We explored whether children could apply linguistic strategies for lying, i.e., manipulating linguistic content of speech to mislead others. We announced a knowledge-test entailing prizes in the classrooms of a primary school and a middle school. Altogether 79 Chinese children (6-18 years) voluntarily participated in the test: listening to a series of animal sounds before guessing the names of the animals. Meanwhile, behind the participants, a video was playing images that ostensibly corresponded to the sounds being played. In fact, this (...) was not necessarily the case, i.e., some items cannot be solved because the sounds played are not from any animal but machine-synthesized. Participants were instructed not to look back at the video. However, 51 children peeked at the video for the unsolvable items, although the peeking behavior decreased with age. Moreover, when explaining how they correctly guessed the unsolvable items, children as young as six years old were able to apply a linguistic strategy (i.e., "capability attribution") for lying. Besides "capability attribution", Children also applied "fortune attribution" and "topic shift" for lying. Finally, "fortune attribution" and "topic shift" increased with age. Therefore, educators need to be aware that children are able to apply verbal strategies for lying that could involve truthful statements (i.e., "topic shift") or statements that are difficult to be proved as untruthful (i.e., "fortune attribution"). (shrink)

This study examined how self-worth of students mediated and moderated their perceived positive teacher-student relationships and student engagement among middle-school students from rural China. Eighth graders completed surveys measuring their perceived relationships with teachers, their self-worth, and engagement. Statistical analyses revealed significant correlations among all three variables, with the strongest being between teacher-student relationships and student engagement. The structural equation modeling indicated that self-worth partially mediated the effect of teacher-student relationships on student engagement; however, positive teacher-student relationships were a stronger (...) predictor. Multigroup analyses identified self-worth as a moderator, whereby students with lower self-worth were more reliant on positive teacher-student relationships to enhance their engagement. This study provides insights into how self-worth of students and their perceived positive teacher-student relationships influence their academic engagement in disadvantaged rural areas of China. (shrink)

Water quality prediction is the basis of water environmental planning, evaluation, and management. In this work, a novel intelligent prediction model based on the fuzzy wavelet neural network including the neural network, the fuzzy logic, the wavelet transform, and the genetic algorithm was proposed to simulate the nonlinearity of water quality parameters and water quality predictions. A self-adapted fuzzy c-means clustering was used to determine the number of fuzzy rules. A hybrid learning algorithm based on a genetic algorithm and gradient (...) descent algorithm was employed to optimize the network parameters. Comparisons were made between the proposed FWNN model and the fuzzy neural network, the wavelet neural network, and the neural network. The results indicate that the FWNN made effective use of the self-adaptability of NN, the uncertainty capacity of FL, and the partial analysis ability of WT, so it could handle the fluctuation and the nonseasonal time series data of water quality, while exhibiting higher estimation accuracy and better robustness and achieving better performances for predicting water quality with high determination coefficients R2 over 0.90. The FWNN is feasible and reliable for simulating and predicting water quality in river. (shrink)

In light of the considerable disparity in the thinking patterns between Western and Chinese societies, this study seeks to develop a better comprehension of the influences of traditional Chinese cultural elements on knowledge management practices within contemporary Taiwanese society. To this end, the research draws on the concepts of “guanxi” based on the embeddedness theory concept through the lens of employees’ happiness. A qualitative case study was conducted within a virtual team ), and data were collected from both observations and (...) 36 interviewees. Based on the resulting analysis, the findings show that individuals’ knowledge-sharing behavior results from a complex interplay of a sense of well-being, guanxi, and the Chinese culture rooted within such organizations. The study provides a significant insight into the cultural implications of KM strategies and offers valuable advice for knowledge managers within the context of Taiwanese society. (shrink)

The purposes of research were to describe the neonatal clinicians' personal views and attitudes on neonatal ethical decision-making, to identify factors that might affect these attitudes and to compare the attitudes between neonatal physicians and neonatal nurses in Taiwan. Research was a cross-sectional design and a questionnaire was used to reach different research purposes. A convenient sample was used to recruit 24 physicians and 80 neonatal nurses from four neonatal intensive care units in Taiwan. Most participants agreed with suggesting a (...) do not resuscitate (DNR) order to parents for dying neonates (86.5%). However, the majority agreed with talking to patients about DNR orders is difficult (76.9%). Most participants agree that review by the clinical ethics committee is needed before the recommendation of ‘DNR’ to parents (94.23%) and nurses were significantly more likely than physicians to agree to this (p=0.043). During the end-of-life care, most clinicians accepted to continue current treatment without adding others (70%) and withholding of emergency treatments (75%); however, active euthanasia, the administration of drug to end-of-life, was not considered acceptable by both physicians and nurses in this research (96%). Based on our research results, providing continuing educational training and a formal consulting service in moral courage for neonatal clinicians are needed. In Taiwan, neonatal physicians and nurses hold similar values and attitudes towards end-of-life decisions for neonates. In order to improve the clinicians' communication skills with parents about DNR options and to change clinicians' attitudes for providing enough pain-relief medicine to dying neonates, providing continuing educational training and a formal consulting service in moral courage are needed. (shrink)

