Focusing on Hangzhou, a famous tourist city in China, in this study, four regression models were constructed through four items of tourist loyalty to investigate the influence of tourist perceptions and characteristics on male and female tourist loyalty to shared bicycles. A questionnaire survey and ordered logistic regression model techniques were used. Survey data from 467 tourists indicated that there were significant differences between male and female tourists. For male tourists, their willingness to reuse shared bicycles was positively correlated with (...) ease of access to cycles, environmental awareness, psychological benefit, and management provision; however, their willingness to recommend shared bicycles was only affected by environmental awareness, psychological benefit, and management provision. Among female tourists, willingness to reuse shared bicycles was affected by ease of access to cycles, environmental awareness, and rule adherence, while their willingness to recommend shared bicycles was affected by ease of access to cycles, environmental awareness, psychological benefit, and managerial provision. In addition, female tourists’ socio-demographic and behavioral characteristics had a significant impact on their loyalty, among which length of stay in Hangzhou and education were significant in the four regression models, and number of visits to Hangzhou had a positive impact on female tourists’ willingness to reuse. In addition, female tourists who used Hellobike had higher willingness to reuse and recommend than those who used Mobike. For male tourists, only length of stay in Hangzhou had a significant impact on their reuse intention. The current study extends the theory of attribution to explore the factors which may affect tourist’s loyalty to bicycle-sharing from the perspectives of tourists’ perceptions. It will provide further support to decision makers in the development of new shared-bicycle systems at Chinese tourist destinations, with the aim of strengthening tourist loyalty to shared-bicycle programs. (shrink)

The explosion of multiomics data poses new challenges to existing data mining methods. Joint analysis of multiomics data can make the best of the complementary information that is provided by different types of data. Therefore, they can more accurately explore the biological mechanism of diseases. In this article, two forms of joint nonnegative matrix factorization based on the sparse and graph Laplacian regularization method are proposed. In the method, the graph regularization constraint can preserve the local geometric structure of data. (...) L 2,1 -norm regularization can enhance the sparsity among the rows and remove redundant features in the data. First, SG-jNMF1 projects multiomics data into a common subspace and applies the multiomics fusion characteristic matrix to mine the important information closely related to diseases. Second, multiomics data of the same disease are mapped into the common sample space by SG-jNMF2, and the cluster structures are detected clearly. Experimental results show that SG-jNMF can achieve significant improvement in sample clustering compared with existing joint analysis frameworks. SG-jNMF also effectively integrates multiomics data to identify co-differentially expressed genes. SG-jNMF provides an efficient integrative analysis method for mining the biological information hidden in heterogeneous multiomics data. (shrink)

PurposeTo examine the influence of family functioning on college students’ loneliness and the mediating effects of core self-evaluation and problematic mobile phone use.MethodsFamily Function Scale, Core Self-evaluation Scale, Problem Mobile Phone Use Scale, and Loneliness Scale were used to investigate 8,524 college students.Results Family functioning positively predicted core self-evaluation and negatively predicted loneliness ; Core self-evaluation negatively predicted problematic mobile phone use and loneliness ; Problematic mobile phone use significantly positively predicted loneliness ; Core self-evaluation and problematic mobile phone use (...) showed a significant chain-mediation effect between family functioning and loneliness.ConclusionThe results are helpful to comprehend the producing mechanism of loneliness and provide a theoretical basis for the intervention of loneliness. (shrink)

This study was conducted to address the concept of higher education curricula and its practice from an ecological perspective. First, the significance of ecology is investigated based on two streams of thought; the ecological concept of the university proposed by Ronald Barnett; and the text, The Three Ecologies authored by the Italian philosopher Félix Guattari. Second, the notion of ecology is explored, and thoughts on the ecological curriculum and its feasibility are elaborated. Third, outcome-based education is currently the predominant curriculum (...) practice applied in higher education. From an ecological perspective, this learning approach is insufficient. Finally, the practices used for achieving an ecological connection of curricula in higher education are discussed with particular regard to curriculum organisation, the learning process and students’ role as global citizens. (shrink)

Symbiosis is a biological phenomenon in which two dissimilar organisms coexist for mutual subsistence. The concept of symbiosis can be employed to foster mutual learning. In this paper, the...

