Uloga potrošačeva povjerenja, kvalitete usluge i dimenzija vrijednosti pri određivanju zadovoljstva i lojalnosti: empirijsko istraživanje mobilne telekomunikacijske industrije u Pakistanu

Purpose – The primary purpose of this study is to investigate the factors which influence customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in telecommunication services. Customer satisfaction and loyalty are considered to be major components ensuring effectiveness and growth in the services industry. Design/Methodology/Approach – The data of 406 respondents was gathered via an adapted questionnaire. The statistical techniques of reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and SEM Path analysis were employed to test the hypotheses. Findings and implications – The findings of the research study show that trust and satisfaction have a significant impact on customer loyalty, with satisfaction holding a strong position. Trust and service quality have a significant impact on customer satisfaction. Also, from the point of view of perceived value, emotional value and monetary value are significantly correlated to customer satisfaction. According to TRA, this shows that positive consumer attitude leads towards a strong intention to fulfil their belief. Limitations – The sample of the study may be one of the limitations. Cross-cultural comparison may be conducted in future to identify the differences among the cultures. Also, comparison between developed and under-developed countries may provide holistic results. Originality – The study focused on an examination of customer satisfaction and loyalty on the basis of perceived value determinants, trust, and service quality.Svrha – Primarna je svrha ovoga istraživanja ispitati i istražiti čimbenike koji utječu na zadovoljstvo i lojalnost potrošača telekomunikacijskim uslugama jer se oni smatraju glavnim komponentama za osiguranje učinkovitosti i rasta u industriji usluga. Metodološki pristup – Prikupljeni su podatci od 406 ispitanika putem prilagođenog upitnika. Statističke tehnike: analiza pouzdanosti, eksploratorna faktorska analiza (EFA), konfirmatorna faktorska analiza (CFA) i SEM Path analiza korištene su radi testiranja hipoteza. Rezultati i implikacije – Rezultati istraživanja pokazali su da povjerenje i zadovoljstvo imaju značajan utjecaj na lojalnost potrošača, a zadovoljstvo snažnu poziciju. Povjerenje i kvaliteta usluge imaju značajan utjecaj na zadovoljstvo potrošača. Isto tako, kad je u pitanju konstrukt percipirane vrijednosti, emocionalna vrijednost i novčana vrijednost značajno su povezane sa zadovoljstvom potrošača. Prema TRA-u, to pokazuje da pozitivan stav potrošača vodi prema snažnoj namjeri ispunjavanja njegova uvjerenja. Ograničenja – Uzorak istraživanja može biti jedno od ograničenja. U budućnosti se može provesti međukulturalna usporedba kako bi se vidjele razlike između kultura. Usporedba razvijenih i nedovoljno razvijenih zemalja isto tako može pružiti holističke rezultate. Doprinos – Istraživanje je usmjereno na razmatranje zadovoljstva i lojalnosti potrošača na temelju percipiranih odrednica vrijednosti, povjerenja i kvalitete usluge

Profile of arrythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy/dysplasia (ARCV/D) patients presenting with sustained ventricular tachycardia in a tertiary care center

Background: Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy /dysplasia (ARVC/D) is a genetic form of cardiomyopathy and is one among the most common causes of sudden cardiac death (SCD). The aim of our study was to analyze the clinical profile of (ARVC/D) patients presenting with sustained Ventricular Tachycardia (VT).Methods: This single center cohort study evaluated 107 patients who presented with sustained ventricular tachycardia (VT) in our hospital. After aetiological evaluation of all these patients, 15 patients were found to have ARVC/D as the cause of sustained ventricular tachycardia (VT) as per the Modified Task Force Criteria. The clinical profile of these patients was observed in detail to enhance our knowledge about this entity in our part of the world.Results: Mean age at presentation was 30 years and 12 patients were males. Nine patients were haemodynamically stable at the time of sustained VT and the rest of patients were haemodynamically unstable. Left Bundle Branch Block (LBBB) was the most common ECG morphology present in 11 patients. Antiarrhythmic drugs terminated VT in 7 patients. All the 6 patients presenting in a state of haemodynamic instability received DC cardioversion. Mortality occurred in 2 patients during the hospital stay.Conclusions: ARVC/D presenting with sustained VT is an important manifestation of the disease. Males are more commonly affected than females. Haemodynamic instability at the time of presentation carries a poor prognosis

Deep learning-based meta-learner strategy for electricity theft detection

Electricity theft damages power grid infrastructure and is also responsible for huge revenue losses for electric utilities. Integrating smart meters in traditional power grids enables real-time monitoring and collection of consumers’ electricity consumption (EC) data. Based on the collected data, it is possible to identify the normal and malicious behavior of consumers by analyzing the data using machine learning (ML) and deep learning methods. This paper proposes a deep learning-based meta-learner model to distinguish between normal and malicious patterns in EC data. The proposed model consists of two stages. In Fold-0, the ML classifiers extract diverse knowledge and learns based on EC data. In Fold-1, a multilayer perceptron is used as a meta-learner, which takes the prediction results of Fold-0 classifiers as input, automatically learns non-linear relationships among them, and extracts hidden complicated features to classify normal and malicious behaviors. Therefore, the proposed model controls the overfitting problem and achieves high accuracy. Moreover, extensive experiments are conducted to compare its performance with boosting, bagging, standalone conventional ML classifiers, and baseline models published in top-tier outlets. The proposed model is evaluated using a real EC dataset, which is provided by the Energy Informatics Group in Pakistan. The model achieves 0.910 ROC-AUC and 0.988 PR-AUC values on the test dataset, which are higher than those of the compared models

