Linear failure criterion is widely used in calculation of earth pressure acting on shallow tunnels. However, experimental evidence shows that nonlinear failure criterion is able to represent fairly well the failure of...Linear failure criterion is widely used in calculation of earth pressure acting on shallow tunnels. However, experimental evidence shows that nonlinear failure criterion is able to represent fairly well the failure of almost all types of rocks, A nonlinear Hock-Brown failure criterion is employed to estimate the supporting pressures of shallow tunnels in limit analysis framework. Two failure mechanisms are proposed for calculating the work rate of extemal force and the internal energy dissipation. A tangential line to the nonlinear failure criterion is used to formulate the supporting pressure problem as a nonlinear programming problem. The objective function formulated in this way is minimized with respect to the failure mechanism and the location of tangency point. In order to assess the validity, the supporting pressures for the proposed failure mechanisms are calculated and compared with each other, and the present results are compared with previously published solutions when the nonlinear criterion is reduced to linear criterion. The agreement supports the validity of the proposed failure mechanisms. An experiment is conducted to investigate the influences of the nonlinear criterion on collapse shape and supporting pressures of shallow tunnels.展开更多
This survey investigated the relationship between executive compensation and the financial performance of companies. It is hypothesized that a company can utilize its pay system to direct executives＇ efforts toward i...This survey investigated the relationship between executive compensation and the financial performance of companies. It is hypothesized that a company can utilize its pay system to direct executives＇ efforts toward its strategic business objectives, thus contributing to higher levels of corporate financial performance. The survey data consisted of a secondary and non-probabilistic sample of 44 Brazilian industrial companies. In order to operationalize the independent remuneration variable, the authors used average monthly salary, average variable salary, and three indices that were created for this survey： benefits, career, and development. These indices measure the access to benefits, mechanisms for stimulating and supporting careers, and mechanisms to encourage education and professional development that companies offer to their directors, vice presidents, and chief executive officers （CEOs）, who are referred to in this paper by the term ＂executive＂. The remuneration data are from fiscal year 2006. In order to operationalize the financial performance variable, two accounting indicators were used： sales growth and return on equity （ROE） for fiscal years 2006 and 2007. The size of the companies was used as a control variable. The results of a multiple regression analysis do not support the hypothesis that there is a positive and significant relationship between executive compensation and corporate financial performance.展开更多
OBJECTIVE The current retrospective study aims to evaluate the management of non-functioning the assessment of experience on pituitary macroadenoma through clinical, biochemical, radiological features, and treatment o...OBJECTIVE The current retrospective study aims to evaluate the management of non-functioning the assessment of experience on pituitary macroadenoma through clinical, biochemical, radiological features, and treatment outcome of patients, and to identify prognostic factors affecting progression-free survival （PFS）. METHODS Data of 55 patients macroadenoma presented to the with non-functioning pituitary Clinical Oncology and Nuclear Medicine department between 1998 and 2009 were investigated. RESULTS The most common symptom was visual disturbance （38.2%） followed by headache （27.3%）. The presence of male predominance was observed （1.4：1）. Ten patients received radio-therapy （RT） only. Extrasellar extension was the more common treatment. The overall response rate was 72.8% with completed response at 16.4%. Memory and intellectual sequelae were the most common late complications of treatment （14%）. The ten-year PFS was at 84.6%. PFS was found to be significantly better with higher dose of RT （up to 54 Gy）, treatment by both surgery and RT, absence of visual field defect, and tumor localized to sella, whereas it was not significantly affected by age and sex. CONCLUSION The data confirmed that the prevalence of mass effect and hypopituitarism in patients with non-functioning pituitary macroadenoma is elevated. Conventional external RT up to 54 Gy is safe and effective in controlling non-functioning pituitary macro- adenoma with tolerable and acceptable morbidity.展开更多
