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From Volunteer to Member of the Church Body: How Meaningfulness, Self-Regulation, and Fairness Relate to Giving of Time and Treasure
Get PDFChurches rely almost exclusively on volunteers and committed members to fulfill their mission. With decreasing engagement and financial support among churchgoers, there is a need to understand what motivates volunteers to give their time and resources. This nonexperimental quantitative correlational study examined the relationships between church volunteers’ self-regulation, perceptions of meaningfulness, and fairness, with their reported level of internalization of the local church’s mission, evidenced by their giving behaviors. Utilizing data collected from 86 church volunteers on self-report measures, all validated from previous research and adapted to church context, correlational analyses showed no significant relationship between giving of time and meaningfulness (r = 0.038, p = 0.731), fairness (r = 0.044, p = 0.684), and self-regulation (r = -0.010, p = 0.925). Similarly, meaningfulness (r = 0.026, p = 0.814), fairness (r = 0.004, p = 0.971), and self-regulation (r = 0.009, p = 0.936) were not significantly related to giving of finances. Integrated internalization significantly predicted giving of time (β = 0.145, p = 0.004). Post hoc analyses revealed significant correlations between internalization and meaningfulness (r = 0.355, p \u3c 0.001), fairness (r = 0.370, p \u3c 0.001), and self-regulation (r = 0.404, p \u3c 0.001). Ordinal regression analysis showed that volunteer perceptions significantly predicted internalization (χ²(3) = 13.56, p \u3c .001), accounting for 27.5% of the variance (R² = .275, Nagelkerke). These findings suggest that volunteer motivation and engagement in local church contexts can be influenced by intentional program design, impacting eternity for the local community
Effects of Domestic Violence on Third-Grade Students\u27 Academic and Behavioral Performance
Get PDFThe purpose of this quantitative, causal-comparative study was to investigate the relationship between witnessing domestic violence and third-grade students\u27 academic performance and behavioral conduct, with a focus on gender differences. Additionally, the study explored the connection between exposure to domestic violence and English Language Arts achievement. The research involved 280 third-grade students and parents at the Boys & Girls Clubs of America in southwestern Georgia. Participants were part of social-emotional learning programs. Data collection included parent observation surveys, end-of-grade test scores (using the Georgia Milestones End-of-Grade assessment), and a child survey (the Violence Exposure Scale for Children – Revised). The study also employed the Child Behavior Rating Scale – Parent Form to observe student behaviors throughout the semester. Statistical analysis procedures were used to analyze the data. The results indicated significant relationships between exposure to domestic violence and both academic performance and behavioral conduct, with notable gender differences. The study concluded that exposure to domestic violence negatively impacted students\u27 educational experiences. Recommendations for further research included exploring interventions and support systems to create safer and more conducive learning environments for affected students
Developing Divine Love into Christoform Obedience: Understanding and Applying the Theological Framework of Divine Love in a Measurable Growth Praxis
Get PDFThe purpose of this study was to analyze the growth outcomes of participants from a curriculum intervention on divine love with the goal of Christoform obedience. The point of the curriculum was to define divine love properly by using synthesized vantage points derived from precedent literature. These vantage points were developed into a four-step praxis of transformation in divine love. This praxis was the capstone of the curriculum. Three methods of data retrieval were used throughout the intervention process to target intellectual concept improvement, self-assessment improvement, and praxis improvement. As a result of the data, it was determined that fifty percent of the participants developed an initial and observable Christoform obedience. The benefit of this study in a ministry context is that it will identify a potential lack of understanding and practice of divine love within a congregation and provide an adequate blueprint for developing a practice of growing and transforming within divine love
The Philosopher’s Art: The Alchemical and Religious Writings of Sir Isaac Newton
Get PDFSir Isaac Newton is inarguably one of the most famous yet divisive geniuses in human history. His writing touched on a staggering variety of topics, including chemistry, physics, and history, among others. Some of his less well-known works – most notably, his alchemical experiments and his prophetic commentaries – have created wildly conflicting views of both him and his theories. However, Newton’s alchemical and religious writings are crucial to understanding his broader worldview: namely, that the spiritual and natural aspects of the world worked together in a universe created by a supreme God who ordained that reality operates in a consistent, manner that any “philosopher” could discover through reason and experimentation
Code of Faith: Programming Spirituality in the Digital Age
Get PDFWith the increasing pervasiveness of technology in our daily lives, it is critical to consider the potential effects on an individual\u27s religious practices and beliefs from software applications developed within a religious framework. This thesis delves into the relationship between software development and religious experiences, examining the manner in which the creation, operation, and application of religious technology can mold and impact an individual\u27s spiritual development. This thesis aims to inform the implementation of technologies with a nonsecular application, ensuring that they are developed with a deep respect for the nuances of religious experience. The findings of this study will further the expanding field of religion that is experienced digitally and provide insight into the moral issues that arise when religion and technology converge. The project will also develop a faith-based code of ethics as well as a snippet of PHP code that exemplifies a piece of said code of ethics
