John Spaghotte

Author Peter Schuler discusses his thoughts on how ideas of creativity, literature, and pedagogy helped to develop into his first novel, John Spaghotte of Crumb. Schuler is a native of the Coachella Valley in Southern California and writes from a middle-class appreciation of working and living in an area where everything is catered to the wealthy class. Through personal injury and his experience in undergraduate and graduate studies he fought to develop a healthy critical mind and a grasp as to the true nature of identity. As a result, his riveting debut novel about a young, nerdy California version of Don Quixote becomes a cautionary tale about the dangers of failing to recognize oneself among a world full of materialistic pleasures and grandiose, fictional heroes. In the formulation of his novel Schuler argues that artistic creation, appreciation, study, and the development of a critical scope to see the world with lead to a better understand his own identity while his protagonist suffers from the lack of such a development

A Critical and Comparative Analysis of John Calvin\u27s and the Early Friends\u27 Doctrine of the Word of God

The question has been raised since the inception of the Friends or Quaker movement, What position do the Friends hold in reference to a basis of authority for their proposed and propounded doctrines? This basis of authority was first questioned by various religious leaders of the day when George Fox went about preaching against the cold, dead, formalism of the churches in England, and remains a matter of some debate today. Since the beginning of the Friends movement, it has held the Bible in great reverence and has used it as a basis of their teaching. Other groups, too, considered the Bible their source of authority -- groups such as John Calvin brought into being. We find that Calvin\u27s approach to Christianity was logical and systematic, whereas George Fox preached a purely experiential religion. They both used the Bible as their authority, yet they arrived at the widely divergent conceptions of Christina rules and faith. Every theological system has some thing or some one as a basis of its authority. For the Christian religion this source is called the Word of God. But in the consideration of defining the Word of God, it would seem every separate group in Christianity has a different view of what the term consists. When there are divergent views on what the Word of God consists there will be different views of Christina doctrine and faith. It is proposed to state as concisely as possible the views of John Calvin and the early Friends in an attempt to discover where and for what reasons there is this divergence of views between them. Some theologians feel that within the scope of the term Word of God are involved more than merely the written Scriptures. It is essential that three phases of study be undertaken here for all are directly related to such a study in any group. These phases or areas are 1) Revelation in general 2) Revelation in regard to the Word of God, and 3) Revelation in regard to the Sacraments. Some of the specific problems to be considered are: 1) How has God revealed Himself to man and does He still reveal Himself: Is revelation finished? 2) Of what does the Word of God consist -- i.e. is it limited to the written Word, and if so, to what extent? If not, what are the other phases of the Word of God? 3) Of what do the sacraments consist and what part do they play in the salvation of man? Are they essential to salvation? If there any real merit or value between the spiritual and physical or corporeal elements

The Transareolar Incision for Breast Augmentation Revisited

Of the various possible incisions for breast augmentation, the transareolar access has gained only limited popularity. The potential side effects of this incision are said to be altered nipple sensation, impaired lactation, an increased rate of infections with capsular fibrosis, well visible scar formation with hypopigmentation, and the need for an additional access in case a breast ptosis correction should prove necessary at a later date. The purpose of this retrospective study was to judge advantages and limitations of transareolar breast augmentation, and to verify whether the reluctant attitude toward this surgical approach is justified. A sample of 18 patients with a transareolar, retropectoral breast augmentation was selected for a retrospective evaluation. The suitability of the technique in general was examined together with early postoperative complications, sensory changes, and late complications on the basis of an evaluation system for cosmetic surgical results. The study showed that only women with an areolar diameter of 3.5cm or more without pronounced breast ptosis were suitable for the transareolar access. No early infections were noted. The rate of capsular fibrosis was 11%. Two years after breast augmentation, 16 women (89%) judged their breast sensation to be normal, but objective assessment showed that mean pressure and vibration sensation were moderately compromised in all parts of the breast. The scars were of good quality, with very little hypopigmentation. With appropriate patient selection, respecting the advantages and limitations, the transareolar incision has its definite place among the different incisions for breast augmentatio

An analytical framework for soil degradation, farming practices, institutions and policy responses

There is a lack of knowledge about the effectiveness and efficiency of soil conservation policies in agriculture and little understanding of how policy measures should be designed to encourage farmers to adopt soil conservation practices. This paper analyzes institutional settings surrounding agricultural soil management in ten European countries based on the Institutions of Sustainability framework. This framework considers the interdependencies between ecological and social systems, taking into account environmental conditions, farming practices impacting on soil conservation, different types of actors, policies, institutions and governance structures. The purpose of this paper is to describe the analytical framework and the methodology that all case studies are based on, present and discuss compared findings, outline implications for successful soil conservation policy, and draw conclusions on the methodological approach. The case studies focused on the main soil degradation types occurring across Europe which are addressed by a broad range of mandatory and incentive policies. The findings highlight the following issues: i) the need to design policies that target the locally most common soil threats and processes in the light of agricultural management; ii) the need to take farming management constraints into consideration, (iii) the need for good communication and cooperation both between agricultural and environmental authorities as well as between governmental and non-governmental stakeholders; iv) the necessary mix of mandatory and incentive instruments; and v) the need for data and monitoring systems allowing the evaluation of the effectiveness of policies and soil conservation practices.Institutional analysis, soil degradation, soil conservation policy, soil conservation measures, farming practices, policy evaluation, Farm Management,

