Regional analysis on the implementation of Madrid International Plan on ageing

The world’s population is rapidly ageing, are countries all geared up to withstand the impacts brought by the demograph­ical changes? 2002 marked an historical moment for the ageing world, where the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing (hereafter ‘MIPAA’) was adopted by 159 countries worldwide at the Second World Assembly on Ageing held in Spain. Countries pledged their commitments to building a society for all ages by means of institutional arrangement, poli­cies and programmes. The document sets out objectives and priority areas in dealing with the ageing population, which serve as guiding principles to policymakers and service providers. 10 years since MIPAA was adopted in 2002, how much progresses countries have made since then? How far countries are from the goals established in 2002? The paper will provide a detailed account the progress on the implementation of MIPAA in regard to ageing policies and programmes based on the responses from 30 countries and areas s in Asia and Pacific region under three priority directions (1) Older Persons and Development; (2) Advancing Health into Old Age; and (3) Ensuring Enabling and Supportive Environments . 「马德里国际老龄问题国际行动计划地域性分析」 摘要 全球人口急速老化，世界各国是否已为人口结构转变而来的挑战做好应对的准备？2002年是历史性的一年，全球159个国家于第二次老龄问题世界大会签订《马德里老龄问题国际行动计划》（下称《行动计划》），承诺以政策及服务建构全龄社会。《行动计划》勾划了国家应对人口老化的政策目标与服务方略，为政策制定者及服务提供者提供指导性原则。从2002年起转眼十年，世界各国进展如何？距离2002年订定的目标还有多远？本论文将就亚太地区30个国家就《行动计划》的三大优先方向：（1）老年人与发展、（2）增进老年人的健康和福祉及 （3）确保老年人有利的支助性环境所实施的老龄政策与项目探讨《行动计划》的落实情况

The role of social media data in operations and production management

Social media data contain rich information in posts or comments written by customers. If those data can be extracted and analysed properly, companies can fully utilise this rich source of information. They can then convert the data to useful information or knowledge, which can help to formulate their business strategy. This cannot only facilitate marketing research in view of customer behaviour, but can also aid other management disciplines. Operations management (OM) research and practice with the objective to make decisions on product and process design is a fine example. Nevertheless, this line of thought is under-researched. In this connection, this paper explores the role of social media data in OM research. A structured approach is proposed, which involves the analysis of social media comments and a statistical cluster analysis to identify the interrelationships amongst important factors. A real-life example is employed to demonstrate the concept

A case study on mining social media data

In recent years, usage of social media websites have been soaring. This trend not only limits to personal but corporate web-sites. The latter platforms contain an enormous amount of data posted by customers or users. Without a surprise, the data in corporate social media web-sites are normally link to the products or services provided by the companies. Therefore, the data can be utilized for the sake of companies’ benefits. For example, operations management research and practice with the objective to make decisions on product and process design. Nevertheless, little has been done in this area. In this connection, this paper presents a case study to showcase how social media data can be exploited. A structured approach is proposed which involves the analysis of social media comments and a statistical cluster analysis to identify the inter-relationships among important factors

The use of motion analysis to measure pain-related behaviour in a rat model of degenerative tendon injuries

Chronic tendinopathy is characterized with longstanding activity-related pain with degenerative tendon injuries. An objective tool to measure painful responses in animal models is essential for the development of effective treatment for tendinopathy. Gait analysis has been developed to monitor the inflammatory pain in small animals. We reported the use of motion analysis to monitor gait changes in a rat model of degenerative tendon injury. Intratendinous injection of collagenase into the left patellar tendon of Sprague Dawley rat was used to induce degenerative tendon injury, while an equal volume of saline was injected in the control groups. Motion analyses with a high speed video camera were performed on all rats at pre-injury, 2, 4, 8, 12 or 16 weeks post injection. In the end-point study, the rats were sacrificed to obtain tendon samples for histological examination after motion analyses. In the follow-up study, repeated motion analyses were performed on another group of collagenase-treated and saline-treated rats. The results showed that rats with injured patellar tendon exhibited altered walking gait as compared to the controls. The change in double stance duration in the collagenase-treated rats was reversible by administration of buprenorphrine (p = 0.029), it suggested that the detected gait changes were associated with pain. Comparisons of end-point and follow-up studies revealed the confounding effects of training, which led to higher gait velocities and probably a different adaptive response to tendon pain in the trained rats. The results showed that motion analysis could be used to measure activity-related chronic tendon pain. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue following ablation surgery

AbstractBackground/purposeThe purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in patients with squamous cell carcinoma (SSC) of the tongue after primary surgical resection and to correlate the presence of OSA with the occurrence of obstructive apnea in this patient population.Materials and methodsThis was a retrospective study of 26 Taiwanese patients, 24 males and two females, aged 37–71 years, after surgical resection of SSC of the tongue. Patients who had a follow-up after treatment of 6 months to 11 years were eligible for inclusion. During the post-treatment period, the occurrence of OSA was determined in these patients. Overnight polysomnography (PSG) was used to determine the apnea–hypopnea index (AHI). Patients were considered to have OSA if the AHI value was >5.ResultsPatients with an AHI value of <5 showed a mean body mass index (BMI) of 22.8 kg/m2, while those with an AHI value of >5 showed a mean BMI of 28.3 kg/m2. The BMI distribution between patients with AHI value of <5 and those with AHI values of >5 was statistically significant (P = 0.018). Using the definition of clinically significant sleep apnea as AHI > 5, 14 of 26 patients (53.85%) had clinical OSA. The OSA and non-OSA groups showed no statistical significance in terms of age, tumor size, tongue ablation, neck dissection [method?], or wound reconstruction methods.ConclusionIncidence of OSA in the patient population with SSC of the tongue was found to be significantly higher than that in the general population. The limitations of this study were the relatively small patient sample size and no presurgical PSG record being obtained from the patients to compare the sleep quality before and after cancer therapy

Knee stability assessment on anterior cruciate ligament injury: clinical and biomechanical approaches

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury is common in knee joint accounting for 40% of sports injury. ACL injury leads to knee instability, therefore, understanding knee stability assessments would be useful for diagnosis of ACL injury, comparison between operation treatments and establishing return-to-sport standard. This article firstly introduces a management model for ACL injury and the contribution of knee stability assessment to the corresponding stages of the model. Secondly, standard clinical examination, intra-operative stability measurement and motion analysis for functional assessment are reviewed. Orthopaedic surgeons and scientists with related background are encouraged to understand knee biomechanics and stability assessment for ACL injury patients

The development of a virtual cycling simulator

Cycling is one of the current thirteen elite sports in Hong Kong. Despite cycling is one of the well known activities in the world and has numerous advantages for health, it is still far from popular in Hong Kong. In this research, a virtual cycling simulator is developed for exercise and entertainment purpose, and for promoting the cycling activity. The hardware of the cycling simulator consists of four major units including a bike platform, an actuation unit, a sensing unit and a display unit. The control system receives signals from the sensing unit and controls the motions of the actuation unit. It also computes and renders the virtual environment in real-time thereby providing the experience of cycling on different terrain models

Orthopaedic sport biomechanics: a new paradigm

This article proposes a new paradigm, "Orthopaedic sport biomechanics", for the understanding of the role of biomechanics in preventing and managing sports injury. Biomechanics has three main roles in this paradigm: (1) injury prevention, (2) immediate evaluation of treatment, and (3) long-term outcome evaluation. Related previous studies showing the approach in preventing and managing anterior cruciate ligament rupture and anterior talofibular ligament tear are highlighted. Orthopaedics and biomechanics specialists are encouraged to understand what they could contribute to the current and future practice of sports medicine