The Case of the Disappearing Altar: Mysteries and Consequences of Revitalizing Chinese Muslims in Yunnan

This article takes the example of a disappeared altar in a Himalayan valley as revelatory of contradictions within the mechanics of a Hui Muslim revitalization project. The community example—a group of historically identifiable Muslims in China—centers on the disappearance of a gifted propitiation altar that once stood as an instantiation of community cohesion among ethnically varied populations in the valley. The investigation examines transformations of modernity and the erosion of the “social glue” that held valley communities together as the disappearance of this gift is revealed to be a telling instance of the large-scale productivities and corrosions effected by China’s contemporary renaissance of reemerging religious movements and community identifications, processes in which Chinese Muslims serve as a potential indicator for a long view of reform contemporary social transformation. Keywords:  China, ethnicity, minzu, Muslims, Yunnan, religion, frontier, revitalizatio

Speaking to the Head and the Heart: Prioritizing Empathetic Communication in the Post-COVID Workplace

As of August 2022, COVID-19 continues to affect our daily lives in physical, psychological, and financial ways. Many vulnerable individuals are struggling to adapt to returning to work and as a result, employee morale is at risk. In times of crises, empathy is needed in the workplace to support one another, but many leaders and employees may not have a firm grasp of the concept. This article seeks to define empathetic communication and explore the need for prioritizing empathy amid the current post-COVID-19 workplace. Through a literature review of empathy, psychological safety in the workplace, and crisis leadership, the author explains how the development of empathetic communication must be intentional to achieve sustainable change and lead to long-term organizational success. Practical recommendations are provided on how organizations should define empathetic communication, provide training for leaders and employees, and incorporate empathetic communication as a standard of responsibility for every employee to be assessed on a regular basis

The Case of the Disappearing Altar: Mysteries and Consequences of Revitalizing Chinese Muslims in Yunnan

