Morin (1921) founded the complex mode of thinking in order to remedy the defects of the Western classic simple mode of thinking. In doing so, he approached to some degree the mode of thinking inherent to the Eastern civilization. This article elucidates that for some principles of Morin's complex thinking, such as correlation of opposites, recursive causality, and union of unity of multiplicity, there were similar ideas in Chinese classic philosophy. This shows that the complex paradigm of thinking, in a (...) certain point of view, will be the fusion of Western and Eastern cultural factors. Besides, in integrating his theory of complexity with the reality of our time to find out solutions to the issues of globalization, Morin has become one of the representative thinkers of the planetary age of humankind. (shrink)

This article shows that in two respects, Gödel's incompleteness theorem strongly supports the arguments of Edgar Morin's complexity paradigm. First, from the viewpoint of the content of Gödel's theorem, the latter justifies the basic view of complexity paradigm according to which knowledge is a dynamic, unfinished process, and develops by way of self-criticism and self-transcendence. Second, from the viewpoint of the proof procedure of Gödel's theorem, the latter confirms the complexity paradigm's circular line of inference through which is formed the (...) all-round knowledge of a concrete object. (shrink)

BackgroundTinnitus is a common disease, and sound therapy is an effective method to alleviate it. Previous studies have shown that notched sound not only changes levels of cortical blood oxygen, but affects blood oxygen in specific cerebral cortical areas, such as Brodmann area 46, which is associated with emotion. Extensive evidence has confirmed that tinnitus is closely related to emotion. Whether notched sound plays a role in regulating the emotional center is still unclear.MethodsThis study included 29 patients with newly diagnosed (...) chronic tinnitus who were treated with notched sound. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy was conducted before and after treatment to observe bilateral changes in cortical blood oxygen in the cerebral hemispheres. We compared the changes in connectivity between the two regions of interest, as wells as other cortical regions before and after treatment.ResultsThe results showed That global connectivity between the bilateral auditory cortex of the superior temporal sulcus and the ipsilateral cortex did not change significantly between baseline and the completion of treatment, and That the connectivity between channel 14 and the right superior temporal sulcus decreased after treatment. The overall connectivity between the right BA46 region and the right cortex decreased after treatment, and decreases in connectivity after treatment were specifically found for channels 10 and 14 in the right parietal lobe and channels 16, 20, 21, and 22 in the frontal lobe, while there was no significant change on the left side. There were no significant changes in the questionnaire measures of tinnitus, anxiety, or depression before and after treatment.ConclusionThe results of the study indicate that cerebral cortex reorganization occurs in tinnitus patients after submitted to treatment with notched sound for 1 month, and that notched sound decreases the connectivity between the auditory cortex and specific brain regions.SignificanceNotched sound not only regulates the auditory center through lateral inhibition, but also alleviates tinnitus by reorganizing the emotional control center. (shrink)

