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This study aims to investigate the acoustic roughness of rails on China’s high-speed railways, with a focus on short-wavelength irregularities (less than 80 cm), which are known to significantly contribute to noise. The goal is to develop a specific acoustic roughness spectrum tailored for China’s high-speed railway system, as no such spectrum currently exists.

A long-term tracking study was conducted on major railway lines in China, monitoring rail roughness throughout the initial operational period and the rails’ service life. Data preprocessing techniques such as peak removal and curvature correction were applied for acoustic adjustments. A spatial-wavelength domain transformation was performed, providing the distribution patterns and statistical characteristics of acoustic roughness on China’s high-speed rails. Based on these analyses, a model for constructing the acoustic roughness spectrum was developed.

The study found that the acoustic roughness of China’s high-speed railway rails follows a χ² distribution with six degrees of freedom. For wavelengths greater than 8 cm, the acoustic roughness spectrum remains below the ISO specified limits. In the wavelength range of 3.2 cm to 6.3 cm, the roughness is comparable to or within the limits specified by ISO 3095:2005 and ISO 3095:2013. However, for wavelengths shorter than 2.5 cm, the roughness exceeds ISO limits.

This research fills the gap in the lack of a specific acoustic roughness spectrum for China’s high-speed railways. By establishing a tailored spectrum based on long-term data analysis, the findings provide valuable insights for noise control and rail maintenance in the context of China’s high-speed rail system.

This study aims to evaluate how positive experiences affect satisfaction and brand loyalty toward specific brand products for travel services by collecting 489 structured questionnaires from those patronizing seven world-renowned brand travel agencies in Taiwan. As for data analysis, it uses a structural equation model (SEM) to examine causal relationships among the proposed constructs. This study suggests that marketers of brand products utilize this consumer mentality, pursue the meaning of symbol development strategies for products and appeal to more consumers to boost consumption. In addition, offering a positive experience and ensuring satisfaction is a valid strategy for creating brand life cycle advantages for travel services.

Intumescent coatings are nowadays a dominant passive system used to protect structural materials in case of fire. Due to their reactive swelling behaviour, intumescent coatings are particularly complex materials to be modelled and predicted, which can be extremely useful especially for performance-based fire safety designs. In addition, many parameters influence their performance, and this challenges the definition and quantification of their material properties. Several approaches and models of various complexities are proposed in the literature, and they are reviewed and analysed in a critical literature review.

Analytical, finite-difference and finite-element methods for modelling intumescent coatings are compared, followed by the definition and quantification of the main physical, thermal, and optical properties of intumescent coatings: swelled thickness, thermal conductivity and resistance, density, specific heat capacity, and emissivity/absorptivity.

The study highlights the scarce consideration of key influencing factors on the material properties, and the tendency to simplify the problem into effective thermo-physical properties, such as effective thermal conductivity. As a conclusion, the literature review underlines the lack of homogenisation of modelling approaches and material properties, as well as the need for a universal modelling method that can generally simulate the performance of intumescent coatings, combine the large amount of published experimental data, and reliably produce fire-safe performance-based designs.

Due to their limited applicability, high complexity and little comparability, the presented literature review does not focus on analysing and comparing different multi-component models, constituted of many model-specific input parameters. On the contrary, the presented literature review compares various approaches, models and thermo-physical properties which primarily focusses on solving the heat transfer problem through swelling intumescent systems.

The presented literature review analyses and discusses the various modelling approaches to describe and predict the behaviour of swelling intumescent coatings as fire protection for structural materials. Due to the vast variety of available commercial products and potential testing conditions, these data are rarely compared and combined to achieve an overall understanding on the response of intumescent coatings as fire protection measure. The study highlights the lack of information and homogenisation of various modelling approaches, and it underlines the research needs about several aspects related to the intumescent coating behaviour modelling, also providing some useful suggestions for future studies.

The purpose of this study is to understand whether the spectator’s emotional attachment to esports’ players is key for the sponsoring brand’s outcomes. A theoretical model based on the attachment, social influence and brand communities’ literature is proposed.

Data were collected through an online survey from a sample of 1,355 regular esports viewers. The proposed conceptual model was evaluated using partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The results showed that emotional attachment to esports players exerts a large effect on the viewer’s engagement with the community and his or her intention to view its content for longer. These two variables are key in explaining the viewer’s intention to perform positive behaviors toward the sponsoring brand, such as recommendation, purchase intentions and co-creation.

This study improves the understanding about the effects of the viewer’s emotional bond with esports players and the bond’s impact on the development of positive behaviors toward the sponsoring brand.

El objetivo de este estudio es comprender cómo el apego emocional del espectador hacia el jugador de esports es determinante para los resultados de la marca patrocinadora. Para ello se propone un modelo teórico basado en la literatura sobre el apego, la influencia social, y las comunidades de marca.

Se recopilaron datos de una muestra de 1.355 espectadores habituales de esports mediante una encuesta online. El modelo conceptual propuesto se evaluó con la técnica de ecuaciones estructurales por el método de mínimos cuadrados parciales (PLS-SEM).

