To improve the problems of inconvenient communication in the manufacturing industry, the ineffective use of resources, and the inability to efficiently complete manufacturing tasks, resource sharing has become an important model to promote the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry. We used multiagent modeling to construct a resource-sharing model and take Baosteel as the micro background and the manufacturing industry as the macro background. Under this model, we discovered the effect of resource sharing on the efficiency of intelligent manufacturing (...) under network collaboration through system dynamics research. We built and simulated a dynamic model of system dynamics that couples the two backgrounds and have given policy suggestions according to the simulation result. (shrink)

Counterproductive work behavior is one of the most common behavioral decisions of employees in the workplace that negatively impacts the sustainable development of enterprises. Previous studies have shown that individuals make CWB decisions for different reasons. Some individuals engage in CWB due to cognitive factors, whereas others engage in CWB in response to leadership behaviors. The conservation of resources theory holds that individuals have the tendency to preserve, protect and acquire resources. When experiencing the loss of resources, individuals will show (...) irrational and aggressive behaviors in order to regain resources. When obtaining resources, individuals’ tension and pressure will be relieved. To maintain or continue obtaining resources, individuals will show more positive work attitudes and behaviors. Therefore, using the COR theory as the main theoretical framework, this study explores a serial mediation model between family supportive leadership and CWB through work-family conflict and moral disengagement, moderated by personal life attribution. A three-wave survey of 251 medical workers from three hospitals found that family supportive leadership can reduce employees’ perceived work-family conflict, which leads to less moral disengagement, resulting in lower CWB. Personal life attribution strengthens the negative indirect effect of family supportive leadership on CWB by reinforcing the negative association between family supportive leadership and work-family conflict. This study uses the COR theory to explore the mechanism and boundary conditions of family supportive leadership and CWB from the perspective of negative work-family relationship, which enrichis the research content of existing theories. Moreover, this study has important guiding significance for managers to take effective measures to reduce CWB. (shrink)

BackgroundDreams can be affected by recent life events and long-term life experiences. Previous evidence has shown that childhood adverse experiences are associated with sleep quality and dream experiences.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to explore the relationship between childhood adverse experiences and dream content in adults.Participants and SettingA total of 163 participants without current or past physical or mental disorders aged between 18 and 35 were screened in the hospital. Among them, 120 subjects who completed a dream content record at (...) home and whose anxiety and depression levels and sleep quality were within the normal range were included in the data analysis.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted from June 2017 to December 2019. Dream content for 10 consecutive days was recorded by the participants and coded by the Hall and Van de Castle coding system. Childhood adversity was assessed by the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. In the end, 719 dreams out of 626 nights for 120 participants were included in the data analysis, gender differences between groups were analyzed using t-tests or U tests, and Spearman’s partial correlation and multiple linear regression were used to investigate the relationship between childhood trauma and dream content.ResultsChildhood adversity was associated with characters, friendly interactions, and objects in dream content. Regression models of childhood adversity predicting characters and objects in dream content were constructed. There were no gender differences in general demographic data, sleep quality, emotional state, childhood adversity, dream recall frequency, or dream content.ConclusionChildhood adversity is associated with adult dream content. (shrink)

In the last 20 years, amid extensive social and economic reforms, China’s social structure and community life have changed considerably. A large number of social workers are needed to provide many more social services to community residents. The central government has issued many policies to rapidly develop human service organizations and increase the number of social workers. Thus, by the end of 2019, the number of social workers has reached more than 1.5 million in China. At the same time, local (...) governments have issued many policies to promote an increase in the number of social workers. According to statistics from the Chengdu Civil Affairs Bureau, from 2010 to 2021, the number of social workers in Chengdu City increased, remarkably, from 553 to 17,622. Although the number of social workers has increased rapidly, some problems still exist. According to a survey by the Chengdu Social Workers Association, the turnover rate of social workers has reached approximately 20% in Chengdu City in 2018. Therefore, we aim to determine what influences social workers’ job burnout. Through regression analysis and mediation effect tests, we found the following: First, when controlling for gender, age, education, and workday, social support of social workers had a significant negative impact on job burnout. Second, the mindfulness of social workers had a significant negative impact on job burnout. Third, the mindfulness of social workers played a mediating role between social support and job burnout. The mediating effect was −0.116. Fourth, among the three dimensions of social support, mindfulness played a partially mediating role in family support and other support. The mediating effect between other support, which is the support from leaders and colleagues, and job burnout was the strongest, with a mediating effect of −0.109. In other words, the support provided by agency leaders and colleagues can maximize the level of mindfulness of social workers, thereby reducing social workers’ job burnout most effectively. We can thus reduce social workers’ job burnout by improving their level of mindfulness and the social support for them in China. (shrink)

