The vibrational performance of wood materials critical affects the acoustic quality of a lute. The purpose of this research was to apply a multiple choice model to predict the quality of musical instruments based on d...The vibrational performance of wood materials critical affects the acoustic quality of a lute. The purpose of this research was to apply a multiple choice model to predict the quality of musical instruments based on data on lute soundboard vibrational properties of Paulownia wood. In the lute production, lute material selection mainly depends on the subjective evaluation of technicians, which is not only inefficient, but inaccurate. In this study, nine lutes were fabricated. Using the multiple selection model, the lute tone quality was predicted by the soundboard wood vibration data. Compared with the actual value, the dependent value predicted by the count of observations with the maximum probability had 22 erroneous judgments. The model precision is 87.78%. The results confirmed that the prediction model can be used as a guideline for the selection of the soundboard wood in musical instrument plants.展开更多
Information about the quality of hospitals is becoming increasingly available for patients in the Netherlands. Consequently, patients are able to make an informed hospital choice. However, previous research reveals th...Information about the quality of hospitals is becoming increasingly available for patients in the Netherlands. Consequently, patients are able to make an informed hospital choice. However, previous research reveals that patients do not or barely use quality information in their hospital choice. This is puzzling from the perspective of the demand-driven health care system, which considers patients as rational health consumers, capable of making independent choices. This article is meant to study why the Dutch patients do not use quality information. In order to answer this question, patients with nonacute ailments visiting the hospital clinics of several departments of a Dutch hospital were asked to fill in a self-administered questionnaire about their hospital choice and use of quality information. A total of 479 patients were included in the sample. The response rate was 81.9%. The results show that 5.2% of the respondents had actually seen quality information and 4.0% had used it in their hospital choice. Logistic regression analysis was carried out in order to explain why some patients use quality information and some do not. This analysis shows that nonusers compared to users are more frequently females, were older, have relatively more trust in their GP’s and distrust quality information more often.展开更多
Objective To evaluate the impacts of clinic-based informed choice program on quality of individualized service in family planning clinics in ChinaMethods During the program, family planning service staff in interventi...Objective To evaluate the impacts of clinic-based informed choice program on quality of individualized service in family planning clinics in ChinaMethods During the program, family planning service staff in intervention clinics , were trained on counseling skills and key points of individualized counseling service. Questionnaire surveys were conducted pre- and post-informed choice program to evaluate the 'impacts of the program.Results Informed choice program had significantly improved the quality of individualized counseling service. The multivariate regression analysis showed that clients of the clinic were more likely to give the better evaluation of the service, the OR of evaluation score of individualized service is 1/712 (95% CI is 1. 146 to 2. 564) in Experiment Group of post-program in contrast with pre-program. The program also could satisfy individual needs of clients and increase the satisfaction degree of the service. Conclusions Informed choice program is helpful for the improvement of the quality of individualized counseling service. It is necessary and imperative to improve the skills of counseling service provided in family planning clinics.展开更多
This study used double-bounded dichotomous-choice to estimate and analyze the factors affecting households’ willingness to pay (WTP) for water quality improvement. This study notes that households with higher income,...This study used double-bounded dichotomous-choice to estimate and analyze the factors affecting households’ willingness to pay (WTP) for water quality improvement. This study notes that households with higher income, living near a polluted water source, using tap water instead of natural water, who are handicraft producers, and who have more members, are willing to pay more. However, households who rarely hear about environmental pollution issues and who are offered a higher bid are more likely to refuse to pay. Solutions to improve water quality are suggested such as to raise people’s awareness through communication channels and social organizations;to increase income associated with environmental protection policies;to construct wastewater treatment plants;to encourage the relocation of production establishments to industrial parks and industrial complexes;to put regulations on collection, payment and sanctions in case of not declaring and paying fees into village conventions;to promulgate circulars, and bylaws to concretize and simplify regulations and policies of the Government and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.展开更多
Air quality has a significant relationship with our life. Residents are concerned with the environment issue of Chongqing, which used to be one of major industrial cities in China. We choose the air quality of Chongqi...Air quality has a significant relationship with our life. Residents are concerned with the environment issue of Chongqing, which used to be one of major industrial cities in China. We choose the air quality of Chongqing as the research object, valued by choice experiment model with designed questionnaires, to discuss the best approach of improving the air quality. Firstly, the paper introduces the representative methods of the stated preferences: CVM and choice experiment(CE). The choice experiment(CE) could be designed in a series of situations with many different attributes to test the relative values among the attributes, which are the evidences of ranking importance of the attributes. Because the improvement of air quality is affected by multiple factors, the technique is better at valuing the economical impacts. Once the attributes and levels are decided, profiles and choice sets can be designed. We can also collect data through questionnaires and use the conditional logit model to evaluate the improvement of air quality in Chongqing. The result shows the relative importance of the elements selected to evaluate the improvement of urban air quality. In a word, this research has important practical value to better the air quality.展开更多
