Death and Dying: Life Lessons From Jesus (From New Testament Alive: The Gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke & John – Volume I)

Excerpt: Luke describes the final details of Jesus\u27 suffering and death on the cross. Jesus is brought before Pontius Pilate. Pilate sends Jesus to Herod, who has wanted to kill Him for quite some time. They finally meet face-toface. Jesus is questioned and found innocent of all charges. Jesus winds up back in Pilate\u27s court. He\u27s found innocent again. The chief priests and the scribes demand His crucifixion. The crowd jeers. Pilate is a peoplepleaser and is concerned with public opinion more than he is about doing what is right. Pilate concedes. He relinquishes to the crowd\u27s unjust demands and releases a convicted murderer in order to murder an innocent man. The crowd roars, Crucify him

Worldviews and Values Influence Our Actions (Blog Seventeen of Christianity Alive: Faith. Love. Action.

Excerpt: Not everyone ascribes to a formal religion, but every person I know possesses a worldview, even if they don\u27t think that they do. A person\u27s worldview helps construct his moral base (rights and wrongs). Worldviews are like a type of scaffolding that serves to support one\u27s personal value system, which in turn, both consciously and subconsciously, influence behaviors, actions, and decision-making

What is Leadership? (Chapter Two of Leadership Alive: Changing Leadership Practices within the Emerging 21st Century Culture)

Excerpt: This newly emerging culture is upon us. This change in Western culture requires a new breed of leader to emerge. There are many usable definitions concerning leadership. Leadership may appear in many forms, come from many theories, and be derived from many sources, but all are likely to guide through actions, influence, or service. 80 The new emerging leader of the 21st century will understand the relationship between the four principle leadership models: (1) Servant Leadership, (2) Situational Leadership, (3) Leadership and the New Science, and ( 4) Christian Leadership. In Chapter Three, I will introduce and explore the cultural shift that is surfacing within the United States and for that matter, Western Society abroad. I\u27ll discuss its effect upon leadership perceptions and development and will introduce three major themes of cultural change. We\u27re in need of a leadership with perspective and that perspective is colored by the prismatic tapestry of our evolving culture. So let\u27s turn the page to explore and collect some new colors of understanding as we venture into the future of the 21st century

Block Motion Changes in Japan Triggered by the 2011 Great Tohoku Earthquake

Plate motions are governed by equilibrium between basal and edge forces. Great earthquakes may induce differential static stress changes across tectonic plates, enabling a new equilibrium state. Here we consider the torque balance for idealized circular plates and find a simple scalar relationship for changes in relative plate speed as a function of its size, upper mantle viscosity, and coseismic stress changes. Applied to Japan, the 2011 $\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{W}}=9.0$ Tohoku earthquake generated coseismic stresses of $10^2-10^5$~Pa that could have induced changes in motion of small (radius $\sim100$~km) crustal blocks within Honshu. Analysis of time-dependent GPS velocities, with corrections for earthquake cycle effects, reveals that plate speeds may have changed by up to $\sim3$ mm/yr between $\sim3.75$-year epochs bracketing this earthquake, consistent with an upper mantle viscosity of $\sim 5\times10^{18}$Pa$\cdot$s, suggesting that great earthquakes may modulate motions of proximal crustal blocks at frequencies as high as $10^-8$~Hz

QCD effects on "stable" micro black holes at the LHC

If Micro Black Holes (MBHs) can be produced at the LHC, they will decay very fast. We study hypothetical MBHs that do not decay; in particular, QCD effects on accretion by MBHs that are produced at rest. We explain why accretion of a nucleon by such MBHs is associated with pion emission. This pion emission results in a kick to the MBHs, such that their velocities are large enough to escape the Earth. Our study provides an extra assurance that MBHs which might be produced at the LHC are not dangerous.Comment: 10 page

Creating semiclassical black holes in collider experiments and keeping them on a string

We argue that a simple modification of the TeV scale quantum gravity scenario allows production of semiclassical black holes in particle collisions at the LHC. The key idea is that in models with large extra dimensions the strength of gravity in the bulk can be higher than on the brane where we live. A well-known example of this situation is the case of warped extra dimensions. Even if the energy of the collision is not sufficient to create a black hole on the brane, it may be enough to produce a particle which accelerates into the bulk up to trans-Planckian energy and creates a large black hole there. In a concrete model we consider, the black hole is formed in a collision of the particle with its own image at an orbifold plane. When the particle in question carries some Standard Model gauge charges the created black hole gets attached to our brane by a string of the gauge flux. For a 4-dimensional observer such system looks as a long-lived charged state with the mass continuously decreasing due to Hawking evaporation of the black hole. This provides a distinctive signature of black hole formation in our scenario.Comment: Journal version, a misprint correcte

