10,887 research outputs found
Imsejhin ghall-qadi tal-komunita` Nisranija permezz tal-ministeru sacerdotali
No full textThe article focuses upon the call to service through the exercise of the priestly ministry. The point of departure of the study is the Johannine pericope which describes the washing of the disciples' feet by Jesus (Jn 13:1-20). The article describes how the celebration of the liturgy is a fount of vocations to the ordained ministry. The author then studies three documents of the Second Vatican Council -- Optatam Totius, Presbyterorum Ordinis and Christus Dominus -- in order to depict the centrality of service to priestly ministry. A number of evocative texts are referred to, as well as formation documents from the local Church of Malta. Furthermore, the respective contributions of Bishop Tonino Bello, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis are also given pride of place, as more light is thrown on the theme of the article.peer-reviewe
Rate Amplification and Query-Efficient Distance Amplification for Linear LCC and LDC
No full textThe main contribution of this work is a rate amplification procedure for LCC. Our procedure converts any q-query linear LCC, having rate ρ and, say, constant distance to an asymptotically good LCC with q^poly(1/ρ) queries.
Our second contribution is a distance amplification procedure for LDC that converts any linear LDC with distance δ and, say, constant rate to an asymptotically good LDC. The query complexity only suffers a multiplicative overhead that is roughly equal to the query complexity of a length 1/δ asymptotically good LDC. This improves upon the poly(1/δ) overhead obtained by the AEL distance amplification procedure [Alon and Luby, 1996; Alon et al., 1995].
Our work establishes that the construction of asymptotically good LDC and LCC is reduced, with a minor overhead in query complexity, to the problem of constructing a vanishing rate linear LCC and a (rapidly) vanishing distance linear LDC, respectively
One-way functions and (im)perfect obfuscation
No full textA program obfuscator takes a program and outputs a “scrambled” version of it, where the goal is that the obfuscated program will not reveal much about its structure beyond what is apparent from executing it. There are several ways of formalizing this goal. Specifically, in indistinguishability obfuscation, first defined by Barak et al. [Advances in Cryptology - CRYPTO, 2001, Lect. Notes Comput. Sci. 2139, Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, pp. 1–18], the requirement is that the results of obfuscating any two functionally equivalent programs (circuits) will be computationally indistinguishable. In 2013, a fascinating candidate construction for indistinguishability obfuscation was proposed by Garg et al. [Proceedings of the Symposium on Theory of Computing Conference, STOC, ACM, 2013, pp. 467–476]. This has led to a flurry of discovery of intriguing constructions of primitives and protocols whose existence was not previously known (for instance, fully deniable encryption by Sahai and Waters [Proceedings of the Symposium on Theory of Computing, 2014, STOC, pp. 475–484]). Most of them explicitly rely on additional hardness assumptions, such as one-way functions. Our goal is to get rid of this extra assumption. We cannot argue that indistinguishability obfuscation of all polynomial-time circuits implies the existence of one-way functions, since if P=NP , then program obfuscation (under the indistinguishability notion) is possible. Instead, the ultimate goal is to argue that if P≠NP and program obfuscation is possible, then one-way functions exist. Our main result is that if NP⊈io-BPP and there is an efficient (even imperfect) indistinguishability obfuscator, then there are one-way functions. In addition, we show that the existence of an indistinguishability obfuscator implies (unconditionally) the existence of SZK-arguments for NP . This, in turn, provides an alternative version of our main result, based on the assumption of hard-on-the-average NP problems. To get some of our results we need obfuscators for simple programs such as 3CNF circuits
Pollution in a promised land: an environmental history of Israel
No full textVirtually undeveloped one hundred years ago, Israel, the promised "land of milk and honey," is in ecological disarray. In this gripping book, Alon Tal provides--for the first time ever--a history of environmentalism in Israel, interviewing hundreds of experts and activists who have made it their mission to keep the country's remarkable development sustainable amid a century of political and cultural turmoil. The modern Zionist vision began as a quest to redeem a land that bore the cumulative effects of two thousand years of foreign domination and neglect. Since then, Israel has suffered from its success. A tenfold increase in population and standard of living has polluted the air. The deserts have bloomed but groundwater has become contaminated. Urban sprawl threatens to pave over much of the country's breathtaking landscape. Yet there is hope. Tal's account considers the ecological and tactical lessons that emerge from dozens of cases of environmental mishaps, from habitat loss to river reclamation. Pollution in a Promised Land argues that the priorities and strategies of Israeli environmental advocates must address issues beyond traditional green agendas
One-Way Functions and (Im)perfect Obfuscation
