The justice of god and the formation of society

This theological study is a contribution to the search for a conception of justice which will form a just society. Its aim is to discover whether two leading modem secular theories of justice might be mediations of the justice of God, which I take to be a principle in Creation and the basis for the formation of society. My interdisciplinary approach advocates and employs critical theory to expose the pathologies of modernity, particularly domination (or the arbitrary use of power) as a major cause of injustice, and thus an impediment to the formation of a just society. This approach is undergirded by an Incarnational and Trinitarian theology which, through the use of a socio-political hermeneutic, transcends the biblical categories from which it origtuates. It recognises that the justice of God, understood throughout this thesis as right relationship or true sociality, is mediated through human agency and action which accord with God's nature and will. The theories of John Rawls and Jurgen Habermas which I choose to examine understand justice in terms of normative legitimacy, achieved through a publicly discursive and justificatory procedure, leading to a rational consensus about the social norms which form and direct society. My study assesses how far each mediates God’s justice in forming society. It concludes that Habermas's theory has a stronger claim in this regard owing to its greater degree of consonance with the communicative nature of that justice, and to a recognition that the reality underlying Habermas's theory of justice as communicative action is God's justice, mediated in the linguistic structure of Habermas's procedure. In conclusion, I propose that the Church, in adopting this communicative understanding of justice, commit itself to the building and defence of a vibrant public sphere, in which justice is discursively determined; and in which all members of society, especially the disadvantaged for whom God is concerned, participate deliberatively in the formation of the society God justly wills

Coworkers in the Netherlands during the COVID-19 pandemic

The literature on coworking spaces (CSs) often neglects the link between the motives for using coworking in general and the choice of a specific CS. Moreover, their relationship with regional attitudes in different geographical and economic landscapes is rarely studied. We attempt to fill this gap by investigating users’ motives and preferences in the socioeconomic landscape of the Netherlands during the pandemic. The results from semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire answered by 47 CS users show trends that differ partially from those highlighted in the literature thus far. In particular, Dutch coworkers want to find a productive workplace outside home, and they tend to focus strongly on the CS layout and design, while their interest in professional networking is less pronounced. These results can be interpreted as a manifestation of new needs emerging during the pandemic, which could also persist in the reorganization of workplaces following the pandemic

Peritoneal function in clinical practice: the importance of follow-up and its measurement in patients. Recommendations for patient information and measurement of peritoneal function

A review is given on peritoneal function, especially ultrafiltration and ultrafiltration failure followed by recommendations on how to translate pathophysiology into clinical practice. The subsequent consequences for management of peritoneal membrane function and for patient information are also included

Influence of vibrations on electron transport through nanoscale contacts

In this article we present a novel semi-analytical approach to calculate first-order electron-vibration coupling constants within the framework of density functional theory. It combines analytical expressions for the first-order derivative of the Kohn-Sham operator with respect to nuclear displacements with coupled-perturbed Kohn-Sham theory to determine the derivative of the electronic density matrix. This allows us to efficiently compute accurate electron-vibration coupling constants. We apply our approach to describe inelastic electron tunneling spectra of metallic and molecular junctions. A gold junction bridged by an atomic chain is used to validate the developed method, reproducing established experimental and theoretical results. For octane-dithiol and octane-diamine single-molecule junctions we discuss the influence of the anchoring group and mechanical stretching on the inelastic electron tunneling spectra.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure

Is psychotherapy for depression equally effective in younger and older adults? A meta-regression analysis.

Background: It is well established that psychotherapy is effective in the treatment of depression in younger as well as in older adults. Whether these psychotherapies are equally effective in younger and older age groups has not been examined in meta-analytic research. Methods: We conducted a systematic literature search and included 112 studies with 170 comparisons between a psychotherapy and a control group (with a total of 7,845 participants). Twenty studies with 26 comparisons were aimed at older adults. Results: We found no indication that psychotherapies were more or less effective for older adults compared to younger adults. The effect sizes of both groups of comparisons did not differ significantly from each other (older adults: d = 0.74; 95% CI: 0.49~0.99; younger adults: d = 0.67; 95% CI: 0.58~0.76). In a multivariate meta-regression analysis, in which we controlled for major characteristics of the participants, the interventions and the study designs, no indication of a difference between psychotherapy in younger and older adults was found. Conclusions: There appears to be no significant difference between psychotherapy in younger and older adults, although it is not clear whether this is also true for clinical samples, patients with more severe depression, and the older old

Evaluation of the effect of chance correlations on variable selection using Partial Least Squares -Discriminant Analysis

Variable subset selection is often mandatory in high throughput metabolomics and proteomics. However, depending on the variable to sample ratio there is a significant susceptibility of variable selection towards chance correlations. The evaluation of the predictive capabilities of PLSDA models estimated by cross-validation after feature selection provides overly optimistic results if the selection is performed on the entire set and no external validation set is available. In this work, a simulation of the statistical null hypothesis is proposed to test whether the discrimination capability of a PLSDA model after variable selection estimated by cross-validation is statistically higher than that attributed to the presence of chance correlations in the original data set. Statistical significance of PLSDA CV-figures of merit obtained after variable selection is expressed by means of p-values calculated by using a permutation test that included the variable selection step. The reliability of the approach is evaluated using two variable selection methods on experimental and simulated data sets with and without induced class differences. The proposed approach can be considered as a useful tool when no external validation set is available and provides a straightforward way to evaluate differences between variable selection methods.JE and JK acknowledge the "Sara Borrell" Grants (CD11/00154 and CD12/00667) from the Instituto Carlos III (Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness). DPG acknowledge the "V Segles" Grant provided by the University of Valencia to carry out this study. MV acknowledges the FISPI11/0313 Grant from the Instituto Carlos III (Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness). AF acknowledges the DPI2011-28112-C04-02 Grant from Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN). GQ acknowledges the financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity (SAF2012-39948).Kuligowski, J.; Pérez Guaita, D.; Escobar, J.; Guardia, MDL.; Vento, M.; Ferrer Riquelme, AJ.; Quintás, G. (2013). Evaluation of the effect of chance correlations on variable selection using Partial Least Squares -Discriminant Analysis. Talanta. 116:835-840. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.talanta.2013.07.048S83584011

Small artery elasticity is decreased in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus without increased intima media thickness

Introduction: The objectives of this study were to determine small arterial elasticity (SAE) in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and to investigate its relationship with intima media thickness (IMT), accumulation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs), endothelial activation and inflammation. Methods: Thirty SLE patients with inactive disease and 30 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were included. Twenty patients with essential hypertension (EH) served as positive control. SAE was assessed by pulse-wave analysis using tonometric recordings of the radial artery. IMT of the carotid arteries was measured by ultrasound. AGE accumulation was assessed with an AGE-reader. Endothelial activation markers and C-reactive protein (CRP) were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results: SAE was decreased in SLE (P = 0.01) and further decreased in EH (P <0.01) compared to healthy controls. IMT was increased in EH (P <0.05), but not in SLE. AGE accumulation was increased in SLE (P <0.05) and further increased in EH (P <0.01) compared to healthy controls. Endothelial activation markers and CRP were increased in SLE but not in EH. SAE related to AGE accumulation (r = -0.370, P <0.05), CRP (r = -0.429, P <0.05) and creatinine clearance (r = 0.440, P <0.05), but not to IMT and endothelial activation markers. In multivariate analysis SLE was an independent predictor of SAE. Conclusions: SAE is decreased in SLE patients without increased IMT, independently of traditional cardiovascular risk factors. Longitudinal studies are needed to investigate whether SAE, endothelial activation and AGE accumulation are early markers for cardiovascular disease in SLE