Abstract This article takes the example of a disappeared altar in a Himalayan valley as revelatory of contradictions within the mechanics of a Hui Muslim revitalization project. The community example-a group of historically identifiable Muslims in China-centers on the disappearance of a gifted propitiation altar that once stood as an instantiation of community cohesion among ethnically varied populations in the valley. The investigation examines transformations of modernity and the erosion of the "social glue" that held valley communities together as the disappearance of this gift is revealed to be a telling instance of the large-scale productivities and corrosions effected by China's contemporary renaissance of reemerging religious movements and community identifications, processes in which Chinese Muslims serve as a potential indicator for a long view of reform contemporary social transformation. Keywords: China, ethnicity, minzu, Muslims, Yunnan, religion, frontier, revitalization A Naxi 1 altar for animal sacrifices and ritual propitiation once occupied a space just up the mountain from a remote village in the northwest Yunnanese Himalaya that I call Dragon Village. The site is located directly behind a mosque built in 2001, and it is reported by local Naxi, Tibetan, Yi, Han, and Hui people to be sacred to the "spirits" of the mountain. This sacrality extends back to the region's earliest populations, and local Naxi dongba (ritual specialists, literate in a unique pictographic script used to facilitate their rituals) maintain that this specific place was a ritual pilgrimage site before there were ever people living nearby. Even the wellknown ethnobotanist who first introduced the Naxi to the West-Dr. Joseph Rock 2 -was associated with this remote altar location in that he used it as a campsite during his searches for new plant species. The importance placed on this site locally derives partly from its being the source of a freshwater spring crucial to the downslope villages, and also from its semiotic In the years prior to the altar's disappearance, the ashen remains of burnt incense, leftover sacrificial food items, and bloody chicken feathers gave evidence that area Naxi (and others) regularly used it. The structure itself was of relatively recent construction, consisting of a carved ritual urn for burning incense on a slightly raised platform used for sacrifices. A flat boulder had been employed for this purpose for centuries before a new altar was built, and both this original boulder and the new altar were present during my fieldwork stay. The local craftsman responsible for the new altar, a Hui fellow from Dragon Village who carved it in his free time during the early 1990s, said that he had built the altar out of a desire to do something nice for his Naxi neighbors. 6 The altar was about thirty meters from the new mosque, for which some of the trees of the old grotto had been removed, and I expressed mild surprise to the craftsman that the two sacred sites were so close together. The existence of a mosque in this instance indicates the presence of a population of Muslim people known as Hui (alternately, huimin, hui minzu, huihui). With a national population of well over twenty million, they constitute the largest of China's ten Muslim groups. Since I had rarely seen other religious sites near mosques in Yunnan, I wondered aloud if this close proximity did not represent a potential crowding or unwelcome overlapping of Hui-Naxi sacred spaces. This quiet fellow pointed out that I was being "strange." He suggested that instead of thinking first about conflict between neighbors, I consider that the Naxi had been using the place "for centuries," and that they were the ones who had originally allowed the Dragon Villagers to settle there. He further told me that, as neighbors, the various ethnic communities of the area had a log tradition of shared use of space-ritual and otherwise. Context The families of Dragon Village make up a Hui community whose historical footprint must be traced back through local and transregional history in order to understand their place in this remote location. Luckily, the village mayor compiled a local history worth consulting in this regard, and a brief excerpt from it can help this analysis 8 : In the 1920s in the northwest part of China's Yunnan Province, near the foot of Haba Mountain [5300m], a few weary families settled. The fierce high plateau sun beat down on them as their journey came to an end, a journey the footsteps of which led all the way back to the Shaanxi Bai You Fu uprising. After that uprising failed, a group of Muslim combatants was forced to give up their fertile lands and retreat. In 1856, 9 they reached a Tibetan area near Zhongdian (now Xianggelila), where they used their mining experience and wisdom to establish a silver business called the Bao Xing Silver Factory. Their bravery and industriousness were rewarded by prosperity and wealth, which eventually caused them to be preyed on by bandits. Under threat, they could only flee with their lives, retreating south again to settle in the small Annan Village among Tibetans. In this even more remote place, legend has it that Allah sent an ingenious guide to help them prosper. A man out hunting killed an eagle and found a large gold nugget inside its stomach. This gift from Allah led them to find a source of gold, on which they built a new gold processing factory. Their once again prosperous population soon grew to several thousand, but with this gift Allah was again testing them. This wealth again enticed bandits and local men of great influence to attack and kill members of the community. Many died in the violence, including their leader, a man known as Yang Keye. 10 The surviving community members fled once more, ending up finally at the present site of Dragon Village. Thanks to Allah, they survived hardships and the harsh environment. Preparing new fields, renting land from neighbors, and tending animals, they again began to thrive through hard work. Although life was hard, they never gave up their beliefs. They managed to build a simple mosque and live a life of faith, but Allah always tests the faithful. Their grain, animals, and valuables again came to be targets for local bandits, but this great minzu 11 never succumbed. Their continued struggle only brought out the fierceness within them as they took up weapons to fight and protect their ethnic pride. In 1949, the Chinese nation [zhonghua minzu] ended its semicolonial, semifeudal society and constructed a great socialist country in Asia. All brother nationality groups became joined as hands and feet are to a body, demonstrating an ever-progressing image. Even then the disastrous Cultural Revolution also reached this poor village, and many imams ended their lives during the "Smash the Four Olds" campaign, may Allah grant them the peace of heaven. 12 In this whirlwind of chaos, religious teachings were lost, and by the 1980s only a very basic knowledge of Islam remained. Yet through the eighty years of difficulty and disaster, they never lost their sense of minzu pride. Though they strayed from the strict practices of Islam, they still proudly counted themselves as Muslims and continued to be concerned with the great community of Islam. The Persian Gulf War caused them great concern, and the trials and triumphs of world Islam have always had an impact on this wayward group of Muslims. Happily, in the last year of the twentieth century they are looking forward to a future of guidance from Allah. With the help of the Shadian 13 Muslims, they are able to take the road proper Muslims should walk-a path that will lead them to a deeper understanding of the teachings of Allah. It is on this road where they will find a stronger faith in Islam and be able to thrive on Haba Mountain. May Allah grant them lasting peace and prosperity. As I translated the mayor's account, it occurred to me that I might be able to identify the original conflict in Shaanxi that caused the Dragon Villagers' original exodus. I had never heard of the Bai You Fu uprising, but the fact that it involved Muslims would make it easier to locate if there were any records at all. After noting the Shaanxi origin, the name, and the nature of the story, and with some help from historian Jonathan Lipman, I discovered that the hostilities Remembered local history-never particularly detailed, but rich with potential-was thus recalled, reinstantiated, and re-energized at the turn of the twenty-first century in a revitalization project displaying both contemporary and historical dynamics. Given that this remote group of migrants is demonstrated to be a historically identifiable Hui population that left traces of its passage elsewhere, 15 an understanding of this migration, its causes, and its ramifications can also illuminate the arc of China's tumultuous modernity, the dynamics of internal struggle through the republican period, or any number of other, more specific types of transformations among frontier and marginal peoples in China. For the purposes of this article, it is enough to point out that the narrative foregrounds a process of becoming. It is A notable element in the origin story is the community's productive utilization of mining skills associated with the Shaanxi region. 