The role of ritual and its co-construction in the spiritual care, provided by chaplains, of parents adjusting to the death of their baby in-utero

AIMS: • to deepen understanding of parental grief • to discover parental expectations of chaplaincy support and ritual • to understand the role of ritual in meeting parents' spiritual needs • to comprehend the importance of ritual content and the manner of its construction • to hear the significance for parents of chaplaincy involvement • to appreciate the impact ofthe immediate context in which ritual is sharedMETHODOLOGY: Semi-structured qualitative interviews were used to obtain in-depth parental reflectionsRESULTS: Four main spiritual themes were identified from parents' descriptions of their grief social isolation, loss of meaning and purpose, loss of control and a loss of self worth. Parents' expectations of chaplains and rituals they performed were anxiety inducing. The process of ritualising their baby's life and death enabled parents' spiritual needs to be met by• aiding deeper communication within families and wider social reintegration • providing an opportunity to find meaning and purpose through parenting • helping parents to regain some control, order and sense of reality in their situation • validating their grief and offering them a safe space in which to express feelings • helping to create memories which aided establishment of continuing bonds with their babyCo-authoring their baby's ritual with a chaplain enabled parental affirmation and personalisation of rituals. Whilst relevant words spoken during ritual were appreciated it was being able to act out their relationship with their baby and the chaplain's performance which were of most significance. Parents requested chaplaincy involvement because they perceived them to have ritual authority and enhance ritual efficacy. They perceived chaplains to have both priestly and shamanistic roles during rituals, creating an atmosphere in which families could express or act out their feelings as required.Contextually, of significance was the reverential attitude and approach ofthose present which affirmed a baby's uniqueness and enabled creation of a sacred time and space. Chaplains acted as guides during the co-construction of ritual and offered parents an attentive listening presence. A chaplain's way of being and relating was key in meeting parental spiritual needs.CONCLUSIONS: Baby death in-utero causes considerable parental spiritual distress. Ritual and its co-construction helps to meet spiritual needs and facilitates grieving. Chaplains have a distinctive role to play as part of a healthcare team addressing parents' holistic needs. The nurturing of a chaplain's humanity and spirituality is essential in caring for their inner resources utilised in meeting parents' spiritual needs

Embracing Culture at the Centre of Hope Food Bank (Salvation Army)

The purpose of our project was to expand the food options provided at the Centre of Hope (COH) to better reflect the cultural diversity that exists within the London community. Overall, our project aimed to provide all individuals with the opportunity to consume food they are familiar and comfortable with, using a food choice-model system. This involved the creation of four deliverables: a comprehensive list of food options specific to the major minority groups in London, a culturally-specific food preference survey (physical and online versions, to improve accessibility), and a flyer with a QR code to encourage survey responses. The result of our project was that we were able to equip the COH with the resources and information they need to implement culturally-appropriate food options in the springtime. Although a major limitation of our project was that we were unable to administer the food survey, we can conclude that it will be useful for the COH to better serve underrepresented populations in our community. Additionally, it will help prevent food waste due to clients not wanting, enjoying, or being comfortable using the food options that are presented to them. For the COH, we recommend keeping the online version of the survey open all year round so they can continue to collect feedback from new clients and stay current with cultural food preferences. Overall, our project has the potential to minimize the food insecurity disparity experienced by minority groups, while reinforcing equity, diversity, and inclusion principles

Accelerated ageing and renal dysfunction links lower socioeconomic status and dietary phosphate intake

Background: We have sought to explore the impact of dietary Pi intake on human age related health in the pSoBid cohort (n=666) to explain the disparity between health and deprivation status in this cohort. As hyperphosphataemia is a driver of accelerated ageing in rodent models of progeria we tested whether variation in Pi levels in man associate with measures of biological ageing and health. Results: We observed significant relationships between serum Pi levels and markers of biological age (telomere length (p=0.040) and DNA methylation content (p=0.028), gender and chronological age (p=0.032). When analyses were adjusted for socio-economic status and nutritional factors, associations were observed between accelerated biological ageing (telomere length, genomic methylation content) and dietary derived Pi levels among the most deprived males, directly related to the frequency of red meat consumption. Conclusions: Accelerated ageing is associated with high serum Pi levels and frequency of red meat consumption. Our data provide evidence for a mechanistic link between high intake of Pi and age-related morbidities tied to socio-economic status

