The mathematical structure of realist quantum theories has given rise to a debate about how our ordinary 3-dimensional space is related to the 3N-dimensional configuration space on which the wave function is defined. Which of the two spaces is our (more) fundamental physical space? I review the debate between 3N-Fundamentalists and 3D-Fundamentalists and evaluate it based on three criteria. I argue that when we consider which view leads to a deeper understanding of the physical world, especially given the deeper topological (...) explanation from the unordered configurations to the Symmetrization Postulate, we have strong reasons in favor of 3D-Fundamentalism. I conclude that our evidence favors the view that our fundamental physical space in a quantum world is 3-dimensional rather than 3N-dimensional. I outline lines of future research where the evidential balance can be restored or reversed. Finally, I draw lessons from this case study to the debate about theoretical equivalence. (shrink)

There is controversy as to whether children with developmental language disorder (DLD) and those with high-functioning autism plus language impairment (HFA-LI) share similar language profiles. This study investigated the similarities and differences in the production of Chinese negative sentences by children with DLD and children with HFA-LI to provide evidence relevant to this controversy. The results reflect a general resemblance between the two groups in their lower-than-TDA (typically developing age-matched) performance. Both groups encountered difficulties in using negative markers, which suggests (...) that they might be impaired in feature agreement. Slight differences were detected between the two groups. Specifically, children with DLD experienced difficulties with the agreement on the feature [+telic] and that on the feature [+dynamic], while children with HFA-LI had difficulties with the agreement on the feature [+dynamic] and that on the feature [−dynamic]. This study supports the idea of a common symptomatology for the two disorders. More importantly, it suggests that these two disorders, DLD and HFA-LI, are not altogether the same in terms of language impairment. This paper concludes that general labels should not be simply attached to any children with language disorders. Instead, atypical language is very worthy of further analysis in the categorization of language disorders. (shrink)

The purpose of this study was to explore whether the performance of the green innovation brought positive effect to the competitive advantage. This study found that the performances of the green product innovation and green process innovation were positively correlated to the corporate competitive advantage. Therefore, the result meant that the investment in the green product innovation and green process innovation was helpful to the businesses. This study argued that the businesses should cognize the correct value and positioning of the (...) green innovation. (shrink)

This article proposed four novel constructs – green brand image, green satisfaction, green trust, and green brand equity, and explored the positive relationships between green brand equity and its three drivers – green brand image, green satisfaction, and green trust. The object of this research study was information and electronics products in Taiwan. This research employed an empirical study by use of the questionnaire survey method. The questionnaires were randomly mailed to consumers who had the experience of purchasing information and (...) electronics products. The results showed that green brand image, green satisfaction, and green trust are positively related to green brand equity. Furthermore, the positive relationship between green brand image and green brand equity is partially mediated by green satisfaction and green trust. Hence, investing on resources to increase green brand image, green satisfaction, and green trust is helpful to enhance green brand equity. (shrink)

This research examines business and psychology students’ attitude toward unethical behavior (measured at Time 1) and their propensity to engage in unethical behavior (measured at Time 1 and at Time 2, 4 weeks later) using a 15-item Unethical Behavior measure with five Factors: Abuse Resources, Not Whistle Blowing, Theft, Corruption, and Deception. Results suggested that male students had stronger unethical attitudes and had higher propensity to engage in unethical behavior than female students. Attitude at Time 1 predicted Propensity at Time (...) 1 accurately for all five factors (concurrent validity): If students consider it to be unethical, then, they are less likely to engage in that unethical behavior. Attitude at Time 1 predicted only Factor Abuse Resources for Propensity at Time 2. Propensity at Time 1 was significantly related to Propensity at Time 2. Attitude at Time 1, Propensity at Time 1, and Propensity at Time 2 had achieved configural and metric measurement invariance across major (business vs. psychology). Thus, researchers may have confidence in using these measures in future research. (shrink)

