The event-triggered consensus control for leader-following multiagent systems subjected to external disturbances is investigated, by using the output feedback. In particular, a novel distributed event-triggered protocol is proposed by adopting dynamic observers to estimate the internal state information based on the measurable output signal. It is shown that under the developed observer-based event-triggered protocol, multiple agents will reach consensus with the desired disturbance attenuation ability and meanwhile exhibit no Zeno behaviors. Finally, a simulation is presented to verify the obtained results.

With only two to five slots of visual working memory (VWM), humans are able to quickly solve complex visual problems to near optimal solutions. To explain the paradox between tightly constrained VWM and impressively complex human visual problem‐solving ability, we propose several principles for dynamic VWM allocation. In particular, we propose that complex visual information is represented in a temporal manner using only a few slots of VWM that include global and local visual chunks. We built a model of human (...) traveling salesman problem solving based on these principles of VWM allocation and tested the model with eye‐movement data. Exactly as the model predicted, human eye movements during traveling salesman problem solving have precise quantitative regularities with regard to both the general statistical pattern of attentional fixations and how they vary across individuals with different VWM capacities. Even though VWM capacity is very limited, eye movements dynamically allocate VWM resources to both local and global information, enabling attention to fine details without loss of the big picture. (shrink)

Prior research has investigated how narcissistic executives affect firm policies and outcomes and how these executives influence colleagues and followers. However, almost no research exists concerning the impact of narcissistic executives on external agents. We examine the case of credit ratings—where analysts are required to assess management competence and where undue management influence is a concern—to determine whether narcissistic CEOs exert an effect on their firm’s rating. Using the size of the CEO’s personal signature to measure narcissism, we find that (...) CEO narcissism is associated with worse credit ratings. This effect is attenuated when firms face greater financial constraints, higher industry competition, and more concentrated institutional ownership. Our study contributes to the growing body of literature on CEO narcissism and suggests that these manipulative individuals are unable to exert an obvious upward influence on credit rating agencies. (shrink)

The 85 Lao Zi bamboo slips from around 300 B. C. E. are the earliest texts of what later became known as the Tao Te King. They also contain the-until now-unknown Taoist narrative of Creation 'Great One gave Birth to Water.' These texts are very original and not yet intermingled with Confucian philosophy, governance, or ethics.This English translation presents the Tao Bamboo Slips in modern simplified Chinese characters, with commentaries and a comparison of the modern Chinese version to the old (...) characters. This bilingual Chinese-English publication is a contribution to the crosscultural visions and values of the New SiIk Road of the 21st century. (Series: Practical Ethics-Documentation / Ethik in der Praxis-Materialien, Vol. 16) [Subject: Confucianism, Chinese Studies, Philosophy]. (shrink)

This study aims to explore the promoting effect of the combination of mental health education and ideological and political education for college students on improving their comprehensive psychological quality and ideological and political theoretical level. The research adopts a combination of system analysis methods, experimental methods and clustering algorithms, and conducts course experiments through experimental methods, providing basic data. In the process of the experiment, from the perspective of educational psychology theory, the systematic analysis method is used to distinguish subject (...) and object, and functional analysis is carried out. At the same time, clustering algorithms are used to classify the mental health problems of different students. The research results indicate that in terms of subjectivity, teachers’ psychological communication ability, psychological understanding ability and psychological guidance ability have a significant positive impact on students’ psychological state. The level of ideological and political theory and psychological strain ability also have a significant positive impact on students’ psychological state. Intervention on students’ values and personality psychological issues is also effective. These findings provide an important basis and guidance for further carrying out higher education reform. Contribution: With the development of society, students need to face more and more external concepts during their growth. Students whose mental growth is not mature are likely to have certain psychological problems in this process. This research can be utilised by scholars in the field of youth ministry and religious educational studies. (shrink)

Whereas the refractory clergy hostile to the ecclesiastical reforms of the Constituante clearly rejects ecclesiastical tolerance, the positions of the constitutional clergy cover a much broader spectrum. The article aims to examine the positions adopted by constitutional bishops by highlighting their ecclesiological foundations: indeed, the acceptance of ecclesiastical tolerance corresponds to a radical questioning of the conception of the Church as a perfect society having its own laws.

