The rapid economic growth and surge of consumerism in emerging markets have placed significant pressure on the environment and consumers. While well-researched ethical consumption remedies may be effective in the Western contexts, they may not be readily translatable in emerging markets due to institutional and socio-cultural differences. This research examines the popular practice of Danshari in China and investigates how this self-oriented practice leads to other-oriented ethical consumption behaviours. Using qualitative data gathered from online sharing and interviews, we unpack how (...) Danshari practitioners question and reshape their relationship with possessions and consumption to enhance their self-concept clarity. This clarified and elevated self-concept, in turn, leads to ethical consumption behaviours. Unlike Western ethical consumption concepts that are driven by principles or ideologies, Danshari’s essence of detachment, self-orientation, and action focus resonate with traditional Chinese teachings, providing a pragmatist approach to cultivating ethical consumption behaviours in China. This research adds to the growing body of pragmatism-based ethics research, expands the discussion of the link between consumption and the self, and offers valuable insights into promoting ethical consumerism in emerging markets. (shrink)

The development and application of artificial intelligence (AI) technology has raised many concerns about privacy violations in the public. Thus, privacy-preserving computation technologies (PPCTs) have been developed, and it is expected that these new privacy protection technologies can solve the current privacy problems. By not directly using raw data provided by users, PPCTs claim to protect privacy in a better way than their predecessors. They still have technical limitations, and considerable research has treated PPCTs as a privacy-protecting tool and focused (...) on possible technical improvements. In this article, we argue that PPCTs cannot effectively protect privacy in the narrow sense due to their technical limitations. Moreover, although these shortcomings could be remedied, they still fall into a paradox because their aim is to protect privacy, but they could reveal private information from users. This paradox of privacy protection not only aggravates the social impact arising from AI privacy issues but may also make the current privacy protection lose its meaning, resulting in a situation in which privacy protection is useless. (shrink)

This study was designed to estimate the associations between self-efficacy and professional identity. A total of 1,051 freshmen nursing students from the Be Resilient to Nursing Career program were recruited from four universities between September and November 2020. A latent profile and moderated meditation analysis were performed. Four profiles of self-efficacy were identified and named as Lowest, Med-low, Med-high, and Highest. The mediating role of resilience and the moderating effect of role models were also identified. Therefore, self-efficacy, resilience, and role (...) models may be three important factors to professional identity in FNSs and these relationships should be further validated in longitudinal or interventional studies. (shrink)

The progress and development of the new era has given commercial illustration a new vitality, expanding and enhancing its commercial value and cultural connotation.However, under the influence of traditional mechanistic philosophical thought, there is a tendency of utilitarianization, mechanization, absolutization and fragmentation in China's commercial illustration in general, resulting in various reform measures facing difficulties and resistance, especially not conducive to the healthy and comprehensive development of packaging design.Ecological philosophy, as a systematic, holistic, processual and connected idea, is now being (...) widely used to deal with the relationship between human beings and society.By analyzing the close relationship between commercial illustration, which is an important design graphic language for cultural and creative packaging design, and cultural and creative product packaging, this paper tries to propose how commercial illustration is applied in cultural and creative packaging design under the ecological philosophy perspective.It summarizes the role of commercial illustration in cultural creative packaging design, elaborates the research on the innovation strategy of commercial illustration in cultural creative packaging design under the ecological philosophy perspective, and demonstrates the charm of commercial illustration in cultural creative packaging design. (shrink)

This paper addresses the adaptive asymptotic tracking control problem for nonlinear systems whose virtual control gains are unknown nonlinear functions of system states. Only in the first step, the Nussbaum gain technique is utilized to handle the uncertain virtual control gain. In the remaining steps, virtual control gains are dealt with by constructing novel control laws without the approximation of the uncertain nonlinear functions and external disturbances by neural networks or fuzzy logic. New adaptive laws are defined to compensate for (...) unknown virtual control gains, uncertain parameters, and external disturbances. Finally, an adaptive tracking controller is designed and applied to the control of a 3-order robot system, which guarantees the boundedness of all the signals in the closed-loop system and asymptotic stability of the tracking error. (shrink)

