Physical Education (PE) occupies a paradoxical position in China: constitutionally mandated yet persistently marginalised within a system that prioritises cognitive attainment and measurable academic outputs. This paper critically examines the ideological, cultural, and neoliberal forces underpinning this marginalisation, situating the Chinese case within broader global trends while attending to its distinct historical and philosophical contexts. We argue that its marginalisation is not a mere logistical failure but an onto-epistemological crisis rooted in a constellation of mutually reinforcing discourses. These include the enduring Chinese cultural hierarchy of ‘Zhong Wen Qing Wu’ (valuing the literary over the physical), which is amplified by the high-stakes Gaokao examination system; the influence of Western mind–body dualism, which devalues embodied knowing; and the ascendancy of a neoliberal utilitarianism that reduces education to market utility. Together, these forces create a destructive cycle that instrumentalises PE for narrow health metrics while stripping it of its broader humanistic value. Moving beyond critique, this paper proposes a strategy of ‘glocalisation’ as a robust path forward. We contend that a meaningful revaluation of PE requires a dialectical process: engaging with global scholarly turns toward embodiment while simultaneously reclaiming indigenous Chinese philosophical resources. Specifically, we articulate a framework grounded in Taoist concepts of the lived body (Shen), spontaneity (Ziran), and non-coercive action (Wuwei). The proposed framework displaces the dualistic, mechanical body with a processual, relational, and phenomenologically rich understanding of the lived body, offering a culturally resonant and philosophically robust basis for reimagining PE. By advancing this counter-ontology, the paper contributes to ongoing international debates on the epistemological status of PE and offers pathways for restoring its centrality in nurturing whole persons and fostering human flourishing.
Physical activity guidelines commonly recommend that older adults engage in at least 150–300 min of moderate intensity aerobic activity each week, combined with muscle strengthening and balance training. Although this target is clear, measurable, and useful for public health monitoring, it may be insufficient when directly applied to community-dwelling older adults who are frail, multimorbid, socially isolated, digitally excluded, or constrained by unsafe environments and limited care resources. For these populations, the central challenge is not only whether they can meet a weekly exercise volume, but whether they can preserve the functional abilities needed for independent living, social participation, and active aging. This Perspective argues for moving exercise promotion for community-dwelling older adults beyond a narrow adherence-based view of the 150-min target and toward a function-oriented paradigm of active health. We propose an integrated framework that places functional preservation at the center, uses micro dose exercise as an accessible entry point, applies Behavior Change Techniques to translate recommendations into sustainable daily habits, embeds exercise within community life through social prescribing, and supports long-term participation through human and digital collaboration. This approach does not reject existing physical activity guidelines. Rather, it reframes them as flexible references that can be adapted to older adults’ heterogeneous bodily conditions, social contexts, and everyday routines. By shifting from exercise adherence to long-term functional integration, community-based exercise promotion can become more inclusive, equitable, and feasible for older adults who are most likely to be left behind by standard dose-based models.
Bioleaching offers a sustainable alternative to conventional metallurgy, but its application is limited by low leaching rates, inhibition by heavy metals, and prolonged adaptation. Here, we engineered Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans, a model bioleaching microorganism ubiquitous in mining environments, by modulating intracellular bis(3′ −5′)-cyclic dimeric guanosine monophosphate (c-di-GMP) signaling to enhance biofilm formation, bioleaching efficiency, and arsenic tolerance. Overexpression of diguanylate cyclase genes AFE_1379, AFE_0053, and AFE_1373 produced engineered strains S-222, S-306, and S-651, respectively, with 1.7-, 2.5-, and 5-fold higher intracellular c-di-GMP levels than the control carrying the empty plasmid vector. Under arsenic-free condi tions, all engineered strains showed similar growth profiles, but S-306, at intermediate c-di-GMP (306.3 ± 28.1 μg mg−1), formed cytochrome-rich biofilms with low internal resistance and achieved the highest bioleaching efficiency. Under arsenic stress, S-651, at high c-di-GMP (651.4 ± 15.5 μg mg−1), developed polysaccharide-rich biofilms that enhanced arsenic tolerance, scorodite (FeAsO₄·2H₂O) precipitation, and bioleaching performance. Transcriptomic analysis confirmed these strain-specific gene expression patterns. These findings demonstrate that tuning intracellular c-di-GMP enables A. ferrooxidans to reprogram biofilm matrix composition for extracellular electron uptake and heavy-metal resistance, providing a synthetic biology strategy for environmentally friendly bioleaching and tailings recycling
Elite athlete mothers are often positioned within competing cultural narratives: motherhood is framed as incompatible with high-performance sport, yet successful return-to-sport stories are frequently celebrated through ideals of the sporting ‘supermom’. This paper explores how motherhood is experienced by three Chinese Olympic medallists who returned to elite competition following childbirth within the Juguo Tizhi (Whole Nation System). Drawing on a feminist Foucauldian framework and narrative analysis, the paper examines how athlete-mother subjectivities are negotiated through disciplinary power, affective governance and technologies of the self within China’s state-sponsored sport system. The findings suggest that the maternal body becomes a site of bio-psycho-political tension, where postpartum embodiment, caregiving responsibilities and elite sporting demands converge. Participants’ narratives revealed how feelings of kuiqian (guilt and indebtedness) operated as a form of affective governance, transforming maternal separation and sacrifice into powerful motivations for continued athletic achievement. Simultaneously, motherhood functioned as a rupture that enabled athletes to renegotiate their relationships with sport, family and self, giving rise to processes of re-becoming and renewed forms of agency within, rather than outside, institutional power relations. The paper offers a culturally situated account of athlete motherhood and illustrates how maternal agency is continuously negotiated within a highly institutionalised sporting environment.
