William Paterson University, officially William Paterson University of New Jersey (WPUNJ), is a public university in Wayne, New Jersey. It is part of New Jersey's public system of higher education.Founded in 1855 and was named after American judge William Paterson, William Paterson is the third-oldest of the nine state colleges and universities in New Jersey. William Paterson offers undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degrees through its five academic colleges. During the fall 2021 semester, 5,838 undergraduate students and 3,100 graduate students were enrolled.
This research inquires whether the property rights templates of US benefit corporations (BCs) and French sociétés à mission (SaMs) are credible protections against greenwashing. By dissecting their unique legal structures (dubbed their “legal DNA” by B Lab), we aim to find whether these firms' environmental and social claims are truly backed by robust corporate governance. The importance of this lies in the “credence” nature of environmental and social claims, which makes their verification difficult while increasing the likelihood of fraud. This vulnerability is further exacerbated by ambiguous missions and third-party assessments weakened by the freedom BCs and SaMs have to select and pay auditors. Rooted in the tradition of institutional ecological economics, this research emphasizes institutional realism by leveraging a mechanism-based methodology. Qualitative institutional data, derived from the model benefit corporation legislation, société à mission legal status, case law, and company filings, are then analyzed through manifest coding using the Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), which adheres to the ISO/IEC 21838–1 standard. Findings reveal a fundamental bargaining power imbalance favoring shareholders in BCs and SaMs, leaving non-equity stakeholders with limited countervailing powers (e.g., costly exit, no voting, ineffective legal recourse). Formal stakeholder protection proves ineffective, leading to weak practical accountability and heavy reliance on owner altruism for mission fulfillment. The implications are that ensuring credible protection against greenwashing necessitates a fundamental structural redesign of BCs and SaMs. This involves shifting bargaining power towards stakeholders and establishing governance independent of selfless owners, thereby creating imperative credible commitments.
Millennial-scale events of the last glaciation profoundly reorganized global climate, yet the terrestrial temperature response in East Asia remains debated due to the seasonal biases and calibration uncertainties inherent in biological proxies. To address this, we present a carbonate clumped isotope (Delta 47) record from a central Chinese speleothem spanning the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and Heinrich Stadial 1 (HS1). Supported by petrographic and trace element evidence for negligible kinetic effects, our temperature record from the thermally buffered cave provides a robust reconstruction of mean annual temperature. We identify a similar to 6 degrees C cooling compared to the present during the LGM, intensified by an additional similar to 2 degrees C cooling during HS1. These results contradict warming signals found in precious study but align with iTraCE simulations, which attribute HS1 cooling to severe winter temperature drops partially offset by insolation-driven summer warming. Our findings reconcile current proxy-model temperature discrepancies and improve the climatic interpretation of speleothem delta 18O during Heinrich stadials.
The guidelines of the American Psychological Association (2017a, 2017b) discuss the importance of cultural competence when working with individuals of spiritually/religiously diverse backgrounds. However, little empirical research exists to determine whether some psychologists may be more competent to assess religious issues than others. This study seeks to determine whether the religious backgrounds of clinical psychologists affect their ability to accurately assess ritualistic behaviors in a highly religious group, Orthodox Jews. Ritualistic behaviors can occur both in the context of obsessive-compulsive disorder and in the context of normative religious observance. Therefore, psychologists' own religious backgrounds/religious knowledge may affect their abilities to accurately assess ritualistic behaviors in a religious context. Eighty-seven licensed clinical psychologists were recruited via Psychology Today and American Psychological Association's Division 42 LISTSERV. The psychologists were categorized in one of four groups: self-identified orthodox Jew, self-identified secular Jew, self-identified religious non-Jew, and self-identified secular non-Jew. Participants read three vignettes detailing obsessive-compulsive disorder, religious-based obsessive-compulsive disorder, and normative religious ritualistic behavior and answered questions exploring their diagnostic assessment of the individual. There was no significant difference in the accuracy of assessing obsessive-compulsive disorder and normative religious ritualistic behavior vignettes between groups. However, secular non-Jewish psychologists, as compared with religious non-Jewish psychologists, showed a significantly decreased ability to assess religious-based obsessive-compulsive disorder. Religious psychologists may have a greater ability to accurately assess religious issues and have greater religious competence than secular psychologists.
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed and intensified longstanding racial health inequities in the USA, disproportionately affecting African American communities with high burdens of chronic disease. This study examines how African American clergy in Houston, Texas, interpreted and responded to the convergence of COVID-19 and obesity-related vulnerability within their congregations, and how these conditions reshaped theological meaning, pastoral identity, and health-related leadership within Black church contexts. Using a hermeneutic interpretive phenomenological approach, in-depth interviews were conducted with ten Protestant clergy engaged in health-related ministry during the pandemic. Findings indicated that clergy experienced COVID-19 not only as a public health crisis but as a theological disruption that reshaped pastoral priorities. Four interrelated patterns emerged: Obesity was reframed from a lifestyle issue to a matter of survival and collective vulnerability; clergy became more aware of embodied vulnerability; health engagement accelerated in response to congregational loss; and clergy expanded their role as trusted interpreters of public health information amid medical mistrust. Chronic disease prevention shifted from a secondary activity to a core dimension of pastoral identity. Although behavioral concepts such as decision-making and confidence were evident, they were shaped by theological meaning, moral responsibility, and commitment to the congregation. These findings suggest that crisis conditions can transform how health is understood and addressed within Black churches. Efforts to reduce chronic disease disparities and advance health equity should engage faith institutions not only as partners in outreach but as central contributors to how health meaning is formed within communities shaped by structural inequity.
Software engineering education must be guided by developments in software engineering and aim for professional and educational development of students. This position paper explores the historical and conceptual evolution of software engineering as a discipline central to modern integrated design, software systems, and process science, tracing the trajectory from early structured models, through waterfall, to Agile and AI-augmented paradigms, and looks at how changes in application mix and modes of use, technological complexity, and business and enterprise needs have shaped development methodologies. Special attention is paid to the role of generative AI on the software engineering process and the role of the software engineer, altering workflows, collaboration, and enterprise architectures, and further enabling automation, digital transformation, and autonomous systems, shifting responsibilities and skill sets upwards. The article then considers corresponding shifts in software engineering education, highlighting the need for curricula that intertwine process thinking, systems theory, and ethical engagement, integrate with generative AI technologies, and place greater emphasis on "soft skills", in courses that combine development of professional expertise with conceptual capabilities and an enhanced capacity for life-long learning. It then presents a set of requirements, options, and guidelines for software engineering education in the era of generative AI.
