Feminist Ecclesiology: A Trinitarian Framework for Transforming the Church\u27s Institutional and Spiritual LIfe

In light of women’s marginal status in church governance and ministry through most of recorded history, feminist trinitarian ecclesiology is needed to transform the church’s institutional and spiritual life. While Vatican II provided the paradigm shift and promising anthropology essential for an egalitarian church, feminist ecclesiology prompts a radical transformation of its hierarchical and patriarchal structures and practices so that it may truly embody the Trinity. Trinitarian life provides practical and radical consequences for Christian life, and provides a model of church marked by relationships of equality, mutuality, unity and reciprocity. It also provides a strong ecclesiological argument for reform of the juridical Catholic nullity of marriage process, which may pave a pathway for the civilly remarried to receive the sacraments of Reconciliation and Holy Eucharist

Drawers of water for life, but not for health. How water carriage is associated with the health of water carriers.

Introduction For many people, water carriage is a regular chore which is essential for life. However, the relationship between water carriage and health of the water carriers is not clear. The aim of this thesis is to answer the research question ‘How is water carriage associated with the water carrier’s health?’ Methods A systematic review of literature, analysis of data from 49 Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, and a cross sectional survey conducted in South Africa, Ghana and Vietnam were used to investigate the relationship between water carriage and the health of water carriers. Water carriers are most often women and girls of child bearing age, therefore, maternal, early childhood and physical health outcomes were investigated. Results It was found that water carriage is associated with pain location and increased pain severity, but slightly better self-reported general health. Water carriage is also associated with reduced likelihood of a woman giving birth in a health care facility, reduced uptake of antenatal care, increased risk of child deaths, and increased risk of a child under five years of age having diarrhoea, and being left at home alone. The systematic review additionally highlights that water carriage is associated with fatigue and discrimination or abuse of vulnerable people and revealed plausible mechanisms by which water carriage may lead to psychological distress. Conclusion Water carriage is associated with a range of negative health outcomes and indicators, suggesting that it is not good for the water carrier’s health. Water carriage is a potential barrier to achieving targets of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 6 ‘Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all’ and 3 ‘Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages’. Overall the data support a conclusion that action should be taken now to reduce the need for water carriage, and to increase the number of people who can access water for household use in their own home or yard

Who carries the weight of water? Fetching water in rural and urban areas and the implications for water security

The global burden of fetching water, particularly its effects on individuals and societies, is largely unknown because comparative analysis of the global data available is incomplete and scarce. To address this information gap, this article presents a synthesis of the data on water-fetching from households in 23 countries. In rural areas of the dataset almost 50% of the population still have to bring water from a source outside of their home or yard. Women generally carry the main responsibility for fetching water; however, in many countries and in particular in urban areas, men also take on a great share of this work. The mean single trip time to collect water ranges from 10 to 65 minutes in urban areas with an average increase or decrease of 2 to 13 minutes in rural areas. Further, up to 60% of children support the collection of wood and water, in some countries spending up to 11.3 hours per week. Water fetching continues to have the greatest impact on women and children in poorer rural areas and is likely to be a substantial barrier to household water security and sustainable development in regions most in need of sustainable development

Is water carriage associated with the water carrier’s health? A systematic review of quantitative and qualitative evidence

Introduction: The work of carrying water falls mainly on women and children, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and rural areas. While concerns have been raised, how water carriage is associated with health of the water carrier is not clear. The aim of this review is to summarise evidence on whether, and how, water carriage is associated with the water carrier’s health. Methods: A systematic review of literature was conducted, searching Embase; Medline; Web of Science Social Sciences Citation Index; Web of Science Arts and Humanities Citation Index; International Initiative for Impact Evaluation website; WHO Virtual Health Sciences Library and WHO African index medicus, from inception to 8 November 2017. Results: Forty-two studies were included. Their ability to demonstrate cause and effect relationships was limited by study design and fair or poor methodological quality. Overall, the studies suggest that water carriage is associated with negative aspects of the water carriers’ health. There is moderate quantitative and strong qualitative evidence that water carriage is associated with pain, fatigue, perinatal health problems and violence against vulnerable people, and inconclusive evidence of an association with stress or self-reported mental health and general health status. Conclusion: In many circumstances, water carriage is a potential barrier to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 target ‘universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all’ and SDG 3 ‘ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages’. Efforts should focus on providing water on premises, and where this is not possible, providing water close to home and reducing risk of gender-based violence