Moral issues have been included in the studies of consumer misbehavior research, but little is known about the joint moderating effect of moral intensity and moral judgment on the consumer’s use intention of pirated software. This study aims to understand the consumer’s use intention of pirated software in Taiwan based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) proposed by Ajzen (Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50, 179, 1991). In addition, moral intensity and moral judgment are adopted as a joint (...) moderator to examine their combined influence on the proposed research framework. The results obtained from this Taiwan case reveal that the antecedent constructs proposed in the TPB model–an individual’s attitude and subjective norms toward using pirated software, and perceived behavioral control to use pirated software–indeed have positive impacts on the consumer’s use intention of pirated software. In addition, the joint moderating effect of moral intensity and moral judgment is manifested in the consumer’s use intention of pirated software. The results of this study not only could substantiate the results of consumer misbehavior research, but also could provide some managerial suggestions for Taiwanese government authorities concerned and the related software industries devoted to fighting pirated software. (shrink)

No research explored intellectual capital about green innovation or environmental management. This study wanted to fill this research gap, and proposed a novel construct - green intellectual capital - to explore the positive relationship between green intellectual capital and competitive advantages of firms. The empirical results of this study showed that the three types of green intellectual capital - green human capital, green structural capital, and green relational capital - had positive effects on competitive advantages of firms. Moreover, this study (...) found that green relational capital was the most common among these three types of green intellectual capital, and the three types of green intellectual capital of Medium & Small Enterprises were all significantly less than those of large enterprises in the information and electronics industry in Taiwan. In sum, companies investing many resources and efforts in green intellectual capital could not only meet the trends of strict international environmental regulations and popular environmental consciousness of consumers, but also eventually obtain corporate competitive advantages. (shrink)

Travelling internationally to acquire medical treatments otherwise unavailable or inaccessible in one’s home country is not a novel concept. Conventionally, such medical travel largely entailed patients from developed countries or wealthy patients from the developing world seeking care in Western facilities like the Mayo Clinic in the U.S. and myriad private clinics along Harley Street in London, England. What is different about the topical phenomenon known as “medical tourism” is the growing trend of health services export in the opposite direction. (...) The number of patients travelling from the developed world to low- and middle-income countries for treatments has ballooned in recent years, primarily driven by difficulties with accessing affordable care at home. According to a liberal estimate by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, the number of Americans travelling abroad for care rose from 750,000 in 2007 to 1.6 million in 2012. On the flip side, Thailand reportedly treated a total of 1.3 million foreign nationals in 2007, which represented a 16% leap from 2001. (shrink)

In this study, we are concerned with how agents can best amalgamate their private information about a binary state of Nature. The agents are heterogeneous in their “ability”, the quality of their private information. The agents cannot directly communicate their private information but instead can only vote between the two states. We first describe possible methods of sequential majority voting, and then we analyze a particular one: the first n-1\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$n-1$$\end{document} jurors vote (...) simultaneously and, in the case of a tie, the remaining juror has the casting vote. We prove that when n=3\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$n=3$$\end{document}, the probability of a correct verdict is maximized when the agent of median ability has the casting vote. (shrink)

Our understanding of the complexity of the oral biome and of the role of the various constituent bacteria in the aetiology of dental disease is growing. Probiotics and their relationship with prebiotics, as well as other microbiome‐based interventions, could be useful in preventing and treating dental disease and in promoting oral health. However, given the promise and early stage of this treatment approach, there are also a number of ethical, social and regulatory issues associated with innovative probiotic therapy. In this (...) article, a brief update is given on contemporary theories of the aetiology and management of the two commonest dental diseases, and on the roles of pre‐ and probiotics and oral biome transplant in the management of these diseases. The focus is primarily on four core issues: informed consent, risk–benefit assessment, how to determine suitable healthy donors, and commercialization and regulation. We discuss the safety and benefits of oral probiotics, not only concerning the products and quality control during their manufacture, but also regarding the depth of public knowledge about this topic. We point out that the requirement of listing ingredients honestly might be insufficient, and that the prevalent rhetoric of ‘natural’ and ‘organic’ as well as some health claims in the translational, innovative probiotic industry and markets are themselves misleading and should be carefully scrutinized. Finally, we suggest an ethical imperative to find a balance between scientific research and industry, and public health in the regulation of probiotics. (shrink)

