Showing papers by "The Chinese University of Hong Kong published in 2005"
27 Oct 2005
TL;DR: A public database of common variation in the human genome: more than one million single nucleotide polymorphisms for which accurate and complete genotypes have been obtained in 269 DNA samples from four populations, including ten 500-kilobase regions in which essentially all information about common DNA variation has been extracted.
Abstract: Inherited genetic variation has a critical but as yet largely uncharacterized role in human disease. Here we report a public database of common variation in the human genome: more than one million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for which accurate and complete genotypes have been obtained in 269 DNA samples from four populations, including ten 500-kilobase regions in which essentially all information about common DNA variation has been extracted. These data document the generality of recombination hotspots, a block-like structure of linkage disequilibrium and low haplotype diversity, leading to substantial correlations of SNPs with many of their neighbours. We show how the HapMap resource can guide the design and analysis of genetic association studies, shed light on structural variation and recombination, and identify loci that may have been subject to natural selection during human evolution.
5,479 citations
TL;DR: Li et al. as mentioned in this paper provided empirical evidence on the incentive role of personnel control in post-reform China by employing the turnover data of top provincial leaders in China between 1979 and 1995.
2,249 citations
17 Oct 2005
TL;DR: This paper proposes a novel subspace learning algorithm called neighborhood preserving embedding (NPE), which aims at preserving the local neighborhood structure on the data manifold and is less sensitive to outliers than principal component analysis (PCA).
Abstract: Recently there has been a lot of interest in geometrically motivated approaches to data analysis in high dimensional spaces. We consider the case where data is drawn from sampling a probability distribution that has support on or near a submanifold of Euclidean space. In this paper, we propose a novel subspace learning algorithm called neighborhood preserving embedding (NPE). Different from principal component analysis (PCA) which aims at preserving the global Euclidean structure, NPE aims at preserving the local neighborhood structure on the data manifold. Therefore, NPE is less sensitive to outliers than PCA. Also, comparing to the recently proposed manifold learning algorithms such as Isomap and locally linear embedding, NPE is defined everywhere, rather than only on the training data points. Furthermore, NPE may be conducted in the original space or in the reproducing kernel Hilbert space into which data points are mapped. This gives rise to kernel NPE. Several experiments on face database demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithm
1,555 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine whether corporate governance mechanisms, especially the market for corporate control, affect the profitability of firm acquisitions and find that acquirers with more anti-takeover provisions experience significantly lower announcement-period stock returns than other acquirers.
Abstract: We examine whether corporate governance mechanisms, especially the market for corporate control, affect the profitability of firm acquisitions. We find that acquirers with more anti-takeover provisions experience significantly lower announcement-period stock returns than other acquirers. We also find that acquiring firms operating in more competitive industries or separating the positions of CEO and chairman of the board experience higher abnormal announcement returns. Our results support the hypothesis that managers protected by more anti-takeover provisions face weaker discipline from the market for corporate control and thus, are more likely to indulge in empire-building acquisitions that destroy shareholder value. They provide a partial explanation for why anti-takeover provision indices of Gompers, Ishii and Metrick and others are negatively correlated with shareholder value.
1,315 citations
13 Mar 2005
TL;DR: This paper presents DONet, a data-driven overlay network for live media streaming, and presents an efficient member and partnership management algorithm, together with an intelligent scheduling algorithm that achieves real-time and continuous distribution of streaming contents.
