While it is widely assumed that greater diversity in corporate governance will enhance a firm’s corporate social performance, this study considers an alternative thesis which relates managerial control to corporate philanthropy. The study empirically evaluates both board diversity and managerial control of the board as possible predictors of corporate philanthropy. The demonstration of a positive relationship between managerial control and corporate philanthropy contributes to our understanding that corporate social performance results from a complex set of economic and social motives. Possible (...) future research and managerial implications are discussed. (shrink)

While it is widely assumed that greater diversity in corporate governance will enhance a firm’s corporate social performance, this study considers an alternative thesis which relates managerial control to corporate philanthropy. The study empirically evaluates both board diversity and managerial control of the board as possible predictors of corporate philanthropy. The demonstration of a positive relationship between managerial control and corporate philanthropy contributes to our understanding that corporate social performance results from a complex set of economic and social motives. Possible (...) future research and managerial implications are discussed. (shrink)

Using agency theory, this study empirically examined the relationship between board composition and corporate philanthropy. Generally, the ratio of insiders to outsiders, the percentage of insider stock ownership, and the proportion of female and minority board members were found to be positively and significantly associated with firms'' charitable contributions.

Based on a survey of 2,361 directors in 291 of the largest companies of the Southeast States, this study empirically examined boards of directors' stakeholder orientations. The results indicate that there exist distinct stakeholder groups perceived by directors, directors have high stakeholder orientations, directors view some stakeholders differently depending on their occupation and type.

This paper examines the fortunes of non-European philosophies in histories of philosophy written by European and American philosophers from the 17th century to the present day. It charts the shift from inclusive histories of philosophy, which included non-European philosophies, to exclusive histories of philosophy, which excluded and/or marginalized non-European philosophies, at the end of the 18th century. This shift was motivated by racial Eurocentrism, which cast a long shadow over histories of philosophy written during the 19th and 20th centuries. The (...) paper also considers recent attempts to produce a more inclusive history of philosophy. By examining the history of the inclusion and exclusion of non-European philosophies in histories of philosophy, this paper seeks to challenge the assumption that philosophy began and has been practised exclusively by European or western thinkers. (shrink)

Tokenisation in blockchain opens multiple new possibilities for businesses and individuals. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are widely adopted by the token owner. While NFTs look promising in many respects in trading artworks on digital platforms, legal risks must be addressed to capture the benefits of NFTs. In this chapter, we undertake a comparative study that offers insight into whether the convergence of law applies to legal issues of global relevance in a digital environment. Furthermore, this chapter studies the most recent court (...) decisions concerning property and intellectual property issues. We conclude that there has been an increasing level of convergence of law towards a harmonised concept of digital assets in a world built on blockchain and tokens. The legal systems have advanced closer towards a concept of property with many shared features. NFTed artworks are considered incorporeal assets that confer quasi-property rights and interests. The jurist must take an evolutionary leap forward to adapt the mechanisms and techniques of law to emerging digital technologies that change the societal ecosystem. (shrink)

Employees in high-risk occupations are exposed to tremendous work acute stress or prolonged stress disorders that are likely to undermine the health and organizational effectiveness. Based on positive psychology, courage which refers to behavioral approach despite the experience of fear could buffer the negative effects on stress. However, there is little known about the mechanisms by which courage decreases the risk of stress. Motivational systems may play an underlying role in this process, as behavioral inhibition system is inhibited and behavioral (...) activation system is evoked by risk or threat. The current study aimed to examine the mediating effects of behavioral inhibition and activation on the relationship between courage and stress in the high-risk occupations. This study recruited 1,761 high-risk employees aged from 18 to 27 with a cluster sampling method who completed Courage Measure, the BIS/BAS Scales and the Psychological Stress Evaluation Test. The correlation and mediation analyses examined the inter-variable correlations as well as the underlying mechanism between courage and stress. The results support the hypothesis and reveal that the behavioral inhibition mediates the association between courage and stress. The behavioral activation of fun seeking mediates the association between courage and stress as well. These findings suggest that behavioral inhibition and activation of fun seeking play imperative mechanism underpinning the buffering effect of courage on stress. Other theoretical and applied implications for desensitizing stress in the high-risk occupations are discussed. (shrink)

