Religious leaders\u27 perceptions of advance care planning: a secondary analysis of interviews with Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish, Sikh and Bahai leaders

Background: International guidance for advance care planning (ACP) supports the integration of spiritual and religious aspects of care within the planning process. Religious leaders’ perspectives could improve how ACP programs respect patients’ faith backgrounds. This study aimed to examine: (i) how religious leaders understand and consider ACP and its implications, including (ii) how religion affects followers’ approaches to end-of-life care and ACP, and (iii) their implications for healthcare. Methods: Interview transcripts from a primary qualitative study conducted with religious leaders to inform an ACP website, ACPTalk, were used as data in this study. ACPTalk aims to assist health professionals conduct sensitive conversations with people from different religious backgrounds. A qualitative secondary analysis conducted on the interview transcripts focussed on religious leaders’ statements related to this study’s aims. Interview transcripts were thematically analysed using an inductive, comparative, and cyclical procedure informed by grounded theory. Results: Thirty-five religious leaders (26 male; mean 58.6-years-old), from eight Christian and six non-Christian (Jewish, Buddhist, Islamic, Hindu, Sikh, Bahá’í) backgrounds were included. Three themes emerged which focussed on: religious leaders’ ACP understanding and experiences; explanations for religious followers’ approaches towards end-of-life care; and health professionals’ need to enquire about how religion matters. Most leaders had some understanding of ACP and, once fully comprehended, most held ACP in positive regard. Religious followers’ preferences for end-of-life care reflected family and geographical origins, cultural traditions, personal attitudes, and religiosity and faith interpretations. Implications for healthcare included the importance of avoiding generalisations and openness to individualised and/ or standardised religious expressions of one’s religion. Conclusions: Knowledge of religious beliefs and values around death and dying could be useful in preparing health professionals for ACP with patients from different religions but equally important is avoidance of assumptions. Community-based initiatives, programs and faith settin

The Cauchy problem of scalar-tensor theories of gravity

The 3+1 formulation of scalar-tensor theories of gravity (STT) is obtained in the physical (Jordan) frame departing from the 4+0 covariant field equations. Contrary to the common belief (folklore), the new system of ADM-like equations shows that the Cauchy problem of STT is well formulated (in the sense that the whole system of evolution equations is of first order in the time-derivative). This is the first step towards a full first order (in time and space) formulation from which a subsequent hyperbolicity analysis (a well-posedness determination) can be performed. Several gauge (lapse and shift) conditions are considered and implemented for STT. In particular, a generalization of the harmonic gauge for STT allows us to prove the well posedness of the STT using a second order analysis which is very similar to the one used in general relativity. Some spacetimes of astrophysical and cosmological interest are considered as specific applications. Several appendices complement the ideas of the main part of the paper.Comment: 29 pages Revtex; typos corrected; references added and updated; a shorter version of this paper was published in Classical and Quantum Gravit

Elastase-2 Knockout Mice Display Anxiogenic- and Antidepressant-Like Phenotype : Putative Role for BDNF Metabolism in Prefrontal Cortex

Several pieces of evidence indicate that elastase-2 (ELA2; chymotrypsin-like ELA2) is an alternative pathway to the generation of angiotensin II (ANGII). Elastase-2 knockout mice (ELA2KO) exhibit alterations in the arterial blood pressure and heart rate. However, there is no data on the behavioral consequences of ELA2 deletion. In this study, we addressed this question, submitting ELA2KO and wild-type (WT) mice to several models sensitive to anxiety- and depression-like, memory, and repetitive behaviors. Our data indicates a higher incidence of barbering behavior in ELA2KO compared to WT, as well as an anxiogenic phenotype, evaluated in the elevated plus maze (EPM). While a decrease in locomotor activity was observed in ELA2KO in EPM, this feature was not the main source of variation in the other parameters analyzed. The marble-burying test (MBT) indicated increase in repetitive behavior, observed by a higher number of buried marbles. The actimeter test indicated a decrease in total activity and confirmed the increase in repetitive behavior. The spatial memory was tested by repeated exposure to the actimeter in a 24-h interval. Both ELA2KO and WT exhibited decreased activity compared to the first exposure, without any distinction between the genotypes. However, when submitted to the cued fear conditioning, ELA2KO displayed lower levels of freezing behavior in the extinction session when compared to WT, but no difference was observed during the conditioning phase. Increased levels of BDNF were found in the prefrontal cortex but not in the hippocampus of ELA2KO mice compared to WT. Finally, in silico analysis indicates that ELA2 is putatively able to cleave BDNF, and incubation of the purified enzyme with BDNF led to the degradation of the latter. Our data suggested an anxiogenic- and antidepressant-like phenotype of ELA2KO, possibly associated with increased levels of BDNF in the prefrontal cortex.Peer reviewe

Descritores morfológicos da folha em acessos de castanheira-do-brasil.

