User perceptions of e-quality of and affinity with virtual communities: The effect of individual differences

A considerable amount of evidence indicates that a high rate of life changes—a source of continued and unavoidable arousal—is detrimental to health and psychological well-being. The present study hypothesized that sustained high-arousal states are unpreferred and that the persistence of unpreferred emotional states is harmful. Using a conceptual framework for a comprehensive description of emotional states and the differential preferences for these, it is possible to make more precise predictions on the illness consequences of emotionally unpreferred life changes. Particular hypotheses which received support were that more arousing life changes are more conducive to illness; that among the more arousing life changes, unpleasant changes are associated with more illness than pleasant ones; that unpleasant life changes are more detrimental to health when combined with dominance-inducing life changes; and that arousing life changes are particularly harmful to more arousable (non-screening) individuals.

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Improving the Quality of Life of Family Caregivers of People with Alzheimer’s Disease through Virtual Communities of Practice: A Quasiexperimental Study

International Journal of Alzheimer s Disease ◽

10.1155/2021/8817491 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2021 ◽

pp. 1-10

Author(s):

Montse Romero-Mas ◽

Anna Ramon-Aribau ◽

Dyego Leandro Bezerra de Souza ◽

Andrew M. Cox ◽

Beni Gómez-Zúñiga

Keyword(s):

Quality Of Life ◽

Communities Of Practice ◽

Family Caregivers ◽

Virtual Communities ◽

Negative Relationship ◽

Before And After ◽

Ambiguous Result ◽

Virtual Communities Of Practice ◽

The Impact

Caring for a person with dementia burdens family caregivers, and there is a close negative relationship between this burden and their quality of life (QoL). Research suggests that caregivers’ main needs are information and training about the disease and support from others experiencing the same situation, and Internet interventions hold considerable promise for meeting these needs. Virtual communities of practice (VCoPs) are Internet frameworks to share knowledge where members collaborate and achieve a sense of trust in the community. This paper seeks to evaluate the impact of participating in a VCoP (developed through an App) on the QoL of caregivers to people with Alzheimer’s. Results show QoL before and after the intervention changed significantly. The impact of VCoP on caregivers’ overall QoL is moderated by age and relation with the person with Alzheimer’s, specifically those over 65, and spouses. VCoPs allow interaction and knowledge sharing among caregivers which provide them mainly with information and support from peers helping them to meet their needs. Furthermore, caregivers’ QoL did not decrease when their relative deteriorated functionally, which could be due to the participation in VCoP. Although we found significant pre- and post differences in caregivers’ health literacy, we must report the ambiguous result that this variable only impacts on QoL’s physical domain. Participants also reported that they had a positive experience because the App was perceived to be a useful tool, because they could manage their own participation and they met peers and felt less lonely. Results suggest that participation in a VCoP impacts positively on caregivers’ QoL.

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Trust-Aware Recommender Systems for Open and Mobile Virtual Communities

Information Resources Management ◽

10.4018/978-1-61520-965-1.ch210 ◽

2010 ◽

pp. 326-345

Author(s):

N. Sahli ◽

G. Lenzini

Keyword(s):

Recommender Systems ◽

Virtual Communities ◽

Multi Agent Systems ◽

Artificial Intelligent ◽

Agent Based ◽

Agent Systems ◽

Multi Agent

This chapter surveys and discusses relevant works in the intersection among trust, recommendations systems, virtual communities, and agent-based systems. The target of the chapter is showing how, thanks to the use of trust-based solutions and artificial intelligent solutions like that understanding agents-based systems, the traditional recommender systems can improve the quality of their predictions. Moreover, when implemented as open multi-agent systems, trust-based recommender systems can efficiently support users of mobile virtual communities in searching for places, information, and items of interest.