Loving-kindness meditation was first practiced by Buddhists and then developed by clinical psychologist. Previous studies on LKM have mainly focused on the impact of real person-guided meditation on depression, anxiety, and other negative psychology. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this study explored the effect and mechanism of media-guided LKM on the improvement of social presence, mindfulness, spirituality, and subjective wellbeing. From the viewpoint of positive psychology, this study compared the different media effects of animated pedagogical agent -guided LKM and audio-guided LKM. (...) A total of 82 flight attendants were recruited from airlines; then, they were randomly assigned to two groups: APA group and audio group, which both underwent an 8-week LKM training intervention. The aforementioned four main variables were measured pre and post the meditation experiment. The results indicated that both APA-guided meditation and audio-guided meditation significantly improved subjects’ spirituality and SWB. Compared with audio-guided meditation, APA-guided meditation significantly improved the subjects’ spirituality, SWB, and social presence. Audio-guided meditation has no significant effect on social presence. This study highlights APA-guided meditation has a positive effect on spirituality, SWB, and social presence, which may provide individuals with a simple and easy method to improve their mental health. (shrink)

Schizophrenia is considered as a self-disorder with disordered local synchronous activation. Previous studies have reported widespread dyssynchrony of local activation in patients with SZ, which may be one of the crucial physiological mechanisms of SZ. To further verify this assumption, this work used a surface-based two-dimensional regional homogeneity approach to compare the local neural synchronous spontaneous oscillation between patients with SZ and healthy controls, instead of the volume-based regional homogeneity approach described in previous study. Ninety-seven SZ patients and 126 HC (...) were recruited to this study, and we found the SZ showed abnormal 2dReHo across the cortical surface. Specifically, at the global level, the SZ patients showed significantly reduced global 2dReHo; at the vertex level, the foci with increased 2dReHo in SZ were located in the default mode network, frontoparietal network, and limbic network ; however, foci with decreased 2dReHo were located in the somatomotor network, auditory network, and visual network. Additionally, this work found positive correlations between the 2dReHo of bilateral rectus and illness duration, as well as a significant positive correlation between the 2dReHo of right orbital inferior frontal gyrus with the negative scores of the positive and negative syndrome scale in the SZ patients. Therefore, the 2dReHo could provide some effective features contributed to explore the pathophysiology mechanism of SZ. (shrink)

Creativity is so important for social and technological development that people are eager to find an easy way to enhance it. Previous studies have shown that mindfulness has significant effects on positive affect, working memory capacity, cognitive flexibility and many other aspects, which are the key to promoting creativity. However, there are few studies on the relationship between mindfulness and creativity. The mechanism between mindfulness and creativity is still uncertain. Meditation is an important method of mindfulness training, but for most (...) people who do not have the basic training, it’s difficult to master how to get into a state of mindfulness. Animation has been shown by many studies to help improve cognition and is often used as a guiding tool. Using animation as the guiding carrier of meditation is more convenient and easier to accept. Therefore, this study adopted the intervention method of animation-guided meditation, aiming to explore: the effect of animation-guided meditation on enhancing creativity; the role of flow and emotion in the influence of mindfulness on creativity. We advertised recruitment through the internal network of a creative industrial park, and the final 95 eligible participants were divided into two groups: animation and audio guided meditation. The animation group was given an animated meditation intervention, and the audio group was given an audio meditation intervention, both interventions were performed 3 times a week and last for 8 weeks. Results: Animation-guided meditation significantly increased participants’ mindfulness and creativity levels; Significantly reduced their cognitive load compared to audio-guided meditation. Mindfulness has a significant direct effect on creativity, and significant indirect effects on creativity; Flow and PA act as the mediating variable. Conclusion: Mindfulness, flow, and PA all helped to improve the subjects’ work creativity. In addition to the direct positive impact of mindfulness on creativity, mindfulness can also have an indirect positive impact on creativity through flow and PA. Compared with audio, animation can significantly reduce cognitive load and help improve users’ cognitive ability, which is more suitable for the guidance materials of mindfulness meditation to enhance the effect of meditation. (shrink)

