Healthy Church Multiplication in Modern Churches

Jesus’ command in Matthew 28:19 leaves no room for interpretation. The role of the followers of Jesus and of the church is decidedly clear. We are called to make disciples of all nations. An honest assessment of my local ministry context, Access Church, reveals that we, as a church, have fallen short of Jesus’ Great Commission. The intention of this research project is to understand the biblical mandate to make disciples as taught throughout Scripture, study Jesus’ discipleship methods in the book of Matthew, and, ultimately, create a new rubric to help Access Church—and other churches—understand how to measure its effectiveness. Chapter One is an overview of the entire project and research plan. Chapter Two provides a theological framework and current literature review on discipleship. Chapter Three is an in-depth look at the cross-sectional quantitative methodology and survey used to research Access Church members. Chapter Four provides a detailed look at the survey results and growth. Chapter Five presents a conclusion, contextual changes we are making at Access Church, and suggestions for churches who want to multiply in discipleship in a way that is healthy and sustainable

Comparison of relative deflection in a fixed partial prosthesis with a soldered joint and an semi-fixed partial prosthesis with a precision attachment under simulated occlusal forces

Thesis (M.Sc.D.)--Boston University School of Graduate Dentistry, 1973. Prosthodontics.Bibliography included.Precision and semi-precision attachments have been utilized in fixed partial prostheses for many years. A review of the dental literature reveals a lack of clinical and laboratory information and their use in specific situations therefore must have been empiricly established . The purpose of this research was to contribute to the establishment of either a sound rationale for the use of precision attachments or, conversely, to an indictment of them based on factual testing under simulated clinical conditions. [TRUNCATED

The Rating of Sexual and Nonsexual Cartoons as a Function of Repression-Sensitization

In the past ten years, since the revision of the Repression- Sensitization Scale (Byrne, Barry and Nelson, 1963) a growing number of investigators have attempted to relate the R-S scale to an approach- avoidance continuum of defensive behavior. The few studies that have used sexual stimuli to produce a threat response have not obtained very consistent results. The present study has focused on the relationship between the R-S scale and the humor rating of cartoons. Through the use of Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability scores, repressors were differentiated into defensive and nondefensive. The independent variable involved the presentation of two types of cartoons: sexual and nonsexual. The two dependent variables were: the proportion of sexual versus nonsexual cartoons that each subject chose to view, and the humor rating of these cartoons. The experimental design was a 3 x 2 x 2 factorial with three levels of R-S (sensitizers, nondefensive repressors and defensive repressors), two levels of sex (male and female) and two types of stimuli. Sixty subjects were instructed to rate the degree of humor in each of a series of 40 cartoons. Subjects controlled the presentation of cartoons on a screen by pressing one of two levers. After 40 cartoons were viewed and rated, a post experiment questionnaire was administered. Analysis of variance revealed a significant main effect, and a significant second order interaction. Emphasis was placed on the higher order finding. Consistent with the hypothesis female defensive repressors gave significantly lower humor ratings for sexual cartoons than nonsexual cartoons. The hypothesis that sensitizers should give significantly higher humor ratings for sexual cartoons than nonsexual cartoons was not supported. None of the data for males showed significant differences. The sex differences had not been anticipated. The rating of humor in sexual and nonsexual cartoons by female subjects was interpreted to correspond to an approach-avoidance model. The M-C SD scale was not found useful in differentiating types of R-S scorers in the present study. Since subjects chose different proportions of sexual cartoons, the two subjects in each category who viewed the fewest sexual cartoons were eliminated for a second analysis of variance. Results were essentially the same, except that internal comparisons revealed no significant differences in humor ratings for sexual and nonsexual cartoons. This later finding was interpreted to mean that female defensive repressors expressed their dislike for sexual cartoons by choosing to view fewer of them as well as rating them lower than nonsexual cartoons. An analysis of the proportion of sexual cartoons viewed revealed no significant mean differences between subject categories

Novel approaches to the construction of miniaturized analytical instrumentation

This paper focuses on the design, construction, preliminary testing, and potential applications of three forms of miniaturized analytical instrumentation. The first is an optical fiber instrument for monitoring pH and other cations in aqueous solutions. The instrument couples chemically selective indicators that were immobilized at porous polymeric films with a hardware package that provides the excitation light source, required optical components, and detection and data processing hardware. The second is a new form of a piezoelectric mass sensor. The sensor was fabricated by the deposition of a thin (5.5 micron) film of piezoelectric aluminum nitride (AIN). The completed deposition process yields a thin film resonator (TFR) that is shaped as a 400 micron square and supports a standing bulk acoustic wave in a longitudinal mode at frequencies of approx. 1 GHz. Various deposition and vapor sorption studies indicate that the mass sensitivity of the TFR's rival those of the most sensitive mass sensors currently available, though offering such performance in a markedly smaller device. The third couples a novel form of liquid chromatography with microlithographic miniaturization techniques. The status of the miniaturization effort, the goal of which is to achieve chip-scale separations, is briefly discussed

Gap Detection for Genome-Scale Constraint-Based Models

Constraint-based metabolic models are currently the most comprehensive system-wide models of cellular metabolism. Several challenges arise when building an in silico constraint-based model of an organism that need to be addressed before flux balance analysis (FBA) can be applied for simulations. An algorithm called FBA-Gap is presented here that aids the construction of a working model based on plausible modifications to a given list of reactions that are known to occur in the organism. When applied to a working model, the algorithm gives a hypothesis concerning a minimal medium for sustaining the cell in culture. The utility of the algorithm is demonstrated in creating a new model organism and is applied to four existing working models for generating hypotheses about culture media. In modifying a partial metabolic reconstruction so that biomass may be produced using FBA, the proposed method is more efficient than a previously proposed method in that fewer new reactions are added to complete the model. The proposed method is also more accurate than other approaches in that only biologically plausible reactions and exchange reactions are used

The inherent instability of leveed seafloor channels

New analytical models demonstrate that under 2 aggradational flow conditions seafloor channel-levee systems are inherently unstable; both channel area and stability necessarily decrease at long timescales. In time such systems must avulse purely through internal (autogenic) forcing. Although autogenic instabilities likely arise over long enough time for additional allogenic forcing to be expected, channel-levee sensitivity to variations in flow character depends on the prior degree of system evolution. Recalibrated modern Amazon Fan avulsion timings are consistent with this model, challenging accepted interpretations of avulsion triggering

Communications Biophysics

Contains research objectives, summary of six research projects and reports on three research projects.National Institutes of Health (Grant 2 P01 MH-04737-06)Joint Services Electronics Programs (U. S. Army, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Air Force) under Contract DA 36-039-AMC-03200(E)National Science Foundation (Grant GK-835)National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant NsG-496)National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 ROI NB-05462-03