Much of the recent work on the epistemology of causation has centered on two assumptions, known as the Causal Markov Condition and the Causal Faithfulness Condition. Philosophical discussions of the latter condition have exhibited situations in which it is likely to fail. This paper studies the Causal Faithfulness Condition as a conjunction of weaker conditions. We show that some of the weaker conjuncts can be empirically tested, and hence do not have to be assumed a priori. Our results lead to (...) two methodologically significant observations: (1) some common types of counterexamples to the Faithfulness condition constitute objections only to the empirically testable part of the condition; and (2) some common defenses of the Faithfulness condition do not provide justification or evidence for the testable parts of the condition. It is thus worthwhile to study the possibility of reliable causal inference under weaker Faithfulness conditions. As it turns out, the modification needed to make standard procedures work under a weaker version of the Faithfulness condition also has the practical effect of making them more robust when the standard Faithfulness condition actually holds. This, we argue, is related to the possibility of controlling error probabilities with finite sample size (“uniform consistency”) in causal inference. (shrink)

In response to the lack of empirical studies examining the internal disclosure behavior in the Chinese context, this study tested a whistleblowing -decision-making process among employees in the Chinese banking industry. For would-be whistleblowers, positive affect and organizational ethical culture were hypothesized to enhance the expected efficacy of their whistleblowing intention, by providing collective norms concerning legitimate, management-sanctioned behavior. Questionnaire surveys were collected from 364 employees in 10 banks in the Hangzhou City, China. By and large, the findings supported the (...) hypotheses. Issues of whistleblowing in the Chinese context and implications were discussed. (shrink)

Academic integrity policies at 200 institutions of higher education were examined for the presence of academic prohibitions against the nonmedical use of prescription stimulants or any other cognitive enhancing drug. Researchers used online search tools to locate policy handbooks in a stratified random sample of IHE’s drawn from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System database, searching for NMUPS/CED use as violations of either academic integrity or alcohol and other drug policies. Of 191 academic integrity policies found online, NMUPS/CED prohibitions were (...) present in only one. However, NMUPS was addressed in all but two of the 200 IHE AOD policies, often with language referencing IHE adherence to federal or state law. NMUPS/CED prohibitions are predominantly absent in IHE academic integrity policies, raising questions about whether colleges and universities are concerned about the use of enhancement drugs as a form of cheating. Implications for fairness, health promotion, and future research are discussed. (shrink)

Screen time has become a hot button issue in psychology with researchers fiercely debating its mental effects. If we want to understand the psychological dynamics of technology use, however, a numerical conceptualization of screen time will lead us to gloss over crucial distinctions. To make this point, the present article takes a hermeneutic approach to a negative form of screen time known as ‘phubbing’, which is the practice of snubbing conversational partners in favor of one’s phone. Using interview data, it (...) is demonstrated that whether or not phone use amounts to phubbing, that is, whether or not it tips over and becomes harmful, depends on a host of contextual factors such as relation (who), content (what), purpose (why), timing (when), and communication (how). These findings demonstrate that not all screen time is created equal: what is harmful and inappropriate in one context is benign in another, and vice versa. Simply put, screen time is not a numerical entity whose causal effects we can measure and explain, but a meaningful activity that we must try to understand. (shrink)

We examine the relationship between social insurance contributions and earnings management for publicly listed firms in China. Our empirical results show that the social insurance contributions burden significantly reduces the degree of earnings management by reducing the level of free cash flow. Additionally, the negative relation between social insurance contributions burden and earnings management is more pronounced when the internal and external social insurance pressures are high and when the firms are large non-state-owned enterprises. We also discuss the heterogeneity among (...) firms for different financing constraints, external financing environment, regional marketization, and internal and external corporate governance. Finally, we further find that under the dual collecting system, although the social security administration is a better collecting agency, the local tax bureau acting with full responsibility is more effective than the collecting system. (shrink)

