The Efficacy of a Manualized Group Treatment Protocol for Changing God Image, Attachment to God, Religious Coping, and Love of God, Others, and Self

This study compared the efficacy of a manualized group treatment protocol on God image and attachment to God to a manualized Christian Bible study and a waiting list control group in a sample of undergraduate college students attending a Christian college. Thirty students were randomly assigned to one of the treatment conditions and assessed with measures of God attachment, God image, religious coping, and general spiritual outcomes. It was hypothesized that significant God image and attachment change would occur among the God image treatment group participants only. In addition, it was hypothesized that significant religious coping and spiritual outcome change would occur within both groups compared to the waiting list control group. The results supported significant spiritual outcome changes in both groups but no significant God image/attachment change or religious coping change. Feedback from the group participants informed how manualized God image/attachment protocols may be modified in future research to improve outcomes for young college-age Christian participants

Crystallographic Evidence of Drastic Conformational Changes in the Active Site of a Flavin-Dependent

The soil actinomycete Kutzneria sp. 744 produces a class of highly decorated hexadepsipeptides, which represent a new chemical scaffold that has both antimicrobial and antifungal properties. These natural products, known as kutznerides, are created via nonribosomal peptide synthesis using various derivatized amino acids. The piperazic acid moiety contained in the kutzneride scaffold, which is vital for its antibiotic activity, has been shown to derive from the hydroxylated product of l-ornithine, l-N5-hydroxyornithine. The production of this hydroxylated species is catalyzed by the action of an FAD- and NAD(P)H-dependent N-hydroxylase known as KtzI. We have been able to structurally characterize KtzI in several states along its catalytic trajectory, and by pairing these snapshots with the biochemical and structural data already available for this enzyme class, we propose a structurally based reaction mechanism that includes novel conformational changes of both the protein backbone and the flavin cofactor. Further, we were able to recapitulate these conformational changes in the protein crystal, displaying their chemical competence. Our series of structures, with corroborating biochemical and spectroscopic data collected by us and others, affords mechanistic insight into this relatively new class of flavin-dependent hydroxylases and adds another layer to the complexity of flavoenzymes.National Center for Research Resources (U.S.) (P41RR012408)National Institute of General Medical Sciences (U.S.) (P41GM103473

The Prophets: Bearers of the Word

An outline of the religious thought of the prophets of Israel

The Prophets: Bearers of the Word

An outline of the religious thought of the prophets of Israel

High-Pressure Tailored Compression: Controlled Thermodynamic Paths High-Pressure Tailored Compression: Controlled Thermodynamic Paths

Abstract We have recently carried out novel and exploratory dynamic experiments where the sample follows a prescribed thermodynamic path. In typical dynamic compression experiments, the samples are thermodynamically limited to the principal Hugoniot or quasi-isentrope. With recent developments in the functionally graded material impactor, we can prescribe and shape the applied pressure profile with similarly-shaped, non-monotonic impedance profile in the impactor. Previously inaccessible thermodynamic states beyond the quasi-isentropes and Hugoniot can now be reached in dynamic experiments with these impactors. In the light gas-gun experiments on copper reported here, we recorded the particle velocities of the Cu-LiF interfaces and employed hydrodynamic simulations to relate them to the thermodynamic phase diagram. Peak pressures for these experiments were on the order of megabars, and the time-scales ranged from nanoseconds to several microseconds. The strain rates of the quasi-isentropic experiments are approximately 10 4 s −1 to 10 6 s −1 in samples with thicknesses up to 5 mm. Though developed at a light-gas gun facility, such shaped pressure-profiles are also feasible in principle with laser ablation or magnetic driven compression techniques allowing for new directions to be taken in high pressure physics. 62.50.+p; 1 The ability to attain extreme pressure and temperature conditions has given investigators in fields as diverse as biology, condensed matter physics, and earth and planetary sciences the tools to explore material behavior at megabar pressures and at thousands of degrees Future advances will likely push the peak pressure higher and extend the pressure loading time. However, these techniques will continue to be limited to a portion of the high pressure phase diagram by their characteristic loading rate and a single thermodynamic path. In particular, static compression yields continuous states on an isotherm (or an isochore, when heating), with a slow loading rate of˙ < 10 1 s −1 . Shock compression rapidly loads a sample at strain rates of˙ > ∼ 10 9 s −1 to a single state on the Hugoniot -a locus of shock compression states. Current quasi-isentropic compression techniques constrain samples to lie near an isentrope, with strains rates of around˙ ≈ 10 With these vastly different strain rates varying as much as 10 orders of magnitude, there is no a priori reason to assume that the high pressure and temperature data gathered with these differing techniques can be directly compared We describe herein a series of dynamic compression experiments designed and performed with an approach that not only removes the constraint of a specific thermodynamic path, but also helps to bridge the gap in loading rates between a static and shock compression experiment. This method allows for flexibility in designing the applied pressure profile through various sequential combinations of shock, quasi-isentropic compression, controlled release and constant pressure. The resulting pressure profiles in the samples have time-scales 2 ranging from nanoseconds to microseconds. The ability to dynamically apply an arbitrary shaped pressure pulse to a sample has been realized through an impactor ( The individual layers are themselves composed of Al (or Mg) and W powders (≤ 5µm in particle size), mixed in the appropriate proportions to produce the desired impedance. Sintered powders yielded the highest densities (2.7 g/cc to < ∼ 15 g/cc for Al-W powders; 1.7 g/cc to 15 g/cc for Mg-W powders). Lower density impedance layers were created by embedding the powders in a resin matrix (final densities of 1.2 g/cc to 8 g/cc) or a foam matrix (densities of 0.01 g/cc to 2.7 g/cc). In practice, we restricted the lowest densities to about 0.1 g/cc so that the integrity of the impactor can be maintained during launch (where acceleration can be as high as 80,000 ms −2 ). By employing any or all of these techniques, impactors with varying densities ranging from 0.1 g/cc to 15 g/cc over a thickness of several millimeters were produced. A series of Cu experiments were carried out on a two-stage light-gas gun with the FGM impactors, and simulations were performed to understand the resulting thermodynamic paths. The impactors were launched at velocities between 1 and 4.5 km/s towards a Cu target (typically a Cu disk a few-mm thick and flat to better than 5µm, tamped with a 10 mm thick single crystal of LiF) In order to draw a connection between the experimental U p and the system's thermodynamic path through pressure, volume, and temperature (PVT) space, one-and two- In At the presented˙ in metals, the sample is expected to be near local thermal equilibrium, since the thermal relaxation times for particle interactions are significantly faster: 10 −13 s (electron-phonon), 10 −12 s (phonon-phonon), and 10 −12 s (electron-electron) The ability to control the time scale of the experiment extends to the quasi-isentropic pressure-release as well. By creating a FGM impactor with a constant initial impedance followed by a slowly decreasing impedance, we can control the rate of pressure release. As demonstrated in By employing FGM impactors with monotonic impedance profiles, we have demonstrated in these experiments In the experiment discussed abov

