Phonetic variations and sound changes in Hong Kong Cantonese: Diachronic review, synchronic study and implications for speech sound assessment

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The building of a new business ecosystem: Sustaining national competitive advantage through electronic commerce

Despite the high level of interest in the role of governments in building national information infrastructure (NII) as a source of competitive advantage, it is still not clear how major information technology initiatives can help leverage national economies into the global marketplace. In light of the recent rollout of one of the world's largest electronic commerce initiatives, we examine the role of private-public partnerships in the success of such initiative in Hong Kong. Furthermore, we trace the 3 stages of the project - development, implementation, and competitive entrenchment - to identify the difficulties and challenges encountered and how these were overcome. By drawing some comparisons with the Singapore approach, we identify the kind of government involvement appropriate to spur on national competitiveness. We show that in building the NII, the dual aspects of private-sector leadership and government involvement are mutually reinforcing. Government intervention is necessary in creating the initial supply push, whereas the demand pull engendered by the market is critical for leveraging the NII as a platform for national competitiveness. The ramification of the study for other countries is discussed.published_or_final_versio

Variation in the ionic composition in convective showers in Pune, India

Rain water samples of equal volume (100 ml) were collected sequentially from 5 convective shower events for a period of 2 years during the summer monsoon seasons of 1988 and 1989 at Pune. A marked decrease in the concentrations of soil-oriented elements Na+, K+, Ca2+ and Mg2+ was observed in the first few samples in all the events followed by a decrease in pH of the subsequent samples. Surprisingly, SO42- also showed similar variation, indicating that soil is contributing some SO42- in rain water. Washout process appears to be an important mechanism for the removal of the major ions from the atmosphere. However, rainout processes seem to be important for the removal of NO3- ions. The study points out that sequential sampling during a single shower appears to give better information about the relationship among H+, Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+, SO42- and NO3- as compared to bulk sampling for longer duration

Campaña sanitaria sobre hepatitis C en un tratamiento con heroína

El Programa de Seguimiento de los pacientes del PEPSA (Programa Experimental de Prescripción de eStupefacientes en Andalucía) es un programa de prescripción y dispensación controlada de opioides (apoyada en la Diacetilmorfina o heroína) dirigido a dependientes a esta sustancia por vía intravenosa que han fracasado en otros recursos. El objetivo de este artículo es exponer el desarrollo de una de las campañas sanitarias que se han llevado a cabo en nuestro centro: la hepatitis C (VHC) y su tratamiento; así mismo, se analiza el impacto que tuvo dicha campaña en los usuarios del centro. Esta campaña sanitaria estuvo dirigida a un grupo de 24 pacientes, todos ellos portadores de anticuerpos de VHC y un 47,8% coinfectados con VIH y VHC. La apreciación general de los pacientes con respecto a esta campaña fue positiva, adquiriendo todos ellos información sobre el VHC, les pareció interesante y adecuada la información recibida y los métodos empleados les resultó atractivo para divulgar la información. Ocho pacientes se acercaron al especialista para asesorarse en lo relacionado al tratamiento para el VHC y realizarse diversas pruebas, y tres de ellos comenzaron la terapia con ribavirina e interferón. Los resultados de esta campaña sanitaria muestran cómo la educación para la salud es un instrumento fundamental e indisociable al resto de actividades que se realizan en nuestro centro, sirviendo para motivar al cambio en los pacientes hacia la mejora de su salud

A doubly stochastic rainfall model with exponentially decaying pulses

We develop a doubly stochastic point process model with exponentially decaying pulses to describe the statistical properties of the rainfall intensity process. Mathematical formulation of the point process model is described along with second-order moment characteristics of the rainfall depth and aggregated processes. The derived second-order properties of the accumulated rainfall at different aggregation levels are used in model assessment. A data analysis using 15 years of sub-hourly rainfall data from England is presented. Models with fixed and variable pulse lifetime are explored. The performance of the model is compared with that of a doubly stochastic rectangular pulse model. The proposed model fits most of the empirical rainfall properties well at sub-hourly, hourly and daily aggregation levels

Cystic Fibrosis James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership PROTOCOL [5 February 2016]

The purpose of this protocol is to set out the aims, objectives and commitments of the Cystic Fibrosis Priority Setting Partnership (PSP) and the basic roles and responsibilities of the partners therein

Cystic Fibrosis James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership PROTOCOL [updated 13 July 2016]

The purpose of this protocol is to set out the aims, objectives and commitments of the Cystic Fibrosis Priority Setting Partnership (PSP) and the basic roles and responsibilities of the partners therein

Study protocol for a randomised controlled trial of invasive versus conservative management of primary spontaneous pneumothorax

INTRODUCTION: Current management of primary spontaneous pneumothorax (PSP) is variable, with little evidence from randomised controlled trials to guide treatment. Guidelines emphasise intervention in many patients, which involves chest drain insertion, hospital admission and occasionally surgery. However, there is evidence that conservative management may be effective and safe, and it may also reduce the risk of recurrence. Significant questions remain regarding the optimal initial approach to the management of PSP

Fractal Profit Landscape of the Stock Market

We investigate the structure of the profit landscape obtained from the most basic, fluctuation based, trading strategy applied for the daily stock price data. The strategy is parameterized by only two variables, p and q. Stocks are sold and bought if the log return is bigger than p and less than -q, respectively. Repetition of this simple strategy for a long time gives the profit defined in the underlying two-dimensional parameter space of p and q. It is revealed that the local maxima in the profit landscape are spread in the form of a fractal structure. The fractal structure implies that successful strategies are not localized to any region of the profit landscape and are neither spaced evenly throughout the profit landscape, which makes the optimization notoriously hard and hypersensitive for partial or limited information. The concrete implication of this property is demonstrated by showing that optimization of one stock for future values or other stocks renders worse profit than a strategy that ignores fluctuations, i.e., a long-term buy-and-hold strategy.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure