A grounded theory of how consumers determine the veracity of online user reviews

Consumers use online reviews to decide which products to purchase. Cybercriminals produce fake reviews to influence unknowing consumers into buying products of lower quality, which can lead to financial, emotional and physical damage. However, there is still limited understanding of how consumers assess the veracity of online reviews, or incorporate online reviews into purchasing decisions, especially outside of laboratory settings. Therefore, this study uses a grounded theory approach to explore how consumers determine the veracity and trustworthiness of online user reviews. Twenty-five interviews with consumers were held to identify veracity cues, thought processes and other markers of online shopping behaviour. The results show that consumers use online reviews differently depending on context (e.g. product value, consumer knowledge). Our findings support the development of a theory suggesting that consumers evaluate reviews through a two-step process. First, consumers scan the review for relevance and then subsequently evaluate trustworthiness, credibility, and veracity. The different deception cues that are used by consumers are also identified and classified. These findings offer new insights of how consumers identify fake reviews online.

Promises and Tensions: Clinic-Based HIV Viral Load Testing and Infant Diagnosis in Papua New Guinea

Using a sociomaterial perspective based on interviews with health workers, we examine how clinic-based HIV viral load testing and early infant diagnosis technologies reshape health care realities in Papua New Guinea. The use of such technologies redefine professional roles and health care experiences by empowering health workers to translate biomedical data into client-centered clinical management, while also contributing systemic tensions, such as the paradoxical recentralizing of care and heavier workloads. Despite these challenges, health workers view these clinic-based technologies as transformative tools that support ethical decision-making, reduce preventable deaths and expand equitable health care.

Prioritizing Students’ Humanity to Transform Ballet Education Humanizing Ballet Pedagogies: Philosophies, Perspectives, and Praxis for Teaching Ballet , Jessica Zeller. 208 pp. New York: Routledge, 2025. $44.99 paper. ISBN 9781032365749 (paperback), ISBN 9781003332718 (ebook)

Developing optimization models with cognitive systems engineering

One goal of applied operations research is to improve decisions in practice. For an optimization model to be useful, the underlying problem must be understood, the formulation representative, the data appropriate, and the model’s recommendations understood by the decision-makers. Current approaches for developing optimization models primarily rely on past experience, rather than underlying theory, to guide decisions on how to include stakeholders in the process. In this paper, we present a new framework for applied optimization modeling with stakeholders. In each iteration, modelers develop model versions based on their current mental models of the decision process; these mental models are progressively updated based on interviews with stakeholders and thematic analyses. Stakeholders’ mental models may also update as the model versions and the context change. The theoretical foundation is based on methodologies from the field of Cognitive Systems Engineering that focus on understanding emergent patterns based on systems, stakeholders, and environments. We apply the framework to a case study of locating hand sanitizer stations in response to COVID-19 at a large academic institution. Door access control data is used to represent demand. The results illustrate how the recommended decisions from the model change as the modelers’ understanding of the problem changes.

Self-directed lifelong education and learning in times of generative AI

Reliability of radar-derived measures of sprint performance in female field sport athletes

Radar is commonly used to assess overground sprinting performance and estimate the force-velocity-power (FvP) mechanical variables; however, limited work has examined the reliability of these measures in female field sport athletes. This study aimed to assess the reliability of radar-derived measures, and to examine the associations between sprinting split times and the FvP. Twenty-three female rugby league and field hockey athletes (15–35 yrs, 70.2 ± 12.2 kg, 169 ± 6 cm) completed two 40 m sprints on two separate days. Split times displayed acceptable inter-day absolute reliability (CV = 0.91–2.17%) as did the FvP (CV range = 1.37–6.28%), however, relative reliability ranged from moderate to excellent (ICC 3,1  = 0.60–0.98) or poor to excellent (ICC 3,1  = 0.15–0.96), respectively. Maximal power output (P MAX W/kg) was most associated to 0–30 m ( r  = −0.95). However, for completion time of the maximal velocity phase (CT MVP ) (20–40 m), P MAX (W/kg) displayed a moderate association ( r  = −0.69), in comparison, power output at maximal velocity (P VMAX W/kg) displayed a stronger association ( r  = −0.83). Utilising the fastest trial on a given day is suitable for monitoring sprinting performance, whilst correlations between split-times and the FvP in the current study provide important insights into the sprinting mechanics of female field sport athletes.

