Home, Loved Ones & Heaven: Folk Expressin in the Songs of Katherine O\u27Neill Peters Sturgill

Formation, expression, and function of world view were examined in the life and compositions of folk musician, Katherine O\u27Neill Peters Sturgill. It was seen that the institutions of home, loved ones, and heaven were dominant themes in the formation of her world view. When twenty-two of Kate\u27s gospel and sentimental song compositions were examined for thematic content, they were found to reflect the predominant formative influences in Kate\u27s life. An interpretive model was developed showing home, loved ones, and heaven to be unified themes in a concept of sacred order--a concept which stood to oppose and defend against the banal chaos of the real world. Gospel and sentimental songs were examined in the context of the chaotic nineteenth century mainstream society from which they emerged, and they were seen to be functional entities corresponding strongly to Kate\u27s songs, created out of her immediate context. The functionality of Kate\u27s performance was interpreted in terms of a rhetorical theory of folklore performance

X-ray Continuum Slope and X-ray Spectral Features in NLS1 Galaxies

The idea that some of the unusual features in the X-ray spectra of Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 galaxies (NLS1s) are due to the steep X-ray continuum is tested by comparing photoionization model calculations with various observed properties of Seyfert 1 galaxies. A meaningful comparison must involve the careful use of the right X-ray ionization parameter, designated here U(oxygen). When this is done, it is found that the strength of the continuum absorption features is insensitive to the exact slope of the 0.1-50 keV continuum. It is also shown that the complex of iron L-shell lines near 1 keV can produce strong absorption and emission features, depending on the gas distribution and line widths. While this may explain some unusual X-ray features in AGN, the predicted intensity of the features do not distinguish NLS1 from broader line sources. Finally, acceleration of highly ionized gas, by X-ray radiation pressure, is also not sensitive to the exact slope of the X-ray continuum.Comment: Invited talk presented at the Joint MPE,AIP,ESO workshop on NLS1s, Bad Honnef, Dec. 1999, to appear in New Astronomy Reviews; also available at http://wave.xray.mpe.mpg.de/conferences/nls1-worksho

Providence and Progress: Richard Price\u27s Idea of Progress

This study examines the idea of historical progress of the eighteenth-century English theologian and revolutionary thinker Richard Price. Although Price has received only passing notice in the standard histories of the belief in progress, the popular English philosopher made a significant (and in some respects unique) contribution to the history of the eighteenth-century idea. Price was one of the most illustrious members of a small circle of English progressives--all Christian thinkers-- which also included the Anglicans David Hartley and William Paley and the Unitarian Joseph Priestley. These writers gave the idea of progress a strongly spiritual (Christian) imprint missing in the standard secular French formulations of the belief. Of these English theorists, none has suffered more from the neglect of past histories than the Unitarian Price. Except for an occasional reference in a scholarly article, no full-scale study has been attempted on Price or the other members of his circle. This study analyzes Price\u27s idea of progress, emphasizing in what respects he held ideas in common with the predominant French school from Fontenelle to Comte, and in what ways his conception made significant departures from that interpretation. While Price\u27s earlier writings provided the intellectual foundation for his idea of progress, the most comprehensive statement of his belief was contained in an essay, The Evidence for a Future Period of Improvement in the State of Mankind (1787). While the standard works appear not to have known of the existence of this essay, Price\u27s contemporaries--most notably the Marquis de Condorcet--knew of and admired the work. It was probably from a reading of the Evidence, that Condorcet affirmed that Price was one of the most illustrious apostles of the eighteenth-century belief in progress. What emerges from a reading of this essay is a distinctively Christian interpretation that breaks with the standard French idea of progress. From whatever vantage point Price\u27s idea is examined, the essential Christian features are apparent. In his view past history was little more than the record of a grand progress controlled and directed by divine Providence, which for the Unitarian minister would culminate in what Christians understood as the Millennium. The strong spiritual dimension of Price\u27s belief broke with the narrow eudaemonist theories of the French, anticipating the spiritual progressivism of the German school from Lessing to Hegel

Effects of Foliar Fertilization and Growth Regulators on Growth and Yield of Tomato Plants