16 That this valuable technology is lost over time despite the wealth that it brings, resulting in a primarily agricultural community, is a story of transformation from relative pride and sophistication (and error) to relative humility and simplicity (but truth). This explanation is a powerful narrative of revitalization adapted to the brute realities of a radically changing world, where a community reshapes preexisting social ideals and practices in order to better accommodate different social and material parameters. Interestingly, this outlines a civilizing narrative quite apart from what one might expect, with ruralization and simplicity being "achieved" in this particular moral economy after a series of "tests" by Allah. According to one contemplative informant, the trials and tribulations of this small band of frontier Muslims can be seen as a moral tale of incremental education (by Allah) away from the desire for wealth-which is invariably accompanied by problems like bandits and violence-toward the desire for a Muslim lifestyle involving purity of heart and simplicity of life-which brings strength to resist the hardships of the world. Yet this theologically powerful moral tale was a motivating component of only a small percentage of the village population. Another understanding of the origin narrative's significance diverged only slightly, suggesting again that the migration story was best seen as a lesson in the proper Muslim way of life, but in a different fashion. In this version, the original conflict in Shaanxi is remembered as that of a conflict between neighbors who could not agree on issues of religious practice or interpretation-an accurate suggestion given the Sufi-order (menhuan) differences that often engender intra-Muslim violence in Gansu and Shaanxi. 17 The tortuous path of these wayward goal if they persist in the journey, even though it is long, difficult, and without a certain destination. 18 Still, this second moral narrative was also only rarely invoked in Dragon Villagers' attempts to understand their own past or their prospects for the future. Diverging dramatically from these interpretations were others that made up the majority opinion of the village population, and were instead motivated by more practical concerns, like access to material and symbolic resources. To most, the moral valence of the narrative is less important than the fact that it identified a specific kind of people-a kind that dovetailed with reform contemporary understandings of minzu as legitimate and socially valuable. 19 In this respect, the narrative served as a politically meaningful and materially practical story of how the villagers were once Hui and how they could best become Hui "again," in a powerful way that would give them access to development funds, tourist income, and social recognition. 20 Mystery and Revitalization As previously mentioned, the altar had disappeared by 2011. To put it another way, the ethnically crosscutting gift from one neighbor to another had vanished. The exact circumstances of the disappearance remain unclear, yet certain trends that help to explain it could already be seen in 2002. For more than a decade now Dragon Village has undergone revitalization, the salient characteristics of which serve to demonstrate elements of an epistemological transformation that is either in its very late stages or has already ended, depending on whom you ask. I refer here to the empire-to-nation-form shift that began roughly around the first Chinese Republic and has now, in the fullness of the second Republic, become internalized and hegemonic. This modernity has many elements, but it is the iterative and thorough transformation of peoples and traditions into ethnic groups and religions that draw our attention here as epistemic changes the consequences of which cannot really be predicted. The issue of community revitalization in the People's Republic of China (PRC) is important because it is an example of a phenomenon receiving much energy in China today, with Buddhists, Christians, Daoists, Muslims, and Confucians all said to be undergoing some kind of resurgence. This noted efflorescence of communities is, of course, not limited to religion. Indeed, I privilege the term "Hui revitalization" rather than "Muslim revitalization" because I find the Huiness of these Muslims to be a more precise analytical tool than their religious practices. Nonetheless, Islam is a key element in being Hui, so the fact that the Dragon Village Hui Consequences In their haste to realize these assorted dreams, it is perhaps understandable that Dragon Village residents ignored the fact that nobody had the same goals in mind. Given the overpowering poverty in the area, forward movement of any kind was enough. In this, they were hardly different from many other revitalization movements. Without relying on his overly rigid analytical stages, we can see in anthropologist Anthony Wallace's classic work a usefulness in defining revitalization movements as "deliberate, conscious, organized efforts by members of a society to create a more satisfying culture" when their basic needs are not being met (Wallace 1956, 279). Directed though this effort was for Dragon Villagers, what occurred was cacophony rather than concert-something I suspect is often the norm with such movements initially. Pursuing each specific interest separately under flexible categories like huifu jiaomen ("return to None had studied abroad, an option well beyond their means, and religious training had by their own accounting been their sole avenue of advancement and education. All were committed to the cause of Islam as they understood it, and all understood Huiness to be primarily a matter of Islam, regarding any ethnic or historical element it might have as secondary in importance. Bringing a historically and theologically specific clarity of purpose, the ahongs had such activist zeal that a colleague took to informally calling them "born-again Muslims." While theologically problematic, the sentiment of this term is viscerally revealing. If one is predisposed to be charitable toward such people, then the phrase evokes a warm feeling of acceptance and understanding, whereas if one is predisposed to not be so charitable, then an equally visceral annoyance is felt. In Dragon Village, these new ahongs set out to immediately implement a series of interventions they believed would bring the villagers into the acceptable range of how Hui should best behave in the world. All village residents were encouraged to attend lectures and gatherings designed to teach them how to be Hui again. Basic Arabic classes were formed that any interested person could join. Teaching about Muslim propriety-including how to bathe properly, how to conduct oneself in prayer, and how to properly butcher animals-was carried out in a hands-on instructional manner as these matters arose. Sermons with practical religious content were given at least weekly. Young people were offered greater religious responsibilities

