It is often assumed that pet ownership improves peoples’ wellbeing, but evidence of this pet effect has been mixed. We extended past research on pet personality, the pet effect, and value congruence to examine whether people perceive their pets to have humanlike values and if owner-pet values similarity has a positive effect on owners’ life satisfaction. In a large and diverse sample of Australian dog and cat owners, we find that people imbue their dogs and cats with humanlike values in (...) a way that reflects the theoretical circular structure of values. Importantly, perceptions of the values of dogs and cats differed in that dogs were perceived to prioritize more social-focus values, whereas cats were perceived to prioritize more personal-focus values. Additionally, we find that similarity in the values profile of dog owners and their dogs is positively associated with life satisfaction, but this was not the case for cats. However, when we examined associations between individual values similarity and life satisfaction, our results suggest a more complex and nuanced picture of both direct and indirect similarity effects. (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)

Searches for non-paulian nuclear processes, i.e. processes normally forbidden by the Pauli–Exclusion–Principle (PEP) with highly radiopure NaI(Tl) scintillators allow the test of this fundamental principle with high sensitivity. Status and perspectives are addressed.

因為現代醫藥之發達與進步，我們身體的痛已大多有了消解之道；但思想、心理與性靈的病卻是越來越讓我們感到憂傷，越來越教我們心生恐懼，也越來越侵犯到我們原本一心盼望單單純純地「活在此時此刻」這極其謙卑的權利 與心願。 顯然，現代科技仍然效力有限，而無端的生命苦難更是難以預期與估量。我們還是得時時回頭看看自己這一身，回頭想想自己這一生，並同時回頭思量自己這一顆心到底蘊藏著什麼寶貝，或許，這樣的自力救濟與自力更生纔是生 活的王道。 且讓我們一起來細細品味兩千多年前這一位東方的「生命療癒先行者」――莊子到底是怎麼看待他自己這一身、這一生、這一世以及時時刻刻跳動在「此時此刻」的這一顆心，而其中又有何特殊光景值得莊子大書特書，這也許是 人類千年不變的生命共業。 原本，我們一出生就無法自外於大自然，而「自然」原來就在我們完完整整的這一身，它的符碼（甚至是密碼）就藏在我們人人心底，就靠我們自己來記憶，來存取，來開啟我們與生俱來的自我療癒的能力，而莊子如是言，如是 行，如是思量，如是觀想，如是腳踏實地，如是心無旁鶩，如是存活於此時此刻──而他已然為我們落下這八個無比精采的篇章： ◆逍遙之遊──莊子一心渴望真自由，而他到底是如何滿足這心底深沉的渴望？又是如何從地面起身躍向那無邊無界的天空？ ◆齊物之論──莊子彷彿心無是非，口無虛言，而只是靜觀萬物，平等看待這世上的一切，他是如何能夠保有這份真真切切的「自知之明」？如何在夢醒之際清清楚楚地守著這僅有的清明之心？ ◆養生之主──莊子先是如同一般人，一心只盼望健健康康，無疾也無病，但他還深刻地警覺生命最大的痛──死亡隨時隨處在窺伺著我們，我們又能如何真正地跳出這幾乎無所不在的死亡的幽谷？ ◆人間之世──莊子深知世上難免無妄之災，更難防故意之敵，但我們還是得盡量避禍，盡力解厄，同時盡心地處理好所有與我們相連相繫的人際關係；不過，當不順心不如意之事迎面而來之際，我們又當如何舉重若輕地一肩承 擔？莊子顯然有他自己的法子。 ◆真人之身──莊子不是教主，也不想開宗立派，他只是始終關心本來無價無償的生命到底該怎麼被我們認真地看待，而那「無用之用」的奧妙又有誰能真正了解？ ◆渾沌之死──就莊子看來，「渾沌」本無生亦無死；而如果說我們總是自己在「找死」，並不是死亡找上我們，這雖然看似重話，卻可能有警醒人心的作用。原來，莊子的「生命之壺」暗藏玄機，而縱然生死之謎究竟無解，但 我們又何妨放下心來，自由自在地在這世上走上一回。 ◆自然之道──莊子當然不懂現代科技，但他已經知道運用機械的後遺症。設想時下所謂的「科技新貴」能夠放下「釣魚上鉤」的念頭，靜靜地佇立水岸，觀賞那魚兒水中游，大概就將別有一番生活情趣與生命體悟。 ◆幸福之夢──莊子應該和任何人一樣，都想幸幸福福過一生，但我們到底該怎麼尋找終生的伴侶（甚至是「絕配」）？日子又該怎麼過得舒適？而和自己又能如何做一輩子的至親好友？這些問題的解答，可能就是打開那幸福之 門的鑰匙吧！ 作者：葉海煙 輔仁大學哲學博士，美國哈佛大學訪問學人、東吳大學哲學系教授兼系主任、長榮大學哲學與宗教學系教授兼系主任、台灣哲學學會會長、錢穆故居執行長、台南市哲學學會會長。現任南神神學院神學研究所專任哲學教授、國立 成功大學兼任哲學教授。專長道家哲學，當代新儒學，當代倫理學比較研究，台灣文化研究。著有《莊子的生命哲學》、《老莊哲學新論》、《道德、理性與人文的向度》、《中國哲學的倫理觀》、《人文與哲學的對話》、《傳 統倫理的現代挑戰》、《莊子的處世智慧》、《老子診療室》、《臺灣學入門》、《道家倫理學：理論與實踐》、《哲學與人生》、《哲學在哪裡》等近二十種著作。.

本书凝聚了作者一生的思考与智慧,回应的是人类生活与命运的永恒问题的挑战,杜兰特在书中就人生各个阶段,宗教,道德,种族,性,战争,艺术,科学,教育,历史以及社会制度等问题,给出了充满智慧和经过深思熟虑的 答案.

本书从人类文明发展的历史进程和人与自然的关系入手,着重对20世纪以来日益加剧的全球生态危机进行严肃反思,预警人与自然界“异化”将会导致的不堪后果。.

本书包括“‘五四之子’:文化养成和学业背景”、“西南联大七年的岁月”、“思想的自我放逐之旅”、“自由主义思想背景走向前台”、“跟着‘五四’的脚步前进”、“我不分享这个时代的价值”、“志未酬:晚年的思想 与学术”、“殷海光与后‘五四’时期中国思想的演进”八个部分。.

本书以通俗白话的形式演绎深奥的哲学问题,对于哲学定义、古人与哲学、世界观、哲学的分支等论题进行论述。.

Legal Judgment Prediction (LJP) is an essential component of legal assistant systems, which aims to automatically predict judgment results from a given criminal fact description. As a vital subtask of LJP, researchers have paid little attention to the numerical LJP, i.e., the prediction of imprisonment and penalty. Existing methods ignore numerical information in the criminal facts, making their performances far from satisfactory. For instance, the amount of theft varies, as do the prison terms and penalties. The major challenge is how (...) the model can obtain the ability of numerical comparison and magnitude perception, e.g., 400 < 500 < 800, 500 is closer to 400 than to 800. To this end, we propose a judicial knowledge-enhanced magnitude-aware reasoning architecture, called NumLJP, for the numerical LJP task. Specifically, we first implement a contrastive learning-based judicial knowledge selector to distinguish confusing criminal cases efficiently. Unlike previous approaches that employ the law article as external knowledge, judicial knowledge is a quantitative guideline in real scenarios. It contains many numerals (called anchors) that can construct a reference frame. Then we design a masked numeral prediction task to help the model remember these anchors to acquire legal numerical commonsense from the selected judicial knowledge. We construct a scale-based numerical graph using the anchors and numerals in facts to perform magnitude-aware numerical reasoning. Finally, the representations of fact description, judicial knowledge, and numerals are fused to make decisions. We conduct extensive experiments on three real-world datasets and select several competitive baselines. The results demonstrate that the macro-F1 of NumLJP improves by at least 9.53% and 11.57% on the prediction of penalty and imprisonment, respectively. (shrink)

本书将佛学中一些大师们重点强调的智慧闪光点重新编创,内容包括:活一天就要有一天的意义、感情上的事不可太执着、该出手时便出手、生在红尘中便忙人间事等。.

We empirically examine the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on CEO compensation using a large sample of the US firms from 1996 to 2010. We develop and test two hypotheses, the overinvestment hypothesis based on agency theory and the conflict–resolution hypothesis based on stakeholder theory. We find that the lag of CSR adversely affects both total compensation and cash compensation, after controlling for various firm and board characteristics. Our estimates show that an interquartile increase in CSR is followed by (...) a 4.35% (2.78%) decrease in total (cash) compensation. We also find an inverse association between lagged employee relations and CEO compensation. Our results are robust to the correction for endogeneity using instrumental variable approach. Taken together, our results support the conflict–resolution hypothesis, but not the CSR overinvestment argument. (shrink)

Current work in language models (LMs) helps us speed up or even skip thinking by accelerating and automating cognitive work. But can LMs help us with critical thinking -- thinking in deeper, more reflective ways which challenge assumptions, clarify ideas, and engineer new concepts? We treat philosophy as a case study in critical thinking, and interview 21 professional philosophers about how they engage in critical thinking and on their experiences with LMs. We find that philosophers do not find LMs to (...) be useful because they lack a sense of selfhood (memory, beliefs, consistency) and initiative (curiosity, proactivity). We propose the selfhood-initiative model for critical thinking tools to characterize this gap. Using the model, we formulate three roles LMs could play as critical thinking tools: the Interlocutor, the Monitor, and the Respondent. We hope that our work inspires LM researchers to further develop LMs as critical thinking tools and philosophers and other 'critical thinkers' to imagine intellectually substantive uses of LMs. (shrink)

v. 1. Qian Sugeladi zhe xue yan jiu, Sugeladi ji qi zhe xue si xiang -- v. 2. Si, shi, shi.

v. 1. Qian Sugeladi zhe xue yan jiu, Sugeladi ji qi zhe xue si xiang -- v. 2. Si, shi, shi.

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。.

Impurism says that practical factors encroach on knowledge. An important version of impurism is called ‘Threshold-Impurism,’ which says that practical factors encroach on the threshold that rational credence must pass in order for one to have knowledge. A prominent kind of argument for Threshold-Impurism is the so-called ‘principle-based argument,’ which relies on a principle of fallibilism and a knowledge-action principle. This paper offers a new challenge against Threshold-Impur- ism. I attempt to show that the two principles Threshold-Impurists are committed to—KJ (...) and Fallibilism—are jointly in tension with a widely-held principle of credence that’s called ‘Truth-Directedness,’ in the sense that the former two principles cannot both apply to those who know the third. This tension constitutes a serious challenge to Threshold-Impurists, because it leaves them two options, both of which are undesirable: denying Truth-Directedness, or accepting Truth-Directedness and accepting that whether KJ and Fallibilism apply to a person depends on whether she knows Truth-Directedness. (shrink)

The present research attempts to understand the importance of altruistic and egoistic values in determining consumers’ motives and intention to purchase organic foods. Using the face-to-face survey approach, a total of 1,067 responses were collected from consumers in China. Data analysis was performed using a two-step structural equation modeling approach, i.e., measurement and structural models. The findings indicated that both values influence the intention to purchase organic foods through the mediation of motives. Specifically, the altruistic value influences the environmental concern, (...) and the egoistic value influences the health concern. Moreover, the perceived uncertainty negatively moderates a relationship between consumer HC and organic purchase intention while positively moderating a relationship between consumer EC and organic purchase intention. Several implications and suggestions are also discussed. (shrink)

Selected works of author's on critical analysis on different concepts of Buddhist doctrines and philosophy.

