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How does the way companies elicit ratings from consumers affect the ratings that they receive? In 10 pre-registered experiments, we find that consumers rate subpar experiences more positively overall when they are also asked to rate specific aspects of those experiences (e.g. a restaurant's food, service, and ambiance). Studies 1–4 established the basic effect across different scenarios and experiences. Study 5 found that the effect is limited to being asked to rate specific features of an experience, rather than providing open-ended comments about those features. Studies 6–9 provided evidence that the effect does not emerge because rating positive aspects of a subpar experience reminds consumers that their experiences had some good features. Rather, it emerges because consumers want to avoid incorporating negative information into both the overall and the attribute ratings. Lastly, study 10 found that asking consumers to rate attributes of a subpar experience reduces the predictive validity of their overall rating. We discuss implications of this work and reconcile it with conflicting findings in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart services' data-intensive nature means their convenience for users comes with privacy concerns. This poses challenges for the supply of smart services. This paper analyses the impact of user-differentiated privacy costs on smart service supply strategies. It also discusses the effects of privacy protections and data utilisation capabilities on the improvement of smart service levels. We find that providers tend to segment the market based on user privacy sensitivity to capture the maximum consumer surplus. Strict privacy protection requirements may cause providers to sacrifice service quality. Privacy protection is conducive to improving the level of smart services only when users fully recognise these services' value. Interestingly, our study finds improvements in service levels by providers are driven by two factors. On the one hand, providers choose to improve their service levels to obtain more data and create more profits. On the other hand, to reduce the opportunity costs of early investments to develop services, providers need to improve their capabilities to utilise the value of data, ultimately leading to improved service levels. This study brings a new perspective to the supply of smart services and offers suggestions for how to resolve the contradiction between smart service use and privacy preservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Product co-design which connects the firm and consumers to achieve value co-creation is widely applied in the service-oriented manufacturing system (SOMS) to improve service quality. One of the key challenges in practice is to understand how the product co-design affects the performance of SOMS under different business models. This study considers a SOMS in which the firm optimises its product co-design effort and consumers decide whether to participate in product co-design under the selling and leasing models. The results show that the firm can always benefit from implementing the product co-design, even though consumers do not participate in product co-design under some specific circumstances. However, it does not always hold for consumers. Interestingly, we find that the free rider effect occurs when the participation cost is high. We further elaborate on the firm's business model selection strategy, introducing a threshold-based policy designed to assist the firm in making decisions when confronted with varying residual values and participation costs. Lastly, our findings indicate a lack of clear-cut pros and cons between the two business models in terms of the firm's product co-design efforts and consumer surplus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Service-oriented manufacturing has been a prevalent trend in integrating product collaborative development with maintenance service, whereas the final products are frequently trapped into severe quality defects lacking appropriate contracting incentives. This paper establishes a tractable framework investigating the alignment of inspection and warranty strategies to manage product quality throughout the R&D, manufacturing and usage processes. Specifically, the manufacturing effort is motivated by a cost-sharing contract provided by the researcher, who performs quality inspection upon receiving the final product. Subsequent maintenance service is predesignated for warranty period coverage that the cost is partially claimed for compensation from the manufacturer. Under both breakdown and preventive maintenance strategies, we elaborate and compare the optimal incentive intensities solving the equilibrium effort decisions and inspection accuracy. The results suggest that both R&D and manufacturing effort levels under preventive maintenance are slightly higher than that under breakdown maintenance scenario, while inspection accuracy contradicts conversely. The breakdown maintenance strategy is associated with a lower proportion of warranty costs borne by the manufacturer. For a sufficient long warranty period, the researcher is better off to conduct preventive maintenance periodically. Our study contributes to providing explicit implications to manage product development quality with adequate inspection and warranty strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to examine the determinants of sport consumers' mobile ticketing adoption by the technology readiness constructs and quality–satisfaction–behavioral intentions framework. A total of 295 participants were included in the analysis. Data analysis was performed using structural equation modeling and PROCESS macro. A content analysis was conducted to provide further insight into the proposed model using open-ended responses. The findings indicate that consumers' technology readiness alone was not a positive driver of mobile ticketing but suggest a role for technology readiness in promoting mobile ticketing, combined with service quality, satisfaction, and online ticket purchasing. The importance and originality of this study are that it confirms the sport context as a unique and effective vehicle in advancing existing knowledge of consumers' ticket consumption behavior via self-service technology across various disciplines. Also, the findings can be used to set out recommendations for policy or practice aimed at facilitating and sustaining mobile ticketing consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research shows that using mimetic isomorphism to select price/quality product strategies results in superior performance in the United States, the European Union, and Japan for both developed economy and emerging market manufacturers. However, do these results generalize in the case of emerging market service providers? Due to the nature of services, customers cannot gauge service quality prior to consumption, and they must rely on other cues; commonly, consumers rely on the brand name as a proxy. We theorize that for emerging market service providers, choosing a strategy of "distinctiveness" (pursuing a nondominant price/quality strategy) offers a way to differentiate their offering from the mimetic choice, resulting in superior performance. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One question that needs to be asked in understanding the consequences of humour in service encounters is whether the prevalent bivariate approaches capture the full range of humour consequences. Therefore, this study examines the influence of frontline employees' (FLEs) combined use of affiliative and self-defeating humour on customers' perceptions of service quality in 268 service encounters. Bivariate results show that the positive effect of affiliative humour is much stronger than the negative effect of self-defeating humour. On the contrary, response surface analyses show that bad may be stronger than good. FLEs' humour use is particularly advantageous with customers who appreciate humour, while for those who do not, there is an optimal margin effect when affiliative humour exceeds self-defeating humour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a 2-year study on how quickly Texas library staff members greeted a library patron after eye contact. Results from 140 library visits found a mean of nearly 4 min, but a mean of 9 s after removing outliers. The study also calculated the perceived customer value by measuring the service, quality, image, and price of the customer service experience. Findings suggest that each patron/staff interaction may alter a patron's perceived Return on Investment (ROI). Given libraries are primarily supported by tax dollars, poor patron service experiences may impact the perceived values of library programs and services, jeopardizing future funding. The article highlights the importance for libraries to retain satisfied employees and build trust within their communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research explored the influence of quality service, academic support, institutional fit, and financial factors on the retention rates of third and fourth-year students in paramedical and non-paramedical programs at Liceo de Cagayan University. Utilizing a descriptive-correlational design, data were collected through a researcher-developed instrument administered to 334 participants from 12 colleges within the university. The Spearman Correlation Coefficient was employed to analyze the relationships among the variables. Results indicated that students generally value the quality of services provided, particularly appreciating the expertise of academic advisors; however, they voiced concerns regarding trust and consistency in service delivery. While campus engagement and financial aid services received positive feedback, there were significant gaps in students' understanding of available options and overall institutional support, highlighting areas for improvement to boost retention and satisfaction. The correlation analysis confirmed a significant relationship between retention rates and the factors studied. Consequently, it is recommended that college administrators enhance communication and standardize services, expand academic support and flexible learning options for working students, promote active student engagement, and encourage future research focused on interventions that improve student satisfaction and retention, fostering a more inclusive educational environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of 'proximity-based cities' has gained attention as a new urban organizational model. Most prominently, the 15-minute city contends that cities can function more effectively, equitably and sustainably if essential, everyday services and key amenities are within a 15-minute walk or cycle. However, focusing solely on travel time risks overlooking disparities in service quality, as the proximity paradigm tends to emphasize the mere presence of an element in a location rather than bringing up more complex questions of identity, diversity, quality, value or relationships. Transitioning to value-based cities by considering more than just proximity can enhance local identity, resilience and urban democracy. Fostering bottom–up initiatives can create a culture of local care and value, while predominantly top–down governing strategies can lead to large inequalities. Balancing these approaches can maximize resilience, health and sustainability. This equilibrium has the potential to accompany sustainable growth, by encouraging the creation of innovative urban solutions and reducing inequalities. This article is part of the theme issue 'Co-creating the future: participatory cities and digital governance'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Multiple intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRS) in a wireless system are considered to enhance performance, efficiency, and flexibility in wireless networks. In this paper, we analyze outage probability (OP) for multiple IRS panels‐assisted wireless systems over Nakagami‐ m fading channels. We focus on selecting the best IRS panel to maintain the quality of service and enhance the user experience. We derive two closed‐form OP expressions using the central limit theorem and Laguerre series expansion. Additionally, we develop a novel asymptotic OP expression and obtain a novel diversity order. The diversity order of the considered system model depends on the minimum fading parameter (m) between the transmitter‐IRS panel and IRS panel‐receiver links and the number of IRS panels. We thoroughly investigate the impact of system parameters and validate our analytical results with simulations. Our findings emphasize that diversity order depends on the minimum fading parameter (m) between the transmitter‐IRS panel and IRS panel‐receiver links, the number of IRS elements in each panel, and the number of IRS panels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data centres have become the backbone of infrastructure for delivering cloud services. In the emerging cloud computing paradigm, virtual machine (VM) live migration involves moving a running VM across hosts without visible interruption to the client. Security vulnerabilities, resource optimization, and maintaining the quality of service are key issues in live VM migration. Maintaining security in VM live migration is one of the critical concerns. To create a secure environment, this paper proposes a live migration technique using the blowfish cryptographic algorithm for encryption and decryption, along with blockchain technology, to address challenges such as decentralization, data privacy, and VM security. The algorithms, namely key management blowfish encryption (KMBE), access control searchable encryption (ACSE), protected searchable destination server (PSDS), and key expansion blowfish decryption (KEBD), improve security in VM live migration in terms of various parameters such as data centre request servicing time, response time, and data transfer cost. The proposed technique KMBE improves migration cost ($) by 60–70%, ACSE reduces overall energy consumption (w) by 70–80%, PSDS reduces makespan (ms) by 40–50%, and KEBD improves the security in live VM migration by 30–40%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Machine Type Communication Devices for Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication in 5G cellular networks have issues with scalability, quality of service (QoS), collisions, and delays in data transmission. M2M connectivity