Jiang Yong (1681-1762) -- Hui Dong (1697-1758) -- Lu Wenchao (1717-1796) -- Wang Mingsheng (1722-1797) -- Ji Yun (1724-1805) -- Zhao Yi (1727-1814) -- Qian Daxin (1728-1804) -- Jiao Xun (1732-1820) -- Duan Yucai (1735-1815) -- Wang Niansun (1744-1832) -- Wang Yinzhi (1766-1834) -- Wang Zhong (1745-1794) -- Hao Yixing (1757-1825) -- Jiang Fan (1761-1831) -- Yan Kejun (1762-1843) -- Huang Pilie (1763-1825) -- Ruan Yuan (1764-1849) -- Gu Qianli (1766-1835) -- Wang Jun (1784-1854) -- Zhu Junsheng (1788-1858).

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)

本书介绍了证据法学的基本知识、基本理论,并以科学性、准确性为原则来解决实务问题。.

Objective To determine the knowledge and attitudes of healthcare personnel regarding the provision of non-beneficial futile care in the intensive care units at the major public hospitals in Trinidad and Tobago. Method Prospective data collection was done using a questionnaire administered to the medical and nursing staff of the intensive care units. The questionnaire was designed to capture the opinions regarding the futile care offered to terminally ill patients at the intensive care units. The responses were based on a five-point (...) Likert scale. The influence of factors such as age, gender, duration of work experience, religious belief, ethnicity, occupational category and educational status on the responses were analysed. Results A total of 274 completed responses were obtained from doctors and nurses. The frequency with which the respondents encountered ethical or legal problems in the intensive care unit varied widely from ‘daily’ to ‘yearly’. The majority felt that knowledge of ethics is important, and only 32% knew the legal issues pertaining to their work. Eighty percent of doctors and nurses had no knowledge of an existing Hospital Ethics Committee and its role in ethical dilemmas. Although 62% said their decisions regarding futile care will be influenced by their scientific knowledge, only 32% agreed to withdraw care. Eighty percent said that the government should pass appropriate laws regarding withdrawal of futile care. Conclusions Most healthcare providers in intensive care unit are not knowledgeable in the ethical and legal issues of non-beneficial futile care. There is a need to devise means to bring awareness and educate intensive care unit healthcare providers in this subject. (shrink)

Purpose/Significance. This study aims to explore the differences in the effectiveness of rumor refutation dissemination on government micro-blogs and to identify factors that may lead to such differences, so as to provide reference for the management of emergencies and to improve the effectiveness of rumor refutation. Methodology/Procedure. Using Octopus software to collect data from thirty government micro-blogs, the number of retweets, likes, and comments were used as indicators of the effectiveness of refutation dissemination and different levels of government micro-blogs were (...) used as moderating variables to construct a regression model of the effect of content features and text features on refutation dissemination. The regression model was constructed to test the moderating effects of micro-blog content and text features on the effectiveness of micro-blog refutation. Results/Conclusions. The empirical results show that whether a micro-blog is from the region or not and whether a micro-blog has a title or not have a significant effect on the effectiveness of micro-blog refutation dissemination. Therefore, refutation strategies such as combining layers, giving equal importance to content and form, and focusing on originality can be adopted to enhance the refutation effect of government micro-blogs. (shrink)

本书收录了中国学者研究费尔巴哈的文章,并附有费尔巴哈小传、原著版本介绍、费尔巴哈著作及外国学者研究著作的中译本等。.

While the traditional economic wisdom believes that an individual will become better off by being given a larger opportunity set to choose from, in this paper we question this belief and build a formal theoretical model that introduces decision costs into the rational decision process. We show, under some reasonable conditions, that a larger feasible set may actually lower an individual’s level of satisfaction. This provides a solid economic underpinning for the Simon prediction.

