Both glycemic control and handgrip strength affect microvascular function. Multiscale entropy of photoplethysmographic pulse amplitudes may differ by diabetes status and hand activity. Of a middle-to-old aged and right-handed cohort without clinical cardiovascular disease, we controlled age, sex, and weight to select the unaffected,the well-controlled diabetes, and the poorly controlled diabetes groups. MSEs were calculated from consecutive 1,500 PPG pulse amplitudes of bilateral index fingertips. Thesmall-, medium-,and large-scale MSEs were defined as the average of scale 1, scales 2–4, and scales (...) 5–10, respectively. Intra- and intergroups were compared by one- and two-samplet-tests, respectively. The dominant handMSE5–10was lower in the poorly controlled diabetes group than the well-controlled diabetes and the unaffected groups, whereas the nondominant handMSE5–10was lower in the well- and poorly controlled diabetes groups than the unaffected group. TheMSE1of dominant hand was higher than that of nondominant hand in the well-controlled diabetes. In conclusion, diabetes status and hand dominance may affect the MSE of PPG pulse amplitudes. (shrink)

Students often face challenges while learning computer programming because programming languages’ logic and visual presentations differ from human thought processes. If the course content does not closely match learners’ skill level, the learner cannot follow the learning process, resulting in frustration, low learning motivation, or abandonment. This research proposes a web programming learning recommendation system to provide students with personalized guidance and step-by-step learning planning. The system contains front-end and back-end web development instructions. It can create personalized learning paths to (...) help learners achieve a sense of accomplishment. The system can help learners build self-confidence and improve learning effectiveness. In study 1, the recommendation system was developed based on the personal data and feedback of 41 professional web design engineers. The system uses C4.5 decision tree methods to develop a programming learning recommendation model to provide appropriate learning recommendations and establish personalized learning paths. The test group included 13 beginner programmers. After 4 weeks’ programming instructions in front-end and back-end web development, the learners were interviewed to understand their preferences and learning effectiveness. The results show that the effectiveness of the recommendation system is acceptable. In study 2, online real-time feedback and adaptive instruction platform is developed, which is different from the past adaptive curriculums mainly using the Internet platform and only the submitted assignments to determine the newly recommended learning process for students. The study found that the students’ learning performance in the adaptive instruction group is better than those in the fixed instruction group. (shrink)

Young migrants have been the major migrant labor force in urban China. But they may be more vulnerable in quality of life and mental health than other groups, due to their personal characteristic and some social/community policies or management measures. It highlights the need to focus on psychological wellbeing and probe driving and reinforcing factors that influence their mental health. This study aimed to investigate the influence of subjective/objective status and possible pathways of young migrants’ life satisfaction and psychological distress. (...) Data on 9838 young migrants in the China Migrants Dynamic Survey were analyzed by LISREL 8.8. A total of 94.03% migrated for jobs or business. Subjective status, including subjective socioeconomic status, social adaptation, and psychological integration, had positive effects on life satisfaction, whereas social adaptation and psychological integration negatively affected psychological distress. Objective status, including objective socioeconomic status and health insurance, had adverse effects on life satisfaction, whereas they positively affected psychological distress. Social participation and city belonging had only significant positive mediating roles on life satisfaction. It is essential to increase social adaptation and decrease integration stress according to younger internal migrants’ practical needs. It is also necessary to enhance community/social resources and activities in the context of developing sustainability in the community to assist in mental health promotion. (shrink)

As early as January of 1957, at the Peking University Symposium on the Problems of the History of Chinese Philosophy, Chang Tai-nien was already attacking with his glittering words.

