Atheistic Diagnoses of the Coming Age

There is on undefined fear working on the minds of good Christian people throughout the world in our day. The North American Republic has achieved notable success in a political way and has unquestionably decided the fortunes of the great World War. It has become a dominant factor in the world of industry, commerce, and finance. It is no longer a quasi-hermit nation on the Western Continent, separated by two great oceans from the rest of the world. but is to-day n world-power of the first magnitude, perhaps the determinant world-power, and her doings are warily watched, her counsel eagerly sought, her cooperation solicitously desired, by other nations

The No and the Yes of Scripture on Atheism

The question to be investigated now is whether Scripture regards atheism as possible; whether atheism is viewed by the Biblical writers as a reality or merely a state of mind and a matter of imagination

The Meaning of Calvary in the Minds of Modernists

The Christ of Modernism has been made in Germany, at the German universities, and it has taken about a hundred years to make him. The one book that recounts the genesis of the Modernists\u27 Christ with fulness and sincerity has been written by Albert Schweitzer and bears the title Von Reimarus zu Wrede. (A second edition appeared in 1913, bearing the title Geschichte dcr Leben--Jesu-Forschung.) This book was published in an English translation in 1910, but under a new title, The Quest of the Historical Jesus. Schweitzer says of the German attempt to produce the modernist Christ: “It is impossible to overestimate the value of what German research upon the life of Jesus has accomplished. It is a uniquely great expression of sincerity, one of the most significant events in the whole mental and spiritual life of humanity

Linear Size Optimal q-ary Constant-Weight Codes and Constant-Composition Codes

An optimal constant-composition or constant-weight code of weight $w$ has linear size if and only if its distance $d$ is at least $2w-1$. When $d\geq 2w$, the determination of the exact size of such a constant-composition or constant-weight code is trivial, but the case of $d=2w-1$ has been solved previously only for binary and ternary constant-composition and constant-weight codes, and for some sporadic instances. This paper provides a construction for quasicyclic optimal constant-composition and constant-weight codes of weight $w$ and distance $2w-1$ based on a new generalization of difference triangle sets. As a result, the sizes of optimal constant-composition codes and optimal constant-weight codes of weight $w$ and distance $2w-1$ are determined for all such codes of sufficiently large lengths. This solves an open problem of Etzion. The sizes of optimal constant-composition codes of weight $w$ and distance $2w-1$ are also determined for all $w\leq 6$, except in two cases.Comment: 12 page

Growth space requirements models for Prosopis africana (Guill & Perr) Taub tree species in Makurdi, Nigeria

All parts of Prosopis africana (Guill & Perr) Taub are used by rural communities in Nigeria, and this exposes it to degradation and a regeneration problems. There is lack of information on inventory on natural forest estates for management and decision-making. This species is facing a regeneration problem and overexploitation. The aim of this study was to developed model that can predict the growth space requirements for P. africana plantation establishment. Growing space was associated with crown size; seven crown and stem diameter relation models were tested on data recorded from P. africana trees in Makurdi-Nigeria; simple random sampling technique was used to collect data. The linear model (crown-stem diameter relation) provided the best model fitted with R2 values of 0.778 with adjusted R2 0.777. For optimum planting, fast growth and high production/yield the tree species would require a planting spacing of 4 x 4 meters; for example, that a dominant free-growing tree of diameter 52.90 cm would required 0.008 hectare of growing space with a stocking of 125 tree per hectare for P. africana. Stand density converges around 0.000016 m2. The baseline information provided by this study could serve as a guide for optimum planting distances and tree stocking in large scale plantations of P. africana species in Nigeria and international, this to avoid extinction of the economic tree

Seed banks as conservation tool for endangered wild plant species in ecozones of Nigeria

Seed banks have played the largest role in the conservation of endangered wild plant species in the world. The potential role of seed in the regeneration of plant species is threatened by a rapid decline in the longevity and viability of the seeds in their natural habitats. This study addresses the key role of seed banks in the conservation of floristic diversity. The increasing popularity of the seed bank as a tool in the conservation of wild plant species can be attributed to different significance, including; provision of immediate access to plant samples, allowing researchers and conservation biologists to evaluate them for properties such as new sources of medicines, nutrition, and genes. Also, wild plant seeds conserved in seed banks are immune to habitat destruction, diseases, and predators. The stored seeds can be used to reinstate species into existing, suitable habitats where they were once present, or to augment the diversity of small, genetically depleted populations. Conservation efforts, as sources for population reintroduction and restoration, have been cited as an important justification for seed banks. Thus, it is recommended that seed banks with state-of-the-art storage facilities should be established at the national and local levels; and all of such banks should be networked so that materials, knowledge, and expertise on particular wild plant species is available on a global scale.Key words: Conservation, Endangered, Floristic diversity, Plant species, Seeds bank, Storag

Maximum Acceptable Vibrato Excursion as a Function of Vibrato Rate in Musicians and Non-musicians

Human vibrato is mainly characterized by two parameters: vibrato extent and vibrato rate. These parameters have been found to exhibit an interaction both in physical recordings of singers’ voices and in listener’s preference ratings. This study was concerned with the way in which the maximum acceptable vibrato excursion varies as a function of vibrato rate in normal-hearing (NH) musicians and non-musicians. Eight NH musicians and six non-musicians adjusted the maximum vibrato excursion of a synthesized vowel for vibrato rates between 3 and 8 Hz. Individual thresholds varied across vibrato rate and, in most listeners, exhibited a peak at medium vibrato rates (5–7 Hz). Large across-subject variability was observed, and no significant effect of musical experience was found. Overall, most listeners were not solely sensitive to the vibrato excursion and there was a listener-dependent rate for which larger vibrato excursions were favored. The observed interaction between maximum excursion thresholds and vibrato rate may be due to the listeners’ judgments relying on cues provided by the rate of frequency changes (RFC) rather than excursion per se. Further studies are needed to evaluate the contribution of the RFC to vibrato perception and the possible effects of age and hearing impairment

Set-Codes with Small Intersections and Small Discrepancies

We are concerned with the problem of designing large families of subsets over a common labeled ground set that have small pairwise intersections and the property that the maximum discrepancy of the label values within each of the sets is less than or equal to one. Our results, based on transversal designs, factorizations of packings and Latin rectangles, show that by jointly constructing the sets and labeling scheme, one can achieve optimal family sizes for many parameter choices. Probabilistic arguments akin to those used for pseudorandom generators lead to significantly suboptimal results when compared to the proposed combinatorial methods. The design problem considered is motivated by applications in molecular data storage and theoretical computer science