A Relational Hermeneutic Toward Connective Ecclesial Leadership

The modern western church is experiencing a crisis of hermeneutic. The pervasive hermeneutic or interpretive lens employed by modern Christ-followers has engendered a largely static view of church structure and leadership. Simply put, the Western church fails to see relationally. This problem of visual impairment will be addressed by crafting a relational hermeneutic composed of three distinct and overlapping lenses: a theological/biblical (God) lens, a sociological/ontological (humanity) lens and a scientific/network (the cosmos) lens. Lens 1: God is social. For orthodox Christ-followers a relational hermeneutic begins with a God who is social; a Tri-unity of Divine persons, each lovingly serving the others in an interanimating, interpenetrating perichoretic dance. This relational God empties self in the loving act of creation through which human beings are created bearing God\u27s relational image. The image of God in humanity may best be seen in the purposed oneness of diverse peoples and communities. The self-revelation of God to humanity through creation, the sacred text of the Christian Scriptures, Christ\u27s incarnation and the ongoing presence of the Holy Spirit all reflect the relational mission of God which is to reconcile all unto Godself. Lens 2: As image bearers of Divine interconnectivity the sociological lens of our relational hermeneutic is an extension of God\u27s life given to creation. The beauty and complexity of human interrelatedness and social construction reflects the being of God. By focusing on the us of the I-thou, we will see all interpersonal relations as I-us-thou; thus all interpersonal relations reflect the Tri-unity of God. The us of I-thou is a living, dynamic spirit, both inseparable and distinct from both I and thou. Lens 3: All that God created is interconnected. Human beings are part of God\u27s created order; to be part of connotes relationship. We will explore this relationship through recent discoveries within the network sciences to aid us in seeing how all that is, is interconnected. We will present scale-free networks as a key for seeing life, structures and institutions relationally. After a brief explanation of network theory, scale-free network theory will be employed to bring the relationship between the Kingdom of God and Christ\u27s church into focus; thus presenting a relational ecclesial structure. Together, these three lenses compose a relational hermeneutic. As a vision test we will apply this relational hermeneutic to leadership within a connective structure; examining the \u27being\u27 and \u27act\u27 of hub bing-leadership. Characterized by keno tic service which is called forth by the faith-community, the hubbing-leader seeks to connect others to whatever is required, (God, one another, creation, etc.) in such a way that the oneness of God is manifest in human experience. This relational hermeneutic begins in the Tri-unity of God, is extended to image humanity through the imago Dei and lived into by joining in the missio Dei of reconciling all unto Godself

Lenslet array tunable snapshot imaging spectrometer (LATIS) for hyperspectral fluorescence microscopy

Snapshot hyperspectral imaging augments pixel dwell time and acquisition speeds over existing scanning systems, making it a powerful tool for fluorescence microscopy. While most snapshot systems contain fixed datacube parameters (x,y,λ), our novel snapshot system, called the lenslet array tunable snapshot imaging spectrometer (LATIS), demonstrates tuning its average spectral resolution from 22.66 nm (80x80x22) to 13.94 nm (88x88x46) over 485 to 660 nm. We also describe a fixed LATIS with a datacube of 200x200x27 for larger field-of-view (FOV) imaging. We report <1 sec exposure times and high resolution fluorescence imaging with minimal artifacts

Snapshot Hyperspectral Imaging for Complete Fundus Oximetry

In this work, a snapshot hyperspectral imager capable of tuning its average spectral resolution from 22.7 nm to 13.9 nm in a single integrated form is presented. The principle of this system will enable future snapshot systems to dynamically adapt to a wide range of imaging situations. Additionally, the system overcomes datacube size limitations imposed by detector array size limits. The work done in this thesis also advances oximetry of the retina using data collected by the Image Mapping spectrometer (IMS), a snapshot spectrometer. Hyperspectral images of the retina are acquired, and oximetry of individual vessels in four diseased eyes is presented. Further, oximetry of the entire fundus is performed using a novel algorithm with data collected with the IMS. We present oxyhemoglobin concentration maps of the eye and demonstrate oxygen sensitivity of the maps by comparing normal and diseased eyes. The aim of this work is to advance the general capabilities of snapshot hyperspectral imagers and to advance the integration of retinal oximetry into the standard ophthalmology instrument repertoire

Transit Timing Observations from Kepler: VI. Potentially interesting candidate systems from Fourier-based statistical tests

We analyze the deviations of transit times from a linear ephemeris for the Kepler Objects of Interest (KOI) through Quarter six (Q6) of science data. We conduct two statistical tests for all KOIs and a related statistical test for all pairs of KOIs in multi-transiting systems. These tests identify several systems which show potentially interesting transit timing variations (TTVs). Strong TTV systems have been valuable for the confirmation of planets and their mass measurements. Many of the systems identified in this study should prove fruitful for detailed TTV studies.Comment: 32 pages, 6 of text and one long table, Accepted to Ap

