Calvyn oor die koninkryk van God en die staat

Calvin on the kingdom of God and the stateThis article focuses on the relationship between the kingdom of God and the state. An attempt is made to put into perspective Calvin’s distinction between the spiritual dominion (regnum spirituale) and the political dominion (regnum politicum). According to Calvin these two kingdoms should be distinguished and understood in the light of the kingdom of God. It is argued that the political dominion should seek to serve the kingdom of God in its own sphere. Secular governments should therefore establish and preserve civil justice and order so that God can be glorified

Die heilige Nagmaal en kerklike tug

Holy Communion and ecclesiastical discipline. This article intends to give an account of the Reformed Confession concerning aspects of the Lord's Supper and Church Discipline. Attention is given to relevant articles of faith in the Confession, the form for the sacrament of the Lord's Supper and certain articles of the Church Order of the Gereformeerde Kerke in Suid-Afrika. These documents, originating from the Reformation of the 16th and 17th century, are still upheld by many Reformed Churches. In contrast to this, since the period of the so-called "Nadere Reformasie" until recent times, the Confession of the Reformed Churches, in cam the Heidelberg Catechism as well as particular articles of the Church Order, has been strongly criticised or neglected. A short review is given of the historical background to the establishment of the Reformed beliefs concerning the Lord's Supper and Church Discipline regarding this sacrament. In conclusion relevant parts of Scripture, for example 1 Corinthians 11, are dealt with in order to determine whether the Confession conforms to Scripture and to emphasize the correspondence between the particular articles of faith and the Word of God

Die gesag van Christus in enkele kerklike gesagsmodelle

Reformed church polity acknowledges a very close relation between Christology and ecclesiology, and intends to be a polity of the kingdom of God. This means the acceptance of Christ as the only Head of His church. He governs the church through the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, and by means of the ministry of the offices. History reveals that although many systems of church government confess the Headship of Christ, analysis of these systems indicates distortions or even elimination of Christ as the one and only Head of the church. A critical review of the systems of the Roman Catholic Church, of Lutheranism, Erastianism, Collegialism and Congregationalism shows that views concerning the authority in the church differ widely. Various forms of authority can be distinguished, i.e. the authority of the pope, office and/or church authority, state government authority in church affairs, etc. In contrast to these viewpoints, the Reformation states that Christ has the only authority in His church. He exercises His government through the offices in the church. These offices are servants and minister His authority in the church. The only authority of the church or the offices is therefore a ministerial authority

Is DTPA a good competing chelating agent for Th(IV) in human serum and suitable in targeted alpha therapy?

The interaction between thorium and human serum components was studied using difference ultraviolet spectroscopy (DUS), ultrafiltration and high-pressure-anion exchange chromatography (HPAEC) with external inductively conducted plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) analysis. Experimental data are compared with modelling results based on the law of mass action. Human serum transferrin (HSTf) interacts strongly with Th(IV), forming a ternary complex including two synergistic carbonate anions. This complex governs Th(IV) speciation under blood serum conditions. Considering the generally used Langmuir-type model, values of 1033.5 and 1032.5 were obtained for strong and weak sites, respectively. We showed that trace amounts of diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid (DTPA) cannot complex Th(IV) in the blood serum at equilibrium. Unexpectedly this effect is not related to the competition with HSTf but is due to the strong competition with major divalent metal ions for DTPA. However, Th-DTPA complex was shown to be stable for a few hours when it is formed before addition in the biological medium; this is related to the high kinetic stability of the complex. This makes DTPA a potential chelating agent for synthesis of 226Th-labeled biomolecules for application in targeted alpha therapy

Test and context: The use of the Test of Academic Literacy Levels (TALL) at a tertiary institution in VIÊT NAM

