In April 2011, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the results of an epidemiological investigation that an unknown cause of lung disease that occurred throughout Korea was caused by humidifier disinfectants. The unprecedented social catastrophe caused by humidifier disinfectants, a household chemical, has so far reported 1,784 deaths and 5,984 survivors in South Korea. This study was designed to investigate the multi-layer relationships between psychological symptoms and adaptive functioning in survivors of the Humidifier disinfectants in South Korea (...) caused by chemical toxic substances. Specifically, this study aimed to explore how psychological symptoms affect actual interpersonal relationships and job adjustment with two variable sets, six internalizing and externalizing subscales, and three adaptation subscales. A total of 224 survivors recruited from a program to support humidifier disinfectant survivors by the government participated in this study. This research was approved by the Institutional Review Board of one of the Universities in South Korea. The age range of the participants was 18–73 years, 37.1% were male, and 62.9% were female. The participants responded to the Adult Self-Report of the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment. A Canonical Correlation Analysis generated three unique patterns in the relationships between psychological symptoms and adaptive functions. Humidifier disinfectant survivors in the first pattern were more vulnerable to psychological symptoms and showed maladaptive functioning in life. Survivors in the second pattern showed intrusive behaviors and appeared to be adaptive in relationships with friends. Finally, survivors in the third pattern showed aggressive behaviors and reported poor partner relationships while showing good relationships with friends. The practical implications of the interventions are also discussed. (shrink)

BackgroundExperience with open disclosure and its study are restricted to certain western countries. In addition, there are concerns that open disclosure may be less suitable in non-western countries. The present study explored and compared the in-depth perceptions of the general public and physicians regarding open disclosure in Korea.MethodsWe applied the COREQ checklist to this qualitative study. We conducted 20 in-depth interviews and four focus group discussions with 16 physicians and 18 members of the general public. In-depth interviews and focus group (...) discussions were performed according to semi-structured guidelines developed according to a systematic review of open disclosure. We conducted a directed content analysis by analyzing the verbatim transcripts and field notes in accordance with the predetermined guidelines.ResultsOpen disclosure perceptions were summarized in terms of the “five Ws and one H”. All physician and general public participants acknowledged the normative justifiability of open disclosure. The participants mostly agreed on the known effects of open disclosure, but the physicians had negative opinions on its expected effects, such as decreased intention of the general public to file lawsuits and increased credibility of medical professionals. Generally, the participants thought that open disclosure is required for medical errors causing major harm. However, the physicians and general public had conflicting opinions on the need for open disclosure of near misses. Most physicians did not know how to conduct open disclosure and some physicians had bad experiences due to inappropriate or incomplete open disclosure.ConclusionPhysicians and the general public in Korea acknowledge the need for open disclosure. Guidelines according to the type of patient safety incident are required to encourage physicians to more readily conduct open disclosure. Furthermore, hospitals need to consider organizing a dedicated team and hiring experts for open disclosure. (shrink)

This paper aims to clarify and resolve issues surrounding the so-called formal linking problem in interpreting the Internally Headed Relative Clause construction in Korean and Japanese, a problem that has been identified in recent E-type pronominal treatments of the construction (e.g., Hoshi, K. (1995). Structural and interpretive aspects of head-internal and head-external relative clauses. PhD dissertation, University of Rochester; Shimoyama, J. (2001). Wh-constructions in Japanese. PhD dissertation, University of Massachusetts at Amherst). In the literature, this problem refers to the difficulty (...) of capturing the delimited semantic variability of the E-type pronoun present in the embedding clause of the construction. I show that the E-type pronoun at issue is subject to a different licensing condition from a typical E-type pronoun and therefore presents a different linking problem. More specifically, it requires that the embedded clause describe a state of its antecedent and its descriptive content be supplied by a salient property represented in the logical form of the embedded clause. I propose an event-based semantic analysis that derives the effects of this novel generalization by establishing a binding relation between the event structure of the embedded clause and the denotation of the E-type pronoun. (shrink)

