Personal Inconvenience Research Articles

Green smartphone purchase intentions: A conceptual framework and empirical investigation of Indian consumers

Smartphone e-waste has been largely ignored in the academic literature despite its devastating effects, especially in lower-income countries. This research explores the role of antecedents in consumers’ evaluations of the positive and negative aspects of buying green smartphones and examines the extent to which their evaluation facilitates or inhibits purchase intentions. It also explores the extent to which celebrity endorsement and brand trust moderate the relationship between the antecedents and purchase intentions, presenting a framework based on Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) theory and Dual-Factor Theory (DFT) assessing these relationships. A questionnaire was developed based on a literature review, and qualitative data was administered in India using the mall-intercept method. The study found that eco-conscious consumers believe that purchasing green smartphones helps fulfill their ethical obligations, positively impacts perceived consumer effectiveness, and connects with their emotional values. It also found that eco-consciousness was positively related to skepticism towards green claims, perceived quality risk, and perceived personal inconvenience. Consumers with stronger ethical obligations and higher perceived consumer effectiveness were more likely to purchase green smartphones, whereas skepticism towards green claims and perceived quality risk discouraged purchase. Celebrity endorsement was found to moderate the relationship between perceived consumer effectiveness and green smartphone purchase intentions, while brand trust moderated the relationship between ethical obligation and green smartphone intentions, with brand trust overcoming skepticism towards green claims and perceived quality risk inhibitors. The research provides insights and suggestions for smartphone marketing based on the findings.

You exhaust me! Air pollution exposure near schools during pick-up and drop-off times.

Public and healthcare practitioner awareness of climate change and the longitudinal health impacts of air pollution is growing; however, it is not always clear how to implement practical and feasible steps that individuals and communities can take to help decrease air pollution and protect children, and it can be challenging to request and enforce behaviour changes that the public associates with perceived personal inconvenience. In this context, it is important to consider common, chronic exposures that increase children's risks, especially when straightforward solutions with minimal negative impact where significant evidence-based positive results are available. This article provides simple tips that healthcare providers, parents, and communities can use to advocate for decreased idling in school zones to improve air quality in and around schools.

A novel deep deterministic policy gradient model applied to intelligent transportation system security problems in 5G and 6G network scenarios

Traffic congestion has been an actual problem in large cities, causing personal inconvenience and environmental pollution. To solve this problem, new applications for Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) have been created, to monitor actual traffic conditions. Therefore, fast, reliable and safe systems are desirable for creating a real intelligent transportation environment. Deep learning algorithms have been proposed for a better understanding of traffic behavior from a security-related perspective. Thus, we aim to maximize the safety problems using a deep learning algorithm, where a novel policy gradient model is presented for detecting vehicular misuse. The proposed model uses a triple network replay algorithm, maximizing the network convergence speed. Three networks are selected to optimize the policy network variables. Finally, the replay algorithm is partitioned with the aim of obtaining a faster model. Simulations on a real urban map are performed in a scenario with the integration of 5G or 6G networks. An architectural model for the integration of a Vehicular Ad-hoc Network (VANET) and cellular networks is determined in software-defined networking (SDN). The results show that the accuracy prediction of the proposed system presents better performance compared to related studies, where the proposed model increases its convergence speed and cumulative reward. Thus, the ITS improvement by the proposed deep learning algorithm increases the prediction accuracy, and reduces the transmission delay, treating the traffic path according to the congestion.

Measuring Determinants of Environmental Performance during COVID-19: Evidence from the Healthcare Sector

Purpose: The current study aims to investigate the role of green human resource management (GHRM, i.e., green competence building, green motivation enhancement, and green employee involvement) practices in enhancing employee environmental performance in the health care sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach: The data were collected from hospital staff (N=350) working in different private and public hospitals of China. Structural equational modelling–partial least squares (PLS–SEM) modelling was used to test the proposed model based on the respondents' data. Findings: The study results support the relationship between GHRM practices and environmental performance directly and through employees' green attitudes during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study results also extend this support to the negative moderating role of perceived personal inconvenience on the relationship between GHRM practices and environmental performance.

