Despite the growing importance of wellness and health tourism, little is known about how individuals who have never experienced thermal spa treatments form intentions toward such services. This study addresses this gap by mobilizing an extended Theory of Planned Behavior framework enriched with subjective knowledge and expected health benefits. Based on a large-scale survey of French non-users, we combine Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling and Necessary Condition Analysis to examine both enabling and constraining mechanisms of intention formation. The results show that all predictors contribute positively to intention, with subjective norm emerging as the most influential factor. However, the necessity analysis reveals a markedly different causal structure: only subjective norm, expected health benefits, and perceived behavioral control establish threshold conditions that must be satisfied for higher levels of intention to occur. In contrast, subjective knowledge and attitude, although significant, do not operate as indispensable conditions. These findings reveal an asymmetry between the factors that raise intention and those that set the threshold for it. They suggest that, in this context, intention depends on socially mediated validation, not on individual evaluation alone. For managers, the priority is the conditions that must be met for intention to form - social legitimacy, credible health benefits, and feasibility - rather than interventions, such as information or persuasion, that intensify intention only once those conditions are in place.
Although the effects of the presence of others on behavior constitute one of the oldest topics studied in social psychology, the reason why these effects occur is still the subject of scientific debate. Three hypotheses are commonly cited: (1) the presence of others facilitates dominant responses by increasing arousal, (2) it captures attention, or (3) it increases the efforts of those being observed. Few studies have attempted to distinguish between these explanations, and those that have done so have used a specific paradigm: the Stroop task. In the present study, we proposed an alternative approach based on the use of the temporal bisection task. In three studies, the bisection results showed a temporal shortening effect in social presence (that of an experimenter) consistent with an attentional distraction-related effect. Our results also provided the first evidence that this effect may be stronger when the attentional conflict between the task and the presence is unimodal (e.g., visual task and visual presence) rather than cross-modal (e.g., auditive task and visual presence). They also suggested that the social presence effect might be similar to that produced by a mechanical distractor, although the social nature of the distractor increased the attention-related effect. We discuss how variations in the presence and behavior of the experimenter could contribute to the difficulty of replicating certain studies in experimental psychology, given that the social presence of the experimenter is generally assumed to be innocuous.
Deformable linear objects (DLOs) are widely encountered in everyday life, taking forms such as plastic tubes, wires, ropes, and cables. They are prevalent across diverse settings, including industrial, domestic, and medical environments, as well as in outdoor applications like electric power lines, subaquatic cables, and aerial transport systems. These objects are termed deformable due to their ability to undergo significant shape changes under external forces, and linear because their length vastly exceeds their cross-sectional dimensions. Despite their importance and widespread presence, developing robotic systems capable of interacting with DLOs poses numerous challenges. This survey presents a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art methods developed over the past decade to address these challenges. It covers key areas including physical and data-driven modeling techniques, simulation environments, perception approaches based on vision and tactile sensing, as well as strategies for estimation, planning, and control. It also reviews common manipulation tasks such as grasping, shaping, routing, knotting, suturing, and transport. The survey concludes with a critical discussion of current limitations and outlines promising directions for future research.
The use of wood in mobility applications is attracting growing interest due to its environmental benefits, light weight, and good specific strength. This review presents the current state of research on wood and its derivatives—natural wood, treated wood, technical plywood, sandwich composites, and 3D-printed wood-based materials—examining their mechanical behavior, durability, and potential for integration into mobile structures. The work reviewed shows significant advances for plywood and wood-composite sandwiches, but studies on solid wood, dynamics, cracking, and fatigue remain limited and scattered. The main obstacles concern the natural variability of the material, industrial reproducibility, hygro-mechanical modeling, and the lack of test protocols adapted to real-world mobility conditions. The analysis also emphasizes that the favorable mechanical properties of densified or treated wood should not overshadow environmental sustainability requirements. Future research should focus on conducting more tests under variable environments, in vacuum conditions, and at high strain rates, as well as on characterizing interfaces and mixed-mode cracking behavior. Particular attention should be paid to wood-based sandwich structures, which have been identified as particularly promising solutions. Finally, the development of a reference guide listing the mechanical and environmental properties of different wood species and forms would be a key step toward the design and standardization of wood materials for sustainable mobility.
Digital technology has played a major role in helping businesses withstand the economic shock resulting from the health crisis. The paper examines how digital technology, particularly broadband access, shapes the economic resilience of French establishments across the metropolitan-to-peripheral spectrum. Using a large survey of businesses from March 2020 to December 2021 and an exact matching procedure, we find that broadband access was crucial in helping businesses manage the crisis, particularly in areas outside major urban centers. Results are robust across indicators of economic performance, definitions of digital technology, matching variables, and area typologies. Although other factors may play a role, differences in digital maturity across locations account for a non-negligible part of the spatial variation in broadband's impact. The results suggest that the health crisis may have helped narrow the gap between central and peripheral regions, as establishments outside urban centers were forced to adopt digital technologies.
