This timely book offers revealing insights into the changing role of China in world governance as exemplified by the Silk Road Initiative, the People's Republic's first published major initiative for external affairs. Focusing on various aspects of the Silk Road Initiative, particularly those that are largely neglected in current discussions, including culture and philosophy, finance and investment, environmental protection and social responsibility, judiciary and lawyers, the authors explore a wide range of contexts in which China's role as an emerging power (...) in international relations and international law is examined. In the current era of ever-increasing populism, protectionism and challenges to globalization, the authors explore the Chinese philosophy underpinning Chinese norms of regional and international development. Bearing in mind the political and economic uncertainties hampering the establishment of such norms, the authors offer crucial insights into how the Silk Road Initiative could or should be developed and regulated. Given its depth of coverage, the book is an indispensable read for anyone interested in the Initiative and its social-legal implications. (shrink)

Hui medicine is originated from Muslim medicine through Silk Road. This medicine is a unique Chinese traditional medicine system formed by the integration of traditional Islamic Arabia medicine and traditional Chinese medicine. This ethnic medicine is Sinicization of Islamic culture. It is also the cream of ancient Eastern and Western traditional medicine of China. Religion is very important for the Islamic faith population such as Hui nationality. Although Halal food, restaurants and schools are everywhere in Qinghai Xining city, there are (...) not reports about the medical practice in the Muslim faith population. In this article, the in-patients are from Qinghai Kangle Hospital which is Hui medicine special hospital located in Hui majorities area in Qinghai Chengdong area. The data had been collected from January 1, 2020 to June 30, 2023 of COVID-19 period. This hospital served both Muslim and non-Muslim patients, and the medical doctors nurses and staffs are also come from Muslim and non-Muslim background, the education background is Western medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine. Our results showed that there are no significant difference between the Muslim-believers and non Muslim-believers in their medical practice. The religion may not be important among the inpatients who served with Chinese Hui Medicine in Kangle Hospital. (shrink)

John Rawls assumes that in the original position, under the veil of ignorance, after bargaining amongst each other, free, equal, moral and rational persons would make a rational decision to accept the principles of justice as fairness and thus the principles are established. Critics, however, question the authenticity and validity of this justification strategy. When rational individuals take the principles of justice as an original agreement, it is not a real contract. Rawls’s conception of justice as fairness is just a (...) personal notion, some individuals may accept it, but it is impossible to be accepted by all human beings in a real world. Therefore there is a justification/acceptance paradox of those principles which are the core of his political philosophy. So how should we justify those principles? Its answers may be provided not in the light of a philosophical justification but of a scientific one. (shrink)

Pronatalist policies, once regarded as a solution to declining fertility rates, face mounting scrutiny as they intersect with complex sociocultural dynamics across societies. Recent United Nations (UN) projections (2024) highlight an irreversible demographic trend: East Asian nations, exemplified by South Korea’s record-low fertility rate of 0.72, represent a global shift towards subreplacement fertility, as shown in figure 1.1 Lee’s analysis critiques pronatalist policies’ limitations, arguing that cash incentives and other state-sponsored measures merely mask systemic inequities while reinforcing paternalistic norms.2 This (...) commentary extends Lee’s critique by identifying a fundamental contradiction: welfare-driven pronatalist policies risk exacerbating inequities by diverting resources from broader well-being priorities. UN data show that even substantial pronatalist spending—as evidenced by South Korea’s $270 billion expenditure since 2008—fails to counter structural forces driving fertility decline,2 such as gendered labour disparities and rising single-person households. This paradox necessitates a paradigm shift from population sustainability—a relic of Malthusian anxieties—to population well-being, prioritising inclusive social services over demographic engineering. By anchoring this argument in the latest demographic evidence, we challenge policymakers to confront the ethical imperative of reallocating resources towards underserved groups, whose marginalisation is both a cause and consequence of pronatalism’s narrow calculus. Figure 1 Changes and projections of total fertility rate (live births per woman) in East Asia representative countries (1950–2050). *These data do not include …. (shrink)

传统内在基础主义于近年的知识论研究中有所复兴。该理论的核心论点之一，是人类具有确定无疑的认知辩护。富莫尔顿尤其尝试以亲历理论解释确定辩护。可惜，确定辩护会受到来自“梯度”现象的挑战。针对梯度挑战，富莫 尔顿曾先后提出“事实性”“典型案例”“语义模糊”三个应对策略。本文将分别考察这三个策略，并指明其不足。.

Corporate debt default risk poses significant challenges in the business world, requiring a multifaceted approach for effective mitigation. This study, grounded in an ethical decision-making framework, investigates the influence of Confucian culture on shaping ethical corporate culture and managers’ moral capacity and its subsequent impact on corporate debt default risk. Our findings indicate that companies deeply influenced by Confucian culture tend to exhibit lower debt default risks. Specifically, companies that embrace Confucian values demonstrate an enhanced ethical corporate culture and heightened (...) individual moral capacity. These factors play crucial roles in the ethical decision-making process, thereby reducing the likelihood of engaging in risky financial behaviors. Further analysis reveals that the inhibitory effect of Confucian culture on debt default risk is particularly pronounced in enterprises operating within regions characterized by poor integrity environments and weak product market competition. This inhibitory effect can lead to a reduction in the cost of corporate debt financing and the risk of stock price crashes. Overall, this study contributes to the understanding of the interplay between culture, business ethics, and corporate risk management. (shrink)

Weber's 'science as a vocation' has often been viewed as a therapeutic concept with no functional significance in the fully bureaucratized and professionalized modern science. However, development in the philosophy of science in the last century, especially the Kuhn thesis of the discontinuity of scientific progress and the Duhem-Quine thesis of underdetermination, shows that Weber's distinction between science as a vocation and science as a profession (career) can potentially answer one of the oldest questions in science studies: What makes scientific (...) breakthroughs possible? (shrink)

How do essentialist beliefs about categories arise? We hypothesize that such beliefs are transmitted via language. We subject large language models (LLMs) to vignettes from the literature on essentialist categorization and find that they align well with people when the studies manipulated teleological information -- information about what something is for. We examine whether in a classic test of essentialist categorization -- the transformation task -- LLMs prioritize teleological properties over information about what something looks like, or is made of. (...) Experiments 1 and 2 find that telos and what something is made of matter more than appearance. Experiment 3 manipulates all three factors and finds that what something is for matters more than what it's made of. Overall, these studies suggest that language alone may be sufficient to give rise to essentialist beliefs, and that information about what something is for matters more. (shrink)

There is a common pattern for researchers to study one particular new religion, write a monograph or article on that specific group, and then begin the cycle all over again with a different group. This approach causes one to remember such groups as relatively stable organizations, fixed in memory at a specific stage of development, rather than as dynamic, evolving groups. In the present article, we will examine new data on contemporary Pagans that takes a quasi-longitudinal approach to survey data. (...) Though our focus will be limited, the result will nevertheless be a partial statistical picture of Paganism as a changing, evolving movement, rather than a static statistical snapshot. (shrink)

The outbreak of COVID-19 at the end of 2019 has become the most devastating public health event of the 21st century. The different performances of governments and people in different countries and regions show that national values may play an important role in the prevention and control of COVID-19. Based on data from the seventh wave of World Values Survey and the Human Freedom Index report in 2020, three national value factors are extracted in this manuscript, including religious belief, government (...) satisfaction and individual freedom. Then ordinary least squares regression regression model is constructed to explore the influence of these three value factors on the prevention and control of COVID-19 and some heterogeneity analysis is implemented. The results show that religious belief and individual freedom significantly increased the COVID-19 infection rate, while government satisfaction significantly reduced the COVID-19 infection rate. The study findings have the ability to hold up after a range of robustness. For countries and regions with different COVID-19 testing policies, the influence of national values is different. Only in countries and regions with high testing rate policies and complete systems of the prevention and control of COVID-19, the influence of national values is significant. Based on these findings, a series of targeted policy recommendations for building national values in the post-epidemic era are proposed. (shrink)

