God, Others, and Ourselves - The Stories We Tell and the Meaning We Make: A Narrative Approach to Adventist Mission in the South England Conference of the British Union Conference, United Kingdom

Problem A disconnect exists between the Adventist Church in the United Kingdom and its wider context as evidenced through the reduced number of accessions coming from the majority population and from second, third, and subsequent migrant generations. This present study was to propose and trial a worldview awareness training experience. Method A Six Conversation journey experience was devised and presented over a six-week period in the summer of 2021 via Zoom, in line with adaptations due to the COVID pandemic. Volunteer Adventist participants would explore their individual and collective meaning and identity narratives, grow awareness and understanding of other such narratives in their context, and engage these meaning/identity narratives considering a Scriptural perspective in which God consistently seeks ways to be among, and identify with, humankind. Seven participants agreed to be interviewed at the conclusion of the training experience. Qualitative interview data was evaluated using the Kirkpatrick model for training evaluation. Results The study brought a range of individuals together with varying ethnic and national identities and invited them to journey together for six weeks. The online nature of the presentations and interactions were a hindrance to relational interface intended to draw participants into the experiences and perspectives of others. Nevertheless, interviewees shared regarding intersecting points with their faith journey that brought both affirmation and challenge, while also indicating that intervention concepts were found to be worthwhile in individual mission and ministry contexts. Most expressed confidence that they would be able to practice these locally. At time of evaluation there are no visible or discernible Level 4 outcomes due, in part, to the nature of the online platform combined with participants who were not otherwise known to one another and who were geographically separated, but more importantly because such outcomes cannot be meaningfully measured two to four weeks after the Six Conversation experience. Conclusions While the qualitative data does not seek to objectively measure the results of the intervention, the insights gained from this study suggest, (a) value in and appetite for the general approach, (b) the desire from a diverse church membership for the journeying experience, and (c) that there should be further, more intentional development of the intervention for a hybrid digital/in-person experience to facilitate the maturing and expansion of the concepts. This intervention appears to have found touch points within the Adventist community in the UK

Factors Affecting Teaching and Learning of Square Roots without Calculators in Secondary Schools: A Case Study of 6 Secondary Schools in Mpika District, Zambia

This study was undertaken to determine the factors affecting the teaching and learning of square roots of real numbers without the calculators in secondary schools in Mpika District. Three research questions were raised and answered by administering questionnaires. Data was collected by means of four different questionnaires administered to twenty one teachers of mathematics, six Heads of Mathematics Department and one hundred and seventy four pupils drawn from six secondary schools in Mpika District. The five points Likert rating scale was used in determining the factors. Data was analyzed using simple frequency counts, percentages and analysis of variance. The results of the study showed that lack of content knowledge among the teachers, lack of educational materials and library facilities were the factors responsible for not teaching the topic without the calculators. For the pupils, it was due to lack of appropriate mathematics text books, not being taught by the teachers and failure to be given at the beginning of the term the  course outline of the mathematics topics to be taught in the term. Some strategies have been adopted to enhance the teaching and learning of square roots without the calculators and a number of recommendations have been made to the government and other stakeholders involved in the provision of education. Keywords: Teaching, learning, square roots, secondary schools, algorithm, calculato

The KELT-South Telescope

The Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT) project is a survey for new transiting planets around bright stars. KELT-South is a small-aperture, wide-field automated telescope located at Sutherland, South Africa. The telescope surveys a set of 26 degree by 26 degree fields around the southern sky, and targets stars in the range of 8 < V < 10 mag, searching for transits by Hot Jupiters. This paper describes the KELT-South system hardware and software and discusses the quality of the observations. We show that KELT-South is able to achieve the necessary photometric precision to detect transits of Hot Jupiters around solar-type main-sequence stars.Comment: 26 pages, 13 figure

Actuarial Risk Management Practices, Underwriting Risk and Performance of P & C Insurance Firms in East Africa

The purpose of the study was to establish the intervening effect of underwriting risk (loss ratio) on the relationship between actuarial risk management practices (ARMP) and performance of property and casualty (P &amp; C) insurance underwriters in East Africa. Findings from primary and secondary data gathered from 82 general insurers from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania show that there is a significant positive relationship between ARMP and non-financial performance and that loss ratio significantly mediates this relationship. The relationship with financial performance was however insignificant. The implication is that P &amp; C insurance firms should keenly watch their loss ratios in order to improve their non-financial performance by correctly underwriting, pricing and reinsuring their risks in order to influence their claims ratio and also have a strategic claims management program in place that controls costs and leads to better firm reputation, which in turn will have ripple effect in increasing business volumes and performance. It is recommended that further empirical studies be carried out to establish other factors that especially influence financial performance

Clear sky fraction above Indonesia: an analysis for astronomical site selection

We report a study of cloud cover over Indonesia based on meteorological satellite data, spanning over the past 15 years (from 1996 to 2010) in order to be able to select a new astronomical site capable to host a multi-wavelength astronomical observatory. High spatial resolution of meteorological satellite data acquired from {\it Geostationary Meteorological Satellite 5} ({\it GMS 5}), {\it Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 9} ({\it GOES 9}), and {\it Multi-functional Transport Satellite-1R} ({\it MTSAT-1R}) are used to derive yearly average clear fractions over the regions of Indonesia. This parameter is determined from temperature measurement of the IR3 channel (water vapor, 6.7 $\mu$m) for high altitude clouds (cirrus) and from the IR1 channel (10.7 $\mu$m) for lower altitude clouds. Accordingly, an algorithm is developed to detect the corresponding clouds. The results of this study are then adopted to select the best possible sites in Indonesia to be analysed further by performing in situ measurements planned for the coming years. The results suggest that regions of East Nusa Tenggara, located in south-eastern part of Indonesia, are the most promising candidates for such an astronomical site. Yearly clear sky fraction of this regions may reach better than 70 per cent with an uncertainty of 10 per cent.Comment: 15 pages, 13 figures, and 4 table

Association of the ENPP1 rs997509 polymorphism with obesity in South African mixed ancestry learners

Background: The Ectonucleotide Pyrophosphatase Phosphodiesterase1 (ENPP1) polymorphisms have been associated with metabolic traits. There is no data on the effect of ENPP1 in South African children or adults. Objective: To investigate the role of K121Q (rs1044498), rs997509 and rs9402349 in obesity and other components of the metabolic syndrome. Design: A case-control study. Subjects: Sixty four obese and 64 lean mixed ancestry learners. Setting: Western Cape, South Africa. Main outcome measure: The EN PP1 rs997509T allele is independently associated with obesity in children of mixed ancestry from South Africa. Results: The T allele frequency of the rs997509 differed significantly between obese and controls, p=0.0100 and increased the risk of being obese, p = 0.0238. Furthermore, the estimated effect of the T allele was an increase of 8.6 cm in waist circumference, 10.2 kg in weight and a corresponding 4.9 kg/m2 in BMI. Individuals carrying both the 121Q and the T allele of rs997509 were more associated with obesity (odds ratio = 3.85, 95% CI: 1.13 to 13.09) whilst those carrying the C allele of rs997509 in the presence of 121Q were likely to be lean with odds ratio of obesity 0.41 (95% CI: 0.19 to 0.87). Conclusion: Our findings suggest that ENPP1 polymorphisms may contribute to different metabolic characteristics, all of which are associated with insulin resistance in mixed ancestry children of South Africa. However, a larger study is required to confirm findings of this study.East African Medical Journal Vol. 87 No. 8 August 201

Perspektiewe vanuit die psigologie en sosiale wetenskappe vir kerklike bediening aan die adolossent. Deel 2: Ondersoek na die leefw�reld van die adolessent

In this article meta-theoretical� perspectives for youth ministry are obtained specifically from the fields of psychology and sociology. In the first place, the various psychological development phases of the adolescent are determined, as well as how they have to be accounted for in youth ministry.� In the second place, the characteristics of the world in which the adolescent lives are indicated together with their influence on the adolescents