Doing Philosophy Comparatively in China: Constructive Engagement between Marxist, Western, and Chinese Traditional Philosophy (2000-2022)

Marxist philosophy, Western philosophy, and Chinese traditional philosophy constitute three main forces of contemporary Chinese philosophy. In the past two decades, a great deal of in-depth and extensive constructive engagement has been carried out among the three. Previous studies on such constructive engagement have focused on the perspectives of Western or Chinese traditional philosophy, while the perspective of Marxist philosophy has been neglected to a large extent. Given the key position of Marxist philosophy in contemporary Chinese philosophy, it is undoubtedly regrettable that such a perspective is missing. This paper aims to fill this gap in the perspective of examination from the perspective of Marxist philosophy by examining the constructive engagement between various research paths within contemporary Chinese Marxist philosophy on the one hand, and the constructive engagement between Marxist philosophy, Western and Chinese traditional philosophy on the other hand

Constructive Engagement Between Ecological Thoughts of Karl Marx and Lao Zi

The global ecological crisis has posed unprecedented survival challenges to human being. Consequently, ecological issues have naturally become central concerns in philosophy. From the methodological perspective of constructive engagement in comparative philosophy, we have chosen to compare the ecological thoughts of two thinkers—Karl Marx and Lao Zi (老子)—who are separated by vast spans of time and cultural tradition. We argue that Karl Marx holds a mild anthropocentric ecological view, while Lao Zi holds a transcendental ecological view. In addressing ecological issues, Lao Zi’s transcendental methodological guiding principles can provide negative methodological constraints for Karl Marx’s constructive ideals, while Karl Marx’s constructive ideals can supplement Lao Zi’s transcendental methodological guiding principles with positive practical strategies. In this sense, both can jointly contribute philosophical wisdom to the resolution of contemporary ecological problems

HALC: Object Hallucination Reduction via Adaptive Focal-Contrast Decoding

While large vision-language models (LVLMs) have demonstrated impressive capabilities in interpreting multi-modal contexts, they invariably suffer from object hallucinations (OH). We introduce HALC, a novel decoding algorithm designed to mitigate OH in LVLMs. HALC leverages distinct fine-grained optimal visual information in vision-language tasks and operates on both local and global contexts simultaneously. Specifically, HALC integrates a robust auto-focal grounding mechanism (locally) to correct hallucinated tokens on the fly, and a specialized beam search algorithm (globally) to significantly reduce OH while preserving text generation quality. Additionally, HALC can be integrated into any LVLMs as a plug-and-play module without extra training. Extensive experimental studies demonstrate the effectiveness of HALC in reducing OH, outperforming state-of-the-arts across four benchmarks.Comment: ICML camera-ready version. Code is released at https://github.com/BillChan226/HAL

A β-glucosidase hyper-production Trichoderma reesei mutant reveals a potential role of cel3D in cellulase production

Abstract Background The conversion of cellulose by cellulase to fermentable sugars for biomass-based products such as cellulosic biofuels, biobased fine chemicals and medicines is an environment-friendly and sustainable process, making wastes profitable and bringing economic benefits. Trichoderma reesei is the well-known major workhorse for cellulase production in industry, but the low β-glucosidase activity in T. reesei cellulase leads to inefficiency in biomass degradation and limits its industrial application. Thus, there are ongoing interests in research to develop methods to overcome this insufficiency. Moreover, although β-glucosidases have been demonstrated to influence cellulase production and participate in the regulation of cellulase production, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. Results The T. reesei recombinant strain TRB1 was constructed from T. reesei RUT-C30 by the T-DNA-based mutagenesis. Compared to RUT-C30, TRB1 displays a significant enhancement of extracellular β-glucosidase (BGL1) activity with 17-fold increase, a moderate increase of both the endoglucanase (EG) activity and the exoglucanase (CBH) activity, a minor improvement of the total filter paper activity, and a faster cellulase induction. This superiority of TRB1 over RUT-C30 is independent on carbon sources and improves the saccharification ability of TRB1 cellulase on pretreated corn stover. Furthermore, TRB1 shows better resistance to carbon catabolite repression than RUT-C30. Secretome characterization of TRB1 shows that the amount of CBH, EG and BGL in the supernatant of T. reesei TRB1 was indeed increased along with the enhanced activities of these three enzymes. Surprisingly, qRT-PCR and gene cloning showed that in TRB1 β-glucosidase cel3D was mutated through the random insertion by AMT and was not expressed. Conclusions The T. reesei recombinant strain TRB1 constructed in this study is more desirable for industrial application than the parental strain RUT-C30, showing extracellular β-glucosidase hyper production, high cellulase production within a shorter time and a better resistance to carbon catabolite repression. Disruption of β-glucosidase cel3D in TRB1 was identified, which might contribute to the superiority of TRB1 over RUT-C30 and might play a role in the cellulase production. These results laid a foundation for future investigations to further improve cellulase enzymatic efficiency and reduce cost for T. reesei cellulase production.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134636/1/12934_2016_Article_550.pd

