In this study, we used the framework of institutional anomie theory The future of anomie theory, Northeastern University Press, Boston, 1997) to examine the relationship between supervisors’ ethics and their personal value orientation, including achievement and pecuniary materialism. We further investigated whether these individual-level associations were moderated by societal factors consisting of income inequality, government efficiency, foreign competition, and technological advancement. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to analyze data of 16,464 supervisors from 42 nations obtained from the 2010–2014 wave of (...) the World Values Survey. Results showed that strong achievement value orientation was positively related to willingness to justify ethically suspect behaviors; government efficiency and technological advancement, respectively, had negative and positive moderating effects on this relationship. On the other hand, foreign competition had a positive moderating effect on the association between pecuniary materialism and ethicality. (shrink)

This study examines the degree of state ownership on corporate bribery. Integrating the theories of state ownership and corporate corruption, we propose that state ownership influences bribery propensity and bribery intensity in different ways; it lowers a firm’s tendency to pay bribes but increases the relative amount of bribery payment. Building on the control rights/bargaining hypotheses, we demonstrate that state ownership shields firms from bribery demands by reducing administrative hurdles that include bureaucratic requirements of obtaining licenses or settling taxes in (...) business operations. However, state ownership elevates the level of bribes by weakening their capital mobility. Using a sample of 23,018 firms from 54 countries covering 2006 to 2013, we find evidence to support our hypotheses. This article contributes to corruption research by drawing attention to an important channel of corruption and by highlighting the importance of considering not only the propensity but also the intensity of bribe payments. (shrink)

The study reported here, building on the research methods of Conversation Analysis, Politeness Theory, and Relevance Theory, attempts to examine the distribution of Mandarin qishi and shishishang across two different discourse modes in formal speech settings: formal lectures and TV panel news discussions. The results indicate that qishi is prevalent in TV panel news discussion data, which fall into the interactional mode, whereas shishishang is more prevalent in formal speech data, which fall into the transactional mode. The study shows that (...) in interaction, qishi is addressee-oriented and signals alignment or divergence, whereas shishishang is message-oriented and asserts a proposition with a tone of certainty. In addition, the study suggests that although the literal meanings of qishi and shishishang, which are concerned with factuality, are seemingly unrelated to emotive expressivity, they offer a rhetorical strategy for expressing the speaker’s attitudinal position, and can both serve to indicate the speaker’s epistemic inference. (shrink)

Recently, there is a renewed debate concerning the role of perspective in vision. Morales et al. (2020) present evidence that, in the case of viewing a rotated coin, the visual system is sensitive to what has often been called “perspectival shapes.” It has generated vigorous discussions, including an online symposium by Morales and Cohen, an exchange between Linton (2021) and Morales et al. (2021), and most recently, a fierce critique by Burge and Burge (2022), in which they launch various conceptual (...) and empirical objections. Although Morales and Firestone (2022) have responded to them recently, and we are in agreement with Morales and Firestone in general, there are further problems in Burge and Burge (2022) that are worth highlighting. The main point of this comment is that what the Burge–Burge team call “viewpoint-dependent relational properties” are simply instances of what the Morales–Firestone team call “perspectival shapes”; the confusion arises from Burge and Burge’s misconstrual of Morales et al.’s claims. This shows that conceptually, the two teams are in large agreement, as Morales and Firestone (2022) also point out, and the focus should be put on the empirical disagreements, which has been covered by Morales and Firestone (2022). Relatedly, we argue that Burge and Burge (2022) misinterpret Morales et al. (2020) as supporting a new entity in perception science, and that this misinterpretation is a primary source of their apparent disagreement. This is worth pointing out because such misunderstanding generates many unnecessary quarrels that hinder progress. (shrink)

This study explores materiality and material cultures of human placenta in Ming China (1368–1644), for it perfectly displays Chinese ambiguous attitudes towards the human body parts between living and non-living. For a long time, the Chinese had widely applied human body parts in medical treatments and ritual healings. Numerous evidences in relation to their collection, production, efficacy and application are widely recorded in medical works, in particular those found in materia medica. In the sixteenth century, the Bencao gangmu (Systemic Materia (...) Medica, 1596) illustrates thirty-five “human body drugs.” Of those, the placenta was believed effective for curing illnesses, nourishing the body and prolonging life. The questions to be answered include: how is the placenta perceived in medical and religious discourses? What is its “materiality” and “efficacy” when it becomes a drug? What ethical issues and moral concerns are involved with eating the placenta? Last but not least, how was the placenta ritually buried after childbirth in premodern China? In so doing, this essay aims to provide a better understanding of the placenta situated in both material and cosmological worlds. It helps us rethink the multiple relations of human body part to part, part to whole, and body to body. (shrink)

