Religious and environmental values in PCUSA and UCC church camp programs

The association between denominational affiliation, as the independent variable, and (1) religious values, (2) environmental values, and (3) the integration of religious values and environmental values, as the dependent variables, in church camp programs of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) (PCUSA) and the United Church of Christ (UCC) was examined through survey research of PCUSA and UCC church camps across the United States. The results indicated that there is a significant statistical relationship between PCUSA and UCC church camp programs by reference to denominational affiliation for all three dependent variables

Reducing Electricity Demand Charge for Data Centers with Partial Execution

Data centers consume a large amount of energy and incur substantial electricity cost. In this paper, we study the familiar problem of reducing data center energy cost with two new perspectives. First, we find, through an empirical study of contracts from electric utilities powering Google data centers, that demand charge per kW for the maximum power used is a major component of the total cost. Second, many services such as Web search tolerate partial execution of the requests because the response quality is a concave function of processing time. Data from Microsoft Bing search engine confirms this observation. We propose a simple idea of using partial execution to reduce the peak power demand and energy cost of data centers. We systematically study the problem of scheduling partial execution with stringent SLAs on response quality. For a single data center, we derive an optimal algorithm to solve the workload scheduling problem. In the case of multiple geo-distributed data centers, the demand of each data center is controlled by the request routing algorithm, which makes the problem much more involved. We decouple the two aspects, and develop a distributed optimization algorithm to solve the large-scale request routing problem. Trace-driven simulations show that partial execution reduces cost by $3\%--10.5\%$ for one data center, and by $15.5\%$ for geo-distributed data centers together with request routing.Comment: 12 page

VLA Limits for Intermediate Mass Black Holes in Three Globular Clusters

The observational evidence for central black holes in globular clusters has been argued extensively, and their existence has important consequences for both the formation and evolution of the cluster. Most of the evidence comes from dynamical arguments, but the interpretation is difficult, given the short relaxation times and old ages of the clusters. One of the most robust signatures for the existence of a black hole is radio and/or X-ray emission. We observed three globular clusters, NGC6093 (M80), NGC6266 (M62), and NGC7078 (M15), with the VLA in the A and C configuration with a 3-sigma noise of 36, 36 and 25 microJy, respectively. We find no statistically-significant evidence for radio emission from the central region for any of the three clusters. NGC6266 shows a 2-sigma detection. It is difficult to infer a mass from these upper limits due to uncertainty about the central gas density, accretion rate, and accretion model.Comment: 5 pages, accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa

The Relationship between Nutritional Status and Anthropometric Measurements of Preschool Children in a Sierra Leonean Clay Factory Displaced Camp

Weight is a sensitive index for the evaluation of nutritional status of preschool children, particularly where their precise ages are known. Regrettably in Sierra Leone there are no known local standards of weight of preschool children and their ages are most times difficult to obtain. Thus weight alone cannot be the most suitable index in the evaluation of the nutritional status of preschool children in Sierra Leone. Thus the current study was undertaken to determine the relative merits of anthropometric measurements commonly used in nutrition survey for the evaluation of the nutritional status of preschool children in the clay factory displaced camp. Three hundred and six (306) children of both sexes aged 1-5 years were classified into three groups: Normal, protein-energy malnutrition (PEM) and vitamin deficiency (VD). The relative importance of the various anthropometric measurements was assessed in these three categories of children through comparison of their mean values and correlation coefficients. A close relationship was observed between the severity of PEM on the one hand and weight, weight-height ratio and mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) on the other. The indices weight and weight-height ratio were found to be very sensitive in the assessment of nutritional status of the children. Moreover, these indices showed a close association with other measurements. It was concluded that the weight-height ratio which is independent of age, is the most suitable index for the detection of early cases of PEM in our environment. Keywords: Nutritional status, Protein-Energy malnutrition, Vitamin deficiency, Preschool children, Weight-Height Ratio and Mid-upper arm circumference

A Comparison of Permanent Magnet and Wound Rotor Synchronous Machines for Portable Power Generation

Permanent magnet and wound rotor synchronous machines (PMSMs and WRSMs) are often used in diesel engine-based portable power generation systems. In these applications, there is a growing desire to improve machine efficiency in order to reduce fossil fuel requirements. In addition, there is a desire to reduce mass to improve mobility. To attempt to address these competing performance objectives, a system analyst is confronted with numerous choices, including machine type (PM or WR), converter architecture (active/passive), and control. Herein, to assist the analyst, design tools capable of performing automated multi-objective optimization of PMSMs and WRSMs connected to both active and passive rectifiers are described. The tools are then used to derive tradeoffs between mass and efficiency for a 3 kW application