Religion: A Mosaic

Can we say of Religion what the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy said of Economics: It is not one homogeneous enterprise? If so, then what is religion as a plural phenomenon? Should we understand religious traditions as carriers of revealed truth in the current age of empirical science? Or should we appreciate the power of the human imagination to satisfy our curiosity? Can human ingenuity reconcile the psychological and historical biases of religious traditions? Can we see them as both individual and communal realities? I propose to understand religious traditions under the rubric of a metaphor. They are mosaics, subtle designs of human experiences-designs that have emerged from the human struggle of coping with the constant impulse to make sense of life. Human ingenuity is capable of creating counter-cultural communities that persist as chains of memory. Their historical function is celebrating relationships that define our destiny and who we are.https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/books/1039/thumbnail.jp

Aging, rejuvenation and memory effects in re-entrant ferromagnets

We have studied the slow dynamics of the ferromagnetic phases of the re-entrant CdCr_{2x}In_{2-2x}S_4 system for 0.85<x<=1 by means of low frequency ac susceptibility and magnetization measurements. Experimental procedures widely used in the investigation of the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of spin glasses (such as the x=0.85 compound) have been applied to search for aging, rejuvenation and memory effects, and to test their dependence on the disorder introduced by dilution of the magnetic ions. Whereas the rejuvenation effect is found in all studied samples, the memory effect is clearly enhanced for increasing dilutions. The results support a description of aging in both ferromagnetic and re-entrant spin-glass phases in terms of hierarchical reconformations of domain walls pinned by the disorder.Comment: Service de Physique de l'Etat Condense, DRECAM, DSM, CEA Saclay,91191 Gif sur Yvette Cedex, France, 9 pages, including 7 figures, To appear in Eur. Phys. J. B (2002

Direct and indirect effects of Gracilaria vermiculophylla on native Fucus vesiculosus

The perennial red macroalga Gracilaria vermiculophylla (Ohmi) Papenfuss has recently been introduced to the Baltic Sea and is a potential competitor to Fucus vesiculosus, the most common native perennial alga in large parts of the Baltic Sea. Gracilaria might interfere with Fucus through direct competition for resources. In addition, Gracilaria is a favoured refuge for mesograzers, which prefer to feed on Fucus. Mesocosm-experiments were conducted over one year in the Kiel Fjord in order to test the direct and indirect effects of Gracilaria on Fucus. Fucus was incubated with Gracilaria at three different densities and grazers in high or low abundances. High densities of Gracilaria inhibited the growth of Fucus adults and also reduced the half-life-time of Fucus germlings. Associated grazers also had a negative effect on Fucus adults. Our results suggest that Gracilaria is able to influence Fucus in the Baltic Sea through direct competition for resources and by exposing it to higher grazer pressur

The Road to Inclusion: Special Education in the United States and Mexico

This report addresses the laws, views, funding, and school system policies in the United States and Mexico. Children with disabilities are typically subject to misrepresentation, prejudice, and a lack of opportunities. The best chance these children have to succeed is an adequate education. The intention of both countries for the last five decades is to provide an equitable and inclusive education for students with disabilities. Although educational planners and policy makers in each country pass federal legislation and educational policy, there is further work for improvement. The results of current research through a questionnaire shows continued negative social bias towards individuals with disabilities, and also ways in which both countries may advance in regard to this area. The objective of this paper is to bring further awareness into this topic of discussion in order to further dialogue on policy and implementation into all local school systems in the United States and Mexico

The Management of Direct Material Cost During New Product Development: A Case Study on the Application of Big Data, Machine Learning, and Target Costing

This dissertation thesis investigates the application of big data, machine learning, and the target costing approach for managing costs during new product development in the context of high product complexity and uncertainty. A longitudinal case study at a German car manufacturer is conducted to examine the topic. First, we conduct a systematic literature review, which analyzes use cases, issues, and benefits of big data and machine learning technology for the application in management accounting. Our review contributes to the literature by providing an overview about the specific aspects of both technologies that can be applied in managerial accounting. Further, we identify the specific issues and benefits of both technologies in the context management accounting. Second, we present a case study on the applicability of machine learning and big data technology for product cost estimation, focusing on the material costs of passenger cars. Our case study contributes to the literature by providing a novel approach to increase the predictive accuracy of cost estimates of subsequent product generations, we show that the predictive accuracy is significantly larger when using big data sets, and we find that machine learning can outperform cost estimates from cost experts, or produce at least comparable results, even when dealing with highly complex products. Third, we conduct an experimental study to investigate the trade-off between accuracy (predictive performance) and explainability (transparency and interpretability) of machine learning models in the context of product cost estimation. We empirically confirm the oftenimplied inverse relationship between both attributes from the perspective of cost experts. Further, we show that the relative importance of explainability to accuracy perceived by cost experts is important when selecting between alternative machine learning models. Then, we present four factors that significantly determine the perceived relative importance of explainability to accuracy. Fourth, we present a proprietary archival study to investigate the target costing approach in a complex product development context, which is characterized by product design interdependence and uncertainty about target cost difficulty. We find that target cost difficulty is related to more cost reduction performance during product development based on archival company data, and thereby complement results from earlier studies, which are based on experimental studies. Further, we demonstrate that in a complex product development context, product design interdependence and uncertainty about target cost difficulty may both limit the effectiveness of target costing

Method Development And Optimization For The Recovery Of Carbohydrates From A Microalga Species Of Chlorella Vulgaris By Combined Physical And Chemical Pre-Treatments

A key focus of microalgae-based fuels/chemicals research and development has been on the lipids that many strains generate, but recent studies show that solely recovering these lipids may not be cost competitive with fossil-derived processes. However, if the carbohydrates can also be recovered and ultimately converted into useful chemical intermediates, this may improve the economics for microalgae-based sustainable product technologies. In the present work, physical and chemical pre-treatments were performed on the Chlorella vulgaris microalgae strain to recover the carbohydrates from the biomass. A central composite design approach was used to optimize hydrolysis conditions including temperature, acid concentration, microalgae solid-to-liquid loading, and hydrolysis time. Results showed that the highest recovery of total carbohydrates obtained was 90 ± 1.1 wt% at 95% confidence with hydrolysis of 20 mL/g of ball-milled biomass performed in an autoclave at 120 °C using 4 wt% sulfuric acid for 30 minutes. This represents a recovery of 40 wt% of the initial biomass weight. Sequential recovery of carbohydrates and lipids was also explored. Lipid recovery was maximized with pure methanol as a solvent, at a solid-to-liquid loading of 10 mL/gbiomass, at a temperature of 180 °C for 20 minutes in an autoclave. The highest recovery of total lipids was 71 ± 1.8 wt%, which represents 22 ± 0.9 wt% of the initial biomass weight. The sequential extraction of carbohydrates followed by lipids resulted in recovery of 60 ± 1.6 wt% of the initial biomass weight with 90% recovery of carbohydrates and 59% recovery of lipids. Even though the recovery of total lipids was reduced, around 60 wt% of the biomass was made available for further transformations into fuels or other higher value chemicals, which is higher than current single product recovery strategies

Memory interference effects in spin glasses

When a spin glass is cooled down, a memory of the cooling process is imprinted in the spin structure. This memory can be disclosed in a continuous heating measurement of the ac-susceptibility. E.g., if a continuous cooling process is intermittently halted during a certain aging time at one or two intermediate temperatures, the trace of the previous stop(s) is recovered when the sample is continuously re-heated [1]. However, heating the sample above the aging temperature, but keeping it below Tg, erases the memory of the thermal history at lower temperatures. We also show that a memory imprinted at a higher temperature can be erased by waiting a long enough time at a lower temperature. Predictions from two complementary spin glass descriptions, a hierarchical phase space model and a real space droplet picture are contested with these memory phenomena and interference effects. [1] K. Jonason, E. Vincent, J. Hammann, J. P. Bouchaud and P. Nordblad, Phys. Rev. Lett. 31, 3243 (1998).Comment: 7 pages, 1 LaTex file + 5 figures in EPS Revised version of June 17, 1999 (minor changes), to appear in EPJ B around November 9

Spin Anisotropy and Slow Dynamics in Spin Glasses

We report on an extensive study of the influence of spin anisotropy on spin glass aging dynamics. New temperature cycle experiments allow us to compare quantitatively the memory effect in four Heisenberg spin glasses with various degrees of random anisotropy and one Ising spin glass. The sharpness of the memory effect appears to decrease continuously with the spin anisotropy. Besides, the spin glass coherence length is determined by magnetic field change experiments for the first time in the Ising sample. For three representative samples, from Heisenberg to Ising spin glasses, we can consistently account for both sets of experiments (temperature cycle and magnetic field change) using a single expression for the growth of the coherence length with time.Comment: 4 pages and 4 figures - Service de Physique de l'Etat Condense CNRS URA 2464), DSM/DRECAM, CEA Saclay, Franc