Nāgārjuna (c. AD 150–200)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Siderits
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
South India ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Ultimate Truth ◽  
Profound Influence ◽  
Inherent Nature ◽  
Further Development ◽  
In Virtue Of ◽  
Ultimate Nature ◽  
Insight Into

Nāgārjuna was the first Buddhist philosopher to articulate and seek to defend the claim that all things are empty, that is, devoid of their own essential nature. A native of South India, as the founder of the Madhyamaka school of Mahāyāna Buddhism he exerted a profound influence on the further development of Buddhist thought in South and East Asia. When he claimed that all things are empty, he denied that anything exists solely in virtue of its own inherent nature. If, as all Buddhists hold, existents only arise in dependence on other existents, then nothing may be said to have a determinate nature apart from its relations to other things. Yet prior developments in Buddhist philosophy had presumably shown that anything lacking an independent nature is a conceptual fiction and not ultimately real. Thus if all things are empty, nothing is ultimately real. Still Nāgārjuna claimed not to be a nihilist. Emptiness is rather the defeat of all metaphysical theories, all attempts at grasping the ultimate nature of reality – including nihilism. Insight into emptiness is said to free us from our tendency conceptually to construct an ultimate truth, a tendency that bolsters our sense of self. Thus realization of emptiness is, Nāgārjuna held, required in order to attain full liberation from the suffering caused by clinging.

scholarly journals Medicinal Plants and Mushrooms with Immunomodulatory and Anticancer Properties—A Review on Hong Kong’s Experience

Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (8) ◽  
pp. 2173
Author(s):  
Grace Gar-Lee Yue ◽  
Clara Bik-San Lau ◽  
Ping-Chung Leung
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Trials ◽  
Medicinal Plants ◽  
Infection Control ◽  
Immune Modulation ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Medicinal Mushroom ◽  
Immunomodulatory Effects ◽  
Anticancer Properties ◽  
Further Development ◽  
Insight Into

The immune modulating effects of selected herbs deserve careful studies to gain evidence-based support for their further development. We have been working hard on many items of medicinal herbs to gain insight into their immunomodulatory effects relevant to cancer treatment in particular, while infection control is not excluded. Nine of them have been selected to give the results of our exploration on their biological, particularly immunomodulatory activities. Since Hong Kong people especially favor one medicinal mushroom, viz. Coriolus versicolor, a number of clinical trials using Coriolus for cancer-related studies are included in this review. While immune modulation platforms are being built for relevant studies, a brief account on the research targets and related procedures are given.

Crowdsourcing the Evaluation of Design Concepts With Empathic Priming

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle A. Pang ◽  
Carolyn C. Seepersad
Keyword(s):  
Rating Scales ◽  
Pairwise Comparison ◽  
Comparison Method ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Primary Study ◽  
Design Concepts ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Further Development ◽  
Similar Evaluation ◽  
Insight Into

The evaluation of design concepts is a time consuming and resource intensive process. Crowdsourcing evaluations has been examined in previous work as a means to reduce the need for expert raters, while achieving similar evaluation results. This paper examines the impact of empathically priming novice raters on their evaluation of alternative design concepts. The rating system is based on a pairwise comparison method that requires minimal training of novice raters. In a pilot study the pairwise method for crowdsourcing evaluations is compared with crowdsourced evaluations using non-pairwise rating scales and with the evaluations of expert raters. The primary study incorporates written and empathic priming strategies to determine their impact on novice raters’ evaluation of concepts. Raters are asked to consider several criteria, including novelty, feasibility, clarity (of the concept), usefulness, ease of use, and overall worthiness of further development. Results offer insight into the criteria that are most relevant to novice raters and whether empathic priming has a significant effect on those evaluations.

Adapting the Six-Part Storymaking Method for use with siblings of infants on the neonatal intensive care unit

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-242
Author(s):  
Rebecca Ann Versaci
Keyword(s):  
Intensive Care Unit ◽  
Intensive Care ◽  
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit ◽  
Emotional Expression ◽  
Neonatal Intensive Care ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Hospital Staff ◽  
Case Vignette ◽  
Profound Influence ◽  
Insight Into

When an infant is hospitalized on the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) it can have a profound influence on the psychosocial well-being of the infant and their older sibling(s). This article presents a case vignette of the use of the Six-Part Storymaking Method with the sibling of an infant hospitalized on the NICU. The article reviews the therapeutic aims and benefits of the intervention, including: supporting emotional expression, providing opportunity for the sibling to be deeply witnessed by caregivers, therapist and hospital staff, empowering the sibling to inhabit the big sibling role and fostering insight into the sibling’s thoughts, feelings and behaviours as related to their infant’s hospitalization. Considerations for facilitation and assessment are also discussed.

scholarly journals Tropospheric CO vertical profiles measured by IAGOS aircraft in 2002–2017 and the role of biomass burning

