This dissertation examines the nature of education at the senior high school level in Kunming, China, through a participant observation study in four high schools. It discusses Ronald Dore's theory of a 'diploma disease' in the context of the four schools, and the variants which affect it at the level of participants. The dissertation illustrates that the 'backwash effects' which are generated by the National University Entrance Examination are entrenched in the education system and have significant adverse effects on students and teachers. The academic and vocational streams of education are compared and contrasted as providing different paths through the opportunity structure and different outcomes for social mobility. The dissertation analyzes the selective and social distributive functions of senior high school education in Kunming, and suggests that informal methods outside of entrance examinations, such as the use of guanxi and monetary payments, are gaining influence in these realms. As these methods become more widely utilized in the face of increasing competition to enter university, expressions of discontent from those educational participants who are adversely affected are also becoming more apparent.

Diagnosing shoulder pain conditions is a challenging area of musculoskeletal practice. Subacromial impingement syndrome (SIS) is a clinical syndrome that indicates pain and pathology involving the subacromial bursa and rotator cuff tendons within the subacromial space. The three stages of SIS are subacromial bursitis, partial thickness and full thickness rotator cuff tears. The cause of SIS is believed to be multi-factorial with both extrinsic and intrinsic factors involved in its pathogenesis. Clinicians have traditionally diagnosed SIS using a clinical examination including a subjective history followed by confirmatory clinical tests. A review of the evidence for diagnostic accuracy of clinical tests highlights that individual tests have poor diagnostic accuracy. A combination of clinical tests or a clinical examination per se may be useful at ruling out rotator cuff tears, but is less accurate at detecting rotator cuff tears when it is present. There is consensus in the literature that particular combinations of signs and clinical features may be useful in diagnosing rotator cuff tears but not for diagnosing SIS. The vast majority of research to date examining the clinical diagnosis of SIS has been focused on individual clinical tests carried out by medical practitioners in specialist and tertiary care settings. This review has established that the majority of diagnostic accuracy studies for SIS and rotator cuff tears have had poor methodological design. This exploratory study was conducted with subjects undergoing a standardized clinical examination (index test) by a physiotherapist. The decision as to which specific tests were chosen for this research was based on supporting research within the literature and the test’s actual use within the New Zealand clinical setting. This included subjective history questions, active and passive shoulder movement tests and eleven SIS tests. Subjects were referred for a diagnostic ultrasound scan immediately following the clinical examination and results from the scan stood as the criterion reference standard. Thirty eight individuals (males n=23, females n=15) with new onset shoulder pain, who met the inclusion criteria, were assessed by a participating physiotherapist. Sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratios, negative likelihood ratios and respective 95% confidence intervals were calculated for all variables of the examination. Individual variables from the clinical examination were tested for their association with the diagnostic ultrasound scan reference criterion using Pearson Chi-Squared Exact test. Potential predictor variables were retained as potential predictors for use in the logistic regression analysis to determine the most accurate set of clinical examination variables for diagnosing SIS and the individual pathological stages of SIS. The results indicate that no historical, subjective or objective features from the clinical examination are accurate in diagnosing SIS or rotator cuff tears. The presence of night pain demonstrated a significant correlation (P<0.02) with the criterion reference standard for the presence of subacromial bursa fluid/bunching. Night pain and pain with overhead activity has a high sensitivity for subacromial bursa fluid/bunching being present. The absence of night pain and the absence of pain with overhead activity are two subjective phenomena from a clinical examination that are useful in ruling out subacromial bursa fluid/bunching being present. Night pain was also found to be the best predictor of subacromial bursa fluid/bunching being present (P<0.012). Male gender (P<0.034) was the best predictor of partial thickness rotator cuff tears while being 60 years of age or older (P<0.01) significantly correlated with full thickness rotator cuff tears. The Drop Arm Sign (P<0.01) and External Rotation Lag Sign (P<0.01) were significantly correlated with SIS and full thickness rotator cuff tears. Clinical tests for all three pathological stages of SIS and subacromial bursa fluid/bunching being present, had equivalent or if not greater diagnostic accuracy than previous report studies in the literature. The Hawkins-Kennedy Test and Neer Sign can be used in the primary care setting to rule out the presence of subacromial bursa fluid/bunching or SIS if the tests are negative. For mid to end stage SIS (rotator cuff tears) the Empty Can Test and Drop Arm Sign with their high sensitivity can be used to rule out rotator cuff tears especially to the supraspinatus tendon when the tests are negative. Despite the small sample size and other limitations of this study, the findings are an important addition to the current literature surrounding the diagnostic accuracy of clinical tests for SIS and rotator cuff tears. This is the first study to use physiotherapists as examiners and to be set in a primary care setting. The study is also the first to examine the diagnostic accuracy of a range of historical and subjective features from the clinical examination. The results found in the current study could be used by future studies as a starting point in the development of a clinical decision or prediction rule to assist clinicians in the diagnosis of SIS and rotator cuff tears.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att beskriva och analysera huvudsakligen lärares upplevelse av "den goda examinationen", i bemärkelsen examination som främjar lärande på högskole-/universitetsnivå, i relation till vad studenterna förväntas lära sig, s.k. förväntade studieresultat. Metoden är kvalitativ med abduktiv ansats och resultatinsamlingen bygger på fokusgrupp-intervjuer med studenter, en granskning av kursplaner och intervjuer med lärare. Lärarna menar att de förväntade studieresultaten är viktiga för deras planering och genomförande av kurser och tillhörande examinationer, även om de också påpekar att yttre förhållanden som tid och gruppstorlekar ibland hindrar den ideala examinationen med tanke på studenters lärande. Kursplanernas förväntade studieresultat förefaller dock ganska oviktiga för studenterna. De menar att examinationens utformning är betydligt viktigare. Kursplaneanalysen visar vidare att det dominerande inslaget av förväntade studieresultat på G1-nivån vid Ekonomihögskolan på Linnéuniversitetet är reproduktion och tillämpning av kunskaper, samt att beskrivningarna av examinationsformerna ibland är långa och utförliga, men väldigt generella så att sambandet mellan förväntade studieresultat och examinationsform bara finns implicit.