Extreme events, which are usually characterized by generalized extreme value models, can exhibit long-term memory, whose impact needs to be quantified. It was known that extreme recurrence intervals can better characterize the significant influence of long-term memory than using the GEV model. Our statistical analyses based on time series datasets following the Lévy stable distribution confirm that the stretched exponential distribution can describe a wide spectrum of memory behavior transition from exponentially distributed intervals to power-law distributed ones, extending the previous (...) evaluation of the stretched exponential function using Gaussian/exponential distributed random data. Further deviation and discussion of a historical paradox are also provided, based on the theoretical analysis of the Bayesian law and the stretched exponential distribution. (shrink)

Recent theoretical work has argued that moral psychology can be understood through the lens of “resource rational contractualism.” The view posits that the best way of making a decision that affects other people is to get everyone together to negotiate under idealized conditions. The outcome of that negotiation is an arrangement (or “contract”) that would lead to mutual benefit. However, this ideal is seldom (if ever) practical given the resource demands (time, information, computational processing power) that are required. Instead, the (...) theory proposes that moral psychology is organized around a series of resource-rational approximations of the contractualist ideal, efficiently trading off between more resource-intensive, accurate mechanisms and less. This paper presents empirical evidence and a cognitive model that test a central claim of this view: when the stakes of the situation are high, then more resource-intensive processes are engaged over more approximate ones. We present subjects with a case that can be judged using virtual bargaining—a resource-intensive process that involves simulating what two people would agree to—or by simply following a standard rule. We find that about a third of our participants use the resource-rational approach, flexibly switching to virtual bargaining in high-stakes situations, but deploying the simple rule when stakes are low. A third of the participants are best modeled as consistently using the strict rule-based approach and the remaining third as consistently using virtual bargaining. A model positing the reverse resource-rational hypothesis (that participants use more resource-intensive mechanisms in lower stakes situations) fails to capture the data. (shrink)

In metaphysics, ‘brutal composition’ is supported by few philosophers except Ned Markosian, however, the detailed meaning of composition bruteness, and the related notion of restrictedness, has not been seriously discussed. I offer a novel and systematic account of composition restrictedness and bruteness, in which different senses of ‘restricted’ and ‘bruteness’ are explored, and I argue this can help to understand some interesting but neglected positions about composition, like ‘restricted universalism’.

Despite decades of research in philosophy and cognitive science, the nature of concepts and the mechanisms underlying their change remain unresolved. Competing frameworks—externalist, inferentialist, embodied, and geometric—offer important insights but lack a unified account of how different types of concepts form, stabilize, and evolve. We propose a Systematic and Dynamic (SD) approach that examines mental content before and after concept formation, leading to the identification of inferential connections as ontologically distinct elements of conceptual architecture. Building on this foundation, we introduce (...) the Inferential-Connection Mediated (ICM) model, which reconceptualizes concepts as dynamically structured entities composed of referential anchors—core subsets of inferential connections that fix reference—and broader networks that support reasoning, explanation, and communication. We distinguish among three types of inferential connections (observational, intentional, indirect) and classify four major concept types (theoretical, observational, subjective, and utilitarian), showing how differences in internal structure predict divergent developmental and evolutionary trajectories. The ICM model resolves long standing theoretical tensions—such as inferentialism vs. externalism, atomism vs. empiricism, and relativism vs. realism—by offering a unified, structurally grounded account of conceptual stability and change. We invite interdisciplinary commentary on the model’s implications for concept acquisition, reference, revision, and conceptual engineering across philosophy, cognitive science, linguistics, and artificial intelligence. (shrink)

Resumo: A prática de 70 anos da Nova China mostra que nosso Partido tem, de forma permanente, valorizado e fortalecido a liderança do trabalho ideológico, fator essencial para que a nação chinesa consiga o salto de rica e poderosa, e consolide continuamente a posição dominante do partido. As sucessivas lideranças coletivas do partido exploraram e inovaram a teoria da ideologia socialista em diferentes períodos da história da China, em vista da situação internacional e doméstica, fornecendo ao PCCh uma base teórica (...) científica e diretrizes de ação para romper as barreiras ideológicas em sua regra de longo prazo. Mao Tsé-Tung fez contribuições históricas significativas para explorar o caminho para o novo socialismo chinês, projeto institucional, inovação teórica e construção ideológica. O objetivo deste estudo é combinar os princípios básicos marxismo com a realidade específica da China, apresentar de forma criativa os princípios básicos e as direções básicas da construção da ideología nacional e elaborar sistematicamente a conotação essencial, a ideologia orientadora, os objetivos primários, a natureza fundamental e o camino de realização da construção da ideología socialista. Este estudo mostra que o primeiro salto teórico da localização da ideología marxista na China lançou uma base sólida para construir um país científico e completo e um sistema ideológico nacional científico e completo. (shrink)

Resumen: Desde el principio ha sido muy obvio que el capitalismo es un tipo de empresa engañosa. Por otro lado, el capitalismo ha estado vinculado a la acumulación masiva de riqueza. Como se indica, el capitalismo ha estado vinculado a la explotación, a una creciente desigualdad de la riqueza, a colapsos económicos y a conflictos internacionales. La economía política ha estudiado durante mucho tiempo cómo interactúan las dos caras del capitalismo. ¿Es posible arreglar los problemas del capitalismo preservando sus beneficios, (...) como afirman sus partidarios? Algunos anticapitalistas sostienen que limitar o eliminar el capitalismo es la única manera de acabar con él. La teoría tendrá el mayor impacto en el resultado de esta situación. Los economistas ven los mercados como un lugar en el que todos reciben un trato justo a la hora de valorar y recompensar las contribuciones económicas a la sociedad. El reino del mercado, en vez de culpar los defectos sociales e individuales de manera global, culpa la carencia del individuo manera particular. La clave para formular una predicción sólida de la caída del orden actual es la tesis marxiana de que las relaciones de producción constituyen la base de toda civilización. En otras palabras, las estructuras de clase sustentan las instituciones políticas, culturales e ideológicas. De ello se desprende que una sociedad postcapitalista sólo puede desarrollarse en la medida en que surjan nuevas relaciones de producción, o de clase (o más exactamente, relaciones “sin clases”). De forma similar a cómo surgieron nuevas relaciones económicas a lo largo del tiempo cuando Europa pasó de una sociedad feudal al capitalismo industrial, y cómo se construyeron nuevas sociedades sobre estos sistemas, en las próximas generaciones surgirán nuevas manifestaciones de crecimiento masivo de la producción para que la especie humana experimente menos épocas de crisis económica. A finales de 2007, la economía mundial se desplomó rápidamente, obligando a los bancos a declararse en quiebra y a necesitar rescates gubernamentales. La principal idea errónea de las economías de mercado, que se autorregulan de forma natural, quedó rebatida. La catástrofe brindó la oportunidad a los individuos de reevaluar cuestiones de larga data que habían quedado sin resolver porque desafió las nociones preconcebidas. La obra fundamental de Marx, “El Capital”, según las librerías de todo el mundo, tuvo un espectacular aumento de ventas tras la crisis. En algunos aspectos, el marxismo parece estar regresando. Debido a la tradición crítica que creó, que abarca las humanidades y las ciencias sociales, el marxismo no puede entenderse adecuadamente dentro del marco del siglo XIX. Marx fue capaz de influir en el agua que bebemos y en el aire que respiramos incluso en lugares donde fue rechazado. El marxismo es omnipresente, como han demostrado las dos primeras décadas del siglo XXI. Mientras sirvan de catalizadores para el bienestar y el desarrollo de la sociedad, las tendencias económicas contemporáneas como el espíritu empresarial y la libre empresa no son desalentadas por el marxismo moderno. (shrink)

This paper aims to explore one significant yet insufficiently elaborated aspect of valuing, namely the positional nature of valuing, which essentially reveals the fact that the valuer occupies a particular position or takes a specific viewpoint in relation to the object being valued. This positional nature of valuing does not merely embody a specific viewpoint from which the valuer’s beliefs, attitudes, reasons, and emotions are conveyed in a complex manner towards the valued object, but also constitute a particular position from (...) which the valuer engages with the valued object in a reason-giving manner. As systematically elaborated and lucidly revealed by this paper, this positional nature of valuing will on the one hand elucidate the conceptual interlock between ‘valuing’ and ‘valuable’ along the value-reason nexus with reference to arguments by T.M. Scanlon and Samuel Scheffler. On the other hand, it will also illuminate why we may have reason to value something from the perspective of practical reasoning. (shrink)

