scholarly journals Design for Micro-Enterprise: An Approach to Product Design for Emerging Markets

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesse Austin-Breneman ◽  
Maria Yang
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Emerging Markets ◽  
Product Design ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Developing World ◽  
Cultural Barriers ◽  
Product Categories ◽  
Daunting Challenge

Product design for emerging markets in the developing world is a rapidly growing field due to a steadily increasing market and an interest in profitably transforming consumer quality of life for this population. Economic and cultural barriers as well as other constraints present a daunting challenge for designers working in this area. This study documents current best practices and proposes a framework for future designers with a focus on creating products that foster micro-enterprise. These guidelines are drawn from existing literature and interviews with practicing designers of products for emerging markets. Four case studies are presented ranging across several product categories.

scholarly journals The Meeting Centre Support Programme: International Evaluation of a Dyadic Intervention in Dementia

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 758-758
Author(s):  
Dorota Szcześniak ◽  
Katarzyna Lion ◽  
Franka Meiland ◽  
Dawn Brooker ◽  
Elisabetta Farina ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Social Support ◽  
Psychosocial Intervention ◽  
Cultural Barriers ◽  
User Evaluation ◽  
Great Satisfaction ◽  
Everyday Activities ◽  
Support Programme ◽  
People With Dementia

Abstract In Europe, 10 million people are living with dementia. Most of them reside in their own home, cared for by their loved ones. As a consequence, there is a great need to provide both, people with dementia and their carers, tailored support. The Dutch Meeting Centres Support Programme (MCSP), adaptively implemented in three European countries within the JPND-MEETINGDEM project, is an excellent example of an effective dyadic psychosocial intervention, which seems to have no cultural barriers. The mixed-methods analysis showed that participant-dyads reported great satisfaction with MCSP. People with dementia experienced improvement of their quality of life, motivation and ability to participate in everyday activities, as well as improvement in their relationship with family members. Carers felt less burdened and highly appreciated the emotional and social support they received. Repeated user evaluation shows that this dyadic support effectively helps people with dementia and their families better deal with dementia.

scholarly journals A Review of AI and Data Science Support for Cancer Management

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Parimbelli ◽  
S. Wilk ◽  
R. Cornet ◽  
P. Sniatala ◽  
K. Sniatala ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Decision Support ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Cancer Patients ◽  
Predictive Modeling ◽  
Data Science ◽  
Cancer Management ◽  
Research Challenges ◽  
Open Research

AbstractIntroductionThanks to improvement of care, cancer has become a chronic condition. But due to the toxicity of treatment, the importance of supporting the quality of life (QoL) of cancer patients increases. Monitoring and managing QoL relies on data collected by the patient in his/her home environment, its integration, and its analysis, which supports personalization of cancer management recommendations. We review the state-of-the-art of computerized systems that employ AI and Data Science methods to monitor the health status and provide support to cancer patients managed at home.ObjectiveOur main objective is to analyze the literature to identify open research challenges that a novel decision support system for cancer patients and clinicians will need to address, point to potential solutions, and provide a list of established best-practices to adopt.MethodsWe designed a review study, in compliance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, analyzing studies retrieved from PubMed related to monitoring cancer patients in their home environments via sensors and self-reporting: what data is collected, what are the techniques used to collect data, semantically integrate it, infer the patient’s state from it and deliver coaching/behavior change interventions.ResultsStarting from an initial corpus of 819 unique articles, a total of 180 papers were considered in the full-text analysis and 109 were finally included in the review. Our findings are organized and presented in four main sub-topics consisting of data collection, data integration, predictive modeling and patient coaching.ConclusionDevelopment of modern decision support systems for cancer needs to utilize best practices like the use of validated electronic questionnaires for quality-of-life assessment, adoption of appropriate information modeling standards supplemented by terminologies/ontologies, adherence to FAIR data principles, external validation, stratification of patients in subgroups for better predictive modeling, and adoption of formal behavior change theories. Open research challenges include supporting emotional and social dimensions of well-being, including PROs in predictive modeling, and providing better customization of behavioral interventions for the specific population of cancer patients.

