Personality expectations and perceptions of Roman Catholic clergy members

This study examined the expectations of Roman Catholic priests\u27 personality characteristics. Personality measures (i.e., Symptom Check List-90-Revised, Weinberger Adjustment Inventory, Belief in Personal Control Scale, and several authordesigned measures) were administered to 102 undergraduate students. The subjects\u27 perceptions of Roman Catholic priests\u27 personality traits were examined by having the subjects complete the Personality Adjective Checklist (PACL) describing a typical Roman Catholic priest. These scores were compared to PACL scores from 12 successful applicants to the priesthood. Findings suggest that subjects tend to view Roman Catholic priests stereotypically as authority figures and that Catholic subjects view priests more positively than do non-Catholic subjects

A proposed psychological assessment protocol for applicants to religious life in the Roman Catholic Church

This paper proposes a psychological assessment protocol for applicants to religious life in the Roman Catholic church. While most Catholic religious orders, seminaries, and dioceses require applicants to complete some type of psychological evaluation prior to entrance into seminary, there is no established standard or protocol suggested for conducting these evaluations. The current proposed assessment protocol provides those conducting or receiving these evaluations with a comprehensive foundation from which they can add or delete components to meet their specific needs. Furthermore, the utilization of a standard clergy assessment protocol creates the opportunity for the establishment of a national database useful for conducting research concerning clergy applicants

The Virtual Astronomical Observatory: Re-engineering access to astronomical data

The US Virtual Astronomical Observatory was a software infrastructure and development project designed both to begin the establishment of an operational Virtual Observatory (VO) and to provide the US coordination with the international VO effort. The concept of the VO is to provide the means by which an astronomer is able to discover, access, and process data seamlessly, regardless of its physical location. This paper describes the origins of the VAO, including the predecessor efforts within the US National Virtual Observatory, and summarizes its main accomplishments. These accomplishments include the development of both scripting toolkits that allow scientists to incorporate VO data directly into their reduction and analysis environments and high-level science applications for data discovery, integration, analysis, and catalog cross-comparison. Working with the international community, and based on the experience from the software development, the VAO was a major contributor to international standards within the International Virtual Observatory Alliance. The VAO also demonstrated how an operational virtual observatory could be deployed, providing a robust operational environment in which VO services worldwide were routinely checked for aliveness and compliance with international standards. Finally, the VAO engaged in community outreach, developing a comprehensive web site with on-line tutorials, announcements, links to both US and internationally developed tools and services, and exhibits and hands-on training at annual meetings of the American Astronomical Society and through summer schools and community days. All digital products of the VAO Project, including software, documentation, and tutorials, are stored in a repository for community access. The enduring legacy of the VAO is an increasing expectation that new telescopes and facilities incorporate VO capabilities during the design of their data management systems

Overnight changes in waking auditory evoked potential amplitude reflect altered sleep homeostasis in major depression

Objective: Sleep homeostasis is altered in major depressive disorder (MDD). Pre- to postsleep decline in waking auditory evoked potential (AEP) amplitude has been correlated with sleep slow wave activity (SWA), suggesting that overnight changes in waking AEP amplitude are homeostatically regulated in healthy individuals. This study investigated whether the overnight change in waking AEP amplitude and its relation to SWA is altered in MDD. Method: Using 256-channel high-density electroencephalography, all-night sleep polysomnography and single-tone waking AEPs pre- and postsleep were collected in 15 healthy controls (HC) and 15 non-medicated individuals with MDD. Results: N1 and P2 amplitudes of the waking AEP declined after sleep in the HC group, but not in MDD. The reduction in N1 amplitude also correlated with fronto-central SWA in the HC group, but a comparable relationship was not found in MDD, despite equivalent SWA between groups. No pre- to postsleep differences were found for N1 or P2 latencies in either group. These findings were not confounded by varying levels of alertness or differences in sleep variables between groups. Conclusion: MDD involves altered sleep homeostasis as measured by the overnight change in waking AEP amplitude. Future research is required to determine the clinical implications of these findings

Religious faith and psychosocial adaptation among stroke patients in Kuwait: A mixed method study

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2012 Springer Science+Business Media.Religious faith is central to life for Muslim patients in Kuwait, so it may influence adaptation and rehabilitation. This study explored quantitative associations among religious faith, self-efficacy, and life satisfaction in 40 female stroke patients and explored the influence of religion within stroke rehabilitation through qualitative interviews with 12 health professionals. The quantitative measure of religious faith did not relate to life satisfaction or self-efficacy in stroke patients. However, the health professionals described religious coping as influencing adaptation post-stroke. Fatalistic beliefs were thought to have mixed influences on rehabilitation. Measuring religious faith among Muslims through a standardized scale is debated. The qualitative accounts suggest that religious beliefs need to be acknowledged in stroke rehabilitation in Kuwait

Self-directed growth of AlGaAs core-shell nanowires for visible light applications

Al(0.37)Ga(0.63)As nanowires (NWs) were grown in a molecular beam epitaxy system on GaAs(111)B substrates. Micro-photoluminescence measurements and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy indicated a core-shell structure and Al composition gradient along the NW axis, producing a potential minimum for carrier confinement. The core-shell structure formed during the growth as a consequence of the different Al and Ga adatom diffusion lengths.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figure

