When Ad Is Selfie: The Effect of Selfie on the Effectiveness of Ad Endorsers in Social Media

Selfie has proliferated in social media and capture the attentions from businesses. Although selfie has been leveraged into social commerce, little literature has understood and explained the effect of selfie. To solve this gap, this paper considers the effect of selfie on the effectiveness of ad endorsers and the moderating role of product type. We interpret selfie as a form of self-disclosure and study three types of ad endorsers: celebrities, experts and typical consumers. Given the nature of selfie and ad endorsers, we hypothesize that selfie enhance the effectiveness of celebrities and typical consumers, not experts. Besides, we also hypothesize that selfie improve the effectiveness of celebrities and typical consumer for hedonic product more than for utilitarian product, and experts is good for utilitarian product. Towards hypotheses in our paper, we plan to employ lab and field experimental method to test them. Potential theoretical and practical implications have been discussed

An Exploratory Study of Hospitality Student Volunteers’ Motivation and Satisfaction in Food and Wine Festivals

AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF HOSPITALITY STUDENT VOLUNTEERS’ MOTIVATION AND SATISFACTION IN FOOD AND WINE FESTIVALS Hang Wu School of Hospitality and Tourism Management Florida International University Eunju Suh School of Hospitality and Tourism Management Florida International University Jinlin Zhao School of Hospitality and Tourism Management Florida International University ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to explore and examine the motivation and satisfaction of hospitality student volunteers in food and wine festivals. It aims to investigate and identify the factors that festival managers need to use to motivate, satisfy, and retain hospitality student volunteers in order to organize a successful event, and enhance festival operation, marketing, and personnel management. Data will be collected at the10th Annual Food Network South Beach Wine and Food Festival in 2011. A survey questionnaire will be distributed to hospitality student volunteers over a full four-day event period. This study will contribute to the availability of the volunteerism literature and help to attract and increase festival organizers’ and hospitality educators’ interest in hospitality students’ festival volunteering practice. Keywords: festival, hospitality student volunteers, motivation, satisfaction INTRODUCTION Volunteers are an important human resource in festival and event operations every year. Rolfe, Ryan, and Bates estimated 76% of the festivals in the UK used volunteers (as cited in Elstad, 2003, p. 99). The majority of events were at least somewhat dependent on volunteer labor; and without the commitment from the volunteers, many events could not have been arranged (Elstad, 2003). The volunteer team works as a crucial component in the overall success of many major festivals and events. With a significant reliance upon volunteer workforces in festivals and events, studying volunteers’ motivation and satisfaction becomes a practical need. It is vital that festival- and event-organizers understand volunteers’ motivation and their satisfaction in order to respond effectively to management needs in the areas of recruitment, operation, and retention. How well organizers understand the motivation and satisfaction of the volunteers is likely to be important in their management and, consequently, the overall efficiency of the festival operations (Farrell, Johnson, & Twynam, 1998). There has been some valuable research on festival and event volunteers, but available literature specifically on hospitality student volunteers is scarce. The purpose of this study is to explore and examine the motivation and satisfaction of hospitality student volunteers in food and wine festivals. It aims to investigate and identify the factors that festival managers need to use to motivate, satisfy, and retain hospitality student volunteers in order to organize a successful event, and enhance festival operation, marketing, and personnel management. This study will contribute to the availability of the volunteerism literature and help to attract and increase festival organizers’ and hospitality educators’ interest in hospitality students’ festival volunteering practice. LITERATURE REVIEW Festival and event volunteers’ motivation Researchers have investigated festival- and event-volunteers’ motivation and satisfaction. People are motivated to volunteer for various reasons. Knowing why an individual is volunteering can have a major impact on the success of the event or program (Dunn, 1989). Cnaan and Goldberg-Glen (1991) indicated the importance of understanding motivation to volunteer because agencies would be able to use this knowledge to appeal more persuasively to potential volunteers. Berger (1991) also noted that understanding the motivation for volunteering has critical importance for the recruitment and retention of volunteers because