Approaches to developing tolerance and error budget for active three mirror anastigmat space telescopes

The size of the optics used in observatories is often limited by fabrication, metrology, and handling technology, but having a large primary mirror provides significant benefits for scientific research. The evolution of rocket launch options enables heavy payload carrying on orbit and outstretching the telescope's form-factor choices. Moreover, cost per launch is lower than the traditional flight method, which is obviously advantageous for various novel space observatory concepts. The University of Arizona has successfully fabricated many large-scale primary optics for ground-based observatories including the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT, 8.4 meter diameter two primary mirrors), Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (now renamed to Vera C. Rubin Observatory, 8.4 meter diameter monolithic primary and tertiary mirror), and the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT, 8.4 meter diameter primary mirror seven segments). Launching a monolithic primary mirror into space could bypass many of the difficulties encountered during the assembly and deployment of the segmented primary mirrors. However, it might bring up unprecedented challenges and hurdles, also. We explore and foresee the expected challenges and evaluate them. To estimate the tolerance and optical error budget of a large optical system in space such as three mirror anastigmat telescope, we have developed a methodology that considers various errors from design, fabrication, assembly, and environmental factors.Comment: 6 pages, presented August 2023 at SPIE Optics+Photonics, San Diego, CA, US

<i>APETALA2</i> functions as a temporal factor together with <i>BLADE-ON-PETIOLE2</i> and <i>MADS29</i> to control flower and grain development in barley

Cereal grain develops from fertilised florets. Alterations in floret and grain development greatly influence grain yield and quality. Despite this, little is known about the underlying genetic control of these processes, especially in key temperate cereals such as barley and wheat. Using a combination of near-isogenic mutant comparisons, gene editing and genetic analyses, we reveal that HvAPETALA2 (HvAP2) controls floret organ identity, floret boundaries, and maternal tissue differentiation and elimination during grain development. These new roles of HvAP2 correlate with changes in grain size and HvAP2-dependent expression of specific HvMADS-box genes, including the B-sister gene, HvMADS29 Consistent with this, gene editing demonstrates that HvMADS29 shares roles with HvAP2 in maternal tissue differentiation. We also discovered that a gain-of-function HvAP2 allele masks changes in floret organ identity and grain size due to loss of barley LAXATUM.A/ BLADE-ON-PETIOLE2 (HvBOP2) gene function. Taken together, we reveal novel, pleiotropic roles and regulatory interactions for an APETALA2-like gene controlling floret and grain development in a temperate cereal.Jennifer R. Shoesmith, Charles Ugochukwu Solomon, Xiujuan Yang, Laura G. Wilkinson, Scott Sheldrick, Ewan van Eijden ... et al

International Study of Chaplains’ Attitudes About Research

An online survey was conducted by twelve professional chaplain organizations to assess chaplains’ attitudes about and involvement in research. A total of 2,092 chaplains from 23 countries responded to the survey. Over 80% thought research was definitely important and nearly 70% thought chaplains should definitely be research literate. Just over 40% said they regularly read research articles and almost 60% said they occasionally did. The respondents rated their own research literacy as 6.5 on a 0–10 scale. Significant positive inter-correlations were found among all four measures: importance of (a) research and (b) research literacy; (c) frequency of reading articles; and (d) research literacy rating. Approximately 35% were never involved, 37% had been involved, 17% were currently involved, and 11% expected to be involved in research. The last three groups were significantly more likely to think research and research literacy were important and to read research articles than chaplains who were never involved in research. Given chaplains’ interest in research, actions should be undertaken to facilitate further research engagement