Student Perceptions on the Community of Spiritual Formation at a Faith-Based University

Spiritual formation has always been of utmost importance in Christian education as faithbased institutions strive to educate the whole person; body, mind, and spirit. Because of this, Christian universities work to create programs and provide activities that challenge the minds and hearts of the students in order to promote spiritual growth. This study seeks to answer the following question: What does a phenomenological analysis of the lived experiences of students at a Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU) institution reveal about their perceptions of the spiritual formation priorities of the institution? Stated another way, what do students report about their lived experiences in relation to the spiritual formation practices at their institution? This research captured a glimpse of the spiritual formation programming at Pacific Northwest Christian University, or PNCU (pseudonym), as six students shared their experiences through a process of interviews. As the interview data and field notes were analyzed, four themes emerged from the research: Classes and professors impacted their spiritual growth, a sense of community was important to their well-being and spiritual formation, faculty and staff provided a platform for spiritual mentoring, and communal worship in various formats was meaningful. These themes proved consistent with the literature, and offered a snapshot of the overall health of the spiritual formation paradigm at the institution. As a result of this research, a few suggestions were formulated as to how the university could continue to improve its offerings of spiritually formative experiences, and offered insight into potential further study

Multiplicity and event-scale dependent flow and jet fragmentation in pp collisions at s√ = 13 TeV and in p−Pb collisions at sNN−−−√ = 5.02 TeV

Long- and short-range correlations for pairs of charged particles are studied via two-particle angular correlations in pp collisions at s√=13 TeV and p−Pb collisions at sNN−−−√=5.02 TeV. The correlation functions are measured as a function of relative azimuthal angle Δφ and pseudorapidity separation Δη for pairs of primary charged particles within the pseudorapidity interval |η|<0.9 and the transverse-momentum interval 1<pT<4 GeV/c. Flow coefficients are extracted for the long-range correlations (1.6<|Δη|<1.8) in various high-multiplicity event classes using the low-multiplicity template fit method. The method is used to subtract the enhanced yield of away-side jet fragments in high-multiplicity events. These results show decreasing flow signals toward lower multiplicity events. Furthermore, the flow coefficients for events with hard probes, such as jets or leading particles, do not exhibit any significant changes compared to those obtained from high-multiplicity events without any specific event selection criteria. The results are compared with hydrodynamic-model calculations, and it is found that a better understanding of the initial conditions is necessary to describe the results, particularly for low-multiplicity events

Indicators of Climate Change and Social Vulnerability in Fishing Dependent Communities Along the Eastern and Gulf Coasts of the U.S. Marine Policy

Changing climatic conditions are affecting the relationship between fishing communities and the marine resources they depend on. This shift will require an adaptive response on the part of policy makers and fishery managers. In the U.S., the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) established, in its fisheries agency (NOAA Fisheries), a set of social indicators of fishing community vulnerability and resilience to evaluate the impacts of changes in fishery management regimes. These indicators enhance the analytical capabilities within NOAA Fisheries for conducting fisheries social impact assessments and informing ecosystem-based fishery management. Building on the existing Community Social Vulnerability Indicators (CSVIs), new measures of climate change vulnerability are defined for the U.S. Eastern and Gulf coasts. These new indicators are used to assess the impact of sea level rise on critical commercial fishing infrastructure and the dependence of communities on species identified as vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Examples are provided in this article to demonstrate the utility of these new indicators to policy makers and the NOAA strategic goal for building resilient coastal communities that are environmentally and economically sustainable. Integration of CSVIs and the new climate change vulnerability indices highlight community needs for unique solutions in order to adapt to environmental and social changes and maintain their well-being

A TDDFT investigation of the Photosystem II reaction center : Insights into the precursors to charge separation

Authors acknowledge the EPSRC for funding this research.Photosystem II (PS II) captures solar energy and directs charge separation (CS) across the thylakoid membrane during photosynthesis. The highly oxidizing, charge-separated state generated within its reaction center (RC) drives water oxidation. Spectroscopic studies on PS II RCs are difficult to interpret due to large spectral congestion, necessitating modeling to elucidate key spectral features. Herein, we present results from time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) calculations on the largest PS II RC model reported to date. This model explicitly includes six RC chromophores and both the chlorin phytol chains and the amino acid residues <6 Å from the pigments’ porphyrin ring centers. Comparing our wild-type model results with calculations on mutant D1-His-198-Ala and D2-His-197-Ala RCs, our simulated absorption-difference spectra reproduce experimentally observed shifts in known chlorophyll absorption bands, demonstrating the predictive capabilities of this model. We find that inclusion of both nearby residues and phytol chains is necessary to reproduce this behavior. Our calculations provide a unique opportunity to observe the molecular orbitals that contribute to the excited states that are precursors to CS. Strikingly, we observe two high oscillator strength, low-lying states, in which molecular orbitals are delocalized over ChlD1 and PheD1 as well as one weaker oscillator strength state with molecular orbitals delocalized over the P chlorophylls. Both these configurations are a match for previously identified exciton–charge transfer states (ChlD1+PheD1−)* and (PD2+PD1−)*. Our results demonstrate the power of TDDFT as a tool, for studies of natural photosynthesis, or indeed future studies of artificial photosynthetic complexes.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Multiplicity-dependent production of Σ(1385)^± and Ξ(1530)⁰ in pp collisions at √s=13 TeV

The production yields of the Σ(1385)± and Ξ(1530)0 resonances are measured in pp collisions at √s=13 TeV with ALICE. The measurements are performed as a function of the charged particle multiplicity ⟨dNch/dη⟩, which is related to the energy density produced in the collision. The results include transverse momentum (pT) distributions, pT-integrated yields, mean transverse momenta of Σ(1385)± and Ξ(1530)0, as well as ratios of the pT-integrated resonance yields relative to yields of other hadron species. The Σ(1385)±/π± and Ξ(1530)0/π± yield ratios are consistent with the trend of the enhancement of strangeness production from low to high multiplicity pp collisions, which was previously observed for strange and multi-strange baryons. The yield ratio between the measured resonances and the long-lived baryons with the same strangeness content exhibits a hint of a mild increasing trend at low multiplicity, despite too large uncertainties to exclude the flat behaviour. The results are compared to predictions from models such as EPOS-LHC and PYTHIA 8 with Rope shoving. The latter provides the best description of the multiplicity dependence of the Σ(1385)± and Ξ(1530)0 production in pp collisions at √s=13 TeV

Azimuthal anisotropy of jet particles in p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV

The azimuthal anisotropy of particles associated with jets (jet particles) at midrapidity is measured for the first time in p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV down to transverse momentum (pT) of 0.5 GeV/c and 2 GeV/c, respectively, with ALICE. The second-order Fourier coefficient of the jet-particle azimuthal distribution (v2) in high-multiplicity p-Pb collisions is positive, with a significance reaching 6.8σ at low pT. Comparisons with the inclusive charged-particle v2 and with AMPT calculations are discussed. The model describes qualitatively the main features of the jet-particle v2 in high-multiplicity p-Pb collisions and indicates that the positive jet-particle v2 is generated by parton interactions