Not My Church! (Chapter 5 of Grappling With Faith: Decision Cases for Christians in Social Work)

You\u27re not acting as my church acts! church social worker Sandy Potts exclaimed. In fact, you\u27re not acting as His church would act! Peter Wilson, Senior Executive Director of Creekside Christian Church, and Rita Kimball, an assistant from human resources had just informed Sandy that she was being terminated. They had given the same news to others on the church staff as they met at fifteen minute intervals; another pair of administrators was doing the same in an adjoining room

Post-Newtonian constraints on f(R) cosmologies in metric formalism

We compute the complete post-Newtonian limit of the metric form of f(R) gravities using a scalar-tensor representation. By comparing the predictions of these theories with laboratory and solar system experiments, we find a set of inequalities that any lagrangian f(R) must satisfy. The constraints imposed by those inequalities allow us to find explicit bounds to the possible nonlinear terms of the lagrangian. We conclude that the lagrangian f(R) must be almost linear in R and that corrections that grow at low curvatures are incompatible with observations. This result shows that modifications of gravity at very low cosmic densities cannot be responsible for the observed cosmic speed-up.Comment: 10 pages, no figures, revtex

The gravity lagrangian according to solar system experiments

In this work we show that the gravity lagrangian f(R) at relatively low curvatures in both metric and Palatini formalisms is a bounded function that can only depart from the linearity within the limits defined by well known functions. We obtain those functions by analysing a set of inequalities that any f(R) theory must satisfy in order to be compatible with laboratory and solar system observational constraints. This result implies that the recently suggested f(R) gravity theories with nonlinear terms that dominate at low curvatures are incompatible with observations and, therefore, cannot represent a valid mechanism to justify the cosmic speed-up.Comment: 4 pages, revtex

Capture of non-relativistic particles in eccentric orbits by a Kerr black hole

We obtain approximate analytic expressions for the critical value of the total angular momentum of a non-relativistic test particle moving in the Kerr geometry, such that it will be captured by the black hole. The expressions apply to arbitrary orbital inclinations, and are accurate over the entire range of angular momentum for the Kerr black hole. The expressions can be easily implemented in N-body simulations of the evolution of star clusters around massive galactic black holes, where such captures play an important role.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure, published versio

Census Snapshot: Indiana

Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, this report provides demographic and economic information about same-sex couples and same-sex couples raising children in Indiana. We compare same-sex "unmarried partners," which the Census Bureau defines as an unmarried couple who "shares living quarters and has a close personal relationship," to different-sex married couples in Indiana

Census Snapshot: Minnesota

Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, this report provides demographic and economic information about same-sex couples and same-sex couples raising children in Minnesota. We compare same-sex "unmarried partners," which the Census Bureau defines as an unmarried couple who "shares living quarters and has a close personal relationship," to different-sex married couples in Minnesota

Census Snapshot: Ohio

Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, this report provides demographic and economic information about same-sex couples and same-sex couples raising children in Ohio. We compare same-sex "unmarried partners," which the Census Bureau defines as an unmarried couple who "shares living quarters and has a close personal relationship," to different-sex married couples in Ohio

The ORNL-SNAP shielding program

The effort in the ORNL-SNAP shielding program is directed toward the development and verification of computer codes using numerical solutions to the transport equation for the design of optimized radiation shields for SNAP power systems. A brief discussion is given for the major areas of the SNAP shielding program, which are cross-section development, transport code development, and integral experiments. Detailed results are presented for the integral experiments utilizing the TSF-SNAP reactor. Calculated results are compared with experiments for neutron and gamma-ray spectra from the bare reactor and as transmitted through slab shields

The Averaged Periodogram Estimator for a Power Law in Coherency

We prove the consistency of the averaged periodogram estimator (APE) in two new cases. First, we prove that the APE is consistent for negative memory parameters, after suitable tapering. Second, we prove that the APE is consistent for a power law in the cross-spectrum and therefore for a power law in the coherency, provided that sufficiently many frequencies are used in estimation. Simulation evidence suggests that the lower bound on the number of frequencies is a necessary condition for consistency. For a Taylor series approximation to the estimator of the power law in the cross-spectrum, we consider the rate of convergence, and obtain a central limit theorem under suitable regularity conditions.J.P. Morgan Chase and Co. and New York UniversityStatistics Working Papers Serie

Determining the Effect of Guessing on Test Scores

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of guessing on test scores. The population used for this study consists of twenty (20) pupils of a primary school randomly selected from a total of one hundred (100) primary six pupils in Calabar, Nigeria. Ten (10) multiple choice Chemistry test items were constructed and pilot tested on five (5) primary school pupils of the same grade and age. The result of the study fails to agree with the Perfect Guttman Scale rather it tends to agree with the opinion of Lord (1977). The tests were constructed and applied in the classical test theory pattern and the pupils do not possess the ability demanded by the test items. It is suggested that examiners should give appropriate and clear instructions to the examinees to avoid guessing. In order to assign scores to the responses of the examinees, it is recommended that examiners should adopt the correction of guessing formula. Key Words: Academic Achievement, Classical Test Theory, Electrolysis, Item Difficulty, Item Discrimination, Test score, True Test Theor