Commensality and Labor in Terminal Ubaid Northern Mesopotamia

Recent anthropological research on commensality has emphasized how food consumption creates and mediates social relations and social identities. The goal of this paper is to integrate the often neglected study of production and labor into studies of commensality. I will explore the commensal relationships formed by the consumption of food during cooperative communal work events through a discussion of the Terminal Ubaid levels from three sites in northern Mesopotamia. I have suggested that flint-scraped bowls were used to provide for extra-household labor recruited during times of labor shortage by households of similar social standing, while painted ceramics were used for daily food consumption. In this scenario flint-scraped bowls were used in different social contexts by people of similar social standing

Slepian Spatial-Spectral Concentration on the Ball

We formulate and solve the Slepian spatial-spectral concentration problem on the three-dimensional ball. Both the standard Fourier-Bessel and also the Fourier-Laguerre spectral domains are considered since the latter exhibits a number of practical advantages (spectral decoupling and exact computation). The Slepian spatial and spectral concentration problems are formulated as eigenvalue problems, the eigenfunctions of which form an orthogonal family of concentrated functions. Equivalence between the spatial and spectral problems is shown. The spherical Shannon number on the ball is derived, which acts as the analog of the space-bandwidth product in the Euclidean setting, giving an estimate of the number of concentrated eigenfunctions and thus the dimension of the space of functions that can be concentrated in both the spatial and spectral domains simultaneously. Various symmetries of the spatial region are considered that reduce considerably the computational burden of recovering eigenfunctions, either by decoupling the problem into smaller subproblems or by affording analytic calculations. The family of concentrated eigenfunctions forms a Slepian basis that can be used be represent concentrated signals efficiently. We illustrate our results with numerical examples and show that the Slepian basis indeeds permits a sparse representation of concentrated signals.Comment: 33 pages, 10 figure

Principal self-efficacy in the implementation of a standards based teacher evaluation reform.

States across the country are adopting new methods of determining teacher effectiveness. A method that has increased in popularity is the use of standards based teacher evaluation (SBTE). These systems are typically created by state legislation and approved for the scope of work associated with a state’s Race to the Top (RTTT) application and federally approved Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) waiver application. The evaluation of teachers now relies on two key components—an administrator’s rating of teacher performance and a rating of student academic growth. The enactment and implementation of teacher evaluation laws have changed the way administrators evaluate classroom instruction and are in direct contrast to previous evaluation systems in terms of format, timelines, measures, and opportunity costs incurred. One major concern is that although the method of evaluating teachers has changed, internal school infrastructures have not. Using Tschannen-Moran and Gareis (2004) measure of self-efficacy, this study will utilize multiple regression in order to determine how efficacious principals are with the implementation of a SBTE system and examine the relationship between school-related factors, principal characteristics, and principal efficacy in implementing SBTE. The results of this study have implications for the implementation of future reform efforts. Furthermore, it advances the existing literature on principal self-efficacy and teacher evaluation

Disturbance and its effects on archaeological significance and integrity

Significance and integrity are key concepts for archaeology, and how they are judged is determined by an archaeologist’s perceptions of disturbance. This thesis explicitly considers these concepts and how they relate to evolutionary theory and National Register eligibility. A site with known disturbance was chosen to determine whether it could be judged significant assuming that there was no disturbance. Controlled surface collection, magnetometer survey, excavation and landowner interview data were used to determine whether what made the site significant had been lost due to disturbance. The results indicate that the co-mingling of occupations in the plow zone normally would have prevented the site from being determined eligible. However, because of the clusters of Gulf Formational-period diagnostics and intact Early Archaic midden, the site was determined significant. If future work were to be performed, occupation-based work focusing on the artifact clusters and the Archaic midden is recommended

Commensality and Labor in Terminal Ubaid Northern Mesopotamia

In der neueren anthropologischen Forschung zu Kommensalität wird betont, dass der Verzehr von Nahrungsmitteln soziale Beziehungen und soziale Identitäten kreiert und vermittelt. Ziel dieses Beitrages ist es, die häufig vernachlässigten Bereiche Produktion und Arbeit in die Forschung zu Kommensalität einzubeziehen. Ich erörtere kommensale Beziehungen, die durch den Verzehr von Lebensmitteln im Rahmen von Gemeinschatsarbeit entstanden, anhand dreier nordmesopotamischer Fundorte der ausgehenden Ubaid-Zeit. Ich schlage vor, dass ”flint-scraped bowls“ dafür benutzt wurden, zusätzliche Arbeitskräte zu versorgen, die von einem Haushalt in Zeiten von Arbeitskrätemangel aus anderen Haushalten mit gleichem sozialen Status angeworben wurden. Dagegen wurde bemalte Keramik für den täglichen Gebrauch genutzt. In diesem Szenario werden ”flint-scraped bowls“ in unterschiedlichen Kontexten von Leuten mit gleichem sozialem Rang benutzt.Recent anthropological research on commensality has emphasized how food consumption creates and mediates social relations and social identities. The goal of this paper is to integrate the oten neglected study of production and labor into studies of commensality. I will explore the commensal relationships formed by the consumption of food during cooperative communal work events through a discussion of the Terminal Ubaid levels from three sites in northern Mesopotamia. I have suggested that flint-scraped bowls were used to provide for extra-household labor recruited during times of labor shortage by households of similar social standing, while painted ceramics were used for daily food consumption. In this scenario flint-scraped bowls were used in different social contexts by people of similar social standing

