Chinese tourists are disrupting european payment services

Chinese tourists are big business in Europe. Their needs will give rise to disruptive business models with new digital payment services. Technology giants are about to build ecosystems that integrate QR code payment across Europe, threatening established and profitable banking businesses

Agile and frugal strategies for the handling of increased uncertainty

Increased uncertainty and customer needs that change radically within a few days lead to socio-economic changes. Conventional management concepts no longer work in a business paradigm that calls for quick reactions and continuous business model innovations. Keeping the existing business running as efficiently as possible and at the same time exploring new opportunities for the future requires agility, flexibility, and openness. Organizational resilience helps to reposition over a crisis. For those who are open to novel approaches, the concept of frugal innovation creates new opportunities: targeted and cost-efficient satisfaction of client expectation, reduced to what the user needs at the moment. This article explains inter-organizational agility as the basis for frugal solutions. We suggest a value-adding strategy with fewer resources as the first step towards responsible corporate management

Digital ecosystems and super apps

Businesses are characterised by digital innovations, fusing the physical, artificial, and biological worlds, affecting societies, industries, and companies with ever-higher speed and intensity. There is no room for traditional strategic thinking in the process of a new world order with new competitive forces and increased uncertainty, where goals are continually changing, and resources must be flexibly reorganised. Established firms will be the losers with old management concepts, linear value chains, and rigid and closed organisational structures. This article explains why the banking industry is ripe for disruption. It introduces a conceptual framework based on a case study research of Chinese juggernauts with highly scalable data and value monetization based on platform business models and super-apps. Our journey from the industrial economy to the digital era opens up new vistas for creating and capturing value for businesses and clients of the next generation. We describe why modern leaders must embrace change, learn from Asia, and develop strategies through the lens of the ecosystem theory. Digital ecosystems focus on clients and data and consolidate goods and services from diverse sectors. We coined the holistic capability to bring together e-commerce, logistics, social media, and financial services as “The Golden Triangle of Digital Ecosystems” To achieve sustainable financial growth, we suggest an agile management approach that takes the digital transformation as a chance and builds upon partnerships to connect with diverse actors—technologically, socially, and culturally

Emotional Re-Engagement after Deployments: Using Attachment Principles with Relationship Resources for Post-Deployment Relational Enhancement

The understanding of attachment theory helps one to overcome personal and relational problems that are exacerbated by past traumas. This thesis project focused on how long durations of separations, especially in a military setting, may trigger symptoms from past traumas, which may impede relational secure attachments to friends and family. A survey was crafted and answered by over 100 adults, including military members, military dependents, and non-military civilians. The results were analyzed to discover how often people were separated from loved ones, the length that perhaps caused problems, and the feelings that developed. A literary review of books and scholastic articles on attachment and military separation provided insight and supporting documentation to the survey. The biblical narrative is evident throughout the project with Scripture passages being incorporated into the text. This project led to the development of a website that provides additional material on attachment, relationship aids, and adverse childhood experiences (ACE) assessment

Urban growth in Central Texas : soils and single-family home development

textThis study investigates the potential impacts on soils from development practices associated with new single-family residential home construction in the extra territorial jurisdiction (ETJ) of Pflugerville, Texas. My research question is: Are regulations that directly focus on soil conservation advisable within Pflugerville’s ETJ, and what areas of development ought to be primarily targeted by these regulations in order to better ensure the long-term stability of soil health and the minimization of soil loss? The rationale for this question is based on the city’s projected future population growth, the projected future demand for single-family residences, as well as the development and management practices typically associated with new single-family residential development in the ETJ of Pflugerville. I hypothesize that due to Pflugerville’s proximity to Austin and Round Rock, in addition to the relative abundance of available land to the east of the city of Pflugerville, that it is likely to continue experiencing sustained population and residential development growth, particularly in the form of new single-family residences in the ETJ. A population projection was conducted up to the year 2030, which in conjunction with average persons-per-household and single-family home permitting data, estimates potential consumer demand for single-family residences. The imperative to prevent soil loss is conceptually linked to ecosystem service benefits resulting from healthy and intact soils, such as improved water quality and the regulation of peak flow rates during storm events. Single-family residential development is evaluated in terms of conventional on-the-ground construction practices gathered from interviews with developers of single-family homes in the Pflugerville ETJ, as well as planning and regulatory specialists. These analyses are intended to inform regulatory and decision making processes regarding the importance and potential integration of soil preservation and conservation at the individual construction site level.Architectur

