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The Chinese population is rapidly ageing before they are rich. The purpose of this paper is to describe healthcare seeking behaviour and the critical factors associated with healthcare seeking behaviour.

Using a purposive sampling method, the authors recruited 44 adults aged 60 years or older from three provinces, representing the developed (Shanghai), undeveloped (Ningxia) regions and the regions in between (Hubei). From July to September 2008, using a semi-structured guide, the authors interviewed participants in focus group discussions.

The healthcare needs for chronic and catastrophic diseases were high; however, the healthcare demands were low and healthcare utilizations were even lower owing to the limited accessibility to healthcare services, particularly, in underdeveloped rural areas. “Too expensive to see a doctor” was a prime complaint, explaining substantial discrepancies between healthcare needs, demands and use. Care seeking behaviour varied depending on insurance availability, perceived performance, particularly hospital services, and prescription medications. Participants consistently rated increasing healthcare accessibility as a high priority, including offering financial aid, and improving service convenience. Improving social security fairness was the first on the elderly’s wish list.

Healthcare demand and use were lower than needs, and were influenced by multiple factors, primarily, service affordability and efficiency, perceived performance and hospital service quality.

This paper aims to investigate the flow characteristics of lubricating grease in extremely cold weather in which it is difficult to convey the grease due to a huge pressure drop.

The rheological behavior of grease at various temperatures is studied by a rotary rheometer to determine the constitutive equation of lubricating grease. Based on the Herschel–Bulkley (H–B) model, the flow pattern of grease is then simulated by computational fluid dynamics and compared with the test results.

The yield stress increased dramatically when the shear rate was less than 1s⁻¹ in the rheological experiments of continuous shear mode, and the phenomenon was more significant with the decrease in temperature. The rheological data obtained from the continuous shear mode agrees with the H–B equation after the shear thinned. In extremely cold conditions, there is a large yield stress in the lubricating grease; the numerical results show that the viscosity of lubricating grease increased with an increase in temperature, and the viscosity and velocity of lubricating grease showed uneven distribution leading to difficulty of lubricating grease delivery.

This paper focuses on the flow characteristics of lubricating grease in extremely cold area conditions which is studied rarely. In addition, the continuous shear model and oscillatory model are combined to establish the constitutive equations. Experiment and numerical simulation method are all used by establishing the H–B models.

Industry practice has shown that technology licensing has an important effect on the R&D cooperation between firms. Different licensing methods will significantly impact a supply chain member's cooperative and price R&D decisions. However, there is scant literature investigating the decision on technology licensing and its impact on a supply chain member's price and cooperative R&D decisions. To address this gap, the authors investigate the R&D cooperation and the technology licensing in a supply chain formed of an original equipment manufacturer (OEM), a contract manufacturer (CM), and a third-party manufacturer which will compete with the OEM when the technology licensing occurs.

The authors investigate two licensing patterns, royalty licensing, fixed fee licensing together with the no licensing, within the R&D cooperative supply chain by developing two three-stage and a two-stage Stackelberg models.

Compare to the no licensing strategy, technology licensing always benefits to the OEM and the society especially when the technology efficiency and the brand power of the third-party manufacturer are more significant; the royalty licensing benefits to the OEM more when the technology efficiency and the brand power of the third-party manufacturer are higher; the fixed fee licensing benefits to the OEM more when the technology efficiency and the brand power of the third-party manufacturer are lower.

The royalty licensing is more effective for mitigating price competition intensity and helping firms to maintain higher sales margins; the fixed fee licensing induces firms' lower sales margins but increases the firms' sales quantities; in most cases, the fixed fee licensing is optimal from the perspectives of consumer and society, however, the CM's investment intention to the R&D technology with the fixed fee licensing is lower.

So far, different licensing models under the R&D cooperation have not been investigated, and the authors propose two three-stage Stackelberg models with considering the competition caused by technology licensing under the R&D cooperation to deal with the cooperative R&D and technology licensing issues.

The most prominent example of scan matching algorithm is the Iterative Closest Point (ICP) algorithm. But the ICP algorithm and its variants excessively depend on the initial pose estimate between two scans. The purpose of this paper is to propose a scan matching algorithm, which is adaptable to big initial pose errors.

The environments are represented by flat units and upright units. The upright units are clustered to represent objects that the robot cannot cross over. The object cluster is further discretized to generate layered model consisting of cross-section ellipses. The layered model provides simplified features that facilitate an object recognition algorithm to discriminate among common objects in outdoor environments. A layered model graph is constructed with the recognized objects as nodes. Based on the similarity of sub-graphs in each scans, the layered model graph-based matching algorithm generates initial pose estimates and uses ICP to refine the scan matching results.

Experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithm can deal with bad initial pose estimates and increase the processing speed. Its computation time is short enough for real-time implementation in robotic applications in outdoor environments.

This paper proposes a bio-inspired scan matching algorithm for mobile robots based on layered model graph in outdoor environments.

The purpose of this paper is to present a two-loop approach for velocity control of a permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) under mechanical uncertainties.

The inner loop calculates the two-axis stator reference voltages through a feedback linearization method. The outer loop employs an RST control structure to compute the q-axis stator reference current. To increase the robustness of the proposed method, the RST controller parameters are adapted through a fractional order model reference adaptive system (FO-MRAS). The fractional order gradient and Lyapunov methods are utilized as adaptation mechanisms.

