Farmers’ entrepreneurship is a powerful breakthrough for solving the problems associated with “agriculture, rural areas and farmers.” Although studies have commonly used the same entrepreneurial activities to analyze farmers’ entrepreneurship, its deep economic roots have rarely been investigated. Investigating the internal development mechanism within the same industry is helpful for understanding farmers’ entrepreneurship motivation and decision making and is an important point at which to implement regional research and enrich the overall research on farmers’ entrepreneurship in the Chinese context. Based (...) on a single-case study in Q Village, Fujian Province, this work identifies the key role played by relational contracts in entrepreneurship groups: reducing transaction costs, promoting investment in asset specificity, and improving contract flexibility. Moreover, this approach is conducive for different action groups in terms of stimulating entrepreneurial motivation in the initial entrepreneurship period and improving entrepreneurship learning ability in the long term. Primary Action Group transforms exploratory intuitive learning into exploratory compilation learning, and Secondary Action Group triggers the learning effect and makes a proprietary investment by utilizing intuitive formulaic learning and compiled formulaic learning, thus reducing unforeseen, contracting and verification costs. During the pattern maturity period, Primary Action Group rationally integrates the supply chain and forms a stable entrepreneurial paradigm, while Secondary Action Group does so to maintain prior information reserves and lower information search, supervised execution, and bargaining decision costs. The value cocreation ability of the same type of commercial modularity is formed, and the whole process of farmers’ entrepreneurship is completed. Our results have important implications for policymakers in China and other countries with clans. (shrink)

Qingping åŠ‰æ¸ å¹³ has published a series of articles criticizing Confucian ethics in its modern context (see various articles by Liu), which has drawn the attention of many scholars. My friends and I have debated with him and his allies on this issue (See Guo 2002, Yang Haiwen 2002, Yang Zebo 2003, 2004a, 2004b, Ding 2003, 2005a, 2005b, Gong 2004, Guo and Gong 2004, and Wen 2005). Most of the important articles in the debate are now collected in a volume (...) I edited, A Collection of Contentions about Confucian Ethics: Focusing on the Mutual Concealment among Family Members (Guo 2005 [ed.]). In the following, I attempt to respond to some of Liu’s criticisms of Confucian ethics. (shrink)

In recent years, Liu Qingping 劉清平 has published a series of articles criticizing Confucian ethics in its modern context (see various articles by Liu), which has drawn the attention of many scholars. My friends and I have debated with him and his allies on this issue (See Guo 2002, Yang Haiwen 2002, Yang Zebo 2003, 2004a, 2004b, Ding 2003, 2005a, 2005b, Gong 2004, Guo and Gong 2004, and Wen 2005). Most of the important articles in the debate are now collected (...) in a volume I edited, A Collection of Contentions about Confucian Ethics: Focusing on the Mutual Concealment among Family Members (Guo 2005 [ed.]). In the following, I attempt to respond to some of Liu’s criticisms of Confucian ethics. (shrink)

An experiment explored the acquisition of conscious and unconscious knowledge of semantic prosody in a second language under incidental and intentional learning conditions. Semantic prosody is the conotational coloring of the semantics of a word, largely uncaptured by dictionary definitions. Contrary to some claims in the literature, we revealed that both conscious and unconscious knowledge were involved in the acquisition of semantic prosody. Intentional learning resulted in similar unconscious but more conscious knowledge than incidental learning. The results are discussed in (...) terms of second language learning and the nature of unconscious knowledge. (shrink)

The main purpose of this note is to characterize consistency of logic theories in propositional logic by means of topological concept. Based on the concepts of truth degree of formulas and similarity degree between formulas the concept of logic metric space has been proposed by the first author. It is proved in this note that a closed logic theory Γ is consistent if and only if it contains no interior point in the logic metric space. Moreover the relationship between logic (...) closedness and topological closedness of a logic theory Γ is discussed. Finally, the concept of full divergency is also characterized by means of the topological concept of density. (shrink)

Editor’s AbstractGuo Qiyong is one of China's leading scholars of Confucianism, and in this essay proposes a distinctive way of thinking about Mainland New Confucianism that is notable for excluding Jiang Qing, Chen Ming, and some other self-identified Mainland New Confucians. Guo says that the fundamental political goal of all New Confucians has been “liberalism”; he argues that values like democracy and human rights can be both universally shared and yet retain distinctive, local differentiations.

