More of God Retreat: Exploring Biblical Images of God through Prayer

The More of God Retreat will explore biblical images of God while assisting those whose prayer life is being constrained and inhibited by unhealthy images of God. The unhelpful images of God that people consciously and unconsciously carry radically affect the way they relate to God and each other. Through teaching, reflection, and experiential prayer practices, the three-day retreat aims to assist people on a journey toward a healthier image of God with a renewed, vibrant, and deeply personal prayer life. The retreat is designed around the exploration of three images of God found in Luke 15:1-31: God as Shepherd, God as Woman/Mother, and God as Father. Reflection spaces of morning and evening prayers will begin and end each day. During morning prayer, (Psalms 23, 131, and 63) participants will interact with Scripture in the practice oflectio divina. Nightly evening prayer will consist of a guided practice through an Ignatian Examen prayer. Both lectio divina and the Examen prayer will be introduced and practiced the first evening of the three-day retreat. Spiritual prayer practices such as the Jesus Prayer/Breath Prayer, Intercessory Prayer, Praying with molding Clay, and Prayer with Photos/Visio Divina will be offered as places to interact with God during the group gatherings. These gatherings are the spaces to respond to the images of God that are being exploring. Toward the end of the retreat, a seventeen-hour Grand Silence will be observed. Throughout the retreat, participants will be discerning what images of God and which prayer practices may be specifically helpful for each participant. The retreat will conclude by inviting participants to discern if God may be guiding them into any specific prayer practice as they return home

Using a Marketing Faculty Blog as an Image Differentiator and Learning Resource to Enhance MBA Student Engagement and Loyalty

Universities should strive to emotionally connect with their current students, alumni, and the business community. As learning has morphed into e-learning, higher education marketers must turn to new online approaches to communicate effectively with key stakeholders. A blog can be used to share the latest thinking in marketing, respond to changing customer demands, build brand awareness, and maximize opportunities for user involvement. Using web metrics and strategic insights, the authors demonstrate how a blog can be a powerful digital tool to enhance MBA student involvement and retention. Keywords: Blogging, teaching innovation, integrated marketing communications (IMC), student engagement, value creation, MBA program

Campus & alumni news

Boston University Medicine was published by the Boston University Medical Campus, and presented stories on events and topics of interest to members of the BU Medical Campus community. It followed the discontinued publication Centerscope as Boston University Medicine from 1991-2005, then continued as Campus & Alumni News from 2006-2013 before returning to the title Boston University Medicine from 2014-present

Purification of Eutrophic Hydro-Environments and the Utilization for New Biomass Forage Resources by Aquatic Plants in Asia

Water pollution, especially eutrophication, has become a serious world-wide problem in recent years. On the other hand, forage is in short supply during the dry season in Asia (especially in Southeast Asia). The purpose of this paper is to describe the development of new forage resources from among aquatic plants. In conclusion, it is suggested that three emergent plants (Zizania latifolia Turcz., Pontederia cordata L., Paspalum distichum L.) are useful as new forage species because of their absorptive ability for nitrogen and phosphorus from eutrophic water and their superior feeding value following ensiling

K- and Ka-band mobile-vehicular satellite-tracking reflector antenna system for the NASA ACTS mobile terminal

This paper describes the development of the K- and Ka-band mobile-vehicular satellite-tracking reflector antenna system for NASA's ACTS Mobile Terminal (AMT) project. ACTS is NASA's Advanced Communications Technology Satellites. The AMT project will make the first experimental use of ACTS soon after the satellite is operational, to demonstrate mobile communications via the satellite from a van on the road. The AMT antenna system consists of a mechanically steered small reflector antenna, using a shared aperture for both frequency bands and fitting under a radome of 23 cm diameter and 10 cm height, and a microprocessor controlled antenna controller that tracks the satellite as the vehicle moves about. The RF and mechanical characteristics of the antenna and the antenna tracking control system are discussed. Measurements of the antenna performance are presented

Developing Faculty to Provide University Students With Improved Learning Experiences

The article addresses the importance of incorporating faculty development as a key priority of higher education institutions. A literature review and some face-to-face and online interviews were conducted at various U.S. institutions, to identify common and best practices regarding this important matter. The article offers some ideas about what is done, and how it is done, to help faculty be ready for the challenging role they need to play: to be effective developers of a diverse student body that meets the evolving needs of industry and that utilizes technological tools that never existed before

Complete-Proteome Mapping of Human Influenza A Adaptive Mutations: Implications for Human Transmissibility of Zoonotic Strains

BACKGROUND: There is widespread concern that H5N1 avian influenza A viruses will emerge as a pandemic threat, if they become capable of human-to-human (H2H) transmission. Avian strains lack this capability, which suggests that it requires important adaptive mutations. We performed a large-scale comparative analysis of proteins from avian and human strains, to produce a catalogue of mutations associated with H2H transmissibility, and to detect their presence in avian isolates. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We constructed a dataset of influenza A protein sequences from 92,343 public database records. Human and avian sequence subsets were compared, using a method based on mutual information, to identify characteristic sites where human isolates present conserved mutations. The resulting catalogue comprises 68 characteristic sites in eight internal proteins. Subtype variability prevented the identification of adaptive mutations in the hemagglutinin and neuraminidase proteins. The high number of sites in the ribonucleoprotein complex suggests interdependence between mutations in multiple proteins. Characteristic sites are often clustered within known functional regions, suggesting their functional roles in cellular processes. By isolating and concatenating characteristic site residues, we defined adaptation signatures, which summarize the adaptive potential of specific isolates. Most adaptive mutations emerged within three decades after the 1918 pandemic, and have remained remarkably stable thereafter. Two lineages with stable internal protein constellations have circulated among humans without reassorting. On the contrary, H5N1 avian and swine viruses reassort frequently, causing both gains and losses of adaptive mutations. CONCLUSIONS: Human host adaptation appears to be complex and systemic, involving nearly all influenza proteins. Adaptation signatures suggest that the ability of H5N1 strains to infect humans is related to the presence of an unusually high number of adaptive mutations. However, these mutations appear unstable, suggesting low pandemic potential of H5N1 in its current form. In addition, adaptation signatures indicate that pandemic H1N1/09 strain possesses multiple human-transmissibility mutations, though not an unusually high number with respect to swine strains that infected humans in the past. Adaptation signatures provide a novel tool for identifying zoonotic strains with the potential to infect humans