Due to the adverse effects of teachers’ burnout on their professional performance, remarkable attention has been devoted to this mental state and its negative predictors. In this regard, multiple empirical research has been carried out to assess the effects of grit and self-efficacy as negative predictors of teacher burnout. Yet, no empirical or review study has delved into the impact of these variables at the same time. The current study attempts to fill this gap by delineating the impact of English (...) as a Foreign Language teachers’ grit and self-efficacy on their burnout. The significant role of grit and self-efficacy in curbing EFL teachers’ burnout was illustrated using theoretical and empirical evidence. The pedagogical implications are also offered. (shrink)

In recent years, attention to researchers’ scientific misconduct has increased dramatically. Although existing research reflects a shared value that occupational calling is an ethical good (i.e., being more likely to make ethical choices), no empirical study has yet examined the ethical outcomes of occupational calling. Drawing on the integrated ethical decision-making model (I-EDM), this study first investigated _whethe_r occupational calling inhibits researchers’ unethical decision-making. Secondly, it examined _why_ and _when_ occupational calling relates to researchers’ unethical decision-making. The findings from a (...) four-wave survey, with 257 researchers working in research roles in universities in China, reveal that occupational calling (time 1) inhibits researchers’ unethical decision-making (time 4). Moral disengagement (time 3) provides an explanation for the negative link between occupational calling (time 1) and unethical decision-making (time 4). The moderated mediation analysis further shows that the inhibitory effect of occupational calling (time 1) on researchers’ unethical decision-making (time 4) disappears when the work-unit structure (time 2) is perceived to be organic. These findings provide meaningful theoretical and practical implications for research and practice. (shrink)

ABSTRACT People tend to be unable to evaluate themselves accurately in many areas. One such area is their own and others’ morality. The current research explores the self–other moral valuation difference in the context of moral foundation theory. We propose that people generally have a moral positive illusion. Specifically, people overestimate their own morality and underestimate the morality of others. Two studies provide converging evidence that individuals underestimate the average moral valuations of others on the five dimensions of moral foundation (...) theory. In particular, we demonstrate three moderators for moral positive illusion: moral foundation type, gender, and political identity. Specifically, compared with the binding foundations, people have greater moral positive illusions based on the individualizing foundations; compared to men, women have greater moral positive illusions; and compared with liberals, conservatives have greater moral positive illusions based on the binding foundations. (shrink)

Multiteam systems are complex organizational forms comprising interdependent teams that work towards their own proximal goals within and across teams to also accomplish a shared superordinate goal. MTSs operate within high-stakes, dangerous contexts with high consequences for suboptimal performance. We answer calls for nuanced exploration and cross-context comparison of MTSs “in the wild” by leveraging the MTS action sub-phase behavioral taxonomy to determine where and how MTS failures occur. To our knowledge, this is the first study to also examine how (...) key MTS attributes influence MTS processes and performance. We conducted historiometric analysis on 40 cases of failed MTS performance across various contexts to uncover patterns of within- and between-team behaviors of failing MTSs, resulting in four themes. First, component teams of failing MTSs over-engaged in within-team alignment behaviors by enacting acting, monitoring, and recalibrating behaviors more often within than between teams. Second, failing MTSs over-focused on acting behaviors and tended to not fully enact the action sub-phase cycle. Third and fourth, boundary status and goal type exacerbated these behavioral patterns, as external and physical MTSs were less likely to enact sufficient between-team behaviors or fully enact the action sub-phase cycle compared to internal and intellectual MTSs. We propose entrainment as a mechanism for facilitating MTS performance wherein specific, cyclical behavioral patterns enacted by teams align to facilitate goal achievement via three multilevel behavioral cycles. We argue that the degree to which these cycles are aligned both between teams and with the overarching MTS goal determines whether and how an MTS fails. Our findings add nuance beyond single-context MTS studies by showing that the identified behavioral patterns hold both across contexts and almost all types of MTS action-phase behaviors. We show that these patterns vary by MTS boundary status and goal type. Our findings inform MTS training best practices, which should be structured to integrate all component teams and tailored to both MTS attributes and situation type. (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically altered the education sector. Rather than the impact of COVID-19, many higher education institutions are on the verge of insolvency due to a lack of digital transformation readiness and poor business models. The bleak financial future many HEIs will face while others may be forced to close their doors completely will erode HEIs’ ability to fulfil their societal responsibilities. However, HEIs that have survived and maintained their operations anticipate the transition to online learning or the (...) effects of any economic crisis, including university closures in the short, medium, or long term. The entire educational ecosystem was forced to transform its operations quickly and entirely to an online teaching-learning scenario in just a few weeks. Notably, HEIs that have long offered online courses worldwide can easily transition to digital teaching and learning when necessary. The second roundtable session’s result of the International Higher Education Conference, organized by INTI International University on March 31 2022, was used to organize a Delphi method to identify further factors that positively impact HEIs by COVID-19. The importance of these factors was then determined using Kendall’s coefficient of concordance. Recommendations on how HEIs should move towards institutional sustainability during the endemic phase are presented accordingly. (shrink)

