The Study of Para-Social Interaction with e-Word-of-Mouth for Influencer Marketing by Complex Computing

The purpose of this study was focused on exploring the relationship among the fans’ preferences, fans’ para-social interaction, and fans’ word-of-mouth. A survey consisted of 21 items based on the literature review and developed by this study. An online survey was distributed to the users of YouTube in Taiwan. A total of 606 valid samples was collected by survey. The instrument passed the reliability and validity test. Further, the data process applied the PLS (partial least squares) regression analysis methodology. The result shows that the ‘attractive’ impacted ‘para-social interaction’, ‘e-word-of-mouth’, and ‘preferences of fans’ positively. In addition, the para-social interaction plays an important role as a mediator between influencer’s attractiveness, w-word-of-mouth, and preferences of fans. Some suggestions were provided for social media influence’ related studies as reference.

The Psychological Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Jordanian Healthcare Workers

Introduction: Healthcare workers face incomparable work and psychological demands that are amplified throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Aim: This study aimed to investigate the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on health care workers in Jordan. Method: A cross-sectional design was used. Data was collected using an online survey during the outbreak of COVID-19. Results: Overall, of the 312 healthcare workers, almost 38% and 36% presented with moderate to severe anxiety and depression consecutively. Nurses reported more severe symptoms than other healthcare workers. And both anxiety and depression were negatively correlated with well-being. Getting infected was not an immediate worry among healthcare workers; however, they were worried about carrying the virus to their families. Implications for Practice: Stakeholders must understand the impact of COVID-19 on healthcare workers and plan to provide them with the required psychological support and interventions at an early stage.

Meta-Analysis of EMF-Induced Pollution by COVID-19 in Virtual Teaching and Learning With an Artificial Intelligence Perspective

Concerns about the health effects of frequent exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF) emitted from mobile towers and handsets have been raised because of the gradual increase in usage of cell phones and frequent setting up of mobile towers. Present study is targeted to detrimental effects of EMF radiation on various biological systems mainly due to online teaching and learning process by suppressing the immune system. During COVID-19 pandemic the increased usage of internet due to online education and online office leads to more detrimental effects of EMF radiation. Further inculcation of soft computing techniques in EMF radiation has been presented. A literature review focusing on the usage of soft computing techniques in the domain of EMF radiation has been presented in the article. An online survey has been conducted targeting Indian academic stakeholders’ (Specially Teachers, Students and Parents termed as population in paper) for analyzing the awareness towards the bio hazards of EMF exposure.

Batting Outside the Field

This study examines the relationship between cognitive awareness and perceived knowledge of sports fans’ social media engagement behaviors. Data were collected through an online survey of 236 adults from India who identified as Indian Premier League (IPL) fans. The findings of the study suggest that perceived knowledge and cognitive awareness of sports are precursors to social media engagement behaviors of sports fans. Further, sports fandom mediates links between perceived knowledge and cognitive awareness with social media engagement. The findings hold special significance for contemporary COVID scenarios because physical engagement is being substituted by digital engagement.

Why Do Smart Contracts Self-Destruct? Investigating the Selfdestruct Function on Ethereum

The selfdestruct function is provided by Ethereum smart contracts to destroy a contract on the blockchain system. However, it is a double-edged sword for developers. On the one hand, using the selfdestruct function enables developers to remove smart contracts ( SCs ) from Ethereum and transfers Ethers when emergency situations happen, e.g., being attacked. On the other hand, this function can increase the complexity for the development and open an attack vector for attackers. To better understand the reasons why SC developers include or exclude the selfdestruct function in their contracts, we conducted an online survey to collect feedback from them and summarize the key reasons. Their feedback shows that 66.67% of the developers will deploy an updated contract to the Ethereum after destructing the old contract. According to this information, we propose a method to find the self-destructed contracts (also called predecessor contracts) and their updated version (successor contracts) by computing the code similarity. By analyzing the difference between the predecessor contracts and their successor contracts, we found five reasons that led to the death of the contracts; two of them (i.e., Unmatched ERC20 Token and Limits of Permission ) might affect the life span of contracts. We developed a tool named LifeScope to detect these problems. LifeScope reports 0 false positives or negatives in detecting Unmatched ERC20 Token . In terms of Limits of Permission , LifeScope achieves 77.89% of F-measure and 0.8673 of AUC in average. According to the feedback of developers who exclude selfdestruct functions, we propose suggestions to help developers use selfdestruct functions in Ethereum smart contracts better.

