The rapid development of computers and technology affects modern daily life. Individuals in the digital age need to develop computational thinking skills. Existing studies have shown that programming teaching is conducive to cultivating students’ CT, and various learning models have different effects on the cultivation of CT. This study proposed a problem-oriented learning model that is closely related to programming and computational thinking. In all, 60 eighth-grade students from a middle school in China were divided into an experimental group which (...) adopted the POL model, and a control group which adopted the lecture-and-practice learning model. The results showed that the students who were instructed using the POL model performed better than those who were instructed using the LAP model on CT concepts, CT practices, and CT perspectives. Significant differences were found for CT concepts and CT perspectives, but not for CT practices. Findings have implications for teachers who wish to apply new learning models to facilitate students’ CT skills, and the study provides a reference case for CT training and Python programming teaching. (shrink)

The transplanted firm is an important force to promote the network evolution and cluster transformation and upgrading of the undertaking firm. From the micro-analytic perspective of firm network, this paper puts forward a theoretical framework with “relationship-network-evolution” as the main line. Taking the refrigeration industry cluster in Minquan County of China as a case study and keeping the firm networks of economic relation, technical cooperation, and social communication firm network in 2009, 2013, and 2017 as the research objects, this paper (...) analyzes the structure and evolution characteristics of regional firm network system, proposes the degree and effect of the local embeddedness of transplanted firms, and discusses their differences between international and interregional transplanted firms. The results revealed that: the local embeddedness of transplanted firms significantly promotes the development of refrigeration industry network. The network power of large-scale transplanted firms in the cluster is increasing day by day, and the network presents a multi-core trend. The local embeddedness of some transplanted firms is not high, and the overall connectivity of the network is not strong. Network intermediary nodes have strong heterogeneity, and the intermediary role of some large transplanted firms in the network needs to be improved. The three network systems have similar structural characteristics, and social capital plays an important role in the local embeddedness of transplanted firms and the development of regional firm network. Compared with international transplanted firms, interregional transplanted firms are more adaptable in terms of local embeddedness. The research results provide a reference for the construction of similar industrial clusters in China and other developing countries. (shrink)

With the change in the location of school education from the classroom to the home during the COVID-19 outbreak, there should be more educational caregiving from children’s parents when children learn online. Parental involvement in children’s online learning including study guide and psychological counseling is the specific content of educational caregiving, which is different from face-to-face learning. More attention should be paid to parental involvement and parents’ satisfaction with the online learning effect. This study therefore conducted a survey on middle (...) school students’ parents to establish a moderating model, exploring the influence of parental involvement on parent satisfaction, and the number of children and parental education level as the moderator variables influencing parental involvement. The results show that there is a significant positive correlation between parental involvement and satisfaction, while the parental education level and the number of children both have a moderating effect on the relationship between parental involvement and parent satisfaction. The moderating effect of the education level of parents shows negative, while the moderating effect of the number of children is positive. An interesting finding is that the number of children has a very low influence on parental involvement. (shrink)

In order for higher education to provide students with up-to-date knowledge and relevant skillsets for their continued learning, it needs to keep pace with innovative pedagogy and cognitive sciences to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education for all. An adequate implementation of flipped learning, which can offer undergraduates education that is appropriate in a knowledge-based society, requires moving from traditional educational models to innovative pedagogy integrated with a playful learning environment (PLE) supported by information and communications technologies (ICTs). In this (...) paper, based on the design-based research, a task-driven instructional approach in the flipped classroom (TDIAFC) was designed and implemented for two groups of participants in an undergraduate hands-on making course in a PLE. One group consisting of 81 students as the experimental group (EG) received flipped learning instruction, and another group of 79 students as the control group (CG) received lecture-centered instruction. The EG students experienced a three-round study, with results from the first round informing the customized design of the second round and the second round informing the third round. The experimental results demonstrated that students in the EG got higher scores of summative tests and final scores than those in the CG. In particular, students’ learning performance in three domains (i.e., cognitive, affective, and psychomotor) differ significantly between the two groups. (shrink)

