With the contradiction between supply and demand being intensified, the unreasonable crude oil trade structure has become increasingly prominent. Therefore, optimizing the supply and demand structure of the global crude oil trade is an urgent problem, which has become one of the crucial factors affecting the energy strategy and economic development of each country. This paper builds an optimization model that aims at minimizing crude oil trade costs based on the complex network theory. Meanwhile, an optimal solution generation approach is (...) proposed and developed in this paper. Compared with the preoptimized trade network, the proposed model can effectively reduce the trade cost. By topological analysis of the trade network and its optimal configuration, we obtain that both the preoptimized and optimized crude oil trade networks follow power-law distribution. By using the minimum spanning tree, we find that the major crude oil net exporting countries have the most significant influence and are at the core in the optimized trade structure. This work focuses on the sustainable development of the global crude oil trade and provides a fresh perspective for the optimal crude oil trade system. Moreover, the methodology and model may be applied in the investigation of optimization for other energy system structures. (shrink)

Not for the academic value of some of the situational events, often with a comprehensive, decisive, Yan'an new philosophy will the home of its columns. Will establish a new philosophy, a lot of grand strategy is one of the actions in Yan'an. This paper examines a new philosophy will be the basic process, an analysis of its membership and the subsequent effects, assessing its characteristics in the formation of contemporary Chinese culture, the unique role, made ​​a number of issues need (...) to be further explored. This paper shows that the new philosophy will not academics, but the educational organization. It is the ideology of expert training, knowledge and control of legal rights, the implementation of the regulatory action of self-sufficiency and closed culture strategy. New philosophy will be mainly in the construction and maintenance of highly exclusive mode of thinking to make contributions, as the full value of its effect remains to be thorough and reasonable debate. Some situational events, which have been neglected by academics, may be of significant importance. The Yan'an New Philosophy Association is an example. Its establishment was one of the ambitious strategic actions of the CCP in Yan'an. This paper examines the process of the YNPA's establishment, analyses the composition of its membership, assesses its unique effect on the formation of contemporary Chinese ideology, and raises some issues that are in need of further research. This study shows that the YNPA was an educational institution instead of an academic society, and that the experts in ideology it produced had exclusive power in the cultural domain and implemented the party's cultural policies. We can see that the YNPA greatly contributed to the construction and maintenance of a high degree of cultural exclusivity. A full picture of this association, however, requires much more in-depth studies. (shrink)

Supply networks as complex systems are significant challenges for decision-makers in predicting the evolution of cooperation among firms. The impact of environmental heterogeneity on firms is critical. Environment-based preference selection plays a pivotal role in clarifying the existence and maintenance of cooperation in supply networks. This paper explores the implication of the heterogeneity of environment and environment-based preference on the evolution of cooperation in supply networks. Cellular automata are considered to examine the synchronized evolution of cooperation and defection across supply (...) networks. The Prisoner’s Dilemma Game and Snowdrift Game reward schemes have been formed, and the heterogeneous environment and environmental preference have been applied. The results show that the heterogeneous environment’s degree leads to higher cooperation for both Prisoner’s Dilemma Game and Snowdrift Game. We also probe into the impact of the environmental preference on the evolution of cooperation, and the results of which confirm the usefulness of preference of environment. This work offers a valuable perspective to improve the level of cooperation among firms and understand the evolution of cooperation in supply networks. (shrink)

[English abstract] In his last metaethical statement, Parfit revisits his earlier arguments for non-metaphysical normative non-naturalism , and points to the possibility of convergence between his view and Railton's non-analytical normative naturalism. I examine the basis of this convergence claim and find it unpersuasive, mainly because if their views converge on the same position, Parfit's non-natural norms exist only as predicates. In order to avoid this consequence, he needs to present a reason for believing in the existence of normative properties (...) . There is an indispensability argument implicit in his text, with concepts of sui generis normative ground and necessity at its centre. I discuss their main features and present problems besetting these concepts. (shrink)

Justin D’Arms and Daniel Jacobson have argued that to evaluate the funniness of a joke based on the consideration of whether it is morally appropriate to feel amused commits the “moralistic fallacy.” We offer a new and empirically informed reply. We argue that there is a way to take morality into consideration without committing this fallacy, that is, it is legitimate to say that for some people, witty but immoral jokes can fail to be funny because they are immoral. In (...) our account, one has an intramural moral reason not to feel amused if one focuses on the moral feature itself of a joke rather than the moral consequence implied in one’s reaction to the joke. When one judges a joke as not funny because of the intramural moral reason, one is in a negative emotional state with high arousal, for example, moral disgust or anger. This state is psychologically incompatible with amusement. That one has an intramural reason not to feel amused thus implies that one does not have a reason to feel amused. Moral consideration thus plays an indirect and appropriate role in the evaluation of the funniness of a joke. (shrink)

Simion and Kelp explain the trustworthiness of an AI based on that AI’s disposition to meet its obligations. Roughly speaking, according to Simion and Kelp, an AI is trustworthy regarding its task if and only if that AI is obliged to complete the task and its disposition to complete the task is strong enough. Furthermore, an AI is obliged to complete a task in the case where the task is the AI’s etiological function or design function. This account has a (...) strength in that it can provide a unificatory rationale for the trustworthy-making properties of AIs. According to this account, being explainable, being safe, and being transparent are the trustworthy-making properties of an AI because an AI can fulfill its etiological or design functions in the case where it is explainable, safe, and transparent. This paper shows that though Simion and Kelp’s account has a strength, this account is not satisfactory for two reasons. The first reason is that an AI’s trustworthiness is not determined just by the AI’s disposition to meet obligations, and the second reason is that it is difficult to explain how an AI’s etiological function and design function have to do with that AI’s obligations. To provide a full-fledged account, Simion and Kelp should dismiss these concerns. (shrink)

Neuro-philosophy and the Healthy Mind (2016) is an intriguing book. The neuroscientist, psychiatrist, and philosopher Georg Northoff offers a careful and alluring investigation of brain-environment...

In this paper, I develop an account of appreciation. I argue that appreciation is an epistemic emotion in which the subject grasps the object in an affective way. The “grasping” and “feeling” components implies that in appreciation, we make sense of the object by having cognitive control over it, are motivated to maintain the valuable epistemic state of understanding, and experience the “aha” or “eureka” moment. This account offers a unified account of the many types of appreciation, including the aesthetic, (...) the moral, and the epistemic. In all these cases, appreciation requires some other first-order emotions as prerequisite. (shrink)

In the philosophical purview of our intellectual endeavors, Emil Brunner’s sojourn through the theological corridors reveals a tapestry of rigorous mental exercises and paradigmatic shifts. Commencing his exploration harmonized with the liberal theological currents, Brunner found himself adrift, embroiled in the tumultuous seas of Karl Barth’s unequivocal “No!” to the paradigms of natural theology, etching an indelible ideological chasm. Traversing three profound metamorphic epochs—initiating within the precincts of consciousness theology, an echo chamber of Schleiermacher’s musings, segueing into the gravitational pull (...) of dialectical theological realms, and reaching zenith in his unparalleled emphasis on the “Truth as Encounter”—Brunner’s spiritual and intellectual topography is an odyssey of profound depths. This literary endeavor plumbs the profundities of Brunner’s philosophical-theological metamorphosis. A journey delineating his intricate dance with Bergson’s intuitive paradigm, his symbolic lexicon of faith, an eventual critique of dialectical theology’s embrace, culminates in an intricate interpretation of sin and the imago Dei. Of paramount significance is Brunner’s theological bifurcation from Barth on the quintessential essence of human-divine dynamics. While both theological maestros recognize sin’s pervasive imprint on the human soul, Brunner postulates the tantalizing possibility of personal divine rendezvous. In this erudite exposition on Brunner’s theology, we embark on an intellectual odyssey, elucidating the subtle shades and profound resonances of his cognitive evolution. An evolution, wherein, juxtaposed against theological titans, he architects an idiosyncratic theological timbre echoing through the annals of time. (shrink)