A Reverse Genetics Platform That Spans the Zika Virus Family Tree

ABSTRACT Zika virus (ZIKV), a mosquito-borne flavivirus discovered in 1947, has only recently caused large outbreaks and emerged as a significant human pathogen. In 2015, ZIKV was detected in Brazil, and the resulting epidemic has spread throughout the Western Hemisphere. Severe complications from ZIKV infection include neurological disorders such as Guillain-Barré syndrome in adults and a variety of fetal abnormalities, including microcephaly, blindness, placental insufficiency, and fetal demise. There is an urgent need for tools and reagents to study the pathogenesis of epidemic ZIKV and for testing vaccines and antivirals. Using a reverse genetics platform, we generated six ZIKV infectious clones and derivative viruses representing diverse temporal and geographic origins. These include three versions of MR766, the prototype 1947 strain (with and without a glycosylation site in the envelope protein), and H/PF/2013, a 2013 human isolate from French Polynesia representative of the virus introduced to Brazil. In the course of synthesizing a clone of a circulating Brazilian strain, phylogenetic studies identified two distinct ZIKV clades in Brazil. We reconstructed viable clones of strains SPH2015 and BeH819015, representing ancestral members of each clade. We assessed recombinant virus replication, binding to monoclonal antibodies, and virulence in mice. This panel of molecular clones and recombinant virus isolates will enable targeted studies of viral determinants of pathogenesis, adaptation, and evolution, as well as the rational attenuation of contemporary outbreak strains to facilitate the design of vaccines and therapeutics. IMPORTANCE Viral emergence is a poorly understood process as evidenced by the sudden emergence of Zika virus in Latin America and the Caribbean. Malleable reagents that both predate and span an expanding epidemic are key to understanding the virologic determinants that regulate pathogenesis and transmission. We have generated representative cDNA molecular clones and recombinant viruses that span the known ZIKV family tree, including early Brazilian isolates. Recombinant viruses replicated efficiently in cell culture and were pathogenic in immunodeficient mice, providing a genetic platform for rational vaccine and therapeutic design

Interchanging Interactive 3-d Graphics for Astronomy

We demonstrate how interactive, three-dimensional (3-d) scientific visualizations can be efficiently interchanged between a variety of mediums. Through the use of an appropriate interchange format, and a unified interaction interface, we minimize the effort to produce visualizations appropriate for undertaking knowledge discovery at the astronomer's desktop, as part of conference presentations, in digital publications or as Web content. We use examples from cosmological visualization to address some of the issues of interchange, and to describe our approach to adapting S2PLOT desktop visualizations to the Web. Supporting demonstrations are available at http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/s2plot/interchange/Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia. v2. Revised title, revised figure 1, fixed typos, minor additions to future work sectio

Evaluation of the low-lying energy levels of two- and three-electron configurations for multi-charged ions

Accurate QED evaluations of the one- and two-photon interelectron interaction for low lying two- and three-electron configurations for ions with nuclear charge numbers $60\le Z \le 93$ are performed. The three-photon interaction is also partly taken into account. The Coulomb gauge is employed. The results are compared with available experimental data and with different calculations. A detailed investigation of the behaviour of the energy levels of the configurations $1s_{1/2}2s_{1/2} {}^1 S_0$, $1s_{1/2}2p_{1/2} {}^3 P_0$ near the crossing points Z=64 and Z=92 is carried out. The crossing points are important for the future experimental search for parity nonconserving (PNC) effects in highly charged ions

Effect of Dietary Components on Larval Life History Characteristics in the Medfly (Ceratitis capitata: Diptera, Tephritidae)

Background: The ability to respond to heterogenous nutritional resources is an important factor in the adaptive radiation of insects such as the highly polyphagous Medfly. Here we examined the breadth of the Medfly’s capacity to respond to different developmental conditions, by experimentally altering diet components as a proxy for host quality and novelty. Methodology/Principal Findings: We tested responses of larval life history to diets containing protein and carbohydrate components found in and outside the natural host range of this species. A 40% reduction in the quantity of protein caused a significant increase in egg to adult mortality by 26.5%±6% in comparison to the standard baseline diet. Proteins and carbohydrates had differential effects on larval versus pupal development and survival. Addition of a novel protein source, casein (i.e. milk protein), to the diet increased larval mortality by 19.4%±3% and also lengthened the duration of larval development by 1.93±0.5 days in comparison to the standard diet. Alteration of dietary carbohydrate, by replacing the baseline starch with simple sugars, increased mortality specifically within the pupal stage (by 28.2%±8% and 26.2%±9% for glucose and maltose diets, respectively). Development in the presence of the novel carbohydrate lactose (milk sugar) was successful, though on this diet there was a decrease of 29.8±1.6 µg in mean pupal weight in comparison to pupae reared on the baseline diet. Conclusions: The results confirm that laboratory reared Medfly retain the ability to survive development through a wide range of fluctuations in the nutritional environment. We highlight new facets of the responses of different stages of holometabolous life histories to key dietary components. The results are relevant to colonisation scenarios and key to the biology of this highly invasive species