Digital play and the actualisation of the consumer imagination

In this article, the authors consider emerging consumer practices in digital virtual spaces. Building on constructions of consumer behavior as both a sense-making activity and a resource for the construction of daydreams, as well as anthropological readings of performance, the authors speculate that many performances during digital play are products of consumer fantasy. The authors develop an interpretation of the relationship between the real and the virtual that is better equipped to understand the movement between consumer daydreams and those practices actualized in the material and now also in digital virtual reality. The authors argue that digital virtual performances present opportunities for liminoid transformations through inversions, speculations, and playfulness acted out in aesthetic dramas. To illustrate, the authors consider specific examples of the theatrical productions available to consumers in digital spaces, highlighting the consumer imagination that feeds them, the performances they produce, and the potential for transformation in consumer-players

E-retailing ethics in Egypt and its effect on customer repurchase intention

The theoretical understanding of online shopping behaviour has received much attention. Less focus has been given to the formation of the ethical issues that result from online shopper interactions with e-retailers. The vast majority of earlier research on this area is conceptual in nature and limited in scope by focusing on consumers’ privacy issues. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical model explaining what factors contribute to online retailing ethics and its effect on customer repurchase intention. The data were analysed using variance-based structural equation modelling, employing partial least squares regression. Findings indicate that the five factors of the online retailing ethics (security, privacy, non- deception, fulfilment/reliability, and corporate social responsibility) are strongly predictive of online consumers’ repurchase intention. The results offer important implications for e-retailers and are likely to stimulate further research in the area of e-ethics from the consumers’ perspective

Relationship power, communication, and violence among couples: Results of a cluster-randomized HIV prevention study in a South African township

Background: Inequitable gender-based power in relationships and intimate partner violence contribute to persistently high rates of HIV infection among South African women. We examined the effects of two group-based HIV prevention interventions that engaged men and their female partners together in a couples intervention (Couples Health CoOp [CHC]) and a gender-separate intervention (Men’s Health CoOp/Women’s Health CoOp [MHC/WHC]) on women’s reports of power, communication, and conflict in relationships. Methods: The cluster-randomized field experiment included heterosexual couples from a high-density South African township in which neighborhoods were randomized to one of the intervention arms or a control arm that received the WHC only. Participants completed in-person study visits at baseline and 6-month follow-up. We examined group differences using one-way analysis of variance and multivariable regression models. Results: Of the 290 couples enrolled, 255 women remained in the same partnership over 6 months. Following the intervention, women in the CHC arm compared with those in the WHC arm were more likely to report an increase in relationship control (β =0.92, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.02, 1.83, P=0.045) and gender norms supporting female autonomy in relationships (β =0.99, 95% CI: 0.07, 1.91, P=0.035). Women in the MHC/WHC arm were more likely to report increases in relationship equity, relative to those in the CHC arm, and had a higher odds of reporting no victimization during the previous 3 months (MHC/WHC vs WHC: odds ratio =3.05, 95% CI: 1.55, 6.0, P=0.001; CHC vs MHC/WHC: odds ratio =0.38, 95% CI: 0.20, 0.74, P=0.004). Conclusion: Male partner engagement in either the gender-separate or couples-based interventions led to modest improvements in gender power, adoption of more egalitarian gender norms, and reductions in relationship conflict for females. The aspects of relationship power that improved, however, varied between the couples and gender-separate conditions, highlighting the need for further attention to development of both gender-separate and couples interventions

Discursive constructions of MMOGs and some implications for policy and regulation

This paper examines how the production of interactive, co-creative softwares such as multiplayer online games differs from conventional media production, and how stakeholders employ different discursive constructions to understand those environments. The convergence of forms and functions and the emergence of new structures that cross pre-existent regulatory and policy boundaries mean that the discourses adopted to describe these environments and enact regulation and control need to be examined for the particular interests they represent. The paper canvasses six different discourses about online social softwares such as games, and briefly discusses the implications of each for areas such as intellectual property, classification, governance, data privacy, creative industries and global cross-jurisdictional infrastructures

Interactive Effects of Dietary Copper, Water Copper, and Eimeria spp. Infection on Growth, Water Intake, and Plasma and Liver Copper Concentrations of Poults

The effects of dietary Cu, water Cu, and coccidial infection on poult growth performance and selected tissue mineral concentrations were investigated in a 10-d experiment using 200 5-d-old Nicholas toms (five replicates of 5 poults each; initial weight = 85 g). Uninfected and coccidiosis-infected (Eimeria meleagrimitis, Eimeria dispersa, Eimeria adenoeides, and Eimeria gallopavonis; cocci) poults were assigned to two levels of dietary Cu [Basal (B) and B + 204 mg Cu/kg diet on Days 1 to 10] and two levels of water Cu (0 and 103 mg Cu/kg water on Days 6 to 10). Dietary Cu and water Cu (main effects) did not affect (P \u3e .10) gain, feed intake, gain:feed, water intake, hemoglobin, hematocrit, or liver Fe and Zn concentrations. Dietary Cu and water Cu increased (P \u3c .03) liver and plasma Cu concentrations. The combination of dietary Cu and water Cu increased plasma Cu more than the sum of the Cu additions (dietary Cu by water Cu, P \u3c .08). Coccidial infection reduced (P \u3c .07) gain, feed intake, gain:feed, water intake, and hemoglobin, and increased (P \u3c .02) liver Zn. Water Cu reduced water intake in uninfected poults but increased water intake in coccidiosis-infected poults (water Cu by cocci, P \u3c .07). Water Cu increased hemoglobin in uninfected poults but decreased hemoglobin in coccidiosis-infected poults (water Cu by cocci, P \u3c .07). Water Cu increased plasma Cu and liver Cu more in coccidiosis-infected poults than in uninfected poults (water Cu by cocci, P \u3c .02).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS