With the expansion of the global air cargo transport system, the operating structure of air cargo has become increasingly separate from passenger counterpart, forming an independent organization model. Despite the Chinese air cargo capacity has grown exponentially in the past, its network is still in its infancy. FedEx and UPS have well-established air cargo networks and have operated effectively on both international and domestic scale; thus, understanding the structure and evolution of their air cargo networks is of a high reference (...) value. In conjunction with the division of US regions from the United States Geological Survey, this paper refers to FedEx and UPS as FEPS and analyzes its topological structure, complexity properties, and air cargo accessibility by using social network analysis and accessibility evaluation methods. The results suggest that the structure of the FEPS air cargo network is in the highly developed states and has the typical “small-world” and “scale-free” network characteristics; the degree centrality values for the nodes in the FEPS network suggest that the network complexity has increased; airports in Memphis, Louisville, Indianapolis, and Ontario are the major hubs with both high centrality values and air cargo accessibility; and the FEPS network presents a unique hub-and-spoke structure compared with the passenger counterpart. (shrink)

Irresponsible research practices damaging the value of science has been an increasing concern among researchers, but previous work failed to estimate the prevalence of all forms of irresponsible research behavior. Additionally, these analyses have not included articles published in the last decade from 2011 to 2020. This meta-analysis provides an updated meta-analysis that calculates the pooled estimates of research misconduct and questionable research practices, and explores the factors associated with the prevalence of these issues. The estimates, committing RM concern at (...) least 1 of FFP and QRPs concern 1 or more QRPs, were 2.9% and 12.5%, respectively. In addition, 15.5% of researchers witnessed others who had committed at least 1 RM, while 39.7% were aware of others who had used at least 1 QRP. The results document that response proportion, limited recall period, career level, disciplinary background and locations all affect significantly the prevalence of these issues. This meta-analysis addresses a gap in existing meta-analyses and estimates the prevalence of all forms of RM and QRPs, thus providing a better understanding of irresponsible research behaviors. (shrink)

According to the argument scheme approach, to evaluate a given scheme-saturating instance completely does entail asking all critical questions relevant to it. Although this is a central task for argumentation theorists, the field currently lacks a method for providing a complete argument evaluation. Approaching this task at the meta-level, we combine a logical with a substantive approach to the argument schemes by starting from Toulmin’s schema: ‘data, warrant, so claim’. For the yet more general schema: ‘premise; if premise, then conclusion; (...) so conclusion’, we forward a meta-level CQ-list that is arguably both complete and applicable. This list should inform ongoing theoretical efforts at generating appropriate object-level CQs for specific argument schemes. (shrink)

There have been few attempts to answer the twin challenges for alethic pluralists to maintain standard accounts of the logical operators and of logical consequence in a sufficiently systematic and precise way. In this paper, I propose an account of logic and semantics on behalf of pluralists that answers both challenges in a sufficiently systematic and precise way. Crucially, the account accommodates mixed atomics, and its first-order extension also accommodates quantified sentences. Accordingly, pluralists can answer all the distinctively logical challenges (...) for their view. (shrink)

The “binding problem” has been a central question in vision science for some 30 years: When encoding multiple objects or maintaining them in working memory, how are we able to represent the correspondence between a specific feature and its corresponding object correctly? In this letter we argue that the boundaries of this research program in fact extend far beyond vision, and we call for coordinated pursuit across the broader cognitive science community of this central question for cognition, which we dub (...) “Binding Problem 2.0”. (shrink)

To better understand the multiple individual factors that contribute to college cheating, we undertook a multivariate analysis of a national sample of 2,503 college students. Our findings indicated that demographic characteristics, character qualities, college experience, and student perceptions and attitudes are all significantly associated with academic cheating.

According to the desire-satisfaction theory of well-being, your life goes well to the extent that your desires are satisfied. This theory faces the problem of prudential neutrality: it apparently cannot avoid saying that, from the point of view of prudence or self-interest, you ought to be neutral between satisfying an existing desire of yours and replacing it with an equally strong desire and satisfying the new desire. It also faces the problem of remote desires: it regards as directly relevant to (...) your well-being even desires whose objects are intuitively too irrelevant to (or ‘remote’ from) your life to affect your welfare. In this article, I argue that desire theorists can answer both objections by appealing to hidden desires – ones that it is psychologically realistic to attribute to the agents in the cases on which the two problems are based, even though they are not mentioned in descriptions of those cases. (shrink)

Machery et al. presented data suggesting the existence of cross-cultural variation in judgments about the reference of proper names. In this paper, we examine a previously overlooked confound in the subsequent studies that attempt to replicate the results of Machery et al. using East Asian languages. Machery et al. and Sytsma et al. claim that they have successfully replicated the original finding with probes written in Chinese and Japanese, respectively. These studies, however, crucially rely on uses of articleless, ‘bare noun (...) phrases’ in Chinese and Japanese, which according to the linguistic literature are known to be multiply ambiguous. We argue that it becomes questionable whether the extant studies using East Asian languages revealed genuine cross-cultural variation when the probes are reevaluated based on a proper linguistic understanding of Chinese and Japanese bare noun phrases and English definite descriptions. We also present two experiments on native Japanese speakers that controlled the use of ambiguous bare noun phrases, the results of which suggest that the judgments of Japanese speakers concerning the reference of proper names may not diverge from those of English speakers. (shrink)

We examine the influence of inferring interlocutors' referential intentions from their body movements at the early stage of lexical acquisition. By testing human participants and comparing their performances in different learning conditions, we find that those embodied intentions facilitate both word discovery and word‐meaning association. In light of empirical findings, the main part of this article presents a computational model that can identify the sound patterns of individual words from continuous speech, using nonlinguistic contextual information, and employ body movements as (...) deictic references to discover word‐meaning associations. To our knowledge, this work is the first model of word learning that not only learns lexical items from raw multisensory signals to closely resemble infant language development from natural environments, but also explores the computational role of social cognitive skills in lexical acquisition. (shrink)

Professional values are standards for action and provide a framework for evaluating behavior. This study examined changes in the professional values of nursing students between their entrance to and graduation from an undergraduate nursing program. A pre- and post-test design was employed. A convenience sample of 94 students from a university in Taiwan was surveyed. Data were collected from students during the sophomore and senior years. Total scores obtained for the revised Nurses Professional Values Scale during the senior year of (...) the nursing program were significantly higher than upon program entry. The ‘caring’ subscale was scored highest at both program entry and graduation, but the pre- and post-test scores were not significantly different from each other. The students scored significantly higher on the ‘professionalism’ and ‘activism’ subscales at post-test than they did at pre-test. Professional values changed in a positive direction between the beginning of the student nurses’ educational experience and their graduation. The results supported the premise that education had a positive effect on these students’ professional values but causality could not be assumed. (shrink)

This essay explores Confucian views on war as seen in the Spring and Autumn Annals . The interpretation is based mainly on the Gongyang Zhuan , supplemented by other authoritative sources in the Gongyang tradition, such as D ong Zhongshu (179-104 BCE) and H e Xiu (129-182). The Spring and Autumn Annals contains three components: facts, words, and principles. This essay explicates the principles for going to war and the principles for conducting a war. The Confucian perspective sheds light on (...) war against enemies of civilization, conditions for waging a preemptive war, punitive expedition, as well as the use of weapons of mass destruction. The Confucian views as presented here are realistic and pragmatic in nature but are also compatible with the humanistic concern of Confucianism. This essay ends with a summary of the salient and sophisticated features of the Confucian views on war. (shrink)

Corporate social responsibility movement against labor abuses has gained momentum globally since the 1990s when many corporations adopted codes of conduct to regulate labor practices in their global supply chains. However, workers' participation in the process is relatively weak until very recently, when new worker empowerment programs are increasingly initiated. Using conceptual tool created by stakeholder theorists, this article examines dynamics and performance of worker participation in implementation process of codes of conduct through a case study of CSR practices of (...) Reebok at one of its footwear supplier factories in south China. Empirical data was collected during 2002-2005 through participant observation, in-depth interviews, and document reviews. (shrink)

This study aims to contribute to the research on spatial metaphors for morality from the perspective of Chinese. It outlines the linguistic patterns in Chinese that manifest the putative underlying spatial subsystem of moral metaphors, which can be summarized by a central metaphor “MORALITY IS SPATIALITY.” In doing so, it focuses on 17 spatial words that instantiate in real-life discourses five pairs of moral–spatial metaphors in their positive and negative valence. The total of 10 metaphors under study forms a cluster (...) as the spatial metaphor subsystem operating in conjunction and connection with other metaphor subsystems in our moral cognition. It is suggested that the 10 conceptual metaphors emerge from four image schemas: UP-DOWN, BALANCE, PATH, and OBJECT. A unified schematic configuration is proposed to lay out the spatial elements and relations represented by the four image schemas in a single diagram. Based on its linguistic analysis, the study also provides a list of prototypical target as... (shrink)

This article studies the moral metaphor system focusing on a subsystem consisting of five pairs of MORAL and IMMORAL metaphors whose source concepts represent some contrastive categories in our visual experience: WHITE and BLACK, LIGHT and DARK, CLEAR and MURKY, CLEAN and DIRTY, PURE and IMPURE. The study examines whether these moral metaphors are manifested in Chinese and English, looking for linguistic evidence in both languages. It is found that the studied moral metaphors are applicable in both languages at varying (...) degrees. This finding suggests that these metaphors may range from being widespread to being universal. The study then further analyzes them regarding whether they are primary or complex metaphors and whether they are equal in status, applying a decompositional approach to metaphor analysis. The result suggests that the moral metaphors under study are complex rather than primary metaphors, and that they are actually not equal in status, some depending on others in meaning making in our moral cognition. If the analysis is valid, the implications are: some conceptual metaphors are more fundamental than others, those that are more fundamental are more likely to be widespread or universal, and hypotheses can be made about conceptual metaphors based on in-depth analysis of their conceptual composition. (shrink)

Cognitive semantic studies have shown that our conceptualization of morality is at least partially metaphorical and that our moral cognition is grounded in some fundamental contrastive categories of our embodied experience in the physical environment. It is argued that our moral cognition is built on a moral metaphor system. Within the framework of conceptual metaphor theory, this study aims to examine the spatial subsystem of moral metaphors in English. We set out with five pairs of moral metaphors that involve the (...) following spatial source concepts: HIGH and LOW, UPRIGHT and TILTED, LEVEL and UNLEVEL, STRAIGHT and CROOKED, and BIG and SMALL. These metaphors were found to constitute the spatial subsystem of moral metaphors in Chinese. Our primary goal is to find out if the five pairs of moral–spatial metaphors are manifested in English as well. To that end we collected linguistic data from the Corpus of Contemporary American English and searched Google Images for multimodal evidence. Our finding is that the five pairs of moral–spatial metaphors are applicable in English as they are in Chinese. We also discuss issues related to conceptual metaphor theory. (shrink)

This book is a cognitive semantic study of the Chinese conceptualization of the heart, traditionally seen as the central faculty of cognition. The Chinese word xin, which primarily denotes the heart organ, covers the meanings of both "heart" and "mind" as understood in English, which upholds a heart-head dichotomy. In contrast to the Western dualist view, Chinese takes on a more holistic view that sees the heart as the center of both emotions and thought. The contrast characterizes two cultural traditions (...) that have developed different conceptualizations of person, self, and agent of cognition. The concept of "heart" lies at the core of Chinese thought and medicine, and its importance to Chinese culture is extensively manifested in the Chinese language. Diachronically, this book traces the roots of its conception in ancient Chinese philosophy and traditional Chinese medicine. Along the synchronic dimension, it not only makes a systematic analysis of conventionalized expressions that reflect the underlying cultural models and conceptualizations, as well as underlying conceptual metaphors and metonymies, but also attempts a textual analysis of an essay and a number of poems for their metaphoric and metonymic images and imports contributing to the cultural models and conceptualizations. It also takes up a comparative perspective that sheds light on similarities and differences between Western and Chinese cultures in the understanding of the heart, brain, body, mind, self, and person. The book contributes to the understanding of the embodied nature of human cognition situated in its cultural context, and the relationship between language, culture, and cognition. (shrink)

Concepts of L1 space, integrable functions and integrals are formalized in weak subsystems of second order arithmetic. They are discussed especially in relation with the combinatorial principle WWKL (weak-weak König's lemma and arithmetical comprehension. Lebesgue dominated convergence theorem is proved to be equivalent to arithmetical comprehension. A weak version of Lebesgue monotone convergence theorem is proved to be equivalent to weak-weak König's lemma.

