Digital Commons Network^™

Becoming Zion: Some Reflections On Forgiveness And Reconciliation, Deidre Nicole Green

BYU Studies

Some years ago, I was confronted with the realization that other people’s betrayal and deception, which eventually crescendoed into blatant and dehumanizing cruelty, might result in the loss of much of what I had worked for in my professional, ecclesial, and personal life. This situation drove me to a deep need to understand forgiveness, which I pursued through studying philosophical and theological perspectives on the topic as well as through personal reflection. Through specific academic opportunities that included fieldwork in Rwanda and South Africa, I discovered the voices of Latter-day Saint women who had gained hard-won knowledge and wisdom about …

Event Or Process? How “The Chamber Of Old Father Whitmer” Helps Us Understand Priesthood Restoration, Michael Hubbard Mackay

BYU Studies

Recent studies describing the restoration of the priesthood have noted and demonstrated that we have been anachronistically shaping our 1829 restoration narrative around twentieth-century notions that the Melchizedek Priesthood represents a separate “authority” or “power” that is distinctly independent from the body of ordained men (it has become something we hold rather than something we join). Jonathan Stapley argues that by the early twentieth century General Authorities explicitly defined priesthood as “the exclusive authority and power of God,” whereas before then it was used more ecclesiastically.¹ Though Joseph Smith was certainly a restorationist, like many antebellum Americans, scholars have …

The Book Of Moses As A Temple Text, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw

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

In this fascinating article, Jeff Bradshaw details how the Book of Moses might be understood as a temple text, including elements of temple architecture, furnishings, and ritual in the story of the Creation and the Fall. Bradshaw shows how the second half of the Book of Moses follows a general pattern of a specific sequence of covenants that will resonate with members of the Church who have received the temple endowment. The story of Enoch and his people provides a vivid demonstration of the final steps on the path that leads back to God and exaltation.

The Roles Of Supervisory Support And Involvement In Influencing Scientists’ Job Satisfaction To Ensure The Achievement Of Sdgs In Academic Organizations, Majid Ghasemy, Isabel Maria Rosa-Díaz, James Eric Gaskin

Faculty Publications

Job satisfaction is the focus of this study, given its strategic importance, both to generate differentiation and competitive advantages, and to promote better and more sustainable results in organizations. Guided by the Affective Events Theory (AET), the interest is in analyzing the direct and indirect effects of supervisory support and involvement on job satisfaction and highlighting the implications of the academics’ emotions for sustainability-related policies and practices in academic environments. The context selected is the higher education (HE) sector in Malaysia for science disciplines, due to its socioeconomic relevance and its direct link to the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR4), as …

Journalism As A Public Good: How The Nonprofit News Model Can Save Us From Ourselves, Rosalie Westenskow, Edward L. Carter

Faculty Publications

At a time when many U.S. newspapers find themselves at the edge of a financial precipice, The Salt Lake Tribune’s recent transformation into a 501(c)(3) public charity presents a potentially promising route to economic safety for other daily newspapers. Although the nonprofit, tax-exempt model has been an increasingly popular one for new media outlets, the IRS’s bestowal of such status on a major daily newspaper marks an historic event—one that other newspapers, and their legal counsel, can learn from. This Article outlines several issues such practitioners and owners should be aware of as they consider taking the leap to …

Rigor, Relevance, And Practical Significance: A Real-Life Journey To Organizational Value, Joseph S. Valacich, Jeffrey L. Jenkins

Faculty Publications

In this essay, we describe a research journey focusing on how to analyze mouse cursor movements, typing fidelity, and data from other human-computer interaction (HCI) devices to better understand the end-user online experience. We begin by defining organizational value and how it relates to other aspects that researchers use to assess academic research quality. We then describe and contrast our research journey by demonstrating key research milestones: from achieving statistical significance to achieving practical significance and, finally, to reaching relevance to practice. We then explain how we crossed the chasm between academic research and technology commercialization (i.e., the last research …

Service-Provider Virtual Exchange As A Viable Alternative To Face-To-Face Speaking Practice: Data From Second- And Third-Year Russian Learners, Liudmila Klimanova, Valentina Vinokurova

Russian Language Journal

In the context of emergency remote language teaching during the pandemic, the biggest challenge for instructors has been to continue providing learners with opportunities to practice speaking and comprehension skills. Service provider virtual exchange (SPVE) platforms, such as Conversifi, Boomalang, TalkAbroad, iTalki, and LinguaMeeting have the potential to enrich the online learning experience by offering paid videoconferencing sessions with native-speaking language coaches at the students’ convenience. Research shows that regular videoconferencing with native-speaking peers may improve speaking ability (Saito and Akiyama 2017) and foster the development of intercultural competence (Tecedor and Vasseur 2020). This paper will discuss a pilot implementation …