The Effects of Electrical Stimulation on Chronic Wound Healing: A Systematic Review

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Electrical stimulation (ES) is an adjunct modality used to facilitate healing of chronic wounds. Current literature suggests electrical stimulation has some net benefit, although best-practice protocols have yet to be substantiated. The purpose of this systematic review is to analyze the existing literature about the use of ES to facilitate the treatment of chronic wounds. Key questions include : 1) What is the effect of ES on healing rates of chronic wounds when compared with standard care, 2) What parameters of ES are most beneficial, 3) Is the response toES wound-etiology specific, and 4) Do the benefits of ES continue to outweigh the harms? METHODS Cochrane, Cinahl and Medline were electronically searched using keywords “electrical stimulation” and/or “wound healing” from 1973 through 2014 resulting in a total of 1858 hits. Through title and abstraction review by multiple researchers, 1796 articles were eliminated with 62 remaining articles found appropriate for review. Of these, 34 were accessible for this study (11 randomized controlled trials, 5 clinical trials, 5 systematic reviews, 4 literature reviews, and 9 case reports). Statistical analysis was conducted using Review Manager software for the 11 RCTs. RESULTS Of the 11 RCT evaluated, 5 comparisons examined the relative strength of treatment effect based on wound type, ES protocol, and outcome measures. Although the results are mixed, studies examining the use of biphasic ES’s effect on healing rate and those examining the use of high voltage pulsed current’s (HVPC) effect on total surface area change showed results in favor of the experimental groups. Comparisons for ES on pressure ulcers showed favor for experimental groups in regards to closure rate outcome measures, and comparisons regarding diabetic ulcer healing rate with electrical stimulation treatment favored the experiment group. CONCLUSIONS Given the variability in wound type, ES parameters, and outcomes evaluated, few comparisons could be analyzed. Based on the available evidence, ES has a modest positive effect on healing rates when compared with standard care alone. Biphasic ES was most commonly studied for use in treatment of diabetic ulcers (4/4 studies), whereas pressure ulcers were managed with both biphasic (2/5 studies) and HVPC (3/5 studies) ES. More consistent outcome reporting is required to make direct comparisons. Finally, ES appears to be a safe adjunctive treatment with no adverse events reported in the studies analyzed

Virtuelle Konsumwelten –Trends mit Risiken: Gastkommentar

Aus Asien kommt der Trend Social Commerce, der diverse Branchen und disruptive Technologien verbindet und so ein neues Kundenerlebnis schafft. Was bedeutet dieses Phänomen, und sind wir bereit dafür

Das zyanotische Kind mit kardialer Erkrankung im Notfalldienst

Zusammenfassung: Im Gegensatz zu Erwachsenen mit vorwiegend pulmonalen Erkrankungen wie der chronisch obstruktiven Lungenerkrankung, entsteht bei Kindern eine zentrale Zyanose meist durch angeborene Herzfehler. Zyanotische Herzfehler kommen mit einer Häufigkeit von ca.13 pro 10.000Lebendgeburten vor. Dadurch, dass heutzutage auch komplexe Herzfehler erfolgreich palliiert werden, steigt die Wahrscheinlichkeit stetig an, im Rettungsdienst Kindern mit einer zentralen Zyanose zu begegnen. Ursachen für das untersättigte Blut in den großen Arterien können eine Minderperfusion der Lungen oder eine vermehrte Durchmischung von arteriellen mit venösem Blut über einen Rechts-Links-Shunt sein. Der beste Indikator einer zentralen Zyanose ist die Zunge, da sie reichlich vaskularisiert und frei von Pigmenten ist. Je nach Altersklasse ist eher eine primäre Volumentherapie oder eine großzügige Sauerstoffapplikation essenziell, oder aber auch keine Notfalltherapie notwendig. Nach der präklinischen Versorgung ist eine stationäre Einweisung unabdingbar, bevorzugt in ein Zentrum mit der Option der kinderintensivmedizinischen oder kinderkardiologischen Betreuun