The intracellular multiprotein complex β‐catenin destruction complex plays a key role in Wnt/β‐catenin signaling. Wnt stimulation induces the assembly of the receptor‐associated signalosome and the inactivation of the destruction complex, leading to β‐catenin accumulation and transcriptional activation of the target genes. The core components of the destruction complex include Axin, APC, GSK3β, CK1α and other proteins. Recent studies demonstrated that Axin and APC undergo liquid–liquid phase separation (LLPS), which is critical for their function to regulate Wnt/β‐catenin signaling. Here, we discuss (...) the possible roles of LLPS in Wnt/β‐catenin signaling and regulation of Axin LLPS by post‐translational modifications. (shrink)

Traditional Qiang culture is the sum of all civilizations created by Qiang people in the long historical development of the national minority, and is an important component of Chinese civilization. However, traditional Qiang culture suffered from the attack of the great 5.12 Wenchuan Earthquake in the more and more vigorous process of industralization and globalization nowadays. Based on difficulties and problems encountered in post-disaster reconstruction for cultural preservation and development, this article takes into an overall consideration of Qiang traditional cultural (...) preservation and post-disaster reconstruction, protection of nonphysical cultural heritage and national cultural resources, tries to explore the principle, approach and method of traditional Qiang cultural preservation and development and attempts to present the current situation and analyze problems, and accordingly puts forward some countermeasures, measures and specific projects with the features of scientificalness, maneuverability and development. (shrink)

This study attempts to answer the question why Confucianism, the dominant “teaching” among the Three Teachings, is not a religion in contemporary China, unlike the other two “teachings,” Buddhism and Daoism. By examining this phenomenon in the social-historical context, this study finds its origin in Orientalism. The Orientalist conceptualization of religion became part of the New Culture discourse at the turn of the twentieth century. While China has undergone tremendous social changes over the past century, the old discourse remains.

In recent years, while extensive researches on various networks properties have been proposed and accomplished, little has been proposed and done on network robustness and node vulnerability assessment under cascades in directed large-scale online community networks. In essential, an online directed social network is a group-centered and information spread-dominated online platform which is very different from the traditional undirected social network. Some further research studies have indicated that the online social network has high robustness to random removals of nodes but (...) fails to the intentional attacks, particularly to those attacks based on node betweenness or node directed coefficient. To explore on the robustness of directed social network, in this article, we have proposed two novel node centralities of ITG and I M p v. These two new centrality models are designed to capture this cascading effect in directed online social networks. Furthermore, we also propose a new and highly efficient computing method based on iterations for I M p v. Then, with the abundant experiments on the synthetic signed network and real-life networks derived from directed online social media and directed human mobile phone calling network, it has been proved that our ITG and I M p v based on directed social network robustness and node vulnerability assessment method is more accurate, efficient, and faster than several traditional centrality methods such as degree and betweenness. And we also have proposed the solid reasoning and proof process of iteration times k in computation of I M p v. To the best knowledge of us, our research has drawn some new light on the leading edge of robustness on the directed social network. (shrink)

Replication protein A (RPA) is the main eukaryotic single‐stranded DNA (ssDNA) binding protein, having essential roles in all DNA metabolic reactions involving ssDNA. RPA binds ssDNA with high affinity, thereby preventing the formation of secondary structures and protecting ssDNA from the action of nucleases, and directly interacts with other DNA processing proteins. Here, we discuss recent results supporting the idea that one function of RPA is to prevent annealing between short repeats that can lead to chromosome rearrangements by microhomology‐mediated end (...) joining or the formation of hairpin structures that are substrates for structure‐selective nucleases. We suggest that replication fork catastrophe caused by depletion of RPA could result from cleavage of secondary structures by nucleases, and that failure to cleave hairpin structures formed at DNA ends could lead to gene amplification. These studies highlight the important role RPA plays in maintaining genome integrity. (shrink)

