During the COVID-19 public health crisis, market failures such as shortage of supplies and soaring prices of anti-epidemic materials – with masks as the core – have occurred. In essence, such anti-epidemic materials have the dual nature of necessities with low elasticity of demand and private products with positive externalities. This research explores the understanding of anti-pandemic materials and how different initiatives, and evaluation to increase availability of necessary resources can be effective in curbing a pandemic. Market regulation results in (...) a non-Pareto optimal allocation of resources and the difficulty of exerting the positive externalities of products. However, in China, the market failure of anti-epidemic materials was quickly resolved, due to the institutional advantages of socialism with Chinese characteristics, the social responsibility drive of domestic enterprises, and cultural genes that focus on equity and concern for the disadvantaged. The optimal allocation of anti-epidemic materials gave access to exerting efficiency and fairness effects, positive external effects, and public effects. (shrink)

Female migrant workers are doubly disadvantaged in China's urban labor market because of their doubly marginalized identities as both women and rural residents. This article takes a process-centered approach to explore how female migrants' two identity categories generate intersectional effects on their job-search experiences in cities. Data from in-depth interviews conducted in Xi'an city, China, in 2010 and 2011 reveal that three patterns of relationship explain the processes where the gender–hukou intersection affects female migrants. In the first pattern, a splintering (...) relationship, hukou and gender work singly to form employment discrimination against female migrants. The second, a contesting relationship, indicates that hukou and gender alternate as the primary identities that affect their employment opportunities. In the third, a collaborating relationship, hukou and gender work together to either positively or negatively shape female migrants' employment prospects. No matter which of the relationships plays out, female migrants' disadvantages as cheap urban laborers have become deeply entrenched in the urban labor market. This can be explained by two powerful social institutions in contemporary China, the hukou system and patriarchy. (shrink)

Given the discovery of a distributed language and motor functional network, surprisingly few studies have explored whether language processing is related to motor skill training. To address this issue, the present study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to compare whole-brain activation between nonexperts and experts in table tennis, an open skill sport in which players make rapid decisions in response to an ever-changing environment. Whole-brain activation was assessed in 30 expert table tennis players with more than 7 years’ experience and (...) 35 age-matched nonexpert college students while they performed both a size and a semantic judgment task of words presented on a monitor. Compared with nonexperts, expert table tennis players showed greater activation in the left middle occipital gyrus and right precuneus while judging the size of the words versus during baseline fixation. They also showed greater activation in the left lingual gyrus during the semantic judgment task versus during baseline fixation. Our findings indicate that the visual regions engaged in language processing are associated with open motor skill training. (shrink)

This paper proposes a super-twisting terminal sliding mode-based robust impedance controller to improve the compliance and robustness in robot-environment interaction. Based on the desired impedance dynamics, an impedance reference trajectory is constructed. Then, based on a super-twisting terminal sliding-mode, the robust impedance controller is designed to guarantee the achievement of the desired impedance dynamics in finite-time through the finite-time convergence of an impedance error. The main contribution of this paper is that the proposed control improves impedance control robustness by using (...) the super-twisting nonsingular terminal sliding-mode without causing the chattering problem. The finite-time stability of the closed-loop control system is validated by theoretical analysis based on the Lyapunov theory, and the control effectiveness is illustrated by simulations on a two-link robot manipulator. (shrink)

Detecting and correcting execution errors is crucial for safe and efficient goal-directed behavior. Despite intensive investigations on error processing, the cognitive foundations of this process remain unclear. Based on the presumed relation between executive attention and error processing, we implemented a seven-day EA intervention by adopting the Posner cueing paradigm to test the potential causal link from EA to error processing in healthy adults. The experimental group was trained on the Posner cueing paradigm, with a ratio of invalid cue trials (...) to valid cue trials of 5:1 and a corresponding ratio of 1:1 in the active control group. We found that the EA intervention improved EA across intervention sessions. Critically, after the EA intervention, the HEA group showed that post-error accuracy was restored to the same level as the post-correct accuracy. However, post-error slowing and the flanker effect were not modulated by the EA intervention. Furthermore, we observed that the changes in the accuracy of VC trials positively predicted the changes in PEA and that the two groups were classified according to the changes in PEA with a 61.3% accuracy. Based on these results, we propose that EA causally drives error processing. And the capabilities of the “actively catch” more attention resources and the automatic mismatch processing developed after EA intervention is transferable to error processing, thereby directly resulting in the gains in post-error adjustments. Our work informs the potential cognitive mechanisms underlying this causal link. (shrink)

