The Determined Decoration

Matthew 28:16-2

Are We Ready Yet?

Luke 2:1-7

A Little Boy\u27s Gift

John 6:1-1

Issues in Evaluating Health Department Web-Based Data Query Systems: Working Papers

Compiles papers on conceptual and methodological topics to consider in evaluating state health department systems that provide aggregate data online, such as taxonomy, logic models, indicators, and design. Includes surveys and examples of evaluations

A homiletical hermeneutic for the re-writing of hymn texts

This thesis is concemed that with the growing practice of hymn-text revision, a lack of consistency and quality is evident in some alterations which do not have the benefit of clear criteria and guidelines for such revision. This is of particular interest to preachers and pastors because of the significant relationship between preaching and hymn singing which have complemented and supported each other in the proclamation of the gospel. Sixteen issues or concerns about language usage and imagery are identified. Each of these issues is explained and examples are given to illustrate why individuals and faith groups today may have questions or difficulties with the wording in particular hymns. Homiletic theory and practice is used as the basis of a proposed hermeneutic for hymn-text revision. The five steps of this hermeneutic provide guidance to those who revise hymns, and offer a process which will lead toward consistency and quality in hymn-text revision. The revisions of two well-known hymns are critiqued to demonstrate the process

H.F. Hauff Pruner Cutting System

The technology of electric tree pruners in the current agricultural market has many engineering problems, including; a deficit in power output, excessive overheating, and ergonomics. The 3-man pruner team has coordinated with H.F. Hauff Co. Inc., an agricultural equipment company owned by Neil Hauff, to produce an electric pruner prototype which addresses these problems. The methods used to design the optimal pruner prototype includes traditional engineering stress analysis, force flow analysis, finite element software, and Solidworks modeling software. The construction of the pruner involved manual machining methods and C.N.C. (Computerized Numerical Control) mill technology. During the design process, the team learned advanced analysis practices, the relationships between torque and linear output, work fixture design, product design practices, and found that slight modifications to geometry caused a force amplification effect. With the help of Neil, and his staff, the pruner team gained an appreciation and insight into the professional design process and the relationship between part complexity and fabrication time. The finished prototype was able to meet the initially established design requirements of the pruner. However, the design is still limited with regards power output and operation temperature. The design and analysis performed for this project has made it possible for further optimization of the current prototype and some engineering problems of current electric pruners were addressed and fixed. Weaknesses of the design include a high weight and non-optimal center of gravity

Comparing the information capacity of entangled Laguerre-Gaussian and Hermite-Gaussian modal sets in a finite-aperture system

Using a spontaneous parametric down-conversion process to create entangled spatial states, we compare the information capacity associated with measurements in the Hermite–Gaussian and Laguerre–Gaussian modal basis in an optical system of finite aperture. We show that the cross-talk imposed by the aperture restriction degrades the information capacity. However, the Laguerre–Gaussian mode measurements show greater resilience to cross talk than the Hermite–Gaussian, suggesting that the Laguerre–Gaussian modal set may still offer real-world advantages over other modal sets

A ground-based NUV secondary eclipse observation of KELT-9b

KELT-9b is a recently discovered exoplanet with a 1.49 d orbit around a B9.5/A0-type star. The unparalleled levels of UV irradiation it receives from its host star put KELT-9b in its own unique class of ultra-hot Jupiters, with an equilibrium temperature > 4000 K. The high quantities of dissociated hydrogen and atomic metals present in the dayside atmosphere of KELT-9b bear more resemblance to a K-type star than a gas giant. We present a single observation of KELT-9b during its secondary eclipse, taken with the Wide Field Camera on the Isaac Newton Telescope (INT). This observation was taken in the U-band, a window particularly sensitive to Rayleigh scattering. We do not detect a secondary eclipse signal, but our 3$\sigma$ upper limit of 181 ppm on the depth allows us to constrain the dayside temperature of KELT-9b at pressures of ~30 mbar to 4995 K (3$\sigma$). Although we can place an observational constraint of $A_g<$ 0.14, our models suggest that the actual value is considerably lower than this due to H$^-$ opacity. This places KELT-9b squarely in the albedo regime populated by its cooler cousins, almost all of which reflect very small components of the light incident on their daysides. This work demonstrates the ability of ground-based 2m-class telescopes like the INT to perform secondary eclipse studies in the NUV, which have previously only been conducted from space-based facilities.Comment: Accepted in ApJL. 7 pages, 3 figure

Towards being genuinely smart : ‘isothermally-responsive’ polymers as versatile, programmable scaffolds for biologically-adaptable materials

Responsive polymers have found diverse application across polymer, biomaterials, medical, sensing and engineering fields. Despite many years of study, this has focussed mainly on those polymers which undergo thermally-induced changes – either a lower or upper critical solution temperature. To rival the adaptability of Nature's macromolecules, polymers must respond in a ‘smarter’ way to other triggers such as enzymes, biochemical gradients, ion concentration or metabolites, to name a few. Here we review the concept of ‘isothermal’ responses where core thermoresponsive polymers are chemically engineered such that they undergo their useful response (such as coil-globule transition, cell uptake or cargo release) but at constant temperature. This is achieved by consideration of their phase diagram where solubility can be changed by small structural changes to the end-group, side-chain/substituents or through main chain modification/binding. The current state-of-the-art is summarised here