Selection, Orientation, and Development of the Professional Staff

published or submitted for publicatio

Empty admiration: Robert Lewis Dabney’s expository homiletic

Russell St. John, “Empty Admiration: Robert Lewis Dabney’s Expository Homiletic,” Doctor of Philosophy, Middlesex University/London School of Theology, 2018. ----- This thesis argues that while American homiletician Robert Lewis Dabney (1820-1898) crafted a robust expository homiletical theory, his weak classroom pedagogy and failure personally to practice expository preaching undermined his theory, and Dabney predominantly equipped and influenced his seminary students to preach the very topical sermons that his expository theory abjured. Chapter 1 provides a biographical sketch, which acquaints the reader with Dabney’s life and work, demonstrating his historical and homiletical significance. Chapter 2 critiques prior evaluations of Dabney’s homiletic and preaching ministry, demonstrating the need for research into his classroom pedagogy and distinct structure for expository sermons. It also identifies an errant interpretation of Dabney’s homiletical legacy, which Chapter 6 corrects. Chapter 3 describes Dabney’s robust expository theory and identifies his distinct structure for expository sermons. It thereby exposes a caveat by which Dabney and his students preached topical sermons upon single verses or clauses of text—a practice that Dabney, in theory, forbade. Chapter 4 analyzes Dabney’s classroom pedagogy by examining sermon manuscripts that Dabney labeled “Exercises,” which offered replicable sermon templates to his students. By means of these exercises, Dabney primarily equipped his students to preach topical sermons on isolated verses of Scripture rather than the expository sermons that his theory admired. Chapter 5 chronicles and quantifies Dabney’s failure to practice expository preaching, demonstrating that he predominantly preached topical sermons on isolated verses of Scripture, thereby highlighting his infidelity to his homiletical theory, while also showing that Dabney’s stance toward the Scripture was not that of a herald as his theory claimed, but rather a craftsman. Chapter 6 evaluates sermons of students whom Dabney trained to preach, demonstrating that Dabney influenced the preaching of his students to resemble his own, and they consistently replicated his classroom pedagogy and personal example rather than his expository theory

Effects and importance of penetration and growth of lift on space vehicle response

Wind induced aerodynamic response of Saturn C-5 launch vehicle without fin

Socioeconomic status and neural processing of a go/no-go task in preschoolers: an assessment of the P3b

While it is well established that lower socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with poorer executive functioning (EF), how SES relates to the neural processing of EF in childhood remains largely unexplored. We examined how household income and parent education related to amplitudes of the P3b, an event-related potential component, during one EF task. We assessed the P3b, indexing inhibition and attention allocation processes, given the importance of these skills for academic success. Children aged 4.5-5.5 years completed a go/no-task, which assesses inhibitory control and attention, while recording EEG. The P3b was assessed for both go trials (indexing sustained attention) and no-go trials (indexing inhibition processes). Higher household income was related to larger P3b amplitudes on both go and no-go trials. This was a highly educated sample, thus results indicate that P3b amplitudes are sensitive to household income even within the context of high parental education. Findings build on the behavioral literature and demonstrate that SES also has implications for the neural mechanisms underlying inhibition and attention processing in early childhood.Published versio

A hybrid computer study of a dynamic ship positioning system

Hybrid computer program for dynamic ship positioning syste

Renew House: A Place for Teenagers to Find Healing from Adverse/traumatic Events and Experiences

Abstract will go here

Tiered Technologies of Power: Subject-making in China through Electronic Censorship

Since its inception and rise to wide-spread popularity, the internet has provided new opportunities for communication and configured global connectivity possibilities and information sharing. However, with this technological revolution, new and interesting regulatory challenges have emerged. With this paper, I build on Foucauldian understandings of governmentality to examine internet censorship in China within the global context, arguing that these issues of internet censorship in China represent an important example of the emergence of new techniques of governing that stem from new, globalized threats to state control. As a fundamentally global network, the internet ranks among one of the most pressing of these threats, requiring new regulatory practices in both authoritarian and non-authoritarian regimes. This paper argues that as a result, new, decentralized regulatory practices have emerged to augment existing centralized techniques of control and, in the process, constructed tiered technologies of power through which subjects are produced and governed

Understanding Caribou Population Cycles

The complex population dynamics of caribou (Rangifer tarandus) were studied to determine the patterns of their population cycles and the processes driving them. It is well established, via previous archaeological research and Indigenous knowledge, that large migrating caribou herds found in and around the tundra at northern latitudes experience population boom and busts roughly every several decades. However, the processes driving the dynamics of these cycles are relatively unknown, which makes managing caribou herds for recreational and subsistence harvests difficult. It has been hypothesized that a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic factors shape these cycles, with density-dependence, predation, harvest, climate, and others likely all playing a role. I aimed to determine whether caribou herds experience population cycling and, if so, estimate the period and amplitude of their cycles and determine which factors drive them. I collected population data on 43 caribou herds throughout the world, and in doing so, assembled the largest caribou population database to date. I used statistical interpolation to fill in the gaps between available data due to low sampling frequency. I quantified whether herds were cycling by fitting populations to sine waves and using periodograms to distinguish cycling tendencies from white-noise stochasticity. I collected additional information on other factors hypothesized to affect caribou cycles, including predator presence data, climate oscillation data, subspecies and ecotype data, and the latitudes of each herd. I used the interpolated data for each herd to determine the variables influencing the periods and amplitudes of caribou population cycles. The median period length was 40.5 years and the amplitude, standardized about the mean population size, was .871; period length and amplitude were also positively correlated. In addition, cycle amplitude was best predicted by period length, subspecies, biome, and average winter minimum temperature. Period length was best predicted by amplitude, latitude, subspecies, biome, NDVI, and average winter minimums. A better understanding of caribou population dynamics could help wildlife professionals and policymakers adapt their caribou management strategies. Climate appears to be a strong driver of these cycles, and with climate change becoming an increasingly apparent reality in the Arctic, cyclic tendencies may prove to disappear, or become amplified and spell disaster for caribou populations. Caribou management strategies will need to adapt to an ever-changing world if we want to preserve natural caribou population cycles—but what that entails remains to be seen

A small-scale testbed for large-scale reliable computing

High performance computing (HPC) systems frequently suffer errors and failures from hardware components that negatively impact the performance of jobs run on these systems. We analyzed system logs from two HPC systems at Purdue University and created statistical models for memory and hard disk errors. We created a small-scale error injection testbed—using a customized QEMU build, libvirt, and Python—for HPC application programmers to test and debug their programs in a faulty environment so that programmers can write more robust and resilient programs before deploying them on an actual HPC system. The deliverables for this project are the fault injection program, the modified QEMU source code, and the statistical models used for driving the injection

Are nasal steroid sprays effective for otitis media with effusion?

Treatment of otitis media with effusion (OME) with nasal steroids is not recommended (strength of recommendation [SOR]=A, based on systematic review). Limited evidence exists that shows nasal steroids may increase the rate of resolution of OME in the short term, alone or in combination with antibiotics (SOR: A, based on randomized controlled trials). However, within 3 to 12 weeks, resolution of OME with nasal steroids is no better than placebo. No evidence exists that treatment with nasal steroids has any effect on decreasing potential complications of OME, such as hearing loss and delayed language development