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In Taiwanese folklore, the worship of immortal trees has taken various forms. Often such practices are closely related to the worship of the earth god. In other cases, what is called Dashugong, literally ‘great tree god’, acts as a child’s guardian figure: the health and reproduction of a living tree in an otherworldly setting parallel the health and posterity of a human being. Religious rituals associated with ancient tree worship continue today. Trees symbolise fertility in folk beliefs and in folk art, and the impact of ancient beliefs may be traced in horticultural practices, and in the retail sale of trees. The idea that gods reside in large trees persists, as does the belief that a tree spirit appears only when it – or the living tree – is confronted, wounded, or killed. Reacting to such violence, a tree spirit becomes vengeful and dangerous. Government agencies and environmentalists have alluded to this concept to promote conservation. When an old tree dies, people nowadays plant a sapling to replace it. The tree of life continues to be celebrated, no longer for its gigantic profile but as a symbol of renewal.

As the aging population in China increases, home-based elderly care is set to become the main mode of elderly care in the future. The construction of community elderly care service facilities is receiving more and more attention from society. Currently, residential area design standards in China lack clear guidance on the spatial planning of facilities, which will lead to unreasonable facility layout planning and insufficient convenience in the utilization of facilities by the elderly. Fully considering the distribution characteristics of community elderly care service facilities and the needs of the community life circle when planning residential areas can effectively solve this problem. This study takes Xi'an City as the research object, based on the theory of life circle, through questionnaire surveys and cluster analysis, analyzes the current situation of the construction of elderly care service facilities and the characteristics of the use by the elderly. Combined with the community life circle model, the study scope is divided into community life circle levels, and put forward the planning strategies of coverage rate, number, richness, and spatial layout of the facilities, respectively. These strategies are designed to enhance the quality of life for seniors, ensuring that they have access to essential support and resources within their communities. It demonstrated that middle-aged elderly prefer community canteens and activity centers, while those with limited mobility and multiple chronic diseases have a higher demand for health service centers and community canteens. The utilization weight analysis shows that vegetable markets and supermarkets are most frequently used, whereas health service centers are the least utilized. The research proposes strategic planning enhancements, including full coverage of basic facilities, targeted increases in high-demand facilities, and tailored facilities for elderly characteristics. It recommends cross-community layouts to ensure service radius coverage, development reservations for future needs, and quality improvements to address the low satisfaction rates of existing facilities. The study concludes that a targeted approach to facility planning, considering the elderly's diverse needs, can enhance the community elderly care service system's sustainability and effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Molecular topology is a key to determine the physiochemical aspects of the molecular structure. To determine the degree of irregularity of a certain molecular structure or a network has been a key source of interest for the molecular topologists as it provides an insight of the key features that are used to guess the properties of the structures. In this article, we are interested in formulating closed forms of irregularity measures of some popular benzenoid systems, namely, zigzag, rhombic, and honeycomb benzenoid systems. We also compared our results graphically and concluded that benzenoid system among above is more asymmetric than the others.

The ruthenium (Ru)-based functional structure has been well understood in catalytic performance due to its special particularity in structural fabrication. In this work, the controllable synthesis of core–shell Ru nanomaterials is first reported, which were not only realized via ice bath conditions with amorphous characterization but also showed a flexible design in the controllable synthesis of crystalline Ru after high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) treatment. The achieved amorphous Ru particles (∼115 ± 3 nm) and crystalline Ru (∼5 ± 0.5 nm) exhibit hydrogen peroxide catalytic performance and can be considered as an electrochemical sensing platform. The Km value of core–shell Ru for 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) was 0.221 mM, which exhibits higher affinity for TMB and prominent catalytic performance than horseradish peroxidase (HRP). For selectivity and sensitivity towards the detection of H2O2 molecules, it expressed a wide linear range from 0.5 to 100 mM with an H2O2 detection limit of 1.45 μM (S/N = 3) and a sensitivity of 2.07 μA μM−1. After HIFU treatment, the diameter of the achieved crystalline Ru was about one-twentieth that of the core–shell Ru structure. An enhancement in catalytic performance was observed as a sensor platform for detecting H2O2, its detection range was wider, from 0.5 to 110 mM, its limit of detection was 0.007 μM (S/N = 3), and it exhibited a higher sensitivity of 443 μA μM−1. Hence, this flexible design in the synthesis of Ru NMs (amorphous and crystalline in status) could provide a novel synthetic strategy and make achievements in catalytic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The public teaching buildings of universities have a large flow of people, high lighting requirements, and large energy consumption, which present significant potential for energy saving. The greatest opportunity for integrating "green" architectural design strategies lies in the design phase, especially the early stage of architectural design. However, current designers often rely on experience or qualitative judgment for decision-making. Thus, there is a pressing need for rational and quantitative green architectural design theories and techniques to guide and support decision-making for the design parameters of teaching buildings. This study, based on field surveys of 40 teaching buildings, constructs building archetypes regarding energy consumption including 28 typical values. Based on the "Rectangle", "L", "U", and "Courtyard" archetypes, through batch energy consumption simulation and multiple regression methods, the influence mechanisms of nine energy consumption influencing factors on four types of building energy consumptions were explored, and energy consumption prediction models were derived. The findings of this research can serve as factor evaluation and selection in the early stage of architectural design for public teaching buildings at universities, and the prediction model can assist in the early estimation of energy consumption. This aims to enrich and supplement green architectural design methods by supporting the design of green public teaching buildings and providing reference and application for relevant engineering practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]