Behavior Of Participants Research Articles

Patient influencer: the impact of homophily on value co-creation behaviour in online health communities

ABSTRACT The world has witnessed a rapid rise of online health communities (OHCs) where patients can create a powerful network of support and resources to make a meaningful difference in people’s health lives. Despite this rapid rise, healthcare authorities and organisations are under enormous pressure to create a sustainable environment for OHCs. Prior studies revealed that encouraging patient value co-creation behaviour (VCB) is substantially beneficial for successful OHCs; however, what factors influence these patient behaviours to co-create value is still unknown. To fill this gap, this study uses the service-dominant logic perspective of value co-creation theory and discloses how homophily between patient influencers and patients in OHCs effect VCB. The data was collected through a self-administered survey from 422 patients who are users of OHC in China and was analysed via partial least squares structural equation modelling and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). The results revealed that homophily positively influences VCBs, i.e. participation behaviour (PB) and citizenship behaviour (CB). A parasocial relationship only moderates the relations between homophily and (PB), whereas the influencer ethical interaction capability significantly moderates the relationship of both homophily with patient PB and CB. Furthermore, the fsQCA findings signify the robustness of the study model.

The influence of personal political connectivity on fertility intentions across changing family planning policies in China

ABSTRACT In the past years, China’s fertility rate has experienced negative growth. In order to cope with the decline in fertility rate and the ageing of the population, the multi-child policy was implemented in 2015, that is, from the original husband and wife having only one child to having two or more children. Since the promulgation and implementation of China’s policy will have a greater impact on people’s livelihood, so before and after the implementation of the fertility policy, the impact of residents ’ political connectivity on fertility desire needs further study. This study categorizes residents’ political connectivity into political participation behaviour, political background, and political attitudes to explore the impact on residents’ fertility intentions. It conducts an empirical analysis of residents’ fertility intentions using data from the China General Social Survey (CGSS). The study found that before and after the implementation of the multi-child policy, there was a positive correlation between political participation behaviour and fertility intention, and there was no significant change. The influence of residents with party members ‘political background and residents’ political attitude on fertility intention has changed greatly, from negative correlation to positive correlation.

Recycling Reinforced: The Synergistic Dynamics of Sustainable Behavior

Recent research has specifically targeted the decision-making process of eco-friendly individuals, emphasizing the significance of recycling and its impact on sustainability. Our study extends this inquiry by examining the correlation between recycling participation and pro-environmental behavior among consumers, integrating the concepts of self-efficacy, feelings of pride, and social pressure into our analysis. We utilized targeted sampling to collect data from a diverse sample of 378 participants, ensuring representation across key demographic groups. By employing Partial Least Squares–Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), we aimed to explore the intricate relationships underpinning recycling behaviors and pro-environmental actions. The results suggest that self-efficacy and feelings of pride significantly influence individuals’ recycling behaviors, highlighting the role of psychological and social factors in promoting environmental sustainability. It was concluded that social pressure did not have the expected moderating effect on increasing consumers’ feelings of pride and self-efficacy toward recycling activities. This study sheds light on the underlying mechanisms that drive pro-environmental actions, contributes to understanding sustainability promotion through recycling, and offers insights for policymakers and environmental advocates to help foster environmental responsibility and behavior change. The findings emphasize that individuals often value personal achievement and development more when addressing environmental responsibilities and that social pressure does not achieve its expected effects.

MTR++: Multi-Agent Motion Prediction With Symmetric Scene Modeling and Guided Intention Querying.

