The unprecedented outbreak of the novel coronavirus has led to a great shift toward online retailing and accelerated the need for contactless delivery. This study investigates how technological and health belief factors influence consumer acceptance of autonomous delivery robots. Anchored in four behavioral theories [i.e., technology acceptance model, health belief model, perceived value theory and trust theory], a synthesized model is developed. A total of 500 valid responses were collected through an online questionnaire in Singapore, and structural equation modeling was (...) conducted to examine the responses. The results revealed that perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, self-efficacy and cues to action have a positive and significant influence on consumers’ perceptions of the value of ADRs. The total effect analysis also showed that perceived VAL strongly affects consumer acceptance of ADRs. Academically, this study introduces both technological and health belief factors to explain consumer acceptance of ADRs. It also provides recommendations for policymakers and autonomous delivery robot developers on policy formulation, public communication, product design and infrastructure development. (shrink)

We propose that local corruption distorts the allocation of government-controlled resources and impairs the contract environment, thereby reducing firms’ use or suppliers’ provision of trade credit. We use a sample of Chinese-listed firms from 2007 to 2020 to examine the role of local corruption in firms’ access to trade credit and find that the level of local corruption is negatively related to firms’ trade credit use. This effect is more pronounced in firms with weak (vs. strong) internal governance, slack (tight) (...) external monitoring and high (low) supplier concentration. The results of path analysis show that local corruption extends short-term bank loans as well as government subsidies and impairs firms’ accounting quality, thereby inhibiting firms’ demand for or suppliers’ provision of trade credit. Moreover, the post-2012 anti-corruption campaign in China plays a significant role in correcting the misallocation of trade credit caused by corruption. The results of this study illuminate the negative external effects of local corruption on trade credit. (shrink)

从公元前624年(周襄王二十八年)起,至公元1945年止,中外著名哲学家和思想家的生卒年,著作和学术活动年代,确有记载的都尽量收入本年表,与哲学有关的历史事件与哲学邻近的其他学科的重大发现和重要思想家 及其著作也予收入。.

This study investigated the mediating roles of self-acceptance and self-esteem in the relationship between body image dissatisfaction and impulse buying, and tested the moderating effect of gender on the relationships. A sample of 374 college students and graduate students participated in the study. Results revealed that body image dissatisfaction positively associated with impulse buying; self-esteem plays a mediating role between body image dissatisfaction and impulsive buying; a serial indirect pathway emerged; the mediation path from self-acceptance to self-esteem was stronger for (...) female than that from male. The results underscore the importance of identifying the mechanisms that moderate the mediated path between body image dissatisfaction and impulse buying among students. These findings point to the potential implications about how to reduce impulse buying through improving body image satisfaction. (shrink)

Seminal work by Knobe, Prasada, and Newman (2013) distinguished a set of concepts, which they named “dual‐character concepts.” Unlike traditional concepts, they require two distinct criteria for determining category membership. For example, the prototypical dual‐character concept “artist” has both a concrete dimension of artistic skills, and an abstract dimension of aesthetic sensibility and values. Therefore, someone can be a good artist on the concrete dimension but not truly an artist on the abstract dimension. Does this analysis capture people's understanding of (...) cornerstone social categories, such as gender, around which society and everyday life have traditionally been organized? Gender, too, may be conceived as having not only a concrete dimension but also a distinct dimension of abstract norms and values. As with dual‐character concepts, violations of abstract norms and values may result in someone being judged as not truly a man/woman. Here, we provide the first empirical assessment of applying the dual‐character framework to people's conception of gender. We found that, on some measures that primarily relied on metalinguistic cues, gender concepts did indeed resemble dual‐character concepts. However, on other measures that depicted transgressions of traditional gender norms, neither “man” nor “woman” appeared dual‐character‐like, in that participants did not disqualify people from being truly a man or truly a woman. In a series of follow‐up studies, we examined whether moral norms have come to replace gender role norms for the abstract dimension. Implications for the evolution of concepts and categories are explored. (shrink)

In Confucius Speaks, the teachings of the greatest sage of all time are vividly brought to life by the wonderfully endearing and humorous characters drawn by East Asia's most famous cartoonist, Tsai Chih Chung. Although readers everywhere are familiar with the name of Confucius, few have encountered his actual teachings in such an accessible manner. Illustrations throughout.

ABSTRACT The research purpose is to investigate the influence of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism on Chinese folklore vocals and their elements in modern music. The research methodology is based on descriptive, comparative, interpretative and statistical analysis (Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient). The analysis of the folk vocals of each thematic group among 110 folk songs of the Shi Jing supports the argument that Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism had the greatest influence on the vocals. During the analysis, it was determined that folk (...) songs about love (0.942) and songs themed around nature (0.917) exhibit the most pronounced influence on their potential utilisation in the performance of popular compositions. The findings indicated that 75% of the folk vocal compositions with nature-related themes demonstrated discernible influences from Buddhism. The research findings have enabled the identification of exemplary renditions of the folkloric composition ‘Czo-yui’ from the ‘Book of Changes’, adeptly adapted to contemporary motifs, which were achieved at a notably high level within respondent groups #1 (7.2), #4 (7.4) and #5 (7.1). These commendable outcomes are attributed to the preservation of harmonious tonality, precise intonation and artistic expression during the performance process. (shrink)

