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\"Public discourse constitutes the language environment of a town or a city, which forms part of the social environment of a country or a region. Based on extensive first-hand data collected from public places, mass media and the Internet, this monograph attempts critical pragmatic studies of public discourse in the contemporary Chinese context. By applying pragmatic theories and analytical instruments to the analysis of the data, including business names, advertisements, public signs and notices, and news, the book showcases such discursive practices as personalization and subjectivization and reveals such social problems as unhealthy social mentalities, \"pragmatic traps\", suspect discrimination, and vulgarity. It exemplifies a way of combining the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) approach and the pragmatic approach with a clear focus on the pragmatic issues. This book will not only be a necessary addition to the academic discipline of pragmatics in general, and critical pragmatics in particular, but also lay bare the problems existing in the use of public discourse and suggest several ways to improve such use. While it addresses the Chinese data only, the proposed analyses may contribute to international readers' understanding of public discourse in contemporary China and serves as a reference for similar researches worldwide\"-- Provided by publisher.

We investigate the research question: Why are there very few social enterprises in China? Our findings unpack four types of institutional challenges to social entrepreneurship, as perceived by social entrepreneurs: norms of a strong role for government; misunderstood or unknown role for social enterprises; non-supportive rules and regulations; and lack of sociocultural values and beliefs in support of social goals. We contribute to the literature on social enterprises by showing how an institutional environment may be \"non-munificent,\" i.e., non-supportive for the existence of social enterprises and their goals, and we thus address the need for more attention to the institutional environment in which social entrepreneurship takes place. Further, by using Q-methodology on 42 social entrepreneurs along with illustrative qualitative data from interviews, we address the need to go beyond anecdotal case studies and introduce methodological plurality in social entrepreneurship research. Finally, our findings on institutional challenges provide us with an opportunity to discuss how social entrepreneurs may engage with purposive activities to overcome such challenges, leading us to initiate a conversation between the social entrepreneurship and institutional work literatures.

Background Little is known about family members' and patients' expression of negative emotions among high‐risk preoperative conversations. Objectives This study aimed to identify the occurrence and patterns of the negative emotions of family members and patients in preoperative conversations, to investigate the conversation themes and to explore the correlation between the negative emotions and the conversation themes. Methods A retrospective study was conducted using the Chinese version of Verona Coding Definitions of Emotional Sequences (VR‐CoDES‐C) to code 297 conversations on high‐risk procedures. Inductive content analysis was used to analyse the topics in which negative emotions nested. The χ2 Test was used to test the association between the cues and the conversation themes. Results The occurrence rate of family members' and patients' negative emotions was very high (85.9%), much higher when compared to most conversations under other medical settings. The negative emotions were mainly expressed by cues (96.4%), and cue‐b (67.4%) was the most frequent category. Cues and concerns were mostly elicited by family members and patients (71.6%). Negative emotions were observed among seven themes, in which ‘Psychological stress relating to illness severity, family's care and financial burden’ (30.3%) ranked the top. Cue‐b, cue‐c and cue‐d had a significant correlation (p < .001) with certain themes. Conclusions Family members and patients conveyed significantly more negative emotions in the high‐risk preoperative conversations than in other medical communications. Certain categories of cues were induced by specific emotional conversation contents. Patient Contribution Family members and patients contributed to data.

Online medical consultation is an important complementary approach to offline health care services. It not only increases patients' accessibility to medical care, but also encourages patients to actively participate in consultation, which can result in higher shared decision making, patient satisfaction, and treatment adherence. This study aims to explore multilevel factors that influence patient activeness in online medical consultations. A data set comprising 40,505 patients from 300 physicians in 10 specialties was included for multilevel analysis. Patient activeness score (PAS) was calculated based on the frequency and the proportion of patient discourses to the total frequency of doctor-patient interactions. Intraclass correlation coefficients were calculated to identify between-group variations, and the final multilevel regression model included patient- and physician-level factors. Patients were not equally active in online medical consultations, with PASs varying from 0 to 125.73. Patient characteristics, consultation behavioral attributes, and physician professional characteristics constitute 3 dimensions that are associated with patient activeness. Specifically, young and female patients participated more actively. Patients' waiting times online (β=-.17; P<.001) for physician responses were negatively correlated with activeness, whereas patients' initiation of conversation (β=.83; P<.001) and patient consultation cost (β=.52; P<.001) in online medical consultation were positively correlated. Physicians' online consultation volumes (β=-.10; P=.01) were negatively associated with patient activeness, whereas physician online consultation fee (β=.03; P=.01) was positively associated. The interaction effects between patient- and physician-level factors were also identified. Patient activeness in online medical consultation requires more scholarly attention. Patient activeness is likely to be enhanced by reducing patients' waiting times and encouraging patients' initiation of conversation in online medical consultation. The findings have practical implications for patient-centered care and the improvement of online medical consultation services.

