The Stories Behind the Story (Foreword and Introduction to Introducing Evangelical Ecotheology: Foundations in Scripture, Theology, History, and Praxis)

Excerpt: Nathan and I (Dan) pulled into the Mbanhela community in the Gaza province of Mozambique and were greeted by the high-spirited singing of six women who form the livestock association of that small community. A Christian relief and development organization, of which Nathan is the country director, provided funds for a large chicken coop, feed, supplies, and 300 chickens for the Mbanhela community. In addition, it furnished training in basic animal husbandry and marketing. Every two months the community starts a new cycle with 320 chicks. Raising chickens for income empowers that community and helps it toward health and sustainability. But the goal of raising livestock is not just for community development. The Mbanhela community decided that God had called them to provide a home for twenty-nine orphans and other vulnerable children. (One woman, Pastor Ramira, said to us matter-of-factly, “God tells us to care for the orphans and widows, and so we do.”) Profits from the sale of the chickens help those children attend school and buy books and school supplies

Indirect Effects of Pesticide Regulation and the Food Quality Protection Act

A driving factor behind pesticide regulation in Canada and the United States is the desire to protect consumers from harmful residues on food. The Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) was unanimously passed by the U.S. Congress in 1996 and hailed as a landmark piece of pesticide legislation. It amended the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA), and focused on new ways to determine and mitigate the adverse health effects of pesticides. The FQPA is different from past legislation; it is based on the understanding that pesticides can have cumulative effects on people and that policy should be designed to protect the most vulnerable segments of the population. Recent research has investigated some of the impacts the FQPA’s provisions – many of which have yet to be fully implemented – may have on growers and consumers.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Status of the ALICE magnet system

ALICE is the LHC experiment dedicated to heavy ion (Pb, Ca) physics. ALICE will be installed in point 2 of LHC, the former point 2 of LEP. The luminosity at the interaction point will be in the order of 10 /sup 27/ (10/sup 31/ for p-p). Consequently, the radiation level in ALICE will be comparatively low. We will use the existing infrastructure. Therefore, no noticeable civil engineering work will be necessary. Minor modifications will be made to gain a second access to the experiment cavern-mainly for the union arm spectrometer. ALICE will reuse the L3 solenoid, which is already installed and has been used in LEP as spectrometer magnet. A dipole magnet with a very large aperture is in addition required for the Dimuon Arm spectrometer and will be installed next to the L3 solenoid. The detectors in ALICE are concentrated around the IP inside L3 (Barrel) and along the muon arm. Some small forward detectors will be located toward the injection area at a larger distance from IP (~100 m). After a review of the present status of both projects some important milestones will be highlighted in the conclusion. (9 refs)

A Competence-Based Course Authoring Concept for Learning Platforms with Legacy Assignment Tools

This paper is concerned with several of the most important aspects of Competence-Based Learning (CBL): course authoring, assignments, and categorization of learning content. The latter is part of the so-called Bologna Process (BP) and can effectively be supported by integrating knowledge resources like, e.g., standardized skill and competence taxonomies into the target implementation approach, aiming at making effective use of an open integration architecture while fostering the interoperability of hybrid knowledge-based e-learning solutions. Modern scenarios ask for interoperable software solutions to seamlessly integrate existing e-learning infrastructures and legacy tools with innovative technologies while being cognitively efficient to handle. In this way, prospective users are enabled to use them without learning overheads. At the same time, methods of Learning Design (LD) in combination with CBL are getting more and more important for production and maintenance of easy to facilitate solutions. We present our approach of developing a competence-based course-authoring and assignment support software. It is bridging the gaps between contemporary Learning Management Systems (LMS) and established legacy learning infrastructures by embedding existing resources via Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI). Furthermore, the underlying conceptual architecture for this integration approach will be explained. In addition, a competence management structure based on knowledge technologies supporting standardized skill and competence taxonomies will be introduced. The overall goal is to develop a software solution which will not only flawlessly merge into a legacy platform and several other learning environments, but also remain intuitively usable. As a proof of concept, the so-called platform independent conceptual architecture model will be validated by a concrete use case scenario