organizations base their recruitment and retention efforts on their assumptions about volunteers’ motives. The primary conceptualization in the literature about volunteer motivation is altruism. Based on the findings of the literature review and combined with the researcher’s personal festival volunteering experience and observations, a conceptualization framework was conducted for this study: four elements contributing to the motivation of hospitality student volunteer include (1) altruistic motivation (Dunn, 1989; Fitch,1987; Govekar & Govekar, 2002; Love, 2010; Schrock, 1998; Smith,1981; Winniford, 1991; Ziemek, 2006); (2) material reward motivation (Elstad, 2003; Strigas, 2001); (3) self- and career-development motivation (Chapman,1985; Ellis, 1994; Tsai, 2000; Zakour, 1994); and (4) social and leisure motivation (Arrington, 2006; Henderson,1984; Jensen,1977; Tedrick, 1989; Tsai,2000). Each of the elements was hypothesized to significantly motivate hospitality student volunteers at the festival. Festival and event volunteers’ satisfaction Understanding volunteers’ satisfaction is important for the stability, retention and success of the festival and event. A review of the literature revealed that while there is extensive research on job satisfaction for paid workers and employees, volunteer satisfaction has not been given much attention to date by researchers. Gidron (1983) discussed in his study that one reason little is known about job satisfaction in volunteering is that volunteer work was popularly perceived as a purely altruistic act—an act which provides a person an opportunity to give, but not to receive. Gidon’s study found that overall satisfaction of volunteers was related to two facts of job content (work itself and achievement) and two facts of job context (convenience and absence of job stress factors). Yet research related to factors influencing volunteer satisfaction still has limitations. There is a need for more research to enrich the body of literature related to volunteer satisfaction. Elements affecting volunteer satisfaction surfaced in the literature review and formed a foundation for identifying the factors affecting volunteer satisfaction in this study. This foundation was strengthened by the researcher’s personal festival volunteering experience and observations, and developed into a conceptualization framework consisting of four elements affecting the volunteer satisfaction: work itself (Arrington, 2006; Galindo-Kuhn & Guzley, 2002; Silverberg, Marshall, & Ellis, 2001); achievement and reward (Clary et al., 1998; Galindo-Kuhn & Guzley, 2002; Silverberg, Marshall, & Ellis, 2001); support service (Gidron,1983), and relationships (Galindo-Kuhn & Guzley, 2002; Gidron,1983). Each of the elements was hypothesized to relate to and affect volunteer satisfaction. Considering these findings in the literature review regarding festival- and event- volunteers’ motivation and satisfaction, five research questions are advanced below: RQ1: To what extent do the following factors motivate individual hospitality student volunteering in the Festival: altruism, social and leisure, material rewards, and self and career development? RQ2: To what extent do the following factors affect the satisfaction of hospitality student volunteers: work itself, achievement and reward, support services, and relationships? RQ3: What other factor(s) is (are) not included but has (have) significant importance in motivating hospitality student volunteers working for the Festival? RQ4: What other factor(s) is (are) not included but is (are) significantly important in affecting hospitality student volunteers’ satisfaction? RQ5: Is there a significant positive relationship between hospitality student volunteer satisfaction and retention? METHODOLOGY A survey instrument will be developed and administered for this study which will identify and analyze the reasons for hospitality student volunteers’ motivation, the factors affecting their satisfaction, and the relationship between their satisfaction and retention in the Festival. The survey will be conducted at the 10th Annual Food Network South Beach Wine and Food Festival, which will be hosted by Southern Wine and Spirits of Florida, and Florida International University (FIU). The South Beach Wine and Food Festival is one of the largest and most well-known festivals of its kind in the United States and a major local event in Miami. Hospitality majors and minors who will participate in the 10th Annual Food Network South Beach Wine and Food Festival in 2011 will be chosen as the research population. The survey questionnaire will be designed based on the literature of Farrell, Johnson, and Twynam (1998); Tsai (2000); Siverberg, Marshall, and Ellis (2001); Chun (2003); and Arrington (2006) and specifically modified for use in this study. A pilot study will be administered to 20 hospitality students who have previously attended the 2010 Festival. The survey questionnaire will also be sent to the Festival professionals and experts at the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management