想要內心平靜安寧，就讀《莊子》吧！ 掌握「莊子」思想，面對外在好自在， 天生我材沒有用又怎樣？能做自己就是福。 ◎當你總是與人意見不合時 ★莊子教你處世之道──立場不同，無須與人爭論是非 人總是認為自己正確而對方錯誤，莊子要人們明白，我們不應該執著於爭論片面的是非，否則只會偏離自己的中心思想。 ◎當你在感情中常有衝突，快要撐不下去時 ★莊子給你愛的力量──愛對方的一切，包括愛對方的「缺點」 我們因一個人的優點而喜歡上他／她，但那些不那麼好、甚至是壞的部分，也是他／她的組成要素。一段完整的關係，不就是有好有壞，有快樂，有悲傷嗎？ ◎當你覺得自己學東西很慢，力不從心時 ★莊子告訴你人生真理──「智慧」比「知識」更重要 莊子認為，人生的智慧不是建立在知識累積的基礎上。事事算得很精、學得很勤的人，反而有可能迷失了方向，因小失大。 ◎當你遭遇困難，心情沮喪時 ★莊子帶你真誠面對自己──懂得快樂，更要懂得悲傷 喜怒哀樂，都是我們內在的真實感受。情感的發生，在莊子看來，也是再自然不過的事情，不需要刻意躲開。坦然面對情緒，才是最自在的辦法。 ◎當你被生活的忙碌壓到喘不過氣時 ★莊子引導你領略心靈的平靜──偶爾停下匆忙的腳步，傾聽心底的聲音 生活猶如走鋼索，從容自在的人會凝心自照，拋開環境的影響。莊子提醒我們，如果太專注於外在事物上，內心便會逐漸沉沒、枯寂。有時靜下心來，反而能走得更遠。 ▌工作、學業太多，煩惱、憂愁太雜，是現代人的文明通病。為了占有一席之地，人們往往勞心勞力、鞠躬盡瘁，到最後受苦的卻是自己。想要的東西太多，得到的卻很少，反而什麼都滿足不了。 ▌於是莊子說，「善待自己」最重要。歡迎來到莊子的逍遙講堂，帶你體悟「享受人生」的豁達精神！ ※本書特色※ ★精心挑選《莊子》百句，體會逍遙精神，貼近時下讀者關心話題★ 本書擇取《莊子》中深富智慧、極具啟示的段落百句，以貼近現實的視角與深入淺出的文字，闡述莊子精隨。讓讀者在日常中活用經典智慧，輕鬆進入莊子的逍遙世界。 ★兩千兩百年經典歷久不衰，知名哲學家、文學家一致推崇★ 《莊子》是道家思想最具代表性的著作，載有大量神話傳說與寓言。其中，「井底之蛙」、「莊周夢蝶」、「鼓盆而歌」、「越俎代庖」等典故皆為世人熟知。西方諸多哲人、文學家如尼采、海德格、羅蘭巴特、王爾德、卡夫卡 等名家，都深受《莊子》啟發。 作者簡介 | 陳引馳 復旦大學中文系教授，現為系主任。 復旦中國古代文學研究中心教授，復旦文史研究院雙聘研究員。 道家、佛教與中國古典文學專家。著有《無為與逍遙：莊子六章》《莊子精讀》《佛教文學》《文學傳統與中古道家佛教》等多本學術著作。.

Teacher education students, as an important reserve in the field of education, their growth and development are related to the future of science, economy, sustainable development of education. Through participation in the educational practice of STEAM, which integrates science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics is more beneficial for them to acquire 21st century skills like communication, collaboration, learning innovation and critical thinking. However, little has been seen about the use and effectiveness of short videos in STEAM education activities and how (...) they can be used to support and promote teacher education students STEAM learning performance and sustainable inquiry behaviors. Therefore, this study combines the framework of triadic reciprocity determinism theory and technology acceptance theory to propose six research hypotheses and develop a research model to explore the relationship between collaborative self-efficacy, perceived usefulness of short videos, perceived ease of use, STEAM learning performance and teacher education students’ sustainable inquiry behavior. To achieve the purpose of this study, this study used purposive sampling and invited teacher education students from five classes of preschool education at a university in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, to participate in this study. A total of 8 h of instructional guidance was provided over a four-week period, in which participants used short videos for collaborative group learning and independent inquiry and applied STEAM concepts to kindergarten science activities. Participants’ STEAM performance was measured and surveyed during the fourth week. The results of the study validation showed that teacher education students CS-E had a positive effect on the PU and PEOU of short videos; Teacher’s education students PEOU of short videos had a positive effect on usefulness; Teacher’s education students PU and PEOU of short videos had a positive effect on STEAM learning performance; Teacher’s education students’ STEAM learning performance had a positive effect on sustainable inquiry behavior. (shrink)

This book translates Lao Zhuang xinlun, a key work of contemporary Chinese scholarship. It offers a unique discussion of the Laozi, arguing - in contrast to standard Western scholarship - that the text goes back to Laozi as a single author and identifying him as an older contemporary, and even teacher, of Confucius. This places the Confucian Analects after the Daode jing and makes the text the most fundamental work of ancient Chinese thought. Chen explores decades of debates (...) regarding these points, providing evidence based on materials excavated from Mawangdui and Guodian. His book is fascinating in its documentation of contemporary Chinese arguments and debates, offering a complete revision of the history of Chinese thought with Daoism as its major focus. The work is an absolute must for anyone studying Chinese philosophy and history. -- from back cover. (shrink)

The Tianqin, often a plucked zither or lute, holds significant cultural and musical heritage in China. The objective of this study is to explore the evolutionary perspectives on the culture of a Chinese folk musical instrument by examining its playing techniques and cultural changes. Conducted in Longzhou County, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, this study involved ethnographic fieldwork, including participant observation and interviews with key informants such as Tianqin musicians and craftsmen. Data analysis was performed using thematic analysis, revealing (...) that the Tianqin has transitioned from a ritualistic instrument to a symbol of cultural heritage and mass entertainment. The findings highlight the instrument's adaptability through innovations in playing techniques and materials, supported by governmental initiatives promoting Tianqin culture. This research underscores the importance of preserving and promoting traditional musical instruments in contemporary society. The study's insights contribute to a broader understanding of cultural adaptation and innovation in ethnomusicology. (shrink)

