530 research outputs found
Modeling Chinese post-90\u272 tourism loyalty to the ex-rival state using the perceived value approach
Purpose â A recent trend in tourism research involves the study of independent Chinese tourists.
Yet while post-90s or Generation Z (i.e., born in the 1990s) comprises an important share of nondomestic visitors to Taiwan and other tourist destinations, this segment of the tourist population is currently under-analyzed. As a pioneering piece of research in this area, this survey attempts to understand Chinese tourists of this cohort visiting the long-divided state.
Design â This research incorporates the social dimension of perceived value in the ordinarily employed perceived-value model to better understand why Chinese post-90s would like to recommend Taiwan.
Methodology â This study samples Chinese students from 12 universities located in the northern, central, southern, and western regions of Taiwan. They were investigated with the selfadministered survey which is composed of five constructs, for a total of 17 questions. Structural equation modeling was employed to analyze the collected data and testify the hypotheses.
Findings â The finding provides insights in the specific tourism behaviors of this cohort and how they are found distinct from their predecessors. The emotional dimension of the post-90sâ tourismrelated perceived value is a strong determinant of their loyalty to Taiwan as a tourist destination. The prior-rival situation between both sides of the Taiwan Strait might signify that social dimension significantly predict their loyalty, through the mediator of satisfaction.
Originality â This research provides important information for tourism businesses regarding place management and marketing strategies, enabling them to receive this new generation of Chinese customers
Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) family in arthropods : Cloning and expression analysis of two MIF and one D-dopachrome tautomerase (DDT) homologues in Mud crabs, Scylla paramamosain
Acknowledgements This research was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 31172438 and U1205123), the Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province (No. 2012J06008 and 201311180002) and the projects-sponsored by SRF. TW received funding from the MASTS pooling initiative (The Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland) funded by the Scottish Funding Council (grant reference HR09011) and contributing institutions.Peer reviewedPostprin
Existence theorems for a crystal surface model involving the p-Laplace operator
The manufacturing of crystal films lies at the heart of modern
nanotechnology. How to accurately predict the motion of a crystal surface is of
fundamental importance. Many continuum models have been developed for this
purpose, including a number of PDE models, which are often obtained as the
continuum limit of a family of kinetic Monte Carlo models of crystal surface
relaxation that includes both the solid-on-solid and discrete Gaussian models.
In this paper we offer an analytical perspective into some of these models. To
be specific, we study the existence of a weak solution to the boundary value
problem for the equation - \Delta e^{-\mbox{div}\left(|\nabla u|^{p-2}\nabla
u\right)}+au=f, where are given numbers and is a given
function. This problem is derived from a crystal surface model proposed by
J.L.~Marzuola and J.~Weare (2013 Physical Review, E 88, 032403). The
mathematical challenge is due to the fact that the principal term in our
equation is an exponential function of a p-Laplacian. Existence of a
suitably-defined weak solution is established under the assumptions that
, and . Our investigations reveal that the
key to our existence assertion is how to control the set where
-\mbox{div}\left(|\nabla u|^{p-2}\nabla u\right) is
Metrology Camera System of Prime Focus Spectrograph for Subaru Telescope
The Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) is a new optical/near-infrared multi-fiber
spectrograph designed for the prime focus of the 8.2m Subaru telescope. PFS
will cover a 1.3 degree diameter field with 2394 fibers to complement the
imaging capabilities of Hyper SuprimeCam. To retain high throughput, the final
positioning accuracy between the fibers and observing targets of PFS is
required to be less than 10um. The metrology camera system (MCS) serves as the
optical encoder of the fiber motors for the configuring of fibers. MCS provides
the fiber positions within a 5um error over the 45 cm focal plane. The
information from MCS will be fed into the fiber positioner control system for
the closed loop control. MCS will be located at the Cassegrain focus of Subaru
telescope in order to to cover the whole focal plane with one 50M pixel Canon
CMOS camera. It is a 380mm Schmidt type telescope which generates a uniform
spot size with a 10 micron FWHM across the field for reasonable sampling of
PSF. Carbon fiber tubes are used to provide a stable structure over the
operating conditions without focus adjustments. The CMOS sensor can be read in
0.8s to reduce the overhead for the fiber configuration. The positions of all
fibers can be obtained within 0.5s after the readout of the frame. This enables
the overall fiber configuration to be less than 2 minutes. MCS will be
installed inside a standard Subaru Cassgrain Box. All components that generate
heat are located inside a glycol cooled cabinet to reduce the possible image
motion due to heat. The optics and camera for MCS have been delivered and
tested. The mechanical parts and supporting structure are ready as of spring
2016. The integration of MCS will start in the summer of 2016.Comment: 11 pages, 15 figures. SPIE proceeding. arXiv admin note: text overlap
with arXiv:1408.287
Epidemiology and Clinical Peculiarities of Norovirus and Rotavirus Infection in Hospitalized Young Children with Acute Diarrhea in Taiwan, 2009