Abstract: This paper presents DONet, a data-driven overlay network for live media streaming. The core operations in DONet are very simple: every node periodically exchanges data availability information with a set of partners, and retrieves unavailable data from one or more partners, or supplies available data to partners. We emphasize three salient features of this data-driven design: 1) easy to implement, as it does not have to construct and maintain a complex global structure; 2) efficient, as data forwarding is dynamically determined according to data availability while not restricted by specific directions; and 3) robust and resilient, as the partnerships enable adaptive and quick switching among multi-suppliers. We show through analysis that DONet is scalable with bounded delay. We also address a set of practical challenges for realizing DONet, and propose an efficient member and partnership management algorithm, together with an intelligent scheduling algorithm that achieves real-time and continuous distribution of streaming contents. We have extensively evaluated the performance of DONet over the PlanetLab. Our experiments, involving almost all the active PlanetLab nodes, demonstrate that DONet achieves quite good streaming quality even under formidable network conditions. Moreover, its control overhead and transmission delay are both kept at low levels. An Internet-based DONet implementation, called CoolStreaming v.0.9, was released on May 30, 2004, which has attracted over 30000 distinct users with more than 4000 simultaneously being online at some peak times. We discuss the key issues toward designing CoolStreaming in this paper, and present several interesting observations from these large-scale tests; in particular, the larger the overlay size, the better the streaming quality it can deliver.
1,310 citations
TL;DR: Although numerous clinical trials have demonstrated that certain Danshen products in China are effective and safe for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, most of these lack sufficient quality and large randomized clinical trials and further scientific research are necessary to ensure the safety, effectiveness, and better understanding of its action.
Abstract: Danshen, the dried root of Salvia miltiorrhiza, has been widely used in China and, to a lesser extent, in Japan, the United States, and other European countries for the treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. In China, the specific clinical use is angina pectoris, hyperlipidemia, and acute ischemic stroke. The current review covers its traditional uses, chemical constituents, pharmacological activities, pharmacokinetics, clinical applications, and potential herb-drug interactions based on information obtained in both the English and Chinese literature. Although numerous clinical trials have demonstrated that certain Danshen products in China are effective and safe for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, most of these lack sufficient quality. Therefore, large randomized clinical trials and further scientific research to determine its mechanism of actions will be necessary to ensure the safety, effectiveness, and better understanding of its action.
1,171 citations
TL;DR: A backstepping based control design for a class of nonlinear systems in strict-feedback form with arbitrary uncertainty is developed and is able to eliminate the problem of "explosion of complexity" inherent in the existing method.
Abstract: The dynamic surface control (DSC) technique was developed recently by Swaroop et al. This technique simplified the backstepping design for the control of nonlinear systems in strict-feedback form by overcoming the problem of "explosion of complexity." It was later extended to adaptive backstepping design for nonlinear systems with linearly parameterized uncertainty. In this paper, by incorporating this design technique into a neural network based adaptive control design framework, we have developed a backstepping based control design for a class of nonlinear systems in strict-feedback form with arbitrary uncertainty. Our development is able to eliminate the problem of "explosion of complexity" inherent in the existing method. In addition, a stability analysis is given which shows that our control law can guarantee the uniformly ultimate boundedness of the solution of the closed-loop system, and make the tracking error arbitrarily small.
1,079 citations
TL;DR: This scheme can remove salt-and-pepper-noise with a noise level as high as 90% and show a significant improvement compared to those restored by using just nonlinear filters or regularization methods only.
Abstract: This paper proposes a two-phase scheme for removing salt-and-pepper impulse noise. In the first phase, an adaptive median filter is used to identify pixels which are likely to be contaminated by noise (noise candidates). In the second phase, the image is restored using a specialized regularization method that applies only to those selected noise candidates. In terms of edge preservation and noise suppression, our restored images show a significant improvement compared to those restored by using just nonlinear filters or regularization methods only. Our scheme can remove salt-and-pepper-noise with a noise level as high as 90%.
1,078 citations
TL;DR: In order to evaluate the efficacy of convalescent plasma therapy in the treatment of patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), 80 SARS patients were given convalescence plasma at Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong between 20 March and 26 May 2003.
Abstract: In order to evaluate the efficacy of convalescent plasma therapy in the treatment of patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), 80 SARS patients were given convalescent plasma at Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong, between 20 March and 26 May 2003. Good outcome was defined as discharge by day 22 following the onset of SARS symptoms. Poor outcome was defined as death or hospitalization beyond 22 days. A higher day-22 discharge rate was observed among patients who were given convalescent plasma before day 14 of illness (58.3% vs 15.6%; P<0.001) and among those who were PCR positive and seronegative for coronavirus at the time of plasma infusion (66.7% vs 20%; P=0.001).
