Female Perceptions of Technology Education at Old Dominion University

The problem of this study was to determine the perceptions of technology education among female Darden College of Education students at Old Dominion University and their willingness to switch career paths

The Extreme Ultraviolet Spectra of Low Redshift Radio Loud Quasars

This paper reports on the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) spectrum of three low redshift ($z \sim 0.6$) radio loud quasars, 3C 95, 3C 57 and PKS 0405-123. The spectra were obtained with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) of the Hubble Space Telescope. The bolometric thermal emission, $L_{bol}$, associated with the accretion flow is a large fraction of the Eddington limit for all of these sources. We estimate the long term time averaged jet power, $\overline{Q}$, for the three sources. $\overline{Q}/L_{bol}$, is shown to lie along the correlation of $\overline{Q}/L_{bol}$ and $\alpha_{EUV}$ found in previous studies of the EUV continuum of intermediate and high redshift quasars, where the EUV continuum flux density between 1100 \AA\, and 700 \AA\, is defined by $F_{\nu} \sim \nu^{-\alpha_{EUV}}$. The high Eddington ratios of the three quasars extends the analysis into a wider parameter space. Selecting quasars with high Eddington ratios has accentuated the statistical significance of the partial correlation analysis of the data. Namely. the correlation of $\overline{Q}/L_{\mathrm{bol}}$ and $\alpha_{EUV}$ is fundamental and the correlation of $\overline{Q}$ and $\alpha_{EUV}$ is spurious at a very high statistical significance level (99.8\%). This supports the regulating role of ram pressure of the accretion flow in magnetically arrested accretion models of jet production. In the process of this study, we use multi-frequency and multi-resolution Very Large Array radio observations to determine that one of the bipolar jets in 3C 57 is likely frustrated by galactic gas that keeps the jet from propagating outside the host galaxy.Comment: To appear in MNRA

The Virgin Mary, Creation, Incarnation, and Redemption: From the Church Fathers to Chiara Lubich

This article discusses a series of texts on the Virgin Mary that are to be found among the writings by Chiara Lubich known as “Paradise ’49,” which describe the mystical illuminations that she, together with some of her first companions, experienced between 1949 and 1951. I begin by considering illuminations on Mary’s role as Theotokos, the Mother or Bearer of God, and then discuss the part she plays in the Redemption as the Desolata, or Desolate One. I conclude with some remarks about Lubich’s vision of Mary in relation to the Trinity, humanity, and creation (of which Mary is the highest synthesis). I show how Lubich partakes entirely in the tradition that begins with church fathers such as Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, who write of the Virgin as the New Eve in the third century. Yet, I argue, Lubich’s insights add something new, particularly with regard to her understanding of the relationship between Jesus’s cry of forsakenness on the cross and Mary’s desolation as she participates in the agony of her Son and assents to the loss of her divine motherhood. I seek to show that Lubich’s new understanding of these events has profound implications for a variety of doctrinal matters concerning Mary, including her freedom from sin, her co-operation in the Redemption, and her role in actualizing the grace unleashed by Christ’s sacrifice. But more important than this in some respects, Lubich shows us how it is through losing God out of love for God that Mary, in her desolation, most fully mirrors the kenosis that lies at the heart of the perichoretic relations of the Trinity and offers us a model of how we may live Trinitarian love on earth and participate as cocreators in the renewal and transformation of Creation

Survey of time series database technology

This report has been prepared by Epimorphics Ltd. as part of the ENTRAIN project (NERC grant number NE/S016244/1) which is a feasibility project within the “NERC Constructing a Digital Environment Strategic Priorities Fund Programme”. The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology(CEH) is a research organisation focusing on land and freshwater ecosystems and their interaction with the atmosphere. The organization manages a number of sensor networks to monitor the environment, and also handles large databases of 3rd party data (e.g. river flows measured by the Environment Agency and equivalents in Scotland and Wales). Data from these networks is stored and made available to users, both internally (through direct query of databases, and externally via web-services). The ENTRAIN project aims to address a number of issues in relation to sensor data storage and integration, using a number of hydrological datasets to help define use cases: COSMOS-UK (a network of ~50 sites measuring soil moisture and meteorological variables at 1-30 minute resolutions); the CEH Greenhouse Gas (GHG) network (~15 sites measuring sub-second fluxes of gases and moisture, subsequently processed up to 30-minute aggregations); the Thames Initiative (a database of weekly and hourly water quality samples from sites around the Thames basin). In addition this report considers the UK National River Flow Archive, a database of daily river flows and catchment rainfall derived by regional environmental agencies from 15-minute measurements of river levels and flows. CEH commissioned this report to survey alternative technologies for storing sensor data that scale better, could manage larger data volumes more easily and less expensively, and that might be readily deployed on different infrastructures

Tactile Aids for Teaching Statistics to the Visually Impaired

This case study explored the use of haptic tools to teach concepts in introductory statistics to a blind student. Statistics education typically relies heavily on the visual modality, which limits accessibility for the visually impaired. Our study made use of tactile aids such as LEGO building blocks, push pin diagrams, and 3D printed models to demonstrate typical statistical concepts such as histograms, normal distributions, skewed distributions, central tendency, and scatterplots. We argue that such models are beneficial for elucidating course material which is typically taught visually. For example, 3D printed models were able to highlight all the same components of the standard normal distribution as visual drawings do, making a complex topic easily understandable. The aim of this project is to establish an easily-accessible, replicable model for utilizing these tools and methods to teach statistical concepts. This work has implications for teaching statistical content to those with visual impairment, and may also serve as a valuable supplement for any student of statistics