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Prayer and mental health: An introduction to this special issue of Mental Health, Religion & Culture
No full textThe purpose of this special issue of Mental Health, Religion and Culture was to provide a forum for examples of current research and theorizing examining the relationship between prayer and mental health. This collection, comprising one review article, one theoretical article, eight empirical articles, and six book reviews, is drawn from researchers in the Netherlands, UK, and USA. A variety of different measures of prayer and mental health were employed among various samples. In combination, these studies clearly attest to the importance of prayer to mental health. In combination, this work demonstrated the wide range of matters currently being investigated by researchers, as well as the variety of methodologies being employed within the social scientific study of religion and related disciplines focused on the relationship between prayer and mental health
Tricarbonylrhenium(I) halide complexes of 2-[(4R,6R)-4,6-dimethyl-1,3-dioxan-2-yl]pyridine (L¹) and 2,6-bis[(4R,6R)-4,6-dimethyl-1,3-dioxan-2-yl]pyridine (L²): structure and solution stereodynamics
No full textThe non-racemic chiral ligands 2-[(4R,6R)-4,6-dimethyl-1,3-dioxan-2-yl]pyridine (L¹) and 2,6-bis[(4R,6R)-4,6-dimethyl-1,3-dioxan-2-yl]pyridine (L²) reacted with the [ReX(CO)₅] compounds (X = Cl, Br, or I) to form fac-[ReX(CO)3(L¹)] and fac-[ReX(CO)₃(L²)], respectively. The ligands co-ordinate to the metal moiety in a bidentate fashion via the N donor of the pyridine ring and one of the acetal O atoms. The bonding modes are confirmed by the molecular structures of [ReI(CO)₃(L¹)] and [ReBr(CO)₃(L²)]. There are four possible diastereoisomers, depending on the configuration at the metal and the acetal carbon atom. In the solid state [ReI(CO)₃(L¹)] and [ReBr(CO)₃(L²)] exist exclusively as the RR and SR diastereoisomers, respectively. In solutions of the complexes of L¹ all four diastereoisomers are observed in varying concentrations, with the SR species being dominant. Only two of the four possible species are observed in solutions of the complexes of L², with the SR diastereoisomer being present in ca. 96% diastereomeric excess over the RR diastereoisomer. Above ambient temperatures both series of complexes are fluxional. A reversible flip of the acetal ring in the complexes [ReX(CO)₃(L¹)] leads to the pair-wise exchange of diastereoisomers as a result of the formal inversion of configuration at the acetal carbon atom; the free energies of activation are in the range 78–82 kJ mol⁻¹. The ring flip process appears to occur via a pseudo seven-co-ordinate transition state, in which both O atoms of the acetal ring are loosely bound to the metal. The pendant and co-ordinated acetal rings in the complexes of L² are exchanged via the tick-tock mechanism; the free energies of activation are in the range 75–79 kJ mol⁻¹
Characterization of suburban areas for land use planning using landscape ecological indicators derived from IKONOS-2 multispectral imagery
No full textVery high resolution satellite images are used to derive the spatial distributions of landscape ecological metrics within suburban areas. These indicators are weighted mean patch size and lacunarity computed from thresholded normalized difference vegetation index obtained from multispectral IKONOS-2 imagery. Spatial distributions of the metrics are derived for an extensive suburban area on the southwest edge of London, U.K. Weighted mean patch size and lacunarity values have also been investigated in subimages corresponding to different kinds of suburban land cover and with different box sizes. The results indicate typical ranges of the metrics in environmentally sustainable localities. The spatial distributions of the metrics provide new insight into landscape structure, which can be exploited in land use planning and in the construction of empirical spatial planning heuristics for sustainable urban development
The Chester Companies in the Seventeenth Century
Get PDFRelying on extensive new research of primary source material, this article examines the history of the manufacturing and trading guilds or companies of Chester during the seventeenth century. The article assessed the function, operation, organisation and membership of the companies as well as the commercial, community, social and welfare roles they played throughout the century. At the heart of the article is a detailed assessment of the impact of the civil war of the 1640s upon company membership and operations. It is shown that although Chester’s involvement in the war inevitably disrupted company life and affairs, the impact was neither fatal nor long-lasting and most companies quickly recovered and, indeed, flourished in the immediate post-war and post-plague years, well before the Restoration of 1660
Developing Communities of Inquiry in the UK: Retrospect and Prospect
Get PDFMy aim in this article is to offer a critical evaluation of the development of communities of inquiry in the UK, with particular reference to the teaching of philosophy in schools. The paper is divided into four sections. In the first, I examine some key aspects from an historical perspective. The second section focuses on the question: ‘should children be taught to think philosophically?’ Having discussed the teaching of philosophical thinking in the UK, I outline a typical example of a dialogue undertaken with primary school pupils. Finally, I consider future prospects for developing communities of inquiry
