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The purpose of this paper is to focus on the use of a nickel‐titanium (nitinol) shape memory alloy (SMA) wire (capable of showing strains of up to 8 per cent) as the active element that drives a flexible and lightweight micropositioning actuator. The purpose of this paper is to finely control the wire contraction, and as a result, the deflection of the actuator, with micrometric accuracies.

Different experimental platforms are built, all of them using the same nitinol wire as the active element. In all cases a current is applied to the wire to heat it up using the Joule effect, and in doing so cause the wire to transform from the martensite into the austenite. This phase transition has a non‐linear and hysteretic nature, so, finely controling wire's position requires a non trivial control strategy. A neural network used to compensate the hysteretic behaviour of the wire combined with proportional‐integral with antiwindup control strategy is implemented. Control experiments are carried out on a light robot gripper and on a single‐fingered experimental device.

It is found that the single‐fingered device could be used to better analyze the behaviour of the gripper. It is also found that the accuracy obtainable strongly depended on the position sensor used for the feedback, ranging from 3 μm for an linear variable differential transformer sensor to 30 μm for strain gauges mounted on the “fingers” of the grip.

This paper shows the viability of using SMA‐based actuators for lightweight applications, controllable with micrometric accuracies, without the need to place an extraordinarily large burden on the control system.

Consumers have increased access to digital health tools such as social media, websites and marketer-controlled platforms for information sharing. Telemedicine (TM) represents an emerging omni-channel touchpoint for consumers to exchange information and inform health decision-making at a time and place of their choosing. While TM offers great potential, consumer adoption has been slower than expected. This paper aims to investigate attitudinal factors that influence adoption and usage of TM within consumers’ omni-channel decision-making environment.

Surveys from 869 patients were analyzed using multiple linear regression to examine the relationships between health decision-making, TM access benefits and omni-channel touchpoints (social media, website and internal health digital channels usage) on TM usage likelihood.

Attitudinal constructs related to TM’s benefits including access and health decision-making have the strongest impact on future TM usage. The study also empirically demonstrates a link between consumers’ omni-channel information seeking and TM usage.

Increasing consumers’ involvement across omni-channel touchpoints has an additive effect on perceived benefits for engaging consumers in using digital offerings like TM. Future research is needed that examines the interrelationships on consumers’ health decision-making across generational cohorts and the post-adoption effects of digital service offerings.

Omni-channel touchpoints such as TM provide new opportunities to enhance shared decision-making. However, marketers need to adopt strategies that accommodate consumers’ evolving omni-channel preferences for access and information exchange to synergize digital service offerings with interpersonal touchpoints.

This study integrates shared decision-making, technology acceptance and omni-channel marketing literature to explore TM acceptance and usage within the context of consumers’ omni-channel decision process.

Fluorine and silicon materials have received the keen attention of many researchers because of their water repellency and low surface free energy. The purpose this study was to prepare vinyl acetate (VAc)-vinyl ester of neodecanoic acid (VeoVa 10) copolymer latex modified with fluorine and silicone monomer, which is emulsified with the novel surfactants of disodium laureth sulfosuccinate (MES) and octylphenol polyoxyethylene ether (OP-10).

A series of modified latices containing fluorine-silicon have been prepared by semi-continuous seeded emulsion polymerisation of mixed monomers of VAc, VeoVa10, hexafluorobutylmethacrylate (HFMA) and vinyltriethoxysilane (VTES) and emulsified by novel surfactants of MES and OP-10.

The optimum conditions for preparing the modified latex is as follows: the amount of the surfactant was 4.0 Wt.% and the mass ratio of the anionic and nonionic surfactant was 3:1; the dosage of initiator was 0.4 Wt.% and the mass ratio of the main monomer was 3:1; and the amounts of VTES and HFMA were 2.0 and 6.0 Wt.%, respectively. In comparison with the conventional latex, the hydrophobicity of latex film was improved further.

The modified p (VAC-VeoVa) latex is prepared via semi-continuous seeded emulsion polymerisation, which is emulsified with the novel mixed surfactants of MES and OP-10. There are two main innovations. One is that the novel p (VAC-VeoVa) latex containing fluorine-silicon is prepared successfully. The other is that the emulsifier is composed of the novel mixed surfactants of MES and OP-10.

