ObjectivePrevious studies have demonstrated altered brain activity in strabismic amblyopia. In this study, low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation was applied in children with strabismic amblyopia after they had undergone strabismus surgery. The effect of rTMS was investigated by measuring the changes of brain features using the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation.Materials and MethodsIn this study, 21 SA patients were recruited based on their age, weight, and sex. They all had SA in their left eyes and they received rTMS treatment one month (...) after strabismus surgery. Their vision before and after surgery were categorized as pre-rTMS and post-rTMS. All participants received rTMS treatment, underwent magnetic resonance imaging, and their data were analyzed using the repeated measures t-test. The team used correlation analysis to explore the relationship between logMAR visual acuity and ALFF.ResultsPre- versus post-rTMS values of ALFF were significantly different within individuals. In the POT group, ALFF values were significantly decreased in the Angular_R, Parietal_Inf_L, and Cingulum_Mid_R while ALFF values were significantly increased in the Fusiform_R and Frontal_Inf_Orb_L compared to the PRT stage.ConclusionOur data showed that ALFF recorded from some brain regions was changed significantly after rTMS in strabismic amblyopes. The results may infer the pathological basis of SA and demonstrate that visual function may be improved using rTMS in strabismic amblyopic patients. (shrink)

ABSTRACTReceiving favors is often a mixed blessing and commonly triggers two emotions: the positive emotion gratitude and negative emotion indebtedness. In three studies, we examined the hypothesis that gratitude and indebtedness have distinct functions in social exchange. Contrary to current views, we believe that the function of gratitude does not primarily reside in facilitating social exchange. Instead, we propose that indebtedness motivates people to repay favours received, and thus accounts for most of the prosocial effects commonly attributed to gratitude. On (...) the other hand consistent with current views, we believe that gratitude signals the potential for developing a relationship and fosters proximity seeking. Supporting these assumptions, in Study 1 we found that gratitude and indebtedness were associated with aspects of the favour that reflect the concern for relationship and the level of inequity. Studies 2 and 3 provided causal support for these relations, and revealed the unique associations... (shrink)

This study conducts a corpus-assisted discourse study of the representations of post-colonial Hong Kong in The Times over the past 20 years. The primary purpose is to reveal its preferential ways of representing Hong Kong and explicate the intricate relations between language use and the historical and socio-political contexts. Through an integration of the methods and theories associated with critical discourse analysis and corpus linguistics, this study conducts both synchronic and diachronic analyses of the representations of Hong Kong from 1997 (...) to 2017. The findings suggest that The Times’ representations of Hong Kong tend to be crisis- and conflict-oriented. While evoking constant fear about the future of Hong Kong, it still suggests that it is Britain’s duty and moral obligation to protect the former British colony. The same trend can also be identified in The Times’ representations of the mass protests against the proposed extradition bill in 2019. (shrink)

A core feature of drug-resistant epilepsy is hyperexcitability in the motor cortex, and low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation is a suitable treatment for seizures. However, the antiepileptic effect causing network reorganization has rarely been studied. Here, we assessed the impact of rTMS on functional network connectivity in resting functional networks and their relation to treatment response. Fourteen patients with medically intractable epilepsy received inhibitive rTMS with a figure-of-eight coil over the vertex for 10 days spread across two weeks. We designed (...) a 6-week follow-up phase divided into four time points to investigate FNC and rTMS-induced timing-dependent plasticity, such as seizure frequency and abnormal interictal discharges on electroencephalography. For psychiatric comorbidities, the Hamilton Depression Scale and the Hamilton Anxiety Scale were applied to measure depression and anxiety before and after rTMS. FNC was also compared to that of a cohort of 17 healthy control subjects. The after-effects of rTMS included all subjects that achieved the significant decrease rate of more than 50% in interictal epileptiform discharges and seizure frequency, 12 patients with the reduction rate above 50% compared to the baseline, as well as emotional improvements in depression and anxiety. In the analysis of RSNs, we found a higher synchronization between the sensorimotor network and posterior default-mode network in epileptic patients than in healthy controls. In contrast to pre-rTMS, the results demonstrated a weaker FNC between the anterior DMN and SMN after rTMS, while the FNC between the aDMN and dorsal attention network was greater. Importantly, the depressive score was anticorrelated with the FNC of the aDMN-SMN, which was markedly different in the good and bad response groups treated with rTMS. Based on the vertex suppression by rTMS, it is possible to achieve temporary clinical efficacy by modulating network reorganization in the DMN and SMN for patients with refractory epilepsy. (shrink)