of FIU for pretest review to further ensure validity and reliability. This study targets a sample size of at least 300 respondents. The researchers will distribute and administer the survey at the 2011 Festival. Respondents will be selected by a convenience sample method of data collection. Respondents will be asked to complete the survey on a voluntary basis. The data collection will be over a full four-day event period. Frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations will be utilized to describe the data. The data analysis will be conducted with SPSS 17.0. A structural equation model (SEM) will be applied in the study. REFERENCES Arrington, W. (2006). Involvement, satisfaction, and organizational commitment among current and former Extension 4-H volunteers in Mississippi. Ph.D. dissertation, Mississippi State University, United States -- Mississippi. Berger, G. (1991). Factors explaining volunteering for organizations in general, and for social welfare organizations in particular. Ph.D. dissertation, Brandeis University, The Florence Heller Graduate School for Advanced Studies in Social Welfare, United States -- Massachusetts. Chapman, T. (1985) Motivation in university student volunteers. In L. Moore (Ed.). Motivating volunteers. Vancouver, B.C.: Vancouver Volunteer. Chun, H. (2003). A study of volunteers\u27 motivation and satisfaction in the 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea Japan. M.S.S. dissertation, United States Sports Academy, United States -- Alabama. Clary, E. G., Snyder, M., Ridge, R. D., Copeland, J., & et al. (1998). Understanding and assessing the motivations of volunteers: A functional approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(6), 1516-1530. Cnaan, R. A., & Goldberg-Glen, R. S. (1991). Measuring motivation to volunteer in human services. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 27(3), 269-284. Dunn, T. H. (1989). Volunteers and predictable motivations. Ph.D. dissertation, Colorado State University, United States -- Colorado. Ellis, S. J. (1994). The volunteer recruitment book. Philadelphia, PA: ENERGIZE, Inc. Elstad, B. (2003). Continuance commitment and reasons to quit: A study of volunteers at a jazz festival. Event Management, 8(2), 99-108. Farrell, J. M., Johnston, M. E., & Twynam, G. D. (1998). Volunteer motivation, satisfaction, and management at an elite sporting competition. Journal of Sport Management, 12(4), 288-300. Fitch, R.T. (1987). Characteristics and motivations of college students volunteering for community service, Journal of College Student Personnel, 28(5), 424-430 Galindo-Kuhn, R. & Guzley, R.M.(2002). The volunteer satisfaction index. Journal of Social Service Research, 28(1), 45 — 68. Gidron, B. (1983). Sources of job satisfaction among service volunteers. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 12(20), 20-35 . Govekar, P. L., & Govekar, M. A. (2002). Using economic theory and research to better understand volunteer behavior. Nonprofit Management & Leadership, 13(1), 33-48. Henderson, K.A. (1984). Volunteerism as leisure. Journal of Voluntary Action Research, 13, 55-64 Jensen, C. R. (1977). Leisure and recreation: Introduction and overview. Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger. Love, G.(2010). Relationship among volunteer motivations, festival context factors, and retention of festival volunteers in the Southwest. D.B.A. dissertation, University of Phoenix, United States -- Arizona. Schrock, D. S. (1998). A functional approach to understanding and assessing the motivation and retention of university extension Master Gardener volunteers. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Minnesota, United States -- Minnesota. Silverberg, K.E., Marshall, E. K., & Ellis, G.D. (2001) Measuring job satisfaction of volunteers in public and recreation. Journal of Park and Recreation Administration, 19(1), 79-92. Smith, D. H. (1981). Altruism, volunteers and volunteering. Journal of Voluntary Action Research, 10(1), 21-36. Strigas, A. (2001). The assessment of motives and the development of a typology of motivational factors for volunteers in marathon running events. Ph.D. dissertation, The Florida State University, United States -- Florida. Tedrick, T., & Henderson, K. A. (1989). Volunteers in leisure: A management perspective. Reston, Va: American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance. Tsai, C.-F. (2000). An exploration of volunteers\u27 motivation and job satisfaction in Arkansas Literacy Councils. Ed.D. dissertation, University of Arkansas, United States -- Arkansas. Winniford, J. C. (1991). An analysis of the motivations and traits of college students involved in service organizations. Ph.D. dissertation, Texas A&M University, United States -- Texas. Zakour, M. J. (1994). Measuring career-development volunteerism: Guttman scale analysis using Red Cross volunteers. Emmitsburg, MD: National Emergency Training Center. Ziemek, S. (2006). Economic analysis of volunteers\u27 motivation: A cross-country study. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 35, 532-555

