Jianhong Zheng

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) prevalence is rising globally, underscoring the critical need for early detection to improve intervention outcomes. Atypical pupillary light reflex (PLR) has emerged as a promising biomarker for this purpose. This study leverages machine learning to enhance the accuracy of early ASD screening in children aged 3–6. We developed and evaluated five classifiers—Naive Bayes, logistic regression, decision tree, linear discriminant analysis (LDA), and deep neural network (DNN)—using PLR data from 25 children with ASD and 50 typically developing peers. Model performance was assessed across 15 metrics, including accuracy, F1 score, ROC–AUC, and computational efficiency. The comprehensive evaluation demonstrated that the DNN outperformed all other models, achieving the highest test accuracy of 85% and excelling across multiple key metrics. These findings confirm the DNN’s superiority for automated ASD screening based on PLR, contributing significantly to the development of objective, efficient tools for early autism diagnosis.

Parents and teachers of individuals with disabilities have a critical role in the effectiveness of students' assistive technology (AT) services. However, research on their perceptions of AT and satisfaction with it is limited. The current study fills this gap by exploring the importance and performance of AT services as perceived by parents and teachers of individuals with disabilities, also examining the differences between their perceptions. Participants in this study included parents and teachers of children with disabilities. The data were collected using a quantitative research method and a questionnaire administered to 196 teachers and 204 parents. Descriptive statistics and importance of performance analysis were used to analyse the data. (1) Among parents, the perceived performance of AT services generally exceeded their perceived importance on the overall scale, except for the "application procedures" dimension, where perceived importance outweighed perceived performance. The opposite trend was observed for teachers: perceived importance surpassed perceived performance on the overall scale, except for the "application procedures" dimension, where perceived performance exceeded perceived importance. (2) Both parents and teachers considered the "application procedures" dimension important. However, their satisfaction levels differed: Parents found this dimension unsatisfactory. Teachers, in contrast, found it satisfactory. (3) Five specific service items were identified as requiring prioritisation for improvement: "total hours of service received," "scheduled time slots," "designated locations," "AT device applicability," and "transition program services." The paper presents suggestions for enhancing AT services based on these findings.

Meaning in life refers to an individual’s capacity to understand and grasp the meaning of their own existence, as well as being aware of the goals, tasks, or missions in their personal life. Previous studies have found that college students lack meaning in life, but physical exercise can enhance it. In this study, 3,196 college students completed self-report questionnaires to assess self-efficacy, life satisfaction, physical exercise, and meaning in life. The results revealed that the physical exercise not only influenced an individual’s perceived meaning in life directly, but also influenced it through self-efficacy. Furthermore, it confirmed the chain mediating role of self-efficacy and life satisfaction, whereby engaging in physical exercise can ultimately impact meaning in life through self-efficacy and life satisfaction. This discovery can help educators create interventions to improve college students’ physical exercise engagement and overall life satisfaction.

Fifteen Chinese college students with internet addiction from one urban site in Guangdong Province participated in individual face-to-face interviews. Qualitative thematic analysis was conducted using an inductive approach to identify and examine the patterns emerging from the data. The results showed that self-identity of Chinese college students with internet addiction included four themes: complex and discordant self-other relationships, low recognition of their role as students, multiple negative personality traits, and unclear self-concept. All respondents identified self-other relationships as an important component of self-concept, with parent-child relationships being the most critical sub-theme. The self-identity of internet-addicted college students was generally characterized by a negative emotional tone, and the themes covered were similar to those of the general population except for “unclear self-concept.” In a particular cultural context, one’s name may be an appropriate answer to the question “Who am I?” in reflecting self-identity.

Brightness-based metaphor effects on perception have been widely documented. For example, moral content makes perception brighter. But does moral content make a bright memory brighter? We tested the effect of the moral brightness metaphor on different cognitive processes (perception, working memory, and long-term memory), and extended evidence of the relationship between brightness and moral concepts to the relationship between brightness and positive concepts. Different samples of college students participated in five experiments. In all experiments, moral (immoral) and positive (negative) pictures of varying levels of brightness were presented, and then participants reconstructed the brightness of each picture using a keyboard to adjust the brightness of an picture. Together, the results of ANOVAs across experiments showed that the metaphorical effect of brightness played no role in perception or working memory, but there was a significant increase in brightness in long-term memory. These results support the non-unidirectionality of metaphor, and extend the conceptual metaphor theory and simulating sensorimotor metaphors theory by enhancing the effect of metaphor through the cognitive mechanism of long-term memory.

