Hypatius of Ephesus: A Note on Image Worship in the Sixth Century

In a recent article Professor Norman H. Baynes discussed the evidence for opposition to religious art prior to the outbreak of the Iconoclastic Controversy. In the course of his illuminating article, he called attention to an important fragment of patristic literature which was first published in recent years and which but for Professor Baynes might have remained unnoticed. It is an excerpt taken from the Miscellaneous Enquiries (Συμμικτὰ Zητήματα) by Hypatius of Ephesus, who was archbishop of this most important see from 531 to about 538 and in addition one of Justinian's most trusted theological advisers. Professor Baynes used the text to illustrate the fact that prior to the Iconoclastic Controversy "any general cult of the icons in such extreme forms as later appears in the apologies of the iconodules would seem dangerous and a wrongful use of a practice which was tolerated only in the interest of the weaker members of the church.” (p. 95). The text, however, is also important from other points of view. Since it is difficult Greek and since the trend of Hypatius' thought, though entirely logical, may not be clear at first sight, it is advisable to submit here a translation of the document, accompanied by explanatory notes. The writer gratefully acknowledges that he owes much to Diekamp and Baynes for an understanding of the documen

Chemical underpinning of the tea bag index: An examination of the decomposition of tea leaves

Decomposition is a key flux of terrestrial carbon to the atmosphere. Therefore, gaining a better understanding of how plant litter decomposes in soil, and what governs this process, is vital for global climate models. The Tea Bag Index (TBI) was introduced by Keuskamp et al. (2013) as a novel method for measuring litter decomposition rate and stabilisation. The TBI uses two types of tea bags representing fast (green tea) and slow (rooibos tea) decomposition substrates as standardised litter bags. To date, the TBI method has been used in over 2000 locations across the globe. However, before now, there has been no information on how the composition of the tea leaves change during incubation. These data are crucial in determining the validity of the use of the TBI method globally, to ensure the tea leaves decompose in a way that is representative of so-called “native” litters. To provide chemical underpinning of the TBI method, a laboratory incubation of the tea bags was conducted with destructive sampling at 0, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49, 56, 63, 70, 77, 84, and 91 d. The incubated tea was analysed for total C and N. In addition, C was characterised as alkyl, O-alkyl, aromatic, or carbonyl C using solid-state 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy with cross-polarization and magic angle spinning (CPMAS NMR). The results suggest that changes in carbon in both tea types are comparable to other litter studies, with a net decrease in total C and relative proportion of O-alkyl C fraction, which contains carbohydrates and cellulose. We conclude that the decomposition of tea leaves in the bags used in the TBI is representative of other litters

On the ground electronic states of copper silicide and its ions

The low-lying electronic states of SiCu, SiCu^+, and SiCu^− have been studied using a variety of high-level ab initio techniques. As expected on the basis of simple orbital occupancy and bond forming for Si(s^2p^2)+Cu(s^1) species, ^2Π_r, ^1Σ^+, and ^3Σ^− states were found to be the ground electronic states for SiCu, SiCu^+, and SiCu^−, respectively; the ^2Π_r state is not that suggested in most recent experimental studies. All of these molecules were found to be quite strongly bound although the bond lengths, bond energies, and harmonic frequencies vary slightly among them, as a result of the nonbonding character of the 2π-MO (molecular orbital) [composed almost entirely of the Si 3p-AO (atomic orbital)], the occupation of which varies from 0 to 2 within the ^1Σ^+, ^2Π_r, and ^3Σ^− series. The neutral SiCu is found to have bound excited electronic states of ^4Σ^−, ^2Δ, ^2Σ^+, and ^2Π_i symmetry lying 0.5, 1.2, 1.8, and 3.2 eV above the ^2Π_r ground state. It is possible but not yet certain that the ^2Π_i state is, in fact, the “B state” observed in the recent experimental studies by Scherer, Paul, Collier, and Saykally

Stabilization of the alleged bishomoromatic bicyclo[3.2.1]octa-2,6-dienyl anion by counterion interactions and by hyperconjugation

Hyperconjugation and inductive effects, rather than homoaromaticity, are responsible for the stabilization of the title anion in the gas phase; interaction of the double bond with the Li+ gegenion in the endo geometry contributes additionally in solution

Moving to an Oral Adversarial System in Mexico: Jurisprudential, Criminal Procedure, Evidence Law, and Trial Advocacy Implications

In 2008, Mexico passed a series of federal constitutional reforms requiring oral adversarial criminal trials. The reforms give Mexican states until 2016 to implement the shift from a written inquisitorial system to the new oral adversarial system. At the time of this writing, twenty-four states have implemented the changes to some degree, with varying degrees of success

SIMPEL: Circuit model for photonic spike processing laser neurons

We propose an equivalent circuit model for photonic spike processing laser neurons with an embedded saturable absorber---a simulation model for photonic excitable lasers (SIMPEL). We show that by mapping the laser neuron rate equations into a circuit model, SPICE analysis can be used as an efficient and accurate engine for numerical calculations, capable of generalization to a variety of different laser neuron types found in literature. The development of this model parallels the Hodgkin--Huxley model of neuron biophysics, a circuit framework which brought efficiency, modularity, and generalizability to the study of neural dynamics. We employ the model to study various signal-processing effects such as excitability with excitatory and inhibitory pulses, binary all-or-nothing response, and bistable dynamics.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figure

The Institute of Archaeology & Siegfried H. Horn Museum Newsletter Volume 39.4

Stordalen Lecture, Dorian Alexander Regional ASOR, Paul J. Ray, Jr. Random Surveyhttps://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/iaham-news/1076/thumbnail.jp

The Institute of Archaeology & Siegfried H. Horn Museum Newsletter Volume 39.2

ASOR 2017 Annual Meeting, Paul J. Ray, Jr. Hess Lecture, Dorian Alexander Random Surveyhttps://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/iaham-news/1074/thumbnail.jp