Mobile Money for the Unbanked in Emerging Markets

Mobile money, together with mobile broadband, is likely to be the primary growth engine for emerging market mobile network carriers. The service is gaining popularity and is beginning to contribute considerably to telecom income. There are still 2 billion individuals worldwide who do not have a bank account. This group is primarily located in less developed areas (Africa, part of Asia, and Latin America). A typical use case of a distant worker sending money to the family for living expenses is highly expensive for persons who do not have financial inclusion. Mobile penetration is substantially higher, allowing for these remittances to be sent in a cost-effective and simple manner. Because the system is based on feature phones and 2G technology, end users do not need to have the most recent smartphone or mobile broadband (SMS or Unstructured Supplementary Service Data-USSD channel). The most common application is domestic remittance. Bill payments and merchant payments are two others. International remittances are now feasible across various operators as well (cross-MNO agreements). Globally, there were already more than 100 million active mobile money accounts in 2014, with services available in around 90 countries.

Service Partition Method Based on Particle Swarm Fuzzy Clustering

It is difficult to accurately classify a service into specific service clusters for the multirelationships between services. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a service partition method based on particle swarm fuzzy clustering, which can effectively consider multirelationships between services by using a fuzzy clustering algorithm. Firstly, the algorithm for automatically determining the number of clusters is to determine the number of service clusters based on the density of the service core point. Secondly, the fuzzy c -means combined with particle swarm optimization algorithm to find the optimal cluster center of the service. Finally, the fuzzy clustering algorithm uses the improved Gram-cosine similarity to obtain the final results. Extensive experiments on real web service data show that our method is better than mainstream clustering algorithms in accuracy.

Service Facilities in Heritage Tourism: Identification and Planning Based on Space Syntax

Improving the development level of tourism service facilities in historic areas of old cities and realizing the sustainable tourism are important strategies for urban historical protection, economic development, and cultural rejuvenation. Districts at different tourism development stages show different characteristics of tourism service facilities. This study collects location-based service data and uses space syntax to identify the correlation between the distribution of tourism service facilities and street networks, which helps decision-makers to optimize the spatial layout of tourism facilities in the planning of historic areas. Taking the southern historic area of Nanjing, China, as an example, this is an area with a rich collection of cultural heritage and many historic districts, and the study reveals that the areas with strongest street agglomeration and best accessibility, as well as the districts with most mature tourism development, are the core of the tourism facilities. The agglomeration of transportation and accommodation facilities should be set at the traffic nodes as much as possible due to the highest correlation with the street network. Instead, the entertainment, catering, and shopping facilities can be set in the nontraffic node areas under the premise of ensuring good traffic accessibility owing to the insignificantly relationship with the street network. The research results can be used as an important reference for urban decision-makers regarding the planning of historic areas.

A review of trial and real-world data applying a realist approach to identify behavioural mechanisms supporting practitioners to taper opioids

This realist enquiry applying behavioural theory aimed to identify behavioural mechanisms and contexts that facilitate prescribers tapering opioids. We identified relevant opioid tapering interventions and services from a 2018 international systematic review and a 2019 England-wide survey, respectively. Interventions and services were eligible if they provided information about contexts and/or behavioural mechanisms influencing opioid tapering success. A stakeholder group (n=23) generated draft programme theories based around the 14 domains of the theoretical domains framework. We refined these using the trial and service data. From 71 articles and 21 survey responses, 56 and 16 respectively were included, representing primary care, hospital, specialist pain facilities and prison services. We identified six programme theories that included five behavioural mechanisms: prescribers’ knowledge about how to taper; build prescribers’ beliefs about capabilities to initiate tapering discussions and manage psychological consequences of tapering; perceived professional role in tapering; the environmental context enabling referral to specialists; and facilitating positive social influence by aligning patient: prescriber expectations of tapering. No interventions are addressing all six mechanisms supportive of tapering. Work is required to operationalise programme theories according to organisational structures and resources. An example operationalisation is combining tapering guidelines with information about local excess opioid problems and endorsing these with organisational branding. Prescribers being given the skills and confidence to initiate tapering discussions by training them in cognitive-based interventions and incorporating access to psychological and physical support in the patient pathway. Patients being provided with leaflets about the tapering process and informed about the patient pathway.