本书介绍、评价了法国18世纪唯物主义哲学家、启蒙思想家孟德斯鸠的一生及其在人类思想史上的建树。.

In this paper, dynamic behavior analysis has been discussed for a class of switched complex-valued neural networks with interval parameter uncertainties and impulse disturbance. Sufficient conditions for guaranteeing the existence, uniqueness, and global robust exponential stability of the equilibrium point have been obtained by using the homomorphism mapping theorem, the scalar Lyapunov function method, the average dwell time method, and M-matrix theory. Since there is no result concerning the stability problem of switched neural networks defined in complex number domain, the (...) stability results we describe in this paper generalize the existing ones. The effectiveness of the proposed results is illustrated by a numerical example. (shrink)

In this paper, the stability of switched neural networks with interval parameter uncertainties and time delays is investigated. First, the conditions for the existence and uniqueness of the equilibrium point of the system are discussed. Second, the average dwell time approach and M-matrix property are employed to obtain conditions to ensure the globally exponential stability of the delayed SNNs under constrained switching. Third, by resorting to inequality technique and the idea of vector Lyapunov function, sufficient condition to ensure the robust (...) exponential stability of the delayed SNNs under arbitrary switching is derived. The form of the constructed Lyapunov functions is simple, which has certain commonality in studying delayed SNNs, and the proposed results not only are explicit but also reveal the relationship between the constrained switching and the arbitrary switching of the SNNs. Finally, two numerical examples are presented to illustrate the effectiveness and less conservativeness of the main results compared with the existing literature. (shrink)

The Daoist religion is an ancient religion that took root and flourished in China's soil. It was created in the time of Emperor Shundi of the Eastern Han dynasty and today claims a history of over 1,800 years. Its philosophical thought—which is a theory of moral and behavioral discipline whose core is a belief in immortals or supernatural beings —derived its origins from what is called "the teachings of Huang [Huangdi, or the Yellow Emperor] and Lao [Lao Zi]." Consequently, it (...) has always made its claim to being the "successor to the cultural influences of Huang and Lao" , and as such is considered to be one of the principle entities of China's traditional culture. In fact, Mr. Lu Xun went as far as to say: "All of China's roots are in the Daoist religion"1 What, however, are the real contents of the Daoist religion? And what are its cultural functions? (shrink)

In the evaluation of teaching quality, aiming at the shortcomings of slow convergence of BP neural network and easy to fall into local optimum, an online teaching quality evaluation model based on analytic hierarchy process and particle swarm optimization BP neural network is proposed. Firstly, an online teaching quality evaluation system was established by using the analytic hierarchy process to determine the weight of each subsystem and each index in the online teaching quality evaluation system and then combined with actual (...) experience, the risk value of each index was constructed according to safety regulations. The regression model is established through BP neural network, and the weight and threshold of the model are optimized by the particle swarm algorithm. Based on the online teaching quality evaluation model of BP neural network, the parameters of the model are constantly adjusted, the appropriate function is selected, and the particle swarm algorithm which is used in the training and learning process of the neural network is optimized. The scientificity of the questionnaire was verified by reliability and validity test. According to the scoring results and combined with the weight coefficient of each indicator in the online course quality evaluation index system, the key factors affecting the quality of online courses were obtained. Based on the survey data, descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, and Pearson’s correlation coefficient method are used to verify the research hypothesis and obtain valuable empirical results. By comparing the model with the standard BP model, the results show that the accuracy of the PSO-BP model is higher than that of the standard BP model and PSO-BP effectively overcomes the shortcomings of the BP neural network. (shrink)

