Financial development is often considered one of the main drivers promoting household consumption. As a form of financial development, whether digital financial inclusion can promote household consumption has been a concern for researchers and policymakers. Considering geographical connectivity characteristics, we examine the effects of digital financial inclusion on household consumption by applying spatial econometric models and using data from 31 provinces in China from 2013 to 2018. The impact of digital financial inclusion is further disaggregated into direct, indirect, and total (...) impacts. The results show that if digital financial inclusion is improved by 1%, household consumption will correspondingly increase by 0.2207%. The spatial spillover effect on neighboring areas is negative: a 1% increase in the level of digital financial inclusion of nearby provinces leads to a 0.1289% decrease in household consumption in the local province. For policymakers, it is necessary to balance the development of digital financial inclusion and view different areas as a whole when making policies to promote consumption. Further analysis based on subsamples finds that the effect of digital financial inclusion on household consumption is more considerable for rural households than for urban households. (shrink)

Quarantine and isolation at extended length, although considered as highly effective countermeasures for the novel coronavirus which started at the end of 2019, can have great impact on individual's mental health, especially emotional state. The present research recruited 5,115 participants from the general public across 32 provinces and autonomous regions in China in an online survey study, about 20 days after the lockdown of the epicenter, to investigate the relationship between the length of the quarantine and negative affect, as well (...) as the mediating roles of negative cognition, and the moderating roles of dispositional optimism, tolerance of uncertainty, social support, and healthy behavior. The results showed that: Worry and anticipation mediated the relationship between quarantine length and depression and anxiety; Dispositional optimism moderated the path coefficients of quarantine length to worry, worry to anxiety, and anticipation to depression; Tolerance of uncertainty moderated the path coefficient of worry to anxiety; Social support moderated the path coefficient of anticipation to anxiety. In conclusion, during quarantine, dispositional optimism, uncertainty tolerance, and social support can buffer the direct or indirect effects of quarantine length on depression and anxiety. These findings could have profound implications on the societal responses to COVID-19 and future pandemics. (shrink)

Photovoltaic power forecasting can provide strong support for the safe operation of the power system. Existing forecasting methods are ineffective for grid scheduling decisions or risk analysis. The novel multicluster interval prediction method is proposed to consider the volatility and randomness of PV power output. First, this method utilizes the sparse autoencoder and Bayesian regularized NARX network for point forecasting of PV power. Second, density peak clustering improved by kernel Mahalanobis distance is applied to classify the dataset into multiple clusters, (...) including forecasting error and meteorological factors. Finally, the joint probability density is established by multivariate kernel density estimation to accomplish the PV power interval prediction. The proposed hybrid method is applied for the interval prediction of PV power at Yulara, Australia. Comparative research of point forecasting is implemented to evaluate the machine learning and deep learning methods, with the proposed SAE-BRNARX under four different periods. Results shows that the average values of nRMSE, MRE, nMAE, and R2 for the four periods are 4.45%, 0.90%, −0.15%, 3.39%, and 95.93%, respectively. Moreover, the results of interval prediction obtained by the other interval prediction approaches are compared with the proposed KMDDPC-MKDE. It shows that the average values of PICP, PINAW, ACE, and nMPICD for four periods are 93.93%, 9.50%, 3.93%, and 7.10% at 90% confidence level, respectively. Outcomes demonstrate that the proposed method can obtain more accuracy, a higher coverage rate, narrower average bandwidth, and a closer distance between the middle of interval and actual value than other methods. (shrink)

Background Supporting physicians in Intensive Care Units s as they face dying patients at unprecedented levels due to the COVID-19 pandemic is critical. Amidst a dearth of such data and guided by evidence that nurses in ICUs experience personal, professional and existential issues in similar conditions, a systematic scoping review is proposed to evaluate prevailing accounts of physicians facing dying patients in ICUs through the lens of Personhood. Such data would enhance understanding and guide the provision of better support for (...) ICU physicians. Methods An SSR adopts the Systematic Evidenced Based Approach to map prevailing accounts of caring for dying patients in ICUs. To enhance the transparency and reproducibility of this process, concurrent and independent use of tabulated summaries, thematic analysis and directed content analysis is adopted. Results Eight thousand three hundred fifty-eight abstracts were reviewed from four databases, 474 full-text articles were evaluated, 58 articles were included, and the Split Approach revealed six categories/themes centered around the Innate, Individual, Relational and Societal Rings of Personhood, conflicts in providing end of life care and coping mechanisms employed. Conclusion This SSR suggests that caring for dying patients in ICU impacts how physicians view their personhood. To resolve conflicts within individual concepts of personhood, physicians use prioritization, reframing and rely on accessible, personalized support from colleagues to steer coping strategies. An adapted form of the Ring Theory of Personhood is proposed to direct timely personalized, appropriate and holistic support. (shrink)

