Wisconsin Lutheran College

Abstract This study presents a cross-national analysis of the childhood antecedents of alcohol use in adulthood across 22 diverse countries included in the first wave of the Global Flourishing Study. The study aimed to assess how 13 childhood predictors (age, gender, parental marital status/family structure, religious service attendance at age 12, relationship with mother, relationship with father, outsider growing up, abuse, self-rated health growing up, subjective financial status growing up, immigration status, and, when available, race/ethnicity and religious affiliation growing up) relate with weekly adult alcohol consumption across the 22 countries. As hypothesized, the strength and the direction of associations between the childhood predictors and weekly alcohol use varied by country, with universal robust associations across those countries for male gender and experiencing abuse in childhood, and more varied associations across countries for other childhood predictors. For example, having a good relationship with the father was associated with lower alcohol use in one third of analyzed countries but showed a positive link in Australia; similarly, the relationship with the mother was linked to either higher or lower alcohol use depending on the country. These results are discussed in light of possible cultural, economic, and policy influences on alcohol use from a global perspective. The results of this study are expected to inform discussions of international public health strategies as well as contribute to the development of targeted interventions that may mitigate the risk factors for alcohol use/abuse in adulthood.

The Lake zone area of Tanzania and the western zone area in the country face acute prevalence of subtle religious sects that lure the society into advent social and economic vulnerability and instability. The study sought to identify the factors that compel many Christians and people around them, accept and practice theological contents that are misleading. Misleading theology as defined in this study is a term of the 21st century that tries to explain the nexus between spirituality and physical manifestations done by some religious leaders using manipulative scripture to exhibit instant solutions to the problems of the believer in areas of “health and healing”, wealth and prosperity, power and authority, blessing and curses. While vulnerability remains at its largest after such manifestations; the survey sought to find out ways of restoration against the current theological misinterpretation surge, the scriptural confusion in the area, and how the Theological institutions address the problem of abuse of scripture. The observed effects of these practices include society’s advent vulnerability, lack of peace, social disintegration and deaths. The survey used questionnaires, interviews, focus group discussions and document review of seven Lutheran dioceses to obtain data from both Christians and non-Christian respondents. The surveyed area was a deliberate intent owing to the outstanding surge of such practices in the country. The findings revealed factors such as psychological, emotional, economical, faith and religiosity issues as responsible for the acceptance and practice of misleading theologies. The study recommends a common code of ethics for all religious organizations for control of faith practices; Religions impose internal controls for mitigating abuse of theology profession while the Government should impose strict control for registration of Faith based activities and monitor religious education provision in schools and colleges

System level thermal optimization of a multi-part thermal design tools is exercised, where a low heat source temperature on one part, modelled in one tool, conflicts with the low mass design objective of a heatsink, modelled in another simulation tool. A third tool is used that integrates the separate simulation models into a system model and has capabilities for automated design optimization. Use of smaller parametric surrogate models is a key enabler to limit runtime for the many simulation runs needed. Four different surrogates were tested: Quadratic and Kriging fits on 27 runs (partial DOE) or 81 runs (full DOE) design space mapping. The surrogates speed up the simulation time by about 3 orders of magnitude. Full DOE performed marginally better compared to partial DOE. Kriging surrogates performed much better than Quadratic. Pareto Front optimization turned out to be more robust against fitting errors in the surrogates than Weighted Sum optimization. The statistical capability of the optimal design was established using Monte Carlo simulation.

In Challenging the Modern, Nicholas Attfield addresses the question of musical conservatism during the Weimar Republic, a phenomenon that for a variety of reasons has been largely ignored or misunderstood by music historians. Utilizing extensive archival research, Attfield ably demonstrates the complexity, dynamism and diversity of Weimar-era conservative thought in a variety of intellectual and geographical contexts. The heart of the book consists of four chapter-length case studies and an epilogue that considers the reception of Attfield’s subjects during the Third Reich. Additionally, a chapter discussing the history and critical application of the term ‘conservative revolution’ forms the central theoretical framework for the volume. An introductory chapter takes on the freighted notion of ‘Weimar culture’ and examines how historians have long associated the term with the era’s technological and artistic innovations—often conflated with democratic and progressive politics—thus distorting our view of Weimar musical conservatism. The author argues that these visions of a utopian golden era minimize or conceal continuities between Weimar cultural outputs and their pre-First World War roots while simultaneously papering over the many social, political and economic frictions of the era. Engaging with the work of Peter Gay and Michael Kater, Attfield demonstrates how historians have often characterized musical conservatism as a manifestation of reactionary or anti-modern right-wing political sentiment, attempting to define it as something separate from authentic Weimar culture. Thus marginalized, conservative figures lurk in the shadows plotting their revenge, something achieved presumably after 1933. Conservative rhetoric of the era often resists these reactionary stereotypes, however, consistently speaking in terms of rebirth, regrowth and rejuvenation. Far from offering only a pessimistic critique of modernity bent on a return to the past, the various iterations of Weimar conservatism proposed solutions to the modern malaise with an eye fixed firmly on the future.

