Development and Implementation of a Community-Based Health Evangelism Strategy at Fellowship Seventh-day Adventist Church in Tallahassee, Florida

Problem The Fellowship Seventh-day Adventist church desired to reach its community but did not have a strategic plan on how to do so. The lack of a strategic plan hindered the effectiveness of the church in making an impact in its neighborhood and left the members with a sense that they were not making a difference in their community. Initial observations done through formal talks with church leaders suggested that health ministry was a focus where their church had a strength and was a means by which to reach the neighborhood. Method The methods used were to develop a team that analyzed data from a recent community health needs assessment, planned and implemented a health ministry initiative that targeted the local community, then tracked and evaluated the initiative whose aim was to support the church’s overall mission in the neighborhood so that individuals could also be made aware of the ministry the church provided to them. - Results Findings from the project were a list of new ideas regarding how to reach the local community; a record of community needs; a plan to prioritize and meet selected needs; a change in the health profile of participants engaged in the 8-week health series; and an increase in new members to the church. Conclusion The evidence showed that a strategic plan assisted the health ministry in developing a new identity and giving the church a missional direction for its community. Utilization of this ministry gift gave the church a renewed emphasis in its community outreach. The church realized it had a strength in the area of health evangelism. We can therefore conclude that the church did make an important contribution in the area of health evangelism; and that other churches can use this plan to make a similar impact in their communities

Molecular and cytogenetic approaches to the analysis of chromosomes in human preimplantation embryos.

The original focus of the research for this thesis was concentrated on establishing strategies to detect chromosome imbalance as well as exploring the phenomenon of mosaicism and its underlying mechanisms in human preimplantation embryos. High levels of chromosomal mosaicism have been detected in human preimplantation embryos mostly by fluorescent in situ hybridisation (FISH) but also by comparative genomic hybridisation (CGH) and karyotyping. Mosaicism could arise through several mechanisms including abnormal cell divisions (mitotic non-disjunction or anaphase lag), failure of cytokinesis or endoreduplication. The FISH procedure has been criticised, as it is prone to failure. Two separate studies were developed and carried out in order to detect the level of mosaicism in embryos. In the first study a FISH protocol for the use of two different probes per chromosome was developed. The aim was to gain information on mechanisms leading to aneuploidy mosaicism and its true incidence. Three colour FISH was performed in three sequential rounds. In the first and second round different probes were used for chromosomes 1, 11, 18. In the third round probes were used for chromosomes X, Y and 18. Each FISH procedure included a control slide to assess FISH efficiency in all rounds of FISH. Two groups of embryos were spread on day 5 of development embryos grown in cleavage media throughout and embryos transferred to blastocyst media after day 3. A total of 21 embryos were analysed in each Group. The FISH results revealed one uniformly diploid and 20 mosaic embryos for Group I and 2 uniformly diploid and 19 mosaic embryos for Group II. Use of 2 different probes per chromosome was able to detect FISH artefacts and failure of hybridisation. Post- zygotic chromosome loss was the predominant mechanism leading to aneuploidy mosaicism for both groups, followed by chromosome gain, with only a few examples of mitotic non-disjunction. The relatively high percentage of tetraploidy in the blastocyst medium group was considered to reflect normal embryonic development. The use of CGH was investigated as an alternative strategy to detect the true level of mosaicism in the whole genome. The second part of the research for this thesis involved assessing the efficiency of CGH, improving the protocol for optimised use on single cells, and its application to human embryonic material. Results suggested that CGH is a laborious and technically demanding technique however, can provide extra information when used as a research tool. CGH was combined with FISH in order to assess chromosomal abnormalities in day 3 and day 5 embryos respectively. CGH was employed in 1-2 biopsied cells from a day 3 embryo, which was grown up to day 5 and further analysed by multi-colour FISH. The aim of this study was to observe the full chromosomal status of 1 -2 blastomeres biopsied at the cleavage stage (day 3) of development followed by FISH analysis of the rest of the embryo on day 5. This would allow the assessment of abnormalities in day 3 embryos by a full karyotype and then confirm whether the abnormality persists until day 5 using FISH for the chromosome(s) involved. In summary 30 embryos were fully analysed and only 3 (10%) were uniformly normal, while the rest were mosaic or chaotic. CGH was able to provide results in 83.3% of the embryos subjected to analysis. FISH and CGH showed either agreeing or complimentary results for all embryos analysed. The predominant mechanism of aneuploidy mosaicism was whole chromosome loss. Furthermore, partial aneuploidy was also detected, with partial chromosome loss being the principal mechanism. In the final part of the thesis the development of PGD protocols for a single gene disorder, namely DM, were devised using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques. Two PGD protocols were devised and employed clinically in two patients undergoing PGD for DM using fluorescent PCR. Due to the extensive workup needed to develop the specific PCR protocols for each patient, a universal-like protocol was researched. Such a protocol would involve production of a sufficient amount of DNA through whole genome amplification techniques i.e. DOP-PCR from a single cell to carry out subsequent analysis with F-PCR markers as well whole chromosome analysis using CGH. DOP-PCR amplified DNA was subjected to amplification of five markers that would have been used during a PGD workup for DM and also subjected to CGH analysis. Initially genomic DNA was tested which produced high fidelity of amplification. Single cell DNA was then utilised in order to assess the amplification rate, allele dropout (ADO) and contamination levels. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Social Proficiency of Down Syndrome People in Today’s Era

