This article shows that in two respects, Gödel's incompleteness theorem strongly supports the arguments of Edgar Morin's complexity paradigm. First, from the viewpoint of the content of Gödel's theorem, the latter justifies the basic view of complexity paradigm according to which knowledge is a dynamic, unfinished process, and develops by way of self-criticism and self-transcendence. Second, from the viewpoint of the proof procedure of Gödel's theorem, the latter confirms the complexity paradigm's circular line of inference through which is formed the (...) all-round knowledge of a concrete object. (shrink)

Morin (1921) founded the complex mode of thinking in order to remedy the defects of the Western classic simple mode of thinking. In doing so, he approached to some degree the mode of thinking inherent to the Eastern civilization. This article elucidates that for some principles of Morin's complex thinking, such as correlation of opposites, recursive causality, and union of unity of multiplicity, there were similar ideas in Chinese classic philosophy. This shows that the complex paradigm of thinking, in a (...) certain point of view, will be the fusion of Western and Eastern cultural factors. Besides, in integrating his theory of complexity with the reality of our time to find out solutions to the issues of globalization, Morin has become one of the representative thinkers of the planetary age of humankind. (shrink)

BackgroundTinnitus is a common disease, and sound therapy is an effective method to alleviate it. Previous studies have shown that notched sound not only changes levels of cortical blood oxygen, but affects blood oxygen in specific cerebral cortical areas, such as Brodmann area 46, which is associated with emotion. Extensive evidence has confirmed that tinnitus is closely related to emotion. Whether notched sound plays a role in regulating the emotional center is still unclear.MethodsThis study included 29 patients with newly diagnosed (...) chronic tinnitus who were treated with notched sound. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy was conducted before and after treatment to observe bilateral changes in cortical blood oxygen in the cerebral hemispheres. We compared the changes in connectivity between the two regions of interest, as wells as other cortical regions before and after treatment.ResultsThe results showed That global connectivity between the bilateral auditory cortex of the superior temporal sulcus and the ipsilateral cortex did not change significantly between baseline and the completion of treatment, and That the connectivity between channel 14 and the right superior temporal sulcus decreased after treatment. The overall connectivity between the right BA46 region and the right cortex decreased after treatment, and decreases in connectivity after treatment were specifically found for channels 10 and 14 in the right parietal lobe and channels 16, 20, 21, and 22 in the frontal lobe, while there was no significant change on the left side. There were no significant changes in the questionnaire measures of tinnitus, anxiety, or depression before and after treatment.ConclusionThe results of the study indicate that cerebral cortex reorganization occurs in tinnitus patients after submitted to treatment with notched sound for 1 month, and that notched sound decreases the connectivity between the auditory cortex and specific brain regions.SignificanceNotched sound not only regulates the auditory center through lateral inhibition, but also alleviates tinnitus by reorganizing the emotional control center. (shrink)

想要內心平靜安寧，就讀《莊子》吧！ 掌握「莊子」思想，面對外在好自在， 天生我材沒有用又怎樣？能做自己就是福。 ◎當你總是與人意見不合時 ★莊子教你處世之道──立場不同，無須與人爭論是非 人總是認為自己正確而對方錯誤，莊子要人們明白，我們不應該執著於爭論片面的是非，否則只會偏離自己的中心思想。 ◎當你在感情中常有衝突，快要撐不下去時 ★莊子給你愛的力量──愛對方的一切，包括愛對方的「缺點」 我們因一個人的優點而喜歡上他／她，但那些不那麼好、甚至是壞的部分，也是他／她的組成要素。一段完整的關係，不就是有好有壞，有快樂，有悲傷嗎？ ◎當你覺得自己學東西很慢，力不從心時 ★莊子告訴你人生真理──「智慧」比「知識」更重要 莊子認為，人生的智慧不是建立在知識累積的基礎上。事事算得很精、學得很勤的人，反而有可能迷失了方向，因小失大。 ◎當你遭遇困難，心情沮喪時 ★莊子帶你真誠面對自己──懂得快樂，更要懂得悲傷 喜怒哀樂，都是我們內在的真實感受。情感的發生，在莊子看來，也是再自然不過的事情，不需要刻意躲開。坦然面對情緒，才是最自在的辦法。 ◎當你被生活的忙碌壓到喘不過氣時 ★莊子引導你領略心靈的平靜──偶爾停下匆忙的腳步，傾聽心底的聲音 生活猶如走鋼索，從容自在的人會凝心自照，拋開環境的影響。莊子提醒我們，如果太專注於外在事物上，內心便會逐漸沉沒、枯寂。有時靜下心來，反而能走得更遠。 ▌工作、學業太多，煩惱、憂愁太雜，是現代人的文明通病。為了占有一席之地，人們往往勞心勞力、鞠躬盡瘁，到最後受苦的卻是自己。想要的東西太多，得到的卻很少，反而什麼都滿足不了。 ▌於是莊子說，「善待自己」最重要。歡迎來到莊子的逍遙講堂，帶你體悟「享受人生」的豁達精神！ ※本書特色※ ★精心挑選《莊子》百句，體會逍遙精神，貼近時下讀者關心話題★ 本書擇取《莊子》中深富智慧、極具啟示的段落百句，以貼近現實的視角與深入淺出的文字，闡述莊子精隨。讓讀者在日常中活用經典智慧，輕鬆進入莊子的逍遙世界。 ★兩千兩百年經典歷久不衰，知名哲學家、文學家一致推崇★ 《莊子》是道家思想最具代表性的著作，載有大量神話傳說與寓言。其中，「井底之蛙」、「莊周夢蝶」、「鼓盆而歌」、「越俎代庖」等典故皆為世人熟知。西方諸多哲人、文學家如尼采、海德格、羅蘭巴特、王爾德、卡夫卡 等名家，都深受《莊子》啟發。 作者簡介 | 陳引馳 復旦大學中文系教授，現為系主任。 復旦中國古代文學研究中心教授，復旦文史研究院雙聘研究員。 道家、佛教與中國古典文學專家。著有《無為與逍遙：莊子六章》《莊子精讀》《佛教文學》《文學傳統與中古道家佛教》等多本學術著作。.

Teacher education students, as an important reserve in the field of education, their growth and development are related to the future of science, economy, sustainable development of education. Through participation in the educational practice of STEAM, which integrates science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics is more beneficial for them to acquire 21st century skills like communication, collaboration, learning innovation and critical thinking. However, little has been seen about the use and effectiveness of short videos in STEAM education activities and how (...) they can be used to support and promote teacher education students STEAM learning performance and sustainable inquiry behaviors. Therefore, this study combines the framework of triadic reciprocity determinism theory and technology acceptance theory to propose six research hypotheses and develop a research model to explore the relationship between collaborative self-efficacy, perceived usefulness of short videos, perceived ease of use, STEAM learning performance and teacher education students’ sustainable inquiry behavior. To achieve the purpose of this study, this study used purposive sampling and invited teacher education students from five classes of preschool education at a university in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, to participate in this study. A total of 8 h of instructional guidance was provided over a four-week period, in which participants used short videos for collaborative group learning and independent inquiry and applied STEAM concepts to kindergarten science activities. Participants’ STEAM performance was measured and surveyed during the fourth week. The results of the study validation showed that teacher education students CS-E had a positive effect on the PU and PEOU of short videos; Teacher’s education students PEOU of short videos had a positive effect on usefulness; Teacher’s education students PU and PEOU of short videos had a positive effect on STEAM learning performance; Teacher’s education students’ STEAM learning performance had a positive effect on sustainable inquiry behavior. (shrink)

