Abstract Objective To investigate the attitudes of Chinese parents regarding the storage of dried blood spots collected for newborn screening (NBS) and their use in research. Methods We conducted a hospital-based survey of parents and examined parental attitudes regarding (a) allowing NBS sample storage, (b) permitting use of children’s NBS samples for research with parental permission, and (c) permitting use of children’s NBS samples for research without parental permission. Results The response rate was 52 percent. Of parents surveyed, 68 percent (...) would permit their infant’s NBS sample to be stored for at least some length of time. If permission is obtained, 69 percent of parents “strongly agreed” or “agreed” to permit use of the NBS sample for research. If permission is not obtained, only 14 percent of parents “strongly agreed” or “agreed.” There was no significant association between permitting use of NBS samples for research and parental gender, education, household income, number of children, or site of residence. Conclusions This is the first survey of Chinese parents regarding the use of NBS samples for different types of research, with results indicating that most parents would permit their infant’s sample to be stored and would support the use of NBS dried blood spots for research purposes. Content Type Journal Article Category Original Research Pages 1-5 DOI 10.1007/s11673-012-9368-9 Authors Li-Ming Gong, Key Laboratory of Cell Engineering, Hospital of Zunyi Medical College, Zunyi, 563003 China Wen-Jun Tu, Center for Clinical Laboratory Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Science and Peking Union Medical College, D101, 29 Zhongguancun Life Sciences Park, Beijing, 102206 People’s Republic of China Jian He, Center for Clinical Laboratory Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Science and Peking Union Medical College, D101, 29 Zhongguancun Life Sciences Park, Beijing, 102206 People’s Republic of China Xiao-Dong Shi, China Rehabilitation Research Center, Beijing, 100068 China Xin-Yu Wang, Department of Pediatrics, Beijing Haidian Maternal and Child Health Hospital, Beijing, 100080 China Ying Li, Department of Pediatrics, Beijing Haidian Maternal and Child Health Hospital, Beijing, 100080 China Journal Journal of Bioethical Inquiry Online ISSN 1872-4353 Print ISSN 1176-7529. (shrink)
Previous literature has demonstrated the important role that trust plays in developing and maintaining well-functioning societies. However, if we are to learn how to increase levels of trust in society, we must first understand why people choose to trust others. One potential answer to this is that people view trust as normative: there is a social norm for trusting that imposes punishment for noncompliance. To test this, we report data from a survey with salient rewards to elicit people’s attitudes regarding (...) the punishment of distrusting behavior in a trust game. Our results show that people do not behave as though trust is a norm. Our participants expected that most people would not punish untrusting investors, regardless of whether the potential trustee was a stranger or a friend. In contrast, our participants behaved as though being trustworthy is a norm. Most participants believed that most people would punish someone who failed to reciprocate a stranger’s or a friend’s trust. We conclude that, while we were able to reproduce previous results establishing that there is a norm of reciprocity, we found no evidence for a corresponding norm of trust, even among friends. (shrink)
This article explores the conceptual and practical gap existing between the developed and developing countries in relation to corporate social responsibility (CSR), or the North-South ' CSR Divide', through the analysis of possible impact on the competitiveness of developing countries' and economies' SMEs and MNEs in globalization. To do so, this article first reviewed the traditional wisdom on the concept of strategic CSR developed in the North and the role that CSR engagement can play in corporate competitiveness, and compare with (...) the impact on the competitive advantage of the South through the supply chains. It points out that among the many factors that could explain the ' CSR Divide', the negative impact of CSR on comparative advantage is the final resort where developing countries are reluctant and defensive toward western-style CSR. It did point out that developing countries are changing their approaches to make CSR work in favor of their competitive position in global trade, such as China who has started to adopt proactive approach by becoming CSR standards-setter. This article concludes with two policy proposals that aim to bridge the CSR gap, the first is to improve CSR standard-setting participation from both sides, and the second to search for solutions in the international investment legal framework which will define corporate obligations in relating to CSR in a more explicit way. (shrink)
Based on an analysis of the origins and characteristics of Intelligent Design (ID), this essay discusses the related issues of probability and irreducible complexity. From the viewpoint of complex systems theory, I suggest that Intelligent Design is not, as certain advocates claim, the only reasonable approach for dealing with the current difficulties of evolutionary biology.
