High Autonomy Research Articles

Improving Energy Efficiency and Autonomy Through the Development of a Hybrid Battery–Supercapacitor System in Electromobility

This study focuses on the development of a hybrid battery-supercapacitor system aimed at enhancing energy efficiency and autonomy in electromobility. The energy supply system of an electric vehicle must ensure high performance and autonomy, even after numerous battery life cycles. Previous approaches to hybrid systems that combine batteries and supercapacitors focus on reducing power losses by relying on controllers that evaluate the state of charge (SOC) of the energy sources to determine which one should provide power at any given time. These systems typically use a controller that monitors only the SOC of the battery and supercapacitor. In contrast, our study introduces an innovative controller that not only evaluates the SOC of both energy sources but also incorporates the current of the electric motor, taking into account its operational state. This approach allows for a more accurate representation of energy consumption and motor performance, providing significant advantages in terms of energy efficiency, extended battery life, and improved performance under high motor loads, which are characteristic of modern electric vehicle requirements. The current paper encompasses both experimental and simulated results, indicating that the hybrid approach provides significant advantages, such as improved energy autonomy, extended battery life as the primary energy source, and enhanced performance at high motor speeds that stress the battery.

Which psychological needs profile exhibits higher engagement and favorable attitudes toward interprofessional education? A cluster analysis among health and social care Hong Kong students

BackgroundThis study aimed to investigate which basic psychological needs profile, based on different levels of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, could exhibit higher student engagement and favorable attitudes toward interprofessional education (IPE).MethodsA total of 341 undergraduate and postgraduate health and social care students enrolled in an IPE simulation participated in this study. Data were analyzed using a person-centered approach using a two-step cluster analysis, multiple analysis of variance, and bootstrapped independent t-tests. The participants completed the self-report scales such as the basic psychological needs in general questionnaire, interprofessional attitudes scale, and engagement versus disaffection with learning scale.ResultsTwo basic psychological needs profiles emerged from the cluster analysis: a high basic psychological needs profile (i.e., high autonomy, moderately high competence, and very high relatedness) and a low basic psychological needs profile (i.e., low autonomy, moderately low competence, and very low relatedness). Students with high basic psychological needs profiles (n = 140; 41%) had more positive attitudes about IPE and were more behaviorally and emotionally engaged in participating in IPE tasks than students with low basic psychological needs profiles (n = 201; 59%).ConclusionsFindings suggest that health and social care students’ engagement and attitudes toward interprofessional education differed based on their basic psychological needs profiles. Health professions educators can leverage students’ basic psychological needs in designing interventions and simulation activities to promote students’ engagement and collaborative outcomes in IPE. Enhancing students’ basic psychological needs could be crucial in fostering greater behavioral and emotional engagement and positive attitudes in participating in IPE.

Growth Mindset and Job Crafting: A Trait Activation Perspective with Job Autonomy as Moderator.

Job crafting benefits both employees and organizations by enhancing employees' health, well-being, and performance. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate the individual factors that encourage job crafting and the conditions under which they operate. Based on Trait Activation Theory, this study examined the relationship between employees' growth mindset and job crafting, as well as the moderating effect of job autonomy on this relationship. In Study 1, we conducted a situational experiment with 180 participants, manipulating growth vs. fixed mindset and high vs. low job autonomy. In Study 2, we surveyed 236 participants over three waves, collecting demographic data and growth mindset at T1, job autonomy at T2 (one month later), and job crafting at T3 (two months later). Results from Study 1 indicated that growth mindset significantly impacted job crafting, moderated by job autonomy. Study 2 confirmed this positive effect of growth mindset on job crafting and revealed a significant positive interaction between growth mindset and job autonomy. These findings suggest that employees with a growth mindset engage more in job crafting, with this relationship strengthened under conditions of high job autonomy. This study highlights job autonomy as a situational cue that activates employees' growth mindset, enhancing proactive job crafting behaviors. This research advances the literature on positive work behaviors by establishing growth mindset as a direct antecedent and illustrating the moderating role of job autonomy, thereby enriching the understanding of conditions that foster a positive workplace environment.

