C. S. Lewis as Spiritual Mentor by Mail

Lewis’ published correspondence provides a kind of autobiography-in-progress, and it offers a revealing glimpse of his opinions as a literary and culture critic. But perhaps the letters of most permanent value are those which Lewis saw as a part of his Christian vocation: his insights to friends, casual acquaintances and complete strangers about questions of theology, faith, spiritual formation, and even marriage and family relationships. In his later years, letter-writing became a burdensome task for Lewis. In one note, he mentions that he had composed thirty-five letters that day. In another, he mentions that he had just spent nine hours catching up on his correspondence. Yet, for Lewis, answering letters and inquiries, even from children, was not just a courtesy; it was a part of his Christian calling. Noting to one friend that many of those who wrote to him were “in great need of help and often in great misery,” Lewis felt it a duty and a form of ministry to respond to each and every individual inquirer. In another letter, Lewis explicitly identified letter-writing as a part of his vocation, explaining “every human being, still more every Christian, has an absolute claim on me for any service I can render them without neglecting other duties.

The Role of the Corneocyte Lipid Envelopes in Cohesion of the Stratum Corneum

Treatment of isolated stratum corneum with certain detergents results in complete disaggregation of the corneocytes within hours at 45°C without agitation. This is prevented by prior heating of the tissue to 80° C or by solvent extraction of the intercellular lipids. In the present study, electron micros- copy revealed that the heated or solvent-extracted tissue was characterized by cell-to-cell contacts that appeared to involve the chemically bound hydroxyceramides which constitute the corneocyte lipid envelope. It is proposed that the irreversible bonding between corneocytes that results from heating or lipid extraction results from interdigitation of the sphingosine chains belonging to those hydroxyceramides that are bound to the corneocyte protein envelope by the ω-hydroxyl function of the 30- and 32-carbon hydroxyacid moieties. Similar interdigitaion of adjacent envelopes might be involved in natural stratum corneum cohesion, limited mostly to the periphery of corneocytes where the absence of inter-cellular lamellae allows the appropriate cell-to-cell contact

Changing with the seasons : does vitamin D affect mood?

Seasonality is defined as a change in mood and behavior with the seasons. Research shows there is a possible connection between vitamin D levels and mood (Murphy & Wagner, 2008; Lansdowne & Provost, 1998). Given that vitamin D is produced when skin is exposed to sunlight and varies with sun exposure (Bertone-Johnson, 2009), the present study examined the relationships among vitamin D levels, season, and seasonality. Vitamin D levels were expected to be relatively 1) higher, but decreasing in fall; 2) lower, but stable in winter; and 3) higher, but increasing in spring. Further, it was hypothesized that these patterns would be stronger among participants with self-reported seasonality. College women (n=187) ages 18-25 (26.7% White/Caucasian) were recruited either in fall (n=82), winter (n=34), or spring (n=62) term. Participants’ vitamin D levels were measured from their blood samples collected at baseline (T1) and again 5 weeks later (T5). Participants reported their seasonality symptoms across their lifespan using the Seasonal Pattern Assessment Questionnaire (SPAQ) at T5, and were grouped into two categories based on their SPAQ scores: at least moderate seasonality (n=88) and mild to no seasonality (n=94). Repeated measures ANOVA was used to examine mean level and change in vitamin D (from T1 to T5) for individuals in the two seasonality groups, and whether any differences depended on season of recruitment. Overall, vitamin D levels showed the expected patterns by season, but not by self-reported seasonality. That is, contrary to the hypothesis, individuals with at least moderate seasonality did not show significantly more pronounced seasonal changes in vitamin D in comparison to others. However, non-significant trends emerged, indicating the need to examine these relationships further. Future research will address study limitations by following a larger sample of participants throughout the entire year, assessing their vitamin D levels and current mood states at each season

Pharmacological Properties of DOV 315,090, an ocinaplon metabolite

metabolit

Reshaping Health Care Delivery for Adolescent Parents: Healthy Steps and Telemedicine

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/153056203772744725.Healthy Steps over Telemedicine uses telemedicine technology to bring child development services to adolescent parents in an urban school district. Videoconferencing units link teen parents at a Kansas City high school to developmental specialists and physicians at the Kansas University Medical Center (KUMC). Program participants receive developmental services and valuable health care information without leaving the school. The Healthy Steps goals are to educate parents about health care issues and to help them access medical care for their children and themselves. The telehealth goals are to implement the established Health Steps program effectively over the new medium. This article describes the process of delivering Healthy Steps services via telemedicine, specifically, selection and description of the site, selection of the technology, services provided, research evaluation, and lessons learned

Lake-size dependency of wind shear and convection as controls on gas exchange

High-frequency physical observations from 40 temperate lakes were used to examine the relative contributions of wind shear (u*) and convection (w*) to turbulence in the surface mixed layer. Seasonal patterns of u* and w* were dissimilar; u* was often highest in the spring, while w * increased throughout the summer to a maximum in early fall. Convection was a larger mixed-layer turbulence source than wind shear (u */w*-1 for lakes* and w* differ in temporal pattern and magnitude across lakes, both convection and wind shear should be considered in future formulations of lake-air gas exchange, especially for small lakes. © 2012 by the American Geophysical Union.Jordan S. Read, David P. Hamilton, Ankur R. Desai, Kevin C. Rose, Sally MacIntyre, John D. Lenters, Robyn L. Smyth, Paul C. Hanson, Jonathan J. Cole, Peter A. Staehr, James A. Rusak, Donald C. Pierson, Justin D. Brookes, Alo Laas, and Chin H. W

Evaluating Cognition in Individuals with Huntington Disease: NeuroQoL Cognitive Functioning Measures

PURPOSE: Cognitive functioning impacts health-related quality of life (HRQOL) for individuals with Huntington disease (HD). The Neuro-QoL includes two patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures of cognition-Executive Function (EF) and General Concerns (GC). These measures have not previously been validated for use in HD. The purpose of this analysis is to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Neuro-QoL Cognitive Function measures for use in HD. METHODS: Five hundred ten individuals with prodromal or manifest HD completed the Neuro-QoL Cognition measures, two other PRO measures of HRQOL (WHODAS 2.0 and EQ5D), and a depression measure (PROMIS Depression). Measures of functioning The Total Functional Capacity and behavior (Problem Behaviors Assessment) were completed by clinician interview. Objective measures of cognition were obtained using clinician-administered Symbol Digit Modalities Test and the Stroop Test (Word, Color, and Interference). Self-rated, clinician-rated, and objective composite scores were developed. We examined the Neuro-QoL measures for reliability, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and known-groups validity. RESULTS: Excellent reliabilities (Cronbach\u27s alphas ≥ 0.94) were found. Convergent validity was supported, with strong relationships between self-reported measures of cognition. Discriminant validity was supported by less robust correlations between self-reported cognition and other constructs. Prodromal participants reported fewer cognitive problems than manifest groups, and early-stage HD participants reported fewer problems than late-stage HD participants. CONCLUSIONS: The Neuro-QoL Cognition measures provide reliable and valid assessments of self-reported cognitive functioning for individuals with HD. Findings support the utility of these measures for assessing self-reported cognition

A review of inclusive business models and their application in aquaculture development

For aquaculture to continue along its current growth trajectory and contribute towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, value chains must become more inclusive. Smallholders and other local value chain actors are often constrained by circumstances and market failures in the global aquaculture industry. Integrating these actors into aquaculture value chains through inclusive business models (IBMs) is often touted as a solution to sustainable and ethical trade and business that can generate development outcomes. We reviewed 36 papers under seven business models commonly used in agriculture development to assess their application in aquaculture value chains in lower‐income countries. A global value chain (GVC) analysis is used to unpack the economic and social upgrading objectives of the different IBMs, as well as the types of relational coordination used between actors in the chain to achieve development outcomes. The extent to which these IBMs helped poor actors overcome certain barriers is evaluated with a focus on how they may ensure or be a risk to inclusiveness through the relations and upgrading opportunities evident in their make‐up. The analysis found that the majority of the models focused on economic upgrading over social upgrading. Providing opportunities for the latter is key to achieving the inclusive objectives of IBMs. Greater horizontal coordination between actors can create further opportunities for economic upgrading established under vertical coordination with other nodes upstream and downstream in a value chain. There is a need to further contextualize these models to aquaculture systems and develop clear indicators of inclusiveness

Development and validation of a high density SNP genotyping array for Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)

BackgroundDense single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping arrays provide extensive information on polymorphic variation across the genome of species of interest. Such information can be used in studies of the genetic architecture of quantitative traits and to improve the accuracy of selection in breeding programs. In Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), these goals are currently hampered by the lack of a high-density SNP genotyping platform. Therefore, the aim of the study was to develop and test a dense Atlantic salmon SNP array. ResultsSNP discovery was performed using extensive deep sequencing of Reduced Representation (RR-Seq), Restriction site-Associated DNA (RAD-Seq) and mRNA (RNA-Seq) libraries derived from farmed and wild Atlantic salmon samples (n = 283) resulting in the discovery of > 400 K putative SNPs. An Affymetrix Axiom® myDesign Custom Array was created and tested on samples of animals of wild and farmed origin (n = 96) revealing a total of 132,033 polymorphic SNPs with high call rate, good cluster separation on the array and stable Mendelian inheritance in our sample. At least 38% of these SNPs are from transcribed genomic regions and therefore more likely to include functional variants. Linkage analysis utilising the lack of male recombination in salmonids allowed the mapping of 40,214 SNPs distributed across all 29 pairs of chromosomes, highlighting the extensive genome-wide coverage of the SNPs. An identity-by-state clustering analysis revealed that the array can clearly distinguish between fish of different origins, within and between farmed and wild populations. Finally, Y-chromosome-specific probes included on the array provide an accurate molecular genetic test for sex. ConclusionsThis manuscript describes the first high-density SNP genotyping array for Atlantic salmon. This array will be publicly available and is likely to be used as a platform for high-resolution genetics research into traits of evolutionary and economic importance in salmonids and in aquaculture breeding programs via genomic selection