356 research outputs found
Public worship and practical theology in the work of Benjamin Keach (1640-1704)
No full textThe late seventeenth century was a critical and fruitful period
for the Particular Baptists of England. Severely persecuted following
the Restoration, toleration in 1689 brought its own perils.
Particular Baptists were fortunate in having several strong leaders,
especially the London trio of Hanserd Knollys, William Kiffin, and
Benjamin Keach. Such a small and severely persecuted group as the
Baptists could afford little time for academic pursuits, thus of
necessity most of their theology was practical in nature.
Benjamin Keach (1640-1704) was the most outstanding practical
theologian among the English Particular Baptists of the late
seventeenth century. This dissertation is a study of Keach, in
particular his writings on public worship and practical theology.
Although Keach was a prolific author, he has been almost completely
neglected by scholars.
After a biographical sketch of Keach, this study considers his
writings on public worship and practical theology. In the area of
worship, Keach made two outstanding contributions: First, he was the
most vocal apologist for Baptist views on Baptism of his period.
Secondly, and more importantly, his hymn writing and defense of hymn
singing broke new ground, not just for Baptists, but for English
Protestantism, in general. In addition to his contributions in these
areas, he also dealt with the laying on of hands and the sabbath day
worship controversy.
Keach's contributions to practical theology fall into two main
groups: his writings that concern religious education and those that
deal with polity. In addition to these, Keach's vigorous advocacy of
a high Calvinist soteriology are also considered under the rubric of
practical theology. Keach's most important (although not his most
positive) contribution in this area were his soteriological writings.
Although well within the bounds of orthodoxy, some of the tendencies
in Keach's soteriology were taken up by the following generation of
Baptist leaders and developed into a stultifying hyper-Calvinism that
handicapped Baptist evangelism and missions.
In the conclusion, Keach's contributions to a theory of practical
theology are considered
Stages of Entrepreneurship in the International Arena: The Role of Access to Capital and Developmental Support
No full textBackground and Objective: Research addresses shortcomings in studies between a mature and developing economy within stages of development. Prior research has largely been homogenous with emphasis on overall development by country. This research isolates selected countries and stage – intentions, early stage, and established – of development. The main objective is to measure access to capital and developmental support in each stage of entrepreneurial development. Methods: The model considers four independent variables that measure financing, infrastructure, openness of the economy, and governmental support. A change variable isolates effects before and after the 2008 Financial Crisis. Secondary data were obtained from Global Enterprise Monitor (GEM) and analyzed by regression analysis for years 2001-2020. Results: Access to capital was a positive variable in the model, with the largest coefficient observed in early stage entrepreneurship for each level of economic development. Governmental support was inversely correlated. Conclusions: Findings indicate that financial access is crucial in early stages of development, while governmental support appears to have unintended consequences of stalling entrepreneurial development. Contribution / Value: The value of the research extends prior studies in isolating the significance of the model in predicting each stage of entrepreneurship, but also in differentiating mature economy from developing economy
Gambling or Skill: Taxation Issues Surrounding the Daily Fantasy Sports Industry
No full textWith a waxing interest in sporting events, participants are increasingly supplementing passive viewing with a more active role. Fantasy sports leagues have burgeoned as a result, with corresponding increases in live game attendance and media consumption across platforms. Fantasy bettors seek financial gain through the ability of athletes and the likelihood of their team performing well in a sporting event. A major legislative concern within this industry is whether these activities are considered gambling, with its related stigma, or otherwise just a type of sporting activity. More importantly, gambling has a long history as a major source of tax revenue within its lineage. This paper examines these current public policy and taxation issues that will shape the future landscape of fantasy sports. Various legislation has defined type and scope of betting that have been gradually modified to permit a larger role for individual states to develop policies. A majority of states have adopted tests that apply the degree of chance versus skill in a contest. As of 2020, sports betting has been declared legal and is presently providing tax revenue in 23 states plus Washington, D.C. Higher levels of chance are generally deemed an illegal activity, using the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as a basis. Recent IRS opinions (July 2020) find that daily fantasy sports operators are liable for two federal excise taxes and must identify themselves by registering as a business accepting wagers. Lower gaming taxes are associated with a proliferation of legal sports betting. For this paper each of the following three properties must be present to be considered gambling: consideration, prize, and chance. States have authority in defining gambling activities, with Congress regulating commerce among states. Substantial opportunity exists in taxing online betting as a source of revenue or placing excise taxes on gambling as a method to control consumer 3 behavior. To the extent that federal and state governments continue debating legalized betting activities and the related taxes generated, consumer protection must focus on continued legitimacy of the environment and address addiction risk as a basis for further growth
Considering the Relationship between Business Applications and State Tax Rank: Effect of Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017
No full textThis research measures the relationship between state-level taxes and per capita business applications. State-level taxes used in the analysis are based on tax rank of each state from 1 to 50, with lower number rank associated with lower tax burden for that category and higher number rank with higher tax burden for that category. Tax categories used as independent variables in the model are the following: corporate tax rank, individual income tax rank, sales tax rank, property tax rank, and unemployment insurance tax rank. Five time periods were measured from 2015-2016, 2016-2017, 2017-2018, 2018-2019, and 2019-2020. The research question for the model considers how the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) legislation affects business applications within each state as measured through state-level variables. Sales taxes are found to inversely affect business applications two years before TCJA passage and during the year of passage, but to have a positive relationship one year after passage. Income tax is positively correlated in that immediate year following passage, while corporate tax inversely impacts two years following passage.