“My Vocal Cords are Made of Tweed”: Style-Shifting as Speaker Design

Intraspeaker variation is evaluated in terms of speaker design in a number of studies (Coupland 1985, Schilling-Estes 1998, Podesva 2008). This study explores possible motives for variation from a speaker design perspective through the analysis of three phonetic variables with differing social status. The variables occur in the speech of Stephen Fry, an intellectual whose public identity is closely linked with his Received Pronunciation (RP) speech. Fry uses more non-standard forms in contexts where his identity is more directly relevant, suggesting his desire to “accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative” associations of the RP register (Meyerhoff 2011:28). However not all the data fit this pattern, demonstrating the need for a broad model of speaker design incorporating multiple motives for style-shifting. It is proposed that the use of linguistic variables with differing social evaluation can give insight into prioritisation of speaker motives in future speaker-centred studies

Cardiac Specific Gene Expression Changes in Long Term Culture of Murine Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Murine MSCs are a readily available source of adult stem cells enabling extensive in vitro study of this cell population. MSCs have been described as multipotent, and have been proven capable of differentiation into several connective tissue types. Furthermore some studies have suggested an ability to differentiate into non-connective tissue cell types such as the cardiomyocyte. The aim of this study was to differentiate murine MSCs toward cardiac lineage with the commonly used method of culture with 5’ Azacytidine. Critically, baseline analysis of gene expression of passage four MSCs demonstrated expression of key cardiac markers including cardiac troponin T and I, and the ryanodine receptor. Furthermore, expression analysis of these genes changed with time in culture and passage number. However, there was no significant alteration when cells were subjected to a differentiation protocol. This study therefore highlights the importance of analyzing baseline cells extensively, and indicates the limitations in extrapolating data for comparison between species. Furthermore this data brings into question the efficacy of cardiac differentiation using MSCs

Isolation, characterisation and differentiation of canine adult stem cells

Cardiac and orthopaedic diseases are significant causes of morbidity and mortality in dogs and are therefore critical areas for veterinary research. More information regarding the pathophysiology of these diseases, and the development of novel therapeutics are sorely required and adult stem cells (ASCs) are a promising source of cells for both investigation of these diseases in vitro and also potentially therapeutics in the longer term. ASCs are a readily available source of multipotent cells which bypass the ethical issues surrounding embryonic stem (ES) cells. ASCs have been described in several tissues of the body, and typically differentiate along specific cellular routes related to original source location. This thesis investigates whether ASCs can be isolated and cultured from the dog from two specific locations; cardiac, producing cardiac stem cells (CSCs); and the bone marrow, producing mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). These cell sources will be extensively characterised at their baseline for morphology, culture behaviour and gene marker expression. Following characterisation each cell source will be subjected to differentiation techniques to examine canine ASC multipotent differentiation potential. CSCs were isolated from cultured atrial cardiac explant tissue taken from dogs post-mortem, with owners’ consent. These cells were able to survive successive passages in serum free media and formed large spherical cell clusters, termed ‘cardiospheres’. CSCs were capable of clonal expansion under controlled culture conditions, demonstrating their ability for self-renewal. Characterisation of these cells demonstrated the expression of CSC markers; c-Kit, GATA 4 and Flk-1 and no expression of cardiac lineage markers including cardiac troponin T and I, Nkx2.5, the cardiac ryanodine receptor and the β1-adrenergic receptor. Primary canine MSCs were isolated from bone marrow aspirates using ficoll separation and cultured on tissue culture plastic. Canine MSCs closely resembled MSCs described from other species, such as the human and mouse, and were found to express CD44 and STRO-1 and were negative for CD34 and CD45. CSCs and MSCs were exposed to published cardiac directed differentiation protocols and differentiation then analysed using cellular morphology and gene expression. Canine CSCs appeared to differentiate partially along cardiac lineages with upregulation of cardiac troponin T and Nkx2.5, and down regulation of c-Kit and endothelial lineage markers. Canine MSCs demonstrated some morphological changes during cardiac differentiation, and demonstrated up-regulation of Nkx2.5 and Flk-1 but no significant alteration in other markers examined. This suggested that cardiac directed differentiation was not as successful with canine MSCs compared to CSCs and conflicting with published data using rodent MSC models. Murine MSCs were used as a positive control cell line for cardiac directed differentiation, based upon published literature. Critically there were key marker expression differences between baseline murine and canine MSCs, including the expression of cardiac markers such as cardiac troponin T and I, and the Ryanodine receptor. Furthermore, expression analysis of cardiac genes changed with time in culture and passage number and no significant alteration was seen when cells were subjected to the cardiac differentiation protocol; thereby bringing into question the data regarding successful cardiac differentiation using murine MSCs. Canine MSCs were further differentiated toward a chondrocyte lineage to investigate the use of MSCs for orthopaedic research. Canine MSCs were successfully differentiated toward articular type cartilage, with demonstration of extracellular matrix secretions, an upregulation of collagen type II with downregulation of collagen type I and the development of SOX9 expression in differentiated cells. This thesis builds the groundwork for future ASC research in the dog. Successful isolation and culture of two ASC sources from the dog is demonstrated. Cardiac and cartilage directed differentiation was successful using primary sourced cells, but differentiation was found to be limited to highly specific routes for each stem cell source. The results presented here highlight the importance of analysing baseline stem cells extensively prior to differentiation and in particular, before making comparisons between cell populations isolated from different locations and species

