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Social capital and delinquency in Bagcilar, Turkey
No full textInternational Criminal Justice Review, 1-20.There is a growing literature on social capital and delinquency. Most research has been done in Western industrial countries, has used limited measures of delinquency, and has employed surveys developed locally as opposed to using internationally validated instruments. Using data from the European Youth Survey, this study addresses these limitations by examining the relationship between social capital and self-reported delinquency among Turkish juveniles. The data were collected from a sample of tenth graders in 2007 in Bagcilar neighborhood of Istanbul. Self-reported delinquency was divided into two categories, major and minor, based on the Turkish Penal Code. Social capital was measured by assessing adolescents’ reports of their direct interactions with parents, peers and community. To predict the likelihood of major and minor delinquency independently, two different subsets (n = 1,879 and n = 1,837) of the data were used. Findings indicate that the presence of family social capital and community social capital had significant negative relationships with both major and minor delinquency. The presence of delinquent peers was significantly associated with both increases in major and minor delinquency. Overall, our findings suggest that social capital was negatively related to Turkish juveniles’ self-reported involvement in major and minor delinquent activities
A Study of High-Performance Solid-State Electrolytes for Li-ion Battery
No full textThis study investigates the main characteristics of Lithium Lanthanum Zirconium Oxide (LLZO) in order to analyze its efficacy as a solid-state electrolyte. Based on current research, LLZO has one of the best ionic conductivities and most stable characteristics among all solid-state electrolytes and is worthy of further research. For this study, LLZO pellets were manufactured using the cold pressing technique. In order to show that LLZO stands out from other solid-state electrolytes, the ionic conductivity of LLZO was also evaluated by measuring the EIS spectrum of a symmetric Li-LLZO-Li cell. As a result, these experiments showed that LLZO is not only easily proc but also can function excellently as an electrolyte in a battery with a lithium metal anode.Mechanical engineeringBatteries , Materia science , Solid batteryMechanical EngineeringDegree Awarded: M.S.--Mechanical Engineering. The Catholic University of Americ
Joseph Ratzinger's Theology of Divine Revelation
No full textAt the beginning of the 20th Century, neo-scholastic thought discussed divine revelation almost exclusively in terms of its objective content: God has revealed specific truths expressible in concrete propositions. It also claimed that divine revelation ceased with the death of the last apostles: no new revelation is to be expected. Some theologians saw a lack of balance in the neo-scholastic approach and desired a more comprehensive understanding of divine revelation. These ‘new theologians’ emphasized the historical and subjective aspects of revelation. This dynamic understanding of revelation allows one to speak of revelation as a continual process insofar as it is received by new subjects in each generation. Neo-scholastics claimed that this approach was too subjective, and thus modernist, leading to doubts about the certainty and stability of revelation’s objective content.
Joseph Ratzinger was involved in this dispute early in his academic career. He wrote his Habilitationsschrift on St. Bonaventure’s understanding of revelation and theology of history. His director, Gottlieb Söhngen, approved the work. However, his reader, Michael Schmaus, rejected it for proposing an overly subjective view of revelation. Despite Ratzinger’s disagreement with Schmaus’s analysis, Ratzinger omitted the first part on St. Bonaventure’s theology of divine revelation in the final, approved version of the Habilitationsschrift.
Ratzinger continued to work in the area of divine revelation as a theological advisor to Cardinal Frings, the Archbishop of Cologne, in preparation for the Second Vatican Council, and eventually as a peritus at the Council itself. In those capacities, Ratzinger criticized the original schema on revelation, De fontibus revelationis. Furthermore, Ratzinger was assigned to a commission responsible for drafting what became the Dogmatic Constituion on Divine Revelation, Dei verbum.
Hansjürgen Verweyen has suggested that the original version of Ratzinger’s Habilitationsschrift is a key for understanding Ratzinger’s theology as a whole. Despite the importance of Ratzinger’s understanding of revelation, his commentators have treated it sparsely. This lacuna is due to the fact that some of Ratzinger’s most important texts on revelation have been published only recently, including: 1) the original Habilitationsschrift, 2) his critical comments on De fontibus revelationis, 3) his first attempt at an alternative schema on revelation, and 4) his draft for Cardinal Frings’s speech on De fontibus revelationis, among other related texts.
