A Darwinian Look at Atonement Theory

After presenting various atonement theories, especially in light of evolutionary explanation, I conducted a brief survey among students to determine their level of theological understanding and scientific literacy. Based on this data, I conclude that students are given a poor education in theology. This paucity of wisdom needs to be mitigated. I offer some suggestions for rectifying this lacuna

Say Her Name: Resisting Police Brutality Against Black Women

Say Her Name sheds light on Black women’s experiences of police violence in an effort to support a gender-inclusive approach to racial justice that centers all Black lives equally. It is our hope that this document will serve as a tool for the resurgent racial justice movement to mobilize around the stories of Black women who have lost their lives to police violence ...Our goal is not to offer a comprehensive catalog of police violence against Black women – indeed, it would be impossible to do so as there is currently no accurate data collection on police killings nationwide, no readily available database compiling a complete list of Black women’s lives lost at the hands of police, and no data collection on sexual or other forms of gender- and sexuality- based police violence. Moreover, the media’s exclusive focus on police violence against Black men makes finding information about Black women of all gender identities and sexualities much more difficult. Given these limitations, our goal is simply to illustrate the reality that Black women are killed and violated by police with alarming regularity. Equally important, our hope is to call attention to the ways in which this reality is erased from our demonstrations, our discourse, and our demands to broaden our vision of social justice. As a result of the paucity of data, the stories of police violence included in this document are essentially either gathered through online research or cases that have come to the attention of the report’s authors. Many cases have never seen the light of day, and even those that have surfaced momentarily have received little sustained national or local attention. Significantly more women who have been killed by the police are missing from these pages, but their lives are certainly no less valuable

Acoustic and Netting Surveys of Western Ozark Highlands Bats with Habitat Suitability Models for Three Threatened and Endangered Species

Bats in the United States and Canada are experiencing major population declines because of white-nose syndrome (WNS), a fungal disease that kills bats hibernating in caves. First discovered in New York in 2006, WNS has rapidly spread south and west across the United States. Camp Gruber Training Center (CGTC) is a United States National Guard training facility in Muskogee County, Oklahoma. Muskogee County is adjacent to three counties that are suspect for WNS infection as of 2017. I performed acoustic and mist net surveys at CGTC to determine composition of the chiropteran community of the area and if bats in Muskogee County have been exposed to WNS by looking for characteristic damage on wing membranes. Acoustic and mist net surveys determined that the bat community of CGTC is likely dominated by non-endangered species that have not suffered high mortality from white-nose syndrome (Nycticeius humeralis and Lasiurus borealis). There are at least 2 species that occur rarely within CGTC that are federally endangered (Myotis grisescens and Myotis sodalis) that, along with the non-endangered Perimyotis subflavus, have been known to contract WNS. I found no evidence of WNS symptoms on the bats of CGTC as of summer 2017. I used maximum entropy species distribution modeling (Maxent) to create habitat suitability models for three species that occur in the Ozark Highlands around CGTC, Myotis grisescens (endangered), M. septentrionalis (threatened), and M. sodalis (endangered). These models help explain the community composition of CGTC by revealing habitat preferences of these species and may suggest future range expansions or possible locations of unknown colonies for all three species. I also found that M. septentrionalis and M. sodalis are highly similar in their habitat preferences, supporting the United States Fish and Wildlife Service decision to combine summer survey guidelines for these species.Zoolog

Talking about Causing Events

Questions about the nature of the relationship between language and extralinguistic cognition are old, but only recently has a new view emerged that allows for the systematic investigation of claims about linguistic structure, based on how it is understood or utilized outside of the language system. Our paper represents a case study for this interaction in the domain of event semantics. We adopt a transparency thesis about the relationship between linguistic structure and extralinguistic cognition, investigating whether different lexico-syntactic structures can differentially recruit the visual causal percept. A prominent analysis of causative verbs like move suggests reference to two distinct events and a causal relationship between them, whereas non-causative verbs like push do not so refer. In our study, we present English speakers with simple scenes that either do or do not support the perception of a causal link, and manipulate (between subjects) a one-sentence instruction for the evaluation of the scene. Preliminary results suggest that competent speakers of English are more likely to judge causative constructions than non-causative constructions as true of a scene where causal features are present in the scene. Implications for a new approach to the investigation of linguistic meanings and future directions are discussed

How do we evaluate the cost of nosocomial infection? The ECONI protocol: an incidence study with nested case-control evaluating cost and quality of life

Introduction Healthcare-associated or nosocomial infection (HAI) is distressing to patients and costly for the National Health Service (NHS). With increasing pressure to demonstrate cost-effectiveness of interventions to control HAI and notwithstanding the risk from antimicrobial-resistant infections, there is a need to understand the incidence rates of HAI and costs incurred by the health system and for patients themselves. Methods and analysis The Evaluation of Cost of Nosocomial Infection study (ECONI) is an observational incidence survey with record linkage and a nested case-control study that will include postdischarge longitudinal follow-up and qualitative interviews. ECONI will be conducted in one large teaching hospital and one district general hospital in NHS Scotland. The case mix of these hospitals reflects the majority of overnight admissions within Scotland. An incidence survey will record all HAI cases using standard case definitions. Subsequent linkage to routine data sets will provide information on an admission cohort which will be grouped into HAI and non-HAI cases. The case-control study will recruit eligible patients who develop HAI and twice that number without HAI as controls. Patients will be asked to complete five questionnaires: the first during their stay, and four others during the year following discharge from their recruitment admission (1, 3, 6 and 12 months). Multiple data collection methods will include clinical case note review; patient-reported outcome; linkage to electronic health records and qualitative interviews. Outcomes collected encompass infection types; morbidity and mortality; length of stay; quality of life; healthcare utilisation; repeat admissions and postdischarge prescribing. Ethics and dissemination The study has received a favourable ethical opinion from the Scotland A Research Ethics Committee (reference 16/SS/0199). All publications arising from this study will be published in open-access peer-reviewed journal. Lay-person summaries will be published on the ECONI website. Trial registration number NCT03253640; Pre-results

From Farm to Fork: growing a Scottish Food System that doesn't cost the Planet

Our global food system is under immense pressure. Feeding a growing human population well while simultaneously delivering required climate, biodiversity and other key outcomes arguably represents the biggest challenge of our civilization in the twenty-first century. Here we discuss this growing challenge in the context of Scotland, its progress to date, its new target of “net zero” greenhouse gas emissions by 2045, and its potential to be an exemplar for well-integrated land use policy that delivers on multiple aims. We highlight the role of research in informing rural policy and landowner actions and stress the importance of social science in helping to ensure a sustainable net zero transition that takes full account of socioeconomic contexts and avoids the big potential pitfalls of ignoring local contexts

'Personalised evidence' for personalised healthcare: integration of a clinical librarian into mental health services – a feasibility study

Aims and method To evaluate the feasibility of integrating a clinical librarian (CL) within four mental health teams. A CL was attached to three clinical teams and the Trustwide Psychology Research and Clinical Governance Structure for 12 months. Requests for evidence syntheses were recorded. The perceived impact of individual evidence summaries on staff activities was evaluated using a brief online questionnaire. Results Overall, 82 requests for evidence summaries were received: 50% related to evidence for individual patient care, 23% to generic clinical issues and 27% were on management/corporate topics. In the questionnaires 105 participants indicated that the most common impact on their practice was advice given to colleagues (51 respondents), closely followed by the evidence summaries stimulating new ideas for patient care or treatment (50 respondents). Clinical implications The integration of a CL into clinical and corporate teams is feasible and perceived as having an impact on staff activities. A CL may be able to collate ‘personalised evidence’ which may enhance individualised healthcare. In some cases the usual concept of a hierarchy of evidence may not easily apply, with case reports providing guidance which may be more applicable than population-based studies

Promoting Positive Youth Development: Relational Data Analysis (RDA)

This article provides an overview of the origins and use of relational data analysis (RDA). RDA is a multidimensional, multiphasic framework for unifying data analytic strategies across dimensions (quantitative/qualitative, causal/structural, observation/interpretation, etc.) and phases of analyses (conceptual, theoretical, and research analyses). RDA was developed within a relational metatheoretical methodological framework for overcoming the splits that have historically characterized methodological metatheory. The aim was to formulate a practical, ready-at-hand framework that the developmental scientist could use to unify the analysis of developmental change in real life “applied” settings as well as clinic and laboratory settings