ObjectiveTo investigate the instant impact of hemodialysis on the cerebral morphological measurements of patients with end-stage renal disease.Materials and methodsTwenty-five patients undergoing maintenance HD and twenty-eight age-, sex-, and education-matched healthy control were included. The HD group and HC group had 3D high-resolution structural magnetic resonance imaging scans twice and once, respectively. Both groups underwent neuropsychologic tests. The morphological measurements of structural MRI were measured using CAT12 and these measures were compared among three groups. The relationship between morphological measures and (...) clinical parameters and neuropsychological tests were investigated through multiple regression analysis.ResultsCompared to the HC group, the cortical thickness before HD significantly decreased in the bilateral temporal lobe and significantly decreased in the left superior temporal gyrus after HD. The cortical thickness significantly increased in the bilateral temporal lobe, frontal lobe and occipital lobe after HD compared to before HD. The sulcus depth in the bilateral insula, frontal lobe, and parietal lobe after HD significantly increased compared to before HD. No significant differences in sulcus depth between HD and HC were detected. After HD, the cortical thickness of the right parsopercularis was positively correlated with the number connection test-A. Cortical thickness in multiple regions were positively correlated with blood flow velocity and cortical thickness in the left parahippocampal gyrus was negatively correlated with ultrafiltration volume. Patients showed better performance in the digit symbol test and line tracing test after HD compared to before HD, but there were no significant differences in the comparison of neuropsychologic tests between patients and HC.ConclusionThe instant morphological changes were captured during a single hemodialysis in HD patients. There was an association between these instant changes in the brain and clinical parameters and neuropsychologic tests. This work implied the instant impact of a single hemodialysis impact on the brain in HD patients. (shrink)

In recent years, supply chain finance is exploited to solve the financing difficulties of small- and medium-sized enterprises. SME credit risk assessment is a critical part in the SCF system. The diffusion of SME credit risk may cause serious consequences, leading the whole supply chain finance system unstable and insecure. Compared with traditional credit risk assessment models, the supply chain relationship, credit condition of SME, and core enterprises should all be considered to rate SME credit risk in SCF. Traditional methods (...) mix all indicators from different index systems. They cannot give a quantitative result on how these index systems work. Furthermore, traditional credit risk assessment models are heavily dependent on the number of annotated SME data. However, it is implausible to accumulate enough credit risky SMEs in advance. In this paper, we propose an adaptive heterogenous multiview graph learning method to tackle the small sample size problem for SMEs’ credit risk forecasting. Three graphs are constructed by using indicators from supply chain operation, SME financial indicator, and nonfinancial indicator individually. All the graphs are integrated in an adaptive manner, providing a quantitative explanation on how the three parts cooperate. The experimental analysis shows that the proposed method has good performance for determining whether SME is risky or nonrisky in SCF. From the perspective of SCF, SME financing ability is still the main factor to determine the credit risk of SME. (shrink)