This study explores how the perceived co-creation values from tourists’ perspectives are applied in the customized tour arrangement service setting. The sequential qualitative and quantitative methods are adopted for this study. The initial qualitative method in terms of the proactive semi-structured interview is conducted to identify and explore the dimension of the PCV construct and to develop its measurement scale. The quantitative method by the structure equation model is employed for the proposed conceptual model fitness assessment and consolidation. Our work (...) contributes to the progression of value co-creation research in a customized tourism context and provides a valid and reliable PCV instrument to tourism practitioners for a better service platform designing. The mediating role of customer satisfaction between PCV and customer loyalty offers service providers a deeper understanding of customer psychology and behavior, and thus, the loyal customer cultivation strategy. (shrink)

The Drunken Man’s Talk: Tales from Medieval China. By Luo Ye. Translated by Alister D. Inglis. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2015. Pp. xxiii + 214. $50 ; $30.

The COVID-19 pandemic spread catastrophically over the world since the spring of 2020. In this paper, a heterogeneous branching process with immigration is established to quantify the human-to-human transmission of COVID-19 in local communities, based on the temporal and structural transmission patterns extracted from public case disclosures by four provincial Health Commissions in China. With proper parameter settings, our branching model matches the actual transmission chains satisfactorily and, therefore, sheds light on the underlying COVID-19 spreading mechanism. Moreover, based on our (...) branching model, the efficacy of home quarantine and social distancing are explored, providing a reference for the effective prevention of COVID-19 worldwide. (shrink)

This paper proposes a new system whose potential function is with three types of asymmetric potential wells, driven by trichotomous noise. Firstly, the three types of asymmetric bistable system are described in detail, and the changes of asymmetric bistable system potential function under different asymmetric factors are analyzed. Secondly, the effect of potential function parameters, asymmetric factorα, noise intensity D, and the probability of particle transition q is discussed, using numerical simulation. The detection effects of traditional symmetric SR and three (...) types of asymmetric SR are observed and compared under the driving of trichotomous noise and periodic signals. The mean of signal-to-noise ratio gain is the indicator of the system's effectiveness on enhancing weak signal. The results indicate that it can make the detection effect of the asymmetric system better than that of the traditional bistable system by adjusting the parameters of the asymmetric stochastic resonance system and trichotomous noise. (shrink)

Background: Cognitive impairment is one of the core symptoms of schizophrenia, which is considered to be significantly correlated to prognosis. In recent years, many studies have suggested that metabolic disorders could be related to a higher risk of cognitive defects in a general setting. However, there has been limited evidence on the association between metabolism and cognitive function in patients with early-stage schizophrenia.Methods: In this study, we recruited 172 patients with early-stage schizophrenia. Relevant metabolic parameters were examined and cognitive function (...) was evaluated by using the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB) to investigate the relationship between metabolic disorder and cognitive impairment.Results: Generally, the prevalence of cognitive impairment among patients in our study was 84.7% (144/170), which was much higher than that in the general population. Compared with the general Chinese setting, the study population presented a higher proportion of metabolic disturbance. Patients who had metabolic disturbance showed no significant differences on cognitive function compared with the other patients. Correlation analysis showed that metabolic status was significantly correlated with cognitive function as assessed by the cognitive domain scores (p < 0.05), while such association was not found in further multiple regression analysis.Conclusions: Therefore, there may be no association between metabolic disorder and cognitive impairment in patients with early-stage schizophrenia.Trial Registration: Clinicaltrials.gov, NCT02880462. Registered August 26, 2016. (shrink)

