Religious education in the experience of young people from mixed-faith families

On the basis of recent ethnographic study at the University of Warwick of the religious identity formation of young people in ‘mixed-faith’ families, this article focuses on their (and their parents’) experiences and perceptions of religious education (RE) and of religious nurture in the community. The young people’s experience of RE differed between primary and secondary school and only a few were engaged in supplementary classes. We highlight the complementarity between school and home in young people’s religious learning and draw out implications for RE

Integration and Deployment Techniques in Combination with Development Methodologies

Efficient and inefficient pairings of software development methodologies and software integration and deployment techniques exist. Often times the automation of code integration and deployment is chosen but the full benefit of these technologies are throttled by the incorporation of a development methodology. It can be hypothesized that the evolution of software development created this situation along with the latency of implementing development methodologies. This work examines four scenarios comprised of traditional and conventional development methodologies with manual and automated software integration and deployment techniques. Similar web-based software applications were selected from waterfall (traditional) and agile (conventional) run project development teams. The four scenarios were quantitatively analyzed through the use of a subjective component which took into account the common characteristics of each scenario. It was thought that the use of automation within an agile development methodology would show clear distinction when compared to the other three evaluation scenarios. However as discussed in the analysis, automated integration and deployment technologies benefited both waterfall and agile methodologies. Though due to agile\u27s foundational characteristics of small iterations with constant integration and deployments, the automation of both practices had more of a realized value and benefit

Normative Evaluations of Resource Conditions: The Influence of Visitor Characteristics and Implications for Recreation Management in Urban-Proximate Parks

Urban-proximate parks and protected areas provide a unique recreation landscape to individuals living in and near urban centers. They have been shown to provide similar recreation experiences to traditionally studied parks and protected areas such as National Parks, National Forests and Wilderness areas. This study takes place in a set of four urban-proximate parks in Orange County, California, USA. These parks are designated as urban-proximate because they are located within 100 miles of an urban center with 1 million or more people. Using norm theory, a well vetted social science theory, this work sought to identify thresholds of acceptability for five social and ecological resource conditions; people at one time, bikes at one time (both a measure of crowding index), informal trail proliferation, recreation preferences for trail width and trail width as recreation impact. Using the recreation preference literature, we identified four visitor characteristics that may be influencing normative evaluations; gender, race, recreation activity type and local ecological knowledge. These four categories were then tested against the five resource conditions to test their influence on resource condition evaluations. Chapter 1 will provide an overview of the existing literature pertaining to urbanproximate parks, diverse recreation visitation and the application of normative theory in the field of recreation research management. Chapter 2 is the first manuscript within this thesis which establishes evaluations and thresholds for the five aforementioned resource conditions and is formatted for submission to Landscape and Urban Planning. Chapter 3 is the second manuscript which identifies potential influential factors for these normative evaluations in order to provide managers with more detail on the evaluations of specific visitors. This chapter is formatted for submission to the Journal of Park and Recreation Administration. Lastly, Chapter 4 will conclude with a discussion and reflection on this research and the contributions it makes to the literature

Keeping the faith: reflections on religious nurture among young British Sikhs

Although young Sikhs are regularly accused of not attending gurdwara and not being interested in Sikhism, many young Sikhs are now learning about Sikhism outside traditional religious institutions. Using data gathered as part of a research project studying the transmission of Sikhism among 18- to 30-year-old British Sikhs, this essay explores how young Sikhs are learning about Sikhism in their pre-adult life stage. Examining the influences of the family and the school environment and the various methods used in gurdwaras, this essay offers a retrospective look on the ways in which young Sikhs are nurtured and socialised into Sikhism, providing an understanding from the perspective of young Sikhs themselves about which methods actually work and why

Probing orographic controls in the Himalayas during the monsoon using satellite imagery

