4,012 research outputs found
Why the One Cannot Have Parts: Plotinus on Divine Simplicity, Ontological Independence, and Perfect Being Theology
I use Plotinus to present absolute divine simplicity as the consequence of principles about metaphysical and explanatory priority to which most theists are already committed. I employ Phil Corkum’s account of ontological independence as independent status to present a new interpretation of Plotinus on the dependence of everything on the One. On this reading, if something else (whether an internal part or something external) makes you what you are, then you are ontologically dependent on it. I show that this account supports Plotinus’s claim that any entity with parts cannot be fully independent. In particular, I lay out Plotinus’s case for thinking that even a divine self-understanding intellect cannot be fully independent. I then argue that a weaker version of simplicity is not enough for the theist since priority monism meets the conditions of a moderate version of ontological independence just as well as a transcendent but complex ultimate being
Inferring Robot Task Plans from Human Team Meetings: A Generative Modeling Approach with Logic-Based Prior
We aim to reduce the burden of programming and deploying autonomous systems
to work in concert with people in time-critical domains, such as military field
operations and disaster response. Deployment plans for these operations are
frequently negotiated on-the-fly by teams of human planners. A human operator
then translates the agreed upon plan into machine instructions for the robots.
We present an algorithm that reduces this translation burden by inferring the
final plan from a processed form of the human team's planning conversation. Our
approach combines probabilistic generative modeling with logical plan
validation used to compute a highly structured prior over possible plans. This
hybrid approach enables us to overcome the challenge of performing inference
over the large solution space with only a small amount of noisy data from the
team planning session. We validate the algorithm through human subject
experimentation and show we are able to infer a human team's final plan with
83% accuracy on average. We also describe a robot demonstration in which two
people plan and execute a first-response collaborative task with a PR2 robot.
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that integrates a logical
planning technique within a generative model to perform plan inference.Comment: Appears in Proceedings of the Twenty-Seventh AAAI Conference on
Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-13
Are all fast radio bursts repeating sources?
We present Monte-Carlo simulations of a cosmological population of repeating
fast radio burst (FRB) sources whose comoving density follows the cosmic star
formation rate history. We assume a power-law model for the intrinsic energy
distribution for each repeating FRB source located at a randomly chosen
position in the sky and simulate their dispersion measures (DMs) and
propagation effects along the chosen lines-of-sight to various telescopes. In
one scenario, an exponential distribution for the intrinsic wait times between
pulses is chosen, and in a second scenario we model the observed pulse arrival
times to follow a Weibull distribution. For both models we determine whether
the FRB source would be deemed a repeater based on the telescope sensitivity
and time spent on follow-up observations. We are unable to rule out the
existence of a single FRB population based on comparisons of our simulations
with the longest FRB follow-up observations performed. We however rule out the
possibility of FRBs 171020 and 010724 repeating with the same rate statistics
as FRB 121102 and also constrain the slope of a power-law fit to the FRB energy
distribution to be . All-sky simulations of repeating FRB
sources imply that the detection of singular events correspond to the bright
tail-end of the adopted energy distribution due to the combination of the
increase in volume probed with distance, and the position of the burst in the
telescope beam.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Outstanding Educational Performance Awards: Highlighting High-Achieving Arkansas Schools, 2012
Chemistry in One Dimension
We report benchmark results for one-dimensional (1D) atomic and molecular
systems interacting via the Coulomb operator . Using various
wavefunction-type approaches, such as Hartree-Fock theory, second- and
third-order M{\o}ller-Plesset perturbation theory and explicitly correlated
calculations, we study the ground state of atoms with up to ten electrons as
well as small diatomic and triatomic molecules containing up to two electrons.
