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People in prison are at a higher risk of preventable mortality from infectious disease such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), hepatitis B (HBV), hepatitis C (HCV) and tuberculosis (TB) than those in the community. The extent of infectious disease-related mortality within the prison setting remains unclear. The purpose of this paper was to collate available information on infectious disease-related mortality, including the number of deaths and calculate the person-time death rate.

The authors searched databases between 1 January 2000 and 18 November 2020 for studies reporting HIV, HBV, HCV, TB and/or HIV/TB-related deaths among people in prison.

The authors identified 78 publications drawn from seven Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS’ regions encompassing 33 countries and reporting on 6,568 deaths in prison over a 20-year period. HIV/AIDS (n = 3,305) was associated with the highest number of deaths, followed by TB (n = 2,892), HCV (n = 189), HIV/TB (n = 173) and HBV (n = 9). Due to the limitations of the available published data, it was not possible to meta-analyse or in any other way synthesise the available evidence.

To inform targeted efforts to reduce mortality, there is a need for more, better quality data to understand infectious disease-related mortality in custodial settings. Increased investment in the prevention and management of infectious diseases in custodial settings, and in documenting infectious disease-related deaths in prison, is warranted and will yield public health benefits.

To the authors’ best knowledge, this is the first scoping review focussed on deaths due to these infections among people in prison internationally. The gaps identified form recommendations to improve the future collection and reporting of prison mortality data.

Cultural studies in business and economics research are still limited to particular cultures. Knowledge on cultural differences may help international corporations to adapt management practices according to the markets they are operating in. The purpose of this paper is to study the issue of escalation of commitment and framing in a new cultural setting involving Germany and Vietnam. This setting is unique and particularly interesting, for Germany being the biggest European market and Vietnam being one of the fastest growing emerging markets in Asia.

The authors use a lab experiment with student participants from Germany and Vietnam.

In a 2×2 in between-experiment, the authors find strong support that Vietnamese participants have a stronger tendency to invest additional resources and evidence that negatively framed information leads to the higher escalation of commitment. Implications are discussed.

The unique empirical comparison is important because differences between other western and eastern countries do not necessarily generalize to the setting.

This paper aims to extend understanding of business-to-business relationship dynamics by introducing and discussing the phenomenon of a “negative critical wave” (NCW), defined as a disturbance in a relationship that emerges and develops within or beyond individual working relationships.

The dynamics of working relationships in two manufacturing firms in Finland and Sweden were studied by analysing the narratives of unstructured personal interviews with 16 middle managers and 14 operational executives, who recalled experiences of relevant situations over three years, with emphasis on unexpected disturbances, challenges and problems.

Respondents discussed 77 NCWs, the development and effect of which proved to depend upon the original “locus”, “magnitude” and “amplitude”, and embedded “energy”. Waves could be distinguished as: “silent compact”, “silent extensive”, “intense compact” or “intense extensive”.

The wave metaphor for relationships dynamics, consistent with but distinct from established notions of “critical time” and “critical incidents” and the associated classification system are a useful starting point for further research into the phenomenon. Though the qualitative methodology achieved richness, the small sample and restricted scope place limits on the objectivity and generalisability of the findings.

The NCW framework offers strategists and managers a holistic understanding of the dynamic process of criticality, synthesising the complexities of relationship dynamics and pointing to ways in which to absorb the energy of negative waves.

More is now known about the domino effects of critical incidents in internal and external business-to-business relationships.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a cross-cultural scale of customers’ perceived switching costs (PSCs). Customers’ PSCs function as a powerful defensive marketing tool that restrains customers from switching.

Four sets of survey data were collected in the UK, Egypt, Germany, and China. An overall response rate of 86 percent was achieved across the four countries. Cross-cultural equivalence of the PSCs scale was assessed using multi-group confirmatory factor analysis.

Tests of configural, metric, and factor variance invariance confirmed that the PSCs scale is appropriate for meaningful cross-cultural comparisons.

Data were collected in four countries from the financial service context. Future researchers should test the short-form PSCs (PSCs-S) scale across different cultural and industrial contexts to enhance its generalizability.

The cross-cultural PSCs-S scale presented here will enhance international marketing researchers’ ability to test theory containing customers’ PSCs as central variables, and provide managers with a measurement tool that they can use to better segment and manage their customers.

This study is one of the first to develop a cross-cultural PSCs scale. Despite the growth of research into customers’ PSCs, research on the topic has been limited by the lack of a cross-cultural measurement instrument. The latter now furnishes the research community with the opportunity to gain a fuller understanding of switching behavior, to establish the scale's generalizability, and to make meaningful comparisons of PSCs across cultures.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the linear and nonlinear effects of market integration on carbon emissions and explore the direct and indirect paths of market integration on carbon emissions through path analysis.

