The psychological-type profile of clergywomen in ordained local ministry in the Church of England : pioneers or custodians?

This study employs psychological-type theory to compare the psychological profile of 144 clergywomen serving in ordained local ministry in the Church of England alongside the established profile of 237 professional mobile clergywomen serving in the Church of England published by Francis, Craig, Whinney, Tilley, and Slater. The data found no significant differences between these two groups of clergywomen in terms of orientations (introversion and extraversion) or in terms of the judging process (thinking and feeling). In terms of the perceiving process, there was a significantly higher proportion of sensing types among those serving in ordained local ministry (70% compared with 35%). In terms of the attitudes, there was a significantly higher proportion of judging types among those serving in ordained local ministry (83% compared with 65%). The combined sensing judging (SJ) temperament accounted for 65% of the clergywomen serving in ordained local ministry, compared with 29% of the clergywomen serving in professional mobile ministry in the earlier study. It is argued that the SJ temperament characterises a custodian style of ministry

Systems modelling predicts chronic inflammation and genomic instability prevent effective mitochondrial regulation during biological ageing

The regulation of mitochondrial turnover under conditions of stress occurs partly through the AMPK-NAD+-PGC1α-SIRT1 signalling pathway. This pathway can be affected by both genomic instability and chronic inflammation since these will result in an increased rate of NAD+ degradation through PARP1 and CD38 respectively. In this work we develop a computational model of this signalling pathway, calibrating and validating it against experimental data. The computational model is used to study mitochondrial turnover under conditions of stress and how it is affected by genomic instability, chronic inflammation and biological ageing in general. We report that the AMPK-NAD+-PGC1α-SIRT1 signalling pathway becomes less responsive with age and that this can prime for the accumulation of dysfunctional mitochondria

Oligodendroglia Are Particularly Vulnerable to Oxidative Damage After Neurotrauma In Vivo.

In the paper "Oligodendroglia are particularly vulnerable to oxidative damage after neurotrauma in vivo," we determined the extent of oxidative damage to specific cellular subpopulations and structures within regions vulnerable to secondary degeneration and assessed the effect this had on oligodendroglial function. Comparative assessment of oxidative damage demonstrated selective vulnerability of oligodendroglia, specifically oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) to DNA oxidation in vivo. Immunohistochemical fate mapping along the oligodendroglial lineage showed a transient susceptibility of these cells to DNA oxidation, protein nitration, and lipid peroxidation, with mature oligodendrocytes derived immediately after injury more vulnerable to DNA oxidation than their counterparts existing at the time of injury or later derived. In situ hybridization demonstrated a reduction in myelin regulatory factor (MyRF) messenger RNA (mRNA) fluorescence in newly derived mature oligodendrocytes, suggesting a compromise in the production and maintenance of the myelin sheath in these cells. The data imply a deficit in the normal differentiation of OPCs to myelinating oligodendrocytes, associated with a transient increase in oxidative damage, which may contribute to the dysmyelinating phenotype seen at chronic time points after injury. Identifying and understanding the sources of this oxidative damage is integral for the development of therapeutic interventions for neurotrauma

Evolution of oesophageal adenocarcinoma from metaplastic columnar epithelium without goblet cells in Barrett's oesophagus

Supported by the Dutch Cancer Society (KWF) and Cancer Research UK (CR-UK). This work was supported by Cancer Research UK (grant number A14895

Restrictive ID policies: implications for health equity

We wish to thank Synod Community Services for their critical work to develop, support, and implement a local government-issued ID in Washtenaw County, MI. We also thank Yousef Rabhi of the Michigan House of Representatives and Janelle Fa'aola of the Washtenaw ID Task Force, Lawrence Kestenbaum of the Washtenaw County Clerk's Office, Sherriff Jerry Clayton of the Washtenaw County Sherriff's Office, and the Washtenaw ID Task Force for their tireless commitment to developing and supporting the successful implementation of the Washtenaw ID. Additionally, we thank Vicenta Vargas and Skye Hillier for their contributions to the Washtenaw ID evaluation. We thank the Curtis Center for Research and Evaluation at the University of Michigan School of Social Work, the National Center for Institutional Diversity at the University of Michigan, and the University of California-Irvine Department of Chicano/Latino Studies and Program in Public Health for their support of the Washtenaw ID community-academic research partnership. Finally, we thank the reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript. (Curtis Center for Research and Evaluation at the University of Michigan School of Social Work; National Center for Institutional Diversity at the University of Michigan; University of California-Irvine Department of Chicano/Latino Studies; Program in Public Health)https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10903-017-0579-3.pdfPublished versio