To develop a psycho-biographical profile on Yuan Longping, a tireless hybrid rice research scientist, we performed a content analysis of personality adjectives. For dependability of the analysis, we utilised the methods of “prototypical scenes” and “key factors of growth”. Our analysis suggests Yuan Longping’s primary personality traits include optimism, selflessness, generosity, carefree, spontaneousness, and innovativeness. Influences on his predispositions were quite varied and spanned a caring family with abundant financial resources, harmonious relationships, a knowledge-oriented environment, and a loving mother. These personal, material, and relationship affordances helped Yuan Longping overcome adversities in personal life, with thriving and self-actualisation as a hybrid rice research scientist.

This qualitative study investigated how rural Chinese older people construct identity crises in their life-story telling. Challenging life experiences of 20 older adults from a village in southwest China were collected through in-depth interviews. The older adults were identified to have gone through crises brought on by both social upheavals and destructive interpersonal interactions. Adaption to the challenges contributes to their identity development. Identity crisis for the participants represents a process of disconnecting the bonds with significant others that transfer from parents to spouses and then to children across their lifespan. Study limitations and contributions are discussed.

We examined the mediating role of social support and loneliness in self-identity and internet addiction among college students. Participants were 364 Chinese college students (female = 66.50%; mean age = 20.21 years, SD = 1.51 years). The students completed the following measures: Self-identity Status Scale, Social Support Scale, UCLA Loneliness Scale, and Internet Addiction Scale. The results showed two dimensions of self-identity of future self-involvement desire and present self-involvement to significantly predict internet addiction. Self-identity not only directly influenced college students’ internet addiction, but also indirectly impacted their internet addiction through the serial mediating effects of social support and loneliness. Student development and support interventions for preventing and reducing risk for internet addiction should seek to reconstruct their self-identity; thereby increasing their social support.

This psychobiography study of Temujin employed the Personality Adjective Evaluation Scale, the Personality Adjective Classification Survey, and the Delphi method to characterise Temujin’s personality traits and probable influences. One hundred and thirty-two participants rated Temujin’s personality on 248 evaluation words, while an expert panel (n = 4) utilised the Delphi consensus building method for convergence of the trait characterisation. Following factor analysis and multi-dimensional classification analysis, we found six personality trait categories to characterise Temujin: cruel and aggressive, forthright and chivalric, intelligent and capable, outstanding, self-reliant, and martial spirit. Findings may be explained by Temujin’s life experiences, role models, culture background, such as family upheavals, economic distress, the metaphor of the sun and the moon of wise persons, the education received from his mother Hö’elün, the achievements of the ancestors and father, and the manner of their achievements. Moreover, the harmony and separation culture, the worship of power and heroes, and the nomadic and hunting life would have been significant influences. From these findings, we concluded that personality traits are influenced by early experiences, role models, and cultural background.

Although the emergence of a sense of national identity in daily narratives is common, little is known about how the Chinese older adults, particularly those living in rural districts, remember national events and construct a sense of belonging to their country. In this qualitative study, we investigate how Chinese rural older adults construct national identity by telling their life stories. Adopting a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, we interviewed 18 participants in a village located in southwest China. The explicitation of the data revealed that the older adults in this study recalled many national events in much detail while telling their personal stories as though these events formed an essential part of their self-concept and identity. Four themes were identified regarding the older adults’ identification with their country: remembering Chinese history, emphasizing Chinese culture, praising the central government and national leaders, and national identity in negotiation. We discuss limitations of the study and the implications for both future research and practices in educational gerontology and suggest that professionals working with Chinese rural older adults aware that their clients’ personal narratives might mix with national and governmental matters.