Many on both sides of the gun control debate are under the impression that the best way to settle it is by weighing outcomes in the context of a utilitarian cost-benefit analysis. This article suggests that this way of thinking about the gun control debate is fundamentally mistaken. What matters is not therisk(or lack thereof) that guns pose to society, but simply whether guns are areasonable means of self-defencewhen used to resist crimes. What this means is that even if we (...) were to grant the claim that gun ownership decreases average safety, it wouldn't follow that restrictive gun control measures would be justified. (shrink)

I’ll argue in this essay that individuals should be allowed to own firearms. In making the case for this position, I’ll defend the following two claims: -/- 1. The best research does not show that gun ownership results in more harms than benefits. This fact, in addition to the substantial self-defense benefits that guns offer and the value of personal liberty, supports a presumption in favor of gun ownership. 2. Even if the overall harms of gun ownership were to outweigh (...) its overall benefits, there is still a presumption in favor of reasonably permissive gun ownership. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to report the results of therapy sessions conducted with survivors of an earthquake that struck Luku Township in Nantou County, central Taiwan, in September 1999. The sessions explored survivors’ feelings, interactions, and interpretations of the crisis, as well as their roles in post-earthquake relief efforts. The participants were teachers and administrators from four primary schools. The results indicated three distinct forms of caring, namely: encumbered caring, connected caring, and reflected caring. The findings were used (...) to construct a framework for caregiver self-monitoring. They also suggest that therapy groups provide an inner space that self-regulates the frustrations arising from this type of experience, for both caregivers and survivors. The intrasubjective and intersubjective dialogues within the groups are essentially reflective practices for improving services and generating new knowledge about medical ethics. (shrink)

Background: Although maternal serum screening for Down’s syndrome has become routinely available in most obstetric clinics in many countries, few studies have addressed the reasons why women agree to undergo the MSS test.Objectives: The aims of this study were to describe the circumstances in which MSS was offered to pregnant women and their reasons for undertaking it.Methods: Participant observation and in depth interviews were used in this study; specifically, the experiences of women who had a positive result for MSS and (...) who then followed this up with amniocentesis were examined. The interviewees were twenty six mothers aged between 22 and 35 years. The interviews were audio taped and transcribed for analysis. The results were analysed by the constant comparative method.Results: This study identified the reasons on which pregnant women appeared to base their decisions when undergoing MSS. The reasons were first, the recognition that the procedure was a prenatal routine procedure; second, the need to avoid the risk of giving birth to a baby with Down’s syndrome, and third, a trust in modern technology and in the professional authorities.Conclusions: This study offers insights into the informed choice made by women with a positive MSS result. The reasons for undergoing MSS might help health professionals and policy makers to reflect on their practice and this may, in turn, improve the quality of prenatal care during MSS. (shrink)

The moral right to keep and bear arms is entailed by the moral right of self-defense. We argue that the ownership and use of firearms is a reasonable means of exercising these rights. Given their defensive value, there is a strong presumption in favor of enacting civil rights to keep and bear arms ranging from handguns to ‘assault rifles.’ Thus, states are morally obliged as a matter of justice to recognize basic liberties for firearm ownership and usage. Throughout this paper (...) we build upon the relevant criminological and social science research in addition to the work of other philosophers who have in recent years argued in favor of gun rights. Although we believe the statistical evidence supports our case, our argument is primarily non-consequentialist. We do, however, address consequentialist objections in the last section of this paper. (shrink)

Python language has become the most popular computer language. Python is widely adopted in computer courses. However, Python language’s effects on the college and university students’ learning performance, motivations, computer programming self-efficacy, and maladaptive cognition have still not been widely examined. The main objective of this study is to explore the effects of learning Python on students’ programming learning. The junior students of two classes in a college are the research participants. One class was taught Java language and the other (...) class was taught Python language. The learning performance, motivations, and maladaptive cognition in the two classes were compared to evaluate the differences. The results showed that the motivations, computer programming self-efficacy, and maladaptive cognition on the learning performance were significant in the Python class. The results and findings of this study can be used in Python course arrangement and development. (shrink)

The author examines some Confucian-trained Tokugawa Japanese scholars who were concerned about the deleterious impact of Buddhism on native Shinto thought and practice. Several leading Confucian-trained scholars appealed to Zhu Xi’s thought in various ways to reinforce and preserve Shintoism and its original spirit.