Role of Femvertising in Enhancing Women’s Empowerment in FMCG Brand Campaigns

Advertisements that endorse and empower women and girls are referred to as “Femvertising”. These advertisements frequently defy stereotypes and portray women in powerful and competent roles. The study explored the contribution of Femvertising in women’s empowerment. This empirical study aimed to look at three key indicators of women’s empowerment: Autonomy, Self-efficacy, and Gender role equality exhibited in advertisement campaigns. The three brands chosen for analysing these three indicators were Hamam, Horlicks and Vim. Data was gathered through a structured questionnaire from 188 respondents. The study found that self-efficacy significantly influences perceived women’s empowerment. Gender role equality attitude varied with the Educational attainment. Additionally, self-efficacy partially mediated the relationship between gender role equality and perceived women’s empowerment, while autonomy moderated the link between self-efficacy and gender role equality, with high autonomy weakening the association. These results underscore Femvertising's potential to reshape societal perceptions and promote women's empowerment through empowering commercials.

The impact of working with an automated guided vehicle on boredom and performance: an experimental study in a warehouse environment

Implementing collaborative robots in warehouse operations requires employees to engage in order picking alongside robots, which raises concerns about employees’ perception of being ‘robotised’. This study explores the interplay between workload and autonomy in the context of Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV)-assisted order picking, aiming to understand their joint impact on employees’ boredom and performance. In a unique controlled laboratory experiment conducted within an experimental warehouse environment, 352 order pickers interacted with an actual AGV to retrieve items from various aisles and deliver them to a depot station. Using a 2 × 2 between subject design, participants were assigned to either pick 77 products (low workload) or 231 products (high workload), and to walk behind the AGV (low autonomy) or walk in front of the AGV (high autonomy). Participants in the high-workload low-autonomy condition were less bored but performed poorer than those in the low-workload low-autonomy condition. No significant differences in boredom and performance between the low-workload high-autonomy condition and the high-workload high-autonomy condition were found. Our findings emphasise the importance of considering the effects on employees when implementing AGV-assisted order picking. To alleviate boredom among order pickers due to such tasks, it is important to provide autonomy while carefully managing workload levels to maintain optimal performance.

R-AFNIO: Redundant IMU fusion with attention mechanism for neural inertial odometry

Inertial Navigation Systems (INS) play an increasing role in automotive electronics and aerospace applications, particularly in autonomous vehicles, due to their low computational load, swift response, and high autonomy. However, the substantial error accumulation poses a significant challenge for an INS, especially when employing the low-cost Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs). This study proposed R-AFNIO, a convolutional and attention-based deep learning network, which is developed to decrease the issues of error accumulation and the fusion of IMU array data. Firstly, we introduce a self-supervised learning model to learn the prior knowledge from IMU observation by masking redundant IMU data and reconstructing it, thereby reducing the noise of IMU data. Furthermore, we present an intelligent framework and employ an attention-based soft-weighting algorithm to mine the latent information within redundant IMUs. This approach effectively enhances fusion precision and strengthens robustness against error observations. Notably, it is the first approach that utilizes deep learning to solve the information fusion problem of redundant IMUs (IMU arrays). Lastly, we propose a state-augmented tight integration algorithm to improve the local accuracy and robustness of the navigation system. We comprehensively validate the proposed R-AFNIO using both a publicly available dataset and a dataset collected by our team. Experiment results demonstrated that R-AFNIO performs accurate and robust results on most indicators. Compared to several current studies, the absolute trajectory error shows reductions ranging from 20.2% to 97.7%, while the relative trajectory error exhibited reductions ranging from 18.5% to 98.7%. The ablation experiment further highlights the potency of R-AFNIO’s self-supervised and redundant weighting modules.