Cognitive reappraisal is one of the core treatment components of cognitive behavioral therapy and is the gold standard treatment for major depressive disorders. Accumulating evidence indicates that cognitive reappraisal could function as a protective factor of cognitive vulnerability to depression. However, the neural mechanism by which CR training reduces cognitive vulnerability to depression is unclear. There is ample evidence that the prefrontal–amygdala circuit is involved in CR. This study proposes a novel cognitive bias model of CR training which hypothesizes that (...) CR training may improve the generation ability of CR with altered prefrontal–amygdala functional activation/connectivity, thus reducing negative cognitive bias and alleviating depressive symptoms. This study aims to explore whether there is abnormal CR strategy generation ability in individuals who are cognitively vulnerable to depression; test the hypothesis that CR training alleviates depressive symptoms through the mediators of cognitive bias ; explore the neural mechanism by which CR training may enhance the ability of CR strategy generation; and examine the short- and long-term effects of CR training on the reduction in depressive symptoms in individuals who are cognitively vulnerable to depression following intervention and 6 months later. The study is promising, providing theoretical and practical evidence for the early intervention of depression-vulnerable individuals. (shrink)

Ecological sustainability can be considered the primary goal of higher education development, as it provides an ontological way to think about what it means for higher education’s long-term development. Given the widespread concern of ecological sustainability, it’s urgent to interpret and deconstruct ecological sustainability in Chinese higher education from indigenous and original perspectives. By drawing on the wisdom from Chinese ancient education philosophy which provides unique enlightenment for ecological sustainability, this paper discusses the harmonization of ecological sustainability and higher education (...) development. In the light of the connotation of contemporary ecological sustainability and the new development of Chinese higher education, the paper also constructs a dynamic model of ecologically sustainable development in Chinese higher education. The aim is to initiate more philosophical dialogues between ancient and modern education, and to provide a new way of conceptualizing Chinese ancient education philosophy in the postmodern times. (shrink)

Purpose of the article Knowledge has been considered as the strategic assets and become the source of competitive advantage in organizations. Knowledge management thus receives the extraordinary attention from the top management. Many organizational factors have influences on knowledge management practices. This paper attempts to explore the empirical relationship between knowledge management and organizational culture in the specific situation of China’s commercial banking industry. Methodology/methods The relationship between knowledge management and organizational culture is quantitatively investigated by surveying bank managers. The (...) scale of SECI modes is used to measure knowledge management process and the scale of Denison Organizational Culture Survey is used to measure organizational culture. We explore the underlying relationship by employing the statistical analyses such as correlation, regression and structural equation modeling. Scientific aim The research aims at testing the relationship between knowledge management and organizational culture, and furthermore if there exist linkages between cultural traits and SECI modes. Findings The results of the empirical study confirm the great and positive effect that organizational culture has on knowledge management. Different cultural traits contribute to different SECI modes. Conclusions For obtaining successful knowledge management practices in organizations, it is better to concern about the relationship between knowledge management and organizational culture. The limitation in the paper is the sampling size, which will be solved by an industry-wide survey in our future research. (shrink)

