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We applied a true-experimental randomized control posttest design to collect and analyze quantitative and qualitative data to compare the effects of the AR and traditional board games on students’ SDG learning achievements.

We applied a true-experimental randomized control posttest design to collect and analyze quantitative and qualitative data to compare the effects of AR and traditional board games on students' SDG learning achievements.

Our analysis of the quantitative and qualitative data revealed that the effects of AR and traditional board games on the students' cognitive outcomes differed significantly, indicating the importance of providing a situated learning environment in SDG education. Moreover, the students perceived that the incorporation of the AR game into SDG learning improved their learning effectiveness – including both cognitive and affective dimensions – thus confirming its educational value and potential in SDG learning.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to explore the effectiveness of different learning tools (AR and traditional board games) and to evaluate the importance of providing a situated learning environment through a true-experimental randomized control posttest design.

In recent years, there has been significant interest in adopting XR (extended reality) technologies such as VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality), particularly in retail. However, extending activities through reality-mediation is still mostly believed to offer an inferior experience due to their shortcomings in usability, wearability, graphical fidelity, etc. This study aims to address the research gap by experimentally examining the acceptance of metaverse shopping.

This study conducts a 2 (VR: with vs. without) × 2 (AR: with vs. without) between-subjects laboratory experiment involving 157 participants in simulated daily shopping environments. This study builds a physical brick-and-mortar store at the campus and stocked it with approximately 600 products with accompanying product information and pricing. The XR devices and a 3D laser scanner were used in constructing the three XR shopping conditions.

Results indicate that XR can offer an experience comparable to, or even surpassing, traditional shopping in terms of its instrumental and hedonic aspects, regardless of a slightly reduced perception of usability. AR negatively affected perceived ease of use, while VR significantly increased perceived enjoyment. It is surprising that the lower perceived ease of use appeared to be disconnected from the attitude toward metaverse shopping.

This study provides important experimental evidence on the acceptance of XR shopping, and the finding that low perceived ease of use may not always be detrimental adds to the theory of technology adoption as a whole. Additionally, it provides an important reference point for future randomized controlled studies exploring the effects of technology on adoption.

This study aims to provide an alternative adoption to overcome the energy crisis and environmental effluence by comparative theoretical and trial testing analysis of an innovative combined condenser unit over traditional individual condenser unit water heating systems.

The presented innovative new unit of the combined condenser heat pipe works efficiently through its improved idea and unique design, providing uniform heating to improve the heat transfer and, finally, the temperature of water increases without enhancing the cost. In this design, all these five evaporator units were connected with a single combined condenser unit in such a manner that after the condensation of heat transfer fluid vapour, it goes equally into the evaporator pipe.

The maximum temperature of hot water obtained from the combined condenser heating system was 60.6, 55.5 and 50.3°C at a water flow rate of 0.001, 0.002 and 0.003 kg/s, respectively. The first and second law thermodynamic efficiency of the combined condenser heating system were 55.4%, 60.5% and 89.0% and 2.6%, 3.7% and 4.1% at 0.001, 0.002 and 0.003 kg/s of water flow rates, respectively. The combined condenser heat pipe solar evacuated tube heating system promoting progressive performance is considered efficient and environment-friendly compared to the traditional condenser unit water heating system.

Innovative combined condenser heat pipe evacuated tube collector assembly was designed and developed for the study. A comparative theoretical and experimental energy-exergy performance analysis was performed of innovated collective condenser and traditional individual condenser heat pipe water heating system at various mass flow rate.

This paper aims to examine the impact of metaverse experiences on customers’ offline behavioral intentions: How do customers’ visits to a hospitality business’s virtual property in the metaverse affect their intentions to visit the physical property in the real world?

Based on the general learning model and social cognitive theory, this research hypothesizes the positive impact of metaverse experiences on customers’ visit intentions and explores two boundary conditions for positive impact: user–avatar resemblance and servicescape similarity. Two experimental studies were conducted.

Metaverse experience has a significant impact on customers’ visit intentions, and this impact is moderated by user–avatar resemblance and servicescape similarity.

This research addresses the call for empirical studies regarding the effects of metaverse experience on people’s behavioral intentions.

As one of the earliest empirical studies on the marketing effects of the metaverse, this research provides a basis for future metaverse studies in the hospitality field.

Health-care marketing typically entails a coordinated set of outreach and communications designed to attract consumers (patients in the health-care context) who require services for a better health outcome and guide them throughout their health-care journey to achieve a higher quality of life. The purpose of this study is to understand the progress and trends in healthcare marketing strategy (HMS) literature between 2018 and 2022, with a special emphasis on the pre- and post-Covid-19 periods.

The authors examine 885 HMS-related documents from the WOS database between 2018 and 2022 that were extracted using a keyword-based search strategy. After that, the authors present the descriptive statistics related to the corpus. Finally, the authors use author co-citation analysis (ACA) and bibliographic coupling (BC) techniques to examine the corpus.

The authors present the descriptive statistics as research themes, emerging sub-research areas, leading journals, organisations, funding agencies and nations. Further, the bibliometric analysis reveals the existence of five thematic clusters: Cluster 1: macroeconomic and demographic determinants of healthcare service delivery; Cluster 2: strategies in healthcare marketing; Cluster 3: socioeconomics in healthcare service delivery; Cluster 4: data analytics and healthcare service delivery; Cluster 5: healthcare product and process innovations.

This study provides an in-depth analysis of the advancements made in HMS-related research between 2018 and 2022. In addition, this study describes the evolution of research in this field from before to after the Covid-19 pandemic. The findings of this study have both research and practical significance.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study of its kind to use bibliometric analysis to identify advancements and trends in HMS-related research and to examine the pattern before and after Covid-19 pandemic.

Brief loving-kindness meditation (LKM) is introduced here as a valid social marketing intervention. LKM positively influences prosocial cognitions and affects. However, it remains unclear whether brief meditation interventions can influence prosocial behavior. This study aims to provide evidence of the effects of short LKM on prosocial behavior.

This study reports the results of three experiments examining the effects of brief LKM on donations to unknown others. The results are then integrated with the results of seven other studies testing the effects of brief LKM on prosocial behavior using a meta-analysis (n = 683).

LKM increased love more than the control group (focused breathing) in the three experiments; however, its effects on donations were mixed. The meta-analysis shows that LKM has a small-to-medium significant effect compared to active control groups (d = 0.303); moreover, age and type of prosocial measure used moderate the effects.

Results suggest that LKM can nurture prosocial emotions such as love and lead young individuals to donate. However, these emotions may not be sufficient to lead adult meditators to share their resources with unknown others. This study presents the first meta-analysis of brief LKM and provides insights into the use of meditation in social marketing programs.

Research on online user privacy shows that empirical evidence on how privacy literacy relates to users' information privacy empowerment is missing. To fill this gap, this paper investigated the respective influence of two primary dimensions of online privacy literacy – namely declarative and procedural knowledge – on online users' information privacy empowerment.

An empirical analysis is conducted using a dataset collected in Europe. This survey was conducted in 2019 among 27,524 representative respondents of the European population.

The main results show that users' procedural knowledge is positively linked to users' privacy empowerment. The relationship between users' declarative knowledge and users' privacy empowerment is partially supported. While greater awareness about firms and organizations practices in terms of data collections and further uses conditions was found to be significantly associated with increased users' privacy empowerment, unpredictably, results revealed that the awareness about the GDPR and user’s privacy empowerment are negatively associated. The empirical findings reveal also that greater online privacy literacy is associated with heightened users' information privacy empowerment.

While few advanced studies made systematic efforts to measure changes occurred on websites since the GDPR enforcement, it remains unclear, however, how individuals perceive, understand and apply the GDPR rights/guarantees and their likelihood to strengthen users' information privacy control. Therefore, this paper contributes empirically to understanding how online users' privacy literacy shaped by both users' declarative and procedural knowledge is likely to affect users' information privacy empowerment. The study empirically investigates the effectiveness of the GDPR in raising users' information privacy empowerment from user-based perspective. Results stress the importance of greater transparency of data tracking and processing decisions made by online businesses and services to strengthen users' control over information privacy. Study findings also put emphasis on the crucial need for more educational efforts to raise users' awareness about the GDPR rights/guarantees related to data protection. Empirical findings also show that users who are more likely to adopt self-protective approaches to reinforce personal data privacy are more likely to perceive greater control over personal data. A broad implication of this finding for practitioners and E-businesses stresses the need for empowering users with adequate privacy protection tools to ensure more confidential transactions.

This study aims to evaluate and summarize the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and internet-based CBT (ICBT) interventions on relapse prevention and severity of symptoms among individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD). CBT is one of the most used and suggested interventions to manage MDD, whereas ICBT is a novel effective proposed approach.

The review was conducted following the preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis protocol. A comprehensive and extensive search was performed to identify and evaluate the relevant studies about the effectiveness of CBT and ICBT on relapse prevention and severity of symptoms among patients with MDD.

A total of eight research studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in this systematic review. RCT studies were conducted to assess and evaluate the effectiveness of CBT and ICBT on relapse prevention and severity of symptoms among patients with MDD. It has been found that CBT is a well-supported and evidently based effective psychotherapy for managing depressive symptoms and reducing the relapse and readmission rate among patients diagnosed with MDD. The ICBT demonstrated greater improvements in depressive symptoms during major depressive episodes among patients with MDDS. The ICBT program had good acceptability and satisfaction among participants in different countries.

Despite the significant findings from this systematic review, certain limitations should be acknowledged. First, it is important to note that all the studies included in this review were exclusively conducted in the English language, potentially limiting the generalizability of the findings to non-English speaking populations. Second, the number of research studies incorporated in this systematic review was relatively limited, which may have resulted in a narrower scope of analysis. Finally, a few studies within the selected research had small sample sizes, which could potentially impact the precision and reliability of the overall conclusions drawn from this review. The authors recommend that nurses working in psychiatric units should use CBT interventions with patients with MDD.

This paper, a review of the literature gives an overview of CBT and ICBT interventions to reduce the severity of depressive symptoms and prevent patients’ relapse and rehospitalization and shows that CBT interventions are effective on relapse prevention among patients with MDD. In addition, there is still no standardized protocol to apply the CBT intervention in the scope of reducing the severity of depressive symptoms and preventing depression relapse among patients with major depressive disorder. Further research is needed to confirm the findings of this review. Future research is also needed to find out the most effective form and contents of CBT and ICBT interventions for MDD.

CBT is a psychological intervention that has been recommended by the literature for the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD). It is a widely recognized and accepted approach that combines cognitive and behavioral techniques to assist individuals overcome their depressive symptoms and improve their overall mental well-being. This would speculate that effectiveness associated with several aspects and combinations of different approaches in CBT interventions and the impact of different delivery models are essential for clinical practice and appropriate selection of the interventional combinations.

This systematic review focuses on the various studies that explore the effectiveness of face-to-face CBT and ICBT in reducing depressive symptoms among patients with major depressive disorder. These studies were conducted in different countries such as Iran, Australia, Pennsylvania and the USA.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on company innovation, specifically centering on the quantity and quality of innovation. The paper aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of whether the epidemic inhibits innovation and the role of digital transformation in mitigating this negative impact.

The paper uses a quasi-experimental study of the COVID-19 pandemic and constructs a differential model to analyze the relationship between the epidemic and firm innovation in three dimensions: total, quantity and quality. The paper also uses a difference-in-difference-in-differences model to test whether digital transformation of firms mitigates the negative impact of the epidemic and its mechanism of action.

The results show that COVID-19 significantly reduced the overall level of firm innovation, primarily in terms of quantity rather than quality. Furthermore, this study finds that digital transformation plays a pivotal role in mitigating the pandemic’s adverse impact on innovation. By addressing financing constraints and countering demand insufficiency, digital transformation acts as a catalyst for preserving and fostering innovation during and after the pandemic.

This study extends the current research on the pandemic’s impact on firm innovation at the micro level. It offers valuable insights into strategies for fostering digital transformation among Chinese enterprises in the post-pandemic era.

This study aims to investigate the fabrication of solid ankle foot orthoses (SAFOs) using fused deposition modeling (FDM) printing technology. It emphasizes cost-effective 3D scanning with the Kinect sensor and conducts a comparative analysis of SAFO durability with varying thicknesses and materials, including polylactic acid (PLA) and carbon fiber-reinforced (PLA-C), to address research gaps from prior studies.

In this study, the methodology comprises key components: data capture using a cost-effective Microsoft Kinect® Xbox 360 scanner to obtain precise leg dimensions for SAFOs. SAFOs are designed using CAD tools with varying thicknesses (3, 4, and 5 mm) while maintaining consistent geometry, allowing controlled thickness impact investigation. Fabrication uses PLA and PLA-C materials via FDM 3D printing, providing insights into material suitability. Mechanical analysis uses dual finite element analysis to assess force–displacement curves and fracture behavior, which were validated through experimental testing.

The results indicate that the precision of the scanned leg dimensions, compared to actual anthropometric data, exhibits a deviation of less than 5%, confirming the accuracy of the cost-effective scanning approach. Additionally, the research identifies optimal thicknesses for SAFOs, recommending a 4 and 5 mm thickness for PLA-C-based SAFOs and an only 5 mm thickness for PLA-based SAFOs. This optimization enhances the overall performance and effectiveness of these orthotic solutions.

This study’s innovation lies in its holistic approach, combining low-cost 3D scanning, 3D printing and computational simulations to optimize SAFO materials and thickness. These findings advance the creation of cost-effective and efficient orthotic solutions.