Constructing a Transformative Methodology of Discipleship: A Qualitative Case Study of the African Strategic Discipleship Movement (ASDM)

The purpose of this study was to discover how discipleship can be transformative for the learners within the African Strategic Discipleship Movement (ASDM) training program currently being offered to Christian denominations located in 33 countries throughout Africa. The educational theory that guided this study was Bruner’s constructivism methodology of learning as it suggested a theoretical framework that could be integrated into the field of discipleship. The Central Research Question asked how the specific instructional methods and practices of discipleship presented by the African Strategic Discipleship Movement (ASDM) provide or not provide the participants with transformational results. Sub-research questions asked about the learner’s use of the 4H Model, mentoring, digital platforms during discipleship, as well as the transferability or multiplication of the ASDM methodologies. The research design demonstrated an intrinsic case study approach that established a broad investigation and evaluation of the ASDM program. The participants included a sample of 13 second and third generation disciples who had been trained by ASDM Disciple Making Leaders (DMLs). The African setting provided a contextual site for the qualitative data to be collected both in-person and virtually. The data collection involved a triangulation of sources that offered a wide range of information for depth and insight including the three data sources of interviews, document analysis, and participant observations. Analysis included the evaluation of repeated themes of transformation acquired from interviews, the use of a spiral affect method of analyzing ASDM documents, and the assistance of observed field notes with reflection. Research findings revealed transformational results were experienced among the learners of the ASDM program

Brownian motion in a Maxwell fluid.

The equilibrium dynamics of a spherical particle immersed in a complex Maxwell fluid is analyzed in terms of velocity autocorrelation function (VACF), mean-square displacement (MSD), and power spectral density (PSD). We elucidate the role of hydrodynamic memory and its interplay with medium viscoelasticity for a free and a harmonically confined particle. The elastic response at high frequencies introduces oscillations in the VACF, which are found to be strongly damped by the coupling to the fluid. We show that in all Maxwell fluids hydrodynamic memory eventually leads to a power-law decay in the VACF as is already known for Newtonian fluids. The MSD displays asymptotically an intermediate plateau reflecting the elastic restoring forces of the medium. In the frequency domain, the PSD exhibits at high frequencies a step due to the trapping, whereas the low-frequency decay reflects the viscoelastic relaxation. Our results suggest that high-frequency microrheology is well-suited to infer the elastic modulus, which is sensitive over a wide range of Maxwell times

Chromosome Aberrations in Lymphocytes of Patients Undergoing Radon Spa Therapy: An Explorative mFISH Study

In the present exploratory study, we aim to elucidate the action of radon in vivo and to assess the possible health risks. Chromosome aberrations were analyzed in lymphocytes of two patients (P1, P2) undergoing radon spa therapy in Bad Steben (Germany). Both patients, suffering from painful chronic degenerative disorders of the spine and joints, received nine baths (1.2 kBq/L at 34 °C) over a 3-week period. Chromosome aberrations were analyzed before and 6, 12 and 30 weeks after the start of therapy using the high-resolution multiplex fluorescence in situ hybridization (mFISH) technique. For comparison, the lymphocytes from two healthy donors (HD1, HD2) were examined. P1 had a higher baseline aberration frequency than P2 and both healthy donors (5.3 ± 1.3 vs. 2.0 ± 0.8, 1.4 ± 0.3 and 1.1 ± 0.1 aberrations/100 analyzed metaphases, respectively). Complex aberrations, biomarkers of densely ionizing radiation, were found in P1, P2 and HD1. Neither the aberration frequency nor the fraction of complex aberrations increased after radon spa treatment, i.e., based on biological dosimetry, no increased health risk was found. It is worth noting that a detailed breakpoint analysis revealed potentially clonal aberrations in both patients. Altogether, our data show pronounced inter-individual differences with respect to the number and types of aberrations, complicating the risk analysis of low doses such as those received during radon therapy

Clinically Relevant Radiation Exposure Differentially Impacts Forms of Cell Death in Human Cells of the Innate and Adaptive Immune System