This paper aims to explore the impact of intellectual capital efficiency （ICE） on firm performance in the context of professional football clubs. In particular, our aim is twofold： （1） to provide measures of ICE ...This paper aims to explore the impact of intellectual capital efficiency （ICE） on firm performance in the context of professional football clubs. In particular, our aim is twofold： （1） to provide measures of ICE specifically tailored to professional football businesses; and （2） to empirically investigate whether some dimensions of ICE, namely, human capital and relational capital efficiency, are positively associated with sporting performance, here used as a proxy for business performance. This paper develops a quantitative analysis of club-level panel data using the statistical technique known as mixed-effects linear regression for longitudinal analysis. The research spans a time period of five years and specifically the sporting seasons from 2007/2008 up to 2011/2012. The empirical findings of this study provide tentative evidence that ICE, especially as far as relational capital is concerned, is positively associated with on-pitch performance of professional football businesses. On the counterpart, results for the impact of human capital efficiency （HCE） do not consistently come out with the （positive） expected signs. More specifically, our findings suggest that relational capital efficiency, meaning the ability to develop and nurture positive business relationship with relevant external stakeholders, is a significant consideration for football club managers; on the other, they might shed light on the actual business model of professional football clubs that, in our analysis, does not appear consistent with the long-held hypothesis of winning maximization. The main limitation of this study lies in the fact that our indicators do not fully capture all relevant dimensions of the intellectual capital （IC） construct.展开更多
Surgical innovation and pioneering are important for improving patient outcome, but can be associated with learning curves. Although learning curves in surgery are a recognized problem, the impact of surgical learning...Surgical innovation and pioneering are important for improving patient outcome, but can be associated with learning curves. Although learning curves in surgery are a recognized problem, the impact of surgical learning curves is increasing, due to increasing complexity of innovative surgical procedures, the rapid rate at which new interventions are implemented and a decrease in relative effectiveness of new interventions compared to old interventions. For minimally invasive esophagectomy(MIE), there is now robust evidence that implementation can lead to significant learning associated morbidity(morbidity during a learning curve, that could have been avoided if patients were operated by surgeons that have completed the learning curve). This article provides an overview of the evidence of the impact of learning curves after implementation of MIE. In addition, caveats for implementation and available evidence regarding factors that are important for safe implementation and safe pioneering of MIE are discussed.展开更多
[Objective] This study aimed to investigate the acaricidal lffect of scopo- letin, and provide the biochemical evidences of scopoletin influencus Ca2＋-ATPase activity and gene expressions in the Carmine Spider Mite, ...[Objective] This study aimed to investigate the acaricidal lffect of scopo- letin, and provide the biochemical evidences of scopoletin influencus Ca2＋-ATPase activity and gene expressions in the Carmine Spider Mite, Tetranych＇us cinnabarinus. in increased protein contents; kinetic analysis showed that the catalytic capability of Ca2＋-ATPase was significantly reduced by scopoletin. [Conclusion] Scopoletin exhibits a significant inhibitory effect on Ca2＋-ATPase, and its acaricidal effect against T. cinnabarinus might be due to the direct inhibition of Ca2＋-ATPase.展开更多
This study seeks to examine the influence of board skill, multiple directorships （BSHIP）, and tenure of independent directors on accounting conservatism, as measured by asymmetric timeliness and accrual-based conser...This study seeks to examine the influence of board skill, multiple directorships （BSHIP）, and tenure of independent directors on accounting conservatism, as measured by asymmetric timeliness and accrual-based conservatism （CONACCR）. Fixed-effect regression models were constructed on a sample of 2016 firm-year observations for asymmetric timeliness model and 2033 firm-year observations for CONACCR model, which covered from 2001 to 2007. The findings show that the degree of financial expertise on the board is positively associated with the recognition of bad news which is relative to good news into earnings. BSHIP appears to have no effect on conservatism. Independent directors who have longer tenure in the board of the firms are slower in recognizing bad news which is relative to good news into earnings. The study provides empirical evidence on the effectiveness of the board of directors, which will be an interest to the practitioner or regulators in reviewing the corporate governance regulations.展开更多