Based on sensory integration theory, six fabric samples containing tactile and visual stimuli were selected using the sensory perceptions of designers and combined with balls. Experiments involving these toys were implemented with 15 families with preschool-aged high-functioning autistic children. The results showed that loose sequin , which possessed equal tactile and visual intensities, was strongly correlated with frequent smiling/laughing and high enjoyment levels. The fabric provided a loose tactile sensation regarding surface interweave uniformity and a bright visual sensation regarding visually (...) perceived luster; suede exhibited a greater tactile intensity than visual intensity and was correlated with eye contact and activity response. This fabric possessed a smooth visual sensation regarding visually perceived smoothness; and loose sequin , which possessed equal tactile and visual intensities, was highly correlated with finger pointing and initiation. This fabric offered a thin tactile sensation regarding surface interweave thickness and a bright visual sensation regarding visually perceived luster. We suggest applying fabrics to composite toys. Specifically, loose sequin can be used initially to encourage autistic children to interact; subsequently, suede can enable sustained parent-child interaction. The experimental results provide a reference for establishing an innovative toy-design method for autistic children. Keywords: autism; sensory integration theory; parent-child interaction; toys. (shrink)

Based on sensory integration theory, six fabric samples containing tactile and visual stimuli were selected using the sensory perceptions of designers and combined with balls. Experiments involving these toys were implemented with 15 families with preschool-aged high-functioning autistic children. The results showed that loose sequin, which possessed equal tactile and visual intensities, was strongly correlated with frequent smiling/laughing and high enjoyment levels. The fabric provided a loose tactile sensation regarding surface interweave uniformity and a bright visual sensation regarding visually perceived (...) luster; suede exhibited a greater tactile intensity than visual intensity and was correlated with eye contact and activity response. This fabric possessed a smooth visual sensation regarding visually perceived smoothness; and loose sequin, which possessed equal tactile and visual intensities, was highly correlated with finger pointing and initiation. This fabric offered a thin tactile sensation regarding surface interweave thickness and a bright visual sensation regarding visually perceived luster. We suggest applying fabrics to composite toys. Specifically, loose sequin can be used initially to encourage autistic children to interact; subsequently, suede can enable sustained parent-child interaction. The experimental results provide a reference for establishing an innovative toy-design method for autistic children. Keywords: autism; sensory integration theory; parent-child interaction; toys. (shrink)

Robot enthusiasts envision robots will become a “race unto themselves” as they cohabit with the humankind one day. Profound questions arise surrounding one of the major areas of research in the contemporary world—that concerning artificial intelligence. Fascination and anxiety that androids impose upon us hinges on how we come to conceive of the “Cultural Other.” Applying the notion of the “other” in multicultural research process, we will explore how the “Other” has been used to illustrate values and theories about robots, (...) as a mirror for the self. In this paper, we focus on the social, cultural, and religious implications of humans’ attitudes toward relationships between humans with robots. Six major views on humanoid robots are proposed: (1) robots as the “Frightening Other,” (2) robots as the “Subhuman Other,” (3) robots as the “Human Substitute,” (4) robots as the “Sentient Other,” (5) robots as the “Divine Other,” and (6) robots as the “Co-evolutionary Path to Immortality.” The likely and preferable scenario is the last one, which is compatible with an optimistic posthuman world in our evolutionary future. We imagine whether humans will meet the challenge of loving all living and non-living beings (including mechanical entities) might be the key to the co-evolution of both species and the ultimate happiness. (shrink)

The structure of the deep artificial neural network is similar to the structure of the biological neural network, which can be well applied to the 3D visual image recognition of aerobics movements. A lot of results have been achieved by applying deep neural networks to the 3D visual image recognition of aerobics movements, but there are still many problems to be overcome. After analyzing the expression characteristics of the convolutional neural network model for the three-dimensional visual image characteristics of aerobics, (...) this paper builds a convolutional neural network model. The model is improved on the basis of the traditional model and unifies the process of aerobics 3D visual image segmentation, target feature extraction, and target recognition. The convolutional neural network and the deep neural network based on autoencoder are designed and applied to aerobics action 3D visual image test set for recognition and comparison. We improve the accuracy of network recognition by adjusting the configuration parameters in the network model. The experimental results show that compared with other simple models, the model based on the improved AdaBoost algorithm can improve the final result significantly when the accuracy of each model is average. Therefore, the method can improve the recognition accuracy when multiple neural network models with general accuracy are obtained, thereby avoiding the complicated parameter adjustment process to obtain a single optimal network model. (shrink)

