Simulated proximity enhances perceptual and physiological responses to emotional facial expressions

Physical proximity is important in social interactions. Here, we assessed whether simulated physical proximity modulates the perceived intensity of facial emotional expressions and their associated physiological signatures during observation or imitation of these expressions. Forty-four healthy volunteers rated intensities of dynamic angry or happy facial expressions, presented at two simulated locations, proximal (0.5 m) and distant (3 m) from the participants. We tested whether simulated physical proximity affected the spontaneous (in the observation task) and voluntary (in the imitation task) physiological responses (activity of the corrugator supercilii face muscle and pupil diameter) as well as subsequent ratings of emotional intensity. Angry expressions provoked relative activation of the corrugator supercilii muscle and pupil dilation, whereas happy expressions induced a decrease in corrugator supercilii muscle activity. In proximal condition, these responses were enhanced during both observation and imitation of the facial expressions, and were accompanied by an increase in subsequent affective ratings. In addition, individual variations in condition related EMG activation during imitation of angry expressions predicted increase in subsequent emotional ratings. In sum, our results reveal novel insights about the impact of physical proximity in the perception of emotional expressions, with early proximity-induced enhancements of physiological responses followed by an increased intensity rating of facial emotional expressions.

Redefining Interaction in Study Abroad Programs

As international borders closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, study abroad programs struggled to send students back to their home countries and to maintain academic continuity by transitioning from in-person to remote instruction. Afterwards, university administrators found themselves in the unenviable position of having to make decisions based on limited information regarding the feasibility and safety of allowing students to travel abroad. Uncertain mobility and visa processes, limited flights, health risks, and lack of preparedness for managing students abroad in a pandemic contributed to cancellations. Some programs remained open by reinventing their programming and procedures. In the meantime, those responsible for study abroad, both on home campuses and on international sites, began to examine different ways to provide opportunities to interact with first language (L1) speakers without physical proximity. This chapter focuses on how interaction has been redefined and adapted to limited in-person, hybrid, and virtual study abroad.

Physical proximity and innovation collaboration of the Polish small and medium knowledge-intensive enterprisese

Globalisation, with its rising global value chains and the complexity of innovationprocesses change the role of spatial distance in innovation activities. In the classicalcluster theories geographical proximity is seen as a necessary condition to share knowledgeand to enhance innovation collaboration. The recent literature, however, challenge this approachby claiming that the role played by spatial distance diminishes. The aim of this paperis to provide better understanding of the role physical and geographical proximities inthe innovation collaboration process. The paper presents the up-to date results on the roleof physical proximity in innovation collaboration process of the Polish knowledge intensiveSMEs. The study findings support the idea that physical proximity matters for the innovationinteractions, yet the geographical proximity is not a prerequisite for such collaboration.Moreover, the innovative interlinkages of the surveyed companies have more individualcharacter, and are equally determined by the companies technological profiles andsocial-individual connections.

Remote Control: Organisational Control and Monitoring in Distributed Teams

<p>Qualitative data from interviews and diaries show that for managers in distributed teams, monitoring their team’s attitudes is vital. Monitoring attitudes is theorised to be a necessary part of enacting informal controls, essential for knowledge work where formal behaviour and output controls are likely to be insufficient. This suggests an extension to Ouchi’s (1977) influential Behaviour-Output framework to incorporate monitoring attitudes. Impression management and lack of physical proximity is shown to be a potential disruptor of attitude-related monitoring for managers. Pastoral control is then introduced to explain how managers utilise relational techniques to solicit information necessary for monitoring attitudes, and the role of context in enacting organisational control is explicated.</p>

Occupational risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and reinfection during the second pandemic surge: a cohort study

ObjectivesThis cohort study including essential workers, assessed the risk and incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection during the second surge of COVID-19 according to baseline serostatus and occupational sector.MethodsEssential workers were selected from a seroprevalence survey cohort in Geneva, Switzerland and were linked to a state centralised registry compiling SARS-CoV-2 infections. Primary outcome was the incidence of virologically confirmed infections from serological assessment (between May and September 2020) to 25 January 2021, according to baseline antibody status and stratified by three predefined occupational groups (occupations requiring sustained physical proximity, involving brief regular contact or others).Results10 457 essential workers were included (occupations requiring sustained physical proximity accounted for 3057 individuals, those involving regular brief contact, 3645 and 3755 workers were classified under ‘Other essential occupations’). After a follow-up period of over 27 weeks, 5 (0.6%) seropositive and 830 (8.5%) seronegative individuals had a positive SARS-CoV-2 test, with an incidence rate of 0.2 (95% CI 0.1 to 0.6) and 3.2 (95% CI 2.9 to 3.4) cases per person-week, respectively. Incidences were similar across occupational groups. Seropositive essential workers had a 93% reduction in the hazard (HR of 0.07, 95% CI 0.03 to 0.17) of having a positive test during the follow-up with no significant between-occupational group difference.ConclusionsA 10-fold reduction in the hazard of being virologically tested positive was observed among anti-SARS-CoV-2 seropositive essential workers regardless of their sector of occupation, confirming the seroprotective effect of a previous SARS-CoV2 exposure at least 6 months after infection.

Remote Control: Organisational Control and Monitoring in Distributed Teams

<p>Qualitative data from interviews and diaries show that for managers in distributed teams, monitoring their team’s attitudes is vital. Monitoring attitudes is theorised to be a necessary part of enacting informal controls, essential for knowledge work where formal behaviour and output controls are likely to be insufficient. This suggests an extension to Ouchi’s (1977) influential Behaviour-Output framework to incorporate monitoring attitudes. Impression management and lack of physical proximity is shown to be a potential disruptor of attitude-related monitoring for managers. Pastoral control is then introduced to explain how managers utilise relational techniques to solicit information necessary for monitoring attitudes, and the role of context in enacting organisational control is explicated.</p>

Spatial proximity matters: A study on collaboration

As scientific research becomes increasingly cross-disciplinary, many universities seek to support collaborative activity through new buildings and institutions. This study examines the impacts of spatial proximity on collaboration at MIT from 2005 to 2015. By exploiting a shift in the location of researchers due to building renovations, we evaluate how discrete changes in physical proximity affect the likelihood that researchers co-author. The findings suggest that moving researchers into the same building increases their propensity to collaborate, with the effect plateauing five years after the move. The effects are large when compared to the average rate of collaboration among pairs of researchers, which suggests that spatial proximity is an important tool to support cross-disciplinary collaborative science. Furthermore, buildings that host researchers working in the same or related fields and from multiple departments have a larger effect on their propensity to collaborate.

The vibrant beauty of matter. The pandemic as an opportunity to reveal educational materiality

The pandemic has triggered changes that from a pedagogical point of view can be interpreted as accelerators of the digitalization processes of education and intensifiers of educational problems that have existed for some time. The pandemic scenario, despite its criticality, also represents a precious opportunity to unveil social and material assemblage that characterizes educational practices in their daily occurrence. In fact, in the current emergency, it is precisely that materiality made up of bodies, spaces, objects, rituals, affects, physical proximity that returns to prominence and to which we were not used to paying attention and that remained invisible, as it was taken for granted. The paper therefore intends to question the pedagogical and epistemological implications connected to the recovery of a gaze capable of reading educational materiality, in order to understand the transformations underway and to orient them towards sustainable educational futures.