Fascinating China Sceneries in Blockbuster Films

It feels good to watch a well-made film with touching plot and enchanting scenes,and only better to see in real the impressive images it leaves in your head.Ihis issue of This Is China will take you to the beautiful places where beloved films Avatar;Kong Fu Panda,Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon,and Hero were shot.Zhanngjiajie National Forest Park-AvatarThe Zhangjiajie National Forest Park is located in Zhangjiajie City in northern Hunan Province in the People's Republic of China,covering an area of 4,810 hectares.It was recognized as the country's first national forest park in 1982,and listed as a UNESCO Global Geopark in 2004.     

Short reports

The aim of the study was to evaluate a hospital-based injury recording system on hip fracture registration in elderly persons aged + 65 years from 1994 through 2008, and to examine the agreement between the number of validated fractures and the number of fractures reported to the Norwegian Patient Registry using three different sources: (1) Medical records, (2) Patient administrative system and (3) The hospital's hip fracture record to the Norwegian Patient Registry from 2002 through 2008. The injury recording system included 582 hip fracture events and 535 (92%) were confirmed through the medical records. Reasons for non-verification were different coding failures. Searching the patient administrative system using ICD codes identified 16 hip fractures not included in the fracture registry between 2002 through 2008. The total number was the same as the number of hip fractures reported to the Norwegian Patient Registry using ICD codes alone for identification. The conclusion is that on well-defined diagnosis like hip fractures, local fracture registries may obtain a high degree of reliability if different sources are available for quality control. Well-functioning patient administrative systems may be used to study numbers of hip fractures.     

Making the link between work-life balance practices and organizational performance

The business case for work-life balance practices, as espoused by many organizations, rests on attracting better applicants and reducing work-life conflict among existing employees in order to enhance organizational performance. This review of the literature provides some evidence for the claim regarding recruitment, but there is insufficient evidence to support the notion that work-life practices enhance performance by means of reduced work-life conflict. We suggest that the business case may therefore need to be modified to reflect the number of additional routes by which work-life balance practices can influence organizational performance, including enhanced social exchange processes, increased cost savings, improved productivity, and reduced turnover. The impact of these processes may, however, be moderated by a number of factors, including national context, job level, and managerial support. The importance of further research into the effects of these practices is discussed.     

Oral history and information technology: Human voices of assessment

Dramatic advances in technology for acquiring, managing, and sharing information promise to reshape the workplace by eliciting new behaviors and introducing new organizational patterns. For academic medical centers, the integration of information technology into programs of education, research, and patient care is essential for increased organizational effectiveness.

At Baylor College of Medicine, we have developed information‐sharing and management tools, collectively called the Virtual Notebook System (VNS). The VNS is a multiuser, workstation‐based hypermedia system that serves as a technologically extended analog of the laboratory notebook used in biomedical research. We are deploying the VNS in scientific groups at Baylor, and are applying oral history techniques to assess its impact.

This article shows how oral history captures the “human voices”; of Baylor's experience and helps us understand the effects of information technology on the processes of biomedical research.     

Trust,reputation and bidding behaviour in online mystery auctions

We use transactions from a distinctive online environment of ‘mystery’ auctions to examine the role that trust plays and how it impacts bidding behaviour when the exact characteristics of a good being auctioned are purposefully concealed from buyers. We show that buyers are generally trusting seller claims in online transactions and that seller reputation becomes significantly more important to buyers (as demonstrated by their bids) when the quality (or value) of the good is unspecified. Our findings can be extrapolated to consider broader economic implications of bidding behaviour impacted by trust, such as in financial markets, where over-bidding may lead to price bubbles.     

Have the frills really left the European airline industry?

The emergence of low‐cost scheduled carriers in European aviation has attracted attention from business and leisure travellers as well as from established carriers. This paper examines low‐cost carriers in terms of their operating features and considers implications for European transport markets. Relevant aspects of the operating environment of European airlines are examined. An analysis of the USA situation in relation to low‐cost carriers is also provided. It is suggested that further research into the development of budget air travel in Europe needs to be undertaken. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.