THE RULE OF ST. BENEDICT SEBAGAI MODEL FORMASI SPIRITUAL SEMINARI

This research is based on the thought of a saint, St. Benedict, contained in a rule made in the context of monastery, the Rule of St. Benedict. This rule has shaped the spiritual life of God's people for dozens of centuries. The strong emphasis on the balance of ora et labora, prayer and work, made this pattern relevant till date. This rule is also used as an approach to the forming of the patterns of spiritual formation in seminaries. Theological education is closely related to the growth of God's people. Thus, seminary as one model of theological education needs to have a good pattern related to the spiritual formation of everyone in it. The condition of seminaries in the present era with a tendency to show more attention to academic formation than to spiritual formation can cause imbalance in the life of seminarians. The Rule of St. Benedict can be a reference model so that seminaries can carry out a balanced theological education process to ensure that the academic quality exists as a part of the wholistic spiritual life. Keywords: ora et labora, seminary, spiritual formation, the Rule of St. Benedict. Abstrak: Penelitian ini didasarkan oleh pemikiran seorang kudus, St. Benediktus yang tertuang dalam sebuah aturan yang dibuat dalam konteks biara, the Rule of St. Benedict. Aturan ini telah membentuk kehidupan spiritual umat Tuhan selama belasan abad. Penekanan yang kuat pada keseimbangan ora et labora, berdoa dan bekerja, membuat pola ini dapat digunakan hingga saat ini. Aturan ini juga digunakan sebagai pendekatan untuk membentuk pola formasi spiritual di seminari. Pendidikan teologi memiliki kaitan yang erat dengan pertumbuhan umat Tuhan. Dengan demikian, seminari sebagai salah satu model dari pendidikan teologi perlu memiliki sebuah pola yang baik terkait dengan formasi spiritual setiap orang di dalamnya. Kondisi seminari pada masa kini yang menunjukkan kecenderungan perhatian pada formasi akademik daripada formasi spiritual dapat mengakibatkan ketidakseimbangan dalam kehidupan para seminaris. The Rule of St. Benedict dapat menjadi sebuah model acuan agar seminari dapat menjalankan proses pendidikan teologi secara seimbang guna memastikan bahwa kualitas akademik hadir sebagai bagian dalam kehidupan spiritual secara holistik. Kata-kata kunci: ora et labora, seminari, formasi spiritual, The Rule of St. Benedict.

Structural family therapy untuk memperbaiki interaksi dalam keluarga

Problems in the family is the result of a reaction to the social interaction between family members. Bad communication and obscurity of interaction between family members leads to misunderstandings in family relationships. Structural Family Therapy used to improve the pattern of communication in the family. The subject consists of three members of the family. The data were obtained using interview and observation. The intervention was carried out in five sessions. The results of the intervention were each family member has a good pattern of communication, reduced misunderstandings, clear regulations and role in the interaction between them.

Pattern Synthesis for Dual-Polarized Conformal Arrays via Iterative Convex Optimization

An iterative convex optimization (ICO) algorithm is proposed to solve pattern synthesis problem under the framework of dual-polarized conformal arrays in this paper. The subproblems of shaping main lobe, optimizing side lobe, and suppressing cross-polarization component are summarized as a joint optimization problem. To solve this problem, the nonconvex constraint about main lobe is rewritten as a convex constraint, which will bring error. And an auxiliary phase function is introduced to correct this error alternatively. Due to the deviation between auxiliary phase and real phase of pattern function, a method minimizing the peak of the synthesis error over observation angles is effectively applied to further improve the performance of the method. Numerical examples show good pattern synthesis ability and convergence performance of the ICO method.

Why Can’t Neural Networks Forecast Pandemics Better

Why can’t neural networks (NN) forecast better? In the major super-forecasting competitions, NN have typically under-performed when compared to traditional statistical methods. When they have performed well, the underlying methods have been ensembles of NN and statistical methods. Forecasting stock markets, medical, infrastructure dynamics, social activity or pandemics each have their own challenges. In this study, we evaluate the strengths of a collection of methods for forecasting pandemics such as Covid-19 using NN, statistical methods as well as parameterized mechanistic models. Forecasts of epidemics can inform public health response and decision making, so accurate forecasting is crucial for general public notification, timing and spatial targeting of intervention. We show that NN typically under-perform in forecasting Covid-19 active cases which can be attributed to the lack of training data which is common for forecasts. Our test data consists of the top ten countries for active Covid-19 cases early in the pandemic and is represented as a Time Series (TS). We found that Statistical methods outperform NN for most cases. Albeit, NN are still good pattern finders and we suggest that there are perhaps more productive ways other than purely data driven models of using NN to help produce better forecasts.

Less is more

According to the Body-Specificity Hypothesis, humans preferentially associate positive features with their dominant side with which they interact more fluently, and negatives features with their non-dominant side with which they act more clumsily. The current research investigated implicit space-valence mappings in two clinical populations, namely, patients with unilateral stroke and individuals who suffered the loss of a limb. Across the two studies, our findings offered general support for the Body-Specificity Hypothesis with important caveats. Specifically, the body-specificity effect was more detectable in the two groups of right-handed individuals with motor fluency impairment on their left side than healthy controls. This is possibly because the former can gain more fluent experience with their dominant hand since they exclusively use the intact hand for self-sufficiency, which may increase their bias toward “right-is-good” pattern. Taken together, the results provided converging evidence that individual differences in action fluency may moderate the body-specificity effect.

