A total of 944 expressed sequence tags generated 2212 EST loci mapped to homoeologous group 1 chromosomes in hexaploid wheat. EST deletion maps and the consensus map of group 1 chromosomes were constructed to show EST distribution. EST loci were unevenly distributed among chromosomes 1A, 1B, and ID with 660, 826, and 726, respectively. The number of EST loci was greater on the long arms than on the short arms for all three chromosomes. The distribution of ESTs along chromosome arms (...) was nonrandom with EST clusters occurring in the distal regions of short arms and middle regions of long arms. Duplications of group 1 ESTs in other homoeologous groups occurred at a rate of 35.5%. Seventy-five percent of wheat chromosome 1 ESTs had significant matches with rice sequences, where large regions of conservation occurred between wheat consensus chromosome 1 and rice chromosome 5 and between the proximal portion of the long arm of wheat consensus chromosome 1 and rice chromosome 10. Only 9.5% of group 1 ESTs showed significant matches to Arabidopsis genome sequences. The results presented are useful for gene mapping and evolutionary and comparative genomics of grasses. (shrink)

GRAS is a recently discovered family of plant-specific proteins that play important regulatory roles in diverse aspects of plant development. Several of the motifs present in the GRAS proteins suggest that they function as transcription factors, although homology-searching programs have revealed no significant similarity to any non-plant proteins. Here we propose that the GRAS proteins are related to the Signal Transducers and Activators of Transcription (STAT) family of proteins. STATs are known in many non-plant species, and act as intracellular intermediaries (...) between extracellular ligands and the transcription and activation of genes. Our hypothesis is that the GRAS proteins perform this function in plants, with mechanisms similar to those of the animal STATs. If true, this hypothesis has important implications for the evolution of phosphotyrosine based signal transduction systems in eukaryotic organisms. BioEssays 22:573–577, 2000. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (shrink)

In the course of an immune response, antibodies undergo affinity maturation in order to increase their efficiency in neutralizing foreign invaders. Affinity maturation occurs by the introduction of multiple point mutations in the variable region gene that encodes the antigen binding site. This somatic hypermutation is restricted to immunoglobulin genes and occurs at very high rates. The precise molecular basis of this process remains obscure. However, recent studies using a variety of in vivo and in vitro systems have revealed important (...) regulatory regions, base motifs that are preferred targets of mutation and evidence that transcription may play an active role in hypermutation. BioEssays 20:227–234, 1998. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (shrink)

To localize wheat ESTs on chromosomes, 882 homoeologous group 6-specific ESTs were identified by physically mapping 7965 singletons from 37 cDNA libraries on 146 chromosome, arm, and sub-arm aneuploid and deletion stocks. The 882 ESTs were physically mapped to 25 regions flanked by 23 deletion breakpoints. Of the 5154 restriction fragments detected by 882 ESTs, 2043 were localized to group 6 chromosomes and 806 were mapped on other chromosome groups. The number of loci mapped was greatest on chromosome 6B and (...) least on 6D. The 264 ESTs that detected orthologous loci on all three homoeologs using one restriction enzyme were used to construct a consensus physical map. The physical distribution of ESTs was uneven on chromosomes with a tendency toward higher densities in the distal halves of chromosome arms. About 43% of the wheat group 6 ESTs identified rice homologs upon comparisons of genome sequences. Fifty-eight percent of these ESTs were present on rice chromosome 2 and the remaining were on other rice chromosomes. Even within the group 6 bins, rice chromosomal blocks identified by 1-6 wheat ESTs were homologous to up to 11 rice chromosomes. These rice-block contigs were used to resolve the order of wheat ESTs within each bin. (shrink)

The focus of this study was to analyze the content, distribution, and comparative genome relationships of 996 chromosome bin-mapped expressed sequence tags accounting for 2266 restriction fragments on the homoeologous group 3 chromosomes of hexaploid wheat. Of these loci, 634, 884, and 748 were mapped on chromosomes 3A, 3B, and 3D, respectively. The individual chromosome bin maps revealed bins with a high density of mapped ESTs in the distal region and bins of low density in the proximal region of the (...) chromosome arms, with the exception of 3DS and 3DL. These distributions were more localized on the higher-resolution group 3 consensus map with intermediate regions of high-mapped-EST density on both chromosome arms. Gene ontology classification of mapped ESTs was not significantly different for homoeologous group 3 chromosomes compared to the other groups. A combined analysis of the individual bin maps using 537 of the mapped ESTs revealed rearrangements between the group 3 chromosomes. Approximately 232 of the consensus mapped ESTs matched sequences on rice chromosome 1 and revealed large- and small-scale differences in gene order. Of the group 3 mapped EST unigenes ∼21 and 32% matched the Arabidopsis coding regions and proteins, respectively, but no chromosome-level gene order conservation was detected. (shrink)