While translation competence assessment has been playing an increasingly facilitating role in translation teaching and learning, it still failed to offer fine-grained diagnostic feedback based on certain reliable translation competence standards. As such, this study attempted to investigate the feasibility of providing diagnostic information about students’ translation competence by integrating China’s Standards of English with cognitive diagnostic assessment approaches. Under the descriptive parameter framework of CSE translation scales, an attribute pool was established, from which seven attributes were identified based on (...) students’ and experts’ think-aloud protocols. A checklist comprising 20 descriptors was developed from CSE translation scales, with which 458 students’ translation responses were rated by five experts. In addition, a Q-matrix was established by seven experts. By comparing the diagnostic performance of four widely-used cognitive diagnostic models, linear logistic model was selected as the optimal model to generate fine-grained information about students’ translation strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, relationships among translation competence attributes were discovered and diagnostic results were shown to differ across high and low proficiency groups. The findings can provide insights for translation teaching, learning and assessment. (shrink)

We examine the influence of inferring interlocutors' referential intentions from their body movements at the early stage of lexical acquisition. By testing human participants and comparing their performances in different learning conditions, we find that those embodied intentions facilitate both word discovery and word‐meaning association. In light of empirical findings, the main part of this article presents a computational model that can identify the sound patterns of individual words from continuous speech, using nonlinguistic contextual information, and employ body movements as (...) deictic references to discover word‐meaning associations. To our knowledge, this work is the first model of word learning that not only learns lexical items from raw multisensory signals to closely resemble infant language development from natural environments, but also explores the computational role of social cognitive skills in lexical acquisition. (shrink)

Background: Chinese Taoist cognitive therapy (CTCT), a culture-oriented psychological therapy for Chinese mental well-being, has been proposed for decades. However, the evidence for its effects is unclear. This study aimed to systematically assess the effect of this therapy on symptoms of depression and anxiety in Chinese adults. Methods: Relevant studies were searched from major electronic databases through November 2018 without language limits. Several search terms used include “anxiety” OR “depression” AND “Taoism” OR “Daoism” OR “Chinese Taoist Cognitive Therapy”. A total (...) of 11 clinical trials focusing on CTCT were included in this meta-analysis. Random-effects meta-analytical models were conducted. Heterogeneity and publication bias were also explored. Results: Eight clinical trials for 580 subjects were included. The majority of these studies explored samples with depressive symptoms. Overall, CTCT significantly reduced depressive symptoms with a small positive effect (SMD = 0.16, 95% CI: -0.36-0.68). Medium-to-large effect sizes were observed across individuals with clinical or nonclinical depression and chronic physical diseases (SMD = 0.70, 95%CI: 0.27-1.13 and SMD = 0.72, 95%CI: 0.09-1.35, respectively). However, the effectiveness for anxiety symptoms remains debatable. Conclusions: Our findings hold promise that CTCT can help reduce depressive symptoms in Chinese adults, including patients with chronic physical diseases and clinical or nonclinical depression. Our findings may be generalized to Chinese communities in other countries. (shrink)

Background: Although ethics consultation has been introduced to clinical practice for many years, the results of empirical studies to evaluate the effectiveness of ethics consultation are still controversial. The design of randomised controlled trials is considered the best research design to evaluate the effect of a clinical practice on the outcomes of interests. In order to understand the effects of ethics consultation, we conducted this search for studies with the design of randomised controlled trials to evaluate ethics consultation.Objective: To provide (...) an integrated review of studies with the design of randomised controlled trials to evaluate the effectiveness of ethics consultation.Methods: PubMed was used to search for studies using the randomised controlled trial design to evaluate the effectiveness of ethics consultation. The search term used was “ethics consultation”. The selection criterion was limited to “randomised controlled trial”.Results: Four articles that met both search criteria were retrieved. One of these articles reported a study that did not actually use the design of a randomised controlled trial and is excluded from the following discussion.Conclusions: To apply randomised controlled trials to evaluate the effectiveness of ethics consultation is extremely difficult as long as two issues are not resolved: the standardisation of ethics consultation and a placebo for ethics consultation to eliminate the placebo effect. Thus, the results generated by the design of randomised controlled trials are always problematic. Furthermore, as long as the two issues exist, the results generated by the design of quantitative research methods always pose problems. (shrink)

This study conducted an empirical survey of 126 Business Ethics students in business and management departments within two universities across the Taiwan Strait to evaluate the impact on these managers-to-be of receiving an education in Business Ethics. The results show that, after receiving that Business Ethics education, students in both universities demonstrated significant improvements in the ethical weighting of their individual values, their recognition of ethical issues and their performance as ethical decision-makers. However, in respect of ethical decision-making, the behavior (...) of these students is still sub-optimal, indicating a need for further improvements in the ethical education of managers-to-be across the Taiwan Strait. (shrink)

Joint attention has been extensively studied in the developmental literature because of overwhelming evidence that the ability to socially coordinate visual attention to an object is essential to healthy developmental outcomes, including language learning. The goal of this study was to understand the complex system of sensory-motor behaviors that may underlie the establishment of joint attention between parents and toddlers. In an experimental task, parents and toddlers played together with multiple toys. We objectively measured joint attention—and the sensory-motor behaviors that (...) underlie it—using a dual head-mounted eye-tracking system and frame-by-frame coding of manual actions. By tracking the momentary visual fixations and hand actions of each participant, we precisely determined just how often they fixated on the same object at the same time, the visual behaviors that preceded joint attention and manual behaviors that preceded and co-occurred with joint attention. We found that multiple sequential sensory-motor patterns lead to joint attention. In addition, there are developmental changes in this multi-pathway system evidenced as variations in strength among multiple routes. We propose that coordinated visual attention between parents and toddlers is primarily a sensory-motor behavior. Skill in achieving coordinated visual attention in social settings—like skills in other sensory-motor domains—emerges from multiple pathways to the same functional end. (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.

Augustine was a representative of the theology of hope in the patristic age. He saw hope as the grasp of eschatological eternal happy life for human in this world. Together, the three virtues of faith, hope and love constitute the three interdependent faculties of the soul to know God. Hope, which comes from the grace of God given through Christ, is the knowledge of eternity, not of a future in time, and it helps one to resist the temptation of goods (...) which comes from the flesh and earthly things. Hope in eternity gives one a cognitive power beyond time and space, which leads to a unified vision of past, present and future, thus also causing important changes in how one lives in this created world. However, because of this unearthly hope, people can form a gradually expanding community of fraternity in this world, which helps them transcend differences of belief and seek a more virtuous life.Contribution: This article reconstructs Augustine’s interpretation of the nature of hope by synthesising his various texts, analysing the theological structure of the concepts related to hope, sorting out the ‘theology of hope’ he advocates and finally, in light of the wisdom of his philosophy, responding to what and how we can hope in suffering. (shrink)

Confucian state doctrines have shaped Asian cultures for millennia as prescriptive codes of conduct with an emphasis on hierarchy and obligation. Yet a premise at the core of lǐ —understood as propriety, ritual, or generally a cultural grammar—is authenticity, and authentic respect cannot be commanded. What if the lǐ were to be elegant instead? Hans-Georg Gadamer analyzed play as a fusion of horizons that are absorbed into the same event, co-constituting subject and object in an aesthetic experience, and dissolving their (...) dichotomy. We consider examples from Japanese aesthetics in this framework to give depth to key Confucian concepts: the values that enable a relationality that is not in conflict with autonomy; the points of reference for self-improvement through culture; a social organization that enacts reciprocity; and the essential posture this requires. The radical simplicity of the philosophy of tea, chanoyu, and the aesthetic refinement of the Katsura Rikyū palace illuminate the principle of emotional resonance in encounters, which underlies the fusion of cognitive, ethical, and aesthetic horizons. This view reveals how the relational premise of the Confucian philosophical system entails an ontological commitment to mutuality. This is indeed ethics, but neither particularism nor generalism; in its aesthetic dimension it is the mode of perception of a self fulfilled in play. (shrink)

Histone post-translational modifications play important roles in transcriptional regulation. It is known that multiple histone modifications can act in a combinatorial manner. In this study, we investigated the effects of multiple histone modifications on expression levels of five gene categories in coding regions. The combinatorial patterns of modifications for the five gene categories were also studied in the regions. Our results indicated that the differences in the expression levels between any two gene categories were significant. There were some corresponding differences (...) in multiple histone modification levels among the five gene categories. Multiple histone modifications jointly impacted expression levels of every gene category. Four mutual combinations of histone modifications were found and analyzed. (shrink)

