One of the most efficient nondestructive methods for pipeline in-line inspection is magnetic flux leakage inspection. Estimating the size of the defect from MFL signal is one of the key problems of MFL inspection. As the inspection signal is usually contaminated by noise, sizing the defect is an ill-posed inverse problem, especially when sizing the depth as a complex shape. An actor-critic structure-based algorithm is proposed in this paper for sizing complex depth profiles. By learning with more information from the (...) depth profile without knowing the corresponding MFL signal, the algorithm proposed saves computational costs and is robust. A pinning strategy is embedded in the reconstruction process, which highly reduces the dimension of action space. The pinning actor-critic structure helps to make the reward for critic network more efficient when reconstructing the depth profiles with high degrees of freedom. A nonlinear FEM model is used to test the effectiveness of algorithm proposed under 20 dB noise. The results show that the algorithm reconstructs the depth profile of defects with good accuracy and is robust against noise. (shrink)

Extreme formalism is a radical and important position in the aesthetics of inorganic nature. Zangwill offers a new formulation of what formal aesthetic properties are, according to which a formal aesthetic property of a thing is an aesthetic property that is determined merely by its appearance properties. An appearance property of a thing is the way it seems if perceived under certain conditions. With the notion of formal aesthetic properties formulated as such, extreme formalism, the claim that all aesthetic properties (...) of inorganic things are formal, says that all aesthetic properties of inorganic things are determined merely by their appearance properties. Recently, Zangwill defends extreme formalism by deflecting the famous counter-example of the cumulonimbus cloud given by Budd, and argues for extreme formalism by arguing against the idea of the existence of non-formal beauty in inorganic nature. In this paper, we argue that both his defense and positive arguments are not successful. If our arguments are right, the burden of proof is still on Zangwill’s side. (shrink)

Synergetic governance is a practical approach to ensure quality in the teaching-learning process at multi-dimensional perspectives. This study intends to explore the potential of a synergetic governance approach in the vocational education system. A systematic literature review has been done by applying the PRISMA approach. The last 21 years' literature has been analyzed, and a synergetic governance model has been developed. This study reveals that the synergetic governance of education deals with integrating all available resources to enhance development by meeting (...) the demands of market, society, and nation as a new paradigm. An effective vocational education system requires the participation of all related stakeholders in the governance system. This study has developed an “intervention-approach-synergy-integration” mechanism to show how the education elements are connected to each other. The study reveals that the major synergetic elements are openness, equilibrium, dynamism and cooperation. To ensure synergetic governance, these elements should be integrated with an educational institution, market, public, society, state and private organization. It argues that the synergetic governance of these related components can reduce the demand and supply gap of quality vocational graduates in the industry – academy sectors. This study recommends incorporating multi-subjects' synergetic governance to expedite the marketable quality of vocational education. (shrink)

The widespread use of Internet technology has changed people’s traditional life mode and created a new market transaction mode, namely, e-commerce platform. The Internet of Things can carry out real-time monitoring and management of any product in e-commerce and not only can realize information sharing in commercial activities but also can play a greater role in the protection of personal and enterprise information security. In this context, the efficiency and low cost of information flow, cash flow, logistics, and human resources (...) among enterprises are particularly important. The Internet of Things technology is a means to effectively improve and optimize the operation mode of the supply chain. This paper analyzes the status of traditional supply chain management, which discusses the development of a supply chain management based on the Internet of Things technology. Finally, this paper analyzes how to realize the optimization strategy of e-commerce supply chain management based on the Internet of Things technology, which provides strong support for the informatization of e-commerce supply chain management. Through the application of the Internet of Things technology, small- and medium-sized enterprises can optimize the workflow and circulation links of the e-commerce supply chain management, enhance the matching level of product value and information transmission, improve the supply chain operation mechanism, and increase economic benefits. (shrink)

Finding the factors driving enterprise innovation behavior from multiple dimensions is of great significance for promoting enterprise innovation. Open innovation based on overseas mergers and acquisitions has become one of the main ways for enterprises to obtain knowledge and technology. However, there is still no agreement on whether open innovation based on overseas M&A can promote innovation behavior of enterprises. Based on data from M&A transaction and enterprise patent of China’s Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies from 2011 to 2018, (...) this study constructs a propensity score matching and difference-in-difference model from the perspective of innovation performance and innovation investment empirically studies the influence of open innovation mode based on overseas M&A on the innovation behavior of enterprises and finds that open innovation based on overseas M&A can significantly promote the innovation performance and innovation investment. Meanwhile dynamic effects test shows this promotion effect is sustainable; it reaches the maximum in the year of overseas M&A and decreases in the next two years. In addition, the impacts are heterogeneous due to enterprise ownership and enterprise technology intensity. The findings extends the scope of understanding innovation behavior of enterprises from overseas M&A and provide solid evidence of significant business implications for the promotion of entrepreneurial innovation. (shrink)

Customers are skeptical about shopping online because e-commerce environments are typically considered impersonal. To assure product quality and to enhance customer proclivity in such environments, post-sale services may be considered to alleviate customers’ skepticism. Therefore, this study’s objective is to investigate the role of an online retailer’s post-sale services on customers’ attitudinal and behavioral aspects. Structural equation modeling is applied to data collected through an online survey answered by 409 online customers of jd.com. Research findings show that product return, exchange, (...) and maintenance services are strongly predictive of online customer satisfaction, and satisfaction significantly impacts customer trust. Both customer satisfaction and trust, as indicators of relationship quality, further mediate the links between product return, exchange, and maintenance services and online customer repurchase intention. In addition, differences between male and female customers were found in various aspects of online retailers’ product return, exchange, and maintenance services. This is the first empirical study that not only examines the influence of all three dimensions of online retailers’ post-sale services on customers’ online shopping perceptions and decisions, but also considers differences between male and female customers. Finally, this research provides theoretical and managerial implications based on conceptual and empirical evidence. (shrink)

China set the goal of expanding early childhood education in 2018, by encouraging the development of public interest kindergartens to provide high-quality, low-cost preschool services to the general public. This is in response to the challenges of accessibility, affordability, and accountability besetting China’s current ECE system. However, the transition toward PIK has been slow due to various complex problems, including the lackluster willingness of ECE providers to become PIK. To better understand the challenges leading to low participation, this study explores (...) the external pressures affecting ECE providers and evaluates the external factors that influence their level of social responsibility. A stratified-random sampling questionnaire survey solicited responses from 832 ECE personnel representing 261 kindergartens from across China. Our findings suggest that institutional pressure has a positive effect on social responsibility and inclusive participation. We also found that institution visibility positively regulates the relationship between institutional pressure and social responsibility. At the same time, the level of environmental perception positively governs the relationship between social responsibility and participation willingness. Kindergartens should have certain social values, including assuming certain behaviors and participating in social activities in the spirit of social service and ensure multiple subjects’ synergetic governance. (shrink)

The potential anesthetic neurotoxicity on the neonate is an important focus of research investigation in the field of pediatric anesthesiology. It is essential to understand how these anesthetics may affect the development and growth of neonatal immature and vulnerable brains. Functional magnetic resonance imaging has suggested that using anesthetics result in reduced functional connectivity may consider as core sequence for the neurotoxicity and neurodegenerative changes in the developed brain. Anesthetics either directly impact the primary structures and functions of the brain (...) or indirectly alter the hemodynamic parameters that contribute to cerebral blood flow in neonatal patients. We hypothesis that anesthetic agents may either decrease the brain functional connectivity in neonatal patients or animals, which was observed by fMRI. This review will summarize the effect and mechanism of anesthesia on the rapid growth and development infant and neonate brain with fMRI through functional connectivity. It is possible to provide the new mechanism of neuronal injury induced by anesthetics and objective imaging evidence in animal developing brain. (shrink)

The constraint-handling methods using multiobjective techniques in evolutionary algorithms have drawn increasing attention from researchers. This paper proposes an efficient conical area differential evolution algorithm, which employs biased decomposition and dual populations for constrained optimization by borrowing the idea of cone decomposition for multiobjective optimization. In this approach, a conical subpopulation and a feasible subpopulation are designed to search for the global feasible optimum, along the Pareto front and the feasible segment, respectively, in a cooperative way. In particular, the conical (...) subpopulation aims to efficiently construct and utilize the Pareto front through a biased cone decomposition strategy and conical area indicator. Neighbors in the conical subpopulation are fully exploited to assist each other to find the global feasible optimum. Afterwards, the feasible subpopulation is ranked and updated according to a tolerance-based rule to heighten its diversity in the early stage of evolution. Experimental results on 24 benchmark test cases reveal that CADE is capable of resolving the constrained optimization problems more efficiently as well as producing solutions that are significantly competitive with other popular approaches. (shrink)

The massive social change in urban China today has led to a decline in the adaptive implications of shyness for child adjustment, yet evidence of this trend in young children is limited. Moreover, the underlying mechanisms that help to explain the associations between shyness and maladjustment remains poorly understood. The primary goal of the present study was to explore the moderating role of conflict resolution skills in the links between shyness and socio-emotional and school adjustment among urban Chinese preschoolers. Data (...) were collected from 360 children in kindergartens using parent ratings, teacher ratings, and child interviews. The analyses indicated that the relations between shyness and adjustment were moderated by child conflict resolution skills, which served to buffer shy children from adjustment problems. The results were discussed in terms of the implications of conflict resolution skills for early adjustment of shy preschoolers in the Chinese context. (shrink)

This paper presents a new cosmological argument based on considerations about grounding. I argue that, by assuming three plausible principles about grounding, we can construct a cosmological argument for the existence of a unique ungrounded being that ultimately grounds everything else. At the end of the paper I consider two possible objections, and offer my replies to them.

We construct a causal-modeling semantics for both indicative and counterfactual conditionals. As regards counterfactuals, we adopt the orthodox view that a counterfactual conditional is true in a causal model M just in case its consequent is true in the submodel M∗, generated by intervening in M, in which its antecedent is true. We supplement the orthodox semantics by introducing a new manipulation called extrapolation. We argue that an indicative conditional is true in a causal model M just in case its (...) con- sequent is true in certain submodels M∗, generated by extrapolating M, in which its antecedent is true. We show that the proposed semantics can account for some important minimal pairs nicely and naturally. We also prove a theorem showing under what conditions intervention and extrapolation will yield the same result, and thus explain how counterfactual and indicative conditionals would behave in a causal-modeling semantics. (shrink)

Previous research has shed light on the detrimental effects of abusive supervision. To extend this area of research, we draw upon conservation of resources theory to propose a causal relationship between abusive supervision and psychological distress, a mediating role of psychological distress on the relationship between abusive supervision and employee silence, and a moderating effect of the supervisor–subordinate relational context on the mediating effect of abusive supervision on silence. Through an experimental study, we found the causal path linking abusive supervision (...) and psychological distress. Results of both the experimental study and a field study provided evidence that psychological distress mediated the relationship between abusive supervision and silence. Lastly, we found support that this mediation effect was contingent upon the relational context in Study 2 but not in Study 1. We discuss implications for theory and practice. (shrink)

Natural language processing is a critical part of the digital transformation. NLP enables user-friendly interactions between machine and human by making computers understand human languages. Intelligent chatbot is an essential application of NLP to allow understanding of users’ utterance and responding in understandable sentences for specific applications simulating human-to-human conversations and interactions for problem solving or Q&As. This research studies emerging technologies for NLP-enabled intelligent chatbot development using a systematic patent analytic approach. Some intelligent text-mining techniques are applied, including document (...) term frequency analysis for key terminology extractions, clustering method for identifying the subdomains, and Latent Dirichlet Allocation for finding the key topics of patent set. This research utilizes the Derwent Innovation database as the main source for global intelligent chatbot patent retrievals. (shrink)

In the past few decades, a lot of optimization methods have been applied in estimating the parameter of photovoltaic models and obtained better results, but these methods still have some deficiencies, such as higher time complexity and poor stability. To tackle these problems, an enhanced success history adaptive DE with greedy mutation strategy is employed to optimize parameters of PV models to propose a parameter optimization method in this paper. In the EBLSHADE, the linear population size reduction strategy is used (...) to gradually reduce population to improve the search capabilities and balance the exploitation and exploration capabilities. The less and more greedy mutation strategy is used to enhance the exploitation capability and the exploration capability. Finally, a parameter optimization method based on EBLSHADE is proposed to optimize parameters of PV models. The different PV models are selected to prove the effectiveness of the proposed method. Comparison results demonstrate that the EBLSHADE is an effective and efficient method and the parameter optimization method is beneficial to design, control, and optimize the PV systems. (shrink)

Many metaphysical controversies can be understood as debates over whether some alleged entities are metaphysically possible. No doubt, with regard to these matters, we may have opinions or theories, commonsensical or sophisticated. But do we have knowledge of them? Can we really know that something is metaphysically possible, and if so, how? Several different answers have been offered in the literature, intending to illustrate how we may have knowledge of metaphysical modality. In this paper, I concentrate on a proposal by (...) Timothy Williamson. On this account, our alleged knowledge of metaphysical modality is justified by and grounded in our capacity to handle ordinary mundane counterfactual conditionals. However, I argue that Williamson’s account fails, mainly because the modality involved in ordinary mundane counterfactuals is causal, and thus our capacity to handle them still falls short of giving us any knowledge of metaphysical modality. In the end of the paper, I also provide my own answer to the question. My answer is a sceptical one: we do not really have knowledge of metaphysical modality. But such ignorance is harmless, or so I argue. (shrink)

Motivated by avoiding a difficulty confronting the usual formulations of identity criteria, Fine has proposed and developed a generic account of grounding. In this paper, I examine two versions of the account. I argue that both proposals fail, as it is difficult to see how the strategy of ‘going generic’ can really solve the problem. I conclude that the idea of generic grounding is mysterious and unmotivated.

Objective: The aim of the current study was to investigate the alterations in the neural networks of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy during working memory encoding.Methods: Patients with TLE and healthy volunteers completed a WM task, during which 34-channel electroencephalogram signals were recorded. The neural networks during WM encoding were calculated in TLE patients with and without WM deficits.Results: Functional connectivity strength decreased, and the theta network was altered in the TLE-WM group, although no significant differences in clinical features were (...) observed between the TLE-N and TLE-WM groups.Conclusions: Not all patients with TLE present with cognitive impairments and alterations in the theta network were identified in TLE patients with functional cognitive deficits.Significance: The theta network may represent a sensitive measure of cognitive impairment and could predict cognitive outcomes among patients with TLE. (shrink)

This study aimed to investigate the status and risk factors of post-traumatic stress disorder in patients with acute myocardial infarction after emergency percutaneous coronary intervention in acute and convalescence phases. A longitudinal study design was used. Two questionnaire surveys were conducted in the acute stage of hospitalization, and 3 months after onset in patients. Logistic regression was used to analyze the risk factors for PTSD in AMI patients. The incidence of PTSD was 33.1 and 20.4% in acute and convalescent patients, (...) respectively. The risk factors related to PTSD were door-to-balloon time, left ventricular ejection fraction, smoking, anxiety, and depression. AMI patients after PCI had PTSD in the acute and convalescent stage. The findings indicate that tailored measures should be developed and carried out to prevent PTSD and improve the mental health of patients with AMI after undergoing PCI. (shrink)

Creative role identity is an important antecedent of innovative behaviors. Both the mechanism of how external factors and individual factors affect the formation of creative role identity and details of this process have yet to be discovered. Based on data collected from 226 students in 6 classes at a university in Guangdong during the development of innovative projects, the influence of innovation climate on the students’ creative role identity, especially the mediating effect of flow, was investigated. The results show that (...) the innovation climate has a positive impact on creative role identity and that flow plays a partial mediating role in this relationship. (shrink)

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the tourism economy has been seriously affected. China has implemented a direct traveling management mechanism and recovered from the pandemic faster than the rest of the world. However, the COVID-19 situation is complicated and uncontrollable because of the available unclear information including difficult medical terminologies. This study attempts to find the determinants of the travel intention of China’s tourists in the post-COVID-19 epidemic. Along with information overload and perception risk, an expanded research model of the Theory (...) of Planned Behavior was employed to propose the theoretical framework of this study. A survey was conducted among 518 tourists who spend their holiday in Hainan, which is a popular tourist destination in China. The empirical results show that information overload positively and significantly impacted perceived risk. Furthermore, perceived risk negatively affects the intention to travel. Perceived risk also negatively affected the attitude toward traveling. However, response self-efficacy did not have a significant effect on the intention to travel. Finally, based on the analysis results, this study proposes relevant research contributions and practical recommendations with management implications for the travel industries. (shrink)

Students often face difficulties and experience negative emotions toward second language learning. The affective tutoring system is a next-generation learning approach that can detect the affective status of learning to increase performance. Therefore, for the purposes of this study, an innovative affective mobile language tutoring system was designed to support Japanese language learning. The effects of AMLTS, along with asynchronous discussion, that were intended to improve performance, were examined using a triangulation method. To investigate the effect on emotion, the proposed (...) AMLTS provides a virtual emotion agent that can interact with users and record emotional events, learning assessments, and the results of the interaction into a database. Learning effectiveness evaluations were conducted via two experiments: prototype evaluation and final evaluation. Sixty-three students, all beginners, were invited to use the AMLTS to learn Japanese. The research results show that the proposed AMLTS affective interaction design significantly improves learner engagement and performance. In the emotion feedback analysis and learning process, AMLTS helped students deepen their understanding of the content, enabled them to clearly understand the content, and to engage in peer interaction and experience positive emotions. In the evaluation of system usability, AMLTS reveals good usability for foreign language acquisition. (shrink)

Both glycemic control and handgrip strength affect microvascular function. Multiscale entropy of photoplethysmographic pulse amplitudes may differ by diabetes status and hand activity. Of a middle-to-old aged and right-handed cohort without clinical cardiovascular disease, we controlled age, sex, and weight to select the unaffected,the well-controlled diabetes, and the poorly controlled diabetes groups. MSEs were calculated from consecutive 1,500 PPG pulse amplitudes of bilateral index fingertips. Thesmall-, medium-,and large-scale MSEs were defined as the average of scale 1, scales 2–4, and scales (...) 5–10, respectively. Intra- and intergroups were compared by one- and two-samplet-tests, respectively. The dominant handMSE5–10was lower in the poorly controlled diabetes group than the well-controlled diabetes and the unaffected groups, whereas the nondominant handMSE5–10was lower in the well- and poorly controlled diabetes groups than the unaffected group. TheMSE1of dominant hand was higher than that of nondominant hand in the well-controlled diabetes. In conclusion, diabetes status and hand dominance may affect the MSE of PPG pulse amplitudes. (shrink)

The field service scheduling problem is the key problem in field services. Field service pays particular attention to customer experience, that is, customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction described by customer behavior characteristics based on the prospect theory is considered as the primary optimization goal in this paper. The knowledge of the insertion feasibility on the solution is analysed based on the skill constraint and time window. According to the knowledge, an initialization method based on the nearest heuristic algorithm is constructed. Based (...) on the prior knowledge of the FSSP and the endowment of the Fruit Fly Optimization Algorithm, two operators are defined according to the matrix encoding method. Based on these two operators, three search strategies are then proposed, and the smell-based search strategy and vision-based search strategy for the FOA are redesigned. To verify the performance of the algorithms, the proposed operators and strategies are tested and analysed in the well-known benchmark. Through comparison with the state-of-the-art algorithms, the results show that the proposed HFOA is an effective and efficient method to solve the FSSP with customer satisfaction. (shrink)

The structure and “metabolism” (movement and conversion of goods and energy) of urban areas has caused cities to be identified as “super‐organisms”, placed between ecosystems and the biosphere, in the hierarchy of living systems. Yet most such analogies are weak, and render the super‐organism model ineffective for sustainable development of cities. Via a cluster analysis of 15 shared traits of the hierarchical living system, we found that industrialized cities are more similar to eukaryotic cells than to multicellular organisms; enclosed systems, (...) such as factories and greenhouses, paralleling organelles in eukaryotic cells. We further developed a “super‐cell” industrialized city model: a “eukarcity” with citynucleus (urban area) as a regulating centre, and organaras (enclosed systems, which provide the majority of goods and services) as the functional components, and cityplasm (natural ecosystems and farmlands) as the matrix. This model may improve the vitality and sustainability of cities through planning and management. (shrink)

