Discovering Adaptive Challenges through Action Learning At Northminster Presbyterian Church in Tucson, Arizona

The goal of this study was to explore how inviting church members of Northminster Presbyterian Church (NPC) to cross neighborhood boundaries through the practice of hospitality can stimulate missional innovation and identify adaptive challenges to mission engagement. The thesis was tested by creating holding environments for action-reflection groups to participate in the practices of lectio divina and hospitality. This study offers a thick description of the community context, the congregation’s history, and the practice of leadership. Formal and functional ecclesiologies, as well as impediments to missional life are examined. Action learning, appreciative inquiry, and participant observation are methodologies used to structure the project of inviting two groups to participate in a twelve-week challenge to dwell in the biblical text of Luke 10:1-12 and cross neighborhood boundaries using the Practicing Hospitality workbook. An appreciative inquiry instrument was used at the start, midpoint, and end of the groups to collect data to assess language use. Participants were followed after the group finished meeting and ongoing data was collected using participant observation. The pastoral leadership team of the church was a focus group to reflect on leadership and authority, using participant observation. An analysis of qualitative data describes themes and how language use reveals ecclesiological and missional imagination. While these groups struggled to cross neighborhood boundaries, some members demonstrated increased awareness of a missional calling. Leadership, contextual, formation systems, and theological frameworks are reflected upon to identify resources for a local theology of leadership and mission. Opportunities and recommendations for future praxis are explored, as this project is part of a journey of transformation. Content Reader: Alan J. Roxburgh, DMi

Limitations of non-polarizable force fields in describing anion binding poses in non-polar synthetic hosts

Transmembrane anion transport by synthetic ionophores has received increasing interest not only because of its relevance for understanding endogenous anion transport, but also because of potential implications for therapeutic routes in disease states where chloride transport is impaired. Computational studies can shed light on the binding recognition process and can deepen our mechanistic understanding of them. However, the ability of molecular mechanics methods to properly capture solvation and binding properties of anions is known to be challenging. Consequently, polarizable models have been suggested to improve the accuracy of such calculations. In this study, we calculate binding free energies for different anions to the synthetic ionophore, biotin[6]uril hexamethyl ester in acetonitrile and to biotin[6]uril hexaacid in water by employing non-polarizable and polarizable force fields. Anion binding shows strong solvent dependency consistent with experimental studies. In water, the binding strengths are iodide > bromide > chloride, and reversed in acetonitrile. These trends are well captured by both classes of force fields. However, the free energy profiles obtained from potential of mean force calculations and preferred binding positions of anions depend on the treatment of electrostatics. Results from simulations using the AMOEBA force-field, which recapitulate the observed binding positions, suggest strong effects from multipoles dominate with a smaller contribution from polarization. The oxidation status of the macrocycle was also found to influence anion recognition in water. Overall, these results have implications for the understanding of anion host interactions not just in synthetic ionophores, but also in narrow cavities of biological ion channels

Ion Implantation of Porous Silicon

Investigates the ion implantation of porous silicon (Si). Properties of light-emitting Si; Application of continuous-wave and time dependent photoluminescence spectroscopies; Comparison of dopant implantation effect in varying doses

Fragebogen zur Erfassung der nahrungsbezogenen Inhibitionskontrolle : Entwicklung und Pilotstudie