The objectives of this study were to develop a high-density chromosome bin map of homoeologous group 7 in hexaploid wheat, to identify gene distribution in these chromosomes, and to perform comparative studies of wheat with rice and barley. We mapped 2148 loci from 919 EST clones onto group 7 chromosomes of wheat. In the majority of cases the numbers of loci were significantly lower in the centromeric regions and tended to increase in the distal regions. The level of duplicated loci (...) in this group was 24% with most of these loci being localized toward the distal regions. One hundred nineteen EST probes that hybridized to three fragments and mapped to the three group 7 chromosomes were designated landmark probes and were used to construct a consensus homoeologous group 7 map. An additional 49 probes that mapped to 7AS, 7DS, and the ancestral translocated segment involving 7BS also were designated landmarks. Landmark probe orders and comparative maps of wheat, rice, and barley were produced on the basis of corresponding rice BAC/PAC and genetic markers that mapped on chromosomes 6 and 8 of rice. Identification of landmark ESTs and development of consensus maps may provide a framework of conserved coding regions predating the evolution of wheat genomes. (shrink)

The complex hexaploid wheat genome offers many challenges for genomics research. Expressed sequence tags facilitate the analysis of gene-coding regions and provide a rich source of molecular markers for mapping and comparison with model organisms. The objectives of this study were to construct a high-density EST chromosome bin map of wheat homoeologous group 2 chromosomes to determine the distribution of ESTs, construct a consensus map of group 2 ESTs, investigate synteny, examine patterns of duplication, and assess the colinearity with rice (...) of ESTs assigned to the group 2 consensus bin map. A total of 2600 loci generated from 1110 ESTs were mapped to group 2 chromosomes by Southern hybridization onto wheat aneuploid chromosome and deletion stocks. A consensus map was constructed of 552 ESTs mapping to more than one group 2 chromosome. Regions of high gene density in distal bins and low gene density in proximal bins were found. Two interstitial gene-rich islands flanked by relatively gene-poor regions on both the short and long arms and having good synteny with rice were discovered. The map locations of two ESTs indicated the possible presence of a small pericentric inversion on chromosome 2B. Wheat chromosome group 2 was shown to share syntenous blocks with rice chromosomes 4 and 7. (shrink)

The structure and “metabolism” (movement and conversion of goods and energy) of urban areas has caused cities to be identified as “super‐organisms”, placed between ecosystems and the biosphere, in the hierarchy of living systems. Yet most such analogies are weak, and render the super‐organism model ineffective for sustainable development of cities. Via a cluster analysis of 15 shared traits of the hierarchical living system, we found that industrialized cities are more similar to eukaryotic cells than to multicellular organisms; enclosed systems, (...) such as factories and greenhouses, paralleling organelles in eukaryotic cells. We further developed a “super‐cell” industrialized city model: a “eukarcity” with citynucleus (urban area) as a regulating centre, and organaras (enclosed systems, which provide the majority of goods and services) as the functional components, and cityplasm (natural ecosystems and farmlands) as the matrix. This model may improve the vitality and sustainability of cities through planning and management. (shrink)

A total of 1918 loci, detected by the hybridization of 938 expressed sequence tag unigenes from 26 Triticeae cDNA libraries, were mapped to wheat homoeologous group 4 chromosomes using a set of deletion, ditelosomic, and nulli-tetrasomic lines. The 1918 EST loci were not distributed uniformly among the three group 4 chromosomes; 41, 28, and 31% mapped to chromosomes 4A, 4B, and 4D, respectively. This pattern is in contrast to the cumulative results of EST mapping in all homoeologous groups, as reported (...) elsewhere, that found the highest proportion of loci mapped to the B genome. Sixty-five percent of these 1918 loci mapped to the long arms of homoeologous group 4 chromosomes, while 35% mapped to the short arms. The distal regions of chromosome arms showed higher numbers of loci than the proximal regions, with the exception of 4DL. This study confirmed the complex structure of chromosome 4A that contains two reciprocal translocations and two inversions, previously identified. An additional inversion in the centromeric region of 4A was revealed. A consensus map for homoeologous group 4 was developed from 119 ESTs unique to group 4. Forty-nine percent of these ESTs were found to be homoologous to sequences on rice chromosome 3, 12% had matches with sequences on other rice chromosomes, and 39% had no matches with rice sequences at all. Limited homology was found between wheat ESTs on homoeologous group 4 and the Arabidopsis genome. Forty-two percent of the homoeologous group 4 ESTs could be classified into functional categories on the basis of blastX searches against all protein databases. (shrink)

It is proved in $\mathsf {ZF}$ (without the axiom of choice) that, for all infinite sets M, there are no surjections from $\omega \times M$ onto $\operatorname {\mathrm {\mathscr {P}}}(M)$.

