On the fundamentals of Vedanta philosophy and Hindu spiritual life.

A self-designed questionnaire was given to 634 health professionals in a large teaching hospital in Hubei Province in mainland China, to clarify the participants’ attitude towards information disclosure to cancer patients. Statistic description was used to analyze the data. The item ‘inappropriate information about cancer easily leads to medical disputes’ scored highest at 3.86, while the scores of such items as ‘advantages of fully informing patients outweigh disadvantages’, ‘if their family members demand nondisclosure, you will find it difficult to cooperate (...) in good faith with patients’, and ‘telling white lies to patients disturbs you a lot’ were less than 3. The health care staff placed a high value on both the desire and priority of patients to know the truth, though most of them did not think that patients had received enough information about their disease. In order to improve cancer patients’ current state of knowledge, health professionals should learn more about informed consent, and special methods and guidelines compatible with Chinese culture are urgently required in China. (shrink)

We present several new studies focusing on “salience effects”—the decreased tendency to attribute knowledge to someone when an unrealized possibility of error has been made salient in a given conversational context. These studies suggest a complicated picture of epistemic universalism: there may be structural universals, universal epistemic parameters that influence epistemic intuitions, but that these parameters vary in such a way that epistemic intuitions, in either their strength or propositional content, can display patterns of genuine cross-cultural diversity.

The COVID-19 pandemic has both exposed and created deep rifts in society. It has thrust us into deep ethical thinking to help justify the difficult decisions many will be called upon to make and to protect from decisions that lack ethical underpinnings. This paper aims to highlight ethical issues in six different areas of life highlighting the enormity of the task we are faced with globally. In the context of COVID-19, we consider health inequity, dilemmas in triage and allocation of (...) scarce resources, ethical issues associated with research, ethical considerations relating to tracing apps, and exit strategies such as immunity passports and COVID-19 vaccines. Finally, we consider environmental issues in light of COVID-19. The paper also offers some ethical reflection on these areas as many parts of the world contemplate the recovery phase. (shrink)

In the seminiferous tubule of the mammalian testis, one type A1 spermatogonium (diploid, 2n) divides and differentiates into 256 spermatozoa (haploid, n) during spermatogenesis. To complete spermatogenesis and produce ∼150 × 106 spermatozoa each day in a healthy man, germ cells must migrate progressively across the seminiferous epithelium yet remain attach to the nourishing Sertoli cells. This active cell migration process involves precisely controlled restructuring events at the tight (TJ) and anchoring junctions at the cell–cell interface. While the hormonal events (...) that regulate spermatogenesis by follicle‐stimulating hormone and testosterone from the pituitary gland and Leydig cells, respectively, are known, less is known about the mechanism(s) that regulates junction restructuring during germ cell movement in the seminiferous epithelium. The relative position of tight (TJs) and anchoring junctions in the testis is of interest. Sertoli cell TJs that constitute the blood–testis barrier (BTB) are present side by side with anchoring junctions and are adjacent to the basement membrane. This intimate physical association with the TJs, the anchoring junctions and the basement membrane (a modified form of extracellular matrix, ECM) suggests a role for the ECM in the junction dynamics of the testis. Indeed, evidence is accumulating that ECM proteins are crucial to Sertoli cell TJ dynamics. In this review, we discuss the pivotal role of tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) on BTB dynamics via its effects on the homeostasis of ECM proteins. In addition, discussion will also be focused on the novel findings regarding the role of non‐basement‐membrane‐associated ECM proteins and components of focal adhesion (a cell–matrix anchoring junction type) in the regulation of junction dynamics in the testis. BioEssays 26:978–992, 2004. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

What could be a unifying principle for the manifold of temporal experiences: the simultaneity or temporal order of events, the subjective present, the duration of experiences, or the impression of a continuity of time? Furthermore, we time travel to the past visiting in imagination previous experiences in episodic memory, and we also time travel to the future anticipating actions or plans. For such time traveling we divide time into three domains: past, present, and future. What could be an escape out (...) of this “jungle of time” characterized by many different perceptual and conceptual phenomena? The key concept we want to propose is “identity” which is derived from homeostasis as a fundamental biological principle. Within this conceptual frame two modes of identity are distinguished: individual or self-identity required because of homeostatic demands, and object-related identity necessary for the reliability and efficiency of neuro-cognitive processing. With this concept of self- and object-identity, the different temporal experiences can be conceptualized within a common frame. Thus, we propose a fundamental biological principle to conceptually unify temporal phenomena on the psychological level. (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)

Online learning resources play an important role in teaching and learning in the process of online learning. Teachers will be satisfied with selectable and suitable online learning resources, which can promote their self-efficacy to facilitate online teaching and learning. This study proposed a model to examine the effects of the selectivity of online learning resources and the suitability of online learning resources on teachers’ online teaching satisfaction, and the mediating role of technology self-efficacy and online teaching self-efficacy between them. The (...) results indicated that SE-OLR and SU-OLR positively affected teachers’ online teaching satisfaction; TECHN-SE and OT-SE positively influenced teachers’ online teaching satisfaction, while TECHN-SE and OT-SE played mediating roles between SE-OLR and SU-OLR and teachers’ online teaching satisfaction. The findings have implications for the design and development of online learning resources to improve teachers’ satisfaction and facilitate students’ learning effectiveness and teachers’ online teaching. (shrink)

Urban inclusive green growth (UIGG) refers to the synergetic enhancement of the economy, the environment, and the society in a city. Achieving such enhancement requires addressing a series of problems in the development of urbanization, such as unemployment, lack of access to education, insufficient medical resources, inequity, and environmental pollution. As firms are critical to city development and urbanization, whether they practice corporate social responsibility (CSR) plays a crucial part in UIGG. In this study, we focus on Chinese cities as (...) examples of UIGG and Chinese listed companies as CSR engagers, employing matched data on Chinese listed companies and cities to investigate how CSR affects UIGG. Specifically, the empirical results of a high-dimensional fixed effect model indicate that CSR significantly promotes UIGG. This finding remains valid after a set of robustness checks, including instrumental variable (IV) regression. CSR can promote UIGG by positively influencing enterprises’ economic performance, innovation, and employment. To promote firms’ substantive CSR actions, the government of Jiangsu Province, China, launched a pilot policy for CSR promotion by issuing an official guidance document, which can be considered a quasi-natural experiment to test the causality between CSR and UIGG. We find that the CSR pilot significantly promoted UIGG. The heterogeneity test results indicate that the influence of CSR on UIGG varies based on the audit company, the nature of the enterprise, and the structure of corporate leadership. (shrink)

ObjectiveTo investigate the effects of cell phone dependence on mental health among undergraduates during the COVID-19 pandemic and further identify the determinants that may affect their mental health in China.MethodsThe data were collected from 602 students at a medical school in Shanghai via an online survey conducted from December 2021 to February 2022. The Mobile Phone Addiction Index and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale were applied to evaluate CPD and mental health, respectively. Independent sample t-test and one-way analysis of variance were (...) employed to compare the means of continuous variables among categorical groups. Correlations between continuous variables were detected using Pearson's correlation analysis. Univariable and multivariable logistic regressions were employed to identify the determinants of mental health.ResultsAmong the 402 eligible students, 73.88% were women with an average age of 20.19 ± 2.36 years. On average, the DASS score was 32.20 ± 11.07, the CPD score was 36.23 ± 11.89, and the cell phone use duration was 7.67 ± 3.61 h/day. CPD was found to have a negative effect on mental health among college students in Shanghai. Additionally, cell phone use duration, age, being senior students, faculty-student relationship, insomnia, tobacco use, obesity, and life satisfaction were clarified as contributing factors to mental health among college students.ConclusionHigh degree of CPD could have a negative effect on college students' mental health, which might lead to some psychological problems. Appropriate actions and effective interventions are highly needed to prevent severe psychological injuries among college students in China. (shrink)