This book translates Lao Zhuang xinlun, a key work of contemporary Chinese scholarship. It offers a unique discussion of the Laozi, arguing - in contrast to standard Western scholarship - that the text goes back to Laozi as a single author and identifying him as an older contemporary, and even teacher, of Confucius. This places the Confucian Analects after the Daode jing and makes the text the most fundamental work of ancient Chinese thought. Chen explores decades of debates (...) regarding these points, providing evidence based on materials excavated from Mawangdui and Guodian. His book is fascinating in its documentation of contemporary Chinese arguments and debates, offering a complete revision of the history of Chinese thought with Daoism as its major focus. The work is an absolute must for anyone studying Chinese philosophy and history. -- from back cover. (shrink)

Some institutional investors are exposed to social norms and public scrutiny. Prior research indicates that these norm-constrained institutions engage in negative screening and invest less in firms operating in ‘sin’ industries. We examine whether social norms also motivate these institutions to engage in positive screening—where they invest more in firms with better corporate social responsibility performance—and CSR-related activism—where they promote improvements in the CSR of existing investees. We find that firms with superior CSR performance have greater ownership by norm-constrained institutions, (...) consistent with positive screening, and we use a natural experiment to establish causality. We also find that increases in the shareholdings of norm-constrained institutions are associated with subsequent improvements in CSR, consistent with activism. Further, we rule out an alternative explanation for our results where the positive screening and activism are ‘profit-driven’ rather than driven by social pressure. Thus, our results suggest that the influence of social norms on stock markets is more pervasive than documented in the prior literature. (shrink)

Nowadays, depression is the world’s major health concern and economic burden worldwide. However, due to the limitations of current methods for depression diagnosis, a pervasive and objective approach is essential. In the present study, a psychophysiological database, containing 213 subjects, was constructed. The electroencephalogram signals of all participants under resting state and sound stimulation were collected using a pervasive prefrontal-lobe three-electrode EEG system at Fp1, Fp2, and Fpz electrode sites. After denoising using the Finite Impulse Response filter combining the Kalman (...) derivation formula, Discrete Wavelet Transformation, and an Adaptive Predictor Filter, a total of 270 linear and nonlinear features were extracted. Then, the minimal-redundancy-maximal-relevance feature selection technique reduced the dimensionality of the feature space. Four classification methods distinguished the depressed participants from normal controls. The classifiers’ performances were evaluated using 10-fold cross-validation. The results showed thatK-Nearest Neighbor had the highest accuracy of 79.27%. The result also suggested that the absolute power of the theta wave might be a valid characteristic for discriminating depression. This study proves the feasibility of a pervasive three-electrode EEG acquisition system for depression diagnosis. (shrink)

On the fundamentals of Buddhist doctrines; including explation of the karmic law of cause and effect with stories.

In "Formations of World Literature and Shaw's The Man of Destiny in Chinese and Japanese Translation" Shunqing Cao and Xin Chen expand Franco Moretti's dictum that "world literature is not an object, it's a problem" to elaborate that the concept of world literature is in some sense a problematic one, which is itself under a process of problematization. Cao and Chen discuss how variation and heterogeneity contribute to a more in-depth understanding of formations of world literature. Taking the (...) Bernar Shaw's The Man of Destiny they discuss the writer's presence in world literature from a bi-lateral perspective: Shaw's work in the English-speaking West and Shaw in Asia. For the former, Shaw stands in a specific place in recent postcolonial Irish Studies and thus raise problems for their research paradigm. For the latter, Cao and Chen present an analytical comparison between a Chinese and a Japanese translation of The Man of Destiny. Cao and Chen argue that by such a bilateral approach we may recognize the importance of heterogeneity so as to obtain further reflections on present discussions of world literature. (shrink)