Information and communication technology and female employment in India

We revisit the issue of declining female labour force participation in India by investigating the role of information and communication technology (ICT) adoption. Given that ICT has been rapidly penetrating in India in the past few decades, we explore the impact of ICT ownership and use on female labour market behaviour. We use a nationally representative survey, the India Human Development Survey and estimate instrumental variable regression models and find that ICT adoption increases the likelihood of female employment. Our results show that the positive impact of ICT adoption is limited to individuals who are salaried or are self-employed. Further, we find that ICT adoption increases (decreases) the likelihood of entry into (exit from) the labour market. We contrast our analysis by comparing it with male employment and find evidence of differential impact of ICT adoption. Finally, we find that the effect is limited to women with relatively higher levels of education and those belonging to relatively higher income households. We investigate the potential channels that could drive our results and find that women who adopt ICT have more flexible work options where they spend lesser time to travel to work, have a higher autonomy in work related decisions and a higher willingness to enter the workforce. Thus, ICT adoption by reducing information asymmetries in the labour market could increase female labour market participation.

Unpacking the presence of women as HR directors: organisational factors from MNCs subsidiaries operating in Canada

Purpose This paper aims to examine the organisational factors responsible for the inclusion of women as Human Resource (HR) directors in Canadian-based subsidiaries of multinational companies (MNCs). Design/methodology/approach Based on the resource dependence theory, this study outlines the features of subsidiaries that appoint a woman HR director. Hypotheses were developed and assessed through analysis of a database obtained from a quantitative investigation. Analyses are based on 100 multinational subsidiaries operating in Canada. Findings Three primary findings arise from this study. Firstly, the larger the subsidiary, the less likely it is for a woman to hold the position of HR director. Secondly, there is a positive and significant correlation between the percentage of women employed in an MNC subsidiary and the presence of women in the HR director position. Finally, MNC subsidiaries with high executive career progression autonomy are more likely to have a woman HR director than those lacking in such autonomy. Practical implications This study proposes improving the representation of women in HR director positions by increasing the percentage of women employed in organisations and by granting greater decision-making autonomy to subsidiaries of MNCs. Originality/value This paper contributes to broader research on gender inequality in leadership. This paper responds specifically to the dearth of research into gender inequality in HR directorships, despite HR as a profession being female dominated. This study focuses upon HR in multinational corporations – again, an under-researched area.

Work-Nonwork boundaries in academia: A problematizing review

The interplay between work and non-work in academic settings has been the subject of extensive research, particularly in relation to work-life balance and work-nonwork conflict. However, much of this literature has tended to overlook the specific dynamics of work-nonwork boundaries. Moreover, while prior research has explored general patterns of conflict and balance, it has not sufficiently addressed the unique pressures that academics face, such as high autonomy, irregular working hours, and competing demands. This review critically examines how the specific nature of academic work shapes the boundaries between work and non-work, advancing the conversation beyond traditional approaches. The central research question guiding this review is: How do the aspects of academic work shape the blurring of work-nonwork boundaries? Through a problematizing approach, this review relies on 41 articles to broaden and enhance our understanding of the boundary challenges academics encounter. Findings reveal that blurred work-nonwork boundaries in academia are driven by work-life demand overload, work-family conflicts, and a lack of organizational support, compounded by digitalisation and neoliberal practices. Heightened managerialism, careerism, and precarity exacerbate the blurring of these boundaries, affecting academics' well-being and identity work. By addressing these gaps, this review offers a nuanced understanding of how academics construct, navigate, and negotiate boundaries within a complex environment shaped by these pressures. The review challenges the limitations of conventional approaches to work-nonwork interface advocating for a more context-sensitive, problematizing perspective.

School-based outdoor education and teacher well-being: the LärMiljö (Learning Environment) - study

Abstract Background School-based outdoor education (OE) is a teaching method aiming to promote pupils’ learning and wellbeing. OE with its action-oriented and cooperative learning approach can inspire teachers to develop their teaching and may also have a positive impact on their work wellbeing. According to self-determination theory, satisfaction or frustration of employees’ basic psychological needs - need for autonomy, competence and relatedness - are important facilitators or impediments of work wellbeing. We explored possible associations between OE use and teachers’ 1) satisfaction/frustration of basic needs at work and b) work engagement. Methods The study, part of the LärMiljö-study, used data collected in 2022 through electronic surveys among teachers in Swedish-language primary schools in Finland; N = 134 teachers from 44 schools. Main measures were the 24-item Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Need Frustration at Work Scale and 9-item Utrecht Work Engagement Scale. Data was analysed with Mann-Whitney U-tests and Spearman correlation. Results The vast majority was female, classroom teachers and had a master’s degree. Preliminary findings show that 69% practiced OE (sporadically or regularly) and 31% did not; both groups were similar in terms of teaching experience, age and gender. Teachers using OE had higher autonomy and competence need satisfaction, and lower relatedness need frustration than teachers not using OE (p < 0.05). There was no difference in overall work engagement (p = 0.07), but OE teachers had higher dedication to work (p < 0.05). Satisfaction of basic needs at work was positively, and frustration of needs negatively, associated with work engagement (p < 0.001). Conclusions Practicing OE appears to have positive associations with teachers’ dedication to work and satisfaction of need for autonomy and competence, and a negative association with relatedness frustration. More research is needed to confirm and examine the direction of these associations. Key messages • Outdoor education (OE) may besides pupils’ learning and wellbeing also promote teachers’ work wellbeing. Work wellbeing among teachers was studied within the framework of self-determination theory. • Practicing OE seems to be positively associated with teachers’ dedication to work, a sub-dimension of work engagement, and satisfaction of the basic needs for autonomy and competence at work.

Spatial Heterogeneity and association between the survey-based Women’s Empowerment Index (SWPER) and unmet need for birth spacing in sub-Saharan Africa

BackgroundUnmet need for birth spacing can significantly impact maternal and child health outcomes, leading to unintended or mistimed births, neonatal mortality, pregnancy loss, induced abortions, small-sized births, and malnutrition. Considering the role of women empowerment in women’s sexual and reproductive health, we examined the association between the survey-based women's empowerment index (SWPER) and unmet need for spacing in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).MethodsWe used data from the Demographic and Health Surveys of 21 in SSA conducted between 2015 and 2021. In this study, the unit of analysis was women of reproductive age (15 to 49 years) who were married or living together and required family planning during the survey period. Multilevel logistic regression was fitted to examine the association between SWPER and the unmet need for spacing. The results were presented using adjusted odds ratios (AORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs).ResultsThe hotspot countries for unmet need for birth spacing were Angola, Benin, Liberia, Mauritania, and Sierra Leone. The findings showed that with the empowerment indicators, women with high attitude to violence (disagreement or rejection of violence) (AOR = 0.95; 95% CI 0.91, 0.99), and women with high decision-making (AOR = 0.90; 95% CI 0.85, 0.95) exhibited lower odds of unmet spacing need relative to women with low attitude to violence and those with low decision making. Women with high autonomy (AOR = 1.32; 95% CI 1.25, 1.39) were more likely to experience unmet need for spacing compared to those with low autonomy. ConclusionUnmet need for spacing has been linked to indices of women's empowerment such as attitudes toward violence, independence, and decision-making. Organizations such as UNICEF, UNFPA, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation should consider incorporating SWPER indicators when planning interventions to address the high unmet need for spacing among women in SSA. Additionally, various governments and aid organizations must give women's empowerment a high priority as a tactical intervention strategy to increase access to contraception in the countries considered in this study. These programmes would contribute to attaining SDGs 3.1 and 3.7.

Good Practices for Designing a UI/UX Motorcycle Display: A Systematic Literature Review

Within the scope of the Mobilizing Agenda for the Development of Intelligent Green Mobility Products and Systems (A-MoVeR), specifically in the second PPS2 defined the presentation of a “new electric motorcycle, with high autonomy, aimed at promoting comfortable, efficient and green urban mobility"". In this context, we intend to develop user interfaces (UI) for an electric motorcycle that meet the end-user’s expectations by promoting optimal user experience and security. To achieve this goal, this paper provides a preliminary literature analysis, with a compilation of literature related to major aspects for developing an optimized User Interface (UI) and consequently increasing User eXperience (UX), specifying accessibility, adaptability, appeal, and conciseness of motorcycle interfaces in an attempt to determine its constructive qualities. Therefore, it was analyzed studies regarding filtering of displayed information; the controlling of a user’s focus and emotions through means of efficient visual representations; the differences in various types of input methods regarding user attention; and, the relevance of dynamic UI as a solution to a variety of problems related to UI/UX design. Therefore, a systematic literature review was performed, which resulted in the finding of various advantageous practices and ideas that are relevant to the design of a motorcycle’s UI/UX.

Reaching Student Engagement by Balancing Gamification and Challenges in the Minor Serious Gaming

This study originated from a Senior University Teaching Qualification on student engagement that withstanding many efforts on problem and challenge based education still is a concern. Within the minor Serious Gaming, third year students (n=35) where studied with mixed methods with the main question how to improve student engagement with challenges in serious gaming? First, a systematic literature study led to a new definition of student engagement: Student engagement is a multi-faceted concept that involves the interplay of various factors, including behavior, motivation, challenges, and autonomy. Then a pretest was done with last year’s teaching team, a motivational survey and general evaluation survey was done and a focus group with group representatives was created. This led to two main interventions, a gamified business modelling workshop and direct feedback loops. From a gamification point of view, rewards are the best intervention but we could not implement them in this year’s course. The value of this study is in understanding the complexity of student engagement. Improvement of engagement is possible with gamification, challenges and direct feedback. This study confirms that a high autonomy leads to a high engagement, future study has to be done with courses with low autonomy.

Innovation in Family Businesses: A Bibliometric Analysis

Purpose –This research aims to find out the general movement and gaps in the innovation studies in family businesses by connecting them with studies in mainstream innovation literature.Design/methodology/approach –In this research, 926 documents published in 283 journals in the Web of Science database between 1997 and 2022 in the field of innovation in family businesses were analyzed. Bibliographic coupling analysis, co-citation analysis, co-word analysis, and trend analysis were carried out to evaluate the intellectual and conceptual structure of the field. Trends in the relevant literature were visually mapped by identifying journals, authors, research topics, and connections between them.Findings –According to the results of the intellectual structure analysis, family participation, family culture, family ownership, and socio-economic wealth issues come to the fore. Co-citation analysis findings indicate that the concepts of performance and sustainability, which have a strong relationship with entrepreneurship, will be among the important research topics in the near future.Discussion –The desire of family businesses to protect their assets causes them to avoid long-term risky innovation projects and their innovation speed to decrease. Family businesses tend to rely on external sources of knowledge and technology, focusing on incrementalrather than radical innovation. This tendency stems from the typical organizational climate of low formality and risk aversion in determining strategic choices and functional organizational structures with high decision-making autonomy. Intergenerational innovation should be focused on to create innovation competencies in future generations.

Gender Differences in Operative Autonomy Using the Surgical Autonomy Program: A Multicenter Study.

Background The proportion of women surgeons is increasing, but studies show that women in surgical residency are granted less autonomy than men. Objective We utilized the Surgical Autonomy Program (SAP), an educational framework, to evaluate gender differences in self-reported autonomy, attending-reported autonomy, and operative feedback among US neurosurgical residents. Methods The SAP tracks resident progression and guides teaching in neurosurgery. Surgeries are divided into zones of proximal development (opening, exposure, critical portion, and closure). Postoperatively, resident autonomy is rated on a 4-point scale by the resident and the attending for each part of the case, or zone. We utilized data from July 2017 to February 2024 from 8 institutions. Ordinal regression was used to evaluate the odds of self- and attending-evaluated autonomy, accounting for gender, training year, case difficulty, and institution. Differences between attending assessment and self-assessment were calculated across time. Chi-square analyses were used to measure any differences in feedback given to men and women. Results From 128 residents (32 women, 25%), 11894 cases were included. Women were granted less autonomy (OR 0.81; 95% CI 0.74-0.89; P<.001) and self-evaluated as having less autonomy (OR 0.73; 95% CI 0.67-0.80; P<.001). The odds of women operating at higher autonomy were similar to the odds of operating on a hard case compared to average difficulty (OR 0.77; 95% CI 0.71-0.84; P<.001). Men's and women's self-assessment became closer to attending assessment over time, with women improving more quickly for the critical portions of surgeries. Women residents received meaningful postoperative feedback on fewer cases (women: 74.2%, men: 80.5%; X2=31.929; P<.001). Conclusions Women operated with lower autonomy by both attending and self-assessment, but the assessment gap between genders decreased over time. Women also received less feedback from their attendings.

Developing a safe learning environment in primary-level innovative schools in the Czech Republic

ABSTRACT This study examined how teachers in the Czech primary schooly create a safe learning environment, and identified key strategies they employ to foster a supportive and respectful classroom climate. Particular emphasis was placed on methodological analysis due to new requirements set by the Ministry of Education, which, within the new Competency Framework for Teaching Graduates, demands that teachers be capable of effectively establishing a safe educational setting. Innovative schools serve as crucial sources of inspiration for fulfilling this competence, as they implement progressive pedagogical approaches and methods that can be effectively adapted and applied across various educational contexts. The research was conducted through observations of teachers during classroom instruction and notes taken in field journals using a log. The results revealed that teachers utilise participatory rule-making, promote cooperation over competition, engage in open and non-violent communication, and adopt an individualised approach to teaching. These practices not only contribute to a safe classroom climate but also support the overall personal and academic development of students. The research also uncovered challenges faced by teachers, including maintaining discipline in an environment with high student autonomy and diversifying educational needs. Teachers overcome these challenges with flexible and expert approaches that support safe and inclusive education.

Inter-organizational mobilization in non-hierarchical settings: Bootstrapping information infrastructures for integrated care

In the realm of healthcare digitalization, the advancement of patient-centred care models hinges crucially on the establishment of inter-organizational information infrastructures (IIs): intricate “systems of systems” designed to facilitate efficient data sharing, consolidation, and utilization. However, closed and siloed health information systems often fragment patient data across multiple repositories, resulting in inefficiencies and limitations in inter-organizational access and decision-making at the population level. Bridging these divides demands the integration of loosely coupled information systems within and across organizations. The ongoing evolution of these IIs is intricately shaped by the complex sociotechnical installed base governing their development. It can be difficult to engage potential participants in building and using an II that spans organisational boundaries particularly in contexts marked by diversity of mission, high organizational autonomy and lacking a single authoritative actor. Through a case study in England’s National Health Service, this paper examines the intricate process of mobilizing autonomous organizations to collaborate in developing a shared II for integrated care. In non-hierarchical settings, lacking a clear organizing entity such mobilization requires strategic partnerships and a mix of skills. I introduce the term “collective mobilizer” to represent the collaborative coalition of entities with the capacity to garner sufficient interest among potential constituencies and align visions and resources. By unpicking the role of collective mobilizers, this paper offers insights into the challenges of bootstrapping II development in non-hierarchical contexts and how they may be overcome.

