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With more than 80% of the world's cargoes being transported by sea, effective port management is critical to the well-being of the global economy. This study models the effects of port ownership and governance on capacity investment and pricing structure, and these changes' implications on port service level and social welfare. The study argues that capacity investment and pricing are significantly influenced by a port's ownership form, and the different levels of government involved. Inter-port competition leads to increased capacity investments by private investors and local authorities, which can be either higher or lower than social optimal level. Therefore, it is important for policymakers to consider the effects of institutional and competition factors in port reform initiatives.

In this paper, we extend the extremality results for the variational inequality to a higher order evolution hemivariational inequality. More precisely, we give an existence theorem of solution for the higher order evolution hemivariational inequality by using the sub–super-solution method. We prove the compactness of the solution set within an order interval formed by the sub-solution and super-solution. We also show an existence theorem of the extremal solution for the higher order evolution hemivariational inequality under consideration.

In this paper, we introduce and study a new class of generalized quasi-variational-like hemivariational inequalities with multi-valued η -pseudomonotone operators in Banach spaces. Some new existence theorems of solutions for this class of generalized quasi-variational-like hemivariational inequalities are proved. The results presented in this paper generalize and extend some known results.

In the present paper, we generalize the sub–supersolution method for a class of higher order quasi-linear elliptic hemi-variational inequalities. Using the notion of sub and supersolution, we prove the existence, comparison, compactness and extremality results for the higher order quasi-linear elliptic hemi-variational inequality under considerations.

In the present paper, we generalize the concept of well-posedness to a hemivariational inequality, give some metric characterizations of the wellposed hemivariational inequality, and derive some conditions under which the hemivariational inequality is strongly well-posed in the generalized sense. Also, we show that the well-posedness of the hemivariational inequality is equivalent to the well-posedness of the corresponding inclusion problem.

To investigate the function of islet beta cells in subjects with normal glucose tolerance (NGT), impaired glucose regulation (IGR), and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Different indexes of insulin secretion, including DeltaI30/DeltaG30, AIR or HOMAbeta, were compared.178 subjects without overt diabetes were classified into three groups according to the results of 75 g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT): NGT group (n = 68), IGR group (n = 75), and T2DM group (n = 35). Intravenous glucose tolerance test (IVGTT) was carried out 1 approximately 3 days later in all participants, with measurement of plasma insulin. The ratio of insulin-to-glucose levels increment during the first 30 min of OGTT (DeltaI30/DeltaG30) and the acute insulin response (AIR) in IVGTT were used as indexes of early insulin secretion. Homeostasis model assessment of insulin secretion (HOMAbeta) was another indicator of insulin secretion. The fasting plasma proinsulin level (FPI) was measured and the ratio fasting proinsulin to fasting insulin (PI/I) was calculated. HOMA insulin resistance index (HOMA IR) was used to assess the insulin resistance.The DeltaI30/DeltaG30 and AIR of the IGR group, adjusted by age, sex, and BMI, were both significantly lower than those of the NGT group. But the HOMAbeta of the IGR group was only slightly lower than that of the NGT group. Compared with the NGT subjects, the T2DM patients had a very severe islet beta cell dysfunction (84% decrease in AIR, 70% decrease in DeltaI30/DeltaG30 and 62% decrease in HOMA beta). When the DeltaI30/DeltaG30 was adjusted by HOMR IR, the extent of impairment in early insulin response was similar to that of AIR (87% versus 84% lower than that of the NGT group). The FPI and ratio of proinsulin to insulin were higher in the T2DM subjects compared with the NGT subjects (24.4 pmol/L +/- 18.0 pmol/L vs 10.9 pmol/L +/- 6.7 pmol/L; and 14.7% +/- 10.5% vs. 10.0% +/- 6.5%, both P0.05). There was a significantly positive correlation between DeltaI30/DeltaG30 and AIR (r = 0.75, P0.001).In the stage of IGR, an evident deficit in phasic insulin secretion after glucose load and a decreasing HOMAbeta are exhibited. In addition to this, qualitative decrease of insulin secretion appears in the DM stage. AIR is a reliable index of isletbeta cell function. DeltaI30/DeltaG30 is an alternative one in the subjects with NGT and IGR. But it should be adjusted by IR in diabetic patients.

To compare therapeutic effects of acupuncture plus massage and medicine on chilblains.Two hundred and sixty-four cases of chilblains were randomly divided into an acupuncture group of 136 cases and a medicine group of 128 cases. The acupuncture group were treated by acupuncture at 9 acupoints such as Yamen (GV 15), Laogong (PC 8), Sanyinjiao (SP 6), etc. plus massage, and the medicine group by dong chuang Plaster.In the acupuncture group, 111 cases were cured and 136 cases were effective, the effective rate being 100.0%; and in the medicine group, 55 cases were cured and 98 cases were effective, the effective rate being 76.6%, with a very significant difference between the two groups in the therapeutic effect (P0.01).Acupuncture plus massage is superior to dong chuang plaster in therapeutic effect on chilblains.

To investigate the effects of short-term continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) on newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes and to identify the influencing factors for the curative effects of CSII.138 newly diagnosed type 2 diabetic patients with fasting plasma glucose11.1 mmol/L were treated with CSII for 2 weeks. Intravenous glucose tolerance test (IVGTT) was performed before and after CSII. The target of glycemic control were fasting blood glucose6.1 mmol/L and postprandial blood glucose (PBG)8.0 mmol/L. The age, body mass index (BMI), fasting and postprandial plasma glucose, hemoglobin A(1C) (GHbA(1C)), Homa beta, Homa IR, area under the curve of insulin (AUC) during IVGTT were compared between the good glycemic control group and the inadequate glycemic control group.After 2 weeks' CSII treatment, good glycemic control was achieved in 126 patients (group A) but not in the remaining 12 patients (group B). There were no differences in age, BMI, postprandial plasma glucose, GHbA(1C), and Homa IR between the two groups before and after CSII treatment. But the fasting plasma glucose was higher and Homa B was lower in group B than in group A before CSII treatment. The DeltaAUC (AUC after CSII subtracted from that before CSII) representing the recovery of beta-cell function was much greater in group A than in group B. The insulin dose of group B was significantly higher than that of the good glycemic control group.More severe hyperglycemia and relative beta-cell function deficiency may be the main reasons responsible for not achieving good glycemic control in newly diagnosed type 2 diabetic patients with short-term intensive CSII treatment.

We consider a mathematical model which describes the contact between a viscoelastic body and a rigid-deformable foundation with memory effects. We derive a variational formulation of the model which is in the form of a history-dependent variational inequality for the displacement field. Then we prove the existence of a unique weak solution to the problem. We also study the continuous dependence of the solution with respect to the data and prove two convergence results, under different assumptions on the data. The proofs are based on arguments of lower semicontinuity, pseudomonotonicity, and compactness. Finally, we use our convergence results in the study of several optimization problems associated to the viscoelastic contact model.