Hasil untuk "Practical religion. The Christian life"

Jiachun Li, Shaoping Huang, Zhuoran Jin et al.

Recent progress in the reasoning capabilities of multimodal large language models (MLLMs) has empowered them to address more complex tasks such as scientific analysis and mathematical reasoning. Despite their promise, MLLMs' reasoning abilities across different scenarios in real life remain largely unexplored and lack standardized benchmarks for evaluation. To address this gap, we introduce MMR-Life, a comprehensive benchmark designed to evaluate the diverse multimodal multi-image reasoning capabilities of MLLMs across real-life scenarios. MMR-Life consists of 2,646 multiple-choice questions based on 19,108 images primarily sourced from real-world contexts, comprehensively covering seven reasoning types: abductive, analogical, causal, deductive, inductive, spatial, and temporal. Unlike existing reasoning benchmarks, MMR-Life does not rely on domain-specific expertise but instead requires models to integrate information across multiple images and apply diverse reasoning abilities. The evaluation of 37 advanced models highlights the substantial challenge posed by MMR-Life. Even top models like GPT-5 achieve only 58% accuracy and display considerable variance in performance across reasoning types. Moreover, we analyze the reasoning paradigms of existing MLLMs, exploring how factors such as thinking length, reasoning method, and reasoning type affect their performance. In summary, MMR-Life establishes a comprehensive foundation for evaluating, analyzing, and improving the next generation of multimodal reasoning systems.

Lanny Sianipar, Meliana Rodearni Tampubolon, Aurelia Friscilla Polak et al.

School and learning are inseparable. Meaningful learning looks at several aspects in its implementation, such as the school environment, classroom management, student character to the model or lesson method used. Teachers in this case play a role as agents of reconciliation who can introduce God to their students in the classroom, this can also start from the teacher choosing a learning model. One of the learning models that can be chosen is cooperative learning which uses a model of cooperation in learning. There are various kinds of cooperative learning models, but in this study, there are three discussed. Thus, the purpose of this research is to find out the cooperative learning type STAD, Guided Inquiry and Problem based Learning in Christian perspective. With the literature review method, the results of this study are that the use of the STAD learning model has a positive impact on students, and by the philosophy of Christian education emphasizes the importance of human relations with others as the image and likeness of God. The application of the guided inquiry learning model requires the active involvement of a teacher to guide students both cognitive, social, emotional, and spiritual in learning.  Project-based learning in its implementation is expected to be able to direct students to holistic growth in accordance with the role of Christian teachers in the discipleship process.

Kevin Hudnall, Raissa D'Souza

By unifying three foundational principles of modern biology, we develop a mathematical framework to analyze the growing tree of life. Contrary to the static case, where the analogy between phylogenetic trees and the tree that grows in soil is drawn, our framework shows that the living tree of life is analogous to a Cantor dust where each branch is a distinct fractal curve. The system as a whole is therefore multifractal in the sense that it consists of many unique fractals. The three foundational principles for the mathematical framework are that phylogeny is nested, phylogeny is dualistic (i.e., transitive between singularities and populations), and phylogeny is stochastic. Integrating these three principles, we model the dynamic (i.e., living) tree of life as a random iterated function system that generates unique convexly related sequences of branching random variables (visualized in Animation 1). The multifractal nature of this dynamic tree of life implies that, for any two living entities, the time interval from their last common ancestor to the present moment is a distinct fractal curve for each. Thus, the length of a time interval along each distinct branch is unique, so that time is also multifractal and not an ultrametric on the tree of life.

Connor McShaffrey, Eran Agmon, Randall D. Beer

Nearly all cell models explicitly or implicitly deal with the biophysical constraints that must be respected for life to persist. Despite this, there is almost no systematicity in how these constraints are implemented, and we lack a principled understanding of how cellular dynamics interact with them and how they originate in actual biology. Computational cell biology will only overcome these concerns once it treats the life-death boundary as a central concept, creating a theory of cellular viability. We lay the foundation for such a development by demonstrating how specific geometric structures can separate regions of qualitatively similar survival outcomes in our models, offering new global organizing principles for cell fate. We also argue that idealized models of emergent individuals offer a tractable way to begin understanding life's intrinsically generated limits.

Andrzej Czarnecki, Jishnu Khanna

We briefly review false-vacuum decay and examine a recent proposal by Frampton to model the origin of the first single-celled organism (SCO) as a phase transition between no-life and life vacua. In his calculation the exponent $n$ entering the probability $P_{\rm SCO}\sim 10^{-n}$ has dimensions of inverse time: it is an energy barrier divided by the Planck constant, rather than a dimensionless tunnelling action. The resulting probability is mathematically ill-defined and does not determine a tunnelling rate. Apart from this dimensional issue, the assumed initial configuration, a toroidal structure made of long molecules, and its treatment in empty space are inconsistent with soft-matter physics and with the hot, collisional environment expected for prebiotic chemistry. Consequently, the claimed exponential suppression of biogenesis, and the inference that extraterrestrial life is likely absent, are not supported.

