Widespread Use Of Cell Phones Research Articles

Factors Influencing the Adoption of Mobile Banking Applications in Yemen Using an Extended Technology Acceptance Model

Factors Influencing the Adoption of Mobile Banking Applications in Yemen Using an Extended Technology Acceptance Model

Different smartphone tasks and traffic complexity affect pedestrian awareness of co-existing road objects and cerebral oxygenation during shared space walking

Distraction, primarily owing to the widespread use of cell phones and mobile devices while walking, is a contributing factor to pedestrian injuries. Pedestrians distracted by smartphones exhibit decreased situational awareness, influenced by the nature of concurrent tasks. However, little is known about the neural correlations between smartphone use and pedestrian responses to safety–critical events in a walking environment. This study recruited 30 young adults to investigate pedestrians’ ability to selectively respond to road objects while using smartphones (texting and reading) while walking in an immersive virtual environment system. The level of traffic complexity for the road conditions was manipulated by varying the number of safety–critical road objects coexisting in the environment at any given time and the number of required responses to the number of objects. During each 7-min task condition, cerebral oxygenation was measured using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Furthermore, smartphone task performance, response times to road objects, and perceived workload were also measured. The participants exhibited reduced texting speed and reading performance when responding sequentially to coexisting road objects. Compared with other road conditions, those requiring two responses to four objects resulted in an increased workload and longer object response times. Participants perceived a higher workload in conditions involving tasks with smartphones than those without smartphones. More importantly, increased concentrations of oxygenated hemoglobin in the prefrontal cortex were observed when participants were concurrently performing smartphone and pedestrian tasks. Compared to smartphone reading, smartphone texting induced greater cerebral oxygenation in the bilateral frontopolar cortex. These results suggest that continuously texting while walking may demand additional cognitive resources for executive function. The findings of this study represent an initial step towards elucidating the cognitive mechanisms underlying attentional impairments experienced during smartphone distraction and working towards a viable solution to mitigate pedestrian risk.

The possible protective role of vitamin C on rat parotid gland exposed to mobile phone radiation

The widespread use of cell phones recently has raised interest in studying the safety of exposure to their electromagnetic waves. This study aimed to evaluate the possible protective role of vitamin C (Vit. C) against the pathological effects produced by the relatively long duration of third-generation mobile phone radiation exposure in the parotid gland of male white albino rats. Also, to detect the expected recovery after 4 weeks of withdrawal by immunohistochemical, histopathological, and biomolecular studies. Forty male adult white albino rats were used in this study, equally divided into 4 groups of 10 rats in each group: Group I served as the sham control group; Group II was exposed to radiation by phone generator (2100 MHz) for 3 hours/day for 5 days/week for 6 weeks; and Group III was exposed to phone radiation similar to Group II and supplemented with Vit. C at a dose of 40 mg/kg for 5 days per week for 6 weeks. Group IV (withdrawal) was exposed to radiation as Group II, then left without intervention for 4 weeks. Histological and immunohistochemical, and the biochemical evaluation of oxidative stress within parotid tissue (malonaldehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), salivary total protein, and amylase activity). qRT-PCR for TGF, MMP2, NFKB, and TNF gene expression was performed in this study. Histological examination of the parotid gland in group II showed many histological changes, such as degenerative changes in the duct system, epithelial lining of the acini, interstitial space which. different collagen fibers and polysaccharides, blood capillaries, and nuclei. Also, alpha smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and Ki-67 were aggravated. The statistical analysis showed that treating rats with vitamin C improved the parotid glands’ ability to secrete amylase activity and total protein. It also fixed the antioxidant. Inflammatory cytokines TNF, NFKB, and fibrotic marker TGF and MMP2 gene expression were significantly upregulated in the exposed group, which was restored nearly to the control group after Vit C supplementation. Long-term exposure to mobile radiation affected. the. secretory function and the histological structure of the parotid tissues. Vitamin C supplementation ameliorated these pathological effects.