Collaborative configuration of renewable energy and energy storage under fixed investment in the decarbonization process

In the process of decarbonization, the configuration of renewable energy and energy storage plays a crucial role. In current research, there is often a singular focus on the isolated optimization of either renewable energy configurations or energy storage configurations, resulting in limitations within the optimized outcomes. Therefore, we propose a collaborative configuration approach for renewable energy and energy storage under fixed investment, considering the impact of uncertainty on optimization results. By employing the W/S (wind-to-solar ratio) and E/P (energy-to-power ratio) and constructing a model with an hourly granularity, we can obtain the configurations of renewable energy and energy storage at crucial time points. Using the UK as a case study, we calculate the configurations for renewable energy and energy storage from 2020 to 2050, offering effective recommendations for the decarbonization efforts in the UK

Involvement of the JNK/FOXO3a/Bim Pathway in Neuronal Apoptosis after Hypoxic-Ischemic Brain Damage in Neonatal Rats.

c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) plays a key role in the regulation of neuronal apoptosis. Previous studies have revealed that forkhead transcription factor (FOXO3a) is a critical effector of JNK-mediated tumor suppression. However, it is not clear whether the JNK/FOXO3a pathway is involved in neuronal apoptosis in the developing rat brain after hypoxia-ischemia (HI). In this study, we generated an HI model using postnatal day 7 rats. Fluorescence immunolabeling and Western blot assays were used to detect the distribution and expression of total and phosphorylated JNK and FOXO3a and the pro-apoptotic proteins Bim and CC3. We found that JNK phosphorylation was accompanied by FOXO3a dephosphorylation, which induced FOXO3a translocation into the nucleus, resulting in the upregulation of levels of Bim and CC3 proteins. Furthermore, we found that JNK inhibition by AS601245, a specific JNK inhibitor, significantly increased FOXO3a phosphorylation, which attenuated FOXO3a translocation into the nucleus after HI. Moreover, JNK inhibition downregulated levels of Bim and CC3 proteins, attenuated neuronal apoptosis and reduced brain infarct volume in the developing rat brain. Our findings suggest that the JNK/FOXO3a/Bim pathway is involved in neuronal apoptosis in the developing rat brain after HI. Agents targeting JNK may offer promise for rescuing neurons from HI-induced damage

Expanding Scene Graph Boundaries: Fully Open-vocabulary Scene Graph Generation via Visual-Concept Alignment and Retention

Scene Graph Generation (SGG) offers a structured representation critical in many computer vision applications. Traditional SGG approaches, however, are limited by a closed-set assumption, restricting their ability to recognize only predefined object and relation categories. To overcome this, we categorize SGG scenarios into four distinct settings based on the node and edge: Closed-set SGG, Open Vocabulary (object) Detection-based SGG (OvD-SGG), Open Vocabulary Relation-based SGG (OvR-SGG), and Open Vocabulary Detection + Relation-based SGG (OvD+R-SGG). While object-centric open vocabulary SGG has been studied recently, the more challenging problem of relation-involved open-vocabulary SGG remains relatively unexplored. To fill this gap, we propose a unified framework named OvSGTR towards fully open vocabulary SGG from a holistic view. The proposed framework is an end-toend transformer architecture, which learns a visual-concept alignment for both nodes and edges, enabling the model to recognize unseen categories. For the more challenging settings of relation-involved open vocabulary SGG, the proposed approach integrates relation-aware pre-training utilizing image-caption data and retains visual-concept alignment through knowledge distillation. Comprehensive experimental results on the Visual Genome benchmark demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed framework.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, 6 table

Repeat abortion in Chinese adolescents: a cross-sectional study in 30 provinces

Background: Premarital sex has become more acceptable in China nowadays. The Chinese Family Planning (FP) programme mainly focuses on married couples, and young unmarried women have little access to information or advice about contraception. Abortion is commonly used to end unintended pregnancies in China. This study aimed to determine risk factors related to repeat abortions in Chinese adolescents. Methods: This cross-sectional study was one component of an EU-funded project and was conducted between March 20, and Oct 5, 2013 in China. We collected data using a questionnaire filled by abortion service providers for all women seeking abortions within 12 weeks of pregnancy during a period of 2 months in selected hospitals. A total of 297 hospitals were randomly selected across 30 provinces using a stratified cluster sampling design according to the level and type of hospital. In this study, only the adolescents (younger than the minimum legal married age of 20 years for women, unintendedly pregnant) were included for analysis. All participants signed a written informed consent of which they received a copy. Ethics approvals were obtained from both ethics committees of the National Research Institution for Family Planning (NRIFP), China, and of the Ghent University, Belgium. Findings: Of the 2370 adolescents (median age 19 years, range 13–19), 927 (39%) were undergoing repeat abortions, 206 (9%) for a third time or more. The primary reason for their unintended pregnancies was non-use of contraception (1609, 68%), followed by ineffective contraception (761, 32%). After adjusting for potential confounding factors, the adolescents who had an increased risk of repeat abortions were those who had children (OR 2·63, 95% CI 1·82–3·78), those who resided in a middle-developed region (1·79, 1·30–2·48), those who resided in a relatively poor region (2·37, 1·77–3·17), and those who had used contraception during the 6 months preceding the survey (1·34, 1·08–1·65 for condom use). Adolescents who were students had a lower risk of repeat abortions than did those who were not students (0·69, 0·54–0·88). Interpretation: Repeat abortions among adolescents are highly prevalent in China. Adolescents should be offered equal access to FP in China to that of married women to reduce unintended pregnancies and repeat abortions. Correct and consistent contraception practice among adolescents should be promoted. Funding: The European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7): INtegrating Post-Abortion Family Planning Services into China\u27s existing abortion services in hospital setting (INPAC), 282490

Is Repeat Abortion a Public Health Problem among Chinese Adolescents? A Cross-Sectional Survey in 30 Provinces

The Chinese Family Planning (FP) programme mainly focuses on married couples, and young unmarried women have limited access. This cross-sectional study aims to identify risk factors related to repeat abortions in Chinese adolescents receiving abortions. Data were collected using a questionnaire for all women seeking abortions within 12 weeks of pregnancy during a period of 2 months in 297 participating hospitals randomly selected across 30 provinces of China in 2013. Only the adolescents (younger than the minimum legal married age of 20 years) were included in this study. Of the 2370 adolescents who were receiving abortions, 927 (39%) were undergoing repeat abortions. The primary reason for the current unintended pregnancies was non-use of contraception (68%). Adolescents receiving abortions who had an increased risk of repeat abortions were those who had children (OR 2.57, 95% CI 1.80–3.67), those who resided in a middle-developed region (OR 1.81, 95% CI 1.30–2.50), those who resided in a relatively poor region (OR 2.40, 95% CI 1.78–3.23), and those who had used contraception during the 6 months preceding the survey (OR 1.38, 95% CI 1.12–1.71 for condom use). The occupation as a student was a protective factor for adolescents (OR 0.64, 95% CI 0.50–0.83). Adolescents should be offered equal access to FP to that of married women in China to reduce unintended pregnancies and repeat abortions. Correct and consistent contraception practice should be promoted

Compositional Inversion for Stable Diffusion Models

Inversion methods, such as Textual Inversion, generate personalized images by incorporating concepts of interest provided by user images. However, existing methods often suffer from overfitting issues, where the dominant presence of inverted concepts leads to the absence of other desired concepts. It stems from the fact that during inversion, the irrelevant semantics in the user images are also encoded, forcing the inverted concepts to occupy locations far from the core distribution in the embedding space. To address this issue, we propose a method that guides the inversion process towards the core distribution for compositional embeddings. Additionally, we introduce a spatial regularization approach to balance the attention on the concepts being composed. Our method is designed as a post-training approach and can be seamlessly integrated with other inversion methods. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed approach in mitigating the overfitting problem and generating more diverse and balanced compositions of concepts in the synthesized images. The source code is available at https://github.com/zhangxulu1996/Compositional-Inversion.Comment: This paper was accepted by AAAI 202

BronchoTrack: Airway Lumen Tracking for Branch-Level Bronchoscopic Localization

Localizing the bronchoscope in real time is essential for ensuring intervention quality. However, most existing methods struggle to balance between speed and generalization. To address these challenges, we present BronchoTrack, an innovative real-time framework for accurate branch-level localization, encompassing lumen detection, tracking, and airway association.To achieve real-time performance, we employ a benchmark lightweight detector for efficient lumen detection. We are the first to introduce multi-object tracking to bronchoscopic localization, mitigating temporal confusion in lumen identification caused by rapid bronchoscope movement and complex airway structures. To ensure generalization across patient cases, we propose a training-free detection-airway association method based on a semantic airway graph that encodes the hierarchy of bronchial tree structures.Experiments on nine patient datasets demonstrate BronchoTrack's localization accuracy of 85.64 \%, while accessing up to the 4th generation of airways.Furthermore, we tested BronchoTrack in an in-vivo animal study using a porcine model, where it successfully localized the bronchoscope into the 8th generation airway.Experimental evaluation underscores BronchoTrack's real-time performance in both satisfying accuracy and generalization, demonstrating its potential for clinical applications