Semantic collisions at the intertextual crossroads:: a diachronic and synchronic study of Romans 9:30-10:13

This thesis examines Romans 9:30-10:13 with a concentration on Paul's citations of the Old Testament. A critical review of the theory of intertextuality, including a critique of its application by Richard Hays, begins an adaptation of the theory for a methodology which is labelled herein as Intertextual Semantics. Intertextual Semantics describes the meaning of the text through its points of continuity between itself and its source, but also its discontinuity and the processes which have contributed to their lexical, syntactical, discursive, rhetorical, and cultural differences. Transformative factors may be evident from a synchronic perspective, but when considering Paul’s historical position in relation to Judaism and Israelite religion, a diachronic perspective is also valuable. The thesis devotes considerable space to the history of the texts which Paul quotes in Romans 9:30-10:13. It contributes new readings of Isaiah 28:16, Leviticus 18:5, and Deuteronomy 30:12-14 in their respective literary and historical contexts. From such 'original' contexts to other allusions or quotations in the Old Testament or in non-canonical Second Temple Jewish literature or in other New Testament writings, these intertexts are followed and described as part of this diachronic analysis. Disrupting or colliding with the continuity of meaning across changes of time, languages, and cultures are the exigencies facing each new generation. In the synchronic analysis, and in response to the relative neglect that Romans 10 suffers in relation to chs. 9 and 11, this study demonstrates that concerted attention to Romans 10 pays dividends for inquiries into the coherence, purpose, and function of chs.9-11 as well as for important topics such as Paul's conception of his own ministry, comparisons of Pauline religion with historical Israelite religion, and rhetoric in this letter

A Study of Groundwater Degradation Resulting from Wastewater Treatment by Lagooning

During the past quarter century, the utilization of lagoons as a means of waste treatment has increased dramatically. Communities which utilize this means of waste treatment tend to consider the sewage lagoon as providing complete or final treatment. Consideration was not given to problems caused by the treated waste after it was removed from the immediate environment. In the past few years there has been an increasing demand that the environment be protected, and the methods of waste disposal have come under scrutiny. It has been found that the elements causing eutrophication of lakes and reservoirs exist in substantial amounts in stabilized sewage effluent. The increased public awareness has fulfilled the urgent necessity of motivating people to conserve and protect natural resources. Although surface waters have been the primary concern, more consideration should be accorded the beneficial uses and public health aspects of groundwater contamination. In South Dakota, groundwater is the principal source of water because approximately two-thirds of the total water used originates from groundwater sources. Considering that about 20 per cent of the sewage lagoons leak excessively, there is a distinct possibility that the groundwater near some lagoons may become contaminated. Because the importance of maintaining the quality of groundwater resources cannot be disregarded, it was felt that a study involving ·the possibility of a sewage lagoon contaminating the groundwater was in order. Consequently, the Civil Engineering Department at South Dakota State University undertook the study as an extens1on of their work in groundwater contamination caused by waste disposal practices. The objectives for this study were as follows: 1. To determine the degradation of ground water quality in the vicinity of selected sewage lagoons by measuring the chlorides; specific conductance, pH, hardness, sodium, COD, nitrates and phosphates. 2. To determine the quantity of seepage from selected sewage lagoons by calculating a water balance, which includes evaporation, precipitation, the discharge from the lagoon and the amount of sewage pumped to the lagoon

TERMINAL MARKET WINDOWS FOR MISSISSIPPI SMALL-FARM VEGETABLE PRODUCERS

This study investigated various marketing strategies involving market windows at wholesale fruit and vegetable terminal markets. Data used in the analysis included weekly prices for okra, sweet corn, strawberries, and green cabbage at terminal markets located in Dallas, St. Louis, Atlanta, Chicago, Cincinnati, and Detroit. Strawberries showed relatively high profit margins for small farmers operating in southwest Mississippi. Sweet corn and okra showed more narrow profit margins, while green cabbage appeared to yield negative net returns (generally) for these farmers. Furthermore, stochastic dominance analysis of various combinations of crop/market/window revealed the following as the preferred marketing strategies: (1) strawberries in all markets in the last third of the calendar year; (2) sweet corn in all six markets in the first third of the calendar year; and (3) okra in St. Louis and Cincinnati in the first third of the calendar year.Agribusiness,

