Background As health education robots may potentially become a significant support force in nursing practice in the future, it is imperative to adhere to the European Union’s concept of “Responsible Research and Innovation” (RRI) and deeply reflect on the ethical risks hidden in the process of intelligent robotic health education. Aim This study explores the perceptions of professional nursing professionals regarding the potential ethical risks associated with the clinical practice of intelligent robotic health education. Research design This study adopts a (...) descriptive phenomenological approach, employing Colaizzi’s seven-step method for data analysis. Participants and research context We conducted semi-structured interviews with 17 nursing professionals from tertiary comprehensive hospitals in China. Ethical considerations This study has been approved by the Ethics Committee of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Jiangsu Provincial Second Chinese Medicine Hospital. Findings Nursing personnel, adhering to the principles of RRI and the concept of “person-centered” care, have critically reflected on the potential ethical risks inherent in robotic health education. This reflection has primarily identified six themes: (a) threats to human dignity, (b) concerns about patient safety, (c) apprehensions about privacy disclosure, (d) worries about implicit burdens, (e) concerns about responsibility attribution, and (f) expectations for social support. Conclusions This study focuses on health education robots, which are perceived to have minimal ethical risks, and provides rich and detailed insights into the ethical risks associated with robotic health education. Even seemingly safe health education robots elicit significant concerns among professionals regarding their safety and ethics in clinical practice. As we move forward, it is essential to remain attentive to the potential negative impacts of robots and actively address them. (shrink)

In June 2009, the Chinese mediasphere was abuzz with the announcement that the octogenarian writer Jin Yong (Louis Cha) was slated to join the Chinese Writers' Association (Zhongguo zuojia xiehui, CWA). Jin Yong is a beloved martial arts fiction writer who made his career in the freewheeling ex-British colony of Hong Kong in the 1950s and 1960s.1 His joining the association known for its stodgy conformism struck many as ironic, or at least as blog-worthy. Indeed, just a few years ago, (...) the playwright Sha Yexin had quipped: “How can you ask a writer like Louis Cha to write martial arts…. (shrink)

Bioethicists frequently call for empirical researchers to engage participants and community members in their research, but don't themselves typically engage community members in their normative research. In this article, we describe an effort to include members of the public in normative discussions about the risks, potential benefits, and ethical responsibilities of social and behavioral genomics (SBG) research. We reflect on what might—and might not— be gained from engaging the public in normative scholarship and on lessons learned about public perspectives on (...) the risks and potential benefits of SBG research and the responsible conduct and communication of such research. We also provide procedural lessons for others in bioethics who are interested in engaging members of the public in their research. (shrink)

BackgroundMental stress and imbalance of its two neural stress systems, the autonomic nervous system and the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis, are associated with chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome and erectile dysfunction. However, the comprehensive analyses of psychological stress and stress systems are under-investigated, particularly in CP/CPPS patients complicated by lower urinary tract symptoms and ED.Materials and methodsParticipants were 95 patients in CP/CPPS+ED group, 290 patients in CP/CPPS group, 124 patients in ED group and 52 healthy men in control group. The National Institutes (...) of Health Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index, the International Index of Erectile Function-5 and the International Prostate Symptom Score were used for assessing the disease severity of CP/CPPS, LUTS and ED. Psychometric self-report questionnaires including the Beck Anxiety Inventory, Perceived Stress Scale, Type A Personality Test and Symptom Checklist 90 were completed for distress from physical symptoms. Twenty-five subjects per group were randomly selected for further investigating the changes of the HPA axis and ANS. Saliva samples were taken on 3 consecutive days at 8 specific times with strict reference to time of morning awakening for evaluation of free cortisol. Heart rate variability as marker of the ANS was measured using 24 h electrocardiography, and time-and frequency-domain variables were analyzed.ResultsThe BAI and SCL-90 scores were significantly higher in the CP/CPPS+ED, CP/CPPS and ED groups compared with the control group. The PSS scores of both groups with ED were significantly higher than the control group. Compared with the CP/CPPS group, the differences of PSS, SCL-90 and TAPT scores were statistically significant in CP/CPPS+ED patients. The IPSS scores were shown to have significantly positive correlations with BAI, PSS and SCL-90 in the CP/CPPS patients. However, in all subjects, the IIEF-5 scores were shown to have significantly negative correlations with BAI, PSS, SCL-90 and quality of life score in NIH-CPSI. Cortisol awakening response parameters and diurnal cortisol levels did not significantly vary between the four groups. Time-dependent parameters of HRV also did not differ significantly across groups. In the frequency domain analysis, low frequency was significantly lower in ED patients when compared with CP/CPPS+ED patients and healthy controls, high frequency power was significantly higher in healthy controls compared to patients with ED, CP/CPPS and CP/CPPS+ED, and the CP/CPPS+ED group had significantly higher LF/HF ratio than the control group.ConclusionCP/CPPS and ED patients score exceedingly high on most psychosocial variables. The symptom scores of LUTS and ED positively correlate with the severity of psychological stress. Our findings also suggest that the ANS sympathovagal imbalance is associated with ED and LUTS in CP/CPPS, whereas HPA axis activity is not. (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed the patterns of lifestyle and posed psychological stress on pregnant women. However, the association of sleep duration and screen time with anxiety among pregnant women under the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic scenario has been poorly addressed. We conducted one large-scale, multicenter cross-sectional study which recruited 1794 pregnant women across middle and west China. Self-reported demographic characteristics, lifestyle, and mental health status were collected from 6th February to 8th May 2020. We investigated the association (...) of sleep duration and screen time with the risk of anxiety by multivariable logistic regression analysis and linear regression analysis after adjusting potential confounders. The dose-response relationship of sleep duration and screen time with anxiety was visualized using a cubic spline plot. Our data revealed that almost 35% of pregnant women suffered from anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sleep duration was dose-dependently associated with a lower risk of anxiety among pregnant women, while screen time exhibited a conversed effect. Notably, sleep duration synergistically combined with screen time to diminish the risk of anxiety. Taken together, sleep duration and screen time were independently and jointly associated with anxiety. Therefore, promoting a more active lifestyle and maintaining higher sleep quality could improve the mental health of pregnant women, especially under public health emergency. (shrink)

New technologies are transforming and reconfiguring the boundaries between patients, research participants and consumers, between research and clinical practice, and between public and private domains. From personalised medicine to big data and social media, these platforms facilitate new kinds of interactions, challenge longstanding understandings of privacy and consent, and raise fundamental questions about how the translational patient pathway should be organised.This editorial introduces the cross-journal article collection "Translation in healthcare: ethical, legal, and social implications", briefly outlining the genesis of the (...) collection in the 2015 Translation in healthcare conference in Oxford, UK and providing an introduction to the contemporary ethical challenges of translational research in biology and medicine accompanied by a summary of the papers included in this collection. (shrink)

Objectives: The present study aimed to systematically analyze the effects of physical activity on executive function, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and activities of daily living in Alzheimer's disease patients and to provide a scientific evidence-based exercise prescription.Methods: Both Chinese and English databases were used as sources of data to search for randomized controlled trials published between January 1980 and December 2019 relating to the effects of physical activity on executive function, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and ADL issues in AD patients. (...) Sixteen eligible RCTs were ultimately included in the meta-analysis.Results: Physical activity had significant benefits on executive function [standard mean difference = 0.42, 95% confidence interval 0.22–0.62, p < 0.05], working memory, cognitive flexibility, and ADLs among AD patients. Subgroup analysis indicated that, for executive function issues, more than 60 min per session for 16 weeks of moderate-to-high-intensity dual-task exercises or multimodal exercise had a greater effect on AD patients. For working memory and cognitive flexibility issues, 60–90 min of moderate-intensity dual-task exercises 1–4 times/week was more effective. For ADL issues, 30–90 min of multimodal exercise at 60–79% of maximal heart rate 3–4 times/week had a greater effect on AD patients.Conclusions: Physical activity was found to lead to significant improvements in executive function, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and ADLs in AD patients and can be used as an effective method for clinical exercise intervention in these patients. However, more objective, scientific, and effective RCTs are needed to confirm this conclusion. (shrink)

This paper aims at investigating the dynamic characteristics of a microring driven by dual arch electrodes because they are basic elements of microelectrostatic motors. The dual arch electrodes surround the periphery of the microring and are arranged symmetrically to the center of the ring. The electrodes are fixed while the microring is flexible. The electrostatic force will deform the microring, while the deflection of the microring changes the gap between the microring and the electrodes, thereby changing the electrostatic force. Therefore, (...) this is an electromechanical coupling effect. The nonlinear partial-differential equation that governs the motion of the microring is derived based on thin shell theory. Then, based on the assumption of small deflection, the nonlinear governing equation is linearized by truncating the higher-order terms of the Taylor series expansion of the nonlinear electrostatic force. After that, the linearized governing equation is discretized into a set of ordinary differential equations using Galerkin method in which the mode shape functions of the ring are adopted. The influences of the structural damping of the microring and the span of the arch electrodes on the forced response and dynamical stabilities of the microring are investigated. The results show that the damping ratio has a great influence on the system instability during high-frequency excitation. The unstable region of the system can increase with the increase of the electrode span; the response amplitude can also be increased within a certain range. (shrink)

The main idea of S-curve diagram is to assign different angle values to different nucleotide acid residues or to different protein amino acids, and then according to cos α j and sin α j, the values are accumulated to construct an S-curve diagram, which is in strict one-to-one correspondence with the biological sequence. In addition, the S-curve diagram proves to be without the degeneracy phenomenon, so that both the degeneracy problem represented by diagrams and the problem of visualization for biological (...) sequence data are solved. Meanwhile, a new approach to differentiate the similarity of biological sequences—the degree of similarity—is put forward on the basis of the S-curve diagram. To put it in detail, the least square approach is first adopted to obtain a straight line equation according to the S-curve diagram, then according to the distance formula of the point to the straight line, the average ratio of square sum for the distance between the S-curve and the straight line is calculated, and finally, the similarity of the biological sequences is presented by the new standard—the degree of similarity. As is shown by the experimental results, the S-curve diagram can better represent biological sequences within Cartesian coordinate system, and the mutation point of biological sequence. Thus, it turns out that the new standard—the degree of similarity is of obviously great advantage. (shrink)

For understanding and controlling spreading in complex networks, identifying the most influential nodes, which can be applied to disease control, viral marketing, air traffic control, and many other fields, is of great importance. By taking the effect of the spreading rate on information entropy into account, we proposed an improved information entropy method. Compared to the benchmark methods in the six different empirical networks, the IIE method has been found with a better performance on Kendall’s Tau and imprecision function under (...) the Susceptible Infected Recovered model. Especially in the Facebook network, Kendall’s Tau can grow by 120% as compared with the original IE method. And, there is also an equally good performance in the comparative analysis of imprecise functions. The imprecise functions’ value of the IIE method is smaller than the benchmark methods in six networks. (shrink)

As an economic pillar, major resource consumer, and polluter of cities, the chemical industry determines many cities’ transformation, prosperity, and decay. It is thus a major concern for achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In China, which is at the stage of accelerated industrialization that is varied across regions, the chemical industry has gradually retreated from developed cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, in the eastern region, and has become the inevitable choice for industrialization of less-developed cities, such as Xi’an, (...) Chengdu, and Chongqing, in the western region. This study took the perspectives of chemical industrial sectors and their spatial differences to understand the changing patterns of the chemical industry and its dominant cities. It identified chemical industrial cities, examined their spatial-temporal patterns with respect to their industry scale and structure, and accounted for factors influencing the spatial evolution from coastal areas to inland regions. The results show that large CICs were mainly located in coastal port regions with balanced industrial sectors, while small CICs were mainly distributed in inland areas with abundant oil and coal resources and a single dominant industrial sector. The location factors of ports, markets, and technology play important roles in the eastern region, while resource conditions and foreign direct investment promote the chemical industry’s development in the central, western, and northeastern cities. These findings improve the understanding of CICs’ spatial transformation and shed light on the policy-making of chemical industrial development in China and other developing countries. (shrink)

Different countries have different education systems and their advantages and disadvantages. It is necessary to optimize their own higher education system and formulate policy plans to fully realize the optimization of the higher education system. For this reason, we propose to establish a continuous evaluation model of higher education health. This study mainly uses principal component analysis and entropy weight method to determine the evaluation model of higher education health status and makes autoregressive moving average model time series analysis based (...) on the higher education evaluation model, which is obtained by studying long-term trends. The future development of education realizes the evaluation of sustainability. For Vietnam, that needs to be adjusted, the evaluation indicators based on the health status of the higher education system in developing countries will be added, tested, and adjusted and combined with the ARMA model prediction to determine the time period for the policy to meet reasonable expectations, and targeted development policies are proposed. Finally, we test the sensitivity of the established model, evaluate and analyze the advantages and disadvantages of the model, And combine the full text analysis to get the final conclusion. (shrink)

Academic discourses regarding teacher motivation have been on-going for decades for those who teach in ethnic minority areas. Yet research findings failed to provide a consistent conclusion regarding if kindergarten teachers’ motivation pattern would vary based on a case-to-case scenario. Therefore, further studies are needed to probe the motivation patterns among this population. The study firstly examined kindergarten teachers’ motivational profiles based on Expectancy Value Theory, and then examined how teachers’ motivation related to outcome variables. Participants included 1,199 kindergarten teachers (...) from ethnic minority areas in China. Latent profile analysis identified three motivation profiles for teachers: low value-high cost, moderate all, and high value-low cost. Teacher with different motivation profiles had significant differences in work engagement, workplace wellbeing, and retention intention. In addition, chain mediation analysis revealed that work engagement and workplace wellbeing mediated the relationship between motivation profiles and retention intention. The implications of the findings for study are discussed. (shrink)

This study discusses the impact of different economic indicators on economic stability, including honest leadership, improved infrastructure, revenue generation, and CPEC taking into account the double mediating role of environmental sustainability and sustainable development, while considering the latest COVID-19 situation. This study adopted primary data collection methods and obtained data from the employees of CPEC by using questionnaires and smart-PLS for analysis purposes. The results revealed that honest leadership, improved infrastructure, revenue generation, and CPEC have a positive nexus with economic (...) stability. Despite the severe impact of COVID-19 on the country’s economy, the economic corridor plays a vital role in stabilizing the state’s economy and supports all those related to this phenomenal project either directly or indirectly. (shrink)

Food prices are a daily concern in many households’ decision-making, especially when people want to have healthier diets. Employing Bayesian Mindsponge Framework (BMF) analytics on a dataset of 710 Indonesian citizens, we found that people from wealthier households are less likely to have concerns about food prices. However, the degree of health considerations in food consumption was found to moderate against the above association. In other words, people of higher income-based social classes may worry more about food prices if they (...) care more about the health impacts of their food choices. These findings provide more insights for policymakers on the psychological aspects of promoting the balance between finance and health in food consumption. (shrink)

This study adopts qualitative research methods, and the research texts are three Zhang Yimou films that reflect the history and social culture of the Republic of China, namely Red Sorghum, Ju Dou, and Raise the Red Lantern, also known as the Red Trilogy. This study explores the phenomenon of consuming history through the art form of films. The study finds that history is not only concerned and used by historians and archaeologists but can also be used by artists and consumed (...) by the audience. The consumption (use) of history by artists and audiences is not consuming its complete authentic history. In Zhang Yimou's Red trilogy films, the history and social culture of the Republic of China are arranged and designed. The audience can get a feeling that goes straight to the heart by watching these artfully processed. Re-made history, which is different from the historical knowledge read through words in history books, this kind of consumption is more intuitive, attractive, and acceptable to the audience. By watching these films, the audience colloquially learns about history, and although it is not a serious and complete history, it gains cultural value just as much. (shrink)

Topologically associating domain (TAD) boundaries are the flanking edges of TADs, also known as insulated neighborhoods, within the 3D structure of genomes. A prominent feature of TAD boundaries in mammalian genomes is the enrichment of clustered CTCF sites often with mixed orientations, which can either block or facilitate enhancer–promoter (E‐P) interactions within or across distinct TADs, respectively. We will discuss recent progress in the understanding of fundamental organizing principles of the clustered CTCF insulator codes at TAD boundaries. Specifically, both inward‐ (...) and outward‐oriented CTCF sites function as topological chromatin insulators by asymmetrically blocking improper TAD‐boundary‐crossing cohesin loop extrusion. In addition, boundary stacking and enhancer clustering facilitate long‐distance E‐P interactions across multiple TADs. Finally, we provide a unified mechanism for RNA‐mediated TAD boundary function via R‐loop formation for both insulation and facilitation. This mechanism of TAD boundary formation and insulation has interesting implications not only on how the 3D genome folds in the Euclidean nuclear space but also on how the specificity of E‐P interactions is developmentally regulated. (shrink)

With the negative impact of COVID-19, the continuous recession of economic globalization, and the increasing market competition, enterprise transformation gradually becomes the theme of enterprise management. Although more and more scholars and companies have paid attention to the importance of enterprise transformation, most of the research on it is still at the qualitative level of theoretical descriptions and lacks a comprehensive consideration and empirical research on its motivation and performance. In view of this, this study analyzes the overall driving effect (...) of technological innovation and the internal and external environment on enterprise transformation from the perspective of its drivers and analyzes in depth its causes and consequences for different industries. The study also analyzes the antecedents and consequences of enterprise transformation and its differences in different industries. In this study, a sample of middle and senior management of 10 companies with a valid sample of 401 is collected. Structural equation modeling results indicate that competitive advantage, technological innovation, and market pressure significantly affect enterprise transformation, which is an antecedent of corporate performance. Further, the results of the multiple-group analysis also reveal some significant differences between the theoretical models of the construction and real estate communities. Finally, suggestions are made based on the findings. (shrink)

