The Power of Words: James 3:1-12

Graduate Textual or Investigativ

Thriving: Best Student Ministry Practices for Reaching Generation Z Most Effectively

In 1972, the Jesus movement’s proliferation brought on the professionalization of student ministry into Southern Baptist churches. Over the last 50 years, the U.S. population has increased by 110 million, yet student ministry baptisms in the Southern Baptist Convention continue to decline. Despite recent efforts by The Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee to reverse the downward trend of student ministry baptisms (ages 12–17), the phenomenon persists. The public profession of baptism remains as a strong indicator that an individual has been effectively reached with the Gospel. Operating under this premise that increased baptisms indicate effectiveness in student ministry, the researcher used the 2019 – 2020 Annual Church Profile to interview Thriving student ministries in the Southeast Region of the Southern Baptist Convention of Virginia. Thriving was identified as a student ministry with a top ten baptizing ratio. The researcher conducted nine in depth semistructured interviews with other thriving student ministers in the Southeast Region of the SBCV and discovered perceived best practices thriving student ministries are implementing to reach students more effectively. Common obstacles for connecting with Generation Z included: biblical illiteracy, technological distraction, and inauthentic examples. Effective strategies for reaching Generation Z included: teaching biblical truth, authentic connection, discipleship groups, and family partnership. Best practices for increasing Generation Z student baptisms included: gospel clarity, creating opportunities, intentional environments, diligent follow-up, and public celebration

Enhanced aging properties of HKUST-1 in hydrophobic mixed-matrix membranes for ammonia adsorption.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) in their free powder form have exhibited superior capacities for many gases when compared to other materials, due to their tailorable functionality and high surface areas. Specifically, the MOF HKUST-1 binds small Lewis bases, such as ammonia, with its coordinatively unsaturated copper sites. We describe here the use of HKUST-1 in mixed-matrix membranes (MMMs) prepared from polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) for the removal of ammonia gas. These MMMs exhibit ammonia capacities similar to their hypothetical capacities based on the weight percent of HKUST-1 in each MMM. HKUST-1 in its powder form is unstable toward humid conditions; however, upon exposure to humid environments for prolonged periods of time, the HKUST-1 MMMs exhibit outstanding structural stability, and maintain their ammonia capacity. Overall, this study has achieved all of the critical and combined elements for real-world applications of MOFs: high MOF loadings, fully accessible MOF surfaces, enhanced MOF stabilization, recyclability, mechanical stability, and processability. This study is a critical step in advancing MOFs to a stable, usable, and enabling technology

Through the eyes of Shanghai female students: Perceptions of family and societal pressures in light of China\u27s aging population and the role of »xiao« in youth decisions

Magistrsko delo skuša osvetliti povezavo med sodobnimi življenjskimi in družinskimi pritiski, ki jih občutijo kitajske študentke v Šanghaju, družbeno problematiko hitrega staranja prebivalstva na Kitajskem ter vlogo tradicionalnih konfucijanskih vrednot v moderni kitajski družbi. Hitro staranje prebivalstva na Kitajskem, ki je delno posledica implementacije politike enega otroka, predstavlja vedno bolj perečo težavo, ki jo zakoni socialnega varstva na Kitajskem vsaj zaenkrat še niso uspele rešiti. Vedno več upokojencev pomeni vedno večje breme na plečih vedno manjše delovne sile, ki jo od politike enega otroka naprej v veliki meri sestavljajo edinci in edinke. Različni življenjski pritiski, s katerimi se mlajše generacije srečujejo, kot so iskanje primerne zaposlitve in partnerja ter visoki stroški za bivanje in vzgojo otrok, jim predstavljajo velik življenjski izziv. Te pritiske različno dojemajo in različno vplivajo na njihove nazore in odločitve. Brez podpore sester in bratov, s katerimi bi skupaj lažje skrbeli za ostarele starše in izpolnili svojo državljansko dolžnost, so edinke in edinci še ranljivejši pred nezanesljivimi tržnimi silami sodobnega globaliziranega kapitalističnega ustroja. Tradicionalna konfucijanska vrednota »xiao« oziroma »družinsko spoštovanje« je bila večidel zgodovine kitajske civilizacije neprenehoma prisotna. Zdi se, da v svoji tradicionalni moralno-etični obliki dandanes ne najde več pomembnega mesta znotraj okvirov modernega kitajskega subjekta in kitajskega kulturno-ideološkega prostora. Avtor skuša na podlagi izvedenih intervjujev v Šanghaju spomladi leta 2019 s pomočjo medkulturnih znanstvenih pristopov raziskati posamezne omenjene tematike, interpretirati njihovo medsebojno povezavo in odgovoriti na vprašanja o tem, kako šanghajske študentke dojemajo in se odzivajo na družinske in družbene pritiske v okviru težave staranja prebivalstva.This master’s thesis seeks to shed light on the connection between contemporary life and family pressures felt by female students in Shanghai, the societal issues of China’s rapidly aging population, and the role of traditional Confucian values in modern Chinese society. The rapidly aging population of China, partly due to the implementation of the One-child policy, is an increasingly pressing problem that social protection laws in China have not yet succeeded in addressing. More and more seniors are putting an increasingly heavier burden on the shoulders of an ever-decreasing workforce, largely composed of only children from the One-child policy. The diverse life pressures faced by younger generations, such as finding a suitable job and partner, and the high costs of living and raising children, present a major life challenge. These pressures are perceived in various ways and influence their views and decisions differently. Without the support of siblings to help care for elderly parents and fulfill their civic duty, only children are even more vulnerable to the unreliable market forces of the modern globalized capitalist system. The traditional Confucian value of “xiao” or “family reverence” has been pervasive throughout Chinese history. In its traditional moral and ethical form, it seems that it no longer finds a significant place within the framework of the modern Chinese subject and the Chinese cultural and ideological space. Based on interviews conducted in Shanghai in spring, 2019, the author seeks to investigate these individual themes, interpret their interrelationships, and answer questions about how Shanghai female students perceive and respond to family and societal pressures in the context of an aging society, using intercultural scientific approaches