Currently, there is an increasing trend in the organizations towards examining the artificial intelligence and nonartificial intelligence for the innovation and success of the new product, as well as getting the intentions of the upcoming researchers. Thus, the purpose of the ongoing study is to examine the role of artificial and nonartificial intelligence in the new product success along with the moderating role of new product innovation in the manufacturing organizations of China. The quantitative methods have been followed by the (...) study and gathered the responses from the respondents using questionnaires, and analysis has been conducted by using the smart-PLS. The results exposed that artificial intelligence and nonartificial intelligence have positive and significant nexus with the new product success. The outcomes also revealed that the new product innovation significantly moderated the links among the nonartificial intelligence and new product success, but it insignificantly moderated the links among the artificial intelligence and new product success in the manufacturing organizations of China. These findings have provided the guidelines to the manufacturing companies and their policies developing authorities that they should be developed and implement the suitable policies regarding the adoption of artificial intelligence and nonartificial intelligence that enhance the success of the new product, which ultimately enhances the success of the organization. (shrink)

The "thing-in-itself" theory occupies a pivotal position in the whole of Kantian philosophy, and scholars have expressed varying views on the intricate content of the theory. In the realm of epistemology, the theory implies at least three things: the origin of sensation, the limits of knowledge, and the rational idea. The last implication leads directly to moral reality in the realm of ethics. Interwoven and mutually comprehended, these implications are dipped in the general meaning of agnosticism. The first and third (...) implications are the opposites of a "thing-in-itself," and the second is a transition from the first to the third. (shrink)

Yen Fu was one of the four representatives who looked to the West for truth before the birth of the Chinese Communist Party. Our research on his life and work is still insufficient. Needless to say, both Yen Fu and Lin Shu were known as famous translators in pre-Liberation days. But Lin Shu cannot be equated with Yen Fu, insofar as their ideological and academic achievements and their contributions to modern China are concerned. From the post-Liberation days to the eve (...) of the Great Cultural Revolution, research works on Yen Fu remained scanty and he was seldom mentioned in articles on the advanced models among modern Chinese thinkers. More articles on Yen Fu appeared during the Criticize-Lin, Criticize-Confucius Campaign because Yen Fu had been mentioned by Chairman Mao. But the "Gang of Four" openly defied Chairman Mao's explicit direction by tampering with modern Chinese history, fabricating the struggle between the Confucians and the Legalists and describing Yen Fu as a Legalist. Chairman Mao pointed out: "Before the May Fourth movement, the struggle on the Chinese cultural front was one between the new bourgeois culture and the old feudal culture, and the antagonisms between modern schools and imperial examinations, between the new learning and the old learning and between Western thought and Chinese thought were all of the same nature." But, in the articles by Liang Hsiao and Lo Ssu-ting, all this has been described as the struggle between Legalists and Confucians and between Legalism and Confucianism. Thus, Chang Tai-yen, not Sun Yat-sen, is regarded as a bourgeois revolutionary and "Legalist." Yen Fu, not the "Confucian" K'ang Yu-wei, is treated as a representative of the bourgeois Reformists. This attitude has caused serious theoretical, ideological and academic chaos. We should do away with the chaos, conduct a thorough criticism of the "Gang of Four" and push forward our academic research work in accordance with the principle of "letting a hundred schools of thought contend.". (shrink)

Angle is an important concept in geometry. Young children have difficulty separating angle size from other dimensions such as the length of angle sides, perhaps due to whole-object bias in word learning. The present study used the pre-test–training–post-test design to investigate the effectiveness of two ways of separating angle from angle size in 3–6-year-old Chinese preschoolers. A total of 228 children were given a pre-test and 219 of them failed the crucial test. 168 of the 219 children were present at (...) school during the training phase and were randomly assigned to three groups: the “toma” group, which received training to call the whole angle figure as “toma” and angle size as angle size; the “angle/angle size” group, which received the training of separating “angle” from “angle size”; and the control group, which used “angle size” alone to represent both the overall angle figure and angle size. Results showed that the “toma” group improved significantly more than the other two groups, the latter of which did not differ from each other. These results suggest that it is insufficient to have two separate words/phrases for children to learn to differentiate angle from angle size, perhaps due to their shared usage of the word angle. Instead, the use of a novel term is necessary and sufficient to improve learning. Implications for preschool education are discussed. (shrink)