With the rapid development of mobile devices, users can now read on the screen. Electronic reading has become a common reading style with the growth in online learning or electronic learning. E-book applications are widely developed and applied for reading on a screen. However, it is difficult for readers to change their reading habits or preference from paper-printed books to digital devices. The study of readers' continuance intention to use e-book APPs is the first step to improving e-reading. This study (...) focuses on the influential factors on undergraduates' continuance intention of e-book APPs, which analyzed and summarized the literature related to the electronic book applications and undergraduates' continuous intention, combined with the characteristics of the e-book APPs, introduced relevant theories and variables, and established the factors that influence undergraduates' continuous intention of using e-book APPs. On this basis, the paper analyzed the relationship between various influencing factors and their influence on continuous intention. A model composed of five hypotheses was constructed to test the factors influencing undergraduates' continuous intention in e-book APPs. The results indicated that of all research variables, satisfaction is the most important factor that affects continuous intention; Perceived usefulness and perceived playfulness have an indirect effect on continuous intention through satisfaction; personalization has direct effects on perceived usefulness and perceived playfulness, so it also has an indirect effect on continuous intention. The findings of the study will be helpful for designers and developers of e-book APPs and provide e-book APP suggestions for readers as well. (shrink)

Online learning resources play an important role in teaching and learning in the process of online learning. Teachers will be satisfied with selectable and suitable online learning resources, which can promote their self-efficacy to facilitate online teaching and learning. This study proposed a model to examine the effects of the selectivity of online learning resources and the suitability of online learning resources on teachers’ online teaching satisfaction, and the mediating role of technology self-efficacy and online teaching self-efficacy between them. The (...) results indicated that SE-OLR and SU-OLR positively affected teachers’ online teaching satisfaction; TECHN-SE and OT-SE positively influenced teachers’ online teaching satisfaction, while TECHN-SE and OT-SE played mediating roles between SE-OLR and SU-OLR and teachers’ online teaching satisfaction. The findings have implications for the design and development of online learning resources to improve teachers’ satisfaction and facilitate students’ learning effectiveness and teachers’ online teaching. (shrink)

Hemispherical Resonator Gyro is a new type gyro with high precision, high reliability, shock resistance, no need of preheating, short start time, and long life. It is a kind of vibrating gyro with standing wave rotating along the sensitive base of annular precession, has a unique application prospect in the field of high precision inertial sensors, and is widely used in unmanned aerial vehicle control in complex environments. Based on the theory of the structure characteristics of the hemispherical resonator, the (...) mathematical model of energy of the resonator is established to research the rule of resonant frequency when the hemispherical resonator is rotated around the central axis. In this paper, the influence of precession factor, which are the top angle, the bottom angle, and wall unevenness of the hemispherical resonator, are analyzed. A series of hemispherical resonator models are constructed by ANSYS software to prove the results of theoretical research. The simulation results show that precession factor of the hemispherical resonator is more sensitive of the top angle than the bottom angle, and the error of angular velocity which is caused by the change of the top angle is larger than that which is caused by the change of the bottom angle. (shrink)

The emergence of conflicts between environmental safety incidents and protection rights generates sizeable political costs, which endangers the legitimacy of the government as well as political security and stability. This article further examines the role of political costs in environmental issues. First, political costs in relation to environmental issues are defined. An equilibrium strategic analysis is then presented using an evolutionary game model in which the strategic behavioral choices of government, enterprises, and citizens are investigated by embedding political costs in (...) the environmental governance system. Furthermore, the small-signal model was innovatively applied to simulate and analyze the stability of political costs under different equilibrium strategies in the system. The results show the following. Pubic behavior and government are the dominant factors that impact stability and instability, respectively. Public behavior is the core element that affects political cost consumption. When political costs are extremely depleted, the public will neglect economic interests, turn toward environmental interests, and choose the negative participation strategy, which destabilizes the system. The political cost signal at the optimal equilibrium point not only warns the government not to take the desperate action of concealing information asymmetry but also allows the government to let go of its hands to deal with the environmental issues. Corresponding policy recommendations are proposed. (shrink)

