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Under the constraints of given passenger service level and coupling travel demand with train departure time, this study optimizes the train operational plan in an urban rail corridor to minimize the numbers of train trips and rolling stocks considering the time-varying demand of urban rail passenger flow.

The authors optimize the train operational plan in a special network layout, i.e. an urban rail corridor with dead-end terminal yard, by decomposing it into two sub-problems: train timetable optimization and rolling stock circulation optimization. As for train timetable optimization, the authors propose a schedule-based passenger flow assignment method, construct the corresponding timetabling optimization model and design the bi-directional coordinated sequential optimization algorithm. For the optimization of rolling stock circulation, the authors construct the corresponding optimization assignment model and adopt the Hungary algorithm for solving the model.

The case study shows that the train operational plan developed by the study's approach meets requirements on the passenger service quality and reduces the operational cost to the maximum by minimizing the numbers of train trips and rolling stocks.

The example verifies the efficiency of the model and algorithm.

The purpose of this paper is to explore key factors driving four types of brand relationships, which will explain the reasons why different relationships can form in theory and direct brand managers to build brand relationships in practice.

A sample of 702 data was collected through four branch scales. The empirical methods of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used in turn to extract the key factors driving every kind of brand relationships.

The conclusion is that the established instrument relationships are driven by three factors which are: sociogroup pressure, condition restriction and saving the existing; the established emotion relationships are driven by four factors which are company reputation, approval of geography, approval of authority and word of mouth; the acquired instrument relationships are driven by three factors which are low price, brand homogeneity and attempt on new products: and the acquired emotion relationships are driven by six factors which are brand meaning, the staffs' service, marketing promotion, product design, product value and brand element.

There were three limitations in this research. First, the limitation of the sample structure decided this research as an exploratory one. Second, this research only adopted a static perspective although a relationship is a dynamic concept. Third, a few items were not drawn up appropriately so that the fitness of a few models was not perfect.

The formation mechanisms of different brand relationships have not been entirely explored in the former literatures. Based on a new sortation theory of four brand relationships in China, this research exploratorily put forward the completed key factors driving every kind of relationships.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the great contributions made by the American library expert, Mary Elizabeth Wood, to Chinese library development.

As a pioneer of the modern library movement Mary Elizabeth Wood devoted herself to a Chinese library career. It was structured according to the following theme: setting up the Boone Library and introducing the modern American public library into China; establishing Boone Library School and initiating Chinese library science education; raising money and appealing for China's library development; helping forward the foundation of the Library Association of China; as well as promoting Chinese library intercommunion and cooperation with the West.

With the background of underdeveloped Chinese librarianship, Mary Elizabeth Wood introduced modern American public library spirit into China, opened the gate of Chinese library science, and promoted Chinese library science.

The paper discusses the library history of China and the role of an American librarian in Chinese library history; thus, it should be of wide interest to researchers involved in library history.

Mary Elizabeth Wood devoted herself to a Chinese library career, and promoted Chinese library science greatly, but research on her is limited. This paper considers her contribution to Chinese library science.

Transfer relations represent analytical solutions of the linear theory of circular arches, relating each one of the kinematic and static variables at an arbitrary cross-section to the kinematic and static variables at the initial cross-section. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the significance of the transfer relations for structural analysis by means of three examples taken from civil engineering.

The first example refers to an arch bridge, the second one to the vault of a metro station and the third one to a real-scale test of a segmental tunnel ring.

The main conclusions drawn from these three examples are as follows: increasing the number of hangers/columns of the investigated arch bridge entails a reduction of the maximum bending moment of the arch, allowing it to approach, as much as possible, the desired thrust-line behavior; compared to the conventional in situ cast method, a combined precast and in situ cast method results in a decrease of the maximum bending moment of an element of the vault of the studied underground station by 46%; and the local behavior of the joints governs both the structural convergences and the bearing capacity of the tested segmental tunnel ring.

The three examples underline that the transfer relations significantly facilitate computer-aided engineering of circular arch structures, including arch bridges, vaults of metro stations and segmental tunnel rings.

Man has been seeking an ideal existence for a very long time. In this existence, justice, love, and peace are no longer words, but actual experiences. How ever, with the American preemptive invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and the subsequent prisoner abuse, such an existence seems to be farther and farther away from reality. The purpose of this work is to stop this dangerous trend by promoting justice, love, and peace through a change of the paradigm that is inconsistent with justice, love, and peace. The strong paradigm that created the strong nation like the U.S. and the strong man like George W. Bush have been the culprit, rather than the contributor, of the above three universal ideals. Thus, rather than justice, love, and peace, the strong paradigm resulted in in justice, hatred, and violence. In order to remove these three and related evils, what the world needs in the beginning of the third millenium is the weak paradigm. Through the acceptance of the latter paradigm, the golden mean or middle paradigm can be formulated, which is a synergy of the weak and the strong paradigm. In order to understand properly the meaning of these paradigms, however, some digression appears necessary.

With the ability of linking distant partners and diverse bodies of students and faculty, virtual design studios provide unique opportunities for examining cultural, contextual, and methodological differences in design and design collaboration. However, most evaluations of virtual design studio in the recent literature have focused primarily on technical and operational issues. In contrast, the social and cultural dimensions of virtual design studio and their pedagogical implications have not been adequately examined. To address this gap, this article examines the experience and outcomes of a recent virtual design studio involving international collaboration between faculty and student partners. Specifically, it looks at how presence of differences and process of dialogic learning create pedagogical opportunities in a collaborative 'virtual' environment. Based on the case study, this article argues that through dialogues, collaboration, and negotiation of cultural, contextual and methodological differences, collaborative virtual design studio offers an alternative to traditional design studio based on the primacy of individual practice and the master-apprentice model of learning. By creatively utilizing the collaborative environment involving diverse partners, virtual design studio can foster a critical understanding of cross-cultural design process and the significance of dialogues and negotiation in design.

This paper seeks to discuss the genealogical sources for Chinese immigrants as well as the settlement of Chinese in the USA and the historical evolution of Chinese names, their origins, arrangement and development. It aims to cover the origins of various classes of Chinese surnames, followed by the content description of a traditional genealogical book for jiapu.

The paper researches the various ways that a Chinese person can find out about their ancestry.

The paper reveals the roles of libraries, including serving the needs of patrons interested in genealogical research, preserving and interpreting information through oral and family history projects and collaborating with other libraries through interlibrary loan, document delivery, library consortia, collection management and international resource‐sharing.

The study provides information on where and how to locate the genealogical resources for researching the genealogy of a Chinese family.

The paper analyzes the value of genealogical research as a documentary source for population history, life expectancy in a clan, marriages and family connections, as well as lineage organizations and inter‐lineage relations.

This paper aims to study the factors that influence customer loyalty toward the internet service providers in Malaysia. The five factors used are corporate image, perceived quality, perceived value, price fairness and promotion. The mediating variable of this study is customer satisfaction, while customer loyalty is the study variable.

The primary data collection has been done by distributing survey questionnaires to 338 internet users in Malaysia. The data collected have been analyzed with SAS software.

The results showed that perceived quality has the strongest influence on customer satisfaction toward internet service providers in Malaysia. However, corporate image has no relationship with customer satisfaction toward internet service providers in Malaysia. Furthermore, customer satisfaction has a significant and positive relationship to customer loyalty toward the internet service providers in Malaysia.

European Customer Satisfaction Index has been adopted and combined with price fairness and promotion as a new research model that other researchers may look into it further. This research may also serve as a guide to internet service providers as they may learn about the underlying factors that affect the satisfaction and loyalty of customers and which factor has the strongest impact.