Can Memoirs Be Used For Spiritual Development in a Book Group?

Biographies have historically been used by Christians for instruction and encouragement. The current trend in biographical writing is the memoir. Can spiritual memoirs be used as an effective tool for learning more about Scripture, doctrine or the Christian life? Approximately twenty spiritual memoirs were read and evaluated to determine if there was a central theme or series of themes that provided a story-based context for exploring greater biblical truths. This article reviews the genre of spiritual memoirs, discusses their strengths and weaknesses, and suggests a method for preparing them for a book group format

High temperature properties of sodium, potassium, and cesium thirteenth progress report

Thermophysical properties of sodium, potassium, and cesium at high temperatures - density of liquid potassium and vapor pressure of cesiu

Large-Scale Assessment of Polygon-Edge Boulder Clustering in the Martian Northern Lowlands

Two features evident in many images of the martian northern low-lands are polygonal fractures (especially northwards of 60N) and meter-scale surface boulders. Since their first observation, several attempts have been made to classify and study these polygons as well as how the forces that form these polygons may modify the surface. Surface boulders have been used as a potential indicator of such modification, though current studies find evidence both for and against their association with the underlying polygons. Both these investigations are limited by the same fundamental challenge: map-ping the location of surface boulders manually is not practical at large scales. Here, we use the Martian Boulder Automatic Recognition System (MBARS) to provide image-wide assessments of boulder location and size, enabling large-scale assessment of boulder populations. To compare these boulder locations with the underlying polygons, we modified the 2-D Fourier analysis described by Orloff in 2013 to analyze boulder locations. When compared with Orloffs observations of polygon scales, this provides an avenue for large-scale comparison of boulder-cluster scale and polygon scale

Ab initio calculation of neutral-current ν\nu-12^{12}C inclusive quasielastic scattering

Quasielastic neutrino scattering is an important aspect of the experimental program to study fundamental neutrino properties including neutrino masses, mixing angles, the mass hierarchy and CP-violating phase. Proper interpretation of the experiments requires reliable theoretical calculations of neutrino-nucleus scattering. In this paper we present calculations of response functions and cross sections by neutral-current scattering of neutrinos off $^{12}$C. These calculations are based on realistic treatments of nuclear interactions and currents, the latter including the axial-, vector-, and vector-axial interference terms crucial for determining the difference between neutrino and anti-neutrino scattering and the CP-violating phase. We find that the strength and energy-dependence of two-nucleon processes induced by correlation effects and interaction currents are crucial in providing the most accurate description of neutrino-nucleus scattering in the quasielastic regime.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Dosimetric impact of gastrointestinal air column in radiation treatment of pancreatic cancer

OBJECTIVE: Dosimetric evaluation of air column in gastrointestinal (GI) structures in intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) of pancreatic cancer. METHODS: Nine sequential patients were retrospectively chosen for dosimetric analysis of air column in the GI apparatus in pancreatic cancer using cone beam CT (CBCT). The four-dimensional CT (4DCT) was used for target and organs at risk (OARs) and non-coplanar IMRT was used for treatment. Once a week, these patients underwent CBCT for air filling, isocentre verification and dose calculations retrospectively. RESULTS: Abdominal air column variation was as great as ±80% between weekly CBCT and 4DCT. Even with such a large air column in the treatment path for pancreatic cancer, changes in anteroposterior dimension were minimal (2.8%). Using IMRT, variations in air column did not correlate dosimetrically with large changes in target volume. An average dosimetric deviation of mere -3.3% and a maximum of -5.5% was observed. CONCLUSION: CBCT revealed large air column in GI structures; however, its impact is minimal for target coverage. Because of the inherent advantage of segmentation in IMRT, where only a small fraction of a given beam passes through the air column, this technique might have an advantage over 3DCRT in treating upper GI malignancies where the daily air column can have significant impact. Advances in knowledge: Radiation treatment of pancreatic cancer has significant challenges due to positioning, imaging of soft tissues and variability of air column in bowels. The dosimetric impact of variable air column is retrospectively studied using CBCT. Even though, the volume of air column changes by ± 80%, its dosimetric impact in IMRT is minimum

Brayton-cycle radioisotope heat-source design study. Phase II /preliminary design/ report

Brayton cycle radioisotope heat source desig

Nano-porosity in GaSb induced by swift heavy ion irradiation

Nano-porous structures form in GaSb after ion irradiation with 185 MeV Au ions. The porous layer formation is governed by the dominant electronic energy loss at this energy regime. The porous layer morphology differs significantly from that previously reported for low-energy, ion-irradiated GaSb. Prior to the onset of porosity, positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy indicates the formation of small vacancy clusters in single ion impacts, while transmission electron microscopy reveals fragmentation of the GaSb into nanocrystallites embedded in an amorphous matrix. Following this fragmentation process, macroscopic porosity forms, presumably within the amorphous phase.The authors thank the Australian Research Council for support and the staff at the ANU Heavy Ion Accelerator Facility for their continued technical assistance. R.C.E. acknowledges the support from the Office of Basic Energy Sciences of the U.S. DOE (Grant No. DE-FG02-97ER45656)