has become prevalent in the Internet of Things. The suggested MAC protocol for M2M communication using adaptive TDMA was designed to be scalable and power-efficient. To address the problems of collision, quality of service and scalability in M2M communication by presenting a Power-efficient MAC switching protocol with Adaptive Time Division Multiple Access (PMAC-ATDMA). There are three phases to this: grouping, dynamic MAC switching, and time slot allocation. Optimization Technique: The usage of the adaptive k-means algorithm with the HHO method for selecting MTC heads based on their power status and proximity to enhance network efficiency and reduce collision. Hybrid MAC Protocol Design: A dynamic switching mechanism between CSMA/CA and Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Avoidance Reservation Protocol (CSMA/CARP) based on network density and device activity, aiming to optimize collision handling and energy consumption. ATDMA assigns time slots that are used for data transmission based on the size of the data and QoS requirements. Traditional TDMA's synchronization issue is solved by using the Markov chain model; this PMAC-ATDMA is simulated using a network simulator tool. Access delay, energy, collision likelihood, and successful packet transmissions are all taken into account throughout the evaluation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the spotlight has been cast on smart healthcare by many researchers to provide better facilities to patients. Improved services, such as reducing health hazards, monitoring patient health, tracking disease trends, and enhancing service quality, can be offered by smart healthcare. Despite its numerous potential benefits, smart healthcare is associated with some security challenges. These challenges can be mitigated by utilizing blockchain technology, which is characterized by decentralization, cryptography, consensus mechanisms, transparency and accountability, smart contracts, ownership of data, immutability, and distributed ledger. Therefore, the latest blockchain technology is focused in this article to address the security challenges of smart healthcare. In this article, attention is given to smart healthcare, smart cities for smart healthcare, smart and secure healthcare, and cutting-edge technologies for smart cities and smart healthcare.Please provide author biography and photo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of Internet of Vehicles (IoV) technology has led to a sharp increase in vehicle data. Traditional cloud computing is no longer sufficient to meet the high bandwidth and low latency requirements of IoV tasks. Ensuring the service quality of applications on in-vehicle devices has become challenging. Edge computing technology moves computing tasks from the cloud to edge servers with sufficient computing resources, effectively reducing network congestion and data propagation latency. The integration of edge computing and IoV technology is an effective approach to realizing intelligent applications in IoV.This paper investigates the deployment of vehicle edge servers in cloud-edge collaborative environment. Taking into consideration the vehicular mobility and the computational demands of IoV applications, the vehicular edge server deployment within the cloud-edge collaborative framework is formulated as a multi-objective optimization problem. This problem aims to achieve two primary objectives: minimizing service access latency and balancing server workload. To address this problem, a model is established for optimizing the deployment of vehicle edge servers and a deployment approach named VSPR is proposed. This method integrates hierarchical clustering and reinforcement learning techniques to effectively achieve the desired multi-objective optimization. Experiments are conducted using a real datasets from Shanghai Telecom to comprehensively evaluate the performance of workload balance and service access latency of vehicle edge servers under different deploy methods. Experimental results demonstrate that VSPR achieves an optimized balance between low latency and workload balancing while ensuring service quality, and outperforms SRL, CQP, K-means and Random algorithm by 4.76%, 44.59%, 40.78% and 69.33%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online education has expanded globally in secondary schools, offering flexibility, affordability, and access to diverse courses. This study aimed to explore the experiences, motivations, challenges, and suggestions of international online Filipino students regarding educational support services. A narrative inquiry approach was employed, interviewing seven international Filipino online learners residing in various countries. The study utilized the 3-dimensional space approach to craft the re-storying of the participants' narratives. Thematic analysis uncovered emergent themes in participants' experiences with educational support services, providing a deep understanding of their online learning journeys. A total of twelve themes encapsulated the many-sided nature of online learning experiences. The participants shared diverse narratives, revealing personal motivations for choosing online learning and their experiences with educational services. They appreciated the accessibility of online resources but faced challenges such as difficulties in the learning environment and motivational obstacles. Valuable recommendations were provided, emphasizing personalized assistance and flexible scheduling. Ongoing adaptation and innovation of online platforms were deemed crucial to meeting students' evolving needs. Understanding the narratives of international online Filipino students and addressing their recommendations could create more inclusive and effective online learning environments. This study contributes insights into online education, informing the development of tailored support mechanisms for diverse student populations. By addressing the unique experiences and needs of international online Filipino students, educators and policymakers could enhance the accessibility and effectiveness of online learning platforms on a global scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Retos: Nuevas Perspectivas de Educación Física, Deporte y Recreación is the property of Federacion Espanola de Asociaciones de Docentes de Educacion Fisica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Retos: Nuevas Perspectivas de Educación Física, Deporte y Recreación is the property of Federacion Espanola de Asociaciones de Docentes de Educacion Fisica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Summary: When selecting services from a cloud center to build applications, the quality of service (QoS) is an important nonfunctional attribute to be considered. However, in actual application scenarios, the QoS details for many services may not be available. This has led to a situation where prediction of the missing QoS records for services has become a key problem for service selection. This article presents a selective ensemble learning (SEL) framework for prefilling‐based matrix factorization (PFMF) predictors. In each PFMF predictor, the improved collaborative filtering is defined by examining the stability of the QoS records when measuring the similarity of users (or services), and then used to prefill empty records in the initial QoS matrix. To ensure the diversity of the basic PFMF predictors, various prefilled QoS matrices are constructed for the matrix factorization. In this process, different reference weights are assigned to the original and the prefilled QoS records. Finally, particle swarm optimization is used to set the ensemble weights for the basic PFMF predictors. The proposed SEL on PFMF (SEL‐PFMF) algorithm is validated on a public dataset, where its prediction performance outperforms the state‐of‐the‐art algorithms, and also shows good stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Quality of Service (QoS) regulates and controls network resources by setting priorities for specific data types. Many clustering algorithms are used to cluster cloud workloads, most of which are static. However, the lack of dynamic algorithms is seen in the face of huge databases that are real‐time and according to the existing clustering conditions. Additionally, fair allocation of tasks on servers and efficient resource utilization pose challenges. In this research, two solutions are proposed to improve the quality of service: the first solution uses the chameleon dynamic algorithm, a method to improve service quality. The chameleon algorithm has been able to show significant performance due to its high accuracy in detecting the smallest distance between clusters. This dynamic algorithm outperforms static algorithms with classification accuracy and response speed, which are the most important parameters of service quality. The second part of the proposed solution is to use the Scheduling Model using Cloud Data Centers (SM‐CDC) system to select the best service provider based on the clustering done in the previous step. A SM‐CDC technique is developed to handle cloud storage center tasks that are stored in electronic devices. According to the comparison with existing scheduling policies, SM‐CDC offered 36% decrease on response time, 50% reduction on cost of resources, and 40% improvement on QoS Satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The ability of mobile ad hoc networks (MANET) to be used as communication tools in a variety of industries, including healthcare, the military, smart traffic, and smart cities, has drawn special consideration. Traditional Manet's multicast routing methods seem to be inappropriate to massive with Adaptive systems because the problem is NP‐complete, resulting in an enchanting QoS restrictions. In order to conquer that the paper proficiently introduces the Conglomerate Crumb Horde Formicary Meta‐Heuristic (CCHFMO) with Asymmetrical Meander Diffie‐Hellman (AMDH) to tackle the major obstacles are multicast routing problems and lack of data protection. Initially, the fusion of crumb horde optimization (CHO) and formicary optimization (FO) is exploited to strengthen QoS limitations and reduce QoS data loss. However, the massive and dynamic nature of the network with the combination of more QoS restrictions, deficient security has become extremely difficult. Therefore, the research work establishes the asymmetrical meander Diffie‐Hellman (AMDH) to significantly improve performance and concealment while ensuring channel security during data transfer. Finally, the results demonstrated that by employing the novel optimization approaches, the MANET can increase data protection while still achieving high transmission rates and sophistication of communication. As a consequence, it adequately explicates the article to improve QoS performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How human-computer interaction affects customer electronic service quality satisfaction is an important issue that electronic service-based companies need to consider. This paper constructs a conceptual model based on service dominant logic theory and task technology fit theory. It conducts a questionnaire survey of 559 Taobao platform users to verify the proposed hypothesis. The results show that human-computer interaction comprises three basic factors (technology functionality, task routineness, and technology readiness) and two core factors (interaction between task routineness and technology functionality, and interaction between technology readiness and technology functionality). This research enriches the theoretical basis of electronic service quality. It promotes the development of task technology fit theory in service science, providing guidance for electronic service-based companies to improve service interfaces and enhance electronic service quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alumni associations are established by higher education institutions to formalise relationships with alumni, and to nurture alumni loyalty over time. This study investigates drivers of perceived value for an alumni association, and the effects that perceived value and satisfaction have on alumni loyalty. Data were collected from 1711 respondents to an online survey of alumni at a university college in Norway. Responses were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling. Findings reveal that service quality of alumni activities and attractive quality of the association drive perceived value. Satisfaction among those that have participated in alumni activities has a significant moderating effect on the relationship between perceived value and alumni loyalty. However, the direct effect of perceived value on alumni loyalty is not significant, meaning that perceived value alone is not enough to drive alumni loyalty. It is necessary to also achieve satisfaction among participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) systems, continuously stabilizing web services' quality of service (QoS) is critical to maintaining system performance. Dynamic changes in edge-cloud collaborative computing environments lead to fluctuations in QoS values, and the original service portfolio design will no longer fulfill the Service Level Agreement (SLA), resulting in performance degradation of SOA systems. To ensure the efficiency of SOA systems, long time-series prediction of services' QoS is an effective method, which can warn of SLA violations and recommend optimal candidate services. In this paper, we propose a prediction algorithm, MF-Informer, which combines matrix factorization and the Informer model to solve the sparsity problem of QoS historical data, and the self-attention mechanism of the Informer model realizes the prediction of service QoS over N steps ahead. In this paper, experiments are conducted based on real-world web service QoS datasets, and the results show that this paper's method improves the efficiency and accuracy of service QoS long-term prediction, which is significantly better than existing methods in several evaluation metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patient safety incident (PSI) reporting is essential to identify underlying problems and improve safety, but PSI reporting in Indonesian hospitals is still low. This study examines factors that contribute to PSI reports. It employed a cross-sectional design and analyzed data from Indonesia's 2019 Health Facilities Research. Methods: According to the criteria, the sample consisted of 462 hospitals. We evaluate the data using the chi-square test. The independent variables were documents, including strategic plans and hospital bylaws; activities included implementing a quality control system, monitoring and evaluation, internal audits, service evaluation and quality control, and periodic meetings. Results: Even though most hospitals already have documents and carry out activities, reports regarding PSI are still lacking in the surveyed hospitals, with half not having any. In Indonesian hospitals, all variables were significantly associated with PSI reports. Hospitals with these documents and management activities, like strategic plans, internal audits, or evaluations, have more PSI reports. Conclusion: The number of PSI reports has increased due to changes in reporting culture, which may indicate a safer culture rather than necessarily an increasing risk. Adopt a comprehensive, data-driven strategy, concentrating on incident reporting and detection. Hospital management must sustainably monitor, assess, and evaluate to encourage PSI reporting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of zoos in wildlife management has been revolutionized from basic conservation sites into research institutions, public education, and recreational destinations for public visitors. Building upon this evolution, the present study delves into the intricate interrelationships between public zoo experiential service quality, the perceived image of these institutions, experiential satisfaction, and visitors' intentions to revisit. Questionnaires were administered to 330 visitors via purposive sampling at the Kuala Lumpur National Zoo. The study hypotheses were supported, highlighting the significant and positive inter-relationship between interaction quality, physical environment quality, enjoyment quality, educational quality, zoo image, experiential satisfaction, and visitor’s revisit intention. The study provides practical managerial implications for the public zoo in delivering superior services, essential in improving visitor satisfaction. Excellent service quality ensures visitor satisfaction, enabling zoo management to meet visitor's expectations and encourage return visits, thus enhancing the zoo’s sustainability. The study results urge public zoo management in developing and implementing out of the box market-orientated service strategies by enhancing the interaction, enjoyment, educational quality, and physical environment perceived by future visitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most well-known names that has recently attained new heights and set a standard is Internet of Things (IoT). IoT aims to connect all physical devices in such a way that they are subject to human control over the Internet.The emergence of IoT in almost all the industries has redesigned them including smart agriculture. In today's world, the growth in agriculture sector is rapid, smarter and precise than ever. In case of IoT, the objects are termed as services, sometimes with similar functionalities but distinct quality of service parameters. As the user's requirements are complex, a single service cannot fulfil them efficiently. So, service composition is the solution. These services known as atomic services, are represented as workflow, with each of them having distinct candidate composite services. Fulfilling these Quality of Service (QoS) constraints makes it a NP-hard problem which can't be solved using traditional approaches. Hence, comes the concept of evolutionary approaches. In this paper one of the evolutionary approach- NSGA-II is used to optimize the production of apple by composing the various services, taking into account the cost and time as multi-objective problem to be solved. This is for the very first time that QoS aware service composition problem has been optimized in smart agriculture as found in the literature. Results are further compared with multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA) and it has been found that NSGA-II outperforms MOGA by generating well-proportioned pareto optimal solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graduate higher education coverage has expanded worldwide due to globalisation, the demand for more specialised human resources and online education, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This article validates an evaluation model of academic service quality in graduate studies that integrates HiEduQual instruments with the Kano method for graduate students at a Peruvian university. A survey was conducted among graduate students (masters programmes and continuing education) at Universidad Continental, obtaining 326 responses. The study found that the attributes that have the greatest impact on student satisfaction include the presence of foreign professors, international activities, continuous improvement of university infrastructure and constant evaluation; the dimension associated with internationalisation plays an essential role in the satisfaction of graduate students, particularly in a globalised context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inter‐municipal cooperation (IMC) is increasingly becoming a tool municipalities use to achieve development goals and increase public service quality. However, in Central and Eastern Europe countries, including Poland, such a modus operandi is less common due to administrative and legal considerations. This article analyses one bicycle‐sharing project carried out jointly by 14 municipalities of the Gdańsk‐Gdynia‐Sopot metropolitan area in Poland. Based on a series of in‐depth interviews, the study aimed to consider what builds inter‐municipal cooperation at the local level. During the analysis, it proved that the various actors had different levels of commitment to cooperation based on substantive premises. Positive opinions about cooperation in the project resulted from partner and non‐hierarchical relations, fair and equal treatment without domination towards smaller municipalities. The study showed that in addition to the assumed effects of cooperation, the applied cooperation model allowed many added effects to be achieved, beneficial for all project partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Condensation Particle Counter (CPC) is an effective instrument for measuring the number concentration of aerosol particles in different environments. With only a few exceptions, CPCs are bench instruments with limited portability for use in the field, and have a cost that prevents their use in large numbers for distributed air quality measurements. This has motivated the development of compact and cost-effective CPCs that are already available in the market. Here we test the performance of such a CPC, designed and built by National Air Quality Testing Services Ltd (NAQTS), Lancaster, UK, which is a part of the V2000 compact air quality monitor that also includes gas sensors. The tests were carried out using monodisperse particles produced by atomization and electrical mobility classification. We found that the NAQTS V2000 CPC has a 50% detection efficiency for particles having diameter of ca. 14 nm. Our results also show that the coincidence error of the core CPC occurs at concentrations higher than 1 × 104 #/cm−3. Considering that the standalone CPC employs an ejector pump that provides a nominal dilution factor between 20 and 50 at its inlet, the coincidence error threshold of the system when sampling particles from ambient air is 2–5 × 105 #/cm−3. To extend its range for aerosols with particle concentrations by one order of magnitude higher, and thus expand its capabilities for a wide range of applications, we provide a simple correction equation. Overall, our results demonstrate that the NAQTS V2000 CPC is a highly effective instrument, and considering that it is currently the most cost-effective CPC in the market, to the best of our knowledge, makes it a highly attractive solution for air quality monitoring. : [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compliance with security requirements in the fog computing environment is known as an important phenomenon in maintaining the quality of service due to the dynamic topology. Security and privacy breaches can occur in fog computing because of its properties and the adaptability of its deployment method. These characteristics render current systems inappropriate for fog computing, including support for high mobility, a dynamic environment, geographic distribution, awareness of location, closeness to end users, and absence of redundancy. Although efficient secure routing protocols have been developed by researchers in recent years, it is challenging to ensure security, reliability, and quality of service at the same time to overcome the limitations of cloud-fog computing. In light of the fact that trust management is an effective means of protecting sensitive information, this study proposes a two-way trust management system (TMS) that would enable both the service requester and the service provider to verify each other's reliability and safety. The trustworthiness of the service seeker can also be verified in this way. So that fog clients can confirm that fog nodes can deliver suitable, dependable, and secure services, trust in a fog computing environment should ideally be two-way. The ability to verify the authenticity of fog clients is an important capability for fog nodes to have. A distributed, event-based, multi-trust trust system is presented by the suggested approach to trust computation, which makes use of social relationships (nodes and clients) and service quality criteria. Hence, the trust score is computed using a number of characteristics. Here, the weight of direct and indirect ratings is emphasized, and the final trust score is computed by dynamically merging the information gained from self-observation and the suggestions of nearby nodes. An extensive evaluation of the proposed method shows that it is resistant to a large number of badly behaved nodes and can successfully neutralize trust-based attacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Security challenges in complex information technologies continue to grow and diversify. To improve network security, many researchers have explored the game theoretic approach as a hopeful modeling tool. Knowing that the attacker can take advantage of vulnerabilities and explore existing weaknesses in the network configuration to gain access to the system for a successful attack, our objective is to benefit from virtual machines' migration as a moving target defense technique and honeypot as a deceiving technique to increase the attack surface's dynamicity. This paper presents a game-theoretic framework for modeling attack-defense interaction. A model based on incomplete information game and attack graph is developed. Our main findings reveal in which case migration of virtual machines should be established in a architecture where a honeypot is deployed and identify the potential attack paths based on system security parameters. This provides network administrators with the ability to find unsecure nodes, avoid negative externality and more precisely inefficient migrations which impact the quality of service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In cloud-edge-end scenarios, how to achieve rational resource allocation, implement effective service deployment, and ensure high service quality has become a hot research topic in academic domains. Service providers usually deploy services by considering the characteristics of different geographical regions, which helps to meet the diverse needs of users in different regions and optimize resource allocation and utilization. However, due to the widespread distribution of users and limited server resources, providing all types of services to users in every geographical region is not feasible. In addition, edge servers are prone to operational failures caused by software anomalies, hardware malfunctions, and malicious attacks, which will decrease service reliability. To address the problems above, this paper proposes a metric for service priorities based on user demands and regional characteristics for different geographical regions. Building upon this foundation, a Multi-Service Geographic region Deployment based on Priority (MS-GD-P) is proposed. This method takes user coverage and service reliability into consideration, which facilitates users' needs for multiple services in different geographical regions. Experimental results on real datasets demonstrate that MS-GD-P outperforms baseline methods in user coverage and service reliability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Older adults living in elderly caring social organizations (SOs) are prone to suffer from depression. Many studies have found correlations between environmental and quality-of-life factors and depression; however, evidence from elderly caring SOs is rare, particularly in China. A cross-sectional study was conducted among service recipients in elderly caring SOs in Anhui and Chongqing, China. Data on demographic and health-related characteristics, living environment factors, and service quality satisfaction factors in 2171 older adults were used for analysis. The binary logistic regression model was conducted to estimate the association between living environment and service quality satisfaction factors and depression. Our results indicated that living environment factors in terms of exposure to suitable temperature and humidity (OR = 0.655; 95 % CI: 0.446, 0.963), green coverage >30 % (OR = 0.432; 95 % CI: 0.337, 0.553) were associated with lower odds of developing depression. Also, an opposite relationship was found in the noise factor (OR = 1.985; 95 % CI: 1.395, 2.823). Higher satisfaction with admission and discharge services, dietary services, entertainment services, and psychological support services were also found to be associated with a lower risk of depression. A cross-sectional design precluded determining whether living environment, service quality satisfaction, and depression are causally related. Measurement of living environment factors and service quality satisfaction factors needs to be further clarified comprehensively. Enhancing the living environment and the quality of the services provided to seniors in the elderly caring SOs is conducive to the reduction of the likelihood of depression. • The prevalence of depression among older adults in Chinese elderly caring social organizations was found to be 23.8 %. • Living environment factors in terms of temperature and humidity, green space, noise were associated with depression. • Higher satisfaction with service quality was found to be associated with a lower risk of depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bandwidth estimation in network probing techniques plays a crucial role in modern networks, particularly in ensuring superior Quality of Service (QoS). This is largely influenced by advancements in IEEE 802.11 standards, which aim to enhance service performance. Existing methodologies are designed to assess the available resources on a given channel, providing valuable support for bandwidth-constrained applications. However, these methods encounter limitations due to potential non-linearities within networks. The current approach leverages min-plus algebra from network calculus, which, although effective, falls short in certain dynamic scenarios. In this research, we propose a novel methodology for bandwidth estimation by integrating other state-of-the-art QoS protocols while maintaining the foundational principles of the min-plus algebra technique. This approach aims to develop a more versatile and adaptable system, better suited for complex network environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper evaluates the contracting problem between a platform and a seller under information asymmetry where the seller holds private information about his/her cost for product quality. Price per product is influenced by seller's product quality and platform's service quality. Cost-sharing contract is more desirable as it induces a higher level of qualities and generates higher profit for the platform compared to revenue-sharing contract. The product quality and platform's service quality vary negatively with the ad-valorem tax imposed on price of the product. We then introduce advertising in our model and observe that the level of advertising is lower under information asymmetry. JEL Classifications : D86, L21, M37 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates the relationship between customers' trust in e-retailers and online buying behavior. First, a multi-layered conceptual model is developed using the e-service quality dimensions to understand consumers' online behavior in the context of a developing country, India. Data were collected from 588 respondents from four metropolitan cities in southern India during the 'new normal' post-pandemic period. After checking the psychometric properties of the survey instrument, using the LISREL package of structural equation modeling, the hypothesized relationships were tested using Hayes's PROCESS macros. The results indicate that the credibility and responsiveness of e-retailers are significant predictors of trust. The findings also support the positive association of trust with online buying behavior and customer satisfaction. Most importantly, price discounts and offers (PDO) (first moderator) and assurance (second moderator) interact with trust to positively influence online buying behavior. The study also empirically found that the personalization (first moderator) and accessibility (second moderator) of e-retailers interact with online buying behavior to enhance customer satisfaction. The three-way interaction effects offer novelty to the conceptual model, and findings significantly contribute to the literature on online buying behavior. As against the earlier studies that focused on all the service quality dimensions together influencing customer satisfaction, this study offers new insights into unfolding the dimensions to see their effects on trust and customer satisfaction. The results also have several recommendations for e-retailers interested in retaining and attracting customers to buy products and services online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to analyze how corporate social responsibility (CSR) moderates the direct effects of satisfaction, service quality and trust on consumer bank loyalty. Design/methodology/approach: A survey was conducted with 258 consumers who had held a bank account for at least six months to test the proposed model and achieve the research objectives. It was hypothesized that satisfaction, service quality and trust would positively influence bank loyalty. Additionally, it was expected that CSR would positively moderate the relationships between these constructs and bank loyalty. Findings: The study confirmed the positive relationships among the direct effects of satisfaction, service quality and trust on bank loyalty. However, unexpected results were found in the moderation analysis. The moderating effects of CSR on the relationships between service quality and trust in customer loyalty contradicted expectations. These results suggest that banks should cautiously approach CSR activities, especially in Brazil. Consumers' perceptions are influenced by whether they perceive CSR initiatives as altruistic. Conversely, banks risk losing credibility if consumers perceive CSR as self-serving rather than beneficial to the public. The study underscores the importance of aligning CSR practices with genuine public benefit to enhance consumer trust and loyalty, urging companies to rethink their approach to CSR implementation. Originality/value: This investigation benefits researchers, customers and banking executives. The findings may assist banks in (re)building their CSR reputation. This research evaluates banks in a developing economy and can serve as a precursor to future research, helping to develop CSR guidelines for banks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: We respond to the existing gaps regarding the drivers and outcomes of customer experience quality in the context of bank marketing by examining the interrelationships between distinct dimensions of VTM service quality, customer experience quality and customer loyalty. Design/methodology/approach: This research follows the Stimulus-Organism-Response theory to examine the antecedents and behavioural outcomes of customer experience quality during their journeys with video teller machine (VTM) services in the banking industry (also known as LiveBank or SmartBank). First, we conducted in-depth interviews with 34 bank customers to develop distinct measurement scales for customer experience quality and VTM service quality. A structural equation model linking six dimensions of VTM service quality, including tangibles, interaction quality, empathy, reliability, user's friendliness and efficiency with the affective-sensory and intellectual values of customer experience quality and customer loyalty to VTM service is tested using data obtained from 405 individual customers. Findings: The findings reveal that tangibles, interaction quality, reliability, user-friendliness and efficiency contribute to customer experience quality, which, in turn, drives customers' intention to use VTM again. This research provides crucial theoretical background and practical implications to accelerate the penetration of VTM among bank customers and hence, foster financial inclusion among societies. Originality/value: This paper presents the first research that empirically employs the value-based approach to measure customer experience quality in the banking service industry and examine its linkages to service quality and customer loyalty. Moreover, given the emergence of VTM, this is also among the pioneering studies which validate measurement scales for VTM service quality. This could be either reused or revisited for further research about VTM. Overall, our study contributes to the literature about customer retention in the banking service industry from not only the customers' backwards-looking evaluations of service performance (i.e. service quality) but also their forward-looking evaluations (i.e. their own experience). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With ageing societies and increasing number of patients, there is a growing need for quality services that help transporting non-urgent patients to hospitals. In logistics, patient transportation problems are usually modeled as a dial-a-ride problem. In a Dial-a-Ride problem, a fleet of vehicles is providing the delivery services between the loading points and the delivery destinations. The demands are known in advance. In most cases the total travel distance of the vehicles is to be minimized. In this paper, we consider a specific dial-a-ride problem, where a single vehicle is used to transport patients to the same hospital. In determining the optimal route, the multiple and different travel needs of patients, such as their maximum travel time, are also taken into consideration. We introduce 4 different mixed integer linear programming models of the routing problem. Finally, the efficiency of the four models was compared using some real-life problems by solving them with a commercial solver. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the embodied nature of the customer experience. Engaging prior research, we suggest marketing literature is still coming to terms with how best to incorporate the body into its studies, noting manuscripts rarely attend to the bodies of customers moving in situ or analyse what customers do and achieve with their bodies. As a result, theoretical accounts remain quite disconnected from the de facto activities that comprise many marketing processes. Drawing on ethnomethodological study policies, and Wittgenstein's notion of language games, our paper zooms-in on embodied conduct, analysing video recordings of consultations in hair salons. We analyse how customers embody thoughts about and emotional responses to the service provided. Rather than separating mind and body, we identify precise moments where customers draw service employees into their experience during live interaction. In so doing, the paper offers a vantage point from which to think anew about the customer experience as something that is public, shared, and thus accountable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time reliability (TR) is a critical factor that affects the efficiency and service quality of the urban rail transit network (URTN). However, previous studies have not incorporated TR into the evaluation of URTN station importance, focusing instead on basic centrality measures. Therefore, this paper proposes a new metric of station-based TR for evaluating and ranking URTN station importance. The new metric in combination with traditional centrality measures was used by the weighted Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (weighted TOPSIS) to identify the combined significance level of individual URTN station importance and rank them accordingly. To investigate the performance of this method, we exploit deliberate attacks on the top-ranked stations through different methods. A case study of Beijing's URTN during the morning peak hour showed that the proposed method is generally a better indicator for identifying station importance in maintaining network connectivity. The case study also demonstrated the feasibility and validity of the model. This study can provide recommendations for the planning and operation of rail transit systems and can inform the effective design of station protection strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: There is a paucity of published research regarding service employees' side of gloomy consequences emanating from value co-creation (VCC). The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of the activities and interactions of VCC that can result in negative well-being for service employees. Design/methodology/approach: This paper is a theory synthesis paper and, as such, seeks to accomplish conceptual integration of multiple theories and literature streams. Findings: The origins of negative outcomes of VCC are infinite, and for the purpose of this study, the potential triggers of negative outcomes are limited to typical processes and behaviours initiated by VCC of services. For the purposes of this paper, dysfunctional customer behaviour, customer incivility, value co-destruction, boundary-spanning activities, organisational structure and policies and resource integration are investigated as sources of negative well-being for service employees. Research limitations/implications: The first limitation is the focus on offline transactions. Although the accepted definition of a service ecosystem provides for it to be a "self-adjusting system" a need could emerge for some formal management structure to cope with the increasing complexity of service transactions. A theoretical implication of this paper is that it includes a few lesser researched elements in the context of VCC. A starting point to deal with undesirable VCC interactions is to distinguish between undesirable interaction outcomes that originated inside the firm (own service employees) and those that originated from outside the firm (dysfunctional customers). Practical implications: A first suggestion on how managers could deal with undesirable VCC interactions is to distinguish between undesirable interaction outcomes that originated inside the firm (e.g. own service employees, firm policies and structure) and those that originated from outside the firm (e.g. customer incivility and dysfunctional customers), as these two types of interaction outcomes require different interventions. Firms will need to bring together, study, analyse and assess all service employee experiences and challenges generated by VCC interactions. The frequency and significance of negative incidents should indicate the amount of effort and time to be spent on types of negative incidents. Social implications: A challenge for service ecosystems is how they will adjust to comply with novel and traditional non-business objectives in the light of transformational, upliftment and other calls from society, whilst at the same time improving the well-being of the entire service ecosystem (i.e. providers, users and society). The improvement of well-being versus reducing suffering/losses/risks is not an option. The words of Hammedi et al. (2024, p. 159) "we move towards the conceptualization of service ecosystem health as a harmonious state in which private, public and planetary well-being merge" are exceptionally fitting here. Originality/value: The negative consequences of VCC impact the well-being of service employees and are costly for a firm. Suggestions to prevent or limit the impact of undesirable or harmful consequences are made. This study is of value for service businesses, service academics and society. A greater awareness of the destructive nature of negative consequences of VCC will hopefully transpire from this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]