Engaging Millennials through the Tradition of the Holy Spirit and Mission of the Assemblies of God

The American evangelical church is in crisis. All statistical data points to decline. Church growth is flat. It does not seem that the church will correct itself, especially in light of the Millennial generation. Millennials are fleeing the church quickly. The church must find a solution to this crisis. This research proposes that a refocus of the charismatic gifts (from an Assemblies of God perspective) to mission has the potential to re-engage Millennials, and because of its missions history the Assemblies of God sits in a prime position to engage this generation caught in an exodus. This research is divided into five primary sections. Following an introduction and overview in chapter one, in chapter two we define the nature of the problem. By looking at demographic studies, we can see how the Millennials have left the church in droves. The church has a perception problem; therefore, members of this generation that were connected to the church in their early years have left, and all signs point to the fact that they are not returning. We will explore Millennials in chapter three. Discovering what they value and what has made them the way that they are will be the primary areas that we explore. We will take in-depth views of Millennials’ concepts of sexuality and faith and also see how they are products of globalization. Next, we will trace the role of doctrine to see how we arrived at this era of church history. While the church primarily held to core ideas for nineteen hundred years, the past one hundred years have been tumultuous. The church of the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century has traded historic truths for political ideology. vi In the fifth chapter, we will begin to explore the charismatic doctrine. We will look at the Old Testament, New Testament, Lucan theology, Pauline theology, and historic revivals to see how the Holy Spirit is intimately connected with the mission of God. In other words, the Spirit’s activity has always led to man’s activity. As we will see, Millennials are hungering for the transcendent, and the charismatic empowerment could be the experience they are looking for in the church. Finally in the sixth chapter, we will look at the history of the Assemblies of God and how it has been a powerful missional force. We will also look at how Millennials can potentially connect to the Assemblies of God as long as it aligns to missiological principles that are empowered by the Holy Spirit

An Optimal-Dimensionality Sampling for Spin-ss Functions on the Sphere

For the representation of spin-$s$ band-limited functions on the sphere, we propose a sampling scheme with optimal number of samples equal to the number of degrees of freedom of the function in harmonic space. In comparison to the existing sampling designs, which require ${\sim}2L^2$ samples for the representation of spin-$s$ functions band-limited at $L$, the proposed scheme requires $N_o=L^2-s^2$ samples for the accurate computation of the spin-$s$ spherical harmonic transform~($s$-SHT). For the proposed sampling scheme, we also develop a method to compute the $s$-SHT. We place the samples in our design scheme such that the matrices involved in the computation of $s$-SHT are well-conditioned. We also present a multi-pass $s$-SHT to improve the accuracy of the transform. We also show the proposed sampling design exhibits superior geometrical properties compared to existing equiangular and Gauss-Legendre sampling schemes, and enables accurate computation of the $s$-SHT corroborated through numerical experiments.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Optimal-Dimensionality Sampling on the Sphere: Improvements and Variations

For the accurate representation and reconstruction of band-limited signals on the sphere, an optimal-dimensionality sampling scheme has been recently proposed which requires the optimal number of samples equal to the number of degrees of freedom of the signal in the spectral (harmonic) domain. The computation of the spherical harmonic transform (SHT) associated with the optimal-dimensionality sampling requires the inversion of a series of linear systems in an iterative manner. The stability of the inversion depends on the placement of iso-latitude rings of samples along co-latitude. In this work, we have developed a method to place these iso-latitude rings of samples with the objective of improving the well-conditioning of the linear systems involved in the computation of the SHT. We also propose a multi-pass SHT algorithm to iteratively improve the accuracy of the SHT of band-limited signals. Furthermore, we review the changes in the computational complexity and improvement in accuracy of the SHT with the embedding of the proposed methods. Through numerical experiments, we illustrate that the proposed variations and improvements in the SHT algorithm corresponding to the optimal-dimensionality sampling scheme significantly enhance the accuracy of the SHT.Comment: 5 Pages, 4 figure

Iterative Residual Fitting for Spherical Harmonic Transform of Band-Limited Signals on the Sphere: Generalization and Analysis

We present the generalized iterative residual fitting (IRF) for the computation of the spherical harmonic transform (SHT) of band-limited signals on the sphere. The proposed method is based on the partitioning of the subspace of band-limited signals into orthogonal subspaces. There exist sampling schemes on the sphere which support accurate computation of SHT. However, there are applications where samples~(or measurements) are not taken over the predefined grid due to nature of the signal and/or acquisition set-up. To support such applications, the proposed IRF method enables accurate computation of SHTs of signals with randomly distributed sufficient number of samples. In order to improve the accuracy of the computation of the SHT, we also present the so-called multi-pass IRF which adds multiple iterative passes to the IRF. We analyse the multi-pass IRF for different sampling schemes and for different size partitions. Furthermore, we conduct numerical experiments to illustrate that the multi-pass IRF allows sufficiently accurate computation of SHTs.Comment: 5 Pages, 7 Figure