Fan Zhang

Biological activities are often seen entrained onto the day-night and other celestial mechanical cycles (e.g., seasonal and lunar), but studies on the origin of life have largely not accounted for such periodic external environmental variations. We argue that this may be an important omission, because the signature replication behaviour of life represents temporal memory in the dynamics of ecosystems, that signifies the absence of mixing properties (i.e., the dynamics are not fully chaotic), and entrainment onto regular, periodic external perturbative influences has been proven capable of suppressing chaos, and thus may bring otherwise unstable chemical reaction sets into viability, as precursors to abiogenesis. As well, external perturbations may be necessary to prevent an open dissipative (bio)chemical system from collapsing into the opposite extreme -- the point attractor of thermal equilibrium. In short, life may precariously rest on the edge of chaos, and open-loop periodic perturbation rooted in celestial mechanics (and should be simulated in laboratory experiments in origin-of-life studies) may help with the balancing. Such considerations, if pertinent, would also be consequential to exobiology, e.g., in regard to tidal-locking properties of potential host worlds.

Edward A. David

A review of Kate Ward, _Wealth, Virtue, and Moral Luck: Christian Ethics in an Age of Inequality._

Uğur Kaya, Fatma Kaya

Bu çalışmanın konusu Türkiye’de 2005-2015 yılları arasında yazılan ve YÖK Ulusal Tez Merkezinde bulunan Din Sosyolojisi alanındaki yüksek lisans ve doktora tezlerinin konusuna, ele aldıklarını ana kavrama, türüne, danışman unvanına, yazıldığı yıla ve üniversiteye göre incelenmesidir. Bu araştırmamız, din sosyolojisi alanındaki tezlere hızlı, kolay ulaşım ve alanı bütüncül görme problemine çözüm arayışının bir ürünü olarak nitelenebilir. Bu araştırma sayesinde, araştırılmak istenen konunun, din sosyolojisi alan yazınındaki mevcut durumu daha net görülecek; tekrarlardan arınık, yeni ve özgün çalışmalar için imkân sağlanmış olacaktır. Verilerin çözümlenmesinde betimsel analiz kullanılmıştır. Yapılan bu araştırmanın sonuçlarına göre; Türkiye’de Din Sosyolojisi alanında yapılan çalışmaların büyük kısmını yüksek lisans tezleri oluşturmaktadır. 2005-2015 yılları arasında yazılan tezlerde en çok “dini hayat” (n=32) kavramı ele alınmıştır. Daha sonra sırasıyla “kadın” (n=23), “din görevlileri” (n=21), “dindarlık” (n=13) ve “Alevilik” (n=12) kavramları üzerinde araştırmalar yapılmıştır. Tezlerin teorik/ampirik olarak kategorik dağılımına bakıldığında yüksek lisans düzeyindeki bilimsel çalışmaların 114’ü kuramsal din sosyolojisi araştırması, 134’ü ise ampirik çalışmadır. Doktora tezlerinde ise ampirik çalışmaların ağırlığının daha fazla olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Tezlerin konu edilen Din Sosyolojisi genel konusuna göre dağılımına bakıldığında daha çok “toplumsal yapı ve kurumlar üzerine” çalışmalar yapıldığı görülmüştür.

Inez M. Zwetsloot, Yu Lin, Jiaqi Qiu et al.

The refurbishment of an escalator is usually linked with its design life as recommended by the manufacturer. However, the actual useful life of an escalator should be determined by its operating condition which is affected by the runtime, workload, maintenance quality, vibration, etc., rather than age only. The objective of this project is to develop a comprehensive health condition analytic system for escalators to support refurbishment decisions. The analytic system consists of four parts: 1) online data gathering and processing; 2) a dashboard for condition monitoring; 3) a health index model; and 4) remaining useful life prediction. The results can be used for a) predicting the remaining useful life of the escalators, in order to support asset replacement planning and b) monitoring the real-time condition of escalators; including alerts when vibration exceeds the threshold and signal diagnosis, giving an indication of possible root cause (components) of the alert signal.

