Modeling household car ownership using ordered logistic regression model

Considering both the discrete and ordered nature of the household car ownership an ordered logistic regression model to predict household car ownership is established by using the data of Nanjing Household Travel Survey in the year 2012. The model results show that some household characteristics such as the number of driver licenses household income and home location are significant.Yet the intersection density indicating the street patterns of home location and the dummy near the subway and the bus stop density indicating the transit accessibility of home location are insignificant.The model estimation obtains a good γ2 the goodness of fit of the model and the model validation also shows a good performance in prediction.The marginal effects of all the significant explanatory variables are calculated to quantify the odds change in the household car ownership following a one-unit change in the explanatory variables.

Functional lipidomics in patients on home parenteral nutrition: Effect of lipid emulsions

To investigate the fatty acid-based functional lipidomics of patients on long-term home parenteral nutrition receiving different intravenous lipid emulsions. METHODSA cross-sectional comparative study was carried out on 3 groups of adults on home parenteral nutrition (HPN), receiving an HPN admixture containing an olive-soybean oil-based intravenous lipid emulsion (IVLE) (OO-IVLE; n = 15), a soybean- medium-chain triacylglycerol-olive-fish oil-based IVLE (SMOF-IVLE; n = 8) or HPN without IVLE (No-IVLE; n = 8) and 42 healthy controls (HCs). The inclusion criteria were: duration of HPN ≥ 3 mo, current HPN admixtures ≥ 2 mo and HPN infusions ≥ 2/wk. Blood samples were drawn 4-6 h after the discontinuation of the overnight HPN infusion. The functional lipidomics panel included: the red blood cell (RBC) fatty acid (FA) profile, molecular biomarkers [membrane fluidity: saturated/monounsaturated FA ratio = saturated fatty acid (SFA)/monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) index; inflammatory risk: n-6/n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) ratio = n-6/n-3 index; cardiovascular risk: sum of n-3 eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) = n-3 index; free radical stress: sum of FA trans isomers = %trans index] and FA pathway enzyme activity estimate (delta-9-desaturase = D9D; delta-6-desaturase = D6D; delta-5-desaturase = D5D; elongase = ELO). Statistics were carried out using nonparametric tests. The amount of each FA was calculated as a percentage of the total FA content (relative%). RESULTSIn the OO-IVLE group, the percentage of oleic acid in the RBCs was positively correlated with the weekly load of OO-IVLE (r = 0.540, P = 0.043). In the SMOF-IVLE cohort, the RBC membrane EPA and DHA were positively correlated with the daily amount of SMOF-IVLE (r = 0.751, P = 0.044) and the number of HPN infusions per week (r = 0.753; P = 0.046), respectively. The SMOF-IVLE group showed the highest EPA and DHA and the lowest arachidonic acid percentages (P < 0.001). The RBC membrane linoleic acid content was lower, and oleic and vaccenic acids were higher in all the HPN groups in comparison to the HCs. Vaccenic acid was positively correlated with the weekly HPN load of glucose in both the OO-IVLE (r = 0.716; P = 0.007) and the SMOF-IVLE (r = 0.732; P = 0.053) groups. The estimated activity of D9D was higher in all the HPN groups than in the HCs (P < 0.001). The estimated activity of D5D was lower in the SMOF-IVLE group than in the HCs (P = 0.013). The SFA/MUFA ratio was lower in all the HPN groups than in the HCs (P < 0.001). The n-6/n-3 index was lower and the n-3 index was higher in the SMOF-IVLE group in comparison to the HCs and to the other HPN groups (P < 0.001). The %trans index did not differ among the four groups. CONCLUSIONThe FA profile of IVLEs significantly influenced the cell membrane functional lipidomics. The amount of glucose in the HPN may play a relevant role, mediated by the insulin regulation of the FA pathway enzyme activities.