Meat consumption has long been a staple in China, but its environmental and social impacts have prompted the development of a market for meat substitutes. However, the question remains whether meat substitutes can coexist with traditional food culture in the context of sustainable development. To address this issue, the researchers used a mixed methods approach to examine the factors influencing Chinese consumers' purchase intentions for meat substitutes. This study conducted an online survey to explore the demographic characteristics of Chinese consumers (...) who are more likely to purchase meat substitutes. The online survey focused on environmental factors such as greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), animal welfare, energy efficiency, and waste. Differences in the intention to purchase meat substitutes across various groups were compared using a Chi-square test. The results showed that women were more likely to buy meat alternatives for environmental sustainability, over half of the vegetarians were willing to purchase plant-based meat to reduce GHG emissions, and over a quarter of younger respondents were ready to buy cultured meat to minimize waste. Nearly a third of higher-income earners were willing to purchase cultured meat to protect animal welfare. Furthermore, the study conducted in-depth interviews with experts from various industries to explore consumer perceptions of meat alternatives. Text analysis revealed factors that motivate or discourage consumers from purchasing meat alternatives, such as traditional Chinese medicine, food therapy, masculinity, and other socio-cultural factors. The study highlights the complex interplay of cultural, environmental, and social factors that shape Chinese consumers' attitudes toward meat alternatives, providing new insights into the future of sustainable meat. (shrink)

Guo Qiyong’s edited volume offers a detailed look at research on Chinese philosophy published in Chinese from 1949-2009. The chapters in this volume are broken down into either the major themes or time periods in the history of Chinese philosophy.

Education is essentially a Bildung-oriented process based on both the interaction between the student and the outside world and a process of expanding children’s experience and horizons of Bildung....

More and more tech-savvy learners are expanding the language learning environment with mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL).From the perspective of epistemological philosophy, this paper examines the relevance of the smartphone application effect, receptive vocabulary knowledge, and receptive language ability in the development of English vocabulary knowledge in Chinese college English learners. Fifty-four freshman English learners were divided into two groups. One group used a smartphone app, and the other used traditional memorization methods. The results showed that, first, there was a (...) significant difference in scores between the two groups, and the longer the experimental group used the app, the higher their scores on both long-term and short-term memory tests. Second, there is a high correlation and significant between the short-term and long-term vocabulary memory test scores of the two groups of students and the pre-test and post-test reading and listening scores. Thirdly, the role of motivation in learners' emotional factors may be related to the development of receptive vocabulary knowledge and receptive language skills. It is effective for freshmen of English universities in China to correctly use smartphone applications for vocabulary development. Vocabulary learning based on mobile devices positively impacts learners' emotional factors, so it is related to the increase of motivation. (shrink)

One of the main issues raised over the years has been how religion feels about music. The relationship between religion and music as a promoting and not a corrupting art is one of the problems that warrants further research in this area. According to this article, phonic music can be a source for various services and be supported by religion in particular circumstances. The article discusses the musical elements of several religious texts, how religion affects the creative process, the human (...) voice, and religious music. In popular music, voices and vocal expression are extremely important. Voices are instantly connected to the body and different emotional states. However, learned cultural patterns of expression can also conventionalize and alter vocal expression; this is true for both music and daily speech. We know from day to day experience that singing might give us energy and, surprisingly, an actual exercise. Anecdotal suggestions that singing is good for your health and happiness are backed up by a growing body of research. It has been demonstrated that singing causes a variety of physiological changes. Persistent singing practice uses the cardiorespiratory system, strengthening the respiratory muscles and improving breathing efficiency. The up rule of oxytocin, immunoglobulin A, and endorphins, which work on immunological capacity and raise impressions of joy, is only one of the progressions in synapses and chemicals that singing can achieve. In this essay, we examine the role that religious singing plays in promoting the vocal arts. (shrink)

The representatives of modern Neo-Confucianism all greatly value Yi Zhuan and regard it as one of their spiritual resources, and give their own creative interpretations and transformations. Xiong Shili's ontological-cosmological theory takes "qian yuan" as its center; Ma Yifu has a theory of ontology-cultivation centered on "nature-principle"; Fang Dongmei has a metaphysics of production and reproduction; Mou Zongsan takes the view of "completely knowing the fathomless and understanding transformation" as a moral metaphysics; and in Tang Junyi there is a theory (...) of the harmony of doctrines on Heaven and man in which "the knowledge of divine understanding" is its key concept. They employ modern philosophical concepts and thinking to illustrate the cosmology, ontology, theory of life, theory of human nature, theory of spiritual worlds, axiology and their connections in Zhou Yi. They affirm that the characteristics of Chinese philosophy that are different from Western philosophy consist in a naturalist view of vital life, a harmonious view of totality, an axiological view that values exist in natural universe and the world of fact, the pursuit of Good and Beauty, and intuitive experience of inner world. (shrink)

To obtain effective fusion results of multi source evidences with different importance, an evidence fusion method with importance discounting factors based on neutrosopic probability analysis in DSmT framework is proposed. First, the reasonable evidence sources are selected out based on the statistical analysis of the pignistic probability functions of single focal elements. Secondly, the neutrosophic probability analysis is conducted based on the similarities of the pignistic probability functions from the prior evidence knowledge of the reasonable evidence sources. Thirdly, the importance (...) discounting factors of the reasonable evidence sources are obtained based on the neutrosophic probability analysis and the reliability discounting factors of the real-time evidences are calculated based on probabilistic-based distances. Fourthly, the real-time evidences are discounted by the importance discounting factors and then the evidences with the mass assignments of neutrosophic empty sets are discounted by the reliability discounting factors. Finally, DSmT+PCR5 of importance discounted evidences is applied. Experimental examples show that the decision results based on the proposed fusion method are different from the results based on the existed fusion methods. Simulation experiments of recognition fusion are performed and the superiority of proposed method is testified well by the simulation results. (shrink)

Smart homes based on the Internet of Things have been rapidly developed. To improve the safety, comfort, and convenience of residents’ lives with minimal cost, daily activity recognition aims to know resident’s daily activity in non-invasive manner. The performance of daily activity recognition heavily depends on solving strategy of activity feature. However, the current common employed solving strategy based on statistical information of individual activity does not support well the activity recognition. To improve the common employed solving strategy, an activity (...) feature solving strategy based on TF-IDF is proposed in this paper. The proposed strategy exploits statistical information related to both individual activity and the whole of activities. Two distinct datasets have been commissioned, to mitigate against any possible effect of coupling between dataset and sensor configuration. Finally, a number of machine learning techniques and deep learning technique have been evaluated to assess their performance for residents activity recognition. (shrink)

This paper focuses on modeling and control of a class of serial variable stiffness actuators based on level mechanisms for robotic applications. A multi-input multi-output complex nonlinear dynamic model is derived to fully describe SVSAs and the relative degree of the model is determined accordingly. Due to nonlinearity, high coupling, and parametric uncertainty of SVSAs, a neural network-based adaptive control strategy based on feedback linearization is proposed to handle system uncertainties. The feasibility of the proposed approach for position and stiffness (...) tracking of SVSAs is verified by simulation results. (shrink)

The aim of our research is to demonstrate that intentionality as a major property of consciousness and as a basic state of mind plays an important role in all the activities in which the subject is related to the objective world. This paper is based on John Searle’s theory of intentionality. Both ideological cognition and practical activity are object oriented activities. However, the objects targeted by them and the ways they are associated with their subjects are different. The function of (...) intentionality of ideological cognition is mainly reflected on its directedness, whereas in practical activities—on its motivating and regulating capacities. (shrink)

The article is of the opinion that simultaneous with the study of practice as an aggregate that conditions the movement of knowledge an in-depth inquiry should be made into the structure and function of practice and its law of development from different angles. The article lays emphasis on probing into the following: the process in which the capacity for practice is converted from potential into reality and the specific social and historical conditions for the conversion; the dialectic relations between the (...) purpose and effect, the effect and efficiency, and the general and the partial effect of practice and the objective criterion to judge the effect; and the feedback mechanism of the movement of practice and its function. On the basis of the above, the article analyzes the intricate interactions between practice and its various links of efficacy, effect, and feedback and arrives at the conclusion that the dialectical cycle of "practice-efficacy-effect-feedback-practice" is objective, universal, dynamic, and open and thus constitutes one of the basic laws of the movement of practice. (shrink)

In the literature, different frameworks of probabilistic epistemic logic have been proposed. Most of these frameworks define knowledge or belief by relational structure. In this paper, we explore the relationship between probability and belief, based on the Lockean thesis, and adopt neighborhood semantics that defines belief directly using probability. We provide a sound and weakly complete axiomatization for our framework. We also try to explain the lottery paradox by modelling it within our framework. Moreover, the paper presents findings concerning the (...) relationship between knowledge, belief and probability within various frameworks. (shrink)

Laws of nature are often considered to have played a crucial role in the development of modern science and continue to attract discussions in contemporary philosophy. Is there a similar idea developed in Chinese traditions? Despite its evident significance, there has not been much discussion on this question since Needham (1951) and Bodde (1979). Needham’s answer is no, and one of his main reasons is that China lacks the idea of a divine celestial lawgiver imposing order on natural phenomena; Bodde (...) largely agrees with him. In this paper, I explain why Needham’s arguments are problematic, and by examining Chinese classical texts, I argue that there is an idea of laws of nature, embodied by two notions, dao 道 and li 理. (shrink)

ABSTRACTWushu is widely misunderstood and its essentially combative nature is being challenged in public discussion. Understanding and recovering its essential nature has become a core issue. This...