Explore the vast range of titles available.

Robots are being implemented in many frontline services, from waiter robots in restaurants to robotic concierges in hotels. A growing number of firms in hospitality and tourism industries introduce service robots to reduce their operational costs and to provide customers with enhanced services (e.g. greater convenience). In turn, customers may consider that such a disruptive innovation is altering the established conditions of the service-provider relationship. Based on attribution theory, this research explores how customers’ attributions about the firm motivations to implement service robots (i.e. cost reduction and service enhancement) are affecting customers’ intentions to use and recommend this innovation. Following previous research on robot’s acceptance, our research framework analyzes how these attributions may be shaped by customers’ perceptions of robot’s human-likeness and their affinity with the robot. Structural equation modelling is used to analyze data collected from 517 customers evaluating service robots in the hospitality industry; results show that attributions mediate the relationships between affinity toward the robot and customer behavioral intentions to use and recommend service robots. Specifically, customer’s affinity toward the service robot positively affects service improvement attribution, which in turn has a positive influence on customer behavioral intentions. In contrast, affinity negatively affects cost reduction attribution, which in turn has a negative effect on behavioral intentions. Finally, human-likeness has a positive influence on affinity. This research provides practitioners with empirical evidence and guidance about the introduction of service robots and its relational implications in hospitality and tourism industries. Theoretical advances and future research avenues are also discussed.

Policy proposals to address predation of wildlife by domestic cats (Felis catus) include reducing cat populations, regulating ownership, educating owners, and restricting cats’ outdoor access. Such proposals rarely account for cat owners’ perspectives, however, and are frequently met with strong, principled opposition. We conducted a Q-methodological study to investigate the views of domestic cat owners in the UK on the roaming and hunting behaviors of their pets. We identified five distinctive cat-owner perspectives: (1) Concerned Protectors focus on cat safety, (2) Freedom Defenders prioritize cat independence and oppose restrictions on behavior, (3) Tolerant Guardians believe outdoor access is important for cats but dislike their hunting, (4) Conscientious Caretakers feel some responsibility for managing their cats’ hunting, and (5) Laissez-faire Landlords were largely unaware of the issues surrounding roaming and hunting behavior. Most participants valued outdoor access for cats and opposed confinement to prevent hunting; cat confinement policies are therefore unlikely to find support among owners in the UK. To address this conservation challenge, we argue that generic policies will be less effective than multidimensional strategies offering owners practical husbandry approaches that are compatible with their diverse circumstances, capabilities, and senses of responsibility.

Although higher education scholars are increasingly exploring disparities within institutions, they have yet to examine how parental involvement contributes to social-class variation in students' experiences. We ask, what role do parents play in producing divergent college experiences for students from different class backgrounds? Relying on interviews with 41 families, including mothers, fathers, and their daughters, we find that affluent parents serve as a \"college concierge,\" using class resources to provide youth with academic, social, and career support and access to exclusive university infrastructure. Less affluent parents, instead, describe themselves as \"outsiders\" who are unable to help their offspring and find the university unresponsive to their needs. Our findings suggest that affluent parents distinguish their children's college experiences from those of peers, extending \"effectively maintained inequality\" beyond the K-12 education. Universities may be receptive of these efforts due to funding shifts that make recruiting affluent, out-of-state families desirable.

This unique study uncovers the lives and working conditions of a group of individuals who are usually rendered invisible on college campuses--the custodians who daily clean the offices, residence halls, bathrooms and public spaces. In doing so it also reveals universities' equally invisible practices that frequently contradict their espoused values of inclusion and equity, and their profession that those on the margins are important members of the campus community.This vivid ethnography is the fruit of the year's fieldwork that Peter Magolda's undertook at two universities. His purpose was to shine a light on a subculture that neither decision-makers nor campus community members know very much about, let alone understand the motivations and aspirations of those who perform this work; and to pose fundamental questions about the moral implications of the corporatization of higher education and its impact on its lowest paid and most vulnerable employees.Working alongside and learning about the lives of over thirty janitorial staff, Peter Magolda becomes privy to acts of courage, resilience, and inspiration, as well as witness to their work ethic, and to instances of intolerance, inequity, and injustices. We learn the stories of remarkable people, and about their daily concerns, their fears and contributions.Peter Magolda raises such questions as: Does the academy still believe wisdom is exclusive to particular professions or classes of people? Are universities really inclusive? Is addressing service workers' concerns part of the mission of higher education? If universities profess to value education, why make it difficult for those on the margins, such as custodians, to \"get educated.\"The book concludes with the research participants' and the author's reflections about ways that colleges can improve the lives of those whose underpaid and unremarked labor is so essential to the smooth running of their campuses.Appendices provide information about the research methodo

This paper analyzes the findings of a preliminary, controlled efficacy study conducted by the National Philosophical Counseling Association of a prominent modality of philosophical counseling, Logic-Based Therapy (LBT). In this study, the latter modality was compared to a mindfulness activity. The study included 20 caretakers randomly divided into experimental and control groups. The hypothesis investigated was that a one-hour LBT session is more effective in reducing the level of (state or trait) anxiety and/or depression in family caregivers than a one-hour mindfulness session. Utilizing data compiled from study participants’ responses to the State Trait Anxiety Inventory and Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-2), two-way mixed ANOVA tests on three variables (state anxiety, trait anxiety, and depression (BDI-2) scores) were performed as well as paired analyses yielding the preliminary conclusion (pending a more extensive study) that LBT shows promise as an effective intervention for reducing state anxiety as compared to the control condition, the mindfulness activity.

Degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) is a progressive neurologic condition caused by age-related degeneration of the cervical spine. Social media has become a crucial part of many patients' lives; however, little is known about social media use pertaining to DCM. This manuscript describes the landscape of social media use and DCM in patients, caretakers, clinicians, and researchers. A comprehensive search of the entire Twitter application programing interface database from inception to March 2022 was performed to identify all tweets about cervical myelopathy. Data on Twitter users included geographic location, number of followers, and number of tweets. The number of tweet likes, retweets, quotes, and total engagement were collected. Tweets were also categorized based on their underlying themes. Mentions pertaining to past or upcoming surgical procedures were recorded. A natural language processing algorithm was used to assign a polarity score, subjectivity score, and analysis label to each tweet for sentiment analysis. Overall, 1859 unique tweets from 1769 accounts met the inclusion criteria. The highest frequency of tweets was seen in 2018 and 2019, and tweets decreased significantly in 2020 and 2021. Most (888/1769, 50.2%) of the tweets' authors were from the United States, United Kingdom, or Canada. Account categorization showed that 668 of 1769 (37.8%) users discussing DCM on Twitter were medical doctors or researchers, 415 of 1769 (23.5%) were patients or caregivers, and 201 of 1769 (11.4%) were news media outlets. The 1859 tweets most often discussed research (n=761, 40.9%), followed by spreading awareness or informing the public on DCM (n=559, 30.1%). Tweets describing personal patient perspectives on living with DCM were seen in 296 (15.9%) posts, with 65 (24%) of these discussing upcoming or past surgical experiences. Few tweets were related to advertising (n=31, 1.7%) or fundraising (n=7, 0.4%). A total of 930 (50%) tweets included a link, 260 (14%) included media (ie, photos or videos), and 595 (32%) included a hashtag. Overall, 847 of the 1859 tweets (45.6%) were classified as neutral, 717 (38.6%) as positive, and 295 (15.9%) as negative. When categorized thematically, most tweets were related to research, followed by spreading awareness or informing the public on DCM. Almost 25% (65/296) of tweets describing patients' personal experiences with DCM discussed past or upcoming surgical interventions. Few posts pertained to advertising or fundraising. These data can help identify areas for improvement of public awareness online, particularly regarding education, support, and fundraising.

Background Monitoring the physical movement patterns of Alzheimer's patients is crucial due to the risk of wandering and disorientation. The currently available methods of identifying the unusual transitions and the next movement lack real‐time precision and fail to adopt patient‐specific behaviors. This study uses a probabilistic framework on the Technology Integrated Health Management (TIHM) dataset to detect movement abnormalities in Alzheimer's patients dynamically. The outcome of this study provides the caregivers with useful information and facilitates early intervention. Method The TIHM dataset, containing spatial and temporal movement data, was used to construct patient‐specific transition sequences. A probabilistic approach using the Markov Chain model was employed to compute transition probabilities to analyze the patient's movement and was enhanced using smoothing techniques. An innovative approach of dynamic thresholding was used to identify irregular transitions with improved sensitivity. These techniques predicted the most likely subsequent movement between locations and flagged low‐probability transitions indicative of potential risks. Result The probabilistic framework accurately predicted the next likely location for a patient, such as 'Hallway' being the most probable location from 'Bedroom'. It also detected irregular transitions like movements from 'Lounge' to 'Front Door’ and ‘Bedroom’ to ‘Fridge Door'. The transition probability matrix (Figure 1) uncovers the location‐to‐location movement trends to understand the common transitions. The location transition network graph (Figure 2) highlights critical pathways, irregular transitions and movement dynamics. The heatmap for a sample patient (Figure 3) shows the hourly activity patterns, highlighting the peak movement periods and potential anomalies. These visualizations offer a wide analysis of patient movement behavior. This provides the caretakers with precise and practical information to identify and effectively manage anomalies. Conclusion This framework addresses the main drawbacks of conventional techniques by introducing a dynamic, patient‐specific approach to tracking the mobility patterns in Alzheimer's patients. It supports real‐time actions to increase safety and lower risks by improving carer decision‐making through its predictive capabilities. If integrated with smart healthcare systems, this framework could revolutionize Alzheimer's patient care by fostering a safer and more responsive care‐giving environment.

Frequent parent–child contact after divorce is generally assumed to be in children's best interests, but findings are mixed. This study extends the small body of research about the conditions under which parent–child contact is more beneficial or less beneficial by examining the role of predivorce parental involvement. It is argued that the more a parent was involved in child rearing in the past, the more important postdivorce parent–child contact is for child well‐being. Data from the Netherlands (N = 3,694) show that when children live with the parent who was not the primary caretaker, child well‐being is lower. Similarly, the more the father used to be involved in child rearing, the more beneficial nonresident father–child contact is for children. These findings suggest that it is not so much the frequency of contact per se that matters for child well‐being but, rather, the extent to which postdivorce residence arrangements reflect predivorce parenting arrangements.