Conversion Experience Research Articles

Investigating health professionals' perspectives and experiences of food security-related conversations in diabetes care.

Household food insecurity (FI) is a serious public health concern and disproportionately affects people living with chronic health conditions, undermining diabetes self-management. Little is known about healthcare professionals' (HCPs) experiences of supporting people affected by diabetes and FI, and no national guidelines incorporate consideration of FI within UK diabetes care. A qualitative study of NHS HCPs' consideration of FI within diabetes care, and the extent to which it informs their clinical practice, was undertaken. Fifteen HCPs providing self-management support to people with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes in a Scottish Health Board took part in semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed using a thematic framework approach informed by the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation and Behaviour (COM-B) model of behaviour change. Although the potential impact of FI on diabetes self-management was recognised, this important consideration was not currently core to their clinical practice. Enablers and barriers identified included: personal feelings about raising the issue, lack of knowledge of available resources, the patient-practitioner relationship, and the wider socioeconomic environment. Practical suggestions to support HCPs included: specific training on communication, access to patient support information, use of a screening tool to assess FI, and building NHS-third sector links. Our findings provide insight into cognitive factors, emotional processes and environmental systems impacting on HCPs' practice supporting individuals with diabetes and FI. Research with affected patients is needed to gain a better understanding of how to provide support within NHS settings.

AniBalloons: Animated chat balloons as affective augmentation for social messaging and chatbot interaction

Despite being prominent and ubiquitous, message-based communication is limited in nonverbally conveying emotions. Besides emoticons or stickers, messaging users continue seeking richer options for affective communication. Recent research explored using chat-balloons’ shape and color to communicate emotional states. However, little work explored whether and how chat-balloon animations could be designed to convey emotions. We present the design of AniBalloons, 30 chat-balloon animations conveying Joy, Anger, Sadness, Surprise, Fear, and Calmness. Using AniBalloons as a research means, we conducted three studies to assess the animations’ affect recognizability and emotional properties (N=40), and probe how animated chat-balloons would influence communication experience in typical scenarios including instant messaging (N=72) and chatbot service (N=70). Our exploration contributes a set of chat-balloon animations to complement nonverbal affective communication for a range of text-message interfaces, and empirical insights into how animated chat-balloons might mediate particular conversation experiences (e.g., perceived interpersonal closeness, or chatbot personality).

Rehabilitation Specialty Hospital Conversion to Support a COVID-19 Pandemic Surge: Nurses' Perceptions.

The purpose of this study was to understand the novel experience of a rehabilitation specialty hospital conversion to acute medical/COVID-19 patient care from the perspective of rehabilitation nurses. A descriptive qualitative study was conducted. Thirty-six nurses employed by the rehabilitation specialty hospital were invited to participate. Narrative data were collected via an online survey and were analyzed using a conventional content analysis approach. Fifteen (42%) of those eligible participated. The overarching descriptor of the rehabilitation nurses' experiences was "we did what we had to do." Three primary descriptors emerged: challenged, conflicted, and compromised. Communication from leadership prominently informed the conversion experience. Expecting rehabilitation specialty nurses to care for a different patient population is an important consideration and requires leadership to understand the distinctive characteristics of the specialty and its approach to care. Addressing the impact on nursing staff in any disaster requires listening and communicating to provide needed support. Recognizing the characteristics of nursing specialties, the need for self-care among nursing staff and the salience of effective communication are essential during specialty hospital conversions.

Extended Experience of Belatacept Conversion in Kidney Transplant Patients with Chronic Active Antibody-Mediated Rejection

Extended Experience of Belatacept Conversion in Kidney Transplant Patients with Chronic Active Antibody-Mediated Rejection

Reconsidering the Impact of the All Scotland Crusade of 1955 upon Children and Young People

Billy Graham led the All Scotland Crusade in Glasgow for six weeks between March and April 1955. 830,670 people attended the events he hosted at the Kelvin Hall, Ibrox and Hampden stadiums, while 19,835 of them responded to his altar call and became inquirers. A significant proportion were children and young people. This paper will examine the immediate, medium-term and long-term effects of the crusade upon this group of people. It will contend maternal influence encouraged a significant number of children and young people to respond to Graham’s altar call, emotion often accompanied their decisions, and many of them underwent an evangelical conversion experience. It will claim many became active participants in the life of their local churches where they received pastoral care and spiritual counselling. It will argue some of them found a vocation in full time Christian ministry and mission, and spent their lives serving the church. Above all, this paper will establish how the lives of several thousands of children and young people were radically transformed through their experience of the All Scotland Crusade in 1955.

