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Coronavirus disease cases and COVID-19-related deaths have been increasing worldwide since the outbreak in 2019. Before the mass vaccination campaign for COVID-19, the main methods for COVID-19 control in China were mass testing and quarantine. Based on the transmission mechanism of COVID-19, we constructed a dynamic model for COVID-19 transmission in two typical regions: Beijing and Xinjiang. We calculated the basic reproduction number R 0, proved the global stability of COVID-19 transmission via the Lyapunov function technique, and introduced the final size. We assessed the effectiveness of mass testing and quarantine. Sensitivity analysis indicated that the more the people were tested per day, the larger is the quarantine proportionality coefficient, the earlier the source location was determined, and the better is the controlling effect. In addition, it was more effective to increase the coefficient of quarantine if the population density in the region was low. To eliminate the pandemic, the government has to expand testing and quarantine, requiring a large amount of continuous manpower, material, and financial resources. Therefore, new control measures should be developed.

Using matched four-stage data from 477 team members and their 132 team leaders in Chinese companies, we examined a cross-level model in which group- and individual-focused transformational leadership and their influence on team and member performance from the perspective of multilevel model of motivation in teams. The results indicated that group-focused TFL exerts positive effects through sequential mediation of team efficacy and team process whereas individual-focused TFL has a positive effect on team members' performance through sequential mediation of followers' self-efficacy and individual regulation process. In addition, we also find significant cross-level mediation effects demonstrating that group-focused TFL was positively related to self-efficacy through the mediator of team efficacy, team efficacy was positively related to the individual regulation process through the mediator of the team process, team process was positively related to individual performance through the mediator of the individual regulation process. Theoretical and applied implications are discussed.

The South-to-North Water Diversion Project consists of long-distance water delivery channels and a complicated geological environment along the way. To deal with the operation safety of the water conveyance channels in the middle route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, this study analyzes six failure modes: structural cracks, poor water delivery during ice periods, instability of canal slopes, material aging, abnormal leakage, and foundation defects. Based on FMEA, a multigranularity language evaluation method that can be converted into interval intuitionistic fuzzy numbers is used to evaluate the severity, occurrence, and detection difficulty of the six failure modes. Interval intuitionistic fuzzy entropy is used to calculate the weights of the risk factors. Finally, a ranking model of each failure mode is built based on the TODIM method. The final ranking results show that the risk of abnormal leakage is the largest, and the risk of poor water delivery during ice periods is the smallest. The feasibility and validity of the calculation results are verified by comparing them with the ranking results of the traditional RPN and TOPSIS methods. The TODIM-FMEA risk assessment model offers a new solution to the problem of risk assessment for water transfer projects.

Data envelopment analysis has proven to be a powerful technique for assessing the relative performance of a set of homogeneous decision-making units. A critical feature of conventional DEA approaches is that only one or several sets of optimal virtual weights are used to aggregate the ratio performance efficiencies, and thus, the efficiency scores might be too extreme or even unrealistic. Alternatively, this paper aims at developing a new performance dominance probability approach and applying it to analyze the banking operations in China. Towards that purpose, we first propose an extended eco-inefficiency model based on the DEA methodology to address banking activities and their possible relative performances. Since the eco-inefficiency will be obtained using a set of optimal weights, we further build a performance dominance structure by considering all sets of feasible weights from a data-driven perspective. Then, we develop two pairwise eco-inefficiency dominance concepts and propose the inefficiency dominance probability model. Finally, we illustrate the eco-inefficiency dominance probability approach with 32 Chinese listed banks from 2014 to 2018 to demonstrate the usefulness and efficacy of the proposed method.

A novel identification algorithm for the correlation analysis-based multiple-input single-output neurofuzzy Wiener model with noise is proposed. Firstly, several sets of Gaussian signals are utilized to realize the decoupling between the dynamic linear blocks and the static nonlinear blocks of a MISO Wiener system. Then, the correlation analysis is adopted to identify the parameters of the linear parts, and the problem that the output of static nonlinear block is immeasurable can be solved. As a result, it can circumvent the problem of initialization and convergence of the model parameters encountered by the existing iterative approach used for the identification of the Wiener model. Next, the least-squares algorithm is employed to estimate the consequent parameters of the nonlinear blocks which can avoid the influence of noise. Finally, examples are used to illustrate the performance of the proposed method.

The arbitrariness of a sign is considered a universal feature and a well-established property of the world’s languages by many linguists, which makes languages flexible and facilitates distinguishing the particular referents to words. However, there are some exceptions in the case of Chinese, a language quite different from western languages. This article analyzes Chinese’s arbitrariness mainly from the perspective of word formation and will show that Chinese characters, which were iconic originally, depart from this universal feature to a great extent. Through many transformations and changes, Chinese characters continue to display three features: iconicity, systematicity and arbitrariness.

Increasing use of the emergency department is well documented, but little is known about the type and severity of ED visits or their distribution across safety-net and non-safety-net hospitals. We examined the rates of high-intensity ED visits--characterized by their use of advanced imaging, consultations with specialists, the evaluation of multiple systems, and highly complex medical decision making--by patients with a severe, potentially life-threatening illness in California from 2002 through 2009. Total annual ED visits increased by 25 percent, from 9.0 million to 11.3 million, but high-intensity ED visits nearly doubled, increasing 87 percent from 778,000 to 1.5 million per year. The percentage of ED visits with high-intensity care increased from 9 percent to 13 percent. Annual ED admissions increased by 39 percent overall; most of this increase was attributable to high-intensity ED admissions, which increased by 88 percent. Safety-net EDs experienced an increase in high-intensity visits of 157 percent, compared to an increase of 61 percent at non-safety-net EDs. These findings suggest a trend toward intensification of ED care, particularly at safety-net hospitals, whose patients may have limited access to care outside the ED.

Amartya Sen on freedom • raised some important points include: freedom and preferences related, but also associated with individual rationality. His most influential contribution was to prove the impossibility of a Pareto-free, which won him the Nobel Prize in Economics for the foundation, its basic meaning refers to the existence of a can not meet unlimited domain, Pareto principle freedom and a minimum of three conditions of social decision function. Sen's discussion of free will on the wishful belief constitutes a profound challenge, we should bear in mind its contribution. It should be noted, from a theoretical point of view of construction, a variety of perspectives Sen lack of organic synthesis, showing a trade-off characteristics. Amartya Sen brought forward some important judgments such as a man's liberty is relevant to his preference as well as his rationality. Among his contributions the most significant is to justify the theorem of the impossibility of the Paretian liberal that there is no a social decision function that meets unrestricted domain, Paretian principle and minimal liberty simultaneously, which helped him win the Nobel Prize on economics. Sen's contribution is significant for its confutation of the libertarian faith. Besides Sen's profundity, it is pointed out that his statements don't combines into an organic synthesis, and represents a feature of compromise