In this paper, we propose a method to design the pseudorandom number generator using three kinds of four-wing memristive hyperchaotic systems with different dimensions as multientropy sources. The principle of this method is to obtain pseudorandom numbers with good randomness by coupling XOR operation on the three kinds of FWMHSs with different dimensions. In order to prove its potential application in secure communication, the security of PRNG based on this scheme is analyzed from the perspective of cryptography. In addition, PRNG (...) has passed the NIST 800.22 and ENT test, which shows that PRNG has good statistical characteristics. Finally, an image encryption algorithm based on PRNG is adopted. In the encryption algorithm, the optimized Arnold matrix scrambling method and the diffusion processing based on XOR are used to obtain the final encrypted image. Through the evaluation of encryption performance, it is concluded that there is no direct relationship between the pristine image and encrypted image. The results show that the proposed image encryption scheme has good statistical output characteristics and security performance in line with cryptography. (shrink)

As patient autonomy expands, a highly controversial issue has emerged. Should the advance directives of refusing life-saving treatments or requesting euthanasia of persons with dementia who express changed minds or are often in a happy state be fulfilled? There are two autonomy-related positions. The mainstream position in philosophical discussions supports the priority of ADs based on precedent autonomy. Buchanan and Brock, and Dworkin represent this view. The other position supports the priority of PWDs’ current wishes based on minimal autonomy represented (...) by Jaworska. By rethinking the theoretical and practical challenges of the two positions and their arguments respectively, the paper concludes that in such a scenario, the priority of ADs is morally indefensible, and it is also challenging to establish minimal autonomy defend the moral priority of PWDs’ current wishes. For PWDs whose past values, beliefs, and preferences fade away but who retain apparent intrinsic sentience of well-being, a modified defined quality-of-life approach serves as another reasonable basis in their medical decision-making, and the ADs and the QoL should be further merged to reduce the uncertainty of the grey zone. (shrink)

Although multimodal input has the potential to lead to more sound learning outcomes, it carries the risk of causing cognitive overload, making it difficult to determine the exact effects of multimodal input on the second language phrase learning. This study tests the efficacy of multimodal input on L2 phrase learning. It adopts a mixed-method approach by utilizing both quantitative and qualitative data. The experimental design is a 2 × 3 mixed model, with a group [the experimental group and the control (...) group ] as the between-subject factor and time as the within-subject factor. A total of 66 participants were divided into two groups. All materials incorporated three aspects of phrase knowledge, but the materials of the CG were unimodal in that they were offered only on paper, and of the EG were multimodal in that they included pictures, audio recordings, and video clips. After the treatment, a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview were given to the EG learners to explore their perceptions of using multimodal materials to learn L2 phrases. The results indicate that both groups had significant gains in learning phrases, but students with the multimodal input achieved significantly better results than those with the unimodal input. Moreover, the EG students had a generally positive attitude toward the use of multimodal resources. This study validates the efficacy of multimodal input on the acquisition of English phrases and shows that cognitive overload was avoided by sequencing the information. (shrink)

Cooley's argument that persons with pre‐dementia have a Kantian duty to die has led to much debate. Cooley gives two reasons for his claim, the first being that a person with pre‐dementia should end his/her life when he/she will inevitably and irreversibly lose rationality and be unable to live morally as a result. This paper argues that this reason derives from an unsubstantiated premise and general confusion regarding the condition for a Kantian duty to die. Rather, a close reading of (...) Kant reveals that such a condition occurs when a person confronts an external handicap that does not undermine his/her rational ability but deprives him/her of the possibility of living the way a person should. People do not confront this experience with progressive dementia. The other reason Cooley proposes is that a person should not allow their continued existence to become a burden to others. This claim partly stems from a radical interpretation of a case discussed by Kant and is partly based on a misuse of Kant's formulation of humanity. Based on a prudent inference from Kantian ethics, this article argues against Cooley that persons with pre‐dementia have no Kantian duty to die. (shrink)

Philosophy is typically described as a pursuit of wisdom. However, many philosophers maintain that only one type of wisdom exists—practical wisdom. Contrary to this claim, this study contends that a self-contained characterization of theoretical wisdom is possible. Although many current accounts of such wisdom are knowing-that-based, this study considers that this approach is problematic and instead favors a knowing-how-based approach. Moreover, this study offers a detailed account of theoretical wisdom in terms of conceptual knowing-how.

