The Effects of Fiscal Decentralization on Health Care in China

From my analysis, I conclude that decentralization has not been detrimental to health care when health care performance is measured by the number of doctors per 10,000 people, mortality rates, and local health care expenditure. However, the effects of decentralization on health care are inconclusive when health care performance is measured by the number of hospital beds per 10,000 people. This paper is divided into five sections. The first section discusses theories of federalism. The second section presents an overview of China’s economic reforms since 1980. The third section discusses the current state of health care in China and its supposed relationship to fiscal decentralization. The fourth section discusses the data, the variables, and the model I use to measure the effects of decentralization on health care. The fifth section discusses the results of my empirical analysis

The Translation of Judgments

This paper advocates the adoption of a plain language approach in the translation of judgments. The front-line objective is to gradually develop among legal practitioners the consciousness of using Chinese as a legal language, whether it is for judgment writing or for use as the trial language. While the pilot project on the translation of case law launched by the Subcommittee on the Translation of Case Precedents was a good attempt to boost the translation incentive, it exposed a number of problems in legal translation as yet unsolved. This paper explores potential solutions to these problems, including studying the syntactic differences between English and Chinese, the employment of common Chinese usages, and the application of legal knowledge, among others. This paper argues that legal bilingualism in courts will not be fully achieved if the problems of writing or understanding judgments persist.Cet article préconise l’adoption d’une approche en langue quotidienne dans la traduction de jugements. L’objectif premier est de développer graduellement parmi les juristes la conscience d’utiliser le chinois comme langue juridique, que ce soit pour la rédaction de jugements ou pour les procès. Le projet pilote de la traduction du droit mis en place par le sous-comité de la traduction des cas de juridiction a été une bonne tentative de donner l’élan voulu, il a mis en relief un grand nombre de problèmes juridiques à résoudre. Cet article examine les solutions potentielles de ces problèmes, et notamment l’utilisation des usages généraux du chinois. Si on ne règle pas les problèmes de la rédaction et de la compréhension des jugements, le bilinguisme juridique devant les tribunaux ne sera pas un vrai succès

INTEGRATION OF HUMMINGBIRD RESEARCH INTO PUBLIC SCHOOL SCIENCE

Hummingbirds are beautiful, acrobatic and mysterious synanthropes in urban ecosystems, providing important benefits to humans such as pollination, insectivory, and biophilia. However, environmental factors that affect behaviors that lead to such services are largely unknown, and could be altered by urbanization and climate change. Though their extremely high metabolism can make detailed observations of hummingbird behavior difficult, simple and low-cost methodologies, such as remote monitoring equipment deployed at feeders and nests, allow students at all levels of education to closely observe hummingbirds directly from their school sites. The Center for Urban Resilience (CURes) and the Center for Equity for English Learners (CEEL) at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) have partnered, to implement CURes urban ecology curricula Urban EcoLab in various Los Angeles area schools and classrooms. With support from the Daniel and Susan Gottlieb Foundation, internet protocol (IP) cameras have been installed as a key element in the curriculum that will allow participation in world wide hummingbird research in the classroom. Beyond enriching the understanding of how animals thrive in urban environments, we propose to develop a model that will facilitate the investigation of complex scientific questions through collaboration with citizen science and integration of the Urban EcoLab curricula into primary and secondary-level public school curricula.https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/cures_posters/1022/thumbnail.jp

What are the determinants of health care expenditure? Empirical results from Asian countries

This paper uses panel data to identify the determinants of health care expenditure in twelve Asian countries (i.e. Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, the Philippines, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) for the period of 1995-2008. The empirical results indicated that only two independent variables (GDPit and POP65it) have significant relationship with health care expenditure in these countries. These two variables are positively correlated with the amount of health care expenditure. In other words, when the countries’ income is larger, the amount of health care expenditure is larger. When the share of ageing population in the total population is higher, again the amount of health care expenditure is larger

The effects of cumulative stressful educational events on the mental health of doctoral students during the Covid-19 pandemic

