Patterns of Ministry of clergy married to clergy in the Church of England

This is the author's manuscript of an article published in Journal of Anglican Studies.This article argues that for good practice, wellbeing and fruitful ministry, decisions by and about clergy married to clergy (CMC) in the Church of England require a clear quantitative picture of their ministry, and offers such a picture in early 2013 drawn primarily from published data, compared with national Church of England statistics. Over 26% more clergy dyads were found than previously thought, with many active in ministry. A wide variety of ministry patterns were identified, including a higher than normal percentage in non-parochial roles, supporting previous research noting high levels of boundary enmeshment and absorptiveness. Considerable gender inequality prevailed in shared parochial settings in spite of women having been ordained priest for nearly 20 years, with very few wives holding more senior positions than their husbands, while female CMC are more likely to be dignitaries than other ordained women

Exploring Single and Multiple Religious Belonging

This contribution studies the notion of single and multiple religious belonging in a sample of 265 Dutch respondents. We will first focus on modalities of religious belonging and subsequently compare those who claim to draw from just one religion (the monoreligious) with those who indicate that they combine elements from different religious traditions (the multireligious) in terms of their intensities and styles of belonging, loyalty and mobility, and motivations for belonging. In general, multireligious respondents are characterized by their larger flexibility in religious matters as they tend to focus on similarities and common elements in different religions, and less on boundaries between them. By being loyal to themselves in the first place, they feel free to adopt and to leave behind religious beliefs and communities. Emotional and institutional bonds for each religion appear to be less strong than for monoreligious individuals in relation to their single religion

Possible relevance of pigeons as an indicator species for monitoring air pollution.

Wild city pigeons were caught at four different locations in the Netherlands to represent areas of high (Amsterdam-high), moderate (Amsterdam-medium), and low (Maastricht and Assen) traffic density. It is assumed that local ambient air pollution decreases as a function of traffic density. In these pigeons levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)-DNA adducts, oxidative DNA damage, and heavy metal residues were determined in kidney, lung, liver, and blood (no adduct analysis in blood). The contribution of leaded gasoline to total body lead content was estimated by measuring concentrations of Pb and its isotopes in blood. We also analyzed samples of ambient air particulate matter for PAH and heavy metal concentrations at the four different locations. Interregional differences in heavy metals in ambient air particulate matter were reflected relatively well by pigeon body loads. The higher lead and cadmium concentrations in blood, kidney, liver, and lung were found in the Amsterdam high traffic density area, followed by Amsterdam medium, Assen, and Maastricht. A high Pb concentration in blood coincided with relatively low 206Pb/207Pb values, indicating a high contribution of leaded gasoline to total blood Pb concentrations in pigeons from the Amsterdam high traffic density area. Significantly enhanced blood zinc values were found in pigeons from both locations in Amsterdam compared to pigeons from the other two areas. However, no differences in Zn tissue levels between the four different groups were found. Oxidative DNA damage, determined as the ratio of 7-Hydro-8-oxo-2'-deoxyguanosine/ deoxyguanosine, in pigeon liver was highest in Amsterdam-high, followed by Assen (low traffic density). Pb content, but not the Cd content, was positively associated with oxidative DNA damage in liver tissue. In lung tissue, a negative correlation was found between oxidative DNA damage and Zn content. These results indicate that the carcinogenic potential of Pb might be ascribed to oxygen radical formation, whereas Zn plays a protective role against oxidative DNA damage. Places with high and medium traffic density could be clearly discriminated on the basis of PAH levels in the ambient air. The PAH content in particulate air samples was not, however, reflected in total PAH-related DNA adduct levels because no differences could be observed in tissue adduct levels in pigeons from the four different locations. Our results indicate that wild city pigeons can be used as biological indicators of exposure to heavy metal pollution in outdoor air

DNA adducts in fish following an oil spill exposure

On 12 December 1999, one third of the load of the Erika tanker, amounting to about 10,000 t crude oil flowed into sea waters close to the French Atlantic Coast. This oil contained polycyclic aromatic compounds (PAC) that are known to be genotoxic. Genotoxic effects induce DNA adducts formation, which can thus be used as pollution biomarkers. Here, we assessed the genotoxic impact of the “Erika” oil spill by DNA adducts detection in the liver of immature fishes (Solea solea) from four locations of the French Brittany coasts. Two months after the spill, a high amount of DNA adducts was found in samples from all locations, amounting to 92–290 DNA adduct per 109 nucleotides. Then total DNA adduct levels decreased to reach about 50 adducts per 109 nucleotides nine months after the spill. In vitro experiments using human cell cultures and fish liver microsomes evidence the genotoxicity of the Erika fuel. They also prove the formation of reactive species able to create DNA adducts. Furthermore, in vitro and in vivo DNA adducts fingerprints are similar, thus confirming that DNA adducts are a result of the oil spill