Emotions are now considered critical elements of a successful education. In English as a Foreign Language context, there are many challenges for teachers to deal with. Hence, it is necessary to take their emotions into consideration. Despite many studies in this area, researching teachers’ positive mood, hope, and academic buoyancy has been left less attended. Trying to introduce this line, the present study reviewed the definitions, related concepts, theories, and previous studies done on these three variables in detail. It also (...) touched upon the origins of researching emotion in educational contexts describing different schools of psychology. Additionally, the study offered some practical implications for EFL teachers, students, policy-makers, teacher trainers, and researchers. Finally, it enumerated the existing gaps in this area and made a number of research suggestions for future research. (shrink)

In this article, we examine the empirical association between firm value and CSR engagement for firms in sinful industries, such as tobacco, gambling, and alcohol, as well as industries involved with emerging environmental, social, or ethical issues, i.e., weapon, oil, cement, and biotech. We develop and test three hypotheses, the window-dressing hypothesis, the value-enhancement hypothesis, and the value-irrelevance hypothesis. Using an extesive US sample from 1995 to 2009, we find that CSR engagement of firms in controversial industries positively affects firm (...) value after controlling for various firm characteristics. To address the potential endogeneity problem, we further estimate a system of equations and change regression and continue to find a positive relation between CSR engagement and firm value. Our findings support the value-enhancement hypothesis and are consistent with the premise that the top management of US firms in controversial industries, in general, considers social responsibility important even though their products are harmful to human being, society, or environment. (shrink)

This paper introduces a refined single-valued neutrosophic set (RSVNS) and presents a similarity measure of RSVNSs. Then a multicriteria decision-making method with RSVNS information is developed based on the similarity measure of RSVNSs. By the similarity measure between each alternative and the ideal solution (ideal alternative), all the alternatives can be ranked and the best one can be selected as well. Finally, an actual example on the selecting problems of construction projects demonstrates the application and effectiveness of the proposed method.

In Search of a New Institutional Structure for Chinese Civilization.

Faithful DNA replication and accurate chromosome segregation are the key machineries of genetic transmission. Disruption of these processes represents a hallmark of cancer and often results from loss of tumor suppressors. PTEN is an important tumor suppressor that is frequently mutated or deleted in human cancer. Loss of PTEN has been associated with aneuploidy and poor prognosis in cancer patients. In mice, Pten deletion or mutation drives genomic instability and tumor development. PTEN deficiency induces DNA replication stress, confers stress tolerance, (...) and disrupts mitotic spindle architecture, leading to accumulation of structural and numerical chromosome instability. Therefore, PTEN guards the genome by controlling multiple processes of chromosome inheritance. Here, we summarize current understanding of the PTEN function in promoting high-fidelity transmission of genetic information. We also discuss the PTEN pathways of genome maintenance and highlight potential targets for cancer treatment. PTEN is a guardian of the genome. However, the role of PTEN in guarding the genome has not been revealed until recently. PTEN controls multiple fundamental processes of genomic transmission. By physically interacting with key molecules in DNA replication, DNA repair/decatenation, and chromosome segregation during the cell cycle, PTEN maintains genomicintegrity and fitness. (shrink)

In view of the fact that vigorously promoting recycling has become a viable means to promote sustainable development, it is important to better understand the impact of recycling efforts on subsequent resource saving behavior. This research empirically examines the effects of recycling efforts on subsequent resource saving by analyzing the survey data of 356 college students in China. The recycling efforts, environmental self-identity and feeling of pride were measured using existing scales while saving behaviors and recycling cost were measured by (...) developing new scales. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was performed to test the structural relationships among recycling efforts, environmental self-identity, feeling of pride, and saving behaviors. Further, the moderation role of recycling cost was tested. The results showed that saving behaviors could be classified into two types based on their costliness; recycling efforts have a positive effect on costless saving behaviors, while having a negative effect on costly saving behaviors; both the positive and negative effect of recycling efforts on resource saving is mediated by pride feeling and environmental self-identity; and recycling cost negatively moderates the effects of recycling efforts on pride feeling. We discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of the findings. (shrink)