The Loft: Where Gen Z Goes to Build Relationships and Discover Spiritual Truths

It is an alarming but indisputable fact that the vast majority of Generation Z, specifically those between ages 18 and 25, are not attending and/or not interested in the faith or beliefs of the American Protestant Church today. Studies show that the Western Christian church is losing touch with an entire generation and that reality is the driving force behind this research project. We know from research conducted for this Doctoral Project, as well as from multiple academic and sociological studies that members of Generation Z are often interested in spirituality but are either ignorant or highly skeptical of organized religion. Along with the culturally preconceived idea that the Christian Church is narrow-minded, outdated, and intolerant, this poses a significant problem for faith leaders attempting to reach Generation Z. While formulating this Doctoral Project, I asked: “How can faith leaders connect with this generation in a relevant, viable, and appealing way, which could result in healthy relationships and, ultimately, point young adults to Jesus? Could the Church model Jesus in such a way that young adults become curious about faith and relationship in Jesus?” “If so, how and where?” I will present the idea, proven by data and testing, that the creation of a third space model (named “The Loft”) in which entertaining, interactive, and enlightening activities that appeal to Generation Z are regularly hosted in a neutral, non-threatening environment with a focus on building relationships could be a place where the Holy Spirit could use these authentic relationships to change lives and lead participants to Jesus ultimately

The rehabilitation of stroke patients at community health centres in the Western Cape

The structure and process of rehabilitation of stroke patients affects the outcomes of the patients. The aim of this study was to determine the structure and process of rehabilitation of stroke patients at Community Health Centres (CHCs) in the Western Cape, South Africa. A quantitative descriptive study was conducted. Questions and archived records were used to collect the data. The study sample used to collect information related to the structure consisted of therapists (16) employed at the centres; while the study sample used to collect information related to the process consisted of 100 first time stroke patients. Descriptive statistics were conducted using Excel and SPSS . The results of the study revealed that there is a lack of occupational and speech therapy services at the centres forming part of the study sample. At centres where these services are provided the frequency and intensity with which the services are received by the patients is extremely low. Further research is needed to determine if the decreased intensity is only as a result of decreased availability of services or if inability of stroke clients to access the services also plays a roleDepartment of HE and Training approved lis

Lifestyle behaviour and risk factor control in coronary patients : Belgian results from the cross-sectional EUROASPIRE surveys

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess lifestyle behaviour as well as risk factor management across Belgian coronary patients who participated in the cross-sectional European Action on Secondary Prevention through Intervention to Reduce Events (EUROASPIRE) surveys. Methods: Analyses are based on a series of coronary patients by combining data from the Belgian participants in the EUROASPIRE III (328 patients; in 2006-2007) and EUROASPIRE IV (343 patients; in 2012-2013) surveys. Four hospitals located in the Ghent area participated in the surveys. Patients included in the analyses were >= 18 years old and had been hospitalised for a coronary event. Information on cardiovascular risk factors, lifestyle behaviour and medical treatment were obtained. Results: Overall, the proportion of smokers was 11% with 40% persistent smokers. Adequate physical activity levels were reported by 17%, 28% of patients were obese, 47% was central obese and known diabetes was prevalent in 21% of patients. Hypertension was observed in 46% of patients and 20% had a total cholesterol >= 5 mmol/L. About 80% had participated in a cardiac rehabilitation programme and the majority of patients were treated with blood pressure (92%) or lipid-lowering drugs (92%). Anxiety and depressive symptoms were reported by 30% and 24%, respectively. Differences between EUROASPIRE III and IV were limited. Conclusions: Compared to the overall EUROASPIRE results in Europe, Belgian CHD patients seem to do slightly better. However, tackling obesity, physical inactivity, hypertension and psychosocial distress remains an important challenge in the management of coronary patients

Design of mesoporous sol-gel coatings for anti-fingerprint applications on glass

peer reviewedNowadays, the use of mesoporous sol-gel films as smart coatings is growing. Their porosity is used to embed active species in applications such as drug delivery, catalysis, sensors, active corrosion protection, ... The film mesoporosity is produced by evaporation induced self-assembly (EISA) process. This process is based on the addition of a templating agent in sol-gel formulation. The thermal removal of surfactant agent allows to control the coating mesostructure. In this work, the mesostructure of the sol-gel layer is designed to be used as reservoir for active biomolecules. In order to assure a good incorporation and storage of biomolecules, the size of mesopores and their configuration were tuned as a function of application and synthesis parameters. The effects of the sol-gel composition and deposition process on the sol-gel mesostructure were evaluated. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and water adsorption/desorption isotherms recorded with a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) were used to characterize the morphologies of the sol-gel film. Rheological measurements were carried out to check the stability of the sol-gel solution. The anti-fingerprint performance due to the combination of mesoporous film and enzymatic solutions were assessed by using an artificial sebum

Differences in the faecal microbiome in Schistosoma haematobium infected children vs. uninfected children

BACKGROUND: Several infectious diseases and therapeutic interventions cause gut microbe dysbiosis and associated pathology. We characterised the gut microbiome of children exposed to the helminth Schistosoma haematobium pre- and post-treatment with the drug praziquantel (PZQ), with the aim to compare the gut microbiome structure (abundance and diversity) in schistosome infected vs. uninfected children. METHODS: Stool DNA from 139 children aged six months to 13 years old; with S. haematobium infection prevalence of 27.34% was extracted at baseline. 12 weeks following antihelminthic treatment with praziqunatel, stool DNA was collected from 62 of the 139 children. The 16S rRNA genes were sequenced from the baseline and post-treatment samples and the sequence data, clustered into operational taxonomic units (OTUs). The OTU data were analysed using multivariate analyses and paired T-test. RESULTS: Pre-treatment, the most abundant phyla were Bacteroidetes, followed by Firmicutes and Proteobacteria respectively. The relative abundance of taxa among bacterial classes showed limited variation by age group or sex and the bacterial communities had similar overall compositions. Although there were no overall differences in the microbiome structure across the whole age range, the abundance of 21 OTUs varied significantly with age (FDR<0.05). Some OTUs including Veillonella, Streptococcus, Bacteroides and Helicobacter were more abundant in children ≤ 1 year old compared to older children. Furthermore, the gut microbiome differed in schistosome infected vs. uninfected children with 27 OTU occurring in infected but not uninfected children, for 5 of these all Prevotella, the difference was statistically significant (p <0.05) with FDR <0.05. PZQ treatment did not alter the microbiome structure in infected or uninfected children from that observed at baseline. CONCLUSIONS: There are significant differences in the gut microbiome structure of infected vs. uninfected children and the differences were refractory to PZQ treatment

Group Size and the Efficiency of Informal Risk Sharing

This paper studies the relationship between group size and informal risk sharing. It shows that under limited commitment with coalitional deviations, this relationship is theoretically ambiguous. It investigates this question empirically using data on sibship size of household heads and spouses from rural Malawi, exploiting a social norm among the main sample ethnic group to define the potential risk sharing group. We uncover evidence of worse risk sharing of crop losses in larger potential risk sharing groups, and rule out alternative explanations for the findings. A simple calibration exercise indicates that our empirical findings are consistent with the theory