115 research outputs found
Religious diversity, empathy, and God images : perspectives from the psychology of religion shaping a study among adolescents in the UK
Major religious traditions agree in advocating and promoting love of neighbour as well as love of God. Love of neighbour is reflected in altruistic behaviour and empathy stands as a key motivational factor underpinning altruism. This study employs the empathy scale from the Junior Eysenck Impulsiveness Questionnaire to assess the association between empathy and God images among a sample of 5993 religiously diverse adolescents (13–15 years old) attending state maintained schools in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and London. The key psychological theory being tested by these data concerns the linkage between God images and individual differences in empathy. The data demonstrate that religious identity (e.g. Christian, Muslim) and religious attendance are less important than the God images which young people hold. The image of God as a God of mercy is associated with higher empathy scores, while the image of God as a God of justice is associated with lower empathy scores
Introduction and enhancement of vegetative cover at Lake Mead
Studies done by the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) and the Arizona Fish and Game between 1978 and 1981 indicate that inadequate cover may be limiting the production and survival of largemouth bass at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area (LMNRA). As a result of these studies, NDOW initiated a contract in 1986 with the Lake Mead Research Center (LMRC) to investigate means of improving habitat for game fish by introducing natural and/or artificial cover.
During Phase I (1986-1987) of this contract, the shoreline of Lake Mead was surveyed for aquatic and terrestrial plant growth. Also during this time, submerged Christmas trees and Berkley Fish Habitat Modules were evaluated for their effectiveness in providing cover. Christmas trees appeared to provide cover for juvenile bluegill, a largemouth bass prey species. However, submerged trees lost their structure in about three years. Berkley Habitat Modules did not appear to be an effective form of cover. The National Park Service (NPS) asked that the introduction of artificial forms of cover not be continued until research was completed on the use of native plant material.
Methods for aquatic and terrestrial plant introductions were determined during Phase II (1987-1988) of this contract. Other agencies and individuals involved in revegetation of reservoir inundation zones were contacted, and the literature was reviewed for plant material collecting procedures, planting guidelines, and site maintenance. A Plant Introduction Manual was compiled based on this information and was approved by the National Park Service for use in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. During the winter, dormant cuttings were taken of two woody species, Goodding\u27s Willow and seepwillow baccharis (Salix gooddingii and Baccharis glutinosa) to be planted in the spring of 1988. In addition, collections were made of three emergent species (Typha angustifolia, Scirpus robustus, and Phragmites australis). Plant material was transported to the Nevada Division of Forestry (NDF) nursery where it was rooted and placed on pots for planting in May 1988. Sago pondweed (Potamogeton pectinatus) tubers were introduced into small study plots in the spring of 1987. More tubers became established and were healthier in fertilized plots than in unfertilized plots.
During Phase III (1988-1989) of this study, plant material was introduced into one cove in the lower basin and two coves in the upper basin of Lake Mead in April and May of 1988. Unpredicted low lake levels resulted in the loss of many plants. Survival rates of rooted material, however, were better than those of direct cuttings of woody plants. Site selection, particularly the soils of the site, appears to play a large part in survival. Seepwillow baccharis had the highest survival rates. In addition, greenhouse studies indicate that emergent plant tubers have some tolerance to dessication.
Twelve hundred sago pondweed tubers were planted in April 1988 in one cove in the upper basin, and 1,200 tubers were planted in a cove in the lower basin. Tubers had 100 percent germination success and provided 70 percent cover for fish by July 1988. Approximately 10,000 sago pondweed tubers were planted in April 1989 in Waterbarge Cove in the lower basin. Tubers were planted in water depths ranging from very shallow to 12-15 meters deep. Germination and establishment of tubers were very good in depths less than 7 meters; however, little or no germination of tubers was noted at depths greater than 7 meters.
