On The Likelihood of Acquiring a Premium Service Under Freemium and Paymium: Field and Experimental Evidence

The freemium sales model, which offers consumers the use of a free-basic service that may later be converted to a paid-premium one, has been widely adopted in the online application industry. More recently, the alternative paymium sales method, which unlike freemium offers the basic service at a fee, has gained popularity. We examine the likelihood of acquiring the premium service under freemium and paymium by (a) analyzing real-world data (N=52,156) from a large online classified real estate service that changed its sales model from freemium to paymium, and (b) conducting a series of controlled experiments with real monetary incentives. We consistently find a greater likelihood of acquiring the premium service under paymium and premium-only methods, as compared to freemium. Examining the behavioral mechanism underlying our robust results, we find that people demand greater compensation for relinquishing a free (vs. non-free) service—beyond the trivial difference in services’ costs. Our findings advance the theoretical understanding of the role of zero (vs. non-zero) prices on consumers’ sequential choices and contribute to practical implementation of effective online sales methods.

The Limits of Free Health Care Schemes: the Case of Access to Care for Beneficiaries of the Moroccan Medical Assistance Scheme (RAMed) Suffering From Cancer

Background: The article discusses the limitations of a free-of-charge scheme for the poor in the case of cancer patients. The literature on free access to hospitals, especially on the African continent, has already mentioned these limits: occasional payments for care and transport. The particularly ambitious Moroccan free-of-charge scheme (RAMEd) presents the same problemsMethods: It is based on a qualitative survey of 120 patients and 30 doctors or nurses with whom we conducted semi-structured interviews over several months.Results: The results show that patients continue to pay for care and medical imaging as well as their transport to the hospital. They pay for care and examinations that are not available at the hospital or wait for them to be available, which is a danger to their chances of survival.Conclusions: The limitation of the RAMed is that it does not cover the cost of transport or the structural deficiencies of the hospital. The result is the paradox of a free service that is costly for patients. We stress that targeted policies cannot replace structural policies and, on their own, do not remedy inequalities, particularly territorial inequalities.

The Relationship between Contact-Free Services, Social and Personal Norms, and Customers’ Behavior for the Sustainable Management of the Restaurant Industry

People worldwide are experiencing increasingly complex social issues, and ways of life are changing. This study analyzes the relationship between contact-free service value, personal and social norms, and customers’ behavioral intentions for sustainable restaurant businesses, demonstrating a direct association of the value and extended norm theory. Structural equation model analysis was performed to verify causality between variables; multi-group analysis was performed to confirm the moderating effects of menu price using AMOS; and frequency analysis, descriptive statistical analysis, and reliability analysis were performed using SPSS. The data were collected from Koreans aged 18 years and above (310 responses). The results revealed that contact-free service value positively affects personal norms, and personal norms positively affect behavioral intentions. In addition, social norms positively affect personal norms and behavioral intentions. In particular, it was found that social norms greatly influence personal norms. Finally, the menu price moderated the relationship between social and personal norms. These results present a variety of academic and practical implications, and this is especially meaningful for analyzing the association between contact-free service value and norm theory in the food service industry.

The Lègami/Legàmi Service—An Experience of Psychological Intervention in Maternal and Child Care during COVID-19

This study provides a descriptive analysis of the Lègami/Legàmi service, a free psychological support service in maternal and childcare, offered through the internet and by telephone that was initiated by the Italian Society of Pediatric Psychology (S.I.P.Ped.) during the COVID-19 medical emergency as an act of solidarity, first independently, and then in collaboration with the Italian Ministry of Health. This paper presents findings related to the “universe” of people who called the toll-free service, from the sociocultural characteristics of the users to the information collected by the professionals during the psychological pathways until human satisfaction was achieved. We provide a retrospective description of an experience that took place between April and June 2020, and which involved users of the maternal-infant area calling from the whole Italy. Methods: The aims of this study were to investigate the configuration of the indicators identified and to detect the possible correlations between them in the sample. There were 193 users who took advantage of the Service, 160 of whom continued beyond the reception service; it is this group that we report the findings from here. The tool used was a form reporting access to care and interventions, and the resulting data underwent a content analysis and the indicators were subject to non-parametric statistical analysis to analyze differences and relationships. Results: There were many correlations among the indicators that revealed a high prevalence of calls due to personal motivations and requests for support, which later allowed users to gain a greater understanding of the underlying problems they were facing. The professionals running the service noticed a prevalence of weaknesses attributable to the negative emotions of its users, alongside a presence of cognitive and relational resources. The professionals’ interventions, which can be characterized by a prevalence of social support, psychological rehabilitation, and psychoeducation, achieved outcomes of redefining users’ relationships with themselves and others. All of the service’s users have expressed a high level of satisfaction with it. Discussion: Our results revealed the protective and transformative effects of the service for its users and the underlying importance of having an easily accessible psychological support system in place during emergencies, like the recent pandemic. In conditions like these, the great value of a remote support service should be noted, and despite its limitations, assures its own efficacy when a medical emergency precludes closer in-person forms of psychological assistance.

Policymaker perceptions of citizen needs: heuristics, accuracy, and partisan differences

Do policymaker perceptions reflect actual citizen needs? A vast literature has explored the extent to which policy is responsive to public opinion, but there is little systematic work on policymaker perceptions of social problems. We quantify social problems with a unique dataset of the number of phone calls placed by citizens to a free service that connects Michigan residents to service providers. We combine these data with a survey of local policymakers’ perceptions of social problems facing their own city shows, consistent with theories of bounded rationality, that policymakers use heuristics to make judgments about the extent of constituent needs in their city, and that policymaker perceptions reflect the prevalence of needs. However, partisan perceptions of needs diverge, with Democrats consistently perceiving greater needs than Republicans. There is no evidence that policy activity on the needs in the sample is responsive to constituent needs. We conclude with implications for theories of policy making and avenues for future research.

