Digital Commons Network^™

The Grovecrest Project: Analyzing Sociable Behavior In Children With Language Impairment Following A Social Understanding Intervention, Maille Coombs, Martin Fujiki

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The link between social communication and Language Impairment (LI) is an emerging topic in the field of speech pathology. It is known that children with LI struggle to produce and comprehend language, but it has recently been shown that these children also have notable difficulty communicating and interacting appropriately in social situations. A number of recent studies have documented that children with LI have deficits in emotion understanding (Fujiki, Spackman, Brinton & Illig, 2008). Children with LI struggle with affective theory of mind, recognizing and labeling facial expressions, and understanding emotion through prosody changes (Delaunay-el Allam, Guidetti, Chaix & Reilly, …

Plant Microfossils Recovered From Dental Calculus At Casas Grandes, Mexico, Daniel King, Michael T. Searcy, Kyle Waller

Faculty Publications

Microfossil analysis is a technique used to better understand prehistoric diets. As part of a larger multinational project, we gathered and analyzed 112 samples of dental calculus (fossilized plaque) from human remains discovered at Paquimé and other sites in the Casas Grandes river valley to identify various microfossils still present in the silica matrix. With this information, we are able to better understand the flora present during ancient times and how it was used (food, processing, etc.).

Three Popular Medicinal Mushroom Supplements: A Review Of Human Clinical Trials, Megan Frost

Faculty Publications

There are many mushroom supplements on the market claiming a variety of health benefits, and it is difficult to discern which of these claims is backed by reliable research. Most of the existing research is conducted using either human cells or animal models rather than human participants. Without being tested directly on humans, this research has limited application. A review of the literature reveals a relatively small number of studies have been conducted using human patients and those that do exist vary widely in study design and quality. This article brings together all the existing studies that involve human participants …

Mark S. Smith. Where The Gods Are: Spatial Dimensions Of Anthropomorphism In The Biblical World. New Haven, Ct: Yale University Press, 2016., Daniel O. Mcclellan

Studies in the Bible and Antiquity

Smith’s newest book, Where the Gods Are: Spatial Dimensions of Anthropomorphism in the Biblical World (part of the Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library), continues that multidisciplinary trajectory, examining early anthropomorphic conceptualizations of deity in the Hebrew Bible and in cognate literature, as well as the way place and space mediated, influenced, and constrained those conceptualizations. The salience of anthropomorphism in recent years owes much to recent publications like Esther Hamori’s “When Gods Were Men” (2008),4 Benjamin Sommer’s The Bodies of God and the World of Ancient Israel (2009),5 and Anne Knafl’s Forming God: Divine Anthropomorphism in the Pentateuch (2014),6 and …

Catherine L. Mcdowell. The Image Of God In The Garden Of Eden: The Creation Of Humankind In Genesis 2:5–3:24 In Light Of Mīs Pî Pīt Pî And Wpt-R Rituals Of Mesopotamia And Ancient Egypt. Winona Lake, In: Eisenbrauns, 2015., Cory Crawford

Studies in the Bible and Antiquity

The discovery of Babylonian, Assyrian, and Egyptian ritual prescriptions for creating and enlivening divine statues ranks among the more important in providing depth and context for reading biblical texts, and it is one that has only relatively recently begun to bear fruit. As the most recent and sustained study of these texts and their significance for understanding the Hebrew Bible, Catherine L. McDowell’s The Image of God in the Garden of Eden demonstrates the gains in understanding made possible, with all due caution, by bringing the mīs pî pīt pî (mouth-washing, mouth-opening) ritual instructions from Mesopotamia and the wpt-r (mouth-opening) …

David E. Bokovoy. Authoring The Old Testament: Genesis–Deuteronomy. Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2014., Alex Douglas

Studies in the Bible and Antiquity

David Bokovoy’s most recent book, Authoring the Old Testament: Genesis–Deuteronomy, represents a fresh and much-needed perspective on how Latter-day Saints can simultaneously embrace both scholarship and faith. This book is the first in what is anticipated to be a three-volume set exploring issues of authorship in the Old Testament published by Bokovoy with Greg Kofford Books. Bokovoy uses current scholarship on the Pentateuch as a springboard for discussing LDS perspectives on scripture, revelation, and cultural influence. To my knowledge, this is the first book-length attempt to popularize the classical Documentary Hypothesis among Latter-day Saints, and Bokovoy does an exemplary job …