Concern for the academic success of undergraduate students with low literacy levels is by no means unique to South Africa. In response to initiatives by the Ministry of Education and Training to standardise and improve the quality of higher education in the country in accordance with international standards, the University of Đà Nẵng in Việt Nam recently tested out a pilot version of the South African designed Test of Academic Literacy Levels (TALL) at its College of Foreign Languages (CFL). This article examines the appropriateness of the TALL for use at an institution such as the CFL in Việt Nam and compares the literacy levels of students studying at the college with those of a similar group of students at the University of Pretoria. The research findings show that the TALL exceeds the set requirements for international language tests in terms of reliability and that it has high construct validity. In addition hereto the test has proven to be highly feasible to administer, particularly with due consideration to time constraints and practicality. Academic literacy levels were found to be lower amongst the cohort of Vietnamese students than amongst a comparable group of South African students. Recommendations for the continued employment of the test in Việt Nam include doing differential item function analyses to explore gender and cultural differences, the minor refinement of less productive task items, and a slightly shorter test version

Theory of pixel lensing towards M31 I: the density contribution and mass of MACHOs

POINT-AGAPE is an Anglo-French collaboration which is employing the Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) to conduct a pixel-lensing survey towards M31. In this paper we investigate what we can learn from pixel-lensing observables about the MACHO mass and fractional contribution in M31 and the Galaxy for the case of spherically-symmetric near-isothermal haloes. We employ detailed pixel-lensing simulations which include many of the factors which affect the observables. For a maximum MACHO halo we predict an event rate in V of up to 100 per season for M31 and 40 per season for the Galaxy. However, the Einstein radius crossing time is generally not measurable and the observed full-width half-maximum duration provides only a weak tracer of lens mass. Nonetheless, we find that the near-far asymmetry in the spatial distribution of M31 MACHOs provides significant information on their mass and density contribution. We present a likelihood estimator for measuring the fractional contribution and mass of both M31 and Galaxy MACHOs which permits an unbiased determination to be made of MACHO parameters, even from data-sets strongly contaminated by variable stars. If M31 does not have a significant population of MACHOs in the mass range 0.001-1 Solar masses strong limits will result from the first season of INT observations. Simulations based on currently favoured density and mass values indicate that, after three seasons, the M31 MACHO parameters should be constrained to within a factor four uncertainty in halo fraction and an order of magnitude uncertainty in mass (90% confidence). Interesting constraints on Galaxy MACHOs may also be possible. For a campaign lasting ten years, comparable to the lifetime of current LMC surveys, reliable estimates of MACHO parameters in both galaxies should be possible. (Abridged)Comment: 21 pages, 14 figures. Submitted to MNRA

A pilot study investigating the presence of voids in bulk fill flowable composites

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the presence of voids in bulk fill flowable composites. METHODS: This study investigated two well-known bulk-fill flowable composites, Smart Dentin Replacement (SDR) (Dentsply/Caulk, Milford, Germany) and Filtek bulk fill flowable (FBF) (3M ESPE, Minnesota, USA). Three ampules of each material were randomly selected. The ampules were subjected to 3D Micro-CT (General Electric Phoenix V|Tome|X L240) reconstruction in order to assess the presence of any voids within the ampules. RESULTS: Voids were present in all the ampules. The total void percentage for each group of three ampules was found to be SDR : 1.147 % and FBF : 0.0424 %. There was a significant difference between the volume of voids for SDR and FBF, p-value=0.003924. CONCLUSION: Voids were found in the randomly selected samples of bulk-fill flowable composites. This is undesirable and manufacturers should be urged to ensure that no voids are present, or at least are minimized in the ampules of material

AgapeZ1: a Large Amplification Microlensing Event or an Odd Variable Star Towards the Inner Bulge of M31

AgapeZ1 is the brightest and the shortest duration microlensing candidate event found in the Agape data. It occured only 42" from the center of M31. Our photometry shows that the half intensity duration of the event6 is 4.8 days and at maximum brightness we measure a stellar magnitude of R=18.0 with B-R=0.80 mag color. A search on HST archives produced a single resolved star within the projected event position error box. Its magnitude is R=22.Comment: 4 pages with 5 figure

Possible canonical distributions for finite systems with nonadditive energy

It is shown that a small system in thermodynamic equilibrium with a finite thermostat can have a q-exponential probability distribution which closely depends on the energy nonextensivity and the particle number of the thermostat. The distribution function will reduce to the exponential one at the thermodynamic limit. However, the nonextensivity of the system should not be neglected.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure