The Message and the Situation: An Evaluation of the Preaching of Paul Tillich

In much of Western Christianity, there exists a problem of identity for the Christian individual. The individual considers him or herself a Christian, but feels a matter of disconnect between who he or she is on Saturday night and who he or she is on Sunday morning. The Christian struggles to live a life in both the sacred and the secular. The Christian struggles to establish an authentic identity, an identity that incorporates all of the human experience. How can this struggle be resolved? Paul Tillich had an answer. Tillich developed his method of correlation as a way of uniting the individual’s deepest meaningful questions about life with the message of the Gospel: Jesus Christ as the New Being. Tillich believed there was not a separation between the Saturday night and Sunday morning Christian, between the secular and the sacred. He advocated a theological method that used secular culture – music, art, philosophy – as a means of demonstrating the omnipresence of God within human existence. Further, he used this concept in his preaching of the Gospel. This study shows how he used representations of secular culture in three of his homilies. Information about the Author

Increasing rainwater yield in water sensitive cities using short-term rainfall forecasts

Rainwater harvesting performance is examined in Brisbane and Sydney for three rainwater tank configurations comprising: 1) A conventional 5kL tank; 2) A 5kL tank with a fixed leaking compartment for baseflow (240 L/d); and 3) As with leaking but including a variable diversion compartment (480 L/day) controlled by short-term rainfall forecasts. This concept is referred to as adaptive rainwater diversion (ARD). Result show the ARD system achieves superior emulation of pre-urban runoff frequencies, runoff volumes and baseflows, while maintaining the household rainwater supply to within 90% of conventional systems, and also while producing an additional water resources of up to 60kL/hh/y. With these outcomes, the ARD system could potentially create an avenue to approach water sensitive cities in Eastern Australia

INLA or MCMC? A Tutorial and Comparative Evaluation for Spatial Prediction in log-Gaussian Cox Processes

We investigate two options for performing Bayesian inference on spatial log-Gaussian Cox processes assuming a spatially continuous latent field: Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) and the integrated nested Laplace approximation (INLA). We first describe the device of approximating a spatially continuous Gaussian field by a Gaussian Markov random field on a discrete lattice, and present a simulation study showing that, with careful choice of parameter values, small neighbourhood sizes can give excellent approximations. We then introduce the spatial log-Gaussian Cox process and describe MCMC and INLA methods for spatial prediction within this model class. We report the results of a simulation study in which we compare MALA and the technique of approximating the continuous latent field by a discrete one, followed by approximate Bayesian inference via INLA over a selection of 18 simulated scenarios. The results question the notion that the latter technique is both significantly faster and more robust than MCMC in this setting; 100,000 iterations of the MALA algorithm running in 20 minutes on a desktop PC delivered greater predictive accuracy than the default \verb=INLA= strategy, which ran in 4 minutes and gave comparative performance to the full Laplace approximation which ran in 39 minutes.Comment: This replaces the previous version of the report. The new version includes results from an additional simulation study, and corrects an error in the implementation of the INLA-based method

Regulation of the IGK Locus and B Cell Development

Allelic exclusion coupled to lineage and stage specific regulation ensure the Igκ locus undergoes RAG mediated V-J recombination only at the small pre-BII stage of lymphocyte development. These mechanisms also ensure the final antigen receptor is monospecific and allow self-specific receptors to be recognised and altered at later stages of development. Allelic exclusion is controlled by mechanism involving either epigenetic based allele selection early in development or probabilistic activation of a single allele at the small pre-BII stage. Current models favour the probabilistic model based on an elegant GFP reporter system. We present a reappraisal of this models based on an absence of the originally detected probabilistic activation. We find the absence to be explained in part by an aberrant splice event generated by developmentally regulated Igκ germline promoter usage. The activity of the promoter was investigated using in-vitro models of critical events during the B cell development but their role remains elusive. Intense investigation for the last 20 years has determined that chromatic regulation underpins the stage and lineage specification of rearrangement. The protein factors responsible for this regulation remain unknown. Using transgene reporters of cis-acting sequences and in-vitro model systems of B cell development, we find an involvement for members of the zinc finger family of Ikaros transcription factors, IRF4 and LEF1. We determined a bipartite role for Ikaros whereby its activity could both suppress rearrangement prior to pre-BCR signalling and promote rearrangement thereafter, possibly through an IRF4 based mechanism. Finally we present evidence for a role for Ikaros protein in later stages of B cell development. We find modulation of Ikaros activity directly influences the ability of cells to differentiate to the plasma cell fate. We used a transgenic model to allow genome-wide mapping of the transcriptional events regulated by Ikaros and find multiple small modulations of factors and pathways

Spatial modelling of emergency service response times

This article concerns the statistical modelling of emergency service response times. We apply advanced methods from spatial survival analysis to deliver inference for data collected by the London Fire Brigade on response times to reported dwelling fires. Existing approaches to the analysis of these data have been mainly descriptive; we describe and demonstrate the advantages of a more sophisticated approach. Our final parametric proportional hazards model includes harmonic regression terms to describe how response time varies with time-of-day and shared spatially correlated frailties on an auxiliary grid for computational efficiency. We investigate the short-term impact of fire station closures in 2014. Whilst the London Fire Brigade are working hard to keep response times down, our findings suggest there is a limit to what can be achieved logistically: the present article identifies areas around the now closed Belsize, Downham, Kingsland, Knightsbridge, Silvertown, Southwark, Wesminster and Woolwich fire stations in which there should perhaps be some concern as to the provision of fire services