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The use of telecare with appropriate domiciliary care packages may provide the means to manage many of the risks associated with the increasing number of older people who wish to continue to live independently in their own homes. Those who become especially frail or disabled can retain their independence and quality of life if their homes are made ‘smart’. This paper discusses the range of services that are available, or under development, for the prototype ‘MIDAS’ (Modular Intelligent Domiciliary Alarm System) telecare system, which enable traditional community alarm, telecare and assistive technologies to be used in an integrated and intelligent fashion. A range of services that allow autonomous operation within the home (and hence increase the perceived independence of a client by decreasing the reliance on a response centre operator) known as ‘HAMISH’ may be used. It offers a wider range of cost‐effective services of relevance to both the individual, and to society, in different types of home environment including dispersed housing and new sheltered housing schemes.

Human group behavior is the driving force behind many complex social and economic phenomena. Few studies have integrated multi-dimensional travel patterns and city interest points to construct urban security risk indicators. This paper combines traffic data and urban alarm data to analyze the safe travel characteristics of the urban population. The research results are helpful to explore the diversity of human group behavior, grasp the temporal and spatial laws and reveal regional security risks. It provides a reference for optimizing resource deployment and group intelligence analysis in emergency management.

Based on the dynamics index of group behavior, this paper mines the data of large shared bikes and ride-hailing in a big city of China. We integrate the urban interest points and travel dynamic characteristics, construct the urban traffic safety index based on alarm behavior and further calculate the urban safety index.

This study found significant differences in the travel power index among ride-sharing users. There is a positive correlation between user shared bike trips and the power-law bimodal phenomenon in the logarithmic coordinate system. It is closely related to the urban public security index.

Based on group-shared dynamic index integrated alarm, we innovatively constructed an urban public safety index and analyzed the correlation of travel alarm behavior. The research results fully reveal the internal mechanism of the group behavior safety index and provide a valuable supplement for the police intelligence analysis.

Community banks continue to offer important financial services including agricultural and small-business lending as well as residential mortgage origination. Because community banks’ share of available source funds may be threatened in rural markets due to competing larger banks seeking less expensive core deposits, this study examines whether large-bank competition, market share of deposits and changing market share impact the profitability of rural, small community banks.

Using a Heckman-type selection model to control for sample selection bias, ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis with time and bank fixed effects is conducted to study the drivers of profitability in small, community banks that operate exclusively in rural markets. Profit drivers for rural, small community banks of particular interest in the study are larger-bank competition, market share of deposits and year-to-year change in market share of deposits.

The research indicates that rural, small community bank profitability decreases in concurrent market share of deposits and may increase in changing market share but that the presence of a larger competitor decreases the profitability of small community banks in rural markets as larger banks compete for deposits in these markets. The paper also finds that increased Internet access in rural markets accompanies lower performance for small community banks, indicating that online banking services may threaten rural, small community banks.

This paper offers new findings to the literature on the performance effects of large competitors in rural banking markets. The results suggest implications for managers of rural, small community banks and offer additional knowledge about profit drivers of rural, small community banks of which regulators should be cognizant.

This study aims to examine how prisoners’ early release affects other citizens’ perceived insecurity and their attitudes towards those released prisoners, and how citizens’ political orientation influences these variables.

A total of 383 Portuguese participants were presented with a recommendation from the United Nations for the release of prisoners because of COVID-19 and then asked to fill in a questionnaire measuring their political orientation, support for the early release of prisoners, perceived insecurity regarding such measure and their attitudes towards the released prisoners.

Results showed that support for the release of prisoners during COVID-19 is associated with perceived insecurity and both, in turn, predicts inclusive attitudes regarding these prisoners, while only perceived insecurity is associated with an agreement with an intensification of social control measures. Right-wing participants were found to express the negative side. The more participants felt insecure, the more they believed released prisoners should not have the same rights as common citizens and the more they should be left out of the community.

The major limitation of this study concerns the sample: the authors collected answers from Portuguese participants exclusively, most of which held a university degree.

At least two major implications can be drawn from this study’s results. These implications deal with prisoners’ entrance in what can be considered a cycle of exclusion and the promotion of their social reintegration once they are released from prison.

The findings point out the necessity to firstly put an effort in deconstructing the insecurity perception that results from the prospective of having prisoners back into society – that is to understand why it happens and how it can be reduced – promoting efficacy in the inclusion of these prisoners and preventing the emergence of controlling or protective approaches directed to these individuals in their return to society by enhancing people’s awareness that the social reintegration of ex-prisoners will benefit the whole community.

The authors present a different perspective of the impact that managing COVID-19 in prisons has on society.

This chapter addresses the political history of aircraft noise annoyance and its relationship to sustainability.

Using extensive case studies and secondary sources, the chapter shows how a particular approach to noise annoyance that emerged already accepted large-scale annoyance. The focus is directed towards the black boxing of political decisions with scientific knowledge.

This contribution demonstrates that noise annoyance policy has shaped citizens’ perceptions of aircraft sound and has intensified the associated annoyance. Finally, the discussion considers the significance of the participation of citizens and the political implications of these findings. Currently, participation is predominantly confined within a growth paradigm and reproduces tensions in ecological modernization policies. Participation and protest can inadvertently engage these tensions and question the participatory practices themselves. A moratorium on ‘growth’ might create the necessary space for fundamentally rethinking aviation and sustainability.

The Keep Well at Home method we have piloted is simple ‐ initial screen, comprehensive assessment, onward referral and regular telephone monitoring for those aged 75+ at risk of functional decline. Using validated tools, this preventative approach links health and social care and is proving feasible in practice.

Assistive technology can make a significant difference to the lives of service users and carers, especially when dovetailed with health, housing and social care. In support of this aim, the UK Government recently announced £80 million funding for a Preventive Technologies Grant over two years from April 2006, to extend the benefits of new technology ‘community alarms’ with the aim of reducing the number of avoidable admissions to residential care and to hospital. Once the preserve of the allied health professions, multi‐disciplinary teams of professionals are increasingly expected to take on responsibility for assistive technology and the equipment that accompanies it. This article explores the use of assistive technology from the perspective of practitioners working in multi‐disciplinary hospice homecare. It draws on the findings of a small evaluative study of 25 hospice homecare schemes which participated in a project centred on rapid access to community alarm technology. It considers obstacles to implementation and workforce development issues arising out of an increased focus on assistive technology as a means of better managing the support of terminally ill people at home.

Carlisle Housing Association Ltd (CHA), created in December 2002 as a consequence of the transfer of Carlisle City Council's housing stock (7,200 properties), is located some 12 miles from the Scottish border in North Cumbria, in an area with a local population of more than 100,000 people. CHA is a subsidiary of the Riverside Group. CHA aims to deliver a sustainable community alarm service that aids the independent living options for its customers, with a focus on health and social care provision in the area.The purpose of this article is to set out the evolutionary process undertaken to develop the CHA community alarm service, rather than to explain the operational aspects of assistive technology. It aims to identify the co‐ordinated, person‐centred approach we have developed to assist vulnerable individuals to embark on a journey that fulfils their aspirations to remain as safe and independent as possible in a familiar environment.

The rapid evolution of the social alarm network in the UK during the 1980s is one of the greatest success stories of the local authority housing departments which championed their growth. Yet, during the past decade, when ‘care in the community’ became a reality and the number of older people living alone in society increased significantly, the number of connections has often grown slowly and investment in new technology has been relatively low. This article describes the features of new generations of ‘telecare’ using systems with increasing potential.