C Liu

Background Organ donation improves patient survival and quality of life, yet family refusal is a major barrier. This study aimed to explore the role of family discussions in shaping attitudes and decisions about organ donation in China, while also examining the influencing factors at the individual, family, community and societal levels. Method Participatory interviews with family members were conducted based on the social-ecological model (SEM). A snowball sampling strategy was adopted to recruit volunteer interviewers. Of 52 interviewers, 25 completed the family group interviews, involving 94 participants in total. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim within 24 hours. Two researchers coded the data in line with SEM. Themes were identified through an inductive process. Results Four themes were identified out of family discussions about deceased organ donation: (i) individual perceptions on the value of lives and organ donation (value of organ donation, death attitudes, knowledge about organ donation), (ii) family consensus and conflicts (family structure, family altruism), (iii) collective conformity (conformity, individualism, negativity bias) and (IV) culture and social environment (traditional beliefs, incentive policy, education, media promotion). Conclusion This study is the first to systematically examine the factors influencing deceased organ donation in the Chinese family context. Obtaining family consent for organ donation appears to be challenging in Chinese families due to limited knowledge and traditional beliefs. Incentive policies that benefit the family are crucial. While media promotion is effective in increasing awareness of organ donation, education and family discussions are critical in alleviating fears and misunderstandings about deceased organ donation.

Euarthropods are characterized by segmented, sclerotized, and articulated bodies and appendages, expressed through arthrodization and arthropodization. Both are regarded as defining features of Euarthropoda and have been proposed to evolve in a specific sequence, during which arthropodization preceded arthrodization, and initiated in frontal appendages and was subsequently co‐opted into other appendages. Here, we investigate their evolution across Ecdysozoa using morphological comparison, ancestral‐state reconstruction (ASR), and semi‐quantitative methods. Morphological comparisons and ASR reveal repeated gains, reductions, losses, and regional decoupling of segmentation, sclerotization, and articulation in both body and appendicular systems. Semi‐quantitative indices indicate variable degrees of arthrodization and arthropodization across ecdysozoan lineages and do not show a progressive increase from the basal panarthropods and the stem‐group euarthropods to crown‐group euarthropods. Together, these results support a modular, convergent evolution of arthrodization and arthropodization in different lineages, probably through repeated modification, reduction, or redeployment of the ancestral developmental toolkit.

Why has China's integration into the global economy reinforced rather than undermined the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) authoritarian rule? This article advances a theory of “segmented globalization” to explain how China's distinctive form of globalization creates structural impediments to democratization. I argue that “segmented globalization”—the symbiosis between open trade and closed finance combined with elite emigration—produces a self-reinforcing equilibrium that consolidates CCP rule. First, China's closed financial system channels vast resources into state control. Second, neoliberal export policies paradoxically reinforce financial closure. This export-finance nexus enables the CCP to massively invest in coercion and patronage, maintain the structural dependence of the nascent capitalist class on the party-state, and cultivate output-based legitimacy. Third, elite emigration makes potential agents of democratization relocate abroad rather than demanding domestic political changes. However, the recent US-China strategic competition may threaten this equilibrium by undermining the export-finance nexus that has sustained CCP rule for decades.

How can “China” serve as a productive analytical tool for understanding the relationship between artificial intelligence (AI) and society? This commentary proposes a conceptual typology to answer that question. We offer four ways to use China as an analytical lens—China as Mirror, China as Prototype, China as Counterpoint, and China as Global Actor. Each concept illustrates how China's particularities and global entanglements can help reframe core sociotechnical questions about AI's political economy, labor, subject formation, ideology, and global circulation. This typology contributes to the decolonization of knowledge production in critical AI studies, ensuring that insights are co-generated globally and avoiding essentialized boundaries that hinder this effort.

The longstanding dispute over moral facts—dividing realists, anti-realists, and quasi-realists—has proven intractable and appears to exemplify a deep disagreement. We argue that the impasse is not a metaphysical stalemate but a product of grammatical illusions about the logical role of moral judgment. Building on Wittgenstein’s later philosophy and Murdoch’s notion of vision, we introduce a hinge–vision distinction that underwrites a new therapeutic approach to the Moral Facts Disagreement (MFD). On this approach, moral hinges constitute the enabling conditions of moral evaluation, whereas visions determine the structure and salience of moral assessment. This framework shows that MFD can be dissolved rather than resolved and yields a unified account of moral normativity and deep disagreement. We offer a new account of deep (moral) disagreement, locating it in clashes of vision rather than hinge, thereby revising the current Wittgensteinian theories of deep disagreement.

This article seeks to open a new path for the study of consciousness, which has reached an impasse. In response both to the ``explanatory gap'' that mainstream reductionist approaches have struggled to bridge and to the urgent challenges posed by the development of artificial intelligence, it advocates a methodological turn: temporarily suspending ontological claims about the ``physical substance'' of consciousness and focusing instead on its distinctive capacities. Following this path, the article advances and systematically defends a central thesis: the most fundamental and distinctive capacity of consciousness is its \emph{Undetermined Directedness}. By this term I mean the capacity through which a subject need not be completely determined by existing antecedent conditions and can instead set purposes autonomously, create genuinely new possibilities, and engage in profound self-reflection. The thesis is supported by several lines of evidence: the self-setting of purposes, the openness of the space of possibilities, the creation of genuinely new linguistic concepts, and the fact that reflexivity produces awareness rather than paradox. On this theoretical basis, the article provides a clear framework for distinguishing consciousness from intelligence, assessing whether artificial intelligence is conscious, and addressing the problem of other minds. It also grounds ethics in the universal aim of promoting autonomy. Finally, it argues that future technological development should serve to liberate and augment human consciousness rather than futilely imitate it or inadvertently subject human consciousness to technological control.

This article examines the enduring relevance of Hegel’s philosophy and aesthetics in confronting modern and contemporary challenges related to negativity, subjectivity, and the ideal of beauty. I first elaborate on the necessity of negativity and the importance of reconciliation in the dialectical development of spirit. I emphasize that the constant self-returning of the spirit makes reconciliation a new and open whole, rather than a final closure. Next, I advocate that a movement from subject to substance is a crucial step toward overcoming the opposition between subjectivity and objectivity. I also propose that a unity between audience and artworks is exemplary for the reconciliation between subjectivity and objectivity. Furthermore, I advance a defense of Hegel’s ideal of beauty: it transforms the ugly and elevates the ordinary. It also contributes to an elucidation of the characteristics of the ideal subjectivity. Finally, I reflect on the broader implications of these readings.

ObjectiveThe information age has transformed technologies across disciplines. Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), as an emerging technology, has integrated into scientific research. Recent studies identify GenAI-related scientific research integrity concerns. Using Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) theory, this research examines risk factors and preventive measures for each agent within the scientific research integrity management system during GenAI adoption, providing new perspectives for integrity management.MethodThis study applies CAS theory to analyze the scientific research integrity management system, identifying four core micro-level agents: researchers, research subjects, scientific research administrators, and academic publishing institutions. It examines macro-system complexity, agent adaptability, and the impact of agent interactions on the overall system. This framework enables analysis of GenAI’s effects on the research integrity management system.ResultsThe scientific research integrity management system exhibits structural, hierarchical, and multidimensional complexities, with internal circulation of policy, funding, and information elements. In response to GenAI integration, four micro-level agents—researchers, research subjects, scientific research administrators, and academic publishing institutions—adapt their behaviors to systemic changes. Through these interactions, behavioral outcomes emerge at the macro level, driving evolution of the research integrity management system.ConclusionsRisks of scientific misconduct permeate the entire research process and require urgent governance. This study recommends that scientific research administrators promptly define applicable boundaries for GenAI in research to guide researchers. Concurrently, they should collaborate with relevant departments to establish regulatory frameworks addressing potential GenAI-related misconduct. Academic publishing institutions must assume quality assurance responsibilities by strengthening review and disclosure protocols. Furthermore, research integrity considerations should be systematically integrated into GenAI’s technological development and refinement.Highlights● Develops an analytical framework grounded in Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) theory to map evolving interactions among researchers, research subjects, scientific research administrators, and academic publishing institutions within GenAI-integrated research ecosystems. ● Identifies self-reinforcing dynamics between GenAI adoption and integrity governance, wherein adaptive rule adjustments by agents reshape system-wide integrity thresholds. ● Proposes adaptive governance mechanisms that balance innovation safeguards with integrity guardrails, emphasizing context-sensitive policy calibration over universal solutions.

