Ethical Values for Living: A Study of the Ethical Teachings Contained in the Epistle of James

The social and ethical concepts laid down by the early Jewish Christians have proved to be profound guides for churches and individual Christians. The Epistle of James, which is representative of first century Jewish literature, deals with significant social and ethical values. These social and ethical values are the very heart of the message of the Epistle of James. Consequently, these values become a practical guide to the layman, who is not trained in theology, in applying Christian principles in daily life relationships. The primary problem in this study was to determine the significant ethical values in the Epistle of James. The author\u27s purpose was to meet the needs of Jewish Christians of the Dispersion. These needs ranged from proper attitudes in the face of trials to praying for one another. In between these teachings he incorporates enough practical and ethical instruction to call early Jewish Christians and all subsequent believers to make their practice correspond to their faith

Reusable tools for smartphone apps : innovative activities in the European geological sector

This report presents the outcomes of a study to explore “Reusable tools for smartphone apps: innovative activities in the European geological sector” launched by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) with the British Geological Survey (BGS, Contract n°389788). The study is part of A Reusable INSPIRE Reference Platform (ARE3NA), Action 1.17 of the European Union’s Interoperability Solutions for European Public Administrations (ISA) Programme. The general objective of the study was to assist the JRC in explor-ing the developments and behind-the-scene activities that the geology sector in Europe is undertaking in terms of mobile applications (commonly known as ‘apps’) and where geospatial data of relevance to the INSPIRE Directive (2007/2/EC1) was being shared and reused. Mobile apps are increasingly being used across Europe to provide geoscience information and solutions. To understand the extent and approach of these developments, we undertook a survey of the geology sector. The results of this survey were designed to: help national geological organisations and the wider geological community discover more about work being undertaken help organisations not yet active in this area learn and benefit from those that have already taken some first steps, helping to explore the potential reusability of solutions be of benefit to other sectors interested in sharing geospatial data through apps understand whether INSPIRE is contributing to data access via mobile apps In order to accomplish this, we needed to discover which organisations were actively developing apps, what approaches they have taken, what tools they have used and how successful their initiatives have been. We also explore the types of users that are being reached by mobile apps and whether these tools have created new uses for geoscience spatial data, not only the delivery of data to ‘traditional’ organisa-tions involved in data exchange but also where data are being provided in less conventional ways to oth-er/new users, including citizens and those aiming to reuse the data being provided in other apps not only related to geology. Finally, we assessed how other organisations and communities can learn from the software, tools and methodologies that have been developed in the geosciences sector

Quasars in the 2MASS Second Incremental Data Release

Using the 2MASS Second Incremental Data Release, we have searched for near infrared counterparts to 13214 quasars from the Veron-Cetty & Veron(2000) catalog. We have detected counterparts within 4 arcsec for 2277 of the approximately 6320 quasars within the area covered by the 2MASS Second Incremental Data Release. Only 1.6% of these are expected to be chance coincidences. Though this sample is heterogeneous, we find that known radio-loud quasars are more likely to have large near-infrared-to-optical luminosity ratios than radio-quiet quasars are, at a statistically significant level. This is consistent with dust-reddened quasars being more common in radio-selected samples than in optically-selected samples, due to stronger selection effects against dust-reddened quasars in the latter. We also find a statistically significant dearth of optically luminous quasars with large near-infrared-to-optical luminosity ratios. This can be explained in a dust obscuration model but not in a model where synchrotron emission extends from the radio into the near-infrared and creates such large ratios. We also find that selection of quasar candidates from the B-J/J-K color-color diagram, modelled on the V-J/J-K selection method of Warren, Hewett & Foltz (2000), is likely to be more sensitive to dust-obscured quasars than selection using only infrared-infrared colors.Comment: To be published in May issue of Astronomical Journal (26 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables) Replaced Figure 6 and

CEO Compensation And Firm Performance: Is There Any Relationship?

Recent media and public attention has focused on CEO compensation.  This study looks at the relationship between CEO compensation and several measures of firm performance across a wide variety of industries.  The study used a database of CEO compensation for 200 large public companies which filed proxy statements with the SEC for 2007.  Total CEO compensation consists of:  base salary, cash bonuses, perks, stock awards, and option awards.  The measures of firm performance were:  company revenue, year-to-year change in net income, and year-to-year change in total shareholder return (TSR).  Correlation and regression analysis were used to test various hypotheses.  We expected that total CEO compensation and its components would be directly related to financial measures of company performance

Analysis of a new family of DC-DC converters with input-parallel output-series structure

