Hang Seng index futures: a new investment tool.

by Ng Siu Kow Stephen, Wong Sai Fuk Victor.Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1987.Bibliography: leaves 41-42

An Evaluation of Touch and Pressure-Based Scrolling and Haptic Feedback for In-car Touchscreens

An in-car study was conducted to examine different input techniques for list-based scrolling tasks and the effectiveness of haptic feedback for in-car touchscreens. The use of physical switchgear on centre consoles is decreasing which allows designers to develop new ways to interact with in-car applications. However, these new methods need to be evaluated to ensure they are usable. Therefore, three input techniques were tested: direct scrolling, pressure-based scrolling and scrolling using onscreen buttons on a touchscreen. The results showed that direct scrolling was less accurate than using onscreen buttons and pressure input, but took almost half the time when compared to the onscreen buttons and was almost three times quicker than pressure input. Vibrotactile feedback did not improve input performance but was preferred by the users. Understanding the speed vs. accuracy trade-off between these input techniques will allow better decisions when designing safer in-car interfaces for scrolling applications

ING116070: a study of the pharmacokinetics and antiviral activity of dolutegravir in cerebrospinal fluid in HIV-1-infected, antiretroviral therapy-naive subjects.

BackgroundDolutegravir (DTG), a once-daily, human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) integrase inhibitor, was evaluated for distribution and antiviral activity in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).MethodsING116070 is an ongoing, single-arm, open-label, multicenter study in antiretroviral therapy-naive, HIV-1-infected adults. Subjects received DTG (50 mg) plus abacavir/lamivudine (600/300 mg) once daily. The CSF and plasma (total and unbound) DTG concentrations were measured at weeks 2 and 16. The HIV-1 RNA levels were measured in CSF at baseline and weeks 2 and 16 and in plasma at baseline and weeks 2, 4, 8, 12, and 16.ResultsThirteen white men enrolled in the study; 2 withdrew prematurely, 1 because of a non-drug-related serious adverse event (pharyngitis) and 1 because of lack of treatment efficacy. The median DTG concentrations in CSF were 18 ng/mL (range, 4-23 ng/mL) at week 2 and 13 ng/mL (4-18 ng/mL) at week 16. Ratios of DTG CSF to total plasma concentration were similar to the unbound fraction of DTG in plasma. Median changes from baseline in CSF (n = 11) and plasma (n = 12) HIV-1 RNA were -3.42 and -3.04 log10 copies/mL, respectively. Nine of 11 subjects (82%) had plasma and CSF HIV-1 RNA levels <50 copies/mL and 10 of 11 (91%) had CSF HIV-1 RNA levels <2 copies/mL at week 16.ConclusionsThe DTG concentrations in CSF were similar to unbound plasma concentrations and exceeded the in vitro 50% inhibitory concentration for wild-type HIV (0.2 ng/mL), suggesting that DTG achieves therapeutic concentrations in the central nervous system. The HIV-1 RNA reductions were similar in CSF and plasma. Clinical Trials Registration. NCT01499199

Comparing Evaluation Methods for Encumbrance and Walking on Interaction with Touchscreen Mobile Devices

In this paper, two walking evaluation methods were compared to evaluate the effects of encumbrance while the preferred walking speed (PWS) is controlled. Users frequently carry cumbersome objects (e.g. shopping bags) and use mobile devices at the same time which can cause interaction difficulties and erroneous input. The two methods used to control the PWS were: walking on a treadmill and walking around a predefined route on the ground while following a pacesetter. The results from our target acquisition experiment showed that for ground walking at 100% of PWS, accuracy dropped to 36% when carrying a bag in the dominant hand while accuracy reduced to 34% for holding a box under the dominant arm. We also discuss the advantages and limitations of each evaluation method when examining encumbrance and suggest treadmill walking is not the most suitable approach to use if walking speed is an important factor in future mobile studies

Variation in circulating prolactin in incubating Mountain Plovers

We examined circulating plasma prolactin (PRL) levels in incubating Mountain Plovers, a shorebird of conservation concern with an uncommon parental care system where males and females tend to separate nests. We modeled PRL related to the sex of the incubating bird and examined how it varied throughout incubation and the nesting season. PRL levels were similar for incubating male and female Mountain Plovers. The mean circulating plasma PRL concentration for incubating female plovers was 32.40 ng/ml (n = 33) and ranged from 7.33 to 78.04 ng/ml. The mean for males was 29.36 ng/ml (n = 36) and there was greater variation in the samples with the lowest measured at 5.18 ng/ml and highest at 140.86 ng/ml. There was no relationship between day of incubation and the concentration of circulating PRL for either incubating female plovers or male plovers and day of incubation did not explain a significant proportion of the variance in PRL concentration for either sex (R2 = 0.002 and 0.034 respectively). There was no relationship between the Julian day of nesting season and concentration of circulating PRL for either sex and day of season did not explain a significant proportion of the variance for either females (R2 = 0.047) or males (R2 = 0.001). This study provides further information about the relationship between parental care and circulating PRL and the breeding biology of a shorebird of conservation concern

Diffeomorphism-Invariant Spin Network States

We extend the theory of diffeomorphism-invariant spin network states from the real-analytic category to the smooth category. Suppose that G is a compact connected semisimple Lie group and P -> M is a smooth principal G-bundle. A `cylinder function' on the space of smooth connections on P is a continuous complex function of the holonomies along finitely many piecewise smoothly immersed curves in M. We construct diffeomorphism-invariant functionals on the space of cylinder functions from `spin networks': graphs in M with edges labeled by representations of G and vertices labeled by intertwining operators. Using the `group averaging' technique of Ashtekar, Marolf, Mourao and Thiemann, we equip the space spanned by these `diffeomorphism-invariant spin network states' with a natural inner product.Comment: 13 pages, LaTeX, one encapsulated Postscript figure, some corrections in the definition of the inner produc

Is surgery more effective than non-surgical treatment for spinal stenosis and which non-surgical treatment is more effective? a systematic review

BACKGROUND: Spinal stenosis can be treated both conservatively and with decompression surgery. OBJECTIVES: To explore the effectiveness of surgery vs conservative treatment, and conservative interventions for spinal stenosis. DATA SOURCES: Medline, CINAHL, AMED, PEDro and Cochrane databases, as well as the reference lists of retrieved studies. STUDY SELECTION: The search included non-English studies, and all conservative interventions were included. STUDY APPRAISAL: The PEDro scale was used to assess quality, and levels of evidence were used to synthesise studies where possible. RESULTS: Thirty-one studies met the inclusion criteria, and 18 were high-quality studies. Decompression surgery was more effective than conservative care in four out of five studies, but only one of these was of high quality. In six high-quality studies, there was strong evidence that steroid epidural injections were not effective; in four out of five studies (two of which were of high quality), there was moderate evidence that calcitonin was not effective. There was no evidence for the effectiveness of all other conservative interventions. LIMITATIONS: Further research is needed to determine if decompression surgery is more effective than conservative care, and which conservative care is most effective. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS: At present, there is no evidence that favours the effect of any conservative management for spinal stenosis. There is an urgent need to see if any conservative treatment can change pain and functional outcomes in spinal stenosis.</p

Correlates of statewise participation in the great Indian growth turnaround: some preliminary robustness results

This short note provides some supplementary analysis to the regressions in Section 5 of Ghate and Wright (forthcoming), that was carried out after the refereeing process for that paper was completed, and hence could not be included in the published version. It is not a free-standing paper, but is intended to be read in conjunction with the published paper