Destructive environments in video games are a feature that can give a gamemore depth and realism by being able to change the landscape or raze a building.This report talks about the research and implementation of a dynamicdestruction system for the video game Scrap Mechanic. The end results are asystem that could split convex 3D meshes to smaller pieces in almost real-time.It was a somewhat stable implementation that needs some future work beforeit can be used in the game. Therefore, in this report, things that could beimproved with the current implementation and how to use it are discussed.

Oration 30 (Or. 30) has been commonly used in scholarship as positive affirmation of religious violence and temple destruction in late Antique Syria. This view of widespread violence in late 4th century Syria was previously supported by scholarship on temple destruction and conversion, which tended to argue that temple destruction and conversion was a widespread phenomenon in the 4th and 5th centuries. Recent archaeological scholarship, however, argues against this perspective, in favour of temple destruction and conversion being a rather exceptional and late phenomenon. The question must therefore be asked, to what extent can Libanius’ Or. 30 be used as a source of temple destruction in the Antiochene countryside in Late Antiquity? This question is explored through three chapters which examine: the text and context of Or. 30, the use and application of Roman law in Or. 30, and the archeological evidence for temple destruction and conversion in the Antiochene countryside. This research has revealed that Libanius tends to use similar arguments in his ‘reform speeches,’ that there was no legal basis for temple destruction in the late 4th century, and that there is no archaeological evidence for widespread temple destruction occurring around the composition of Or. 30. Thus, the evidence shows that Libanius’ claim of widespread violence must be seen as an exaggeration. Meaning that Or. 30 cannot be used to support the idea of widespread destruction and religious violence in the Antiochene countryside at the end of the 4th century or, for that matter, Late Antiquity in general.

Class of 2006 Abstract / Objectives: To determine the economic impact of controlled substance destruction in multiple long term care facilities in Southern Arizona and to identify related demographic characteristics of the patients and facilities. Methods: Subjects had controlled substance prescriptions destroyed at nursing homes serviced by a pharmacy nursing home provider in Tucson, Arizona. Controlled substances destruction records and existing prescription records were reviewed and data was collected on the name, strength, number of units destroyed, date of destruction and schedule of each controlled medication that was destroyed for a particular patient over the course of a year. Demographic data was collected on patient gender, age, type of insurance coverage and the size of the nursing home facilities. Results: A total of 1095 controlled substance prescriptions were destroyed during the time period of the study and the total cost of destroyed medication was $26,886.37. The average cost of destroyed medication per prescription was $24.55 ± 60.38 (mean ± SD). Schedule II controlled substances accounted for the highest total cost per prescription destroyed and destruction of unused controlled substances cost indigent insurance programs more than any of the other payers studied. There was no difference in mean cost per prescription destroyed by facility, therapeutic class or between women and men. Conclusions: The value of controlled substance destruction in long term care facilities is sizeable. To reduce waste, prescribers and pharmacy providers should initially dispense moderate quantities of controlled substances until it is apparent that the medication is tolerable and efficacious for the patient.

The United Nations, states and regional organisations have spent invaluable time and resources to maintain international peace and security in a largely anarchical international system, owing to armed conflicts between states and non-state actors (NSAs). This state of affairs is exacerbated by the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, transnational terrorist networks, failed states and a disregard for international norms by powerful states. This is in spite of the normative and policy frameworks that have been established to constrain the use of force by states in the territories of one another. Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter prohibits the use of force by states in their relations, unless they rely on the exceptions in articles 51 and 42 and the customary law doctrine of ?consent?. In addition, it was the requirement of international law that a state may use force against NSAs, only if it attributes the conduct of the NSAs to a state. This thesis examines the extraterritorial use of force by states against terrorist non-state actors, and the focus is to answer the question ?whether the law of self-defence has been transformed?. The investigation has been conducted with particular attention to whether the post 9/11 practice of states, the Security Council resolutions 1368 and 1373, the use of pre-emptive self-defence by the United States, Israel and a few other states, the disregard for attribution of the conduct of NSAs to states and the overwhelming international support for contemporary incidents of the use of force by states against NSAs, such as Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Al-Shaabab, the Khorasan Group and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, have caused a change in the law of self-defence. Firstly, the study finds that pre-emptive self-defence which does not require imminence has not been accepted as part of international law and it argues that its unlawful use could not cause a change in the law. Secondly, as far as the use of self-defence against non-state actors is concerned, it finds that the actions of the United States against Al Qaeda following resolutions 1368 and 1373 of the Security Council, the lowering of the attribution standard and the toleration by the international community of the use of force against terrorists in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Pakistan, Ecuador, Somalia and Mali without attributing their conduct to states, could be interpreted as amounting to a transformation of the law of self-defence. Accordingly, this study recommends the acceptance of the lowered threshold in the attribution requirement, but it also recommends a corresponding disregard of ?pre-emptive self-defence? as not forming part of the corpus of international law. It is also recommended that the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court be enlarged to try transnational terrorism as one of the egregious crimes against mankind. / Thesis (LLD)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Centre for Human Rights / LLD / Unrestricted