Corporate misconduct can have devastating consequences for organizational stakeholders. Yet firms diverge sharply in how their boards respond to such infringements, especially when deciding whether to dismiss the CEO. We theorize that boards interpret misconduct through the lens of organizational identity orientation—that is, the nature of assumed relationships between an organization and its stakeholders. Using a machine learning analysis of shareholder letters from S&P 500 firms (2004–2017), we show that organizational identity orientation shapes dismissal decisions. Firms with individualistic orientations, which emphasize personal achievement, are more likely to dismiss CEOs as misconduct is seen as an individual failing. In contrast, firms with collectivistic orientations, which emphasize interdependence, are less likely to dismiss CEOs as misconduct is interpreted as diffuse and systemic. These findings reveal how organizational identity orientation shapes boards’ interpretations of responsibility, offering new insights into why firms experience different accountability outcomes in response to wrongdoing.

Current workflows in academic ecology rarely allow an engagement of ecologists with philosophers, or with contemporary philosophical work. We argue that this is a missed opportunity for enriching ecological reasoning and practice, because many questions in ecology overlap with philosophical questions and with current topics in contemporary philosophy of science. One obstacle to a closer connection and collaboration between the fields is the limited awareness of scientists, including ecologists, of current philosophical questions, developments and ideas. In this article, we aim to overcome this obstacle and trigger more collaborations between ecologists and philosophers. First, we provide an overview of philosophical research relevant to ecologists. Second, we use examples to demonstrate that many ecological questions have a philosophical dimension and point to related philosophical work. We elaborate on one example – the debate around the appropriate level of complexity of ecological models – to show in more detail how philosophy can enrich ecology. Finally, we provide suggestions for how to initiate collaborative projects involving both ecologists and philosophers.

Daoist meditation has been less widely adopted than Buddhist meditation as a daily method for psychological regulation, partly due to the complexity of its underlying philosophical system. This study aims to explore how key Daoist meditation practices can be psychologized and adapted into a usable method for modern psychological training. A comparative analysis was conducted on classical Daoist meditation methods, including Sitting in Oblivion, Mind Fasting, Ingestion of Qi, Visualization and Imagination, Inner Observation, and Internal Alchemy. Based on this analysis, a novel psychological training method called “Merging Oblivion Meditation” was developed by integrating elements of Inner Observation and Sitting in Oblivion. Among the practices analyzed, Inner Observation—which involves merging with the cosmic landscape—was found to be more adaptable for psychological application. The proposed “Merging Oblivion Meditation” employs guided imagination to reduce the sense of self by fostering an experiential merging with cosmic landscapes, thus facilitating nondual awareness without requiring apophatic operations. This method simplifies the difficulty of traditional Sitting in Oblivion and increases its feasibility as a psychological technique. Rooted in the Daoist vision of the body as an immortal cosmos, Merging Oblivion Meditation differs from Buddhist-derived practices in both process and psychological effects. By dissolving bodily boundaries and encouraging experiential unity with the Dao, it may engage distinct mechanisms conducive to nondual experiences, offering a unique contribution to contemplative science and meditation-based interventions.

Short video addiction (SVA) has emerged as a growing behavioral and social issue, driven by the widespread use of digital platforms that provide highly engaging, personalized, and brief video content. We investigated the neuroanatomical and functional substrates of SVA symptoms, alongside brain transcriptomic and cellular characteristics, using Inter-Subject Representational Similarity Analysis (IS-RSA) and transcriptomic approaches. Behaviorally, we found that dispositional envy was associated with SVA. Structurally, SVA was positively correlated with increased morphological volumes in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and bilateral cerebellum. Functionally, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), cerebellum, and temporal pole (TP) exhibited heightened spontaneous activity, which was positively correlated with SVA severity. Transcriptomic and cellular analyses also showed specific genes linked to gray matter volume (GMV) associated with SVA, with predominant expression in excitatory and inhibitory neurons. These genes showed distinct spatiotemporal expression patterns in the cerebellum during adolescence. This study offers a comprehensive framework integrating structural, functional, and neurochemical evidence to highlight the neural-transcriptomic underpinnings of SVA symptoms in a non-clinical population.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has emerged as a key basis for organizational legitimacy and competitive advantage, yet the meso-level mechanisms by which CSR disclosure practices diffuse through interconnected corporate networks remain poorly understood. In particular, it is unclear how CSR influence cascades across both direct and indirect ties in interlocking directorate networks and how political embeddedness moderates this process in emerging economy contexts such as China. Using data from 2941 firm-year observations of 722 publicly listed Chinese firms between 2008 and 2017, we employ a network approach grounded in social network theory and upper echelons theory to investigate how interlocking directorates facilitate CSR diffusion and how political embeddedness shapes this dynamic. Our results reveal that CSR practices are influenced not only by direct ties within interlocking directorates but also propagate through indirect connections, with influence extending up to three degrees of separation in the network. This study makes three distinct contributions: (1) to academic literature, we empirically extend CSR and upper echelons theory by integrating the “three degrees of influence” rule into the corporate context; (2) to managers, we identify interlocking directorates as cost-effective channels for learning and adopting CSR practices; and (3) to policymakers, we provide actionable insights for designing network-based interventions to accelerate diffusion. By highlighting the roles of government-related social capital and network structures, our research offers novel theoretical foundations and practical implications for both practitioners and regulators seeking to promote CSR adoption and diffusion across interlocking-directorate networks.

Past research has tended to view employees who report unethical behavior as heroes who aim to stem the tide of unethical behavior in organizations. Our paper argues that there can be more self-serving motives underlying such behavior. Specifically, drawing on Dual-Strategies Theory, we propose that, when work is highly competitive, two distinct status striving motivations will arise in employees: dominance striving and prestige striving. We further argue that dominance striving will lead to a desire to undermine (the dominance path), and prestige striving will lead to a desire to appear virtuous (the prestige path). The two distinct desires will eventually drive people to report others’ misconducts at work. In addition, we argue that the internal reporter’s status certainty will moderate the effects of competition on status striving motivations, such that the indirect effect of competition on reporting others’ unethical behavior through the dominance path will be stronger when the internal reporter’s status certainty is low while the indirect effect through the prestige path will be stronger when the internal reporter’s status certainty is high. Results from an experiment and a multi-wave field study were generally supportive of our arguments.

Over the past decade, China has witnessed a sharp increase in clinical trials, exceeding 4,000 in 2023. Yet, this growth has brought emerging ethical challenges and concerning researcher misconduct. Despite growing scholarly attention to clinical trial regulation, a critical knowledge gap remains regarding the ethical world of clinical researchers. This study investigates ethical challenges in clinical research, their contributing factors, and pathways for improvement. The research design involved mixed methods, specifically a nationwide questionnaire survey (quantitative) and semi-structured interviews (qualitative). Using stratified random sampling from China’s Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR), 1,800 questionnaires were distributed and 287 valid responses analyzed descriptively with SPSS 22 to identify key challenges. Subsequently, 37 clinical researchers were interviewed, and transcripts thematically analyzed with NVivo 11 to explore underlying causes and triangulate the survey findings, thereby identifying potential pathways for improvement. The descriptive analysis of the questionnaire results, triangulated with interview findings, reveals that general misconduct is common despite the rarity of severe violations; ethical behavior often lags behind ethical cognition and attitude; researchers show blunted moral sensitivity; and most adopt a passive stance toward ethical compliance rather than active engagement. The thematic analysis identifies two core contributors to these challenges: individual factors—including personal traits, dulled moral sensitivity, limited ethical knowledge, and low ethical awareness; and environmental factors—including weak ethical oversight, an inadequate ethical climate, unhealthy research competition, and researcher-subject knowledge asymmetry. Ethical challenges in China’s clinical research persist due to the interaction of personal ethical limitations and structurally weak oversight systems. To mitigate these challenges, a dual approach is proposed, integrating internal moral cultivation and external oversight. Internally, efforts should focus on creating an ethical space for dialogue, promoting moral consensus, fostering ethical identity and sensitivity, and cultivating a sense of ethical responsibility through moral practice. Externally, improvements are needed in post-approval ethical monitoring, targeted training programs, research climate, and public understanding of clinical trials and ethics.

Previous studies have revealed the paradoxical nature of unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) and have developed measures for investigating this phenomenon. However, it was not possible to ascertain whether the employees exhibited a low level of ethicality or a high degree of pro-organizational inclination when they made a UPB decision due to the limitations of the binary continuum. This study addresses the aforementioned gap by employing the process dissociation paradigm. The scenarios for process dissociation were carefully compiled and validated (Study 1), and the reliability and validity of the new approach were tested (Study 2). The application of the new approach to independently measure the ethical and organizational dimensions of UPB facilitated the clarification of some mainstream theoretical explanations for UPB (Study 3). The phenomenon of moral disengagement, moral justification, and moral decoupling among employees engaged in UPB is associated with a reduced ethical inclination and an enhanced pro-organizational inclination. Conversely, social exchange and organizational identification of employees involved in UPB are linked to a minorly diminished pro-organizational inclination and enhanced ethical inclination. The new measure offers a resolution to numerous theoretical controversies on UPB and is recommended for future studies. It also provided a useful tool for targeted ethical interventions and training management.

Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Global Geoscience Transects Series, Volume 2. The Global Geoscience Transects Project (GGT) is an ambitious international effort that draws together geoscientists in a variety of disciplines to produce the best possible portrayal of the composition and structure of the Earth's crust. Since its inception in 1985, GGT has encouraged geoscientists in all countries of the world to compile cross sections of the Earth up to a few thousands of kilometers in length and drawn to the base of the crust using all available geological, geophysical, and geochemical information. Transects are drawn to common scales and formats so that the Earth's crust in different parts of the world can be directly compared. GGT was conceived by the Inter-Union Commission on the Lithosphere (ICL), a "child" of the International Union of Geological Sciences and the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG), at the IASPEI conference in Tokyo in August 1985. Project coordinators James W. H. Monger and Hans-Jurgen Götze organized a multidisciplinary, multinational committee that coordinated the global project. Meeting at the IUGG XIX General Assembly in Vancouver in August 1987, the committee developed preliminary guidelines for transect compilations, following suggestions from transect compilers. Proposals for transects were solicited from ICL national committees, government geoscience agencies, universities, and scientists. A total of 140 proposals were received from Africa (41), South America (30), China (18), USSR (12), USA (12), Europe (12), Australia and New Zealand (11), India (3), and Southeast Asia (1).

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) increases legitimacy, and many firms engage in superficial communication to demonstrate their CSR commitments, often without enacting adequate measures. Such CSR decoupling may result in greenwashing and harm a company’s strategic trajectory. Based on regulatory focus theory (RFT), this study examines how managers’ regulatory focus influences CSR decoupling. Using 2010–2021 panel data on Chinese A‑share listed firms, we estimate fixed effects models and verify robustness with a bidirectional encoder representation from transformers (BERT) machine learning approach. These findings reveal that prevention-focused managers inhibit CSR decoupling, and promotion-focused managers promote CSR decoupling. Moreover, when there are high levels of organizational slack and managerial social capital, the negative (positive) association between a prevention (promotion) focus and CSR decoupling is strengthened (weakened). We contribute to the literature on decoupling, the role of managers’ regulatory focus, and its implications for CSR practices.

Moral education as a concept is very comprehensive in China. It is implemented in two ways, one of which is through subject‐based moral education, the other is by means of all kinds of extra‐curricular activities. There are three groups of moral educators: teachers of subject‐based moral education, Party administrators and class teachers. The initial training of these teachers is undertaken at three levels of teacher training institutions: teachers' universities, colleges or schools. Three in‐service training approaches are described and illustrated: the first takes place in teachers' universities; the second is a school‐based approach; and the third is characterized by cooperation between university and school. Challenges for the further improvement of the training of moral educators are outlined and some suggestions made.

ABSTRACT Although considerable efforts have been made to summarize the behavioral ethics literature, a quantitative visualization is necessary to generate an overall understanding of research on unethical behavior in organizations. Using CiteSpace, this study conducts a bibliometric review and visualizes the intellectual base of the unethical workplace behavior field. Based on a dataset of 8765 unethical‐behavior‐related publications collected from the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) database from 1993 to 2023, we identify landmark studies, analyze key research themes, visualize the network of major theories, and track the evolution of research on unethical behavior in organizations via co‐citation and co‐occurrence analysis. After tracking the developmental trajectory and outlining the current state of the art, we identify potential trends in research on unethical workplace behavior and suggest some important research directions. Our bibliometric review generates a clear visualization of unethical behavior in organizations, contributing to a comprehensive understanding of this body of literature. These findings also offer valuable insights for managers seeking to address unethical behavior in their organizations and highlight implications for policymakers aiming to promote ethical workplace environments.

In the hymn to Bacchus (Tristia 5.3), Ovid looks from Tomis back to Rome, where the chorus of poets gathers for the Liberalia. This article argues that Ovid fashions in Tristia 5.3 a poetic rebirth out of Tomis, deploying in this elegy themes and motifs from the god’s mysteries to bolster the pervasive message of persistence in the Tristia. This Bacchic mystic tone is accomplished through the hymn’s ritual elements and dithyrambic strategies, which reflect on both Ovid’s death-like position in exile and his poetic activity there. Furthermore, this article argues that Ovid encodes his mystic dithyrambic strategies in a hitherto unnoticed bilingual acrostic. Through ritual and dithyrambic strategies, Ovid merges three loci of time and space—past Rome, present Rome and present Tomis—and thus reintegrates himself into Rome, rearticulating his Roman citizenship as a literary one.

Drawing on attribution theory and expectancy violation theory, this study investigates the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on stock market reactions in the context of intentional crises, during which stakeholders are likely to attribute crisis responsibility to the focal firm. Using a sample of Chinese listed firms from 2012 to 2022, we find that in the context of an intentional crisis, the stock market reacts more negatively to firms with higher prior CSR performance. Two contingency factors (i.e., media attention and state ownership) strengthen this negative relationship. This study contributes to the CSR literature by broadening knowledge of the insurance-like effects of CSR and by identifying a “boomerang effect” of CSR in the context of intentional crises.

This research focuses on the complex relationship between the musical narrative and emotional expression in piano works from a philosophical point of view. It aims at identifying how emotions are enacted within music and how they can influence and mold the listener’s experience. Building on the premises of important philosophical theories, the study explores the idea of musical narrative, its origins, and its impact on forming emotions within music. Emotional communication in piano works is also discussed in the study, with an emphasis on how composers incorporate various musical features to portray certain emotions. Furthermore, this research elaborates on the philosophical perspective of musical narrative and emotional expression and contributes to the understanding of the aspects within the framework of piano music. The findings of this research are intended to add to the debates in the philosophy of music, with regard to performance and listener’s reception.

This study investigated the effect of unconscious processing on creative problem solving (CPS) by combining a revised priming paradigm that manipulated the content of unconscious processing together with remote association tests (RAT). In the real world, most CPS is facilitated by unconscious information processing after a problem is represented. However, most previous studies have focused on priming subthreshold stimuli before the problem presentation, with few exploring unconscious priming after the problem is presented, even though different prime timings might involve distinct processing mechanisms. Therefore, Experiment 1 compared the unconscious priming effects of presenting the prime prior to the target (Before-T) versus during target solving (During-T). The RAT difficulty and type of priming material were also manipulated. The results of Experiment 1 revealed a significant difference in the priming effects of prime timing with the During-T group benefiting more from subliminal stimuli than the Before-T group. Experiment 2 further strengthened the justifications for the hypotheses regarding the influence of word versus picture priming in the during-T condition. Overall, this study found a clear dissociable contribution of unconscious processing to CPS, and the facilitation effect was optimised by prime timing, the prime material, and RAT difficulty.