PROSELYTISATION AND APOCALYPTICISM IN THE BRITISH ATLANTIC WORLD - THE THEOLOGY OF JOHN FLAVEL

This thesis examines the theology of the prominent Puritan minister John Flavel (1627-91). In addition to investigating his methods of proselytising and his beliefs about the apocalypse it argues that his evangelistic approach had a significant transatlantic impact in the eighteenth century. Chapter one argues that Flavel’s approach to proselytising can be understood as an interplay between three grids. First, he argued that there were two realisations at which his hearers must arrive in order to be converted. Second, he argued that, from the vantage point of the preacher, there were three faculties within the human soul where he must direct his evangelistic efforts. Third, Flavel maintained that there were (roughly) ten theological events which must transpire within the soul for a person to experience conversion. Whilst the subject was conscious of some of these states, others were imperceptible. Chapter two demonstrates that Flavel posited two distinct levels upon which these theological states operated: common and saving. Chapter three explores the practical ways in which Flavel led people to experience Christian salvation. Chapter four contends that Flavel’s beliefs about the return of Christ changed over time. In the early part of his ministry, he did not speak of the return of Christ as being imminent, but by 1689 he was convinced that it was at hand. This had implications for his evangelism. Chapter five argues that Flavel’s approach to proselytising had a significant impact on individuals in the eighteenth century, especially around the time of the Great Awakening. This case is constructed through the presentation of several pieces of evidence: numerous people who were converted through reading his sermons, an evaluation of Flavel in print, and marginalia located in copies of his books printed between 1664 and 1799

Concurrently Evolving Sensor Morphology and Control for a Hexapod Robot

Evolving a robot’s sensor morphology along with its control program has the potential to significantly improve its effectiveness in completing the assigned task, plus accommodates the possibility of allowing it to adapt to significant changes in the environment. In previous work, we presented a learning system where the angle, range, and type of sensors on a hexapod robot, along with the control program, were evolved. The evolution was done in simulation and the tests, which were also done in simulation, showed that effective sensor morphologies and control programs could be co-learned by the system. In this paper, we describe the learning system and show that the simulated results are confirmed by tests on the actual hexapod robot

Response to Changes in Key Stimuli through the Co-Evolution of Sensor Morphology and Control

Co-evolving a robot’s sensor morphology and control program increases the potential that it can effectively complete its tasks and provides a means for adapting to changes in the environment. In previous work, we presented a learning system where the angle, range, and type of sensors on a hexapod robot, along with the control program, were evolved. Although three sensor stimuli were detectable by the system, it used only two due to the relative importance of these two stimuli in completing the task. In the research presented in this paper, we used the same system, but reduced the availability of a key stimuli; the most effective solution now required the use of all three stimuli. The learning system still performed well by pacing sensors appropriate for the third stimuli and creating a program that utilized these sensors to successfully solve the problem

Neighborhood Walkability and Physical Activity: Results from the Health is Power (HIP) Study

Purpose: Health Is Power (NIH 1R01CA109403) was a longitudinal, multi-site intervention aimed to increase physical activity (PA) among community dwelling, healthy African American and Hispanic or Latina women. This study investigated the relationship between neighborhood walking environments and PA maintenance from T1 (baseline) through T2 (end of intervention) and to T3 (6-month follow-up post-intervention). Method: Women (N=410, M age=45.2 years, SD=9.4, 62.7% African American) completed interviewer-administered questionnaires assessing demographics at T1 and the International PA Questionnaire (IPAQ) to assess physical activity at T1, T2 and T3. Walkability characteristics for all street segments within 800m of participants’ homes were assessed using the Pedestrian Environment Data Scan (PEDS). Items included counts of buffer zones between roads and walking paths, sidewalk connections, road lanes, speed limits, traffic control devices, crossing aids, and walking amenities. A scale from 1=strongly agree to 4=strongly disagree measured perceptions of pedestrian environment attractiveness and safety. All data were aggregated to the neighborhood level for ecologic analyses. Results: Neighborhood buffers between roads and walking paths ranged from 0.00 to 2.40 (M=0.89, SD=0.52), sidewalk connections ranged from 0.25 to 6.59 (M=3.23, SD=1.01), road lanes ranged from 1.00 to 5.27 (M=2.59, SD=0.65), speed limit ranged from 20.00 to 50.00 (M=30.90, SD=6.14), traffic control devices ranged from 0.00 to 1.40 (M=0.65, SD=0.21), crossing aids ranged from 0.00 to 1.27 (M=0.27, SD=0.26), and walking amenities ranged from 0.00 to 1.36 (M=0.11, SD=0.20). Attractiveness and safety for walking ranged from 1.45 to 4.00 (M=2.76, SD=0.43) and from 1.56 to 4.00 (M=2.78, SD=0.44), respectively. Attractiveness and safety for cycling ranged from 1.36 to 4.00 (M=2.73, SD=0.43) and from 1.50 to 4.00 (M=2.55, SD=0.45), respectively. General linear models with repeated contrasts demonstrated that greater buffers (F(1)=5.321, p=0.006), road lanes (F(1)=3.706, p=0.028), and traffic control devices (F(1)=3.880, p=0.024) were associated with increased PA from T1 to T3. Conclusions: Street scale elements of the pedestrian environment appear to influence maintenance of moderate PA and should be considered in health promotion programs and policies

Modeling Future Biofuel Supply Chains using Spatially Explicit Infrastructure Optimization