ObjectiveThere is little literature on the validity of kurtosis-adjusted noise energy metrics in human studies. Therefore, this study aimed to validate the application of cumulative noise exposure adjusted by kurtosis in evaluating occupational hearing loss associated with non-Gaussian noise among manufacturing workers.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted on 1,558 manufacturing workers exposed to noise from five industries to collect noise exposure and hearing loss data. Both CNE and kurtosis-adjusted CNE were collapsed into 2-dB∙year bins, and the mean noise-induced permanent threshold shifts (...) at 3, 4, and 6 kHz in each bin were calculated. The contributions of CNE and CNE′ to noise-induced hearing loss were compared using the multiple linear regression. The degree of overlap of two linear regression equations was used to evaluate the validity of the CNE′ using a stratified analysis based on age and sex.ResultsMultiple linear regression models showed that after kurtosis adjustment, the standardized regression coefficient of CNE increased from 0.230 to 0.255, and R2 increased from 0.147 to 0.153. The linear relationship between NIPTS346 and CNE′ or CNE showed that the regression line of non-Gaussian noise was closer to that of Gaussian noise when using CNE′ than using CNE. The mean difference in NIPTS346 between the equations of non-Gaussian noise and Gaussian noise was significantly reduced from 4.32 to 1.63 dB HL after kurtosis adjustment. Through a stratified analysis, these significant decreases were observed in male and female workers, and workers aged ≥30 years old.ConclusionAs a noise exposure metric combining noise energy and temporal characteristics, the kurtosis-adjusted-CNE metric was more effective than CNE alone in assessing occupational hearing loss among manufacturing workers in non-Gaussian noise environment. However, more studies are needed to verify the validity of the kurtosis-adjusted-CNE metric. (shrink)

This study exploratively conducted two investigations of timbre influenced by harmonic loudness. Investigation 1 examined piano timbre preference between non-processed melodies and two kinds of adjustments created via an equalizer–a basic tool used for sound engineering and for producing audio materials. Using the paired comparison method, 98 respondents were surveyed. The results show that in the bass range of the piano sound, the preferred audio material was that produced via an equalizer by reducing the loudness of the 7th and 9th (...) harmonics by 15 dB, while enhancing the loudness of the 8th harmonic by 15 dB. Investigation 2 examined three degrees of the processed melodies—adjusting the harmonics by 15, 10, and 5 dB. The results show that the 15 dB change was the best, while the 10 dB change was the worst. These results provide a new approach to improving the sound timbre for sound engineering and artificial intelligence music production. (shrink)

The youngest generation of students prefers a more active learning style. Sandwich teaching may suit their learning style by alternating between active individual learning and passive collective learning. Sandwich teaching has been rarely applied to the Community Nursing Course for nursing students, and its teaching effects on this course remain unclear. This study applied Sandwich teaching to the Community Nursing Course for Chinese nursing undergraduates and investigated its effects on students' critical thinking, self-learning ability, course experience, and academic performance. This (...) is a quasi-experimental study with 72 Chinese nursing undergraduates. Students receiving traditional teaching were enrolled in the control group, and those who received Sandwich teaching were recruited into the experimental group. Both groups received the 12-week, 90-min Community Nursing Course. Our main outcome variable, including students' critical thinking, self-learning ability, and course experience, was assessed by specific questionnaire. The paired t-tests were applied to compare the differences of the same group in the pre-test and the post-test, and the independent-sample t-tests were used to compare the differences between the two groups. We observed that nursing students' critical thinking ability and self-learning ability were significantly improved after receiving Sandwich teaching. Students' course experience of Sandwich teaching was significantly better than that of traditional teaching. The final exam score in the experimental group was not significantly higher than that in the control group. These results suggest that Sandwich teaching in Community Nursing Course improved Chinese nursing undergraduates' critical thinking, self-learning ability, and course experience, but failed in improving academic performance. (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic severely hit small and micro-businesses. In the face of the impact of the pandemic, how to help entrepreneurs, especially small- and micro-businesses that are more sensitive to the impact of the pandemic, make decisions to reduce losses has become an issue worth paying attention to. From the perspective of personality approach, this article studied openness, which is the strongest predictor of entrepreneurial performance among the big five personality traits, and explored the impact of entrepreneurs’ openness on entrepreneurial (...) performance during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the inconsistent mediating role of strategic decision comprehensiveness on entrepreneurial performance. An online questionnaire survey was conducted among 238 entrepreneurs of small- and micro-businesses when China was recovering from the pandemic and starting to resume work and production. Entrepreneurial performance during the COVID-19 pandemic was measured by comparing the business conditions before and after the pandemic. The results showed that entrepreneurs’ openness positively impacted strategic decision comprehensiveness and entrepreneurial performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the two competing hypotheses proposed by summarizing previous research, the results supported that strategic decision comprehensiveness negatively affected entrepreneurial performance. It indicated that entrepreneurs who tend to collect and analyze information extensively and then make decisions during the pandemic could not seize opportunities and improve their entrepreneurial performance. The results further supported that strategic decision comprehensiveness was an inconsistent mediator between openness and entrepreneurial performance, showing that entrepreneurs with low openness can also reduce the loss of entrepreneurial performance during the pandemic by making incomplete but rapid strategic decisions. This study found that the openness of entrepreneurs had a positive impact on strategic decision comprehensiveness for the first time and provided more empirical evidence for the negative effect of strategic decision comprehensiveness on entrepreneurial performance in the context of information uncertainty and unanalyzable situations. The inconsistent mediating effect of strategic decision comprehensiveness revealed in this study also has practical significance for helping entrepreneurs make correct decisions to reduce the losses caused by the pandemic. (shrink)

Objective: This study aimed to test the psychometric properties of the suicide stroop task in a Chinese college population. Methods: College students who were in the 1st–4th grade, fluent in Chinese, and without color blindness were recruited from a university in Guangzhou, China from September to December 2019. Participants were administered the suicide stroop task at baseline and 1-month follow-up. Results: The suicide stroop task showed excellent internal reliability. However, the suicide stroop task did not reveal suicide-related attentional biases among (...) current suicide ideators and was not significantly associated with the severity of suicidal ideation, depression, hopelessness, nor anhedonia, indicating a lack of concurrent validity for the task. Additionally, the two-time data of interference scores could not generate intraclass correlation coefficients due to a negative average covariance among data, which indicated poor test–retest consistency for the task. Conclusion: The results of this study did not support the use of the suicide stroop task on the identification of suicidal risk among Chinese college students. It is crucial to assess the psychometric properties of behavioral measures rigorously as self-report measures before large applications in clinical and community settings. (shrink)

As companies are transforming their branding, marketing, operations, and research and development by running online communities to build their core competitive advantages in the digital era, the silent majority is still the norm in the online community and has become the focus of online community operations. Thus, it has become the core issue that why silent behavior of online community members occurs and its impact on operation performance of the online community. According to the traditional theory of organizational behavior, this (...) study focuses on the theoretical model of the relationship between proactive personality, silent behavior of online community members, and operation performance of the online community, and further analyzes the impact of community identification on these relationships. Eight hundred online community members in China participated in this study. The results indicate that: proactive personality has a significant negative impact on acquiescent silent and defensive silent behavior of the online community members, and a significant positive impact on prosocial silent behavior of the online community members; The acquiescent silence and defensive silence have a significant negative impact on online community operation performance, whereas prosocial silence has a significant positive impact on community operation performance; The acquiescent silence and defensive silence have a significant mediating effect on the relationship between proactive personality and community operation performance; Online community identification has a moderating effect on the relationship between silent behavior and online community operation performance. The study proposes the mechanisms and double-edged sword effects of the silent behavior of online community members from the perspective of personality traits. On the one hand, it generalizes the research of traditional organizational silent behavior theory to the context of the online community. On the other hand, it provides reference and inspiration for the theoretical research and practical management of silent behavior of online community members. (shrink)