Following the financial crisis and recent recession, the center of gravity of global economic growth and competitiveness is shifting toward emerging economies. As a leading and increasingly influential emerging economy, China is currently attracting the attention of academics, practitioners, and policy makers. There has been an increase in research interest in and publications on issues relating to China within high-quality international academic journals. We therefore organized a special issue conference in conjunction with the Journal of Business Ethics in Lhasa, Tibet, (...) on May 19–20, 2014, on Business Ethics in Greater China: Past, Present and Future. The papers for the special issue focused on the intersection of ethics and finance, and fit within one of the three themes: environment and sustainability, corporate social responsibility, and fraud. Within these themes, issues of intellectual capital protection, gender equality, political connections, regional development, investor protection, corporate stewardship, trust and corruption, and corporate transparency each play a significant role. In this paper, we survey these studies and the related literature to provide a comprehensive coverage of business ethics and finance issues that affect China. (shrink)

The service failure of online shopping has always plagued online stores, but the current academic circles still need to explore the service recovery of online shopping from the perspective of empathy and consumer forgiveness. Based on the service failure cases of real online shopping, this article uses the method of situational experiment to carry out empirical research, discusses the impact mechanism of service recovery effect from the perspective of empathy and consumer forgiveness, and tests the moderating role of online store (...) reputation. The results show that in the online shopping service recovery scenario, empathy has a positive impact on consumer forgiveness, consumer forgiveness has a positive impact on consumer repurchase intention, and consumer forgiveness plays a mediating effect between empathy and consumer repurchase intention. Online store reputation plays a moderating role in the relationship between consumer forgiveness and consumer repurchase intention. The research conclusion of this article will help to expand the application of empathy and consumer forgiveness in the research of service recovery, enrich the theory of online shopping service recovery, improve the effect of online shopping service recovery, and promote the healthy development of online shopping business models. (shrink)

After reading the essays of Mr. Ts'ai and Mr. Chu, I have a few immature opinions. Generally speaking, I feel that in dealing with the errors of their opponents, both Ts'ai I in his criticism of Huang Yüeh-mien and Chu Kuang-ch'ien in his criticism of Ts'ai I are quite accurate and convincing. However, in presenting their own arguments of what is right, both of them are on shaky ground and in error. That is because in one way or another, consciously (...) or unconsciously, they either deny the objective aspect of the existence of beauty or deny the social aspect of the existence of beauty . All of them consider the objective and the social aspects of beauty as being either this or that, as mutually exclusive and irreconcilable opposites. They think that if we acknowledge the social aspect of beauty, we then have to deny the objective aspect, the fact that the existence of beauty does not depend on the subjective conditions of a person ; or if we acknowledge the objective aspect, we have to deny the social aspect, the fact that the existence of beauty depends on the social life of human beings. But in fact it is not like that. On the one hand, beauty cannot be separated from human society; on the other hand, it can have an objective existence which is independent of man's subjective consciousness. It is this question that I shall discuss. (shrink)

Macau, as a society, is a crossroads where East–West encounters have been taking place for centuries. This paper examines some of the contemporary issues and implications for moral education. After a brief introduction to the social background of Macau, the paper describes the characteristics of Macau's education in general and the development of its moral education in particular. This has taken place in the context of the strong influences on morality of both Catholicism and Confucianism. An outline of the current (...) curriculum of moral and civic education is followed by a critical appraisal of its implementation over the last few years. By means of this case study of Macau, the paper argues that a communitarian‐oriented morality in Macau is justified, and it also suggests how, by turning attention to its history, a minimal set of values can be constructed for Macau's particular social setting. Finally, some further educational challenges for Macau's future moral and civic education are reviewed. (shrink)

