Social information processing theory suggests that the chief executive officer’s entrepreneurial orientation is an organisational signal that influences the members’ innovativeness. Middle management teams are expected to be more innovative as they connect senior managers with frontline managers in the dynamic competitive environment of the digital economy. How CEOs guide MMT innovations through EO becomes critical in the process of capturing opportunities and creating value. However, previous research has failed to adequately identify distinct CEO EO manifestations with organisational contexts configurations (...) that influence MMTs innovation. Thus, based on differences in organisational contexts and MMTs’ cognition, this study thoroughly investigates how the vertical manifestation of CEO EO impacts the innovativeness of MMTs. We used fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis on a sample of 117 organisations to determine which configurations of CEO EO vertical penetration within an organisation can stimulate MMT innovativeness. The study discovered four first-level configurations that support stimulating MMT innovativeness respectively when the CEO EO is fully or partially manifested, and without the CEO EO. Moreover, we found the internal reasons for MMTs’ information interpretation heterogeneity, which is critical for realising the coordination and unity of entrepreneurial cognition and behaviours. Finally, these findings’ theoretical and practical implications are discussed. (shrink)

This study examines the influence of underwriter–auditor relationship on pre-initial public offering earnings management. Using a sample of Chinese to-be-listed firms, we find that a close UAR, as reflected in repeated collaborations between an underwriter and an audit firm in IPOs, is positively associated with pre-IPO earnings management. This association is more pronounced for firms with politically connected auditors/underwriters, firms with less reputable auditors/underwriters, firms located in provinces with weak legal environment, firms to-be-listed on boards with lax listing requirements, and (...) firms whose auditors are with low industry specialization, and legal liability exposures. We provide further evidence that UAR is associated with greater likelihood of irregular activities in post-IPO period and poorer post-IPO financial performance. To the extent that we control for alternative explanations and potential endogeneity, our results suggest that the collusion incentive is likely to drive repeated collaborations between underwriters and auditors in the Chinese IPO market. Our findings provide interesting implications for auditors, investors, and regulators seeking to understand the Chinese IPO market. (shrink)

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)

Background: In 2019, an outbreak of COVID-19 broke out in Hubei, China. Medical workers from all over the country rushed to Hubei and participated in the treatment and care of COVID-19 patients. These nurses, dedicated to their professional practice, volunteered to provide compassion and expert clinical care during the pandemic. As with other acts of heroism, the ethical dilemmas associated with working on the front line must be considered for future practice. Purpose: To explore the ethical dilemmas of frontline nurses (...) of Jiangsu Province in China during deployment to Wuhan to fight the novel coronavirus pneumonia, and to provide a basis for developing strategies to help nursing staff address personal and practice concerns in order to work more effectively during this pandemic and other disasters in the future. Research design and method: Using the phenomenological research method and the purpose sampling method, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 nurses, post-deployment to Wuhan, who had worked on the front line to fight the novel coronavirus. Ethical considerations: The research proposal was approved by the Research Ethic Committee of Yangzhou University, China. Findings: From the analysis of the interviews of the 10 participants, three main themes were identified: ethical dilemmas in clinical nursing, ethical dilemmas in interpersonal relationships, and ethical dilemmas in nursing management. Conclusion: During a quick response to public health emergencies, where nurses are deployed immediately as a call to action, the issues surrounding ethical dilemmas from several perspectives must be considered. This research suggests that a team approach to proactive planning and open communication during the emergency is an efficient and productive strategy to improve the nurses’ experience and sense of well-being. (shrink)