No full textA program obfuscator takes a program and outputs an “scrambled” version of it, where the goal is that the obfuscated program will not reveal much about its structure beyond what is apparent from executing it. There are several ways of formalizing this goal. Specifically, in indistinguishability obfuscation, first defined by Barak et al. (CRYPTO 2001), the requirement is that the results of obfuscating any two functionally equivalent programs (circuits) will be computationally indistinguishable. Recently, a fascinating candidate construction for indistinguishability obfuscation was proposed by Garg et al. (FOCS 2013). This has led to a flurry of discovery of intriguing constructions of primitives and protocols whose existence was not previously known (for instance, fully deniable encryption by Sahai and Waters, STOC 2014). Most of them explicitly rely on additional hardness assumptions, such as one-way functions. Our goal is to get rid of this extra assumption. We cannot argue that indistinguishability obfuscation of all polynomial-time circuits implies the existence of one-way functions, since if P = NP, then program obfuscation (under the indistinguishability notion) is possible. Instead, the ultimate goal is to argue that if P ̸ = NP and program obfuscation is possible, then one-wa
Observing soil organic carbon spatial and seasonal variability at the Golan Heights using Rock-Eval measurements
No full textSoil organic matter (SOM) stores most of the terrestrial carbon, and changes in this storage can have a significant effect on the global carbon cycle. Various approaches have been used to understand the SOM transformations and stability. Here, we estimated the long-term SOM stability, and the effect of decomposition on the stability and composition of the remaining fraction, by Rock-Eval pyrolysis. The sampling took place in Mount Baron, the Golan Heights, in October 2021, February 2022, and June 2022, which represent the beginning, middle, and end of the rainy season. . Each sample was pooled from 2 locations and taken by a trowel from A-horizon at 0-10 cm depth.. At each campaign, the soil was sampled at 4 heights along the north and south slopes, under tree canopy, and in open grassland. In addition, to study the different fractions of organic matter, we analyzed soil separated into particulate organic matter (POM) and mineral-associated organic matter (MAOM). The samples were dried to 55°C and were ground with a mortar and pestle before the Rock-Eval analysis (Rock Eval 6, Vinci Technologies, at Ben Gurion University of the Negev for October samples and Rock Eval 7S, Vinci Technologies, at the Geological Survey of Israel for February and June samples)
Observing soil organic carbon spatial and seasonal variability at the Golan Heights using CO2/O2 fluxes measurements in an incubation experiment
No full textSoil organic matter (SOM) stores most of the terrestrial carbon, and changes in this storage can have a significant effect on the global carbon cycle. Various approaches have been used to understand the SOM transformations and stability. Here we measured the respiratory CO2 and O2 fluxes, and their ratio (the Apparent Respiratory Quotient - ARQ) in soil incubations at different temperatures, to learn about the short-term processes affecting SOM stability. To study in detail the spatial and temporal variability, we examine soil samples from two sample sets: a regional set, and a local set that was used to study the seasonality and environmental variability within a site. The regional set was taken from 11 sites located in the north and center of the Golan Heights, the samplings took place in two campaigns in October 2020 and in January 2021. In each site, the sample was pooled from 2 sub-samples taken by a trowel from A-horizon at 0-10 cm depth in adjacent locations. The local soil samples set was taken from Mt. Baron, a volcanic cinder cone which is located in the north of Golan Heights. The sampling took place in October 2021, February 2022, and June 2022, which represent the beginning, middle, and end of the rainy season. Each sample was pooled from 2 locations and taken by a trowel from A-horizon at 0-10 cm depth. At each campaign, the soil was sampled at 4 heights along the north and south slopes, under tree canopy, and in open grassland. The incubations were conducted on fresh sieved soil (2mm), wetted with distilled water to different levels. To explore the effect of anaerobic microsites on ARQ we incubated artificial clods (1 cm diameter) with wetted soil from Mt. Baron (The local set). To further test the effects of O2 limitation we conducted an experiment in which we mitigated this limitation by enriching in oxygen the atmosphere of the incubation headspace. All the incubations were carried out at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
LCC and LDC: Tailor-Made Distance Amplification and a Refined Separation
No full textThe Alon-Edmonds-Luby distance amplification procedure (FOCS 1995) is an algorithm that transforms a code with vanishing distance to a code with constant distance. AEL was invoked by Kopparty, Meir, Ron-Zewi, and Saraf (J. ACM 2017) for obtaining their state-of-the-art LDC, LCC and LTC. Cohen and Yankovitz (CCC 2021) devised a procedure that can amplify inverse-polynomial distances, exponentially extending the regime of distances that can be amplified by AEL. However, the improved procedure only works for LDC and assuming rate 1-1/(poly log n).
In this work we devise a distance amplification procedure for LCC with inverse-polynomial distances even for vanishing rate 1/(poly log log n). For LDC, we obtain a more modest improvement and require rate 1-1/(poly log log n). Thus, the tables have turned and it is now LCC that can be better amplified. Our key idea for accomplishing this, deviating from prior work, is to tailor the distance amplification procedure to the code at hand.
