The Academy for Student Ministry: a study in youth ministry

https://place.asburyseminary.edu/ecommonsatsdissertations/1330/thumbnail.jp

Love at First Sight? Jane Austen and the Transformative Male Gaze

In this thesis, I claim that the gaze is central to the courtship process in Austen’s novels. I also propose that an analysis of the gaze is crucial to understanding the gendered power dynamics that are central to these relationships. We tend to think of male gazers as having all the power, but one of Austen’s subversive arguments is that women can also be subjects of the gaze and transform through it. However, limits exist to their power. As I will argue, while men are able to simply project their transformative gaze, women must first use their gaze to perceive their societal position before successfully having a transformative effect

Role REVersal: understanding how RRE RNA binds its peptide ligand

AbstractThe structure of a complex between the HIV Revresponsive element (RRE) RNA and a fragment of the Rev protein has recently been determined by NMR. Together with previous studies of the Tat–TAR complex, these results show how RNA elements with considerable tertiary structure are able to play a more active role in directing binding to elements of protein secondary structure

Many accurate small-discriminatory feature subsets exist in microarray transcript data: biomarker discovery

BACKGROUND: Molecular profiling generates abundance measurements for thousands of gene transcripts in biological samples such as normal and tumor tissues (data points). Given such two-class high-dimensional data, many methods have been proposed for classifying data points into one of the two classes. However, finding very small sets of features able to correctly classify the data is problematic as the fundamental mathematical proposition is hard. Existing methods can find "small" feature sets, but give no hint how close this is to the true minimum size. Without fundamental mathematical advances, finding true minimum-size sets will remain elusive, and more importantly for the microarray community there will be no methods for finding them. RESULTS: We use the brute force approach of exhaustive search through all genes, gene pairs (and for some data sets gene triples). Each unique gene combination is analyzed with a few-parameter linear-hyperplane classification method looking for those combinations that form training error-free classifiers. All 10 published data sets studied are found to contain predictive small feature sets. Four contain thousands of gene pairs and 6 have single genes that perfectly discriminate. CONCLUSION: This technique discovered small sets of genes (3 or less) in published data that form accurate classifiers, yet were not reported in the prior publications. This could be a common characteristic of microarray data, thus making looking for them worth the computational cost. Such small gene sets could indicate biomarkers and portend simple medical diagnostic tests. We recommend checking for small gene sets routinely. We find 4 gene pairs and many gene triples in the large hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC, Liver cancer) data set of Chen et al. The key component of these is the "placental gene of unknown function", PLAC8. Our HMM modeling indicates PLAC8 might have a domain like part of lP59's crystal structure (a Non-Covalent Endonuclease lii-Dna Complex). The previously identified HCC biomarker gene, glypican 3 (GPC3), is part of an accurate gene triple involving MT1E and ARHE. We also find small gene sets that distinguish leukemia subtypes in the large pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia cancer set of Yeoh et al

Evaluating Factors That Influence MVP Voting in the NBA

We develop and test an empirical model to study the factors that affect variation in the proportion of MVP votes received by NBA players over the years 2007 to 2017. Our explanatory variables fall into two categories: player performance and team performance. The empirical results suggest that player performance variables, such as points per game, steals per game, offensive rebounds per game, and fouls per game, help to explain the proportion of MVP votes received by players. We found that team characteristics did not have a statistically significant influence on the proportion of MVP votes received by players

Betti tables forcing failure of the Weak Lefschetz Property

We study the Artinian reduction $A$ of a configuration of points $X \subset {\mathbb P}^n$, and the relation of the geometry of $X$ to Lefschetz properties of $A$. Migliore initiated the study of this connection, with a particular focus on the Hilbert function of $A$, and further results appear in work of Migliore--Mir\'o-Roig--Nagel. Our specific focus is on Betti tables rather than Hilbert functions, and we prove that a certain type of Betti table forces the failure of the Weak Lefschetz Property (WLP). The corresponding Artinian algebras are typically not level, and the failure of WLP in these cases is not detected in terms of the Hilbert function

Early care and education in tribal communities: Research to policy resources

There are approximately 390,000 children age nine and under who are identified by their parents as being of American Indian or Alaska Native (AIAN) heritage alone, while more than 400,000 other children in the same age range share this heritage with that of other race and ethnic groups. The large majority--about 80 percent--of AIAN individuals live outside of tribal lands and reservations and, regardless of where they live, many have incomes below the federal poverty level. While about one-quarter of all individuals who report having some AIAN heritage have incomes below the federal poverty level, the poverty rate among children five and under is 33 percent. Following her visit to two Native American communities in August 2015, Sylvia Mathews Burwell, Secretary of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), wrote, "At HHS, we're committed to ensuring healthy, productive lives for families in all communities, and that is true in Indian Country as well." This commitment is exemplified in the federal government's continuing partnership with tribal governments through several programs within HHS, including the Tribal Early Learning Initiative (TELI), the National Center on Tribal Child Care Implementation and Innovation (NCTCCII), and the Tribal Maternal Infant Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (Tribal MIECHV)

ENHANCED ERYTHROPOIESIS WITH CONCOMITANT DIMINISHED GRANULOPOIESIS IN PREIRRADIATED RECIPIENT MICE : EVIDENCE FOR A COMMON STEM CELL

Three different methods of measuring the proliferative capacity of transplanted mouse bone marrow were used to study the effects of preirradiation of the recipient. Recipient mice were exposed to 700 R and given graded numbers of syngeneic bone marrow. 7 days were allowed for proliferation of these cells, and then the granulocytic or erythrocytic progeny was measured. The former was determined by the response to endotoxin, and the latter by the incorporation of radioactive iron into newly formed red blood cells. Erythropoiesis, therefore, could be measured independently from granulopoiesis by these techniques. The third method used was the spleen colony method of Till and McCulloch (5). Recipient animals exposed to 150 R preirradiation, 7 days before 700 R and bone marrow transplantation, demonstrated an increase in erythropoiesis with a concommittant decrease in granulopoiesis compared to similar recipients not preirradiated. The spleen colony technique showed that while the number of colonies were the same in both groups, the colonies themselves were significantly larger in the preirradiated animals. Since such colonies are primarily erythropoietic, this finding is consistent with the other methods. The results can be explained by assuming the presence of a hematopoietic stem cell which, in these preirradiated recipients, is directed towards erythropoiesis at the expense of granulopoiesis

Exploring the Accounting Teaching Practices of Lecturers in a Higher Education Institution: A Case at a South African University

This paper aimed to determine the accounting lecturers’ teaching practices at a South African university. Teaching practices are a complex set of ways that lecturers use for instruction. When compromisingly crafted/implemented, they impact on success. In accounting education, teaching practices were found cognitively driven to determine success. Cognitivism learning theory guided the study. It emphasises mental processes, thinking, solving complex problems, and focusing on tasks requiring increased information processing, and procedural rules. The related elements enhance accounting teaching practices. This paper used a qualitative exploratory research methodology, enabling the researcher’s engagement with participants in their natural settings. Participants were purposefully selected for this study. Data was generated through individual semi-structured interviews to determine accounting lecturers’ practices. Issues including participants’ teaching practices and challenges experienced were explored. Data was thematically analysed. Findings suggest that current accounting teaching practices are detriment to performance. Hence this paper suggests that teaching practices require intervention