Xunzi’s Ritual Program as a Response to Han Feizi’s Criticism of Confucianism

One of Han Feizi’s most subtle criticisms of Confucianism targets a central feature of its moral cultivation program, namely an appeal to modelling oneself on ancient sages. According to Han Feizi, this ideal of model emulation is doomed to failure due to imperfect knowledge of past exemplars, the fact that certain ideals of practice may not be applicable to (or catastrophic for) some practitioners, and the additional fact that one cannot always rely on past examples to provide good guidance for future events. As Eric Hutton points out, this line of critique bears striking similarities to one offered by Bernard Williams against virtue ethics. Accordingly, this emulation problem poses difficulties not only for Confucianism, but also more generally for virtue ethics. This paper argues that the emulation problem can be overcome by appealing to the Confucian Xunzi’s account of the role of ritual (li) in moral cultivation. Specifically, the ways in which ritual promotes moral development provide the Confucians (and, by association, virtue ethics) with the means of devising a sufficiently sophisticated account of emulation to meet the challenge lobbied by Han Feizi and Williams

Marine reservoir corrections : St. Helena, South Atlantic Ocean

We present the first marine reservoir age and ∆R determination for the island of St. Helena using marine mollusk radiocarbon dates obtained from an historical context of known age. This represents the first marine reservoir age and ∆R determination in the southern Atlantic Ocean within thousands of kilometers of the island. The depletion of 14C in the shells indicates a rather larger reservoir age for that portion of the surface Atlantic than models indicate. The implication is that upwelling old water along the Namibian coast is transported for a considerable distance, although it is likely to be variable on a decadal timescale. An artilleryman’s button, together with other artifacts found in a midden, demonstrate association of the mollusk shells with a narrow historic period of AD 1815–1835

Proud Vermin: Modern Militias and the State

Contemporary arguments about private paramilitary organizations often focus on the threat of physical violence that they pose to the state: if such organizations garner enough physical power, then they can overtake the state via violent coup. Inspired by the legalist scholar Han Feizi’s position, we contend that such organizations also represent a sociopolitical, existential threat to the state. Specifically, their tendency for ideological expansion and subsequent gathering of political influence undermines state institutions, even without the use of overt physical force. Consequently, the sociopolitical enterprise of having a unified, stable state is incompatible with the existence of, and public political support for, private paramilitary organizations, regardless of their actual or potential physical power. This argument succeeds regardless of the moral status of such paramilitary groups. Such groups, when they match the essential components of the description Han Feizi provides, are practically and politically antithetical to the integrity of the stat

Disintegration of the genus Prosopis L. (Leguminosae, Caesalpinioideae, mimosoid clade)

Robust evidence from phylogenomic analyses of 997 nuclear genes has recently shown, beyond doubt, that the genus Prosopis is polyphyletic with three separate lineages, each with affinities to other genera of mimosoids: (i) Prosopis africana is an isolated lineage placed in the grade of Plathymenia, Newtonia and Fillaeopsis that subtends the core mimosoid clade; (ii) the remaining Old World species of Prosopis form a clade that is sister to the Indo-Nepalese monospecific genus Indopiptadenia and (iii) New World Prosopis has the Namibian / Namaqualand monospecific endemic genus Xerocladia nested within it. This means that it is now clear that maintaining the unity of the genus Prosopis sensu Burkart (1976) is no longer tenable. These three distinct lineages of Prosopis species correspond directly to Burkart’s (1976) sectional classification of the genus, to previously recognised genera and to the differences in types of armature that underpin Burkart’s sections. Here, we address this non-monophyly by resurrecting three segregate genera – Anonychium, Neltuma and Strombocarpa and provide 57 new name combinations where necessary, while maintaining the morphologically distinctive and geographically isolated genera Xerocladia and Indopiptadenia. The genus Prosopis itself is reduced to just three species and an emended description is presented. The impacts of these name changes for a genus of such high ecological and human use importance are discussed. These impacts are mitigated by clear differences in armature which facilitate identification and by potential benefits from the deeper biological understanding brought about by recognition of these divergent lineages at generic rank. We provide an identification key to genera and present a map showing the distributions of the segregate genera, as well as drawings and photos illustrating variation in armature and fruits

Bells as memorials in South Africa to the Great (1914-18) War

The contribution of South Africa to the allied cause in the Great War, and the sacrifice of so many lives of the White and Coloured populations, is memorialised on bells of the Cape Town carillon, on ringing, and on clock and other bells. The contribution of the Black population awaits recognition. Restoration of the Cape Town carillon so that it can again be played effectively, would be a fitting memorial to those who lost their lives in the non-combative roles that were open to the majority population of South Africa. Completion of the ring at what is now Queenstown cathedral would also be a fitting tribute to the bravery and unstinting service of so many South Africans during the Great War.Colin Lewis was Professor of Geography at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa from 1989 until his retirement at the end of 2007. In 1990, with the strong support of the incumbent Vice-Chancellor, Dr Derek Henderson, he instigated the Certificate in Change Ringing (Church Bell Ringing) in the Rhodes University Department of Music and Musicology - the first such course to be offered in Africa. Since that date he has lectured in the basic theory, and taught the practice of change ringing. He is the Ringing Master of the Cathedral of St Michael and St George, Grahamstown, South Africa

Controlling a spillover pathway with the molecular cork effect

Spillover of reactants from one active site to another is important in heterogeneous catalysis and has recently been shown to enhance hydrogen storage in a variety of materials. The spillover of hydrogen is notoriously hard to detect or control. We report herein that the hydrogen spillover pathway on a Pd/Cu alloy can be controlled by reversible adsorption of a spectator molecule. Pd atoms in the Cu surface serve as hydrogen dissociation sites from which H atoms can spillover onto surrounding Cu regions. Selective adsorption of CO at these atomic Pd sites is shown to either prevent the uptake of hydrogen on, or inhibit its desorption from, the surface. In this way, the hydrogen coverage on the whole surface can be controlled by molecular adsorption at a minority site, which we term a ‘molecular cork’ effect. We show that the molecular cork effect is present during a surface catalysed hydrogenation reaction and illustrate how it can be used as a method for controlling uptake and release of hydrogen in a model storage syste

Structure–activity relationships of the antimicrobial peptide gramicidin S and its analogs: Aqueous solubility, self-association, conformation, antimicrobial activity and interaction with model lipid membranes

AbstractGS10 [cyclo-(VKLdYPVKLdYP)] is a synthetic analog of the naturally occurring antimicrobial peptide gramicidin (GS) in which the two positively charged ornithine (Orn) residues are replaced by two positively charged lysine (Lys) residues and the two less polar aromatic phenylalanine (Phe) residues are replaced by the more polar tyrosine (Tyr) residues. In this study, we examine the effects of these seemingly conservative modifications to the parent GS molecule on the physical properties of the peptide, and on its interactions with lipid bilayer model and biological membranes, by a variety of biophysical techniques. We show that although GS10 retains the largely β-sheet conformation characteristic of GS, it is less structured in both water and membrane-mimetic solvents. GS10 is also more water soluble and less hydrophobic than GS, as predicted, and also exhibits a reduced tendency for self-association in aqueous solution. Surprisingly, GS10 associates more strongly with zwitterionic and anionic phospholipid bilayer model membranes than does GS, despite its greater water solubility, and the presence of anionic phospholipids and cholesterol (Chol) modestly reduces the association of both GS10 and GS to these model membranes. The strong partitioning of both peptides into lipid bilayers is driven by a large favorable entropy change opposed by a much smaller unfavorable enthalpy change. However, GS10 is also less potent than GS at inducing inverted cubic phases in phospholipid bilayer model membranes and at inhibiting the growth of the cell wall-less bacterium Acholeplasma laidlawii B. These results are discussed in terms of the comparative antibiotic and hemolytic activities of these peptides