Review of Susanne Scholz (ed.), Feminist Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in Retrospect; Panel from the 2017 SBL Annual Meeting in Boston (MA)

The current flourishing of varieties of feminist interpretation among religious organizations and in the academy has been going on since at least the 1970s, and has grown to display an amazing diversity of emphases and forms. At the same time, much work still needs to be done. The appearance from Sheffield Phoenix of Susanne Scholz’s three-volume edited work, Feminist Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in Retrospect,1 by its breadth of coverage and its conscious attempt to reflect on the work of past decades, offered the Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible Section of the Society of Biblical Literature an opportunity to assess the distance feminist interpretations have traveled in the last 40–50 years and where we should focus energy for the future. The following papers share the reviews offered by five colleagues at a panel session at the SBL Annual Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, on Sunday, November 19, 2017, and Prof. Scholz’s response. The reviewers represent an array of feminist perspectives that is diverse in race/ethnicity, nationality/culture, gender, age, and stream of religious tradition. The reviews probe not only a variety of dimensions of Prof. Scholz’s work, but also a variety of points of progress and ongoing issues in feminist interpretation

Use of an innovative model to evaluate mobility in seniors with lower-limb amputations of vascular origin: a pilot study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The mobility of older individuals has often been only partially assessed, without considering all important aspects such as potential (available) versus effective (used) mobilities and the physical and psychosocial factors that modulate them. This study proposes a new model for evaluating mobility that considers all important aspects, applied here to lower-limb amputees with vascular origin. This model integrates the concepts of potential mobility (e.g. balance, speed of movement), effective mobility (e.g. life habits, movements in living areas) and factors that modulate these two types of mobility (e.g. strength, sensitivity, social support, depression). The main objective was to characterize potential and effective mobility as well as mobility modulators in a small sample of people with lower-limb amputations of vascular origin with different characteristics. The second objective of this pilot study was to assess the feasibility of measuring all variables in the model in a residential context.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>An observational and transversal design was used with a heterogeneous sample of 10 participants with a lower-limb amputation of vascular origin, aged 51 to 83, assessed between eight and 18 months after discharge from an acute care hospital. A questionnaire of participant characteristics and 16 reliable and valid measurements were used.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The results show that the potential mobility indicators do not accurately predict effective mobility, i.e., participants who perform well on traditional measures done in the laboratory or clinic are not always those who perform well in the real world. The model generated 4 different profiles (categories) of participants ranging from reduced to excellent potential mobility and low to excellent effective mobility, and characterized the modulating factors. The evaluations were acceptable in terms of the time taken (three hours) and the overall measurements, with a few exceptions, which were modified to optimize the data collected and the classification of the participants. For the population assessed, the results showed that some of the negative modulators (particularly living alone, no rehabilitation, pain, limited social support, poor muscle strength) played an important role in reducing effective mobility.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The first use of the model revealed interesting data that add to our understanding of important aspects linked to potential and effective mobility as well as modulators. The feasibility of measuring all variables in the model in a residential context was demonstrated. A study with a large number of participants is now warranted to rigorously characterize mobility levels of lower-limb amputees with vascular origin.</p

The Sanctified ‘Adultress’ and Her Circumstantial Clause: Bathsheba’s Bath and Self-Consecration in 2 Samuel 11

Bathsheba\u27s actions in 2 Sam. 11.2-4 identify crucial aspects of her character. Past commentators interpret these words in connection with menstrual purification, stressing the certain paternity of David\u27s adulterine child. This article demonstrates that the participles rōheset and mitqaddesšet and the noun mittum\u27ātāh do not denote menstrual cleansing. Bathsheba\u27s washing is an innocent bath. She is the only individual human to self-sanctify, placing her in the company of the Israelite deity. The syntax of the verse necessitates that her action of self-sanctifying occurs simultaneously as David lies with her. The three focal terms highlight the important legitimacy of Bathsheba before the Israelite deity, her identity as a non-Israelite, her role as queen mother of the Solomonic line, and her full participation in the narrative

Evaluation of phenotype stability and ecological risk of a genetically engineered alga in open pond production

Genetically engineered (GE) algae offer the promise of producing food, fuel, and other valuable products with reduced requirements for land and fresh water. While the gains in productivity measured in GE terrestrial crops are predicted to be mirrored in GE algae, the stability of phenotypes and ecological risks posed by GE algae in large-scale outdoor cultivation remain unknown. Here, we describe the first US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-sanctioned experiment aimed at understanding how GE algae perform in outdoor cultivation. Acutodesmus dimorphus was genetically engineered by the addition of two genes, one for enhanced fatty acid biosynthesis, and one for recombinant green fluorescence protein (GFP) expression; both the genes and their associated phenotypes were maintained during fifty days of outdoor cultivation. We also observed that while the GE algae dispersed from the cultivation ponds, colonization of the trap ponds by the GE strain declined rapidly with increasing distance from the source cultivation ponds. In contrast, many species of indigenous algae were found in every trap pond within a few days of starting the experiment. When inoculated in water from five local lakes, the GE algae's effect on biodiversity, species composition, and biomass of native algae was indiscernible from those of the wild-type (wt) progenitor algae, and neither the GE nor wt algae were able to outcompete native strains. We conclude that GE algae can be successfully cultivated outdoors while maintaining GE traits, and that for the specific GE algal strain tested here they did not outcompete or adversely impact native algae populations when grown in water taken from local lakes. This study provides an initial evaluation of GE algae in outdoor cultivation and a framework to evaluate GE algae risks associated with outdoor GE algae production