A recent theory provides a unified cross-linguistic analysis of the interpretations that are assigned to expressions for disjunction, Negative Polarity Items, Free Choice Items, and the non-interrogative uses of wh-phrases in languages such as Mandarin Chinese. If this approach is on the right track, children should be expected to demonstrate similar patterns in the acquisition of these linguistic expressions. Previous research has found that, by age four, children have acquired the knowledge that both the existential indefinite renhe “any” and wh-words (...) in Mandarin Chinese are interpreted as Negative Polarity Items when they are bound by downward entailing operators, but the same expressions are interpreted as Free Choice Items when they are bound by deontic modals or by the Mandarin adverbial quantifier dou “all”. The present study extends this line of research to the Mandarin disjunction word huozhe. A Truth Value Judgment Task was used to investigate the possibility that disjunction phrases that are bound by the adverbial quantifier dou generate a conjunctive interpretation in the grammars of Mandarin-speaking 4-year-old children. The findings confirmed this prediction. We discuss the implications of the findings for linguistic theory and for language learnability. (shrink)

In ‘Zones of Indeterminacy: Art, Body and Politics in Daoist Thought’, Peng Yu foregrounds the concept of Xu from Zhuangzi’s philosophical writings, and relates this to questions about the political body. Xu refers to a Daoist notion of ambiguity, though it remains unclear as to how to fully define the term. The article explores its meaning through reference to debates of the body, but also liubai painting, which refers to the idea of ‘leaving blankness’, associated with Chinese ink painting. (...) For Peng Yu, the notion of Xu can help us to consider a ‘politics of indeterminacy’ – a means of redefining the status of subject within power structures, or rather a radical re-articulation of how we refer to power relations in the first place. In this interview, with Sunil Manghani and Cheng-Chu Weng, Peng Yu outlines and elaborates upon the main themes of the article. (shrink)

In this paper, an efficient chaos-based image encryption scheme is proposed, which uses the imitating jigsaw method containing revolving and shifting operations. In this scheme, there are three processes in encryption: preprocessing, encryption process, and postprocessing. In the preprocessing, the original image is partitioned into 64 × 64 pixel image blocks and then randomly revolved and shifted under control sequences which are generated by the hyperchaotic Lorenz system whose initial conditions are calculated by original image and keys. Therefore, the preprocessing (...) is sensitive to plain image against differential attacks. In the encryption process, the after-preprocessing image is partitioned into 32 × 32 pixel image blocks; next they are randomly revolved and encrypted by control sequence and key blocks which are generated by the skew tent map. In postprocessing, the after-encryption image is partitioned into 16 × 16 pixels’ image blocks, and they are randomly revolved and shifted again under control sequences which are related with encrypted image and keys. The postprocessing further increases the diffusion characteristics. Moreover, the test experiment and security analyses are given; the results show that our proposed cryptosystem has both security and speed performance. (shrink)

To investigate the universality and cultural specificity of emotion processing in children from different ethnic groups (Han, Jingpo and Dai), we conducted three questionnaires, including emotional contagion scale, emotion regulation scale and the Chinese mood adjective check list (CMACL), among 1,362 ethnic Han, Dai and Jingpo participants (Mage = 13.78 years). We found emotion regulation (reappraisal and suppression) mediated the relations between emotional contagion and mood state, relation: (1) emotional contagion (positive and negative) increased positive mood state and decreased negative (...) mood state by reappraisal, and (2) Negative contagion finally increased negative mood state by weaken effect of reappraisal and enhance effect of suppression. Importantly, we found both universality and ethnic cultural specificity in the relations among emotional contagion, emotion regulation, and state mood. Firstly, the cultural specificity: (1) For Dai and Jingpo participants, negative contagion positively predicted reappraisal, while Han participants did not; (2) Jingpo participants demonstrated a weaker negative relation between reappraisal and negative mood state, and a stronger positive relation between negative contagion and suppression; and (3) Dai participants was the only ethnic group that showed a negative connection between negative contagion and positive mood state. Secondly, the emotion universality: Three ethnics both showed positive relations between negative contagion and negative mood, between suppression and negative mood; For all of them, positive contagion positively predicted positive mood state, mediated by reappraisal. In this paper, we discuss universal emotion processes and ethnic cultural differences in these emotion processes. (shrink)

