This study comparatively examines the dividends behavior in state-controlled firms versus family-controlled firms. With the sample of large industrial firms listed on the Main Board of Hong Kong Stock Exchange, we investigate the dividends payment rates, stability of dividends payment, the effects of firm size, profitability and growth opportunity on likelihood to pay dividends, as well as the concentration of dividend in state-controlled versus family-controlled firms. Based on the findings, we derive some ethical implications of dividends policy regarding the differences (...) in business ethical behavior, corporate social responsibility, corporate governance, business sustainability, and shareholder activism in state-controlled versus family-controlled firms, as well as the improvement in these respects through cross-listing in Hong Kong. (shrink)

Plagiarism and other transgressions of the norms of academic integrity appear to be a persistent problem among upper secondary students. Numerous surveys have revealed high levels of infringement of what appear to be clearly stated rules. Less attention has been given to students’ understanding of academic integrity, and to the potential misconceptions and false beliefs that may make it difficult for them to comply with existing rules and handle complex real-life situations.In this paper we report findings from a survey of (...) European upper secondary students’ views on issues relating to academic integrity. We relate these findings to the students’ training about academic integrity, self-reported level of questionable behavior and country of study.A total of 1654 students at 51 institutions located in 6 European countries participated in the study. The participants generally believed they had a good understanding of the rules applying to them and knew how to behave in compliance with norms of academic integrity. The results indicate, however, that often, in practice, this belief was mistaken. Many students had an inadequate understanding of core elements of academic integrity. They were uncertain about how to act, and they struggled in the handling of complex situations that require context-sensitive judgement. While some differences between countries were identified, they were modest and exhibited no clear pattern. Our results also suggest that reducing students’ level of uncertainty and, to a lesser degree, improving their level of knowledge could lead them to engage less in certain types of questionable behaviours. Surprisingly, the effect of academic training is modest and ambiguous. The study also confirms that perception of peer behaviour has the strongest association with student engagement in questionable behaviours. Thus, academic integrity at the upper secondary level cannot be explained simply in terms of individual ethics or knowledge. (shrink)

This manuscript constructs an intelligent sentiment analysis and marketing model for bed and breakfast consumption based on a behavioral psychology perspective. Based on the LDA theme model, the theme features and keywords of the reviews covering user feedback are explored from the text data, and the theme framework of user sentiment perception is constructed by combining previous literature on user perception in the B&B market, and the themes of user online reviews are summarized in four dimensions: practical, sensory, cognitive, and (...) emotional components of user experience. In this manuscript, GooSeeker software was selected for data crawling and ROST CM developed by Wuhan University was used for text processing. To improve the accuracy of text classification and improve the missing data, the online comment text is divided into sentences by symbols, and the text is divided into words based on sentences, and the spatial vector model and the text feature word weighting method of TF-IDF are used for vector representation, and the polynomial Bayesian classifier is called to identify the topics of sentences. The classical Theory of Planned Behavior was used to analyze the influencing factors of the willingness to consume experiential B&B tourism, and countermeasure suggestions for the development of B&B tourism were proposed based on the research findings In the empirical testing stage, a questionnaire on the willingness to consume experiential B&B tourism was designed, and web research was chosen to collect the data. SPSS20.0 was used to conduct reliability analysis, factor analysis, correlation analysis, and regression analysis on the data, and AMOS statistics were used to establish a structural equation model to verify the influence path of willingness to consume experiential B&B tourism. Finally, the moderating path of willingness to consume experiential B&B tourism was verified by using multi-group analysis. (shrink)

This article provides current Schwartz Values Survey (SVS) data from samples of business managers and professionals across 50 societies that are culturally and socioeconomically diverse. We report the society scores for SVS values dimensions for both individual- and societal-level analyses. At the individual-level, we report on the ten circumplex values sub-dimensions and two sets of values dimensions (collectivism and individualism; openness to change, conservation, self-enhancement, and self-transcendence). At the societal-level, we report on the values dimensions of embeddedness, hierarchy, mastery, affective (...) autonomy, intellectual autonomy, egalitarianism, and harmony. For each society, we report the Cronbach’s α statistics for each values dimension scale to assess their internal consistency (reliability) as well as report interrater agreement (IRA) analyses to assess the acceptability of using aggregated individual level values scores to represent country values. We also examined whether societal development level is related to systematic variation in the measurement and importance of values. Thus, the contributions of our evaluation of the SVS values dimensions are two-fold. First, we identify the SVS dimensions that have cross-culturally internally reliable structures and within-society agreement for business professionals. Second, we report the society cultural values scores developed from the twenty-first century data that can be used as macro-level predictors in multilevel and single-level international business research. (shrink)

Human vision supports social perception by efficiently detecting agents and extracting rich information about their actions, goals, and intentions. Here, we explore the cognitive architecture of perceived animacy by constructing Bayesian models that integrate domain‐specific hypotheses of social agency with domain‐general cognitive constraints on sensory, memory, and attentional processing. Our model posits that perceived animacy combines a bottom–up, feature‐based, parallel search for goal‐directed movements with a top–down selection process for intent inference. The interaction of these architecturally distinct processes makes perceived (...) animacy fast, flexible, and yet cognitively efficient. In the context of chasing, in which a predator (the “wolf”) pursues a prey (the “sheep”), our model addresses the computational challenge of identifying target agents among varying numbers of distractor objects, despite a quadratic increase in the number of possible interactions as more objects appear in a scene. By comparing modeling results with human psychophysics in several studies, we show that the effectiveness and efficiency of human perceived animacy can be explained by a Bayesian ideal observer model with realistic cognitive constraints. These results provide an understanding of perceived animacy at the algorithmic level—how it is achieved by cognitive mechanisms such as attention and working memory, and how it can be integrated with higher‐level reasoning about social agency. (shrink)

Good academic practice is more than the avoidance of clear-cut cheating. It also involves navigation of the gray zones between cheating and good practice. The existing literature has left students’ understanding of gray zone practices largely unexplored. To begin filling in this gap, we present results from a questionnaire study involving N = 1639 undergraduate students from seven European countries representing all major disciplines. We show that large numbers of these students are unable to identify gray area issues and lack (...) sensitivity to the context dependence of these. We also show that a considerable proportion of students have a poor understanding of concepts like plagiarism and falsification, not only in gray zone scenarios, but also in cases of relatively clear-cut cheating. Our results are similar across the faculties and countries of study, and even for students who have attended academic integrity training. We discuss the implications of this for academic integrity training. (shrink)

Background and AimPsycho-oncology is a cross-disciplinary and collaborative sub-specialty of oncology that focuses on the psychological, behavioral, ethical, and social aspects of cancer in clinical settings. The aim of this bibliometric study was to analyze and characterize the research productivity and trends in psycho-oncology between 1980 and 2021.MethodologyIn May 2022, the Scopus® database was searched for psycho-oncology-related publications using predetermined search keywords with specific restrictions. Lotka’s law was applied to check the authors’ productivity, while Bradford’s law was used to assess (...) the core journals in this field. The data was analyzed for different bibliometric indicators in the Biblioshiny package, an RStudio tool for bibliometric analysis.ResultsThe initial search resulted in a total of 2,906 publications. Of which, 1,832 publications were included in the final analysis, published between 1980 and 2021. The analyzed publications were written by 7,363 authors from 74 countries and published in 490 journals. There has been a significant increase in psycho-oncology-related publications after 2010. The most productive year was 2021. The annual scientific growth rate was found to be 13.9%. The most relevant leading author in terms of publications was Luigi Grassi from the University of Ferrara, Italy. Lotka’s law found that the number of authors declined as the number of papers written increased. The core journals were Psycho-Oncology, Supportive Care in Cancer, and Journal of Psychosocial Oncology. The most frequently used author’s keywords other than searching keywords were cancer, oncology, quality of life, depression, and anxiety. Recent psycho-oncology-related topics included mental health, COVID-19 infection in humans, people, pandemic, and tumor. The University of Sydney was the top-ranked institution. The leading country in terms of publications, citations, corresponding author country, and international collaboration was the United States of America. The United States had the strongest collaboration with Australia and Canada.ConclusionThe research hotspots include mental health conditions and interventions in cancer patients. We identified international collaboration and research expenditure to be strongly associated with psycho-oncology research productivity. Researchers’ collaboration, which is visible among developed countries, should be extended to low-income countries in order to expand psycho-oncology-related research and understanding. (shrink)

How should defenders of liberalism think about access to reproductive technologies? Mitochondrial replacement technique (MRT) enables women with pathogenic variations of mitochondrial disease to have children without the fear of transmission. This technology can also allow lesbians, or partners with female-assigned physiology (PFP), to have genetically related offspring. Cavaliere and Palacios-Gonzalez argue that lesbians should be able to access MRT on autonomy grounds. They argue MRT should not be restricted to those with mitochondrial disease because it is non-therapeutic and invokes (...) the Millian harm principle. Yet, Baylis argues that a desire for genetically related offspring is not sufficient to access MRT because it contributes to harmful social narratives about adopted families. I strengthen Cavaliere and Palacios-Gonzalez’s liberal defence by bringing another liberal commitment—equality. Ultimately, I argue that the liberal state must allow PFPs to use MRT. I first show that the use of MRT by PFPs is permissible even if MRT is therapeutic by comparing MRT with cosmetic surgery—that is, social uses of therapeutic interventions are permitted if we are interested in doing so. Borrowing from Dillard, a possible interest is self-replication. Next, I outline and respond to a possible criticism by Baylis—MRT is necessary but not sufficient for self-replication. Ultimately, I show that the liberal state must permit MRT because (a) it provides PFPs with an equal opportunity to experience having genetically related offspring with their partner and (b) contributing to harmful social narratives is insufficient for limiting autonomy. (shrink)

Wittgenstein's Tractatus contains an insubstantial form of transcendental idealism. It is insubstantial because it rejects the substantial a priori. Yet despite this, the Tractatus still contains two fundamental transcendental idealist insights, (a) the identity of form between thought and reality, and (b) the transcendental unity of apperception. I argue for (a) by connecting general themes in the Tractatus and in Kant, and for (b) by giving a detailed interpretation of Tractatus 5.6ff., where Wittgenstein talks about solipsism and the metaphysical subject. (...) Tractarian solipsism, on this interpretation, is a special, insubstantial form of transcendental idealism. (shrink)

The ideal of human life as a life of sagehood is the core of Confucian thought. In neo?Confucianism the stress is on the self?perfectibility of man, and the central concern of neo?Confucianist thinkers has accordingly been with the question of how man can cultivate his own potentiality to be a sage. The different answers they give are in the form of teachings about the ?way?, these teachings incorporating different philosophical views of mind, human nature, and the universe. The author outlines (...) the views of successive neo?Confucianists and their versions of the ?way?, seeing their teachings as developments towards the doctrine presented by Wang Yang?ming (b. 1472), whose thought can be seen in particular as a synthesis of the views of Chu Tzu and Lu Shiang?shan. (shrink)

Nonlinear time series denoising is the prerequisite for extracting effective information from observation sequence. An effective chaotic signal denoising method not only has a good signal-to-noise ratio enhancement performance, but also can remain as a good unpredictable denoised signal. However, the inherent characteristics of chaos, such as extreme sensitivity to initial values and broadband spectrum, pose challenges for noise reduction of polluted chaotic signals. To address these issues, an adaptive smoothing multiscale morphological filtering is proposed to reconstruct chaotic signals. In (...) the process of noise reduction for contaminated chaotic signals, firstly, a multiscale morphological filter is constructed adaptively according to the multiscale permutation entropy of morphological filter residuals, and the contaminated signals are filtered. Secondly, the weight coefficients of scale structural element are calculated by the residual sum of squares operation, and the chaotic signals are reconstructed. Finally, the resampled filter signals are smoothed by cubic B-spline interpolation operation. In the experiment, the Lorenz signal with white Gaussian noise, the measured sunspot, and the chaotic vibration signal are reconstructed by four comparison methods. The test results show that the proposed ASMMF method has obvious advantages in noise suppression and topological trajectory restoration. (shrink)

Objective: Losing the only child is considered as the most severe kind of bereavement. It can trigger intense grief symptoms along with loss of psychosocial resources, but meanwhile, it can also lead to posttraumatic growth (PTG). The current study aimed to examine (a) whether a curvilinear relationship exists between grief and PTG, and (b) the moderating role of resources-loss among Chinese bereaved parents who lost their only child (shidu parents). Methods: 199 shidu parents from five provinces completed the assessment packet (...) covering prolonged grief symptoms and PTG, as well as resource loss. Hierarchical regression analyses were computed to examine the curvilinear relationship and the moderating effect of interpersonal loss and socio-economic loss. Results: There was no significant curvilinear relationship between grief and PTG in shidu parents. Under the high levels of interpersonal loss, shidu parents’ PTG scores decreased as the severity of grief increased. However, the socio-economic loss did not show a significant moderating effect. Conclusion: The results of the current study did not show a significant curvilinear relationship between grief and PTG in shidu parents. High levels of grief coupled with high levels of interpersonal loss may interfere with their ability to achieve PTG. Therefore, evaluating degrees of interpersonal loss seems to be an important part of the treatment process when working with shidu parents. To facilitate their adaptation from a positive perspective, helping them maintain existing or develop new interpersonal relationships may be helpful. (shrink)