This article explores the significance of sustainability and several ways in which education for sustainable development can be considered. It presents several issues related to the theories of sustainability and ESD, which are generated based on a firm concept of anthropocentrism. ESD has been used for developing a scientific understanding of the world and is expected to effectively address the environmental damage facing humans. However, this is a narrow view of sustainability, through which learners do not gain an authentic understanding (...) of nature. If the phenomenon of ecological interdependence is true, a non-anthropocentric stance of sustainability is the actual representation required for ESD teaching. Ecological wisdom in Buddhist philosophy indicates that natural sustainability corresponds to human living in harmony with the natural environment, an insight derived particularly from the Buddhist concept of the no-self. Instead of denying the existence of ‘I’, the no-self is the loss of self-preoccupation. This notion highlights the non-dual relation between the self and this world. If I am I and nature is nature, then human sustainability differs from natural sustainability. Only when I am nature and nature is I can natural sustainability translate into human sustainability. This state presents actual sustainability for humans. Regarding ESD, it can be achieved by coming to nature, and learning to see nature in ourselves. As nature does, it comes to all beings, manifesting itself in all beings. (shrink)

Life is ever-changing and unpredictable. Because of drastic changes in our society, numerous people are under pressure from various sources at school, in the workplace, or in their families. People...

It is widespread that the consumers browse relevant reviews for reference before purchasing the products when online shopping. Some stores or users may write deceptive reviews to mislead consumers into making risky purchase decisions. Existing methods of deceptive review detection did not consider the valid product review sets and classification probability of feature weights. In this research, we propose a deceptive review detection algorithm based on the target product identification and the calculation of the Metapath feature weight, noted as TM-DRD. (...) The review dataset of target product is modeled as a heterogeneous review information network with the feature nodes. The classification method of graph is used to detect the deceptive reviews, which can improve the efficiency and accuracy of deceptive review detection due to the sparsity, imbalance of deceptive reviews, and the absence of category probability of feature weight calculation. The TM-DRD algorithm we proposed is validated on the real review dataset Yelp and compared with the SpEagle, NFC, and NetSpam algorithm. The experiment results demonstrate that the TM-DRD algorithm performs better than the other method with regard to the accuracy and efficiency. (shrink)

Nations, as the hitherto highest level of human groupings, have their varied internal organizational structures featuring functionally differentiated yet interactive arrangements among three leading human institutions: economy, polity, and social life. An internal organizational structure affects the different members of a human grouping in different ways due to institutional exclusion that is inevitably the prerequisite for any human organization. With that in mind, this paper moves beyond ethnocentric confines to suggest an institutionalist understanding of the concepts of modernity and modernization, (...) and discusses the issue of institutional exclusion and its four leading patterns in the era of globalization. (shrink)

As a generalization of both single-valued neutrosophic element and hesitant fuzzy element, single-valued neutrosophic hesitant fuzzy element is an efficient tool for describing uncertain and imprecise information. Thus, it is of great significance to deal with single-valued neutrosophic hesitant fuzzy information for many practical problems. In this paper, we study the aggregation of SVNHFEs based on some normalized operations from geometric viewpoint. Firstly, two normalized operations are defined for processing SVNHFEs. Then, a series of normalized aggregation operators which fulfill some (...) basic conditions of a valid aggregation operator are proposed. Additionally, a decision-making method is developed for resolving multiattribute decision-making problems based on the proposed operators. Finally, a numerical example is provided to illustrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the method. (shrink)

BackgroundIn the early days of COVID-19 outbreak, the normally orderly health system was severely challenged by large numbers of feverish patients and shortage of healthcare workers. The outbreak played a harmful role in the mental health of these healthcare workers.ObjectiveWe aim to assess the prevalence of moderate or severe anxiety and depression symptoms of healthcare workers in different regions during COVID-19 disaster and identify the potential risk factors.MethodsWe did a cross-sectional study on ADS of healthcare workers in epicenter-Hubei province and (...) regions in lower epidemic-other provinces by questionnaire online. The data of ADS, the demographic characteristics, occupational exposure, physical condition, family situation, and coping styles were collected and analyzed.ResultsA total of 24.68% of the respondents had experienced moderate or severe ADS. Moderate or severe ADSs were in a higher prevalence in Hubei than other provinces. Suspicious symptoms on their own and in family members were independent risk factors of moderate or severe ADS of all health workers. Working on the frontline was the independent risk factor for participants in Hubei province, whereas quarantine was the independent risk factor for those in other provinces. Moreover, among all participants, those with negative coping style were more than four times more likely to have moderate or severe ADS than those with positive coping style.ConclusionModerate or severe ADSs were in a higher prevalence in healthcare workers of Hubei province during COVID-19 outbreak. The coping style may have major impact on ADS in such situation. (shrink)