Entrepreneurship is a sustainable development tool that supports the alleviation of poverty and unemployment. Focusing on the promotion of entrepreneurial intention under the background of entrepreneurship education, this study used a structural equation model to examine the role of entrepreneurship policy, entrepreneurial practice, and entrepreneurial spirit on the EI of 384 college students from 22 universities in Guangdong Province. The test results show that there are significant positive correlations between EPo and EI; EPo and EPr; EPo and ES; and EPr (...) and EI. They also support the hypothesis that EPr enhances the positive effect that EPo has on EI. This study puts forth measures to improve EI and makes contributions to future research on EE. (shrink)

Arthur Danto is one of the best Anglophone philosophers of art of the second half of the 20th century. His unique methodology of indiscernibility and provocative claim about the end of art have bee...

This study, by means of conversation analysis, comprehensively illuminates the advisee’s acceptance of advice in Chinese phone-in counseling for family problems from the perspective of Epistemics, and reveals advisee’s type of management of the epistemic status relationship as well as the epistemic stances during executing the management. The study finds that the advisee tacitly approved of the asymmetric relationship of epistemic status between an adviser and himself/herself when accepting advice; that this type of relationship management can be executed through four (...) kinds of epistemic stances; that these stances actually reflect the advisee’s positioning of asymmetric relationship of knowledge distribution of both parties. This study investigates the acceptance of advice from the perspective of Epistemics, which can extend the theoretical perspective of the researches on responses to advice and give new illumination of the advisory interaction. (shrink)

Conflicts in land exploration are incisive social problems which have been the subject in many studies. Risk assessment of land conflicts is effective to resolve such problems. Specifically, fuzzy mathematics and the analytic hierarchy process were combined together to evaluate risk in land conflicts in our work, which is proved useful to solve uncertainty and imprecision problems. Based on the analysis of the principles for the risk assessment of a land conflicts index system, a set of risk assessment indexes using (...) the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process was presented. The results show that the overall risk is at medium level, and the risk of the feasibility index and controllability index need to be paid more attention to. The contribution of this article is reflected in two aspects: the application of FAHP in risk assessments of land conflicts is effective and valid; it is helpful for governments to establish a stricter management system of work safety for conflicts in land exploration based on the risk assessment results. (shrink)

The foremost aim of this research was to forecast the performance of three stock market indices using the multilayer perceptron, recurrent neural network, and autoregressive integrated moving average on historical data. Moreover, we compared the extrapolative abilities of a hybrid of ARIMA with MLP and RNN models, which are called ARIMA-MLP and ARIMA-RNN. Because of the complicated and noisy nature of financial data, we combine novel machine-learning techniques such as MLP and RNN with ARIMA model to predict the three stock (...) market data. The data used in this study are taken from the Pakistan Stock Exchange, National Stock Exchange India, and Sri Lanka Stock Exchange. In the case of Pakistan, the findings show that the ARIMA-MLP and ARIMA-RNN beat the individual ARIMA, MLP, and RNN models in terms of accuracy. Similarly, in the case of Sri Lanka and India, the hybrid models show more robustness in terms of forecasting than individual ARIMA, MLP, and RNN models based on root-mean-square error and mean absolute error. Apart from this, ARIMA-MLP outperformed the ARIMA-RNN in the case of Pakistan and India, while in the context of Sri Lanka, ARIMA-RNN beat the ARIMA-MLP in forecasting. Our findings reveal that the hybrid models can be regarded as a suitable option for financial time-series forecasting. (shrink)

The integrated scheduling algorithm of process sequence time-selective strategy is an advanced algorithm in the field of integrated scheduling. The proposed algorithm points out the shortcomings of the process sequence time-selective strategy. Generally, there are too many “trial scheduling” times. The authors propose that there is no need to make “trial scheduling” at every “quasi-scheduling time point.” In fact, the process scheduling scheme can be obtained by trial scheduling on some “quasi-scheduling time points.” The scheduling result is the same as (...) that of the sequence timing strategy. The proposed algorithm reduces the runtime of scheduling algorithm and improves the performance of the algorithm without reducing the optimization effect. (shrink)

