Traffic congestion is a common problem in many countries, especially in big cities. At present, China’s urban road traffic accidents occur frequently, the occurrence frequency is high, the accident causes traffic congestion, and accidents cause traffic congestion and vice versa. The occurrence of traffic accidents usually leads to the reduction of road traffic capacity and the formation of traffic bottlenecks, causing the traffic congestion. In this paper, the formation and propagation of traffic congestion are simulated by using the improved medium (...) traffic model, and the control strategy of congestion dissipation is studied. From the point of view of quantitative traffic congestion, the paper provides the fact that the simulation platform of urban traffic integration is constructed, and a feasible data analysis, learning, and parameter calibration method based on RBF neural network is proposed, which is used to determine the corresponding decision support system. The simulation results prove that the control strategy proposed in this paper is effective and feasible. According to the temporal and spatial evolution of the paper, we can see that the network has been improved on the whole. (shrink)

In a speech at a meeting of cadres in Xinjiang in the latter part of April [1980], Comrade Wang Feng spoke, among other subjects, about the all-around implementation of the Party's policies on religion.

Cranial electrical stimulation has been applied at various current levels in both adults and children with neurological conditions with seemingly promising but somewhat inconsistent results. Stimulation-induced spatial electric fields within a specific brain region are likely a significant contributing factor for the biological effects. Although several simulation models have been used to predict EF distributions in the brain, these models actually have not been validated by in vivo CES-induced EF measurements in the live human brain. This study directly measured the (...) CES-induced voltage changes with implanted stereotactic-electroencephalographic electrodes in twenty-one epilepsy participants and then compared these measured values with the simulated ones obtained from the personalized models. In addition, we further investigated the influence of stimulation frequency, intensity, electrode montage and age on EFs in parts of participants. We found both measured voltages and EFs obtained in vivo are highly correlated with the predicted ones in our cohort. In white matter and gray matter, the measured voltages linearly increased when the stimulation intensity increased from 5 to 500 μA but showed no significant changes with changing stimulation frequency from 0.5 to 200 Hz. Electrode montage, but not age, significantly affects the distribution of the EFs. Our in vivo measurements demonstrate that the individualized simulation model can reliably predict the CES-induced EFs in both adults and children. It also confirms that the CES-induced EFs highly depend on the electrode montages and individual anatomical features. (shrink)

Cognitive reappraisal is one of the core treatment components of cognitive behavioral therapy and is the gold standard treatment for major depressive disorders. Accumulating evidence indicates that cognitive reappraisal could function as a protective factor of cognitive vulnerability to depression. However, the neural mechanism by which CR training reduces cognitive vulnerability to depression is unclear. There is ample evidence that the prefrontal–amygdala circuit is involved in CR. This study proposes a novel cognitive bias model of CR training which hypothesizes that (...) CR training may improve the generation ability of CR with altered prefrontal–amygdala functional activation/connectivity, thus reducing negative cognitive bias and alleviating depressive symptoms. This study aims to explore whether there is abnormal CR strategy generation ability in individuals who are cognitively vulnerable to depression; test the hypothesis that CR training alleviates depressive symptoms through the mediators of cognitive bias ; explore the neural mechanism by which CR training may enhance the ability of CR strategy generation; and examine the short- and long-term effects of CR training on the reduction in depressive symptoms in individuals who are cognitively vulnerable to depression following intervention and 6 months later. The study is promising, providing theoretical and practical evidence for the early intervention of depression-vulnerable individuals. (shrink)

BackgroundMedical disputes, medical disturbances, verbal and physical violence against physicians, and burnout have reached epidemic levels. They may negatively impact both physicians and the healthcare system. The experience of medical disputes, medical disturbances, verbal, and physical violence, and burnout and the correlates in physicians working in public hospitals in China needed to be investigated.MethodsA nationwide cross-sectional survey study was conducted between 18 and 31 March 2019. An anonymous online questionnaire was administered. The questionnaire included the 22-item Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services (...) Survey. We also collected data on demographic and job-related factors, as well as physicians’ experiences of medical disputes, medical disturbances, verbal and physical violence from patients and the patients’ family members.FindingsIn total, 22,213 physicians from 144 tertiary public hospitals in all of China’s 31 provinces completed the survey. The overall burnout rate among the surveyed physicians was 31.28%. Moreover, 33.48% of physicians experienced disputes, 20.86% experienced disturbances, 48.52% experienced verbal violence, and 5.84% experienced physical violence in the past 12 months. Factors found to be significantly associated with burnout included younger age, being divorced or widowed, having a lower educational background, working in internal medicine departments, longer working hours per day, working in general hospitals, being in East China, as well as having experienced disputes, disturbances, and physical and verbal violence.InterpretationClose to a third of the Chinese doctors working in the tertiary hospitals reportedly experienced burnout, and the problem is related to the unsafe working environment caused by the worsening doctor-patient relationship. (shrink)