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On the influence of individual differences in cross-modal Mulsemedia QoE

Multimedia Tools and Applications ◽

10.1007/s11042-020-09757-x ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Elahe Kani-Zabihi ◽

Nadia Hussain ◽

Gebremariam Mesfin ◽

Alexandra Covaci ◽

Gheorghita Ghinea

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Quality Of Experience ◽

Multimedia Applications ◽

Gender Education ◽

Multiple Media ◽

Human Side

Abstract Quality of Experience (QoE) is inextricably linked to the human side of the multimedia experience. Whilst there has been a considerable amount of research undertaken to explore the various dimensions of QoE, one facet which been relatively unexplored is the role of individual differences in determining an individual’s QoE. Whereas this is certainly true of multimedia applications, when it comes to mulsemedia (multiple media engaging three or more human senses) this is even more so, given its emerging and novel nature. Accordingly, in this paper we report the results of a study which investigated the role that individual differences (such as age, gender, education, and smell sensitivity) have on QoE, when mulsemedia incorporating olfactory and haptic stimuli is experienced in cross-modal environments. Our results reveal that whilst users had a satisfying overall mulsemedia experience the specific use of cross modally matched odours did not result in significantly higher QoE levels than when a control scent (rosemary) was employed. However, aspects of QoE are impacted upon by all individual differences dimensions considered in our study.

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Gray Matter Volume in Different Cortical Structures Dissociably Relates to Individual Differences in Capacity and Precision of Visual Working Memory

Cerebral Cortex ◽

10.1093/cercor/bhaa046 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 30 (9) ◽

pp. 4759-4770

Author(s):

Maro G Machizawa ◽

Jon Driver ◽

Takeo Watanabe

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Individual Differences ◽

Visual Working Memory ◽

Gray Matter ◽

Visual Information ◽

Parietal Lobe ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Gray Matter Volume ◽

Brain Anatomy

Abstract Visual working memory (VWM) refers to our ability to selectively maintain visual information in a mental representation. While cognitive limits of VWM greatly influence a variety of mental operations, it remains controversial whether the quantity or quality of representations in mind constrains VWM. Here, we examined behavior-to-brain anatomical relations as well as brain activity to brain anatomy associations with a “neural” marker specific to the retention interval of VWM. Our results consistently indicated that individuals who maintained a larger number of items in VWM tended to have a larger gray matter (GM) volume in their left lateral occipital region. In contrast, individuals with a superior ability to retain with high precision tended to have a larger GM volume in their right parietal lobe. These results indicate that individual differences in quantity and quality of VWM may be associated with regional GM volumes in a dissociable manner, indicating willful integration of information in VWM may recruit separable cortical subsystems.

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Postoperative Pain Trajectories in Cardiac Surgery Patients

Pain Research and Treatment ◽

10.1155/2012/608359 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 2012 ◽

pp. 1-8 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

C. Richard Chapman ◽

Ruth Zaslansky ◽

Gary W. Donaldson ◽

Amihay Shinfeld

Keyword(s):

Cardiac Surgery ◽

Individual Differences ◽

Postoperative Pain ◽

Acute Pain ◽

Linear Growth ◽

Mixed Effects ◽

Rate Of Change ◽

Pain Trajectories ◽

Measurement Practices

Poorly controlled postoperative pain is a longstanding and costly problem in medicine. The purposes of this study were to characterize the acute pain trajectories over the first four postoperative days in 83 cardiac surgery patients with a mixed effects model of linear growth to determine whether statistically significant individual differences exist in these pain trajectories, and to compare the quality of measurement by trajectory with conventional pain measurement practices. The data conformed to a linear model that provided slope (rate of change) as a basis for comparing patients. Slopes varied significantly across patients, indicating that the direction and rate of change in pain during the first four days of recovery from surgery differed systematically across individuals. Of the 83 patients, 24 had decreasing pain after surgery, 24 had increasing pain, and the remaining 35 had approximately constant levels of pain over the four postoperative days.

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Probing Vividness Increment through Imagery Interruption

Imagination Cognition and Personality ◽

10.2190/fd86-rwdh-flx2-ulrg ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 23 (1) ◽

pp. 63-78 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Amedeo D'Angiulli ◽

Adam Reeves

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Visual Experience ◽

Mental Image ◽

Full Detail ◽

Implicit Assumption ◽

Generation Process ◽

Image Generation ◽

Changes Over Time ◽

Over Time

The purpose of the present study was to trace how visual experience changes over time during mental image generation, by using an interruption paradigm. In one experiment, participants were asked to read the verbal descriptions of eight common objects and imagine these objects. Changes in the quality of the images evoked by the eight stimuli were probed by interrupting the visual mental image generation process at various times from 0 to 1.7 s, and asking participants to rate the vividness of their image at the time of interruption. We found that vividness increased as the time allowed for image generation was augmented. This relationship was consistently detected in half of the participants and for all stimuli. The present findings support the implicit assumption of some current imagery models positing that mental images “improve” over time, and reject the alternative that images are generated in full detail before becoming accessible to consciousness. However, the “incremental” view is unsatisfactory for imagery models which make no (or not enough) room for individual differences.

