PERAC audit report : Revere Contributory Retirement System : Jan. 1, 2004-Dec. 31, 2005

Overall view of the north side (front of the monument) looking towards the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong; A ten-story obelisk (stele) that was erected as a national monument of the People's Republic of China to the martyrs of revolutionary struggle during the 19th and 20th centuries. It is located in the southern edge of Tiananmen Square, to the north of Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. Commissioned by the government in 1949, it was completed in 1958. The architect of the monument was Liang Sicheng, with some elements designed by his wife, Lin Huiyin (an architect and the aunt of Maya Lin). The monument has also served as the center of large-scale mourning activities that later developed into protest and unrest, such as the deaths of Premier Zhou Enlai (which developed into the Tiananmen Square protests of 1976) and Hu Yaobang (which developed into the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989). The monument covers an area of 32,000 square feet. Source: Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page (accessed 4/26/2013

The Impact of English: Academic Achievement and Identity Investment in an American University

 For Chinesedoctoralstudents, English is the most essentialsubjectwhenstudyingin U.S.universitiesand livinglifein the U.S. UsingEnglish not onlypromotes academic success, butalsohelps them to pursuebetter job opportunities and a better lifein theU.S. Thepurposeof this studywas to exploreChinesedoctoralstudents’English use, perceptions ofacademic achievement in relation to their academic motivation and identityinvestment.Chinesedoctoral student interviews,questionnaires, classroom observations,andjournal entries wereused in this qualitativecase study. The findingsof thestudyshow that Chinesedoctoralstudents’ English use and perception ofacademic achievementhadimpacts on their academicmotivation. Moreover, Chinese doctoralstudents’identities werealso reflected in the investment ofacademic achievement

Application of bolt joints dynamic parameters identification in machine tools based on partially measured frequency response functions

This paper presents a method to identify the bolt joints dynamic parameters based on partially measured frequency response functions (FRFs) and demonstrates its application in machine tools. Basic formulas are derived to identify the joint dynamic properties based on the substructuring method and an algorithm to estimate the unmeasured FRFs is also developed. The identification avoids direct inverse calculation to the frequency response function matrix, and its validity is demonstrated by comparing the simulated and measured FRFs of the assembled free-free steel beams with a bolt joint. An approach is put forward to apply the identification in machine tools by constructing structures assembled of substructures and joint structures to substitute the bolt joints in machine tools and assuring the contact conditions unchanged. The identification of the bed-column bolt joint in a vertical machining center is provided to describe the application procedure and show the feasibility of the proposed approach

Analysis of the solution conformations of T4 lysozyme by paramagnetic NMR spectroscopy

A large number of crystal structures of bacteriophage T4 lysozyme (T4-L) have shown that it contains two subdomains, which can arrange in a compact conformation (closed state) or, in mutants of T4-L, more extended structures (open state). In solution, wild-type T4-L displays only a single set of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) signals, masking any conformational heterogeneity. To probe the conformational space of T4-L, we generated a site-specific lanthanide binding site by attaching 4-mercaptomethyl dipicolinic acid via a disulfide bond to Cys44 in the triple-mutant C54T/C97A/S44C of T4-L and measured pseudocontact shifts (PCS) and magnetically induced residual dipolar couplings (RDC). The data indicate that, in solution and in the absence of substrate, the structure of T4-L is on average more open than suggested by the closed conformation of the crystal structure of wild-type T4-L. A slightly improved fit was obtained by assuming a population-weighted two-state model involving an even more open conformation and the closed state, but paramagnetic relaxation enhancements measured with Gd(3+) argue against such a conformational equilibrium. The fit could not be improved by including a third conformation picked from the hundreds of crystal structures available for T4-L mutants.Financial support by the 973 program (grant 2013CB910200), the National Science Foundation of China (grants 21073101 and 21273121), and the Australian Research Council is greatly acknowledged

Monetary policy, cash holding and corporate investment: evidence from China

This paper uses 13,766 firm-year observations between 2003 and 2013 from China to investigate the effects of monetary policy on corporate investment and the mitigating effects of cash holding. We find that tightening monetary policy reduces corporate investment while cash holdings mitigate such adverse effects. The cash mitigating role is especially significant for financially constrained firms, non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs) and those firms located in a less developed financial market. Cash holding also improves investment efficiency when monetary policy is tightening and tightening monetary policy enhances the ‘cash-cash flow’ sensitivity. Our empirical evidence calls for a critical evaluation on the monetary policies implemented in China which are less effective for state-owned enterprises. It also calls for a necessity for local government to further develop regional financial markets to protect vulnerable businesses, such as non-SOEs and financially constrained firms, from external shocks in order to maintain their sustainable growth and competitive advantages

Assessing the validity of SafeGraph data for visitor monitoring in Yellowstone National Park

Monitoring visitor demographics and temporal visitation patterns will help park managers allocate resources, develop infrastructure, and predict the demands of visitors. Previous studies have only validated temporal visitation patterns with big data and traditional survey data, while research on validation national park visitor demographics using mobile data is scant. This study compares SafeGraph data (a type of mobile Location-based Service data) and survey/count data, assessing visitor demographics and temporal visitation patterns in Yellowstone National Park. The comparison between two data sources suggests that SafeGraph data can serve as an additional and complementary source of information to traditional visitor use study/count data. However, biases of SafeGraph data, such as data at an aggregation level and data only in the United States, resulting in differences compared to traditional survey/count data. This study contributes to understanding visitors in national parks by validating a new data source

Fitting Semiparametric Additive Hazards Models using Standard Statistical Software

The Cox proportional hazards model has become the standard in biomedical studies, particularly for settings in which the estimation covariate effects (as opposed to prediction) is the primary objective. In spite of the obvious flexibility of this approach and its wide applicability, the model is not usually chosen for its fit to the data, but by convention and for reasons of convenience. It is quite possible that the covariates add to, rather than multiply the baseline hazard, making an additive hazards model a more suitable choice. Typically, proportionality is assumed, with the potential for additive covariate effects not evaluated or even seriously considered. Contributing to this phenomenon is the fact that many popular software packages (e.g., SAS, S-PLUS/R) have standard procedures to fit the Cox model (e.g., proc phreg, coxph), but as of yet no analogous procedures to fit its additive analog, the Lin and Ying (1994) semiparametric additive hazards model. In this article, we establish the connections between the Lin and Ying (1994) model and both Cox and least squares regression. We demonstrate how SAS's phreg and reg procedures may be used to fit the additive hazards model, after some straightforward data manipulations. We then apply the additive hazards model to examine the relationship between Model for End-stage Liver Disease (MELD) score and mortality among patients wait-listed for liver transplantation. (© 2007 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/57359/1/719_ftp.pd