以股骨中段病理性骨折为首发表现的成人戈谢病1例

本文报告1例无典型骨损害表现,而以全身骨骼广泛网格样改变为主要特征的成人戈谢病。本文同时通过文献复习进一步总结戈谢病的骨骼受累表现,以及戈谢病临床表型和基因型间的相关性。     

Variation of rock quality designation (RQD) with scanline orientation and length: a case study in Korea

Rock quality designation (RQD) has been widely used to evaluate the degree of fracturing of rock masses. Although it has been frequently pointed out that RQD is dependent on the orientation of measurement and on the scanline length, these effects have not been considered in site investigation for tunneling in Korea. Therefore, a series of practical examinations using in situ data collected from recent tunneling sites in Korea has been conducted. Variation of RQD with scanline orientation was observed to be as high as 24% in the sub-horizontal tunneling where the design was based on the results of RQD from vertical drill core logging. In addition, the range of possible variation of RQD with scanline length was analyzed with four different models, including two new models introduced in this case study for the first time. It is shown that at least 4 m of scanline length is required to maintain a reliable value for the RQD in the three models. The simulation from the so-called A–A–S model showed that it is possible to maintain the same reliability of the RQD in a situation where only a much smaller extent (i.e. 0.4 m) of rock exposure is available in the field. It is hoped that the results of this case study will provide the tunnel engineer with an enhanced understanding of the variation of RQD with measurement method.     

Telecommuting and residential locational preferences: a case study of the Netherlands

Traditionally, along with stages of the life cycle and changes in people’s financial status and their household composition, the commute distance has been identified as one of the main explanatory factors for residential locational preferences and subsequent migration flows. In the Netherlands, telecommuting is rapidly becoming popular and is expected to affect residential locational preferences. A hypothesis that can be raised is that telecommuting has an impact on the effect that commute distance has on residential preferences. Based on this hypothesis, this paper investigates the role of telecommuting alongside the traditional factors currently explaining residential locational preferences. The paper provides evidence that, in the Netherlands, telecommuting has enabled people to commute longer distances. The effect of telecommuting on the probability of relocating, however, is not significant. Telecommuting appears to have a limited effect on residential location preferences, but traditional factors, such as life cycle stages, remain the dominant explanatory factors.     

Failure models of a loess stacked dam: a case study in the Ansai Area (China)

Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment - A loess dam is not fully compacted, so there may be a high permeability area in a loess dam. The seepage channel appears inside the dam body,...     

Innovative construction and the role of boundary objects: a Gehry case study

Physical objects have long been used in addressing the challenges involved in constructing innovative buildings, yet their significance for collaborative problem solving in inter-organizational projects is rarely acknowledged. The aim of this research is to investigate what happens when a project team has to collaboratively innovate to address radical design challenges in a construction setting. We focus on the role of a full-scale mock-up of a façade in transforming the design intent for a building by Frank Gehry into design realization. The concept of boundary objects is used as an analytical lens via a case study methodology utilizing non-participant observation of weekly meetings and workshops over a period of 10 months covering client, consultant and contractor involvement. The research shows the role of mock-ups in radical construction settings is in tension along three delivery dimensions: performance, aesthetic and technical construction. Task completion competed with the requirements for experimentation around innovative problem solving with the how to construct it problem left unresolved. The findings suggest that co-location and synchronicity are critical conditions for collaborative and innovative problem solving in radical construction contexts. Project teams need to create open-ended ‘moments’ for iterating critical objects and the interactions that take place around them.     

Adapting the homes of older people: a case study of costs and savings

Meeting the demand for independent living from the increasing number of older people presents a major challenge for society, government and the building industry. Older people's experience of disabling conditions can be affected by the design and layout of their accommodation. Adaptations and assistive technology (AT) are a major way of addressing this gap between functional capacity and the built environment. The degree of adaptability and the differences in the average cost of adaptation of different types of property are large and there is major variation within property type. Based on a series of user profiles, it was found that a comprehensive package of adaptations and AT is likely to result in significant economies arising from a reduction in the need for formal care services. This finding is sensitive to assumptions about how long an individual would use the adaptations and AT, as well as to the input of informal care and the nature of their accommodation. The present study, which focused on social housing, has implications for how practitioners specify ways of meeting individual needs as well as providing a case to support the substantial increase in demand for specialist adaptation work.     

Semi-natural Forested Landscape under a Bark Beetle Outbreak: a case study of the Bohemian Forest (Czech Republic)

Long-term and lasting human interference in forest ecosystems in the Bohemian Forest has resulted in the loss of some equilibrium mechanisms and hence increased susceptibility to ecological disturbances. Two methods for estimating bark beetle outbreaks in spruce forests are reported: an assessment of the susceptibility of individual trees to attack according to crown structure characteristics; and the use of remotely sensed data and image processing techniques to quantify changes in forest cover. The results document a significant increase in the area of highly damaged and dead forest classes, from 1% in 1987 to 16% in 1998, and a decrease in the area of healthy and moderately damaged spruce classes from 71% in 1987 to 52% in 1998. A possible approach to managing mountain Norway spruce ecosystems invaded by bark beetle in the Bohemian Forest is proposed.     