This twelfth volume of Collected Papers includes 86 papers comprising 976 pages on Neutrosophics Theory and Applications, published between 2013-2021 in the international journal and book series “Neutrosophic Sets and Systems” by the author alone or in collaboration with the following 112 co-authors (alphabetically ordered) from 21 countries: Abdel Nasser H. Zaied, Muhammad Akram, Bobin Albert, S. A. Alblowi, S. Anitha, Guennoun Asmae, Assia Bakali, Ayman M. Manie, Abdul Sami Awan, Azeddine Elhassouny, Erick González-Caballero, D. Dafik, Mithun Datta, Arindam Dey, (...) Mamouni Dhar, Christopher Dyer, Nur Ain Ebas, Mohamed Eisa, Ahmed K. Essa, Faruk Karaaslan, João Alcione Sganderla Figueiredo, Jorge Fernando Goyes García, N. Ramila Gandhi, Sudipta Gayen, Gustavo Alvarez Gómez, Sharon Dinarza Álvarez Gómez, Haitham A. El-Ghareeb, Hamiden Abd El-Wahed Khalifa, Masooma Raza Hashmi, Ibrahim M. Hezam, German Acurio Hidalgo, Le Hoang Son, R. Jahir Hussain, S. Satham Hussain, Ali Hussein Mahmood Al-Obaidi, Hays Hatem Imran, Nabeela Ishfaq, Saeid Jafari, R. Jansi, V. Jeyanthi, M. Jeyaraman, Sripati Jha, Jun Ye, W.B. Vasantha Kandasamy, Abdullah Kargın, J. Kavikumar, Kawther Fawzi Hamza Alhasan, Huda E. Khalid, Neha Andalleb Khalid, Mohsin Khalid, Madad Khan, D. Koley, Valeri Kroumov, Manoranjan Kumar Singh, Pavan Kumar, Prem Kumar Singh, Ranjan Kumar, Malayalan Lathamaheswari, A.N. Mangayarkkarasi, Carlos Rosero Martínez, Marvelio Alfaro Matos, Mai Mohamed, Nivetha Martin, Mohamed Abdel-Basset, Mohamed Talea, K. Mohana, Muhammad Irfan Ahamad, Rana Muhammad Zulqarnain, Muhammad Riaz, Muhammad Saeed, Muhammad Saqlain, Muhammad Shabir, Muhammad Zeeshan, Anjan Mukherjee, Mumtaz Ali, Deivanayagampillai Nagarajan, Iqra Nawaz, Munazza Naz, Roan Thi Ngan, Necati Olgun, Rodolfo González Ortega, P. Pandiammal, I. Pradeepa, R. Princy, Marcos David Oviedo Rodríguez, Jesús Estupiñán Ricardo, A. Rohini, Sabu Sebastian, Abhijit Saha, Mehmet Șahin, Said Broumi, Saima Anis, A.A. Salama, Ganeshsree Selvachandran, Seyed Ahmad Edalatpanah, Sajana Shaik, Soufiane Idbrahim, S. Sowndrarajan, Mohamed Talea, Ruipu Tan, Chalapathi Tekuri, Selçuk Topal, S. P. Tiwari, Vakkas Uluçay, Maikel Leyva Vázquez, Chinnadurai Veerappan, M. Venkatachalam, Luige Vlădăreanu, Ştefan Vlăduţescu, Young Bae Jun, Wadei F. Al-Omeri, Xiao Long Xin.‬‬‬‬‬‬. (shrink)

This study aimed to investigate the serial-multiple mediation effect of professional identity, psychological capital, work-related stress, and work-related wellbeing among intensive care unit nurses in China. The cross-sectional survey was conducted from January 2017 to May 2017 in two Grade III A general hospitals in Jining, Shandong Province, China. Cluster sampling was used to recruit participants from the two hospitals. A total of 330 ICU nurses participated in the study. The nurses’ work stress scale, Chinese nurse’s professional identity scale, the (...) PsyCap questionnaire, and Chinese work-related wellbeing scale were used to collect the data. Descriptive analysis, independent-samples t-test, one-way analysis of variance, Pearson correlation analysis, linear regression analysis, and structural equation modeling were used to analyze the data. The average score for the work-related wellbeing of ICU nurses was 85.91 ± 13.94. Work-related stress, professional identity, and PsyCap correlated significantly with work-related wellbeing. The major predictors of work-related wellbeing were PsyCap, work-related stress, professional identity, and monthly salary. The serial-multiple mediation effects of professional identity and PsyCap in the relationship between work-related stress and work-related wellbeing were statistically significant. Positive professional identity and PsyCap were sequentially associated with decreased work-related stress, which in turn was related to increased work-related wellbeing among ICU nurses. Therefore, this study aims to explore the impact of ICU nurses’ work-related stress on work-related wellbeing, as well as the mediating effect of professional identity and PsyCap. It is hoped that hospital care managers will pay attention to the mental health of ICU nurses, increase their professional identity, and reduce work-related stress to improve the quality of the ICU nursing service and stabilize nursing work. (shrink)

Third-party punishment (TPP) has been shown to be an effective mechanism for maintaining human cooperation. However, it is puzzling how third-party punishment can be maintained, as punishers take on personal costs to punish defectors. Although there is evidence that punishers are preferred as partners because third-party punishment is regarded by bystanders as a costly signal of trustworthiness, other studies show that this signaling value of punishment can be severely attenuated because third-party helping is viewed as a stronger signal of trustworthiness (...) than third-party punishment. Third-party helpers donate their payoffs to victims of defection in games instead of punishing defectors as third-party punishers do. Then, under what circumstances can third-party punishment be maintained by costly signaling when helping is also present? We show that punishers are preferred over helpers by fourth-party individuals as their delegates to deter potential exploitation. This suggests that costly signaling can facilitate the maintenance of third-party punishment in partner choice with delegation interactions. (shrink)

Dewey’s understanding of democratic school life is regarded as the early foundation of democratic education (Cohen et al. 2009). Similarly, Biesta (2007) underlines the significant role of schools...