This study examines the relationship between chief executive officers ’ collectivistic cultural background and corporate pollution abatement behavior among industrial firms in China. Using hand-collected data on birthplaces of CEOs of the industrial firms, we provided robust evidence that CEOs born in provinces with a higher level of collectivistic culture promote corporate pollution abatement performance. This study further shows that firms exhibit significant differences in their emission reduction behavior when firms are subjected to environmental regulation shocks: firms with collectivistic CEOs (...) tend to reduce more pollution than firms with individualistic CEOs without sacrificing their firms’ production. (shrink)

No detailed description available for "Li Ta-Chao and the Impact of Marxism on Modern Chinese Thinking".

本书包括科学人文主义产生的背景,科学与人文分裂对立的根源,科学人文主义的逆向途径,科学与人文融合的现实途径等内容。.

本书分为魏晋玄学与文学的自觉、魏晋玄学与《文心雕龙》、魏晋玄学与六朝乐论、画论三篇,作者在书中讨论了魏晋玄学影响六朝文论的基本可能性等问题。.

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

Understanding the changing role of central banks and their recent novel policies is essential for analysing many economic and financial issues, ranging from financial regulation and crisis, to exchange rate dynamics and regime changes, and QE and prolonged low interest rates. This book features contributions by the world's leading experts on central banking, providing in accessible essays a fascinating review of today's key issues for central banks. Luminaries including Stephen Cecchetti, Takatoshi Ito, Anil Kashyap, Mervyn King, Donald Kohn, Otmar Issing (...) and Hyun Shin are joined by Charles Goodhart of the London School of Economics and Political Science, whose many achievements in the field of central banking are honoured as the inspiration for this book. The Changing Fortunes of Central Banking discusses the developing role of central banks in seeking monetary and financial stabilisation, while also giving suggestions for model strategies. This comprehensive review will appeal to central bankers, financial supervisors and academics. (shrink)

本书内容分两部分:一.介绍了全书概况及其在中外文化史上的重要作用;二.是该要籍的精选和简注。.

When we say “I know why he was late”, we know not only the fact that he was late, but also an explanation of this fact. We propose a logical framework of “knowing why” inspired by the existing formal studies on why-questions, scientific explanation, and justification logic. We introduce the Kyi\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${{\mathcal {K}}{}\textit{y}}_i$$\end{document} operator into the language of epistemic logic to express “agent i knows why φ\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} (...) \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\varphi $$\end{document}” and propose a Kripke-style semantics of such expressions in terms of knowing an explanation of φ\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\varphi $$\end{document}. We obtain two sound and complete axiomatizations w.r.t. two different model classes depending on different assumptions about introspection. Finally we connect our logic with justification logic technically by providing an alternative semantics and an in-depth comparison on various design choices. (shrink)

The purpose of this study was to develop and empirically test a model for predicting the key factors affecting nurses’ behavioral intention to use mobile learning. We explored behavioral intention from users’ perspectives by applying an extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model with the addition of information quality, system quality, technostress, and satisfaction. We conducted a survey of the district and regional hospitals in central Taiwan. Data were derived from 434 respondents. Structural equation modeling was applied (...) to analyze the causal effects of 15 hypothesized predictive factors. We determined that satisfaction, social influence, performance expectancy, facilitating conditions, and effort expectancy positively impacted nurses’ behavioral intention to use m-learning. In addition, technostress was a negative antecedent of effort expectancy. Information quality and system quality had significantly positive effects on satisfaction, performance expectancy, and effort expectancy. This study provides hospital managers with a reference when assessing future developments and informs approaches to promote m-learning. (shrink)

In this paper, we propose a nonlinear coupled model to study the two interacting processes of awareness diffusion and epidemic spreading on the same individual who is affected by different neighbor behavior status on multiplex networks. We achieve this topology scenario by two kinds of factors, one is the perception factor that can change interplay between different layers of networks and the other is the neighbors’ behavior status that can change the infection rate in each layer. According to the microscopic (...) Markov chain approach, we analyze the dynamical evolution of the system and derive the theoretical epidemic threshold on uncorrelated heterogeneous networks, and then, we validate the analysis by numerical simulation and discuss the final size of awareness diffusion and epidemic spreading on a scale-free network. With the outbreak of COVID-19, the spread of epidemic in China prompted drastic measures for transmission containment. We examine the effects of these interventions based on modeling of the awareness-epidemic and the COVID-19 epidemic case. The results further demonstrate that the epidemic spreading can be affected by the effective transmission rate of the awareness and neighbors’ behavior status. (shrink)