With the rapid development of renewable generators such as distributed photovoltaic and profound changes of the power structure, this paper analyzes the frequency characteristics of the power system with high penetration of renewable generations in the process of low-frequency load shedding and discusses the influence of the distributed renewable generator frequency endurance capabilities on the implementation effect of low-frequency load shedding in detail. Finally, the influences of the distributed renewable generator frequency endurance capability and the capacities of the distributed renewable (...) generator on frequency response characteristics of an actual Hunan power grid are simulated. The simulation results show that more distributed photovoltaic capacity without frequency endurance capability leads to deeper frequency drops after the disturbance and requires more basic rounds of load shedding. When the penetration rate of distributed photovoltaic is too high, it may cause load shedding, resulting in power grid load losses and, at the same time, leading to an overshoot phenomenon in the process of frequency recovery. Therefore, the influence of distributed photovoltaic on the control of low-frequency load shedding should be considered when designing low-frequency load shedding schemes for the power grid with high penetration of distributed photovoltaic. (shrink)

Important strides have been made toward understanding the relationship between self-efficacy and life satisfaction. However, existing studies have largely focused on work and academic domains, leaving self-efficacy in the finance domain less frequently investigated. The present study applied the self-efficacy construct to the finance domain, namely “financial self-efficacy”, and tested the sequential mediating roles of high standards tendency and investment satisfaction in the relationship between FSE and general life satisfaction. A total of 323 employees from finance-related businesses completed anonymous questionnaires (...) regarding FSE, high standards tendency, investment satisfaction, and general life satisfaction. Results indicated that FSE influenced general life satisfaction through investment satisfaction, and sequentially through high standards tendency and investment satisfaction. These results provide contributions to the current literature on life satisfaction, and positive psychology literature by shedding light on the roles of high standards tendency and investment satisfaction in the relation between FSE and general life satisfaction. (shrink)

Consider the following argument, where ‘\’ abbreviates ‘the proposition that p’: It is possible that Socrates does not exist.Necessarily, if Socrates does not exist, then \ is true.Necessarily, if \ is true, then \ exists.Necessarily, if \ exists, then Socrates exists.Therefore, it is possible that Socrates exists and does not exist. How can one respond to this argument? Fine thinks that the argument involves an equivocation concerning the notion of truth for propositions: if we stand inside a possible world to (...) evaluate the truth, in this ‘inner’ sense holds but fails; but if we stand outside, in this ‘outer’ sense holds but fails. In this paper we argue that such an equivocation response is obscure, ad hoc, and unmotivated. (shrink)

This study is intended to create an innovative contextual English learning environment making use of the widely used communication software, LINE ChatBot, based on the Artificial Intelligence Markup Language, in order to improve speaking and listening ability among learners. A total of 73 students were invited to participate in learning activities involving a 4-week English conversation exercise including both speaking and listening. Additionally, in order to explore the influence of competition on language acquisition, we added competition characteristics to the learning (...) activities in the experimental group to enhance learning motivation and learning outcomes. The results showed that with the help of the LINE ChatBot contextual learning environment, the performance of both groups of students was slightly enhanced, but no significant differences were found. Meanwhile, extrinsic motivation in both the experimental and control group was improved if they spoke anonymously. That is, the contextual learning environment based on the LINE ChatBot significantly improved the learners’ English speaking and listening ability. In addition, the results showed that the addition of a competition element effectively enhanced the learners’ intrinsic motivation to learn English on the LINE ChatBot. (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed the patterns of lifestyle and posed psychological stress on pregnant women. However, the association of sleep duration and screen time with anxiety among pregnant women under the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic scenario has been poorly addressed. We conducted one large-scale, multicenter cross-sectional study which recruited 1794 pregnant women across middle and west China. Self-reported demographic characteristics, lifestyle, and mental health status were collected from 6th February to 8th May 2020. We investigated the association (...) of sleep duration and screen time with the risk of anxiety by multivariable logistic regression analysis and linear regression analysis after adjusting potential confounders. The dose-response relationship of sleep duration and screen time with anxiety was visualized using a cubic spline plot. Our data revealed that almost 35% of pregnant women suffered from anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sleep duration was dose-dependently associated with a lower risk of anxiety among pregnant women, while screen time exhibited a conversed effect. Notably, sleep duration synergistically combined with screen time to diminish the risk of anxiety. Taken together, sleep duration and screen time were independently and jointly associated with anxiety. Therefore, promoting a more active lifestyle and maintaining higher sleep quality could improve the mental health of pregnant women, especially under public health emergency. (shrink)