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-41
Author(s):  
Hervé Petetin ◽  
Bastien Sauvage ◽  
Mark Parrington ◽  
Hannah Clark ◽  
Alain Fontaine ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
Long Range ◽  
Biomass Burning ◽  
South India ◽  
Long Range Transport ◽  
Anthropogenic Emissions ◽  
South East Asia ◽  
Vertical Profiles ◽  
Range Transport

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> This study investigates the role of biomass burning and long-range transport in the anomalies of carbon monoxide (CO) regularly observed along the tropospheric vertical profiles measured in the framework of IAGOS. Considering the high interannual variability of biomass burning emissions and the episodic nature of pollution long-range transport, one strength of this study is the amount of data taken into account, namely 30,000 vertical profiles at 9 clusters of airports in Europe, North America, Asia, India and southern Africa over the period 2002&amp;ndash;2017. </p> <p> As a preliminary, a brief overview of the spatio-temporal variability, latitudinal distribution, interannual variability and trends of biomass burning CO emissions from 14 regions is provided. The distribution of CO mixing ratios at different levels of the troposphere is also provided based on the entire IAGOS database (125 million CO observations). </p> <p> This study focuses on the free troposphere (altitudes above 2<span class="thinspace"></span>km) where the long-range transport of pollution is favoured. Anomalies at a given airport cluster are here defined as departures from the local seasonally-averaged climatological vertical profile. The intensity of these anomalies varies significantly depending on the airport, with maximum (minimum) CO anomalies of 110&amp;ndash;150 (48)<span class="thinspace"></span>ppbv in Asia (Europe). Looking at the seasonal variation of the frequency of occurrence, the 25<span class="thinspace"></span>% strongest CO anomalies appears reasonably well distributed along the year, in contrast to the 5<span class="thinspace"></span>% or 1<span class="thinspace"></span>% strongest anomalies that exhibit a strong seasonality with for instance more frequent anomalies during summertime in northern United-States, during winter/spring in Japan, during spring in South-east China, during the non-monsoon seasons in south-east Asia and south India, and during summer/fall at Windhoek, Namibia. Depending on the location, these strong anomalies are observed in different parts of the free troposphere. </p> <p> In order to investigate the role of biomass burning emissions in these anomalies, we used the SOFT-IO v1.0 IAGOS added-value products that consist of FLEXPART 20-days backward simulations along all IAGOS aircraft trajectories, coupled with anthropogenic (MACCity) and biomass burning (GFAS) CO emission inventories and vertical injections. SOFT-IO estimates the contribution (in ppbv) of the recent (less than 20 days) primary worldwide CO emissions, tagged per source region. Biomass burning emissions are found to play an important role in the strongest CO anomalies observed at most airport clusters. The regional tags indicate a large contribution from boreal regions at airport clusters in Europe and North America during summer season. In both Japan and south India, the anthropogenic emissions dominate all along the year, except for the strongest summertime anomalies observed in Japan that are due to Siberian fires. The strongest CO anomalies at airport clusters located in south-east Asia are induced by fires burning during spring in south-east Asia and during fall in equatorial Asia. In southern Africa, the Windhoek airport was mainly impacted by fires in southern hemisphere Africa and South America. </p> <p> To our knowledge, no other studies have used such a large dataset of in situ vertical profiles for deriving a climatology of the impact of biomass burning versus anthropogenic emissions on the strongest CO anomalies observed in the troposphere, in combination with information on the source regions. This study therefore provides both qualitative and quantitative information for interpreting the highly variable CO vertical distribution in several regions of interest.</p>

scholarly journals Brief Mating Behavior at Dawn and Dusk and Long Nocturnal Matings in the Butterfly Melanitis leda

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (2-4) ◽  
pp. 138-147
Author(s):  
Freerk Molleman ◽  
Sridhar Halali ◽  
Ullasa Kodandaramaiah
Keyword(s):  
Mating System ◽  
Mating Behavior ◽  
South India ◽  
Territorial Defense ◽  
Warm Up ◽  
Male Territoriality ◽  
In Captivity ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
The Common ◽  
Insight Into

Abstract Information on the mating system of an insect species is necessary to gain insight into sexual selection and population structure. Male territoriality of the common evening brown butterfly Melanitis leda has been studied in the wild, but other aspects of its mating system remain largely unknown. For a population of M. leda in South India, we observed male-male and male-female interactions in captivity, measured mating duration and spermatophore mass, and also determined the degree of polyandry in the wild. We found that mating behavior takes place for short periods of time around dawn and dusk. Our observations corroborate that males compete in aerial combats (twirling) and interfere with mating pairs. In the morning, they may use shivering to warm up. Females can twirl with males and refuse mating by pointing their abdomens upwards or by flying away. Males court females by fluttering their wings while perched behind females, and then initiate copulation by curling their abdomens ca. 180 degrees sideways to make genital contact. While in the morning, matings lasted on average one hour and twenty-three minutes and never exceeded three hours, in the evening, matings could be of similar duration, but 42% of butterflies only separated when dawn was approaching. However, such long nocturnal matings did not result in heavier spermatophores. The first spermatophore of a male tended to be larger than subsequent spermatophores. Together with previous studies on this species, our findings suggest that males compete mainly through territorial defense (as reported before), courtship performance, and interference, and to a lesser extent by providing spermatophores, while females exert some control over the mating system by the timing of their receptivity and mate choice.

