Search Results (16)

Against the backdrop of health inequality among rural residents, focusing on the impact of cultural institutions during the transitional period on villagers’ health contributes to ensuring healthy lives for rural populations (SDG-3). Drawing on institutional theory, this study explores how rural banquet culture shapes residents’ health outcomes and the mechanisms through which this influence operates. Utilizing data from the 2021 China Land Economy Survey (CLES), we employ both mediation effect models and machine learning techniques. The findings indicate that a stronger presence of banquet culture within villages is significantly associated with poorer health outcomes among rural residents. Further analysis reveals that banquet culture is also correlated with increased adult and infant mortality rates and reduced life expectancy. Mechanism analysis shows that time crowding caused by social obligations and suboptimal health decision-making serve as important mediating pathways through which banquet culture influences health. Moreover, heterogeneity analysis suggests that higher levels of village autonomy and greater provision of public health goods can mitigate the negative health impacts of banquet culture. By uncovering the micro-level behavioral mechanisms through which cultural norms influence individual health, this research advances the understanding of informal institutions. It innovatively links ritualized social practices to measurable health outcomes, addresses a critical gap in public health research on rural populations, and provides policy-relevant insights for the development of targeted rural health interventions. Full article

This study demonstrates that Paul presents the Eucharist in 1 Corinthians 11:17–34 as an identity-forming and identity-sustaining liturgical act. Through literary analysis, the research first highlights Paul’s deliberate fivefold use of the verb συνέρχομαι (“to come together”) to frame the passage, emphasizing the communal nature of the Eucharist. The meal is intended to mark the identity of the church as one body—set apart from the status-based divisions typical of Roman banquet culture. The current study also observes that Paul strategically places the early Christian confession of the Lord’s Supper at the center of his argument. In doing so, he calls the Corinthians to recall this tradition and re-engage in a shared act of remembrance—one that enacts the memory of Christ’s death and thereby reconstitutes them as a unified body. This understanding is rooted in Jewish conceptions of ritual memory, in which liturgical acts not only recall the past but renew and reinforce communal identity. Through such embodied remembrance, the church does not merely recall who it is; it performs and sustains that identity. Thus, the Eucharist functions both to form the church as one body distinct from the world and to maintain that identity through repeated, participatory remembrance. Full article

This study aims to implement the concept of education for sustainable development by 2030, which can be applied in the context of hospitality education in the Asia–Pacific region. Specifically, this study focuses on achieving Sustainable Development Goal 12, which pertains to responsible consumption and production, particularly in relation to food. A case study was conducted using a learner-centered approach, wherein students, as active agents, can solve problems using professional skills such as cooking, baking, and beverage preparation. Through participant observations, students learn about sustainability, starting from natural farming and extending to banquet planning and entrepreneurship simulation in a green restaurant. The program was designed as a farm-to-table process for sustainability learning. A conceptual framework of a hospitality–health supply chain was constructed to understand how the program supports the goal of education for sustainable development for 2030—societal transformation. The study has several important implications. Students are trained to be responsible producers in a green dining setting, starting from practical classroom experiences in the kitchen of a green restaurant, which will enhance their becoming the critical human resources in the hospitality industry. This program offers a successful vocational education opportunity, teaching students how to responsibly run an enterprise with low-carbon products and services. Full article

While most Christians might imagine the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead as a single event, for the author of Ephesians, the resurrection is a continuing event of cosmic proportions. In a very real way, the Epistle to the Ephesians is an extended reflection on the ongoing multidimensional cosmic consequences and transformations that result from the death of Jesus and his resurrection, whose impact not only affects the macrocosm in which Christ sits triumphantly at the right hand of God, “far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion” (Eph 1: 20–22), but also the microcosm of the Church, “his body, the fullness of the one who fills the universe in every way” (1: 23), transforming those who compose the smallest microcosm, the baptized who form a Christian household and who, gathered at table to share Eucharist (5: 17–6: 9), are “seated with Christ in the heavenly places” (2: 6), already participating in the eternal Messianic banquet. This is to say that, for this author, the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is the catalyst for an ongoing and ever more evolving “new creation” of humanity and, indeed, the entire cosmos, with “Christification”—the full maturation into the divine “Christ nature” (Eph 4: 13, 15–16) as the telos or goal for the whole universe (Eph 1: 10). Full article

The construction industry, a significant contributor to global energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, is under considerable pressure to adopt transformative approaches. Public buildings, which account for a substantial portion of total energy usage, must balance high standards of thermal comfort with ventilation efficiency. In China, many public buildings are part of urban landscapes, where façade designs often limit natural ventilation. Consequently, technologies like earth-to-air heat exchangers and wind towers are increasingly essential for enhancing natural ventilation. However, research on the efficacy of these systems remains sparse. This study examines the transitional seasonal environment by evaluating the thermal-humidity index of a banquet hall equipped with an earth-to-air heat exchanger system. Using DeST software [DeST 2.0], the study simulates indoor natural ventilation, calculates ventilation rates, and assesses residual heat removal efficiency. The system’s performance is also modeled under various thermal design zones. Results demonstrate that under natural ventilation, the system can achieve a residual heat removal efficiency of up to 490%. Simulations across different climate zones indicate that the system performs best in regions with extreme temperature fluctuations, particularly those with hot summers and warm winters. In these areas, the system reduces the annual temperature difference by up to 56.7%, significantly improving thermal comfort and reducing dependency on air conditioning. In contrast, performance in milder regions like Kunming achieves only a 37.5% reduction in temperature difference. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into energy-efficient design strategies and thermal optimization for banquet halls, with significant potential for energy savings and enhanced occupant comfort. Full article

Heritage encompasses features integral to the culture of a particular society, such as traditional foods that have historical significance and continue to be part of the community’s identity. These culinary traditions must be preserved to sustain cultural identity and community well-being. This study aims to document the role of qarasiña, along with other ancestral foods, in establishing quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) as a cultural keystone species in the Jach’a Puni community. Primary data were gathered through in-depth interviews with local experts and community observations, supplemented by a comprehensive literature review. Findings reveal that in Jach’a Puni, all food is considered sacred. Three main types of qarasiña are identified: jupha qarasiña, ajara qarasiña, and kita qarasiña. The primary ingredients are domesticated quinoa (jupha) flour (Chenopodium quinoa var. quinoa) and wild quinoa (ajara) flour (Chenopodium quinoa var. melanospermum and C. hircinum). Qarasiña is integral to community banquets and social events. Although quinoa is celebrated globally as the “golden grain”, there is a risk that qarasiña may disappear and quinoa could be replaced by wheat or maize, threatening its status as a cornerstone species in the Bolivian Altiplano. Full article

The mutual reception of the Eucharist is a key issue in contemporary Christian unity. As a landmark document in Christian unity, the Lima document provides a profound exposition of the Eucharist. According to this article, eucharistic communion in the Lima document is expressed in three themes: “Communion with Christ”, “Communion of the Faithful”, and “Meal of the Kingdom”. Within these three themes, there are three groups of relationships: the relationship of mutual participation between the faithful and Christ, and the relationship of “demonstrate” and “effect” between the Eucharist and the oneness of the Church. Moreover, in the connotation of the banquet, there is the relationship of “foretaste” between the Eucharist and the Kingdom of God. Further, in my opinion, the concept of “eucharistic communion” is developed into a “theology of harmony”, namely, “the harmony between heaven and humans”, “the harmony between people and people”, and “the harmony between heaven and earth” in the Lima document. Full article

This article discusses the cannibalistic imagery in Meret Oppenheim’s works. The crucial aspect is the comparison of two versions of a seemingly similar event in which anthropophagic motifs were significantly present—Spring Banquet and Cannibal Banquet. Often mistaken or wrongly attributed, these events were essentially non-identical and evoked contrasting meanings. The comparison of Spring Banquet and Cannibal Banquet proves that they represent contradictory aspects of anthropophagic imagery. The primary research question is whether Oppenheim’s use of cannibalistic motifs differs from the manner in which they are utilized by male surrealists. Therefore, cannibalistic imagery in the works of Oppenheim is described in the context of avant-garde preoccupation with gendered anthropophagy in which a woman is imagined as an object of consumption. This article concludes with an argument that Oppenheim attempted to subvert the prevailing meanings of cannibalism in surrealism. This article also discusses Oppenheim’s other artworks with anthropophagic connotations, including Ma gouvernante—My Nurse—mein Kindermädchen (1936) and the less-known Bon appétit, Marcel! (The White Queen, 1966). Full article

This article explores the use and adaptation of the iconographic motif of the waiting servant, known primarily from late Roman wall paintings, mosaics, and other media, within the sphere of Late Antique furnishing textiles. Taking as a case study a fifth- to sixth-century CE hanging in the Art Institute of Chicago’s collection, the first section argues that the addition of elaborate, multihued architectural settings and floral motifs in this hanging and several comparable examples built upon the existing waiting-servant iconography offer an enhanced message of “the good life” within the household. Such compositional elements were rooted in earlier Greek and Roman artistic traditions, namely architectural polychromy and the visual interplay between artifice and reality. However, they also exemplify the Late Antique “jeweled style”, an aesthetic characterized by dazzling visual and polychromatic effects and an interest in artistic mimicry of other media. Striking visual parallels between the waiting-servant hangings and contemporary painted interiors suggest that textiles were considered on par with permanent media and operated in a system of cross-media artistic exchange. The article concludes with a consideration of the materiality of the Chicago hanging and its potential functions within a Late Antique residence, exploring how its portability as a woven object encouraged its flexible use within the home and allowed it to convey and even amplify particular messages through its juxtaposition with other objects, architecture, or people. Full article

The purpose of this work is to present the archaeological and historical background of viticulture and winemaking from ancient times to the present day in the Mediterranean basin. According to recent archaeological, archaeochemical and archaeobotanical data, winemaking emerged during the Neolithic period (c. 7th–6th millennium BC) in the South Caucasus, situated between the basins of the Black and Caspian Seas, and subsequently reached the Iberian Peninsula and Western Europe during the local beginning of Iron Age (c. 8th century BC), following the main maritime civilizations. This review summarises the most relevant findings evidencing that the expansion of wine production, besides depending on adequate pedo-climatic conditions and wine-growing practices, also required the availability of pottery vessels to properly ferment, store and transport wine without deterioration. The domestication of wild grapevines enabled the selection of more productive varieties, further sustaining the development of wine trade. Other fermented beverages such as mead and beer gradually lost their relevance and soon wine became the most valorised. Together with grapes, it became an object and a system of value for religious rituals and social celebrations throughout successive ancient Western civilizations. Moreover, wine was used for medicinal purposes and linked to a wide variety of health benefits. In everyday life, wine was a pleasant drink consumed by the elite classes and commoner populations during jubilee years, festivals, and banquets, fulfilling the social function of easy communication. In the present work, emphasis is put on the technical interpretation of the selected archaeological and historical sources that may explain present viticultural and oenological practices. Hopefully, this review will contribute to nurturing mutual understanding between archaeologists and wine professionals. Full article

We consider the Benjamin–Bona–Mahony (BBM) equation of the form $u_t+u_x+u{u}_x-u_{xxt}=0,(x,t)\in \mathcal{M}\times \mathbb{R}$ where $\mathcal{M}=\mathbb{T}$ or $\mathbb{R}.$ We establish norm inflation (NI) with infinite loss of regularity at general initial data in Fourier amalgam and Wiener amalgam spaces with negative regularity. This strengthens several known NI results at zero initial data in $H^s\left(\mathbb{T}\right)$ established by Bona–Dai (2017) and the ill-posedness result established by Bona–Tzvetkov (2008) and Panthee (2011) in $H^s\left(\mathbb{R}\right).$ Our result is sharp with respect to the local well-posedness result of Banquet–Villamizar–Roa (2021) in modulation spaces $M_s^{2,1}\left(\mathbb{R}\right)$ for $s\ge 0$. Full article

Sūra 12 of the Qurʾān, Joseph, tells the story of the prophet Joseph. He is bought as a slave by an Egyptian high official, whose wife—tradition calls her Zulaykhā—makes an unsuccessful attempt to seduce him, and is ridiculed by her peers for her failure to do so. She invites them to a banquet, hands them knives, and presents Joseph before them. Upon seeing him, the women cut their hands with the knives they are holding (Qurʾān 12:31). According to the generally accepted exegetical view, they do so because they were so awestruck by Joseph’s beauty that they did not know what they were doing and accidentally cut their hands while thinking that they were cutting some food item, like fruit. Amīn Aḥsan Iṣlāḥī differs from this view. He argues that the women wished to succeed where Zulaykhā had failed, and, unable to persuade Joseph in the beginning, they threatened to kill themselves if Joseph would not listen to them, and, to convince Joseph that they were serious in carrying out the threat, they deliberately cut their hands with knives. This article gives details of Iṣlāḥīʾs interpretation of the Qurʾānic verse in question and discusses how that interpretation calls for re-evaluating some crucial aspects of the Qurʾānic story of Joseph. Full article

