In 2015, the Chinese pharmacologist, Tu Youyou, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of artemisinin. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) was the source of inspiration for Tu's discovery and provides an opportunity for the world to know more about TCM as a source of medical knowledge and practice. In this article, the value of TCM is evaluated from an ethical perspective. The characteristics of ‘jian, bian, yan, lian’ are explored in the way they promote accessibility (...) and economic efficiency for TCM. The article also examines how the increased use and prevalence of TCM reflects the scientific, cultural, and ethical values of TCM and their increasing attraction in meeting major challenges to medicine and health systems currently and in the future. The article discusses safety issues within TCM, which is a controversial area, and also comments on some shortcomings and challenges which pose difficulties for more widespread and greater uptake of TCM‐derived clinical or therapeutic interventions. The article concludes that TCM is generally safe if it is used according to TCM theory and where such applications are cognizant of the strengths and weaknesses of TCM. TCM has important bioethical values which may inform potential measures for meeting challenges facing global health care systems and the article argues that it can have an increasing role in improving human health. (shrink)

Recent anthropological analyses of Chinese attitudes towards privacy fail to pay adequate attention to more ordinary, but more widely shared ideas of privacy – ideas that, moreover, have changed dramatically since the 1980s as China has become more and more open to Western countries, cultures, and their network and computing technologies. I begin by reviewing these changes, in part to show how contemporary notions of privacy in China constitute a dialectical synthesis of both traditional Chinese emphases on the importance of (...) the family and the state and more Western emphases on individual rights, including the right to privacy. This same synthesis can be seen in contemporary Chinese law and scholarship regarding privacy. A review of recent work in philosophical ethics demonstrates that information ethics in China is in its very early stages. In this work, privacy is justified as an instrumental good, rather than an intrinsic good. I argue by way of conclusion that privacy protections will continue to expand in China, in part under the pressures of globalization, increasing trade with and exposure to Western societies, and the increasing demands for Western-style individual privacy by young people. Even so, I argue that these emerging conceptions of privacy will remain distinctively Chinese – i.e., they will retain a basic consistency with traditional Chinese values and approaches. (shrink)

余英時（美國普林斯頓大學榮休教授）推薦！ 《智者的現世關懷：牟宗三的政治與社會思想》 遍檢《牟宗三先生全集》相關文獻 利用新發現的佚著和《全集》未收的通信 將牟宗三的政治與社會思想 置於其所在社會、歷史與思想的整體脈絡中， 予以全面與深入的梳理和考察 探討牟宗三的「現世關懷」 作為現代新儒學的代表人物，牟宗三（1909-1995）不僅有其心性之學的詮釋與建構，同時有其政治與社會的關懷與思考。從20世紀30年代到90年代，其政治與社會思想一直都有表達。從早年對唯物辯證法和唯物 史觀的批判、對中國社會史和中國農村問題的探究，到晚年對兩岸關係與臺灣認同的申論，以及一生批判共產主義，在反省與檢討的基礎上提倡自由、民主，都是力圖要為現代中國政治社會的實踐提供一個正確的思想基礎。 彭國翔透過本書遍檢《牟宗三先生全集》相關文獻，利用新發現的佚著和《全集》未收的通信，將牟宗三的政治與社會思想置於其所在社會、歷史與思想的整體脈絡之中，予以了全面與深入的梳理和考察。本書採取了微觀分析和 宏觀綜合交互為用的研究方式，依據具體內涵，將牟宗三的「現世關懷」分成七章，一一詳加論述；通過概念的分析和澄清，微觀的功效在全書中獲得了充分的發揮。但著者並不是為分析而分析，把每一章當作一種孤立現象來處 理。相反的，他的目的是展現牟宗三的「現世關懷」的全貌。因此，各章之間都互相關聯，合而讀之，即成一宏觀的整體。本書的另一重大特色是網羅牟宗三的著作鉅細不遺，從佚文到未刊書信，凡是和「現世關懷」相關的文獻 ，已搜集到應有盡有的地步。 本書第一章是牟宗三對於唯物辯證法和唯物史觀的批判。第二章是牟宗三關於中國社會史發展階段和形態的主張。第三章是牟宗三關於中國農村問題的看法。第四章是牟宗三一生對於共產主義的批判。第五章是牟宗三關於「自由 」和「自由主義」的看法。第六章是牟宗三對於民主政治的肯定和反省。第七章是牟宗三關於中國大陸與台灣兩岸關係的見解。 《智者的現世關懷》既從結構上展現了牟宗三政治與社會思想的各個方面，也大體照顧了牟宗三政治與社會思想在時間發展上的順序。此外，如果第一章到第四章主要反映牟宗三政治與社會思想中「破」的方面，第五至第七章則 主要反映他政治與社會思想中「立」的方面。 總的來說，本書顧及牟宗三一生政治與社會思想的各個方面，同時力求對每一個方面都予以徹底的把握和分析。其二、以盡可能全面掌握牟宗三的各種原始文獻作為研究的基礎。其三，對牟宗三政治與社會思想的處理方式。.

