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The Essential Components of the Afterschool Programming with K-8th Grade Targeted Service Students
Get PDFThe purpose of this quantitative research study was to examine the effectiveness regarding the essential components of the afterschool programming with K-8th grade targeted service students. This study also examined the effectiveness of afterschool programming interventions. Participants included 53 targeted services directors throughout the state of Minnesota. Results suggest rejecting all null hypotheses when examining the effectiveness of essential components of the afterschool programming with K-8th grade targeted service students. The study determined the areas of fostering positive relationships and understanding the needs and skills of youth were the most important components. Afterschool directors ranked professional development and parent involvement as the least important components. Interventions seen as being more crucial for a successful program were interventions for struggling readers and the interventions to target the student’s individual needs. Interventions that were seen by afterschool directors as being most crucial for a successful program were academic and developmental skill building
Faith-Driven Impact Investing: Renewing a Belief that an Investment in Entrepreneurialism and Commerce is Central to God\u27s Plan of Redemption and Human Flourishing
Get PDFThis project addressed the need for a renewed belief among faith-driven investors that investments in redemptive businesses is central to God’s plan of redemption and biblical human flourishing. The explosive growth of values-aligned investing, such as Socially Responsible Investing and impact investing, has opened the door to introducing values into investment decision-making. There are significant opportunities for Christ followers to align their biblical values with their investment strategies, and to “put to work” (Matt. 25:16) resources apportioned to them by God; however, they have been slow to embrace the opportunities. Research was conducted to understand the underlying biblical-theological beliefs of high-net-worth individuals and wealth management advisors that support or discourage faith-driven impact investing. The parable of the talents was dissected to understand Jesus’ intent when he chose the Greek word talanton to communicate his leadership expectation to his closest follower. The Quakers are highlighted as an example of a group that embraced commerce as a primary strategy for expressing their faith, providing for their families, developing young leaders, and engaging with the world. The research findings were synthesized into a new biblical-theological framework for Kingdom Impact Investing that is offered as a model for the growing faith-driven impact investing movement. A major goal of this project was to contribute to the broader biblical-theological conversation regarding the integration of faith and investing. Values-driven Christ followers should be on the leading edge of impact investing instead of lagging far behind
A Mixed-Method Intervention Study on Relational Spirituality and Humility Among Religious Leaders
No full textExisting humility intervention studies have yielded inconsistent findings, despite prior findings that suggest a salutary influence for general humility, including on religious leaders’ religiousness/spirituality (R/S). We tested a relational spirituality model (RSM) proposition that change in humilitywould correspond to change in self and coregulation, as measured by differentiation andGod attachment. We did so by conducting a mixed-method study with a diverse sample of emerging religious leaders attending a graduate theological school in the northeastern United States (N = 136;Mage = 39.50; SD = 11.14, range = 20 —67; 43.4% female; 41.2% Black/African American). Results of a multiple simultaneous latent change score model were consistent with the RSM, as we found evidence of concurrent and conditional changes among humility, differentiation, and God attachment over the course of a humility intervention. Qualitative analyses revealed five categories of humility cultivation practices, (a) relationships with others, (b) prayer/study/worship, (c) self-reflection, (d) self-care/rest, and (e) service, and yielded evidence of intervention fidelity. Multigroup comparisons indicated that intention toward prayer/study/worship and self-care/rest practices, and following through on completing a cultivation plan moderated the associations between humility, differentiation, and God attachment. Findings suggested that an RSM theoretical framing of change in virtuousness could inform the design of humility interventions and future studies evaluating the effectiveness of those intervention
An Exploratory Comparative Case Study of Successful Fundraising Operations at Three Small, Private, Christian Universities
No full textLiterature suggests that the challenges currently facing higher education will continue, increasing the pressure on institutions to discover and cultivate new funding sources outside of the traditional avenues of tuition, room, board, and fees. Through an exploratory comparative case study research design, the characteristics of the fundraising operations of three small, private, faith-based institutions that have proven successful, as measured by their current U.S. News & World Report and Forbes financial ratings, were examined through individual interviews with six employees at each of these three institutions, including the president, vice president of development, senior development staff members and university trustees. The conceptual framework used for the study was relational management. Emerging themes reflect the characteristics common among successful fundraising operations; those themes include a focus on vision and mission, use of the university president, stewardship practices, storytelling and communication, use of systems, data, and metrics, and a focus on relationship building. These findings suggest that an organization’s focus on these key themes can positively impact fundraising activities to help ensure financial viability for the university and its programs.https://spark.bethel.edu/edd-showcase-2021/1001/thumbnail.jp
Laodicea at Bethel Dear Church, Learning from the Seven Letters Written to the Churches in Revelation Part 8
No full textDr. Juan Hernandez, Jr. gives a lecture in Bethel\u27s Chapel on the text of Revelation 3:14-21 for the last of an eight part series on the letters to the churches in Revelation. He reads the passage with some minor changes addressing the letter to Bethel directly instead of Laodicea. Dr. Hernandez begins speaking at 11 minutes and 15 seconds into the video
Selection of the silicon sensor thickness for the Phase-2 upgrade of the CMS Outer Tracker
No full textDuring the operation of the CMS experiment at the High-Luminosity LHC the silicon sensors of the Phase-2 Outer Tracker will be exposed to radiation levels that could potentially deteriorate their performance. Previous studies had determined that planar float zone silicon with n-doped strips on a p-doped substrate was preferred over p-doped strips on an n-doped substrate. The last step in evaluating the optimal design for the mass production of about 200 m2 of silicon sensors was to compare sensors of baseline thickness (about 300 μm) to thinned sensors (about 240 μm), which promised several benefits at high radiation levels because of the higher electric fields at the same bias voltage. This study provides a direct comparison of these two thicknesses in terms of sensor characteristics as well as charge collection and hit efficiency for fluences up to 1.5 × 1015 neq/cm2. The measurement results demonstrate that sensors with about 300 μm thickness will ensure excellent tracking performance even at the highest considered fluence levels expected for the Phase-2 Outer Tracker
Measurement of the CP-violating phase ϕs in the Bs\u3csup\u3e0\u3c/sup\u3e→J/ψϕ(1020)→μ\u3csup\u3e+\u3c/sup\u3eμ\u3csup\u3e−\u3c/sup\u3eK\u3csup\u3e+\u3c/sup\u3eK\u3csup\u3e−\u3c/sup\u3e channel in proton-proton collisions at s=13TeV
No full textThe CP -violating weak phase ϕs and the decay width difference ΔΓs between the light and heavy Bs0 mass eigenstates are measured with the CMS detector at the LHC in a sample of 48500 reconstructed Bs0→J/ψϕ(1020)→μ+μ−K+K− events. The measurement is based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 96.4fb−1, collected in proton-proton collisions at s=13TeV in 2017–2018. To extract the values of ϕs and ΔΓs, a time-dependent and flavor-tagged angular analysis of the μ+μ−K+K− final state is performed. The analysis employs a dedicated tagging trigger and a novel opposite-side muon flavor tagger based on machine learning techniques. The measurement yields ϕs=−11±50(stat)±10(syst)mrad and ΔΓs=0.114±0.014(stat)±0.007(syst)ps−1, in agreement with the standard model predictions. When combined with the previous CMS measurement at s=8TeV, the following values are obtained: ϕs=−21±44(stat)±10(syst)mrad, ΔΓs=0.1032±0.0095(stat)±0.0048(syst)ps−1, a significant improvement over the 8 TeV result
Development and validation of HERWIG 7 tunes from CMS underlying-event measurements
No full textThis paper presents new sets of parameters (“tunes”) for the underlying-event model of the HERWIG7 event generator. These parameters control the description of multiple-parton interactions (MPI) and colour reconnection in HERWIG7, and are obtained from a fit to minimum-bias data collected by the CMS experiment at s=0.9, 7, and 13Te. The tunes are based on the NNPDF 3.1 next-to-next-to-leading-order parton distribution function (PDF) set for the parton shower, and either a leading-order or next-to-next-to-leading-order PDF set for the simulation of MPI and the beam remnants. Predictions utilizing the tunes are produced for event shape observables in electron-positron collisions, and for minimum-bias, inclusive jet, top quark pair, and Z and W boson events in proton-proton collisions, and are compared with data. Each of the new tunes describes the data at a reasonable level, and the tunes using a leading-order PDF for the simulation of MPI provide the best description of the data
Prosopagnosia and disorders of face processing
No full textFace recognition is a form of expert visual processing. Acquired prosopagnosia is the loss of familiarity for facial identity and has several functional variants, namely apperceptive, amnestic, and associative forms. Acquired forms are usually caused by either occipitotemporal or anterior temporal lesions, right or bilateral in most cases. In addition, there is a developmental form, whose functional and structural origins are still being elucidated. Despite their difficulties with recognizing faces, some of these subjects still show signs of covert recognition, which may have a number of explanations. Other aspects of face perception can be spared in prosopagnosic subjects. Patients with other types of face processing difficulties have been described, including impaired expression processing, impaired lip-reading, false familiarity for faces, and a people-specific amnesia. Recent rehabilitative studies have shown some modest ability to improve face perception in prosopagnosic subjects through perceptual training protocols