Wenwen Li

Kwong-loi Shun offers a Confucian account of reflective equanimity that stems largely from the work of Mencius and Zhu Xi. Although Shun labels it as ‘spiritual’, his account tends toward the naturalistic. In this article, we offer an account of reflective equanimity according to Confucius that takes seriously the spiritual aspect, by tying it to Confucius’ notion of tian. We describe three aspects of tian from the Dialogues of Confucius that are consistent with Shun’s view and, we believe, extend his view, while simultaneously preserving and reconciling the competing ‘personal’ and ‘cosmic’ aspects of Confucius’ view of tian.

This paper introduces the concept of “Participatory Convergence” as a framework to meet grand social-ecological challenges. Participatory Convergence combines the principles of Convergence Research with Participatory Action Research (PAR), offering a novel approach to tackling complex societal problems. Convergence Research seeks to foster high-level integration between diverse disciplines to address multifaceted issues, emphasizing systems thinking and solutions orientation; however, existing literature falls short in providing practical models for the deep integration of diverse disciplines, community partners, and community members. This paper aims to bridge these gaps by integrating Convergence Research with PAR. We illustrate the application of Participatory Convergence with a case study: the “Action for Water Equity” project, focusing on water challenges faced by communities in U.S. colonias along the U.S.–Mexico border. The Action for Water Equity project is a practical example of how Participatory Convergence can be applied to tackle pressing challenges while embracing diversity, inclusivity, and adaptability. This approach holds the potential to facilitate comprehensive solutions for global challenges and foster meaningful change through interdisciplinary collaboration, community engagement, and a commitment to sustainability and equity.

© The Author 2017.The observation of replica bands in single-unit-cell FeSe on SrTiO3 by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy has led to the conjecture that the coupling between FeSe electrons and the STO phonons are responsible for the enhancement of T c over other FeSe-based superconductors. However the recent observation of a similar superconducting gap in single-unit-cell FeSe/STO raised the question of whether a similar mechanism applies. Here we report the ARPES study of the electronic structure of FeSe/STO. Similar to the results in FeSe/STO, clear replica bands are observed. We also present a comparative study of STO and STO bare surfaces, and observe similar replica bands separated by approximately the same energy, indicating this coupling is a generic feature of the STO surfaces and interfaces. Our findings suggest that the large superconducting gaps observed in FeSe films grown on different STO surface terminations are likely enhanced by a common mechanism.