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Game Theory: Using Play to Talk With My Children About the Unpredictable Road to Recovery
Get PDFIn this narrative, a mother with an unexpected medical setback creates a board game with her children to talk with them about what happened and share their emotions about the experience
A privacy-preserving federated learning approach for airline upgrade optimization
Get PDFPurpose: A key issue of making upgrade decisions is to match the most relevant upgrade offers to the right customers at the right time. To optimize upgrade strategies and profitability, companies seek to break “data silos” between themselves and other business partners for a more holistic view of customers\u27 consumption experiences. However, multi-source data fusion may lead to potential privacy leakage. To overcome these two challenges in data silos and privacy protection, this study introduced a privacy-preserving federated learning (FL) approach and explained the process of using FL in modeling airline passengers’ willingness to pay for upgrade offers. Design/methodology/approach: Federated learning is a new confidential computing technique that allows companies to train a model cooperatively by exchanging model parameters instead of the actual raw data, which might include customers\u27 privacy sensitive information. Using a case study of a Chinese airline company, this study demonstrated how FL-based upgrade models using multi-source data can be developed to improve the accuracy of predicting customers\u27 willingness to pay for upgrades while preserving customers’ personal data privacy. Findings: Comparing with traditional unilateral model using single-source data, the federated logistic regression and SecureBoost models demonstrate better model performance. This indicates that the proposed FL approach can enhance the accuracy of modeling airline passengers\u27 willingness to pay for upgrade offers while preserving passengers’ data privacy. The findings also show that the FL-based models generally took longer running time than the traditional unilateral model due to the design of FL approach in ensuring data privacy. Originality: This study contributes to the literature of upgrade optimization by introducing the new FL approach for developing machining learning models to predict customers’ reaction to upgrade offers. Although we focus on the airline industry in our case study, the proposed FL approach can be applied to other industries with a similar issue of upgrade optimization such as hotels or cruise lines, and car rental
Assessing total mortality following seabird wrecks given variable data quantity and quality: the Cassin’s auklet die-off
Get PDFMass mortality events (MMEs) of seabirds are becoming more frequent as the global climate warms. Often documented via beached bird surveys, methods for estimating event-wide mortality are needed that can accommodate regional differences in carcass deposition and data quality/quantity. We develop a framework for estimating mortality from beached bird counts, extending existing approaches through the novel application of ocean circulation modeling to assess beaching likelihood. We applied our framework to the 2014/15 Cassin’s auklet (Ptychoramphus aleuticus) MME, which spread across three regions (central California, northern California-through-Washington, British Columbia) with varying data quality/quantity. Our best mortality estimate of ∼400 000 (estimates ranged from 265 000 to 700 000 depending on model uncertainty and extent) places this seabird MME as one of the largest on record. However, we caution that much uncertainty exists surrounding model parameterization and deposition in British Columbia where beached bird data were sparse. We suggest that the application of ocean circulation models, combined with process-based modeling of carcass persistence and detection, can improve estimates of MME magnitude
Physiological effects of research handling on the northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris)
Get PDFWildlife researchers must balance the need to safely capture and handle their study animals to sample tissues, collect morphological measurements, and attach dataloggers while ensuring their results are not confounded by stress artifacts caused by handling. To determine the physiological effects of research activities including chemical immobilization, transport, instrumentation with biologgers, and overnight holding on a model marine mammal species, we collected hormone, blood chemistry, hematology, and heart rate data from 19 juvenile northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris) throughout a translocation experiment. Across our six sampling timepoints, cortisol and aldosterone data revealed a moderate hormonal stress response to handling accompanied by minor changes in hematocrit and blood glucose, but not ketone bodies or erythrocyte sedimentation rate. We also examined heart rate as a stress indicator and found that interval heart rate, standard deviation of heart rate, and apnea-eupnea cycles were influenced by handling. However, when seals were recaptured after several days at sea, all hormonal and hematological parameters had returned to baseline levels. Furthermore, 100 % of study animals were resighted in the wild post-translocation, with some individuals observed over four years later. Together, these findings suggest that while northern elephant seals exhibit measurable physiological stress in response to handling, they recover rapidly and show no observable long-term deleterious effects, making them a robust species for ecological and physiological research
Development of an HPLC-Light Scattering Method for the Quantification of Dicyclohexylamine in Beeswax
Get PDFAn excipient present in commercial formulations of fumagillin (an antibiotic used in apiculture for the control of Nosema disease) toxic dicyclohexylamine is found in beeswax samples. There is a need for a reliable analytical method without the use of MS for analysis of this compound. A reversed-phase gradient method was developed for the analysis using a simple extraction procedure followed by low temperature elimination of interfering compounds. Since dicyclohexylamine is lacking a chromophore, an evaporative light scatter detector was used in this analysis. Several challenges of quantitative analysis using an evaporative light scatter detector were addressed. The reported method was validated, robust, sensitive at levels to ensure product safety, accurate, and precise
Santa, Socials, and Secrets: Hard Cases for Epistemic Rights
No full textIn The Right to Know, Lani Watson forcefully argues in favor of recognizing epistemic rights to all humans. In this paper, we apply Watson’s framework to three hard cases. First, we consider interpersonal relationships and suggest that there is room to explore how epistemic rights bear on, e.g., whether parents can permissibly lie to or mislead their children by asserting the existence of Santa Claus. Second, we turn to social media platforms and contend that Watson’s framework is compatible with contrasting moderation policies and transparency requirements. Third, we examine a foundational case of legal ethics—the buried bodies case—which raises the question of how professional and moral duties might be weighed alongside Watson’s epistemic ones. In exploring these cases, we hope to incite practically minded philosophers to reflect upon the implications of Watson’s theory for contemporary debates in applied ethics and political philosophy
In Touch with Those in Need: How Touchscreen Devices Lead Consumers to Support Social Causes
No full textAs consumers are increasingly using touchscreen devices (e.g., tablets or smartphones) when exposed to various marketing messages, this research explores how touchscreen devices alter consumer reactions to social cause marketing. This research shows that using touchscreen (vs. nontouchscreen) devices while viewing online charity ads featuring human victims increases consumers’ support for the advertised social causes. Four studies demonstrate this effect by examining consumers’ social media activities, donation intentions, and actual donations in field and lab settings. Mediation analysis reveals that using touchscreen (vs. nontouchscreen) devices enhances consumer support through increased empathy for the victims featured in charity ads. Together, this research provides important theoretical insights as well as managerial implications for effective moral marketing strategies
Avatars and Digital Identity: Branding in the Metaverse
Get PDFConsidering avatars as virtual identities in digital universes, and according to the scarcity of previous research on the impact generated by them, this study delves into avatars’ emergence as personal brands within metaverses, assessing the mediation of AI in the design process and evaluating the impact of avatars on user experience and advertising. After carrying out a mixed methodology based on a survey to users, interviews to active companies in metaverses and avatars design specialists; and a content analysis of metaverse platforms, it’s been proved that avatars are revolutionizing digital communications, allowing immersive interactions and the implementation of virtual experiences as advertising formats. Findings also reveal the relevance of AI in the design process, promoting that virtual identities match real personalities through customization and encouraging connections between users and brands that go beyond the screen