We prove that for a finitely generated infinite nilpotent group $G$ with structure $(G,\cdot,\dots)$, the connected component ${G^*}^0$ of a sufficiently saturated extension $G^*$ of $G$ exists and equals \[ \bigcap_{n\in\N} \{g^n\colon g\in G^*\}. \] We construct an expansion of ${\mathbb Z}$ by a predicate $({\mathbb Z},+,P)$ such that the type-connected component ${{\mathbb Z}^*}^{00}_{\emptyset}$ is strictly smaller than ${{\mathbb Z}^*}^0$. We generalize this to finitely generated virtually solvable groups. As a corollary of our construction we obtain an optimality result for (...) the van der Waerden theorem for finite partitions of groups. (shrink)

This essay explores numerous and complicated naturalized epistemology against the background of pragmatism. We distinguish three programmes of naturalized epistemology: strong, moderate, and weak. By considering commitments of pragmatism on which different programmes depend, we point out the close-knit relationship between pragmatism and naturalized epistemology. We also illustrate the essential origin of today's controversy over naturalized epistemology and predict the uptrend of naturalized epistemology.

At the very beginning of L’Homme-Machine, La Mettrie claims that Leibnizians with their monads have “rather spiritualized matter than materialized the soul”; a few years later Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis, President of the Berlin Academy of Sciences and natural philosopher with a strong interest in the modes of transmission of ‘genetic’ information, conceived of living minima which he termed molecules, “endowed with desire, memory and intelligence,” in his Système de la nature ou Essai sur les corps organisés. This text first (...) appeared in Latin in 1751 under the title Dissertatio inauguralis metaphysica de universali naturae systemate, with the pseudonym Dr Baumann; it was translated by Maupertuis in 1754 as Essai sur la formation des corps organisés and was later included in his 1756 Œuvres under the title Système de la nature. Now, it is clear that Maupertuis was a kind of Leibnizian; and that his molecule possessed higher-level, ‘mental’ properties. In that sense he falls under the first category described by La Mettrie. But he was also involved in a debate on this issue with Diderot, who put forth a sustained critique of Maupertuis’ theory of the molecule in the additions to his 1753 Pensées sur l’interprétation de la nature. Where Maupertuis attributes higher-level properties to his living minima, Diderot argues that these properties are ‘organizational’, i.e., they can only be properties of the whole. At issue here is the degree of commitment to a form of materialism. (shrink)

According to Garfield and Priest’s interpretation, the positive use of the catuskoti by Nāgārjuna in Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (MMK) shows that he endorses a four-valued semantics similar to that of Belnap’s First-Degree Entailment (FDE), while the negative use of the catuskoti by Nāgārjuna in MMK indicates that what he really has in mind is a plurivalent five-valued semantics. This paper argues that their interpretation suffers from a number of problems: adequate logic, collapse of kotis, lack of literature support, and a suitable explanation (...) of the third koti. The final part of the paper combines insights from Westerhoff, Cotnoir, Garfield and Priest together and describes the right interpretation of Nāgārjuna’s use of the catuskoti in MMK with the right semantics and the right logic of MMK. The authors argue that Nāgārjuna’s ‘rebuttal’ of all four kotis in a catuskoti should be understood as a mere denial or a mere rejection of these kotis. (shrink)

"This is an excellent textbook on Neoplatonism which gives the reader a very concise and lucid overview of the basic doctrines and leading thinkers of the last great philosophy to emerge before the Christianization of the Roman Empire. I’ve no doubt that my students next semester will benefit from the analyses contained in the book. The contents of the chapters are very informative and adequately place developments in their socio-cultural context." --Michael B. Simmons, Auburn University at Montgomery.

