The new cult of Pax Augusta 13 BC – AD 14

As Augustus returned to Rome in 13 BC, the Senate passed a constitutio to build in his honor a lasting altar of peace, the Ara Pacis Augustae, to signal with a major ceremony the new peace all over the Roman world, Gibbon’s Pax Romana. As we know from Ovid Fast. 1. 709–714, 3. 881–882, the Ara Pacis was the site of two annual sacrifices (on 30 Jan. and 30 March) to Pax, an innovation of the Augustan Age, for formerly Pax had been a minor goddess without a temple. The Augustan regime elevated a new form of Pax as a religious cult and made it acceptable to the Roman people, who had regarded Pax as the phenomenon of a foreign power too beaten down to resist Roman arms any longer and had no use for pacifism (in the modern sense), which would be seen only as cowardly in their dangerous world. Augustus had started this process, perhaps not intentionally, back when he closed the Gates of Janus in 29. By bringing together Greco-Roman elements of Pax with Jupiter and Janus, he was able to forge a new religious cult to Pax Augusta that could appeal to the average Roman by its promise of prosperity and the absence of civil war. Foreign war was perfectly acceptable and not incompatible with this cult, but the emphasis was on domestic harmony and old traditional religious practices, even if the average listener could not understand some of these obligatory, archaic chants. For this reason, the third closing of the Gates of Janus very likely accompanied one of the Ara Pacis ceremonies. Augustus also built on precedents from his divine father Julius, who had founded the towns Forum Iulii Pacatum (Fréjus, France) and Pax Iulia (Beja, Portugal) and issued Pax imagery on coinage to gain the moral high ground during the civil war. Augustus went one step further with larger sets of Pax coin issues to tell the people that he, not Antony, was trying to maintain peace when Cleopatra wanted war, and then a sequel after Actium that demonstrated his ability to prevail and restore order. The image of Pax Augusta evolved as it developed, but the epitome is the goddess we see on the East side of the Ara Pacis, surrounded by fertility and prosperity, in a state of security. Rome too would enjoy the same benefits

Augustus, Agrippa, the Ara Pacis, and the coinage of 13 BC

In 13 BC, Augustus returned to Rome from a lengthy tour of the western provinces, just as Agrippa returned from the East. All conditions had been readied to present to the Roman people the establishment of Agrippa as the new partner of Augustus’ labours after a multi-year build up, culminating in the Ara Pacis ceremony at which Agrippa co-presided. However, to those watching the political slogans and headlines of the Roman mint, the Ara Pacis ceremony and Agrippa’s prominent role therein did not bring news, for the coinage of 13 boldly proclaims Agrippa as if he were second princeps by advertizing his enhanced status and by highlighting his accomplishments beyond the level ever provided for any of Augustus’ other colleagues, including his eventual successor, Tiberius (whose own enhancement of powers after AD 4 was modeled upon the precedent of Agrippa). The coinage of 13 BC represents a break from the recent general pattern in that it broke up Augustus’ quasi-regal domination of the mint, and it sent out two simultaneous and compatible messages. Firstly, and more specifically, the imagery informed the Roman public as do newspaper headlines today of the elevation of Agrippa as Augustus’ legal equal, showing that Rome was no monarchy. The Roman mint alternated between standard issues for certain messages and new images for others, including escalation of the status of Agrippa. The year 13 provided several occasions to raise the status of Agrippa, a novus homo. Agrippa was offered a third triumph, which he again refused. He received a new priesthood(s). His tribunician power was renewed for five years, as was that of Augustus. And at the Ara Pacis ceremony, Agrippa shared equal credit for pacifying the Empire in a ceremony that may have included closing the Gates of Janus. Much of this information comes to us not just from textual evidence, but also the archeological record. The coinage of 13 informs us of the regime’s official statements and the Ara Pacis itself shows the veiled Augustus at the head of the Pontifical College and the veiled Agrippa completing the Pontifical College and starting the imperial family as a demonstration of his integral role in the state, although tragically his life would end before the Ara Pacis was completed, leaving it to be a monument of a vision of the future Augustus was never able to achieve