This paper proposes a constrained solution update strategy for multiobjective evolutionary algorithm based on decomposition, in which each agent aims to optimize one decomposed subproblem. Different from the existing approaches that assign one solution to each agent, our approach allocates the closest solutions to each agent and thus the number of solutions in an agent may be zero and no less than one. Regarding the agent with no solution, it will be assigned one solution in priority, once offspring are generated (...) closest to its subproblem. To keep the same population size, the agent with the largest number of solutions will remove one solution showing the worst convergence. This improves diversity for one agent, while the convergence of other agents is not lowered. On the agent with no less than one solution, offspring assigned to this agent are only allowed to update its original solutions. Thus, the convergence of this agent is enhanced, while the diversity of other agents will not be affected. After a period of evolution, our approach may gradually reach a stable status for solution assignment; i.e., each agent is only assigned with one solution. When compared to six competitive multiobjective evolutionary algorithms with different population selection or update strategies, the experiments validated the advantages of our approach on tackling two sets of test problems. (shrink)

Individuals often prefer information that matches their needs. In this study, we aimed to explore the relationship between regulatory focus and information preference. Specifically, we investigated the effects of promotion-focused information and prevention-focused information on explicit and implicit information preferences and choice behavior, and examined the mediating roles of information preference. In Experiment 1, we found that prevention-focused individuals were more likely to choose functional information, whereas promotion-focused people were more likely to choose hedonic information. However, there was no significant (...) relationship between regulatory focus and explicit preference and no mediating effect of explicit information preference. In Experiment 2, we found that promotion-focused individuals had a greater implicit preference for hedonic information than did prevention-focused individuals. Implicit information preference mediated the influence of regulatory focus on information choice. The findings of this study may help us understand the psychological mechanism underlying information preference and have important implications for information dissemination. (shrink)

Hormonal changes across the menstrual cycle have been shown to influence reward-related motivation and impulsive behaviors. Here, to compare neural mechanisms of cognitive impulse control during the mid-luteal phase (LP) versus during the late follicular phase (FP), we employed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with an event-related monetary delay discounting (EMDD) behavioral task (study 1) and then employed resting state (RS)-fMRI (study 2). The imaging data were analyzed and related to behavior-associated neural activation. In study 1, women in the late (...) FP showed a preference for sooner rewards while exhibiting enhanced activity in the dorsal striatum (DS), whereas women in the mid-LP showed a preference for delayed, higher-value rewards with enhanced activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). Discount rate (transformed k) in the EMDD task correlated with functional connectivity (FC) of the DS-dlPFC circuitry, consistent with the possibility that DS-dlPFC circuitry may regulate impulsivity. In study 2, the right dlPFC was significantly more active in mid-LP than in late FP, and this effect was sensitive to estradiol (E2) and relative E2 levels during mid-LP. The magnitude of DS-dlPFC FC correlated negatively with psychometric impulsivity scores during the late FP. These results replicated findings from study 1 and further indicated that relative E2 levels may play an important role in increasing cognitive control during the mid-LP, which provides new insight into the treatment of conditions characterized by hyper-impulsivity, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, Parkinson disease, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. In conclusion, our results suggest that cyclical gonadal hormones affect cognitive control on impulsive behavior periodically, possibility via DS-dlPFC circuitry. (shrink)

