The objective evaluation to the terrace cultural landscape heritage value can provide targeted scientific basis for continuation of terrace culture landscape and establishment of protection measures. On the basis of f...The objective evaluation to the terrace cultural landscape heritage value can provide targeted scientific basis for continuation of terrace culture landscape and establishment of protection measures. On the basis of field investigation, expert consultation and literature review, combined with the AVC (Attraction、Vitality and Ca-pacity)theory and Analytic Hierarchy Process based on Fuzzy Comprehensive Evalu-ation, the terrace cultural landscape heritage protection evaluation system and eval-uation model, which selects 22 indicators from three levels including terrace culture landscape resources attraction, resources vitality and resources bearing capacity were structured. Based on col ection of data, material from field survey of China's most representative Yunnan Yuanyang Hani terrace, Hunan Ziquejie terrace and Longsheng Longji terrace and relevant mathematical calculation to determine evalua-tion index weights, organical y combined of qualitative with quantitative analysis, the diversity, reasonableness and accuracy of evaluation system is improved. Compre-hensive result of mathematical statistics showed that the rank of the cultural land-scape heritage value with the three most representative terraces in southern China is: γ(Hani)〉γ(Longji)〉γ(Ziquejie).展开更多
Scientific and technical literature and information focus on scientific truth, explaining natural phenomena objectively, probing into scientific issues, communicating research achievements and summarizing the experien...Scientific and technical literature and information focus on scientific truth, explaining natural phenomena objectively, probing into scientific issues, communicating research achievements and summarizing the experience. The language of technical articles should be concise and accurate. High-quality technical translation should also have aesthetic value, literary grace and elegant style. Many technical translators think that faithfulness and smoothness are the primary principles in technical translation, while elegance is just an ornamental standard which values little. The author considers elegance in EST translation should be the perfect unity of faithfulness and elegance. This paper analyses the criteria for technical translation, explores the representation of elegance in technical articles, and emphasizes that the literary value should be thoroughly appreciated.展开更多
Value is a criterion which can help people to distinguish good and bad, beauty and ugliness, fight and wrong and true and false. Value varies from different counties, which is the main cause of the conflict and misund...Value is a criterion which can help people to distinguish good and bad, beauty and ugliness, fight and wrong and true and false. Value varies from different counties, which is the main cause of the conflict and misunderstanding in communication between China and western countries. It is first introduced in this paper about how these differences are formed and then explain them in several ways. It is of great significance to know and learn the cultural differences in cross-cultural communication.展开更多
Architectural heritage comprises one o the most important elements of mountain settlements in Greece. It holds high cultural value, represents the tangible continuation of the past and forms the unique character and i...Architectural heritage comprises one o the most important elements of mountain settlements in Greece. It holds high cultural value, represents the tangible continuation of the past and forms the unique character and identity of each mountain region. Yet, controversy regarding funding for its preservation often arises. In this paper, we used two Contingent Valuation surveys to estimate the socia benefit deriving from protecting the traditiona architecture in the mountainous village of Sirako and through it, to examine perceptions and attitudes o local residents and visitors. Research findings revealed a strong social will in favor of the good's protection followed by high percentages of positive willingness to pay(WTP). However, WTP is significantly higher among residents. Cultura heritage value, of the good, appears to prevail, along with the environmental one. However, both residents and visitors pointed out that local heritage, if wellpreserved, will boost tourism development. Residents appeared to better recognize the true level o architectural decay, expressed higher apprehension for its protection and were willing to pay higher amount of money. Tourists, on the other side expressed high satisfaction for their visit, appreciated the beauty and serenity emerging from local built and natural environment and spent several days visiting the surrounding area. The longer they stayed and gotfamiliar with the village, the more willing they were to contribute to local heritage's protection. Percentages reflecting indifference for protecting architecture were extremely low. Yet, they were higher among tourists. Traditional architecture is considered as public good; an opinion resulting in an important percentage of visitors stating that national government should provide the necessary funding. In addition, the architecture appears to hold a high level of topicality. Those descending from Sirako or emotionally connected to it, of both social groups,turned out to be more concerned about the good and with a stronger sense of responsibility for it. Usevalue of the good holds high economic value, as well,while higher percentages of zero WTP appeared among non-users. Research findings revealed social attitudes and perceptions on what constitutes architectural heritage, in its cultural and economic frame. If taken under consideration, they may form useful drivers for local, heritage-based, sustainable展开更多
Meckel's diverticulum is a common asymptomatic congenital gastrointestinal anomaly,but rarely it can present with hemorrhage.Over the last few years inverted Meckel's diverticulum has been reported in the lite...Meckel's diverticulum is a common asymptomatic congenital gastrointestinal anomaly,but rarely it can present with hemorrhage.Over the last few years inverted Meckel's diverticulum has been reported in the literature with increasing frequency as an occult source of lower gastrointestinal hemorrhage.Here,we report a case of a 54-year-old male,who was referred for surgical evaluation with persistent anemia and occult blood per rectum after a work up which failed to localize the source over 12 mo,including upper and capsule endoscopy,colonoscopy,enteroclysis,Meckel scan,and tagged nuclear red blood cell scan.An abdominal computed tomography scan showed a possible mid-ileal intussusception and intraluminal mass.During the abdominal exploration,inverted Meckel's diverticulum was diagnosed and resected.We review the literature,discuss the forms in which the disease presents,the diagnostic modalities utilized,pathological findings,and treatment.Although less than 40 cases have been reported in the English literature from 1978 to 2005,19 cases have been reported in the last 6 years alone(2006-2012) due to improved diagnostic modalities.Successful diagnosis and treatment of this disease requires a high index of clinical suspicion,which is becoming increasingly relevant to general gastroenterologists.展开更多
Architectural heritage comprises one o the most important elements of mountain settlements in Greece. It holds high cultural value, represents the tangible continuation of the past and forms the unique character and i...Architectural heritage comprises one o the most important elements of mountain settlements in Greece. It holds high cultural value, represents the tangible continuation of the past and forms the unique character and identity of each mountain region. Yet, controversy regarding funding for its preservation often arises. In this paper, we used two Contingent Valuation surveys to estimate the socia benefit deriving from protecting the traditiona architecture in the mountainous village of Sirako and through it, to examine perceptions and attitudes o local residents and visitors. Research findings revealed a strong social will in favor of the good's protection followed by high percentages of positive willingness to pay(WTP). However, WTP is significantly higher among residents. Cultura heritage value, of the good, appears to prevail, along with the environmental one. However, both residents and visitors pointed out that local heritage, if wellpreserved, will boost tourism development. Residents appeared to better recognize the true level o architectural decay, expressed higher apprehension for its protection and were willing to pay higher amount of money. Tourists, on the other side expressed high satisfaction for their visit, appreciated the beauty and serenity emerging from local built and natural environment and spent several days visiting the surrounding area. The longer they stayed and gotfamiliar with the village, the more willing they were to contribute to local heritage's protection. Percentages reflecting indifference for protecting architecture were extremely low. Yet, they were higher among tourists. Traditional architecture is considered as public good; an opinion resulting in an important percentage of visitors stating that national government should provide the necessary funding. In addition, the architecture appears to hold a high level of topicality. Those descending from Sirako or emotionally connected to it, of both social groups,turned out to be more concerned about the good and with a stronger sense of responsibility for it. Usevalue of the good holds high economic value, as well,while higher percentages of zero WTP appeared among non-users. Research findings revealed social attitudes and perceptions on what constitutes architectural heritage, in its cultural and economic frame. If taken under consideration, they may form useful drivers for local, heritage-based, sustainable development.展开更多
This study focuses on perceived values of entrepreneurship and creativity within a turbulent environment. The initial hypothesis is that a typical entrepreneurial process carries with its "creativity-enabling element...This study focuses on perceived values of entrepreneurship and creativity within a turbulent environment. The initial hypothesis is that a typical entrepreneurial process carries with its "creativity-enabling elements". In a normal situation, businesses focus on optimizing their resources for commercial gains, thus perceptions about values of entrepreneurial creativity are usually vague. However, in difficult times, the difference between survival and failure may be creativity. This paper examines many previous findings on entrepreneurship and creativity, and suggests a highly possible "organic growth" of creativity in an entrepreneurial environment and reinforcing value of entrepreneurship when creativity power is present. In other words, the authors see each idea reinforcing the other. The authors survey Vietnamese firms during the chaotic year of 2012 to learn about the "entrepreneurship-creativity nexus", looking at influential cultural values, namely risk tolerance, relationship, and dependence on resources--to assess how they influence entrepreneurial decisions. A set of 137 qualified responses was obtained for this statistical examination. A categorical data analysis is performed to confirm that creativity and entrepreneurial spirit could hardly be separate, for both entrepreneurial and accomplished companies. Although the most important factor during implementation is still "relationship", business people are increasingly aware of the need of creativity/innovation in troubled times.展开更多