Our second result concerns the relation between linear LDC and LCC. We prove the existence of linear LDC that are not LCC, qualitatively extending a separation by Kaufman and Viderman (RANDOM 2010)
Grajjiet is-Santwarju tal-Madonna tal-Grazzji
No full textContents: Xewqa mitmuma - Mit-tempji pagani ghas-Santwarju tal-lum - Santwarju li jfakkar fil-grajja tal-ordni u ta' missirijietna - Strangieri devoti tal-Madonna - Mir-registru tal-offertiThe Sanctuary of Our Lady of Divine Grace is without doubt the most prominent building in Zabbar. The author gives a detailed description of the history of the Zabbar Sanctuary and illustrates important facts on the history of Zabbar.
Is-Santwarju tal-Madonna tal Grazzji huwa bla dubju l-aktar bini prominenti fiż-Żabbar. L-awtur jagħti deskrizzjoni dettaljata tal-istorja tas-Santwarju u jaghti fatti importanti dwar l-istorja ta’ Zabbar.
Contents: Xewqa mitmuma - Mit-tempji pagani ghas-Santwarju tal-lum - Santwarju li jfakkar fil-grajja tal-ordni u ta' missirijietna - Strangieri devoti tal-Madonna - Mir-registru tal-offertipeer-reviewe
Distancia cultural desde el otro interno: Educación y relaciones con el otro tal como se discuten en las historias de vida
No full textBiografien helfen nachzuvollziehen, in welcher Weise Identität – insbesondere zwischen Mitgliedern multikultureller und multiethnischer Gesellschaften – konstruiert wird. In diesem Beitrag werden die Lebensgeschichten von sechs Frauen vorgestellt, die im Be'er Sheva-Gebiet in Israel leben, aber drei unterschiedlichen kulturellen Gruppen zugehören. Die Analyse stützt sich auf BAR-ONs (2005) Theorie der Identitätskonstruktion, in deren Fokus die Beziehungen zwischen "internalen" und "externalen Anderen" stehen. Im Besonderen interessierte uns der Zusammenhang zwischen Bildungsgeschichte und der Beziehung zu "internalen" bzw. "externalen Anderen" im Lebenslauf der befragten Frauen. Unsere Ergebnisse legen nahe, Erziehung und Bildung als eine Art Hintergrundfolie zu verstehen, auf der "das Selbst" und "die Anderen" als eher nahe oder entfernt im Sinne der jeweiligen Identitätskonstruktion platziert werden. Zusätzlich fanden wir Hinweise, die wir in dem Konzept der "kulturellen Distanz von internalen Anderen" zusammenfassten, für das Bildungsaspirationen und Berufswege eine wichtige moderierende Rolle spielen und das eine Ausweitung der Theorie BAR-ONs bedeutet. Dies wird abschließend mit Blick auf künftige Forschungsarbeiten und mit Bezug auf die israelische Gesellschaft diskutiert.URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs140230Life stories make it possible to trace the manner in which identity construction takes place, especially amongst members of multicultural and multiethnic societies. The life stories of six women belonging to three different groups, all residents of the Be'er Sheva area in Israel, were analyzed by applying and extending BAR-ON's (2005) theory of identity construction which focuses upon the relations with the "internal other" and the "external other." Specifically, we investigated the intersection between education and relations with others as factors shaping identity during the women's various life courses. Results suggest that education serves as a mapping tool which places the "self" and the "other" as either close or distant in terms of identity construction. Moreover, findings point to the existence of a "cultural distance from the internal others" (CDIO) as shaped by educational aspirations and achievements. Building upon BAR-ON's theory and the concept of CDIO, psychosocial applications and future directions for research are discussed.URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs140230Las historias de vida hacen posible remontar la manera en la cual la construcción de identidad ocurre, sobre todo entre los miembros de sociedades multiculturales y multiétnicas. Se analizan, aplicando y ampliando la teoría de construcción de identidad BAR-ON (2005) que se enfoca sobre las relaciones con el "otro interno" y el "otro externo", las historias de vida de seis mujeres que pertenecen a tres grupos diferentes, todas residentes del área de Be'er Sheva en Israel. Específicamente, investigamos la intersección entre la educación y las relaciones con otros como factores que forman la identidad durante los diversos cursos de vida de las mujeres. Los resultados sugieren que la educación sirve como un instrumento para trazar un mapa que coloca "el mí" "y el otro" como cercano o distante en términos de construcción de identidad. Además, las conclusiones indican la existencia de una "distancia cultural de los otros internos" (DCOI), formada por las aspiraciones y logros educativos. Con fundamente en la teoría del BAR-ON y el concepto de DCOI, se discuten los usos psicosociales y futuras direcciones para la investigación dentro del contexto de la sociedad israelí.URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs14023
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