The COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the tourism industry in various ways, including tourists’ travel motivations and intentions. Unlike previous studies that have focused on the dark side of the pandemic, this study adds the dimension of perceptions of positive information on COVID-19 to the Theory of Planned Behavior to explore their influence on travel motivation and intention. A total of 470 valid questionnaires were collected from a sample of Chinese university students. The results showed that the students’ perceptions of positive (...) COVID-19 information positively impacted their travel intentions through the variables of perceived behavioral control, travel attitudes, and travel motivations. Perceived behavioral control was the mediating variable that most explained the impact of perceptions of positive COVID-19 information on travel motivation and intention. This study contributes to the understanding of the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism and of university students’ travel motivations and intentions. It also offers implications for the tourism industry to formulate relevant recovery strategies during and after the pandemic. (shrink)

PurposeThis study systematically evaluates the effect of mindfulness meditation on depression during pregnancy. We provide evidence-based suggestions for preventing and reducing depression during pregnancy by exploring the most effective intervention mode, cycle, and frequency of mindfulness meditation.MethodsRecords were retrieved from PubMed, Web of Science, EBSCO, and Science Direct. A total of 1,612 randomized controlled trial studies on the effect of mindfulness meditation on pregnancy depression were collected. 10 studies with 658 subjects meeting the inclusion criteria were extracted and analyzed by (...) Revman 5.3 to evaluate study qualities. Stata 12.0 was used for the meta-analysis.ResultsMindfulness meditation had a positive effect on depression during pregnancy [standardized difference of the mean = −0.786, 95% confidence interval, P 75%]. This may be caused by variance in measurement tools, among which Beck Depression Inventory-II was a significant source of heterogeneity.ConclusionMindfulness meditation can improve the prevention, remission, and reduction of depression during pregnancy and can be used as an auxiliary measure for the clinical treatment of pregnancy depression. (shrink)

We characterize, by easily verifiable properties, abstract ternary relations isomorphic to the causal betweenness introduced by Hans Reichenbach.

If philosophy is the only discourse that has ever intended to receive its name from itself, and to leave nothing outside itself, what would be (Western) philosophy's relation to its (Chinese) other? This question is rethought through a rereading of three major Western philosophers, Hegel, Husserl, and Heidegger, and a Chinese philosopher, Feng Youlan. Philosophy is seen, on the one hand, to dialecticize its other but necessarily to fall short of its aim and, on the other, to claim for itself (...) uniqueness and originality but necessarily to be constituted by and through an other. Also, the claim made by the other of philosophy to the rightful title of "philosophy" can also turn out paradoxically to be a claim by philosophy to its other. (shrink)

We examine the effect of the cross-border merger and acquisition (M&A) activities of Chinese firms on their corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance. We find that Chinese acquirers significantly increase CSR performance and CSR spending following cross-border M&As. The legal origins and social norms of host countries are found to positively affect the acquirers’ CSR performance and CSR spending in the post-M&A period. The results are consistent with Chinese acquirers signaling their commitment toward CSR through cross-border M&As to respond to diverse (...) stakeholder demands and strengthen corporate reputation. We also provide evidence that Chinese firms’ knowledge acquisition through cross-border M&As boosts green innovation. In addition, we show that the financial performance of Chinese acquirers does not suffer in the long term, indicating that strategic CSR investments can be integrated with other corporate investment activities. Our study demonstrates how cross-border M&As affect stakeholder value beyond value for shareholders. (shrink)

With the rapid and unbalanced development of industry, a large amount of cultivated land is converted into industrial land with lower efficiency. The existing research is extensively concerned with industrial land use and industrial development in isolation, but little attention has been paid to the relationship between them. To help address this gap, the paper creates a new efficiency measure method for industrial land use combining Subvector Data Envelope Analysis with spatial analysis approach. The proposed model has been verified by (...) using the industrial land use data of 30 Chinese provinces from 2001 to 2013. The spatial autocorrelation relationship between industrial development and industrial land use efficiency is explored. Furthermore, this paper examines the effects of industrial development on industrial land use efficiency by spatial panel data model. The results indicate that the industrial land use efficiency and the industrial development level in the provinces of eastern region are higher than those of the western region. The spatial distribution of industrial land use efficiency shows remarkable positive spatial autocorrelation. However, the level of industrial development has obvious negative spatial autocorrelation since 2009. The improvement of industrial development has a significant positive impact on the industrial land use efficiency. (shrink)

