Johannine Online Community

This project is intended to depict the Gospel of John as a blog, an online conversation between several of the characters in John. It contains postings, replies, news articles, advertisements and pictures. The blog mainly emphasizes the material in John that depicts tensions over authority that John presents in reference to Thomas, Peter and Mary Magdalene. There are other scenes displayed however. The synoptic gospels and non-canonical gospels form a backdrop for this tension, but material from John is most prominent. I tried to be as diverse in representing each scene as I could. I tried to play the images used and posts off the medium in which they are displayed, both in form and content; these are ancient accounts and depictions of these accounts presented in markedly modern ways, via the Internet. The blogs are written in plain modern language with quotes from John incorporated

The Spectacle of the Sotah: A Rabbinic Perspective on Justice and Punishment

The first chapter of Mishnah tractate Sotah (m. Sot) records rabbinic elaboration and interpretation on the sotah ritual contained in the Hebrew Bible, Numbers 5:11-31. Specifically, the nine mishnayoth that compose m. Sot 1 discuss the circumstances for invoking the trial of the “bitter waters” and the overall treatment of the suspected wife during the trial. This paper argues that, when read together, m. Sot 1 describes an entire economy of justice and punishment that must be imposed on a wife who is merely suspected of adultery, quite apart from whether she is—or is not—guilty of adultery. Through a close reading of m. Sot 1 and by examining the current gender discourse surrounding this text, this paper maintains that the rabbis sought to justify and explain these aspects of the sotah ritual by elaborating their understanding of suspicion and drawing them under a larger conception of measure for measure justice

Cancer\u27s Impact on Living: a Psychoanalytic Study of Psychological Effects in Newly Diagnosed, Early Remission, and Late Remission Outpatients.

Hypotheses derived from psychoanalytic theory of body image were tested using 80 female cancer outpatients at various stages of the disease. Subjects were administered the following measures: Body-Cathexis Scale, Tennessee Self-Concept Scale, Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation-Behavior Scale, Beck Depression Inventory, and a general information questionnaire. Results showed that body image is significantly related to self image and depression, but no significant relationship was found between body image and interpersonal needs behavior scores. Data also suggested the existence of denial as manifested by low self-criticism, personality integration, interpersonal needs behavior, and depression scores. Early remission patients differed most from newly diagnosed and late remission patients, by being less self-critical and obtaining higher interpersonal needs behavior scores. This difference suggested the establishment of a defensive system which may break down over time. Results further suggested that distress is not limited to early treatment and follow-up periods, since five or more years without recurrence was not sufficient to effect more positive scores. Further, patients who were voluntarily participating in psychological support groups achieved scores indicative of a healthier level of adjustment than a matched random sample of patients involved in medical treatment only. Discussion concluded that data were supportive of psychoanalytic theory regarding emotional trauma of physical disease, as well as observations of other investigators. Implications for psychological services and future research were discussed

Multi-Material Static Mixer Project

Faculty advisor: Dr. Angela Panoskaltsis-MortariThis research was supported by the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP)

Implementing the use of operational data in buildings

This paper considers how Operational Data might address both legislative and operational requirements from the viewpoint of an operational estate. It is framed within the context of the IEE iSERVcmb project procedures for describing operational energy data against the building activities and assets. The observations and findings from the paper show that there appear no practical reasons why the same operational data should not be used to show compliance with legislative procedures, if these were to be framed appropriately, and to provide the detailed information needed to enable action to achieve efficiency improvements in an Estate. The paper shows the significant measured energy savings possible from the use of Operational Data, as well as the ability to understand the physical estate more accurately. The work is based on characterizing utility use in an Operational Estate by reference to performance achieved in other operational buildings, but the procedure could be used to characterize any efficiency measure with practical derived metrics

Inflammatory status, body composition and ethnic differences in bone mineral density: The Southall and Brent Revisited Study

Ethnic differences in bone mineral density (BMD) and fracture risk are well-described; the aim of this study was to investigate whether central adiposity or inflammatory status contribute to these ethnic differences in BMD in later life. The Southall and Brent Revisited study (SABRE) is a UK-based tri-ethnic cohort of men and women of European, South Asian or African Caribbean origin. At the most recent SABRE follow-up (2014-2018), in addition to measures of cardiometabolic phenotype, participants had dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) bone and body composition scans. Multiple linear regression was used to determine whether markers of body composition, central adiposity or inflammatory status contributed to ethnic differences in BMD. In men and women, age- and height-adjusted BMD at all sites was higher in African Caribbeans compared to Europeans (femoral neck: standardised β (95% confidence interval): men: 1.00SD (0.75, 1.25); women: 0.77SD (0.56, 0.99)). South Asian men had higher BMD than European men at the hip (femoral neck: 0.34SD (95%CI: 0.15, 0.54)). Although adjustment for body mass index (BMI) or lean mass index (LMI) at the lumbar spine reduced the size of the difference in BMD between African Caribbean and European men (age and height adjusted difference: 0.35SD (0.08, 0.62); age and BMI adjusted difference: 0.25SD (-0.02, 0.51)), in both men and women ethnic differences remained after adjustment for measures of central adiposity (estimated visceral adipose tissue mass (VAT mass) and android to gynoid ratio) and inflammation (interleukin-6 (logIL-6) and C-reactive protein (logCRP)). Furthermore, in women, we observed ethnic differences in the relationship between BMI (overall interaction: p = 0.04), LMI (p = 0.04) or VAT mass (p = 0.009) and standardised lumbar spine BMD. In this tri-ethnic cohort, ethnic differences in BMD at the femoral neck, total hip or lumbar spine were not explained by BMI, central adiposity or inflammatory status. Given ethnic differences in fracture incidence, it is important to further investigate why ethnic differences in BMD exist

Unraveling the drift behaviour of the remarkable pulsar PSR B0826-34

We present new results from high sensitivity GMRT observations of PSR B0826-34. We provide a model to explain the observed subpulse drift properties of this pulsar, including the apparent reversals of the drift direction. In this model, PSR B0826-34 is close to being an aligned rotator. We solve for the emission geometry of this pulsar and show that the angle between the rotation and the magnetic axes is less than 5 deg. We see evidence for as many as 6 to 7 drifting bands in the main pulse at 318 MHz, which are part of a circulating system of about 15 spark-associated subpulse emission beams. We provide quantitative treatments of the aliasing problem and various effects of geometry. The observed drift rate is an aliased version of the true drift rate, such that a subpulse drifts to the location of the adjacent subpulse (or a multiple thereof) in about one pulsar period. We show that small variations, of the order of 3-8%, in the mean drift rate are then enough to explain the apparent reversals of drift direction. We find the mean circulation time of the drift pattern to be significantly longer than the predictions of the original RS75 model and propose an explanation for this, based on modified models with temperature regulated partial ion flow in the polar vacuum gap. From the variation of the mean subpulse separation across the main pulse window, we show that the spark pattern is not centred around the dipole axis, but around a point much closer (within a degree or so) to the rotation axis -- we discuss the implication of this.Comment: 23 pages (including 9 figure). Submitted to Astronomy and Astrophysics on November 11, 200

RRATs: New Discoveries, Timing Solutions & Musings

We describe observations of Rotating RAdio Transients (RRATs) that were discovered in a re-analysis of the Parkes Multi-beam Pulsar Survey (PMPS). The sources have now been monitored for sufficiently long to obtain seven new coherent timing solutions, to make a total of 14 now known. Furthermore we announce the discovery of 7 new transient sources, one of which may be extragalactic in origin (with $z\sim0.1$) and would then be a second example of the so-called `Lorimer burst'. The timing solutions allow us to infer neutron star characteristics such as energy-loss rate, magnetic field strength and evolutionary timescales, as well as facilitating multi-wavelength followup by providing accurate astrometry. All of this enables us to consider the question of whether or not RRATs are in any way special, i.e. a distinct and separate population of neutron stars, as has been previously suggested. We see no reason to consider 'RRAT' as anything other than a detection label, the subject of a selection effect in the parameter space searched. However, single-pulse searches can be utilised to great effect to identify pulsars difficult, or impossible, to find by other means, in particular those with long-periods (half of the PMPS RRATs have periods greater than 4 seconds), high-magnetic field strengths ($B\gtrsim 10^{13}$ G) and pulsars approaching the 'death valley'. The detailed nulling properties of such pulsars are unknown but the mounting evidence suggests a broad range of behaviour in the pulsar population. The group of RRATs fit in to the picture where pulsar magnetospheres switch between stable configurations.Comment: accepted for publication in MNRAS, 17 pages, 7 figures, 3 table

Results from multi-frequency observations of PSR B0826-34

We report new results obtained from multi-frequency observations of PSR B0826-34 with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT). (1) We find no evidence of weak emission during the typical long null state of this pulsar, simultaneously at 303 and 610 MHz, as well as individually at 157, 325, 610 and 1060 MHz at separate epochs. Our limit of non-detection is at ~ 1% or better of the peak of the active state profile, and corresponds to ~ 2 mJy at 610 MHz. (2) Significant correlation in the total intensity of the individual pulses between 303 and 610 MHz is reported from the simultaneous dual frequency observations, which is indicative of the broadband nature of the emission. We also report correlation between total energy in the main pulse and inter-pulse region from the high sensitivity single frequency observations at 610 and 1060 MHz. (3) Though we find the drift pattern to be very similar in the simultaneous 303 and 610 MHz data, we observe that the drift band separation (P2) evolves significantly between these two frequencies, and in a manner opposite to the average profile evolution. In addition, we confirm the dependence of P2 on pulse longitude at 303 MHz and find indications for the same at 610 MHz. We also present results for subpulse width at different frequencies, and as well as a function of pulse longitude. (4) As a natural out-come of the simultaneous dual frequency observations, we obtain an accurate DM value, equal to 52.2(6) pc/cc, for this pulsar.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures, 4 tables, Accepted for publication in MNRA

High signal-to-noise ratio observations and the ultimate limits of precision pulsar timing

We demonstrate that the sensitivity of high-precision pulsar timing experiments will be ultimately limited by the broadband intensity modulation that is intrinsic to the pulsar's stochastic radio signal. That is, as the peak flux of the pulsar approaches that of the system equivalent flux density, neither greater antenna gain nor increased instrumental bandwidth will improve timing precision. These conclusions proceed from an analysis of the covariance matrix used to characterise residual pulse profile fluctuations following the template matching procedure for arrival time estimation. We perform such an analysis on 25 hours of high-precision timing observations of the closest and brightest millisecond pulsar, PSR J0437-4715. In these data, the standard deviation of the post-fit arrival time residuals is approximately four times greater than that predicted by considering the system equivalent flux density, mean pulsar flux and the effective width of the pulsed emission. We develop a technique based on principal component analysis to mitigate the effects of shape variations on arrival time estimation and demonstrate its validity using a number of illustrative simulations. When applied to our observations, the method reduces arrival time residual noise by approximately 20%. We conclude that, owing primarily to the intrinsic variability of the radio emission from PSR J0437-4715 at 20 cm, timing precision in this observing band better than 30 - 40 ns in one hour is highly unlikely, regardless of future improvements in antenna gain or instrumental bandwidth. We describe the intrinsic variability of the pulsar signal as stochastic wideband impulse modulated self-noise (SWIMS) and argue that SWIMS will likely limit the timing precision of every millisecond pulsar currently observed by Pulsar Timing Array projects as larger and more sensitive antennae are built in the coming decades.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS. Updated version: added DOI and changed manuscript to reflect changes in the final published versio