The Function of Liturgical Music within the History of the Catholic Church

Within the Catholic Church, there has always been a need and a strong presence for music. The need for music has changed from being simply something listened to by all and sung by a few to involving everyone to sing together and participate in liturgical celebrations. There is great richness to be gained from an increased awareness of music in the Church, and many important lessons can be learned from the historical progression of liturgical music. The effect music has had on the liturgy has directly affected the congregation based upon their needs. The central questions addressed within this thesis relate to why Christians sing at worship and why Christians worship with music. The answers to these questions will be provided by an analysis of the three main periods of history within the Church: The Church at the Beginning of the Middle Ages, The Reformation, and The Second Vatican Council. Through this analysis, one will realize that music is an enjoyable part of life, gaining a better understanding of what music can do within worship, and realizing the great impact music has had on the Catholic liturgy

Synthesis of spiroacetals using functionalised titanium carbenoids

Alkylidenation of lactones with functionalised titanium carbenoid reagents (Schrock carbenes) followed by acid-induced cyclisation of the resulting enol ethers constitutes a new method for the preparation of [4.4], [4.5] and [5.5] spiroacetals (1,6-dioxaspiro[4.4]nonanes, 1,6-dioxaspiro[4.5]decanes and 1,7-dioxaspiro[5.5]undecanes, respectively, sometimes termed 5,5-, 5,6- and 6,6-spiroketals). The titanium carbenoids are easily generated from readily available thioacetals

The First Step Act of 2018: One Small Step Toward Social Change

Throughout history, the United States has toggled between punitive and rehabilitative policies within the criminal justice system, creating social changes that have contributed to racial inequalities within policy and practice that are still being dealt with today. The First Step Act of 2018 (Formerly Incarcerated Reenter Society Transformed, Safely Transitioning Every Person Act) is a federal prison reform attempting to implement rehabilitative social change within a society that is still not ready for it. The act is hoping to assist offenders with re-entry by reducing recidivism with a new risk and needs assessment, decreasing mandatory minimum sentences by allocating good time, and incarcerating individuals within 500 miles of their communities. However, this act only applies to certain federal inmates, does not change overall sentencing practices that have led to mass incarceration, and does not account for damaged social capital related to relationships or how society stigmatizes individuals with a criminal record. Ultimately, policymakers within the criminal justice system should consider how perceptions and inequalities related to criminal records will need to change in order for formerly incarcerated individuals to benefit from the First Step Act

Frequency of low ImPACT scores among adolescent and young adult student-athletes with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and/or learning disorder

Introduction: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by attention problems, excessive activity, and impulsivity - occurring in approximately 13% of children 12– 17 years of age, and as many as 16% of older adolescents 18–22 years of age, with a greater prevalence in boys than girls. ADHD frequently co-occurs with specific learning disorder (LD), a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by difficulties learning and using academic skills, such as reading, writing, and mathematics. Taken together, ADHD and/or LD are common among high school students and college students and can influence performance on computerized tests used in concussion management. However, normative data for widely used computer-based measures used in concussion management do not include reference samples with ADHD and/or LD. Previous research has documented the expected frequency of obtaining low scores on computer- based neuropsychological test measures among healthy, uninjured individuals, but few studies have examined the frequency of obtaining low scores in athletes with neurodevelopmental diagnoses, such as ADHD and/or LD. This study examined the frequency of low scores (i.e., multivariate base rates) on the Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Test (ImPACT) for youth and young adults with self-reported ADHD and/or LD. Methods: The sample included 174,878 adolescent and young adult student- athletes who completed pre-season baseline neurocognitive assessments, who were assigned to the following independent groups: ADHD only (n = 45,215), LD only (n = 54,223), ADHD and LD (n = 45,737), No ADHD or LD (n = 47,684; “control athletes”). Results: Base rates of low scores were stratified by high school (e.g., 13–18) and collegiate age (e.g., 19–22) and sex. It was common for student athletes (all ages) with LD alone (i.e., 30–37%), or with both ADHD and LD (i.e., 24–31%), to obtain at least two low ImPACT composite scores, but not three low composite scores. However, it was relatively uncommon for control athletes (those without ADHD or LD) (i.e., 12–14%) or older athletes (ages 19–22) with ADHD (i.e., 14– 15%) to obtain two (or more) low scores. Discussion: Having information relating to the base rates of low scores among uninjured athletes enhances the interpretation of ImPACT results among the broader population of student-athletes with and without neurodevelopmental disorder

Overcoming the Open-Circuit Voltage Losses in Narrow Bandgap Perovskites for All-Perovskite Tandem Solar Cells

Narrow-bandgap (NBG) perovskite solar cells based on tin-lead mixed perovskite absorbers suffer from significant open-circuit voltage (VOC) losses due primarily to a high defect density and charge carrier recombination at the device interfaces. In this study, the VOC losses in NBG perovskite single junction cells (Eg = 1.21 eV) are addressed. The optimized NBG subcell is then used to fabricate highly efficient all-perovskite tandem solar cells (TSCs). The improvement in the VOC is achieved via the addition of a thin poly(triarylamine) interlayer between the poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS)-based hole transport layer (HTL) and the NBG perovskite. The optimal bilayer HTL results in a champion power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 20.3%, compared to 17.8% of the PEDOT:PSS-based control device. The VOC improvement of the single-junction NBG cell is also successfully transferred to all-perovskite TSC, resulting in a high VOC of 2.00 V and a PCE of 25.1%

Sodium Tertiary Pentoxide: A Mild and Efficient Base to Make C-C Bond between Acetylenes and Aldehydes (or) Ketones Producing Propargyl Alcohols

This report confirms that sodium tertiary‐pentoxide is a very effective base for the nucleophilic addition of acetylenes to aldehydes and ketones in 1,4‐dioxane at room temperature. These mild and operationally simple procedures have been working well with a variety of aromatic and heteroaromatic aldehydes and also equally working well with aliphatic, aromatic and heteroaromatic ketones. A very clean product of secondary and tertiary propargylic alcohols were obtained from 70–94% yield. This process has been explored in bulk scale synthesis on selected molecules and also adapted the column free purification for most of the substrates