Whether an agricultural technology can be selected and used is directly related to farmers, and has become a key topic of concern for domestic and foreign scholars. This paper mainly analyzes the status quo of farmers...Whether an agricultural technology can be selected and used is directly related to farmers, and has become a key topic of concern for domestic and foreign scholars. This paper mainly analyzes the status quo of farmers' technology selection behavior, the influence of farmers' cultural quality, measures to improve farmers' cultural quality and optimize the level of agricultural development, hoping to provide reference for related work.展开更多
The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate the effects of visual materials (labeled pictures and a preference sorting template) on the ability to increase the convergence (agreement) of responses by persons...The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate the effects of visual materials (labeled pictures and a preference sorting template) on the ability to increase the convergence (agreement) of responses by persons with dementia and their nursing assistants on a Preference Assessment Questionnaire that contained 25 items related to Quality of Life (QoL). A total of 33 nursing assistants participated;54% were native English speakers and 46% were non-native English speakers. Thirty-seven residents with dementia were randomly assigned to either the treatment condition, a 10-min preference card sorting task (VoiceMyChoice?;VMC) which reflected the items and content of the Preference Assessment Questionnaire, or a control condition consisting of a 10-min card matching activity using the materials from VMC. Before and after the treatment or the control session, residents and their assigned NA were administered the Preference Assessment Questionnaire;one week later, these procedures were repeated to assess consistency in responding and improved convergence between dyad members’ responses over time. Results revealed that convergence scores between members of NA-Resident dyads increased significantly after the use of VMC for both the English and non-native English dyads, but not in the control condition. VMC has the potential to enable persons with dementia to communicate personal choices and for their caregivers of various linguistic and/or cultural backgrounds to understand them better.展开更多
It indicate that block pavement has virtue of being satisfied with driving demands,longer cycle,simple technology,less cost and so on,reaching purpose to improve road grades and service quality by putting into less in...It indicate that block pavement has virtue of being satisfied with driving demands,longer cycle,simple technology,less cost and so on,reaching purpose to improve road grades and service quality by putting into less investment,can quickly advance the building step of rural road,at the same time relieve the financial strain.So the block pavement is a optimal pavement in rural road except for heavy trafics,special geography,for tourism and high grade highway.展开更多
Enterprises can choose either the technological innovation aimed at reducing the cost or the technological innovation aimed at improving the quality. It is found by this study that only when the degree of cost-reducin...Enterprises can choose either the technological innovation aimed at reducing the cost or the technological innovation aimed at improving the quality. It is found by this study that only when the degree of cost-reducing relative to that of quality-enhancing is large enough or moderate, will the pure strategy Nash equilibrium be found in choosing the technological innovation direction by enterprises, in that case one may choose the cost-reducing innovation while the other may adopt the quality-enhancing innovation. Secondly,only when the degree of cost-reducing relative to that of quality-enhancing falls into another moderate range, will the pure strategy Nash equilibrium be found in choosing the technological innovation direction by enterprises, in that case two of them choose the cost-reducing innovation at the same time. Thirdly,only when the degree of cost-reducing relative to that of quality-enhancing is small enough, will the pure strategy Nash equilibrium be found in choosing the technological innovation direction by enterprises, in that case two of them choose the quality-enhancing innovation at the same time. Finally, it puts forth some enlightening policy suggestions for upgrading"made in China"to"created in China"based on the model analysis.展开更多
To remove obstacles in the path of‘Education for All’,the government of India launched several programs,Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan(SSA)being one of them.Despite several attempts,the government has failed to be successful...To remove obstacles in the path of‘Education for All’,the government of India launched several programs,Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan(SSA)being one of them.Despite several attempts,the government has failed to be successful in providing education to all students and the impact of such schemes has not been very good at the ground level.In India,children are not absent from school owing to a lack of demand;rather,low quality of government education delivery is a major cause for their absence.There is a need to redefine the Indian education system or policy to a new level as government schools are unable to fulfil the growing demand for high-quality education.Direct government funding to children or parents rather than schools can provide parents or children with the ability to select the school of their choice,whether it is a government or private school.This may be accomplished through the education voucher scheme.Governments do not need to spend any additional public funds on vouchers to implement this approach.The education voucher scheme deserves an effort among the several approaches that are being pursued to improve school education.展开更多