Ensuring access to clean water is one of the most important development and health challenges of the twenty-first century. Given the manifold impacts of business activities on water resources, corporate water actions should be of central concern to business ethics researchers. Yet so far we know too little about whether business activities that impact on water resources are noticed or how corporate water actions are valued by a firm’s stakeholders, including by financial markets. In response, we conduct an event study (...) to investigate the shareholder wealth effect of reports of corporate water actions. We explore stock market reactions to water actions by S&P 500 firms from 2005 to 2017, showing that the market reacts positively to reports of responsible water actions and negatively to irresponsible actions. We further explain that these abnormal returns to water actions are associated with a firm’s past performance on ethical issues, arguing that the reputational effects from prior corporate social responsibility and irresponsibility influence market reactions. Our analysis provides evidence that there are diminishing marginal returns to responsible water actions for firms with records of past responsibility and an offsetting effect for those with past irresponsibility. Similarly, we demonstrate an insurance effect that limits punishment for irresponsible water actions for firms with responsible performance records and diminishing negative marginal returns for those already seen to be irresponsible. This study is the first to show that shareholders recognize market value in corporate water actions and are prepared to award or punish firms in stock markets based on their impacts on water. (shrink)

ObjectivesAimed to analyze the mediating effect of executive function between physical activity level and trait anxiety in college students.MethodsThe International Physical Activity Questionnaire, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Stroop task, 1-back task, and More-odd shifting task were used to analyze 248 college students.ResultsTrait anxiety were significantly correlated with shifting function (r = 0.182, P = 0.004) and inhibition function (r = 0.163, P = 0.010) and not with working memory (r = 0.056, P = 0.385). Vigorous physical activity (VPA) was most highly (...) correlated with inhibition function (Beta = −0.144, P = 0.024) and working memory (Beta = −0.208, P = 0.001), and light physical activity (LPA) was most highly correlated with shifting function (Beta = −0.211, P = 0.001). Physical activity had a 72.31% association with trait anxiety (B = −0.195), with 11.79% mediated by inhibition function (B = −0.023) and 15.90% by shifting function (B = −0.031).ConclusionCollege students' physical activity promotes both inhibition and shifting functions, which in turn affect trait anxiety. VPA had a direct effect, while the effect of moderate physical activity (MPA) and LPA was completely mediated exclusively through executive functions, and the mediating effect of shifting function was the highest. It is recommended that college workers should motivate students with high trait anxiety to engage in more VPA and pay attention to changes in their inhibition and shifting functions. (shrink)

BackgroundThe concept of career identity is integral to nursing practices and forms the basis of the nursing professions. Positive career identity is essential for providing high-quality care, optimizing patient outcomes, and enhancing the retention of health professionals. Therefore, there is a need to explore potential influencing variables, thereby developing effective interventions to improve career identity.ObjectivesTo investigate the relationship between moral distress, moral courage, and career identity, and explore the mediating role of moral courage between moral distress and career identity among (...) nurses.DesignA quantitative, cross-sectional study.MethodsA convenient sample of 800 nurses was recruited from two tertiary care hospitals between February and March 2022. Participants were assessed using the Moral Distress Scale-revised, Nurses’ Moral Courage Scale, and Nursing Career Identity Scale. This study was described in accordance with the STROBE statement.Ethical considerationResearch ethics approval was obtained from the researcher’s university and hospital where this study was conducted prior to data collection.FindingsMoral distress is negatively associated while moral courage is positively associated with career identity among nurses. Moral courage partially mediates the relationship between moral distress and career identity ( β = −0.230 to −0.163, p < 0.01).DiscussionThe findings reveal a relationship between moral distress, moral courage, and career identity among nurses.ConclusionBy paying attention to nurses’ moral distress and courage, healthcare providers can contribute to the development of effective interventions to improve career identity, and subsequently performance, among nurses. (shrink)

This report describes the rationale, approaches, organization, and resource development leading to a large-scale deletion bin map of the hexaploid wheat genome. Accompanying reports in this issue detail results from chromosome bin-mapping of expressed sequence tags representing genes onto the seven homoeologous chromosome groups and a global analysis of the entire mapped wheat EST data set. Among the resources developed were the first extensive public wheat EST collection. Described are protocols for sequencing, sequence processing, EST nomenclature, and the assembly of (...) ESTs into contigs. These contigs plus singletons were used for selection of distinct sequence motif unigenes. Selected ESTs were rearrayed, validated by 5′ and 3′ sequencing, and amplified for probing a series of wheat aneuploid and deletion stocks. Images and data for all Southern hybridizations were deposited in databases and were used by the coordinators for each of the seven homoeologous chromosome groups to validate the mapping results. Results from this project have established the foundation for future developments in wheat genomics. (shrink)