Background/PurposeAcute diarrhea is one of the most common morbidities in pediatrics worldwide. We conducted a study to investigate the incidence of norovirus in young children hospitalized with acute diarrhea in Taiwan and its clinical peculiarity compared with rotavirus gastroenteritis.MethodsBetween January and December, 2009, patients younger than 5 years and admitted to hospital with acute diarrhea were randomly selected; and their stool samples were collected and tested for presence of rotavirus and norovirus by enzyme immunoassay and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, respectively. The clinical manifestations and laboratory findings of the enrolled patients were analyzed.ResultsA total of 989 cases were enrolled with a mean age of 21.6 ± 13.7 months and a male proportion of 56.0%. Rotavirus and norovirus was detected in 20.2% and 14.6% of all patients, respectively. Genogroup II was the predominant strain of norovirus (80.6%). Children aged 6-36 months accounted for the majority of patients positive for rotavirus and norovirus (73.0% and 81.3%, respectively). The incidences of norovirus and rotavirus infection were higher during winter and early spring. Most patients with rotavirus and norovirus diarrhea experienced vomiting (74.9% vs. 74.8%, respectively) and fever (94.7% vs. 71.3%, respectively).ConclusionMost young diarrheal patients presenting with vomiting were likely to have norovirus or rotavirus infection. Patients with norovirus diarrhea experienced an absence of, or low-grade fever and longer duration of vomiting compared with those positive for rotavirus infection. A family history of current gastroenteritis may suggest the possibility of norovirus infection
Characterization of membranous and cytoplasmic EGFR expression in human normal renal cortex and renal cell carcinoma
Metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is highly resistant to conventional systemic treatments, including chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormonal therapies. Previous studies have shown over-expression of EGFR is associated with high grade tumors and a worse prognosis. Recent studies suggest anticancer therapies targeting the EGFR pathway have shown promising results in clinical trials of RCC patients. Therefore, characterization of the level and localization of EGFR expression in RCC is important for target-dependent therapy. In this study, we investigated the clinical significance of cellular localization of EGFR in human normal renal cortex and RCC. RCC and adjacent normal kidney tissues of 63 patients were obtained for characterization of EGFR expression. EGFR protein expression was assessed by immunohistochemistry on a scale from 0 to 300 (percentage of positive cells Ă staining intensity) and Western blotting. EGFR membranous staining was significantly stronger in RCC tumors than in normal tissues (P < 0.001). In contrast, EGFR cytoplasmic staining was significantly higher in normal than in tumor tissues (P < 0.001). The levels of membranous or cytoplasmic EGFR expression in RCC tissues were not correlated with sex, tumor grade, TNM stage or overall survival (P > 0.05). These results showed abundant expression of membranous EGFR in RCC, and abundant expression of cytoplasmic EGFR in normal tissues. EGFR expression in RCC was mostly located in the cell membrane, whereas the EGFR expression in normal renal tissues was chiefly seen in cytoplasm. Our results suggest different locations of EGFR expression may be associated with human renal tumorigenesis
Clinical Study of Uric Acid Urolithiasis
Uric acid urolithiasis develops from various causes. To investigate the clinical and biochemical presentation of patients with uric acid urolithiasis, a retrospective study was designed. A total of 46 cases were enrolled between January 2004 and December 2005. The compositions of the stones were analyzed by infrared spectrophotometry. There were 39 males (84.8%) and seven females (15.2%), with a mean age of 61.5 ± 10.6 years and mean body mass index (BMI) of 26.7 ± 3.1 kg/m2. The stone location was kidney in 10 (21.7%), ureter in 22 (41.8%), and bladder in 14 (30.5%). Multiple stones were diagnosed in 36 patients (78.3%). Pre-existing comorbidities included diabetes mellitus in 11 patients (23.9%), hypertension in 23 (50%), gout in 13 (28.2%), and benign prostatic hyperplasia in 14 (30.4%). Mean serum creatinine and uric acid was 1.6 ± 0.6 mg/dL and 7.6 ± 1.8 mg/dL, respectively. There were 27 patients (58%) with creatinine > 1.4 mg/dL. The mean urinary pH was 5.42 ± 0.46. Patients with uric acid urolithiasis were predominantly male, older, with higher BMI, multiple stone presentation, with lower urinary pH, and hyperuricemia. Exacerbation of the renal function should also be of concern because of the high proportion of patients with renal insufficiency diagnosed in this study
Abnormal Dynamic Functional Connectivity Associated With Subcortical Networks in Parkinsonâs Disease: A Temporal Variability Perspective
Parkinsonâs disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by dysfunction in distributed functional brain networks. Previous studies have reported abnormal changes in static functional connectivity using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). However, the dynamic characteristics of brain networks in PD is still poorly understood. This study aimed to quantify the characteristics of dynamic functional connectivity in PD patients at nodal, intra- and inter-subnetwork levels. Resting-state fMRI data of a total of 42 PD patients and 40 normal controls (NCs) were investigated from the perspective of the temporal variability on the connectivity profiles across sliding windows. The results revealed that PD patients had greater nodal variability in precentral and postcentral area (in sensorimotor network, SMN), middle occipital gyrus (in visual network), putamen (in subcortical network) and cerebellum, compared with NCs. Furthermore, at the subnetwork level, PD patients had greater intra-network variability for the subcortical network, salience network and visual network, and distributed changes of inter-network variability across several subnetwork pairs. Specifically, the temporal variability within and between subcortical network and other cortical subnetworks involving SMN, visual, ventral and dorsal attention networks as well as cerebellum was positively associated with the severity of clinical symptoms in PD patients. Additionally, the increased inter-network variability of cerebellum-auditory pair was also correlated with clinical severity of symptoms in PD patients. These observations indicate that temporal variability can detect the distributed abnormalities of dynamic functional network of PD patients at nodal, intra- and inter-subnetwork scales, and may provide new insights into understanding PD
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