Social information processing theory suggests that the chief executive officer’s entrepreneurial orientation is an organisational signal that influences the members’ innovativeness. Middle management teams are expected to be more innovative as they connect senior managers with frontline managers in the dynamic competitive environment of the digital economy. How CEOs guide MMT innovations through EO becomes critical in the process of capturing opportunities and creating value. However, previous research has failed to adequately identify distinct CEO EO manifestations with organisational contexts configurations (...) that influence MMTs innovation. Thus, based on differences in organisational contexts and MMTs’ cognition, this study thoroughly investigates how the vertical manifestation of CEO EO impacts the innovativeness of MMTs. We used fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis on a sample of 117 organisations to determine which configurations of CEO EO vertical penetration within an organisation can stimulate MMT innovativeness. The study discovered four first-level configurations that support stimulating MMT innovativeness respectively when the CEO EO is fully or partially manifested, and without the CEO EO. Moreover, we found the internal reasons for MMTs’ information interpretation heterogeneity, which is critical for realising the coordination and unity of entrepreneurial cognition and behaviours. Finally, these findings’ theoretical and practical implications are discussed. (shrink)

In this work, we propose a method to transform a speaker’s speech information into a target character’s talking video; the method could make the mouth shape synchronization, expression, and body posture more realistic in the synthesized speaker video. This is a challenging task because changes of mouth shape and posture are coupled with audio semantic information. The model training is difficult to converge, and the model effect is unstable in complex scenes. Existing speech-driven speaker methods cannot solve this problem well. (...) The method proposed in this paper first generates the sequence of key points of the speaker’s face and body postures from the audio signal in real time and then visualizes these key points as a series of two-dimensional skeleton images. Subsequently, we generate the final real speaker video through the video generation network. We take a random sampling of audio clips, encode audio contents and temporal correlations using a more effective network structure, and optimize and iterate network outputs using differential loss and attitude perception loss, so as to obtain a smoother pose key-point sequence and better performance. In addition, by inserting a specified action frame into the synthesized human pose sequence window, action poses of the synthesized speaker are enriched, making the synthesis effect more realistic and natural. Then, the final speaker video is generated by the obtained gesture key points through the video generation network. In order to generate realistic and high-resolution pose detail videos, we insert a local attention mechanism into the key point network of the generated pose sequence and give higher attention to the local details of the characters through spatial weight masks. In order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, we used the objective evaluation index NME and user subjective evaluation methods, respectively. Experiment results showed that our method could vividly use audio contentsto generate corresponding speaker videos, and its lip-matching accuracy and expression postures are better than those of previous work. Compared with existing methods in the NME index and user subjective evaluation, our method showed better results. (shrink)

Using a panel data of 806 U.S. firms from 2006 to 2015, we find that in their ratings of corporate social responsibility performance, firms with top managers who attended religiously affiliated schools outperform their peers with no such managers. The positive relationship between religious school attendance and CSR performance is stronger among firms with lower level of community religiosity or less external monitoring. Our findings lend support to early theoretical work that suggests managerial CSR-oriented values can be key motivating factors (...) for CSR initiatives. (shrink)

Resumo: Yang Naimei (杨耐梅) é uma estrela de cinema chinesa da primeira metade do século XX. O estudo discute a prática de vida e o significado de Yang Naimei como uma flapper chinesa. Flapper se refere à garota moderna que cresceu na Europa e na América, na década de 1920, e desafia o estilo de vida tradicional. Yang Naimei é boa em atuar como uma mulher indisciplinada, na tela. Ela teve muitos relacionamentos em sua vida. Ela acumulou riqueza e reputação (...) com sua carreira de atriz, que incorpora totalmente as características da flapper. No entanto, a sociedade da época não oferecia espaço suficiente para o desenvolvimento sustentável da geração de mulheres, como Yang Naimei, na vida econômica, política e pessoal. Com a sua juventude passada, ela foi eliminada pela indústria cinematográfica e sofreu com a pobreza e a doença, na segunda metade de sua vida. Tomando Yang Naimei como uma silhueta dos tempos, pode-se refletir sobre as voltas e reviravoltas do caminho de desenvolvimento das mulheres chinesas. (shrink)