Detection Of KOI-13.01 Using The Photometric Orbit

We use the KOI-13 transiting star-planet system as a test case for the recently developed BEER algorithm (Faigler & Mazeh 2011), aimed at identifying non-transiting low-mass companions by detecting the photometric variability induced by the companion along its orbit. Such photometric variability is generated by three mechanisms, including the beaming effect, tidal ellipsoidal distortion, and reflection/heating. We use data from three Kepler quarters, from the first year of the mission, while ignoring measurements within the transit and occultation, and show that the planet's ephemeris is clearly detected. We fit for the amplitude of each of the three effects and use the beaming effect amplitude to estimate the planet's minimum mass, which results in M_p sin i = 9.2 +/- 1.1 M_J (assuming the host star parameters derived by Szabo et al. 2011). Our results show that non-transiting star-planet systems similar to KOI-13.01 can be detected in Kepler data, including a measurement of the orbital ephemeris and the planet's minimum mass. Moreover, we derive a realistic estimate of the amplitudes uncertainties, and use it to show that data obtained during the entire lifetime of the Kepler mission, of 3.5 years, will allow detecting non-transiting close-in low-mass companions orbiting bright stars, down to the few Jupiter mass level. Data from the Kepler Extended Mission, if funded by NASA, will further improve the detection capabilities.Comment: Accepted to AJ on October 4, 2011. Kepler Q5 Long Cadence data will become publicly available on MAST by October 23. Comments welcome (V2: minor changes, to reflect proof corrections

SNAPshot-Image Mapping Spectrometer SNAP-IMS

No abstract availabl

Giant Magnetostriction in Annealed Co\u3csub\u3e1-x\u3c/sub\u3eFe\u3csub\u3ex\u3c/sub\u3e Thin-Films

Chemical and structural heterogeneity and the resulting interaction of coexisting phases can lead to extraordinary behaviours in oxides, as observed in piezoelectric materials at morphotropic phase boundaries and relaxor ferroelectrics. However, such phenomena are rare in metallic alloys. Here we show that, by tuning the presence of structural heterogeneity in textured Co1−xFex thin films, effective magnetostriction λeff as large as 260 p.p.m. can be achieved at low-saturation field of ~10 mT. Assuming λ100 is the dominant component, this number translates to an upper limit of magnetostriction ofλ100≈5λeff \u3e1,000 p.p.m. Microstructural analyses of Co1−xFex films indicate that maximal magnetostriction occurs at compositions near the (fcc+bcc)/bcc phase boundary and originates from precipitation of an equilibrium Co-rich fcc phase embedded in a Fe-rich bcc matrix. The results indicate that the recently proposed heterogeneous magnetostriction mechanism can be used to guide exploration of compounds with unusual magnetoelastic properties

Detection of Potential Transit Signals in the First Three Quarters of Kepler Mission Data

We present the results of a search for potential transit signals in the first three quarters of photometry data acquired by the Kepler Mission. The targets of the search include 151,722 stars which were observed over the full interval and an additional 19,132 stars which were observed for only 1 or 2 quarters. From this set of targets we find a total of 5,392 detections which meet the Kepler detection criteria: those criteria are periodicity of the signal, an acceptable signal-to-noise ratio, and a composition test which rejects spurious detections which contain non-physical combinations of events. The detected signals are dominated by events with relatively low signal-to-noise ratio and by events with relatively short periods. The distribution of estimated transit depths appears to peak in the range between 40 and 100 parts per million, with a few detections down to fewer than 10 parts per million. The detected signals are compared to a set of known transit events in the Kepler field of view which were derived by a different method using a longer data interval; the comparison shows that the current search correctly identified 88.1% of the known events. A tabulation of the detected transit signals, examples which illustrate the analysis and detection process, a discussion of future plans and open, potentially fruitful, areas of further research are included

Discovery and Validation of Kepler-452b: A 1.6-Re Super Earth Exoplanet in the Habitable Zone of a G2 Star

We report on the discovery and validation of Kepler-452b, a transiting planet identified by a search through the 4 years of data collected by NASA's Kepler Mission. This possibly rocky 1.63$^{+0.23}_{-0.20}$ R$_\oplus$ planet orbits its G2 host star every 384.843$^{+0.007}_{0.012}$ days, the longest orbital period for a small (R$_p$ < 2 R$_\oplus$) transiting exoplanet to date. The likelihood that this planet has a rocky composition lies between 49% and 62%. The star has an effective temperature of 5757$\pm$85 K and a log g of 4.32$\pm$0.09. At a mean orbital separation of 1.046$^{+0.019}_{-0.015}$ AU, this small planet is well within the optimistic habitable zone of its star (recent Venus/early Mars), experiencing only 10% more flux than Earth receives from the Sun today, and slightly outside the conservative habitable zone (runaway greenhouse/maximum greenhouse). The star is slightly larger and older than the Sun, with a present radius of 1.11$^{+0.15}_{-0.09}$ R$_\odot$ and an estimated age of 6 Gyr. Thus, Kepler-452b has likely always been in the habitable zone and should remain there for another 3 Gyr.Comment: 19 pages, 16 figure