Amid the recent global upsurge of studies on the philosophy of emotion, a reinterpretation of traditional Confucian philosophy, especially Mencius's ideas on the siduan (Four Original Sources) of morality, may shed...Amid the recent global upsurge of studies on the philosophy of emotion, a reinterpretation of traditional Confucian philosophy, especially Mencius's ideas on the siduan (Four Original Sources) of morality, may shed new light on the subject in comparative philosophy. This paper probes the structure of moral feeling and reason described by Mencius's from five perspectives: (1) In view of the relationship between feeling and reason, is it better to use the expression "siduan" or the expression "sixin (Four Heart-minds)"? (2) In view of dispositional feeling, what are the four original sources? (3) In view of moral feeling, what are the structural order of the four sources and the corresponding procedure of reasoning of four heart-minds of Humanity? (4) In view of positive feeling, how does moral feeling grow out of the goodness of human nature? (5) What is the global value of Mencius's ideas on human moral feeling? The author concludes that Mencius's thought on moral feeing has a global value and cross-cultural significance, and that Chinese wisdom is more than regional but universally applicable. The structure of moral feeling and reason that Mencius identified is in accordance with the principles ofzhiliang (grasping the two poles of the beginning and the end) and yongzhong (emloying the middle). The principles ofzhiliang and yongzhong are true universal wisdoms of Confucianism, which should be rekindled today. From a practical point of view, "the Way begins from moral feelings," and Confucius and Yah Hui's seeking the simple, virtuous life is an ideal model of emotional well-being.展开更多
Robert James Waller (1939-2014) does not catch readers' attention until his popular novel The Bridges of Madison County (1996) wins him great admirations since its publication in 1992 which brings him instant suc...Robert James Waller (1939-2014) does not catch readers' attention until his popular novel The Bridges of Madison County (1996) wins him great admirations since its publication in 1992 which brings him instant success. The story explores the dilemma between responsibility of family and fulfillment of desires. Set in America in the 1960s, the novel is woven by the romantic story of the two middle-aged man and woman after they countered and gathered together for four days. Though simple in plot, it really deserves detailed interpretation and appreciation. This paper will mainly discuss Kincaid's cultural values reflected not only in the romance between his lover and him, but also in his attitudes towards women's rights.展开更多
Due to the differences of cultural values and conventions, people from different cultures may have different understandings about the courtesy language. This paper expounds the differences between English and Chinese ...Due to the differences of cultural values and conventions, people from different cultures may have different understandings about the courtesy language. This paper expounds the differences between English and Chinese courtesy languages, mainly from terms of address, greetings and appreciations. It also analyzes the reasons for the differences between English and Chinese courtesy languages, i.e. different cultures and different politeness principles. Through the contrastive studies of courtesy language, people will come to a clear understanding of the relationship between language and culture, which is meaningful to English teaching and learning.展开更多
Tourism has become the world's fastest growing sector due to acceleration of technology and information flow in the globalized world of today, development of the modem mass transport system and increase in people's ...Tourism has become the world's fastest growing sector due to acceleration of technology and information flow in the globalized world of today, development of the modem mass transport system and increase in people's disposable income. Upon tourism's being considered as a serious development strategy in the developments of the countries, all the countries of the world have begun to accelerate their investments in this area through utilizing the natural and cultural assets of their countries (heritage) with a view to provide revenue to their economy as well as creation of jobs. This situation, which has emerged as a result of the globalization of supply and demand in tourism, has created certain problems in terms of environmental balance and the living conditions of local people as a result of poor management of the utilization of natural and cultural resources. The objective of this paper is to examine the concepts and principles germane to sustainable tourism which has significant contribution to the development of the countries, made at the macro level both in the world and in Turkey. The aim of this paper, at the micro level, is to create awareness incident to the tourism resources of the Van Region and the Old Van province and ensure the utilization of these resources through protection thereof. At the end of the study, the importance of the protection of heritage resources as well as fair use thereof in terms of increasing the competitiveness of Turkey on a global scale in tourism is addressed in the light of the overall evaluations.展开更多
