Pursuing Kingdom Growth by Intentionally Engaging our Culture

The goal of this research project was to strengthen the church’s ability to effectively engage the culture and expand the kingdom of God. This project is important because American Churches have invested time and resources looking for ways to transform the culture. In the process many discovered that the culture has also transformed the church with mixed results. This research project showed that new churches continue to face difficulties engaging the culture without compromising the mission of the church or disrupting the unity of the body. Using the attractional or missional models, churches have struggled in the tension created by a complex and rapidly changing cultural environment. Similar to physicists discovering that light has both particle and wave properties (something of a paradox for researchers), the literature review demonstrated that the concept of culture has several paradoxical characteristics. The kingdom parables of Jesus formed the theological foundations of this project. This research showed that the kingdom of God has distinct cultural elements that are sometimes at odds with the world culture. The project has shown that a ministry model based on the concept of self-organizing systems is likely to utilize continual feedback to better understand and adapt in the cultural context. Combined with a coaching model of management this new model of community engagement is likely to produce sustainable growth and transformation. The adaptational model of ministry operates in the tension between the church culture, world culture, and kingdom culture. The model proposed that ministry activities iterate through four steps: continual feedback, communal reflection, specific action, and effective adjustment. These four steps engage both culture and discipleship as creative and transformative processes that enable the expansion of the kingdom of God

The Production and Exportation of Garments under the AGOA Initiative: Challenges Facing Garment Producers in Ghana.

The study investigated the problems faced by garment producers in the production and exportation of garments under the AGOA initiative. The proportionate random and purposive sampling techniques were used to select 100 non-exporters and 10 exporters respectively from Accra and Tema. Data was collected using a well structured interview questionnaire and observation guide. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyze the data and the results presented in frequency and percentage distributions, bar charts and cross-tabulations. The non-exporters lacked finances; market; skilled and reliable workers; information and sensitization; and had difficulty in adhering to the guidelines of the initiative. The problems faced by the exporters were cumbersome export processing procedures; customs officials’ lack of education on AGOA; high cost of production; lack of raw materials to satisfy buyer specifications; and lack of good quality packaging materials. The Chi-square one-variable method indicated a relationship between the type of training and problems encountered in the production of garments under the AGOA initiative. It is suggested that garment producers form clusters and pool their resources together to effectively deliver good quality garments on schedule. Keywords: Challenges, Garment production, AGO

Updating the European Union's regulation on classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures (CLP): A key opportunity for consumers, workers and stakeholders with interests in the legislation and toxicology of hazardous chemicals

Recent advancements in toxicology and the European Union's Green Deal, with its Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability, have paved the way for major changes in EU legislation on the control of environmental chemicals for a cleaner and safer environment. Another substantial legislative advancement underway is the update of the \u201cRegulation on Classification, Labelling and Packaging of Substances and Mixtures (CLP),\u201d an ambitious piece of EU legislation with exceptional scientific toxicological background in identifying a hazard, aiming at better protecting its citizens and the environment from the risk of chemical substances and products, the occupational settings included. Update of CLP legislation additionally aims at facilitating the free exchange of chemicals in the European Internal Market, provided that proper labelling and packaging processes are implemented. Participation in the ongoing online public consultation on these issues, ending on November 15, 2021, is of key relevance to ensure a transparent and effective definition of such an important piece of legislation, fully compliant with current EU priorities in terms of human and environmental protection and animal welfare

Fetal Central Nervous System Abnormalities

Central nervous system (CNS) is one of the most frequent sites for prenatal diagnosed congenital abnormalities (10 per 1000 live births, much higher than the heart—eight per 1000, kidneys—four per 1000, and other fetal systems). Due to the evolving pattern, ultrasound screening for fetal brain malformations is usually performed at 19–22 weeks’ gestation, but severe congenital anomalies can be diagnosed much earlier. This chapter is a short review, structured in eight subchapters: the first one is dedicated to the normal ultrasound aspect of different CNS segments, and the following ones are to detect pathology in prenatal life. We used many ultrasound images and tried to correlate the prenatal findings with the ones obtained postpartum/postabortum for each case, by means of pathology/imaging techniques

Endoscopic Treatment of Gastrointestinal Bleedings

Digestive endoscopy represents an essential diagnostic and curative tool used when presented with a suspicion of gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding. Its role is not only confined to primary detection but also to establishing the severity of a lesion and providing relevant information regarding its risk of bleeding. New endoscopic techniques, accessories and compounds make the minimally invasive treatment suitable for a vast array of lesion types. Our main goal in this chapter is to summarize the main presentation of lesions at risk of bleeding, briefly classify them according to the gastrointestinal segment and finally detail the endoscopic treatment options currently available

Colorectal Cancer and Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) with its two entities, ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, is at increased risk of developing colorectal cancer (CRC). Risk factors for CRC are represented by the duration of the disease, extent of disease, the association of primary sclerosing cholangitis, family history, and early age at onset. In inflammatory bowel disease, colonic carcinogenesis appears on an inflamed colon, being determined by different genetic alterations. The main element of the process of carcinogenesis is the dysplasia, which is a neoplastic intraepithelial transformation, limited to the basal membrane surrounding the glands around which it appears. The stages of carcinogenesis process start with dysplasia of varying degrees as follows: indefinite dysplasia, low-grade dysplasia, high-grade dysplasia, and finally invasive adenocarcinoma

COVID-19, an opportunity to reevaluate the correlation between long-term effects of anthropogenic pollutants on viral epidemic/pandemic events and prevalence

Occupational, residential, dietary and environmental exposures to mixtures of synthetic anthropogenic chemicals after World War II have a strong relationship with the increase of chronic diseases, health cost and environmental pollution. The link between environment and immunity is particularly intriguing as it is known that chemicals and drugs can cause immunotoxicity (e.g., allergies and autoimmune diseases). In this review, we emphasize the relationship between long-term exposure to xenobiotic mixtures and immune deficiency inherent to chronic diseases and epidemics/pandemics. We also address the immunotoxicologic risk of vulnerable groups, taking into account biochemical and biophysical properties of SARS-CoV-2 and its immunopathological implications. We particularly underline the common mechanisms by which xenobiotics and SARS-CoV-2 act at the cellular and molecular level. We discuss how long-term exposure to thousand chemicals in mixtures, mostly fossil fuel derivatives, exposure toparticle matters, metals, ultraviolet (UV)–B radiation, ionizing radiation and lifestyle contribute to immunodeficiency observed in the contemporary pandemic, such as COVID-19, and thus threaten global public health, human prosperity and achievements, and global economy. Finally, we propose metrics which are needed to address the diverse health effects of anthropogenic COVID-19 crisis at present and those required to prevent similar future pandemics

An updated overview of anticancer effects of alternariol and its derivatives: Underlying molecular mechanisms

Alternariol is a toxic metabolite of Alternaria fungi and studies have shown multiple potential pharmacological effects. To outline the anticancer effects and mechanisms of alternariol and its derivatives based on database reports, an updated search of PubMed/MedLine, ScienceDirect, Web of Science, and Scopus databases was performed with relevant keywords for published articles. The studies found to suggest that this mycotoxin and/or its derivatives have potential anticancer effects in many pharmacological preclinical test systems. Scientific reports indicate that alternariol and/or its derivatives exhibit anticancer through several pathways, including cytotoxic, reactive oxygen species leading to oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction-linked cytotoxic effect, anti- inflammatory, cell cycle arrest, apoptotic cell death, genotoxic and mutagenic, anti-proliferative, autophagy, and estrogenic and clastogenic mechanisms. In light of these results, alternariol may be one of the hopeful chemotherapeutic agents