Pious pastors: Calvin's theology of sanctification and how it shaped the teaching and practices of the Genevan Academy, 1559-1564

John Calvin had a driving passion to develop godly pastors in order to build the Reformed Church in France. Calvin also possessed a very refined understanding of progressive sanctification and what precisely would cause its advance in the life of believers. He brought together his understanding of the process of sanctification and the desire to develop a new generation of pious pastors in the institution of the Genevan Academy. In part one of this thesis, Calvin’s theology of sanctification is expounded, and a taxonomy of core principles of his theology of sanctification is suggested. In part two the principles of sanctification are used to examine the teaching and educational structures of the Genevan Academy, demonstrating Calvin’s approach to enhancing the holiness of his pastoral students

Understanding the links between agriculture and health:

CONTENTS: 1.Overview / Corinna Hawkes and Marie T. Ruel; 2. Agriculture, Food, and Health: Perspectives on a Long Relationship / Tim Lang; 3. Agricultural Technology and Health / Michael Lipton, Saurabh Sinha, and Rachel Blackman; 4. Agriculture and Nutrition Linkages: Old Lessons and New Paradigms / Corinna Hawkes and Marie T. Ruel; 5. Agriculture, Food Safety, and Foodborne Diseases / Ewen C. D. Todd and Clare Narrod; 6. Agriculture, Malaria, and Water-Associated Diseases / Clifford M. Mutero, Matthew McCartney, and Eline Boelee; 7. Agriculture and HIV/AIDS / Stuart Gillespie; 8. Occupational Health Hazards of Agriculture / Donald Cole; 9. Livestock and Health / Maria Angeles O. Catelo; 10. Fish and Health / Nanna Roos, Md. Abdul Wahab, Chhoun Chamnan, and Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted; 11. Agroforesty, Nutrition, and Health / Brent Swallow and Sophie Ochola; 12. Agrobiodiversity, Nutrition, and Health / Timothy Johns, Ifeyironwa Francisca Smith, and Pablo B. Eyzaguirre; 13. Urban Agriculture and Health / Diana Lee-Smith and Gordon Prain; 14. Agriculture, Environment, and Health: Toward Sustainable Solutions / Rachel Nugent and Axel Drescher; 15. Agriculture and Health in the Policymaking Process / Todd Benson; 16. Opportunities for Improving the Synergies between Agriculture and Health / Robert Bos.Agriculture, Agroforestry, Health and nutrition, Agricultural technology, Food safety, Malaria, Diseases, HIV/AIDS, Sustainability, Biodiversity, Agrobiodiversity, Environmental management,

Diffeomorphic Demons using Normalised Mutual Information, Evaluation on Multi-Modal Brain MR Images

The demons algorithm is a fast non-parametric non-rigid registration method. In recent years great efforts have been made to improve the approach; the state of the art version yields symmetric inverse-consistent large-deformation diffeomorphisms. However, only limited work has explored inter-modal similarity metrics, with no practical evaluation on multi-modality data. We present a diffeomorphic demons implementation using the analytical gradient of Normalised Mutual Information (NMI) in a conjugate gradient optimiser. We report the first qualitative and quantitative assessment of the demons for inter-modal registration. Experiments to spatially normalise real MR images, and to recover simulated deformation fields, demonstrate (i) similar accuracy from NMI-demons and classical demons when the latter may be used, and (ii) similar accuracy for NMI-demons on T1w-T1w and T1w-T2w registration, demonstrating its potential in multi-modal scenarios

Diffeomorphic demons using normalized mutual information, evaluation on multimodal brain MR images

The demons algorithm is a fast non-parametric non-rigid registration method. In recent years great efforts have been made to improve the approach; the state of the art version yields symmetric inverse-consistent largedeformation diffeomorphisms. However, only limited work has explored inter-modal similarity metrics, with no practical evaluation on multi-modality data. We present a diffeomorphic demons implementation using the analytical gradient of Normalised Mutual Information (NMI) in a conjugate gradient optimiser. We report the first qualitative and quantitative assessment of the demons for inter-modal registration. Experiments to spatially normalise real MR images, and to recover simulated deformation fields, demonstrate (i) similar accuracy from NMI-demons and classical demons when the latter may be used, and (ii) similar accuracy for NMI-demons on T1w-T1w and T1w-T2w registration, demonstrating its potential in multi-modal scenarios

Communications platform payload definition study, executive summary

Large geostationary communications platforms have been investigated in a number of studies since 1974 as a possible means to more effectively utilize the geostationary orbital arc and electromagnetic spectrum and to reduce overall satellite communications system costs. This NASA Lewis sponsored study addresses the commercial feasibility of various communications platform payload concepts circa 1998. It defines promising payload concepts, estimates recurring costs and identifies critical technologies needed to permit eventual commercialization. Ten communications service aggregation scenarios describing potential groupings of services were developed for a range of conditions. Payload concepts were defined for four of these scenarios: (1) Land Mobile Satellite Service (LMSS), meet 100% of CONUS plus Canada demand with a single platform; (2) Fixed Satellite Service (FSS) (Trunking + Customer Premises Service (CPS), meet 20% of CONUS demands; (3) FSS (Trunking + video distribution), 10 to 13% of CONUS demand; and (4) FSS (20% of demand) + Inter Satellite Links (ISL) + TDRSS/TDAS Data Distribution

