Heritability estimates obtained from genome-wide association studies are much lower than those of traditional quantitative methods. This phenomenon has been called the “missing heritability problem.” By analyzing and comparing GWAS and traditional quantitative methods, we first show that the estimates obtained from the latter involve some terms other than additive genetic variance, while the estimates from the former do not. Second, GWAS, when used to estimate heritability, do not take into account additive epigenetic factors transmitted across generations, while traditional quantitative (...) methods do. Given these two points we show that the missing heritability problem can largely be dissolved. (shrink)

This paper presents social data and knowledge collective intelligence platform for TRaining Ethical AI Models (STREAM) to address the challenge of aligning AI models with human moral values, and to provide ethics datasets and knowledge bases to help promote AI models “follow good advice as naturally as a stream follows its course”. By creating a comprehensive and representative platform that accurately mirrors the moral judgments of diverse groups including humans and AIs, we hope to effectively portray cultural and group variations, (...) and capture the dynamic evolution of moral judgments over time, which in turn will facilitate the Establishment, Evaluation, Embedding, Embodiment, Ensemble, and Evolvement (6Es) of the moral capabilities of AI models. Currently, STREAM has already furnished a comprehensive collection of ethical scenarios, and amassed substantial moral judgment data annotated by volunteers and various popular Large Language Models, collectively portraying the moral preferences and performances of both humans and AIs across a range of moral contexts. This paper will outline the current structure and construction of STREAM, explore its potential applications, and discuss its future prospects. (shrink)

We investigate how firms adjust corporate pension plans in response to economic policy uncertainty (EPU). Using a sample of US-listed firms, we find that firms increase pension underfunding levels when facing higher EPU. The result is robust to controlling for pension portfolio returns, discount rates, plan sizes, pension liability, numbers of employees, other macroeconomic factors, difference-in-differences and instrumental variable estimation, and additional evidence of pension risk-shifting. Further analysis reveals that financial distress and information asymmetry induced through EPU are the potential (...) channels. The effect is stronger for firms having CEOs being excessively paid, using cash flow as a performance metric in CEO compensation, paying high dividends, and having short-term institutional investors, whereas the presence of unions, positive corporate culture, and social capital alleviate the effect. Notably, managers, not shareholders, appear to be the party reaping the benefits. Our findings suggest that firms may shift risk to employees in response to heightened uncertainty and institutional characteristics play a moderating role in this crucial business ethics issue. (shrink)

Chinese consumers comprise a unique subculture that exerts a considerable influence on the market and are treated as a collective group by researchers. However, few studies have examined the effects of collectivism and consumer attitudinal attributes on consumer ethics. Although the practice of religion was prohibited in China before economic reforms in the late 1970s, religion remains a major factor that affects the ethical judgment of consumers. The present study, based on the Hunt–Vitell model, examines the influence of culture and (...) personal characteristics on consumer ethics. A total of 284 Chinese consumers were surveyed. Structural equation modeling was used to test hypothesized relationships in the research model. The results indicate that collectivism had a significant explanatory power for four dimensions of consumer ethical beliefs: actively benefiting from illegal activities; passively benefiting from questionable activities; actively benefiting from deceptive legal activities; and engaging in no harm and no foul activities. However, consumer attitude toward business significantly explained only the passive dimension of consumer ethics, and religious beliefs significantly explained only the active dimension of consumer ethical beliefs. (shrink)

Frequent pattern mining is an effective approach for spatiotemporal association analysis of mobile trajectory big data in data-driven intelligent transportation systems. While existing parallel algorithms have been successfully applied to frequent pattern mining of large-scale trajectory data, two major challenges are how to overcome the inherent defects of Hadoop to cope with taxi trajectory big data including massive small files and how to discover the implicitly spatiotemporal frequent patterns with MapReduce. To conquer these challenges, this paper presents a MapReduce-based Parallel (...) Frequent Pattern growth algorithm to analyze the spatiotemporal characteristics of taxi operating using large-scale taxi trajectories with massive small file processing strategies on a Hadoop platform. More specifically, we first implement three methods, that is, Hadoop Archives, CombineFileInputFormat, and Sequence Files, to overcome the existing defects of Hadoop and then propose two strategies based on their performance evaluations. Next, we incorporate SF into Frequent Pattern growth algorithm and then implement the optimized FP-growth algorithm on a MapReduce framework. Finally, we analyze the characteristics of taxi operating in both spatial and temporal dimensions by MR-PFP in parallel. The results demonstrate that MR-PFP is superior to existing Parallel FP-growth algorithm in efficiency and scalability. (shrink)

The libidinal economy could be exploited by both political movements and advertising campaigns in a pictorial space that is related to the social space at any historical moment. The arrangement of desires in a propaganda poster of the Chinese Cultural Revolution is, in light of political semiotics, the same as in a campaign poster in a consumer society today. The same libidinal economy is rooted in our political unconsciousness and remains to be the deep structure of our political performance. A (...) critical image analysis or a political semiotic critique of this libidinal economy that rules us in the Chinese Cultural Revolution and in consumer society today is necessary and urgent. (shrink)

In order to improve the iris classification rate, a novel biogeography-based optimization algorithm based on local search and nonuniform variation was proposed in this paper. Firstly, the linear migration model was replaced by a hyperbolic cotangent model which was closer to the natural law. And, the local search strategy was added to traditional BBO algorithm migration operation to enhance the global search ability of the algorithm. Then, the nonuniform variation was introduced to enhance the algorithm in the later iteration. The (...) algorithm could achieve a stronger iris classifier by lifting weaker similarity classifiers during the training stage. On this base, the convergence condition of NBBO was proposed by using the Markov chain strategy. Finally, simulation results were given to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed iris classification method. (shrink)

This book offers an in-depth analysis of Corporate Social Responsibility, gathering contributions by authors from various countries, cultures and political systems. It provides readers with a better understanding of the concept and its implementation in China by pursuing an international approach. The respective contributions examine Corporate Social Responsibility in terms of its close ties to ecology, corporate sustainability and the future of specific industries. The book is the product of two international meetings, the "Ecological Education and Sustainable Development Forum" in (...) Chengdu, China, and the "CSR & Business Sustainability Development Forum" in Shenzen, China. (shrink)

ABSTRACTWushu is widely misunderstood and its essentially combative nature is being challenged in public discussion. Understanding and recovering its essential nature has become a core issue. This...

Direct electrical stimulation has been widely applied in both guidance of lesion resection and scientific research; however, the design and selection of intraoperative cognitive mapping tasks have not been updated in a very long time. We introduce updated mapping tasks for language and non-language functions and provide recommendations for optimal design and selection of intraoperative mapping tasks. In addition, with DES becoming more critical in current neuroscientific research, a task design that has not been widely used in DES yet was (...) introduced for more delicate mapping of brain functions especially for research purposes. We also illustrate the importance of designing a common task series for DES and other non-invasive mapping techniques. This review gives practical updated guidelines for advanced application of DES in clinical and neuroscientific research. (shrink)

ObjectsHealth Behaviours in School-aged Children is an international survey programme aiming to investigate adolescents’ health behaviours, subjective perception of health status, wellbeing, and the related contextual information. Our scoping review aimed to synthesise the evidence from HBSC about the relationship between family environmental contributors and adolescents’ health-related outcomes.MethodsWe searched previous studies from six electronic databases. Two researchers identified the qualified publications independently by abstract and full-text screening with the assistance of an NLP-based AI instrument, ASReview. Publications were included if they (...) were based on HBSC data and investigated the effects of family environment on adolescents’ health outcomes. Researches addressed family-related factors as mediators or moderators were also included.ResultsA total of 241 articles were included. Family environmental contributors could be mapped into six categories: Demographic backgrounds ; General family’s psycho-socio functions ; Parenting behaviours ; Parental health behaviours ; Family activities ; and Siblings. Except for 75 papers that assessed family variables as moderators and mediators, the others suggested family environment was an independent variable. Only five studies employed the data-driven approach.ConclusionOur results suggest most research studies focussed on the influences of family demographic backgrounds on adolescents’ health. The researches related to parental health behaviours and siblings are most inadequate. Besides, we recommend further research studies to focus on the mediator/moderator roles of the family, for exploring the deep mechanism of the family’s impacts. Also, it would be valuable to consider data-driven analysis more in the future, as HBSC has mass variables and data. (shrink)

This meta-analysis examines the relationship between materialism and subjective wellbeing in the Chinese population. Fifty-six relevant studies covering the period from 1998 to 2022 were included in the meta-analysis. Fifty-eight independent effect sizes from a total of 52,368 participants were obtained to calculate the mean effect sizes. Materialistic values correlated with significantly lower subjective wellbeing, while the mean effect size for extrinsic aspirations was found to be not significant. The effect sizes varied across different types of wellbeing outcomes. The associations (...) were also moderated by certain demographic factors, methodological factors, publication features, and economic indicators. We discuss our limitations and the implications for future research. (shrink)

