A Conceptual Model Of Seventh-day Adventist Organization For The Local Church

Problem In order for the Seventh-day Adventist church to accomplish fully its mission, the local church must be organized effectively to produce the results required by its mission. For this purpose, a conceptual model may be helpful. Until the present, no such model had been developed. The constant appearance of new techniques and processes in management call for development of instruments for evaluation by the church, and have at the same time raised the discipline to new heights of respectability. The question of the theology of the church is under study as never before. At least one Seventh-day Adventist theologian pointed to the need for continuing development of the church\u27s ecclesiology. This project, then is a study undertaken for the purpose of developing a model of Seventh-day Adventist organization in the light of selected.literature in the fields of contemporary ecclesiology, organization, church administration and Seventh-day Adventist organizational history. Emphasis was given to the development of a denominationally-sponsored plan of organization for the local church with specific application to local church officer and member organization. Method The basic methodology employed was that of making an application of a select number of concepts to the situation in an effort to discover new or existing alternatives for local church organization. Ecclesiology, Seventh-day Adventist organizational history and business organization and management were selected to serve as data for the development of a model. \u27 It was then attempted to analyze the data examined in order to move towards the development of a model. Particular attention was paid to the matter of Seventh-day Adventist concepts of organization and management as seen in Adventist history during the years prior to and following the 1901 General Conference. Because of her role in Seventh-da}\u27 Adventist history the views of Ellen G. White were dealt with. Results On the basis of the contextual study eight concepts were derived from ecclesiology. Sixteen concepts were derived from a comparison of Seventh-day Adventist organizational thought and organizational theory. On this basis a series of organizational postulates were developed, and on the basis of. these postulates a model was developed. An application was made to the local church situation using prescriptive guidelines and a hypothetical local church, the Logansport Seventh-day Adventist church, as an illustrative scenario

Motor kinematic differences in children with autism sepectrum disorder : ecological gameplay with a sensorised toy

Background Evidence suggests gross motor differences are present in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) from birth. Trevarthen and Delafield-Butt (2013) proposed that one of the early markers of ASD are abnormalities in the development of intentional movements, which are present before the manifestations of symptoms typically associated with autism, like deficiencies in social interaction and communication. A growing body of literature demonstrates kinematic and action patterns differences in children and adults with ASD. However, these experiments typically require expensive laboratory-based optical motion tracking systems. Here, we developed bespoke, sensorised wooden cubes for motor assessment of children’s play and report on the kinematic and action pattern differences of the children with autism compared to children developing typically. Objectives A description of ASD-specific action patterns and kinematics using sensorised toys. Methods Participants. Children 3 to 5 years diagnosed with ASD (n = 15) recruited from the Scottish Centre for Autism, Glasgow, UK. Children 3 to 5 years old developing typically recruited from nurseries in Glasgow, UK. Adults 20 to 25 years old without ASD recruited from Glasgow, UK. The study was approved by the University of Strathclyde Ethics Committee and consent obtained from the parents of children or the adults. In the case of the children with ASD, pre-screening with Vineland-II, AQ-Child and Leiter-R Brief IQ was performed. Procedure. The children were seated at a table and instructed to play two simple games that involved moving the cube from one position to another: a Serially Organized Action (SOA) game and a Single Repetitive Action (SRA) game. The first required complex motor sequencing and engagement with the experimenter, while the second consisted of a simple repetitive movement. Each game produced a single measured movement to a goal with 25 iterations or repetitions to yield 50 movements in total. An electronic board inside the cubes was equipped with tri-axial magnetometer, gyroscope and accelerometer wirelessly transferred the cube’s motion data to a laptop. The signal (raw motion data) was extracted through a Matlab-based platform and analysed. Data Analysis. Kinematic features of movement duration; maximum value of acceleration, velocity, and jerk during each movement; time to maximum value; % duration to maximum value; and the acceleration, velocity, and jerk action patterns profiles were calculated. Results The jerk profile of children with ASD was significantly different, showing increased maximum jerk, reduced time to maximum value and & duration to maximum value, and lower variability than typically developing children. Further, movement duration was shorter compared to age-matched typically developing children, and maximum velocity was significantly higher in children with ASD compared to children developing typically. Conclusion The increased jerk values and onset times in the ASD group are a particularly interesting finding that support new data appearing by other groups. It appeared, especially in the SRA game, that when moving the cube from one position to the next, the children with autism impacted on the surface of the table with greater velocity and typically included the resulting force immediately into to the next movement, giving it a greater jerk value in a shorter span of time that typically children. Typically developing children, on the other hand, paused for a moment (>100 ms) before commencing the next movement. Further, children with autism did not enjoy the SRA game, but they did enjoy the simpler, more repetitive SOA one. The repetitive simplicity of the SOA game and its resulting jerk profile appears to report on a particular behavioural motor feature distinct to ASD, namely stopping an action and starting a new one, while also describing an underlying motor difference that may contribute to it

Democratic Teacher Education Practices

[Living reference work entry] This entry provides an insight into the turbulent and recently disappointing events in the history of Design and Technology (D&T) teacher education in England over the last 150 years. It is a complex journey that needs to include a review of the generic history of teacher education in England, the differing educational needs of children, the changing role of D&T as a school curriculum subject, the requirements for an appropriately trained workforce to meet the economic needs of the country, and how various government educational initiatives and interventions (Gillard 2018) have affected how teachers in general and D&T teachers in particular have been and still are trained today. All these factors are inseparably intertwined. Therefore, this entry discusses them all together in chronological date order