Storytelling is a mode of communication in human interaction and is pervasive in everyday life. Storytelling in marketing is also a managerial application as a marketing strategy. Researchers of consumer psychology and marketing have devoted great efforts to developing theories and conducting empirical studies on this approach. However, in addition to narrative theories, many researchers are mainly concerned about the effect of telling a good brand story and its applications, such as advertising design and presentation. However, for those products that (...) usually lack branding, such as agricultural products, knowledge remains scarce about the relative impact of storytelling in marketing. Few researchers have explicitly developed a valid tool for measuring the effect of storytelling in marketing. To aid storytelling research in consumer psychology, this article conceptualized a construct of the effectiveness of storytelling in agricultural marketing and developed a measure with further validation. This scale consisted of 13 items with four subscales: narrative processing, affect, brand attitude, and purchase intention. The findings of this study strongly supported a structural model with strong order among the four dimensions and good model fit. A discussion of the results and the theoretical and practical implications for consumer psychology and marketing practice are also addressed. (shrink)

Our paper draws attention to a neglected channel of corruption—the bribe payments by state-owned enterprises. This is an important phenomenon as bribe payments by SOEs fruitlessly waste national resources, compromising public welfare and national prosperity. Using a large dataset of 30,249 firms from 50 countries, we show that, in general, SOEs are less likely to pay bribes for achieving organizational objectives owing to their political connectivity. However, in deteriorated institutional environments, SOEs may be subjected to potential managerial rent-seeking behaviors, which (...) disproportionately increase SOE bribe propensity relative to privately owned enterprises. Specifically, our findings highlight the importance of fostering democracy and rule of law, reducing prevalence of corruption and shortening power distance in reducing the incidence of SOE bribery. (shrink)

The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of the technical and context-related variables of last strokes in rallies on the point outcomes of both men’s and women’s players in elite singles badminton matches. A total of 100 matches during the 2018 and 2019 seasons were analyzed, and the data of 4,080 men’s rallies and 4,339 women’s rallies were collected. The technical variables including strokes per rally, forehand strokes, overhead strokes, and defensive action, and the context-related variables including (...) game status, result against serve, importance of rally, and importance of set, were modeled with Probit regression modeling as the predictor variables. The binary variables of “winner or not” and “error or not” were considered the response variables. The results showed that defensive actions had the greatest impacts on the winners and errors of both the men’s and women’s singles players, and the forehand and overhead strokes were negatively associated with the winners and errors of the women’s singles players and the winners of the men’s singles players. No significant effects were found for the strokes per rally on the winners and errors of the men’s singles players, while significant effects were found for the women’s singles players. The context-related variables appeared to have positive effects on the winners and negative effects on the errors of both sexes. These findings can provide important insights for coaches and players to evaluate their performances of last strokes in rallies and to improve training interventions and match tactics and strategies. (shrink)

In an effort at ethical reform, Taiwan recently revised the Hospice Palliative Care Law authorising family members or physicians to make surrogate decisions to discontinue life-sustaining treatment if an incompetent terminally ill patient did not express their wishes while still competent. In particular, Article 7 of the new law authorises the palliative care team, namely the physicians, to act as sole decision-makers on behalf of the incompetent terminally ill patient's best interests if no family member is available. However, the law (...) fails to provide guidance as to what constitutes the patient's best interests or what specific procedures the treating physicians should follow, and so has raised constitutional concerns. It may be difficult to translate ethical reform into law but it is not impossible if essential requirements are carefully followed. First, there must be substantial nexus between the purpose of the statute and the measures provided under the statute. Second, advocates need to convince the public that futility or waste has amounted to a public health emergency so as to justify lower procedural requirements. Third, a remedy or compensation should be available if the surrogate decisions have not been appropriately made. Fourth, minimum procedural safeguards are necessary even though the statute is intended to reduce the procedural burdens of making surrogate decisions on behalf of incompetent patients who lack family members and did not express their wishes while still competent. (shrink)

At times making the right life-choices can feel like an overwhelming pressure. In this delightful book, a wise Master leads a young pupil on a journey through China, dispensing wisdom & sound advice at every turn. The pupil gains experience of life's ups & downs, & eventually achieves fulfillment. Chao-Hsiu Chen's reflective account is a pleasure to read. You will quickly associate with the lessons for life learned by the pupil, & enjoy the glimpses of everyday rural China (...) revealed along the way. This beautiful & inspirational book is illustrated throughout with Chen's sublime ink paintings, which perfectly complement her text. Translated from the Chinese. (shrink)