China has achieved economic prominence but damaged the natural environment. Can religions excite pro-environmental actions? Chinese religion encompasses Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, native Taoism, and indigenous folk beliefs (GuanDi and Mazu). We theorize that believers demonstrate more sustainable HOPE (Help Ourselves Protect the Environment) than non-believers. Religions with standardized and formal liturgy show more pro-environmental HOPE than those without it. We challenge the myth that the believers of Christianity and Islam display more sustainable HOPE than other faith. The 2013 Chinese General (...) Social Survey (involving 10,017 randomly selected participants across 28 provinces) revealed that 11.10% of them have faith. Believers display higher levels of HOPE than atheists, demonstrating the __religion__ effect. Among believers, native Taoism and Buddhism exhibit more ecological HOPE than other religions, supporting the __dogma__ effect in the Chinese culture. Religions with formalized liturgy demonstrate more pro-environmental HOPE than generalized folk beliefs—GuanDi and Mazu, validating the __liturgy__ effect. Females, married, and people with good income, education, health, and country-domicile—the haves—exhibit robust ecological HOPE. The rich get richer and greener. However, those who are older, males, urban residents, and the Han majority do not. We empirically demonstrate the Matthew Effect in Religious Social Responsibility: Religious faith facilitates believers’ pro-environmental behaviors—HOPE and ethical behaviors in China. (shrink)

ObjectivesTo simulate hemodynamic changes after extraluminal compression in pulsatile tinnitus patients with a prominent transverse-sigmoid sinus junction.MethodsOne patient-specific case was reconstructed based on computed tomography venography images of a PT patient. The compression degree served as a new index in this study. Cases with 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, and 90% of the compression degree of the control subject were constructed. Steady-state computational fluid dynamics were assessed. The wall pressure distribution, wall maximum pressure and flow pattern of (...) the PTSJ were calculated to evaluate hemodynamic differences among all cases.ResultsWith increasing compression, the wall pressure at the compression point and downstream of the PTSJ decreased but increased upstream. When the compression degree exceeded 70%, the upstream pressure increased significantly. Above 50% compression, the blood flow pattern downstream of the sigmoid sinus tended to spiral, especially after 80% compression. Beyond 60% compression, the blood flow pattern under the compression axis became more medial.ConclusionMechanical compression of PTSJ changes wall pressure and blood flow patterns. The degree of compression should be carefully observed to avoid possible complications or reoccurrence. (shrink)

Multiplex networks have been widely used in information diffusion, social networks, transport, and biology multiomics. They contain multiple types of relations between nodes, in which each type of the relation is intuitively modeled as one layer. In the real world, the formation of a type of relations may only depend on some attribute elements of nodes. Most existing multiplex network embedding methods only focus on intralayer and interlayer structural information while neglecting this dependence between node attributes and the topology of (...) each layer. Attributes that are irrelevant to the network structure could affect the embedding quality of multiplex networks. To address this problem, we propose a novel multiplex network embedding model with high-order node dependence, called HMNE. HMNE simultaneously considers three properties: intralayer high-order proximity of nodes, interlayer dependence in respect of nodes, and the dependence between node attributes and the topology of each layer. In the intralayer embedding phase, we present a symmetric graph convolution-deconvolution model to embed high-order proximity information as the intralayer embedding of nodes in an unsupervised manner. In the interlayer embedding phase, we estimate the local structural complementarity of nodes as an embedding constraint of interlayer dependence. Through these two phases, we can achieve the disentangled representation of node attributes, which can be treated as fined-grained semantic dependence on the topology of each layer. In the restructure phase of node attributes, we perform a linear fusion of attribute disentangled representations for each node as a reconstruction of original attributes. Extensive experiments have been conducted on six real-world networks. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed model outperforms the state-of-the-art methods in cross-domain link prediction and shared community detection tasks. (shrink)

Subgraph matching on a large graph has become a popular research topic in the field of graph analysis, which has a wide range of applications including question answering and community detection. However, traditional edge-cutting strategy destroys the structure of indivisible knowledge in a large RDF graph. On the premise of load-balancing on subgraph division, a dominance-partitioned strategy is proposed to divide a large RDF graph without compromising the knowledge structure. Firstly, a dominance-connected pattern graph is extracted from a pattern graph (...) to construct a dominance-partitioned pattern hypergraph, which divides a pattern graph as multiple fish-shaped pattern subgraphs. Secondly, a dominance-driven spectrum clustering strategy is used to gather the pattern subgraphs into multiple clusters. Thirdly, the dominance-partitioned subgraph matching algorithm is designed to conduct all isomorphic subgraphs on a cluster-partitioned RDF graph. Finally, experimental evaluation verifies that our strategy has higher time-efficiency of complex queries, and it has a better scalability on multiple machines and different data scales. (shrink)