The effect of the fractional order derivative in the load disturbance rejection, transient response speed and the robustness is verified through computer simulations. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed method against the external torque and mechanical parameters uncertainties.

The proposed FO-MRAS based on Lyapunov adaptation mechanism is proposed for the first time. Moreover, application of the FO-MRAS for velocity control of PMSM is presented for the first time.

Recently the route connecting the trans-Korean railway and the trans-Siberian railway has become of particular interest for many academics and policy-makers in East Asian countries. The extensive review of previous studies, however, reveals that literature on the subject is lacking solid analytical framework. Most studies are one-sided, focusing on the political aspects of the issue or paying little attention to the economic aspects of the problem.

This study intends to develop an analytical framework through which the most efficient route among four major alternative routes connecting the trans-Korean and trans-Siberian railways can be identified. It attempts to assign priorities to the four alternative routes according to their level of economic efficiency.

This study utilizes a simple cost-benefit analysis in evaluating the four routes. Cost side, transportation time, effectiveness of customs procedures, and gauge difference are selected as the main economic factors. The volume of cargo, industrial production in adjacent regions, access to natural resources, and market size and foreign investment climate are used to evaluate the benefits of the routes.

The study concludes that Route 3, which connects ‘Busan - Seoul (South Korea) –Pyongyang -Sinuiju (North Korea) –Shenyang –Beijing - Erenhot (China) –Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia) –Ulan-Ude - Moscow (Russia)’ is the most efficient route.

Reports a study of 1,304 Chinese brand names of ten types of products in China. These brand names are content analyzed following a linguistic approach which the authors developed from their earlier studies. The ten types of brand names are presented in three broad categories representing the three different developing stages of the consumer product industry in China: brands of traditional products (illustrated by matches and spirits), brands of traditional products with current development (illustrated by bicycles, shoes, and toothpastes), and brands of new and modern products (illustrated by cosmetics, soft drinks, washing machines, refrigerators and TV sets). The conclusion drawn from the analysis is that one of the variables in determining how linguistic principles are being applied to Chinese brand naming is the respective stages of development of such products in the context of the Chinese market economy.

In general, the bifurcation phenomenon of the natural convection has largely been studied. But the bifurcation of natural convection under magnetic conditions has not been studied as per the authors’ knowledge. This paper aims to investigate the changes in bifurcation phenomenon by the self-induced circular magnetic field.

The authors numerically solved the natural convection in an annulus. The SIMPLE algorithm was adopted for pressure-momenturm coupling. The Boussinesq approximation was used for numerical modeling of natural convection. Finally, the Lorentz force effect by the magnetic field was considered through the source terms in the momentum conservation equation.

It was determined that the heat-transfer rate changes by 17% owing to the applied magnetic effect, and the range of the Rayleigh number for flow bifurcation is changed by the magnetic effect. Moreover, under the strong magnetic condition, the flow bifurcation continues even at very high Ra. Previously, flow bifurcation has been understood as a flow instability phenomena, and the Lorentz force was regarded as a flow-damping effect; however, in this study, it was found that the magnetic field can boost the flow instability and induce flow bifurcation even in the Rayleigh number region where the bifurcation does not appear.

This paper is dealing with the bifurcation phenomenon in MHD natural convection problems. In the past, the electromagnetic forces were regarded as always acting to damp out the existing flows; herewith, the authors first investigated that the magnetic effect can boost the bifurcation of a kind of flow instability phenomenon.

The purpose of this paper is to improve the performance of sensorless vector control of induction motor drives by developing a new sliding mode observer for rotor speed and fluxes estimation from measured stator currents and voltages and estimated stator currents.

In the present paper, the discontinuity in the sliding mode observer is smoothed inside a thin boundary layer using fuzzy logic techniques instead of sign function to reduce efficiently the chattering phenomenon that affects the rotor speed.

The feasibility of the proposed fuzzy sliding mode observer has been verified by experimentation. The experimental results are obtained with a 1 kW induction motor using a dSPACE system with DS1104 controller board showing clearly the effectiveness of the proposed approach in terms of dynamic performance compared to the classical sliding mode observer.

The experimental results of the whole control structure highlights that this kind of sensorless induction motor drive can be used for variable speed drive in industrial applications such as oil drilling, electric vehicles, high speed trains (HSTs) and conveyers. Such drives may work properly at zero and low speed in both directions of rotation.

Both the proposed speed observer and the classical sliding mode observer have been developed and implemented experimentally with other adaptive observers for detailed comparison under different operating conditions, such as parameter variation, no-load/load disturbances and speed variations in different speed operation regions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate limit cycles in digitally Proportional, Integral and Derivative (PID) controlled buck regulators. Filtering is examined as a means of removing the limit cycles in digitally controlled buck regulators.

The paper explains why limit cycles occur in a digitally PID controlled buck converter. It then proceeds to propose two filters for their elimination. Results indicate the effectiveness of each of the filters.

The paper gives a mathematical analysis of the occurrence of limit cycles in digitally controlled PID buck regulators. It finds that notch and comb filters are effective for the purpose of eliminating limit cycles in buck regulators.

The paper employs a model of the buck regulator inclusive of the inductor loss – this was not done to date for this type of work. The paper analyses PID control. This was not done in the manner given. The paper addresses filtering as a means of removing limit cycles. It examines the effect of changing the digital controller parameters on the requirements of the filters.