Strong Turing Determinacy, or ${\mathrm {sTD}}$, is the statement that for every set A of reals, if $\forall x\exists y\geq _T x (y\in A)$, then there is a pointed set $P\subseteq A$. We prove the following consequences of Turing Determinacy ( ${\mathrm {TD}}$ ) and ${\mathrm {sTD}}$ over ${\mathrm {ZF}}$ —the Zermelo–Fraenkel axiomatic set theory without the Axiom of Choice: (1) ${\mathrm {ZF}}+{\mathrm {TD}}$ implies $\mathrm {wDC}_{\mathbb {R}}$ —a weaker version of $\mathrm {DC}_{\mathbb {R}}$.(2) ${\mathrm {ZF}}+{\mathrm {sTD}}$ implies that every (...) set of reals is measurable and has Baire property.(3) ${\mathrm {ZF}}+{\mathrm {sTD}}$ implies that every uncountable set of reals has a perfect subset.(4) ${\mathrm {ZF}}+{\mathrm {sTD}}$ implies that for every set of reals A and every $\epsilon>0$ :(a)There is a closed set $F\subseteq A$ such that $\mathrm {Dim_H}(F)\geq \mathrm {Dim_H}(A)-\epsilon $, where $\mathrm {Dim_H}$ is the Hausdorff dimension.(b)There is a closed set $F\subseteq A$ such that $\mathrm {Dim_P}(F)\geq \mathrm {Dim_P}(A)-\epsilon $, where $\mathrm {Dim_P}$ is the packing dimension. (shrink)

Background: Cognitive impairment is one of the core symptoms of schizophrenia, which is considered to be significantly correlated to prognosis. In recent years, many studies have suggested that metabolic disorders could be related to a higher risk of cognitive defects in a general setting. However, there has been limited evidence on the association between metabolism and cognitive function in patients with early-stage schizophrenia.Methods: In this study, we recruited 172 patients with early-stage schizophrenia. Relevant metabolic parameters were examined and cognitive function (...) was evaluated by using the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB) to investigate the relationship between metabolic disorder and cognitive impairment.Results: Generally, the prevalence of cognitive impairment among patients in our study was 84.7% (144/170), which was much higher than that in the general population. Compared with the general Chinese setting, the study population presented a higher proportion of metabolic disturbance. Patients who had metabolic disturbance showed no significant differences on cognitive function compared with the other patients. Correlation analysis showed that metabolic status was significantly correlated with cognitive function as assessed by the cognitive domain scores (p < 0.05), while such association was not found in further multiple regression analysis.Conclusions: Therefore, there may be no association between metabolic disorder and cognitive impairment in patients with early-stage schizophrenia.Trial Registration: Clinicaltrials.gov, NCT02880462. Registered August 26, 2016. (shrink)

ObjectiveTo investigate the influence of quality of life on unhealthy emotions as well as relevant factors among patients with endometriosis for supporting relevant clinical care.MethodsA convenience sampling method was used to administer questionnaires to 139 patients with endometriosis, using the Hamilton Anxiety Inventory, the Depression Anxiety Scale, and the SF-12 Health Survey Short Form, and the results were analyzed. The SPSS20.0 software was used for statistical analysis on relevant data. If P < 0.05, there was statistical significance.ResultsTwelve-Item Short Form for (...) health survey covered two comprehensive indexes, i.e., physical component summary and mental component summary scores. MCS score was the main factor influencing anxiety and depression in patients with endometriosis; the higher the MCS score, the lower the anxiety and depression degrees in patients with endometriosis. PCS score was a factor influencing anxiety degree; the higher the PCS score, the lower the anxiety degree.ConclusionThe QOL of patients with endometriosis is negatively correlated with anxiety and depression. Therefore, improvement in QOL may help relevant patients to relieve their unhealthy emotions. (shrink)

Previous studies only considered the impact of personal or environmental factors on intensive smartphone use separately, while largely ignoring the impact of person-environment fit on it. Drawing on the P-E fit theory, we proposed that perceived overqualification, an indicator of person-job misfit, positively affects intensive smartphone use via job boredom, and affective commitment moderates this indirect effect. We examined our hypotheses using four-wave time-lag data of 450 workers from 62 teams. The results revealed that POQ raised job boredom of an (...) individual and thus increased their intensive smartphone use. In addition, when the affective commitment was high, the indirect effect from POQ to intensive smartphone use via job boredom was weaker. The implications, limitations, and future directions of this research were discussed. (shrink)