The One-Child Policy dramatically changed the Chinese family structure, and the literature indicates that only children may have an advantage in terms of family resource dilution. Moreover, as Chinese families traditionally prioritize investing in sons, only daughters are found to have been empowered by the policy because they did not need to compete with their brothers for parental investment. However, the literature is limited to only teenage children when they were still living in their parents' homes. It is unclear whether—when (...) the generation of only children grew up and married—their family structure differed from that of children with siblings and whether married only daughters retained more family resources from their parents. Based on the data analysis of a 2016 survey, “Study of Youths in 12 Cities of Mainland China,” including a sample of 1,007 fathers and 2,168 mothers born between 1975 and 1985, this study explores the empowerment of married only daughters, employing the theory of family resource dilution in expanded Chinese families. Using educational investment in children as an example, and with random intercept models, this study presents empirical evidence that the dilution of family resources in Chinese expanded families still benefits males and patrilineal practices. Thus, this study demonstrates that Chinese families still tend to sacrifice the interests of married daughters to ensure support for their adult sons. However, it also illustrates that married only daughters could still connect to their parents' resources, giving them a relatively dominant position for decision-making regarding the family's educational expenditure on her own children. Thus, this study extends our understanding of the family resource dilution theory to Chinese expanded families, underscoring the need for further research on Chinese only children after they marry and form families of their own. (shrink)

We examine the impact of a government-initiated CSR project on corporate misconduct using the unique setting of China’s Targeted Poverty Alleviation (TPA) program. The difference-in-differences estimates show that firms participating in the TPA program engage in fewer misconduct activities than do their counterparts. This finding is robust to the parallel trends test, the placebo test, alternative regression specifications, alternative research designs, the reverse causality analysis, and the bivariate probit model with partial observability. Further analysis shows that TPA participation enhances the (...) ability of external financial professionals to monitor performance by stimulating the dissemination of TPA-related incremental information, thereby contributing to the decline in corporate misconduct. The cross-sectional heterogeneity analysis shows that the impact of TPA participation on corporate misconduct is more pronounced in firms with higher information asymmetry, with weaker political connections, and with weaker internal governance. Furthermore, we find evidence that TPA participation improves corporate financial performance but does not deteriorate information transparency. (shrink)

This research empirically investigates the static and dynamic impacts of firms' digital transformation on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance by employing data of listed Chinese companies from 2011 to 2020 via estimations of propensity score matching and difference in differences. First, we find that digital transformation does some good to improve firms' ESG, which is confirmed after conducting several robustness tests. Second, digital transformation benefits the three aspects of ESG (environmental performance, social responsibility, and governance), and its impact is (...) dynamic, promote ESG two years after the digital reform. Third, the impact of digital transformation on ESG is not constant among different firms. Specifically, digital transformation's impact on ESG is stronger among firms located in western or central regions of China and to those in polluting and competitive industries, as well as among non-stated-owned enterprises. (shrink)

With the prevalence of values and the advent of the idea of rationalist education, the values characteristic of distinct subjectivity and affectiveness face many theoretical and practical problems when taught within the framework of modern education, which seeks certainty of knowledge. The challenges that values education encounters in today’s world urgently demand that we return to the origins of human spiritual life. We must be informed by the Marxist disclosure of the intrinsic value of human existence, and grasp the intrinsic (...) isomorphism between values education and human existence within the web of original and historical dialectic relations by relying on a complementary understanding of values and the essence of education: real men possess a logic of existence that endows value independence and consciousness of edification, and on the basis of the nature of the value of human existence, values education obtains a solid foundation both in the sense of fact and of value. Human existence thus displays the value content of self-selection, self-edification, and self-improvement peculiar to it due to its mutual dependence on and fulfillment of values education. (shrink)

As the largest labour flow in human history, the recent rise in migration in China has opened up unprecedented opportunities for millions of Chinese to rearrange their lives. At the same time, this process has also posed great challenges to Chinese migrants, especially female migrants, who not only face a bias against ‘outsiders’ but also have a greater need for reproductive health-related services in their migratory destinations. Based on data collected via multiple sources in Shanghai, China’s largest metropolis, this study (...) profiles the changing characteristics of female migrants, presents data on self-reported symptoms of reproductive health-related problems and knowledge on reproductive health issues, compares maternal and child health measures between migrants and local residents, and examines factors related to reproductive health knowledge and migrants’ access to health care in urban china. Results of this study show a relatively low level of self-reported reproductive health problems among female migrants, coupled with a relatively high level of ignorance in knowledge related to STD. both self-reported health status and knowledge of reproductive health are related to migrants’ educational attainment and length of stay in the urban destination. This study also finds ample evidence that female migrants’ access to urban health care is limited by a number of institutional barriers. (shrink)

