Multicultural Realities: A Call to Diversify the Unity of the Church

With the advent of modernization and globalization, the social landscape of our world has been rapidly changing. Urbanization and new patterns of migration have contributed to the formation of a complex tapestry of cultural plurality. As a result, the social fabric of society has undergone a swift transformation, challenging Christians to continually think about their faith in new ways. Perhaps like never before, in the last few decades America has seen large new multicultural populations emerge. It does not take a social scientist to recognize that our world is diverse, our cities and towns are changing, and our schools and workplaces are very different than they used to be. This article explores the ways in which multicultural congregations can be sustained and utilized as an expression of Kingdom work

Short-Term Missions: Making a Long-Lasting Difference in Today\u27s World

Over the course of the last few decades, short-term missions (STM) has invigorated and challenged the missionary enterprise around the world like no other movement. In fact, close to 1.6 million adults from the United States travel abroad every year on STM trips. During 2015, the Church of the Nazarene alone sent 618 short-term missions teams from the United States, including Work & Witness, University teams and Jesus Film Ministry teams. This effort involved the participation of 8,644 individuals who engaged in an intentional missional journey and stimulated missionary activity both at home and abroad. The magnitude of this movement is remarkable, one that without a doubt will continue to attract with renewed interest both new and experienced travelers alike.Although STM is currently a small part of a wide array of missional strategies, it is without a doubt one of the most noticeable and perhaps even the most appealing. Year after year, STM becomes an open invitation for youth groups, college students and church members to see the world first-hand and respond to the needs they encounter in tangible ways. For this reason, STM may be contributing to a new sense of “global citizenship” or what Sociologist Kersten Priest has called a “globalization of empathy.” This article discusses how to use STM for longer impact in missions

Missiology as a Discipline: Its Dimensions and Scope

At its most fundamental level, missiology simply refers to the study of mission. This basic understanding, however, invites further reflection. What and whose mission ought to be studied? What methods, academic disciplines, and tools must be employed in such a study? Inevitably, other questions beckon to be included in the discussion. Is there an essential core that pertains only to missiology that is not shared by other disciplines? What are missiology’s primary concerns? What are the goals and purpose of missiology? This article seeks to address these pertinent issues by offering a few insights from both a biblical and academic reflection

Examination of the Cytotoxicity of Carboxyl Functionalized Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes on Escherichia Coli

The growing use of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in industrial and consumer products raises important questions about their environmental fate and impact on prokaryotes. In the environment, CNTs are exposed to a variety of conditions (e.g. UV light) that could lead to decomposition and changes in their chemical properties. Therefore, the potential cytotoxic effect of both pristine and artificially aged carboxyl functionalized single-walled CNTs at neutral and acidic conditions on Escherichia coli K12 was analyzed using a minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) assay, which also allowed monitoring of non-lethal growth effects. However, there were no observable MIC or significant changes in growth behavior in E. coli K12 when exposed to pristine or aged CNTs. Exposure to pristine CNTs did not appear to influence cell morphology or damage the cells when examined by electron microscopy. In addition, RNA sequencing revealed no observable regulatory changes in typical stress response pathways. This is surprising considering that previous studies have claimed high cytotoxicity of CNTS, including carboxyl functionalized single-walled CNTs

Circumnavigating International Space Law

Man\u27s exploration of space is often analogized to his exploration of the ancient oceans. Ancient sea-explorers faced obstacles of uncharted oceans and land. They also faced difficulties in finding the means and financing to make their discoveries. Space industrial development suffers difficulties as well, however, many of the difficulties are legal obstacles

Genome size variation in the Artemisia arborescens complex (Asteraceae, Anthemideae) and its cultivars

10 p.[EN] Different wild Mediterranean populations of Artemisia arborescens from diverse locations representing its geographical distribution, as well as some of its well-known cultivars and some specimens cultivated as ornamentals in gardens, streets, roads and nurseries, were analysed for genome size. Other closely related species endemic to Macaronesia, Artemisia canariensis, Artemisia argentea, and Artemisia gorgonum, were also analysed, and their nuclear DNA amount has been related to the biogeography of this group of species. Additionally, 5 populations of the closely related Artemisia absinthium were analysed to establish comparisons. Measurements acquired by flow cytometry ranged from 8.29 to 11.61 pg for 2C values. Statistically significant differences of 2C nuclear DNA amounts with respect to factors such as insularity or domestication have been detected. However, quite a low intraspecific genome size variation has been found in these species. Furthermore, the study also addressed the possible hybrid origins and possible misidentifications of some of the supposed cultivars of A. arborescens.Peer reviewe

