Jimmy Swaggart's Secular Confession

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The published version is available from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02773940902766748 .Following the exposure of televangelist Jimmy Swaggart’s illicit rendezvous with a New Orleans prostitute, the Assemblies of God simultaneously orchestrated a massive attempt to silence those who would discuss the tryst and arranged the most widely publicized confession in American history theretofore. The coincidence of a “silence campaign” with the vast distribution of a public confession invites us to reconsider the nature of the public confession. For what place has a public confession, the discourse of disclosure par excellence, in a silence campaign? This question is best answered, I argue, if we understand public confession not as a stable a-historical form, but as a practice that is informed by multiple, competing traditions. I argue that by situating Swaggart’s performance in a philosophically modern and secular tradition of public confession we can understand both its complicity in a silence campaign and, more generally, the political logic of the modern public confession

Rheumatoid arthritis - treatment: 180. Utility of Body Weight Classified Low-Dose Leflunomide in Japanese Rheumatoid Arthritis

Background: In Japan, more than 20 rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients died of interstitial pneumonia (IP) caused by leflunomide (LEF) were reported, but many of them were considered as the victims of opportunistic infection currently. In this paper, efficacy and safety of low-dose LEF classified by body weight (BW) were studied. Methods: Fifty-nine RA patients were started to administrate LEF from July 2007 to July 2009. Among them, 25 patients were excluded because of the combination with tacrolimus, and medication modification within 3 months before LEF. Remaining 34 RA patients administered 20 to 50 mg/week of LEF were followed up for 1 year and enrolled in this study. Dose of LEF was classified by BW (50 mg/week for over 50 kg, 40 mg/week for 40 to 50 kg and 20 to 30 mg/week for under 40 kg). The average age and RA duration of enrolled patients were 55.5 years old and 10.2 years. Prednisolone (PSL), methotrexate (MTX) and etanercept were used in 23, 28 and 2 patients, respectively. In case of insufficient response or adverse effect, dosage change or discontinuance of LEF were considered. Failure was defined as dosages up of PSL and MTX, or dosages down or discontinuance of LEF. Last observation carried forward method was used for the evaluation of failed patients at 1 year. Results: At 1 year after LEF start, good/ moderate/ no response assessed by the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) response criteria using Disease Activity Score, including a 28-joint count (DAS28)-C reactive protein (CRP) were showed in 14/ 10/ 10 patients, respectively. The dosage changes of LEF at 1 year were dosage up: 10, same dosage: 5, dosage down: 8 and discontinuance: 11 patients. The survival rate of patients in this study was 23.5% (24 patients failed) but actual LEF continuous rate was 67.6% (11 patients discontinued) at 1 year. The major reason of failure was liver dysfunction, and pneumocystis pneumonia was occurred in 1 patient resulted in full recovery. One patient died of sepsis caused by decubitus ulcer infection. DAS28-CRP score was decreased from 3.9 to 2.7 significantly. Although CRP was decreased from 1.50 to 0.93 mg/dl, it wasn't significant. Matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-3 was decreased from 220.0 to 174.2 ng/ml significantly. Glutamate pyruvate transaminase (GPT) was increased from 19 to 35 U/l and number of leukocyte was decreased from 7832 to 6271 significantly. DAS28-CRP, CRP, and MMP-3 were improved significantly with MTX, although they weren't without MTX. Increase of GPT and leukopenia were seen significantly with MTX, although they weren't without MTX. Conclusions: It was reported that the risks of IP caused by LEF in Japanese RA patients were past IP history, loading dose administration and low BW. Addition of low-dose LEF is a potent safe alternative for the patients showing unsatisfactory response to current medicines, but need to pay attention for liver function and infection caused by leukopenia, especially with MTX. Disclosure statement: The authors have declared no conflicts of interes

Noise Waveforms within Seabed Vibrations and Their Associated Evanescent Sound Fields