834 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined whether external independent auditors could be employed as monitors and as bonding mechanisms to alleviate the agency conflict in emerging markets and found that firms are more likely to employ Big Five auditors when they are more subject to the agency problem imbedded in their ultimate ownership structure.
Abstract: In emerging markets, the concentration of corporate ownership has created agency conflicts between controlling owners and minority shareholders. Conventional corporate control mechanisms such as boards of directors and takeovers are typically weak in containing the agency problem. This study examines whether external independent auditors could be employed as monitors and as bonding mechanisms to alleviate the agency conflict. Using a broad sample of firms from eight East Asian economies, we document that firms are more likely to employ Big Five auditors when they are more subject to the agency problem imbedded in their ultimate ownership structure. One possible reason that this documented relation between auditor choice and the agency problem is more evident than the inconsistent results using U.S. and U.K. data is that alternative governance mechanisms are limited in East Asia. In addition, among East Asian auditees subject to the agency problem, Big Five auditors charge a higher fee and set a lower audit modification threshold while non-Big Five auditors do not. Taken together, the evidence suggests that Big Five auditors in emerging markets do have a corporate governance role.
780 citations
TL;DR: Results from DMPO spin-trapping electron spin resonance measurements confirm the formation of hydroxyl radicals, which is the origin of the considerable bactericidal activity under visible light irradiation.
Abstract: Sulfur-doped titanium dioxide exhibits a strong visible-light-induced antibacterial effect. The new photocatalyst can effectively kill Micrococcus lylae, a common Gram-positive bacterium. The relationship between sulfur concentration and the bactericidal activity of S-doped TiO2 was investigated. Results from DMPO spin-trapping electron spin resonance measurements confirm the formation of hydroxyl radicals, which is the origin of the considerable bactericidal activity under visible light irradiation.
27 Nov 2005
TL;DR: The utility of discords with objective experiments on domains as diverse as Space Shuttle telemetry monitoring, medicine, surveillance, and industry, and the effectiveness of the discord discovery algorithm with more than one million experiments, on 82 different datasets from diverse domains are demonstrated.
Abstract: In this work, we introduce the new problem of finding time series discords. Time series discords are subsequences of a longer time series that are maximally different to all the rest of the time series subsequences. They thus capture the sense of the most unusual subsequence within a time series. Time series discords have many uses for data mining, including improving the quality of clustering, data cleaning, summarization, and anomaly detection. Discords are particularly attractive as anomaly detectors because they only require one intuitive parameter (the length of the subsequence) unlike most anomaly detection algorithms that typically require many parameters. We evaluate our work with a comprehensive set of experiments. In particular, we demonstrate the utility of discords with objective experiments on domains as diverse as Space Shuttle telemetry monitoring, medicine, surveillance, and industry, and we demonstrate the effectiveness of our discord discovery algorithm with more than one million experiments, on 82 different datasets from diverse domains.
TL;DR: Non-polypoidal (flat or depressed) lesions and colorectal neoplasms arising without preceding adenoma (de novo cancers) seem to be more common in Asian than in other populations.
Abstract: Many Asian countries, including China, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, have experienced an increase of two to four times in the incidence of colorectal cancer during the past few decades. The rising trend in incidence and mortality from colorectal cancer is more striking in affluent than in poorer societies and differs substantially among ethnic groups. Although changes in dietary habits and lifestyle are believed to be the reasons underlying the increase, the interaction between these factors and genetic characteristics of the Asian populations might also have a pivotal role. Non-polypoidal (flat or depressed) lesions and colorectal neoplasms arising without preceding adenoma (de novo cancers) seem to be more common in Asian than in other populations. The absence of polypoid growth preceding malignancy has posed difficulties in screening for early colorectal cancer by radiological imaging or even endoscopic techniques. Although epidemiological data are scanty, most Asian populations are not aware of the growing problem of colorectal cancer. More work is needed to elucidate the magnitude of the problem in Asia.