Motion prediction is crucial for autonomous driving systems to understand complex driving scenarios and make informed decisions. However, this task is challenging due to the diverse behaviors of traffic participants and complex environmental contexts. In this paper, we propose Motion TRansformer (MTR) frameworks to address these challenges. The initial MTR framework utilizes a transformer encoder-decoder structure with learnable intention queries, enabling efficient and accurate prediction of future trajectories. By customizing intention queries for distinct motion modalities, MTR improves multimodal motion prediction while reducing reliance on dense goal candidates. The framework comprises two essential processes: global intention localization, identifying the agent's intent to enhance overall efficiency, and local movement refinement, adaptively refining predicted trajectories for improved accuracy. Moreover, we introduce an advanced MTR++ framework, extending the capability of MTR to simultaneously predict multimodal motion for multiple agents. MTR++ incorporates symmetric context modeling and mutually-guided intention querying modules to facilitate future behavior interaction among multiple agents, resulting in scene-compliant future trajectories. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that the MTR framework achieves state-of-the-art performance on the highly-competitive motion prediction benchmarks, while the MTR++ framework surpasses its precursor, exhibiting enhanced performance and efficiency in predicting accurate multimodal future trajectories for multiple agents.

Influence of Commonly-Encountered Participant Behavior on Cardiovascular Measures during Physiological Testing

Objective: When conducting laboratory testing, it is essential for participants to rest quietly in the supine posture without much movement. This is to establish a stable baseline to minimize external interference and distractions that could affect physiological measures. However, it is rather common that some participants start talking to investigators, fall asleep, or use cell phones for texting during the resting period. It is also common to observe some participants change their posture to side laying to make themselves more comfortable. The extent to which these common laboratory encounters influence cardiovascular outcome measures such as blood pressure and arterial stiffness has not yet been studied. Methods: A total of 55 adults (16 men and 39 women, 36±15 years) were studied under the following seven conditions: 1) quiet supine rest, 2) pretending to sleep, 3) while and 4) after talking to investigators, 5) during and 6) after cell phone use for texting, and 7) lying on the side. Each condition was separated by 5 minutes. The order of the conditions was randomized. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP), heart rate, brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV), and carotid-femoral PWV (cfPWV) were measured during these conditions. Results: Compared with quiet rest (61±10 bpm), heart rate was elevated (p<0.05) when the participants were talking to the investigators (65±10 bpm) and texting on cell phones (69±15 bpm). Both systolic and diastolic BP were 3-4 mmHg greater when they were talking to the investigators but 4-5 mmHg lower in the ‘side lying’ position compared with quiet rest. In the ‘side lying’ condition, baPWV was not affected but cfPWV was not able to be measured in 16 participants resulting in a 38% failure rate. baPWV was greater (p<0.01) while and after the participants were talking to investigators. cfPWV was not able to be measured during talking but was not affected when it was assessed after talking. Pretending to sleep and texting on a cell phone did not significantly influence any of the BP and PWV measures. Conclusions: Talking during the testing period significantly increases all the cardiovascular measures assessed in the present study. However, pretending to sleep and cell phone texting do not appear to influence them. There was no funding source for this study. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2024 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.

Effectiveness of Pro-Environmental Interventions to Improve Ecological Behavior

This research aims to determine the effectiveness of Pro-Environmental Behavior intervention in improving ecological behavior. The interventions provided are in the form of psychoeducation and individual tasks related to aspects of pro-environmental behavior which include recycling, energy conservation, and vicarious social behavior towards conservation. This research uses a quasi-experimental method with a one-group pretest-posttest design. Sampling was carried out using a purposive sampling method which was determined through inclusion and exclusion criteria. The participants selected in this study were 8 members of Fishing Community X who showed low ecological behavior as measured by the General Ecological Behavior Scale (GEB). The data analysis used in testing the pre-test and post-test data was the paired sample t-test. In this study, t-count > t-table was obtained, namely 8,683 > 2.365. The results of this analysis show that pro-environmental behavior interventions have proven effective in improving the ecological behavior of research participants through providing psychoeducation and activities that provide benefits to the environment.

