Religious education in the experience of young people from mixed-faith families

On the basis of recent ethnographic study at the University of Warwick of the religious identity formation of young people in ‘mixed-faith’ families, this article focuses on their (and their parents’) experiences and perceptions of religious education (RE) and of religious nurture in the community. The young people’s experience of RE differed between primary and secondary school and only a few were engaged in supplementary classes. We highlight the complementarity between school and home in young people’s religious learning and draw out implications for RE

Keeping the faith: reflections on religious nurture among young British Sikhs

Although young Sikhs are regularly accused of not attending gurdwara and not being interested in Sikhism, many young Sikhs are now learning about Sikhism outside traditional religious institutions. Using data gathered as part of a research project studying the transmission of Sikhism among 18- to 30-year-old British Sikhs, this essay explores how young Sikhs are learning about Sikhism in their pre-adult life stage. Examining the influences of the family and the school environment and the various methods used in gurdwaras, this essay offers a retrospective look on the ways in which young Sikhs are nurtured and socialised into Sikhism, providing an understanding from the perspective of young Sikhs themselves about which methods actually work and why

Measuring attitude towards Buddhism and Sikhism : internal consistency reliability for two new instruments

This paper describes and discusses the development and empirical properties of two new 24-item scales – one measuring attitude toward Buddhism and the other measuring attitude toward Sikhism. The scale is designed to facilitate inter-faith comparisons within the psychology of religion alongside the well-established Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity. Data were obtained from a multi-religious sample of 369 school pupils aged between 13 and 15 in London. Application of the two scales demonstrated that adolescents had a more positive attitude to Buddhism than Sikhism. The findings confirm the reliability of the scales and commend them for further use

A new short-faced archosauriform from the Upper Triassic Placerias/Downs’ quarry complex, Arizona, USA, expands the morphological diversity of the Triassic archosauriform radiation

The Placerias/Downs’ Quarry complex in eastern Arizona, USA, is the most diverse Upper Triassic vertebrate locality known. We report a new short-faced archosauriform, Syntomiprosopus sucherorum gen. et sp. nov., represented by four incomplete mandibles, that expands that diversity with a morphology unique among Late Triassic archosauriforms. The most distinctive feature of Syntomiprosopus gen. nov. is its anteroposteriorly short, robust mandible with 3–4 anterior, a larger caniniform, and 1–3 “postcanine” alveoli. The size and shape of the alveoli and the preserved tips of replacement teeth preclude assignment to any taxon known only from teeth. Additional autapomorphies of S. sucherorum gen. et sp. nov. include a large fossa associated with the mandibular fenestra, an interdigitating suture of the surangular with the dentary, fine texture ornamenting the medial surface of the splenial, and a surangular ridge that completes a 90° arc. The external surfaces of the mandibles bear shallow, densely packed, irregular, fine pits and narrow, arcuate grooves. This combination of character states allows an archosauriform assignment; however, an associated and similarly sized braincase indicates that Syntomiprosopus n. gen. may represent previously unsampled disparity in early-diverging crocodylomorphs. The Placerias Quarry is Adamanian (Norian, maximum depositional age ~219 Ma), and this specimen appears to be an early example of shortening of the skull, which occurs later in diverse archosaur lineages, including the Late Cretaceous crocodyliform Simosuchus. This is another case where Triassic archosauriforms occupied morphospace converged upon by other archosaurs later in the Mesozoic and further demonstrates that even well-sampled localities can yield new taxa

'Heaven starts at your parents' feet' : adolescent bowing to parents and associated spiritual attitudes

In a quantitative survey of religious attitudes and practices in a multi-religious sample of 369 school pupils aged between 13 and 15 in London, the practice of bowing to parents was found widespread in 22% of adolescents spanning several religious affiliations and ethnicities – especially Buddhists, Hindus and those of Indian, African and ‘Other Asian’ ethnicity. Whether an adolescent bowed correlated significantly with spiritual attitudes such as wanting to abstain from alcohol, hearing religious stories, being inspired by religious festivals and liking the idea of seeing God in everything. Findings suggest bowing to parents can have religious significance on all three levels of Jackson’s Interpretive Approach and therefore cannot be regarded as a ‘cultural accretion’ of religion. Study of bowing to parents could form a unifying exercise in shared values for study of religion in the plural classroom and facilitate community cohesion in certain religious membership groups

Sonodynamic inactivation of Gram-positive and Gram-negativebacteria using a Rose Bengal–antimicrobial peptide conjugate

Combating antimicrobial resistance is one of the most serious public health challenges facing society today. The development of new antibiotics or alternative techniques that can help combat antimicrobial resistance is being prioritised by many governments and stakeholders across the globe. Antimicrobial photodynamic therapy is one such technique that has received considerable attention but is limited by the inability of light to penetrate through human tissue, reducing its effectiveness when used to treat deep-seated infections. The related technique sonodynamic therapy (SDT) has the potential to overcome this limitation given the ability of low-intensity ultrasound to penetrate human tissue. In this study, a Rose Bengal–antimicrobial peptide conjugate was prepared for use in antimicrobial SDT (ASDT). When Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa planktonic cultures were treated with the conjugate and subsequently exposed to ultrasound, 5 log and 7 log reductions, respectively, in bacterial numbers were observed. The conjugate also displayed improved uptake by bacterial cells compared with a mammalian cell line (P ≤ 0.01), whilst pre-treatment of a P. aeruginosa biofilm with ultrasound resulted in a 2.6-fold improvement in sensitiser diffusion (P ≤ 0.01). A preliminary in vivo experiment involving ASDT treatment of P. aeruginosa-infected wounds in mice demonstrated that ultrasound irradiation of conjugate-treated wounds affects a substantial reduction in bacterial burden. Combined, the results obtained from this study highlight ASDT as a targeted broad-spectrum novel modality with potential for the treatment of deep-seated bacterial infections

Collision-induced C_60 rovibrational relaxation probed by state-resolved nonlinear spectroscopy

Quantum state-resolved spectroscopy was recently achieved for C60 molecules when cooled by buffer gas collisions and probed with a midinfrared frequency comb. This rovibrational quantum state resolution for the largest molecule on record is facilitated by the remarkable symmetry and rigidity of C60, which also present new opportunities and challenges to explore energy transfer between quantum states in this many-atom system. Here we combine state-specific optical pumping, buffer gas collisions, and ultrasensitive intracavity nonlinear spectroscopy to initiate and probe the rotation-vibration energy transfer and relaxation. This approach provides the first detailed characterization of C60 collisional energy transfer for a variety of collision partners, and determines the rotational and vibrational inelastic collision cross sections. These results compare well with our theoretical modeling of the collisions, and establish a route towards quantum state control of a new class of unprecedentedly large molecules

Is self-assessment in religious education unique?

This paper addresses the question: is self-assessment in religious education unique? It first presents an overview of some challenges for assessment from subject differences, and then reviews the generic literature on self-assessment. It builds on earlier empirical research on self-assessment in religious education, carried out in an English state secondary school (Fancourt 2010); this was used to propose a variant of self-assessment which is tailored to the demands of religious education – reflexive self-assessment. Its implications for more general understandings of the relationship between subject pedagogy and self-assessment are discussed, especially the recognition of values not only in religious education but in other subjects too, reinforcing the need to develop subject-specific variants of self-assessment that reflect the breadth of learning outcomes

Scaling and Formulary cross sections for ion-atom impact ionization

The values of ion-atom ionization cross sections are frequently needed for many applications that utilize the propagation of fast ions through matter. When experimental data and theoretical calculations are not available, approximate formulas are frequently used. This paper briefly summarizes the most important theoretical results and approaches to cross section calculations in order to place the discussion in historical perspective and offer a concise introduction to the topic. Based on experimental data and theoretical predictions, a new fit for ionization cross sections is proposed. The range of validity and accuracy of several frequently used approximations (classical trajectory, the Born approximation, and so forth) are discussed using, as examples, the ionization cross sections of hydrogen and helium atoms by various fully stripped ions.Comment: 46 pages, 8 figure