This article analyses how performatively heteronormative, male teenage Chinese fans consume sports games through the prism of masculinity, using secondary school students’ engagement with the NBA (National Basketball Association) as a case study. Drawing on focus groups of twenty-three participants, we discover that male teenage sports fans constantly evoke elite NBA athletes as male ideals to define a desirable, heteronormative wen-wu masculinity specific to the post-reform era. In this process, they often engage in a double-standard practice, manifesting (...) as their appropriation of the CP (coupling) rhetoric to ‘ship’ athletes and their problematisation of heterosexual women and LGBTQ fans’ similar usage of it. This double-standard practice constitutes an attempt to monopolise the interpretation of masculinity both within and outside of the sporting context. It sheds light on the heteronormative male cohort’s rejection of alternative masculinities, underscoring how aspects of gender politics unfolding in wider society are reflected in China’s teenage sports fandom. (shrink)

The Chinese have a 5000 years history and with it goes its Chinese philosophy. However, Chinese philosophy differs from western philosophy in more than one way. Western philosophy's famous “why” questions and free thinking were not part of Chinese philosophy. Acceptance was the rule and Confucius is known to be the source for this philosophy. The 20th century brought changes both in thinking generally as well as how sports were perceived. The main reasons for this (...) were the opening to the west and improving economic situations for the general population. This led to research in the field of sport philosophy on academic levels both in Taiwan and China. This article tries to put the achievements in this field in on the map. (shrink)

Beijing Olympic Games is a Globalization sports events, also is a great chance to show Chinese cultural heritage. Throughout the Western cultural. The Chinese cultural understanding has always stayed in "Orientalism" to the "Oriental fever" among the transition. How the Olympic Games as an opportunity to make the “Harmony Communication”？To achieve cultural heritage in China in the Context of Globalization be "reassessed." Further evaluation of role and significancein spreading about Chinese cultural Beijing Olympic Games.

ObjectiveTo revise and test the Chinese version of the Sports Emotional Intelligence Scale in sports situations.Materials and methodsAfter pretesting 112 college students, 832 college students were formally tested, and item analysis, validity test, internal consistency reliability analysis, and calibration validity and equivalence test of the Chinese version of the SEIS were performed. The Chinese version of the SEIS had 14 items with four dimensions, with a cumulative variance contribution of 57.812 percent; the four-factor measurement model (...) fit well. The internal consistency coefficients of the Chinese version of the SEIS ranged from 0.824 to 0. 905, and the split-half reliability ranged from 0.807 to 0.891; the correlations between the total SEIS score and its dimensional scores and the calibration variables were significantly correlated, ranging from 0.255 to 0.603. The gender measure equivalence test was valid, and the mean difference of potential variables across gender groups was not significant in the potential mean analysis.ConclusionThe Chinese version of the SEIS has good reliability and validity, and it is appropriate for assessing emotional intelligence in sports situations. (shrink)

The use of mobile technology, such as sports bracelets, is gaining popularity as it modifies the ways and processes of learning and teaching in college physical education. However, little empirical evidence can be seen in literature to demonstrate crucial factors that influence university students’ acceptance of sports bracelets. Guided by the technology acceptance model, this study hence aimed at explaining university students’ intention to use sports bracelets. In total, 445 university students in China responded to a 19-item (...) survey package. Results indicated that users’ attitudes toward technology and perceived usefulness were significant predictors of intention to use sports bracelets. Meanwhile, users’ intrinsic sports motivation significantly promoted users’ positive attitudes toward this technology and was significantly influenced by perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. Overall, our findings highlighted the importance of stimulating young adults’ intrinsic sports motivation that facilitates their intention to use sports bracelets such that to develop a healthy lifestyle that benefits their physical health. (shrink)

In most sports ethics, doping is addressed from a deontological or consequentialist perspective. It is suggested here that a virtue-ethical analysis informed by Confucianism can capture intuitions about the need to cultivate flourishing in sports. Specifically, it is argued that the Confucian virtues of zhong 忠 and shu 恕, necessary for Confucian ren 仁, can help us to articulate an account of flourishing in sports. As each Confucian virtue is articulated and then applied to sports, consideration (...) is given to how it will alter the approach to doping as an ethical issue. (shrink)

