Narrow Results

In this empirical paper we show that in the months following a crash there is a distinct connection between the fall of stock prices and the increase in the range of interest rates for a sample of bonds. This variable, which is often referred to as the interest rate spread variable, can be considered as a statistical measure for the disparity in lenders' opinions about the future; in other words, it provides an operational definition of the uncertainty faced by economic agents. The observation that there is a strong negative correlation between stock prices and the spread variable relies on the examination of eight major crashes in the United States between 1857 and 1987. That relationship which has remained valid for one and a half century in spite of important changes in the organization of financial markets can be of interest in the perspective of Monte Carlo simulations of stock markets.

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), Japanese–Chinese medicine, and Korean Sasang constitutional medicine have common origins. However, the constitutional medicines of China, Japan, and Korea differ because of the influence of geographical culture, social environment, national practices, and other factors. This paper aimed to compare the constitutional medicines of China, Japan, and Korea in terms of theoretical origin, constitutional classification, constitution and pathogenesis, clinical applications and basic studies that were conducted. The constitutional theories of the three countries are all derived from the Canon of Internal Medicine or Treatise on Febrile and Miscellaneous Diseases of Ancient China. However, the three countries have different constitutional classifications and criteria. Medical sciences in the three countries focus on the clinical applications of constitutional theory. They all agree that different pathogenic laws that guide the treatment of diseases govern different constitutions; thus, patients with different constitutions are treated differently. The three countries also differ in terms of drug formulations and medication. Japanese medicine is prescribed only based on constitution. Korean medicine is based on treatment, in which drugs cannot be mixed. TCM synthesize the treatment model of constitution differentiation, disease differentiation and syndrome differentiation with the treatment thought of treating disease according to three categories of etiologic factors, which reflect the constitution as the characteristic of individual precision treatment. In conclusion, constitutional medicines of China, Japan, and Korea have the same theoretical origin, but differ in constitutional classification, clinical application of constitutional theory on the treatment of diseases, drug formulations and medication.

In the field of robotics, one of the essential tasks for a robot to accomplish its goals is to know its own location. The localization problem is a complex task and, usually, different systems, methods and sensors are needed to achieve it. One of these methods is the iterative closest points (ICP) algorithm. The main problem that ICP presents is its high computational time. Due to this, it is common to filter its input data before calculating the final transformation. In this paper, a comparative study in terms of precision and execution time among the most popular filters used in combination with the ICP is presented. The study indicates that the scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) is the filter that better improves the execution time, while its combination with the RANdom SAmple Consensus (RANSAC) obtains better precision results.

The performance of ten classic algorithms to classify the software bugs for different bug repositories are compared. The algorithms included in the study are Naïve Bayes, Naïve Bayes Multinomial, Discriminative Multinomial Naïve Bayes (DMNB), J48, Support Vector Machine, Radial Basis Function (RBF) Neural Network, Classification using Clustering, Classification using Regression, Adaptive Boosting (AdaBoost) and Bagging. These algorithms are applied on four open source bug repositories namely Android, JBoss-Seam, Mozilla and MySql. The classification is evaluated using 10-fold cross validation technique. The accuracy and F-measure parameters are compared for all of the algorithms. The concept of software bug taxonomy hierarchy is also introduced with eleven standard bug categories (classes). The comparative study also covers the effect of number of categories over performance of classifiers in terms of accuracy and F-measure. The results are produced in tabular and graphical forms.

The development of vision-based human activity recognition and analysis systems has been a matter of great interest to both the research community and practitioners during the last 20 years. Traditional methods that require a human operator watching raw video streams are nowadays deemed as at least ineffective and expensive. New, smart solutions in automatic surveillance and monitoring have emerged, propelled by significant technological advances in the fields of image processing, artificial intelligence, electronics and optics, embedded computing and networking, molding the future of several applications that can benefit from them, like security and healthcare. The main motivation behind it is to exploit the highly informative visual data captured by cameras and perform high-level inference in an automatic, ubiquitous and unobtrusive manner, so as to aid human operators, or even replace them. This survey attempts to comprehensively review the current research and development on vision-based human activity recognition. Synopses from various methodologies are presented in an effort to garner the advantages and shortcomings of the most recent state-of-the-art technologies. Also a first-level self-evaluation of methodologies is also proposed, which incorporates a set of significant features that best describe the most important aspects of each methodology in terms of operation, performance and others and weighted by their importance. The purpose of this study is to serve as a reference for further research and evaluation to raise thoughts and discussions for future improvements of each methodology towards maturity and usefulness.