“More Than a Free Bus Ride”—Exploring Young Adults’ Perceptions of Free Bus Services Using a Qualitative Approach: A Case Study of Penang, Malaysia

Encouraging the younger generation to use public transport can revolutionise the way that citizens commute in the future; hence, municipalities must provide good public transport services to encourage their use. A free bus service was introduced in Penang, Malaysia, to support the sustainable agenda and to provide transport for low-income groups. However, the lack of ridership resulted in the service being far from achieving its target. This study assessed young adults’ perceptions of the current free bus service in Penang to design a strategy to attract them to use the free bus. In this study, six focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted with young adults aged between 18 and 25 years old studying in three different higher institutions located along the route of the free bus. The data collected were analysed using thematic analysis, in which four areas were identified—free service, reliability, information provision, and attractive service. Finally, this paper provides valuable input on initiatives to further encourage young adults to use the free bus service in Penang.

LOCAL EXPERIENCE OF TELEMEDICINE: EXAMPLES OF CASES IN YEMEN

Background: The benefits of establishing a web-based telemedicine service in a resource-stressed society, linking health professionals in order to improve the quality and accessibility of healthcare and facilitate a further method of medical education through exchange of knowledge and experiences. Sub-standard communication facilities within a strained medical service across limited sites, combined with an inadequate understanding of the service further reduces provision. The on-going military campaign within the country exacerbates the problems facing medical staff, yet despite the difficult situation in the country there is a drive towards an increase in health facilities. Objective: The aim of this research is to explore one of the first experiences in the use of telemedicine in Yemen by clarifying cases that have benefited from telemedicine and further exploring the potential for development of a network of TM to serve areas which lack sub-specialty services. Methods: We carried out a review of both the first and second phases of our experience of TM services in Yemen. The first phase began in 1997 when we joined a newly established international company based in the USA with several offices in different countries. We got a huge, expensive digitizer that was supposed to transfer medical reports to second opinion sites in USA, UK, Jordan etc. The second phase began a few years later utilizing a free service, namely The Swinfen Charitable Trust, based in the UK; in which 300 cases in the first stage with 1-3 responses and about 80 cases with 5-50 responses and more in the second stage were involved and benefited from TM services. Results: During the study period the process was seen to be generally very useful to patients helping the local doctor to give the correct decision on management and treatment; added to that cases had reduced travel and the specialist advice proved educational for the doctors who received their guidance. Conclusion and recommendation: This study revealed that telemedicine services are generally underutilized in Yemen despite the good results achieved in many of the cases. Technical, administrative, and legal issues should be discussed in Yemen. Factors such as on-going problems with internet connectivity and consequent system reliability must also be considered. Knowing and identifying these factors is vital for considering any future in-depth studies and assessing the appropriate measures to fix the technological problems that face TM in Yemen are an on-going concern. Peer Review History: Received 3 January 2021; Revised 11 February; Accepted 1 March, Available online 15 March 2021 UJPR follows the most transparent and toughest ‘Advanced OPEN peer review’ system. The identity of the authors and, reviewers will be known to each other. This transparent process will help to eradicate any possible malicious/purposeful interference by any person (publishing staff, reviewer, editor, author, etc) during peer review. As a result of this unique system, all reviewers will get their due recognition and respect, once their names are published in the papers. We expect that, by publishing peer review reports with published papers, will be helpful to many authors for drafting their article according to the specifications. Auhors will remove any error of their article and they will improve their article(s) according to the previous reports displayed with published article(s). The main purpose of it is ‘to improve the quality of a candidate manuscript’. Our reviewers check the ‘strength and weakness of a manuscript honestly’. There will increase in the perfection, and transparency. Received file: Reviewer's Comments: Average Peer review marks at initial stage: 5.5/10 Average Peer review marks at publication stage: 7.0/10 Reviewer(s) detail: Dr. George Zhu, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, [email protected] Dr. Evren Alğin Yapar, Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency, Turkiye, [email protected] Similar Articles: USE OF COLCHICINE TO COUNTERACT THE STRONG HYPERINFLAMMATORY STATE INDUCED BY SARS-COV-2

sRNAanno—a database repository of uniformly annotated small RNAs in plants

Small RNAs (sRNAs) are essential regulatory molecules, and there are three major sRNA classes in plants: microRNAs (miRNAs), phased small interfering RNAs (phased siRNAs or phasiRNAs), and heterochromatic siRNAs (hc-siRNAs). Excluding miRNAs, the other two classes are not well annotated or available in public databases for most sequenced plant genomes. We performed a comprehensive sRNA annotation of 143 plant species that have fully sequenced genomes and next-generation sequencing sRNA data publicly available. The results are available via an online repository called sRNAanno (www.plantsRNAs.org). Compared with other public plant sRNA databases, we obtained was much more miRNA annotations, which are more complete and reliable because of the consistent and highly stringent criteria used in our miRNA annotations. sRNAanno also provides free access to genomic information for >22,721 PHAS loci and >22 million hc-siRNA loci annotated from these 143 plant species. Both miRNA and PHAS loci can be easily browsed to view their main features, and a collection of archetypal trans-acting siRNA 3 (TAS3) genes were annotated separately for quick access. To facilitate the ease of sRNA annotation, sRNAanno provides free service for sRNA annotations to the community. In summary, the sRNAanno database is a great resource to facilitate genomic and genetic research on plant small RNAs.