This study seeks to examine the impact of alumni connections between the evaluators and evaluatees on the results of peer review ratings for the Korean national R&D project and selection success rate. Specifically, this study analyzed the evaluation results of 8,402 research proposal entries submitted between 2007 and 2011 for the “general researchers support project,” all in the Natural Science and Engineering areas and sponsored by the National Research Foundation of Korea. Each proposal entry was evaluated by three evaluators, and (...) approximately 39 percent of the proposals had at least one evaluator from the same university. The results of this study showed that evaluators have a tendency to give relatively high scores to research proposals submitted by the alumni of the same universities as their alma mater. Also, when an evaluator from the same university as an evaluatee was included in the evaluator group, the results of this study showed that the percentage of entry submissions was higher compared to the contrary. Such results show that in the process of peer review–based research proposal evaluations for national R&D projects, alumni connections have significant influence on evaluation results in South Korea. (shrink)

BackgroundTo investigate the factors related to approval after review by an Institutional Review Board, the structure equation model was used to analyze the latent variables ‘investigators’, ‘vulnerability’ and ‘review process’ for 221 proposals submitted to our IRB.MethodsThe vulnerability factor included vulnerable cases, and studies that involved drug tests and genetic analyses. The principal investigator factor included the license level of the PI and whether they belonged to our institution. The review factor included administration time, total review time, and revision frequency. (...) The revision frequency and total review time influenced the efficiency of review.ResultsThe latent variable of reviewing was the most important factor mediating the PIs and vulnerability to IRB review approval. The local PIs moderated with genetic study and revision frequency had an impact on the review process and mediated non-approval.ConclusionsBetter guidance of the investigators and reviewers might improve the efficiency with which IRBs function. (shrink)

This paper presents a case in whom a differential diagnosis of akinetic mutism with a disorder of consciousness was made using diffusion tensor tractography. A 69-year-old female patient was diagnosed with subarachnoid hemorrhage, intraventricular hemorrhage, and intracerebral hemorrhage produced by the subarachnoid hemorrhage. She exhibited impaired consciousness with a Coma Recovery Scale-Revised score of 13 until 1 month after onset. Her impaired consciousness recovered slowly to a normal state according to the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised at 7 weeks after onset. On (...) the other hand, she exhibited the typical clinical features of akinetic mutism. On the DTT performed at 1-month, the upper, and lower dorsal ascending reticular activating systems, which are related to a disorder of consciousness, showed an almost normal state. In contrast, the prefronto-caudate and prefronto-thalamic tracts, which are related to akinetic mutism, showed severe injuries. These DTT results suggested that the patient's main clinical features were not a disorder of consciousness but akinetic mutism. Therefore, DTT for the ascending reticular activating system, and the prefronto-caudate and prefronto-thalamic tracts could provide additional evidence for a differential diagnosis of DOC and AM at the early stages of stroke. (shrink)

Wenqi 文氣 (literary pneuma) is a foundational idea in Chinese aesthetics. It has remained elusive since its initial formulation, however. This is so largely because previous scholars did not examine its ontological and epistemological conditions in analytic terms, still less explore its implications in a conceptual framework of artistic creation. Here, it is proposed to explore its general as well as specific implications against the larger background of Chinese intellectual thought and in relation to contemporary theories of literature and aesthetics. (...) Through a philosophical inquiry, wenqi is here reconceived as an integration of the primal energy of the universe, the creative energy of human beings, and the totalizing force that animates an artistic work. Wenqi is viewed not as a substance or a product but as a creative and shaping force that flows from the writer into his writing, gives it a distinct shape, and makes it different from any other writing. The theory of wenqi is a system of aesthetic principles that govern the creative and shaping force operating in the space of three intertwined entities: the macrocosm of the universe including human society, the microcosm of the writer, and the microcosm of his writing. (shrink)

Biological pacemakers can be achieved by various gene‐based and cell‐based approaches. Embryonic stem cells (ESCs)‐derived pacemaker cells might be the most promising way to form biological pacemakers, but there are challenges as to how to control the differentiation of ESCs and to overcome the neoplasia, proarrhythmia, or immunogenicity resulting from the use of ESCs. As a potential approach to solve these difficult problems, tissue‐engineering techniques may provide a precise control on the different cell components of multicellular aggregates and the forming (...) of a construct with‐defined architectures and functional properties. The combined interactions between ESC‐derived pacemaker cells, supporting cells, and matrices may completely reproduce pacemaker properties and result in a steady functional unit to induce rhythmic electrical and contractile activities. As ESCs have a high capability for self‐renewal, proliferation, and potential differentiation, we hypothesize that ESCs can be used as a source of pacemaker cells for tissue‐engineering applications and the ambitious goal of biological cardiac pacemakers may ultimately be achieved with ESCs via tissue‐engineering technology. -/- . (shrink)

