Digital Commons Network^™

Chapter 13: Book Of Mosiah, Brant Gardner

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

All evidence points to the Nephite continuation of Nephi’s original mandate for the large plates. They were to record the wars and contentions of the people (1 Nephi 9:4, 19:4). It is therefore unsurprising that Mormon tells us in the first extant sentence that there was no more contention (Mosiah 1:1). However, where a modern reader might think that was the point of writing, for Mormon this is a filler statement indicating nothing was happening (of interest to Mormon). Perhaps the best evidence of Mormon’s lack of interest in times of no contentions comes in the aftermath of the Savior’s …

Was The Denarius A Daily Wage? A Note On The Parable Of The Two Debtors In Luke 7:40–43, Taylor Halverson

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

This note provides a brief overview of Roman economic history and currency in order to throw light on the value and significance of the two debts illustratively used by Jesus in his parable to Simon the Pharisee. Though we cannot with accuracy make the claim that a Roman denarius was always the daily wage, we can determine that the debtors of Jesus’s parable owed something on the order of a year’s worth of wages and ten years’ worth of wages.

Perspectives On Management Review Controls: Challenges And Solutions—Insights From A Qualitative Study Of The Issues, John Fogarty, Mark Beasley, Douglas F. Prawitt

Faculty Publications

This study focuses on subjective, judgment-based management review controls (MRCs) used by management teams of public companies (hereinafter referenced as “preparers” or “organizations”) as part of their efforts to address the risk of material misstatements in financial reporting and to effectively and efficiently provide management with reasonable assurance that internal control over financial reporting (ICFR) is effective. This report provides information and insight useful to preparers, auditors, and regulators on issues surrounding the design, implementation, execution, and documentation of MRCs, including issues in the context of ICFR assessments and attestations under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). …

Table Rules: A Response To Americanist Approaches To The Book Of Mormon, Kevin Christensen

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

Americanist Approaches to The Book of Mormon is an ambitious collection of essays published by Oxford University Press. By “Americanist” the editors refer to their preferred mode of contextualization: to situate the Book of Mormon as a response to various currents of nineteenth- century American thought. The “table rules” in this case determine who gets invited to the table and what topics can be discussed, using what types of evidence. The approach is legitimate, and the contributors offer a range of interesting perspectives and observations. Several essays base their arguments on the notion that the Book of Mormon adapts itself …

“By Study And Also By Faith”, J Gordon Daines Iii

BYU Studies

At their inception, universities were places where all branches of learning—both the sacred and the secular—were studied. At the great medieval universities, for instance, faith and academic excellence were intertwined,¹ and this strong connection continued in the universities of the New World. Most American research universities began as religiously affiliated colleges whose missions were to develop Christian character and foster faith in order to prepare men for the ministry or work in the government.² But, beginning in the late nineteenth century and continuing over the course of the twentieth century, the vast majority of these research universities abandoned …

Rawah, Rawah, Brandi Kilmer

TSOS Interview Gallery

No abstract provided.

Organizations And Communities: A Symbiosis View, Hani Safadi, Richard Watson, Tanner Skousen

Faculty Publications

How can organizations and communities engage in mutually beneficial relationships? We develop a framework that explains how an open community’s engagement with an organization can be mutually beneficial to both in the long-term. We theorize how a symbiotic relationship between organizations and communities can be achieved by nurturing various forms of capital flow between organizations and communities as well as creating virtuous feedback loops within each other’s capital creation systems.

Open Communities And Formal Organizations: A Symbiosis View, Tanner Skousen, Hani Safadi, Richard Watson

Faculty Publications

How can formal organizations and open communities engage in mutually beneficial relationships? We develop a framework that explains how an open community’s engagement with a formal organization can be mutually beneficial to both in the long-term. We theorize how a symbiotic relationship between open communities and formal organizations can be forged by nurturing various forms of capital flow between them as well as creating virtuous feedback loops within and across each other’s capital creation systems. The framework has implications for understanding innovation in ecosystems and networked economies.

