Wage Subsidy and Sector-Specific Unemployment: A New Economic Geography Approach

This paper uses a new economic geography approach to examine the effects of wage subsidy, which is undertake to bolster up the industrial development. This paper also highlights the effects of trade liberalization and international capital mobility. In particular, sector-specific unemployment is introduced in the monopolistically competitive sector of the home country.

Privatization and the Environment in a Mixed Duopoly with Pollution Abatement

The purpose of this note is to re-examine whether privatization improves the environment or not in a mixed duopolistic model. In our model, both firms adopt pollution abatement technologies in response to the environmental tax imposed by the government. It is shown that privatization unambiguously reduces the pollution levels of firms. Namely, privatization does improve the environment. Moreover, by implementing partial-privatization policy, social welfare can be enhanced.Environmental Taxes; Mixed Oligopoly: Privatization

A Clinical Observation of Concomitant Therapy of Erlotinib and Whole Brain Radiotherapy in Patients of NSCLC Combined with Brain Metastases

Background and objective Treatments to brain metastases in patients of NSCLC include operation, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, while the disease control rate of brain lesions is not so good, the media survival time is 4-6 months. Tyrosine kinase inhibitor erlotinib can get into blood-brain barrier as reported, and it is used as a effetive method to control brain metastases. The aim of this clinical observation was to evaluate the efficacy and adverse reactions after concomitant therapy of erlotinib and whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) in patients of NSCLC with brain metastasis. Methods This was a retrospective study. From 2006 to 2009, There were 12 cases of NSCLC with brain metastases. They were accepted the concomitant therapy of erlotinib and WBRT. The dose of erlotinib was 150 mg/d and the radiotherapy dose was (3 000-3 600) cGy/(10-12) F. After 2 months of radiotherapy the early efficacy was evaluabed. Results The control rate of brain metastases was 91.7% with PR 66.7%, SD 25%. The major adverse reactions were skin rash (75%) and fatigue (91.7%). Conclusion The effect of the concomitant of erlotinib and WBRT in patients of NSCLC with brain metastases is better than WBRT alone, and the concomitant therapy is well tolerated

Exploring How Tourism Majors’ Perceived Professional Competence Influences Their Choice of Tourism Careers in China

With the rapid development of tourism in China, various economic sectors such as agriculture, sports, food and beverages, cultural heritage, and outdoor adventure have become integrated into the tourism industry. China\u27s tourism industry has changed and these changes now require tourism practitioners to adapt. Chinese universities must also adapt their tourism curriculum and educational practices to reflect changes in the tourism sector. Research suggests that university training programs should increase their emphasis on developing students’ professional competency and expand the range of competencies they address in their curriculum. At the same time, tourism enterprises in China are unable to recruit enough competent employees, resulting in a shortage of qualified workers. To improve the professional competence of tourism students in China, tourism education departments must respond to the needs of, and changes in, the tourism industry. The purpose of this two-phase, mixed-method exploratory design study is to identify the professional competencies that tourism experts in China believe tourism students must acquire, and examine the relationship between these competencies, tourism students’ perceptions of professional competence, and their intent to pursue a career in the tourism sector. The present study began with basic qualitative research in the form of interviews with Chinese tourism experts in China to identify the professional competencies that Chinese tourism students need. During the second stage of research, these results were incorporated into a written questionnaire that was distributed to approximately 800 tourism majors in China. Through the analysis of survey data, we examined the relationship between student demographics, their perceived professional competence, and their intent to pursue a career in the tourism sector. The study results indicate that the causal relationship between students\u27 perceived professional competence and students\u27 intention for a career in tourism is valid. These findings provide theoretical support for improving tourism students\u27 perceived professional competency. The results also suggest strategies to increase the percentage of tourism students who will choose to work in the tourism sector upon graduation

Computation of the optical properties of tissues from light reflectance using a neural network

We have established a neural network to quickly deduce optical properties of tissue slabs from the diffuse reflectance distribution. Diffusion theory based on multiple image sources mirrored about the two extrapolated boundaries is used to prepare the training and testing sets for the neural network. The neural network is trained using backpropagation with the conjugate gradient method. Once the neural network is trained, it is able to deduce optical properties of tissues within on the order of a millisecond. The range of the tissue optical properties that is covered by our neural network is 0.01 - 2 cm^(-1) for absorption coefficient, 5 - 25 cm^(-1) for reduced scattering coefficient, and 0.001 - 1 cm for tissue thickness. A separate network is also trained for thick tissue slabs. A simple experimental setup applying the trained neural network is designed to measure tissue optical properties quickly

Ultrasound-modulated optical tomography for dense turbid media

Continuous-wave ultrasonic modulation of scattered laser light has been used to image objects in tissue-simulating turbid media for the first time. We hypothesized that the ultrasound wave focused into the turbid media modulates the laser light passing through the ultrasonic focal zone. The modulated laser light collected by a photomultiplier tube reflects the local mechanical and optical properties in the focal zone. Buried objects in 5-cm thick tissue phantoms (absorption coefficient µ_a = 0.1 cm^(-1), reduced scattering coefficient µ_s' = 10 cm^(-1)) were located with millimeter resolution by scanning and detecting alterations of the ultrasound-modulated optical signal

Ultrasound-modulated optical tomography for thick tissue imaging

Continuous-wave ultrasonic modulation of scattered laser light has been used to image objects in tissue-simulating turbid media for the first time. We hypothesize that the ultrasound wave focused into the turbid media modulates the laser light passing through the ultrasonic focal spot. The modulated laser light collected by a photomultiplier tube reflects the local mechanical and optical properties in the focal zone. Buried objects in 5-cm thick tissue phantoms are located with millimeter resolution by scanning and detecting alterations of the ultrasound-modulated optical signal. Ultrasound-modulated optical tomography separates the conflict between signal and resolution in purely optical imaging of tissue and does not rely on ballistic or quasi-ballistic photons but on the abundant diffuse photons. The imaging resolution is determined by the focused ultrasonic wave. This technique has the potential to provide a noninvasive, nonionizing, inexpensive diagnostic tool for diseases such as breast cancer