TL;DR: The authors investigated the effects of intragroup and cross-subgroup communications in an experimental field study on demographic faultlines and found that faultlines explained more variance in perceptions of team learning, psychological safety, satisfaction, and expected performance than single-attribute heterogeneity indexes.
Abstract: We investigated the effects of intragroup and cross-subgroup communications in an experimental field study on demographic faultlines. The results indicated that faultlines explained more variance in perceptions of team learning, psychological safety, satisfaction, and expected performance than single-attribute heterogeneity indexes. In addition, cross-subgroup work communications were effective for groups with weak faultlines but not for groups with strong faultlines. Overall, this study extends the original faultline model, documents the utility of the concept of faultlines, and identifies some of their effects on work group outcomes.
TL;DR: Intrathoracic impedance is inversely correlated with pulmonary capillary wedge pressure and fluid balance and decreased before the onset of patient symptoms and before hospital admission for fluid overload.
Abstract: Background— Patients with heart failure are frequently hospitalized for fluid overload. A reliable method for chronic monitoring of fluid status is therefore desirable. We evaluated an implantable system capable of measuring intrathoracic impedance to identify potential fluid overload before heart failure hospitalization and to determine the correlation between intrathoracic impedance and standard measures of fluid status during hospitalization. Methods and Results— Thirty-three patients with NYHA class III and IV heart failure were implanted with a special pacemaker in the left pectoral region and a defibrillation lead in the right ventricle. Intrathoracic impedance was regularly measured and recorded between the lead and the pacemaker case. During hospitalizations, pulmonary capillary wedge pressure and fluid status were monitored. Ten patients were hospitalized for fluid overload 25 times over 20.7±8.4 months. Intrathoracic impedance decreased before each admission by an average of 12.3±5.3% (P<0.001) ...
TL;DR: It is suggested that assessing volumetric changes after an intervention in patients with heart failure provides information predictive of natural history outcomes, and a reduction in LVESV of 10% signifies clinically relevant reverse remodeling, which is a strong predictor of lower long-term mortality and heart failure events.
Abstract: Background— In patients with severe heart failure and dilated cardiomyopathy, cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) improves left ventricular (LV) systolic function associated with LV reverse remodeling and favorable 1-year survival. However, it is unknown whether LV reverse remodeling translates into a better long-term prognosis and what extent of reverse remodeling is clinically relevant, which were investigated in this study. Methods and Results— Patients (n=141) with advanced heart failure (mean±SD age, 64±11 years; 73% men) who received CRT were followed up for a mean (±SD) of 695±491 days. The extent of reduction in LV end-systolic volume (LVESV) at 3 to 6 months relative to baseline was examined for its predictive value on long-term clinical outcome. The cutoff value for LV reverse remodeling in predicting mortality was derived from the receiver operating characteristic curve. Then the relation between potential predictors of mortality and heart failure hospitalizations were compared by Kaplan-Me...
TL;DR: Peritonitis remains a leading complication of peritoneal dialysis, and sometimes is associated with death of the patient, and the PD community continues to focus attention on prevention and treatment of PD-related infections.
Abstract: Peritonitis remains a leading complication of peritoneal dialysis (PD). It contributes to technique failure and hospitalization, and sometimes is associated with death of the patient. Severe and prolonged peritonitis can lead to peritoneal membrane failure. Therefore, the PD community continues to focus attention on prevention and treatment of PD-related infections.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors developed a reliable and valid measuring scale for customer relationship management (CRM) to measure the four dimensions of CRM: key customer focus, CRM organization, knowledge management and technology-based CRM.
Abstract: Purpose – To develop a reliable and valid measuring scale for customer relationship management (CRM).Design/methodology/approach – A series of studies were conducted for the development and validation of multiple measures for the dimensions of CRM. Once the dimensions of CRM were identified, data from study 1 (n=150 business executives attending a part‐time MBA program) were used to select items based on factor analysis. Then, confirmatory factor analyses was used on data obtained from a mail survey of Hong Kong financial firms in study 2 (n=215) to examine factor structure, as well as to provide evidence of dimensionality, scale reliability and validity. Finally, in study 3, data from 276 business executives attending a seminar on CRM were used to test the scale generalizability of CRM measures in various industries.Findings – A reliable and valid scale was developed to measure the four dimensions of CRM: key customer focus, CRM organization, knowledge management and technology‐based CRM.Research limitat...
01 Jul 2005
TL;DR: This paper introduces a novel approach to image completion in which the user manually specifies important missing structure information by extending a few curves or line segments from the known to the unknown regions by adopting the Belief Propagation algorithm to find the optimal patches.
Abstract: In this paper, we introduce a novel approach to image completion, which we call structure propagation. In our system, the user manually specifies important missing structure information by extending a few curves or line segments from the known to the unknown regions. Our approach synthesizes image patches along these user-specified curves in the unknown region using patches selected around the curves in the known region. Structure propagation is formulated as a global optimization problem by enforcing structure and consistency constraints. If only a single curve is specified, structure propagation is solved using Dynamic Programming. When multiple intersecting curves are specified, we adopt the Belief Propagation algorithm to find the optimal patches. After completing structure propagation, we fill in the remaining unknown regions using patch-based texture synthesis. We show that our approach works well on a number of examples that are challenging to state-of-the-art techniques.
TL;DR: Among patients with a history of aspirin-induced ulcer bleeding whose ulcers had healed before they received the study treatment, aspirin plus esomeprazole was superior to clopidogrel in the prevention of recurrent ulcers bleeding.
Abstract: background Concurrent therapy with a proton-pump inhibitor is a standard treatment for patients receiving aspirin who are at risk for ulcer. Current U.S. guidelines also recommend clopidrogel for patients who have major gastrointestinal intolerance of aspirin. We compared clopidogrel with aspirin plus esomeprazole for the prevention of recurrent bleeding from ulcers in high-risk patients. methods We studied patients who took aspirin to prevent vascular diseases and who presented with ulcer bleeding. After the ulcers had healed, we randomly assigned patients who were negative for Helicobacter pylori to receive either 75 mg of clopidogrel daily plus esomeprazole placebo twice daily or 80 mg of aspirin daily plus 20 mg of esomeprazole twice daily for 12 months. The end point was recurrent ulcer bleeding. results We enrolled 320 patients (161 patients assigned to receive clopidogrel and 159 to receive aspirin plus esomeprazole). Recurrent ulcer bleeding occurred in 13 patients receiving clopidogrel and 1 receiving aspirin plus esomeprazole. The cumulative incidence of recurrent bleeding during the 12-month period was 8.6 percent (95 percent confidence interval, 4.1 to 13.1 percent) among patients who received clopidogrel and 0.7 percent (95 percent confidence interval, 0 to 2.0 percent) among those who received aspirin plus esomeprazole (difference, 7.9 percentage points; 95 percent confidence interval for the difference, 3.4 to 12.4; P=0.001). conclusions Among patients with a history of aspirin-induced ulcer bleeding whose ulcers had healed before they received the study treatment, aspirin plus esomeprazole was superior to clopidogrel in the prevention of recurrent ulcer bleeding. Our finding does not support the current recommendation that patients with major gastrointestinal intolerance of aspirin be given clopidogrel.
TL;DR: Although patients on PIAF had a higher overall response rate and better survival than patients on doxorubicin, the differences were not statistically significant and the prognosis of patients with unresectable HCC remains poor.
