Jesus and “the Daniel code”

It is suggested that Jesus, who understood his Messianic calling in the light of the OT prophecies, utilized their symbolic apocalyptic language in his prophetic discourse. From this perspective Matthew 26:64 sheds important light on the meaning of Matthew 24:30b, i.e. that those who rejected him would realize, within a relatively short period, that He – the Suffering Servant – was indeed the Son of Man of Daniel 7. But Jesus also made some very definite statements in very sober language about the future, which provide an important key for our understanding of the prophetic discourse. While He enumerated a number of signs that would warn his disciples of the approach of God’s judgment on Jerusalem – together constituting “the budding fig tree” – He emphasized, on the other hand, that there will be no signs to warn them of the approach of his parousia

The Role of Spring Thaw in String Bog Genesis

... it is necessary to establish a more thoroughly documented framework of current physical processes operating in string bogs throughout the year. It is to this end that the present note is directed. Two problems immediately present themselves in any discussion of string bog genesis. First, there is the need to explain the initial establishment and maintenance of the ridge-hollow pattern; and second, the related problem of the concentration of string bogs in the boreal forest. ... observations near Schefferville, Quebec (54°50'N, 67°W) in the spring of 1970 are specially pertinent to explaining patterns within string bogs. Permafrost is absent from beneath these string bogs. ... There is no doubt that in the subarctic, spring thaw is rapid and debris of various kinds is transported by the meltwater over the frozen surface of the bog. Several stages in the melt-transportation process can be recognized. 1) The thaw is first evident on the thin snow cover of the bog with the development of a mixture of slush, ice and open pools. 2) Additional melt involves the removal of snow from the surface of the bog. ... 3) Pools become linked as the volume of meltwater increases with advance of the thaw. ... 4) Continued and perhaps more rapid melt of snow lying adjacent to the bog from within the spruce forests, augments the sheet flow. ... 5) With the removal of the bog ice cover, sheet flow over the bog ceases, and the meltwater becomes more channelized. ... In the bog near Schefferville where these processes were observed, incipient accumulations of the type described were only noted at the upstream end of a bog in which strings had already been developed down-bog. Where strings were already in existence, the damming effect was most apparent, although its importance declined down-bog as the floating organic debris was trapped or filtered by plants up-bog. Lines of debris accumulation are therefore considered initially to develop into permanent sites for plant growth at the downstream end of the bog, and then progressively build in an up-bog direction always at right angles to flow patterns of spring meltwater. "Younger" strings, according to this view, will occur at progressively higher elevations within any given bog. ... it is assumed that the sites of detrital deposition become the preferred sites for plant growth because of their relatively better-drained condition. ... Once started, such a process will accelerate by its own effects. ... Although excavations in the Schefferville area were not conclusive, ... the hypothesis of in situ growth of strings was supported by bog stratigraphy. ... Emphasis is placed on the primary role of organic accumulations during early phases of the spring thaw, a period of the year when few observers have had the opportunity to examine such bogs. A vital role is attributed to the more intense plant growth on initial shallow deposits which leads to the formation of the ridge. Ice-push and frost heave appear to play secondary and perhaps localized functions. Solifluction, differential settling and tilting due to permafrost melt, and compaction of peats under varying loads, are not factors which appear to be of great importance in string bog development. There remain several critical problems which require further study ...

Towards an Intelligent Workflow Designer based on the Reuse of Workflow Patterns

In order to perform process-aware information systems we need sophisticated methods and concepts for designing and modeling processes. Recently, research on workflow patterns has emerged in order to increase the reuse of recurring workflow structures. However, current workflow modeling tools do not provide functionalities that enable users to define, query, and reuse workflow patterns properly. In this paper we gather a suite for both process modeling and normalization based on workflow patterns reuse. This suite must be used in the extension of some workflow design tool. The suite comprises components for the design of processes from both legacy systems and process modeling

Optimisation of bitumen emulsion properties for ballast stabilisation

: Ballasted track, while providing economical and practical advantages, is associated with high costs and material consumption due to frequent maintenance. More sustainable alternatives to conventional ballasted trackbeds should therefore aim at extending its durability, particularly considering ongoing increases in traffic speed and loads. In this regard, the authors have investigated a solution consisting of bitumen stabilised ballast (BSB), designed to be used for new trackbeds as well as in reinforcing existing ones. This study presents the idea behind the technology and then focuses on a specific part of its development: the optimisation of bitumen emulsion properties and dosage in relation to ballast field conditions. Results showed that overall bitumen stabilisation improved ballast resistance to permanent deformation by enhancing stiffness and damping properties. Scenarios with higher dosage of bitumen emulsion, higher viscosity, quicker setting behaviour, and harder base bitumen seem to represent the most desirable conditions to achieve enhanced in-field performanc

On Turing dynamical systems and the Atiyah problem

Main theorems of the article concern the problem of M. Atiyah on possible values of l^2-Betti numbers. It is shown that all non-negative real numbers are l^2-Betti numbers, and that "many" (for example all non-negative algebraic) real numbers are l^2-Betti numbers of simply connected manifolds with respect to a free cocompact action. Also an explicit example is constructed which leads to a simply connected manifold with a transcendental l^2-Betti number with respect to an action of the threefold direct product of the lamplighter group Z/2 wr Z. The main new idea is embedding Turing machines into integral group rings. The main tool developed generalizes known techniques of spectral computations for certain random walk operators to arbitrary operators in groupoid rings of discrete measured groupoids.Comment: 35 pages; essentially identical to the published versio

Responses to supplementation by dairy cows given low pasture allowances in different seasons 2. Milk production

Two factorial experiments were designed to determine the effects of stage of lactation, and season of the year, on cow responses to supplementary feeding. These experiments were conducted over consecutive years with 128 high genetic merit multiparous Holstein-Friesian cows in early, mid and late lactation in spring, summer, autumn and winter. At each stage of lactation, and in each season of the year, cows were offered a restricted pasture allowance (25 to 35 kg dry matter (DM) per cow per day), either unsupplemented (control) or with supplement at 50 MJ metabolizable energy (ME) per cow per day in experiment 1 and 80 MJ ME per cow per day in experiment 2. The two supplements given in both years were rolled maize grain (MG) and a mixture of foods formulated to nutritionally balance the diet (BR). In experiment 2, another treatment, of a generous pasture allowance (60 to 75 kg DM per cow per day) (AP), was imposed on an additional group of early lactation cows during each season. Direct milk solids (MS) (milk fat plus milk protein) responses in experiment 1 to MG were 169, 279, 195 and 251 g MS per cow per day in spring, summer, autumn and winter, respectively, while those to BR were 107, 250, 192, 289 g MS per cow per day. In experiment 2, however, milk solids responses to both supplements during spring were slightly below the control treatment, with values similar to those in experiment 1 in summer and autumn for cows on the BR but not the MG supplement. Milk solids responses to supplementary foods were largest during seasons of the year when the quantity and quality of pasture on offer resulted in the lowest milk solids yield from unsupplemented cows. When carry-over effects of feeding MG and BR on milk solids production were detected, they were only about half the magnitude of the direct effects. Serum urea concentrations were higher in control cows than those offered MG with a similar effect for BR in all but summer in experiment 1, while serum glucose concentrations were highest in winter and lowest in summer. The most important factor influencing milk solids responses was the relative food deficit (RFD) represented by the decline in milk solids yield of the respective control groups after,changing from a generous pasture allowance to restricted allowance when the feeding treatments were imposed. Total milk solids responses (direct and carry-over) to supplements were greatest when severe food restrictions, relative to the cows' current food demand, resulted in large reductions in milk solids yield of the control groups. The RFD was the best predictor of milk solids response to supplementary foods. Therefore, it is likely that cows are most responsive to supplementary foods during or immediately after the imposition of a severe food restriction

Responses to supplementation by dairy cows given low pasture allowances in different seasons 1. Pasture intake and substitution

Two factorial experiments were designed to determine the effects of stage of lactation, and season of the year, on cow responses to supplementary feeding. These experiments were conducted over consecutive years with 128 high genetic merit multiparous Holstein-Friesian cows in early, mid and late lactation in spring, summer, autumn and winter. At each stage of lactation, and in each season of the year, cows were offered a restricted pasture allowance (25 to 35 kg dry matter (DM) per cow per day), either unsupplemented (control) or supplemented with 50 MJ metabolizable energy (ME) per cow per day in experiment 1 and 80 MJ ME per cow per day in experiment 2. Two different supplements were offered, namely, rolled maize grain (MG) and a mixture of foods (BR) formulated to nutritionally balance the diet. In experiment 2, a fourth treatment consisting solely of a generous pasture allowance (60 to 75 kg DM per cow per day, AP) was introduced. Offering MG and BR increased DM intake (DMI). At the restricted pasture allowance, increasing total ME allowance (MEA) by offering supplementary foods increased ME intake (MEI) by 0.68 (s.e. 0.047) MJ per extra MJ ME offered. This highly significant (P < 0.001) linear relationship was consistent across seasons, and did not diminish at higher MEA. In experiment 2, cows in early lactation had lower substitution rates than mid and late lactation cows irrespective of season. Substitution rate was higher when higher pasture allowance or quality of pasture on offer enabled the unsupplemented cows to achieve higher DMI from pasture than at other times of the year. These results suggest that one of the key factors determining the intake response to supplementary foods is pasture allowance. Within spring calving dairying systems, the largest increases in total DMI per kg of supplement offered is likely when offering supplements to early lactation cows grazing restricted allowances of high quality pasture

Metastable Quantum Phase Transitions in a Periodic One-dimensional Bose Gas: Mean-Field and Bogoliubov Analyses

We generalize the concept of quantum phase transitions, which is conventionally defined for a ground state and usually applied in the thermodynamic limit, to one for \emph{metastable states} in \emph{finite size systems}. In particular, we treat the one-dimensional Bose gas on a ring in the presence of both interactions and rotation. To support our study, we bring to bear mean-field theory, i.e., the nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation, and linear perturbation or Bogoliubov-de Gennes theory. Both methods give a consistent result in the weakly interacting regime: there exist \emph{two topologically distinct quantum phases}. The first is the typical picture of superfluidity in a Bose-Einstein condensate on a ring: average angular momentum is quantized and the superflow is uniform. The second is new: one or more dark solitons appear as stationary states, breaking the symmetry, the average angular momentum becomes a continuous quantity, and the phase of the condensate can be continuously wound and unwound