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic called for a new ethical climate in the designated hospitals and imposed challenges on care quality for anti-pandemic nurses. Less was known about whether hospital ethical climate and nurses’ ethical sensitivity were associated with care quality. This study examined the association between the perceived hospital ethical climate and self-evaluated quality of care for COVID-19 patients among anti-pandemic nurses, and explored the mediating role of ethical sensitivity in this relationship.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted through an online survey. A (...) total of 399 anti-pandemic nurses from ten designated hospitals in three provinces of China were recruited to fill out an online survey. Multiple linear regression analysis and a bootstrap test were used to examine the relationships between ethical climate, ethical sensitivity and care quality.ResultsNurses reported mean scores of 4.43 ± 0.577 (out of 5) for hospital ethical climate, 45.00 ± 7.085 (out of 54) for ethical sensitivity, and 5.35 ± 0.661 (out of 6) for self-evaluated care quality. After controlling for covariates, perceived hospital ethical climate was positively associated with self-evaluated care quality (direct effect = 0.710, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.628, 0.792), and was partly mediated by ethical sensitivity (indirect effect = 0.078, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.002, 0.145).ConclusionsChinese nurses who cared for COVID-19 patients perceived high levels of hospital ethical climate, ethical sensitivity, and self-evaluated care quality. Positive perceptions of hospital ethical climate were both directly associated with a higher level of self-evaluated care quality and indirectly associated, through the mediation effect of ethical sensitivity among anti-pandemic nurses. (shrink)

With the global pandemic of COVID-19, it has been striking psychological burdens on individuals. Under this background, more and more people get wellbeing by watching live broadcasts. However, the psychological mechanism behind this phenomenon is still a black box. This study finds that when people watch a live broadcast and interact with anchors and other people, an interaction ritual chain is formed, and emotional energy is generated, thus making people experience and understand the meaning of the live interaction ritual chains. (...) Under the effect of the meaning transfer model, people will generate wellbeing. Specifically, the basic meaning of live interaction drives people’s generation of wellbeing. The meanings of self-participation, self-display, self-concept, and self-renewal play a role in mediation in enhancing people’s wellbeing with the basic meaning of live broadcast interaction. (shrink)

Background: Chinese Taoist cognitive therapy (CTCT), a culture-oriented psychological therapy for Chinese mental well-being, has been proposed for decades. However, the evidence for its effects is unclear. This study aimed to systematically assess the effect of this therapy on symptoms of depression and anxiety in Chinese adults. Methods: Relevant studies were searched from major electronic databases through November 2018 without language limits. Several search terms used include “anxiety” OR “depression” AND “Taoism” OR “Daoism” OR “Chinese Taoist Cognitive Therapy”. A total (...) of 11 clinical trials focusing on CTCT were included in this meta-analysis. Random-effects meta-analytical models were conducted. Heterogeneity and publication bias were also explored. Results: Eight clinical trials for 580 subjects were included. The majority of these studies explored samples with depressive symptoms. Overall, CTCT significantly reduced depressive symptoms with a small positive effect (SMD = 0.16, 95% CI: -0.36-0.68). Medium-to-large effect sizes were observed across individuals with clinical or nonclinical depression and chronic physical diseases (SMD = 0.70, 95%CI: 0.27-1.13 and SMD = 0.72, 95%CI: 0.09-1.35, respectively). However, the effectiveness for anxiety symptoms remains debatable. Conclusions: Our findings hold promise that CTCT can help reduce depressive symptoms in Chinese adults, including patients with chronic physical diseases and clinical or nonclinical depression. Our findings may be generalized to Chinese communities in other countries. (shrink)