ObjectiveThis study aimed to examine the effectiveness and safety of the Brain-computer interface in treatment of upper limb dysfunction after stroke.MethodsEnglish and Chinese electronic databases were searched up to July 2021. Randomized controlled trials were eligible. The methodological quality was assessed using Cochrane’s risk-of-bias tool. Meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.4.ResultsA total of 488 patients from 16 RCTs were included. The results showed that the meta-analysis of BCI-combined treatment on the improvement of the upper limb function showed statistical significance [standardized (...) mean difference : 0.53, 95% CI: 0.26–0.80, P < 0.05]; BCI treatment can improve the abilities of daily living of patients after stroke, and the analysis results are statistically significant ; and the BCI-combined therapy was not statistically significant for the analysis of the Modified Ashworth Scale.ConclusionThe meta-analysis indicates that the BCI therapy or BCI combined with other therapies such as conventional rehabilitation training and motor imagery training can improve upper limb dysfunction after stroke and enhance the quality of daily life. (shrink)

Frustration is often seen as negative, but as to whether it may have a positive impact on the individual is still undecided. This research was conducted to explore the influence of frustration on altruistic tendency and altruistic level in college students. By presenting a highly difficult task combined with negative feedback, we effectively induced frustration in Experiment 1. By assessing the donation behavior of participants in a real-life scenario following the experimental manipulation of frustration, we examined the relationship between frustration (...) and altruism in Experiment 2. Results showed that frustrating situations could, on some level, improve altruistic behavior [t = 3.013, p = 0.015]. More specifically, among participants who donated, the amount donated was higher in the frustration group compared to the control group; the proportion of people who donated did not differ by group. (shrink)

In this thesis, we study Turing degrees in the context of classical recursion theory. What we are interested in is the partially ordered structures $\mathcal {D}_{\alpha }$ for ordinals $\alpha <\omega ^2$ and $\mathcal {D}_{a}$ for notations $a\in \mathcal {O}$ with $|a|_{o}\geq \omega ^2$.The dissertation is motivated by the $\Sigma _{1}$ -elementary substructure problem: Can one structure in the following structures $\mathcal {R}\subsetneqq \mathcal {D}_{2}\subsetneqq \dots \subsetneqq \mathcal {D}_{\omega }\subsetneqq \mathcal {D}_{\omega +1}\subsetneqq \dots \subsetneqq \mathcal {D}$ be a $\Sigma _{1}$ (...) -elementary substructure of another? For finite levels of the Ershov hierarchy, Cai, Shore, and Slaman [Journal of Mathematical Logic, vol. 12, p. 1250005] showed that $\mathcal {D}_{n}\npreceq _{1}\mathcal {D}_{m}$ for any $n < m$. We consider the problem for transfinite levels of the Ershov hierarchy and show that $\mathcal {D}_{\omega }\npreceq _{1}\mathcal {D}_{\omega +1}$. The techniques in Chapters 2 and 3 are motivated by two remarkable theorems, Sacks Density Theorem and the d.r.e. Nondensity Theorem.In Chapter 1, we first briefly review the background of the research areas involved in this thesis, and then review some basic definitions and classical theorems. We also summarize our results in Chapter 2 to Chapter 4. In Chapter 2, we show that for any $\omega $ -r.e. set D and r.e. set B with $D<_{T}B$, there is an $\omega +1$ -r.e. set A such that $D<_{T}A<_{T}B$. In Chapter 3, we show that for some notation a with $|a|_{o}=\omega ^{2}$, there is an incomplete $\omega +1$ -r.e. set A such that there are no a-r.e. sets U with $A<_{T}U<_{T}K$. In Chapter 4, we generalize above results to higher levels. We investigate Lachlan sets and minimal degrees on transfinite levels and show that for any notation a, there exists a $\Delta ^{0}_{2}$ -set A such that A is of minimal degree and $A\not \equiv _T U$ for all a-r.e. sets U.prepared by Cheng Peng.E-mail: [email protected]. (shrink)