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)

The DAMA project is an observatory for rare processes and it is operative deep underground at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory of the I.N.F.N. In particular, the DAMA/LIBRA (Large sodium Iodide Bulk for RAre processes) set-up consists of highly radiopure NaI(Tl) detectors for a total sensitive exposed mass of ≃250 kg. Recent results, obtained by this set-up by exploiting the model independent annual modulation signature of Dark Matter (DM) particles, have confirmed and improved those obtained by the former DAMA/NaI experiment. (...) A model independent evidence for the presence of Dark Matter particles in the galactic halo is cumulatively obtained at 8.2 σ C.L. No systematics or side reactions able to account for the measured modulation amplitude and to contemporaneously satisfy all the many specific requirements of the signature have been found or suggested by anyone over more than a decade. An example of one of the many possible model dependent corollary quests for the candidate particles and for the related astrophysical, nuclear and particle physics scenarios is presented considering the whole cumulative exposure. Future perspectives are shortly addressed. (shrink)

For achieving the sustainable development goals, green development has been raised to a high position for cities in China. The economic development in Northwest China is slow, the ecological environment is fragile, and the mineral resources are rich. Only through green development can we realize the comprehensive income of regional production development, rich life, and good ecology. This paper measures the green development efficiency of 30 prefecture-level cities in Northwest China by using DEA-SBM model of unexpected output, explores the differences (...) and causes of green development efficiency from the perspective of time and space through convergence coefficient, coordination matrix, GIS, and other methods, and empirically tests the impact of industrial structure, technological progress, and other driving factors on green development efficiency by using panel Tobit model. The results show that, on the whole, the efficiency of green development in Northwest China is low, path dependence is serious and unbalanced, the coordinated development effect of different regions is weak, and the spillover effect of core urban agglomerations has not been effectively exerted; from the perspective of driving factors, economic development, population density, traffic situation, and education investment can significantly improve the efficiency of urban green development, and the second is that the proportion of industries significantly hinders the improvement of green development efficiency, while the impact of scientific and technological innovation is not significant. Based on the empirical results, this paper believes that the harmonious development of natural environment and economic society can be realized only by improving the coordinated development effect among cities, implementing the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure, introducing excellent talents, and promoting the technological upgrading. (shrink)

Antibiotic resistance in bacteria has become a great threat to global public health. Tigecycline is a next‐generation tetracycline that is the final line of defense against severe infections by pan‐drug‐resistant bacterial pathogens. Unfortunately, this last‐resort antibiotic has been challenged by the recent emergence of the mobile Tet(X) orthologs that can confer high‐level tigecycline resistance. As it is reviewed here, these novel tetracycline destructases represent a growing threat to the next‐generation tetracyclines, and a basic framework for understanding the molecular epidemiology and (...) resistance mechanisms of them is presented. However, further large‐scale epidemiological and functional studies are urgently needed to better understand the prevalence and dissemination of these newly discovered Tet(X) orthologs among Gram‐negative bacteria in both human and veterinary medicine. (shrink)

The coronavirus disease 2019 continues to spread globally. This infectious disease affects people not only physically but also psychologically. Therefore, an effective psychological intervention program needs to be developed to improve the psychological condition of patients screened for fever during this period. This study aimed to investigate the effect of a brief mindfulness intervention on patients with suspected fever in a screening isolation ward awaiting results of the COVID-19 test. The Faces Scale and the Emotional Thermometer Tool were used to (...) investigate 51 patients who were randomly divided into an intervention group and a control group. All patients completed self-rating questionnaires online at the time they entered the isolation ward and before they were informed of the results. The intervention group listened to the mindfulness audios through hospital broadcasts in the isolation ward before their lunch break and while they slept. Compared with the control group, the intervention group’s life satisfaction score increased and the emotional thermometer score decreased. The anxiety scores and the needing help scores decreased significantly. Distress, depression, and anger also decreased, but did not reach significance. Brief mindfulness interventions can alleviate negative emotions and improve the life satisfaction of patients in the isolation ward who were screened for COVID-19 during the waiting period. (shrink)

Previous studies have focused on individuals learning from observing a model to be able to produce the modeled behavior. However, there is a lack of studies emphasizing the perspective of being observed to understand the role of perceived value and stress when teachers act as a teaching model. To address this gap, the present study explored the correlates between teachers’ teaching beliefs, perceived value, psychosocial stress, and continuous intention to be the observed teaching model in classroom observations. Data of 349 (...) respondents were usefully collected, and confirmatory factor analysis with structural equation modeling was performed. Results showed that teachers’ constructivist belief in teaching was positively related to perceived value of being observed and getting feedback, but was negatively related to psychosocial stress. Perceived value was positively related to continuous intention to be observed in future classroom observations, but perceived psychosocial stress was not significantly related to continuous intention. The results of this study can be applied to encourage those who are resistant to presenting their teaching experience in classroom observations. (shrink)

The purpose of this study was to understand the influence mechanism of college students’ entrepreneurial intention in view of the increasing number of college students at present to alleviate college students’ employment competition. The psychological factors that influence the entrepreneurial tendency of art graduates were analyzed and studied. First, venture capital and factors affecting entrepreneurial performance were analyzed. Second, the coefficient calculation is carried out for college students majoring in art through the regression analysis of the logistic model. Finally, a (...) team entrepreneurial performance questionnaire was designed, and team reward levels were discussed. The results show that the logistic model can well reflect the real situation of the respondents. The significance level of the entrepreneurial team was 0.02, which was correlated. Additionally, corresponding suggestions were put forward according to the questionnaire results. Clear team goals, assignment of tasks to members, good pressure resistance, and psychological quality of members are necessary qualities for successful entrepreneurship. This conclusion provides a certain theoretical basis for the current college students’ entrepreneurial learning and a reliable inspiration for helping college students to successfully start a business. (shrink)

Collected works of Dge-lugs-pa scholar predominantly on doctrines, commentary on Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakośa, study on Abhisamayālaṅkāra of Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāparāmitā, Buddhist logic, philosophy, rituals, etc.

If philosophy is the only discourse that has ever intended to receive its name from itself, and to leave nothing outside itself, what would be (Western) philosophy's relation to its (Chinese) other? This question is rethought through a rereading of three major Western philosophers, Hegel, Husserl, and Heidegger, and a Chinese philosopher, Feng Youlan. Philosophy is seen, on the one hand, to dialecticize its other but necessarily to fall short of its aim and, on the other, to claim for itself (...) uniqueness and originality but necessarily to be constituted by and through an other. Also, the claim made by the other of philosophy to the rightful title of "philosophy" can also turn out paradoxically to be a claim by philosophy to its other. (shrink)

本书包括:中西文化之“会通和合”;写在《中国审美意识的探讨》出版之际;学者的使命;“诗言志”小注等内容。.

本书重点研析了社会主义宪政的若干基本理论问题。包括宪法与权力,宪法与人民主权原则,宪政的理论逻辑,宪政与法治,宪政与民主,宪政与政党,宪政与人权,宪政与社会主义法治理念等。全书坚持以马克思列宁主义为指 导,以求真务实的态度,综合运用法哲学、历史学、政治学等多种学科研究方法,对宪政问题的基本原理以及我国的宪政建设问题进行了深入剖析。作者通过研读辨析大量资料文献后,经过十余年时间的艰苦研究探索,比较全面 、深入、系统地辨析了若干对社会主义宪政的基础关系,兼有立论与驳论。本书比较深入地探析了人民主权原则在宪政理论中的地位,尤其是它与民主、自由、司法审查等的学理关系。从历史、社会、文化等角度探析民主、法治 、人权如何通过社会主义宪政建设得以价值与功能实现。如何通过发展社会主义民主、法治以及依法执政是探讨社会主义宪政建设可能性的必由之路。社会主义宪政是人类文明的积淀,是规范的政治,是现代文明的首要选择与根 本标志。作者还针对党中央提出的"树立社会主义法治理念"问题,结合其与社会主义宪政的关系进行了论述。.