Is gender-emotion stereotype a “one-hundred percent” top-down processing phenomenon, or are there additional contributions to cognitive processing from background clues when they are related to stereotypes? In the present study, we measured the gender-emotion stereotypes of 57 undergraduates with a face recall task and found that, regardless of whether the emotional expressions of distractors were congruent or incongruent with targets, people tended to misperceive the fearful faces of men as angry and the angry faces of women as fearful. In particular, (...) there was a significantly larger effect in the distractor-incongruent condition. The revised process-dissociation procedure analysis confirmed that both automatic and controlled processing have their own independent effects on gender-emotion stereotypes. This finding supports a dual-processing perspective on stereotypes and contributes to future research in both theory and methodology. (shrink)

It is evident, in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic that has physicians confronting death and dying at unprecedented levels along with growing data suggesting that physicians who care for dying patients face complex emotional, psychological and behavioural effects, that there is a need for their better understanding and the implementation of supportive measures. Taking into account data positing that effects of caring for dying patients may impact a physician’s concept of personhood, or “what makes you, ‘you’”, we adopt Radha (...) Krishna’s Ring Theory of Personhood (RToP) to scrutinise the experiences of physicians working in intensive care units (ICU) using a fictional scenario that was inspired by real events. The impact of death and dying, its catalysts, internal constituents, external factors, dyssynchrony, and buffers, specific to ICU physicians, were identified and explored. Such a framework allows for ramifications to be considered holistically and facilitates the curation of strategies for conflict resolution. This evaluation of the RToP acknowledges the experience and wide-ranging effects it has on ICU physicians. As such, our findings provide insight into their specific needs and highlight the importance of support on a personal and organisational level. Although further research needs to be conducted, the RToP could serve as the basis for a longitudinal assessment tool supported by the use of portfolios or mentorship due to their provision of personalised, appropriate, specific, timely, accessible and long-term support. (shrink)

About time, we have too many questions, such as the thing of the past no longer have? The future is not expected to do? Now exist? The passage of time is irreversible, it? What is eternal? Relationship with time? In this paper, the Great Perfection tradition of Tibetan Buddhism's long clearance and West Pakistan Heidegger, for example the phenomenon of school time to discuss the experience. They did not go to the concept of eternal life, but deep into the (...) phenomenon of the passage of time and experiences, reveals a new time dimension, the so-called fourth dimension of time or fourth time. This paper describes the Dzogchen tradition, the processing time of a spiritual experience, and analysis of Pakistan's four seasons Longqing concept and significance in the history of Buddhism, followed by a discussion of Heidegger's four-dimensional concept of time, and their followers on the the concept of further discussion. Finally, in conclusion, I will briefly explain the traditional four-dimensional time in these two different points in the same, and to explore possible reasons similar point. Concerning time, we have many puzzles, such as what is eternity, how it is related to the passage of time, whether the passage of time is irreversible, whether things past are no-longer, whether the future is non-predictable, whether the present exists or not, and so on. This article is an attempt to discuss such experiences of the passage of time. First, a Buddhist practice in Dzogchen tradition that deals with the experience of the passage of time will be introduced, then Longchenpa's concept of four times will be analyzed, and its significance in the history of Buddhism will also be discussed. In the following section, it will examine Heidegger's concept of four dimensional time and briefly discuss its elaboration by later philosophers. In conclusion, it will discuss the similarities and differences between the four-dimensional time theories as found in these two diverse traditions, and the possible reasons for their striking similarities. (shrink)

Maintaining accurate and precise temporal perception under conditions of stress is important. Studies in animal models and clinic patients have suggested that time perception can change under chronic stress. Little is known, however, about the relationship between chronic stress and time perception in healthy individuals. Here, a sample of 62 healthy young men completed Cohen’s Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) as a measure of chronic stress levels, while time perception was measured using a temporal bisection task. This task used short (400 (...) ms) and long (1600 ms) visual signals as anchor durations. Participants were presented with a range of intermediate probe durations and were required to judge whether the durations were more similar to the short or the long anchor. Results showed that chronic stress was negatively related to temporal sensitivity indexed by the Weber ratio. However, there was no significant correlation between chronic stress and subjective duration indexed by the bisection point. These results demonstrate that higher chronic stress is associated with lower temporal sensitivity and thus provide evidence for a link between chronic stress and time perception in healthy adults. (shrink)

College students have taken part in less and less physical activities as a result of the common static lifestyle in recent years, lowering the level of motor function. This phenomenon has been a source of concern for schools and the government, and it is necessary to take corresponding measures to change it. The general motor function level of Chinese college students is explored first based on artificial intelligence and the human–computer interaction technology. The Physical Activity Questionnaire for College Students is (...) compiled by referring to the International Physical Activity Questionnaire, and 561 students from colleges in Tianjin province are assessed based on the functional movement screen. Spearman correlation and multivariate regression analysis are used to analyze the correlation between the motor function and physical activity status. In terms of lunch break frequency, the proportion of students having one to two lunch breaks in a week is the highest ; in terms of the frequency of doing moderate physical exercise, the proportion of students doing moderate physical exercise for 1–2 days in a week is the highest ; in terms of the frequency of doing heavy physical exercise, the proportion of students doing heavy exercise for 1–2 days in a week is the highest ; in terms of the sedentary time, the proportion of students with sedentary time more than 5 h in a day is the highest ; in terms of eye use time, the proportion of students with 8–10 h eye use time in a day is the highest. Besides, in terms of the FMS score, the proportion of students with 13–15 FMS is the highest. The hurdle step, straight knee lift, and body rotation stability have a relatively low proportion among the three-point items. There is a positive correlation between motor function score with the time of moderate exercise and the time of heavy exercise. College students generally have insufficient rest time, long eye use time, and long sitting time, leading to a low level of motor function, manifested by an asymmetry between both sides of the body and poor trunk stability. It is recommended to add hurdling steps, straight knee lifts, and body rotation stability tests to college physical education courses. (shrink)