The Role of products of Microfinance for Reducing the Poverty of the Borrowers: Exploratory Factor Analysis

This paper intend to analyses the structural characteristics of microfinance and statistically categorized them in to five products of microfinance as independent variable and poverty reduction as dependent variable. Data were gathered from 494 borrowers of Samurdhi microfinance program in five districts in Sri Lanka using Likert scale questionnaire. The collected data analyzed by Exploratory Factor analysis using SPSS 21 version. The factor Metrix of the EFA results presented good pattern distribution among 38 items which indicated that six constructs loaded properly which is greater than acceptable threshold >0.5. Therefore, the results explored that the 38 items can be grouped properly into the six constructs based on their items.

Utilising Flowability Sensor for Green Sand Mould Characterisation

In this work, an attempt has been made to improve the sand casting process by reducing the percentage of casting defects. The enhancement of the sand casting process is based on producing green sand castings with good pattern profiles and no failures at any complex ‎points during the separation process, handling and transportation. This work ‎introduces modified, non-destructive, direct tests for measuring sand mould ‎properties using sensor readings. ‎A new flowability sensor has been used to measure the time-dependent density, ‎distance-dependent mould hardness, and distance-dependent mould strength. The ‎sensor is able to detect sand motion at the desired points during the mould-making process. The live characterisation of the green sand mould is used to determine the optimum ‎parameters for the compaction process, reduction of the moulding time, and spent ‎energy, so that the cost of the moulding and casting process will be reduced.‎ It has been found that there is a linear relationship between the properties of the green sand samples and the sensor signals. The new method facilitates the measurement of sand properties and determines the most effective moulding parameters based on the flowability sensor readings. The resultant increases in both compactibility and compaction pressure improve mould hardness and mould strength.

Hybrid gold/DNA nanowire circuit with sub-10 nm nanostructure arrays

We report on a simple and efficient method for the selective positioning of Au/DNA hybrid nanocircuits using a sequential combination of electron-beam lithography (EBL), plasma ashing, and a molecular patterning process. The nanostructures produced by the EBL and ashing process could be uniformly formed over a 12.6 in2 substrate with sub-10 nm patterning with good pattern fidelity. In addition, DNA molecules were immobilized on the selectively nanopatterned regions by alternating surface coating procedures of 3-(aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APS) and diamond like carbon (DLC), followed by deposition of DNA molecules into a well-defined single DNA nanowire. These single DNA nanowires were used not only for fabricating Au/DNA hybrid nanowires by the conjugation of Au nanoparticles with DNA, but also for the formation of Au/DNA hybrid nanocircuits. These nanocircuits prepared from Au/DNA hybrid nanowires demonstrate conductivities of up to 4.3 × 105 S/m in stable electrical performance. This selective and precise positioning method capable of controlling the size of nanostructures may find application in making sub-10 nm DNA wires and metal/DNA hybrid nanocircuits.

The Effect of Strict State Measures on the Epidemiologic Curve of COVID-19 Infection in the Context of a Developing Country: A Simulation from Jordan

COVID-19 has posed an unprecedented global public health threat and caused a significant number of severe cases that necessitated long hospitalization and overwhelmed health services in the most affected countries. In response, governments initiated a series of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) that led to severe economic and social impacts. The effect of these intervention measures on the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic are not well investigated within developing country settings. This study simulated the trajectories of the COVID-19 pandemic curve in Jordan between February and May and assessed the effect of Jordan’s strict NPI measures on the spread of COVID-19. A modified susceptible, exposed, infected, and recovered (SEIR) epidemic model was utilized. The compartments in the proposed model categorized the Jordanian population into six deterministic compartments: suspected, exposed, infectious pre-symptomatic, infectious with mild symptoms, infectious with moderate to severe symptoms, and recovered. The GLEAMviz client simulator was used to run the simulation model. Epidemic curves were plotted for estimated COVID-19 cases in the simulation model, and compared against the reported cases. The simulation model estimated the highest number of total daily new COVID-19 cases, in the pre-symptomatic compartmental state, to be 65 cases, with an epidemic curve growing to its peak in 49 days and terminating in a duration of 83 days, and a total simulated cumulative case count of 1048 cases. The curve representing the number of actual reported cases in Jordan showed a good pattern compatibility to that in the mild and moderate to severe compartmental states. The reproduction number under the NPIs was reduced from 5.6 to less than one. NPIs in Jordan seem to be effective in controlling the COVID-19 epidemic and reducing the reproduction rate. Early strict intervention measures showed evidence of containing and suppressing the disease.

Determinant Factors of Money Management among Nigerian Undergraduates

The study assessed money management on Nigerian undergraduates at the University of Ilorin, Nigeria. Six research questions and four hypotheses were formulated. Descriptive research of a survey type was adopted. There were 16 faculties with five were selected purposively. The snowball method was used to select the sample size from the total population. A self-structured questionnaire was used to elicit information from the participants. Data collected were analyzed using frequency and percentage, while hypotheses were tested using ANOVA at 0.05 level of significance. Based on the findings, the participants agreed that they had different sources of money to make use of with a grand mean score of 2.83, while the course of study, religious beliefs, relationship status, and lifestyle influenced their money management with grand mean scores 2.80, 2.56, 2.85 and 2.70 respectively. The research hypotheses depicted the insignificant effect on religious beliefs, lifestyle, and relationship status had on money management, but only the effect of undergraduates' course of study was significant, and thus, the hypothesis was rejected. Conclusively, every undergraduate should apply a good pattern of financial behavior for improvement and sensitize themselves on money appropriateness since they will become future managers and decision-makers that will generate future revenues.