High-Flex Field Education

Dealiing with flexibility in providing field education

Parable as a Lens for Theological Reflection

This is a quick introduction to the concept of theological reflection in parabolic mode. The process of gathering students tofether, of encouraging them to bring their stories to the table and allowing the conversation to unfold in surprising ways is a grace-filled encounter

Anatomy of a Site Visit

Director of Field Education describes key elements to follow when making a site visit where students will be serving as part of their education

Catholic Theological Education at the Margins

This essay argues that a commitment to working with and for the poor, must be a central theme of Catholic theological education in the future, and then discusses some of the implications of taking that commitment seriously

Pathway Possibilities: The Lilly Endowment's Pathways for Tomorrow Initiative

Looking to the future for what supervision and mentoring will look like and be utilized

Comparison of handling-injection stress with noise stress on learning and memory in the early life of male rats

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Various stressful stimuli have different effects on memory and learning. With technology development, the human exposes to different stressful factors. The aim of this study was to investigate the combined effects of handling-injection stress with noise stress in the passive avoidance task in rats. METHODS: Twenty-four male Wistar rats (22 days aged) with weight of 55gr were used. Male Wistar rats were divided into 4 groups, of 6 animals for 4 weeks: subcutaneous injection of sodium chloride 0.9 and handling stress (I+H), subcutaneous injection of sodium chloride 0.9 and handling with noise exposure (I+N), noise exposure (N) and control (C). After 4 weeks, we studied passive avoidance conditioning test in a shuttle box. FINDINGS: The step-through latency after training animals significantly increased in (I+H) group as compared with (I+N) and (N) groups (p=0.001). But using noise stress with handling-injection stress significantly attenuated learning and memory in the (I+N) group than other 3 groups (p=0.01). CONCLUSION: The data suggested that using moderate stress with sound stress decreases learning and memory in the early life of male Wistar rats

Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase gene polymorphisms and risk of myeloid leukemia

Objective: 5,10-Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) involved in folate metabolism has an important role in a cell because folate availability is critical for DNA integrity. This research aims to evaluate, in a case-controlled study, if the polymorphisms in MTHFR gene contribute to altering susceptibility to leukemias of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). Materials and Methods: Thirty-eight CML patients and 106 AML patients were diagnosed based on detection of BCR-ABL fusion gene by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and immunophenotyping by flow cytometry. A control group containing 97 healthy, age- and sex-matched individuals participated in this study. Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase C677T and A1298C polymorphisms in the patient and control groups were evaluated by using the polymerase chain reaction restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) technique. We assessed the relationship between the MTHFR genotype and the risk of hematologic malignancies by calculating the odds ratio (OR) with a 95 confidence interval (CI) using conditional logistic regression. Results: The frequencies of CT and TT genotypes (of 677 allele) and AC and CC genotypes (of 1298 allele) among AML patients did not show a statistically significant difference when compared with those of the controls. Also, among CML patients, the frequencies of above stated genotypes did not show statistically significant differences compared with those of the controls. Conclusions: The data indicate that because of no statistical difference in the frequencies of MTHFR gene polymorphisms (C677T and A1298C) in the patient and control groups, these polymorphisms do not contribute to an inherited genetic susceptibility of AML and CML

Prognostic impact of systemic inflammatory diseases in elderly patients with congestive heart failure

Background and aims: Inflammation is part of the pathophysiology of congestive heart failure (CHF). However, little is known about the impact of the presence of systemic inflammatory disease (SID), defined as inflammatory syndrome with constitutional symptoms and involvement of at least two organs as co-morbidity on the clinical course and prognosis of patients with CHF. Methods and results: This is an analysis of all 622 patients included in TIME-CHF. After an 18 months follow-up, outcomes of patients with and without SID were compared. Primary endpoint was all-cause hospitalization free survival. Secondary endpoints were overall survival and CHF hospitalization free survival. At baseline, 38 patients had history of SID (6.1%). These patients had higher N-terminal pro brain natriuretic peptide and worse renal function than patients without SID. SID was a risk factor for adverse outcome [primary endpoint: hazard ratio (HR) = 1.73 (95% confidence interval: 1.18-2.55, P = 0.005); survival: HR = 2.60 (1.49-4.55, P = 0.001); CHF hospitalization free survival: HR = 2.3 (1.45-3.65, P < 0.001)]. In multivariate models, SID remained the strongest independent risk factor for survival and CHF hospitalization free survival. Conclusions: In elderly patients with CHF, SID is independently accompanied with adverse outcome. Given the increasing prevalence of SID in the elderly population, these findings are clinically important for both risk stratification and patient managemen

Comprehensive analysis of global research on human varicocele: a scientometric approach

Purpose: This study provides a comprehensive analysis of research trends on the etiology, mechanisms, potential risk factors, diagnosis, prognosis, surgical and non-surgical treatment of varicocele, and clinical outcomes before and after varicocele repair. Materials and Methods: Varicocele studies published between 1988 and 2020 were retrieved from the Scopus database on April 5, 2021. Original studies on human varicocele were included, irrespective of language. Retrieved articles were manually screened for inclusion in various sub-categories. Bibliometric data was subjected to scientometric analysis using descriptive statistics. Network, heat and geographic mapping were generated using relevant software. Results: In total, 1,943 original human studies on varicocele were published. These were predominantly from the northern hemisphere and developed countries, and published in journals from the United States and Germany. Network map analysis for countries showed several interconnected nodal points, with the USA being the largest, and Agarwal A. from Cleveland Clinic, USA, being a center point of worldwide varicocele research collaborations. Studies of adolescents were underrepresented compared with studies of adults. Studies on diagnostic and prognostic aspects of varicocele were more numerous than studies on varicocele prevalence, mechanistic studies and studies focusing on etiological and risk factors. Varicocele surgery was more investigated than non-surgical approaches. To evaluate the impact of varicocele and its treatment, researchers mainly analyzed basic semen parameters, although markers of seminal oxidative stress are being increasingly investigated in the last decade, while reproductive outcomes such as live birth rate were under-reported in the literature. Conclusions: This study analyzes the publication trends in original research on human varicocele spanning over the last three decades. Our analysis emphasizes areas for further exploration to better understand varicocele’s impact on men’s health and male fertility