ABSTRACT What is the ethical significance of the suffering of nonhuman animals? For many, the answer is simple. Such suffering has clear moral significance: nonhuman animal suffering is suffering, suffering is something bad, and the fact that it is bad gives us reason to alleviate or prevent it. The practical problem that remains is how to do this most efficiently or effectively. I argue that this does not exhaust the ethical significance of certain evils, once we consider how the existence (...) of those evils may detract from the meaning of human life, even on fully “naturalistic” conceptions of meaning in life. I will draw a distinction between what I will call “spiritual” problems and “moral” problems and consider why moral philosophers may be well suited to addressing both problems, as long as the domain of the ethical is not taken to be exhausted by the domain of the moral. Finally, I will elaborate on why marking a distinction between these problems—the moral and the spiritual—may help illuminate some disagreements between Utilitarians and their opponents about the ethical significance of the suffering of nonhuman animals. (shrink)

Parmenides expelled nonbeing from the realm of knowledge and forbade us to think or talk about it. But still there has been a long tradition of nay-sayings throughout the history of Western and Eastern philosophy. Are those philosophers talking about the same nonbeing or nothing? If not, how do their concepts of nothing differ from each other? Could there be different types of nothing? Surveying the traditional classifications of nothing or nonbeing in the East and West have led me (...) to develop a typology of nothing that consists of three main types: 1) privative nothing, commonly known as absence; 2) negative nothing, the altogether not or absolute nothing; and finally 3) original nothing, the nothing that is equivalent to being. I will test my threefold typology of nothing by comparing the similarities and differences between the conceptions of nothing in Heidegger, Daoism and Buddhism. With this study, I hope that I will clarify some confusion in the understanding of nothing in Heidegger, Daoism and Buddhism, and shed light on the central philosophical issue of “what there is not”. (shrink)

The present study aims at proposing a time series-based network public opinion emergency management decision support algorithm for the problems of low decision accuracy and long decision time in traditional similar algorithms. In this proposed algorithm, after the time series data are preprocessed, the association rules of the original indicator data of network public opinion emergencies are mined, the original indicator data matrix of NPOEs will be constructed, and the improved local linear embedding approach will be employed to obtain (...) the original indicator data of NPOEs. After carrying out the preprocessing according to the preprocessing results, the objective weight of the emergency decision index is calculated through the interval value fuzzy information entropy measurement of the emergency decision index, the emergency management decision support model is constructed, and the emergency management decision support of the NPOE is realized. The simulation experiment results show that the proposed algorithm has a better effect on the decision-making effect of the management of NPOEs, and a higher decision-making efficiency is achieved. (shrink)

This research investigates Chinese EFL students’ flow experience in academic writing and its effect on students’ writing performance. The research consists of two studies: a preliminary study involving a survey of 162 college students immediately after their completion of a short English essay to examine whether and how intensely they experienced flow during their writing and whether their perceived levels of challenge of the writing task and their writing skills affected their flow experience, and a main study including a survey (...) of 216 different students at the end of a semester-long writing course to ascertain how frequently these students experienced flow during the course, whether their intrinsic writing motivation and attention control ability were significantly correlated with their flow experience, and whether their flow frequency had an effect on their performance in the writing course. Results of statistical tests of the data in the preliminary study revealed that a large majority of the students experienced a certain level of flow in their writing and their perceived levels of writing skills had a significant influence on their flow experience. The statistical test results of the main study indicated that 66.4% of the students experienced flow with various frequency levels, while 33.6% of the students rarely or never experienced flow, students’ level of motivation and attention control were significantly correlated with their level of flow frequency, and students’ flow frequency had a significant influence on their writing course scores. Research and pedagogical implications of the study are also discussed. (shrink)

Background: With the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic in China, the general public but also medical staff were confronted with psychological challenges, suffering from the highly infectious and unknown characteristics of COVID-19. In this study, we surveyed psychological symptoms including anxiety, depression, and sleep disorders in medical staff.Method: A questionnaire star/WeChat link-based survey assessing the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item scale, Patient Health Questionnaire-9 depression, the Insomnia Severity Index, Social Support scales in addition to lifestyle, and income level was (...) conducted and included 8,288 medical staff from 24 provinces in China. Pearson Chi-square and Mann-Whitney U-tests were used to evaluate single risk factors and significant differences in psychological symptoms before and during the outbreak of COVID-19. Binary logistic regression analyses were conducted for the risk factors of anxiety, depression, and sleep disorder symptoms.Results: Medical staff had a high incidence of psychological symptoms, which was more prominent during the COVID-19 epidemic. Comparatively, females, nurses, first-line department, never exercised, and low income were risk factors for psychological symptoms. Social support including objective support, subjective support, support utility, and regular sports over 3 times per week were protective and manageable elements that could protect from and manage the psychological symptoms of medical staff.Conclusion: The susceptibility of psychological symptoms among medical staff should be of concern to policymakers and the public in the long-term, and the aggravation of mental health problems of medical staff could be eased by providing adequate social support during and after the COVID-19 outbreak. (shrink)