Mental health disorders and physical risk factors in children with cerebral palsy: a cross‐sectional study

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149254/1/dmcn14083.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149254/2/dmcn14083_am.pd

Evaluating multiple causes of persistent low microwave backscatter from Amazon forests after the 2005 drought

Amazonia has experienced large-scale regional droughts that affect forest productivity and biomass stocks. Space-borne remote sensing provides basin-wide data on impacts of meteorological anomalies, an important complement to relatively limited ground observations across the Amazon’s vast and remote humid tropical forests. Morning overpass QuikScat Ku-band microwave backscatter from the forest canopy was anomalously low during the 2005 drought, relative to the full instrument record of 1999–2009, and low morning backscatter persisted for 2006–2009, after which the instrument failed. The persistent low backscatter has been suggested to be indicative of increased forest vulnerability to future drought. To better ascribe the cause of the low post-drought backscatter, we analyzed multiyear, gridded remote sensing data sets of precipitation, land surface temperature, forest cover and forest cover loss, and microwave backscatter over the 2005 drought region in the southwestern Amazon Basin (4°-12°S, 66°-76°W) and in adjacent 8°x10° regions to the north and east. We found moderate to weak correlations with the spatial distribution of persistent low backscatter for variables related to three groups of forest impacts: the 2005 drought itself, loss of forest cover, and warmer and drier dry seasons in the post-drought vs. the pre-drought years. However, these variables explained only about one quarter of the variability in depressed backscatter across the southwestern drought region. Our findings indicate that drought impact is a complex phenomenon and that better understanding can only come from more extensive ground data and/or analysis of frequent, spatially-comprehensive, high-resolution data or imagery before and after droughts

Dietary nitrate-induced increases in human muscle power: High versus low responders

Maximal neuromuscular power is an important determinant of athletic performance and also quality of life, independence, and perhaps even mortality in patient populations. We have shown that dietary nitrate (NO3- ), a source of nitric oxide (NO), improves muscle power in some, but not all, subjects. The present investigation was designed to identify factors contributing to this interindividual variability. Healthy men (n = 13) and women (n = 7) 22-79 year of age and weighing 52.1-114.9 kg were studied using a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover design. Subjects were tested 2 h after ingesting beetroot juice (BRJ) either containing or devoid of 12.3 ± 0.8 mmol of NO3- . Plasma NO3- and nitrite (NO2- ) were measured as indicators of NO bioavailability and maximal knee extensor speed (Vmax ), power (Pmax ), and fatigability were determined via isokinetic dynamometry. On average, dietary NO3- increased (P < 0.05) Pmax by 4.4 ± 8.1%. Individual changes, however, ranged from -9.6 to +26.8%. This interindividual variability was not significantly correlated with age, body mass (inverse of NO3- dose per kg), body mass index (surrogate for body composition) or placebo trial Vmax or fatigue index (in vivo indicators of muscle fiber type distribution). In contrast, the relative increase in Pmax was significantly correlated (r = 0.60; P < 0.01) with the relative increase in plasma NO2- concentration. In multivariable analysis female sex also tended (P = 0.08) to be associated with a greater increase in Pmax. We conclude that the magnitude of the dietary NO3- -induced increase in muscle power is dependent upon the magnitude of the resulting increase in plasma NO2- and possibly female sex

Dynamical Constraints on The Masses of the Nuclear Star Cluster and Black Hole in the Late-Type Spiral Galaxy NGC 3621

NGC 3621 is a late-type (Sd) spiral galaxy with an active nucleus, previously detected through mid-infrared [Ne V] line emission. Archival Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images reveal that the galaxy contains a bright and compact nuclear star cluster. We present a new high-resolution optical spectrum of this nuclear cluster, obtained with the ESI Spectrograph at the Keck Observatory. The nucleus has a Seyfert 2 emission-line spectrum at optical wavelengths, supporting the hypothesis that a black hole is present. The line-of-sight stellar velocity dispersion of the cluster is sigma=43+/-3 km/s, one of the largest dispersions measured for any nuclear cluster in a late-type spiral galaxy. Combining this measurement with structural parameters measured from archival HST images, we carry out dynamical modeling based on the Jeans equation for a spherical star cluster containing a central point mass. The maximum black hole mass consistent with the measured stellar velocity dispersion is 3*10^6 solar masses. If the black hole mass is small compared with the cluster's stellar mass, then the dynamical models imply a total stellar mass of ~1*10^7 solar masses, which is consistent with rough estimates of the stellar mass based on photometric measurements from HST images. From structural decomposition of 2MASS images, we find no clear evidence for a bulge in NGC 3621; the galaxy contains at most a very faint and inconspicuous pseudobulge component (M_K>-17.6 mag). NGC 3621 provides one of the best demonstrations that very late-type spirals can host both active nuclei and nuclear star clusters, and that low-mass black holes can occur in disk galaxies even in the absence of a substantial bulge.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap