Will a man rob God? (Malachi 3:8): a Study of Tithing in the Old and New Testaments

Is tithing, that is, giving ten percent of one\u27s income, obligatory for Christians? This first in a series of two articles investigates this question by studying all references to tithing in Scripture. The discussion commences with OT references to tithing prior to the giving of the Mosaic Law, then in the Mosaic Low, the historical, and the prophetic books. This is followed by a study of the three major NT passages on tithing. This article concludes that none of the OT or NT passages can legitimately be used to argue for the continuation of tithing in the new covenant period

Micro-Nozzle Simulation and Test for an Electrothermal Plasma Thruster

With an increased demand in Cube Satellite (CubeSat) development for low cost science and exploration missions, a push for the development of micro-propulsion technology has emerged, which seeks to increase CubeSat capabilities for novel mission concepts. One type of micro-propulsion system currently under development, known as Pocket Rocket, is an electrothermal plasma micro-thruster. Pocket Rocket uses a capacitively coupled plasma, generated by radio-frequency, in order to provide neutral gas heating via ion-neutral collisions within a gas discharge tube. When compared to a cold-gas thruster of similar size, this gas heating mechanism allows Pocket Rocket to increase the exit thermal velocity of its gaseous propellant for increased thrust. Previous experimental work has only investigated use of the gas discharge tube\u27s orifice for propellant expansion into vacuum. This thesis aims to answer if Pocket Rocket may see an increase in thrust with the addition of a micro-nozzle, placed at the end of the gas discharge tube. With the addition of a conical ε = 10, α = 30° micro-nozzle, performance increases of up to 6% during plasma operation, and 25% during cold gas operation, have been observed. Propellant heating has also been observed to increase by up to 60 K within the gas discharge tube

Reconstructing a Biblical Model of Giving: a Discussion of Relevant Systematic Issues and New Testament Principles

In a previous article the authors discussed all relevant references to tithing in Scripture and concluded that the continuation of a tithing requirement cannot be adequately supported by the exegesis of individual texts. In the present article, we assess the applicability of tithing in light of pertinent systematic issues. Following a discussion of the relationship between the Mosaic Law and the new covenant, larger systematic issues that have been used to argue for the continuation of tithing are analyzed and criticized. The article concludes with a survey of NT principles for giving

Documentation of the data analysis system for the gamma ray monitor aboard OSO-H

The programming system is presented which was developed to prepare the data from the gamma ray monitor on OSO-7 for scientific analysis. The detector, data, and objectives are described in detail. Programs presented include; FEEDER, PASS-1, CAL1, CAL2, PASS-3, Van Allen Belt Predict Program, Computation Center Plot Routine, and Response Function Programs

Conservation of Helical Bundle Structure between the Exocyst Subunits

Background: The exocyst is a large hetero-octomeric protein complex required for regulating the targeting and fusion of secretory vesicles to the plasma membrane in eukaryotic cells. Although the sequence identity between the eight different exocyst subunits is less than 10%, structures of domains of four of the subunits revealed a similar helical bundle topology. Characterization of several of these subunits has been hindered by lack of soluble protein for biochemical and structural studies. Methodology/Principal Findings: Using advanced hidden Markov models combined with secondary structure predictions, we detect significant sequence similarity between each of the exocyst subunits, indicating that they all contain helical bundle structures. We corroborate these remote homology predictions by identifying and purifying a predicted domain of yeast Sec10p, a previously insoluble exocyst subunit. This domain is soluble and folded with approximately 60 % a-helicity, in agreement with our predictions, and capable of interacting with several known Sec10p binding partners. Conclusions/Significance: Although all eight of the exocyst subunits had been suggested to be composed of similar helical bundles, this has now been validated by our hidden Markov model structure predictions. In addition, these predictions identified protein domains within the exocyst subunits, resulting in creation and characterization of a soluble, folde

Adapting an Analog Records Management System for the Ingest and Accession of Permanent Electronic Records

The Records and Archives Division of the Office of the Missouri Secretary of State (hereafter MSA) received two National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) grants for the purpose of establishing an electronic records program at the Missouri State Archives. The first grant covered planning, staff training and a consultant who determined that minor modifications to the current State of Missouri Agency Records Tracking (SMART) System would allow for the ingest of permanent electronic records. The second grant funded the SMART upgrade and the purchase of data-grabbing equipment. The upgrade succeeded and MSA was able to ingest 150 GB of permanent electronic records via the SMART System

Characteristics of successful commercialisation from university-industry research collaboration in Ontario, Canada