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This study is situated in the context of Christian ecotheology, which offers both a Christian critique of ecological destruction and an ecological critique of Christianity. One dimension of Christian ecotheology involves ecumenical discourse on the content and ecological signi-ficance of the Christian faith. This calls for a reinterpretation of all the classic Christian symbols. The focus of this study is on the ways in which the nature of sin is understood in contemporary contributions to ecotheology. In the literature, this is done explicitly through a redescription of sin but is often also implicit in a discussion of the root causes of environmental destruction and reflections on the underlying question – what on earth has gone wrong with the world in which we live? – given the ominous signs of environmental destruction. This study is more specifically situated in a larger project entitled: “Redeeming sin: Hamartology, ecology and social diagnostics”, registered at the University of the Western Cape. This study investigates the positions of five distinct authors who have offered a redescription of the nature of sin through their contributions to ecotheology. These authors are John Chryssavgis (Greek Orthodox Church), Aruna Gnanadason (Church of India), Jesse Mugambi (Anglican Church in Kenya), Larry Rasmussen (Lutheran Church in North America), and Rosemary Radford Ruether (Roman Catholic Church, based in North America). Their understanding of sin is described and analysed on the basis of a close reading of primary and secondary sources. Similarities and differences between their positions on the nature of sin are then compared in order to capture the state of the contemporary debate in ecotheology and to consider emerging horizons for further discourse and research on hamartology and ecology. / 2023-12-01

Destruction Loops uses the guiding phenomenon of self-destruction to begin to develop an ontology that would not be ontosoteriological—that is, it would not cast being itself in a saving role for human being. Beginning with Martin Heidegger’s thought (both early and late), but also relinquishing his ontosoteriology, Destruction Loops seeks to explain how people can self-destruct because of their insight into the character of being, time, reality, and the world. A pre-theoretical understanding that one is self-destructing is often not sufficient for an affective resolve to stop oneself from self-destructing. It is not, because one’s pre-theoretical insight into the character of being can be existentially discouraging and result in an affective demeanor of resignation. In this sense, the correlation with being itself does not save, but rather exacerbates the existential conditions for self-destruction. The human being, understood not as Sorge (care) or as mortal but as desire for a loved one, is fundamentally non-correlated with being itself because it wants more for this other than being can give. An exposure to this insight is painful—and also difficult: for it then leaves the self alone with a task to build for this other against the conditions of being itself. All the while, being can turn the self against itself, by turning the origin of its selfhood (its relationship with a special other) against this endeavor. Instead of building, one can then fall into a destruction loop, where the meaning of the past overcomplicates the need for building the conditions of meaning and love in life. In the following pages, expressionistic phenomenology—a phenomenology that seeks to express the formal inadequacy of being itself—is expressed through the pseudonymous, intellectual memoir called Generation Loss, written by Dylan Errington in the wake of the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend, Christina “Chris” Weston. Dylan’s book iterates, and formally reflects, the need for building and creating works that express desire’s dissatisfaction with being itself. / Graduate / 2023-04-21

<p> Processes affecting the transportation and destruction of empty valves of the pelecypods Mya arenaria and Macoma balthica, were examined within the intertidal zone off Portapique Beach in the Minas Basin(Bay of Fundy). It was found that valve transport was away from shore within channels and eastward alongshore on the flats. It was observed that the rate of transport of left valves and small valves was greater than right valves large valves respectively. Transported valves are preferential oriented by currents of the flood and ebb tides and those within intertidal channels. Channel migration does not appear to be of significance in removing empty valves from these intertidal sediments. The loss valves from within the sediment is attributed to an unknown 'escape' mechanism. Once free of the sediment, valves are transported, weakened by boring thallophytes and mechanically destroyed during transport.</p> / Thesis / Bachelor of Science (BSc)

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a rising topic in the field of contaminated sites around the world, with destruction of these being an area in dire need of innovation. Previous experiments of destructive character have been proven efficient using boron doped diamond electrodes (BDD) in small scale electrochemical cells. Further need for experimentation on actual site conditions is needed to further evaluate the use of this method, as well as research on alternative electrode materials to reduce the cost of remediation.  In this study, four cells containing contaminated soil were used: one with BDD electrodes, one with iron electrodes and two control cells. The iron electrodes were used to investigate if a less costly electrode material could achieve any degree of PFAS degradation. For the experiment a soil from a previous firefighting training site where firefighting foam containing high amounts of PFAS (620                     g/kg soil concentration) was used. During the first phase of the experiment a constant flow of deionized water was added to the cells containing the soil, and porewater was sampled at the in- and outflow along with the soil porewater, on a weekly basis, to evaluate the distribution of PFAS to provide information about possible degradation taking place. The extent of degradation was not quantified. However, due to differences in the molecular composition of the analysed PFAS a trend where short-chain PFAS increase throughout the experiment in the BDD cell indicated that short-chain PFAS were generated, which is an expected by-product in electrochemical oxidation of PFAS. No short-chain PFAS generation was seen in the iron electrode cell, nor was there a high amount present in the control cell leachate.  Further, leaching of PFAS was more efficient in the control cells, while PFAS in the BDD and iron electrode cell were retained or leaching was slowed down, most likely due to the electrode interaction with PFAS in porewater.Additionally a second phase where water flow through was halted and the cells were run in a batch mode was conducted to see PFAS degradation in stagnant conditions over time. In the stagnant cell in the second phase, only low PFAS concentrations in porewater were recorded while no degradation was established.  Further, fluoride analysis recorded F- concentrations in the range of    M, where the limit of detection was   M, which limited the confirmation of PFAS mineralisation in soil.  From this study insight of the difficulties with soil treatment of PFAS using electrokinetic method was highlighted, with sampling being a key factor in the accuracy of the result. For a more accurate establishment of the degradation experiments in a closed cell, with more extensive sampling throughout the entire column would be necessary. This is needed to generate a clearer picture of changes in PFAS concentration in the soil from the presumed degradation, coupled with a mass balance to provide the fate of PFAS in this type of setup.

Yes

Yes / Matt Meselson, Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, 'Biotechnology and Weapons of Mass Destruction - the Future? ' November 2002.