If we inspect closely the works that ascend to world literature from the peripheral, David Damrosch’s well-recognized argument that “world literature is writing that gains in translation” may need some revision, because apparently translation is not the sole factor that decides the formation of world literature. Translated works do not necessarily represent the best part in one national literature. Damrosch’s overemphasis on translation differences and untranslatability in world literature tends to overlook the syncretism of heterogeneous literatures: The influence of Roman (...) Empire on Indian Buddhism, the influx of elements from Indian, Arabic, and Persian stories into European writers’ creation, the genres of China’s ancient literature influenced by Buddhism, etc. Furthermore, a great deal of Chinese idioms and allusions appearing in Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese literatures provide us a general view of how world literature forms through exchange and syncretism. On this account, Damrosh’s argument may be reformulated as “world literature is writing that gains in variation.” Variation reflects the ability to absorb otherness and then to create something new. Meanwhile, the perspective of literary syncretism will help us reasonably distinguish world literature and national canons. (shrink)

The pressure control for a liquid nature gas ship is vital for the cargo handling system which is a nonlinear, unstable, and controllable complex system accompanied by the dynamics of time delay. To improve the control effect, this article proposed a robust controller based on closed-loop gain shaping algorithm by mirror-mapping approach. In addition, the complete mechanism models for the system are established to predict the changes of temperature, pressure, and liquid inventory in the cargo tank. The heat exchanges and (...) evaporation of liquid are also considered. By collecting the data from the LNG ship “Dapeng,” the system models are validated. At the same time, the comparative experiment is introduced to verify the reliability and effectiveness. The scheme has been compared with the 2-DOF structure control law of modified Smith predictor. The comparative experimental results show that the scheme proposed in this note has a strong disturbance rejection ability and steady-state performance. The controller designed in this note has advantages of simplified construction method, satisfactory control effect and robustness. (shrink)

This study examines the influence of firm governance structures (board size, independence, CEO duality, director share ownership, and board meeting frequency) in relation to carbon emission disclosures by high-polluting Chinses firms. In addition, the study further examined the moderating role of earnings management on this relationship. In line with stakeholder and agency theories, our study identified that the large and independent boards exercise and demonstrate a higher degree of carbon emission disclosures. However, CEO duality and director share ownership are associated (...) with lower carbon emission disclosures. In addition, the study determined that higher earnings management results in a reduced level of carbon emission disclosures. Lastly, a firm earnings management strategy moderates the relationship between a firm governance structure and its carbon emission disclosures. The findings from the study are consistent with multiple econometric models and variables. The findings from the study contribute to the literature in the areas of firm corporate governance and carbon emission disclosures by documenting the moderating role of earnings management, which is not evident in previous studies; provide an enhanced perspective on the implications for firms, regulators, policymakers, and stakeholders who have an interest in reducing carbon emissions and advancing climate change mitigation goals in line with UN's Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7: climate action, and zero emissions goal by 2050. (shrink)

In place of the traditional epistemological view of knowledge as justified true belief we argue that artificial intelligence and law needs an evidence-based epistemology according to which scientific knowledge is based on critical analysis of evidence using argumentation. This new epistemology of scientific evidence (ESE) models scientific knowledge as achieved through a process of marshaling evidence in a scientific inquiry that results in a convergence of scientific theories and research results. We show how a dialogue interface of argument from expert (...) opinion, along with its set of critical questions, provides the argumentation component of the ESE. It enables internal scientific knowledge to be translated over into a wider arena in which individual nonexpert citizens and groups can make use of it. The external component shows how evidence is presented and used in a legal procedural setting that includes fact-finding, weighing the credibility of expert witnesses, and critical questioning of arguments. The paper critically reviews the standards of admissibility of scientific evidence using the ESE. (shrink)

In the Original publication of the article the revised date was erroneously published as: 20 August 2017 the correct date is: 20 August 2020.