Background: Previous systematic review indicated the prevalence of prenatal anxiety as 14–54%. Pregnant women are a high-risk population for COVID-19. However, the prevalence of anxiety symptoms and related factors is unknown in Chinese pregnant women during COVID-19 outbreak.Objective: To investigate the prevalence of anxiety symptoms and the related factors in Chinese pregnant women who were attending crisis intervention during the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: The data of this cross-sectional study were collected in about 2 months. Data analysis was performed from April to (...) May 2020. Participants completed a set of questionnaires via the Wechat Mini-program before starting the online self-help crisis intervention for COVID-19 epidemic. A total of 2,120 Chinese pregnant women who were attending a self-help crisis intervention participated in this study. A survey was developed to address possible stress-related factors in pregnant women during the COVID-19 outbreak, including demographic, socioeconomic, and pregnancy-related factors, as well as COVID-19 related factors. Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 scale and the 10-item perceived stress scale were, respectively, employed to measure anxiety and stress-related factors.Results: A total of 21.7% of pregnant women reported at least mild anxiety, and only 82 women reported moderate to severe anxiety. Factors associated with at least mild anxiety included living in Hubei province, nobody providing everyday life support, pelvic pain or vaginal bleeding, and higher perceived stress. Having relatives or neighbors with a diagnosis of COVID-19 was not associated with anxiety.Conclusions and Relevance: Our findings indicate that evaluation and intervention for maternal and infant health are necessary in pregnant women with anxiety during COVID-19 epidemic, especially those with higher perceived stress, less everyday life support, or vaginal bleeding. Interactions among these related medical, social and psychological factors need to be investigated in future studies. (shrink)

Large foreign firms’ interventions in violent conflicts have drawn increasing research attention. Nonetheless, scant research has investigated how foreign small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which have little capacity in peacebuilding, can protect themselves from violent conflict risk. Drawing upon the instrumental stakeholder theory (IST), this study explores two specific local community-oriented corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices (i.e., corporate philanthropy and workforce localization) as violent conflict risk buffering strategies for foreign SMEs. Further, we examine their varying effects in different institutional environments (...) (i.e., host country media freedom and labor rights protection). Using data from a cross-country survey of Chinese foreign SMEs combined with archival data from multiple sources, we empirically confirm the attenuating effects of both corporate philanthropy and workforce localization on foreign SMEs’ violent conflict risk. Besides, we discover that host country labor rights protection strengthens the mitigation impact of workforce localization on violent conflict risk. Our study advances the literature on IST and CSR by revealing the risk mitigation mechanism of CSR activities for foreign SMEs and elucidating its institutional boundary conditions. (shrink)

BackgroundThe merits and drawbacks of moral relevance models of addiction have predominantly been discussed theoretically, without empirical evidence of these potential effects. This study develops and evaluates a novel survey measure for assessing moral evaluations of patient substance misuse (ME-PSM).MethodsThis measure was tested on 524 health professionals (i.e., physicians, nurses, and other health professionals) in California (n = 173), urban France (n = 102), and urban China (n = 249). Demographic factors associated with ME-PSM were investigated using analyses of variance (...) (ANOVAs) and t-tests, with results suggesting that ME-PSM is higher among younger health professionals, nurses (when compared with physicians and other health professionals), and Chinese health professionals (when compared with French and American health professionals).ResultsResults provide preliminary support for the psychometric quality of the survey measure introduced in this study, including the existence of a single latent structure and partial invariance of collected data across countries.ConclusionThe survey measure for ME-PSM which was developed and tested in the current study appears to hold potential utility for use as a measure of moral views of patient substance misuse. With development, this measure may be used to examine moral evaluations, both as factors of stigma and of other clinical factors associated with the treatment of patients with substance use disorders. (shrink)

Unsustainable HR practices impose illegitimate tasks on employees due to a shortage of resources. These illegitimate tasks bring counterproductive work behavior in terms of workplace incivility that creates a sense of ostracism in employees. To address these issues, the study examined the relationship among unsustainable HR practices in terms of illegitimate tasks and workplace ostracism. Whereas workplace incivility is defined as an underlying reason through which this association exists. Adopting a theoretical framework from earlier research, the study used cross-sectional data (...) and subsequently a method of quantitative research, and the sample comprised permanent faculty members of private universities in Pakistan working in different departments with different role titles. Smart PLS was applied to run multiple statistics analyzed on the obtained data. The results from the study supported the hypothesis by depicting a positive and significant association between illegitimate tasks and workplace ostracism. Further, workplace incivility was playing the mediating role between illegitimate tasks and workplace ostracism. The results from the study carry significant implications for managers and researchers. Recommendations and future research directions are also discussed in the paper. (shrink)

The outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic has promoted the popularity of online learning, but has also exposed some problems, such as a lack of interaction, resulting in loneliness. Against this background, students' attitudes toward peer interaction may have become even more important. In order to explore the impact of attitude toward peer interaction on students' mindset including online learning motivation and critical thinking practice that could affect their problem-solving self-efficacy during the COVID-19 pandemic, we developed and administered a questionnaire, receiving (...) 1,596 valid responses. The reliability and validity of the questionnaire were re-tested, and structural equation modeling was applied. It was found that attitude toward peer interaction could positively predict middle school students' online learning motivation and critical thinking. Learning motivation and critical thinking also positively supported problem-solving self-efficacy. It is expected that the results of this study can be a reference for teachers to adopt student-centered online learning in problem solving courses. (shrink)

According to the shared signal hypothesis the impact of facial expressions on emotion processing partially depends on whether the gaze is directed toward or away from the observer. In autism spectrum disorder several aspects of face processing have been found to be atypical, including attention to eye gaze and the identification of emotional expressions. However, there is little research on how gaze direction affects emotional expression processing in typically developing individuals and in those with ASD. This question is investigated here (...) in two multimodal experiments. Experiment 1 required processing eye gaze direction while faces differed in emotional expression. Forty-seven children participated. Their Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule scores ranged from 0 to 6 in the experiment. Event-related potentials were sensitive to gaze direction and emotion, but emotion processing did not depend on gaze direction. However, for angry faces the gaze direction effect on the N170 amplitude, as typically observed in TD individuals, diminished with increasing ADOS score. For neutral expressions this correlation was not significant. Experiment 2 required explicit emotion classifications in a facial emotion composite task while eye gaze was manipulated incidentally. A group of 22 children with ASD was compared to a propensity score-matched group of TD children. The same comparison was carried out for a subgroup of nine children with ASD who were less trained in social cognition, according to clinician’s report. The ASD group performed overall worse in emotion recognition than the TD group, independently of emotion or gaze direction. However, for disgust expressions, eye tracking data revealed that TD children fixated relatively longer on the eyes of the stimulus face with a direct gaze as compared with averted gaze. In children with ASD we observed no such modulation of fixation behavior as a function of gaze direction. Overall, the present findings from ERPs and eye tracking confirm the hypothesis of an impaired sensitivity to gaze direction in children with ASD or elevated autistic traits, at least for specific emotions. Therefore, we conclude that multimodal investigations of the interaction between emotional processing and stimulus gaze direction are promising to understand the characteristics of individuals differing along the autism trait dimension. (shrink)

Circular economy is a critical approach to realize the coordinated development of society, economy, and ecological environment. Given the fact that urban is a complex system in which human beings integrate material, energy, information, and natural environment and interact and influence each other, reviewing the urban circular economy research and development could benefit for having a better and comprehensive understanding on urban complexity. Mainly based on the Chinese literature studies from 1999 to 2020, this study aims to present an in-depth (...) analysis of the research themes, policy systems, and index system of Chinaʼs urban-scale circular economy, discuss the changes and evolution trends of themes, levels, and perspectives in time series, sort out the policy systems at both the national and local levels, and analyze the design principles and application fields of indicators. Finally, we propose that future development of an urban circular economy should be built based on modern techniques, technologies, and models. The construction of development mechanism on the circular economy should be framed as “government-led, market-driven, legal norms, policy support, technological support, and public participation” and inject concepts such as “Internet +,” “sharing economy,” “Internet of Things,” and “artificial intelligence.”. (shrink)

Concurrent working memory task reduces available attentional control resources to perform the flanker task. However, controversy exists as to whether concurrent WM task increases or decreases flanker-related N2 amplitude. In a flanker task experiment, individuals were confronted with a low, middle, or high WM load task, while electroencephalography data were recorded. The ERP results showed a larger flanker-related N2 amplitude while completing a middle or high WM load task compared to a low one. However, completing an additional high WM load (...) task could not increase flanker-related N2 amplitude versus completing an additional middle WM load task. In sum, these results suggest that WM load can impair top-down cognitive control processes, thereby hampering flanker task performance. Importantly, the present study supports the account of flanker-related N2 processes linked to top-down attentional control resource allocation, but challenges the account of flanker-related N2 reflecting response conflict processes. (shrink)