A Mixed Reality System for Investigating Expert Characteristics on Recall of Situation Including Self-Motion

To study recall accuracy of the offensive and defensive situations including movements of elite-athlete/novice oneself, a novel experimental system was developed where defensive actions were performed by the subject with a CG （Computer Graphics） player who presented predetermined offensive actions. Both the CG player＇s movements and subject＇s movements were reproduced by a video using mixed reality technology for recall examination. This system was also designed to rearrange the natural sequence of image frames resulting in a reproducible video in which the time relation of offense and defense was falsified. Displacement of timing in the false video was twofold; delayed from the truth or advanced from the truth. Using this two-video, true/false imagery method, the subject was asked to select the true video by recall; thus it became possible to examine the recall accuracy quantitatively by controlling the timing displacement. Results of the experiment using this system revealed that karate expert possessed a skill to recognize the time relation between the opponent＇s movement and one＇s own movement perceptually that was more developed than that of the novice. It was further identified that the expert as well as the novice recognized delayed displacement more accurately than they could recognize advanced displacement.

Determinants of Food Security in Selected Agro-pastoral Communities of Somali and Oromia Regions, Ethiopia

In spite of receiving a significant amount of food aid, achieving food security has been a major problem in Ethiopia. The claim is evidenced from the 2010 Global Hunger Index where the country fared dismally, coming only fourth from the bottom. There are several factors attributing to this problem of food insecurity in a country like Ethiopia which depends highly on agriculture and allied activities. Some of the factors can be linked to low food production and productivity thereby leading to pervasive poverty. In order to assess these factors, the study was conducted on some selected members of agro-pastoral communities of Somali and Oromia regions in Ethiopia. Using availability of food in the household for the last one month as a proxy for food security, the estimated results of a logistic regression model indicated that the most significant factors affecting household food security are educational level of the spouse and that of the household head, size of farm land, availability of household assets including livestock, peace and security. The paper suggests some leads to how these amenities and resources can be provided to household members as they endeavor to reduce food insecurity.

Determinants of Household Food Security in Nepal:A Binary Logistic Regression Analysis

The study reveals that 10.2% of the sampled households in Nepal suffer from chronic food insecurity,i.e.,neither are they able to produce sufficient food from their farms nor earn the food security threshold income for deficit months.With the highest and the lowest exponential value of coefficient obtained from binary logistic regression model,it is concluded that any program targeting occupational caste and small landholding farm category or landless will contribute significantly to reduce food-insecurity.The provision of employment opportunities for economically active age group,thus,reducing dependency ratio from 1.2 (economically active population) to 0.7 (economically active age group) can also contribute significantly to reduce food insecurity.Significant positive coefficient of family size squared shows the increase in the probability of being foodinsecure with the increase in family size.In addition,an increase in irrigation availability can contribute significantly to reduce food insecurity.A significant proportion of male-headed households and households residing in Tarai are food-secure.This justifies the need to target female-headed households and households residing in Mountain and Hill in any program aimed at resolving food insecurity.A negative and significant association of household's participation in community organizations and food insecurity fortifies the need for inclusion of vulnerable groups such as occupational caste,female-headed households,households with illiterate heads,small landholding farm category or landless,and households residing in Mountain and Hill (including some target communities in Tarai) in community organizations.Furthermore,making these communities a target of food security programs can help significantly to reduce the incidence of food insecurity.

A study of factors influencing consumers' behavior in recycling waste household electronic appliances

The innovation of technologzv and the improvement of people＇s living standard accelerate the replacement of consumer electronic appliances, resulting in a significant increase of waste household electronic appliances （WHEA）. To address the environmental problems of WHEA, many countries have enacted legislation according to WHEA management, including collecting, processing and recycling. The regulations on the management of WHEA were also drafted in China and pilot programs of WHEA recycling management encountered difficulties in collecting WHEA. The success of a recycling scheme is dependent on people＇s willingness of participating in the scheme, This paper applies Ajzen＇s theory of planned behavior to seek the main factors to engourage consumers to participate in WHEA recycling management in China. Data from a survey conducted with a sample of 633 consumers show that service motivation is the first predictor of participation behavior intention, followed by environmental behavior attitude, economic motivation, subjective norm. and perceived behavior barrier. Environmental knowledge is found not to be the predictor of behavior intention in this recycling scheme. Study results also suggest that publicity is the key situational factor in the WHEA recycling management. Recycling network and policy have little influence on changing consumers＇ current behavior intention and participation. Implications of the findings are discussed and future research directions are suggested in the end.

Adoption and Impact of Tobacco Recommended Varieties among Smallholder Farmers in Tabora Region

The research examines the status of adoption of improved tobacco recommended varieties among smallholder farmers with a view to assess the impact of tobacco production on household income in the region. A survey approach was used to collect data from a sample of 160 tobacco farmers who were randomly selected. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression model were used to analyze the data. Results show that farmers have responded appreciably to intervention programme that promote the use of the tobacco recommended varieties with an adoption rate of 61.6%. Information flow from various tobacco companies was the significant factor influencing the decision of farmers to adopt the tobacco recommended varieties. Constraints in the adoption noted include poor germination of seeds, high demand of inputs, unreliable availability of seeds and inadequate knowledge on tobacco production. The mean household income from tobacco production （4,232,415 Tshs） was significantly higher than the mean income of other income sources cumulatively （211,333 Tshs） with an income advantage of 4,021,082 Tshs. The study concludes that farmers are responding appreciably to intervention programmes that promote the use of tobacco recommended varieties in the region. Also tobacco sub-sector has higher contribution on household total income as compared to other enterprises.

The Association Between Corporate Governance Mechanisms and Stock Investment Risk： Empirical Evidence From Thailand

This study examines the association between corporate governance mechanisms （i.e., internal corporate governance, ownership structure, and external corporate govemance） and stock investment risk （i.e., idiosyncratic risk, systematic risk, and total risk of non-financial listed firms in Thailand in 2007）. The multiple regression analysis is employed to test the hypotheses, and the results suggest that firms with higher market power have lower systematic risk. It implies that firms with higher market power can reduce the unavoidable risk when compared with firms that have lower market power. Firms with more media coverage will have higher systematic risk, which indicates that firms which publish more news will have higher unavoidable risk. This research may be the first to provide the evidence of the association between corporate govemance mechanisms and stock investment risk. Interestingly still, this study has utilized the data of Thailand, which is an emerging market economy with a capital market structure different from those of the developed market economies, and the results of this study are anticipated to be applicable to other similar studies in other emerging market economies.

The Playwright, Creativity, and Society： Unpacking Sunnie Ododo＇s To Return From the Void

The role of the playwright as a force for social reconstruction has been given much attention in theatre scholarship and continues to be a fertile ground for research. Because playwrights draw their stories from society, it is necessary to study their works in other to construe the ways by which they craft our world and make us view society through their own eyes, narratives, symbols, images, and imagination. This paper analyses the play To Return From the Void by Sunnie Ododo to unearth the salient issues and themes addressed in the play. This paper posits that through their treatment of society, playwrights influence the consciousness of the people by bringing salience to certain issues in society. The analysis of the play also reveals the playwright＇s ideological position on issues. It is plausible to say that character and dialogue are the media through which the playwright channels his ideologies in a play.

Small-Scale Household Biogas Digesters as a Viable Option for Energy Recovery and Global Warming Mitigation--Vietnam Case Study

Biogas from livestock waste is considered as clean and renewable energy in Vietnam. In the last 20 years, in rural and remote areas of Vietnam, there has been a significant increase of small-scale household biogas digesters. Biogas digesters create the benefits of replacing energy and mitigation of climate change caused by greenhouse gas （GHG） emission and deforestation for firewood and charcoal. Livestock waste produces approximately 85 million tonnes every year and continues to increase, meaning there are huge feedstocks for biogas digesters to meet the energy demands in households. However, there are also many constraints on the development programme for small-scale household biogas digester. In Vietnam, the socio-economic situation and the lack of a sustainable energy policy for biogas from livestock sector are hindering the growth of the biogas digester industry. Government subsidies are needed to encourage farmers to participate. This paper will be helpful not only for the sustainable development of household biogas in Vietnam, but also for the developing program of biogas generation in developing countries with similar agricultural economies to Vietnam.