Foliar fertilization or the direct application of plant nutrients to the foliage has been successful in increasing the yeilds of crops. This method of fertilization is particularly important in situations where 1). nutrients applied to the soil are fixed or unavailable, 2). nutrient deficiencies appear during the growing season and rapid correction is desired. In addition, the drip of run-off is not lost for it falls on the soil from which it may later he absorbed. Absorption of nutrient elements through the leaf, stem and bark takes place rather easily, however, large amounts of nutrient ions cannot be applied at any one time because of the possibility of leaf damage. Thus, it is difficult to supply the total macronutrient needs of plants by this means. A possible exception is the application of nitrogen as urea. Micronutrients and some of the secondary nutrients can be satisfactorily applied as foliar sprays since only small amounts are needed. Foliar fertilization is used most frequently on fruit trees and vines. However, it has also been used on row crops, small grains and vegetables. This is a unique method for the nutrient elements can be applied simultaneously with insecticides, fungicides, pesticides and growth stimulants. This study was designed to determine the effects of foliar fertilization in combination with growth regulators on the height and dry matter yield of tomato plants

BeppoSAX observations of low-energy spectral features in AGN

The combination of the broad band coverage and moderate spectral resolution of the LECS and MECS instruments on-board BeppoSAX allow the spectra of AGN to be studied in unprecedented detail down to 0.1 keV. We describe the calibration and the performance of the LECS and report on observations of low-energy absorption features in the spectra of both a low (MCG-6-30-15) and a high luminosity (3C 273) AGN. These features provide important diagnostics on the location and nature of the material surrounding the AGN. A comparison of LECS and ASCA/SIS low energy performance is also presented in the case of 3C 273.Comment: 5 pages. To appear in symposium proceedings: The Active X-Ray Sky, Rome, October 199

One year of monitoring the Vela pulsar using a Phased Array Feed

We have observed the Vela pulsar for one year using a Phased Array Feed (PAF) receiver on the 12-metre antenna of the Parkes Test-Bed Facility. These observations have allowed us to investigate the stability of the PAF beam-weights over time, to demonstrate that pulsars can be timed over long periods using PAF technology and to detect and study the most recent glitch event that occurred on 12 December 2016. The beam-weights are shown to be stable to 1% on time scales on the order of three weeks. We discuss the implications of this for monitoring pulsars using PAFs on single dish telescopes.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication in PAS

NLS1s and Sy1s: A comparison of ionized X-ray absorber properties

The first results from a systematic study of warm absorbers in NLS1s using BeppoSAX public archive data are presented here. We confirm ASCA results showing that a warm absorber, as modeled by two oxygen K-shell absorption edges, is less frequent in NLS1s than in broad line (BL) Sy1s (about 20 per cent versus about 50 per cent). However, our study suggests that the ionization state of NLS1s is not lower than that of BLS1s, as opposed to the ASCA-based results. The soft excess temperatures of our sample, when fitted with blackbody emission models, lie within a small range of values (about 0.02-0.15 keV in the rest frame) with no marked dependence on source luminosity. This is in agreement with ASCA-based findings for NLS1s and early results from IUE-ROSAT BL Sy1 observations.Comment: Contributed talk presented at the Joint MPE,AIP,ESO workshop on NLS1s, Bad Honnef, Dec. 1999, to appear in New Astronomy Reviews; also available at http://wave.xray.mpe.mpg.de/conferences/nls1-worksho

Are the Nuclei of Seyfert 2 Galaxies Viewed Face-On?

We show from modeling the Fe Kalpha line in the ASCA spectra of four X-ray bright narrow emission line galaxies (Seyfert types 1.9 and 2) that two equally viable physical models can describe the observed line profile. The first is discussed by Turner et al. (1998) and consists of emission from a nearly pole-on accretion disk. The second, which is statistically preferred, is a superposition of emission from an accretion disk viewed at an intermediate inclination of about 48 degrees and a distinct, unresolved feature that presumably originates some distance from the galaxy nucleus. The intermediate inclination is entirely consistent with unified schemes and our findings challenge recent assertions that Seyfert 2 galaxies are preferentially viewed with their inner regions face-on. We derive mean equivalent widths for the narrow and disk lines of =60 eV and = 213 eV, respectively. The X-ray data are well described by a geometry in which our view of the active nucleus intersects and is blocked by the outer edges of the obscuring torus, and therefore do not require severe misalignments between the accretion disk and the torus.Comment: 19 pages, 3 postscript figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