Based on social information processing theory, we provide a novel theoretical account of how and when leader humor influences subordinate boundary-spanning behavior. We develop a moderated mediation model explicating the mechanism of psychological safety and the boundary condition of subordinate interpersonal influence. Using multiwave data, we tested our research hypotheses with a sample of 452 members from 140 teams in a Chinese information technology company. Results showed that leader humor positively affects subordinate boundary-spanning behavior via increased psychological safety. Moreover, this (...) mediated effect is stronger when subordinates have high interpersonal influence. These findings offer theoretical and practical insights into boundary-spanning activities and leader humor, which we discuss. (shrink)

This study investigates how the explicitly anti-prosocial and anti-pro-environmental speech by political elites affects firms’ environmental and social (E&S) performance. Using the case of the Donald J. Trump (DJT) campaign for president in the United States when he gave out controversial and inflammatory remarks, including those regarding E&S issues, we find that local firms’ E&S performance decreased significantly in the year following DJT’s presidential campaign rally compared with firms in other geographic areas where there was no DJT’s presidential campaign event. (...) A further test indicates that the change in firms’ E&S performance can be driven by DJT remarks’ influence on local social norms shift. Furthermore, we show that the post-rally decrease of local firms’ E&S performance is more pronounced for local firms that operate primarily locally or local firms that are more sensitive to political uncertainty. Taken together, these findings indicate that political events such as political elites giving remarks can affect firms’ E&S performance. (shrink)

Cognitive diversity is an important concept stemming from western management research in the 1990s. With the rapid development of science and technology, there is a growing interest in the composition of an academic research team, such as team diversity. However, there is no tool available for measuring team cognitive diversity for academic research teams. Based on Van der Vegt’s theoretical model of TCD, an Academic Research Team Cognitive Diversity Scale is developed and validated for an academic research team in our (...) research with two studies. In Study One, in-depth interviews and panel discussions were conducted to generate a preliminary questionnaire. In Study Two, the questionnaire was administered among academic research teams. Exploratory factor analysis revealed four factors regarding cognitive diversity: the way of thinking, knowledge and skills, the view of the world, and beliefs about what is right and wrong. The factor structure was further validated by confirmatory factor analysis. Moreover, correlation and regression analyses showed that academic research TCD was positively related to team creativity and performance. To sum up, our newly developed 15-item ATCDS is sufficiently reliable and valid to be used for understanding cognitive diversity among academic research teams. (shrink)

In this study, we tested a possible mechanism of the association between math anxiety and math achievement: the mediating role of math-specific grit. In Study 1, a sample of 10th grade students completed a battery of personality and attitude questionnaires, and math achievement was indexed by curriculum-based examination scores. Mediation analyses indicated that math-specific grit, but not domain-general grit, mediated the relationship between math anxiety and math achievement. In Study 2, we replicated and extended the above findings with another sample (...) of 11th grade students. Mediation analyses indicated that math-specific grit and math-specific procrastination played sequential mediating roles in the relationship between math anxiety and math achievement. That is, individuals with higher math anxiety were less gritty in math learning, possibly further leading them to be more procrastinated in performing math work, which may finally result in worse math achievement. In summary, the current study provides the first evidence that math-specific grit may mediate the relationship between math anxiety and math achievement. Furthermore, it also demonstrated the value of math-specific grit over domain-general grit in predicting math success, which invites a broader investigation on subject-specific grit. (shrink)

Efficient knowledge sharing is an important support for the continuous innovation and sustainable development of scientific research teams. However, in realistic management situations, the knowledge sharing of scientific research teams always appears to be unsustainable, and the reasons for this are the subject of considerable debate. In this study, an attempt was made to explore the interactive mechanism of knowledge hiding behaviors in scientific research teams between individual and collective knowledge hiding behaviors and its impact on knowledge sharing by adopting (...) grounded theory to comprehensively understand this situation. The results show that knowledge hiding behavior in the scientific research team is a two-phase interactive process and is capable of affecting sustainable knowledge sharing by reducing the supply of knowledge, creating a poor knowledge sharing atmosphere, and forming an interpersonal distrust relationship. This research may provide a strong basis for a deeper understanding of the interaction mechanism of knowledge hiding behavior and its impact on knowledge sharing. (shrink)

