Compassionate response: Intersection of religious faith and public policy

Much of social work practice is rooted in compassion. Addressing compassion as a virtue, this article examines the possibilities for compassion to be more explicitly and purposefully built into actions at community and policy levels. We discuss the definition of compassion, examine the religious roots of compassion, describe some ways in which religion and policy intersect, and provide contemporary examples of compassion at the interface of religion and policy. In the discussion, we conclude with further thoughts about how compassion might be elevated in our collective societal actions and address the role of social work in these efforts

The role of religion in social welfare provision and policy: congregations in a U.S. city

A complex mix of community and government activities and policies address social welfare needs, and the balance of roles varies from country to country and sometimes community to community. Economic changes and other factors have led to the development of comprehensive welfare states in many countries, making national/federal governments significant players in social welfare planning and provision. Even with these structural changes, communities are still active in assessing and providing for their own members' needs, though in widely variable forms. Religious organizations are key players in providing for community social welfare needs, both congregations and faith-based organizations, as well as contributing to the national level policy discourse. To understand the role of congregations in social welfare provision, this project presents a case study of congregations in a small U.S. city (using qualitative interviews and other contextual data), a review of federal faith-based social welfare policy (from three administrations), and a discussion of the U.S. case in comparison to similarly constructed European case studies. The federal policy documents reflect an emphasis on communities as best placed to serve their own needs. The community interview data yielded themes focused on collaboration and structural ways congregations contributed to social welfare. Respondents generally voiced a similar position that community organizations have intimate knowledge of the community's needs and how to meet these. However, respondents (with a few exceptions) saw the work of community organizations as only possible within a larger government structure of regulation and funding. The constraints of program and funding guidelines that created a need for congregations to fill gaps, discussed by respondents, refers to the complex system of benefits designed to identify the deserving portion of those in need. The results of this project fit in a larger, international comparative analysis of social welfare and religion in western liberal democracies. Examining religion's participation in social welfare provision contributes to the understanding of religion's role in the public sphere as possible moral commentator, contributor to the common good, and identity legitimation

Expanding the usable workspace of a haptic device by placing it on a moving base

The goal of this research is to expand the reachable workspace of a haptic device when used in a projection screen virtual environment. The proposed method includes supplementing the haptic device with a redundant degree of freedom to provide motion of the base. The key research challenge is to develop controls for the mobile base that will keep the haptic end-effector in the usable haptic workspace at all times. An experimental set up consisting of an Omni haptic device and a XY motorized table was used in the development of the control algorithms. Tests were conducted which demonstrate that the force felt by the user when touching a virtual wall remains constant even when the mobile base is moving to re-center the haptic device in the usable haptic workspace

Congregations in the Community: A Case Study of Social Welfare Provision

A complex mix of community and government activities address social welfare needs. Even with structural changes, communities are active in assessing and providing for their own members’ needs, though in widely variable forms. Religious organizations are key in community social welfare. This project investigates the role of religion in social welfare provision at the local community level. Examining religion’s participation contributes to the understanding of religion’s role in the public sphere as moral commentator, contributor to the common good, and identity legitimation. This article uses a functionalist theoretical framework and case study data to discuss congregations and social welfare provision

Real-time quality assurance testing using photonic techniques: Application to iodine water system

A feasibility study of the use of inspection systems incorporating photonic sensors and multivariate analyses to provide an instrumentation system that in real-time assures quality and that the system in control has been conducted. A system is in control when the near future of the product quality is predictable. Off-line chemical analyses can be used for a chemical process when slow kinetics allows time to take a sample to the laboratory and the system provides a recovery mechanism that returns the system to statistical control without intervention of the operator. The objective for this study has been the implementation of do-it-right-the-first-time and just-in-time philosophies. The Environment Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS) water reclamation system that adds iodine for biocidal control is an ideal candidate for the study and implementation of do-it-right-the-first-time technologies