Scanning Near-shore Intertidal Terrain Using Ground LiDAR

Intertidal zone refers to the area under and above the water during high and low tides. Traditionally, this zone is not within the scope of land management authorities. Moreover, in accordance with principals set out by existing plans, intertidal zones are excluded from management zones. Boundaries should therefore be set at the land and sea border. Traditionally, methods in determining this have included the traditional theodolite (total station) method, mapping and aerial photography (photogrammetry). However, existing operational restrictions lower efficiency, in addition to increasing time and operational costs. Therefore this paper explores the practicality of a user- friendly, ground-based high resolution laser scanning technology. This method offers easy operation and high-density characteristics with an instrument platform that can be installed on elevated rooftops. High accuracy and resolution is achieved using a stop-and-go method producing Digital Terrain Model (DTM) data. The range of the completed data is 61km in length, 2.5km in width, and -0.5m depth, with a sampling error of approximately ±2cm. Through the implementation discussed in this research, accurate information about the changes of topography in intertidal areas can be obtained

Missing link in community psychiatry: When a patient with schizophrenia was expelled from her home

Treatment and disposition of homeless patients with schizophrenia represent a great challenge in clinical practice. We report a case of this special population, and discuss the development of homelessness, the difficulty in disposition, their utilization of health services, and possible applications of mandatory community treatment in this group of patients. A 51-year-old homeless female was brought to an emergency department for left femur fracture caused by an assault. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia about 20 years ago but received little help from mental health services over the decades. During hospitalization, her psychotic symptoms were only partially responsive to treatment. Her family refused to handle caretaking duties. The social welfare system was mobilized for long-term disposition. Homeless patients with schizophrenia are characterized by family disruption, poor adherence to health care, and multiple emergency visits and hospitalization. We hope this article can provide information about the current mental health policy to medical personnel. It is possible that earlier intervention and better outcome can be achieved by utilizing mandatory community treatment in the future, as well as preventing patients with schizophrenia from losing shelters

Wealth Effects of Dividend Announcements on Bondholders: The Case of Taiwan Bond Market

Although bonds play an important role in U.S. capital markets, this financial instrument is less common in the emerging markets. Taiwan is a typical case. In fact, both bond issuances and bond transactions in Taiwan have been declining in the past years. Consistent with the previous studies, this research documents that wealth transfer effects exist between bondholders and stockholders. We hypothesize that this wealth transfer discourages investors from investing in bond markets because companies in Taiwan seem to care less about the interest of bondholders. Using the event study methodology, we examine the price change of bonds and stocks in Taiwan capital market around cash dividend announcements. We find that there are significant abnormal returns before cash dividend announcements from 30 days to 60 days and that there is insignificant price change of bonds during the three-day period around the announcement. Possible explanations of the results include low bond trading volumes, insider trading before announcements, and mixing signaling and wealth transfer effects. Although this study cannot prove that the results are directly related to management holdings, we tend to believe that insider trading somehow matters

DYNAMICAL EFFECTS OF SPRINT START ON DIFFERENT STARTING BLOCKS

The purpose of this study was to examine the dynamical variables of sprint start in two different starting blocks setups. The ReacTime Personal Systems was used to record the Reaction Time (RT) and the Power of 20 teenaged sprinters (15 males and 5 females) in the sprint start. In addition, the Newtest Powertimer photocells were used to collect subjects’ 0 to 10 metre (T10) performance after the sprint start. The variables were tested by the repeated measures one-way ANOVA by SPSS 19.0 statistical software at a .05 significant level. The results showed that there were better effects on the short starting block (SB) in power generation performance than the long starting block (LB). The athletes can apply short starting block and make adjustments and modifications based on their training conditions