Moral ‘saints and heroes’ are generally considered to be admirable, moral exemplars worthy of emulation. J. O. Urmson characterizes them as morally laudable agents who perform supererogatory actions. This characterization, combined with relevant empirical evidence, presents a paradox in which supererogatory acts appear to become, not optional, but obligatory for moral saints and heroes. This is termed the ‘agent–observer disparity’. Drawing on Bernard Williams’ ideas, the concepts of practical necessity and moral incapacity, which are expressive of and grounded in one’s (...) character, are utilized to account for moral saints and heroes’ subjective morality and illuminate their exceptional strength of character. In response to misgivings regarding the imitability of moral saints and heroes and the attainability of their excellences of character, this study suggests that the considerable gap between the characteristics of extreme exemplars and ordinary individuals can provide ordinary individuals with the freedom to consider the moral perspectives of these exemplars that evoke wonder without the exemplars’ actions becoming a threat to ordinary people’s self-concept. The earnest aspiration to reach the moral ideals of moral saints and heroes can move ordinary individuals and trigger an aretaic impulse to act more virtuously without causing stress. It is concluded that moral saints and heroes as extreme exemplars complement the influence of ordinary ‘close-by’ moral mentors and both are key in exemplar-based character education. (shrink)

Several previous studies have reported atypicality in resting-state functional connectivity in autism spectrum disorder, yet the relatively small effect sizes prevent us from using these characteristics for diagnostic purposes. Here, canonical correlation analysis and hierarchical clustering were used to partition the high-functioning ASD group into subgroups. A support vector machine model was trained through the 10-fold strategy to predict Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule scores within the ASD discovery group, which was further validated in an independent sample. The neuroimage-based partition derived (...) two subgroups representing severe versus mild autistic patients. We identified FCs that show graded changes in strength from ASD-severe, through ASD-mild, to controls, while the same pattern cannot be observed in partitions based on ADOS score. We also identified FCs that are specific for ASD-mild, similar to a partition based on ADOS score. The current study provided multiple pieces of evidence with replication to show that resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging FCs could serve as neural biomarkers in partitioning high-functioning autistic individuals based on their symptom severity and showing advantages over traditional partition based on ADOS score. Our results also indicate a compensatory role for a frontocortical network in patients with mild ASD, indicating potential targets for future clinical treatments. (shrink)

Superlative modifiers (SMs) are known to demonstrate an ambiguity between an epistemic reading (EPI) conveying speaker ignorance and a concessive reading (CON) conveying speaker concession. Such EPI-CON ambiguity has often been taken, implicitly or explicitly, to be a lexical coincidence. While there may be some justification for such a position when a single language is considered, we argue for an intrinsic connection between the two readings based on cross-linguistic considerations. This paper focuses on English _at least_ and Mandarin _zhi-shao_ as (...) representative of superlative modifiers across a wide range of languages to propose a unified account of the two readings. The proposal builds on Biezma (2013) in relying on the role of focus and scalarity in developing a unified semantics for the two readings, but differs in capitalizing on the fact that cross-linguistically superlative modifiers use the same morphological formants as quantity superlatives. It also follows Biezma (2013) in taking pragmatic factors as crucial in deriving the variation between EPI and CON readings. Elaborating on her account, it offers a more nuanced picture of the ways in which EPI is sensitive to the question of informativity while CON relates to issues of evaluativity. The paper shows how the proposed semantics and pragmatics account for several well-known properties of superlative modifiers. It ends by noting several open issues in the literature on this topic that the current proposal sheds new light on. (shrink)

Backgrounds Moral distress significantly affects pediatric ICU nurses, leading to nurse burnout, increased turnover and reducing patient care quality. Despite its importance, there’s a notable gap in knowledge on how to manage it effectively. Aims This review aimed to systematically identify and analyze coping strategies and interventions targeting moral distress among pediatric nurses in ICU, uncovering research gap and future studies directions. Methods A scoping review was conducted followed framework by Levac, Colquhoun, and O'Brien and Arksey and O'Malley. Searches were (...) performed in 11 electrical databases, like PubMed and China Biology Medicine disc, within a timeframe of the database construction to November 2023, and performed literature screening and data extraction. Results Sixteen articles were ultimately included. Coping strategies adopted by pediatric ICUs nurses can be categorized into adaptive and maladaptive strategies, with the latter including passive acceptance, taking leave, and drinking, while the former involve pursuing interests outside of work, reflection and philosophizing, and communication. Nine articles described and evaluated the effectiveness of interventions for moral distress, categorizing them into individual and institutional levels. Individual-level interventions include Interprofessional Perspective-Taking, the PICU Resiliency Bundle, Ethics Education/Skills, and the Center for Caring. Institutional-level interventions encompasses Comprehensive Care Round, Goals of Care Conversations, Pediatric Ethics and Communication Excellence Rounds, Nursing Ethics Council, and Medical Ethical Decision-Making, though not all were effective in alleviating moral distress. Conclusions Nurses often use self-adjustment strategies for moral distress, institutional ethical support focusing on enhancing nurses’ moral resilience, promoting reflective thinking and improving communication remains crucial. Various interventions for moral distress are currently available, but nurse engagement is low and their effectiveness remained to be verified. Future studies should explore what aids or hinders these interventions. There’s also a need for large, multicenter trials and ongoing evaluations to create effective support systems for pediatric ICU nurses. (shrink)

This study examined the metaphorical expressions of death in Chinese quadrisyllabic idioms. Specifically, the research investigated the cultural connotations and implications conveyed through death-related idioms by analyzing metaphorical examples. Adopting the ‘Great Chain of Being’ framework (Lakoff and Turner, 1989), a total of 579 death-related idioms with metaphorical and euphemistic meanings were classified and examined. These idioms were further categorized based on the gender of the deceased as well as the initial metaphors and expressions employed. Our research findings highlight cultural (...) parallels evident in death-related idiomatic expressions. Both English and Chinese languages employ metaphors like “DEATH IS SLEEP” and “DEATH IS DEPARTURE.” These pervasive metaphors can be attributed to shared aspects of the human experience. Meanwhile, our findings also revealed a strong intertwining of metaphors and culture within death-related idioms, such that the metaphor “TO DIE IS TO FALL” is frequently used in Mandarin but is not as common in English. The metaphorical mapping mechanisms employed in these idioms reflect the Chinese way of projecting thoughts onto objects and highlight the unique features of the Chinese language. Chinese culture places great emphasis on social classes, relationships, and hierarchical structures. These notions are not only reflected in social etiquette and how one handles interactions, but are also evident in euphemisms and idioms associated with death. (shrink)

To support older users’ accessibility and learning of the prevalent information and communication technologies, libraries, as informal learning institutes, are committed to information literacy education activities with friendly interfaces. Chatbots using Voice User Interfaces with natural and intuitive interactions have received growing research and practical attention; however, older users report regular frustrations and problems in using them. To serve as a basis for the subsequent design and development of an automated dialog mechanism in senior-friendly chatbots, a between-subject user experiment was (...) conducted with 30 older adults divided into three groups. The preliminary findings on their interactions with the voice chatbots designed with different error handling strategies were reported. Participants’ behavioral patterns, performances, and the tactics they employed in interacting with the three types of chatbots were analyzed. The results of the study showed that the use of multiple error handling strategies is beneficial for older users to achieve effectiveness and satisfaction in human-robot interactions, and facilitate their attitude toward information technology. This study contributes empirical evidence in the genuine and pragmatic field of gerontechnology and expands upon voice chatbots research by exploring conversation errors in human-robot interactions that could be of further application in designing educational and living gerontechnology. (shrink)

Denton and Hockx present thirteen essays treating a variety of literary organizations from China's Republican era . Interdisciplinary in approach, the essays are primarily concerned with describing and analyzing the social and cultural complexity of literary groupings and the role of these social formations in literary production of the period.

Morin (1921) founded the complex mode of thinking in order to remedy the defects of the Western classic simple mode of thinking. In doing so, he approached to some degree the mode of thinking inherent to the Eastern civilization. This article elucidates that for some principles of Morin's complex thinking, such as correlation of opposites, recursive causality, and union of unity of multiplicity, there were similar ideas in Chinese classic philosophy. This shows that the complex paradigm of thinking, in a (...) certain point of view, will be the fusion of Western and Eastern cultural factors. Besides, in integrating his theory of complexity with the reality of our time to find out solutions to the issues of globalization, Morin has become one of the representative thinkers of the planetary age of humankind. (shrink)

