Wisdom, Complexity, and Adult Education: Emerging Theory and Meanings for Practice

This paper discusses various conceptions of wisdom in order to foster theory development of what it means to access and act with wisdom, as well as to educate adults in a way that fosters wisdom in a complex world. Keywords: wisdom, complexity science, and spirituality

Investigating 16O with the 15N(p,{\alpha})12C reaction

The 16O nucleus was investigated through the 15N(p,{\alpha})12C reaction at excitation energies from Ex = 12 231 to 15 700 keV using proton beams from a 5 MeV Van de Graaff accelerator at beam energies of Ep = 331 to 3800 keV. Alpha decay from resonant states in 16O was strongly observed for ten known excited states in this region. The candidate 4-alpha cluster state at Ex = 15.1 MeV was investigated particularly intensely in order to understand its particle decay channels.Comment: Submitted for Proceedings of Fourth International Workshop on State of the Art in Nuclear Cluster Physics (SOTANCP4), held from May 13 - 18, 2018 in Galveston, TX, US

Measurements with the Chandra X-Ray Observatory's flight contamination monitor

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory includes a Flight Contamination Monitor (FCM), a system of 16 radioactive calibration sources mounted to the inside of the Observatory's forward contamination cover. The purpose of the FCM is to verify the ground-to-orbit transfer of the Chandra flux scale, through comparison of data acquired during the ground calibration with those obtained in orbit, immediately prior to opening the Observatory's sun-shade door. Here we report results of these measurements, which place limits on the change in mirror--detector system response and, hence, on any accumulation of molecular contamination on the mirrors' iridium-coated surfaces.Comment: 7pages,8figures,for SPIE 4012, paper 7

Flux Jumps Driven by a Pulsed Magnetic Field

The understanding of flux jumps in the high temperature superconductors is of importance since the occurrence of these jumps may limit the perspectives of the practical use of these materials. In this work we present the experimental study of the role of heavy ion irradiation in stabilizing the HTSC against flux jumps by comparing un-irradiated and 7.5 10^10 Kr-ion/cm2 irradiated (YxTm1-x)Ba2Cu3O7 single crystals. Using pulsed field magnetization measurements, we have applied a broad range of field sweep rates from 0.1T/s up to 1800 T/s to investigate the behavior of the flux jumps. The observed flux jumps, which may be attributed to thermal instabilities, are incomplete and have different amplitudes. The flux jumps strongly depend on the magnetic field, on the magneto-thermal history of the sample, on the magnetic field sweep rate, on the critical current density jc, on the temperature and on the thermal contact with the bath in which the sample is immersed.Comment: 5 pages, PDF-fil

The optimal polarizations for achieving maximum contrast in radar images

There is considerable interest in determining the optimal polarizations that maximize contrast between two scattering classes in polarimetric radar images. A systematic approach is presented for obtaining the optimal polarimetric matched filter, i.e., that filter which produces maximum contrast between two scattering classes. The maximization procedure involves solving an eigenvalue problem where the eigenvector corresponding to the maximum contrast ratio is an optimal polarimetric matched filter. To exhibit the physical significance of this filter, it is transformed into its associated transmitting and receiving polarization states, written in terms of horizontal and vertical vector components. For the special case where the transmitting polarization is fixed, the receiving polarization which maximizes the contrast ratio is also obtained. Polarimetric filtering is then applies to synthetic aperture radar images obtained from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It is shown, both numerically and through the use of radar imagery, that maximum image contrast can be realized when data is processed with the optimal polarimeter matched filter

An Irish Spiritual Pilgrimage and the Potential for Transformation

This paper discusses spiritual pilgrimage from a cultural-spiritual perspective on transformative learning, and analyzes the experiences of the three co-authors via an autoethnography methodology

Structure and hydration of membranes embedded with voltage-sensing domains.

Despite the growing number of atomic-resolution membrane protein structures, direct structural information about proteins in their native membrane environment is scarce. This problem is particularly relevant in the case of the highly charged S1-S4 voltage-sensing domains responsible for nerve impulses, where interactions with the lipid bilayer are critical for the function of voltage-activated ion channels. Here we use neutron diffraction, solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the structure and hydration of bilayer membranes containing S1-S4 voltage-sensing domains. Our results show that voltage sensors adopt transmembrane orientations and cause a modest reshaping of the surrounding lipid bilayer, and that water molecules intimately interact with the protein within the membrane. These structural findings indicate that voltage sensors have evolved to interact with the lipid membrane while keeping energetic and structural perturbations to a minimum, and that water penetrates the membrane, to hydrate charged residues and shape the transmembrane electric field

Beta-Hydroxybutyrate Alters the mRNA Cytokine Profile from Mouse Macrophages Challenged with Streptococcus uberis

The objective of this study was to determine if β-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) altered inflammatory responses in macrophages challenged with a common mastitis pathogen, Streptococcus uberis. Mouse macrophages (RAW 264.7 line) were cultured either in the presence or absence of BHB for 24 h, and then challenged or not with S. uberis. Relative transcript abundance of cell membrane receptors (TLR2 and GPR109a), cytokines (IL-1β, IL-10, TNFα, and TGFβ), and chemokines (CXCL2 and CCL5) were determined using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and normalized against the geometric mean of HPRT and B2M. Streptococcus uberis activated the macrophages, noted by greater transcript abundance of analyzed genes. Intriguingly, S. uberis increased GPR109a mRNA abundance, a receptor that is activated by BHB. Consequently, BHB dose-dependently increased transcript abundance of the pro-inflammatory cytokine (IL-1β) and the anti-inflammatory cytokine (IL-10) but had no effect on TNFα or TGFβ. Moreover, BHB increased mRNA abundance of the chemokines, CXCL2 and CCL5. These data suggest a dysregulated immune response toward S. uberis due to BHB treatment, similar to what is seen in transition dairy cows. Future studies should be conducted in vivo to test the effect of BHB on immune function during an intramammary challenge

K+ to pi-mu+mu+ and doubly-charged Higgs

The rate for the lepton-number-violating decay K+ to pi- mu+mu+ is calculated in a model which incorporates doubly-charged Higgs bosons. We find that for reasonable values of the parameters the decay branching ratio may be as large as 2E-16. Although this is a discouragingly small number, it is of the same order of magnitude as the rate mediated by massive Majorana neutrinos.Comment: 8 pages, RevTex, Figure1 is P