The present study examines the four core concepts that underpin the various theories of cultivation of East Asian Confucian philosophy: self (ji,已), cultivation (xiu, 修), transformation (hua, 化), and nurture...The present study examines the four core concepts that underpin the various theories of cultivation of East Asian Confucian philosophy: self (ji,已), cultivation (xiu, 修), transformation (hua, 化), and nurture (yang,餋). The discussion is divided into six sections. The first section, the introduction, explains the significance of the issue in question. The second section examines the substantial notion of "self" as expounded in the Confucian intellectual tradition and the corresponding concept of selthood or personhood. Confucianism stresses that (1) personal selthood is based on the freedom of subjectivity (subjective volition), and (2) society's values and norms originate in this freedom of subjectivity. The third section discusses the functional concept of cultivation, focusing on the fact that in Confucian theories the terms "cultivation" and "body" are always combined to form the concept of "self-cultivation." Moreover, Confucian thinkers tend to discuss the effort of self-cultivation in the context of a body-mind continuum. Indeed, they often use orientational metaphors in order to describe the efforts entailed by cultivation. The fourth section analyzes the linguistic setting and context of the functional concept of transformation within Confucian philosophy of the concrete self. The term "transformation" indicates clearly that Confucian philosophy is a transformative philosophy. The fifth section analyzes the functional concept of nurture, stressing that Confucius' two greatest followers, Mencius and Xunzi, represent two opposed approaches to nurturing. Meneius stresses that one should undertake the effort of "nurturing qi," that is, produce culture through natural cultivation, while Xunzi advocates artificially instilling culture in order to discipline, tame, and order nature. Mencius and Xunzi both turn to the container metaphor in their discussions of self-cultivation. The article concludes that the various cultivation activities advocated by these two disparate Confucians are based on two assumptions: (1) the self coincides with the physical body, and (2) the physical self is steeped in and interactive with the cultural values of society. In sum, the functional concept of self-cultivation is an important pillar of Confucian theories of self-cultivation.展开更多
This paper studies how different cultural values and rhetorical traditions may influence students' perceptions and understanding of effective ethos in persuasive essays. Fifty Chinese EFL (English as a foreign langu...This paper studies how different cultural values and rhetorical traditions may influence students' perceptions and understanding of effective ethos in persuasive essays. Fifty Chinese EFL (English as a foreign language) college students and 50 American college students participated in writing English persuasive essays on the selected topics. The essays were then compared for similarities and differences in the use of rhetorical appeals with a focus on ethos, the credibility, and trustworthiness of an author. The study revealed that participants from both groups established ethos as an important rhetorical tool to persuade the audience to accept their viewpoints. However, they displayed different perceptions of what effective ethos entailed. For Chinese participants, effective ethos seemed to come from using detailed explanations that reflected an author's intention to advocate an ethical or moral message based on some Chinese cultural values. But, strong ethos for American participants appeared to mean the use of evidence--facts and personal testimony--to establish the writer's trustworthiness. The interpretation of the results from the perspective of different cultural value orientations was also discussed.展开更多
In this work, a hybrid method is proposed to eliminate the limitations of traditional protein-protein interactions (PPIs) extraction methods, such as pattern learning and machine learning. Each sentence from the bio...In this work, a hybrid method is proposed to eliminate the limitations of traditional protein-protein interactions (PPIs) extraction methods, such as pattern learning and machine learning. Each sentence from the biomedical literature containing a protein pair describes a PPI which is predicted by first learning syntax patterns typical of PPIs from training corpus and then using their presence as features, along with bag-of-word features in a maximum entropy model. Tested on the BioCreAtIve corpus, the PPIs extraction method, which achieved a precision rate of 64%, recall rate of 60%, improved the performance in terms of F1 value by 11% compared with the component pure pattern- based and bag-of-word methods. The results on this test set were also compared with other three extraction methods and found to improve the performance remarkably.展开更多
Support vector machines have met with significant success in the information retrieval field, especially in handling text classification tasks. Although various performance estimators for SVMs have been proposed, thes...Support vector machines have met with significant success in the information retrieval field, especially in handling text classification tasks. Although various performance estimators for SVMs have been proposed, these only focus on accuracy which is based on the leave-one-out cross validation procedure. Information-retrieval-related performance measures are always neglected in a kernel learning methodology. In this paper, we have proposed a set of information-retrieval-oriented performance estimators for SVMs, which are based on the span bound of the leave-one-out procedure. Experiments have proven that our proposed estimators are both effective and stable.展开更多
Published in 1991, Jen's Typical American depicts a first-generation Chinese immigrant family's pursuing their American Dream in the Post-War American society. By choosing Chinese American immigrants as her main cha...Published in 1991, Jen's Typical American depicts a first-generation Chinese immigrant family's pursuing their American Dream in the Post-War American society. By choosing Chinese American immigrants as her main characters and describing their struggling in the American society, Jen expresses her understanding of being Americans. In the novel, as they move from "sojourners" to American citizens, the Chang family shows different attitude towards Chinese and American cultural values. The dreams they pursue also vary. This thesis, through an analysis of the dreams the Chang family pursue in Typical American, attempts to demonstrate how the Chang family identify with their cultural identities in this process, and how they evolve from "sojourners" to "typical Americans".展开更多
While participation in Social Network Sites (SNSs) has grown rapidly in recent years and is a highly popular and global phenomenon, only few research examined how the different cultural values and attitudes impact t...While participation in Social Network Sites (SNSs) has grown rapidly in recent years and is a highly popular and global phenomenon, only few research examined how the different cultural values and attitudes impact the way people adopt and use this new media platform. Employing qualitative approach, this study attempts to uncover the cross-cultural differences in motivations and behavioral patterns for using SNSs among the Korean and American users. The finding of this study shows the explicit differences in the motivations and strategies for using SNSs between Korean and American users, which is supported by the independent and interdependent self-construals theory proposed by Markus and Kitayama (1991). The motivational themes and usage patterns emerged from Korean participants are more other- or relationship-focused, pursuing social/emotional support, while those of Americans are more ego- or self-focused, pertaining to entertainment or information seeking.展开更多
基金Supported by Guangxi Scientific Research and Technology Development Program(14124005-2-4)Youth Tourism Expert Training Program of National Tourism Administration Operation System(TYETP201548,TYETP201445)+2 种基金Guangxi Education Department Qualification and Postgraduate Education Reform and Development Program(JGY2014077)Guangxi Superior and Characteristic Key Subject Open-end Fund(LYKF05)Guilin S&T Research and Development Program(20150110-5)~~
文摘The objective evaluation to the terrace cultural landscape heritage value can provide targeted scientific basis for continuation of terrace culture landscape and establishment of protection measures. On the basis of field investigation, expert consultation and literature review, combined with the AVC (Attraction、Vitality and Ca-pacity)theory and Analytic Hierarchy Process based on Fuzzy Comprehensive Evalu-ation, the terrace cultural landscape heritage protection evaluation system and eval-uation model, which selects 22 indicators from three levels including terrace culture landscape resources attraction, resources vitality and resources bearing capacity were structured. Based on col ection of data, material from field survey of China's most representative Yunnan Yuanyang Hani terrace, Hunan Ziquejie terrace and Longsheng Longji terrace and relevant mathematical calculation to determine evalua-tion index weights, organical y combined of qualitative with quantitative analysis, the diversity, reasonableness and accuracy of evaluation system is improved. Compre-hensive result of mathematical statistics showed that the rank of the cultural land-scape heritage value with the three most representative terraces in southern China is: γ(Hani)〉γ(Longji)〉γ(Ziquejie).
文摘Scientific and technical literature and information focus on scientific truth, explaining natural phenomena objectively, probing into scientific issues, communicating research achievements and summarizing the experience. The language of technical articles should be concise and accurate. High-quality technical translation should also have aesthetic value, literary grace and elegant style. Many technical translators think that faithfulness and smoothness are the primary principles in technical translation, while elegance is just an ornamental standard which values little. The author considers elegance in EST translation should be the perfect unity of faithfulness and elegance. This paper analyses the criteria for technical translation, explores the representation of elegance in technical articles, and emphasizes that the literary value should be thoroughly appreciated.
文摘Value is a criterion which can help people to distinguish good and bad, beauty and ugliness, fight and wrong and true and false. Value varies from different counties, which is the main cause of the conflict and misunderstanding in communication between China and western countries. It is first introduced in this paper about how these differences are formed and then explain them in several ways. It is of great significance to know and learn the cultural differences in cross-cultural communication.