This article effectively identifies the high and low volatility state of asset prices in China by constructing the MS-AR model, and further investigates the relationship between different dimensions of liquidity and asset price volatility. Moreover, we try to incorporate liquidity into the analytical framework and adopt the TVP-SV-VAR model to study the time-varying characteristics between monetary policy, liquidity, asset price volatility and macroeconomy. The results are as follows: firstly, it shows that the high or low volatility state of China’s stock (...) market and real estate market can be clearly divided, and display the consistency with the trend of asset price volatility. Secondly, liquidity has a strong ability to explain the high and low volatility state of asset prices, but it shows some hysteresis effects. Thirdly, the time-varying results reveal that monetary policy has a regulating effect on liquidity, and the response cycle of quantitative monetary policy is relatively short, which reflects the effects of macroeconomy precisely. However, price-based monetary policy has a longer response cycle and plays a vital role in the anticipatory adjustment and fine-tuning of asset price volatility. These conclusions can provide an explanation for the attention to asset price bubbles and potential financial risks, and offer decision-making references for the central bank to implement differentiated and dynamic monetary policy choices. (shrink)

Han Confucian Confucianism had gained by so living in the leading position in Chinese culture, but after about two years later, a "Yuru" and even "Down with Confucianism" slogan. On the occasion of the next century when the holes become imaging study whether the three inventions - gunpowder, the compass, printing the same become extinct, or will continue to guide human life or thought into the twenty-first century is worthy of our concern and discussion of.

This study examined the relationship between two types of mathematical flexibility – potential flexibility, which indicates individuals’ knowledge of multiple strategies and strategy efficiency, and practical flexibility, which refers to individuals’ flexible performances when solving math problems. Both types of flexibility were assessed in the domain of linear equation solving. Furthermore, two types of beliefs – self-efficacy and use of flexible cognition – were investigated as potential moderators between potential and practical flexibility. 121 8th grade students from China took part (...) in this study. Results indicate that potential flexibility positively predicted practical flexibility. Additionally, self-efficacy and use of flexible cognition might moderate the relationship between these two types of flexibility, suggesting that potential flexibility may lead to different degrees of practical flexibility depending on different levels of beliefs. Implications of these findings for research on mathematical flexibility and for educational practice are discussed. (shrink)

Under the basic framework of self-determination theory, the present study examined a moderated mediation model in which exhibitionism mediated the relationship between online basic psychological need satisfaction and self-disclosure and the mobile Internet, and this mediation effect was moderated by narcissism. A total of 296 Chinese middle school students participated in this research. The results revealed that exhibitionism fully mediated the association between online competence need satisfaction and self-disclosure on the mobile net, and partly mediated the association between online relatedness (...) need satisfaction and self-disclosure on the mobile net. The mediating path from online basic psychological need satisfaction (competence and relatedness) to exhibitionism was moderated by narcissism. Compared to the low level of narcissism, online competence need satisfaction had a stronger predictive power on exhibitionism under the high level of narcissism condition. In contrast, online relatedness need satisfaction had a weaker predictive power on exhibitionism. (shrink)

Slower perceptual alternations, a notable perceptual effect observed in psychiatric disorders, can be alleviated by antidepressant therapies that affect serotonin levels in the brain. While these phenomena have been well documented, the underlying neurocognitive mechanisms remain to be elucidated. Our study bridges this gap by employing a computational cognitive approach within a Bayesian predictive coding framework to explore these mechanisms in depression. We fitted a prediction error (PE) model to behavioral data from a binocular rivalry task, uncovering that significantly higher (...) initial prior precision and lower PE led to a slower switch rate in patients with depression. Furthermore, serotonin‐targeting antidepressant treatments significantly decreased the prior precision and increased PE, both of which were predictive of improvements in the perceptual alternation rate of depression patients. These findings indicated that the substantially slower perception switch rate in patients with depression was caused by the greater reliance on top‐down priors and that serotonin treatment's efficacy was in its recalibration of these priors and enhancement of PE. Our study not only elucidates the cognitive underpinnings of depression, but also suggests computational modeling as a potent tool for integrating cognitive science with clinical psychology, advancing our understanding and treatment of cognitive impairments in depression. (shrink)