The Party school has always been an important bastion through which our Party trains and educates its cadres in Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought. The Party Central Committee headed by Chairman Hua has laid great emphasis on the Party school since the smashing of the "gang of four" and has made special decisions on how successfully to run the Party schools on different levels. Chairman Hua and Vice Chairman Ye personally made important speeches at the opening ceremony of the Central (...) Party School and indicated the direction in which the Party school should be run during the new stage of historical development. Pursuant to the Central Committee's decision, the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee has restored its Party school which had been closed down for some ten years by the "gang of four." Since its reopening, the Municipal Party School has already run a one-term study class for the cadres and has achieved fairly good results. In the future, we will run the study class every term and strive to run the Party school better and better. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to describe and analyze people's confidence in political institutions in the so-called BRICS countries, that is, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. I argue that the quality of macroeconomic indicators cannot explain the variation in political confidence between the five most dynamic new emerging economies, and that there is no substantial difference among the young, middle-aged, and senior-aged groups. By combing data from the Asia Barometer Survey and the World Value Survey, I provide (...) two complementary approaches, one sociocultural and the other micropolitical, to reveal the factors that influence people's confidence in four major political institutions. The explanatory effects of these two approaches are mixed. Political identity and values, in most cases, have a significant impact on political confidence. On the other hand, high levels of interpersonal social trust, individual happiness, and satisfaction with living standards also show positive influences. (shrink)

A geometric lattice is the lattice of closed subsets of a closure operator on a set which is zero-closure, algebraic, atomistic and which has the so-called exchange property. There are many profound results about this type of lattices, the most recent one of which, due to Czédli and Schimdt, says that a lattice L of finite length is semimodular if and only if L has a cover-preserving embedding into a geometric lattice G of the same length. The goal of our (...) paper is to offer the following result: a lattice of finite length is semimodular if and only if every cell in L is a 4-element Boolean lattice and the 7-element non-distributive atomistic lattice having 3 atoms is not a cover-preserving sublattice of L. (shrink)

Workplace bullying is a reality in organizations. Employees’ experiences of workplace bullying can produce their voice that intends to challenge the status quo at work and can damage their physical health. This study examines the effects of workplace bullying on employee voice and physical health issues and considers individuals’ emotional reactions as a critical mechanism operating between workplace bullying and its consequences in workplace situations. Emotional exhaustion mediates the influence of workplace bullying on employee voice and damaged health. Data for (...) 694 employees from a large Taiwanese retail organization revealed that workplace bullying relates to its outcomes at work. The findings of this study show that emotional exhaustion is a critical mechanism between workplace bullying and its consequences, i.e., employee voice and health issues. A time-lag study design is applied to reduce common method bias. (shrink)

Critical types of infrastructure are provided by the state to maintain the people’s livelihood, ensure economic development, and systematic government operations. Given the development of ever more complicated critical infrastructure systems, increasing importance is being attached to the protection of the components of this infrastructure to reduce the risk of failure. Power facilities are one of the most important kinds of critical infrastructure. Developing an effective risk detection system to identify potential failure modes of power supply equipment is crucial. This (...) study seeks to improve upon prior approaches for risk assessment by proposing a hybrid risk-assessment model using the concepts of failure mode and effect analysis and multiple-criteria decision-making. The proposed model includes a cost-based factor for decision-makers. The subjectivity and uncertainty in FM assessment are adjusted through the rough number method. The original risk priority number can be expanded by including the entropy weights in the risk index. Furthermore, to rank the risk priorities in a rational manner, a modified technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution is adopted. The applicability and effectiveness of the proposed method were demonstrated by considering an example of a turbine steam engine in a nuclear power plant. (shrink)