This commentary focuses on two issues. First, reflecting on the distinction between public and private institutions in protecting individual rights is necessary. Second, the current regulatory appr...

Although a sizable number of works on analytic philosophy are published in non-Western languages, the literature continues to be written mainly in Western languages, especially English and German. This article makes a case for discussing analytic philosophy in Chinese and argues that it entails a dilemma: it can fulfill either the audience-service or knowledge-service functions but not both at the same time. This is problematic because a standard original or critical philosophical article should fulfill both functions. Then, to challenge the (...) validity of this dilemma, I pose the hypothetical scenario of Jake, who writes a marvelous, purely original publication on analytic philosophy in Chinese. This article posits that the dilemma will not be undermined by such a case and suggests an alternative way to resolve it. (shrink)

Objective: Automatic detection of auditory stimuli, represented by the mismatch negativity, facilitates rapid processing of salient stimuli in the environment. The amplitude of MMN declines with ageing. However, whether automatic detection of auditory stimuli is affected by visually perceived negative emotions with normal ageing remains unclear. We aimed to evaluate how fearful facial expressions affect the MMN amplitude under ageing.Methods: We used a modified oddball paradigm to analyze the amplitude of N100 and MMN in 22 young adults and 21 middle-aged (...) adults.Results: We found that the amplitude of N1 elicited by standard tones was smaller under fearful facial expressions than neutral facial expressions and was more negative for young adults than middle-aged adults. The MMN amplitude under fearful facial expressions was greater than neutral facial expressions, but the amplitude in middle-aged adults was smaller than in young adults.Conclusion: Visually perceived negative emotion promotes the extraction of auditory features. Additionally, it enhances the effect of auditory change detection in middle-aged adults but fails to compensate for this decline with normal ageing.Significance: The study may help to understand how visually perceived emotion affects the early stage of auditory information processing from an event process perspective. (shrink)

Different human practices require various methods to carry them out successfully. Philosophy, an activity with 2500 years of history, must also have its own method, which demarcates a philosopher from a lay person. This thesis embarks on a project of philosophical method—conceptual tuning. How to do philosophy belongs to the category of metaphilosophy or philosophy of philosophy. Boxers usually do not care about the conceptual question ‘What is boxing?’ and biologists barely ask ‘What is Biology?’. For them, this kind of (...) question is a higher order question which concerns the nature of the thing in itself. It is an external question for most disciplines. But for philosophy, the question concerning the nature of philosophy is an internal question. Self-awareness is a sine qua non of doing philosophy.With such a long history and so many traditions, the method of doing philosophy must be miscellaneous. My thesis attempts to contribute to the discussion of philosophical methodology by proposing a method I shall call conceptual tuning. Conceptual tuning is grounded in the philosophical method of conceptual engineering, advocates of which endeavor to improve our concepts. According to the method of conceptual engineering, philosophical problems stem from defects in our understanding of concepts, and it is the philosopher’s task to fix them. While most conceptual engineering approaches only narrowly focus on the perspective of ‘repairing’ or ‘fixing’, conceptual tuning calls for attention to the ‘expressive’ perspective. In other words, we should put this method in the broad framework of the practice of asking for and giving reasons. In this thesis, I also attempt to explain some previous conceptual methods under the title of conceptual tuning, such as Brandomian method, ordinary language philosophy, and the traditional conceptual analyses. (shrink)

