Rural sub-Saharan Africa faces limited medical access, healthcare worker shortages, and inadequate health information systems. Mobile health (mHealth) technologies offer potential solutions but remain underdeveloped in these settings. This review aims to explore the sociocultural context of mHealth adoption in rural sub-Saharan Africa to support sustainable implementation. A comprehensive Enhancing Transparency in Reporting the Synthesis of Qualitative Research (ENTREQ) search was conducted in databases like PubMed, MEDLINE, and African Journals Online, covering peer-reviewed literature from 2010 to 2024. Qualitative studies of mHealth interventions were included, with quality assessed via the Critical Appraisal Skills Program (CASP) checklist and data synthesized using a meta-ethnographic approach. Out of 892 studies, 38 met the inclusion criteria. Key findings include sociocultural factors like community trust influencing technology acceptance, local implementation strategies, user empowerment in health decisions, and innovative solutions for infrastructure issues. Challenges include privacy concerns, increased healthcare worker workload, and intervention sustainability. While mHealth can reduce healthcare barriers, success depends on sociocultural alignment and adaptability. Future interventions should prioritize community co-design, privacy protection, and sustainable, infrastructure-aware models.
The Yangjiabu Kite Festival, originating over 2000 years ago in Shandong Province, China, stands as a testament to the enduring cultural heritage and artistic traditions of kite flying. This research explores the historical origins, cultural symbolism, festival format, community engagement, and international exposure of the Yangjiabu Kite Festival, shedding light on its evolution and impact over time. Findings reveal the festival's deep roots in ancient Chinese traditions, its role as a platform for showcasing cultural diversity and craftsmanship, and its significance in promoting tourism, cultural exchange, and soft power projection for Shandong Province. Lessons learned from the Yangjiabu Kite Festival offer valuable insights for cross-cultural application, event management, cultural diplomacy, and community development. Suggestions for future research include comparative studies, longitudinal assessments, audience research, and policy analysis to further explore the dynamics and implications of cultural festivals in a global context. Overall, the research underscores the importance of cultural festivals as vehicles for cultural preservation, tourism promotion, and intercultural dialogue, fostering mutual understanding and appreciation across borders.
Ticket revenues are crucial for the financial success of sports teams. To maximize these revenues, teams continuously explore effective ticket promotional strategies. One such strategy includes partial season plans, which mirror bundle offers common across various industries. Another widespread promotional strategy across industries is offering discounted credit (i.e., store credit purchased at a lower price than its face value). However, its application in sports (e.g., providing a $500 credit for tickets at $450) remains limited. Therefore, this study explores critical questions such as: “How effective is offering discounted credit compared to partial season plans?” and “What factors influence ticket promotion preferences?” Consequently, the study employed a 2 × 2 × 2 experimental designs, considering three independent variables: promotion type (discounted credit vs. partial season plans), promotion flexibility (predefined vs. customizable), and the consumer’s distance to the venue (near vs. distant). Results indicated that partial season plans generated significantly higher perceived value and purchase intentions while presenting lower perceived risks than discounted credit . Promotion flexibility did not significantly influence the three dependent variables , but the distance to the venue did . Both practical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.
This study aims to explore the precise characteristics of the issue of bequests, not solely from a jurisprudential perspective as is common among researchers, but also by linking it to its role in community development and progress. Bequests serve multiple functions that represent the ethical and cultural objectives of Sharīʿah [the ‘Divine Legislation’], which manifest in the process of uniting members of a single society. This is achieved through their contribution to building bonds of affection and compassion among individuals. Additionally, bequests have economic dimensions that consider the interests of the needy and provide them with resources to elevate their living standards. The study also presents a comparison between the contract of bequest an inheritance contract in Islamic Sharīʿah and secular laws, particularly Western ones. This is done by examining the mechanisms employed in enforcing bequests and understanding the interests sought in each, highlighting the distinct features of Islamic Sharīʿah in its consideration of kinship and both private and public interests, aiming to clear religious liability and via promoting community development while prioritizing moral and societal values. Accordingly, this study, in its examination of the subject, seeks to investigate the essence and objectives of bequests and extract the meanings endorsed by the majority of scholars who permitted bequests to heirs, conditional upon the consent of the remaining heirs. This approach considers both the significance of maintaining harmonious familial ties, and the positive impact this has on individual and community development. This will then be compared to some methods that strictly define inheritance in certain Western societies. The researcher employed both analytical and comparative methodologies, in line with the study’s requirements, noting that the nature of the research opens horizons for understanding the approaches of non-Islamic countries regarding the issue of wills, the importance of exploring the culture of the other and its foundational references, the impact of Islamic laws on others, and how the laws upon which Islamic legislations were established have benefited from Western legal obligations. This represents an extension that goes beyond legislative codification to a cultural exchange that allows us to build intellectual communication with the other, placing this research before a fundamental problem embodied in the following question: To what extent do bequests contribute to community development? And what are the communicative dimensions that comparative legislation on bequests with the other offers us?
This study explored the competencies required for informal community leaders to effectively promote health within Thai communities, employing an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design. The qualitative phase, comprising in-depth interviews with thirteen community leaders, identified four critical domains of competency: basic health knowledge, communication skills, network building, and cultural awareness. These domains were subsequently validated through second-order confirmatory factor analysis, which confirmed their reliability and construct validity. The findings highlighted the pivotal role of these competencies in enabling community-led health promotion initiatives. This research provides a robust, evidence-based framework to inform the development of training programs, policy strategies, and targeted interventions aimed at enhancing health outcomes within Thai communities.
One of Indonesia’s main characteristics of tourism development is maritime tourism, which is synonymous with archipelagic countries. The diversity of maritime tourism offered by Indonesia will never end, so it needs to be considered more carefully and used relevantly to create sustainable tourism in Indonesia that provides broad benefits for the country. Many maritime tourism locations in Indonesia are beautiful but require more active promotion. The level of security and terrorism issues are a requirement that the government must consider. The novelty of this research describes the potential ecotourism development in the town of Makassar that stakeholders should consider in the formation of tourism policy. The research locations are in Makassar City, Samalona Island, Langkai Island, and Lanjukang Island. Ecotourism developed in the coastal areas of Makassar City, especially in Samalona, Lanjukang, and Langkai Islands, produces superior objects that collaborate elements of nature and society as the main attraction in the long term. Therefore, local governments need to strengthen monitoring of regional geopolitical developments in order to avoid security and terrorism problems that might cause inconvenience to tourists.
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