Washington Research Library Consortium - Digital Collections
Not a member yet
125665 research outputs found
Sort by
The Court of Conscience: Transferring Cases from the Contentious Forum to the Forum of Conscience in Medieval Canonical Jurisprudence and Praxis
No full textDuring the Middle Ages, ecclesiastical courts were often approached by petitioners who wanted some person awarded to them as husband or wife, alleging that a clandestine marriage had been contracted between them. Often enough, the allegation could not be proven, so that the defendant was given free license to marry another, while the petitioner was “relinquished to her conscience.” The practice of relinquishing someone to their conscience was common, but, even though there was an explicit warrant for doing so in the decretal X 2.24.34, Mulieri, the meaning of the practice is barely explained in the Ordinary Gloss, or in most of the more accessible commentaries, rendering it opaque to modern scholars. Yet, the existence of such a practice is evidence of the grappling of lawyers and popes with deep questions about the canonical system: In matters touching on divine law, how far does the competence of the ecclesiastical justice system truly extend? What is the role of individual conscience? Where is the boundary between the public and the occult (i.e., secret)? To investigate the practice of remittal to conscience is therefore to become familiar with medieval thought on these topics, and to encounter the remote origins of the internal forum, which the medievals called the forum of conscience. Some twenty of the more prominent canonists working between 1190 and 1500 were consulted—among them, Huguccio, Laurentius Hispanus, Tancred, Goffredus Tranensis, Hostiensis, Johannes Andreae, Baldus, Zabarella, and Antonius de Butrio. Rather than a mere survey of their opinions, the method is to situate each author’s commentary on remittal to conscience within his peculiar juridic scheme, or larger theoretical framework. In this way, conscience becomes visible in its full significance, not only in practice, but in canonical doctrine—which remittal to conscience touched at many points: not only marriage, but penance, penalties, irregularity, rules of evidence and deferred oaths / decisiory oaths. It also becomes possible to discern changes over time, some quite significant, as canonists elaborated how conscience touched, or didn’t touch, canonical procedure. An analysis of selected medieval case law related to remittal to conscience is furnished as an appendix.
Remittal to conscience was the fruit of a twelfth century achievement: the demarcation of the occult as the province of divine judgment, as distinct from the sphere of ecclesiastical judgment. The thirteenth century saw deliberate use of conscience to solve problems in certain areas of law. But canonists of the following century preferred to find their solutions in the procedural law whenever possible, and referred to conscience less often—even as it was incorporated into procedure under the title of “burdening the conscience.” In the fifteenth century, changing attitudes about the nature and purposes of law began a process which would all but eliminate remittal to conscience from the jurisprudence of the external forum. Always, remittal to conscience had had to do with the separation of the two forums, and this development can be regarded as a further perfection of that separation.Canon lawMedieval historyConscience, Internal Forum, Marriage, Medieval, Procedural LawCanon LawDegree Awarded: J.C.D. Canon Law. The Catholic University of Americ
From Reform to Reformation: The Life and Times of Abbess Caritas Pirckheimer (1467-1532)
No full textFrom Reform to Reformation: The Life and Times of Abbess Caritas Pirckheimer (1467-1532)Margaret Katya Mouris, Ph.D.Director: Nelson H. Minnich, Ph.D.The life of Caritas Pirckheimer spanned revolutionary times in the history of the Church. She is best-known for her response to Lutheranism, a compendium of writings known as the Denkwürdigkeiten. In it, she forcefully repudiated efforts to convert her to Protestantism and to close the convent of which she was abbess. While offering a fresh analysis of the Denkwürdigkeiten, this dissertation is also an attempt to situate Caritas in broader contexts, placing her in the middle of historiographical debate regarding the evolution from “late Middle Ages” to “early modernity”. She at once transcends these epochs while being profoundly engaged in the historical processes at work in them. Each chapter correlates to a particular movement, namely Observant reform, humanism, the Protestant Reformation, and resistance to the Reformation. Each chapter also contains vignettes of relationships Caritas held with persons ranging from Albrecht Dürer to Philipp Melanchthon, which demonstrate the degree to which Caritas was engaged in the world, despite being a cloistered nun. In sum, this dissertation undertakes a thorough examination of this compelling historical figure, often overlooked in the tumult of the early Reformation, yet a lively eyewitness to the historical shifts taking place around her.HistoryTheologyGerman literatureHistoryDegree Awarded: Ph.D. History. The Catholic University of Americ
