying and expanding what is currently known about the concept.

To synthesize current knowledge on IE, the study uses the overarching framework of antecedents-phenomenon-consequences, using this same framework to identify gaps and future research directions. The findings show individual and brand-related factors such as the need for uniqueness and anthropomorphism as antecedents of IE, and eWOM/WOM, impulse purchases and upgrading to more exclusive lines as consequences of IE.

The study contributes to theory by synthesizing and mapping current understanding of the state of knowledge on the concept of IE while highlighting gaps in the extant literature and paving future research directions for scholars in the field.

The study offers useful insights for practitioners, broadening marketers’ actionable options in identity-based marketing. Marketers can use insights from this study to inform marketing strategy and communication campaigns for different types of brands.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first of its kind and offers an integrative review of the current literature on IE, thus enhancing understanding of the concept, its antecedents and consequences. The study also contributes to knowledge by highlighting future research priorities for researchers in this field of enquiry.