The purpose of this paper is the investigation of a new coordinated switching strategy to improve the transient performance of a fuel cell (FC)- supercapacitor (SC) electric vehicle. The proposed switching strategy protects FCs from large currents drawn during abrupt power variations. Furthermore, it compensates the poor FC transient response and suppresses the transient ripples occurring during power source switching instants.

Coordinated power source switching is achieved using three different transition functions. Vehicle model is fractioned into computational and console subsystems for its simulation using real time (RT) LAB simulator. Blocs containing coordination switching strategy, power sources models and their power electronics interface are placed in the computational subsystem that will be executed, in RT, on one of real time laboratory simulator central processing unit cores.

Coordination switching strategy resulted in reducing transient power ripples by 90% and direct current (DC) bus voltage fluctuations by 50%. Switching through transition functions compensated the difference between FC and SC transient responses responsible for transient power ripples. Among the three proposed transition functions, linear transition function resulted in the best transient performances.

The proposed coordinated switching strategy allows the control of the switching period duration. Furthermore, it enables the choice of adequate transition functions that fit the dynamics of power sources undergoing transition. Also, the proposed switching technique is simple and does not require the knowledge of system parameters or the complex control models.

The purpose of this study is to understand virtual care use (e.g. telephone and video visits) during the COVID-19 pandemic across three hospital-based ambulatory clinics (i.e. mental health, renal and respiratory care) and to describe associated patient and provider experiences.

A mixed-methods convergent study was conducted including quantitative electronic medical records data on virtual care use, electronic surveys assessing domains of experience (e.g. satisfaction, acceptance and technology use) among patient and providers and semi-structured interviews exploring the associated barriers and facilitators of virtual care adoption.

Virtual care adoption rates and relative modality use (telephone vs video) varied across specialty clinics. Mental health clinics) showed the greatest use of virtual care and greater use of video over telephone, as compared to renal and respiratory care, where telephone was used almost exclusively. Patients and providers reported an overall good satisfaction and acceptance of virtual care (60–72%) across clinics, but commonly observed barriers (technical problems, behavioral adaptations needed and inequity) persisted. Good value propositions, tech support and the presence of early adopters who can support others in workflow re-design and highlight value propositions of virtual care were listed as adoption facilitators.

The study provides a unique opportunity to compare the rate of virtual care adoption before and during the COVID-19 pandemic across distinct specialties that operate within the same organizational and political setting. This study showed that the nature of the condition (e.g. mental health conditions) and the characteristics of the users (e.g. younger patients) may drive models of care with higher rate of video use. Focusing on removing common barriers, like providing tech support and ensuring equitable access to patients, continues to be important even in the context of high virtual care adoption rates during the pandemic.

The purpose of this paper is to statistically measure (quantify) how a sample of Canadians perceives the usability of electronic personal health records (PHRs) and, in the process, to increase Canadian patients’ awareness of PHRs and improve physicians’ confidence in their patients’ ability to manage their own health information through PHRs.

The authors surveyed 325 Canadian patients living in Northern Ontario to assess a research model consisting of seven perceptions of PHR systems used to manage personal health information electronically, and to assess their perceived ability to use PHR systems. The survey questions were adapted from the 2014 National Physician Survey in Canada. The authors compared the patients’ results with physicians’ own perceptions of their patients’ ability to use PHR systems.

First, there was a positive relationship between surveyed patients’ prior experiences, needs, values, and their attitude toward adopting the PHR system. Second, how patients saw a PHR system’s user-friendliness was the strongest predictor of how useful they considered it would be. Finally, of the 243 physician respondents, 90.3 percent believed their patients would not be able to manage their own e-health information via a PHR system, but 54.8 percent of the 325 patient respondents indicated they would be able to do so.

This study is unique in that the authors know of no other Canadian study that purports to predict, using the technology acceptance model factors, people’s attitudes toward adopting a PHR system. As well, this is the first Canadian study to compare the perspectives of healthcare providers and their patients on e-health applications.

The purpose of this study was to explore the factors affecting adoption of mHealth services among the older women in Bangladesh. As this portion of the total population is rapidly increasing in Dhaka City.

Using the technology acceptance model as a theoretical framework, this study introduces perceived reliability, price value and technology anxiety as new factor reflecting the user’s reliability, beliefs and monetary concerns in the acceptance of mHealth services. A structured survey was conducted to collect the required data from convenience sampling of 271 mHealth end users from Dhaka city in Bangladesh.

The study confirmed that perceived usefulness, perceived reliability; price value and technology anxiety had a significant impact on mHealth adoption. Ease of use did not influence on the adoption of mHealth services.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to investigate the determinant of mHealth adoption among older Women. Moreover, the insights from this study could benefit mHealth services providers and policymakers in implementing more effective marketing strategies to increase the acceptability of mHealth services.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a devastating effect on public health. As “social distance” is a highly effective preventive measure of this pandemic, close contact between a patient and physician is strongly discouraged where possible. Consequently, mobile health (mHealth) technology is taking its momentum to fulfil this gap. The purpose of this study is, therefore, to empirically investigate the moderating as well as the direct role of situational constraint and health consciousness in the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) constructs to understand the adoption and use behavior of mHealth care services amid pandemic.

Data were collected from existing mHealth users using an online survey questionnaire in Bangladesh. SmartPLS 3.0 and SPSS 23.0 were used for partial least squares-structural equation modeling.

Situational constraint and health consciousness both have strong direct positive effects on both behavioral intention (in all models) and use behavior (in Models 2 and 3). Further, this study revealed that effort expectancy remains insignificant in both direct and interaction effects whereas social influence becomes insignificant in interaction effects from direct significant effect (Models 1 and 2). Besides, the study reported that the relationship between behavioral intention and use behavior is moderated by situational constraint.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first in terms of mHealth empirical investigation considering the current pandemic situation. The incorporation of the situational constraint and health consciousness into the UTAUT model provides a holistic framework to understand the influence of the adoption and use behavior of mHealth amid pandemic.

The high rate of internet penetration has led to the proliferation of social media (SM) use, even at the workplace, including academia. This research attempts to develop a topology and thereby determine the dominant use motive for faculty’s use of SM.

In this two-part study, a two-stage research design has been adopted for topology development based on the application of Uses and Gratifications Theory. In the second part, the Technology Acceptance Model is applied to discern the dominant motive for SM use in academia.

The work is able to develop a seven-item topology, conforming to the basic three use motives, namely, hedonic, utilitarian and social. The work shows faculty attach more value to the instrumental utility of SM, while the hedonic function is also significant.

Discerning dominant motive implies that SM use at the workplace should not be banned, rather effective regulated use will instil the faculty to enhance work outcomes. The conceptualisation of topology for SM use in academia at the workplace can aid in designing an effective organisation policy, and design of an internal SM platform.

The study is unique towards topology development for academic faculty and has many important implications for management and academia, especially towards policy design for SM use at the workplace.

The aim of this chapter is to ascertain the degree to which a training policy developed through corporate training centers is recognized as a source of competitive advantage for attracting, developing, and retaining valuable staff. The fieldwork is based on a survey of Human Resource (HR) managers from 66 cooperatives of the Spanish Mondragon cooperative group. The empirical test carried out confirms that Mondragon's training policy, backed up by its corporate training centers, is perceived by HR managers as a tool that provides advantages to attract, develop, and retain valuable human resources. The results also suggest that those advantages are more moderate than has been cited in classic literature on Mondragon. The results of this study can be helpful for the growing number of companies choosing to create and reinforce corporate training centers. The link between training policy and the perceived ability to attract and retain valuable employees showed in this case can also be helpful for other companies that, as Mondragon, face limitations in wage policy. This chapter contributes to the literature on the educational fabric of Mondragon adding updated empirical evidence and incorporating the point of view of HR managers of the group's cooperatives. With respect to the contribution of this chapter to the literature on training policy, the chapter's findings, in particular those regarding the effect of training on worker attraction and retention, add empirical evidence to the few studies on the subject.