River segmentation of remote sensing images is of important research significance and application value for environmental monitoring, disaster warning, and agricultural planning in an area. In this study, we propose a river segmentation model in remote sensing images based on composite attention network to solve the problems of abundant river details in images and the interference of non-river information including bridges, shadows, and roads. To improve the segmentation efficiency, a composite attention mechanism is firstly introduced in the central region of (...) the network to obtain the global feature dependence of river information. Next, in this study, we dynamically combine binary cross-entropy loss that is designed for pixel-wise segmentation and the Dice coefficient loss that measures the similarity of two segmentation objects into a weighted one to optimize the training process of the proposed segmentation network. The experimental results show that compared with other semantic segmentation networks, the evaluation indexes of the proposed method are higher than those of others, and the river segmentation effect of CoANet model is significantly improved. This method can segment rivers in remote sensing images more accurately and coherently, which can meet the needs of subsequent research. (shrink)

Objective: Stand-to-sit task is an important daily function, but there is a lack of research evidence on whether knee osteoarthritis affects the postural balance during the task. This study aimed to compare individuals with knee OA and asymptomatic controls in postural balance and identify kinematic and lower extremity muscle activity characteristics in individuals with knee OA during the stand-to-sit task.Methods: In total, 30 individuals with knee OA and 30 age-matched asymptomatic controls performed the 30-s Chair Stand Test at self-selected speeds. (...) Motion analysis data and surface electromyography were collected while participants performed the 30sCST. To quantify postural balance, the displacement of the center of mass and the peak instantaneous velocity of the CoM were calculated. The kinematic data included forward lean angles of the trunk and pelvic, range of motion of the hip, knee, and ankle joints in the sagittal plane. The averaged activation levels of gluteus maximus, vastus lateralis, vastus medialis, rectus femoris, biceps femoris, tibialis anterior, and medial head of gastrocnemius muscles were indicated by the normalized root mean square amplitudes.Results: Compared with the asymptomatic control group, the knee OA group prolonged the duration of the stand-to-sit task, demonstrated significantly larger CoM displacement and peak instantaneous CoM velocity in the anterior-posterior direction, reduced ankle dorsiflexion RoM, greater anterior pelvic tilt RoM, and lower quadriceps femoris and muscles activation level coupled with higher BF muscle activation level during the stand-to-sit task.Conclusion: This study indicates that individuals with knee OA adopt greater pelvic forward lean RoM and higher BF muscle activation level during the stand-to-sit task. However, these individuals exist greater CoM excursion in the anterior-posterior direction and take more time to complete the task. This daily functional activity should be added to the rehabilitation goals for individuals with knee OA. The knee OA group performs reduced ankle dorsiflexion RoM, quadriceps femoris, and TA activation deficit. In the future, the rehabilitation programs targeting these impairments could be beneficial for restoring the functional transfer in individuals with knee OA. (shrink)

China leads the world in the development and rollout of 5G network, yet less research has been done on the drivers of Chinese people’s adoption of 5G network, especially the specific role of national sentiments, such as the influence of patriotism on their attitude toward 5G network. The study obtained 804 effective online questionnaires from the respondents of various ages, genders, areas, and educational levels. The results based on the structural equation modeling analysis showed that patriotism was an antecedent to (...) Chinese users’ cognition of the conditions provided by the government and telecom operators and the extent that users were influenced by media and surrounding people, which in turn increased users’ expectations of the performance of 5G network and their confidence in adapting to 5G network, and resulted in an increased willingness to use 5G network. This research helps to understand the role of patriotism, which is an emotional factor, in stimulating Chinese users’ attitudes toward 5G network at the time when 5G network is putting into large-scale commercial use in China. (shrink)

As an important way to understand leadership based on voluntary contribution mechanisms, the importance of leading by example to teamwork is becoming more and more evident in recent years. However, existing theories based on signaling and reciprocity perspectives respectively provide incomplete theoretical explaining. This study adds clarity by conducting a cross-level study that indicates a possible integrative framework of both signaling and reciprocity perspective on leading by example. Results were using data gathered from 130 Chinese college students, which were allocated (...) into one baseline group and three experimental groups. A hierarchical model was used to examine the effects of leading by example on different levels. It is found that leading by example has positive effects on the cooperation of followers on both the group level and the individual level. Risk attitudes and trust attitudes have positive effects on the cooperation of followers while Machiavellianism has no significant effects. Our findings suggest that both leading by example and personal traits significantly influence cooperation but on different levels. It also reminds us that a more systematic way to understand leadership is needed. (shrink)

