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Correlating Text With History: A Critique Of Method In Daniel 11: 2b-25, Sungjin Kim

Dissertations

The Topic

Daniel 11 is the most detailed and complex historical prophecy in the book of Daniel, inviting a wide range of interpretations. Based on the chapter’s complexity, scholars from different schools have developed divergent readings grounded in their own methodological approaches and theological presuppositions.

The Purpose

The purpose of this study is to analyze the interpretive differences in Daniel 11 among three representative scholars—John J. Collins (preterist), J. Paul Tanner (futurist), and William H. Shea (historicist). It examines the methodological and presuppositional factors that contribute to these differences and proposes strategies for reducing interpretive divergence through more consistent and …

An Urban Discipleship Model For Young Adults Of The New Jersey Conference Of Sda Churches, Carl Rodriguez

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem.

The New Jersey Conference Young Adults Department presented three challenging areas to resolve before becoming a vibrant ministry: (1) a leadership succession pathway to train and develop state and area coordinators to plan regional and Conference-level events and initiatives; (2) training, nurturing, and discipling local church young adult leaders to discover their spiritual gifts while providing opportunities to serve; and (3) uniting the different young adult cultural groups to work together as a community of believers.

Method

A new urban approach was used to aid in changing the course of the Young Adults’ ministry for the New Jersey Conference. …

Modelo Contextualizado De Discipulado Integral Através De Pequenos Grupos Para A Região Leste Do Brasil, Moises Moacir Da Silva

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

The Adventist Church (and the Christian Church in general) has the great challenge of leading God's flock to spiritual growth and presenting the fruits of this development. These fruits are measured in the areas of faithfulness, mission, Bible study, participation in activities and worship, among others. -- Within this framework, the Church (in many places) began to worry about filling a calendar with various activities and felt fulfilled by providing members with the feeling that there was growth, since they participated in numerous activities - many of them simultaneously. -- This understanding that being busy brings spiritual growth led …

Programa Para Formar Líderes Jóvenes En La Iglesia Adventista Del Séptimo Día Hispana De Fresno, Edward Alexander Charles Smith

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

The Hispanic Seventh-day Adventist Church of Fresno faces a significant challenge in developing trained youth leaders capable of directing and sustaining the Youth Ministry. Despite having a large and active membership, the church lacks a structured leadership development process for young people between the ages of 18 and 35. This deficiency resulted in the inability of the Nominating Committee to appoint a youth director due to the absence of adequately prepared candidates. The lack of intentional leadership formation has limited the involvement of youth within the congregation.

Methodology

This Doctor of Ministry project employed an applied ministry approach focused …

Programa Para Fomentar Las Disciplinas Espirituales En La Iglesia Adventista Del Séptimo Día De Forest, Mississippi, Hugo Gomez

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

The absence of a program focused on fostering spiritual disciplines within the Hispanic Seventh-day Adventist Church of Forest, in the Meridian District, has led to limited awareness of the importance of essential practices such as prayer, Bible study, fasting, singing, and worship gatherings. As a result, the practice of these disciplines has been affected, thus missing out on valuable opportunities for spiritual growth and a deeper communion with God.

Method

This program, which falls under the field of applied theology, follows an “action research” design, as the director was not limited to observation but also participated as an active …

Teologia A Serviço Da Missão: Uma Análise Da Conexão Entre A Teologia E A Prática No Seminário De Teologia Do Unasp Campus Engenheiro Coelho, Evandro Carlos Favero

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

This dissertation investigates the possible dichotomy between academic theology and pastoral practice, questioning whether there is, in fact, a separation between the role of the theologian and that of the pastor, as well as between the formative ideals of the seminary and ministerial reality. If such a division is confirmed, formal theological study could be considered secondary for the exercise of pastoral ministry. However, if theory and practice are understood as integrated and inseparable dimensions, theological training becomes essential for all who aspire to ministry, requiring training institutions to provide preparation that unites knowledge, vocation, and mission. -- Assuming …

Seminar On Biblical Hermeneutics For The Leaders Of Seventh-Day Adventist Churches In North Dallas, Texas, Evelio Miranda Páez