While the effects of sound pressures in water have been studied extensively, very much less work has been done on seabed vibrations. Our previous work used finite element modeling to interpret the results of field trials, studying propagation through graded seabeds as excited by impulsive energy applied to a point. A new simulation has successfully replicated further features of the original observations, and more field work has addressed other questions. We have concentrated on the water-particle motion near the seabed, as this is well known to be critical for benthic species. The evanescent pressure sound fields set up as the impulsive vibration energy passes are expected to be important for the local species, such as crabs and flatfish. By comparison with effects occurring away from boundaries, these seismic interface waves create vigorous water-particle motion but proportionately less sound pressure. This comparative increase ratio exceeds 12 for unconsolidated sediment areas, as typically used for piling operations

Modeling Water Motion near Seismic Waves Propagating across a Graded Seabed, as Generated by Man-Made Impacts

Seismic interface waves generated by seabed impacts are believed to have biological importance. Various wave types are of interest to seismologists, who can minimize the unwanted, but often dominant, ground roll waves with suitable instrumentation. Waves made by dredging and piling have been measured using geophones and found to be of this interface type, which propagate much more slowly than the pressure waves in the water column above. Short interface wavelets of a few cycles were modeled using transient finite element analysis (FEA). Wavelets with low losses have been modeled using graded sediment data from the literature. They do not radiate energy away from the interface because the evanescent acoustic pressures they generate decay rapidly with distance from the seabed. Associated water particle velocities are much greater than would be expected from similar acoustic pressure measurements in a free field. This motion is significant to aquatic life which is dependent on inertial sensors (otoliths, etc.) to respond to the environment. Additional amplification of the horizontal seabed motion of the adjacent water is predicted for a short seismic wavelet modeled in a graded solid seabed. Further recent analysis studied the distribution of the energy flux within the sediment layers

A Molecular Examination of Agriculturally-Derived Lignin Oxidation

Fertilizers are utilized in agriculture to increase crop yields, but the over application of phosphate fertilizers is resulting in excess nutrients in the soil. As a result, phosphate is becoming less available for plants as it is lost to agricultural runoff. In addition to fertilizer input, agricultural land receives large carbon inputs in the form of biomass. After harvesting, biomass from crop residues are incorporated into the soil, slowly degrading through the soil horizon, leaving lignin as the major biopolymer. As a significant contributor to soil organic matter, lignin and its degradation products play an important role in soil dynamics. The interaction between these degradation products and phosphate can impact the bioavailability of the nutrients for the plants, thus altering the crop yield for future growing seasons. Studies have shown that phosphate availability is largely controlled by iron and aluminum hydroxides, which occurs through a two-step sorption process, while lignin has been shown to irreversibly sorb to iron hydroxides due to the presence of phenolic groups. Little research has been done regarding the interaction between lignin and phosphate at the mineral surface. These interactions are believed to play a large role in the bioavailability of phosphate. This research focuses on how the lignin component of organic matter interacts with phosphorus on the surface of minerals after degradation. Lignin was isolated from field-grown corn biomass, and quantified using solid-state 13C NMR. Samples were exposed to hydroxyl radicals and characterized using FTICR-MS. Oxidation occurred in both above- and below-ground lignin, which resulted in slightly different elemental compositions. The ultimate goal is to determine the mechanisms by which nutrients interact with soil organic matter at mineral surfaces, which will help determine how to maximize crop yield while reducing the over- or under-application of phosphate fertilizers.https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/sciences_achievement/1005/thumbnail.jp

Optimal Transmission of Interface Vibration Wavelets—A Simulation of Seabed Seismic Responses

Seismic interface waves generated by seabed impacts are believed to have biological importance. Previous work on the effects of ocean piling and dredging studied water motion adjacent to the seabed, using sediment measurements as reviewed in the literature. This new modelling work has idealised the sediment data to a simple model with few parameters, and has shown how this leads to filtration of the applied energy to propagate simple seismic vibration wavelets. These special wavelets remain compact with high peak levels of the associated water particle velocity as they ripple outward, and provide a means of assessing the worst-case environmental impact. The form of this wavelet morphs from a hump shape to a dip and back, via intermediate forms which are here described in mathematical terms based on the Ricker form. Whilst the model structure is idealised it is much closer to reality than the Rayleigh and Scholte half-space models, but with only two more parameters required. The resultant wavelet peaks are propagated with values given by the optimal limit case of cylindrical spreading (ignoring absorption) which results in a relatively widespread impact