On 19 October 2013, the Chinese government issued the Opinions on Further Regulation on Party and Political Leaders and Cadres Working Part-Time in Enterprises, also known as the 18th Decree, to regulate government officials’ employment with businesses. The 18th Decree is widely perceived as having had a significant impact on the use of independent directors with political backgrounds by firms, given the prevalence of this business practice. This paper examines the market reaction to the 18th Decree to ascertain the value (...) effect of political connections in China. We note a negative relationship between the political connections of independent directors and market reaction. We also note that the negative relationship between political connections and market reaction is moderated by ownership type and state of regional development. Specifically, we find that the negative relationship holds only for private firms in less developed regions. These results support our prediction that political connections add value to Chinese firms and that the value effect of political connection is contingent on institutional factors. (shrink)

End-of-life decision making frequently occurs in the intensive care unit (ICU). There is a lack of information on how a do-not-resuscitate (DNR) order affects treatments received by critically ill patients in ICUs. The objectives of this study were: (1) to compare the use of life support therapies between patients with a DNR order and those without; (2) to examine life support therapies prior to and after the issuance of a DNR order; and (3) to determine the clinical factors that influence (...) the initiation of a DNR order in ICUs in Taiwan. A prospective, descriptive, and correlational study was conducted. A total of 202 patients comprising 133 (65.8%) who had a DNR order, and 69 (34.1%) who did not, participated in this study. In the last 48 hours of their lives, patients who had a DNR order were less likely to receive life support therapies than those who did not have a DNR order. Older age, being unmarried, the presence of an adult child as a surrogate decision maker, a perceived inability to survive ultimate discharge from the ICU, and longer hospitalization in the ICU were significant predictors of issuing a DNR order for critically ill patients. This study will draw attention to how, when, and by whom, critically ill patients’ preferences about DNR are elicited and honored. (shrink)

Background Ethical dilemmas that arise in the clinical setting often require the collaboration of multiple disciplines to be resolved. However, medical and nursing curricula do not prioritize communication among disciplines regarding this issue. A common teaching strategy, problem-based learning, could be used to enhance communication among disciplines. Therefore, a university in southern Taiwan developed an interprofessional ethics education program based on problem-based learning strategies. This study described tutors’ experience teaching in this program. Aim To explore the phenomenon of teaching and (...) learning in interprofessional ethics education for medical and nursing students from the perspectives of tutors. Design Phenomenological qualitative research. Methods Medical and nursing students completed a 6-week interprofessional ethics education program moderated by either physician or nurse tutors. At the conclusion of the ethics education program, all 14 tutors were invited to participate in focus group interviews. Among them, six tutors (three nursing tutors and three physician tutors) participated in additional individual interviews. All of the contents from the focus group interviews and individual interviews were recorded and transcribed. Using the phenomenological approach, the phenomenon of teaching and learning in interprofessional ethics education were generated. Ethical consideration The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board. Findings Three themes emerged from the tutors' teaching perspectives, including the instructor’s motivation to teach, the use of narrative case scenarios, and the emphasis on improving interprofessional ethics communication. Discussion Problem-based learning creates an interprofessional communication platform in interprofessional ethics education. The phenomenon of value convergence between tutors and students, between different students’ professions, and between different students’ professional maturities is observed. Conclusion Problem-based learning is an effective teaching strategy for creating a communication platform for interprofessional ethics education. Ethic curriculum should emphasize motivating instructor, use narrative case scenarios, and focus on interprofessional communication. (shrink)

AimTo investigate the status of positive mental characters and humanistic care ability among Chinese nursing students, and confirm the association between positive mental characters and humanistic care ability.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted. Nine hundred eighty-one Chinese nursing students were recruited from hospitals and community healthcare services in Changsha, Hunan, China. Three different self-reported questionnaires were applied: The Demographic Characteristics Questionnaire, Humanistic care ability of Nursing Undergraduates Assessment Scale and Positive Mental Characters Scale for Chinese College Students. Pearson correlation analysis and (...) multiple liner regression analysis were performed to analyze the association between positive mental character and humanistic care ability for Chinese nursing students.ResultsThe mean scores of nursing students' humanistic care ability and positive mental character were 125.94 ± 21.19, 233.18 ± 38.59, respectively. The Pearson correlation results showed that positive mental character was significantly associated with humanistic care ability. Multiple liner regression analysis indicated that positive mental characters, four dimensions of courage, humanity, justice and transcendence in positive mental character, care from classmates were found to be independent predictors of humanistic care ability.ConclusionPositive mental characters are important considerations in the development, implementation and evaluation of humanistic care ability interventions. (shrink)