Background Healthcare professionals, especially professional nurses, experience various types of moral suffering due to inevitable ethical conflicts. Moral resilience is recently proposed as a resource to address moral suffering. However, there is no tool to measure moral resilience in Chinese professional nurses. Aim This study aimed to translate the Rushton Moral Resilience Scale (RMRS) into Chinese and evaluate the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of RMRS (Chi-RMRS). Research design A methodological and descriptive research design. Participants and research context A (...) convenience sample of 411 Chinese professional nurses was recruited through an online survey platform between February and March 2023. Ethical considerations This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committees of the University and hospitals involved. Results The RMRS was translated and culturally adapted into a Chinese version. Neither floor nor ceiling effects were observed. The scale-level content validity index (CVI) was 0.922 with the item-level CVIs ranging from 0.833 to 1.000. The explanatory factor analysis (EFA) generated a three-factor structure for the Chi-RMRS, and the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) demonstrated the three-factor structure with factor loadings for each item ranging from 0.42 to 0.80. The scale-level Cronbach’s α coefficient was 0.811 with each dimension ranging from 0.717 to 0.821, and composite reliability (CR) coefficient for the overall scale was 0.920, with each dimension varying from 0.739 to 0.824. The standard error of measurement (SEM) and smallest detectable change (SDC) were 3.522 and 9.763, respectively. Discussion The Chi-RMRS is able to measure moral resilience of Chinese professional nurses, and has good validity and reliability. It can be used in research and practice to determine the level of moral resilience, thus helping nursing managers to monitor the status of Chinese professional nurses, then develop interventions to maintain the well-being of professional nurses and to ensure quality of care. (shrink)

To explore the motivations underpinning corporate social responsibility (CSR) decisions in China, a country characterized by extensive government intervention, this paper investigates whether building a good relationship with the government is a political incentive that is driving firms to conduct CSR by examining the effects of political connections on the latter. Our results indicate that politically connected firms exhibit better CSR. However, the effect is considerably more significant for firms with existing political relationships. Additionally, findings show that the effect is (...) more prominent in firms for which political connections are more valuable, namely, non‐state‐owned enterprises, small firms, and firms operating in less market‐oriented cities, indicating that CSR can serve as a differentiation strategy to compete against other bidders. Dividing CSR activities into economic, environmental and social aspects, we find that the social‐based activities are more likely to be driven by political motivations. By categorizing CSR and political connections, this paper not only expands the scope of political CSR and renders the generated results that have been mixed together more distinguishable, but also provides a more precise understanding of the fundamental drivers of CSR in China from the perspective of resource exchange. (shrink)

In the context of China’s supply-side structural reform and the concept of green development, we introduce the energy and environmental factors into the analytical framework of the total factor productivity of the logistics industry and use the Global Malmquist–Luenberger index method to analyze the evolution trend and heterogeneity of green TFP in the logistics industry of 30 provinces in China from 2003 to 2017. The results show that, firstly, the green TFP and traditional TFP of China’s logistics industry are both (...) on the rise and the absence of energy and environmental factors will lead to the overestimation of TFP of the logistics industry. Whether it is green TFP or traditional TFP, the main source of its growth is technical progress. Secondly, there is obvious regional heterogeneity in green TFP of logistics industry. Under the three regional division standards, the average annual growth rate of green TFP is from high to low in the order of eastern, western, and central regions. Under the eight regional classification standards, the eastern coastal economic zone, the southern coastal zone, the northern coastal zone, the northeast region, the middle reaches of the Yellow River, the southwest region, the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and the northwest region are in order from high to low. Thirdly, there is obvious interprovincial heterogeneity in green TFP of the logistics industry. The highest growth rate of green TFP is in Zhejiang, followed by Jiangsu and Guangdong, and the slowest growth rate is in Chongqing. The technical progress of logistics industry in most provinces contributes more to the growth of green TFP. Fourthly, the differences of green TFP in the three regions of the east, center, and west are shrinking, which may be σ convergence, but the differences among the three regions are expanding. Compared with the existing literature, this paper applies the measurement framework of green TFP to China’s logistics industry and investigates the regional and provincial heterogeneity of green TFP in logistics industry. The conclusions are significant to understand and grasp the heterogeneity of green TFP growth in China’s logistics industry under environmental constraints and how to promote the development of green logistics in China. (shrink)

‘Ethics first’ reform in China significantly changes the governance framework for the research of emerging technologies. The misapplication of human genome editing technology reflects the urgent need to reform the governance framework. Strengthening ethics governance in medical research has become a consensus in China, where legal and ethical reforms are proceeding in parallel. The protection of human dignity, the prevention of biosafety risks, as well as the regulation of technological crimes are at the core of the legal system, which has (...) been embodied in numerous fundamental legislations following the CRISPR-babies incident. Establishing a national ethics committee to coordinate ethics governance, and reinforcing ethics review and external oversight are significant steps in ethical reform. Essentially, ethics governance requires implementing the basic concept of ‘ethics first’, focusing on forward-looking and preventive governance rather than delayed intervention, while maintaining openness and collaboration. (shrink)