As one of the basic manufacturing industries in China, injection molding industry is faced with the problems of low degree of informatization and intelligence, resulting in low production efficiency and high costs. It is urgent to integrate deeply with new generation of information technology to achieve transformation and upgrade. In this paper, an integrative industrial Internet architecture of “integration of intelligent equipment, intelligent production lines, intelligent workshops, intelligent factories, and intelligent formats” was described. The injection molding intelligent control system, the (...) production management, control platform based on the MES system, and other key technologies were researched. Also, the smart factory architecture based on digital twin was established, and the implementation method of the smart factory digital twin system was elaborated. The feasibility and effectiveness of the method had been verified through the industrial application, which provided the technical supports for the injection molding industrial Internet system. Finally, the intelligent manufacturing industrial Internet cloud platform for injection molding industry was prospected. (shrink)

In recent years, the distributed architecture has been widely adopted by security companies with the rapid expansion of their business. A distributed system is comprised of many computing nodes of different components which are connected by high-speed communication networks. With the increasing functionality and complexity of the systems, failures of nodes are inevitable which may result in considerable loss. In order to identify anomalies of the possible failures and enable DevOps engineers to operate in advance, this paper proposes a two-layer (...) prediction architecture based on the monitoring sequences of nodes status. Generally speaking, in the first layer, we make use of EXPoSE anomaly detection technique to derive anomaly scores in constant time which are then used as input data for ensemble learning in the second layer. Experiments are conducted on the data provided by one of the largest security companies, and the results demonstrate the predictability of the proposed approach. (shrink)

With the rapid development of social network in recent years, the threshold of information dissemination has become lower. Most of the time, rumors, as a special kind of information, are harmful to society. And once the rumor appears, the truth will follow. Considering that the rumor and truth compete with each other like light and darkness in reality, in this paper, we study a rumor spreading model in the homogeneous network called 2SIH2R, in which there are both spreader1 and spreader2. (...) In this model, we introduced discernible mechanism and confrontation mechanism to quantify the level of people's cognitive abilities and the competition between the rumor and truth. By mean-field equations, steady-state analysis, and numerical simulations in a generated network which is closed and homogeneous, some significant results can be given: the higher the discernible rate of the rumor, the smaller the influence of the rumor; the stronger the confrontation degree of the rumor, the smaller the influence of the rumor; the larger the average degree of the network, the greater the influence of the rumor but the shorter the duration. The model and simulation results provide a quantitative reference for revealing and controlling the spread of the rumor. (shrink)

The existing numerous adaptive variants of differential evolution have been improved the search ability of classic DE to certain extent. Nevertheless, those variants of DE do not obtain the promising performance in solving black box problems with unknown features, which is mainly because the adaptive rules of those variants are designed according to their designers’ cognition on the problem features. To enhance the optimization ability of DE in optimizing black box problems with unknown features, a differential evolution with autonomous selection (...) of mutation strategies and control parameters is proposed in this paper, inspired by autonomous decision-making mechanism of reinforcement learning. In ASDE, a historical experience archive with population features is utilized to preserve accumulated historical experience of the combination of mutation strategies and control parameters. Furthermore, the accumulated historical experience can be autonomously mapped into rules repository, and the individuals can choose the combination of mutation strategies and control parameters according to those rules. Additionally, an updating and utilization mechanism of the historical experience is designed to assure that the historical experience can be effectively accumulated and utilized efficiently. Compared with some state-of-the-art intelligence algorithms on 15 functions of CEC2015, 28 functions of CEC2017, and parameter extraction problems of the photovoltaic model, ASDE has the advantages of solution accuracy, convergence speed, and robustness in solving black box problems with unknown features. (shrink)

Product innovation integrates technology, knowledge, management practices, and market innovation, making it essential to gain a competitive advantage. Effective management of dynamic knowledge, which is the foundation of and driving force for product innovation, is a powerful tool that allows a firm to successfully innovate, adapt to environmental changes, and improve its competitiveness. In the “nanosecond age,” unlearning and learning in an organization is crucial to a firm’s ability to promptly update its organizational knowledge and maintain innovation vitality. Based on (...) the dynamic knowledge management perspective, this study integrates and constructs a theoretical model with environmental dynamism as the moderating variable, discusses the impact of organizational unlearning on product innovation performance, and empirically analyzes 208 valid questionnaires in the Yangtze River Delta using the multiple regression method. The results show that organizational unlearning shares a positive relationship with dynamic capabilities and product innovation performance. Dynamic capability is positively related to product innovation performance and has a partial mediating effect on the relationship between organizational unlearning and product innovation performance. Environmental dynamism shares a positive moderating effect on the relationship between organizational unlearning and product innovation performance. This study deepens the existing research on the factors that influence product innovation performance, which may help firms improve their dynamic knowledge management and product innovation performance. (shrink)