Transient global amnesia is a benign memory disorder with etiologies that have been debated for a long time. The prevalence of stressful events before a TGA attack makes it hard to overlook these precipitating factors, given that stress has the potential to organically effect the brain. Cortical spreading depression was proposed as a possible cause decades ago. Being a regional phenomenon, CSD seems to affect every aspect of the micro-mechanism in maintaining the homeostasis of the central nervous system. Corresponding evidence (...) regarding hemodynamic and morphological changes from TGA and CSD have been accumulated separately, but the resemblance between the two has not been systematically explored so far, which is surprising especially considering that CSD had been confirmed to cause secondary damage in the human brain. Thus, by deeply delving into the anatomic and electrophysiological properties of the CNS, the CSD-TGA model may render insights into the basic pathophysiology behind the façade of the enigmatic clinical presentation. (shrink)

This paper analyses the evolutionary characteristics of the interprovincial population mobility network structure in China and explores the roles of provinces from 2010 to 2015. By constructing the interprovincial population mobility network, we examine the provinces’ functions during periods of population mobility through population mobility diversity, population mobility, and population mobility intermediation. The results show that the coverage and tightness of the interprovincial population mobility network were influenced by national economic development, increasing steadily from 2010 to 2014 and then suddenly (...) falling in 2015. The regions that played essential roles in the province’s mobility diversity and intermediation showed a dispersion trend. In contrast, areas that played a vital role in the inflows or outflows were relatively concentrated and stable. Additionally, this work further explores how economic factors, e.g., GDP, residents’ consumption levels, total population, unemployment rate, and consumer price index, are used as independent variables to analyse the provinces’ roles in the interprovincial population mobility network. The analysis shows that the inflow or outflow volumes are easily affected by the five indices. These five indices are significantly related to network role indicators to different extents. (shrink)

Language teacher research is conducive to the development of teachers’ teaching skills and professional careers. Thus, many English teacher education programs require student teachers to do research. However, some empirical findings suggest that English as a foreign language student teachers lack research motivation. Consequently, finding suitable interventions to increase their research motivation has become increasingly necessary. In light of the importance of research motivation intervention, this study involved designing an experiment to identify the effect of a value and interest intervention (...) including the sharing of positive research experiences to improve student teachers’ research motivation. Quantitative questionnaires and qualitative semi-structured interviews were used to gather evidence on the change in student teachers’ research motivation during the intervention. The interview data revealed that student teachers’ research motivation was influenced by their belief in the value of research to their teaching practice. The experiment results suggested that student teachers’ intrinsic and extrinsic research motivations both increased after the intervention. However, the intervention was not effective in curbing their failure avoidance tendency. Pedagogical implications of the results are discussed at the end of this article. (shrink)

This paper presents an integrated approach to plan smooth path for robots docking in unknown environments with obstacles. To determine the smooth collision-free path in obstacle environment, a tree structure with heuristic expanding strategy is designed as the foundation of path planning in this approach. The tree employs 3D Dubins curves as its branches and foundation for path feasibility evaluation. For the efficiency of the tree expanding in obstacle environment, intermediate nodes and collision-free branches are determined inspired by the elastic (...) band theory. A feasible path is chosen as the shortest series of branches that connects to the docking station after the sufficient expansion of the tree. Simulation results are presented to show the validity and feasibility of the proposed approach. (shrink)

The main idea of S-curve diagram is to assign different angle values to different nucleotide acid residues or to different protein amino acids, and then according to cos α j and sin α j, the values are accumulated to construct an S-curve diagram, which is in strict one-to-one correspondence with the biological sequence. In addition, the S-curve diagram proves to be without the degeneracy phenomenon, so that both the degeneracy problem represented by diagrams and the problem of visualization for biological (...) sequence data are solved. Meanwhile, a new approach to differentiate the similarity of biological sequences—the degree of similarity—is put forward on the basis of the S-curve diagram. To put it in detail, the least square approach is first adopted to obtain a straight line equation according to the S-curve diagram, then according to the distance formula of the point to the straight line, the average ratio of square sum for the distance between the S-curve and the straight line is calculated, and finally, the similarity of the biological sequences is presented by the new standard—the degree of similarity. As is shown by the experimental results, the S-curve diagram can better represent biological sequences within Cartesian coordinate system, and the mutation point of biological sequence. Thus, it turns out that the new standard—the degree of similarity is of obviously great advantage. (shrink)

