Very rich scholarly works have been produced to perform a comparative study between Emerson and Zhuang Zi. Many scholars in their comparative research have tried to find how Emerson and the ...transcendentalists such as Thoreau borrow ideas from Daoism. In this article, I will take a different approach. I aim to find how Emerson and Zhuang Zi’s pursuit of spirituality in nature shapes different types of sense of place. The concept of spirituality is related to the pursuit of meaning in life and self-transcendence. This concept has gradually gained attention from the branches of religion, philosophy, geography, and psychology since, currently, due to the fast urbanization process, more people are separated from their land and move into cities. I will make a comparison between Emerson and Zhuang Zi from the concepts of spirituality, nature, and place. This perspective will shed light on the question of the conservation of various places due to their value and meaning, although I will not discuss conservation issues in this paper. In this article, I will first give a brief introduction to the meaning of spirituality by focusing on the three dimensions of this concept, which include meaning, self-transcendence, and spiritual practices. Then, I will discuss how the concept of nature in Emerson and Zhuang Zi’s works is related to these three dimensions. Finally, I will examine why Emerson and Zhuang Zi treat wilderness and agricultural land, respectively, as a place.
BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES
To determine the associations of nursing home registered nurse (RN) staffing, overall quality of care, and concentration of Medicaid or racial and ethnic minority residents with ...2019 coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) confirmed cases and deaths by April 16, 2020, among Connecticut nursing home residents.
DESIGN
Cross‐sectional analysis on Connecticut nursing home (n = 215) COVID‐19 report, linked to other nursing home files and county counts of confirmed cases and deaths. Multivariable two‐part models determined the associations of key nursing home characteristics with the likelihood of at least one confirmed case (or death) in the facility, and with the count of cases (deaths) among facilities with at least one confirmed case (death).
SETTING
All Connecticut nursing homes (n = 215).
PARTICIPANTS
None.
INTERVENTION
None.
MEASUREMENTS
Numbers of COVID‐19 confirmed cases and deaths among residents.
RESULTS
The average number of confirmed cases was eight per nursing home (zero in 107 facilities), and the average number of confirmed deaths was 1.7 per nursing home (zero in 131 facilities). Among facilities with at least one confirmed case, every 20‐minute increase in RN staffing (per resident day) was associated with 22% fewer confirmed cases (incidence rate ratio IRR = .78; 95% confidence interval CI = .68–.89; P < .001); compared with one‐ to three‐star facilities, four‐ or five‐star facilities had 13% fewer confirmed cases (IRR = .87; 95% CI = .78–.97; P < .015), and facilities with high concentration of Medicaid residents (IRR = 1.16; 95% CI = 1.02–1.32; P = .025) or racial/ethnic minority residents (IRR = 1.15; 95% CI = 1.03–1.29; P = .026) had 16% and 15% more confirmed cases, respectively, than their counterparts. Among facilities with at least one death, every 20‐minute increase in RN staffing significantly predicted 26% fewer COVID‐19 deaths (IRR = .74; 95% CI = I .55–1.00; P = .047). Other focused characteristics did not show statistically significant associations with deaths.
CONCLUSION
Nursing homes with higher RN staffing and quality ratings have the potential to better control the spread of the novel coronavirus and reduce deaths. Nursing homes caring predominantly for Medicaid or racial and ethnic minority residents tend to have more confirmed cases.
Covering: up to 2018 α-Ketoglutarate (αKG, also known as 2-oxoglutarate)-dependent mononuclear non-haem iron (αKG-NHFe) enzymes catalyze a wide range of biochemical reactions, including ...hydroxylation, ring fragmentation, C-C bond cleavage, epimerization, desaturation, endoperoxidation and heterocycle formation. These enzymes utilize iron(ii) as the metallo-cofactor and αKG as the co-substrate. Herein, we summarize several novel αKG-NHFe enzymes involved in natural product biosyntheses discovered in recent years, including halogenation reactions, amino acid modifications and tailoring reactions in the biosynthesis of terpenes, lipids, fatty acids and phosphonates. We also conducted a survey of the currently available structures of αKG-NHFe enzymes, in which αKG binds to the metallo-centre bidentately through either a proximal- or distal-type binding mode. Future structure-function and structure-reactivity relationship investigations will provide crucial information regarding how activities in this large class of enzymes have been fine-tuned in nature.
Campus culture brand IP, as the soft power in the construction of university brand culture, has become an important material carrier for the inheritance and dissemination of university brand culture. ...In the cloud platform technology, we are using an information diffusion model to explore the diffusion degree and influence of college culture brand IP information on the network platform. The dissemination process of cultural brand IP information is examined from the point of view of sharing information resources in colleges and universities. Construct a competitive information dissemination system based on the user nodes of online social networks and the interrelationship between users. Promote the dissemination and diffusion of university cultural brand IP information on online social networks using a data-driven approach. The results show that: k value is 0.12, the promotion effect of college culture brand IP is 2.59621e+04, and the relative risk index is 0.354264. Within 0-6 hours, the maximum number of IP views reaches 34,000 times, which indicates that the authority of the college platform and the information diffusion model can improve the diffusion of college culture brand IP.