Expanding impact of mobile health programs: SAHELI for maternal and child care

AbstractUnderserved communities face critical health challenges due to lack of access to timely and reliable information. Nongovernmental organizations are leveraging the widespread use of cellphones to combat these healthcare challenges and spread preventative awareness. The health workers at these organizations reach out individually to beneficiaries; however, such programs still suffer from declining engagement. We have deployed Saheli, a system to efficiently utilize the limited availability of health workers for improving maternal and child health in India. Saheli uses the Restless Multi‐armed Bandit (RMAB) framework to identify beneficiaries for outreach. It is the first deployed application for RMABs in public health, and is already in continuous use by our partner NGO, ARMMAN. We have already reached ∼130K beneficiaries with Saheli, and are on track to serve one million beneficiaries by the end of 2023. This scale and impact has been achieved through multiple innovations in the RMAB model and its development, in preparation of real world data, and in deployment practices; and through careful consideration of responsible AI practices. Specifically, in this paper, we describe our approach to learn from past data to improve the performance of Saheli's RMAB model, the real‐world challenges faced during deployment and adoption of Saheli, and the end‐to‐end pipeline.

Increasing Impact of Mobile Health Programs: SAHELI for Maternal and Child Care

Underserved communities face critical health challenges due to lack of access to timely and reliable information. Nongovernmental organizations are leveraging the widespread use of cellphones to combat these healthcare challenges and spread preventative awareness. The health workers at these organizations reach out individually to beneficiaries; however such programs still suffer from declining engagement. We have deployed SAHELI, a system to efficiently utilize the limited availability of health workers for improving maternal and child health in India. SAHELI uses the Restless Multiarmed Bandit (RMAB) framework to identify beneficiaries for outreach. It is the first deployed application for RMABs in public health, and is already in continuous use by our partner NGO, ARMMAN. We have already reached ~100K beneficiaries with SAHELI, and are on track to serve 1 million beneficiaries by the end of 2023. This scale and impact has been achieved through multiple innovations in the RMAB model and its development, in preparation of real world data, and in deployment practices; and through careful consideration of responsible AI practices. Specifically, in this paper, we describe our approach to learn from past data to improve the performance of SAHELI’s RMAB model, the real-world challenges faced during deployment and adoption of SAHELI, and the end-to-end pipeline.

Characteristics of the Digital Marketing using IBM SPSS Statistics

Digital marketing is the practice of promoting goods and services online by utilizing digital technology, including the internet, handheld devices, search engines, social networking sites, and various other online platforms. Due to the growth of the worldwide web and the widespread use of cellphones and other mo-bile devices, digital marketing has grown in popularity. Through a variety of internet marketing platforms, it gives companies of all sizes the capacity to reach a worldwide audience and target particular de-mographics. Mobile marketing is one of the most popular digital marketing strategies, along with others. Each strategy offers certain advantages and can be utilized to accomplish particular marketing objectives. Digital marketing research is the process of collecting and analyzing data to understand the behavior, preferences, and needs of your target audience in the digital space. It involves the use of various digital tools and techniques to gather information about customer demographics, buying habits, online activities, and response to marketing campaigns. Here are some of the reasons why digital marketing research is important: Identifying and understanding your target audience: Digital marketing research helps you gain a deep understanding of your target audience's demographics, interests, behaviors, and preferences. By knowing your audience better, you can create more effective marketing campaigns that resonate with them. Evaluation preferences: There are different types of customer relationship management (CRM) techniques, such as analytical, collaborative, traditional, digital, sales-based CRM, sales forecasting, post-sale service, loyalty inbound. The Cronbach's alpha reliability result for the overall model is .759, indicating 62% reliability. Based on the literature review, the model with a Cronbach's alpha value above 75% can be considered for analysis. IBM created SPSS Statistics, a statistical program with features for handling data, advanced analytics, multimodal analytics, intelligence for businesses, and criminal investi-gation. After creating it for a long time, IBM bought SPA Inc. in 2009. The latest releases are marketed under the name IBM SPSS Statistics.

Inclusion of phone use while driving data in predicting distraction-affected crashes

Introduction: Given the tremendous number of lives lost or injured, distracted driving is an important safety area to study. With the widespread use of cellphones, phone use while driving has become the most common distracted driving behavior. Although researchers have developed safety performance functions (SPFs) for various crash types, SPFs for distraction-affected crashes are rarely studied in the literature. One possible reason is the lack of critical distracted behavior information in the commonly used safety data (i.e., roadway inventory, traffic, and crash counts). Recently, the frequency of phone use while driving (referred to as phone use data) is recorded by mobile application companies and has become available to safety researchers. The primary objective of this study is to examine if phone use data can potentially predict distracted-affected crashes. Method: The authors first integrated phone use data with roadway inventory, traffic, and crash data in Texas. Then, the Random Forest (RF) algorithm was applied to assess the significance of the feature - phone use while driving - for predicting the number of distraction-affected crashes on a road segment. Further, this study developed two SPFs for distraction-affected crashes with and without the phone use data, separately. Both SPFs were assessed in terms of model fitting and prediction performances. Results: RF results rank the frequency of phone use as an important factor contributing to the number of distraction-affected crashes. Performance evaluations indicated that the inclusion of phone use data in the SPFs consistently improved both fitting and prediction abilities to predict distracted-affected crashes. Practical Applications: The phone use data provide new insights into the safety analyses of distraction-affected crashes, which cannot be achieved by only using the conventional roadway inventory and crash data. Therefore, safety researchers and practitioners are encouraged to incorporate the emerging data sources in reducing distraction-affected crashes.