Experiments in animal models have shown that running increases neuronal activity in early visual areas in light as well as in darkness. This suggests that visual processing is influenced by locomotion independent of visual input. Combining mobile electroencephalography, motion- and eye-tracking, we investigated the influence of overground free walking on cortical alpha activity and eye movements in healthy humans. Alpha activity has been considered a valuable marker of inhibition of sensory processing and shown to negatively correlate with neuronal firing rates. (...) We found that walking led to a decrease in alpha activity over occipital cortex compared to standing. This decrease was present during walking in darkness as well as during light. Importantly, eye movements could not explain the change in alpha activity. Nevertheless, we found that walking and eye related movements were linked. While the blink rate increased with increasing walking speed independent of light or darkness, saccade rate was only significantly linked to walking speed in the light. Pupil size, on the other hand, was larger during darkness than during light, but only showed a modulation by walking in darkness. Analyzing the effect of walking with respect to the stride cycle, we further found that blinks and saccades preferentially occurred during the double support phase of walking. Alpha power, as shown previously, was lower during the swing phase than during the double support phase. We however could exclude the possibility that the alpha modulation was introduced by a walking movement induced change in electrode impedance. Overall, our work indicates that the human visual system is influenced by the current locomotion state of the body. This influence affects eye movement pattern as well as neuronal activity in sensory areas and might form part of an implicit strategy to optimally extract sensory information during locomotion. (shrink)

Recently implemented Chinese health insurance schemes have failed to achieve a Chinese health care system that is family-oriented, family-based, family-friendly, or even financially sustainable. With this diagnosis in hand, the authors argue that a financially and morally sustainable Chinese health care system should have as its core family health savings accounts supplemented by appropriate health insurance plans. This essay’s arguments are set in the context of Confucian moral commitments that still shape the background culture of contemporary China.

Perceptual tasks such as object matching, mammogram interpretation, mental rotation, and satellite imagery change detection often require the assignment of correspondences to fuse information across views. We apply techniques developed for machine translation to the gaze data recorded from a complex perceptual matching task modeled after fingerprint examinations. The gaze data provide temporal sequences that the machine translation algorithm uses to estimate the subjects' assumptions of corresponding regions. Our results show that experts and novices have similar surface behavior, such as (...) the number of fixations made or the duration of fixations. However, the approach applied to data from experts is able to identify more corresponding areas between two prints. The fixations that are associated with clusters that map with high probability to corresponding locations on the other print are likely to have greater utility in a visual matching task. These techniques address a fundamental problem in eye tracking research with perceptual matching tasks: Given that the eyes always point somewhere, which fixations are the most informative and therefore are likely to be relevant for the comparison task? (shrink)

We give the first systematic study of strong isomorphism reductions, a notion of reduction more appropriate than polynomial time reduction when, for example, comparing the computational complexity of the isomorphim problem for different classes of structures. We show that the partial ordering of its degrees is quite rich. We analyze its relationship to a further type of reduction between classes of structures based on purely comparing for every n the number of nonisomorphic structures of cardinality at most n in both (...) classes. Furthermore, in a more general setting we address the question of the existence of a maximal element in the partial ordering of the degrees. (shrink)

The bulletin board system (BBS) significantly changed the production and transmission of knowledge in China’s information technology (IT). Launched in 1991, Chinese FidoNet (CFido) provided a virtual space for hobbyists to explore technology-for-fun and aggregated many future Chinese digital entrepreneurs, enabling them to experiment with business models and pursue open-source software with Chinese characters. CFido’s short history (1991–1998) also encapsulates the fast-changing dynamic between knowledge and its social context. CFido participants first perceived the BBS as a utopian “pure land” where (...) grassroots intellectuals could develop software and digital technologies, free from outside interests and interventions. Yet the beginning of government control of cyberspace, the boom of the IT industry and e-commerce, and the transition from the dial-up BBS to the Internet led the CFidoers to diverging positions about amateurs and ultimately brought CFido to an end. (shrink)

This paper aims to defend the use of the notion of experimental individuation, which has recently been developed by Ruey-Lin Chen, as a criterion for the reality of theoretical entities. In short, when scientists experimentally individuate an entity, a realist conclusion about that entity is warranted. We embed this claim regarding experimental individuation within a framework that allows for other criteria of reality. And we understand so-called retail arguments regarding the reality of a particular theoretical entity as arguments that (...) concern choosing an appropriate criterion of reality for that entity and determining whether the relevant first-order scientific evidence satisfies that criterion. We argue that such retail arguments are philosophical because defending criteria of reality, and showing that they are or are not satisfied in particular cases, involves work that is distinctively philosophical. And we illustrate this philosophical work by applying our criterion of experimental individuation to three historical cases: Davy’s potassium, Lavoisier’s muriatic radical, and Thomson’s electrified particles. (shrink)