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

The district of McKinney, Lewisville, and Grand Prairie South in North Dallas, Texas, evidences a significant lack of training in biblical hermeneutics among its leaders. This deficiency limits their capacity to understand Scripture faithfully and to provide sound guidance for the congregations. The absence of hermeneutical competence is reflected in four main areas: ignorance of the basic principles of interpretation, lack of methodology for narrative texts, inadequate criteria for complex passages, and insufficient understanding of apocalyptic prophecy, which is central to Adventist identity. As a result, leaders struggle to apply consistent hermeneutical practices in both personal study and ecclesial …

Developing And Implementing A Course On Homiletics To Enhance The Preaching Of The Seventh-Day Adventist Pastors In The Western Ontario Region, Laurentiu A. Prelipcian

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Pastors in the Western Ontario region are divinely entrusted with the responsibility of delivering contextually relevant sermons that foster spiritual growth and inspire transformation within their congregations. While these ministers are deeply committed to their calling and possess substantial theological training and pastoral experience, the continually evolving field of homiletics and the shifting expectations of contemporary audiences requires renewed engagement with current preaching methodologies. For many, formal instruction in homiletics iii occurred decades ago, and opportunities for sustained exposure to emerging current preaching strategies have been minimal or nonexistent. This project seeks to address this critical deficiency by designing …

Leading The Church Out Of White Supremacy And Toward Biblical Justice And Reconciliation: A Leadership Approach Using The Arc Model, Keenan Tyler

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Seventh-day Adventist church members need to be equipped to respond faithfully to injustice in their communities, beginning with an understanding as to how to respond to systemic racism rooted in White Supremacy.

Method

This Doctor of Ministry project implemented an adapted form of Jamar Tisby’s ARC model—Awareness, Relationships, Commitment—contextualized for a Seventh-day Adventist theological and ecclesial setting. The immediate goal was to move beyond raising awareness of racial injustice to equipping congregations to actively resist systemic racism and dismantle the lingering influence of white supremacy in church life and mission. Over six interactive sessions, 18 participants engaged in historical, …

Estrategia Para Atraer Y Retener A La Comunidad Hispana De La Primera Iglesia Adventista De Austin, Texas, Hadiel Perugorria

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

The spiritual influence of the Adventist church in contemporary society is facing the challenges of a generation that is increasingly vulnerable and fragmented due to secularism and the ongoing pursuit of alternative sources of meaning. The community resists the commitment to be part of a Christian family where their lives are transformed and their abilities used for the benefit of others.  --The First Hispanic Church of the Seventh-day Adventists of Austin, Texas, faces the same challenge. The work carried out by the congregation was not sufficient to impact and reach the local community. The researcher's investigation during the years …

Conectados Para Crescer: Um Modelo De Capacitação De Discipulado Em Rede Para Aspirantes Ao Ministério Pastoral Da Associação Pernambucana Central, Everon Dias Donato

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

The Central Pernambuco Conference (APeC), the regional headquarters of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) based in inland Pernambuco, Brazil, develops discipleship as one of its work programs through an organic network of leaders in small groups. -- However, pastoral ministry interns who join this region annually do not receive adequate training contextualized to the specific demands of the APeC discipleship network, which compromises the effectiveness of the initiative. -- Given this scenario, this study focused on developing, implementing, and evaluating a proposal for ministerial training that is contextualized to prepare pastoral ministry interns in the context of the discipleship …

Thinking Artfully With Matter: A Posthuman Enquiry Into The Pedagogical Values Of Sketch-Booking., Melanie Potier

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences Theses

Becoming attentive to art practices in terms of what they can do rather than what they are, the writing generates a more tentative-artful engagement with how sketchbooking processes engender more response-able relationship with the world. Exploring the relation between sensation and thought, this exemplification of the speculative potential of force and form, emerges as a powerful resistance to the constraints of the neoliberal education system. Practicing art as immanent doing, Erin Manning’s theory of incipient movement works to develop concepts, such as research-creation, event-time, artfulness and thought in motion, which find expression through the mundanities and ordinary occurrence of the …

Conservation Planning For Promoting Ecosystem Service Provisioning Outside Protected Area Networks, Florence Godfrey Tarimo, Francis Moyo, Claire Kelly, Linus Kasian Munishi

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Among factors that contribute to global biodiversity loss, habitat loss through unsustainable land use and land cover changes has gained prominence, with impacts being exacerbated by increasing human populations. Establishing protected area networks (PANs) is strongly advocated by national and international mechanisms, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), as a primary strategy to guide biodiversity conservation and management; however, this can undermine conservation efforts outside protected areas. Understanding how people and biodiversity overlap and interact outside protected area networks (OPAN areas) is essential for setting realistic, sustainable targets to guide biodiversity conservation and ecosystem service provision beyond PAN. …