Concerns with improper collection and usage of personal information by businesses or governments have been seen as critical to the success of the emerging electronic commerce. In this regard, computer professionals have the oversight responsibility for information privacy because they have the most extensive knowledge of their organization's systems and programs, as well as an intimate understanding of the data. Thus, the competence of these professionals in ensuring sound practice of information privacy is of great importance to both researchers and (...) practitioners. This research addresses the question of whether male computer professionals differ from their female counterparts in their self-regulatory efficacy to protect personal information privacy. A total of 103 male and 65 female subjects surveyed in Taiwan responded to a 10-item questionnaire that includes three measures: protection (protecting privacy information), non-distribution (not distributing privacy information to others), and non-acquisition (not acquiring privacy information). The findings show (1) significant gender differences exist in the subjects' overall self-regulatory efficacy for information privacy, and, in particular, (2) that female subjects in this study exhibited a higher level of self-regulatory efficacy than males for the protection and non-acquisition of personal privacy information. The identification of the factorial structure of the self-regulatory efficacy concerning information privacy may contribute to future research directed to examining the links between privacy efficacy and psychological variables, such as ethical attitude, ethical intention, and self-esteem. Studies can also be extended to investigate how different cultural practices of morality and computer use in men and women may shape the different development patterns of privacy self-efficacy. Understanding the different cultural practices may then shed light on the social sources of privacy competence and the appropriate remedies that can be provided to improve the situation. (shrink)

Concerns with improper collection and usage of personal information by businesses or governments have been seen as critical to the success of the emerging electronic commerce. In this regard, computer professionals have the oversight responsibility for information privacy because they have the most extensive knowledge of their organization's systems and programs, as well as an intimate understanding of the data. Thus, the competence of these professionals in ensuring sound practice of information privacy is of great importance to both researchers and (...) practitioners. This research addresses the question of whether male computer professionals differ from their female counterparts in their self-regulatory efficacy to protect personal information privacy. A total of 103 male and 65 female subjects surveyed in Taiwan responded to a 10-item questionnaire that includes three measures: protection, non-distribution, and non-acquisition. The findings show significant gender differences exist in the subjects' overall self-regulatory efficacy for information privacy, and, in particular, that female subjects in this study exhibited a higher level of self-regulatory efficacy than males for the protection and non-acquisition of personal privacy information. The identification of the factorial structure of the self-regulatory efficacy concerning information privacy may contribute to future research directed to examining the links between privacy efficacy and psychological variables, such as ethical attitude, ethical intention, and self-esteem. Studies can also be extended to investigate how different cultural practices of morality and computer use in men and women may shape the different development patterns of privacy self-efficacy. Understanding the different cultural practices may then shed light on the social sources of privacy competence and the appropriate remedies that can be provided to improve the situation. (shrink)

BackgroundPlagiarism is common and threatens the integrity of the scientific literature. However, its detection is time consuming and difficult, presenting challenges to editors and publishers who are entrusted with ensuring the integrity of published literature.MethodsIn this study, the extent of plagiarism in manuscripts submitted to a major specialty medical journal was documented. We manually curated submitted manuscripts and deemed an article contained plagiarism if one sentence had 80 % of the words copied from another published paper. Commercial plagiarism detection software (...) was utilized and its use was optimized.ResultsIn 400 consecutively submitted manuscripts, 17 % of submissions contained unacceptable levels of plagiarized material with 82 % of plagiarized manuscripts submitted from countries where English was not an official language. Using the most commonly employed commercial plagiarism detection software, sensitivity and specificity were studied with regard to the generated plagiarism score. The cutoff score maximizing both sensitivity and specificity was 15 % (sensitivity 84.8 % and specificity 80.5 %).ConclusionsPlagiarism was a common occurrence among manuscripts submitted for publication to a major American specialty medical journal and most manuscripts with plagiarized material were submitted from countries in which English was not an official language. The use of commercial plagiarism detection software can be optimized by selecting a cutoff score that reflects desired sensitivity and specificity. (shrink)

Previous research has shown that virtuous leader behavior in the form of benevolent leadership has considerable impact on employee creativity. However, little is known as to how and under what conditions these constructs are linked. In the current research, we proposed and tested a moderated mediation model positing leader–member exchange as a mediator, and employee power-distance orientation as a moderator of this relationship. Two studies were conducted to test our hypothesized model. In Study 1, repeated measured data collected from 284 (...) Chinese employees in an information technology company demonstrated that benevolent leadership had a lagged effect on LMX. In Study 2, analyses of multisource and lagged data from 391 Chinese employees in 42 research and development teams, and their direct supervisors indicated that benevolent leadership was positively related to supervisor-rated employee creativity via LMX. In addition, the relationship between benevolent leadership and LMX was stronger for employees high in power-distance orientation. Theoretical implications of benevolent leadership’s research and practical contributions concerning promoting creativity in organizations where benevolent leaders prevail are also discussed. (shrink)

Ths historical legacy inherited by thinkers of the Ch'un-ch'iu period comprised, briefly speaking: a religious world outlook characterized by ancestor worship; the ethical concept of filial piety and brotherliness, which was linked to ancestor worship, or derived therefrom; the concept of a ritual system; the conditions of aristocratic politics and scholar bureaucracy. These were things shaped on the basis of the blood ties in a patriarchal and racial society, and they were passive, from the standpoint of progress, being the obstacle (...) that hindered people from making big strides forward. Next, there were the tendency toward simple materialism and dialectics, which was born from the bowels of religious world outlook; the materialist philosophy of complaint against and hatred and cursing of Heaven; the belief in things and in laws; and Shih Po's doctrine of "Things are produced when matter combines." These were positive things, especially the last three, which emerged at a time when the slave system had begun to collapse, and which formed the premise of their ideological advance. Who among the thinkers of the Ch'un-ch'iu period would inherit and develop these things, what questions would be raised, probed, discussed, or argued on the common basis of their traditional thought, and what specific forms would be used to answer these questions had to be determined by their class stand and by the characteristics of the period in which they lived. (shrink)

Supply chain management is critical for addressing uncertainties caused by random demand and production yield. In this study, a random yield supply chain, in which the production process of fresh agricultural products is easily affected by factors, such as weather, soil, or plant diseases and insect pests, was considered. Therefore, the actual output is typically less than the planned output. A model in which the producer faces yield uncertainty was considered, and the influence of the producer’s fairness concerns on the (...) planned output of the contract-farming supply chain was considered. Methods to motivate the producer to increase planned output through reasonable contracts were investigated. The results revealed that the producer’s fairness concern considerably influences the optimal expected profit. In the case of the random output, the planned output and maximum expected profits reduce when the farmer exhibits fairness concerns. As the degree of the producer’s fairness concern increases, the planned output and expected profit gradually decrease The cost-sharing contract can effectively encourage the producer to increase his planned output and expected utility. Finally, the results were verified numerically. (shrink)

The prediction of the secondary structure of a protein from its amino acid sequence is an important step towards the prediction of its three-dimensional structure. However, the accuracy of ab initio secondary structure prediction from sequence is about 80 % currently, which is still far from satisfactory. In this study, we proposed a novel method that uses binomial distribution to optimize tetrapeptide structural words and increment of diversity with quadratic discriminant to perform prediction for protein three-state secondary structure. A benchmark (...) dataset including 2,640 proteins with sequence identity of less than 25 % was used to train and test the proposed method. The results indicate that overall accuracy of 87.8 % was achieved in secondary structure prediction by using ten-fold cross-validation. Moreover, the accuracy of predicted secondary structures ranges from 84 to 89 % at the level of residue. These results suggest that the feature selection technique can detect the optimized tetrapeptide structural words which affect the accuracy of predicted secondary structures. (shrink)

The philosophical thought of the Ch'un-ch'iu period was derived and developed from the thought of the Yin dynasty and the Western Chou , there being an inseparable relationship of succession and transformation between them. Thus, in studying the philosophical thought of the Ch'un-ch'iu period, it is necessary to refer back to Yin-Chou thought. The courage and resolve evidenced by an attitude of so-called "cutting off the miscellaneous streams" in order to start with Lao Tzu or Confucius is really a very (...) awkward way of dissecting history. (shrink)

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

Previous studies have demonstrated that orientation-specific deprivation in early life can lead to neural deficits of spatial vision in certain space, and can even result in meridional amblyopia. Individuals with astigmatism are the optimal and natural models for exploring this asymmetric development of spatial vision in the human visual system. This study aims to assess the contrast sensitivity function and EEG signals along two principal meridians in participants with regular astigmatism when being optimal optical corrected. Twelve participants with astigmatism and (...) thirteen participants with were recruited in the current study. CSFs and spatial sweep visual evoked potentials were measured with vertical and horizontal sinewave gratings along two principal meridians monocularly. Area under log CSF, spatial frequency threshold corresponding to 80% contrast gratings, and CSF acuity were calculated from CSF test. In addition, sVEP amplitudes and thresholds were calculated with the recursive least square method. Participants with astigmatism exhibited marked vertical-horizontal resolution disparities even after they were corrected with optimal optical corrections. CSF tests showed that AULCSF along weak meridian was lower than that along strong meridian in both groups. Significant meridional disparity of CSF acuity was also found in both groups. In addition, the MA group showed larger meridional disparity compared to the AST group. Spatial sVEP thresholds also supported the existence of marked meridional disparity. Our results suggest that meridian-specific partial deprivation in early life might lead to monocularly asymmetric development of spatial vision in the human visual system. In terms of application, we tested the feasibility and reliability of adopting psychophysical and EEG scalings to investigate the asymmetric development of spatial vision related to astigmatism. These paradigms are potentially applicable to reduce and even eliminate the meridional disparity in the primary visual cortex by adopting perceptual learning or other vision-related interventions. (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic spread catastrophically over the world since the spring of 2020. In this paper, a heterogeneous branching process with immigration is established to quantify the human-to-human transmission of COVID-19 in local communities, based on the temporal and structural transmission patterns extracted from public case disclosures by four provincial Health Commissions in China. With proper parameter settings, our branching model matches the actual transmission chains satisfactorily and, therefore, sheds light on the underlying COVID-19 spreading mechanism. Moreover, based on our (...) branching model, the efficacy of home quarantine and social distancing are explored, providing a reference for the effective prevention of COVID-19 worldwide. (shrink)

To many, recent allegations of accounting fraud (or earnings management; EM) at Enron, coupled with similar ones at many other corporations, are a strong indication of a serious decay in business ethics. In academics, this raises the concern between EM and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Since it has neither been documented, nor globally tested whether CSR mitigates or increases the extent of EM, three kinds of EM are studied: earnings smoothing, earnings aggressiveness, and earnings losses and decreases avoidance. The extents (...) to which financial characteristics and institutional variables have an impact on the extent to which companies conduct EM are also tested. Our study investigates whether the CSR-related features of 1,653 corporations in 46 countries had a positive or negative effect on the quality of their publicly released financial information during the 1993-2002 period. There is no question that with a greater commitment to CSR, the extent of earnings smoothing is mitigated, that of earnings losses and decreases avoidance is reduced, but the extent of earnings aggressiveness is increased. (shrink)

Competition for land is increasing as demand for multiple land uses and ecosystem services rises. Land regulation of the principles of landscape ecology is necessary to develop more sustainable approaches to land use planning. The research evaluated the present land patterns and determined best practices for its regulation of Dongwang Township in Quyang County, located in the Taihang Mountain area of Hebei Province, China. The research used the landscape ecology theory to construct an index system for landscape pattern analysis based (...) on the GIS and Fragstats 3.3 software. In this study, we examined the specific reasons that landscape ecology is superior to traditional methods in land consolidation planning and design, which is conducive to the comprehensive development of land ecological benefits. Landscape ecological planning can effectively reduce landscape fragmentation and improve intensive management. The result found that the descending order of the Shannon index was current landscape, landscape ecological planning, and traditional planning. Landscape ecological planning could protect the natural diversity than traditional planning. Landscape ecological planning enables the creation of long corridors, with higher densities and connectivity and lower average corridor widths than traditional planning. Besides, it can improve ecological service function values in the study area to varying degrees, thus discouraging residents from limiting themselves to grain production. This research has great potential to improve the visibility of ecosystem services in local land use planning and, thus, to improve the ecological functioning of future landscapes. (shrink)

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

Battery energy storage is the pivotal project of renewable energy systems reform and an effective regulator of energy flow. Parallel battery packs can effectively increase the capacity of battery modules. However, the power loss caused by the uncertainty of parallel battery branch current poses severe challenge to the economy and safety of electric vehicles. Accuracy of battery branch current prediction is needed to improve the parallel connection. This paper proposes a radial basis function neural network model based on the pigeon-inspired (...) optimization method and successfully applies the algorithm to predict the parallel branch current of the battery pack. Numerical results demonstrate the high accuracy of the proposed pigeon-inspired optimized RBF model for parallel battery branch forecasting and provide a useful tool for the prediction of parallel branch currents of battery packs. (shrink)

ObjectiveThis study used a moderated mediation model to test the mediating effect of anxiety on the relationship between negative perfectionism and sleep quality and the moderating effect of COVID-19 epidemic risk perception during the COVID-19 pandemic in Chinese international students.Materials and methodsA sample of 239 Chinese international students from the south of China, was surveyed with the Negative and Positive Perfectionism Scale, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, the General Anxiety Disorder Scale, and the COVID-19 Epidemic Risk Perception Inventory. Version 23.0 (...) of SPSS and version 3.4 of PROCESS were used to perform the correlation analyses, mediation analysis, and moderated mediation analysis.Results Negative perfectionism was significantly correlated with anxiety and poor sleep quality. Anxiety was significantly correlated with poor sleep quality. The mediating effect test showed that anxiety had a mediating effect between negative perfectionism and poor sleep quality. Epidemic risk perception moderated the mediating effect of anxiety between negative perfectionism and poor sleep quality.ConclusionNegative perfectionism affected sleep quality indirectly through anxiety. In particular, COVID-19 epidemic risk perception moderated the relationship between anxiety and sleep quality, such that the association was stronger when the COVID-19 epidemic risk perception was high. These results provide a more comprehensive understanding of the negative link between negative perfectionism and poor sleep quality. (shrink)

Previous studies have explored the impact of the cost ratio of individual solutions versus collective solutions on people’s cooperation tendency in the presence of individual solutions. This study further explored the impact of team credibility on people’s propensity to cooperate in the presence of individual solutions. Study 1 investigated the influence of different level of altruistic tendencies or the self-interest tendencies of teammates on participants’ decision-making. Study 2 explored the influence of the distribution of altruistic tendencies or self-interest tendencies on (...) participants’ decision-making. The results of Study 1 showed that the proportion of participants who chose the collective solution increased with an increase in the altruistic tendencies of the team. When the altruistic tendencies of the teammates reached a certain value, the proportion of participants taking the collective solution showed a trend to stabilize. Furthermore, the proportion of participants who chose the individual solution increased with the increase in the self-interest tendencies of the team. When the self-interest tendencies of the teammates reached a certain value, the individual solution was stably adopted. The results of Study 2 showed that with the total altruistic tendency remaining unchanged, the more altruistic group members that altruistic tendencies were allocated to, the higher a participant’s level of trust in the team would be, which showed the decentralized effect of altruistic tendencies. In the case that the total self-interest tendency was unchanged, the fewer self-interest group members the self-interest tendencies were allocated to, the higher a participant’s level of trust in the team would be, which showed the convergent effect of self-interest tendencies. (shrink)

There has been no consensus on the neural dissociation between emotion-label and emotion-laden words, which remains one of the major concerns in affective neurolinguistics. The current study adopted dot-probe tasks to investigate the valence effect on attentional bias toward Chinese emotion-label and emotion-laden words. Behavioral data showed that emotional word type and valence interacted in attentional bias scores with an attentional bias toward positive emotion-laden words rather than positive emotion-label words and that this bias was derived from the disengagement difficulty (...) in positive emotion-laden words. In addition, an attentional bias toward negative emotion-label words relative to positive emotion-label words was observed. The event-related potential data demonstrated an interaction between emotional word type, valence, and hemisphere. A significant hemisphere effect was observed during the processing of positive emotion-laden word pairs rather than positive emotion-label, negative emotion-label, and negative emotion-laden word pairs, with positive emotion-laden word pairs eliciting an enhanced P1 in the right hemisphere as compared to the left hemisphere. Our results found a dynamic attentional bias toward positive emotion-laden words; individuals allocated more attention to positive emotion-laden words in the early processing stage and had difficulty disengaging attention from them in the late processing stage. (shrink)