The Use of Camouflaged Cell Phone Towers for a Quality Urban Environment

The widespread use of cell phones has led to cell phone towers being located in many communities. These towers, also called base stations, incorporate electronic equipment and antennas that receive and transmit radiofrequency signals. Along with the towers, used for TV and line of sight microwave communication, the proliferation of these base stations is having a detrimental effect on urban esthetics. It is highly recommended for developing urban areas to consider the problem of these unsightly towers as a form of visual pollution, which increases in parallel with the rise of human population density, and also, the possible electromagnetic field (EMF) hazard due to the existence of the cell phone towers in the residential areas. This paper presents the feasibility of using camouflaged cell phone towers to improve the quality of the urban environment. Cell phone towers disguised as trees might address the visual pollution, while, at the same time, might also mitigate the possible EMF hazard by installing these disguised towers in free spaces, rather than on the roof of buildings, schools, hospitals, etc. The feasibility of implementing such a scenario for a quality urban environment in Koya city is discussed.

Texting 4 Sexual Health: Improving Attitudes, Intention, and Behavior Among American Indian and Alaska Native Youth.

To design and test the effectiveness of a text messaging intervention to promote condom use and STI/HIV testing among American Indian and Alaska Native youth. A total of 408 study participants, 15 to 24 years old, were recruited, consented, surveyed, were sent intervention messages, and were incentivized via text message over a 9-month period. Complete pre- and postsurvey data were collected from 192 participants using SMS short codes. A mixed-effects logistic regression model was used to analyze before-after change in responses assessing sexual health knowledge, attitude, self-efficacy, intention, and behavior. Participants' condom use attitude, condom use behavior, and STI/HIV testing intention improved after the intervention ( p < .05). Frequent condom use increased from 30% to 42% and was retained by participants at least 3 months postintervention, and the intervention improved participants' intention to get tested for STI/HIV after changing sexual partners, increasing from 46% to 58% postintervention. Given the widespread use of cell phones by youth, text-based interventions may offer a feasible and effective tool to promote condom use and STI/HIV testing.

The internet and education in the developing world - hopes and reality

Information and communication technologies have made a major impact on education. This raises hopes in countries like India which are undergoing rapid growth in their educational efforts. Will Information and Communication Technologies create a revolution in the education sector? What can we expect in the way of impact due to the spread of access to the Internet? Will Internet access over the mobile phone make rapid advances possible in rural areas? What evidence is available to judge popular claims and predictions regarding dramatic growth of Internet usage as a result of the widespread use of cell phones? Can we identify the impeding factors that limit progress in using technology for education at middle schools, secondary schools and higher secondary schools? The paper addresses these questions, focusing mainly on Indian data and surveys progress in the spread of access to the Internet, including access using cell phones. It presents information on expenditure levels to offer insight into relevant socio-economic factors. It discusses the problem of language and the nature of content available over the World Wide Web. The whole effort reported in this paper is to get a realistic view of the current and potential impact of the Internet and Communication Technologies on education in India. Evangelists of technology have a way of creating unsustainable hopes by ignoring social and economic reality, and therefore a critical examination of available information is necessary. The paper concludes by discussing technologies and initiatives worth considering for ameliorating the situation mentioned above.

