A Biblical Theology of Water

Numerous “water related terms” are utilized in Genesis 1-2 such as, “the deep, “the waters,” “water,” “sea,” seas,” “stream,” “river,” “flow,” “flows,” and “rain.” Arguably similar, Revelation 21-22 uses the terms “water of life,” “river of the water of life,” “thirsty,” “spring, ” and “lake.” That the traditional Protestant canon is bookended with such similar terminology appears to create an inclusio that demands further inquiry within the canon to seek supplemental, complementary, and even potentially contrasting and conflicting evidence supporting a biblical theology of water. While commentary on every canonical water related text or term would be a daunting task beyond the scope of this presentation, this research centers around three major theological constructs of water which necessitates discussion of a significant portion of the canonical text that references water or related terms. The result of this study will unveil the use of water as initiating physical and spiritual life, providing physical and spiritual cleansing, and sustaining physical and spiritual life. Each of these three aspects interrelate, and when properly understood, offers implications for God’s usage of water as the instrumentality by which at least some of his purposes are accomplished. They also oblige reconsideration of certain church dogma and doctrinal positions on topics such as salvation, the gift and work of the Holy Spirit, and baptism. The longer thesis of this dissertation is that there exists a biblical theology of water within the traditional canon of Protestant Scripture that initiates physical and spiritual life, provides physical and spiritual cleansing, and sustains physical and spiritual life, and that these three aspects are interrelated. The shorter thesis is that God uses water to initiate, cleanse, and sustain life, and these three constructs interrelate and form a biblical theology of water

Effective preservation decision strategies

Decisions about preservation issues are made both deliberatively and unconsciously. Heuristics operate as intuitive processes which are rapid and can be reliable and effective. Deliberative decisions require time to complete and can be described by an analytic-deliberative model. The characteristics of these two processes and their relevance to preventive conservation decision-making are discussed. Each of these two processes has its strengths and weaknesses. People naturally make decisions and utilise a range of strategies without necessarily having insights into the process. This paper provides a frame to help examine, describe, and reflect upon our own and others’ decision-making in order to improve both processes and outcome

Medium Altitude Long Endurance RPA Training: Evaluating Blended Learning

The Heads Down Display (HDD) Menu Trainer – a stand-alone software trainer – was developed to familiarize students in Remotely Piloted Aircraft training with the layout and manipulation of the HDD menus for either the MQ-1 or MQ-9. Preliminary work by Waller et al. (2016) established the efficacy of the HDD Menu Trainer in improving student performance from pretest to posttest scores across several modalities (i.e. traditional, blended, and distance). Recognizing that students holding pilot certification scored higher in some aspects of the HDD Menu Trainer, this study sampled students across a curriculum to assess whether performance with the HDD Menu Trainer would differ across modalities (i.e. traditional, blended, and distance) when FAA pilot certification was controlled. Results of a mixed factorial ANCOVA indicated the effectiveness of the HDD menu trainer once more through a main within-subjects effect of performance and performance was again higher for students holding an FAA pilot certificate than for those without. However, modality failed to demonstrate a significant interaction effect with student performance from pretest to posttest. These results affirm that even outside the variation which should be attributed to a student’s pilot certification, the HDD Menu Trainer demonstrates equal effectiveness when used in blended and distance modalities. These results support several prior works finding blended learning applications to be at least as effective as other modalities. As blended, flipped, and hybrid learning models are increasingly expected within higher education curriculums, future work is anticipated in the construct of student engagement (Borup et al., 2020; Halverson & Graham, 2019)

Public attitudes and emotions toward novel carbon removal methods in alternative sociotechnical scenarios

Despite high expectations about the role of carbon removal in meeting global climate targets, many of the proposed techniques remain nascent. This is especially so for techniques with potential for large-scale, permanent removal of CO2, such as Direct Air Carbon Capture and Storage (DACCS) and Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE). In such a context, understanding public attitudes is crucial but challenging, since we do not have enough information about the sociotechnical configurations which might accompany such proposals over future timescales. Carbon removal at scale will not take place in a vacuum – it will co-evolve within political, social, economic, and legal structures which in turn will have a strong influence on public attitudes. This study used a nationally-representative survey (n=1,978) in the UK to test the impact of alternative sociotechnical systems on public attitudes to DACCS and OAE. Participants were randomly assigned to one of five scenario conditions, representing different forms of governance logic (top-down vs bottom-up) and market logic (planned vs liberal economy), plus one with minimal sociotechnical information. We find that the scenario condition significantly impacted perceptions of OAE, with participants preferring its implementation within a bottom-up, planned economy scenario, and rejecting scenarios which most closely resembled the status quo. There were no significant differences between scenarios for DACCS, suggesting that the technology may be more flexible across alternative sociotechnical arrangements. OAE arouses more negative emotions, particularly worry about impacts on ocean ecosystems, whereas DACCS arouses more hope. We found that climate worry is associated with stronger emotions – both positive and negative – toward both techniques, thus CDR could be polarising for the most climate-worried, likely due to tensions between climate urgency and concerns about deterring emissions reductions. The most important criteria for future CDR deployment were deemed to be biodiversity, durability, and cost, with a strong discourse around the current cost-of-living crisis

Jack of All Trades or Master of One? Specialization, Trade and Money

We consider a model of decentralized exchange where individuals choose the set of goods they produce. Specialization involves producing a smaller set of goods and doing it more proÞciently. In doing so, agents reduce production costs, but also reduce the ease of trading their output. We derive the equilibrium degree of specialization and examine how it is affected by underlying fundamentals. Due to the existence of a hold-up problem, individuals specialize too little relative to the social optimum. Introducing money leads to more specialization relative to barter and increases welfare

Jack of All Trades or Master of One? Specialization, Trade and Money

We consider a model of decentralized exchange where individuals choose the set of goods they produce. Specialization involves producing a smaller set of goods and doing it more proÞciently. In doing so, agents reduce production costs, but also reduce the ease of trading their output. We derive the equilibrium degree of specialization and examine how it is affected by underlying fundamentals. Due to the existence of a hold-up problem, individuals specialize too little relative to the social optimum. Introducing money leads to more specialization relative to barter and increases welfare

A CubeSat docking module prototype

Thesis (MEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2022.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The ability to dock cubesats on orbit opens up a large range of possibilities for mission designers and planners. This thesis describes the development of parts of a cubesat sized docking module. Specifically, t he p ose e stimation system and docking interface. The pose estimation system was designed using a camera and marker system. The software of the system included blob detection, distortion correction and pose calculations. The individual elements of the system were tested followed by a full system test. The system was found to be relatively accurate, however, when the marker was not in the image centre, the accuracy of the system decreased massively. The design of the docking interface included the investigation of 3 different concept mechanisms. Two of the three mechanism were pursued to a docking module concept phase and one of these was then prototyped. It was found that the prototype showed promised in terms of the docking ability and provided many insights into its manufacturability. The feasibility of the two system as space-ready solutions was investigated. The systems were found to not require major changes to convert them to space-ready options. The complete system seems to show much promise for a docking module however more development is required to find a complete solution. A few suggestions were made into what needs to be done and some recommendations about improvements to the system were made.AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die vermoë om twee Cubesats in-vlug te koppel aan mekaar maak ’n reeks toepassings beskikbaar wat vantevore nie moontlik was nie. Hierdie proefskrif beskryf die ontwikkeling van ’n prototipe cubesat koppelingsmodule. Daar word spesifiek g efokus o p d ie o rientasie a fskatting e n m eganiese koppelvlak elemente. Die orientasie afskattingsstelsel maak gebruik van ’n kamera met ’n merker op die teiken. Die sagteware wat dit instaatstel identifiseer helder kolle op die kamera beeld, pas distorsie korreksie toe en bereken dan die orientasie van die teiken relatief tot die kamera. Die elemente van hierdie substelsel is afsonderlik getoets, gevolg deur ’n volledige toets van die orientasie afskattingstelsel. Die orientasie afskatting toon genoegsame akkuraatheid, maar groter foute kom voor wanneer die teiken ver van die middel van die beeld voorkom. Die ontwerp van die meganiese koppelvlak het behels om drie verskillende konsepte te ondersoek. Twee van hierdie konsepte is verder geanaliseer, en slegs ’n enkele konstep is verder ontwikkel tot ’n fisiese p rototipe. Hierdie prototipe bevestig die vermoë om meganies te koppel en het ook insig verskaf in die vervaardiging van so ’n module. Die gebruik van hierdie twee elemente - die orientasie afskatting en megaiese koppelvlak - as boublokke van ’n volledige, vlug-gereed, koppelingstelsel vir ’n satelliet is ook verder ondersoek met aanbevelings.Master