Hippocrates, the father of medicine, had said: “Wine is a thing wonderfully appropriate to man if, in health as in disease, it is administered with appropriate and just measure according to the individual constitution.” Wine has always accompanied humanity, for religion or for health. Christians and Jews need wine for the liturgy. For Plato, wine was an indispensable element in society and the most important in the symposium. In this second part of the banquet, mixed with water, the wine gave the word. If the French paradox made a lot of ink flow; it was the wine that was originally responsible for it. Many researchers have tried to study alcohol and polyphenols in wine, in order to solve the mystery. Beyond its cardiovascular effects, there are also effects on longevity, metabolism, cancer prevention, and neuroprotection, and the list goes on. The purpose of this work is to make an analysis of the current knowledge on the subject. Indeed, if the paradigm of antioxidants is seductive, it is perhaps by their prooxidant effect that the polyphenols act, by an epigenetic process mediated by nrf2. Wine is a preserve of antioxidants for the winter and it is by this property that the wine acts, in an alcoholic solution. A wine without alcohol is pure heresy. Wine is the elixir that by design, over millennials, has acted as a pharmacopeia that enabled man to heal and prosper on the planet. From Alvise Cornaro to Serge Renaud, nutrition was the key to health and longevity, whether the Cretan or Okinawa diet, it is the small dose of alcohol (wine or sake) that allows the bioavailability of polyphenols. Moderate drinking gives a protection for diseases and a longevity potential. In conclusion, let us drink fewer, but drink better, to live older. Full article

The World Council of Churches (WCC), an organization of 348 member churches, is a model of coalition building particularly through its support of individuals, churches, and their ministries for the inclusion, participation, and contributions of people with disabilities in its ecumenical work. The Ecumenical Disability Advocates Network (EDAN) informs one of the initiatives of the WCC—faith in Jesus Christ and communion fellowship—in the journey toward visible unity and justice for people who were too often missing the banquet of a church of all and for all. EDAN and other international disability advocates have most recently embedded its agenda of inclusion into the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The United Nations explicitly recognizes the Human Rights for persons with disabilities and, with the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006), has raised protections against discrimination, exploitation, and abuse of people with disabilities to the level of international law. The World Health Organization works collaboratively in gathering data and local analyses of efforts to minimize preventable disability and maximize rehabilitation program availability with partners across the globe. These organizations, global in nature, have benefitted from the insights raised by people with disabilities and scholars working at the intersections of disability, religion, and justice. This essay examines the efficacy and opportunities of international coalitions available with these organizations so as to challenge the ethics of simple accommodations with a more robust social justice of affirmation and advocacy for people with disabilities: a new paradigm for our churches and our world. Full article

In the present review of 23 published case studies, the main objective is to report the emergence and epidemiology of ciguatera in the coastal cities of southern China. There was a sudden surge in ciguatera outbreaks in 2004. Ciguatera mostly occurred in the Guangdong Province. In Shenzhen, the incidence of ciguatera in 2004 was estimated to be over 7.5 per million people. In Foshan and Zhongshan, three large outbreaks each affecting over 100–200 subjects (caused by tiger grouper served at banquets) accounted for the much higher incidence of ciguatera in 2004 (>48.7 and >129.9 per million people). Humphead wrasse and areolated coral grouper were the other important ciguatoxic fish. In some subjects, risk factors for increased likelihood of (severe) ciguatera were present, namely concomitant alcohol consumption and ingestion of large reef fishes and CTX-rich fish parts. To prevent large outbreaks and severe illness, large apex predators from coral reefs should never be served at banquets and the public should realize the increased risk of severe symptoms due to ingestion of CTX-rich fish parts with alcohol. The systematic collection of accurate details, implementation of risk assessment process and continuing education for the public on prevention are of obvious importance. Full article