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 (...) class='Hi'>.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)

Grapheme-colour synaesthetes experience unusual colour percepts when they encounter letters and/or digits. Studies of English-speaking grapheme-colour synaesthetes have shown that synaesthetic colours are sometimes (...) class='Hi'>triggered by rule-based linguistic mechanisms . In contrast, little is known about synaesthesia in logographic languages such as Chinese. The current study shows the mechanisms by which synaesthetic speakers of Chinese colour their language. One hypothesis is that Chinese characters might be coloured by their constituent morphological units, known as radicals, and we tested this by eliciting synaesthetic colours for characters while manipulating features of the radicals within them. We found that both the function and position of radicals influence the nature of the synaesthetic colour generated. Our data show that in Chinese, as in English, synaesthetic colours are influenced by systematic rules, rather than by random associations, and that these rules are based on existing psycholinguistic mechanisms of language processing. (shrink)

Studies of linguistic synaesthesias in English have shown a range of fine-grained language mechanisms governing the associations between colours on the one hand, and graphemes, phonemes (...) class='Hi'>and words on the other. However, virtually nothing is known about how synaesthetic colouring might operate in non-alphabetic systems. The current study shows how synaesthetic speakers of Mandarin Chinese come to colour the logographic units of their language. Both native and non-native Chinese speakers experienced synaesthetic colours for characters, and for words spelled in the Chinese spelling systems of Pinyin and Bopomo. We assessed the influences of lexical tone and Pinyin/Bopomo spelling and showed that synaesthetic colours are assigned to Chinese words in a non-random fashion. Our data show that Chinese-speaking synaesthetes with very different native languages can exhibit both differences and similarities in the ways in which they come to colour their Chinese words. (shrink)

The fractional nonlinear grey Bernoulli model, abbreviated as FANGBM, is a successful extension of NGBM. Although FANGBM has numerous excellent characteristics, it has a more complex form (...) of fractional accumulation operator than raw NGBM. In this study, we propose a novel fractional nonlinear grey Bernoulli model, named CFNGBM, which uses conformable fractional accumulation, which has a simpler form than FANGBM. Using two practical cases, the effectiveness of the proposed CFNGBM in practical applications was illustrated. Results show that the CFNGBM exhibited higher accuracy than other grey models, thus facilitating its promotion in engineering practices. (shrink)

Temporal Changes in Ovarian Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone mRNA Levels by Gonadotropins in the Rat Sung Ho Lee, Eun-Seob Song, Sun Kyeong Yu, Changmee Kim, Dae Kee Lee (...) class='Hi'>, Wan Sung Choi l and Kyungjin Kim* Department of Molecular Biofogy and SRC for Cell Differentiation, Seoul National University, Seoul 150-742, Korea; IDepartment of Anatomy, College of Medicine, Gyeongsanf; National University, Chinju 660-280, Korea (Recei·. cd on December 29, 1993) The present study examines whether gonadotropins are involved in the regulation of ovarian GnRH gene expression and how ovarian GnRH gene expression temporalJy correlates with alterations in hypothalamic GnRH, pituitary LH~ gene expression in respons to gonadotropins. Hypothalamic and ovarian GnRH mRNA and pituitary LH~ mRNA levels were determined by respective RNA-blot hybridizations, and ovarian GnRH and estradiol contents and serum LH levels were measured by respective radioimmunoassays. Three animal models such as 1) PMSG-treated, 2) PMSG and heG-treated immature rats and 3) proestrous stage of adult rats were used. Immature rats (25-days old) were administered with PMSG (10 iu) at 10:00 hand 48 h later with heG (10 iu) to induce ovulation. In the PMSG-injected model, hypothalamic GnRH mRNA levels were markedly augmented about 9-fold at 50 h, and pituitary LH mRNA 3-fold at 52 h after PMSG administration. Serum LH levels were increased to the preovulatory surge levels at 56 h, and ovarian GnRH mRNA levels were augmented 4-fold at 60 h after PMSG injection. Administration of heG also induced a marked enhancement in ovarian GnRH mRNA levels in comparison to the values shown in both intact and PMSGtreated rats at 52 hand 54 h, respectively. In the proestrous stage of normal adult rats, pituitary LH~ mRNA levels were peaked at 16:00 h. The preovulatory LH surge was evident at 4 h before increment in ovarian GnRH mRNA levels as shown in PMSG-treated rats. The present study clearly showed the sequential increase in hypothalamic GnRH mRNA, pituitary LH~ mRNA and ovarian GnRH mRNA levels, indicating that ovarian GnRH may play a possible role in the control of follicular maturation and the ovulation process. (shrink)

Synaesthesia is a neurological condition in which a sensory or cognitive stimulus consistently co-activates another sensory/cognitive quality in addition to its usual qualities. For example, synaesthetes (...) class='Hi'> might see colours when they read words. Coloured language is one of the most common and most studied types of synaesthesia. The processes that govern the associations of colours and language have been linked to the mechanisms underlying the processing of language more generally. This chapter reviews evidence from current psycholinguistic synaesthesia research in Chinese, focusing in particular on how synaesthetic colouring works in Chinese characters, the basic writing units in Chinese. I consider this in relation to the psycholinguistic processes of character recognition. This chapter reviews evidence for the following facts: that synaesthetic colouring of Chinese characters is a genuine phenomenon in the Chinese population and may affect as many as 1 in 100 in the Chinese population, with a non-significant difference across the sexes that the colouring of characters is rule-based and influenced by a number of linguistic factors; and that synaesthetic colouring can transfer across Chinese and English in bilinguals. These findings are discussed in relation to native versus non-native Chinese synaesthetes, and to the Chinese versus English systems. (shrink)

This article attempts to assess Mario Bunge’s important but widely neglected criticisms of dialectics. It begins by providing a contextualized interpretation of Friedrich Engels’s metaphysics of (...) class='Hi'> the dialectics of nature before embarking on a detailed discussion of Leon Trotsky’s and contemporary “dialectical” scientists’ views on materialist dialectics. It argues that while some of Bunge’s criticisms are eminently sensible, the principles underlying the works of dialectical scientists are compatible with Bunge’s emergentist and systemic approach and can shed light on such issues as the levels of organization, the diachronic and synchronic aspects of emergence, and the individualism-holism-systemism trilemma. This article also submits that dialectics is best interpreted as a guideline for a philosophy of change instead of a magical wand that liberates the investigator from study of facts. Understood as something that serves heuristic purposes, dialectics can be sensibly utilized by scientists to shore up or refine their methodological principles and thereby to facilitate empirical research. (shrink)

By introducing a flux-controlled memristor with quadratic nonlinearity into a 4D hyperchaotic system as a feedback term, a novel 5D hyperchaotic four-wing memristive system is derived (...) class='Hi'> in this paper. The HFWMS with multiline equilibrium and three positive Lyapunov exponents presented very complex dynamic characteristics, such as the existence of chaos, hyperchaos, limit cycles, and periods. The dynamic characteristics of the HFWMS are analyzed by using equilibria, phase portraits, poincare map, Lyapunov exponential spectrum, bifurcation diagram, and spectral entropy. Of particular interest is that this novel system can generate two-wing hyperchaotic attractor under appropriate parameters and initial conditions. Moreover, the FPGA realization of the novel 5D HFWMS is reported, which prove that the system has complex dynamic behavior. Finally, synchronization of the 5D hyperchaotic system with different structures by active control and a secure signal masking application of the HFWMS are implemented based on numerical simulations and FPGA. This research demonstrates that the hardware-based design of the 5D HFWMS can be applied to various chaos-based embedded system applications including random number generation, cryptography, and secure communication. (shrink)

Teacher behaviors are one of the most significant factors influencing student learning. Students from different cultures may have different interpretations of their teachers’ behaviors. This study compared (...) the associations between teacher strictness, teacher feedback, and students’ motivational beliefs using data from six Western countries and six East Asian regions in the Program for International Student Assessment 2015. A total of 89,869 15-year-old students were included in data analysis. The findings indicate that teacher strictness was negatively associated with Western students’ motivation, but positively related to that of East Asian students; teacher feedback had significant positive associations with the motivational beliefs of both Western and East Asian students; and there was a positive relationship between teacher strictness and teacher feedback in East Asian context. These results highlight the need to consider cultural factors when interpreting students’ reactions to teacher behaviors. (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)

In this work, a novel 6D four-wing hyperchaotic system with a line equilibrium based on a flux-controlled memristor model is proposed. The novel system is inspired (...) class='Hi'> from an existing 5D four-wing hyperchaotic system introduced by Zarei. Fundamental properties of the novel system are discussed, and its complex behaviors are characterized using phase portraits, Lyapunov exponential spectrum, bifurcation diagram, and spectral entropy. When a suitable set of parameters are chosen, the system exhibits a rich repertoire of dynamic behaviors including double-period bifurcation of the quasiperiod, a single two-wing, and four-wing chaotic attractors. Further analysis of the novel system shows that the multiple coexisting attractors can be observed with different system parameter values and initial values. Moreover, the feasibility of the proposed mathematical model is also presented by using Multisim simulations based on an electronic analog of the model. Finally, the active control method is used to design the appropriate controller to realize the synchronization between the proposed 6D memristive hyperchaotic system and the 6D hyperchaotic Yang system with different structures. The Routh–Hurwitz criterion is used to prove the rationality of the controller, and the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed synchronization method are proved by numerical simulations. (shrink)

RGBD camera-based VSLAM algorithm is usually applied to assist robots with real-time mapping. However, due to the limited measuring principle, accuracy, and distance of the equipped (...) class='Hi'> camera, this algorithm has typical disadvantages in the large and dynamic scenes with complex lightings, such as poor mapping accuracy, easy loss of robot position, and much cost on computing resources. Regarding these issues, this paper proposes a new method of 3D interior construction, which combines laser radar and an RGBD camera. Meanwhile, it is developed based on the Cartographer laser SLAM algorithm. The proposed method mainly takes two steps. The first step is to do the 3D reconstruction using the Cartographer algorithm and RGBD camera. It firstly applies the Cartographer algorithm to calculate the pose of the RGBD camera and to generate a submap. Then, a real-time 3D point cloud generated by using the RGBD camera is inserted into the submap, and the real-time interior construction is finished. The second step is to improve Cartographer loop-closure quality by the visual loop-closure for the sake of correcting the generated map. Compared with traditional methods in large-scale indoor scenes, the proposed algorithm in this paper shows higher precision, faster speed, and stronger robustness in such contexts, especially with complex light and dynamic objects, respectively. (shrink)

Novel memristive hyperchaotic system designs and their engineering applications have received considerable critical attention. In this paper, a novel multistable 5D memristive hyperchaotic system and its application (...) are introduced. The interesting aspect of this chaotic system is that it has different types of coexisting attractors, chaos, hyperchaos, periods, and limit cycles. First, a novel 5D memristive hyperchaotic system is proposed by introducing a flux-controlled memristor with quadratic nonlinearity into an existing 4D four-wing chaotic system as a feedback term. Then, the phase portraits, Lyapunov exponential spectrum, bifurcation diagram, and spectral entropy are used to analyze the basic dynamics of the 5D memristive hyperchaotic system. For a specific set of parameters, we find an unusual metastability, which shows the transition from chaotic to periodic dynamics. Moreover, its circuit implementation is also proposed. By using the chaoticity of the novel hyperchaotic system, we have developed a random number generator for practical image encryption applications. Furthermore, security analyses are carried out with the RNG and image encryption designs. (shrink)

In this article, I examine Luhmann’s, Bunge’s and others’ views on emergence, and argue that Luhmann’s epistemological construal of emergence in terms of Totalausschluss is (...) both ontologically flawed and detrimental to an appropriate understanding of the distinctive features of social emergence. By contrast, Bunge’s rational emergentism, his CESM model, and Wimsatt’s characterization of emergence as nonaggregativity provide a useful framework to investigate emergence. While researchers in the field of social theory and sociology tend to regard Luhmann as the sole representative of systems theory, the latter has been characterized by its diversity, and the writings of such systems theorists as Mario Bunge deserve more attention from social researchers than they receive at present. Finally, this article suggests that the perennial debate over methodological individualism and holism in social science may make real progress if such ambiguous terms as reduction and reductionism are elucidated before they are employed. (shrink)

In this paper, a novel no-equilibrium 5D memristive hyperchaotic system is proposed, which is achieved by introducing an ideal flux-controlled memristor model and two constant terms (...) class='Hi'> into an improved 4D self-excited hyperchaotic system. The system parameters-dependent and memristor initial conditions-dependent dynamical characteristics of the proposed memristive hyperchaotic system are investigated in terms of phase portrait, Lyapunov exponent spectrum, bifurcation diagram, Poincaré map, and time series. Then, the hidden dynamic attractors such as periodic, quasiperiodic, chaotic, and hyperchaotic attractors are found under the variation of its system parameters. Meanwhile, the most striking phenomena of hidden extreme multistability, transient hyperchaotic behavior, and offset boosting control are revealed for appropriate sets of the memristor and other initial conditions. Finally, a hardware electronic circuit is designed, and the experimental results are well consistent with the numerical simulations, which demonstrate the feasibility of this novel 5D memristive hyperchaotic system. (shrink)

This study explores the research paradigms of contemporary business ethics research in 2001–2008. With citation data from the top two business ethics journals included in the (...) class='Hi'>Social Sciences Citation Index, this study conducts citation and co-citation analysis to identify the most important publications, scholars, and research themes in the business ethics area and then maps the intellectual structure of business ethics studies between 2001 and 2008. The results show that current business ethics studies cluster around four major research themes, including morality and social contract theory, ethical decision making, corporate social responsibility, and stakeholder theory. This study helps profile the invisible network of knowledge production in business ethics and provides important insights on current research paradigms of business ethics studies. (shrink)

Virtual community websites are one of the applications that provide a platform for people with common interests to extend their social relations in social media. With the (...) proliferation of food safety incidents in recent years, social media has often been a major channel for public engagement in risk communication because of its social networking and immediate interaction. To understand the users’ needs and satisfaction, this study proposed a model to develop and evaluate the antecedents of continuance intention toward food safety information from social media. Based on the questionnaire collected from 289 Facebook users, this study assessed the integrated model of the expectation-confirmation theory and technology acceptance model with technology readiness as moderator. The results showed that the perceived ease-of-use, usefulness, and confirmation indirectly affected social media continuance usage intention through satisfaction; perceived ease-of-use, usefulness, and satisfaction were the direct determinants that affected the users’ social media continuance intention. Furthermore, positive technology readiness had significant effects on the relationship between the perceived ease-of-use, usefulness, confirmation, satisfaction, and continuance intention toward food safety information. This study contributes some important suggestions and managerial implications for food safety promotion providers, practitioners, and academics in the food industry, and social media environment. (shrink)

The purpose of this study was to develop and test a model capturing the effects of ethics institutionalization on employee experiences in work life and overall life (...) satisfaction. It was hypothesized that explicit ethics institutionalization has a positive effect on implicit ethics institutionalization, which in turn enhances employee experiences in work life. It was also hypothesized that employee work life experiences have a positive effect on overall life satisfaction and happiness, moderated by work–family life conflict. Data were collected though a survey of marketing managers in Italy. The data provide good but partial support for the model. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed. (shrink)