Canadian firms invest considerably less in research and development as a proportion of GDP than in many other OECD countries. As a result of low private sector research intensity, universities represent a comparatively large proportion of Canadian research. In order to improve university technology transfer and the absorptive capacity of its industries, Canada offers among the highest rates of government support for universityindustry research collaboration (UIRC) in the world. The government granting agencies that administer these subsidies seek to identify and fund the UIRC projects that have the greatest likelihood of commercialisation. There is considerable debate among practitioners about what UIRC characteristics are associated with commercial outcomes. Although the mechanisms of effective research collaboration and university technology transfer have been well studied, the academic literature on this specific problem is surprisingly sparse considering its growing importance to policy makers. This study examined the relationship between the characteristics of various stakeholders in UIRCs, namely academic researchers, universities, firms and governments, and commercial outcomes from UIRC. Specifically, three hypotheses were developed and tested based on the unique context of Canada’s national innovation system and the extant literature. First, Hypothesis 1 built upon the concept explored in previous studies of how economic behaviour is “embedded” in social networks to posit that researchers who are less embedded within academia will have a higher likelihood of commercial outcomes from UIRCs. Next, motivated by the growing body of literature that has found government subsidies help to stimulate greater private sector research expenditures, Hypothesis 2 suggests that UIRCs with higher cash and in-kind contributions by firms will have a higher likelihood of commercial outcomes. Finally, Hypothesis 3 proposes that UIRCs in industry sectors with higher research intensity will have a higher likelihood of commercial outcomes, since prior studies have demonstrated that research intensity improves firm absorptive capacity. A novel dataset was developed from the historical records of the Ontario Centres of Excellence, a government granting agency in the province of Ontario, and from other public sources. The UIRC project was the unit of observation and the size of the sample was 682 observations. The dependent variables represented whether or not the UIRC project achieved a commercial outcome. Five independent variables were used to test the hypotheses using binomial and multinomial Logit regression, and 19 additional control variables were included in the model. Hypothesis 1 was tested using a novel categorisation of researchers based on their level of embeddedness in academia, and found that it was significantly associated with commercial outcomes. However, the results suggested that the directionality of the relationship was opposite to what was hypothesised. Additional testing confirmed that, contrary to what was hypothesised, more embedded researchers have a higher likelihood of commercial outcomes. Therefore, the findings may shed further light on mixed results from previous studies by exploring the commercialisation behaviour of certain categories of embedded researchers. Hypothesis 2 was tested using separate measures of firm cash and in-kind contributions to UIRCs. The results found that in-kind contributions are significantly associated with commercialisation, but that cash contributions are not. In fact, in-kind contributions are positively associated with licensing outcomes in particular. This study is among the first to link firm contributions to UIRCs with their commercial outcomes at a project level. Preliminary testing indicated support for Hypothesis 3 by finding a significant and positive association between industry sector and commercialisation. Additional testing found further evidence that UIRCs in industry sectors with higher research intensity had a higher likelihood of commercialisation. The findings suggest important industry differences in UIRC commercialisation patterns. However, the absence of data on UIRCs in life sciences, which represent approximately 50 of all university technology transfer activity, is an important limitation on their generalisability. The study makes four recommendations to policy makers and government granting agencies based on its findings: 1. Develop awareness and education programs that encourage older, more career advanced and high-quality researchers to become involved in UIRC and commercialisation. 2. Design UIRC support programs and selection criteria to encourage in-kind contributions by firms. 3. Concentrate efforts on developing world class research capabilities and commercialisation infrastructure at a small number of large universities. 4. Focus on supporting research collaboration between universities and the most research intensive industries to maximise the likelihood of commercialisation

Wage losses in the year after breast cancer: Extent and determinants among Canadian women

This article is available open access through the publisher’s website at the link below. © The Author 2008.Background - Wage losses after breast cancer may result in considerable financial burden. Their assessment is made more urgent because more women now participate in the workforce and because breast cancer is managed using multiple treatment modalities that could lead to long work absences. We evaluated wage losses, their determinants, and the associations between wage losses and changes for the worse in the family's financial situation among Canadian women over the first 12 months after diagnosis of early breast cancer. Methods - We conducted a prospective cohort study among women with breast cancer from eight hospitals throughout the province of Quebec. Information that permitted the calculation of wage losses and information on potential determinants of wage losses were collected by three pretested telephone interviews conducted over the year following the start of treatment. Information on medical characteristics was obtained from medical records. The main outcome was the proportion of annual wages lost because of breast cancer. Multivariable analysis of variance using the general linear model was used to identify personal, medical, and employment characteristics associated with the proportion of wages lost. All statistical tests were two-sided. Results - Among 962 eligible breast cancer patients, 800 completed all three interviews. Of these, 459 had a paying job during the month before diagnosis. On average, these working women lost 27% of their projected usual annual wages (median = 19%) after compensation received had been taken into account. Multivariable analysis showed that a higher percentage of lost wages was statistically significantly associated with a lower level of education (Ptrend = .0018), living 50 km or more from the hospital where surgery was performed (P = .070), lower social support (P = .012), having invasive disease (P = .086), receipt of chemotherapy (P < .001), self-employment (P < .001), shorter tenure in the job (Ptrend < .001), and part-time work (P < .001). Conclusion - Wage losses and their effects on financial situation constitute an important adverse consequence of breast cancer in Canada.The Canadian Breast Cancer Research Alliance, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and Fondation de l’Université Laval

Tracking the reflexivity of the (dis)engaged citizen: some methodological reflections

The relationship between governments and citizens in many contemporary democracies is haunted by uncertainty and sociologists face the task of listening effectively to citizens’ own reflections on this uncertain relationship. This article reflects on the qualitative methodology of a recently completed UK project which used a combination of diary and multiple interviews/ focus groups to track over a fieldwork period of up to a year citizens’ reflections on their relationship to a public world and the contribution to this of their media consumption. In particular, the article considers how the project’s multiple methods enabled multiple angles on the inevitable artificiality and performative dimension of the diary process, resulting in rich data on people’s complex reflections on the uncertain position of the contemporary citizen