The impact of instructional videos on perceived satisfaction among new hearing aid users

The current medical model utilizes verbal informational counseling when counseling new hearing aid users on their device. This counseling is extensive and often overwhelming, which can negatively impact the patient’s understanding of their hearing aid. The data from this Capstone shows that the use of instructional videos could be used to reinforce the verbal counseling, possibly increasing patient satisfaction and benefit

Getting from Here to There: The Bridges to Work Demonstration First Report to the Field

In response to the increase in inner-city joblessness and the growing suburbanization of employment in the early 1990s, P/PV's developed the Bridges to Work initiative. Bridges provided transportation to allow inner-city residents to reach suburban jobs while also offering limited support services aimed at mitigating problems created or exacerbated by the longer daily commutes. This report examines the challenges and achievements pilot sites experienced in trying to build partnerships between cities and suburbs agencies during the planning and implementation phases

Measuring the implications of Vicarious Liability under the Protection of Personal Information Act in Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises in South Africa

Protecting personal information has become of utmost importance in the digital age. The South African Protection of Personal Information Act has in some ways given the customer more control over how companies can contact them or sell their information to third parties. While this Act is in the best interests of both consumers and businesses in South Africa, there has been concern about how it is to be implemented, and many businesses have not yet introduced procedures to ensure compliance. Particular aspects of the Act make it unlike other legislation that inspired it. The vicarious liability clause specifies the employer as the party responsible should any breach be made by an employee within the company. Many researchers and those who work with the law find this clause particularly divisive, leaving little room for employers to prove they have made adequate changes and educate colleagues on new processes. Those who lack resources, specifically small, medium, and micro enterprises (SMMEs), are particularly at risk. This study surveys a sample of attitudes towards vicarious liability, and investigates processes that have been changed as a result of the Act within an SMME workplace in the Western Cape region. The results of the study demonstrate that while some employees claimed their colleagues were educated thoroughly, many were not aware of the consequences of vicarious liability, nor did they understand how it worked. There were clear apprehensions regarding general awareness of the Act on the part of both businesses and the general public. Many SMMEs are in the process of developing new standard operating procedures in the wake of this legislation, but there is still notable concern that there will not be enough time or resources to effect these changes. Further research needs to be done to recognise the challenges that smaller companies face as privacy policies continue to develop in South Africa. The country faces a unique set of challenges that cannot be compared to the socio-economic situation of the developing world

Use of Social Media in the Workplace: Contradictions and Unintended Consequences

Even though social media technologies have been increasingly adopted in the workplace, few studies have looked at the consequences and contradictory outcomes of this adoption. This exploratory case study seeks to understand how organizations are using social media and what the consequences of this adoption are, from the perspective of managers and users. Ten in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with managers and social media users of a large professional association in the US (Pro-Org, a pseudonym). Preliminary findings suggest that adoption of social media is not a controlled process, and contradictory expectations among management and coping strategies from users may undermine organizational capacity to achieve its outcomes regarding social media

Distance Matters, Except When It Doesn\u27t: Discontinuities in Virtual Work

Virtual work has become an increasingly common phenomenon in today\u27s organizations. Substantial and continuing changes in organizational processes and IT infrastructure have increased the pace and intensity of working across traditionally impermeable boundaries, enabling diverse forms of collaboration. However, our understanding of the consequences and implications of virtual work still lags and research results have been contradictory. We suggest that some of these inconsistencies have been because the boundaries that characterize virtual work-time, space, culture, organization, and so forth-are objective demarcations that are not uniformly problematic. It is only when those working in virtual settings perceive a boundary to be a discontinuity that it hinders work processes. We develop a model of virtual work that differentiates between boundaries and discontinuities, which helps account for contradictory findings. By examining the process of virtual work in more detail, we can uncover issues that are the underlying cause of problems, rather than deal with the more obvious symptoms that can mask underlying problem. Our model has implications both for research and for those working in virtual environments

How many people can China feed? : assessing the impact of land and water constraints