The Language Flagship Program And Multilingualism In Overseas Language Immersion, Samuel Eisen

Russian Language Journal

The relocation of the overseas Arabic and Russian Language Flagship programs to Morocco and Kazakhstan created challenges and also opportunities for advanced students of Arabic and Russian to develop greater intercultural understanding as they negotiate the cultural underpinnings of these multilingual environments. These students will bring in more nuanced understanding of complex international environments as they move into positions in government or other international fields. The Language Flagship program is designed to meet the need for professional language proficiency and intercultural skill in federal service. In both Morocco and Kazakhstan, the local language is undergoing revitalization while the post-colonial language …

Jacob A. Riis: The Ideal American Citizen, Flemming Just

The Bridge

At his death in 1914, Jacob A. Riis was one of the US's best-known and most admired citizens, who had been able to effect more social change than most of his peers. President Theodore Roosevelt had earlier declared Riis to be "the most useful citizen of New York," and now called him "the ideal American citizen." In one of many obituaries of Riis we read:

Denmark gave him to us, and if we gave Denmark millions in return, we could not pay her for what Riis did for us and for what Riis inspired us to do. He landed in …

Twenty Years Of The Religious Educator, Brad Wilcox, Timothy G. Morrison

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Where were you twenty years ago? That was before the terrorist attacks of 2001 and the heightened airport security that followed. Do you remember when the vote between George W. Bush and Al Gore dangled on a few hanging chads in Florida? President Gordon B. Hinckley was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 2000 and dedicated the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. Faith Hill was singing “Breathe,” and the Yankees beat the Mets in the 2000 World Series. The Sixth Sense was an Oscar-nominated movie that had us on the edge of our …

The Isaiah Map: An Approach To Teaching Isaiah, John Hilton Iii

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Isaiah is an extremely important prophet—his words were endorsed by the Savior himself (see 3 Nephi 23:1). Because Isaiah’s words can be difficult to comprehend, religious educators have a significant responsibility to help their students understand them. Perhaps the best opportunity to teach Isaiah in a Sunday School, seminary, or institute setting is during a course in the Old Testament. The next best opportunity is when teaching the Book of Mormon. “Nineteen of Isaiah’s sixty-six chapters are quoted in their entirety in the Book of Mormon and, except for two verses, two other chapters are completely quoted. Of the 1,292 …

A Jershon Classroom, Scott Royal Bagley

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

A powerful tool for recruiting students can be our classroom environment. The scriptures give us a wonderful example of this idea. After the people of Ammon are given the land of Jershon, they are soon joined by religious refugees from among the Zoramites (Alma 35:6–9), fugitives from among the Lamanites (Alma 47:29), and Lamanite wartime prisoners (Alma 62:17, 27–29). The people of Ammon accept all of these people as their own. But the question is this: what was it about the people of Ammon that attracted these societal refugees? As we examine the people of Ammon and how they cared …

Part 1: The Structuring Of Nephite Style, Brant Gardner

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

The Book of Mormon tells the story of the Nephite people. That story began on plates the first writer, Nephi, made by hand. Their story ended on plates the last writer, Mormon, made by hand.1 Nephi created one record that chronicled the reigns of the kings and a second that covered the ministry.2 Mormon wrote in the official Nephite chronicle of the reigns of the kings3 but wrote a second work for a different and more sacred purpose.4

Full Issue

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

Full Issue

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

No abstract provided.

Maximizing Target Language Use Outside The Classroom: The Advanced-Level Student Of Russian As Digital Consumer, Alexander M. Groce

Russian Language Journal

The article examines recent trends in digital and social media consumption among domestic foreign language students and Russian Overseas Flagship students, analyzing a number of approaches for seeding Russian-language material within students’ everyday extracurricular digital practices. The goal of the project has been to encourage language learners to strengthen their own skills at identifying Russian media sources of personal or professional interest and incorporating habits of media consumption into their language-learning experience. The recommendations provided are informed by the results of a survey distributed among American students of Russian in Kazakhstan during the period from 2017 to 2019. The survey …

Full Issue

Russian Language Journal

No abstract provided.