BackgroundDreams can be affected by recent life events and long-term life experiences. Previous evidence has shown that childhood adverse experiences are associated with sleep quality and dream experiences.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to explore the relationship between childhood adverse experiences and dream content in adults.Participants and SettingA total of 163 participants without current or past physical or mental disorders aged between 18 and 35 were screened in the hospital. Among them, 120 subjects who completed a dream content record at (...) home and whose anxiety and depression levels and sleep quality were within the normal range were included in the data analysis.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted from June 2017 to December 2019. Dream content for 10 consecutive days was recorded by the participants and coded by the Hall and Van de Castle coding system. Childhood adversity was assessed by the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. In the end, 719 dreams out of 626 nights for 120 participants were included in the data analysis, gender differences between groups were analyzed using t-tests or U tests, and Spearman’s partial correlation and multiple linear regression were used to investigate the relationship between childhood trauma and dream content.ResultsChildhood adversity was associated with characters, friendly interactions, and objects in dream content. Regression models of childhood adversity predicting characters and objects in dream content were constructed. There were no gender differences in general demographic data, sleep quality, emotional state, childhood adversity, dream recall frequency, or dream content.ConclusionChildhood adversity is associated with adult dream content. (shrink)

With the development of network technology, enterprises face the explosive growth of data every day. Therefore, to fully mine the value of massive data, big data analysis technology has become the key to developing the core competitiveness of enterprises. However, few empirical studies have investigated the influencing mechanism of the BDA capability of an enterprise on its operational performance. To fill this gap, this study explores how BDA technology capability influences enterprise operation performance, based on dynamic capabilities theory and resource-based (...) theory. It proposes the key variables, including the connectivity, compatibility, and modularization of big data analysis technical capability, enterprise's operational performance, and the fit between data and tools, to establish a model and study the correlation between the variables. The results highlight the mediating role of data-tool fit in the relationships between BDA capability and the enterprise's operational performance, which is a major finding that has not been underlined in the extant literature. This study provides valuable insight for operational managers to help them in mobilizing BDA capability for enterprises' operational management and improving operational performance. (shrink)

BackgroundExercise is one of the effective ways to improve cognition. Different forms of exercises, such as aerobic exercise, resistance exercise, and coordination exercise, have different effects on the improvement of cognitive impairment. In recent years, exergames based on Non-Immersive Virtual Reality have been widely used in entertainment and have gradually been applied to clinical rehabilitation. However, the mechanism of NIVR-Exergames on improving motor cognition has not been clarified. Therefore, the aim of this study is to find whether NIVR-Exergames result in (...) a better neural response mechanism to improve the area of the cerebral cortex related to motor cognition under functional near-infrared spectroscopy dynamic monitoring in comparison with resistance exercise.MethodsA cross-over study design was adopted in this study, and 15 healthy young subjects were randomly divided into group A and group B according to a computerized digital table method. Task 1 was an NIVR-Exergame task, and Task 2 was resistance band stretching. Group A first performed Task 1, rested for 30 min, and then performed Task 2. Group B had the reverse order. The fNIRS test was synchronized in real time during exercise tasks, and heart rate measurements, blood pressure measurements, and 2-back task synchronization fNIRS tests were performed at baseline, Post-task 1, and Post-task 2. The primary outcomes were beta values from the general linear model in different regions of interest, and the secondary outcomes were heart rate, blood pressure, reaction time of 2-back, and accuracy rate of 2-back.ResultsThe activation differences of Task 1 and Task 2 in the right premotor cortex and the left PMC were statistically significant. There were statistically significant differences in the activation of the right supplementary motor area, left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, left and right PMC between baseline and Post-task 1. The differences in systolic pressure between the two groups at three time points among women were statistically significant.ConclusionIn this study, we found that NIVR-Exergames combined with motor and challenging cognitive tasks can promote the activation of SMA, PMC and DLPFC in healthy young people compared with resistance exercise alone, providing compelling preliminary evidence of the power for the rehabilitation of motor and cognitive function in patients with central nervous system diseases. (shrink)

In the field of the history of Chinese philosophy, there are still a number of tasks that need to be done in clearing up the chaos and restoring order, in purging the poison spread by Lin Biao and the "gang of four," in overcoming the influence of the ultraleftist line. How was it that the "gang of four" was able to revise the history of Chinese philosophy and use the slogan of "evaluating the Legalists and criticizing the Confucians" as a (...) justification of their schemes to usurp the authority of the Party? This is related to the fact that we have not yet been able to truly use the viewpoint and methodology of Marxism to establish a scientific history of Chinese philosophy. After Liberation, important successes were obtained in the study of the history of Chinese philosophy, but it cannot be denied that the attacks and destruction of the ultraleft line on this field were severe and that even today our minds are still bound by a number of restrictions. In certain of the works published previously, due to the influence of the ultraleftist tide, class struggle was a label and the struggle between materialism and idealism was a simple formula. Such phenomena clearly violated the demands of Marxism for "concrete analysis of concrete situations." We definitely must liberate thought, break through prohibitions, shatter these restrictions, and really try to engage in concrete analysis of philosophical thought from past history. (shrink)

This is an intellectual biography of Feng Youlan [Fung Yu-lan]. It explores Feng’s work and the trajectory of changes in Feng’s philosophical outlook against the social and political contexts of Feng’s life from the 1920s to 1990.

In the fall of 1973, the mass Campaign to Criticize Lin Piao and Confucius started to develop. At the beginning, I was very nervous. I said to myself: "Oh no'. Prior to the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, I was always revering Confucius. Now that it is time to criticize Lin Piao and Confucius, I will once again become the object of criticism." Later, after further thought, I realized that this was not right; this thinking arose from my old standpoint, [the (...) one which had preceded the standpoint] of the Great Cultural Revolution. I had revered Confucius in the past, but that was because my former standpoint was reactionary and my line was wrong. I had already recognized this during the Cultural Revolution. On the issue of revering Confucius, I had already taken the first step in self-criticism too. Now, on the basis of criticism which I have already established, I will put forth more advanced criticism of Confucius and of my own earlier thinking on revering Confucius. With the revolutionary masses, I will criticize Lin Piao and Confucius. (shrink)

Offers the first focused study of the shifei debates of the Warring States period in ancient China and challenges the imposition of Western conceptual categories onto these debates. In recent decades, a growing concern in studies in Chinese intellectual history is that Chinese classics have been forced into systems of classification prevalent in Western philosophy and thus imperceptibly transformed into examples that echo Western philosophy. Lin Ma and Jaap van Brakel offer a methodology to counter this approach, and illustrate their (...) method by carrying out a transcultural inquiry into the complexities involved in understanding shi and fei and their cognate phrases in the Warring States texts, the Zhuangzi in particular. The authors discuss important features of Zhuangzi’s stance with regard to language-meaning, knowledge-doubt, questioning, equalizing, and his well-known deconstruction of the discourse in ancient China on shifei. Ma and van Brakel suggest that shi and fei apply to both descriptive and prescriptive languages and do not presuppose any fact/value dichotomy, and thus cannot be translated as either true/false or right/wrong. Instead, shi and feican be grasped in terms of a pre-philosophical notion of fitting. Ma and van Brakel also highlight Zhuangzi’s idea of “walking-two-roads” as the most significant component of his stance. In addition, they argue that all of Zhuangzi’s positive recommendations are presented in a language whose meaning is not fixed and that every stance he is committed to remains subject to fundamental questioning as a way of life. (shrink)

本书共分两大部分:一为“关于‘启蒙’的再反思”,共由12篇文章组成;二是“世俗化与现代性”,由13篇文章组成。全书对西方启蒙运动及中国明清以来的启蒙思想脉络进行了一番梳理,有助于读者更加深入地了解启蒙 运动、世俗化与现代化的关系。.