In this paper, we present a automatic item classification system,called AICS. This system is according the content structure that are provided from the teacher for create a content tree. This content tree can correlate the item with content. The main works of AICS classify the item and find the most similar content. After than the system compute the relationship between the item and content, AICS can automatic compute the difficulty of item and examination. The work of this research has two categories: 1. The system can show the content that are related to the item and help the teacher understand the difficulty of the examination paper quickly. 2. When after the examination, the system provide the content for student understand the irrelevant items.

Onset of puberty was observed in 12 bison bulls by the collection of semen at monthly intervals for 12 months beginning at 13 months of age. Onset of puberty was defined as the time in development when an ejaculate contained a minimum of 50x106 sperm showing at least 10% progressive motility. At each collection, data were recorded on body weight, semen quality, fecal testosterone concentration, and physical development. Semen was evaluated for gross motility, individual progressive motility, sperm morphology, sperm concentration and volume. From these data bison bulls attained onset of puberty at an average age of 16.5 months and an average body weight of 353 ± 52.8 kg. Age was the greatest determining factor for onset of puberty in this group of bulls. <p> Monthly abattoir collections of epididymal sperm (n=288) and testicular tissue (n=120) were evaluated to determine if bison bulls undergo seasonal changes in sperm production. Although epididymal sperm morphology did not give any indication of seasonal variation, the histological study of testicular tissue showed greater seminiferous tubule diameter (27.0 ± 4.3 ìm) during the breeding months (July, August and September) than during any other seasons. Semen collected at 4 different occasions during the year (June, November, January, and April) from live mature breeding bulls (n=21) was used to verify data collected from abattoir samples. Semen from mature bulls showed a significantly greater proportion of normal sperm in June than in November (73.8 ± 9.1%; 44.1 ± 24.3%), respectively. There was little improvement in sperm morphology at the January sampling but in April morphology improved to a level close to that observed in June. Fecal testosterone concentrations were highest in June (128.6 ± 67.4 ng/g) and lowest in April (48.5 ± 33.3 ng/g). Although there was no clear seasonal trend in sperm morphology from bulls sampled at the abattoir, mature bulls showed slight seasonal variations in semen quality.

Onset of puberty was observed in 12 bison bulls by the collection of semen at monthly intervals for 12 months beginning at 13 months of age. Onset of puberty was defined as the time in development when an ejaculate contained a minimum of 50x106 sperm showing at least 10% progressive motility. At each collection, data were recorded on body weight, semen quality, fecal testosterone concentration, and physical development. Semen was evaluated for gross motility, individual progressive motility, sperm morphology, sperm concentration and volume. From these data bison bulls attained onset of puberty at an average age of 16.5 months and an average body weight of 353 ± 52.8 kg. Age was the greatest determining factor for onset of puberty in this group of bulls. <p> Monthly abattoir collections of epididymal sperm (n=288) and testicular tissue (n=120) were evaluated to determine if bison bulls undergo seasonal changes in sperm production. Although epididymal sperm morphology did not give any indication of seasonal variation, the histological study of testicular tissue showed greater seminiferous tubule diameter (27.0 ± 4.3 ìm) during the breeding months (July, August and September) than during any other seasons. Semen collected at 4 different occasions during the year (June, November, January, and April) from live mature breeding bulls (n=21) was used to verify data collected from abattoir samples. Semen from mature bulls showed a significantly greater proportion of normal sperm in June than in November (73.8 ± 9.1%; 44.1 ± 24.3%), respectively. There was little improvement in sperm morphology at the January sampling but in April morphology improved to a level close to that observed in June. Fecal testosterone concentrations were highest in June (128.6 ± 67.4 ng/g) and lowest in April (48.5 ± 33.3 ng/g). Although there was no clear seasonal trend in sperm morphology from bulls sampled at the abattoir, mature bulls showed slight seasonal variations in semen quality.

