Exploring Quest and Cultural Humility in Relation to the Spiritual Identities of Doctoral Clinical Psychology Students at a Christian University

Graduate students receiving doctoral training in clinical psychology from Christian universities often undergo unique changes in their faith identity. Previous research has demonstrated a decline in faith commitment, religious attributions, religious coping, and religious activities during doctoral training (Edwards, 2006; Fisk et al., 2013). While periods of religious disengagement among clinical psychology graduate students seem to be consistent across research studies, some research suggests positive religious transformation as students progress through clinical training and into their professional careers (Hofer, 2004; Pearce, 1996). Cultural humility is an other-oriented stance that is characterized by lifelong learning, cultural self-awareness and reflection, and interpersonal respect for the experience of others (Mosher et al., 2016). No research at this time has examined a possible movement toward a religious quest orientation that may encapsulate the complex faith experiences of graduate clinical psychology students at Christian universities and may be associated with the development of cultural humility. Seventy-seven students in four cohorts enrolled in a Christian doctoral clinical psychology program completed surveys measuring quest and cultural humility. Results of this study did not demonstrate significant differences amongst cohorts in cultural humility, quest, and intrinsic religiosity. Further, no differences were found in cultural humility in dyadic subsets of students demonstrating either heightened quest, intrinsic religiosity, or both quest and intrinsic religiosity as compared to the remaining samples. These results also indicate no significant relationship between quest and intrinsic religiosity with cultural humility. Implications and limitations of this study are discussed

Space Debris Removal with an Ion Beam Shepherd Satellite: target-plasma interaction

A novel concept for active space debris removal known as Ion Beam Shepherd (IBS) which has been recently presented by our group is investigated. The concept makes use of a highly collimated ion beam to exert the necessary force on a generic debris to modify its orbit and/or attitude from a safe distance in a controlled manner, without the need of docking. After describing the main characteristics of the IBS system, some of the key aspects of thruster plasma and its interaction with the debris are studied, namely, (1) the modeling of the expansion of an plasma beam, based on the quasi-selfsimilarity exhibited by hypersonic plumes, (2) the characterization of the force and torque exerted upon the target debris, and (3) a preliminary evaluation of other plasma-body interactions

High-Frequency Light Rectification by Nanoscale Plasmonic Conical Antenna in Point-Contact-Insulator-Metal Architecture

Numerous efforts have been undertaken to develop rectifying antennas operating at high frequencies, especially dedicated to light harvesting and photodetection applications. However, the development of efficient high frequency rectifying antennas has been a major technological challenge both due to a lack of comprehension of the underlying physics and limitations in the fabrication techniques. Various rectification strategies have been implemented, including metal-insulator-metal traveling-wave diodes, plasmonic nanogap optical antennas, and whisker diodes, although all show limited high-frequency operation and modest conversion efficiencies. Here a new type of rectifying antenna based on plasmonic carrier generation is demonstrated. The proposed structure consists of a resonant metallic conical nano-antenna tip in contact with the oxide surface of an oxide/metal bilayer. The conical shape allows for an improved current generation based on plasmon-mediated electromagnetic-to-electron conversion, an effect exploiting the nanoscale-tip contact of the rectifying antenna, and proportional to the antenna resonance and to the surface-electron scattering. Importantly, this solution provides rectification operation at 280 THz (1064 nm) with a 100-fold increase in efficiency compared to previously reported results. Finally, the conical rectifying antenna is also demonstrated to operate at 384 THz (780 nm), hence paving a way toward efficient rectennas toward the visible range

The Suaineadh Project : a stepping stone towards the deployment of large flexible structures in space

The Suaineadh project aims at testing the controlled deployment and stabilization of space web. The deployment system is based on a simple yet ingenious control of the centrifugal force that will pull each of the four daughters sections apart. The four daughters are attached onto the four corners of a square web, and will be released from their initial stowed configuration attached to a central hub. Enclosed in the central hub is a specifically designed spinning reaction wheel that controls the rotational speed with a closed loop control fed by measurements from an onboard inertial measurement sensor. Five other such sensors located within the web and central hub provide information on the surface curvature of the web, and progression of the deployment. Suaineadh is currently at an advanced stage of development: all the components are manufactured with the subsystems integrated and are presently awaiting full integration and testing. This paper will present the current status of the Suaineadh project and the results of the most recent set of tests. In particular, the paper will cover the overall mechanical design of the system, the electrical and sensor assemblies, the communication and power systems and the spinning wheel with its control system

Proton-proton correlations observed in two-proton decay of 19Mg and 16Ne

Proton-proton correlations were observed for the two-proton decays of the ground states of 19Mg and 16Ne. The trajectories of the respective decay products, 17Ne+p+p and 14O+p+p, were measured by using a tracking technique with microstrip detectors. These data were used to reconstruct the angular correlations of fragments projected on planes transverse to the precursor momenta. The measured three-particle correlations reflect a genuine three-body decay mechanism and allowed us to obtain spectroscopic information on the precursors with valence protons in the sd shell.EURONS EC-I3MEC FPA2003-05958 FPA2006-13807-C02-0

A Feasibility Study of an Integral PWR for Space Applications

Fission space power systems are well suited to provide safe, reliable, economic and robust energy sources, in the order of 100 KWe. A preliminary feasibility study of a nuclear fission reactor is here presented with the following requirements: i) high reliability, ii) R&D program of moderate cost, iii) to be deployed within a reasonable period of time (e.g. 2015), iv) to be operated and controlled for a long time (10 years) without human intervention, v) possibly to be also used as a byproduct for some particular terrestrial application (or at least to share common technologies), vi) to start with stationary application. The driving idea is to extend as much as possible the PWR technology, by recurring to an integral type reactor. Two options are evaluated for the electricity production: a Rankine steam cycle and a Rankine organic fluid cycle. The neutronics calculation is based on WIMS code benchmarked with MCNP code. The reactivity control is envisaged by changing the core geometry. The resulting system appears viable and of reasonable size, well fit to the present space vector capabilities. Finally, a set of R&D needs has been identified: cold well, small steam turbines, fluid leakage control, pumps, shielding, steam generator in low-gravity conditions, self pressurizer, control system. A R&D program of reasonable extent may yield the needed answers, and some demanding researches are of interest for the new generation Light Water Reactors

Fragment Production in Non-central Collisions of Intermediate Energy Heavy Ions

The defining characteristics of fragment emission resulting from the non-central collision of 114Cd ions with 92Mo target nuclei at E/A = 50 MeV are presented. Charge correlations and average relative velocities for mid-velocity fragment emission exhibit significant differences when compared to standard statistical decay. These differences associated with similar velocity dissipation are indicative of the influence of the entrance channel dynamics on the fragment production process

Excitation and decay of projectile-like fragments formed in dissipative peripheral collisions at intermediate energies

Projectile-like fragments (PLF:15<=Z<=46) formed in peripheral and mid-peripheral collisions of 114Cd projectiles with 92Mo nuclei at E/A=50 MeV have been detected at very forward angles, 2.1 deg.<=theta_lab<=4.2 deg. Calorimetric analysis of the charged particles observed in coincidence with the PLF reveals that the excitation of the primary PLF is strongly related to its velocity damping. Furthermore, for a given V_PLF*, its excitation is not related to its size, Z_PLF*. For the largest velocity damping, the excitation energy attained is large, approximately commensurate with a system at the limiting temperatureComment: 5 pages, 6 figure