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Whether and How Prepurchase Word of Mouth Affects Postpurchase Word of Mouth
Get PDFConsumers often purchase new products based on online reviews and recommendations from both friends and strangers. Previous studies have extensively explored the effects of word of mouth (WOM) on the prepurchase stage, but little is known about whether WOM from friends or strangers can alter consumers' postpurchase behavior. The authors propose that positive WOM from distant (vs. close) others increases consumers' intention to share negative WOM when the product/service fails to perform to their satisfaction due to two distinctive motivations. First, consumers perceive that positive WOM from distant others might mislead more people, and, consequently, consumers expect their negative WOM to have a greater impact on helping others. Second, when receiving positive WOM from close others, they are less willing to publicly contradict the close others' WOM even though they believe the WOM is misleading. Studies 1a and 1b demonstrate the main effect of interpersonal closeness on negative WOM intention, while Study 2 reveals the dual mediating effects of anticipated impact and relationship norm. Studies 3 and 4 validate these mechanisms by showing the moderating role of the self-construal level while ruling out the role of impression management. This research offers practical implications for WOM management across different social ties
Effective Trigger Speeds for Vehicle Activated Signs on 20 mph Roads in Rural Areas
Get PDFThis paper aims to offer novel empirical evidence as to the identification of the most effective Trigger Speeds (TS) for Vehicle-Activated Signs (VAS) in rural areas. To achieve this, an experimental study was carried out in the area of Scottish Borders, UK, in settlements with 20 mph speed limits. To determine the effective trigger speeds for VAS, in terms of reducing vehicle speeds, a comparative quantitative analysis was conducted using traffic and speed data collected during different waves of a traffic survey, for which various TS settings were deployed (24 mph, 28 mph and 35 mph). The descriptive analysis showed that the 24 mph TS threshold seems to be more effective compared to the other TS settings considered, mainly in terms of reducing the 85th percentile speeds. The 28 mph threshold was identified to yield slightly lower mean speeds compared to the other TS settings. Non-parametric and parametric statistical tests were conducted on the basis of approximately 2.8 million speed observations to identify any statistically significant speed differences under various TS settings. Overall, the findings of this study show that the application of VAS in addition to 20 mph speed limits helps reduce vehicle speeds. In particular, setting a TS to remind drivers, especially those driving between 21β24 mph, that they should slow down has led to statistically significant reductions in speeds driven. This provides road safety benefits both from the reduction in kinetic energy in the transport system, any consequent crash-related outcomes, and also by improving perceived safety for all who use and live close to roads where 20 mph speed limits augmented with VAS have been implemented
A Transformer-based Gesture Prediction Model via sEMG Sensor for Human-robot Interaction
No full textAs one of the most direct and pivotal modes of human-computer interaction (HCI), the application of surface electromyography (sEMG) signals in the domain of gesture prediction has emerged as a prominent area of research. To enhance the performance of gesture prediction system based on multi-channel sEMG signals, a novel gesture prediction framework is proposed that (i) Conversion of original biological signals from multi-channel sEMG into two-dimensional time-frequency maps is achieved through the incorporation of continuous wavelet transform (CWT). (ii) For two-dimensional time-frequency map inputs, a Transformer-based classification network that effectively learns local and global context information is proposed, named DIFT-Net, with the goal of implementing sEMG-based gesture prediction for robot interaction. Proposed DIFT-Net employs a dual-branch interactive fusion structure based on the Swin Transformer, enabling effective acquisition of global contextual information and local details. Additionally, an attention guidance module (AGM) and an attentional interaction module (AIM) are proposed to guide network feature extraction and fusion processes in proposed DIFT-Net. The AGM module takes intermediate features from the same stage of both branches as input and guides the network to extract more localized and detailed features through convolutional attention. Meanwhile, the AIM module integrates output features from both branches to enhance the aggregation of global context information across various scales. To substantiate the efficacy of DIFT-Net, a multi-channel EMG bracelet is utilized to collect and construct an sEMG signal dataset. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed DIFT-Net attains an accuracy of 98.36% in self-built dataset and 82.64% accuracy on the public Nanapro DB1 dataset
A qualitative descriptive training needs analysis of midwives perceived continuous professional development in providing intranatal respectful maternal care
Get PDFBackground: The Vietnam midwifery report acknowledges that while health services are available in Vietnam, there is growing need to increase levels of respectful maternal care provided to women in labour. Objective: In conjunction with newborns Vietnam charity, our objective was to assess the perceived continuous professional development needs of midwives working in Vietnam to inform development of an intranatal respectful maternal care education resource.Method: A qualitative exploratory descriptive method was used to conduct a training needs analysis, which identified perceived education requirements of midwives in Vietnam in relation to providing respectful maternal care. Participants: A convenience sample of midwives (n=49) participated in the study.Data-collection: Eight on-line focus groups were carried out in four hospitals (maternity units) across Vietnam using WebEx, with the interview schedule informed by the World Health Organization guide for delivering intrapartum care for a positive birth experience. Data-analysis: Data were transcribed into English and analysed using the 6-steps of thematic analysis outlined by Braun and Clark.Findings: Three themes and 9 sub-themes were developed from the data. The first theme addressed aspects that contribute towards creating a positive birth experience; the second theme observed barriers to changing practice; and the third theme noted that there are a variety of preferred teaching methods.Conclusions: In response to the training needs analysis, a respectful maternal care education resource has been designed to transform selected areas of intranatal care in Vietnam. Integrating the respectful maternal care educational resource into midwivesβ continuous professional development in Vietnam is intended to increase womenβs rights to have safe childbirth, which accommodates choice and control, and promotes a positive birth experience. Recommendations for practice: Post-completion and evaluation, we hope that the intranatal respectful maternal care educational resource will be rolled out to all practising midwives in Vietnam