A Study on the Spatial Layout of Newly Built Townhouses in Kaohsiung City

Due to their independent structure, piping, and access, townhouses offer great flexibility in floor plan changes and high spatial autonomy, making them the mainstream housing type in Taiwan. This study focuses on row houses and examines 2022 completion cases in Kaohsiung City. It collects floor plans from 14 newly constructed buildings, totaling 227 units, and analyzes spatial dimensions including the facade width, depth, habitable room, staircases, bathrooms, and total floor area for each case. The objective of this study is to examine the spatial layout of row houses in Kaohsiung City, with the aim of providing a reference for the future planning and design of such structures. The study results showed that 81.8% of the row houses analyzed have a total floor area per unit ranging from 136 to 192 m2, a facade width between 4.1 and 6.38 m, and a building depth from 7.67 to 12.68 m. In addition, they showed a low negative correlation between the facade width and total floor area, a high positive correlation between the building depth and total floor area, and a moderate negative correlation between the facade width and building depth. The spatial distribution within these houses includes 78% allocated to habitable room, 13.1% to staircases, and 8.7% to bathrooms. The total area of habitable rooms and bathrooms increases with the total floor area of the building. However, the total area of staircases remains almost constant as the area of habitable rooms increases. Furthermore, the most common location for staircase planning is the rear-right (RB) position, while the least common is the rear-left (LB) position. Among various staircase types, the C-shaped staircase has the largest average area per floor and the highest average proportion. Conversely, the I-shaped staircase has the smallest average area and the lowest average proportion. The U-shaped staircase is the most frequently planned, whereas the C-shaped staircase is the least frequently used. This means that planning of staircase location and type significantly affects the size and layout of habitable rooms and bathrooms in townhouses.

Women’s autonomy, neonatal, infant and under-five mortality in the Upper East Region of Ghana

Child mortality remains a major health challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa. Child survival is greatly influenced by household circumstances and mother’s healthcare choices. Notwithstanding tremendous investment in women empowerment in Ghana, there is limited empirical evidence on whether women’s autonomy translates into better child mortality outcomes. To examine the association between women’s autonomy and neonatal, infant and under-five mortality in the Upper East Region of Ghana. Data were obtained from a randomized cluster household survey among 15–49 years old women in seven districts in the Upper East Region. Data analysis was restricted to 3,243 women who reported ever having given birth. Based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA), we constructed an autonomy index categorized into least, moderate, and high autonomy based on responses to six questions regarding household decision-making. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions were used to assess the association of women’s autonomy status and mortality outcomes. Attaining secondary education or higher was significantly associated with infant mortality (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 0.39, CI = 0.16, 0.94) and under-five mortality (aOR = 0.39, CI = 0.18–0.87). Also, maternal age was significantly associated with neonatal, infant, and under-five mortality, while living in rural setting was significantly associated with lower risk of neonatal (aOR = 0.38, CI = 0.19–0.75) and under-five (aOR = 0.63, CI = 0.48–0.83) mortality. However, we found that compared to women with least autonomy, infants of those with moderate autonomy (aOR = 1.76, CI 1.07–2.89) and high autonomy (aOR = 1.75; CI = 1.04–2.93) were significantly more likely to die. In this study setting, women’s autonomy was not predictive of child mortality. Interventions that aim to improve child mortality should pay attention to community and family level factors that promote increase utilization of essential early childhood interventions.

Hospitality and ritual: A discursive study of toasting in Chinese dining contexts

The paper aims to explore toasting conventions and strategies in Chinese dining contexts from a discursive perspective by analyzing naturally occurring cases of toasting from Douyin and Haokan Video. Particular attention is paid to how Chinese hospitality, interpersonal achievements through toasting rituals, and the culture behind them are interactively constructed. The findings indicate that toasting conventions in Chinese dining contexts can be metaphorically divided into two stages: the ‘planned economy’ stage, characterized by a high degree of conventionalization, and the ‘market economy’ stage, which highlights relatively high autonomy. During these two stages, toasters adopt strategies centered on Renqing (人情), rooted in Qing (情) and Yi (义) of Confucianism, through which hospitality is fully demonstrated. In this sense, toasting as a ritual is confirmed through the analysis and discussion of its interactive and social nature in China.