Forcing the Bull into its knees: the Mithraic Strife in Modern Arthuriana

Mithraism is one of the most mysterious religions in the World. In fact, it was a mystery, a cult where initiates were supposed to remain silent about it to the profanes. These cults also offered the promise of eternal salvation them. Little is known about Mithras and its cult, and so it remains more than a mystery. We could say almost the same about Arthuriana and some of its most important characters: they are a mystery in History, Folklore and Literature. However, British author Bernard Cornwell has mixed up both mysteries into one in his thrilling and mind-boggling trilogy The Warlord Chronicles, published between 1996 and 1998. This kaleidoscopic trilogy retells Arthur's deeds and mi series from the moment his nephew Mordred is born until his final departure to Camlann, through the eyes of his best friend, Derfel Cadarn, a Mithraist. Derfel shows how Christianity triumphs over the rest of the pagan religions, most of the times with no fair play. The aim of this paper is to show how some of the actions in the trilogy symbolise the death of Paganism, the mystery of Mithras included, and the final triumph of Christianity

Los microdesechos líticos del Auriñaciense y Auriñaciense de Transición de la cueva de El Castillo (Puente Viesgo, Cantabria)

La cueva de El Castillo se localiza en Puente Viesgo (Cantabria, España), a 30 kilómetros al sur de Santander (Figura 1), en un monte calcáreo de origen Namuriense (Carbonífero Superior) llamado del Castillo. El yacimiento se sitúa en el área externa de una amplia red de complejos cársticos, correspondiendo con una amplia sala cortada en su extremo por la evolución de la vertiente, dando lugar a una gran cavidad con un vestíbulo de sección pseudo rómbica (Cabrera Valdés et al. , 1993). Se han analizado en este trabajo los microdesechos líticos de los niveles 16 (Auriñaciense), 18b, 18c y 19 Superior (Auriñaciense de Transición) del yacimiento arqueológico Cueva de El Castillo

MEIA SYSTEMS: Membrane Encrypted Information Applications Systems

Membrane computing is a recent area that belongs to natural computing. This field works on computational models based on nature's behavior to process the information. Recently, numerous models have been developed and implemented with this purpose. P-systems are the structures which have been defined,developed and implemented to simulate the behavior and the evolution of membrane systems which we find in nature. What we show in this paper is a new model that deals with encrypted information which provides security the membrane systems communication. Moreover we find non deterministic and random applications in nature that are suitable to MEIA systems. The inherent parallelism and non determinism make this applications perfect object to implement MEIA systems

Solving complex problems with a bioinspired model

Membrane systems are parallel and bioinspired systems which simulate membranes behavior when processing information. As a part of unconventional computing, P-systems are proven to be effective in solvingcomplexproblems. A software technique is presented here that obtain good results when dealing with such problems. The rules application phase is studied and updated accordingly to obtain the desired results. Certain rules are candidate to be eliminated which can make the model improving in terms of time

Estudios tafonómicos del nivel Auriñaciense Arcaico de la cueva de El Castillo (Pueste Visgo, Cantabria) : los microdesechos líticos

En este trabajo se analizan los microdesechos líticos del nivel Auriñaciense Arcaico de la Cueva de El Castillo. En el mismo se presenta la metodología y técnica para efectuar este tipo de análisis. Los resultados obtenidos permiten identificar: 1) que se han llevado a cabo actividades de manufactura, uso, modificación y mantenimiento de los utensilios; 2) se han priorizado estrategias tecnológicas conservadoras en detrimento de las expeditivas; 3) se han localizado posibles áreas de actividad de talla in situ; 4) utilización preferencial de percutores blandos con relación a los duros; 5) selección preferencial de materias primas Ifticas; 6) finalmente, se han reconocido acumulaciones primarias y secundarias que podrían responder a los procesos postdeposicionales del depósito arqueológico.In this paper we have studied the lithic microdebitage of the Earliest Aurignacian Level of the El Castillo Cave. The methodology and technique to perform this type of analysis also is presented. The results obtained allow to identify: 1) Manufacture, use, modification and maintenance activities of tools that have been implemented; 2) Curated technological strategies have been developed in a bigger vjay than the expedient ones; 3) Some possible flintworking activity áreas have been located; 4) Preferential utilization of soft hammers over tfie hard ones; 5) Raw material selection; 6) flnally, it is been recognized priman/ and secondary clusters that could fiave fiad ttieir origin in tfie postdepositional formation processes of ttie arcfiaeological deposit

¿Hablando con mirlos? El uso de la personificación de los animales en la leyenda artúrica

Aunque los textos que conforman la literatura artúrica no suelen presentar rasgos fabulescos, sino, más bien, mitológicos, algunas narraciones artúricas usan características propias de las fábulas para desarrollar sus ideas moralistas. Este artículo se centra en el estudio de un texto medieval galés y uno contemporáneo en inglés para demostrar cómo se hace uso y aplican las técnicas de la fábula a la leyenda artúrica

Polynomial regression using a perceptron with axo-axonic connections

Social behavior is mainly based on swarm colonies, in which each individual shares its knowledge about the environment with other individuals to get optimal solutions. Such co-operative model differs from competitive models in the way that individuals die and are born by combining information of alive ones. This paper presents the particle swarm optimization with differential evolution algorithm in order to train a neural network instead the classic back propagation algorithm. The performance of a neural network for particular problems is critically dependant on the choice of the processing elements, the net architecture and the learning algorithm. This work is focused in the development of methods for the evolutionary design of artificial neural networks. This paper focuses in optimizing the topology and structure of connectivity for these network

Los Almendros (La Roda): a new Paleolithic site in Albacete

El yacimiento de Los Almendros se ubica en la localidad manchega de La Roda (Albacete). El material lítico estudiado fue recogido utilizando un sistema radial de sectorización que cubría 2500 metros cuadrados de una superficie problemática, con zonas de abundante monte bajo, y otras, más despejadas. En total se hallaron 1004 restos líticos, fundamentalmente en cuarcita. De ellos, 163 son útiles, destacando las raederas, lascas retocadas, y raspadores. Una primera aproximación a las características de la industria lítica nos ha permitido sugerir su atribución crono-cultural al tecno-complejo Musteriense.The site of Los Almendros is located in La Roda (Albacete). The lithic material studied was gathered through a radial sectorization collecting system which covered a problematic surface of 2500 m2, including zones of abundant scrubland and others clearer. A total amount of 1004 lithic pieces were registred, mainly in quartzite, 163 of which were tools. The side-scrapers, retouched flakes, and scrapers are the most numerous. A first approach to the features of the lithic industry has allowed us to suggest the crono-cultural attribution of this site to a Mousterian period

Differential Evoluiton - Particle Swarm Optimization

This paper shows the Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm with a Differential Evolution. Each candidate solution is sampled uniformly in [!5,5] D, whereDdenotes the search space dimension, and the evolution is performed with a classical PSO algorithm and a classical DE/x/1 algorithm according to a random threshold