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As financial transactions are increasingly digitized, old and new kinds of intermediaries are only expanding in importance. Intermediaries, mediators and brokers sit at critical junctures and operate between diverse financial arenas and pathways. We argue that mapping the intermediate entails identifying how different kinds of actors—human and non-human, objects and interfaces, institutions and practices—delimit or reify but also stitch together and overcome spatial and temporal differences in people's financial lives, while taking on varying burdens of risk. Mapping the intermediate is both an empirical and methodological exercise. Empirically, it requires following the agents and traders, brokers and material objects that facilitate transactions and add, extract, or re-work different kinds of value. Methodologically, intermediaries and the intermediate are not only the objects of analysis but act as analytical tools in their own right, making the process and politics of transactions visible and tangible. Attending to the intermediate in our inquiries around money, currency and new digital financial technologies, thereby, offers new directions for grounding finance in politics and history and better connecting micro and macro and local and global economic processes.

Think back to 2008: the first iPhone had just been released. M-Pesa, Safaricom’s mobile transfer service, was just beginning to hit the Kenyan countryside. The extent of the global financial crisis was becoming known. At the University of California, Irvine, south of Los Angeles, researchers had just begun thinking about the collision between mobiles and money. Founded that same year, the Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion (IMTFI) was in the process of supporting its first set of research projects, in countries ranging from Nigeria to Indonesia. When it funded its first cohort of 17 researchers from around the world in 2009, only a handful were exploring the expansion of mobile money technology. Three of the projects were in sub-Saharan Africa–in Kenya, Botswana and Nigeria. The other projects focused largely on alternative currencies, informal savings practices, programs. Five years later, in 2014, almost all of IMTFI projects involved research on mobile money, and 50% were being conducted in countries in Africa.The article is part of the January 2016 issue on "The Poverty of Development Strategy in Africa" and provides a comprehensive look into IMTFI's research findings in Sub-Saharan African from 2009-2104. It traces shifts in the mobile money landscape and also discusses patterns that endure by highlighting the role of deep histories, rank and hierarchy, ritual and religion and the stickiness of trust in understanding user interaction and uptake of new technologies. The article further emphasizes the role of  locally embedded rich qualitative research and offers suggestions for new future directions in mobile money research in the region.

Objective: Social media groups for chronic pain have become increasingly popular, but the effects of these groups are largely unknown, and members may be exposed to both helpful and harmful group processes. We created a Facebook intervention for adults with chronic pain and used a mixed-methods design to evaluate the effects of group membership on social support, including examining social dynamics that may benefit or impede existing pain care. Method: A total of 119 adults participated in either peer-led or professionallyguided Facebook groups for 1 month. Chronic pain support was assessed at baseline, post-intervention, and 1-month follow-up, and qualitative data were collected to explore social dynamics. Results: Chronic pain support increased for participants in both group types from baseline to post-intervention and then decreased at follow-up. Thematic analysis of qualitative data (i.e., participant posts and comments in response to posts) revealed an overarching theme: us versus them--a dichotomizing view of the world that distinguishes people with pain (us) versus everyone else who does not understand pain (them). Participants discussed their tendency to withdraw socially due to feeling misunderstood regarding their pain. Conclusions: Facebook groups for chronic pain enhance perceptions of support among peers. Although generally beneficial, group cohesion may facilitate an us versus them mentality, resulting in isolation and potentially poorer outcomes. Future research should explore ways to maintain benefits of the us versus them mentality, while reducing its costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Genicular nerve radiofrequency ablation (GNRFA) is a minimally invasive intervention for patients with chronic knee pain (CKP) not responding to conservative treatments. Few investigations have compared treatment outcomes of cooled-RFA (c-RFA) and thermal-RFA (t-RFA), two common approaches of GNRFA. This study aims to investigate and compare outcomes, including probability of treatment success, between c-RFA and t-RFA in patients with CKP.Methods: This retrospective cohort study analyzed a total of 208 propensity score matched patients, including 104 patients who received c-RFA and 104 patients who received t-RFA. The primary outcome was probability of pain relief after the procedure, defined as reduction in Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) pain score of 2 or greater. The secondary outcomes were degree of NRS pain score reductions, duration of relief, and the probability of patients receiving TKA within 1 year of treatment.Results: T-RFA was associated with a higher probability of pain relief within 1, 3, and 6 months after procedure when compared with c-RFA. Probabilities of pain relief from t-RFA and c-RFA were 62% (95% CI 51% to 71%) and 43% (95% CI 34% to 53%; p=0.01) within 1 month, 78% (95% CI 68% to 85%) and 55% (95% CI 45% to 64%; p<0.001) within 3 months, and 79% (95% CI 70% to 86%) and 59% (95% CI 49% to 68%; p<0.01) within 6 months, respectively. t-RFA was also associated with greater mean NRS pain score reduction at 1 month after procedure: -4.71 (95% CI -5.3 to -4.1) when compared with -3.59 (95% CI -4.3 to -2.9; p=0.02) from c-RFA. T-RFA and c-RFA were comparable in pain score reduction at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months after procedure. Both groups demonstrated comparable duration of relief and probability of patients receiving TKA within 1 year.Discussion: Both t-RFA and c-RFA effectively reduced NRS pain scores in most patients with CKP within the 1 year follow-up period. Genicular nerve t-RFA was associated with a higher probability of treatment success and a greater degree of pain relief at 1 month after the procedure when compared with c-RFA in propensity score matched patients with CKP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of forests in regulating landslide risks is well established but estimates of the economic value of this ecosystem service are limited. In order to incorporate the role of forests for landslide risk mitigation in spatial planning and other decision-making contexts, there is a need for spatially explicit information regarding the value of this service. We develop a methodological framework to combine bio-physical modelling of natural hazard risk and socio-economic exposure in a predictive model to estimate and map of the economic value of forest regulation of landslides. This method is applied in a case study of Adjara Autonomous Republic of Georgia to examine alternative scenarios for forest management and associated land cover change. The approach produces credible spatially explicit results to inform policy decisions regarding investment in forest management; and has the potential for replication in other data scarce regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blended learning, the combination of traditional face-to-face teaching methods with authentic on-line learning activities, has the potential to transform student learning experiences and outcomes. The blended learning model also allow for more creative and interactive course assignments. One key limitation of the blended learning model is that it is affected by computer worms, power failures and other technology problem. However while implementing blended learning approach in learning mathematics the curriculum should be modified to suit the blended learning approach and the teachers should be trained as online facilitators and that teachers also need to be subject matter experts and reflective learners of their teaching practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we describe and evaluate a teaching project embedded within a core policy analysis course that allows students to engage with a major public policy issue-in our case, environmental policy-without a corresponding cost in terms of reducing curricular space for developing general policy analysis skills. We think that a win-win arrangement is attainable: a fairly intense immersion into a key thematic area of public policy and a correspondingly more vivid, realistic, and integrated treatment of general policy analysis. The project has the potential to allow teachers and students to explore in depth and develop the skills and appreciation required for practice in any major policy area, even in tightly packed graduate policy programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: After suffering through severe electricity rationing in 2001, Brazilian power planners developed a New Model for the Electric Power Industry. The model eschews typical decentralised wholesale power market designs in favour of a modified single buyer market. Prioritising security of supply, this model seeks to balance state and private sector roles and integrate planning and competitive elements to reduce speculation and volatility in power markets. This article explains how problems with the Brazilian power reforms led to this innovative model and illustrates useful lessons for developing countries searching concrete policy proposals to reform their power sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Foot drop often results from denervation of the dorsiflexor muscles in the leg. Neurological evaluation begins with lower extremity motor testing followed by electromyography needle electrode examination (EMG-NEE). We explored digital infrared thermography (IRT) as a complementary tool in diagnosing peripheral nerve disorders., Methods: Using a digital IRT camera, we recorded differences in skin surface temperatures from affected and unaffected limbs in three patients with unilateral foot drop. Denervation in the affected limb was confirmed with EMG-NEE., Results: IRT imaging revealed lower relative skin surface temperatures in regions of the leg corresponding to denervated dorsiflexor muscles for all three consecutive patients who presented to the EMG Clinic with foot drop.  Conclusions: Denervation appears to cause a decrease in thermal energy output from affected muscle groups. Alongside the EMG and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), IRT may have an important role in assessing the severity and prognosis of a nerve injury. This observation may have implications for chronic pain syndromes, such as complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), in which thermal change is a diagnostic criterion., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.