This article is a review of the rise and development of women’s studies and the sociology of women/gender, two interrelated academic fields in China. Informed by the sociology of knowledge, the authors analyze how historical and sociopolitical factors such as the legacy of Marxism, state/party control, economic reform, political upheavals, local conditions, and global influences have greatly shaped what and how women’s and gender issues are studied and the resultant characteristics and knowledge production of the two fields in China. Specifically, (...) the authors examine the dynamic process of knowledge development in sociology of women/gender in terms of its academic positioning, standpoint, content, research methodology, curriculum transformation, and teaching in China. Finally, the authors demonstrate how the characteristics and issues shared by the two fields have evolved in a dynamic interplay between Chinese Marxism and feminism. (shrink)

ObjectiveThis study aims to investigate the effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy combined with medication therapy in preventing the recurrence of major depressive disorder in convalescent patients.MethodsA total of 130 patients with convalescent MDD were enrolled in this prospective study. Sixty-five patients were assigned to the experimental group and received medication therapy combined with MBCT, and 65 patients were assigned to the control group and treated with medication alone. The recurrence rate and related hormonal changes were compared between the two groups.ResultsAfter (...) 1 year of MBCT intervention, eight patients experienced recurrence in the experimental group, a recurrence rate of 12.31%, and 19 patients experienced recurrence in the control group, a recurrence rate of 29.23%. The Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and the World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale scores in both the experimental and the control groups were significantly improved after treatment. The difference in the HAM-D scores before and after treatment in the experimental group was 16.74 ± 4.54; this was significantly higher than that of the control group. The WHOQOL-BREF scores in the experimental group were significantly improved compared with those of the control group. The differences in the levels of corticotrophin-releasing hormone, adrenocorticotropic hormone, and cortisol before and after treatment in the experimental group and the control group were statistically significant. The difference in CRH before and after treatment in the experimental group was 16.8 ± 7.2, which was higher than that of the control group. The intervention with MBCT had a significant impact on the recurrence of MDD [β = 1.206, P = 0.039, 95% CI = 0.0790–1.229]. The difference in the HAM-D scores also had a significant impact on the recurrence of MDD.ConclusionCompared with medication therapy alone, the use of MBCT combined with medication therapy can effectively prevent the recurrence of MDD in convalescent patients. (shrink)

Discourse marker analysis has been widely studied, leading Fraser to call this subject `a growth market in linguistics'. In our present research, we extended the study of discourse markers to the Chinese marker meiyou, which has traditionally been treated as a negator. The corpus studied here contains 40 conversations, totaling 482'27”. The analytical framework adopted in the study was drawn from van Dijk's model, which mainly consists of a semantic/textual level and a pragmatic/interactional level. A total of 141 occurrences of (...) meiyou were identified as discourse markers in the corpus: 13 of them occur at the textual level and 128 of them at the interactional level. Thus, meiyou occurs more frequently at the interactional level than at the textual level. At the textual level, meiyou introduces an answer to a self-inquiry or self-correction. At the interactional level, meiyou mainly serves as a response to provide information, as a marker of correction/clarification or evasion, and as a response to praise or gratitude. In particular, with respect to meiyou's interactive functions, we use the concepts of preference structure and face-threatening acts to analyze the collected data. We further demonstrate that intersubjectification, a mechanism whereby meanings become more centered on the addressee, is involved in the development of the discourse marker meiyou. (shrink)

The current discussions of conceptual schemes and related topics are misguided; for they have been focused too much on the truth-conditional notions of meaning/concepts and translation/interpretation in Tarski's style. It is exactly due to such a Quinean interpretation of the notion of conceptual schemes that the very notion of conceptual schemes falls prey to Davidson's attack. We argue that what should concern us in the discussions of conceptual schemes and related issues, following the initiatives of I. Hacking, T. Kuhn, and (...) N. Rescher, is not the truth-values of assertions, but rather the truthvalue-status of the sentences used to make the assertions. This is because the genuine conceptual innovation between alternative theories/languages does not lie in differences in determining the truth-values of their sentences, but turns on whether these sentences have truth-values when considered within the context of a competing one. The core of conceptual relativism does not consist in the claim that different conceptual schemes may yield incommensurable truth claims, but rather that different conceptual schemes may yield incompatible truth-value-status and therefore lead to distinct perceptions of reality. Conceptual schemes are no longer seen as sentential languages consisting of a set of sentences accepted as true, but rather seen as metaphysical presuppositions of presuppositional languages.[ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]. (shrink)