The belongingness literature has largely examined the antecedents of non-teleworkers’ sense of belongingness, but little attention has been paid to what job-related factors could affect teleworkers’ sense of belongingness. Grounded in organizational support theory, our research focuses on why feedback quality from the direct leader brings sense of belongingness and considers how conscientiousness of teleworkers shapes this effect. Based on data from 329 participants obtained at three different time points from one technology service organization in China, our results indicated that (...) teleworkers’ perceived organizational support serves as an essential mediator of the positive relationship between feedback quality from the direct leader and sense of belongingness. Additionally, the teleworkers’ conscientiousness strengthened the positive direct effect of feedback quality on perceived organizational support and the indirect effect on sense of belongingness. The moderating role of conscientiousness in strengthening the link between feedback quality and perceived organizational support was significant for high levels of conscientiousness and not significant for low levels. Finally, we discussed theoretical and practical implications. (shrink)

The processing of words in sentence reading is influenced by both information from sentential context and information from previewing upcoming words, but how both effects interact during online reading is not clear. In this study, we tested the interaction of predictability effect and the preview effect in predicting reading processing. In the experiment, sentence constraint was controlled using all high-constraint sentences as materials. We manipulated both the predictability of the target word in the sentence and the semantic relationship between the (...) preview word and the target word as predictors of the semantic preview effect. The results showed that the semantic preview effect was present only when the target word had low-predictability in the sentence but was not observed when the target word had high-predictability in the sentence. The results suggest that contextual information in reading can modulate the pre-activation of words and thus influence whether the preview word has a priming effect. The results of this study provide further evidence that reading comprehension involves an interactive system of processing multiple sources of information at multiple levels. (shrink)

Purpose: This study aimed to explore the relationship between mathematic achievement and programming self-efficacy, and adopt a mediation model to verify the mediating role of creativity on the relationship between mathematic achievement and programming self-efficacy.Methods: A total of 950 upper-secondary school students were surveyed using their math test scores, the Kirton Adaption-Innovation and the Programmed Self-Efficacy Scale. SPSS-26 was used for descriptive statistical analysis and correlation analysis of related variables. The PROCESS plugin was used to test the mediating effect of (...) creativity.Results: Mathematic achievement has a positive effect on programming self-efficacy, mathematic achievement is positively related to creativity, and creativity also has a positive influence on programming self-efficacy. Creativity has a mediating effect on the relationship between mathematic achievement and programming self-efficacy.Conclusion: The results revealed that mathematic achievement affected programming self-efficacy directly and also indirectly through creativity. This provided certain ideas for the development of programming education for teenagers. Since students’ mathematics learning and creativity are related to programming learning, it is necessary to pay attention to the integration of the disciplines of programming education and mathematics. Further, the cultivation of innovative thinking is also critical to facilitate programming learning. (shrink)

The present study aimed to examine whether the applied practice of cameras in courtrooms plays a positive role in public confidence in legal authorities and how such impact may occur from the perspectives of the Group Value Model and the surrogacy effect. A convenience sample of 170 college students participated in this experiment. The control group read the written judgment of a civil case published online while the experimental group read the same judgment and watched the court trial video of (...) that case. The overarching mediation model confirmed that there was a significant and indirect influence of video watching on confidence in justice in general. The key underlying mechanisms of this impact were the positive perception of the interpersonal treatment by the judge as well as the perceived fairness of the procedure. This study contributes to the currently limited research examining whether and, if so, how courtroom broadcasting promotes public trust through obtaining empirical evidence. It also expands the application of the Group Value Model to a vicarious interaction setting and provides evidence of the surrogacy effect in a civil legal context. (shrink)