Are Chinese consumers at risk due to exposure to metals in crayfish? A bioaccessibility-adjusted probabilistic risk assessment

Freshwater crayfish, the world's third largest crustacean species, has been reported to accumulate high levels of metals, while the current knowledge of potential risk associated with crayfish consumption lags behind that of finfish. We provide the first estimate of human health risk associated with crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) consumption in China, the world's largest producer and consumer of crayfish. We performed Monte Carlo Simulation on a standard risk model parameterized with local data on metal concentrations, bioaccessibility (phi), crayfish consumption rate, and consumer body mass. Bioaccessibility of metals in crayfish was found to be variable (68-95%) and metal-specific, suggesting a potential influence of metal bioaccessibility on effective metal intake. However, sensitivity analysis suggested risk of metals via crayfish consumption was predominantly explained by consumption rate (explaining >92% of total risk estimate variability), rather than metals concentration, bioaccessibility, or body mass. Mean metal concentrations (As, Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb, Se and Zn) in surveyed crayfish samples from 12 provinces in China conformed to national safety standards. However, risk calculation of phi-modified hazard quotient (HQ) and hazard index (HI) suggested that crayfish metals may pose a health risk for very high rate consumers, with a HI of over 24 for the highest rate consumers. Additionally, the phi-modified increased lifetime risk (ILTR) for carcinogenic effects due to the presence of As was above the acceptable level (10(-5)) for both the median (ILTR = 2.5 x 10(-5)) and 90th percentile (ILTR = 1.8 x 10(-4)), highlighting the relatively high risk of As in crayfish. Our results suggest a need to consider crayfish when assessing human dietary exposure to metals and associated health risks, especially for high crayfish-consuming populations, such as in China, USA and Sweden.HZ by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41273087). LN was supported by European Union Marie Curie Actions, Grant FP People 2010 “IRSES Electroacross” and BG by the SAGE-IGERT Fellowship (US National Science Foundation)

Vibrational biospectroscopy characterises biochemical differences between cell types used for toxicological investigations and identifies alterations induced by environmental contaminants

The use of cell-based assays is essential in reducing the number of vertebrates used in the investigation of chemical toxicities and in regulatory toxicology assessment. An important factor in obtaining meaningful results which can be accurately extrapolated is the use of biologically appropriate cell lines. In this preliminary study, ATR-FTIR spectroscopy with multivariate analysis was used to assess the fundamental biomolecular differences between a commonly used cell line, MCF-7 cells, and an environmentally relevant cell line derived from Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) dermal fibroblasts. To better understand differences in basic cell biochemistry, the cells were analysed in the untreated state or post-exposure to PCB and PBDE congeners. The main spectral peaks in spectra from both cell types were associated with cellular macromolecules, particularly proteins and lipids but the spectra also revealed some cell-specific differences. Spectra from untreated Mallard fibroblasts spectra contained a large peak associated with lipids. The cell-related differences in lipid and DNA were also identified as regions of spectral alteration induced by PBDE and PCB exposure. Although lipid alterations were observed in post-treatment spectra from both cell types, these may be of more significance to Mallard fibroblasts, which may be due to increased intracellular lipid as determined by Nile red staining. Untreated MCF-7 cell spectra contained unique peaks related to DNA and nucleic acids. DNA associated spectral regions were also identified as areas of considerable alteration in MCF-7 cells exposed to some congeners including PBDE 47 and PCB 153. The findings indicate that in their native state, MCF-7 and Mallard cells have unique biochemical differences, which can be identified using ATR-FTIR spectroscopy. Such differences in biochemical composition differences, which may influence cell susceptibility to environmental contaminants and therefore influence the choice of cell type used in toxicology experiments. This is the first study to analyse the biochemistry of a Mallard dermal fibroblast cell line and to use ATR-FTIR spectroscopy for this purpose. ATR-FTIR spectroscopy is demonstrated as a useful tool for exploration of biomolecular variation at the cellular level and with further development, it could be used as part of a panel of cell-based assays to indicate when different results might be seen in environmental species compared to currently used cell lines. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserve