It Does Matter What You Do: How Practical Choices Reflect Theology

(Excerpt) We would all, I trust, agree with the centrality of baptism for Lutheran theology and its importance for Lutheran liturgical renewal. Yet, how many of us are from parishes where baptisms, if done during the Sunday assembly at all, are at small, out of the way fonts, with a few drops of water, no candles or oil, and little or no congregational involvement? Certainly, the baptism is valid, but is it salutary? Have we done any more than meet the lifetime minimum requirement of grace ? Have we lost a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the richness of grace poured out in baptism, not only on the baptized but on the community

Survival Probabilities at Spherical Frontiers

Motivated by tumor growth and spatial population genetics, we study the interplay between evolutionary and spatial dynamics at the surfaces of three-dimensional, spherical range expansions. We consider range expansion radii that grow with an arbitrary power-law in time: $R(t)=R_0(1+t/t^*)^{\Theta}$, where $\Theta$ is a growth exponent, $R_0$ is the initial radius, and $t^*$ is a characteristic time for the growth, to be affected by the inflating geometry. We vary the parameters $t^*$ and $\Theta$ to capture a variety of possible growth regimes. Guided by recent results for two-dimensional inflating range expansions, we identify key dimensionless parameters that describe the survival probability of a mutant cell with a small selective advantage arising at the population frontier. Using analytical techniques, we calculate this probability for arbitrary $\Theta$. We compare our results to simulations of linearly inflating expansions ($\Theta=1$ spherical Fisher-Kolmogorov-Petrovsky-Piscunov waves) and treadmilling populations ($\Theta=0$, with cells in the interior removed by apoptosis or a similar process). We find that mutations at linearly inflating fronts have survival probabilities enhanced by factors of 100 or more relative to mutations at treadmilling population frontiers. We also discuss the special properties of "marginally inflating" $(\Theta=1/2)$ expansions.Comment: 35 pages, 11 figures, revised versio

The impact of recovery efforts on residential vacancies

Legislation aimed at stabilizing housing markets since the recession has focused on providing funding to acquire and remediate foreclosed and abandoned homes or providing financial assistance and incentives to purchase homes. Cuyahoga County has received over $100 million in such funds since 2008. We investigate the impact of these funds on vacancy rates. We examine neighborhoods in Cuyahoga County where National Stabilization Program dollars were spent and find that the program helped reduce vacancies in neighborhoods where properties were primarily purchased for consumption purposes.Housing policy ; Community development ; American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

Race, Class, And Gender In Boys\u27 Education: Repositioning Intersectionality Theory

Boys\u27 identities are distinctly gendered, racialized, and classed across disparate social and cultural contexts. Related intersectional identity processes are associated with boys\u27 academic success. While intersectionality has been utilized throughout boys\u27 education scholarship, a limited, light touch approach is often enacted. As a critical logic of interpretation, intersectionality theory accounts for race, class, and gender within equity-based empirical studies. The authors contend insufficient engagement with intersectionality may lead educational research on boys\u27 social and learner identities to become static. Examining boys\u27 identities through intersectional approaches reveals more complex insights particularly related to their school engagement. Critical of the recent boy crisis literature, this article strives to compel theorists of boys\u27 education to more fully leverage the history, constructs, and epistemologies of intersectionality

Asset versus consumption poverty and poverty dynamics in the presence of multiple equilibria in rural Ethiopia

Effective poverty reduction programs require careful measurement of poverty status. Several studies have shown conceptually that assets reflecting productive capacity form a more robust basis for identifying the poor than do flow variables such as expenditures or income. Nonetheless, little work has empirically compared poverty measurements based on assets and expenditures. This paper uses panel data from Ethiopia to generate an asset-based poverty classification scheme. Regression results are used to estimate an asset index and classify households into categories of structural poverty. Asset index dynamics are also explored to test for the existence of multiple asset index equilibria; evidence of potential poverty traps. Results provide evidence of multiple equilibria in the study sample as a whole as well as convergence at different levels over space, depending on commercialization opportunities and agroecological factors. The asset-based poverty classifications consistently predict future poverty status more accurately than do income-based measures, confirming that the asset-based measure could be used to more carefully target poverty interventions in rural areas and to more accurately assess the impact of those interventions.asset index, asset poverty, Commercialization, expenditures, income-based measures, index equilibria, Poverty dynamics, Poverty reduction, regression,

Evaluation of crustal recycling during the evolution of Archean-age Matachewan basaltic magmas

The simplest model for the Matachewan-Hearst Dike (MHD) magmas is assimilation-fractional crystallization (AFC), presumably occurring at the base of the crust during underplating. Subduction zone enriched mantle sources are not required. Trace elements suggest that the mantle sources for the MHD were depleted, but possessed a degree of heterogeneity. Rates of assimilation were approximately 0.5 (= Ma/Mc); the contaminant mass was less than 20 percent. The contaminant was dominated by tonalites-randodiorites, similar to xenoliths and rocks in the Kapuskasing Structural Zone (KSZ). Assimilation of partial melts of light-rare earth and garnet-bearing basaltic precursors may have produced some the MHD magmas. Apparently, previous underplating-AFC processes had already produced a thick crust. The silicic granitoid assimilant for the MHD magmas was probably produced by earlier processing of underplated mafic crust (4, 5, 10, 21 and 30). Calculations suggest that the derived silicic rocks possess negative Ta and Ti anomalies even though they were not the product of subduction

Hygrothermal effects on mechanical behavior of graphite/epoxy laminates beyond initial failure

An investigation was conducted to determine the critical load levels and associated cracking beyond which a multidirectional laminate can be considered as structurally failed. Graphite/epoxy laminates were loaded to different strain levels up to ultimate failure. Transverse matrix cracking was monitored by acoustic and optical methods. Residual stiffness and strength that were parallel and perpendicular to the cracks were determined and related to the environmental/loading history. Results indicate that cracking density in the transverse layers has no major effect on laminate residual properties as long as the angle ply layers retain their structural integrity. Exposure to hot water revealed that cracking had only a small effect on absorption and reduced swelling when these specimens were compared with uncracked specimens. Cracked, moist specimens showed a moderate reduction in strength when compared with their uncracked counterparts. Within the range of environmental/loading conditions of the present study, it is concluded that the transverse cracking process is not crucial in its effect on the structural performance of multidirectional composite laminates

Asymptotic safety, hypergeometric functions, and the Higgs mass in spectral action models

We study the renormalization group flow for the Higgs self coupling in the presence of gravitational correction terms. We show that the resulting equation is equivalent to a singular linear ODE, which has explicit solutions in terms of hypergeometric functions. We discuss the implications of this model with gravitational corrections on the Higgs mass estimates in particle physics models based on the spectral action functional.Comment: 25 pages, LaTeX, 8 PDF figure