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The rhetoric of the Pauline letters has garnered much interest over the years, and regardless of agreement with the positions expressed in the letters, Paul generally received praise for his adept communicative skills of persuasion. Appreciation for his rhetorical craft, however, should not prevent the recognition of Paul's deft handling of discourse, as if rhetorical skills and discursive goals are disconnected. Using discourse as a broader category than rhetoric, several instances of discourse manipulation, which at times remind us of imperialist discourse, are identified, including kinship language and ethnic stereotyping, military metaphors, as well as gendered power discourse and sexual slander, illustrated with examples mostly from Philippians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The complicity of the Bible in the colonial endeavour is no longer seriously disputed. However, efforts to decolonise the Bible, biblical studies, and their roles in colonising theology, that start with accounting for interpreters' social locations, remain few and limited in scope. Ensconced in the image of ideologically secure and contented intellectual space, epistemological and hermeneutical approaches, which explicitly involve the social location of interpreters and academic discourses, are still viewed with concern, if not suspicion. Antipathy towards cultural studies approaches such as postcolonial1 theory, on the one hand, is born from ideological preoccupation, intellectual comfort, and turf-protection. On the other hand, it deprives the biblical studies guild (and associated studies in theology and religion) from a broader spectrum of resources and reimagined engagements with biblical texts and their colonialist-infused legacies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a five year period, 39 children (29 boys, 10 girls) aged 2 months to 13 years (mean 7.8 years) were studied who had suffered a major head injury (29 road traffic accidents, six falls, and four non-accidental injury). The injury had been assessed clinically and by cranial computed tomography or cranial ultrasound (in a single baby of 2 months). Initial Glasgow coma scores for all subjects ranged from 3-11 (mean 5.5), intact survivors 5-11 (7.4), minor handicap 4-11 (6.1), major handicap 3-6 (4.3), fatalities 3-6 (4.1). All were treated with sedation, paralysis, hyperventilation (arterial carbon dioxide tension 3.0-3.5 kPa), intracranial pressure monitoring and moderate body surface hypothermia to 32 degrees C. Nine children died and 30 survived (nine intact, 13 minor disability, and eight major disability). The worst cerebral perfusion pressure was over 40 mm Hg in all but one survivor, and less than 40 mm Hg in seven of nine fatalities. Severe hypocapnia both in the first 24 hours and overall was correlated with poor outcomes (dead or major disability), as were bilateral contusions or diffuse axonal injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus here is on texts, Pauline and texts invoked by Paul, and ever-present imperial "super"-texts. The latter also establishes the context, as the social setting of Paul's letters with their rhetorical use of Othering was the Roman Empire with its identity politics. The rhetorical power of Paul and his scriptural texts contributed to discursive formations, since a strong sense of being and identity was negotiated through these texts, even when admitting that such formations are always in process, mutating and reformatting. Construing notions of Others was a particularly important feature in defining boundaries, for generating insiders and outsiders in Pauline texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents interpretation by sections of the press and some experts as suggesting that minor trauma that occur during rough play, that could cause the clinical picture commonly attributed to Shaken baby Syndrome. Results of histological examination of the central nervous system following fatal head injuries in infants and children; Forces used that must be sufficient to cause shearing injury; Factors that required to produce retinal hemorrhage.

Spinal Cord (2001) 39, 11–14. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 6 week old girl from a socially isolated family presented with seizures and was found to have a full fontanelle, retinal and subhyaloid haemorrhages, and anaemia. These findings were not the result of a shaking injury but of a ruptured intracerebral arterial aneurysm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: ACL reconstruction is frequently performed using a semitendinosus/gracilis tendon autograft because of the low donor site morbidity and good clinical outcome. The aims of this review were to investigate whether the resected hamstring tendons have the capacity to regenerate, to examine the time course of the expected regeneration and to identify predictive factors for regeneration. Methods: databases PubMed, EMbase and Web of Science were searched from inception to March 2012. Studies were included if hamstring tendons were harvested and regeneration was evaluated at harvest site. Data extraction and quality assessment were performed by the authors independently. Data concerning regeneration rates using different imaging techniques and regeneration rates in men and women were pooled. If statistical pooling wasn't possible, best evidence synthesis was used. Results: 18 studies met the inclusion criteria. Regeneration was measured using MRI, 3D-CT, ultrasonography and/or biopsy. MRI was used most often and showed to be a reliable measuring method for regeneration. The regeneration rates for the semitendinosus varied from 62,5-100% and for the gracilis from 46,4-100%. Pooled results of eight studies showed that regeneration rates were 82,1% in men and 85,0% in women. Immobilization duration as a predictive factor had no significant effect on regeneration (100% in the intervention group versus 95,8% in the control group). There were contradictory results concerning the relationship between regeneration and hamstring function. The time since surgery and measuring regeneration varied from 2 weeks to 67 months. No studies reported a time path of regeneration, although hamstring regeneration was visible at 6 weeks post-operatively. Conclusion: hamstring tendons do regenerate after harvesting for ACL reconstruction. The overall regeneration rates were 87,1% for the semitendinosus tendon and 86,8% for the gracilis tendon. No significant predictive factors were found. The included studies do not show a time path of regeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) in children are common and, although often mild, a major cause of mortality and hospitalization. Recently, the respiratory microbiome has been associated with both susceptibility and severity of LRTI. In this current study, we combined respiratory microbiome, viral, and clinical data to find associations with the severity of LRTI. Nasopharyngeal aspirates of children aged one month to five years included in the STRAP study (Study to Reduce Antibiotic prescription in childhood Pneumonia), who presented at the emergency department (ED) with fever and cough or dyspnea, were sequenced with nanopore 16S-rRNA gene sequencing and subsequently analyzed with hierarchical clustering to identify respiratory microbiome profiles. Samples were also tested using a panel of 15 respiratory viruses and Mycoplasma pneumoniae , which were analyzed in two groups, according to their reported virulence. The primary outcome was hospitalization, as measure of disease severity. Nasopharyngeal samples were isolated from a total of 167 children. After quality filtering, microbiome results were available for 54 children and virology panels for 158 children. Six distinct genus-dominant microbiome profiles were identified, with Haemophilus -, Moraxella -, and Streptococcus -dominant profiles being the most prevalent. However, these profiles were not found to be significantly associated with hospitalization. At least one virus was detected in 139 (88%) children, of whom 32.4% had co-infections with multiple viruses. Viral co-infections were common for adenovirus, bocavirus, and enterovirus, and uncommon for human metapneumovirus (hMPV) and influenza A virus. The detection of enteroviruses was negatively associated with hospitalization. Virulence groups were not significantly associated with hospitalization. Our data underlines high detection rates and co-infection of viruses in children with respiratory symptoms and confirms the predominant presence of Haemophilus -, Streptococcus -, and Moraxella -dominant profiles in a symptomatic pediatric population at the ED. However, we could not assess significant associations between microbiome profiles and disease severity measures.