Eine fehlende nahrungsbezogene Inhibitionskontrolle ist mit ungünstigem Essverhalten assoziiert und stellt einen aufrechterhaltenden Faktor für Adipositas dar. Um diesen bereichsspezifischen Einfluss differenzierter untersuchen zu können, ist es notwendig, die Facetten der nahrungsbezogenen Inhibitionskontrolle valide und verlässlich abzubilden. Bisher werden zur Erfassung überwiegend behaviorale Maße eingesetzt. Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, ein Fragebogeninstrument zu entwickeln und zur Erprobung in einer nicht-klinischen Stichprobe einzusetzen. Es wurde eine Literaturrecherche zur allgemeinen und nahrungsbezogenen Inhibitionskontrolle bei Adipositas durchgeführt. Darauf basierend wurden Items formuliert und hinsichtlich Sprache, Verständnis und Redundanz revidiert. Aktuell werden die 40 Items in einer Online-Befragung an einer nicht-klinischen Stichprobe pilotiert. Die Ergebnisse sollen hinsichtlich testtheoretischer Konstrukte ausgewertet und in Zusammenhang mit gewichtsassoziierten Maßen (BMI, Essverhalten) gebracht werden. Es gilt zu überprüfen, ob die entwickelten Items die Facetten der nahrungsbezogenen Inhibitionskontrolle (Handlungsunterdrückung, Handlungsunterbrechung, impulsives Entscheidungsverhalten) abbilden. Zum jetzigen Zeitpunkt haben 326 Personen (28.61±12.51 Jahre, 80.67% weiblich, BMI: 24.40±20.18 kg/m2) an der Befragung teilgenommen. Im Vortrag im März 2020 werden die Ergebnisse der Faktorenanalyse, die zur Bestimmung der faktoriellen Struktur des Fragebogens berechnet wird, vorgestellt. In einem nächsten Schritt soll der Fragebogen in einer klinischen Stichprobe bei Personen mit Adipositas hinsichtlich seiner Güte geprüft und überarbeitet. Die Ergebnisse könnten das Verständnis für den Zusammenhang zwischen der nahrungsbezogenen Inhibitionskontrolle und Adipositas erweitern. Ein ökonomisches Fragebogeninstrument, welches die distinkten Facetten valide und verlässlich abbildet, kann eine gezielte Bearbeitung der individuellen Beeinträchtigungen in der Therapie ermöglichen

Investigating the neural correlates of affective mentalizing and their association with general intelligence in patients with schizophrenia

Background and hypothesis Mentalizing impairment in schizophrenia has been linked to altered neural responses. This study aimed to replicate previous findings of altered activation of the mentalizing network in schizophrenia and investigate its possible association with impaired domain-general cognition. Study design We analyzed imaging data from two large multi-centric German studies including 64 patients, 64 matched controls and a separate cohort of 300 healthy subjects, as well as an independent Australian study including 46 patients and 61 controls. All subjects underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing the same affective mentalizing task and completed a cognitive assessment battery. Group differences in activation of the mentalizing network were assessed by classical as well as Bayesian two-sample t-tests. Multiple regression analysis was performed to investigate effects of neurocognitive measures on activation of the mentalizing network. Study results We found no significant group differences in activation of the mentalizing network. Bayes factors indicate that these results provide genuine evidence for the null hypothesis. We found a positive association between verbal intelligence and activation of the medial prefrontal cortex, a key region of the mentalizing network, in three independent samples. Finally, individuals with low verbal intelligence showed altered activation in areas previously implicated in mentalizing dysfunction in schizophrenia. Conclusions Mentalizing activation in patients with schizophrenia might not differ compared to large well-matched groups of healthy controls. Verbal intelligence is an important confounding variable in group comparisons, which should be considered in future studies of the neural correlates of mentalizing dysfunction in schizophrenia

La Crosse Virus in Aedes albopictus Mosquitoes, Texas, USA, 2009

We report the arthropod-borne pediatric encephalitic agent La Crosse virus in Aedes albopictus mosquitoes collected in Dallas County, Texas, USA, in August 2009. The presence of this virus in an invasive vector species within a region that lies outside the virus’s historically recognized geographic range is of public health concern

Cue‐induced effects on decision‐making distinguish subjects with gambling disorder from healthy controls