This study investigated whether ruminating on an intrusive thought before sleeping led to an increased likelihood of dreaming of threatening events. One hundred and forty-six participants were randomly assigned to a rumination condition and a control condition. Participants completed a dream diary upon waking. The result showed that presleep ruminating on an intrusive thought increased the frequency of both threatening dreams and negative emotions in dreams. In addition, dreams with threatening events were more emotional and negative than dreams without threatening (...) events. These results may support the threat simulation theory of dreaming. In addition, these results may give some insight into a mathematical model for the continuity hypothesis of dreaming. (shrink)

Green housing is a new type of building that advocates energy saving and environmental protection. How to stimulate buyers to buy green housing under the background of high cost is the key problem to guide green consumption. First of all, based on the existing literature, the comment of homebuyers was divided into comment quantity, comment quality, comment titer and evaluator credibility. The psychological distance mediation variable was introduced, and three dimensions of time distance, social distance, and space distance were selected (...) to construct the influence model of homebuyer comment on green housing purchase intention. Meanwhile, the concept model was built, and questionnaires were adopted for empirical analysis. On this basis, considering the long-term purchase behavior of buyers, the influence model of homebuyers' second comment on green housing purchase intention with the Hotelling model was established. The results show that comment quality, comment titer, and the credit rating of the evaluator have a positive effect on green housing purchase intention while comment quantity has no significant effect. Psychological distance plays a mediation role between comment quality, comment titer, the credit rating of the evaluator, and green housing purchase intention while having a mediation effect between comment quantity and green housing purchase intention. In the long-term purchase behavior of green housing, psychological distance plays a greater role than price. At last, some suggestions were proposed. (shrink)

In recent years, more and more people are applying Convolutional Neural Networks to the study of sound signals. The main reason is the translational invariance of convolution in time and space. Thereby the diversity of the sound signal can be overcome. However, in terms of sound direction recognition, there are also problems such as a microphone matrix being too large, and feature selection. This paper proposes a sound direction recognition using a simulated human head with microphones at both ears. Theoretically, (...) the two microphones cannot distinguish the front and rear directions. However, we use the original data of the two channels as the input of the convolutional neural network, and the resolution effect can reach more than 0.9. For comparison, we also chose the delay feature (GCC) for sound direction recognition. Finally, we also conducted experiments that used probability distributions to identify more directions. (shrink)

This study utilizes hierarchical regression analysis to explore how environmental management systems influence financial performance through customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, and the moderating effects of switching cost. The originality of the present research is to unpack the “black box” through which a firm can profit from EMSs. The empirical results indicate that EMSs have positive and significant impacts on customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and financial performance. In addition, switching cost negatively and significantly moderates the relationship between EMSs and customer (...) satisfaction, but does not significantly moderates the relationship between EMSs and customer loyalty. The results also demonstrate that customer satisfaction and customer loyalty partially mediate the relationship between EMSs and financial performance. Our findings highlight that customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and switching cost play important roles for a firm to profit from EMSs. (shrink)

ObjectiveTo survey the prevalence of burnout in a national sample of endocrinologists in China and to examine its correlates, with a special focus on gender differences.MethodsAn anonymous online survey was conducted among endocrinologists in 31 provincial government-owned “People’s Hospitals” of each province in mainland China. Demographic and work-related factors were collected from participants. The Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey was used to assess burnout, including emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment.ResultsA total of 711 endocrinologists completed the survey. Burnout was (...) reported by 32.8% of the participants. There were no significant gender differences in the overall prevalence of burnout or EE, DP, and PA. A multi-level linear regression revealed: In male participants, PA was significantly associated with age, DP was inversely associated with age, EE was significantly associated with shorter sleep duration, and longer work hours. In females, PA was significantly associated with age, EE and DP were both significantly associated with shorter sleep duration. EE and DP were also associated with work hours.ConclusionNearly one-third of endocrinologists in China experienced burnout. Although there were no significant gender differences in the prevalence of overall burnout or EE, DP, and PA scores, male and female participants differed in factors associated with EE, DP, and PA. Interventions need to be tailored to target different aspects in male and female endocrinologists and target different subgroups. (shrink)

