Not fitting in and getting out : psychological type and congregational satisfaction among Anglican churchgoers in England

Listening to the motivations reported by individuals for ceasing church attendance and becoming church leavers, Francis and Richter identified high on the list the sense of "not fitting in". Drawing on psychological type theory, several recent studies have documented the way in which some psychological types are over-represented in church congregations and other psychological types are under-represented. Bringing these two observations together, the present study tested the hypothesis that church congregations have created type-alike communities within which individuals displaying the opposite type preferences are more likely to feel marginalised and to display lower levels of satisfaction with the congregations they attend. Data were provided by 1867 churchgoers who completed a measure of psychological type, together with measures of frequency of attendance and congregational satisfaction. These data confirmed that congregations were weighted towards preferences for introversion, sensing, feeling and judging, and that individuals displaying the opposite preferences (especially intuition, thinking and perceiving) recorded lower levels of congregational satisfaction. The implications of these findings are discussed for promoting congregational retention by enhancing awareness of psychological type preferences among those who attend

Associations of exercise-induced hormone profiles and gains in strength and hypertrophy in a large cohort after weight training

The purpose of this study was to investigate associations between acute exercise-induced hormone responses and adaptations to high intensity resistance training in a large cohort (n = 56) of young men. Acute post-exercise serum growth hormone (GH), free testosterone (fT), insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) and cortisol responses were determined following an acute intense leg resistance exercise routine at the midpoint of a 12-week resistance exercise training study. Acute hormonal responses were correlated with gains in lean body mass (LBM), muscle fibre cross-sectional area (CSA) and leg press strength. There were no significant correlations between the exercise-induced elevations (area under the curve—AUC) of GH, fT and IGF-1 and gains in LBM or leg press strength. Significant correlations were found for cortisol, usually assumed to be a hormone indicative of catabolic drive, AUC with change in LBM (r = 0.29, P < 0.05) and type II fibre CSA (r = 0.35, P < 0.01) as well as GH AUC and gain in fibre area (type I: r = 0.36, P = 0.006; type II: r = 0.28, P = 0.04, but not lean mass). No correlations with strength were observed. We report that the acute exercise-induced systemic hormonal responses of cortisol and GH are weakly correlated with resistance training-induced changes in fibre CSA and LBM (cortisol only), but not with changes in strength

Milk: the new sports drink? A Review

There has been growing interest in the potential use of bovine milk as an exercise beverage, especially during recovery from resistance training and endurance sports. Based on the limited research, milk appears to be an effective post-resistance exercise beverage that results in favourable acute alterations in protein metabolism. Milk consumption acutely increases muscle protein synthesis, leading to an improved net muscle protein balance. Furthermore, when post-exercise milk consumption is combined with resistance training (12 weeks minimum), greater increases in muscle hypertrophy and lean mass have been observed. Although research with milk is limited, there is some evidence to suggest that milk may be an effective post-exercise beverage for endurance activities. Low-fat milk has been shown to be as effective, if not more effective, than commercially available sports drinks as a rehydration beverage. Milk represents a more nutrient dense beverage choice for individuals who partake in strength and endurance activities, compared to traditional sports drinks. Bovine low-fat fluid milk is a safe and effective post exercise beverage for most individuals, except for those who are lactose intolerant. Further research is warranted to better delineate the possible applications and efficacy of bovine milk in the field of sports nutrition

Value of prominent flow voids without cord edema in the detection of spinal arteriovenous fistulae

Purpose: To determine the prevalence of spinal dural arteriovenous fistulae (SDAVF) in patients presenting with prominent vascular flow voids on imaging without other imaging findings suggestive of SDAVF. Methods: We retrospectively identified patients from January 1, 2005 to March 1, 2012 who underwent spinal angiography for suspected SDAVF with prominent vascular flow voids on prior imaging. We excluded patients with other major spinal pathology or other imaging findings of SDAVF including cord hyperintensity, enhancement, or expansion. We calculated the proportion of patients with positive findings for SDAVF on angiography and evaluated the prevalence of SDAVF for this finding alone and in correlation with clinical findings. Results: 18 patients underwent spinal angiography for prominent flow voids on imaging without other spinal pathology or imaging findings of SDAVF. Three had a SDAVF detected on angiography. The prevalence of SDAVF in this population was low, only 17% (95% CI 6-39%). All of the patients with positive angiography findings had myelopathy, increasing the prevalence to 100% if the additional clinical finding of myelopathy was present. Conclusions: Prominent flow voids without other imaging findings suggestive of SDAVF is poorly predictive of the presence of a SDAVF, unless myelopathy is present clinically. © 2014 Alhilali et al

Persistent Cell Motion in the Absence of External Signals: A Search Strategy for Eukaryotic Cells

Eukaryotic cells are large enough to detect signals and then orient to them by differentiating the signal strength across the length and breadth of the cell. Amoebae, fibroblasts, neutrophils and growth cones all behave in this way. Little is known however about cell motion and searching behavior in the absence of a signal. Is individual cell motion best characterized as a random walk? Do individual cells have a search strategy when they are beyond the range of the signal they would otherwise move toward? Here we ask if single, isolated, Dictyostelium and Polysphondylium amoebae bias their motion in the absence of external cues. We placed single well-isolated Dictyostelium and Polysphondylium cells on a nutrient-free agar surface and followed them at 10 sec intervals for ~10 hr, then analyzed their motion with respect to velocity, turning angle, persistence length, and persistence time, comparing the results to the expectation for a variety of different types of random motion. We find that amoeboid behavior is well described by a special kind of random motion: Amoebae show a long persistence time (~10 min) beyond which they start to lose their direction; they move forward in a zig-zag manner; and they make turns every 1-2 min on average. They bias their motion by remembering the last turn and turning away from it. Interpreting the motion as consisting of runs and turns, the duration of a run and the amplitude of a turn are both found to be exponentially distributed. We show that this behavior greatly improves their chances of finding a target relative to performing a random walk. We believe that other eukaryotic cells may employ a strategy similar to Dictyostelium when seeking conditions or signal sources not yet within range of their detection system.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in PLOS On

Enabling Universal Memory by Overcoming the Contradictory Speed and Stability Nature of Phase-Change Materials

The quest for universal memory is driving the rapid development of memories with superior all-round capabilities in non-volatility, high speed, high endurance and low power. Phase-change materials are highly promising in this respect. However, their contradictory speed and stability properties present a key challenge towards this ambition. We reveal that as the device size decreases, the phase-change mechanism changes from the material inherent crystallization mechanism (either nucleation- or growth-dominated), to the hetero-crystallization mechanism, which resulted in a significant increase in PCRAM speeds. Reducing the grain size can further increase the speed of phase-change. Such grain size effect on speed becomes increasingly significant at smaller device sizes. Together with the nano-thermal and electrical effects, fast phase-change, good stability and high endurance can be achieved. These findings lead to a feasible solution to achieve a universal memory