This paper presents ‘shared projects’ and the ‘symbiotic’ relations they engender to capture accounts of state and society actors collaborating to turn individual constraints into collective opportunities for pursuing urban experiments which are institutionally-shaped but also institution-shaping. The concepts are developed through a sequential and recursive comparison — that is, a ‘comparative conversation’ — between a case of urban village upgrading in Shenzhen and Community Land Trust Development in London. The paper uses a pragmatist approach to capitalist transformation as a starting point for comparison between these supposedly ‘incomparable’ cases. I build both heterogeneous and generalisable accounts of the pathways and progressive potential of collaborations on shared projects by recursively composing analytical proximities across the cases and their contexts of state entrepreneurialism and austerity localism. Theoretically, this paper contributes to scholarship which focuses on the contingency and complexity inherent in urban transformation. State and society actors are seen as potential collaborators working pragmatically to solve systemic problems without necessarily targeting wholesale systemic change. Methodologically, it contributes to ongoing attempts to demonstrate the positive relationship between experimental comparisons and conceptual innovation through staging a ‘comparative conversation’. 本文介绍了“共享项目”及其产生的“共生”关系，以捕捉政府和社会行为者之间的合作，这种合作将个人限制转化为集体机会，以进行制度塑造的和塑造制度的城市实验。这些概念是通过深圳城中村升级案例与伦敦社区土地信托开发案例之间的顺序和递归比较—即“比较对话”而形成的。本文使用实用主义的方法看待资本主义转型，将其作为比较这些所谓“无可比拟”的案例的起点。我通过递归地组合案例及其政府创业和地方财政紧缩背景的分析近似性，构建了对共享项目合作途径和渐进潜力的异质性和可概括性说明。本文从理论上丰富了研究城市转型中固有的偶然性和复杂性的文献。政府和社会行为者被视为潜在的合作者，彼此合作以务实地解决制度性问题，而不必以大规模的制度性变革为目标。在方法论上，本文通过聚焦“比较对话”，为证明实验比较和概念创新之间的正相关系的持续努力做出贡献。

Parent-child argumentation is a unique form of communication, as it combines persuasion, emotional exchange, and instructional dynamics shaped by contextual factors and cultural norms. To fully understand how a parent balances dialectical reasonableness with rhetorical adaptability to resolve conflicts and foster cooperation with the child within specific context, this study investigates the argumentative style of parent-child interaction within the Chinese context, focusing on the interplay of cultural values, educational goals, and argumentative practices in family interaction. Within a corpus of 20 hours of recordings of parent-child conversations concerning educational topics from 5 Chinese families, a conversation between a mother and a son during homework was selected and qualitatively analyzed, based on the framework of Argumentative Style developed from the standard model of pragma-dialectics. The findings highlight the predominant use of an engaged argumentative style in the case, which features the parent’s radiating commitment in topical selection, communality in adaptation to audience demand and inclusiveness in presentational devices. An occasional shift to a detached style was also identified, particularly when the authority figure of the teacher was invoked. The subtle balance between nurturing parental involvement and reinforcing respect for established norms is reflective of the broad Chinese cultural values that parents bear significant responsibilities for children’s academic success, and act as guides and enforcers in family education. By investigating the roles different argumentative styles play in real-life parent-child interaction, this study provides implications for developing effective communication strategies in family education and highlights the significance of culturally informed argumentative practices.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate performance of the Language Environment Analysis (LENA) automated language-analysis system for the Chinese Shanghai dialect and Mandarin (SDM) languages. Method: Volunteer parents of 22 children aged 3-23 months were recruited in Shanghai. Families provided daylong in-home audio recordings using LENA. A native speaker listened to 15 min of randomly selected audio samples per family to label speaker regions and provide Chinese character and SDM word counts for adult speakers. LENA segment labeling and counts were compared with rater-based values. Results: LENA demonstrated good sensitivity in identifying adult and child; this sensitivity was comparable to that of American English validation samples. Precision was strong for adults but less so for children. LENA adult word count correlated strongly with both Chinese characters and SDM word counts. LENA conversational turn counts correlated similarly with rater-based counts after the exclusion of three unusual samples. Performance related to some degree to child age. Conclusions: LENA adult word count and conversational turn provided reasonably accurate estimates for SDM over the age range tested. Theoretical and practical considerations regarding LENA performance in non-English languages are discussed. Despite the pilot nature and other limitations of the study, results are promising for broader cross-linguistic applications.