Mind Design, AI Epistemology, and Outsourcing

From brain machine interfaces to neural implants, present and future technological developments are not merely tools, but will change human beings themselves. Of particular interest is human integration with AI. In this paper, we focus on enhancements that enable us to outsource epistemic work to AI. How does outsourcing epistemic work to enhancements affect the authorship of and responsibility for the final product of that work? We argue that in the context of performing and reporting research, outsourcing does not diminish one’s responsibility for mistakes in the final product. Moreover, we suggest that the responsibility may sometimes be shared between oneself and the group that designed, marketed, and sold the enhancement. This argument is in contrast to Coeckelbergh and Gunkel’s recent position that the concerns about authorship obscure the ethical and social issues surrounding AI outputs.

New epiphytic and epipsammic small diatom species from the intertidal zone of China and the phylogenetic implications for the genus Microcostatus

Two new species of Microcostatus are described based on light microscopy, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, along with SSU rDNA and rbcL gene sequencing. Microcostatus hainanensis sp. nov., an epipsammic marine species, was collected from a sandy beach in Hainan, South China. Microcostatus witkowskii sp. nov., an epiphytic brackish species, was obtained from an estuarine mangrove area in Fujian, Southeastern China. These two species are small (valve length 2–13 µm) with rounded ends and a slightly curved filiform raphe and possess two axial depressions on both sides of the raphe sternum. Striae that form macroareolae are externally occluded by perforated hymenes. Striae exhibit a distinct radial pattern but are absent at the centre of the valve in M. hainanensis , whereas they are nearly parallel and continuous with microcostae in M. witkowskii . Microcostae are scarcely discernible, and a conopeum is absent in M. hainanensis , while microcostae and an unperforated conopeum are clearly present in M. witkowskii . In addition, M. hainanensis is the first reported species of the genus Microcostatus discovered from a marine environment. Molecular phylogenetic analyses have indicated that these two species are members of the family Sellaphoraceae, rather than the family Naviculaceae. On the other hand, the paired, lateral plastids in M. hainanensis and M. witkowskii differ from the single H-shaped plastid found in the Sellaphoraceae, suggesting a more extensive phylogenetic relationship.

Late-Pleistocene landscape evolution, megafauna, and environmental change at the Spring Creek Site, Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge, Colorado, USA

A record of environmental change is stored in alluvial fans and wetlands. Our research focuses on the Spring Creek Site in the San Luis Valley of Colorado, where megafaunal remains were found in alluvial fan sediments underlying layered paleowetland peats. We identified mammoth, horse, bison, beaver, and wolf faunal elements ranging in age from 35,910 to 17,080 cal yr BP. Faunal remains were redistributed and buried during a post-glacial, Late-Pleistocene flood that we bracketed to between 17,080 and 13,371 cal yr BP. Fluvial geomorphology provides clues to predict locations of additional faunal elements buried in the flood deposits. Flood deposits are capped by three layers of peat. Evaporite silt peats represent a playa 13,371 cal yr BP; downwind lunette dunes support this interpretation. High percent organic matter woody peats represent boggy conditions 13,261 cal yr BP. Organic silts represent a further rising of the water table and marsh conditions where windblown silts were trapped and layered with organics between 10,260 and 9,647 cal yr BP. These water table fluctuations indicate environmental changes across the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary. Pollen data suggest high biomass wetland conditions during formation of the woody peats and increased fire frequency through the Early Holocene.

Improved lung function with beclomethasone/formoterol versus beclomethasone alone in asthma: the FORCE2 study

This study aimed to confirm the efficacy and safety of the inhaled fixed-dose combination of beclomethasone dipropionate (BDP) plus formoterol fumarate (FF) vs. BDP in patients with asthma. After a two-week run-in period with asthma maintenance therapy switched to BDP via pressurized metered-dose inhaler (pMDI), eligible patients were randomized to BDP/FF or BDP, both via pMDI, for 12 wk. The primary objective was to demonstrate superiority of BDP/FF over BDP for change from baseline at Week 12 in area under the curve between 0 and 12 h post-dose (AUC 0-12h ) of forced expiratory volume in 1 sec (FEV 1 ). The key secondary objective was to demonstrate superiority of BDP/FF over BDP for change from baseline at Week 12 in peak FEV 1 within the first 3 h post-dose. Safety and tolerability were assessed as secondary endpoints. Of 576 patients randomized to treatment, 543 completed the study (BDP/FF: 276/287 [96.2%]; BDP: 267/289 [92.4%]). The primary and the key secondary objectives were met, with BDP/FF vs. BDP adjusted mean differences of 104 (95% confidence interval 61, 148) mL and 124 (76, 173) mL for FEV 1 AUC 0-12h and peak FEV 1 at Week 12, respectively ( p  < 0.001 for both). A similar proportion of patients experienced adverse events in the two treatment groups (26.9% vs. 26.4%), with most events mild or moderate in severity and not considered related to study drug. The study met its aims, demonstrating the contribution of FF to BDP in lung function improvement, with both treatments being well tolerated. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05292586.