The Streptococcus pyogenes CRISPR‐Cas system has gained widespread application as a genome editing and gene regulation tool as simultaneous cellular delivery of the Cas9 protein and guide RNAs enables recognition of specific DNA sequences. The recent discovery that Cas9 can also bind and cleave RNA in an RNA‐programmable manner indicates the potential utility of this system as a universal nucleic acid‐recognition technology. RNA‐targeted Cas9 (RCas9) could allow identification and manipulation of RNA substrates in live cells, empowering the study of cellular (...) gene expression, and could ultimately spawn patient‐ and disease‐specific diagnostic and therapeutic tools. Here we describe the development of RCas9 and compare it to previous methods for RNA targeting, including engineered RNA‐binding proteins and other types of CRISPR‐Cas systems. We discuss potential uses ranging from live imaging of transcriptional dynamics to patient‐specific therapies and applications in synthetic biology. (shrink)

The purpose of this study was to develop a Physician's Spiritual Well-Being Scale (PSpWBS). The significance of a physician's spiritual well-being was explored through in-depth interviews with and qualitative data collection from focus groups. Based on the results of qualitative analysis and related literature, the PSpWBS consisting of 25 questions was established. Reliability and validity tests were performed on 177 subjects. Four domains of the PSpWBS were devised: physician's characteristics; medical practice challenges; response to changes; and overall well-being. The explainable (...) total variance was 65.65%. Cronbach α was 0.864 when the internal consistency of the whole scale was calculated. Factor analysis showed that the internal consistency Cronbach α value for each factor was between 0.625 and 0.794 and the split-half reliability was 0.865. The scale has satisfactory reliability and validity and could serve as the basis for assessment of the spiritual well-being of a physician. (shrink)

In this chapter we extend earlier work (Vinuesa et al., Nat Commun 11, 2020) on the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) proposed by the United Nations (UN) for the 2030 Agenda. The present contribution focuses on three SDGs related to healthy and sustainable societies, i.e., SDG 3 (on good health), SDG 11 (on sustainable cities), and SDG 13 (on climate action). This chapter extends the previous study within those three goals and goes (...) beyond the 2030 targets. These SDGs are selected because they are closely related to the coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic and also to crises like climate change, which constitute important challenges to our society. (shrink)

Resumen: La esencia del desarrollo del ecoturismo moderno reside en la coexistencia armónica y armoniosa de la relación entre el hombre y la naturaleza, que es la práctica ecológica del turismo bajo el trasfondo del desarrollo sostenible moderno. El desarrollo del turismo tradicional se centra en los intereses económicos y descuida la protección sostenible de la ecología turística, y el ecoturismo se ha convertido gradualmente en la dirección de desarrollo y reforma del turismo contemporáneo. El taoísmo hace hincapié en seguir (...) a la naturaleza, lo que tiene evidentes tendencias naturalistas, proporciona diferentes perspectivas filosóficas clásicas tradicionales para comprender la relación entre la naturaleza y el desarrollo humano, y tiene un importante significado esclarecedor para promover el desarrollo común del hombre y la naturaleza. El taoísmo aboga por respetar e imitar las leyes del desarrollo natural, persiguiendo la armonía general entre el hombre y la naturaleza, y es coherente con la naturaleza intrínseca del ecoturismo moderno. Por lo tanto, basándose en el pensamiento ecológico taoísta, la investigación explora la vía de desarrollo de la cultura ecoturística sostenible contemporánea y proporciona orientación teórica para el desarrollo armonioso y la unidad del hombre y la naturaleza. (shrink)

该书收入的论文分为三部分。第一部分的六篇论文探讨了文化和宗教对话的理论基础;第二部分九篇论文则是具体的宗教比较和对话;第三部分的四篇论文则把重点放在中国宗教的研究上。.

Rising negative emotions are like “time bombs” that impede productivity in the workplace. The present investigation provides an insight into the effects of defensive silence and defensive voice on counterproductive work behavior through knowledge hiding in the context of knowledge workers in Chinese academic institutions. Partial least square structural equation modeling was applied to the current samples. The study obtained conjecture the proposed mediating role of knowledge hiding between the negative working attitude and counterproductive work behavior, which is against the (...) organizational norms and performance. The result indicates that the positive relationships exist from defensive silence and defensive voice to counterproductive work behavior, mediated by knowledge hiding. This study links knowledge hiding literature and stimulus-organism-response to better explore the academic behavior in a knowledge setting. (shrink)