What the authors attempt to address in this paper is a Kantian question: not whether, but how is cross -cultural understanding possible? And specifically, what is a more effective approach for cross -cultural understanding? The answer lies in an analysis of two different models of cross -cultural understanding, that is, propositional and hermeneutic understanding. To begin with, the author presents a linguistic interpretation of culture, i.e., a culture as a linguistically formulated and transmitted symbolic system with its conceptual core as (...) a scheme of basic cultural presuppositions, which it referred to as a cultural language. After exploring the essential role of cultural presuppositions in cross -cultural understanding, the author discusses the traditional model of cross -cultural understanding, namely, the propositional model. Through critically examining the two popular versions of the propositional model, i.e., the projective approach and the adoptive approach to cross -cultural understanding, it is found that cross -cultural propositional understanding is doomed to failure. To move us beyond the absolutism -relativism trap embedded within propositional understanding, the author first introduces and discusses Hans-Georg Gadamer’s hermeneutic understanding, and then applies Hans-Georg Gadamer’s hermeneutic model of understanding to cross -cultural understanding. It is finally concluded that cross -cultural understanding is essentially hermeneutic—including the case of cultural learning, not propositional. Therefore, cross -cultural understanding is hermeneutically possible. (shrink)

Facial fat grafting techniques often offer impressive surgical results. However, fatal complications, such as irreversible cerebral ischemia, blindness, and hemiplegia are associated with them. We have presented a case report of a patient who presented with a massive cerebral infarction, a serious complication of facial autologous fat injection. The patient was a 28-year-old female who experienced motor dysfunction of the left extremities, which was accompanied with loss of consciousness immediately following fat grafting for facial augmentation. Imaging studies suggested that the (...) patient had a large cerebral infarction on the right frontal, temporal, and parietal lobes due to complete occlusion of her right external carotid artery. Emergency decompressive craniectomy was completed in addition to multiple follow-up medical treatments. The patient recovered after 4 months with reduced motor function in her left upper extremity. This report further summarizes published cases of massive cerebral ischemia after facial injection of autologous fat, as well as lists high-risk facial areas and critical warnings. (shrink)

Ingratiation is a common strategy for subordinates to deal with their supervisors in eastern and western societies. Based on the theory of impression management, this study focuses on the impact of upward ingratiation outside the workplace on supervisor’s human resource decisions in the Chinese context and the mechanism behind this impact. The data were collected from 252 supervisor-subordinate dyads in four manufacturing firms. The results demonstrate the following: first, supervisors hold a more favorable view of upward ingratiation outside the workplace; (...) second, upward ingratiation outside the workplace has a positive effect on the supervisor’s chance of promotion and bonus allocation decisions, and leader-member exchange plays a mediation role in this influence; third, Zhongyong thinking moderates the relationship between LMX and supervisor’s chance of promotion and bonus allocation decisions; and finally, ZYT moderates the indirect effect of ingratiation behavior outside the workplace on supervisor’s chance of promotion and bonus allocation decisions through LMX, and the mediated relationship is weakened when a supervisor has a higher level of ZYT. This is one of the first empirical studies, which examines the validity of subordinate’s upward ingratiation outside the workplace from the perspective of supervisor’s ZYT. This study plays an important role in highlighting the effect of ZYT on the ingratiation behavior. (shrink)

Bayesian networks can be employed to cognitive diagnostic assessment. Most of the existing researches on the BNs for CDA utilized the MCMC algorithm to estimate parameters of BNs. When EM algorithm and gradient descending learning method are adopted to estimate the parameters of BNs, some challenges may emerge in educational assessment due to the monotonic constraints cannot be satisfied in the above two methods. This paper proposed to train the BN first based on the ideal response pattern data contained in (...) every CDA and continue to estimate the parameters of BN based on the EM or the GD algorithm regarding the parameters based on the IRP training method as informative priors. Both the simulation study and realistic data analysis demonstrated the validity and feasibility of the new method. The BN based on the new parameter estimating method exhibits promising statistical classification performance and even outperforms the G-DINA model in some conditions. (shrink)

Mobile payment has emerged as a popular payment method in many countries. While much research has focused on the antecedents of mobile payment adoption, limited research has investigated the consequences of mobile payment usage relating to how it would influence consumer behaviors. Here, we propose that mobile payment not just reduces the “pain of paying,” a traditional view explaining why cashless payment stimulates spending, but it also evokes the “pleasure of paying,” raising from the enhanced processing fluency in completing transactions. (...) We tested this new conceptualization of “pleasure of paying” using EEG, complementing other behavioral measures. In two studies, we found that mobile payment effectively enhanced purchase likelihood and such an enhancement is generalizable to both hedonic and utilitarian products. By employing EEG measures, we provided the first neural evidence of “pleasure of paying” in addition to the signal of “pain of paying.” Critically, we demonstrated that the “pleasure of paying” is a distinctive psychological mechanism that is induced by mobile payment usage and that the “pleasure of paying” joins the “pain of paying” to mediate the increased purchase intention. We discuss the contributions and implications of these results to the ongoing evolution of cashless payment societies. (shrink)

Due to the close relationship among intrinsic/extrinsic motivation, regulatory focus, and creativity revealed by previous literature, intrinsic/extrinsic motivation may play a mediating role between regulatory focus and creativity. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the relationship between regulatory focus and creativity by combining intrinsic/extrinsic motivation. In this study, senior high school students completed the Regulatory Focus Questionnaire, the Working Preference Inventory, the Williams Creativity Assessment Packet, and the Kirton Adaption–Innovation Inventory. The correlation analysis showed that both promotion and prevention (...) focus positively correlated with intrinsic motivation; intrinsic motivation and promotion focus positively correlated with creativity personality and innovative-adaptive cognitive style; and extrinsic motivation and prevention focus negatively correlated with innovative–adaptive cognitive style. Furthermore, a path model showed that promotion focus positively predicted creativity through the mediation of intrinsic motivation. In general, our study suggests that intrinsic motivation plays a mediating role between promotion focus and creativity. Our results complement those of previous studies and serve as inspiration for the cultivation of creativity in classroom or enterprise settings. (shrink)

Solvency assessment is the core content of insurance supervision. In this paper, from the perspective of capital flow, the insurance company’s capital flow is regarded as a dynamic system, the stochastic differential equations model is established to describe its flow characteristics, and the existence of positive equilibrium point of the system is proved, as well as the conditions of stability at equilibrium point, that is, the requirements of the insurance company’s solvency. Furthermore, by using the numerical simulation method, we get (...) the strategy of insurance companies to deal with the solvency shortage when facing the change of external environment, and the strategy of insurance company to deal with solvency shortage is obtained. (shrink)

Much research has focused on intergenerational learning. However, its patterns and processes have rarely been explored. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a coding scheme for intergenerational learning, and to explore the patterns of collaborative communication emerging in the context of intergenerational learning. A total of 16 individuals participated in the study. Participants were invited to design digital games with their intergenerational team members. Of all the interactions, two sets of collaborative interactions were coded and analyzed. The findings revealed that (...) the coding scheme for intergenerational learning was developed with high inter-rater reliability for three sub-systems: power process, communication skills, and responses to bids. Additionally, although the patterns of collaborative communication showed a balance of power during the task involving the collection of game elements, younger learners dominated during the task of completing the game prototype. (shrink)

In recent years, the incidence of depressive symptoms among Chinese college students has been increasing. Studies have shown that depressive symptoms are related to a variety of psychosocial factors, among which neuroticism, resilience, and attention bias are most notably related, but the correlation among the three is not clear. This study aimed to investigate the influence mechanisms of different degrees of resilience, attentional bias, and neuroticism in the formation of depressive symptoms. The college freshmen of this study were selected through (...) stratified multi-stage cluster sampling. Students provided informed consent and then completed a general situation questionnaire and four scales: the Chinese version of the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale, the Attention to Positive and Negative Information Scale, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, and the Zung Self-Rating Depressive Symptoms Scale. In total, 1,493 freshmen participated in the research group. Our results showed that low resilience, negative attention bias, and high neuroticism jointly increased the risk of depressive symptoms. There is a significant correlation between these three factors and depressive symptoms. Additionally, strength, tenacity, and attention bias all had more significant effects on the occurrence of depressive symptoms. These findings indicate that there may be an important psychological mechanism for the occurrence, development, and poor prognosis of depressive symptoms. (shrink)

