Cognitive Illusion, Lucid Dreaming, and the Psychology of Metaphor in Tibetan Buddhist Dzogchen Contemplative Practices

A classic set of eight similes of illusion (sgyu ma’i dpe brgyad) are employed recurrently throughout Indian and Tibetan Buddhist literature to illustrate the operations of cognition, its correlative perceptions, and experiences that emerge. To illustrate a Buddhist psychology of metaphor, the fourteenth century Tibetan scholar and synthesizer of the Dzogchen (rdzogs chen) or Great Perfection system, Longchen Rabjam Drimé Ödzer (1308-1363), composed his poetic text, Being at Ease with Illusion. This work on illusion is the third volume in Longchenpa’s Trilogy of Being at Ease (Ngal gso skor gsum) in which he presents a series of Dzogchen instructions on how to settle totally at ease. To complement each volume in his trilogy, Longchenpa composed auxiliary contemplative guidance instructions on their meaning (don khrid). This article contextualizes Longchenpa’s meditation manual on Being at Ease with Illusion, a translation of which is included in the appendix. Special attention is given to Dzogchen practices of lucid dreaming and working with cognitive illusions to spotlight underlying contemplative dynamics and correlative psychological effects. To analogically map these Tibetan language instructions in translation, this article interprets Buddhist psychological understandings of cognitive and perceptual processes in dialogue with current theories in the cognitive sciences

Field boundary habitats and their contribution to the area of semi-natural habitats on lowland farms in east Galway, western Ireland

peer-reviewedSustainable agriculture and the provision of environmental public goods are key deliverables for European farming and food production. Farmland biodiversity, cultural landscapes, soil functionality and climate stability are among the environmental public goods provided through agriculture. Future Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) direct payments are intended to be more targeted at the provision of these agricultural deliverables. Field boundaries are an example of such deliverables. They are widespread features that have both environmental and aesthetic functions in farmed landscapes. However, research on their variety, density and contribution to semi-natural habitat cover on farms in Ireland is lacking. This study investigates the diversity and density of all field boundary habitat types on 32 lowland farms in east County Galway, western Ireland. A total of 286km of field boundaries were surveyed across six study sites. Five types of field boundary habitats were recorded. The density of field boundaries on the farms studied was high and could have positive implications for delivery of environmental public goods and sustainable farming metrics. In more intensively farmed areas, field boundaries were the only remaining semi-natural habitat on some farms highlighting the need to retain, and improve the ecological quality, of these features. The condition of one field boundary type (hedgerows) was also investigated in further detail. While the density of field boundaries was high on many of the surveyed farms, we found that the hedgerows on these farms were not necessarily in good condition for wildlife

Coming Together Through Object Based Learning in a Pandemic

In the summer of 2019, three history teachers from all over the US, met in France for National History Day’s Memorializing the Fallen program and commenced a lasting friendship. While in France, touring the WWI cemeteries, memorial sites, and museums, we all realized the importance of experience-based learning and the seeds were sown for our interest in object based learning. Aside from the philosophical and pedagogical discussions on long bus rides and our passion for history, we shared a belief in the importance of revitalizing history education and helping it to evolve in the face of our twenty-first century world. When we returned back from France we kept in touch and continued to think of ways we could collaborate and work together. Covid-19 provided us that opportunity. With history education and teachers in general having to become more familiar with Google Meets, Zoom, and other video based platforms we decided to get together and have a Zoom session. As we talked and discussed what each of us were doing we found that we all to varying degrees believe in and utilize object based learning in our classrooms. We decided that other teachers could benefit from using objects in their classrooms. So, we decided we would model the technique and lines of questioning that go into using objects in a classroom. For this journal we would like to discuss how we came together, our passion for object based learning, and how, despite the disruption COVID-19 brought to all of our school years and classes, it also provided us the opportunity to come together and create content and resources that could help teachers now and whenever we get back into the classroom

Sounding out maerl sediment thickness : an integrated data approach

This work was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council [Grant Number NE/S007342/1]. This research was also supported by grants from Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland (MASTS) Biogeochemistry Forum, MASTS Coastal Forum, and Sea-Changers.Maerl beds are listed as a priority marine feature in Scotland. They are noted for creating suitable benthic habitat for diverse communities of fauna and flora and in supporting a wide array of ecosystem services. Within the context of climate change, they are also recognised as a potential blue carbon habitat through sequestration of carbon in living biomass and underlying sediment. There are, however, significant data gaps on the potential of maerl carbon sequestration which impede inclusion in blue carbon policy frameworks. Key data gaps include sediment thickness, from which carbon content is extrapolated. There are additional logistical and financial barriers associated with quantification methods that aim to address these data gaps. This study investigates the use of sub-bottom profiling (SBP) to lessen financial and logistical constraints of maerl bed sediment thickness estimation and regional blue carbon quantification. SBP data were cross validated with cores, other SBP data on blue carbon sediments, and analysed with expert input. Combining SBP data with estimates of habitat health (as % cover) from drop-down video (DDV) data, and regional abiotic data, this study also elucidates links between abiotic and biotic factors in determining maerl habitat health and maerl sediment thickness through pathway analysis in structural equation modelling (SEM). SBP data were proved to be sufficiently robust for identification of maerl sediments when corroborated with core data. SBP and DDV data of maerl bed habitats in Orkney exhibited some positive correlations of sediment thickness with maerl % cover. The average maerl bed sediment thickness was 1.08 m across all ranges of habitat health. SEM analysis revealed maerl bed habitat health was strongly determined by abiotic factors. Maerl habitat health had a separate positive effect on maerl bed sediment thickness.Peer reviewe