Using Least Square Residual Minimization techniques, this paper develops an optimal reserve model, known as the OPREM model, which is essential in optimizing the costs of reserve holding. The paper also sets-out to test and compare the relative predictions of economic trends of the OPREM model as well as the predictions of alternative models in literature. Establishing the predictive accuracy of economic trends of these models are crucial for the gradual and cost-effective accumulation of reserves. The research concludes that, the (...) decision to optimize the cost of reserves under a stable currency environment is reliant on the gold impact factor and not on inflation or interest rates. We also found on further analysis of the OPREM that the OPREM model is better positioned to eliminate the procyclicality and perverse rush in reserve build-ups experienced in developing and emerging countries by effectively setting the reserve stock against economic trends. The research fixes the optimal reserves around a benchmark of 0.7–1.2 of previous year's optimal value. However, in the absence of past optimal values, a benchmark between 2 and 6 times of average inflows for short-term analysis or analysis with small data observations. However, for long-term analysis or analysis with large data frequency, the reserve stock should be fixed on a benchmark of 2–9 times of the average inflows. (shrink)

BackgroundThe SARS-COVID-19 pandemic and its associated disease control restrictions have in multiple ways affected families with young children, who may be especially vulnerable to mental health problems. Studies report an increase in perinatal parental distress as well as symptoms of anxiety or depression in children during the pandemic. Currently, little is known about the impact of the pandemic on infants and their development. Infant regulatory problems have been identified as early indicators of child socio-emotional development, strongly associated with maternal mental (...) health and the early parent–infant interaction. Our study investigates whether early parenthood under COVID-19 is associated with more maternal depressive symptoms and with a perception of their infants as having more RPs regarding crying/fussing, sleeping, or eating, compared to mothers assessed before the pandemic.MethodsAs part of a longitudinal study, 65 women who had given birth during the first nationwide disease control restrictions in Northern Germany, were surveyed at 7 months postpartum and compared to 97 women assessed before the pandemic. RPs and on maternal depressive symptoms were assessed by maternal report. Number of previous children, infant negative emotionality, and perceived social support were assessed as control variables.ResultsCompared to the control cohort, infants born during the COVID-19 pandemic and those of mothers with higher depressive symptoms were perceived as having more sleeping and crying, but not more eating problems. Regression-based analyses showed no additional moderating effect of parenthood under COVID-19 on the association of depressive symptoms with RPs. Infant negative emotionality was positively, and number of previous children was negatively associated with RPs.LimitationsDue to the small sample size and cross-sectional assessment, the possibility for more complex multivariate analysis was limited. The use of parent-report questionnaires to assess infant RPs can support but not replace clinical diagnosis.ConclusionsThe pandemic conditions affecting everyday life may have a long-term influence on impaired infant self- and maternal co-regulation and on maternal mental health. This should be addressed in peripartum and pediatric care. Qualitative and longitudinal studies focusing on long-term parental and infant outcomes under ongoing pandemic conditions are encouraged. (shrink)

With the rapid expansion of Internet technology, this research aims to explore the teaching strategies of ceramic art for contemporary students. Based on deep learning, an automatic question answering system is established, new teaching strategies are analyzed, and the Internet is combined with the automatic QA system to help students solve problems encountered in the process of learning. Firstly, the related theories of DL and personalized learning are analyzed. Among DL-related theories, Back Propagation Neural Network, Convolutional Neural Network, Long (...) Short-Term Memory, and Gated Recurrent Unit are compared to implement a single model and a mixed model. Secondly, the collected student questions are selected and processed, and experimental parameters in different models are set for comparative experiments. Experiments reveal that the average accuracy and Mean Reciprocal Rank of traditional retrieval methods can only reach about 0.5. In the basic neural network, the average accuracy of LSTM and GRU structural models is about 0.81, which can achieve better results. Finally, the accuracy of the hybrid model can reach about 0.82, and the accuracy and MRR of the Bidirectional Gated Recurrent Unit Network-Attention model are 0.87 and 0.89, respectively, achieving the best results. The established DL model meets the requirements of the online automatic QA system, improves the teaching system, and helps students better understand and solve problems in the ceramic art courses. (shrink)