We construct a causal-modeling semantics for both indicative and counterfactual conditionals. As regards counterfactuals, we adopt the orthodox view that a counterfactual conditional is true in a causal model M just in case its consequent is true in the submodel M∗, generated by intervening in M, in which its antecedent is true. We supplement the orthodox semantics by introducing a new manipulation called extrapolation. We argue that an indicative conditional is true in a causal model M just in case its (...) con- sequent is true in certain submodels M∗, generated by extrapolating M, in which its antecedent is true. We show that the proposed semantics can account for some important minimal pairs nicely and naturally. We also prove a theorem showing under what conditions intervention and extrapolation will yield the same result, and thus explain how counterfactual and indicative conditionals would behave in a causal-modeling semantics. (shrink)

Algorithms increasingly make managerial decisions that people used to make. Perceptions of algorithms, regardless of the algorithms' actual performance, can significantly influence their adoption, yet we do not fully understand how people perceive decisions made by algorithms as compared with decisions made by humans. To explore perceptions of algorithmic management, we conducted an online experiment using four managerial decisions that required either mechanical or human skills. We manipulated the decision-maker, and measured perceived fairness, trust, and emotional response. With the mechanical (...) tasks, algorithmic and human-made decisions were perceived as equally fair and trustworthy and evoked similar emotions; however, human managers' fairness and trustworthiness were attributed to the manager's authority, whereas algorithms' fairness and trustworthiness were attributed to their perceived efficiency and objectivity. Human decisions evoked some positive emotion due to the possibility of social recognition, whereas algorithmic decisions generated a more mixed response – algorithms were seen as helpful tools but also possible tracking mechanisms. With the human tasks, algorithmic decisions were perceived as less fair and trustworthy and evoked more negative emotion than human decisions. Algorithms' perceived lack of intuition and subjective judgment capabilities contributed to the lower fairness and trustworthiness judgments. Positive emotion from human decisions was attributed to social recognition, while negative emotion from algorithmic decisions was attributed to the dehumanizing experience of being evaluated by machines. This work reveals people's lay concepts of algorithmic versus human decisions in a management context and suggests that task characteristics matter in understanding people's experiences with algorithmic technologies. (shrink)

This paper examines the antecedents of organizational commitment for adopting corporate environmental responsibility and green practices in the case of the logistics industry in South Korea. Seven hundred and eighty employees and top management from logistics companies were sampled. The data were analyzed using factor analysis, structural equation modeling techniques, and one-way analysis of variance. The results showed that social expectations, organizational support, and stakeholder pressure were the important antecedents for the adoption of corporate environmental responsibility and green practices. In (...) the path analysis, social expectations had the greatest impact on both stakeholder pressure and green practice adoption. Moreover, we found that the higher the job titles were, the more willing they were to adopt green practices. This indicated that the current top management of Korean logistics companies is well aware of being mandated to make a commitment to corporate environmental responsibility and green practices. (shrink)

This study proposes two identification cuing factors (i. e., CSR associations and CSR participation) to understand how corporate social responsibility (CSR) relates to employees' identification with their firm.The results reveal that a firm's CSR initiatives increase employee-company identification (E-C identification).E-C identification, in turn, influences employees' commitment to their company. However, CSR associations do not directly influence employees' identification with a firm, but rather influence their identification through perceived external prestige (PEP). Compared to CSR associations, CSR participation has a direct influence (...) on E-C identification. On the basis of these findings, it is argued that CSR performance can be an effective way for companies to maintain a positive relationship with their employees. (shrink)

This study proposes two identification cuing factors to understand how corporate social responsibility relates to employees’ identification with their firm. The results reveal that a firm’s CSR initiatives increase employee–company identification. E–C identification, in turn, influences employees’ commitment to their company. However, CSR associations do not directly influence employees’ identification with a firm, but rather influence their identification through perceived external prestige. Compared to CSR associations, CSR participation has a direct influence on E–C identification. On the basis of these findings, (...) it is argued that CSR performance can be an effective way for companies to maintain a positive relationship with their employees. (shrink)