Policies have been enacted that promote biofuels with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, reduce dependence on petroleum and to spur rural economic growth. The supply of biofuels that can meet these three goals is limited. The cost of this supply is influenced by the geography of the biomass resource and demand for fuels. Existing studies projecting the future supply have not accounted for the spatial aspects of the biofuel supply in detail. This dissertation presents a spatially explicit model of future biofuel supply chains in the United States, with the goal of providing supply curves of biofuels by resource-technology pathway with detailed accounting of the required infrastructure. The model is used to analyze the potential supply of biofuels for meeting the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2) and analyze biofuels from waste and residue resources in California at high resolution with accounting for air pollutant emissions. The results of the national case study project that domestic biofuels can achieve the RFS2 mandates for 2022 at fuel prices of between $3.4 and$5 per gasoline gallon equivalent. The largest sources of variation are the cost of cellulosic biofuel technologies and the availability of low cost waste resources. Building the 200-250 cellulosic biorefineries needed to achieve the target requires a capital investment greater than $100 billion but less than$360 billion depending on technology development and choice of cellulosic technology. Waste and residue biomass can provide quantities of biofuels that assist with policy goals. Nationally, waste and residue resources are projected to provide between 35 and 64 percent of the RFS2 mandate in both 2018 and 2022. In California, biofuels from waste and residue resources have limited potential for petroleum displacement, but could contribute 40-70% of the LCFS emissions reductions with mixed and uncertain results on air qualit

Improving the FAIRness of Australia’s grains research sector data

Across Australia’s arable landscapes, thousands of crop trials have been conducted to improve the profitability and sustainability of Australian grain production. Although there have been significant steps to make knowledge gained from trials available to users, there is the potential to further support the development of next generation data models and knowledge products by integrating trials from disparatei sources by adhering to FAIR principles of data management. That is, making data: findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. This research explores whether Online Farm Trials increase the FAIRness of agricultural grains trial datasets through a comparison of the trial data capture and handling practices of organisations whose datasets are not discoverable through Online Farm Trials (OFT) (N = 50) with the FAIRness of the datasets discoverable through OFT. The findings demonstrate that OFT is helping to make the results of Australia’s grains trials more FAIR to the users of trial data, and suggests a number of improvements to the FAIRness of trial datasets, foremost through the use of machine-readable metadata

Three Routes Forward For Biofuels: Incremental, Transitional, and Leapfrog

Besides the authors of this paper, many other people from the Sustainable Transportation Energy Pathways (NextSTEPS) research consortium assisted in the underlying analysis and internal review. This includes, but is not limited to, Joan Ogden, Steve Kaffka, Rich Plevin, Mark Delucchi, Sonia Yeh, Colin Murphy, and Paul Gruber. The NextSTEPS biofuels team wishes to thank representatives of the California Energy Commission (CEC) and the California Air Resources Board (ARB) for their valuable comments during a recent presentation of this work. The team also wishes to thank the NextSTEPS consortium members for their intellectual contributions and support of this researc

Agreement of a Novel Vertical Jump System to Measure Vertical Jump Height: Brower Vertical Jump and Vertec Vertical Jump Systems

Topics in Exercise Science and Kinesiology Volume 2: Issue 1, Article 12, 2021. Validity refers to the ability of a device to measure what it was intended to measure. Therefore, purpose of this study was to assess the validity and reliability of a novel vertical jump height tool designed by Brower Timing Systems (Salt Lake City, Ut). The Brower vertical jump system was compared to the Vertec jump tester. A convenience sample (n=67) of college students performed three maximum countermovement jumps, with the average score being recorded. Data was collected simultaneously for both devices. Results showed a strong and statistically significant correlation between the Vertec vertical jump tester and Brower vertical jump (r = 0.971, p \u3c 0.001.) A paired t-test showed no significant difference (p = 0.170, t = 1.386) between the two systems. An analysis of equivalence was also performed with alpha set at 0.05 and an upper and lower bound set at +/- 0.5. The observed effect was statistically not different from zero and statistically equivalent to zero. Based on the statistical analysis, it can be concluded the Vertec and Brower vertical jump height systems have a high correlation and are equivalent. The Brower system can be an option for assessing vertical jump height, specifically, the Brower system may be useful for high throughput field environments such as testing teams or larger groups to provide valid data

Some Inconvenient Truths About Climate Change Policy: The Distributional Impacts of Transportation Policies

Instead of efficiently pricing greenhouse gases, policy makers have favored measures that implicitly or explicitly subsidize low carbon fuels. We simulate a transportation-sector cap & trade program (CAT) and three policies currently in use: ethanol subsidies, a renewable fuel standard (RFS), and a low carbon fuel standard (LCFS). Our simulations confirm that the alternatives to CAT are quite costly—2.5 to 4 times more expensive. We provide evidence that the persistence of these alternatives in spite of their higher costs lies in the political economy of carbon policy. The alternatives to CAT exhibit a feature that make them amenable to adoption|a right skewed distribution of gains and losses where many counties have small losses, but a smaller share of counties gain considerably—as much as $6,800 per capita, per year. We correlate our estimates of gains from CAT and the RFS with Congressional voting on the Waxman-Markey cap & trade bill, H.R. 2454. Because Waxman-Markey (WM) would weaken the RFS, House members likely viewed the two policies as competitors. Conditional on a district's CAT gains, increases in a district's RFS gains are associated with decreases in the likelihood of voting for WM. Furthermore, we show that campaign contributions are correlated with a district's gains under each policy and that these contributions are correlated with a Member's vote on WM.Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davi