Aging, type 2 diabetes, and male gender are major risk factors leading to increased COVID-19 morbidity and mortality. Thymic production and the export of naïve T cells decrease with aging through the effects of androgens in males and in type 2 diabetes. Furthermore, with aging, recovery of naïve T-cell populations after bone marrow transplantation is delayed and associated with an increased risk of chronic graft vs. host disease. Severe COVID-19 and SARS infections are notable for severe T-cell depletion. In COVID-19, there is unique suppression of interferon signaling by infected respiratory tract cells with intact cytokine signaling. A decreased naïve T-cell response likely contributes to an excessive inflammatory response and increases the odds of a cytokine storm. Treatments that improve naïve T-cell production may prove to be vital COVID-19 therapies, especially for these high-risk groups., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest The authors have nothing to declare., (Copyright: © 2020 Schwartz et al.)

Background: Optimising the use of antibiotics is a key component of antibiotic stewardship. Respiratory tract infections (RTIs) are the most common reason for antibiotic prescription in children, even though most of these infections in children under 5 years are viral. This study aims to safely reduce antibiotic prescriptions in children under 5 years with suspected lower RTI at the emergency department (ED), by implementing a clinical decision rule., Methods and Findings: In a stepped-wedge cluster randomised trial, we included children aged 1-60 months presenting with fever and cough or dyspnoea to 8 EDs in The Netherlands. The EDs were of varying sizes, from diverse geographic and demographic regions, and of different hospital types (tertiary versus general). In the pre-intervention phase, children received usual care, according to the Dutch and NICE guidelines for febrile children. During the intervention phase, a validated clinical prediction model (Feverkidstool) including clinical characteristics and C-reactive protein (CRP) was implemented as a decision rule guiding antibiotic prescription. The intervention was that antibiotics were withheld in children with a low or intermediate predicted risk of bacterial pneumonia (≤10%, based on Feverkidstool). Co-primary outcomes were antibiotic prescription rate and strategy failure. Strategy failure was defined as secondary antibiotic prescriptions or hospitalisations, persistence of fever or oxygen dependency up to day 7, or complications. Hospitals were randomly allocated to 1 sequence of treatment each, using computer randomisation. The trial could not be blinded. We used multilevel logistic regression to estimate the effect of the intervention, clustered by hospital and adjusted for time period, age, sex, season, ill appearance, and fever duration; predicted risk was included in exploratory analysis. We included 999 children (61% male, median age 17 months [IQR 9 to 30]) between 1 January 2016 and 30 September 2018: 597 during the pre-intervention phase and 402 during the intervention phase. Most children (77%) were referred by a general practitioner, and half of children were hospitalised. Intention-to-treat analyses showed that overall antibiotic prescription was not reduced (30% to 25%, adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.07 [95% CI 0.57 to 2.01, p = 0.75]); strategy failure reduced from 23% to 16% (aOR 0.53 [95% CI 0.32 to 0.88, p = 0.01]). Exploratory analyses showed that the intervention influenced risk groups differently (p < 0.01), resulting in a reduction in antibiotic prescriptions in low/intermediate-risk children (17% to 6%; aOR 0.31 [95% CI 0.12 to 0.81, p = 0.02]) and a non-significant increase in the high-risk group (47% to 59%; aOR 2.28 [95% CI 0.84 to 6.17, p = 0.09]). Two complications occurred during the trial: 1 admission to the intensive care unit during follow-up and 1 pleural empyema at day 10 (both unrelated to the study intervention). Main limitations of the study were missing CRP values in the pre-intervention phase and a prolonged baseline period due to logistical issues, potentially affecting the power of our study., Conclusions: In this multicentre ED study, we observed that a clinical decision rule for childhood pneumonia did not reduce overall antibiotic prescription, but that it was non-inferior to usual care. Exploratory analyses showed fewer strategy failures and that fewer antibiotics were prescribed in low/intermediate-risk children, suggesting improved targeting of antibiotics by the decision rule., Trial Registration: Netherlands Trial Register NTR5326., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

