The Presence of Spirituality and its Effect on Attitudes Towards Death

ABSTRACT Rationale Implementing spirituality practices in healthcare is not heavily emphasized yet has the potential to increase positive patient outcomes. Hypothesis If an individual identifies with having a strong sense of spirituality, then they will have decreased negative reactions towards dying. Methods Data was collected via distribution and processing of surveys on the Statesboro campus of Georgia Southern University. The survey included a series of questions regarding general demographics, strength of spirituality, feelings associated with death, and coping ability. The information collected was processed through SPSS in order to evaluate correlations present. Results It was found that individuals who indicated they frequently practiced their spirituality through prayer, meditation, or other acts were shown to be more likely to feel at peace when contemplating death, demonstrating a moderate correlation between the two variables. However, there was a weak correlation between a significant level of spirituality and decreased fear and anxiety surrounding death

objects of shifting imaginations, spaces of self-construction, and spaces of memory

UID/EAT/00472/2013This presentation describes an empirical study of interpretative itineraries used by visitors to a curated collection of sound art works part of the unplace, a museum without a place exhibition, July-November 2015, Lisbon, Portugal. Results of this case study will be valuable to theorists and artists of electronic literature seeking to engage readers with virtual, online, or curated installations of electronic literature, especially as to how they might foster narrative and storytelling.authorsversionpublishe

Hortatory Mandates

This Article is the first to describe hortatory mandates and articulate principles for judicial review. Hortatory mandates are laws whose form and function collide. Either they speak in mandatory terms but lack penalties or enforcement mechanisms, or they speak in hortatory, precatory terms that belie the legal obligations they create. Our analysis of important examples-the Affordable Care Act, the Clean Air Act, federal dietary guidelines, and COVID-19 mitigation orders-indicates that policymakers regularly deploy hortatory mandates for instrumental reasons rather than purely symbolic or precatory reasons. In matters of public health, environmental protection, and beyond, so-called soft law is now a preferred tool of government. Hortatory mandates are not a quirk of legislative contortions to pass health reform or the exigencies of our current pandemic; they are probably here to stay. This Article offers a framework for evaluating which hortatory mandates should be reviewable by courts and which ones are best left to the other branches. We argue that the essential inquiry for courts is whether a hortatory mandate establishes a binding, enforceable norm. This can be demonstrated by pointing to the government\u27s use of coercive means to enforce the norm or credible signals that the norm will in fact be enforced. After all, government actions that are binding and enforceable are not really hortatory; they are mandatory, regardless of language to the contrary. Likewise, government actions that create no binding legal obligations are merely hortatory and should not invoke the power of the courts-again, regardless of language to the contrary. In such cases, judicial determinations clarifying the hortatory nature of an order, and thus excluding it from review, may facilitate political checks and balances on any hortatory mandates that overreach. If the government is trying to regulate behavior on the sly, litigation can force the question early, fostering more robust political debate and-potentially-nonjudicial intervention to redirect the government\u27s approach. We also caution that abuse of hortatory mandates can degrade the rule of law and undermine public trust and compliance

Composite polymer membranes for laserinduced fluorescence thermometry

We demonstrate a modified version of laser-induced fluorescence thermometry (LIFT) for mapping temperature gradients in the vicinity of small photothermal devices. Our approach is based on temperature sensitive fluorescent membranes fabricated with rhodamine B and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Relevant membrane features for LIFT, such as temperature sensitivity, thermal quenching and photobleaching are presented for a range of 25 °C to 90 °C, and their performance is evaluated upon obtaining the temperature gradients produced in the proximity of optical fiber micro-heaters. Our results show that temperature measurements in regions as small as 750 μm x 650 μm, with a temperature resolution of 1 °C, can be readily obtained

On the local regularity theory for the MHD equations

Local regularity results are obtained for the MHD equations using as global framework the setting of parabolic Morrey spaces. Indeed, by assuming some local boundedness assumptions (in the sense of parabolic Morrey spaces) for weak solutions of the MHD equations it is possible to obtain a gain of regularity for such solutions in the general setting of the Serrin regularity theory. This is the first step of a wider program that aims to study both local and partial regularity theories for the MHD equations

Processing ANN Traffic Predictions for RAN Energy Efficiency

The field of networking, like many others, is experiencing a peak of interest in the use of Machine Learning (ML) algorithms. In this paper, we focus on the application of ML tools to resource management in a portion of a Radio Access Network (RAN) and, in particular, to Base Station (BS) activation and deactivation, aiming at reducing energy consumption while providing enough capacity to satisfy the variable traffic demand generated by end users. In order to properly decide on BS (de)activation, traffic predictions are needed, and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) are used for this purpose. Since critical BS (de)activation decisions are not taken in proximity of minima and maxima of the traffic patterns, high accuracy in the traffic estimation is not required at those times, but only close to the times when a decision is taken. This calls for careful processing of the ANN traffic predictions to increase the probability of correct decision. Numerical performance results in terms of energy saving and traffic lost due to incorrect BS deactivations are obtained by simulating algorithms for traffic predictions processing, using real traffic as input. Results suggest that good performance trade-offs can be achieved even in presence of non-negligible traffic prediction errors, if these forecasts are properly processed

First record of \u3ci\u3ePlanchonia stentae\u3c/i\u3e (Brain, 1920) (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha: Asterolecaniidae) on \u3ci\u3eAsclepias curassavica\u3c/i\u3e Linnaeus, 1753 (Gentianales: Asclepiadaceae) in Mexico, with observations on parasitic Encyrtidae

In April 2018, specimens of an asterolecaniid were collected on infested wild plants of Asclepias curas­savica Linnaeus, 1753 (Gentianales: Asclepiadaceae) in Jiquilpan, Michoacan, Mexico. The collected specimens were identified as Planchonia stentae (Brain, 1920) (Hemiptera: Asterolecaniidae). In this paper, we record for the first time the presence of P. stentae infesting A. curassavica in Mexico