Ethical theory today is dominated by utilitarianism and by deontological theories . We also find, though to a much lesser extent, virtue ethics, feminist 'care' theories , social contract theories, and rights-based theories. But often missing from the discussion-and from most ethics textbooks-is natural law theory. Natural law theory has a long history, starting with the Stoics. It is influential outside of the Anglo-American world , and it has its powerful defenders today . But nevertheless it is virtually absent from (...) most contemporary studies in ethics and, even when it is mentioned, it is often quickly rejected. Why is this theory so widely ignored or rejected? There are a number of reasons that have been given. Some raise the problem of the distinction between 'is' and 'ought'-that is, that contrary to a basic claim of natural law theory, one cannot infer a moral statement of what one' ought 'to do from a descriptive statement of the kind of being one' is. 'Some attack the theory because it is a' naturalistic 'theory, and it commits ' the naturalistic fallacy'-that moral properties are 'simple,' and cannot be defined in terms of something that is natural And there is today a widespread scepticism that questions whether there are such things as objective, universal moral standards-ie, standards which apply to all human beings, regardless of the culture from which they come or the time in which they live. In any case, even if there are such standards, we might still ask Where do they come from? Can we know what they are? And can we be certain that they are legitimate? Many, if not most of these questions were, however, addressed by Jacques Maritain. In this paper, I want to outline Maritain's distinctive account of natural law and its metaphysical and epistemological dimensions. This account not only provides a more sophisticated understanding of natural law, but gives us good reason to challenge the marginalization of it in contemporary moral philosophy. The object of this short essay has been to present Jacques Maritain's account of natural law. For Maritain, the 'natural law' is "an order or a disposition that the human reason can discover and according to which the human will must act in order to be in accord with the essential and necessary ends of the human being. "Such an account proposes not only a description of human behaviour, but a standard of moral action and a foundation for human rights . Maritain's adopts the view that this law is not only related to human nature, but is known naturally. He believes that, given his arguments concerning the metaphysical and epistemological dimensions, we have a historically sensitive version of a natural law theory that accords with human experience, that bridges the is / ought gap, and that explains how differences in moral knowledge do not count against a natural law view. If we take this approach-an approach that Maritain believes is rooted in St Thomas-Maritain believes that one can respond to at least some of the major criticisms of natural law theory. There is, of course, more to a natural law theory than an account of its metaphysical and epistemological dimensions. Clearly, more needs to be said concerning its relation to other kinds of law . We also need to specify what exactly we know of natural law. And it is also important to see how Maritain's account compares with other natural law theories , especially the 'rationalist' accounts that were popular in the eighteenth century. Nevertheless, it is clear from the discussion throughout this essay that Maritain's theory is not one that one should hastily reject-and that it should be included among the major moral theories of today. (shrink)

Vocal fry is a phonation, or voicing, in which an individual drops their voice below its natural register and consequently emits a low, growly, creaky tone of voice. Media outlets have widely acknowledged it as a generational vocal style characteristic of millennial women. Critics of vocal fry often claim that it is an exclusively female vocal pattern, and some say that the voicing is so distracting that they cannot understand what is being said under the phonation. Claiming that a phonation (...) is so distracting as to prevent uptake of the semantic content of an utterance associated with it is an extreme reaction, especially when accompanied by demands for women to change their phonation. We argue that this reaction limits women's communicative autonomy. We analyze the extreme reaction to female vocal fry, which we characterize as a non-content-based response, from the perspectives of philosophy of language, feminist epistemology, and linguistics. We argue that when fry is heard as annoying and distracting, it is because the hearer interprets the speaker as echoing an utterance from a position of authority to which she is not entitled. We show that this reaction encodes conscious or unconscious sexist attitudes toward women's voices. (shrink)

We provide an introduction to network theory, evidence to support a connection between molecular network structure and neuropsychiatric disease, and examples of how network approaches can expand our knowledge of the molecular bases of these diseases. Without systematic methods to derive their biological meanings and inter‐relatedness, the many molecular changes associated with neuropsychiatric disease, including genetic variants, gene expression changes, and protein differences, present an impenetrably complex set of findings. Network approaches can potentially help integrate and reconcile these findings, as (...) well as provide new insights into the molecular architecture of neuropsychiatric diseases. Network approaches to neuropsychiatric disease are still in their infancy, and we discuss what might be done to improve their prospects. (shrink)

