Statistics show, that even though an ethical respect for nature is both widely advocated by current mainstream environmental philosophy and is increasingly publicly accepted, this is not enough to ensure the needed practical actions to protect and preserve the natural world and its living beings. This reflects a disconnection between the related intellectual or theoretical appreciation of the integrity or value within the natural world and the sorts of practices needed to heal or to motivate the actions needed for ecological (...) integrity and sustainability. Awareness of this disunity or disconnection calls for a philosophical examination of this disconnection. This paper argues that the disunity between knowledge and practice reflects a “blind spot” in those sorts of mainstream environmental philosophy that attempt to establish a rational basis for an ethical respect for nature and humans’ ethical responsibility to the environment. This paper shall reveal that blind spot and its origin by examining and building on Ed Casey’s analysis and phenomenological description of an original and authentic directly lived ethical response to the environment that he calls the “first moment of ethical response.” Casey’s description of this “first moment of ethical response,” rooted in his phenomenological horizon, allows him to break away from the horizon of current mainstream environmental ethics and uncover a field of original and authentic ethical experience that opens an area of investigation closed to current environmental ethics. In this way Casey’s work can reveal the limitations of the scientific horizon of mainstream environmental ethics and has great value in the overcoming of the blind spot and its ill effect. (shrink)

Employees frequently engage in job crafting to better match their jobs with their personal abilities and skills. Compared with its benefits, the potential detrimental consequences of job crafting have received less attention from researchers. Drawing on relative deprivation theory, we examined employees’ potential negative reactions to coworkers’ job crafting. We proposed that coworkers’ job crafting is positively related to employees’ feelings of relative deprivation, thus reducing prosocial behaviors and giving rise to social undermining. We further argued that employees’ zero-sum mindset (...) moderates the relationship between coworkers’ job crafting and employees’ feelings of relative deprivation, such that the relationship is more positive when the zero-sum mindset is high rather than low. Our hypotheses were generally supported by time-lagged data collected from a sample of 313 employees and their leaders from 85 teams. Our findings advance the understanding of the unintended consequences of job crafting in organizations. (shrink)

In China, online sales continue to grow against the generally adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on economic development. Although advertisers favor online targeted advertising for its precision, consumers may find it intrusive and avoid it. This study constructed a conceptual model based on Stimulus-Organism-Response theory, Approach-Avoidance Theory, and Brand Avoidance Theory to investigate the influence mechanism of consumers’ perceived risk on the avoidance behavior of online targeted advertising via an online survey. Collected 436 validated data was analyzed through structural (...) equation method in AMOS statistical software. Results showed that the positively influenced advertising avoidance, and negative emotions mediated the relationship between perceived performance risk, time-loss risk, freedom risk, and advertising avoidance, but perceived privacy risk did not influence advertising avoidance through negative emotions. Perceived COVID-19 risk moderates the effect of negative emotions on advertising avoidance. The findings provide important insights for helping governments, advertisers and online platforms into which risk perceptions influence advertising avoidance, and suggests ways to mitigate consumers risk perceptions for the mutual benefit of brands and users. (shrink)

Virus and information spreading dynamics widely exist in complex systems. However, systematic study still lacks for the interacting spreading dynamics between the two types of dynamics. This paper proposes a mathematical model on multiplex networks, which considers the heterogeneous susceptibility and infectivity in two subnetworks. By using a heterogeneous mean-field theory, we studied the dynamic process and outbreak threshold of the system. Through extensive numerical simulations on artificial networks, we find that the virus’s spreading dynamics can be suppressed by increasing (...) the information spreading probability, decreasing the protection power, or decreasing the susceptibility and infectivity. (shrink)