Thermal architecture choice has a large impact on a products ultimate performance in thermally limited products. Thermal parameters interact, hence Design Of Experiments (DOE), which can include interaction effects, is the preferred explorative strategy. However, DOE has the drawback of potentially resulting in impractically large experimental arrays and correspondingly overly large datasets and large claim on resources. This work describes a multi-step approach to thermal architecture combining Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) enabled DOE based exploration and optimization on a reduced set of parameters. A base case is used to identify the critical outputs and a screening DOE is used to identify the most important, vital few inputs. The subsequent optimization DOE is limited in size and the use of multiple small DOEs result in less runs compared to one large DOE. DOE arrays are generated and analysed in a commercial spreadsheet application. The method is demonstrated on an automotive electronics box, a Body Control Module.

Modern atomic theory grew largely out of an attempt to reconcile older “common-sense” concepts—such as the idea of electrons orbiting a nucleus like little moons around a planet—with the data emerging from new high-precision experiments on the emission and absorption of light by various substances. To what extent does Bohr’s new atomic theory provide an adequate theoretical explanation of spectroscopic data? And more generally, what counts as an appropriate theoretical explanation? Must a theory explain why a particular phenomenon occurs? Must it be able to predict new phenomena? Must it provide an organizing principle which connects seemingly disparate phenomena? In the following reading selection, which brings us to the end of Bohr’s 1922 Nobel lecture, Bohr attempts to explain how his new atomic model provides an appropriate theoretical explanation of the observed properties of the known elements. Do you find his arguments convincing? Or is there perhaps a better theoretical explanation for the periodic table of the elements?

According to the ancient doctrines of Democritus and Epicurus, atoms are tiny indivisible masses rattling about through the vacuum of space. This atomic hypothesis was preserved—in one form or another—for over 2000 years. Yet by the close of the nineteenth century it was still not universally accepted. The most convincing evidence for atomism was rather indirect, having come out of (i) the study of chemical reactions, (ii) the kinetic theory of gases and (iii) Boltzmann’s probabilistic interpretation of entropy. Even among the atomists there was considerable disagreement regarding the nature and structure of the atom itself. For example, the followers of Roger Boscovich believed atoms to be little more than point-like mathematical centers of force. Boscovich’s atoms possessed an unchangeable mass, they could move through the vacuum of space, and they were endowed with an irreducible power to attract or repel other atoms. A very different view of the atom was maintained byWilliam Thomson (Lord Kelvin). Inspired by the earlier work of Hermann von Helmholtz, Kelvin imagined atoms to be like minuscule smoke-rings traveling through an all-pervasive frictionless fluid medium—the aether. These so-called vortex ring atoms were indivisible local excitations which could emit light by vibrating like the rim of a tiny ringing bell. In this way, the vortex ring model of the atom offered the possibility of explaining the complicated emission spectra of atomic gasses.

In his second letter to Mr. Collinson, Franklin presented his one-fluid theory of electricity. Contrary to Du Fay’s two-fluid theory, Franklin suggested that all objects contain within them a certain quantity of the so-called “electrical fire”. While the overall quantity of this electrical fire is unchanged—it is a conserved quantity—its distribution need not be uniform everywhere. Objects having a (perhaps temporary) surplus are said to be “plus”; objects having a deficit are said to be “minus”.

In the previous two chapters, we focused on Franklin’s careful laboratory experiments which culminated in his theory of electricity. But he also had a strong interested in the weather, and he wrote many scientific correspondences on meteorological topics such as waterspouts, trade winds and thunderstorms. Franklin’s interests in meteorology and electricity converged in his famous kite experiment. This perilous experiment is described in detail in letter XI, transcribed below. On a closely related topic, Franklin describes the use of lightning rods to protects buildings from damage in letter LIX, also included below. Sandwiched between these two scientific letters I have included one of Franklin’s more whimsical correspondences: in letter XLVIII, he provides friendly advice to Miss Polly Stevenson, the daughter of a widow with whom Franklin lodged while serving as a diplomat in London before the onset of the Revolution.