Cross-shareholding is a new type of strategic means for capital operation and is an important component of corporate governance. With the increasing complexity of business motivation, the structure of a cross-shareholding network is becoming more intricate, and it exposes various important local patterns with different economic functions. The goal of this paper is to uncover investment mechanisms and economic functions implied in cross-shareholding networks by analyzing the local characteristic patterns of company interactions. In this paper, we construct the CSNs of (...) listed companies and extract the directed triadic motifs to reveal the evolutionary characteristics of local investment patterns at the company and industry levels. On the company level, we find that companies tend to form V-shaped structures with other companies, but bidirectional shareholding patterns and circular relationships in the triads are scarce. On the industry level, we identify the characteristic linking patterns of some industries with a role analysis of the industries. Furthermore, we detect the evolutionary characteristics of industry interrelationships in three implied patterns. Such a motif evolution analysis may provide valuable information for investors and supervisory departments that make decisions about investment portfolios and policy. Meanwhile, this study is also helpful for exploring the implied information in other empirical networks. (shrink)

Robust techniques critically improve bearing-only target localization when the relevant measurements are being corrupted by impulsive noise. Resistance to isolated gross errors refers to the conventional least absolute residual method, and its estimate can be determined by linear programming when pseudolinear equations are set. The LAR approach, however, cannot reduce the bias attributed to the correlation between system matrices and noise vectors. In the present study, perturbations are introduced into the elements of the system matrix and the data vector simultaneously, (...) and the total optimization problem is formulated based on least absolute deviations. Subsequently, an equivalent form of total least absolute residuals is obtained, and an algorithm is developed to calculate the robust estimate by dual ascent algorithms. Moreover, the performance of the proposed method is verified through the numerical simulations by using two types of localization geometries, i.e., random and linear. As revealed from the results, the TLAR algorithm is capable of exhibiting significantly higher localization accuracy as compared with the LAR method. (shrink)

A middle-school classroom of English as a Second Language (ESL) for Somali and Vietnamese refugees is examined here. With Lefebvre's (1991) theory of the production of space and an additional help of postcolonial criticism (Fanon 1967; Willinsky 1998), this article first reviews how interplays among national flags, teaching and learning activities, and classroom arrangements served to nationalize a curriculum that ?walls? (Marcuse and von Kempen 1995) these students in national margins. Second, to further critiques and practices, the author argues that (...) an Other is critical in making a triad for becoming and the emergence of alternative transnationalism. More than defending differences in terms of originality, such transnationalism and the purpose of its pedagogy (Said 1994; Spivak 1997) reconceptualize the relations among culture, people, and place (Gupta and Ferguson 1992), and pursues more diverse trajectories of Becoming Others. (shrink)

The international strategic alliance in international marketing is international social network to realize superior performance. This requires firms to increasingly consolidate international relationship with foreign partners. Knowledge acquisition and integration by absorptive capacity as an antecedent for international strategic alliance is understudied. This study aims to explore the relationship between AC and international strategic alliance, and their impact on the international performance of multinational enterprises. This study empirically verifies the research framework from 223 Taiwanese MNEs. In terms of structural model, (...) researchers conduct PLS-SEM to verify the hypotheses in this study. The results confirm previous studies that indicate a positive relationship among AC, international strategic alliance, and international performance. The results also indicate that international explorative and exploitative alliance fits mediate the relationship between AC and international performance. (shrink)

Although the ethical aspects of transformational leadership have attracted considerable attention, very little is known about followers’ reactions to the moral and immoral conduct of transformational leaders. Against this background, this study examined whether and how transformational leadership interacts with moral and authoritarian leadership behaviors in predicting followers’ in-role and extra-role efforts. Building on attribution theory, we hypothesized that the positive and negative effects of these leadership behaviors would be particularly pronounced for highly transformational leaders given that this leadership style (...) elicits strong attention and sense-making efforts among followers. We tested our model in a sample of 228 individuals comprising 114 leader–follower dyads from a wide range of organizations and industries. In line with our hypotheses, results revealed that for highly transformational leaders, moral leadership behaviors related positively to employees’ in-role and extra-role efforts whereas authoritarian leadership behaviors related negatively to employees’ in-role and extra-role efforts. In contrast, moral and authoritarian leadership behaviors did not significantly affect followers’ reactions to leaders low in transformational leadership. Taken together, these findings suggest that transformational leadership, contrary to its largely positive perception in the literature, can be a rather mixed blessing. Implications for theory, future research, and managerial practice are discussed. (shrink)

The virtual brand community has become an important marketing tool for companies. A successful brand community marketing strategy should attract a large number of consumers. Although past studies have revealed consumer motivations for participating in virtual brand communities, they fail to answer an important question: Why is it so easy for some virtual brand communities to attract users while others have such difficulty? In this study, product characteristics are hypothesized to be important factors that determine consumer motivation to participate in (...) brand communities. Product characteristics can directly affect how actively consumers participate in brand communities. The results of questionnaires show that product complexity, product symbolism, and product satisfaction have a positive influence on consumers’ willingness to participate in brand communities. Notably, the duration of product use has a regulating effect on the influence of product satisfaction and product symbolism. A long period of product use weakens the influence of product satisfaction on consumers’ willingness to participate in brand communities. On the contrary, a long period of product use strengthens the influence of product symbolism on consumers’ willingness to participate in brand communities. This study enriches the literature on brand community participation and has implications for companies that aim to utilize brand communities for marketing. (shrink)

The rapid advancement of new digital technologies, such as smart technology, artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, robotics, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT), is fundamentally changing the nature of work and increasing concerns about the future of jobs and organizations. To keep pace with rapid disruption, companies need to update and transform business models to remain competitive. Meanwhile, the growth of advanced technologies is changing the types of skills and competencies needed in the workplace and demanded a shift (...) in mindset among individuals, teams and organizations. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated digitalization trends, while heightening the importance of employee resilience and well-being in adapting to widespread job and technological disruption. Although digital transformation is a new and urgent imperative, there is a long trajectory of rigorous research that can readily be applied to grasp these emerging trends. Recent studies and reviews of digital transformation have primarily focused on the business and strategic levels, with only modest integration of employee-related factors. Our review article seeks to fill these critical gaps by identifying and consolidating key factors important for an organization’s overarching digital transformation. We reviewed studies across multiple disciplines and integrated the findings into a multi-level framework. At the individual level, we propose five overarching factors related to effective digital transformation among employees: technology adoption; perceptions and attitudes toward technological change; skills and training; workplace resilience and adaptability, and work-related wellbeing. At the group-level, we identified three factors necessary for digital transformation: team communication and collaboration; workplace relationships and team identification, and team adaptability and resilience. Finally, at the organizational-level, we proposed three factors for digital transformation: leadership; human resources, and organizational culture/climate. Our review of the literature confirms that multi-level factors are important when planning for and embarking on digital transformation, thereby providing a framework for future research and practice. (shrink)

Ensuring access to clean water is one of the most important development and health challenges of the twenty-first century. Given the manifold impacts of business activities on water resources, corporate water actions should be of central concern to business ethics researchers. Yet so far we know too little about whether business activities that impact on water resources are noticed or how corporate water actions are valued by a firm’s stakeholders, including by financial markets. In response, we conduct an event study (...) to investigate the shareholder wealth effect of reports of corporate water actions. We explore stock market reactions to water actions by S&P 500 firms from 2005 to 2017, showing that the market reacts positively to reports of responsible water actions and negatively to irresponsible actions. We further explain that these abnormal returns to water actions are associated with a firm’s past performance on ethical issues, arguing that the reputational effects from prior corporate social responsibility and irresponsibility influence market reactions. Our analysis provides evidence that there are diminishing marginal returns to responsible water actions for firms with records of past responsibility and an offsetting effect for those with past irresponsibility. Similarly, we demonstrate an insurance effect that limits punishment for irresponsible water actions for firms with responsible performance records and diminishing negative marginal returns for those already seen to be irresponsible. This study is the first to show that shareholders recognize market value in corporate water actions and are prepared to award or punish firms in stock markets based on their impacts on water. (shrink)

