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Climate variability is important to understand as its effects on groundwater are complex than surface water. Climate association between Groundwater Storage (GWS) and sea level changes have been missing from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, demanding a requisite study of their linkage and responses. The current dissertation is primarily focused on the ongoing issues that have not been focused on the previous literatures. Firstly, the study evaluated the effects of short-term persistence and abrupt shifts in sea level records along the US coast by utilizing popular robust statistical techniques. Secondly, the study evaluated the variability in groundwater due to variability in hydroclimatic variables like sea surface temperature (SST), precipitation, sea level, and terrestrial water storage. Moreover, a lagged correlation was also analyzed to obtain their teleconnection patterns. Lastly, the relationship between the groundwater rise and one of the most common short-term climate variability, ENSO was obtained. To accomplish the research goals the current dissertation was subdivided into three research tasks.The first task attempted to answer a major question, Is sea level change affected by the presence of autocorrelation and abrupt shift? This question reflects the importance of trend and shift detection analysis in sea level. The primary factor driving the global sea level rise is often related to climate change. The current study investigates the changes in sea level along the US coast. The sea level records of 59 tide gauge data were used to evaluate the trend, shift, and persistence using non-parametric statistical tests. Mann-Kendall and Pettitt’s tests were utilized to estimate gradual trends and abrupt shifts, respectively. The study also assessed the presence of autocorrelation in sea level records and its effect on both trend and shift was examined along the US coast. The presence of short-term persistence was found in 57 stations and the trend significance of most stations was not changed at a 95% confidence level. Total of 25 stations showed increasing shift between 1990–2000 that was evaluated from annual sea level records. Results from the current study may contribute to understanding sea level variability across the contiguous US. The second task dealt with variability in the Hydrologic Unit Code—03 region. It is one of the major U.S. watersheds in the southeast in which most of the variability is caused by Sea Surface Temperature (SST) variability in the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean, was identified. Furthermore, the SST regions were identified to assess its relationship with GWS, sea level, precipitation, and terrestrial water storage. Temporal and spatial variability were obtained utilizing the singular value decomposition statistical method. A gridded GWS anomaly from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) was used to understand the relationship with sea level and SST. The negative pockets of SST were negatively linked with GWS. The identification of teleconnections with groundwater may substantiate temporal patterns of groundwater variability. The results confirmed that the SST regions exhibited El Niño Southern Oscillation patterns, resulting in GWS changes. Moreover, a positive correlation between GWS and sea level was observed on the east coast in contrast to the southwestern United States. The findings highlight the importance of climate-driven changes in groundwater attributing changes in sea level. Therefore, SST could be a good predictor, possibly utilized for prior assessment of variabilities plus groundwater forecasting. The primary goal of the third task is to better understand the effects of ENSO climate patterns on GWS in the South Atlantic-Gulf region. Groundwater issues are complex and different studies focused on groundwater depletion while few emphasized, “groundwater rise”. The current research is designed to develop an outline for assessing how climate patterns can affect groundwater fluctuation, which might lead to groundwater rise. The study assessed the effect of ENSO phases on spatiotemporal variability of groundwater using Spearman Rank Correlation. A significant positive correlation between ENSO and GWS was observed. An increasing trend was detected in GWS where most grids were observed in Florida by utilizing the non-parametric Mann-Kendall. A positive magnitude of the trend was also detected by utilizing Theil-Sen’s Slope method with high magnitude in the mid-Florida region. The highest GWS anomalies were observed in the peak of El Niño events and the lowermost GWS was observed during La Niña events. Furthermore, most of the stations were above normal groundwater conditions. This study provides a better understanding of the research gap between groundwater rise and ENSO.

The Grace Working in the States of Life The work procedes with the view of God's grace as the special gift for each state of life. I come from the fact that man, without God, who created him was not anything that was created by God. Without his grace could not even reach salvation. It treats also basic division of the grace to ,sanctifying grace and sacramental graces. The work of grace in human life is discussed in the section calling and election. Implementation of life in grace is developed in four states of life: lay, consecrated, the ministerial priesthood and married state. The work tries to show the greatness and effectiveness of the gift of God's grace, which leads man throughout his whole life. Keywords Grace Sacrament Calling Election State of life

This dissertation critically examines the ontological and epistemological significance of the concept of violence in French philosopher Jacques Derrida’s essay “Violence and Metaphysics” (Chapter 1), dialogues between Mennonite philosophical theologians who represent the Radical Reformation and John Milbank’s Radical Orthodoxy (Chapter 2), and the Death and the Displacement of Beauty trilogy by feminist philosopher of religion Grace Jantzen (Chapter 3). Although Derrida, Jantzen, and certain Mennonite philosophical theologians approach the problem of violence with very different concerns and frames of reference, each understand violence to have a distinctly ontological and epistemological character, while also suggesting that ontology and epistemology themselves are profoundly vulnerable to charges of violence. In Derrida’s essay “Violence and Metaphysics” language itself is imbricated in violence, and in their responses to John Milbank, Mennonite philosophical theologians Peter C. Blum and Chris K. Huebner situate their work both with and against Derrida’s supposed “ontology of violence” as they apply Christian pacifism to epistemology and seek to articulate an “ontology of peace.” In her late work in the Death and the Displacement of Beauty project, Grace Jantzen develops an epistemology that is similar to that of Blum and Huebner, while critiquing what she understands to be Derrida’s equivocation of linguistic with physical violence, all as part of her argument that the cultural habitus of the west is founded on an obsession with death that violently displaces natality with mortality. In bringing together these three sources, this dissertation uses “violence” as a diagnostic concept to assess the priorities and values of its users. Considering violence to be defined by the violation of value-laden boundaries, this study of three ontologies of violence interprets and critiques the values that Derrida’s deconstruction, philosophical Mennonite pacifism, and Jantzen’s critique of displacement seek to further and protect against violation. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This dissertation examines the early work of French philosopher Jacques Derrida (Chapter 1), debates between Mennonite philosophical theologians and John Milbank’s Radical Orthodoxy (Chapter 2), and the Death and the Displacement of Beauty trilogy by feminist philosopher of religion Grace M. Jantzen (Chapter 3). For Derrida, Jantzen, and certain Mennonite philosophical theologians the term “violence” is used to name ways of thinking, knowing, and speaking, rather than being restricted to the sphere of physical violations. This dissertation shows how these three sources each consider violence to be something that can inhere in ways of thinking about the world and our relation to it.