Background: Individuals’ information processing includes automatic and effortful processes and the latter require sustained concentration or attention and larger amounts of cognitive “capacity.” Event-related potentials reflect all neural activities that are related to a certain stimulus. Investigating ERP characteristics of effortful cognitive processing in people with schizophrenia would be helpful in further understanding the neural mechanism of schizophrenia.Methods: Both schizophrenia patients and health controls completed ERP measurements during the performance of the basic facial emotion identification test and the face-vignette task. (...) Data of ERP components, BFEIT and FVT performances were analyzed.Results: Schizophrenia patients’ accuracies of face emotion detection in the BFEIT and vignette emotion detection in the FVT were both significantly worse than the performance of the HC group. Repeated-measures ANOVAs performed on mean amplitudes and latencies revealed that the interaction effect for group × experiment × site was significant for N250 amplitude. In FVT experiment, N250 amplitudes at prefrontal and frontal sites in schizophrenia group were larger than those of HC group; the maximum N250 amplitude was present at the prefrontal site in both the groups. For N250 latency, the interaction effect for group × experiment was significant; N250 latencies in the schizophrenia group were longer than those of the HC group.Conclusion: Schizophrenia patients present effortful cognitive processing dysfunctions which reflect in abnormal ERP components, especially N250 at prefrontal cortex and frontal cortex sites. These findings have important implications for further clarifying the neural mechanism of effortful cognitive processing deficits in schizophrenia. (shrink)

This study examines the impact of non-executive employee stock ownership plans (ESOP) on corporate environmental engagement. We show that granting ESOPs to non-executive employees promotes greater corporate ecological engagement from the perspectives of environmental protection expenditures, environmental information disclosure quality, and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings. ESOPs unite members in a common interest, empowering them to put pressure on management to reduce carbon emissions, which benefits their physical wellbeing and increases their residual interest in long-term corporate wealth. Further, our (...) analysis reveals that companies investing in environmental protection forgo short-term profit as a consequence of high initial costs, while increasing long-term firm value. These positive effects are attributable to ESOP schemes with higher employee subscription rates, those granted to a larger number of non-executive employees, and those with longer validity periods of ownership, whose incentive effect is sufficiently powerful to offset the free-rider problem. In addition, the impact of ESOPs is more pronounced in companies with greater media exposure, those confronting intense labor market competition, and those in heavily polluting industries. Fundamentally, our study provides novel evidence of the incentive effect of ESOPs on corporate environmental engagement and of stakeholder dynamics driving the implementation of carbon reduction strategies. (shrink)

Background The Patient Right to Autonomy Act (PRAA), implemented in Taiwan in 2019, enables the creation of advance decisions (AD) through advance care planning (ACP). This legal framework allows for the withholding and withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment (LST) or artificial nutrition and hydration (ANH) in situations like irreversible coma, vegetative state, severe dementia, or unbearable pain. This study aims to investigate preferences for LST or ANH across various clinical conditions, variations in participant preferences, and factors influencing these preferences among urban (...) residents. Methods Employing a survey of legally structured AD documents and convenience sampling for data collection, individuals were enlisted from Taipei City Hospital, serving as the primary trial and demonstration facility for ACP in Taiwan since the commencement of the PRAA in its inaugural year. The study examined ADs and ACP consultation records, documenting gender, age, welfare entitlement, disease conditions, family caregiving experience, location of ACP consultation, participation of second-degree relatives, and the intention to participate in ACP. Results Data from 2337 participants were extracted from electronic records. There was high consistency in the willingness to refuse LST and ANH, with significant differences noted between terminal diseases and extremely severe dementia. Additionally, ANH was widely accepted as a time-limited treatment, and there was a prevalent trend of authorizing a health care agent (HCA) to make decisions on behalf of participants. Gender differences were observed, with females more inclined to decline LST and ANH, while males tended towards accepting full or time-limited treatment. Age also played a role, with younger participants more open to treatment and authorizing HCA, and older participants more prone to refusal. Conclusion Diverse preferences in LST and ANH were shaped by the public’s current understanding of different clinical states, gender, age, and cultural factors. Our study reveals nuanced end-of-life preferences, evolving ADs, and socio-demographic influences. Further research could explore evolving preferences over time and healthcare professionals’ perspectives on LST and ANH decisions for neurological patients.. (shrink)

