Passion Plays in the United States: The Contemporary Outdoor Tradition.

The purpose of this dissertation is to trace the development of the outdoor passion plays in the United States, comparing their content and approach with the continental medieval tradition and analyzing how effectively the current American plays are modifying their presentations to meet the expectations of today\u27s modern society. This study documents the historical development and physical plants for the eight passion play productions in the United States that maintained membership in the Institute of Outdoor Drama and played during the summer seasons of the research period from 1992-1996: The Black Hills Passion Play (1939, Spearfish, South Dakota), The Great Passion Play (1968, Eureka Springs, Arkansas), The Living Word (1974, Cambridge, Ohio), Jesus of Nazareth (1981, Puyallup, Washington), The Louisiana Passion Play (1984, Ruston, Louisiana), The Witness (1985, Hot Springs, Arkansas), Worthy Is the Lamb (1988, Swansboro, North Carolina), and The Promise (1989, Glen Rose, Texas). Based on an overview of medieval passion plays, the St. Gall play emerged as the model play for comparison, prompting observations concerning the opening scenes, primary content, character development, Roman Catholic influence, and concluding passages. Applying Horace\u27s dictum that drama to be effective needs to teach and please allows for an examination of how these plays are maintaining that balance or are shifting more toward entertainment-oriented methods and strategies that appeal to modern American audiences. The outdoor passion plays today face some major questions regarding the lack of professionalism, poor dramatic quality, and anti-Semitic scenes. The plays also compete with adverse weather conditions, television, cinema, and an entertainment industry that thrives on complex technology. While The Black Hills Passion Play remains true to its medieval heritage, other plays are adapting their presentations to attract larger audiences and to stay solvent. As the plays move further into the area of entertainment, will the educational value be lost

Evaluation of Practice Teachers’ Views on Inclusive Education

This study examined the views of practice teachers toward the inclusion of students with special education needs in the regular classroom. A total of 32 practice teachers from University of the East, College of Education, participated in the research. Mixed-Method was utilized which comprised of participants answering a questionnaire and participating in a focus group discussion. The questionnaire, My Thinking about Inclusion Scale, MTAI, (Stoiber et al., 1998) was utilized for the quantitative part of the research; while, a focus group discussion was conducted for the qualitative part which sought to uncover the perceptions of practice teachers concerning their background and training on inclusive education. Only six of the 32 practice teachers were able to join the focus group discussion. The results revealed that there is no significant difference in the practice teachers’ views on inclusive education between males and females and their degree programs. Findings also showed that practice teachers held similar positive views on inclusion. The responses of the participants in the focus group discussion unveiled that the practice teachers believed they have adequate theoretical knowledge about inclusive education; however, they still require further in-depth training and hands-on involvement and participation in conducting inclusive practices inside classrooms to effectively apply them in the future as they become licensed teachers. They also saw the importance of the support of the government and the cooperation of schools as well as parents and guardians for the successful espousal of inclusive education

Interventions for children, youth, and parents to prevent and reduce cyber abuse

The Internet has created a new communication tool, particularly for young people whose use of e-mail, websites, instant messaging, web cams, chat rooms, social networking sites and text messaging is exploding worldwide. While there are many benefits that result from electronic based communication, the Internet is, however, concurrently a potential site for abuse and victimization, whereby young people can fall victim to sexual perpetrators, stalkers, exploiters, and peers who bully online. Interventions regarding cyber abuse have been developed in response to a growing emphasis on protecting children and youth from online dangers. Objectives: To examine the effectiveness of cyber abuse interventions in increasing Internet safety knowledge and decreasing risky online behaviour

An engineered gastrointestinally stable microbial leucine decarboxylase for potential treatment of maple syrup urine disease

Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstrac

S 38093, a histamine H3 antagonist/inverse agonist, promotes hippocampal neurogenesis and improves context discrimination task in aged mice

Strategies designed to increase adult hippocampal neurogenesis (AHN) may have therapeutic potential for reversing memory impairments. H3 receptor antagonists/inverse agonists also may be useful for treating cognitive deficits. However, it remains unclear whether these ligands have effects on AHN. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of a 28-day treatment with S 38093, a novel brain-penetrant antagonist/inverse agonist of H3 receptors, on AHN (proliferation, maturation and survival) in 3-month-old and in aged 16-month-old mice. In addition, the effects of S 38093 treatment on 7-month-old APPSWE Tg2576 transgenic mice, a model of Alzheimer’s disease, were also assessed. In all tested models, chronic treatment with S 38093 stimulated all steps of AHN. In aged animals, S 38093 induced a reversal of age-dependent effects on hippocampal brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) BDNF-IX, BDNF-IV and BDNF-I transcripts and increased vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression. Finally, the effects of chronic administration of S 38093 were assessed on a neurogenesis-dependent “context discrimination (CS) test” in aged mice. While ageing altered mouse CS, chronic S 38093 treatment significantly improved CS. Taken together, these results provide evidence that chronic S 38093 treatment increases adult hippocampal neurogenesis and may provide an innovative strategy to improve age-associated cognitive deficits

Southeastern Association of Law Libraries Annual Meeting

The 2009 SEAALL Annual Meeting was held in Athens Georgia, April 16-18, 2009

Effect of remote ischaemic conditioning on clinical outcomes in patients with acute myocardial infarction (CONDI-2/ERIC-PPCI): a single-blind randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Remote ischaemic conditioning with transient ischaemia and reperfusion applied to the arm has been shown to reduce myocardial infarct size in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI). We investigated whether remote ischaemic conditioning could reduce the incidence of cardiac death and hospitalisation for heart failure at 12 months. METHODS: We did an international investigator-initiated, prospective, single-blind, randomised controlled trial (CONDI-2/ERIC-PPCI) at 33 centres across the UK, Denmark, Spain, and Serbia. Patients (age >18 years) with suspected STEMI and who were eligible for PPCI were randomly allocated (1:1, stratified by centre with a permuted block method) to receive standard treatment (including a sham simulated remote ischaemic conditioning intervention at UK sites only) or remote ischaemic conditioning treatment (intermittent ischaemia and reperfusion applied to the arm through four cycles of 5-min inflation and 5-min deflation of an automated cuff device) before PPCI. Investigators responsible for data collection and outcome assessment were masked to treatment allocation. The primary combined endpoint was cardiac death or hospitalisation for heart failure at 12 months in the intention-to-treat population. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02342522) and is completed. FINDINGS: Between Nov 6, 2013, and March 31, 2018, 5401 patients were randomly allocated to either the control group (n=2701) or the remote ischaemic conditioning group (n=2700). After exclusion of patients upon hospital arrival or loss to follow-up, 2569 patients in the control group and 2546 in the intervention group were included in the intention-to-treat analysis. At 12 months post-PPCI, the Kaplan-Meier-estimated frequencies of cardiac death or hospitalisation for heart failure (the primary endpoint) were 220 (8·6%) patients in the control group and 239 (9·4%) in the remote ischaemic conditioning group (hazard ratio 1·10 [95% CI 0·91-1·32], p=0·32 for intervention versus control). No important unexpected adverse events or side effects of remote ischaemic conditioning were observed. INTERPRETATION: Remote ischaemic conditioning does not improve clinical outcomes (cardiac death or hospitalisation for heart failure) at 12 months in patients with STEMI undergoing PPCI. FUNDING: British Heart Foundation, University College London Hospitals/University College London Biomedical Research Centre, Danish Innovation Foundation, Novo Nordisk Foundation, TrygFonden

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance

INTRODUCTION Investment in Africa over the past year with regard to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequencing has led to a massive increase in the number of sequences, which, to date, exceeds 100,000 sequences generated to track the pandemic on the continent. These sequences have profoundly affected how public health officials in Africa have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. RATIONALE We demonstrate how the first 100,000 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from Africa have helped monitor the epidemic on the continent, how genomic surveillance expanded over the course of the pandemic, and how we adapted our sequencing methods to deal with an evolving virus. Finally, we also examine how viral lineages have spread across the continent in a phylogeographic framework to gain insights into the underlying temporal and spatial transmission dynamics for several variants of concern (VOCs). RESULTS Our results indicate that the number of countries in Africa that can sequence the virus within their own borders is growing and that this is coupled with a shorter turnaround time from the time of sampling to sequence submission. Ongoing evolution necessitated the continual updating of primer sets, and, as a result, eight primer sets were designed in tandem with viral evolution and used to ensure effective sequencing of the virus. The pandemic unfolded through multiple waves of infection that were each driven by distinct genetic lineages, with B.1-like ancestral strains associated with the first pandemic wave of infections in 2020. Successive waves on the continent were fueled by different VOCs, with Alpha and Beta cocirculating in distinct spatial patterns during the second wave and Delta and Omicron affecting the whole continent during the third and fourth waves, respectively. Phylogeographic reconstruction points toward distinct differences in viral importation and exportation patterns associated with the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants and subvariants, when considering both Africa versus the rest of the world and viral dissemination within the continent. Our epidemiological and phylogenetic inferences therefore underscore the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic on the continent and highlight key insights and challenges, for instance, recognizing the limitations of low testing proportions. We also highlight the early warning capacity that genomic surveillance in Africa has had for the rest of the world with the detection of new lineages and variants, the most recent being the characterization of various Omicron subvariants. CONCLUSION Sustained investment for diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve. This is important not only to help combat SARS-CoV-2 on the continent but also because it can be used as a platform to help address the many emerging and reemerging infectious disease threats in Africa. In particular, capacity building for local sequencing within countries or within the continent should be prioritized because this is generally associated with shorter turnaround times, providing the most benefit to local public health authorities tasked with pandemic response and mitigation and allowing for the fastest reaction to localized outbreaks. These investments are crucial for pandemic preparedness and response and will serve the health of the continent well into the 21st century

A "Site Map" to Cyber Abuse Prevention

The incidence of cyber abuse is growing dramatically, including cyber bullying, cyber stalking, cyber sexual solicitation, and cyber pornography. The increase in reporting cyber abuse has been met with more emphasis on developing prevention strategies to protect children from the potential dangers of the Internet. In recent years, new prevention strategies have emerged, each with its unique delivery but most sharing the goal of increasing child and youth awareness of risky online behaviors

PROTOCOL: Prevention and intervention of cyber abuse targeting children and adolescents: A systematic review to evaluate current approaches

This is the final version of an article published by Campbell Systematic Reviews. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/Supported by Bell Canada and the Campbell reviewers