“Beloved, . . . It Doth Not Yet Appear What We Shall Be”: The Fractured Reality Of Lds Biblical Studies, D. Jill Kirby

Studies in the Bible and Antiquity

According to the non-Mormon historian Jan Shipps, “the mystery of Mormonism cannot be solved until we solve the mystery of Joseph Smith.”1 Stated more casually, this is called the “prophet puzzle,” and it is sometimes suggested that Latter-day Saints will understand themselves only to the degree that they understand Joseph Smith. The classic definition of the role played by Joseph Smith was contributed by LDS leader B. H. Roberts in the late nineteenth century: “What was Joseph Smith’s mission? It was the mission of Joseph Smith, under God’s direction, to establish the Church of Christ and the Kingdom of God …

Toward A Greener Faith: A Review Of Recent Mormon Environmental Scholarship, George B. Handley

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.

Bilal, Bilal, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Bilal was 23 years old when he drowned in Greece. He was cheerful, intelligent, and full of energy.

He was a journalist in Afghanistan who received a death threat from the Taliban. His family decided that he should flee the country alone for survival since they couldn’t afford for the whole family to go.

He escaped from the camp in Moria by finding a hole in the fence. He outran the police, found a ship in port, and jumped on it as it was leaving. He later had 10 unsuccessful attempts to leave Greece for Germany. He was caught by …

Apocalypse: Reading Revelation 21-22, Julie M. Smith

Maxwell Institute Publications

The Book of Revelation has perplexed and fascinated readers for centuries. In particular, its final two chapters—which contain the only extended description of heaven in the canon—beg for close examination and careful consideration. In this collection of essays, six scholars theologically examine Revelation 21–22. With approaches ranging from textual criticism to intertextual readings to conceptual analysis, this book sheds new light on a most enigmatic text.

An Other Testament: On Typology, Joseph M. Spencer

Maxwell Institute Publications

How should we read the Book of Mormon? And does the Book of Mormon itself have anything to say about it? Joseph Spencer follows the lead of Nephite prophets who interpreted Isaiah and other prophets typologically—according to “types” and “shadows”—in order to preach salvation through Jesus Christ. By focusing on history, memory, time, repentance, and conversion, An Other Testament explores what it means to believe God provided the Book of Mormon to change a person like you and a world like ours.

The Temple: Ancient And Restored, Stephen D. Ricks, Donald W. Parry

Interpreter Foundation Books

Joseph Smith taught that the origins of modern temple ordinances go back beyond the foundation of the world. For example in 1835, as the Saints prepared to receive the ordinances that would be available to them in the Kirtland Temple, the Prophet stated:1

The order of the house of God has been, and ever will be, the same, even after Christ comes; and after the termination of the thousand years it will be the same; and we shall finally enter into the celestial kingdom of God, and enjoy it forever.

Cosmos, Earth, And Man, David H. Bailey, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, John S. Lewis, Gregory L. Smith, Michael R. Stark

Interpreter Foundation Books

I’ve long resisted the claim, typically (as in C. S. Lewis’s allegorical exchange between the pilgrim John and Mr. Enlightenment) assumed rather than explicitly argued, that no well-educated person, and certainly nobody with a solid grounding in modern science, can rationally choose to be a religious believer.2 So I was delighted with the proposal that The Interpreter Foundation organize and sponsor a conference on the relationship between science and Mormonism. When Dr. David Bailey called me regarding the possibility of such a conference, I jumped at the opportunity.

Jedediah S. Rogers, Ed., The Council Of Fifty: A Documentary History, Reviewed By Adam Jortner

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.