Challenges and Perspectives

Agriculture is a diverse field that produces a wide array of products vital to society. As global populations continue to grow the competition for natural resources will increase pressure on agricultural production of food, fiber, energy, and various high value by-products. With elevated concerns related to environmental impacts associated with the needs of a growing population, a life cycle assessment (LCA) framework can be used to determine areas of greatest impact and compare reduction strategies for agricultural production systems. The LCA methodology was originally developed for industrial operations but has been expanded to a wider range of fields including agriculture. There are various factors that increase the complexity of determining impacts associated with agricultural production including multiple products from a single system, regional and crop specific management techniques, temporal variations (seasonally and annually), spatial variations (multilocation production of end products), and the large quantity of nonpoint emission sources. The lack of consistent methodology of some impacts that are of major concern to agriculture (e.g., land use and water usage) increases the complexity of this analysis. This paper strives to review some of these issues and give perspective to the LCA practitioner in the field of agriculture

Sophomores Reign On!: A Sophomore Student Success Model for Old Dominion University

The Division of Student Engagement and Enrollment Services at Old Dominion University (ODU) submitted a Request for Assistance to examine the challenges sophomore students face that can lead to attrition. A doctoral research team conducted an exploratory, sequential, mixed-methods study consisting of a literature review, focus groups and interviews with current ODU juniors and seniors, surveys of current ODU sophomores, staff, and faculty, and interviews with benchmark institutions that have successful sophomore student programming at their schools. The team explained the commonly found needs and barriers that sophomore students face, and specifically examined the expressed sophomore student challenges as revealed by ODU students, staff, and faculty. Findings indicated that there is a lack of transitional support, sophomore student development training, and a defined sophomore student experience at ODU. In response to these findings, the team created a sophomore student success model that recommends developing a sophomore orientation program, training staff and faculty on sophomore needs and development, creating a streamlined mentoring program, evaluating current academic advising models, and designing a Sophomore Year Experience (SYE)

Are non-allergic drug reactions commonly documented as medication “allergies”? A national cohort of Veterans\u27 admissions from 2000 to 2014