Wide Field Aperture Synthesis Radio Astronomy

This thesis is focussed on the Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope (MOST), reporting on two primary areas of investigation. Firstly, it describes the recent upgrade of the MOST to perform an imaging survey of the southern sky. Secondly, it presents a MOST survey of the Vela supernova remnant and follow-up multiwavelength studies. The MOST Wide Field upgrade is the most significant instrumental upgrade of the telescope since observations began in 1981. It has made possible the nightly observation of fields with area ~5 square degrees, while retaining the operating frequency of 843 MHz and the pre-existing sensitivity to point sources and extended structure. The MOST will now be used to make a sensitive (rms approximately 1 mJy/beam) imaging survey of the sky south of declination -30°. This survey consists of two components: an extragalactic survey, which will begin in the south polar region, and a Galactic survey of latitudes |b| < 10°. These are expected to take about ten years. The upgrade has necessitated the installation of 352 new preamplifiers and phasing circuits which are controlled by 88 distributed microcontrollers, networked using optic fibre. The thesis documents the upgrade and describes the new systems, including associated testing, installation and commissioning. The thesis continues by presenting a new high-resolution radio continuum survey of the Vela supernova remnant (SNR), made with the MOST before the completion of the Wide Field upgrade. This remnant is the closest and one of the brightest SNRs. The contrast between the structures in the central pulsar-powered nebula and the synchrotron radiation shell allows the remnant to be identified morphologically as a member of the composite class. The data are the first of a composite remnant at spatial scales comparable with those available for the Cygnus Loop and the Crab Nebula, and make possible a comparison of radio, optical and soft X-ray emission from the resolved shell filaments. The survey covers an area of 50 square degrees at a resolution of 43" x 60", while imaging structures on scales up to 30'. It has been used for comparison with Wide Field observations to evaluate the performance of the upgraded MOST. The central plerion of the Vela SNR (Vela X) contains a network of complex filamentary structures. The validity of the imaging of these filaments has been confirmed with Very Large Array (VLA) observations at 1.4 GHz. Unlike the situation in the Crab Nebula, the filaments are not well correlated with H-alpha emission. Within a few parsec of the Vela pulsar the emission is much more complex than previously seen: both very sharp edges and more diffuse emission are present. It has been postulated that one of the brightest filaments in Vela X is associated with the X-ray feature (called a `jet') which appears to be emanating from the region of the pulsar. However, an analysis of the MOST and VLA data shows that this radio filament has a flat spectral index similar to another more distant filament within the plerion, indicating that it is probably unrelated to the X-ray feature

Automated Classification of Periodic Variable Stars detected by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer

We describe a methodology to classify periodic variable stars identified using photometric time-series measurements constructed from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) full-mission single-exposure Source Databases. This will assist in the future construction of a WISE Variable Source Database that assigns variables to specific science classes as constrained by the WISE observing cadence with statistically meaningful classification probabilities. We have analyzed the WISE light curves of 8273 variable stars identified in previous optical variability surveys (MACHO, GCVS, and ASAS) and show that Fourier decomposition techniques can be extended into the mid-IR to assist with their classification. Combined with other periodic light-curve features, this sample is then used to train a machine-learned classifier based on the random forest (RF) method. Consistent with previous classification studies of variable stars in general, the RF machine-learned classifier is superior to other methods in terms of accuracy, robustness against outliers, and relative immunity to features that carry little or redundant class information. For the three most common classes identified by WISE: Algols, RR Lyrae, and W Ursae Majoris type variables, we obtain classification efficiencies of 80.7%, 82.7%, and 84.5% respectively using cross-validation analyses, with 95% confidence intervals of approximately +/-2%. These accuracies are achieved at purity (or reliability) levels of 88.5%, 96.2%, and 87.8% respectively, similar to that achieved in previous automated classification studies of periodic variable stars.Comment: 48 pages, 17 figures, 1 table, accepted by A

Derivative observations in Gaussian Process models of dynamic systems

Gaussian processes provide an approach to nonparametric modelling which allows a straightforward combination of function and derivative observations in an empirical model. This is of particular importance in identification of nonlinear dynamic systems from experimental data. 1)It allows us to combine derivative information, and associated uncertainty with normal function observations into the learning and inference process. This derivative information can be in the form of priors specified by an expert or identified from perturbation data close to equilibrium. 2) It allows a seamless fusion of multiple local linear models in a consistent manner, inferring consistent models and ensuring that integrability constraints are met. 3) It improves dramatically the computational efficiency of Gaussian process models for dynamic system identification, by summarising large quantities of near-equilibrium data by a handful of linearisations, reducing the training size - traditionally a problem for Gaussian process models

How Antitrust Law Can Make FRAND Commitments More Effective

Much attention has been paid in recent years to legal issues arising from standard setting, assertion of standard-essential patents, and the requirements imposed by standard-setting organizations that standard-essential patents be licensed on reasonable terms. This Feature argues that a fundamental aspect of the antitrust laws, heretofore overlooked in this context, can play an important role in ensuring that the rules established by standard-setting organizations are effective in preventing owners of standard-essential patents from engaging in patent holdup. It has long been a basic principle of antitrust law that when firms collaborate to engage in conduct that has efficiency benefits, like standard-setting, they violate the antitrust laws if their collaboration also harms competition more than necessary to obtain the efficiency benefits. Both standard-setting organizations and their members can violate Section of the Sherman Act if the organization\u27s rules are ineffective in preventing owners of standard-essential patents from exploiting the monopoly power they gain as a result of the standard

Observer-Conditioned-Observable Design Pattern

Interactive programs use multiple viewers and controllers to alter an underlying numeric model. These can update each other in an observer-observable loop that can propagate unintended and unmanaged digitization errors. The OCO design pattern breaks the loop and maintains control of the numerical values. The interception of changes is done via a modification of the equals method. If two numbers are equal (to within a user defined tolerance) propagation is suppressed. Thus, the digitizer re-samples and re-quantizes the numeric event. Lazy instantiation is not new, nor, for that matter, is the singleton design pattern. However, parametric lazy instantiation is new and so is the parametric singleton