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The management of uncertainty has received much attention recently in the fields of database and artificial intelligence. Several methods of evidential reasoning have been proposed for real‐world problems with which uncertainty is associated. Considers one of these problems, that of classification, which is encountered in many domains including medicine. Focuses on a classification technique for knowledge discovery (KD). Reasoning about classifications is a primary interest in KD. Deals with obtaining evidence to confirm or refute classes. Searches for any data dependencies which exist between a classifier attribute and any of the property attributes. To illustrate the method compares a neural network classification with one based on Tanimoto’s method. It is important to note that the aim is to demonstrate this approach rather than to compare these two methods of classification. After extracting the data dependency information, employs a non‐numeric evidential reasoning method to see how well this evidence supports each of the two respective classifications.

This paper describes the research underpinning the development and evaluation of a brain computer interface (BCI) system designed to be suitable for domestic use by people with acquired brain injury in order to facilitate control of their home environment. The purpose of the research is to develop a robust and user‐friendly BCI system which was customisable in terms of user ability, preferences and functionality. Specifically the human interface was designed to provide consistent visual metaphors in usage, while applications change, for example, from environmental control to entertainment and communications.

The research took a user centred design approach involving representative end‐users throughout the design and evaluation process. A qualitative study adopting user interviews alongside interactive workshops highlighted the issues that needed to be addressed in the development of a user interface for such a system. User validation then underpinned prototype development.

The findings of the research indicate that while there are still significant challenges in translating working BCI systems from the research laboratories to the homes of individuals with acquired brain injuries, participants are keen to be involved in the deign and development of such systems. In its current stage of development BCI is multi‐facetted and uses complex software, which poses a significant usability challenge. This work also found that the performance of the BCI paradigm chosen was considerably better for those users with no disability than for those with acquired brain injury. Further work is required to identify how and whether this performance gap can be addressed.

The research had significant challenges in terms of managing the complexity of the hardware and software set‐up and transferring the working systems to be tested by participants in their home. Furthermore, the authors believe that the development of assistive technologies for the disabled user requires a significant additional level of personalisation and intensive support to the level normally required for non‐disabled users. Coupled with the inherent complexity of BCI, this leads to technology that does not easily offer a solution to both disabled and non‐disabled users.

The research contributes additional findings relating to the usability of BCI systems. The value of the work is to highlight the practical issues involved in translating such systems to participants where the acquired brain injury can impact on the ability of the participant to use the BCI system.

The emergence of Open Systems Interconnection protocols, as specified within the U.S. Government Open Systems Interconnection Profile (GOSIP) Federal Information Processing Standard (FTPS), provides both an opportunity for, and a means of achieving, interoperability within multi‐vendor networks. The GOSIP can easily benefit inexperienced users, yet provides the flexibility to serve more sophisticated users. The standard mandates specifications that will be met by a multitude of vendor products, with initial offerings already available. While meeting a useful set of initial networking needs, the FTPS will evolve to include new applications, improvements to the initial applications, new network technologies, and major new functions. GOSIP will permit government agencies to gain better control over their computer network procurements, accruing greater and greater cost savings as the number of government computer networks increases.

This paper aims to identify the importance that branch employees of Greek banks attach to the internet as a tool of marketing intelligence, and the factors that affect its acceptance as such a tool.

Using the technology‐acceptance model (TAM) as a basis, a questionnaire is designed by the researchers, and completed by employees. Structural equation modelling (SEM) is used to analyse the data, and this confirms the relationships proposed by the TAM.

The main findings of the study are that: branch employees of Greek banks feel that a marketing‐intelligence system is a prerequisite for effectiveness in their work; although the internet is the fourth‐most important source of market intelligence for branch employees of Greek banks, they require greater access to the internet to meet their market‐intelligence needs; perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of the internet directly affect bank employees' attitudes – which, in turn, affect the employees' intentions of using the internet as a marketing‐intelligence tool; and education and working experience affect employees' attitudes indirectly (through perceived usefulness).

