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We present recent results from an EPSRC funded project VirTex (Virtual Textile Catalogues). The goal of this project is to develop graphics and image‐processing software for the capture, storage, search, retrieval and visualisation of 3D textile samples. The ultimate objective is to develop a web‐based application that allows the user to search a database for suitable textiles and to visualize selected samples using real‐time photorealistic 3D animation. The main novelty of this work is in the combined use of photometric stereo and real‐time per‐pixel‐rendering for the capture and visualisation of textile samples. Photometric stereo is a simple method that allows both bump map and colour map of a surface texture to be captured digitally. It uses a single fixed camera to obtain three images under three different illumination conditions. The colour map is the image that would be obtained under diffuse lighting. The bump map describes the small undulations of the surface relief. When imported into a standard graphics program these images can be used to texture 3D models. The appearance is particularly photorealistic, especially under changing illumination and viewpoints. The viewer can manipulate both viewpoint and lighting to gain a deeper perception of the properties of the textile sample. In addition, these images can be used with 3D models of products to provide extremely accurate visualisations for the customer. Until recently, these images could only be rendered using ray‐tracing software. However, recent consumer‐level graphics cards from companies such as Nvidia, ATI and 3Dlabs provide real‐time per‐pixel shading. We have developed software that takes advantage of the advanced rendering features of these cards to render images in real‐time. It uses photometrically acquired bump and colour maps of textiles to provide real‐time visualisation of a textile sample, under user‐controlled illumination, pose and flex.

Mike Baker, Personnel Manager of the Evening Gazette in Middlesbrough, first learned of QED Industrial Motivation when he read one of their advertisments in the Financial Times. A couple of points caught his eye—the guarantee of substantial savings on existing costs and the invitation to a champagne breakfast. Being a typically cautious Yorkshireman, he thought carefully for several seconds before picking up the phone.

Long‐term care in general, and care homes in particular, have never enjoyed high status as a place to live and work. This remains the case. In large part this marginalised position is due to the continued failure to value the contribution that care homes make to supporting frail and vulnerable older people. In order to promote a more positive vision of what can be achieved in care homes, this paper argues for the adoption of a relationship‐centred approach to care. The need for such a model is described, and how it might be applied using the ‘Senses Framework’ is considered. It is argued that adopting such a philosophy will provide a clearer sense of therapeutic direction for staff working in care homes, as well as more explicitly recognising the contribution that residents and relatives can make to creating an ‘enriched environment’ of care.

Roger Corn has taken on the new role of customer services manager at Wentgate Dynaweld of St Ives, Cambridgeshire.

The researchers at VitalSmarts have combined more than thirty years of their original research with the best social science research from the past five decades to develop a model for creating sustainable behavior change in individuals, teams, organizations, and nations. This article presents their findings which show that people who engage in a multi‐faceted change management strategy are up to ten times more successful at solving persistent and profound problems by creating rapid and sustainable behavior change.

The research presented in this article is composed of three studies. In the first study, VitalSmarts researchers interviewed 25 C‐level leaders regarding their most persistent challenges including bureaucratic infighting, silo thinking, and lack of accountability. The second study focused on the most common problems that occurred during 100 mission‐critical initiatives ‐ efforts such as internal restructurings, quality and productivity improvement initiatives, and new product launches. In the third study, researchers surveyed more than 1,000 individuals about personal habits they struggled to change ‐ habits such as unhealthy eating, insufficient exercise, smoking, and drinking.

Researchers found that influencers succeed where others fail because they know persistent problems and people's resistance to change are rarely fed by a single cause; rather, they are fed by a conspiracy of causes. Instead of looking for the minimum it will take to accomplish change, influencers combine a critical mass of different kinds of influence strategies ‐ as a result they are ten times more successful at securing sustainable behavior change.

Those who use four or more sources of influence in combination are ten times more likely to succeed in creating change than those who rely on a single source of influence.

Shows how two events one week apart earlier this year pointed the way for the UK to put itself in the vanguard of the next stage of intelligent robotics development. First came the publication of a report Technology and Market Review of the Robotics Sector which studied the state and prospects of robotics in seven sectors of UK industry and proposed that special efforts, including demonstrator projects should be focused first on the food industry sector and then on the medical sector. The second event was the launch of SILVER SIG, a Special Interest Group for Intelligent VEhicles and Robotics. A major participant in SILVER is the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency, DERA, which is committed to linking commercial industry with government research ‐ in this case in the development of intelligent vehicles.