Embodied inter subjective engagement in mother-infant tactile communication: a cross-cultural study of Japanese and Scottish mother-infant behaviors during infant pick-up

This study examines the early development of cultural differences in a simple, embodied, and intersubjective engagement between mothers putting down, picking up, and carrying their infants between Japan and Scotland. Eleven Japanese and ten Scottish mothers with their 6- and then 9-month-old infants participated. Video and motion analyses were employed to measure motor patterns of the mothers' approach to their infants, as well as their infants' collaborative responses during put-down, pick-up, and carry phases. Japanese and Scottish mothers approached their infants with different styles and their infants responded differently to the short duration of separation during the trial. A greeting-like behavior of the arms and hands was prevalent in the Scottish mothers' approach, but not in the Japanese mothers' approach. Japanese mothers typically kneeled before making the final reach to pick-up their children, giving a closer, apparently gentler final approach of the torso than Scottish mothers, who bent at the waist with larger movements of the torso. Measures of the gap closure between the mothers' hands to their infants' heads revealed variably longer duration and distance gap closures with greater velocity by the Scottish mothers than by the Japanese mothers. Further, the sequence of Japanese mothers' body actions on approach, contact, pick-up, and hold was more coordinated at 6 months than at 9 months. Scottish mothers were generally more variable on approach. Measures of infant participation and expressivity indicate more active participation in the negotiation during the separation and pick-up phases by Scottish infants. Thus, this paper demonstrates a culturally different onset of development of joint attention in pick-up. These differences reflect cultures of everyday interaction

Trajectory generation for autonomous soaring UAS

This article was published in the International Journal of Automation and Computing [© Springer Verlag and the Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences ]. The definitive version is available at: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11633-012-0641-5As unmanned aerial vehicles are expected to do more and more advanced tasks, improved range and persistence is required. This paper presents a method of using shallow layer cumulus convection to extend the range and duration of small unmanned aerial vehicles. A simulation model of an X-models XCalubur electric motor-glider is used in combination with a refined 4D parametric thermal model to simulate soaring flight. The parametric thermal model builds on previous successful models with refinements to more accurately describe the weather in northern Europe. The implementation of the variation of the MacCready setting is discussed. Methods for generating efficient trajectories are evaluated and recommendations are made regarding implementation

Brainstem enlargement in pre-school children with autism : results from an inter-method agreement study of segmentation algorithms

The inter-method agreement between automated algorithms for brainstem segmentation is investigated, focusing on the potential involvement of this structure in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Inconsistencies highlighted in previous studies on brainstem in the population with ASD may in part be a result of poor agreement in the extraction of structural features between different methods. A sample of 76 children with ASD and 76 age-, gender- and intelligence-matched controls was considered. Volumetric analyses were performed using common tools for brain structures segmentation, namely FSL-FIRST, FreeSurfer (FS), and Advanced Normalization Tools (ANTs). For shape analysis SPHARM-MAT was employed. Inter-method agreement was quantified in terms of Pearson correlations between pairs of volumes obtained by the different methods. The degree of overlap between segmented masks was quantified in terms of the Dice index. Both Pearson correlations and Dice indices, showed poor agreement between FSL-FIRST and the other methods (ANTs and FS), which by contrast, yielded Pearson correlations greater than 0.93 and average Dice indices greater than 0.76 when compared with each other. As with volume, shape analyses exhibited discrepancies between segmentation methods, with particular differences noted between FSL-FIRST and the others (ANT and FS), with under- and over-segmentation in specific brainstem regions. These data suggest that research on brain structure alterations should cross-validate findings across multiple methods. We reliably detected an enlargement of brainstem volume in the whole sample and in the male cohort across multiple segmentation methods, a feature particularly driven by the subgroup of children with idiopathic intellectual disability associated with ASD

Rhythmic Relating : Bidirectional support for social timing in autism therapies

We propose Rhythmic Relating for autism: a system of supports for friends, therapists, parents, and educators; a system which aims to augment bidirectional communication and complement existing therapeutic approaches. We begin by summarizing the developmental significance of social timing and the social-motor-synchrony challenges observed in early autism. Meta-analyses conclude the early primacy of such challenges, yet cite the lack of focused therapies. We identify core relational parameters in support of social-motor-synchrony and systematize these using the communicative musicality constructs: pulse; quality; and narrative. Rhythmic Relating aims to augment the clarity, contiguity, and pulse-beat of spontaneous behavior by recruiting rhythmic supports (cues, accents, turbulence) and relatable vitality; facilitating the predictive flow and just-ahead-in-time planning needed for good-enough social timing. From here, we describe possibilities for playful therapeutic interaction, small-step co-regulation, and layered sensorimotor integration. Lastly, we include several clinical case examples demonstrating the use of Rhythmic Relating within four different therapeutic approaches (Dance Movement Therapy, Improvisational Music Therapy, Play Therapy, and Musical Interaction Therapy). These clinical case examples are introduced here and several more are included in the Supplementary Material (Examples of Rhythmic Relating in Practice). A suite of pilot intervention studies is proposed to assess the efficacy of combining Rhythmic Relating with different therapeutic approaches in playful work with individuals with autism. Further experimental hypotheses are outlined, designed to clarify the significance of certain key features of the Rhythmic Relating approach

Cationic polyelectrolytes: A new look at their possible roles as opsonins, as stimulators of respiratory burst in leukocytes, in bacteriolysis, and as modulators of immune-complex diseases (A review hypothesis)

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44497/1/10753_2004_Article_BF00915991.pd