Gait analysis is one of the highly focused research areas inviting attention of academicians and practitioners. Being a prominent analytical tool to detect the abnormalities and onset of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), abundant literature is published in this area. Though a large number of gait analysis methods (GMSs) for motion analysis are available in the literature, very few studies are available to showcase the comparative analysis and applicability of various techniques. This study seeks to provide useful recapitulation of various gait measurement methods and interrogates the relative prevalence of various GMS based on the applications by various researchers. The paper summarizes the findings of a systematic review on gait measurement methods carried out using the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) methodology. Fifty-three research papers published during 1998–2021 were included for critical review. The categories of gait measure ment systems were further compared based on certain criteria such as portability, cost, and accuracy, and ranked using analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The review helped to encapsulate various aspects of gait analysis, especially, the types of tasks, types of gait parameters (GPs), and the gait measurement systems adopted. The study provides suitable mappings between these factors and offers comparison between the gait measurement systems using a specially devised capability index. It further provides useful guidelines for selecting the gait systems based on the criteria.

Measuring organisational trust gives stakeholders many indicators of their organisations. These indicators are performance, leadership, employees' satisfaction, job satisfaction, and knowledge sharing culture. In addition to that, the highest levels of organisations' trust can critically reduce conflict charges and transaction costs.

This paper is the first stage of a research study that discusses the importance of trust to knowledge sharing. This paper shows to what extent culture influences organisational trust compared with the global trust index. This research adopts a model of trust with five dimensions and they are relating to knowledge sharing in an organisation; concern for employees, openness and honesty, identification, reliability, and competence. The adopted model was used to develop the global trust index. A survey of 26 different items was conducted on 135 profitable organisations in Jordan in different industries. A total of 397 questionnaires were returned in a form eligible for the analysis.

The results show that the overall organisational trust index in Jordan compared with the global index is low and the difference is significant. Furthermore, all trust dimensions in Jordan have lower values than the world's trust dimensions. Locally, the openness and honesty dimension has the highest value, and the competency dimension has the lowest value. Therefore, Jordanian culture significantly affects the trust index in the country and lowers it compared with the global trust index.

User driven innovation (UDI) is a popular term in policy and corporate circles. However, it is not clear exactly what UDI means and how such practices are used across the spectrum of companies and over the innovation life cycle. The present study compares 58 UDI showcases in Finnish companies in order to analyse the diversity of UDI practices and their evolution over time. We identify five main modes of UDI and show how the ways of using UDI develop over time in individual companies. In almost half of the examined cases, the dominant mode of UDI changes at least once, and in some cases, up to three changes in dominant mode are observed. We then proceed to identify six qualitatively different ways in which companies’ orientation to UDI evolves over time. The study has implications for innovation management and policy: It calls for greater attention to UDI diversity and particularly to the management and support of the continuity of UDI efforts.

In spite of the recent extension of our knowledge on technological innovation, little inquiry has been made of the distinctive characteristics between R&D firms and non-R&D firms, as well as between product-innovative firms and process-innovative firms. To this end, the main objective of this empirical study, grounded on a large-scale innovation survey of Korean manufacturing firms, is to contrast these two types of firms. The results were mixed. Some hypotheses were confirmed while others were discordant with expectation. By and large, R&D firms and product-innovative firms seem to share a similar propensity, whereas non-R&D firms and process-innovative firms are alike in character. However, there were some unexpected findings which merit attention and are worthy of in-depth examination. Although the study is subject to limitations in terms of its research design and data gathering, the results render some important policy implications. Furthermore, comparative analyses between different types of innovations need to be addressed more extensively in future research.

The consequences of the Subprime Crisis have shown a serious deficiency in the financing structures of conventional and Islamic banks resulting from frequent resilience. Specifically, the paper argues that large banks that relied primarily on wholesale external funding, such as resources from other banks, money market funds and treasuries of multi-national companies, have been hit hard by the effects of the Crisis. Conversely, banks that relied mainly on deposits from companies or individuals have weathered the Crisis very well because of the interdependent relationships in the banking and foreign exchange markets. Although the two types have suffered the effects of the Crisis, previous comparative studies between the liquidities of conventional and Islamic banks have produced inconclusive results. This brings us to compare their liquidities during a financial stable period (2010–2018) and to provide a more accurate answer using a new original methodology. Based on two populations encompassing all the classical and Islamic banks in the concerned countries, we chose two samples. After a conditional selection of the observations and a filtering process, the sizes were reduced to the value of 63 banks in each sample. Therefore, we have found that Islamic banks are more liquid than their conventional counterparts.

