How Does Gender Moderate Customer Intention of Shopping via Live-Streaming Apps during the COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown Period?

Shopping through Live-Streaming Shopping Apps (LSSAs) as an emerging consumption phenomenon has increased dramatically in recent years, especially during the COVID-19 lockdown period. However, insufficient studies have focused on the psychological processes undergone in different customer demographics while shopping via LSSAs under pandemic conditions. This study integrated the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 with Flow Theory into a Stimulus-Organism-Response framework to investigate the psychological processes of different customer demographics during the COVID-19 lockdown period. A total of 374 validated data were analyzed by covariance-based structural equation modelling. The statistical results demonstrated by the proposed model showed a significant discrepancy between different gender groups, in which Flow, as a mediator, representing users’ engagement and immersion in shopping via LSSAs, was significantly moderated by gender where connection between stimulus components, hedonic motivation, trust and social influence and response component perceived value are concerned. This study contributed a theoretical development and a practical framework to the explanation of the mental processes of different customer demographics when using an innovative e-commerce technology. Furthermore, the results can support the relevant stakeholders in e-commerce in their comprehensive understanding of customers’ behavior, allowing better strategical and managerial development.

Effect of a Concise Educational Program on COVID-19 Vaccination Attitudes

Background: Vaccination has been recognized as a vital step for containing the COVID-19 outbreak. To ensure the success of immunization efforts as a public health containment measure, a high level of public vaccination compliance is essential. Targeted educational programs can be utilized to improve attitudes toward vaccination and improve the public's uptake of protective measures.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we aimed to evaluate the impact of a concise educational program on perceived knowledge regarding the COVID-19 vaccine, vaccine importance and trust, protection and fear from COVID-19, trust in authorities, as well as individual resilience.Results: The study evaluated 503 participants that completed the questionnaire before and after viewing a concise video tutorial on vaccination. Following the educational program, scores of five variables increased significantly compared to their pre-viewing level: knowledge, personal resilience, trust in authorities, vaccine importance, as well as perceived protection. Those that were vaccinated and/or intend to be vaccinated (N = 394) report higher levels of knowledge, trust in authorities, vaccine importance, vaccine trust, and fear of being infected as compared to those that are unwilling to get vaccinated. Positive significant correlations were found between resilience and trust in authorities (r = 0.169, p < 0.001), vaccine importance (r = 0.098, p = 0.028), and feeling protected (r = 0.310, p < 0.001). Trust in authorities was positively correlated with vaccine importance (r = 0.589, p < 0.001) and vaccine trust (r = 0.177, p < 0.001). Vaccine importance was positively correlated with vaccine trust (r = 0.149, p = 0.001), but not correlated with knowledge score.Conclusion: The findings of the study demonstrate the benefits of educational programs on improving attitudes toward vaccination acceptability. Incorporation of such concise educational programs by authorities may improve uptake of COVID-19 vaccination and help overcome public vaccine hesitancy. We recommend that such a concise and easily implementable educational program be incorporated as a response component to the current and future outbreaks.

Association between serum markers of the humoral immune system and inflammation in the Swedish AMORIS study

Background Although the onset of inflammatory cascades may profoundly influence the nature of antibody responses, the interplay between inflammatory and humoral (antibody) immune markers remains unclear. Thus, we explored the reciprocity between the humoral immune system and inflammation and assessed how external socio-demographic factors may influence these interactions. From the AMORIS cohort, 5513 individuals were identified with baseline measurements of serum humoral immune [immunoglobulin G, A & M (IgG, IgA, IgM)] and inflammation (C-reactive protein (CRP), albumin, haptoglobin, white blood cells (WBC), iron and total iron-binding capacity) markers measured on the same day. Correlation analysis, principal component analysis and hierarchical clustering were used to evaluate biomarkers correlation, variation and associations. Multivariate analysis of variance was used to assess associations between biomarkers and educational level, socio-economic status, sex and age. Results Frequently used serum markers for inflammation, CRP, haptoglobin and white blood cells, correlated together. Hierarchical clustering and principal component analysis confirmed the interaction between these main biological responses, showing an acute response component (CRP, Haptoglobin, WBC, IgM) and adaptive response component (Albumin, Iron, TIBC, IgA, IgG). A socioeconomic gradient associated with worse health outcomes was observed, specifically low educational level, older age and male sex were associated with serum levels that indicated infection and inflammation. Conclusions These findings indicate that serum markers of the humoral immune system and inflammation closely interact in response to infection or inflammation. Clustering analysis presented two main immune response components: an acute and an adaptive response, comprising markers of both biological pathways. Future studies should shift from single internal marker assessment to multiple humoral and inflammation serum markers combined, when assessing risk of clinical outcomes such as cancer.

Results of assessment of oral acid-base balance in patients with mandibular fractures combined with periodontal pathology

Aim. To estimate the condition of acid-main balance of oral cavity in patients with fracture of the mandible in combination with parodontal pathology.Material and methods. 40 patients with fractures of the mandible in combination with parodontal pathology were observed in the study. They were divided into three groups. Patients of the first group had a fracture of the mandible in combination with chronic periodontitis. Patients of the second group had fractures of the mandible and chronic gingivitis. Patients of the third group had no bone-traumatic damages and parodontal pathology.Results and discussion. The activity of the parodontal microflora of the oral cavity in patients with the bone trauma of the mandible in combination with periodontitis is higher and characterizes the quick response component of the acid-main balance regulation in the oral cavity.Conclusion. Lingual raid is the main reservoir of oral microflora and its role under existing bone-traumatic damage on the background of parodontal pathology in maintaining microbiocenosis not only increases but also becomes the factor of destabilization regenerators processes at fracture of the mandible.

Derivation of visual timing-tuned neural responses from early visual stimulus representations

Quantifying the timing (duration and frequency) of brief visual events is vital to human perception, multisensory integration and action planning. Tuned neural responses to visual event timing have been found in areas of the association cortices implicated in these processes. Here we ask whether and where the human brain derives these timing-tuned responses from the responses of early visual cortex, which monotonically increase with event duration and frequency. Using 7T fMRI and neural model-based analyses, we find a gradual transition from monotonically increasing to timing-tuned neural responses beginning in area MT/V5. Therefore, successive stages of visual processing gradually derive timing-tuned response components from the inherent modulation of sensory responses by event timing. This additional timing-tuned response component was independent of retinotopic location. We propose that this hierarchical derivation of timing-tuned responses from sensory processing areas quantifies sensory event timing while abstracting temporal representations from the spatial properties of their inputs.

Dynamics of absolute and relative disparity processing in human visual cortex

Cortical processing of binocular disparity is believed to begin in V1 where cells are sensitive to absolute disparity, followed by the extraction of relative disparity in higher visual areas. While much is known about the cortical distribution and spatial tuning of disparity-selective neurons, the relationship between their spatial and temporal properties is less well understood. Here, we use steady-state Visual Evoked Potentials and dynamic random dot stereograms to characterize the temporal dynamics of spatial mechanisms in human visual cortex that are primarily sensitive to either absolute or relative disparity. Stereograms alternated between disparate and non-disparate states at 2 Hz. By varying the spatial frequency content of the disparate fields from a planar surface to corrugated ones, we biased responses towards absolute vs. relative disparities. Reliable Components Analysis was used to derive two dominant sources from the 128 channel EEG records. The first component (RC1) was maximal over the occipital pole while the second component (RC2) was maximal over right lateral occipital electrodes. In RC1, first harmonic responses were sustained, tuned for corrugation frequency, and sensitive to the presence of disparity references, consistent with prior psychophysical sensitivity measurements. By contrast, the second harmonic, associated with transient processing, was not spatially tuned and was indifferent to references, consistent with it being generated by an absolute disparity mechanism. In RC2, the sustained response component showed similar tuning and sensitivity to references. However, sensitivity for absolute disparity dropped off, and transient signals were mainly driven by the lowest corrugation frequencies.

Vibration-based synchronous sampling and its application in wind-turbine drive-train-condition monitoring

Utilizing shaft-speed information to analyse vibration signals is an important method for fault diagnosis and condition monitoring of rotating machineries, especially for those running at variable speeds. However, in many cases, shaft-speed information is not always available, for a variety of reasons. Fortunately, in most of the measurements, the shaft-speed information is embedded in the vibration response in many different forms, such as in the format of the fundamental shaft-rotation-frequency response and its harmonics, and the gear-meshing-frequency response and its harmonics, etc. Proper signal processing can be used to extract the shaft instantaneous speed from the measured vibration responses. In existing instantaneous shaft-speed-identification methods, a narrow-bandpass filtering technique is used explicitly or implicitly. In a complex gearbox system, such as that used in a wind turbine, the gear-meshing-response component could be modulated by many other shaft speeds, due to the configuration of the gearbox or due to the existence of component damage. As a result, it is very difficult to isolate a single vibration-response component for instantaneous shaft-speed detection. In this paper, an innovative approach is presented. The instantaneous shaft speed is extracted based on maxima tracking from the vibration-response spectrogram. A numerical integration scheme is employed to obtain the shaft instantaneous phase. Digital-domain synchronous resampling is then applied to the vibration data by using the instantaneous phase information. Due to the nature of noise suppression in the numerical integration, the accuracy of synchronous sampling is greatly improved. This proposed approach demonstrates the feasibility and engineering applicability through a controlled laboratory test case and two field wind-turbine cases. More detailed results and conclusions of this research are presented at the end of this paper.

Association between serum markers of the humoral immune system and inflammation in the Swedish AMORIS study

Background: Although the onset of inflammatory cascades may profoundly influence the nature of antibody responses, the interplay between inflammatory and humoral (antibody) immune markers remains unclear. Thus, we explored the reciprocity between the humoral immune system and inflammation and assessed how external socio-demographic factors may influence these interactions.Methods: From the AMORIS cohort, 5,513 individuals were identified with baseline measurements of serum humoral immune (immunoglobulin G, A & M (IgG, IgA, IgM)) and inflammation (C-reactive protein (CRP), albumin, haptoglobin, white blood cells (WBC), iron and total iron-binding capacity) markers measured on the same day. Correlation analysis, principal component analysis and hierarchical clustering were used to evaluate biomarkers correlation, variation and associations. Multivariate analysis of variance was used to assess associations between biomarkers and educational level, socio-economic status, sex and age.Results: Frequently used serum markers for inflammation, CRP, haptoglobin and white blood cells, correlated together. Hierarchical clustering and principal component analysis confirmed the interaction between these main biological responses, showing an acute response component (CRP, Haptoglobin, WBC, IgM) and adaptive response component (Albumin, Iron, TIBC, IgA, IgG). A socioeconomic gradient associated with worse health outcomes was observed, specifically low educational level, older age and male sex were associated with serum levels that indicated infection and inflammation.Conclusions: These findings indicate that serum markers of the humoral immune system and inflammation closely interact in response to infection or inflammation. Clustering analysis presented two main immune response components: an acute and an adaptive response, comprising markers of both biological pathways. Future studies should shift from single internal marker assessment to multiple humoral and inflammation serum markers combined, when assessing risk of clinical outcomes such as cancer.

MAKING OF DIGITAL FORENSIC READINESS INDEX (DiFRI) MODELS TO MALWARE ATTACKS

The increasing number of malware spread in the world today, then there will be more opportunities to commit crime, so readiness is needed for every internet user in dealing with these crimes. The readiness to handle crime is called digital forensic readiness. Therefore, we need a specific digital forensic readiness model to measure the level of readiness of internet users or institutions in achieving malware attacks. This model has the main components used to determine or calculate the level of readiness of internet users or institutions, the main components are the strategy component, the policy & procedure component, the technology & security component, the digital forensic response component, the control & legality component. The calculation method used in this study is a Likert Scale, with this method the results will be obtained that are closer to the real situation. The value / index of readiness level obtained will provide recommendations to internet users and these recommendations can be used to make improvements properly and on target.