6 Sigma Rules under Uncertain Normal Distributions

In evaluating modeling quality, risk level and general quality management 6 sigma rules are popular among statisticians and quality engineers today. The 6 sigma rules of Gaussian distribution are very simple and elemental. If switching the working environment from the probability measure based to the uncertain measure based, the simple 6 sigma rules will be no longer simple. In this paper, we investigate the problems when facing Liu\u27s uncertain normal distribution which can only facilitate interval variance or standard deviation. Consequently, the way to define uncertain 6 sigma rules are described and discussed and thus those to practical applications

Climate Change Impacts on Hydrological Niches of Restionaceae Species in Jonkershoek, South Africa

The Restionaceae species of the Fynbos biome is part of the Cape Floristic Kingdom is threatened by urbanization, agricultural expansion, groundwater extraction, and climate change. Therefore, it is necessary to assess and monitor the Restionaceae species under the impact of climate change. South Africa is a semi-arid environment, and hydrological factors are the main variables in the determination of species niches. This study investigates the microclimate at Jonkershoek, and examines the impact of climate change to the plant species distribution, thus creating shifts in the hydrological niche. This study generates its own unique microclimate hydrological datasets for modelling species niche. The Restionaceae species and their hydrological niche at the Jonkershoek study area are assessed under future climate change scenario, at a microclimatic level. It provided evidence regarding the importance of the study to understanding the climate change impacts on hydrological niche and on species richness

The use of academic English vocabulary in the writing of Chinese students

Academic Word List (AWL) comprises 570 words, which cover approximately 10% of most academic texts. The success of students of non - English speaking backgrounds in English medium education depends on the command of these words. This study investigated the level of command over AWL of Xi'an Jiaotong - Liverpool University (XJTLU) final year students. Overall, the students’ writing was similar in profile to native speaker academic writing, with an approximately 12% AWL coverage. A total of 233 AWL - related errors found in the 453,801 - word electronic corpus were mostly related to word form, its part of speech and context, with analysis, focus and affect being the most difficult words

Proposing an avenue for suboptimal health research through the lens of tourism

The COVID-19 outbreak has posed tremendous threats to both global health and individuals’ psychological and physiological well-being. Scholars across the social and medical sciences are calling for multidisciplinary research regarding how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected global health [1]. As daily stressors continue to accumulate, the number of people reporting health complaints that cannot be detected by laboratory measures is on the rise [2,3]. These conditions can be complex and challenging to define but are generally deemed as “suboptimal health” [4]. Suboptimal health status (SHS) refers to a reversible state between health and illness [2]. It is characterized by health concerns (eg, back pain, headache, chronic fatigue) and constellations of symptoms (eg, anxiety, depression) that can affect one’s cardiovascular system [3,5,6], digestive system [7], immune system [4,8], and mental status [9,10]. Guidance from traditional Chinese medicine as reported by the China Association of Chinese Medicine suggests that SHS also hinders one’s adaptability, physiological state, and vitality [11]

Live birth after in vitro maturation versus standard in vitro fertilisation for women with polycystic ovary syndrome : protocol for a non-inferiority randomised clinical trial

Funding This study was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFC1000201; 2018YFC1002104) and the National Science Foundation of China (81730038). The study funders had no rule in the study design, implementation, analysis, manuscript, preparation, or decision to submit this article for publication.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Tourism experiences reduce the risk of cognitive impairment in the Chinese older adult: A prospective cohort study

Background: Given the etiological complexity of cognitive impairment, no effective cure currently exists for precise treatment of dementia. Although scholars have noted tourism’s potential role in managing cognitive impairment and mild dementia, more robust empirical investigation is needed in this area. This study aimed to examine the associations between tourism and cognitive impairment and dementia in older Chinese adults. Method: From a nationwide community-based cohort, 6,717 individuals aged ≥ 60 were recruited from 2011 to 2014, of whom 669 (9.96%) had had at least one tourism experience in the 2 years prior to enrollment. All the participants were then prospectively followed up until 2018. The association between tourism and cognitive impairment was examined by the Cox proportional hazards regression model. The adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) and its 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated to evaluate the effect of tourism experience on cognitive impairment and dementia. Results: A total of 1,416 individuals were newly diagnosed with cognitive impairment and 139 individuals with dementia onset during follow-up. The incidence of cognitive impairment was significantly lower among participants with tourism experiences (316.94 per 10,000 person-years) than those without such experiences (552.38 per 10,000 person-years). Cox regression showed that tourism decreased the risk of cognitive impairment (aHR = 0.69, 95% CI: 0.41–0.62) when adjusted for behavioral covariates and characteristics. Compared with participants without tourism experiences, those with 1, 2, and ≥ 3 tourism experiences had a lower risk of cognitive impairment with the aHRs of 0.72 (95% CI: 0.52–0.99), 0.65 (0.42–1.01), and 0.68 (0.44–0.98), respectively. Tourism experiences also reduced participants’ risk of dementia (aHR = 0.41, 95% CI: 0.19–0.89). Conclusion: Our findings demonstrated associations between tourism and reduced risks of cognitive impairment and dementia in older Chinese adults. Thus, tourism could serve as a novel approach to dementia prevention