Bioethics is a subject far removed from the Chinese, even from many Chinese medical students and medical professionals. In-depth interviews with eighteen physicians, patients, and family members provided a deeper understanding of bioethical practices in contemporary China, especially with regard to the doctor-patient relationship (DPR) and informed consent. The Chinese model of doctor-family-patient relationship (DFPR), instead of DPR, is taken to reflect Chinese Confucian cultural commitments. An examination of the history of Chinese culture and the profession of medicine in China (...) is used to disclose the deep roots of these commitments. The author predicts that the DFPR model will further develop in China but that it will maintain its Chinese character. (shrink)

In order to facilitate cooperation to solve problems within a nation-state, a new approach which conceptualizes citizenship in terms of shared fate has been promoted to potentially ameliorate the tensions identified between civic liberty and solidarity. Proponents of an emphasis on shared fate frame it not in terms of a particular shared national identity, but in terms of participation in the shared project of the nation-state. The approach of singular shared fate rightly emphasizes the urgency of finding a common ground (...) for people to cultivate obligations to others and achieve sincere cooperation in a society. Unfortunately, in some cases it leaves room for some people to undermine the common ground and its good intention, however, as the promotion of a view of singular shared fate risks producing a hegemonic singular nation building project and predesigning an agreement before a truly inclusive and just dialogue among relevant stakeholders proceeds. To make the good intentions of the notion of shared fate realizable, a modification is explored, in recasting the concept of singular “shared fate” to plural “shared fates”. Given the situation that people in societies have the plural shared fates de facto, the view of plural shared fates recognizes that people will reject any singular substantial nation building project that has a predesigned direction. In current, divided societies, acknowledging multiple fates at the beginning, rather than predesigning a singular fate, can better provide a platform for all stakeholders to discuss their obligations to others toward sincere cooperation through equal co-construction of what is shared and what is not shared. To enhance civic education in a multicultural society, we suggest that complementing the concept of singular “shared fate” with a recognition of the value of plural “shared fates” can provide a context for all people to work together towards a more inclusive and just future. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Patriotism is controversial in moral education across contexts. In China, patriotism is highly politicised by the government and heavily promoted in education. In the last few decades, the moralisation of patriotism, which refers here to the framing of patriotism as a virtue, has become the focus of teaching patriotism in China. This paper demonstrates how patriotism is moralised and promoted in Chinese moral education textbooks. The paper begins by providing a theoretical introduction to patriotism in moral education and defending (...) a rational approach to teaching patriotism given its controversial nature. Then it elaborates on the Chinese context of teaching patriotism and analyses patriotism as part of moral education in Chinese textbooks. Our findings indicate various ways in which patriotism is promoted in Chinese education as a non-controversial virtue and moral duty. Finally, the paper discusses the limitations of this way of teaching patriotism and argues for the adoption of the rational approach as an alternative. (shrink)

Williamson ( 2007 ) argues that philosophers acquire no philosophical knowledge at all by semantic understanding alone. He further argues that the most important method used for achieving philosophical knowledge is through the ‘imaginative simulation’ process some of whose products are neither a priori nor a posteriori but ‘armchair’ knowledge. We argue in this paper that the way Williamson argues against the claim that semantic understanding alone is enough to achieve philosophical knowledge can be paralleled by an exactly similar argument (...) against his view that imaginative simulation alone is enough to achieve philosophical knowledge. Because of the parallel argument, we conclude that Williamson’s argument against semantic understanding shows at most that it is fallible, if used alone, as a method for achieving philosophical knowledge. We also point out a blind spot in Williamson’s argument for his epistemology of modality: a reliable method for achieving knowledge about subjunctive conditionals is not necessarily a reliable method for achieving knowledge about modal statements even if every modal statement is logically equivalent to some subjunctive conditional. Finally, we argue that, with a suitable understanding of ‘understanding the meaning,’ Williamson’s armchair knowledge is nothing but the a priori knowledge of those good-old-days philosophy. (shrink)

As a form of experiential education, service learning shows great potential for promoting students' knowledge transfer as it offers students opportunities to apply what they have learned in classrooms to serve communities in real-life contexts. To explore how students' knowledge transfer evolves during SL, we collected longitudinal survey data from 96 Chinese college students in a 9-week SL program. Results indicate that students' perceived knowledge transfer in SL did not follow a linear trajectory. Although students' perceived knowledge transfer at the (...) end of SL was significantly higher than those at the beginning, a slight drop was observed in the middle of SL; the developmental pattern of perceived knowledge transfer varied across students; and students' perceived knowledge transfer development during SL was associated with mastery goal orientation and perceptions of psychologically controlling behaviors from their SL supervisors. By providing evidence of the dynamic process and mechanisms of students' knowledge transfer development, the present study adds to our understanding of how, when, and why the benefits of SL are realized. (shrink)