ObjectiveThis study aims to investigate anxiety and its influencing factors in patients with drug-induced liver injury (DILI).Materials and MethodsNinety-four patients with DILI were enrolled and evaluated with a self-rating anxiety scale (SAS). According to the anxiety score, they were divided into four groups: the non-anxiety, mild anxiety, moderate anxiety, or severe anxiety groups, and the scores were analyzed based on demographic and biochemical indicators.ResultsOf the 94 patients with DILI, 63 did not have anxiety and 31 had anxiety (32.9%), of which (...) 27 had mild, 3 had moderate, and 1 had severe anxiety. There were no statistically significant differences in gender, age, occupation, and level of education between the groups (F= 1.42,H= 2.361,H= 6.751,H= 1.796, andP> 0.05); anxiety score and degree of anxiety between the types of drugs that led to the liver injury (H= 0.812,H= 1.712, andP> 0.05); anxiety score between the different degrees of liver injury (H= 2.836,H= 4.957,P> 0.05); or length of hospital stay or prognosis between the degrees of anxiety (F= 1.487,H= 0.761,P> 0.05). However, there were statistically significant differences in the degree of anxiety between different degree and types of liver injury (H= 7.981,H= 8.208,P< 0.05).ConclusionPatients with DILI may have anxiety, especially mild anxiety. The occurrence of anxiety in patients with DILI is not related to gender, age, occupation, or level of education but may be related to the degree and type of liver injury. Anxiety has no impact on the length of stay in hospital or the prognosis of the DILI. These findings may contribute to the development of management strategies for patients with DILI. (shrink)

BackgroundPatient-centred care and patient autonomy is one of the key factors to better quality of service provision, hence patient outcomes. It enables the development of patients’ trusts which is an important element to a better doctor-patient relationship. Given the increasing number of patient disputes and conflicts between patients and doctors in Chinese public hospital, it is timely to ensure patient-centred care is fully and successfully implemented. However, limited studies have examined the views and practice in different aspects of patient-centred care (...) among doctors in the Chinese public hospitals.MethodsA quantitative approach was adopted by distributing paper-based questionnaires to doctors and patients in two hospitals (Level III and Level II) in Jinan, Shandong province, China.ResultsIn total, 614 doctors from the surgical and internal medicine units of the two hospitals participated in the survey yielding 90% response rates. The study confirmed the inconsistent views among doctors in terms of their perception and practice in various aspects patient-centred care and patient autonomy regardless of the hospital where they work (category II or category III), their unit speciality (surgical or non-surgical), their gender or seniority. The high proportion of doctors (more than 20%) who did not perceive the importance of patient consultation prior to determining diagnostic and treatment procedure is alarming. This in in part due to the belief held by more than half of the doctors that patients were unable to make rational decisions and their involvement in treatment planning process did not necessarily lead to better treatment outcomes.ConclusionThe study calls for the development of system level policy and organisation wide strategies in encouraging and enabling the practice of patient-centred care and patient autonomy with the purposes of improving the quality of the service provided to patients by Chinese hospitals. (shrink)

A number of existing researches agree that digitalization would facility firms to launch ambidextrous innovations. Digitalization is not only about technological change, but more importantly, the reshaping of the firms’ knowledge structure and routines to percept and integrate knowledge. Thus, some researchers suggest that whether firms could benefit from digitalization varies across firms and industries, since innovation in different firms and industries relies on differentiated level of cognitive and reasoning of knowledge. However, existing studies mainly focus on exploring the firm-level (...) differences, and leave the industry-level difference underdeveloped. In response, this study integrates knowledge-based view to examine how a firm’s digitalization affects ambidextrous innovation, and further explore the conjoint effect of industrial knowledge bases—the knowledge base of the industry the firm is located in—on the relationship between firm digitalization level and ambidextrous innovation. This study uses Python to conduct text mining of firms’ annual reports, and obtains data of 394 listed companies from the year 2014 to 2020. The empirical results show that digitalization level has positive effect on both exploratory innovation and exploitative innovation, and the effect on exploitative innovation is stronger than on exploratory innovation. Moreover, the moderating effect of industrial knowledge base is significant on “digitalization–exploratory innovation” but not on “digitalization–exploitative innovation” relationship. By doing so, this study refines the research on the relationship between digitalization and firm innovation, and confirms that the usage of digitalization may lead to achieve an ambidextrous situation. This study also provides a theoretical basis for industrial differences of the effectiveness of digitalization, suggesting firms considering industrial characteristics to implement digitalization-assisted innovation practices. (shrink)