Block building is a popular play activity among young children and is also used by psychologists to assess their intelligence. However, little research has attempted to systematically explore the cognitive bases of block-building ability. The current study (N= 66 Chinese preschoolers, 32 boys and 34 girls; mean age = 4.7 years, SD = 0.29, range = 3.4 to 5.2 years) investigated the relationships between six measures of spatial skills (shape naming, shape recognition, shape composition, solid figure naming, cube transformation, and (...) mental rotation, with the former four representing form perception and the latter two representing visualization) and block-building complexity. Correlation results showed that three of the four measures of form perception (shape naming, shape recognition, and shape composition) were significantly and positively correlated with block-building complexity, whereas the two measures of visualization were not. Results from regression models indicated that shape recognition and shape composition, as well as shape-recognition-by-gender interaction, were unique predictors of children’s block-building complexity. These findings provide preliminary evidence for the basic spatial skills underlying children’s block-building complexity and have implications for classroom instructions aimed at improving preschoolers’ block-building complexity. (shrink)

The study aims to help characterize the sort of structures about which people can acquire unconscious knowledge. It is already well established that people can implicitly learn n-grams and also repetition patterns. We explore the acquisition of unconscious structural knowledge of symmetry. Chinese Tang poetry uses a specific sort of mirror symmetry, an inversion rule with respect to the tones of characters in successive lines of verse. We show, using artificial poetry to control both n-gram structure and repetition patterns, that (...) people can implicitly learn to discriminate inversions from non-inversions, presenting a challenge to existing models of implicit learning. (shrink)

This study examines whether and how board gender diversity can affect corporate wage inequity by drawing on diversity theory and gender socialization and ethicality theories. Building on an exogenous relaxation of China’s one-child policy (OCP) in 2013, which led to a substantial decline in the female labor force participation rate. Our empirical analysis suggests that board gender diversity is negatively associated with corporate wage inequity. This result is robust to various endogeneity and sensitivity analyses. We find that the OCP relaxation (...) only increases average executive pay; it does not affect employee pay. One potential mechanism driving our results is that the decline in board gender diversity caused by the OCP relaxation reduces supervision, restriction, and fairness within the firm, which increases executives’ pursuit of personal interests and ultimately leads to the rise of wage inequity. Our findings are particularly significant for firms in capital-intensive industries, firms with a low level of employee bargaining power, and large firms. (shrink)

With the high frequency and intensity of worldwide disasters, cause-related marketing campaigns with sudden disasters are becoming increasingly popular. However, little is known about whether and how cause acuteness may influence consumer attitudes. This research aims to extend this research area through investigating the relationship between cause acuteness and consumer attitudes toward the product, as well as its underlying mechanism and boundary conditions. Based on a moral psychology perspective, we propose a theoretical model focusing on the mediating role of moral (...) elevation in influencing consumer attitudes. This model also incorporates product-cause fit and information transparency as moderators underpinning necessary conditions that are likely to lead to positive consumer attitudes. Four empirical studies were conducted to test our model. Our research results reveal that consumers have more positive attitudes toward the product associated with a sudden disaster than with an ongoing tragedy. Furthermore, the positive effect of cause acuteness on consumer attitudes is mediated by enhanced moral elevation, which occurs under the conditions of high product-cause fit and high information transparency. (shrink)

Corruption as a non-market strategy for firms has gained increasing attention in the field of strategy management. However, the effect of corruption on innovation is unclear, especially in the context of transition economies. Using institutional theory, we examine the relationship between corruption and new product innovation and identify the contextual conditions of the relationship. Using the World Bank Enterprise Survey data from China, our empirical results show that corruption has a positive effect on firms’ new product innovation. Moreover, we find (...) that policy instability and competitive threats from the informal sector positively moderate the relationship between corruption and new product innovation. Using post hoc analysis, we find that the potentially positive effect of corruption on new product innovation is the consequence of inherent institutional weaknesses in transition economies; as the level of institutional development increases, the effect of corruption on firms’ new product innovation will gradually decrease. Overall, our findings provide new insights into understanding corrupt behaviors in transition economies and present managerial implications for firms’ ethical dilemmas in a transition economy context. We argue that the key to overcoming these ethical dilemmas lies in promoting pro-market institutional reform to reduce the potential benefits of corruption. (shrink)

In this paper, we propose a nonlinear coupled model to study the two interacting processes of awareness diffusion and epidemic spreading on the same individual who is affected by different neighbor behavior status on multiplex networks. We achieve this topology scenario by two kinds of factors, one is the perception factor that can change interplay between different layers of networks and the other is the neighbors’ behavior status that can change the infection rate in each layer. According to the microscopic (...) Markov chain approach, we analyze the dynamical evolution of the system and derive the theoretical epidemic threshold on uncorrelated heterogeneous networks, and then, we validate the analysis by numerical simulation and discuss the final size of awareness diffusion and epidemic spreading on a scale-free network. With the outbreak of COVID-19, the spread of epidemic in China prompted drastic measures for transmission containment. We examine the effects of these interventions based on modeling of the awareness-epidemic and the COVID-19 epidemic case. The results further demonstrate that the epidemic spreading can be affected by the effective transmission rate of the awareness and neighbors’ behavior status. (shrink)

This paper is an investigation of the degree of incommensurability between Western scientific medicine and traditional Chinese medicine, focusing on the practice and theory of acupuncture. We describe the structure of traditional Chinese medicine, oriented around such concepts as yin, yang, qi, and xing, and discuss how the conceptual and explanatory differences between Western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine generate impediments to their comparison and evaluation. We argue that the linguistic, conceptual, ontological, and explanatory impediments can to a large extent (...) be overcome, and conclude that the dramatic differences between Western and traditional Chinese medicine do not provide insurmountable barriers to rational evaluation of acupuncture. We conclude with a discussion of the intentional and emotional aspects of conceptual change. (shrink)

Previous studies have explored children’s intergroup resource allocation in the context of preexisting intergroup resource inequality. However, resource inequality between social groups often originates from different factors. This study explored the role of the origins of resource inequality on children’s intergroup resource allocations. In experiment 1, when there was no explicit origin of the intergroup inequality, children of different ages mainly allocated resources in an equal way and 5- to 6-year-olds showed ingroup bias. In experiment 2, we examined the influence (...) of different origins of intergroup inequality and found that 5- to 6-year-olds perpetuated intergroup inequality when resource inequality was based on either a structural or an internal factor. However, 10- to 11-year-olds rectified inequality or allocated equally when intergroup inequality was based on regional disparity and perpetuated resource inequality when intergroup inequality was based on performance difference. The origins of inequality appear to play an important role in children’s intergroup resource allocations, and older children can distinguish different origins of intergroup inequality in resource allocation. (shrink)

Male sexual arousal (SA) has been known as a multidimensional experience involving closely interrelated and coordinated neurobehavioral components that rely on widespread brain regions. Recent functional neuroimaging studies have shown relation between abnormal/altered dynamics in these circuits and male sexual dysfunction. However, alterations in the topological1 organization of structural brain networks in male sexual dysfunction are still unclear. Here, we used graph theory2 to investigate the topological properties of large-scale structural brain networks, which were constructed using inter-regional correlations of cortical (...) thickness between 78 cortical regions (subcortical regions were not included due to the used cortical surface model) in 40 patients with psychogenic erectile dysfunction (pED) and 39 normal controls. Compared with normal controls, pED patients exhibited a less optimal global topological organization with reduced global and increased local efficiencies. Our results suggest disrupted neural integration among distant brain regions in pED patients, consistent with previous reports of impaired white matter structure and abnormal functional integrity in pED. Additionally, disrupted global network topology in pED was observed to be primarily relevant to altered subnetwork and nodal properties within the networks mediating the cognitive, motivational and inhibitory processes of male SA, possibly indicating disrupted integration of these networks in the whole brain networks and might account for pED patients’ abnormal cognitive, motivational and inhibitory processes for male SA. In total, our findings provide evidence for disrupted integrity in large-scale brain networks underlying the neurobehavioral processes of male SA in pED and provide new insights into the understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms of pED. (shrink)

This book provides a fresh and unique overview of the modernization and internationalization of Chinese higher education, focusing on Chinese higher education from 1949 to 2018. It presents the Ontological Positivism Model, concentrating on concepts of Chinese higher education. The book is intended for scholars and researchers in the field of comparative higher education, administrators and stakeholders in education management and graduate students majoring in higher education.