We are future-biased creatures. We prefer pleasure to be future rather than past, and pain to be past rather than future. Whether future-bias is rational has long been a matter of philosophical contention. A recent paper by Phillips (Citation2021, “Why Future-Bias Isn't Rationally Evaluable.” Res Philosophica 98 (4): 573–596), however, argues that much of the debate rests on a false presumption. Given an ‘adequate representation’ constraint on rational evaluability, as the argument goes, there cannot be rationally evaluable future-bias. But the (...) argument rests on a confusion about the temporal perspectives in representation. There is no principled obstacle to adequately representing future-bias and thereby subjecting future-bias to rational evaluation. (shrink)

This paper focuses on Confucian formulations of personhood and the implications they may have for bioethics and medical practice. We discuss how an appreciation of the Confucian concept of personhood can provide insights into the practice of informed consent and, in particular, the role of family members and physicians in medical decision-making in societies influenced by Confucian culture. We suggest that Western notions of informed consent appear ethically misguided when viewed from a Confucian perspective.

Large-screen human-computer interaction technology is reflected in all aspects of daily life. The dynamic gesture tracking algorithm commonly used in recent large-screen interactive technologies demonstrates compelling results but suffers from accuracy and real-time problems. This paper systematically addresses these issues by a switching federated filter method that combines particle filtering and Mean Shifting algorithms based on a 3D sensor. Compared with several algorithms, the results show that the one-hand and two-hand large-screen gesture tracking based on the switched federated filtering algorithm (...) work well, and there is no tracking failure and loss of target. Therefore, the switching federated tracking positioning algorithm can be well applied to the design of human-computer interaction system and provide new ideas for future human-computer interaction. (shrink)

This paper explores the concept of skill in Zhuangzi and Stoicism, and argues that the role of the Stoic techne in practicing the art of living can be better understood if we introduce some perspec...

This chapter contains sections titled: References Further reading.

Ferrari's book takes on the commendable project of developing a systematic account of truth, normativity, and disagreement, according to which truth plays a var.

Mathematics is an important foundation for the development of science education. In the past, when instructors taught mathematical concepts of geometry shapes, they usually used traditional textbooks and aids to conduct teaching activities, which resulted in students not being able to understand the principles completely. Nowadays, it has become a trend to integrate emerging technologies into mathematics courses and to use digital instructional aids. Emerging technologies can effectively enhance students’ sensory experience while strengthening their impressions and understandings of subject concepts. (...) In this paper, we apply virtual reality immersive technologies to develop a “virtual reality immersive learning mathematics geometry system,” which is used to teach mathematical geometry concepts. Teachers use the system to develop three basic mathematical geometry learning materials: “Triangular pyramid volume = 1/3 prism volume,” “Cone volume calculation,” and “Triangle center of gravity derivation.” In the experimental activity, the teacher uses virtual reality teaching aids to guide students to learn mathematical geometry concepts in a fun way so that they can achieve the effectiveness of immersive learning. This study explores the impact of using the virtual reality immersive learning mathematics geometry system on students’ technology acceptance, learning motivations, and learning performance. The experimental result showed that using the virtual reality immersive learning mathematics geometry system can improve the learning motivation and learning performance of students. The findings indicated that the experimental group had better learning outcomes after completing the learning tasks of three geometric units. The experimental group used the virtual reality immersive learning mathematics geometry system which can lead to better learning outcomes. According to the ARCS questionnaire, students in the experimental group were confident to understand new subjects. At the same time, the mode of completing the game can effectively give students a sense of accomplishment. The use of emerging technologies in the classroom can be an attractive learning mode for students. (shrink)