Previous literature on earnings management (EM) indicates that managers are motivated to adjust reported income to serve their own self-interests, and to try and influence capital markets. However, previous research has failed to provide an appropriate theoretical underpinning for EM and has ignored the effect of cultural and environmental factors on shaping managers’ motivations. Therefore the purpose of this paper is to draw on interpretive methodology and new institutional sociology (NIS) theory to identify the external factors that motivate managers of Egyptian companies to use EM to modify financial statements.

The research adopted an interpretative methodology and interview methods. Interviewees were conducted with 34 participants, who were divided into four different categories; executives, financial analysts, auditors and stock exchanges’ authorities.

This paper provides empirical evidence on the range of external factors that motivate Egyptian corporate executives to adjust the earnings number in financial statements. These external factors include the expectations of investors, lenders and employees, the impact of stock exchange listing rules, beating an earnings target, and the privatisation of key state-owned companies.

The authors recognise that the paper has a number of limitations. The research is concerned solely with EM in Egypt and, therefore, it would not be safe to generalise the results to other contexts, even in the Middle East. Further research on the behaviour of managers towards EM in other countries would be useful to test validity of the results reported in this paper.

The principal contribution of this paper is to build on the previous EM literature to include external factors within the Egyptian context which motivate Egyptian managers to manage the earnings of companies in an upward direction. It adds additional EM motives to available literature including: employees, stock exchange’s rules, privatisation and meeting industrial norms. Also, the paper provides evidence of the effect of concentrated share ownership on managers’ likelihood to engage in EM behaviour. The paper also extends NIS theory to recognise the importance of the interplay between institutional and economic environment by including economic reform, and non-financial providers as factors that can explain the EM behaviour.

Multiple forces that shape the identities of adolescents and young adults also influence their subsequent career choices. Early work experiences are key among these forces. Recognizing this, youth service programs have emerged worldwide with the hope of shaping participants’ future trajectories through boosting engagement in civically oriented activities and work. Despite these goals, past research on these programs’ impact has yielded mixed outcomes. Our goal is to understand why this might be the case.

We rely on interview, archival, and longitudinal survey data to examine young adults’ experiences of a European youth service program.

A core feature of youth service programs, namely their dual identity of helping others (i.e., service beneficiaries) and helping oneself (i.e., participants), might partly explain the program’s mixed outcomes. We find that participants focus on one of the organization’s identities largely to the exclusion of the other, creating a dynamic in which their interactions with members who focus on the other identity create challenges and dominate their program experience, to the detriment of a focus on the organization and its goals. This suggests that a previously overlooked feature of youth service programs (i.e., their dual identity) might prove both a blessing for attracting many diverse members and a curse for achieving desired outcomes.

More broadly, our results suggest that dual identity organizations might attract members focused on a select identity, but fail to imbue them with a blended identity; thus, limiting the extent to which such organizations can truly “redirect” future career choices.

Are public officials held accountable for political scandals? Existing scholarship typically focuses on voters' response to scandals showing politicians are often punished at the polls for scandals. Specifically, they are more likely to be punished for the abuse of public office for personal gain than for scandals involving personal affairs. That said, not all politicians implicated in scandals seek reelection. Although difficult to observe, many politicians may be pushed out of office by their political party before they have an opportunity to stand for reelection – resigning or retiring before the next election. Others are appointed and consequently never stand for election. We collect a new dataset to understand how scandals affect politicians' careers and whether public officials are held accountable at other junctures. We trace the pathways of politicians implicated in scandals. We document the type and onset of scandals, individuals' reactions to scandals, and whether and when they leave office. Our novel data contribution provides rich descriptive statistics on corruption in the US Congress over time, with new insights into the conditions under which scandals end politicians' careers. The common patterns and significant differences revealed in these data suggest that the impact of scandals on public officials' careers may have less to do with the nature of the scandal or the specific actions undertaken by those implicated and may depend more on the actions of political parties.