I fondamenti teologici del pensiero politico agostiniano: le virtù teologali dello statista come ponte tra le due città

Augustine’s approach to politics and, hence, to political ethics, begins with consideration of the human being or “soul” and reaches its highpoint in the ideal of a Christian statesman, not in an ideal political order. Augustine offers no theory concerning the relationship between the church and the political order. On the other hand, the paper contends that his concept of the ideal statesman provides the elusive bridge in his thought between ecclesia and res publica. Augustine’s ideal of the Christian statesman is framed against the background of his reflections concerning Christ, because, in his view, Christ alone mediates true virtue to the soul, and therefore to the statesman. Augustine thus takes up the task in the City of God and in his letters to public officials to deconstruct all other accounts of political virtue – philosophical and religious – on the grounds that real virtue is to be understood exclusively as Christ’s virtue acting through the human soul. This principle is what characterizes the radical originality of Augustine’s approach to political ethics

Opto-mechanical artificial eye with accommodative ability.

The purpose of this study was to describe the design and characterization of a new opto-mechanical artificial eye (OMAE) with accommodative ability. The OMAE design is based on a second-pass configuration where a small source of light is used at the artificial retina plane. A lens whose focal length can be changed electronically was used to add the accommodation capability. The changes in the OMAE's aberrations with the lens focal length, which effectively changes the accommodative state of the OMAE, were measured with a commercial aberrometer. Changes in power and aberrations with room temperature were also measured. The OMAE's higher-order aberrations (HOAs) were similar to the ones of the human eye, including the rate at which fourth-order spherical aberration decreased with accommodation. The OMAE design proposed here is simple, and it can be implemented in an optical system to mimic the optics of the human eye

Temporal Patterning of Aerodynamic and Acoustic Events in Apraxia of Speech.

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the temporal aspects of speech production and their concomitant affects on the aerodynamic and acoustic events in individuals with apraxia of speech. This study included two normal subjects, three apraxic subjects and one dysarthric subject. The subjects repeated 20 times a CVNCV sequence embedded in a carrier phrase "say p/V/mper in four vowel conditions ( I , ae , a , u ). Differential oral-nasal air pressure, nasal air flow, and acoustic signals were recorded. The size of the velopharyngeal orifice area was also calculated at all the segment durations of the CVNCV sequence were compared with the accompanying differential oral-nasal air pressure and nasal air flow characteristics for the apraxic, dysarthric and normal subjects. Analysis of variance between the apraxic and normal on the acoustic and aerodynamic variables revealed no significant differ- ences. However, within group statistical analysis revealed that the severe apraxic was different when compared to the mild and mod- erate apraxic subjects. Although there were differences between apraxic subjects in the absolute segment and word durations, the severe apraxic speaker demonstrated relative patterns of segmental timing which resembled those temporal patterns of the other apraxic and normal subjects. The dysarthric subjects' relative patterns of segmental timing was different from that of the apraxic. The severe apraxic speaker exhibited greater than normal intra oral air pressures and longer than normal voice onset times. In addition, the calculated velopharyngeal orifice area for the severe apraxic speaker demonstrated a double peak pattern indicative of impaired timing of velopharyngeal behavior. Perceived phonetic errors in the apraxic group were not associ- ated consistently with observed abnormalities in the pressure, flow and acoustic data. The results demonstrate that the severe apraxic subject was able to adjust the relative timing of the speech articulatory mechanism although the absolute acoustic durations were different from the other subjects. These findings are discussed in light of current perceptions of speech motor control.Ph.D.Special educationSpeech therapyUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/161380/1/8712098.pd