An Ecological Model for Quantitative Risk Assessment for Schistosomiasis: The Case of a Patchy Environment in the Coastal Tropical Area of Northeastern Brazil

We developed a stochastic model for quantitative risk assessment for the Schistosoma mansoni (SM) parasite, which causes an endemic disease of public concern. The model provides answers in a useful format for public health decisions, uses data and expert opinion, and can be applied to any landscape where the snail Biomphalaria glabrata is the main intermediate host (South and Central America, the Caribbean, and Africa). It incorporates several realistic and case‐specific features: stage‐structured parasite populations, periodic praziquantel (PZQ) drug treatment for humans, density dependence, extreme events (prolonged rainfall), site‐specific sanitation quality, environmental stochasticity, monthly rainfall variation, uncertainty in parameters, and spatial dynamics. We parameterize the model through a real‐world application in the district of Porto de Galinhas (PG), one of the main touristic destinations in Brazil, where previous studies identified four parasite populations within the metapopulation. The results provide a good approximation of the dynamics of the system and are in agreement with our field observations, i.e., the lack of basic infrastructure (sanitation level and health programs) makes PG a suitable habitat for the persistence and growth of a parasite metapopulation. We quantify the risk of SM metapopulation explosion and quasi‐extinction and the time to metapopulation explosion and quasi‐extinction. We evaluate the sensitivity of the results under varying scenarios of future periodic PZQ treatment (based on the Brazilian Ministry of Health's plan) and sanitation quality. We conclude that the plan might be useful to slow SM metapopulation growth but not to control it. Additional investments in better sanitation are necessary.     

基于学分绩点与综合素质测评的换算模型建立

学生综合素质测评体系的完善对有效实施大学生综合素质测评工作以及指导大学生健康发展有重要意义,其中,学生综合素质测评体系的关键在于学分绩点与综合素质测评的换算模型的转化。通过分析高校现行学分绩点测评公式,发现其存在的主要缺陷是转化公式不满足统计学原理,并指出学分绩点测评的换算公式应建立在对特定学生群体特征参数群数值分析的基础上。以西南石油大学某专业学生某学年的成绩分布数据进行验证,采取统计原理、常数变异法和不动点原理进行建模,利用求导方法对学分绩点测评中的特征参数群进行层次划分,然后对每段划分积分,通过归一化来确定变异项,得出新的换算模型。结果表明新模型能更好地反映学生的学习成绩在综合素质测评中的地位。     

基于SAO语义分析的潜在技术合作伙伴识别

将SAO语义结构信息引入技术伙伴识别选择过程中，构建基于SAO语义分析的技术合作伙伴识别体系，通过对企业进行技术愿景分析、企业知识库分析确定技术合作网络，对网络内企业重点子技术领域进行相似度分析，从而识别企业潜在的技术合作伙伴，并制定针对性的合作方案。以染敏太阳能电池为案例开展实证研究，验证了该方法体系的可行性。     

新媒介背景的儿童类纸质媒体发展取向

数字媒介技术的革新加剧了“图像革命”，造成了人的思考能力的滑坡．这一影响加之于儿童则更加明显。儿童作为特殊且脆弱的社会群体，极易陷入新媒介所搅动的文化漩涡中，传统阅读这一儿童基础性认知技能遭遇到严峻考验。儿童类纸质媒体应充分发挥独有优势，与儿童类数字媒体展开错位竞争。从儿童文化内容的创作生产、儿童文化产品的销售渠道、儿童文化消费的最终实现三个层面完成自身的发展与跨越。     

Evaluation of Inhaled Versus Deposited Dose Using the Exponential Dose‐Response Model for Inhalational Anthrax in Nonhuman Primate,Rabbit, and Guinea Pig

The application of the exponential model is extended by the inclusion of new nonhuman primate (NHP), rabbit, and guinea pig dose‐lethality data for inhalation anthrax. Because deposition is a critical step in the initiation of inhalation anthrax, inhaled doses may not provide the most accurate cross‐species comparison. For this reason, species‐specific deposition factors were derived to translate inhaled dose to deposited dose. Four NHP, three rabbit, and two guinea pig data sets were utilized. Results from species‐specific pooling analysis suggested all four NHP data sets could be pooled into a single NHP data set, which was also true for the rabbit and guinea pig data sets. The three species‐specific pooled data sets could not be combined into a single generic mammalian data set. For inhaled dose, NHPs were the most sensitive (relative lowest LD₅₀) species and rabbits the least. Improved inhaled LD₅₀s proposed for use in risk assessment are 50,600, 102,600, and 70,800 inhaled spores for NHP, rabbit, and guinea pig, respectively. Lung deposition factors were estimated for each species using published deposition data from Bacillus spore exposures, particle deposition studies, and computer modeling. Deposition was estimated at 22%, 9%, and 30% of the inhaled dose for NHP, rabbit, and guinea pig, respectively. When the inhaled dose was adjusted to reflect deposited dose, the rabbit animal model appears the most sensitive with the guinea pig the least sensitive species.     