The impact of social capital on economic development has been broadly studied by scholars. However, research in the Chinese context is relatively rare. Drawing upon data from the China General Social Survey, our resul...The impact of social capital on economic development has been broadly studied by scholars. However, research in the Chinese context is relatively rare. Drawing upon data from the China General Social Survey, our results suggest that the enhancing effect of social capital on total factor productivity is very limited in the case of China. The network dimension of social capital is significant only in pooled OLS estimations, and trust as well as the participation dimension of social capital exert no impact across all estimations. Our interpretation is that this is partly due to the fact that trust, values and norms formed in civil society are inherently difficult to transmit to the market sector. Besides, the impact of social capital on economic performance is undermined when physical capital plays a significant role in production. We therefore propose that the effect of social capital on economic performance is contingent on localized social and economic conditions.展开更多
基金Foundation item： Project（2013CB036004） supported by the National Basic Research Program of China Project（51178468） supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China
文摘Linear failure criterion is widely used in calculation of earth pressure acting on shallow tunnels. However, experimental evidence shows that nonlinear failure criterion is able to represent fairly well the failure of almost all types of rocks, A nonlinear Hock-Brown failure criterion is employed to estimate the supporting pressures of shallow tunnels in limit analysis framework. Two failure mechanisms are proposed for calculating the work rate of extemal force and the internal energy dissipation. A tangential line to the nonlinear failure criterion is used to formulate the supporting pressure problem as a nonlinear programming problem. The objective function formulated in this way is minimized with respect to the failure mechanism and the location of tangency point. In order to assess the validity, the supporting pressures for the proposed failure mechanisms are calculated and compared with each other, and the present results are compared with previously published solutions when the nonlinear criterion is reduced to linear criterion. The agreement supports the validity of the proposed failure mechanisms. An experiment is conducted to investigate the influences of the nonlinear criterion on collapse shape and supporting pressures of shallow tunnels.
文摘This survey investigated the relationship between executive compensation and the financial performance of companies. It is hypothesized that a company can utilize its pay system to direct executives＇ efforts toward its strategic business objectives, thus contributing to higher levels of corporate financial performance. The survey data consisted of a secondary and non-probabilistic sample of 44 Brazilian industrial companies. In order to operationalize the independent remuneration variable, the authors used average monthly salary, average variable salary, and three indices that were created for this survey： benefits, career, and development. These indices measure the access to benefits, mechanisms for stimulating and supporting careers, and mechanisms to encourage education and professional development that companies offer to their directors, vice presidents, and chief executive officers （CEOs）, who are referred to in this paper by the term ＂executive＂. The remuneration data are from fiscal year 2006. In order to operationalize the financial performance variable, two accounting indicators were used： sales growth and return on equity （ROE） for fiscal years 2006 and 2007. The size of the companies was used as a control variable. The results of a multiple regression analysis do not support the hypothesis that there is a positive and significant relationship between executive compensation and corporate financial performance.
文摘OBJECTIVE The current retrospective study aims to evaluate the management of non-functioning the assessment of experience on pituitary macroadenoma through clinical, biochemical, radiological features, and treatment outcome of patients, and to identify prognostic factors affecting progression-free survival （PFS）. METHODS Data of 55 patients macroadenoma presented to the with non-functioning pituitary Clinical Oncology and Nuclear Medicine department between 1998 and 2009 were investigated. RESULTS The most common symptom was visual disturbance （38.2%） followed by headache （27.3%）. The presence of male predominance was observed （1.4：1）. Ten patients received radio-therapy （RT） only. Extrasellar extension was the more common treatment. The overall response rate was 72.8% with completed response at 16.4%. Memory and intellectual sequelae were the most common late complications of treatment （14%）. The ten-year PFS was at 84.6%. PFS was found to be significantly better with higher dose of RT （up to 54 Gy）, treatment by both surgery and RT, absence of visual field defect, and tumor localized to sella, whereas it was not significantly affected by age and sex. CONCLUSION The data confirmed that the prevalence of mass effect and hypopituitarism in patients with non-functioning pituitary macroadenoma is elevated. Conventional external RT up to 54 Gy is safe and effective in controlling non-functioning pituitary macro- adenoma with tolerable and acceptable morbidity.
