A Phenomenology of Religion?

This research explores the possibility of a phenomenology of religion that is ontological, founded on Martin Heidegger’s philosophical thought. The research attempts to utilise Heidegger’s formulation of phenomenology as ontology while also engaging in a critical relation with his path of thinking; as a barrier to the phenomenological interpretation of the meaning of Religion. This research formulates Religion as an ontological problem wherein the primary question becomes: how are humans, in our being, able to be religious and thus also able to understand the meaning of ‘religion’ or something like ‘religion’? This study focuses on the problem of foundation; of whether it is possible to provide an adequate foundation for the study of religion(s) via the notion ‘Religion’. Further, this study also aims to explore the problem of methodological foundation; of how preconceptions of the meaning of Religion predetermine how religion(s) and religious phenomena are studied. Finally, this research moves toward the possibility of founding a regional ontological basis for the study of religion(s) insofar as the research explores the ontological ground of Religion as a phenomenon. Due to the exploratory and methodological/foundational emphasis of the research, the thesis is almost entirely preliminary. Herein, the research focuses on three main issues: how the notion of Religion is preconceived, how Heidegger’s phenomenology can be tailored to the phenomenon of Religion, and how philosophical thought (in this case, Pre-Socratic philosophy) discloses indications of the meaning of Religion. Pre-Socratic thought is then utilised as a foundation for a preliminary interpretation of how Religion belongs-to humans in our being. This research provides two interrelated theses: the provision of an interpretation of Religion as an existential phenomenon, and an interpretation of Religion in its ground of being-human. With regard to the former, I argue that Religion signifies a potential relation with the ‘originary ground’ of life as meaningful. Accordingly, the second interpretation discloses the meaning of Religion as grounded in being-human; that for humans in our being, the meaning of life is an intrinsic question/dilemma for us. This being-characteristic, I argue, can be called belief

Testing a Purportedly More Learnable Auction Mechanism

We describe an auction mechanism in the class of Groves mechanisms that has received attention in the computer science literature because of its theoretical property of being more “learnable” than the standard second price auction mechanism. We bring this mechanism, which we refer to as the “clamped second price auction mechanism,” into the laboratory to determine whether it helps human subjects learn to play their optimal strategy faster than the standard second price auction mechanism. Contrary to earlier results within computer science using simulated reinforcement learning agents, we find that both in settings where subjects are given complete information about auction payoff rules and in settings where they are given no information about auction payoff rules,subjects converge on playing their optimal strategy significantly faster in sequential auctions conducted with a standard second price auction mechanism than with a clamped second price auction mechanism. We conclude that while it is important for mechanism designers to think more about creating learnable mechanisms, the clamped second price auction mechanism in fact produces slower learning in human subjects than the standard second price auction mechanism. Our results also serve to highlight differences in behavior between simulated agents and human bidders that mechanism designers should take into account before placing too much faith in simulations to test the performance of mechanisms intended for human use.Engineering and Applied Science

Surface Characterization of Polycarbonate Parts from Selective Laser Sintering

Surfaces of polycarbonate Selective Laser Sintering parts are investigated to determine the characteristics affecting part quality. Surfaces are obtained from experiments by varying four factors, namely, layer thickness, laser power, part orientation, and build angle. First, spatial modes on SLS surfaces are decomposed using a qualitative spectral analysis in an attempt to find their origins. Thermal modes on the top surfaces of polycarbonate SLS parts result in the other modes being obscured; melting and part curl are concluded to be the dominant modes on these surfaces. Furthermore, surface modes resulting from building the part at an angle to the powder bed are identified and modeled. Then, mathematical measures are computed for the surfaces to determine surface precision quantitatively. An analysis-of-variance study is performed to reveal the trends in surface precision with respect to control factors. Surface precision is shown to change significantly with laser power and part orientation, and trade-offs with part strength are presented.Mechanical Engineerin

FiberGLAST: a scintillating fiber approach to the GLAST mission

FiberGLAST is a scintillating fiber gamma-ray detector designed for the GLAST mission. The system described below provides superior effective area and field of view for modest cost and risk. An overview of the FiberGLAST instrument is presented, as well as a more detailed description of the principle elements of the primary detector volume. The triggering and readout electronics are described, and Monte Carlo Simulations of the instrument performance are presented