Information-sharing behavior is affected by identity recognition perception. The current study aims to delve into the impact of familiarity and anonymity on information-sharing behavior, and the mediating role of intrinsic motivations on WeChat Moments. We hypothesized a mediator role of intrinsic motivations in the relationship between an individual’s perceptions and information sharing. Based on the self-determination theory, a model was created and tested using a sample of 531 frequent users. In this study, these users were asked to use WeChat Moments, (...) the most popular mobile private social networking site in China. The results demonstrate the significance of familiarity and identifiability in an interpersonal relationship, when using social networking sites. Moreover, the influence of perceived anonymity on information-sharing behavior, which is entirely mediated by intrinsic motivation has been validated from an empirical perspective. Our findings extend previous studies by showing the totally mediated effect of perceived anonymity on information-sharing behavior on WeChat Moments and the influential mechanism of intrinsic motivation. The results will inform researchers about the importance of incorporating the interpersonal structural features and intrinsic motivation of social networking sites into future studies on online information-sharing behavior. Important ways to promote attention and share information involve building a familiar relationship with communities and equipping oneself with off-line relations. Final indications for future developments are provided, with a special emphasis on the development of these findings in various social networking sites contexts. (shrink)

Erratum to: Found Sci DOI 10.1007/s10699-014-9364-0The author, Kun Wu’s name, affiliation and biography have been incorrectly published in the original article. The correct affiliation and biography are provided below.

Lachlan observed that any nonzero d.c.e. degree bounds a nonzero c.e. degree. In this paper, we study the c.e. predecessors of d.c.e. degrees, and prove that given a nonzero d.c.e. degree , there is a c.e. degree below and a high d.c.e. degree such that bounds all the c.e. degrees below . This result gives a unified approach to some seemingly unrelated results. In particular, it has the following two known theorems as corollaries: there is a low c.e. degree isolating (...) a high d.c.e. degree [S. Ishmukhametov, G. Wu, Isolation and the high/low hierarchy, Arch. Math. Logic 41 259–266]; there is a high d.c.e. degree bounding no minimal pairs [C.T. Chong, A. Li, Y. Yang, The existence of high nonbounding degrees in the difference hierarchy, Ann. Pure Appl. Logic 138 31–51]. (shrink)

Cholak, Groszek and Slaman proved in J Symb Log 66:881–901, 2001 that there is a nonzero computably enumerable (c.e.) degree cupping every low c.e. degree to a low c.e. degree. In the same paper, they pointed out that every nonzero c.e. degree can cup a low2 c.e. degree to a nonlow2 degree. In Jockusch et al. (Trans Am Math Soc 356:2557–2568, 2004) improved the latter result by showing that every nonzero c.e. degree c is cuppable to a high c.e. degree (...) by a low2 c.e. degree b. It is natural to ask in which subclass of low2 c.e. degrees can b in Jockusch et al. (Trans Am Math Soc 356:2557–2568, 2004) be located. Wu proved in Math Log Quart 50:189–201, 2004 that b can be cappable. We prove in this paper that b in Jockusch, Li and Yang’s result can be noncuppable, improving both Jockusch, Li and Yang, and Wu’s results. (shrink)

Xiong Shili / Li Shuangqing zhu -- Zhang Junmai / Jiang Yongzhen zhu -- Jiang Zhongzheng / Wu Jiping zhu.

The paper attends to the increasingly heated debate on the local, the global versus the glocal approaches in transcultural brand communication with an examination of how Disneyland performs emotional branding on social media across US to Hong Kong and Shanghai. Integrating insights from brand communication with linguistics, the present study develops a framework to examine how Disneyland builds emotional attachment of the public to the brand via brand personality appeals and use of interactional features. It is found that on a (...) global-local continuum, brand personality traits exhibit strong globalization propensity whereas interactional features demonstrate strong localization tendency in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Variations also exist in the means of emotional branding between Hong Kong and Shanghai. Finally, the paper provides an account for the differences between Hong Kong and Shanghai and concludes that neither the local approach nor the global approach but the glocal approach can tackle the challenge of transcultural brand communication and that future studies in this area should be oriented further to uncovering the global-local nexus in the process. (shrink)

For scholars, practitioners, and legislators concerned about sexual minority adolescents, one of the main goals is to create more positive and inclusive learning environments for this minority group. Numerous factors, such as repeated patterns of homophobic bullying by classmates and others in school, have been a significant barrier to achieving this goal. In addition, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer adolescents encounter substantial inequality across a broad spectrum of wellbeing and education consequences. Compared with their heterosexual counterparts, LGBTQ adolescents experience (...) more anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, antisocial behavior, poorer academic performance, less school attachment and protection, and a weaker desire to finish their studies. Such discrepancies based on gender and sexuality were linked to more maltreatment encountered by LGBTQ adolescents. It is crucial to recognize the backgrounds and expectations of LGBTQ adolescents to offer them the best resources. To overcome the inequality and obstacles faced by these LGBTQ adolescents, it is essential to examine tools and techniques that can be utilized. This study examined the literature that explains why society fails to provide enough support to LGBTQ students. Specifically, mechanisms explaining how LGBTQ adolescents interact with others in the learning environment and how such discrepancies arise will be examined. Following that, violence and prejudice, which are fundamental causes of psychological problems among LGBTQ adolescents, will be explored. This review paper thus provides supportive strategies for schools to develop more inclusive learning environments for LGBTQ adolescents. (shrink)

In ancient times in our country, Wang Ch'ung was an eminent materialist and a brilliant atheist, a progressive thinker who opposed the orthodox feudal thought. This has gone basically unquestioned. This year the February 21 issue of Kuang-ming jih-pao printed in its philosophy section an article by Comrade T'ung Mo-an, "Is Wang Ch'ung a Peasant Class Thinker?" The article is an evaluation completely denying this. T'ung believes that the purpose of Wang Ch'ung's works was "to uphold the rule of the (...) Han," "ardently and unconditionally to sing the praises of the Han ruler and court," "to make sacred the rule of the Han," "to get the populace to live quietly, forever in a servile position," and "to view inimically and to slander peasant uprisings." "Wang Ch'ung was an orthodox thinker of the landlord class," "a thinker produced in the interests of the rule of the landlord class who confirmed the feudal orthodoxy." Although I myself am not praising Wang Ch'ung as a peasant class thinker or denying that in Wang Ch'ung's thought there are negative elements, I am completely unable to agree with the basic viewpoint that the author puts forward. (shrink)

This book transforms phenomenology, music, technology, and the cultural arts from within. Gathering contributions by performing artists, media technology designers, nomadic composers, and distinguished musicological scholars, it explores a rich array of concepts such as embodiment, art and technology, mindfulness meditation, time and space in music, self and emptiness, as well as cultural heritage preservation. It does so via close studies on music phenomenology theory, works involving experimental music and technology, and related cultural and historical issues. This book will be (...) of considerable interest to readers from the fields of sound studies, science and technology studies, phenomenology, cultural studies, media studies, and sound art theory. This book is equally relevant and insightful for musicians, composers, media artists, sound artists, technology designers, and curators and arts administrators from the performing and visual arts. (shrink)

