This paper proposes a five-stage life cycle model to describe business development from birth to death with the five elements theory. A five-stage model, including birth, survival, success, decline, and renewal, is developed in terms of interactions of business functions, which are classified into the Chinese five elements. Each stage of the business life cycle could be characterized by the dif...

Humanized birth puts the woman in the center and in control, focuses on community based primary maternity care with midwives, nurses and doctors working together in harmony as equals, and has evidence based services. Western, medicalized, high tech maternity care under obstetric control usually dehumanizes, often leads to unnecessary, costly, dangerous, invasive obstetric interventions and shou...

We conducted an epidemiological study in Liguria, Italy, on the association between somatic parameters at birth and drinking water disinfection with chlorine dioxide and/or sodium hypochlorite. Over 2 years (1988-1989), 676 births at two public hospitals, one in Genoa (548 cases) and another in Chiavari (128 cases) were examined and data regarding both mother and child were obtained from hospit...

The past several years have seen a steady drumbeat of news reports, blog posts, and scientific studies which have raised concerns about the presence of estrogenic compounds (natural estrogens and synthetic chemicals that mimic natural estrogen) in waterways and drinking water, and potential harm to human health or aquatic life [1–3]. Frequently, one particular synthetic estrogen has been single...

Transepidermal water loss (TEWL) is a simple noninvasive measurement of inside-out skin barrier function. The goal of this research was to establish normal values for TEWL in early life using data gathered from the Cork BASELINE Birth Cohort Study. TEWL was recorded in a standardized fashion using a well-validated open-chamber system. A mean of three readings was recorded from 1,036 neonates (3...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate associations between maternal drinking water perchlorate exposure during pregnancy and newborn thyroid hormone levels. METHODS Elevation in thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), which may reflect reduced thyroxin concentration, was assessed in 497,458 newborns in California in 1998. A total of 800 perchlorate water measurements were used to classify California communities a...

BACKGROUND Preterm birth is often associated with impaired growth. Small for gestational age status confers additional risk. AIM To determine the body water content of appropriately grown (AGA) and small for gestational age (SGA) preterm infants in order to provide a baseline for longitudinal studies of growth after preterm birth. METHODS All infants born at the Hammersmith and Queen Charlo...