A detailed analysis of the 1D helium-like ions is given and the expression of
the high-density correlation energy is reported. We report the total energies,
ionization energies, electron affinities and other interesting properties of
the many-electron 1D atoms and, based on these results, we construct the 1D
analog of Mendeleev's periodic table. We find that the 1D periodic table
contains only two groups: the alkali metals and the noble gases. We also
calculate the dissociation curves of various 1D diatomics and study the
chemical bond in H, HeH, He, H, HeH and
He. We find that, unlike their 3D counterparts, 1D molecules are
primarily bound by one-electron bonds. Finally, we study the chemistry of
H and we discuss the stability of the 1D polymer resulting from an
infinite chain of hydrogen atoms.Comment: 27 pages, 7 figure
Uniform Electron Gases. II. The Generalized Local Density Approximation in One Dimension
We introduce a generalization (gLDA) of the traditional Local Density
Approximation (LDA) within density functional theory. The gLDA uses both the
one-electron Seitz radius \rs and a two-electron hole curvature parameter
at each point in space. The gLDA reduces to the LDA when applied to the
infinite homogeneous electron gas but, unlike the LDA, is is also exact for
finite uniform electron gases on spheres. We present an explicit gLDA
functional for the correlation energy of electrons that are confined to a
one-dimensional space and compare its accuracy with LDA, second- and
third-order M{\o}ller-Plesset perturbation energies and exact calculations for
a variety of inhomogeneous systems.Comment: 26 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Journal of Chemical
Physic
THE REGULATION OF ROTAVIRUS–INFECTED HT29.F8 AND MA104 CELLS TREATED WITH ARACHIDIN 1 OR ARACHIDIN 3
Rotavirus (RV) infections cause severe life threatening diarrhea in young children and immunocompromised individuals. Several effective vaccines have been developed for young children but are not protective against all strains of RV, and there are no anti-RV therapeutics. Our laboratory has discovered a decrease in the number of infectious simian RV particles (SA114f) in human intestinal cell line, HT29.f8 cells with the addition of either of two stilbenoids, arachidin-1 (A1) or arachidin-3 (A3). This suggests effects on the host cell and RV replication. We examined the cellular effects of human RV strain (Wa) on a human intestinal cell line (HT29.f8) and an African green monkey kidney cell line (MA104) treated with/without either arachidin. Both cell lines demonstrated apoptotic characteristics that were modulated with the addition of either A1 or A3, and the size and population of the released virus particles were significantly altered. Likewise, the number of infectious virus particles released from the arachidin treated cells were significantly reduced. This data supports the RV therapeutic potential of A1 and A3
Decolonial Homophobia: Is Decolonisation Incompatible with LGBT+ Affirmation in Christian Ethics?
I evaluate the argument advanced in politics and Christian ethics that I term ‘decolonial homophobia’: that decolonisation and LGBT+ affirmation are contradictory because LGBT+ rights are a global Northern phenomenon that is imperialistically imposed on the global South. I suggest one premise of the argument is valid—neo-colonial imposition of LGBT+ rights does happen and should be opposed. However, the overall argument fails because it erases or distorts diverse views and complexities of pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial history, and it tacitly supports ‘homophobic nationalism’ that is oppressive even when advanced in ostensibly decolonial causes. I grant that there are tensions within many current expressions of decolonisation and LGBT+ rights, but argue that Christians should support both decolonisation and LGBT+ rights as intersecting justice issues. I close by suggesting we listen to global Southern LGBT+ activists like Uganda's kuchus on how to navigate this tension and pursue intersectional justice in all societies
Viewing a world of disaster through the eyes of faith: The influence of religious worldviews on community adaptation in the context of disaster-related vulnerability in Indonesia
Natural disasters pose a ubiquitous threat to communities around the world. Communities perceive, understand, anticipate, and make meaning of disaster risks through the lens of their worldview. In many regions of the world, religious beliefs and practices contribute to the shaping of worldview, hence affecting the attitudes, decisions, and behaviors of a particular community. This study examines the impact of religiously-derived worldviews on community response and adaptation in the disaster-prone nation of Indonesia. Using data from the Indonesian Family Life Survey Fourth Wave, this study confirms that the religiousness of a worldview makes a difference in community-level action. The average religiosity of individuals in a community impacts the likelihood that tangible measures will be taken by the community to reduce their vulnerability to future disasters. In a community with more religious individuals, the likelihood that adaptive measures will be taken is lower, potentially due to fatalistic attitudes and beliefs regarding the locus of control over disasters and their impacts. The degree of participation in community religious activities does not appear to impact the likelihood of adaptive measures being undertaken by the community. Religiosity exhibits less influence on adaptation than other factors, such as the number of disasters a community has experienced, the occurrence of briefings about disaster preparedness, and the urban-rural location of the community. A disaster adaptation awareness culture, including tangible actions for anticipatory adaptation, is more likely to arise in communities that have experienced disasters and been briefed regarding disaster preparedness. Furthermore, urban communities are more likely than rural communities to take action to prepare for future disasters
The Rhetorical Biopower of Eugenics: Understanding the Influence of British Eugenics on the Nazi Program
The relationship between the British and Nazi eugenics movements has been underexamined, largely because of the more obvious ties between the American and Nazi programs and the lack of a state-sponsored program in Britain. This article revisits this gap to reinsert the British eugenics movement into the historiography of the Nazi program by way of their shared rhetoric. To do this, I employ Foucault’s concepts of biopower and power/knowledge, arguing that biopower exists in rhetorical constructions of power and identity, which the eugenics movements employed at national and individual levels to garner support and participation, particularly from women. The article is not an exhaustive account of the rhetorical overlaps between the two movements, but rather serves as a model of how one might understand eugenics as a rhetoric of biopower
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