La moral fundada en la filiación divina La propuesta de Réal Tremblay

El objetivo de este trabajo es el estudio y la presentación del pensamiento teológico-moral del Prof. Réal Tremblay C.Ss.R. La esencia de su modelo es la estructuración de la moral en torno a la configuración ontológica del hombre con Cristo. El hombre es creado para identificarse con Cristo a través del don de la filiación divina. El fin sobrenatural del hombre es convertirse en hijo de Dios en Jesucristo. El origen cristológico marca al hombre con un «sello filial», que se manifiesta en el deseo de Infinito, que le impulsa, como criatura, a buscar la gracia sobrenatural, y le mueve a abrirse a la trascendencia. Por el carácter ontológico de su «solidaridad» con el hombre, Cristo es el verdadero fundamento filial del ser y actuar de la persona. Desde el punto de vista metodológico, es necesario comprender las consecuencias morales de la identidad filial del hombre mediante el estudio de la filiación divina en Cristo en cuanto Dios y en cuanto hombre. La personalidad humana debe ser definida a partir de la filiación divina de Cristo. Tanto la «filiación fundamental» de todos los hombres como la «filiación efectiva» recibida por el bautismo, exigen un comportamiento acorde con la propia identidad. La vida cristiana depende de la condición filial a la vez que la perfecciona, convirtiendo al creyente en don para los demás, servidor y esclavo de sus hermanos. La adopción filial asume y eleva la condición natural humana, respetando su papel y valor. La filiación divina potencia al hombre para realizar actos excelentes, llegando a ser la «realización creada» del misterio de la filiación de Cristo. -------------------- The objective of this research is to present and assess the proposal presented by Prof. Réal Tremblay C.Ss.R. in moral theology. At he core of his model is the organization of morality around the ontological configuration of man with Christ. Man is created in order to identify himself with Christ by the gift of divine filiation. The supernatural end of man is to become a son of God in Jesus Christ. The cristological origin marks man with a «filial seal» that appears as a desire for the Infinite, which moves him, as a creature, to search for supernatural grace, and invites him to have an open attitude towards transcendence. Because of the ontological character of his «solidarity », Christ is the true filial foundation of man’s being and behaviour. As regards the methods, it is necessary to understand the moral consequences of filial identity of man through the study of the divine filiation of Christ as God and as a man. Human personality should be defined from the divine filiation of Christ. The «fundamental filiation» of every man and also the «effective filiation» received through the Baptism, require a specific behaviour, coherent with his own identity. Christian life depends on the filial condition and, at the same time, morality perfects the filial status. In that way, a Christian becomes a gift to others, servant and slave of his brothers and sisters. Filial adoption assumes and raises the natural human condition, respecting its role and value, giving man the power to do excellent acts, being the «created realization » of the mystery of filiation of Christ

Performance study of ground-based infrared Bracewell interferometers - Application to the detection of exozodiacal dust disks with GENIE

Nulling interferometry, a powerful technique for high-resolution imaging of the close neighbourhood of bright astrophysical objets, is currently considered for future space missions such as Darwin or the Terrestrial Planet Finder Interferometer (TPF-I), both aiming at Earth-like planet detection and characterization. Ground-based nulling interferometers are being studied for both technology demonstration and scientific preparation of the Darwin/TPF-I missions through a systematic survey of circumstellar dust disks around nearby stars. In this paper, we investigate the influence of atmospheric turbulence on the performance of ground-based nulling instruments, and deduce the major design guidelines for such instruments. End-to-end numerical simulations allow us to estimate the performance of the main subsystems and thereby the actual sensitivity of the nuller to faint exozodiacal disks. Particular attention is also given to the important question of stellar leakage calibration. This study is illustrated in the context of GENIE, the Ground-based European Nulling Interferometer Experiment, to be installed at the VLTI and working in the L' band. We estimate that this instrument will detect exozodiacal clouds as faint as about 50 times the Solar zodiacal cloud, thereby placing strong constraints on the acceptable targets for Darwin/TPF-I.Comment: A&A, accepte

On the Linearization of the First and Second Painleve' Equations

We found Fuchs--Garnier pairs in 3X3 matrices for the first and second Painleve' equations which are linear in the spectral parameter. As an application of our pairs for the second Painleve' equation we use the generalized Laplace transform to derive an invertible integral transformation relating two its Fuchs--Garnier pairs in 2X2 matrices with different singularity structures, namely, the pair due to Jimbo and Miwa and the one found by Harnad, Tracy, and Widom. Together with the certain other transformations it allows us to relate all known 2X2 matrix Fuchs--Garnier pairs for the second Painleve' equation with the original Garnier pair.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figure