We study the relationship between climate change social norms (CCSN) and corporate cash holdings for U.S. firms. We find that county-level CCSN is significantly positively associated with cash holdings. Our main finding is robust to a battery of robustness tests. In a subsample analysis, we find that firms have relatively low cash holdings in low CCSN counties even when faced with high climate risk. For such firms, the lack of cash buffer could be harmful to a broader set of stakeholders (...) faced with heightened climate risk. We also show that cash holdings are a potential mechanism through which CCSN influences future environmental corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance. Overall, our study suggests that county-level CCSN has significant implications for corporate cash holdings. (shrink)

"我思"是笛卡尔《第一哲学沉思集》的阿基米德点,也是当代哲学众多议题的源头。在笛卡尔看来,我思不可怀疑,而当代哲学对我思的关注也往往基于我思的确定性。根据对笛卡尔的经典解释,我思不 可怀疑的原因在于其背后的自我意识结构:沉思者为追寻确定的知识而怀疑了感知、悬置了数学,并最终发现怀疑中的思想本身不可怀疑。然而,我思自我意识的经典解释并非自明,它对应于自我检验的"独白&qu ot;式怀疑语境。除独白之外,怀疑也能发生在笛卡尔和怀疑论者的"公共对话"之中。本文从语境的角度探讨"我思"和怀疑之间的种种关联,并指出自我意识的经典视角对解释 我思的核心特征并无显著优势。在现当代哲学的开端,我思有着难以抹消的歧义。.

As an essential institution of social public aesthetic education, the art museum has always undertaken the primary function of social aesthetic education. The digital art museum expands the role it is not able to play based on the space constructed by the physical art museum. Although the digital construction of domestic art galleries has been carried out for many years, its special significance and unique advantages are difficult to show under the usual operation and exhibition mode. The sudden epidemic has (...) changed people's life track and way of thinking to a certain extent, which will undoubtedly provide a significant development opportunity for the digital art museum. Based on the broad background that the country adheres to building morality and cultivating people, attaches great importance to aesthetic education, and vigorously carries forward the spirit of aesthetic education, this article compares and combs the current digital development achievements of art museums at home and abroad, and it considers the construction and potential problems of the cloud model of digital art museums in China's postepidemic era. This article attempts to provide a theoretical basis for accelerating the renewal of the educational model and ways of contemporary social aesthetic education. (shrink)

The functional neuro-anatomical model of attachment (NAMA) proposes that the balance between affective evaluation and cognitive control systems can be modulated by adult attachment styles and attachment priming. However, little is known about the characteristics of emotional conflict control that are modulated by attachment patterns. Accordingly, the present study adopted two experiments to investigate the associations between attachment styles, attachment (in)security priming, and emotional conflict control. Experiment 1 (N = 225) examined the association between attachment styles and emotional interference, demonstrating (...) that individuals high on attachment anxiety (AX) relied more on affective evaluation to hinder conflict control. Furthermore, Experiment 2 (N = 185) explored the effect of attachment priming on emotional conflict control. Moderated mediation models indicated that high sense of attachment security mediated the relationship between security priming and increased emotional interference when it interacted with high AX. Additionally, high sense of insecurity partially mediated the association between threat priming and reduced emotional interference only for individuals with high AX, while low AX strengthened the effect of threat priming on decreased emotional interference. Together, these findings provide supporting evidence for the NAMA that the emotional-cognitive balance in emotional conflict control is modulated by both attachment styles and attachment priming. (shrink)