The recent publication of these works provides an opportunity to consider Ratzinger’s theological corpus from a fresh perspective. Through the presentation and evaluation of Ratzinger’s works on divine revelation, this dissertation contributes to a greater understanding of Ratzinger’s thought and concomitantly provides a contemporary contribution to the study of divine revelation.TheologyPope Benedict XVI, Ratzinger, Revelation, TheologyHistorical Systematic TheologyDegree Awarded: S.T.D. Historical Systematic Theology. The Catholic University of Americ
An Itemized Exploration of the PHQ-9 as a Screener for Suicide Risk in Medical Settings
No full textWith suicide rates increasing, resources are allocated to addressing specific at-risk populations in an effort to prevent suicide. One population that researchers have found to be at significantly increased risk is the medical patient population. Where the general population has been found to have a suicide ideation rate of about 4.8%, those presenting to the emergency department have a prevalence of over 6%. Furthermore, approximately 50% of suicide decedents had contact with their primary care provider within 1 month prior to their suicide. However, the most common problem that prevents identification of these at-risk individuals is lack of validated suicide screeners. Even after debunking concerns that suicide screeners “cause” suicidal thinking or increase the likelihood of malpractice litigation, there is a significant reliance on screening instruments that are not designed for suicide risk screening. One such screener is the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) depression screener, including its derivatives – the PHQ-2 and Item 9. While the PHQ-9 has been found to detect a significant percentage of suicide attempters and decedents, it has also been found to miss up to 40% of those individuals; similar results have been found with the PHQ-2 and Item 9. Even though the PHQ-9 appears to be better than nothing, it has not been explored in an itemized fashion to understand how well it works in comparison to a validated suicide screener. Thus, this study was designed to test the validity of the PHQ-9 (and its derivatives) and contrast these results with the validity of the Ask Suicide Screening Questions (ASQ) suicide screener for medical patients by analyzing each screener’s relationship with the ASIQ, which is widely considered a “Gold Standard” for suicide risk assessment. Archival data were taken from a larger risk screener validation study designed to create the ASQ suicide screener for medical patients (N=552). Patients were from the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, Rhode Island Hospital, and Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. The gold standard suicide risk assessment was the 25-item Adult Suicide Ideation Questionnaire (ASIQ). A series of Receiver Operator Characteristic (ROC) curves were run with their corresponding Area Under the Curve (AUC) calculations to determine if screeners performed better than chance. Validity statistics including sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values were calculated to determine validity of each screener. Positive and negative likelihood ratios were calculated to determine the strength of a positive and negative result on each screener. Results revealed that all screeners performed better than chance. However, the PHQ-9, PHQ-2, and Item 9 failed to detect individuals who were classified as at-risk for suicide and detected five to six times more false positives than true positives. In contrast, the ASQ did not miss any individuals identified as at-risk for suicide and its false positive detection rate was about one half more than the true positives as opposed to five or six times greater. Likelihood ratios revealed that positive scores for the PHQ-9, PHQ-2, and Item 9 were moderate in strength and negative scores were modest in their strength. In contrast, the ASQ positive likelihood ratio score had a high degree of strength as did the negative likelihood ratio. Implications and future directions are discussed.Clinical psychologyassessment, screener, suicide, suicide ideation, suicide risk screeningPsychologyDegree Awarded: Ph.D. Psychology. The Catholic University of Americ
Collaborating on Antiracist Praxis