Wisdom is theorized to regulate the ethical use of cognitive strengths, but empirical evidence for its moderating role remains limited and inconsistent. This research investigates whether wisdom guides the application of intelligence and creativity toward prosocial ends, using domain-consistent, humanistic assessments across two studies (N = 933). Study 1 employed performance-based measures to examine how state-level wisdom influences the prosocial deployment of social intelligence and real-life creativity in morally complex scenarios. Study 2 used self-report measures to explore trait-level associations among integrative wisdom, social intelligence, creativity, and social mindfulness. Across both studies, wisdom consistently moderated the link between creativity and prosociality: higher wisdom predicted either stronger positive associations (Study 2) or buffered against ethically problematic use (Study 1). In contrast, no consistent evidence was found that wisdom similarly guided the use of intelligence. These findings suggest that wisdom functions as a selective moral regulator, more effectively shaping the ethical expression of open-ended, generative capacities such as creativity than of structured, instrumental capacities such as intelligence. The results underscore the importance of aligning constructs within shared evaluative domains and provide preliminary empirical support for wisdom as a meta-capacity that channels value-sensitive strengths toward socially constructive ends.
Insufficient oxygen mass transfer and inadequate charge separation are two critical factors restricting the photocatalytic efficiency of covalent organic frameworks (COFs) for water purification. Here, we develop a facile strategy to simultaneously boost oxygen mass transfer and charge separation in COFs through constructing efficient oxygen capture tentacles via replacing conventional pyridine groups with nicotinic-acid/methyl-nicotinate groups, which have tunable oxygen affinity. Molecular dynamics simulations and in situ characterizations reveal that compared to pyridine groups in COF-EP1 and nicotinic-acid groups in COF-EP2, respectively serving as weak and medium oxygen capture tentacles, methyl-nicotinate groups in COF-EP3 can serve as strong oxygen capture tentacles due to their superb oxygen affinity, which can enhance oxygen interaction energies and thus promote oxygen mass transfer. Owing to the optimal charge polarization, methyl-nicotinate groups in COF-EP3 also strengthen internal electric fields to facilitate charge separation. COF-EP3 thus achieves exceptional photocatalytic degradation performance towards sulfadiazine (99.5% removal in 25 min, k = 0.21 min−1), which is 16.2 and 2.8 times higher than that of COF-EP1 (k = 0.013 min−1) and COF-EP2 (k = 0.076 min−1), respectively. Besides, COF-EP3 exhibits high sulfadiazine degradation performance in complicated water matrices, continuous-flow system, and scaled-up reactor, demonstrating its practical application potential.
High quality factor and sensitivity are critical to wireless sensors targeting small perturbation detection. Although introducing parity-time symmetric dynamics promises enhanced performance, the symmetric scheme often yields limited sensing behaviors. In particular, its implementation is hindered by the inherent difficulties in decoupling capacitance- and coupling strength–induced responses, the requirements of delicately matching and/or tuning both gain and loss, and the need of strong coupling strength. Here, we report a concept of critical point (CP)–based wireless sensors that do not rely on balanced gain-loss configurations, delivering ultrahigh quality factor with an extended interrogation distance. Owing to a sharp and deep reflection dip, the CP-based scheme can resolve the change in coupling coefficient down to 1.92 × 10−4 and features frequency-independent responses. Furthermore, the CP-based scheme allows for identification of tiny asymmetric capacitive perturbations as small as 2.5 × 10−5 without requiring active tuning of the other parameters under weak coupling. Critical-point wireless sensors with unbalanced gain and loss enable reliable and sensitive detection under weak coupling.