All about Phishing Attack, Danger and Its Prevention

Abstract: Phishing is a well-known cybersecurity attack that has rapidly increased in recent years. It poses legitimate risks to businesses, government agencies, and all users due to sensitive data breaches, subsequent financial and productivity losses, and social and personal inconvenience. Often, these attacks use social engineering techniques to deceive end-users, indicating the importance of user focused studies to help prevent future attacks. We provide a detailed overview of phishing research that has focused on users by conducting a systematic literature review of peer- reviewed academic papers published in ACM Digital Library. Although published work on phishing appears in this data set as early as 2004, we found that of the total number of papers on phishing (N = 367) only 13.9% (n= 51) focus on users by employing user study methodologies such as interviews, surveys, and in-lab studies. Even within this small subset of papers, we note a striking lack of attention to reporting important information about methods and participants (e.g., the number and nature of participants), along with crucial recruitment biases in some of the research.

Systemic shock, cultural differences, and customer satisfaction: lessons from student perceptions in shift to non-classroom education during initial phases of pandemic

ABSTRACT This study captured perceptions of students immediately following the covid pandemic campus lockdowns of March, 2020. It is a cross-cultural sample of 407 students in USA, India, and United Arab Emirates. Met expectations are the theoretical base. Analysis was done using PLS-SEM. Positive main effects in all three markets point to the value of the front-line instructor interface at such a time. Their efforts were directly related to met expectations in the form of positive advocacy and university image to the external stakeholders. Cultural dimensions of Individualism, power distance, and universalism appeared influential in low tolerance for personal inconvenience in the USA. Self-efficacy also moderated in USA. Lower self-efficacy was associated with weaker perceptions of positive university image. Implications for marketing point to the essential qualities of front-line instructors. A varied approach is called for, particularly with the generally less forgiving Western audience that differ East to West.

Individual Barriers to Energy-Efficient Appliance Purchases

This paper reviews the literature on the barriers encountered by consumers while purchasing energy efficient household appliances in the last decade. Energy efficient household appliances are the appliances which consume minimum energy while functioning at their fullest capacity. It is observed that the studies on barriers to energy efficient appliances are highly prevalent in the developed economies while there are not many in the BRICS nations. Moreover, in the developed nations, the barriers towards efficient appliances has been analysed from the lens of behavioural economics disregarding the rational economic perspective, while studies of similar kind are lacking in the emerging economies. The review proposes a model based on theory of planned behaviour and Prospect theory to predict the impact of barriers on consumer’s purchase behaviour. it recommends that the linear relationship between purchase intention and purchase behaviour is mediated by the presence of barriers like perceived product risks, subjective norm, perceived personal inconvenience and price sensitivity.

The Sporting Bubble as Gilded Cage

The Sporting Bubble as Gilded Cage

CMPC® Certification as a Milestone, Not a Millstone: A Response to Scherzer and Reel

In this commentary, we respond to Scherzer and Reel’s concerns over the Certified Mental Performance Consultant® (CMPC®) certification program requirements, particularly the certification exam. A reframing is suggested, in which the exam and recertification requirements are viewed as exciting historical milestones and an opportunity for individual professional growth as opposed to a personal inconvenience. In addition, some historical context and rationale for specific aspects of the CMPC certification program are provided, including the rationale for the CMPC credential.