Los resultados muestran que el apego emocional hacia el jugador de esports ejerce un gran efecto tanto en el compromiso del espectador con la comunidad como en su intención de permanecer más tiempo visionando sus contenidos. Estas dos variables son clave para explicar la intención del espectador de realizar comportamientos positivos hacia la marca patrocinadora como son la recomendación, la intención de compra y la cocreación.

Este estudio contribuye a mejorar la comprensión sobre los efectos del vínculo emocional del espectador con los jugadores de esports y su impacto en el desarrollo de comportamientos positivos hacia la marca patrocinadora.

In recent years, the incidence of cardiovascular disease has continued to rise, and early screening and prevention are especially critical. Phonocardiography (PCG) and electrocardiography (ECG), as simple, cost-effective and non-invasive tests, are important tools for clinical analysis. However, it is difficult to fully reflect the complexity of the cardiovascular system using PCG or ECG tests alone. Combining the multimodal signals of PCG and ECG can provide complementary information to improve the detection accuracy. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to propose a multimodal signal classification method based on continuous wavelet transform and improved ResNet18.

The classification method is based on the ResNet18 backbone, and the ResNet18 network is improved by embedding the global grouped coordinate attention mechanism module and the improved bidirectional feature pyramid network. Firstly, a data acquisition system was built using a MEMS-integrated PCG-ECG sensor to construct a private data set. Second is the time-frequency transformation of PCG and ECG synchronized signals on public and private data sets using continuous wavelet transform. Finally, the time-frequency images are categorized.

The global grouped coordinate attention mechanism and bidirectional feature pyramid network modules proposed in this paper significantly enhance the model’s performance. On public data sets, the method achieves precision, sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and F1 score of 97.96%, 98.51%, 97.58%, 98.08% and 98.23%, respectively, which represent improvements of 3.54%, 3.92%, 4.18%, 4.03% and 3.72% compared to ResNet18. Additionally, it demonstrates a clear advantage over existing mainstream algorithms. On private data sets, the method’s five metrics are 98.15%, 98.76%, 98.08%, 98.42% and 98.45%, further validating the model’s generalization ability.

The method proposed in this paper not only improves the accuracy and efficiency of the test but also provides an effective solution for early screening and prevention of cardiovascular diseases.

The post-COVID-19 scenario has presented significant learning challenges for university students worldwide. The swift shift from face-to-face to online classes posed greater difficulties because students were not mentally, financially, or physically prepared for this change, nor were they provided with adequate training to operate the learning management system (LMS). Online learning necessitates a school-like environment at home, which is challenging for students to replicate. This study aimed to determine the effect of online learning on students’ academic achievement and to explore the challenges they faced in adapting to this new mode of learning. A quantitative research approach was employed, gathering primary data from 230 respondents in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad. This was done using a validated closed-ended questionnaire featuring a five-point Likert scale. The collected data underwent analysis via the Friedman test using SPSS 20v. The results revealed that online learning negatively impacted students’ academic achievement due to factors such as lack of internet accessibility, decreased motivation towards academics, low satisfaction levels, and difficulties in understanding academic concepts, particularly in the natural sciences. The study recommends a focus on implementing new teaching methods such as reciprocal teaching, digitalizing classrooms, offering remedial classes, and enhancing student motivation through teacher engagement.

This study empirically tests the influence of key elements on intent to use electronic (E)-ticket through the “Stimulus–Organism–Response (SOR)” framework and structural equation model. Results highlight factors such as E-trust Technology, Ease of Use, E-satisfaction, Intention to Purchase E-ticket, Price Perception, and Usefulness; the study comprehensively analyzes the factors influencing the decision-making process of consumers when it comes to purchasing E-tickets. The research employs a hypothesis-driven approach and gathers survey results from 408 observants to find out the intention of consumers to use E-tickets for using transportation services, which help transportation providers understand the importance of its platform to benefit customers who are willing to change their perceptions from paper tickets to E-tickets, the reason customers buying E-ticket rather than paper ticket while using digitalization to help firms control their cost and building internal legitimacy by better managing their internal stakeholder.

This study aims to confirm the causal relationship between emotional brand attachment, brand love, and brand commitment, and then explain how these variables affect active engagement. In addition, it is to confirm the effect of brand prestige, brand consciousness, and brand trust on emotional brand attachment and to identify the moderating role of self-congruity in the causal relationship between these variables.

In this study, a survey was conducted targeting 320 consumers who have recently purchased luxury products or brands. In addition, structural equation model analysis (SEM) was used to test the research hypotheses raised in this study.

The results found that brand prestige and brand consciousness affect on emotional brand attachment. Emotional brand attachment had a significant effect on brand love and brand commitment. And brand love affect brand commitment and active engagement. Emotional brand attachment affects active engagement. Brand love was mediated in the relationship between emotional brand attachment and active engagement. Self-congruity was moderated in the relationship between brand prestige and emotional brand attachment. However, self-congruity was not moderated in the relation to brand consciousness, brand trust and emotional brand attachment.

