Creating and sustaining trust in cooperative performances of the supply chain constitute critical strategic components.To study the influences of organizational and individual trust on the quality of commitment and co...Creating and sustaining trust in cooperative performances of the supply chain constitute critical strategic components.To study the influences of organizational and individual trust on the quality of commitment and cooperative performance,the relationships among organizational trust,individual trust,commitment and cooperative performances of the supply chain are discussed by case analysis.Questionnaire investigation is used to study the trust and relationship commitment among supply chain partnerships on cooperative performance.Results show that both organizational and individual trust are positively correlated with cooperative performance.The indirect effects of organizational trust on cooperative performance through relationship commitment is significantly greater than its direct effects.However,the indirect effects of individual trust on cooperative performance through relationship commitment is significantly less than its direct effects.It provides all essential basis for enterprises to establish and develop stable supply chain partnerships and to enhance competitive advantages.展开更多
ln the research, an empirical analysis was performed on production per-formance and influential factors of rice in Changsha County and Liling City. The re-sults showed that production scale has been closely linked to ...ln the research, an empirical analysis was performed on production per-formance and influential factors of rice in Changsha County and Liling City. The re-sults showed that production scale has been closely linked to age and education level of farmers. The larger scale, the higher comprehensive performance, but rele-vant efficiency tends to be lower. Sowing area and yield per unit area are major in-fluential factors of production performance of double-cropping rice, but the rest influ-ential factors are different upon production scale. Final y, developmental strategies are proposed for development of double-cropping rice.展开更多
With the reform of agriculture, family farms have become hot spots in the reform of agricultural management system. Taking Rudong County of Jiangsu Province for an example, the land transfer performance of family farm...With the reform of agriculture, family farms have become hot spots in the reform of agricultural management system. Taking Rudong County of Jiangsu Province for an example, the land transfer performance of family farms was evalu- ated using the first hand data from field investigation by building an index system for comprehensive performance evaluation of family farm land transfer covering three dimensions of economy, society and ecology. The results show that land transfer in family farm mode has realized the scale management of land, enhanced the agri- cultural level of science and technology, effectively promoted the structural adjust- ment of agriculture and income increase of farmers, advanced the development of eco-agriculture, and achieved good economic and social performances. However, in the development process of family farms, inputs of agro-chemicals, fertilizers and other agro-products have brought about the eco-environmental problems, which are still worth noting.展开更多
To provide efficient monitoring of web service-based business processes, a web service proxy (WS- proxy) is developed to monitor business activities by monitoring the enactment of services. WS-proxy is deployed as a...To provide efficient monitoring of web service-based business processes, a web service proxy (WS- proxy) is developed to monitor business activities by monitoring the enactment of services. WS-proxy is deployed as an intermediary between internal business processes and external service providers, and it provides a single point of service access with the functions of message routing and content inspection. By using an XPath engine named WS-filter, performance indicators can be generated from service messages for assessing business performance. In the experiments, the feasibility of WS-proxy is verified and it achieves good performance in the monitoring work. The latency introduced by WS-proxy is only about 15% of the overall latency while extracting performance indicators just consumes less than one third of the processing time.展开更多
