The Development and Implementation of a Pilot Training Course in Pastoral Diagnosis for Six Pastors in the Lake Region Conference

Problem This study was an examination of the counseling style of six pastors and to determine if they have a clearly defined method of informing their interventions. Method The task of this dissertation was to design a curriculum to train a pilot group of six pastors in the Lake Region Conference to do spiritual diagnoses and assessments and to have a better psychological understanding of diagnosing in their pastoral ministry. They learned how to integrate spirituality and psychology into their counseling. They were also taught some DSM-IV concepts and how to use the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) Scale. I worked with the six pastors over a three-month period. A pre-training questionnaire was administered before the training program and a post-training questionnaire was administered afterwards. Due to the small size of the sample, the results of the two questionnaires are not intended to be applied to pastors in general. Some general observations were made from the findings. My intention was test the psychological knowledge of the six pastors and to assess their biblically based approach to counseling. Results I expected that pastors would have knowledge of psychological terms because they typically use them in counseling. The survey data revealed that they did not have adequate knowledge to do psychological counseling even though they were attempting just that. It was anticipated that the pastors would be able to make a clear differentiation between psychologically based counseling and scripturally based counseling. However, the results in the survey showed that they could not. While they claimed that they did both, the discussions during the workshops revealed some confusion as to how they applied the two disciplines independently of each other. It was believed that pastors would be able to identify pastoral diagnosis, but the survey showed a general lack in their ability to do so. Pastoral counseling and diagnosis are a significant part of parish ministry. Yet many Seventh-day Adventist pastors are entering parish work with inadequate training in this area. Many Christians facing emotional and spiritual turmoil turn to their pastors first because of easy access and because they are typically not charged for pastoral counseling. Often-times, pastors who provide counseling do so more from a psychological approach than from a biblical perspective. Pastors must be able to recognize mental disorders as described in the DSM-IV and other clinical literature, but their primary responsibility is to diagnose spiritual problems that are described in Scripture. This endeavor is designed to help pastors who are already in the field to improve their skills through conference-sponsored training. This training program is designed to help create within the church a safe place for hurting people who through appropriate spiritual diagnosis can be led towards wholeness and reconciliation to God

The Isolation and Characterization of the First Auxin Conjugate Amido-Hydrolase from Physcomitrella patens

Auxin is arguably the most important phytohormone found in the plant kingdom. The hormone is required for a multitude of growth control functions, including gravitropism and phototropism. Auxin homeostatic control is achieved in plants by a process of conjugation in which auxin is inactivated by being bound to another molecule, such as an amino acid or sugar. Auxin can be kept in a large, inactive pool by this method of chemical \u27‘conjugation” and the amide or ester bonds hydrolyzed as needed to provide “free” active hormone to the plant. The IAR3 gene family is highly conserved in Plantae and function as auxin conjugate hydrolases. We have investigated the substrate recognition and activity of a new homologue to the IAR3 family, PpIAR31, which we isolated from a species of moss, Physcomitrella patens. This is the first such enzyme isolated from moss and may allude to how the gene family originally evolved. We found that PpIAR31 is able to recognize and hydrolyze several forms of auxin conjugates as substrates (e.g. IAA-Alanine, IBA-Alanine, and IPA-Alanine), but was less efficient at cutting bonds on auxins with larger, more hydrophobic amino acids (e.g. IAA-leucine, and IAA-Phenylalanine). The genetic distances of the four hydrolases (PpIAR31, -32, - 33, and -34) detected in the moss genome positioned them structurally closer to bacterial than plant hydrolases. Evidence from codon usage and Principal Coordinate Analyses provides support that these enzymes may have originated in Plantae by at least one Horizontal Gene Transfer event from soil bacteria into early moss