This article offers a timely, critical analysis of the male gaze upon sportswomen in male Chinese fans’ consumption of sporting megaevents. We use the most popular Chinese-language sports fandom platform, Hupu, as the data repository and scrutinise the threads of male Hupu users’ postings about two elite sportswomen at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics as the case studies. Drawing on feminist critical discourse analysis (FCDA), we elucidate the discursive strategies that male Chinese fans adopt to sexualise sportswomen (...) and trivialise their accomplishments. The research findings showcase how China’s sports fandom has evolved as a masculine terrain, where men’s visions of asymmetrical gender power relations are discursively negotiated and rationalised. (shrink)

Mental health is a kind of emotional state, a good psychological state can have a positive impact on a person, physical exercise can have a positive impact on the psychological state of college students, prevent the generation of negative emotions, improve the bad emotional state, and then promote the mental health of college students. Health is an inevitable requirement to promote the all-round development of people and a basic condition for economic and social development. Health education should be incorporated into (...) the national education system to promote the national health of the people through sports. Young people are the main force and backbone of national and social development. In order to realize the Chinese dream of great rejuvenation, we must attach importance to the development of young people and the physical and mental health of young people. In the process of compulsory education, middle school and high school period is a key stage in the gradual formation and development of students' psychology and body, but due to the large audience of China's education, the competition is more intense, which inevitably causes a lot of students to focus on exam-oriented education and neglect physical health, especially in recent years, the mental health issues of increasing concern. Through the research situation of mental health in China and the concept of mental health quality, this paper analyzes the problems of sports and mental health, and puts forward some corresponding suggestions for the problems, which has reference significance for promoting students' mental health. (shrink)

A scientific paper’s citation represents its influence, which is the most intuitive indicator to access the quality of papers. This paper mainly adopts the social network analysis method, using the authors and the keywords of sports industry papers in China to constitute the networks of collaboration and knowledge, to explore effects of the degree centrality of authors and keywords and the structural hole of authors and keywords on the citation of papers in the collaboration and knowledge networks and draw (...) the following conclusions: as for collaboration networks, the degree centrality at the paper level is positively correlated with citations; in the collaboration network, the positive correlation between the structural hole at the paper level and citations does not exist; within knowledge networks, an inverted- U shape was found between degree centrality and paper’s citation; and within knowledge networks, a positive correlation is in existence between the structural hole of papers and their citation. This study synthesizes the already widely used collaboration network with the knowledge network constructed through keywords, distinguishes from the previous network features focusing at the author level, and explores research projects of Chinese Sports Industry from the paper level, providing a new perspective for the research of sports industry in China, complementing the methods and ideas of sports industry research, as well as providing a reference for the research in other disciplinary fields. (shrink)

In order to fully implement the new development concept, bring into full play the potential of sports development, and maintain the resilience of China’s sports development. This paper studies the resilience evaluation and spatial correlation of Chinese sports development under the new development concept. First, we constructed Resilience Evaluation Indexes System for Sports Development in China based on the analysis of the resilience features of sports development and the DPSIR model, which is from the (...) five aspects of “driving force – pressure – state – influence – response.” Second, used Coefficient of Variation and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution Method to measure the resilience level of sports development in 31 provinces in China from 2013 to 2017. Then, we introduced the obstacle degree model to identify the obstacle factors that hinder the resilience of Chinese sports development in different periods. Finally, we used the global and local Moran indexes to analyze the spatial correlation of China sports regional development. The results showed that: overall, the development level of sports resilience in 31 provinces in China showed an upward trend from 2013 to 2017, while some provinces showed obvious fluctuations. The obstacles to the development of sports resilience in China mainly include sports scientific research equipment, the number of national fitness monitoring stations, the number of national fitness centers, the full-time equivalent of personnel, and the number of sports scientific research projects. The response subsystem is the main obstacle factor that affects the improvement of the resilience level of sports development in China. There is a positive spatial autocorrelation between the resilience level of sports development and regional spatial distribution, and the correlation shows a weakening trend, and the internal difference is significant. Finally, we concluded that we must take the new development philosophy as the guiding principle. First, we should stick to innovation-driven development to fully upgrade the resilience of China’s sports development. Second, we should adhere to the principle of coordinated development to promote the overall and balanced development of sports. Lastly, we should promote shared development so as to deliver benefits for all in an equal way. (shrink)