In this paper,we proposed a framework for evaluating the performance of ecosystem strategies prepared for enhancing vulnerability reduction in the face of hazards due to climate change.The framework highlights the pos...In this paper,we proposed a framework for evaluating the performance of ecosystem strategies prepared for enhancing vulnerability reduction in the face of hazards due to climate change.The framework highlights the positive effects of human activities in the coupled human and natural system(CHANS) by introducing adaptive capacity as an evaluation criterion.A built-in regional vulnerability to a certain hazard was generated based upon interaction of three dimensions of vulnerability:exposure,sensitivity and adaptive capacity.We illustrated the application of this framework in the temperate farming-grazing transitional zone in the middle Inner Mongolia of the northern China,where drought hazard is the key threat to the CHANS.Specific indices were produced to translate such climate variance and social-economic differences into specific indicators.The results showed that the most exposed regions are the inner land areas,while counties located in the eastern part are potentially the most adaptive ones.Ordos City and Bayannur City are most frequently influenced by multiple climate variances,showing highest sensitivity.Analysis also indicated that differences in the ability to adapt to changes are the main causes of spatial differences.After depiction of the spatial differentiations and analysis of the reasons,climate zones were divided to depict the differences in facing to the drought threats.The climate zones were shown to be similar to vulnerability zones based on the quantitative structure of indexes drafted by a triangular map.Further analysis of the composition of the vulnerability index showed that the evaluation criteria were effective in validating the spatial differentiation but potentially ineffective because of their limited time scope.This research will be a demonstration of how to combine the three dimensions by quantitative methods and will thus provide a guide for government to vulnerability reduction management.展开更多
Background Fall and serious fall injuries have become a major health concern for elders. Many factors including blood pressure and anti-hypertensive medication application were reported as hazards of fall. The purpose...Background Fall and serious fall injuries have become a major health concern for elders. Many factors including blood pressure and anti-hypertensive medication application were reported as hazards of fall. The purpose of this study was to determine if age related systemic functional decline related with increased fall risks in elderly patients with hypertension. Methods A total of 342 elderly hypertension patients (age 79.5 + 6.7 years, male 63.8%) were recruited to the study. Comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA), including measurements about activity of daily living (ADL), nutrition, cognition, depression, numbers of prescription medication and number of clinical diagnosis, was conducted to evaluate the physical and mental status of each participants. Fall risk was evaluated by Morse fall scale, Tinetti perform- ance oriented mobility assessment (POMA) and history of fall in the recent years. Participants were grouped into tertiles according to CGA score. Correlation between CGA and fall risk was analyzed through SPSS 18.0. Results Participants with higher CGA score were likely to be older, had a lower body mass index (BMI), and a higher prevalence of cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cerebrovascular disease and osteoarthropathia. Participants in higher tertile of CGA score got increased prevalence of fall risk than those in lower tertile (P 〈 0.01 T3 vs. T1, P 〈 0.01 T3 vs. T2). Correlation analysis and regression analysis showed significant association between CGA and Morse fall scale (P 〈 0.001), as well as CGA and POMA (P 〈 0.001). Meanwhile, CGA components also showed co-relationships with increase fall risks. After adjusting age, BMI, benzodiazepine use, cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular disease, COPD and osteoarthropathia, both history of fall in the recent year and rising Morse fall scale were significantly associated with ADL im- pairment (OR: 2.748, 95%CI: 1.598-4.725), (OR: 3.310, 95%CI: 1.893-5.788). Decreased Tinetti POMA score was associated with Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) (OR: 4.035, 95%CI: 2.100-7.751), ADL (OR: 2.380, 95%CI: 1.357-4.175) and shortened MNA form (MNA-SF) impairment (OR: 2.692, 95%CI: 1.147-6.319). Conclusions In elderly adults with hypertension, impaired physical and mental function is associated with increased fall risk. Further study is required to investigate possible mediators for the association and effec- tive interventions.展开更多
In this article,an approach for economic performance assessment of model predictive control(MPC) system is presented.The method builds on steady-state economic optimization techniques and uses the linear quadratic Gau...In this article,an approach for economic performance assessment of model predictive control(MPC) system is presented.The method builds on steady-state economic optimization techniques and uses the linear quadratic Gaussian(LQG) benchmark other than conventional minimum variance control(MVC) to estimate the potential of reduction in variance.The LQG control is a more practical performance benchmark compared to MVC for performance assessment since it considers input variance and output variance,and it thus provides a desired basis for determining the theoretical maximum economic benefit potential arising from variability reduction.Combining the LQG benchmark directly with benefit potential of MPC control system,both the economic benefit and the optimal operation condition can be obtained by solving the economic optimization problem.The proposed algorithm is illustrated by simulated example as well as application to economic performance assessment of an industrial model predictive control system.展开更多
