The Role of spiritual/religious practices in moderating stress among adolescent residential treatment staff

Adolescent residential treatment staff members have jobs that are emotionally exhausting, physically taxing and spiritually draining. Good coping skills, including religious/spiritual practices, may reduce burnout. Results from a small rural adolescent residential treatment center indicated a high degree of burnout. Burnout was negatively correlated with existential and religious well-being, stress, income, social support and personal mental health treatmen

Development of frequency domain multiplexing for the X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU) on the Athena

We are developing the frequency domain multiplexing (FDM) read-out of transition-edge sensor (TES) microcalorimeters for the X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU) instrument on board of the future European X-Ray observatory Athena. The X-IFU instrument consists of an array of $\sim$3840 TESs with a high quantum efficiency ($>$90 \%) and spectral resolution $\Delta E$=2.5 eV $@$ 7 keV ($E/\Delta E\sim$2800). FDM is currently the baseline readout system for the X-IFU instrument. Using high quality factor LC filters and room temperature electronics developed at SRON and low-noise two stage SQUID amplifiers provided by VTT, we have recently demonstrated good performance with the FDM readout of Mo/Au TES calorimeters with Au/Bi absorbers. An integrated noise equivalent power resolution of about 2.0 eV at 1.7 MHz has been demonstrated with a pixel from a new TES array from NASA/Goddard (GSFC-A2). We have achieved X-ray energy resolutions $\sim$2.5 eV at AC bias frequency at 1.7 MHz in the single pixel read-out. We have also demonstrated for the first time an X-ray energy resolution around 3.0 eV in a 6 pixel FDM read-out with TES array (GSFC-A1). In this paper we report on the single pixel performance of these microcalorimeters under MHz AC bias, and further results of the performance of these pixels under FDM.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, Proceedings of the SPIE Astronomical Instrumentation "Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2014: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray

Barriers and Best Practices for the Circular Economy

Introduction We’re living in an exciting era. Rather than just another societal transition, we’re going through a fundamental societal transformation. Ecologist Joanne Macy calls this period ‘The Great Turning’: a period wherein we change from an industrial growth society into a life sustaining system’. Macy: “The most remarkable feature of this historical moment on Earth is not that we are on the way to destroying the world; we've actually been on the way for quite a while. It is that we are beginning to wake up, as from a millennia-long sleep, to a whole new relationship to our world, to ourselves and each other.” It is with these eyes that we have to see the rise of the Circular Economy. The Circular Economy is not just another trend in business; it’s the start of a completely new economic reality. The Circular Economy is the starting point for regenerative economics; for a new business-as-usual that - first and foremost - serves life and is based upon a fundamentally new value-paradigm. The future of success in business is about doing good for all stakeholders and creating benefit; not just profit. The Circular Economy demands next level thinking-and-doing in business, and there is no one more willing and able than the next generation of young professionals. It is therefore with great pride and pleasure that I present to you this publication of the SMO Promovendi. It offers fresh perspectives of a group of promising young scientists. All aspiring changemakers. It’s made with love and with the best of intentions; to help the Circular Economy forward

Onderzoek naar en ontwikkeling van een nieuw bacterieel biopesticide voor de biologische bestrijding van trips en spint

In dit project worden enkele veelbelovende bacteriestammen gescreend op hun parasitaire werking tegen trips (Frankliniella occidentalis) en spint (Tetranychus urticae). In de loop van het onderzoek zijn verschillende bacterie-isolaten onderzocht en steeds is getoetst of deze isolaten qua werking en veiligheid voldoende perspectief boden als mogelijk nieuw bestrijdingsmiddel. Uiteindelijk zijn de onderzochte bacterie-isolaten om verschillende redenen allemaal afgevallen. Wat deze studie wel heeft opgeleverd is het inzicht dat verschillende soorten bacteriën die in of op de plant kunnen voorkomen een dodend effect op insecten en mijten kunnen hebben. Hoewel het hier beschreven onderzoek niet geresulteerd heeft in een nieuw bestrijdingsmiddel heeft het wel laten zien dat bacteriën in en op de plant in potentie grote effecten op gewasbelagers kunnen hebben

The thermal expansion of a Kevlar® 49 cord down to cryogenic temperatures

In this work the thermal expansion of a twisted Kevlar® 49 cord assembly made at SRON in the 293 K to 7 K temperature range is presented. In addition to these results, the setup used to measure this thermal expansion is described, as are the methods used to calibrate and verify the accuracy of this setup. Measurements with the set-up agree to within 5 % with Ti-6Al-4V literature values. The thermal expansion of the SRON Kevlar® 49 cord assembly is measured and compared to the sparse literature available. At 7 K, the total fractional expansion of the Kevlar® cord assembly is 1.6·10-3 relative to 293 K, with an estimated relative error of 3%.</p