Real Effects Of Search Frictions In Consumer Credit Markets, Bronson Argyle, Taylor Nadauld, Christopher Palmer

Faculty Publications

We establish two underappreciated facts about costly search. First, unless demand is perfectly inelastic, search frictions can result in significant deadweight loss by decreasing consumption. Second, whenever cross-price elasticities are non-zero, costly search in one market also affects quantities in other markets. As predicted by our model of search for credit under elastic demand, we show that search frictions in credit markets contribute to price dispersion, affect loan sizes, and decrease final-goods consumption. Using microdata from millions of auto-loan applications and originations not intermediated by car dealers, we isolate plausibly exogenous variation in interest rates due to institution-specific pricing rules …

Collection Weeding: Innovative Processes And Tools To Ease The Burden, Gregory M. Nelson, Michael C. Goates, David S. Pixton, Megan Frost, Dan Broadbent

Faculty Publications

Evaluating collections and ultimately removing content poses a variety of difficult issues, including choosing appropriate deselection criteria, communicating with stakeholders, providing accountability, and managing the overall timetable to finish projects on time. The Science and Engineering librarians at Brigham Young University evaluated their entire print collection of over 350,000 items within one year, significantly reducing the number of items kept on the open shelves and the physical collection footprint. Keys to accomplishing this project were extensive preparation, tracking progress and accountability facilitated by Google Sheets and an interactive GIS stacks map, and stakeholder feedback facilitated by a novel web-based tool. …

The Isaiah Map: An Approach To Teaching Isaiah, John Hilton Iii

Faculty Publications

I saiah is an extremely important prophet—his words were endorsed by the Savior himself (see 3 Nephi 23:1). Because Isaiah’s words can be difficult to comprehend, religious educators have a significant responsibility to help their students understand them. Perhaps the best opportunity to teach Isaiah in a Sunday School, seminary, or institute setting is during a course in the Old Testament. The next best opportunity is when teaching the Book of Mormon. “Nineteen of Isaiah’s sixty-six chapters are quoted in their entirety in the Book of Mormon and, except for two verses, two other chapters are completely quoted. Of the …

Chapter 7: Applied Rhetoric As Disciplinary Umbrella: Community, Connections, And Identity, Jacob D. Rawlins

Faculty Publications

: This chapter argues that many of the existing names and boundaries in use around professional communication create artificial separations among research, pedagogy, theory, and action related to the practice of rhetoric in contemporary society. Scholars working in this area teach and conduct research across a variety of disciplines, but we share a rhetorical foundation and a concern for the practical application of that theory. This combination of classical rhetoric and public action provides a way to move our work beyond the confines of the academy and actively engage in rhetorical work within the communities where we work, live, and …

Father Of Man: An Exploration Of The Afterlife In Cinema, Theodore Barrett Burgin

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis investigates five films about the afterlife from various cultural perspectives and seeks to glean cultural insights based on their methods of portrayal. The films include Heaven Can Wait as an example of corporate America, After Life as an example of Japanese domesticity, Orpheus as an example of post-war France, and A Ghost Story as an example of secular postmodernism. Additionally, I examine my own BYU senior capstone film, Father of Man, as an example of Latter-day Saint influence. Apart from the visual choices of these films, which reveal interesting insights as to their culture’s imaginings of an …

Continued Westward Expansion Of Woodchucks (Marmota Monax) In Nebraska, Ashley J. Forrester, Brian C. Peterson, Jourdan M. Ringenberg, Shannon M. Schlater, Keith Geluso