Nursing is known to be a stressful profession that can lead to physical and psychological health issues and behavioural problems.In oncology,workload among nurses is believed to be increasing in conjunction with rapid...Nursing is known to be a stressful profession that can lead to physical and psychological health issues and behavioural problems.In oncology,workload among nurses is believed to be increasing in conjunction with rapidly increasing numbers of patients with cancer and staff shortages worldwide,therefore it is essential to sustain a quality oncology nurse workforce.Numerous studies have presented evidence on job strain,effects of coping strategies,and nurses'work performance within healthcare settings,but few have focused on oncology settings and none of these on nurses working in Saudi Arabia.The purpose of this review was to summarize empirical and theoretical evidence concerning job-related stressors in nurses,particularly oncology nurses,and the interrelationships among job strain,coping strategies,and work performance in this population.Search strategies identified studies published on studies in peer-reviewed journals from 2004 to 2016.Twenty-five nursing studies were found examining the relationships among the concepts of interest.Common job-related stressors among oncology nurses were high job demands,dealing with death/dying,lack of job control,and interpersonal conflicts at work.Job strain was found to be significantly linked to coping strategies,and negatively associated with work performance among nurses in general.There is no existing empirical evidence to support the relationship between coping strategies and work performance among oncology nurses.The present evidence is limited,and a considerable amount of research is required in the future to expand the oncology nursing literature.Research is needed to investigate job-related stressors and their effects on oncology nurses.展开更多
The literature shows that improvements in cognitive performance may be observed following an acute bout of exercise. However, evidence in support of the biological mechanisms of this effect is still limited. Findings ...The literature shows that improvements in cognitive performance may be observed following an acute bout of exercise. However, evidence in support of the biological mechanisms of this effect is still limited. Findings from both rodent and human studies suggest brain-derived neu- rotrophic factor (BDNF) as a potential mechanism of the effect of acute exercise on memory. The molecular properties of BDNF allow this protein to be assessed in the periphery (pBDNF) (i.e., blood serum, blood plasma), making measurements of acute exercise-induced changes in BDNF concentration relatively accessible. Studies exploring the acute exercise--pBDNF--cognitive performance relationship have had mixed findings, but this may be more reflective of methodological differences between studies than it is a statement about the role of BDNE For example, significant associations have been observed between acute exercise-induced changes in pBDNF concentration and cognitive performance in studies assessing memory, and non-significant associations have been found in studies assessing non-memory cognitive domains. Three suggestions are made for future research aimed at understanding the role of BDNF as a biological mechanism of this relationship: 1) Assessments of cognitive performance may benefit from a focus on various types of memory (e.g., relational, spatial, long-term); 2) More finegrained measurements of pBDNF will allow for the assessment of concentrations of specific isoforms of the BDNF protein (i.e., immature, mature); 3) Statistical techniques designed to test the mediating role of pBDNF in the acute exercise-cognitive performance relationship should be utilized in order to make causal inferences.展开更多
A pilot scale modified step-feed process was lmproved to increase nutrient/N ano P) ano organic removal operations from municipal wastewater. It combined the step-feed process and a method named "University of Cape ...A pilot scale modified step-feed process was lmproved to increase nutrient/N ano P) ano organic removal operations from municipal wastewater. It combined the step-feed process and a method named "University of Cape Town (UCT)". The effect of nutrient ratios and inflow distribution ratios were studied. The highest uptake efficiency of 95% for chemical oxygen demand (COD) has been achieved at the inflow distribution ratio of 40/35/25. However, maximum removal efficiency obtained for total nitrogen (TN) and phosphorus at 93% and 78%, respectively. The average mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) was 5500 mg·L- 1. In addition, convenient values for dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration, and pH were obtained throughout different stages. The proposed system was identified to be an appropriate enhanced biological nutrient removal process for wastewater treatment plants owing to relatively high nutrient removal, sturdy sludge settle ability and COD removal.展开更多