Woodlots in the rural landscape: landowner motivations and management attitudes in a Michigan (USA) case study

Woodlots provide important environmental benefits in the Midwestern (USA) landscape, where they are undergoing rapid change. An increasingly diverse farm and non-farm population owns these non-industrial private forests (NIPFs). It is essential to understand what motivates NIPF landowners to retain and manage their forests. We describe a study of NIPF owners in an agricultural watershed where forest cover is increasing. What motivations and management practices might be contributing to this increase? The results of a survey of 112 NIPF owners suggest that aesthetic appreciation is the strongest motivator for retaining woodlots, especially by non-farmers. Protecting the environment also seems to be important for both farmers and non-farmers, while economic motivations are significantly less important. Landowners indicated that they are primarily taking a “hands-off” approach to management. This study provides insights for those interested in understanding NIPF landowners’ motivations and for developing effective programs.     

Heavy metals in urban soils: a case study from the city of Palermo (Sicily), Italy

Concentrations of V, Mn, Cd, Zn, Ni, Cr, Co, Cu, Pb, Hg and Sb were measured on 70 topsoil samples collected from green areas and parks in the city of Palermo (Sicily) in order to: (1) assess the distribution of these heavy metals in the urban environment; (2) discriminate natural and anthropic contributions; and (3) identify possible sources of pollution. Mineralogy, physico-chemical parameters, and major element contents of the topsoils were determined to highlight the influence of 'natural' features on the heavy metal concentrations and their distribution. Medians of Pb, Zn, Cu and Hg concentrations of the investigated urban soils are 202, 138, 63 and 0.68 mgkg(-1), respectively. These values are higher, in some case by different orders of size, than those of unpolluted soils in Sicily that average 44, 122, 34 and 0.07 mg kg(-1). An ensemble of basic and multivariate statistical analyses (cluster analysis and principal component analysis) was performed to reduce the multidimensional space of variables and samples, thus defining two sets of heavy metals as tracers of natural and anthropic influences. Results demonstrate that Pb, Zn, Cu, Sb and Hg can be inferred to be tracers of anthropic pollution, whereas Mn, Ni, Co, Cr, V and Cd were interpreted to be mainly inherited from parent materials. Maps of pollutant distribution were constructed for the whole urban area pointing to vehicle traffic as the main source of diffuse pollution and also showing the contribution of point sources of pollution to urban topsoils.     

The transformation of the agroforestry landscape in the nineteenth century: a case study in southern Quebec (Canada)

Although recent landscape changes have been extensively studied, we possess very little information about the nature and extent of changes before aerial photographs were available. To contribute to this knowledge, we propose to explore the information within the Canadian censuses of the nineteenth century, documentary sources still very underused in landscape dynamics studies. The importance of these data lies in the fact that information is provided at the scale of each lot between 1842 and 1871, and at the township scale for subsequent years (1881–1951). In this study, nominative data provided for a rural township (139 km²) located in southern Quebec were coupled with detailed information about geomorphologic features using GIS.The analyses indicated two main phenomena. First, characterization of global landscape dynamics revealed the extent and rapidity of change. The evolution of land-use shows an increase of about 40% in improved areas between 1842 and 1871. while cumulative data show improved areas occupying nearly 83% of the total areas in 1891. These results contrast with recent landscape dynamics (1958–1993) which display relatively minor changes. Second, at the landscape type scale as well as at the surface deposit scale, analysis of nominative data failed to show any clear relationship between landscape dynamics and the spatial entities considered, whereas recent land-use patterns are closely linked to surface deposits. Thus, constant fluctuation in the agroforestry landscape and the lack of influence of abiotic characteristics on land-use dynamics represent two specific characteristics of this nineteenth century landscape.     

Functional forms and the estimation of a state's sales tax revenue: Tennessee as a case study

Problems of specifying a proper functional form for estimating sales tax revenues of a state are discussed. A general functional form is introduced, in which linear and log-linear forms are special cases. The maximum likelihood approach and data for Tennessee are used to estimate parameters in the general form. Empirical results disclose that the null hypotheses indicating the functional form is linear or log-linear are both rejected. The best functional form obtained from the general form provides not only better R² and Durbin-Watson statistic, but also generates estimates of sales tax collections with smaller errors than the linear and log-linear forms.The author would like to thank Professor Charles B. Garrison for helpful editorial suggestions, which resulted in improvement in the presentation of the paper.     