The present research explored how foreign language listening anxiety affected Chinese university students' English listening test performance and how proficiency and gender mediated the effects of FLLA on the latter. Two different populations from two universities in China answered the 20-item Foreign Language Listening Anxiety Scale as well as a demographic questionnaire and took an English listening test. Analyses of the collected data revealed the following major findings: Five latent factors underlay the FLLAS, when working alone, FLLA significantly negatively predicted (...) students' English listening test performance, and when working with proficiency and gender, English proficiency level, gender and FLLAS2 significantly predicted students' English listening test performance. These findings confirm the negative effects of FLLA on students' English listening test performance. They also indicate that English proficiency and gender mediate FLLA's effects on the latter, with English proficiency not only directly but also indirectly affecting the latter. (shrink)

Autonomous underwater vehicles are widely used to accomplish various missions in the complex marine environment; the design of a control system for AUVs is particularly difficult due to the high nonlinearity, variations in hydrodynamic coefficients, and external force from ocean currents. In this paper, we propose a controller based on deep reinforcement learning in a simulation environment for studying the control performance of the vectored thruster AUV. RL is an important method of artificial intelligence that can learn behavior through trial-and-error (...) interactions with the environment, so it does not need to provide an accurate AUV control model that is very hard to establish. The proposed RL algorithm only uses the information that can be measured by sensors inside the AUVs as the input parameters, and the outputs of the designed controller are the continuous control actions, which are the commands that are set to the vectored thruster. Moreover, a reward function is developed for deep RL controller considering different factors which actually affect the control accuracy of AUV navigation control. To confirm the algorithm’s effectiveness, a series of simulations are carried out in the designed simulation environment, which is a method to save time and improve efficiency. Simulation results prove the feasibility of the deep RL algorithm applied to the control system for AUV. Furthermore, our work also provides an optional method for robot control problems to deal with improving technology requirements and complicated application environments. (shrink)

In order to investigate the competitive psychology of college students in the current context of fierce social competition, this study compiled a competition psychology scale for college students [i.e., the Competition Psychology Scale for College Students ]. The scale was administered online to 628 university students in different regions of China. After item analysis, reliability analysis, and validity analysis, a 6-item scale was finally formed. CPS-CS contains four dimensions: hypercompetitive attitude, competitive motivation, personal development, competitive attitude, and competitive interpersonal relationships. (...) The reliability and validity of the CPS-CS developed in this research meet the requirements of psychometrics. (shrink)

It is important for energy enterprises to research on the investment potential of the energy markets in countries along the “Belt and Road,” which can help them optimize the regional investment structure, reduce investment risks, and conform to the development trend of “going global.” Therefore, we construct an investment potential assessment system of 29 indexes including five dimensions: politics, economy, society, energy, and cooperation and assess energy investment potential of 48 sample countries along the “Belt and Road” using principal component (...) analysis to provide reference meanings for energy enterprises. The results show that the assessment results of investment potential are affected by a combination of multiple indexes. In addition, compared with Central Asia and South Asia, which have weak economic foundations and greater political and legal risks, the investment potential of Central and Eastern Europe and some emerging economies in Southeast Asia is higher. (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic has created enormous challenges for organizations and employees. Due to the effectiveness of idiosyncratic deals in management practices, more and more organizations use this human resource management tool to address the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, whether there are potential risks or negative effects of i-deals in the COVID-19 pandemic environment is not very clear. Drawing upon social cognitive theory, we proposed that i-deals may foment focal employees’ unethical behavior by triggering their hubristic pride, and (...) such process may be moderated by their trait of grandiose narcissism. We conducted a survey during the COVID-19 outbreak and tested our hypotheses with 492 samples from Shandong Province, China. Consistent with predictions, we found a positive relationship between i-deals and hubristic pride, which, in turn, increased their unethical behavior. And the relationship between i-deals and unethical behavior was mediated by hubristic pride. Furthermore, grandiose narcissism strengthened the positive relationship between i-deals and hubristic pride, as well as the indirect effect of i-deals on unethical behavior via hubristic pride. Our findings contributed to the literature on i-deals and provided guidance for organizations to address the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. (shrink)