Temperature dependence of surface stress across an order-disorder transition: p(1x2)O/W(110)

Strain relaxations of a p(1x2) ordered oxygen layer on W(110) are measured as a function of temperature across the disordering transition using low-energy electron diffraction. The measured strains approach values of 0.027 in the [1-10] and -0.053 in the [001] direction. On the basis of the measured strain relaxations, we give quantitative information on temperature-dependent surface stress using the results of ab initio calculations. From the surface formation energy for different strains, determined by first-principles calculations, we estimate that surface stress changes from -1.1 for the ordered phase to -0.2N/m for the disordered one along [1-10], and from 5.1 to 3.4 N/m along [001]. Moreover, our observation that the strains scale inversely with domain size confirms that the strain relaxation takes place at the domain boundaries.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Spectral imaging of thermal damage induced during microwave ablation in the liver

Induction of thermal damage to tissue through delivery of microwave energy is frequently applied in surgery to destroy diseased tissue such as cancer cells. Minimization of unwanted harm to healthy tissue is still achieved subjectively, and the surgeon has few tools at their disposal to monitor the spread of the induced damage. This work describes the use of optical methods to monitor the time course of changes to the tissue during delivery of microwave energy in the porcine liver. Multispectral imaging and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy are used to monitor temporal changes in optical properties in parallel with thermal imaging. The results demonstrate the ability to monitor the spatial extent of thermal damage on a whole organ, including possible secondary effects due to vascular damage. Future applications of this type of imaging may see the multispectral data used as a feedback mechanism to avoid collateral damage to critical healthy structures and to potentially verify sufficient application of energy to the diseased tissue.Comment: 4pg,6fig. Copyright 2018 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other work

Combined Reconstruction and Registration of Digital Breast Tomosynthesis

Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) has the potential to en- hance breast cancer detection by reducing the confounding e ect of su- perimposed tissue associated with conventional mammography. In addi- tion the increased volumetric information should enable temporal datasets to be more accurately compared, a task that radiologists routinely apply to conventional mammograms to detect the changes associated with ma- lignancy. In this paper we address the problem of comparing DBT data by combining reconstruction of a pair of temporal volumes with their reg- istration. Using a simple test object, and DBT simulations from in vivo breast compressions imaged using MRI, we demonstrate that this com- bined reconstruction and registration approach produces improvements in both the reconstructed volumes and the estimated transformation pa- rameters when compared to performing the tasks sequentially

Why Men Trophy Hunt

The killing of Cecil the lion (Panthera leo) ignited enduring and increasingly global discussion about trophy hunting. Yet, policy debate about its benefits and costs focuses only on the hunted species and biodiversity, not the unique behaviour of hunters. Some contemporary recreational hunters from the developed world behave curiously, commonly targeting ‘trophies’: individuals within populations with large body or ornament size, as well as rare and/or inedible species, like carnivores. Although contemporary hunters have been classified according to implied motivation (i.e. for meat, recreation, trophy or population control, as well the ‘multiple satisfactions’ they seek while hunting (affiliation, appreciation, achievement; an evolutionary explanation of the motivation underlying trophy hunting (and big-game fishing) has never been pursued. Too costly (difficult, dangerous) a behaviour to be common among other vertebrate predators, we postulate that trophy hunting is in fact motivated by the costs hunters accept. We build on empirical and theoretical contributions from evolutionary anthropology to hypothesize that signalling these costs to others is key to understanding, and perhaps influencing, this otherwise perplexing activity

Comet 9P/Tempel 1: Interpretation with the Deep Impact Results

According to our common understandings, the original surface of a short-period comet nucleus has been lost by sublimation processes during its close approaches to the Sun. Sublimation results in the formation of a dust mantle on the retreated surface and in chemical differentiation of ices over tens or hundreds of meters below the mantle. In the course of NASA's Deep Impact mission, optical and infrared imaging observations of the ejecta plume were conducted by several researchers, but their interpretations of the data came as a big surprise: (1) The nucleus of comet 9P/Tempel 1 is free of a dust mantle, but maintains its pristine crust of submicron-sized carbonaceous grains; (2) Primordial materials are accessible already at a depth of several tens of cm with abundant silicate grains of submicrometer sizes. In this study, we demonstrate that a standard model of cometary nuclei explains well available observational data: (1) A dust mantle with a thickness of ~1-2 m builds up on the surface, where compact aggregates larger than tens of micrometers dominate; (2) Large fluffy aggregates are embedded in chemically differentiated layers as well as in the deepest part of the nucleus with primordial materials. We conclude that the Deep Impact results do not need any peculiar view of a comet nucleus.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure, 1 table. ApJ letters, 673, L199-20