Abstract:Retro-writing has ethical implications. How a speaking subject applies a retro-perspective frames a piece of writing within certain cultural discourses. In contemporary Chinese poetry, cultural nostalgia and the attempted revival of ancient aesthetics is a complex issue, one that is largely the result of a general interest in cultural archeology, writers’ anxiety of influence, the desire to escape from various political pressures, and the claim of a need for a distinctive Chinese cultural identity. The subject in many contemporary Chinese poems, (...) in many cases, is a male subject striving to retrieve the premodern holistic state of being, which is illusory. Han Bo’s two poems “Modern Sex Machine” and “Mass(ive) Killing Machine” are unique in that they examine the bludgeoning of modernity within postmodern parameters and attempt to map the dynamics of modern and contemporary subjecthood, which is in fact a transcorporeal experience of the subject as that which is, ultimately, subjectless. Such work, in creating a cross-corporeal subjectless subject, embraces alterity and renders possibilities for the reader to reject a prior unitary transcendental subject that is illusory, and thereby to discover the beings of themselves and their roles in the world—and to extend this work of reconfiguring subjecthood from literature into other aspects of social life. (shrink)

The principle of fairness holds that individuals (beneficiaries) who benefit from a cooperative scheme of others (cooperators) have an obligation to do their share in return for their benefit. The original proponent of this principle, H. L. A. Hart suggests ‘mutuality of restrictions’ as a moral basis because it is fair to mutually restrict the freedom of both beneficiaries and cooperators; so called the fairness obligation. This paper explores ‘mutuality of restrictions’, which is interpreted as a right-based and an equality-based (...) justification of the fairness obligation. It is not argued whether both ways of justifying the obligation makes a success, but that they are in need of presupposing that there is a duty for beneficiaries to do their share in return for their benefit. This suggests turning to a duty-based justification of the fairness obligation. (shrink)

Despite the fact that the number of neurons in the human brain has been identified in cognitive and neural sciences, the magnitude of human memory capacity is still unknown. This paper reports the discovery of the memory capacity of the human brain, which is on the order of 10 8432 bits. A cognitive model of the brain is created, which shows that human memory and knowledge are represented by relations, i.e., connections of synapses between neurons, rather than by the neurons (...) themselves as the traditional container metaphor described. The determination of the magnitude of human memory capacity is not only theoretically significant in cognitive science, but also practically useful to unveil the human potential, as well as the gap between the natural and machine intelligence. (shrink)

On the premise that the good knowing is the originary reality, this article provides a synopsis of Wang Yangming’s exposition of the fundamental essence of liangzhi. The self-existent resemblances of the originary reality are outlined and summarized as the eight virtues of liangzhi: voidness, intelligence, luminousness, awareness, constancy, happiness, true I, and purity. These eight virtues are, however, ultimately subsumed by the middle, which governs them in common. The middle is the original state and true form of the fundamental essence (...) of liangzhi, which Wang Yangming describes as a transparent mirror and level balance. (shrink)

Faced with the choice between saving one person and saving two others, what should we do? It seems intuitively plausible that we ought to save the two, and many forms of consequentialists offer a straightforward rationale for the intuition by appealing to interpersonal aggregation. But still many other philosophers attempt to provide a justification for the duty to save the greater number without combining utilities or claims of separate individuals. I argue against one such attempt proposed by Iwao Hirose. Despite (...) being consequentialist, his argument is aggregation-free since it relies on a non-aggregative value judgement method, instead of interpersonal aggregation, to establish that (other things being equal) a state of affairs is better when more people survive therein. I do not take issue with its consequentialist element; rather, I claim that there is no good reason to adopt the method in question, and thus no good reason to be moved by his argument overall. What we are in search of is not merely a logically possible method that can produce the conclusion that we already want, but one that we have good reason to adopt. Hirose's argument elegantly demonstrates how it could possibly be true that it is right to save the greater number; but it fails to show that we have reason to believe so - even when we do not combine the interests of different individuals. (shrink)