Evidence suggests that participation in plaza dancing may affect mental health. This study for the first time quantified the relationships between plaza dancing and psychological well-being and ill-being. We systematically searched PubMed, Web of Science, CNKI, Wanfang, and VIP to identify relevant studies published from the databases since their inception to July 25, 2021. The standardized mean differences of pre-to-post intervention data were calculated in the meta-analysis. Subgroup and meta-regression analyses were performed to test the potential moderating effects of age, (...) outcome classification, measurement instruments, district, publication year, total sample size, and the duration, frequency, and length of the square dance intervention. A total of 25 original articles met all the eligibility criteria and were included in the review, and 17 studies were included in the meta-analysis. The meta-analysis revealed that plaza dancing improved psychological well-being and reduced psychological ill-being. The study participants’ age and district did not seem to affect the effectiveness of the plaza dancing intervention. The duration and frequency of plaza dancing affected the association between square dance and psychological well-being and psychological ill-being. Plaza dancing has a significant positive effect on psychological well-being and psychological ill-being, and the effects are moderated by intervention modality. Generalizing plaza dancing interventions to promote psychological well-being and prevent or treat psychological ill-being is needed.Systematic Review Registration[www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero], identifier [CRD42021272016]. (shrink)

In view of the fact that vigorously promoting recycling has become a viable means to promote sustainable development, it is important to better understand the impact of recycling efforts on subsequent resource saving behavior. This research empirically examines the effects of recycling efforts on subsequent resource saving by analyzing the survey data of 356 college students in China. The recycling efforts, environmental self-identity and feeling of pride were measured using existing scales while saving behaviors and recycling cost were measured by (...) developing new scales. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was performed to test the structural relationships among recycling efforts, environmental self-identity, feeling of pride, and saving behaviors. Further, the moderation role of recycling cost was tested. The results showed that saving behaviors could be classified into two types based on their costliness; recycling efforts have a positive effect on costless saving behaviors, while having a negative effect on costly saving behaviors; both the positive and negative effect of recycling efforts on resource saving is mediated by pride feeling and environmental self-identity; and recycling cost negatively moderates the effects of recycling efforts on pride feeling. We discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of the findings. (shrink)

Is gender-emotion stereotype a “one-hundred percent” top-down processing phenomenon, or are there additional contributions to cognitive processing from background clues when they are related to stereotypes? In the present study, we measured the gender-emotion stereotypes of 57 undergraduates with a face recall task and found that, regardless of whether the emotional expressions of distractors were congruent or incongruent with targets, people tended to misperceive the fearful faces of men as angry and the angry faces of women as fearful. In particular, (...) there was a significantly larger effect in the distractor-incongruent condition. The revised process-dissociation procedure analysis confirmed that both automatic and controlled processing have their own independent effects on gender-emotion stereotypes. This finding supports a dual-processing perspective on stereotypes and contributes to future research in both theory and methodology. (shrink)

Although performance pressure has desirable consequences, there is evidence that it can produce unintended outcomes as employees tend to engage in dysfunctional and unethical behaviors to meet performance goals. Thus, the process through which employees think and behave unethically under performance pressure deserves more research attention. This study goes beyond the stress-appraisal perspective and investigates whether and when performance pressure influences individual work mindsets and behaviors from a moral reasoning perspective. Specifically, we contend that performance pressure is related to employee (...) expediency through moral decoupling. We further hypothesize dialectical thinking and moral identity to be the boundary conditions of the proposed relationships. Analyses of data from a field study in three waves provide support for most of the hypotheses. In particular, we find that moral decoupling accounts for additional variance after we control for the stress-appraisal effect of performance pressure on employee expediency. The study offers several contributions to the literature on performance pressure and unethical behavior. (shrink)

Reading presents an unsolved difficulty for children with hearing loss and research on factors influencing their literacy development is very limited. This work aimed to study the influence of home literacy environment on literacy development of children with hearing loss and explore possible mediating effects of reading interest and parent-child relationship. 112 Chinese children with hearing loss were surveyed for scales of HLE, literacy development, reading interest, and parent-child relationship. Result analysis showed that HLE significantly predicted literacy development of children (...) with hearing loss and this effect was no longer significant after including reading interest and parent-child relationship as variables. Further, HLE significantly predicted reading interest and parent-child relationship, each of which predicted literacy development and played a significant mediating role in HLE’s influence on literacy development. These findings provide educational tips for families of children with hearing loss. (shrink)