Alcohol use disorder is one of the most common substance use disorders contributing to both behavioral and cognitive impairments in patients with AUD. Recent neuroimaging studies point out that AUD is a typical disorder featured by altered functional connectivity. However, the details about how voxel-wise functional coordination remain unknown. Here, we adopted a newly proposed method named functional connectivity density to depict altered voxel-wise functional coordination in AUD. The novel functional imaging technique, FCD, provides a comprehensive analytical method for brain's (...) “scale-free” networks. We applied resting-state functional MRI toward subjects to obtain their FCD, including global FCD, local FCD, and long-range FCD. Sixty-one patients with AUD and 29 healthy controls were recruited, and patients with AUD were further divided into alcohol-related cognitive impairment group and non-cognitive impairment group. All subjects were asked to stay stationary during the scan in order to calculate the resting-state gFCD, lFCD, and lrFCD values, and further investigate the abnormal connectivity alterations among AUD-NCI, ARCI, and HC. Compared to HC, both AUD groups exhibited significantly altered gFCD in the left inferior occipital lobe, left calcarine, altered lFCD in right lingual, and altered lrFCD in ventromedial frontal gyrus. It is notable that gFCD of the ARCI group was found to be significantly deviated from AUD-NCI and HC in left medial frontal gyrus, which changes probably contributed by the impairment in cognition. In addition, no significant differences in gFCD were found between ARCI and HC in left parahippocampal, while ARCI and HC were profoundly deviated from AUD-NCI, possibly reflecting a compensation of cognition impairment. Further analysis showed that within patients with AUD, gFCD values in left medial frontal gyrus are negatively correlated with MMSE scores, while lFCD values in left inferior occipital lobe are positively related to ADS scores. In conclusion, patients with AUD exhibited significantly altered functional connectivity patterns mainly in several left hemisphere brain regions, while patients with AUD with or without cognitive impairment also demonstrated intergroup FCD differences which correlated with symptom severity, and patients with AUD cognitive impairment would suffer less severe alcohol dependence. This difference in symptom severity probably served as a compensation for cognitive impairment, suggesting a difference in pathological pathways. These findings assisted future AUD studies by providing insight into possible pathological mechanisms. (shrink)

Research showed that action real-time strategy gaming experience is related to cognitive and neural plasticity, including visual selective attention and working memory, executive control, and information processing. This study explored the relationship between ARSG experience and information transmission in the auditory channel. Using an auditory, two-choice, go/no-go task and lateralized readiness potential as the index to partial information transmission, this study examined information transmission patterns in ARSG experts and amateurs. Results showed that experts had a higher accuracy rate than amateurs. (...) More importantly, experts had a smaller stimulus-locked LRP component than amateurs on no-go trials, while the response-locked LRP component on go trials did not differ between groups. Thus, whereas amateurs used an asynchronous information transmission pattern, experts used a reduced asynchronous information transmission pattern or a synchronous pattern where most of processing occurred prior to response execution – an information transmission pattern that supports rapid, error-free performance. Thus, experts and amateurs may use different information transmission patterns in auditory processing. In addition, the information transmission pattern used by experts is typically observed only after long-term auditory training according to past research. This study supports the relationship between ARSG experience and the development of information processing patterns. (shrink)

Hung Yao-hsün is one of the most creative, albeit long overlooked, thinkers in Japanese-ruled Taiwan. This paper’s aim is threefold. It first argues that while Hung’s early philosophy was rooted in the Kyoto school, he is a key founder of the Sit-chûn movement of Taiwanese philosophy. It next shows that during Taiwan’s martial law, Hung’s thought features a “Buddhist turn,” in which Zen is incorporated within existentialism. Third, while this turn is a sharp contrast to his prewar philosophical activism, (...) Hung’s last work stressed Abraham Kaplan’s view that philosophy should be connected to one’s life experience, echoing Hung’s prewar usage of fūdo in justifying Taiwan’s cultural subjectivity. In other words, there is an implicit continuity between his early and late philosophy. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Nonexistent Objects in Buddhist Philosophy: On Knowing What There Is Not by Zhihua YaoChong Fu (bio)Nonexistent Objects in Buddhist Philosophy: On Knowing What There Is Not. By Zhihua Yao. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020. Pp. 186. Hardcover £29.99, isbn 978-1-35-012148-5. Nonexistent Objects in Buddhist Philosophy: On Knowing What There Is Not, by Zhihua Yao, cogently strings together different Buddhist schools' varied philosophical approaches to the cognition of nonexistent objects (...) (asadālambanajñāna) or non-cognition (anupalabdhi). Non-being and the knowledge of non-being have long been central to nearly every philosophical tradition. Buddhist philosophy, in particular, invests extraordinary intellectual effort to deal with these topics, since non-being (asat/abhāva) occupies a central role in the Buddhist doctrine. Yao acutely reconstructs a brief history of this philosophical enterprise of Buddhism from the early sectarian period to the time when the so-called logico-epistemological school prevailed. The book consists of an introduction and eight chapters. These eight chapters are basically based on Yao's previously published articles. They are further arranged into two parts: (1) "Cognition of Nonexistent Objects: A Historical Development" and (2) "Epistemological Approaches to Nonexistence." The first part discusses how philosophers from the Mahāsāṃghika, the Dārṣṭāntika, and the Yogācāra analyze the cognition of nonexistent objects. The philosophical development concerning this particular topic is masterfully articulated by Yao. This mastery is best shown in his unveiling of Yogācāra's philosophical inheritance from its Abhidharma legacy. In addition, his reconstruction deepens our understanding of the intricate history of sectarian Buddhism in a broader sense. The second part centers on the philosophical issues of nonexistence raised by the Buddhist logico-epistemological school. Yao's translation, presentation, and comparison of these philosophical arguments is strikingly lucid and comprehensive. Overall, one salient contribution of this book is that it highlights the importance of Pāli and Chinese sources in studying the history of Buddhist philosophy, especially Indian Buddhist philosophy. In Part 1, Yao's reconstruction of sectarian Buddhist philosophies is heavily based on the Pāli text Kathāvatthu and the Chinese translations of Samayabhedoparacanacakra, Śāriputrābhidharma, Vijñānakāya, Mahāvibhāṣā, *Janakaparamopadeśa, and Nyāyānusāra, whose Sanskrit or Prakrit originals have long been lost. In part 2, in [End Page 1] addition to comprehensively assessing Sanskrit and Tibetan materials, Yao detects a much-hidden philosophical development from Īśvarasena to Dharmakīrti by relying on Chinese commentaries composed by Chinese and Korean monks in the Tang Dynasty. Chapter 1 is of the most importance in the book; in it, Yao traces "an early origin of the concept of the cognition of nonexistent objects among the Mahāsaṃghikas and some Vibhajyavādins under their influence" (p. 13). Yao sensitively points out that "the thesis that latent defilements (Pāli: anusaya/Skt: anuśaya) have no objects constitutes the first step toward the formation of the concept of the cognition of nonexistent objects" (p. 19). The next step, as Yao analyzes it, is the proposition of awareness (Pāli: ñāṇa/Skt: jñāna) without objects due to the Mahāsaṃghikas and its sub-schools. Yao's philosophical reconstruction is eloquent and perceptive, especially when he outlines a crucial conceptual transition from the awareness that is without objects (anālambanaṃ jñānam) to the awareness that has nonexistent objects as its objects (asadālambanajñāna). However, one of the main supporting materials that he believes mentions the awareness that has nonexistent objects as its objects -- a passage from the Śāriputrābhidharma -- might be found less supportive without a more detailed justification. This passage is concerned with the concept of wu jingjie zhi 無境界智:What is the awareness without objects (wu jingjie zhi 無境界智)? There is no awareness without objects. Or, the awareness that arises when conceptualizing the past and the future dharmas is called the awareness without objects.1《舍利弗阿毘曇論》卷 9〈4 智品〉：「云何無境界智？無無境界智。復次思惟過 去未來法智生，是名無境界智。」(CBETA 2022.Q4, T28, no. 1548, p. 593c16–18)。Yao chooses an alternative reading based solely on the Taisho Edition, which interpolates one more 境 in 無無境界智 as 無境無境界智. This reading might result in a wholly different meaning: "What is awareness without objects? Any awareness that... (shrink)