High rates of psychological distress including anxiety and depression are common in the doctoral community and the learning environment has a role to play. With the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic taking a toll on mental health it is necessary to explore the risk and protective factors for this population. Using data from the Covid-19: Global Study of Social Trust and Mental Health, the present study examined the relationship between Covid-19-related stressful educational experiences and doctoral students' mental health problems. Moreover, it assessed the role of attentional ability and coping skills in promoting good mental health. One hundred and fifty-five doctoral students completed an online survey where micro-, meso- and macro-level educational stressors were measured. The Patient Health Questionnaire and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire were used to measure depression and anxiety symptoms, respectively. We also measured coping skills using a 13-item scale and attentional ability using a questionnaire. The results of multiple linear regression analyses showed that specific stressful educational experiences were unrelated but cumulative stressful educational experiences were related to increased depression symptoms (but not anxiety symptoms) in fully adjusted models. Additionally, higher coping skills and attentional ability were related to fewer depression and anxiety symptoms. Finally, no associations between demographics and other covariates and mental health problems were found. The experience of multiple educational stressful events in their learning environment due to Covid-19 is a key risk factor for increased mental illness in the doctoral community. This could be explained by the uncertainty that the Covid-19 pandemic has caused to the students

Impact of duplicate gene copies on phylogenetic analysis and divergence time estimates in butterflies

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The increase in availability of genomic sequences for a wide range of organisms has revealed gene duplication to be a relatively common event. Encounters with duplicate gene copies have consequently become almost inevitable in the context of collecting gene sequences for inferring species trees. Here we examine the effect of incorporating duplicate gene copies evolving at different rates on tree reconstruction and time estimation of recent and deep divergences in butterflies.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Sequences from ultraviolet-sensitive (<it>UVRh</it>), blue-sensitive (<it>BRh</it>), and long-wavelength sensitive (<it>LWRh</it>) opsins,<it>EF-1α </it>and <it>COI </it>were obtained from 27 taxa representing the five major butterfly families (5535 bp total). Both <it>BRh </it>and <it>LWRh </it>are present in multiple copies in some butterfly lineages and the different copies evolve at different rates. Regardless of the phylogenetic reconstruction method used, we found that analyses of combined data sets using either slower or faster evolving copies of duplicate genes resulted in a single topology in agreement with our current understanding of butterfly family relationships based on morphology and molecules. Interestingly, individual analyses of <it>BRh </it>and <it>LWRh </it>sequences also recovered these family-level relationships. Two different relaxed clock methods resulted in similar divergence time estimates at the shallower nodes in the tree, regardless of whether faster or slower evolving copies were used, with larger discrepancies observed at deeper nodes in the phylogeny. The time of divergence between the monarch butterfly <it>Danaus plexippus </it>and the queen <it>D. gilippus </it>(15.3–35.6 Mya) was found to be much older than the time of divergence between monarch co-mimic <it>Limenitis archippus </it>and red-spotted purple <it>L. arthemis </it>(4.7–13.6 Mya), and overlapping with the time of divergence of the co-mimetic passionflower butterflies <it>Heliconius erato </it>and <it>H. melpomene </it>(13.5–26.1 Mya). Our family-level results are congruent with recent estimates found in the literature and indicate an age of 84–113 million years for the divergence of all butterfly families.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results are consistent with diversification of the butterfly families following the radiation of angiosperms and suggest that some classes of opsin genes may be usefully employed for both phylogenetic reconstruction and divergence time estimation.</p

A Study of mortage transaction goverance in Hong Kong with particular reference to mortgage default

Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 2004.published_or_final_versio

Vision impossible

Vision Impossible was designed to help promote vision awareness to the general public as well as to help bring various health professions together and educate them as to the different visual demands that each profession may experience. Vision Impossible was also intended to be a fundraising event to help raise money for the renovation of Jefferson Hall. Ninety-four subjects, consisting mainly of optometry students, took part in two trial runs of a ten-event course, designed to challenge the visual system in various ways. The trial runs were conducted at Pacific University and were used to assess the efficiency of the event design and data was collected for normative purposes. However, Vision Impossible was unable to implement the originally designed fundraising event. Factors which contributed to this included flaws with some of the event designs as well as unavailability of equipment, inability to obtain donations for prize incentives, and logistical problems concerning the event location and timing. However, Vision Impossible did succeed in developing a final course design as well as obtaining normative results for these course events should this endeavor be attempted in the future