All Things Reconciled: A Dialogue with Science from a Reformed Perspective

In this essay, the author examines some of the troubled interactions between science and religion in the West, attributing part of the trouble to a reliance upon anthropomorphic models of God and to an illusion of human separateness from the rest of creation. Citing recent findings of biology, neuroscience, and cognitive science, he argues that the human species is religious by its very nature

Land Use/Land Cover Analysis Using Remote Sensing and GIS: A Case Study of The Polytechnic Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria (2005, 2010 and 2015)

This study therefore examines the Land use/land cover analysis of The Polytechnic Ibadan using remote sensing and GIS. Landsat TM imagery of 2005, 2010 and 2015 was used to identify and classify the assessment spatial changes that have occurred in the institution between the year of the study. A GIS database of the study area and their location within the interval of 5years (2005-2010-2015) was generated and analyzed with the aid of GIS analytical functions. These includes: Land use/land cover classification using ArcGIS 10.2 Software and ILWIS 3.4. The result showed that the intensive rate of admitting students and insufficient administrative and academic offices has resulted in spatial changes in land cover land use between 2005_2010 and 2015. It also shows that population growth among student admitted as well as the need in more administrative and academic offices in the institution imposes a lot of pressure on the institution in providing a conducive environment. This research highlights the increasing rate of student admitted which leads to creation of additional infrastructural facilities by the institution and the need to apprehend the situation to ensure sustainable environmental development. Keywords: Institution, Land Use/Cover Classification, infrastructural facilities, spatial changes

Community re-studies: lessons and prospects

Community re-studies have played an important role in the development of knowledge about social relationships and social change although they have had a chequered history. Assessments of their value vary according to whether they are approached as replications of earlier studies or as a different type of project. Re-studies have the potential to undermine the credibility of earlier studies but they can also fill in gaps and provide the basis for assessment of social change at a local level. They are generally characterized by methodological and theoretical innovation, learning from and building on what has gone before and contributing to an accumulating body of knowledge about community relations and how to study them. </jats:p

God, the Warlord and the Way of the Ancestors

Dans les années 1840, les Khowese (Witbooi), l’un des groupes Oorlam, passent le fleuve Orange dans la région frontalière nord de la Colonie du Cap et migraient vers le sud de la Namibie actuelle. Quelques décennies plus tard, Hendrik Witbooi, futur warlord et figure charismatique, a une vision lui donnant pour mission divine de mener son peuple vers le nord. Witbooi revendique le droit de passage exclusif sur un chemin qu’il considère comme ayant été créé par ses ancêtres. Revendication territoriale, le chemin des ancêtres est aussi un objectif symbolique et la justification de l’expansion militaire sur le territoire Herero. Hendrik Witbooi rassemble ses partisans, les Witkam, et les mène dans plusieurs campagnes militaires vers le nord dans les années 1880. Prenant l’exemple des Witkam, avec leur combinaison particulière entre détraditionnalisation et leadership charismatique d’une part et la référence aux ancêtres d’autre part, cet article aborde la relation entre violence et religion dans les razzias et conflits armés conduites par les Nama/ Oorlam au cours du 19ème siècle.In the 1840’s, one of the Oorlam groups, the Khowese (Witbooi), crossed the Orange River and migrated from the Cape Colony to the southern part of present-day Namibia. A few decades later, Hendrik Witbooi had a vision instructing him to lead his followers north on a mission from God. Witbooi claimed the sole right of passage for a path which he saw as having been created by their ancestors. The path of the ancestors represented a territorial claim. But the way of the ancestors also represented an immaterial direction and guidance which would justify military expansion into Herero territory. Hendrik Witbooi assembled his followers, the Witkam, and led them on several military campaigns north during the 1880’s. Based on the Witkam, with their particular combination of detraditionalization and charismatic leadership on one hand and Witbooi’s reference to ancestry on the other, this piece will take a broader look at the relationship between violence and religion in the armed conflicts and raids conducted by the Nama/Oorlam in the 19th century