Distributive and poverty-reducing effects of in-kind housing benefits in Europe: with a case study for Germany

While cash housing benefits are generally included in household disposable income, the effect of social housing is not accounted for. This may provide a misleading picture of the impact of overall housing policies on inequality and poverty, as countries use different policies to help households meet their housing expenses. In this article, we present the first comprehensive study of the impact of in-kind housing benefits on income distribution and poverty in Europe. We contribute to two strands of the literature, notably the one that aims to quantify income advantages derived from housing and the other that aims to incorporate the value of public services in income. For this purpose, we calculate estimates of imputed rent and analyse how these benefits are distributed over the population and how they help to combat poverty. Our estimates are also relevant for the ongoing debate on whether cash or in-kind social transfers are to be preferred in social policy. We illustrate this with a case study for Germany, where we compare the distributive and poverty effect of cash and in-kind social benefits for housing for a longer time period.     

Implementing corporate ethics management and its comparison with the safety management system: a case study in Hong Kong

A case study of one general contracting construction organization in Hong Kong was undertaken. The study illustrates the current state of corporate ethics management in the implementation of a corporate code of ethics. The overall process of developing the corporate code of ethics from planning to implementation was investigated. It was found that the corporate management of the organization that was studied adopted a laissez‐faire approach in implementing its code at the project level. This means that there was no formal and unified cross‐organizational plan for implementing the code at the project level. The methods of communicating the corporate code of ethics to the members of the project team were left to the discretion of the individual project manager. The research findings also showed that different project managers adopted different methods of communication to disseminate the corporate code of ethics to members of their project team.     

All access: a micro-level case study on the secondary center of Berlin (1871–1936)

In an empirical analysis, I show that in the case of Berlin, Germany (1871–1936), the emergence of the second CBD during the first half of the past century was largely driven by market access generated by rail-based public transport. By applying a multistep measure of accessibility, it can be shown that while the city brought-up several economic centers simultaneously, the area around the Kurfürstendamm revealed a strong initial advantage leading to a rapid clustering of economic activity that consisted even decades after this advantage had vanished (hysteresis effect).     

Semi-natural Forested Landscape under a Bark Beetle Outbreak: A case study of the Bohemian Forest (Czech Republic)

Long-term and lasting human interference in forest ecosystems in the Bohemian Forest has resulted in the loss of some equilibrium mechanisms and hence increased susceptibility to ecological disturbances. Two methods for estimating bark beetle outbreaks in spruce forests are reported: an assessment of the susceptibility of individual trees to attack according to crown structure characteristics; and the use of remotely sensed data and image processing techniques to quantify changes in forest cover. The results document a significant increase in the area of highly damaged and dead forest classes, from 1% in 1987 to 16% in 1998, and a decrease in the area of healthy and moderately damaged spruce classes from 71% in 1987 to 52% in 1998. A possible approach to managing mountain Norway spruce ecosystems invaded by bark beetle in the Bohemian Forest is proposed.     

Predicting excavation methods and rock support: a case study from the Himalayan region of India

The Tapovan Vishnugad hydropower project (4 × 130 MW) in the Himalayan region of India, has been used as a case study to compare the problems and cost-effectiveness of a TBM or drill and blast excavation of the headrace tunnel and to assess the rock support measures for the powerhouse cavern. The NTH time and cost prognosis model indicated that the TBM would give a better weekly advance rate and unit excavation cost for the headrace tunnel. The Phase 2 finite element numerical modeling tool and the Hoek–Brown failure criterion were used to analyse the stresses and displacements likely to be experienced in the underground excavations. The rock support determined was compared with that indicated using the Q-method. The work has shown that numerical modeling can prove very useful in supplementing the results, provided the input parameters are accurate and take into account both direct measurements and judgment based on experience of the actual ground conditions.     

Social effects of urban restructuring: a case study in Amsterdam and Utrecht,the Netherlands

In the Netherlands, urban restructuring has been a major policy since 1997. Its principal aim is to improve neighbourhoods by demolishing or upgrading low-rent social dwellings and building more expensive rental or owner occupied units. A fundamental idea underlying this policy is to break up the physical and social monotony of urban areas and to achieve a mixed population in terms of income. The consequence of this new mix should be that people interact better and fully enjoy all kinds of facilities in the restructured area. This paper addresses the question of whether this new policy has indeed had these effects. The focus point is the role of the neighbourhood, featuring changes for traditional inhabitants while accommodating the newcomers. Do they use the area? Are their social contacts made there? Or can the restructured area be seen as a dormitory, where the residents have no contact with other people in the immediate environment? The paper is based on a fieldwork study undertaken in the cities of Amsterdam and Utrecht. Lessons for future policies of urban restructuring are formulated.     

Comparing the lifestyles and environmental perceptions of rural and urban children: a case study in Turkey

This study aims to compare lifestyles and environmental perceptions of urban and rural children. Ninety-two students completed a questionnaire and were given two means (drawing or wring) to express their thoughts regarding (1) the activity and play areas, (2) their neighborhood and (3) their city. The results showed higher levels of parental supervision and restrictions on the independent mobility of the urban children in outdoor areas. This and other differences regarding the life styles are reflected in the children’s drawings of various settings. The results have applied value for planners and urban designers, and additional research is currently underway.