Attosecond electron spectroscopy using a novel interferometric pump-probe technique

We present an interferometric pump-probe technique for the characterization of attosecond electron wave packets (WPs) that uses a free WP as a reference to measure a bound WP. We demonstrate our method by exciting helium atoms using an attosecond pulse with a bandwidth centered near the ionization threshold, thus creating both a bound and a free WP simultaneously. After a variable delay, the bound WP is ionized by a few-cycle infrared laser precisely synchronized to the original attosecond pulse. By measuring the delay-dependent photoelectron spectrum we obtain an interferogram that contains both quantum beats as well as multi-path interference. Analysis of the interferogram allows us to determine the bound WP components with a spectral resolution much better than the inverse of the attosecond pulse duration.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Increasing Capacity for Evaluation of Community-Based Organizations: Lessons from the Ohio Equity Institute

Background: Community-based organizations (CBOs) play an important role delivering disease prevention and health promotion activities to address community health needs and improve the health of individuals living in their communities. While CBOs play this important role, evaluation of the services they deliver is hampered by limited infrastructure to systematically collect data from these organizations. To address this gap, we report on a case study of the development of the Ohio Equity Institute (OEI) Data Portal. The OEI is a statewide initiative that supports 65 CBOs across Ohio to deliver 3 evidence-based interventions (ie, CenteringPregnancy, Community Health Workers, and Home Visiting) to address infant mortality in underserved populations. Methods: Employing principles of community-engaged stakeholder research and user-centered design, we conducted Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles, including semistructured interviews with 43 key informants, to improve the development, implementation, and use of the OEI Data Portal. Results: This process identified both technical and implementation challenges, and offered opportunities to make improvements to the data collection system itself as well as to the integration of this system with CBO workflows. These improvements yielded significant gains in terms of the quantity and quality of data submission, ultimately contributing to ongoing outcome evaluation efforts. Conclusion: Our findings provide important insight into the challenges experienced by CBOs when participating in a statewide CBO data evaluation infrastructure development and implementation. As Ohio and other states push to expand collaborations between CBOs and health care organizations, leaders should leverage existing data collection to facilitate a more comprehensive and effective process

An Update on the Anatomy of the Forehead Compartments

Background: The forehead is one of the most frequent locations for neuromodulator and soft tissue filler applications;however, the underlying anatomy is still poorly understood. Thus far, the presence of deep forehead compartments has not been confirmed. Methods: Twenty Caucasian cephalic specimens, 15 fresh frozen (six female and nine male) and five with formalin-phenol embalmment (three female and two male) were investigated using contrast-enhanced computed tomographic scans, dye injections, and anatomical dissections. Results: Three superficial (one central and two lateral) and three deep (one central and two lateral) forehead compartments were identified. The superficial fat compartments were found within the subcutaneous fat tissue (layer 2) and measured 2.1 x 4.6 mm for the superficial central forehead compartments and the right superficial lateral forehead compartments and 2.6 x 3.2 cm for the left superficial lateral forehead compartments, with a mean volume of 2.5, 3.1, and 3.4 cc, respectively. The deep fat compartments were identified deep to the frontalis muscle but superficial to the periosteum with an extent of 6.4 x 5.9 cm for the deep central forehead compartments, 2.6 x 5.8 cm for the right deep lateral forehead compartments, and 2.7 x 5.8 cm for the left deep lateral forehead compartments, and a mean volume of 9.1, 1.6, and 1.4 cc, respectively. Conclusions: The results presented in this study increase the understanding of the forehead anatomy. Understanding the presence of the superficial and the deep forehead compartments allows one to change the signs of frontal aging. The deep forehead compartments are in general avascular planes and permit blunt dissection for access to the supraorbital region