Alquist 5.0: Dialogue Trees Meet Generative Models, a Novel Approach for Enhancing SocialBot Conversations

This article introduces Alquist 5.0, our SocialBot that was designed for the Alexa Prize SocialBot Grand Challenge 5. Building upon previous iterations, we present the integration of our novel neural response generator (NRG) Barista within a hybrid architecture that combines traditional predefined dialogues with advanced neural response generation. We provide a comprehensive analysis of the current state-of-the-art NRGs and large language models (LLMs), leveraging these insights to enhance Barista’s capabilities. A key focus of our development was in ensuring the safety of our chatbot and implementing robust measures to prevent profanity and inappropriate content. Additionally, we incorporated a new search engine to improve information retrieval and response accuracy. Expanding the capabilities of our system, we designed Alquist 5.0 to accommodate multimodal devices, utilizing APL templates enriched with custom features to deliver an outstanding conversational experience complemented by an excellent user interface. This paper offers detailed insights into the development of Alquist 5.0, which effectively addresses evolving user demands while preserving its empathetic and knowledgeable conversational prowess across a wide range of topics.

Pénzügyőrök az Europolban A Nemzeti Adó- és Vámhivatal, valamint jogelődje a Vám- és Pénzügyőrség részvétele az Európai Rendőrségi Hivatal munkájában

Aim: To give an overview of the cooperation between Europol and the National Tax and Customs Administration. Methodology: The different areas of cooperation are presented by the authors based on the review of the available documents, the factual examination of the data and the experiences of conversations with liaison officers. Findings: The National Tax and Customs Administration and its legal predecessor, the Hungarian Customs and Financial Guard, have been participating in the work of Europol since 2002. During this period, it was constantly present with liaison officers in joint tasks. NTCA’s financial officers and investigators try to make full use of the support provided by Europol, but at the same time, given the global nature of serious international and organised crime, it is necessary to constantly examine the further possibilities inherent in cooperation. Value: The article adequately reviews and presents the relationship between the HCFG, later the NTCA and Europol, as well as the strategic and practical results resulting from it. During the interviews with the liaison officers, the authors got to know the practical aspects of the cooperation in depth and presented them in this article.

Financial guards at Europol. Participation of the National Tax and Customs Administration and its predecessor, the Hungarian Customs and Finance Guard in the workof the European Union Agencyfor Law Enforcement Cooperation

Aim: To give an overview of the cooperation between Europol and the National Tax and Customs Administration. Methodology: The different areas of cooperation are presented by the authors based on the review of the available documents, the factual examination of the data and the experiences of conversations with liaison officers. Findings: The National Tax and Customs Administration and its legal predecessor, the Hungarian Customs and Financial Guard, have been participating in the work of Europol since 2002. During this period, it was constantly present with liaison officers in joint tasks. NTCA’s financial officers and investigators try to make full use of the support provided by Europol, but at the same time, given the global nature of serious international and organised crime, it is necessary to constantly examine the further possibilities inherent in cooperation. Value: The article adequately reviews and presents the relationship between the HCFG, later the NTCA and Europol, as well as the strategic and practical results resulting from it. During the interviews with the liaison officers, the authors got to know the practical aspects of the cooperation in depth and presented them in this article.

