The Place of Theology in the Life of the Church

Lecture presented at Lutheran Theological Seminary, Saskatoon, Fall 1995

The Place of Theology in the Life of the Church

Lecture presented at Lutheran Theological Seminary, Saskatoon, Fall 1995

Dr. Mohri Ends Career at ISU

Dr. R.W. Mohri is leaving Ames and Iowa State University after fifteen years of service to both. This article will not attempt to be a biography but will illustrate some of his professional accomplishments, in hopes that the readers will realize the caliber of man we are losing

Self-Perceptions of Communication by Deaf/HOH Adolescents as a Tool for SLPs and Audiologists

The Language/Communication Background Questionnaire (L/CBQ), a tool used by professionals at NTID, is designed to query students on their communication preferences, access services received, hearing aid, cochlear implant and ASL use, and self-perceptions of communication skills. The poster describes an entry vs. near-graduation study, student demographics, L/CBQ questions and choices, study results, and how SLPs and audiologists can use the L/CBQ as a tool to better determine and serve deaf or hard-of-hearing students’ communication needs

Reshaping the Ultimate Other:Levantine Conversion from Extremist Islam to Christianity through the Lenses of Deradicalization and Missiology

This thesis explores the intersection of the seemingly disparate fields of Christian mission and deradicalization seeking understanding of a recent phenomenon of deradicalization and religious conversion from Islam to Christianity in the Levant. It seeks understanding of the phenomenon through a look at Levantine history and two interdisciplinary fields: Missiology and Countering Violent Extremism (CVE)/Deradicalization. The recent conflicts in Syria and Iraq, and the resulting migration and conversion phenomenon are discussed along with themes that emerge from the stories of individuals on the conversion and deradicalization pathway. The research employs an ethnographic, life-story approach. Interviews were conducted with 52 former extremists and religious workers in the region representing 21 faith communities in the countries of Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Iraq. Seven primary themes emerge which are: 1.) precarity, 2.) the supernatural, 3.) movement opposite prevailing power currents, 4.) the mutual transformation of both extremists and clergy 5.) surprising kindness, 6.) love and family belonging and 7.) the strong desire of former extremists to ‘rescue’ others, described as generativity. These themes are viewed through the lenses of missiology and deradicalization and a conversation is posed between the fields with insights proposed for both. The thesis concludes that the process of change entailed in conversion and deradicalization is very similar and that the aims of deradicalization and mission are compatible and complementary in many ways. Levantine churches through synchronizing the ‘what,’ ‘why’ and ‘how’ of mission and by serving the pragmatic, social and ideological needs of people have been effective at forming ‘contrast communities’ that tell a compelling alternative story to the hostile narratives of extremists. They challenge us to contemplate the power of relationships, love, kindness and belonging to reshape and influence even the enemy ‘other’

Defending the Humanities: Making a Case for Eighteenth-Century Studies

While the percentage of humanities majors has long been on the decline, the more recent experiences of the Great Recession, its aftermath, and the outbreak of Covid-19 have introduced a variety of daunting and intertwined challenges to scholars in these disciplines. Financial and occupational anxieties surrounding higher education threaten not only to crowd out humanities departments but also to alter the very understanding of what higher education is. While some students attend college to prepare themselves for engaged citizenship or to learn in a community, many also attend as a pathway to employment and expect a prompt return on investment. Moreover, state-level disinvestment contributes to higher tuition fees and student debt, heightening an emphasis on immediate job outcomes to the detriment of the humanities, which typically do not offer study-to-job pipelines. Such financial and legislative divestment can lead to falling enrollments within and cuts to humanities departments, simultaneously reflecting and confirming the public perception that humanistic study is impractical. While humanists have long sought to stem this decline, scholars of the eighteenth century may be uniquely positioned to innovate pragmatic solutions because of the historical period we study. First, eighteenth-century Europe experienced political and economic phenomena that parallel trends in our own era. In England alone, eighteenth-century society faced sharp financial downturns, rising inequities, unfit political leaders, moribund statutes, and new technologies that abetted entrenched class structures. Second, scholars of the eighteenth century have a model of interdisciplinarity and innovation in Enlightenment philosophes, who were not siloed within discrete disciplines as we are today and so were more able and willing to think across epistemological categories. By drawing upon our knowledge of eighteenth-century culture, the following essays seek both to open an inquiry into the decline of the humanities and to provide potential solutions to it. They grew out of a roundtable discussion held at the March 2018 Annual Meeting of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. In publishing this forum, we hope to continue the expansive and ambitious conversation begun in Orlando, Florida. As scholars of the eighteenth century, we seek to apply the interdisciplinary insights drawn from our research to help strengthen the humanities, especially within those academic institutions that have neither expansive funds nor research-intensive aims. As these authors argue, today’s humanists face extremely high stakes but also abundant possibilities

ASRP: the Arabidopsis Small RNA Project Database

Eukaryotes produce functionally diverse classes of small RNAs (20–25 nt). These include microRNAs (miRNAs), which act as regulatory factors during growth and development, and short-interfering RNAs (siRNAs), which function in several epigenetic and post-transcriptional silencing systems. The Arabidopsis Small RNA Project (ASRP) seeks to characterize and functionally analyze the major classes of endogenous small RNAs in plants. The ASRP database provides a repository for sequences of small RNAs cloned from various Arabidopsis genotypes and tissues. Version 3.0 of the database contains 1920 unique sequences, with tools to assist in miRNA and siRNA identification and analysis. The comprehensive database is publicly available through a web interface at http://asrp.cgrb.oregonstate.edu

Square or Sine: Finding a Waveform with High Success Rate of Eliciting SSVEP

Steady state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) is the brain's natural electrical potential response for visual stimuli at specific frequencies. Using a visual stimulus flashing at some given frequency will entrain the SSVEP at the same frequency, thereby allowing determination of the subject's visual focus. The faster an SSVEP is identified, the higher information transmission rate the system achieves. Thus, an effective stimulus, defined as one with high success rate of eliciting SSVEP and high signal-noise ratio, is desired. Also, researchers observed that harmonic frequencies often appear in the SSVEP at a reduced magnitude. Are the harmonics in the SSVEP elicited by the fundamental stimulating frequency or by the artifacts of the stimuli? In this paper, we compare the SSVEP responses of three periodic stimuli: square wave (with different duty cycles), triangle wave, and sine wave to find an effective stimulus. We also demonstrate the connection between the strength of the harmonics in SSVEP and the type of stimulus