Ultrasonic excitation has been widely used in the detection of microcracks on metal surfaces, but there are problems such as poor excitation effect of ultrasonic pulse, long time to reach the best excitation, and difficult to find microcracks. In this paper, an adaptive ultrasonic pulse excitation device and infrared thermal imaging technology have been combined, as well as their control method, to solve the problem. The adaptive ultrasonic pulse excitation device adds intelligent modules to realize automatic adjustment of detection parameters, (...) which can quickly obtain reliable excitation; the multidegree-of-freedom base realizes the three-dimensional direction change of the ultrasonic gun to adapt to different excitation occasions. When the appropriate ultrasonic excitation makes microcracks in the resonance state, the microcracks can be frictionated, which produce heat rise with the temperature. Then, the microcrack defect can be detected by the infrared thermal instrument through the different surface temperatures with imaging recognition method. Our detection experiments of the titanium alloy plates and the aluminum alloy profiles of marine engineering show that the method can get reliable detection parameters in a short time and measure the crack length effectively. It can be used in many aspects such as crack detection in mechanical structures or complex equipment operating conditions and industrial production processes. (shrink)

Background: In China, celebrities, represented by entertainment and sports personalities, are often involved in charitable activities to assist the party-state in solving social problems. Although previous research has addressed the manifestation of prosocial behavior by Chinese celebrities, altruistic engagements have rarely been theorized from the perspective of impression management.Methods: Based on the perspective of impression management, we use the discourse analysis approach to analyze the interview manuscripts of Chinese celebrities in media reports and then summarize the charitable motives and impression (...) management strategies adopted by Chinese celebrities in their self-presentation.Results: Chinese celebrities’ self-presentation of philanthropic motives in the media can be roughly divided into five categories: motivation for empathy-altruism, motivation for social responsibility, motivation to gain prestige, and pursue fame, motivation to reduce negative emotions, and motivation to achieve fulfillment and satisfaction. The philanthropic motives presented in media reports include the impression management processes of celebrities. They adopt a variety of image management strategies to self-present their philanthropic motives, and sometimes several strategies coexist.Conclusion: Our paper helps to expand the existing understanding of the relationship between impression management and philanthropy. The presentation of Chinese celebrities’ philanthropic motivations in the media reflects the uniqueness of China’s political, institutional, and social environment in influencing celebrity philanthropy. As a philanthropic phenomenon with Chinese characteristics, this study could provide some insights into the understanding of celebrities and philanthropy in other cultural contexts. (shrink)

We derive the exact inefficiency upper bounds of the multiclass C-Logit stochastic user equilibrium in a transportation network. All travelers are classified on the basis of different values of time into M classes. The multiclass CL-SUE model gives a more realistic path choice probability in comparison with the logit-based stochastic user equilibrium model by considering the overlapping effects between paths. To find efficiency loss upper bounds of the multiclass CL-SUE, two equivalent variational inequalities for the multiclass CL-SUE model, i.e., time-based (...) variational inequality and monetary-based VI, are formulated. We give four different methods to define the inefficiency of the multiclass CL-SUE, i.e., to compare multiclass CL-SUE with multiclass system optimum, or to compare multiclass CL-SUE with multiclass C-Logit stochastic system optimum, under the time-based criterion and the monetary-based criterion, respectively. We further investigate the effects of various parameters which include the degree of path overlapping, the network complexity, degree of traffic congestion, the VOT of user classes, the network familiarity, and the total demand on the inefficiency bounds. (shrink)

This work explores the importance of similarity-based processes in human everyday reasoning, beyond purely rule-based processes prevalent in AI and cognitive science. A unified framework encompassing both rulebased and similarity-based reasoning may provide explanations for a variety of human reasoning data.

Event cameras which transmit per-pixel intensity changes have emerged as a promising candidate in applications such as consumer electronics, industrial automation, and autonomous vehicles, owing to their efficiency and robustness. To maintain these inherent advantages, the trade-off between efficiency and accuracy stands as a priority in event-based algorithms. Thanks to the preponderance of deep learning techniques and the compatibility between bio-inspired spiking neural networks and event-based sensors, data-driven approaches have become a hot spot, which along with the dedicated hardware and (...) datasets constitute an emerging field named event-based data-driven technology. Focusing on data-driven technology in event-based vision, this paper first explicates the operating principle, advantages, and intrinsic nature of event cameras, as well as background knowledge in event-based vision, presenting an overview of this research field. Then, we explain why event-based data-driven technology becomes a research focus, including reasons for the rise of event-based vision and the superiority of data-driven approaches over other event-based algorithms. Current status and future trends of event-based data-driven technology are presented successively in terms of hardware, datasets, and algorithms, providing guidance for future research. Generally, this paper reveals the great prospects of event-based data-driven technology and presents a comprehensive overview of this field, aiming at a more efficient and bio-inspired visual system to extract visual features from the external environment. (shrink)