The concept of śīla-pāramitā (Pali. sīlapāramī), “the perfection of morality” is one of a collection of spiritual virtues accomplished by a bodhisattva for achieving Buddhahood. This paper explores the origin and development of śīla-pāramitā by tracing its roots from early Buddhist scriptures to its later articulations in the Cariyāpiṭaka and early Mahāyāna texts. In early Buddhist texts like the Nikāyas and Āgamas, śīla primarily refers to moral discipline, encompassing rules for both laypeople and monastics. The paper then analyzes how śīla, (...) originally linked to the ethical conduct of monastics and lay followers alike, gradually evolved into a perfection (pāramitā) in Mahāyāna Buddhism, acquiring a central role in the Bodhisattva’s cultivation of virtues. In this process, the meaning and scope of śīla-pāramitā underwent significant changes. By analyzing these developments, we gain a deeper understanding of the origins of Mahāyāna Buddhism and provides valuable insights into its ethical and doctrinal progression. (shrink)

Chinese Hui medicine is a unique Chinese traditional medicine system formed by the integration of traditional Islamic Arabia medicine and China traditional Chinese medicine. It is also the cream of ancient Eastern and Western traditional medicine. Hui medicine is based on its unique concepts of Hui medical philosophy, such as the theory of Zhenyi Vitality and the theory of seven elements. It is the only traditional national medicine developed by inheriting Islamic Arab medical philosophy and integrating Chinese traditional Chinese medical (...) philosophy theory. Hui medicine likes to use the application method characterized by aromatic Hui medicine (also known as ship medicine). It has high traditional treatment effect in Hui orthopedics and traumatology, Hui medicine of brain, Hui medicine of gynecology, Hui medicine of ophthalmology, Hui medicine of dermatology, Hui medicine of anorectal, etc. There is a relatively complete traditional medical system of Hui medicine. The Sinicized Islamic philosophical system guides the philosophical concept of Hui medicine. Hui medicine absorbs and combines the essence of traditional Chinese medicine, which forms the theoretical system of “Zhenyi (True one)”, “Vitality”, “Yin and Yang”, “Qixing”, “Four natures”, “Four body fluids” “Viscera Qi activity” and “Four parts and seven diseases” systems, which have been formed in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. The characteristics of Hui medicine application are based on the formulation of aromatic drugs, and the nature of cold, hot, dryness, and humidity is conducted for each drug, as well as the drug strength (toxicity) of each drug is graded in grades 1 - 4. Therefore, Hui medicine is a traditional ethnic medicine combined with Chinese and Western medicine. (shrink)

In vitro reconstitution assays are commonly used to study biological membrane fusion. However, to date, most ensemble and single‐vesicle experiments involving SNARE proteins have been performed only with lipid‐mixing, but not content‐mixing indicators. Through simultaneous detection of lipid and small content‐mixing indicators, we found that lipid mixing often occurs seconds prior to content mixing, or without any content mixing at all, during a 50‐seconds observation period, for Ca2+‐triggered fusion with SNAREs, full‐length synaptotagmin‐1, and complexin. Our results illustrate the caveats of (...) commonly used bulk lipid‐mixing fusion experiments. We recommend that proteoliposome fusion experiments should always employ content‐mixing indicators in addition to, or in place of, lipid‐mixing indicators. (shrink)

The psychological impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on college students is an important topic. With the entry of the post-epidemic era, how universities can better improve students’ psychological resilience in teaching is the research topic of this article. In the form of a questionnaire survey, some entrepreneurial college students investigated the loneliness and psychological resilience of college students after the outbreak of the epidemic and explored the role of self-efficacy in it. The data is collected online through cooperation with an (...) entrepreneurial event, and the participating students are asked for background information such as colleges, grade, and majors. After collecting this information, they answered a series of simplified scale questions about loneliness, self-efficacy, and psychological resilience. In the end, a total of 200 questionnaires from different universities were collected, and the structural equation model was used to explore the role of self-efficacy. The results show that: loneliness has a significant negative effect on Self-efficacy, β = -0.292, p < 0.001; Self-efficacy has a significant positive effect on psychological resilience, β = 0.556, p < 0.0 01; loneliness has a significant negative effect on psychological resilience, β = -0.244, p < 0.01. Self-Efficacy has a significant intermediate effect in loneliness and psychological resilience, with an effective value of -0.111 and p < 0.01. The results show that this exploratory survey finds it important to provide targeted personal self-efficacy improvement activities for college students with a strong sense of loneliness and to combine school and family education organically to help college students form a healthy and upward mentality to better cope with the unknown and troubles caused by the epidemic, which will help improve the psychological resilience of college students in the epidemic. (shrink)