How to Talk to AI: The Role of Preset Prompt Language Styles in Shaping Conversational Experience

With the proliferation of AI conversational agents, the design of preset prompts—text suggestions that guide user interactions—has become crucial for enhancing user experience. This study investigates the impact of different preset prompt language styles (social-oriented vs. task-oriented) on user satisfaction. Utilizing two empirical studies, we examined how these language styles influence user perceptions of an AI agent’s warmth and competence, and how these perceptions mediate overall satisfaction. In the first study, participants interacted with an AI agent using either social-oriented or task-oriented prompts under conditions of service success or failure. The results indicated that social-oriented prompts significantly enhance user satisfaction by increasing perceptions of warmth, but not competence. However, this positive effect diminishes in the event of service failure. In the second study, we explored the moderating effect of task urgency. Findings revealed that the positive impact of social-oriented prompts on satisfaction is significant in low-urgency tasks but not in high-urgency scenarios. These insights underscore the importance of prompt language style in AI interactions and provide practical implications for designing more effective AI communication strategies, especially in customer service contexts.

Small talk in videoconferencing improves conversational experience and fosters relationships.

Small talk plays a big role in conversational perception. In the study here, pairs of conversational participants engaged in three iterations of an ecologically valid task-break dialogue where the break was either small talk via videoconferencing or waiting the same amount of time with cameras and mics turned off. Small talk increased conversational participants' enjoyment of conversations, their willingness to engage in future conversations with their addressees, and their actual engagement in unprompted conversations with their addressees. Dyads who were instructed to engage in small talk conversation during breaks were approximately three and a half times more likely to have conversations in the sixty second unprompted conversation period at the end of the study compared to dyads whose cameras and mics were off during the earlier break periods. Reciprocity effects previously observed in audio-only and text-only communication were not observed in this study. The findings presented here demonstrate that not only can the positive influence of small talk be replicated and extended to videoconferencing interactions, but such talk can also lead to an increased desire for continued interactions with conversational partners.

Exploring the Effects of User-Agent and User-Designer Similarity in Virtual Human Design to Promote Mental Health Intentions for College Students

Virtual humans (i.e., embodied conversational agents) have the potential to support college students’ mental health, particularly in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields where students are at a heightened risk of mental disorders such as anxiety and depression. A comprehensive understanding of students, considering their cultural characteristics, experiences, and expectations, is crucial for creating timely and effective virtual human interventions. To this end, we conducted a user study with 481 computer science students from a major university in North America, exploring how they co-designed virtual humans to support mental health conversations for students similar to them . Our findings suggest that computer science students who engage in co-design processes of virtual humans tend to create agents that closely resemble them demographically–agent-designer demographic similarity. Key factors influencing virtual human design included age, gender, ethnicity, and the matching between appearance and voice. We also observed that the demographic characteristics of virtual human designers, especially ethnicity and gender, tend to be associated with those of the virtual humans they designed. Finally, we provide insights concerning the impact of user-designer demographic similarity in virtual humans’ effectiveness in promoting mental health conversations when designers’ characteristics are shared explicitly or implicitly. Understanding how virtual humans’ characteristics serve users’ experiences in mental wellness conversations and the similarity-attraction effects between agents, users, and designers may help tailor virtual humans’ design to enhance their acceptance and increase their counseling effectiveness.

Occupational therapists’ experiences of photo-supported conversations – An intervention in primary health care

Background The health-promoting intervention BeWell™, which includes photo-supported conversations, is intended for people with stress-related illnesses. Its focus is on improving the individual’s health and well-being by addressing what contributes to well-being from the patient’s own perspective. There is no current knowledge of the experiences of occupational therapists of using BeWell™ in primary health care. It is thus important to gain knowledge of their experiences of using this intervention as part of investigating its feasibility. Aim To describe the occupational therapists’ experiences of photo-supported conversations about well-being (BeWell™) with patients diagnosed with stress-related illnesses. Material and methods Six occupational therapists, working in primary health care, who had conducted the photo-supported conversations about well-being (BeWell™), were interviewed individually, and one focus group discussion was also conducted. Systematic text condensation was used as the analysis method. Results Three main themes with two to three subgroups in each were identified; Discovering well-being through images, Enhancing patient’s own efforts towards well-being, and Contributing to one’s own well-being. Conclusions and significance The results provide important knowledge for the continued research work with BeWell™ by investigating how the users of the intervention experienced it.