Analyzing the barriers to purchase intentions of energy efficient appliances from consumer perspective

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the barriers to consumers’ intention to purchase energy efficient appliances. It uses multiple regression analysis to predict the factors that deter consumers’ purchase intention. Design/methodology/approach Five barriers to consumers’ intention to purchase energy efficient appliances were identified through an exhaustive literature survey. Data were gathered from 300 respondents from Pune city from the state of Maharashtra in India through a survey. The items were measured on a five-point Likert scale. Validity and reliability of the scale were established. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to predict consumers’ intention to purchase energy efficient appliances based on factors identified. Findings Findings revealed that some degree of uncertainty was associated with energy efficient appliance purchase. In addition to possessing lower degrees of awareness on energy efficient appliances, consumers tend to disbelieve claims made on labels of energy efficient appliances. Consumers also feel inconvenience in identifying these appliances, spending time to know about them and paying the price to purchase them. Hence, the factors – scepticism towards label claims and perceived personal inconvenience – were found to have negative impact on consumers’ purchase intention. Societal norm was found to have a positive impact on consumers’ purchase intention. Interestingly, price sensitivity and perceived product risk (which were expected to have a negative relationship with consumers’ purchase intention) displayed a positive relationship. Research limitations/implications The model proposed here is based on the researcher’s identification of the barriers. There might have been unidentified barriers that were not considered. The research does not account for manufacturing or policy-based issues that might also pose as barriers. The study encourages marketers to re-examine marketing and communication policies associated with the sale of energy efficient appliances. Originality/value The paper provides insights into the external barriers faced by consumers while purchasing an energy efficient appliance. This research enables managers to understand consumer’s preference for conventional products over energy efficient ones. It attempts to check the presence of barriers to energy efficient appliances, identified from literature in a tier 1 city of India. Tier 1 city is the city with population greater than 1,00,000 as per 2001 census of India.

Conservatism predicts lapses from vegetarian/vegan diets to meat consumption (through lower social justice concerns and social support)

Lapses from vegetarian and vegan (i.e., veg*n) food choices to meat consumption are very common, suggesting that sustaining veg*nism is challenging. But little is known about why people return to eating animals after initially deciding to avoid meat consumption. Several potential explanatory factors include personal inconvenience, meat cravings, awkwardness in social settings, or health/nutrition concerns. Here we test the degree to which political ideology predicts lapsing to meat consumption. Past research demonstrates that political ideology predicts present levels of meat consumption, whereby those higher in right-wing ideologies eat more animals, even after controlling for their hedonistic liking of meat (e.g., Dhont & Hodson, 2014). To what extent might political ideology predict whether one has lapsed from veg*n foods back to meat consumption? In a largely representative US community sample (N = 1313) of current and former veg*ns, those higher (vs. lower) in conservatism exhibited significantly greater odds of being a former than current veg*n, even after controlling for age, education, and gender. This ideology-lapsing relation was mediated (i.e., explained) by those higher (vs. lower) in conservatism: (a) adopting a veg*n diet for reasons less centered in justice concerns (animal rights, environment, feeding the poor); and (b) feeling socially unsupported in their endeavor. In contrast, factors such as differential meat craving or lifestyle inconvenience played little mediational role. These findings demonstrate that ideology and justice concerns are particularly relevant to understanding resilience in maintaining veg*n food choices. Implications for understanding why people eat meat, and how to develop intervention strategies, are discussed.

Research progress of non-surgical treatment for stress incontinence in female

Stress incontinence is a common functional disease that characterized by heteronomous leakage of urine in urethra in middle-aged women. This disease brings beset of personal hygiene and inconvenience of social activities to patients along with seriously affecting the quality of life of patients. The main aim of non-surgical treatment is to lessen or cure the symptoms of incontinentia urinae so as to improve the quality of life of patients. Key words: Review; Stress incontinence; Non-surgical treatment; Treatment effect

Keynote Address

Few groups are likely to assemble today that would better know the shortcomings of international law than this group which I am privileged to address. You are aware of the confusions, of the incompleteness, of the lack of ordinary sanctions, and of all that might be said in criticism of international law. Yet here you are, assembled in Washington, at no little personal inconvenience, to reiterate your inveterate belief that international law is an existing and indestructible reality and offers the only hopeful foundation for an organized community of nations. There is no paradox in this. Those who best know the deficiencies of international law are those who also know the diversity and permanence of its accomplishments and its indispensability to a world that plans to live in peace. I am happy to join you in what amounts to a timely and resolute confession of faith.