E-commerce conceivable future trade, consumption, and service is a new digital employer mode. Therefore, in order to decorate the customary natural environment of operation, it is quintessential to get rid of the preferred desktop in the true field, create a social logistics and transportation administration computing device with commodity agents and distributors as the key features, and mix freight logistics, business enterprise approach waft and data waft advertising and marketing, and advertising and marketing organically. The notion of e-commerce logistics looks (...) alongside the enchantment vogue of neighborhood technological knowledge and social demand. It is an integral part of ending e-commerce authentic economic value. All kinds of cell networks clear up the problem of data flow communication; in the technological know-how of telephone network, digital cost solves the bother of capital flow; at present, logistics is however a long-standing problem of e-commerce. Logistics has grown to be the last and entirely bottleneck of e-commerce. If logistics cannot adapt to the enchantment of e-commerce, it may also additionally lead to the slow enchantment of e-commerce. The purpose of this paper is to supply an Internet of things e-commerce logistics cloud provider platform based totally absolutely on cell communication, which can be combined with e-commerce and beautify the transport tempo of e-commerce. This paper moreover optimizes the e-commerce logistics system, so that it can combine with e-commerce to increase out the distribution of goods, the distribution tempo of e-commerce is doubled, and e-commerce can in a similar fashion develop rapidly. (shrink)

We present a theory of actions based on a theory of events in branching time, in which "particular" or "token" actions are taken to be sets of transitions from their initial states to the outcomes. We also present a simple theory of composition of events by which composite events can be formed out of other events. Various kinds of actions, including instantaneous group actions and sequential group actions, are introduced by way of composition, and an extended stit theory of agency (...) is proposed, in which the stit operators are combined or equipped with reified group actions. (shrink)

This study aims to examine how the relationship between intellectual capital and bank profitability changed during COVID-19. Based on the data of 34 Chinese banks and 39 Pakistani banks, this study uses ordinary least squares to examine this relationship during the COVID-19 era. Profitability is measured by return on assets and return on equity, and IC is measured by the value added intellectual coefficient model. The findings show that, even during the COVID-19 pandemic, IC has managed to sustain its positive (...) influence on bank profitability in China and Pakistan. Among IC components, our study reports that human capital is the only IC resource that continues to enhance ROA and ROE of Chinese and Pakistani banks during the pandemic period. Our study suggests that policymakers should pay more attention to IC resources, which has the potential to improve banks’ profitability even during crisis times. (shrink)

This paper focuses on performance assessment of a freight network with stochastic capacities by using reliability analysis, in which a node denotes a supplier, a transfer center, a distribution center, or a market, while an arc denotes a logistics service provider offering the freight traffic service for a pair of nodes. Due to some uncertainties in real environment, the available capacity of the provider along each arc is stochastic. Thus, network reliability that at least d units of commodity demand can (...) be successfully delivered from the source to the destination denotes the operational performance of such a freight network. A d-minimal path–based method is developed to evaluate the freight network reliability. To advance the efficiency of solving d-minimal paths, an improved model is established by redefining capacity bounds of arcs and minimal paths. Furthermore, a new concept of expected capacity grounded on network reliability is presented to measure the service performance of the freight network. A practical case related to the coal delivery network is studied to demonstrate the implications of both network reliability and expected capacity. (shrink)

In this paper, the stability of switched neural networks with interval parameter uncertainties and time delays is investigated. First, the conditions for the existence and uniqueness of the equilibrium point of the system are discussed. Second, the average dwell time approach and M-matrix property are employed to obtain conditions to ensure the globally exponential stability of the delayed SNNs under constrained switching. Third, by resorting to inequality technique and the idea of vector Lyapunov function, sufficient condition to ensure the robust (...) exponential stability of the delayed SNNs under arbitrary switching is derived. The form of the constructed Lyapunov functions is simple, which has certain commonality in studying delayed SNNs, and the proposed results not only are explicit but also reveal the relationship between the constrained switching and the arbitrary switching of the SNNs. Finally, two numerical examples are presented to illustrate the effectiveness and less conservativeness of the main results compared with the existing literature. (shrink)

Learning a deep structure representation for complex information networks is a vital research area, and assessing the quality of stereoscopic images or videos is challenging due to complex 3D quality factors. In this paper, we explore how to extract effective features to enhance the prediction accuracy of perceptual quality assessment. Inspired by the structure representation of the human visual system and the machine learning technique, we propose a no-reference quality assessment scheme for stereoscopic images. More specifically, the statistical features of (...) the gradient magnitude and Laplacian of Gaussian responses are extracted to form binocular quality-predictive features. After feature extraction, these features of distorted stereoscopic image and its human perceptual score are used to construct a statistical regression model with the machine learning technique. Experimental results on the benchmark databases show that the proposed model generates image quality prediction well correlated with the human visual perception and delivers highly competitive performance with the typical and representative methods. The proposed scheme can be further applied to the real-world applications on video broadcasting and 3D multimedia industry. (shrink)