No full textThe Writing Studies/Information Literacy committee at American University, which is a joint committee between the Writing Studies Program and Library, received an Inclusive Excellence Collaboration mini-grant to gather, annotate, and disseminate scholarship in antiracist praxis. There were three prongs to the Antiracist Praxis project: the creation of a subject guide and two in-person Teach-Ins. The Antiracist Praxis subject guide identifies the main ideas, key terms, and definitions within the scholarship that informs antiracist practice, particularly as they relate to composition pedagogy and library and information science. During the Antiracist Teach-in, there were discussion groups on topics such as anti-blackness, implicit bias, critical library studies, antiracist assessment theory, intersectionality, literary canonicity, etc. The project’s goal was to help all Library, Department of Literature, and Writing Center faculty and staff become fluent in the basic vocabulary of antiracist scholarship; to open up constructive dialogue about best practices; and to set the groundwork for truly informed faculty and staff antiracist standards and goal-setting.A presentation that was delivered online in the Thirteenth Annual Symposium, "Bridging the Spectrum: A Symposium on Scholarship and Practice in Library and Information Science" at the Catholic University of America in 2021
Systematic Review on the Effectiveness of Library Instruction in Business Programs
No full textThere are many ways to approach library instruction but it is unclear what are the most effective strategies for post-secondary business programs. By conducting a systematic review, this study investigates the effectiveness of library instruction (with a focus on pedagogy) in business undergraduate and graduate programs. The quality of included studies will be evaluated based on a modified instrument designed to critically appraise educational interventions. As this work is ongoing, the authors will describe how they are framing this systematic review, what they have done so far, and their next steps in this research. Preliminary themes will be shared including content coverage, mode of instruction (in-person vs virtual), challenges, assessment strategies, and library educational interventions proven to be effective in teaching business students
MaRS: a Materials Request System for faculty
No full textSubject librarians at a medium-sized public university have developed an online application that enhances collection development collaborations between librarians and department faculty. Our subject librarians strive to develop collections that support academic programs without subject expertise in assigned areas. Consequently, we rely upon faculty colleagues to assist with ordering. Faculty recommendations help librarians to keep library collection quality and relevance high. However, encouraging department faculty to contribute remains a challenge. National library services survey reports corroborate this ongoing challenge, further indicating that communication is confined to email and spur-of-the-moment in-person interactions.
To streamline this process, a subject librarian and Technology Librarian developed the Materials Request System. The web-hosted MaRS platform allows departments and their faculty to view and plan requests around budgetary information, submit requests for materials that faculty will use for teaching and research, submit “rush” orders and place materials on Course Reserve, view inter-departmental requests, and more
Cleveland Park
No full textThis contains images from the practicum project on Cleveland Park. Event was April 14, 2019
The Citation Diversity Statement: a practice of transparency, a way of life
No full textTrends in Cognitive Sciences, Volume 24, Issue 9, September 2020, Pages 669-672.Appending a Citation Diversity Statement to a paper is a simple and effective way to increase awareness about citation bias and help mitigate it. Here, we describe why reducing citation bias is important and how to include a Citation Diversity Statement in your next publication
Natural gas infrastructure development in North America under integrated markets
No full textEnergy Policy, Volume 147, December 2020, Article number 111757.The exploitation of low-cost shale gas in the Marcellus Formation, the deregulation initiatives in the U.S. and Mexico, and the emergence of natural gas as a bridging fuel to a low-carbon economy has fueled the growth of North American natural gas production, which is projected to keep growing in the mid-term to support the increasing LNG exports. Greater introduction of renewables and deeper electrification suppress both supply and demand for natural gas in the long-term. The long lead times of pipeline operation and field exploitation render the timing of natural gas abatement critical to natural gas infrastructure stakeholders. Full integration of the U.S., Canadian, and Mexican natural gas markets implies that the abatement trajectories of the three countries are tightly linked. This paper studies the development of the integrated North American natural gas markets and infrastructure under different assumptions on resource availability, technological progress, and global crude oil prices. We quantify the impact of each scenario by using the North American Natural Gas Model. Our analysis shows that cross-border U.S.-Mexico trade is more resilient under all three shocks compared to U.S.-Canada trade. Increasing Mexican production could drive the growth of the domestic Mexican market instead of reducing U.S.-Mexico trade