The idea of creation in Plato, Augustine, and Emil Brunner

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversityThe purpose of this dissertation is to examine the views of creation that Plato, Augustine, and Brunner advance to deal with problems involved in God's relation to the world. Divine craftsmanship seems to be the model in Plato's view of creation. His view of Pattern, Demiurgos, and Receptacle are advanced in order to deal with such problems in this theory of Ideas as the relation of permanence to change, of perfection to imperfection, and of the one to the many; and the fact that all movement tends toward what is best. Plato submits that the Demiurgos initiates all movement in becoming toward what is best by persuading the Receptacle to take into itself a structure like the Pattern. To create is to persuade a recalcitrant "material" to bring perfect being into existence as far as possible. Plato's hypothesis does seem to account for movement in becoming toward what is best, but it does not render sufficiently comprehensible the relation of perfect being to existence. [TRUNCATED

A Mixed Methods Approach to Study the Effects of a Naturalist Summer Program on the Perceptions of African American Children about Nature

African Americans have been reported to have a more negative outlook on nature than people of other races. Much work has been done to explain this phenomenon through the lenses of social and environmental justice. However, most of this information pertains to adults, and little to no exploration has been done to understand how children could be affected. This lack of information creates a novel research topic. This study addressed the problem using a mixed method analysis to better understand both the narrative of the children and any generalizable conclusions to better understand their attitudes in a summer program titled “Helping Make Nature Natural for African American Urban Children.” This research was designed to address those attitudes using self-efficacy as a guide, and the information gathered was used to test the effectiveness to reduce the children’s fear or lack of desire to be in nature. Previous research has demonstrated that increasing a person’s self-efficacy can help to alleviate both fear and aversion by reducing the stress response. During the four-week program, 22 campers ranging in age from four to eight years old were exposed to a program designed to slowly raise awareness of the environment around them while treating stressors on their terms. The five children aged four to five were not included as the study targeted children in Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage of Development. Nine parents of the 17 children in the study also completed a brief questionnaire to determine what attitudes they held about nature. Semi-structured interviews with two campers and 346 pieces of artwork from 17 eligible students were analyzed. Results revealed that the parents had a significantly higher-than-expected level of comfort in nature (p = \u3c 0.001). The children’s attitudes were closer to a negative outlook (p = .369). Interviews with two campers depicted a modest fear response. However, the fear response was reduced for these two and two others as revealed by a highly significant difference between the pre/post test scores (p = .01). Analysis of the artwork produced by 17 campers showed that the artifacts introduced in the storybooks persisted into the children’s future artwork. Finally, a McNemar’s analysis was used to determine whether a career component of the program featuring minority representation in science could change each camper’s choice of career. The change in career aspirations of the four was not significant (p = .500). Results revealed that the program reduced fear of nature in the four children who completed both pre and posttests but not their career aspirations, and it increased 17 children’s awareness of nature as revealed by their artwork

Does a Brisk Six Minute Walk Cause Upper Body Fatigue in Females

Non-local performance fatigue (NLPF) can be described as performance decrements occurring for a muscle group that was not directly involved in the fatiguing activity that preceded. Most studies on NLPF involve strenuous exercise of an isolated joint in trained populations, however, little evidence exists on NLPF derived from activities mimicking acts of daily living. Determining whether NLPF exists following brisk walking is worthwhile, and rate of force development (RFD), the rate at which muscle force is produced, may possess increased susceptibility compared to maximal strength. The purpose of our ongoing study is to determine the responses, if any, for maximal strength and RFD of the upper body after brisk walking in young and middle-aged females. Here we report on preliminary findings with no age-related comparisons. Subjects completed handgrip testing before and 3, 7, and 11 minutes after a 6-min brisk walking task. The instructions for the walking task were to “cover as much distance as possible”. Subjects were instructed to squeeze the handgrip dynamometer as “hard and fast as possible”. PT, and peak, early (0-50 ms), and late (0-200 ms) RTD were calculated from the torque-time curve. Friedman’s test and relative changes were computed to examine responses across time. RESULTS: RFD 0-200 was decreased at 3 min post (p = 0.004), whereas all other measures remained unchanged across time. CONCLUSIONS: Late RFD was reduced 3 minutes post, but maximal strength was not, suggesting late RFD may be more sensitive to NLPF than maximal strength. However, it is unclear why only late RFD was reduced. Additional research is needed to characterize the physiological changes which might explain these changes

Perception Becomes Reality: Student-Teacher Relationships and Verbally Aggressive Messages

This study examined the impact of verbal aggression toward students when recalling a hurtful incident between a teacher and a student. Specifically, this study investigated the relationship between students reported verbally aggressive incidents with teachers, self-esteem and student-teacher relational satisfaction. A total of 83 participants were surveyed to obtain recollections of verbally aggressive incidents and their reported impact. Verbally aggressive messages were represented by Infante\u27s (1987) typologies of verbally aggressive messages, which included character attacks, competence attacks, background attacks, physical appearance attacks, maledictions, teasing, ridicule, threats, profanity and nonverbal emblems. The researcher also included a never experienced category for respondents who expressed never having experienced a verbally aggressive incident with a teacher. Generally, the findings indicated that a statistically significant relationship existed between experiencing verbal aggression and decreased student-teacher relational satisfaction and decreased self-esteem. Additionally, it was found that character attacks, competence attacks, ridicule and background attacks were the most frequently perceived forms of verbal aggression. Furthermore, results indicated that respondents who had moderate to high levels of verbal aggression were more likely to report experiencing a verbally aggressive incident with a teache

Control algorithms for aerobraking in the Martian atmosphere

The Analytic Predictor Corrector (APC) and Energy Controller (EC) atmospheric guidance concepts were adapted to control an interplanetary vehicle aerobraking in the Martian atmosphere. Changes are made to the APC to improve its robustness to density variations. These changes include adaptation of a new exit phase algorithm, an adaptive transition velocity to initiate the exit phase, refinement of the reference dynamic pressure calculation and two improved density estimation techniques. The modified controller with the hybrid density estimation technique is called the Mars Hybrid Predictor Corrector (MHPC), while the modified controller with a polynomial density estimator is called the Mars Predictor Corrector (MPC). A Lyapunov Steepest Descent Controller (LSDC) is adapted to control the vehicle. The LSDC lacked robustness, so a Lyapunov tracking exit phase algorithm is developed to guide the vehicle along a reference trajectory. This algorithm, when using the hybrid density estimation technique to define the reference path, is called the Lyapunov Hybrid Tracking Controller (LHTC). With the polynomial density estimator used to define the reference trajectory, the algorithm is called the Lyapunov Tracking Controller (LTC). These four new controllers are tested using a six degree of freedom computer simulation to evaluate their robustness. The MHPC, MPC, LHTC, and LTC show dramatic improvements in robustness over the APC and EC