Loving Our Neighbors: A Review of The Gospel Comes with a House Key

Have we authentically shared the gospel in ways that people can hear, see, touch, and taste? Has \u27loving our neighbors\u27 been genuinely, substantially, and sacrificially practiced? Posting about the book The Gospel Comes with a House Key: Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality in Our Post-Christian World from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation. https://inallthings.org/loving-our-neighbors-a-review-of-the-gospel-comes-with-a-house-key

Enhancing General Chemistry Labs to Construct Engaging, Colorful Experiments

General Chemistry I (CHEM 121) sets the foundation for the chemistry education of Valparaiso students; therefore, it is critical that the CHEM 121 lecture and laboratory courses provide rich learning experiences that are meaningful, focused and both academically and visually engaging. In this project, two new or significantly revised laboratory experiments were incorporated into the curriculum during the Spring 2018 semester for the first time: 1) The Limiting Reagent in Action: Determining the Formula of a Precipitate and 2) The Analysis of Microplastic Pollution in Local Soil. The common goal of both labs were to increase student understanding of challenging general chemistry concepts by enhancing student engagement. In the case of Experiment 1, this was accomplished by improving the visual appeal of the reactions employed; in the case of Experiment 2, this was accomplished by directly connecting course material to study real-world pollution problems facing NW Indiana. Results of this experimentation and its impact on student learning in CHEM 121 are described

Taxation

This article reviews significant recent developments in the lawsaffecting Virginia state and local taxation. Each section coverslegislative activity, judicial decisions, and selected opinions fromthe Virginia Department of Taxation (the Department ) and the Virginia Attorney General over the past year

Rainbow-Washing the Media

56 pagesThis research project aims to determine the difference between authentic marketing and rainbow-washing when advertising to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and/or Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, and Two-Spirit (LGBTQIA2S+) consumer segment. Rainbow-washing is when businesses publicly support and represent the LGBTQIA2S+ community while privately acting and engaging in contradictory practices. This project will look at ads from the leading national advertisers in 2019 to see how companies represent queer communities and the motives behind advertisements. Companies that engage in rainbow-washing focus primarily on increased profit or the growing demand for LGBTQIA2S+ friendly products within the LGBTQIA2S+ community segment. On the other hand, authentic marketing accurately and respectfully represents the LGBTQIA2S+ community while not feeding into stereotypes or profiting at their expense. The prioritization of authenticity allows companies to connect with the LGBTQIA2S+ consumer segment successfully and is imperative to create inclusivity among markets

Understanding Rural Attitudes Toward the Environment and Conservation in America

Rural Americans matter—a lot—to the fate of U.S. environmental policy. Not only do farmers, ranchers, and forest owners manage huge portions of American lands and watersheds, but rural voters also have an outsized impact on national policy. While rural Americans express support for natural resource conservation, they and their elected officials often voice less support for existing federal environmental policies and laws. Congressional action on a variety of environmental issues has been impeded by opposition from rural stakeholders. Why do rural voters and their representatives often oppose environmental regulations? What accounts for this apparent rural/urban divide on attitudes toward environmental policy? Are there alternative policies, communications strategies, or, more broadly, ways to engage rural voters and constituencies that might bridge the urban/rural divide on the environment? This study seeks to answer these questions. Broadly, our study suggests that the urban/rural divide on the environment is not a function of how much rural voters care about the environment. Nor is it a function of how knowledgeable they are—rural voters appear relatively sophisticated about environmental issues. We do find that voters from rural America are more likely to view where they live as being an important part of how they define themselves which in turn shapes their views, including on environmental policy. Attitudes about the government are a clear dividing line between rural and urban/suburban voters, particularly regarding differences in the level of trust toward the federal government. Views toward climate change are polarized across the urban/rural divide with rural voters being more skeptical of both the science of and governmental response to climate change. Our study suggests, however, that there are opportunities to engage rural voters on climate change and environmental policies generally

Enhancing General Chemistry Labs to Construct Engaging, Colorful Experiments

General Chemistry I (CHEM 121) sets the foundation for the chemistry education of Valparaiso students; therefore, it is critical that the CHEM 121 lecture and laboratory courses provide rich learning experiences that are meaningful, focused and both academically and visually engaging. In this project, two new or significantly revised laboratory experiments were incorporated into the curriculum during the Spring 2018 semester for the first time: 1) The Limiting Reagent in Action: Determining the Formula of a Precipitate and 2) The Analysis of Microplastic Pollution in Local Soil. The common goal of both labs were to increase student understanding of challenging general chemistry concepts by enhancing student engagement. In the case of Experiment 1, this was accomplished by improving the visual appeal of the reactions employed; in the case of Experiment 2, this was accomplished by directly connecting course material to study real-world pollution problems facing NW Indiana. Results of this experimentation and its impact on student learning in CHEM 121 are described

Stigma Of Mental Illness And Substance Use Disorders: Does Religious Fundamentalism Play A Role?

Stigmatization of severe mental illness and substance use disorders is widespread and associated with poorer health outcomes. At the same time, religious fundamentalism - defined as strict adherence to religious dogma - is an increasingly relevant ideology in the United States. This ideology is associated with a tendency to stigmatize individuals who do not adhere to established values and may therefore have negative implications for perceptions of mental illness. For the present study, participants from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (N = 380) identified as evangelical or not and were randomly assigned to view one of three illness vignettes: schizophrenia, alcohol use disorder, and asthma (control). Then, each participant responded to the Stigmatizing Attitudes Toward Mental Illness scale for the character presented in the vignette. Evangelical participants reported significantly higher stigmatization of schizophrenia compared to non-evangelicals, but did not differ on stigma in relation to alcohol use disorder. These findings might be explained by religious factors in the presentation and treatment of the disorders, base rates, and general population stigmatization trends. Although limited by the use of vignettes and a self-report measure of stigma, these findings underscore the need to address religious belief adherence in stigma research and psychological treatment

Attitudes of Rural Westerners on the Environment and Conservation

This report builds on the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions’ (NIEPS) report Understanding Rural Attitudes Toward the Environment and Conservation in America. Using the same polling, focus groups, and rural stakeholder leader interviews data from this earlier report, we focus here on the attitudes of rural western voters by taking a deeper look at data from western rural voters

Remote medico-legal assessment by telephone during COVID-19: Monitoring safety and quality when documenting evidence of torture for UK asylum applicants

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we developed remote assessment to provide interim medicolegal reports, ensuring people could obtain medical evidence to support their asylum claim. The Freedom from Torture research ethics committee approved the project. To audit this new way of working we collected feedback from the doctors, interpreters, individuals being assessed, and senior medical and legal staff who reviewed the reports. This paper presents findings from the first 20 assessments. Individuals reported that the doctors developed good rapport, but in 35% of assessments reported that there were some experiences they felt unable to disclose. In 70% of assessments, doctors felt that rapport was not as good as when face-to-face. In a majority of assessments the doctor was unable to gain a full account of the torture or its impact. Doctors reported feeling cautious about pressing for more information on the telephone, mindful of individuals’ vulnerability and the difficulty of providing support remotely. Nevertheless, in 85% of assessments doctors felt able to assess the consistency of the account of torture that was given with the psychological findings, in accordance with the Istanbul Protocol. The surveys indicated factors that hindered the assessment: inability to observe body language, the person’s ill health, and confidentiality concerns.  The limitations of these assessments underline the need for a follow-up face-to-face assessment to expand the psychological assessment and undertake a physical assessment. This research indicates that psychological medico-legal reports can safely be produced by telephone assessment, but are more likely to be incomplete in terms of both full disclosure of torture experiences and psychological assessment