Among the most influential and well-known experiments of the 19th century was the generation and detection of electromagnetic radiation by Heinrich Hertz in 1887–1888, work that bears favorable comparison for experimental ingenuity and influence with that by Michael Faraday in the 1830s and 1840s. In what follows, we pursue issues raised by what Hertz did in his experimental space to produce and to detect what proved to be an extraordinarily subtle effect. Though he did provide evidence for the existence of (...) such radiation that other investigators found compelling, nevertheless Hertz’s data and the conclusions he drew from it ran counter to the claim of Maxwell’s electrodynamics that electric waves in air and wires travel at the same speed. Since subsequent experiments eventually suggested otherwise, the question arises of just what took place in Hertz’s. The difficulties attendant on designing, deploying, and interpreting novel apparatus go far in explaining his results, which were nevertheless sufficiently convincing that other investigators, and Hertz himself, soon took up the challenge of further investigation based on his initial designs. (shrink)

Many natural computational problems have input consisting of two or more parts, one of which may be considered a parameter. For example, there are many problems for which the input consists of a graph and a positive integer. A number of results are presented concerning parameterized problems that can be solved in complexity classes below P, given a single word of advice for each parameter value. Different ways in which the word of advice can be employed are considered, and it (...) is shown that the class FPT of tractable parameterized problems has interesting and natural internal structure. (shrink)

Magnetoencephalography is increasingly used for presurgical planning in people with medically refractory focal epilepsy. Localization of interictal epileptiform activity, a surrogate for the seizure onset zone whose removal may prevent seizures, is challenging and depends on the use of multiple complementary techniques. Accurate and reliable localization of epileptiform activity from spontaneous MEG data has been an elusive goal. One approach toward this goal is to use a novel Bayesian inference algorithm—the Champagne algorithm with noise learning—which has shown tremendous success in (...) source reconstruction, especially for focal brain sources. In this study, we localized sources of manually identified MEG spikes using the Champagne algorithm in a cohort of 16 patients with medically refractory epilepsy collected in two consecutive series. To evaluate the reliability of this approach, we compared the performance to equivalent current dipole modeling, a conventional source localization technique that is commonly used in clinical practice. Results suggest that Champagne may be a robust, automated, alternative to manual parametric dipole fitting methods for localization of interictal MEG spikes, in addition to its previously described clinical and research applications. (shrink)

A completeness theory for parameterized computational complexity has been studied in a series of recent papers, and has been shown to have many applications in diverse problem domains including familiar graph-theoretic problems, VLSI layout, games, computational biology, cryptography, and computational learning [ADF,BDHW,BFH, DEF,DF1-7,FHW,FK]. We here study the parameterized complexity of two kinds of problems: (1) problems concerning parameterized computations of Turing machines, such as determining whether a nondeterministic machine can reach an accept state in \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} (...) \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document} $k$\end{document} steps (the Short TM Computation Problem), and (2) problems concerning derivations and factorizations, such as determining whether a word \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document} $x$\end{document} can be derived in a grammar \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document} $G$\end{document} in \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document} $k$\end{document} steps, or whether a permutation has a factorization of length \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document} $k$\end{document} over a given set of generators. We show hardness and completeness for these problems for various levels of the \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document} $W$\end{document} hierarchy. In particular, we show that Short TM Computation is complete for \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document} $W[1]$\end{document}. This gives a new and useful characterization of the most important of the apparently intractable parameterized complexity classes. (shrink)

