Hedonic pricing models for metropolitan bus services

Conventional studies on the pricing of bus services use the cost structure to explain bus fares. In this paper, a hedonic pricing model for bus services in Hong Kong is estimated. The contributions of cost and market factors are uncovered. It is found that the cost factors dominate the determination of bus fares. In contrast to our expectation, bus fares do not react to competition faced by bus companies. Moreover, except the three cross-harbour tunnels, the bus fare has no direct relationship with the tolls of other tunnels. Our model serves well as a reference tool for bus companies to set market-acceptable bus fares.Hedonic Pricing Model, Bus Fares, Kowloon Motor Bus.

Activation of nitric oxide signaling by the rheumatoid arthritis shared epitope

Objective Susceptibility to rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is closely associated with HLA–DRB1 alleles encoding a shared epitope (SE) in positions 70–74 of the HLA–DRΒ chain. The mechanistic basis for this association is unknown. Given the proposed pathogenic role of nitric oxide (NO) in RA, this study was undertaken to examine whether the SE can trigger NO signaling events. Methods The intracellular levels of NO were measured with the fluorescent NO probe 4,5-diaminofluorescein diacetate and by the 2,3-diaminonaphthalene method. NO synthase activity was determined by measuring the rate of conversion of radioactive arginine to citrulline. Levels of cGMP were measured with a commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and the cytolytic activity of T cells was measured using a standard 51 Cr release assay. Results Lymphoblastoid B cell lines carrying SE-positive HLA–DR alleles displayed a higher rate of spontaneous NO production compared with SE-negative cells. L cell transfectants expressing SE-positive DR molecules on their surface also generated higher levels of NO. Tetrameric HLA–DR molecules containing a DRΒ-chain encoded by the SE-positive DRB1*0401 allele stimulated fibroblast cells to produce higher levels of NO compared with cells stimulated with a control HLA–DR tetramer. Multimeric hepatitis B core proteins engineered to express region 65–79 encoded by the DRB1*0401 allele, but not the same region encoded by the control allele DRB1*0402 , stimulated NO production in fibroblasts. Similarly, synthetic 15-mer peptides corresponding to the region 65–79 encoded by SE-positive alleles triggered increased NO levels when incubated with class II major histocompatibility complex–negative cells. The signaling pathway was found to involve NO synthase activation, followed by increased production of cGMP. SE-triggered increased NO levels inhibited cytolytic elimination of target cells. Conclusion The SE can trigger NO-mediated signaling events in opposite cells, and may thereby contribute to RA pathogenesis.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/55859/1/22178_ftp.pd

Primary anaplastic large T-cell lymphoma of the psoas muscle

Lymphomas presenting and mimicking soft-tissue masses are important to recognize, to avoid unnecessary treatment delays or extensive surgery. We describe a case of primary anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) arising from a deep skeletal muscle in a middle-aged male. He presented with a two-month history of swelling of his right thigh and mild fever, which led to a diagnosis of abscess formation. Antibiotics were prescribed for two weeks, with little improvement of symptoms. Subsequently, an exploratory surgery, with excision of the mass, demonstrated a ALCL of the psoas muscle, ALK -1 positive

The lift industry in Hong Kong : regulatory action and capacity building

published_or_final_versionPolitics and Public AdministrationMasterMaster of Public Administratio

Solitary intrathyroidal metastasis of renal clear cell carcinoma in a toxic substernal multinodular goiter.

INTRODUCTION: Thyroid gland is a rare site of clinically detectable tumor metastasis. CASE REPORT: A 71-year-old woman was referred to our department for an evaluation of toxic multinodular substernal goiter. She had a history of renal clear cell carcinoma of the left kidney, which had been resected 2 years previously. US confirmed the multinodular goiter. Total thyroidectomy with neuromonitoring was performed on March 2008. A histological examination revealed a solitary metastasis of a clear cell renal cancer in a diffuse multinodular goiter. No distant metastases are detected. CONCLUSION: Although uncommon, it is important for the endocrine surgeon and endocrine oncologist to be able to recognize and differentiate intrathyroid metastases from more primary common thyroid neoplasms. The diagnosis can be suspected if the patient has a thyroid tumor and a past history of extrathyroid cancer. These tumors, on the whole, tend to behave more aggressively and, in most cases, the use of multimodality therapy is recommende

A Low-Power Passive UHF Tag With High-Precision Temperature Sensor for Human Body Application

Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags are widely used in various electronic devices due to their low cost, simple structure, and convenient data reading. This topic aims to study the key technologies of ultra-high frequency (UHF) RFID tags and high-precision temperature sensors, and how to reduce the power consumption of the temperature sensor and the overall circuits while maintaining minimal loss of performance. Combined with the biomedicine, an innovative high-precision human UHF RFID chip for body temperature monitoring is designed. In this study, a ring oscillator whose output frequency is linearly related to temperature is designed and proposed as a temperature-sensing circuit by innovatively combining auxiliary calibration technology. Then, a binary counter is used to count the pulses, and the temperature is ultimately calculated. This topic designed a relaxation oscillator independent of voltage and current. The various types of resistors were used to offset the temperature deviation. A current mirror array calibration circuit is used to calibrate the process corner deviation of the clock circuit with a self-calibration algorithm. This study mainly contributes to reducing power consumption and improving accuracy. The total power consumption of the RF/analog front-end and temperature sensor is 7.65µW. The measurement error of the temperature sensor in the range of 0 to 60◦C is less than ±0.1%, and the accuracy of the output frequency of the clock circuit is ±2.5%

Algebraic properties of an integrable t-J model with impurities

We investigate the algebraic structure of a recently proposed integrable $t-J$ model with impurities. Three forms of the Bethe ansatz equations are presented corresponding to the three choices for the grading. We prove that the Bethe ansatz states are highest weight vectors of the underlying $gl(2|1)$ supersymmetry algebra. By acting with the $gl(2|1)$ generators we construct a complete set of states for the model.Comment: 20 pages, LaTe

Integrability of a t-J model with impurities

A t-J model for correlated electrons with impurities is proposed. The impurities are introduced in such a way that integrability of the model in one dimension is not violated. The algebraic Bethe ansatz solution of the model is also given and it is shown that the Bethe states are highest weight states with respect to the supersymmetry algebra gl(2/1)Comment: 14 page

Detection of Myocardial Infarction using ECG and Multi-Scale Feature Concatenate

Diverse computer-aided diagnosis systems based on convolutional neural networks were applied to automate the detection of myocardial infarction (MI) found in electrocardiogram (ECG) for early diagnosis and prevention. However; issues; particularly overfitting and underfitting; were not being taken into account. In other words; it is unclear whether the network structure is too simple or complex. Toward this end; the proposed models were developed by starting with the simplest structure: a multi-lead features-concatenate narrow network (N-Net) in which only two convolutional layers were included in each lead branch. Additionally; multi-scale features-concatenate networks (MSN-Net) were also implemented where larger features were being extracted through pooling the signals. The best structure was obtained via tuning both the number of filters in the convolutional layers and the number of inputting signal scales. As a result; the N-Net reached a 95.76% accuracy in the MI detection task; whereas the MSN-Net reached an accuracy of 61.82% in the MI locating task. Both networks give a higher average accuracy and a significant difference of p \u3c 0.001 evaluated by the U test compared with the state-of-the-art. The models are also smaller in size thus are suitable to fit in wearable devices for offline monitoring. In conclusion; testing throughout the simple and complex network structure is indispensable. However; the way of dealing with the class imbalance problem and the quality of the extracted features are yet to be discussed

Prevalence of human papillomavirus in young Italian women with normal cytology: how should we adapt the national vaccination policy?

Background: Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection. In Italy, HPV vaccination is now offered free of charge to 12-year-old females. However, some regional health authorities have extended free vaccination to other age-groups, especially to girls under 18 years of age. We conducted a multicentre epidemiological study to ascertain the prevalence of different genotypes of HPV in young Italian women with normal cytology, with the aim of evaluating the possibility of extending vaccination to older females.Methods: The study was performed in 2010. Women aged 16-26 years with normal cytology were studied. Cervical samples were analyzed to identify the presence of HPV by PCR amplification of a segment of ORF L1 (450 bp). All positive HPV-DNA samples underwent viral genotype analysis by means of a restriction fragment length polymorphism assay.Results: Positivity for at least one HPV genotype was found in 18.2% of the 566 women recruited: 48.1% in the 16-17 age-class, 15.4 in the 18-20 age-class, 21.9% in the 21-23 age-class, and 15.5% in the 24-26 age-class; 10.1% of women were infected by at least one high-risk HPV genotype. HPV-16 was the most prevalent genotype. Only 4 (0.7%), 4 (0.7%) and 3 (0.5%) women were infected by HPV-18, HPV-6 and HPV-11, respectively. Of the HPV-DNA-positive women, 64.1% presented only one viral genotype, while 24.3% had multiple infections. The HPV genotypes most often involved in multiple infections were high-risk. A high prevalence was noted in the first years of sexual activity (48.1% of HPV-DNA-positive women aged 16-17 years); HPV prevalence subsequently declined and stabilized.The estimate of cumulative proportions of young women free from any HPV infection at each age was evaluated; 93.3% and 97.1% of 26 year-old women proved free from HPV-16 and/or HPV-18 and from HPV-6 and/or HPV-11, respectively.Conclusions: Our findings confirm the crucial importance of conducting studies on women without cytological damage, in order to optimise and up-date preventive interventions against HPV infection, and suggest that vaccinating 26-year-old females at the time of their first pap-test is to be recommend, though this issue should be further explored