A one-acre area of shoreline was hydroseeded in October 1988. Germination and establishment of seedlings was highest where soil moisture was between 20 and 30 percent. However, many seedlings were lost when water levels began to rise in January 1989
Young people's attitudes to religious diversity : quantitative approaches from social psychology and empirical theology
This essay discusses the design of the quantitative component of the ‘Young People’s Attitudes to Religious Diversity’ project, conceived by Professor Robert Jackson within the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit, and presents some preliminary findings from the data. The quantitative component followed and built on the qualitative component within a mixed method design. The argument is advanced in seven steps: introducing the major sources of theory on which the quantitative approach builds from the psychology of religion and from empirical theology; locating the empirical traditions of research among young people that have shaped the study; clarifying the notions and levels of measurement employed in the study anticipating the potential for various forms of data analysis; discussing some of the established measures incorporated in the survey; defining the ways in which the sample was structured to reflect the four nations of the UK, and London; illustrating the potential within largely descriptive cross-tabulation forms of analysis; and illustrating the potential within more sophisticated multivariate analytic models
Predation Risk Shapes Social Networks in Fission-Fusion Populations
Predation risk is often associated with group formation in prey, but recent advances in methods for analysing the social structure of animal societies make it possible to quantify the effects of risk on the complex dynamics of spatial and temporal organisation. In this paper we use social network analysis to investigate the impact of variation in predation risk on the social structure of guppy shoals and the frequency and duration of shoal splitting (fission) and merging (fusion) events. Our analyses revealed that variation in the level of predation risk was associated with divergent social dynamics, with fish in high-risk populations displaying a greater number of associations with overall greater strength and connectedness than those from low-risk sites. Temporal patterns of organisation also differed according to predation risk, with fission events more likely to occur over two short time periods (5 minutes and 20 minutes) in low-predation fish and over longer time scales (>1.5 hours) in high-predation fish. Our findings suggest that predation risk influences the fine-scale social structure of prey populations and that the temporal aspects of organisation play a key role in defining social systems
2,4-Diaminopyrimidines as Potent Inhibitors of Trypanosoma brucei and Identification of Molecular Targets by a Chemical Proteomics Approach
The protozoan parasite Trypanosoma brucei is the causative agent of human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) or sleeping sickness, a fatal disease affecting nearly half a million people in sub-Saharan Africa. Current treatments for HAT have very poor safety profiles and are difficult to administer. There is an urgent need for new, safe and effective treatments for sleeping sickness. This work describes the discovery of 2,4-diaminopyrimidines, exemplified by 4-[4-amino-5-(2-methoxy-benzoyl)-pyrimidin-2-ylamino]-piperidine-1-carboxylic acid phenylamide or SCYX-5070, as potent inhibitors of T. brucei growth in vitro and also in animal models for HAT. To determine the parasite proteins responsible for interaction with SCYX-5070 and related compounds, affinity pull-downs were performed followed by sequence analysis and parasite genome database searching. The work revealed that mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) and cdc2-related kinases (CRKs) are the major proteins specifically bound to the immobilized compound, suggesting their potential participation in the pharmacological effects of 2,4-diaminopyrimidines against trypanosomatid protozoan parasites. These data strongly support the use of 2,4-diminipyrimidines as leads for the development of new drug candidates for the treatment of HAT
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Inflation and Dark Energy from spectroscopy at z > 2
The expansion of the Universe is understood to have accelerated during two
epochs: in its very first moments during a period of Inflation and much more
recently, at z < 1, when Dark Energy is hypothesized to drive cosmic
acceleration. The undiscovered mechanisms behind these two epochs represent
some of the most important open problems in fundamental physics. The large
cosmological volume at 2 < z < 5, together with the ability to efficiently
target high- galaxies with known techniques, enables large gains in the
study of Inflation and Dark Energy. A future spectroscopic survey can test the
Gaussianity of the initial conditions up to a factor of ~50 better than our
current bounds, crossing the crucial theoretical threshold of
of order unity that separates single field and
multi-field models. Simultaneously, it can measure the fraction of Dark Energy