基金supported by Scientific Research Foundation for Youth Scholars, IGSNRR, CAS, entitled “Evaluation on the conservation and development of agricultural heritage systems in China”
文摘Architectural heritage comprises one o the most important elements of mountain settlements in Greece. It holds high cultural value, represents the tangible continuation of the past and forms the unique character and identity of each mountain region. Yet, controversy regarding funding for its preservation often arises. In this paper, we used two Contingent Valuation surveys to estimate the socia benefit deriving from protecting the traditiona architecture in the mountainous village of Sirako and through it, to examine perceptions and attitudes o local residents and visitors. Research findings revealed a strong social will in favor of the good's protection followed by high percentages of positive willingness to pay(WTP). However, WTP is significantly higher among residents. Cultura heritage value, of the good, appears to prevail, along with the environmental one. However, both residents and visitors pointed out that local heritage, if wellpreserved, will boost tourism development. Residents appeared to better recognize the true level o architectural decay, expressed higher apprehension for its protection and were willing to pay higher amount of money. Tourists, on the other side expressed high satisfaction for their visit, appreciated the beauty and serenity emerging from local built and natural environment and spent several days visiting the surrounding area. The longer they stayed and gotfamiliar with the village, the more willing they were to contribute to local heritage's protection. Percentages reflecting indifference for protecting architecture were extremely low. Yet, they were higher among tourists. Traditional architecture is considered as public good; an opinion resulting in an important percentage of visitors stating that national government should provide the necessary funding. In addition, the architecture appears to hold a high level of topicality. Those descending from Sirako or emotionally connected to it, of both social groups,turned out to be more concerned about the good and with a stronger sense of responsibility for it. Usevalue of the good holds high economic value, as well,while higher percentages of zero WTP appeared among non-users. Research findings revealed social attitudes and perceptions on what constitutes architectural heritage, in its cultural and economic frame. If taken under consideration, they may form useful drivers for local, heritage-based, sustainable
基金Supported by United States National Institute of Health grants,K12HD055881 and R01CA160688,to Takabe KJapan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellowship for Re-search Abroad,to Nagahashi M
文摘Meckel's diverticulum is a common asymptomatic congenital gastrointestinal anomaly,but rarely it can present with hemorrhage.Over the last few years inverted Meckel's diverticulum has been reported in the literature with increasing frequency as an occult source of lower gastrointestinal hemorrhage.Here,we report a case of a 54-year-old male,who was referred for surgical evaluation with persistent anemia and occult blood per rectum after a work up which failed to localize the source over 12 mo,including upper and capsule endoscopy,colonoscopy,enteroclysis,Meckel scan,and tagged nuclear red blood cell scan.An abdominal computed tomography scan showed a possible mid-ileal intussusception and intraluminal mass.During the abdominal exploration,inverted Meckel's diverticulum was diagnosed and resected.We review the literature,discuss the forms in which the disease presents,the diagnostic modalities utilized,pathological findings,and treatment.Although less than 40 cases have been reported in the English literature from 1978 to 2005,19 cases have been reported in the last 6 years alone(2006-2012) due to improved diagnostic modalities.Successful diagnosis and treatment of this disease requires a high index of clinical suspicion,which is becoming increasingly relevant to general gastroenterologists.
文摘Architectural heritage comprises one o the most important elements of mountain settlements in Greece. It holds high cultural value, represents the tangible continuation of the past and forms the unique character and identity of each mountain region. Yet, controversy regarding funding for its preservation often arises. In this paper, we used two Contingent Valuation surveys to estimate the socia benefit deriving from protecting the traditiona architecture in the mountainous village of Sirako and through it, to examine perceptions and attitudes o local residents and visitors. Research findings revealed a strong social will in favor of the good's protection followed by high percentages of positive willingness to pay(WTP). However, WTP is significantly higher among residents. Cultura heritage value, of the good, appears to prevail, along with the environmental one. However, both residents and visitors pointed out that local heritage, if wellpreserved, will boost tourism development. Residents appeared to better recognize the true level o architectural decay, expressed higher apprehension for its protection and were willing to pay higher amount of money. Tourists, on the other side expressed high satisfaction for their visit, appreciated the beauty and serenity emerging from local built and natural environment and spent several days visiting the surrounding area. The longer they stayed and gotfamiliar with the village, the more willing they were to contribute to local heritage's protection. Percentages reflecting indifference for protecting architecture were extremely low. Yet, they were higher among tourists. Traditional architecture is considered as public good; an opinion resulting in an important percentage of visitors stating that national government should provide the necessary funding. In addition, the architecture appears to hold a high level of topicality. Those descending from Sirako or emotionally connected to it, of both social groups,turned out to be more concerned about the good and with a stronger sense of responsibility for it. Usevalue of the good holds high economic value, as well,while higher percentages of zero WTP appeared among non-users. Research findings revealed social attitudes and perceptions on what constitutes architectural heritage, in its cultural and economic frame. If taken under consideration, they may form useful drivers for local, heritage-based, sustainable development.
文摘This study focuses on perceived values of entrepreneurship and creativity within a turbulent environment. The initial hypothesis is that a typical entrepreneurial process carries with its "creativity-enabling elements". In a normal situation, businesses focus on optimizing their resources for commercial gains, thus perceptions about values of entrepreneurial creativity are usually vague. However, in difficult times, the difference between survival and failure may be creativity. This paper examines many previous findings on entrepreneurship and creativity, and suggests a highly possible "organic growth" of creativity in an entrepreneurial environment and reinforcing value of entrepreneurship when creativity power is present. In other words, the authors see each idea reinforcing the other. The authors survey Vietnamese firms during the chaotic year of 2012 to learn about the "entrepreneurship-creativity nexus", looking at influential cultural values, namely risk tolerance, relationship, and dependence on resources--to assess how they influence entrepreneurial decisions. A set of 137 qualified responses was obtained for this statistical examination. A categorical data analysis is performed to confirm that creativity and entrepreneurial spirit could hardly be separate, for both entrepreneurial and accomplished companies. Although the most important factor during implementation is still "relationship", business people are increasingly aware of the need of creativity/innovation in troubled times.
