Advocates of an ‘extended evolutionary synthesis’ have claimed that standard evolutionary theory fails to accommodate epigenetic inheritance. The opponents of the extended synthesis argue that the evidence for epigenetic inheritance causing adaptive evolution in nature is insufficient. We suggest that the ambiguity surrounding the conception of the gene represents a background semantic issue in the debate. Starting from Haig’s gene-selectionist framework and Griffiths and Neumann-Held’s notion of the evolutionary gene, we define senses of ‘gene’, ‘environment’, and ‘phenotype’ in a way (...) that makes them consistent with gene-centric evolutionary theory. We argue that the evolutionary gene, when being materialized, need not be restricted to nucleic acids but can encompass other heritable units such as epialleles. If the evolutionary gene is understood more broadly, and the notions of environment and phenotype are defined accordingly, current evolutionary theory does not require a major conceptual change in order to incorporate the mechanisms of epigenetic inheritance. _1_ Introduction _2_ The Gene-centric Evolutionary Theory and the ‘Evolutionary Gene’ _2.1_ The evolutionary gene _2.2_ Genes, phenotypes, and environments _3_ Epigenetic Inheritance and the Gene-Centred Framework _3.1_ Treating the gene as the sole heritable material? _3.2_ Epigenetics and phenotypic plasticity _4_ Conclusion. (shrink)

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

Graphical AbstractThere are four major hypotheses (H1, H2, H3, and H4) as to the source of missing heritability. We propose that estimates obtained from GWAS underestimate heritability by not taking into account non-DNA (epigenetic) sources of heritability. Taking those factors into account (H4) should result in increased heritability estimates.

This paper analyzes the relation between shame and a Confucian notion of yi, especially through discussions from Confucius and Mencius. Section one clarifies Mencius’s position that righteousness is both external and internal. Although this idea includes rules, it is primarily something intended by our innate moral feelings. Section two illustrates the point that if one’s action is not right, the feeling of shame spontaneously arises and motivates a self-correction. This section also clarifies the difference between the idea of shame in (...) Max Scheler and in Confucian thought. Section three compares absolute yi with general li as well as the roles that shame and duty play in relation to ren. (shrink)

Reflecting the currently growing eco-movement, this book presents to western readers Tao Yuanming, an ancient Chinese poet, as a representative of classical oriental natural philosophy who offered lived experience of "dwelling poetically on earth." Drawing on Derrida's specter theory, it interprets Tao Yuanming in a postmodern and eco-critical context, while also exploring his naturalist "kindred spirits" in other countries, so as to urge the people of today to contemplate their own existence and pursuits. The book's "panoramic" table of contents offers (...) readers a wonderful reading experience. (shrink)

European Portuguese (EP) is a language with variable stress, and the main cues for stress are duration and vowel reduction. A previous behavioral study has reported a stress “deafness” effect in EP when vowel quality cues are unavailable. The present study recorded both event-related potentials (ERPs) and behavioral data to examine the stress processing by native EP speakers in the absence of the vowel quality cues. Our behavioral result was consistent with previous research, showing that when vowel reduction is absent (...) EP speakers demonstrated a stress “deafness” effect similar to that found in speakers of languages with fixed stress or without any lexical stress marking. In the ERP task, both the trochaic and iambic conditions yielded mismatch negativity (MMN) and late negativity, suggesting that EP speakers are able to discriminate the two stress patterns without vowel reduction at the pre-attentive stage. Moreover, the ERP and behavioral data revealed compatible results regarding the pattern of stress bias in EP. In the EPR task, the MMN and late negativity components were more negative and span over a larger temporal window in the iambic condition than in the trochaic condition, indicating a higher sensitivity for the iambic stress pattern. In the behavioral task, EP speakers responded more accurately and more quickly to the iambic stress. These results match recent developmental findings in the acquisition of stress, but speak against the dominant view in EP phonological literature which assumes penultimate stress to be the regular stress pattern. In addition, both the ERP and the behavioral data showed that EP speakers’ stress processing was influenced by their working memory (WM) capacity. The participants with high WM capacity outperformed the participants with limited WM capacity in the iambic condition. In sum, our results broaden the current knowledge on stress processing by EP speakers at both the pre-attentive and attentive levels. (shrink)