Resumo: Este artigo tem como objetivo quebrar as barreiras existentes na classificação da arte, adotar métodos de pesquisa interdisciplinares e comparativos, basear-se nos conceitos centrais do Taoísmo, “Dao segue a natureza”, do Confucionismo, “Doutrina do Meio”, e do Zen, “natureza pura do coração”, explicar o significado profundo do espaço em branco na pintura à tinta e revelar o fundo cultural e o valor estético do silêncio na música, enfatizando a relação dialética entre existência e não existência, som e silêncio, na (...) criação artística. Os resultados indicam que tanto o “silêncio” na música como os espaços em branco, nas pinturas à tinta, possuem importante valor estético. Na apreciação musical, é importante abrandar o ritmo, prestar atenção aos intervalos e interrupções, apreciar ativamente a arte do espaço em branco, aprender a entender o trabalho geral e usufruir do espaço em branco. Através da exploração interdisciplinar, este texto proporciona um novo caminho para a compreensão e a aplicação da apreciação musical, promovendo, assim, o pensamento filosófico sobre o significado profundo da música. (shrink)

Reading psychology is an important basis for formulating news strategies. The purpose of this paper is to study how to analyze and study the psychological mechanism of reading and news communication strategies based on affective computing. It described the conditional random field. This paper put forward the problem of affective computing, which is based on affective computing technology. Then it expounded the concept of conditional random fields and related algorithms, and designed and analyzed cases of news communication strategies. Through the (...) period from April 1, 2022 to June 1, 2022, the 300 short videos of news and information with the highest playback volume respectively released by Z software were used as research samples, and a multi-angle analysis was carried out. Among the 300 selected news information videos, 252 videos are original content, accounting for 84.00%, and the other short videos are from the self-media of the platform. At present, it is necessary to continuously develop intelligent products that meet the needs of users at different stages, and carry out personalized design in strict accordance with the living habits and natural conditions of different groups of people. Then continuously improving the experience of different groups of people using new media products, so that their reading interest can be more effectively stimulated. (shrink)

In order to account for how children can generalize words beyond a very limited set of labeled examples, Bloom's proposal of word learning requires two extensions: a better understanding of the “general learning and memory abilities” involved, and a principled framework for integrating multiple conflicting constraints on word meaning. We propose a framework based on Bayesian statistical inference that meets both of those needs.

ABSTRACT To have a coherent picture of Wang Chong’s Lunheng is difficult. Some of Lunheng’s chapters obviously show Wang’s hostility to a large part of the folklore (including the social institutions based on it) and traditional philosophical texts. In some other chapters, however, Wang appears to be more sympathetic to the social institutions related to folk religious beliefs. Esther Sunkyung Klein & Colin Klein attempt to explain this prima facie inconsistency in terms of ‘piecemeal non-reductionism’, which roughly means that Wang (...) would take any testimonial belief for granted until he can find a defeater of such a belief. But this explanation merely depicts Wang as a defeater-seeker rather than a thinker looking for philosophical grounds of his claims in a more positive manner. In contrast, in this paper, I intend to attribute the following epistemological thesis to Wang: A testimonial belief taken from classics or folklore will be judged as unjustified if the knowledge attributor finds a non-negligible defeater of it, and such an attributor would feel more sympathetic to the target belief if it can be at least prima facie justified in the light of analogical reasoning. (shrink)

Based on the theoretical framework of cultural reproduction theory and ecosystem theory, this paper explores the impact of migrant children's identification with the college entrance examination policy on their educational expectations and the associated underlying mechanisms from the micro, meso, and macro levels. In total, 1,770 questionnaires were collected from students, and 436 people were interviewed, including students, their teachers, and their parents. They are all from China. Through multidimensional analysis, the results indicated that both individual academic achievement and family (...) social capital have positive impacts on migrant children's educational expectations and that social class segregation in school and perceived social discrimination have negative impacts on their educational expectations. Migrant children's identification with the policy has a significant positive impact on these children's educational expectations. Their identification with the policy enhances the positive impact of individual academic achievement and family social capital on their educational expectations and partially weakens the negative impact of social class segregation in school and perceived social discrimination on their educational expectations. The analysis suggests that college matriculation policy for migrant children drives a compensation mechanism that involves the “principle of justice”, a cultural mechanism that involves “promoting learning through examinations”, and an institutional mechanism involving “urban-rural integration” to increase educational expectations. This study enriches and develops the expectation theory of migrant children and provides a policy reference for local governments to improve their policies for college entrance examinations for migrant children and to promote household registration system reform. (shrink)

