The Bible Story Producer App

The Bible Story Producer team at Cedarville University has been spending the past year on the Bible Story Producer app for Android. This app is a tool whose purpose is to facilitate the translation of Bible stories by bilingual laypersons in places where the Bible is unavailable in the vernacular. The aim of the app is to facilitate the oral translation of Bible stories transmitted as templates consisting of voice narration in a Language of Wider Communication (LWC). The narration is accompanied by a series of high-quality illustrations animated by the Ken Burns (pan and zoom) effect. An instance of oral translation may not involve writing down the translated words since some languages do not yet have an alphabet. Field testing has, so far, shown the controversial notion of oral translation to be effective. In our presentation, we will discuss the translation process that our client introduced to us as well as different implementation decisions that went into the making of the app

Square lattice site percolation at increasing ranges of neighbor interactions

We report site percolation thresholds for square lattice with neighbor interactions at various increasing ranges. Using Monte Carlo techniques we found that nearest neighbors (N$^2$), next nearest neighbors (N$^3$), next next nearest neighbors (N$^4$) and fifth nearest neighbors (N$^6$) yield the same $p_c=0.592...$. At odds, fourth nearest neighbors (N$^5$) give $p_c=0.298...$. These results are given an explanation in terms of symmetry arguments. We then consider combinations of various ranges of interactions with (N$^2$+N$^3$), (N$^2$+N$^4$), (N$^2$+N$^3$+N$^4$) and (N$^2$+N$^5$). The calculated associated thresholds are respectively $p_c=0.407..., 0.337..., 0.288..., 0.234...$. The existing Galam--Mauger universal formula for percolation thresholds does not reproduce the data showing dimension and coordination number are not sufficient to build a universal law which extends to complex lattices.Comment: 4 pages, revtex

Coulomb correlation effects in zinc monochalcogenides

Electronic structure and band characteristics for zinc monochalcogenides with zinc-blende- and wurtzite-type structures are studied by first-principles density-functional-theory calculations with different approximations. It is shown that the local-density approximation underestimates the band gap and energy splitting between the states at the top of the valence band, misplaces the energy levels of the Zn-3d states, and overestimates the crystal-field-splitting energy. Regardless of the structure type considered, the spin-orbit-coupling energy is found to be overestimated for ZnO and underestimated for ZnS with wurtzite-type structure, and more or less correct for ZnSe and ZnTe with zinc-blende-type structure. The order of the states at the top of the valence band is found to be anomalous for ZnO in both zinc-blende- and wurtzite-type structure, but is normal for the other zinc monochalcogenides considered. It is shown that the Zn-3d electrons and their interference with the O-2p electrons are responsible for the anomalous order. The typical errors in the calculated band gaps and related parameters for ZnO originate from strong Coulomb correlations, which are found to be highly significant for this compound. The LDA+U approach is by and large found to correct the strong correlation of the Zn-3d electrons, and thus to improve the agreement with the experimentally established location of the Zn-3d levels compared with that derived from pure LDA calculations

Universality of the Diffusion Wake from Stopped and Punch-Through Jets in Heavy-Ion Collisions

We solve (3+1)-dimensional ideal hydrodynamical equations with source terms that describe punch-through and fully stopped jets in order to compare their final away-side angular correlations in a static medium. For fully stopped jets, the backreaction of the medium is described by a simple Bethe-Bloch-like model which leads to an explosive burst of energy and momentum (Bragg peak) close to the end of the jet's evolution through the medium. Surprisingly enough, we find that the medium's response and the corresponding away-side angular correlations are largely insensitive to whether the jet punches through or stops inside the medium. This result is also independent of whether momentum deposition is longitudinal (as generally occurs in pQCD energy loss models) or transverse (as the Bethe-Bloch formula implies). The existence of the diffusion wake is therefore shown to be universal to all scenarios where momentum as well as energy is deposited into the medium, which can readily be understood in ideal hydrodynamics through vorticity conservation. The particle yield coming from the strong forward moving diffusion wake that is formed in the wake of both punch-through and stopped jets largely overwhelms their weak Mach cone signal after freeze-out.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, revised version, main results unchange

Patterns of hepatitis B prevalence and seroconversion in hemodialysis units from three continents: The DOPPS

Patterns of hepatitis B prevalence and seroconversion in hemodialysis units from three continents: The DOPPS.BackgroundHepatitis B (HBV) historically has been a public health issue within hemodialysis units. This study estimates HBV prevalence and seroconversion rates across seven countries and investigates associations with facility level practice patterns.MethodsThe study sample was from the Dialysis Outcomes and Practice Patterns Study (DOPPS), a cross-sectional, prospective, observational study of adult hemodialysis patients randomly selected from 308 dialysis facilities in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Japan, and the United States. Logistic regression was used to model the odds ratio (OR) of HBV prevalence, and Cox regression was used to model time from entry into the study to HBV seroconversion.ResultsIn this sample, mean HBV facility prevalence was 3.0% with a median of 1.9%. The percentage of facilities with an HBV prevalence 0% to 5% was 78.5%. Adjusted HBV prevalence was higher in France, Germany, and Italy and lower in Japan and the United Kingdom. The majority of facilities (78.1%) had a seroconversion rate of 0 conversions per 100 patient-years. Presence of a protocol for HBV-infected patients was significantly associated with HBV seroconversion in the separate practice pattern model [risk ratio (RR) = 0.52, P = 0.03] and in the combined practice pattern model (RR = 0.44, P = 0.01).ConclusionThere are differences in HBV prevalence and rate of seroconversion both at the country and the hemodialysis facility level. Presence of a protocol for HBV-infected patients was strongly and significantly associated with decreased risk for seroconversion. The observed variation suggests opportunities for improved HBV outcomes with further definition of optimal practice patterns at the facility level

Quantum Nondemolition State Measurement via Atomic Scattering in Bragg Regime

We suggest a quantum nondemolition scheme to measure a quantized cavity field state using scattering of atoms in general Bragg regime. Our work extends the QND measurement of a cavity field from Fock state, based on first order Bragg deflection [9], to any quantum state based on Bragg deflection of arbitrary order. In addition a set of experimental parameters is provided to perform the experiment within the frame work of the presently available technology.Comment: 11 pages text, 4 eps figures, to appear in letter section of journal of physical society of Japa

The Century Survey Galactic Halo Project III: A Complete 4300 deg^2 Survey of Blue Horizontal Branch Stars in the Metal-Weak Thick Disk and Inner Halo

We present a complete spectroscopic survey of 2414 2MASS-selected blue horizontal branch (BHB) candidates selected over 4300 deg^2 of the sky. We identify 655 BHB stars in this non-kinematically selected sample. We calculate the luminosity function of field BHB stars and find evidence for very few hot BHB stars in the field. The BHB stars located at a distance from the Galactic plane |Z|<4 kpc trace what is clearly a metal-weak thick disk population, with a mean metallicity of [Fe/H]= -1.7, a rotation velocity gradient of dv_{rot}/d|Z|= -28+-3.4 km/s in the region |Z|<6 kpc, and a density scale height of h_Z= 1.26+-0.1 kpc. The BHB stars located at 5<|Z|<9 kpc are a predominantly inner-halo population, with a mean metallicity of [Fe/H]= -2.0 and a mean Galactic rotation of -4+-31 km/s. We infer the density of halo and thick disk BHB stars is 104+-37 kpc^-3 near the Sun, and the relative normalization of halo to thick-disk BHB stars is 4+-1% near the Sun.Comment: 12 pages in emulateapj format, accepted for publication in February A