High vocation education is an important foundation for China to cultivate high teaching quality and technical and skilled talents. In the new era, the acceleration of the development of modern vocational education is put in a more prominent position. It is proposed that we should adhere to moral education, closely combine this with the needs of technological change and industrial upgrading, constantly improve the quality of high vocational education teaching, and cultivate more technical and skilled talents with both political integrity (...) and ability for modernization construction. Under the background of social informatization, using artificial intelligent technology to solve these problems can play an important role for improving the teaching quality of high vocational education. This paper proposed a data mining approach in promoting student satisfaction with the teaching quality of high vocational education. We design a questionnaire for Students’ satisfaction with the teaching quality of basic entrepreneurship curriculum. We take the survey data of vocation education as an example and use mining technology analysis software to understand the current status of the teaching quality of basic entrepreneurship curriculum. The results determine the main factors affecting Students’ satisfaction with teaching quality. The results of this paper can be used in student management, education strategy, student education satisfaction, and teaching quality in high vocation college education, and to improve the teaching quality of fundamentals of entrepreneurship curriculum in high vocation education. (shrink)

The relationship between gender and ethics has been extensively researched. However, previous studies have assumed that the gender–ethics association is constant; hence, scholars have seldom investigated factors potentially affecting the gender–ethics association. Thus, using managers as the research target, this study examined the relationship between gender and ethics and analyzed the moderating effect of cultural values on the gender–ethics association. The results showed that, compared with female managers, their male counterparts are more willing to justify business-related unethical behaviors such as (...) bribery and tax evasion, and that the gender difference in ethics becomes more pronounced under the cultural dimensions of collectivism, humane orientation, performance orientation, and gender egalitarianism. This study used data obtained through surveying 2,754 managers in 27 nations. (shrink)

This project uses machine learning and computer vision techniques and a novel interactive visualization tool to provide street-level characterization of urban spaces such as safety and maintenance in urban neighborhoods. This is achieved by collecting and annotating street-view images, extracting objective metrics through computer vision techniques, and using crowdsourcing to statistically model the perception of subjective metrics such as safety and maintenance. For modeling human perception and scaling it up with a predictive algorithm, we evaluate perception predictions across two points (...) in time separated by economic changes in the urban core of Raleigh, North Carolina, in the aftermath of the 2008 Great Recession. We hypothesize specific socioeconomic processes can be substantially reflected in the built environment of cities and, thus, render themselves visible at the street level. This paper describes the process of incorporating subjective visual ratings across two datasets of temporally separated street-view images, an algorithm, and a visualization tool. This work serves as a case study for utilizing AI and visualization techniques in a richer characterization of urban spaces that includes both objective metrics such as income (that operates at a broader scale) and subjective metrics such as perception of individuals (that operates at a narrower scale at specific locations). We outline an interdisciplinary methodology to test this hypothesis in streetscape data from Raleigh, NC, from 2008 to 2020. We describe the results of training algorithms that utilized image features with crowdsourced human perception ratings. We provide a comparison of the results with income data. The analysis and interpretation of this comparison provide insight into the challenges and opportunities for using AI technology in characterizing changes in urban environments. One challenge is the ability of human domain experts to interpret the output of algorithms through manipulation and to integrate these results into their workflow. This is addressed with a novel interface designed for interactive analysis and visualization. We conclude with a discussion of some of the benefits and limitations of integrating AI models in the human expert’s decision-making process in the presence of both subjective and objective metrics. (shrink)

This study developed a measure of autonomy for adolescents in contemporary China. First, data from 44 interviewees—40 secondary school students, 2 parents, and 2 secondary school teachers—were used to explore the connotation and theoretical structure of autonomy in adolescents in China. Next, a preliminary Adolescent Autonomy Questionnaire was created from the interview data and administered to 775 secondary school students. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were conducted to verify the factor structure. Finally, 614 secondary school students completed the (...) Adolescent Autonomy Questionnaire, Personal Growth Initiative Scale-II, and Adolescence Ego Identity Crisis Scale to evaluate criterion validity. The final version of the Adolescent Autonomy Questionnaire included 16 items and four subscales: autonomous decision-making, autonomous regulation, autonomous protection, and autonomous problem-solving. The total variance of the cumulative interpretation questionnaire was 62.54%. The CFA results showed that the four-factor model fits the data well: χ2/df = 2.340, CFI = 0.949, RMSEA = 0.042, SRMR = 0.046. Evaluation of the psychometric properties of the Adolescent Autonomy Questionnaire provided support for the reliability and validity of the measure. Thus, it serves as an effective measurement tool for assessing the autonomy of adolescents in China. (shrink)