Previous studies have shown that the motion intention recognition for lower limb prosthesis mainly focused on the identification of performed gait. However, the bionic prosthesis needs to know the next movement at the beginning of a new gait, especially in complex operation environments. In this paper, an upcoming locomotion prediction scheme via multilevel classifier fusion was proposed for the complex operation. At first, two motion states, including steady state and transient state, were defined. Steady-state recognition was backtracking of a completed (...) gait, which would be used as prior knowledge of motion prediction. In steady-state recognition, surface electromyographic and inertial sensors were fused to improve recognition accuracy; five typical locomotion modes were recognized by random forest classifier with over 97.8% accuracy. The transient state was defined as an observation period at the initial stage of upcoming movement, in which only the sEMG signal was recorded due to the limitation of sliding window length. LightGBM classifier was validated to outperform other methods in the accuracy and prediction time of transient-state recognition. Finally, a simplified HMM model based on prior knowledge and observation result was constructed to predict upcoming locomotion. The results indicated that the locomotion prediction was over 91% accuracy. The proposed scheme implements the locomotion prediction at the initial stage of each gait and provides critical information for the gait control of lower limb prosthesis. (shrink)

Human resource management (HRM) is underpinned by, and contributes to, the business ethics of the organization. Opportunities available to men and women as managers, and the role of managers more broadly, are critical in shaping business ethics in contemporary organizations. Research on women in management therefore provides an important lens through which to understand the institutional and cultural context of HR ethics as part of the business ethics of a country. To date, women in management in China remains an under-charted (...) topic of research in the HRM field. Extant research and recommendations on the improvement of the position of women in management in China focus primarily on women themselves from a traditional, gender norm angle, instead of challenging the political and patriarchal system or any institutionalized discriminatory practice. This is, in part, due to the absence in China of a critical feminism approach or feminist movement, as found in Western societies, and the continuing strong influence of the state and media in portraying women’s (stereotypical) image. There is significant room for research capacity building in scholarship on women in management research, for example, and through cross-fertilization of different disciplines and more rigorous research design and execution. This paper provides a critical analysis of extant literature on women in management and the ideologies underpinning it, and offers some suggestions for future research and conceptualization. (shrink)

This study examines the associations of constructivist beliefs and classroom climate on teachers' self-efficacy in instruction, classroom management, and student engagement among Australian secondary mathematics teachers. To do this, it uses the integrated model of teachers' self-efficacy with the concept of analysis of teaching tasks. The study uses structural equation modeling to analyze data from 495 mathematics teachers in the Teaching and Learning International Survey 2013. The results reveal the integrated model is a valid theoretical framework to explain Australian secondary (...) mathematics teachers' self-efficacy. Teachers' constructivist beliefs and classroom climate are positively and statistically significantly related to teachers' self-efficacy in instruction, classroom management and student engagement. In contrast, constructivist beliefs have no significant correlation with classroom climate. (shrink)

We investigate the role of social-media-triggered public pressure on corporate social responsibility that includes expectations of transparency and accountability on the firm’s part, and participative/evaluative inputs on the public’s part. Using the date when S&P 500 firms established corporate Twitter accounts, we investigate the impact of corporate social media exposure on CSR outcomes. Results from baseline regressions indicate that firms with Twitter accounts significantly outperform industry peers in CSR rating, after controlling for firm and industry characteristics. To test potential reverse (...) causality, we use a dynamic treatment effect model to explore within firm changes of CSR, and find that firms’ CSR rating improves in year one- and year two after establishing a Twitter account, while no difference emerged in similar comparisons with peers prior to the Twitter account establishment. Additionally, Granger causality tests results show that corporate Twitter presence improves CSR performance; it is also shown that CSR outcomes do not motivate corporations to establish a social media presence on Twitter. Finally, firms with more experience on Twitter, and those with more followers, tweets or Twitter accounts are associated with improved CSR outcomes. We draw on two theories and qualitative interviews with senior CSR executives to explain why social media influences CSR firm behaviors. (shrink)

With the rapid development of technologies, online learning, especially email dialogue journaling, has been playing an increasingly important role in foreign language learning and teaching in recent years. While many studies have examined the effect of email learning on student learning performance, few have looked into students? attitudes towards email application and its impact on their learning outcomes. Positive user attitudes (high self?efficacy) have been considered critical factors that contribute to the subsequent and successful academic performance. By integrating email for (...) the reading learning process, this study developed an electronic?based peer collaborative environment to explore students? attitudes towards email application in reading classes. Specifically, the relationship between students? self?efficacy and their reading performance was examined. The results demonstrate that most students maintain positive attitudes towards the potential outcomes of email application on reading achievement. Furthermore, the feature of electronic discussion has a greater direct effect on the reading enhancement. Implications of certain designs of email tasks for an enhanced second language reading development are presented. (shrink)

Volatility is widely used in different financial areas, and forecasting the volatility of financial assets can be valuable. In this paper, we use deep neural network and long short-term memory model to forecast the volatility of stock index. Most related research studies use distance loss function to train the machine learning models, and they gain two disadvantages. The first one is that they introduce errors when using estimated volatility to be the forecasting target, and the second one is that their (...) models cannot be compared to econometric models fairly. To solve these two problems, we further introduce a likelihood-based loss function to train the deep learning models and test all the models by the likelihood of the test sample. The results show that our deep learning models with likelihood-based loss function can forecast volatility more precisely than the econometric model and the deep learning models with distance loss function, and the LSTM model is the better one in the two deep learning models with likelihood-based loss function. (shrink)