Mitigating secondary salinization in grapes: long-term benefits of biochar and cow dung

Secondary salinization of soil seriously hinders the healthy cultivation of facility grapes. Biochar has been shown to mitigate the negative effects of saline stress on plants. However, the long-term response mechanism between the soil’s key physicochemical properties, ion concentration, and enzyme activity and the physiological resistance of facility grape plants to biochar combined with cow dung application to alleviate the soil secondary salinization stress remains unclear. In this study, a field experiment was set up once in September 2021 with five different treatments, including no amendments. which was used as the blank control (CK), and application of biochar (10 t·ha-1, T1), cow dung (30 t·ha-1, T2), biochar mixed with cow dung (5 t·ha-1+15 t·ha-1, T3), and biochar mixed with cow dung (10 t·ha-1+30 t·ha-1, T4), respectively. The results showed that compared with the CK treatment, application treatments significantly reduced soil total salt(TS) content and the electrical conductivity(EC) value; increased soil water-stable aggregates and nutrient content; stimulated an increase in soil urease (S-UE), sucrose (S-SC) and phosphatase(S-ALP)activities; and changed soil exchangeable calcium and magnesium ion concentrations. Among the treatments, the T4 treatment reduced TS and EC by 73.03% and 61.11%, respectively. Biochar combined with cow dung significantly increased chlorophyll content and reduced malondialdehyde content (MDA), the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), and catalase (CAT) in grape leaves. The T4 treatment decreased MDA, SOD, POD, and CAT by 54.59%, 40.14%, 44.28%, and 70.17% compared with the CK treatment, respectively. Correlation analysis showed that the balance of soil exchangeable calcium and magnesium ions and the stability of soil aggregate structure were the key factors in alleviating soil secondary salinization stress. In conclusion, biochar combined with cow dung application can alleviate the oxidative stress response of grape plants and improve the quality of grapes by improving the structure of soil water-stable aggregates, coordinating the concentration of soil exchangeable calcium and magnesium ions, and stimulating soil enzyme activity

Optimization of Preparation Technology and Antioxidant Activity of Schisandrae chinensis Protein Peptides in Vitro by Response Surface Methodology

Objective: To obtain the optimal enzyme and preparation process for Schisandra chinensis protein peptides and investigate its in vitro antioxidant activity. Methods: Seven proteases were used to hydrolyze Schisandra chinensis protein. Based on the degree of hydrolysis, free radical scavenging activity, polypeptide yield and content of different hydrolysates of Schisandra chinensis protein and the comprehensive evaluation of molecular weight in SDS-PAGE, the optimal protease was screened. The DPPH free radical scavenging rate was used as the index, and the optimal enzymatic hydrolysis process was determined by single factor test combined with response surface analysis. The scavenging ability of O2−·, ·OH, DPPH·, ABTS+·, Fe2+ chelating ability and Fe3+ reducing ability of Schisandrae chinensis protein peptides were analyzed and compared with Schisandra chinensis protein. Results: The optimum enzyme for the preparation of Schisandra chinensis protein peptides was alkaline protease. The optimum enzymatic hydrolysis parameters were as follows: substrate concentration 5%, enzyme-to-substrate ratio 1%, enzymatic hydrolysis time 3 h, enzymatic hydrolysis temperature 55 ℃, pH9.0. Under these conditions, the polypeptide content was 88.61%, the degree of hydrolysis was 24.21%, and the DPPH· scavenging rate was 86.96%. The free radical scavenging ability and reducing ability of Schisandrae chinensis protein peptides were better than those of Schisandrae chinensis protein. Conclusion: This study determined the optimum enzyme and hydrolysis process of Schisandrae chinensis protein peptides, and pointed out that Schisandrae chinensis protein peptides had better antioxidant activity in vitro and could be used as a natural antioxidant

Enhanced recovery after surgery in elective cesarean section patients with gestational diabetes mellitus does not lead to glucose-related maternal and neonatal complications

