We formulate an elementary statistical game which captures the essence of some fundamental quantum experiments such as photon polarization and spin measurement. We explore and compare the significance of the principle of maximum Shannon entropy and the principle of minimum Fisher information in solving such a game. The solution based on the principle of minimum Fisher information coincides with the solution based on an invariance principle, and provides an informational explanation of Malus' law for photon polarization. There is no solution (...) based on the principle of maximum Shannon entropy. The result demonstrates the merits of Fisher information, and the demerits of Shannon entropy, in treating some fundamental quantum problems. It also provides a quantitative example in support of a general philosophy: Nature intends to hide Fisher information, while obeying some simple rules. (shrink)

In the formal semantics based on modern type theories, common nouns are interpreted as types, rather than as predicates of entities as in Montague’s semantics. This brings about important advantages in linguistic interpretations but also leads to a limitation of expressive power because there are fewer operations on types as compared with those on predicates. The theory of coercive subtyping adequately extends the modern type theories and, as shown in this paper, plays a very useful role in making type theories (...) more expressive for formal semantics. It not only gives a satisfactory solution to the basic problem of ‘multiple categorisation’ caused by interpreting common nouns as types, but provides a powerful formal framework to model interesting linguistic phenomena such as copredication, whose formal treatment has been found difficult in a Montagovian setting. In particular, we show how to formally introduce dot-types in a type theory with coercive subtyping and study some type-theoretic constructs that provide useful representational tools for reference transfers and multiple word meanings in formal lexical semantics. (shrink)

: This essay breaks new ground in defending the view that contemporary care-based ethics and early Confucian ethics share some important common ground. Luo also introduces the notion of relational virtue in an attempt to bridge a conceptual gap between relational caring ethics and agent-based virtue ethics, and to make the connections between the ethics of care and Confucian ethics philosophically clearer and more defensible.

Given that women CEOs are usually more risk averse, engage less in opportunistic behavior, and provide higher quality earnings than men CEOs, we argue that firms with women CEOs are likely to face lower operational and information risk and thus enjoy cheaper external funds. Using a large sample of Chinese A-share listed firms operating from 2006 to 2012, we find consistent evidence that Chinese banks tend to impose lower loan costs on firms with women CEOs compared to firms with men (...) CEOs. This effect is more pronounced for non-state-owned enterprises than for state-owned enterprises, for firms without political connections than for firms with political connections, and during non-crisis periods. We do not find any significant effects for firms with women chairpersons, CFOs, or directors. (shrink)

This essay examines the classical Confucian perspective on the topic of happiness through the lens of three Western theories: hedonism, desire satisfaction theory, and objective list theory. My analysis of the two classical texts—the Analects and the Mencius —reveals that three salient aspects of the Confucian conception of happiness, namely ethical pleasure, ethical desire, and moral innocence, play the fundamental role in the guidance and evaluation of an individual’s life. According to Confucius and Mencius, happiness consists primarily not in pleasure, (...) but in ethical pleasure; the good life is not a life in which all or most of one’s desires are fulfilled, but a life in which the satisfaction of prudential desires is subject to the constraint of ethical desire; the source of the greatest happiness lies not in the attainment of the greatest political power, but rather in the cognizance of one’s moral innocence. For classical Confucian thinkers, the relationship between happiness and the good life is that happiness is a critically important constituent of the good life. However, happiness—defined in terms of pleasure, desire satisfaction, or a list of goods—needs to be tempered by moral constraints. In light of their views on happiness and the good life, I conclude that Confucius and Mencius each lived a good life that exemplified the three salient features of happiness, and to that extent they were happy. (shrink)

On the basis of MODIS Enhanced Vegetation Index time series data and multisource data, such as nighttime light data and China City Statistical Yearbook data, we investigated the differences in vegetation phenology along urban-rural gradients in urban areas of different sizes between coastal and inland cities in Liaoning Province, China. The results showed that the following: the iterative extraction of urban built-up areas using the threshold method based on nighttime light data combined with the definition of urban built-up areas had (...) high accuracy. Additionally, we found that the start of the growing season in Liaoning Province occurred between day 100 and day 180, while the end of the growing season occurred between days 260 and 330. The difference in the SOS between coastal cities and inland cities was 1.70 days. However, the difference in the EOS was more significant, i.e., the EOS in coastal cities occurred 4.47 days later than that in the inland cities. In urban areas of different sizes, the ∆SOS and ∆EOS of inland cities had negative correlations with urban size. Specifically, when the urban size increased 10-fold, the ∆SOS and ∆EOS advanced by 10.03 and 5.71 days, respectively. In contrast, the ∆SOS and ∆EOS of coastal cities had positive and negative correlations with the urban size, respectively. Specifically, when urban size increased 10-fold, ∆SOS was delayed by 11.29 days while EOS was advanced by 8.83 days. (shrink)

In recent years, the phenomenological approach to empathy becomes increasingly influential in explaining social perception of other people. Yet, it leaves untouched a related and pivotal question concerning the unique and irreducible intentionality of empathy that constitutes the peculiarity of social perception. In this article, I focus on this problem by drawing upon Husserl’s theory of image-consciousness, and I suggest that empathy is characterized by a “seeing-in” structure. I develop two theses so as to further explicate the seeing-in structure in (...) question: first, empathy as a phenomenologically sui generis act is an intentional fusion of both presentation and re-presentation; and second, empathic intentionality is in essence twofold in that it is at once directed at both the other’s sensuously given body and the other’s non-sensuously given mentality. In this light, I argue that empathy is better conceived as a quasi-perceptual act that is fundamentally different from external perception simpliciter and other complex acts such as signitive, recollective and imaginative intention. (shrink)

The doctrinal position of Ratnākaraśānti is a source of great controversy among modern scholars. As diversified as the modern understanding of Ratnākaraśānti’s doctrinal position is the traditional ways in which the gZhan stong view is defined in Tibet. This paper aims to argue, with special attention paid on his presentation of the three natures, that Ratnākaraśānti defines his own doctrine as Rang bzhin gsum gyi dbu ma / *Trisvabhāva- mādhyamika in his “Core Trilogy”: the Prajñāpāramitopadeśa, the Madhyamakālaṅkāropadeśa, and the Madhyamakālaṅkāravṛttimadhyamapratipatsiddhi, (...) demonstrate, by comparing Ratnākaraśānti’s view with that of the orthodox Jo nang authors represented by Dol po pa Shes rab rgyal mtshan and Tāranātha, that Ratnākaraśānti is arguably a gZhan stong pa in its strictest sense, and problematize Brunnhölzl and Sponberg’s classification of different accounts of the three natures in Indian, Tibetan and Chinese sources. (shrink)

This essay calls attention to an aspect of Confucius's notion of ren that has often been overlooked or even denied in much recent discussion of the topic. While the egalitarian aspect of ren, i.e., the idea that every human being has the potential to become a ren person, is frequently asserted, the leadership dimension of ren has for the most part been given short shrift. I argue that for Confucius, ren is the leadership virtue. This conclusion is mainly based on (...) a careful and systematic analysis of what may be called ?the definitional ren passages? and some ?elucidative ren passages? in the Analects. (shrink)

The finite-time synchronization control is studied in this paper for a class of nonlinear uncertain complex dynamic networks. The uncertainties in the network are unknown but bounded and satisfy some matching conditions. The coupling relationship between network nodes is described by a nonlinear function satisfying the Lipchitz condition. By introducing a simple Lyapunov function, two main results regarding finite-time synchronization of a class of complex dynamic networks with parameter uncertainties are derived. By employing some analysis techniques like matrix inequalities, suitable (...) controllers can be designed based on the obtained synchronization criteria. Moreover, with the obtained control input, the time instant required for the system to achieve finite-time synchronization can be estimated if a set of LMIs are feasible or an assumption on the eigenvalues of some matrices can be satisfied. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed results is verified by numerical simulation. (shrink)

This essay breaks new ground in defending the view that contemporary care-based ethics and early Confucian ethics share some important common ground. Luo also introduces the notion of relational virtue in an attempt to bridge a conceptual gap between relational caring ethics and agent-based virtue ethics, and to make the connections between the ethics of care and Confucian ethics philosophically clearer and more defensible.

This essay breaks new ground in defending the view that contemporary care-based ethics and early Confucian ethics share some important common ground. Luo also introduces the notion of relational virtue in an attempt to bridge a conceptual gap between relational caring ethics and agent-based virtue ethics, and to make the connections between the ethics of care and Confucian ethics philosophically clearer and more defensible.

Abstract Comparative studies involving early Confucian ethics often appear to assume that it is a unified approach to morality. This essay challenges that assumption by arguing that Confucius had a significantly different conception of ren , commonly viewed as central to Confucian ethics, from that of Mencius. It is generally accepted that ren has two senses: in a narrow sense, it is the virtue of benevolence (or compassion); in a broad sense, it is the all-encompassing ethical ideal. Both senses fail (...) to capture Confucius’ conception of ren , for the narrow sense fits only Mencius’ understanding of ren , while the broad sense lacks emphasis and precision. I propose a third sense of ren , that is, ren as an integral, higher-order virtue with respect as its most salient component. This sense of ren is more in keeping with the textual evidence in the Analects . It played a key role in Confucius’ political-moral thinking and made his doctrine diverge considerably from that of Mencius, who understood ren primarily as compassion. (shrink)

Hierarchies occur widely in evolving self‐organizing ecological, biological, technological, and social networks, but detecting and comparing hierarchies is difficult. Here we present a metric and technique to quantitatively assess the extent to which self‐organizing directed networks exhibit a flow hierarchy. Flow hierarchy is a commonly observed but theoretically overlooked form of hierarchy in networks. We show that the ecological, neurobiological, economic, and information processing networks are generally more hierarchical than their comparable random networks. We further discovered that hierarchy degree has (...) increased over the course of the evolution of Linux kernels. Taken together, our results suggest that hierarchy is a central organizing feature of real‐world evolving networks, and the measurement of hierarchy opens the way to understand the structural regimes and evolutionary patterns of self‐organizing networks. Our measurement technique makes it possible to objectively compare hierarchies of different networks and of different evolutionary stages of a single network, and compare evolving patterns of different networks. It can be applied to various complex systems, which can be represented as directed networks. (shrink)

This essay argues that there is a political dimension to Confucius’s idea of ren. This thesis is based on a careful analysis of what may be called the definitional passages in the Analects. The author contends that contrary to what may be called the unqualified egalitarian claim, ren is not applicable to every human being because its political aspect requires some degree of constraint in its application.

Squirrel search algorithm is a new biological-inspired optimization algorithm, which has been proved to be more effective for solving unimodal, multimodal, and multidimensional optimization problems. However, similar to other swarm intelligence-based algorithms, SSA also has its own disadvantages. In order to get better global convergence ability, an improved version of SSA called ISSA is proposed in this paper. Firstly, an adaptive strategy of predator presence probability is proposed to balance the exploration and exploitation capabilities of the algorithm. Secondly, a normal (...) cloud model is introduced to describe the randomness and fuzziness of the foraging behavior of flying squirrels. Thirdly, a selection strategy between successive positions is incorporated to preserve the best position of flying squirrel individuals. Finally, in order to enhance the local search ability of the algorithm, a dimensional search enhancement strategy is utilized. 32 benchmark functions including unimodal, multimodal, and CEC 2014 functions are used to test the global search ability of the proposed ISSA. Experimental test results indicate that ISSA provides competitive performance compared with the basic SSA and other four well-known state-of-the-art optimization algorithms. (shrink)

In this paper we propose a way to deal with natural language inference by implementing Modern Type Theoretical Semantics in the proof assistant Coq. The paper is a first attempt to deal with NLI and natural language reasoning in general by using the proof assistant technology. Valid NLIs are treated as theorems and as such the adequacy of our account is tested by trying to prove them. We use Luo’s Modern Type Theory with coercive subtyping as the formal language into (...) which we translate natural language semantics, and we further implement these semantics in the Coq proof assistant. It is shown that the use of a MTT with an adequate subtyping mechanism can give us a number of promising results as regards NLI. Specifically, it is shown that a number of inference cases, i.e. quantifiers, adjectives, conjoined noun phrases and temporal reference among other things can be successfully dealt with. It is then shown, that even though Coq is an interactive and not an automated theorem prover, automation of all of the test examples is possible by introducing user-defined automated tactics. Lastly, the paper offers a number of innovative approaches to NL phenomena like adjectives, collective predication, comparatives and factive verbs among other things, contributing in this respect to the theoretical study of formal semantics using MTTs. (shrink)

Drilling into and around salt bodies can present different kinds of geohazards, such as shrinkage or stuck and crushed casings, resulting in well abandonment and huge economic losses. These engineering disasters are more likely to happen when ignoring the stress perturbations caused by the geomechanical interactions between the salt and surrounding sediments. For a better understanding of the stress perturbations, we use a commercial finite-element software, Abaqus, to build a 2D plane-strain finite-element model of the salt structure of Kuqa depression (...) in the Tarim Basin and simulate the stress perturbations around the salt body in the environment of tectonic compression. By analyzing the patterns of stress perturbations due to different salt geometries such as concave and convex salt, we have come to the conclusion that the convex salt causes compressional stresses on the horizontal and out-of-plane directions but the extensional stress on the vertical direction. On the contrary, the concave salt induces extensional stresses on the horizontal and out-of-plane directions but compressional stress on the vertical direction. The results of stress perturbations near a salt structure in the environment of compressional tectonic stress are opposite to those in the environment of extensional tectonic stress, such as the Mad Dog, in the deepwater northern Gulf of Mexico. The shear stress near the salt structure is bigger than those far away from the salt structure, but is much smaller when compared with horizontal, vertical, and out-of-plane stresses in the profile, in the salt body, horizontal stress drops and converges to vertical stress and von Mises stress equals to zero due to isotropic stresses. The results provide scientific insights on stress perturbations and wellbore drilling design near salt structures in the Tarim Basin. (shrink)

This article investigates an adaptive multi-switching synchronization for two identical high-order memristor-based hyperchaotic systems with uncertain parameters. Firstly, the dynamic characteristics of two high-order memristor hyperchaotic systems with uncertain parameters are analyzed. Then, an adaptive multi-switching controller is designed to realize the multi-switching synchronization of the two high-order hyperchaotic systems, and the unknown parameters of the systems are identified to their true values. Furthermore, numerical simulation results testify the effectiveness of the proposed strategy. Finally, the proposed algorithm applied in secure (...) communication of masking encryption and image encryption is validated by statistical analysis. (shrink)

The main goal of this paper is to analyse the effect of high school scholarships tied to community service on the development of secondary school students in Northwest China. Using data from three rounds of surveys of thousands of students in 298 classes in 75 high schools in Shaanxi province, the paper documents the implementation of the Compassionate Heart Scholars Program and evaluates the effect of the programme on the educational performance, self?esteem, self?efficacy and social responsibility of the participants. We (...) present evidence that part of the protocol of the programme (which includes the nomination and election of programme participants) improves the academic performance and self?esteem of those involved in the programme. The community service part of the programme is shown to raise the self?efficacy and the sense of social responsibility of the programme participants. One striking result is that the test scores of the community service participants do not appear to be adversely affected, even though they spend considerable time doing community service. The findings of this study, therefore, suggest that adding extra?curricular community service to school curricula may be a win?win?win strategy, for the students, for schools and for the local communities served. (shrink)

This study examined the relationship of school ethical climate and students' school performance within the context of a Chinese high school. Gender and grade-level differences in ethical climate perceptions were also explored. Survey data on perceptions of school ethical climate based upon the dimensions of student-to-teacher, student-to-student and teacher-to-student interactions and relationships were obtained from 754 students. Results of the study showed that students' perceptions of their high school's ethical climate were related to academic achievement, gender and grade level. Students' (...) involvement in extracurricular activities and student leadership generally did not seem to relate to their perceptions of ethical climate. Based upon these findings, the school's moral education intervention programs should increase their focus on the area of teacher-to-student relationships and interactions and the subgroups of male students, students in higher grades and students with lower academic achievement. Implications for future research on school climate are also discussed. (shrink)

The existing literature provides conflicting results on the association between firm performance and corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure. This paper empirically examines the effect of firm performance on CSR disclosure in terms of disclosure frequency and quality among Chinese listed firms and the possible mediating effect of corporate ownership on the relationship between firm performance and CSR disclosure. Our findings show that better-performing firms are more likely than worse-performing ones to disclose CSR information and to produce higher quality CSR reports. (...) In addition, the link between firm performance and CSR disclosure is found to be weaker among state-owned enterprises compared with non-state-owned ones. (shrink)

This article theoretically proposes and empirically verifies an understudied issue in the business ethics and corporate social responsibility literature—how moral degradation in a society influences the relationship between BE or CSR and firm performance. Building on strategic choice theory, we propose that both BE and CSR become more important in enhancing business success when the perceived MD is heightened. Our analysis of 300 firms operating in China statistically confirms our hypotheses: first, under high MD, firms’ engagement in CSR results in (...) higher corporate legitimacy and competitive advantage, and second, their adherence to ethical business codes leads to higher corporate legitimacy. We conclude the article by outlining the implications for both theory and practice. (shrink)