文摘Amid the recent global upsurge of studies on the philosophy of emotion, a reinterpretation of traditional Confucian philosophy, especially Mencius's ideas on the siduan (Four Original Sources) of morality, may shed new light on the subject in comparative philosophy. This paper probes the structure of moral feeling and reason described by Mencius's from five perspectives: (1) In view of the relationship between feeling and reason, is it better to use the expression "siduan" or the expression "sixin (Four Heart-minds)"? (2) In view of dispositional feeling, what are the four original sources? (3) In view of moral feeling, what are the structural order of the four sources and the corresponding procedure of reasoning of four heart-minds of Humanity? (4) In view of positive feeling, how does moral feeling grow out of the goodness of human nature? (5) What is the global value of Mencius's ideas on human moral feeling? The author concludes that Mencius's thought on moral feeing has a global value and cross-cultural significance, and that Chinese wisdom is more than regional but universally applicable. The structure of moral feeling and reason that Mencius identified is in accordance with the principles ofzhiliang (grasping the two poles of the beginning and the end) and yongzhong (emloying the middle). The principles ofzhiliang and yongzhong are true universal wisdoms of Confucianism, which should be rekindled today. From a practical point of view, "the Way begins from moral feelings," and Confucius and Yah Hui's seeking the simple, virtuous life is an ideal model of emotional well-being.
文摘Robert James Waller (1939-2014) does not catch readers' attention until his popular novel The Bridges of Madison County (1996) wins him great admirations since its publication in 1992 which brings him instant success. The story explores the dilemma between responsibility of family and fulfillment of desires. Set in America in the 1960s, the novel is woven by the romantic story of the two middle-aged man and woman after they countered and gathered together for four days. Though simple in plot, it really deserves detailed interpretation and appreciation. This paper will mainly discuss Kincaid's cultural values reflected not only in the romance between his lover and him, but also in his attitudes towards women's rights.
文摘Due to the differences of cultural values and conventions, people from different cultures may have different understandings about the courtesy language. This paper expounds the differences between English and Chinese courtesy languages, mainly from terms of address, greetings and appreciations. It also analyzes the reasons for the differences between English and Chinese courtesy languages, i.e. different cultures and different politeness principles. Through the contrastive studies of courtesy language, people will come to a clear understanding of the relationship between language and culture, which is meaningful to English teaching and learning.
文摘Tourism has become the world's fastest growing sector due to acceleration of technology and information flow in the globalized world of today, development of the modem mass transport system and increase in people's disposable income. Upon tourism's being considered as a serious development strategy in the developments of the countries, all the countries of the world have begun to accelerate their investments in this area through utilizing the natural and cultural assets of their countries (heritage) with a view to provide revenue to their economy as well as creation of jobs. This situation, which has emerged as a result of the globalization of supply and demand in tourism, has created certain problems in terms of environmental balance and the living conditions of local people as a result of poor management of the utilization of natural and cultural resources. The objective of this paper is to examine the concepts and principles germane to sustainable tourism which has significant contribution to the development of the countries, made at the macro level both in the world and in Turkey. The aim of this paper, at the micro level, is to create awareness incident to the tourism resources of the Van Region and the Old Van province and ensure the utilization of these resources through protection thereof. At the end of the study, the importance of the protection of heritage resources as well as fair use thereof in terms of increasing the competitiveness of Turkey on a global scale in tourism is addressed in the light of the overall evaluations.