This study explored and compared the perspectives of Taiwanese in-service and pre-service high school mathematics teachers regarding ideal teaching behaviours; the perspectives of a nationwide sample of students were taken as the baseline. Fourteen factors contributing to ideal teaching behaviours were identified through exploratory factor analyses. Nine factors, including idea explanation and speedy lecture, were rooted in traditional Chinese culture; five factors, including concrete representation and student activities, were influenced by Western cultures. Three teacher profiles were identified through k-means clustering (...) analysis. The perspectives of in-service teachers were dominated by a painless meaning-emphasised profile; these teachers emphasised meaningful learning for students and avoided the fast pace and demanding requirements that can cause distress in students, whereas pre-service teachers were dominated by an all-round profile, revealing their openness to all factors. Compared with... (shrink)

Evaluating the price policy of raw milk is of great significance to the sustainable development of an industry supply chain. In this context, our study used the multi-period difference-in-difference method to systematically examine the impact of the policy implementation on product price and profit distribution in the supply chain. The results showed the following: the price of raw milk in the implementation area of the price support policy is 13.54% higher than that of the unimplemented area; the effect of price (...) increase in the western region is higher than that in the eastern region, and the central region ; furthermore, the purchase price guidance policy of raw milk drives price increase or price suppression in the links of the supply chain to promote a balanced distribution of profits among the participants in the chain. These conclusions all have good stability and have reference significance for further improving and adjusting the price support policy of raw milk to realize the sustainable development of the Chinese dairy industry. This will enhance the production confidence of Chinese raw milk producers and improve Chinese consumers’ expectations and consumer psychology regarding domestic dairy products. (shrink)

Adaptive dynamic programming, which belongs to the field of computational intelligence, is a powerful tool to address optimal control problems. To overcome the bottleneck of solving Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman equations, several state-of-the-art ADP approaches are reviewed in this paper. First, two model-based offline iterative ADP methods including policy iteration and value iteration are given, and their respective advantages and shortcomings are discussed in detail. Second, the multistep heuristic dynamic programming method is introduced, which avoids the requirement of initial admissible control and achieves (...) fast convergence. This method successfully utilizes the advantages of PI and VI and overcomes their drawbacks at the same time. Finally, the discrete-time optimal control strategy is tested on a power system. (shrink)

Student employability is a key aspect of any university degree. The relationship between high student learning outcomes and high employability is a problem that needs to be addressed and improved by colleges and universities. Students with high employability can find good jobs after graduation and perform well in the workplace. Employability is associated with the success of university education, thus giving the university a good reputation. This study explores the development of employability, alongside teaching and student learning abilities to examine (...) how these variables affect student employability. The study collected 442 responses to a questionnaire to investigate the relationship between pedagogy for employability, problem-based learning, absorptive capacity, and student employability based on a structural model. The SEM results show that pedagogy for employability and problem-based learning positively correlate to absorptive capacity; pedagogy for employability and absorptive capacity positively correlate to student employability. We then analyzed a case study teaching intervention strategy with 221 students from the school of management and discuss the differential results of all variables. Results showed that the test group was superior to the control group in each variable performance, indicating that the intervention strategy proved effective. Based on these findings, this study proposes suggestions for future research. (shrink)

Despite the importance of ethical leadership, the impacts of its different facets on firm-level performance are unclear. Drawing on the resource-based view of the firm and the group engagement model, we propose that ethical leadership consisting of leader humane orientation, leader responsibility and sustainability orientation and leader moderation orientation are beneficial to firm performance, and leader justice orientation plays moderating roles. We empirically tested this theoretical framework employing multi-source survey data collected from 264 Chinese firms. The findings reveal that both (...) leader humane orientation and leader responsibility and sustainability orientation have positive influences on both firm financial and social performance, while leader moderation orientation only has positive influence on firm financial performance. In addition, leader justice orientation positively moderates the relationship between leader humane orientation and leader responsibility and sustainability orientation and financial performance as well as the relationship between leader moderation orientation and social performance. These findings provide theoretical and practical implications for understanding how different facets of ethical leadership jointly function to influence firm performance. (shrink)

The goal of the present study is to explore whether the affective states of a pedagogical agent in an online multimedia lesson yields different learning processes and outcomes, and whether the effects of affective PAs depend on the learners’ emotion regulation strategies and their prior knowledge. In three experiments, undergraduates were asked to view a narrated animation about synaptic transmission that included either a happy PA or a neutral PA and subsequently took emotions, motivation, cognitive outcomes tests. Across three experiments, (...) the happy PA group reported more positive emotions and higher level of motivation than the neutral PA group. Moreover, the happy PA prompted higher germane load than a neutral PA in Experiment 3. However, adding a happy PA to the screen did not improve learning performance. In addition, in Experiment 2, learners’ usage of emotion regulation strategies moderated the effectiveness of affective PA on positive emotions in learners. Specifically, happy PAs increased the positive emotions of students who used expressive suppression strategy but not those who used cognitive reappraisal strategy. In Experiment 3, the effectiveness of affective PAs was not moderated by learners’ prior knowledge. Results support the cognitive affective theory of learning with media that students are happier and more motivated when they learn from happy PAs than from neutral PAs. (shrink)