Background Performance evaluation is vital for IRB operations. As the number of IRBs and their responsibilities in reviewing and supervising clinical research grow in China, there is a significant need to evaluate their performances. To date, little research has examined IRB performance within China. The aim of this study was to ascertain the perspectives and experiences of IRB employees and researchers to understand the current status of IRBs; compare collected results with those of other countries; and identify shortcomings to improve (...) IRB performance. Methods This study was conducted in China from October 2020 to September 2021, using an online survey with the IRB-researcher assessment tool-Chinese version. Results 757 respondents were included in the analysis and classified into IRB employees, researchers, or those who are both IRB employees and researchers. Overall, the score for an ideal IRB was significantly higher than that of an actual IRB. Compared to the US National Validation study, Chinese participants and American participants both agree and differ in their perspectives on the most and least important ideal items. Conclusion This investigation provides a benchmark of the perceived performance of actual IRBs in China. IRBs in China can be precisely adjusted by targeting identified areas of weakness to improve their performances. (shrink)

The logic FBCI given by linearly ordered BCI-matrices is known not to be an axiomatic extension of the well-known BCI logic. In this paper we axiomatize FBCI by adding a recursively enumerable set of schemes of inference rules to BCI and show that there is no finite axiomatization for FBCI.

With the rapid development of urbanization, the urban expansion morphology has been changing with complex driving mechanisms behind the urban evolution process. This article simulates the results of urban land development contingent upon decision-makers’ risk preferences and reveals the inherent law of the effect of risk preferences on urban expansion morphology. Results show that cautious decision-makers lead to the urban expansion morphology being relatively compact, and the reckless decision-makers lead the urban expansion to sprawl. Moreover, there are obvious differences in (...) strengths of planning constraints on the decision-makers with different risk preferences. The reckless decision-makers, driven by the economic interests, are more likely to break through the planning, especially when the planning is not reasonable. It is also found that enhancing executive ability of planning for the reckless decision-makers can promote compactness of the urban expansion morphology. However, the effect of enhancing executive ability of planning on the cautious decision-makers is limited. Thus, in the case of unreasonable planning, the executive ability of planning to the reckless decision-makers should be enhanced so as to avoid urban sprawl. (shrink)

This volume brings together a group of logic-minded philosophers and philosophically oriented logicians to address a diversity of topics on the structural analysis of non-classical logics. It mainly focuses on the construction of different types of models for various non-classical logics of current interest, including modal logics, epistemic logics, dynamic logics, and observational predicate logic. The book presents a wide range of applications of two well-known approaches in current research: structural modeling of certain philosophical issues in the framework of non-classic (...) logics, such as admissible models for modal logic, structural models for modal epistemology and for counterfactuals, and epistemological models for common knowledge and for public announcements; conceptual analysis of logical properties of, and formal semantics for, non-classical logics, such as sub-formula property, truthmaking, epistemic modality, behavioral strategies, speech acts and assertions. The structural analysis provided in this volume will appeal not only to graduate students and experts in non-classic logics, but also to readers from a wide range of disciplines, including computer science, cognitive science, linguistics, game theory and theory of action, to mention a few. (shrink)

Maker education mainly involves “hands-on” as the core concept and combines various educational theories to redefine interactions between learners and teachers in a learning environment. Identification of meaningful “hands-on” behaviors is crucial to evaluate students’ learning performance, although an instructor’s observation of every student is not feasible. However, such observation is possible with the aid of the artificial intelligence image processing technique; the AI learning behavior recognition system can serve as the second eyes of teachers, thus accounting for individual differences. (...) However, in previous studies, learning behavior recognition was applied to the traditional or static classroom. A behavior recognition system for identifying “hands-on” actions in the learning context has still not been developed. Therefore, this study designed a human posture evaluation system, obtained human articulation node information from learning field images, and built a learning behavior recognition model suitable for maker education based on the AI convolutional neural network. A learning behavior model was defined, along with a number of student behavior indexes. Subsequently, the effectiveness of the model and behavior indexes was verified through practical learning activities. The model evaluation results indicated that the proposed model achieved a training accuracy of 0.99 and a model accuracy of 0.83. Thus, the model can be applied to dynamic maker activity learning environments. (shrink)