Introduction to “Air-Water-Land-Human: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Health and Environment in East Asia”

Taken together, the contributions to this special issue clearly demonstrate how questions of health and environment open up interdisciplinary inquiry perhaps better than any other field in Asian studies. Within this expansive framework, one can simultaneously talk of the dao (道) and PCBs, lysogenic phage cycles and empire, or petrochemicals and ethnic identity. Through attention to global comparisons, these articles highlight areas where East Asian cases can make crucial contributions as specific as the historical epidemiology of a single disease or as sweeping as the theorizing of new forms of environmental activism

Air/"Qi" Connections and China's Smog Crisis: Notes from the History of Science

This article explores the relationship between qi and air in Chinese medical and scientific history in order to illuminate current approaches to air pollution and wumai (smog) in contemporary China. The modern concept of air is expressed in Chinese using terms related to the word qi. However, qi is a complex, multivalent term with a long history in Chinese cosmology and Chinese medicine and does not hold a clear one-to-one correspondence with air. Qi provided a resonating transcendent link between humans and their environment, yet pathogenic forms of qi arising from the environment could invade the body, causing illness and death. During the late nineteenth century, laboratory definitions of air as gas were introduced to China through the term qi, enabling some turn-of-the-century Chinese physicians such as Tang Zonghai to establish creative correspondences between air and qi that encompassed gas, vital energies, and even God. Such correspondences with their transcendent, potentially sacred valences appear to be unavailable today, even as contemporary Chinese embrace traditional medicines to ward off the effects of wumai. By probing the significant spaces between air and qi, this article suggests that the history of science in China has implications for how we might cope with and confront our current atmospheric crisis. Keywords: qi, air, translation, wumai, Tang Zonghai, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), PM 2.

COMPUTATIONAL STUDIES ON THE BINDING AND DYNAMICS OF THE OSH4 PROTEIN OF YEAST AND A MODEL YEAST MEMBRANE SYSTEM

Osh4 is an oxysterol binding protein homologue found in yeast that is essential for the intracellular transport of sterols. It has been proposed that Osh4 acts as a lipid transport protein, binding a single sterol residue and transporting it from the endoplasmic reticulum to the plasma membrane. The dynamics of Osh4 as well as ergosterol binding was observed using molecular dynamics simulations. Blind docking of several model lipid head group moieties was used to detect potential binding regions along the Osh4 surface favorable towards phospholipid interaction. Models frequently docked to a lysine-rich region on the side of the protein's β-barrel. A model ergosterol-containing membrane system for yeast was also constructed and simulated using molecular dynamics, and an improvement to the deuterium order parameters was observed over previous models. Understanding how Osh4 attaches to cellular membranes will lead to a clear understanding of how this protein transports sterols in vivo

Analysis of Lunar Boulder Tracks: Implications for Trafficability of Pyroclastic Deposits

In a new era of lunar exploration, pyroclastic deposits have been identified as valuable targets for resource utilization and scientific inquiry. Little is understood about the geomechanical properties and the trafficability of the surface material in these areas, which is essential for successful mission planning and execution. Past incidents with rovers highlight the importance of reliable information about surface properties for future, particularly robotic, lunar mission concepts. Characteristics of 149 boulder tracks are measured in Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Narrow Angle Camera images and used to derive the bearing capacity of pyroclastic deposits and, for comparison, mare and highland regions from the surface down to ~5‐m depth, as a measure of trafficability. Results are compared and complemented with bearing capacity values calculated from physical property data collected in situ during Apollo, Surveyor, and Lunokhod missions. Qualitative observations of tracks show no region‐dependent differences, further suggesting similar geomechanical properties in the regions. Generally, bearing capacity increases with depth and decreases with higher slope gradients, independent of the type of region. At depths of 0.19 to 5 m, pyroclastic materials have bearing capacities equal or higher than those of mare and highland material and, thus, may be equally trafficable at surface level. Calculated bearing capacities based on orbital observations are consistent with values derived using in situ data. Bearing capacity values are used to estimate wheel sinkage of rover concepts in pyroclastic deposits. This study's findings can be used in the context of traverse planning, rover design, and in situ extraction of lunar resources