In this article, we study the mural restoration work based on artificial intelligence-assisted multiscale trace generation. Firstly, we convert the fresco images to colour space to obtain the luminance and chromaticity component images; then we process each component image to enhance the edges of the exfoliated region using high and low hat operations; then we construct a multistructure morphological filter to smooth the noise of the image. Finally, the fused mask image is fused with the original mural to obtain the (...) final calibration result. The fresco is converted to HSV colour space, and chromaticity, saturation, and luminance features are introduced; then the confidence term and data term are used to determine the priority of shedding boundary points; then a new block matching criterion is defined, and the best matching block is obtained to replace the block to be repaired based on the structural similarity between the block to be repaired and the matching block by global search; finally, the restoration result is converted to RGB colour space to obtain the final restoration result. An improved generative adversarial network structure is proposed to address the shortcomings of the existing network structure in mural defect restoration, and the effectiveness of the improved modules of the network is verified. Compared with the existing mural restoration algorithms on the test data experimentally verified, the peak signal-to-noise ratio score is improved by 4% and the structural similarity score is improved by 2%. (shrink)

This paper investigates the stabilization and trajectory tracking problem of wheeled mobile robot with a ceiling-mounted camera in complex environment. First, an adaptive visual servoing controller is proposed based on the uncalibrated kinematic model due to the complex operation environment. Then, an adaptive controller is derived to provide a solution of uncertain dynamic control for a wheeled mobile robot subject to parametric uncertainties. Furthermore, the proposed controllers can be applied to a more general situation where the parallelism requirement between the (...) image plane and operation plane is no more needed. The overparameterization of regressor matrices is avoided by exploring the structure of the camera-robot system, and thus, the computational complexity of the controller can be simplified. The Lyapunov method is employed to testify the stability of a closed-loop system. Finally, simulation results are presented to demonstrate the performance of the suggested control. (shrink)

Link trustworthiness evaluation is a crucial task for information networks to evaluate the probability of a link being true in a heterogeneous information network. This task can significantly influence the effectiveness of downstream analysis. However, the performance of existing evaluation methods is limited, as they can only utilize incomplete or one-sided information from a single HIN. To address this problem, we propose a novel multi-HIN link trustworthiness evaluation model that leverages information across multiple related HINs to accomplish link trustworthiness evaluation (...) tasks inherently and efficiently. We present an effective method to evaluate and select informative pairs across HINs and an integrated training procedure to balance inner-HIN and inter-HIN trustworthiness. Experiments on a real-world dataset demonstrate that our proposed model outperforms baseline methods and achieves the best accuracy and F1-score in downstream tasks of HINs. (shrink)

Bowman-Smart et al. (2023) sketched a hypothetical scenario involving noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT) for “non-medical” traits available for expectant parents in the near future. By critically...

This research empirically investigates the static and dynamic impacts of firms' digital transformation on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance by employing data of listed Chinese companies from 2011 to 2020 via estimations of propensity score matching and difference in differences. First, we find that digital transformation does some good to improve firms' ESG, which is confirmed after conducting several robustness tests. Second, digital transformation benefits the three aspects of ESG (environmental performance, social responsibility, and governance), and its impact is (...) dynamic, promote ESG two years after the digital reform. Third, the impact of digital transformation on ESG is not constant among different firms. Specifically, digital transformation's impact on ESG is stronger among firms located in western or central regions of China and to those in polluting and competitive industries, as well as among non-stated-owned enterprises. (shrink)

Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, Volume 31, Issue 2, Page 524-535, April 2022.

The aim of this study was to explore the effect of scoring first on match outcomes in the Chinese Football Super League. A total of 1,116 matches in which at least one goal was scored from the 2014 to 2018 seasons were collected. Match outcomes, absolute goal differences, the minute of the first goal, match locations, and teams’ budgets were analyzed. A team’s budget was measured in terms of a team’s value at the beginning of the season, and teams were (...) clustered into two groups. A descriptive analysis was conducted, and two generalized linear models were applied. The results showed a favorable outcome for the team that scored first both in match outcome and goal difference. Regarding the teams that scored first, 66.31% won their matches, 20.70% achieved a draw, and 12.99% lost. Specifically, home teams were more likely to win and less likely to lose or draw than away teams. Home teams also had a higher likelihood of obtaining a larger goal difference. Higher budget teams were more likely to win and less likely to lose or draw than low-budget teams. Additionally, for each minute, the team scores closer to the end of the match, and the average probability of winning increased by 0.0028. These findings can guide the strategies of coaches in different match scenarios according to the match location and the opponent’s quality. (shrink)

Contextualism and Disagreement This paper argues that attributor contextualism is in conflict with ordinary language methodology. Attributor contextualism has at its center the thesis that, the truth-values of knowledge attributions vary with the conversational contexts. This thesis entails that if two speakers in similar contexts make conflicting knowledge attributions, at least one of these attributions is false. One important argument for attributor contextualism depends on ordinary language methodology, a methodology that places great trust in ordinary speakers and prevents judging a (...) substantial group of ordinary speakers' simple knowledge attributions false. I argue that there is strong empirical evidence that ordinary speakers do extensively disagree in similar contexts. My conclusion is that one cannot coherently hold the attributor contextualist thesis and use ordinary language methodology, because the lesson we learn from the empirical evidence is that using the methodology would prove the thesis false. Since prominent attributor contextualists explicitly adopt the methodology, and that the methodology is what distinguishes attributor contextualism from its main rival, invariantism, the conflict with the methodology is a problem for attributor contextualism. (shrink)

To investigate the effects of left-behind children’s empathy and coping styles on school adjustment, 605 left-behind children in the third grade from three rural elementary schools in Suzhou, Anhui Province were selected to complete the Chinese version of the Interpersonal Reaction Index Scale, the Coping Style Scale, and the School Adjustment Behavior Scale for Primary and Secondary School Students. The results showed that emotional empathy positively predicted children’s social competence, and negatively predicted children’s antisocial behavior; cognitive empathy positively predicted children’s (...) social competence; the role of positive coping styles mediated the relationship between cognitive empathy and social competence, and that between cognitive empathy and antisocial behavior; negative coping styles mediated the relationship between cognitive empathy and antisocial behavior; both positive and negative coping styles mediated the relationship between emotional empathy and social competence, and that between emotional empathy and antisocial behavior. The findings of the study are valuable for understanding the relationship between empathy and school adjustment, which also helps to enhance the school adjustment of left-behind children. (shrink)

An effective approach is introduced to predict the magnitude of reservoir-triggered earthquake, based on support vector machines and fuzzy support vector machines methods. The main influence factors on RTE, including lithology, rock mass integrity, fault features, tectonic stress state, and seismic activity background in reservoir area, are categorized into 11 parameters and quantified by using analytical hierarchy process. Dataset on 100 reservoirs in China, including the 48 well-documented cases of RTE, are collected and used to train and validate the prediction (...) models established with SVM and FSVM, respectively. Through numerical tests, it is found that both the SVM and FSVM models are effective in the prediction of the magnitude of RTE with high accuracy, provided that sufficient samples are collected. While the results of FSVM which is extended from SVM by introducing a fuzzy membership to reduce the influence of noises or outliers are found to be slightly less accurate than those of SVM in the current analysis of RTE cases. The reason might be attributed to the high discreteness of the sample data in the current study. (shrink)

The ongoing pandemic has transformed communication modes globally. Especially in the case of higher education, where countermeasures against coronavirus disease 2019 have affected students’ learning experience. This study emphasized the case of business simulation games, where critical factors were underlined to define learners’ intention to use an online learning environment through the lens of task technology fit as a theoretical stance. This study considered the statistical analysis of 523 students who attended the business simulation module online at the tertiary level (...) of education. Findings conclude that flow experience is the most critical factor to define learners’ perceived TTF in the case of an online learning experience. However, the learners’ self-efficacy is significant enough to map learners’ intentions to use an online environment for learning. The study discussed several theoretical and practical implications for learners’ educators and policymakers. (shrink)

Developmental and neuroscience works have demonstrated that the moral judgment is influenced by theory of mind, which refers to the ability to represent the mental states of different agents. However, the neural and cognitive time course of interactions between moral judgment and ToM remains unclear. The present event-related potential study investigated the underlying neural substrate of the interaction between moral judgment and ToM by contrasting the ERPs elicited by moral judgments for self and for others in moral dilemmas. In classic (...) moral dilemmas, the agents must choose between the utilitarian choice and the non-utilitarian choice. The ERPs were recorded from participants who made moral judgments for self and for others when the agent made utilitarian or non-utilitarian choices during the dilemma. The results revealed that the moral judgment for others elicited a larger frontal late positive component than that for self when the agents made utilitarian choices, while no difference was observed on early components of N1, P2, and N2. Moreover, individual differences in mentalizing ability were negatively correlated with the LPC amplitudes. These findings suggested that ToM modulated the late controlled process but not the early automatic process during moral judgments. (shrink)

This work explored the mediating effects of affective commitment on transformational leadership and job performance and job insecurity on transformational leadership and affective commitment. Meanwhile, the inter-relationships between the four verified the mediating effect of affective commitment, including job insecurity. The results were as follows: transformational leadership and job performance were positively related. Transformational leadership was proportional to an emotional commitment. The affective commitment had a positive impact on job performance. Transformational leadership indirectly positively affected job performance through the intermediary (...) effect of affective commitment. Transformational leadership regulated affective commitment through job insecurity. The more job security employees have, the higher the impact of transformational leadership on affective commitment; the lower the contrary. (shrink)

The H ∞ performance of a class of T-S fuzzy systems with Markovian-jump parameters is analyzed. A state feedback controller is designed for T-S fuzzy systems with Markovian-jump parameters. First, a new modal-dependent Lyapunov function composed of closed-loop functions is constructed, which can fully use system status information. Based on this function, the stability conditions with less conservatism are given by linear matrix inequalities. At the same time, a design algorithm for a state feedback controller is proposed for the Markovian-jump-parameters (...) T-S fuzzy systems, which ensures the system’s stability under the condition of H ∞ − γ performance. Simulation results demonstrate that the mentioned method is accurate and practical. (shrink)

Previous studies on the effects of emotional context on memory for centrally presented neutral items have obtained inconsistent results. And in most of those studies subjects were asked to either make a connection between the item and the context at study or retrieve both the item and the context. When no response for the contexts is required, how emotional contexts influence memory for neutral items is still unclear. Thus, the present study attempted to investigate the influences of four types of (...) emotional picture contexts on recognition memory of neutral words using both behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) measurements. During study, words were superimposed centrally onto emotional contexts, and subjects were asked to just remember the words. During test, both studied and new words were presented without the emotional contexts and subjects had to make “old/new” judgments for those words. The results revealed that, compared with the neutral context, the negative contexts and positive high-arousing context impaired recognition of words. ERP results at encoding demonstrated that, compared with items presented in the neutral context, items in the positive and negative high-arousing contexts elicited more positive ERPs, which probably reflects an automatic process of attention capturing of high-arousing context as well as a conscious and effortful process of overcoming the interference of high-arousing context. During retrieval, significant FN400 old/new effects occurred in conditions of the negative low-arousing, positive, and neutral contexts but not in the negative high-arousing condition. Significant LPC old/new effects occurred in all conditions of context. However, the LPC old/new effect in the negative high-arousing condition was smaller than that in the positive high-arousing and low-arousing conditions. These results suggest that emotional context might influence both the familiarity and recollection processes. (shrink)

A survey study was conducted to look into the effect of Confucian ethics and the psychological foundations of morality on business managers' perspectives on corporate social responsibility (CSR). Using responses from 393 Chinese managers, we first conducted confirmatory factor analysis to assess the reliability and validity of the measurement model and then employed hierarchical regression to explore the relationships among Confucian ethics, moral foundations, and managers' shareholder value perspectives. The results indicate that both Confucian ethics and managers' moral foundations had (...) significant influence on shareholder value perspectives. In fact, moral foundations and Confucian ethics interacted and jointly affected managers' positions on the shareholder value model of corporate responsibility. This study demonstrates the importance of psychological foundations of morality to managers' CSR orientations and substantiates the persistent impact of Confucian ethics/cultural traditions on today' business practices. (shrink)

