Modeling Homeland Security: A Value Focused Thinking Approach

The events of September 11, 2001 have propelled the topic of homeland security to the forefront of national concern. The threat of terrorism within the United States has reached an unprecedented level. The pervasive vulnerabilities of the nation\u27s critical infrastructure coupled with the destructive capabilities and deadly intentions of modern terrorists pose extraordinary risks. The United States must mitigate these risks while at the same time balancing the associated costs and impact on civil liberties. Currently, the United States lacks effective methods and measure for assessing the security of the homeland from acts of terrorism. This study outlines a first cut decision analysis methodology for identifying and structuring key homeland security objectives and facilitating the measurement of the United States\u27 capability to execute these objectives

The incultuartion of the Christian Gospel: theory and theology with special reference to the Igbo of southeastern Nigeria

The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file.Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on month day year)Includes bibliographical references.Thesis (M.A.) University of Missouri-Columbia 2007.Dissertations, Academic -- University of Missouri--Columbia -- Religious studies.One of the most urgent problems within many Christian denominations is how to relate the Christian Gospel to diverse cultures. The importance of culture in the missiological process cannot be overstated; for culture is the social framework wherein an individual or group interprets the information or events of one's experiences. This social framework forms a basis for understanding why an individual or group behaves or reacts in one manner or another. In this paper, I will argue that the Christian Gospel message is fundamentally and essentially not limited by any one cultural expression and, as such, is trans-cultural. I have selected the term "trans-cultural" to describe the characteristic or property of being able to expand beyond the experience or limits imposed by any prior culture. In order to defend this thesis, I will provide a cursory review of a first century New Testament account of what may be the earliest Christian effort to spread beyond its original cultural setting. Next, I will review and analyze debates involving the concepts of conversion, inculturation, and syncretism as dynamic aspects of religious change. Following this, I will present a more modern account of Christian development among the Igbo of Southeastern Nigeria and offer it as an ongoing example to demonstrate the difficult yet determined effort of some to embrace the Gospel message within their own unique Cultural context. The final chapter will address specific issues raised in the test case that are relevant to inculturation theory and theology in academic discussion

Influences on Women Counseling Psychology Associate Professors’ Decisions Regarding Pursuit of Full Professorship

Twelve women tenured as associate professors in American Psychological Association–accredited counseling psychology doctoral programs were interviewed regarding their pursuit of promotion to full professor. Interview data were analyzed using a modified version of consensual qualitative research. Most participants indicated a strong desire to be promoted and stated that they would not change their minds about achieving this goal. Participants reported that their universities’ guidelines for promotion emphasized a strong publication record and evidence of a national reputation, but participants often described these criteria as vague. Pursuit of full professorship was encouraged by having a current mentor, receiving supportive feedback about applying for promotion, and publishing noteworthy research. Pursuit of full professorship was discouraged by negative prior promotion experiences, feelings that colleagues did not value the participant’s research, and conflicts between career and family obligations. Results are discussed within the context of Super’s theory of career development and social cognitive career theory

Shear-induced damped oscillations in an epithelium depend on actomyosin contraction and E-cadherin cell adhesion.

Shear forces between cells occur during global changes in multicellular organization during morphogenesis and tissue growth, yet how cells sense shear forces and propagate a response across a tissue is unknown. We found that applying exogenous shear at the midline of an epithelium induced a local, short-term deformation near the shear plane, and a long-term collective oscillatory movement across the epithelium that spread from the shear-plane and gradually dampened. Inhibiting actomyosin contraction or E-cadherin trans-cell adhesion blocked oscillations, whereas stabilizing actin filaments prolonged oscillations. Combining these data with a model of epithelium mechanics supports a mechanism involving the generation of a shear-induced mechanical event at the shear plane which is then relayed across the epithelium by actomyosin contraction linked through E-cadherin. This causes an imbalance of forces in the epithelium, which is gradually dissipated through oscillatory cell movements and actin filament turnover to restore the force balance across the epithelium

Stable, covalent attachment of laminin to microposts improves the contractility of mouse neonatal cardiomyocytes.

The mechanical output of contracting cardiomyocytes, the muscle cells of the heart, relates to healthy and disease states of the heart. Culturing cardiomyocytes on arrays of elastomeric microposts can enable inexpensive and high-throughput studies of heart disease at the single-cell level. However, cardiomyocytes weakly adhere to these microposts, which limits the possibility of using biomechanical assays of single cardiomyocytes to study heart disease. We hypothesized that a stable covalent attachment of laminin to the surface of microposts improves cardiomyocyte contractility. We cultured cells on polydimethylsiloxane microposts with laminin covalently bonded with the organosilanes 3-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane and 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane with glutaraldehyde. We measured displacement of microposts induced by the contractility of mouse neonatal cardiomyocytes, which attach better than mature cardiomyocytes to substrates. We observed time-dependent changes in contractile parameters such as micropost deformation, contractility rates, contraction and relaxation speeds, and the times of contractions. These parameters were affected by the density of laminin on microposts and by the stability of laminin binding to micropost surfaces. Organosilane-mediated binding resulted in higher laminin surface density and laminin binding stability. 3-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane provided the highest laminin density but did not provide stable protein binding with time. Higher surface protein binding stability and strength were observed with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane with glutaraldehyde. In cultured cardiomyocytes, contractility rate, contraction speeds, and contraction time increased with higher laminin stability. Given these variations in contractile function, we conclude that binding of laminin to microposts via 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane with glutaraldehyde improves contractility observed by an increase in beating rate and contraction speed as it occurs during the postnatal maturation of cardiomyocytes. This approach is promising for future studies to mimic in vivo tissue environments

Crying in Psychotherapy: The Perspective of Therapists and Clients

Eighteen U.S.-based doctoral students in counseling or clinical psychology were interviewed by phone regarding experiences of crying in therapy. Specifically, they described crying as therapists with their clients, as clients with their therapists, and experiences when their therapists cried in the participants’ therapy. Data were analyzed using consensual qualitative research. When crying with their clients, therapists expressed concern about the appropriateness/impact of crying, cried only briefly and because they felt an empathic connection with their clients, thought that the crying strengthened the relationship, discussed the event with their supervisor, and wished they had discussed the event more fully with clients. Crying as clients was triggered by discussing distressing personal events, was accompanied by a mixture of emotions regarding the tears, consisted of substantial crying to express pain or sadness, and led to multiple benefits (enhanced therapy relationship, deeper therapy, and insight). When their therapists cried, the crying was brief, was triggered by discussions of termination, arose from therapists’ empathic connection with participants, and strengthened the therapy relationship. Implications for research, training, and practice are presented