Customer abuse of frontline service workers is widespread. Yet despite growing recognition of this problem, we know very little about the role that service companies play in potentially enabling ...customers’ abusive behaviors. This phenomenon deserves attention because one of the recent trends in service management is giving customers a direct role in managing and evaluating workers’ performance. In this article, the author explores how granting customers direct access to organizational power over workers, what the author develops conceptually as “laundering control through customers,” explains how customer abuse emerges. Drawing on a sample of 486 Uber and Lyft drivers, the author examines how the companies’ use of the “five-star” evaluation system enables customers to engage in a range of different forms of abuse and how workers resist this configuration of control. This study contributes to the customer triangle literature by bringing in evidence from the gig economy and uncovers new implications for the “dark side” of customer service work.
To compare performance of a deep-learning enhanced algorithm for automated detection of diabetic retinopathy (DR), to the previously published performance of that algorithm, the Iowa Detection ...Program (IDP)-without deep learning components-on the same publicly available set of fundus images and previously reported consensus reference standard set, by three US Board certified retinal specialists.
We used the previously reported consensus reference standard of referable DR (rDR), defined as International Clinical Classification of Diabetic Retinopathy moderate, severe nonproliferative (NPDR), proliferative DR, and/or macular edema (ME). Neither Messidor-2 images, nor the three retinal specialists setting the Messidor-2 reference standard were used for training IDx-DR version X2.1. Sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value, area under the curve (AUC), and their confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated.
Sensitivity was 96.8% (95% CI: 93.3%-98.8%), specificity was 87.0% (95% CI: 84.2%-89.4%), with 6/874 false negatives, resulting in a negative predictive value of 99.0% (95% CI: 97.8%-99.6%). No cases of severe NPDR, PDR, or ME were missed. The AUC was 0.980 (95% CI: 0.968-0.992). Sensitivity was not statistically different from published IDP sensitivity, which had a CI of 94.4% to 99.3%, but specificity was significantly better than the published IDP specificity CI of 55.7% to 63.0%.
A deep-learning enhanced algorithm for the automated detection of DR, achieves significantly better performance than a previously reported, otherwise essentially identical, algorithm that does not employ deep learning. Deep learning enhanced algorithms have the potential to improve the efficiency of DR screening, and thereby to prevent visual loss and blindness from this devastating disease.
This book is a history of the Soviet tours of European and American intellectuals, writers, bohemians, professionals, and political tourists who saw the “Soviet experiment” in the 1920s and 1930s. It ...provides a new framework for understanding the relationship between intellectuals and communism and the Soviet reception of foreign visitors, including the leading fellow-travelers who praised Stalin and Stalinism in the interwar period. The work is based on a far-reaching analysis of the declassified archives of agencies charged with crafting the international image of the first socialist society, including VOKS (the All-Union Society for Cultural Ties Abroad). The book brings this story into new focus as one of the great transnational encounters of the twentieth century. As many visitors were profoundly influenced by their Soviet tours, so too was the Soviet system itself: the experiences of building showcases and tutoring outsiders to perceive the future-in-the-making comprise a neglected international dimension to the emergence of Stalinism. Probing entanglements between far-left and far-right ideological extremes, the work pays special attention to the covert interaction between communism and fascism, including Soviet attempts to recruit German “National Bolsheviks” and fascist intellectuals. The unprecedented scope of Soviet efforts to mold foreign, particularly Western public opinion created a new chapter in the history of modern cultural diplomacy. Setting the revolutionary regime's innovations in the context of the entire history of foreign visitors in Russia, the book argues that Soviet mobilization for the international ideological contest directly paved the way for the cultural Cold War.
The Economic Coercion Trilemma Mangini, Michael-David
The Journal of conflict resolution,
07/2024, Letnik:
68, Številka:
6
Journal Article
Recenzirano
States often use market access as a bargaining chip in international politics. A state that requires simultaneous compliance in multiple issue areas before granting market access maximizes incentives ...to comply but also makes them brittle – any targeted states that cannot comply in one issue area have no incentive to comply in any. More generally, programs of economic coercion can achieve at most two of the following three objectives: 1) secure a broad coalition of domestic political support, 2) the association of meaningful trade value with each policy issue, and 3) assurance that enforcing one political issue will not reduce the target’s incentives to comply with conditionality on others. Characteristics of the program’s domestic constituency, of the issues themselves, and of the international economy are key determinants of how the state prioritizes the three objectives. The trilemma explains the number and types of issues that can be linked to economic value.
Despite recent progress in recognizing the importance of mesenchymal cells for the homeostasis of the intestinal system, the current picture of how these cells communicate with the associated ...epithelial layer remains unclear. To describe the relevant cell populations in an unbiased manner, we carried out a single-cell transcriptome analysis of the adult murine colon, producing a high-quality atlas of matched colonic epithelium and mesenchyme. We identify two crypt-associated colonic fibroblast populations that are demarcated by different strengths of platelet-derived growth factor receptor A (Pdgfra) expression. Crypt-bottom fibroblasts (CBFs), close to the intestinal stem cells, express low levels of Pdgfra and secrete canonical Wnt ligands, Wnt potentiators, and bone morphogenetic protein (Bmp) inhibitors. Crypt-top fibroblasts (CTFs) exhibit high Pdgfra levels and secrete noncanonical Wnts and Bmp ligands. While the Pdgfralow cells maintain intestinal stem cell proliferation, the Pdgfrahigh cells induce differentiation of the epithelial cells. Our findings enhance our understanding of the crosstalk between various colonic epithelial cells and their associated mesenchymal signaling hubs along the crypt axis-placing differential Pdgfra expression levels in the spotlight of intestinal fibroblast identity.
Diabetic retinopathy (DR) has long been recognized as a microvasculopathy, but retinal diabetic neuropathy (RDN), characterized by inner retinal neurodegeneration, also occurs in people with diabetes ...mellitus (DM). We report that in 45 people with DM and no to minimal DR there was significant, progressive loss of the nerve fiber layer (NFL) (0.25 μm/y) and the ganglion cell (GC)/inner plexiform layer (0.29 μm/y) on optical coherence tomography analysis (OCT) over a 4-y period, independent of glycated hemoglobin, age, and sex. The NFL was significantly thinner (17.3 μm) in the eyes of six donors with DM than in the eyes of six similarly aged control donors (30.4 μm), although retinal capillary density did not differ in the two groups. We confirmed significant, progressive inner retinal thinning in streptozotocin-induced “type 1” and B6.BKS(D)-Leprdb/J “type 2” diabetic mouse models on OCT; immunohistochemistry in type 1 mice showed GC loss but no difference in pericyte density or acellular capillaries. The results suggest that RDN may precede the established clinical and morphometric vascular changes caused by DM and represent a paradigm shift in our understanding of ocular diabetic complications.
Summary
Smart homes have the potential to achieve optimal energy consumption with appropriate scheduling. The control of smart appliances can be based on optimization models, which should be ...realistic and efficient. However, increased realism also implies an increase in solution time. Many of the optimization models in the literature have limitations on the types of appliances considered and/or their reliability. This paper proposes a home energy management scheduling model that is more realistic and efficient. We develop a mixed integer linear optimization model that minimizes the energy cost while maintaining a given level of user comfort. Our main contribution is the variety of specific appliance models considered and their integration into a single model. We consider the use of energy in appliances and electric vehicles (EVs) and take into account renewable local generation, batteries, and demand response. Our models of a shower, a fridge, and a hybrid EV consider both the electricity consumption and the conventional fuel cost. We present computational results to validate the model and indicate how it overcomes the limitations of other models. Our results, compared with the best competitors, provide cost savings ranging from 8% to 389% over a horizon of 24 hours.
We present an appliance‐oriented linear optimization model that integrates reliable appliance models to find an optimal trade‐off between cost and comfort for smart homes. This model overcomes the limitations of the existing models presented in the literature related to feasibility and costs. It also provides a reliable and detailed optimal solution for a real case in a reasonable time.
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