The vigorous development of online education has produced massive amounts of education data. How to mine and analyze education big data has become an urgent problem in the field of education and big data knowledge engineering. As for the dynamic learning data, knowledge tracing aims to track learners’ knowledge status over time by analyzing the learners’ exercise data, so as to predict their performance in the next time step. Deep learning knowledge tracking performs well, but they mainly model the knowledge (...) components while ignoring the personalized information of questions and learners, and provide limited interpretability in the interaction between learners’ knowledge status and questions. A context-aware attentive knowledge query network model is proposed in this paper, which combines flexible neural network models with interpretable model components inspired by psychometric theory. We use the Rasch model to regularize the embedding of questions and learners’ interaction tuples, and obtain personalized representations from them. In addition, the long-term short-term memory network and monotonic attention mechanism are used to mine the contextual information of learner interaction sequences and question sequences. It can not only retain the ability to model sequences, but also use the monotonic attention mechanism with exponential decay term to extract the hidden forgetting behavior and other characteristics of learners in the learning process. Finally, the vector dot product is used to simulate the interaction between the learners’ knowledge state and questions to improve the interpretability. A series of experimental results on 4 real-world online learning datasets show that CAKQN has the best performance, and its AUC value is improved by an average of 2.945% compared with the existing optimal model. Furthermore, the CAKQN proposed in this paper can not only track learners’ knowledge status like other models but also model learners’ forgetting behavior. In the future, our research will have high application value in the realization of personalized learning strategies, teaching interventions, and resource recommendations for intelligent online education platforms. (shrink)

This paper examines the impact of China’s new environmental protection law on green innovation. Using a large sample of Chinese prefecture-level cities for the 2010–2016 period and the difference-in-differences methodology, we provide strong evidence that the new environmental protection law promotes green innovation. This finding is robust to a battery of sensitivity tests. The micromechanism analysis shows that the new environmental protection law can promote green innovation by imposing stricter financial constraints on enterprises in high-pollution industries and increasing their incentives (...) for green innovation to meet green credit requirements. Further, we find that the impact of the new environmental protection law on green innovation is more prominent in prefecture-level cities with a lower level of banking competition and for prefecture-level cities with stronger intellectual property protection. Overall, these findings suggest that the new environmental protection law has played an important role in promoting green innovation in China. To improve the effect of the new environmental protection law on green innovation, the government can consider lowering banking competition and strengthening intellectual property protection. (shrink)

We propose a signaling pathway in which cell‐extracellular matrix (ECM) adhesion components PINCH‐1 and kindlin‐2 sense mechanical signals from ECM and link them to proline biosynthesis, a vital metabolic pathway for macromolecule synthesis, redox balance, and ECM remodeling. ECM stiffening promotes PINCH‐1 expression via integrin signaling, which suppresses dynamin‐related protein 1 (DRP1) expression and mitochondrial fission, resulting in increased kindlin‐2 translocation into mitochondria and interaction with Δ1‐pyrroline‐5‐carboxylate (P5C) reductase 1 (PYCR1). Kindlin‐2 interaction with PYCR1 protects the latter from proteolytic degradation, (...) leading to elevated PYCR1 level. Additionally, PINCH‐1 promotes P5C synthase (P5CS) expression and P5C synthesis, which, together with increased PYCR1 level, support augmented proline biosynthesis. This signaling pathway is frequently activated in fibrosis and cancer, resulting in increased proline biosynthesis and excessive collagen matrix production, which in turn further promotes ECM stiffening. Targeting this signaling pathway, therefore, may provide an effective strategy for alleviating fibrosis and cancer progression. (shrink)

Given the severity of today’s environmental issues, companies are increasingly making green concepts a key component of their operational strategies. As an essential complement to corporate environmental strategy, employees’ green behavior has received attention from all sectors of society. Based on resource conservation theory, this study explores the formation mechanism of employees’ green behaviors in enterprises starting from two green management tools: green human resource management practices and green transformational leadership. Through two-stage questionnaire research, 296 sample data points were obtained, (...) and the research hypotheses were tested by using linear regression analysis. The results showed that green HRM practices in enterprises enhance employees’ green mindfulness and thus stimulate their green behaviors and that green transformational leadership and green self-efficacy play a positive moderating role in the above relationship. These results support the applicability of resource conservation theory in green management and suggest that green HRM practices and green transformational leadership can be used together in the process of green management. (shrink)