Background: Social, emotional, and behavioral problems in childhood are key predictors of persistent problem behaviors throughout the life courses of individuals. Early parental intervention training, as an important preventive measure, plays a critical role in improving the social, emotional, and behavioral development of children.Method: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to analyze the intervention effects of the latest literature on Triple P, which is a multilevel system that provides treatment and prevention for children at risk of social, emotional, and (...) behavioral problems via parenting approaches to enhance the parenting knowledge, skills, and confidence of parents. Since the literature on Triple P from 1970 to 2012 has already been systematically reviewed, this study searched the literature from 2013 to 2020 from the Web of Science, EBSCO, ERIC, MEDLINE, CNKI, and Triple P Evidence-Base website using multiple search strategies. This study differs from the existing research by its inclusion criteria of studies that use experimental designs or quasi-experimental designs. A total of 37 studies were included in the final analysis, and STATA 16.0 was used for evaluation while RevMan 5.3 for risk of bias assessment.Results: The results show that Triple P can promote the social competence of children and prevent their emotional and behavioral problems to a certain extent. Simultaneously, the proximal effects on parents mainly included changing negative parenting styles, reducing parenting conflicts, and improving parenting efficacy and self-confidence. The distal effects on parents included reducing the psychological adjustment problems of parents, improving parent–child relationships, and reducing parent–child conflict. However, the meta-analysis results did not show a significant effect of Triple P on improving the marital relationship quality and satisfaction of parents. Components of the program intervention, including intervention level, service delivery format, service method, and program implementation setting, and the age of the children were crucial moderating factors on the outcomes of Triple P.Conclusion: This study systematically reviewed the latest Triple P intervention literature and found the significant effectiveness of Triple P on the SEB problems of children and parenting outcomes and the moderators of the effect size. (shrink)

The purposes of research were to describe the neonatal clinicians' personal views and attitudes on neonatal ethical decision-making, to identify factors that might affect these attitudes and to compare the attitudes between neonatal physicians and neonatal nurses in Taiwan. Research was a cross-sectional design and a questionnaire was used to reach different research purposes. A convenient sample was used to recruit 24 physicians and 80 neonatal nurses from four neonatal intensive care units in Taiwan. Most participants agreed with suggesting a (...) do not resuscitate (DNR) order to parents for dying neonates (86.5%). However, the majority agreed with talking to patients about DNR orders is difficult (76.9%). Most participants agree that review by the clinical ethics committee is needed before the recommendation of ‘DNR’ to parents (94.23%) and nurses were significantly more likely than physicians to agree to this (p=0.043). During the end-of-life care, most clinicians accepted to continue current treatment without adding others (70%) and withholding of emergency treatments (75%); however, active euthanasia, the administration of drug to end-of-life, was not considered acceptable by both physicians and nurses in this research (96%). Based on our research results, providing continuing educational training and a formal consulting service in moral courage for neonatal clinicians are needed. In Taiwan, neonatal physicians and nurses hold similar values and attitudes towards end-of-life decisions for neonates. In order to improve the clinicians' communication skills with parents about DNR options and to change clinicians' attitudes for providing enough pain-relief medicine to dying neonates, providing continuing educational training and a formal consulting service in moral courage are needed. (shrink)

PurposeAs a new human resource management practice, idiosyncratic deals are personalized employment arrangements negotiated between employees and employers and intended to benefit them both. It plays an important role in attracting, retaining and motivating employees to promote breakthrough innovation. Based on the input-process-output model, this paper examines the relationship between team idiosyncratic deals and team breakthrough innovation, the mediating role of team exploratory-exploitative knowledge sharing, and the moderating roles of team transactive memory systems and team cognitive flexibility.Participants and methodsIn order (...) to reduce the effects of common method biases and causal lag effect, this study is divided into three stages for data collection, with a time interval of 1 month. Eighty teams from six enterprises in Shanghai and Hangzhou were selected as samples, and the hypothesis test was carried out by hierarchical regression analysis, bootstrap, and Johnson-Neyman method.ResultsThe results show that higher team idiosyncratic deals are associated with higher team breakthrough innovation through higher team exploratory-exploitative knowledge sharing, and that team transactive memory systems and team cognitive flexibility positively moderate the mediating effect of team exploratory-exploitative knowledge sharing in the relationship between team idiosyncratic deals and team breakthrough innovation in the first stage and the second stage, respectively. Under the joint effect of high team transactive memory systems and high team cognitive flexibility, the mediating effect of team exploratory-exploitative knowledge sharing is stronger.ConclusionThe research results break through the previous research framework of social exchange theory, and I-P-O model to explore the influence mechanism of team idiosyncratic deals, in order to promote the sustainable growth of team breakthrough innovation through this non-standard work arrangement. It is hoped that this research can inspire modern enterprises to create team idiosyncratic deals for valuable teams engaged in breakthrough innovation, which are more conducive to give full play to their heterogeneous talents, and finally help enterprises break through the industry bottleneck and win the market competition. (shrink)