Comic revisions? Motherhood and women’s comedy in contemporary Germany

Maternal stereotypes and the realities of mothering are prominent themes in Anke Engelke’s Ladykracher and Martina Hill’s Knallerfrauen, two of the most popular sketch shows in twenty-first-century Germany. This article relates their success to social anxieties about motherhood, which Engelke and Hill illuminate through the theme of their sketches as well as through their very use of comedy to do so. I begin by using close-readings of Ladykracher and Knallerfrauen to illuminate the political potential of the sketch form to challenge maternal myths and articulate taboo feelings such as maternal ambivalence. I then consider the innovation of these maternal sketches in view of traditional theories of comedy, which paradoxically draw their imagery from the realm of the maternal even though they discount real women and mothers as comic agents. I argue that the maternal sketches of Engelke and Hill are thus doubly subversive, challenging maternal taboos as well as the discursive and generic norms they sustain.     

A note on “Coordinating a supply chain for deteriorating items with a revenue sharing and cooperative investment contract”

In this short note, we first improve the proof in Zhang et al. [1] to show the strict concavity of the unit time total profit of the whole supply chain with respect to preservation technology investment without approximation. We then generalize the model of Zhang et al. [1] to a broader class of market demand functions. Additionally, theoretical results are provided to illustrate the features of the proposed model.     

Then press enter: digital payment technology and the history of telephone interface

The internet and other digital networks in the U.S. (and beyond) remain essentially an upgrade of the national telephone network built by AT&T over the first half of the twentieth century, and digital payment remains tethered to telephony at the level of infrastructure. Telephone history also continues to inform digital payment at the level of interface. Debit card readers feature a keypad nearly identical to those introduced (also by AT&T) to the dialling public a half-century ago on touch-tone telephones. In this essay I highlight the development of the touch-tone keypad as a transformative payment technology. There have been three great leaps forward in the history of telephone interface: the dial, the keypad and the touch screen. Each corresponds to a period of technological transformation in the telephone industry and society more broadly: the rotary dial and automation, touch-tone keypads and digitization, and touch screens and computerization. The successful careers of the dial and the keypad, especially when read in tandem, suggest that touch screens will alter the everyday economics of retail payment even more radically than its predecessors. I also describe a broader trajectory of digital naturalization, whereby telephone numbers have proliferated into a personal identification number, passwords and a plethora of personalized information. Payments increasingly circulate today as subsets of personal information within the vast sea of big data. Payment apps are demonstrating a capacity to reorganize retail transactions on a scale as vast as any technology since the cash register. The history of retail payment finds the point of sale heading from the till into shoppers’ pockets. As a result, consumers are increasingly shouldering the costs of purchasing, maintaining, upgrading and securing the technology used for everyday transactions.     

桌面云技术在高校计算机类实验室建设中的应用

计算机软硬件技术更新换代速度越来越快.各学校计算机实验室拥有大量计算机，每年需要不少实验运行经费进行软硬件升级换代，因此应构建全新的实验室建设方案，降低实验室建设及维护成本，减轻教师工作强度，提高实验教学效果.通过桌面云技术把各种教学资源放到云平台上，师生用多种终端设备通过网络访问云端资源，可有效改善教学的时空环境，解决了传统实验室计算机更新换代快、实验环境扩展性差、维护管理复杂等问题.     

项目管理中的企业文化建设研究

随着项目管理机制在企业经营中应用范围的逐步扩展、深度的逐渐增强,项目管理中企业文化建设的意义日益凸显。然而,由于中国项目管理起步较晚,企业文化对于项目管理的促进作用还没有得到有效发挥,项目管理中的企业文化建设还存在着一些问题,如难以形成共同价值体系、制度贯彻不彻底、缺乏考核体系等。为了保证项目管理中企业文化建设进程的顺利推进,需要在项目管理中企业文化建设的实施和控制活动中求同存异、整合员工价值观,做到刚性管理与柔性管理相结合;同时,要建立人才管理与培训机制以及良好的沟通渠道,不断提高创新能力,增强团队活力。