Physical hydrogels from existing polymers consisting of noncovalent interacting networks are highly desired due to their well‐controlled compositions and environmental friendliness; and therefore, ...applied as adhesives, artificial tissues, and soft machines. Nevertheless, these gels have suffered from weak mechanical strength and low water resistance. Current methodologies used to fabricate these hydrogels mainly involve the freezing–thawing process (cryogels), which are complicated in preparation and short in adjustment of polymer conformation. Here, taking the merits of noncovalent bonds in adjustability and reversibility, a solvent‐exchange strategy is developed to construct a class of exogels. Based on the exchange from a good solvent subsequently to a poor one, the intra‐ and interpolymer interactions are initially suppressed and then recovered, resulting in dissolving and cross‐linking to polymers, respectively. Key to this approach is the good solvent, which favors of a stretched polymer conformation to homogenize the network, forming cross‐linked hydrogel networks with remarkable stiffness, toughness, antiswelling properties, and thus underwater adhesive performance. The exogels highlight a facile but highly effective strategy of turning the solvent and consequently the noncovalent interactions to achieve the rational design of enhanced hydrogels and hydrogel‐based soft materials.
A solvent‐exchange strategy is developed to construct a class of stiff and antiswelling hydrogels (named as exogels). Key to this approach is the rational regulation of noncovalent interactions and thus the conformation of polymers and structure of the cross‐linked networks. Moreover, the unique sol–gel progression via solvent exchange makes exogels applicable for robust underwater adhesion.
We study whether the diffuse astrophysical neutrino flux can come from blazar jets-a subclass of active galactic nuclei-while it, at the same time, respects the blazar stacking limit based on source ...catalogs and is consistent with the observation from TXS 0506+056. We compute the neutrino flux from resolved and unresolved sources using an averaged, empirical relationship between electromagnetic spectrum and luminosity, known as the blazar sequence, for two populations of blazars (BL Lacs and FSRQs). Using a source model with realistic neutrino flux computations, we demonstrate that blazars can indeed power the diffuse neutrino flux at the highest energies and obey the stacking limit at the same time, and we derive the conditions for the baryonic loading (proton versus γ-ray luminosity) evolving over the blazar sequence. Under the hypothesis that low-luminosity blazars power the diffuse astrophysical neutrino flux, we find that the dominant contribution of the diffuse flux up to PeV energies must come from unresolved BL Lacs with baryonic loadings larger than about 105-while only a very small contribution may come from resolved high-luminosity BL Lacs or FSRQs, which can be directly tested by the stacking limit. We find that the blazar TXS 0506+056 is on the verge of these populations in our baseline scenario, at a relatively high luminosity and redshift; as a consequence, we predict about 0.3 γ-ray-neutrino associations per year from the whole population, dominated by BL Lacs with and z ∼ 0.1.
Age‐associated obesity and muscle atrophy (sarcopenia) are intimately connected and are reciprocally regulated by adipose tissue and skeletal muscle dysfunction. During ageing, adipose inflammation ...leads to the redistribution of fat to the intra‐abdominal area (visceral fat) and fatty infiltrations in skeletal muscles, resulting in decreased overall strength and functionality. Lipids and their derivatives accumulate both within and between muscle cells, inducing mitochondrial dysfunction, disturbing β‐oxidation of fatty acids, and enhancing reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, leading to lipotoxicity and insulin resistance, as well as enhanced secretion of some pro‐inflammatory cytokines. In turn, these muscle‐secreted cytokines may exacerbate adipose tissue atrophy, support chronic low‐grade inflammation, and establish a vicious cycle of local hyperlipidaemia, insulin resistance, and inflammation that spreads systemically, thus promoting the development of sarcopenic obesity (SO). We call this the metabaging cycle. Patients with SO show an increased risk of systemic insulin resistance, systemic inflammation, associated chronic diseases, and the subsequent progression to full‐blown sarcopenia and even cachexia. Meanwhile in many cardiometabolic diseases, the ostensibly protective effect of obesity in extremely elderly subjects, also known as the ‘obesity paradox’, could possibly be explained by our theory that many elderly subjects with normal body mass index might actually harbour SO to various degrees, before it progresses to full‐blown severe sarcopenia. Our review outlines current knowledge concerning the possible chain of causation between sarcopenia and obesity, proposes a solution to the obesity paradox, and the role of fat mass in ageing.