ROLE OF SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH IN PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS AND READINESS FOR ONLINE LEARNING AMONG COLLEGE FILIPINO STUDENTS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: A PILOT STUDY

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, educational institutions in the Philippines rapidly introduced widespread online learning to ensure safety of learners. The purpose of this study was to explore the possible relationship of social determinants of health with COVID-19 specific psychological distress and the readiness of Filipino students to learn online. Researchers conducted an online survey of 30 college students from the Psychology program of Ateneo de Davao University in Davao City, Philippines. Results showed that students experienced mild (53.3%) to severe (36.7%) levels of COVID-19 specific psychological distress. COVID-19 specific psychological distress and readiness for online learning was not significantly correlated, r (30) = -.18, p = .35. Among social determinants of health, only living with family members was significantly associated with readiness for online learning, r (30) = -.37, p = .046. These findings showed promising findings on how social determinants of health may be associated with distress and online learner readiness during a global pandemic. Future studies may elaborate on the subjective experiences of students. Finally, this pilot study serves as a basis for the development of school programs that address students’ mental health and promote online learning readiness of students who are experiencing unique learning circumstances.

A Study on Impact of Environment Friendly Product Attributes on Consumer Purchase Decisions

The study aims to find out the influence of environment friendly attributes on the willingness of consumers to purchase the product. It also aims to determine the type of emotions elicited by these kinds of consumer products. It was hypothesized that buying eco products can elicit different kinds of emotions in consumers. These emotions are usually positive that cause attraction to consumers and eventually the actual purchase of the product. An exploratory pre-purchase affect survey was conducted through field and online survey to determine what shoppers feel while looking for eco products to buy. Results revealed that participants significantly experience more positive feelings/emotions than negative feelings/ emotions when buying eco-products while participants are indifferent in experiencing positive and negative feelings/emotions when buying non-eco products. This study provided information on the importance of incorporating ecological attributes to the design of consumer products. As of now, not all companies offer eco-friendly products because it is not known if consumers are willing to pay more for the “environment friendly” attribute. This study hopes to shift the paradigm of companies as it will try to establish the emotional attachment of consumers to product attributes related to the environment.

Interests and attitudes of G.C.E. (A/L) physical science stream students on university education in STEM: A case study in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka has a free education system that gives access to higher education opportunities through the G.C.E. (Advanced Level) examination to a limited number of students. Students can choose their preferred university course if they have fulfilled the required minimum results for university admission. This paper discusses the general interests and attitudes of a sample of physical science stream students towards university education in STEM as a case study in Sri Lanka. The study has investigated several perspectives of the selected sample of G. C. E. (A/L) students through an online survey that includes questions regarding students' attitudes and perceptions on university education and different STEM-related undergraduate courses. The study has covered several schools of three provinces in Sri Lanka, and some of the investigated results are discussed with respect to the provinces. The results revealed career prospects, the academic quality of the undergraduate courses and the reputation of the university as the most influencing factors for undergraduate course selection in STEM disciplines, while engineering-related undergraduate courses were the most preferred ones among the students. The study results can be an asset to further studies since this topic has been rarely explored in the Sri Lankan higher education context.

Intention to adopt cryptocurrency: a robust contribution of trust and the theory of planned behavior

PurposeAt present, the adoption of cryptocurrency investment has brought consideration to the globe. The present paper attempts to investigate the intention to adopt cryptocurrency (IACR) among the potential investors of Pakistan.Design/methodology/approachThe theory of planned behavior (TPB) is applied to underpin the conceptual framework. The study uses a quantitative approach. The study collects cross-sectional data through an online survey questionnaire. In the last, the authors utilized 334 samples for outcomes.FindingsFindings of the SEM reveal a significant positive effect of attitude, subjective norms (SNs), perceived behavioral control (PBC) and trust on IACR.Practical implicationsThe outcomes of an investigation would develop further intention and trust towards cryptocurrency adoption. The results would support developing favorable policies regarding the reduction of the ban on cryptocurrency in Pakistan to make easier transactions of the investors further. Possibly, it brings several opportunities in all segments of society in making the digital transaction modes through cryptocurrency. Finally, the findings would further validate the TPB in the context of cryptocurrency.Originality/valueThe study provides a better understanding of cryptocurrency and investors IACR. The empirical evidence further develops the other individuals' intentions towards cryptocurrency usage.