文摘This paper aims to explore the impact of intellectual capital efficiency （ICE） on firm performance in the context of professional football clubs. In particular, our aim is twofold： （1） to provide measures of ICE specifically tailored to professional football businesses; and （2） to empirically investigate whether some dimensions of ICE, namely, human capital and relational capital efficiency, are positively associated with sporting performance, here used as a proxy for business performance. This paper develops a quantitative analysis of club-level panel data using the statistical technique known as mixed-effects linear regression for longitudinal analysis. The research spans a time period of five years and specifically the sporting seasons from 2007/2008 up to 2011/2012. The empirical findings of this study provide tentative evidence that ICE, especially as far as relational capital is concerned, is positively associated with on-pitch performance of professional football businesses. On the counterpart, results for the impact of human capital efficiency （HCE） do not consistently come out with the （positive） expected signs. More specifically, our findings suggest that relational capital efficiency, meaning the ability to develop and nurture positive business relationship with relevant external stakeholders, is a significant consideration for football club managers; on the other, they might shed light on the actual business model of professional football clubs that, in our analysis, does not appear consistent with the long-held hypothesis of winning maximization. The main limitation of this study lies in the fact that our indicators do not fully capture all relevant dimensions of the intellectual capital （IC） construct.
文摘Surgical innovation and pioneering are important for improving patient outcome, but can be associated with learning curves. Although learning curves in surgery are a recognized problem, the impact of surgical learning curves is increasing, due to increasing complexity of innovative surgical procedures, the rapid rate at which new interventions are implemented and a decrease in relative effectiveness of new interventions compared to old interventions. For minimally invasive esophagectomy(MIE), there is now robust evidence that implementation can lead to significant learning associated morbidity(morbidity during a learning curve, that could have been avoided if patients were operated by surgeons that have completed the learning curve). This article provides an overview of the evidence of the impact of learning curves after implementation of MIE. In addition, caveats for implementation and available evidence regarding factors that are important for safe implementation and safe pioneering of MIE are discussed.
基金Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China(31272058)Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education(20100182120021)
文摘[Objective] This study aimed to investigate the acaricidal lffect of scopo- letin, and provide the biochemical evidences of scopoletin influencus Ca2＋-ATPase activity and gene expressions in the Carmine Spider Mite, Tetranych＇us cinnabarinus. in increased protein contents; kinetic analysis showed that the catalytic capability of Ca2＋-ATPase was significantly reduced by scopoletin. [Conclusion] Scopoletin exhibits a significant inhibitory effect on Ca2＋-ATPase, and its acaricidal effect against T. cinnabarinus might be due to the direct inhibition of Ca2＋-ATPase.
文摘This study seeks to examine the influence of board skill, multiple directorships （BSHIP）, and tenure of independent directors on accounting conservatism, as measured by asymmetric timeliness and accrual-based conservatism （CONACCR）. Fixed-effect regression models were constructed on a sample of 2016 firm-year observations for asymmetric timeliness model and 2033 firm-year observations for CONACCR model, which covered from 2001 to 2007. The findings show that the degree of financial expertise on the board is positively associated with the recognition of bad news which is relative to good news into earnings. BSHIP appears to have no effect on conservatism. Independent directors who have longer tenure in the board of the firms are slower in recognizing bad news which is relative to good news into earnings. The study provides empirical evidence on the effectiveness of the board of directors, which will be an interest to the practitioner or regulators in reviewing the corporate governance regulations.
文摘The impact of social capital on economic development has been broadly studied by scholars. However, research in the Chinese context is relatively rare. Drawing upon data from the China General Social Survey, our results suggest that the enhancing effect of social capital on total factor productivity is very limited in the case of China. The network dimension of social capital is significant only in pooled OLS estimations, and trust as well as the participation dimension of social capital exert no impact across all estimations. Our interpretation is that this is partly due to the fact that trust, values and norms formed in civil society are inherently difficult to transmit to the market sector. Besides, the impact of social capital on economic performance is undermined when physical capital plays a significant role in production. We therefore propose that the effect of social capital on economic performance is contingent on localized social and economic conditions.