This research evaluated the use of sewage sludge and refuse incineration bottom ash to replace calcium sulfoaluminate cement (CSA) in making controlled low-strength material (CLSM). Various properties of CLSM mixt...This research evaluated the use of sewage sludge and refuse incineration bottom ash to replace calcium sulfoaluminate cement (CSA) in making controlled low-strength material (CLSM). Various properties of CLSM mixtures were characterized in terms of unconfined compressive strength, microstructure and leachability. It was found that the strength of tested CLSM mixtures ranged from 3.6 to 9.0 MPa, over the upper excavatable limit of 2.1 MPa. The micro-structural analysis revealed that sewage sludge and bottom ash were crystallochemically in- corporated within CLSM system_s by forming the needle-like ettringite (C3A'3CS'_H32) with exiguous tu.bers via the typical Pozzolanic Reaction, leading to a dense and low-porosity microst;'ucture. Furthermore,-the toxicity characteristic leaching procedure evidenced that the cumulative leachable metals in the leachate were much below the regulatory thresholds. The potential for us!ng sewage sludge and bottom ash!n CLSM makin.g was thus confirmed.展开更多
基金The National Key Technology R&D Program of China during the11th Five-Year Plan Period(No.2006BAH02A06)
文摘Creating and sustaining trust in cooperative performances of the supply chain constitute critical strategic components.To study the influences of organizational and individual trust on the quality of commitment and cooperative performance,the relationships among organizational trust,individual trust,commitment and cooperative performances of the supply chain are discussed by case analysis.Questionnaire investigation is used to study the trust and relationship commitment among supply chain partnerships on cooperative performance.Results show that both organizational and individual trust are positively correlated with cooperative performance.The indirect effects of organizational trust on cooperative performance through relationship commitment is significantly greater than its direct effects.However,the indirect effects of individual trust on cooperative performance through relationship commitment is significantly less than its direct effects.It provides all essential basis for enterprises to establish and develop stable supply chain partnerships and to enhance competitive advantages.
基金Supported by Key Financial Program of Hunan Province([2014]74)National Natural Science Foundation of China(41601097)Science&Technology Innovation Project of Hunan Academy of Agriculture Sciences(2016JC08)~~
文摘ln the research, an empirical analysis was performed on production per-formance and influential factors of rice in Changsha County and Liling City. The re-sults showed that production scale has been closely linked to age and education level of farmers. The larger scale, the higher comprehensive performance, but rele-vant efficiency tends to be lower. Sowing area and yield per unit area are major in-fluential factors of production performance of double-cropping rice, but the rest influ-ential factors are different upon production scale. Final y, developmental strategies are proposed for development of double-cropping rice.
文摘With the reform of agriculture, family farms have become hot spots in the reform of agricultural management system. Taking Rudong County of Jiangsu Province for an example, the land transfer performance of family farms was evalu- ated using the first hand data from field investigation by building an index system for comprehensive performance evaluation of family farm land transfer covering three dimensions of economy, society and ecology. The results show that land transfer in family farm mode has realized the scale management of land, enhanced the agri- cultural level of science and technology, effectively promoted the structural adjust- ment of agriculture and income increase of farmers, advanced the development of eco-agriculture, and achieved good economic and social performances. However, in the development process of family farms, inputs of agro-chemicals, fertilizers and other agro-products have brought about the eco-environmental problems, which are still worth noting.
基金The National Natural Science Foundation of China(No60473078)
文摘To provide efficient monitoring of web service-based business processes, a web service proxy (WS- proxy) is developed to monitor business activities by monitoring the enactment of services. WS-proxy is deployed as an intermediary between internal business processes and external service providers, and it provides a single point of service access with the functions of message routing and content inspection. By using an XPath engine named WS-filter, performance indicators can be generated from service messages for assessing business performance. In the experiments, the feasibility of WS-proxy is verified and it achieves good performance in the monitoring work. The latency introduced by WS-proxy is only about 15% of the overall latency while extracting performance indicators just consumes less than one third of the processing time.