How do experiences of shame and guilt shape or reflect the ways in which the vanquished are reconciled (or not) to the new world order established by the victors? Shame and guilt are universal experiences in the emotional landscape of post-war politics, albeit for different reasons and with radically different political effects. An examination of Germany after 1918 and of Japan after 1945 reveals that experiences of shame and guilt may be pivotal for creating conditions of possibility for reconciliation marked (...) by political and moral transformation. This transformative potential of shame and guilt, however, is a double-edged sword. In threatening old identities, values and beliefs, experiences of shame and guilt may provoke defensive, reactionary and violent political responses, and thus may precipitate hideous rather than salutary transformations. Political leadership and political culture are crucial factors in shaping the kind of reconciliation — reactionary or transformative — as well as the specific nature of transformations that experiences of shame and guilt may motivate the vanquished to pursue. (shrink)

Megaprojects are implemented by different organisations, such as owners, consultants, and contractors. Gradually, these organisations and their connections can form business networks that influence both the market position of individual organisations and project performance. Previous research on large-scale projects mainly focused on static and homogeneous networks that were constructed by one individual project and/or carried out over one-off collaboration. However, this neglected the consideration of project network diversity, as well as repetitive, dynamic, cross-project coopetition relationship and long-term business networks formed (...) by key actors. Here, we chose Chinese skyscrapers over 300 meters that were built from 1996 to 2015 as typical megaproject cases and analysed the formation and evolution of megaproject business networks from the perspective of interorganisational coopetition. We identified the key actors involved and empirically studied their dynamic network positions over time. The main contributions of this study are threefold. First, we found that past collaboration experience has direct and dynamic impacts on the formation of megaproject business networks. Second, we identified key actors in the interorganisational business network and unveiled their dynamic positions with clear patterns. Third, we highlighted the temporal-spatial effect on the formation and development of business networks, alongside developments in the megaproject market. The findings of this study also provide practical applications for owners to choose collaboration partners and to build high-performance teams and for suppliers to enter and sustain the business in the megaprojects networks. (shrink)

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

Studies on Chinese nationalism in Western academia have been influenced by a popular theory called ‘the culturalism-to-nationalism thesis’, a loosely formulated interpretive paradigm which emerged in late 1960s. The literature on this topic, however, reveals an inadequate understanding of traditional Chinese thinking and its influence on Chinese thought in modern history. An examination of the work of Li Dazhao (1889–1927) and his philosophical heritage not only will open up a valuable source for us to rethink about this thesis and its (...) defects, but also will shed light on the complicated background and perspective that give rise to modern Chinese nationalism. Given the interest in Chinese nationalism in contemporary world, an understanding of its historical roots is particularly timely, since in order to understand China’s current and future actions one must understand the origins of Chinese nationalist thinking and its transformations in time. This paper makes a contribution to that historical understanding. I argue that traditional Chinese philosophy, especially the Daoist world view and Confucian ethics played a significant role in shaping Li’s patriotic and nationalist stance. It also predisposed him intellectually to accept the internationalist characteristic of Marxism. (shrink)

While the existing literature finds that corporate social responsibility (CSR) can provide insurance-like protection in negative events, it remains unclear how CSR buffers firms from market penalties for negative events. To address this concern, we conduct event studies and regressions using data from the environmental violations by Chinese publicly traded companies and their interlocked companies from 2009 to 2021. Our results show that the market reacts negatively to environmental violations. The market penalty diffuses through director networks and leads to the (...) collective punishment of interlocked firms. CSR has an insurance-like effect that buffers market penalties and collective punishment for environmental violations. Long-term CSR has a stronger insurance-like effect than short-term CSR. Additionally, the insurance-like effect of CSR still exists during repeated environmental violation events. This paper contributes to the literature on the insurance-like effect of CSR and provides a reference for corporate CSR practice and investors' CSR decisions. (shrink)