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2004.Includes bibliographical references (p. 121-126).Land and water resources are becoming increasingly scarce in China, threatening the nation's ability to feed its growing population. The limitations of these resources must be considered simultaneously to determine China's ability to produce food. In this thesis we present an optimization model to identify the maximum population that can be sustainably supported subject to land and water constraints. This model can be used to inform water resource management decisions. The optimization model specifies the spatial allocation of cropland and water, subject to various physical constraints. As more land is used for crops, more water is consumed by agriculture. The model's water constraints are based on steady- state, annual water balances for major river basins and precipitation and evapotranspiration climatology. The movement of water is constrained by a coarse resolution stream network within each river basin. Food produced within each river basin may be consumed anywhere within China. The model's land constraints are based on reported values for total and irrigated cropland. The irrigated cropland constraint can be relaxed to examine production increases due to possible expansion of irrigated infrastructure beyond current levels. The use of this model is demonstrated with preliminary data. The results suggest that China can support 693 million people sustainably with its resources, assuming current levels of crop imports. Expanding irrigation infrastructure to all cropland enables China to support 828 million people. The model proves to be highly sensitive to oil crop consumption and crop growing period inputs. Sensitivity to data inputs contributes to the uncertainty of model results. Further refinement of the model and improved data should result in improved population predictions.by Amy Beth Watson.S.M

Ride-Sharing Services and Environmental Sustainability: An Empirical Investigation of UberX Entry and Gas Emissions

On-demand ride-sharing services, such as Uber and Lyft, promote themselves as an innovation that solves old transportation problems and as sustainable transportation systems that reduce traffic congestions and environmental impact. Despite the increasing studies that examine the societal and economic impact of on-demand ride-sharing services, little is known on the environmental impact of these services. Using data collected from 46 Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the United States, we employ difference-in-differences framework to investigate the impact of the entry of an on-demand ride-sharing service, UberX, on gas emission levels. The results suggest an increase in the maximum levels of gas emissions after the introduction of UberX

Happy hour? A preliminary study of the effect of induced joviality and sadness on beer perception

Our emotions influence our perception. In order to determine whether emotion influences the perception of beer, 32 participants watched either a scene from the movie Wall-E to induce joviality, or a short clip from the Shawshank Redemption to induce sadness. The participants were then required to sample up to 250 mL of Yenda Pale Ale beer and rate it on a variety of taste and flavor characteristics (e.g., bitterness), before completing the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule-X (PANAS-X). The data were analyzed using Bayesian t-tests and Null Hypothesis Significance Tests (NHSTs). After applying conservative corrections for multiple comparisons, NHSTs failed to reach statistical significance. However, the effect sizes suggested that inducing joviality, relative to inducing sadness, resulted in the beer being rated as (a) tasting more pleasant, (b) tasting sweeter, and (c) being of higher quality. Following the induction of joviality, participants were also willing to pay more for the beer. The Bayesian analyses indicated that induced emotion can influence flavor perception for complex taste stimuli. The effect sizes and Bayesian analyses are interpreted in terms of Feelings-as-Information theory. These preliminary findings can tentatively be applied to real-world environments such as venues that serve and/or market alcohol. © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Funding: This research was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), grant number AH/L007053/1 awarded to C.S

OPENING THE SOCIAL MEDIA BLACK BOX - A FEATURE-BASED APPROACH

In this study we analysed 25 social media tools that have a significant penetration in the market, and defined a comprehensive list of features related to social media technologies. Using a grounded approach, we conducted a cluster analyses to organize tools and their features into categories. Groups of tools that share similar capabilities emerged from the data. Finally, we identified similarities in features among tools in the same cluster. The result is a feature-based classification of the social media tools that are available in the market. The paper proposes a set of research questions intended to guide future studies related to social media features within the organization

Use of Social Media in the Workplace

As social media become more pervasive and widespread in the workplace, there is an increasing need to study and understand the factors driving working professionals to use social media for work related purposes. Yet, knowledge about the factors influencing the use of social media technologies at work remains limited. Drawing from the uses and gratifications (U&G) theory, the objective of this study is to uncover the motivational factors driving the use of social media in the workplace. The U&G framework can help to understand the needs and wants of working professionals with regards to the use of social media for work related purposes. In addition, this study also investigates the influence of prior social media experience to complement the U&G theory. A survey was designed and administered to 157 working professionals. Results from the hierarchical regression analysis revealed that respondents with prior social media experiences were more likely to use social media at work. In addition, we also found that factors such as gratifications obtained from socializing and tasks accomplishment were also significant in influencing the use social media for work related purposes. Implications and directions for future work are discussed