Research on the Promotion Mechanism of Sports Participation in Children and Adolescents Based on Social Cognitive Theory

This study aims to explore the promotion mechanism of children and adolescents' sports participation, based on social cognitive theory. By analyzing the theoretical framework of social cognitive theory, this study aims to gain a deeper understanding of the internal mechanisms of children and adolescents' participation in sports, and provide theoretical support for promoting their physical and mental health development. The study adopted various research methods, including literature review, expert interviews, observation, and teaching experiments, to systematically analyze the elements and promotion mechanisms of children and adolescents' participation in sports. The research results show that social cognitive theory plays a crucial role in interpreting children and adolescents' sports participation behavior, cognitive processes, and emotional experiences. In terms of practice, research has proposed multiple strategies, including innovating the teaching mode of physical education for children and adolescents, integrating sports training camps with social cognitive theory, and designing intervention programs for children and adolescents in sports participation based on social cognitive theory. Future research directions include providing diverse role models, encouraging diverse ways of social participation, and establishing a positive sense of social identity to further promote the practice and development of sports participation among children and adolescents.

Electricity market equilibria analysis on the value of demand-side flexibility portfolios’ mix and the strategic demand aggregators’ market power

Electricity market equilibrium analysis is becoming increasingly important within the today’s liberalized electricity market and regulatory context for both market participants and policy makers. The former ones want to make informed business decisions to optimize their market position, while the latter need to promote efficient equilibria that satisfy both supply and demand-side requirements and optimize social welfare. In this paper, we focus on modeling the strategic demand aggregators’ (DA) behavior via an Equilibrium Problem with Equilibrium Constraints (EPEC) formulation. We model typical demand flexibility portfolios that comprise of several types of distributed flexibility assets and renewable energy resources. We then quantify the value of demand flexibility portfolios’ mix and respective value of market power that a strategic DA may exercise with respect to each DA’s cost decrease and social welfare as a function of time for a day-ahead market use case. Simulation results show that: (i) there is an optimal equilibrium point where overall DAs’ costs decrease, while social welfare’s deteriorates negligibly, (ii) there may be a trade-off between the rate of a certain DA’s cost decrease and the rate of market power (or else % share of total demand flexibility) that this DA possesses, so the strategic DA should take this into account in order to find its optimal CAPEX/OPEX balance for its portfolio, (iii) competition among strategic DAs at the demand-side can mitigate grid congestion problems and serve as a counter-balance to the strategic behavior of the supply-side market participants.

Leadership Styles and Their Effect on Employee Productivity in Zambia’s Parastatal Organizations: A Case Study of Lusaka

Leadership is the ability to influence adapted the setting so that everyone feels empowered to contribute creatively to solving the problems. Leadership is an ability meaning a leader has a capacity to do something through talent and skill. this research will investigate the different leadership styles and their effect on the employees’ productivity of Zambia Railways and its employees. The study explored the problem in an interpretative view and investigation, using a descriptive approach which uses focus group, interviews. The research design used both qualitative and quantitative research approach. Qualitative research design focused on open ended questions from which responses from key informants was collected for narration purposes as well. Qualitative research emphasised the understanding of verbal narratives. Quantitative research focused on closed ended questions from which responses given were non-verbal. Data collection was done using self-administered questionnaires as part of data collection from the employees. The interviews scheduled and structured for the key informants was strictly based on the interview guide. Data collected from both open and closed ended questions emanating from questionnaires administered to the respondents was analyzed by the use of a computer software known as the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 16). With regard to qualitative data collected from the key informants, a narrative report was employed as obtained from them. Then findings of the study has demonstrated that positive relationships between leadership styles and organisational productivity. Overall findings from this study suggest that participative and democratic leadership behaviours do play important roles in determining levels of affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment.

The impact of value co-creation behavior on customer loyalty in the service domain

As per the tenets of Service-Dominant Logic theory, consumers play an incessant role as proactive participants and collaborative stakeholders within commercial transactions. This orchestrated involvement of consumers in the process of service production enables service providers to discern and address consumer's needs, thus fortifying their competitiveness. As a result, consumers benefit from heightening service performances and competitiveness of the company. The principal aim of this study is to ascertain the foundational underpinnings of value co-creation behavior, particularly as exhibited within the context of utilizing gym services at the California Fitness Center located in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. A comprehensive investigation encompassing a sample size of 315 respondents was conducted using SPSS and AMOS software. The findings of this investigation establish a robust linkage between customer participatory behavior, customer citizenship behavior, and the premise of customer co-creation conduct. However, it is noteworthy that the factor of information-seeking within customer participation did not garner empirical support. Notably, there is a relationship between active co-creator behavior and customer loyalty.

Healthy life expectancy: acritical look at the benefits and potential of the demographic health indicator

Demographic ageing yields many societal consequences that depend strongly on the health status of the population. Special indicators have been developed for tracking and assessing population health, which are referred to with the overarching term healthy life expectancy (HLE). The derivation of HLE is intuitive and easily comprehensible. However, an overly simplistic interpretation hides the extreme complexity inherent in adding the health dimension to the life table. This makes HLE compared to classic life expectancy (LE) extremely sensitive to certain conceptual and methodological features. In the article, this is presented in more detail for three aspects: the underlying definition of health, the choice of survey data as abasis for estimating health status, and the reporting behavior of survey participants. It is shown that the impact on HLE can be enormous, leading to considerable bias in the interpretation of levels and trends, but also in the analysis of differences between populations. Nevertheless, the extension of classical LE to HLE is an important achievement that must not be abandoned. Therefore, the article also discusses ways in which the HLE indicator could be made more robust and reliable. Until this is achieved, however, the high methodological sensitivity of HLE must not be ignored if it is used to assess the health status of populations and as abasis for health policy measures.

How does the online innovation community climate affect the user's value co-creation behavior: The mediating role of motivation.

Online Innovation Community (OIC) serves as a virtual space for users to exchange products and services, and share knowledge and information. Previous studies have indicated that community climate is an important factor affecting users' value co-creation behavior, however, the influencing process has not been clearly revealed from the perspective of motivation. In this study, we explored the relationship between online innovation community climate (supportive climate and controlling climate), user motivation and value co-creation behavior (user's participation behavior and user's citizenship behavior) based on the SOR model. The study sample included 29,835 pieces of information from 3,315 users in 14 product sections of the OnePlus Community which were analyzed with Mplus8.1. The findings revealed that: (1) The supportive climate had a positive impact on user's citizenship behavior(β = 0.042), while the controlling climate exerted a significant positive impact on user's citizenship behavior (β = 0.078) and user's participation behavior(β = 0.099); (2) The need for achievement played a suppressing effect between community climate and user's participation behavior, the need for power played a suppressing effect between supportive climate and user's value co-creation behavior, and the need for affiliation played a mediating role between supportive climate and user's citizenship behavior (β = 0.010) and user's participation behavior(β = 0.006); (3) Community trust positively moderated the relationship between the need for achievement and user's participation behavior(β = 0.058) as well as between the need for power and user's participation behavior(β = 0.043).

The Relationships Between Virtual Brand Community Values and Consumers' Purchase Intention: The Mediating Role of User Participation Behavior

The Relationships Between Virtual Brand Community Values and Consumers' Purchase Intention: The Mediating Role of User Participation Behavior

Empowering futures: A financial literacy assessment among graduate students at Tribhuvan university

The purpose of this study is to assess the level of financial literacy among graduate students. The focus is on exploring the relationship between financial literacy and three key factors: financial attitude, financial knowledge, and financial behavior. The study targeted graduate students at Tribhuvan University's Faculty of Management (FOM) in Kathmandu valley with 710 students receiving a structured questionnaire. Total of 427 valid responses were received, establishing the sample for analysis. Descriptive and relational research designs was adopted for the analysis. Data was collected through a structured questionnaire, reflecting participants' financial attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors. The study concludes that there exists a positive association between the levels of students' financial attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors with their financial literacy. Additionally, the research findings reveal a significant and positive impact of financial attitude, knowledge, and behavior on financial literacy. Government authorities will utilize findings of the study for the development of policies aimed at enhancing financial literacy programs in Nepal. Banking and Financial Institutions (BFIs), Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) as well as regulators can use the insights to modify financial literacy programs that address the specific needs identified in the study. Professors, teachers, and trainers can incorporate with the study's results for curriculum planning, designing courses to foster financial attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors among graduate and post-graduate students.