Background: Interpersonal sensitivity is a prominent mental health problem facing college students today. Trait mindfulness is a potential positive factor that may influence interpersonal relationships. However, the precise relationship between trait mindfulness and interpersonal sensitivity remains elusive, which limits the optimization and further application of mindfulness-based intervention schemes targeting interpersonal sensitivity. This study aimed to explore whether negative emotions mediate the relationship between trait mindfulness and interpersonal sensitivity and whether the relationship among trait mindfulness, negative emotions, and interpersonal sensitivity is (...) moderated by effectiveness/authenticity. We hypothesize that negative emotions mediate the relationship between trait mindfulness and interpersonal sensitivity, and effectiveness/authenticity moderates the indirect association between trait mindfulness and interpersonal sensitivity through negative emotions.Methods: One thousand four hundred nineteen Chinese college students, aged from 17 to 23, participated in this study. Their trait mindfulness, negative emotions, the effectiveness/authenticity, and interpersonal sensitivity were measured using well-validated self-report questionnaires.Results: Correlational analyses indicated that both trait mindfulness and effectiveness/authenticity were significantly and negatively associated with interpersonal sensitivity. Mediation analyses uncovered a partial mediating role of negative emotions in the relationship between trait mindfulness and interpersonal sensitivity. Moderated mediation analyses showed that in college students with high effectiveness/authenticity, the relationship between trait mindfulness and negative emotions was stronger, whereas the relationship between negative emotions and interpersonal sensitivity was weaker.Conclusion: Negative emotion is a mediator of the relationship between trait mindfulness and interpersonal sensitivity, which in turn is moderated by effectiveness/authenticity. These findings suggest a potential mechanism through which trait mindfulness influences interpersonal sensitivity. Mindfulness-based interventions have the potential to decrease interpersonal sensitivity and offer a basis for predicting individual differences in response to mindfulness-based interventions among individuals. (shrink)

In this study we present a self-organizing connectionist model of early lexical development. We call this model DevLex-II, based on the earlier DevLex model. DevLex-II can simulate a variety of empirical patterns in children's acquisition of words. These include a clear vocabulary spurt, effects of word frequency and length on age of acquisition, and individual differences as a function of phonological short-term memory and associative capacity. Further results from lesioned models indicate developmental plasticity in the network's recovery from damage, in (...) a non-monotonic fashion. We attribute the network's abilities in accounting for lexical development to interactive dynamics in the learning process. In particular, variations displayed by the model in the rate and size of early vocabulary development are modulated by (a) input characteristics, such as word frequency and word length, (b) consolidation of lexical-semantic representation, meaning-form association, and phonological short-term memory, and (c) delayed processes due to interactions among timing, severity, and recoverability of lesion. Together, DevLex and DevLex-II provide an accurate computational account of early lexical development. (shrink)

Objective: To investigate the prevalence of and risk factors associated with mental health symptoms in psychiatric outpatients and their family members in China during the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: This cross-sectional, survey-based, region-stratified study collected demographic data and mental health measurements for depression, anxiety and acute stress from 269 psychiatric patients and 231 family members in the Second Xiangya Hospital in China from April 27, 2020 to May 8, 2020. Binary logistic regression analysis was performed to identify risk factors associated with mental (...) health outcomes.Result: The results of this survey revealed that symptoms of depression, anxiety, and acute stress were highly prevalent symptoms in the psychiatric patient group. Respondents who were female, unmarried or highly educated were significantly more likely to have the above symptoms. In the family member group, more than half of them felt that the burden of nursing had increased during the epidemic. Subjects with a high degree of burden of care were significantly more likely to exhibit the above mental health symptoms, while females were significantly more likely to have acute stress.Conclusions: The results of this survey revealed a high prevalence of mental health disorder symptoms among psychiatric patients and an increased burden of nursing among their family members after the COVID-19 outbreak in China. Understanding the risk factors in those particular groups of people help improve the public health service system for mental health problems during public health events. For further study, exploration of the needs of mental health services and dynamic change tracking will be needed. (shrink)

In this study we present a self‐organizing connectionist model of early lexical development. We call this model DevLex‐II, based on the earlier DevLex model. DevLex‐II can simulate a variety of empirical patterns in children's acquisition of words. These include a clear vocabulary spurt, effects of word frequency and length on age of acquisition, and individual differences as a function of phonological short‐term memory and associative capacity. Further results from lesioned models indicate developmental plasticity in the network's recovery from damage, in (...) a non‐monotonic fashion. We attribute the network's abilities in accounting for lexical development to interactive dynamics in the learning process. In particular, variations displayed by the model in the rate and size of early vocabulary development are modulated by (a) input characteristics, such as word frequency and word length, (b) consolidation of lexical‐semantic representation, meaning‐form association, and phonological short‐term memory, and (c) delayed processes due to interactions among timing, severity, and recoverability of lesion. Together, DevLex and DevLex‐II provide an accurate computational account of early lexical development. (shrink)