Traditional portfolio selection models mainly obtain the optimized portfolio ratio by focusing on the prices of financial products. However, investors’ multiple preferences and risk appetites are also significant factors that should be taken into account. In consideration of these two factors simultaneously, we propose a double-hierarchy model in this paper. Specifically, the first hierarchy quantifies investors’ risk appetite based on a historical simulation method and probabilistic preference theory. This hierarchy can be utilized to describe investors’ variable risk appetites and ensure (...) the obtained investment ratios meet investors’ immediate risk requirements. Then, using the cross-efficiency evaluation principle, the optimal investment ratios can be derived by fusing investors’ multiple preferences and risk appetites in the second hierarchy. Lastly, an illustrative example about evaluating the 10 largest capitalized stocks on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange is given to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of our newly proposed model. We make the theoretical contribution to improve the traditional portfolio selection model, especially considering investors’ subjective preferences and risk appetite. Moreover, the proposed model can be practical for assisting investors with their investment strategies in real life. (shrink)

Social media chat groups, such as WeChat and WhatsApp groups, are widely applied in online communication. This research has conducted two studies to examine the individual level and collective level’s opinion dynamics in those groups. The opinion dynamic is driven by two variables, people’s perceived peer support and willingness of opinion expression. The perceived peer support influences the willingness of opinion expression, and the willingness influences the dynamics of real opinion-expression. First, the quasi-experimental study recruited twenty-five participants as the observation (...) group and found that decreasing perceived peer support would significantly increase individuals’ expression willingness to protect his/her opinion. To generalize the individual level findings to a collective level, the second study treated the social media chat groups as an undirected fully-connected social network and simulated people’s opinion expression dynamics with an agent-based model. The simulation indicated that with the help of increased willingness of opinion expression, the minority opinion supporters as a collective did not fall silent but continue to express themselves and increasing willingness of opinion expression would maintain the existence of minority opinion but could not help the minority reverse to the majority. (shrink)

Aiming at the problem of insufficient health monitoring of the elderly in the existing home care system, this paper designs a health information analysis and early warning system based on the Internet of Things technology, which can monitor the physiological data of the elderly in real time. It also can be based on the elderly real-time monitoring data, physical examination data, and other types of health data, which can be used to predict diseases, so as to achieve “early detection and (...) early treatment” of diseases. First, analyse and design the architecture and content of the home care monitoring system based on the Internet of Things. Secondly, based on the collected heart rate, blood pressure, and three-axis acceleration information of the elderly, it is analysed to determine whether the elderly are in danger of falling, and the designed system is used for early warning. Finally, this paper analyses the prediction algorithm theory of the disease prediction module in the health monitoring software of the home care system. In order to improve the accuracy of prediction, the DS evidence theory is used to optimize the traditional BP neural network algorithm and conduct experimental tests. The test results show that the health information analysis and early warning software of the home care system meet actual needs and achieve the expected goals. (shrink)

The Tang Dynasty (618–907) stands as a pinnacle of cultural, artistic, and spiritual flourishing, with its music and dance embodying profound metaphysical, religious, and philosophical dimensions. Beyond their aesthetic appeal, these art forms served as mediums for spiritual expression, ritualistic practice, and intercultural religious dialogue, particularly along the Silk Road. However, the challenge of revitalizing Tang Dynasty music and dance in contemporary times requires reconciling historical traditions with modern sensibilities, integrating religious and philosophical reflections, and leveraging innovative technologies to enhance (...) their spiritual resonance. This study explores the philosophical and religious significance of Tang Dynasty music and dance within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), emphasizing their role in fostering intercultural exchange, sacred aesthetics, and ethical values. A qualitative research approach is employed, incorporating historical analysis, case studies, and cultural hermeneutics to examine how these ancient art forms can be revitalized while retaining their transcendental and ritualistic essence. Drawing from Buddhist, Daoist, and Confucian influences embedded in Tang Dynasty artistic traditions, this research highlights how these performances once served as vehicles for divine worship, meditative practice, and moral education. Methodologies include the integration of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) to create immersive spiritual experiences, the fusion of traditional music and dance with sacred narratives, and the use of interactive storytelling to preserve religious symbolism. Case studies, such as the immersive encounter at Chang’an Twelve Hours and the evolution of Imitation Tang Music and Dance, exemplify how these innovations can restore the spiritual and philosophical depth of Tang-era performances. This study concludes that interdisciplinary collaboration and international partnerships can play a crucial role in sustaining the spiritual and cultural legacy of Tang Dynasty music and dance. By embedding these art forms within the broader discourse of religious aesthetics and philosophy, their revitalization can contribute not only to cultural preservation but also to the enrichment of contemporary spiritual thought in a globally connected world. Future research should further explore the role of sacred music and dance in interfaith dialogue and their potential to inspire a renewed understanding of religious and philosophical traditions. (shrink)