Dujiangyan irrigation system of more than 2000 years history is a symbol of originality of Chinese ancestors both in its conception and project mode. It is still working well and benefit Chengdu Plain nowadays while other comparable water conservancy projects of the same or later age have vanished and been forgotten. More than just a world-famous cultural heritage, it shows the harmonious relationship between man and nature. And it also reveals us how to solve problems in the era of economic (...) globalization, such as the constantly silt up of the dams, the exhaustion of the energy and the crisis of the deterioration of ecosystem. The inspirations it gives us range from technology to humanities, from economy to various aspects in social life. In a word, Dujiangyan irrigation system demonstrates the wisdom and creativity of Chinese people and has a universal significance despite the change of time and space. (shrink)

In this paper, the fixed-time practical bipartite tracking problem for the networked robotic systems with parametric uncertainties, input disturbances, and directed signed graphs is investigated. A new fixed-time estimator-based control algorithm for the NRSs is presented to address the abovementioned problem. By applying a sliding surface and the time base generator approach, a new stability analysis method is proposed to achieve the fixed-time practical bipartite tracking for the NRSs. We also derive the upper bound of the convergence time for employing (...) the presented control algorithm to solve the practical bipartite tracking problem and further demonstrate that the convergence time is independent of the initial value. Finally, the simulation examples are given to verify the effectiveness of the presented algorithms. (shrink)

This paper explores the often-overlooked role of teaching assistants (TAs) in engineering ethics courses, and a particular challenge that TAs face in these roles. TAs not only undertake tasks like instructors, which include teaching, guiding, and evaluating courses, but they also assume the roles of “intermediaries between instructors and students” and “learners becoming teachers.” These distinct roles present TAs with unique challenges, one of which we call the neutrality problem. This problem pertains to whether TAs can and should maintain a (...) neutral stance in the classroom, particularly when students articulate ideas that deviate from the values promoted in the course or held by the TAs. Using a real-life teaching experience as illustrative, we claim that it is challenging and, at times, undesirable for TAs to achieve pedagogical neutrality, primarily due to their pre-existing understanding of ethics and the actual situation of the students. Nevertheless, we posit that TAs should strive to foster an environment where students are encouraged to improve their ethical awareness. Through the underrepresented lens of TAs, we aim to initiate a multi-faceted dialogue on the teaching philosophy and goal of engineering ethics. (shrink)

Virtual anime endorsement has been prevalent as an advertising strategy, and many companies invest massive amounts of money into virtual endorsements. While previous studies have found that endorser-product congruence is related to consumer brand attitude and purchase intention, it is not known whether moderate incongruence between a virtual anime endorser and a product has a positive influence on brand attitude and purchase intention. This study developed a 1 × 2 experiment to investigate the influences of virtual anime endorser–product congruence and (...) moderate the endorser–product incongruence on consumer brand attitude and purchase intention. Product involvement played a key moderating role in the relationships of virtual anime endorser–product congruence and the endorser–product incongruence with consumer attitudes. A total of 919 participants were recruited from animation-related venues and stores in Taiwan. The findings of this study validated the interaction effects of virtual anime endorser-product congruence and incongruence on these two consumer responses, i.e., brand attitude and purchase intention. This study further investigated the moderating effect of product involvement in the relationships of virtual anime endorser–product congruence and moderate the endorser–product incongruence with consumer responses. The findings of this study provide a valuable reference regarding endorsers and product patterns through which enterprises can maximize their value. (shrink)

Employees view compulsory citizenship behavior as concessionary behavior they undertake because of pressure exerted by their organizations. This study applies affective events theory to CCB-workplace deviance relationships, and impression management theory to CCB-facades of conformity relationships, to posit that employee emotional exhaustion is an essential mediating factor that effectively explains how CCB contributes to workplace deviance and facades of conformity. This study utilizes two mediation models to investigate whether employees’ CCBs are positively related to their work deviance and false behavior, (...) and how emotional exhaustion mediates those relationships. Two-wave data collected from 655 valid participants in a public sector bank and a large private bank in Taiwan supported our hypotheses. We conducted surveys with volunteer employees that included CCB, emotional exhaustion, facades of conformity, and work deviance. The results of this study uncovered statistically significant relationships between CCB and work deviance and between CCB and facades of conformity and revealed that emotional exhaustion significantly mediated these relationships. Implications and directions for future study are discussed. (shrink)

The relationships between age and the life-supporting treatments use, and between gender and the life-supporting treatments use are still controversial. Using extracorporeal membrane oxygenation as an example of life-supporting treatments, the objectives of this study were: to examine the relationship between age and the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation use; to examine the relationship between age and the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation use; and to deliberate the ethical and societal implications of age and gender disparities in the initiation of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. This (...) is a population-based, retrospective cohort study. Taiwan’s extracorporeal membrane oxygenation cases from 2000 to 2010 were collected. The annual incidence rate of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation use adjusting for both age and gender distribution for each year from 2000 to 2010 was derived using the population of 2000 as the reference population. The trend of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation use was examined using time-series linear regression analysis. We conducted joinpoint regression for estimating the trend change of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation use. The trends of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation use both for different gender groups, and for different age groups have been significantly increasing over time. Men were more likely to be supported by extracorporeal membrane oxygenation than women. Women’s perspectives toward life and death, and women’s perception of well-being may be associated with the phenomenon. In addition, the patients at the age of 65 or older were more likely to be supported by extracorporeal membrane oxygenation than those younger than 65. Family autonomy/family-determination, and the Confucian tradition of filial piety and respecting elders may account for this phenomenon. This study showed gender and age disparities in the initiation of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation use in Taiwan, which may be accounted for by the cultural and societal values in Taiwan. For a healthcare professional who deals with patients’/family members’ medical decision-making to initiate life-supporting treatments, he/she should be sensitive not only to the legality, but also the societal and ethical issues involved. (shrink)

This article explores the moral permissibility of sweatshop boycotts. We build explicitly on Tomhave and Vopat’s (2018) framework for evaluating the moral permissibility of boycotts in general for the specific case of sweatshop labor. We argue that sweatshop boycotts are more likely to be morally justified when targeting forced labor compared to free labor and we explore the relevant moral tradeoffs associated with boycotts of free labor sweatshops. We analyze the morality of three cases of sweatshop boycotts—Indonesia in the 1990s, (...) Bangladesh following the 2013 Rana Plaza disaster, and the Uyghur region in China—and then discuss how insights from these cases might provide a model to guide activists and business ethicists in analyzing the morality of other sweatshop boycotts. (shrink)

Under the influence of the linguistic turn in philosophy, contemporary Western philosophers typically limit their thinking on pluralism to the realm of language. This sort of pluralism can be named as pluralism of significance. I propose another version of pluralism in light of Confucianism, which extends the concerns from the realm of language to the realm of experience – I call it pluralism of presence. In this article, I first expound the aforementioned two versions of pluralism on the basis of (...) Hans-Georg Moeller’s semiotic trichotomy. I then argue that the conflict between multiculturalism and cultural identity in today’s globalized world and the failure of pluralism of significance in resolving this conflict can be overcome by pluralism of presence. Finally, I show a possibility of reconciliation between pluralism of significance and pluralism of presence. (shrink)

Guided by the theories of system theory, synergetic theory, and other disciplines and based on fuzzy data mining algorithm, this article constructs a three-tier social security fund cloud audit platform. Firstly, the article systematically expounds the current situation of social security fund and social security fund audit, such as the technical basis of cloud computing and data mining. Combined with the actual work, the necessity and feasibility of building a cloud audit platform for social security funds are analyzed. This article (...) focuses on the construction of the cloud audit platform for social security funds. The general idea of using fuzzy data mining algorithm to build the social security fund audit cloud platform is to compress the knowledge contained in a large number of data into the weights between nodes and optimize the weights through the learning of the neural network system. Through the optimization function, the information contained in the neural network is stored in a few weights as far as possible. The main information is further highlighted by network clipping and removing weights that have little impact on the output. (shrink)

Editor’sThis essay draws on the suburban sacrifice ritual to explicate in detail how Confucianism became the state religion by reforming the ritual system as a justification of the political system holding the Emperor as the central and highest authority.