基金financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China(NSFC)through Grant Number30972300
文摘The vibrational performance of wood materials critical affects the acoustic quality of a lute. The purpose of this research was to apply a multiple choice model to predict the quality of musical instruments based on data on lute soundboard vibrational properties of Paulownia wood. In the lute production, lute material selection mainly depends on the subjective evaluation of technicians, which is not only inefficient, but inaccurate. In this study, nine lutes were fabricated. Using the multiple selection model, the lute tone quality was predicted by the soundboard wood vibration data. Compared with the actual value, the dependent value predicted by the count of observations with the maximum probability had 22 erroneous judgments. The model precision is 87.78%. The results confirmed that the prediction model can be used as a guideline for the selection of the soundboard wood in musical instrument plants.
文摘Information about the quality of hospitals is becoming increasingly available for patients in the Netherlands. Consequently, patients are able to make an informed hospital choice. However, previous research reveals that patients do not or barely use quality information in their hospital choice. This is puzzling from the perspective of the demand-driven health care system, which considers patients as rational health consumers, capable of making independent choices. This article is meant to study why the Dutch patients do not use quality information. In order to answer this question, patients with nonacute ailments visiting the hospital clinics of several departments of a Dutch hospital were asked to fill in a self-administered questionnaire about their hospital choice and use of quality information. A total of 479 patients were included in the sample. The response rate was 81.9%. The results show that 5.2% of the respondents had actually seen quality information and 4.0% had used it in their hospital choice. Logistic regression analysis was carried out in order to explain why some patients use quality information and some do not. This analysis shows that nonusers compared to users are more frequently females, were older, have relatively more trust in their GP’s and distrust quality information more often.
基金This study was supported by the United Nations Population Funds(UNFPA)
文摘Objective To evaluate the impacts of clinic-based informed choice program on quality of individualized service in family planning clinics in ChinaMethods During the program, family planning service staff in intervention clinics , were trained on counseling skills and key points of individualized counseling service. Questionnaire surveys were conducted pre- and post-informed choice program to evaluate the 'impacts of the program.Results Informed choice program had significantly improved the quality of individualized counseling service. The multivariate regression analysis showed that clients of the clinic were more likely to give the better evaluation of the service, the OR of evaluation score of individualized service is 1/712 (95% CI is 1. 146 to 2. 564) in Experiment Group of post-program in contrast with pre-program. The program also could satisfy individual needs of clients and increase the satisfaction degree of the service. Conclusions Informed choice program is helpful for the improvement of the quality of individualized counseling service. It is necessary and imperative to improve the skills of counseling service provided in family planning clinics.
文摘This study used double-bounded dichotomous-choice to estimate and analyze the factors affecting households’ willingness to pay (WTP) for water quality improvement. This study notes that households with higher income, living near a polluted water source, using tap water instead of natural water, who are handicraft producers, and who have more members, are willing to pay more. However, households who rarely hear about environmental pollution issues and who are offered a higher bid are more likely to refuse to pay. Solutions to improve water quality are suggested such as to raise people’s awareness through communication channels and social organizations;to increase income associated with environmental protection policies;to construct wastewater treatment plants;to encourage the relocation of production establishments to industrial parks and industrial complexes;to put regulations on collection, payment and sanctions in case of not declaring and paying fees into village conventions;to promulgate circulars, and bylaws to concretize and simplify regulations and policies of the Government and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
文摘Air quality has a significant relationship with our life. Residents are concerned with the environment issue of Chongqing, which used to be one of major industrial cities in China. We choose the air quality of Chongqing as the research object, valued by choice experiment model with designed questionnaires, to discuss the best approach of improving the air quality. Firstly, the paper introduces the representative methods of the stated preferences: CVM and choice experiment(CE). The choice experiment(CE) could be designed in a series of situations with many different attributes to test the relative values among the attributes, which are the evidences of ranking importance of the attributes. Because the improvement of air quality is affected by multiple factors, the technique is better at valuing the economical impacts. Once the attributes and levels are decided, profiles and choice sets can be designed. We can also collect data through questionnaires and use the conditional logit model to evaluate the improvement of air quality in Chongqing. The result shows the relative importance of the elements selected to evaluate the improvement of urban air quality. In a word, this research has important practical value to better the air quality.