Onomastic Wordplay On Joseph And Benjamin And Gezera Shawa In The Book Of Mormon, Matthew L. Bowen

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

The Book of Mormon contains several quotations from the Hebrew Bible that have been juxtaposed on the basis of shared words or phrases, this for the purpose of interpreting the cited scriptural passages in light of one another. This exegetical technique — one that Jesus himself used — came to be known in later rabbinic times as Gezera Shawa (“equal statute”). In several additional instances, the use of Gezera Shawa converges with onomastic wordplay. Nephi uses a Gezera Shawa involving Isaiah 11:11 and Isaiah 29:14 twice on the basis of the yāsap verb‑forms yôsîp/yôsīp (2 Nephi 25:17 and quoting the …

Many Witnesses To A Marvelous Work, Daniel Peterson

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

At the end of October each year, speakers from the Church Educational System, as well as other gospel scholars, gather at Brigham Young University to make presentations at the Sidney B. Sperry Symposium. The Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon: A Marvelous Work and a Wonder is a compilation of the addresses given at the forty-fourth symposium, in 2015. This volume does not so much delve into the doctrine of the Book of Mormon as it studies the history behind its coming into the world. Just as the doctrine itself is inspirational, the story behind the coming forth of …

The Yoke Of Christ: A Light Burden Heavy With Meaning, Jeff Lindsay

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Christ’s famous call to take his yoke upon us in Matthew 11 may merit more analysis than it has commonly received. Taking up the yoke may have connections to other things that are taken upon us as well, including the name of Christ, temple covenants, priestly robes, and sacred anointing. These all reflect a relationship of obedience and service to the Master, who set the example by taking the heaviest yoke of all upon him, including the yoke-like beam of the cross that he carried to Golgotha and the full weight of human sin and misery as he suffered for …

The Case Of Plural Was In The Earliest Text, Standford Carmack

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Because it is primarily an Early Modern English text (in terms of its English language), the earliest text of the Book of Mormon understandably employs plural was — for example, “the words which was delivered” (Alma 5:11). It does so in a way that is substantially similar to what is found in many writings of the Early Modern period — that is, it manifests the syntactic usage, variation, and differential rates typical of that era.

Reflecting On The “Marks Of Jesus”, Daniel C. Peterson

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Loss, pain, and suffering are too often, it seems, co-sojourners through our lives. To one degree or another, we all become familiar with these elements of a life lived in an imperfect world. It is inevitable — and virtually universal — that such companions foster questions about the meaning of life and whether there is a God who is the author, director, and finisher of that meaning. For those who conclude that God is real and has part in our lives, suffering can have or acquire eternal significance, enhanced by the personal realization that God, too, suffers and has suffered. …

The Parable Of The Benevolent Father And Son, Matthew R. Linford

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

A discussion is presented on the Parable of the Prodigal Son, including the departure of the young man into a faraway land, his return, and the welcome he received from his father. To better understand the cultural significance of this story, a Middle Eastern scholar (Kenneth Bailey) is referenced. The prodigal son breaks his father’s heart when he leaves home, but at the same time his older brother fails in his duty to his family. The father in the parable represents Christ, who is seen to take upon himself the shame of his returning boy and later of his older …

Early Mimbres Households: Exploring The Late Pithouse Period (550–1000 Ad) At The Florida Mountain Site, Michael T. Searcy, Bernard Schriever, Matthew Taliaferro

Faculty Publications

Many studies have explored the household to understand social organization, production, and other dynamics of societies throughout the world. In this work, the approach outlined by Richard Wilk and colleagues is used to investigate households at the Florida Mountain Site, an intermittently occupied Late Pithouse period (550–1000 AD) residential site in the Mimbres Mogollon area of Southwestern New Mexico. Drawing on the similarities of this intermittent residential site to contemporaneous pitstructure sites in the Mimbres area, we suggest that one or more household units occupied the site. Our analysis also supports previous inferences that Mimbres households were integrated into more …

No Association Between Current Depression And Latent Toxoplasmosis In Adults, Bruce L. Brown, Shawn D. Gale, Andrew N. Berrett, Lance D. Erickson, Dawson W. Hedges

Faculty Publications

Changes in behaviour and cognition have been associated with latent infection from the apicomplexan protozoan Toxoplasma gondii (Nicolle et Manceaux, 1908) in both animal and human studies. Further, neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia have also been associated with latent toxoplasmosis. Previously, we found no association between T. gondii immunoglobulin G antibody (IgG) seropositivity and depression in human adults between the ages of 20 and 39 years (n = 1 846) in a sample representative of the United States collected by the Centers for Disease Control as part of a National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from three datasets collected …

