The impact of n-3 PUFA supplementation on human skeletal muscle metabolism

The time course of this increase in muscle n-3 PUFA composition and anabolic protein expression is currently unknown. In Chapter 2 of this thesis ten healthy male participants consumed 5g.d-1 of n-3 PUFA-enriched fish oil for 4 weeks. Muscle biopsies samples were collected in the fasted, rested state 2 weeks prior, immediately before (Week 0), at Week 1, Week 2 and Week 4 after initiation of fish oil supplementation for assessment of changes in lipid composition and expression of anabolic signalling proteins over time. Muscle lipid profile, (% total n-3 PUFA/total fatty acids) increased from W0 to W2 (3.8 ± 0.2 to 5.1 ± 0.3 %) and continued to rise at W4 (6.7 ± 0.4 %). Total protein content of FAK increased from W0 to W4 (3.9 ± 1.5 fold) whereas total mTOR was increased from W0 at W1 (2.4 ± 0.6 fold) with no further significant increases at W2 and W4. For the first time this study demonstrates that oral fish oil consumption results in an increase of n-3 PUFA levels in human skeletal muscle that is associated with increases in the expression of anabolic signalling proteins. Our understanding of the anabolic signalling process that underpins muscle protein synthesis has been advanced by the application of the WB technique. However, the semi-quantitative nature and poor dynamic range associated with the WB technique may lead to incongruence regarding the molecular response of skeletal muscle to anabolic stimulation. Chapter 3 of this thesis developed and applied a quantitative in vitro [γ-32P] ATP kinase assay (KA) alongside a traditional WB methodology to assess p70S6K1 signalling responses in human skeletal muscle to RE and protein feeding. Following validation in tissue culture with rapamycin and optimization of the assay in human skeletal muscle, this methodology was tested in a physiologically relevant context. In this regard, six males performed unilateral resistance exercise (RE) followed by the consumption of 20 g of protein. Skeletal muscle biopsies were obtained at pre-RE, at 1 h and 3 h post-RE. In response to RE and protein consumption, p70S6K1 activity was significantly increased from pre-RE at 1 h and 3 h post-RE (8.84 ± 0.78 to 17.18 ± 2.62 and 15.62 ± 3.12 µU/mg). However, phosphorylated p70S6K1thr389 was not significantly elevated. To assess if a combined stimulus of RE and feeding can influence AMPK activity we directly measured AMPK activity. AMPK activity was suppressed from pre-RE at 3 h post-RE (24.15 ± 1.6 to 15.64 ± 1.07 mU/mg), whereas phosphorylated ACCser79 was unchanged. These data therefore highlight the utility of the KA to study skeletal muscle plasticity. Previous studies have shown that ingestion of n-3 PUFA potentiates the phosphorylation of mTORC1 and associated kinases in response to nutrition. However, no study has identified whether n-3 PUFA supplementation potentiates anabolic kinase activity when RE is performed prior to nutrient provision. In Chapter 4 of this thesis, twenty healthy males consumed 5g.d-1 of either fish oil (FO) or coconut oil (CO) capsules for 8 weeks. Muscle biopsy samples were collected in the fasted, rested state before and after 8 weeks of supplementation for assessment of changes in lipid composition. Following 8 weeks of supplementation muscle samples also were obtained at rest (Rest), post RE in both the exercise leg (Post-RE) and the rested leg (Pre-FED) and also at 3 h post RE and protein feeding from both the exercise leg (3 h post-REF) and rested leg (3 h post-FED). There was a 2-fold increase in muscle (5.53 ± 0.3 to 11.16 ± 0.45 % of total fatty acids) n-3 PUFA composition after supplementation in the FO group but no change in the CO group. Following supplementation there was an increase in p70S6K1 activity at 3 h post-REF from Rest in the CO group (5.6 ± 1.4 to 12.2 ± 2.1 µU/mg) but no change in the FO group. In the CO group, AMPKα2 was significantly increased at Post-RE from Rest (3.7 ± 0.7 to 9.9 ± 2.0 mU/mg). These data show that 8 weeks of n-3 PUFA enriched fish oil supplementation suppresses the activity of p70S6K1 in response to RE and protein feeding

A Religious Pilgrimage for Retired Women: a Translation and Analysis of Jippensha Ikku\u27s Togakushi Zenkō-ji Ōrai

