Informing in order to form : the Roman Catholic Church and media

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on June 7, 2010).The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Thesis advisor: Dr. Victoria Johnson.M.A. University of Missouri--Columbia 2010.A dominate discourse in understanding the relationship between religion and media has been one of competition. This discourse of competition posits that the relationship between religion and media is inherently competitive. However, the Roman Catholic Church actively engages media and employs it as part of their religious dialogue with the broader societies in which they are embedded. These seemingly contradictory phenomena are in need of better articulation and examination. Using an ethnographic content analysis to examine a number of the Catholic documents this study aims to better understand how the Church constructs its relationship with media. As there have been no empirically based, comprehensive examinations of how the Church does so post-Vatican II, this study aims to understand how the Church uses and understands media in the second half of the twentieth century. A dialectical discourse of "informing in order to form" develops throughout the data as the Church engages media.Includes bibliographical references

The Schistosoma mansoni Cytochrome P450 (CYP3050A1) Is Essential for Worm Survival and Egg Development.

Schistosomiasis affects millions of people in developing countries and is responsible for more than 200,000 deaths annually. Because of toxicity and limited spectrum of activity of alternatives, there is effectively only one drug, praziquantel, available for its treatment. Recent data suggest that drug resistance could soon be a problem. There is therefore the need to identify new drug targets and develop drugs for the treatment of schistosomiasis. Analysis of the Schistosoma mansoni genome sequence for proteins involved in detoxification processes found that it encodes a single cytochrome P450 (CYP450) gene. Here we report that the 1452 bp open reading frame has a characteristic heme-binding region in its catalytic domain with a conserved heme ligating cysteine, a hydrophobic leader sequence present as the membrane interacting region, and overall structural conservation. The highest sequence identity to human CYP450s is 22%. Double stranded RNA (dsRNA) silencing of S. mansoni (Sm)CYP450 in schistosomula results in worm death. Treating larval or adult worms with antifungal azole CYP450 inhibitors results in worm death at low micromolar concentrations. In addition, combinations of SmCYP450-specific dsRNA and miconazole show additive schistosomicidal effects supporting the hypothesis that SmCYP450 is the target of miconazole. Treatment of developing S. mansoni eggs with miconazole results in a dose dependent arrest in embryonic development. Our results indicate that SmCYP450 is essential for worm survival and egg development and validates it as a novel drug target. Preliminary structure-activity relationship suggests that the 1-(2,4-dichlorophenyl)-2-(1H-imidazol-1-yl)ethan-1-ol moiety of miconazole is necessary for activity and that miconazole activity and selectivity could be improved by rational drug design

Municipal Solid Waste Management Performance

Sustainable municipal solid waste management (MSWM) is a major challenge in urban areas throughout the world, with the situation getting worse in most developing countries. This paper evaluates MSWM performance in Ghana, using the Wa Municipality as a case study. The policy and legal, institutional, and financial frameworks, as well as the technical capacity for waste management, were examined. The methodology and research design for the study was an exploratory and interpretive case study that was analysed through both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The study findings indicate that Ghana has a good institutional framework, sufficient and robust legislation, existing bylaws, policies and programmes regarding MSWM. However, the challenge is the non-enforcement of and non-compliance with the laws and regulations governing MSWM. Also, the emphasis on stakeholders’ involvement in MSWM in the country is focused mainly on waste collection, and no attention paid to waste reduction, treatment and final disposal. Additionally, waste management financing and the technical capacity for waste management are woefully inadequate. Thus, improving the enabling environment for sustainable MSWM with a focus on the examined indicators could scale up MSWM performance in Ghana for the attainment waste management goals

Separation-dependent localization in a two-impurity spin-boson model

Using a variational approach we investigate the delocalized to localized crossover in the ground state of an Ohmic two-impurity spin-boson model, describing two otherwise non-interacting spins coupled to a common bosonic environment. We show that a competition between an environment-induced Ising spin interaction and externally applied fields leads to variations in the system-bath coupling strength, $\alpha_c$, at which the delocalized-localized crossover occurs. Specifically, the crossover regime lies between $\alpha_c=0.5$ and $\alpha_c=1$ depending upon the spin separation and the strength of the transverse tunneling field. This is in contrast to the analogous single spin case, for which the crossover occurs (in the scaling limit) at fixed $\alpha_c\approx1$. We also discuss links between the two-impurity spin-boson model and a dissipative two-spin transverse Ising model, showing that the latter possesses the same qualitative features as the Ising strength is varied. Finally, we show that signatures of the crossover may be observed in single impurity observables, as well as in the behaviour of the system-environment entanglement.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures. Published version. Expanded discussion of the distance dependence between the impurities, and added a related figur

Power dissipation in nanoscale conductors: classical, semi-classical and quantum dynamics

Modelling Joule heating is a difficult problem because of the need to introduce correct correlations between the motions of the ions and the electrons. In this paper we analyse three different models of current induced heating (a purely classical model, a fully quantum model and a hybrid model in which the electrons are treated quantum mechanically and the atoms are treated classically). We find that all three models allow for both heating and cooling processes in the presence of a current, and furthermore the purely classical and purely quantum models show remarkable agreement in the limit of high biases. However, the hybrid model in the Ehrenfest approximation tends to suppress heating. Analysis of the equations of motion reveals that this is a consequence of two things: the electrons are being treated as a continuous fluid and the atoms cannot undergo quantum fluctuations. A means for correcting this is suggested

Unconventional Josephson Effect in Hybrid Superconductor-Topological Insulator Devices

We report on transport properties of Josephson junctions in hybrid superconducting-topological insulator devices, which show two striking departures from the common Josephson junction behavior: a characteristic energy that scales inversely with the width of the junction, and a low characteristic magnetic field for suppressing supercurrent. To explain these effects, we propose a phenomenological model which expands on the existing theory for topological insulator Josephson junctions

Immunocytologic Methods in the Diagnosis of Orbital Tumors

The pathologic diagnosis was supported or confirmed in three out of four cases that had an adequate cytologic specimen. The results demonstrate that adjunctive immunocytologic techniques can be used in combination with fine-needle aspiration for a variety of orbital tumors. The pathologic diagnosis was supported or confirmed in three out of four cases that had an adequate cytologic specimen. The results demonstrate that adjunctive immunocytologic techniques can be used in combination with fine-needle aspiration for a variety of orbital tumors