LIFTERS AND GIFTERS: KEEPING MILLENNIALS AND BOOMERS TOGETHER TO BUILD THE CHURCH

One of the great needs of the church at this moment is to keep the primary funders, “Gifters,” and the primary workers, “Lifters,” of the church together in order to grow healthy, thriving, life-giving, Spirit-inspired churches. Inspired by the experiences of declining and plateauing church the author has witnessed and experienced, this dissertation will examine how to keep the church family together generationally, while at the same time planting new churches with the generations still intact. The research within this project, comprised of a theological study of biblical principles, a study of current literature, and surveys and interviews from pastors, Lifters, and Gifters from ten thriving churches, will help define that process by answering the question: How can the Church encourage Lifters and Gifters to work together for the success of the local church? The use of the terms Gifters and Lifters refers to the two entities that make up a great church. Gifters in this project are defined as those individuals forty and older who are the primary funders of the work of the Lord in a local church context. Lifters are thirty-nine and younger and are the primary servant leaders or volunteers in a local church. The Spirit of God moves the church forward through those who give and those who work to grow the church with no desire for monetary reward. This project will center on helping the local church keep these two groups together in loving unity, growing and expanding and planting the Church

Finding Fixed Point Combinators using Prolog

A Powerful New Strategy, Called the Kernel Method, Has Been Developed by Larry Wos and William McCune at Argonne National Laboratories, to Study Various Fixed-Point Properties within Certain Classes of Applicative Systems. We Present a Very Simple Prolog Reasoning System, Named JIST, Which Incorporates Both Stages of the Kernel Method into a Single Unified Program. Furthermore, the Prolog Tool Has Been Extended to Run within a Distributed Environment using the Linda Protocol

Considerations for Rapidly Converging Genetic Algorithms Designed for Application to Problems with Expensive Evaluation Functions

A genetic algorithm is a technique designed to search large problem spaces using the Darwinian concepts of evolution. Solution representations are treated as living organisms. The procedure attempts to evolve increasingly superior solutions. As in natural genetics, however, there is no guarantee that the optimum organism will be produced. One of the problems in producing optimal organisms in a genetic algorithm is the difficulty of premature convergence. Premature convergence occurs when the organisms converge in similarity to a pattern which is sub-optimal, but insufficient genetic material is present to continue the search beyond this sub-optimal level, called a local maximum. The prevention of premature convergence of the organisms is crucial to the success of most genetic algorithms. In order to prevent such convergence, numerous operators have been developed and refined. All such operators, however, rely on the property of the underlying problem that the evaluation of individuals is a computationally inexpensive process. In this paper, the design of genetic algorithms which intentionally converge rapidly is addressed. The design considerations are outlined, and the concept is applied to an NP-Complete problem, known as a Crozzle, which does not have an inexpensive evaluation function. This property would normally make the Crozzle unsuitable for processing by a genetic algorithm. It is shown that a rapidly converging genetic algorithm can successfully reduce the effective complexity of the problem

The Anopheles albitarsis complex with the recognition of Anopheles oryzalimnetes Wilkerson and Motoki, n. sp. and Anopheles janconnae Wilkerson and Sallum, n. sp. (Diptera: Culicidae)

The Anopheles (Nyssorhynchus) albitarsis complex includes six species: An. albitarsis, Anopheles oryzalymnetes Wilkerson and Motoki, n. sp., Anopheles marajoara, Anopheles dencorum, Anopheles janconnae Wilkerson and Sallum, n. sp., and An. albitarsis F. Except for An. deancorum, species of the complex are indistinguishable when only using morphology. The problematic distinction among species of the complex has made study of malaria transmission and ecology of An. albitarsis s.l. difficult. Consequently, involvement of species of the An. albitarsis complex in human Plasmodium transmission is not clear throughout its distribution range. With the aim of clarifying the taxonomy of the above species, with the exception of An. albitarsis F, we present comparative morphological and morphometric analyses, morphological redescriptions of three species and descriptions of two new species using individuals from populations in Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Venezuela. The study included characters from adult females, males, fourth-instar larvae, pupae and male genitalia of An. albitarsis, An. deaneorum and An. oryzalimnetes n. sp. For An. janconnae n. sp. only characters of the female, male and male genitalia were analysed. Fourth-instar larvae and pupae and male genitalia characteristics of all five species are illustrated. Bionomics and distribution data are given based on published literature record

Towards a development of a Social Engineering eXposure Index (SEXI) using publicly available personal information

Millions of people willingly expose their lives via Internet technologies every day, and even those who stay off the Internet find themselves exposed through data breaches. Trillions of private information records flow through the Internet. Marketers gather personal preferences to coerce shopping behavior, while providers gather personal information to provide enhanced services. Few users have considered where their information is going or who has access to it. Even fewer are aware of how decisions made in their own lives expose significant pieces of information, which can be used to harm the very organizations they are affiliated with by cyber attackers. While this threat can affect everyone, upper management provides a significantly higher risk due to their level of access to critical data and finances targeted by cybercrime. Thus, the goal of this work-in-progress research is to develop and validate a means to measure exposure to social engineering of 100 executives from Fortune 500 companies. This work-in-progress study will include a mixed methods approach combining an expert panel using the Delphi method, developmental research, and a quantitative data collection. The expert panel will provide a weighted evaluation instrument, subsequently used to develop an algorithm that will form the basis for a Social Engineering eXposure Index (SEXI) using publicly available personal information found on the Internet on these executives, which will help quantify the exposure of each executive. The collected data will be quantitatively evaluated, analyzed, and presented

MosquitoMap and the Mal-area calculator: new web tools to relate mosquito species distribution with vector borne disease

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Mosquitoes are important vectors of diseases but, in spite of various mosquito faunistic surveys globally, there is a need for a spatial online database of mosquito collection data and distribution summaries. Such a resource could provide entomologists with the results of previous mosquito surveys, and vector disease control workers, preventative medicine practitioners, and health planners with information relating mosquito distribution to vector-borne disease risk.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A web application called MosquitoMap was constructed comprising mosquito collection point data stored in an ArcGIS 9.3 Server/SQL geodatabase that includes administrative area and vector species x country lookup tables. In addition to the layer containing mosquito collection points, other map layers were made available including environmental, and vector and pathogen/disease distribution layers. An application within MosquitoMap called the Mal-area calculator (MAC) was constructed to quantify the area of overlap, for any area of interest, of vector, human, and disease distribution models. Data standards for mosquito records were developed for MosquitoMap.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>MosquitoMap is a public domain web resource that maps and compares georeferenced mosquito collection points to other spatial information, in a geographical information system setting. The MAC quantifies the Mal-area, i.e. the area where it is theoretically possible for vector-borne disease transmission to occur, thus providing a useful decision tool where other disease information is limited. The Mal-area approach emphasizes the independent but cumulative contribution to disease risk of the vector species predicted present. MosquitoMap adds value to, and makes accessible, the results of past collecting efforts, as well as providing a template for other arthropod spatial databases.</p

Determining Proper Row Orientation and Seeding Population for Soybean Production

Soybean planting seed cost is the greatest expense in most growing seasons. The objective of this study was to evaluate row orientations on 40-in rows (single-row [SR] vs twin-row [TR]) and planting populations (78,400, 104,500, 130,800 and 156,800) seed/acre. In 2017 and 2018 a field study in the Mississippi Delta was designed to determine whether canopy closure was impacted by treatment and the effect on yield and plant characteristics. Mapping data showed that soybean yield was maintained at low seeding rates. Data indicated that planting population could be reduced provided the existing stand was uniform in emergence

Comparison between two systems for ammonia emission monitoring in broiler houses

This work aimed to compare two systems used for ammonia emission monitoring in broiler houses. The low cost PMU (Portable Monitoring Unit), and MAEMU (Mobile Air Emission Monitoring Unit) are systems used for ammonia concentration monitoring and, with broiler house ventilation rate, ammonia emission rate (ER) can be calculated. The accuracy of ammonia emission rate calculated with data from the PMU using a simplified calculation algorithm was quantified using the MAEMU as a standard

Morphological analysis of three populations of Anopheles (Nyssorhynchus) nuneztovari Gabaldón (Diptera: Culicidae) from Colombia

Based on the results of comparative analyses of 1,039 specimens of several progenies of Anopheles nuneztovarifrom three localities in Colombia, eight costal wing spot patterns were observed. Patterns I and III were the most frequent: 77.96% and 11.36%, respectively. Using the diagnostic characters ratio of the length of the basal dark area of hind tarsomere II/length of hind tarsomere II, ratio of the length of the humeral pale spot/length of the pre-humeral dark spot, and the ratio of the length of the subcostal pale spot/length of the distal sector dark spot (DS-III2/Ta-III2, HP/PHD, SCP/DSD) approximately 5% of the adult females were misidentified as a species of Nyssorhynchus, different from An. nuneztovari. Approximately 5% of the specimens showed DS-III2/Ta-III2 ratio less than 0.25 (range 0.21 - 0.24), and among them 3.34% shared a HP/PHD ratio less than 1.50. Consequently, 1.52% of An. nuneztovari individuals can be misidentified as Anopheles oswaldoi. In those specimens with the DS-III2/Ta-III2 ratios higher than 0.25, 34.45% displayed SCP/DSD values greater than 0.50 and of these, 3.65% displayed HP/PHD values greater than 1.8. This combination of characters could lead one to misidentify samples of An. nuneztovari as Anopheles rangeli. Similarly, 2.43% of the females could be identified erroneously as either Anopheles aquasalis or Anopheles benarrochi. Individuals with a HP/PHD ratio greater than 2.0, could be misidentified as Anopheles trinkae, Anopheles strodei or Anopheles evansae. A distinct combination of diagnostic characters for An. nuneztovari from Colombia is proposed.National Program of Science and Technology of ColcienciasUniversidad del Valle, Cal