The present study analyses the psychometric properties of the irrational procrastination scale in a sample of United States college students using the Rasch modeling approach. Results showed that the IPS items had a high level of reliability, good content validity, structural validity, and substantive validity, and no differential item functioning effects in terms of gender. The IPS was found to be unidimensional, supporting the originally proposed theoretical structure by Steel. Finally, psychometric implications derived from the results and study limitations are (...) discussed; recommendations for future investigations are also offered. (shrink)

Electroencephalogram has been widely utilized in emotion recognition. Psychologists have found that emotions can be divided into conscious emotion and unconscious emotion. In this article, we explore to classify subliminal emotions with EEG signals elicited by subliminal face stimulation, that is to select appropriate features to classify subliminal emotions. First, multi-scale sample entropy, wavelet packet energy, and wavelet packet entropy of EEG signals are extracted. Then, these features are fed into the decision tree and improved random forest, respectively. The classification (...) accuracy with Ei and WpEn is higher than MSpEn, which shows that Ei and WpEn can be used as effective features to classify subliminal emotions. We compared the classification results of different features combined with the decision tree algorithm and the improved random forest algorithm. The experimental results indicate that the improved random forest algorithm attains the best classification accuracy for subliminal emotions. Finally, subliminal emotions and physiological proof of subliminal affective priming effect are discussed. (shrink)

Resumen: La tragedia clásica en China, como forma literaria única, encarna el espíritu cultural de la nación y posee un profundo patrimonio histórico y un valor estético distintivo. Desde tiempos antiguos, la tragedia ha ocupado un lugar importante en la historia de la literatura China, reflejlas preocupaciones públicas sobre la realidad social y su contemplación del destino humano. Como método de investigación interdisciplin, el análisis de prototipos proporciona nuevas perspectivas y herramientas teóricas para profundizar en las connode la tragedia. El (...) estudio de los prototipos de la tragedia clásica en China ayuda a revelar la trayectoria de desarrollo y las leyes inherentes de la tragedia clásica en la historia. Este artículo toma el marco de la teoría de prototipos para analizar los prototipos de la tragedia clásica en China, con el objetivo de proporcionar la base teórica para la investigación relacionada. (shrink)

We investigated the pairing of a financial news article prediction system, AZFinText, with sentiment analysis techniques. From our comparisons we found that news articles of a subjective nature were easier to predict in both price direction (59.0% vs 50.4% without sentiment) and through a simple trading engine (3.30% return vs 2.41% without sentiment). Looking into sentiment further, we found that news articles of a negative sentiment were easiest to predict in both price direction (50.9% vs 50.4% without sentiment) and our (...) simple trading engine (3.04% return vs 2.41% without sentiment). Investigating the negative sentiment further, we found that AZFinText was best able to predict price decreases in articles of a positive sentiment (53.5%) and price increases in articles of a negative or neutral sentiment (52.4% and 49.5% respectively). (shrink)

In the digital era, big data can strengthen the awareness of corporate social responsibility and make CSR more transparent to consumers. While big data continues to deepen the business transformation of enterprises, it is also a process of constantly understanding consumption and public expectations. In this process, the cognitive structure of enterprises is constantly adjusted, no longer simply pursuing performance but constantly realizing the expectations of users and society in order to maintain performance. Through mass media, corporate media, and other (...) platforms, CSR is easier to affect consumers’ emotions. By reviewing the theory of emotional marketing and related research, this paper focuses on the different emotional ties between CSR and consumers and their different effects on consumers. This paper further emphasizes the profound significance of emotional marketing theory for understanding CSR in the era of big data. In addition, this paper also calls for more research based on big data technology, broken down by consumer needs – more specific attention to the different impacts of CSR on different consumers. (shrink)