Applying Basic Gamification Techniques To It Compliance Training: Evidence From The Lab And Field, Ryan J. Baxter, D. Kip Holderness, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

Companies depend on strong internal controls to protect the integrity of accounting information systems. IT security and data privacy training are critical controls to safeguarding company information. However, employees often dislike the training, which can cause a lack of attention to and poor understanding of training concepts, leading to less effective internal controls. To improve the training experience, companies are implementing principles of games into employee training modules; a practice known as gamification. Using a laboratory experiment of data privacy training and a field study involving a publicly-traded bank’s rollout of IT security training, we test whether a training environment …

More Than Meets The Eye: How Oculometric Behaviors Evolve Over The Course Of Automated Deception Detection Interactions, Jeffrey G. Proudfoot, Jeffrey L. Jenkins, Judee K. Burgoon, Jay F. Nunamaker

Faculty Publications

Eye-tracking technology has exhibited promise for identifying deception in automated screening systems. Prior deception research using eye trackers has focused on the detection and interpretation of brief oculometric variations in response to stimuli (e.g., specific images or interview questions). However, more research is needed to understand how variations in oculometric behaviors evolve over the course of an interaction with a deception detection system. Using latent growth curve modeling, we tested hypotheses explaining how two oculometric behaviors—pupil dilation and eye-gaze fixation patterns—evolve over the course of a system interaction for three groups of participants: deceivers who see relevant stimuli (i.e., stimuli …

Colorful Conversations, Denee D. Tyler

The Utah English Journal

When the Common Core was adopted, it quickly became evident that the ELA sections are pretty heavily packed. Many English teachers feel overwhelmed at the sheer volume of standards we are expected to cover. Teaching young readers and writers requires a significant investment of class time, and as a result, many of us end up using class discussions as the sole assessment for the Speaking and Listening standards.

The Israelite Roots Of Atonement Terminology, T. Benjamin Spackman

BYU Studies

When Latter-day Saints speak of atonement, they use vocabulary drawn from the scriptures, including common verbs like atone, save, and redeem, and the corresponding nouns atonement, savior, salvation, redeemer, and redemption. There are other, perhaps more vivid, words for salvific acts, such as the Book of Mormon references to being “snatched” (Mosiah 27:28–29; Alma 26:17).1 Such rare terms in scripture have not found place in LDS discourse, which tends to use the most common terms related to atonement interchangeably. While they are indeed at some level synonymous, their distinctive meanings gesture toward …

Understanding The Council Of Fifty And Its Minutes, Ronald K. Esplin

BYU Studies

Students of early Mormon history have long known about the once-secretive Council of Fifty in Nauvoo and learned much about it.1 However, the records of the council were never available for research until now. The closest I came to the records of the Council of Fifty before the First Presidency made them available for the Joseph Smith Papers was in about 1977. Elder Joseph Anderson of the Seventy, then serving as executive director of the Historical Department, had served for decades as secretary to the First Presidency. When premeeting conversation around a conference table one day turned to the Council …

Anatomy Of Invention, Larry L. Howell

BYU Studies

BYU Studies has a long history of publishing the annual lecture given by the recipient of the Karl G. Maeser Distinguished Faculty Lecturer Award, BYU’s highest faculty honor. It is with great pleasure that BYU Studies Quarterly publishes this year’s lecture by Dr. Larry L. Howell, a professor of mechanical engineering. His speech was delivered as a forum address on May 17, 2016, at Brigham Young University.

Theological Underpinnings Of Baptism For The Dead, David L. Paulsen, Roger D. Cook, Brock M. Mason

BYU Studies

Lord, are there few that be saved?” (Luke 13:23). This question has troubled thinkers from Christianity’s beginning. The faithful readily accept that, save Jesus Christ, there is “none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Yet, the same loyal followers of Christ wrestle with the puzzling reality that countless persons have lived and died never hearing of Christ, let alone having had an adequate chance to accept the salvation he offers. What is their fate in the eternities? Are they forever excluded from salvation? Thomas V. Morris, former professor of philosophy at Notre …

Full Issue

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.