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Affirming Gender Queerness in the Christian Context: Process Theology and Creation from Chaos in Genesis 1:1-2
No full textChristianity has not been widely regarded as an inclusive, safe, and loving place for gender queer persons, who have often felt excluded and shunned by the church. This paper posits a new exegesis of Genesis 1:1-2 that creates space for the church to be more inclusive towards the LGBTQIA+ community and creates an avenue for gender queer persons to feel accepted by the church. One interpretation of Gen. 1:1-2 is that God created good creation from the chaos of the tehom and tohu-wabohu. The initial good creation from chaos which God created suggests that many subsequent instances of co-creation from chaos with God as a partner can also be considered good if the co-creator is tuned into the good creative lure of God. So, considering that the originial creation from chaos by God was good creation, and considering that gender non-conforming persons engage in co-creation alongside God when embracing their gender identity from the chaos of gender dysphoria, it can be supposed that this human creation from chaos can also be considered good and affirmed by God when co-created alongside God and the lure of God. This exegesis of Gen. 1:1-2 demonstrates how gender queer persons are created in the image of God, and as such should have a beloved space in the church exactly as they are
Hibernation and Thrombo-protection: Exploring Fibrinolytic Mechansims in the Ametrican Black Bear
No full textResearch Question: Are there differences in fibrinolytic regulatory mechanisms in naturally hibernating American black bears (Ursus americanus) that may serve as a basis for ¿thromboprotection¿ from stasis? Specifically, how do tissue plasminogen, urokinase plasminogen activator, and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 expression patterns differ in hibernating vs active bears?Background and Significance: Thrombotic complications are a common pathology following days of stagnation, periods of immobility, and hospital admissions. The commonality of thrombotic events is lethal and contributes to one in four deaths worldwide. Although deep vein thrombosis (DVT) cases reduced from 264 per 100,000 to 167 per 100,000 from 1999 to 2010, researching control and therapeutic measures continue to expand our understanding. Rudolf Virchow in 1847 published a triad of factors describing stasis, a period of inactivity, as a contributing factor to venous thrombosis. Yet, hibernating animals, and bears in particular, are dormant and inactive for three to four months with minimal thrombotic complications. These mammals provide an opportunity to expand our scientific knowledge of fibrinolysis mechanisms in relationship to stasis from Virchow¿s Triad.Materials and Methods: This cross-translational study will entail recruitment of hibernating and non-hibernating American black bears (Ursus americanus). Hibernation was determined by level of inactivity and monitoring of body temperature with specific parameters determined. We have a professional working relationship with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources; a state agency with ongoing Ursus americanus research. After IUACA and animal husbandry approval at the Michigan resource, and per their established methods, blood draws were completed under anesthesia via the femoral or jugular veins following strict protocols demonstrated by Friedrich et al. during active summertime and hibernation. Samples were frozen to -80 degrees to maintain consistency of factors. Cell count, hemostasis testing, and clotting factor assays are to be performed at Baylor All Saints pathology laboratory in Fort Worth, Texas.Results: Previous studies conducted by Friedrich et al. demonstrated marked reductions in Factor XI, Factor XII, vWF, a prolonged PT and aPTT, and an increase in antithrombin in blood samples from hibernating bears, and we attempted to confirm these findings. We hypothesize that urokinase and tissue plasminogen activator levels will be increased to enhance fibrinolysis to maintain coagulation homeostasis. In partnership with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, we collected 16 live bear samples during the winter and spring of 2023. Our samples have been successful stored at negative 80-degrees Fahrenheit and await delivery to Baylor All Saints in Fort Worth, Texas. We have sufficient sample collection to run appropriate assays and adequate data to test our hypothesis in spring of 2024.Conclusion: Our study has opened the door to further explore cross-translational opportunities. American black bears have enabled us to see further than human studies and understand the interrelatedness that is visible in everyday life. We look forward to processing of 16 samples of bear specimens, and irrespective of the results, we have demonstrated through execution of this project that we could execute a meaningful multi-institutional collaboration delivering samples for scientific analysis of which there are only two other global examples. I have learned how to effectively establish partnerships to complete seemingly impossible work and know this will impact my career as a clinician and professional
Mommy, what did you do in the war?: Republican mothers march off to war, 1940-1945
No full textWar is an agent of social change. After World War I, American women came of age politically, challenging men’s control over the political arena. In the face of hostilities abroad, women began organizing to defend their communities in the face of the threat of war. Their response threatened the prevailing expectations regarding women’s proper place in society as homemakers. During the prewar period, government bureaus, including the Women’s Bureau and Children’s Bureau, recognized the need for women’s involvement in the war as newly established wartime commissions worked to put the nation on a wartime status. The integrity of two core values of American society, the Republican Mother and the Democratic Family were threatened as Selective Service found it necessary to draft ever more significant numbers of men, and the government instituted recruitment campaigns urging women to take war jobs outside the home and enter factories.