This study investigates the relationship among ethical philosophy, thinking style, and managerial ethical decision-making. Based on the premise that business ethics is a function of culture and time, we attempt to explore two important questions as to whether the national differences in managerial ethical philosophies remain over time and whether the relationship between thinking style and ethical decision-making is consistent across different national contexts. We conducted a survey on Korean managers’ ethical decision-making and thinking style and made a cross-cultural, cross-temporal (...) comparison with the results presented by previous studies that surveyed Korean and US managers with the same questionnaire at different points in time. Our analysis revealed that Korean managers have become more reliant on rule utilitarianism for ethical decision-making over the last two decades, which is dominantly used by US managers, corroborating our convergence hypothesis built on social contracts theory. However, as opposed to previous research, we found that managers with a balanced linear and nonlinear thinking style do not necessarily make more ethical decisions compared to those with a predominantly linear or nonlinear thinking style. This study contributes to international business ethics literature by presenting a theoretical framework that may explain the convergence of ethical philosophies employed by managers in different national contexts over time, and that the relationship between thinking style and managerial ethical decision-making may not be universal, but contingent on contextual factors. (shrink)

Although access to medicines is a vital feature of the right to the highest attainable standard of health (“right to health”), almost two billion people lack access to essential medicines, leading to immense avoidable suffering. While the human rights responsibility to provide access to medicines lies mainly with States, pharmaceutical companies also have human rights responsibilities in relation to access to medicines. This article provides an introduction to these responsibilities. It briefly outlines the new UN Guiding Principles on Business and (...) Human Rights and places the human rights responsibilities of pharmaceutical companies in this context. The authors draw from the work of the first UN Special Rapporteur on the right to the highest attainable standard of health, in particular the Human Rights Guidelines for Pharmaceutical Companies in Relation to Access to Medicines that he presented to the UN General Assembly in 2008, and his UN report on GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). While the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights are general human rights standards applicable to all business entities, the Human Rights Guidelines for Pharmaceutical Companies consider the specific human rights responsibilities of one sector (pharmaceutical companies) in relation to one area of activity (access to medicines). The article signals the human rights responsibilities of all pharmaceutical companies, with particular attention to patent-holding pharmaceutical companies. Adopting a right-to-health “lens,” the article discusses GSK and accountability. The authors argue that human rights should shape pharmaceutical companies' policies, and provide standards in relation to which pharmaceutical companies could, and should, be held accountable. They conclude that it is now crucial to devise independent, accessible, transparent, and effective mechanisms to monitor pharmaceutical companies and hold them publicly accountable for their human rights responsibilities. (shrink)

The Constitution of the World Health Organization affirms that “the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being.” The Universal Declaration of Human Rights lays the foundations for the international framework for the right to health. This human right is now codified in numerous national constitutions, as well as legally binding international human rights treaties, such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.Although medical care and access to (...) medicines are vital features of the right to health, almost two billion people lack access to essential medicines, leading to immense avoidable suffering. Improving access to essential medicines could save 10 million lives each year, four million of them in Africa and South-East Asia alone. Gross inequity is a shocking feature of the world pharmaceutical situation. (shrink)

Theories of ethical leadership provide important insights about the effect of leader’s ethics on the relationship between leaders and followers. However, there is an increasing demand for addressing key constructs that enhance the capacity to explain theoretical aspects of ethical leadership. The purpose of this study is to expand the theoretical framework of ethical leadership based on Korean traditional leadership by focusing on personal cultivation, morality, and social responsibility. Using a framework of intrapersonal process as leadership and core value and (...) competence as components of leadership, this study examines the ethical aspects of Korean traditional leadership and provides the implications to further develop the theory of ethical leadership. It is found that ethical integrity ensued from sugi is an essential precondition to develop leadership, and the core value of ethical leadership includes Zhixin-Chijing and the competence co.. (shrink)

Despite the increasing number of studies on user experience and user interfaces, few studies have examined emotional interaction between humans and deformable objects. In the current study, we investigated how the anthropomorphic design of a flexible display interacts with emotion. For 101 unique 3D images in which an object was bent at different axes, 281 participants were asked to report how strongly the object evoked five elemental emotions (e.g., happiness, disgust, anger, fear, and sadness) in an online survey. People rated (...) the object’s shape using three emotional categories: happiness, disgust–anger, and sadness–fear. It was also found that a combination of axis of bending (horizontal or diagonal axis) and convexity (bending convexly or concavely) predicted emotional valence, underpinning the anthropomorphic design of flexible displays. Our findings provide empirical evidence that axis of bending and convexity can be an important antecedent of emotional interaction with flexible objects, triggering at least three types of emotion in users. (shrink)

ObjectivePrevious research has shown that adolescents in single-mother households are at heightened risk for adjustment problems. However, limited studies have investigated the mechanisms leading to adolescent problem behaviors in single-mother households. To address this research gap, this study applied the Family Stress Model to examine how single mothers’ material hardship is linked to adolescent problem behaviors, focusing on the mediating roles of mothers’ depression and mother-adolescent closeness. The moderating role of adolescent school connectedness in the relationships between mother-adolescent closeness and (...) school connectedness and between mothers’ depression and school connectedness was also investigated.Materials and methodsThe study analyzed data from 1,384 adolescents and their single mothers who participated in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study at Wave 6. The associations between study variables were analyzed using structural equation modeling by decomposing the direct, indirect, and total effects of material hardship on adolescent problem behaviors. School connectedness’s interactions with mother-adolescent closeness and mothers’ depression were also examined.ResultsResults showed a significant indirect relationship between material hardship and adolescent problem behaviors through sequential mediation of mothers’ depression and mother-adolescent closeness. Mothers’ depression also significantly mediated the relationship between material hardship and problem behaviors. Lastly, school connectedness moderated the relationship between mother-adolescent closeness and adolescents’ internalizing behaviors. The association between mother-adolescent closeness and adolescents’ internalizing behavior was weaker for adolescents with higher levels of school connectedness.ConclusionThe results indicate the important indirect effect of economic strain on adolescents’ problems behaviors in single-mother households, which has been less emphasized compared to the effects in earlier childhood. High rates of material hardship and adolescent problem behaviors in single-mother families call for multifaceted interventions focusing on family processes and protective factors, including school environment. (shrink)

The concept of emotion can be organized within a hypothetical space comprising a limited number of dimensions representing essential properties of emotion. The present study examined cultural influences on such conceptual structure by comparing the performance of emotion word classification between Japanese and Korean individuals. Two types of emotional words were used; central concepts, highly typical examples of emotion, and less typical peripheral concepts. Participants classified 30 words into groups based on conceptual similarity. MDS analyses revealed a three-dimensional structure with (...) valence, social engagement, and arousal dimensions for both cultures, with the valence dimension being the most salient one. The Japanese prioritized the social engagement over the arousal while the Koreans showed sensitivities to the arousal dimension. Although the conceptual structure was similar for the two countries, the weight of importance among the three dimensions seems to be different, reflecting each culture’s values and communication styles. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThis study examines whether a firm's ownership form has any influence on its social performance. Conventional wisdom suggests that public corporations are more susceptible to corruption and socially irresponsible behavior than privately owned corporations because of the intense short‐term profit maximization pressure from shareholders and the lack of sufficient monitoring mechanisms. This study introduces an alternate perspective in thinking about the relationship between ownership form and corporate social responsibility. This study reasons that public corporations are more likely to become socially (...) responsible because of their greater exposure to external influence and greater dependence on external actors with diverse interests. Using a panel data on the pollution management practices of 118 industrial facilities over a 13‐year period, this study shows that public corporations were indeed subject to greater external pressure to reduce pollution, and the pressure led to consistently stronger environmental performance. (shrink)

This paper is about activities of ‘community of inquiry’ on the basis of Lipman’s model applied at a kindergarten in Seoul, Korea. The activities of community of inquiry, basically, includes a series of activities, for example, reading textbooks, making up questions, discussing on themes, working out exercises and further responding. At the beginning of P4C lessons, young children had difficulties in reading texts with no pictures, and making up questions. Having philosophy lessons repeatedly, they were accustomed to the activities, felt (...) joy of thinking by themselves, and enjoyed dialoguing with friends and discussing together. The young children in the community of inquiry showed intimacy and curiosity about the stories written by Dr, Chung, which described typical Korean young child’s daily life and were full of situations experienced in their families and kindergartens. The young children were interested in inquiring philosophical aspects of the stories, tried to think by themselves like philosophers, and finally could achieve the goals of P4C, in short, to think by themselves, to cultivate ethical and aesthetic mind, and to harmonize with others. (shrink)

All of the world's religions refer to death in some way. Everyone is somewhat familiar with stories about where we go or what happens to us after death. From an early age, we have all heard stories of heaven or hell or some other version of paradise. Many of us believed such stories, and a great number of us still do. When considering that such stories manage to persist in modern times, an age of science and logic, we can be (...) sure that death is an issue to which humans attach great importance. In a sense, the idea of an afterlife can be a great source of comfort to those whose death is imminent, as well as to their loved ones. Those who have led especially difficult lives can look forward to a more pleasant world, while those who have enjoyed happiness and abundance have the chance to experience more good fortune. To those left behind, the idea of an afterlife presents the chance to meet a loved one again. We may not be conscious of it, but such hopes and expectations stay with us throughout our lives. If such an afterlife does exist, then there is no reason to avoid or fear death. Moreover, if we believe that another life awaits us, then we would believe that we are only separated from our loved ones temporarily before being reunited with them later on. (shrink)

ZusammenfassungDie öffentliche Theologie geht von der Kritik an der Privatisierung der Theologie aus und richtet sich auf das aktive Teilnehmen an den öffentlichen Diskursen der Gesellschaft für das gemeinschaftliche Wohl. Der vorliegende Aufsatz fasst den Ausgangs- sowie Zielpunkt der öffentlichen Theologie unter dem Begriff Entprivatisierungsthese zusammen. Während öffentliche Theologie auf die Überwindung von Säkularisierung und Individualisierung zielt, die unter dem Begriff von Privatisierung mitbegriffen sind, sind hier die positiven öffentlichen Bedeutungen von Säkularisierung und Individualisierung verdeutlicht. Ausgehend von Harnacks privatisierter theologischer (...) Auffassung vom Evangelium und seiner Teilnahme an politischen und sozialen Fragen wird herausgestellt, dass die öffentliche Dimension der Theologie nicht in der Exklusion von Säkularisierung und Individualisierung, sondern in ihrer positiven Aufnahme zurückzugewinnen ist. (shrink)

This work is the first English monograph on Franciscus Junius's (1545–1602) theology in more than 40 years, and also is the first monograph on Junius’s use of Thomistic moral concepts to date.

From the perspective of the system of systems development, system-level functional testing is required for designing subsystems. This study utilizes modeling and simulation techniques to analyze the operational behaviors of the subsystems and confirm data communication between them. The targeted system in the study is a naval combat system, which is a typical type of defense cyber-physical system. Three types of models were designed for the simulation testing of the NCS: a combat-management model for simulating the overall computational activities, physical (...) models to confirm the intrasubsystem behaviors, and data integration models to test the intersubsystem communications. These models are realized with the Model-View-ViewModel design pattern, which strongly facilitates graphical user interfaces being decoupled from model logic and data. We consider underwater combat scenarios as an application. Six significant physical subsystems within the NCS are simulated and tested: a ship-steering system, an inertial navigation system, a global navigation satellite system, a periscope, sonar systems, and a plotting board. We expect that the proposed work will play a principal role when analyzing the behaviors and communications of defense CPSs and providing an environment for functional testing as a digital twin. (shrink)

There have been various studies on the passage of Philippians 1:15–18 but there have been few studies on a hybrid aspect of Christian identity implicated in the passage. The aim of the study was to reveal a hybrid aspect of the passage. The socio-historical setting for the study was the Greco-Roman period. For this study, I employed rhetorical criticism, a socio-linguistic approach and an anthropological linguistic approach to the passage, as well as the analysis of the socio-historical and cultural background (...) of the passage. As a result, I found that Paul, who retained his Jewish identity but embraced Christian identity, tried to suggest such a new kind of identity for the intended audience and their community. In this article, I argued that Paul as a hybrid personality urged the Christian community in Philippi to have distinguished Christian habitus and field in Philippians 1:15–18. In particular, Paul persuaded his intended audience or readers to acknowledge and accept even those preachers who had questionable intentions into their Christian community. Such an inclusive attitude was to make a clear distinction between the community and their traditional Greco-Roman socio-cultural background. Contribution: The research on Philippians 1:15–18 reveals a hybrid aspect of Christian identity implicated in the passage. This research would contribute to the biblical studies of the Hervormde Teologiese Studies journal through its rhetorical, socio-linguistic and anthropological approach to the biblical passage of Philippians 1:15–18. (shrink)

There have been historical and literary studies on the pre-deuteronomistic narrative of 1 Samuel 21 and 22. However, there have been few studies on the reception of Doeg the Edomite among the exilic and post-exilic communities. This article tries to show how the minor character of Doeg the Edomite in 1 Samuel 21 and 22 was understood by the exilic and post-exilic communities after the fall of Jerusalem. With this objective in mind, the article analyses the literary structure of 1 (...) Samuel 21 and 22 with a focus on Doeg. Along with the literary approach to the text, it examines the historical setting of the exilic and post-exilic communities regarding their cultural memory and enmity towards Edomites. The conflict between Edom and Israel has been constantly described in the biblical text including the Deuteronomistic History. The enmity of Israel towards Edom had been worse after the fall of Jerusalem. The pre-deuteronomistic record of Doeg in 1 Samuel 21 and 22 would have been used as a propagandistic device to reinforce the enmity of the exilic and post-exilic communities towards Edom and Edomites. (shrink)

This paper explores high school students' and teachers' preferences towards constructivist Internet‐based learning environments. The study proposes a framework, including two dimensions and five aspects, to illustrate the features of the Internet‐based learning environments. Based upon this framework, the Constructivist Internet‐based learning environment survey improvement was developed, which includes the scales of ease of use, multiple sources, student negotiation, reflective thinking, critical judgement and epistemological awareness. Questionnaire responses gathered from 630 high school students in Taiwan suggested that the CILESI showed (...) adequate reliability in assessing students' preferences. Male students placed more emphasis on the student negotiation, critical judgement and epistemological awareness enhanced by the Internet‐based learning environments than female students did. In addition, the teachers of the sampled students were also surveyed by CILESI. The teachers tended to express stronger preferences on the ease of use of the Internet‐based learning environments than did their students. However, students, when compared with their teachers, seemed to express more preferences towards the features of student negotiation, reflective thinking, critical judgement and epistemological awareness of Internet‐based learning environments. (shrink)

A toy is a valuable medium for promoting parent-child interaction. This study selected six light-emitting or reflective materials to produce composite toy balls, and conducted tests on 15 families with preschool-aged high-functioning autistic children. Quantification method I analysis was employed in the study, and the experimental results indicated that the metal ball was the representative sample that elicited many smiles or laughs and much finger pointing as well as high levels of pleasure and activeness.; the mitball was the representative sample (...) that provoked much eye contact, produced satisfactory reactions to activities,; the quality of fluorescence enhanced the levels of pleasure and the reactions to the activity. We propose that dynamic and reflective materials can be adopted to divert the attention of children, and fluorescent toys can then employed to sustain parent-child interaction. (shrink)

Despite their potential for facilitating interaction between a user and computer, an embodied agent and voice command have not been examined enough for their matching effects. The current study proposes that an embodied agent and voice command generate positive evaluative outcomes, particularly when they are accompanied by each other. To test this prediction, we conducted a 2 (visual output: embodied agent vs. geometric figure) × 2 (input modality: voice command vs. remote controller) between-subjects experiment (N = 52), and examined whether (...) visual output and input modality jointly influence participants’ social attribution (i.e., anthropomorphism, animacy, likability, and perceived intelligence), social presence, and satisfaction. Results show that voice command does facilitate users’ social attribution and social presence, but only when an embodied agent was presented. Also, the effects of voice command on social presence and satisfaction were mediated by anthropomorphism and perceived intelligence respectively, but only when the interface displayed an embodied agent. The present study evidences the holistic nature of human-computer interaction, revealing the importance of matches in the input and output interface. (shrink)

Despite their potential for facilitating interaction between a user and computer, an embodied agent and voice command have not been examined enough for their matching effects. The current study proposes that an embodied agent and voice command generate positive evaluative outcomes, particularly when they are accompanied by each other. To test this prediction, we conducted a 2 (visual output: embodied agent vs. geometric figure) × 2 (input modality: voice command vs. remote controller) between-subjects experiment (N = 52), and examined whether (...) visual output and input modality jointly influence participants’ social attribution (i.e., anthropomorphism, animacy, likability, and perceived intelligence), social presence, and satisfaction. Results show that voice command does facilitate users’ social attribution and social presence, but only when an embodied agent was presented. Also, the effects of voice command on social presence and satisfaction were mediated by anthropomorphism and perceived intelligence respectively, but only when the interface displayed an embodied agent. The present study evidences the holistic nature of human-computer interaction, revealing the importance of matches in the input and output interface. (shrink)