Anthropogenic Microfibres And Other Microplastics In The Sediments And Soils Of A Small, Moorland Reservoir (Burrator, Southwest England), Alexandra Sutton, Andrew Turner

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Little is known about the sources, transport and fate of anthropogenic microfibres (AMFs) and other microplastics (MPs) in dammed reservoirs. The aim of this study was to determine the concentrations, characteristics and pathways of anthropogenic particles in sediments and soils from a small, upland reservoir (Burrator, southwest England) and its influent and effluent river. Surface and subsurface (5 cm) sediments and soils were collected and characterised for organic matter and key geochemical (Ca, Fe and Rb) and anthropogenic (Pb and Zn) elements. AMFs and MPs were isolated from samples by flotation in ZnCl₂ and analysed microscopically; a selection was …

Analytical Inconsistencies In The Measurement And Reporting Of Ip25, Ipso25 And Related Biomarkers For Paleo Sea Ice Reconstruction, Simon T. Belt, Lukas Smik

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

IP₂₅ and related biomarkers are commonly used for Arctic and Antarctic sea ice reconstruction. With a growing number of laboratories performing their measurement, we reviewed many publications spanning the period 2007–2024 in order to assess analytical rigour. We found a number of common shortfalls in analytical protocols, or at least how they are reported, which may have important implications for future synthesis studies and meta-data analyses. Here, we outline some of these shortcomings and provide suggestions of how to improve both data acquisition and reporting.

Global And Regional Estimation And Evaluation Of Suitable Roof Area For Solar And Green Roof Applications, Diana Ürge-Vorsatz, Souran Chatterjee, Luisa F. Cabeza, Gergely Molnár

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Buildings contribute to 40% of energy consumption and 30% of CO₂ emissions in 2019 globally, therefore it is necessary to exploit different solutions to decrease the corresponding energy demand, including green and cool roofs as well as on-site energy generation. To evaluate the potential of such technologies, one major input data for models and calculations is the available roof area, yet the literature shows a huge knowledge gap in this regard. Therefore, this paper contributes to filling this gap by estimating the roof availability over the period 2022–2060, using the detailed regional projections of the BISE (Building Integrated Solar …

Canopy Functional Trait Variation Across Earth’S Tropical Forests, Jesús Aguirre-Gutiérrez, Sophie Fauset, Sami W. Rifai, Xiongjie Deng, Hans Ter Steege, Eleanor Thomson, Jose Javier Corral-Rivas, Aretha Franklin Guimaraes, Sandra Muller, Joice Klipel, Angelica F. Resende, Göran Wallin, Carlos A. Joly, Katharine Abernethy, Stephen Adu-Bredu, Celice Alexandre Silva, Edmar Almeida De Oliveira, Danilo R. A. Almeida, Esteban Alvarez-Davila, Gregory P. Asner, Timothy R. Baker, Maíra Benchimol, Lisa Patrick Bentley, Erika Berenguer, Lilian Blanc, Damien Bonal, Kauane Bordin, Robson Borges De Lima, Sabine Both, Jaime Cabezas Duarte

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Tropical forest canopies are the biosphere’s most concentrated atmospheric interface for carbon, water and energy1,2. However, in most Earth System Models, the diverse and heterogeneous tropical forest biome is represented as a largely uniform ecosystem with either a singular or a small number of fixed canopy ecophysiological properties3. This situation arises, in part, from a lack of understanding about how and why the functional properties of tropical forest canopies vary geographically4. Here, by combining field-collected data from more than 1,800 vegetation plots and tree traits with satellite remote-sensing, terrain, climate and soil data, we predict variation across 13 morphological, structural …

Determination Of Titanium Speciation In Consumer Plastics By Raman Microspectroscopy, Johanna Brazard, Takuji B.M. Adachi, Andrew Turner, Montserrat Filella

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

The main component of objects made of plastic is an organic polymer matrix, but plastics also contain a wide range of other chemicals, such as additives, processing aids and unintentionally added substances. At present, the scientific and regulatory communities face challenges due to the lack of access to basic information on their quantity and identity, which is crucial in relation to potential toxicity, management, recycling, environmental fate and resource uses. Moreover, an additional problem is that some additives, such as titanium oxide (TiO₂), can be present in different crystallographic forms, which makes it necessary to characterise not only …

