River water pollution by wastewater can cause significant negative impact on the aquatic sustainability. Hence, accurate modeling of this complicated system and its cost-effective treatment and reuse decision is very important because this optimization process is related to economic expenditure, societal health, and environmental deterioration. In order to optimize this complex system, we may consider three treatment or reuse options such as microscreening filtration, nitrification, and fertilization-oriented irrigation on top of two existing options such as settling and biological oxidation. The (...) objective of this environmental optimization is to minimize the economic expenditure of life cycle costs while satisfying the public health standard in terms of groundwater quality and the environmental standard in terms of river water quality. Particularly, this study improves existing optimization model by pinpointing the critical deficit location of dissolved oxygen sag curve by using analytic differentiation. Also, the proposed formulation considers more practical constraints such as maximal size of irrigation area and minimal amount of filtration treatment process. The results obtained by using an evolutionary algorithm, named a parameter-setting-free harmony search algorithm, show that the proposed model successfully finds optimal solutions while conveniently locating the critical deficit point. (shrink)

The scientific relationship among self, mind and brain is still not clearly known. Self’s subjective experience of perception and cognition of words, feelings, thoughts etc. is supported by the integrity of human brain. Consequently, neuroscientists, psychologists, psychiatrists, physicists and philosophers have been investigating to find the scientific relationship between mind and brain, consciousness and quantum physics. Recent experimental evidence suggests that the neural correlate of consciousness is located in certain parts of the cortico-thalamic system. But it is not known specifically (...) which parts of the human brain are involved in the human cognitive activity. In this study, the author proposed a tree-pattern architecture of the cerebral neural substrate in cognitive understanding of words, feelings, and thoughts on the basis of the author’s hypothesis of the ultron-logotron theory to explain the neural correlate of consciousness. (shrink)

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, online learning has been carried out in many countries with different types of online learning models being promoted and implemented. In the global pandemic continues, the education environment is forced to change from traditional classroom or blended teaching mode to online learning teaching model. With the outbreak of COVID-19, China was the first to announce that online courses are to be implemented in February 2020. In China, whether online learning can replace traditional offline teaching (...) has become a topic worth discussing. Therefore, this study investigates university students in China by questionnaires and discussions of this topic. The study is based on the Push–Pull Mooring model. Based on 854 valid responses collected from an online survey questionnaire, structural equation modeling was employed to examine the research model. The results show that push effects, pull effects, and mooring effects all significantly influence users' switching intentions from offline to online learning platform. Finally, this study explores whether push–pull–mooring can be a reference for promoting and implementing online learning courses in Chinese colleges and universities in the future after the pandemic. (shrink)

In this article, we examine the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on firms' financial performance (CSR-effect). Two competing hypotheses, social impact hypothesis and shift of focus hypothesis, are proposed to investigate this issue, where the former suggests that CSR has a positive relation with performance and the latter are opposite. In order to ensure the CSR-effect is not contaminated by other faeton or samples are randomly drawn, we employ four matching methods, Nearest, Caliper, Mahala and Mahala Caliper to match (...) the samples of CSR (CSR-firms) and without CSR (NonCSR-firms) with similar characteristics. Although four methods yield slightly different results, firms engaging in CSR activities tend to obtain significantly higher values on pretax income to net sales and profit margin, and adopting CSR at the very least not deteriorate the performance of firms, making our con clusion favors the social impact hypothesis and against shift of focus hypothesis in Taiwan. Thus, ambition and conscience are not conflicting with each other. (shrink)

This study is based on the situation of Taiwan listed companies as derivative financial products from 2015 to 2017, analyzing the relationship between the hedging of derivative financial products and characteristics of enterprises and the factors that affect the hedging decision-making of companies. It is found that even after the announcement of Taiwan’s No. 34 and No. 36 bulletins, there are still some problems that are needed to improve in the disclosure of derivative financial product investment information by Taiwan’s listed (...) companies, at least in the disclosure of the reasons for this conduct which is still insufficient. In this study, two-stage regression analysis method is applied to empirical analysis, and it is found that hedging activities are related to corporate characteristics, such as expected financial crisis costs, corporate size, equity issues, growth investment opportunities, and information asymmetry. In the investment of derivative financial products, enterprises should evaluate their own financial characteristics as a reference for the risk avoidance decision. At the same time, it is necessary to investigate different natures of hedging tools used in appropriate risk categories, so as to fully achieve the hedging effect and maximize the hedging benefits. This study also found that companies with higher growth investment opportunities, larger size, and higher financial crisis costs will tend to use derivative financial products for hedging. As for the impact of other industries, it is found that the electronic and electrical machinery industries are more active than other industries in hedging behaviors of undertaking derivative financial products’ transaction. (shrink)