Studying the neural correlates of conscious awareness depends on a reliable comparison between activations associated with awareness and unawareness. One particularly difficult confound to remove is task performance capacity, i.e. the difference in performance between the conditions of interest. While ideally task performance capacity should be matched across different conditions, this is difficult to achieve experimentally. However, differences in performance could theoretically be corrected for mathematically. One such proposal is found in a recent paper by Lamy, Salti and Bar-Haim [Lamy (...) D, Salti M, Bar-Haim Y. Neural correlates of subjective awareness and unconscious processing: an ERP study. J Cognitive Neurosci 2009,21:1435-46], who put forward a corrective method for an electroencephalography experiment. We argue that their analysis is essentially grounded in a version of High Threshold Theory, which has been shown to be inferior in general to Signal Detection Theory. We show through a series of computer simulations that their correction method only partially removes the influence of perfor- mance capacity, which can yield misleading results. We present a mathematical correction method based on Signal Detection Theory that is theoretically capable of removing performance capacity confounds. We discuss the limitations of mathemati- cally correcting for performance capacity confounds in imaging studies and its impact for theories about consciousness. (shrink)

This paper discusses how the theory of evolutionary Asiacentrism and the Peking Man findings at the Zhoukoudian site stimulated Chinese intellectuals to construct Sinocentric ethno-nationalism during the period from the late 1920s to the early 1940s. It shows that the theory was first popularized by foreign scientists in Beijing, and the Peking man discoveries further provided strong evidence for the idea that Central Asia, or to be more specific, Tibet, Xinjiang, and Mongolia, was the original cradle of humans. Chinese scholars (...) in the late 1930s and 1940s appropriated the findings to construct the monogenesis theory of the Chinese, which designated that all the diverse ethnic groups within the territory of China shared a common ancestor back to antiquity. (shrink)

Philosophy is presented in a wide range of forms, none of which can be convincingly claimed to be the “genuine” one. Historically speaking, there is not one “proper” way of doing philosophy, evidencing what may be called the social contingency of philosophy. This paper aims to provide a “critical” philosophy of today, in the Kantian sense of a philosophy that reflects on the conditions of its possibility, and thereby acknowledges the limitations they impose. Conceptually, our approach is grounded in Niklas (...) Luhmann’s social systems theory, in which “functional differentiation” and “second-order observation” are two crucial characteristics of modern society. The paper discusses how presentations of philosophy align themselves with the second-order observation mechanisms of the specific social systems in which they are “hosted.” This paper deals in particular with two such systems: academics and social media. These forms of presenting philosophy produce two different kinds of philosophy presenters: the expert and the influencer. (shrink)

In the early twentieth century, with the development of Western scientific imperialism, Asia, South America, and Africa became sites for Western scientific exploration. Many paleontological specimens, including dinosaur bones, were discovered in China by foreign scientists and explorers and exported to museums in France, Sweden, and the United States. After the establishment of the Nationalist Government in Nanjing in 1927, anti-imperialist Chinese intellectuals attempted to prevent foreigners from exporting specimens unearthed on Chinese territory. In the summer of 1928, the fossils (...) discovered in the Gobi Desert by the Central Asiatic Expedition of the American Museum of Natural History were detained in China. A series of negotiations ensued between Chinese and American diplomats and scientists over the issues of the ownership of fossils and the format of international scientific collaborations. By studying the interests and stakes for players in the different social worlds involved in the dispute, this essay explores the relations among science, diplomacy, and the politics of deep time. (shrink)

This paper proposes a way of navigating the tension between the local and global in Fratelli tutti. The author argues that the encyclical exemplifies and develops an analogical approach for authentic encounter. The analogical approach to God and its use of language emphasize a tensive space between the known and unknown, which the author transposes to human encounter. The encyclical grounds and develops this transposed analogical approach through emphasis on cultural diversity, with a bifocal affirmation of difference and desire for (...) relationship. Francis’s attention to Indigenous peoples grounds attention to the local as disposing toward a global outlook in care for the natural world. Finally, the author applies this approach to reflection on reconciliation between Indigenous peoples and the Church in Canada. Reflection on language is thereby put to the work of engaging the tensive and morally complex space between truth and reconciliation—namely, the space of encount er where healing is ongoing. (shrink)