A Systematic Review Of Biomonitoring Microplastics In Environmental Matrices: Emphasis On Airborne Particles, Dry Deposits, And Comparative Analysis With Traditional Methods, Faezeh Jahedi, Neamatollah Jaafarzadeh Haghighi Fard, Andrew Turner

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

The use of plastics continues to rise each year due to their versatility and essential role in industries like manufacturing, agriculture, and food packaging. However, plastics present a serious environmental challenge because they take over 500 years to decompose. During this time, they break down into tiny particles known as microplastics (MPs), which are now found everywhere, water, soil, and even the air we breathe. Recently, researchers have even detected MPs in clouds, making their presence in the atmosphere a growing concern for both the environment and public health. Traditional methods for sampling MPs in the air, such as active …

Working Paper: Zero-Sum Thinking, Meritocratic Beliefs, And Preferences For Basic Income And Universal Healthcare, David Chavanne

Economics Faculty Publications

This study uses survey responses to explore how support for basic income and universal healthcare is linked to zero-sum thinking and meritocratic beliefs. Consistent with earlier work, I find that zero-sum thinking and weaker meritocratic beliefs both lead to greater levels of support for basic income and universal healthcare. Using a path analysis, zero-sum thinking is also found to strengthen support for basic income and universal healthcare along two separate channels -- one via zero-sum thinking’s direct effect on policy support and a second via an indirect effect, whereby zero-sum thinking is attached to weaker beliefs in meritocracy, which in …

Deep Learning In Archiving Indus Script And Motif Information, Vaishnavi Dixit, Nushrat Hussain, Shubham Basak, Deva Atturu, Debasis Mitra, Ujjwal Bhattacharya

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

This work presents a novel computational system for the automated digitization of image-based data from seals of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization (IVC). The objective of this system’s design is to automatically extract and archive key information from seals or images, including the script and motifs. The system operates as a pipeline comprising three deep learning models integrated with a custom-designed database. Two models form the Ancient Script Recognition network (ASR-net), which digitizes sequences of graphemes from Indus seals, similar to Optical Character Recognition for modern languages. The third model, the Motif Identification network (MI-net), identifies recurring motifs—distinctive symbols or …

Enhancing Electric Vehicle Security And Privacy Through Decentralized Identity Management, Abdullah Aydeger, Engin Zeydan, Josep Mangues-Bafalluy, Suayb S. Arslan, Turk Yekta

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

In the next decade, Electric Vehicles (EVs) are expected to contribute to reducing climate change and transforming road mobility significantly. However, the security and privacy of EV charging systems pose considerable challenges that need to be addressed. This article introduces a novel approach by integrating blockchain-based Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) to enhance the security and privacy of EV charging systems. By leveraging the decentralized and immutable nature of blockchain, the proposed SSI framework can ensure secure and private data exchanges between EVs, charging stations, and backend systems. This three-way integration addresses the vulnerabilities identified in existing EV charging methods, such as …

Redefining The Scope Of Anti-Discrimination Law: Illuminating Colorism As A Basis For Discrimination Claims By Black Entertainers, Tolulope Odunsi-Nelson

Faculty Scholarship

This Article critically examines the pervasive issue of colorism within the entertainment industry and its profound impact on dark-skinned Black entertainers. Anti-Black colorism is discrimination against Black people with darker skin tones and Afrocentric features (i.e. darker eye color, kinkier hair, broader nose, fuller lips). Tracing the historical roots of colorism from the colonial era to contemporary times, the Article emphasizes how societal preferences for Eurocentric features and anti-Black racism have created and perpetuated a hierarchy that disadvantages darker-skinned individuals. It analyzes the underrepresentation and pay disparities faced by dark-skinned Black actors and actresses. It details the industry’s preference for …

The Power Of Subnational Actors In Enforcement Of The Convention On Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution, Wendy Erickson

Minnesota Journal of International Law, Vols. 28:2 onward (2019-present)

The Geneva Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP) was adopted in 1979 and continues to serve as the preeminent international framework for transboundary air pollution. The international community has used a range of multilateral and bilateral cooperative arrangements to address international movement of harmful pollutants. Each has had to contend with the issue of ensuring compliance among party States. CLRTAP faces challenges in addressing transboundary pollution in non-Western countries despite clear evidence that air pollution is harmful to human health and technological developments that enable more accurate tracking of pollutants. In the absence of a model assigning liability for …

