Theology, News and Notes - Vol. 14, No. 01

Theology News & Notes was a theological journal published by Fuller Theological Seminary from 1954 through 2014.https://digitalcommons.fuller.edu/tnn/1028/thumbnail.jp

Theology, News and Notes - Vol. 19, No. 02

Theology News & Notes was a theological journal published by Fuller Theological Seminary from 1954 through 2014.https://digitalcommons.fuller.edu/tnn/1042/thumbnail.jp

Cabbage and fermented vegetables : From death rate heterogeneity in countries to candidates for mitigation strategies of severe COVID-19

Large differences in COVID-19 death rates exist between countries and between regions of the same country. Some very low death rate countries such as Eastern Asia, Central Europe, or the Balkans have a common feature of eating large quantities of fermented foods. Although biases exist when examining ecological studies, fermented vegetables or cabbage have been associated with low death rates in European countries. SARS-CoV-2 binds to its receptor, the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). As a result of SARS-CoV-2 binding, ACE2 downregulation enhances the angiotensin II receptor type 1 (AT(1)R) axis associated with oxidative stress. This leads to insulin resistance as well as lung and endothelial damage, two severe outcomes of COVID-19. The nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 (Nrf2) is the most potent antioxidant in humans and can block in particular the AT(1)R axis. Cabbage contains precursors of sulforaphane, the most active natural activator of Nrf2. Fermented vegetables contain many lactobacilli, which are also potent Nrf2 activators. Three examples are: kimchi in Korea, westernized foods, and the slum paradox. It is proposed that fermented cabbage is a proof-of-concept of dietary manipulations that may enhance Nrf2-associated antioxidant effects, helpful in mitigating COVID-19 severity.Peer reviewe

Nrf2-interacting nutrients and COVID-19 : time for research to develop adaptation strategies

There are large between- and within-country variations in COVID-19 death rates. Some very low death rate settings such as Eastern Asia, Central Europe, the Balkans and Africa have a common feature of eating large quantities of fermented foods whose intake is associated with the activation of the Nrf2 (Nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2) anti-oxidant transcription factor. There are many Nrf2-interacting nutrients (berberine, curcumin, epigallocatechin gallate, genistein, quercetin, resveratrol, sulforaphane) that all act similarly to reduce insulin resistance, endothelial damage, lung injury and cytokine storm. They also act on the same mechanisms (mTOR: Mammalian target of rapamycin, PPAR gamma:Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor, NF kappa B: Nuclear factor kappa B, ERK: Extracellular signal-regulated kinases and eIF2 alpha:Elongation initiation factor 2 alpha). They may as a result be important in mitigating the severity of COVID-19, acting through the endoplasmic reticulum stress or ACE-Angiotensin-II-AT(1)R axis (AT(1)R) pathway. Many Nrf2-interacting nutrients are also interacting with TRPA1 and/or TRPV1. Interestingly, geographical areas with very low COVID-19 mortality are those with the lowest prevalence of obesity (Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia). It is tempting to propose that Nrf2-interacting foods and nutrients can re-balance insulin resistance and have a significant effect on COVID-19 severity. It is therefore possible that the intake of these foods may restore an optimal natural balance for the Nrf2 pathway and may be of interest in the mitigation of COVID-19 severity

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

[Christian pamphlets.

Young men / by J.T. Tucker -- State of the country / by E.S. Gannett -- Life the test of learning / by F.D. Huntington -- Revolutions to be accomplished / by J.T. Tucker -- Two polities / by H.D. Kitchel -- Great preacher / by E.P. Marvin -- Historical discourse : delivered at the dedication of the First Trinitarian Congregational Church, St. Louis / by T.M. Post -- Discourse on the vitality of Christianity / by T.M. Post -- Organic development of Christianity in the direction of education and learning / by J.W. Wellman -- Address delivered at the consecration of the Lake Grove Cemetery, Holliston, Mass. / by J.C. Bodwell -- Old age : a discourse in commemoration of Solomon Stoddard, Esq. of Northampton, Mass. / by Z. Eddy -- Our national union / by T.M. Post -- Right of the sword / by E. Cutler -- Our nation's danger / by G.F. Walker -- Sermon delivered before the Executive and Legislative Departments of the Government of Massachusetts, at the annual election / by W.A. Stearns.Valley of vision / G. Bush -- Review of Lysander Spooner's essay on the on the unconstitutionality of slavery / by W. Phillips -- Law of human progress / by C. Sumner -- Fugitive slave law / by J.P. Thompson -- Politics and the pulpit -- Were the New Testament churches slaveholding churches? / by J. Blanchard -- Nature and importance of a natural rhetoric / by W.G.T. Shedd -- Death of Mr. Webster / T.S. King -- Speech of Wendell Phillips [on slavery] -- Oration delivered before the Union and Phoenix Societies of Hamilton College, N.Y. / C.M. Nairne -- Sermon, occasioned by the loss of the Arctic / by E. Smalley.Mode of access: Internet

[Christian pamphlets. Vol. 13]

1 v. ; 23 cm.Valley of vision / G. Bush -- Review of Lysander Spooner's essay on the on the unconstitutionality of slavery / by W. Phillips -- Law of human progress / by C. Sumner -- Fugitive slave law / by J.P. Thompson -- Politics and the pulpit -- Were the New Testament churches slaveholding churches? / by J. Blanchard -- Nature and importance of a natural rhetoric / by W.G.T. Shedd -- Death of Mr. Webster / T.S. King -- Speech of Wendell Phillips [on slavery] -- Oration delivered before the Union and Phoenix Societies of Hamilton College, N.Y. / C.M. Nairne -- Sermon, occasioned by the loss of the Arctic / by E. Smalley.Young men / by J.T. Tucker -- State of the country / by E.S. Gannett -- Life the test of learning / by F.D. Huntington -- Revolutions to be accomplished / by J.T. Tucker -- Two polities / by H.D. Kitchel -- Great preacher / by E.P. Marvin -- Historical discourse : delivered at the dedication of the First Trinitarian Congregational Church, St. Louis / by T.M. Post -- Discourse on the vitality of Christianity / by T.M. Post -- Organic development of Christianity in the direction of education and learning / by J.W. Wellman -- Address delivered at the consecration of the Lake Grove Cemetery, Holliston, Mass. / by J.C. Bodwell -- Old age : a discourse in commemoration of Solomon Stoddard, Esq. of Northampton, Mass. / by Z. Eddy -- Our national union / by T.M. Post -- Right of the sword / by E. Cutler -- Our nation's danger / by G.F. Walker -- Sermon delivered before the Executive and Legislative Departments of the Government of Massachusetts, at the annual election / by W.A. Stearns