A Comparison of Mobile Scanning to a Total Station Survey at the I-35 and IA 92 Interchange in Warren County, Iowa, August 15, 2012

The purpose of this project was to investigate the potential for collecting and using data from mobile terrestrial laser scanning (MTLS) technology that would reduce the need for traditional survey methods for the development of highway improvement projects at the Iowa Department of Transportation (Iowa DOT). The primary interest in investigating mobile scanning technology is to minimize the exposure of field surveyors to dangerous high volume traffic situations. Issues investigated were cost, timeframe, accuracy, contracting specifications, data capture extents, data extraction capabilities and data storage issues associated with mobile scanning. The project area selected for evaluation was the I-35/IA 92 interchange in Warren County, Iowa. This project covers approximately one mile of I-35, one mile of IA 92, 4 interchange ramps, and bridges within these limits. Delivered LAS and image files for this project totaled almost 31GB. There is nearly a 6-fold increase in the size of the scan data after post-processing. Camera data, when enabled, produced approximately 900MB of imagery data per mile using a 2- camera, 5 megapixel system. A comparison was done between 1823 points on the pavement that were surveyed by Iowa DOT staff using a total station and the same points generated through the MTLS process. The data acquired through the MTLS and data processing met the Iowa DOT specifications for engineering survey. A list of benefits and challenges is included in the detailed report. With the success of this project, it is anticipate[d] that additional projects will be scanned for the Iowa DOT for use in the development of highway improvement projects

Material Thermal Inputs of Iowa Materials for MEPDG, 2011

The thermal properties of concrete materials, such as coeffi cient of thermal expansion (CTE), thermal conductivity, and heat capacity, are required by the MEPDG program as the material inputs for pavement design. However, a limited amount of test data is available on the thermal properties of concrete in Iowa. The default values provided by the MEPDG program may not be suitable for Iowa concrete, since aggregate characteristics have signifi cant infl uence on concrete thermal properties

Beyond discipline:Discipline and lenience in religious practice. Introduction.

Questions of discipline are, today, no less ubiquitous than when under Foucault’s renowned scrutiny, but what does ‘discipline’ in diverse religious systems actually entail? In this article, we take ‘lenience’ rather than discipline as a starting point and compare its potential, both structural and ideological, in religious contexts where disciplinary flexibility shores up greater encompassing projects of moral perfectionism as opposed to those contexts in which disciplinary flexibility is a defining feature in its own right. We argue that lenience provides religious systems with a vital flexibility that is necessary to their reproduction and adaptation to the world. By taking a ‘systems’ perspective on ethnographic discussions of religious worlds, we proffer fresh observations on recent debates within the anthropology of religion on ‘ethics’, ‘failure’, and the nature of religious subjects

The Geography of Exploration: A Study in the Process of Physical Exploration and Geographical Discovery

Exploration has been a common literary topic throughout the history of humans. However, much of this historical tradition bas possessed a fairly narrow Ill focus, emphasizing the drama and heroics of an individual explorer or concentrating on a description of a particular exploration. There has been little attempt at understanding the process of exploration and placing this important process in context with the historic and geographic phenomena that both affect and are affected by it. In this thesis, the author has broken the process of exploration down into a theoretical structure that is presented in a holistic model. This model has then been applied to the history of 15th century Portuguese exploration to test its applicability and usefulness

Mapping Accessibility and Shortage of the Protestant Church in China: Applying Two Spatial Research Methods

The issues of church accessibility and church shortage are critical for understanding religious market and religious economy in China. Assisted by GIS, this article uses and compares two spatial research methods, the Two Step Floating Catchment Area (2SFCA) and the Network Analysis Method (NAM), to examine the church accessibility and church shortage in the thirty-one provincial capital cities of China. Despite the two different methods, this article sets up a common criterion in determining the geographic area of church shortage, or rather determining the number of Protestants who cannot reach the nearest churches from their residential locations within 30 minutes through driving or public transportation. The research findings discovered by both methods have identified nine provincial capital cities in the three regions of China as the areas of church shortage and low church accessibility