A career as a tenure-track professor at a liberal arts college provides the opportunity to combine serious interests in teaching with research. The basic goals of the liberal arts institution are to educate the student broadly while encouraging mastery of a particular area of interest. Preparing for such a career requires not only a commitment to teaching but also a productive PhD and postdoctoral experience, regardless of the expectations for active research within the job. The application and interview processes require one to be informed, flexible, energetic, and clear-in writing and in speaking. Establishing an invigorating teaching and research program will allow you to balance realism and ambition as you find a way to bring the best science to the undergraduate setting. The exposure to students whose thinking is often more unfettered and creative, and to colleagues whose scholarships span many disciplines, makes a position at a liberal arts college one of the most intellectually stimulating careers available to a scientist., (Copyright © 2017 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press; all rights reserved.)

The ability of antigen receptors to engage self-ligands with varying affinity is crucial for lymphocyte development. To further explore this concept, we generated transgenic mice expressing GFP from the immediate early gene Nr4a1 (Nur77) locus. GFP was up-regulated in lymphocytes by antigen receptor stimulation but not by inflammatory stimuli. In T cells, GFP was induced during positive selection, required major histocompatibility complex for maintenance, and directly correlated with the strength of T cell receptor (TCR) stimulus. Thus, our results define a novel tool for studying antigen receptor activation in vivo. Using this model, we show that regulatory T cells (T(reg) cells) and invariant NKT cells (iNKT cells) perceived stronger TCR signals than conventional T cells during development. However, although T(reg) cells continued to perceive strong TCR signals in the periphery, iNKT cells did not. Finally, we show that T(reg) cell progenitors compete for recognition of rare stimulatory TCR self-ligands.

The hematopoietic cell-specific adaptor protein, SLP-76, is critical for T cell development and mature T cell receptor (TCR) signaling; however, the structural requirements of SLP-76 for mediating thymopoiesis and mature T cell function remain largely unknown. In this study, transgenic mice were generated to examine the requirements for specific domains of SLP-76 in thymocytes and peripheral T cells in vivo. Examination of mice expressing various mutants of SLP-76 on the null background demonstrates a differential requirement for specific domains of SLP-76 in thymocytes and T cells and provides new insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying SLP-76 function.

Notch1 signaling is required for T cell development. We have previously demonstrated that expression of a dominant active Notch1 (ICN1) transgene in hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) leads to thymic-independent development of CD4(+)CD8(+) double-positive (DP) T cells in the bone marrow (BM). To understand the function of Notch1 in early stages of T cell development, we assessed the ability of ICN1 to induce extrathymic T lineage commitment in BM progenitors from mice that varied in their capacity to form a functional pre-T cell receptor (TCR). Whereas mice repopulated with ICN1 transduced HSCs from either recombinase deficient (Rag-2(-/)-) or Src homology 2 domain--containing leukocyte protein of 76 kD (SLP-76)(-/)- mice failed to develop DP BM cells, recipients of ICN1-transduced Rag-2(-/)- progenitors contained two novel BM cell populations indicative of pre-DP T cell development. These novel BM populations are characterized by their expression of CD3 epsilon and pre-T alpha mRNA and the surface proteins CD44 and CD25. In contrast, complementation of Rag-2(-/)- mice with a TCR beta transgene restored ICN1-induced DP development in the BM within 3 wk after BM transfer (BMT). At later time points, this population selectively and consistently gave rise to T cell leukemia. These findings demonstrate that Notch signaling directs T lineage commitment from multipotent progenitor cells; however, both expansion and leukemic transformation of this population are dependent on T cell-specific signals associated with development of DP thymocytes.

Notch signaling regulates cell fate decisions in multiple lineages. We demonstrate in this report that retroviral expression of activated Notch1 in mouse thymocytes abrogates differentiation of immature CD4+CD8+ thymocytes into both CD4 and CD8 mature single-positive T cells. The ability of Notch1 to inhibit T cell development was observed in vitro and in vivo with both normal and TCR transgenic thymocytes. Notch1-mediated developmental arrest was dose dependent and was associated with impaired thymocyte responses to TCR stimulation. Notch1 also inhibited TCR-mediated signaling in Jurkat T cells. These data indicate that constitutively active Notch1 abrogates CD4+ and CD8+ maturation by interfering with TCR signal strength and provide an explanation for the physiological regulation of Notch expression during thymocyte development.