The effect of exercise on depressive symptoms in adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective: The purpose of this review was to examine the treatment effect of physical exercise on depressive symptoms for adolescents aged 13 to 17 years. Method: A systematic search of 7 electronic databases identified relevant randomized controlled trials. Following removal of duplicates, 543 texts were screened for eligibility. Screening, data extraction, and trial methodological quality assessment (using the Delphi list) were undertaken by 2 independent researchers. Standardized mean differences were used for pooling postintervention depressive symptom scores. Results: Eleven trials met the inclusion criteria, 8 of which provided the necessary data for calculation of standardized effect size. Exercise showed a statistically significant moderate overall effect on depressive symptom reduction (standardized mean difference [SMD] = −0.48, 95% CI = −0.87, −0.10, p = .01, I2 = 67%). Among trials with higher methodological scoring, a nonsignificant moderate effect was recorded (SMD = −0.41, 95% CI = −0.86, 0.05, p = .08). In trials with exclusively clinical samples, exercise showed a statistically significant moderate effect on depressive symptoms with lower levels of heterogeneity (SMD = −0.43, 95% CI = −0.84, −0.02, p = .04, I2 = 44%). Conclusion: Physical exercise appears to improve depressive symptoms in adolescents, especially in clinical samples in which the moderate antidepressant effect, higher methodological quality, and lowered statistical heterogeneity suggest that exercise may be a useful treatment strategy for depression. Larger trials with clinical samples that adequately minimize the risk of bias are required for firmer conclusions on the effectiveness of exercise as an antidepressant treatment

Spatial Correlation of Interseismic Coupling and Coseismic Rupture Extent of the 2011 MW_W = 9.0 Tohoku-oki Earthquake

Imaging the extent to which the rupture areas of great earthquakes coincide with regions of pre-seismic interplate coupling is central to understanding patterns of strain accumulation and release through the earthquake cycle. Both geodetic and seismic estimates of the coseismic rupture extent for the March 11, 2011 $M_W = 8.9–9.0$ earthquake Tohoku-oki earthquake may be spatially correlated (0.26 ± 0.05 to 0.82 ± 0.05) with a region estimated to be partially to fully coupled in the interseismic period preceding the earthquake, though there is substantial variation in the estimated distribution and magnitude of coseismic slip. The ∼400 km-long region estimated to have slipped ≥4 m corresponds to an area of the subduction zone interface that was coupled at ≥30% of long-term plate convergence rate, with peak slip near a region coupled ≥80%. The northern termination of rupture is collocated with a region of relatively low (<20%) interseismic coupling near the epicenter of the 1994 $M_W = 7.6$ Sanriku-oki earthquake, and near a region of potential long-term low coupling or ongoing slow slip. Slip on the subduction interface beneath the coastline (40–50 km depth) is best constrained by the land-based GPS data and least constrained on the shallowest portion of the plate interface due to the ∼230 km distance between geodetic observations and the Japan trench.Earth and Planetary Science

Spatial Correlation of Interseismic Coupling and Coseismic Rupture Extent of the 2011 MW=9.0 Tohoku-Oki Earthquake

Imaging the extent to which the rupture areas of great earthquakes coincide with regions of pre-seismic interplate coupling is central to understanding patterns of strain accumulation and release through the earthquake cycle. Both geodetic and seismic estimates of the coseismic rupture extent for the March 11, 2011 MW = 8.9–9.0 earthquake Tohoku-oki earthquake may be spatially correlated (0.26 ± 0.05 to 0.82 ± 0.05) with a region estimated to be partially to fully coupled in the interseismic period preceding the earthquake, though there is substantial variation in the estimated distribution and magnitude of coseismic slip. The ∼400 km-long region estimated to have slipped ≥4 m corresponds to an area of the subduction zone interface that was coupled at ≥30% of long-term plate convergence rate, with peak slip near a region coupled ≥80%. The northern termination of rupture is collocated with a region of relatively low (\u3c20%) interseismic coupling near the epicenter of the 1994 MW = 7.6 Sanriku-oki earthquake, and near a region of potential long-term low coupling or ongoing slow slip. Slip on the subduction interface beneath the coastline (40–50 km depth) is best constrained by the land-based GPS data and least constrained on the shallowest portion of the plate interface due to the ∼230 km distance between geodetic observations and the Japan trench