Religious Commitment and Meaning in Life

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between meaning or purpose in life as measured by Crumbaugh\u27s Purpose in Life Test, and the degree of religious commitment of college students, with particular interest in the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). Religious commitment was measured by Hoge\u27s Intrinsic Religious Motivation Scale (IRM). Two hundred and fifty-five undergraduates, 122 males and 132 females, enrolled in introductory psychology and sociology classes at Utah State University during spring quarter, 1975, served as subjects. A two-way analysis of variance calculated separately for the LDS and non-LDS groups was used to test three hypotheses: (1) there will be a significant difference among the mean PIL scores for the high, moderate, and low religious commitment groups (in that order); (2) females will be significantly higher in their sense of purpose in life than males; (3) females will be significantly higher in their sense of purpose in life in all religious commitment groups. Hypothesis 1 was significant beyond the .05 level for the LDS group. A Sheffe test indicated the difference was between the high and the low religious commitment groups only. Hypotheses 2 and 3 were not supported. None of the three hypotheses were supported for the nonLDS group. T-ratios computed between the three corresponding levels of religious commitment for the LDS and non-LDS groups were significant beyond the .05 level. A significant positive relationship for males beyond the .05 level was found between sex and religious commitment. No relationship was found between sex and purpose in life. A significant positive relationship beyond the .05 level was found between religious commitment and purpose in life. No significant differences were found between year in school, marital status, and socioeconomic status on either purpose in life or religious commitment. Significant differences beyond the .05 level were found between religious commitment and church attendance, and between religious commitment and activity in church organizations. It was concluded that the results support the premise that religion can have a significant impact on an individual\u27s sense of purpose in life as defined by Frankl (1963), particularly if the individual\u27s religion encourages active involvement on the part of the individual. The effect is especially strong if high religious belief, high religious participation, and social activity outside of church occur together

THREAT ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT: PROTOCOL AND BUDGETARY NEEDS FOR TOOLS AND MEMBER TRAINING IN HIGHER EDUCATION

The primary goal of threat assessment is to prevent individuals who are on a pathway to violence. Threat assessment entails a three-step process beginning with identifying a concern, assessing the risk and managing the posed threat (Vossekuil, United States. Department of Education, & United States. Secret Service, 2002). A southeastern public university has a threat assessment policy that needs revision and full implementation to improve processes and budgetary needs for threat assessment tools and member training. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to collect and analyze information that was to be used to create a revised and fully implemented threat assessment policy at a southeastern university system and a baseline TAM team protocol for other institutions to consider adapting to fit their campus needs.This study surveyed threat assessment and management team members at the study institution and conducted remote semi-structured interviews by phone with threat assessment chairs from three additional public southeastern universities to collect data on the threat assessment policy, processes, and budgetary needs for training and tools at the study university. Qualitative data was collected from both the semi-structured interviews and the open-ended questions in the survey. Quantitative data was collected in order to determine the ideal amount of new member training, on-going training and best-practice threat assessment tools.The results from the mixed methods study indicated that universities within a southeastern public system varied with policy, funding, threat assessment tools, and specialized member training. It is recommended that the southeastern university public system implement a baseline for institutions to consider mirroring based on best practices regarding funding, new member and consistent specialized member training and threat assessment tools to appropriately assess and mitigate campus threats

Working Group 5: Measurements technology and active experiments

Technology issues identified by working groups 5 are listed. (1) New instruments are needed to upgrade the ability to measure plasma properties in space. (2) Facilities should be developed for conducting a broad range of plasma experiments in space. (3) The ability to predict plasma weather within magnetospheres should be improved and a capability to modify plasma weather developed. (4) Methods of control of plasma spacecraft and spacecraft plasma interference should be upgraded. (5) The space station laboratory facilities should be designed with attention to problems of flexibility to allow for future growth. These issues are discussed

Simulating the Water Requirements and Economic Feasibility of Corn in the Midwest

An evaluation of the economics of supplemental irrigation when using a surface water supply must be site specific in order to account for variations in soil moisture holding capacity, watershed area supplying the runoff, climatic conditions, and proposed irrigation management procedures. With the use of farm specific simulation models to determine grain yields, availability of irrigation water, and economic expenditures involved in irrigation, an economic evaluation of supplemental irrigation can be performed, In the model presented in this report, the Duncan SIMAIZ model is used to predict grain yields using long-term daily weather information. SIMAIZ also determines irrigation water demand for the crop. The Haan Water Yield Model is used to predict flow into a reservoir using the same weather information. By knowing daily water flow into a reservoir and water demand for irrigation, a reservoir size is determined which will supply water at all times for the study period. Simulations are then run by incrementally reducing, by volume, the size of this reservoir, thus limiting the availability of irrigation water, and resulting in reduced irrigated yields. An economic evaluation is performed for each reservoir size. Costs and benefits included are: initial cost of constructing the reservoir, yearly reservoir maintenance cost, yearly irrigation costs of operation, and additional income resulting from the increase in grain yields. After the project life has been assumed, the model determines the capital available for investing in an irrigation system for a given year and reservoir size. By ranking these values, a probability distribution is obtained indicating the probability of making money in any given year. By using the Central Limit Theorem, these results are converted to the probability of making money over the life of the system. A sensitivity analysis examines the sensitivity of capital available for investment in an irrigation system to select input variation. The results indicate that great care should be exercised when assigning values to some inputs, while for others, a reasonable estimate is adequate. This model can be used as a tool for evaluating which irrigation practices, if any, are economically feasible. An example of its use is shown

