Rural and urban disparities in health-seeking for fever in Myanmar: findings from a probability-based household survey.

BackgroundThe World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes Myanmar as having the highest burden of malaria in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS). Early diagnosis and proper treatment are critical in containing malaria. The objective of this study was to assess determinants of seeking treatment for fever from trained providers across rural and urban areas in Eastern Myanmar.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted during the high malaria seasons in the eastern part Myanmar between August and September 2014. Multi-staged cluster sampling was used to sample households. A series of questions related to treatment-seeking for fever were asked. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions were conducted to identify independent correlates of seeking treatment for fever from trained providers.ResultsThe analysis was restricted to 637 participants who reported either themselves or their family members having had fever 2 weeks prior to the interview. In the multivariate analysis, rural residents were less likely to have sought treatment from trained providers (AOR = 0.60, 95 % CI 0.42-0.88; p = 0.01) while residents who had fever patients between the ages of 5 and 14 years (AOR = 1.60, 95 % CI 0.90-2.53; p = 0.05); and those who knew that sleeping under bed nets can prevent malaria (AOR = 2.08, 95 % CI 1.00-4.30; p = 0.05); were borderline more likely to have sought treatment.ConclusionThis study suggests that rural populations need improved access to trained providers. Additionally, future programmes should focus on increasing knowledge around malaria prevention and treatment

Is scent‐enhanced memory immune to retroactive interference?

Research shows that scent enhances memory for associated information. Current debate centers around scent’s immunity to “retroactive interference,” i.e., reduced memory for earlier‐learned information after exposure to additional, subsequently‐learned information. This paper demonstrates that scent‐enhanced memory is indeed prone to retroactive interference, but that some of the information lost is restored using a scent‐based retrieval cue. Two process explanations for interference effects are proposed, with the evidence providing more support for an inhibition rather than a response competition explanation. The results enhance our understanding of the encoding and retrieval of olfactory information from long‐term memory, and reasons why interference occurs.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/141656/1/jcpy354.pd

Exploring the superadditive effects of scent and pictures on verbal recall: An extension of dual coding theory

This research extends the dual coding theory of memory retrieval (Paivio 1969, 2007) beyond its traditional focus on verbal and pictorial information to olfactory information. We manipulate the presence or absence of olfactory and pictorial stimuli at the time of encoding (study 1) or retrieval (study 2) and measure the impact on verbal recall. After a time delay, scent enhances recall of verbal information, and scent‐based retrieval cues potentiate the facilitative effect of pictures on recall. These results cannot be attributed merely to increased elaboration at the time of exposure.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/141219/1/jcpy317.pd

Consumer Wellbeing in Asia: Introduction to the Special Issue

Consumer wellbeing refers to safety, fairness, satisfaction, sustainability, emotional positivity, security, freedom, and healthfulness which may be sought through consumer products and services obtained from marketplaces. Consumer wellbeing can be measured in various dimensions such as economic, financial, physical, psychological, social, and culture. This special issue focuses on consumer issues in fast changing Asia as many important consumer issues in Asia are under-studied in comparison to the literature about the West. With Asia having a large, 60% of the world population and Asian countries are highly diverse in terms of economic developments, social systems, and cultural traditions, many important issues related to consumer spending, health, and finance need be investigated and studied. Such research will enrich the global literature of consumer affairs and inform public policies to advance consumer interests

The Use of Mobile Phones Among Trishaw Operators in Myanmar

This article examines use of mobile phones by trishaw (rickshaw) operators in the newly emerging techno-landscape of Myanmar. Trishaw operators transport people and goods in a physically demanding job that often earns them as little as US$2 per day. Spanning the period before and after the widespread commercialization of mobile phones in the country, this research draws from interviews with trishaw operators in several locations. With commercialization, the price of a mobile subscription fell from over US$1,500 to US$1.50, making it affordable to groups that heretofore have not had access. We find that the trishaw sector is changing because of this. The mobile phone strengthens ties with important clients, meaning a more stable income, but also an enhanced importance/power for these customers. Operators who have not adopted mobile phones, usually because of poverty, age, or a lack of interest, will likely have fewer business opportunities

A Modified Hierarchical Agglomerative Approach for Efficient Document Clustering System

In today’s world, the increasing volume of text documents has brought challenges for their effective and efficient organization. This has led to an enormous demand for efficient tools that turn data into valuable knowledge. One of the techniques that can play an important role towards the achievement of this objective is document clustering. The main function of document clustering is automatic grouping of documents so that the documents within a cluster are very similar, but dissimilar to the documents in other clusters. This research proposes a Modified Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering (MAHC) algorithm based on hierarchical method. In many traditional systems, the number of term frequency is considered to create data representation matrix. However, a modified algorithm creates data representation matrix based only on occurrence of items, not on frequency of items. The proposed algorithm can increase the quality of clustering because it can merge the related or similar documents into the same cluster efficiently. Moreover, the proposed algorithm can reduce the processing time than the existing methods. In this paper, the performance of clustering between the proposed and original clustering algorithm was compared and evaluated by using F-measure

Protecting Preteens on Facebook: An Exploratory Examination of Parental Mediation Strategies for Children’s Facebook Use in Singapore

Children are particularly vulnerable to the risks of going online, yet the profile of the child Internet user is becoming younger, particularly on social media. Parental mediation describes efforts by parents to translate the complexities of the physical/social environment as well as mass media into terms that children at various levels of cognitive development can understand. This exploratory study examined parental mediation strategies as predictors of parents’ intention to control underage use of Facebook in Singapore, a country with high internet penetration but little data protection regulation. The study found that parents with mediation styles that were highest on Regulated mediation (Restrictive and Selective mediation) as well as parents whose eldest child was female showed the highest level of intentions to control underage Facebook usage. Additionally, the younger the age group of the eldest child in the family, the more likely parents were to express intentions to control Facebook usage

Understanding Collaborations in Virtual World

Virtual worlds (VW) have paved a new and important channel for workplace collaborations. However, analysts have noted that several organizations that made a strong entrance into using VW as a nouveau channel for communication and collaboration are stepping back due to limited user response. Motivated by this fact, we propose a trust-theoretic ‘virtual world collaboration model’ for collaborations in virtual worlds. The model, grounded in literature on ‘technology adoption’ and ‘trust’, theoretically examines the role of trust in motivating users for using this rich virtual communication medium for collaborations. Results establish the important roles of perceived social presence and perceived structural assurance for fostering user trust in VW. Further, results also indicate that user trust is significantly related to both extrinsic and intrinsic motivations, which in turn influence the behavioural intention to use the VW. Implications for research and practice are discussed