Exploring the amplitude modulation phenomenon of chaotic signal has become a subject of great concern in recent years. This paper mainly concentrates on the preliminary study on amplitude modulation principle of a chaotic system. First, two 3D chaotic systems with quadratic product terms are introduced for studying the amplitude modulation phenomenon of chaotic signal. It is found that the signal amplitude of the first system can be controlled by partial quadratic coefficient. But for the second system, none of nonlinear coefficient (...) can be employed to control the signal amplitude. Then, the amplitude modulation principle of chaotic system is preliminarily studied by exploring the intrinsic relationship between nonzero equilibrium point and phase space trajectory, and it is further validated by introducing unified parameter to the two 3D chaotic systems. As a necessary condition, the principle provides a feasible and simple method for constructing and analyzing an amplitude modulation chaotic system. (shrink)

False information is always produced after the outbreak of major emergencies. Taking this into consideration, this paper discusses the behavior of multiple parties in relation to false information dissemination after major emergencies. First, a game model is constructed, using relevant knowledge of evolutionary game theory, between three parties: regulatory institutions, opinion leaders, and ordinary Internet users. Second, the model equations are solved, and the evolutionary stability strategies of each game party under different circumstances are analyzed. Third, a numerical simulation is (...) applied to the evolutionary trends under different strategy combinations with varying parameters. The results show that the probability of each game party making ideal decisions is positively correlated with the degree of punishment imposed by regulatory institutions on opinion leaders who release false information, the reward provided by regulatory institutions on opinion leaders who release positive information, the degree of participation and satisfaction gained by Internet users in adopting positive information, the richness of authentic content released by opinion leaders, and the psychological identification of Internet users with opinion leaders. Meanwhile, the probability of each game party making ideal decisions is negatively correlated with investigation and evidence collection costs borne by opinion leaders who release positive information, the additional income for opinion leaders who have false information adopted by Internet users, the costs of Internet users’ time and energy when they adopt information released by opinion leaders, and the costs of independently judging the accuracy of information by Internet users. (shrink)

In alphabetic writing systems (such as English), the spaces between words mark the word boundaries, and the basic unit of reading is distinguished during visual-level processing. The visual-level information of word boundaries facilitates reading. Chinese is an ideographic language whose text contains no intrinsic inter-word spaces as the marker of word boundaries. Previous studies have shown that the basic processing unit of Chinese reading is also a word. However, findings remain inconsistent regarding whether inserting spaces between words in Chinese text (...) promotes reading performance. Researchers have proposed that there may be a trade-off between format familiarity and the facilitation effect of inter-word spaces. In order to verify this, this study manipulated the format familiarity via reversing the Chinese reading direction from right to left to investigate this issue in Experiment 1 and Experiment 2. The purpose of Experiment 1 was to examine whether inter-word spaces facilitated Chinese reading in an unfamiliar format. Experiment 1 was conducted that 40 native Chinese undergraduates read Chinese sentences from right to left on four format conditions. The results showed faster reading speed and shorter total reading time for the inter-word spaced format. Based on this finding, Experiment 2 examined whether the facilitation effect of inter-word spaces would reduce or disappear after improving the format familiarity; this experiment was conducted that 40 native Chinese undergraduates who did not participate in Experiment 1 read Chinese sentences from right to left on four format conditions after ten-day reading training. There was no significant difference between the total reading time and reading speed in the inter-word spaced format and unspaced format, which suggests that the facilitation effect of inter-word spaces in Chinese reading changed smaller. The combined results of the two experiments suggest that there is indeed a trade-off between format familiarity and the facilitation of word segmentation, which supports the assumption of previous studies. (shrink)

Examining the effect of hedge fund activism on gender diversity, we find that the number of female directors decreases after a firm is targeted by hedge fund activism. Using the employment history data from BoardEx, we find that activist hedge funds are more likely to appoint people with finance backgrounds to the boards of target firms. And the newly appointed finance background directors are almost all male because of the lack of diversity in the finance industry. The lack of gender (...) diversity of the hedge funds’ networks and the lack of qualified female directors in the local area also help explain the impact of hedge fund activism on gender diversity on the board. (shrink)