A lively public debate took place as government bureaus utilized the full spectrum of media to galvanize public opinion while the opposition highlighted the deterioration of the Democratic Family. As large numbers of women entered the sexually charged work environment, fear increased over deteriorating standards of morality and the decline of the Democratic Family. The most serious threat was the welfare of the nation’s children. Concerns over latch-key children and juvenile delinquency increased as mothers marched off to work. The need to care for “Rosie’s” children and the federal government’s responsibility for childcare became paramount.
Many working women became tired of juggling work and home responsibilities, so they quit industrial jobs. As the war wound down, government officials looked forward to returning women to their rightful place, the home, and rebuilding the Democratic Family. Women’s newly acquired freedom and individuality complicated the question of women’s proper place in post-war American society. At the end of the war, unmarried women, those widowed or with husbands disabled due to war, returned to lower-paying, traditionally gendered jobs. In contrast, the bulk of American women returned to their home duties, legends of their time
Diving Our Way to Empathy: Evaluating Standardized Empathy Training in the Handicapped Scuba Association¿s Adaptive Dive Buddy Training Course
No full textResearch Question: Our research question is centered around this challenging training. We aim to explore the effectiveness of HSA empathy training on raising participants¿ objective empathy.Background and Significance: SCUBA (Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Appartatus), a sport popularized in the mid-twentieth century by French inventor and explorer Jacques Cousteau, has historically been considered an extreme sport reserved only for risk-takers and physical specimens. The Handicapped Scuba Association (HSA) has challenged this narrative since its founding by Jim Gatacre in 1981. The HSA brings the sport of scuba to those of all abilities with training programs for people with disabilities and their able-bodied buddies. The adaptive buddy training, standardized on an international scale, consists of four days of intensive above- and below-water training. Beyond the technical skill of assisting disabled divers, the training is renowned for its approach to empathy. HSA empathy training includes OSHA and international accessibility standards, wheelchair-bound and blind exercises, and paraplegic and quadriplegic underwater maneuvers. Through these experiential simulation scenarios buddies learn to dive and solve problems differently, developing new skills that are needed to safely scuba dive with divers with disabilities. HSA simulation drills are a cornerstone of HSA training and are required to achieve certification. Empathy, and the ability to teach and improve this skill, is a core tenet of the Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine at Texas Christian University. Empathy training is becoming mainstream in medical education, and insights into practices that objectively increase empathy could help further develop and inform these curricula in medical education.Materials and Methods: We explored our primary research question with a standardized, validated empathy measure. We partnered with a local branch of the HSA, a non-profit in the metroplex called Adaptable Scuba. Adaptable Scuba trains several groups of adaptive buddies every year according to HSA¿s international standards. We used the validated Perth Empathy Scale (PES) to objectively measure empathy scores over the course of training. We expected that the data would demonstrate a statistically significant, objective increase in empathy measures as measured by the Perth Empathy Scale. We also expected the baseline empathy of those pursuing Adaptive Dive Buddy training to be higher than the mean as reported by the creators of the Perth Empathy Scale.Results: After one cohort of adaptive dive buddy candidates, we found no significant difference in baseline empathy and no significant changes in empathy as measured by the PES in any category, sub-category, or aggregate after the intervention.Conclusion: After debrief, we believe subjective empathy increased, especially with this specific and vulnerable population. Upon further discussion, we surmise there may be a need for more cohorts, use of a different scale, or creation of a scale especially for caregivers and colleagues of those with disabilities
Home-Based Telemedicine in Rheumatology-A Scoping Review