Management of stress urinary incontinence associated with perimenopause
Get PDFPelvic health physiotherapy is recommended as first-line treatment for those with lower urinary tract symptoms and pelvic floor dysfunction. Pelvic health physiotherapists treat a number of genitourinary conditions conservatively, including stress urinary incontinence, overactive bladder, pelvic organ prolapse and vaginal atrophy. When physiotherapy management alone does not fully resolve symptoms, medication may be required. Independent prescribing enables the physiotherapist to maintain continuity of care, allowing a smoother, more effective patient journey. This offers quicker access to medicines and helps avoid delays in commencing appropriate treatment, reducing waiting times across other services. In this article, the role of the pelvic health physiotherapy independent prescriber is detailed in a case study of a patient referred with symptoms of stress urinary incontinence associated with impaired pelvic floor function and episodic constipation, in addition to perimenopausal vaginal dryness causing dyspareunia
A spatio-temporal graph convolutional approach to real-time load forecasting in an edge-enabled distributed Internet of Smart Grids energy system
Get PDFAs the edge nodes of the Internet of Smart Grids (IoSG), smart sockets enable all kinds of power load data to be analyzed at the edge, which create conditions for edge calculation and real-time (RT) load forecasting. In this article, an edge-cloud computing analysis energy system is proposed to collect and analyze power load data, and a combination of graph convolutional network (GCN) with LSTM, called KGLSTM is used to achieve mid-long term mixed sequential mode RT forecasting. In the proposed edge-cloud framework, distributed intelligent sockets are regarded as edge nodes to collect, analyze and upload data to cloud services for further processing. The proposed KGLSTM network adopts a double branch structure. One branch extracts the data characteristics of mid-short term time-series data through an encodingβdecoding LSTM module; the other branch extracts the data features of long term timing data through an adapted GCN. GCN is used to extract spatial correlations between different nodes. In addition, by combining a dynamic weighted loss function, the accuracy of peak forecasting is effectively improved. Finally, through various experimental indicators, this article shows that KGLSTM and weighted KGLSTM have achieved significant performance improvement over recent methods in mid-long term time-series forecasting and peak forecasting
Generalized Early Stopping in Evolutionary Direct Policy Search
Get PDFLengthy evaluation times are common in many optimization problems such as direct policy search tasks, especially when they involve conducting evaluations in the physical world, e.g. in robotics applications. Often when evaluating solution over a fixed time period it becomes clear that the objective value will not increase with additional computation time (for example when a two wheeled robot continuously spins on the spot). In such cases, it makes sense to stop the evaluation early to save computation time. However, most approaches to stop the evaluation are problem specific and need to be specifically designed for the task at hand. Therefore, we propose an early stopping method for direct policy search. The proposed method only looks at the objective value at each time step and requires no problem specific knowledge. We test the introduced stopping criterion in five direct policy search environments drawn from games, robotics and classic control domains, and show that it can save up to 75% of the computation time. We also compare it with problem specific stopping criteria and show that it performs comparably, while being more generally applicable
Discrete model for discontinuous dynamic recrystallisation applied to grain structure evolution inside adiabatic shear bands
Get PDFDiscontinuous dynamic recrystallisation (DDRX) is a well-known phenomenon playing a significant role in the high-temperature processing of metals, including industrial forming and severe plastic deformations. The ongoing discussion on the ZenerβHollomon (ZβH) parameter as a descriptor of materialsβ propensity to DDRX and a measure of microstructure homogeneity leaves more questions than answers and prevents its practical application. Most of the existing DDRX models are continuous, and so the geometry and topology of real grain microstructures cannot be considered. The present study uses a fully discrete representation of polycrystalline aluminium alloys as 2D/3D Voronoi space tessellations corresponding to EBSD maps. Such tessellations are geometric realisations of combinatorial structures referred to as polytopal cell complexes. Combining discrete models with FEM LS-Dyna simulations of shock-wave propagation in AA1050 and AW5083 aluminium alloys makes it possible to estimate for the first time the contribution of DDRX to the final material microstructure inside adiabatic shear bands. It is shown that the increase of the initial fraction of high-angle grain boundaries, caused by preliminary deformation, significantly increases the spatial homogeneity and decreases the clustering of DDRX grains. The obtained results contradict the conventional assumption that the microstructures obtained by severe plastic deformation under quasi-static and dynamic deformation conditions are similar due to the similar value of the ZβH parameter: competition between the two recrystallisation mechanisms leads to almost unpredictable final grain structures inside share bands that require further comprehensive experimental studies. This agrees with experimental evidence for high material sensitivity to the ZβH parameter
The CRPD and Mental Health Law Reform in Scotland
No full textScotland's mental health and capacity legislation and its implementation is underpinned by European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) informed principles, and such legislation and its implementation has remained largely ECHR compliant. It is designed to protect individuals' autonomy from inappropriate and disproportionate nonconsensual intrusions but its scope is largely limited to this. However, since the legislation was enacted at the start of the twenty first century the UK subsequently ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) which requires the law and related practice to focus on giving effect to all the rights of persons with mental disabilities (people living with psychosocial, cognitive and intellectual disabilities) on an equal basis with others and to actively support such equality in rights enjoyment. The Terms of Reference of the independent Scottish Mental Health Law Review (2019β2022) included considering and making recommendations to align Scotland's mental health and capacity legislation with the CRPD. After engaging widely with stakeholders its recommendations sought to strengthen the voice of persons who use services and of those who care for them, reduce the need for nonconsensual measures and secure rights to the help and support necessary to live a good life. In order to achieve this, it recommended, amongst other things, a refocusing on mental health and capacity law together with a Human Rights Enablement, Supported Decision Making and Autonomous Decision Making framework
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