Use of holy springs and holy water is inherent in religious activities. Holy spring water is also used extensively for personal drinking water, although not assessed according to drinking water standards. Holy water in churches and chapels may cause infections via wetting of lips and sprinkling on persons. Our aim was to assess the microbiological and chemical water quality of holy springs and ...

Mediaeval churches hold substantial historical and cultural values, organs, altars, paintings that need to be preserved. Many of these churches have no climate control systems installed. Thus the indoor climate is mainly determined by the outdoor climate. Focus in this study is on the possibilities to improve indoor climate in originally unheated churches to prevent and protect churches from mo...

BACKGROUND This study evaluated the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a church-based intervention to promote physical activity (PA) in children. METHODS The study was conducted in 4 churches located in 2 large metropolitan areas and 2 regional towns in Kansas. Churches in the intervention condition implemented the "Shining Like Stars" physical activity curriculum module during their reg...

BACKGROUND American Indian women have high rates of cardiovascular disease largely because of their high prevalence of hypertension, diabetes, and obesity. This population has high rates of cardiovascular disease-related behaviors, including physical inactivity, harmful tobacco use, and a diet that promotes heart disease. Culturally appropriate interventions are needed to establish health behav...

OBJECTIVES The Black church has a long history of addressing unmet health and human service needs, yet few studies have examined characteristics of churches involved in health promotion. METHODS Data obtained from a survey of 635 Black churches in the northern United States were examined. Univariate and multivariate statistical procedures identified eight characteristics associated with commu...

Top-k query processing finds a list of k results that have largest scores w.r.t the user given query, with the assumption that all the k results are independent to each other. In practice, some of the top-k results returned can be very similar to each other. As a result some of the top-k results returned are redundant. In the literature, diversified top-k search has been studied to return k res...

Bats frequently roost in historic churches, and these colonies are of considerable conservation value. Inside churches, bat droppings and urine can cause damage to the historic fabric of the building and to items of cultural significance. In extreme cases, large quantities of droppings can restrict the use of a church for worship and/or other community functions. In the United Kingdom, bats and...

Methods Fourteen African American churches located throughout Prince George’s County, MD were randomized to receive the traditional/classroom (N = 8 churches) or the online (N = 6 churches) training approach. The CHAs received Project HEAL workshop intervention materials and led a 3-part workshop series in his/her church encouraging breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer early detection. Study...

This publication on Ageing has been prepared by the Working Group on Bioethics and Biotechnology of the Church and Society Commission of the Conference of European Churches (CEC). CEC is the regional ecumenical organisation which links in fellowship some 125 Anglican, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Orthodox, Reformed, Old Catholic and Pentecostal churches, as well as several associated organisat...