The Dignity of Difference: How to Avoid a Clash of Civilizations

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks wrote his book, The Dignity of Difference, as a response to the tragic events of 9/11. He seeks to find—especially within the three Abrahamic monotheisms—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—a road to tolerance, a road to coexistence, or better still, a respect for difference. Only religion is strong enough to bring peace between religions, and if religion is part of the problem, for the sake of heaven let us make it part of the solution. Let us have the courage in the twenty-first century to heal those ancient rifts between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, because that is what God is calling us to do. The hour is late; the challenge is great. Let us have the courage to stretch out the hand of friendship across the boundaries between faiths and turn strangers into friends. Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, delivered this lecture on May 21, 2008, at the celebration of the fifteenth anniversary of Sacred Heart University’s Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding (CCJU). The program was sponsored by CCJU in partnership with the Anti-Defamation League

Not in God\u27s Name: Confronting Religious Violence

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Author and former Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth.https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/bennettcenter-posters/1338/thumbnail.jp

Digital mobile technology facilitates HIPAA-sensitive perioperative messaging, improves physician-patient communication, and streamlines patient care

BackgroundMobile device technology has revolutionized interpersonal communication, but the application of this technology to the physician-patient relationship remains limited due to concerns over patient confidentiality and the security of digital information. Nevertheless, there is a continued focus on improving communication between doctors and patients in all fields of medicine as a means of improving patient care. In this study, we implement a novel communications platform to demonstrate that instantaneously sharing perioperative information with surgical patients and members of their support networks can improve patient care and strengthen the physician-patient relationship.Methods423 consecutive patients scheduled to undergo elective surgical procedures were offered complimentary registration to a secure, web-based service designed to distribute perioperative updates to a group of recipients designated by each patient via Short Message Service (SMS) and/or email. Messages were created by attending surgeons and delivered instantaneously through the web-based platform. In the postoperative period, patients and their designated message recipients, as well as participating healthcare providers, were asked to complete a survey designed to assess their experience with the messaging system. Survey results were statistically analyzed to determine satisfaction rates.ResultsOf the qualifying 423 patients, 313 opted to enroll in the study. On average, patients selected a total of 3.5 recipients to receive perioperative updates. A total of 1,195 electronic messages were generated for distribution to designated recipients during the study period and delivered to recipients located around the world. There were no documented errors or failures in message delivery. Satisfaction surveys were completed by 190 users of the service (73 %). Respondents identified themselves as either patients (n = 48, 25.5 %), family/friends (n = 120, 63.8 %), or healthcare providers (n = 15, 12 %). Satisfaction with the service was high: 94.2 % of users "enjoyed this software" and and 94.2 % of family/friends "felt more connected to their loved ones during surgery." 92.5 % would "recommend their loved ones sign up for this service". Ninety percent of patients who completed the survey reported "an improved hospital experience".ConclusionDigital communications platforms can facilitate the immediate transfer of HIPAA-compliant data to patients and their designees. Such systems can greatly improve the level of communication between physicians, patients, and patients' families and caregivers. All types of users, including healthcare professionals, patients, and their loved ones, recorded high levels of satisfaction. Based on these observations, we conclude that mobile digital communications platforms represent a way to harness the power of social media to enhance patient care

Domain-specific neuropsychological investigation of CAA with and without intracerebral haemorrhage

Background: Cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) is associated with cognitive impairment, but the contributions of lobar intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH), underlying diffuse vasculopathy, and neurodegeneration, remain uncertain. We investigated the domain-specific neuropsychological profile of CAA with and without ICH, and their associations with structural neuroimaging features. // Methods: Data were collected from patients with possible or probable CAA attending a specialist outpatient clinic. Patients completed standardised neuropsychological assessment covering seven domains. MRI scans were scored for markers of cerebral small vessel disease and neurodegeneration. Patients were grouped into those with and without a macro-haemorrhage (CAA-ICH and CAA-non-ICH). // Results: We included 77 participants (mean age 72, 65% male). 26/32 (81%) CAA-non-ICH patients and 41/45 (91%) CAA-ICH patients were impaired in at least one cognitive domain. Verbal IQ and non-verbal IQ were the most frequently impaired, followed by executive functions and processing speed. We found no significant differences in the frequency of impairment across domains between the two groups. Medial temporal atrophy was the imaging feature most consistently associated with cognitive impairment (both overall and in individual domains) in both univariable and multivariable analyses. // Discussion: Cognitive impairment is common in CAA, even in the absence of ICH, suggesting a key role for diffuse processes related to small vessel disease and/or neurodegeneration. Our findings indicate that neurodegeneration, possibly due to co-existing Alzheimer’s disease pathology, may be the most important contributor. The observation that general intelligence is the most frequently affected domain suggests that CAA has a generalised rather than focal cognitive impact

Threats: power, family mealtimes and social influence

One of the most basic topics in social psychology is the way one agent influences the behaviour of another. This paper will focus on threats, which are an intensified form of attempted behavioural influence. Despite the centrality to the project of social psychology little attention has been paid to threats. This paper will start to rectify this oversight. It reviews early examples of the way social psychology handles threats and highlights key limitations and presuppositions about the nature and role of threats. By contrast, we subject them to a programme of empirical research. Data comprise video records of a collection of family mealtimes that include pre-school children. Threats are recurrent in this material. A preliminary conceptualization of features of candidate threats from this corpus will be used as an analytic start point. A series of examples are used to explicate basic features and dimensions that build the action of threatening. The basic structure of the threats uses a conditional logic: if the recipient continues problem action/does not initiate required action then negative consequences will be produced by the speaker. Further analysis clarifies how threats differ from warnings and admonishments. Sequential analysis suggests threats set up basic response options of compliance or defiance. However, recipients of threats can evade these options by, for example, reworking the unpleasant upshot specified in the threat, or producing barely minimal compliance. The implications for broader social psychological concerns are explored in a discussion of power, resistance and asymmetry; the paper ends by reconsidering the way social influence can be studied in social psychology

A Next-generation Marker Genotyping Platform (AmpSeq) in Heterozygous Crops: A Case Study for Marker-assisted Selection in Grapevine

Marker-assisted selection (MAS) is often employed in crop breeding programs to accelerate and enhance cultivar development, via selection during the juvenile phase and parental selection prior to crossing. Next-generation sequencing and its derivative technologies have been used for genome-wide molecular marker discovery. To bridge the gap between marker development and MAS implementation, this study developed a novel practical strategy with a semi-automated pipeline that incorporates traitassociated single nucleotide polymorphism marker discovery, low-cost genotyping through amplicon sequencing (AmpSeq) and decision making. The results document the development of a MAS package derived from genotyping-by-sequencing using three traits (flower sex, disease resistance and acylated anthocyanins) in grapevine breeding. The vast majority of sequence reads ( ⩾99%) were from the targeted regions. Across 380 individuals and up to 31 amplicons sequenced in each lane of MiSeq data, most amplicons (83 to 87%) had o10% missing data, and read depth had a median of 220–244 × . Several strengths of the AmpSeq platform that make this approach of broad interest in diverse crop species include accuracy, flexibility, speed, high-throughput, lowcost and easily automated analysis