The development of CSR reflects the level and characteristics of professional sports organizations, and the CSR of professional sports clubs varies among different countries and regions. In order to explore the content of the CSR of Chinese professional sports clubs in a more comprehensive and systematic way, this study organizes previous studies on the CSR of clubs in different countries and regions, and analyzes the differences between Chinese professional sports clubs and clubs in Europe, (...) North America, Japan, and other countries and regions. We collected the opinions of 20 experts through semi-structured interviews and combined them with the “Five in One” overall layout to construct and explain the CSR system of professional sports clubs in China in the new era, filling the gaps in research on this topic. Research suggests that social economic responsibility, social political responsibility, social cultural responsibility, social construction responsibility, and social ecological responsibility constitute the CSR system of professional sports clubs in China. Within a certain range, the larger the scale and stronger the comprehensive strength of a club, the stronger its ability to fulfill its responsibilities, the more targets it fulfills, and the richer its content. The institutional environment and social awareness may account for this difference, and in a government-led social environment or in the case of nationalized club ownership, the Chinese plan may be more applicable. Our research not only provides theoretical reference for subsequent research on the CSR content of professional sports clubs but also helps guide the CSR practice of clubs of different sizes, thereby promoting the exploration of diversified CSR development patterns of professional sports clubs in the academic community. (shrink)

Through empirical studies or laboratory tests, previous studies have shown that sport-confidence, attention, and emotion regulation are key factors in archery performance. The present study aims to further identify the effects and pathways of sport-confidence, attention, and cognitive reappraisal on real-world archery performance by constructing a hypothesized model to provide a basis for scientific training of athletes to improve sport performance. A survey design was utilized on a sample of 61 athletes from the Chinese National Archery Team to test (...) the model. The measurement and hypothesized models were tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling. The results indicate that the model fit well and explained 33.6% of the variance in archery performance. Sport-confidence and attention were important predictive indicators of archery performance, while the relationship between cognitive reappraisal and archery performance showed considerable complexity. We conclude that the development of sport-confidence and attention of archery athletes should be strengthened, but athletes who use cognitive reappraisal in archery competition should be mindful of its potential appropriation of cognitive resources and should be directed to improve sport-confidence or develop a positive orientation to arouse excitement. (shrink)

Holism and the Cultivation of Excellence in Sports and Performance is a multi-methodological and cross-cultural examination of how we flourish holistically through performative endeavors, e.g., sports, martial and performing arts. Relying primarily on sport philosophy, value theory, phenomenology, philosophy of mind, pragmatism, and East Asian philosophies (Japanese and Chinese), it espouses thick holism. Concerned with an integrative bodymind gradually achieved through performance that aims at excellence, the process of self-cultivation proper of thick holism relies on an ecologically (...) rich epistemic landscape where skills are coupled to virtues in pragmatic contexts. Ultimately, this process results in admirable performances and exemplary character. Japanese do (practices of self-cultivation) are prominent modes and models of such flourishing. A holistic and radically enactive approach that advances contentless capacities in lieu of representations transparently accounts for the kind of action that characterizes such expert performances. Importantly, these performer-centered endeavors unfold within communities that foster the cultivation of our abilities as lifelong quests for human excellence. Each chapter can be read independently but still forms part of a continuous argumentative and narrative thread. This book was previously published as a special issue of Sport, Ethics and Philosophy. (shrink)

Although many studies have demonstrated an influence of uniform colors on sports performance, there are still more questions than answers regarding this issue. In our study, participants from Poland and China watched a two-minute video of a semi-professional boxing match. The participants viewed six different versions of the same fight - the original was modified to change the colors of the boxers’ trunks. We experimentally confirmed that “black wins” and “red wins” effects exist, but in a way that caused (...) an erroneous perception of the number of blows landed by boxers wearing red and black trunks fighting against boxers in blue trunks. We also showed that both effects are similarly strong even in Chinese culture, where the color red has different connotations from those in Western cultures. Additionally, our results suggest that context might play a very important role in the assessments of the boxers - color only influenced the perception of the weaker boxer. Finally, our findings suggest that the topic of the influence of colors on sports competitions has not been thoroughly investigated and further studies are necessary. (shrink)

