Motivational Factors that Influence Non-Mandatory Chapel Attendance at a Small, Faith-Based Institution in the Midwest

Since the beginning, American colleges and universities featured mandatory chapel exercises. Secularization reduced the influence and occurrence of these exercises. Despite this, member institutions within the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities retained the mandatory nature as a necessary bulwark against secularization. However, one such institution in the Midwest witnessed high student chapel attendance rates while holding a non-mandatory policy. Utilizing focus groups from each floor of every first-year student living area, five distinctive themes emerged to provide context for this phenomena: desire for spiritual growth, desire for community solidarity, perception of chapel speaker quality, desire for choice or self-actualization, and competing personal needs. Recommendations for practice centered on how housing administrators structure the sense of belonging and connection among residential students in order to influence chapel attendance

Rheology of crystallizing basalts from Nyiragongo and Nyamuragira volcanoes, D.R.C.

Nyiragongo, a stratovolcano located within the Virunga Volcanic Province on the western branch of the East African Rift, is known for its persistent lava lake activity as well as devastating eruptions in 1977 and 2002. The 2002 eruption caused a humanitarian crisis when channelized lava flows entered the nearby city of Goma killing 170 people and displacing [about]350,000 others. These lavas have unusually low silica contents (39-42 wt.% SiO2) and are very fluid, allowing flows to move rapidly down the volcano's flanks. The rheology of lavas from Nyiragongo was measured using a concentric cylinder viscometer over a range of temperatures between 1221[degrees]C and 1145[degrees]C. The viscosity is [about]33 Pa s at the liquidus temperature of [about]1213[degrees]C, similar to Hawaiian lavas (30 Pa s near their liquidus temperature of [about]1230[degrees]C), increasing gradually to [about]708 Pa s at 1145[degrees]C. Over this temperature range, the crystal fraction remains very low ([omega]c ? 0.02) until [about]50[degrees]C undercooled and is still only [about]0.05 at 1145[degrees]C, where the viscosity of the starting bulk melt would be [about]123 Pa s and that of the interstitial melt is [about]1323 Pa s. Consequently, the change in viscosity is due primarily to cooling effects rather than the physical or chemical effects of crystallization. The data were collected at strain rates between [about]0.4 and 46.3s-1 , and are well reproduced using a power-law model with exponents decreasing from 0.96 (1221[degrees]C) to ~0.78 (1145[degrees]C) and no detectable yield strength. Crystal fraction and lava viscosity both increase rapidly below 1145[degrees]C, preventing further experiments

Atypical planetary lavas: rheological evolution of cooling and crystallizing flows from lunar impact melts and cryovolcanic processes

Volcanism is common to many of the solid planets and moons throughout the solar system. On Earth, volcanic research is mainly targeted at hazard assessment and prediction but volcanism on other worlds helps us understand how planetary bodies evolve and what that evolution means for the Earth and its future. Understanding the volcanic process on our world and others yields information about heat and mass transport processes, and about interior and surface evolution.One way of furthering our understanding of the volcanic process is by investigating the erupted products. Lavas in particular make up a large portion of planetary surfaces, however, some lavas in the solar system are very different to what we expect on Earth. Both impact events and ice volcanism (cryovolcanism) in the outer solar system can create molten material of very different compositions to the silicate volcanism on Earth, at very different conditions (e.g., temperature and pressure). Despite this, many planetary features share common morphologies with terrestrial volcanism, suggesting similar physical processes driving emplacement. In this work, I draw comparisons between composition and formation mechanism for impact melts, cryovolcanism, and silicate volcanism by investigating their rheology – the flow behavior that links material properties to morphology.I measured the rheology of lunar simulants for both highland and mare compositions to investigate how lunar impact melts evolve as they flow. Crystallization happens rapidly upon crossing the liquidus for highland compositions but mare compositions require undercooling before rapid crystallization occurs. This leads to shorter, thicker flows in the highlands and longer, thinner flows in the mare. This pattern may explain why more highland impact melt sheets are observed, because the thinner impact melts in the mare are more readily erased by impact gardening resulting in a preservation bias in the rock record. I also synthesized a wide range of aqueous solutions as analog cryolavas to measure their viscosity. I developed a new viscosity model, based on the Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann (VFT) equation commonly used in silicate rheology, to predict viscosity of aqueous solutions a function of both temperature and concentration for binary systems. This model provides better extrapolation down to cryogenic temperatures than previous models and can be scaled up to more complicated multicomponent systems. I then developed a new model for cryovolcanic flow evolution to investigate emplacement. This model simultaneously tracks the physical, chemical, and thermal state of the flow and allows entrainment of the solid fraction rather than surface accumulation. These are all improvements over several previous models. I found that the heat loss from vaporization of the flow in the low-pressure environment of many icy worlds was the dominant heat flux and that aspect ratios predicted match well with observed features