We study the frequently used assumption in multi-messenger astrophysics that the gamma-ray and neutrino fluxes are directly connected because they are assumed to be produced by the same photohadronic ...production chain. An interesting candidate source for this test is the flat-spectrum radio quasar PKS B1424-418, which recently called attention to a potential correlation between an IceCube PeV neutrino event and its burst phase. We simulate both the multi-waveband photon and the neutrino emission from this source using a self-consistent radiation model. We demonstrate that a simple hadronic model cannot adequately describe the spectral energy distribution for this source, but a lepto-hadronic model with a subdominant hadronic component can reproduce the multi-waveband photon spectrum observed during various activity phases of the blazar. As a conclusion, up to about 0.3 neutrino events may coincide with the burst, which implies that the leptonic contribution dominates in the relevant energy band. We also demonstrate that the time-wise correlation between the neutrino event and burst phase is weak.
We report new estimates of abundances of rarely analyzed elements (As, B, Be, Bi, Cd, Ge, In, Mo, Sb, Sn, Te, Tl, W) in the upper continental crust based on precise ICP-MS analyses of ...well-characterized upper crustal samples (shales, pelites, loess, graywackes, granitoids and their composites) from Australia, China, Europe, New Zealand and North American. Obtaining a better understanding of the upper crustal abundance and associated uncertainties of these elements is important in placing better constraints on bulk crust composition and, from that, whole Earth models of element cycling and crust generation. We also present revised abundance estimates of some more commonly analyzed trace elements (Li, Cr, Ni, and Tm) that vary by >
20% compared to previous estimates. The new estimates are mainly based on significant (
r
2
>
0.6) inter-element correlations observed in clastic sediments and sedimentary rocks, which yield upper continental crust elemental ratios that are used in conjunction with well-determined abundances for certain key elements to place constraints on the concentrations of the rarely analyzed elements. Using the well-established upper crustal abundances of La (31 ppm), Th (10.5 ppm), Al
2O
3 (15.40%), K
2O (2.80%) and Fe
2O
3 (5.92%), these ratios lead to revised upper crustal abundances of B
=
47 ppm, Bi
=
0.23 ppm, Cr
=
73 ppm, Li
=
41 ppm, Ni
=
34 ppm, Sb
=
0.075, Te
=
0.027 ppm, Tl
=
0.53 ppm and W
=
1.4 ppm. No significant correlations exist between Mo and Cd and other elements in the clastic sediments and sedimentary rocks, probably due to their enrichment in organic carbon. We thus calculate abundances of these elements by assuming the upper continental crust consists of 65% granitoid rocks plus 35% clastic sedimentary rocks. The validity of this approach is supported by the similarity of SiO
2, Al
2O
3, La and Th abundances calculated in this way with their upper crustal abundances given in Rudnick and Gao Rudnick, R., Gao, S., 2003. Composition of the continental crust. In: Rudnick, R.L. (Ed.), The Crust. In: Holland, H.D., Turekian, K.K. (Eds.), Treatise on Geochemistry, vol. 3. Elsevier–Pergamon, Oxford, pp. 1–64.. The upper crustal abundances thus obtained are Mo
=
0.6 ppm and Cd
=
0.06 ppm. Our data also suggest a ∼
20% increase of the Tm, Yb and Lu abundances reported in Rudnick and Gao Rudnick, R., Gao, S., 2003. Composition of the continental crust. In: Rudnick, R.L. (Ed.), The Crust. In: Holland, H.D., Turekian, K.K. (Eds.), Treatise on Geochemistry, vol. 3. Elsevier–Pergamon, Oxford, pp. 1–64..
This analysis provides an up‐to‐date assessment of long‐term (1990–2010) rural ozone trends using all available data in the western (12 sites) and eastern (41 sites) USA. Rather than focus solely on ...average ozone values or air quality standard violations, we consider the full range of ozone values, reporting trends for the 5th, 50th and 95th percentiles. Domestic ozone precursor emissions decreased strongly during 1990–2010. Accordingly 83%, 66% and 20% of summertime eastern U.S. sites experienced statistically significant ozone decreases in the 95th, 50th and 5th percentiles, respectively. During spring 43% of the eastern sites have statistically significant ozone decreases for the 95th percentile with no sites showing a significant increase. At the 50th percentile there is little overall change in the eastern U.S. In contrast, only 17% (2 sites) and 8% (1 site) of summertime western U.S. sites have statistically significant ozone decreases in the 95th and 50th percentiles, respectively. During spring no western site has a significant decrease, while 50% have a significant median increase. This dichotomy in U.S. ozone trends is discussed in terms of changing anthropogenic and biomass burning emissions. Consideration is given to the concept that increasing baseline ozone flowing into the western U.S. is counteracting ozone reductions due to domestic emission reductions. An update to the springtime free tropospheric ozone trend above western North America shows that ozone has increased significantly from 1995 to 2011 at the rate of 0.41 ± 0.27 ppbv yr−1. Finally, the ozone changes are examined in relation to regional temperature trends.
Key Points
Median ozone in the eastern US is decreasing in summer but unchanged in spring
Half of the western US rural sites have increasing median ozone in spring
Increasing western ozone is inconsistent with decreasing US precursor emissions
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