Higher Fock states and power counting in exclusive P-wave quarkonium decays

Exclusive processes at large momentum transfer Q factor into perturbatively calculable short-distance parts and long-distance hadronic wave functions. Usually, only contributions from the leading Fock states have to be included to leading order in 1/Q. We show that for exclusive decays of P-wave quarkonia the contribution from the next-higher Fock state |Q Qbar g> contributes at the same order in 1/Q. We investigate how the constituent gluon attaches to the hard process in order to form colour-singlet final-state hadrons and argue that a single additional long-distance factor is sufficient to parametrize the size of its contribution. Incorporating transverse degrees of freedom and Sudakov factors, our results are perturbatively stable in the sense that soft phase-space contributions are largely suppressed. Explicit calculations yield good agreement with data on chi_{c J} decays into pairs of pions, kaons, and etas. We also comment on J/psi decays into two pions.Comment: Latex, 25 pages, 5 figure

CAP-reform and the provision of non-commodity outputs in Brandenburg

This paper presents an attempt to model the response of selected farms to decoupled direct payments and the associated impact on the provision of a defined set of non-commodity outputs (NCO’s) using a combined modelling approach consisting of the AgriPoliS and MODAM models. AgriPoliS focuses on the socio-economic dimension of multifunctionality at the individual farm and regional levels and explicitly models heterogeneous farms (in size, location and efficiency) within a competitive and dynamic environment. The linear-programming model MODAM allows a detailed representation of production processes and their impact on the environmental dimension of multifunctionality at the farm level. We simulate the impact of a uniform area payment and a fully decoupled single farm payment. Our case study region is the district Ostprignitz-Ruppin in Brandenburg. Results show that the decoupling schemes create a trade-off between the NCO’s and that adjustment reactions differ between farms depending on their legal form, size, and production.decoupling, multifunctionality, non-commodity outputs, modelling, simulation, policy analysis, ecological indicators, Agricultural and Food Policy, Land Economics/Use,

Integration von Umweltzielen in die Betriebsoptimierung im ökologischen Landbau – Möglichkeiten und Grenzen am Beispiel des Versuchsbetriebes Klostergut Scheyern

Am Beispiel der Reduzierung von Bodenerosion konnte modellhaft gezeigt werden, dass die Integration von Umweltzielen für einen integrierten Betrieb mit geringeren Opportunitätskosten verbunden ist, als dies bei dem ökologisch wirtschaftenden Betrieb der Fall ist. Aufgrund der Notwendigkeit einer vielfältigen Fruchtfolge mit Zwischenfrüchten bzw. Untersaaten im ökologischen Landbau, ist das Erosionsrisiko im ökologisch wirtschaftenden Betrieb bereits ohne Auflagen deutlich niedriger, als die im integrierten Betrieb. Ein integrierter Betrieb ist in der Regel nur durch Zahlung von Prämien zu einer Berücksichtigung von Umweltzielen bereit. Diese Anreize werden dem ökologischen Landbau bereits durch die höheren Produktpreise sowie die Grundförderung gesetzt. Die dargestellten Zusammenhänge helfen aufzuzeigen, wie effizient Umweltziele erreicht werden können

Die Erhebungslisten des "Gemeinen Pfennigs" von 1496 - 1499: eine demographische, wirtschafts- und sozialgeschichtliche Untersuchung

Die quantifizierende Bearbeitung historischer Quellen sieht sich einer Vielzahl methodischer Probleme gegenüber. Welche Aussagen sie dennoch zu formulieren ermöglicht, zeigt der Verfasser am Beispiel der "Erhebungslisten des Gemeinen Pfennigs für das Fürstbistum Speyer". Er präsentiert Untersuchungsergebnisse, die Bevölkerungszahl, Haushaltsgröße, Haushaltsstruktur, Anteil der Dienstboten an der Gesamtbevölkerung und Vermögensstruktur beschreiben. (WZ

Can Self-Tracking Solutions Help with Understanding Quality of Smart, Connected Products?

Smart connected products (SCPs) have gained significant attention in different domains because they offer numerous benefits and change the form of competition and value creation. While quality is im-portant for SCPs, no holistic quality model is available to target the present quality problems. Further-more, since the concept of an SCP is quite abstract, a bottom-up approach that starts with a concrete example seems suitable. Therefore, this paper identifies the five key components of SCPs and maps them to self-tracking solutions (STS) in order to show that STSs are appropriate examples. We also analyse quality models in corresponding areas to verify the absence of a holistic quality model for the selected example. This contribution identifies the research gap regarding holistic, stakeholder-oriented quality models and helps researchers understand SCPs better