基金Under the auspices of Public Welfare Scientific Research Project of Chinese Ministry of Land and Resource (No. 200911015-2)
文摘In this paper,we proposed a framework for evaluating the performance of ecosystem strategies prepared for enhancing vulnerability reduction in the face of hazards due to climate change.The framework highlights the positive effects of human activities in the coupled human and natural system(CHANS) by introducing adaptive capacity as an evaluation criterion.A built-in regional vulnerability to a certain hazard was generated based upon interaction of three dimensions of vulnerability:exposure,sensitivity and adaptive capacity.We illustrated the application of this framework in the temperate farming-grazing transitional zone in the middle Inner Mongolia of the northern China,where drought hazard is the key threat to the CHANS.Specific indices were produced to translate such climate variance and social-economic differences into specific indicators.The results showed that the most exposed regions are the inner land areas,while counties located in the eastern part are potentially the most adaptive ones.Ordos City and Bayannur City are most frequently influenced by multiple climate variances,showing highest sensitivity.Analysis also indicated that differences in the ability to adapt to changes are the main causes of spatial differences.After depiction of the spatial differentiations and analysis of the reasons,climate zones were divided to depict the differences in facing to the drought threats.The climate zones were shown to be similar to vulnerability zones based on the quantitative structure of indexes drafted by a triangular map.Further analysis of the composition of the vulnerability index showed that the evaluation criteria were effective in validating the spatial differentiation but potentially ineffective because of their limited time scope.This research will be a demonstration of how to combine the three dimensions by quantitative methods and will thus provide a guide for government to vulnerability reduction management.
文摘Background Fall and serious fall injuries have become a major health concern for elders. Many factors including blood pressure and anti-hypertensive medication application were reported as hazards of fall. The purpose of this study was to determine if age related systemic functional decline related with increased fall risks in elderly patients with hypertension. Methods A total of 342 elderly hypertension patients (age 79.5 + 6.7 years, male 63.8%) were recruited to the study. Comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA), including measurements about activity of daily living (ADL), nutrition, cognition, depression, numbers of prescription medication and number of clinical diagnosis, was conducted to evaluate the physical and mental status of each participants. Fall risk was evaluated by Morse fall scale, Tinetti perform- ance oriented mobility assessment (POMA) and history of fall in the recent years. Participants were grouped into tertiles according to CGA score. Correlation between CGA and fall risk was analyzed through SPSS 18.0. Results Participants with higher CGA score were likely to be older, had a lower body mass index (BMI), and a higher prevalence of cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cerebrovascular disease and osteoarthropathia. Participants in higher tertile of CGA score got increased prevalence of fall risk than those in lower tertile (P 〈 0.01 T3 vs. T1, P 〈 0.01 T3 vs. T2). Correlation analysis and regression analysis showed significant association between CGA and Morse fall scale (P 〈 0.001), as well as CGA and POMA (P 〈 0.001). Meanwhile, CGA components also showed co-relationships with increase fall risks. After adjusting age, BMI, benzodiazepine use, cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular disease, COPD and osteoarthropathia, both history of fall in the recent year and rising Morse fall scale were significantly associated with ADL im- pairment (OR: 2.748, 95%CI: 1.598-4.725), (OR: 3.310, 95%CI: 1.893-5.788). Decreased Tinetti POMA score was associated with Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) (OR: 4.035, 95%CI: 2.100-7.751), ADL (OR: 2.380, 95%CI: 1.357-4.175) and shortened MNA form (MNA-SF) impairment (OR: 2.692, 95%CI: 1.147-6.319). Conclusions In elderly adults with hypertension, impaired physical and mental function is associated with increased fall risk. Further study is required to investigate possible mediators for the association and effec- tive interventions.
基金Supported by the National Creative Research Groups Science Foundation of China (60421002) and National Basic Research Program of China (2007CB714000).
文摘In this article,an approach for economic performance assessment of model predictive control(MPC) system is presented.The method builds on steady-state economic optimization techniques and uses the linear quadratic Gaussian(LQG) benchmark other than conventional minimum variance control(MVC) to estimate the potential of reduction in variance.The LQG control is a more practical performance benchmark compared to MVC for performance assessment since it considers input variance and output variance,and it thus provides a desired basis for determining the theoretical maximum economic benefit potential arising from variability reduction.Combining the LQG benchmark directly with benefit potential of MPC control system,both the economic benefit and the optimal operation condition can be obtained by solving the economic optimization problem.The proposed algorithm is illustrated by simulated example as well as application to economic performance assessment of an industrial model predictive control system.