Effects of Surface Application of Dairy Manure on the Infiltration Rate and Quality of Surface Runoff

Dairy manure was surface spread on 12 ft x 12 ft plots on an established fescue pasture in the summer and fall of 1981 and 1982. The soil was a Maury silt loam. A simulated rainfall was applied to plots to test the effects of nitrogen loading rate (75, 150, and 300 #N/acre) time delay between manure application and the simulated rainfall events (0, 3, 6, 24, 48, 96 hours and a 120 hour test repeated on 0 hr plot with 300 #N/acre), and type manure (semi-solid - 1981 and liquid - 1982) on the concentrations of pollutants in the surface runoff. The pollutants measured were COD, TSS, FSS, VSS, TS, FS, VS, N03, NH4 , N, P, and K. The simulated rainfall rates were 3.42 in/hr for 1981 and 4.02 in hr for 1982. The average field infiltration rate for the non-manured test plots were 3.40 in/hr in 1981 and 4.42 in/hr in 1982. The infiltration rates of the manured plots were reduced by 5.8 to 15 percent for semi-solid manure and 23 to 31 percent for liquid manure for zero hour time delay plots. The infiltration rates increased to within 92 percent of the control plots after 120 hour time delay. The pollutant yields increased with nitrogen loading rate except for FSS yield which remained below the control plot yields. The NO3 yields was below the control plot except for 300 #N/acre plots. The reduction in pollutant yields with increased time delay was found to average 46 and 76 percent for the 24 and 48 hour time delays for semi-solid manure and 75 and 94 percent for liquid manure. The yields for TSS, FSS and VSS for liquid manured plots did not exceed the control plot yields until after the 48 hour time delay

Scale-Free Behavioral Dynamics Directly Linked with Scale-Free Cortical Dynamics

Naturally occurring body movements and collective neural activity both exhibit complex dynamics, often with scale-free, fractal spatiotemporal structure. Scale-free dynamics of both brain and behavior are important because each is associated with functional benefits to the organism. Despite their similarities, scale-free brain activity and scale-free behavior have been studied separately, without a unified explanation. Here, we show that scale-free dynamics of mouse behavior and neurons in the visual cortex are strongly related. Surprisingly, the scale-free neural activity is limited to specific subsets of neurons, and these scale-free subsets exhibit stochastic winner-take-all competition with other neural subsets. This observation is inconsistent with prevailing theories of scale-free dynamics in neural systems, which stem from the criticality hypothesis. We develop a computational model which incorporates known cell-type-specific circuit structure, explaining our findings with a new type of critical dynamics. Our results establish neural underpinnings of scale-free behavior and clear behavioral relevance of scale-free neural activity

Pattern languages in HCI: A critical review

This article presents a critical review of patterns and pattern languages in human-computer interaction (HCI). In recent years, patterns and pattern languages have received considerable attention in HCI for their potential as a means for developing and communicating information and knowledge to support good design. This review examines the background to patterns and pattern languages in HCI, and seeks to locate pattern languages in relation to other approaches to interaction design. The review explores four key issues: What is a pattern? What is a pattern language? How are patterns and pattern languages used? and How are values reflected in the pattern-based approach to design? Following on from the review, a future research agenda is proposed for patterns and pattern languages in HCI

Intrathoracic subclavian artery aneurysm repair in the thoracic endovascular aortic repair era

ObjectiveIntrathoracic subclavian artery aneurysms (SAAs) are rare aneurysms that often occur in association with congenital aortic arch anomalies and/or concomitant thoracic aortic pathology. The advent of thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) methods may complement or replace conventional open SAA repair. Herein, we describe our experience with SAA repair in the TEVAR era.MethodsA retrospective review was performed of all intrathoracic SAAs repaired at a single institution since United States Food and Drug Administration approval of TEVAR in 2005.ResultsNineteen patients underwent 20 operations to repair 22 (13 native, nine aberrant) SAAs with an intrathoracic component. Mean SAA diameter was 3.1 cm (range, 1.6-6.0 cm). Mean patient age was 57 years (range, 24-80 years). Twenty-one percent (n = 4) of patients had a connective tissue disorder (two Loeys-Dietz, two Marfan). Thirty-six percent (n = 8) of SAAs were repaired by open techniques and 64% (n = 14) via a TEVAR-based approach. All TEVAR cases required proximal landing zone in the aortic arch (zone 0-2), and revascularization of at least one arch vessel was required in 83% (10/12) of patients. Concomitant repair of associated aortic pathology was performed in 50% (n = 10) of operations. Thirty-day/in-hospital rates of death, stroke, and permanent paraplegia/paraparesis were 5% (n = 1), 5% (n = 1), and 0%, respectively. Over mean (standard deviation) follow-up of 24 (21) months, 16% (n = 3) of patients required reintervention for subclavian artery bypass graft revision (n = 2) or type II endoleak (n = 1).ConclusionsThis is the largest single-institution series to date of TEVAR for SAA repair. Modern endovascular techniques expand SAA repair options with excellent results. The majority of SAAs and nearly all aberrant SAAs (Kommerell's diverticulum) can now be repaired using a TEVAR-based approach without the need for sternotomy or thoracotomy