scholarly journals Relationship between Sleep Disorders and Health Related Quality of Life—Results from the Georgia SOMNUS Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (8) ◽  
pp. 1588 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nato Darchia ◽  
Nikoloz Oniani ◽  
Irine Sakhelashvili ◽  
Mariam Supatashvili ◽  
Tamar Basishvili ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Sleep Quality ◽  
Sleep Disorders ◽  
Developing World ◽  
Short Form ◽  
Health Related Quality ◽  
Related Quality ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Insomnia Severity

The extent to which sleep disorders are associated with impairment of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is poorly described in the developing world. We investigated the prevalence and severity of various sleep disorders and their associations with HRQoL in an urban Georgian population. 395 volunteers (20–60 years) completed Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Epworth Sleepiness Scale, STOP-Bang questionnaire, Insomnia Severity Index, Beck Depression Inventory-Short Form, and Short Form Health Survey (SF-12). Socio-demographic data and body mass index (BMI) were obtained. The prevalence of sleep disorders and their association with HRQoL was considerable. All SF-12 components and physical and mental component summaries (PCS, MCS) were significantly lower in poor sleepers, subjects with daytime sleepiness, apnea risk, or insomnia. Insomnia and apnea severity were also associated with lower scores on most SF-12 dimensions. The effect of insomnia severity was more pronounced on MCS, while apnea severity—on PCS. Hierarchical analyses showed that after controlling for potential confounding factors (demographics, depression, BMI), sleep quality significantly increased model’s predictive power with an R2 change (ΔR2) by 3.5% for PCS (adjusted R2 = 0.27) and by 2.9% for MCS (adjusted R2 = 0.48); for the other SF-12 components ΔR2 ranged between 1.4% and 4.6%. ESS, STOP-Bang, ISI scores, all exerted clear effects on PCS and MCS in an individual regression models. Our results confirm and extend the findings of studies from Western societies and strongly support the importance of sleep for HRQoL. Elaboration of intervention programs designed to strengthen sleep-related health care and thereof HRQoL is especially important in the developing world.

Best Practices and Strategies for Broadband Deployment

2011 ◽  
pp. 128-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christos Bouras ◽  
Apostolos Gkamas ◽  
Thrasyvoulos Tsiatsos
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
National Level ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Broadband Networks

Broadband deployment is a necessity nowadays. It could help each country, municipality and region to grow and offer better quality of life to the citizens. Today, the emphasis on the development of broadband networks is on fixed Fibre To The Home solutions The lessons learned from countries that are leaders in broadband penetration and Fibre To The Home deployment could be proven very useful for under-served communities, regions and countries where the broadband penetration is low. Therefore, this chapter summarises the lessons learned from implementing (a) country-wide strategies formulated at the national level, and (b) local strategies formulated by the municipalities. Concerning the role of national and local governments, it should be noted that nowadays it is very urgent the involvement of government in the development of broadband infrastructure. Proposed noteworthy remarkable cases are Japan, South Korea and Singapore.

A World Food Action Program

Worldview ◽  
1974 ◽  
Vol 17 (8) ◽  
pp. 26-29
Author(s):  
Hubert H. Humphrey
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Developing World ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Action Program ◽  
World Food ◽  
Economic Stability ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Developed Countries

We have been waging a battle to improve the quality of life in the developing world for twenty-five years. Today this battle is being lost. As the world's military powers seek to reduce the risks of nuclear holocaust, new dangers to political and economic stability have arisen.The threat of widespread famine is on the increase. Fertilizer shortages grow, and the affluent continue to consume a disproportionate amount of the world's food resources. Worldwide inflation continues to take a heavy toll on the developing and the developed countries alike. This erodes political stability and depletes what little hard currency the poor nations have amassed.

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