Distinct processing for pictures of animals and objects: evidence from eye movements

Many studies have suggested that emotional stimuli orient and engage attention. There is also evidence that animate stimuli, such as those from humans and animals, cause attentional bias. However, categorical and emotional factors are usually mixed, and it is unclear to what extent human context influences attentional allocation. To address this issue, we tracked participants' eye movements while they viewed pictures with animals and inanimate images (i.e., category) as focal objects. These pictures had either negative or neutral emotional valence, and either human body parts or nonhuman parts were near the focal objects (i.e., context). The picture's valence, arousal, position, size, and most of the low-level visual features were matched across categories. The results showed that nonhuman animals were more likely to be attended to and to be attended to for longer times than inanimate objects. The same pattern held for the human contexts (vs. nonhuman contexts). The effects of emotional valence, category, and context interacted. Specifically, in images with a negative valence, focal animals and objects with human context had comparable numbers of gaze fixations and gaze duration. These results highlighted the attentional bias to animate parts of a picture and clarified that the effects of category, valence, and picture context interacted to influence attentional allocation.     

Promoting exercise behavior among Chinese youth with hearing loss: a randomized controlled trial based on the transtheoretical model

The transtheoretical model proposes that behavior change is experienced as a series of stages. Interventions tailored to these stages are most likely to be effective in progressing people through the model's hypothesized behavior change continuum. In this study, a stage-tailored, 12-week, exercise behavior intervention based on the transtheoretical model was conducted among a sample of 150 Chinese youth with hearing loss. Participants were randomized into an intervention or control group with all the core transtheoretical model constructs assessed pre- and post-intervention. Participants in the intervention group showed greater advances in their stage of exercise behavior change, decisional balance, and processes of change use compared to those in the control group. The intervention, however, was insufficient for increasing participants' self-efficacy for exercise behavior. The findings partially support the utility of the theory-based intervention for improving the exercise behavior of Chinese youth with hearing loss, while simultaneously helping to identify areas in need of improvement for future applications.     

Return Migrant or Diaspora: An Exploratory Study of New-Generation Chinese–Canadian Youth Working in Hong Kong

The circular movement of migrants between their homelands and adopted countries has problematized the previous linear understanding of return migration. However, the concept of circular migration tends to apply to migrants whose movement is enabled by their extensive pre-migration connections with their homelands. In this paper, we report findings of a study on a group of new-generation Chinese–Canadian youth working in Hong Kong. Although, like many return migrants, this group of young people had economic reasons for moving to Hong Kong (their parents' homeland), they do not position themselves as return migrants. Instead, they have kept a strong Canadian identity by maintaining unique friendship circles and perceiving Canada as a home to which they will one day return. We highlight in this paper some implications of their experiences for transnational migration studies.     

The Development and Validation of a Family Wellbeing Index for Hong Kong Chinese Families

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Family wellbeing is studied worldwide. However, there is a dearth of studies on the wellbeing of families in Chinese societies such as Hong Kong, nor is there...     

北宋丹霞子淳行履考

曹洞宗在北宋初已成衰微之势,在梁山缘观时代几至法脉断绝。经大洪报恩(1058-1111)、芙蓉道楷(1043-1118)的振作,才开始走向繁荣,并在丹霞子淳(1063-1117)一系的弘扬下,发展到鼎盛时期,成为后世两大主流宗派之一。     

三生石故事考辨

三生石故事广为流传,但是对其流传中产生分歧的疑惑在宋代就已经提出,其后各个朝代亦有人关注,但是一直没有得到合理的解释,本文拟就对三生石故事进行考辨,以期对此问题给出合理的解释。     

浅析心电波形唯一性假说

通过对海量心电图资料的分析,发现每个人的心电图波形绝然不同,均有其自身特点,也即具有唯一性,而同一人的心电波形在出生后至18岁成年前如人的容貌、身高、体重一样变化较大,成年后则相对稳定、基本不变,我们认为心电波形如同其他生物特征一样具有生物特征的显著特点,由此提出心电图心电波形具有唯一性的假说。     

在中国道教协会第七次全国代表会议开幕式上的讲话

各位代表、道教界各位朋友:在党中央、国务院的亲切关怀下,中国道教协会第七次全国代表会议今天隆重开幕了。这次会议,是新世纪中国道教界的一次盛会,会议将全面总结中国道教协会第六次全国代表会议以来的工作,研究确定今后一个时期中国道教协会的工作任务,选举产生新一届中国道协领导班子。开好这次会议,对于做好新世纪的道教工作具有十分重要的意义。借此机会,我代表中共中央统战部向全国道教界人士和广大信教群众表示热烈的祝贺,向支持和关心道教事业的各界人士表示衷心的感谢。中国道教协会是全国道教徒的爱国组织和教务组织,是党和政府…     

Effects of psychological interventions for patients with osteoarthritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of psychological interventions (e.g. cognitive restructuring, relaxation) on physiological and psychological health in osteoarthritis patients. A systematic literature search was done using PubMed, Embase, PsycINFO, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and Wanfang Database through November 2016. Studies were included if they used a randomized controlled trial designed to explore the effects of psychological interventions in osteoarthritis patients. Two independent authors assessed the methodological quality of the trials using criteria outlined by Jadad et al. Meta-analysis was done with the Revman5.0. Twelve randomized controlled trials, including 1307 osteoarthritis patients, met the study inclusion criteria. Meta-analysis showed that psychological interventions could reduce the levels of pain [standard mean difference (SMD) ?0.28, 95% CI ?0.48, ?0.08, P-value 0.005)] and fatigue (SMD ?0.18, 95% CI ?0.34, ?0.01, P-value 0.04). In addition, psychological interventions significantly improved osteoarthritis patients’ self-efficacy (SMD 0.58, 95% CI 0.40, 0.75, P-value 0.00) and pain coping (MD 1.64, 95% CI 0.03, 3.25, P-value 0.05). Although the effects on physical function, anxiety, depression, psychological disability were in the expected direction, they were not statistically significant. In conclusion, the role of psychological interventions in the management of osteoarthritis remains equivocal. Some encouraging results were seen with regard to pain, pain coping, self-efficacy, and fatigue. We believe that more methodologically rigorous large-scale randomized controlled trials are necessary to answer this study question.