71,173 research outputs found
Cyprian and his Role as the Faithful Bishop in Response to the Lapsed, the Martyrs, and the Confessors Following the Decian Persecution
In 249 A.D., in an attempt to bring about a renewal in the devotion to Roman authority and the Roman gods, Roman Emperor Decian issued an edict. The edict called for Roman citizens to take part in a simple sacrifice to the Roman deities. Cyprian, the recently named bishop of Carthage, opted to flee the city and avoid the persecution. Upon his return to Carthage in 251 A.D., Cyprian was forced to deal with the results of the persecution among those who had given in to the edict and those who had resisted. He did so with his now famous On the Lapsed. In dealing with both groups, Cyprian was faithful first to Christ and the biblical mandates that he felt the church was obligated to uphold. He was faithful also to the authority of the Church hierarchy, which he felt was being undermined even by the martyrs, whom he did believe had a special place within the Church. Finally, Cyprian was faithful to his position of bishop, which meant he was not only to lead but also to unite his community during difficult times such as persecutions, regardless of what situation or conditions existed that may have led to it. To complete this task, this study will look at a number of challenges that Cyprian faced while he attempted to remain faithful to these three areas. In doing so, the paper will focus mainly on Cyprian’s response to these challenges in his writings from On the Lapsed. The story of Cyprian and the issues surrounding the lapsed do not end with what he wrote in On the Lapsed, and the conclusion of this study will take a few moments to address some of those issues
Ultraviolet Dust Grain Properties in Starburst Galaxies: Evidence from Radiative Transfer Modeling and Local Group Extinction Curves
This paper summarizes the evidence of the ultraviolet properties of dust
grains found in starburst galaxies. Observations of starburst galaxies clearly
show that the 2175 A feature is weak or absent. This can be the result of
radiative transfer effects (mixing the dust and stars) or due to dust grains
which do not have this feature. Spherical DIRTY radiative transfer models imply
that it is not radiative transfer effects, but other radiative transfer models
with disk/bulge geometries have found cases where it could be radiative
transfer effects. Recent work on the extinction curves in the Magellanic Clouds
and Milky Way has revealed that the traditional explanation of low metallicity
for the absence of the 2175 A feature in the Small Magellanic Cloud is likely
incorrect. The SMC has one sightline with a 2175 A feature and the Milky Way
has sightlines without this feature. In addition, where the 2175 A feature is
found to be weak or absent in both Magellanic Clouds and the Milky Way, there
is evidence for recent star formation. Taking the sum of the radiative transfer
modeling of starburst galaxies and the behavior of Local Group extinction
curves, it is likely that the dust grains in starburst galaxies intrinsically
lack the 2175 A feature.Comment: 7 pages, To appear in the proceedings of: "The Spectral Energy
Distribution of Gas-Rich Galaxies: Confronting Models with Data", Heidelberg,
4-8 Oct. 2004, eds. C.C. Popescu and R.J. Tuffs, AIP Conf. Ser., in press
[fixed typo in title
Asimovian Adaptive Agents
The goal of this research is to develop agents that are adaptive and
predictable and timely. At first blush, these three requirements seem
contradictory. For example, adaptation risks introducing undesirable side
effects, thereby making agents' behavior less predictable. Furthermore,
although formal verification can assist in ensuring behavioral predictability,
it is known to be time-consuming. Our solution to the challenge of satisfying
all three requirements is the following. Agents have finite-state automaton
plans, which are adapted online via evolutionary learning (perturbation)
operators. To ensure that critical behavioral constraints are always satisfied,
agents' plans are first formally verified. They are then reverified after every
adaptation. If reverification concludes that constraints are violated, the
plans are repaired. The main objective of this paper is to improve the
efficiency of reverification after learning, so that agents have a sufficiently
rapid response time. We present two solutions: positive results that certain
learning operators are a priori guaranteed to preserve useful classes of
behavioral assurance constraints (which implies that no reverification is
needed for these operators), and efficient incremental reverification
algorithms for those learning operators that have negative a priori results
Dispersed leadership power and change: An empirical study using a critical management framework
Studies on the genus Aphodius of the United States and Canada (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) : 10. Some new species from central North America
Six new species of Aphodius Illiger (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) are described from the central United States. They are: Aphodius ashworthi, Aphodius barri, Aphodius gardneri, Aphodius salsburyi, Aphodius sayi, Aphodius ulkei
An unnecessary generic name in Exoplectrini (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae)
Chnoodes chaudoiri Mulsant (1850) is designated the type species of Chnoodes Mulsant (1850), and Chapinella Gordon (1996) is recognized as an unnecessary replacement name. A new synonymy is created placing Chapinella Gordon as a junior synonym of Chnoodes Mulsant
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