Book reviews

No Abstract.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/55824/1/20441_ftp.pd

Biblical Contradictions: Embracing the Errors of Scripture as our Spiritual Teachers

In 2016, Barna Group reported that “Among practicing Protestants, nine out of 10 in every age group say either that the Bible is the actual word of God (should be taken literally, word for word) or that it’s the inspired word of God without error.” This belief system causes Protestant Christians to ignore, gloss over, and explain away all the contradictions they discover in the Bible, rather than participate with the contradictions wholeheartedly. There is an opportunity to help Protestant Christians take part in more dialogue about contradictions, engage in more study of the Bible because of the contradictions, and to embrace the contradictions of scripture as springboards to grow in faith. After researching and prototyping for two years, we produced a seven-part film series to inspire face-to-face conversations among Protestant Christians about Biblical contradictions. Once completed, we sent these films to seventy research participants. We found that a significant portion of participants desired to study the Bible more because of our content, a drastic change in the way participants viewed contradictions affecting the value of scripture, and a notable increase in the number of participants willing to engage in dialogue about contradictions with their friends, families, and members of their church

Elucidation of the osmoregulatory locus, ompRZ, in Erwinia chrysanthemi

Bibliography: pages 148-171.Bacteria are constantly faced with harsh environmental conditions to which they have to adapt. These adaptive mechanism generally involve the use of two-component sensory systems, comprising of sensor proteins interacting with their cognate response regulator proteins. To survive fluctuating environments such as osmotic conditions, certain bacterial species employ the ompR-envZ (ompB) two-component system to monitor and respond to the osmotic cue. The EnvZ protein functions as the sensor and relays information regarding changes to the external environment, to the response regulator, OmpR. OmpR, in turn, regulates the porins, OmpF and OmpC in a reciprocal manner, so that one porin predominates over the other, depending on osmotic conditions. Erwinia chrysanthemi, which causes "soft rot" in a wide range of economically important crops, has been demonstrated to contain porin-like proteins similar to OmpF and OmpC. The expression of these porins was regulated in a similar manner to OmpF and OmpC with respect to medium osmolarity. Furthermore, preliminary studies have shown that changes in osmolarity affect the expression of pathogenecity genes. Evidence for an osmoregulatory system analagous to the ompB system of Escherichia coli was, therefore, sought. Primers specific for conserved regions in ompR were designed and used to PCR amplify a 631 bp fragment from E. coli. This fragment was cloned into the vector, pBluescriptSk, and end-sequenced to confirm its authenticity. The same strategy was followed, using envZ-specific primers to generate an E. coli envZ clone. Southern hybridisation analyses, using an ompR probe, confirmed the presence of an ompR homologue in E. chrysanthemi. An E. chrysanthemi genomic library was thus constructed and screened and a clone homologous to the ompR probe was isolated. The resulting plasmid, pRZ69, was partially characterised and determined to have both envZ and ompR homologues resident. Southern hybridisation analyses were employed to localise the ompR and envZ genes on the plasmid. A 1200 bp EcoRV-Pst1 fragment containing the ompR homologue and a 2000 bp EcoRV-EcoRV fragment containing the envZ homologue, were subcloned into pBluescriptSk, generating the plasmids, pRS1 and pZS2 respectively

Charged Spaces: Navigating Complex Exhibition Content for University Audiences

This paper explores some of the ways in which academic museums navigate politically charged conversations on campus, specifically addressing public programs, curatorial strategies, and administrative brokering. The authors discuss the complexities of collaboration and academic freedom when tackling such sensitive topics, and discuss lessons learned from a recent exhibition case study. This text is largely adapted from a panel presentation first delivered at the 2018 Association of Academic Museums and Galleries (AAMG) Annual Conference at the University of Miami

Food insecurity in rural Tanzania is associated with maternal anxiety and depression

Food insecurity is a major health problem that has pervasive effects on many human biological outcomes. In particular, there are compelling theoretical and empirical reasons to expect that the relationship between food insecurity may be directly related to mental health morbidities, and may be quantifiable in developing country settings. This preliminary study examined whether caretaker reports of food insecurity were associated with anxiety and depression among four ethnic groups in two communities of rural Tanzania. In-home interviews were conducted in June–August of 2005 among female caretakers (n = 449). In addition to collecting household and demographic data, modified versions of the USDA's food security module and Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL) were used to measure food insecurity and anxiety and depression. Consistent with predictions, the results showed a strong positive correlation between a caretaker's score on the food insecurity instrument and her summed response on the HSCL ( P < 0.0001). This association was maintained in all four ethnic groups, even when controlling for individual-level covariates such as caretaker's age and marital status. Issues of causality and hypotheses that might explain this robust finding are discussed, as are methodological and theoretical implications. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 18:359–368, 2006. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/50663/1/20505_ftp.pd