In recent years, precise high flow oxygen therapy as a new type of oxygen therapy machine has gradually attracted people’s attention and has been widely used in hospital emergency and clinical treatment of respiratory diseases; especially in recent years, severe coronavirus disease has played an important role in the treatment of patients. This paper presents a new type of precise high flow oxygen therapy machine with electromagnetic pneumatic flow valve as the core control element. A sliding mode control strategy based (...) on the system is proposed to realize the accurate control of oxygen concentration and output flow of oxygen therapy mixture. The physical equipment of the precision high flow system is established, and its working performance is verified through the test platform. The optimization design goal of the precision high flow equipment is achieved. (shrink)

Metal roof enclosure system is an important part of steel structure construction. In recent years, it has been widely used in large-scale public or industrial buildings such as stadiums, airport terminals, and convention centers. Affected by bad weather, various types of accidents on metal roofs frequently occurred, causing huge property losses and adverse effects. Because of wide span, long service life and hidden fault of metal roof, the manual inspection of metal roof has low efficiency, poor real-time performance, and it (...) is difficult to find hidden faults. On the basis of summarizing the working principle of metal roof and cause of accidents, this paper classifies the fault types of metal roofs in detail and establishes a metal roof monitoring and fault diagnosis system using distributed multisource heterogeneous sensors and Zigbee wireless sensor networks. Monitoring data from strain gauge, laser ranging sensor, and ultrasonic ranging sensor is utilized comprehensively. By extracting time domain feature, the data trend characteristics and correlation characteristics are analyzed and fused to eliminate erroneous data and find superficial faults such as sensor drift and network interruption. Aiming to the hidden faults including plastic deformation and bolt looseness, an SVM fault diagnosis algorithm based on RBF kernel function is designed and applied to diagnose metal roof faults. The experimental results show that the RBF-SVM algorithm can achieve high classification accuracy. (shrink)

It is well documented that self-control has a positive effect on individuals’ subjective well-being. However, little research has focused on the moderators underlying this relationship. The present research used two studies to examine the moderating role of both trait and state motivation on the relationship between self-control and subjective well-being using psychometric and experimental models, respectively. In Study 1, we explored whether trait motivation moderated the relationship between trait self-control and subjective well-being using a psychometric model. In Study 2, we (...) examined the moderating effects of both trait and state motivation on the effect of state self-control on subjective well-being using an experimental model. Our results indicated that self-control had a positive effect on subjective well-being, with this relationship being primarily moderated by prevention motivation. When state and trait prevention motivations were congruent, self-control had the most obvious impact on subjective well-being. This study suggests that current understandings around the association between self-control and happiness is limited, implying that motivation should be the focus of future research. (shrink)

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

Complete works of Śaṅkarācārya, Hindu philosopher; with commentary and Bengali translation.

Introduction: Staring into the abyss -- Situating the self in the abyss -- The mystical abyss: via negativa -- The dialectical abyss: the restless negative of Hegel -- The colonial abyss: groundlessness of being -- Creolizing cosmopolitics: poetics from the deep.

Contributed articles on Śaṅkarācārya, Hindu philosophy, and religious life.

Collection of published and unpublished 48 works of Śaṅkarācārya.

Commentary, with supercommentaries, on Bādarayana's Brahmasūtra, basic aphoristic work of Vedanta philosophy; Advaita viewpoint.

The Author and the Editor invite us to Discern (viveka) between Real and non-real, between atman (Self) and non-atman (non-Self), between Infinite and finite, between Life and death. In Svami Nikhilananda's words: -This work, which contains only forty-six sloka (verses) is an excellent vade mecum (handbook) for students of advanced courses in Advaita philosophy-. Both Readers and Scholars will welcome the truly Monumental Bibliography. SHANKARA, the Author, has been one of the greatest philosophers of India, and has profoundly influenced not (...) only India's philosophical development, but that of the entire world. RAPHAEL, the Editor, is an author and a Master in the Western Metaphysical Tradition as well as in Vedanta. (shrink)

Ancient work with Sanskrit and Hindi commentaries on Self-realization and Advaita philosophy.

Study of Inference (anumāna) according to the Nyāyabhūṣaṇa, an autocommentary by Bhāsarvajña, 10th century, on his Nyāyasāra, aphorism on Nyaya philosophy.

This work studies the Great Council of Malines as an institution. It analyzes the Council's internal organization and staff policy, its position within the broader society of the Austrian Netherlands, the volume and nature of litigation at the Council, and its final years and ultimate demise in the late 18th and early 19th century. By means of this institutional study, this volume provides insight into the role played by the Great Council in the process of state-building in the 18th century (...) Austrian Netherlands. While superior courts were once considered to be the prime agencies of change in the Early Modern Period, tools par excellence for the sovereigns' striving towards centralization and superiority, their position in the 18th century has so far been barely touched upon. This work focuses specifically on the 18th century supreme court of the Austrian Netherlands, and provides a broad overview with attention to other aspects of the tribunal's functioning and to its role in 18th century attempts at state formation. (shrink)

Classical commentary on Brahmasūtra of Bādarāyaṇa, with Malayalam translation.