The 85 Lao Zi bamboo slips from around 300 B. C. E. are the earliest texts of what later became known as the Tao Te King. They also contain the-until now-unknown Taoist narrative of Creation 'Great One gave Birth to Water.' These texts are very original and not yet intermingled with Confucian philosophy, governance, or ethics.This English translation presents the Tao Bamboo Slips in modern simplified Chinese characters, with commentaries and a comparison of the modern Chinese version to the old (...) characters. This bilingual Chinese-English publication is a contribution to the crosscultural visions and values of the New SiIk Road of the 21st century. (Series: Practical Ethics-Documentation / Ethik in der Praxis-Materialien, Vol. 16) [Subject: Confucianism, Chinese Studies, Philosophy]. (shrink)

从公元前624年(周襄王二十八年)起,至公元1945年止,中外著名哲学家和思想家的生卒年,著作和学术活动年代,确有记载的都尽量收入本年表,与哲学有关的历史事件与哲学邻近的其他学科的重大发现和重要思想家 及其著作也予收入。.

Existing accounts of social insurance tend to treat social risks as given and ask whether it is justified for the state to deal with these risks for its citizens. They ignore that many common risks are in fact imposed on citizens as a byproduct of the institutional choices of the society, which call for justification in the first place. In this paper, I use the Scanlonian contractualist framework to develop an account of just social risk imposition which implies a demand (...) for fair risk sharing by all members of a society. In particular, I defend a compensation principle which requires that compensation be paid to victims of risk materialisation. This duty of paying should be shared by all those who benefit from the imposition of the relevant risk. I suggest that this provides a case for social insurance as a way of fairly sharing the burden of social risks. (shrink)

This study investigated the role of entrepreneurial passion in recognition of opportunity, developing entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and entrepreneurial intention, in the shaping of entrepreneurial actions in the presence of proactive personality. This study applied partial least squares structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses on a sample of 346 university students from Jiangsu province, China. The output of the study showed that entrepreneurial passion positively and significantly influenced entrepreneurial alertness, entrepreneurial self-efficacy to entrepreneurial intention, and entrepreneurial behavior. The findings also showed (...) that a proactive personality positively and significantly moderated the relationship between entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial behavior. (shrink)

This paper aims to explore whether the usage of credit cards has peer effects in rural areas of China. The results suggest that the usage of credit cards will be affected by the behavior of other farmers; namely, the usage of credit cards has peer effects in rural areas. We also verify that women, older, and low-academic farmers show stronger peer effects. The results emphasize that, compared with the mass farmers and vulnerable farmers, the usage of elite farmers is more (...) likely to affect the same behaviors of other farmers. Our study contributes to prior literature by giving empirical insights into the consequences of peer effects on the credit card usage of farmers, which conduces to a better understanding of the financial decision-making of farmers. The research may provide a practical implication for the optimal design of policy interventions. On the one hand, banks and other financial institutions can promote innovative financial products in rural areas with the help of peer effects; on the other hand, regulators can regulate farmers’ wrong financial behaviors by the social multiplier of peer effects to reduce systemic risks in rural finance. (shrink)

Reproductive diseases are a long‐standing problem and have become more common in the world. Currently, 15% of the world's population suffers from infertility, and half of them are women. Maturation of oocytes, successful fertilization, and high‐quality embryos are prerequisites for pregnancy. With the development of assisted reproductive technology and advanced genetic assays, we have found that infertility in many young female patients is caused by mutations in various developmental regulators. These pathogenic factors may result in impediment of oocyte maturation, failure (...) of fertilization or early embryonic development arrest. In this review, we categorize these clinically‐identified, mutated genetic factors by their molecular characteristics: nuclear factors (PALT2, TRIP13, WEE2, TBPL2, REC114, MEI1 and CDC20), cytoplasmic factors (TLE6, PADI6, NLRP2/5, FBXO43, MOS and BTG4), a factor unique to primates (TUBB8), cell membrane factor (PANX1), and zona pellucida factors (ZP1‐3). We compared discrepancies observed in phenotypes between human and mouse models to provide clues for clinical diagnosis and treatment of related reproductive diseases. (shrink)

本書收有八篇論文，除了論及朱子學的詮釋外，亦關涉了東亞朱子學的區域特色與交流互動。由本書所收論文，可具體而微地看到東亞儒者對朱子學的討論，有基本架構上的同，也有不同契入角度之異，這種同異互現的結果，使 得不同時代及區域的朱子學，因其差異的詮釋而發展了豐富的內涵。.

本书记述了作者在前线和后方听到、经历过的凡人小事,以及《理解万岁》的讲演诞生的前前后后.

This study investigated the role of theme-based blocks play in enhancing Chinese children’s language capacity with a quasi-experiment. Altogether 61 young children were assigned to the experiment group and the control group. The experiment group was engaged in a 12-week theme-based block play intervention programs, whereas the control group received no interventions but free block play during the parallel time sessions. All the children were tested with the Language Assessment for Preschool Children before and after the intervention. The ANCOVA results (...) indicated that the experimental group significantly improved in LAPC test, whereas the control group showed no significant change. The educational implications of these findings are discussed. (shrink)