Social networks and alcohol consumption among first generation Chinese and Korean immigrants in the Los Angeles metropolitan area

Hofstetter, C., Clapp, J., Allem, J., Hughes, S., Li, Y., Irvin, V., Daly, A., Kang, S., &amp; Hovell, M. (2014). Social networks and alcohol consumption among first generation Chinese and Korean immigrants in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The International Journal Of Alcohol And Drug Research, 3(4), 245-255. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.7895/ijadr.v3i4.188Aims: To test hypotheses involving mechanisms of reinforcement of alcohol behaviors operating in social networks.Design: Telephone interviews conducted by professional interviewers in Mandarin or Korean or English with first generation Chinese (from Mainland or Taiwan) and Korean immigrants residing using a dual frame stratified sampling design. Combined probability and non-probability approaches for sampling due to the widespread use of cell phones. Interviews were conducted in language of preferences with over 95% of interviews in Korean or Mandarin.Setting: Residents of three counties with the largest proportions of eligible residents (Los Angeles, Orange, and San Bernardino) were included.Participants: Adult residents (21 and over) stratified by gender who could be reached by telephone constituted the sample.Measures: Measures included frequency/amount alcohol consumption drawn from NIAAA standard, a “relax, socialize, have fun with” name generator was used to identify alters. Reinforcers within networks were measured by participant reports of amount of alter drinking, drunkenness, and encouragement to drink, acculturation, and demographic variables were measured by self report.Findings: Using a random effects approach and controlling for other variables, including drinking in the network, acculturation, Korean/Chinese origin, and demographics, source of immigration, network context, as was and sampling frame, encouragement to drink in the network was related to drinking (P&lt;.05).Conclusions: Studies of social networks in relation to health behaviors should include measures of actions within networks, especially reinforcers of behaviors, in order to understand the functioning and consequences of networks.

Social networks and alcohol consumption among first generation Chinese and Korean immigrants in the Los Angeles metropolitan area

Hofstetter, C., Clapp, J., Allem, J., Hughes, S., Li, Y., Irvin, V., Daly, A., Kang, S., &amp; Hovell, M. (2014). Social networks and alcohol consumption among first generation Chinese and Korean immigrants in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The International Journal Of Alcohol And Drug Research, 3(4), 245-255. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.7895/ijadr.v3i4.188Aims: To test hypotheses involving mechanisms of reinforcement of alcohol behaviors operating in social networks.Design: Telephone interviews conducted by professional interviewers in Mandarin or Korean or English with first generation Chinese (from Mainland or Taiwan) and Korean immigrants residing using a dual frame stratified sampling design. Combined probability and non-probability approaches for sampling due to the widespread use of cell phones. Interviews were conducted in language of preferences with over 95% of interviews in Korean or Mandarin.Setting: Residents of three counties with the largest proportions of eligible residents (Los Angeles, Orange, and San Bernardino) were included.Participants: Adult residents (21 and over) stratified by gender who could be reached by telephone constituted the sample.Measures: Measures included frequency/amount alcohol consumption drawn from NIAAA standard, a “relax, socialize, have fun with” name generator was used to identify alters. Reinforcers within networks were measured by participant reports of amount of alter drinking, drunkenness, and encouragement to drink, acculturation, and demographic variables were measured by self report.Findings: Using a random effects approach and controlling for other variables, including drinking in the network, acculturation, Korean/Chinese origin, and demographics, source of immigration, network context, as was and sampling frame, encouragement to drink in the network was related to drinking (P&lt;.05).Conclusions: Studies of social networks in relation to health behaviors should include measures of actions within networks, especially reinforcers of behaviors, in order to understand the functioning and consequences of networks.

Prenatal and Postnatal Cell Phone Exposures and Headaches in Children

Children today are exposed to cell phones early in life, and may be at the greatest risk if exposure is harmful to health. We investigated associations between cell phone exposures and headaches in children. The Danish National Birth Cohort enrolled pregnant women between 1996 and 2002. When their children reached age seven years, mothers completed a questionnaire regarding the child's health, behaviors, and exposures. We used multivariable adjusted models to relate prenatal only, postnatal only, or both prenatal and postnatal cell phone exposure to whether the child had migraines and headache-related symptoms. Our analyses included data from 52,680 children. Children with cell phone exposure had higher odds of migraines and headache-related symptoms than children with no exposure. The odds ratio for migraines was 1.30 (95% confidence interval: 1.01-1.68) and for headache-related symptoms was 1.32 (95% confidence interval: 1.23-1.40) for children with both prenatal and postnatal exposure. In this study, cell phone exposures were associated with headaches in children, but the associations may not be causal given the potential for uncontrolled confounding and misclassification in observational studies such as this. However, given the widespread use of cell phones, if a causal effect exists it would have great public health impact.