Background: With ageing of the population, there is an increasing likelihood that elderly people will seek employment, with a resultant increase in the incidence of hand injuries, including digital amputations. However, the surgical indication for replantation of an amputated digit in elderly patients is controversial. The purpose of this study was to compare functional outcomes after single-digit replantation of the thumb to long finger in older (≥65 years old) and younger (<65 years old) patients to assess the feasibility of digit replantation in the elderly population.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study was performed in 25 patients (12 elderly and 13 younger) with successful replantation of the thumb, index or long finger at our hospital. All patients were followed up for more than 1 year. Key pinch strength, Semmes–Weinstein (S–W) test, % total active motion (TAM), Purdue Pegboard Test score (hand dexterity) and Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH) score were investigated.

Results: Elderly patients showed significantly worse results for the S–W test and Purdue Pegboard Test score. The % TAM, key-pinch strength and DASH scores were similar in the two groups.

Conclusions: Replantation surgery in elderly patients results in similar postoperative hand function (finger mobility and pinch strength) and activities of daily living to those in younger patients.

Level of Evidence: Level III (Therapeutic)

User driven innovation (UDI) is a popular term in policy and corporate circles. However, it is not clear exactly what UDI means and how such practices are used across the spectrum of companies and over the innovation life cycle. The present study compares 58 UDI showcases in Finnish companies in order to analyse the diversity of UDI practices and their evolution over time. We identify five main modes of UDI and show how the ways of using UDI develop over time in individual companies. In almost half of the examined cases, the dominant mode of UDI changes at least once, and in some cases, up to three changes in dominant mode are observed. We then proceed to identify six qualitatively different ways in which companies’ orientation to UDI evolves over time. The study has implications for innovation management and policy: It calls for greater attention to UDI diversity and particularly to the management and support of the continuity of UDI efforts.

If one compares the old middle school mathematics syllabus to the newly published National Mathematics Standards one can notice numerous changes both to curriculum framework and to mathematics contents. In fact, these new standard-based mathematics textbooks are being used in experimental districts in Mainland China. However, these changes may lead us to ask the following questions: What precisely are the differences between the new and old mathematics textbooks? How do these differences affect the styles of both mathematics teaching and learning?

In order to answer these questions, this paper uses a model developed by the author (Bao, 2002a, 2002b) to evaluate the composite difficulties of new and old eighth grade mathematics textbooks using five factors of difficulty. From the initial findings, we can see some typical characters in the two samples. For example, the new textbooks have advantages in areas such as "Investigation" and "Context" levels. However, the level of difficulty for "Symbolic computation", "Complex reasoning" and "Topic coverage" has been reduced.

Choice of surgical procedure for cervical spondylotic myelopathy was discussed based upon comparative studies. Neurological results, surgical complications and invasiveness of surgery were compared with comparable groups of laminectomy, anterior interbody fusion, subtotal corpectomy and laminoplasty.

Neurological results were better and more durable in the subtotal corpectomy and laminoplasty groups. Incidence of surgical complications and invasiveness were less in the laminoplasty group. We concluded as follows: For a patient with a narrow spinal canal and multisegmental involvement with or without spinal canal stenosis, laminoplasty is the procedure of choice. This principle can be applied for myelopathy secondary to soft disc herniation. For a patient with kyphosis or instability of the cervical spine, anterior spinal surgery is indicated.

The Pearl River Delta region is the frontier of China’s reform and opening up of the two megacities- Guangzhou and Shenzhen, have been faced with limitation of urban development land scale since the beginning of the twenty-first century. In order to tap potential of existing land resources, government in the two cities have promulgated policy documents for guiding urban renewal transformation since 2000. In this paper, it analyzed urban renewal policy documents (including regulations, rules, methods, etc.) of the two cities, compared key provisions related to not only industry instruction but also benefits distribution programs and mechanisms for industrial land renewal projects according to planning processes of specific projects. Based on the above research, it applied planning research method which is a combination of policy analysis and spatial analysis, and revealed function mechanism of policy implementation through industry adjustment and characteristics of projects in industrial land renewal. Finally, it was presented in the same context that the two cities- Guangzhou and Shenzhen had great differences in urban renewal policy system and the impact on specific project. But from the perspective of urban long-term development and spatial justice, they were both in the stage of realizing economic interests balance in urban renewal and had not assessed specific projects in terms of overall space fairness.

This chapter highlights findings from the recent progress of the latest version of the Qingpu Experiment (New Actions of the Qingpu Experiment in the 21st Century) which investigates the impacts of Qingpu mathematics teaching reform on eighth-grade students' cognitive level and learning ability using factor analysis. We conducted different levels of tests for all grade eight students in the Qingpu school district of Shanghai, China. Our study revealed the limitation of Bloom's taxonomy to describe cognitive levels; we propose a four-level taxonomy based on our empirical results. Furthermore, comparison of the cognitive levels of students based on data from 1990 and 2007 indicated a gradual increase in the “analysis” level.” Other details such as differences between male and female, and between urban and rural areas, are also discussed.