Koinonia

Guiding Principles: Toward Development of An Ethic of National and Community Service with an Emphasis Upon Higher Education, Cliff Briggs President\u27s Corner Focus on the ACSD 1993 National Conference: Mirrors of the Past, Directions for the Future When Goals Hinder Vision CoCCA: Planning Activities for Adult Students; Hot Program and Promotional Tips Males\u27 Attributions and Expectancies about Potential Mates as a Function of Sex Roles Part IIhttps://pillars.taylor.edu/acsd_koinonia/1048/thumbnail.jp

Carbon isotope discrimination in leaves of the common paperbark tree, Melaleuca quinquenervia, as a tool for quantifying past tropical and subtropical rainfall

Quantitative reconstructions of terrestrial climate are highly sought after but rare, particularly in Australia. Carbon isotope discrimination in plant leaves (Δleaf) is an established indicator of past hydroclimate because the fractionation of carbon isotopes during photosynthesis is strongly influenced by water stress. Leaves of the evergreen tree Melaleuca quinquenervia have been recovered from the sediments of some perched lakes on North Stradbroke and Fraser Islands, south-east Queensland, eastern Australia. Here, we examine the potential for using M. quinquenervia ∆leaf as a tracer of past rainfall by analysing carbon isotope ratios (δ13C) of modern leaves. We firstly assess Δleaf variation at the leaf and stand scale and find no systematic pattern within leaves or between leaves due to their position on the tree. We then examine the relationships between climate and Δleaf for an 11 year timeseries of leaves collected in a litter tray. M. quinquenervia retains its leaves for 1-4 years; thus cumulative average climate data are used. There is a significant relationship between annual mean ∆leaf and mean annual rainfall of the hydrological year for 1-4 years (i.e. 365-1460 days) prior to leaf fall (r2=0.64, p=0.003, n=11). This relationship is marginally improved by accounting for the effect of pCO2 on discrimination (r2=0.67, p=0.002, n=11). The correlation between rainfall and Δleaf, and the natural distribution of Melaleuca quinquenervia around wetlands of eastern Australia, Papua New Guinea and New Caledonia offers significant potential to infer past rainfall on a wide range of spatial and temporal scales

Neighbourhood unemployment and other socio-demographic predictors of emergency hospitalisation for infectious intestinal disease in England: A longitudinal ecological study

BACKGROUND:Previous studies have observed that infectious intestinal disease (IID) related hospital admissions are higher in more deprived neighbourhoods. These studies have mainly focused on paediatric populations and are cross-sectional in nature. This study examines recent trends in emergency IID admission rates, and uses longitudinal methods to investigate the effects of unemployment (as a time varying measure of neighbourhood deprivation) and other socio-demographic characteristics on IID admissions for adults and children in England. METHODS:A longitudinal ecological analysis was performed using Hospital Episode Statistics on emergency hospitalisations for IID, collected over the time period 2012-17 across England. Analysis was conducted at the neighbourhood (Lower-layer Super Output Area) level for three age groups (0-14; 15-64; 65+ years). Mixed-effect Poisson regression models were used to assess the relationship between trends in neighbourhood unemployment and emergency IID admission rates, whilst controlling for measures of primary and secondary care access, underlying morbidity and the ethnic composition of each neighbourhood. RESULTS:From 2012-17, declining trends in emergency IID admission rates were observed for children and older adults overall, while rates increased for some sub-groups in the population. Each 1 percentage point increase in unemployment was associated with a 6.3, 2.4 and 4% increase in the rate of IID admissions per year for children [IRR=1.06, 95%CI 1.06-1.07], adults [IRR=1.02, 95%CI 1.02-1.03] and older adults [IRR=1.04, 95%CI 1.036-1.043], respectively. Increases in poor primary care access, the percentage of people from a Pakistani ethnic background, and the prevalence of long-term health problems, in a neighbourhood, were also associated with increases in IID admission rates. CONCLUSIONS:Increasing trends in neighbourhood deprivation, as measured by unemployment, were associated with increases in emergency IID admission rates for children and adults in England, despite controlling for measures of healthcare access, underlying morbidity and ethnicity. Research is needed to improve understanding of the mechanisms that explain these inequalities, so that effective policies can be developed to reduce the higher emergency IID admission rates experienced by more disadvantaged communities

The role of the chemokine receptor CXCR4 in infection with feline immunodeficiency virus