Defining moral competence using a virtue approach, this longitudinal study examined the prospective relationships between moral competence and externalizing behavior indexed by delinquency and intention to engage in problem behavior in a large and representative sample of Hong Kong Chinese adolescents. Starting from the 2009–2010 academic year, Grade 7 students in 28 randomly selected secondary schools in Hong Kong were invited to join a longitudinal study, which surveyed participating students annually during the high school years. The current study used data (...) collected in the first three years (Wave 1 to Wave 3) across junior secondary school stage (Grade 7 to Grade 9) with a sample of 3,328 students (Age = 12.59 ±.74 years and 52.1% boys at Wave 1). Cross-lagged panel path analyses were conducted to compare four models involving different hypothesized patterns of relationships between moral competence and externalizing behavior. Results revealed that the reciprocal effects model best fit the data, supporting reciprocal causal relationships between moral competence and externalizing behavior measures. Specifically, a higher level of moral competence significantly predicted a lower level of delinquency and problem behavioral intention over time. At the same time, a higher level of externalizing behavior also significantly predicted a lower level of moral competence one year later. As the magnitudes of the significant findings were not high, replications in different Chinese communities are needed. Nevertheless, the present findings provide important theoretical insights on how moral competence and externalizing behavior in adolescents are associated with each other. Practically speaking, the findings suggest that it is promising to reduce adolescent externalizing behavior by promoting their virtues through moral education programs, and guiding adolescents to behave in a good manner would help promote the development of their virtues. (shrink)

The disposition effect refers to the tendency of investors to sell winners too early and hold on to losers too long, which is one of the most documented and robust decision biases. However, few studies have looked beyond demographic and social factors on the disposition effect. The current study investigated the association between financial self-efficacy (one’s belief about their personal capability in ultimate financial goals achieving), versatile cognitive style (an individual’s capability in deploying the experiential or rational mode in ways (...) that are contextually appropriate), and the disposition effect. A total of 285 employees from finance-related business completed anonymous questionnaires regarding financial self-efficacy, rational-experiential inventory, and the disposition effect. Our findings revealed that financial self-efficacy was significantly and positively associated with versatile cognitive style and the disposition effect. Further, versatile cognitive style partially mediated the relationship between financial self-efficacy and the disposition effect. Our findings provide valuable guidance for individual investors to make financial decisions based on their characteristics. (shrink)

ObjectiveThis study explores the relationship between physical exercise and school adaptation of junior middle school students and constructs a chain intermediary model through the intermediary role of psychological resilience and sports learning motivation.MethodsUsing the stratified cluster sampling method, 930 junior middle school students in Anhui Province were measured in group psychology by using the physical exercise rating scale, adolescent psychological resilience scale, physical learning motivation scale and school adaptation scale. The statistical software SPSS 23.0 and process plug-in were used for (...) statistical processing, and the common method deviation test was carried out by Harman single-factor control method. Finally, the bootstrap sampling test method and process plug-in were used to test the significance of intermediary effect.Results The direct prediction effect of physical exercise on school adaptation is remarkable ; psychological resilience and sports learning motivation are the intermediary variables of the relationship between physical exercise and school adaptation; psychological resilience and sports learning motivation play a chain mediation role in the relationship between physical exercise and school adaptation. The intermediary effect is composed of three indirect effects: physical exercise → psychological resilience → school adaptation, physical exercise → physical learning motivation → school adaptation, physical exercise → psychological resilience → physical learning motivation → school adaptation.ConclusionsPhysical exercise can directly improve the school adaptation of junior middle school students, which can also affect junior middle school students’ school adaptation indirectly through psychological resilience or sports learning motivation, and it can influence school adaptation through the chain mediation of psychological resilience and sports learning motivation. (shrink)

Although the composition of the board of directors has important implications for different aspects of firm performance, prior studies tend to focus on financial performance. The effects of board composition on corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance remain an under-researched area, particularly in the period following the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). This article specifically examines two important aspects of board composition (i.e., the presence of outside directors and the presence of women directors) and their relationship with CSR (...) performance in the Post-SOX era. With data covering over 500 of the largest companies listed on the U.S. stock exchanges and spanning 64 different industries, we find empirical evidence showing that greater presence of outside and women directors is linked to better CSR performance within a firm’s industry. Treating CSR performance as the reflection of a firm’s moral legitimacy, our study suggests that deliberate structuring of corporate boards may be an effective approach to enhance a firm’s moral legitimacy. (shrink)

In the present research, based on the game research paradigm, the research tools are the dictator game and the trust game, and the research objects are Chinese university students. We adopt 2 × 2 between-subjects design experiment to investigate the influence of social class on university students’ prosocial behavior. Across the experimental study, we find that in the two situations of dictator game and trust game, self-social class has no significant influence on university students’ prosocial behavior; in the situation of (...) dictator game, target social class has a significant influence on university students’ prosocial behavior, and it is regulated by self-social class. Under the condition of low self-social class, the higher the target social class, the more prosocial behavior of university students, which confirms the perspective of status and negates “if you are poor, you will be good for yourself.” Under the condition of high self-social class, the lower the target social class, the more prosocial the behavior of university students, which confirms the perspective of fairness and echoes “if you are good, you will be good at the world”; in the context of the trust game, target social class has a significant influence on university students’ prosocial behavior, and there is no interaction effect with self-social class. (shrink)

This paper explores the perceptions of senior high school pupils in Shanghai regarding their motivation towards learning English and their perceived influence on this of important others . The study is based on 610 questionnaire responses and 64 interviews. The findings indicate that their English learning motivation is dominated by life and career‐based reasons rather than intrinsic or integrative reasons. The influence of important others was perceived as being positive but small, with teachers being viewed as the most influential.

Institutions are increasingly employing algorithms to provide performance feedback to individuals by tracking productivity, conducting performance appraisals, and developing improvement plans, compared to traditional human managers. However, this shift has provoked considerable debate over the effectiveness and fairness of algorithmic feedback. This study investigates the effects of negative performance feedback (NPF) on the attitudes, cognition and behavior of medical researchers, comparing NPF from algorithms versus humans. Two scenario-based experimental studies were conducted with a total sample of 660 medical researchers (algorithm (...) group: N1 = 411; human group: N2 = 249). Study 1 analyzes the differences in scientific misconduct, moral disengagement, and algorithmic attitudes between the two sources of NPF. The findings reveal that NPF from algorithms shows higher levels of moral disengagement, scientific misconduct, and negative attitudes towards algorithms compared to NPF from humans. Study 2, grounded in trait activation theory, investigates how NPF from algorithms triggers individual’s egoism and algorithm aversion, potentially leading to moral disengagement and scientific misconduct. Results indicate that algorithm aversion triggers individuals’ egoism, and their interaction enhances moral disengagement, which in turn leads to increased scientific misconduct among researchers. This relationship is also moderated by algorithmic transparency. The study concludes that while algorithms can streamline performance evaluations, they pose significant risks to scientific misconduct of researchers if not properly designed. These findings extend our understanding of NPF by highlighting the emotional and cognitive challenges algorithms face in decision-making processes, while also underscoring the importance of balancing technological efficiency with moral considerations to promote a healthy research environment. Moreover, managerial implications include integrating human oversight in algorithmic NPF processes and enhancing transparency and fairness to mitigate negative impacts on medical researchers’ attitudes and behaviors. (shrink)

Environmental ethics can be cultivated in China and other Asian countries based on Chinese philosophical perspectives. Two major Chinese philosophies relevant to the issues of environmental ethics—Confucianism and Taoism—suggest certain approaches to developing environmental ethics. These approaches can complement each other in developing a Chinese or East Asian theory of environmental ethics. Drawing on these perspectives, China’s Wolong National Nature Reserve can face the challenge of protecting its pandas while developing the local economy. By adopting a set of strategies with (...) elements from both Confucianism and Taoism, Wolong has fared well in both protecting pandas and promoting environmental ethics. This case has implications for both managerial researchers and practitioners. (shrink)

Resource allocation has always been a key technology in wireless sensor networks, but most of the traditional resource allocation algorithms are based on single interface networks. The emergence and development of multi-interface and multichannel networks solve many bottleneck problems of single interface and single channel networks, it also brings new opportunities to the development of wireless sensor networks, but the multi-interface and multichannel technology not only improves the performance of wireless sensor networks but also brings great challenges to the resource (...) allocation of wireless sensor networks. Edge computing changes the traditional centralized cloud computing processing method into a method that reduces computing storage capacity to the edge of the network and faces users and terminals. Realize the advantages of lower latency, higher bandwidth, and fast response. Therefore, this paper proposes a joint optimization algorithm of resource allocation based on edge computing. We establish a wireless sensor allocation model and then propose our algorithm model combined with the advantages of edge computing. Compared with the traditional allocation algorithm, it can further improve the resource utilization, reduce the network energy consumption, increase network capacity, and reduce the complexity of the schemes. (shrink)

Except the two types of state, complete failure and perfect functioning, some intermediate states also existed between those two states. This characteristic enables multistate system whose components are often of more than two states. Moreover, because of dependence between components, common cause failure enhances the failure risk of components during the operating period of MSS. A protection mechanism needs to be adopted because of the importance of certain components. For a MSS with CCF and protection mechanism, its reliability can be (...) evaluated by a proposed approach. Certain components not only can cause failure at one state, but also can cause failure to other components because of the CCF. Under the impact of one type of CCF, those components can constitute a specific group that can overlap with certain components. Universal generating function is adopted to incorporate the CCF and protection mechanism of a component. Consequently, reliability indices of a MSS can be evaluated by the proposed approach based on UGF. Examples and comparisons illustrate and validate this method. This method can also help engineers prioritize elements that require protection mechanism under various resource limitations. (shrink)

In this study, the authors utilize mountain pass lemma, variational methods, regularization technique, and the Lyapunov function method to derive the unique existence of the positive classical stationary solution of a single-species ecosystem. Particularly, the geometric characteristic of saddle point in the mountain pass lemma guarantees that the equilibrium point is the ground state stationary solution of the ecosystem. Based on the obtained uniqueness result, the authors use the Lyapunov function method to derive the globally exponential stability criterion, which illuminates (...) that under some suitable conditions, a certain internal competition is conducive to the global stability of the population, and a certain amount of family planning is conducive to the overall stability of the population. Most notably, the regularity technique of weak stationary solution employed in this study can also be applied to some existing literature related with time-delays reaction-diffusion systems for the purpose of regularization of weak solutions. Finally, an illuminative numerical example shows the effectiveness of the proposed methods. (shrink)

A novel data-driven model-free adaptive control approach is first proposed by combining the advantages of model-free adaptive control and data-driven optimal iterative learning control, and then its stability and convergence analysis is given to prove algorithm stability and asymptotical convergence of tracking error. Besides, the parameters of presented approach are adaptively adjusted with fuzzy logic to determine the occupied proportions of MFAC and DDOILC according to their different control performances in different control stages. Lastly, the proposed fuzzy DDMFAC approach is (...) applied to the control of particle quality in drug development phase of spray fluidized-bed granulation process, and its control effect is compared with MFAC and DDOILC and their fuzzy forms, in which the parameters of MFAC and DDOILC are adaptively adjusted with fuzzy logic. The effectiveness of the presented FDDMFAC approach is verified by a series of simulations. (shrink)