Statistical Shape Modelling and Segmentation of the Respiratory Airway

The human respiratory airway consists of the upper (nasal cavity, pharynx) and the lower (trachea, bronchi) respiratory tracts. Accurate segmentation of these two airway tracts can lead to better diagnosis and interpretation of airway-specific diseases, and lead to improvement in the localization of abnormal metabolic or pathological sites found within and/or surrounding the respiratory regions. Due to the complexity and the variability displayed in the anatomical structure of the upper respiratory airway along with the challenges in distinguishing the nasal cavity from non-respiratory regions such as the paranasal sinuses, it is difficult for existing algorithms to accurately segment the upper airway without manual intervention. This thesis presents an implicit non-parametric framework for constructing a statistical shape model (SSM) of the upper and lower respiratory tract, capable of distinct shape generation and be adapted for segmentation. An SSM of the nasal cavity was successfully constructed using 50 nasal CT scans. The performance of the SSM was evaluated for compactness, specificity and generality. An averaged distance error of 1.47 mm was measured for the generality assessment. The constructed SSM was further adapted with a modified locally constrained random walk algorithm to segment the nasal cavity. The proposed algorithm was evaluated on 30 CT images and outperformed comparative state-of-the-art and conventional algorithms. For the lower airway, a separate algorithm was proposed to automatically segment the trachea and bronchi, and was designed to tolerate the image characteristics inherent in low-contrast CT images. The algorithm was evaluated on 20 clinical low-contrast CT from PET-CT patient studies and demonstrated better performance (87.1±2.8 DSC and distance error of 0.37±0.08 mm) in segmentation results against comparative state-of-the-art algorithms

Governing Financial Disputes in China: What Have We Learned From the Global Financial Crisis of 2008?

In light of the recent global financial crisis of 2008, this article critically compares how China\u27s national arbitration commissions and local courts are responding to new challenges brought about by an increase in the number of banking related disputes. Drawing on comparative case analysis, the article examines the operation of the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC) and the Shanghai Courts\u27 financial dispute resolution mechanisms in resolving financial disputes. Drawing on insights from selected case findings, it provides insight into which institution is best positioned to handle financial-related cases, discusses prospects for coordination between the two, and sets out proposals for further reform. Initial findings suggest that given CIETAC\u27s limited exposure to banking and financial-sector disputes, in the immediate term, parties should seek resolution through local financial division dispute resolution mechanisms, such as the financial division of the Shanghai Courts. In the long term, prospects for greater strengthening of national mechanisms such as CIETAC and the Securities Dispute Resolution scheme will provide additional avenues of recourse

The Law and Practice of Shareholder Inspection Rights: A Comparative Analysis of China and the United States

Shareholder inspection rights allow a shareholder to access the relevant documents of the company in which they hold an interest, so as to address the problem of information asymmetry and reduce the agency costs inherent in the corporate structure. While Chinese corporate governance and American corporate governance face different sets of agency cost problems, this Article shows that shareholder inspection rights play an important role in both China and the United States. On the books, while shareholder inspection rights in both countries are broadly similar, there are some important differences on issues such as the proper purpose requirement. The empirical analysis of this Article further sheds light on how inspection rights operate on the ground. A good number of inspection cases are filed in both China and in Delaware. These cases are resolved by the courts relatively quickly. While inspection rights in both countries are frequently used as a presuit discovery device, the types of subsequent litigation that can be filed in each country are quite different. Efforts are made to explain, and draw implications from, the similarities and differences on shareholder inspection rights between the two countries

Relative Performance Of English Second Language Students In University Accounting Courses

This paper explores the relative performances of Native English Speaking (“NES”) students and English Second Language (“ESL”) students in accounting courses at a large urban state university. Based upon a longitudinal study, we conclude that the relative performance between NES and ESL students depends upon the particular course being evaluated and its order in the sequence of courses to graduation. The further along in the sequence, the more likely the ESL students will significantly outperform the NES students. In Introductory Financial Accounting, the first course in the sequence, NES students significantly outperform ESL students. We attribute this to ESL students’ difficulties with English, new learning/teaching styles, lack of necessary academic skills plus culture shock. In Managerial Accounting and Intermediate Financial Accounting I, the differences are not significant which we credit to the ESL students’ work on their English vocabulary, the new learning/teaching styles, and the necessary academic skills to “catch up” to the NES students. Assuming that our conclusion is correct, however, the full effect of this effort on the part of the ELS students is not completely felt until Intermediate Financial Accounting II and Cost Accounting. In those two courses, ESL students significantly outperform NES students. We conclude that this represents the culmination of the efforts by the ESL students. In addition to our primary objective, we also investigated the use of the relative performances of the NES and ESL students as a possible assessment of a university’s success, or lack of thereof, in meeting the needs of ESL students. We concluded that this was both feasible and a reasonable approach to assessment

The Mandatory Bid Rule Under China\u27s Takeover Law: A Comparative and Empirical Perspective

China initially transplanted the mandatory bid rule (MBR) from the United Kingdom (U.K.) in the early 1990s but significantly amended it in 2006 to allow the use of partial bids, as well as full bids or general bids, to discharge the MBR duty. This amendment makes the MBR in China deviate from its place of origin both in the books and in action. This paper analyses the similarities and differences between the Chinese MBR and its counterparts in the U.K. and Japan. In doing so, it empirically investigates how the Chinese-style MBR has been applied in practice by examining all relevant cases during the first ten-year period of 2007 to 2016 after the amendment. The study finds that mandatory general bids mainly appeared in cases of indirect takeovers, negotiated takeovers, and privatizations, with a high non-enforcement rate (including legal circumvention and illegal violations); mandatory partial bids were made in order to acquire or consolidate the control of the target company with a low non-enforcement rate. As such, the Chinese MBR generally adheres to the British model of mandatory general bids but gradually diverges from it and converges with the Japanese model of mandatory partial bids. This paper explains the research results by reference to China’s political and economic context and puts forward reform suggestions

A Big Gap between ‘law in books’ and ‘law in action’ and A New Taxonomy of Enforcement Strategies

Any attempt to comprehensively analyse the enforcement of corporate law and securities regulation is difficult, not only because there are so many distinct national systems in play, but also because, we need to examine both formal enforcement mechanisms and the way in which such mechanisms are applied in practice. If nothing else, the expert analyses presented in the foregoing chapters of this book confirm that with respect to enforcement issues a rather large gap does exist between what Roscoe Pound memorably called ‘law in books’ and ‘law in action’

Preface

This volume collects the fruits of an unprecedented international academic conference, ‘Public and Private Enforcement of Company Law and Securities Regulation – China and the World’, which was held at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) in December 2014 and convened by the Centre for Financial Regulation and Economic Development (CFRED) of the Faculty of Law of CUHK, the University of Michigan Law School and the Lieberthal Rogel Center for Chinese Studies at the University of Michigan. The aim of the conference was to gather, in one place and at one time, some of the world’s top academic specialists, legal practitioners and judicial personnel concerned with public and private enforcement of these two critical aspects of the legal system that govern the global economy and its capital markets, and to engage in an explicitly comparative discourse centred on a rapidly developing China, on one hand, and other developed and developing jurisdictions, on the other