Computer and Internet Use by Great Plains Farmers

This study uses data from a 2001 survey of Great Plains farmers to explore the adoption, usage patterns, and perceived benefits of computers and the Internet. Adoption results suggest that exposure to the technology through college, outside employment, friends, and family is ultimately more influential than farmer age and farm size. Notably, about half of those who use the Internet for farm-related business report zero economic benefits from it. Whether a farmer perceives that the Internet generates economic benefits depends primarily on how long the farmer has used the Internet for farm business and for what purposes.agriculture, competitiveness, net benefits, technology adoption, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Computer and Internet Use by Great Plains Farmers

We use data from a 2001 survey of Great Plains farmers to explore the adoption, usage patterns, and perceived benefits of computers and the Internet. Our adoption results suggest that exposure to the technology through college, outside employment, friends, and family is ultimately more influential than farmer age and farm size. Notably, about half of those who use the Internet for farm-related business report zero economic benefits from it. Whether a farmer perceives that the Internet generates economic benefits depends primarily on how long the farmer has used the Internet for farm business and for what purposes.Farm Management, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Investment-Banking Relationships: 1933-2007

We study the evolution of investment bank relationships with issuers from 1933-2007. The degree to which issuers conditioned upon prior relationship strength when selecting an investment bank declined steadily after the 1960s. The issuer's probability of selecting a bank with strong relationships with its competitors also declined after the 1970s. In contrast, issuers have placed an increasing emphasis upon the quantity and the quality of their investment bank's connections with other banks. We relate the structural changes in bank/client relationships beginning in the 1970s to technological changes that altered the institutional constraints under which security issuance occurs

A systematic review on fitness testing in adult male basketball players : tests adopted, characteristics reported and recommendations for practice

Background: As basketball match-play requires players to possess a wide range of physical characteristics, many tests have been introduced in the literature to identify talent and quantify fitness in various samples of players. However, a synthesis of the literature to identify the most frequently used tests, outcome variables, and normative values for basketball-related physical characteristics in adult male basketball players is yet to be conducted. Objective: The primary objectives of this systematic review are to (1) identify tests and outcome variables used to assess physical characteristics in adult male basketball players across all competition levels, (2) report a summary of anthropometric, muscular power, linear speed, change-of-direction speed, agility, strength, anaerobic capacity, and aerobic capacity in adult male basketball players based on playing position and competition level, and (3) introduce a framework outlining recommended testing approaches to quantify physical characteristics in adult male basketball players. Methods: A systematic review of MEDLINE, PubMed, SPORTDiscus, Scopus, and Web of Science was performed following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines to identify relevant studies. To be eligible for inclusion, studies were required to: (1) be original research articles; (2) be published in a peer-reviewed journal; (3) have full-text versions available in the English language; and (4) include the primary aim of reporting tests used and/or the physical characteristics of adult (i.e., ≥ 18 years of age) male basketball players. Additionally, data from the top 10 draft picks who participated in the National Basketball Association combined from 2011–12 to 2020–21 were extracted from the official league website to highlight the physical characteristics of elite 19- to 24-year-old basketball players. Results: A total of 1684 studies were identified, with 375 being duplicates. Consequently, the titles and abstracts of 1309 studies were screened and 231 studies were eligible for full-text review. The reference list of each study was searched, with a further 59 studies identified as eligible for review. After full-text screening, 137 studies identified tests, while 114 studies reported physical characteristics in adult male basketball players. Conclusions: Physical characteristics reported indicate a wide range of abilities are present across playing competitions. The tests and outcome variables reported in the literature highlight the multitude of tests currently being used. Because there are no accepted international standards for physical assessment of basketball players, establishing normative data is challenging. Therefore, future testing should involve repeatable protocols that are standardised and provide outcomes that can be monitored across time. Recommendations for testing batteries in adult male basketball players are provided so improved interpretation of data can occur. Clinical Trial Registration: This review was registered with the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews and allocated registration number CRD42020187151 on 28 April, 2020. © 2022, The Author(s)