This thesis will consider the question of the intended audience of Jippensha Ikku’s十返舎一九, ōraimono (educational book) Togakushi Zenkō-ji ōrai 戸隠善光寺往来(1822) as preface to an annotated translation completed using free online xylographic editions. Published in the midst of rising literacy rates and a boom in religious pilgrimages, this work would have been popular among women of the late Edo era. Analysis of the ōraimono genre will reveal that this work, was intended as a practical guidebook for Zenkō-ji pilgrimages rather than for use as a classroom textbook. An experienced traveler guides a dutiful son and mother from Edo (Tōkyō) along the Nakasendō and Hokkoku Kaidō roads to Zenkō-ji Temple and Togakushi Shrine in Shinano Province (Nagano). The mother character in Togakushi Zenkō-ji ōrai, though not the direct recipient of the expert traveler’s knowlege, will be revealed as a sort of hidden protagonist central to the entire narrative. Lastly, I will attempt to settle disputed publishing information, arguing that Nishimiya Shinroku 西宮新六was the first publisher and Moriya Jihei 森屋治兵衛printed subsequent editions. Serious in tone, this work demonstrates Ikku’s versatility as a departure from his famous slapstick travelogue, Tōkaidōchū Hizakurige (Shank’s Mare)

It Isn\u27t Easy Fighting Crime in a Tutu, but It Helps!

It Isn\u27t Easy Fighting Crime in a Tutu, but it helps! is a description of struggles and triumphs of a woman working in a male traditional job for the New Orleans Police Department. She worked as a civilian and as a police officer and police sergeant from 1970 until 1996. Several Essays are included to provide a glimpse of the lighter side of the badge, the human beings wearing them, and an appreciation of the culture and some neighborhoods of New Orleans

God Abhors Corruption: Some Thoughts on Acts 5:1-11 with special reference to the South African Countercorruption Efforts

Corruption has become a buzz word the world-over today. South Africa is no less affected by it than are other countries. Many counter-corruption measures have been devised from a political perspective with no visible results. This reflection is an attempt to introduce a religious intervention. The article argues that the narrative of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts: 1-11) has all the elements of corruption as we know it today as well as a decisive response to it. Redaction criticism is employed in reading the narrative of Ananias and Sapphira with particular reference to the South African counter-corruption efforts. The reading reveals that God abhors corruption, this being inferred from the ‘double-deaths’ of the corrupt couple. A conclusion is therefore reached that drastic action against perpetrators is imperative and that trustees of state authority who fail to act against corruption and its perpetrators do not deserve to be rewarded with office. Keywords: corruption, counter-corruption efforts, Acts 5:1-11, consequence management, Ananias and Sapphira, koinonia community, South Afric

Student leadership and advocacy for social cohesion : a South African perspective

This article utilises the insights of sociology and social psychology in defining social cohesion, outlining the ideal state and making a case for the role of student leadership in social cohesion. It draws from personal experience as former Dean of Students while it relies mostly, not entirely, on secondary sources in the disciplines of sociology and social psychology. The conclusion is that given the numbers behind them and the position of inf luence derived from student structures, student leadership is ideal for advocacy and activism.http://www.accord.org.za/publications/ajcram201

A kairos for the lowly? Reflections on Luke’s story of a rejected fortune or tyche and lessons for South Africa

This article argues that failure of Jerusalem to accept or recognise its fortune (Lk 19:41–44) may be ascribed to a difference in expectations between the Temple rulers and the lowly, who interacted with Jesus at their level. At the outset, the kairos was anticipated and welcomed by the lowly, and throughout the two-part narrative the respective attitudes of the lowly and Temple rulers towards Jesus are contrasted, whilst conflict between Jesus and the latter culminated in the crucifixion. The problem as suggested by the narrative is that a highly political messianic programme may have been expected, whereas Jesus offered an individual and community empowerment as the content of God’s kairos. The article concludes that the content of a kairos is determined by the potential beneficiaries; its delivery vehicle and timing (kairos) are God’s prerogative, whereas the ability to recognise and accept it is predicated on a consensus among beneficiaries about the content. South Africa should learn from this if its National Development Plan is to become a reality. INTRADISCIPLINARY AND/OR INTERDISCIPLINARY IMPLICATIONS : This article employs insights from the narrative approach and Greek mythology to question the sterile approach to the kairos discourse. It introduces a new hermeneutical and epistemological paradigm that opens up possibilities for a developmental approach and sheds light on the behaviours of Jerusalem and the early Church. In the process, views from Biblical Studies, Hermeneutics and Church History are engaged.This article is part of ongoing research on kairos through the eyes of Greek mythology. It is the second of three articles written to test the waters on various aspects of the term kairos.http://www.ve.org.zaam2016New Testament Studie