Dilute Polyacrylamide Solutions under Uniaxial Extensional Flow
No full textThe shear and extensional viscosities, dynamic viscosities, and normal forces of a series of polyacrylamide solutions of varying molar mass have been determined in a Boger fluid at varying concentrations. The critical strain rate under extensional flow that can be defined from the departure from Newtonian behavior, εc, was found to be independent of the concentration and varied in the same way as the critical coil−stretch strain rate with the molar mass. A quantitative comparison indicated that εc is a decade lower than the strain rate predicted to characterize the coil−stretch transition. This difference indicates that εc reflects the average deformation of the chains over the range of strain rates
Robustness of HEAF(2) for Estimating the Intensity of Long-Range Dependent Network Traffic
Get PDFThe intensity of Long-Range Dependence (LRD) for communications network traffic can be measured using the Hurst parameter. LRD characteristics in computer networks, however, present a fundamentally different set of problems in research towards the future of network design. There are various estimators of the Hurst parameter, which differ in the reliability of their results. Getting robust and reliable estimators can help to improve traffic characterization, performance modelling, planning and engineering of real networks. Earlier research [1] introduced an estimator called the Hurst Exponent from the Autocorrelation Function (HEAF) and it was shown why lag 2 in HEAF (i.e. HEAF (2)) is considered when estimating LRD of network traffic. This paper considers the robustness of HEAF(2) when estimating the Hurst parameter of data traffic (e.g. packet sequences) with outliers
Philosophical approaches to the teaching of religion in schools
No full textThis chapter examines the philosophical issues related to the teaching of religion in schools. It begins with the early work of Ninian Smart who made comparisons between the methods used by the sciences and the methods used by religion and showed possible compatibilities. Elmer Thiessen discussed the thorny issue of indoctrination and exempted religious education from the charges made against it, in part because the criteria for defining indoctrination do not work in this case. Thomas Groome offered a shared praxis approach, allowing pupils and teachers to dialogue in a search for knowledge. The Humanist contribution defined religion in a reductionist way and sought to influence debate in England and Wales. Andrew Wright argue that children need to be equipped with the tools of religious literacy, and then to explore religion for themselves. The chapter ends with an assessment of these different contributions
Identifying Long-range Dependent Network Traffic through Autocorrelation Functions
Get PDFFor over a decade researchers have been reporting the impact of self-similar long-range dependent network traffic. Long-range dependence (LRD) is of great significance in traffic engineering problems such as measurement, queuing strategy, buffer sizing and admission and congestion control. In this research, in order to determine the existence of LRD, we apply three different robust versions of the autocorrelation function (ACF), namely weighted ACF (WACF), trimmed ACF (TACF) and variance-ratio of differences and sums, known as the D/S variance estimator (DACF), in conjunction with the sample ACF (which is moment based). Here we define the moment based ACF as MACF. In telecommunications, LRD traffic defines that a similar pattern of traffic persists for a longer span of time. Through ACF, it is possible to detect how long the traffic lasts. The aim of this research is to investigate the performance of ACF in identifying the existence of LRD traffic
The influence of the substrate on the growth of carbon nanotubes from nickel clusters—an investigation using STM, FE-SEM, TEM and Raman spectroscopy
No full textChemical Vapour Deposition (CVD) is now a well-established route to the growth of carbon nanotubes (CNT). Generally, a transition metal such as nickel dispersed as clusters on a nonreactive substrate acts as a catalyst for growth from carbon-bearing gases such as acetylene. While the diameter of the tubes is closely linked to the size of the metal clusters, the nature of the substrate itself influences the size and size distribution of the clusters themselves. Using Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy (STM) to study the clusters and high resolution Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM) to study the resultant nanotubes, we show that nickel clusters created on TiN-coated SiC substrates have a much smaller size distribution than MoSi2-coated SiC substrates. This is reflected in the nanotube diameter after CVD growth. Raman spectroscopy and Transmission Electron Microscopy has also been used to provide further data on the nature of the nanotubes and clusters grown on these substrates