Positive and Negative Antecedents of Purchasing Eco-friendly Products: A Comparison Between Green and Non-green Consumers

This study aims to analyze what drives and prevents the purchasing of eco-friendly products across different consumer groups and develops a conceptual model embracing the positive altruistic (care for the environmental consequences of purchasing), positive ego-centric (green self-identity and moral obligation), and negative ego-centric (perceived personal inconvenience of purchasing eco-friendly products) antecedents of eco-friendly product purchase intention and behavior. We empirically validate the conceptual model for green (n = 453) and non-green (n = 473) consumers (i.e., consumers who engage in a set of pro-environmental behaviors for environmental reasons versus consumers who do not engage in these behaviors). Data are analyzed using structural equation modeling and multi-group analysis of the two groups. The results confirm the relevance of the determining factors in the model and show significant differences in eco-friendly product purchasing patterns between green and non-green consumers. Altruistic motives are more important for green than for non-green consumers. Negative ego-centric motives affect the purchase intentions of non-green consumers more than the intentions of green consumers, whereas the impact of negative motives on behavior is stronger for green than for non-green consumers. The first contribution of this paper is the development and testing of a parsimonious model of eco-friendly products purchasing that embraces both positive (altruistic and ego-centric) and negative (ego-centric) antecedents, which have been theoretically suggested in the past but have rarely been empirically tested together. The second contribution of this study is that it develops insight into the specific antecedents of eco-friendly products purchasing for green and non-green consumers to assess potential similarities and differences in eco-friendly products purchasing process, the hypothesized antecedents, their impact on eco-friendly products purchase intention and behavior, and the intention–behavior relation.

AB0762 Saving money and reducing infliximab waste using weight based chart for standardised doses

BackgroundInfliximab is a TNF inhibitor widely used for the treatment of inflammatory arthritis (rheumatoid, psoriatic, and ankylosing spondylitis), inflammatory bowel disease, skin psoriasis and other immunological conditions. The recommended dose...

Global clinical experience with adjuvant oxaliplatin/5-fluorouracil (5-FU)-based chemotherapy for colon cancer: Outcomes of the ACCElox registry.

e14624 Background: The ACCElox registry assessed the therapeutic management of early stage colon cancer with oxaliplatin/5-FU-based regimen and duration of adjuvant chemotherapy in current clinical practice. Methods: Newly diagnosed patients (N=1,548) with stage II or III colon cancer, who had undergone complete resection of the primary tumor and treated with at least one dose of "oxaliplatin" were enrolled in this prospective observational study (Feb-2006–Jul-2008) and followed up till 36 months post-treatment. Results: 72.7% and 27.3% of the patients were diagnosed with stage III and stage II colon cancer, respectively. 1,152 (74.4%) patients completed the prescribed chemotherapy. The most frequent causes of discontinuation were refusal (9.0%), adverse events (AEs) (8.1%) or relapse/recurrence of disease (3.6%). Overall, 1,512 (97.6%) patients received at least one cycle of oxaliplatin regimen. Treatment delay occurred in 1,013 patients (67%), mainly attributed to AEs (40.9%) and personal inconvenience (35.5%). During the 3-year follow-up period disease relapse/recurrence occurred in 285 (18.4%) patients with similar rates in the three groups (FOLFOX: 18.1%, FLOX: 19%, and XELOX: 18.6%). Overall number of deaths reported at the end of 3- year study period was 72 (4.7%). Majority of AEs reported during treatment were of grade 1–2 and the most common ones were neutropenia (63.9%), thrombocytopenia (23.3%), diarrhea (9.7%), sensory neuropathy (4.5%) and infection (2.6%). Sensory neuropathy was the most frequent AEs reported at 6 and 12 months of post-treatment follow-up. Conclusions: A majority of the patients completed the prescribed oxaliplatin/5-FU regimen. No unexpected AEs were reported. Our results confirm the favorable benefit/risk profile of oxaliplatin/5-FU based regimens in clinical practice. [caption]Distribution and treatment outcomes.[caption] Clinical trial information: NCT01310972. [Table: see text]