ObjectiveFor elective cesarean section patients with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), there is a lack of evidence-based research on the use of enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS). This study aims to compare the ERAS after-surgery protocol and traditional perioperative management.Research design and methodsIn this retrospective cohort study, singleton pregnancies with good glucose control GDM, delivered by elective cesarean sections under intravertebral anesthesia at least 37 weeks from January 1 to December 31, 2022, were collected at the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University. We divided all enrolled pregnant women and newborns into an ERAS group and a control group (the traditional perioperative management group) based on their adherence to the ERAS protocol. The primary outcome was the preoperative blood glucose level, with an increase of more than 1 mmol/L indicating clinical significance when compared to the control group. The secondary outcome was centered around an adverse composite outcome that affected both mothers and newborns.ResultsWe collected a total of 161 cases, with 82 in the ERAS group and 79 in the control group. Although the mean preoperative blood glucose level in the ERAS group was significantly higher than in the control group (5.01 ± 1.06 mmol/L vs. 4.45 ± 0.90 mmol/L, p<0.001), the primary outcome revealed that the mean glycemic difference between the groups was 0.47 mmol/L (95% CI 0.15-0.80 mmol/L), which was below the clinically significant difference of 1 mmol/L. For the secondary outcomes, the ERAS group had an 86% lower risk of a composite adverse outcome compared to the control group. This included a 73% lower risk of perioperative maternal hypoglycemia and a 92% lower rate of neonatal hypoglycemia, all adjusted by age, hypertensive disorder of pregnancy, BMI, gestational weeks, primigravidae, primary pregnancy, GDM, surgery duration, and fasting glucose.ConclusionImplementing a low-dose carbohydrate ERAS in pregnant women with GDM prior to elective cesarean section, compared to traditional perioperative management, does not lead to clinically significant maternal glucose increases and thus glucose-related maternal or neonatal perioperative complications

Variation in VEGFA and risk of cardiovascular disease in the UK Biobank

BackgroundCardiovascular disease (CVD) is an escalating global health crisis, contributing significantly to worldwide mortality and morbidity. Dyslipidemia stands as a critical risk factor for CVD. Vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA) is pivotal in angiogenesis and represents a clinical target for CVD intervention. However, the impact of genetic modulation of VEGFA on lipid levels and the subsequent risk of cardiovascular events remains unclear.MethodsWe used LDpred2 to calculate genetic scores for lipid levels based on VEGFA variation, serving as instrumental variables to simulate the effect of VEGFA inhibitors. We then assessed the associations between genetic risk for lipid levels and CVD risk by conducting One-sample Mendelian randomization.ResultsOur results indicated that low-density lipoprotein cholesterol [LDL-C; odds ratio (OR) = 1.09, 95% CI: 1.06–1.11], remnant cholesterol (RC; OR = 1.24, 95% CI: 1.13–1.36), and triglycerides (TG; OR = 1.14, 95% CI: 1.07–1.22) were positively associated with the incidence of CVD. In contrast, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) was inversely associated with the incidence of CVD (OR = 0.80, 95% CI: 0.76–0.86). When considering the genetic score for LDL-C constructed based on VEGFA, the group with a high genetic score demonstrated an elevated CVD risk (OR = 1.11, 95% CI: 1.04–1.19) compared to those with a low genetic score. Notably, One-sample Mendelian randomization results provided evidence of a causal relationship between LDL-C and CVD (p = 8.4×10−3) when using genetic variation in VEGFA as an instrumental variable.ConclusionsGenetic variation mimicking the effect of VEGFA inhibition, which lowers LDL-C levels, was causally associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular events. These findings offer insight into the potential therapeutic relevance of modulating VEGFA-mediated lipid changes in the prevention and management of CVD

The Impact of Variational Primary Collaterals on Cerebral Autoregulation

The influence of the anterior and posterior communicating artery (ACoA and PCoA) on dynamic cerebral autoregulation (dCA) is largely unknown. In this study, we aimed to test whether substantial differences in collateral anatomy were associated with differences in dCA in two common types of stenosis according to digital subtraction angiography (DSA): either isolated basal artery and/or bilateral vertebral arteries severe stenosis/occlusion (group 1; group 1A: with bilateral PCoAs; and group 1B: without bilateral PCoAs), or isolated unilateral internal carotid artery severe stenosis/occlusion (group 2; group 2A: without ACoA and with PCoA; group 2B: with ACoA and without PCoAs; and group 2C: without both ACoA and PCoA). The dCA was calculated by transfer function analysis (a mathematical model), and was evaluated in middle cerebral artery (MCA) and/or posterior cerebral artery (PCA). Of a total of 231 non-acute phase ischemic stroke patients who received both dCA assessment and DSA in our lab between 2014 and 2017, 51 patients met inclusion criteria based on the presence or absence of ACoA or PCoA, including 21 patients in the group 1, and 30 patients in the group 2. There were no significant differences in gender, age, and mean blood pressure between group 1A and group 1B, and among group 2A, group 2B, and group 2C. In group 1, the PCA phase difference values (autoregulatory parameter) were significantly higher in the subgroup with patent PCoAs, compared to those without. In group 2, the MCA phase difference values were higher in the subgroup with patent ACoA, compared to those without. This pilot study found that the cross-flow of the ACoA/PCoA to the affected area compensates for compromised dCA in the affected area, which suggests an important role of the ACoA/PCoA in stabilizing cerebral blood flow