Using financial statement variables to predict stock prices: Lessons from the 2007-2009 financial crisis
No full textThis analysis considers balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow account ratios in measuring the impact of the 2007-2009 financial crisis on the stock prices of American companies. Fourteen companies that trade on S & P 500 were selected for the model and data gathered for the ten years of the analysis, 2004-2013. Results indicate a mixed relationship on the predictive power of financial statement analysis on stock prices before and after the financial crisis. Size of the company and sales were both strong predictors. Liquidity has a small impact through net working capital, but the post intervention counter variable suggests that the general trend in stock was higher after the crisis. The model concludes that the existing predictive ability holds for the financial statement variables analyzed, and finds that changes in account variables did not foretell stock price correction nor concurrently signal directional price movement as a result of the crisis
Investigation of the viability of a new type of airport called an Orbitport
No full textThe purpose of this paper is to present the concept of the Orbitport and to investigate its viability. "Orbitport" is the author"s name for the airport concept he has invented. Orbitport landing rimways have a straight and level section on which aircraft touch-down, followed by a laterally curved and banked section which completes less than a 360° turn, thus leaving a gap. Excepting the gaps, the airport terminal is surrounded by the landing runways" curved sections. Take-off runways are reached from the terminal by passing through the gaps. There are no taxiways between the landing runways and the terminal, as the landing runways and the terminal apron are contained on one uninterrupted concrete surface. In the paper an Orbitport is designed in order to: (a) present the Orbitport concept, (b) demonstrate the required planning and design methodology, (c) identify the important design parameters, (d) provide a plan of an Orbitport. The particular Orbitport designed is then compared economically and on an operations basis against comparable conventional parallel and "V" runway configuration airports. The paper concludes that more research is required before the Orbitport can be pronounced viable or not viable, but it is very promising.Industrial Engineering, Department o
Lessons from an aftermath : recovery of the self through trans-disciplinary applied drama practice
No full textIncludes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (leaves [198]-223).The aftermath is a region that is often associated with disruption, disrepair and trauma. Taking as his departure point his witnessing of the specific aftermath of the September 11th attacks in New York– the author returns to South Africa to locations that are concerned with the aftermath of apartheid and the aftermath of the advent of HIV/AIDS i.e. education and public health. He attempts a method of extracting elements from an aftermath as a form of redemptive critical theory (see Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt, Jean L. Cohen and Andrew Arato, Maurizio Passerin D’Entreves) in order to apply a combination of elements into a dialogical method of dramatic practice that might provide opportunities for recovery. This he does through a practice that is based upon participatory research involving participants from a high school and an HIV/AIDS wellness clinic
The uses of silence : a twentieth-century preoccupation in the light of fictional examples, 1900-1950
No full textA striking feature of twentieth-century Western cultural history was a
preoccupation with silence. This thesis is a survey of the phenomenon across a
broad range of literary and theoretical discourses actively engaged in the period
in exploring and exploiting silence's expressive and philosophical potential. Its
focus, and unifying principle, is the dynamic resourcefulness of the motif-the
diversity of its uses and significations. The meaning of silence shifts according to
its context and the discourse deploying it. By analysing an array of novels and
theoretical formulations-by writers as diverse as James, Chopin, Conrad, H. D.,
Forster, Lawrence, Faulkner, and Wittgenstein, Benjamin, Blanchot, Hassan,
Macherey, Irigaray, Spivak, Derrida-the mobility of silence as a construct is
exposed.
Silence is identified in the fiction of the period 1900-1950, and its
implications are assessed in the light of the various ways in which its uses were
understood and interpreted by twentieth-century theorists. Theory provides a
heuristic device for the comprehension of the fiction selected for scrutiny whilst
further highlighting the extent of the past century's dedication to the motif.
Fiction and theory are regarded as two different manifestations of a fascination
with silence: fiction dramatizes a commitment to the motif which comes to be
formally registered in theoretical discourse as the century progresses.
After an introductory chapter outlining the expanse of the phenomenon to
be studied, the thesis is divided into two parts illustrating the discrete
implications attaching to the motif: 'Social Silences' and 'Ontological Silences'.
The project questions whether the multiplicity of silence's usage may work to
depotentiate its signifying power; in particular, whether its role in abstract
'ontological' formulations diminishes its force for emancipatory 'social'
discourses. In conclusion, by means of the synchronic organization of the thesis,
silence's import is shown to lie in its resourcefulness rather than in any intrinsic
characteristic it might be thought to possess
Hydrogeologic controls on the occurrence and movement of groundwater discharged at Magic Springs in the Spring Branch Creek drainage basin: Spring Branch, Texas
No full textThe author has granted permission for their work to be available to the general public.The hydrogeologic controls, flow velocities and paths, groundwater delineation, and physical characteristics in a joint controlled dendritic conduit-spring system have been characterized. The known conduit branches from C My Shovel (CM) Cave with 4475 meters (m) of measurable passages and tributaries. Surface entrance to CM Cave is located 1360 m upstream from discharge at Magic Springs.
Four storm events were measured characterizing the dynamics. The maximum discharge of these four events was 1.2 m<super>3</super>/s (41 ft<super>3</super>/s) with 0.08 m<super>3</super>/s (3 ft<super>3</super>/s) baseflow conditions at Magic Springs. The characteristic shape and response of discharge are well defined with a rise time between 5.5 and 6.5 hours (hr). The half flow period time (t<sub>0.5</sub>) ranges between 12.9 and 15.7 hr, depending on peak discharge. The rise time and t0.5 occur in less than one day and the conduit volume exceeds 0.5 x 10<super>6</super> m<super>3</super>. The conduit-spring system drains within 3.7 to 7.5 days after the storm event. The thermal effects are event driven, maintaining 85% of the temperature change over 1300 m. The spring discharge has total dissolved solids around 350 mg/L and is chemically stable.
The field component of this study include a karst density survey, four dye traces, and continuous monitoring of specific conductance, pressure, temperature, water-level stage height, and discharge at Magic Springs and in the conduit below CM Cave. The general karst density survey identifies caves and dolines within given area. There is a sinking stream that transfers flow from Spring Branch Creek into the conduit system and two focused regions in a karst plain having densities of 20 and 44 karst features/0.16 km<super>2</super>.
Hydrographs and chemographs show patterns interpreted as pulses of dilute water recharging through exposed caves, sinkholes, and sinking streams. These pulses have minimal reaction with the rock or matrix during recharge, which is superimposed on baseflow from the joint controlled dendritic conduit-spring system in this karst terrane.
The groundwater drainage basin has been defined. The dye tracing results identified groundwater piracy across surface water divides and helped define the groundwater drainage basin. Groundwater velocities were measured between 1800 m/d and 3000 m/d under baseflow conditions. The discharge at Magic Springs under these four storm events showed velocities between 8,700 and 15,120 m/d.
An autosampler and charcoal packets were both employed during dye tracing. Both detected fluorescence from all four injection sites. The measured velocities ranged between 1865 up to 2929 m/d under baseflow conditions. All dye trace tests were conducted under baseflow. Under baseflow conditions, dye was only traced to the Magic Springs locations from the eleven charcoal monitoring locations.Geoscience
A Study of the Negro Print Shops in Houston, Texas
No full textThe art of printing is the most important invention that was ever introduced to the world in its effects on the human mind, and of consequence on all civilized society; it preserves and dissiminates all discoveries and improvements in the arts and sciences; it commemorates all other inventions; it hands down to posterity every important event; it immortalizes the actions of the great and good and above all, it extends and diffuses the word of God to all mankind. *
The foregoing statement, written in 1841, emphasizes the importance of the printing industry to human welfare. This art, which has been designated the art preservative, has enabled man to keep a graphic record of his achievements, to preserve and perpetuate the knowledge he has acquired, to dispense this knowledge to rich and poor alike, and in this dynamic age in which we are living, to keep abreast of fast changing ideas and events.
Thus we see the importance of this study—a study of the Negro print shops which serve the Negro populace of one of the largest cities in the great Southwest. It is the intention of the author to analyze the Negro shops of Houston to determine just how well they are playing their part in the progress of the Negroes of that city.
The eleven shops represented in this survey are typical Negro businesses. They are scattered over the city of Houston and serve approximately 90,000 Negroes. They are divided into three groups—job shops, job and newspaper shops. They range from holes in the wall to modern up-to-date shops and newspaper shops. For the purpose of this study and in fairness to the proprietors, whose gracious cooperation made possible the authenticity of the data to be analyzed the eleven shops will be referred to as Shop A, Shop B, Shop C, etc.
Each shop will be analyzed as to location, size, equipment, income, number of employees and types of work handled. The author\u27s impression of each shop will follow this analysis. In the conclusion a criticism of the shops as a whole will be attempted and suggestions for improvement offered.
*Savage—Dict. of Printing, 1841
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