E-learning has gained popularity since the outbreak of COVID-19. This study aims to identify gender differences in e-learners' self-efficacy, satisfaction, motivation, attitude, and performance across the world. Through a meta-analysis and systematic review, this study concludes that there are generally no significant gender differences in e-learning outcomes except in a few countries. Females significantly outperformed males in Spain and the UK. In Austria, India, and mixed countries, females hold significantly more positive attitudes toward e-learning than males. In the USA, females (...) present significantly higher self-efficacy than males. Future research into the gender issue in e-learning across the world may adopt cross-disciplinary research methods except for a meta-analysis. (shrink)

Corruption in the construction industry is a serious problem in China. As such, fighting this corruption has become a priority target of the Chinese government, with the main effort being to discover and prosecute its perpetrators. This study profiles the demographic characteristics of major incidences of corruption in construction. It draws on the database of the 83 complete recorded cases of construction related corruption held by the Chinese National Bureau of Corruption Prevention. Categorical variables were drawn from the database, and (...) ‘association rule mining analysis’ was used to identify associations between variables as a means of profiling perpetrators. Such profiling may be used as predictors of future incidences of corruption, and consequently to inform policy makers in their fight against corruption. The results signal corruption within the Chinese construction industry to be correlated with age, with incidences rising as managers’ approach retirement age. Moreover, a majority of perpetrators operate within government agencies, are department deputies in direct contact with projects, and extort the greatest amounts per case from second tier cities. The relatively lengthy average 6.4-year period before cases come to public attention corroborates the view that current efforts at fighting corruption remain inadequate. (shrink)

This study aimed to investigate the effects of customers’ motivations on online purchase intentions as mediated by commitment toward online fashion retailers. The survey method was used to collect data from Chinese respondents using a questionnaire. The convenience sampling technique was used to collect data from 275 respondents. Collected data were analyzed on smart-PLS using the structural equation modeling technique. Results of the study show a significant and positive impact of social empowerment and remuneration motivations on consumer commitment online purchase (...) intention. Further results show that consumer commitment partially mediates the relationship between social empowerment, remuneration, and online purchase intention. This study contributes to the literature in the domain of consumer commitment by focusing on the underlying needs and motivations of consumers. The researchers have demonstrated a strong need to understand the dynamics of commitment due to its importance in affecting purchase intention. This study also has several implications that guide online retailers how to motivate consumers with social, remuneration and empowerment incentives to develop their intention to purchase online. Fashion retailers are suggested to gratify certain consumer motives to increase commitment. Specifically, among the three motives, empowerment motivation emerged as the strongest predictor of consumer commitment in social media environment. This study will help to the online brands to attract more customers by providing the motivation such financial, empowerment and socialization. (shrink)

Argues that during the late Imperial period, all three main religious strains in China embraced an ethic that everyone should engage in labor as a crucial component to their personal enlightenment and their duty to society. This is what brings together new Chan (Zen in Japanese) Buddhism; new religious Daoism; and new Confucianism. All three new religions had to overcome traditional elitist biases and moral concerns about working for individual material results. To overcome traditional assumptions and practices, as well as (...) to embrace the priority of working for one's livelihood, required the religious practitioners to resolve tensions within their own minds and often with precepts of earlier forms of their religious traditions. The final section of the book focuses on the changing social status of merchants, their enhanced self-confidence in their identity and profession, and their manifestation of the new work ethics in their mercantile activities, especially from 1500 to 1820. (shrink)

We investigate the initial segment complexity of random reals. Let K denote prefix-free Kolmogorov complexity. A natural measure of the relative randomness of two reals α and β is to compare complexity K and K. It is well-known that a real α is 1-random iff there is a constant c such that for all n, Kn−c. We ask the question, what else can be said about the initial segment complexity of random reals. Thus, we study the fine behaviour of K (...) for random α. Following work of Downey, Hirschfeldt and LaForte, we say that αK β iff there is a constant such that for all n, . We call the equivalence classes under this measure of relative randomness K-degrees. We give proofs that there is a random real α so that lim supn K−K=∞ where Ω is Chaitin's random real. One is based upon work of Solovay, and the other exploits a new idea. Further, based on this new idea, we prove there are uncountably many K-degrees of random reals by proving that μ=0. As a corollary to the proof we can prove there is no largest K-degree. Finally we prove that if n ≠ m then the initial segment complexities of the natural n- and m-random sets and Ω︀) are different. The techniques introduced in this paper have already found a number of other applications. (shrink)