As the main sales force of life insurance companies, salespeople have accounted for more than 50% of life insurance sales channels over the years, playing a pivotal role in the development of the industry. Since the adoption of the model of employment at an agency, the commission income of life insurance salespeople has largely relied on their sales volume, which requires employee proactivity under a great number of stressors. However, because previous studies have analyzed stressors in a single dimension, our (...) understanding of the relationship between work stressors and proactive behaviors remains limited. Applying self-determination theory, we investigated differential relationships between challenge/hindrance stressors and proactive behaviors, which were expected to be mediated by passion and moderated by servant leadership. In the sample of 332 insurance salespeople, there was a positive relationship between challenge stressors and proactive behaviors. In addition, passion mediated the relationship between stressors and proactive behaviors, and servant leadership moderated the relationship between stressors and passion. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. (shrink)

Objective: Losing the only child is considered as the most severe kind of bereavement. It can trigger intense grief symptoms along with loss of psychosocial resources, but meanwhile, it can also lead to posttraumatic growth (PTG). The current study aimed to examine (a) whether a curvilinear relationship exists between grief and PTG, and (b) the moderating role of resources-loss among Chinese bereaved parents who lost their only child (shidu parents). Methods: 199 shidu parents from five provinces completed the assessment packet (...) covering prolonged grief symptoms and PTG, as well as resource loss. Hierarchical regression analyses were computed to examine the curvilinear relationship and the moderating effect of interpersonal loss and socio-economic loss. Results: There was no significant curvilinear relationship between grief and PTG in shidu parents. Under the high levels of interpersonal loss, shidu parents’ PTG scores decreased as the severity of grief increased. However, the socio-economic loss did not show a significant moderating effect. Conclusion: The results of the current study did not show a significant curvilinear relationship between grief and PTG in shidu parents. High levels of grief coupled with high levels of interpersonal loss may interfere with their ability to achieve PTG. Therefore, evaluating degrees of interpersonal loss seems to be an important part of the treatment process when working with shidu parents. To facilitate their adaptation from a positive perspective, helping them maintain existing or develop new interpersonal relationships may be helpful. (shrink)

本书收集了著名哲学家、伦理学家周辅成先生的重要文章，分两卷编辑，包括了《歌德对于哲学的见解》、《论莎士比亚的人格》、《亚里士多德的伦理学》、《论当前农村社会的道德风气》等文章。.

This research investigates firms’ bribery motivations in China. Based on resource dependence theory and anomie theory, we identify resource conditions as firms’ proactive motivation to bribe and firms’ perceived institutional environment as their passive motivation to bribe. We use the data from 2002 World Business Environment Survey, collected by the World Bank, to investigate firms’ bribery in the world’s largest emerging market, China. We employ a multi-level logistic model to test our hypotheses. The results show that unsatisfactory general and task (...) environmental conditions may trigger firms to bribe in order to compete for better resources and opportunities; institutional conditions such as the security expenditure and anomie climate may make firms perceive bribery as a common phenomenon and thus induce firms to bribe. This research provides some insights to understand business bribery behaviors in emerging market. It also discusses some managerial implications and guidelines for policy-making from the findings. (shrink)

This article presents a fresh perspective on the interplay among visual, verbal, and auditory modalities, positing that these modalities, as semogenic resources, compete to express dynamic meanings. The theoretical paradigm emphasizes that whether a modality or an element within a modality gets or loses semantic status, it will elicit an additional layer of social meaning to depict a comprehensive picture of a story together with an explicit semiotic meaning. The article adopts a qualitative method to analyze the data, which are (...) drawn from The Good Wife and My Roommate is a Gumiho and annotated in ELAN 6.3. It was found that modal competition can shed light on the dynamic meaning-making processes in semiotic and societal orientations. Modal competition may distort space and time of different stories, and reconstruct a different discursive spatio-temporal dimension in the TV world. It can diversify the dynamic orientations from New to Given in visual, verbal, and auditory texts of multimodal discourses to tell stories. Modal competition provides a lens to understand the multidimensional reality and to appreciate the aesthetics of a modern TV series. (shrink)