What signals do firms in emerging economies send to stakeholders when they adopt corporate social responsibility practices? We argue that in emerging economies, firms that adopt CSR practices positively signal investors that their firms have superior capabilities for filling institutional voids. From an institution-based view, we hypothesize that the institutional environment moderates the signaling effect of CSR on a firm’s financial performance. Based on a sample of firms from ten Asian emerging economies, we find a positive relationship between CSR practices (...) and financial performance. This positive relationship is stronger in the less developed capital market than in the more developed one. The financial benefits of CSR practices are also more salient in the low information diffusion market than in the high one. We emphasize that signaling theory and the institution-based view can jointly contribute to the CSR literature. (shrink)

The topic of this issue of Contemporary Chinese Thought is the authorship, annotations, and philosophical interpretation of the Wuxing and evidence of the thought of Zisi and Mencius in the Wuxing. Four of the essays translated here are by Chen Lai, formerly professor of Chinese philosophy at Peking University and now dean of the School of Traditional Chinese Learning at Tsinghua University. An essay by Xing Wen, of Dartmouth College, provides context for a proper understanding of the Wuxing and Chen (...) Lai's scholarship on the Wuxing. (shrink)

The relationships between age and the life-supporting treatments use, and between gender and the life-supporting treatments use are still controversial. Using extracorporeal membrane oxygenation as an example of life-supporting treatments, the objectives of this study were: to examine the relationship between age and the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation use; to examine the relationship between age and the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation use; and to deliberate the ethical and societal implications of age and gender disparities in the initiation of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. This (...) is a population-based, retrospective cohort study. Taiwan’s extracorporeal membrane oxygenation cases from 2000 to 2010 were collected. The annual incidence rate of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation use adjusting for both age and gender distribution for each year from 2000 to 2010 was derived using the population of 2000 as the reference population. The trend of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation use was examined using time-series linear regression analysis. We conducted joinpoint regression for estimating the trend change of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation use. The trends of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation use both for different gender groups, and for different age groups have been significantly increasing over time. Men were more likely to be supported by extracorporeal membrane oxygenation than women. Women’s perspectives toward life and death, and women’s perception of well-being may be associated with the phenomenon. In addition, the patients at the age of 65 or older were more likely to be supported by extracorporeal membrane oxygenation than those younger than 65. Family autonomy/family-determination, and the Confucian tradition of filial piety and respecting elders may account for this phenomenon. This study showed gender and age disparities in the initiation of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation use in Taiwan, which may be accounted for by the cultural and societal values in Taiwan. For a healthcare professional who deals with patients’/family members’ medical decision-making to initiate life-supporting treatments, he/she should be sensitive not only to the legality, but also the societal and ethical issues involved. (shrink)

Surface flattening plays an important role in the whole process of garment design. We proposed a novel method by using three-dimensional triangle mesh flattening in this study. First, the three-dimensional triangle mesh is flattened to a two-dimensional plane to approximate the original surface. The initial flattening results are then used as preliminary guesses for subsequent optimizations. Considering that the deformation energy in the real woven fabric is related to tensile or shear deformation, a simplified fabric deformation model based on energy (...) is proposed to update the energy distribution to determine the best two-dimensional pattern. An innovative unified axis system process is proposed to obtain the deformation energy, and energy relaxation in local flattening is proposed to release the distortion of flattening. Finally, the experimental results show that complex surfaces such as garments could achieve better flattening results. Compared with other energy-based methods in garment design, our proposed methods are more flexible and practical. (shrink)

Efficient knowledge sharing is an important support for the continuous innovation and sustainable development of scientific research teams. However, in realistic management situations, the knowledge sharing of scientific research teams always appears to be unsustainable, and the reasons for this are the subject of considerable debate. In this study, an attempt was made to explore the interactive mechanism of knowledge hiding behaviors in scientific research teams between individual and collective knowledge hiding behaviors and its impact on knowledge sharing by adopting (...) grounded theory to comprehensively understand this situation. The results show that knowledge hiding behavior in the scientific research team is a two-phase interactive process and is capable of affecting sustainable knowledge sharing by reducing the supply of knowledge, creating a poor knowledge sharing atmosphere, and forming an interpersonal distrust relationship. This research may provide a strong basis for a deeper understanding of the interaction mechanism of knowledge hiding behavior and its impact on knowledge sharing. (shrink)

