Chronic back pain (CBP) is a leading cause of disability and results in considerable socio-economic burdens worldwide. Although CBP patients are commonly diagnosed and treated with a focus on the ‘end organ dysfunction’ (i.e., peripheral nerve injuries or diseases), the evaluation of CBP remains flawed and problematic with great challenges. Given that the peripheral nerve injuries or diseases are insufficient to define the etiology of CBP in some cases, the evaluation of alterations in the central nervous system becomes particularly necessary (...) and important. With the development of advanced neuroimaging techniques, extensive studies have been carried out to identify the cortical abnormalities in CBP patients. Here, we provide a comprehensive overview on a series of novel findings from these neuroimaging studies to improve our understanding of the cortical abnormalities originated in the disease. First, CBP patients normally exhibit central sensitization to external painful stimuli, which is indexed by increased pain sensitivity and brain activations in pain-related brain regions. Second, long-term suffering from chronic pain leads to emotional disorders, cognitive impairments, and the abnormalities of the relevant brain networks among CBP patients. Third, CBP is associated with massive cortical reorganization, including structural, functional, and metabolic brain changes. Overall, a deep insight into the neural mechanisms underlying the development and outcome of CBP through more sophisticated neuroimaging investigations could not only improve our current understanding of the etiology of CBP but also facilitate the diagnosis and treatment of CBP based on precision medicine. (shrink)

The content of existence theorems in the calculus of variations has been explored and an effective treatment of semi-continuity has been achieved. An algorithm has been developed which captures the natural algorithmic content of the notion of a semi-continuous function and this is used to obtain an effective version of the “chattering lemma” of control theory and ordinary differential equations. This lemma reveals the main computational content of the theory of relaxed optimal control.

Unethical behavior is under-examined in the workplace. To date, few studies have attempted to explore the antecedents of an employee’s ethical decisions, particularly with respect to unethical behavior and its effects. To capture an employee’s psychological perception of unethical behavior in the workplace, this paper integrates organizational factors into the Theory of Reasoned Action. By conducting an empirical study in a Chinese firm, we found that codes of conduct and performance pressure have a significant influence on an employee’s attitude toward (...) and social beliefs about unethical behavior. We also demonstrated that employees’ unethical behaviors affect the firm performance of an entrepreneurial venture. The insights gleaned from the findings on this Chinese company have a number of important implications for both research and practice. (shrink)

A successful student has been defined as one who not only performs well in academics but is also happy. Hence, how to promote adolescents’ academic success and wellbeing is an important issue with which researchers have been concerned. A few studies have explored the relationship of filial piety to the academic achievement or life satisfaction of Chinese adolescents. However, in view of the close relationship between the two outcomes, the unique effects of filial piety on academic achievement and subjective wellbeing (...) and their underlying mechanisms need to be further clarified. Based on a sample of 677 students in Grade 6 (Mage = 12.24, SD = 0.36) and their parents in Beijing, China, this study examines how adolescents’ reciprocal filial piety (RFP) and authoritarian filial piety (AFP) are related to their academic achievement and subjective wellbeing. It also examines the mediating role of adolescents’ educational expectations in these relationships, and the moderating role of parents’ educational expectations in the relationships of adolescents’ filial piety to educational expectations and of adolescents’ educational expectations to academic achievement and subjective wellbeing. The results indicate that, when the two outcome factors are considered simultaneously, RFP is positively related to academic achievement and subjective wellbeing. In contrast, AFP is negatively related to academic achievement but not significantly related to subjective wellbeing. Moreover, adolescents’ educational expectations play a mediating role in the relationships of both RFP and AFP to academic achievement and subjective wellbeing. In addition, the positive effect of adolescents’ educational expectations on subjective wellbeing is stronger when mothers’ educational expectations are higher, supporting the moderating role of parents’ educational expectations. Our findings provide new insights into and implications for the moderated mediation mechanism underlying the links between filial piety and early adolescent development. (shrink)

不了解日本國學，就無法了解日本社會及文化，更遑論了解日本人 日本國學產生的歷史和背景漫長且複雜， 為了對日本國學的形成、發展、特點及其影響，有較為清晰的把握， 香港城市大學人文‧社會科學學院副教授王小林 以漢字、名實觀、朱子學、疑古思潮等作為觀察對象， 多元檢視日本國學思想的要素， 為讀者提供了相對全面理解日本國學之內在精神結構的可能。 本書作者王小林以「從漢才到和魂」作為日本國學思想之形成與發展的研究、觀察視角，分別從不同議題、現象與學說主張來考察日本國學思想的發展流變。 《從漢才到和魂：日本國學思想的形成與發展》第一章與第二章主要從「漢字」與「言靈」；「名」與「言」，探討了漢字與「和魂」、「國語（日語）」之關係，以及名、言與「實事」、「體魂」之間的演繹詮釋，如何神聖化 日語同時強化日本之神國意識。第三、四、五章則以朱子學為江戶儒學之代表，將之視為日本國學之對照學問，闡述了日本國學之文論、宇宙觀與不可測度之神。第六章則從江戶儒者富永仲基之「加上說」與顧頡剛之層累說之間 的關聯，爬梳了中日兩國之「中國學」背後的日本國學之成份。最後一章的第七章，則闡明了決定近代日本資本主義的「職分」、「世間」這兩個精神關鍵概念，其宗教理論根據其實來自近世日本之國學家。 如上所述，《從漢才到和魂：日本國學思想的形成與發展》以漢字、名實觀、朱子學、疑古思潮作為「漢才」與「和魂」比較的觀察對象，多元檢視了日本國學思想的形成要素，本書所涉及之議題內容，提供了讀者數個面向以思 考形構日本國學之要素有何？同時也為讀者提供了相對全面理解日本國學之內在精神結構的可能。.

The philosophy of sports is a relatively young discipline in China which we argue, can be divided into four stages of development over the past four decades. This paper attempts to map the history...

Social networking sites have challenged ethical issues about users’ information security and privacy. SNS users are concerned about their privacy and need to control the information they share and its use. This paper examines the security of SNS by taking a look at the influence of users’ perceived control of information over their information-sharing behaviors. Employing an empirical study, this paper demonstrates the importance of perceived control in SNS users’ information-sharing behaviors. Specifically, perceived control has been found to be negatively (...) related to perceived privacy risk and attitude toward information sharing, which in turn has an impact on their information-sharing behaviors. In addition, gender has been shown to be an important factor that moderates the influences of both perceived control and perceived privacy risk on SNS users’ attitudes toward information sharing. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. (shrink)

By adopting Habermas’ communicative theory, this paper categorizes players’ actions into four elements. The strategic action involves players manipulating each other within the framework of a gameFootnote1; normative action is manifested in following the rules and the underlying ethos; dramaturgical action emerges through the players’ deliberate presentation of themselves to both participants and spectators; and communicative action reveals the purpose of a game as a way of being. The conceptualization of game actions leads to a qualitative redefinition of the perfect (...) game, which enables a greater understanding of the game, its participants, and human excellence. As such, this paper’s significance lies in the proposal that the Habermasian perfect game is a potential solution to Suits’ puzzle about what type of games can be played in his Utopia. (shrink)

This study examines Chinese undergraduates’ perceptions of plagiarism in English academic writing in relation to their disciplinary background (i.e., hard vs. soft disciplines), academic enculturation (i.e., length of study in university), and gender. Drawing on data collected from 270 students at two universities in China, it finds clear discipline-based differences in participants’ knowledge of plagiarism and perceptions about its causes; an enculturational effect on perceived acceptability of and condemnatory attitudes toward plagiarism, with senior students being less harsh than their junior (...) counterparts; and complex interactions among disciplinary background, length of study, and gender. Furthermore, it reveals conceptions of (il)legitimate intertextuality (i.e., textual borrowing) differing from those prevalent in Anglo American academia and clearly punitive stances on perceived plagiarism. These results suggest the need to take an educative rather than punitive approach to source use in English academic writing. (shrink)

The debate over the existence of a “public sphere” in China’s Late Qing/Early Republican era began nearly three decades ago, but it has yet to generate a special socio-cultural review on the “Confucian social imaginary” of the Chinese people. The article builds on existing “economic-political approach” and “idea-communication approach” to argue decisive factors hindering the development of a Habermasian “public sphere.” These includes (1) people’s traditional-collectivist lifestyle, (2) lack of understanding of “universal equality,” (3) conservative self-positioning during social transition, (4) (...) regionalist attitude toward outsiders, (5) lack of access to Enlightenment ideas, (6) disregard for parliamentary systems, and (7) ignorance of the rule of law. (shrink)

Load is the main external disturbance of a parallel robot manipulator. This disturbance will cause dynamic coupling among different degrees of freedom and make heaps of model-based control methods difficult to apply. In order to compensate this disturbance, it is crucial to obtain an accurate dynamic model of load. However, in practice, the load is always uncertain and its dynamic parameters are arduous to know a priori. To cope with this problem, this paper proposes a novel and simple approach to (...) identify the dynamic parameters of load. Firstly, the dynamic model of the parallel robot manipulator with uncertain load is established and the dynamic coupling caused by load is also analyzed. Then, according to the dynamic model, the excitation signal is designed and a weak nonlinear dynamic model is derived. Furthermore, the identification model is presented and the identification algorithm based on the extended Kalman filter is designed. Lastly, numerical simulation results, obtained using a six-degree-of-freedom Gough–Stewart parallel manipulator, demonstrate the good estimation performance of the proposed method. (shrink)

本书包括绪论、定义、论证、谬误、命题逻辑、归纳推理和类比推理、科学和假说等八章,每章后都附有思考题和练习题。.

On rationalism and Hindu philosophy; articles translated from four Indic languages.

Food turns out to be not only the nutrient supplier for our body but also a carrier of regulatory information. Interestingly, a recent study made the discovery that some plant/food‐derived microRNAs (miRNAs) accumulate in the serum of humans or plant‐feeding animals, and regulate mammalian gene expression in a sequence‐specific manner. The authors provided striking evidence that miRNAs could function as active signaling molecules to transport information across distinct species or even kingdoms. Although the mechanism of how miRNAs are shuttled between (...) different organisms is still not well characterized, initial results point to the involvement of microvesicles and specific RNA‐transporter‐like proteins. These findings raise both speculation about the potential impact that plants may have on animal physiology at the molecular level, and an appealing possibility that food‐derived miRNAs may offer us another means to deliver necessary nutrients or therapeutics to our bodies. (shrink)

The present study attempts to investigate and analyze the relationship between the language used by the Hui nationality, its social situation, and identity construction from a sociosemiotic perspective, and makes a further discussion on the process of identity construction via language convergence, divergence, and maintenance. It goes further to put forward the distinction between social identity/ethnic identity and group identity/personal identity as well as the roles that language convergence and divergence have played within these identity constructions, proposes that language convergence (...) and divergence are the two crucial language strategies utilized by people in code switching, therefrom constructing a dynamic balanced identity system recursively. (shrink)

En este mundo no existen dos culturas iguales, la traducción es una actividad de comunicación intercultural. En la década de los noventa, Suan Bussnett propuso “la gira de la cultura”, y enfatizó que la traducción no se debe aislar de la cultura. Como un importante elemento cultural 妾 (Qiè) es llevada a la novela en Sueño en el Pabellón Rojo. Desde la perspectiva de “traducción cultural”, se pone enfoque en cómo se puede traducir el significado y también transmitir las informaciones (...) culturales de 妾 (Qiè)). (shrink)

On December 3 last year, Comrade Zhao Fusan of the Research Institute of Religion of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences wrote a letter to Comrade Hu Qiaomu outlining his personal reflections on the Party Center's Document 19 [1982].