With the rapid development of Internet technology, sports media consumption is migrating toward streaming. The online streaming of sporting events has become the important way of copyrights holders to engage sports fans, especially young fans. Therefore, it is vital to understanding users' willingness to pay. Given that previous studies of the livestream sports broadcasts online have not dealt with users' payment intention, the originality of this study is that it explore users' motivation by combining information system research (...) with the consumer demand theory. The study aimed to examine the factors that influence users' payment intention to stream online sports by using the extended Technology Acceptance Model. Data from questionnaires completed by 330 Chinese respondents determined how perceived usefulness, ease, enjoyment, and satisfaction, influence users' WTP. Satisfaction positively correlated with users' payment intentions, impacted WTP values, mediated ease of use. The analysis also revealed the necessity for broadcast platforms to improve satisfaction and to increase payment intentions. (shrink)

BackgroundUsing Bourdieu’s cultural capital theory, this paper discusses the inequality of Chinese urban residents’ participation in physical activities caused by cultural capital and explores the relationship and role of residents’ income and self-rated health in cultural capital and physical activity participation.MethodsUsing Chinese social survey data, the proposed assumptions were tested and analyzed by using a linear regression model.ResultsCultural capital can promote the participation of Chinese urban residents in physical activities, and personal income and health self-assessment play an (...) intermediary role in promoting residents’ participation in physical activities.ConclusionPromoting Chinese residents’ participation in physical activities can be realized not only through traditional publicity and sports venue construction but also by increasing residents’ educational level, art appreciation level and health awareness. (shrink)

This paper examines and contrasts the Chinese notion of ‘inside-outside connectivity’ emphasized in Taijiquan studies with French philosopher Gilles Deleuze’s concept of ‘Body without Organs.’ Pursuing this dialogue while relating this to sport redresses a lack of novel thought and linkages with contemporary thought in Chinese scholarship, and most interestingly for sport, opens new lines of inquiry that help redefine our bodies as holistic sites of performance.

In order to systematically evaluate perceptual anticipation between experts and non-experts for different kinds of combat sports, we needed to perform a comprehensive assessment. In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched four English-language and three Chinese-language databases that used expert/non-expert research paradigms, to explore perceptual anticipation in combat sports. We employed a random effects model for pooled analyses using the inverse variance method. We included 27 eligible studies involving 233 datasets in this meta-analysis. We observed large (...) effect sizes for the differences between experts and non-experts in both response accuracy and reaction time. We also observed substantial differences between experts and non-experts in the mean duration of visual fixations per trial, but not in the visual fixation duration. Taken together, high-level combat athletes have more advantages in perceptual anticipation than lower-level athletes, showing faster and more accurate responses when facing the opponent's attacks, as well as focusing on fewer points of visual fixations than novice athletes. Different types of combat sports and stimulus presentations affect perceptual anticipation abilities to varying extents in relation to outcome measures, with more pronounced expertise in a stimulus that is closer to real-world situations.Systematic review registrationhttps://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42021226343, PROSPERO CRD42021226343. (shrink)

This study aims to investigate whether simple and convenient progressive relaxation training is effective in enhancing collegiate student athletes’ mental health and sports performance. An experimental group of 14 and a control group of 10 collegiate student athletes were recruited from among track and field athletes who were preparing for provincial competition. The experimental group was exposed to a PRT intervention in 30-min sessions conducted twice per week for a duration of one month. At baseline, the Competitive State Anxiety (...) Inventory-2, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised Short Scale for Chinese were completed, while only the CSAI-2 was reassessed at one, two, and three weeks after initiation of the intervention. Additionally, within half a day after completing all one’s individual competition events, the CSAI-2 was again assessed in the two groups recalling their memory of their precompetition state anxiety. Then, the differences in the three dimensions of the CSAI-2 between the two groups at the five time points introduced above were compared. This study also explored whether PRT affected sports performance, defined by the athletes reaching their best records or not, by logistic regressive analysis. This study found significant between-group differences in the self-confidence dimension score at the second and third time points. Through logistic regression analysis, a positive effect of PRT was found for the enhancement of sports performance. In sum, PRT showed positive effects on precompetition state self-confidence and enhanced sports performance among collegiate student athletes. (shrink)