Decentering Food Pedagogies

In this collaborative essay, five gastrofeminists from various disciplines, mainly literature, anthropology, sociology, ethnic studies, and diverse locations of Global South and Global North, share four collaborative experiments built around two axioms: to integrate experiences of students as gendered and racialized subjects in their experiential learning irrespective of disciplinary boundaries, and to integrate critical feminist scholarship that destabilizes ethnocentric notions around consumption, production, and distribution of food. Through the four collaborative experiments: students’ food voice, autobiographies, collective kusina, and food walks, the pedagogues bring embodied lived experience in conversation with critical pedagogy, expanding some of the foundational ideas of feminist pedagogy, especially of not treating theory, research, and experience as independent silos. Each of these collaborative experiments calls for a need to create dialogic space through a collaborative co-learning process and offers a decolonial reading of texts through recognizing the difference and diversity of our classrooms.

Voice-Assisted News App using Natural Language Processing

In recent times, the advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) have enabled the development of novel voice-assisted apps. This study introduces a cutting-edge Voice-Assisted News App that utilizes the capabilities of Alan M, a prominent AI platform that revolutionizes the way people access news. This research endeavor attempts to utilize Alan Al's capabilities to offer a personalized news experience and enhance clarity through voice interactions. Users of the Voice-Assisted News software can effortlessly request and select their preferred news topics, and the computer will generate the most relevant news updates. Through integration with diverse news sources and the application of sophisticated algorithms, the program generates an individualized news stream for every user, ensuring they receive the latest and most relevant information. Users can efficiently access story audio descriptions. The app's speech interface allows users to navigate across different news categories. The NLP algorithms developed by Alan AI offer precise understanding of user demands by ensuring smooth interaction and an authentic conversational experience

Semiotics and Experiences on Food in the Philippines

This paper aimed to determine and analyze the experiences on food in conversations specifically on food that they associate with family bonding (get-together) and festivities (town fiesta), and categorize the themes of associations on food choices. Ferdinand de Saussure’s (Dewanti, 2023) signifier and signified concepts were used in analyzing the association on food while the experiences of food during family bonding and festivities were categorized by theme using the thematic analysis template of Brooks, McCluskey, Turley & King (2015). This study used the descriptive research method in analyzing food experiences in conversations through one-on-one interviews and group interviews. Conversation analysis was used as the approach in gathering the data. Results of this study revealed the predominance of meat (chicken and pork especially lechon) pancit, and staple food represented by puto and bibingka. In addition, the food choices are signifiers of the following signified: namely, strengthening the family ties, longevity, prosperity, love, joy/happiness, and simplicity and adaptability. Finally, the family tradition is manifested in passing the recipe from the older generation to the younger generation, offering food for the dead, expressing gratitude before eating around the table, looking beyond the taste of food during family bonding. The Filipino food culture has been preserved through passing the kind of food prepared during family bonding as food symbolizes longevity, love, togetherness, strengthening family ties, and simplicity. The choice of food could be attributed to religious beliefs, financial status, and nostalgia.

To reveal the unseen low-hanging fruit: A multi-method study of Indonesian hospital pharmacist perception regarding the implementation of injection-to-oral conversion activity.

Previous studies have demonstrated that the adoption of injection-to-oral conversion strategies in hospitalised patient yields both clinical and economic benefits. The objective of this study was to provide a comprehensive description of the current state of implementation and evaluate the perspectives of hospital pharmacists to guide future initiatives towards conversion implementation in Indonesia. A multi-method design was utilised. Quantitative approach used cross-sectional study design in which data were collected online using Google Form from August to October 2021. Qualitative analysis employed a phenomenological approach by performing in-depth interviews from July to August 2021. Each approach's data were compared to discover connections and discrepancies, and the final interpretation was done simultaneously. A total of 204 pharmacists participated in the survey, with 64.2% of them reporting no previous experience in conversion. An in-depth interview included seven hospital pharmacists, with three themes were emerged: (1) strategic roles of the pharmacist; (2) key considerations; and (3) potential barriers and enablers of conversion implementation. Based on the elaboration of quantitative and qualitative data, the study found that pharmacist had strong perception regarding pharmacist role in conversion despite their little experience in implementing the activity. For future improvement, a platform that taking into account the pharmacist current conditions and insights should be created. Pharmacists appreciated conversion activity and grasped its concepts despite little clinical experience. Consider possible enabling and barrier factors and essential considerations before taking action. Local guidelines and instructional materials that emphasise application or implementation are encouraged. Furthermore, the implementation project must be piloted and evaluated for clinical and economic outcomes.