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Thesis (MPH.) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / BACKGROUND: Exclusive breastfeeding in South Africa to date has not seen progress. The data that is available show that most mothers do initiate breastfeeding immediately after delivery of the baby, but its continuation to the first six months is still a challenge. Although its benefits to the mother and baby are mostly known, it is not translated into positive outcomes as recommended by WHO i.e. to feed the baby with breast milk only, no water, no solids except for medicines that have been prescribed for the first six months. OBJECTIVES: To explore and describe perceptions of breastfeeding mothers regarding factors contributing to exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months at Mugodeni Grace Health centre. METHODS: A qualitative, exploratory and descriptive phenomenological method was used in the study, which was conducted at Mugodeni Grace Health Centre. The convenience sampling strategy was used to recruit participants and the sample size was determined by data saturation. Face-to-face in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine participants in Xitsonga, using an interview guide and were audio taped with the consent of the participants and transcribed verbatim. Data was analysed using Tesch open coding approach. RESULTS: Three themes and nine subthemes emerged from the data analysis, which includes maternal knowledge of breastfeeding, support systems for exclusive breastfeeding and social and cultural influences leading to non-exclusive breastfeeding CONCLUSION: Exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months is a societal issue, which need the involvement of society as a whole to perceive it differently for it to be successful, a family-centred approach in which the father has a role to be part of it to assist and support the mother. Continuous support from the family and health facilities by knowledgeable health practitioners is desired. The study revealed that some nurses were practising wrong breastfeeding practices in front of community members. This made mothers to lose confidence in them as people who can be consulted in case of breastfeeding challenges. Cultural beliefs and myths should be handled in a culturally sensitive manner. Working mothers should be taught to negotiate and make a plan for breastfeeding with the employer during pregnancy and to know of their rights at work viii regarding breastfeeding. Mothers should be taught to breastfeed for eight to twelve times per day. They should also be taught about the causes of crying in babies and shown practical skills on how to latch and how to calm the crying baby.

In Montgomery, Alabama, interstate highways were designed and developed to decimate African-American social institutions and communities whose members were prominent participants in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. The sequence of events contributed to the social, political, and economic marginalization of the residents of Washington Park, which includes members of Grace Missionary Baptist Church. Individual, familial, and communal progress has been hindered by the oppressive actions of power wielders, including federal, state, and local government officials. The longstanding distress has caused negative shifts to occur in the value systems of many families; and assistance from external sources has not led to widespread reductions in the community’s marginalization. The circumstances create an ideal opportunity for parents to emerge as internal facilitators in the restoration of families and other social institutions relevant to the sustainability of Washington Park. This publication is a detailed plan for the design and development of the Parenting Institute as a grassroots family strengthening organization, which will place emphasis on the enlightenment, education, and empowerment of parents as the most influential leaders of the community. Enhancements in parenting practices will assist in the strengthening of people as the most important components of social, political, and economic institutions. This will lead to a reduction in the marginalization of the target beneficiaries.

Please note: creative writing works are permanently embargoed in OpenBU. No public access is forecasted for these. To request private access, please click on the lock icon and fill out the appropriate web form. / Doctrine in Christian theology is often regarded as rigid, absolute, and irrelevant to the lived stories of people in contemporary society. In this project, I engage the traditioning model of Christian religious education to re-envision doctrine as narrative in the making, by which I mean the ongoing, changing process of constructing narratives as people encounter God, other people, and the rest of creation. Doctrines and other traditions are not inflexible, unchangeable sets of propositional beliefs, but reflective narratives of human experiences of God and God’s creation over time, as passed on, received, critiqued, and reshaped by the Christian community. Mary Elizabeth Moore’s traditioning model of Christian religious education provides spacious room to construe Christian doctrine as an ongoing narrative of divine-human-nature relationships. Building on the traditioning model, the first chapter introduces the whole project with the main arguments, context, and significance of the research, methodology, and primary concepts. The following chapter begins with exploring the dynamics of narrative teaching, especially as it pertains to narrative in the making and the significance of encounter as a practice in that process. The chapter engages three features of narrative in the making, which are imagination, identity, and practice, culminating in my description of the four practices of narrative teaching: sharing, reflecting on, critiquing and revising, and re-narrating stories. Chapter Three conceptualizes doctrine in the traditioning process as narrative in the making, for doctrine carries its past heritage while changing in the face of changing realities. The chapter analyzes doctrinal challenges: critiquing postliberal traditions; building on Willie Jennings’s critique of José de Acosta’s rigid approach to doctrine in service of colonialism; developing a theology of doctrine as narrative in the making; and exploring the possibilities of Kazoh Kitamori’s contextualized theology in relation to the pain of God. Chapter Four exemplifies the traditioning of a particular doctrine—the doctrine of justification by grace through faith—by drawing upon Paul and the early Galatian Christian community, Martin Luther, and Elsa Tamez. Chapter Five engages the process of the emerging postcolonial doctrine of justification by focusing on teaching and learning in community with God and others, as embodied in the four practices of narrative teaching. The last chapter outlines possibilities for future research. / 2999-01-01

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