The linkages between the space-time variability of observed clouds, rainfall, large-circulation patterns and topography in northern India and the Himalayas were investigated using remote sensing data. The research purpose was to test the hypothesis that cloudiness patterns are dynamic tracers of rainstorms, and therefore their temporal and spatial evolution can be used as a proxy of the spatial and temporal organization of precipitation and precipitation processes in the Himalayan range during the monsoon. The results suggest that the space-time distribution of precipitation, the spatial variability of the diurnal cycle of convective activity, and the terrain (landform and altitudinal gradients) are intertwined at spatial scales ranging from the order of a few kms (1–5km) up to the continental-scale. Furthermore, this relationship is equally strong in the time domain with respect to the onset and intra-seasonal variability of the monsoon. Infrared and microwave imagery of cloud fields were analyzed to characterize the spatial and temporal evolution of mesoscale convective weather systems and short-lived convection in Northern India, the Himalayan range, and in the Tibetan Plateau during three monsoon seasons (1999, 2000 and 2001). The life cycle of convective systems suggests landform and orographic controls consistent with a convergence zone constrained to the valley of the Ganges and the Himalayan range, bounded in the west by the Aravalli range and the Garhwal mountains and in the East by the Khasi Hills and the Bay of Bengal, which we call the Northern India Convergence Zone (NICZ). The NICZ exhibits strong night-time activity along the south-facing slopes of the Himalayan range, which is characterized by the development of short-lived convection (1–3h) aligned with protruding ridges between 1:00 and 3:00 AM. The intra-annual and inter-annual variability of convective activity in the NICZ were assessed with respect to large-scale synoptic conditions, monsoon activity in the Bay of Bengal, and the modulating role of orography. Empirical orthogonal function (EOF) and canonical correlation (CC) analysis suggest that joint modes of variability of monsoon weather and topography, which we call orographic land-atmosphere interactions, modulate the space-time variability of cloudiness in the region. Finally, scaling analysis of cloudiness suggests three different scaling regimes of orographic land-atmosphere interactions: 1) a synoptic-scale regime (≥70-80km); 2) an orographic meso–β regime (30–70km) associated with the succession of wide valleys and bulky terrain features; and 3) an orographic meso–α regime (≤30km) associated with the complex succession of protruding south-facing ridges and narrow valleys that characterize the Himalayan foothills between altitudes of 3000 and 5000m elevations

LCF Life of NiCr-Y Coated Disk Alloys After Shot Peening, Oxidation and Hot Corrosion

In a prior companion study (Ref. 1), three different Ni-Cr coating compositions (29, 35.5, 45 wt% Cr) were applied at two thicknesses by Plasma Enhanced Magnetron Sputtering (PEMS) to two similar Ni-based disk alloys. One coating also received a thin ZrO2 overcoat. The low cycle fatigue (LCF) life of each coating was determined at 760 C and was less than that of the uncoated specimens. In this followon effort, shot peening was examined as a means to improve the as-deposited coating morphology as well as impart a residual compressive stress in the near-surface region. After evaluating the effect of the shot peening on the LCF life, the effectiveness of the shot-peened coating in protecting the disk alloy from oxidation and hot corrosion attack was evaluated. This evaluation was accomplished by exposing coated and shot-peened specimens to 500 h of oxidation followed by 50 h of hot corrosion, both at 760 C in air. These exposed specimens were then tested in fatigue and compared to similarly treated and exposed uncoated specimens. For all cases, shot peening improved the LCF life of the coated specimens. More specifically, the highest Cr coating showed the best LCF life of the coated specimens after shot peening, as well as after the environmental exposures. Characterization of the coatings after shot peening, oxidation, hot corrosion and LCF testing is presented and discussed

High-Speed Strain Mapping of Human Meniscus During Tensile Loading

The knee meniscus is a fibrous soft tissue that is frequently torn. Prevention and treatment requires an understanding of failure mechanisms. Important failure properties are currently unknown, including the magnitude and orientation of principal strains at failure. This information is needed to inform predictive failure theories. 8 human meniscal samples were failed in tension, and surface strains were tracked using a previously validated high-speed digital image correlation system. Results suggest that failures occur at 44°, along the maximum shearing plane when testing along the reinforcing fibers, and at 6° along the maximum tensile plane when testing normal to reinforcing fibers