Paul's collection in light of motivations and mechanisms for aid to the poor in the first-century world

In the first-century world, discussion concerning one's money and what to do with it constituted delicate ground on which to tread. Such a discussion normally would have been undertaken only between the most closely related of people who shared a similar background and/or within a clear set of social expectations. Even then, talk of money could prove difficult territory to navigate. If this were true for people with much in common, then, when undertaken between people with fewer relational links, little or no shared culture or history, such a discussion could have presented any number of challenges, if not outright obstacles for all the participants. The Apostle Paul undertook just such a conversation, expending considerable time, thought and energy on the collection "for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem", referring to it in his letter to the Roman Christians and both letters addressed to the Christians at Corinth. This thesis will examine the collection in light of the bigger picture of motivations and mechanisms for aid to the poor and money movement in the first century Graeco-Roman and Jewish worlds. The objective is to render those motivations and mechanisms more clearly recognisable in the text and so to clarify their involvement in the conversation between Paul and the members of the churches to whom he wrote concerning the collection. What will emerge is a clearer understanding of the collection itself, a well-attested example of aid to the poor, a more nuanced understanding of the life of the early church for whom aid to the poor was a central tenet and practice, and a more balanced view of the Apostle Paul’s interactions with both his own churches and the Jerusalem church

OUTSIDE THE REALM: THE COUNTER-NARRATIVES OF AFRICAN AMERICAN PARENT INVOLVEMENT

The present study explores the experiences of African American parents and how they support their children’s education inside and outside the school realm. More specifically, the study examines African American parents’ level of involvement or engagement in their children’s education and the impact this has upon their children. In this study, parent involvement refers to school-sanctioned, school-authored activities in which parents participate. Parent engagement refers to those activities that parents arrange for themselves and their self-directed, relational interactions with school person­nel. Moreover, parent involvement and parent engagement are not used interchangeably but as distinct terms. The participants in this study are African American parents whose children attend a tutoring center in the south suburbs of Chicago; they were selected on the basis of their involvement or engagement in their children’s education. This study employed the ecologies of parental engagement and critical race theory as the theoretical frameworks. The ecology of parental engagement (EPE) offers a way to understand the interconnections between what parents engage in and how they manage to do so. Employing critical race theory (CRT) as a method allowed the use of storytelling; this captured each participant’s reality as it related to parent involvement and parent engagement. One-on-one interviews, observations, and a focus group were used to identify the nature of parents’ participation in their children’s education. Parents in this study predominantly participated in the home and school environment; however, the majority of the families in this study felt they were more engaged than involved in their children’s education

Effects of Parkinson’s disease on motor asymmetry

Introduction: Persons with Parkinson’s disease (PD) experience changes cortically, subcortically and behaviorally. This dissertation examines the asymmetry of motor behavior to explore the role of asymmetry in persons with PD and its connection to clinical symptoms. Purpose: Project 1: To assess the hand asymmetry difference in young adults versus older adults. Project 2: To investigate the difference in hand asymmetry in older adults and persons with PD. Project 3: To explore the correlation between function and clinical symptoms of persons with PD. Methods: 55 right-handed participants [Young Adults (YA) = 20, Female = 10; Older Adults (OA) = 20, Female = 10; Persons with PD = 15, Female = 5] were recruited and performed motor tasks: Purdue Pegboard test, grip strength test, response task, thumb opposition task, tapping task, three variations of timed-up-and-go test (TUG), single leg stance task (SLS), Weight Distribution test and Limits of Stability test. The two-way ANOVA was conducted to examine a variance between YA and OA. A separate two-way ANOVA was conducted comparing variance between OA and persons with PD. The purpose was to explore asymmetries, characterized by a significant difference between groups’ left and right sides. Pearson’s correlation was implemented to examine connection of clinical symptoms and motor behavior. Statistics: IBM SPSS 24 software was used. Two 2-way ANOVAs with the between group factor of group (Young vs. Older in Project 1; Older vs. PD in project 2), and within group factor of hand (Right vs. Left in Study 1 & Study 2) were used to examine if age (or PD) changes hand asymmetry. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to determine correlations between Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) and motor tasks in PD patients (Study 3). Results: Project 1: Results indicate asymmetry reduces with age in fine motor tasks containing speed, dexterity and strength components. Project 2: The basal ganglia dysfunction does not overall further exacerbate the reduced asymmetry with age. Project 3: Clinical symptoms of PD measured by the UPDRS are generally not associated with fine motor tasks of this study