A castanheira-do-brasil (Bertholletia excelsa Bonpl.) caracteriza-se por ser uma árvore de grande porte, sendo comercializados seus frutos e madeira. Entretanto, para a castanheira-do-brasil ainda não existem dados oficiais sobre a caracterização e a identificação possíveis descritores da espécie, portanto, trabalhos que visem à caracterização da espécie são necessários. Diante disso, esta pesquisa teve como objetivo realizar a caracterização morfológica de folhas em acessos de castanheira-do-brasil a fim de indicar descritores para a espécie Bertholletia excelsa. Para isso, foram coletadas amostras foliares dos acessos presentes ao Banco Ativo de Germoplasma da Embrapa Amazônia Oriental, provenientes dos estados do Pará e Amazonas. Foi adotado o delineamento em blocos casualizado, sendo 16 acessos e duas repetições por planta, para as medições foram coletadas 20 folhas de cada planta. Para a avaliação de possíveis descritores, foram mensuradas algumas características morfológicas nas folhas, sendo as seguintes: comprimento do limbo (CL); largura central do limbo (LCL); largura do ápice do limbo (LAL); largura da base do limbo (LBL); comprimento do pecíolo (CP); número de nervuras (NN); distância entre nervuras (DN) e número de pares de nervuras secundárias (NPNS). Após a coleta de dados, foram realizadas análises estatísticas para observar diferenças morfológicas foliares entre os acessos, por intermédio das variáveis analisadas. Para isso foram gerados Análise de Variância e teste de médias com auxílio do software Assistat 7.7 e dissimilaridade genética com o software Rbio. Foi possível constatar que existe variabilidade genética entre os 16 acessos relacionando todos os descritores, sendo observados oito grupos dissimilares. Entre as oito variáveis analisadas em folhas de castanheira-do-brasil, seis são recomendadas para utilizar como descritores morfológicos da espécie Bertholletia excelsa. Sendo eles: comprimento do limbo (CL); largura do ápice do limbo (LAL); largura da base do limbo (LBL); comprimento do pecíolo (CP); número de nervuras (NN) e distância entre nervuras (DN)

A hyperbolic slicing condition adapted to Killing fields and densitized lapses

We study the properties of a modified version of the Bona-Masso family of hyperbolic slicing conditions. This modified slicing condition has two very important features: In the first place, it guarantees that if a spacetime is static or stationary, and one starts the evolution in a coordinate system in which the metric coefficients are already time independent, then they will remain time independent during the subsequent evolution, {\em i.e.} the lapse will not evolve and will therefore not drive the time lines away from the Killing direction. Second, the modified condition is naturally adapted to the use of a densitized lapse as a fundamental variable, which in turn makes it a good candidate for a dynamic slicing condition that can be used in conjunction with some recently proposed hyperbolic reformulations of the Einstein evolution equations.Comment: 11 page

Hyperbolicity of the Kidder-Scheel-Teukolsky formulation of Einstein's equations coupled to a modified Bona-Masso slicing condition

We show that the Kidder-Scheel-Teukolsky family of hyperbolic formulations of the 3+1 evolution equations of general relativity remains hyperbolic when coupled to a recently proposed modified version of the Bona-Masso slicing condition.Comment: 4 pages. Several changes. Main corrections are in eqs. 4.9 and 4.1

Numerical approach for high precision 3-D relativistic star models

A multi-domain spectral method for computing very high precision 3-D stellar models is presented. The boundary of each domain is chosen in order to coincide with a physical discontinuity (e.g. the star's surface). In addition, a regularization procedure is introduced to deal with the infinite derivatives on the boundary that may appear in the density field when stiff equations of state are used. Consequently all the physical fields are smooth functions on each domain and the spectral method is absolutely free of any Gibbs phenomenon, which yields to a very high precision. The power of this method is demonstrated by direct comparison with analytical solutions such as MacLaurin spheroids and Roche ellipsoids. The relative numerical error reveals to be of the order of $10^{-10}$. This approach has been developed for the study of relativistic inspiralling binaries. It may be applied to a wider class of astrophysical problems such as the study of relativistic rotating stars too.Comment: Minor changes, Phys. Rev. D in pres

Combined microbiological test to assess changes in an organic matrix used to avoid agricultural soil contamination, exposed to an insecticide

Combined microbiological test (Biolog Ecoplate, denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and Real Time PCR (qPCR)) were developed to evaluate the impact of repeated diazinon (DZN) applications at high concentration (40 mg kg-1) on microbial communities in a microcosm simulating the organic matrix (straw (50%): peat (25%): soil (25%) vv-1) of an pesticide biopurification system (PBS). Moreover, pesticide dissipation was also evaluated. After three successive exposition of DZN, dissipation efficiency was high; achieved 87%, 93% and 96% after each application, respectively showing a clear accelerated dissipation of this pesticide in the organic matrix. The results obtained with Biolog Ecoplate showed that community level physiological profiles were no affected by the addition of DZN. On the other hand, molecular assays (DGGE and QPCR) demonstrated that the microbial structure (bacteria and fungi) remained relatively stable over time with high DZN doses compared to control. Therefore, the results of the present study, clearly, demonstrate the high dissipation capacity of this biomixture and highlight the microbiological robustness of this biological system.Fil: Tortella, G. R.. Universidad de la Frontera. Nucleo Cientifico y Tecnologico En Recursos Naturales (bioren-ufro). Departamento de Ciencias Quimicas y Recursos Naturales; ChileFil: Salgado, E.. Universidad de la Frontera. Nucleo Cientifico y Tecnológico En Recursos Naturales; ChileFil: Cuozzo, Sergio Antonio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tucumán. Planta Piloto de Procesos Industriales Microbiológicos (i); ArgentinaFil: Mella Herrera, R. A.. Universidad de la Frontera. Nucleo Cientifico y Tecnológico En Recursos Naturales; ChileFil: Parra, L.. Universidad de la Frontera. Núcleo Científico y Tecnológico en Recursos Naturales; ChileFil: Diez, M. C.. Universidad de la Frontera. Nucleo Cientifico y Tecnológico En Recursos Naturales; ChileFil: Rubilar, O.. Universidad de la Frontera. Nucleo Cientifico y Tecnológico En Recursos Naturales; Chil