Search

The Palace Museum, well known as the Forbidden City, is one of the most splendid and valuable cultural treasures of China and a World Cultural Heritage. During the past 10 years many improvements and changes have been made in the Palace Museum, however, it is more important to know whether and to which extent visitors are satisfied with their experience. Although prior research has discussed the strategic management of the curator, little is done to combine tourists' perception with the curator's performance. To address this issue, a mixed method is applied to compare the planned action from the leader's perspective and the online review from tourists' comments, by analyzing the operation of Shan from 2012 to 2019 and online reviews of tourists from three major Chinese tourism websites. This research is innovative insofar as it provides a new theoretic framework to evaluate the curator's performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interlocal collaboration for service delivery (ICSD) for migrant workers has grown rapidly in the postpandemic era. Nevertheless, limited research has investigated the mechanisms through which localities interact with one another in the implementation process. This study explores under what conditions a city collaborates more with one city than another in ICSD for migrant workers in Guangdong Province, China. Our results show that geographical proximity, workforce similarity, and administrative status asymmetry are positively related to partner selection. City mayors' personal connections are associated with a higher collaboration degree. However, problem severity has negative impacts on both partner selection and collaboration degree. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyze the reasons for the mismatch between forward and reverse typing of ABO blood types and the mismatch between cross matching. When the forward and reverse typing do not match, use physiological saline method, polyamine method, anti human globulin method, and anti screening positive samples are used for antibody identification. The factors contributing to discrepancies in blood typing between forward and reverse typing include weakened serum typing, condensation, monoclonal immunoglobulin influence, bone marrow transplantation, and blood type subtypes. The causes of cross matching incompatibility include homologous antibody, warm Autoantibody, cold Autoantibody and daretozumab. Regular red blood cell homologous antibody screening should be conducted based on disease type, blood transfusion history, and medication history. Antigen matched red blood cells should be selected for cross matching, and different experimental methods should be used for testing to ensure the safety of clinical blood transfusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of internet finance, building a "tourism + finance" ecosystem is gradually becoming a theme of reform in the tourism industry. In this study, the technology acceptance model (TAM) is used to explore which factors, in addition to perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, influence consumers' intentions to purchase tourism financial products. The study conducts a questionnaire survey including basic questions and a Likert scale with 19 indicators covering 5 dimensions. The results are drawn from a structural equation model that supports five out of six proposed hypotheses. The findings suggest that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, trust, and perceived risk significantly influence purchase intentions. Additionally, perceived ease of use has a significant impact on perceived usefulness. Suggestions regarding future tourism financial products development are made, and the study's limitations are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conics typically include ellipses, hyperbolas, and parabolas with equal eccentricities that intersect infinite line at absolute points. According to the imaging characteristics of conics under a pinhole camera, a dual image of the absolute points can be obtained. By analysing the representative coefficient matrix of the dual image, the algebraic relationship between the image of the centre of the conic and its projection matrix can be obtained; thus, the vanishing line can be determined by the pole-polar relationship of the dual image of the absolute points. A group of orthogonal vanishing points can be obtained to determine the camera intrinsic parameters by two conics with aligned principal axes. The feasibility and robustness of the algorithm are verified by simulation data and real experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the unit viewing sphere imaging model, the projection of a space sphere includes the sphere image and its antipodal sphere image. As the pair of sphere images are separated, they have only one common self-polar triangle. In this study, a method for homography estimation based on the projection of the space sphere is proposed, which involves using a paracatadioptric camera. The proposed method requires two images of the space sphere from different positions to obtain a homography matrix. This homography matrix has eight degrees of freedom, and a line correspondence pair provides two constraints. Hence, using four pairs of line correspondences, the homography matrix can be solved, and the external parameters can be obtained. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified through simulation and experiments using real images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Prehypertension has been reported as being correlated with future cardiovascular risk and end-organ damage in middle-aged and elderly persons, and also playing an important role in metabolic syndrome (MetS). The association between prehypertension and MetS has rarely been reported among urban adults in Tianjin, China.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a total of 1176 participants aged 40–70 years (524 males and 652 females) were enrolled after excluding participants with hypertension or treated hypertension. Participants were divided into two groups [optimal blood pressure (BP) and prehypertension] based on the classification of BP from the JNC-7. The definition of MetS was as per the International Diabetes Federation standard. An adjusted logistic regression model was used to assess relationships between prehypertension and MetS.Results: The prehypertension group had a significantly higher odds ratio (OR) than the optimal BP group for abnormal waist circumference (WC), fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and triglycerides (TG). In addition, the prehypertension group had a higher OR (3.12; 95% confidence interval 2.34–4.18) for having MetS after adjusting for potential confounders.Conclusions: The risk of having MetS was significantly associated with prehypertension in middle-aged and elderly persons in Tianjin. Stricter control of BP in this age group is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Study suggested that elevated homocysteine showed a multiplicative effect on cardiovascular diseases in hypertensive subjects. It was reported that elevated homocysteine level was independently associated with increased arterial stiffness in prehypertensives. It remains unclear whether prehypertensives combined with elevated homocysteine have adverse cardiovascular risk factors. We aimed to compare cardiometabolic risk profile between prehypertensives with hyperhomocysteinaemia and those without either condition. Methods: Plasma total homocysteine and risk profile were determined among 874 Chinese non-hypertension individuals in Tianjin. They were subdivided into four groups: prehypertension with hyperhomocysteinaemia (≥10 μmol/L), prehypertension with normal homocysteine (<10 μmol/L), normotension with hyperhomocysteinaemia, normotension with normol homocysteine, respectively. Results: In 874 participants, 22.5% of them were male, mean age was 56.8 years. In multiple comparisons, after adjustment for age, gender, smoking, alcohol, exercise, education prehypertensives had higher body mass index (BMI) and high sensitive C reactive protein (hs-CRP) than normotensives ( p < 0.05, respectively); Only prehypertensive subjects with hyperhomocysteinaemia had higher triglyceride and serum uric acid compared to normotensive subjects, and lower HDL cholesterol than normotensives with normal homocysteine ( p < 0.05, respectively). However, the significance of higher hs-CRP, uric acid and lower HDL cholesterol were abolished when further adjustment was made for BMI. Conclusion: The combination of prehypertension and hyperhomocusteinaemia increases the likelihood of having adverse cardiometabolic risk profile. Strict lipid management and weigh control may be needed in prehypertensives with elevated homocysteine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]