at the percent level up to , thus serving as an unprecedented test of
the standard model and opening up a tremendous discovery space
The Eighth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Data from SDSS-III
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) started a new phase in August 2008, with
new instrumentation and new surveys focused on Galactic structure and chemical
evolution, measurements of the baryon oscillation feature in the clustering of
galaxies and the quasar Ly alpha forest, and a radial velocity search for
planets around ~8000 stars. This paper describes the first data release of
SDSS-III (and the eighth counting from the beginning of the SDSS). The release
includes five-band imaging of roughly 5200 deg^2 in the Southern Galactic Cap,
bringing the total footprint of the SDSS imaging to 14,555 deg^2, or over a
third of the Celestial Sphere. All the imaging data have been reprocessed with
an improved sky-subtraction algorithm and a final, self-consistent photometric
recalibration and flat-field determination. This release also includes all data
from the second phase of the Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and
Evolution (SEGUE-2), consisting of spectroscopy of approximately 118,000 stars
at both high and low Galactic latitudes. All the more than half a million
stellar spectra obtained with the SDSS spectrograph have been reprocessed
through an improved stellar parameters pipeline, which has better determination
of metallicity for high metallicity stars.Comment: Astrophysical Journal Supplements, in press (minor updates from
submitted version
Inhibitory Control Predicts Grammatical Ability
We present evidence that individual variation in grammatical ability can be predicted by individual variation in inhibitory control. We tested 81 5-year-olds using two classic tests from linguistics and psychology (Past Tense and the Stroop). Inhibitory control was a better predicator of grammatical ability than either vocabulary or age. Our explanation is that giving the correct response in both tests requires using a common cognitive capacity to inhibit unwanted competition. The implications are that understanding the developmental trajectory of language acquisition can benefit from integrating the developmental trajectory of non-linguistic faculties, such as executive control
The Ninth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III) presents the first spectroscopic
data from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). This ninth data
release (DR9) of the SDSS project includes 535,995 new galaxy spectra (median
z=0.52), 102,100 new quasar spectra (median z=2.32), and 90,897 new stellar
spectra, along with the data presented in previous data releases. These spectra
were obtained with the new BOSS spectrograph and were taken between 2009
December and 2011 July. In addition, the stellar parameters pipeline, which
determines radial velocities, surface temperatures, surface gravities, and
metallicities of stars, has been updated and refined with improvements in
temperature estimates for stars with T_eff<5000 K and in metallicity estimates
for stars with [Fe/H]>-0.5. DR9 includes new stellar parameters for all stars
presented in DR8, including stars from SDSS-I and II, as well as those observed
as part of the SDSS-III Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and
Exploration-2 (SEGUE-2).
The astrometry error introduced in the DR8 imaging catalogs has been
corrected in the DR9 data products. The next data release for SDSS-III will be
in Summer 2013, which will present the first data from the Apache Point
Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) along with another year of
data from BOSS, followed by the final SDSS-III data release in December 2014.Comment: 9 figures; 2 tables. Submitted to ApJS. DR9 is available at
http://www.sdss3.org/dr
Discrepant Prevalence and Incidence of Leishmania Infection between Two Neighboring Villages in Central Mali Based on Leishmanin Skin Test Surveys
Leishmaniasis is a vector-borne disease transmitted to humans by the bite of an infected sand fly. Leishmaniasis is present in more than 88 countries and affects more than 12 million people. Depending on the species of Leishmania, the host can develop cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL), which is characterized by skin ulcers in uncovered parts of the body or a more severe form, visceral leishmaniasis, which affects the liver and spleen and is fatal if not treated. This study aims to establish the past and present infection with Leishmania parasites in two villages where recent cases have been diagnosed by the dermatology center (CNAM) in Bamako. This was achieved using a Leishmania-specific skin test that was administered annually to permanent residents of Kemena and Sougoula villages from 2006 to 2008. The results show that transmission of Leishmania is active and stable in these two villages. Moreover, despite sharing similar cultural and environmental features, the individuals from Kemena presented three times the risk of Leishmania infection compared with those from Sougoula. Our findings raise awareness of the continued presence of CL in Mali
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