文摘Nursing is known to be a stressful profession that can lead to physical and psychological health issues and behavioural problems.In oncology,workload among nurses is believed to be increasing in conjunction with rapidly increasing numbers of patients with cancer and staff shortages worldwide,therefore it is essential to sustain a quality oncology nurse workforce.Numerous studies have presented evidence on job strain,effects of coping strategies,and nurses'work performance within healthcare settings,but few have focused on oncology settings and none of these on nurses working in Saudi Arabia.The purpose of this review was to summarize empirical and theoretical evidence concerning job-related stressors in nurses,particularly oncology nurses,and the interrelationships among job strain,coping strategies,and work performance in this population.Search strategies identified studies published on studies in peer-reviewed journals from 2004 to 2016.Twenty-five nursing studies were found examining the relationships among the concepts of interest.Common job-related stressors among oncology nurses were high job demands,dealing with death/dying,lack of job control,and interpersonal conflicts at work.Job strain was found to be significantly linked to coping strategies,and negatively associated with work performance among nurses in general.There is no existing empirical evidence to support the relationship between coping strategies and work performance among oncology nurses.The present evidence is limited,and a considerable amount of research is required in the future to expand the oncology nursing literature.Research is needed to investigate job-related stressors and their effects on oncology nurses.
文摘The literature shows that improvements in cognitive performance may be observed following an acute bout of exercise. However, evidence in support of the biological mechanisms of this effect is still limited. Findings from both rodent and human studies suggest brain-derived neu- rotrophic factor (BDNF) as a potential mechanism of the effect of acute exercise on memory. The molecular properties of BDNF allow this protein to be assessed in the periphery (pBDNF) (i.e., blood serum, blood plasma), making measurements of acute exercise-induced changes in BDNF concentration relatively accessible. Studies exploring the acute exercise--pBDNF--cognitive performance relationship have had mixed findings, but this may be more reflective of methodological differences between studies than it is a statement about the role of BDNE For example, significant associations have been observed between acute exercise-induced changes in pBDNF concentration and cognitive performance in studies assessing memory, and non-significant associations have been found in studies assessing non-memory cognitive domains. Three suggestions are made for future research aimed at understanding the role of BDNF as a biological mechanism of this relationship: 1) Assessments of cognitive performance may benefit from a focus on various types of memory (e.g., relational, spatial, long-term); 2) More finegrained measurements of pBDNF will allow for the assessment of concentrations of specific isoforms of the BDNF protein (i.e., immature, mature); 3) Statistical techniques designed to test the mediating role of pBDNF in the acute exercise-cognitive performance relationship should be utilized in order to make causal inferences.
文摘A pilot scale modified step-feed process was lmproved to increase nutrient/N ano P) ano organic removal operations from municipal wastewater. It combined the step-feed process and a method named "University of Cape Town (UCT)". The effect of nutrient ratios and inflow distribution ratios were studied. The highest uptake efficiency of 95% for chemical oxygen demand (COD) has been achieved at the inflow distribution ratio of 40/35/25. However, maximum removal efficiency obtained for total nitrogen (TN) and phosphorus at 93% and 78%, respectively. The average mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) was 5500 mg·L- 1. In addition, convenient values for dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration, and pH were obtained throughout different stages. The proposed system was identified to be an appropriate enhanced biological nutrient removal process for wastewater treatment plants owing to relatively high nutrient removal, sturdy sludge settle ability and COD removal.
基金Supported by the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (08 DZ 1202802,09 DZ 1204105,09 DZ2251700)the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51008322)
文摘This research evaluated the use of sewage sludge and refuse incineration bottom ash to replace calcium sulfoaluminate cement (CSA) in making controlled low-strength material (CLSM). Various properties of CLSM mixtures were characterized in terms of unconfined compressive strength, microstructure and leachability. It was found that the strength of tested CLSM mixtures ranged from 3.6 to 9.0 MPa, over the upper excavatable limit of 2.1 MPa. The micro-structural analysis revealed that sewage sludge and bottom ash were crystallochemically in- corporated within CLSM system_s by forming the needle-like ettringite (C3A'3CS'_H32) with exiguous tu.bers via the typical Pozzolanic Reaction, leading to a dense and low-porosity microst;'ucture. Furthermore,-the toxicity characteristic leaching procedure evidenced that the cumulative leachable metals in the leachate were much below the regulatory thresholds. The potential for us!ng sewage sludge and bottom ash!n CLSM makin.g was thus confirmed.