The point of view of children with Down syndrome in respect of socially competency/proficiency has not been supported by empirical data. Conversely, the emerging evidence indicates that beginning in infancy and throughout the lifespan, individuals with DS show difficulties interpreting social and emotional cues, communicating about social and emotional experiences, understanding mental states such as desires and beliefs in self and others; and, regulating and acting on cognitions and emotions in an adaptive way during peer interactions. These developmental skills are considered key components of social competence and may be implicated in the challenges that individuals with DS often face with regard to social adaptation regardless of their IQ status. In particular, difficulties in social competence may be linked to several adjustment problems observed among individuals with DS later in life, including the areas of self-identity development, peer relationships, and mental health. This paper will focus on social competence in individuals with Down syndrome and the developmental implications of social ability across the lifespan. Keywords: Children, Down syndrome, social competency, mental stat

Use of Biochemical Markers in Predictive and Diagnostic Means in Diagnosing Obstetrical Pathologies in Albania

Background: The majority of published scientific papers concerning the role of biochemical markers of first trimester such as PAPP-A and free-ß-hCG in predicting future pregnancy complications enhance the importance of these parameters. Objective: To evaluate the role of biochemical markers parameters in other pregnancy disorders after first trimester such as Fetal Growth Restriction, Preeclampsia, Preterm Birth, Stillbirth, Fetal Macrosomia. Materials and methods: As a part of a prospective study, we did study 866 patients that were followed from the beginning of pregnancy to delivery, after giving their agreement. Quantity and quality research methods were used and data was analyzed by IBM SPSS Statistics. Results: Our data of showed that 11.4% of this cohort presented one of the above respective pathologies. The risk was better related to MoM PAPP-A than free-ß-hCG. Patients with MoM PAPP-A less than cut off 0.5, has double risk of having the pathology comparing to those patients with Conclusions: Consequently, the value of counseling the patient so early, with the information taken from evidence based medicine, has importance for them, in order to be more careful after having the results, and make regular control with their physician. Keywords: Biochemical markers, pregnancy complications, Down syndrome

Toward a new data standard for combined marine biological and environmental datasets - expanding OBIS beyond species occurrences

The Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) is the world's most comprehensive online, open-access database of marine species distributions. OBIS grows with millions of new species observations every year. Contributions come from a network of hundreds of institutions, projects and individuals with common goals: to build a scientific knowledge base that is open to the public for scientific discovery and exploration and to detect trends and changes that inform society as essential elements in conservation management and sustainable development. Until now, OBIS has focused solely on the collection of biogeographic data (the presence of marine species in space and time) and operated with optimized data flows, quality control procedures and data standards specifically targeted to these data. Based on requirements from the growing OBIS community to manage datasets that combine biological, physical and chemical measurements, the OBIS-ENV-DATA pilot project was launched to develop a proposed standard and guidelines to make sure these combined datasets can stay together and are not, as is often the case, split and sent to different repositories. The proposal in this paper allows for the management of sampling methodology, animal tracking and telemetry data, biological measurements (e.g., body length, percent live cover, ...) as well as environmental measurements such as nutrient concentrations, sediment characteristics or other abiotic parameters measured during sampling to characterize the environment from which biogeographic data was collected. The recommended practice builds on the Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A) standard and on practices adopted by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). It consists of a DwC Event Core in combination with a DwC Occurrence Extension and a proposed enhancement to the DwC MeasurementOrFact Extension. This new structure enables the linkage of measurements or facts - quantitative and qualitative properties - to both sampling events and species occurrences, and includes additional fields for property standardization. We also embrace the use of the new parentEventID DwC term, which enables the creation of a sampling event hierarchy. We believe that the adoption of this recommended practice as a new data standard for managing and sharing biological and associated environmental datasets by IODE and the wider international scientific community would be key to improving the effectiveness of the knowledge base, and will enhance integration and management of critical data needed to understand ecological and biological processes in the ocean, and on land.Fil: De Pooter, Daphnis. Flanders Marine Institute; BélgicaFil: Appeltans, Ward. UNESCO-IOC; BélgicaFil: Bailly, Nicolas. Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, MedOBIS; GreciaFil: Bristol, Sky. United States Geological Survey; Estados UnidosFil: Deneudt, Klaas. Flanders Marine Institute; BélgicaFil: Eliezer, Menashè. Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale; ItaliaFil: Fujioka, Ei. University Of Duke. Nicholas School Of Environment. Duke Marine Lab; Estados UnidosFil: Giorgetti, Alessandra. Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale; ItaliaFil: Goldstein, Philip. University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, OBIS; Estados UnidosFil: Lewis, Mirtha Noemi. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Centro Nacional Patagónico. Centro para el Estudio de Sistemas Marinos; ArgentinaFil: Lipizer, Marina. Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale; ItaliaFil: Mackay, Kevin. National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research; Nueva ZelandaFil: Marin, Maria Rosa. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Centro Nacional Patagónico; ArgentinaFil: Moncoiffé, Gwenaëlle. British Oceanographic Data Center; Reino UnidoFil: Nikolopoulou, Stamatina. Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, MedOBIS; GreciaFil: Provoost, Pieter. UNESCO-IOC; BélgicaFil: Rauch, Shannon. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; Estados UnidosFil: Roubicek, Andres. CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere; AustraliaFil: Torres, Carlos. Universidad Autonoma de Baja California Sur; MéxicoFil: van de Putte, Anton. Royal Belgian Institute for Natural Sciences; BélgicaFil: Vandepitte, Leen. Flanders Marine Institute; BélgicaFil: Vanhoorne, Bart. Flanders Marine Institute; BélgicaFil: Vinci, Mateo. Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale; ItaliaFil: Wambiji, Nina. Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute; KeniaFil: Watts, David. CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere; AustraliaFil: Klein Salas, Eduardo. Universidad Simon Bolivar; VenezuelaFil: Hernandez, Francisco. Flanders Marine Institute; Bélgic

Membranous nephropathy and lupus-like syndrome after hematopoietic cell transplantation: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>The kidney is increasingly recognised as a target organ of chronic graft-versus-host disease after hematopoietic cell transplantation in the context of the development of the nephrotic syndrome. Chronic graft-versus-host disease is associated with autoimmune phenomena similar, but not identical, to those observed in various rheumatologic disorders, implicating autoimmunity as an important component of the disease.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report the case of a 57-year-old Caucasian man who developed the nephrotic syndrome due to membranous nephropathy in association with recurrent chronic graft-versus-host disease, along with a lupus-like syndrome manifested with pancytopenia, hair loss, positive anti-DNA antibodies and sub-epithelial and mesangial immune deposits. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case reported in the literature. The nephrotic syndrome subsided soon after he was treated with a short course of cyclosporin with steroids. Unfortunately he died seven months later due to a relapse of leukemia.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our case report confirms the notion that chronic graft-versus-host disease is characterized by the appearance of autoimmune phenomena similar, but not identical, to those seen in autoimmune diseases. The decision for more immunosuppression has to be weighed against the need for preservation of the graft versus leukemia phenomenon.</p

Comprehensive analysis of karyotypic mosaicism between trophectoderm and inner cell mass

Aneuploidy has been well-documented in blastocyst embryos, but prior studies have been limited in scale and/or lack mechanistic data. We previously reported preclinical validation of microarray 24-chromosome preimplantation genetic screening in a 24-h protocol. The method diagnoses chromosome copy number, structural chromosome aberrations, parental source of aneuploidy and distinguishes certain meiotic from mitotic errors. In this study, our objective was to examine aneuploidy in human blastocysts and determine correspondence of karyotypes between trophectoderm (TE) and inner cell mass (ICM). We disaggregated 51 blastocysts from 17 couples into ICM and one or two TE fractions. The average maternal age was 31. Next, we ran 24-chromosome microarray molecular karyotyping on all of the samples, and then performed a retrospective analysis of the data. The average per-chromosome confidence was 99.95%. Approximately 80% of blastocysts were euploid. The majority of aneuploid embryos were simple aneuploid, i.e. one or two whole-chromosome imbalances. Structural chromosome aberrations, which are common in cleavage stage embryos, occurred in only three blastocysts (5.8%). All TE biopsies derived from the same embryos were concordant. Forty-nine of 51 (96.1%) ICM samples were concordant with TE biopsies derived from the same embryos. Discordance between TE and ICM occurred only in the two embryos with structural chromosome aberration. We conclude that TE karyotype is an excellent predictor of ICM karyotype. Discordance between TE and ICM occurred only in embryos with structural chromosome aberrations