Men who have sex with men (MSM) in China are disproportionately affected by the HIV epidemic, and medication adherence to antiretroviral treatment in this vulnerable population is suboptimal. To address this issue, we developed an app-based case management service with multiple components, informed by the Information Motivation Behavioral skills model. We aimed to conduct a process evaluation for the implementation of an innovative app-based intervention guided by the Linnan and Steckler framework. Process evaluation was performed alongside a randomized controlled trial in the largest HIV clinic in Guangzhou, China. Eligible participants were HIV-positive MSM aged ≥18 years planning to initiate treatment on the day of recruitment. The app-based intervention had 4 components: web-based communication with case managers, educational articles, supportive service information (eg, information on mental health care and rehabilitation service), and hospital visit reminders. Process evaluation indicators of the intervention include dose delivered, dose received, fidelity, and satisfaction. The behavioral outcome was adherence to antiretroviral treatment at month 1, and Information Motivation Behavioral skills model scores were the intermediate outcome. Logistic and linear regression was used to investigate the association between intervention uptake and outcomes, controlling for potential confounders. A total of 344 MSM were recruited from March 19, 2019, to January 13, 2020, and 172 were randomized to the intervention group. At month 1 follow-up, there was no significant difference in the proportion of adherent participants between the intervention and control groups (66/144, 45.8% vs 57/134, 42.5%; P=.28). In the intervention group, 120 participants engaged in web-based communication with case managers and 158 accessed at least 1 of the delivered articles. The primary concern captured in the web-based conversation was the side effects of the medication (114/374, 30.5%), which was also one of the most popular educational articles topics. The majority (124/144, 86.1%) of participants that completed the month 1 survey rated the intervention as \"very helpful\" or \"helpful.\" The number of educational articles accessed was associated with adequate adherence in the intervention group (odds ratio 1.08, 95% CI 1.02-1.15; P=.009). The intervention also improved the motivation score after adjusting for baseline values (β=2.34, 95% CI 0.77-3.91; P=.004). However, the number of web-based conversations, regardless of conversation features, was associated with lower motivation scores in the intervention group. The intervention was well-received. Delivering educational resources of interest may enhance medication adherence. The uptake of the web-based communication component could serve as an indicator of real-life difficulties and could be used by case managers to identify potential inadequate adherence. Clinicaltrial.gov NCT03860116; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03860116. RR2-10.1186/s12889-020-8171-5.

With the advent of the post-epidemic era, the energy consumption characteristics of hotels have changed, which has an important impact on urban energy conservation. In order to contribute to the goal of carbon neutrality, this study discusses the energy-saving operation strategy of hotels considering the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic. Based on the energy consumption characteristics of large public buildings, this paper analyzes the energy consumption distribution and operation characteristics of hotel buildings in detail. By collecting energy consumption data from five typical large hotel buildings in a tourist city in southern China from 2018 to 2022, the impact of COVID-19 on hotel energy consumption and hotel business characteristics was discussed in detail. Combined with the economic development characteristic in the post-epidemic era, this paper explores the energy-saving strategies that hotels can adopt in the context of normalized epidemic prevention and control and obtains the optimal path of low-carbon economic operation of hotel buildings. This study reveals the energy consumption characteristics and energy-saving potential of hotel buildings, and provides enlightenment for hotel management and low-carbon development in the post-epidemic era.

This study examined undergraduate nursing students’ experiences and acceptance of NurCaseAI, a GenAI-based interactive case study system powered by retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) technology. The investigation was guided by the Artificially Intelligent Device Use Acceptance (AIDUA) model. Clinical reasoning is a critical skill for undergraduate nursing students. The emergence of generative AI (GenAI) offers opportunities to support clinical learning; however, concerns about content accuracy and conversational quality remain. Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) has been proposed to enhance GenAI systems by grounding outputs in validated nursing knowledge, improving reliability for educational use. A qualitative exploratory design was adopted. 16 third-year nursing students from a Chinese university were purposively selected after completing three thyroid perioperative nursing case scenarios using NurCaseAI. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis. Five key themes were identified: 1) Perceived system capabilities and limitations as students viewed NurCaseAI as an effective learning aid with analytical constraints; 2) Learning enhancement benefits where RAG content aligned well with coursework and guidelines; 3) Interaction efficiency challenges including initial barriers in system adaptation; 4) Limited emotional engagement as students viewed the system as task-oriented rather than empathetic; 5) Strong system acceptance with willingness to continue using NurCaseAI despite limitations. NurCaseAI demonstrates promise as a supplementary GenAI tool for nursing education, particularly in perioperative and case-based learning. The AIDUA model offered a valuable lens to understand students’ acceptance patterns. Future improvements should enhance affective interaction and support more complex clinical communication.