Noninvasive, prenatal whole genome sequencing may be a technological reality in the near future, making available a vast array of genetic information early in pregnancy at no risk to the fetus or mother. Many worry that the timing, safety, and ease of the test will lead to informational overload and reproductive consumerism. The prevailing response among commentators has been to restrict conditions eligible for testing based on medical severity, which imposes disputed value judgments and devalues those living with eligible conditions. (...) To avoid these difficulties, we propose an unrestricted testing policy, under which prospective parents could obtain information on any variant of known significance after a careful informed consent process that uses an interactive decision aid to deliver a mandatory presentation on the purposes, techniques, and limitations of genomic testing, as well as optional resources for reflection and consultation. This process would encourage thoughtful, informed deliberation... (shrink)

Corporate social reporting, while not mandatory in most countries, has been adopted by many large companies around the world and there are now a variety of competing global standards for non-financial reporting, such as the Global Reporting Initiative and the UN Global Compact. However, while some companies (e. g., Henkel, BHP, Johnson and Johnson) have a long standing tradition in reporting non-financial information, other companies provide only limited information, or in some cases, no information at all. Previous studies have suggested (...) that there are, country and industry-specific, differences in the extent of CSR reports (e. g., Kolk et al.: 2001, Business Strategy and the Environment 10, 15-28; Kolk: 2005, Management International Review 45, 145-166; Maignan and Ralston: 2002, Journal of International Business Studies 33(3), 497-514). However, findings are inconclusive or contradictory and it is often difficult to compare previous studies owing to the idiosyncratic methods used in each study (Graafland et al.: 2004, Journal of Business Ethics 53, 137-152). Furthermore, previous studies have relied mainly on simple measures, such as word counts and page counts of reports, to compare the extent of reporting that may not capture significant differences in the content of the reports. In this article, we seek to overcome some of these deficiencies by using textual analysis software and a more robust statistical method to more objectively and reliably compare the CSR reports of firms in different industries and countries. We examine a sample of leading companies in four countries (US, UK, Australia, and Germany) and test whether or not membership of the Global Compact makes a difference to CSR reporting and is overcoming industry and country specific factors that limit standardization. We conclude that GlobalCompact membership is having an effect only in certain areas of CSR reporting, related to the environment and workers, and that businesses from different countries vary significantly in the extent to which they promote CSR and the CSR issues that they choose to emphasize in their reports. These country differences are argued to be related to the different institutional arrangements in each country. (shrink)

This article examines the proposition that a major cause of the major financial accounting scandals that received much publicity around the world was unethical leadership in the companies and compares the role of unethical leaders in a variety of scenarios. Through the use of computer simulation models, it shows how a combination of CEO's narcissism, financial incentive, shareholders' expectations and subordinate silence as well as CEO's dishonesty can do much to explain some of the findings highlighted in recent high profile (...) financial accounting scandals. Furthermore, it shows that the nature and impact of ethical leadership depends greatly on the institutional setting and can be expected to vary greatly by country and culture. In certain circumstances ethical leadership can have either a negligible or even opposite effect to that expected. (shrink)

This study examined the relationship between workplace sexual harassment as perceived by female employees and the family satisfaction of their husbands. It also considered the mediating roles of employees’ job tension and work-to-family conflict and the moderating role of employees’ work–home segmentation preference in this relationship. The results, based on data from 210 Chinese employee–spouse dyads collected at four time points, indicated that employees’ perceptions of sexual harassment were positively related to their job tension, which in turn increased WFC. Moreover, (...) WFC was negatively related to spouse family satisfaction. The negative relationship between sexual harassment and spouse family satisfaction was mediated by employees’ job tension and WFC. Finally, work–home segmentation preference attenuated the relationship between job tension and WFC. Our results provided insightful theoretical contributions and managerial implications for the sexual harassment and work–family literatures. (shrink)