In the present study, we use a training design in two experiments to examine whether bilingual language switching facilitates two components of cognitive control, namely monitoring and inhibitory control. The results of Experiment 1 showed that training in language switching reduced mixing costs and the anti-saccade effect among bilinguals. In Experiment 2, the findings revealed a greater decrease of mixing costs and a smaller decrease of the anti-saccade effect from pre- to post-training for the language switching training group compared to (...) the L2 training group. Overall, the results suggest that extensive exercise in monitoring and inhibitory control among languages in an experimental setting may enhance the corresponding components of cognitive control. We discuss these findings in the context of the relationship between bilingual language control and executive control. (shrink)

ABSTRACTAdults perceive emotional expressions categorically, with discrimination being faster and more accurate between expressions from different emotion categories than between two stimuli from the same category. The current study sought to test whether facial expressions of happiness and fear are perceived categorically by pre-verbal infants, using a new stimulus set that was shown to yield categorical perception in adult observers. These stimuli were then used with 7-month-old infants using a habituation and visual preference paradigm. Infants were first habituated to an (...) expression of one emotion, then presented with the same expression paired with a novel expression either from the same emotion category or from a different emotion category. After habituation to fear, infants displayed a novelty preference for pairs of between-category expressions, but n... (shrink)

The preferences of patients who lack DMC (Decision-Making-Capacity) should have some moral weight. However, I disagree with the author’s stronger claim, which argues that two other types of DMC (bu...

Hong Kong, as a former colony of the United Kingdom, is characterised as a hybrid of East and West. Its colonial history is commonly seen as establishing many positive aspects of Hong Kong and shaping good qualities of its people, such as the value of rule of law, free speech, freedom of the press, and fluency in English. Yet the majority of people in both Hong Kong and China share Han Chinese ethnicity, which has been used by both the Chinese (...) and Hong Kong governments to promote a blood-based idea of Chinese identity for decades. This paper explores “Chineseness", or Chinese identity, as promoted by the Hong Kong government. It first explores the concept of Chineseness, elaborating on a blood-based view that connects with ethnic-nationalism, in contrast with a pluralistic view of identity in the Hong Kong context. The paper then examines how Hong Kong government officials promote Chineseness through major outlets, on government websites and in speeches captured in media. As we show, the government tends to advocate a blood-based view of Chineseness akin to ethnic-nationalism. A more inclusive and pluralistic view which recognises the dynamic nature and multiple visions of Chinese identity better fits Hong Kong’s multicultural context. (shrink)

Hong Kong, as a former colony of the United Kingdom, is characterised as a hybrid of East and West. Its colonial history is commonly seen as establishing many positive aspects of Hong Kong and shaping good qualities of its people, such as the value of rule of law, free speech, freedom of the press, and fluency in English. Yet the majority of people in both Hong Kong and China share Han Chinese ethnicity, which has been used by both the Chinese (...) and Hong Kong governments to promote a blood-based idea of Chinese identity for decades. This paper explores “Chineseness", or Chinese identity, as promoted by the Hong Kong government. It first explores the concept of Chineseness, elaborating on a blood-based view that connects with ethnic-nationalism, in contrast with a pluralistic view of identity in the Hong Kong context. The paper then examines how Hong Kong government officials promote Chineseness through major outlets, on government websites and in speeches captured in media. As we show, the government tends to advocate a blood-based view of Chineseness akin to ethnic-nationalism. A more inclusive and pluralistic view which recognises the dynamic nature and multiple visions of Chinese identity better fits Hong Kong’s multicultural context. (shrink)

Sinophobia has become normalised and increasingly acceptable in Hong Kong in recent decades. Such Sinophobia intersects with aims of protecting what is local in the society, as seen in Hong Kong news media. This paper first explores the concept of Sinophobia. It then provides a background on Sinophobia in Hong Kong, explaining the tensions between the identities of Hong Kong/hongkongers and Mainland China/mainland Chinese. After elaborating on the role of media and the nature of local media in Hong Kong, this (...) paper examines Sinophobic, stereotypical and quasi-racist discourse in three major Hong Kong news sources. While respecting Hong Kong heritage is a valuable goal, the Sinophobia accompanying some such aims can be seen to fuel hatred among people. In this context, encouraging a more inclusive and reflective discourse is warranted to work against the pitfalls of Sinophobia as a particular form of xenophobia in Hong Kong. (shrink)

Building on appraisal theory of emotions and theories on moral emotions, we contend that ethical leadership triggers other-praising moral emotions directed at the supervisor and leads to feedback-seeking behavior. We further predict that the affective processes of ethical leadership have implications for workplace behaviors, namely organizational citizenship behavior directed at the supervisor and employee voice. We develop a new measure of supervisor-directed, other-praising moral emotions and test the validity of the measure. Then, we test and find support for the proposed (...) hypotheses using a sample of 231 full-time employees in China with a time-lagged survey design and structural equation modeling. Theoretical and practical implications for ethical leadership and moral emotions are discussed. (shrink)

This research looks what happens to human reproduction when human genetic information is digitized. By employing speculative design as a transdisciplinary strategy to construct such an alternative future to open up public dialogues, it aims to stimulate audiences in an artistic way to deliberate two key questions: (1) how will biotechnology recondition and recontextualize the natural processes of genetic information (i.e. expression, replication, transmission and mutation) and our physiological processes (e.g. reproduction)? And (2) what might be the ethical, legal and (...) social implications (ELSI) for using such biotechnology? To this end, this practice-based research introduces the ‘e-gamete Digital Procreation Service’ (2019) – a speculative design project that has been developed as an approach to invite audiences to a future scenario of network-transmitted genetic information and computer-simulated human procreation. The carefully designed future service (an ironic practice of commercialization) allows human reproduction to take place outside of the human body. Audiences are encouraged to contemplate what novel situations might occur within their own futures and to consider broader questions like how family, parenthood, marriage, etc. are redefined and what new social relationships might emerge. By employing speculative design as an artistic research tool/tactic to step outside the technical limitations and craft the future service, the project asks vital question about the future in a provocative and quasi-realistic manner. Thus, the research forms a unique entanglement of sensitive topics by dealing with future biotechnology and human reproduction. (shrink)

The term “dao” (道) has been playing the theoretically paradigmatic role in almost all East Asian philosophies, religions, and cultures. The meanings of the term “dao” in the Dao De Jing and other ancient East Asian texts have remained hermeneutically problematic up to this point in time. This article argues that one of the main causes of this hermeneutical problematic is the failure to establish a theoretically formal typology of the “dao.” It further suggests that a hermeneutically disciplined reading of (...) the 76 uses of the term “dao” in the Dao De Jing accomplishes two important goals: (1) it demonstrates that a typological approach may enhance an understanding of the Laoian Dao, and (2) it provides some good data to begin reconstructing such a theoretically formal dao-typology. (shrink)

