Nurses, Chaplains, Clergy and Measurement Scales.

Much of the research in this issue relates to the long-standing profession of nursing and, secondly, the even longer established professions of chaplaincy and the clergy. This issue also provides evidence of the ever-increasing number of religious and spirituality measurement scales, as well as various other forms of religious and/or spiritual evaluations and the associated psychometric properties. Several articles researching religiosity/spirituality, however, identify common research limitations, in particular the error of using contaminated scales and the need to avoid tautological and uninterpretable results.

From past to present: A comparison of interpersonal firearm violence between historically graded neighborhoods of Kansas City.

Background: Interpersonal firearm violence (IFV) has been connected to the structural racism of redlining. We explored the relationship between historic redlining and IFV with population-level factors.

Methods: A cross-sectional study of IFV within historically graded neighborhoods was performed, and incidence rate ratios (IRRs) between these neighborhoods and the rate of IFV were modeled with a Poisson regression model.

Nested likelihood-ratio testing of the nonsynonymous:synonymous ratio suggests greater adaptation in the piRNA machinery of Drosophila melanogaster compared with Drosophila ananassae and Drosophila willistoni, two species with higher repeat content.

Numerous studies have revealed a signature of strong adaptive evolution in the piwi-interacting RNA (piRNA) machinery of Drosophila melanogaster, but the cause of this pattern is not understood. Several hypotheses have been proposed. One hypothesis is that transposable element (TE) families and the piRNA machinery are co-evolving under an evolutionary arms race, perhaps due to antagonism by TEs against the piRNA machinery.

Two-fold red excess (TREx): a simple and novel digital color index that enables non-invasive real-time monitoring of green-leaved as well as anthocyanin-rich crops.

Background: Digital color indices provide a reliable means for assessing plant status by enabling real-time estimation of chlorophyll (Chl) content, and are thus adopted widely for crop monitoring. However, as all prevalent leaf color indices used for this purpose have been developed using green-leaved plants, they do not perform reliably for anthocyanin (Anth)-rich red-leaved varieties. Hence, the present study investigates digital color indices for six types of leafy vegetables with different levels of Anth to identify congruent trends that could be implemented universally for non-invasive crop monitoring irrespective of species and leaf Anth content.

Eating and drinking abilities and respiratory and oral health in children and young adults with cerebral palsy.

Aim: To investigate the potential risk factors of respiratory illness (ethnicity, oral health, and eating and drinking ability) in children and young adults with cerebral palsy (CP).

Method: This was an observational study using a validated CP Respiratory and Oral Health questionnaire with 90 participants (median age 12 years [range: 1-26 years]; 51 males; and 26 New Zealand Māori).

Results: Multivariate analysis, accounting for ethnicity and Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) levels, showed that those participants who were classified in Eating and Drinking Ability Classification System (EDACS) levels III to V reported more previous respiratory disease episodes (odds ratio [OR] = 4.