It started with a dream: Paul's dream (Acts 16,9?10) and Aeneas as a biblical example of dreams as intercultural legitimation strategy.

Dreams are often used to promote religion, or to propagate an interpretation of religion, or to bring political ideas to the fore. A dream can be used as an indication of divine help and thus it is a perfect tool for promoting ideas. Dreams figure in religious propaganda in Christian, Jewish, and Muslim traditions (e.g., in Osama bin Laden's tapes). In classical literature, we find many kings, emperors, or generals who had visions or dreams, especially in association with their accession to power. It is the thesis of this article that in the encounter between Jewish (-Christian) cultures and the Hellenistic world dreams were shared as possible means of divine communication. An important example is the dream in Acts 16,9?10, the most Hellenistic dream of the New Testament. This dream is part of a larger unit, Paul's new move from Asia to Europe. I will try to show that the author of Acts combines here the story of Aeneas (e.g., as told by Virgil) and the story of Jesus, an interesting merging of two cultures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Retrograde Traffic Out of the Yeast Vacuole to the TGN Occurs via the Prevacuolar/Endosomal Compartment

A large number of trafficking steps occur between the last compartment of the Golgi apparatus (TGN) and the vacuole of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. To date, two intracellular routes from the TGN to the vacuole have been identified. Carboxypeptidase Y (CPY) travels through a prevacuolar/endosomal compartment (PVC), and subsequently on to the vacuole, while alkaline phosphatase (ALP) bypasses this compartment to reach the same organelle. Proteins resident to the TGN achieve their localization despite a continuous flux of traffic by continually being retrieved from the distal PVC by virtue of an aromatic amino acid–containing sorting motif. In this study we report that a hybrid protein based on ALP and containing this retrieval motif reaches the PVC not by following the CPY sorting pathway, but instead by signal-dependent retrograde transport from the vacuole, an organelle previously thought of as a terminal compartment. In addition, we show that a mutation in VAC7, a gene previously identified as being required for vacuolar inheritance, blocks this trafficking step. Finally we show that Vti1p, a v-SNARE required for the delivery of both CPY and ALP to the vacuole, uses retrograde transport out of the vacuole as part of its normal cellular itinerary.     

The distribution of marked dermal cells from small localized implants in limb regenerates

Numerous experiments have demonstrated that skin has a profound influence on the pattern of limb regeneration in urodeles. In this investigation, the fate during regeneration of marked cells derived from narrow strips of skin inserted into different positions around the limb circumference has been followed. Skin strips were taken from triploid axolotls and transplanted into diploid sibling animals. The distribution of trinucleolate cells was determined at the site of amputation and in the regenerated limb. The results indicate that at the time of amputation marked cells appear to be localized to the graft, whereas in the regenerated marked cells may be found at all proximal-distal levels and at any position around the circumference of the limb. These results are discussed in terms of a possible mechanism for distal outgrowth.     

Staff Nurses’ Perceptions and Experiences about Structural Empowerment: A Qualitative Phenomenological Study

The aim of the study reported in this article was to investigate staff nurses’ perceptions and experiences about structural empowerment and perceptions regarding the extent to which structural empowerment supports safe quality patient care. To address the complex needs of patients, staff nurse involvement in clinical and organizational decision-making processes within interdisciplinary care settings is crucial. A qualitative study was conducted using individual semi-structured interviews of 11 staff nurses assigned to medical or surgical units in a 600-bed university hospital in Belgium. During the study period, the hospital was going through an organizational transformation process to move from a classic hierarchical and departmental organizational structure to one that was flat and interdisciplinary. Staff nurses reported experiencing structural empowerment and they were willing to be involved in decision-making processes primarily about patient care within the context of their practice unit. However, participants were not always fully aware of the challenges and the effect of empowerment on their daily practice, the quality of care and patient safety. Ongoing hospital change initiatives supported staff nurses’ involvement in decision-making processes for certain matters but for some decisions, a classic hierarchical and departmental process still remained. Nurses perceived relatively high work demands and at times viewed empowerment as presenting additional. Staff nurses recognized the opportunities structural empowerment provided within their daily practice. Nurse managers and unit climate were seen as crucial for success while lack of time and perceived work demands were viewed as barriers to empowerment.     

Predicting Effects of Water Regime Changes on Waterbirds: Insights from Staging Swans

Predicting the environmental impact of a proposed development is notoriously difficult, especially when future conditions fall outside the current range of conditions. Individual-based approaches have been developed and applied to predict the impact of environmental changes on wintering and staging coastal bird populations. How many birds make use of staging sites is mostly determined by food availability and accessibility, which in the case of many waterbirds in turn is affected by water level. Many water systems are regulated and water levels are maintained at target levels, set by management authorities. We used an individual-based modelling framework (MORPH) to analyse how different target water levels affect the number of migratory Bewick’s swans Cygnus columbianus bewickii staging at a shallow freshwater lake (Lauwersmeer, the Netherlands) in autumn. As an emerging property of the model, we found strong non-linear responses of swan usage to changes in water level, with a sudden drop in peak numbers as well as bird-days with a 0.20 m rise above the current target water level. Such strong non-linear responses are probably common and should be taken into account in environmental impact assessments.