Higgs production as a probe of anomalous top couplings

The LHC may be currently seeing the first hints of the Higgs boson. The dominant production mode for the Higgs at the LHC involves a top-quark loop. An accurate measurement of Higgs production cross-sections and decay widths can thus be used to obtain limits on anomalous top couplings. We find that such an exercise could potentially yield constraints that are stronger than those derived from low-energy observables as well as direct bounds expected from the top pair-production process.Comment: Version published in JHE

Ram pressure feeding super-massive black holes

When supermassive black holes at the center of galaxies accrete matter (usually gas), they give rise to highly energetic phenomena named Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). A number of physical processes have been proposed to account for the funneling of gas towards the galaxy centers to feed the AGN. There are also several physical processes that can strip gas from a galaxy, and one of them is ram pressure stripping in galaxy clusters due to the hot and dense gas filling the space between galaxies. We report the discovery of a strong connection between severe ram pressure stripping and the presence of AGN activity. Searching in galaxy clusters at low redshift, we have selected the most extreme examples of jellyfish galaxies, which are galaxies with long tentacles of material extending for dozens of kpc beyond the galaxy disk. Using the MUSE spectrograph on the ESO Very Large Telescope, we find that 6 out of the 7 galaxies of this sample host a central AGN, and two of them also have galactic-scale AGN ionization cones. The high incidence of AGN among the most striking jellyfishes may be due to ram pressure causing gas to flow towards the center and triggering the AGN activity, or to an enhancement of the stripping caused by AGN energy injection, or both. Our analysis of the galaxy position and velocity relative to the cluster strongly supports the first hypothesis, and puts forward ram pressure as another, yet unforeseen, possible mechanism for feeding the central supermassive black hole with gas.Comment: published in Nature, Vol.548, Number 7667, pag.30

The APOSTEL recommendations for reporting quantitative optical coherence tomography studies

OBJECTIVE: To develop consensus recommendations for reporting of quantitative optical coherence tomography (OCT) study results. METHODS: A panel of experienced OCT researchers (including 11 neurologists, 2 ophthalmologists, and 2 neuroscientists) discussed requirements for performing and reporting quantitative analyses of retinal morphology and developed a list of initial recommendations based on experience and previous studies. The list of recommendations was subsequently revised during several meetings of the coordinating group. RESULTS: We provide a 9-point checklist encompassing aspects deemed relevant when reporting quantitative OCT studies. The areas covered are study protocol, acquisition device, acquisition settings, scanning protocol, funduscopic imaging, postacquisition data selection, postacquisition data analysis, recommended nomenclature, and statistical analysis. CONCLUSIONS: The Advised Protocol for OCT Study Terminology and Elements recommendations include core items to standardize and improve quality of reporting in quantitative OCT studies. The recommendations will make reporting of quantitative OCT studies more consistent and in line with existing standards for reporting research in other biomedical areas. The recommendations originated from expert consensus and thus represent Class IV evidence. They will need to be regularly adjusted according to new insights and practices

Echinoderms have bilateral tendencies

Echinoderms take many forms of symmetry. Pentameral symmetry is the major form and the other forms are derived from it. However, the ancestors of echinoderms, which originated from Cambrian period, were believed to be bilaterians. Echinoderm larvae are bilateral during their early development. During embryonic development of starfish and sea urchins, the position and the developmental sequence of each arm are fixed, implying an auxological anterior/posterior axis. Starfish also possess the Hox gene cluster, which controls symmetrical development. Overall, echinoderms are thought to have a bilateral developmental mechanism and process. In this article, we focused on adult starfish behaviors to corroborate its bilateral tendency. We weighed their central disk and each arm to measure the position of the center of gravity. We then studied their turning-over behavior, crawling behavior and fleeing behavior statistically to obtain the center of frequency of each behavior. By joining the center of gravity and each center of frequency, we obtained three behavioral symmetric planes. These behavioral bilateral tendencies might be related to the A/P axis during the embryonic development of the starfish. It is very likely that the adult starfish is, to some extent, bilaterian because it displays some bilateral propensity and has a definite behavioral symmetric plane. The remainder of bilateral symmetry may have benefited echinoderms during their evolution from the Cambrian period to the present