Food insecurity and linear growth of adolescents in Jimma Zone, Southwest Ethiopia

Background: Although many studies showed that adolescent food insecurity is a pervasive phenomenon in Southwest Ethiopia, its effect on the linear growth of adolescents has not been documented so far. This study therefore aimed to longitudinally examine the association between food insecurity and linear growth among adolescents. Methods: Data for this study were obtained from a longitudinal survey of adolescents conducted in Jimma Zone, which followed an initial sample of 2084 randomly selected adolescents aged 13-17 years. We used linear mixed effects model for 1431 adolescents who were interviewed in three survey rounds one year apart to compare the effect of food insecurity on linear growth of adolescents. Results: Overall, 15.9% of the girls and 12.2% of the boys (P=0.018) were food insecure both at baseline and on the year 1 survey, while 5.5% of the girls and 4.4% of the boys (P=0.331) were food insecure in all the three rounds of the survey. In general, a significantly higher proportion of girls (40%) experienced food insecurity at least in one of the survey rounds compared with boys (36.6%) (P=0.045). The trend of food insecurity showed a very sharp increase over the follow period from the baseline 20.5% to 48.4% on the year 1 survey, which again came down to 27.1% during the year 2 survey. In the linear mixed effects model, after adjusting for other covariates, the mean height of food insecure girls was shorter by 0.87 cm (P<0.001) compared with food secure girls at baseline. However, during the follow up period on average, the heights of food insecure girls increased by 0.38 cm more per year compared with food secure girls (P<0.066). However, the mean height of food insecure boys was not significantly different from food secure boys both at baseline and over the follow up period. Over the follow-up period, adolescents who live in rural and semi-urban areas grew significantly more per year than those who live in the urban areas both for girls (P<0.01) and for boys (P<0.01). Conclusions: Food insecurity is negatively associated with the linear growth of adolescents, especially on girls. High rate of childhood stunting in Ethiopia compounded with lower height of food insecure adolescents compared with their food secure peers calls for the development of direct nutrition interventions targeting adolescents to promote catch-up growth and break the intergenerational cycle of malnutrition

ECONOMIC IMPACTS RESULTING FROM CO-FIRING BIOMASS FEEDSTOCKS IN SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES COAL-FIRED PLANTS

Economic impacts of using biomass in Southeast United States coal-fired plants are estimated using a county-level biomass database; ORCED, a dynamic electricity distribution model that estimates feedstock value; ORIBAS, a GIS model that estimates feedstock transportation costs; and IMPLAN, an input-output model that determines the impacts of co-firing on economic activity.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Birth outcomes among Arab-Americans in Michigan before and after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/60952/1/el-sayed_birth outcomes among arab americans_2008.pd

Household food insecurity and symptoms of neurologic disorder in Ethiopia: An observational analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Food insecurity (FI) has been shown to be associated with poor health both in developing and developed countries. Little is known about the relation between FI and neurological disorder. We assessed the relation between FI and risk for neurologic symptoms in southwest Ethiopia.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Data about food security, gender, age, household assets, and self-reported neurologic symptoms were collected from a representative, community-based sample of adults (N = 900) in Jimma Zone, Ethiopia. We calculated univariate statistics and used bivariate chi-square tests and multivariate logistic regression models to assess the relation between FI and risk of neurologic symptoms including seizures, extremity weakness, extremity numbness, tremors/ataxia, aphasia, carpal tunnel syndrome, vision dysfunction, and spinal pain.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In separate multivariate models by outcome and gender, adjusting for age and household socioeconomic status, severe FI was associated with higher odds of seizures, movement abnormalities, carpal tunnel, vision dysfunction, spinal pain, and comorbid disorders among women. Severe FI was associated with higher odds of seizures, extremity numbness, movement abnormalities, difficulty speaking, carpal tunnel, vision dysfunction, and comorbid disorders among men.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We found that FI was associated with symptoms of neurologic disorder. Given the cross-sectional nature of our study, the directionality of these associations is unclear. Future research should assess causal mechanisms relating FI to neurologic symptoms in sub-Saharan Africa.</p