ObjectiveTo investigate the attitudes of Chinese parents regarding the storage of dried blood spots collected for newborn screening (NBS) and their use in research.MethodsWe conducted a (...) class='Hi'>hospital-based survey of parents and examined parental attitudes regarding (a) allowing NBS sample storage, (b) permitting use of children’s NBS samples for research with parental permission, and (c) permitting use of children’s NBS samples for research without parental permission.ResultsThe response rate was 52 percent. Of parents surveyed, 68 percent would permit their infant’s NBS sample to be stored for at least some length of time. If permission is obtained, 69 percent of parents “strongly agreed” or “agreed” to permit use of the NBS sample for research. If permission is not obtained, only 14 percent of parents “strongly agreed” or “agreed.” There was no significant association between permitting use of NBS samples for research and parental gender, education, household income, number of children, or site of residence.ConclusionsThis is the first survey of Chinese parents regarding the use of NBS samples for different types of research, with results indicating that most parents would permit their infant’s sample to be stored and would support the use of NBS dried blood spots for research purposes. (shrink)

Real-world complex systems always interact with each other, which causes these systems to collapse in an avalanche or cascading manner in the case of random failures (...) class='Hi'>or malicious attacks. The robustness of multilayer networks has attracted great interest, where the modeling and theoretical studies of which always rely on the concept of multilayer networks and percolation methods. A straightforward and tacit assumption is that the interdependence across network layers is strong, which means that a node will fail entirely with the removal of all links if one of its interdependent nodes in other network layers fails. However, this oversimplification cannot describe the general form of interactions across the network layers in a real-world multilayer system. In this paper, we reveal the nature of the avalanche disintegration of general multilayer networks with arbitrary interdependency strength across network layers. Specifically, we identify that the avalanche process of the whole system can essentially be decomposed into two microscopic cascading dynamics in terms of the propagation direction of the failures: depth penetration and scope extension. In the process of depth penetration, the failures propagate from layer to layer, where the greater the number of failed nodes is, the greater is the destructive power that will emerge in an interdependency group. In the process of scope extension, failures propagate with the removal of connections in each network layer. Under the synergy of the two processes, we find that the percolation transition of the system can be discontinuous or continuous with changes in the interdependency strength across network layers, which means that a sudden system-wide collapse can be avoided by controlling the interdependency strength across network layers. Our work not only reveals the microscopic mechanism of global collapse in multilayer infrastructure systems but also provides stimulating ideas on intervention programs and approaches for cascade failures. (shrink)

Mental illness stigma is imposed on patients in mental illness stigma mark, mainly referring to the disease and psychological stereotypes lead to the loss of social status (...) and discrimination. Study confirmed the existence of stigma would prevent the patient's treatment and rehabilitation, stigma issues resulting widespread concern in the world health community, which is a hotspot of research on the impact of stigma. Labeling theory and theories of stigma affect the correct label for the analysis of the mechanism; stigma of mental illness and related populations of the various effects can be measured in two ways: public stigma and self-stigma; protest, education and exposure is to reduce the stigma effective way. Chinese culture in the future to carry out the stigma of mental illness, should be closely combined with the stigma of traditional culture analysis of the impact mechanism, and should explore the feasibility of stigma strategies. Mental illness stigma is an ashamed mark attached to people with mental illness, which is the status loss and discrimination triggered by negative stereotypes about people labeled as having mental illness. Some researches have showed that stigma may impede the treating and rehabilitating process of clients. The effect of mental illness stigma is currently a hot subject of research. Labeling theory and modified labeling theory are both the theories of the mechanism of the effect of stigma. Researchers investigate the effects of stigma and the ways of diminishing it from two aspects: public- stigma and self-stigma. The future research orientations in China should be combined with culture analysis. (shrink)

Amplitude variation with offset inversion has been widely used in reservoir characterization to predict lithology and fluids. However, some existing AVO inversion methods that use [Formula: see (...) text] norm regularization may not obtain the block boundary of subsurface layers because the AVO inversion is a severely ill-posed problem. To obtain sparse and accurate solutions, we have introduced the [Formula: see text] minimization method as an alternative to [Formula: see text] norm regularization. We used [Formula: see text] minimization for simultaneous P- and S-impedance inversion from prestack seismic data. We first derived the forward problem with multiangles and set up the inversion objective function with constraints of a priori low-frequency information obtained from well-log data. Then, we introduced minimization of the difference of [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] norms, denoted as [Formula: see text] minimization, to solve this objective function. The nonconvex penalty function of the [Formula: see text] minimization method is decomposed into two convex subproblems via the difference of convex algorithm, and each subproblem is solved by the alternating direction method of multipliers. Compared to [Formula: see text] norm regularization, the results indicate that [Formula: see text] minimization has superior performance over [Formula: see text] norm regularization in promoting blocky/sparse solutions. Tests on synthetic and field data indicate that our method can provide sparser and more accurate P- and S-impedance inversion results. The overall results confirm that our method has great potential in the detection and identification of fluids. (shrink)