In cancer treatments, especially high-dose radiotherapy (HDRT) is applied. Patients suffering from chronic inflammatory diseases benefit from low-dose radiation therapy (LDRT), but exposure to very low radiation doses can still steadily increase for diagnostic purposes. Yet, little is known about how radiation impacts on forms of cell death in human immune cells. In this study, the radiosensitivity of human immune cells of the peripheral blood was examined in a dose range from 0.01 to 60 Gy with regard to induction of apoptosis, primary necrosis, and secondary necrosis. Results showed that immune cells differed in their radiosensitivity, with monocytes being the most radioresistant. T cells mainly died by necrosis and were moderately radiosensitive. This was followed by B and natural killer (NK) cells, which died mainly by apoptosis. X-radiation had no impact on cell death in immune cells at very low doses (≤0.1 Gy). Radiation doses of LDRT (0.3–0.7 Gy) impacted on the more radiosensitive NK and B cells, which might contribute to attenuation of inflammation. Even single doses applied during RT of tumors did not erase the immune cells completely. These in vitro studies can be considered as the basis to optimize individual radiation therapy schemes in multimodal settings and to define suited time points for further inclusion of immunotherapies

Subjective Mood in Young Unmedicated Depressed Women under High and Low Sleep Pressure Conditions

Diurnal mood variations are one of the core symptoms in depression, and total sleep deprivation (SD) can induce rapid, short-lasting clinical improvement in depressed patients. Here, we investigated if differential sleep pressure conditions impact on subjective mood levels in young women with major depressive disorder (MDD) without sleep disturbances, and in healthy controls. Eight healthy and eight MDD women underwent 40-h SD (high sleep pressure) and 40-h multiple NAP (low sleep pressure) protocols under constant routine conditions during which subjective mood was assessed every 30-min. MDD women rated overall significantly worse mood than controls, with minimal values for both groups during the biological night (ca. 4 a.m.), under high and low sleep pressure conditions. During SD, nighttime mood ratings in MDD women were lower than in controls and partially recovered during the second day of SD, but never attained control levels. The degree of this diurnal time-course in mood under SD correlated positively with sleep quality in MDD women. Our data indicate that MDD women without sleep disturbances did not exhibit a SD-induced antidepressant response, suggesting that the mood enhancement response to sleep deprivation might be related to the co-existence of sleep disturbances, which is an association that remains to be fully established

Trial Outcome and Associative Learning Signals in the Monkey Hippocampus

In tasks of associative learning, animals establish new links between unrelated items by using information about trial outcome to strengthen correct/rewarded associations and modify incorrect/unrewarded ones. To study how hippocampal neurons convey information about reward and trial outcome during new associative learning, we recorded hippocampal neurons as monkeys learned novel object-place associations. A large population of hippocampal neurons (50%) signaled trial outcome by differentiating between correct and error trials during the period after the behavioral response. About half these cells increased their activity following correct trials (correct up cells) while the remaining half fired more following error trials (error up cells). Moreover, correct up cells, but not error up cells, conveyed information about learning by increasing their stimulus-selective response properties with behavioral learning. These findings suggest that information about successful trial outcome conveyed by correct up cells may influence new associative learning through changes in the cell's stimulus-selective response properties.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH grant MH48847)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH Award DA015644)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH Award MH59733)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH grant MH071847)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH grant DP1 OD003646)Fondation pour la recherche médical

Subcutaneous vs Intravenous Trastuzumab/Pertuzumab: A Time and Motion Substudy of a Phase II Trial of Adjuvant Trastuzumab/Pertuzumab for Stage I HER2+ Breast Cancer (ADEPT trial).

PURPOSE: The time required for in-clinic drug administration can substantially affect breast cancer patients' quality of life. Subcutaneous (SC) drug administration, as opposed to intravenous (IV), may reduce this time commitment. This study sought to estimate the difference in time burden between IV and SC administration of trastuzumab and pertuzumab (HP). METHODS: We prospectively enrolled a subcohort of patients participating in the ADEPT trial (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT04569747, investigating adjuvant HP plus endocrine therapy for stage I human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive breast cancer) to this single-arm crossover time and motion substudy. Patients received two cycles of IV HP followed by two cycles of SC HP. During each cycle, time points in drug preparation and administration were captured. The primary end point was total patient time in the treatment chair. Additional end points included total patient treatment experience time and total pharmacy workflow time. A sample size of 22 patients was estimated to provide 90.7% power with two-sided alpha .05 to detect a difference of 70 minutes in the primary end point by treatment arm (IV v SC). RESULTS: Twenty-two patients were enrolled. The mean total patient time in the treatment chair was 61.8 minutes shorter with SC versus IV HP (22.5 v 84.3 minutes; P < .0001). The mean total patient treatment experience time (incorporating time spent waiting for treatment initiation and time spent in the treatment chair) was 81.8 minutes shorter for SC administration (96 v 177.8 minutes; P < .0001). The pharmacy workflow time was 78.2 minutes shorter for SC versus IV formulation (41 v 119.2 minutes; P < .0001). CONCLUSION: SC administration of HP shortened patient time burden by approximately 1 hour. SC drug administration can facilitate faster workflows for health care professionals and improve patients' breast cancer treatment experience

Consequences of the Timing of Menarche on Female Adolescent Sleep Phase Preference

Most parents experience their children's puberty as a dramatic change in family life. This is not surprising considering the dynamics of physical and psychosocial maturation which occur during adolescence. A reasonable question, particularly from the parents' perspective, is: when does this vibrant episode end and adulthood finally start? The aim of the present study was to assess the relationship between puberty and the changes in sleep phase preferences during female maturation and adulthood by a cross-sectional survey. The results from 1'187 females aged 5 to 51 years based on self-report measures of sleep preferences on weekdays and on free days as well as the occurrence of menarche, show that in contrast to prepubertal children, adolescent females exhibit a striking progression in delaying their sleep phase preference until 5 years after menarche. Thereafter, the sleep phase preference switches to advancing. The current study provides evidence that a clear shift in sleep-wake cycles temporally linked to menarche heralds the beginning of “adult-like” sleep-wake behaviour in women and can be used as a (chrono)biological marker for the onset of adulthood

Influence of Low-Level Stimulus Features, Task Dependent Factors, and Spatial Biases on Overt Visual Attention

Visual attention is thought to be driven by the interplay between low-level visual features and task dependent information content of local image regions, as well as by spatial viewing biases. Though dependent on experimental paradigms and model assumptions, this idea has given rise to varying claims that either bottom-up or top-down mechanisms dominate visual attention. To contribute toward a resolution of this discussion, here we quantify the influence of these factors and their relative importance in a set of classification tasks. Our stimuli consist of individual image patches (bubbles). For each bubble we derive three measures: a measure of salience based on low-level stimulus features, a measure of salience based on the task dependent information content derived from our subjects' classification responses and a measure of salience based on spatial viewing biases. Furthermore, we measure the empirical salience of each bubble based on our subjects' measured eye gazes thus characterizing the overt visual attention each bubble receives. A multivariate linear model relates the three salience measures to overt visual attention. It reveals that all three salience measures contribute significantly. The effect of spatial viewing biases is highest and rather constant in different tasks. The contribution of task dependent information is a close runner-up. Specifically, in a standardized task of judging facial expressions it scores highly. The contribution of low-level features is, on average, somewhat lower. However, in a prototypical search task, without an available template, it makes a strong contribution on par with the two other measures. Finally, the contributions of the three factors are only slightly redundant, and the semi-partial correlation coefficients are only slightly lower than the coefficients for full correlations. These data provide evidence that all three measures make significant and independent contributions and that none can be neglected in a model of human overt visual attention

Calcium Dependent CAMTA1 in Adult Stem Cell Commitment to a Myocardial Lineage

The phenotype of somatic cells has recently been found to be reversible. Direct reprogramming of one cell type into another has been achieved with transduction and over expression of exogenous defined transcription factors emphasizing their role in specifying cell fate. To discover early and novel endogenous transcription factors that may have a role in adult-derived stem cell acquisition of a cardiomyocyte phenotype, mesenchymal stem cells from human and mouse bone marrow and rat liver were co-cultured with neonatal cardiomyocytes as an in vitro cardiogenic microenvironment. Cell-cell communications develop between the two cell types as early as 24 hrs in co-culture and are required for elaboration of a myocardial phenotype in the stem cells 8-16 days later. These intercellular communications are associated with novel Ca(2+) oscillations in the stem cells that are synchronous with the Ca(2+) transients in adjacent cardiomyocytes and are detected in the stem cells as early as 24-48 hrs in co-culture. Early and significant up-regulation of Ca(2+)-dependent effectors, CAMTA1 and RCAN1 ensues before a myocardial program is activated. CAMTA1 loss-of-function minimizes the activation of the cardiac gene program in the stem cells. While the expression of RCAN1 suggests involvement of the well-characterized calcineurin-NFAT pathway as a response to a Ca(2+) signal, the CAMTA1 up-regulated expression as a response to such a signal in the stem cells was unknown. Cell-cell communications between the stem cells and adjacent cardiomyocytes induce Ca(2+) signals that activate a myocardial gene program in the stem cells via a novel and early Ca(2+)-dependent intermediate, up-regulation of CAMTA1