Current awareness for remote locations
No full textPublished information has grown at increasing rates over the last two decades. People stationed in remote locations often have neither the bandwidth nor the time to remain current. Further, important information is often found in publications other than those one might expect. With new information coming out every day, our staff of scientists, interpretive specialists, educators, planners, contract administrators, and others can fall behind, leading to unnecessary expenses and embarrassing mistakes. The Grand Canyon National Park Research Library supports a staff of from 250 to 450 people (depending on the season) in multiple remote locations across northern Arizona, USA. To enable the staff to keep up, the Library monitors some 900 journals and other resources, identifies relevant items, and sends a periodic email with links to these items to the Park staff and other interested people. The Library uses a variety of online and offline tools to maintain an efficient workflow.A presentation that was delivered online in the Thirteenth Annual Symposium, "Bridging the Spectrum: A Symposium on Scholarship and Practice in Library and Information Science" at the Catholic University of America in 2021
Quick Access to International Collections: Country Guides at the Library of Congress
No full textWith the formal implementation of LibGuides, an electronic platform well-known to libraries, the Hispanic Division at the Library of Congress set out to create individual Research Guides representing each country in the Luso-Hispanic world. The purpose of this project was to provide users anywhere with quick access to digitized international collections held at the Library, highlighting items from and about each country through links and canned searches. This briefing will describe the creation process of the Hispanic Division Country Guides, from individual guides to a sophisticated series of guides that are widely shared as ready reference tools.A presentation that was delivered online in the Thirteenth Annual Symposium, "Bridging the Spectrum: A Symposium on Scholarship and Practice in Library and Information Science" at the Catholic University of America in 2021
Collecting and Curating COVID-19: One Historical Society's Online Approach
No full textIn spring of 2020, as COVID-19 closed most libraries and cultural heritage institutions, these institutions turned to online platforms to stay in touch with patrons. In addition, many of these same institutions announced efforts to collect pandemic-related stories and artifacts from their constituents. History Nebraska - the official historical society of the state of Nebraska - was one such institution. Through a use of various online information systems, History Nebraska announced, collected, curated, and shared COVID-19 objects/stories throughout 2020. While not unusual among cultural heritage institutions in this regard, History Nebraska does offer a case study of how one local historical society worked to channel their collecting and curating processes through publicly-available online platforms. This COVID-19 collecting project provides an example of the challenges, opportunities, and local/institutional factors that can shape such a project.A presentation that was delivered online in the Thirteenth Annual Symposium, "Bridging the Spectrum: A Symposium on Scholarship and Practice in Library and Information Science" at the Catholic University of America in 2021
Neighborhood disadvantage and children's cognitive skill trajectories
No full textChildren and Youth Services Review, Volume 116, September 2020, Article number 105231.This study examined how neighborhood poverty is associated with children's trajectories of growth in math and reading skills in early elementary school, and how these associations vary by student characteristics, using multilevel growth models with nationally representative data from the 2011 Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort. About one-quarter (25.6%) of children lived in communities of concentrated poverty. Findings suggest that achievement gaps by neighborhood disadvantage are large and present before Kindergarten, shrink during the Kindergarten year, but then widen the year following, and remain relatively consistent in the first years of elementary school. Growth in math skills appeared to vary more with neighborhood poverty than growth in reading skills. There was limited evidence that the relationship between neighborhood poverty and test score trajectories varied by child race, ethnicity, early education and Kindergarten experience, and parents’ immigration status, but growth differences across student characteristics were small. Policy and research implications are discussed
The association of lifestyle factors and ADHD in children