As an ancient science, hypnosis has been used by humans since the primitive societies during theocratic times. By the 20th century, scientists and psychologists had re-recognized and studied hypnosis and explored its applications in fields such as medicine, education, and military uses. A local form of traditional Chinese “hypnosis” appeared in Huangdi Neijing, but it has not received enough attention from Chinese people; China’s modern hypnosis development is later than that of American and European countries. Therefore, people’s understanding (...) and applications of hypnosis remain inadequate. With the development of China’s economy and state power in the last decades, Chinese people were beginning to attach importance to the investment and development of the sports industry and realized that the psychological quality of the athletes is often a decisive factor in the success or failure of the competition. Meanwhile, hypnosis is an effective psychological training method to be used in daily training and competitions. In light of this, this essay firstly reviews the history of hypnosis before carrying out the methods of a literature review and a logical analysis to explore the applications of hypnosis in sports. Thus, evidence is provided in favor of the use of hypnosis in the sports industry. (shrink)

ObjectiveIn the context of Healthy China, the effect of external motivation on sports anomie behavior from the perspective of gender among Chinese college students was investigated.ParticipantsIn total, 2,340 college students were involved in this study.MethodsThe self-made scales were used, which were about anomie behavior and external motivation in sports. The independent sample T-test was used to compare the sports anomie behavior between male and female students. Then, multiple linear regression analysis was adopted to examine the effects (...) of external motivation on sports anomie behavior.ResultsGirls’ sports anomie behavior was lower than boys. There were significant gender differences in honor motivation, obedience motivation, and economic motivation; girls’ motivations were lower than boys. The academic motivation was negatively correlated with the sports anomie behavior of college students of both genders. The economic motivation was positively correlated with their sports anomie behavior. The honor motivation was negatively correlated with the sports anomie behavior of female college students.ConclusionFemale college students’ sports anomie behavior and external motivation are lower than that of male college students. External motivation had a significant influence on college students’ sports anomie behavior. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThis essay is arranged into three sections to present the traditional Chinese rendering and publishing process of The Grasshopper: Games, Life, and Utopia: copyright and publishers;...

There are many popular treatments of Zen/Chan and Daoist themes related to working with horses; however, these works tend to be fairly superficial treatments of philosophical traditions. For deeper consideration of the philosophy of horse sports such as dressage, I explore themes and imagery in the Daodejing, such as noncontention, flow, humility, and mysticism that may help riders to unpack and enhance the experience of working with a nonhuman teammate. Comparative work, such as with Dewey's theory of aesthetic experience (...) and the psychology of “flow,” further helps to conceptualize the relationship between athleticism and artistic value in formal equestrian sports. (shrink)

BackgroundPhysical activity has a significant health impact worldwide and has been linked to a lower risk of the common cold.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to estimate the form of PA among Chinese adults and the correlation between PA and number of the common cold in China's eastern, central, and western areas.DesignA cross-sectional study.SettingChina's eastern, central, and western regions from 30 November 2020 to 30 March 2021.PatientsA total of 1,920 healthy participants, who aged over 18 years old, with Internet (...) access, were enrolled, and then self-reported PA behaviors and number of the common cold were collected.MeasurementsThe authors calculated preference, intensity, frequency, and duration of PA in Chinese based on gender, age, and broad occupational categories and explored the potential effect between these factors and the common cold.ResultsApproximately 20.4% of participants reported not participating in sports regularly. Except for gender, there were significant differences in PA preference and intensity among the remaining individuals. However, intensity shows a U-shaped dose-response relationship with colds, whereas the frequency and duration have an inverse dose-response relationship. High intensity combined with high frequency increased colds the most. Nevertheless, non-exercise groups always have the most colds in each comparison.LimitationsThe result may be vulnerable to recall bias.ConclusionIntensity showed that U-shape, frequency, and duration showed inverse response to the number of colds last year, but age, sex, and occupation had no significant effects. High intensity and high frequency mixed increased colds the most, regardless of duration. (shrink)

This corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis of news reports on air pollution published from 2008 through 2015 by China Daily, China’s largest official English-language newspaper, reveals a significant attitudinal shift around the end of 2011 as regards public awareness of increasing air pollution levels in China and related public criticism. It also constructs a clear image of the increasing determination and resolve of the Chinese central government over the course of this 8-year period to take action to effectively reduce air (...) pollution. This study highlights the submissive role played by the official Chinese press in their reporting on air pollution under the strict censorship system of the Communist Party of China, as well as the socio-political role that international sporting events such as the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games played in raising both public and governmental awareness of environmental issues. (shrink)

The purpose of this study was to examine the moderating effects of goal orientations and self-efficacy between competitive cognitive anxiety and motor performance under conditions featuring different levels of ego-threat. Eighty-one collegiate-level basketball players completed Sport Competitive Anxiety Test, Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire, and General Self-Efficacy Scale prior to the experiment. Athletes participated in two sessions of free-throw tasks. After the first session, which was under a control condition, participants performed in a free-throw competitive session while being provided opponents’ (...) scores that induced different levels of competitive cognitive anxiety. Performance is defined as the accuracy in two free-throw sessions. A hierarchical multiple regression showed that high level of task-orientation and low level of ego-orientation can buffer the impairment of competitive cognitive anxiety on motor performance. The relationship between competitive cognitive anxiety and motor performance did not vary with self-efficacy. An a repeated-measured analysis of covariance after cluster analysis revealed that a high-task/low-ego profile benefited athletes the most regarding the impairment of competitive cognitive anxiety. Together, ego- and task-orientations and “goal profile” moderate the relationship between competitive cognitive anxiety and motor performance; however, self-efficacy may not serve as a moderator variable in between. (shrink)