Xunzi’s philosophy of language was mainly unfolded through the discrimination of ming 名 (names) and shi 实 (realities) and the discrimination of yan 言 (words) and yi 意 (meanings). Particularly, the discrimination of names and realities was centered on the propositions that realities are realized when their names are heard and that names are given to point up realities, including the view on the essence of language such as names expect to indicate realities and conventions established by usage, the view (...) of development of language such as coming form the former usage and being newly established, and the view of functions of language such as discriminating superiority and inferiority and differentiating identities and differences ; while the discrimination of words and meanings mainly contained two aspects: One was that words could completely represent meanings while it could not do so on the other hand, and the other was that the Dao should be grasped through an unoccupied, concentrated and quiet mind. Xunzi’s philosophy of language stressed both language’s value attribute and its cognitive attribute, and it is the greatest achievement of pre-Qin dynasty’s philosophy of language. (shrink)

Journal of Mathematical Logic, Volume 24, Issue 03, December 2024. We construct a model in which MA[math] holds and [math] fails. This shows that MA[math] does not imply [math] and answers an old question of Larson and Todorcevic in [Katetov’s problem, Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 354(5) (2002) 1783–1791]. We also investigate different strong colorings in models of MA[math].

Strong Turing Determinacy, or ${\mathrm {sTD}}$, is the statement that for every set A of reals, if $\forall x\exists y\geq _T x (y\in A)$, then there is a pointed set $P\subseteq A$. We prove the following consequences of Turing Determinacy ( ${\mathrm {TD}}$ ) and ${\mathrm {sTD}}$ over ${\mathrm {ZF}}$ —the Zermelo–Fraenkel axiomatic set theory without the Axiom of Choice: (1) ${\mathrm {ZF}}+{\mathrm {TD}}$ implies $\mathrm {wDC}_{\mathbb {R}}$ —a weaker version of $\mathrm {DC}_{\mathbb {R}}$.(2) ${\mathrm {ZF}}+{\mathrm {sTD}}$ implies that every (...) set of reals is measurable and has Baire property.(3) ${\mathrm {ZF}}+{\mathrm {sTD}}$ implies that every uncountable set of reals has a perfect subset.(4) ${\mathrm {ZF}}+{\mathrm {sTD}}$ implies that for every set of reals A and every $\epsilon>0$ :(a)There is a closed set $F\subseteq A$ such that $\mathrm {Dim_H}(F)\geq \mathrm {Dim_H}(A)-\epsilon $, where $\mathrm {Dim_H}$ is the Hausdorff dimension.(b)There is a closed set $F\subseteq A$ such that $\mathrm {Dim_P}(F)\geq \mathrm {Dim_P}(A)-\epsilon $, where $\mathrm {Dim_P}$ is the packing dimension. (shrink)

Abstract:The most important themes of Wang Lü's painting theory are the "true self" and the "true thing." One reason this topic has not received sufficient attention is that the original text was altered. This article aims to correct and reinterpret the text. After textual research and interpretation, Wang Lü's paintings and painting theory have been reevaluated. This article also responds to some difficult topics such as the relationship between "form" (ᔶ) and "meaning" (ᛣ) and between "following" (ᕲ) and "not following" (...) (䘩) the rules in Chinese painting theory. (shrink)

