Patents and ethics: Is it possible to be balanced?

In this presentation, principles of ethics are confronted with the desire of the inventor to make a profit. To this end the presentation is focused on patent protection. Patents should guarantee the return of an inventor’s investment and profit and, on the other side, ensure availability — by patent disclosure — of the invention for the society when the patent terminates. Recent patent applications made by inventors are infringing this principle and societies are paying an unexpected price for these practices. Patent claims are too broad and disclosures too poor. Extreme examples will be discussed. An earlier version of this paper was presented at an international conference, “The Ethics of Intellectual Property Rights and Patents,” held in Warsaw, Poland on 23–24 April, 2004.     

双性化大学生人格特征研究

通过对北京市某所大学826名大学生的调查,探讨性别、性别角色类型和新性别角色类型对大学生人格特征的影响。结果表明：1）双性化性别角色类型大学生约占1／4;2）用贝姆的分类方法,双性化大学生在开放性、宜人性、责任感、和谐性、人情、灵活性人格特征上均高于其他性别角色类型的大学生,可见,双性化性别角色大学生具有较积极的人格特征。按照Brenda Mae Woodhill和CurtisA．Samuels的分类方法,在外向性、开放性、宜人性、责任感、和谐性人格特征上,正性双性化性别角色类型的大学生均高于负性双性化大学生和其他性别角色类型的大学生。     

"后单位时代"集体道德行动的特征及其规律——基于社会调查的实证研究

改革开放前单位组织的集体道德行动逻辑有着明确的可预见性.文化多样、利益多元的"后单位时代"集体道德行动呈现出不同于单位制度时代的道德行动逻辑,调查数据表明,单位组织集体道德行动的特征及其规律,具体表现在道德行动方向多元、道德行动动力不足及道德行动能力欠缺上.当代中国单位组织集体道德行动,在传统伦理"路径依赖"与市场经济"自然法则"的双重挤压下现实地呈现,在个体德性与"伦理场域"的相互关联中辩证地开展,在社会现实的伦理需要和伦理理论的创新发展中健康地运行.     

A differing bidirectional impact on the recognition accuracy of facial expression

This study explored a bidirectional impact on the recognition accuracy of various facial expressions deriving from both the observer and sender in a sample of Chinese participants. A facial manipulation task was used to examine the ability of an observer's facial feedback to modulate the recognition of various facial expressions. Furthermore, the effect of a sender's facial expression with an open or closed mouth on recognition accuracy was investigated. The results showed that only recognition accuracy of a sad facial expression was influenced simultaneously by bidirectional sources from a sender and observer. Moreover, the impact of the unidirectional cue of a sender's facial feature (i.e., mouth openness) on happy and neutral faces was found to influence the recognition accuracy of these faces, but not the observer's bodily state. These findings indicate that the bidirectional impact derived from an observer and sender on facial expression recognition accuracy differs for emotional and neutral expressions.     

A unified fielder theory for interception of moving objects either above or below the horizon

A unified fielder theory is presented that explains how humans navigate to intercept targets that approach from either above or below the horizon. Despite vastly different physical forces affecting airborne and ground-based moving targets, a common set of invariant perception-action principles appears to guide pursuers. When intercepting airborne projectiles, fielders keep the target image rising at a constant optical speed in a vertical image plane and moving in a constant optical direction in an image plane that remains perpendicular to gaze direction. We confirm that fielders use the same strategies to intercept grounders. Fielders maintained a cotangent of gaze angle that decreases linearly with time (accounting for 98.7% of variance in ball speed) and a linear optical trajectory along an image plane that remains perpendicular to gaze direction (accounting for 98.2% of variance in ball position). The universality of maintaining optical speed and direction for both airborne and ground-based targets supports the theory that these mechanisms are domain independent.     

Spatial updating relies on an egocentric representation of space: Effects of the number of objects

Models of spatial updating attempt to explain how representations of spatial relationships between the actor and objects in the environment change as the actor moves. In allocentric models, object locations are encoded in an external reference frame, and only the actor’s position and orientation in that reference frame need to be updated. Thus, spatial updating should be independent of the number of objects in the environment (set size). In egocentric updating models, object locations are encoded relative to the actor, so the location of each object relative to the actor must be updated as the actor moves. Thus, spatial updating efficiency should depend on set size. We examined which model better accounts for human spatial updating by having people reconstruct the locations of varying numbers of virtual objects either from the original study position or from a changed viewing position. In consistency with the egocentric updating model, object localization following a viewpoint change was affected by the number of objects in the environment.     

The ontologicalization of the Confucian concept of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Xin Xing</Emphasis>: Zhou Lianxi’s founding contribution to the Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism

The Confucian concept of “cheng” (integrity) emphasizes logical priority of value realization over “zhen shi” (reality or truth). Through value realization and the completion of being, zhenshi can be achieved. Cheng demonstrates the original unity of value and reality. Taking the concept of cheng as the core, Zhou Lianxi’s philosophy interpreted yi Dao (the Dao of change), and integrated Yi Jing (The Book of Changes) and Zhong Yong (The Doctrine of the Mean). On the one hand, it ontologicalized the Confucian concept of xin xing (mind nature), and proved and established the significance of Dao ti (the ontological Dao) as the principle and origin of the utmost goodness. On the other hand, it also extended the significance of value realization to the process of qi hua (transformation of qi) and transformation of myriad things. He proved li yi (the One Principle) of Dao ti from its many manifestations and established his own metaphysical system. Zhou Lianxi’s philosophy sets up a new theoretical direction for the Song-Ming Confucians to reconstruct Confucian Metaphysics. __________ Translated from Beijing Shifan Daxue Xuebao (Journal of Beijing Normal University)(Social Sciences Edition), Vol. 186, 2004 (6) by Yan Xin     

Reticent behavior and experiences in peer interactions in Chinese and Canadian children

In this study, the authors examined relations between reticent behavior in unfamiliar peer situations and experiences in interactions in Chinese and Canadian children. Observational data were collected from samples of children at 4 years of age in the People's Republic of China and Canada. The results indicated that relations between reticent behavior and peer initiations were similar in the 2 samples. The differences between the samples were mainly in peer responses. Reticent behavior was associated with peer rejection such as overt refusal and disagreement in the Canadian sample but with positive responses such as approval in the Chinese sample, particularly when children made low-power initiations. The results suggest that reticent children in China and Canada may have similar as well as different experiences in social interactions.     

Effects of image background on spatial-frequency thresholds for face recognition

A great deal of work has been devoted to the question of which spatial frequencies, if any, are optimal for various visual tasks, such as face and object recognition. However, to date these studies have all been carried out with stimuli set against a uniform background. It is possible that this type of stimulus does not produce ecologically valid results. The natural world in which visual tasks normally take place involves a great deal of luminance variation and distracting visual structure, which may alter the spatial frequencies necessary for a task. We conducted two experiments that examined the effects of image background on the spatial-frequency thresholds (50% maximum of a low-pass or high-pass Butterworth filter) for face recognition by the psychophysical methods of adjustment and constant stimuli. In both experiments we found no significant difference in spatial-frequency thresholds between uniform-grey backgrounds and natural-scene backgrounds, and only minor differences between uniform-grey backgrounds and fractal noise backgrounds. This suggests that results obtained with uniform backgrounds are ecologically valid and that background effects, if they exist, are small.