Luo Jing

Recent studies have revealed that the temporal lobe, a cortical region thought to be in charge of episodic and semantic memory, is involved in creative insight. This work examines the contributions of discrete temporal regions to insight. Activity in the medial temporal regions is indicative of novelty recognition and detection, which is necessary for the formation of novel associations and the “Aha!” experience. The fusiform gyrus mainly affects the formation of gestalt-like representation and perspective taking. The anterior and posterior middle temporal gyri are individually associated with extensive semantic processing and inhibiting salient or routine word associations, which are necessary to form non-salient, novel and remote associations. The anterior and posterior superior temporal gyri are individually responsible for integrating/binding and accessing various types of available conceptual representations. Based on the current knowledge, an integrated model of the temporal lobe's role in insight and some future directions are proposed.

Based on upper echelon theory, we employ machine learning to explore how CEO characteristics influence corporate violations using a large-scale dataset of listed firms in China for the period 2010–2020. Comparing ten machine learning methods, we find that eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) outperforms the other models in predicting corporate violations. An interpretable model combining XGBoost and SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) indicates that CEO characteristics play a central role in predicting corporate violations. Tenure has the strongest predictive power and is negatively associated with corporate violations, followed by marketing experience, education, duality (i.e., simultaneously holding the position of chairperson), and research and development experience. In contrast, shareholdings, age, and pay are positively related to corporate violations. We also analyze violation severity and violation type, confirming the role of tenure in predicting more severe and intentional violations. Overall, our findings contribute to preventing corporate violations, improving corporate governance, and maintaining order in the financial market.

Humour is regarded as an adaptive coping strategy which could effectively reduce negative emotions. To fundamentally evaluate the function of humour reappraisal, our study aimed to explore the emotion-regulatory advantage effect of humour reappraisal from the perspective of memory mechanisms. Using a learning-testing paradigm, we examined the memory effects of humour reappraisal: first presented humour (or non-humour) reappraisal interpretations of the negative pictures during the learning phase and tested the memory performance from three aspects: free recall, recognition, and implicit memory in the test phase. The results found a superior effect of humorous reappraisal in free recall performance but reduced memory performance for negative stimuli in the recognition and implicit tests. This may be due to the refined processing of humour reappraisal during encoding, the memory content being updated and transformed after cognitive reconstruction, and the original negative pictures no longer being familiar during recognition. The dissociable result in free recall and implicit/recognition of humorous reappraisal suggested that humour reappraisal was an optimal strategy for coping with negative stimuli by fundamentally regulating negative emotions through “cognitive restructuring” rather than “forgetting.” This provided advantageous evidence for the humour reappraisal as an adaptive emotion regulation strategy from a memory perspective.

Previous research has shown that creative cognitive reappraisal is highly effective in regulating negative emotions. We conducted three experiments to explore its transferability. In Experiment 1, we observed that free recall performance was better for creative reappraisal compared to non-creative reappraisal. Memory retention of reappraisals was associated with creativity ratings, but not with perceived effectiveness ratings. In Experiment 2, participants generated reappraisals for newly introduced unpleasant images before (pre-session) and after (post-session) exposure to creative reappraisal, non-creative reappraisal, and descriptive control interpretation. Results showed increased reflective effectiveness of self-generated reappraisals in the post-session. The level of creativity of the self-generated reappraisals was associated with differences in perceived effectiveness between creative and non-creative exposed reappraisals. In Experiment 3, we investigated how two processing approaches (effectiveness-oriented vs. memory-oriented) influenced the transferability of creative reappraisal. We observed creativity levels of self-generated reappraisals increased in both conditions. The reflective effectiveness of the self-generated reappraisals tended to increase only in the effectiveness-oriented processing condition. Our findings demonstrate that recognising the effectiveness of creative reappraisal plays a crucial role in its transfer across different situations.

