Research on the body surface resistance imbalance degree at yuan-source points of three yin meridians of foot in the patients with primary dysmenorrhea

Objective:To explore whether or not the changes in body surface resistance at yuan-source points of three yin meridians of foot can specifically responds the onset of primary dysmenorrhea(PD) in females of menstrual period and the before and after,so as to provide the evidence for acupoint selection in clinic.Methods:A total of 90 cases of PD were recruited in a PD group and 90 healthy female undergraduates were recruited in a normal group.The yuan-source of points of three yin meridians of foot were selected,i.e.Taibai(太白SP3),Taichong(太冲LR3) and Taixi(太溪KI3).The acupoints for control were Xuehai(血海SP10),the non-special acupoint,Xuanzhong(悬钟GB39),the acupoint not on the relevant meridian,as well as a non-meridian point.Successively,before menstruation,on Day 1 during menstruation and on Day 3 after menstruation,the body surface resistance at the above-mentioned test sites was detected in the participants of two groups each day.The resistance imbalance degree(RID) of the bilateral acupoints was taken as the outcome indicator.The observation lasted one menstrual cycle.Results:(1) Intra-group comparison:at LR3,the RID was lower on Day 1 during menstruation than that before menstruation significantly in the normal group(P ≤0.05).There was no significant change in RID at the same time points,but RID on Day 3 after menstruation was lower significantly than that before menstruation in the PD group(P ≤0.05).At SP3,KI3,SP10,GB39 and sham acupoint,there were no significant differences in RID among different time points within the same group(all P> 0.05).(2) Intergroup comparison:there were no significant differences in RID among different time points at the same point.(all P> 0.05).Conclusion:RID at yuan-source points of three yin meridians of foot cannot specifically respond to PD.However,at LR3,before and after menstruation,RID changes are different between PD patients and healthy female undergraduates,which needs a further study in the future.

Fuzzy Firefly Based Intelligent Algorithm for Load Balancing inMobile Cloud Computing

This paper presents a novel fuzzy firefly-based intelligent algorithm for load balancing in mobile cloud computing while reducing makespan.The proposed technique implicitly acts intelligently by using inherent traits of fuzzy and firefly.It automatically adjusts its behavior or converges depending on the information gathered during the search process and objective function.It works for 3-tier architecture,including cloudlet and public cloud.As cloudlets have limited resources,fuzzy logic is used for cloudlet selection using capacity and waiting time as input.Fuzzy provides human-like decisions without using any mathematical model.Firefly is a powerful meta-heuristic optimization technique to balance diversification and solution speed.It balances the load on cloud and cloudlet while minimizing makespan and execution time.However,it may trap in local optimum;levy flight can handle it.Hybridization of fuzzy fireflywith levy flight is a novel technique that provides reduced makespan,execution time,and Degree of imbalance while balancing the load.Simulation has been carried out on the Cloud Analyst platform with National Aeronautics and Space Administration(NASA)and Clarknet datasets.Results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms Ant Colony Optimization Queue Decision Maker(ACOQDM),Distributed Scheduling Optimization Algorithm(DSOA),andUtility-based Firefly Algorithm(UFA)when compared in terms of makespan,Degree of imbalance,and Figure of Merit.

Re-estimation of China's Degree of Trade Dependence and External Imbalance: Value-added Statistics in the Global Production Chain

The distortion of GDP and foreign trade data has exaggerated China＇s foreign trade dependence degree and external imbalance degree. The distortion of GDP is mainly caused by the difference between the exchange rate method and purchasing power parity （PPP） estimation. The distortion of trade data includes double counting of customs statistics as well as the discrepancy between the international trade flows of goods and of capital caused by the ownership issue. The re-estimation of China＇s trade dependence degree and external imbalance degree reveals that according to official statistics, in 2007 the dependence degree of China＇s foreign trade decreased to 31.59 percent from 68.02 percent and its imbalance degree decreased to 2.11 percent from 10.13 percent. Therefore, it is utterly groundless to accuse China of ＂manipulating the exchange rate.＂