A case for trading risk in complex conceptual design trade studies

Complex conceptual system design trade studies traditionally consider risk after a conceptual design has been created. Further, one person is often tasked with collecting risk information and managing it from each subsystem. This paper proposes a method to explicitly consider and trade risk on the same level as other important system-level variables during the creation of conceptual designs in trade studies. The proposed risk trading method advocates putting each subsystem engineer in control of risk for each subsystem. A risk vector is proposed that organizes many different risk metrics for communication between subsystems. A method of coupling risk models to dynamic subsystem models is presented. Several risk visualization techniques are discussed. A trade study example is presented based upon a simplified spacecraft model. Results from introducing the risk trading methodology into a simulated Collaborative Design Center are presented. The risk trading method offers an approach to more thoroughly consider risk during the creation of conceptual designs in trade studies.Keywords: Complex system design, Risk, Collaborative Design Center risk trading, Trade stud

First results of a study of TeV emission from GRBs in Milagrito

Milagrito, a detector sensitive to γ-rays at TeV energies, monitored the northern sky during the period February 1997 through May 1998. With a large field of view and high duty cycle, this instrument was used to perform a search for TeV counterparts to γ-ray bursts. Within the Milagrito field of view 54 γ-ray bursts at keV energies were observed by the Burst And Transient Satellite Experiment (BATSE) aboard the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory. This paper describes the results of a preliminary analysis to search for TeV emission correlated with BATSE detected bursts. Milagrito detected an excess of events coincident both spatially and temporally with GRB 970417a, with chance probability 2.8×10−5 within the BATSE error radius. No other significant correlations were detected. Since 54 bursts were examined the chance probability of observing an excess with this significance in any of these bursts is 1.5×10−3. The statistical aspects and physical implications of this result are discussed

Tracking and imaging gamma ray experiment (TIGRE) for 1 to 100 MEV gamma ray astronomy

A large international collaboration from the high energy astrophysics community has proposed the Tracking and Imaging Gamma Ray Experiment (TIGRE) for future space observations. TIGRE will image and perform energy spectroscopy measurements on celestial sources of gamma rays in the energy range from 1 to 100 MeV. This has been a difficult energy range experimentally for gamma ray astronomy but is vital for the future considering the recent exciting measurements below 1 and above 100 MeV. TIGRE is both a double scatter Compton and gamma ray pair telescope with direct imaging of individual gamma ray events. Multi‐layers of Si strip detectors are used as Compton and pair converters CsI(Tl) scintillation detectors are used as a position sensitive calorimeter. Alternatively, thick GE strip detectors may be used for the calorimeter. The Si detectors are able to track electrons and positrons through successive Si layers and measure their directions and energy losses. Compton and pair events are completely reconstructed allowing each event to be imaged on the sky. TIGRE will provide an order‐of‐magnitude improvement in discrete source sensitivity in the 1 to 100 MeV energy range and determine spectra with excellent energy and excellent angular resolutions. It’s wide field‐of‐view of π sr permits observations of the entire sky for extended periods of time over the life of the mission

Milagro: A TeV observatory for gamma-ray bursts

Observation of prompt TeV γ-rays from GRBs requires a new type of detector to overcome the low duty factor and small field of view of current TeV observatories. Milagro is such a new type of very high energy (\u3e a few 100 GeV) gamma-ray observatory, which has a large field of view of \u3e1 steradian and 24 hours/day operation. Milagrito, a prototype for Milagro, was operated from February 1997 to May 1998. During the summer of 1998, Milagrito was dismantled and Milagro was built. Both detectors use a 80 m×60 m×8 m pond of water in which a 3 m×3 m grid of photomultiplier tubes detects the Cherenkov light produced in the water by the relativistic particles in extensive air showers. Milagrito was smaller and had only one layer of photomultipliers, but allowed the technique to be tested. Milagrito observations of the Moon’s shadow and Mrk 501 are consistent with the Monte Carlo prediction of the telescope’s parameters, such as effective area and angular resolution. Milagro will have improved flux sensitivity over Milagrito due to larger effective area, better angular resolution and cosmic-ray background rejection