BackgroundRecently, considerable research has been conducted to study the effects of traditional Chinese exercises on cognitive function in older adults with MCI. We completed a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the efficacy of TCEs on cognitive function in this population.MethodsA search strategy based on the PICOS principle was used to find the literatures in the databases of PubMed, Web of Science, MEDLINE, SPORT-Discus, PsycINFO, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Ovid. The quality and risk of bias in (...) the studies were independently assessed by two researchers.ResultsNine trials with 1,290 participants were included. The effect size of TCEs on global cognitive function was small when compared to the active control and was moderate compared to the inactive control; statistically significant effects were also found for short-term memory, long-term memory, shifting, language ability, visuospatial perception.ConclusionThis meta-analysis provides clinicians with moderate evidence to recommend that TCEs hold potential to enhance both global cognitive function and multiple domains of cognitive function, which, however, needs to be confirmed and further examined in futures studies. The results of this work provide critical knowledge for the design of future studies implementing TCEs as well as its clinical practice. Future RCTs with rigorous designs are needed to help obtain more definitive conclusions on the effects of TCEs on cognitive function in older adults with MCI. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 14.1 (2004) 47-54 [Access article in PDF] Ethical Guidelines for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research*(A Recommended Manuscript) Adopted on 16 October 2001Revised on 20 August 2002 Ethics Committee of the Chinese National Human Genome Center at Shanghai, Shanghai 201203 Human embryonic stem cell (ES) research is a great project in the frontier of biomedical science for the twenty-first century. Be- cause the research (...) involves the use of human embryos, it triggers serious debate on ethical issues. Opponents consider the embryo to be an early form of human life that should be respected and not destroyed. However, the majority of scientists support embryonic stem cell research, believing that it offers good prospects for the treatment of diseases that have remained incurable until now and so will benefit humankind. The Ethics Committee of the Department of Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications of the Chinese National Human Genome Center at Shanghai seriously discussed the ethical debate initiated by embryonic stem cell research. We concluded that we should support the scientists of our country in actively carrying out human embryonic stem cell research for the noble cause of "medicine being a beneficent art." For the healthy and orderly development of human embryonic stem cell research in our country, we put forward the following recommended Ethical Guidelines for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research as a reference for leaders, administrative departments, and related scientists. Preface Article 1. Human embryonic stem cells are the primitive cells that play the main role in the growth and development of a human body. These [End Page 47] primitive cells have the potential for infinite proliferation, self-renewal, and multi-directional differentiation. If scientists can discover the mechanism of differentiation of human embryonic stem cells, it will be possible to induce differentiation of human embryonic stem cells to form various types of human cells for clinical cell therapy. If human embryonic stem cell research can be integrated with modern biomedical engineering techniques, it also will be possible to make repair and replacement of human tissues and organs a reality. Article 2. There are two ways to classify human embryonic stem cells. One way is to classify them according to their potential for differentiation. There could be three kinds of stem cells: totipotent stem cells, pluripotent stem cells, and unipotent stem cells.A totipotent stem cell has the potential to develop into a whole individual. It can differentiate into the more than 200 cell types in the whole body, construct any tissue or organ of the body, and finally develop into a whole individual. The fertilized egg and the cleavage cells at the very early stage of embryonic development are totipotent stem cells.A pluripotent stem cell has the potential to differentiate into many cell types derived from the three embryonic layers. However, it has lost the capacity to develop into a complete organism.A unipotent stem cell is derived from the further differentiation of the pluripotent stem cell. It can differentiate only into one cell type such as a hematopoietic stem cell, neural stem cell, and others.The other way is to classify human stem cells according to their source. There could be two kinds of human stem cells: embryonic stem cells and tissue stem cells (also called adult stem cells). The former involves experimentation with embryos, which has serious ethical implications. Ethical issues associated with the latter are mainly expressed in the various opinions regarding the allocation of health resources. Article 3. Human embryonic stem cells are the group of cells called the blastocyst inner cell mass during the early stage of embryonic development. They are the main source of totipotent stem cells, and hence the focal and hot point in stem cell research. Studies on the clinical application of embryonic stem cells probably will involve use of the somatic cell nucleus transfer (SCNT) technique, which destroys the early human embryo. At present, the ethical and moral debate is very serious in human embryonic stem cell research regarding whether the research will develop... (shrink)

Qigong practices are contemplative body practices and meditation techniques that emerge from Chinese philosophical, medical, and martial traditions. This paper argues that qigong is a kind of embod...

Qigong practices are contemplative body practices and meditation techniques that emerge from Chinese philosophical, medical, and martial traditions. This paper argues that qigong is a kind of embod...

Question: Where, when and under what circumstances did the two of you get to know each other?Fischer: It was in the early seventies, in Frankfurt, after the dissolution of the gauche proletarienne and while there were still leftist groups in Germany. It must have been 1972. Question: Was that a private visit?Glucksmann: We had private discussions. We also participated in rallies and demonstrations.Question: That was in the late phase of the student movement.Fischer: We kept in contact through my old room-mate, (...) Daniel Cohn-Bendit. He was our link to France, so to speak.Question: And was this the link between the French and the German Left that existed then? (shrink)

This study examined the factors that affect the attitude and behavioral intentions toward electronic sports among students of higher education institutions based on the technology acceptance model. The conditional impact of preventive regulatory focus was analyzed in various aspects developed on the regulatory focus theory. These aspects comprised of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and perceived risk on the attitude toward eSports. Accordingly, data were collected from 293 students of higher education institutions in China's Henan Province, presenting a (...) 54.56% response rate. The PLS-SEM analysis was subsequently implemented to confirm the proposed hypotheses. The empirical findings confirmed the significant positive impact of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use on the attitude toward eSports. However, perceived risk negatively affected the attitude toward eSports. Meanwhile, the findings on the moderating hypotheses found a negligible impact on preventive regulatory focus. This impact was found explicitly on the perceived usefulness-perceived ease of use link with attitude toward eSports. However, the preventive regulatory focus negatively moderated the perceived risk attitude toward eSports. Finally, the implication and limitations were illustrated at the end of the paper. (shrink)