Malled to Death: Surviving Sprawl and Redreaming the American Mall
Get PDFAmerica underwent a shift in city planning post-WWII, a change which still shapes America today. In contrast with Sprawl’s failures in mobility, community, and beauty, New Urbanism, a return to traditional city planning, is presented as the solution to these shortcomings. New Urbanism lacks adequate marketing to advocate these successes, thus more competitive media, such as video, must be pursued. Using the local mall, River Ridge, as a case study to show Sprawl’s short-sighted pseudo-solutions and New Urbanism’s time-tested true solutions, a testimonial-style script is put forth to catalyze the Lynchburg community in promoting traditional city planning
Speed Grows on Trees: NSGA-III & Design Optimization
Get PDFGenetic algorithms (GAs) are a unique subset of optimization algorithms that are widely used in solving multi-objective engineering design optimization problems. Although a large number of GAs exist in literature, with many available in Python and C/C++ libraries, new algorithms are still needed to continuously improve the solution quality and/or computational efficiency. In the previously developed optimization software GimOPT [1], the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) [2] was implemented with a dominance-tree based sorting technique [3] that offers great computational efficiency over other implementations. In this research, NSGA-III [4] was implemented into GimOPT using the dominance-tree based sorting algorithm. The speedup of this implementation in plain C++ was evaluated by comparing it to existing libraries such as pymoo for NSGA-II and NSGA-III, and the solution quality of GimOPT\u27s NSGA-II and NSGA-III were compared using benchmark problems. The results showed that this implementation of NSGA-III offers significant improvement on the computational speed of pymoo and simultaneously bolsters solutional quality in comparison to GimOPT\u27s NSGA-II. This new implementation of NSGA-III will relieve researchers of prior computational restraints and empower them to tackle new and difficult multi- and many-objective optimization problems. References [1] H. Fang, M.F. Horstemeyer (2006). A generic optimizer interface for programming-free optimization systems. Advances in Engineering Software, 37(6), 360-369. (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advengsoft.2005.10.002) [2] K. Deb, A. Pratab, S. Agarwal, T. Meyarivan (2002). A fast and elitist multi-objective genetic algorithm: NSGA-II. IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, 6(2), 182-197. (https://doi.org/10.1109/4235.996017) [3] H. Fang, Q. Wang, Y. Tu, M.F. Horstemeyer (2008). An efficient non-dominated sorting method for evolutionary algorithms. Evolutionary Computation, 16(3), 355-384. (https://doi.org/10.1162/evco.2008.16.3.355) [4] K. Deb, H. Jain (2014). An Evolutionary Many-Objective Optimization Algorithm Using Reference-Point-Based Nondominated Sorting Approach, Part I: Solving Problems with Box Constraints. IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, 18(4), 577-601. (https://doi.org/10.1109/TEVC.2013.2281535
Fields of Yesterday
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Effect of the Cystic Fibrosis Drug Elexacaftor on the Murine Lower Esophageal Sphincter May Explain the GERD Symptoms of Patients
Get PDFBackground: Cystic fibrosis is a life-limiting genetic disorder that primarily affects the lungs and digestive system. Cystic fibrosis (CF) is caused by over 2000 different mutations in the CFTR anion channel. Trikafta is a lifesaving, highly effective triple drug combination consisting of two trafficking correctors (Elexacaftor and Tezacaftor) and the channel potentiator Ivacaftor. However, these drugs produce significant side effects, including gastroesophageal reflux disease, abdominal pain, diarrhea, constipation, and nausea. Elexacaftor has significant off-target effects on various potassium channels which could explain some of these adverse events. Therefore, we sought to characterize the enteric motility effects of Elexacaftor using a murine model. Methods: C57Bl/6 mice were used to assess lower esophageal sphincter and jejunal circular muscle in vitro spontaneous circular muscle contractions. Additionally, in vivo upper gastrointestinal motility was assessed by orally feeding non-digestible FITC-dextran (70 kDa) and generating gastrointestinal transit distribution histograms with calculated geometric centers (GC) after 80 min. Results: Elexacaftor (5.97 and 17.93 mg/kg) was given at clinically relevant dosages intraperitoneally 30 minutes before the assessment of gastrointestinal motility. The subsequent gastrointestinal transit distribution histograms demonstrated a significant delay with a calculated geometric center of 8.44 and 5.50 compared to control 10.4 (N=4, p\u3c0.05). In vitro Elexacaftor (10 µM) caused a significant relaxation of the lower esophageal sphincter spontaneously generated tonic muscle contractions (N=3). Additionally, the spontaneous jejunal circular muscle phasic contractions were also significantly inhibited by both 10 and 30 µM concentrations of Elexacaftor. Conclusion: These data demonstrate that Elexacaftor has significant inhibitory effects on upper gastrointestinal motility. Elexacaftor induced lower esophageal sphincter relaxation would allow gastric acid reflux leading to the clinical diagnosis of GERD. And a delay in upper intestinal transit could also further potentiate acid reflux into the esophagus. Interestingly, these results may explain the gastrointestinal adverse events in patients with CF