ObjectiveWe conducted the following cross-sectional study to comprehensively assess the anxiety among Chinese international students who studied online during the COVID-19 pandemic and its influencing factors.MethodsQuestionnaires were distributed through “Sojump,” and a total of 1,090 valid questionnaires were collected. The questionnaire was divided into two parts: general situation and anxiety assessment of students. The former used a self-made questionnaire, and the international general GAD-7 scale was used to measure anxiety. Chi-square test was used to analyze the differences between groups, and (...) logistic regression analysis was performed for the factors with differences.ResultsAnxiety was found in 707 of 1,090 international students. Chi-square test and multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that the incidence of anxiety was higher in the group under 22 years of age than in the group over 22 years of age ; International students living in big cities had a higher incidence of anxiety than those living in rural areas ; international students who socialized 3 times or less monthly had a higher incidence of anxiety than those who socialized more than 3 times per month ; international students who expected purely online teaching had a higher incidence of anxiety than those who expected purely offline teaching or dual-track teaching ; international students with a subjective score of online learning experience of 6 or less had a higher incidence of anxiety than those with subjective scores of more than 6. However, gender, emotional status, BMI, major of study, vaccination status, and degree type had no significant difference in the incidence of anxiety among international students who studied online during the COVID-19 pandemic.ConclusionDuring COVID-19, international students who were younger, came from big cities, had low social frequency, expected purely online teaching, and had poor experience of online classes were risk factors for anxiety during online classes. (shrink)

While an increasing number of organizations have introduced artificial intelligence as an important facilitating tool for learning online, the application of artificial intelligence in e-learning has become a hot topic for research in recent years. Over the past few decades, the importance of online learning has also been a concern in many fields, such as technological education, STEAM, AR/VR apps, online learning, amongst others. To effectively explore research trends in this area, the current state of online learning should be understood. (...) Systematic bibliometric analysis can address this problem by providing information on publishing trends and their relevance in various topics. In this study, the literary application of artificial intelligence combined with online learning from 2010 to 2021 was analyzed. In total, 64 articles were collected to analyze the most productive countries, universities, authors, journals and publications in the field of artificial intelligence combined with online learning using VOSviewer through WOS data collection. In addition, the mapping of co-citation and co-occurrence was explored by analyzing a knowledge map. The main objective of this study is to provide an overview of the trends and pathways in artificial intelligence and online learning to help researchers understand global trends and future research directions. (shrink)

The relationship between corporate social responsibility and corporate financial performance has long been a central and contentious debate in the literature. However, prior empirical studies provide indefinite conclusions. The purpose of this study is to review systematically and quantify the CSR–CFP link in a meta-analytic framework. Based on 119 effect sizes from 42 studies, this study estimates that the overall effect size of the CSR–CFP relationship is positive and significant, thus endorsing the argument that CSR does enhance financial performance. Furthermore, (...) this work sheds light on the causal relationship between CSR and CFP. Subsequent financial performance is associated with prior social responsibility, while the reverse direction is not supported. This finding supports the instrumental stakeholder theory. As predicted, the meta-analysis results indicate that the measurement strategies of the two key constructs of CSR and CFP explain some variations of the CSR–CFP relationship. Last, this study examines the moderating effect of the environmental context on the CSR–CFP link. This work proposes that CSR in the developed world, with a relatively mature institutional system and efficient market mechanism, will be more visible than CSR in the developing world. The results show that the CSR–CFP relationship is stronger for firms from advanced economies than for firms from developing economies. (shrink)

In this study, we examine whether, how, and when corporate social responsibility increases promotive and prohibitive voices in accordance with ethical climate theory and multi-experience model of ethical climate. Data from 382 employees at two time points are examined. Results show that CSR is positively related to promotive and prohibitive voices. Other-focused and self-focused climates mediate the relationship between CSR and the two types of voice. Moreover, humble leadership moderates the positive relationship between CSR and other-focused climate. Such leadership moderates (...) the negative relationship between CSR and self-focused climate. Humble leadership also moderates the indirect effect between CSR and the two kinds of voice through other-focused and self-focused climates. The findings of this study provide important insights into how and when CSR influences employee voice. (shrink)

