Yoshida Theory: Its Structure,Criticism and Advancement

Tamito Yoshida, a giant of theoretical sociology, passed away in 2009. Here, I give a concise review of his theoretical achievements, called “Yoshida Theory”, and foresee the future. The main features of Yoshida Theory are the following: information controls resources; there was evolution from the stage of only materials to that of materials controlled by generic information and also to that of materials controlled by symbolic information; the process of information procedures is divided into “to cognize,”“to evaluate” and “to order,” which are distinguished from one another, and from the theoretical standpoint called the “Information Processing Resources Paradigm”; i nformation is maintained as long as it is useful, and when it becomes useless it is selected or expected to be changed. There was much criticism against the theory. The most unrelenting opposition was that it was not a system of explanation in the conventional sense of scientific methodology. It was claimed not to be positive scientific theory because of the logical inconsistency. Yoshida's counter‐criticism was, contrary to his opposites' expectations, that sociological theory ought not to fulfill the criteria to be science. It seemed to support his evolutionalist assertion that the synchronically inconsistent theory will be corrected diachronically and achieve some consistency. The criteria of science themselves should be re‐constructed to thematize the fact that information or program‐controlling society has evolution, he thought. He called it “New Science”; however, the attempt was never completed. It is still our task to clarify whether sociological theory can remain in science or not.     

An Information‐Processing Approach for Evaluating In‐Store Retail Operational Design Strategies

We develop a model to evaluate retail store operational design strategies using an information‐processing perspective of organizational design. We propose that three model constructs pertaining to in‐store shopper task uncertainty—the product mix complexity, the service production complexity, and the product mix changeover—create shopper encounter information requirements (IR). These requirements can be met using specific retail service operational design choices for managing shopper encounters, namely, designing layouts for self‐service (SS) and providing employees with task empowerment (TE). The model is then operationalized using a two‐stage approach to develop new multi‐item, measurement scales. The psychometric properties and predictive validity of the scales and model are then confirmed by using structural equation modeling with survey data from 175 merchandise retail store managers. We find that our model can be generically applied across the retail industry to understand how shopper encounter IR motivate retailer store design choices and can be used to determine whether to design stores for SS or to provide store employees with TE. We then evaluate the efficacy of the studied store design choices on customer delivery satisfaction, and offer some suggestions for future research.     

论汉魏六朝文学观念中的“丽”

"丽"是汉魏六朝文学观念中的一个重要范畴,是文学审美特性的重要体现."文章"于原初意义上具有源于"文"、"章"含义的含美特性,文学所追求的"丽"是对"文章"原初意义上含美特性的延扩与发挥,"丽"观念是伴随着文学的自觉而形成并臻于成熟的.汉代辞赋的"铺采扌离文"标志着"文章"观念之趋于明朗(自觉),标志着"丽"观念的初步形成.魏晋曹丕、陆机对文体及其体貌的辨析标志着"丽"观念的深入.南北朝时期,以刘勰及其集大成之作<文心雕龙>为代表,对文学形式美有了全面深刻的探讨,标志着"丽"观念在文学自觉中臻于成熟.     

提高高校学报质量的几点思考

质量是学报的生命,影响高校学报质量有多种因素,文章主要以提高稿件质量、培养作者队伍、重视审稿、加强编辑自身素质等几个重要方面阐述了提高高校学报质量的重要途径。     

A Simulation of Partial Information Use in Decision Making: Implications for DSS Design

Information matrices are often the output produced by a decision support system. These matrices are a common method for expressing a decision situation under different decision-making scenarios. The decisions involved in designing a decision support system to generate the information matrix are important and involve several cost and benefit components. A designer needs guidance in making effective design decisions in this context. Such guidance can be provided by considering the relationships among specific design decisions, costs, and benefits. The general objective of this study is to provide a comprehensive framework for this purpose. This study is the first to develop and present a comprehensive cost-benefit framework for evaluating design decisions for a variety of scenarios. The specific objective of this research is to provide guidance regarding the number of available information dimensions to incorporate in a computer-based decision aid. Simulation experiments are conducted with a completely specified model based on the cost-benefit framework (including needed assumptions) to evaluate how many information dimensions to include for a specific information matrix size to achieve a balance between information use costs and decision quality. Based upon extensive simulation analyses for a hypothetical decision maker, the practical guideline found for designers is to include only the top half of the relevant information dimensions in any specific decision support system. Over a large number of repeating choice decisions, the savings in cognitive effort and information gathering costs clearly offset relatively minor losses in decision quality.     

The Effectiveness of Graphical Presentation for Information Extraction: A Cumulative Experimental Approach*

Three laboratory experiments were conducted to assess the relative strengths and weaknesses of bar, symbol, and line graphs for performing a variety of elementary information extraction tasks using two dependent variables, time and accuracy. The findings indicate that the degree of support provided by a particular graph format for a particular data extraction task depends on the matching of format and task in terms of their anchoring characteristics. Anchoring, in this context, refers to the phenomenon that specific and diverse parts of a graph are segmented by the reader to act as salient and relevant cues, or anchors, when different classes of information are to be extracted from the graph. A data extraction task has high x-value (y-value) anchoring if the x-axis (y-axis) component is represented in the question as either a given value or an unknown value. Conversely, a task has low x-value (y-value) anchoring if the x-axis (y-axis) component is not represented in the question as either a given value or as an unknown value. Data extraction accuracy was not significantly affected by presentation format. Bars provided the best time performance for data extraction tasks having high anchoring on both axes but were not appropriate for tasks having low anchoring on either the y axis or both the x and y axes. Line graphs tended to be worse in terms of time performance for tasks having high anchoring on both axes although they were as fast or better than other representations for tasks having low anchoring on both axes. Symbol plots appeared to possess anchoring characteristics associated with both bars and line graphs. Symbols (as with bars) tended to produce a time performance superior to that of line graphs for tasks having high anchoring on both axes; and (as with line graphs) symbols allowed faster results than bar graphs for tasks having low anchoring on either the y axis or both the x and y axes.     

论添附与添附物的所有权归属--对我国《物权法》所有权原始取得制度的一项补充

添附是罗马法以来民法物权中所有权原始取得的重要方式,但我国《物权法》对此却没有规定。传统民法理论中,有关添附的见解并不一致。我国民法理论中将加工、混合、附合都列入添附的范畴,但在社会经济生活中,甄别添附、加工、混合、附合各自的涵义和相互关系及其规范调整的社会现象却各有不同。一般来说,加工应当是独立的一种所有权原始取得制度,与生产无异;而所谓的附合、混合则完全可以被添附吸纳。依据各概念蕴含的不同含义拟定相关法律条文,不仅能有效对有关社会生活实际进行规范适用,而且还可形成简洁清晰的添附制度,此外也可促进完善我国物权法所有权取得方法,并于将来编纂民法典时参考,具有重要的理论价值和实践意义。     

THE IMPACT OF PROBABILISTIC INFORMATION ON DECISION BEHAVIOR AND PERFORMANCE IN AN EXPERIMENTAL GAME

This research presents the results of a longitudinal experiment using experimental gaming. The results suggest that probabilistic information did change decision behavior and improve subject performance in the experiment. Moreover, there appeared to be a learning effect associated with the use of probabilistic information. Finally, the source of information (externally supplied by the researcher or generated by the subjects themselves) had an impact on decision behavior and performance in the experiment.