Infection with feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) leads to the development of a disease state similar to AIDS in man. Recent studies have identified the chemokine receptor CXCR4 as the major receptor for cell culture-adapted strains of FIV, suggesting that FIV and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) share a common mechanism of infection involving an interaction between the virus and a member of the seven transmembrane domain superfamily of molecules. This article reviews the evidence for the involvement of chemokine receptors in FIV infection and contrasts these findings with similar studies on the primate lentiviruses HIV and SIV (simian immunodeficiency virus)

Subcutaneous implantable cardioverter-defibrillators: long-term results of the EFFORTLESS study

AIMS: To report 5-year outcomes of EFFORTLESS registry patients with early generation subcutaneous implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (S-ICD) devices. METHODS AND RESULTS: Kaplan-Meier, trend and multivariable analyses were performed for mortality and late (years 2-5) complications, appropriate shock (AS) and inappropriate shock (IAS) rates. Nine hundred and eighty-four of 994 enrolled patients with diverse diagnoses (28% female, 48 ± 17 years, body mass index 27 ± 6 kg/m2, ejection fraction 43 ± 18%) underwent S-ICD implantation. Median follow-up was 5.1 years (interquartile range 4.7-5.5 years). All-cause mortality was 9.3% (95% confidence interval 7.2-11.3%) at 5 years; 703 patients remained in follow-up on study completion, 171 withdrew including 87 (8.8%) with device explanted, and 65 (6.6%) lost to follow-up. Of the explants, only 20 (2.0%) patients needed a transvenous device for pacing indications. First and final shock efficacy for discrete ventricular arrhythmias was consistent at 90% and 98%, respectively, with storm episode final shock efficacy at 95.2%. Time to therapy remained unaltered. Overall 1- and 5-year complication rates were 8.9% and 15.2%, respectively. Early complications did not predict later complications. There were no structural lead failures. Inappropriate shock rates at 1 and 5 years were 8.7% and 16.9%, respectively. Self-terminating inappropriately sensed episodes predicted late IAS. Predictors of late AS included self-terminating appropriately sensed episodes and earlier AS. CONCLUSION: In this diverse S-ICD registry population, spontaneous shock efficacy was consistently high over 5 years. Very few patients underwent S-ICD replacement with a transvenous device for pacing indications. Treated and self-terminating arrhythmic episodes predict future shock events, which should encourage more personalized device optimization. KEY QUESTION: Is subcutaneous implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (S-ICD) shock efficacy maintained over time? KEY FINDING: Subcutaneous implantable cardioverter-defibrillator shock efficacy remains high for discrete and storm episodes. For discrete episodes first and final shock efficacy do not change over time or by rhythm type. TAKE-HOME MESSAGE: The EFFORTLESS study 5-year results provide the longest follow up of a large patient cohort implanted with the S-ICD. For 984 patients with a median follow-up of 5.1 years, the S-ICD maintains a high level of shock efficacy of 98%

Hypothesis-driven genome-wide association studies provide novel insights into genetics of reading disabilities

Funding: Support for the Toronto project was provided by grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (MOP-133440 and PJT-180419). K.P. was supported by the Hospital for Sick Children Research Training Program. E.E. and S.E.F. are supported by the Max Planck Society.Reading Disability (RD) is often characterized by difficulties in the phonology of the language. While the molecular mechanisms underlying it are largely undetermined, loci are being revealed by genome-wide association studies (GWAS). In a previous GWAS for word reading (Price, 2020), we observed that top single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were located near to or in genes involved in neuronal migration/axon guidance (NM/AG) or loci implicated in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A prominent theory of RD etiology posits that it involves disturbed neuronal migration, while potential links between RD-ASD have not been extensively investigated. To improve power to identify associated loci, we up-weighted variants involved in NM/AG or ASD, separately, and performed a new Hypothesis-Driven (HD)–GWAS. The approach was applied to a Toronto RD sample and a meta-analysis of the GenLang Consortium. For the Toronto sample (n = 624), no SNPs reached significance; however, by gene-set analysis, the joint contribution of ASD-related genes passed the threshold (p~1.45 × 10–2, threshold = 2.5 × 10–2). For the GenLang Cohort (n = 26,558), SNPs in DOCK7 and CDH4 showed significant association for the NM/AG hypothesis (sFDR q = 1.02 × 10–2). To make the GenLang dataset more similar to Toronto, we repeated the analysis restricting to samples selected for reading/language deficits (n = 4152). In this GenLang selected subset, we found significant association for a locus intergenic between BTG3-C21orf91 for both hypotheses (sFDR q < 9.00 × 10–4). This study contributes candidate loci to the genetics of word reading. Data also suggest that, although different variants may be involved, alleles implicated in ASD risk may be found in the same genes as those implicated in word reading. This finding is limited to the Toronto sample suggesting that ascertainment influences genetic associations.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