This study aims to develop a robust metalearning system for rapid classification on a large number of tasks. The model-agnostic metalearning with the CACTUs method is improved as EW-CACTUs-MAML after integrated with the entropy weight method. Few-shot mechanisms are introduced in the deep network for efficient learning of a large number of tasks. The process of implementation is theoretically interpreted as “gene intelligence.” Validation of EW-CACTUs-MAML on a typical dataset indicates an accuracy of 97.42%, performing better than CACTUs-MAML. At the (...) end of this paper, the availability of our thoughts to improve another metalearning system is also preliminarily discussed based on a cross-validation on another typical dataset. (shrink)

As the pace of modern life accelerates, social exclusion occurs more and more frequently in interpersonal interactions. The type of social exclusion can lead to different psychological needs of individuals, and, thus, affects the tendency of word-of-mouth recommendation. There are three experiments in this research. Experiment 1 explores the influence of social exclusion types on the willingness of WOM recommendation. The result shows that being rejected increases individuals' willingness to WOM recommendations while being ignored decreases individuals' willingness. Experiment 2 explores (...) the internal psychological mechanism of the influence of social exclusion types on WOM recommendation behavior and proves the mediating role of psychological needs. In experiment 3, the moderating effect of product attributes on the main effect is analyzed. This research is the first to explore the influence of social exclusion types on individuals' willingness to WOM recommendations, which enriches the research on social exclusion in the field of WOM recommendations. (shrink)

With the increasingly crowded shopping environment, social crowding has become an important factor that affects consumers’ psychology and behavior. However, the impact of social crowding on consumers’ preference for green products hasn’t been focused on. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to empirically investigate the influence of social crowding on consumers’ preference for green products. With four studies, the present research examines how social crowding influences consumers’ preferences and uncovers the underlying psychological mechanism. The research shows that consumers prefer (...) green products more under the condition of high social crowding than low, and safety needs mediate the impact of social crowding on green products preference. However, the impact of social crowding on the preference for products is only significant in green products. It also demonstrates the moderating effect of introversion-extraversion personality traits between social crowding and green products preference. For extraverted consumers, social crowding won’t affect their preference for green products, while for introverted consumers, social crowding is more likely to increase their preference for green products. This study contributes to marketing research by proposing and testing a new mechanism that underlies social crowding. (shrink)

Several recent studies have found that when the other’s gain is greater, even subjects’ reward may seem like a loss and lead to a negative experience. These studies indicate the complexity of reward evaluation in the context of social comparison. The satisfaction rating of reward outcome not only depends on objective social comparison but also on subjective evaluation. However, less is known about the neural time course of subjective evaluation. Therefore, we employed a 2 × 2 within-subjects factorial design, in (...) which we manipulated the reward distribution for the subjects. Electroencephalography responses were recorded, while two subjects concurrently but independently performed a simple dot-estimation task that entailed monetary rewards. Behavioral results showed that the subjects were more satisfied with the advantageous distribution, regardless of upward or downward comparison. The analysis of event-related potentials revealed that disadvantageous distribution elicited a larger P2 than advantageous distribution, and this effect was not modulated by comparison direction. In contrast, the late positive potential showed an effect of comparison direction independent of subjective evaluation. The data suggest that subjective evaluation acts upon the early stage of reward processing and manifests in the P2 component, whereas social comparison plays a role in the later appraisal process. (shrink)

The objective of this study is to propose a new operation method based on the universal grey number to overcome the shortcomings of typical interval operation in solving system fault trees. First, the failure probability ranges of the bottom events are described according to the conversion rules between the interval number and universal grey number. A more accurate system reliability calculation is then obtained based on the logical relationship between the AND gates and OR gates of a fault tree and (...) universal grey number arithmetic. Then, considering an aircraft landing gear retraction system as an example, the failure probability range of the top event is obtained through universal grey operation. Next, the reliability of the aircraft landing gear retraction system is evaluated despite insufficient statistical information describing failures. The example demonstrates that the proposed method provides many advantages in resolving the system reliability problem despite poor information, yielding benefits for the function of the interval operation, and overcoming the drawback of solution interval enlargement under different orders of interval operation. (shrink)

This study examines the impact of mandatory Corporate Social Responsibility reporting on firms’ financial reporting quality using a quasi-natural experiment in China that mandates a subset of firms to report their CSR activities starting in 2008. We find that mandatory CSR disclosure firms constrain earnings management after the policy. The result is robust to a battery of sensitivity tests and more prominent for firms with lower analyst coverage. Further analyses reveal that upward earnings management by mandatory disclosure firms is more (...) likely to be caught after the policy. The findings suggest that mandatory CSR disclosure mitigates information asymmetry by improving financial reporting quality. (shrink)

Job shop scheduling problem is one of the most difficult optimization problems in manufacturing industry, and flexible job shop scheduling problem is an extension of the classical JSP, which further challenges the algorithm performance. In FJSP, a machine should be selected for each process from a given set, which introduces another decision element within the job path, making FJSP be more difficult than traditional JSP. In this paper, a variant of grasshopper optimization algorithm named dynamic opposite learning assisted GOA is (...) proposed to solve FJSP. The recently proposed dynamic opposite learning strategy adopts the asymmetric search space to improve the exploitation ability of the algorithm and increase the possibility of finding the global optimum. Various popular benchmarks from CEC 2014 and FJSP are used to evaluate the performance of DOLGOA. Numerical results with comparisons of other classic algorithms show that DOLGOA gets obvious improvement for solving global optimization problems and is well-performed when solving FJSP. (shrink)

Studies show that research and development may not always benefit entrepreneurial firms. This paper focuses on the double-edged effect of R&D activities on attracting institutional investment in entrepreneurial firms. Based on a panel dataset of 700 listed entrepreneurial firms in ChiNext, we document: an inverted-U relationship between R&D intensity and future institutional investment, which we argue is evidence that institutional investors are concerned about R&D overinvestment; an inverted-U relationship between R&D capitalization and future institutional investment, which we argue shows suspicion (...) of the institutional investors towards high R&D capitalization. Furthermore, by splitting institutional investors into venture capitals and non-venture capitals, we confirm that VCs have higher acceptance of both R&D intensity and capitalization as VCs have more expertise to alleviate a certain level of risks. (shrink)

Given the importance of data safety for psychology, the present study investigated the influence of data leaking scandal on campus customers’ financial consumption behaviors at intelligent tourism platforms in China, and explored the roles that individual characteristics play in this process by focusing on a set of participants from colleges. Data were collected through sending out an online questionnaire, where respondents were asked to finish a series of questions about their background information, their trust, future consuming intention, and defensive behaviors (...) toward intelligent platforms. After they finished these questions, a short description about an online tourism platform leaking customers’ personal information was presented to the respondents, following which they were asked to report about their future consuming intentions and defensive behaviors again. In total, 236 participants of college students and teachers were recruited. Paired samples mean comparison showed that after the stimulus was presented, the respondents had a significant decrease in future financial consumption intention, and a significant increase in defensive behaviors toward online tourism platforms due to risks perceived. Multiple regression analysis was conducted subsequently to investigate individual characteristics that may account for part of the decrease in consuming intention. Results showed that, customers with higher level of trust and monthly income, as well as older customers, tend to experience higher level of decrease in consuming intention, and increase in defensive behaviors. These findings highlighted the importance of online tourism platforms guaranteeing data security of their customers. (shrink)

Remanufacturing has become an important way to realize sustainable development strategy. For remanufacturing closed-loop supply chain under different circumstances, many factors are considered, such as consumers’ different preferences for the purchase and payment of remanufactured products and the quality of recycled products. In this study, three models are presented for supply chain system, including a manufacturer lead and a retailer recycle. While nongovernment participation and non-supply-chain coordination are considered in model I, model II has government participation but non-supply-chain coordination, and (...) model III has both government participation and supply chain coordination. The equilibrium decisions are derived for each model using the game-theoretic approach. The study found that consumers’ preferences affect the pricing decisions of remanufactured products. When consumers’ willingness to buy and pay for remanufactured products is close to that of new products, the total profit of the supply chain will significantly increase; the quality of recycled products will also influence the pricing decisions of new/remanufactured products, which in turn will affect the market demand for products. Government participation is conducive to encouraging manufacturer, retailer, and consumers to actively participate in the recycling and remanufacturing activities of used products. Supply chain coordination contracts can further enhance the role of the consumer market and promote the implementation of government policies. Under certain conditions, revenue sharing contract coordination can significantly increase the total profit of the supply chain system. The research conclusions have certain reference value for the coordination among the nodes of the remanufacturing supply chain and the formulation of policies with government participation. (shrink)