Finite element model updating for large span spatial steel structure considering uncertainties

In order to establish the baseline finite element model for structural health monitoring,a new method of model updating was proposed after analyzing the uncertainties of measured data and the error of finite element model.In the new method,the finite element model was replaced by the multi-output support vector regression machine(MSVR).The interval variables of the measured frequency were sampled by Latin hypercube sampling method.The samples of frequency were regarded as the inputs of the trained MSVR.The outputs of MSVR were the target values of design parameters.The steel structure of National Aquatic Center for Beijing Olympic Games was introduced as a case for finite element model updating.The results show that the proposed method can avoid solving the problem of complicated calculation.Both the estimated values and associated uncertainties of the structure parameters can be obtained by the method.The static and dynamic characteristics of the updated finite element model are in good agreement with the measured data.

Share-Shift Analysis of Geo-Economic Pattern on Global Cereal Crops in Recent 50 Years

In recent 50 years, with the rapid development of international food trade, the geoeconomic pattern of cereal crops has changed tremendously which produced a significant impact on global food security. This paper attempted to analysis the production pattern and trade pattern of global cereals, especially three main crops of wheat, maize and rice by using the method of share-shift. Given the fact of almost every economic phenomenon is driven by their economic return behind them, this paper attempted to a further step into their economic pattern by examining their net trade flow. The results showed that from the view of production and trade, the geographic pattern of global cereals has changed greatly which can be described as developing countries has replaced developed countries and become the world's biggest cereals production and trading area. But when moving to the net trade flow, it turns out to be another story that can depicted as the regional fixation features of economic returns which can be convinced from the labor division of global cereals trade, among which developed countries acts as net trade profit area while developing countries as net trade output area, and their gap between net export and net import has been widening from the view of evolution trend. So what we learn from the evolution of geoeconomic pattern on this topic is that our place in global cereals trade system, and therefore alert us to concern not only on the pattern transition but also the economic meaning behind it, only by doing so can we learn to plan our food future more wisely and effectively.

The Ideal Usage of Sustainable Materials and Local Resources of the Interior Space Design in Jordan

Buildings generate a large amount of waste throughout their life cycles, from construction and building operations to demolition. The amount of waste leaving the properly can be reduced, however, through responsible procurement choices, as well as by implementing comprehensive recycling programs throughout the construction, operation, and demolition phases. Consideration for materials and resources focuses on the health and productivity consequences of material selections for building occupants, plus the long term social, economic, and environmental impacts of materials used in the design and construction of the building. Green building addresses two kinds of problems related to materials and resources： waste management and life-cycle impacts. This issue has been discussed by many professionals and researchers and it seems this problem is more likely existed in not developing countries comparing with developing countries. The lack of selecting the right materials, have not been well taken into the consideration. Researchers have developed a number of assumptions that helps to resolve the research problems, which includes the application of the green material and resource in the Jordauian interior designs to provide a healthy environment to the interior spaces. Therefore, the paper aims to search for the possibilities of proposing some indicators using sustainable material and resource in the of internal Jordanian spaces. The theoretical part goes through a brief study to definition of sustainable material and resource in Jordan, and its uses in all the elements of internal and emphasis about the traditional symbols to preserve the identity of Jordan, then we going through the uses of the material and resources by analyses examples of the green interior spaces in Jordan.

观剧笔记——关于20部话剧的实话实说

《回家》2004年10月23日星期六,北京八一剧场,广州军区政治部战士话剧团演出。唐栋、蒲逊编剧,王寿仁导演,季乔舞美设计。战士话剧团带有悲怆、感伤色彩的最后一搏(该团因裁军即将解散),为我们送来了一台把握现实的某种精神趋势、有着强烈理想与道义追寻、引人意惹情牵的好戏。这台戏的切入点、关注点很特别,所以它能打动观众。它既有历史感(尽管表现的是现实题材),有深层意蕴,又能触动心灵。我最喜欢唐栋的《岁月风景》这部戏,它打动人的地方就是深厚的历史感。当然,《回家》这台戏的叙述方式不同。

夜语无声

常常喜欢一个人在月白风清的夜晚静坐斗室,捧一壶茶,听一张唱片,最好是舒缓空灵的那种,《梅花三弄》、《二泉映月》或者肯尼基的《回家》,婉转清淡又笼罩着丝丝忧郁,让人的心灵由不得轻轻地安谧柔情,这样的时刻,是否太奢侈了。泡在清凉的月色中。