IMPROVING UPON TRADITIONAL AMERICAN PREMARITAL COUNSELING METHODS: TEACHING A FOUNDATIONAL THEOLOGY FOR A MARRIAGE OF SERVANTHOOD

The intention of this thesis is to stir up marriage counselors into taking a fresh look at their methods for preparing and educating American couples for marriage, as the research will show that couples need much more than mere test results and analytics. Couples need more than a diagnosis; they need the prognosis of the path for healing. The programs developed by Christian therapists that are used in many churches in America do a great job at showing areas where couples are strong and where they need work, but too little is done to address their core beliefs about marriage or otherwise teach a scriptural theology for marriage. How can the focus of traditional premarital counseling methods in American churches be improved from merely providing test results and analytics, to teaching couples the skills and core beliefs they need to adequately build a grace-filled, soul-deep intimacy for a supportive marriage of a lifetime? Through a review of relevant Scripture, a theology for a marriage of servanthood will be presented. Once this foundation is established, chapter three will discuss the research of the methods of the popular pre-marital education programs used in the American church, and whether they provide any sort of path to overcome the deficits exposed by their assessments of couples. It will be shown that such methods could be improved by laying a foundation based on a biblical theology for a marriage of servanthood. This theology provides the motivation for couples to become more holy as they become more whole. Chapter four will present a key ingredient for applying this theology, one which builds on an existing premarital education concept and offer ways for premarital counselors to use it in the premarital counseling process. The ultimate goal of this work is to generate a fresh discussion in the improvement of church-based premarital counseling so that many more couples can sustain a thriving marriage for a lifetime

Compliance with California Privacy Laws: Federal Law Also Provides Guidance to Businesses Nationwide

Over the past several years, personal information has been lost or stolen as a result of a series of high profile security breaches. In January 2006, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission announced that ChoicePoint will be required to pay $15 million in fines and penalties for a high profile security breach that occurred in 2005. The ChoicePoint breach and similar events have spurred an explosion of state and federal privacy legislation. In particular, the State of California has taken the lead by enacting the strictest disclosure and security procedure requirements in the country. The implications of California’s new laws can be felt throughout the U.S. since they affect any business that collects personal information about California residents. This article will focus on a new California law, Assembly Bill 1950, which requires businesses to maintain “reasonable security standards” for personal information without further defining such standards. In particular, the article examines how businesses can comply with A.B. 1950 by performing a risk management analysis and borrowing security standards from the federal Gramm-Leach-Bliley and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Acts

You\u27ve Licensed It. Now What?

While libraries face challenges in building usage of a new medium like streaming video, strategic, active marketing by libraries, with support from vendors, can overcome these challenges. Time‐tested marketing strategies, as well as leveraging new promotional tools can help the library attain the usage that justifies the investment in new media. If you license, with a little help, they will come

Sampling a Littoral Fish Assemblage: Comparison of Small-Mesh Fyke Netting and Boat Electrofishing

We compared small-mesh (4-mm) fyke netting and boat electrofishing for sampling a littoral fish assemblage in Muskegon Lake, Michigan. We hypothesized that fyke netting selects for small-bodied fishes and electrofishing selects for large-bodied fishes. Three sites were sampled during May (2004 and 2005), July (2005 only), and September (2004 and 2005). We found that the species composition of captured fish differed considerably between fyke netting and electrofishing based on nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS). Species strongly associated with fyke netting (based on NMDS and relative abundance) included the brook silverside Labidesthes sicculus, banded killifish Fundulus diaphanus, round goby Neogobius melanostomus, mimic shiner Notropis volucellus, and bluntnose minnow Pimephales notatus, whereas species associated with electrofishing included the Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, catostomids (Moxostoma spp. and Catostomus spp.), freshwater drum Aplodinotus grunniens, walleye Sander vitreus, gizzard shad Dorosoma cepedianum, and common carp Cyprinus carpio. The total length of fish captured by electrofishing was 12.8 cm (95% confidence interval ¼ 5.5– 17.2 cm) greater than that of fish captured by fyke netting. Size selectivity of the gears contributed to differences in species composition of the fish captured, supporting our initial hypothesis. Thus, small-mesh fyke nets and boat electrofishers provided complementary information on a littoral fish assemblage. Our results support use of multiple gear types in monitoring and research surveys of fish assemblages. Copyright by the American Fisheries Society 2007, Originally published in the North American Journal of Fisheries Management 27: 825-831, 2007

Asymptotic models for the generation of internal waves by a moving ship, and the dead-water phenomenon

This paper deals with the dead-water phenomenon, which occurs when a ship sails in a stratified fluid, and experiences an important drag due to waves below the surface. More generally, we study the generation of internal waves by a disturbance moving at constant speed on top of two layers of fluids of different densities. Starting from the full Euler equations, we present several nonlinear asymptotic models, in the long wave regime. These models are rigorously justified by consistency or convergence results. A careful theoretical and numerical analysis is then provided, in order to predict the behavior of the flow and in which situations the dead-water effect appears.Comment: To appear in Nonlinearit

Directed light fabrication of rhenium components

Directed Light Fabrication (DLF) is a direct metal deposition process that fuses powder, delivered by gas into the focal zone of a high powered laser beam to form fully dense near-net shaped components. This is accomplished in one step without the use of molds, dies, forming, pressing, sintering or forging equipment. DLF is performed in a high purity inert environment free from the contaminants associated with conventional processing such as oxide and carbon pickup, lubricants, binding agents, cooling or cleaning agents. Applications using rhenium have historically been limited in part by its workability and cost. This study demonstrates the ability to fuse rhenium metal powder, using a DLF machine, into free standing rods and describes the associated parameter study. Microstructural comparisons between DLF deposited rhenium and commercial rhenium sheet product is performed. This research combined with existing DLF technology demonstrates the feasibility of forming complex rhenium, metal shapes directly from powder

Wess-Zumino sigma models with non-Kahlerian geometry

Supersymmetry of the Wess-Zumino (N=1, D=4) multiplet allows field equations that determine a larger class of geometries than the familiar Kahler manifolds, in which covariantly holomorphic vectors rather than a scalar superpotential determine the forces. Indeed, relaxing the requirement that the field equations be derivable from an action leads to complex flat geometry. The Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism is used to show that if one requires that the field equations be derivable from an action, we once again recover the restriction to Kahler geometry, with forces derived from a scalar superpotential.Comment: 13 pages, Late

A PDZ-Binding Motif is Essential but Not Sufficient to Localize the C Terminus of CFTR to the Apical Membrane

Localization of ion channels and transporters to the correct membrane of polarized epithelia is important for vectorial ion movement. Prior studies have shown that the cytoplasmic carboxyl terminus of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) is involved in the apical localization of this protein. Here we show that the C-terminal tail alone, or when fused to the green fluorescent protein (GFP), can localize to the apical plasma membrane, despite the absence of transmembrane domains. Co-expression of the C terminus with full-length CFTR results in redistribution of CFTR from apical to basolateral membranes, indicating that both proteins interact with the same target at the apical membrane. Amino acid substitution and deletion analysis confirms the importance of a PDZ-binding motif D-T-R-L\u3e for apical localization. However, two other C-terminal regions, encompassing amino acids 1370-1394 and 1404-1425 of human CFTR, are also required for localizing to the apical plasma membrane. Based on these results, we propose a model of polarized distribution of CFTR, which includes a mechanism of selective retention of this protein in the apical plasma membrane and stresses the requirement for other C-terminal sequences in addition to a PDZ-binding motif