Impossible de considérer la promotion, l’essor et le développement des idées libérales en Chine au xx e siècle sans prendre en compte la figure de Hu Shi (1891-1962) et l’influence que son œuvre exerça. Pendant toute sa vie intellectuelle, Hu Shi se tint au premier rang des intellectuels chinois désireux de moderniser leur pays. Parti se former aux États-Unis très tôt, il concentra ses recherches sur les (r)évolutions littéraires et entreprit d’analyser l’histoire de la philosophie chinoise avec les méthodes scientifiques (...) occidentales. Il entendait non seulement changer les façons de parler et d’écrire dans le monde académique, mais encore les styles de pensée et de vie au sein de la population chinoise. Il devint l’un des plus prestigieux intellectuels de la Chine moderne, en s’engageant activement dans la vie politique. Il poursuivitl’idéal d’une « bonne gouvernance », même en régime de parti unique. L’invasion par le Japon interrompit ses efforts et la guerre civile le mit en difficulté, quoiqu’il ait aidé dans une certaine mesure à restaurer l’autorité d’une administration centrale indispensable à un pays en voie de développement au territoire immense et à la population énorme : les efforts à déployer pour le moderniser vite et fort sont à cette mesure. Hu Shi dut quitter la Chine continentale. Dans les dernières années de sa vie, il fut un symbole de la relation entre les États-Unis et le régime du Kuomintang à Taïwan, mais nombre de ceux qu’il avait formés et qui étaient restés en Chine continentale critiquaient sa position, au sein de la communauté académique. Or Hu Shi prit lui-même ses distances avec le Kuomintang (KMT dans cet article), en levant toujours haut la bannière du libéralisme et d’une « Chine libre ». Classification JEL : B13, B31, N25, P26. (shrink)

This article explores how experienced regret and relief evoked in a risky gambling task influence subsequent intertemporal pro-social behavior. We apply a dictator game experiment with delayed rewards to investigate the effect on donating behavior by simultaneously the time delay when the recipient accepts the donation and the emotions experienced by the participant. We examine this effect using a choice titration procedure. The results reveal that independent of the prior experienced emotions, participants’ donations decrease as the time delay rises; the (...) hyperbolic model provides a better explanation of this finding. Significantly, experienced regret impacts the shape of the social discount function with delayed rewards, which is reflected in notably different discount rates. Participants who experienced regret exhibit a lower discount rate than those in the relief condition. Note that this distinct type of generosity differs significantly at the 14-day delay but not at the shortest and longest. It follows that regret can promote future altruism and intertemporal pro-social behavior, depending on the delay. (shrink)

Let $\Gamma$ be the random bipartite graph, a countable graph with two infinite sides, edges randomly distributed between the sides, but no edges within a side. In this paper, we investigate the reducts of $\Gamma$ that preserve sides. We classify the closed permutation subgroups containing the group $\operatorname {Aut}(\Gamma)^{\ast}$ , where $\operatorname {Aut}(\Gamma)^{\ast}$ is the group of all isomorphisms and anti-isomorphisms of $\Gamma$ preserving the two sides. Our results rely on a combinatorial theorem of Nešetřil and Rödl and a strong (...) finite submodel property for $\Gamma$. (shrink)

With the rapid development of the Internet and smart phone technology, a large number of short videos are shared through social platforms. Therefore, video content analysis is a very important and popular work in machine learning and artificial intelligence currently. However, it is very difficult to analyze all aspects of video content originally produced by large-scale users. How to screen out bad and illegal content from short videos published by a large number of users, select high-quality videos to share with (...) other users, and improve the quality of video on the distribution platform of the entire user is a top priority. Based on this background, this paper focuses on optimizing video auditing to provide basic features for algorithm judgment, supporting original content and increasing the distribution of new content, and strengthening manual intervention combining algorithm recommendation with manual recommendation. Four major aspects of the artificial training algorithm model discuss the optimization effect of artificial intelligence on the algorithm in order to provide some guidance for the sustainable and healthy development of mobile short video. (shrink)

本书系“湖南省社会科学规划项目”、“湖南省教育厅青年项目”的研究成果。本书由“湖南科技大学学术著作出版基金”资助.

Both Renaissance Europe and Ming China witnessed an epoch-making declaration of the liberation of the mind, a manifesto that laid the groundwork for the emergence of the modern subjective self. In his Meditations on First Philosophy, René Descartes declares that there is "nothing else to be in me over and above the mind", and "I'm therefore precisely nothing but a thinking thing; that is, a mind, or intellect, or understanding, or reason".1 In defining my self as a thinking thing, Descartes (...) states, "I have taken the being or existence of this thought as the first principle". By thought or cogito, Descartes means "everything that is in us in such a way... (shrink)

