The Way International, its History, Theology and Impact on the Church

This paper deals with one such cult. Its founder is a man named Victor Paul Wierwille. The name of the false spiritual movement connected with this man is The Way International. This is a name that I am sure the Church will be hearing more of in the future. It can be classified among the new cults which have sprung up in America during the last few decades. This paper will, in only a brief way, give the reader a look at this group. The hope is that the paper will give the reader a look at the insides of this group: its history, theology and the threat and challenge that it presents to the Church today

PROGRAMMED EFFECTS OF SURFACE WATER PRICE LEVELS ON U.S. AGRICULTURAL WATER USE AND PRODUCTION PATTERNS

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Changes in Amazon Forest Structure from Land-Use Fires: Integrating Satellite Remote Sensing and Ecosystem Modeling

Fire is the dominant method of deforestation and agricultural maintenance in Amazonia, and these land-use fires frequently escape their intended boundaries and burn into adjacent forests. Initial understory fires may increase forest flammability, thereby creating a positive fire feedback and the potential for long-term changes in Amazon forest structure. The four studies in this dissertation describe the development and integration of satellite remote sensing and ecosystem modeling approaches to characterize land-use fires and their consequences in southern Amazon forests. The dissertation contributes three new methods: use of the local frequency of satellite-based active fire detections to distinguish between deforestation and maintenance fires, use of satellite data time series to identify canopy damage from understory fires, and development of a height-structured fire sub-model in Ecosystem Demography, an advanced ecosystem model, to evaluate the impacts of a positive fire feedback on forest structure and composition. Conclusions from the dissertation demonstrate that the expansion of mechanized agricultural production in southern Amazonia increased the frequency and duration of fire use compared to less intensive methods of deforestation for pasture. Based on this increase in the frequency of land-use fires, fire emissions from current deforestation may be higher than estimated for previous decades. Canopy damage from understory fires was widespread in both dry and wet years, suggesting that drought conditions may not be necessary to burn extensive areas of southern Amazon forests. Understory fires were five times more common in previously-burned than unburned forest, providing satellite-based evidence for a positive fire feedback in southern Amazonia. The impact of this positive fire feedback on forest structure and composition was assessed using the Ecosystem Demography model. Scenarios of continued understory fires under current climate conditions show the potential to trap forests in a fire-prone structure dominated by early-successional trees, similar to secondary forests, reducing net carbon storage by 20-46% within 100 years. In summary, satellite and model-based results from the dissertation demonstrate that fire-damaged forests are an extensive and long-term component of the frontier landscape in southern Amazonia and suggest that a positive fire feedback could maintain long-term changes in forest structure and composition in the region

Philosophical predecessors and contemporaries of Ibn Bajjah

MakaleÇıkış noktamız arkadaşı İbn el-İmam’ın (tam adı Ebul Hasan Ali b. Abd el-Aziz b. El-İmam el-Ensâri, bkz.) İbn Bâcce’nin eserlerinden oluşan bir koleksiyonun önsözünde (onun hakkında) yazmış olduğu ve İbn El Useybia tarafından da tekrar edilen, İbn Bâcce’nin (felsefî görüşlerinin) ortaya konulmasıdır. İbn el-İmam arkadaşı hakkında şöyle diyor: Zekâsının ve derin araştırmasının, bu saygın, asil ve derin fikirlere nüfuz etmesinde (yani felsefede) o çağının harikası idi ve zamanında adını göklere yazdırmıştı. Bunun için (gerekli) felsefî kitaplar, (bahsedilen kitapları) ve doğuda yazılan nadir eserleri, eskilerin ve diğer (filozofların) kitaplarını getiren, El-Hakem (yani el-Hakem II. 350/961-366/976), -Allah ondan razı olsun- zamanından beri İspanya’da mevcuttu. Onlar tekrar tekrar incelendi, ondan (İbn Bâcce’den) önce araştırmacıların hiçbiri tarafından bu eserler herhangi birşekilde açılmadı, İşbiliye’li İbn Hazm’ın durumunda olduğu gibi onlar hakkında hatalar ve değişiklikler haricinde yazılmış bir şey bırakan olmadı. O (İbn Bâcce) zamanının en büyük araştırmacıları arasındaydı, onların çoğu fikirlerinin hiç birini kaydetmeye çabalamadı, o araştırmacıların en üstünü idi ve doğal olarak analiz yapmada (onlardan) daha keskin bir zekâya sahipti. Bu ilimlerdeki araştırma yolları yalnızca bu bilge kişi ve İşbiliyeli Malik b. Vuheyb tarafından açıldı. Onlar birbirinin çağdaşı idi,fakat Malik mantık ilkeleri üzerine yazılmış sadece küçük hacimli bir eser (Es-Sına’ah ed-Diniyyeh) bıraktı. Sonra ikincisi, hayatına yapılan teşebbüsleri kendi hesabına dikkate aldığı için ve bilimsel konulardaki toplantılarının tamamında zafer hedeflediğinden bu bilimleri açıkça araştırmaktan ve onlar hakkında konuşmaktan vazgeçti. Dini ilimlere döndü ve neredeyse onların en önde geleni oldu, fakat ne bu tür bir felsefî bilginin ışığı sözleri üzerinde parladı, ne de ölümünden sonra bulunacak özel bir felsefî yazı bıraktı

Helical flow of non-Newtonian fluids, with reference to drilling fluid flow.

This thesis Is motivated by a desire to understand better the complex flow of drilling fluids in oil wells. After an initial discussion of the flow and its complexities, mathematical models are considered, and a 'helical flow' model adopted as being a reasonable approximation to the flow which may be solved in practice. Rheological models for the fluids are discussed, and it is shown that, with helical flow, a shear rate dependent viscosity model is of considerable generality. Numerical methods for obtaining velocity profiles from these models are explored and it is suggested that an iterative finite difference procedure is the most suitable to the purpose of understanding better the flow of drilling fluids. The iterative finite difference procedure is implemented in a computer program 'MUDFLO' which can be operated using either a consistent dimensioned system of units, or using the dimensionless variables defined in the text. It is shown that three dimensionless parameter groups are sufficient to describe completely the helical flow of a power law fluid. A set of velocity profile graphs is presented, covering typical values of these three parameter groups. From this set of graphs, the velocity profiles for most practically occurring flows of power law fluids may be interpolated. Some computational difficulties are however reported in calculations using the Bingham plastic fluid model, and using the power law fluid model with very low fluid index. The results of the computer program withe the power law fluid model are supported by comparison with existing experimental data, and by discussion of the general characteristics of the set of dimensionless velocity profile graphs

Alternative Dispute Resolution in the Construction Process: a course of study for construction managers.

http://archive.org/details/alternativedispu00mor

Acoustic space occupancy: Combining ecoacoustics and lidar to model biodiversity variation and detection bias across heterogeneous landscapes

There is global interest in quantifying changing biodiversity in human-modified landscapes. Ecoacoustics may offer a promising pathway for supporting multi-taxa monitoring, but its scalability has been hampered by the sonic complexity of biodiverse ecosystems and the imperfect detectability of animal-generated sounds. The acoustic signature of a habitat, or soundscape, contains information about multiple taxa and may circumvent species identification, but robust statistical technology for characterizing community-level attributes is lacking. Here, we present the Acoustic Space Occupancy Model, a flexible hierarchical framework designed to account for detection artifacts from acoustic surveys in order to model biologically relevant variation in acoustic space use among community assemblages. We illustrate its utility in a biologically and structurally diverse Amazon frontier forest landscape, a valuable test case for modeling biodiversity variation and acoustic attenuation from vegetation density. We use complementary airborne lidar data to capture aspects of 3D forest structure hypothesized to influence community composition and acoustic signal detection. Our novel analytic framework permitted us to model both the assembly and detectability of soundscapes using lidar-derived estimates of forest structure. Our empirical predictions were consistent with physical models of frequency-dependent attenuation, and we estimated that the probability of observing animal activity in the frequency channel most vulnerable to acoustic attenuation varied by over 60%, depending on vegetation density. There were also large differences in the biotic use of acoustic space predicted for intact and degraded forest habitats, with notable differences in the soundscape channels predominantly occupied by insects. This study advances the utility of ecoacoustics by providing a robust modeling framework for addressing detection bias from remote audio surveys while preserving the rich dimensionality of soundscape data, which may be critical for inferring biological patterns pertinent to multiple taxonomic groups in the tropics. Our methodology paves the way for greater integration of remotely sensed observations with high-throughput biodiversity data to help bring routine, multi-taxa monitoring to scale in dynamic and diverse landscapes

Monitoring Strategies for REDD+: Integrating Field, Airborne, and Satellite Observations of Amazon Forests

Large-scale tropical forest monitoring efforts in support of REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation plus enhancing forest carbon stocks) confront a range of challenges. REDD+ activities typically have short reporting time scales, diverse data needs, and low tolerance for uncertainties. Meeting these challenges will require innovative use of remote sensing data, including integrating data at different spatial and temporal resolutions. The global scientific community is engaged in developing, evaluating, and applying new methods for regional to global scale forest monitoring. Pilot REDD+ activities are underway across the tropics with support from a range of national and international groups, including SilvaCarbon, an interagency effort to coordinate US expertise on forest monitoring and resource management. Early actions on REDD+ have exposed some of the inherent tradeoffs that arise from the use of incomplete or inaccurate data to quantify forest area changes and related carbon emissions. Here, we summarize recent advances in forest monitoring to identify and target the main sources of uncertainty in estimates of forest area changes, aboveground carbon stocks, and Amazon forest carbon emissions