No full textJournal of Attention Disorders, Volume 24, Issue 11, 1 September 2020, Pages 1511-1520.Objective: The objective of the study is to examine whether children aged 7 to 11 years with very well-characterized ADHD, recruited from the community, have a similar number of healthy lifestyle behaviors as compared with typically developing children from the same community. Method: Parents of children with (n = 184) and without (n = 104) ADHD completed a lifestyle questionnaire asking about water intake, sweetened beverage consumption, multivitamin/supplement use, reading, screen time, physical activity, and sleep. A lifestyle index was formed from these seven domains (0-7), and multivariable ordered logistic regression was used to examine the association of ADHD status and total healthy lifestyle behaviors. Results: Children with ADHD were almost twice as likely to have fewer healthy behaviors, even after adjustment for age, sex, intelligence quotient (IQ), ADHD medication use, household income, and four comorbid psychiatric disorders (odds ratio [OR] [95% confidence interval] = 1.95 [1.16, 3.30], p =.01). Conclusion: Future research is needed to assess the effects of a combined lifestyle intervention in this group
Contrast sensitivity testing in retinal vein occlusion using a novel stimulus
No full textTranslational Vision Science and Technology, Volume 9, Issue 11, October 2020, Article number 29, Pages 1-11.Purpose: This study evaluated a novel tool known as the motion diamond stimulus (MDS), which utilizes contrast-generated illusory motion in dynamic test regions to determine contrast sensitivity (CS). Methods: Patients with treated unilateral retinal vein occlusions (RVOs) underwent three assessments: the MDS, the Pelli-Robson (PR), and the National Eye Institute’s Visual Function Questionnaire (VFQ-25). The MDS assessment produced two data end points, α and β.Theα value represents the overall contrast threshold level and the β value serves to quantify the adaptability of the visual contrast system. The CS parameters from the MDS and log CS PR output values were used to compare RVO eyes (n = 20) to control eyes (n = 20). Results: The study participants had a mean composite VFQ-25 score of 89.5 ± 10.4 on the VFQ-25. A significant difference was observed between the RVO eyes and the control eyes in PR log CS scores (P value = 0.0001) and in MDS α value (P value = 0.01). No difference in MDS β value was found between the study groups (P value = 0.39). Conclusions: The results for the MDS assessment’s α parameter corroborated the PR scores, suggesting contrast sensitivity threshold impairment in patients with RVO. No significant difference in β value was observed, suggesting that adaptability of the visual system is maintained in treated RVO eyes. Translational Relevance: Currently, visual complaints cannot be entirely identified by Snellen visual acuity alone. The MDS offers potentially a more complete look at visual function, by including contrast sensitivity and may be able to quantify changes other-wise overlooked in retinal disease progression
Resolving the excess of long GRB's at low redshift in the Swift era
No full textMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 493, Issue 1, 1 March 2020, Pages 1479-1491.Utilizing more than 100 long gamma-ray bursts (LGRBs) in the Swift-Ryan-2012 sample that includes the observed redshifts and jet angles, Le & Mehta performed a timely study of the rate density of LGRBs with an assumed broken power-law GRB spectrum and obtained a GRB-burst-rate functional form that gives acceptable fits to the pre-Swift and Swift redshift, and jet angle distributions. The results indicated an excess of LGRBs at redshift below z ∼ 2 in the Swift sample. In this work, we are investigating if the excess is caused by the cosmological Hubble constant H0, the gamma-ray energy released ϵ∗γ, the low- and high-energy indices (α, β) of the Band function, the minimum and maximum jet angles Θj, min and Θj, max, or that the excess is due to a bias in the Swift-Ryan-2012 sample. Our analyses indicate that none of the above physical parameters resolved the excess problem, but suggesting that the Swift-Ryan-2012 sample is biased with possible afterglow selection effect. The following model physical parameter values provide the best fit to the Swift-Ryan-2012 and pre-Swift samples: the Hubble constant H0 = 72 kms-1Mpc-1, the energy released ϵ∗γ ∼ 4.47 × 1051 erg, the energy indices α ∼ 0.9 and β ∼-2.13, the jet angles of Θj, max ∼ 0.8 rad, and Θj, min ∼ 0.065 and ∼0.04 rad for pre-Swift and Swift, respectively, s∼-1.55 the jet angle power-law index, and a GRB formation rate that is similar to the Hopkins & Beacom observed star formation history and as extended by Li. Using the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Host Galaxy Legacy Survey (SHOALS) Swift-Perley LGRB sample and applying the same physical parameter values as above, however, our model provides consistent results with this data set and indicating no excess of LGRBs at any redshift