The contribution of cathedrals to psychological health and well-being: Assessing the impact of Cathedral Carol Services

This study was designed to test the hypothesis that events such as the Christmas Eve Carol Services at Liverpool Cathedral that include some regular churchgoers (people who attend services most weeks) and much larger numbers of occasional visitors (who may attend church only once or twice a year) make a significant impact on the psychological health and well-being of the participants. Using a repeat-measure design, participants were invited to complete a copy of the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire while they were waiting for the service to begin and then to complete a second copy during a five-minute organ improvisation just before the close of the service. Data provided by 802 participants who completed both copies of the instrument demonstrated a significantly higher score on the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire at time two than at time one, suggesting that attendance at the service had exerted a positive impact on psychological health and well-being.Contribution: Situated within the science of cathedral studies, this article demonstrates by means of a repeated-measure study that cathedrals can make a significant impact on the psychological health and well-being of the wider community served by them. The same well-being measure was completed by 802 participants at the Christmas Eve Carol Services before and after the event, with a significant increase in scores at time two.

Monitoring Utilization Trends of Glucose-Lowering Drugs for Type 2 Diabetes in Older Adults by Frailty Status

Using Medicare fee-for-service data from 2013-17, we identified a cohort of patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) who initiated a glucose-lowering drug (mean [SD] age, 74.8 (6.9) years). Amongst frail patients (CFI≥0.20), metformin use remained stable from 29.1% to 29.4%, whereas sulfonylureas (25.8% to 22.1%) and insulin (21.2% to 19.0%) use declined. Amongst non-frail patients (CFI <0.20), metformin (35.3% to 33.1%) and sulfonylurea (26.2% to 22.2%) use decreased whereas insulin (11.7% to 10.6%) use remained stable. DPP-4i and glitazones use remained stable whereas the use of newer agents such as SGLT-2i and GLP-1 RA increased steadily over the study period in both frail and non-frail patients, though their use remains low ( <8%). In conclusion, sulfonylureas and insulin accounted for about one-third of initiated glucose-lowering medications and were more frequently used by frail patients, though their use declined steadily over time with the availability of newer agents.

Biopsychosocial Correlates of Cognitive Function Among Korean Older Adults: History of Hypertension and Diabetes

Based on biopsychosocial perspectives on health, this study examined risk and protective factors of cognitive function among Korean older adults. Specifically, we focused on comparing the role of these factors based on the respondents' history of having hypertension or diabetes. This study used 2009 Korean National Health Insurance Service data that included a sample of older adults who maintained qualification for health insurance and medical aid in 2002 (n=26,242). Cognitive function was measured using KDSQ-C and biopsychosocial factors included metabolic syndrome, drinking, smoking, and walking. The sample was divided into two groups based on their medical history, and thus four sets of linear regression models were analyzed to explore the associations between biopsychosocial factors and cognitive functioning. Among individuals with a history of hypertension, metabolic syndrome, drinking, and walking were associated with cognitive functioning. For those without a history of hypertension, only drinking and walking were associated with cognitive functioning. For diabetes, smoking and walking were associated with cognitive functioning among older adults with a history of diabetes. For those without a history of diabetes, drinking and walking were associated with cognitive functioning. In sum, metabolic syndrome was a particularly significant correlate of cognitive function among Korean older adults with a history of hypertension. Walking was a consistently significant factor regardless of medical history. These results highlight the importance of considering medical history of chronic conditions such as hypertension and diabetes in identifying factors associated with older adults' cognitive function and further developing tailored prevention programs for cognitive decline.