Abstracts Under the medical environment change, medical institutions must take the strategy of diversification for personalized health management services, such as high-grade health examination. High-grade health examination has a extensive of medical market, becoming the main target markets of the various medical institutions. The high-grade consumers are the target customer of high-grade health examination. Knowing their demands is necessary. This study sample consists of two major groups: 16 persons who in charge of health examination department, and 31 high-grade consumers. The data was collected by questionnaires and based on the statistical analysis to investigate the demands of high-grade health examination. The purpose of this study is to identify the difference between the customers and the medical institutions. Providing information for high¡Vgrade health examination marketing. The results show that high-grade consumers more emphasis on "progressive facilities ", "doctors¡¦speciality", " hygienic environment", "explain the details before examination "and "explain the results by the doctors ". Medical institutions more care the factors about "dealing with customers¡¦ complaints "," reasonable price "," customization "," doctors¡¦speciality " and" explain the process of examination ". A comparison of the two groups indicates that the medical institutions care much more than consumers on ¡§ insurance provided "," reasonable price "," dealing with customers¡¦ complaints "," medical information providing "," health promotion consultation "and" customized exercise prescription " . Attention on " environment comfortable and spacious " is pronounced in high-grade consumers . Key words ¡Ghealth examination, high-grade consumers, choice of hospital

Prediction systems for College Entrance Examination (CEE) are popular during the graduating season, July every year in Taiwan. These systems give students suggestion according to their examination scores. There are several CEE prediction systems in Taiwan, but most of them are not constructed with rigorous theories. In 2005, Zen et al. constructed a prediction model using statistical method, which was later verified and improved by Lin in 2008. In this thesis, we will introduce the recording mechanism of the College Entrance Examination, and explain how to construct a prediction system under this mechanism. Also, we will compare the previous system with ours. We apply an empirical method and SVR as our first two approaches, and then we propose a new method. In our experiments, we consider the scores published by CEE center from 2004 to 2008. We use the root mean square error (RMSE) value to evaluate the performance of our present method. We also use the value generated by our method to show some information of the schools and the departments.

Abstract It is important and urgent for government¡¦s discretion to make good use of Recruit /appointment system to introduce new blood into the government to cope with the needs of the society. This essay tried to analyze the problems that our civil servants¡¦ recruiting system has encountered. The similar systems of other developed countries were also discussed. This essay made several suggestions concerning government reforms in accordance with the latest world trend and the way to help civil servants realize their roles in democratic administration. This essay also tried to make clear what government can do to review and revise personnel laws as well as civil service systems, so as to recruit competent individuals into the government to provide better services to the people. Because the reform of civil servant personnel system is a part of government reform plan, and the reform of recruit/appointment system is a crucial link of civil servant personnel system, while present recruit/appointment system still has some flaws to be corrected, this essay made some suggestions on the issues of examination , appointment and promotion. A. Examination: 1. To abolish the prerequisite qualifications in all kinds of national examinations. 2. To increase the number of ¡§extra list¡¨ of passers of both common and higher national examinations. 3. To widen the range of recruits from those who have passed profession and technician examinations to serve in the public section. 4. To adopt examinations with diversity and elasticity. B. Appointment system: 1. To reasonably raise the ranking paradigm of local civil servants. 2. To modify the rules of deputizing. 3. To allow the interchanges of persons of public and private sections. 4. To give elasticity to the laws of personnel appointment according to different geography locations. C. Promotion: 1. To increase the weight of performance and potential of development in the evaluation for promotion. 2. To limit the chief¡¦s authority in the evaluation for promotion. 3. To develop a fast promotion mechanism. The goal of civil servant system reform is ¡§Government Reform and Elastic Recruit¡¨. Therefore, this essay suggested that related governmental departments should play a more active role in government reform and to engage in a brand new innovation of civil servant recruit/appointment system.

published_or_final_version / Medical Sciences / Master / Master of Medical Sciences