Abstract: Background: Single-agent doxorubicin has been widely used to treat unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but the response rate is low (<20%) and there is no convincing evidence for improved survival. Cisplatin, interferon, doxorubicin, and fluorouracil (PIAF) used in combination, by contrast, has shown promise in a phase II study. We compared doxorubicin to PIAF in patients with unresectable HCC in a phase III trial. Methods: Patients with histologically confirmed unresectable HCC were randomly assigned to receive either doxorubicin or PIAF every 3 weeks, for up to six cycles. The primary endpoint was overall survival, and secondary endpoints were response rate and toxicity. Survival differences were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Treatment groups were compared for differences in the incidence of adverse events using chi-square tests. All statistical tests were two-sided. Results: The median survival of the doxorubicin and PIAF groups was 6.83 months (95% confidence |CI] = 4.80 to 9.56) and 8.67 months (95% CI = 6.36 to 12.00), respectively (P = 0.83). The hazard ratio for death from any cause in the PIAF compared with the doxorubicin groups was 0.97 (95% CI = 0.71 to 1.32). Eighty-six of the 94 patients receiving doxorubicin and 91 of the 94 receiving PIAF were assessable for response. The overall response rates in the doxorubicin and PIAF groups were 10.5% (95% CI = 3.9% to 16.9%) and 20.9% (95% CI = 12.5% to 29.2%), respectively. Neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, and hypokalemia were statistically significantly more common in patients treated with PIAF than in patients treated with doxorubicin. Conclusion: Although patients on PIAF had a higher overall response rate and better survival than patients on doxorubicin, the differences were not statistically significant. PIAF was also associated with increased treatment-related toxicity. The prognosis of patients with unresectable HCC remains poor.
TL;DR: This article reviewed three explanations of the origin of the whole number bias and concluded that there does not yet appear to be sufficient evidence to decide among the competing accounts as to the nature of the bias.
Abstract: Many researchers agree that children's difficulty with fraction and rational numbers is associated with their whole number knowledge, but they disagree on the origin of the whole number bias. This article reviews three explanations of the nature of the bias. These accounts diverge on the questions of whether or not early quantitative representation originates from a numerical-specific cognitive mechanism, and whether or not the early quantitative representation privileges discrete quantity. The review suggests that there does not yet appear to be sufficient evidence to decide among the competing accounts as to the nature of the whole number bias. Yet, in the search for the understanding, two important issues have been brought up with regard to learning and teaching fraction and rational numbers. One question is related to how learning about fraction and rational numbers may be organized in such a way to be less strained for taking advantage of the prior knowledge of whole numbers. The second issue is conc...
TL;DR: A review of the empirical studies on the antecedents of online shopping was performed to identify areas that would aid in developing a better understanding of the dynamics of a customer's decision to shop online.
TL;DR: Treatment results for nasopharyngeal carcinoma have substantially improved in the modern era; future trials should be based on updated baseline results.
Abstract: Purpose To analyze the treatment results achievable for nasopharyngeal carcinoma in the modern era to identify the key failures for future improvement and to provide an updated baseline for future trials. Methods and materials The results of 2687 consecutive patients treated at all public oncology centers in Hong Kong during 1996–2000 were retrospectively analyzed. The stage distribution (by American Joint Committee on Cancer and International Union Against Cancer staging system, 1997) was 7% Stage I, 41% Stage II, 25% Stage III, and 28% Stage IVA–B. All patients were irradiated with 6-MV photons and the median total dose was 66 Gy. Only 23% of patients had additional treatment with chemotherapy. Results The 5-year local, nodal, and distant failure-free rates were 85%, 94%, and 81%, respectively; patients with local failure had significantly higher risk of nodal and distant failures. The 5-year progression-free, overall, and cancer-specific survival rates were 63%, 75%, and 80%, respectively. The presenting stage was the most important prognostic factor for all endpoints: with overall survival decreasing from 90% for Stage I to 58% for Stage IVA–B. The results achieved by the 2070 patients treated by radiotherapy alone were almost identical to that of the whole series, the distant failure-free rate among patients with locoregional control was 89% for Stage I–II and 75% for Stage III–IVB. The 860 patients (32%) staged with magnetic resonance imaging achieved significantly better results than those staged by computed tomography, the overall survival being 93% vs. 83% for Stages I–II, and 72% vs. 63% for Stages III–IVB ( p = 0.001). Conclusions Treatment results for nasopharyngeal carcinoma have substantially improved in the modern era; future trials should be based on updated baseline results. Further reduction of distant failure is important for future breakthrough, particularly for patients with advanced disease.
TL;DR: In this paper, the order of band gap energy of these samples was found to be rod-shaped > spherical > spindle-like samples, as determined by the UV−Vis spectroscopic method.
Abstract: Spherical cerium oxide nanoparticles and microsized rod-shaped and spindle-like CeO2 structures have been synthesized using a polyol method. When the duration of reaction and the concentration of cerium precursor are controlled, CeO2 products of different morphologies can be selectively produced. Results from XRD, XPS, SEM, and FT-IR measurements suggest that the CeO2 nanospheres are formed from the decomposition of the cerium precursor. Further reactions between the as-prepared CeO2 and ethylene glycol yield the rods/spindle-like cerium formate particles. These morphologies are preserved even after calcination. The order of band gap energy of these samples was found to be rod-shaped > spherical > spindle-like samples, as determined by the UV−Vis spectroscopic method. Compared to a nonoriented polycrystalline CeO2, these samples show an increase in band gap energy due to the quantum size effect. The higher catalytic activity on CO conversion in a spindle-like sample can be explained from the extent of Ce(...
TL;DR: Interviews were conducted with mother-child dyads in China, India, Italy, Kenya, the Philippines, and Thailand to examine whether normativeness of physical discipline moderates the link between mothers' use of physical Discipline and children's adjustment.
Abstract: Interviews were conducted with 336 mother-child dyads (children's ages ranged from 6 to 17 years; mothers' ages ranged from 20 to 59 years) in China, India, Italy, Kenya, the Philippines, and Thailand to examine whether normativeness of physical discipline moderates the link between mothers' use of physical discipline and children's adjustment. Multilevel regression analyses revealed that physical discipline was less strongly associated with adverse child outcomes in conditions of greater perceived normativeness, but physical discipline was also associated with more adverse outcomes regardless of its perceived normativeness. Countries with the lowest use of physical discipline showed the strongest association between mothers' use and children's behavior problems, but in all countries higher use of physical discipline was associated with more aggression and anxiety.
TL;DR: It is suggested that male and female, old and young, IT expert and novice, conceptualized the TAM construct in very similar ways, which allowed us to understand TAMs validity in technology acceptance research.
01 Aug 2005
TL;DR: Experiments show that the hallucinated face images are not only very helpful for recognition by humans, but also make the automatic recognition procedure easier, since they emphasize the face difference by adding more high-frequency details.
Abstract: In video surveillance, the faces of interest are often of small size. Image resolution is an important factor affecting face recognition by human and computer. In this paper, we propose a new face hallucination method using eigentransformation. Different from most of the proposed methods based on probabilistic models, this method views hallucination as a transformation between different image styles. We use Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to fit the input face image as a linear combination of the low-resolution face images in the training set. The high-resolution image is rendered by replacing the low-resolution training images with high-resolution ones, while retaining the same combination coefficients. Experiments show that the hallucinated face images are not only very helpful for recognition by humans, but also make the automatic recognition procedure easier, since they emphasize the face difference by adding more high-frequency details.
TL;DR: Several sufficient conditions are derived for the existence, uniqueness, and GRS of equilibria for interval neural networks with time delays by use of a new Lyapunov function and matrix inequality.
Abstract: In this paper, two related problems, global asymptotic stability (GAS) and global robust stability (GRS) of neural networks with time delays, are studied. First, GAS of delayed neural networks is discussed based on Lyapunov method and linear matrix inequality. New criteria are given to ascertain the GAS of delayed neural networks. In the designs and applications of neural networks, it is necessary to consider the deviation effects of bounded perturbations of network parameters. In this case, a delayed neural network must be formulated as a interval neural network model. Several sufficient conditions are derived for the existence, uniqueness, and GRS of equilibria for interval neural networks with time delays by use of a new Lyapunov function and matrix inequality. These results are less restrictive than those given in the earlier references.
TL;DR: The strongest lowering effects of soy protein containing isoflavones on total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triacylglycerol occurred within the short initial period of intervention, whereas improvements in HDL cholesterol were only observed in studies of >12 wk duration.