Work–Leisure Blending: An Integrative Conceptual Review And Framework To Guide Future Research, Troy A. Smith, Marcus M. Butts, Stephen H. Courtright, Mat D. Duerden, Mark A. Widmer

Faculty Publications

Since the industrial revolution, work and leisure have largely been considered opposing domains. A growing number of organizations, however, enable and/or promote blending leisure activities into the workplace. Similarly, several conceptualizations across different disciplines examine how work and leisure can coexist. These different conceptualizations have yielded a rich but fragmented theoretical account of work–leisure blending. To address this problem, we provide a comprehensive theoretical integration of multiple literature streams where research has explored work–leisure blending. Further, we develop a tripartite dimensional framework designed to elucidate the central dimensions of work–leisure blending (i.e., segmentation– integration, unstructured–structured, and independent–interactive) undergirding this phenomenon. …

The Demand For Public Information By Local And Nonlocal Investors: Evidence From Investor-Level Data*, Travis Dyer

Faculty Publications

I examine the demand for public information by local and nonlocal investors. Using novel data on institutional investors' requests for financial information from the SEC, I document that investors acquire approximately 20% more financial information for their local investments. This pattern holds after controlling for investors’ 13(f) portfolio holdings. I further demonstrate that this pattern is concentrated in stocks eliciting behavioral biases as well as among investors with strong company relationships. Consistent with public information acquisition being more beneficial to local investors, I find that local investors exhibit both enhanced timeliness in acquiring public information and superior portfolio trading decisions …

Market Predators, Lauren Cohen, Karl B. Diether, Christopher Malloy

Faculty Publications

We find evidence of predatory trading in the corporate bond market. Exploiting novel data on the short selling behavior of institutional investors, we demonstrate that short sellers target those bonds likely to experience the largest negative events in the future: bonds about to be downgraded to junk status, and specifically those held by insurance companies and other institutions that are required to liquidate when bonds fall to junk status. We show that shorting in these bonds predicts large negative returns, which largely reverse over the next year. Short sellers’ trading activity is premeditated: they build up large short positions in …

Detecting Noncompliant Behavior In Organizations: How Online Survey Responses And Behaviors Reveal Risk, Jeffrey L. Jenkins, Jospeh S. Valacich, Aaron F. Zimbelman, Mark F. Zimbelman

Faculty Publications

Ensuring organizational regulatory and legal compliance is a challenging, high-stakes management task. Overlooking or underestimating noncompliance in organizations can result in substantial fines, damage to a company’s reputation, and, ultimately, loss of business. To help alleviate this risk, we explore whether organizations can assess noncompliance by monitoring users’ answers and related mouse cursor movements in an intelligent online questionnaire. Namely, we propose that noncompliant (compared with compliant) individuals will experience more cognitive dissonance on questions about (1) what constitutes noncompliance behavior and (2) what consequences for noncompliance are appropriate. We predict that increased cognitive dissonance in noncompliant individuals will influence …

What’S The Church’S Official Position On Official Positions?: Grappling With “Truth” And “Authority”, Trevan Hatch

Faculty Publications

In the previous essay, Dr. Rabbi Peter Haas considered how some of our Jewish friends have approached the issue of authority in their search for truth. During my engagement with such approaches as a student at Baltimore Hebrew University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies in Chicago, I have wondered how this approach might inform my own quest for truth within the context of my faith tradition. As a Latter-day Saint, what authorities should I consult? Where do I turn for truth? How can I know whether a certain claim is an “official position” of …

Team Building Through Team Video Games: Randomized Controlled Trial, Mark J. Keith, Douglas L. Dean, James Gaskin, Greg Anderson

Faculty Publications

Background: Organizations of all types require the use of teams. Poor team member engagement costs billions of US dollars annually.

Objective: This study aimed to explain how team building can be accomplished with team video gaming based on a team cohesion model enhanced by team flow theory.

Methods: In this controlled experiment, teams were randomly assigned to a team video gaming treatment or a control treatment. Team productivity was measured during both pretreatment and posttreatment team tasks. After the pretest, teams who were involved in the team video gaming treatment competed against other teams by playing the Halo or Rock …

Evasive Entrepreneurship: Circumventing And Exploiting Institutional Impediments For New Profit Opportunity In An Emerging Market, Nnaoke Ufere, James Gaskin

Faculty Publications

Evasive entrepreneurship (circumvention and exploitation of institutions by entrepreneurs) is a prevalent practice in many developing economies. Extant literature on the topic falls short of providing adequate theories to explain its triggers, mechanisms, and consequences. Leveraging extensive survey data from the World Bank, we used structural equation modeling to examine the relationship between evasive entrepreneurial behavior—tax evasion and bribery—and the relative payoff of such practices. Of the 2599 Nigerian entrepreneurs in our sample, the majority admitted to engaging in evasive entrepreneurship. The data suggest that institutional factors thought to constrain entrepreneurship in emerging markets are counter-intuitively perceived by founders as …