Maimonides (1135/1138–1204) and Z hu Xi 朱熹 (1130–1200) are unparalleled in the transformation and revitalization of Jewish and Confucian traditions, respectively. This article offers a comparative analysis of the two philosophers’ conceptions of nature and their view on the end of knowledge. It examines, on one hand, Maimonides’s distinctive interpretation of the rabbinic concept of _maʿaseh bereshith_ (the Account of the Beginning) in the light of his statement that _maʿaseh bereshith_ is identical with natural science; and on the other hand, (...) Z hu Xi’s elucidation of key concepts such as _xing_ 性 (nature), _shu_ 數 (number), _tian_ 天 (heaven), and _cheng_ 誠 (genuineness) in the framework of his doctrine of _li_ 理 (pattern or principle) and _qi_ 氣 (material force). The article points out that Maimonides not only connects the _maʿaseh bereshith_ to the beginning of the world, as traditionally held; he also associates it with the beginning of the revelation of the Mosaic Law, which renders profound implications. While both emphasize the inherent nature of all things, they diverge on the ultimate goal of knowledge in terms of the hierarchy of virtues. Along with Aristotle, Maimonides prioritizes rational virtue over moral virtue, thereby placing intellectual perfection as the ultimate human perfection. In contrast, Z hu Xi esteems knowledge of nature as facilitating the pursuit of the highest goal of sagehood, and leaves no room for the higher status of theoretical pursuit to moral cultivation. (shrink)

v. 1. Sheng ji tu -- v. 2. Mengzi sheng ji tu.

Tetrapods have two distinct nasal chemosensory systems, the main olfactory system and the vomeronasal system (VNS). Defined by certain morphological components, the main olfactory system is present in all groups of vertebrates, while the VNS is found only in tetrapods. Previous attempts to identify a VNS precursor in teleost fish were limited by functional and morphological characters that could not clearly distinguish between homologous and analogous systems. In the past decade, several genes that specifically function in the VNS have been (...) discovered. Here we first describe recent evolutionary studies of mammalian VNS‐specific genes. We then review evidence showing the presence and tissue‐specific expression of the VNS‐specific genes in teleosts, as well as co‐expression patterns of these genes in specific regions of the teleost olfactory epithelium. We propose that a VNS precursor exists in teleosts and that its evolutionary origin predated the separation between teleosts and tetrapods. BioEssays 28: 709–718, 2006. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Studies about the causes of research misconduct focus on a limited range, and negative emotions are an omitted but critical area. By utilizing theories from sociology and criminology of emotions, the current study adopts an emotional aspect to analyze researchers’ academic integrity issues in Chinese universities. Particularly, it examines how working stress, caused by the aggressive implementation of national policies for chasing more influential academic publications in top domestic and international journals, influences faculty members’ emotional feelings, arguing that due to (...) worries about job security and a lack of means to release negative emotions, some scholars may choose to engage in misconduct to cope with, seeing it as reasonable and acceptable. The author adopts a qualitative approach (i.e., in-depth interviews and content analysis of official documents) for data collection and analysis. This study contributes to the study of research misconduct because it provides an emotional aspect to analyze the causes of such deviance in academics. It does not aim to defend wrongdoers’ breaching academic integrity; it provides a new angle to analyze the causes of research integrity issues. (shrink)