The conceptual structure of product semantic models

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University, 21/09/1999.The study is concerned with the conceptual structure and content of the framework for characterising user-product interaction, proposed under the title – ‘Product Semantics’. The sources for the critique of design, from which the framework is derived, are identified and analysed, and the substantive theoretical and methodological content given initial consideration in terms of the deployment of the central concept of ‘meaning’, and the principal theoretical approaches adopted in the analysis of meaning and semantic concepts generally. The commitment to a cognitive and experiential approach to user-interaction is established and the concepts central to the framework, and requiring more detailed analysis, are identified. The core of the study consists in an analysis of the sequence of concepts and contexts that are chiefly used in the theoretical articulation of the framework, including - function, affordance, categorisation, artefacts, meaning and expression - of which the concept of affordance is central to the structure. On the basis of the initial consideration of the structure and content of the scheme, and in the light of the analysis of concepts, the explanatory structure of the framework is established. It is argued that the core commitment to an experiential and cognitive account, and the form of the explanatory structure, are jointly incompatible with the conceptual content of the framework, particularly in respect of the pivotal role of the concept of affordance. Proposals are advanced for an alternative interpretation which addresses the central issues of consistency and coherence, and which suggests an alternative approach to the conceptual characterisation of the framework and the form of the explanatory hierarchy. The implications of the framework, and the proposed alternative interpretation, are considered in respect of their application in shaping approaches to the development of design theory and methodology, and the experiential aspect of semantics and cognition

What we thought we knew: Intellectual assessment of individuals who are blind

Throughout the history of intellectual assessment, research involving individuals who are blind has often been scarce. Currently, there are no intellectual assessment procedures based on the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) theory of intelligence available to individuals who are blind. CHC theory is considered to be the gold standard of intellectual assessment and many government and diagnostic policies rely upon CHC theory. The proposed research sought to extend the current reach of CHC theory to individuals who are blind by developing a new measure of tactile performance ability. The Tactile Assessment of Performance (TAP) was developed and administered to participants who were blind and participants who were sighted. A total of 64 participants completed the research procedure, 32 participants who were sighted and 32 participants who were blind. A modified multitrait-multimethod design was employed. Most of the TAP subtests correlated positively with the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale – Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV), which is a widely used and accepted measure of intellectual functioning. The subtests of the TAP failed to correlate with measures of achievement striving and conscientiousness, which is indicative of discriminant validity. Results suggest the TAP is capturing aspects of CHC abilities and may prove useful as a measure of intelligence in individuals who are blind

Is the Uniform Foreign Money-Judgments Recognition Act Potentially Unconstitutional? If So, Should the Texas Cure Be Adopted Elsewhere?

Recent political events of historic and global proportion afford a wealth of challenge and opportunity for international legal practice. The breakup of the former Soviet Union, the reunification of Germany, and, in general, the collapse of command-style central planning as a viable approach to economic organization seem certain to expedite globalization of markets and increase the volume of international business transactions. An increase in transactions means an increase in disputes. While arbitration is generally considered the preferred device for resolving transnational business disputes, litigation is frequently unavoidable, either as a substitute for arbitration or as a consequence of it. As international disputes are litigated and reduced to judgments in the national courts of various countries, the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments will present an expanded challenge to international legal practice. This Article addresses one aspect of that challenge: the recognition and enforcement of foreign country money judgments in the United States

Is the Uniform Foreign Money-Judgments Recognition Act Potentially Unconstitutional? If So, Should the Texas Cure Be Adopted Elsewhere?

Recent political events of historic and global proportion afford a wealth of challenge and opportunity for international legal practice. The breakup of the former Soviet Union, the reunification of Germany, and, in general, the collapse of command-style central planning as a viable approach to economic organization seem certain to expedite globalization of markets and increase the volume of international business transactions. An increase in transactions means an increase in disputes. While arbitration is generally considered the preferred device for resolving transnational business disputes, litigation is frequently unavoidable, either as a substitute for arbitration or as a consequence of it. As international disputes are litigated and reduced to judgments in the national courts of various countries, the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments will present an expanded challenge to international legal practice. This Article addresses one aspect of that challenge: the recognition and enforcement of foreign country money judgments in the United States

Hypersymmetry: a Z_3-graded generalization of supersymmetry

We propose a generalization of non-commutative geometry and gauge theories based on ternary Z_3-graded structures. In the new algebraic structures we define, we leave all products of two entities free, imposing relations on ternary products only. These relations reflect the action of the Z_3-group, which may be either trivial, i.e. abc=bca=cab, generalizing the usual commutativity, or non-trivial, i.e. abc=jbca, with j=e^{(2\pi i)/3}. The usual Z_2-graded structures such as Grassmann, Lie and Clifford algebras are generalized to the Z_3-graded case. Certain suggestions concerning the eventual use of these new structures in physics of elementary particles are exposed