Due in large part to the trends towards economic globalization, English has become the most widely disseminated and ubiquitous international language. The purpose of the study was to investigate what Taiwan?s EFL teachers at the elementary level believe about the policy of English as a compulsory subject and how they perceive the benefits and obstacles of the policy?s implementation. Ten elementary English teachers in Tainan City and its suburban areas participated in this study. Data were collected through teachers? interviews, classroom (...) observation and document analysis. Results found that all ten teachers agreed with the policy for English as a compulsory subject at the elementary level. They observed both positive and negative sides of this top?down policy. Classroom observation and interview data revealed that EFL teachers had to plan their English classes with the constraints on a large class of students with mixed levels of proficiency, limited teaching hours and resources. Parents? expectations of and attitudes towards English learning also became an obstacle. (shrink)

This paper aims to defend the use of the notion of experimental individuation, which has recently been developed by Ruey-Lin Chen, as a criterion for the reality of theoretical entities. In short, when scientists experimentally individuate an entity, a realist conclusion about that entity is warranted. We embed this claim regarding experimental individuation within a framework that allows for other criteria of reality. And we understand so-called retail arguments regarding the reality of a particular theoretical entity as arguments that (...) concern choosing an appropriate criterion of reality for that entity and determining whether the relevant first-order scientific evidence satisfies that criterion. We argue that such retail arguments are philosophical because defending criteria of reality, and showing that they are or are not satisfied in particular cases, involves work that is distinctively philosophical. And we illustrate this philosophical work by applying our criterion of experimental individuation to three historical cases: Davy’s potassium, Lavoisier’s muriatic radical, and Thomson’s electrified particles. (shrink)

Drug abuse has been and continues to be, a common social issue worldwide, yet the efficiency of widely adopted sweeping speech for anti-drug campaigns has proven inefficient. To provide students with a safe and efficient learning situation related to drug refusal skills, we used a novel approach rooted in a serious learning game and concept map during a brief extracurricular period to help students understand drugs and their negative effects. The proposed game-based situational learning system allowed all students to participate (...) simultaneously and individually in multiple scenarios of drug temptation posed by peers and classmates to practice responding and refusing drugs in school and community settings. Moreover, to explore whether different personality traits result in different anti-drug responses, we used a serious game to conduct an anti-drug experiment on 53 junior middle school students aged 13–15. Each participant’s decision-making process was recorded in the serious game as behavioral patterns for lag sequential analysis. The outcomes revealed seven behavioral patterns including differentiation, acceptance, effective and ineffective responses, effective and ineffective solution-seeking, and failure to refuse. The GSEQ which is a computer program for analyzing sequential observational data was used. The results indicated the following: Neuroticism was performed at a relatively low level under the guidance of a concept map. “Neuroticism” was associated with the lowest risk of accepting drugs. Students with “openness to experiences” were at high risk of accepting drugs. Almost all personality behavioral transition diagrams showed that failure to refuse drugs was followed by inefficient seeking of help and inefficient refusal. These findings provide reference points for designing adaptive anti-drug education programs. (shrink)

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)

The long-running discourse on respect for human dignity and autonomy in the physician-patient relationship pertaining to persons with dementia (PwDs) is explored deeply in this paper through the use of a real-life case, to highlight the complex interplay between autonomy and best interest when it comes to a PwD's experiential and critical interests. Many scenarios and perspectives are described and applies to the case. However, there are a few perspectives, which are touched upon that could do with further scrutiny. Firstly, (...) it has been argued that rigid adherence to the advance directives of PwDs means that PwDs will be the only people who are not allowed to ever change their minds. This withdrawal of a fundamental freedom hardly accords with respect for human dignity, or for any residual autonomy that these individuals may still enjoy. Secondly, viewing this case through the lens of care ethics, and incorporating the recently proposed conceptual framework of anthropological vulnerability, may reveal valuable insights regarding care provision and caring physician-patient relationships. These perspectives would analyse the role of relational ontology, particularly in relation to significant others, significant communities, and caregivers. (shrink)