Objective: To investigate the correlation between preoperative response to the L-dopa challenge test and efficacy of deep brain stimulation (DBS) on motor function in Parkinson’s disease (PD).Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the data of 38 patients with idiopathic PD who underwent DBS surgery with a median follow-up duration of 7 months. Twenty underwent bilateral globus pallidus interna (GPi) DBS, and 18 underwent bilateral subthalamic nucleus (STN) DBS. The Movement Disorder Society Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale-Motor Part (MDS UPDRS-III) was assessed before (...) surgery and at the last follow-up in different medication and stimulation conditions, respectively.Results: Pearson’s correlation analysis revealed a positive correlation between preoperative L-dopa challenge responsiveness and GPi-DBS responsiveness on the total score (R2 = 0.283, p = 0.016) but not on the non-tremor total score (R2 = 0.158, p = 0.083) of MDS UPDRS-III. Such correlation remained significant (R2′ = 0.332, p = 0.010) after controlling for age at the time of surgery as confounding factor by partial correlation analysis. The preoperative L-dopa challenge responsiveness was significantly correlated with the tremor-controlling outcome of GPi-DBS (R2 = 0.390, p = 0.003). In contrast, we found a positive correlation between preoperative L-dopa challenge responsiveness and STN-DBS responsiveness on the non-tremor total score (R2 = 0.290, p = 0.021), but not on the total score (R2 = 0.130, p = 0.141) of MDS UPDRS-III. The partial correlation analysis further demonstrated that the predictive value of preoperative L-dopa challenge responsiveness on the non-tremor motor outcome of STN-DBS was eliminated (R2′ = 0.120, p = 0.174) after controlling for age at the time of surgery as confounding factor.Interpretation: The short-term predictive value of preoperative response to the L-dopa challenge test for the motor outcome of GPi-DBS in PD was systematically described. Our findings suggest: (1) a solid therapeutic effect of GPi-DBS in treating L-dopa-responsive tremors; (2) a negative effect of age at the time of surgery on motor outcomes of STN-DBS, (3) a possible preference of STN- to GPi-DBS in L-dopa-resistant tremor control, and (4) a possible preference of GPi- to STN-DBS in elderly PD patients who have a satisfactory dopamine response. (shrink)

This study aims to explore if local responsiveness pressure and subsidiary resources influence green management adoption of overseas subsidiaries, and to investigate the relationships between the level of green management adoption and performance. The 101 effective samples were collected from 583 Taiwanese firms, which are listed in the top 1000 manufactory firms and have invested in China. Though structural equation model analysis' empirical results indicate that local responsiveness pressure and subsidiary resources both have positive effects on the level of green (...) management adoption of the subsidiary. This study also suggests that the level of green management adoption is positively related to the subsidiary's performance. (shrink)

The authors find East Asians to be holistic, attending to the entire field and assigning causality to it, making relatively little use of categories and formal logic, and relying on "dialectical" reasoning, whereas Westerners, are more analytic, paying attention primarily to the object and the categories to which it belongs and using rules, including formal logic, to understand its behavior. The 2 types of cognitive processes are embedded in different naive metaphysical systems and tacit epistemologies. The authors speculate that the (...) origin of these differences is traceable to markedly different social systems. The theory and the evidence presented call into question long-held assumptions about basic cognitive processes and even about the appropriateness of the process–content distinction. (shrink)

Language teacher research is conducive to the development of teachers’ teaching skills and professional careers. Thus, many English teacher education programs require student teachers to do research. However, some empirical findings suggest that English as a foreign language student teachers lack research motivation. Consequently, finding suitable interventions to increase their research motivation has become increasingly necessary. In light of the importance of research motivation intervention, this study involved designing an experiment to identify the effect of a value and interest intervention (...) including the sharing of positive research experiences to improve student teachers’ research motivation. Quantitative questionnaires and qualitative semi-structured interviews were used to gather evidence on the change in student teachers’ research motivation during the intervention. The interview data revealed that student teachers’ research motivation was influenced by their belief in the value of research to their teaching practice. The experiment results suggested that student teachers’ intrinsic and extrinsic research motivations both increased after the intervention. However, the intervention was not effective in curbing their failure avoidance tendency. Pedagogical implications of the results are discussed at the end of this article. (shrink)

This paper presents an integrated approach to plan smooth path for robots docking in unknown environments with obstacles. To determine the smooth collision-free path in obstacle environment, a tree structure with heuristic expanding strategy is designed as the foundation of path planning in this approach. The tree employs 3D Dubins curves as its branches and foundation for path feasibility evaluation. For the efficiency of the tree expanding in obstacle environment, intermediate nodes and collision-free branches are determined inspired by the elastic (...) band theory. A feasible path is chosen as the shortest series of branches that connects to the docking station after the sufficient expansion of the tree. Simulation results are presented to show the validity and feasibility of the proposed approach. (shrink)

Within the framework of pragma-dialectics, this paper analyzes the use of dissociations in the spokespersons’ replies at the press conferences held by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs between 2015 and 2017. As shown in the research results, to cut down the authority of their opponents in criticizing China and to convince the international general public of the Chinese standpoints, four subtypes of dissociation are used, which can be differentiated as: “distorted” Term I versus “authentic” Term II, “ambiguous” Term I (...) versus “univocal” Term II, “broadened” Term I versus “exact” Term II, and “narrowed” Term I versus “exact” Term II. The strategic maneuvering carried out by the spokespersons in confronting their immediate opponents by means of the various subtypes of dissociation is in the first place directed at their primary audience, i.e. the international general public. To make a convincing case, in using dissociations the spokespersons not only adapt in their strategic maneuvering to the demands of their primary audience but also in their selection from the topical potential and the presentational devices. (shrink)