Social media platforms have become an important tool for travel advertisement. This study constructs the bounded confidence model to build an improved cross-platform competitive travel advertising information dissemination model based on open and closed social media platforms. Moreover, this study examines the evolution process of group opinions in cross-platform information dissemination with simulation experiments. Results reveal that based on strong relationships, the closed social media platform opinion leaders better guide in competitive travel advertising and can bring more potential consumers to (...) follow. However, being an opinion leader on an open social media platform will not result in more consumer following. (shrink)

Due to the complexity of the network structure, log analysis is usually necessary for the maintenance of network-based distributed systems since logs record rich information about the system behaviors. In recent years, numerous works have been proposed for log analysis; however, they ignore temporal relationships between logs. In this paper, we target on the problem of mining informative patterns from temporal log data. We propose an approach to discover sequential patterns from event sequences with temporal regularities. Discovered patterns are useful (...) for engineers to understand the behaviors of a network-based distributed system. To solve the well-known problem of pattern explosion, we resort to the minimum description length principle and take a step forward in summarizing the temporal relationships between adjacent events of a pattern. Experiments on real log datasets prove the efficiency and effectiveness of our method. (shrink)

When humans are confronted with an epidemic situation or a continuous natural disaster, success depends largely on how critical information is conveyed to as many people as possible, how individuals' emotional experiences of the crisis are elicited, and how their behaviors are directed going forward. Efficient publicity is key to successful epidemic prevention and control. This study explores the role of creative publicity by comparing the influence of creative publicity and general publicity in different periods of the COVID-19 outbreak in (...) China. The effects of creative and general publicity differed across varying periods of the COVID-19 outbreak. Specifically, compared to general publicity, creative publicity had a significant impact on individuals' emotional arousal in the early period of the COVID-19 outbreak while it significantly promoted individuals' emotional arousal, behavioral regulation, and willingness to actively disseminate information in the middle period. In the stable period of the COVID-19 outbreak, creative publicity performed better than general publicity in regulating individuals' behavior. On the other hand, general publicity was more effective than creative publicity in regulating individuals' behavior and actively disseminating information about the epidemic in the early period of the COVID-19 outbreak. In conclusion, creative and general publicity had differing effects in different periods of the COVID-19 outbreak, which may relate to the characteristics of the publicity format and people's psychological conditions in different periods of the COVID-19 outbreak. (shrink)

We examine managers’ earnings forecasts for evidence of incentive alignment or subversion characteristics. We find that forecasts by managers compensated via relative performance (RP) goals are more likely to be pessimistic and less accurate than those by managers compensated via absolute performance (AP) goals. For firms not issuing earnings forecasts, disclosures in Form 10-Ks are more pessimistic for RP firms than for AP firms. Furthermore, we find that RP firms perform worse than AP firms in terms of future stock returns. (...) Overall, our evidence is consistent with a proposition that, contrary to sound ethical business practices, RP managers make self-serving earnings disclosures to subvert the efforts of their peers to meet performance targets more easily. (shrink)

The rate of learning and cognitive development is at its highest level in preschool-aged children, making this stage a critical period. Exercise has received increasing attention for its beneficial physical and mental health effects on the development of preschool children. This study investigated the effects of diverse exercise on the cognition of preschool children. Two classes were randomly selected from kindergarten classes of children aged 5–6 years, and designated as the experimental and control classes. Each class contained 20 children according (...) to the kindergarten class system. The experimental class completed exercises according to the designed curriculum, while control class carried out exercises according to the regular teaching plan, for a study period of 12 weeks. The Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence and the Mental Health Questionnaire for Children were used to assess outcomes, both at the beginning and end of study. After 12 weeks, the experimental class has improved in the “Object Assembly,” “Block Design,” “Picture Completion,” and “Coding” in performance test, and showed improvements in the “Movement,” “Cognitive Ability,” “Sociality” and “Living Habits” in mental health outcomes. Diverse exercise has a significantly beneficial role in promoting the cognitive development of children aged 5–6 years, as well as a beneficial, albeit insignificant, role in their mental health. (shrink)

