The Impact of a Ministry Experience on the Personal and Academic Development of College Students

The purpose of this study is to seek out how a ministry experience can be a developmental tool for academic and student development professionals to cultivate growth in the personal and academic areas of students’ lives. Rooted in the academic literature on service-learning and college student spirituality, this study asks how a ministry experience affects students, what part of the experience has the effect, and how students view and understand this development. By interviewing students in a ministry practicum at a small, Christian liberal arts university in the Midwest, themes were drawn out that identified core processes of the ministry experience that caused growth in the students. Through this, a grounded theory was established, proposing that spirituality acts as a moderator to the service-learning experience to impact both the personal and academic development of the participants. The implications are that spirituality (as a common passion among students) can be used to enhance their educational experiences by connecting their learning to something in which they are already investing their energy

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationThe main object of study in this thesis is the Grothendieck Quot scheme. Let $X$ be a projective variety over \CC, let $V$ be a coherent sheaf on $X$, and let $\rho$ be a cohomology class on $X$. The Quot scheme \Quot(V,\rho) is a projective scheme that parametrizes coherent sheaf quotients $V \to F$ where $F$ has Chern character $\rho$. Choosing $\rho$ and the Chern character of $V$ to satisfy a certain orthogonality condition, \Quot(V,\rho) is expected to be a finite collection of points. One can ask whether \Quot(V,\rho) is indeed finite when $V$ is general in moduli. If so, then one can try to enumerate the points of \Quot(V,\rho). These counts of points of finite Quot schemes yield interesting formulas and can be used to study strange duality. When $X$ is a curve, Marian and Oprea proved that general $V$ do produce finite Quot schemes, whose points are counted by the Verlinde formula. We show that these enumerative invariants can be viewed as certain closed invariants inside a weighted topological quantum field theory (TQFT) that encodes the intersection numbers of Schubert varieties on all (not only finite) Quot schemes of general vector bundles on curves. This weighted TQFT contains both the small quantum cohomology of the Grassmannian and a TQFT of Witten that is known to compute the Verlinde numbers. When $X$ is a del Pezzo surface, even the existence of finite Quot schemes is not known. On \PP^2, we use exceptional resolutions of sheaves to prove that \Quot(V,\rho) is finite when $\rho$ is the Chern character of an ideal sheaf of points, the orthogonality condition is satisfied, and $V$ is general in moduli. On general del Pezzo surfaces, we use multiple point formulas to compute the expected number of points of Quot schemes that are expected to be finite, where $\rho$ is once again the Chern character of an ideal sheaf of points. The formulas agree with a power series computing Euler characteristics of line bundles on Hilbert schemes of points, thus providing evidence for strange duality on del Pezzo surfaces

Thermal Microhabitat Preference of the Common Side-Blotched Lizard, Uta stansburiana

Ectotherms are especially susceptible to changing temperature conditions within their environment. To limit temperature fluctuations they must behaviorally regulate body temperature by moving between microhabitats of different ambient temperatures. By actively selecting specific substrate temperatures within a heterogeneous thermal environment, an individual could attain preferred body temperature and approach internal thermal homeostasis for periods of time. Ambient temperature dependence should thus force an individual to select those microhabitats that present optimal thermal conditions. Because dynamic thermal microhabitat structure is difficult to assess, the extent to which lizards employ behavioral thermoregulation is not well understood. Therefore, there is a need to better assess thermal habitat structure and how it relates to behavioral thermoregulation. In this study, thermal imaging was used to evaluate the dynamics in thermal microhabitat structure, lizard body temperature, and substrate preference during the warm season (July and August). Despite a broad range of microhabitat temperatures surrounding lizards (1-2 m2 of surface showed a mean range of 11°C), mean lizard temperature varied within a narrow range (36 to 38°C). A variety of hypotheses exist for why Uta strongly prefer body temperatures of 37°C, such as optimization of physiological processes. Lizards selected sites with temperatures that differed slightly yet significantly from the mean temperature around them, indicating that individuals do exhibit behavioral thermoregulation. Furthermore, lizards make use of radiative heat gain to regulate their body temperature significantly above that of their perch (mean difference of 2.6°C). Regulation differed throughout the day. Lizard body temperature differences from before and after short-and long-distance switches in position accounted for only 15% of the variation in body temperature. These findings show that lizards are able to maintain fairly constant body temperatures for extended periods of time, during the warm season, by combining selection of a thermally favorable microhabitat with radiative regulation. Habitat structural complexity differs across the geographical range of Uta stansburiana, and therefore provides variable opportunity for thermoregulation. Impacts of change in temperature due to climate change may therefore vary based upon population. Our results indicate that, although Uta may go locally extinct due to the effects of climate change, the study population, living as it does in an area of extraordinary thermal heterogeneity, may actually benefit

Contributions of expiratory muscles to song production in zebra finches

Journal ArticleBirdsong production requires coordinated activity of syringeal and respiratory muscles, Phonation occurs during the expiratory phase of the respiratory cycle, and expiratory muscles generate the pressure head for sound production

Analysing a built-in advantage in asymmetric darts contests using causal machine learning

We analyse a sequential contest with two players in darts where one of the contestants enjoys a technical advantage. Using methods from the causal machine learning literature, we analyse the built-in advantage, which is the first-mover having potentially more but never less moves. Our empirical findings suggest that the first-mover has an 8.6% points higher probability to win the match induced by the technical advantage. Contestants with low performance measures and little experience have the highest built-in advantage. With regard to the fairness principle that contestants with equal abilities should have equal winning probabilities, this contest is ex-ante fair in the case of equal built-in advantages for both competitors and a randomized starting right. Nevertheless, the contest design produces unequal probabilities of winning for equally skilled contestants because of asymmetries in the built-in advantage associated with social pressure for contestants competing at home and away

DollHouse

The artist discusses the work in DollHouse, her Master of Fine Arts exhibition on display at Tipton Gallery, Johnson City, Tennessee from January 25 to February 5, 2016. The exhibition was an installation consisting of five sets, each containing furniture - both 2D and 3D - and a mask with instructions relating to a room found within a dollhouse. The sets and supporting thesis explore the ideas of social norms, feminism, and identity, and how submission to ideologies can create emptiness, while engagement can prompt social change. Topics include the process and evolution of the work and the artists who influenced it, ideas of identity and society, and the impacts of social norms on young women’s lives. Included is a catalogue of the exhibition

Factors impacting work adjustment and work engagement among foreign expatriates in mainland China –a cultural fit perspective

当前中国作为世界第二大经济体，并在全球的经济上扮演一个关键的角色。因为中国的经济发展和中国经济体的规模吸引全世界的关注，中国已经变成全球受最多来自国外投资的国家之一。欧美大部分的大企业在中国设有分部或合资公司。同时，越来越多中国企业在国外经营生意。在这个中国经济国际化的背景下，多数的中国员工被外派到国外工作。与此同时，在中国的外企或中国企业工作的外国人人数也不断地增加。因为企业的全球化，发生了跨文化研究的猛涨，特别是关于外派人员与其适应度和工作行为的研究。这个新一代的跨文化研究的一部分关注在华西方外派人员的文化适应度。 此研究建立在跨文化管理学，人力资源，社会学和心理学各方面的理论基础上。笔...China is the second largest economy in the world, and has for many years been an important player in the global economy. Accordingly, China is one of the largest recipients of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the world, and most major international foreign companies have subsidiaries or joint-ventures in China. Also, Chinese companies are becoming increasingly global. In the course of this globa...学位：管理学硕士院系专业：管理学院_企业管理学号：1382014115448