Personal Bankruptcy And The Accumulation Of Shadow Debt, Bronson Argyle, Benjamin Iverson, Taylor Nadauld, Christopher Palmer

Faculty Publications

Compiling new liability-level data from the balance sheets of personal bankruptcy filers, we document that a sizable share of reported liabilities are “shadow debt,” debt not reported to credit bureaus that often arises from the non-payment of goods and services. We use this new data to evaluate how debtor cash flows affect when consumers file for bankruptcy and how much debt they have at bankruptcy. We find that filers respond to a quasi-exogenous $100 increase in monthly cash flows by delaying filing by an average of one month and by increasing unsecured indebtedness by $4,000 in the months preceding filing. …

Who Gets ‘To Guru’? Scientist Ted Speakers And The Role Of Collective Identity In Peer Evaluation Of Audience Diversification, Brian P. Reschke, Taeya M. Howell

Faculty Publications

As producers diversify to additional audiences, they invite scrutiny of themselves and the products they provide, both by external evaluators as well as peer producers. We argue that in certain conditions, audience diversification may suggest producers represent their producer group, prompting special scrutiny by peers. In these cases, peer evaluation of diversification depends on the correspondence between the identity of the diversifying producer and the collective identity of the producer group, such that peers sanction non-prototypical producers and support exemplary producers. We develop and test hypotheses in the context of science, examining how appeals to the general public—giving a TED …

Balaam In The Book Of Numbers, Dana M. Pike

Faculty Publications

Balaam, the non-Israelite who prophesied positively about the Israelites, remains an enigmatic biblical figure, at least in part, because we cannot fully or confidently answer several important questions about him. The account of Balaam in Numbers 22–24 is oddly unique and reads like an independent unit, but it connects in several ways with the content and themes of the rest of the book of Numbers. So, however this account developed and was incorporated into the book of Numbers, it can at least be appreciated as part of the organic whole of the book.

Is There A Federal Right To A Minimum Education?, Martha Mccarthy

BYU Education & Law Journal

This article first reviews the Sixth Circuit panel decision, settlement agreement, and en banc appellate court action. Then, it explores related recent cases that also address a constitutional right to some level of education. The final section analyzes the viability of arguments asserting a federal right to access to a minimum education under the Fourteenth Amendment and implications of establishing such a federal right.

Asian Values And Democratic Viability: A Study Of The Effects Of Political Values On Thai Support For Democracy, Marisa Gonzalez-Mabbutt

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Despite research found in the World Values Survey which indicates high global support for democracy, certain regions of the world have struggled to solidify or even introduce democratic institutions. Existing explanations such as the Asian Values Theory show mixed results that political culture in Asian countries decreases support for democracy. These studies also fail to look at country-specific political cultures within countries like Thailand, where national values play a distinct role in the political arena and could affect democratic support. Moreover, previous research has not disaggregated how competing values at the national, regional, and global levels can affect support for …

Biological Pretreatment Of Biomass For Enhanced Biogas Production, Skylar F. Van Horne

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The biogas output efficiency of controlled anaerobic digestion (AD) can be enhanced by several different pretreatment methods to produce renewable energy. According to the literature, there are pros and cons to each pretreatment method. Biological pretreatment provides environmentally safe and renewable means for enhancing biodegradability and net energy output. Current research has yet to reliably demonstrate the ability of bacterial strains, such as Caldicellulosiruptor bescii (C. bescii), to digest common waste substrates in efficient ways. Novel methods in key intermediate molecular quantification and alkalinity tracking are used here to explore C. bescii’s ability to digest lignocellulosic material in …

Naturalism, Theism, And The Risks Of Professional Values Imposition In Psychotherapy With Theistic Clients, Jefrey S. Reber

Issues in Religion and Psychotherapy

The codes of ethics guiding the work of counselors and psychotherapists state that ethical practitioners pursue training in areas where they are at risk of imposing values. While training in the potential imposition of personal values is pervasive, training in the potential imposition of professional values is rare. Naturalism, the guiding worldview of science and psychology excludes theism, which is the guiding worldview of many people. Consequently, naturalism is a professional value that may be imposed on theistic clients in psychotherapy. The exclusion of theism from psychology and psychotherapy along with the naturalization of theistic experiences and concepts and the …

Help Thou My Unbelief: Exploring The Secular Sources Of Our Clients' Doubts, Edwin E. Gantt, Madeline R. Christensen, Jacob D. Tubbs

Issues in Religion and Psychotherapy

Issues of faith and doubt are often at the heart of religious clients’ psychological and emotional suffering. As such, they are a topic of genuine therapeutic interest. Latter-day Saint therapists have a unique responsibility to help our religious clients work through their psychological concerns, as well as help them address their religious doubts when relevant in the therapeutic setting. We argue that many of the concerns fueling client faith crises spring from taken-for-granted assumptions absorbed from our larger secular culture. Further, these assumptions are radically different from – indeed, typically antithetical to – the premises upon many of our fundamental …