The localization and navigation technology are the key factors in the research of mobile robots. With the demand of smart manufacturing industry and the development of robotics technology, the importance of mobile robot has become increasingly prominent. Mobile robot positioning research is mostly based on odometry, however, it has cumulative errors that would affect the accuracy of positioning results. This paper describes an improved measurement model that suitable from 0° to 180° and used this model in the Extended Kalman Filter (...) (EKF) and Unscented Kalman Filter(UKF) time update step respectively, the method can address the interference of kinematics model predicted position and heading angle, both of them are easily disturbed by noises and other factors. Designing a tracked mobile robot as experimental platform to collect the raw data, conducting experimental research including the performance of hardware platform and autonomous obstacle avoidance, the real-time and stability of remote data interaction, and the accuracy of optimal pose estimation. The simulation results have been verified the accuracy of the improved measurement model applied to UKF. (shrink)

The relationship between professional ethical reflection and corresponding moral behavior is an important theme of moral psychology in recent years. Following Schönegger and Wagner’s research in German-speaking countries, through a replication-extension of the original US-based research carried out by Schwitzgebel and Rust, we aim at examining their results in the Chinese context. The previous researchers have shown that ethical reflection generally has no positive effect on moral behavior. A cross validation of this result was conducted in Chinese mainland, and three (...) issues concerning Confucian virtues were added. Through reaching out to 4482 professors and collecting 368 responses altogether, we attempted to explore whether professional ethical reflection can influence normative attitude and the moral attitude-behavior consistency. Unfortunately, the results failed to show a statistically significant difference between ethicists and other professors on most of the moral issues, with the exception of paying academic membership fees and vegetarianism, wherein ethicists do express more stringent normative attitudes, and their moral attitude and self-reported behavior are statistically consistent. Notably, Chinese professors mainly expressed morally neutral attitudes toward the issue of eating meat, and they tended to believe that ethical reflection contributes to more and better moral behaviors. (shrink)

Short-term traffic flow prediction is an effective means for intelligent transportation system to mitigate traffic congestion. However, traffic flow data with temporal features and periodic characteristics are vulnerable to weather effects, making short-term traffic flow prediction a challenging issue. However, the existing models do not consider the influence of weather changes on traffic flow, leading to poor performance under some extreme conditions. In view of the rich features of traffic data and the characteristic of being vulnerable to external weather conditions, (...) the prediction model based on traffic data has certain limitations, so it is necessary to conduct research studies on traffic flow prediction driven by both the traffic data and weather data. This paper proposes a combined framework of stacked autoencoder and radial basis function neural network to predict traffic flow, which can effectively capture the temporal correlation and periodicity of traffic flow data and disturbance of weather factors. Firstly, SAE is used to process the traffic flow data in multiple time slices to acquire a preliminary prediction. Then, RBF is used to capture the relation between weather disturbance and periodicity of traffic flow so as to gain another prediction. Finally, another RBF is used for the fusion of the above two predictions on decision level, obtaining a reconstructed prediction with higher accuracy. The effectiveness and robustness of the proposed model are verified by experiments. (shrink)

This article examines the impact of the prevailing state ownership in the Chinese stock market on corporate governance and the financial regulatory system, respectively, as the internal and external monitoring mechanisms to deter corporate fraud and protect investors. In line with the literature that state ownership exaggerates the agency problem, we find that the retained state ownership in privatised firms increases the incidence of regulatory enforcements against fraud. For the state-owned enterprises (SOEs), however, larger state ownership is associated with a (...) lower incidence of enforcement actions. This is attributed to the mutual political affiliation of the fraudulent SOEs and the regulatory commission. A new regulation "Solutions for Listed Firm Checks" promulgated in March 2001 has mitigated this effect by empowering the regulatory commission to increase the severity of regulatory conditions. Our evidence confirms the improvement in the regulatory environment and investor protection in the Chinese stock market brought about by the regulatory reform and development. (shrink)