152 research outputs found
Navigating Religious Identity and Diversity Among Gen Z in a Post-Pandemic World
No full textThe future of the religion lies with young people, whose lives are now riddled with uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this presentation, Dr. Josh Packard will draw from Springtide Research Institute’s annual State of Religion & Young People study to explain the spiritual lives of Gen Z and how we need to re-think everything when it comes to how we engage the most diverse generation in history. Rev. Neil Ellingson will moderate the Q & A period.
Dr. Josh Packard is Executive Director of Springtide Research Institute, which maintains the largest dataset on young people and their spirituality in the U.S. Josh has a doctorate in sociology from Vanderbilt and he’s the author of several books including Meaning Making: 8 Values that Drive America’s Newest Generations and Church Refugees: Why People are Done with Church but Not their Faith. Josh is a sought-after speaker and author and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, CBS, USA Today, and more.
Pastor Neil Ellingson is Associate Chaplain in Campus Ministry at the University of St. Thomas. An ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, Ellingson holds a B.A. from Harvard University and a Master of Divinity degree from the University of Chicago Divinity School. He founded Root and Branch, a “dinner church” in Chicago, which continues to flourish.
Sponsored and organized by the Jay Phillips Center for Interreligious Studies in collaboration with the Department of Theology, Campus Ministry, Student Diversity & Inclusion Services, and the Office of Human Resources at the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota, USA) with generous support from the Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation of Minnesota
Data protection: the challenges facing social networking
No full textThe popularity of social networking sites has increased dramatically over the past decade. A recent report indicated that thirty-eight percent of online users have a social networking profile. Many of these social networking site users (SNS users) post or provide personal information over the internet every day. According to the latest OfCom study, the average adult SNS user has profiles on 1.6 sites and most check their profiles at least once every other day. However, the recent rise in social networking activity has opened the door to the misuse and abuse of personal information through identity theft, cyber stalking, and undesirable screenings by prospective employers. Behavioral advertising programs have also misused personal information available on social networking sites. Society is now facing an important question: what level of privacy should be expected and required within the social networking environment
Improving the piezoelectric properties of thick-film PZT: the influence of paste composition, powder milling process and electrode material
No full textThis paper details improvements of the d33 coefficient for thick-film Lead–Zirconate–Titanate (PZT) layers. In particular, the effect that the powder milling process has on particle size, shape and distribution has been investigated. Ball milled, jet milled and attritor milled powders were obtained from Morgan Electro-Ceramics Ltd. These powders were mixed with various ratios of lead borosilicate glass in the range of 5–20% by weight and an appropriate quantity of Electro-Science Laboratories (ESL) 400 solvent to formulate a screen printable thixotropic paste. The use of a polymer top electrode to reduce the number of firing cycles the PZT layer is subjected to was also investigated. The results show that the highest values of d33 were obtained from the ball milled powder with 10% glass content, but the most consistent results were obtained from the attritor milled samples. The samples printed with a polymer top electrode have shown an average increase of around 15% in the value of d33
Sojourning with the Spirit in Recovery from Mental Illness
No full textA large part of the population is affected by issues of mental illness. Yet, there has been a corresponding lack of spiritual content in how we have been defining mental health. In an attempt to respond to this lack, the World Health Organization acknowledged that, “An expansion of the WHO definition may be necessary to include a spiritual dimension of health if social scientists can agree that spirituality is part of health and not merely an influence” (Larson (1996, Abstract). \"More recently the definition of mental health changed, Mental health is defined as a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community. (W.H.O., 2009, Mental health: As state of well-being, para. 1) This study is an attempt to contribute to this growing awareness and need. In particular, and based on the belief that integrating the Spiritual is a relational work that involves deepening counsellor understanding of that work, the chosen focus is one of self-study. The question posed is “What is my experience of learning to integrate a spiritual component into counselling psychotherapy?” This thesis developed from the lack of spiritual content in the definition of mental health. From the lived experience of the author, there is a large part missing from psychotherapy. The interest in the question of integrating a spiritual component into mental health therapy was first ignited by my changing role from mental health worker to counsellor. The heuristic research was collected over a period of one year using journal writing and art journals. The thesis begins with the theological metaphor of a weaver weaving the thread of spirituality into counselling psychotherapy. What is necessary, though not enough, is a capacity to know how the patient is experiencing himself and the world, including oneself. If one cannot understand him, one is hardly in a position to begin to ‘love’ him in any effective way. We are commanded to love our neighbor. One cannot, however, love this particular neighbor for himself without knowing who he [sic] is. (Laing, 1969, p.34
Analysis of immune-related loci identifies 48 new susceptibility variants for multiple sclerosis