Transparency of textbook activities, i.e., the degree of easiness for teachers to process and comprehend them, needs to be researched in terms of both materials design and materials use. This article reports on a study that investigates the impact of teachers’ professional experience and transparency of textbook activities on teachers’ actual perception of the transparency of materials. The study adopted a mixed-methods design and collected quantitative data via a five-point scale survey from 115 secondary school teachers as well as interview (...) data from 15 informants. Data analysis reveals that both teachers’ professional experience and transparency of textbook activities affect the degree of easiness teachers perceived as they understand and interpret the activities for pedagogical purposes. However, discrepancy exists between transparency in materials design and transparency in teachers’ perception. Lack of pedagogical knowledge about the relationship between teaching objectives, steps, and assessment and strong existing cognitive schemata developed from the stereotype of processing a familar set of teaching materials might hamper teachers’ perception of transparency. (shrink)

The impact of motivation, anxiety and learning strategies on the achievement of foreign language proficiency has been widely acknowledged in the context of traditional offline classroom settings. However, this issue has not been extensively documented in relation to online learning, which has become the predominant form of language learning during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. The current study was conducted to investigate the relative prediction of motivation, anxiety and learning strategies for second language achievement among 90 Thai adult learners (...) of Chinese as a foreign language who took online Chinese courses. The participants completed a questionnaire dealing with motivation, anxiety, learning strategies, and their Chinese proficiency was measured by self-report and a Chinese vocabulary size test. A series of hierarchical regression analyses revealed two major findings. First, anxiety emerged as the most stable factor for the participants' CFL achievement, followed by learning strategies and motivation. Second, motivation, anxiety and learning strategies only significantly predicted the participants' self-rated Chinese language proficiency, but not their performance on the Chinese vocabulary size test. The overall results indicate the relative importance of motivation, anxiety and learning strategies to Chinese language learning in the online environment and suggest different measures of CFL achievement may lead to different research findings. The general findings were of theoretical and pedagogical significance for understanding and addressing individual differences factors in online language learning. (shrink)

Angle is an important concept in geometry. Young children have difficulty separating angle size from other dimensions such as the length of angle sides, perhaps due to whole-object bias in word learning. The present study used the pre-test–training–post-test design to investigate the effectiveness of two ways of separating angle from angle size in 3–6-year-old Chinese preschoolers. A total of 228 children were given a pre-test and 219 of them failed the crucial test. 168 of the 219 children were present at (...) school during the training phase and were randomly assigned to three groups: the “toma” group, which received training to call the whole angle figure as “toma” and angle size as angle size; the “angle/angle size” group, which received the training of separating “angle” from “angle size”; and the control group, which used “angle size” alone to represent both the overall angle figure and angle size. Results showed that the “toma” group improved significantly more than the other two groups, the latter of which did not differ from each other. These results suggest that it is insufficient to have two separate words/phrases for children to learn to differentiate angle from angle size, perhaps due to their shared usage of the word angle. Instead, the use of a novel term is necessary and sufficient to improve learning. Implications for preschool education are discussed. (shrink)

Generally speaking, sex robots are artificial entities designed to be humanlike in appearance and behavior, and which are primarily used for sexual purposes. In the literature on robot ethics, most work is influenced by either deontology or utilitarianism. In this article, I address some issues concerning sex robots from a Confucian standpoint. The first question that will be raised is whether sex robots can be morally permitted. Intuitively, such machines might not be morally acceptable for Confucianism since Confucians seem to (...) hold a negative and mortifying attitude toward sexual desire. However, this intuition is likely incorrect. I argue that sexual desires guided by the heavenly principle are not immoral. Hence, from the Confucian perspective, sex robots, which are created to meet humans’ sexual desires, can at least sometimes be justified. The second question addresses what kinds of sex robots Confucianism can morally allow. As I explore, following Confucian insights, the answer to this question likely depends on the purpose for which one seeks to use sex robots. Sexual thoughts that involve incest, threesomes, fornication, and pedophilia are usually regarded as morally wrong from the Confucian perspective. Thus, it would likely be morally unacceptable to use sex robots to fulfil such illicit and inappropriate desires. By contrast, Confucianism might morally permit other kinds and uses of sex robots. In some cases, people want sex robots because they are unable to find human sexual partners. Sex robots might be able to fulfil such people’s sexual needs, while also enabling those individuals to build emotional bonds with their sex robots. The therapeutic use of sex robots can also be allowed. The paper consists of four sections. The first section demonstrates the specialty of sex robots. The second section explores the Confucian views of yin-yang theory and sex. In the third section, Confucian theories of family relations and sex are illustrated. Lastly, based on the features of Confucianism, I argue that some kinds of use of sex robots can be morally allowed by Confucians. (shrink)