Agency, Atonement, And Psychological Theories Of Change: A Latter-Day Saint Christian Perspective, Richard N. Williams, Edwin E. Gantt

Issues in Religion and Psychotherapy

This paper interrogates the relationship of the hard determinism inherent in the theories and models currently on offer in mainstream psychology and the current trends in psychotherapeutic approaches. It foregrounds the seeming contradiction between the emphasis placed on mastering and incorporating discipline-specific knowledge – which clearly assumes scientism and hard determinism – and the emphasis placed on practitioners to develop a coherent theory of change as part of their approach to effective clinical practice. We argue that hard determinism and strategies for facilitating genuine therapeutic change and transformation are incompatible where there is no clear, coherent view of human beings …

Full Issue

Issues in Religion and Psychotherapy

No abstract provided.

Experienced Esl Teachers' Attitudes Towards Using Phonetic Symbols In Teaching English Pronunciation To Adult Esl Students, Oxana Kodirova

Theses and Dissertations

Different opinions exist about the use of phonetic alphabet symbols in teaching English pronunciation to second language learners. Some authors and researchers believe phonetic symbols can benefit students in many ways; others consider this tool hardly recommendable. However, little empirical research has been done to find out what ESL teachers think about the use of this linguistic tool. Thus, via an online survey this study sought to identify ESL teachers' attitudes towards the use of phonetic symbols in teaching ESL pronunciation. A total of 120 teachers took the survey and most of them were experienced in teaching pronunciation to adult …

Identification Of Genes That Determine Fitness, Virulence, And Disease Outcomes In Mastitis Associated Eschericia Coli, Michael Andrew Olson

Theses and Dissertations

Escherichia coli is an incredibly diverse group of bacteria that consist of both commensal and pathogenic strains that cause disease in a wide variety of tissues in many different animals. The current dogma, based on years of extensive molecular and genetic studies, is that individual strains have adapted to specific environments through acquisition of specific genes or come from lineages that are particularly suited to a unique tissue or host. However, mastitis-associated E. coli (MAEC) have thus far resisted such descriptions. The fitness and virulence factors of MAEC are poorly understood and molecular tools are rarely applied. This dissertation reports …

Late Quaternary Voles From Persistence Cave, Black Hills, South Dakota, Christopher N. Jass, Jim I. Mead, Sandra L. Swift

Western North American Naturalist

Excavations at Persistence Cave (Black Hills, SD), produced a large sample of Quaternary microfauna including a diverse assemblage of arvicoline rodents. Identifiable lower first molars (n = 367) include specimens referred to heather vole (Phenacomys sp.), muskrat (Ondatra sp.), southern bog lemming (Synaptomys cooperi), red-backed vole (Myodes sp.), sagebrush vole (Lemmiscus curtatus), prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster), and a form of meadow vole (Microtus sp.). Direct radiocarbon dating of specimens of Lemmiscus curtatus is consistent with previous records from the Nelson–Wittenberg Site and indicates that sagebrush voles inhabited …

Application Of A Self-Regulation Framework In An Esl Classroom: Effects On Iep International Students, Claudia Mencarelli

Theses and Dissertations

The present mixed methods study looks at the impact of a specific self-regulatory framework (WOOP) developed within the domain of mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCII), and its effects on the self-reported self-regulation of learners in an intensive English program in the United States over the course of one 14-week semester. The research, which includes a total of 187 participants, compares self-reported self-regulation between students who used the framework and those who did not, and the impact the tool has on the different proficiency levels involved in the study. Furthermore, following a sequential explanatory design, the study aims to examine …

Folklore From Second Generation Immigrants, Kamorah Wolfgramm

Final Projects

Folklore from children who were born in America but raised by immigrants from foreign countries. This paper analyzes the duality that these individuals face as the result of cultural integration.

Antimicrobial Peptide Development: From Massively Parallel Peptide Sequencing To Bioinformatic Motif Identification, Alexander K. Erikson

Theses and Dissertations

The isolation, purification, and clinical deployment of antibiotics is one of the major drivers of decrease in morbidity and mortality from infectious bacteria in the 20th century. The rapid, ubiquitous deployment of antibiotics encouraged swift development and distribution of antibiotic resistance. New, novel techniques, technologies, and ultimately therapeutic antimicrobial compounds will be required to counter the rise of antibiotic resistant microbes. Historically, mimicking naturally occurring compounds has been the most fruitful method for discovering new antibiotics; unsurprisingly, many recent efforts have focused on expanding the cultivation and detection of previously unknown microbes and compounds, respectively. Other techniques explore developing compounds …