Evaluation of data-based estimates of anthropogenic carbon in the Arctic Ocean

The Arctic Ocean is particularly vulnerable to ocean acidification, a process that is mainly driven by the uptake of anthropogenic carbon (Cant) from the atmosphere. Although Cant concentrations cannot be measured directly in the ocean, they have been estimated using data-based methods such as the transient time distribution (TTD) approach, which characterizes the ventilation of water masses with inert transient tracers, such as CFC-12. Here, we evaluate the TTD approach in the Arctic Ocean using an eddying ocean model as a test bed. When the TTD approach is applied to simulated CFC-12 in that model, it underestimates the same model's directly simulated Cant concentrations by up to 12%, a bias that stems from its idealized assumption of gas equilibrium between atmosphere and surface water, both for CFC-12 and anthropogenic CO2. Unlike the idealized assumption, the simulated partial pressure of CFC-12 (pCFC-12) in Arctic surface waters is undersaturated relative to that in the atmosphere in regions and times of deep-water formation, while the simulated equivalent for Cant is supersaturated. After accounting for the TTD approach's negative bias, the total amount of Cant in the Arctic Ocean in 2005 increases by 8% to 3.3 ± 0.3 Pg C. By combining the adjusted TTD approach with scenarios of future atmospheric CO2, it is estimated that all Arctic waters, from surface to depth, would become corrosive to aragonite by the middle of the next century even if atmospheric CO2 could be stabilized at 540 ppm

Microwave transmissivity of a metamaterial–dielectric stack

Copyright © 2009 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. The following article appeared in Applied Physics Letters 95 (2009) and may be found at http://link.aip.org/link/?APPLAB/95/174101/1A metamaterial layer comprising of a conducting square mesh surrounding subwavelength holes has a largely pure imaginary effective refractive index. We explore the microwave transmissivity of a stack of such metamaterial layers separated by dielectric spacers. As expected, a family of high transmissivity bands is experimentally observed. It is found that the lowest frequency edge is independent of the number of unit cells making up the structure and is highly tunable by appropriate geometrical design of the metamaterial layers

Juvenile emperor penguin range calls for extended conservation measures in the Southern Ocean

To protect the unique and rich biodiversity of the Southern Ocean, conservation measures such as marine protected areas (MPAs) have been implemented. Currently, the establishment of several additional protection zones is being considered based on the known habitat distributions of key species of the ecosystems including emperor penguins and other marine top predators. However, the distribution of such species at sea is often insufficiently sampled. Specifically, current distribution models focus on the habitat range of adult animals and neglect that immatures and juveniles can inhabit different areas. By tracking eight juvenile emperor penguins in the Weddell Sea over 1 year and performing a meta-analysis including previously known data from other colonies, we show that conservation efforts in the Southern Ocean are insufficient for protecting this highly mobile species, and particularly its juveniles. We find that juveniles spend approximately 90% of their time outside the boundaries of proposed and existing MPAs, and that their distribution extends beyond (greater than 1500 km) the species' extent of occurrence as defined by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Our data exemplify that strategic conservation plans for the emperor penguin and other long-lived ecologically important species should consider the dynamic habitat range of all age classes

Removal of Acid Yellow 25 from Aqueous Solution by Chitin Prepared from Waste Snow Crab Legs

Acid Yellow 25 (AY25) is used in the textile industry for dyeing of natural and synthetic fibers, and is also used as a coloring agent in paints, inks, plastics, and leathers. Effluents from such industries are major sources of water pollution. Hence, it is important to find simple, efficient, and inexpensive ways to remove these dyes from wastewater. Here, we determined the suitability of chitin extracted from waste crab legs as an adsorbent for removing AY25 dye. The adsorption kinetics was modeled using pseudo-first order, pseudo-second order, and intraparticle diffusion equations to determine the rate controlling step. Results showed that the pseudo-second order adsorption mechanism is predominant, and the overall rate of the dye adsorption process is therefore controlled by an adsorption reaction. Adsorption isotherms were analyzed by utilizing the Langmuir, Freundlich, Dubinin-Radushkevich (D-R) and Temkin isotherm models at 23˚C, with data collected by using various initial dye concentrations with different chitin dosages. Our results show the highest correlation with the Langmuir model, consistent with the fact that chitin contains both a monolayer and homogeneous adsorption sites. Based on the D-R model, the adsorption of AY25 dye onto chitin is via chemisorption. Furthermore, we have concluded that the rate constants of both pseudo-second order adsorption and film diffusion are correlated to the initial dye concentrations and chitin dosages. In conclusion, chitin from waste crab legs is a very suitable adsorbent material that is capable of rapidly removing up to 95% of the initial concentration of AY25 dye at a pH of 2 and room temperature