Metrics and their weaker forms are used to measure the difference between two data. There are many metrics that are available but not desired by a practitioner. This paper recommends in a plausible reasoning manner an easy-to-understand method to construct desired distance-like measures: to fuse easy-to-obtain pseudo-semi-metrics, pseudo-metrics, or metrics by making full use of well-known t-norms, t-conorms, aggregation operators, and similar operators. The simple reason to do this is that data for a real world problem are sometimes from multiagents. (...) A distance-like notion, called weak interval-valued pseudo-metrics, is defined by using known notions of pseudo-semi-metrics, pseudo-metrics, and metrics; this notion is topologically good and shows precision, flexibility, and compatibility than single pseudo-semi-metrics, pseudo-metrics, or metrics. Propositions and detailed examples are given to illustrate how to fabricate an expected or demanded WIVP-metric in practical problems, and WIVP-metric and its special cases are characterized by using axioms. Moreover, some WIVP-metrics pertinent to quantitative logic theory or interval-valued fuzzy graphs are constructed, and fixed point theorems and common fixed point theorems in weak interval-valued metric spaces are also presented. Topics and strategies for further study are also put forward concretely and clearly. (shrink)

A large number of scholars have conducted detailed studies on the effectiveness of commercial advertising by using neuroimaging methods, but only a few scholars have used this method to study the effectiveness of public service announcements. To research the relationship between the effectiveness of PSAs and the audience’s implicit awareness, functional near-infrared spectroscopy was employed to record the neural activity data of participants in this study. The results showed that there was a correlation between activation of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and (...) the effectiveness of PSAs; The activation of the dlPFC could also be used as an indicator to represent the appeal of advertising content. The results means that neuroimaging tool can also be used to investigate the effectiveness of PSAs, not just commercial advertisements and a few PSAs study, and that neural activity can predict and improve the effectiveness of PSAs before they are released. (shrink)

BackgroundThe underrepresentation of scholarly works from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in academic literature is a documented concern, attributed partly to editorial biases. This trend, prevalent across various disciplines, has been less explored in the context of medical ethics journals. This study aimed to examine the composition of editorial board members (EBM) in high-impact medical ethics journals and to evaluate the extent of international diversity within these editorial teams.MethodsThis study incorporated an analysis of 16 high-impact medical ethics journals. Information regarding (...) the EBM of these journals was systematically gathered and categorized based on the World Bank’s country income classifications. An in-depth examination of the editorial board compositions was then conducted.ResultsThe study identified 669 EBM across the selected journals. A predominant 89.84% (601) of these members were from high-income countries (HICs), with upper-middle-income countries contributing 7.47% (50) and lower-middle-income countries 2.69% (18). No EBM were associated with low-income countries. A regional breakdown indicated that North America was the most represented area, accounting for 48.88% (327), followed by Europe & Central Asia (27.50%, 184), East Asia & Pacific (13.45%, 90), Latin America & Caribbean (4.63%, 31), Sub-Saharan Africa (4.19%, 28), Middle East & North Africa (0.75%, 5), and South Asia (0.60%, 4). In total, these EBMs hailed from 46 different countries, with the United States representing the largest proportion (43.80%, 293), followed by the United Kingdom (13.15%, 88), Australia (7.92%, 53), Germany (6.73%, 45), and Canada (5.08%, 34).ConclusionsThere is a significant lack of international representation within the EBM of high-impact medical ethics journals. The majority of editors in this field are affiliated with HICs, leading to a severe underrepresentation of LMICs within the editorial boards. (shrink)

This study aimed to explore the influence the value modularity and a firm’s innovation performance, directly and indirectly, using knowledge management as mediating variable. Moreover, in this study, we used the resource integration ability as a moderator between the relationship value modularity and firm innovation performance. We collected data from the Chinese state-owned and state-controlled high-tech firms from 2011 to 2018. In this study, we used the gray comprehensive evaluation method to test the degree of value modularity, and hierarchical regression (...) analysis is used to analyze the relationship among variables. The outcomes of this study indicate that value modularity and firm innovation performance has inverted U-shaped and significant association. Similarly, results also confirm that knowledge acquisition and knowledge internalization mediate the relationship between value modularity and firm innovation performance. The finding of this research also confirms that resource integration ability negatively affects the relationship between value modularity and firm innovation performance. This paper enriches the research of the value modularity and gives certain inspiration to knowledge management. At the end of this study, we also suggest some significant practical implications. (shrink)