According to information asymmetry theory and stakeholder theory, this article explores the impact and mechanism of environmental, social, and governance information disclosure on the company’s future stock price crash risk based on the A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2019. We find that ESG information disclosure significantly reduces the company’s future stock price crash risk. This conclusion remains robust after a series of robustness tests, such as PSM-DID. The heterogeneity analysis shows that the negative relationship between ESG disclosure and stock (...) price crash risk is more significant in state-owned enterprises, companies with higher agency costs, and when companies in the bull market. The mechanism is that companies choose to disclose ESG information to alleviate information asymmetry problems and enhance corporate reputation capital, thus reducing the future stock price crash risk. This article shows that strengthening ESG construction will help improve the efficiency of China’s resource allocation and promote the capital market development. (shrink)

Epidemiological studies have confirmed that long-term exposure to road traffic noise can cause cardiovascular diseases, and when noise exposure reaches a certain level, the risk of related CDs significantly increases. Currently, a large number of Chinese residents are exposed to high noise exposure, which could greatly increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. On the other hand, relevant studies have found that people with high noise sensitivity are more susceptible to noise. And it is necessary to pay more attention to the (...) high noise-sensitive people. This study investigated the acute physiological effect of different noise-sensitive groups by indoor-level noise stimulus experiments under laboratory conditions, by observing heart rate variability indicators, including standard deviation of NN intervals, low frequency/high frequency, and heart rate. The results showed that there was no significant difference in HRV between the high-sensitive group and the low-sensitive group at the physiological baseline and the different stimulating noise levels. Then, based on the theory of cumulative effect of noise proposed by WHO Regional Office for Europe, non-significant but observable differences between groups were further discussed. By analyzing differences of the variation trends and the within-group significant changes of SDNN and HR between the two groups, the results tended to show that the high-sensitive group is more affected by road traffic noise. In addition, the values of SDNN and HR showed observable between-group differences at 55 dB and 65 dB which corresponding to the SPL associated with a significantly increased risk of cardiovascular disease concerned by epidemiological studies. According to the cumulative effect theory, these differences in HRV caused by short-term noise stimulation may have the potential to produce physiological response and lead to between-groups differences in prevalence after long-term recurrent effect, and deserve attention and further research. (shrink)

In this study, we investigated the integration between neuroscience and entrepreneurship. First, we explored the concept of neuroentrepreneurship and the investigation of neuroentrepreneurship using scientific research methods. Second, we constructed a road map for entrepreneurial researchers interested in conducting neuroentrepreneurship-related research. This is an emerging research area; therefore, to more clearly analyze the dynamics of the research trends, we used a bibliometric method to capture patterns in current publications on subjects related to neuroentrepreneurship, examining papers published between 1999 and 2021 (...) using the keywords “neuroscience” and “entrepreneurship” or “neuroentrepreneurship.” To identify the keywords, we used two academic databases—the Social Science Citation Index and Science Citation Index—accessed through the Web of Science website. The three keywords were identified from studies integrating neuroscience with entrepreneurship. After carefully reviewing the research papers, we identified neuroentrepreneurship as a novel research area. The outcomes of this study provide a guide for describing the theoretical connection between neuroscience and entrepreneurship. In the future, this field of study should be empirically investigated. (shrink)