There is an increasing trend of development and installation of switching power supplies due to their highly efficient power conversion, fast power control and high quality power conditioning for applications such as renewable energy integration and energy storage management systems. In most of these applications, high voltage conversion ratio is required. However, basic switching converters have limited voltage conversion ratio. There has been much research into development of high gain power converters. While most of the reported topologies focus on high gain and high efficiency, in this thesis, the input and output ripple currents and reliability are also considered to derive a new converter structure suitable for high step-up voltage conversion applications. High ripple currents and voltages at the input and output of dc-dc converters are not desirable because they may affect the operation of the dc source or the load. A number of converters operating in an interleaved manner can reduce these ripples. This thesis proposes a dc/dc switching converter structure which is capable of reducing the ripple problem through interleaved action, in addition to high gain and high efficiency voltage conversion. The thesis analyses the proposed converter structure through a dual buck-boost converter topology. The structure allows different converter topologies and combinations of them for different applications to be configured. The study begins with a motivation and a literature review of dc/dc converters. The new family of high step-up converters is introduced with an interleaved buck-boost as an example, followed by small-signal analysis. Experimental verifications, conclusions and future work are discussed

Monitoring Linked Epidemics: The Case of Tuberculosis and HIV

Background: The tight epidemiological coupling between HIV and its associated opportunistic infections leads to challenges and opportunities for disease surveillance. Methodology/Principal Findings: We review efforts of WHO and collaborating agencies to track and fight the TB/HIV coepidemic, and discuss modeling—via mathematical, statistical, and computational approaches—as a means to identify disease indicators designed to integrate data from linked diseases in order to characterize how co-epidemics change in time and space. We present RTB/HIV, an index comparing changes in TB incidence relative to HIV prevalence, and use it to identify those sub-Saharan African countries with outlier TB/HIV dynamics. R TB/HIV can also be used to predict epidemiological trends, investigate the coherency of reported trends, and cross-check the anticipated impact of public health interventions. Identifying the cause(s) responsible for anomalous RTB/HIV values can reveal information crucial to the management of public health. Conclusions/Significance: We frame our suggestions for integrating and analyzing co-epidemic data within the context of global disease monitoring. Used routinely, joint disease indicators such as RTB/HIV could greatly enhance the monitoring an

Fluctuating awareness of treatment goals amongst patients and their caregivers: a longitudinal study of a dynamic process

Background: Because increasing numbers of people now survive for months or years with advanced cancer, communication between patients, service providers, and family caregivers often continues over long periods. Hence, understanding of the goals of medical treatment may develop and change as time elapses and disease progresses. This understanding is closely related to the "awareness of dying," which has been studied in both qualitative and quantitative research. However, when both a patient and family caregiver are involved, the question of "awareness" becomes more complex. A recent longitudinal study reported on patient and caregiver knowledge of treatment goals, but no comparison of such knowledge using matched interview schedules and paired data analysis has been provided. This report examines patterns of awareness and factors associated with these patterns. Materials and methods: One hundred sixty-three patients with incurable cancer and their nominated principal family caregivers (136) were recruited from The Canberra Hospital Oncology Services. Participants' understanding of the treatment goals were measured by interview questions at weeks 1 and 12. Results: One-third of both patients and caregivers understood that the treatment goal was not curative; however, not all patient and caregiver pairs had the same understanding. In 15% of pairs, both patient and caregiver believed that the goal of treatment was curative, while another 13% said that they did not know the aim of the treatment. Thirty-nine percent of pairs registered incongruent responses in which only one member of the pair understood that the treatment was not intended to cure the disease. Over time, a few respondents changed their perception of the treatment goals toward accurate clarification. Bivariate analysis using an awareness variable, constructed for the purpose, showed that in 6 months before death, at least one person in 89% of pairs understood that the treatment was noncurative. Time-to-death, gender, and place of residence were also important predictors of knowledge. Conclusions: Discrepancies between patients and their caregivers may complicate the delivery of effective care when patients are seriously ill. Misunderstanding or uncertainty about treatment goals will obstruct proper informed consent. Health professionals providing care for families dealing with advanced cancer must recognize that the discussion of treatment goals is a dynamic process, which may require them to extend their communication skills

Ultraviolet Imaging of the Globular Cluster 47 Tucanae

We have used the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope to obtain deep far-UV (1620 Angstrom), 40' diameter images of the prototypical metal-rich globular cluster 47 Tucanae. We find a population of about 20 hot (Teff > 9000 K) objects near or above the predicted UV luminosity of the hot horizontal branch (HB) and lying within two half-light radii of the cluster center. We believe these are normal hot HB or post-HB objects rather than interacting binaries or blue stragglers. IUE spectra of two are consistent with post-HB phases. These observations, and recent HST photometry of two other metal-rich clusters, demonstrate that populations with rich, cool HB's can nonetheless produce hot HB and post-HB stars. The cluster center also contains an unusual diffuse far-UV source which is more extended than its V-band light. It is possible that this is associated with an intracluster medium, for which there was earlier infrared and X-ray evidence, and is produced by C IV emission or scattered light from grains.Comment: 13 pages AASLaTeX including one postscript figure and one bitmapped image, JPEG format. Submitted to the Astronomical Jorunal. Full Postscript version available at http://www.astro.virginia.edu/~bd4r