The Relationship of Saint Vincent and Saint Louise from Her Perspective

Louise de Marillac began as Vincent de Paul’s directee and became his collaborator and dear friend. More complicated and stable than most have believed, she was not totally dependent on him. She did turn to him for spiritual and personal support, but in general they complemented each other and relied on each other in their ministries. She reminded him to tend to practical matters, especially his health, and he helped her focus on God’s goodness and providence. With time, she assumed more responsibility for making decisions, although she always respected Vincent’s authority. This article is quite detailed. It explores the many facets of Louise’s relationship to Vincent through references to her spiritual writings, her letters to him, her letters about him, the minutes of council meetings, and Vincent’s conferences

Louise de Marillac: The Gentle Power of Liberation

Louise de Marillac was a pioneer social worker, educator, and advocate. She experienced riches and poverty and had academic education and domestic training. She therefore understood the poor and their needs and was an able administrator and founder of works for their benefit. She prayed for “gentle power,” the ability to see Christ in all people and to use an infinite love for them to fulfill their needs. Her spirituality enabled her to see the need for individuals to change themselves and the need to address social problems. She promoted women by training them and matching their gifts to their work; she also made sure they were recipients of service. Rescue and foster care for foundlings, institutional care for young children, work with prisoners, and housing for the elderly were just some of the areas in which Louise served. Her projects were implemented according to surprisingly modern standards of care and were the basis for other developments in their respective fields

Her Doing Heart: Key Relationships in Elizabeth Seton\u27s Life: 1809–1821

Margaret Kelly summarizes the many categories of important relationships in Elizabeth Seton’s life from 1809 to 1821 and how she viewed relationships in general. During this period, Elizabeth was fulfilling two main roles: she was a parent and a foundress. John Carroll, Simon Gabriel Brute, and Antonio Filicchi helped her in these roles, and Kelly uses them as a “prism” for understanding Elizabeth’s other relationships. In her correspondence with Carroll, we see Elizabeth’s simplicity and determination as well as specific problems she faced while founding the Sisters of Charity. She shows many facets to Brute, her guide and disciple: “her playfulness, here spiritual maturity, and her personal suffering.” Filicchi was a source of stability for her. He saw her through the major events of her life after her husband’s death and supported the Setons and the Sisters in many ways. Kelly explains how these relationships were reciprocal

Toward a Vincentian Culture in Higher Education

According to Margaret Kelly, culture is “the way a group of individuals, a corporate body, or an institution values and behaves.” Universities must ask whether their actions follow Vincent de Paul’s example and must pass on their Vincentian culture to their faculty, staff, and students. Kelly summarizes the elements of this culture as the leaders of different Vincentian schools see them. She writes, “At the core of Vincentian culture are beliefs about God, the dignity of the human person, the humanizing effect of education, the advancement of the common good, the value of direct experience with poor people, the creation of Gospel communities, advocacy for the marginalized, and responsibility for the vulnerable and needy.” She identifies five themes that universities should implement across their curricula and among all departments: “transcendence and prayer, integral development, imagination, stewardship, and learning communities of service.” These are explained in detail

Decision Making: Councils of the Daughters of Charity (1646–1659)

Margaret Kelly uses the early council meetings of the Daughters of Charity to examine Vincent de Paul’s method of discernment and decision making. The steps of the method are given contemporary wording and examples of specific situations are offered to illustrate it. The opinions of all council members were considered, with the final decision resting with Vincent or Louise de Marillac. The structure of the meetings is described. The values that guided decision making were God’s glory, the interests of the Company, and the interests of the individual. Vincent stressed the importance of giving reasons for or against any proposition and doing so as objectively as possible. He also divided an issue or a question into parts to better address the whole. When necessary, he brought in councilors or outsiders who had “special competence or direct involvement in the case.

ENIGMA and global neuroscience: A decade of large-scale studies of the brain in health and disease across more than 40 countries

This review summarizes the last decade of work by the ENIGMA (Enhancing NeuroImaging Genetics through Meta Analysis) Consortium, a global alliance of over 1400 scientists across 43 countries, studying the human brain in health and disease. Building on large-scale genetic studies that discovered the first robustly replicated genetic loci associated with brain metrics, ENIGMA has diversified into over 50 working groups (WGs), pooling worldwide data and expertise to answer fundamental questions in neuroscience, psychiatry, neurology, and genetics. Most ENIGMA WGs focus on specific psychiatric and neurological conditions, other WGs study normal variation due to sex and gender differences, or development and aging; still other WGs develop methodological pipelines and tools to facilitate harmonized analyses of "big data" (i.e., genetic and epigenetic data, multimodal MRI, and electroencephalography data). These international efforts have yielded the largest neuroimaging studies to date in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance use disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorders, epilepsy, and 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. More recent ENIGMA WGs have formed to study anxiety disorders, suicidal thoughts and behavior, sleep and insomnia, eating disorders, irritability, brain injury, antisocial personality and conduct disorder, and dissociative identity disorder. Here, we summarize the first decade of ENIGMA's activities and ongoing projects, and describe the successes and challenges encountered along the way. We highlight the advantages of collaborative large-scale coordinated data analyses for testing reproducibility and robustness of findings, offering the opportunity to identify brain systems involved in clinical syndromes across diverse samples and associated genetic, environmental, demographic, cognitive, and psychosocial factors

Factors Associated with Revision Surgery after Internal Fixation of Hip Fractures

Background: Femoral neck fractures are associated with high rates of revision surgery after management with internal fixation. Using data from the Fixation using Alternative Implants for the Treatment of Hip fractures (FAITH) trial evaluating methods of internal fixation in patients with femoral neck fractures, we investigated associations between baseline and surgical factors and the need for revision surgery to promote healing, relieve pain, treat infection or improve function over 24 months postsurgery. Additionally, we investigated factors associated with (1) hardware removal and (2) implant exchange from cancellous screws (CS) or sliding hip screw (SHS) to total hip arthroplasty, hemiarthroplasty, or another internal fixation device. Methods: We identified 15 potential factors a priori that may be associated with revision surgery, 7 with hardware removal, and 14 with implant exchange. We used multivariable Cox proportional hazards analyses in our investigation. Results: Factors associated with increased risk of revision surgery included: female sex, [hazard ratio (HR) 1.79, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.25-2.50; P = 0.001], higher body mass index (fo

Fracture fixation in the operative management of hip fractures (FAITH): an international, multicentre, randomised controlled trial

Background Reoperation rates are high after surgery for hip fractures. We investigated the effect of a sliding hip screw versus cancellous screws on the risk of reoperation and other key outcomes. Methods For this international, multicentre, allocation concealed randomised controlled trial, we enrolled patients aged 50 years or older with a low-energy hip fracture requiring fracture fixation from 81 clinical centres in eight countries. Patients were assigned by minimisation with a centralised computer system to receive a single large-diameter screw with a side-plate (sliding hip screw) or the present standard of care, multiple small-diameter cancellous screws. Surgeons and patients were not blinded but the data analyst, while doing the analyses, remained blinded to treatment groups. The primary outcome was hip reoperation within 24 months after initial surgery to promote fracture healing, relieve pain, treat infection, or improve function. Analyses followed the intention-to-treat principle. This study was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00761813. Findings Between Mar

Rare coding variants in 35 genes associate with circulating lipid levels-A multi-ancestry analysis of 170,000 exomes.

Large-scale gene sequencing studies for complex traits have the potential to identify causal genes with therapeutic implications. We performed gene-based association testing of blood lipid levels with rare (minor allele frequency 170,000 individuals from multiple ancestries: 97,493 European, 30,025 South Asian, 16,507 African, 16,440 Hispanic/Latino, 10,420 East Asian, and 1,182 Samoan. We identified 35 genes associated with circulating lipid levels; some of these genes have not been previously associated with lipid levels when using rare coding variation from population-based samples. We prioritize 32 genes in array-based genome-wide association study (GWAS) loci based on aggregations of rare coding variants; three (EVI5, SH2B3, and PLIN1) had no prior association of rare coding variants with lipid levels. Most of our associated genes showed evidence of association among multiple ancestries. Finally, we observed an enrichment of gene-based associations for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol drug target genes and for genes closest to GWAS index single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Our results demonstrate that gene-based associations can be beneficial for drug target development and provide evidence that the gene closest to the array-based GWAS index SNP is often the functional gene for blood lipid levels