Tsung-Han Yeh, Keith A. Olive, Brian D. Fields

We explore the effect of neutron lifetime and its uncertainty on standard big-bang nucleosynthesis (BBN). BBN describes the cosmic production of the light nuclides $^1{\rm H}$, ${\rm D}$, $^3{\rm H}$+$^3{\rm He}$, $^4{\rm He}$, and $^7{\rm Li}$+$^7{\rm Be}$ in the first minutes of cosmic time. The neutron mean life $τ_n$ has two roles in modern BBN calculations: (1) it normalizes the matrix element for weak $n \leftrightarrow p$ interconversions, and (2) it sets the rate of free neutron decay after the weak interactions freeze out. We review the history of the interplay between $τ_n$ measurements and BBN, and present a study of the sensitivity of the light element abundances to the modern neutron lifetime measurements. We find that $τ_n$ uncertainties dominate the predicted $^4{\rm He}$ error budget, but these theory errors remain smaller than the uncertainties in $^4{\rm He}$ observations, even with the dispersion in recent neutron lifetime measurements. For the other light-element predictions, $τ_n$ contributes negligibly to their error budget. Turning the problem around, we combine present BBN and cosmic microwave background (CMB) determinations of the cosmic baryon density to $\textit{predict}$ a "cosmologically preferred" mean life of $τ_{n}({\rm BBN+CMB}) = 870 \pm 16 \ \rm sec$, which is consistent with experimental mean life determinations. We go on to show that if future astronomical and cosmological helium observations can reach an uncertainty of $σ_{\rm obs}(Y_p) = 0.001$ in the $^4{\rm He}$ mass fraction $Y_p$, this could begin to discriminate between the mean life determinations.

Joseph Cohen, Xun Huan, Jun Ni

In the era of industrial big data, prognostics and health management is essential to improve the prediction of future failures to minimize inventory, maintenance, and human costs. Used for the 2021 PHM Data Challenge, the new Commercial Modular Aero-Propulsion System Simulation dataset from NASA is an open-source benchmark containing simulated turbofan engine units flown under realistic flight conditions. Deep learning approaches implemented previously for this application attempt to predict the remaining useful life of the engine units, but have not utilized labeled failure mode information, impeding practical usage and explainability. To address these limitations, a new prognostics approach is formulated with a customized loss function to simultaneously predict the current health state, the eventual failing component(s), and the remaining useful life. The proposed method incorporates principal component analysis to orthogonalize statistical time-domain features, which are inputs into supervised regressors such as random forests, extreme random forests, XGBoost, and artificial neural networks. The highest performing algorithm, ANN-Flux, achieves AUROC and AUPR scores exceeding 0.95 for each classification. In addition, ANN-Flux reduces the remaining useful life RMSE by 38% for the same test split of the dataset compared to past work, with significantly less computational cost.

Eszter Bokányi, Martin Novák, Ákos Jakobi et al.

Successful innovations achieve large geographical coverage by spreading across settlements and distances. For decades, spatial diffusion has been argued to take place along the urban hierarchy such that the innovation first spreads from large to medium cities then later from medium to small cities. Yet, the role of geographical distance, the other major factor of spatial diffusion, was difficult to identify in hierarchical diffusion due to missing data on spreading events. In this paper, we exploit spatial patterns of individual invitations on a social media platform sent from registered users to new users over the entire life cycle of the platform. This enables us to disentangle the role of urban hierarchy and the role of distance by observing the source and target locations of flows over an unprecedented timescale. We demonstrate that hierarchical diffusion greatly overlaps with diffusion to close distances and these factors co-evolve over the life cycle; thus, their joint analysis is necessary. Then, a regression framework is applied to estimate the number of invitations sent between pairs of towns by years in the life cycle with the population sizes of the source and target towns, their combinations, and the distance between them. We confirm that hierarchical diffusion prevails initially across large towns only but emerges in the full spectrum of settlements in the middle of the life cycle when adoption accelerates. Unlike in previous gravity estimations, we find that after an intensifying role of distance in the middle of the life cycle a surprisingly weak distance effect characterizes the last years of diffusion. Our results stress the dominance of urban hierarchy in spatial diffusion and inform future predictions of innovation adoption at local scales.

Adriaan L. Rheeder

It has become evident from a practical, legal and theological perspectives that there are strong reasons that the principles underlying article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Bioethics and Human Rights (UDBHR) have to be grounded in the Bible. It is clear that the UDBHR states benefit-sharing in article 15 as a global obligation. A narrower understanding of obligation means that people participating in research has the right to share in the benefits. A broader understanding of article 15 states that it is also an obligation to share abundance in the health environment with the needy outside the context of direct research. It can be said that article 15 is based on the universal principles of equality, justice, solidarity and social responsibility. The theological argumentation indicated that it is acceptable to ground both the narrower and the broader interpretation of article 15 in the biblical concept of koinōnia [fellowship]. Koinōnia can be connected with trade justice or justice-in-exchange and research, as well as the duty to share the existing abundance in the health environment with the needy. Koinōnia, as an appeal to share, gives expression to equality, righteousness, solidarity and social responsibility. Article 15 of the UDBHR can be wholeheartedly supported and promoted by the Protestant faith community.

Danielle Ellis

Missions have been a part of the Christian faith since its genesis. Various approaches to transmitting the faith through missions have been implemented over time, some with unforeseen and frankly negative, long-term political, social, and even theological consequences. In medical missions, specifically, the consequences include the potential of compromised individual and collective health. These vulnerabilities make it essential to consider the theoretical and practical approaches with which we, as Christians, engage with our neighbors. Missiologists critically and theologically consider the motives, methods, and mandates of the Christian believer in the world. Efforts to reconfigure the role of missions from a past intertwined with imperialism to one that brings each party into partnership are ongoing. In medical missions, questions about how to assume a Christian posture are complicated, not only by the sociohistorical context of the missions movement but also by the fact that medicine in and of itself engenders imbalances in power. This paper puts forth a proposal for a posture in medical missions as understood through the lens of Philippians. In the context of Paul’s mission to this group of early believers, the apostle repeatedly encourages his congregation to imitate Christ. In his letter to the Philippians, he lays out what Christ did and how his followers might hope to be like him. Paul describes Jesus’ wholly countercultural disposition and actions, giving his audience the opportunity to consider how this might inform their own lives. In so doing, he also provides a framework for understanding the ideal missionary. What follows is a Pauline construal of the call to imitation as a disciple, a discussion of how those engaging in medical missions might embody the same posture as the incarnate Christ, and a reflection on how a shift in posture might facilitate greater participation for both disciples and disciplers in God’s restoring work on earth.

Katsunobu Imai, Kyosuke Oroji, Tomohiro Kubota

Larger than Life cellular automaton (LtL) is a class of cellular automata and is a generalization of the game of Life by extending its neighborhood radius. We have studied the three-dimensional extension of LtL. In this paper, we show a radius-4 three-dimensional LtL rule is a candidate for weakly universal one.

J. Milbank

This rough guide provides Prof. Milbank’s answers to questions from Sven Grosse for a conference, in German, held in Basel, Switzerland in 2017. This written interview will be published in German, but Prof. Milbank has kindly offered Acta Theologica the exclusive publication of this interview in English. It should be read along with the interview with Profs Milbank and Ward published in this Supplementum of Acta Theologica. What follows is not an ordinary academic paper. Instead, it is a polemical summary designed to give a general idea of Radical Orthodoxy (RO) in terms of its origins, main ideas, milieu and general cultural “feel”. If a great deal is mentioned about past thinkers and genealogies of the modern, it is not because RO thinkers suppose that this is at the heart of the modern, but rather because rival, liberal theological outlooks often, in part, depend, either openly or covertly, on stories about the past and the readings of some crucial thinkers. “Telling a different story” is then crucial to any genuinely subversive theological proposal. The majority of the stories I shall tell are based on scholarly research on RO, much thereof generally accepted by experts, if not always well disseminated. It is rather my “take” on these stories and their historical and contemporary implications that are most debatable and controversial.

Erna Oliver

Theology is just as relevant today as it was in the time of Aquinas who called theology ‘the queen of science’ although the knowledge-driven network society does not seem to be in agreement. By using the tools provided by the fourth revolution in the development of society, theology can, as part of the academic world of higher education that is supposed to lead society, strengthen ties with the past, seek explanations and solutions to current problems and produce guidelines for future investigation through multi- and interdisciplinary discourse. Theology can and should influence people to become positive change agents, re-shape the way in which the message of salvation is brought to the world in order to stay relevant in changing circumstances and be on the forefront of progressive transformation in society. This should be achieved through constant dialogue with other academic disciplines, the Church as institution and with society in general.

Fergus Simpson

Why did the emergence of our species require a timescale similar to the entire habitable period of our planet? Our late appearance has previously been interpreted by Carter (2008) as evidence that observers typically require a very long development time, implying that intelligent life is a rare occurrence. Here we present an alternative explanation, which simply asserts that many planets possess brief periods of habitability. We also propose that the rate-limiting step for the formation of observers is the enlargement of species from an initially microbial state. In this scenario the development of intelligent life is a slow but almost inevitable process, greatly enhancing the prospects of future SETI experiments such as the Breakthrough Listen project.

Sıddık Korkmaz

Imam al-Maturidi, living in the region of Mavaradunnahr is the founder of the Maturidism, one of the most important theological school among the Turks. Available sources do not have much information about his life. Maturidi developed Abu Hanifa’ s teaching in to a theological school. Unfortunately Maturisim is not known as Asharism. Maturidi was educated by Muhammad b. Mukatil al-Razi, Abu Nasr al-Iyazi, Nusayr b. Yahya al-Balhi and Abu Bakr Ahmad b. Ishak al-Cuzcani and he also taught to following scholars; Abu al-Hasan al-Rustugfani, Abu al-Kasım al-Samarkandi, Pazdavi and Abu Ahmad al-Iyazf. Some of his books whiclı are available now are Ta 'wilat al-Kur 'an and Kitab al Tawhid. But it is not known if manuscription Kitab al-Makalat was written by him or not

Bekir Tatlı