Resumen: La deportividad china es la esencia de los deportes chinos y el espíritu nacional, y el alma y la esencia de los deportes chinos. En realidad, la gente entiende la deportividad como una forma de ejercicio desligada del nivel espiritual, descuidando el valor espiritual equiparable al ejercicio físico, ocultando sus profundas connotaciones espirituales y arrinconando el espíritu deportivo, lejos de la “valentía”. del alma y la vitalidad del cuerpo” de los deportes. Se han explorado y examinado los fundamentos filosóficos (...) y el desarrollo histórico de la deportividad china, con el objetivo de comprender la profunda connotación y el valor de la deportividad china. Desde la fundación de la República Popular China, el espíritu de los deportes chinos ha desempeñado un papel de liderazgo especial en China y ha sido ampliamente reconocido y afirmado por el Comité Central del Partido y diversas clases sociales. Sin embargo, la comprensión de la gente al respecto no es lo suficientemente profunda y se encuentra sólo en la etapa de investigación preliminar. Para adaptarse a diversas necesidades, la exploración en profundidad del examen filosófico de la deportividad china tiene un valor teórico y una importancia práctica significativos. La deportividad china no se trata sólo de ejercicio físico, sino que también enfatiza la armonía física y mental, el cultivo tanto interno como externo, y la búsqueda de un estado de placer y comodidad físico y mental. La deportividad china está en consonancia con los pensamientos filosóficos tradicionales chinos como la “armonía entre el cielo y el hombre” y la armonía social. (shrink)

A result from a standard linear model course is that the variance of the ordinary least squares (OLS) coefficient of a variable will never decrease when including additional covariates into the regression. The variance inflation factor (VIF) measures the increase of the variance. Another result from a standard linear model or experimental design course is that including additional covariates in a linear model of the outcome on the treatment indicator will never increase the variance of the OLS coefficient of the (...) treatment at least asymptotically. This technique is called the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), which is often used to improve the efficiency of treatment effect estimation. So we have two paradoxical results: adding covariates never decreases the variance in the first result but never increases the variance in the second result. In fact, these two results are derived under different assumptions. More precisely, the VIF result conditions on the treatment indicators but the ANCOVA result averages over them. Comparing the estimators with and without adjusting for additional covariates in a completely randomized experiment, I show that the former has smaller variance averaging over the treatment indicators, and the latter has smaller variance at the cost of a larger bias conditioning on the treatment indicators. Therefore, there is no real paradox. (shrink)

Aging has become a serious social problem in China. Traditional informal long-term care is hard to sustain because of the reduction in family size and elders’ children migration to big cities. The institution offering services for the disabled elders has been a tendency. There exists a strange phenomenon: some nursing homes are difficult to enter for most disabled elders, while the other ones must search for elders to maintain operation. Therefore, for the evaluation of nursing homes, two problems should be (...) considered: selecting suitable nursing homes for disabled elders; obtaining the key factors influencing the selection of elders and helping nursing homes improve their services based on the key factors. First, we propose a new DEMATEL method for PLTSs to solve the second problem. Then, we present a novel PROMETHEE method to rank the alternatives and make a sensitivity analysis for criteria. Finally, we illustrate our proposed methods to an evaluation problem in Zhenjiang City by a case study. Based on the case study, we can obtain that our proposed methods are effective and practicable. (shrink)

This paper demonstrates that green-labeling forms an integral part of financial investment vehicles. We use data from the EU green bond market to show that green labels reduce the required yields on bonds (the “greenium”) in the long run, with the effect being more pronounced when labels are externally certified. We also find that green bonds can increase investors’ short-term attention when they are externally labeled. Further evidence suggests that the greenium of self-labeled green bonds is mainly attributed to a (...) weak signaling effect, whereas that of externally labeled bonds results from a combination of signaling effect and pro-environmental preferences. Our findings indicate that investors value the reassurance that third-party certifications provide about the ethical use of bond proceeds. This highlights the potential benefits of introducing stricter oversight of green bond proceeds in the bond market. (shrink)

Arthur Danto is one of the best Anglophone philosophers of art of the second half of the 20th century. His unique methodology of indiscernibility and provocative claim about the end of art have bee...

This empirical study explores the effect of cultural intelligence (CQ) on migrant workers’ innovative behavior, as well as the mediating role of knowledge sharing on the CQ-innovative behavior relationship. Besides, it also examines the extent to which the mediating process is moderated by climate for inclusion. Using survey data collected from Chinese migrant workers and their supervisors working in South Korea (n = 386), migrant workers’ CQ is found to positively impact their innovative behavior through enhanced knowledge sharing. However, it (...) is observed that this indirect relationship is significant, only for migrant workers in a strong climate for inclusion. Thus, these findings reveal the underlying mediation and moderation mechanism and consequently unveil the important role of migrant workers’ CQ in shaping their behavior. This study provides insightful and practical implications to a multicultural organization, where culturally diverse migrant workers work together. (shrink)