The study reports a research aiming to detect the spatial pattern of urban heat island (UHI) phenomena in Beijing, China, and to determine the relationship between the UHI pattern and a set of landscape and demographical variables. The study area has been one of the fastest growing metropolises in China during the past two decades. Land surface radiance temperature (SRT) values were extracted f...

It becomes possible to devise effective strategies when the banks properly understand how services are being assessed or perceived by the customers. The analysis of customer perception can give direction and focus to strategic planning. It is indeed a difficult task because quality is a critical factor to services. Customers in service industry can be made coproducers of services by inviting th...

AIMS This article is a report on a study of the multidimensional predictors of caregiver burden in caregivers of individuals with dementia using nationally representative data. BACKGROUND Caregiver burden affects the health of both caregivers and their care-recipients. Although previous studies identified various predictors of caregiver burden, these predictors have not been confirmed in nati...

AIM The aim of the current study is to evaluate acute vasoreactivity test (AVT) results in severe pulmonary hypertension patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and to compare the demographical, clinical, and laboratory variables in positive and negative cases. METHODS This retrospective, clinical study was performed on 29 cases in the departments of cardiology and chest diseases ...

In this paper, an entropy-based method is proposed to forecast the demographical changes of countries. We formulate the estimation of future demographical profiles as a constrained optimization problem, anchored on the empirically validated assumption that the entropy of age distribution is increasing in time. The procedure of the proposed method involves three stages, namely: 1) Prediction of ...

BACKGROUND HR HPV infection was proposed as aetiological factor of oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCC). HPV frequency in OSCC is highly variable, due to the discrepancy in oral sampling procedures, HPV testing methods and inclusion criteria regarding tumour site (strictly oral cavity vs. nearby structures). Our aim was to compare HPV DNA frequency and type-specific distribution in paired cytol...