Search results

Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) or other developmental disabilities are often reported to have challenges in well generalizing the newly learned communicative skills such as requesting help. Not requesting help when it is needed can hinder engagement and learning, whereas requesting help could also be socially inappropriate. This paper aims to offer a demonstration of applying general case instruction to teach a young child diagnosed with ASD to request help only when needed while concurrently increasing the child’s independence in task completion.

The demonstration adopted within-participant AB designs for one 5-year-old boy with ASD, with data collected across three tasks targeted for intervention and the other three tasks targeted for generalization probes throughout both the baseline and intervention phases. Dependent measures consisted of independent help request and independent task completion. Visual analysis was used to describe the results.

Results showed that the child with ASD learned to ask for help on difficult educational activities, while concurrently increasing his independence on these tasks; generalized the skill of requesting help by asking for help when he encountered other challenging novel tasks; and independently completed easy educational activities without requesting help.

The findings from this study may add to the limited literature that explored the generalization performance across tasks/activities in young learners with ASD, while demonstrating the feasibility of designing and applying general case instruction framework to enhance generalization performance for one individual learner.

This study aims to use a sequentially implemented intervention package to reduce the occurrence of perseverative requesting and other problem behavior in a young girl with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

In this single-case study, subsequent to a functional analysis and a preference assessment, an intervention package consisting of three components (i.e. a tolerance for delay to reinforcement, choice-making and visual schedule) was implemented sequentially to address perseverative requesting and other problem behavior maintained by access to preferred items/activities in a young girl with ASD.

Via the intervention package, the girl demonstrated higher self-control skills (i.e. delaying access to preferred items/activities, choosing more preferred items/activities with delayed access over less preferred ones with immediate access, completing tasks before having access to preferred items/activities) with a reduction of perseverative requesting or other problem behavior.

The current case study presents concrete steps that could be applied to address tangible-maintained perseverative requesting using more natural and educationally relevant signals while improving the child’s appropriate skills (e.g. delay to reinforcement, self-control and task engagement).

Unlike some developed countries, Chinese food safety certification system is multi-level including organic/green/hazard-free certifications. The purpose of this paper is to assess consumers’ preferences for tomatoes carrying these different labels.

Data used in this study came from choice experiments (CEs) conducted in Shandong province, China. Based on experiment data, a random parameter logit model was established to analyze consumers’ willingness-to-pay (WTP).

Consumers’ WTP for organic tomatoes was higher than that for hazard-free and green-certified tomatoes. Furthermore, consumers’ WTP for the European Union (EU) organic label was higher than that for the Chinese organic label, whereas a non-significant difference existed between the levels of consumers’ WTP for hazard-free and green-certified tomatoes. Consumers with different food safety risk perception (FSRP) had large differences in WTP, whereas those with varying environmental awareness (ENAW) had similar levels of WTP.

This contribution is the first research which focuses on consumers’ WTP for EU organic label, Chinese organic label, green label, or hazard-free label on tomato through CEs in China. Furthermore, the influence of consumers’ FSRP and ENAW on their preference was analyzed through a random parameter logit model.

The organic food sold in China can bear organic labels from different countries/regions. The purpose of this paper is to assess the trust and preferences of consumers for tomatoes carrying these different labels.

The data came from real choice experiments conducted in Shandong Province, China. A mixed logit model was used to analyze consumer willingness to pay (WTP).

Results indicated that, among the four organic labels considered in this study, the highest WTP was expressed for organic label from the European Union, followed by Hong Kong’s organic label, Japanese organic label and, lastly, by the Chinese mainland organic label. Consumer trust has a positive effect on their WTPs for the four organic labels. Providing consumers with information on organic can significantly lift their WTPs, and reduce the gaps between WTPs for different organic labels.

This research is of academic value and of value to food suppliers. International food marketers are recommended to equip their products with proper organic labels and initiate additional consumer education.

The purpose of this paper is to develop two types of simple jerk circuits and to carry out their dynamical analyses using a unified mathematical model.

Two types of simple jerk circuits only involve a nonlinear resistive feedback channel composited by a nonlinear device and an inverter. The nonlinear device is implemented through parallelly connecting two diode-switch-based series branches. According to the classifications of switch states and circuit types, a unified mathematical model is established for these two types of simple jerk circuits, and the origin symmetry and scale proportionality along with the origin equilibrium stability are thereby discussed. The coexisting bifurcation behaviors in the two types of simple jerk systems are revealed by bifurcation plots, and the origin symmetry and scale proportionality are effectively demonstrated by phase plots and attraction basins. Moreover, hardware experimental measurements are performed, from which the captured results well validate the numerical simulations.

Two types of simple jerk circuits are unified through parallelly connecting two diode-switch-based series branches and a unified mathematical model with six kinds of nonlinearities is established. Especially, the origin symmetry and scale proportionality for the two types of simple jerk systems are discussed quantitatively. These jerk circuits are all simple and inexpensive, easy to be physically implemented, which are helpful to explore chaos-based engineering applications.

Unlike previous works, the significant values are that through unifying these two types of simple jerk systems, a unified mathematical model with six kinds of nonlinearities is established, upon which symmetrically scaled coexisting behaviors are numerically disclosed and experimentally demonstrated.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a simple chaotic circuit. The circuit can be fabricated by less discrete electronic components, within which complex dynamical behaviors can be generated.

A second-order non-autonomous inductor-free chaotic circuit is presented, which is obtained by introducing a sinusoidal voltage stimulus into the classical Wien-bridge oscillator. The proposed circuit only has two dynamic elements, and its nonlinearity is realized by the saturation characteristic of the operational amplifier in the classical Wien-bridge oscillator. After that, its dynamical behaviors are revealed by means of bifurcation diagram, Lyapunov exponent and phase portrait and further confirmed using the 0-1 test method. Moreover, an analog circuit using less discrete electronic components is implemented, and its experimental results are measured to verify the numerical simulations.

The equilibrium point located in a line segment varies with time evolution, which leads to the occurrence of periodic, quasi-periodic and chaotic behaviors in the proposed circuit.

Unlike the previously published works, the significant values of the proposed circuit with simple topology are inductor-free realization and without extra nonlinearity, which make the circuit can be used as a paradigm for academic teaching and experimental illustraction for chaos.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an field programmable gate array (FPGA)-based neuron circuit to mimic dynamical behaviors of tabu learning neuron model.

Numerical investigations for the tabu learning neuron model show the coexisting behaviors of bi-stability. To reproduce the numerical results by hardware experiments, a digitally FPGA-based neuron circuit is constructed by pure floating-point operations to guarantee high computational accuracy. Based on the common floating-point operators provided by Xilinx Vivado software, the specific functions used in the neuron model are designed in hardware description language programs. Thus, by using the fourth-order Runge-Kutta algorithm and loading the specific functions orderly, the tabu learning neuron model is implemented on the Xilinx FPGA board.

With the variation of the activation gradient, the initial-related coexisting attractors with bi-stability are found in the tabu learning neuron model, which are experimentally demonstrated by a digitally FPGA-based neuron circuit.

Without any piecewise linear approximations, a digitally FPGA-based neuron circuit is implemented using pure floating-point operations, from which the initial conditions-related coexisting behaviors are experimentally demonstrated in the tabu learning neuron model.

The purpose of this paper is to construct a proportion-integral-type (PI-type) memristor, which is different from that of the previous memristor emulator, but the constructing memristive chaotic circuit possesses line equilibrium, leading to the emergence of the initial conditions-related dynamical behaviors.

This paper presents a PI-type memristor emulator-based canonical Chua’s chaotic circuit. With the established mathematical model, the stability region for the line equilibrium is derived, which mainly consists of stable and unstable regions, leading to the emergence of bi-stability because of the appearance of a memristor. Initial conditions-related dynamical behaviors are investigated by some numerically simulated methods, such as phase plane orbit, bifurcation diagram, Lyapunov exponent spectrum, basin of the attraction and 0-1 test. Additionally, PSIM circuit simulations are executed and the seized results validate complex dynamical behaviors in the proposed memristive circuit.

The system exhibits the bi-stability phenomenon and demonstrates complex initial conditions-related bifurcation behaviors with the variation of system parameters, which leads to the occurrence of the hyperchaos, chaos, quasi-periodic and period behaviors in the proposed circuit.

These memristor emulators are simple and easy to physically fabricate, which have been increasingly used for experimentally demonstrating some interesting and striking dynamical behaviors in the memristor-based circuits and systems.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a basis for government decision makers regarding the gradual popularisation of traceable infant milk formula (IMF) and the construction of a safe food market system.

The data were collected from 1,225 randomly selected consumers in Shandong Province, China using a choice experiment. The authors used the mixed logit model to determine consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for IMF profiles with different levels of five attributes: traceability information, brand, country of origin, place of sale and price.

Results indicated that traceability information was more important than brand or country of origin for Chinese consumers. In terms of WTP for different levels of traceability information, grazing information was the most preferred by the respondents. The order of preference with regards to country of origin and brand attributes suggests that consumers prefer “foreign milk powder” to domestic products. The difference in consumer WTP between IMF sold in drugstores and in supermarkets is minimal. The higher the food safety risk perception, the higher the WTP for traceability information and the higher the WTP for “foreign milk powder (brand or country of origin)” compared with domestic products. In addition, the differences in the WTP of various risk perception groups between IMF sold in drugstores and in supermarkets are minimal.

This study subdivides traceability information into three levels (i.e. cow grazing, IMF producing and IMF selling) based on supply chain processes. It then compares consumer preference for the traceability information attribute with those of other attributes, such as brand, country of origin and place of sale. This research is valuable to members of the academe, policy makers and food suppliers.

The purpose of this paper is to show that the Guanxi characteristics in Chinese business culture may add to the understanding of foreign invested enterprise's (FIE) successful marketing in China.

The authors surveyed the entry mode of 296 FIEs in China and examined their way of adapting marketing strategy to local culture. The authors used a conceptual model hypothesizing a system of variables that the authors subsequently tested using structural equation modeling.

Market orientation was insufficient to obtain marketing capability in China. FIE marketing capability in China was dependent on Guanxi and learning orientation, showing the need for contextualization of marketing approaches.

This paper enriches previous research on marketing and makes a contribution to the existing literature on practical management in China. It is also relevant for marketing in other markets in transition.

FIEs may develop these capabilities on their own or succeed trough partnering in China. The study also points at similar mechanisms in other emerging markets and economies in transition from previous socialist economies.

The authors attempt to explore the main factors driving the marketing capabilities of FIEs in China. Few articles have shown how foreign companies may adopt Guanxi orientation to do this, which is the object of the present study.