The biology major has developed rapidly in recent years. Biology is a science that penetrates every aspect of human life and is one of the core majors in most agricultural colleges and universities. However, many teachers lack practical experience in the subject. To overcome this problem, in recent years, we have been trying to introduce new reforms into our teaching. This article provides some insight into the way that biology majors have been reformed, which will help educators in agricultural colleges (...) and universities. At present, teachers implement the “Industrial Innovation and Entrepreneurship Talent Cultivation” model, but it is not clear whether this helps biology majors to master the course and improve their practical skills. In this study, the IIETC model is outlined, and the academic achievement and satisfaction of students taught under the IIETC model are assessed. A T-test is used to examine potential differences between IIETC and traditional teaching models. In-depth interviews and questionnaires were given to two groups of students who followed different teaching models as part of an exploratory study. The aim was to explore how effective IIETC is at helping biology majors master the course and improve students’ wellbeing. Our results show that compared with traditional teaching methods, the IIETC model has a significant positive impact on the academic performance and happiness of biology students. Students trained under the IIETC model were more active and scored more highly in their final exams. They were more likely to feel that they had achieved success and happiness through the course. The outcomes of this research reveal a novel teaching reform that improved students’ enthusiasm for innovation and entrepreneurship during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The effects are very encouraging and deserve further exploration and expansion in future work. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to resolve the tension between Kant’s doctrine of the highest good and his entire philosophical system. The concept of the highest good is the first major ambiguity of the doctrine. There are three pairs of ambiguities: immanent-transcendent; justice-perfection; and individual-community. They are able to form eight combinations. Corresponding to the various combinations and conceptions of the highest good, interpreters also conceive different reasons for the necessity of the doctrine as well as various conditions of (...) its applicability. For example, some emphasize its religious dimension, whereas others understand it in the political sense. In this paper, I adopt a different approach in understanding the highest good’s systematic meaning as the moral confirmation, and suggest that only a transcendent, perfect and communal concept of the highest good can provide the most consistent doctrine. Additionally, it explains the importance of the different branches (such as philosophies of religion and of politics) of Kant’s system. (shrink)

In 1997, Louisa Schein published her famous article "Gender and Internal Orientalism in China," in which she modified Edward Said's theory of orientalism and transplanted it into the study of ethnicity in contemporary China. According to Schein, Chinese society develops an orientalist view of non-Han people and consumes their ethnic cultures as cultural commodities, which clearly denotes the power of the center over the periphery. While fully acknowledging internal orientalism as a problem, I realize that Schein's theoretical framework, without paying (...) much attention to the specific cultural and economic condition of urban China, cannot satisfactorily explain why... (shrink)

The distinction between judgments of perception and judgments of experience in Kant’s Prolegomena has long been a controversial issue in Kantian studies. On the one hand, this distinction challenges the close connection between the synthetic unity of self-consciousness and the categories. On the other hand, a distinction between the subjective and the objective is unavoidable in our cognitive life. I will show in this paper that the interpretive difficulties arise from the ambiguity of Kant’s use of the concept of perception (...) and his misleading formulation of the judgments of perception. After clarifying these problems and adopting the regulative use of the concept of the I in Kant’s theory of perception, the place of judgments of perception in his transcendental cognitive theory can be clarified, and the consistency of his system can be observed. (shrink)

Based on the stress interaction theory, this research constructed a model to study the joint moderating effects of the perception reduction of employment opportunities under the COVID-19 epidemic on the employment pressure of college students. With two moderating variables introduced, employment policy support and job-searching self-efficacy, this research studied the mechanism and boundary conditions of perception reduction of employment opportunities on employment pressure of college students from both individual and environmental aspects. The study found that during the epidemic if college (...) students perceived fewer employment opportunities, they could have greater employment pressure from themselves, schools, and families; and that under the joint moderation of employment policy support and job-searching self-efficacy, the perception reduction of employment opportunities under the COVID-19 epidemic, the employment pressure of college students, universities, and families were connected, with different adjustment mechanisms. Based on empirical data, this research can provide theoretical enlightenment and practical guidance for the government, universities, and families to alleviate the employment pressure on college students during the epidemic. (shrink)

Studies have shown that internal whistleblowing could be utilized as an effective way to stop an organization’s unethical behaviors. This study investigates the relationship between ethical leadership and internal whistleblowing by focusing on the mediating role of employee-perceived organizational politics and the moderating role of moral courage. An analysis of data collected at three phases indicates that employee-perceived organizational politics partly mediates the relationship between ethical leadership and internal whistleblowing. Also, moral courage is found to moderate the effect of employee-perceived (...) organizational politics on internal whistleblowing and the indirect effect of ethical leadership on internal whistleblowing via employee-perceived organizational politics. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed. (shrink)

Genetic epidemiology is a rapidly advancing field due to the recent availability of large amounts of omics data. In recent years, it has become possible to obtain omics information at the single‐cell level, so genetic epidemiological models need to be updated to integrate with single‐cell expression data. In this perspective paper, we propose a cell population‐based framework for genetic epidemiology in the single‐cell era. In this framework, genetic diversity influences phenotypic diversity through the diversity of cell population profiles, which are (...) defined as high‐dimensional probability distributions of the state spaces of biomolecules of each omics layer. We discuss how biomolecular experimental measurement data can capture the different properties of this distribution. In particular, single‐cell data constitute a sample from this population distribution where only some coordinate values are observable. From a data analysis standpoint, we introduce methodology for feature extraction from cell population profiles. Finally, we discuss how this framework can be applied not only to genetic epidemiology but also to systems biology. (shrink)

Prediction is one of the major challenges in complex systems. The prediction methods have shown to be effective predictors of the evolution of networks. These methods can help policy makers to solve practical problems successfully and make better strategy for the future. In this work, we focus on exporting countries’ data of the International Trade Network. A recommendation system is then used to identify the products that correspond to the production capacity of each individual country but are somehow overlooked by (...) the country. Then, we simulate the evolution of the country’s fitness if it would have followed the recommendations. The result of this work is the combination of these two methods to provide insights to countries on how to enhance the diversification of their exported products in a scientific way and improve national competitiveness significantly, especially for developing countries. (shrink)

Previous literature has demonstrated that ethical leadership could predict employees’ voice behavior. However, it’s not clear how to heighten these positive effects of ethical leadership on employees’ voice behavior. Building on the AET and moral disengagement studies, we developed an integrated model. A three-wave field study investigated the relationship between ethical leadership and voice behavior by focusing on the mediating role of employees’ affective commitment and the moderating role of employees’ moral disengagement. Our matched data analysis results indicated that: employees’ (...) affective commitment partly mediated the relationship between ethical leadership and employees’ voice behavior. In addition, employees’ moral disengagement moderated the effect of ethical leadership on employees’ affective commitment and the effect of employees’ affective commitment on voice behavior, similarly, the indirect effect of ethical leadership on employees’ voice behavior via employees’ affective commitment. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed. (shrink)

Abundant evidence has proved an association between peer victimization and problematic online game use. However, the underlying mechanisms of this relation are still under-investigated. Grounded in the ecological system theory, this study examined whether deviant peer affiliation and school connectedness mediated the association between peer victimization and adolescent POGU. A sample of 698 Chinese adolescents completed questionnaires regarding peer victimization, problematic online game use, DPA, and school connectedness, of which 51.58% were boys. Path analyses indicated that peer victimization was positively (...) associated with problematic online game use, and this link could be mediated by deviant peer affiliation and school connectedness. The findings identify the potential underlying mechanism by which peer victimization is associated with adolescent problematic online game use, which has important implications for theory and prevention. (shrink)

Graphical AbstractRecent waves of controversies surrounding genetic engineering have spilled into popular science in Twitter battles between reputable scientists and their followers. Here, a cautionary perspective on the possible blind spots and risks of CRISPR and related biotechnologies is presented, focusing in particular on the stochastic nature of cellular control processes.

Parrondo's paradox, in which losing strategies can be combined to produce winning outcomes, has received much attention in mathematics and the physical sciences; a plethora of exciting applications has also been found in biology at an astounding pace. In this review paper, the authors examine a large range of recent developments of Parrondo's paradox in biology, across ecology and evolution, genetics, social and behavioral systems, cellular processes, and disease. Intriguing connections between numerous works are identified and analyzed, culminating in an (...) emergent pattern of nested recurrent mechanics that appear to span the entire biological gamut, from the smallest of spatial and temporal scales to the largest—from the subcellular to the complete biosphere. In analyzing the macro perspective, the pivotal role that the paradox plays in the shaping of biological life becomes apparent, and its identity as a potential universal principle underlying biological diversity and persistence is uncovered. Directions for future research are also discussed in light of this new perspective. (shrink)

Objective wealth plays an important role in social interaction and economic decision making. Previous studies indicate that objective wealth of others may influence the way we participate in resources allocation. However, the effect of objective wealth on responses to fairness-related resource distribution is far from clear, as are the underlying neural processes. To address this issue, we dynamically manipulated proposers’ objective wealth and analyzed participants’ behavior as responders in a modified Ultimatum Game, during which event-related potentials were recorded. Behavioral results (...) showed that participants were prone to reject unfair proposals although that rejection would reduce their own benefit. Importantly, participants were more likely to accept unfair offers from proposers with low objective wealth than from proposers with high objective wealth, with a drastic increase in acceptance rates of unfair offers from 32.79 to 50.59%. Further electrophysiological results showed that there was significantly enhanced feedback-related negativity amplitude toward proposers with high objective wealth for unfair offers. Furthermore, the late frontal negativity amplitude was larger for all the conditions which are not high-fair, which might be the only option that did not elicit any ambiguity. These findings suggest a strong role of proposers’ objective wealth in modulating responders’ behavioral and neural responses to fairness. (shrink)