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the decision regret scale. Methods: The data of 704 patients who completed the DRSc were used for the analyses. We evaluated the construct, convergent/discriminant, and known-group validity; internal consistency and test–retest reliability; and the item invariance of the DRSc. A receiver operating characteristic curve was employed to confirm the optimal cutoff point of the scale. Results: A confirmatory factor analysis indicated that a one-factor (...) model fits the data. The internal consistency and test–retest reliability [intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.71] of the DRSc were acceptable. The DRSc demonstrated unidimensionality and invariance for use across the sexes. It was confirmed that an optimal cutoff point of 25 could discriminate between patients with high and low decisional regret during clinical practice. Conclusion: The DRSc is a parsimonious instrument that can be used to measure the uncertainty inherent in medical decisions. It can be employed to provide knowledge, offer support, and elicit patient preferences in an attempt to promote shared decision-making. (shrink)

The current COVID-19 pandemic and the previous SARS/MERS outbreaks of 2003 and 2012 have resulted in a series of major global public health crises. We argue that in the interest of developing effective and safe vaccines and drugs and to better understand coronaviruses and associated disease mechenisms it is necessary to integrate the large and exponentially growing body of heterogeneous coronavirus data. Ontologies play an important role in standard-based knowledge and data representation, integration, sharing, and analysis. Accordingly, we initiated the (...) development of the community-based Coronavirus Infectious Disease Ontology in early 2020. -/- As an Open Biomedical Ontology (OBO) library ontology, CIDO is open source and interoperable with other existing OBO ontologies. CIDO is aligned with the Basic Formal Ontology and Viral Infectious Disease Ontology. CIDO has imported terms from over 30 OBO ontologies. For example, CIDO imports all SARS-CoV-2 protein terms from the Protein Ontology, COVID-19-related phenotype terms from the Human Phenotype Ontology, and over 100 COVID-19 terms for vaccines (both authorized and in clinical trial) from the Vaccine Ontology. CIDO systematically represents variants of SARS-CoV-2 viruses and over 300 amino acid substitutions therein, along with over 300 diagnostic kits and methods. CIDO also describes hundreds of host-coronavirus protein-protein interactions (PPIs) and the drugs that target proteins in these PPIs. CIDO has been used to model COVID-19 related phenomena in areas such as epidemiology. The scope of CIDO was evaluated by visual analysis supported by a summarization network method. CIDO has been used in various applications such as term standardization, inference, natural language processing (NLP) and clinical data integration. We have applied the amino acid variant knowledge present in CIDO to analyze differences between SARS-CoV-2 Delta and Omicron variants. CIDO's integrative host-coronavirus PPIs and drug-target knowledge has also been used to support drug repurposing for COVID-19 treatment. -/- CIDO represents entities and relations in the domain of coronavirus diseases with a special focus on COVID-19. It supports shared knowledge representation, data and metadata standardization and integration, and has been used in a range of applications. (shrink)

With advances in technology and the popularity of the Internet, consumers increasingly rely on various sources of electronic word-of-mouth, such as online user reviews and critical reviews, in their decision-making processes. Despite general consensus on the importance of eWOM and the ability of critical reviews to influence product sales, very little is known about the mediation between critical reviews and user reviews. Therefore, we used path analysis to examine how critical reviews and user reviews simultaneously affect box office revenues using (...) eWOM data collected from Metacritic.com and IMDb.com, and box office revenue information collected from BoxOfficeMojo.com. The results showed that critical reviews valence not only directly affects box office revenues but also increases active postings in the community and user reviews volume, thus indirectly leading to greater box office revenues. The study provides strategic guidance and practical implications for eWOM communication management. (shrink)

It is widely held in translation studies that translation proper is not merely a process of linguistic transfer but also of cultural transfer. But how cultural transfer is effected or whether it can be effected is not at all clear. The study begins with a critical analysis of the problems relating to law translation in general and translating the common law into Chinese in particular. It then examines the nature of cultural transfer in law translation with special reference to the (...) translation of common law terminology. The study purports to set out the framework for legal translation as cultural transfer, in particular, for translating the common law into Chinese in Hong Kong. It argues that successful transfer of the legal culture of foreign laws always requires the adjustment of translating language and the employment of metalanguage. (shrink)