In addition to what we know as benevolent creativity, which involves originality and usefulness, creativity also includes malevolent creativity, which involves the application of creative ideas to intentionally harm others. This study aimed to explore the environmental and individual predictors of malevolent creativity. We investigated the relationship among childhood neglect, Dark Triad personality traits and malevolent creativity and examined the mediating role of Dark Triad personality. A large sample of Chinese undergraduate students completed the childhood neglect scale, the 12-item Dirty (...) Dozen and the Malevolent Creativity Behavior Scale. Structural equation modeling demonstrated that childhood neglect was positively related to individual malevolent creativity, and the Dark Triad partially mediated this relationship. Additionally, gender differences were found, such that childhood neglect had a stronger effect on malevolent creativity through the Dark Triad among males than females. The results were discussed from the perspectives of life history theory and social information processing theory. (shrink)

Using computers to conduct human body simulation experiments can benefit from both economic and security. However, the human simulation experiment usually requires vast computational resources due to the complex simulation model which combines complicated mathematical and physical principles. As a result, the simulation process is usually time-consuming and simulation efficiency is low. One solution to address the issue of simulation efficiency is to improve the computing performance of the server when the complexity of the simulation model is determined. In this (...) paper, we proposed a concurrent optimization scheme for the server that runs simulation experiments. Specifically, we firstly propose the architecture of the server cluster for the human body simulation, and then we design the concurrent optimization scheme for the server cluster by using Nginx. The experiment results show that the proposed concurrent optimization scheme can make better use of server resources and improve the simulation efficiency in the case of human sport simulation. (shrink)

Employee innovation is the cornerstone of the organization, and the motivation for employee innovative behavior largely depends on the leadership style of the leader. With the economic development of society, the traditional authoritative style of leadership can no longer adapt to the psychological characteristics of employees, who use new-era work concepts, techniques, and social rules (hereafter, new generation workers). Inclusive leadership is based on the concept of “fully inclusive and equitable” in traditional Chinese culture, and it can adapt to the (...) independent needs of new generation employees. At present, the research on the relationship between the traditional leadership style and employee innovative behavior is relatively extensive, but there is little research on the relationship between inclusive leadership style and employee innovative behavior, and this needs further exploration. This paper takes new generation employees as the sample and uses psychological capital as an intermediary variable to explore the influence of inclusive leadership style on the innovative behaviors of new generation employees. We found that inclusive leadership is significantly and positively related to new generation employees’ innovative behaviors. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. (shrink)

Facial expressions of emotion play an important role in human social interactions. However, posed expressions of emotion are not always the same as genuine feelings. Recent research has found that facial expressions are increasingly used as a tool for understanding social interactions instead of personal emotions. Therefore, the credibility assessment of facial expressions, namely, the discrimination of genuine (spontaneous) expressions from posed (deliberate/volitional/deceptive) ones, is a crucial yet challenging task in facial expression understanding. With recent advances in computer vision and (...) machine learning techniques, rapid progress has been made in recent years for automatic detection of genuine and posed facial expressions. This paper presents a general review of the relevant research, including several spontaneous vs. posed (SVP) facial expression databases and various computer vision based detection methods. In addition, a variety of factors that will influence the performance of SVP detection methods are discussed along with open issues and technical challenges in this nascent field. (shrink)

