Evaluation of a ministry formation group for increasing laity intrinsic religious orientation

https://place.asburyseminary.edu/ecommonsatsdissertations/1592/thumbnail.jp

The impact of satellite temperature soundings on the forecasts of a small national meteorological service

The impact of introducing satellite temperature sounding data on a numerical weather prediction model of a national weather service is evaluated. A dry five level, primitive equation model which covers most of the Northern Hemisphere, is used for these experiments. Series of parallel forecast runs out to 48 hours are made with three different sets of initial conditions: (1) NOSAT runs, only conventional surface and upper air observations are used; (2) SAT runs, satellite soundings are added to the conventional data over oceanic regions and North Africa; and (3) ALLSAT runs, the conventional upper air observations are replaced by satellite soundings over the entire model domain. The impact on the forecasts is evaluated by three verification methods: the RMS errors in sea level pressure forecasts, systematic errors in sea level pressure forecasts, and errors in subjective forecasts of significant weather elements for a selected portion of the model domain. For the relatively short range of the present forecasts, the major beneficial impacts on the sea level pressure forecasts are found precisely in those areas where the satellite sounding are inserted and where conventional upper air observations are sparse. The RMS and systematic errors are reduced in these regions. The subjective forecasts of significant weather elements are improved with the use of the satellite data. It is found that the ALLSAT forecasts are of a quality comparable to the SAR forecasts

Towards a cross-disciplinary framework for promoting youth wellbeing

The youth wellbeing literature draws upon the fields of Positive Education, Positive Youth Development, Social and Emotional Learning, Coaching and Mentoring Psychology and Quality of Life, collectively referred to as the Youth Wellbeing Fives (YWB Fives). Despite their individual efforts to promote mental health and address mental health issues, no study to date has explored their collective contributions (intersections) towards this goal, nor has a framework been developed to understand the benefits of collaboration between youth wellbeing scholars from different fields. This paper develops a framework for promoting the cross-disciplinary study of youth wellbeing, and critically reviews the contributions of individual and collective YWB Fives to enhancing the wellbeing of young people. Given their complementary approaches and combined influence on successful interventions, we illuminate possibilities for intersections to exist among the YWB Fives. Insights gained have various research and practical applications; these include providing a rationale for future youth studies to empirically measure intersections among the YWB Fives, and encouraging the development, delivery and evaluation of cross-disciplinary interventions to ensure widespread access to wellbeing services by all young people

The Job Crafting Questionnaire: A new scale to measure the extent to which employees engage in job crafting.

Empirical research on employee job crafting is scarce, probably because until recently scales with which the construct can be reliably and validly measured were not available. Although a general scale has recently been developed, the cognitive component of job crafting was omitted. The aim of the present study was to address this gap by developing and validating the 15-item Job Crafting Questionnaire (JCQ). The sample consisted of 334 employees who completed a battery of questionnaires, including the JCQ. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses both supported a three-factor structure that reflected the task, relational, and cognitive forms of job crafting originally presented by Wrzesniewski and Dutton (2001). Convergent analyses showed the JCQ correlated positively with indices of proactive behaviour (i.e., organisational citizenship behaviour, strengths use, and self-concordant goal setting), and positive work functioning (i.e., job satisfaction, work contentment, work enthusiasm, and positive affect). These analyses also showed the measure correlated inversely with negative affect. Reliability analyses indicated the measure has high internal consistency. Together, the analyses supported the reliability and validity of the JCQ and it shows good promise as a measure to progress research on job crafting.“Permission to use scale: The Job Crafting Questionnaire (JCQ) may be used for research as long as proper credit is given. Permission is not needed to use the JCQ and requests to use the scales will not be answered on an individual basis because permission is granted here. This article should be used as the citation for the JCQ, and this note provides evidence that permission to use the scale is granted.

Treatment Utilization and Medical Problems in a Community Sample of Adult Women With Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia nervosa (AN) has a prolonged course of illness, making both defining recovery and determining optimal outpatient treatments difficult. Here, we report the types of treatments utilized in a naturalistic sample of adult women with AN in Texas. Participants were recruited from earlier studies of women with AN (n = 28) and in weight recovery following AN (n = 18). Participants provided information about both their illness and treatments during their most severe period as well as during the 2–6 years following original assessments. Based upon their baseline and follow-up clinical status participants were classified as remaining ill (AN-CC, n = 17), newly in recovery (AN-CR, n = 11), and sustained weight-recovery (AN-WR, n = 18). Utilization of health care institutions and providers were compared across groups. There were no differences in groups related to symptoms or treatments utilized during the severe-period. During the follow-up period, intensive outpatient programs were utilized significantly more by the AN-CC group than the other groups, and dietitians were seen significantly less by the AN-WR group. Medical complications related to the ED were significantly more common in the AN-CC group. All groups maintained similar levels of contact with outpatient psychiatrists, therapists, and primary care physicians. Current treatments remain ineffective for a subset of AN participants. Future prospective studies assessing medical health and comorbidities in AN may provide additional insights into disease severity and predictors of clinical outcome

Social exclusion and the value of mobility

This paper investigates factors likely to increase a person’s risk of social exclusion, drawing on survey data specifically framed for this purpose. We use a generalised ordered logit model that accounts for observed and unobserved heterogeneity and derive the marginal effects for each influencing attribute. We find that people are less likely to be at risk of social exclusion if they have regular contact with significant others, have a sense of community, are not poor, are mobile and are open to new experiences which enable them to grow on a personal level. The value of an additional trip is estimated at $A20

Effect of different scintillator choices on the x-ray imaging performance of CMOS sensors

The ability of wafer scale Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) imagers to integrate sensing with analogue to digital conversion at the pixel level has led to their widespread appeal in a variety of imaging applications. This has led to significant improvement in speed and reduction in read-out noise in these imagers when compared to charge-coupled devices (CCDs) and amorphous silicon/selenium based flat panel imagers (FPIs). This paper compares the performance characteristics of CMOS X-ray detectors in various configurations by varying certain parameters of a typical X-ray detector such as fibre optic face plate (FOP), scintillator substrate coating, sensor pixel pitch and scintillator thickness. The evaluations were carried out using RQA5 (70 kV) radiation beam quality aimed at general radiography applications. At comparable Air Kerma values, detectors with a fibre optic plate showed an overall better DQE performance at most spatial frequencies, starting slightly lower at low frequencies then overtaking the “no-FOP” case at mid and high frequencies. The analysis of detectors with different substrate coatings for the scintillators showed comparatively higher DQE for the white-coated aluminium substrate scintillator compared to the black-coated one. The DQE comparison of detectors with and pixel pitch resulted in a higher DQE for the pixel pitch one, with the caveat that the scintillator was thick enough as to render differences in pMTF negligible. Finally, the comparison of scintillators with varying thicknesses showed that the thickest scintillator yielded the highest DQE. These characterisation studies helped in understanding the suitability of these different configurations in various general radiography application scenarios and could be of help to prospective users to determine the overall configuration that best fits their specific imaging needs