Learning about Sustainability in a Global Context of Digital Transformation in Teacher Education: Exemplary Vignettes of Experience in Webinars

Webinars are a powerful digital tool for learning about sustainability in a global context. The implementation of different technologies in teacher education, such as webinars, is becoming indispensable due to digital transformation and internationalisation processes. In this context, digital competences are described as key to quality education and a sustainable future. In teacher education, there is little evidence on how digital tools can be used for learning about sustainability. Based on the Teach4Reach project, a two-year international study on the Sustainable Development Goals in teacher education describes learning experiences in webinars by presenting selected vignettes. The question is how digitisation can support learning on sustainability in a global context of quality education. We conclude that webinars are a digital tool that supports knowledge building and collaborative learning in an international context but that their specific properties need to be recognised. The vignettes exemplify various challenges and opportunities presented by webinars, such as the fundamental role of facilitators, ease of access to the online environment, different behaviours of participants and unknowns about the learning outcomes.

“Trying to make healthy choices”: the challenges of the food reintroduction phase of the NHS Low Calorie Diet Programme pilot for type 2 diabetes

Background: The food reintroduction phase of the NHS Low Calorie Diet (LCD) programme aims to support service users to reintroduce food gradually back into their diet. Understanding experiences of food reintroduction from a broad and diverse range of service users is critical in helping to improve service delivery and commissioning and equity in care. Methods: This was a co-produced qualitative study underpinned by a realist informed approach, using interviews and photovoice techniques. Service users (n=43) of the NHS LCD Programme were recruited from three delivery models across 21 pilot sites in England. Data were analysed using a thematic approach. Results: The food introduction phase required control and planning that challenged the behaviours of participants. Around a third of participants continued use of Total Diet Replacement products, or considered doing so, for convenience and to maintain calorie control. The coach–service user relationship was important to understanding of session content and translation into behaviour change. Physical activity increased during this phase, which contributed to positive health outcomes. Conclusions: The paper reports insights from the food reintroduction phase of the LCD programme. Key messages include the need for increased frequency of support and the need for tailored and culturally representative education.

Understanding Public Support for Nonprofit Organizations During the COVID-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT Given that the COVID-19 pandemic limited various functions of the society, this study examines the public’s support and participation in nonprofit organizations (NPOs) during the pandemic (2020–2021). By adopting the theory of planned behavior as a theoretical framework, this study explores perceived knowledge and emotions as motivational factors influencing issue participation intention. In addition, organizational trust is examined as a key moderator influencing the final path from issue participation intention to actual issue participation behaviors. A survey (N = 312) was conducted to understand the public’s participation in NPOs related to various social and political issues during 2020 and 2021. Theoretical and practical implications for strategic prosocial communication as well as nonprofit communications are discussed.

Empowering architecture, engineering and construction students through building information modeling competitions: a deep dive into behavioral motivation

PurposeBuilding Information Modeling (BIM) competitions are a beneficial approach to enhance BIM education, offering students practical experience in BIM application, including mastering workflows and technical tools. However, research exploring the individual perceptions influencing participation intentions and behaviors in BIM competitions is limited. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the factors affecting university students' behavioral intention and behavior in BIM competitions, providing theoretical support for BIM competitions and educational reform.Design/methodology/approachThis study employs the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) framework to analyze the factors influencing BIM competition participation among 970 Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) university students.FindingsThe results of the study show that social influence, attitude, and self-efficacy play critical roles in shaping students' intentions to participate in BIM competitions. Furthermore, self-efficacy, facilitating conditions, and behavioral intention significantly influence students' actual engagement in such competitions. Surprisingly, effort expectancy negatively influences intentions, as less challenging tasks can lead students to perceive their participation as less impactful on their skills and learning, reducing their behavioral intention to participate.Originality/valueThis research provides valuable insights into the effectiveness of BIM competitions in enhancing BIM education for AEC students. Extending the UTAUT model to include self-efficacy and attitude, provides a novel perspective for understanding students' intentions and behaviors regarding BIM competitions. The study’s theoretical support proposes incorporating BIM competitions to augment BIM teaching methods and offers suggestions for advancing the efficacy of students' involvement in BIM competitions within higher education, thus contributing to educational reform in the AEC sector.

Detection of distracted driving through the analysis of real-time driver, vehicle, and roadway volatilities

Distracted driving adversely impacts drivers’ decision-making and leads to safety-critical events (SCEs). Early detection of driver distraction is critical to prevent traffic crashes by providing warning messages to drivers and the surrounding vehicles. This study harnesses real-time multidimensional data collected through sensors that examine the variations in driver biometrics, vehicle kinematics, and roadway surroundings in different driving scenarios conducted on a Multimodal Virtual Reality Simulator. The driving behaviors of the study participants were examined under various visual detection response tasks of increasing complexity. The study classifies driving behaviors on a 5-level ordinal scale by estimating a Panel Ordered Logit Model, Random Forest, and Artificial Neural Network, using real-time volatilities in driver biometric signals, vehicle speed and acceleration, and roadway surroundings. The study results reveal that the driver gaze and the coefficients of variation in vehicle speed, driver eye movements, vehicular distances from the lane centerline, and the following vehicle significantly impact distracted driving. The study’s findings align with the principles of the safe systems approach by emphasizing the development of proactive safety measures in the form of feedback and warning the driver and surrounding vehicles of a potential distracted driving event, helping to foster safer user behavior and vehicles.

Culinary Medicine Experiences for Medical Students and Residents in the U.S. and Canada: A Scoping Review

Phenomenon Despite the importance of diet in the prevention and management of many common chronic diseases, nutrition training in medicine is largely inadequate in medical school and residency. The emerging field of culinary medicine offers an experiential nutrition learning approach with the potential to address the need for improved nutrition training of physicians. Exploring this innovative nutrition training strategy, this scoping review describes the nature of culinary medicine experiences for medical students and resident physicians, their impact on the medical trainees, and barriers and facilitators to their implementation. Approach This scoping review used the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for scoping reviews and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist as guides. Eligible publications described the nature, impact, facilitators, and/or barriers of nutrition and food preparation learning experiences for medical students and/or residents. Additional inclusion criteria were location (U.S. or Canada), allopathic or osteopathic, English, human subjects, and publication year (2002 or later). The search strategy included 4 electronic databases. Two reviewers independently screened titles/abstracts and a third reviewer resolved discrepancies. The full-text review consisted of 2 independent reviews with discrepancies resolved by a third reviewer or by consensus if needed, and the research team extracted data from the included articles based on the nature, impact, barriers, and facilitators of culinary medicine experiences for medical trainees. Findings The publication search resulted in 100 publications describing 116 experiences from 70 institutions. Thirty-seven publications described pilot experiences. Elective/extracurricular and medical student experiences were more common than required and resident experiences, respectively. Experiences varied in logistics, instruction, and curricula. Common themes of tailored culinary medicine experiences included community engagement/service-based learning, interprofessional education, attention to social determinants of health, trainee well-being, and cultural considerations. Program evaluations commonly reported the outcome of experiences on participant attitudes, knowledge, skills, confidence, and behaviors. Frequent barriers to implementation included time, faculty, cost/funding, kitchen space, and institutional support while common facilitators of experiences included funding/donations, collaboratives and partnerships, teaching kitchen access, faculty and institutional support, and trainee advocacy. Insights Culinary medicine is an innovative approach to address the need and increased demand for improved nutrition training in medicine. The findings from this review can guide medical education stakeholders interested in developing or modifying culinary medicine experiences. Despite barriers to implementation, culinary medicine experiences can be offered in a variety of ways during undergraduate and graduate medical education and can be creatively designed to fulfill some accreditation standards.