Chinese Buddhist thought is more than a case of “Indianization” or “Sinicization,” and even less, “Distortion.” Chinese Buddhist thought should be grasped, first, in its own terms and only then in terms of the possible influences or confluences that flowed into it. The present article will seek to look into the concept of “Suchness vasana” (perfumation by the Buddhist absolute, Suchness, upon avidya, ignorance) as used by the Huayan school in China. Then it will show how, in the elaboration of (...) this idea, Fazang, the key patriarch of the Huayan school, apparently drew on a mode of thought that is derived from the Yijing, the Book of Changes. It is in the nature of the present article that only the Chinese influence will be underlined and that the Indian contributions to the formation of a theory of a “dynamic Suchness” will only be briefly touched upon. Scholars have long noticed the Daoist influence of Chinese Buddhological thinking, especially within the Ch'an and the Hua-yen circles. However, too often scholars only suggest impressionistic parallels, between, say, the book Laozi and the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch or between Mencian humanism (“Every man can be Sage Yao and Shun”) and the idea that “Every man can be Buddha.” Such presentations of Chinese influence bypass the various problems involved in the long and thorny history of conflict, compromise, mutual self-discovery, and fertilization between the two cultural traditions. The present article will try to be much more concrete by documenting and analyzing the series of incidents that led to a datable innovation on Fazang's part. (shrink)

As machine learning informs increasingly consequential decisions, different metrics have been proposed for measuring algorithmic bias or unfairness. Two popular “fairness measures” are calibration and equality of false positive rate. Each measure seems intuitively important, but notably, it is usually impossible to satisfy both measures. For this reason, a large literature in machine learning speaks of a “fairness tradeoff” between these two measures. This framing assumes that both measures are, in fact, capturing something important. To date, philosophers have seldom examined (...) this crucial assumption, and examined to what extent each measure actually tracks a normatively important property. This makes this inevitable statistical conflict – between calibration and false positive rate equality – an important topic for ethics. In this paper, I give an ethical framework for thinking about these measures and argue that, contrary to initial appearances, false positive rate equality is in fact morally irrelevant and does not measure fairness. (shrink)

This comprehensive sourcebook makes available in the original Latin and Greek the principal extant texts required for the study of the Stoic, Epicurean and sceptical schools of philosophy. The material is organized by schools, and within each school topics are treated thematically. The volume presents the same texts (with some additional passages) as are translated in The Hellenistic Philosophers, Volume 1. The authors provide their own critical apparatus, and also supply detailed notes on the more difficult texts. This volume is (...) equipped with a large annotated bibliography. (shrink)