This article primarily explains how China Daily — an exemplary representative of China’s press — modified the disaster discourse, to provide coverage of the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, through the exclusion of rational thought and in doing so created a people-centred myth. The secondary aim is to understand why the need for legitimacy was the reason behind the Government’s decision to allow media coverage of the disaster. Critical linguistics and critical discourse analysis underpin the study. The article concludes that the (...) Government’s aim in ‘opening up’ access to the media to provide coverage was to provide a public relations exercise, nationally and globally, of the Communist Party of China’s governance capabilities. (shrink)

Studies have shown that during social interaction a shared system underlies inferring one’s own mental state, and the mental states of others – processes often referred to as mentalization. However, no validated assessment has been developed to measure second order mentalization, or whether this capacity plays a significant role in social interaction. The current work presents a interactive mentalization theory, which divides these directional and second order aspects of mentalization, and investigates whether these constructs are measurable, stable, and meaningful in (...) social interactions. We developed a 20-item, self-report interactive mentalization questionnaire in order to assess the different sub-components of mentalization: self–self, self–other, and other–self mentalization. We then tested this scale on a large, online sample, and report convergent and discriminant validity in the form of correlations with other measures, as well as correlations with social deception behaviors in real online interaction with Mturk studies. These results validate the IMQ, and support the idea that these three factors can predict mentalization in social interaction. (shrink)

Detailed summary in vernacular field only.

Stability definitions for describing human behavior under conflict when coalitions may form are generalized within the Graph Model for Conflict Resolution and algebraic formulations of these definitions are provided to allow computer implementation. The more general definitions of coalitional stabilities relax the assumption of transitive graphs capturing movements under the control of decision makers, either independently or cooperatively, and allow the convenient expansion to the case of coalitions of the four basic individual stabilities consisting of Nash stability, general metarationality, symmetric (...) metarationality, and sequential stability. To permit the various coalitional stabilities to be efficiently calculated and conveniently encoded within a decision support system, algebraic expressions for the coalitional stabilities are provided in this research. Furthermore, a range of the theorems establish the mathematical credibility of employing the innovative algebraic approach to conflict resolution when coalitions are present. Finally, a conflict over the proposed exportation of bulk water from Lake Gisborne within the Canadian Province of Newfoundland and Labrador is modelled and analyzed to illustrate the practical application of the different coalitional stabilities and the strategic insights they provide. (shrink)

Jin Qian Dans son Discours sur la théologie naturelle des Chinois, Leibniz produit une interprétation du premier principe de la philosophie chinoise. Le présent article s’interroge sur les conditions de cette interprétation en la comparant avec la controverse entre Leibniz et Descartes par rapport à la conception de la substance. Il sera montré que, bien que Leibniz utilise un « principe herméneutique » dans son interprétation de la philosophie chinoise, ce principe n’est pas suffisant mais repose sur des conditions plus (...) fondamentales. La comparaison avec la controverse Leibniz-Descartes sur la substance permet d’identifier deux conditions majeures de l’application de ce principe herméneutique, à savoir la théorie dynamique de la substance et la conception de la théologie naturelle comme fondement de la physique, deux points sur lesquels divergent Leibniz et Descartes. (shrink)

In § 1 of this paper, we characterize the isomorphism property of nonstandard universes in terms of the realization of some second-order types in model theory. In § 2, several applications are given. One of the applications answers a question of D. Ross in [this Journal, vol. 55 (1990), pp. 1233-1242] about infinite Loeb measure spaces.

本书选录金开诚先生在文艺心理学、楚辞研究、传统文化研究、书法艺术研究等诸多领域研究方面的代表作，附收部分“随笔杂谈”类文编于后。.

In this paper we probe the possibilities of creating a Kurepa tree in a generic extension of a ground model of CH plus no Kurepa trees by an ω1-preserving forcing notion of size at most ω1. In Section 1 we show that in the Lévy model obtained by collapsing all cardinals between ω1 and a strongly inaccessible cardinal by forcing with a countable support Lévy collapsing order, many ω1-preserving forcing notions of size at most ω1 including all ω-proper forcing notions (...) and some proper but not ω-proper forcing notions of size at most ω1 do not create Kurepa trees. In Section 2 we construct a model of CH plus no Kurepa trees, in which there is an ω-distributive Aronszajn tree such that forcing with that Aronszajn tree does create a Kurepa tree in the generic extension. At the end of the paper we ask three questions. (shrink)