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This article traces the evolution of the attitudes of Anabaptist Menno Simons with respect to state-sponsored violence by examining the theme through his written works over the course of his career as a reformer. Particular attention is given to the circumstances that surround key writings. Menno’s sometimes deliberate ambiguity and the evolution in his beliefs reflect his precarious position as an itinerant preacher, as well as the fragile state of the group of would-be revolutionaries and other dissenters whose leadership he inherited shortly after renouncing his role as a priest. The position he ultimately took against the execution of criminals is unusual for his day and shows the extent of his thoroughgoing rejection of violence for Christians.

IntroductionPosterior Cortical Atrophy (PCA) is a syndrome characterized by a progressive decline in higher-order visuospatial processing, leading to symptoms such as space perception deficit, simultanagnosia, and object perception impairment. While PCA is primarily known for its impact on visuospatial abilities, recent studies have documented language abnormalities in PCA patients. This study aims to delineate the nature and origin of language impairments in PCA, hypothesizing that language deficits reflect the visuospatial processing impairments of the disease.MethodsWe compared the language samples of 25 patients with PCA with age-matched cognitively normal (CN) individuals across two distinct tasks: a visually-dependent picture description and a visually-independent job description task. We extracted word frequency, word utterance latency, and spatial relational words for this comparison. We then conducted an in-depth analysis of the language used in the picture description task to identify specific linguistic indicators that reflect the visuospatial processing deficits of PCA.ResultsPatients with PCA showed significant language deficits in the visually-dependent task, characterized by higher word frequency, prolonged utterance latency, and fewer spatial relational words, but not in the visually-independent task. An in-depth analysis of the picture description task further showed that PCA patients struggled to identify certain visual elements as well as the overall theme of the picture. A predictive model based on these language features distinguished PCA patients from CN individuals with high classification accuracy.DiscussionThe findings indicate that language is a sensitive behavioral construct to detect visuospatial processing abnormalities of PCA. These insights offer theoretical and clinical avenues for understanding and managing PCA, underscoring language as a crucial marker for the visuospatial deficits of this atypical variant of Alzheimer’s disease.

Abstract Introduction Conventional Z‐scores are generated by subtracting the mean and dividing by the standard deviation. More recent methods linearly correct for age, sex, and education, so that these “adjusted” Z‐scores better represent whether an individual's cognitive performance is abnormal. Extreme negative Z‐scores for individuals relative to this normative distribution are considered indicative of cognitive deficiency. Methods In this article, we consider nonlinear shape constrained additive models accounting for age, sex, and education (correcting for nonlinearity). Additional shape constrained additive models account for varying standard deviation of the cognitive scores with age (correcting for heterogeneity of variance). Results Corrected Z‐scores based on nonlinear shape constrained additive models provide improved adjustment for age, sex, and education, as indicated by higher adjusted‐R2. Discussion Nonlinearly corrected Z‐scores with respect to age, sex, and education with age‐varying residual standard deviation allow for improved detection of non‐normative extreme cognitive scores.

This introduction to the Special Issue “Teaching Augustine” summarizes the volume’s essays and discusses the conference at which they were initially presented.

Objective. This study aims to develop a digital twin (DT) framework to achieve adaptive proton prostate stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) with fast treatment plan selection and patient-specific clinical target volume (CTV) setup uncertainty. Prostate SBRT has emerged as a leading option for external beam radiotherapy due to its effectiveness and reduced treatment duration. However, interfractional anatomy variations can impact treatment outcomes. This study seeks to address these uncertainties using DT concept to improve treatment quality. Approach . A retrospective study on two-fraction prostate proton SBRT was conducted, involving a cohort of 10 randomly selected patient cases from an institutional database ( n = 43). DT-based treatment plans were developed using patient-specific CTV setup uncertainty, determined through machine learning predictions. Plans were optimized using pre-treatment CT and corrected cone-beam CT (cCBCT). The cCBCT was corrected for CT numbers and artifacts, and plan evaluation was performed using cCBCT to account for actual patient anatomy. The ProKnow scoring system was adapted to determine the optimal treatment plans. Main Results. Average CTV D98 values for original clinical and DT-based plans across 10 patients were 99.0% and 98.8%, with hot spots measuring 106.0% and 105.1%. Regarding bladder, clinical plans yielded average bladder neck V100 values of 29.6% and bladder V20.8 Gy values of 12.0cc, whereas DT-based plans showed better sparing of bladder neck with values of 14.0% and 9.5cc. Clinical and DT-based plans resulted in comparable rectum dose statistics due to SpaceOAR. Compared to clinical plans, the proposed DT-based plans improved dosimetry quality, improving plan scores ranging from 2.0 to 15.5. Significance. Our study presented a pioneering approach that leverages DT technology to enhance adaptive proton SBRT, potentially revolutionizing prostate radiotherapy to offer personalized treatment solutions using fast adaptive treatment plan selections and patient-specific setup uncertainty. This research contributes to the ongoing efforts to achieve personalized prostate radiotherapy., (Creative Commons Attribution license.)