No full textUsing the ImmunoChip custom genotyping array, we analyzed 14,498 subjects with multiple sclerosis and 24,091 healthy controls for 161,311 autosomal variants and identified 135 potentially associated regions (P < 1.0 × 10−4). In a replication phase, we combined these data with previous genome-wide association study (GWAS) data from an independent 14,802 subjects with multiple sclerosis and 26,703 healthy controls. In these 80,094 individuals of European ancestry, we identified 48 new susceptibility variants (P < 5.0 × 10−8), 3 of which we found after conditioning on previously identified variants. Thus, there are now 110 established multiple sclerosis risk variants at 103 discrete loci outside of the major histocompatibility complex. With high-resolution Bayesian fine mapping, we identified five regions where one variant accounted for more than 50% of the posterior probability of association. This study enhances the catalog of multiple sclerosis risk variants and illustrates the value of fine mapping in the resolution of GWAS signals
Genetic risk and a primary role for cell-mediated immune mechanisms in multiple sclerosis
No full textMultiple sclerosis is a common disease of the central nervous system in which the interplay between inflammatory and neurodegenerative processes typically results in intermittent neurological disturbance followed by progressive accumulation of disability. Epidemiological studies have shown that genetic factors are primarily responsible for the substantially increased frequency of the disease seen in the relatives of affected individuals, and systematic attempts to identify linkage in multiplex families have confirmed that variation within the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) exerts the greatest individual effect on risk. Modestly powered genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have enabled more than 20 additional risk loci to be identified and have shown that multiple variants exerting modest individual effects have a key role in disease susceptibility. Most of the genetic architecture underlying susceptibility to the disease remains to be defined and is anticipated to require the analysis of sample sizes that are beyond the numbers currently available to individual research groups. In a collaborative GWAS involving 9,772 cases of European descent collected by 23 research groups working in 15 different countries, we have replicated almost all of the previously suggested associations and identified at least a further 29 novel susceptibility loci. Within the MHC we have refined the identity of the HLA-DRB1 risk alleles and confirmed that variation in the HLA-A gene underlies the independent protective effect attributable to the class I region. Immunologically relevant genes are significantly overrepresented among those mapping close to the identified loci and particularly implicate T-helper-cell differentiation in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis
Cost-utility of transcatheter aortic valve implantation for inoperable patients with severe aortic stenosis treated by medical management: a UK cost-utility analysis based on patient-level data from the ADVANCE study.
No full textOBJECTIVE: To use patient-level data from the ADVANCE study to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) compared to medical management (MM) in patients with severe aortic stenosis from the perspective of the UK NHS.
METHODS: A published decision-analytic model was adapted to include information on TAVI from the ADVANCE study. Patient-level data informed the choice as well as the form of mathematical functions that were used to model all-cause mortality, health-related quality of life and hospitalisations. TAVI-related resource use protocols were based on the ADVANCE study. MM was modelled on publicly available information from the PARTNER-B study. The outcome measures were incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) estimated at a range of time horizons with benefits expressed as quality-adjusted life-years (QALY). Extensive sensitivity/subgroup analyses were undertaken to explore the impact of uncertainty in key clinical areas.
RESULTS: Using a 5-year time horizon, the ICER for the comparison of all ADVANCE to all PARTNER-B patients was £13 943 per QALY gained. For the subset of ADVANCE patients classified as high risk (Logistic EuroSCORE >20%) the ICER was £17 718 per QALY gained). The ICER was below £30 000 per QALY gained in all sensitivity analyses relating to choice of MM data source and alternative modelling approaches for key parameters. When the time horizon was extended to 10 years, all ICERs generated in all analyses were below £20 000 per QALY gained.
CONCLUSION: TAVI is highly likely to be a cost-effective treatment for patients with severe aortic stenosis
The PKC, HOG and Ca2+ signalling pathways co-ordinately regulate chitin synthesis in Candida albicans
No full textOpen Access via PMC2649417Peer reviewe
VELOCITY DEPENDENCE OF ROTATIONAL ENERGY TRANSFER RATES IN -Xe
No full textThis work supported by Air Force office of scientific Research. . W. D. Philips and D. E. Pritchard, phys. Rev. Lett. 33, 1254 (1974). . N. Smith, T. A. Bruner, and D. E. Pritchard, phys. Rev. Lett. 43, 693 (1979).Author Institution:We have used a new to measure the velocity dependence of the Rotational Energy transfer (RET) rate constants for the process Where is the initial rotational quantum number and is the change in rotational quantum number. By tuning a single-mode dye laser across the Doppler profile of a molecular resonance we can very the average relative velocity from (line center) to (=2 Ghz. detuned). We made for four different values of for each of three ’s. Cross sections for increase with velocity whereas those for and 16 stay constant or decrease. A dramatic decrease is observed for and large
Swelling and shrinking kinetics of a lamellar gel phase
No full textWe investigate the swelling and shrinking of L lamellar gel phases composed of surfactant and fatty alcohol after contact with aqueous poly(ethyleneglycol) solutions. The height change Δh(t) is diffusionlike with a swelling coefficient S: Δh=S√t. On increasing polymer concentration, we observe sequentially slower swelling, absence of swelling, and finally shrinking of the lamellar phase. This behavior is summarized in a nonequilibrium diagram and the composition dependence of S quantitatively described by a generic model. We find a diffusion coefficient, the only free parameter, consistent with previous measurements
- …