Kant defined moral evil as reversing the order between self-love and morality. For many critics, however, his egoistically-orientated notion of self-love fails to make sense of the infinitely manifold incentives of evil under the human condition. Against this criticism, my article will re-interpret Kantian self-love and empirical self-conception from both the transcendental and empirical level, thus offering a transcendental grounding for the empirical manifestations of evil. In this way I will argue that we can explain rather sufficiently the infinite manifoldness (...) of evil incentives in real human life with Kant’s prima facie simplistic definition of evil. (shrink)

Through the recognition of ocean sediment sonar images, the texture in the image can be classified, which provides an important basis for the classification of ocean sediment. Aiming at the problems of low efficiency, waste of human resources, and low accuracy in the traditional manual side-scan sonar image discrimination, this paper studies the application of image recognition technology in sonar image substrate texture discrimination, which is popular in many fields. At the same time, considering the scale complexity, diversity, multisources, and (...) small sample characteristics of the marine sediment sonar image texture, the transfer learning is introduced into the image recognition, and the K-means clustering algorithm is used to reset the prior frame parameters to improve the speed and accuracy of image recognition. Through the experimental comparison between the original model and the new model based on transfer learning, the AP value of the yolov3 model based on transfer learning can reach 84.39%, which is 0.97% higher than that of the original model, with considerable accuracy and room for improvement; it takes less than 0.2 seconds. This shows the applicability and development of image recognition technology in texture discrimination of bottom sonar images. (shrink)

College students have taken part in less and less physical activities as a result of the common static lifestyle in recent years, lowering the level of motor function. This phenomenon has been a source of concern for schools and the government, and it is necessary to take corresponding measures to change it. The general motor function level of Chinese college students is explored first based on artificial intelligence and the human–computer interaction technology. The Physical Activity Questionnaire for College Students is (...) compiled by referring to the International Physical Activity Questionnaire, and 561 students from colleges in Tianjin province are assessed based on the functional movement screen. Spearman correlation and multivariate regression analysis are used to analyze the correlation between the motor function and physical activity status. In terms of lunch break frequency, the proportion of students having one to two lunch breaks in a week is the highest ; in terms of the frequency of doing moderate physical exercise, the proportion of students doing moderate physical exercise for 1–2 days in a week is the highest ; in terms of the frequency of doing heavy physical exercise, the proportion of students doing heavy exercise for 1–2 days in a week is the highest ; in terms of the sedentary time, the proportion of students with sedentary time more than 5 h in a day is the highest ; in terms of eye use time, the proportion of students with 8–10 h eye use time in a day is the highest. Besides, in terms of the FMS score, the proportion of students with 13–15 FMS is the highest. The hurdle step, straight knee lift, and body rotation stability have a relatively low proportion among the three-point items. There is a positive correlation between motor function score with the time of moderate exercise and the time of heavy exercise. College students generally have insufficient rest time, long eye use time, and long sitting time, leading to a low level of motor function, manifested by an asymmetry between both sides of the body and poor trunk stability. It is recommended to add hurdling steps, straight knee lifts, and body rotation stability tests to college physical education courses. (shrink)