Shale oil is an unconventional oil resource with great potential. Oil saturation is an essential parameter for formation evaluation. However, due to the complexity of matrix mineral (...) components and pore structure, Archie’s law cannot be used directly to calculate [Formula: see text] in shale oil reservoirs. We have developed a new saturation model for shale oil reservoirs. This model allows us to separate the organic from the inorganic pores, eliminate the background conductivity mainly caused by the borehole fluid or conductive minerals and determine the effective conductive porosity, which rules out nonconductive porosity, including isolated pores and the pore space affected by the fluid distribution. By analyzing the logging and core experimental data from the Qianjiang Sag, Jianghan Oilfield, we found that the T2 cutoff porosities of nuclear magnetic resonance logging are strongly related to the nonconductive porosities. After we determine the T2 cutoff value using the core experimental data, we can use it to obtain nonconductive porosity fraction in each depth point, which allows us to efficiently calculate [Formula: see text]. We calculate oil saturation values and use them to estimate the oil content. The results are coherent with the core experimental data, which indicates the efficiency of this model. (shrink)

The influence of corporate social performance on stakeholders is one of the focal issues in corporate social responsibility research. Using data of listed companies in China, this (...) paper examines whether CSR behavior in the form of charitable donations garners a positive reaction from suppliers. Results derived from both level and change model regressions show that superior CSP makes it easier for a firm to obtain trade credit from suppliers, although the effect is significant only in non-state-owned enterprises. The results are robust to various measures of CSP and endogeneity tests. The results support the strategic philanthropy view and apply stakeholder theory in supply chain, that strategic CSR can help firms to attract suppliers and consolidate cooperative relationships with them, which in turn benefits the firms in terms of more trade credit financing from suppliers. This paper also shows that state-owned enterprises and non-SOEs have different CSR intentions and use CSR to achieve strategic goals in different ways. The conclusions drawn from this study provide practical guidance on CSR strategy, suggesting that CSR activities can help a firm in transition economies to enhance its corporate image, establish and consolidate the good relationship with suppliers, and obtain economic benefits or achieve long-term business objectives. (shrink)

Variance investigation has been identified as an effective mechanism to reduce budgetary slack at the ex ante budgeting stage. This paper focuses on two further research questions: (...) the extent to which two different accountability-oriented control aspects of VI affect budgetary slack and the extent of the moderating effect of moral development on the relationship between these two accountability-oriented control aspects and budgetary slack. Our experimental results show that both external investigation and self-reporting can reduce the propensity of creating slack at the ex ante budgeting stage. More specifically, the effect of external investigation on reducing the propensity of creating budgetary slack is greater than that of self-reporting. This study further reveals that moral development moderates the effect of external investigation on budgetary slack. When comparing subordinates with low moral development with those with high moral development, our results show that the effect of external investigation on budgetary slack is stronger among the former group than the latter group. This study does not find any moderating effect of moral development on the relationship between self-reporting and budgetary slack. Our study sheds some new light on varying effects of two accountability-oriented control aspects of VI on budgetary slack, which are also moderated by different levels of subordinates’ moral development. These results may be considered in the design and implementation of management control systems. (shrink)

The topics of serious leisure and subjective well-being have been discussed extensively in previous research. It is generally acknowledged that people prefer to experience deeper satisfaction (...) class='Hi'>and happiness through serious participation in leisure-time physical activities. However, it is essential to examine the relationship between serious leisure and subjective well-being in an urban setting as well as the mediating effect of leisure satisfaction. Data were collected from 447 recreational runners at the 2018 Wuxi International Marathon event in China. The study results showed that serious leisure was positively associated with leisure satisfaction and subjective well-being, that leisure satisfaction was positively associated with subjective well-being, and that leisure satisfaction completely mediated the relationship between serious leisure and subjective well-being. Running group membership significantly affected the path from serious leisure to leisure satisfaction, while other demographic variables did not moderate any paths. These results help explain the intricate relationship between serious leisure and subjective well-being and offer theoretical and managerial implications for serious leisure. (shrink)

Ground fissures pose serious hazards to underground, as well as aboveground, structures. In underground railways, which are near ground fissures, the potential for disasters is even higher (...) since tunnels face threats from fissure activities. To determine the interaction between a tunnel and ground fissure in the event of an earthquake, field surveys and data analysis were applied to study the activity and damage caused by the fissure. Shaking table tests and a numerical simulation model were used to understand the dynamic response of the fissure site and tunnel. The fissure site had a clear hanging wall effect, where the acceleration amplification was larger in the hanging wall than that in the footwall both on the surface and at the middle of the fissure site. The zone of influence was also wider in the hanging wall. The acceleration magnification factor increased with the burial depth and peak acceleration of the input earthquake. The peak ground acceleration decreased with the burial depth on both sides of the fissure. The greatest PGA coefficient was obtained at the surface of the site. The vertical soil pressure was influenced by the metro tunnel and fissure. The vertical soil pressure was larger in the hanging wall, especially in the zone near the fissure, but was less near the tunnel. The horizontal soil pressure above the tunnel was less than that near the fissure. The results of this study are essential for the safe design of underground railway systems. (shrink)

Enterprise philanthropy is practiced in a very unique and rudimentary form in China. Based on a unique random survey data on 3837 Chinese private enterprises conducted in (...) 31 provinces of China in 2006, I find the significant positive relationship between enterprise philanthropy donation and enterprise profitability, and the result supports the political and institutional power view of enterprise philanthropy in the latest development of China. Simply put, Chinese private enterprises carried out philanthropy activities to better protect property rights and nurture political connections, which in turn, leads to better enterprise profitability. The␣result is even stronger in institutions weaker provinces. (shrink)

Over the past decade philosophers of biology have discussed whether evolutionary theory is a causal theory or a phenomenological study of evolution based solely on the statistical (...) features of a population. This article reviews this controversy from three aspects, respectively concerning the assumptions, applications, and explanations of evolutionary theory, with a view to arriving at a definite conclusion in each contention. In so doing I also argue that an implicit methodological assumption shared by both sides of the debate, namely the overconfidence in conceptual analysis as a tool to understand the scientific theory, is the real culprit that has both generated the problem and precluded its solution for such a long time. (shrink)

The causal nature of evolution is one of the central topics in the philosophy of biology. The issue concerns whether equations used in evolutionary genetics point to (...) some causal processes or purely phenomenological patterns. To address this question the present article builds well-defined causal models that underlie standard equations in evolutionary genetics. These models are based on minimal and biologically plausible hypotheses about selection and reproduction, and generate statistics to predict evolutionary changes. The causal reconstruction of the evolutionary principles shows adaptive evolution as a genuine causal process, where fitness and selection are both causes of evolution. 1 Introduction2 The Philosophical Puzzle3 Causal Models4 Causal Foundations of Evolutionary Genetics4.1 Univariate quantitative genetics model4.1.1 The causal graph4.1.2 Structural equations4.1.3 Deriving evolutionary transition functions4.2 One-locus population genetics model5 Evolution as a Causal Process5.1 Selection as a causal process5.2 Causes of evolutionary change6 Conclusion. (shrink)

This paper examines whether appealing to learners’ moral identity makes a significant contribution to improving their ethical decision making beyond traditional, rule-based teaching. In response to (...) class='Hi'>criticisms leveled at rule-based ethics teaching by alternative approaches, we identify moral identity theory and experiments in moral psychology as useful sources to draw on for the creation of a new, identity-based ethics teaching approach. We develop and apply a set of regular self-reflection focused writing tasks added to the traditional teaching program over a one-semester period, and assess the outcomes of an overall sample of 149 postgraduate business school students, who were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: exposure to both identity-based tasks and rule-based teaching, exposure to rule-based teaching only, and the control condition. Our findings show that, while the three groups reported the same level of ethical decision making at the beginning of the semester, at the end of the semester the students who were exposed to both identity-based and rule-based teaching reported higher level of ethical decision making compared to those who were only exposed to rule-based education. In addition, the students who received rule-based teaching reported higher ethical decision making compared to those in the control condition. These results suggest that a teaching approach which appeals to the learner’s moral identity can act as an effective leverage point when complementing rule-based teaching. This simple approach should be widely adopted as common practice in graduate business schools. (shrink)