Many studies have discussed the neural basis of asset bubbles. They found that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) played an important role in bubble formation, but whether a causal relationship exists and the mechanism of the effect of the DLPFC on bubbles remains unsettled. Using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), we modulated the activity of the DLPFC and investigated the causal relationship between the DLPFC and the asset bubble in the classical learning-to-forecast experiment. 126 subjects were randomly divided into three (...) groups and received different stimulations (left anodal/right cathodal, right anodal/left cathodal or sham stimulation) respectively. We also conducted a 2-back task before and after stimulation to measure changes in subjects’ cognitive abilities and explore in detail the cognitive mechanism of the effect of DLPFC stimulation on asset bubbles. Based on our results, we found that the bubble of the left anodal/right cathodal stimulation group was significantly smaller than that of the sham stimulation group. In the meantime, subjects performed significantly better in the 2-back task after left anodal/right cathodal stimulation but not right anodal/left cathodal or sham stimulation, which is consistent with their performance in the learning-to-forecast experiment, supporting the cognitive mechanism to some extent. Furthermore, we examined different forecasting rules across individuals and discovered that the left anodal/right cathodal stimulation group preferred the adaptive learning rule, while the sham and right anodal/left cathodal stimulation groups adopted a pure trend-following rule that tended to intensify market volatility aggressively. (shrink)

IntroductionRace-walking is a sport that mimics normal walking and running. Previous studies on sports science mainly focused on the cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems. However, there is still a lack of research on the central nervous system, especially the real-time changes in brain network characteristics during race-walking exercise. This study aimed to use a network perspective to investigate the effects of different exercise intensities on brain functional connectivity.Materials and methodsA total of 16 right-handed healthy young athletes were recruited as participants in (...) this study. The cerebral cortex concentration of oxyhemoglobin was measured by functional near-infrared spectroscopy in the bilateral prefrontal cortex (PFC), the motor cortex (MC) and occipital cortex (OC) during resting and race-walking states. Three specific periods as time windows corresponding to different exercise intensities were divided from the race-walking time of participants, including initial, intermediate and sprint stages. The brain activation and functional connectivity (FC) were calculated to describe the 0.01-0.1 Hz frequency-specific cortical activities.ResultsCompared to the resting state, FC changes mainly exist between MC and OC in the initial stage, while PFC was involved in FC changes in the intermediate stage, and FC changes in the sprint stage were widely present in PFC, MC and OC. In addition, from the initial-development to the sprint stage, the significant changes in FC were displayed in PFC and MC.ConclusionThis brain functional connectivity-based study confirmed that hemodynamic changes at different exercise intensities reflected different brain network-specific characteristics. During race-walking exercise, more extensive brain activation might increase information processing speed. Increased exercise intensity could facilitate the integration of neural signals such as proprioception, motor control and motor planning, which may be an important factor for athletes to maintain sustained motor coordination and activity control at high intensity. This study was beneficial to understanding the neural mechanisms of brain networks under different exercise intensities. (shrink)

The coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has badly affected the social, physical, and emotional health of workers, especially those working in the healthcare sectors. Drawing on social exchange theory, we investigated the effects of participative leadership on employees’ workplace thriving and helping behaviors among frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, we examined the moderating role of a leader’s behavioral integrity in strengthening the relationship between participative leadership, and employees’ workplace thriving and helping behaviors. By using a two-wave time-lagged design and (...) data collected from 244 healthcare workers, a moderated hierarchal regression was implemented to test the proposed hypotheses. As hypothesized, participative leadership predicted employees’ workplace thriving and helping behaviors. The leader’s behavioral integrity strengthened the relationship between participative leadership and employees’ thriving and moderated the relationship between participative leadership helping behaviors. Implications for research, theory, and practice are discussed. (shrink)

Based on the conservation of resources theory, this study developed a model linking social undermining to employees helping behaviors and work role performance via expression of guilt, with religious faith possessed by employees as a first-stage moderator. We argue that individuals will feel guilty if they perceive themselves as the perpetrators of the social undermining against their coworkers. Feeling guilt can potentially trigger prosocial responses (i.e., helping coworkers) and enhance work role performance for improving the situation. We contend that religious (...) faith that commands doing good with others further provides resources for managing these negative emotions to unleash a positive side of social undermining, such that the relation of social undermining with an expression of guilt will be strengthened. A multisource (supervisor-supervisee), multi-wave, and multi-context (education, healthcare, and banking) survey involving 281 employees largely supports our study hypotheses. The results indicated that social undermining is associated with more guilt expressions amid religious individuals, revealing higher prosocial and work role performance. For business ethics research, the current study unveils an important mediator—guilt expressions about wrongdoing—via which individuals’ social undermining behaviors at work, somewhat counterintuitively, lead to boost performance outcomes, and an employee’s religious faith helps a facilitator of this relationship. (shrink)

This paper conducts a numerical simulation of the antiseismic performance for single-layer masonry structures, completes a study on crack distributions and detailed characteristics of masonry structures, and finally verifies the correctness of the numerical model by experimental tests. This paper also provides a reinforced proposal to improve the antiseismic performance of single-layer masonry structures. Results prove that the original model suffers more serious damage than the reinforced model; in particular, longitudinal cracks appear on bottoms of two longitudinal walls in the (...) original model, while these cracks appear later in the reinforced model; a lot of cracks appear on the door hole of the original model, and no crack appears in the reinforced model till the end of seismic waves; seismic damage of walls in the reinforced model is obviously lighter than that in the original model; dynamic responses at all observed points of the reinforced masonry are obviously less than those of the original model. Strains at all positions of the reinforced model are obviously smaller than those of the original model. From macroscopic and microscopic perspectives, the computational results prove that the reinforced proposal proposed in this paper can effectively improve the antiseismic performance of the masonry structure. (shrink)

Recent studies suggest that the tetracycline antibiotic minocycline, or its cousins, hold therapeutic potential for affective and psychotic disorders. This is proposed on the basis of a direct effect on microglia‐mediated frontocortical synaptic pruning (FSP) during adolescence, perhaps in genetically susceptible individuals harboring risk alleles in the complement component cascade that is involved in this normal process of CNS circuit refinement. In reviewing this field, it is argued that minocycline is actually probing and modulating a deeply evolved and intricate system (...) wherein psychosocial stimuli sculpt the circuitry of the “social brain” underlying adult behavior and personality. Furthermore, this system can generate psychiatric morbidity that is not dependent on genetic variation. This view has important ramifications for understanding “pathologies” of human social behavior and cognition as well as providing long‐sought potential mechanistic links between social experience and susceptibility to mental and physical disease. (shrink)

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has changed the healthcare landscape drastically. Stricken by sharp surges in morbidity and mortality with resource and manpower shortages confounding their efforts, the medical community has witnessed high rates of burnout and post-traumatic stress amongst themselves. Whilst the prevailing literature has offered glimpses into their professional war, no review thus far has collated the deeply personal reflections of physicians and ascertained how their self-concept, self-esteem and perceived self-worth has altered during this crisis. Without adequate intervention, this may (...) have profound effects on their mental and physical health, personal relationships and professional efficacy.MethodsWith mentions of the coronavirus pervading social media by the millions, this paper set out to collate and thematically analyse social media posts containing first-person physician reflections on how COVID-19 affected their lives and their coping mechanisms. A consistent search strategy was employed and a PRISMA flowchart was used to map out the inclusion/exclusion criteria.ResultsA total of 590 social media posts were screened, 511 evaluated, and 108 included for analysis. Salient themes identified include Disruptions to Personal Psycho-Emotional State, Disruptions to Professional Care Delivery, Concern for Family, Response from Institution, Response from Society and Coping Mechanisms.ConclusionIt is evident that the distress experienced by physicians during this time has been manifold, multi-faceted and dominantly negative. Self-concepts were distorted with weakened self-esteem and perceived self-worth observed. The Ring Theory of Personhood (RToP) was adopted to explain COVID-19’s impact on physician personhood as it considers existential, individual, relational and social concepts of the self. These entwined self-concepts serve as ‘compensatory’ to one another, with coping mechanisms buffering and fortifying the physician’s overall personhood. With healthcare institutions playing a vital role in providing timely and targeted support, it was further proposed that a comprehensive assessment tool based on the RToP could be developed to detect at-risk physicians and evaluate the presence and effectiveness of established support structures. (shrink)

In this chapter, we examine the neo-Confucian Cheng Brothers’ Mencian hermeneutics in two senses. On the one hand, we show that they adopt a Mencian hermeneutics in their approach to Confucian classics, which gives the priority to the fundamental principles underlining a classic over its literal meaning. On the other hand, to illustrate this Mencius hermeneutics, we focus on Cheng Brothers’ interpretations of the Mencius. Thus, in contrast to the common criticism of Cheng Brothers’ hermeneutics in particular (...) and neo-Confucian hermeneutics in Song and Ming dynasties in general, especially by some Confucians in Qing dynasty, that it tends to impose their own philosophical ideas upon the text of Mencius while ignoring clear textual evidence, we argue that the Cheng Brothers’ interpretations of the Mencius is indeed authentically Mencian. (shrink)