Reaching Remote Health Workers in Malawi: Baseline Assessment of a Pilot mHealth Intervention

mHealth has great potential to change the landscape of health service delivery in less developed countries—expanding the reach of health information to frontline health workers in remote areas. Formative, process, and summative evaluation each play an important role in mHealth interventions. K4Health conducted a Health Information Needs Assessment in Malawi from July to September 2009 (formative evaluation) that found widespread use of cell phones among health workers offering new opportunities for knowledge exchange, especially in areas where access to health information is limited. K4Health subsequently designed an 18-month demonstration project (January 2010 to June 2011) to improve the exchange and use of family planning/reproductive health and HIV/AIDS knowledge among health workers, which included the introduction of a short message service (SMS) network. K4Health conducted a pretest of the mHealth intervention from June to October 2010. A baseline assessment was carried out in November 2010 before expanding the SMS network and included use of qualitative and quantitative measures and comparison groups (summative evaluation). Routinely collected statistics also guide the program (process evaluation). This article describes the approach and main findings of the SMS baseline study and contributes to a growing body of evidence measuring the effectiveness and efficiency of mHealth programs using a strong evaluation design.

The Upheavals in Egypt and Tunisia: Ben Ali's Fall

Abstract: Tunisia's Jasmine revolution took academics and policymakers by surprise. In hindsight, declining socioeconomic conditions, intensifying authoritarianism of the ruling regime, and public dissatisfaction with the growing corruption of the president's extended family suggested that the country was ripe for revolution. Other factors contributing to revolutionary change included the literal and figurative spark of Mohamed Bouazizi's self-immolation; the regime's decision to employ deadly force against protestors; the widespread use of cellphones and social media, most notably Facebook; the role of youth and other civil society groups; and the military's pivotal decision to side with the protestors. International actors, especially the United States, played a facilitating role.

Social finance: commerce and community in developing countries

PurposeThis paper adopts the conceptual framework of institutional analysis and development (IAD). The main focus is on the “commons,” a general term referring to a resource shared by a group of people or a community who are possibly vulnerable to social dilemmas. In this paper, the vulnerable are communities in developing countries; the resource is economic and social wellbeing; the dilemma is how this wellbeing can be shared. Social finance, among others actions, might be a means of reaching a favorable outcome. The purpose of this paper is to identify institutions in the developing world where a commons approach is attempted.Design/methodology/approachA major part of the research consists of examining knowledge, specifically digital knowledge, as a commons, and then looking at situations in developing countries where information and communication technology plays a prominent role. The spotlight is on the widespread use of cell phones to meet social, business, and service needs. The paper is designed to observe and report on the competing or converging concerns of profit‐making enterprises and impoverished communities. The role of social finance in promoting prosperity and higher living standards lies at the heart of social finance. At once, a conceptual and empirical issue, a case study of mobile banking in sub‐Saharan Africa is presented to achieve an understanding of a commons dependent on digital knowledge.FindingsWhile the data generally revealed that telecom's technical innovation results in an overall economic and social gain for developing countries, the precise financial effect of mobile telephony is less‐easily demonstrated, as might be expected with so many variables to be considered.Originality/valueThe value of IAD is uniquely manifest in the institutional analysis of mobile telephony in a developing region, namely, sub‐Saharan Africa. The knowledge commons of shared ownership and self‐governance is shown to benefit all parties without hindering financial gain or the common good.

The effect of bilingualism on communication efficiency in text messages (SMS)

The widespread use of cell phones has led to the proliferation of messages sent using the Short Messaging Service (SMS). The 160-character limit on text messages encourages the use of shortenings and other shortcuts in language use. When bilingual speakers use SMS, their access to multiple sources of vocabulary, sentence structure, and other language devices would appear to provide additional resources for addressing the character limits imposed on SMS, perhaps by increasing the available pool of short phrases and words. In two studies, the benefits of having multiple languages to draw on during text messaging was evaluated. Study 1 was an archival study in which a corpus of text messages from English–Spanish speakers was analyzed for message length. The results showed that individual messages involving code switching were longer than messages written in only one language. Study 2 was an experimental study in which English–Spanish speakers and English-only speakers played a texting game devised to encourage efficiency in SMS communication. The results from the game revealed that messages from English–Spanish players were no shorter than messages from English-only players. Overall, the data from the two studies provide no evidence that bilingual users of SMS draw upon their multiple languages to increase communication efficiency. Language switching during SMS does not appear to be a means of dealing with character limits.

ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS: Conference, Hearing Call Up Cell Phone Use

ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS: Conference, Hearing Call Up Cell Phone Use