Intramolecular C-H...O and intermolecular N-H...O and C-H...O interactions in N-ferrocenoylglycine benzyl ester, an effective dihydrogen phosphate anion sensing agent

The title compound, benzyl N-(ferrocenecarbonyl)glycinate, [Fe(C₅H₅)(C₁₅H₁₄NO₃)], a glycine benzyl ester derivative, is an effective anion sensor for electrochemically sensing the dihydrogen phosphate anion (H₂PO₄-). Intermolecular N--H...O hydrogen bonds form onedimensional chains with graph set C(4) [N...O 2.811 (3)Å,]. A two-dimensional network is formed by linking the chains through Car--H...0=Cester interactions about inversion centres [graph set R²₂(14); C...O 3.406 (4)Å]. An intramolecular Ccp-H...0=Cester interaction [C...O 3.540 (3)Å,] with graph set S(9) completes the hydrogen bonding

Intermolecular N-H...N and C-H...O interactions from one-dimensional chains comprising the two independent molecules of N,N'-dicyclohexyl-N-nicotinoylurea

The title_compound, C₁₉H₂₇N₃0₂, crystallizes in space group P1 with two molecules in the asymmetric unit which differ slightly in conformation. Intermolecular N--H...N and C--H...O interactions generate a hydrogen-bonded ring system between the alternating molecules, graph set R²₂(16), with N...N distances of 3.021 (3) and 3.041 (3)Å, and C...O distances of 3.219(3) and 3.296(3)Å along the hydrogen-bonded chains

Dynamic Controllability of Temporally-flexible Reactive Programs

In this paper we extend dynamic controllability of temporally-flexible plans to temporally-flexible reactive programs. We consider three reactive programming language constructs whose behavior depends on runtime observations; conditional execution, iteration, and exception handling. Temporally-flexible reactive programs are distinguished from temporally-flexible plans in that program execution is conditioned on the runtime state of the world. In addition, exceptions are thrown and caught at runtime in response to violated timing constraints, and handled exceptions are considered successful program executions. Dynamic controllability corresponds to a guarantee that a program will execute to completion, despite runtime constraint violations and uncertainty in runtime state. An algorithm is developed which frames the dynamic controllability problem as an AND/OR search tree over possible program executions. A key advantage of this approach is the ability to enumerate only a subset of possible program executions that guarantees dynamic controllability, framed as an AND/OR solution subtree

Winners and Losers: Climate Change Impacts on Biodiversity in Ireland

The climate envelope modelling described in this report represents a staged investigation into the possible impacts of climate change on the nature conservation resources of Ireland. It represents a significant piece of original research applying state-ofthe- art methods for the first time in Ireland, and is an important step in trying to understand the complex interactions between climate, climate change, and species and habitats across the island. The work is one part of the wider research programme Co-ordination, Communication and Adaptation for Climate Change in Ireland: an Integrated Approach (COCOADAPT) funded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Laboratory measurements and modeling of trace atmospheric species

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Chemistry, 2005.Vita.Includes bibliographical references (p. 129-145).Trace species play a major role in many physical and chemical processes in the atmosphere. Improving our understanding of the impact of each species requires a combination of laboratory exper- imentation, field measurements, and modeling. The results presented here focus on spectroscopic and kinetic laboratory measurements and photochemical box modeling. Laboratory experiments were conducted using IntraCavity Laser Absorption Spectroscopy (ICLAS), a high-resolution, high sensitivity spectroscopic method that had been used primarily for static cell measurements in the Steinfeld Laboratory at MIT. Several modifications and improvements have been made to expand its versatility. Firstly, a discharge flow tube was coupled with the ICLA Spectrometer, and the formation kinetics of nitrosyl hydride, HNO, were measured as a means to test the system. Secondly, a novel edge-tuner was introduced as a means to expand the spectral range of the ICLA Spectrometer. An experiment for the detection of the hydroperoxyl radical employing the edge-tuner in the ICLA Spectrometer is discussed and proposed. The results from the laboratory measurements are followed by the presentation of a near-explicit kinetic box model designed to improve our understanding of the oxidative capacity of the urban troposphere in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area (MCMA). The box model was constructed using the Master Chemical Mechanism and was constrained using a large dataset of field measurements collected during the 2003 MCMA field campaign.(cont.) The modeling is focused on the hydroxy and hydroperoxyl radicals (OH and HO₂), with an emphasis on the role of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the formation of both species.by Philip M. Sheehy.Ph.D