Essays on the Health Economics of Female Genital Cutting

I investigate the impact of a legal ban on female genital cutting (FGC) using background information on girls and their families. Furthermore, I incorporate the impact of income shocks, represented by drought events, in addition to the aforementioned factors, and analyze how both exogenous variables influence the prevalence of cutting. Using the previous results and a two-stage estimation, I assess the effects of FGC on health and education outcomes. My analysis relies on the Demographic and Health Surveys conducted in Senegal and Mali from 1995 to 2018, which offer nationally representative data on health, education, and FGC. I specifically focus on girls aged 14 or younger and gather retrospective information regarding the age at cutting. Also, I develop a strategy to handle missing data on the age at cutting for girls whose information was not recalled during the surveys. My study uniquely examines the combined impact of the law banning FGC and income shocks. Local droughts serve as a proxy for economic shocks, affecting agricultural production and household incomes. I investigate how the law and exogenous droughts influence the likelihood of FGC. To measure drought, I use rainfall data from the University of Delaware, matched to each cluster in the DHS data from Senegal and Mali. By applying a gamma distribution, I generate an extended realization of weather events, classifying a cluster as experiencing a drought event if its rainfall falls below the 15th percentile. The results indicate that while the ban reduced the prevalence of FGC, income shocks significantly alter the effect of the law. The study shows that when families face income shocks, they offset the effect of their loss in revenue by engaging in more cutting. Building on these findings, I calculate the predicted probability of undergoing FGC at different ages. I use these age-specific probabilities as Instrumental Variable to estimate the effects of FGC on health and education outcomes. The findings demonstrate adverse health consequences resulting from FGC, as well as diminished school attendance and fewer years of education for girls who have undergone the procedure

Developing a Mentoring Model, Based on Christ\u27s Approach to Discipleship, for Intern Pastors in the British Union

Problem. In an age of celebrities and power seeking, in an environment of child sex abuse and spiritual leaders bringing discredit upon the high calling position of pastoral ministry, at a time when TV evangelists seem to exercise greater influence through the impersonal medium of the mass media in contrast to the personable touch of faced-fact ministry, it is my contention that the Christian faith and its pastors stands in need of credibility in the form of its leaders living what they teach and preach. I call that Incarnational pastoring based on the ministry of Jesus and His methods of mentoring His disciples. Intern pastors seem to lack the self-confidence to give strong and confident leadership to the church of the twenty-first century. Method. The research was conducted among 27 pastors of varying experience and length of service to gather data regarding the nature and benefit of the supervisory relationship to their development. From this survey, I proceeded to create a pilot model for which I recruited volunteers to participate in and allowed the pilot six months to be implemented. Before commencing the mentor-intern relationship, I organized a two-day training session for the volunteer pastors who were to serve as mentors. The pilot drew only three sets of volunteers even though there were eleven individuals who expressed interest in participating, but because of the pressures of their work load, only three attended the training and subsequently participated in the project. The strategy of this pilot project was designed to assist young interns to enter and mature in ministry with a better prospect of developing into confident and passionate pastors who emulate the example left for us by Jesus Christ. Results and evaluation. The results of the pilot strategy revealed that for both the mentors and the interns, the mindset and attitudes were similar in that they treated the strategy as if the mentors were supervisors and the interns, to some extent, also viewed their mentors as if they were supervisors also. The observations from the feedback indicated that the mentors felt they wanted to have more ongoing training to facilitate a mentor-intern relationship. The desire to be mentored was evident from the remarks of the interns and one of the mentors actually understood what the project was aiming to achieve, but because of ongoing academic commitments, he could not give his full attention to facilitate a good relationship. Overall, the project positive feedback shows good prospects for its future in developing mentees. One weakness in the strategy is the need for ongoing training for both mentors and interns. Conclusions. It is my belief that interns need someone to listen to and affirm them, develop them, encourage and point them in the direction of living and ministering in a world that is mixed up, someone who will facilitate a relationship of openness, honesty, and vulnerability, someone who is interested in their growth as an individual and not simply there to ensure that they can perform the tasks of ministry and report back to the administrators as to their readiness to undertake the running of a church, someone other than a supervisor. There is a divine imperative to live out the principles of God’s kingdom and there is no other group of individuals who ought to incarnate this but pastors. Therefore this model is one that more of us as pastors need to accept and live out daily. The model has a good future but does need ongoing intervention and training to bring the mentors up to a good level of competence and to make the healthy development of the interns a reality. I believe that once discussed further with the church leadership, they will want to embrace this strategy and experiment with the concept to become part of the induction of all interns as they enter ministry

Macroeconomic and Political Instabilities in Sub-Saharan Africa

The analysis uses macroeconomic models designed to capture the direct impact of political instability on macroeconomic stability, and the effect of macroeconomic instability on political stability. The model is an adaptation of the neo-classical production function with fixed-effects formulated to explore the postulated interdependencies in key sub-Saharan countries over the period 1960-1990. The estimates indicate that macroeconomic instability indices as well as unemployment and inflation are positive and significantly correlated with the political instability variable. Also, there is a significant negative relationship between political instability and the nations economic output as measured by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Furthermore, there is a significant positive relationship between income inequality and political instability and the marginal propensity to political violence differs across socioeconomic groups and is highest for the lowest income group. Thus, effective strategic policy responses must take into account the reasons why people turn to violent political interest articulation and aggregation including violent disintegrative nationalism. Indeed, the analysis suggests that both political and economic reforms are necessary to stabilize the political economy of sub-Saharan Africa

Intentionaalisuus ja immateriaalisuus : Tuomas Akvinolaisen universaalisuusargumentit inhimillisen ymmärryksen luonnollisen immateriaalisuuden puolesta

In this work, I argue that there is a non-trivial historical-theoretical context in which a sound, deductive argument for the immateriality of the human intellect can be given entirely based on Thomas Aquinas’s philosophical framework. Aquinas presents several arguments for the immateriality of the human intellect. His preferred arguments for this conclusion are sometimes known as the two universality arguments, because they are based on the universal aspects of human intellectual cognition. According to the argument from the universal scope of intellectual cognition, the intellect must be immaterial because it is capable of knowing the natures or essences of all material substances, which nothing material could do. According to the argument from the universal mode of human intellectual cognition, the intellect must be immaterial because nothing material could cognize its objects in the abstract, universal mode of the intellect. These two arguments have recently received critical scholarly attention. The scope argument is considered unsuccessful by nearly all of Aquinas’s recent commentators, whereas the mode argument has been frequently defended in the literature. However, the mode argument has also been criticized for an allegedly unjustified inference known as the “content fallacy”: just because something represents universally and thus immaterially, it does not follow that it is ontologically immaterial itself, unless further argumentation is provided. Several replies have been given to the “content fallacy” objection, but these leave the matter inconclusive at best in my opinion. I think the content fallacy can be overcome, but this requires taking into consideration Aquinas’s views on how the intellect actively causes or abstracts the cognitive representations of the essences it cognizes. The resulting argument, which I call the causal universality argument, is nowhere found in Aquinas’s works in a dialectically satisfying form. However, it is an argument entirely based on Aquinas’s theoretical framework. Thus, even if it is an argument Aquinas never intended to make, it is an argument he could have coherently given without adding anything new to his philosophy. Demonstrating the immateriality of the human intellect is important to Aquinas for several reasons. For example, it is a part of Aquinas’s larger project of trying to philosophically establish the incorruptibility and immortality of the human soul, which makes the resurrection of the human being at least a coherent possibility from a philosophical point of view. If the causal universality argument is sound relative to its proper theoretical context as I argue, then Aquinas has a good basis on which to argue for these further claims

SHARP: Automated monitoring of spacecraft health and status

Briefly discussed here are the spacecraft and ground systems monitoring process at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Some of the difficulties associated with the existing technology used in mission operations are highlighted. A new automated system based on artificial intelligence technology is described which seeks to overcome many of these limitations. The system, called the Spacecraft Health Automated Reasoning Prototype (SHARP), is designed to automate health and status analysis for multi-mission spacecraft and ground data systems operations. The system has proved to be effective for detecting and analyzing potential spacecraft and ground systems problems by performing real-time analysis of spacecraft and ground data systems engineering telemetry. Telecommunications link analysis of the Voyager 2 spacecraft was the initial focus for evaluation of the system in real-time operations during the Voyager spacecraft encounter with Neptune in August 1989

The Investigation of EEG Responses for Design Tasks Using Traditional and Digital Tools

With the emergence of computers and modern technology, the way professionals do architecture has drastically change over the recent decades and schools have been faced with the task of how they want to guide the next generation of architects. Will the use of technology be taught as a fundamental skill? Or do the traditional techniques take precedent? This has raised the question of how digital technology has affected the minds of architecture students ? and more specifically ? in the area of design thinking. This research report will take a preliminary look at the neural responses in the brain when using traditional tools and digital tools. The goal of this research project is to compare the brain?s activity when using traditional tools versus digital tools. The document will go over the process of collecting electroencephalogram (EEG) data from human participants while they were using traditional and digital tools. This was made possible using the Ultracortex Headset from OpenBCI. Afterwards, the raw data was analyzed using a statistical analysis program called Igor Pro. Within the program, the waves data was transformed into Lomb Periodograms and then were compared using the Wilcoxon test and the T-test. Finally, those results were organized onto an Excel Spreadsheet

Building Blocks Towards New Education

The purpose of this research is to look at the effects digital technologies have had on education and explore ways educational facilities can react to these new technologies in the form of how we look at learning spaces. The goal with this thesis is not for it to be a guide but rather as a point of inspiration for educational facilities and designers. With the advancing development of digital technology, educational facilities are tasked with adapting to a society that has digital technology deeply ingrained in it. Educators and designers have a great opportunity to reevaluate our learning spaces and react to how digital technology might affect students learning. In the end, I used the words inclusive, exclusive, and circulation to identify and use of the space and populated\adjusted the area using a kit of parts