Faith, Secularism, and the Need for Interfaith Dialogue in Writing Center Work

This article argues that religious and secularist identities complement and intersect in political ways with race, class, gender, sexuality, and nationality and that they inform writing center practice because belief exists along a spectrum that involves all writing center inhabitants and affects all writing-centered conversations. We suggest that this spectrum of faith is evocative of the spectrums that theorists of race, gender, and sexuality in particular have discussed, yet often faith has been overlooked in discussions of identity in writing center work (Denny, 2010). We propose that theories of race, gender, sexuality and other identities that have served as springboards for professional development in writing centers can help to facilitate the development of a greater literacy of faith and secularism as complicated and nuanced identities. Specifically, we believe theories involving intersectional social justice work and hybridity can help to facilitate self-reflective and productive interfaith dialogue or dialogue about faith and secularism. Thus, such theories can help writing center professionals dismantle stereotypes about believers and secularists and problematic notions of what faith, or a conversation about faith, is or should be

Possibilities for Interfaith Dialogue in Writing Centers and Programs

This article speaks into the pervasive silence on the subject of faith in writing center and writing program work. Through revisiting Sharon Crowley’s Toward a Civil Discourse and investigating silence, we encourage “counterfudamentalist work”: work that counters fundamentalist methodology by inviting fundamentalists and believers and nonbelievers of different kinds into nonliteralist and open-minded ways of reading writing-centered experiences involving religious faith and secularism. The three authors of this article offer personal narratives about their own experience with faith in their centers/programs and use different theoretical perspectives to start a necessary dialogue on faith and religious experiences. By interweaving theoretical perspectives, research, and personal narratives involving our WPA work, this article argues that writing center/program administrators must do the same, and we hope to model the types of conversations we must bring into our centers.University Writing Cente

Pericardial rather than epicardial fat is a cardiometabolic risk marker: an MRI vs echo study

Several studies using echocardiography identified epicardial adipose tissue (EPI) as an important cardiometabolic risk marker. However, validation compared with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography has not been performed. Moreover, pericardial adipose tissue (PERI) has recently been shown to have some correlation with cardiovascular disease risk factors. The aims of this study were to validate echocardiographic analyses compared with MRI and to evaluate which cardiac fat depot (EPI or PERI) is the most appropriate cardiovascular risk marker. METHODS: Forty-nine healthy subjects were studied (age range, 25-68 years; body mass index, 21-40 kg/m(2)), and PERI and EPI fat depots were measured using echocardiography and MRI. Findings were correlated with MRI visceral fat and subcutaneous fat, blood pressure, insulin sensitivity, triglycerides, cholesterol, insulin, glucose, and 10-year coronary heart disease risk. RESULTS: Most cardiac fat was constituted by PERI (about 77%). PERI thickness by echocardiography was well correlated with MRI area (r = 0.36, P = .009), and independently of the technique used for quantification, PERI was correlated with body mass index, waist circumference, visceral fat, subcutaneous fat, blood pressure, insulin sensitivity, triglycerides, cholesterol, glucose, and coronary heart disease risk. On the contrary, EPI thicknesses correlated only with age did not correlate significantly with MRI EPI areas, which were found to correlate with age, body mass index, subcutaneous fat, and hip and waist circumferences. CONCLUSIONS: Increased cardiac fat in the pericardial area is strongly associated with features of the metabolic syndrome, whereas no correlation was found with EPI, indicating that in clinical practice, PERI is a better cardiometabolic risk marker than EPI

Evaluation of an integrated physical activity program for pregnant women: WELL-DONE! Study

Background Regular practice of physical activity (PA) during pregnancy has benefits for maternal and fetal health. Therefore, pregnant women (PW) should practice at least 150 minutes of moderate PA per week following the WHO guidelines. The aim of the study is to evaluate the effect of an adapted physical activity (APA) intervention for PW, to be included in childbirth preparation classes (CPCs) in terms of levels of PA, quality of life, physical performance, self-efficacy, sleep quality and anxious-depressive states

An Innovative Olive Pâté with Nutraceutical Properties

Food plays a central role in health, especially through consumption of plant-derived foods. Functional foods, supplements, and nutraceuticals are increasingly entering the market to respond to consumer demand for healthy products. They are foods, supplements, and ingredients which offer health benefits beyond the standard nutritional value. Some benefits are associated with phenolic compounds and phytochemicals with antioxidant properties. An olive pâté (OP) was added with antioxidants derived from olive mill wastewater (OMWW) to obtain a functional product rich in phenolic compounds. The olive pâté is produced from the ground olive pericarp, which shows an excellent natural antioxidant content. The OMWW is a waste product from oil processing, which is also rich in phenolic compounds. The result was a product rich in trans-resveratrol, OH tyrosol, and tyrosol in concentrations such as satisfying the European community’s claims regarding the possible antioxidant action on plasma lipids with excellent shelf-life stability. The total phenolic content was assayed by a colorimetric method, the antioxidant activity by the ABTS [(2,2′-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid)] test, the phenolic profile by Q Exactive Orbitrap LC-MS/MS. The shelf-life stability was confirmed by yeast, molds, and total microbial count, pH, and water activity determinations, and the best pasteurization parameters were determined. The palatability was judged as excellent

Who teaches writing?

Who Teaches Writing is an open teaching and learning resource being used in English Composition classes at Oklahoma State University. It was authored by contributors from Oklahoma State University and also includes invited chapters from other institutions both inside and outside of Oklahoma. Contributors include faculty from various departments, contingent faculty and staff, and graduate instructors. One purpose of the resource is to provide short, relatively jargon-free chapters geared toward undergraduate students taking First-Year Composition. Support for this project was provided in part by OpenOKState and Oklahoma State University Libraries.OpenOKStateOklahoma State University LibrariesLibraryEnglis

Multicentre multi-device hybrid imaging study of coronary artery disease: results from the EValuation of INtegrated Cardiac Imaging for the Detection and Characterization of Ischaemic Heart Disease (EVINCI) hybrid imaging population

AIMS: Hybrid imaging provides a non-invasive assessment of coronary anatomy and myocardial perfusion. We sought to evaluate the added clinical value of hybrid imaging in a multi-centre multi-vendor setting. METHODS AND RESULTS: Fourteen centres enrolled 252 patients with stable angina and intermediate (20-90%) pre-test likelihood of coronary artery disease (CAD) who underwent myocardial perfusion scintigraphy (MPS), CT coronary angiography (CTCA), and quantitative coronary angiography (QCA) with fractional flow reserve (FFR). Hybrid MPS/CTCA images were obtained by 3D image fusion. Blinded core-lab analyses were performed for CTCA, MPS, QCA and hybrid datasets. Hemodynamically significant CAD was ruled-in non-invasively in the presence of a matched finding (myocardial perfusion defect co-localized with stenosed coronary artery) and ruled-out with normal findings (both CTCA and MPS normal). Overall prevalence of significant CAD on QCA (>70% stenosis or 30-70% with FFR 640.80) was 37%. Of 1004 pathological myocardial segments on MPS, 246 (25%) were reclassified from their standard coronary distribution to another territory by hybrid imaging. In this respect, in 45/252 (18%) patients, hybrid imaging reassigned an entire perfusion defect to another coronary territory, changing the final diagnosis in 42% of the cases. Hybrid imaging allowed non-invasive CAD rule-out in 41%, and rule-in in 24% of patients, with a negative and positive predictive value of 88% and 87%, respectively. CONCLUSION: In patients at intermediate risk of CAD, hybrid imaging allows non-invasive co-localization of myocardial perfusion defects and subtending coronary arteries, impacting clinical decision-making in almost one every five subjects