In this paper, we aim to examine the indirect effects of moral leadership on unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB). Drawing on Social Identity Theory, identification with supervisors (social identity) and taking responsibility (personal identity) were hypothesized as mediators linking moral leadership and UPB. In addition, we aim to investigate the moderating role of moral courage in the relationship between moral leadership and UPB. We conducted two studies with two distinct samples: one on a sample of 161 MBA students, and the other (...) on a sample of 205 enterprise employees in China. Data were collected through a self-reported questionnaire based on a two-wave research design and analyzed through Structural Equation Modeling. Results showed that moral leadership increased UPB through promoting identification with supervisors while reducing UPB via increasing taking responsibility. Additionally, the results also showed that moral courage moderated the mediating effects of identification with supervisors and taking responsibility upon the relationship between moral leadership and UPB. We contribute to the literature by demonstrating that moral leadership exerts its paradoxical effects on UPB indirectly through its impact on identification with supervisors and taking responsibility and therefore offers a better understanding of how and when moral leadership influences UPB. A number of managerial implications are also discussed. (shrink)

The pandemic in 2020 made online learning the widely used modality of teaching in several countries and it has also entered the spotlight of educational research. However, online learning has always been a challenge for disciplines that require hands-on practice. For art teaching or training, online learning has many advantages and disadvantages. How art teachers embrace and adapt their teaching for online delivery remains an unanswered question. This research examines 892 art teachers' attitudes toward online learning, using learning environment, need (...) satisfaction, mental engagement, and behavior as predictors. Structural equation modeling was used to explore the relationship between these four dimensions during these teachers' participation in an online learning program. The results reveal significant correlations between the learning environment, need satisfaction, mental engagement, and behavior. Moreover, this study reveals the group characteristics of art teachers, which can actually be supported by online learning programs. These findings provide insights into how art teachers view and use online learning, and thus can shed lights on their professional development. (shrink)

The number of articles published in open access journals has increased dramatically in recent years. Simultaneously, the quality of publications in these journals has been called into question. Few studies have explored the retraction rate from OAJs. The purpose of the current study was to determine the reasons for retractions of articles from OAJs in biomedical research. The Medline database was searched through PubMed to identify retracted publications in OAJs. The journals were identified by the Directory of Open Access Journals. (...) Data were extracted from each retracted article, including the time from publication to retraction, causes, journal impact factor, and country of origin. Trends in the characteristics related to retraction were determined. Data from 621 retracted studies were included in the analysis. The number and rate of retractions have increased since 2010. The most common reasons for retraction are errors, plagiarism, duplicate publication, fraud/suspected fraud and invalid peer review. The number of retracted articles from OAJs has been steadily increasing. Misconduct was the primary reason for retraction. The majority of retracted articles were from journals with low impact factors and authored by researchers from China, India, Iran, and the USA. (shrink)

Previous work has demonstrated that simple geometric shapes may convey emotional meaning using various experimental paradigms. However, whether affective meaning of simple geometric shapes can be automatically activated and influence the evaluations of subsequent stimulus is still unclear. Thus the present study employed an affective priming paradigm to investigate whether and how two geometric shapes (circle vs. downward triangle) impact on the affective processing of subsequently presented faces (Experiment 1) and words (Experiment 2). At behavioral level, no significant effect of (...) affective congruency was found. However, ERP results in Experiment 1 and 2 showed a typical effect of affective congruency. The LPP elicited by affectively incongruent trials was larger compared to congruent trials. Our results provide support for the notion that downward triangle is perceived as negative and circle as positive and their emotional meaning can be activated automatically and then exert an influence on the electrophysiological processing of subsequent stimuli. The lack of significant congruent effect in behavioral measures and the inversed N400 congruent effect might reveal that the affective meaning of geometric shapes is weak because they are just abstract threatening cues rather than real threat. In addition, because no male participants are included in the present study, our findings are limited to females. (shrink)

The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) simulates uncertain gains and losses in real life situations and thus is a good measure of uncertain decision making. The role of working memory (WM) in IGT performance still remains unclear. The present study aimed to examine the effect of WM on IGT performance. Three groups of participants matched on gender ratio were randomly assigned to no WM load, low WM load, and high WM load conditions. Initially the three groups did not show significant difference (...) in WM capacity. They finished a modified version of IGT and then their implicit learning effect and explicit cognition on IGT were assessed. Results indicated a linear increasing trend of IGT performance among high WM load, low WM load and no WM load groups; participants in the no WM load and low WM load groups revealed implicit learning effect, while participants in the high WM load group did not; all participants showed explicit cognition on IGT to the same level. These results suggested that participants in the high WM load group showed good explicit cognition to IGT but showed poor performance. This pattern is similar to frontal patients. Further studies should be conducted to explore this issue. (shrink)

One of the crucial fields of study that is getting more attention is association rule mining. It is crucial to databases' knowledge discovery (KDD). KDD and association rule mining have a very broad use. It has evolved at a rapid rate over the past fifteen years. Association Rule Mining is a novel technology, although it is still in the discovery and development stages. Video is an illustration of interactive media data since it contains text, pictures, meta-data, visual, sound, and different (...) kinds of data. It is frequently used for a variety of important likely reasons, such as security and reconnaissance, amusement, healthcare, educational endeavours, and sports. One of the main issues for the local data-mining research community is video data mining, which aims to find and comprehend fascinating examples from the large volume of video data. Video data mining is still in its infancy when compared to mining other sorts of data. It is pivotal to grasp and naturally mine the information from video databases considering the continually extending computerized libraries and video databases. Differentiating association rules between components in a significant video library is critical in the field of video data mining. As per continuous imaginative work, association rule mining is being utilized rapidly in various tasks, including perception, social affairs, broadcast news, sports, records, films, clinical data, as well as on the web and individual media assortments. This exploration tries to give a far-reaching method to association rule extraction from video databases. (shrink)

BackgroundVaccination has been considered one of the most effective public health interventions. In the context of the global epidemic of coronavirus disease 2019, it remains unclear what role general vaccination attitudes and perceptions have on the acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine.ObjectiveThis study aims to explore the impact of general attitudes and perceptions toward vaccination on the acceptance of a newly developed vaccine, taking COVID-19 vaccines as an example.MethodA cross-sectional survey was conducted among 2,013 Chinese adult participants. Generalized order logistic regression and (...) path analysis models were used to analyze impacts of general attitudes and perceptions toward vaccination on the acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine.ResultsThe prevalence of hesitancy to vaccination in general is 49.9% among the Chinese adult population. General perceptions of vaccination were associated with corresponding perceptions of the COVID-19 vaccine. A “no hesitancy” attitude toward vaccination is a significant determinant of future COVID-19 vaccination compared to vaccine refusers, and perceptions of COVID-19 vaccine remain a significant determinant for the acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine. Path analysis indicates that perceptions of the importance and safety of vaccination have a positive overall effect on the acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine, and that general perceptions of vaccination as a whole on each measure indirectly influence the acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine.ConclusionGeneral attitudes and perceptions toward vaccination were associated with those of the COVID-19 vaccine and future vaccination intention. To prepare for possible emergence of diseases in the future, routine health campaigns should be launched by relevant government departments and vaccination authorities to enhance the overall awareness and knowledge of vaccination among the public and to ensure optimal vaccination experience. In addition, targeted knowledge dissemination and mass mobilizations should be urged for newly developed vaccines when some specific infectious diseases emerge, such as COVID-19 at present. (shrink)