Influence of dietary conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) on lipid and fatty acid composition in liver and flesh of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)

The aim of the present study was to determine the effects of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) on lipid and fatty acid metabolism in Atlantic salmon. The overall objective being to test the hypotheses that CLA has beneficial effects in salmon including growth enhancement, improved flesh quality through decreased adiposity and lipid deposition thereby minimising detrimental effects of feeding high fat diets, and increased nutritional quality through increased levels of beneficial fatty acids including n-3 highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFA) and CLA itself. Salmon smolts were fed diets containing two levels of fish oil (low, ~18% and high, ~34%) containing three levels of CLA (a 1:1 mixture of 9-cis,trans-11 and trans-10,cis-12. at 0, 1 and 2% of diet) for 3 months and the effects on growth performance, liver and muscle (flesh) lipid contents and class compositions, and fatty acid compositions determined. The diets were also specifically formulated to investigate whether the effects of CLA, if any, were more dependent upon absolute content of CLA in the diet (as percentage of total diet) or the relative level of CLA to other fatty acids. Dietary CLA in salmon smolts had no effect on growth parameters or biometric parameters. However, there was a clear trend of increased total lipid and triacylglycerol contents in both liver and flesh in fish fed CLA, particularly in fish fed the high oil diets. Finally, CLA was incorporated into tissue lipids, with levels in flesh being 2-fold higher than in liver, but importantly, incorporation in liver was at the expense of saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids whereas in flesh it was at the expense of n-3HUFA

Influence of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) or tetradecylthioacetic acid (TTA) on growth, lipid composition, fatty acid metabolism and lipid gene expression of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss L.)

Our objective was to test the hypotheses that conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and/or tetradecylthioacetic acid (TTA) would have beneficial effects on the nutritional quality of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) through decreased lipid content of flesh or viscera, and increased levels of beneficial fatty acids including accumulation of CLA or TTA themselves. The specific aims of this study were to determine the effects of CLA and TTA on growth performance, lipid and fatty acid metabolism, and selected gene expression in commercial sized trout grown in seawater. Trout were fed for eight weeks on fish meal and fish oil diets containing either 0.5% or 1% CLA, or 0.5% TTA. The effects of the supplemented fatty acids on growth, feed efficiency, lipid contents, class compositions and fatty acid compositions of flesh and liver were determined, along with liver highly unsaturated fatty acid synthesis, activities of key enzymes of fatty acid oxidation in liver and muscle, and expression of carnitine palmitoyltransferase-I (CPT-I) and fatty acyl desaturase and elongase genes. Neither functional fatty acid had any effect on growth parameters, condition factor, viscero- and hepato-somatic indices or fillet colour, and there were no mortalities in any of the treatments. Dietary CLA, but not TTA, decreased the lipid content of liver, but neither fatty acid had any significant effect on lipid class compositions of liver and flesh. Both CLA and TTA were incorporated into tissue lipids, with higher percentages found in flesh compared to liver. In addition, production of hexaene fatty acid by liver microsomes was increased by dietary CLA or TTA, and both functional fatty acids increased the proportion of n-3 fatty acids in liver mainly due to increased 20:5n-3 and 22:6n-3. However, the expression of fatty acyl Δ6 desaturase was significantly lower in fish fed CLA or TTA, whereas the expression of PUFA elongase was increased, significantly so in fish fed 1% CLA. CPT-I activity was increased by TTA in liver and red muscle, and acyl CoA oxidase activity was increased by TTA in liver and CLA at the higher dietary inclusion level in red muscle. There was a clear trend for CPT-I expression to be increased in fish fed 0.5% CLA or TTA in all tissues although this was only significant in white muscle. The results showed that both CLA and TTA had effects on lipid metabolism that partly support the hypotheses tested. Although CLA or TTA did not enhance growth parameters, feed conversion or potential yield, nutritional quality could be enhanced, and sea-run trout fed CLA or TTA could be beneficial in the human diet through provision of bioactive fatty acids, with no detrimental effects on 20:5n-3 or 22:6n-3 levels