This article attempts to explore ancient Chinese philosophical thought by analyzing how pioneering Chinese thinkers made judgments and inferences, and compares it to ancient Greek philosophy. It first addresses the starting-point and the object of cognition in Chinese ancient philosophy, then analyses how early thinkers construed definition and proposition, and finally discusses how they made inferences on the basis of definition and proposition. It points out that categorization is an important methodology in ancient Chinese philosophy, and that rectification of names (...) and the doctrine of the mean are key criteria in making judgments. (shrink)
In this article, we analyzed the effect of various factors on moral judgment and ethical attitudes of working persons. It was found that the effect of various socio-demographic factors on ethical attitudes varied between the two different categories of ethical issues under study, issues which involve explicit violation of laws vis-à-vis issues which involved social concerns. Our results did not support the implication of Callahan’s hypothesis that males are more sensitive to rule-based ethical issues while women are to issues involving (...) social concerns; it was found that females have a lower acceptability of unethical behaviors related to both categories of issues in Hong Kong, whereas gender effect was not statistically significant in Mainland China. University education also had no significant effect on ethical attitudes. Religion played an important role in affecting ethical attitudes, however, its effect varied with different types of religions; Christianity was found to be most favorable to higher ethical standards, but people of traditional Chinese religion had a higher acceptability of unethical behaviors involving social concerns compared to people with no religion. Our finding also indicated that employees in state-owned enterprises, private employees, employees in foreign-investment firms, and employers in Mainland China all had a higher acceptability of unethical law-breaking behaviors compared to workers in collectives, throwing doubt on the validity of convergence theory in Mainland China. (shrink)
Social cooperation often relies on individuals’ spontaneous norm obedience when there is no punishment for violation or reward for compliance. However, people do not consistently follow pro-social norms. Previous studies have suggested that an individual’s tendency toward norm conformity is affected by empirical information (i.e., what others did or would do in a similar situation) as well as by normative information (i.e., what others think one ought to do). Yet little is known about whether people have an intrinsic desire to (...) obtain norm-revealing information. In this paper, we use a dictator game to investigate whether dictators actively seek norm-revealing information and, if so, whether they prefer to get empirical or normative information. Our data show that although the majority of dictators choose to view free information before making decisions, they are equally likely to choose empirical or normative information. However, a large majority (more than 80%) of dictators are not willing to incur even a very small cost for getting information. Our findings help to understand why norm compliance is context-dependent, and highlight the importance of making norm-revealing information salient in order to promote conformity. (shrink)
This paper reports an instructor and her students’ experiences with ethics in conducting action research in a university teacher-training class. The nature of educational action research suggests the dual roles of the instructor and students, the former as both a researcher and a practitioner, and the latter as both research participants and learners. However, in following an ethics procedure to allow students to opt out of the research project anonymously but, at the same time, not to deny their access to (...) learning opportunities, both the instructor and students experienced tensions as they tried to separate and switch roles for research and teaching/learning. Instead of benefiting from the research to explore and reflect on learning, many students complained about their sense of being used as research participants. The article suggests new ethics review procedures to support and help action research to generate valuable results in teaching and learning. (shrink)
The structural and magnetic properties of Y(Fe1-xMnx)12 compounds and their nitrides (x = 0.2 and 0.4) have been studied by using X-ray diffraction and magnetic measurements. It is found that the lattice parameters increase, while the saturation magnetization and Curie temperature decrease with Mn content increment in Y(Fe1-xMnx12 compounds. Y(Fe0.8Mn0.2)12 compound shows a weak easy-c axis magnetization direction, but Y(Fe0.6Mn0.4)12 compound is in a paramagnetic state at room temperature. Upon nitrogenation, the lattice parameters, Curie temperature are notably increased and the (...) saturation magnetization is greatly increased by about 50%. The easy magnetization direction for both compound nitrides all lies in the basal plane at room temperature. (shrink)
The Region Connection Calculus (RCC theory) is a well-known spatial representation of topological relations between regions. It claims that the connection relation is primitive in the spatial domain. We argue that the connection relation is indeed primitive to the spatial relations, although in RCC theory there is no room for distance relations. We first analyze some aspects of the RCC theory, e.g. the two axioms in the RCC theory are not strong enough to govern the connection relation, regions in the (...) RCC theory cannot be points, the uniqueness of the operation in the theory is not guaranteed, etc. To solve some of the problems, we propose an extension to the RCC theory by introducing the notion of region category and adding a new axiom which governs the characteristic property of the connection relation. The extended theory is named as RCC++. We support the claim that the connection relation is primitive to spatial domain by showing how distance relations, size relations are developed in RCC++. At last we revisit a sub-family of un-intended models in RCC theory, argue that RCC++ is more suitable than RCC with regards to its original intended model, and discuss the representation limitation of the RCC, as well as RCC++. (shrink)
In this work we report a simple way to measure the similarity between two nucleotide sequences by using graph theory and information theory. This method reported allows for theoretical comparisons of naturally occurring nucleotide sequences.
In this paper, we analyze the impact of interaction between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate social capital on corporate competitiveadvantage in a transitional context. Using survey data of Chinese companies, we examine the theoretical relationship empirically. Results show that CSR has no direct association with corporate financial performance or organizational reputation. However, corporate social capital can very much magnify the impact of CSR in a transitional context. Specifically, the social responsibility of a firm with higher social capital is more (...) positively related to organizational reputation than that of a firm with lower social capital, and this expands the theory of CSR. We present the strategic implication that the interaction between CSR and social capital improves corporate sustainable advantage. (shrink)
Apoptosis proteins have a central role in the development and homeostasis of an organism. These proteins are very important for understanding the mechanism of programmed cell death, and their function is related to their types. According to the classification scheme by Zhou and Doctor (2003), the apoptosis proteins are categorized into the following four types: (1) cytoplasmic protein; (2) plasma membrane-bound protein; (3) mitochondrial inner and outer proteins; (4) other proteins. A powerful learning machine, the Support Vector Machine, is applied (...) for predicting the type of a given apoptosis protein by incorporating the sqrt-amino acid composition effect. High success rates were obtained by the re-substitute test (98/98 = 100 %) and the jackknife test (89/98 = 90.8%). (shrink)
The problem of the existence of a universal structure omitting a finite set of forbidden substructures is reducible to the corresponding problem in the category of graphs with a vertex coloring by two colors. It is not known whether this problem reduces further to the category of ordinary graphs. It is also not known whether these problems are decidable.