Many studies have explored the antecedents of corporate social performance, such as institutional forces and stakeholder pressures. However, few studies examine CSP from a socio-cognitive perspective. To address this research void, this study adopts an attention-based approach to examine the relationship between managers' attention to social issues and CSP. More important, this study reports that this relationship will be moderated by governance mechanisms that constrain managerial discretion. Using a sample of Chinese listed firms, this study provides empirical support for these (...) arguments. Therefore, our study adds new insights to the literature addressing CSP from a socio-cognitive perspective and speaks to the structural features, both inside and outside organizations, that guide managers' attention. (shrink)

A company’s product-harm crises often lead to negative publicity which substantially affects purchase intention. This study attempts to examine the purchase intention and its antecedents (e.g., perceived negative publicity) during product-harm crises by simultaneously including perceived corporate ability (CA) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) as moderators. In the study’s proposed model, purchase intention is indirectly affected by perceived CA, negative publicity, and CSR via the mediation of trust and affective identification. At the same time, the influences of perceived negative publicity (...) on trust and affective identification are moderated by perceived CA and CSR, respectively. Empirical testing using a survey of car users from 477 working professionals confirms most of our hypothesized effects except the insignificant moderating effects of perceived CA. Finally, managerial implications and limitations of our findings are discussed. (shrink)

The present study investigated the crossover effects of employee perceptions of servant leadership and job social support on the family satisfaction and quality of family life experienced by the employees’ spouses. These effects were explored through a focus on the mediating role of employee organization-based self-esteem. Results from a three-wave field survey of 199 employee–spouse dyads in the People’s Republic of China support our hypotheses, indicating that OBSE fully mediates the positive effects of servant leadership and job social support on (...) family satisfaction and quality of family life. These findings provide new theoretical directions for work–family research. (shrink)

An extensive body of literature in sociology and anthropology has shown that different societies have developed different structures for exchange of items such as goods, status and information. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how social exchange theory can help illuminate many of the underlying bases of different ethical perspectives in debates about social exchanges. Social exchange theory is applied to three common types of knowledge exchange – R&D joint ventures, commercial intellectual property exchange and academic exchange. Two (...) key factors that underlie different ethical perspectives are shown to be differences in structures for social exchange and differences in views of the alienability of knowledge from its originator. (shrink)

We aim to construct exact and explicit solutions to a generalized Bogoyavlensky-Konopelchenko equation through the Maple computer algebra system. The considered nonlinear equation is transformed into a Hirota bilinear form, and symbolic computations are made for solving both the nonlinear equation and the corresponding bilinear equation. A few classes of exact and explicit solutions are generated from different ansätze on solution forms, including traveling wave solutions, two-wave solutions, and polynomial solutions.

In this article, we propose a process-based definition of big data, as opposed to the size- and technology-based definitions. We argue that big data should be perceived as a continuous, unstructured and unprocessed dynamics of primitives, rather than as points or summaries of an underlying phenomenon. Given this, we show that big data can be generated through agent-based models but not by equation-based models. Though statistical and machine learning tools can be used to analyse big data, they do not constitute (...) a big data-generation mechanism. Furthermore, agent-based models can aid in evaluating the quality of big data. Based on this, we argue that agent-based modelling can serve as a possible foundation for big data. We substantiate this interpretation through some pioneering studies from the 1980s on swarm intelligence and several prototypical agent-based models developed around the 2000s. (shrink)

Five experiments investigated how people use categories to make inductions about objects whose categorisation is uncertain. Normatively, they should consider all the categories the object might be in and use a weighted combination of information from all the categories: bet-hedging. The experiments presented people with simple, artificial categories and asked them to make an induction about a new object that was most likely in one category but possibly in another. The results showed that the majority of people focused on the (...) most likely category in making inductions, although there was a group of consistently normative responders who used information from both categories (about 25% of our college population). Across experiments the overall pattern of results suggests that performance in the task is improved not by understanding the underlying principles of bet-hedging but by increasing the likelihood that multiple categories are in working memory at the time of the induction. We discuss implications for improving everyday inductions. (shrink)

We present a quantitative prediction of total organic carbon content for shale-gas development in the Chang Ning gas field of the Sichuan Basin. We have used the rock-physics analysis method to define the geophysical characteristics of the reservoir and the most sensitive elastic parameter to TOC content. We established a quantitative prediction template of the TOC content by rock-physics modeling. Well data and 3D seismic data were combined for prestack simultaneous inversion to obtain the most sensitive elastic parameter data volume. (...) According to the prediction template, we transformed the sensitive elastic parameter data volume to the TOC content volume. The rock-physics analysis indicates that the reservoir with a high TOC content in the Lower Silurian Longmaxi Formation of the Chang Ning gas field is characterized by low density, low P-wave velocity, low S-wave velocity, low Poisson’s ratio, and low ratio of P-wave velocity to S-wave velocity. Density is the most sensitive elastic parameter to TOC content. The rock-physics model suggests that density is negatively correlated with TOC content, and the relationship between them changes under different porosities. The reservoir with high TOC content is mainly distributed at the bottom of the Longmaxi Fm and in the central and east central area of the study field. The quantitative prediction results are in good agreement with the log interpretation and production test. Therefore, it has important implications for the efficient development of the shale-gas reservoir in the basin. (shrink)

This study examines the varying roles of power, status, and national culture in unethical decision-making. Most research on unethical behavior in organizations is grounded in Western societies; empirical comparative studies of the antecedents of unethical behavior across nations are rare. The authors conduct this comparative study using scenario studies with four conditions in both China and Canada. The results demonstrate that power is positively related to unethical decision-making in both countries. Status has a positive effect on unethical decision-making and facilitates (...) the unethical decisions of Canadian participants who have high power but not Chinese participants who have high power. To explicate participants’ unethical decision-making rationales, the authors ask participants to justify their unethical decisions; the results reveal that Chinese participants are more likely to cite position differences, whereas Canadian participants are more likely to cite work effort and personal abilities. These findings expand theoretical research on the relationship between social hierarchy and unethical decision-making and provide practical insights on unethical behavior in organizations. (shrink)

Increasing gender diversity in the boardroom has been promoted as a way to enhance corporate governance and risk management. This study empirically examines whether boards with more female directors play a role in reducing R&D risk. We first show that female directors help to reduce the positive relationship between R&D investment and future performance volatility. We then report that firms with more gender-diverse boards exhibit a lower adverse effect of R&D on the cost of debt. These results are robust to (...) endogeneity analysis, alternative measures of gender diversity and risky investment, and other sensitivity tests. Overall, our results suggest that female directors improve board effectiveness in risk management with respect to R&D investment. (shrink)

As demonstrated by the popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, Internet-based social networks have become an important part of daily life, and many businesses are now involved in such networks either as service providers or as participants. Furthermore, inter-organizational networks are becoming an increasingly common feature of many industries, not only on the Internet. However, despite the growing importance of networks for businesses, there is little theoretical study on the social responsibilities of businesses in such networks, (...) and how these responsibilities are affected by different types of networks. This article explores how social network analysis, which has been developed from studies of social networks of individuals, can be used to shed light on corporate responsibilities in social networks. (shrink)

This paper investigates the relationship between methodological individualism and agent-based simulation. We use a thesis defended by Caterina Marchionni and Petri Ylikoski as the starting point of our approach. According to this thesis, since MI is often considered to be a reductionist orientation, it is confusing and meaningless to assume that ABS, which is a non-reductionist and emergentist explanatory model, is committed to MI. We criticise this view and focus on the problem of the proper definition of MI. We explain (...) that MI is compatible with the ABS strategy because reductionism is only the most simplistic variant of MI and argue that ABS explanations must be regarded as explanations in terms of non-reductionist MI. (shrink)

This volume addresses fundamental issues in the philosophy of science in the context of two most intriguing fields: biology and economics. Written by authorities and experts in the philosophy of biology and economics, Mechanism and Causality in Biology and Economics provides a structured study of the concepts of mechanism and causality in these disciplines and draws careful juxtapositions between philosophical apparatus and scientific practice. By exploring the issues that are most salient to the contemporary philosophies of biology and economics and (...) by presenting comparative analyses, the book serves as a platform not only for gaining mutual understanding between scientists and philosophers of the life sciences and those of the social sciences, but also for sharing interdisciplinary research that combines both philosophical concepts in both fields. -/- The book begins by defining the concepts of mechanism and causality in biology and economics, respectively. The second and third parts investigate philosophical perspectives of various causal and mechanistic issues in scientific practice in the two fields. These two sections include chapters on causal issues in the theory of evolution; experiments and scientific discovery; representation of causal relations and mechanism by models in economics. The concluding section presents interdisciplinary studies of various topics concerning extrapolation of life sciences and social sciences, including chapters on the philosophical investigation of conjoining biological and economic analyses with, respectively, demography, medicine and sociology. (shrink)

This chapter provides an introduction to the study of the philosophical notions of mechanisms and causality in biology and economics. This chapter sets the stage for this volume, Mechanism and Causality in Biology and Economics, in three ways. First, it gives a broad review of the recent changes and current state of the study of mechanisms and causality in the philosophy of science. Second, consistent with a recent trend in the philosophy of science to focus on scientific practices, it in (...) turn implies the importance of studying the scientific methods employed by researchers. Finally, by way of providing an overview of each chapter in the volume, this chapter demonstrates that biology and economics are two fertile fields for the philosophy of science and shows how biological and economic mechanisms and causality can be synthesized. (shrink)

In the past decades, the booming growth of housing markets in China triggers the urgent need to explore how the rapid urban spatial expansion, large-scale urban infrastructural development, and fast-changing urban planning determine the housing price changes and spatial differentiation. It is of great significance to promote the existing governing policy and mechanism of housing market and the reform of real-estate system. At the level of city, an empirical analysis is implemented with the traditional econometric models of regressive analysis and (...) GIS-based spatial autocorrelation models, focusing in examining and characterizing the spatial homogeneity and nonstationarity of housing prices in Guangzhou, China. There are 141 neigborhoods in Guangzhou identified as the independent individuals, and their values of the average annual housing prices in are clarified as the dependent variables in regressing analysis models used in this paper. Simultaneously, the factors including geographical location, transportation accessibility, commercial service intensity, and public service intensity are identified as independent variables in the context of urban development and planning. The integration and comparative analysis of multiple linear regression models, spatial autocorrelation models, and geographically weighted regressing models are implemented, focusing on exploring the influencing factors of house prices, especially characterizing the spatial heterogeneity and nonstationarity of housing prices oriented towards the spatial differences of urban spatial development, infrastructure layout, land use, and planning. This has the potential to enrich the current approaches to the complex quantitative analysis modelling of housing prices. Particularly, it is favorable to examine and characterize what and how to determine the spatial homogeneity and nonstationarity of housing prices oriented towards a microscale geospatial perspective. Therefore, this study should be significant to drive essential changes to develop a more efficient, sustainable, and competitive real-estate system at the level of city, especially for the emerging and dynamic housing markets in the megacities in China. (shrink)

One of the greatest problems facing luxury goods firms in a globalizing market is that of counterfeiting. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the different types of counterfeiting that take place in thefashion industry and the ethical issues raised. We argue that the problem partly lies in the industry itself. Copying of designs is endemic and condoned, which raises several ethical dilemmas in passing judgment on the practice of counterfeiting. We analyze the ethical issues in a number of (...) different types of counterfeiting encountered in the fashion industry. We conclude with some observations on the general implications for ethics in intellectual property rights. (shrink)

Neural network models have recently made significant achievements in solving vehicle scheduling problems. Adaptive ant colony algorithm provides a new idea for neural networks to solve complex system problems of multiconstrained network intensive vehicle routing models. The pheromone in the path is changed by adjusting the volatile factors in the operation process adaptively. It effectively overcomes the tendency of the traditional ant colony algorithm to fall easily into the local optimal solution and slow convergence speed to search for the global (...) optimal solution. The multiconstrained network intensive vehicle routing algorithm based on adaptive ant colony algorithm in this paper refers to the interaction between groups. Adaptive transfer and pheromone update strategies are introduced based on the traditional ant colony algorithm to optimize the selection, update, and coordination mechanisms of the algorithm further. Thus, the search task of the objective function for a feasible solution is completed by the search ants. Through the division and collaboration of different kinds of ants, pheromone adaptive strategy is combined with polymorphic ant colony algorithm. It can effectively overcome some disadvantages, such as premature stagnation, and has a theoretical significance to the study of large-scale multiconstrained vehicle routing problems in complex traffic network systems. (shrink)

Characterizing heavy oil viscosity by nuclear magnetic resonance relaxation time measurements is much more challenging than characterizing light oil viscosities. Crude oils contain a wide range of hydrocarbons, resulting in broad [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] distributions that vary with the oil composition. Most often, a single geometric mean value [Formula: see text] or [Formula: see text] is correlated with the crude oil viscosity, which cannot accurately account for the inherent complexity of the oil constituent information. Furthermore, as (...) the viscosity increases, some of the protons in the oil relax too quickly to be observable by logging or laboratory NMR instruments. This results in deficiencies of relaxation time and signal amplitude that give rise to apparent [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] distributions and apparent hydrogen index. Using [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] distributions in NMR viscosity models could produce erroneous heavy oil viscosity estimations. Several attempts have been made to overcome these challenges by taking into account [Formula: see text] at a fixed interecho time, or a TE-dependent [Formula: see text]. We have developed a new radial-basis-function-based heavy oil viscosity model using the entire [Formula: see text] distribution, rather than [Formula: see text], with an option of including the NMR-derived [Formula: see text]. Because both of these quantities are TE dependent, it is desirable to include multiple TE data to develop the model. In addition, the principal component analysis method was applied to extract major variations of features embedded in the [Formula: see text] distributions, while discarding distribution features that are derived from random noise. The coefficients of the RBFs were derived using laboratory NMR [Formula: see text] measurements at ambient and elevated temperatures between 23.5°C and 39.5°C and corresponding viscosity measurements on 50 oil samples. These oil samples were collected from different parts of a shallow viscous oil reservoir in Kuwait. It was observed that the use of this newly developed RBF method showed significant improvement in terms of the reliability of the viscosity prediction compared to some recently published heavy oil viscosity correlations. (shrink)

We have developed two new approaches for improving the efficiency and robostness of 2D and 3D inversion processing and interpretation from nuclear magnetic resonance logging data. The first improved method consists of a dual-step inversion method to obtain [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] maps independently, rather than deriving one from the other. The second approach is an inversion-forward modeling-inversion technique for obtaining [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] maps using the same acquired data used for deriving [Formula: (...) see text] and [Formula: see text] maps. Simulation results were evaluated to determine the improvement of the fluid typing interpretation and the robustness of the processing methods. Three actual wells of NMR logging data processing examples were also included to illustrate the utility of these methods for improving fluid typing involving various different combinations of reservoir fluids and mud filtrates. (shrink)

In this paper, a four-dimensional memristor-based Colpitts system is reaped by employing an ideal memristor to substitute the exponential nonlinear term of original three-dimensional Colpitts oscillator model, from which the initials-dependent extreme multistability is exhibited by phase portraits and local basins of attraction. To explore dynamical mechanism, an equivalent 3-D dimensionality reduction model is built using the state variable mapping method, which allows the implicit initials of the 4-D memristor-based Colpitts system to be changed into the corresponding explicitly initials-related system (...) parameters of the 3-D dimensionality reduction model. The initials-related equilibria of the 3-D dimensionality reduction model are derived and their initials-related stabilities are discussed, upon which the dynamical mechanism is quantitatively explored. Furthermore, the initials-dependent extreme multistability is depicted by two-parameter plots and the coexistence of infinitely many attractors is demonstrated by phase portraits, which is confirmed by PSIM circuit simulations based on a physical circuit. (shrink)