Deception is common in dementia care, although its moral legitimacy is questionable. This paper conceptually clarifies when does dementia care involve deception and argues that care ethics is an appropriate ethical framework to guide dementia care compared with the mainstream ethical theories that emphasize abilities. From a perspective of care ethics, this paper claims that morally defensible deception is context-specific, embodied as a caring process that needs to be identified through instant, creative and interactive care procedures. According to this argument, (...) it further analyses and concludes the moral rationality of deception in five common cases. While deception is morally justified in many situations, another concern is that it is usually not the last resort but a means of convenience. As the ability to interact, autonomy and dignity of persons with dementia (PWDs) are generally ignored; nurses need more training and education to master the essential procedures to ensure that the value of authenticity and autonomy is maintained and considered throughout dementia care. (shrink)

Background. Herpes zoster is a disease that mainly causes severe segmental neuralgia and vesicles after infection with herpes zoster virus. At the same time, more than 9 to 34 percent of patients have postherpetic neuralgia present with chronic pain for months or even years. Moxibustion has been used to treat herpes zoster and postherpetic neuralgia for many years; however, there has been no comprehensive study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of moxibustion in the treatment of herpes zoster and postherpetic (...) neuralgia. More studies evaluated the combined effects of acupuncture and moxibustion. Therefore, the purpose of this systematic review is to evaluate their efficacy and safety, so as to provide an evidence-based basis for the clinical application of moxibustion in the treatment of HZ and PHN. Method. The literature search was conducted in nine Chinese and English databases, and randomized controlled trials were pooled from their inceptions to June 2020. The included literature was screened, and data were extracted. RevMan 5.3 software and Stata software were used for statistical analysis. The primary outcome was the total effect. The secondary outcomes include VAS, NRS, and time of analgesia. Outcomes. From a total of 1957 identified studies, 31 were included in analysis. 31 RCTs contained the experimental sample of 1185 cases and the control sample of 1149 cases reported efficiency of different moxibustions in the treatment of herpes zoster, statistical heterogeneity inspection without heterogeneity. So, we used the fixed-effects model, merge effect quantity OR = 3.89, Z = 8.86, and it suggested sample merger analysis was statistically significant. Also, the moxibustion, compared to other methods in the treatment of herpes zoster and herpes zoster neuralgia efficiency, increased significantly. The VAS scales, WMD = 1.69, and the time of analgesia, WMD = 2.41, indicated that moxibustion surpassed others in the relief of pain. NRS was just reported in one study. It was not statistically significant. There was no significant difference in adverse effects OR = 0.61, Z = 1.56. Conclusion. Moxibustion has obvious advantages over other therapies in the treatment of HZ and PHN. However, due to the obvious publication bias, the interpretation of the results should be cautious, and more rigorous randomized controlled clinical studies should be included to further confirm the results in the future. (shrink)

This chapter focuses on the relation between ‘philosophy’ and ‘games’ and argues most of philosophy is a form of game-playing. Two approaches are considered: Wittgenstein’s notion of family resemblance and Suits’ analytic definition of a game. Both approaches support the assertion that the relationship is a close, if not categorical, one but it is the lusory attitude that is the ultimate determinant.

本书依据生态学原理,生态哲学价值观,世界观和方法论以及教育生态学等理论,试图探索中国外语教育生态发展的途径与方法.所谓生态,是指生物在一定的自然环境条件下生存和发展的状态.

In recent years, the research of chaos theory has developed from simple cognition and analysis to practical engineering application. In particular, hyperchaotic systems with more complex and changeable chaotic characteristics are more sensitive and unpredictable, so they are widely used in more fields. In this paper, two important engineering applications based on hyperchaos pseudorandom number generator and image encryption are studied. Firstly, the coupling 6D memristive hyperchaotic system and a 2D SF-SIMM discrete hyperchaotic mapping are used as the double entropy (...) source structure. The double entropy source structure can realize a new PRNG that meets the security requirements, which can pass the NIST statistical test when the XOR postprocessing method is used. Secondly, based on the double entropy source structure, a new image encryption algorithm is proposed. The algorithm uses the diffusion-scrambling-diffusion encryption scheme to realize the conversion from the original plaintext image to the ciphertext image. Finally, we analyze the security of the proposed PRNG and image encryption mechanism, respectively. The results show that the proposed PRNG has good statistical output characteristics and the proposed image encryption scheme has high security, so they can be effectively applied in the field of information security and encryption system. (shrink)