This study examines the perceived usefulness (PU) of online discourse and the decision-making behavior of users in Online Travel Communities (OTCs). Partial least squares structural equation modeling ...(PLS-SEM) was used on secondary data available in OTCs in the form of 852 threads to empirically test the proposed integrated model. The antecedents of the perceived usefulness of online travel communities were found to be the argument quality and credibility. These influence the PU of user-generated content significantly and are helpful in information adoption in OTCs. The PU of OTC discourse positively impacts travelers' information adoption and decision-making. The current study offers implications for OTCs and online service providers for enhancing the usefulness of user-generated content in OTCs and social media sites, leading to online information use and travel decision-making. Prior literature has explored the nature and magnitude of the influence of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) on information adoption and intention to use information for travel purchases from users' perspectives and has investigated the PU of third-party travel sites. This paper is an effort to examine PU and decision-making by analyzing the User-Generated-Content (UGC) posted by the actual users.
Compared with straight steel–concrete composite beams, curved composite beams exhibit more complicated mechanical behaviors under combined bending and torsion coupling. There are much fewer ...experimental studies on curved composite beams than those of straight composite beams. This study aimed to investigate the combined bending and torsion behavior of curved composite beams. This paper presents static loading tests of the full elastoplastic process of three curved composite box beams with various central angles and shear connection degrees. The test results showed that the specimens exhibited notable bending and torsion coupling force characteristics under static loading. The curvature and interface shear connection degree significantly affected the force behavior of the curved composite box beams. The specimens with weak shear connection degrees showed obvious interfacial longitudinal slip and transverse slip. Constraint distortion and torsion behavior caused the strain of the inner side of the structure to be higher than the strain of the outer side. The strain of the steel beam webs was approximately linear. In addition, fine finite element models of three curved composite box beams were established. The correctness and applicability of the finite element models were verified by comparing the test results and numerical calculation results for the load–displacement curve, load–rotational angle curve, load–interface slip curve, and cross-sectional strain distribution. Finite element modeling can be used as a reliable numerical tool for the large-scale parameter analysis of the elastic–plastic mechanical behavior of curved composite box beams.
BACKGROUND: Through the actions of one or more isoforms of the enzyme 5α-reductase in many male reproductive tissues, circulating testosterone (T) undergoes metabolic conversion into ...5α-dihydrotestosterone (DHT), which binds to and activates androgen receptors (AR) with greater potency than T. In birds, T is also subject to local inactivation into 5β-DHT by the enzyme 5β-reductase. Male golden-collared manakins perform an androgen-dependent and physically elaborate courtship display, and these birds express androgen receptors in skeletal muscles and spinal cord at levels far greater than those expressed in species with more limited courtship routines, including male zebra finches. To determine if local T metabolism facilitates or impedes activation of male manakin courtship, we examined expression of two isoforms of 5α-reductase, as well as 5β-reductase, in forelimb muscles and spinal cords of males and females of the two aforementioned species. RESULTS: We found that all enzymes were expressed in all tissues, with patterns that partially predict a functional role for 5α-reductase in these birds, especially in both muscle and spinal cord of male manakins. Moreover, we found that 5β-reductase was markedly different between species, with far lower levels in golden-collared manakins, compared to zebra finches. Thus, modification to neuromuscular deactivation of T may also play a functional role in adaptive behavioral modulation. CONCLUSIONS: Given that such a role for 5α-reductase in androgen-sensitive mammalian skeletal muscle is in dispute, our data suggest that, in birds, local metabolism may play a key role in providing active androgenic substrates to peripheral neuromuscular systems. Similarly, we provide the first evidence that 5β-reductase is expressed broadly through an organism and may be an important factor that regulates androgenic modulation of neuromuscular functioning.
Background
Treatments with non-pharmacological interventions (NPIs), comprising art and exercise therapies, nursing interventions, and educational components, are considered to improve quality of ...life of cancer patients. The aim of this study was to assess the longitudinal changes in self-reported quality of life of breast cancer patients receiving an integrative medicine program consisting of hospital-based NPIs and standard oncological treatments.
Methods
This real-world data study was conducted using data from the Network Oncology clinical registry of the Gemeinschaftskrankenhaus Havelhöhe. Primary breast cancer patients of all tumor stages, who answered the European Organization of Research and Treatment Health-Related Quality of Life Core Questionnaire scale (EORTC QLQ-C30) at first diagnosis and 12 months later, were included. Association factors between received NPIs and longitudinal EORTC QLQ-C30-changes were analyzed with additive non-parametric regression tests, considering treatment regimens and demographic variables, using the software R.
Results
A total of 231 primary breast cancer patients were enrolled and separate regression analyses were carried out. Significant associations between the received NPIs elaborate consultations and life review, nursing compresses, music and eurythmy therapy and improvements of 8–13 points for global health, all five functional EORTC-scales, and symptoms fatigue, dyspnea, insomnia, and financial difficulties were observed.
Conclusion
Our findings support the beneficial impact of NPIs for breast cancer patients. Further research could be directed towards synergistic effects of multimodal applied NPIs.
Trial registration
Trial registration number DRKS00013335 on 27/11/2017 retrospectively registered.
This work reports the preparation and application of microwave thermally expanded graphene (G)/polyaniline (PANI) conductive paste. The results from XRD revealed that the polyaniline did not change ...its crystal structure after being combined with microwave thermally expanded graphene. FTIR and Raman spectra revealed that there was a strong π–π interaction between polyaniline and microwave thermally expanded graphene. The resultant conductive pastes possess obvious shear-thinning phenomenon, which are suitable for screen printing to produce conductive circuits. The printed polyester fabric showed significant conductivity which can be tuned by changing the printing time and line length. This study paves the way to large-scale fabrication of flexible conductive circuits for various applications.
Modern societies need higher education systems that are strongly grounded on scientific knowledge and evidence-based teaching tools. This laboratory-based study extended Chase and Houmanfar (2009), ...examining the effects of basic and elaborate feedback on participants’ performance measured with two sets of tests administered after a college-level text was studied. The use of Tobii® Pro X2-60 eye trackers allowed for detection of students’ orientation toward the displayed feedback. The eye tracker results showed that participants spent more time reading their incorrect answers than the correct answers, but this lingering of their eye gazes on the screen did not have a positive correlation with the performance and the final test. However, other factors such as the feedback provision need to be more closely considered. The experimental findings also demonstrated that the presence of feedback following the first test phase improved the performance of the final test and that the elaborate feedback had the largest effect when the participants where naïve about the topic studied during the experimental session.
Birdsong has long been considered a sexually selected trait that relays honest information about male quality, and laboratory studies generally suggest that female songbirds prefer larger ...repertoires. However, analysis of field studies across species surprisingly revealed a weak correlation between song elaboration and reproductive success, and it remains unknown why only certain species show this correlation in nature. Taken together, these studies suggest that females in numerous species can detect and prefer larger repertoires in a laboratory setting, but larger individual repertoires correlate with reproductive success only in a subset of these species. This prompts the question: Do the species that show a stronger correlation between reproductive success and larger individual repertoires in nature have anything in common? In this study, we test whether between‐species differences in two song‐related variables—species average syllable repertoire size and adult song stability over time—can be used to predict the importance of individual song elaboration in reproductive success within a species. Our cross‐species meta‐analysis of field studies revealed that species with larger average syllable repertoire sizes exhibited a stronger correlation between individual elaboration and reproductive success than species with smaller syllable repertoires. Song stability versus plasticity in adulthood provided little predictive power on its own, suggesting that the putative correlation between repertoire size and age in open‐ended learners does not explain the association between song elaboration and reproductive success.
In songbirds, elaborate songs have been considered the acoustic equivalent of the peacock's tail. Thus, there is a long‐standing and intuitive hypothesis that birdsong complexity is under sexual selection, implying that females should prefer males with the most elaborate songs and/or that song is a reliable indicator of fitness and thus males with more elaborate songs will leave more offspring. However, evidence for this relationship in nature has been mixed, suggesting that song elaboration is correlated with reproductive success in only some songbird species. With a Bayesian meta‐analysis, we found that species show a stronger correlation between individual song elaboration and reproductive success when their species average syllable repertoire is large. This result suggests that sexual selection on song elaboration at the individual level could drive an increase in the species average repertoire size in a species.
Introduction:
Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) occurs frequently in breast cancer patients. The aim of this real-world study was to analyze the longitudinal changes of CRF in breast cancer patients ...receiving an integrative medicine program, which includes the application of non-pharmacological interventions (NPIs) and Viscum album L. (VA) extracts.
Methods:
All data were collected from the clinical register of the Network Oncology of a German certified breast cancer center of the Gemeinschaftskrankenhaus Havelhöhe (GKH). Primary breast cancer patients, treated upon initial diagnosis with integrated NPIs, comprising art and exercise therapy, nursing interventions, and educational components, during their hospital stay, and who had answered the German Cancer-Fatigue Scale (CFS-D) questionnaire at first diagnosis and 12 months later, were included. The associations between NPIs and CFS-D changes were analyzed with adjusted multivariable regression analyses, considering received treatment regimens and demographic variables, using the software R.
Results:
231 female breast cancer patients of all tumor stages were evaluated. While chemotherapy exhibited significant severe deterioration, add-on VA applications seem to partially mitigate this impairment on CRF. 36 separate multivariable regression analyses for all NPIs showed that in particular significant associations between CFS-D improvements and the interventions nursing compresses (6 point change; P = .0002; R² = 28%) or elaborate consultations and life review (ECLR) (4 point change; P = .0002; R² = 25%) were observed.
Conclusions:
Breast cancer patients benefit from a hospital-based integrative medicine program. To alleviate fatigue symptoms during oncological therapy, an expansion of this concept should be developed in the future.
Online-quizzes are an economic and objective method for formative assessment in universities. However, closed questions have been criticized for promoting shallow learning and resulting often in poor ...learning outcomes. These disadvantages can be overcome by embedding closed questions in effective instructional designs involving feedback. In the present field study, a final sample of N = 496 students completed the same online quiz, consisting of 60 true–false statements on the biological bases of psychology in two sessions. In order to enhance the benefit of formative testing on students’ test achievement in Session 2, students received elaborate feedback (i.e., by providing explanations for the in-/correctness) for half of their answers in Session 1, and corrective feedback (i.e., just indicating the in-/correctness) for the other half. The results showed that students scored higher in Session 2 if elaborate feedback had been provided in Session 1, compared with when corrective feedback was provided. More specifically, students profited more from elaborate feedback on incorrect answers in Session 1 than from feedback on correct answers. As a practical recommendation, self-administered formative tests with closed-question format should at least provide explanations why students’ answers are incorrect.
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