This paper is a cognitive semantic analysis of a CCTV educational commercial, which is one of a series designed and produced in preparation for, and in celebration of, the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Called the “Beijing Opera Episode”, this TV commercial converges on the theme: “To mount the stage of the world, and to put on a show of China”. That is, China sees her hosting of the 2008 Olympics by Beijing as a great opportunity for her to step onto (...) the international stage to perform a show of China. This theme, which alludes to China's globalization and retention of cultural identity, is conceptualized and expressed in terms of a central metaphor of theatrical performance: hosting the beijing olympics is performing beijing opera on an international stage. This study first analyzes in detail how this central metaphor is manifested multimodally through visual and aural as well as verbal discourse, thus examining it as a multimodal metaphor. The study then applies a decompositional approach, based on the distinction between primary and complex metaphors, to analyzing the central metaphor as a metaphorical compound with its internal structures and components, which is nevertheless built on a more general cognitive foundation. The study also offers a linguistic perspective on a cultural model underlying the central metaphor, which is arguably a Chinese cultural model for understanding various aspects and events of life in general. At the core of this cultural model is the widespread life is a stage metaphor, which however has a specific manifestation within the Chinese cultural context. (shrink)

Changes between 1977 and 1985 in women's and men's attitudes toward women's familial roles were examined using National Opinion Research Center General Social Survey data. Despite speculation that a backlash against feminism occurred during the late 1970s and early 1980s, and evidence from past studies of a possible slowdown in gender-role attitude change, the data show a significant increase in profeminist views of the wife and mother roles among both women and men. More of this change occurred within cohorts than (...) through cohort succession. With the exception of college-graduate women, whose support for gender equality was high at both periods, the profeminist trend occurred about equally in all sociodemographic subgroups of the population, although even in 1985, men were less feminist in orientation than women. (shrink)

Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, EarlyView.

I approach the person in the context of ren and li in dialogue with role ethics and the issue of autonomy. The hypotheses are as follows: first, even if the person...

The economic restructuring and rapid rise of the economy in Northeast China have resulted in a proliferation of new ventures. Studying the psychology of new entrepreneurs is conducive to understanding the relationship between human capital and economic growth. The work reported here aims to explore the impact of human capital on economic growth in Northeast China and the influencing factors of psychological capital of new entrepreneurs in the entrepreneurial process. Based on Cobb–Douglas production function, the relationship between labor, physical capital, (...) or human capital and economic growth in Northeast China is analyzed by econometric methods, and a model of human capital and economic growth in Northeast China is constructed. Besides, a psychological capital intervention model is proposed to develop the psychological capital of new entrepreneurs, and the psychological quality structure model of entrepreneurial entrepreneurs and its operation mechanism. The results of the empirical analysis demonstrate that the elasticity coefficient of human capital in Northeast China is 0.15902, five times smaller than that of labor and physical capital. Moreover, 70% of new ventures are willing to accept higher education. The fitting degree of using the PCI model to develop the psychological capital of new ventures is only 0.3%. In addition, the modified external environment PCI instead of the external environment PCI model has a huge operating potential in the macro-entrepreneurial environment. In conclusion, the impact of human capital on economic growth in the northeast is smaller than the impact of labor and material capital investment on regional economic growth. The development of human capital and research on the composition and mechanism of psychological quality of entrepreneurial entrepreneurs are of significant theoretical and practical values to promote the economic growth in the northeast. (shrink)

In “Extending Research Protections to Tribal Communities,” Saunkeah et. al. argue that sovereignty and solidarity are necessary to extend research protections under the Belmont principles and deriv...