E-commerce conceivable future trade, consumption, and service is a new digital employer mode. Therefore, in order to decorate the customary natural environment of operation, it is quintessential to get rid of the preferred desktop in the true field, create a social logistics and transportation administration computing device with commodity agents and distributors as the key features, and mix freight logistics, business enterprise approach waft and data waft advertising and marketing, and advertising and marketing organically. The notion of e-commerce logistics looks (...) alongside the enchantment vogue of neighborhood technological knowledge and social demand. It is an integral part of ending e-commerce authentic economic value. All kinds of cell networks clear up the problem of data flow communication; in the technological know-how of telephone network, digital cost solves the bother of capital flow; at present, logistics is however a long-standing problem of e-commerce. Logistics has grown to be the last and entirely bottleneck of e-commerce. If logistics cannot adapt to the enchantment of e-commerce, it may also additionally lead to the slow enchantment of e-commerce. The purpose of this paper is to supply an Internet of things e-commerce logistics cloud provider platform based totally absolutely on cell communication, which can be combined with e-commerce and beautify the transport tempo of e-commerce. This paper moreover optimizes the e-commerce logistics system, so that it can combine with e-commerce to increase out the distribution of goods, the distribution tempo of e-commerce is doubled, and e-commerce can in a similar fashion develop rapidly. (shrink)

BackgroundFibromyalgia syndrome is the second most common chronic diffuse pain disorder and can have a lasting negative impact on the quality of life, pain, and physical function of people. Exercise therapy is an important component of the treatment of fibromyalgia, but there was not a consensus understanding of the effect of various exercise programs on the quality of life, pain, and physical function of people with fibromyalgia syndrome. This study aimed to compare three exercise programs in their effectiveness in improving (...) quality of life, relieving muscle pain, and enhancing physical function in patients with fibromyalgia.MethodsA comprehensive search of databases, including China National Knowledge Internet, Wan fang, The Cochrane Library, PubMed, EMBASE, and Web of Science, was conducted to identify randomized controlled trials on exercise therapy for patients with fibromyalgia syndrome with outcome indicators including at least one of Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire, Tender point count, and 6-minute walk test from the date of database creation on 20 April 2022. The included studies were evaluated for literature quality according to Cochrane Handbook criteria, and a network meta-analysis was performed using STATA 14.0.ResultForty-five randomized controlled trials met all inclusion criteria and were analyzed. The network meta-analysis showed that a combination of aerobic and resistance exercise was ranked first in all three dimensions of quality of life improvement, pain alleviation, and physical function enhancement.ConclusionThe current meta-analysis demonstrates that the combination of aerobic and resistance exercise may be the best type of exercise to accentuate the quality of life, pain alleviation, and physical function for people with fibromyalgia syndrome. (shrink)

Consumers have subjective psychological expectations of the quality and brand of products before purchasing. There is a certain tolerance for products that do not meet expectations. The discomfort caused by tolerance can be smoothly carried out through “reasonable” self-comfort and explanation mechanisms. Based on the theory of rationalization defense mechanism, a 2 × 2 purchase channel matrix of online and offline purchase, online consultation, and the offline experience was constructed to explore the influence of consumers’ tolerance of product quality and (...) brand on their purchase channel choice. The results show that: consumer product tolerance positively influences consumers’ online purchasing choice; consumer product tolerance influences purchase channel choice through rationalization; and the sweet lemon mechanism mediates consumer product tolerance on online consultation and online purchase and offline experience, but the sour grapes mechanism does not mediate. (shrink)

本书包括:探求“三个规律”;打破历史周期率;发挥制度优越性;长河东流奔大海;永无止境的求索等。.