Synthesis of substituted 1,3-oxathianes and 1,3-oxathiolanes

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Prevalence and severity of urinary incontinence among females after normal vaginal delivery

Background: Urinary Incontinence is the most common disorder associated with women after vaginal delivery due to the weakening of pelvic floor muscles. More than 50% of females experience urinary incontinence. It is defined as the involuntary leakage of urine. The condition is common not only in older women but also in young nulliparous women. Objective: The key objective of the study was to determine the prevalence and severity of Urinary Incontinence after normal vaginal delivery. Method: The study was Cross-sectional and there were 160 participants in the study. The study was conducted at the Physical Therapy department and Gynaecology Ward of Fauji Foundation and Geo hospital Lahore. The data was collected from women who had delivered between the ages of 20-40 years. The data collection was done by using Incontinence Severity Index that was used as primary outcome measure. Results: A total of 160 responses were received, based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Among respondents, females in the age group of 20-25 had a rate of urinary incontinence with 31.3 percent. Results showed that females in the age group of 25-30 had high BMI and had a high rate of urinary incontinence with the range of 61.3 percent. As result, there was a positive correlation of urinary incontinence between age and score that ranged from 0.185. There was a positive correlation of urinary incontinence between the score and BMI that ranged between 0.174. Conclusion: This analysis revealed that there was a high prevalence rate of urinary incontinence among females after delivery that had a correlation with age

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

Towards energy efficiency and power trading exploiting renewable energy in cloud data centers

This study investigates the energy cost and carbon emission reduction problem in geographically distributed cloud data centers (DCs), where each DC is connected with its own renewable energy resources (RERs) for green energy generation. We consider four cloud DCs that are operated by a single cloud service provider. They consume energy from both RERs and from the commercial grid to meet the demand of cloud users. For energy pricing, we consider four different energy markets that offer varying energy prices per hour. Additionally, our proposed strategy enables DCs to sell excess electricity to the commercial grid in peak-price hours and purchase in low-cost hours according to power trading. This work also exploits energy storage devices (ESDs) to store energy for future use. We utilize real-time data requests, weather data, and pricing data for performing simulations and results affirm the effectiveness and productiveness of our proposed method to mitigate the energy cost and carbon emission of cloud DCs

Profile of arrythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy/dysplasia (ARCV/D) patients presenting with sustained ventricular tachycardia in a tertiary care center

Background: Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy /dysplasia (ARVC/D) is a genetic form of cardiomyopathy and is one among the most common causes of sudden cardiac death (SCD). The aim of our study was to analyze the clinical profile of (ARVC/D) patients presenting with sustained Ventricular Tachycardia (VT).Methods: This single center cohort study evaluated 107 patients who presented with sustained ventricular tachycardia (VT) in our hospital. After aetiological evaluation of all these patients, 15 patients were found to have ARVC/D as the cause of sustained ventricular tachycardia (VT) as per the Modified Task Force Criteria. The clinical profile of these patients was observed in detail to enhance our knowledge about this entity in our part of the world.Results: Mean age at presentation was 30 years and 12 patients were males. Nine patients were haemodynamically stable at the time of sustained VT and the rest of patients were haemodynamically unstable. Left Bundle Branch Block (LBBB) was the most common ECG morphology present in 11 patients. Antiarrhythmic drugs terminated VT in 7 patients. All the 6 patients presenting in a state of haemodynamic instability received DC cardioversion. Mortality occurred in 2 patients during the hospital stay.Conclusions: ARVC/D presenting with sustained VT is an important manifestation of the disease. Males are more commonly affected than females. Haemodynamic instability at the time of presentation carries a poor prognosis

Making tradable white certificates trustworthy, anonymous, and efficient using blockchains

Fossil fuel pollution has contributed to dramatic changes in the Earth’s climate, and this trend will continue as fossil fuels are burned at an ever-increasing rate. Many countries around the world are currently making efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and one of the methods is the Tradable White Certificate (TWC) mechanism. The mechanism allows organizations to reduce their energy consumption to generate energy savings certificates, and those that achieve greater energy savings can sell their certificates to those that fall short. However, there are some challenges to implementing this mechanism, such as the centralized and costly verification and control of energy savings. Moreover, the verification process is not transparent, which could lead to fraud or manipulation of the system. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a blockchain-based TWC mechanism to automatically create, verify, and audit the TWC certificates. In addition, we propose a smart-contract-based TWC trading mechanism that enables traders to trade their TWCs without exposing their private information in an untrusted environment. Evaluations show that the proposed TWC framework is scalable for 1000 TWC traders simultaneously, and optimization problem can be solved in less than 120ms. Moreover, it has been shown that Polygon Matic incurs least gas cost compared to other blockchain-based solutions