Latina/o Conversion and Miracle-Seeking at a Buddhist Temple

The growing diversification of the US Latino religious’ experiences calls for scholarly attention beyond Protestant or Catholic categories. This study begins to answer this call. Using interview data with 26 Latinos collected over 2 years of observation at the True Lama Meditation Center (TLMC) in Houston, Texas, we describe how Latinos who convert to Buddhism or actively attend the temple while also continuing to attend Christian services (both Catholic and Protestant) see themselves and understand their religious identities and practices. We then explore the reasons for their conversion or changes in religious identities and practices through various theoretical lens. Although the majority of respondents now claim to be Buddhist, many did not switch religions but augmented or extended their religious identities and practices. Reasons for conversion to Buddhism or concurrent involvement at the temple and Buddhist faith practices include seeking material support and miracles and those seeking spiritual fulfillment they felt they were not getting in Christian faith practices

Simulation of multi-axis machining processes using z-mapping technique

Parameter selection in machining operations is curial for product quality and high productivity. Process parameters such as feed, spindle speed and depth of cuts are often chosen by trial-error methods. Mathematical models can be employed to predict the mechanics and the dynamics of the process. In this study, Z-mapping technique is utilized to simulate the process step by step by updating the workpiece according the given tool path where the cutter engagement areas are also determined. Using the numerical generalized process model, whole process is simulated for any milling tool geometry including intricate profiling tools, serrated cutters and tools with variable edge geometries

Some companions of Ostrowski type inequalities for twice differentiable functions

The main aim of this paper is to establish some companions of Ostrowski type integral inequalities for functions whose second derivatives are bounded. Moreover, some Ostrowski type inequalities are given for mappings whose first derivatives are of bounded variation. Some applications for special means and quadrature formulae are also given

Shocking the Crowd: The Effect of Censorship Shocks on Chinese Wikipedia

Collaborative crowdsourcing has become a popular approach to organizing work across the globe. Being global also means being vulnerable to shocks -- unforeseen events that disrupt crowds -- that originate from any country. In this study, we examine changes in collaborative behavior of editors of Chinese Wikipedia that arise due to the 2005 government censor- ship in mainland China. Using the exogenous variation in the fraction of editors blocked across different articles due to the censorship, we examine the impact of reduction in group size, which we denote as the shock level, on three collaborative behavior measures: volume of activity, centralization, and conflict. We find that activity and conflict drop on articles that face a shock, whereas centralization increases. The impact of a shock on activity increases with shock level, whereas the impact on centralization and conflict is higher for moderate shock levels than for very small or very high shock levels. These findings provide support for threat rigidity theory -- originally introduced in the organizational theory literature -- in the context of large-scale collaborative crowds

Cyclohexenones Through Addition of Ethyl Acetoacetate to 3-Aryl-1-(thiophen-3-yl)prop-2-en-1-one Derivatives

Chalcone derivatives 3a–i containing a thiophene ring were prepared by the condensation of 1-(thiophen-3-yl)ethanone with aromatic aldehydes in excellent yields. The Michael addition of ethyl acetoacetate 4 to chalcone derivatives 3a–i resulted in the formation of nine novel ethyl 6-aryl 4-(3-thienyl)cyclohex-3-en-2-one-1-carboxylate derivatives 6a–i.Keywords: Michael Addition, Ethyl Acetoacetate, Cyclohexenones, Cyclocondensatio

Fractional Ostrowski type inequalities for functions of bounded variaton with two variables

We first establish some fractional equalities for functions of bounded variation with two variables. Then we derive some fractional Ostrowski and Trapezoid type inequalities for functions of bounded variation with two variables. In addition, we give some Midpoint inequalities as special cases of our main results.WOS:0005415092000122-s2.0-8508947064

Multipartite minimum uncertainty products

In our previous work we have found a lower bound for the multipartite uncertainty product of the position and momentum observables over all separable states. In this work we are trying to minimize this uncertainty product over a broader class of states to find the fundamental limits imposed by nature on the observable quantites. We show that it is necessary to consider pure states only and find the infimum of the uncertainty product over a special class of pure states (states with spherically symmetric wave functions). It is shown that this infimum is not attained. We also explicitly construct a parametrized family of states that approaches the infimum by varying the parameter. Since the constructed states beat the lower bound for separable states, they are entangled. We thus show that there is a gap that separates the values of a simple measurable quantity for separable states from entangled ones and we also try to find the size of this gap.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figure

Review of Current Methodological Approaches for Characterizing MicroRNAs in Plants

Advances in molecular biology have led to some surprising discoveries. One of these includes the complexities of RNA and its role in gene expression. One particular class of RNA called microRNA (miRNA) is the focus of this paper. We will first briefly look at some of the characteristics and biogenesis of miRNA in plant systems. The remainder of the paper will go into details of three different approaches used to identify and study miRNA. These include two reverse genetics approaches: computation (bioinformatics) and experimental, and one rare forward genetics approach. We also will summarize how to measure and quantify miRNAs, and how to detect their possible targets in plants. Strengths and weaknesses of each methodological approach are discussed

Chatter, process damping, and chip segmentation in turning: A signal processing approach

An increasing number of aerospace components are manufactured from titanium and nickel alloys that are difficult to machine due to their thermal and mechanical properties. This limits the metal removal rates that can be achieved from the production process. However, under these machining conditions the phenomenon of process damping can be exploited to help avoid self-excited vibrations known as regenerative chatter. This means that greater widths of cut can be taken so as to increase the metal removal rate, and hence offset the cutting speed restrictions that are imposed by the thermo-mechanical properties of the material. However, there is little or no consensus as to the underlying mechanisms that cause process damping. The present study investigates two process damping mechanisms that have previously been proposed in the machining literature: the tool flank/workpiece interference effect, and the short regenerative effect. A signal processing procedure is employed to identify flank/workpiece interference from experimental data. Meanwhile, the short regenerative model is solved using a new frequency domain approach that yields additional insight into its stabilising effect. However, analysis and signal processing of the experimentally obtained data reveals that neither of these models can fully explain the increases in stability that are observed in practice. Meanwhile, chip segmentation effects were observed in a number of measurements, and it is suggested that segmentation could play an important role in the process-damped chatter stability of these materials

Preparation of diethyl malonate adducts from chalcone analogs containing a thienyl ring

Nine chalcone-diethyl malonate derivatives (4a-i) were prepared by the reaction of chalcone derivatives (3a-i) with diethyl malonate in the presence of a catalytic amount of KOt-Bu in CH2CI2 in good to excellent yields. The products were characterized by FTIR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR and elemental analyses. KEY WORDS: Michael addition, Chalcone, KOt-Bu, Diethyl malonate  Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2010, 24(1), 85-91.