The authors first conduct a measurement and contrastive study of the market integration and carbon emissions of China’s 28 provinces from year 1995 to 2015. Then, the linear effect of market integration on carbon emissions is analyzed by using the fixed-effect model. Next, based on the path analysis method, the direct and indirect paths of market integration’s impact on carbon emissions are explored. Finally, the panel threshold regression model is used to evaluate the effect of market integration on carbon emissions under different situations of geographic distance.

The results show that first, the improvement of market integration can increase carbon emissions in the form of a linear relationship. Second, market integration not only has a direct and positive impact on the carbon emissions, but also has an indirect and positive impact on carbon emissions through the level of economic development, and a negative impact on carbon emissions through technological level. Third, an increase in market integration can reduce its positive effect on carbon emissions, but the improvement of economic growth and technology level can both enhance the positive effect of market integration on carbon emissions.

This paper focuses on the impact of market integration on carbon emissions in 30 provinces in China, while, the authors do not conduct a comparative analysis of different regions, so there are certain limitations. In addition, policy interaction between regional governments is also a key factor affecting carbon emissions, but this paper does not consider the effect of policy interaction, future follow-up research will try to incorporate it into the analytical models.

An important practical implication of this research is that market integration should be regarded highly in China’s energy conservation and emission reduction efforts. The research results have important reference value for policy authorities to formulate relevant policies. That is, the government can play a more active role in the process of integration through breaking the regional blockade and interest barriers to comprehensively improve resource utilization efficiency and technical level, and ultimately achieve regional low-carbon development.

This paper explores the effects of market integration on China’s carbon emissions based on different methods and perspectives, and confirms that market integration plays a vital role in China’s carbon emissions through economic growth and technological progress. Notably, based on the studied results, some specific and practical suggestions are proposed in this paper so as to reduce carbon emission and realize the sustainable development of economy and society in China.

Relevant analyses are presented on the base of the compressible vortex method for simulating the development of two or three co-rotating vortices with different characteristic Mach numbers. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

In addition to having vorticity and dilatation properties, the vortex particles also carry density, enthalpy, and entropy. Taking co-rotating vortices in two-dimensional unsteady compressible flow for an example, truncation of unbounded domains via a nonreflecting boundary condition was considered in order to make the method computationally efficient.

For two identical vortices, the effect of the vortex Mach number on merging process is not evident; if two vortices have the same circulation rather than different radiuses, the vorticity and dilatation fields of the vortex under a vortex Mach number will be absorbed by the vortex under a higher vortex Mach number. For three vortices, if the original arrangement of the vortices is changed, the evolvement of the vorticity and dilatation fields is different.

The paper reveals new mechanism of the three co-rotating vortices by a feasible compressible vortex method.

This systematic literature review aims to elaborate on the research progress and features of information source preferences to help other researchers attain a more comprehensive understanding of the field.

Following a systematic review protocol, 139 research articles from 11 academic databases were analyzed.

Overall, five separate results were obtained: first, information source horizon theory is the main theoretical foundation of information source preferences research, while other theories have been applied less. Second, information source preference research has strong context sensitivity and involves health, work, consumption, learning, survival and development and emergencies. Third, preference criteria can be summarized into three categories: information characteristics, user characteristics, needs characteristics and corresponding specific criteria. Fourth, information source preferences are influenced by both internal and external factors, including five specific aspects, namely demographics, the user's cognition, the user's affection, capital and contextual factors. Fifth, this field is dominated by quantitative methods and an information horizon mapping method could be applied more.

This study is the first to reveal the general picture of information source preferences. It also elaborates on the characteristics of this field and presents potential development directions.

The study aims to develop a holistic model identifying the constructs that impact customer loyalty in retail banking and introduce product type as a moderating variable to the model.

A conceptual model of customer loyalty is introduced and empirically tested with 416 valid samples obtained from Australian retail banking customers. The data were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling and multigroup analysis.

This study confirms the moderating effect of high- and low-involvement products on the relationship between customer loyalty and satisfaction, trust, service quality, commitment and perceived value. Surprisingly, the effect of satisfaction on loyalty was much stronger with low-involvement product types and the effect of commitment on loyalty was much stronger with customers who utilise high-involvement products.

The study uses a sample population in Australia who utilise one of the top four banks and investigates three product types. Further research could expand the product selection and include customers who use credit unions and other banks not in the top four categories.

This study is the first to confirm the moderating effect product type has on the customer loyalty relationship in retail banking in regard to high- and low-involvement product categories. The research provides a deeper understanding of the factors that influence customer loyalty and identifies which types of products influences customer loyalty the most. Additionally, this study highlights the importance of understanding the different needs and priorities of customers using different product types in order to effectively influence their loyalty.