Purpose: Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) including medication allergies are not well-described among large national cohorts. This study described the most common documented medication allergies and their reactions among a national cohort of Veterans Affairs (VA) inpatients. Methods: We evaluated inpatient admissions in any VA Medical Center from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2014. Each admission was linked with allergy history preceding or upon admission. Individual drugs were aggregated into drug class category including: penicillins, sulfonamides, angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, opiates, HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors (“statins”) and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory inhibitors (NSAID). Results were reported in aggregate and over time. Results: Approximately ~10.8 million inpatient admissions occurred from 2000 to 2014. We found the most commonly reported allergy drug classes were penicillins (13%, n = 1 410 080), opiates (9.1%, n = 984 978), ACE inhibitors (5.7%, n = 618 075) sulfonamides (5.1%, n = 558 653), NSAIDs (5.1%, n = 551 216) and statins (3.6%, n  = 391 983). Several allergy histories increased over time including opiates (6.2 to 11.2%), ACE inhibitors (1.3 to 10.2%), statins (0.3 to 7.3%) and NSAIDs (3.9 to 6.0%). Rash was the most commonly documented reaction on reports for penicillins (25.5%, n = 371 825), sulfonamides (25.6%, n = 165 954) and NSAIDs (10.3%, n = 65 741). The most common reaction for opiates was nausea/vomiting (17.9%, n = 211 864), cough/coughing for ACE inhibitors (41.0%, n = 270 537) and muscle pain/myalgia for statins (34.1%, n = 186 565). Conclusions: We report that penicillins and opiates are the most commonly documented drug allergies among VA inpatients, but other drug classes such as ACE inhibitors, statins and NSAIDs are becoming increasingly common. Clinicians also commonly document non-allergic ADRs in the allergy section such as cough or myalgia. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

The Effect of Molecular Rapid Diagnostic Testing on Clinical Outcomes in Bloodstream Infections: A Systematic Review & Meta-analysis

Background. Previous reports on molecular rapid diagnostic testing (mRDT) do not consistently demonstrate improved clinical outcomes in bloodstream infections (BSIs). This meta-analysis seeks to evaluate the impact of mRDT in improving clinical outcomes in BSIs. Methods. We searched PubMed, CINAHL, Web of science, and EMBASE through May 2016 for BSI studies comparing clinical outcomes by mRDT and conventional microbiology methods. Results. Thirty-one studies were included with 5,920 patients. Risk of morality was significantly lower with mRDT as compared to conventional microbiology methods (OR 0.66, 95% CI 0.54-0.80) yielding a NNT of 20. The risk of mortality was slightly lower with mRDT in studies with antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) (OR 0.64, 95% CI 0.51-0.79) and non-ASP studies failed to demonstrate a significant decrease in risk of mortality (OR 0.72, 95% CI 0.46-1.12). Significant decreases in mortality risk were observed with both Gram-positive (OR 0.73, 95% CI 0.55-0.97) and Gram-negative organisms (OR 0.51, 95% CI 0.33-0.78) but not yeast (OR 0.90, 95% CI 0.49-1.67). Time to effective therapy decreased by a weighted mean difference of -5.03 hours (95% CI -8.60 to -1.45) and length of stay decreased by -2.48 days (95% CI -3.90 to -1.06). Conclusions. For BSIs, mRDT was associated with significant decreases in risk of mortality in the presence of a ASP, but not in its absence. Additionally, mRDT decreased time to effective therapy and length of stay. mRDT should be considered as part of the standard of care in patients with BSIs

Implementation of traceability best practices within the medical device domain.

Requirements validation, compliance verification and impact analysis are important activities that are performed during the software development lifecycle. Traceability of requirements through the software development lifecycle (SDLC) is essential in the development of safety critical software. Organisations such as the Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Aviation Authority in the United States require traceability as part of their approval process. However, despite its criticality there is extensive digression in the practices and usefulness of traceability across development projects. Many projects’ traceability efforts are simply focused on satisfying regulations and do not leverage the many benefits of traceability. Traceability, if fully implemented is an important tool for managing system development and there are a number of published best practices to help companies with this implementation. By means of a literature review we record a list of the commonly accepted best practices for traceability implementation. Furthermore, through interviews with two medical device companies we report that a number of these practices are unfamiliar to these companies and why an even greater number of these practices are not applied

3D-imaging of Printed Nanostructured Networks using High-resolution FIB-SEM Nanotomography

Networks of solution-processed nanomaterials are important for multiple applications in electronics, sensing and energy storage/generation. While it is known that network morphology plays a dominant role in determining the physical properties of printed networks, it remains difficult to quantify network structure. Here, we utilise FIB-SEM nanotomography to characterise the morphology of nanostructured networks. Nanometer-resolution 3D-images were obtained from printed networks of graphene nanosheets of various sizes, as well as networks of WS2 nanosheets, silver nanosheets and silver nanowires. Important morphological characteristics, including network porosity, tortuosity, pore dimensions and nanosheet orientation were extracted and linked to network resistivity. By extending this technique to interrogate the structure and interfaces within vertical printed heterostacks, we demonstrate the potential of this technique for device characterisation and optimisation.Comment: 6 figure