Unbelief, Lawlessness, and Satan: Viewing the Freer Logion as a Scribal Response to Open- Ended Eschatological Themes in Mark

The focus of my study is to demonstrate that major variants in the text of Early Christian Literature were purposely inserted into the text in light of theological controversies by scribes who represented a certain perspective on behalf of an Early Christian community. The text on which this paper is focused is the ending of the Gospel of Mark and the major textual variant known as the “Freer Logion.” I will argue that the Freer Logion was purposely inserted to conclude themes that were left open by the author of Mark and not addressed by the scribe who inserted the Longer Ending of Mark.

Know Yourself and You Will Be Known: The Gospel of Thomas and Middle Platonism

The Gospel of Thomas is a collection of 114 sayings attributed to Jesus and is primarily composed of rhetorical statements that were used to preserve the teachings of itinerant Greek philosophers. These collections were used to persuade individuals to join the philosophical schools represented, much like the early followers of the Jesus movement would use his teachings to convince others to join them as well. However, the theological background for the text is still debated because it contains esoteric and enigmatic references not fully understood by most scholars. This work argues that the theological and philosophical background for the Gospel of Thomas is the Alexandrian School of Middle Platonism. This background contains an understanding of the divine, the secret nature of the teachings in the text, and the presence of daemons in the cosmos. In short, this is my attempt at supplying the hermeneutical key to the text or at least supplying a valid ideological background on which the Jesus tradition is cast in the Gospel of Thomas

Disturbance maintains and promotes biodiversity in an artificial plant ecology

A model of plant growth, competition and reproduction in three dimensions was constructed using L-systems to simulate plant growth, ray tracing to simulate sunlight and shading, and a steady-state genetic algorithm to simulate evolution by natural selection. Simulated plant growth conformed to expected trade-os between, for instance, growing up and growing out. Simulated cohorts exhibited conventional population-level phenomena such as obeying the self-thinning law. Competition between species was simulated under various disturbance regimes. Undisturbed, a K-selected type of plant species dominated at equilibrium. However, under certain disturbance regimes, diverse life-history strategies were able to coexist at equilibrium, and even speciate

Communication and participation: Why, how, when, and with whom in a SNF/HLW transportation system to address social and economic impacts

Presentation on transportation systems and their ability to cause disproportionate social and economics impact to vulnerable communities. The available pdf file consists of presentation slides. This research was completed money allocated during Round 5 of the Citizens’ Monitoring and Technical Assessment Fund (MTA Fund). Clark University was named conservator of these works. If you have any questions or concerns please contact us at [email protected]://commons.clarku.edu/clark_mtafund/1002/thumbnail.jp

Abroad View of Wellness

A presentation on a Study Abroad trip taken to Hungary

Quasireversibility Methods for Non-Well-Posed Problems

The nal value problem, ae u t + Au = 0 ; 0 ! t ! T u(T ) = f with positive self-adjoint unbounded A is known to be ill-posed. One approach to dealing with this has been the method of quasireversibility, where the operator is perturbed to obtain a well-posed problem which approximates the original problem. In this work, we will use a quasi-boundary-value method, where we perturb the nal condition to form an approximate non-local problem depending on a small parameter. We show that the approximate problems are well posed and that their solutions u converge on 0; T] if and only if the original problem has a classical solution. We obtain several other results, including some explicit convergence rates

Causal connectivity of evolved neural networks during behavior

To show how causal interactions in neural dynamics are modulated by behavior, it is valuable to analyze these interactions without perturbing or lesioning the neural mechanism. This paper proposes a method, based on a graph-theoretic extension of vector autoregressive modeling and 'Granger causality,' for characterizing causal interactions generated within intact neural mechanisms. This method, called 'causal connectivity analysis' is illustrated via model neural networks optimized for controlling target fixation in a simulated head-eye system, in which the structure of the environment can be experimentally varied. Causal connectivity analysis of this model yields novel insights into neural mechanisms underlying sensorimotor coordination. In contrast to networks supporting comparatively simple behavior, networks supporting rich adaptive behavior show a higher density of causal interactions, as well as a stronger causal flow from sensory inputs to motor outputs. They also show different arrangements of 'causal sources' and 'causal sinks': nodes that differentially affect, or are affected by, the remainder of the network. Finally, analysis of causal connectivity can predict the functional consequences of network lesions. These results suggest that causal connectivity analysis may have useful applications in the analysis of neural dynamics

JME 4110: Door Cycling Station

The objective of this project was to design and build a door cycling station to be used for fatigue testing commercial refrigerator doors, including the door gaskets, hinges, and handles. The system must be low maintenance and reliable for at least two million cycles, and it must fit within the provided budget. The design concept includes a rodless pneumatic cylinder and a system of wear-resistant ropes, eyebolts, and pulleys

Health Risks of Ionizing Radiation: An Overview of Epidemiological Studies

A Report by the Community-Based Hazard Management Program, George Perkins Marsh Institute, Clark University. The health risks of exposure to low levels of ionizing radiation are disputed within the scientific community. Risks associated with exposure to high levels of radiation are widely accepted and well documented based primarily on the studies of the atomic bomb survivors in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Some feel that the best way to estimate risk for low- level exposures is to extrapolate from higher doses, although there is some clear evidence of low-dose risk. In this overview we have attempted to give an unbiased summary of the available research with an emphasis on the lower doses. The strengths and weaknesses of the studies are explained in order to help assess the variety of sometimes conflicting evidence. This research was completed money allocated during Round 6 of the Citizens’ Monitoring and Technical Assessment Fund (MTA Fund). Clark University was named conservator of these works. If you have any questions or concerns please contact us at [email protected]://commons.clarku.edu/clark_mtafund/1004/thumbnail.jp