Konversi Agama di Kalangan Milenial

This paper raises a story which is the experience of a person's conversion from the religion he adhered to since childhood which has been passed down from generation to generation and appears with a new religion, namely Felix Siauw. Felix Siauw is a convert who is now an ustadz who is active in preaching. Felix Siauw's journey of hijrah as a form of religious conversion went through quite a long stage. He was in a phase of anxiety about the presence of God, then went through a phase of God's presence in his life, which ultimately led him to the stage of religious conversion until he joined a religious organization. In the process of his migration he was influenced by various factors which ultimately made him carry out a total religious conversion, including the factors of conflict, emotions, adolescence, and will. This paper aims to describe the phenomenon of Felix Siauw's migration in terms of religious conversion, both traditional and contemporary conversions. In this study, the authors used the literature study method both from book sources, journals, news, and videos that were relevant to the research object.

Pagbabalik-Loob: A Case Study of the Religious Conversion Experiences of Children in Conflict with the Law

This research was undertaken to understand the experiences of conversion of children inside a transformation center as grounded on Bernard Lonergan’s Three Forms of Conversion. Via a qualitative case study approach conducted with three purposive selected participants who were given pseudonyms and where in-depth face-to-face interviews were used that were transcribed and analyzed with a focus on empathizing and understanding the participants. perspectives, the thematic analysis revealed the following themes and sub-themes: Experiences of Challenges and Transgressions under this theme the subthemes are as follows: Out of School, Disobedience, Vices, and Biggest Mistake; and Experiences of Faith, Hope, and Love and under this theme the subthemes are as follows: Presence of God, There is Hope, and Expressions of Love. The data support the emergence of an adult faith identity in all participants in a period of adult spiritual development that takes years rather than weeks, though the initial conversion was to a life of self-awareness and ongoing renovation lasting lifetimes. The study makes a substantial contribution to the field of conversion studies of successful conversion in a religious tradition other than Christianity among participants. There are also implications to education in general, particularly religious and values education. The research indicates a need for study developmentally in this and remaining lifetimes, particularly its implications for understanding and fostering the positive personal development of children faced with transformation.

From the Visual to the Auditory in Heidegger’s Being and Time and Augustine’s Confessions

Abstract Studies about the influence of sound and ambient environments on understanding and the affects, prior to intentional acts of consciousness, are employed to rectify self-fragmentation exemplified in Heidegger and Augustine. Due to a visual bias that suppresses his auditory disposition in Being and Time, Heidegger gestures toward Dasein’s fulfillment in social-being yet also recoils from it. To ameliorate this impasse, his underdeveloped modification of existence is revisited by way of Augustine’s attunement to rhetoricity during his conversion experience. As a result of embracing a shared ambient space, he brings care for others as oneself into the realm of “the with” and thereby verifies the significance of an auditory way of being-in-the-world to the formation of communities.

Gemini MultiPDF Chatbot: Multiple Document RAG Chatbot using Gemini Large Language Model

Abstract: The Gemini MultiPDF Chatbot represents a groundbreaking advancement in natural language processing (NLP) by integrating Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) techniques with the Gemini Large Language Model. This innovative chatbot is designed to handle multiple document retrieval and generation tasks, leveraging the extensive knowledge base of the Gemini model. By harnessing RAG methods, the chatbot enhances its ability to acquire, comprehend, and generate responses across diverse knowledge sources contained within multiple PDF documents. The integration of Gemini's powerful language understanding capabilities with RAG facilitates seamless interaction with users, offering comprehensive and contextually relevant responses. This paper presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of the Gemini MultiPDF Chatbot, demonstrating its effectiveness in navigating complex information landscapes and delivering high-quality conversational experiences.