文摘The present study examines the four core concepts that underpin the various theories of cultivation of East Asian Confucian philosophy: self (ji,已), cultivation (xiu, 修), transformation (hua, 化), and nurture (yang,餋). The discussion is divided into six sections. The first section, the introduction, explains the significance of the issue in question. The second section examines the substantial notion of "self" as expounded in the Confucian intellectual tradition and the corresponding concept of selthood or personhood. Confucianism stresses that (1) personal selthood is based on the freedom of subjectivity (subjective volition), and (2) society's values and norms originate in this freedom of subjectivity. The third section discusses the functional concept of cultivation, focusing on the fact that in Confucian theories the terms "cultivation" and "body" are always combined to form the concept of "self-cultivation." Moreover, Confucian thinkers tend to discuss the effort of self-cultivation in the context of a body-mind continuum. Indeed, they often use orientational metaphors in order to describe the efforts entailed by cultivation. The fourth section analyzes the linguistic setting and context of the functional concept of transformation within Confucian philosophy of the concrete self. The term "transformation" indicates clearly that Confucian philosophy is a transformative philosophy. The fifth section analyzes the functional concept of nurture, stressing that Confucius' two greatest followers, Mencius and Xunzi, represent two opposed approaches to nurturing. Meneius stresses that one should undertake the effort of "nurturing qi," that is, produce culture through natural cultivation, while Xunzi advocates artificially instilling culture in order to discipline, tame, and order nature. Mencius and Xunzi both turn to the container metaphor in their discussions of self-cultivation. The article concludes that the various cultivation activities advocated by these two disparate Confucians are based on two assumptions: (1) the self coincides with the physical body, and (2) the physical self is steeped in and interactive with the cultural values of society. In sum, the functional concept of self-cultivation is an important pillar of Confucian theories of self-cultivation.
文摘This paper studies how different cultural values and rhetorical traditions may influence students' perceptions and understanding of effective ethos in persuasive essays. Fifty Chinese EFL (English as a foreign language) college students and 50 American college students participated in writing English persuasive essays on the selected topics. The essays were then compared for similarities and differences in the use of rhetorical appeals with a focus on ethos, the credibility, and trustworthiness of an author. The study revealed that participants from both groups established ethos as an important rhetorical tool to persuade the audience to accept their viewpoints. However, they displayed different perceptions of what effective ethos entailed. For Chinese participants, effective ethos seemed to come from using detailed explanations that reflected an author's intention to advocate an ethical or moral message based on some Chinese cultural values. But, strong ethos for American participants appeared to mean the use of evidence--facts and personal testimony--to establish the writer's trustworthiness. The interpretation of the results from the perspective of different cultural value orientations was also discussed.
文摘In this work, a hybrid method is proposed to eliminate the limitations of traditional protein-protein interactions (PPIs) extraction methods, such as pattern learning and machine learning. Each sentence from the biomedical literature containing a protein pair describes a PPI which is predicted by first learning syntax patterns typical of PPIs from training corpus and then using their presence as features, along with bag-of-word features in a maximum entropy model. Tested on the BioCreAtIve corpus, the PPIs extraction method, which achieved a precision rate of 64%, recall rate of 60%, improved the performance in terms of F1 value by 11% compared with the component pure pattern- based and bag-of-word methods. The results on this test set were also compared with other three extraction methods and found to improve the performance remarkably.
文摘Support vector machines have met with significant success in the information retrieval field, especially in handling text classification tasks. Although various performance estimators for SVMs have been proposed, these only focus on accuracy which is based on the leave-one-out cross validation procedure. Information-retrieval-related performance measures are always neglected in a kernel learning methodology. In this paper, we have proposed a set of information-retrieval-oriented performance estimators for SVMs, which are based on the span bound of the leave-one-out procedure. Experiments have proven that our proposed estimators are both effective and stable.
文摘Published in 1991, Jen's Typical American depicts a first-generation Chinese immigrant family's pursuing their American Dream in the Post-War American society. By choosing Chinese American immigrants as her main characters and describing their struggling in the American society, Jen expresses her understanding of being Americans. In the novel, as they move from "sojourners" to American citizens, the Chang family shows different attitude towards Chinese and American cultural values. The dreams they pursue also vary. This thesis, through an analysis of the dreams the Chang family pursue in Typical American, attempts to demonstrate how the Chang family identify with their cultural identities in this process, and how they evolve from "sojourners" to "typical Americans".
文摘While participation in Social Network Sites (SNSs) has grown rapidly in recent years and is a highly popular and global phenomenon, only few research examined how the different cultural values and attitudes impact the way people adopt and use this new media platform. Employing qualitative approach, this study attempts to uncover the cross-cultural differences in motivations and behavioral patterns for using SNSs among the Korean and American users. The finding of this study shows the explicit differences in the motivations and strategies for using SNSs between Korean and American users, which is supported by the independent and interdependent self-construals theory proposed by Markus and Kitayama (1991). The motivational themes and usage patterns emerged from Korean participants are more other- or relationship-focused, pursuing social/emotional support, while those of Americans are more ego- or self-focused, pertaining to entertainment or information seeking.