English

BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis affects the economically productive age group and has emerged as a significant cause of socio economic global burden. OBJECTIVE: To find out epidemiological factors responsible for Tuberculosis and the clinico-social correlates influencing their compliance. METHODS: This study was carried out among all the New Smear Positive Tuberculosis (NSP-TB) patients registered in Dhubri District Tuberculosis Centre (DTC- TU) during 2007 in Assam by interview technique using a pre-tested questionnaire. RESULTS: Overall 90.76 percent of the participants were in the age group of 15 to 55 years. Majority of them were unskilled workers and were the sole earning member of their family. 83.33% of the patients had symptoms of cough for more than three weeks. Almost all of the patient's houses (98.15%) were found to be overcrowded. More than half of the patients had X-ray examination as their initial approach to diagnosis. There were more males (59.18%) than females (40.82%) who had reported to the health institution within first 6 weeks after the onset of symptom & among them altogether 91.84 % were declared cured after completion of therapy. On the contrary, only 40% of the patients initiating treatment after 6 weeks of the onset of symptoms were declared cured after completion of therapy. Long distance to the treatment centre, unpleasant effect of the drug and personal inconvenience were cited as cause of irregular treatment and defaulting. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of NSP TB cases was more among the illiterate and underprivileged population who needs counseling & motivation for early

Exercise Addiction

This article examines the nature of exercise addiction. It presents a broad, congruent and discerning narrative literature review with the aim of providing a deeper understanding of the condition 'exercise addiction', including symptoms and options for treatment. In addition, guidelines are provided with respect to 'healthy' levels of exercise. Criteria used for determining the eligibility of studies evaluated in the review included the provision of relevant information in studies identified using pertinent search terms. The review highlights some of the key distinctions between healthy levels of exercise and exercise addiction. The findings suggest that an individual who is addicted to exercise will continue exercising regardless of physical injury, personal inconvenience or disruption to other areas of life including marital strain, interference with work and lack of time for other activities. 'Addicted' exercisers are more likely to exercise for intrinsic rewards and experience disturbing deprivation sensations when unable to exercise. In contrast, 'committed' exercisers engage in physical activity for extrinsic rewards and do not suffer severe withdrawal symptoms when they cannot exercise. Exercisers must acquire a sense of life-balance while embracing an attitude conducive to sustainable long-term physical, psychological and social health outcomes. Implementation of recommendations by the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology, which states that all apparently healthy adults between 18 and 64years of age should accumulate at least 150minutes of moderate (5 or 6 on a scale of 0-10) to vigorous (7 or 8 on a scale of 0-10) intensity aerobic physical activity per week in bouts of 10minutes or more, also expressed as 30minutes per day distributed over 5days per week, would be a good start.

Food allergy, safety and analytics

The food allergy is a hypersensitivity reaction against naturally occurring proteins in food. These types of disease can cause not only personal inconvenience to the patient but serious health, food safety and food analysis, social-economic problems. The only effective treatment for these illnesses is a life-long diet avoiding the allergenic foods or components of food. In the interest of the patients’ health 14 allergenic components must be labeled on the food packaging. To meet the requirement of regulation reliable and valid analytical methods are necessary which for the most allergenic foods are not available.

‘The times are changing’: New Zealand smokers' perceptions of the tobacco endgame

BackgroundThe New Zealand government's goal of achieving a smoke-free society by 2025 reflects growing interest in ‘endgame’ solutions to tobacco smoking. However, tobacco companies have framed ‘endgame’ strategies as contrary...