Load Estimation of Offshore Wind Turbines

The influence of 3 MW Hywind-II wind turbine wakes from an upstream offshore floating wind turbine on a downstream turbine with a separation distance of seven rotor diameters was studied for a site in the Gulf of Maine. The turbines and the platforms were subjected to atmospheric boundary layer flows. Various sensitivity studies on fatigue loads with respect to the positions of the downstream turbine were performed and validated with a large-eddy simulation tool. In particular, the effect of various lateral positions of the downstream turbine relative to the upstream turbine were considered using time-series turbine wake data generated from the large-eddy simulation tool which served as an input to an aero-elastic wind turbine model to assess the loads. The load response from the rotor, tower, and the floating platform for the downstream turbine were sensitive to the lateral offset positions where turbines that were partially exposed to upstream turbine wakes yielded significant increases in the cyclic load range. For the given set of lateral positions for the downstream turbine, the largest damage equivalent load occurred when the turbine was one rotor diameter to the left of the centerline, when looking upstream, which is the position of the turbine fully exposed to upstream turbine wake. On the other hand, the fatigue load on the downstream turbine placed on the right side of the position fully exposed to the upstream turbine wake, yielded lower stress due to the non-symmetric shape of the turbine wake. The configuration associated with the largest damage equivalent loads was further investigated in a large-eddy simulation, modeling both the upstream and downstream turbines. It was found that the energy spectra at the blade rotational frequency were a magnitude order higher for the downstream turbine, especially for surge, heave, pitch, and yaw motion of the platform. The increase of the damage equivalent load for the flapwise blade root moment was 45% compared to the upstream turbine, which can potentially reduce the turbine service life time

Robust quantum-based interatomic potentials for multiscale modeling in transition metals

ABSTRACT First-principles generalized pseudopotential theory (GPT) provides a fundamental basis for transferable multi-ion interatomic potentials in transition metals and alloys within density-functional quantum mechanics. In the central bcc metals, where multi-ion angular forces are important to materials properties, simplified model GPT or MGPT potentials have been developed based on canonical d bands to allow analytic forms and large-scale atomistic simulations. Robust, advanced-generation MGPT potentials have now been obtained for Ta and Mo and successfully applied to a wide range of structural, thermodynamic, defect and mechanical properties at both ambient and extreme conditions. Selected applications to multiscale modeling discussed here include dislocation core structure and mobility, atomistically informed dislocation dynamics simulations of plasticity, and thermoelasticity and high-pressure strength modeling. Recent algorithm improvements have provided a more general matrix representation of MGPT beyond canonical bands, allowing improved accuracy and extension to f-electron actinide metals, an order of magnitude increase in computational speed for dynamic simulations, and the development of temperature-dependent potentials