文摘Whether an agricultural technology can be selected and used is directly related to farmers, and has become a key topic of concern for domestic and foreign scholars. This paper mainly analyzes the status quo of farmers' technology selection behavior, the influence of farmers' cultural quality, measures to improve farmers' cultural quality and optimize the level of agricultural development, hoping to provide reference for related work.
文摘The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate the effects of visual materials (labeled pictures and a preference sorting template) on the ability to increase the convergence (agreement) of responses by persons with dementia and their nursing assistants on a Preference Assessment Questionnaire that contained 25 items related to Quality of Life (QoL). A total of 33 nursing assistants participated;54% were native English speakers and 46% were non-native English speakers. Thirty-seven residents with dementia were randomly assigned to either the treatment condition, a 10-min preference card sorting task (VoiceMyChoice?;VMC) which reflected the items and content of the Preference Assessment Questionnaire, or a control condition consisting of a 10-min card matching activity using the materials from VMC. Before and after the treatment or the control session, residents and their assigned NA were administered the Preference Assessment Questionnaire;one week later, these procedures were repeated to assess consistency in responding and improved convergence between dyad members’ responses over time. Results revealed that convergence scores between members of NA-Resident dyads increased significantly after the use of VMC for both the English and non-native English dyads, but not in the control condition. VMC has the potential to enable persons with dementia to communicate personal choices and for their caregivers of various linguistic and/or cultural backgrounds to understand them better.
文摘It indicate that block pavement has virtue of being satisfied with driving demands,longer cycle,simple technology,less cost and so on,reaching purpose to improve road grades and service quality by putting into less investment,can quickly advance the building step of rural road,at the same time relieve the financial strain.So the block pavement is a optimal pavement in rural road except for heavy trafics,special geography,for tourism and high grade highway.
文摘Enterprises can choose either the technological innovation aimed at reducing the cost or the technological innovation aimed at improving the quality. It is found by this study that only when the degree of cost-reducing relative to that of quality-enhancing is large enough or moderate, will the pure strategy Nash equilibrium be found in choosing the technological innovation direction by enterprises, in that case one may choose the cost-reducing innovation while the other may adopt the quality-enhancing innovation. Secondly,only when the degree of cost-reducing relative to that of quality-enhancing falls into another moderate range, will the pure strategy Nash equilibrium be found in choosing the technological innovation direction by enterprises, in that case two of them choose the cost-reducing innovation at the same time. Thirdly,only when the degree of cost-reducing relative to that of quality-enhancing is small enough, will the pure strategy Nash equilibrium be found in choosing the technological innovation direction by enterprises, in that case two of them choose the quality-enhancing innovation at the same time. Finally, it puts forth some enlightening policy suggestions for upgrading"made in China"to"created in China"based on the model analysis.
文摘To remove obstacles in the path of‘Education for All’,the government of India launched several programs,Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan(SSA)being one of them.Despite several attempts,the government has failed to be successful in providing education to all students and the impact of such schemes has not been very good at the ground level.In India,children are not absent from school owing to a lack of demand;rather,low quality of government education delivery is a major cause for their absence.There is a need to redefine the Indian education system or policy to a new level as government schools are unable to fulfil the growing demand for high-quality education.Direct government funding to children or parents rather than schools can provide parents or children with the ability to select the school of their choice,whether it is a government or private school.This may be accomplished through the education voucher scheme.Governments do not need to spend any additional public funds on vouchers to implement this approach.The education voucher scheme deserves an effort among the several approaches that are being pursued to improve school education.