The recognition memory for inverted faces is especially difficult when compared with that for non-face stimuli. This face inversion effect has often been used as a marker of face-specific holistic processing. However, whether face processing without awareness is still specific remains unknown. The present study addressed this issue by examining the face inversion effect with the technique of binocular rivalry. Results showed that invisible upright faces could break suppression faster than invisible inverted faces. Nevertheless, no difference was found for invisible (...) upright houses and invisible inverted houses. This suggested that face processing without awareness is still specific. Some face-specific information can be processed by high-level brain areas even when that information is invisible. (shrink)

Zhou Fohai helped found the Chinese Communist Party but left the party in 1924 and aligned himself with the Guomindang . He then became one of the GMD's leading theoretical writers and was the editor of the monthly Xin shengming. Zhou had earlier contributed to Xin qingnian, and, in an article published in 1922, voiced the opinion that freedom of speech and association should not be given to the bourgeoisie since they then could use these freedoms to thwart (...) the revolution. Although Zhou in 1922 was a supporter of the CCP, and by 1928, when the article excerpted here was published, a theoretician of the GMD, his opinion on the need to restrict certain people's rights and freedoms did not change. Zhou argued against the idea of natural rights because it implied that all people, by virtue of their being human, would enjoy rights. The idea of "revolutionary people's rights" as advocated by the GMD, on the other hand, ensured that only those loyal to the revolution could exercise political rights. (shrink)

In 1941, Zhou Jingwen launched a human rights movement in the magazine Shidai piping. Zhou was motivated both by concerns about the human rights violations committed by the Guomindang and by a belief that the protection of human rights would enable people to make greater contributions to the war effort. As Zhang Junmai would be, Zhou was inspired by H.G. Wells's work to draft a new human rights declaration that could serve as an inspiration during World War (...) II and as a manifesto for a future peaceful world. Zhou also attempted to relate the 1941 human rights movement to the May Fourth movement of 1919, in that he intended his human rights movement to awaken and liberate the Chinese. Positive reactions from readers prompted Zhou to publish a special issue on human rights, and some of the articles were also reprinted in book form. Zhou chose to remain on the mainland after 1949, and was severely criticized during the "three-anti" and "five-anti" campaigns in the early 1950s. He fled to Hong Kong in 1957 and there revived Shidai piping. (shrink)

Objective: The objectives of this study are to understand the current functions, structure and operation of hospital ethics committees (HECs) in Shanghai and to facilitate their improvement. Methods: (1) A questionnaire survey, (2) interviews with secretaries and (3) on-site document reviews of HECs in Shanghai were used in the study, which surveyed 33 hospitals. Results: In Shanghai, 57.56% of the surveyed hospitals established HECs from 1998 to 2005. Most HECs used bioethical review of research involving human subjects as well as (...) bioethical review or consultation regarding medical care services and administrative decision- making. Of the surveyed HECs, 14.3% did not provide any formal bioethical training to the HECs’ members and many HECs had no standard operating procedures. Some HECs had no clear definition of what was “conflict of interest” that should be considered by the HECs, while 44.4% of the HECs did not perform continuing review. Discussion: After the issues of related national regulations, more and more hospitals established HECs in Shanghai, but the functions of HECs need to be further developed and formal training on bioethics should be provided to HEC members. To assure the independence and good performance of HECs, the conflict of interest procedure, the standard operating procedures and bioethical review should be improved. Conclusion: HECs in Shanghai had developed in the preceding 10 years and they played great roles in protecting the rights and welfare of human subjects and patients; some areas need improvement. (shrink)

By 2007, 127 universities had obtained permission from the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China to run MBA programs. To gain a thorough understanding of the status of business ethics education in MBA programs in China, we conducted a national survey. This survey was begun in October 2006 and concluded in December 2007. Our goal in conducting this survey was twofold. We wanted to understand, first, the extent of business ethics teaching currentlybeing offered in MBA programs, and (...) second, the prospects for the development of business ethics teaching in the near term. Our survey results show that business ethics instruction is presently offered on a limited scale, and there are constraints impacting business ethics education. However, we also discovered that future prospects for business ethics teaching are promising. (shrink)

In this paper we study intrinsic notions of “computability” for open and closed subsets of Euclidean space. Here we combine together the two concepts, computability on abstract metric spaces and computability for continuous functions, and delineate the basic properties of computable open and closed sets. The paper concludes with a comprehensive examination of the Effective Riemann Mapping Theorem and related questions.