This paper discusses the theory of socialism endorsed by Li Dazhao, China's first Marxist, as an effort to integrate western ideas into the traditional Chinese thinking during the chaotic years of the 1920s. There are two aspects of Li's theory of socialism which, while related, are distinct: (1) a theory about the nature of socialist society, and (2) a theory about how a socialist society can be achieved in China. Li's development of (1) is influenced by his acceptance of the (...) classical Confucian notion of the Great Harmony while his account of (2) draws upon both his acceptance of the Daoist account of historical change and on classic Confucianism. Understanding his theory of socialism thus requires locating it within these two doctrines of classical Chinese philosophy. (shrink)

Using matched four-stage data from 477 team members and their 132 team leaders in Chinese companies, we examined a cross-level model in which group- and individual-focused transformational leadership and their influence on team and member performance from the perspective of multilevel model of motivation in teams. The results indicated that group-focused TFL exerts positive effects through sequential mediation of team efficacy and team process whereas individual-focused TFL has a positive effect on team members' performance through sequential mediation of followers' self-efficacy (...) and individual regulation process. In addition, we also find significant cross-level mediation effects demonstrating that group-focused TFL was positively related to self-efficacy through the mediator of team efficacy, team efficacy was positively related to the individual regulation process through the mediator of the team process, team process was positively related to individual performance through the mediator of the individual regulation process. Theoretical and applied implications are discussed. (shrink)

This study aimed to reveal the characteristics of multi-circuit brain synergy between elite tai chi chuan athletes in resting and exercise states and to provide neuroimaging evidence of improvements in brain function by motor skill training. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy was used to compare the brain activity of professional tai chi chuan athletes and beginners in resting and exercise states, and to assess functional connectivity between the prefrontal lobe and the sensorimotor zone. In the resting state, the FC between the left (...) prefrontal lobe and the right sensorimotor area in the expert group was significantly lower than that in the novice group. In the exercise state, the patterns of FC between the left prefrontal lobe and right sensorimotor area, the right prefrontal lobe and left sensorimotor area, and the left and right sensorimotor areas in the expert group were significantly lower than that in the novice group. From the resting state to the locomotor state, the expert group experienced a greater absolute value of functional connection increment between the left prefrontal cortex and right sensorimotor area, and between the left sensorimotor area and right sensorimotor area. This was positively correlated with the self-evaluation results of motor performance behavior. Under sports conditions, professional athletes’ multi-circuit brain FC strength is significantly reduced, and their elite motor skill performance supports the neural efficiency hypothesis. This may be related to the high adaptation of the brain to specific tasks and the improvement of the integration of somatic perception processing and motor function. (shrink)

Genes induced by the plant hormone auxin are probably involved in the execution of vital cellular functions and developmental processes. Experimental approaches designed to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of auxin action have focused on auxin perception, genetic dissection of the signaling apparatus and specific gene activation. Auxin‐responsive promoter elements of early genes provide molecular tools for probing auxin signaling in reverse. Functional analysis of several auxin‐specific promoters of unrelated early genes suggests combinatorial utilization of both conserved and variable elements. These (...) elements are arranged into autonomous domains and the combination of such modules generates uniquely composed promoters. Modular promoters allow for auxin‐mediated transcriptional responses to be revealed in a tissue‐ and development‐specific manner. (shrink)

Marketing in the social network environment integrates current advanced internet and information technologies. This marketing method not only broadens marketing channels and builds a network communication platform but also meets the purchase needs of customers in the entire market and shortens customer purchases. The process is also an inevitable product of the development of the times. However, when companies use social networks for product marketing, they usually face the impact of multiple realistic factors. This article takes the maximization of influence (...) as the main idea to find seed users for product information dissemination and also considers the users’ interest preferences. The target users can influence the product, and the company should control marketing costs to obtain a larger marginal benefit. Based on this, this paper considers factors such as the scale of information diffusion, user interest preferences, and corporate budgets, takes the influence maximization model as a multiobjective optimization problem, and proposes a multiobjective maximization of influence model. To solve the NP-hard problem of maximizing influence, this paper uses Monte Carlo sampling to calculate high-influence users. Next, a seed user selection algorithm based on NSGA-II is proposed to optimize the above three objective functions and find the optimal solution. We use real social network data to verify the performance of models and methods. Experiments show that the proposed model can generate appropriate seed sets and can meet different purposes of information dissemination. Sensitivity analysis proves that our model is robust under different actual conditions. (shrink)

Quotations from Lu Xun's criticism of Confucianism.