ACTING IN AN ANTIFOUNDATIONAL WORLD: CONVERSATION, POETIC REDESCRIPTION, AND SOLIDARITY

This thesis examines a central question that human beings face in an antifoundational world: If discourse communities create not only vocabularies but competing ways of seeing, how might we in general and professional communicators in particular act in a reasonable way? It suggests answers to this question by discussing Rorty\u27s theory of language and truth. Rorty sets aside the foundationalist notion of metaphysical certainty with consensus beliefs achieved through conversation, which determines the utility of those beliefs to the community. Thus, Rorty changes the focus from what is right to what is helpful and changes the focus from what can be \u27proven\u27 to what \u27works.\u27 In case conversation becomes less useful, in Rorty\u27s scheme, poetic redescription can offer new alternatives (vocabularies) to solve the problems that the existing vocabulary fails to overcome. The validity of the new vocabularies lies not in their correspondence to reality, but in their utility to point us towards reducing human suffering and immiseration, thereby building human solidarity. Hence, the use of Rorty provides a useful way of responding to the choices we confront in our lives and jobs because his emphasis on utility when considering differing \u27perceptions\u27 and his emphasis on conversation, poetic redescription, and solidarity provides means of understanding and operating in the world. If the triad of conversation, poetic redescription, and solidarity can help us in general navigate the postmodern world, then this triad should also be able to help us as professional communication professionals. The thesis concludes with a brief discussion of the implications of Rorty\u27s ideas for professional communication theory and practice

Mediation in literacy : language, technology, and modality.

The issue of difference in writing, both in terms of language diversity and modalities, has received increasing attention in the context of new developments in technologies, increasing global migration, and intensified intersections of cultural and linguistic practices accompanying these changes. Theories of language and modality are trying separately to develop ways to best respond to the challenges and opportunities brought about by these changes. Responding to scholars’ recent calls for bridging the gap between studies of multilingualism and those of multimodality, this dissertation offers an approach that, instead of separating the study of modality and languages, questions such a tendency to not only create dichotomies between these two, but also to assume the stability and discrete character of various modes and languages. I argue that dominant, additive models of multimodality and multilingualism deemphasize understandings of languages, modalities, and technologies as material social practices in a complex communicative ecology, thereby implying what Brian Street calls “an autonomous” model of multimodality and multilingualism. Going beyond the abstract notions of language and modality as stable and discrete, this dissertation urges us to see the material-social practice of language as always already multimodal, while also being part of the ecology of multimodal semiotic practices. This dissertation has been divided into five chapters. Chapter One introduces issues of multilingualism and multimodality and provides a brief theoretical background to analyze dominant assumptions about language and modality. Chapter Two interrogates social theories of agency and mediation, both humanist and anti-humanist and develops an alternative understanding of mediation based on cultural materialist theories of practice and new materialism. I discuss how theories of Bourdieu, Giddens, and Pennycook help us see seemingly isolated acts as parts of a nexus of sedimented practices, whereas Latour’s call to pay attention to non-human agents and mediation as translation makes us see how durability and change in practices do not depend only on human agents and social structures, but equally on the “missing masses.” Chapter Three and Chapter Four take up the theoretical insights from the previous chapters, arguing that major theories of multilingualism and multimodality retain some residues of monolingualism and monomodality either in assuming the discrete and stable character of languages and modes or in assuming individual users as stable and free-floating agents. In an attempt to overcome these monolingualist and monomodalist tendencies, these two chapters call for paying attention to the full panoply of (f)actors affecting semiotic negotiations of our students rather than romanticizing the agency of users in an attempt to debunk monolinugualist/monomodalist ideology. Chapter Five develops an alternative, integrated way of viewing translingual and transmodal relations. This chapter ends with a demonstration of how shifting our theoretical orientation challenges not only the norm of existing pedagogical practices of segregating codes (linguistic or other semiotic), but also revises some of the multilingual and multimodal pedagogies advocated in recent studies

Consistent patterns of common species across tropical tree communities

Trees structure the Earth’s most biodiverse ecosystem, tropical forests. The vast number of tree species presents a formidable challenge to understanding these forests, including their response to environmental change, as very little is known about most tropical tree species. A focus on the common species may circumvent this challenge. Here we investigate abundance patterns of common tree species using inventory data on 1,003,805 trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm across 1,568 locations1,2,3,4,5,6 in closed-canopy, structurally intact old-growth tropical forests in Africa, Amazonia and Southeast Asia. We estimate that 2.2%, 2.2% and 2.3% of species comprise 50% of the tropical trees in these regions, respectively. Extrapolating across all closed-canopy tropical forests, we estimate that just 1,053 species comprise half of Earth’s 800 billion tropical trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm. Despite differing biogeographic, climatic and anthropogenic histories7, we find notably consistent patterns of common species and species abundance distributions across the continents. This suggests that fundamental mechanisms of tree community assembly may apply to all tropical forests. Resampling analyses show that the most common species are likely to belong to a manageable list of known species, enabling targeted efforts to understand their ecology. Although they do not detract from the importance of rare species, our results open new opportunities to understand the world’s most diverse forests, including modelling their response to environmental change, by focusing on the common species that constitute the majority of their trees

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570

Consistent patterns of common species across tropical tree communities

Trees structure the Earth's most biodiverse ecosystem, tropical forests. The vast number of tree species presents a formidable challenge to understanding these forests, including their response to environmental change, as very little is known about most tropical tree species. A focus on the common species may circumvent this challenge. Here we investigate abundance patterns of common tree species using inventory data on 1,003,805 trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm across 1,568 locations1-6 in closed-canopy, structurally intact old-growth tropical forests in Africa, Amazonia and Southeast Asia. We estimate that 2.2%, 2.2% and 2.3% of species comprise 50% of the tropical trees in these regions, respectively. Extrapolating across all closed-canopy tropical forests, we estimate that just 1,053 species comprise half of Earth's 800 billion tropical trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm. Despite differing biogeographic, climatic and anthropogenic histories7, we find notably consistent patterns of common species and species abundance distributions across the continents. This suggests that fundamental mechanisms of tree community assembly may apply to all tropical forests. Resampling analyses show that the most common species are likely to belong to a manageable list of known species, enabling targeted efforts to understand their ecology. Although they do not detract from the importance of rare species, our results open new opportunities to understand the world's most diverse forests, including modelling their response to environmental change, by focusing on the common species that constitute the majority of their trees

Essential Oils from Six Aromatic Plants of Langtang National Park: Insights on Their Chemical Constituents via GC-MS Analysis

The present work aims to provide an insight on the chemical constituents of essential oils obtained from six aromatic plants of the Langtang National Park (LNP), Nepal. LNP harbors an enriched biodiversity of medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs). The composition of essential oils obtained from Rhododendron anthopogon D. Don, Artemisia dubia Wall. ex Besser, Boenninghausenia albiflora (Hook.) Rchb. ex Meisn., Elsholtzia fruticosa (D. Don) Rehder, Juniperus recurva Buch.-Ham. ex D. Don and Rhododendron setosum D. Don, were analyzed by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). The essential oils were extracted via the hydrodistillation method using the Clevenger apparatus. GC-MS analysis showed that E-caryophyllene, α-pinene, γ-terpinene, β-pinene and δ-cadinene in Rhododendron anthopogon; santolina-triene, β-cubebene and sabinene in Artemisia dubia; β-myrcene, β-cubebene, E-β-ocimene and bicyclogermacrene in Boenninghausenia albiflora; perillene, eucalyptol and β-pinene in Elsholtzia fruticosa; δ-3-carene, cadina-1(6),4-diene and δ-cadinene in Juniperus recurva; trans-sabinyl acetate, sabinene, α-elemol and germacrene D in Rhododendron setosum are the principal components. The major compounds in the essential oil were monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes, representing almost 80% to 90% of the total constituents of the essential oil. In comparison to the previous studies, the results showed a significant difference in the qualitative composition of the essential oil. This is also the first report on the study of chemical constituents from the essential oil of R. setosum. Despite hosting a plethora of MAPs, only a limited number of studies have been carried out to identify their chemical and biological properties. Hence, further investigations on the MAPs of the Langtang region are highly essential to identify the major chemical constituents and explore their biological activities

Trillium govanianum (Himalayan Trillium): Production, Distribution, Use and Conservation in Nepal

Trillium govanianum is known to be used for primary health care and household economy, however detailed information on its ecology and importance for local economy has remained unknown. In this study, we investigated T. govanianum population, production and distribution range, as well as its use, trade and vulnerability in Nepal. We show that the current practice of T. govanianum rhizome marketing has resulted in unsustainable harvesting, putting in extreme pressure on its habitats and populations. Harvesting methods such as premature harvesting and mass collections, without knowing actual population size and distribution, may have serious negative effects on reproduction, growth and survival of the species. To gather data and information, we sampled 80 quadrats and 320 (1 × 1 m) nested plots along with 96 interviews. Information on species occurrence points was gathered from various sources including direct field sampling and predicted potential suitable habitat using a maximum entropy model (MaxEnt). Rapid vulnerability assessment (RVA) was used to assess the conservation status of the species. Our results showed that T. govanianum occurs in 26 districts of Nepal and can be expected in 10 more mountainous districts along the elevation range between 2400 m and 4050 m. Among the environmental factors, elevation, precipitation and temperature were found to be the most influential for the species\u27 distribution. Market-led unsustainable collections were prevalent and T. govanianum collections were traded as an adulterant to Paris polyphylla, a highly traded medicinal plant. We found that T. govanianum is a vulnerable species with threat category I. Therefore, conservation efforts are urgently needed, including protection of its key sites and habitats along with sustainable use so as to save its existence

Antioxidant, α-Glucosidase, and α-Amylase Inhibition Activities of Erythropalum scandens Blume

Diabetes is a major health problem worldwide, which is increasing day by day. Since ancient times, medicinal plants have been a key source of medicinal agents, and many of them have been authorized as strong medications or drug candidates. This study evaluated the antioxidant, α-glucosidase, and α-amylase inhibition activities of Erythropalum scandens Blume. The plant revealed the significant antioxidant and in vitro antidiabetic activity. The crude methanolic extract reported the highest antioxidant activity with an IC50 of 59.35 ± 5.47 μg/mL, followed by its dichloromethane (DCM) and ethyl acetate (EA) fractions with an IC50 of 66.45 ± 2.46 μg/mL and 80.46 ± 2.69 μg/mL, respectively, as compared to the standard quercetin’s IC50 value of 6.29 ± 1.02 μg/mL. Among the crude extract and its fractions, the EA fraction disclosed the significant inhibiting activity against α-glucosidase and α-amylase with an IC50 value of 17.92 ± 0.88 μg/mL and 44.51 ± 0.12 μg/mL, respectively. This research work has scientifically validated the traditional use of this plant