The asymmetrical global higher education and knowledge systems ordered by Euro–American hegemony have been increasingly interrogated, especially by scholars in the humanities and social sciences (HSS). With gathering awareness, growing HSS scholars from non-Western backgrounds have called for global intellectual pluriversality. Responding to such a trend, this article sheds new light on the status quo of East Asian and other non-Euro–American intellectual traditions by taking Chinese intellectual traditions as a case. Since the nineteenth century, generations of Chinese intellectuals have strived to transform their intellectual traditions into modern resources. This historical mission has been carried on by contemporary scholars and become even more complex in the current global era. By unpacking the real perceptions and recent experiences of Chinese HSS scholars, this study demonstrates that Chinese intellectual traditions deeply influence today’s knowledge production and have been transformed into three kinds of academic resources: approaches, methodologies/paradigms, and theories. However, the transformation process has never been smooth. Domestically, the great endeavours of Chinese HSS scholars are often impeded by the dominant intellectual extraversion and coercive audit culture; internationally, they feel constrained by epistemic injustice. This article proposes an empirical approach to examining and presenting intellectual traditions in the individual experiences of scholars. It reveals the high complexities of navigating through asymmetrical globalisation to achieve intellectual pluriversality.
This paper develops a unified theory integrating the three pillars of the pension system—public, occupational, and private pensions—within a heterogeneous-agent overlapping generations (OLG) model. By incorporating income heterogeneity and institutional features unique to each pillar, the model captures how individuals across the income distribution participate in the pension system and derive utility. We characterize the distinct yet interactive roles of each pillar in providing risk sharing and retirement security and identify fundamental trade-offs in pension design. Our model provides a laboratory for analyzing the coordination of the three pillars that aims at enhancing equity and fiscal sustainability.
This study aims to identify the associations between teacher mental health and student mental health. Cross-sectional data were collected from 127,877 students aged 9–20 years and 2,759 teachers across 31 provinces in China. The mental health of students and teachers were assessed by well-being (life satisfaction and positive mental health), and psychological distress (depression and anxiety). Controlling for demographic variables, multilevel regression analyses suggest that higher teacher positive mental health was linked to higher student positive mental health and lower student depression; higher teacher depression were correlated with higher student depression; and teacher life satisfaction and anxiety were not correlated with any indicators of student mental health. The study highlights the significant association between teacher mental health and student mental health.
This study developed a two-stage biofilter utilizing pyrite/sawdust composites to treat actual secondary effluent with high dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations (3-8.5 mg/L) over a period of 169 days. The findings demonstrated that the two-stage pyrite-based biofilters achieved advanced purification of the real secondary effluent, maintaining effluent concentrations of total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) below 2.0 mg/L and 0.5 mg/L, respectively, with an influent TN of 10 mg/L and a temperature of >21 degrees C. The Rhodocyclaceae family is the predominant mixotrophic denitrifying bacteria in both the first-class (FC) and second-class (SC) systems. Sulfate-reducing bacteria (i.e., Desulfrispora and Desulfatirhabdium) might be keystone species in the SC system, underscoring that the sulfate reduction process enhanced denitrification under low DO conditions. Differential functional gene analysis exposed that high DO might suppress the activity of Complex III, NAR, NIR, NOR, and NOS, leading to slow-unstable electron transport and consumption in the denitrification process. Moreover, the diminished expression of S and Fe cycling genes (soxA/B/Z/X, aprA/B, dsrA/B, ABC.FEV<middle dot>S, and korA/B/C) in the FC system indicated that high DO predominantly might inhibit the Sox pathway, dissimilatory sulfate reduction process, Fe2+/Fe3+ transfer, and biological Fe2+ oxidation system. The dormancy of the S and Fe cycles induced by high DO levels primarily accounted for the diminished performance of the pyrite-based biofilters. This study offers novel insights into the extensive application of pyrite-based composites and enhances the understanding of DO effects on S and Fe cycles in the nitrogen removal process of municipal tailwater.
Trust in artificial intelligence (AI) has become a central issue due to the opacity and unpredictability of AI decision-making processes. However, existing studies often produce inconsistent results and fail to provide a unified understanding of the underlying factors, making a comprehensive review necessary. To address this gap, we conducted a systematic review of 562 empirical studies to explore the antecedents and consequences of human trust in AI. The review identified key antecedents of trust, including AI capability, anthropomorphism, individual factors, and explainability, and associated consequences, such as behavioral intention, attitude, and acceptance. A cross-cultural analysis revealed significant differences in how cultural contexts influence the perception and prioritization of factors, such as capability, transparency, and anthropomorphism. These findings emphasize the need for a multidimensional approach to developing trustworthy AI systems, highlighting the importance of cultural sensitivity in AI design. The review also suggests several promising avenues for future research, including dynamic trust formation, reciprocal trust relationships, and the evolution of trust over time. Addressing these areas will enhance our understanding of trust in AI and contribute to the development of culturally adapted and ethically sound AI technologies.
Two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals ferroelectric materials have emerged as promising candidates for miniaturized devices due to their atomically thin structures and unique ability to maintain ferroelectricity even at reduced dimensions. Recent research indicates that the interfacial barriers between semiconductors and ferroelectrics can be modulated by polarization charges, with ferroelectric polarization—reversible by an external electric field—playing a crucial role in the switchable diode effect. In this work, we investigate a room-temperature switchable ferroelectric diode (Fe-diode) based on a MoS2/α-In2Se3 heterojunction. The out-of-plane ferroelectric properties of the α-In2Se3 layer enable efficient modulation of the Schottky barriers at the MoS2/α-In2Se3 interface through external voltage application, thereby achieving a notable switchable diode effect with a nonlinearity of up to 934. By exploiting the inherent nonlinearity, the ferroelectric diode can effectively generate complex signal waveforms, making it highly suitable for secure communication systems. These findings make the ferroelectric diode a potential candidate for enhancing confidentiality in future communication technologies, protecting data against eavesdropping and unauthorized access.
The distribution of CO2 is critical to the efficiency and stability of carbon storage; however, the roles of wettability and capillary number in controlling CO2 distribution remain inadequately understood. In this study, visual waterflooding experiments and numerical simulations were performed using five homogeneous micromodels with distinct wettability characteristics to examine how wettability and capillary number influence CO2 distribution during short-term waterflooding. The results demonstrate that both wettability and capillary number govern CO2 distribution patterns and saturation. These patterns include continuous distribution, cluster-like distribution, and isolated bubbles. Both experimental and simulation data reveal that the total residual CO2 saturation follows a non-monotonic trend with increasing contact angle, while it increases as the capillary number decreases. As the capillary number varies, the displacement behavior transitions gradually from a stable displacement regime to a capillary fingering regime, resulting in variations in residual CO2 saturation. With changing wettability, cooperative pore filling leads to fluid bypassing, thereby modifying the saturation of continuously distributed CO2. In contrast, variations in the saturation of cluster-like and isolated bubble CO2 are attributed to snapoff mechanisms initiated by preceding film flow. This study elucidates how wettability and capillary number govern the residual trapping and distribution of CO2 at the pore scale.