As we navigate post-pandemic educational recovery and future-oriented design, the Handbook of Research in Online Learning: Insights and Advances emerges as a scholarly authority to illuminate existing questions and catalyze conversations on imperative transformations in education. Tailored for researchers, designers, educators, administrators, and stakeholders, this handbook delves into the nuanced landscape of online learning. Curated by leading experts, each chapter provides a deep exploration of critical online teaching and learning dimensions. Whether you're navigating the complexities of instructional design, exploring the (...) impact of digital learning on diverse student populations, or delving into the transformative potential of AI, each chapter illuminates critical aspects of online education. It merges current significant works with unpublished manuscripts, embodying the interdisciplinary essence of online learning research. Grounded in diverse theoretical frameworks and research methods, it offers theoretical insights and actionable guidance for cutting-edge educational methodologies. This handbook is not just a compendium; it's an indispensable guide for shaping the future of education. Contributors are: Michael Ahlf, Stephen Allen, Tonya Amankwatia, Fatih Ari, Ismahan Arslan-Ari, Michael K. Barbour, Gail Alleyne Bayne, Karen Bellnier, M. Aaron Bond, Victoria Brown, George Bradford, William Cain, Sumie Chan, Lauren Cifuentes, Laura DaVinci, Gina Deckard, Shernette Dunn, Anne Fensie, Holly Fiock, Sara Flowers, Carla Karen Fortune, Theodore Frick, Michael M. Grant, Alexis Guethler, Dan He, Atsusi "2c" Hirumi, Charles B. Hodges, Stephanie Hostetter, Michael Houdyshell, Fethi A. Inan, Frank Jamison, Amir Kalan, Meryl Krieger, Jessica Lantz, Mary Lefaiver, Juhong Christie Liu, Noble Lo, Barbara Lockee, Fatemeh Marzban, Trey Martindale, Sara McNeil, Laura McNeill, Stephanie Moore, Martha Lorena Obermeier, Larisa Olesova, Jennifer Jihae Park, Sanghoon Park, Yujin Park, AnthTony Pina, Drew Polly, Yingxiao Qian, Thomas Reeves, Christiane Reilly, Jennifer Richardson, Aubrey Rogowski, Leanne Rutherford, Kay Seo, Sanga Song, Edwin Teye Sosi, Stefan Stenbom, Sharon Stidham, David Tai, Hengtao Tang, Torrey Trust, Shannon Tucker, Denis Unal, Lucas Vasconcelos, Charles Xiaoxue Wang, Florence Williams, Ying Xie and Fan Xu. (shrink)

The 100th anniversary of the first publication of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus is celebrated by a collection of original papers by well-known experts on various aspects of one of the greatest works of philosophy in the twentieth century.

This article examines Moltmann’s analysis of intensional transitive verbs , and argues that the analysis fails because the key notion it employs, ‘variable satisfier’, is inconsistent.

We study structures on the fields of characteristic zero obtained by introducing operations of raising to power. Using Hrushovski–Fraisse construction we single out among the structures exponentially-algebraically closed once and prove, under certain Diophantine conjecture, that the first order theory of such structures is model complete and every its completion is superstable.

Este artigo visa a apresentar sucintamente o modelo teóricometodológico para a descrição do sentido do discurso – criado por Azevedo (2006), com base na Semântica Argumentativa, de Ducrot – cuja testagem constituiu-se no cerne da pesquisa1 desenvolvida por Azevedo e Rowell desde 2007. O corpus da pesquisa são textos de tipo explicativo veiculados em livros didáticos destinados aos anos finais (6º ao 9º) do Ensino Fundamental. Dito isso, nos propomos, neste artigo, a apresentar o referido modelo, a fim de: (a) (...) divulgar, ao menos parcialmente, os resultados da referida pesquisa, que se encontra em fase de conclusão; e (b) apontar mais uma possibilidade de, após a devida transposição didática, subsidiar professores para uma intervenção pedagógica mais significativa e eficaz no que tange ao desenvolvimento das habilidades de leitura desse tipo de texto, já que é pela compreensão leitora que se dá, no contexto escolar, a maior parte das aprendizagens em todos os componentes curriculares. (shrink)

