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)

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)

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)

Combining games with mobile commerce applications has been a trend in recent years. Mobile commerce is attracting a large number of people, especially females, to play mini games on the platform. The gamification of mobile commerce may affect users’ platform satisfaction. This study aims to explore the intention of female users to play mobile commerce games and its impact on platform satisfaction. We collected data from females in China who played mobile commerce games and then used a structural equation model (...) to test the various hypotheses we made. The results showed that game use intention fully mediated the impact of performance expectation, hedonic motivation, and social influence on platform satisfaction. Effort expectation had no significant impact on game use intention but had a positive impact on platform satisfaction. Game use intention had a positive impact on platform satisfaction. The frequency of playing games and the amount of money spent on the platform were positively correlated with game use intention. Females over 25 years old preferred to play mobile commerce games. This study provides a theoretical reference and practical enlightenment and makes a specific contribution to the development of mobile commerce platform and the application of gamification. However, this study has limitations in terms of test samples, research methods and research content, and further research on mobile commerce is required in the future. (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)

ObjectiveThis study aims to investigate anxiety and its influencing factors in patients with drug-induced liver injury (DILI).Materials and MethodsNinety-four patients with DILI were enrolled and evaluated with a self-rating anxiety scale (SAS). According to the anxiety score, they were divided into four groups: the non-anxiety, mild anxiety, moderate anxiety, or severe anxiety groups, and the scores were analyzed based on demographic and biochemical indicators.ResultsOf the 94 patients with DILI, 63 did not have anxiety and 31 had anxiety (32.9%), of which (...) 27 had mild, 3 had moderate, and 1 had severe anxiety. There were no statistically significant differences in gender, age, occupation, and level of education between the groups (F= 1.42,H= 2.361,H= 6.751,H= 1.796, andP> 0.05); anxiety score and degree of anxiety between the types of drugs that led to the liver injury (H= 0.812,H= 1.712, andP> 0.05); anxiety score between the different degrees of liver injury (H= 2.836,H= 4.957,P> 0.05); or length of hospital stay or prognosis between the degrees of anxiety (F= 1.487,H= 0.761,P> 0.05). However, there were statistically significant differences in the degree of anxiety between different degree and types of liver injury (H= 7.981,H= 8.208,P< 0.05).ConclusionPatients with DILI may have anxiety, especially mild anxiety. The occurrence of anxiety in patients with DILI is not related to gender, age, occupation, or level of education but may be related to the degree and type of liver injury. Anxiety has no impact on the length of stay in hospital or the prognosis of the DILI. These findings may contribute to the development of management strategies for patients with DILI. (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)

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)

Confucian state doctrines have shaped Asian cultures for millennia as prescriptive codes of conduct with an emphasis on hierarchy and obligation. Yet a premise at the core of lǐ —understood as propriety, ritual, or generally a cultural grammar—is authenticity, and authentic respect cannot be commanded. What if the lǐ were to be elegant instead? Hans-Georg Gadamer analyzed play as a fusion of horizons that are absorbed into the same event, co-constituting subject and object in an aesthetic experience, and dissolving their (...) dichotomy. We consider examples from Japanese aesthetics in this framework to give depth to key Confucian concepts: the values that enable a relationality that is not in conflict with autonomy; the points of reference for self-improvement through culture; a social organization that enacts reciprocity; and the essential posture this requires. The radical simplicity of the philosophy of tea, chanoyu, and the aesthetic refinement of the Katsura Rikyū palace illuminate the principle of emotional resonance in encounters, which underlies the fusion of cognitive, ethical, and aesthetic horizons. This view reveals how the relational premise of the Confucian philosophical system entails an ontological commitment to mutuality. This is indeed ethics, but neither particularism nor generalism; in its aesthetic dimension it is the mode of perception of a self fulfilled in play. (shrink)

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)

Weight stigma internalization among adolescents across weight categories leads to adverse psychological consequences. This study aims to adapt and validate a Chinese version of the Weight Bias Internalization Scale for Mainland Chinese children and adolescents. A total of 464 individuals aged 9 to 15 years participated in the present study. Based on item response theory and classical test theory, we selected the items for the C-WBIS and evaluated its reliability and validity. The item response theory yields support for the one-dimensional (...) factor mode. All item parameters fit the IRT model, eight items were adopted. No evidence of significant differential item functioning was found for gender and age groups. The C-WBIS was correlated with the Core Self-Evaluation Scale and two subscales of the Social Anxiety Scale for Children, which indicated an acceptable criterion-related validity. The C-WBIS is a reliable and valid measure that can be used as a psychometrically sound and informative tool to assess weight bias internalization among children and adolescents. (shrink)

In this paper, we propose a method to design the pseudorandom number generator using three kinds of four-wing memristive hyperchaotic systems with different dimensions as multientropy sources. The principle of this method is to obtain pseudorandom numbers with good randomness by coupling XOR operation on the three kinds of FWMHSs with different dimensions. In order to prove its potential application in secure communication, the security of PRNG based on this scheme is analyzed from the perspective of cryptography. In addition, PRNG (...) has passed the NIST 800.22 and ENT test, which shows that PRNG has good statistical characteristics. Finally, an image encryption algorithm based on PRNG is adopted. In the encryption algorithm, the optimized Arnold matrix scrambling method and the diffusion processing based on XOR are used to obtain the final encrypted image. Through the evaluation of encryption performance, it is concluded that there is no direct relationship between the pristine image and encrypted image. The results show that the proposed image encryption scheme has good statistical output characteristics and security performance in line with cryptography. (shrink)

Wireless devices consume large amounts of energy during wireless communication. As the energy storage of battery is limited, improving energy efficiency has become an important approach to prolong the lifetime of devices. The IEEE 802.11 protocol supports the power save mode in wireless local area networks. However, the standard PSM cannot adapt to the changes of traffic load or channel conditions. Therefore, this article proposes an adaptive traffic-aware PSM mechanism that improves energy efficiency of wireless devices in a WLAN with (...) an access point. According to the current channel condition and traffic load, the AP adjusts the interval of beacons that give devices different priorities to fetch buffered packets. The devices can adaptively adjust listening intervals according to network traffic, and adopt different congestion backoff timers when channel collisions happen or the network topology changes. The APSM has been implemented and evaluated in NS-2. The simulation results have shown that devices using the APSM can improve energy efficiency by 115% at most compared with the ones using the standard PSM. The benefit of adaptive beacon interval and listening intervals is significant, while the improvement due to the adaptive backoff timer is minor. The improvement of the APSM over the PSM is more significant when the network traffic level decreases and the ratio of idle power to sleeping power increases. Additionally, the APSM increases the delay of data frames within a limited range, which does not bring any bad effect on network throughput. (shrink)

This book sets up ‘rhythmanalysis’ as an innovative methodology for theorizing and practicing cultural historical research.