The relationships between age and the life-supporting treatments use, and between gender and the life-supporting treatments use are still controversial. Using extracorporeal membrane oxygenation as an example of life-supporting treatments, the objectives of this study were: to examine the relationship between age and the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation use; to examine the relationship between age and the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation use; and to deliberate the ethical and societal implications of age and gender disparities in the initiation of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. This (...) is a population-based, retrospective cohort study. Taiwan’s extracorporeal membrane oxygenation cases from 2000 to 2010 were collected. The annual incidence rate of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation use adjusting for both age and gender distribution for each year from 2000 to 2010 was derived using the population of 2000 as the reference population. The trend of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation use was examined using time-series linear regression analysis. We conducted joinpoint regression for estimating the trend change of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation use. The trends of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation use both for different gender groups, and for different age groups have been significantly increasing over time. Men were more likely to be supported by extracorporeal membrane oxygenation than women. Women’s perspectives toward life and death, and women’s perception of well-being may be associated with the phenomenon. In addition, the patients at the age of 65 or older were more likely to be supported by extracorporeal membrane oxygenation than those younger than 65. Family autonomy/family-determination, and the Confucian tradition of filial piety and respecting elders may account for this phenomenon. This study showed gender and age disparities in the initiation of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation use in Taiwan, which may be accounted for by the cultural and societal values in Taiwan. For a healthcare professional who deals with patients’/family members’ medical decision-making to initiate life-supporting treatments, he/she should be sensitive not only to the legality, but also the societal and ethical issues involved. (shrink)

Physicians play a substantial role in facilitating communication regarding life-supporting treatment decision-making including do-not-resuscitate in the intensive care units. Physician-related fact...

This article focuses on a psychological phenomenon discussed by the early Confucian: yuan 怨, which is often translated as “resentment”, “grievance”, “lament”, or “complaint”. I attempt to use the early Confucian discussions of yuan to shed light on an aspect of human psychology, namely, when one laments about certain conditions that obtain in such a way that she sees as beyond her control and negatively affects her. This is an unusual reactive attitude because one who has yuan takes the “passive (...) stance.” This paper has four main sections: the first section makes textual observations of “yuan” in the early Confucian texts; the second section proposes a Confucian-inspired account of yuan and highlights the psychological state in which one who has yuan sees oneself as object; the third section discusses the problematic dimensions of yuan; the final section discusses the negative implications of the passive stance with respect to contemporary concerns: vulnerability, moral repair, and self-respect. (shrink)

This article seeks to interpret Mencius’ criticism of the village worthies and shed light on the distinctive psychological phenomenon that Mencius has captured but not quite articulated. An attempt at filling out the Mencian view of the village worthies will help us better understand the content of the moral charges made against them and also deepen our analysis of the kind of psychology that early Confucians regard as crucial to moral agency. Following an introduction that overviews Mencius’ criticisms of the (...) village worthies, the main discussion of this article is divided into three sections. Section 2 offers an interpretation of the psychology of the village worthy and articulates the way in which the village worthy can be regarded as a special kind of hypocrite, which I label as “appearance-only” hypocrite. Section 3 draws on the proposed interpretation to make sense of Mencius’ criticisms of the village worthy. I argue that while the village worthy can elude some common charges against hypocrisy, it is still problematic in the sense that it weakens an unstable system of morality from the inside and inflicts harm on the genuinely virtuous person. Section 4 delves deeper into analyzing the ethical implications for the self and for others. (shrink)

Yan Yuan (1635-1704) has long been a controversial figure in the study of Chinese intellectual and cultural history. Although marginalized in his own time largely due to his radical attack on Zhu Xi (1130-1200), Yan became elevated as a great thinker during the early twentieth century because of the drastic changes of modern Chinese intellectual climate. In Body, Ritual and Identity : A New Interpretation of the Early Qing Confucian Yan Yuan (1635-1704), Yang Jui-sung has demonstrated that the complexity (...) of Yan's ideas and his hatred for Zhu Xi in particular need be interpreted in light of his traumatic life experiences, his frustration over the fall of the Ming dynasty, and anxiety caused by the civil service examination system. Moreover, he should be better understood as a cultural critic of the lifestyle of educated elites of late imperial China. By critically analyzing Yan's changing intellectual status and his criticism that the elite lifestyle was unhealthy and feminine, this new interpretation of Yan Yuan serves to shed new light on our understanding of the features as well as problems of educated elite culture in late imperial China"--Provided by publisher. (shrink)