Nurturing the Pastor\u27s Spiritual Discipline of Prayer Through the Dynamic of Spiritual Direction

Problem Current research demonstrates that we cannot assume that seminarians have received sufficient guidance in spiritual formation prior to the completion of their Seminary training. Therefore, there is a great need to explore ways of nurturing spiritual formation for those involved in pastoral ministry. It was the purpose of this present study to explore the potential of spiritual direction as a dynamic for nurturing the pastor\u27s spiritual discipline of prayer. Method A spiritual friend, who had received training in spiritual direction, was selected with guidance from Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation. A twelve-month case study was established with the author of the present study as the directee. The experience was recorded in a spiritual journal. Results The process of spiritual direction proved to be a powerful dynamic in nurturing the spiritual discipline of prayer in the directee. The spiritual journal records a process of significant spiritual formation. Conclusions While no normative conclusions can be drawn, the recorded experience of the author is a testimony to the potential of spiritual direction as a dynamic for nurturing spiritual life in ministry

Evans Findings Company: Unattended Stamping

In Fall 2010, Capstone Design Team 6, consisting of Drew Davis, Kyle Morris, Paul Schumacher, and Derek Sutcliffe, designed a part sorting device for the Evans Findings Company. The project’s objective was to meet Evans Co.’s need for a device capable of reducing the scrap rate of parts produced during unattended stamping operations. In Spring 2011, Team 6 built, tested, troubleshot, redesigned, and rebuilt the device to meet the design specifications and Evans Co.’s expectations. The overnight, unattended stamping operations at Evans Co. are currently susceptible to loss; as all finished parts are ejected from the stamping press into one large forty-gallon bin, defective parts can easily contaminate an entire batch. In manufacturing, a lot sorting device is a common countermeasure against batch contamination. The design team generated over 120 concepts before choosing one such device, which has gained approval from Evans Co. The team’s financial analysis shows the payback period will likely meet Evans Co.’s requirements. The final concept consists of six buckets, each on a rolling carriage, constrained by an oval aluminum track. The carriages are pushed around the track by a chain attached to sprockets driven by a stepper motor, which is commanded by an Arduino microcontroller. It should ensure reliable capture of finished parts from the stamping press, sorted into separate buckets by their ejection time, thus providing protection from contamination. The device itself (named the USAD, or Unattended Stamping Assistance Device) was completed on time with a $4,000 budget. Simulation and financial analysis both indicate that the device will pay for itself within one year and save Evans Co. over$7,000 annually by reducing scrap

A critical socio-cultural autoethnography: a soldier, here, there and back again

This thesis takes an unconventional approach to much of social science in developing the idea and practice of a critical social-cultural autoethnography. In bridging the social sciences and humanities, it cultivated a more thorough social version of autoethnographic research around the metaphor of its different components akin to a diamond’s facets. The development of autoethnography has markedly changed the scene of ethnography, making reflexivity and the central researcher’s role better developed. My thesis incorporates this by building on what others have done and adding a documents of life approach. It first considers the self as auto, juxtaposed against how much the other and society are incorporated. Next, it explores the slippery relationship between fact/fiction. Here, I have created an auto/biographical novella to investigate how autoethnographers navigate the interiority of fact, fiction, knowledge and truth. The next focus for discussion concerns the exteriority and how we craft narrative, myths and stories from these claims as a part of truth and knowledge systems through a dialogical voice/writer/reader motif and also considered the role of the hero in textual narratives. I will then chart how these associations between my novella, myself and relations to other people and their accounts were shaped by knowledge claims and how they fed through relations of ruling into a power/knowledge system by examining a copy of my military orders. I then autoethnographically look at two war memorials that help me better untangle all of this. The discussion here also examined how the self can become more constricted as it becomes more social, thereby further helping me explore the socially constructed character of self and society. However, it is also crucial to consider the individual and each stipulation in developing better knowledge claims through critical thinking and learning from our history and other lives. The conclusion considers the different facets of the diamond of methodological contributions to autoethnography and also explores what a future autoethnography built on these would comprise

Avian Resistance to Campylobacter jejuni Colonization Is Associated with an Intestinal Immunogene Expression Signature Identified by mRNA Sequencing

peer-reviewedThis research was funded by the The Irish Department of Agriculture and Food’s Food Institutional Research Measure (http://www.agriculture.gov.ie/ research/foodinstitutionalresearchmeasurefirm) – Grant No: 06_RDD_486.Campylobacter jejuni is the most common cause of human bacterial gastroenteritis and is associated with several post-infectious manifestations, including onset of the autoimmune neuropathy Guillain-Barré syndrome, causing significant morbidity and mortality. Poorly-cooked chicken meat is the most frequent source of infection as C. jejuni colonizes the avian intestine in a commensal relationship. However, not all chickens are equally colonized and resistance seems to be genetically determined. We hypothesize that differences in immune response may contribute to variation in colonization levels between susceptible and resistant birds. Using high-throughput sequencing in an avian infection model, we investigate gene expression associated with resistance or susceptibility to colonization of the gastrointestinal tract with C. jejuni and find that gut related immune mechanisms are critical for regulating colonization. Amongst a single population of 300 4-week old chickens, there was clear segregation in levels of C. jejuni colonization 48 hours post-exposure. RNAseq analysis of caecal tissue from 14 C. jejuni-susceptible and 14 C. jejuni-resistant birds generated over 363 million short mRNA sequences which were investigated to identify 219 differentially expressed genes. Significantly higher expression of genes involved in the innate immune response, cytokine signaling, B cell and T cell activation and immunoglobulin production, as well as the renin-angiotensin system was observed in resistant birds, suggesting an early active immune response to C. jejuni. Lower expression of these genes in colonized birds suggests suppression or inhibition of a clearing immune response thus facilitating commensal colonization and generating vectors for zoonotic transmission. This study describes biological processes regulating C. jejuni colonization of the avian intestine and gives insight into the differential immune mechanisms incited in response to commensal bacteria in general within vertebrate populations. The results reported here illustrate how an exaggerated immune response may be elicited in a subset of the population, which alters host-microbe interactions and inhibits the commensal state, therefore having wider relevance with regard to inflammatory and autoimmune disease