This article presents a rigorous investigation of the global dissipativity (GD) and quasi-synchronization (QS) of fractional-order complex-valued neural networks (FOCVNNs) with mixed delays and external disturbances. The considered mixed delays consist of both time-varying delays (TVDs) and infinite distributed delays (IDDs), which significantly complicate the dynamical analysis of fractional-order systems. To address this challenge, the fractional comparison principle is first extended to accommodate IDD. Based on this extension, a generalized fractional Halanay inequality is established, providing an effective analytical tool for fractional-order systems with mixed delays. By employing the proposed inequality, two sufficient conditions are derived to guarantee GD and QS of FOCVNNs with mixed delays and external disturbances under designed feedback control. Finally, the effectiveness and applicability of the theoretical analysis are demonstrated through two illustrative examples, including a standard numerical simulation and a secure communication scheme constructed from a fractional-order chaotic system with mixed delays.

Empathy and identity recognition are two core social interaction factors that greatly affect efficiency and effectiveness. The selection of a profile picture in social media is crucial as it serves as a visual representation of virtual identity. It not only reflects the user's personality but also influences the level of empathy and identification that others feel toward them. However, the potential impact of profile pictures with different styles (e.g., real faces, cartoon faces, and landscape images) on empathy and identity recognition is still unclear. To explore its effects, a controlled laboratory experiment and an ecological online experiment were conducted. Participants were shown a picture each time, informed to imagine interacting with the person using it as his/her profile picture, and instructed to rate an item from the basic empathy scale (BES) based on it. After rating all pictures, users then completed an identity recognition task. Results show that participants’ empathy scores for users with cartoon or real face profile pictures are greater than those with landscape profile pictures. In addition, participants performed better in identity recognition for users with real face or landscape images as profile pictures than for those with cartoon face profile pictures. Moreover, users of social media often make social categorizations (i.e., in-group/out-group categorization) based on the social identities expressed by their profile pictures. Our results also indicate that the affective empathy scale rating score was positively associated with the degree to which users of the corresponding profile pictures were categorized as in-group members.

For the missile system with external disturbances and parametric uncertainties, the problem of composite anti-disturbance autopilot design is considered with angle constraint. First, a nonlinear disturbance observer is designed for missile system. Second, using dynamic surface control technique, a composite anti-disturbance autopilot is developed for missile systems. Third, the stability analysis is given by Lyapunov function theory and the uniform ultimate boundedness is obtained for the closed-loop system signals. Finally, a simulation result is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.