A 78-year-old Chinese woman joined a clinical trial sponsored by a Pharmaceutical companies. Unfortunately a serious Serious Adverse Event occurred. The sponsor paid for the cost of the medical care arising from the SAE, but refused the family’s request for compensation. The family then sued the company and the hospital in Beijing. Although the SAE was related to a complication of lower extremity angiography and not the drug itself, it was a direct consequence of participating in the trial. According Good (...) Clinical Practice, a set of regulations promulgated under Chinese law, “the sponsor should provide Insurance to those human subjects who participate in clinical trials, cover the cost of Treatment and the corresponding economic compensation for the occurrence of the harm or death associated with the trial”. The court ordered the trial sponsor to provide a translation of the company’s insurance policy, so that the court could understand the amount of compensation available to the Patient under the policy, but the sponsor never surrendered either the documentation or a translation. Consensus was never reached about the amount of compensation due to the patient through negotiation with the hospital, the company and the family. The Litigation ended after nine hearings and five long years. This chapter provides an ethical analysis of the case relative to at least three areas of Risks of Exploitation when a major, international Pharmaceutical companies sponsors clinical research in a country with an immature legal system and where Research participants have limited resources. (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed social shortcomings and ethical failures, but it also revealed strengths and successes. In this perspective article, we examine and discuss one strength: the duty to care. We understand this duty in a broad sense, as more than a duty to treat individual patients who could infect health care workers. We understand it as a prima facie duty to work to provide care and promote health in the face of risks, obstacles, and inconveniences. Although at least one (...) survey suggested that health care workers would not respond to a SARS-like outbreak according to a duty to care, we give reasons to show that the response was better than expected. The reasons we discuss lead us to consider normative accounts of the duty to care based on the adoption of social roles. Then, we consider one view of the relationship between empirical claims and normative claims about the duty to care in the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we draw insight from Mengzi, with an emendation from Dewey. Our perspective leaves many question to research, but one point seems clear: there will be future pandemics and the need for health care workers who respond. (shrink)

The major ethical challenges for critical care medicine in China include the high cost of patient care in the ICU, the effect of payment mechanisms on access to critical care, the fact that much more money is spent on patients who die than on ones who live, the extent to which an attempt to rescue and save a patient is made, and the great geographical disparity in distribution of critical care. The ethical problems surrounding critical care medicine bear much relation (...) to the culture, public policy and health care system in China. The essay concludes that China should allocate more resources to ordinary medical services rather than to critical care medicine. (shrink)

In 2016, Davis and Zhang surveyed 71 Chinese engineers to investigate the claim that the concept of “profession” may have a far wider range than the term. They concluded that China seems to have a profession of engineering even though the Chinese still lacked an exact translation of the English term. In part, the survey reported here simply continues the work of Davis and Zhang. It confirms their result using a much larger, better educated, demographically different pool of 229 Chinese (...) engineers. But, in part too, it does something else. It investigates the concept professional competence—the perceived knowledge, skill, and judgment that those surveyed attribute to themselves and other engineers. The article has four parts. The first part describes the basics of the survey. The second part describes some important features of the survey’s questions, explaining how the questions closely track both the concept of profession and the concept of professional competence. The third part reports and interprets the results relevant to the presence or absence of the concepts of profession and professional competence. The fourth part reports the conclusions. (shrink)

Sustained peripheral somatosensory stimulations, such as high-frequency repetitive somatosensory stimulation (HF-RSS) and vibrated stimulation, are effective in altering the balance between excitation and inhibition in the somatosensory cortex (S1) and motor cortex (M1). A recent study reported that whole-hand water flow (WF) stimulation induced neural disinhibition in the M1. Based on previous results, we hypothesized that whole-hand WF stimulation would lead to neural disinhibition in the S1 because there is a strong neural connection between M1 and S1 and aimed to (...) examine whether whole-hand WF stimulation would change the neural balance between excitation and inhibition in the S1. Nineteen healthy volunteers were studied by measuring excitation and inhibition in the S1 before and after each of the four 15-min interventions. The excitation and inhibition in the S1 were assessed using somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) and paired-pulse inhibition (PPI) induced by single- and paired-pulse stimulations, respectively. The four interventions were as follows: control, whole-hand water immersion, whole-hand WF, and HF-RSS. The results showed no significant changes in SEPs and PPI following any intervention. However, changes in PPI with an interstimulus interval (ISI) of 30 ms were significantly correlated with the baseline value before whole-hand WF. Thus, the present findings indicated that the whole-hand WF stimulation had a greater decreased neural inhibition in participants with higher neural inhibition in the S1 at baseline. Considering previous results on M1, the present results possibly show that S1 has lower plasticity than M1 and that the duration (15 min) of each intervention may not have been enough to alter the balance of excitation and inhibition in the S1. (shrink)