Main limitations of this study are related to the sampling method and the fact that the field research was conducted only in Athens, the capital of Greece.

Finally, the paper suggests how banks could exploit the internet as a marketing intelligence tool for their branch employees and what actions should be planned in order to facilitate its adoption.

Recent years have seen “really simple syndication” or “rich site summary”(RSS) syndication of frequently updated content become ubiquitous across the internet. RSS's XML‐based format allows these data to be stored in a semi‐structured format but, despite the presence of online aggregators and readers, and the related work in clustering feeds and mining subjects by keywords, much potentially useful information present in RSS may remain undiscovered. This paper aims to address this issue in an experimental setting.

This paper presents two distinct technologies which employ the semi‐structured nature of RSS content to allow users to mine information directly from raw RSS feeds: occurrence mining counts occurrences of text strings in feeds, whilst value mining mines structured ticker tape numeric data. It describes both technologies and their implementation in an experiment, where 35 students mined small numbers of RSS feeds and visualised the data mined.

This paper analyses the results of the experiment and cites examples of data mined and visualisations produced. The subject matter of data mined is also explored and potential applications of the technologies are considered.

The mining technologies proposed in this paper have been developed to mine textual and numeric data directly from feeds, but can be extended to mine other data types present in RSS and to include other variants like Atom.

These technologies are seen to be applicable to data mining, the role of data and visualisations in social data analysis, issue tracking in news mining and time series analysis.

Different age groups display different shopping patterns in terms of how and where consumers buy products. During times of crisis, such behavioural differences become even more striking yet remain under-researched with respect to elderly consumers. This paper investigates the impact of age on retail-related behavioural changes and behavioural stability of elderly shoppers (in comparison to younger consumers) during a crisis.

The authors surveyed 643 Austrian consumers to assess the impact of perceived threat on behavioural change and the moderating effect of age groups. Based on findings from this survey, they subsequently conducted 51 semi-structured interviews to understand the causes of behavioural change and behavioural stability during a crisis.

Elderly shoppers display more stable shopping behaviour during a crisis compared to younger consumers, which is influenced by perceived threat related to the crisis. Such findings indicate that elderly shoppers reinforce their learnt and embedded shopping patterns. The causes of change and stability in behaviour include environmental and inter-personal factors.

Through the lens of social cognitive theory, protection motivation theory and dual process theory, this research contributes to an improved understanding of changes in shopping behaviour of elderly consumers, its antecedents and consequences during a time of crisis. The authors reveal reasons that lead to behavioural stability, hence the absence of change, in terms of shopping during a crisis. They further outline implications for retailers that might wish to better respond to shopping behaviours of the elderly.

Fitness service companies often promote the companies' personal training service by attributing trainers' competent characteristics, qualifications or/and service provision to their effort or talent. This promotion is called performance attribution promotion. Utilizing attribution theory and the theory's adjacent studies, this study investigated whether and why performance attribution promotion affects consumers' service purchase of personal fitness training.

The authors developed the experimental stimuli of performance attribution promotion and validated those through a pretest (N = 200). Using the validated stimuli, the authors conducted an experiment with employing a single factor between-subject design (performance attribution promotion: effort vs talent) based on random assignment (N = 200).

The analysis results revealed that attributing trainers' competent characteristics, qualifications or/and service provision to effort (vs talent) leads to a higher level of service registration intention. Moreover, this effect was mediated by the perceived teaching expertise but not by the perceived teaching trustworthiness.

These findings enrich the literature by illuminating a new mechanism and consequence of performance attribution promotion. The authors' study also extends the marketing studies related to expertise perception by presenting the attribution of visible features as one of the characteristics determining expertise perception. Finally, the authors' findings also have implications for fitness service companies and other stakeholders that seek to effectively leverage trainers' competent outcomes for consumer acquisition.

This paper aims to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the private label food products, specifically assessing the stability and changes in factors influencing purchasing decisions, and comparing pre-pandemic and post-pandemic datasets.

The study employs the Extra Tree Classifier method, a robust quantitative approach, to analyse data collected from questionnaires distributed among two distinct consumer samples. This methodological choice is explicitly adopted to provide a clear classification of factors influencing consumer preferences for private label products, surpassing conventional qualitative methods.

Despite the profound disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, this research underscores the persistent hierarchy of factors shaping consumer choices in the private label food market, showing an overall stability in consumer behaviour. At the same time, the analysis of individual variables highlights the positive increase in those related to product quality, health, taste, and communication.

The use of online surveys for data collection may introduce a self-selection bias, and the non-probabilistic sampling method could limit the generalizability of the results.

Practical implications suggest that managers in the private label industry should prioritize enhancing quality control, ensuring effective communication, and dynamically adapting strategies to meet evolving consumer preferences, with a particular emphasis on quality and health attributes.

This study contributes to the existing body of literature by providing insights into the profound transformations induced by the COVID-19 pandemic on consumer behaviour, specifically in relation to their preferences for private label food products.

COVID-19 disrupted the lives of consumers across the globe, and the retail sector has been one of the hardest hits. The impact of COVID-19 on consumers' retail choice behaviour and retailers' responses has been studied in detail through multiple lenses. Now that the effect of COVID-19 is abating, there is a need to consolidate the learnings during the lifecycle of COVID-19 and set the agenda for research post-COVID-19.

Scopus database was searched to cull out academic papers published between March 2020 and June 6, 2022, using keywords; shopping behaviour, retailing, consumer behaviour, and retail channel choice along with COVID-19 (171 journals, 357 articles). Bibliometric analysis followed by selective content analysis was conducted.

COVID-19 was a black swan event that impacted consumers' psychology, leading to reversible and irreversible changes in retail consumer behaviour worldwide. Research on changes in consumer behaviour and consumption patterns has been mapped to the different stages of the COVID-19 lifecycle. Relevant research questions and potential theoretical lenses have been proposed for further studies.

This paper collates, classifies and organizes the extant research in retail from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It identifies three retail consumption themes: short-term, long-term reversible and long-term irreversible changes. Research agenda related to the retailer and consumer behaviour is identified; for each of the three categories, facilitating the extraction of pertinent research questions for post-COVID-19 studies.

Relational dynamics between patients and staff in forensic settings can be complicated and demanding for both sides. Reflective practice groups (RPGs) bring clinicians together to reflect on these dynamics. To date, evaluation of RPGs has lacked quantitative focus and a suitable quantitative tool. Therefore, a self-report tool was designed. This paper aims to pilot The Relational Aspects of CarE (TRACE) scale with clinicians in a high-secure hospital and investigate its psychometric properties.

A multi-professional sample of 80 clinicians were recruited, completing TRACE and attitudes to personality disorder questionnaire (APDQ). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) determined factor structure and internal consistency of TRACE. A subset was selected to measure test–retest reliability. TRACE was cross-validated against the APDQ.

EFA found five factors underlying the 20 TRACE items: “awareness of common responses,” “discussing and normalising feelings;” “utilising feelings,” “wish to care” and “awareness of complicated affects.” This factor structure is complex, but items clustered logically to key areas originally used to generate items. Internal consistency (α = 0.66, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.55–0.76) demonstrated borderline acceptability. TRACE demonstrated good test–retest reliability (intra-class correlation = 0.94, 95% CI = 0.78–0.98) and face validity. TRACE indicated a slight negative correlation with APDQ. A larger data set is needed to substantiate these preliminary findings.

Early indications suggested TRACE was valid and reliable, suitable to measure the effectiveness of reflective practice.

The TRACE was a distinctive measure that filled a methodological gap in the literature.