Educators themselves and their knowledge are the most significant elements in learners’ success and achievement; however, there is little information about the specialized knowledge held by educators. Recently, conceptualizing educator knowledge has become a complicated issue that involves that the comprehension of important basic phenomena, such as the procedure of educating and learning, the notion of knowledge, and the way educators’ knowledge, has become practical within the class. Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge was presented as a theoretical structure for the knowledge (...) base because educators have to efficiently instruct with technology and it is regarded as a valuable framework for explaining and understanding technology integration into various academic environments, such as English as a Foreign Language class. This paper is intended to review the related literature on the role of an English teacher using the TPACK framework for teaching English and their role in students’ achievement. Based on the related literature, there is a significant and direct association between EFL teachers’ TPACK and EFL students’ achievement. Succinctly, some recommendations have been proposed for educational stakeholders. (shrink)

Fezf1 and Fezf2 are highly conserved transcription factors that were first identified by their specific expression in the anterior neuroepithelium of Xenopus and zebrafish embryos. These proteins share an N‐terminal domain with homology to the canonical engrailed repressor motif and a C‐terminal DNA binding domain containing six C2H2 zinc‐finger repeats. Over a decade of study indicates that the Fez proteins play critical roles during nervous system development in species as diverse as fruit flies and mice. Herein we discuss recent progress (...) in understanding the functions of Fezf1 and Fezf2 in neurogenesis and cell fate specification during mammalian nervous system development. Going forward we believe that efforts should focus on understanding how expression of these factors is precisely regulated, and on identifying target DNA sequences and interacting partners. Such knowledge may reveal the mechanisms by which Fezf1 and Fezf2 accomplish both independent and redundant functions across diverse tissue and cell types. (shrink)

Vitalism was long viewed as the most grotesque view in biological theory: appeals to a mysterious life-force, Romantic insistence on the autonomy of life, or worse, a metaphysics of an entirely living universe. In the early twentieth century, attempts were made to present a revised, lighter version that was not weighted down by revisionary metaphysics: " organicism ". And philosophers since the Vienna Circle (Schlick, Frank and later Nagel) criticized Driesch and Bergson's " neovitalism " as a too-strong ontological commitment (...) to the existence of certain entities or " forces ", over and above the system of causal relations studied by mechanistic science, rejecting the weaker form, organicism, as well. But there has been some significant scholarly " push-back " against this orthodox attitude, notably pointing to the 18th-century Montpellier vitalists to show that there are different historical forms of vitalism, including how they relate to mainstream scientific practice (Wolfe and Normandin, eds. 2013). Additionally, some trends in recent biology that run counter to genetic reductionism and the informational model of the gene present themselves as organicist (Gilbert and Sarkar 2000, Moreno and Mossio 2015). Here, we examine some cases of vitalism in the twentieth century and today, not just as a historical form but as a significant metaphysical and scientific model. We argue for vitalism's conceptual originality without either reducing it to mainstream models of science or presenting it as an alternate model of science, by focusing on historical forms of vitalism, logical empiricist critiques thereof and the impact of synthetic biology on current (re-)theorizing of vitalism. (shrink)

This paper presents an autobiographical narrative of two aspects of my history; two events that permeated my moral consciousness and influenced my political development and a sequence of changes in my dominant theoretical and epistemological perspectives. The two events were, as a teenager, the intense experience of briefly witnessing Apartheid culture and, as a young adult, becoming deeply engaged in feminist activism. My intellectual journey began in cognitive developmental theory and progressed to a cultural, discursive perspective in which the role (...) of affect is seen as integrated. The paper explores the intersection of these two strands of my moral and intellectual development and concludes with a preliminary model of action and engagement. (shrink)

The practice of business ethics is a constant concern for both business and academics. Thus this study attempts both to explore the effective performance of business ethics and to provide a learned reference. The researcher has gathered relevant literature, developed a notion of business ethics operation which have been put to the test within four selected enterprises across the Taiwan Strait. The findings reveal that different types of ethical leadership and catalytic mechanism precipitated four operations and a swathe of different (...) approaches to business ethics. The study has, it is hoped, justified academic interest in business ethics by obtaining experimental results which demonstrate the merits of promoting their practice. (shrink)