Lu Jia's New Discourses: A Political Manifesto from the Early Han Dynasty is a readable yet accurate translation by Paul R. Goldin and Elisa Levi Sabattini. Celebrated as "a man-of-service with a mouth [skilled] at persuasion", Lu Jia (c. 228-140 BCE) became one of the leading figures of the early Han dynasty, serving as a statesman and diplomat from the very beginning of the Han empire. This book is a translation of Lu Jia's New Discourses, which laid out the reasons (...) for rise and fall of empires. Challenged by the new Emperor to produce a book explaining why a realm that was conquered on horseback cannot also be ruled on horseback, Lu Jia produced New Discourses, to great acclaim. (shrink)

Calls for justice and reconciliation in response to political catastrophes are widespread in contemporary world politics. What implications do these normative strivings have in relation to colonial injustice? Examining cases of colonial war, genocide, forced sexual labor, forcible incorporation, and dispossession, Lu demonstrates that international practices of justice and reconciliation have historically suffered from, and continue to reflect, colonial, statist and other structural biases. The continued reproduction of structural injustice and alienation in modern domestic, international and transnational orders generates contemporary (...) duties of redress. How should we think about the responsibility of contemporary agents to address colonial structural injustices and what implications follow for the transformation of international and transnational orders? Redressing the structural injustices implicated in or produced by colonial politics requires strategies of decolonization, decentering, and disalienation that go beyond interactional practices of justice and reconciliation, beyond victims and perpetrators, and beyond a statist world order. (shrink)

Xiaohe Lu is Professor at the Institute of Philosophy and Executive Director of the Centre for Business Ethics, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. Georges Enderle is Arthur and Mary O’Neil Professor of International Business Ethics at the Mendoza College of Business, Univer­sity of Notre Dame.

According to an oft-repeated narrative, while Kant maintained racist views through the 1780s, he changed his mind in the 1790s. Pauline Kleingeld introduced this narrative based on passages from Kant’s Metaphysics of Morals and “Toward Perpetual Peace”. On her reading, Kant categorically condemned chattel slavery in those texts, which meant that he became more racially egalitarian. But the passages involving slavery, once contextualized, either do not concern modern, race-based chattel slavery or at best suggest that Kant mentioned it as a (...) cautionary tale for labor practices in Europe. Overall, Kant never explicitly considered chattel slavery as a moral problem to be addressed on its own. Rather, he treated it primarily in terms of its function in human history. If he ended up expressing some qualms about its practices, it was likely because they threatened to deepen intra-European conflicts and undermine the prospect of perpetual peace. The humanity of the enslaved “Negroes” was never part of the reasoning. This was not a casual oversight on Kant’s part. It reflects the complexity of his philosophical system: everything he did or did not say about chattel slavery begins to make sense once we connect his philosophy of history and his depiction of “Negroes” as natural slaves. (shrink)

Kant scholars have paid relatively little attention to his raciology. They assume that his racism, as personal prejudice, can be disentangled from his core philosophy. They also assume that racism contradicts his moral theory. In this book, philosopher Huaping Lu-Adler challenges both assumptions. She shows how Kant's raciology--divided into racialism and racism--is integral to his philosophical system. She also rejects the individualistic approach to Kant and racism. Instead, she uses the notion of racism as ideological formation to demonstrate how Kant, (...) from his social location both as a prominent scholar and as a lifelong educator, participated in the formation of modern racist ideology. As a scholar, Kant developed a ground-breaking scientific theory of race from the standpoint of a philosophical investigator of nature or Naturforscher. As an educator, he transmitted denigrating depictions of the racialized others and imbued those descriptions with normative relevance. In both roles, he left behind, as one of his legacies, a worldview that excluded non-whites from such goods as recognitional respect and candidacy for cultural and moral achievements. Scholars who research and teach Kant's philosophy therefore have an unshakable burden to take part in the ongoing antiracist struggles, through their teaching practices as well as their scholarship. And they must do so with a pragmatic attention to nonideal social realities and a deliberate orientation toward substantial racial justice, equality, and inclusion. Lu-Adler pushes the discourse about Kant and racism well beyond the old debates about whether he was racist or whether his racism contaminates his philosophy. By foregrounding the lasting legacies of Kant's raciology, her work calls for a profound reorientation of Kant scholarship. (shrink)

Philosophy; philosophers, Turkish; Hacıkadiroğlu, Vehbi.

Does phenomenal force, the distinctive phenomenology attributed to perceptual experience, really form an integral part of the latter? If not, what implications does it have for perceptual justification? In this paper, I first argue for a metacognitive account, according to which phenomenal force constitutes a separate, metacognitive state. This account opens up a previously unexplored path for challenging phenomenal conservatism or dogmatism, which has been a prominent theory of perceptual justification over the past two decades. Moreover, I investigate several alternative (...) possibilities in which phenomenal force might still be deemed as significant, but ultimately demonstrate that its epistemic role remains marginal at best. (shrink)