African biblical hermeneutics on the threshold? Appraisal and wayforward

What appears to be African Biblical Hermeneutics often refers to the geographical location of the authors rather than the content. There always appears to be something new on the horizon, but the colonial umbilical cord prevents a crossing of the threshold. This article contends that, in order for it to cross the threshold, African Biblical Hermeneutics has to go beyond the geographical location of the reader/interpreter to the development of a framework that is essentially African, while not compromising the catholicity of the church. A celebration of life is proposed as the closest interpretative framework to both the Bible and the multiple African cultures.http://www.ufs.ac.za/ActaTheologicaam2017New Testament Studie

Bible subversion : an ideology critique of the manner and motif behind the use of scriptures by politicians

The use of biblical texts by politicians in recent years has led to a proliferation of critical publications by biblical scholars. Some focus on reconstructing the rhetoric itself, others on analysing the historical context while others still, on why and how the scriptures are used. A lack of an ideology critique dimension makes these analyses appear to be naïve to the extent that they miss the element of the subversion of scriptures by politicians who use them. Biblical texts on the whole, are a product of an anti-establishment culture and where they are appropriated by the establishment, a hermeneutic of suspicion should apply. This paper utilises ideology critique as it reflects on the manner and motif behind the use of scriptures by politicians. It concludes that scriptures are subverted in order to force them to serve ideological ends.Prof. Speckman is participating in the research project, ‘Studies on the Book of the Acts of the Apostles’, directed by Prof. Dr G. Steyn, Department of New Testament Studies, Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria.http://www.hts.org.zaam2016New Testament Studie

Alms or legs? : a contextual reading of Acts 3:1-10 in the light of an alternative theory of human development

Text in EnglishThe central thesis of the present study, entitled Alms or legs? A contextual reading of Acts 3:1-10 in the light of an alternative theory of hwnan development, is that when read contextually, some biblical texts are capable of empowering individuals and small groups for social and structural transformation (Human Development). A contextual reading of the story of the crippled beggar at the Jerusalem temple entrance (Acts 3: 1- 10), within a context of begging and lack of initiative in a small community in the Eastern Cape provides a good example of such texts. The "horizons" of the text's author and the text's present reader are drawn together, in the creation of a "symbolic universe" for the context of underdevelopment. This serves as a vision, a positive alternative for the underdeveloped and non-developed communities. Following an introductory chapter in which the purpose and context of the study are outlined, and methodological problems introduced, the study proceeds, in the second chapter, with an outline of the contextual approach, undergirded by the "alternative theory" of development, namely, a people centered development (as opposed to the "economic growth" approach). This does not only result in a grid or categories against which to read the text, it also provides a broad framework within which subsequent discussions of the subjects of beggars (Chapter 3) and miracles (Chapter 4) respectively, take place. The topics of beggars and miracles, like "alms or legs", are used on the same semantic level, thus suggesting that if beggars constitute a problem, then miracles provide a solution. In communities of antiquity under investigation, no evidence is found to support almsgiving as the basis of Christian social action. On the one hand, Christians advocated charity, which was a reflection of deep friendship and oneness; on the other, miracles in the Christian context served in part, to integrate those on the margins into the community (or church) by transforming their physical and psychological conditions. This makes a developmental reading, which then follows in chapter 5, the main chapter of the study, possible. The conclusions of chapter 5, which amount to a vision for Human Development, lead to the concluding chapter (Chapter 6) in which a way forward for development in the post-apartheid South Africa is suggested.New TestamentD. Th. (New Testament

The impact of violence during strike action on protected strikes

This research has five important objectives. First, to outline the legal frame work regulating the right to strike. Outlining this legal framework is important in that it will provide an understanding of both the right to strike and the concept of a protected strike. it is crucial to understand what a protected strike is because the concept underlies the entire research. Without understanding it, it will be impossible to answer the main research question. Second, to investigate the causes of violence during protected strikes. An examination of the causes of violence enables the study to suggest possible solutions to end violent strike action in future. After all the LRA envisages in section 1, labour peace and an effective resolution of disputes. Third, to examine how the LRA regulates the use of violence during protected strikes. An understanding of how the LRA regulates violent strike action is important since the LRA is an important piece of legislation which governs South African labour relations. It is important to obtain guidance on how the law regulates such conduct. Fourth, to ascertain the courts’ approach towards violence during strikes The courts’ approach helps us understand how the courts will deal with strike violence during 5 protected strikes. It is also noteworthy that case precedents in this regard will be of importance when faced with similar acts of violence during strike action. Fifth, to examine the legal implications of violence during protected strikes. This objective directly answers the main research question and this will enable the study to offer possible recommendations in the final chapter of this study