Religiosity, Fears of Personal Death, and the Acceptability of Suicide Within Reformed, Conservative, and Orthodox Jews

One hundred and fifty adults completed the Gladding, Lewis, and Adkins Scale of Religiosity (GLASR), Fears of Personal Death Scale (FPDS), and the Suicide Acceptability Scale (SAS) to investigate the relationships between religiosity, fears of personal death, and suicide acceptability within the Reformed, Conservative, and Orthodox Jewish denominations. Differences between the Jewish denominations were detected such that Orthodox Jews were less fearful of transpersonal death than Conservative individuals. However, no differences existed between Jewish denominations for interpersonal or intrapersonal fears of death. Results also indicate that Reformed Jews were less religious and more accepting of suicide than Orthodox individuals with Conservative Jews being intermediate It appears that Orthodox individuals\u27 acceptance or rejection of suicide, as well as their concerns about personal death, are consistent and are centered around strong religious beliefs and practice. On the other hand, the acceptance or rejection of suicide among Reformed Jews are influenced by at least two independent factors: fears of personal death and religiosity. No relationships between religiosity, suicide acceptability, and fears of death were observed among the Conservative Jews. Future directions, limitations, and practical applications of this study are discussed

Religiosity, Fears of Personal Death, and the Acceptability of Suicide Within Reformed, Conservative, and Orthodox Jews

One hundred and fifty adults completed the Gladding, Lewis, and Adkins Scale of Religiosity (GLASR), Fears of Personal Death Scale (FPDS), and the Suicide Acceptability Scale (SAS) to investigate the relationships between religiosity, fears of personal death, and suicide acceptability within the Reformed, Conservative, and Orthodox Jewish denominations. Differences between the Jewish denominations were detected such that Orthodox Jews were less fearful of transpersonal death than Conservative individuals. However, no differences existed between Jewish denominations for interpersonal or intrapersonal fears of death. Results also indicate that Reformed Jews were less religious and more accepting of suicide than Orthodox individuals with Conservative Jews being intermediate It appears that Orthodox individuals\u27 acceptance or rejection of suicide, as well as their concerns about personal death, are consistent and are centered around strong religious beliefs and practice. On the other hand, the acceptance or rejection of suicide among Reformed Jews are influenced by at least two independent factors: fears of personal death and religiosity. No relationships between religiosity, suicide acceptability, and fears of death were observed among the Conservative Jews. Future directions, limitations, and practical applications of this study are discussed

Gauged Q-balls

Classical non-topological soliton configurations are considered within the theory of a complex scalar field with a gauged U symmetry. Their existence and stability against dispersion are demonstrated and some of their properties are investigated analytically and numerically. The soliton configuration is such that inside the soliton the local U symmetry is broken, the gauge field becomes massive and for a range of values of the coupling constants the soliton becomes a superconductor pushing the charge to the surface. Furthermore, because of the repulsive Coulomb force, there is a maximum size for these objects, making impossible the existence of Q-matter in bulk form. Also briefly discussed are solitons with fermions in a U gauge theory

The True Value of a Law Degree, or, Why Did Thurgood Marshall Go to Law School?

There has been vigorous debate in recent months over whether a law degree is a worthwhile investment. Much of this discussion has focused on whether the economic costs of obtaining a degree pay off over a lawyer’s career. This conversation has largely overlooked the many non-economic benefits of a law degree. In this essay, we seek to re-introduce several non-economic factors back into this important dialogue. We suggest that prospective law school applicants would be wise to consider these non-economic factors in addition to economic ones

Using Qualitative Methodologies to Explore the Lived Experience of Chronic Pain and Chronic Pain in the Workplace

Introduction: Chronic pain is a significant and challenging issue, impacting an increasingly large number of Canadians. The impacts from chronic pain are individually felt on a biological, psychological and sociological level and as a result proliferate one’s life in entirety. The workplace being a key domain in one’s life creates an additional layer of complexity in managing chronic pain conditions, both from the perspective of the worker with a chronic pain condition and the employer as well. This dissertation consists of three manuscripts, all using qualitative methodologies to explore issues of chronic pain in the work environment. Manuscript 1 - Contemporary Approaches to Phenomenology: This manuscript reviews two contemporary approaches to phenomenology in Jonathan Smith’s Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis and Maxwell van Manen’s contemporary approach to phenomenology and provides a comparison and critique of both of these approaches. Through detailing these approaches on a critical level should be feasible for novice researchers to adequately ascertain whether these particular applications on phenomenology are beneficial and applicable to their research. Manuscript 2 – Autoethnography of a Young Adult with Chronic Pain: This manuscript explores the author’s personal experience in navigating their chronic pain condition as a young adult. From the narrative of these experiences, three major themes were discussed and analyzed through the existing literature in the field. These themes included: interactions of young adults with health care providers, impacts by and on caregivers in supporting a loved one with a chronic pain condition and the specific challenges of managing reduced capacity in the workplace environment. Manuscript 3 - An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of Chronic Pain in those who are Self-Employed or Teleworking: This final manuscript utilizes Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (as discussed in Manuscript 1) to discuss the lived experience of four individuals who shifted to some form of self-employment or telework to help manage their chronic pain condition. Common themes emerged from the interviews completed, including: the strategies adopted to manage their chronic pain condition in their home-based work environment and the benefits and challenges that occurred with self-employment and telework and their chronic pain. Self-employment and telework were regularly found to be a necessary approach for managing their chronic pain given the increased self-efficacy and autonomy despite the number of challenges that they faced in this particular work environment. Conclusions: These three manuscripts work together in order to successfully apply a variety of qualitative methodologies to help increase the understanding of these nuanced conditions. The particular area of chronic pain among those who are self-employed and teleworking is a valuable groundwork paper in the current workplace environment where more people are participating in various forms of self-employment or telework

Surrogate models for precessing binary black hole simulations with unequal masses

Only numerical relativity simulations can capture the full complexities of binary black hole mergers. These simulations, however, are prohibitively expensive for direct data analysis applications such as parameter estimation. We present two new fast and accurate surrogate models for the outputs of these simulations: the first model, NRSur7dq4, predicts the gravitational waveform and the second model, \RemnantModel, predicts the properties of the remnant black hole. These models extend previous 7-dimensional, non-eccentric precessing models to higher mass ratios, and have been trained against 1528 simulations with mass ratios $q\leq4$ and spin magnitudes $\chi_1,\chi_2 \leq 0.8$, with generic spin directions. The waveform model, NRSur7dq4, which begins about 20 orbits before merger, includes all $\ell \leq 4$ spin-weighted spherical harmonic modes, as well as the precession frame dynamics and spin evolution of the black holes. The final black hole model, \RemnantModel, models the mass, spin, and recoil kick velocity of the remnant black hole. In their training parameter range, both models are shown to be more accurate than existing models by at least an order of magnitude, with errors comparable to the estimated errors in the numerical relativity simulations. We also show that the surrogate models work well even when extrapolated outside their training parameter space range, up to mass ratios $q=6$.Comment: Matches published version. Models publicly available at https://zenodo.org/record/3455886#.XZ9s1-dKjBI and https://pypi.org/project/surfinB