‘I’m not your mother’: British social realism, neoliberalism and the maternal subject in Sally Wainwright’s Happy Valley (BBC1 2014-2016)

This article examines Sally Wainwright's Happy Valley (BBC1, 2014–2016) in the context of recent feminist attempts to theorise the idea of a maternal subject. Happy Valley, a police series set in an economically disadvantaged community in West Yorkshire, has been seen as expanding the genre of British social realism, in its focus on strong Northern women, by giving it ‘a female voice’ (Gorton, 2016: 73). I argue that its challenge is more substantial. Both the tradition of British social realism on which the series draws, and the neoliberal narratives of the family which formed the discursive context of its production, I argue, are founded on a social imaginary in which the mother is seen as responsible for the production of the selves of others, but cannot herself be a subject. The series itself, however, places at its centre an active, articulate, mobile and angry maternal subject. In so doing, it radically contests both a tradition of British social realism rooted in male nostalgia and more recent neoliberal narratives of maternal guilt and lifestyle choice. It does this through a more fundamental contestation: of the wider cultural narratives about selfhood and the maternal that underpin both. Its reflective maternal subject, whose narrative journey involves acceptance of an irrecoverable loss, anger and guilt as a crucial aspect of subjectivity, and who embodies an ethics of relationality, is a figure impossible in conventional accounts of subject and nation. She can be understood, however, in terms of recent feminist theories of the maternal

Language and reading impairments are associated with increased prevalence of non-right handedness

Funding: Royal Society - UF150663, RGF\EA\180141; Wellcome Trust - 217065/Z/19/Z; H2020 European Research Council - 694189; NWO - 451-15-017; National Health and Medical Research Council - 1173896; Canadian Institute for Health Research - MOP-133440.Handedness has been studied for association with language-related disorders because of its link with language hemispheric dominance. No clear pattern has emerged, possibly because of small samples, publication bias, and heterogeneous criteria across studies. Non-right-handedness (NRH) frequency was assessed in N = 2503 cases with reading and/or language impairment and N = 4316 sex-matched controls identified from 10 distinct cohorts (age range 6–19 years old; European ethnicity) using a priori set criteria. A meta-analysis (Ncases = 1994) showed elevated NRH % in individuals with language/reading impairment compared with controls (OR = 1.21, CI = 1.06–1.39, p = .01). The association between reading/language impairments and NRH could result from shared pathways underlying brain lateralization, handedness, and cognitive functions.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Social patterning of telephone health-advice for diarrhoea and vomiting: analysis of 24 million telehealth calls in England.

OBJECTIVES:Gastrointestinal (GI) infections are common and most people do not see a physician. There is conflicting evidence of the impact of socioeconomic status (SES) on risk of GI infections. We assessed the relationship between SES and GI calls to two National Health Service (NHS) telephone advice services in England. METHODS:Over 24 million calls to NHS Direct (2010-13) and NHS 111 (2013-15) were extracted from Public Health England (PHE) syndromic surveillance systems. The relationship between SES and GI calls was assessed using generalised linear models (GLM). RESULTS:Adjusting for rurality and age-sex interactions, in NHS Direct, children in disadvantaged areas were at lower risk of GI calls; in NHS 111 there was a higher risk of GI calls in disadvantaged areas for all ages (0-4 years RR 1.27, 95% CI 1.25-1.29; 5-9 years RR 1.43, 95% CI 1.36-1.51; 10-14 years RR 1.36, 95% CI 1.26-1.41; 15-19 years RR 1.59, 95% CI 1.52-1.67; 20-59 years RR 1.50, 95% CI 1.47-1.53, 60 years and over RR 1.12, 95% CI 1.09-1.14). CONCLUSIONS:Disadvantaged areas had higher risk of GI calls in NHS 111. This may relate to differences in exposure or vulnerability to GI infections, or propensity to call about GI infections