Studies have revealed that emotion-based learning outcomes are scarce when teachers’ competence and creative performance are neglected, further university performance in relation to teachers’ emotion-based learning outcomes is disregarded in literature so far. Based on the Attributional theory of achievement motivation and emotion, the purpose of this empirical study is to investigate the effects of Emotional Intelligence on learning outcomes of academicians in Pakistan’s higher education institutions. This study also examines the mediating role of teacher competence and creative performance in (...) a relationship between EI and learning outcomes. Furthermore, this study ascertained the relationship between learning outcomes and organizational performance of HEIs. This study used a sample frame of 237 academic professionals from Pakistani HEIs, the hypothesized associations were ascertained using the partial least squares structural equation modeling method. The findings disclose that EI has a positive and significant influence on learning outcomes. Furthermore, an indirect relation between EI and learning outcomes is established through teacher competence and creative performance while the relationship between learning outcomes and OP is established also. Results of the considered study reinforce the academic understanding of EI and propose how academicians of HEIs can value their competence and creative performance which in turn enhances learning outcomes and OP. There is a lack of studies in HEIs that investigate the relationship between EI, teacher competence, creative performance, learning outcomes, and OP. This is one of the initial researches that not only empirically examine the interface of EI, learning outcomes, and OP of HEIs’ academicians but also enlightens comprehensions into the prevailing literature by immediate investigation of the mediating role of teacher competence and creative performance in fundamental association. (shrink)

Many scholars have investigated education management. Scholars in the education field have made significant achievements in contributing to multiple educational reform policies, while other scholars discuss teacher-related issues from the perspective of organizational behavior. The teaching innovation of high school teachers plays a critical role in students’ learning attitude and motivation, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Teachers need to utilize more diversified teaching methods to enable students to carry out effective learning. In order to examine teachers’ teaching (...) innovation, this study explores teaching innovation intentions and performance from the perspective of individual and social factors in combination with goal-oriented behavior and social identity theory. This study conducts questionnaires with a sample of Chinese coastal high school teachers, and obtains a total of 475 responses. The research results show that innovation attitude, positive anticipated emotion, group norms and social identity positively affect teachers’ teaching innovation intention; furthermore, teachers’ teaching innovation intention also positively affects their teaching innovation performance. Based on the comprehensive research findings, this research proposes corresponding theoretical and practical implications. (shrink)

The N-Queens problem plays an important role in academic research and practical application. Heuristic algorithm is often used to solve variant 2 of the N-Queens problem. In the process of solving, evaluation of the candidate solution, namely, fitness function, often occupies the vast majority of running time and becomes the key to improve speed. In this paper, three parallel schemes based on CPU and four parallel schemes based on GPU are proposed, and a serial scheme is implemented at the baseline. (...) The experimental results show that, for a large-scale N-Queens problem, the coarse-grained GPU scheme achieved a maximum 307-fold speedup over a single-threaded CPU counterpart in evaluating a candidate solution. When the coarse-grained GPU scheme is applied to simulated annealing in solving N-Queens problem variant 2 with a problem size no more than 3000, the speedup is up to 9.3. (shrink)

This study attempts to investigate the relationships among the ethical beliefs of Chinese consumers and orientations based on attitudinal attributes: materialism and moral philosophies (idealism and relativism). In addition, this study examines Chinese consumers' ethical beliefs in relation to five selected demographic characteristics (gender, age, religion, family income and education). Based on this exploratory study of 284 Chinese consumers, the following statistically significant findings were discovered. First, Chinese consumers regard that a passively benefiting activity is more ethical, but actively benefiting (...) from an illegal or a questionable activity is unacceptable. Second, the two dimensions of passively benefiting and no harm/no foul can be used to distinguish the consumers who endorse higher levels of idealism or relativism. Third, Chinese consumers with a high level of materialism are more likely to actively benefit from illegal and questionable activities, and the passively benefiting actions. Finally, the more ethical Chinese consumers seem to be younger, be religious, and have a lower family income. (shrink)