Luck egalitarians equalize the outcome enjoyed by people who exemplify the same degree of distributive desert by removing the influence of luck. They also try to calibrate differential rewards according to the pattern of distributive desert. This entails that they have to decide upon, among other things, the rate of reward, i.e., a principled way of distributing rewards to groups exercising different degrees of the relevant desert. However, the problem of the choice of reward principle is a relatively and undeservedly (...) neglected issue among luck egalitarians. The main goal of this paper is to highlight the importance and difficulty of this problem, and to elaborate upon G. A. Cohen's community-oriented response to it. In the last section, I provide a taxonomy of distributive pluralism, contrasting Cohen’s view with other (not so genuine) pluralisms - especially with all-things-considered varieties - while trying to motivate readers to adopt the more robust form of pluralism. (shrink)

People often judge trustworthiness based on others’ faces (e.g., facial expression and facial gender). However, it is unclear whether social context plays a moderating role in forming trustworthiness judgments. Based on the emotions as social information (EASI) model, differing contexts may impact the effect of facial expression; however, there is no evidence demonstrating that differing contexts will or will not influence the effect of facial gender. In this study, we used two experiments to examine how facial expression and facial gender (...) affect facial trustworthiness judgments and whether the effects on facial trustworthiness judgments are consistent in cooperative and competitive settings. Twenty-seven undergraduates (14 female; Mage = 21.81 years, SD = 2.66) participated in experiment 1. The results showed significant main effects of facial expression and facial gender as well as the interaction between them. To examine the social context effect, 28 undergraduates (18 female; Mage = 20.93 years, SD = 2.94) participated in experiment 2. The results showed the main effects of facial expression, facial gender, and social context. Moreover, there was a significant interaction between facial gender and facial expression and a marginally significant interaction between social context and facial expression. These results suggest that in the process of judging facial trustworthiness, individuals’ judgments are affected by both facial expression and facial gender. Furthermore, the effect of facial gender on facial trustworthiness judgments presents cross-situational stability, and the role of facial expression is influenced by the settings. These findings support and expand the EASI model. (shrink)

Test anxiety is a widespread and primarily detrimental emotion in learning and achievement settings. This research aimed to explore the autonomic nervous system response patterns of test-anxious individuals in response to evaluative stress. By presenting a standard interview task, an evaluative scenario was effectively induced. Heart rate variability, a biomarker that can accurately reflect the ANS activity, was used to reflect the physiological responses of 48 high test-anxious subjects and 49 low test-anxious subjects. Results indicate that: both groups show a (...) significantly increased emotional arousal in the evaluative scenario; high test-anxious individuals show a significantly decreased emotional pleasantness in the evaluative scenario, whereas low test-anxious individuals show no significant changes; both groups show a significantly increased low-frequency HRV; high test-anxious individuals show a significantly decreased high-frequency HRV and root mean square of successive heartbeat interval differences, whereas low test-anxious individuals remain stable. These findings suggest that high test-anxious individuals display an increased sympathetic nervous system activity and a decreased parasympathetic nervous system activity in response to evaluative stress, while low-anxious individuals display an increased SNS activity and a stable PNS activity in response to evaluative stress. (shrink)

Article aims to explore Augustine's "two cities" theory. First, a brief discussion of the "City of God" writing background and the main structure; Secondly, in both religious and secular aspects of life on the analysis of the "City of God" on the "two cities" of the main points; again, three perspectives of the "two cities" theory of history and ideological background. Although the "two cities" doctrine embodies a form with two points tend to think, but both different from the ontological (...) dualism and the dualism of body and soul, but also avoids the complex social reality for too absolute two points. The focus of this study is Augustine's doctrine of the "Two Cities." The first part treats the background and the structure of the City of God. In the second and the third part, the essay examines both the religious and the temporal aspect of this doctrine. Finally, the historical and intellectual background of the doctrine is discussed. The author argues that even though the doctrine of the "Two Cities" manifests a dualistic tendency in the thought of Augustine, it can hardly be labeled as a dualism. (shrink)