No full textObjective. We performed a scoping review of the relevant literature on home-based telehealth in rheumatology to understand its appropriate application in rheumatology practice. Methods. We searched the Cochrane Library, PubMed, Web of Science, and scientific meeting abstracts to identify articles that specifically addressed telehealth suitability, barriers to telehealth, patient-reported outcomes (PROs) collected in telehealth settings, and telehealth satisfaction. From the initial search of 4,882 studies, 23 reports were included. In addition, 10 abstracts were also eligible for analysis, resulting in a total of 33 articles: 2 randomized clinical trials, 9 prospective cohort studies, and 22 retrospective studies. Results. We found that triage appointments or predictive models could be helpful in selecting patients for telehealth and that telehealth interventions were appropriate for follow-up of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and inflammatory arthritis, but that conducting new patient visits over telehealth was not ideal. Barriers to telehealth include patient factors (age, technology access) and need for physician/process factors (eg, physical examinations). PROs collected in regular practice can be incorporated into telehealth. Several small, single-center studies suggest that telehealth does not lead to negative outcomes compared with in-person visits, and overall, patients report high patient satisfaction with telehealth. In several scenarios, home-based telehealth was equivalent to in-person visits with regard to patient outcomes and satisfaction. Conclusion. The widespread potential of telehealth to manage and deliver care for people with rheumatic disease is significant. As such, further research in the form of randomized controlled trials can help contribute to growing evidence that shapes telehealth implementation for patients with rheumatic diseases
Assessing Bitcoin's Dynamics: An Empirical Analysis Of Bitcoin's Risk And Return Relationships With The S&P 500 And Government Bonds
No full textThis study investigates the dynamics of risk and return relationships among Bitcoin, the S&P 500 Index, and government bonds using a vector autoregression approach, covering the period from 2020 to 2024. Employing daily return data, the analysis utilizes a vector autoregression of two lags model to explore return relationships between the aforementioned assets. For the risk analysis, a Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (GARCH) model is applied to the daily returns, followed by first differencing of the GARCH outputs for each variable and subsequent analysis of vector autoregression of two lags. The results indicate an absence of significant risk and return relationships between Bitcoin and both the S&P 500 and government bonds. The lack of significant findings prompts further investigation into the unique characteristics of Bitcoin. Additional analyses are conducted on Bitcoin's risk and return dynamics with meme stocks and its return relationship with macroeconomic indicators. The findings contribute to understanding the complex interplay between traditional financial assets and cryptocurrencies, highlighting the distinctive behavior of Bitcoin in the financial markets. This study enriches the existing literature on asset class interactions under different market conditions and advances our comprehension of the underlying factors influencing these relationship
Group Home Care and Felt-Safety
No full textFelt-safety is the emotional and physical components of safety and fills the gap between knowing you are safe and feeling you are safe. Felt-safety is a critical aspect of development because it allows an individual to move from their lower functioning automatic brain to higher level centers capable of reasoning and learning. Youth who are in foster care, particularly youth in residential care settings, experience frequent change and many new environments. The author investigated whether felt-safety levels could be increased in a local group home through "Life Skill" lessons. The author used "Life Skill" lessons to build relational connections among residents and between residents and staff. Before undergoing "Life Skill" lessons participants took an online written assessment which measured: felt-safety using The Neuroception of Psychological Safety Scale (NPSS), attachment patterns using The Experiences in Close Relationships Scale (ECR), and psychological wellbeing using the Psychological-Wellbeing Scale (PWB). The hypothesis was to see increases in felt-safety and gain evidence for best practices in increasing safety levels among youth in residential settings. A second hypothesis was to see an increase in psychological wellbeing in correlation to felt-safety. A Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test was used to determine significance between Time 1 and Time 2. Interestingly, there was found to be a significant decrease in felt-safety levels, while the difference in psychological wellbeing was not significant. Overall, this research helped quantify levels of felt-safety and wellbeing amongst youth in residential care
The Consequences of Trump's Refugee Narratives on the Social and Political World
No full textIn recent years, the United States has undergone a shift in both societal cohesion, and political normalcy, at large an effect by a previously unprecedented style of political cohesion. Beginning with Donald Trump?s presidential campaign, and following presidency, he spoke about refugees, immigrants, and displaced people in astonishingly generalizing, and disparaging terms. The president had a unique style of communication not only for the publicly overwhelming way he negatively spoke about groups of people who were seeking entrance in the country, but for the manner in which he persuaded millions of people that he was an immigration panacea and was able to form such a loyal base of followers. Through this study I am to analyze how Trump?s usage of alt-resilience and storytelling helped shape the social world in the United States from the years 2015-2020, as well as how the communicative creation of a sense of ?others? prove advantageous to Trump?s political career. Trump?s communication is known to be disparaging and informal, but it has not been studied through the communication theory of resilience and the theory of narrative paradigm. It is crucial to understand both the construction and implications of Trump?s communication between the years of 2015 and 2020, for there have been significant social and political effects as a result. I gathered a sample of Trump?s political speeches through C-SPAN and analyzed them to understand more about what tactics he used to make his speech as persuasive as possible. I found time and time again that he told inflammatory stories about those seeking entrance into the United States that lacked in detail and fact, generated a sense of ?us versus them? and victim mentality within American society, which encouraged attitudes of nativism and proved extremely device within the nation?s society
GDF15 is a dynamic biomarker of the integrated stress response in the central nervous system
No full textAim: Characterize Growth Differentiation Factor 15 (GDF15) as a secreted biomarker of the integrated stress response (ISR) within the central nervous system (CNS). Methods: We determined GDF15 levels utilizing in vitro and in vivo neuronal systems wherein the ISR was activated. Primarily, we used the murine model of vanishing white matter disease (VWMD), a neurological disease driven by persistent ISR in the CNS, to establish a link between levels of GDF15 in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and ISR gene expression signature in the CNS. GDF15 was also determined in the CSF of VWM patients. Results: GDF15 expression was increased concomitant to ISR activation in stress-induced primary astrocytes as well as in retinal ganglion cells following optic nerve crush, while treatment with 2Bact, a specific eIF2B activator, suppressed both the ISR and GDF15. In the VWMD model, CSF GDF15 levels corresponded with the magnitude of the ISR and were reduced by 2BAct. In VWM patients, mean CSF GDF15 was elevated >20-fold as compared to healthy controls, whereas plasma GDF15 was undifferentiated. Conclusions: These data suggest that CSF GDF15 is a dynamic marker of ISR activation in the CNS and may serve as a pharmacodynamic biomarker for ISR-modulating therapies
Definitional Discrepancies: Defining "School Shootings" and Other Incidents of Gunfire Affecting Schools
No full textThe current review explores multiple definitions of school shootings used by myriad data collection platforms and by various scholars. Importantly, the impacts of definitional discrepancies on inclusion criteria, data divergence, research, policy, and public perception are discussed at length. The review concludes with a call to Criminologists and school gun violence scholars to better collaborate on what should be considered a "school shooting" and lists five benefits that may result from modifying school gun violence definitions and data collection methodologies