Studies have documented that career exploration is significantly associated with CDSE, but how this association occurred is not clear yet. This study committed to clarifying the mechanism underlying the relationship between career exploration and CDSE by investigating the mediation effect of work volition and career adaptability among 586 pre-service kindergarten teachers. The participants are recruited from Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in northwest China, covering Han, Hui, and other minorities. They took part in a two-wave longitudinal survey and reported on their (...) career exploration at T1, work volition, career adaptability, and career decision self-efficacy at T2. Results showed that T1 career exploration is directly related to the T2 CDSE. Further, career exploration contributed to the CDSE through both the separated mediation path and the chained mediation path of T2 work volition and T2 career adaptability. The results suggest that individuals who engage in more career exploration activities are likely to have more confidence in their abilities to make career decisions over time, which was partially and serially explained by individuals’ perception of capacity despite constraints and greater self-regulatory strength. This study is a first attempt to deeply clarify the link between career exploration and CDSE, and the findings shed light on the independent and serial mediating effects of work volition and career adaptability. The implications and limitations are discussed. (shrink)

The online healthcare community has attained rapid development in recent years in which users are facilitated to exchange disease information and seek medical treatment. However, users’ motivation of participation in OHCs is still under investigation. Taking the perspective of user perceived value, this paper examined the impacts of different incentive levels including identity incentive, privilege incentive, and material incentive on user perceived value, user engagement, and user loyalty. To test the proposed hypotheses, the study adopted the methods of the between-subjects (...) experiment and questionnaire. Based on the data analysis by ANOVA and structural equation model, the results show there are significant differences in the impacts of different incentive levels on users’ perceived value. Most of the incentive measures exert significant effects on simple user hedonic value and community identity value. Accordingly, the research findings suggest that affective support value and self-health management value demonstrate more importance for user engagement and user loyalty. Therefore, OHCs should try to improve users’ affective support value and self-health management value which are the ultimate aims of the OHCs. Our study sheds some light on profoundly understanding the design of incentive mechanism of OHC and contributes to the research of OHC services. (shrink)

Objective: Patients with hypochondriasis hold unexplainable beliefs and a fear of having a lethal disease, with poor compliances and treatment response to psychotropic drugs. Although several studies have demonstrated that patients with hypochondriasis demonstrate abnormalities in brain structure and function, gray matter volume and functional connectivity in hypochondriasis still remain unclear.Methods: The present study collected T1-weighted and resting-state functional magnetic resonance images from 21 hypochondriasis patients and 22 well-matched healthy controls. We first analyzed the difference in the GMV between the (...) two groups. We then used the regions showing a difference in GMV between two groups as seeds to perform functional connectivity analysis. Finally, a support vector machine was applied to the imaging data to distinguish hypochondriasis patients from HCs.Results: Compared with the HCs, the hypochondriasis group showed decreased GMV in the left precuneus, and increased GMV in the left medial frontal gyrus. FC analyses revealed decreased FC between the left medial frontal gyrus and cuneus, and between the left precuneus and cuneus. A combination of both GMV and FC in the left precuneus, medial frontal gyrus, and cuneus was able to discriminate the hypochondriasis patients from HCs with a sensitivity of 0.98, specificity of 0.93, and accuracy of 0.95.Conclusion: Our study suggests that smaller left precuneus volumes and decreased FC between the left precuneus and cuneus seem to play an important role of hypochondriasis. Future studies are needed to confirm whether this finding is generalizable to patients with hypochondriasis. (shrink)

In a congested large-scale subway network, the distribution of passenger flow in space-time dimension is very complex. Accurate estimation of passenger path choice is very important to understand the passenger flow distribution and even improve the operation service level. The availability of automated fare collection data, timetable, and network topology data opens up a new opportunity to study this topic based on multisource data. A probability model is proposed in this study to calculate the individual passenger’s path choice with multisource (...) data, in which the impact of the network time-varying state on passenger path choice is fully considered. First, according to the number and characteristics of OD candidate paths, the AFC data among special kinds of OD are selected to estimate the distribution of passengers’ walking time and waiting time of each platform. Then, based on the composition of path travel time, its real-time probability distribution is formulated with the distribution of walking time, waiting time, and in-vehicle time as parameters. Finally, a membership function is introduced to evaluate the dependence between passenger’s travel time and the real-time travel time distribution of each candidate path and take the path with the largest membership degree as passenger’s choice. Finally, a case study with Beijing Subway data is applied to verify the effectiveness of the model presented in this study. We have compared and analysed the path calculation results in which the time-varying characteristics of network state are considered or not. The results indicate that a passenger’s path choice behavior is affected by the network time-varying state, and our model can quantify the time-varying state and its impact on passenger path choice. (shrink)