Reflection Principles are commonly thought to produce only strong axioms of infinity consistent with V = L. It would be desirable to have some notion of strong reflection to remedy this, and we have proposed Global Reflection Principles based on a somewhat Cantorian view of the universe. Such principles justify the kind of cardinals needed for, inter alia , Woodin’s Ω-Logic.

As part of a research project on confrontational maneuvering in the spokespersons’ argumentative replies at the regular press conferences of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs between 2015 and 2018, this article analyzes, within the framework of Pragma-Dialectics, how the spokespersons declare a standpoint at issue unallowed or indisputable in order to avoid having to resolve a difference of opinion as it is, according to the questioning journalist, presented by their immediate opponents. Starting from the various rationales the spokespersons presuppose to (...) be understood and regarded acceptable by the questioning journalist and the international general public, three subtypes of declaring a standpoint unallowed or indisputable are differentiated: the “Necessity Rationale” subtype, the “Desirability Rationale” subtype, and the “Feasibility Rationale” subtype. The confrontational maneuvering by declaring a standpoint unallowed or indisputable carried out by the spokespersons is directed both at the immediate opponent and at the international general public. However, it is the international general public that the spokespersons primarily intend to convince. For this purpose, they make in all three subtypes of the unallowed or indisputable declaration an effort to adapt their response to their primary audience’s demand by making strategic choices from the available topical potential and the available presentational devices. (shrink)

广东优秀社会科学著作出版基金资助出版国家哲学社会科学“九五”规划课题项目广东省高校“九五”青年人文社会科学研究项目广州市社会科学基金资助项目广州市社会科学院资助课题.

Abstract:The most important themes of Wang Lü's painting theory are the "true self" and the "true thing." One reason this topic has not received sufficient attention is that the original text was altered. This article aims to correct and reinterpret the text. After textual research and interpretation, Wang Lü's paintings and painting theory have been reevaluated. This article also responds to some difficult topics such as the relationship between "form" (ᔶ) and "meaning" (ᛣ) and between "following" (ᕲ) and "not following" (...) (䘩) the rules in Chinese painting theory. (shrink)

全书以灾异思想为切入点，以西汉经学灾异思想与思潮为中心，结合先秦至西汉间的时代背景与思想氛围，在细致考察与解读相关文本的基础上，对西汉经学灾异思想的观念来源与理论先导、创立过程与时代特色、理论形态与建 构方法，以及灾异思潮与现实政治的互动等问题，进行了全面深入的研究和探讨；对于经学灾异思想何以会在西汉建立、经学灾异思潮缘何会在西汉爆发、经学灾异论造成了怎样的历史影响，以及如何评价灾异论氛围中的西汉儒 学与儒生群体等问题，本书也进行了系统的反思，并提出了一系列见解。.

A result from a standard linear model course is that the variance of the ordinary least squares (OLS) coefficient of a variable will never decrease when including additional covariates into the regression. The variance inflation factor (VIF) measures the increase of the variance. Another result from a standard linear model or experimental design course is that including additional covariates in a linear model of the outcome on the treatment indicator will never increase the variance of the OLS coefficient of the (...) treatment at least asymptotically. This technique is called the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), which is often used to improve the efficiency of treatment effect estimation. So we have two paradoxical results: adding covariates never decreases the variance in the first result but never increases the variance in the second result. In fact, these two results are derived under different assumptions. More precisely, the VIF result conditions on the treatment indicators but the ANCOVA result averages over them. Comparing the estimators with and without adjusting for additional covariates in a completely randomized experiment, I show that the former has smaller variance averaging over the treatment indicators, and the latter has smaller variance at the cost of a larger bias conditioning on the treatment indicators. Therefore, there is no real paradox. (shrink)

A geometric lattice is the lattice of closed subsets of a closure operator on a set which is zero-closure, algebraic, atomistic and which has the so-called exchange property. There are many profound results about this type of lattices, the most recent one of which, due to Czédli and Schimdt, says that a lattice L of finite length is semimodular if and only if L has a cover-preserving embedding into a geometric lattice G of the same length. The goal of our (...) paper is to offer the following result: a lattice of finite length is semimodular if and only if every cell in L is a 4-element Boolean lattice and the 7-element non-distributive atomistic lattice having 3 atoms is not a cover-preserving sublattice of L. (shrink)