Blues for Gary: Design Abstractions for a Jazz Improvisation Assistant

AbstractWe describe the design and implementation of a tool to help students learn the art of jazz improvisation. The tool integrates elements of database, AI in the form of automatic melody generation, and human interface design. We describe the philosophy of using several coordinated mini-languages to provide user specifications for various aspects of the tool, including melody and chord representation, styles, melody generation, and other musical knowledge

Expression of TIM3/VISTA checkpoints and the CD68 macrophage-associated marker correlates with anti-PD1/PDL1 resistance: implications of immunogram heterogeneity.

Although immunotherapies have achieved remarkable salutary effects among subgroups of advanced cancers, most patients do not respond. We comprehensively evaluated biomarkers associated with the "cancer-immunity cycle" in the pan-cancer setting in order to understand the immune landscape of metastatic malignancies as well as anti-PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor resistance mechanisms. Interrogation of 51 markers of the cancer-immunity cycle was performed in 101 patients with diverse malignancies using a clinical-grade RNA sequencing assay. Overall, the immune phenotypes demonstrated overexpression of multiple checkpoints including VISTA (15.8% of 101 patients), PD-L2 (10.9%), TIM3 (9.9%), LAG3 (8.9%), PD-L1 (6.9%) and CTLA4 (3.0%). Additionally, aberrant expression of macrophage-associated markers (e.g. CD68 and CSF1R; 11-23%), metabolic immune escape markers (e.g. ADORA2A and IDO1; 9-16%) and T-cell priming markers (e.g. CD40, GITR, ICOS and OX40; 4-31%) were observed. Most tumors (87.1%, 88/101) expressed distinct immune portfolios, with a median of six theoretically actionable biomarkers (pharmacologically tractable by Food and Drug Administration approved agents [on- or off-label] or with agents in clinical development). Overexpression of TIM-3, VISTA and CD68 were significantly associated with shorter progression-free survival (PFS) after anti-PD-1/PD-L1-based therapies (among 39 treated patients) (all P < .01). In conclusion, cancer-immunity cycle biomarker evaluation was feasible in diverse solid tumors. High expression of alternative checkpoints TIM-3 and VISTA and of the macrophage-associated markers CD68 were associated with significantly worse PFS after anti-PD-1/PD-L1-based therapies. Most patients had distinct and complex immune expression profiles suggesting the need for customized combinations of immunotherapy

Evolution of eukaryotic transcription : insights from the genome of Giardia lamblia

Author Posting. © Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 2004. This article is posted here by permission of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Genome Research 14 (2004): 1537-1547, doi:10.1101/gr.2256604.The Giardia lamblia genome sequencing project affords us a unique opportunity to conduct comparative analyses of core cellular systems between early and late-diverging eukaryotes on a genome-wide scale. We report a survey to identify canonical transcription components in Giardia, focusing on RNA polymerase (RNAP) subunits and transcription-initiation factors. Our survey revealed that Giardia contains homologs to 21 of the 28 polypeptides comprising eukaryal RNAPI, RNAPII, and RNAPIII; six of the seven RNAP subunits without giardial homologs are polymerase specific. Components of only four of the 12 general transcription initiation factors have giardial homologs. Surprisingly, giardial TATA-binding protein (TBP) is highly divergent with respect to archaeal and higher eukaryotic TBPs, and a giardial homolog of transcription factor IIB was not identified. We conclude that Giardia represents a transition during the evolution of eukaryal transcription systems, exhibiting a relatively complete set of RNAP subunits and a rudimentary basal initiation apparatus for each transcription system. Most class-specific RNAP subunits and basal initiation factors appear to have evolved after the divergence of Giardia from the main eukaryotic line of descent. Consequently, Giardia is predicted to be unique in many aspects of transcription initiation with respect to paradigms derived from studies in crown eukaryotes.This work was supported in part by NIH grant AI43273 to M.L.S., by NIH grant AI51089 to A.G.M, and DOE grant DE-FG02-01ER63201 to G.J.O. Additional support was provided by the G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation and LI-COR Biotechnology