We have refined entropy theory to explore the meaning of the increasing sequence data on nucleic acids and proteins more conveniently. The concept of selection constraint was not introduced, only the analyzed sequences themselves were considered. The refined theory serves as a basis for deriving a method to analyze non-coding regions (NCRs) as well as coding regions. Positions with maximal entropy might play the most important role in genome functions as opposed to positions with minimal entropy. This method was tested (...) in the well-characterized coding regions of 12 strains of Classical Swine Fever Virus (CSFV) and non-coding regions of 20 strains of CSFV. It is suitable to analyze nucleic acid sequences of a complete genome and to detect sensitive positions for mutagenesis. As such, the method serves to formulate the basis for elucidating the functional mechanism. (shrink)
This paper traces Hegel’s conception of consciousness back to Hölderlin and argues accordingly that the structure of judging, which Hegel links to an attitude of knowing, determines the standpoint of consciousness to be overcome through the Phenomenology of Spirit. Taking Hegel’s texts into consideration comprehensively, it is then argued that a shape of consciousness is concerned withadvancing its own nominal definition of the concept “Truth,” which is a concept reflecting a culture’s way to organize its life. The Phenomenology, accordingly, should (...) be understood as an enterprise demonstrating that, though advancing their own definitions, shapes of consciousness nonetheless participate in the development of one single concept of the Truth. (shrink)
This paper attempts to engage with theoretical discourses to address these intersections of gender, body, and space in the forefront of contemporary Chinese visual artists’ radical performances. From Cui Xiuwen’s scandalous video installation Lady’s of the female bathroom in Tianshang Renjian Hotel to Ma Liuming’s iconic androgynous walk on the Great Wall, contemporary Chinese visual/performance artists have challenged the limits and borders of body as art in radically experimental ways. Feminist art has been liberated from female painting in the post-socialist (...) era, and gender hierarchy and norms have been more profoundly critiqued in these performative events. Pressed by the post-socialist political conditions, market economy, the influence of western art in the era of late capitalism, and the Confucian-Taoist tradition, the Chinese artists have embarked on an experimental journey, attempting to articulate a newness of their complicated lived experiences and to call for social and political transformations. (shrink)
1. Juan shou -- 2. Da zong hu zhi yi -- 3. Da zong hu zhi er -- 3. Linyi hu. Mengcun hu -- 4. Daogou hu -- 6. Tengyang hu zhi yi -- 7. Tengyang hu zhi er -- 8. Jiu Xian hu -- 9. Zhongji hu -- 10. Caizhuang hu. Daizhuang hu. Liyuan hu -- 11. Shizhuang hu. Sibei hu -- 12. Dianbei hu. Xiguo hu -- 13. Xianyuan hu. Quannan hu. Qiwang hu. Chengguo hu -- 14. Miaokong (...) hu. Wenxian hu. Yibei hu -- 15. Hongmen hu. Shi Cun hu. Luxian hu. Yiyang hu. Kong Cun hu. Wangtang hu. Xiaozhuang hu. Gongduan hu -- 16. Huadian hu -- 17. Gucheng hu. Gangshan hu -- 18. Lucheng hu zhi yi -- 19. Lucheng hu zhi er -- 20. Kongtun hu. Xicheng hu. Jiucheng hu -- 21. Lüguan hu zhi yi -- 22. Lüguan hu zhi er -- 23. Lüguan hu zhi san -- 24. Lüguan hu zhi si -- 25. Linqian hu. Fangxi hu. Linmen hu -- 26. Guanzhuang hu. Daxue hu -- 27. Guangwen hu -- 28. Xiaoxue hu. Taole hu. Beigong hu -- 29. Zhifang hu. Dongzhuang hu. Fangshang hu. Gaozhuang hu. Nangong hu -- 30. Xing Cun hu. Guliu hu. Wu Sun hu. Dong Cun hu. Mozhuang hu -- 31. Zhangqu hu. Xizou hu -- 32. Xilin hu. Linxi hu -- 33. Nanzong pai -- 34. Jiangxi Xinjian zhi. Sichuan Langzhong zhi. Zhejiang Wenling zhi. Zhejiang Qiantang zhi -- 35. Qingping Kongzhuang zhi. Guangdong Nanhai Dali zhi. Henan Taikang zhi --. (shrink)