This study is intended to create an innovative contextual English learning environment making use of the widely used communication software, LINE ChatBot, based on the Artificial Intelligence Markup Language, in order to improve speaking and listening ability among learners. A total of 73 students were invited to participate in learning activities involving a 4-week English conversation exercise including both speaking and listening. Additionally, in order to explore the influence of competition on language acquisition, we added competition characteristics to the learning (...) activities in the experimental group to enhance learning motivation and learning outcomes. The results showed that with the help of the LINE ChatBot contextual learning environment, the performance of both groups of students was slightly enhanced, but no significant differences were found. Meanwhile, extrinsic motivation in both the experimental and control group was improved if they spoke anonymously. That is, the contextual learning environment based on the LINE ChatBot significantly improved the learners’ English speaking and listening ability. In addition, the results showed that the addition of a competition element effectively enhanced the learners’ intrinsic motivation to learn English on the LINE ChatBot. (shrink)

Chinese culture is a lively and active organism. If we are to get to the real image of Chinese culture, we should take as a starting point the first passage of the Chung-yung [Doctrine of the Mean], which expounds its basic principles: "That which Heaven has decreed is called Nature, to follow that Nature is called tao [way] and to cultivate the tao is called instruction." This passage uses three phrases and one breath; these three phrases have a unified nature (...) which cannot be separated and which constitute one long sentence. Because of this, the words as a whole lead people to think of a richly vital and great tree which has the will of Heaven as its roots, human nature as its shoots, the tao as its trunk, and cultural instruction as its branches, leaves, and blossoms. As for the fruit, in terms of the individual, it is the achievement of a completely beautiful character, and in terms of the masses of the people, it is the ordering of the country and the pacification of the realm, the progression from the era of peace under the ancient kings to the age of the Grand Unity [ta-t'ung]. (shrink)

Anderson and Csima defined a bounded jump operator for bounded-Turing reduction, and studied its basic properties. Anderson et al. constructed a low bounded-high set and conjectured that such sets cannot be computably enumerable. Ng and Yu proved that bounded-high c.e. sets are Turing complete, thus answered the conjecture positively. Wu and Wu showed that bounded-low sets can be superhigh by constructing a Turing complete bounded-low c.e. set. In this paper, we continue the study of the comparison between the bounded-jump and (...) Turing jump. We show that low c.e. sets are not all bounded-low and that incomplete superhigh c.e. sets can be bounded-low. (shrink)

In 1654 Zen Master Yinyuan traveled from China to Japan. Seven years later his monastery, Manpukuji, was built and he had founded his own tradition called Obaku. The sequel to Jiang Wu's 2008 book Enlightenment in Dispute: The Reinvention of Chan Buddhism in Seventeenth-Century China, Leaving for the Rising Sun tells the story of the tremendous obstacles Yinyuan faced, drawing parallels between his experiences and the broader political and cultural context in which he lived. Yinyuan claimed to have inherited the (...) "Authentic Transmission of the Linji Sect" and, after arriving in Japan, was able to persuade the Shogun to build a new Ming-style monastery for the establishment of his Obaku school. His arrival in Japan coincided with a series of historical developments including the Ming-Qing transition, the consolidation of early Tokugawa power, the growth of Nagasaki trade, and rising Japanese interest in Chinese learning and artistic pursuits. While Yinyuan's travel has been noted, the significance of his journey within East Asian history has not yet been fully explored. Jiang Wu's thorough study of Yinyuan provides a unique opportunity to reexamine the crisis in the continent and responses from other parts of East Asia. Using Yinyuan's story to bridge China and Japan, Wu demonstrates that the monk's significance is far greater than the temporary success of a religious sect. Rather, Yinyuan imported to Japan a new discourse of authenticity that gave rise to indigenous movements that challenged a China-centered world order. Such indigenous movements, however, although appearing independent from Chinese influence, in fact largely relied on redefining the traditional Chinese discourse of authenticity. Chinese monks such as Yinyuan, though situated at the edge of the political and social arenas, actively participated in the formation of a new discourse on authenticity, which eventually led to the breakup of a China-centered world order. (shrink)