BackgroundMild cognitive impairment is a common neurological disorder. Moxibustion has been shown to be effective in treating MCI, but its therapeutic mechanisms still remain unclear. This study mainly aimed to investigate the modulation effect of moxibustion treatment for patients with MCI by functional magnetic resonance imaging.MethodsA total of 47 patients with MCI and 30 healthy controls participated in resting-state fMRI imaging scans. Patients with MCI were randomly divided into true moxibustion group and sham moxibustion group. The degree centrality approach was (...) applied to distinguish altered brain functions. Correlation analysis was then performed to examine the relationships between the neuroimaging findings and clinical symptoms.ResultsCompared with HCs, patients with MCI mainly showed decreased DC in the left middle frontal cortex and bilateral middle cingulate cortex. After moxibustion treatment, the SHAM group had no significant DC findings, while TRUE group mainly showed significant increased DC in the bilateral MFC and MCC, as well as decreased DC in the left middle occipital cortex. Repeated measures analysis of variance showed significant interactions between the two groups of patients with MCI. In addition, the higher Mini-Mental State Examination score was significantly positively correlated with increased DC in the right MFC and left MCC after moxibustion treatment.ConclusionOur findings demonstrate that the potential value of moxibustion treatment on MCI, which adds new insights into the popular view that moxibustion treatment may slow cognitive decline in patients with MCI. (shrink)

Immersive 360-degree video has become a new learning resource because of its immersive sensory experience. This study examined the effects of textual and visual cues on learning and attention in immersive 360-degree video by using eye-tracking equipment integrated in a virtual reality head-mounted display. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: no cues, textual cues in the initial field of view, textual cues outside the initial FOV, and textual cues outside the initial FOV + visual cues. The results (...) showed that the cues helped learners achieve better learning outcomes and spend more time focusing on the areas with cues. In addition, the study found a serious imbalance in the distribution of learners’ attention in each region of the video. The attention directed to textual cues in the initial FOV is much higher than the attention directed to textual cues outside the initial FOV. Adding visual cues can effectively direct attention to textual cues outside the initial FOV and alleviate the imbalance of attention distribution. Consequently, adding cues to immersive 360-degree video can be an appropriate approach to promote learning and guide attention in immersive 360-degree video learning environments. This study provided new insights into the design and development of immersive 360-degree video instructional resources. (shrink)

BackgroundIndividuals who use methamphetamine for a long period of time may experience decreased inhibition and increased impulsivity. In order to reduce impulsivity or improve inhibitory control ability, high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation has attracted much attention of researchers. Recent studies on addiction have shown that rTMS can stimulate different brain regions to produce different therapeutic effects. Recent work also suggests that HF-rTMS over right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex does not affect the impulsivity of patients with alcohol use disorder; while HF-rTMS over (...) left DLPFC could improve the impulsivity of patients with alcohol use disorder and cigarette smokers. However, it should be noted that empirical studies applying HF-rTMS over left DLPFC of patients with MA use disorders are still lacking.MethodsTwenty-nine patients with MAUD underwent five sessions of HF-rTMS on the left DLPFC per week for 4 consecutive weeks. The cue-induced craving and stop-signal and NoGo task were assessed pre-rTMS and post-rTMS. In addition, 29 healthy controls were recruited. There was no rTMS intervention for the controls, the performance of the stop-signal and NoGo task was evaluated on them.ResultsIn total, HF-rTMS of the left DLPFC significantly decreased MA-dependent patients’ cue-induced craving and stop-signal reaction time. For SSRT, the pre-test of experimental group was significantly higher than the score of control group. In the experimental group, the pre-test score was significantly higher than the post-test score. For Go and stop-signal delay, the pre-test scores of the experimental group was significantly lower than the scores of the control group. No significant difference was found between the pre-test and the post-test scores of the experimental group.ConclusionAdd-on HF-rTMS of left DLPFC may be an effective intervention for reducing impulsivity and cue-induced craving of patients with MAUD. Future research with a control group of MAUD that does not undergo the treatment is needed to confirm the effectiveness. (shrink)

Purpose: We aimed to find out the distributed functional connectome of white matter in patients with functional dyspepsia.Methods: 20 patients with FD and 24 age- and gender-matched healthy controls were included into the study. The functional connectome of white matter and graph theory were used to these participants. Two-sample t-test was used for the detection the abnormal graph properties in FD. Pearson correlation was used for the relationship between properties and the clinical and neuropshychological information.Results: Patients with FD and healthy (...) controls showed small-world properties in functional connectome of white matter. Compared with healthy controls, the FD group showed decreased global properties. Four pairs of fiber bundles that are connected to the frontal lobe, insula, and thalamus were affected in the FD group. Duration and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index positively correlated with the betweenness centrality of white matter regions of interest.Conclusion: FD patients turned to a non-optimized functional organization of WM brain network. Frontal lobe, insula, and thalamus were key regions in brain information exchange of FD. It provided some novel imaging evidences for the mechanism of FD. (shrink)

Brain structural covariance network can delineate the brain synchronized alterations in a long-range time period. It has been used in the research of cognition or neuropsychiatric disorders. Recently, causal analysis of structural covariance network, winner-take-all and cortex–subcortex covariance network, and modulation analysis of structural covariance network have expended the technology breadth of SCN. However, the lack of user-friendly software limited the further application of SCN for the research. In this work, we developed the graphical user interface toolkit of brain structural (...) covariance connectivity based on MATLAB platform. The software contained the analysis of SCN, CaSCN, MOD-SCN, and WTA-CSSCN. Also, the group comparison and result-showing modules were included in the software. Furthermore, a simple showing of demo dataset was presented in the work. We hope that the toolkit could help the researchers, especially clinical researchers, to do the brain covariance connectivity analysis in further work more easily. (shrink)

This paper considers observer design for discrete-time descriptor systems with packet losses. By taking packet loss into consideration, the error dynamic of the proposed observer becomes a stochastic switched system. Consequently, the proposed observer is synthesized in a stochastic switched system framework. Sufficient conditions for the stochastic stability with a prescribed robust performance of the error dynamic system are derived and converted into linear matrix inequalities. Not only can the proposed observer deal with packet losses, but it also attenuates the (...) effect of process disturbance and measurement noise. A numerical simulation of a truck-trailer is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. (shrink)

The deviation of the conveyor belt is a common failure that affects the safe operation of the belt conveyor. In this paper, a deviation detection method of the belt conveyor based on inspection robot and deep learning is proposed to detect the deviation at its any position. Firstly, the inspection robot captures the image and the region of interest containing the conveyor belt edge and the exposed idler is extracted by the optimized MobileNet SSD. Secondly, Hough line transform algorithm is (...) used to detect the conveyor belt edge, and an elliptical arc detection algorithm based on template matching is proposed to detect the idler outer edge. Finally, a geometric correction algorithm based on homography transformation is proposed to correct the coordinates of the detected edge points, and the deviation degree of the conveyor belt is estimated based on the corrected coordinates. The experimental results show that the proposed method can detect the deviation of the conveyor belt continuously with an RMSE of 3.7 mm, an MAE of 4.4 mm, and an average time consumption of 135.5 ms. It improves the monitoring range, detection accuracy, reliability, robustness, and real-time performance of the deviation detection of the belt conveyor. (shrink)

Zero-shot learning is dedicated to solving the classification problem of unseen categories, while generalized zero-shot learning aims to classify the samples selected from both seen classes and unseen classes, in which “seen” and “unseen” classes indicate whether they can be used in the training process, and if so, they indicate seen classes, and vice versa. Nowadays, with the promotion of deep learning technology, the performance of zero-shot learning has been greatly improved. Generalized zero-shot learning is a challenging topic that has (...) promising prospects in many realistic scenarios. Although the zero-shot learning task has made gratifying progress, there is still a strong deviation between seen classes and unseen classes in the existing methods. Recent methods focus on learning a unified semantic-aligned visual representation to transfer knowledge between two domains, while ignoring the intrinsic characteristics of visual features which are discriminative enough to be classified by itself. To solve the above problems, we propose a novel model that uses the discriminative information of visual features to optimize the generative module, in which the generative module is a dual generation network framework composed of conditional VAE and improved WGAN. Specifically, the model uses the discrimination information of visual features, according to the relevant semantic embedding, synthesizes the visual features of unseen categories by using the learned generator, and then trains the final softmax classifier by using the generated visual features, thus realizing the recognition of unseen categories. In addition, this paper also analyzes the effect of the additional classifiers with different structures on the transmission of discriminative information. We have conducted a lot of experiments on six commonly used benchmark datasets. The experimental results show that our model outperforms several state-of-the-art methods for both traditional as well as generalized zero-shot learning. (shrink)