“HAS ANYONE SEEN THE EDITOR?” AN EVALUATION OF EDITORIAL LEADERSHIP IN THE UK REGIONAL PRESS

This thesis seeks to understand and explain the role of editors in the UK regional press and sets out to determine whether ‘editorial leadership’ is still a valid term following changes brought about by technological advancements and economic necessities. The research concludes that editors are still an effective and valued part of the media machinery. However, they are now expected to be business all-rounders, taking greater responsibility for commercial performance, maybe at the expense of direct involvement with undertaking any journalism, which has become a secondary function. They have an appreciation of other wider business functions, such as human resources and finance, but are able to increasingly rely on professional support. Editorial leaders play a key role in the dissemination of journalism and its wider role in the democratic distribution of news and information. This study provides indications of where editorial leadership now sits from both an academic and industry perspective. Primary material consists of existing publications by the researcher himself, presented and reflected upon within a reflexive theoretical framework. Alongside this approach, original interviews were conducted with editorial leaders by way of top-up research. A limited number of studies have touched on the role of leadership in the newsroom but the contribution of editorial leadership has received little attention within the academic community. Because the role continues to evolve, the position of ‘leadership’ is pivotal in the development of journalism and deserves greater attention from scholars, who have so far been reticent to engage with the role and its responsibilities. The findings can contribute to a better understanding of editorial leadership and afford a perspective on how the role could develop as the newspaper landscape continues to evolve

The association of water carriage, water supply and sanitation usage with maternal and child health. A combined analysis of 49 Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys from 41 countries

Background  Millions of people carry water home from off-plot sources each day and lack improved sanitation. Research on the health outcomes associated with water fetching is limited, and with usage of improved sanitation is inconclusive.  Objectives  To analyse the association of water fetching, unimproved water supplies, and usage of improved sanitation facilities with indicators of women’s and children’s health.  Methods  49 Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys from 41 countries were merged, creating a data set of 2,740,855 people from 539,915 households. Multilevel, multivariable analyses were conducted, using logistic regression for binary outcomes, negative binomial regression for count data and ordinary linear regression for linear data. We adjusted for confounding factors and accounted for clustering at survey, cluster and household level.  Results  Compared to households in which no-one collects water, water fetching by any household member is associated with reduced odds of a woman giving birth in a health care facility (OR 0.88 to 0.90). Adults collecting water is associated with increased relative risk of childhood death (RR 1.04 to 1.05), children collecting water is associated with increased odds of diarrheal disease (OR 1.10 to 1.13) and women or girls collecting water is associated with reduced uptake of antenatal care (β-0.04 to -0.06) and increased odds of leaving a child under five alone for one or more hours, one or more days per week (OR 1.07 to 1.16). Unimproved water supply is associated with childhood diarhhoea (OR 1.05), but not child deaths, or growth scores. When the percentage of people using improved sanitation is more than 80% an association with reduced childhood death and stunting was observed, and when more than 60%, usage of improved sanitation was associated with reduction of diarhhoea and acute undernutrition.  Conclusion  Fetching water is associated with poorer maternal and child health outcomes, depending on who collects water. The percentage of people using improved sanitation seems to be more important than type of toilet facility, and must be high to observe an association with reduced child deaths and diarhhoea. Water access on premises, and near universal usage of improved sanitation, is associated with improvements to maternal and child health