Solving Standing Is Simply The Start: Climate Litigation Lessons Learned From The Evolution Of Rights Of Nature, Madeleine L. Kim

Minnesota Journal of International Law, Vols. 28:2 onward (2019-present)

The global climate crisis continues to worsen. The Sixth Synthesis Report issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2023 unequivocally stated that “[w]idespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and biosphere have occurred” and that “[h]uman-caused climate change is already affecting many weather and climate extremes in every region across the globe.” This report expressly states that climate change has “led to widespread adverse impacts and related losses and damages to nature and people” and that the “projected adverse impacts and related losses and damages from climate change escalate with every increment of global warming." However, …

The Alien Tort Statute And U.S. Extraterritorial Jurisdiction: Legal And Economic Corporate Governance Implications Beyond Al Shimari V. Caci Int'l, Gabriel Richardson

Minnesota Journal of International Law, Vols. 28:2 onward (2019-present)

This note is divided into four overall parts. To continue with the academic dialogue regarding the ATS, the first part (Part I) deals with the historical overview and case law of the ATS, while contrasting the development of extraterritoriality in the United States with that abroad (particularly, Europe). More specifically, the first part is divided into two subparts—Subpart A provides a comprehensive background and historical legal overview of the ATS and Subpart B discusses the international trend, particularly in Europe, in extending legal mechanisms to hold corporations accountable beyond their borders, unlike the United States—which, again, was once at the …

Why Did Prosecution Strengthen President Trump In The 2024 Election?, Steven Arrigg Koh

Faculty Scholarship

Why did criminal prosecution strengthen President Donald Trump's electoral prospects in the 2024 federal election? It was not supposed to be this way: after President Trump's 2024 New York state conviction, many speculated that President Trump's "felon" status would imperil his political career. In fact, the opposite occurred: federal and state criminal prosecutions reenergized President Trump's 2024 presidential candidacy. Contemporary criminal law theories-traditional individualist, expressivist, and critical-struggle to explain why. 

This Article advances a theory of criminal coalescence to explain why the Trump prosecutions led the former President to political victory. Criminal coalescence is the intensification of mass support for …

How Not To Democratize Algorithms, Ngozi Okidegbe

Faculty Scholarship

A growing set of jurisdictions has embraced “consultative algorithmic governance,” the idea that community members, particularly racially and otherwise politically marginalized ones, should be involved in the processes by which state institutions procure, construct, implement, and oversee artificially intelligent algorithms employed in public sector decision-making. Consultative processes range from public hearings that provide communities with an opportunity to comment about anticipated algorithmic use to community advisory boards that help public officials evaluate the impact of current or future algorithmic use.

This Article argues that consultative algorithmic governance is critically flawed and then builds upon this critique to point toward a …

Quantum Technologies For Beyond 5g And 6g Networks: Applications, Opportunities, And Challenges, Engin Zeydan, Chamitha De Alwis, Rabia Khan, Yekta Turk, Abdullah Aydeger, Thippa Reddy Gadekallu, Madhusanka Liyanage

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

As the world prepares for the advent of 6G networks, quantum technologies are becoming critical enablers of the next generation of communication systems. This survey paper investigates the convergence of quantum technologies and 6G networks, focusing on their applications, opportunities and challenges. We begin with an examination of the motivations for integrating quantum technologies into 6G, investigating the potential to overcome the limits of classical computing and cryptography. We then highlight key research gaps, particularly in quantum communication, quantum computing integration and security enhancement. A comprehensive overview of quantum technologies relevant to 6G, including quantum communication devices, quantum computing paradigms, …

Analysis Of Cytokine Data In A Case-Control Study Of Me/Cfs, Navya Amaratunga

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This study investigated the role of cytokines in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), a debilitating multi-system disease with unknown etiology. Using data from a case-control study (60 cases, 61 controls) previously collected by Dr. Roxana Moslehi’s lab, serum levels of 48 cytokines were analyzed. Statistical analyses, including T-tests, Wilcoxon Rank Sum tests, and logistic regression (unadjusted and adjusted for medication use), were performed to identify differences between cases and controls.

Results revealed a statistically significant difference in mean Fractalkine levels between cases and controls (p=0.031). Borderline significant differences were also observed for IL-6 (p=0.046) and MIP-1α (p=0.046). Unadjusted logistic regression …