Western North American Naturalist

During the last century, the distribution of the woodchuck (Marmota monax) has expanded westward in parts of the Great Plains. Expansive grasslands of the Great Plains were formerly a barrier to forest-dwelling species, but changes since European settlement have enabled some woodland species to colonize the region. By 2000, woodchucks generally reached across the central portion of Nebraska. We compiled new county records and estimated the continued westward expansion rate of this large, diurnal squirrel in Nebraska. We documented new records of M. monax along much of the former western distributional limits in central and southern parts …

American Black Bears (Ursus Americanus) Of The Paunsaugunt Plateau: Movements And Habitat Use, Rebekah Adriana Castro Dungan

Theses and Dissertations

Concerns over human-bear conflict and questions about the ecology of Paunsaugunt Plateau's population of black bears (Ursus americanus) arose due to their visitation to popular recreation sites. Greater insight about bears and their habitat use provides a foundation for conflict mitigation and effective management decisions. Between 2014 and 2017, seventeen black bears (11 female, 6 male) were fitted with global positioning system (GPS) radio-collars so that we could track their locations, daily activity patterns, and ambient temperatures. By analyzing bear locations, we calculated annual and seasonal home ranges for 16 bears, including 25 den sites. Home ranges typically consisted of …

The Importance Of The Physical: Lucille Clifton's Poetry About Bodies, Kaitlin Hoelzer

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

No abstract provided.

Testing A Scale Of Teacher Beliefs About Universal Curriculum Integration In The 21st Century (Uci21-T), Nicole E. Anderson

Theses and Dissertations

Curriculum integration is a unique approach to teaching. Twenty-first century skill approaches to curriculum integration train teachers in the process of curriculum integration, such that they are able to integrate various subject combinations in their teaching that produce new skills and dispositions in their students. Yet no scale to measure teachers' beliefs about the value of and efficacy beliefs towards implementing curriculum integration exists that is universal in the sense that it can be used any time any subject combination is integrated. Using a sample of 196 teachers at a professional development meeting in a mid-sized suburban school district in …

Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, Jorge Baron, Maria Kolby-Wolfe, Kristen Smith Dayley, Twila Bird, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

The Northwest Immigrant Rights Program has been around for 35 years, started in 1984 specifically to help Central American refugees during the mid-1980s, when they were fleeing civil wars. A pro-bono group of attorneys performing "direct legal representation", helping low income community members who are navigating different aspects of the immigration system. NWIRP also engages in "systemic advocacy" which attempts to change systems and policies revolving around asylum and immigration rights.

Dendrochronological Methods To Examine Plant Competition With Changing Fire Regimes In Desert And Forest Ecosystems, Rebecca Irene Lee

Theses and Dissertations

Human activities are changing wildfire regimes globally through ignition, spread of invasive species, fire suppression, and climate change. Because of this, ecosystems are experiencing novel fire regimes that may alter plant growth and patterns of succession. Annual growth rings are one metric that can track changes in tree and shrub growth patterns over time in response to changing fire frequency. In Chapter 1 we explored the effects of fire on resprouting native shrubs in the Mojave Desert. Fires are becoming increasingly frequent due to the spread of highly flammable invasive grasses in the region. We monitored growth and fruit production …

Activity And Thermal Biology Of Blunt-Nosed Leopard Lizards (Gambelia Sila) In The San Joaquin Desert Of California, David J. Germano

Western North American Naturalist

Because lizards are ectotherms, their life-history traits are greatly influenced by variations in thermal regimes. The Blunt-nosed Leopard Lizard (Gambelia sila) is an endangered lizard that dominates the lizard community in the San Joaquin Desert. Because of the protected status of the species, census protocols are in place to ensure that censuses are conducted during optimal times for lizard activity, but the protocols have not been evaluated by a detailed study. Also, because of changing thermal regimes as a result of climate change, there is concern for lizard species worldwide. I studied the activity and thermal biology of …