Résumé: O design cultural integra o conteúdo cultural no processo de design. É um meio importante para perceber a inovação da cultura tradicional na herança. O comportamento do design cultural é sutilmente influenciado pela filosofia cultural. Especificamente, a análise do ambiente cultural, a associação semântica cultural e a extração de imagens culturais, na perspectiva da filosofia cultural, ajudam a perceber a explicitação do conhecimento implícito no processo de codificação e decodificação de genes culturais. Selecionamos Ningbo como uma amostra, aprofundamos os (...) genes culturais regionais, exploramos o modelo de geração de design cultural e ainda propusemos a estrutura para a construção de um sistema de serviços de conhecimento de design cultural para fornecer orientação metodológica, para a prática de design cultural regional, a fim de construir capacidades de design cultural sustentável. (shrink)

Gender roles are anti-dichotomous and malleable social constructs that should theoretically be constructed independently from biological sex. However, it is unclear whether and how the factor of sex is related to neural mechanisms involved in social constructions of gender roles. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate sex specificity in gender role constructions and the corresponding underlying neural mechanisms. We measured gender role orientation using the Bem Sex-Role Inventory, used a voxel-based global brain connectivity method based on resting-state functional magnetic (...) resonance imaging to characterize the within-network connectivity in the brain reward network, and analyzed how the integration of the reward network is related to gender role scores between sex groups. An omnibus analysis of voxel-wise global brain connectivity values within a two-level linear mixed model revealed that in female participants, femininity scores were positively associated with integration in the posterior orbitofrontal cortex and subcallosal cortex, whereas masculinity scores were positively associated with integration in the frontal pole. By contrast, in male participants, masculinity was negatively correlated with integration in the nucleus accumbens and subcallosal cortex. For the first time, the present study revealed the sex-specific neural mechanisms underlying distinct gender roles, which elucidates the process of gender construction from the perspective of the interaction between reward sensitivity and social reinforcement. (shrink)

The diabetic foot is a global threat to public health because it can result in infection and amputation, as well as cause the patient to experience considerable pain and incur financial costs. The condition of patients with diabetic foot in North China is distinguished by more severe local ulcers, a worse prognosis, and a longer duration of disease than that of patients with diabetic foot in the south. Through appropriate preventive measures, the diabetic foot can be effectively avoided. This study (...) assesses the existing knowledge, attitudes and practices associated with diabetic foot prevention among adults with diabetes living in rural areas of North China. (shrink)

Previous research has shown that the proactive deprioritization of emotional distractors through the provision of information about the distractors or passive habituation of emotional distractors may attenuate emotion-induced blindness (EIB) in the rapid serial visual presentation stream. However, whether prior memory encoding of emotional distractors could bias the EIB effect remains unknown. To address this question, this study employed a three-phase paradigm integrating an item-method direct forgetting (DF) procedure with a classic EIB procedure. Participants completed a memory coding phase to (...) either remember or forget negative pictures, then performed an intermediate phase of the EIB test, and finally finished a recognition test. Critically, the same to-be-forgotten (TBF) and to-be-remembered (TBR) negative pictures in the memory learning phase were used as emotional distractors in the intermediate EIB test. The results replicated the typical DF effect by showing higher recognition accuracies for TBR pictures compared to those for TBF pictures. More importantly, the TBF negative distractors attenuated the EIB effect compared to the TBR negative distractors, but showed a comparable EIB effect as the novel negative distractors. These findings indicate that prior memory encoding manipulations of negative distractors could bias subsequent EIB effects, providing an important approach to modulate the EIB effect. (shrink)

Teacher’s unethical professional behaviors affect students’ physical and mental health. Prevention should start with student teachers, but empirical research is lacking in China. This study surveyed over 2,000 student teachers from China to examine the psychometric properties of a student teachers’ unethical professional behavior tendencies scale which revised by primary and secondary school teachers’ unethical professional behavior tendencies scale. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis confirmed that a bi-factor model fit the data best. The final student teachers’ unethical professional behavior tendencies (...) scale comprised four subscales, including a general factor and four special factors. The student teachers’ unethical professional behavior tendencies scale correlated negatively with their professional ethical values and positively with perceived frequency of unethical professional behaviors of college teachers around them. The data supported the scale’s measurement invariance across gender, and male student teachers scored significantly higher on unethical professional behavior tendencies than female student teachers. The findings suggest that the student teachers’ unethical professional behavior tendencies scale is a useful instrument for assessing student teachers’ unethical professional behaviors in China. (shrink)

The existing numerous adaptive variants of differential evolution have been improved the search ability of classic DE to certain extent. Nevertheless, those variants of DE do not obtain the promising performance in solving black box problems with unknown features, which is mainly because the adaptive rules of those variants are designed according to their designers’ cognition on the problem features. To enhance the optimization ability of DE in optimizing black box problems with unknown features, a differential evolution with autonomous selection (...) of mutation strategies and control parameters is proposed in this paper, inspired by autonomous decision-making mechanism of reinforcement learning. In ASDE, a historical experience archive with population features is utilized to preserve accumulated historical experience of the combination of mutation strategies and control parameters. Furthermore, the accumulated historical experience can be autonomously mapped into rules repository, and the individuals can choose the combination of mutation strategies and control parameters according to those rules. Additionally, an updating and utilization mechanism of the historical experience is designed to assure that the historical experience can be effectively accumulated and utilized efficiently. Compared with some state-of-the-art intelligence algorithms on 15 functions of CEC2015, 28 functions of CEC2017, and parameter extraction problems of the photovoltaic model, ASDE has the advantages of solution accuracy, convergence speed, and robustness in solving black box problems with unknown features. (shrink)

The aim of this work is the reduction of the throttling noise when the capillary is used as a throttling device. Based on the theory of bubble dynamics, two-phase flow, and aerated supercavitation, four different sizes of aerated devices used in refrigerator refrigeration systems are designed. Throttling noise and the temperature and pressure of inlet and outlet of the capillary are measured under stable operation. To compare the noise suppression effects in different groups of experiments, we introduced the cavitation number (...) to analyze, revealed the principle of aerated supercavitation to suppress noise, and combined the results of Fluent simulations to get the relationship between the noise suppression effect and the aerated quality. The experimental results showed that the aerated device can obviously suppress the throttling noise of the capillary outlet, up to 2.63 dB, which provides a new way for reducing the capillary throttling noise. (shrink)

Female customers are an important market for fitness centers. This study aims to examine successful fitness training health models used by female fitness clubs. A case study approach and the interview method were used to collect data regarding the marketing strategies of female fitness clubs. Purposive sampling was employed to select executives working at the headquarters of a female-only gym, and semi-structured interviews were conducted to provide a context for fitness behaviors and to discuss the business’ marketing mix. Six managers (...) at Curves across six different positions were interviewed. This study found that Curves’ most significant difference compared to other private fitness clubs is that it makes women feel comfortable. Through charitable activities combined with promotions, women feel as if the gym empathizes with them. This study is unique in that it is one of the first studies to explore the business model of the female fitness club. In particular, this research suggests that sports organizations should focus their services strategies on female exercise demands. The findings of this study will support the development of marketing strategies to promote the growth of women’s health as a priority within the fitness industry. (shrink)

Low frequency oscillation is an important attribute of human brain activity, and the amplitude of low frequency fluctuation is an effective method to reflect the characteristics of low frequency oscillation, which has been widely used in the treatment of brain diseases and other fields. However, due to the low accuracy of the current analysis methods for low frequency signal extraction of ALFF, we propose the Fourier-based synchrosqueezing transform, which is often used in the field of signal processing to extract the (...) ALFF of the low frequency power spectrum of the whole-time dimension. The low frequency characteristics of the extracted signal are compared with those of FSST and fast Fourier transform through the resting-state data. It is clear that the signal extracted by FSST has more low frequency characteristics, which is significantly different from FFT. (shrink)