A Spatial Investigation of ƒÐ-Convergence in China

Using techniques of spatial econometrics, this paper investigates ƒÐ-convergence of provincial real per capita gross domestic product (GDP) in China. The empirical evidence concludes that spatial dependence across regions is strong enough to distort the traditional measure of ƒÐ-convergence. This study focuses on the variation of per capita GDP that is dependent on the development processes of neighboring provinces and cities. This refinement of the conditional ƒÐ-convergence model specification allows for analysis of spatial dependence in the mean and variance. The corrected measure of ƒÐ-convergence in China indicates a lower level of dispersion in the economic development process. This implies a smaller divergence in real per capita GDP, although convergence across regions is still a challenging goal to achieve in the 2000s.ƒÐ-Convergence, Moran's index, spatial dependence, spatial lag

Case report of rapidly progressive proliferative verrucous leukoplakia and a proposal for aetiology in mainland China

Proliferative verrucous leukoplakia (PVL) is a rare oral leukoplakia and has four features such as chronic proliferation, multiple occurrences, refractoriness to treatment and high rate of malignant transformation. As mentioned above, most PVL cases processed to malignancy over many years, sometimes 20 years. However, this report described a case of rapid progress, which had malignant transformation in a short period. Additionally, the aetiology of PVL was discussed and immunity was proposed as the possible cause

The Impact of Self-Monitoring on Theory of Planned Behavior:Study of Web Portal Usage

With the prosperity of the Internet and WWW, lots of web sites have been raised. The eBusinessWeekly 2000 reported that “web portal” was with highly proportion (46.1%) among all kind of the websites; this reveals that web portal would be the place where Internet users visit most often. Since the Internet is widely popular, user’s perception to use such WWW technology was easy to understand. In this research, we study the personality trait of self-monitoring on the Internet web portal usage behavior. Thus, we focused on the concept of self-monitoring in exploring the attitude, web self-efficacy, intention and web portal usage to see the variation in this concept. The combined dataset shows that attitude toward web portal and web self-efficacy are significant impacted on intention, and actual web portal usage is significant influenced by both intention and web self-efficacy. Further, the differences between high self-monitoring (HSM) group and low self-monitoring (LSM) group are observed and have significant di inct in our research model, therefore two moderating hypotheses are both supported. Base on the research findings, conclusions and implications are discussed

Leber's Hereditary Optic Neuropathy: A Case Report

Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) is a maternally inherited mitochondrial disease that primarily affects the optic nerve, causing bilateral vision loss in juveniles and young adults. A 12-year-old boy had complained of blurred vision in both eyes for more than 1 year. His best-corrected visual acuity was 0.08 in the right eye and 0.1 in the left. Ophthalmologic examination showed bilateral optic disc hyperemia and margin blurring, peripapillary telangiectasis, and a relative afferent pupil defect in his right eye. Fluorescein angiography showed no stain or leakage around the optic disc in the late phase. Visual field analysis showed central scotoma in the left eye and a near-total defect in the right. Upon examination of the patient's mitochondrial DNA, a point mutation at nucleotide position 11778 was found, and the diagnosis of LHON was confirmed. Coenzyme Q10 was used to treat the patient