This book is a result from a collective study on philosophy of scientific practice, which began around 2002 and still ongoing. There is an apparently increasing interest in scientific practice, influenced by the historicistic philosophy of science and the sociology of scientific knowledge. Prof. WU Tong and his research group believe that it is necessary for PSP to turn from the theory-dominant position to the practice dominance. PSP has also put forward the possibility of reinterpreting the epistemic status of local (...) knowledge in Chinese tradition, which provides the most significant motivation to participate this study. In this book, we have selected three main cases - namely, Chinese medicine, Fengshui, and Ethnobotany - to examine the effect of PSP. The aim of our collective study is not merely on theoretical construction of PSP, but also to consider the various applications of PSP, especially for re-interpreting and demonstrating the variety of local knowledge from traditional China, which seems to be a genuine contribution to the international enterprise of philosophy of science, particularly made by Chinese scholars. nterpreting and demonstrating the variety of local knowledge from traditional China, which seems to be a genuine contribution to the international enterprise of philosophy of science, particularly made by Chinese scholars. (shrink)

The Sea as Mirror traces the pressing and repressed material and symbolic presence of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean from Plato to Heidegger. To do so, Wu Yi employs the maritime as a lens to understand the drive of philosophy as both a response to and moment within the impetus of Western colonization. Yi examines how philosophy has again and again constructed itself as a genre in opposition to the movement of deterritorialization and fluidity of mimesis. She does (...) so via the method (meta, “after” + hodos, “way, journey”) of a series of essayings (in the original sense of trial, measure, attempt) across a geopolitical topography of discourses. These include philosophical texts drawn from a constellation of historical topoi at the critical moments of their encounter with the maritime: Plato and Euripedes’s work from fifth-century Athens; Augustus and Plautus’s writings from republican and early imperial Rome; Shakespeare’s creations from Elizabethan England; Kant and Rousseau’s texts from enlightenment continental Europe; and the thinking of Husserl and Heidegger from interwar Germany of the twentieth century. For each historical topos, Yi juxtaposes different representations of and responses to the maritime through the reading of a philosophical text vis-à-vis the reading of a literary text. In so doing, she lays bare the deep political and moral ambiguity attributed to the ocean in Western philosophical and literary imaginaries. (shrink)

The de‐repression of transposable elements (TEs) in mammalian genomes is thought to contribute to genome instability, inflammation, and ageing, yet is viewed as a cell‐autonomous event. In contrast to mammalian cells, prokaryotes constantly exchange genetic material through TEs, crossing both cell and species barriers, contributing to rapid microbial evolution and diversity in complex communities such as the mammalian gut. Here, it is proposed that TEs released from prokaryotes in the microbiome or from pathogenic infections regularly cross the kingdom barrier to (...) the somatic cells of their eukaryotic hosts. It is proposed this horizontal transfer of TEs from microbe to host is a stochastic, ongoing catalyst of genome destabilization, resulting in structural and epigenetic variations, and activation of well‐evolved host defense mechanisms contributing to inflammation, senescence, and biological ageing. It is proposed that innate immunity pathways defend against the horizontal acquisition of microbial TEs, and that activation of this pathway during horizontal transposon transfer promotes chronic inflammation during ageing. Finally, it is suggested that horizontal acquisition of prokaryotic TEs into mammalian genomes has been masked and subsequently under‐reported due to flaws in current sequencing pipelines, and new strategies to uncover these events are proposed. (shrink)

In this rare firsthand account of an individual's pursuit of sagehood, the early Ming dynasty scholar and teacher Wu Yubi chronicles his progress and his setbacks, as he strives to integrate the Neo-Confucian practices of self-examination and self-cultivation into everyday life. In more than three hundred entries, spanning much of his adult life, Wu paints a vivid picture, not only of the life of the mind, but also of the life of a teacher of modest means, struggling to make ends (...) meet in a rural community. This volume features M. Theresa Kelleher's superb translation of Wu's journal, along with translations of more than a dozen letters from his personal correspondence. A general Introduction discusses Neo-Confucianism and the Ming dynasty, and includes biographical information that puts the main work in context. A substantial commentary on the journal discusses the obstacles and supports Wu encounters in pursuit of his goal, the conflict between discipline and restraint of the self and the nurturing and expanding of the self, Wu's successes and failures, and Wu’s role as a teacher. Also included are a map of the Ming dynasty, a pronunciation guide, a chronology of Chinese dynasties, a glossary of names, a glossary of book titles, and suggestions for further reading. (shrink)