Brain lateralization of lexical tone processing remains a matter of debate. In this study we used a dichotic listening paradigm to examine the influences of the knowledge of Jyutping, linguistic-processing demand and tone type on the ear preference pattern of native tone processing in Hong Kong Cantonese speakers. While participants with little knowledge of Jyutping showed a previously reported left-ear advantage, those with a good level of Jyutping expertise exhibited either a right-ear advantage or bilateral processing during lexical tone identification (...) and contour tone discrimination, respectively. As for the effect of linguistic-processing demand, while an LEA was found in acoustic/phonetic perception situations, this advantage disappeared and was replaced by a bilateral pattern in conditions that involved a greater extent of linguistic processing, suggesting an increased involvement of the left hemisphere. Regarding the effect of tone type, both groups showed an LEA in level tone discrimination, but only the Jyutping group demonstrated a bilateral pattern in contour tone discrimination. Overall, knowledge of written codes of tones, greater degree of linguistic processing and contour tone processing seem to influence the brain lateralization of lexical tone processing in native listeners of Cantonese by increasing the recruitment of the left-hemisphere language network. (shrink)

This article describes China’s century-long concern with the professional ethics of engineers, especially a succession of codes of engineering ethics going back at least to 1933. This description is the result both of our own archival research and of “philosophical history”, the application of concepts from the philosophy of professions to the facts historians have discovered. Engineers, historians, social scientists, and philosophers of technology, as well as students of professional ethics, should find this description interesting. It certainly provides a reason (...) to wonder whether those who write about codes of professional ethics as if they were an Anglo-American export unlikely to put down roots elsewhere might have overlooked many early codes outside English-speaking countries. While code writers in China plainly learned from Western codes, the Chinese codes were not mere copies of their Western counterparts. Indeed, the Chinese codes sometimes differed inventively from Western codes in form or content. (shrink)

In this paper, we investigate the ultimate bound set and positively invariant set of a 3D Lorenz-like chaotic system, which is different from the well-known Lorenz system, Rössler system, Chen system, Lü system, and even Lorenz system family. Furthermore, we investigate the global exponential attractive set of this system via the Lyapunov function method. The rate of the trajectories going from the exterior of the globally exponential attractive set to the interior of the globally exponential attractive set is also obtained (...) for all the positive parameters values a,b,c. The innovation of this paper is that our approach to construct the ultimate bounded and globally exponential attractivity sets assumes that the corresponding sets depend on some artificial parameters ; that is, for the fixed parameters of the system, we have a series of sets depending on λ and m. The results contain the known result as a special case for the fixed λ and m. The efficiency of the scheme is shown numerically. The theoretical results may find wide applications in chaos control and chaos synchronization. (shrink)

Resumo: Com o aumento do intercâmbio cultural entre a China e o Ocidente, o inglês tem se tornado cada vez mais um curso obrigatório. Embora uma grande proporção de estudantes chineses tenha boa proficiência em inglês, suas habilidades comunicativas são muito pobres. Eles podem lutar para expressar-se efetivamente em inglês, devido às diferenças culturais entre a China e os países ocidentais. Como o ambiente de vida dos chineses é muito diferente do ambiente dos países ocidentais, os estudantes chineses geralmente seguem (...) sua própria cultura, enquanto aprendem inglês, ignorando a compreensão e a pesquisa das culturas de outros países. Como resultado, surgiu o chamado chinglês, no aprendizado do inglês. Superar essas dificuldades e aprender inglês mais preciso tornaram-se um desafio significativo na aprendizagem do inglês de hoje. Portanto, este artigo fornece uma análise detalhada das disparidades morais e culturais tradicionais entre a China e o mundo ocidental, explorando suas respectivas influências, positivas e negativas, na aquisição da língua inglesa. Além disso, o artigo conclui, sugerindo medidas adequadas para aumentar o impacto positivo das culturas chinesa e ocidental na aprendizagem de inglês. (shrink)