The development of the Meaning in Life Index (MILI) and its relationship with personality and religious behaviours and beliefs among UK undergraduate students

The scales available for assessing meaning in life appear to be confounded with several related constructs, including purpose in life, satisfaction with life, and goal-directed behaviour. The Meaning in Life Index (MILI), a new instrument devised as a specific measure of meaning in life, was developed from responses to a pool of 22 items rated by a sample of 501 undergraduate students in Wales. The nine-item scale demonstrated sufficient face validity, internal consistency, and scale reliability to commend the instrument for future use. With respect to personality, the MILI scores were most strongly predicted by neuroticism (negatively), and less strongly by extraversion (positively) and psychoticism (negatively). With respect to several religious behavioural variables, those who attended church at least weekly returned significantly higher MILI scores than those who attended church less frequently. Intrinsic religiosity was the only orientation to be significantly associated with the MILI scale scores, although the magnitude of the association was smaller than anticipated. These results suggest that meaning in life is associated more strongly with individual differences in personality than with specific religious behaviours and attitudes. The implications of these results are discussed in terms of individual's personal values and attitudes that might underlie their experience of a meaning in life

Bladder cancer and occupational exposures

A hospital-based cas-referent study was carried out in Lyon with the purpose of generating hypotheses about the role of occupational exposures to 320 compounds in bladder carcinogenesis. Job histories were obtained by questionnaire for 116 cases and 232 reference patients with diseases other than cancer (one referent from the same hospital ward and one from another ward of the same hospital per case) ; the referents were matched for gender, hospital, age, and nationality. Systematic coding of exposures, with a blind analysis of job histories, was carried out by a team of experts in chemistry and occupational health. Significantly elevated odds ratios were observed for exposure to pyrolysis and combustion products [odds ratio (OR) 2.3, 95 % confidence interval (95 % CI) 1.0-4.0] when the general referents were used and for cutting fluids (OR 2.6, 95 % CI 1.2-5.4) when tobacco consumption was adjusted for. The latter was highest among the category consisting of blue-collar and unskilled workers, supervisors, and agricultural workers (OR 4.6, 95 % CI 2.0-10.6), while the odds ratio for the other category was 0.8 (95 % CI 0.3-2.7). An elevated odds ratio for exposure to inks was observed for the women (OR 14.0, 95 % CI 1.8-106.5) on the basis of 14 exposed cases, but confounding factors could have been responsible for this result. Odds ratios for several other exposures (rubber : OR 5.7, nitrates : OR 8.2, coke dust : OR 3.5, meat additives : OR 3.8) were also elevated, but not significantly so when based on a small number of exposed cases. The observations of this investigation should be tested in future studies, in particular since exposures to agents such as cutting fluids or pyrolysis products are ubiquitous in industrial settings and may present an important public health hazard. (Résumé d'auteur

Extensive dissolution of live pteropods in the Southern Ocean

The carbonate chemistry of the surface ocean is rapidly changing with ocean acidification, a result of human activities. In the upper layers of the Southern Ocean, aragonite—a metastable form of calcium carbonate with rapid dissolution kinetics—may become undersaturated by 2050 (ref. 2). Aragonite undersaturation is likely to affect aragonite-shelled organisms, which can dominate surface water communities in polar regions. Here we present analyses of specimens of the pteropod Limacina helicina antarctica that were extracted live from the Southern Ocean early in 2008. We sampled from the top 200m of the water column, where aragonite saturation levels were around 1, as upwelled deep water is mixed with surface water containing anthropogenic CO2. Comparing the shell structure with samples from aragonite-supersaturated regions elsewhere under a scanning electron microscope, we found severe levels of shell dissolution in the undersaturated region alone. According to laboratory incubations of intact samples with a range of aragonite saturation levels, eight days of incubation in aragonite saturation levels of 0.94– 1.12 produces equivalent levels of dissolution. As deep-water upwelling and CO2 absorption by surface waters is likely to increase as a result of human activities2,4, we conclude that upper ocean regions where aragonite-shelled organisms are affected by dissolution are likely to expand