ObjectiveThis study took users of short-form mobile videos as research participants to explore the role of their boredom proneness in mediating the relationship between the use of mobile social media and subjective well-being.MethodsA sample of 656 users was evaluated by the Problematic Mobile Social Media Usage Assessment Questionnaire, General Well-Being Schedule, and Boredom Proneness Scale.ResultsFirstly, significant interactions were found between monthly living expenses and the UMSM of the participants, which were recognized as factors affecting SWB. Secondly, the level of living (...) expenses had little effect on the high-level and low-level groups of the UMSM but imposed a significant impact on the medium-level group. Thirdly, the UMSM showed an influence that could positively predict boredom; both the UMSM and boredom demonstrated a negative predictive effect on SWB.ConclusionThe findings indicate that the inappropriate use of mobile social media negatively affects users’ subjective well-being; boredom partially mediated the relationship between the use of mobile social media and SWB. (shrink)

The Party school has always been an important bastion through which our Party trains and educates its cadres in Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought. The Party Central Committee headed by Chairman Hua has laid great emphasis on the Party school since the smashing of the "gang of four" and has made special decisions on how successfully to run the Party schools on different levels. Chairman Hua and Vice Chairman Ye personally made important speeches at the opening ceremony of the Central (...) Party School and indicated the direction in which the Party school should be run during the new stage of historical development. Pursuant to the Central Committee's decision, the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee has restored its Party school which had been closed down for some ten years by the "gang of four." Since its reopening, the Municipal Party School has already run a one-term study class for the cadres and has achieved fairly good results. In the future, we will run the study class every term and strive to run the Party school better and better. (shrink)

This report describes the rationale, approaches, organization, and resource development leading to a large-scale deletion bin map of the hexaploid wheat genome. Accompanying reports in this issue detail results from chromosome bin-mapping of expressed sequence tags representing genes onto the seven homoeologous chromosome groups and a global analysis of the entire mapped wheat EST data set. Among the resources developed were the first extensive public wheat EST collection. Described are protocols for sequencing, sequence processing, EST nomenclature, and the assembly of (...) ESTs into contigs. These contigs plus singletons were used for selection of distinct sequence motif unigenes. Selected ESTs were rearrayed, validated by 5′ and 3′ sequencing, and amplified for probing a series of wheat aneuploid and deletion stocks. Images and data for all Southern hybridizations were deposited in databases and were used by the coordinators for each of the seven homoeologous chromosome groups to validate the mapping results. Results from this project have established the foundation for future developments in wheat genomics. (shrink)

In advocating gender equality today, we should not only pay attention to women's social status but also call for the women's psychological identification of class equality. What dominates female class identification? To answer this question, based on the data of the Chinese General Social Survey in 2015, this study constructs a female class identity framework from five aspects: the mother's intergenerational influence, female personal characteristics, lifestyle, gender consciousness, and spouse status. In this study, the ordered logit model is used to (...) empirically analyze the impact of various factors on female class identification, and the results show the following: gender consciousness has a significant impact on female class identification. Lifestyle has a significant impact on the situation of having a spouse. Spouse status has a significant positive effect on female class identification. But the mother's intergenerational influence has no effect on female class identification. Therefore, this paper suggests that we should improve laws and regulations to protect women's normal rights, encourage women to establish an independent and self-improvement character, and enhance the class consciousness of women, especially rural women, in order to achieve the overall improvement of female class and psychological identification. (shrink)

This paper is concerned with the target tracking problem of an autonomous surface vehicle in the presence of a maneuvering target. The velocity information of target is totally unknown to the follower vehicle, and only the relative distance and angle between the target and follower are obtained. First, a reduced-order extended state observer is used to estimate the unknown relative dynamics due to the unavailable velocity of the target. Based on the reduced-order extended state observer, an antidisturbance guidance law for (...) target tracking is designed. The input-to-state stability of the closed-loop target tracking guidance system is analyzed via cascade theory. Furthermore, the above result is extended to the case that collisions between the target and leader are avoided during tracking, and a collision-free target tracking guidance law is developed. The main feature of the proposed guidance law is twofold. First, the target tracking can be achieved without using the velocity information of the target. Second, collision avoidance can be achieved during target tracking. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed antidisturbance guidance law for tracking a maneuvering target with the arbitrary bounded velocity. (shrink)