© 2014 Elsevier B.V.. Nitrogen pollution is a global environmental problem that has greatly increased the risks of both the eutrophication of surface waters and contamination of ground waters. The majority of N pollution mainly comes from agricultural fields, in particular during rice growing seasons. In recent years, a gradual shift from the transplanting rice cultivation method to the direct seeding method has occurred, which results in different water and N losses from paddy fields and leads to distinct impacts on water environments. The N transport and transformations in an experimental direct-seeded-rice field in the Taihu Lake Basin of east China were observed during two consecutive seasons, and simulated using Hydrus-1D model. The observed crop N uptake, ammonia volatilization, N concentrations in soil, and N leaching were used to calibrate and validate the model parameters. The two most important inputs of N, i.e., fertilization and mineralization, were considered in the simulations with 220 and 145.5kgha-1 in 2008 and 220 and 147.8kgha-1 in 2009, respectively. Ammonia volatilization and nitrate denitrification were the two dominant pathways of N loss, accounting for about 16.0% and 38.8% of the total N input, respectively. Both nitrification and denitrification processes mainly occurred in the root zone. N leaching at 60 and 120cm depths accounted for about 6.8% and 2.7% of TNI, respectively. The crop N uptake was 32.1% and 30.8% of TNI during the 2008 and 2009 seasons, respectively, and ammonium was the predominant form. Simulated N concentrations and fluxes in soil matched well with the corresponding observed data. Hydrus-1D could simulate the N transport and transformations in the DSR field, and could thus be a good tool for designing optimal fertilizer management practices in the future.

In the recent decade, increasing costs of labor, water, and fertilizers around the world led to a change in the method of crop establishment from traditional transplanted rice to direct-seeded rice and to a substantial rise in the DSR-managed area. Since water management in areas with DSR is quite different from those with TPR, vertical water movement and water and nutrient losses during the crop season may be different as well. Water flow and water losses in a DSR field in the Taihu Lake Basin of east China were monitored and evaluated using Hydrus-1D during two seasons with different rainfalls and irrigation managements. While during the 2008 season, irrigation accounted for 57% of the total water input, during the 2009 season, it accounted for only 32%. Due to large rainfall during the wet, 2009 rice season, surface runoff accounted for about 17.0% of TWI. During the much drier 2008 rice season with higher irrigation inputs, surface runoff could be controlled much better. Modeled evapotranspiration during the 2008 and 2009 seasons accounted for 54.6% and 44.6% of TWIs, respectively. Measured and simulated results indicate that water leaching was the main path of water loss from the DSR fields, which implies that frequent irrigation increases water leaching. The plough sole layer played a major buffering role for water flow during both dry and wet seasons. Water productivities evaluated from TWIs during the 2008 and 2009 seasons were 0.71 and 0.59kg/m3, respectively; they were 1.30 and 1.33kg/m3 when evaluated from modeled evapotranspiration fluxes. Pressure heads and vertical fluxes simulated using Hydrus-1D matched measured data well. The Hydrus-1D can be used to simulate water flow and water balance in the DSR fields. © 2014 Elsevier B.V.

A recent study has reported that the successful implementation of cognitive regulation of emotion depends on higher-level cognitive functions, such as top-down control, which may be impaired in stressful situations. This calls for “cognition free” self-regulatory strategies that do not require top-down control. In contrast to the cognitive regulation of emotion that emphasizes the role of cognition, traditional Chinese philosophy and medicine views the relationship among different types of emotions as promoting or counteracting each other without the involvement of cognition, which provides an insightful perspective for developing “cognition free” regulatory strategies. In this study, we examined two hypotheses regarding the modulation of anger and aggressive behavior: sadness counteracts anger and aggressive behavior, whereas fear promotes anger and aggressive behavior. Participants were first provoked by reading extremely negative feedback on their viewpoints (Study 1) and by watching anger-inducing movie clips (Study 2). Then, these angry participants were assigned to three equivalent groups and viewed sad, fear-inducing, or neutral materials to evoke the corresponding emotions. The results showed that participants displayed a lower level of aggressive behavior when sadness was later induced and a higher level of anger when fear was later induced. These results provide evidence that supports the hypothesis of mutual promotion and counteraction relationships among these types of emotions and imply a “cognition free” approach to regulating anger and aggressive behavior.