David Brainerd and the Nineteenth Century Missionary Movement

Despite a tragically short life marked by illness, personal loss, and repeated disappointment, the Connecticut evangelical minister David Brainerd became a revered figure among early 19th-century evangelical missionaries. Thanks to Jonathan Edwards\u27s extremely popular and highly romanticized \u27Life of Brainerd\u27 (1748), Brainerd\u27s meager missionary achievements took on heroic proportions. Missionary groups looking for a new role model found inspiration in Brainerd\u27s work among Eastern Indian tribes and discovered the revivalist-pietist impact of the First Great Awakening. An outgrowth of Brainerd\u27s popular appeal was the emphasis Edwards placed on disinterested benevolence and regeneration. Although disinterested benevolence fired missionary zeal, it could not overcome ethnocentrism and selfish attention to personal conversion. In Edwards\u27s hands, Brainerd\u27s life resembled a Puritan devotional work, and it provided a model for 19th-century missionary memoirs

Review of: Friends of the Unrighteous Mammon: Northern Christians and Market Capitalism, 1815-1860

The article reviews the book Friends of the Unrighteous Mammon: Northern Christians and Market Capitalism, 1815-1860, by Stewart Davenport

Optimal frequency conversion in the nonlinear stage of modulation instability

We investigate multi-wave mixing associated with the strongly pump depleted regime of induced modulation instability (MI) in optical fibers. For a complete transfer of pump power into the sideband modes, we theoretically and experimentally demonstrate that it is necessary to use a much lower seeding modulation frequency than the peak MI gain value. Our analysis shows that a record 95 % of the input pump power is frequency converted into the comb of sidebands, in good quantitative agreement with analytical predictions based on the simplest exact breather solution of the nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation

Ultrastructure of the lorica of Trachelomonas Ehr. from the Colombian Amazonia

Dans le présent travail, 37 taxons appartenant au genre #Trachelomonas Ehr. (#Euglenophyta) provenant d'Amazonie Colombienne sont étudiés au microscope électronique à balayage. Nous proposons une nouvelle espèce : #T. duquei et deux nouvelles formes : #T. armata var. #gordeievii fo. #minor et #T. armata var. #spinosa n. fo. (Résumé d'auteur

Modulational instability in dispersion-kicked optical fibers

We study, both theoretically and experimentally, modulational instability in optical fibers that have a longitudinal evolution of their dispersion in the form of a Dirac delta comb. By means of Floquet theory, we obtain an exact expression for the position of the gain bands, and we provide simple analytical estimates of the gain and of the bandwidths of those sidebands. An experimental validation of those results has been realized in several microstructured fibers specifically manufactured for that purpose. The dispersion landscape of those fibers is a comb of Gaussian pulses having widths much shorter than the period, which therefore approximate the ideal Dirac comb. Experimental spontaneous MI spectra recorded under quasi continuous wave excitation are in good agreement with the theory and with numerical simulations based on the generalized nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation

Heteroclinic structure of parametric resonance in the nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation

We show that the nonlinear stage of modulational instability induced by parametric driving in the {\em defocusing} nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation can be accurately described by combining mode truncation and averaging methods, valid in the strong driving regime. The resulting integrable oscillator reveals a complex hidden heteroclinic structure of the instability. A remarkable consequence, validated by the numerical integration of the original model, is the existence of breather solutions separating different Fermi-Pasta-Ulam recurrent regimes. Our theory also shows that optimal parametric amplification unexpectedly occurs outside the bandwidth of the resonance (or Arnold tongues) arising from the linearised Floquet analysis

On the notions of facets, weak facets, and extreme functions of the Gomory-Johnson infinite group problem

We investigate three competing notions that generalize the notion of a facet of finite-dimensional polyhedra to the infinite-dimensional Gomory-Johnson model. These notions were known to coincide for continuous piecewise linear functions with rational breakpoints. We show that two of the notions, extreme functions and facets, coincide for the case of continuous piecewise linear functions, removing the hypothesis regarding rational breakpoints. We then separate the three notions using discontinuous examples.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figure

Observation of the stepwise blue shift of a dispersive wave preceding its trapping by a soliton

International audienceThe trapping of a weak dispersive wave by an intense soliton is a complex process occurring at the early stage of supercontinuum generation. It is theoretically predicted to arise from multiple soliton-dispersive wave interactions, producing a stepwise frequency blue shift of the dispersive wave. We report here the first experimental evidence of this frequency blue shift using a tapered fiber which acts as a prism, allowing to disperse the blue spectral components in order to identify unambiguously each soliton-dispersive wave collision

Soliton annihilation into a polychromatic dispersive wave

International audienceWe investigate the propagation of a soliton in an axially-varying optical fiber with a progressive change from anomalous to normal dispersion regimes. Spectral and temporal measurements provide evidence for a complete annihilation of the soliton, which explodes into a polychromatic dispersive wave. This interpretation is confirmed by numerical solution of the generalized nonlinear Schrödinger equation

Vibrated and self-compacting fibre reinforced concrete: experimental investigation on the fibre orientation

In addition to the fibre type and content, the residual properties of fibre reinforced concrete are influenced by fibre orientation. Consequently, the performance fibre reinforced concrete can be affected by its fresh properties (workability, flowing capacity) and by casting and compaction processes adopted. This paper focuses on the study of the orientation of steel or macro-synthetic fibres in two materials characterized by very different fresh properties: vibrated and self-compacting concrete. Four rectangular slabs 1800 mm long, 925 mm wide and 100 mm high were produced changing concrete and fibre type. From each slab, eighteen small prisms (550 mm long) were firstly cut either orthogonal or parallel to casting direction and, secondly, notched and tested in bending according to EN 14651. Experimental results showed that the toughness properties of a thin slab significantly varies both in vibrated and self-compacting concrete, even if in case of self-compacting concrete this variation resulted higher. Steel fibres led to greater variability of results compared to polymer one, underlining a different fibre orientation. A discussion on the relative residual capacity measured on the prisms sawn from the slabs and the parameters obtained from standard specimens is performed.Facultad de Ingenierí