In business ethics research, little is known about why and how employees engage in unethical behavior, especially unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) and unethical pro-family behavior (UPFB). Based on cognitive-affective personality system theory and conservation of resources theory, this study aims to explore the mechanisms underlying the effects of workplace bullying, as a negative event, on UPB (Study 1) and UPFB (Study 2). In Study 1, workplace bullying negatively correlated with UPB where emotional exhaustion and organization-oriented moral disengagement played chain-mediating roles (...) in this relationship. In Study 2, workplace bullying positively correlated with UPFB where emotional exhaustion and family-oriented moral disengagement played chain-mediating roles in the relationship. In both studies, perceived forgiveness climate, as a conditional factor, was found to weaken the positive impact of workplace bullying on both emotional exhaustion and the chain-mediating effect of emotional exhaustion and moral disengagement in the relationship between workplace bullying and UPB/upfb. Overall, this study explains why, how, and when employees exhibit UPB and UPFB. The implications for theory and practices that could enable organizations to reduce employees’ unethical behavior are discussed. (shrink)

ABSTRACT:The ubiquity of family dominated firms in economies worldwide suggests that inquiry into the nature of the ethical frames of these types of firms is increasingly important. In the context of a social exchange approach and the norm of reciprocity, this manuscript addresses social cohesion in a dominant family firm coalition. It is argued that the factors underlying this cohesion, direct versus indirect reciprocity, shape unique attributes of family firms such as intentions for transgenerational sustainability, the pursuit of non-economic goals, (...) and strong interpersonal ties. Exchange structures, represented by direct and indirect reciprocity, lead family and non-family firms toward development of distinctive ethical frames of reference. (shrink)

Highlights: -/- • Breastfeeding and breastfeeding support can contribute to mitigating climate change. • Achieving global nutrition targets will save more emissions than fuel-switching. • Breastfeeding support programmes support a just transition. • This work can support the expansion of mitigation options in energy system models. -/- Abstract: -/- Renewable gas has been proposed as a solution to decarbonise industrial processes, specifically heat demand. As part of this effort, the breast-milk substitutes industry is proposing to use renewable gas as a (...) substitute for fossil natural gas. However, decarbonising the industrial processing of breast-milk substitutes can increase social license for these products, potentially undermining breastfeeding. World Health Organisation nutrition targets aim to increase exclusive breastfeeding to at least 50% globally by 2025 to improve maternal, infant, and young child health and nutrition. This target will have implications for the energy transition. A weakness of existing energy models is that demands for end-use products such as breast-milk substitutes are typically not considered explicitly. This paper develops an analytical framework for explicitly representing infant feeding methods in energy systems models. We compare the emissions saved in Ireland from decarbonising the industrial processing of breast-milk substitutes with renewable gas with the emissions saved by an increase in exclusive breastfeeding to 50% in both Ireland and a key export market, China. We demonstrate that the emissions saved from achieving the minimum global breastfeeding target are greater than when renewable gas is used to displace natural gas in the production of breast-milk substitutes in Ireland. We discuss the decarbonisation of breast-milk substitutes in relation to the principle of justice as non-maleficence, a principle based on the commitment to avoid harm, a novel application of a principle of justice. We conclude that breastfeeding support can be considered a demand-side measure for mitigating climate change by reducing the demand for energy services to produce breast-milk substitutes. A key recommendation is to position breastfeeding support as both a public health and a climate justice issue that is relevant for a just transition. The framework developed for this paper could be applied to support the inclusion of a wider range of mitigation options with social justice outcomes in energy system models. [Open access]. (shrink)

Journal Name: Apeiron Issue: Ahead of print.

In this paper I argue that, according to a particular physicalist conception of information, information is both alethically neutral or non-alethic, and is intrinsically semantic. The conception of information presented is physicalist and reductionist, and is contrary to most current pluralist and non-reductionist philosophical opinion about the nature of information. The ontology assumed for this conception of information is based upon physicalist non-eliminative ontic structural realism. However, the argument of primary interest is that information so construed is intrinsically semantic on (...) a reductionist and non-alethic basis where semantic content is constituted by indication along causal pathways. Similar arguments have been presented by philosophers with respect to representation. I suggest the conception of information that I present is correct by the lights of the best applied mathematical and scientific theories of information. If so, there is no need for any separate theory of semantic information. Thus I present a theory of intrinsically semantic information which also constitutes an informational theory of truth where truth reduces to information. In the last section I discuss weakly and strongly semantic information, and reject them in favour of alethically neutral intrinsically semantic information. (shrink)

Although women have made important inroads in science and engineering since the early 1970s, their progress in these fields has stalled over the past several years. This study looks at women in science and engineering careers in the 1970s and 1980s, documenting differences in career outcomes between men and women and between women of different races and ethnic backgrounds. The panel presents what is known about the following questions and explores their policy implications: In what sectors are female Ph.D.s employed? (...) What salary disparities exist between men and women in these fields? How is marital status associated with career attainment? Does it help a career to have a postdoctoral appointment? How well are female scientists and engineers represented in management? Within the broader context of education and the labor market, the book provides detailed comparisons between men and women Ph.D.s in a number of measures: financial support for education, academic rank achieved, salary, and others. The study covers engineering; the mathematical, physical, life, and social and behavioral sciences; medical school faculty; and recipients of National Institutes of Health grants. Findings and recommendations in this volume will be of interest to practitioners, faculty, and students in science and engineering as well as education administrators, employers, and researchers in these fields. (shrink)

On a traditional view of perceptual justification, perceptual experiences always provide prima facie justification for beliefs based on them. Against this view, Matthew McGrath and Susanna Siegel argue that if an experience is formed in an epistemically pernicious way then it is epistemically downgraded. They argue that "wishful seeing"—when a subject sees something because he wants to see it—is psychologically and normatively analogous to wishful thinking. They conclude that perception can lose its traditional justificatory power, and that our epistemic norms (...) should govern how experiences are formed. To make this case, the downgrader must first isolate a feature of wishful thinking that makes it epistemically defective, then show that this feature is present in wishful seeing. I present a dilemma for the downgrader. There are two features of wishful thinking that could plausibly explain why it is irrational: the fact that a desire causes you to form a belief not supported by adequate evidence, or the mere influence that desire holds over belief formation. Each option presents formidable difficulties. Although the first “bad evidence” explanation, which McGrath employs, explains the irrationality of wishful thinking, it does not transfer to wishful seeing, since experiences are not formed in response to evidence. The second “influence of desire” explanation, which Siegel employs, fails to isolate an epistemically defective feature of wishful thinking, and also does not transfer to wishful seeing. I conclude that the downgrader’s argument from wishful seeing fails. (shrink)

This paper considers the kind of introspection that large language models (LLMs) might be able to have. It argues that LLMs, while currently limited in their introspective capabilities, are not inherently unable to have such capabilities: they already model the world, including mental concepts, and already have some introspection-like capabilities. With deliberate training, LLMs may develop introspective capabilities. The paper proposes a method for such training for introspection, situates possible LLM introspection in the 'possible forms of introspection' framework proposed by (...) Kammerer and Frankish, and considers the ethical ramifications of introspection and self-report in AI systems. (shrink)

In his Meditations Descartes concludes that he is a res cogitans, an unextended entity whose essence is to be conscious. His reasoning in support of the conclusion that he exists entirely distinct from his body has seemed unconvincing to his critics. I attempt to show that the reasoning which he offers in support of his conclusion. although mistaken, is more plausible and his mistakes more interesting than his critics have acknowledged.

According to an attractive conception of love as attention, discussed by Iris Murdoch, one strives to see one’s beloved accurately and justly. A puzzle for understanding how to love another in this way emerges in cases where more accurate and just perception of the beloved only reveals his flaws and vices, and where the beloved, in awareness of this, strives to escape the gaze of others - including, or perhaps especially, of his loved ones. Though less attentive forms of love (...) may be able to render one’s continued love coherent and justifiable in these cases, they risk further alienating the beloved precisely because they are less attentive and because of the operations of the beloved’s shame. I argue that attentive love is well-suited to alleviate this problem of alienation, but that in order to do so, it must be supplemented with grace. I propose a conception of gracious love as an affectionate love for the qualities of human nature, distinguishing this from a love of humanity, and show how this complex emotion, in being responsive to the complexities of shame, is able to alleviate the problem of alienation. (shrink)

We investigated whether adults have attentional bias toward infant faces, whether it is moderated by infant facial expression, and the predictive effect of the adult attachment state on it. One hundred unmarried nulliparous college students [50 men and 50 women; aged 17–24 years ] were recruited. Each completed a self-report questionnaire—the Chinese version of the State Adult Attachment Measure, and a dot-probe task with a stimulus presentation duration of 500 ms, which used 192 black-and-white photographs of 64 people as the (...) experimental stimuli. The results showed that, at the duration of 500 ms, individuals' attentional bias toward infant faces disappeared, regardless of the facial expression. However, when the interaction between avoidant attachment state and face was controlled, the attentional bias was significant again, and the avoidant attachment state negatively predicted individuals' attentional bias toward infant faces. This indicates that at the suprathreshold stage, there are individual differences in the attentional bias toward infant faces, and high avoidant attachment will weaken individuals' attentional bias toward infant faces. This study advances previous studies that focused only on individuals' attention to infant faces occurring at the early processing stage of attention. The results provide direction for interventions; specifically, changing the attachment state of avoidant individuals can affect their attention to infants, which may promote the establishment of parent–child relationships. (shrink)

In times of social and moral crises, sport has often been called to boost individual moral development. By the same token, outdoor activities are viewed as good educational practices to enhance environmental responsibility. However, the present paper argues that these physical activities are currently following the same technological development trend as the mainstream society, and challenges this trend itself in terms of sustainability by critically asking this question: Do outdoor activities really enhance environmental responsibility? The research supporting this paper is (...) based on a qualitative inquiry using interviews with outdoor activities practitioners: mountain guides and white water sports instructors. The findings of this research show that environmental responsibility development depends on the sport contexts. It is fostered in slow and none-technological activities and lowered in fast and technological activities. The paper concludes with the following paradox reached by the preliminary research results: the birth of modern technology calls for greater need of environmental responsibility, but it may also prevent its development at the same time. (shrink)