The purposes of research were to describe the neonatal clinicians' personal views and attitudes on neonatal ethical decision-making, to identify factors that might affect these attitudes and to compare the attitudes between neonatal physicians and neonatal nurses in Taiwan. Research was a cross-sectional design and a questionnaire was used to reach different research purposes. A convenient sample was used to recruit 24 physicians and 80 neonatal nurses from four neonatal intensive care units in Taiwan. Most participants agreed with suggesting a (...) do not resuscitate (DNR) order to parents for dying neonates (86.5%). However, the majority agreed with talking to patients about DNR orders is difficult (76.9%). Most participants agree that review by the clinical ethics committee is needed before the recommendation of ‘DNR’ to parents (94.23%) and nurses were significantly more likely than physicians to agree to this (p=0.043). During the end-of-life care, most clinicians accepted to continue current treatment without adding others (70%) and withholding of emergency treatments (75%); however, active euthanasia, the administration of drug to end-of-life, was not considered acceptable by both physicians and nurses in this research (96%). Based on our research results, providing continuing educational training and a formal consulting service in moral courage for neonatal clinicians are needed. In Taiwan, neonatal physicians and nurses hold similar values and attitudes towards end-of-life decisions for neonates. In order to improve the clinicians' communication skills with parents about DNR options and to change clinicians' attitudes for providing enough pain-relief medicine to dying neonates, providing continuing educational training and a formal consulting service in moral courage are needed. (shrink)

As a tool for regulating the environment in China, does environmental information disclosure reduce pollutant discharge? To answer this question, we empirically analyzed the emission data of “the three wastes” in unit industrial GDP in 31 provincial units. As a measure to reduce institutional emission, environmental information disclosure only slightly influenced waste discharge reduction in the implementation period of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan of China. Instead, command control and market-based tools significantly affected waste discharge reduction. Representative measures included penalties and (...) charges. With the continuously enhanced pressure of control, environmental information disclosure facilitates the effects of command control tools on waste discharge reduction. Content analysis of environmental information disclosed by sample listed companies in Jiangsu Province was conducted. The disclosure of insufficient environmental information on emission reduction can be attributed to “adverse selection” in system performance and to the limited quality of overall environmental information disclosure. This study provides empirical evidence for Chinese policy makers to improve the system for environmental information disclosure of listed companies. (shrink)

As the first stage of the formation of a collaborative new product innovation team, member selection is crucial for the effective operation of the CNPI team and the achievement of new product innovation goals. Considering comprehensively the individual and collaborative attributions, the individual knowledge competence, knowledge complementarity, and collaborative performance among candidates are chosen as the criteria to select CNPI team members in this paper. Moreover, using the fuzzy set and social network analysis method, the quantitative methods of the above (...) criteria are proposed correspondingly. Then, by integrating the above criteria, a novel multiobjective decision model for member selection of the CNPI team is built from the view of individual and collaborative attributions. Since the proposed model is NP-hard, a double-population adaptive genetic algorithm is further developed to solve it. Finally, a real case is provided to illustrate the application and effectiveness of the proposed model and method in this paper. (shrink)

Background: Contact heat evoked potentials is used to diagnose small fiber neuropathy. We established the normal values of CHEPs parameters in Chinese adults, optimized the test technique, and determined its reproducibility.Methods: We recruited 151 healthy adults. CHEPs was performed on the right forearm to determine the optimal number of stimuli, and then conducted at different sites to establish normal values, determine the effects of demographic characteristics and baseline temperature, and assess the short- and long-term reproducibility. N2 latency/height varied with age (...) and sex, while P2 latency/height and N2–P2 amplitude varied with age. The optimal number of stimuli was three.Results: N2 latency/height and P2 latency/height decreased and N2–P2 amplitude and visual analog scale score increased with increased baseline temperature. CHEPs parameters did not differ with time.Conclusion: We established normal CHEPs values in Chinese adults. We found that CHEPs parameters changed with baseline temperature and that the short- and long-term test reproducibility were satisfactory. (shrink)