This study has significance in that it identified the antecedent factors that cause consumers' emotional brand attachment and confirmed that they have differential effects depending on the degree of consumer self-congruity. In addition, this study is meaningful in that it confirmed the concept of the causal difference between attachment and brand love as consumers' emotional responses to luxury brands. However, the scope of this study was limited to offline stores excluding online purchases as a place of purchase for luxury brands. In a situation where the purchase of luxury brands is gradually increasing in various online environments, limiting the scope of the study to offline stores may have problems in generalizing the study. Therefore, in future research, we would like to propose a study on the relationship and influence between these variables by integrating all purchasing environments, such as offline and online.

The management implications of the results of this study are as follows. First, brand marketers and managers must suggest strategies to increase emotional attachment to customers who are satisfied with the brand and have a favorable brand attitude. After segmenting target customers and identifying their tendencies, behavioral characteristics, and preferred brands, emotional attachment can be strengthened by providing information about the brand to each segment and strengthening the brand image. Strategies like these can help target customers strengthen their emotional connection to a luxury brand, build positive attitudes toward the brand, and prevent them from switching to competing brands. Second, a strategy is needed to ensure that target customers have a strong emotional response to the company's luxury brand and become immersed in the brand. Target customers who have an affinity for the brand can strengthen their level of brand attachment and become immersed in the brand by allowing them to directly participate in brand activities through various advertising campaigns, events, and content. Third, you can strengthen your brand by developing a brand that fits the self-concept of your target customers. Brand marketers or managers can strengthen brand attachment by presenting a brand that fits the characteristics of each target customer and recognizing that the brand's status is relatively high compared to competing brands.

This study identified how consumers' brand engagement in a luxury brand environment is influenced by its components. In other words, the preceding factors for consumers' brand emotion were identified, and the influence of emotional brand attachment and brand love, which represent the consumer's emotional state that affects consumers' brand engagement, was investigated. The theoretical implications of the results of this study are as follows. First, Shahid et al. (2022) found that emotional attachment was expressed more strongly when emotional bonds were formed through relationship formation. Hwang and Kandampully (2012) found that emotional attachment and brand love are conceptually similar but differ in intensity. And Gómez-Suárez (2019) said that brand attachment is a prerequisite for brand love. As mentioned earlier, previous research has shown that emotional attachment and brand love differ depending on the consumer's emotional state. The results of this study showed that emotional brand attachment did not affect active participation, while brand love did. This means that active engagement is directly influenced by brand love rather than emotional attachment. Through these research results, it can be confirmed that even if consumers have similar brand emotional states, the impact on consumer behavior is different depending on the intensity of the emotional state. Therefore, in the consumer-brand relationship, the intensity of emotions arising from the interaction between the consumer and the brand is different, and only when brand emotions are at a high level, consumers engage in behavioral participation toward the brand. Second, Morris and Keltner (2000) found that consumers activate the integration of emotions in the decision-making process. Hwang and Kandampully (2012) found that love induces consumers to maintain a relationship with a brand, and that brand commitment increases when consumers feel intimacy and a strong emotional bond between themselves and the brand. Through these prior studies, it was confirmed that emotions play an important role in the consumer's decision-making process, and in particular, it was confirmed that maintaining close relationships with others induces emotional commitment to the object. In this study, brand loyalty was also found to have a positive effect on brand immersion and active participation. Therefore, consumers need to foster strong bonds with luxury brands to create brand love and strengthen their relationship with the brand, leading to brand commitment and active participation. Third, Ji et al. (2018) found that brand reputation has a positive effect on consumer attitudes and behaviors, including brand attachment, purchase intention, and brand loyalty. Casidy et al. (2015) found that consumers with high brand awareness are likely to have high brand preference and have favorable and positive brand attitudes due to their high brand knowledge. Previous research has shown that consumers' brand reputation and brand consciousness influence brand attachment.

This study dealt with a more comprehensive variable in the relationship between luxury brand factors as an antecedent variable of emotional brand attachment in luxury brand situations, and provided important evidence for the mediating effect of brand love, which was a limited emotional variable. In addition, additional implications for the moderating role of brand self-congruity on emotional brand attachment were suggested.

This chapter critically evaluates whether football can attain recognition as a national sport in China. Article No. 11, released by the Chinese government in 2015, aimed to develop a new national strategy centralised on the sport of football to foster consumption and enhance national soft power. Consequently, this also means encouraging Chinese football fans to support the national football team. Comparing the significance of local football clubs and the national football team to Chinese football fans is deemed meaningless and unable to generate useful information to comprehend Chinese people's attitudes towards local and national communities. Through literature comparisons with established Chinese national sports such as Chinese martial arts, badminton and table tennis, the discussion reveals that football currently falls short of meeting the general criteria of invention and popularity to be considered a Chinese national sport. In the specific Chinese context, it also proves that football fails to meet the criterion of politics, hindering its identification as a national sport. Consequently, the chapter rebuts the assumption and advocates for the validity of comparing how fans assess their fandom for local and national football teams.