10,954 research outputs found
Microfluidic Devices for the Temporal Resolution of T Lymphocyte Competition
No full textEvery cell in the human body is unique. In the immune system this is essential so that a wide range of invading pathogens can be recognised. To achieve the heterogeneity in lymphocytes, immature T lymphocytes and B lymphocytes undergo ‘priming’ in the thymus and bone marrow to diversify the cell surface receptors. As such, bulk analysis of immune cells and overlooking outliers, such as cells exhibiting unusual characteristics or responses, could lead to interesting cell characteristics being disregarded.By tracking the activation profile of a T lymphocyte against an antigen presenting cell in a high-throughput manner at the single cell level, the variation in activation levels of individual T lymphocytes will be identified. This will lead to an improved understanding of why certain T lymphocytes are more efficient at eradicating diseases.This thesis describes the design and development of a bespoke microfluidic device able to trap thousands of individual cells in nanolitre wells, for the analysis of cell-cell interactions. The device is optically transparent, enabling T lymphocyte activation to be observed in real time using fluorescent microscopy and calcium staining; thousands of cells may be observed within a single microscope field of view. Cell-cell contact is controllable by the device, allowing the activation of T lymphocytes against antigen presenting cells to be viewed in real time, in a high-throughput manner.The device has been used to investigate T lymphocyte activation against soluble stimulants, as well as antigen presenting cells. Specifically, the temporal calcium response of single cells has been studied and experimental results are presented. The findings reveal differences in activation profiles of individual cells within a clone population, which are not evident using state-of-the art bulk cell analysis techniques such as flow cytometry. This work highlights the importance of assessing single cell responses in an immune interaction
Time-resolved microwell cell-pairing array reveals multiple T cell activation profiles
No full textThe differences in behaviour between individual cells in a large population are often important, yet are masked in bulk analyses where only average parameters are measured. One unresolved question in the field of immunology is the extent to which important immunological phenomena such as immunodominance to cancer antigens correlates with the average activity of a population of antigen-specific T lymphocytes, or with the activity of individual "outlier" cells. Despite progress in single cell technologies, few platforms are available that can deliver time-resolved, functional analysis at single cell resolution, for these investigations. We have developed an accessible high-throughput platform to measure single T cell signalling in real time following time-controlled stimulation by live antigen presenting cells. The cell-trap array consists of thousands of individual microwells cast in an agarose block, which is biocompatible and permeable to nutrients. Single T cells are isolated in wells via passive sedimentation and size exclusion, achieving up to 90% occupancy. The device enables simultaneous activation of thousands of single CD8+ cells. Stimulation with soluble reagents (ionomycin, anti-CD3 antibodies) or antigen presenting cells leads to changes in intracellular calcium concentrations which were measured using calcium-chelating fluorophore dyes. The platform was used to demonstrate a range of activation profiles among individual cells of a cloned, antigen specific CD8+ T cell hybridoma in response to both nonspecific stimuli and specific, physiologically relevant antigen stimulation. The presence of two different activation profiles was demonstrated, together with rare outlier behaviour among cells that are essentially clonal.</p
Leadership development in a faith-based non-profit organisation using a relational leadership model: A case study
No full textThis paper describes a case study of a Leadership Development Program (LDP) which has been developed and conducted at a large faith-based non-profit organization providing aged and community care in Australia. Walter Wright's Relational Leadership model which used insights from Jude, Philemon and Colossians was adopted by the organization. Started as a pilot in 2003 the LDP was implemented in 2007 and has been run regularly since then. The LDP was systematically evaluated by an independent researcher recently. The evaluation concluded that the program has been effective and recommended that it continue with some minor modifications. The organization in which this program was developed is a partner in an Australian Research Council (ARC) linkage grant started in 2010 between three universities and two faith-based non-profit organizations providing aged care and community care. This paper has been written by four researchers involved in the linkage grant. Four interviews on participants in the LDP were conducted by the authors to evaluate the effectiveness of the leadership program in order to prepare this paper. The study was carried out to clarify the research aim for the principal author (who is a PhD student in the ARC grant) by trying to understand what the LDP program was aiming to achieve and to be presented at the Spirituality at Work conference at the University of Arkansas
Faith Reyher Jackson papers
No full textAuthor, educator, dancer/choreographer and master gardener Faith Reyher Jackson was born in New York City in 1919 to author Ferdinand Reyher (1890-1967) and author and women's rights activist Rebecca Hourwich Reyher (1898-1985). Jackson attended Bennington College in Bennington, Vermont, where she studied under Martha Hill and Martha Graham, graduating with a degree in dance and the arts in 1939. Jackson pioneered a program in dance education at the Academy of the Washington Ballet, where she served as the headmistress from 1964 until her retirement in 1978. Upon her retirement, Jackson devoted considerable time to her gardening efforts, earning her the title of master gardener. Jackson's journalistic career includes positions as the beauty editor of the New York Post from 1945 to 1946 and book editor of the Miami Herald from 1948 to 1950, and she has written for a number of publications, including Dance Magazine, Home & Garden, Mid-Atlantic Country, and American Horticulturist. Her major publications include both fiction and nonfiction, beginning with a scholarly biography of landscape architect William Lyman Phillips, Pioneer of Tropical Landscape Architecture: William Lyman Phillips in Florida, published in 1997 by the University Press of Florida. Jackson's fiction includes Meadow fugue and Descant (2002), for which she was awarded the Washington Writers Award, and her most recent publication, Stone's Throw (2009). Faith Jackson died on November 12, 2012. The collection documents Jackson's literary and journalistic activities, as well as major gardening projects. Material includes correspondence, manuscripts, architectural drawings, photographs, publications, and clippings
Oral history interview with Faith Phillips
No full textFaith Phillips, author of fiction and nonfiction, recalls her childhood and comments on the culture of Adair County, Oklahoma. She talks about her early career as a lawyer and about what prompted her to change her focus to writing. Phillips covers her travels, including a mission trip to Africa and how that changed her perspective on life. She discusses her writing process and a couple of her books, Now I Lay Me Down and Ezekiel's Wheels. She also comments on her emotional struggles with writing a true crime story.The Deep Roots: Oklahoma Authors Collection is a series of interviews with authors who discuss their lives, work, and creative processes
Divorce and the faith community: some experiences of women
No full textWomen of faith who divorce are very likely to turn for support to their community of faith. Generally, mental health providers who offer services to divorcing or divorced women are seldom knowledgeable about their relationships, whether positive or negative, with social institutions such as churches. This dissertation is a qualitative study using phenomenological and feminist approaches to explore and describe the experiences of divorced women who consider themselves to be part of faith communities.
Participants responded to an invitation to complete an open-ended questionnaire on the Internet. Issues pertinent to qualitative research on the Internet are addressed. Respondents were asked to tell about their relationship with their faith community, to tell their divorce story, and to tell what it means to be a divorced woman in their faith community.
Findings indicate that women's beliefs and expectations about marriage, divorce, and deity influenced the timing and process of making the decision to divorce. In addition, the process of the divorce decision led to unexpected changes in women's beliefs about themselves, their ex-spouses, their families, and their faith communities. Precipitants of divorce were also found to have an influence on the responses of the faith community, its leaders, and family members to the women's divorce decision. A change in the way divorced women of faith are perceived is proposed, to role models and wise women. Practices and interventions, with specific attention to psychotherapy and counseling, which were identified by the respondents, along with specific suggestions for improvement, are discussed
Faith-based programs
No full textFaith-based programs are one of the oldest forms of correctional treatment in prisons around the world. In the United States (US), faith-based programming was the original and primary form of treatment. The use of faith-based programming in the US was reduced greatly with the rise of the medical model of inmate rehabilitation in the mid-twentieth century. Recently, however, faith-based programming has experienced revitalization with the Charitable Choice provision of the 1996 Welfare Reform and development of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in 2002 (since renamed to the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships). Consequently, faith-based organizations are now allowed to compete for federal grants once reserved exclusively for non-religious organizations. As such, the increased presence and use of faith-based programming in correctional contexts has simultaneously continued a strong tradition and has renewed a long-standing debate in corrections.Encyclopedia EntryPre-prin
The Prayer of St Benedict: A Dynamic Meta-paradigm for a Theology of Faith
No full textThe PSB considered as a whole operates as a dynamic
meta-paradigm of faith by bringing into focus central elements regarded as integral to a comprehensive analysis of the nature of faith by grounding the act of faith in wisdom. This dimension overarches all the others, as it is the first grace requested in the Prayer, and presumably, therefore, is the condition for the fulfilment of the other graces necessary for a deepening of faith.This central theme, where wisdom is understood as a theological-epistemological category, will guide this discussion.
The first part will examine the wisdom element of the Prayer and argue that upon this element a meta-paradigm of faith may be constructed through discerning that the experiential, critical, andtranscendental approaches provide subsidiary paradigms that enable a coherent analysis of the nature of Christian faith. These paradigms are distilled from an analysis of the structure, content, and intention of the PSB respectively. The second part will explore the relationship between these paradigms through four descriptive models. Finally, a brief analysis of ‘a day in the life’ of Jesus from the Gospel of Mark will illustrate the relationship between the paradigms of faith as described in the fourth model.status: Publishe
Faith in the Year Of Faith
No full textJ. Ratzinger/Benedict XVI as a pope and author of the idea promulgating the Year of Faith is presented in the paper with his concept of faith. The striking element of Ratzinger’s theology is a personal approach to faith. Faith as an encounter triggering conversion is a fully positive and existencial experience of God, who engages the whole person and personality (unitotality of faith), the reason and love. This attitude of faith builds human praxis and shapes interpersonal relations. Here comes the phenomenon of the Church, which the Pope treats as a source and place of faith, especially with reference to liturgy, owing to which the true relation with the Trune God is established and developed.J. Ratzinger/Benedict XVI as a pope and author of the idea promulgating the Year of Faith is presented in the paper with his concept of faith. The striking element of Ratzinger’s theology is a personal approach to faith. Faith as an encounter triggering conversion is a fully positive and existencial experience of God, who engages the whole person and personality (unitotality of faith), the reason and love. This attitude of faith builds human praxis and shapes interpersonal relations. Here comes the phenomenon of the Church, which the Pope treats as a source and place of faith, especially with reference to liturgy, owing to which the true relation with the Trune God is established and developed
2015|16 MLK Lecture: Faith Ringgold: More than 60 Years
No full text2015|16 MLK Series Keynote, artist, activist, author and teacher Faith Ringgold shares inspiring, humorous and very human stories illustrating her life’s work. Through political imagery and first-hand accounts of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, she contextualizes her immense body of work and reflects on how artists and designers use creativity and making to advance the values of democracy, equity and access for all
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