"Not under bondage: biblical divorce for abuse, adultery and desertion" by Barbara Roberts

Review of Barbara Roberts, Not Under Bondage: Biblical Divorce for Abuse, Adultery and Desertion (Victoria, Australia: Maschil Press, 2008)Publisher PD

Congregations as Koinonia: The First Steps Toward Recovering the Dynamics of New Testament Communities

Summary of DMin projec

"Not Under Bondage: Biblical Divorce for Abuse, Adultery and Desertion" by Barbara Roberts

Barbara Roberts, Not Under Bondage: Biblical Divorce for Abuse, Adultery and Desertion (Victoria, Australia: Maschil Press, 2008

Familial Recurrence of Cerebral Palsy with Multiple Risk Factors

The recurrence of cerebral palsy in the same family is uncommon. We, however, report on two families with two or more affected siblings. In both families, numerous potential risk factors were identified including environmental, obstetric, and possible maternal effects. We hypothesize that multiple risk factors may lead to the increased risk of recurrence of cerebral palsy in families. Intrinsic and maternal risk factors should be investigated in all cases of cerebral palsy to properly counsel families on the risk of recurrence. Recent studies of genetic polymorphisms associated with cerebral palsy are considered with reference to our observations in these two families

Genetic characterization of morphologically variant strains of Paracoccidioides brasiliensis

Molecular characterization of Paracoccidioides brasiliensis variant strains that had been preserved under mineral oil for decades was carried out by random amplified polymorphic DNA analysis (RAPD). On P. brasiliensis variants in the transitional phase and strains with typical morphology, RAPD produced reproducible polymorphic amplification products that differentiated them. A dendrogram based on the generated RAPD patterns placed the 14 P. brasiliensis strains into five groups with similarity coefficients of 72%. A high correlation between the genotypic and phenotypic characteristics of the strains was observed. A 750 bp-RAPD fragment found only in the wild-type phenotype strains was cloned and sequenced. Genetic similarity analysis using BLASTx suggested that this RAPD marker represents a putative domain of a hypothetical flavin-binding monooxygenase (FMO)-like protein of Neurospora crassa.FiocruzBritish Council Progra

The productivity, metabolism and carbon cycle of two lowland tropical forest plots in south-western Amazonia

Background: The forests of western Amazonia are known to be more dynamic that the better-studied forests of eastern Amazonia, but there has been no comprehensive description of the carbon cycle of a western Amazonian forest. Aims: We present the carbon budget of two forest plots in Tambopata in south-eastern Peru, western Amazonia. In particular, we present, for the first time, the seasonal variation in the detailed carbon budget of a tropical forest. Methods: We measured the major components of net primary production (NPP) and total autotrophic respiration over 3-6 years. Results: The NPP for the two plots was 15.1 ± 0.8 and 14.2 ± 1.0 Mg C ha −1 year −1 , the gross primary productivity (GPP) was 35.5 ± 3.6 and 34.5 ± 3.5 Mg C ha −1 year −1 , and the carbon use efficiency (CUE) was 0.42 ± 0.05 and 0.41 ± 0.05. NPP and CUE showed a large degree of seasonality. Conclusions: The two plots were similar in carbon cycling characteristics despite the different soils, the most notable difference being high allocation of NPP to canopy and low allocation to fine roots in the Holocene floodplain plot. The timing of the minima in the wet-dry transition suggests they are driven by phenological rhythms rather than being driven directly by water stress. When compared with results from forests on infertile forests in humid lowland eastern Amazonia, the plots have slightly higher GPP, but similar patterns of CUE and carbon allocation

Multiple novel prostate cancer susceptibility signals identified by fine-mapping of known risk loci among Europeans

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified numerous common prostate cancer (PrCa) susceptibility loci. We have fine-mapped 64 GWAS regions known at the conclusion of the iCOGS study using large-scale genotyping and imputation in 25 723 PrCa cases and 26 274 controls of European ancestry. We detected evidence for multiple independent signals at 16 regions, 12 of which contained additional newly identified significant associations. A single signal comprising a spectrum of correlated variation was observed at 39 regions; 35 of which are now described by a novel more significantly associated lead SNP, while the originally reported variant remained as the lead SNP only in 4 regions. We also confirmed two association signals in Europeans that had been previously reported only in East-Asian GWAS. Based on statistical evidence and linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure, we have curated and narrowed down the list of the most likely candidate causal variants for each region. Functional annotation using data from ENCODE filtered for PrCa cell lines and eQTL analysis demonstrated significant enrichment for overlap with bio-features within this set. By incorporating the novel risk variants identified here alongside the refined data for existing association signals, we estimate that these loci now explain ∼38.9% of the familial relative risk of PrCa, an 8.9% improvement over the previously reported GWAS tag SNPs. This suggests that a significant fraction of the heritability of PrCa may have been hidden during the discovery phase of GWAS, in particular due to the presence of multiple independent signals within the same regio

The productivity, metabolism and carbon cycle of two lowland tropical forest plots in south-western Amazonia, Peru

<div><p> <b><i>Background:</i></b> The forests of western Amazonia are known to be more dynamic that the better-studied forests of eastern Amazonia, but there has been no comprehensive description of the carbon cycle of a western Amazonian forest.</p> <p> <b><i>Aims:</i></b> We present the carbon budget of two forest plots in Tambopata in south-eastern Peru, western Amazonia. In particular, we present, for the first time, the seasonal variation in the detailed carbon budget of a tropical forest.</p> <p> <b><i>Methods:</i></b> We measured the major components of net primary production (NPP) and total autotrophic respiration over 3–6 years.</p> <p> <b><i>Results:</i></b> The NPP for the two plots was 15.1 ± 0.8 and 14.2 ± 1.0 Mg C ha⁻¹ year⁻¹, the gross primary productivity (GPP) was 35.5 ± 3.6 and 34.5 ± 3.5 Mg C ha⁻¹ year⁻¹, and the carbon use efficiency (CUE) was 0.42 ± 0.05 and 0.41 ± 0.05. NPP and CUE showed a large degree of seasonality.</p> <p> <b><i>Conclusions:</i></b> The two plots were similar in carbon cycling characteristics despite the different soils, the most notable difference being high allocation of NPP to canopy and low allocation to fine roots in the Holocene floodplain plot. The timing of the minima in the wet–dry transition suggests they are driven by phenological rhythms rather than being driven directly by water stress. When compared with results from forests on infertile forests in humid lowland eastern Amazonia, the plots have slightly higher GPP, but similar patterns of CUE and carbon allocation.</p> </div