Huang's book analyzes the major Neo-Confucian philosophers from the eleventh to the sixteenth centuries. Focusing on metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical philosophical issues, this study presents the historical development of the Neo-Confucian school, an outgrowth of ancient Confucianism, and characterizes its thought, background, and influence. Key concepts—for example ^Utai-ji (supreme ultimate), ^Uxin (mind), and ^Uren (humanity)—as interpreted by each thinker are discussed in detail. Also examined are the two major schools that developed during this period, Cheng-Zhu, School of Principle, and (...) Lu-Wang, School of Mind. These schools, despite different philosophical orientations, were convinced that their common goal, to bring about a harmonious relationships between man and the universe and between man and man, could be achieved through different ways of philosophizing. To understand the Chinese mind, it is necessary to understand Neo-Confucianism as a reformation of early Confucianism. This analytical presentation of major Neo-Confucian philosophers, from the eleventh to the sixteenth centuries, examines Zhou Dun-yi (1017-1073), Shao Yong (1011-1077), Zhang Zai (1020-1077), Cheng Hao (1032-1085), Cheng Yi (1033-1107), Zhu Xi (1130-1200), Lu Xiang-shan (1139-1193), and Wang Yang-ming (1427-1529). With its focus on metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical philosophical issues, Huang's study presents the historical development of the Neo-Confucian school, an outgrowth of ancient Confucianism, and characterizes its thought, background, and influence. Key concepts—for example, ^Utai-ji (supreme ultimate), ^Uxin (mind), and ^Uren (humanity)—as interpreted by each thinker are discussed in detail. The two major schools that developed during these six centuries are examined as well. Lu-Wang, School of Mind, developed in criticism of Cheng-Zhu, School of Principle. The two schools, despite different approaches toward their philosophical pursuits, were convinced that their common goals, to bring about harmonious relationships between man and the universe and between man and man, could be achieved through different ways of philosophizing. To understand the Chinese mind, it is necessary to understand Neo-Confucianism as a reformation of early Confucianism. Scholars of Eastern religions and philosophy will appreciate the objective interpretations of each thinker's philosophy, for which pertinent passages spoken by each man have been selected and translated by the author from the original Chinese, and the comparisons of the Neo-Confucian philosophies with those of the West. An introduction provides the historical background in which to study the rise of Neo-Confucianism. The study is organized ehronologically and includes a glossary of terms and a bibliography which serves as a helpful guide for further research. (shrink)

Tradition wireless sensor networks transmit data by single or multiple hops. However, some sensor nodes close to a static base station forward data more frequently than others, which results in the problem of energy holes and makes networks fragile. One promising solution is to use a mobile node as a mobile sink, which is especially useful in energy-constrained networks. In these applications, the tour planning of MS is a key to guarantee the network performance. In this paper, a novel strategy (...) is proposed to reduce the latency of mobile data gathering in a WSN while the routing strategies and tour planning of MS are jointly optimized. First, the issue of network coverage is discussed before the appropriate number of clusters being calculated. A dynamic clustering scheme is then developed where a virtual cluster center is defined as the MS sojourn for data collection. Afterwards, a tour planning of MS based on prediction is proposed subject to minimizing the traveling distance to collect data. The proposed method is simulated in a MATLAB platform to show the overall performance of the developed system. Furthermore, the physical tests on a test rig are also carried out where a small WSN based on an unmanned aerial vehicle is developed in our laboratory. The test results validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the method proposed. (shrink)

Business Ethics: A European Review, Volume 30, Issue 2, Page 231-243, April 2021.

The progressive thinker of the late Ming, early Qing dynasties, the famous materialist philosopher Yan Yuan , made an important contribution to the history of Chinese philosophy with his practical studies of public affairs in which he fiercely attacked Song and Ming neo-Confucianism and promoted "real writing, real action, real substance, and real functions.".

Background Ensuring adequate informed consent for surgery in a trauma setting is challenging. We developed and pilot tested an educational video containing information regarding the informed consent process for surgery in trauma patients and a knowledge measure instrument and evaluated whether the audiovisual presentation improved the patients’ knowledge regarding their procedure and aftercare and their satisfaction with the informed consent process. Methods A modified Delphi technique in which a panel of experts participated in successive rounds of shared scoring of items (...) to forecast outcomes was applied to reach a consensus among the experts. The resulting consensus was used to develop the video content and questions for measuring the understanding of the informed consent for debridement surgery in limb trauma patients. The expert panel included experienced patients. The participants in this pilot study were enrolled as a convenience sample of adult trauma patients scheduled to receive surgery. Results The modified Delphi technique comprised three rounds over a 4-month period. The items given higher scores by the experts in several categories were chosen for the subsequent rounds until consensus was reached. The experts reached a consensus on each item after the three-round process. The final knowledge measure comprising 10 questions was developed and validated. Thirty eligible trauma patients presenting to the Emergency Department were approached and completed the questionnaires in this pilot study. The participants exhibited significantly higher mean knowledge and satisfaction scores after watching the educational video than before watching the video. Conclusions Our process is promising for developing procedure-specific informed consent and audiovisual aids in medical and surgical specialties. The educational video was developed using a scientific method that integrated the opinions of different stakeholders, particularly patients. This video is a useful tool for improving the knowledge and satisfaction of trauma patients in the ED. The modified Delphi technique is an effective method for collecting experts’ opinions and reaching a consensus on the content of educational materials for informed consent. Institutions should prioritize patient-centered health care and develop a structured informed consent process to improve the quality of care. Trial registration The ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier is NCT01338480. The date of registration was April 18, 2011. (shrink)