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Personality and Friendship Satisfaction in Daily Life: Do Everyday Social Interactions Account for Individual Differences in Friendship Satisfaction?

European Journal of Personality ◽

10.1002/per.1996 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 29 (2) ◽

pp. 173-186 ◽

Cited By ~ 38

Author(s):

Robert E. Wilson ◽

Kelci Harris ◽

Simine Vazire

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Social Interactions ◽

Well Being ◽

Future Research ◽

Interpersonal Processes ◽

Personality Psychology ◽

Self Disclosure ◽

Self Reports ◽

Friendship Satisfaction

Who are the people who maintain satisfying friendships? And, what are the behaviours that might explain why those people achieve high friendship satisfaction? We examined the associations between personality (self–reports and peer–reports) and friendship satisfaction (self–reports) among 434 students. We also examined whether role personality (how people act with their friends) and quantity and quality of social interactions using ecological momentary assessment mediate the associations between personality and friendship satisfaction. Extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and (low) neuroticism were associated with higher levels of friendship satisfaction. These associations could not be accounted for by individual differences in role personality. In addition, our results suggest that quantity of time spent with friends and quality of friend interactions (depth of conversation, self–disclosure and lack of emotion suppression), although associated with friendship satisfaction, do not account for the associations between trait personality and friendship satisfaction. Future research should examine other potential interpersonal processes that explain why some people are more satisfied with their friendships than others and the consequences of friendship satisfaction (e.g. for well–being). Copyright © 2015 European Association of Personality Psychology

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Insulin Bolus Calculator in a Pediatric Hospital

Applied Clinical Informatics ◽

10.4338/aci-2016-11-ra-0187 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 08 (02) ◽

pp. 529-540 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Mohammad Ateya ◽

Ranjit Aiyagari ◽

Colleen Moran ◽

Kanakadurga Singer

Keyword(s):

User Satisfaction ◽

Bolus Dose ◽

Improve Patient Care ◽

Severe Hypoglycemia ◽

Pediatric Hospital ◽

User Perceptions ◽

Hospital Safety ◽

Survey Responses ◽

Improve Patient

Summary Background: Insulin dosing in hospitalized pediatric patients is challenging and requires dosing to be matched with the specific clinical and nutritional circumstances. We implemented a customized subcutaneous insulin bolus dose calculator tool integrated with the electronic health record to improve patient care. Here we describe this tool, its utilization and safety, and assess user satisfaction and perceptions of the tool. Methods: Blood glucose results for all patients who received insulin with and without the calculator tool were compared to assess safety. To assess user perceptions and satisfaction, a survey was sent to all identified users who interacted with the tool during the period from May 2015 to the end of November 2015. Survey responses were summarized, mean user satisfaction calculated, and correlation of Likert scale items with overall satisfaction assessed. Results: Hypoglycemia rates (2.2% and 2.9%, p = 0.17) and severe hypoglycemia rates (0.04% and 0.1%, p = 0.21) were similar for the groups that received insulin with and without the calculator tool. Overall satisfaction for all survey respondents was high (4.05, SD = 0.83). Physicians indicated a slightly higher satisfaction than nurses (4.33 versus 3.94, p = 0.04). User agreement with improvement of quality of care showed the highest correlation with overall satisfaction (r = 0.80, 95% CI 0.7 –0.87). Conclusion: Implementation of an insulin calculator tool streamlined ordering and administration of insulin in a pediatric academic institution while maintaining patient safety. Users indicated high overall satisfaction with the tool. Citation: Ateya MB, Aiyagari R, Moran C, Singer K. .:Insulin bolus calculator in a pediatric hospital: Safety and user perceptions. Appl Clin Inform 2017; 8: 529–540 https://doi.org/10.4338/ACI-2016-11-RA-0187

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