Human contact networks constitute a multitude of individuals and pairwise contacts among them. However, the dynamic nature, which generates the evolution of human contact networks, of contact patterns is unknown yet. Here, we analyse three empirical datasets and identify two crucial mechanisms of the evolution of temporal human contact networks, i.e., the activity state transition laws for an individual to be socially active and the contact establishment mechanism that active individuals adopt. We consider both of the two mechanisms to propose (...) a temporal network model, the so-called memory-driven model, of human contact networks. Then, we study the susceptible-infected spreading processes on empirical human contact networks as well as four corresponding temporal network models and compare the full prevalence time of SI processes with various infection rates on the networks. The full prevalence time of SI processes in the MD model is the same as that in real-world human contact networks. Moreover, we find that the individual activity state transition promotes the spreading process, while the contact establishment of active individuals suppresses the prevalence. Besides, we observe that individuals who establish social ties with a small exploring rate are still able to induce an endemic which prevails in the networks. The study offers new insights to predict and control the diffusion processes on networks. (shrink)

Previous studies have shown that sibling conflicts are detrimental to physical and psychological development, as well as long-term human development. Although many studies have discovered relations between parenting style and sibling conflicts, these findings were contentious and did not provide a universal solution. Therefore, the meta-analysis was used as the method to determine the nature and magnitude of the relationships. There were a total of 14,356 participants in the 16 included studies, from which 55 effect sizes were extracted. According to (...) the overall meta-analysis results, authoritative parenting did have the potential to reduce sibling conflicts. Neglectful, inconsistent, indulgent, and authoritarian parenting styles were related to sibling conflicts in a positive way. Moreover, the study investigated the effectiveness of several moderator variables, such as children’s gender, age, region, outcome measure, and publication year. The research indicates that authoritative parenting is a protective factor of sibling conflicts. Moderator analyses found that gender, age, region, outcome measure, and publication year played moderating roles in the relationships. Finally, research limitations in the current study and expectations for future research, as well as theoretical contributions and implications for parenting practice, were presented.Systematic review registration[https://inplasy.com/inplasy-2022-8-0020/], identifier [INPLASY202280020]. (shrink)

In this paper, the model is constructed by measuring the psychological stress condition of employees; the psychological stress condition measurement model analyzes and tests the reasons for reducing human resource turnover in enterprises. In this paper, through the research related to the problem of talent loss in enterprises, we found that enterprises of other ownership often use the talent loss early warning model, to measure the possibility of talent loss in enterprises and issue an early warning, which enables enterprises to (...) solve the talent loss crisis in time and minimize the negative impact of talent loss on enterprises. In this paper, we analyze the causes of human resource attrition risk from a theoretical point of view, construct a system of human resource attrition risk indicators for enterprises, and explain the content of each technical indicator and its measurement method. The PLS structural equation of the HR attrition risk evaluation model is established based on the constructed risk index system. In addition, the analysis of the causes of human resources turnover risk in the company also proposes strategies to avoid and prevent the threat. The PLS structural equation evaluation model of HR turnover risk is applied to various situations of human resource management to analyze the case of the comprehensive evaluation of HR turnover risk to guide the practical application of the model. Therefore, the research results of this paper have significant reference value for enterprises to solve similar human resource attrition problems. At the same time, it will provide a reference for enterprises to improve their human resource diagnostic capability and promote the development of human resource management. (shrink)