Using a signaling framework, we argue that ethical behavior as evidenced by charitable donations is viewed more positively by investors when seen not to be based on self-serving motives but rather on authentic generosity that builds moral capital. The affirmed religiosity of CEOs may make their ethical position more credible, while their embeddedness within a family business suggests that CEOs are backed by powerful owners with long-time horizons and a desire to build moral capital with stakeholders. We find in a (...) study of market responses to 1572 corporate donations by S&P 1500 firms that financial markets react more positively to charitable initiatives from firms with religion-declared CEOs, but only if these are family businesses. (shrink)

To mention what is called the “Silk Routes” today is to evoke more than two thousand years of history on two continents, Europe and Asia. Naturally, over such a long period and such vast territories, hundreds of products were transported, exchanged, stolen, conquered, transferred, in short, from one country to another. For some of these products, the very source of the raw materials and the techniques of production themselves were transferred.Everyone knows that the Chinese invented paper, printing, gunpowder and the (...) compass—great technological advances; as for the last three, their transmission throughout the world goes back only to the Crusades, which is quite recent. Here we are interested in transfers that are less known and more ancient, the most ancient for which precise records exist, starting from the time of the “opening” of the silk routes, which, according to Chinese classical history, was during the second century B.C. We shall stop around the eleventh century A.D., at the time of the Sung dynasty. This period includes the two most interesting epochs, in our opinion, in the history of the exchanges on these routes: the Han dynasty (from 206 B.C. to 220 A.D.) and the Tang dynasty (618-907), epochs whose time frames encompass the Western Roman empire, the Eastern Roman empire, the kou-chau empire, Sassanid Persia, and the first centuries of Islam. (shrink)

This book takes a bold new look at ways of exploring the nature, origins, and potentials of consciousness within the context of science and religion.

There is growing evidence to suggest that employees’ perceptions of their employer’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) positively influences their attitude and behavior. An increasing number of scholars have called for further explorations of the microfoundations of CSR. To that end, this study takes the conservation of resources perspective to examine relationships and the perception of CSR by employees, considering areas such as thriving at work, task significance, and employees taking charge. By analyzing 444 questionnaires completed by employees in China and (...) using the conditional process analysis to test a hypothesis, results showed that the association between employees’ CSR perception and taking charge is significantly and positively correlated, with thriving at work mediating the connection. We also found that task significance negatively moderates the mediating effect between CSR and taking charge, such that the lower the level of task significance of a job, the more positive the effect of CSR on taking charge via thriving at work. These findings have theoretical implications for micro-level CSR research and managerial implications for entrepreneurs. (shrink)

We examine the influence of social capital in the municipal bond market. Defined as the norms and networks that encourage cooperation, social capital is a social construct which captures a region’s level of altruism, trustworthiness, and propensity to honor obligations. We expect that municipalities with high social capital are more trustworthy and likely to honor their debt obligations, which will result in lower bond yields. Our findings confirm that the bonds issued by municipalities located in high social capital counties exhibit (...) lower yields compared to the municipalities located in low social capital counties. Our findings are also supported by bond prices in the secondary market, which shows that bonds from the municipalities located in high social capital regions have higher prices. Additional tests reveal that the influence of social capital is stronger for general obligation bonds, suggesting that social capital matters more for bonds where the willingness of municipalities to pay taxes is an important factor. Lastly, we document that the bonds of municipalities in high social capital areas are less likely to have insurance, suggesting that social capital may act as a substitute for bond insurance. (shrink)

The Silk Road originated in China in the 1st century B.C.E. The purpose of the route was to expand silk trade which initially was elaborated exclusively by the Chinese. European aristocrats showed great devotion for this textile, which was carried mainly by Persian merchants. Seveal commercial silk routes were created to connect China with Mongolia, Korea, India, Persia, Arabia, Syria, Turkey, and Europe. Due to its geographic position, Korea served as the last Silk Route destiny for the Arab merchants in (...) the Asian Continent. As early as the Three Kingdoms period in Korea, Muslim traders travelled from the Caliphate of Turkey to Tang China and established contact with Shilla. Trade and cultural exchange were developed significantly and foreign influence reached Korea through the Silk Road. Arab merchants who arrived during the Koyeo Dynasty period were in fact the first to coin the English name “Korea”. In modern period, Korea maintained an important role in the New Silk Road, participating actively during the splendid periods of Unified Shilla and the Koryeo Dynasty. (shrink)