This study investigated the immediate and delayed effects of moderate-intensity continuous exercise and high-intensity interval exercise on working memory. Fifty healthy young adults engaged in a MICE session, 20 min of continuous running on a treadmill at an intensity of 40–59% of heart rate reserve ; a HIIE session, 10 sets of 1 min running at an intensity of 90% HRR, interspersed by 1 min self-paced walking at 50% HRR; and a control session, resting in a chair and reading books (...) for 24 min. A spatial 2-back task was performed to assess working memory before, immediately after and 30 min after each intervention. Reaction time in the 2-back task was significantly reduced immediately after both MICE and HIIE interventions. The enhanced working memory associated with HIIE sustained for 30 min after the exercise, whereas the beneficial effects associated with MICE returned to the pre-exercise level at 30 min after the exercise. These results suggest that although both MICE and HIIE enhance working memory in young adults, the positive effect sustains longer in HIIE than that in MICE. The current study extends the existing knowledge base by suggesting that improvements in working memory with HIIE last longer than with MICE. (shrink)

The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) simulates uncertain gains and losses in real life situations and thus is a good measure of uncertain decision making. The role of working memory (WM) in IGT performance still remains unclear. The present study aimed to examine the effect of WM on IGT performance. Three groups of participants matched on gender ratio were randomly assigned to no WM load, low WM load, and high WM load conditions. Initially the three groups did not show significant difference (...) in WM capacity. They finished a modified version of IGT and then their implicit learning effect and explicit cognition on IGT were assessed. Results indicated a linear increasing trend of IGT performance among high WM load, low WM load and no WM load groups; participants in the no WM load and low WM load groups revealed implicit learning effect, while participants in the high WM load group did not; all participants showed explicit cognition on IGT to the same level. These results suggested that participants in the high WM load group showed good explicit cognition to IGT but showed poor performance. This pattern is similar to frontal patients. Further studies should be conducted to explore this issue. (shrink)

Since the late 2000s, linguistic representations of economic inequality in public discourse have aroused a heightened interest among scholars within content-analytic critical discourse analysis (CD...

Probably nothing is more complicated, misunderstood, and thus damaged, in a way of speaking, than the viewpoint of "one divides into two" when criticism is being made of the various fallacies spread by Lin Biao and the "gang of four." Some people hold that Lin and the gang's activities to split the Party and their philosophy of making others suffer were related to this viewpoint and thus conclude that this viewpoint is one-sided. Others are of the opinion that this viewpoint (...) constitutes the philosophical base for the ultra-Left line. Such ideas circulate even among a part of the philosophy researchers. It is necessary to repudiate the gang's distorted and subjective explanation and application of the viewpoint "one divides into two"; so is the exposure of a certain simplistic tendency in our previous propaganda work. However, it is inappropriate to view the distortion and simplification as something inherent in the proposition that "one divides into two." After all, is such a proposition scientific or not? Should it be seen as a "mistake" or a "heresy" that ought to be taken out from Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought? This, of course, is an issue of theoretical principle and must be clarified through discussion. (shrink)

This study inspected the effect of Massive Open Online Course and flipped instruction on EFL learners’ foreign language speaking anxiety, foreign language learning motivation, and attitude toward English learning. To fulfill this objective, the Oxford Quick Placement Test was given to 160 Iranian EFL learners, of whom 120 upper-intermediate participants were chosen and divided into two experimental groups—MOOC and flipped —and one control group. After that, all selected participants were administered a speaking anxiety questionnaire and a motivation questionnaire as the (...) pre-test of the research. Then, one of the experimental groups received an online-based instruction via Skype: one conversation was instructed to this group online every session. The other experimental group received the treatment via flipped-based instruction. The audio files and the texts of the conversations were sent to this group via the WhatsApp application because they all had easy access to it. On the other hand, the control group did not receive any Internet-delivered treatment yet was trained through a face-to-face method. This process continued until the last session, and after the treatment period, the post-tests of speaking anxiety and motivation were given to all three groups to determine the effectiveness of the treatment. Moreover, two attitude questionnaires were administered to the experimental groups to examine their attitudes toward the MOOC and the flipped models of instructions. The findings of the One-way ANOVA test, Post-hoc Scheffe test, and paired samples t-test showed that there were significant differences between the post-test of the experimental groups and the control group. The results indicated that the experimental groups significantly outflanked the control group after the treatment. Lastly, the outcomes showed that participants in both experimental groups had positive attitudes toward technological-based instructional environments. (shrink)