What Happens Next? Using the Story Completion Method to Surface the Affects and Materialities of Digital Privacy Dilemmas

People’s ideas and practices concerning their personal data and digital privacy have received growing attention in social inquiry. In this article, we discuss findings from a study that adopted the story completion method together with a theoretical perspective building on feminist materialism to explore how people make sense of and respond to digital privacy dilemmas. The Digital Privacy Story Completion Project presented participants with a set of four story prompts (‘stems’) for them to complete. Each introduced a fictional character facing a privacy dilemma related to personal data generated from their online interactions or app use. Our analysis surfaces how privacy is imagined as simultaneously personal and social, redolent with affective intensities, and framed through relational connections of human and nonhuman agents. While the story stems involved scenarios using digital technologies, participants’ stories extended beyond the technological. These stories offer insight into why and how the potential for and meaning of digital privacy unfolds into more-than-digital worlds

Provider-initiated testing and counselling programmes in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review of their operational implementation.

OBJECTIVE: The routine offer of an HIV test during patient-provider encounters is gaining momentum within HIV treatment and prevention programmes. This review examined the operational implementation of provider-initiated testing and counselling (PITC) programmes in sub-Saharan Africa. DESIGN AND METHODS: PUBMED, EMBASE, Global Health, COCHRANE Library and JSTOR databases were searched systematically for articles published in English between January 2000 and November 2010. Grey literature was explored through the websites of international and nongovernmental organizations. Eligibility of studies was based on predetermined criteria applied during independent screening by two researchers. RESULTS: We retained 44 studies out of 5088 references screened. PITC polices have been effective at identifying large numbers of previously undiagnosed individuals. However, the translation of policy guidance into practice has had mixed results, and in several studies of routine programmes the proportion of patients offered an HIV test was disappointingly low. There were wide variations in the rates of acceptance of the test and poor linkage of those testing positive to follow-up assessments and antiretroviral treatment. The challenges encountered encompass a range of areas from logistics, to data systems, human resources and management, reflecting some of the weaknesses of health systems in the region. CONCLUSIONS: The widespread adoption of PITC provides an unprecedented opportunity for identifying HIV-positive individuals who are already in contact with health services and should be accompanied by measures aimed at strengthening health systems and fostering the normalization of HIV at community level. The resources and effort needed to do this successfully should not be underestimated

Creative Approaches to Health Information Ecologies: Summary Report

This report shares findings from Creative Approaches to Health Information Ecologies, a project led by researchers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney) in collaboration with Health Consumers NSW. This project used creative and qualitative methods to explore how people learn about their bodies and health. A total of 27 people took part in online workshops via Zoom during mid-2022. In these, participants mapped personal forms of health information and discussed the connections between health, wellbeing and the environment. Their discussions and maps provided valuable insight into the forms that health information takes and what matters about information, health and wellbeing in people’s everyday lives

Treatment practices of childhood sexual abuse: A developmental psychopathology perspective

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) occurs in up to 9.9 % of the general population. Clinical implications of CSA are lasting and warrant treatment utilizing suitable approaches. Although the developmental psychopathology model encourages clinicians to evaluate disorders in the context of risk/protective factors, cultural issues and development, there is a gap in current research regarding the utilization of developmental theory among clinicians working with this population. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine consistent patterns in treatment practices employed by therapists with CSA patients. The primary research question in this study was to determine how closely therapists\u27 actual treatment practice with CSA females paralleled the developmental psychopathology model. The study utilized a grounded theory approach to generate a model of practice drawn from structured interviews with 20 therapists recruited through a snowballing sample. A sequence of open, axial and selective coding of these data revealed three themes including empowerment, consistency and support. Results indicate most participants were trained in developmental theory and, developed model based skills over time while intuitively utilizing this model and that progressing clients had therapists that utilized this model. Recommendations include required undergraduate training in this model. This information will contribute to the existing literature on developmental theory and, can enhance social change initiatives through increased reliance on therapist intuition which in turn can produce patient care more aligned with developmental needs. In addition this information can be used for the development of effective model based interventions and preventions so as to decrease CSA\u27s harmful societal impact

Iterative approach to the Schwinger variational principle for electron-molecule collisions

We present an iterative approach which uses the Schwinger variational principle to solve the Lippmann-Schwinger equation for electron-molecule scattering. This method combines the use of discrete basis functions to describe the effects of the noncentral molecular potential with an iterative procedure which provides systematic convergence of the scattering solutions. Results for electron-H2 scattering in the static-exchange approximation show that the method converges rapidly and gives very accurate results