East Asia mantle tomography: New insight into plate subduction and intraplate volcanism

2012 ◽  
Vol 60 ◽  
pp. 88-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Wei ◽  
Jiandong Xu ◽  
Dapeng Zhao ◽  
Yaolin Shi
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
Intraplate Volcanism ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Plate Subduction

scholarly journals The Role of ‘Digitalization’ in German Sustainability Bank Reporting

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Diener ◽  
Miroslav Špaček
Keyword(s):  
Financial Services ◽  
Banking Sector ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Current Analysis ◽  
Structural Inequality ◽  
Services Sector ◽  
Financial Services Sector ◽  
Further Development ◽  
Insight Into

The financial services sector, particularly with respect to today’s banking industry, is aiming to make a digital transition. Sustainable reporting is a holistic new reporting approach in banking and has only become partially mandatory for the sector. Thus, this paper makes a contribution to the current analysis approach and further development of the German Sustainability Code as well as associated legal approaches. It concerns the assessment of mandatory sustainable reporting in the light of constantly changing market conditions and stricter legal requirements for stakeholder data responsibility. In specific, it focuses on a digital evolving business environment and is intended to provide an insight into the perception of the topic of digitalization in the banking sector. The assessment is based on the structure of the German Sustainability Code. Based on 113 bank reports, a multiple regression analysis of 1410 codings of the keyword ‘digital’ is carried out. The results show that banks partly and not fully address digital issues in their reporting. It transpires that the emphasis is on seven criteria, while social elements are totally ignored. The paper shows a structural inequality within sustainable bank reporting with regard to digitalization. It also shows that issues are not adequately addressed and covered in legal reporting standards and that the provision of information to stakeholders on specific issues is largely undefined.

scholarly journals Speech synthesis systems: disadvantages and limitations

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2.28) ◽  
pp. 234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karolina Kuligowska ◽  
Paweł Kisielewicz ◽  
Aleksandra Włodarz
Keyword(s):  
Text Analysis ◽  
Speech Synthesis ◽  
Analysis Problem ◽  
Current State ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Current Classification ◽  
Weak Points ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Further Development ◽  
Insight Into

The present speech synthesis systems can be successfully used for a wide range of diverse purposes. However, there are serious and important limitations in using various synthesizers. Many of these problems can be identified and resolved. The aim of this paper is to present the current state of development of speech synthesis systems and to examine their drawbacks and limitations. The paper dis-cusses the current classification, construction and functioning of speech synthesis systems, which gives an insight into synthesizers implemented so far. The analysis of disadvantages and limitations of speech synthesis systems focuses on identification of weak points of these systems, namely: the impact of emotions and prosody, spontaneous speech in terms of naturalness and intelligibility, preprocessing and text analysis, problem of ambiguity, natural sounding, adaptation to the situation, variety of systems, sparsely spoken languages, speech synthesis for older people, and some other minor limitations. Solving these problems stimulates further development of speech synthesis domain. 

scholarly journals Three pinnacles in the course of development of faculty therapy clinic of the Emperor Moscow University

2017 ◽  
Vol 95 (10) ◽  
pp. 949-955
Author(s):  
V. I. Borodulin ◽  
K. A. Pashkov ◽  
Mikhail V. Poddubny ◽  
A. V. Topolyansky ◽  
P. V. Shadrin
Keyword(s):  
Internal Medicine ◽  
Additional Data ◽  
Archival Data ◽  
History Of ◽  
State Archives ◽  
Xix Century ◽  
Further Development ◽  
Therapeutic School ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Therapy Clinic

The article highlights the history of the faculty therapy clinic of the Emperor Moscow University, i.e. of pre-Soviet MGU. The clinic’s activities are traced at their different stages when they were guided by profs. A.I. Over, G.A. Zakhar’in, P.M. Popov, V.D. Shervinsky, L.E. Golubinin, and N.F. Golubov. Analysis of numerous literature and archival data (including state archives and Shervinsky’s personal archive) provided a deeper insight into the post-Zakhar’in activities, allowed to correct erroneous information contained in some literature publications, and collect additional data for biographies of the leading professors of the clinic with special reference to the contribution made by the Shervinsky-Golubinin scientific and clinical school.Three pinnacles in the course of development of the clinic were distinguished dated to the mid-XIX century (under prof. A.I. Overt), the 1860s-1870s (under the then young reformer G.A.Zakhar’in), and the first decade of the XX century (under profs. V.D. Shervinsky and L.E. Golubinin who created a scientific therapeutic school that greatly promoted the further development of internal medicine in this country).

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