While an increased impact of cues on decision‐making has been associated with substance dependence, it is yet unclear whether this is also a phenotype of non‐substance‐related addictive disorders, such as gambling disorder (GD). To better understand the basic mechanisms of impaired decision‐making in addiction, we investigated whether cue‐induced changes in decision‐making could distinguish GD from healthy control (HC) subjects. We expected that cue‐induced changes in gamble acceptance and specifically in loss aversion would distinguish GD from HC subjects. Thirty GD subjects and 30 matched HC subjects completed a mixed gambles task where gambling and other emotional cues were shown in the background. We used machine learning to carve out the importance of cue dependency of decision‐making and of loss aversion for distinguishing GD from HC subjects. Cross‐validated classification yielded an area under the receiver operating curve (AUC‐ROC) of 68.9% (p = .002). Applying the classifier to an independent sample yielded an AUC‐ROC of 65.0% (p = .047). As expected, the classifier used cue‐induced changes in gamble acceptance to distinguish GD from HC. Especially, increased gambling during the presentation of gambling cues characterized GD subjects. However, cue‐induced changes in loss aversion were irrelevant for distinguishing GD from HC subjects. To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the classificatory power of addiction‐relevant behavioral task parameters when distinguishing GD from HC subjects. The results indicate that cue‐induced changes in decision‐making are a characteristic feature of addictive disorders, independent of a substance of abuseDFG, 103586207, GRK 1589: Sensory Computation in Neural System

Altered orbitofrontal sulcogyral patterns in gambling disorder: a multicenter study

Gambling disorder is a serious psychiatric condition characterized by decision-making and reward processing impairments that are associated with dysfunctional brain activity in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). However, it remains unclear whether OFC functional abnormalities in gambling disorder are accompanied by structural abnormalities. We addressed this question by examining the organization of sulci and gyri in the OFC. This organization is in place very early and stable across life, such that OFC sulcogyral patterns (classified into Types I, II, and III) can be regarded as potential pre-morbid markers of pathological conditions. We gathered structural brain data from nine existing studies, reaching a total of 165 individuals with gambling disorder and 159 healthy controls. Our results, supported by both frequentist and Bayesian statistics, show that the distribution of OFC sulcogyral patterns is skewed in individuals with gambling disorder, with an increased prevalence of Type II pattern compared with healthy controls. Examination of gambling severity did not reveal any significant relationship between OFC sulcogyral patterns and disease severity. Altogether, our results provide evidence for a skewed distribution of OFC sulcogyral patterns in gambling disorder and suggest that pattern Type II might represent a pre-morbid structural brain marker of the disease. It will be important to investigate more closely the functional implications of these structural abnormalities in future work

Regional Brain Responses in Nulliparous Women to Emotional Infant Stimuli

Infant cries and facial expressions influence social interactions and elicit caretaking behaviors from adults. Recent neuroimaging studies suggest that neural responses to infant stimuli involve brain regions that process rewards. However, these studies have yet to investigate individual differences in tendencies to engage or withdraw from motivationally relevant stimuli. To investigate this, we used event-related fMRI to scan 17 nulliparous women. Participants were presented with novel infant cries of two distress levels (low and high) and unknown infant faces of varying affect (happy, sad, and neutral) in a randomized, counter-balanced order. Brain activation was subsequently correlated with scores on the Behavioral Inhibition System/Behavioral Activation System scale. Infant cries activated bilateral superior and middle temporal gyri (STG and MTG) and precentral and postcentral gyri. Activation was greater in bilateral temporal cortices for low- relative to high-distress cries. Happy relative to neutral faces activated the ventral striatum, caudate, ventromedial prefrontal, and orbitofrontal cortices. Sad versus neutral faces activated the precuneus, cuneus, and posterior cingulate cortex, and behavioral activation drive correlated with occipital cortical activations in this contrast. Behavioral inhibition correlated with activation in the right STG for high- and low-distress cries relative to pink noise. Behavioral drive correlated inversely with putamen, caudate, and thalamic activations for the comparison of high-distress cries to pink noise. Reward-responsiveness correlated with activation in the left precentral gyrus during the perception of low-distress cries relative to pink noise. Our findings indicate that infant cry stimuli elicit activations in areas implicated in auditory processing and social cognition. Happy infant faces may be encoded as rewarding, whereas sad faces activate regions associated with empathic processing. Differences in motivational tendencies may modulate neural responses to infant cues