The functional capacity of healthcare workers with history of severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (SARS) complicated with avascular necrosis--case report

Two years after the SARS outbreak in Hong Kong, 128 healthcare workers continued to present with musculoskeletal complaints and 38 workers were diagnosed with avascular necrosis (AVN) in different joints. 13 healthcare workers were referred to six designated Physiotherapy Departments of the Hospital Authority for a tailor-made standardized Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE) from 2004 to 2005 on a voluntary basis. Job analysis, workers' self-perceived disability and functional capacity, non-material handling tests, and the cardiopulmonary fitness test were performed. Retrospective review of the FCE data showed that there were 17 AVN of hips, 16 AVN of knees, 3 AVN of shoulders. All patients had AVN of lower limb joints. Nearly full ranges of movement (ROM) were observed in the knees involved, but the hip range was decreased for most subjects suffering from hip AVNs. Most workers (n=12) could not complete the cardiopulmonary test due to intolerable joint pain. Six workers' self-perceived physical demands level (PDC) matched with the physical demands level identified by the FCE. 12 healthcare workers attained a sedentary physical demands level and were unable to match with their previous job demands. One staff was classified as light physical demands and managed his original duty. Four workers had returned to work at the time FCE was performed. The tailor-made FCE added information to facilitate the return-to-work planning for the staff. Four more workers returned to work with modified duties one year after the FCE.     

Occupational rehabilitation services provided by a community workers health centre in Hong Kong: a case study

Ergonomics is commonly known as "the scientific study of human work" [14, p. 3] and "the application of scientific information concerning human beings to the design of objects, systems, and environments" (p. 4). The American Occupational Therapy Association defines occupational therapy as "skilled treatment that helps individuals achieve independence in all facets of their lives. It gives people the 'skills for the job of living' necessary for independent and satisfying lives [1]." Both professions share common backgrounds. Occupational therapy has been involved in health care and ergonomics is looking for its place in the health care field.     

Container Scheduling: Complexity and Algorithms

We consider the transport of containers through a fleet of ships. Each ship has a capacity constraint limiting the total number of containers it can carry and each ship visits a given set of ports following a predetermined route. Each container has a release date at its origination port, and a due date at its destination port. A container has a size 1 or size 2; size 1 represents a 1 TEU (20‐foot equivalent unit) and size 2 represents 2 TEUs. The delivery time of a container is defined as the time when the ship that carries the container arrives at its destination port. We consider the problem of minimizing the maximum tardiness over all containers. We consider three scenarios with regard to the routes of the ships, namely, the ships having (i) identical, (ii) nested, and (iii) arbitrary routes. For each scenario, we consider different settings for origination ports, release dates, sizes of containers, and number of ports; we determine the computational complexity of various cases. We also provide a simple heuristic for some cases, with its worst case analysis. Finally, we discuss the relationship of our problems with other scheduling problems that are known to be open.     

低碳背景下制造业商业模式创新策略研究——以卡特彼勒公司为例

低碳经济要求制造企业克服经济增长与环境超载之间的矛盾,但在传统商业模式下往往无法达到"双赢"。本文以战略分析和创新理论为依据,论述了低碳约束下制造业商业模式创新的驱动因素、作用机理以及创新要素,设计了理论框架,在此基础上探讨了低碳背景下商业模式创新的难点,提出了三方面的创新策略,并通过对卡特彼勒的案例分析验证了上述策略。结果表明:制造业可以通过改造价值链以建立逆向供应链、增强服务以及构建低碳技术壁垒的方式实现商业模式创新。研究在一定程度上丰富了相关学术成果,为我国现代制造业顺应低碳经济需求提供了具有可操作性的指导。     

规避通胀风险的结构性理财产品设计与定价

在资产通胀风险日益增加的背景下,如何设计出更加符合市场的结构性理财产品并给予其合理定价是目前亟待解决的问题。运用金融工程组合分解技术构建一种创新型幂式双障碍敲出期权,该期权可以作为银行结构性理财产品的内嵌期权,从而获得一种创新型幂式双障碍理财产品,运用风险中性定价理论将复平面的围道积分应用于Laplace逆变换给出期权定价模型,以中国银行HJB0903v为例,研究中国规避通胀风险的黄金挂钩双障碍理财产品定价的合理性,并分析黄金价格波动对HJB0903v触及障碍的概率和理论价格的影响。研究结果表明,产品发行价格稍高于其理论价值,隐含溢价率为0.81%;波动率的增加使触及障碍的概率增加,使理论价格先小幅增加后大幅降低,最终趋于某一稳定值。     

中国农村人口医疗保障:穷人医疗干预视角的分析

文章从不同地区和阶层角度分析了中国大部分农村人口面临的最大困境是医疗风险大,指出新型农村合作医疗制度设计旨在减少这种风险,但具体制度设计中对穷人的医疗干预效果仍然有很大局限,今后要从健康理念、医疗保险、医疗服务和政府作用角度加以完善。     

重庆市人口分布模型与特征分析

本文先用聚类分析对重庆市的人口进行了分类 ,并对每一类数据进行了分析 ,通过建立模型对重庆市第三次、第四次、第五次人口普查数据揭示的人口分布进行了定量研究。我们的研究表明重庆市的人口基本符合负指数分布 ,城市正处于成长阶段     

Mortality Differentials by Marital Status: An International Comparison

Although the greater longevity of married people as compared with unmarried persons has been demonstrated repeatedly, there have been very few studies of a comparative nature. We use log-linear rate models to analyze marital-status-specific death rates for a large number of developed countries. The results indicate that divorced persons, especially divorced men, have the highest death rates among the unmarried groups of the respective genders; the excess mortality of unmarried persons relative to the married has been generally increasing over the past two to three decades; and divorced and widowed persons in their twenties and thirties have particularly high risks of dying, relative to married persons of the same age. In addition, the analysis suggests that a selection process is operating with regard to single and divorced persons: the smaller the proportion of persons who never marry or who are divorced, the higher the resulting death rates.     

China's demographic dilemmas

The year 2000 marks the end of a tumultuous century in China's population history, which weathered the demographic effects of devastating famines, wars, and epidemics and population growth and change. This paper examines the effect of population policies on the demographic dilemmas of China. In the 1950s, China had seen the fastest demographic transition in history, with a dramatic decline in mortality rates, followed by a decrease in fertility rates. However, in the 1970s, revisions in population control measures, changes in age structure, and fluctuations in age at marriage resulted in lower fertility rates. The struggles encountered by China in regulating fertility are described; these include the different methods of birth control, gender preference, marriage, population aging, and minority populations. Population and development issues within the context of urbanization, employment, education, health care, economy, and environment are also discussed. Future implications of these findings indicate the need for a systematic, effective, and complete environmental clean-up, as well as fertility and population policies.