The Attitudes of Christians Towards Homosexuality, Transsexuality and Transgenderism

The different attitudes Christians have towards transsexual, transgender, and homosexual behaviors have long been an area in need of investigation. To further the relevant library of research, an anonymous online survey was distributed through SurveyMonkey that attempted to see how Christians felt and how these attitudes compared to those of other groups. Ultimately, attitudes regarding transsexual and transgender behaviors showed a strong trend towards neutrality. Attitudes towards homosexuality showed a strong trend towards neutrality with an additional trend towards positivity

Metal contaminated dredged sediment derived soils: a case of diffuse contamination

Significant areas in Flanders, Belgium exhibit moderate contamination with trace metals caused by deposition or disposal of contaminated sediments. After disposal, the sediments develop into a soil- like material, on which vegetation is planted or develops spontaneously. Behaviour, cycling and ecosystem impacts of trace metals in calcareous dredged sediment disposal sites in Flanders was investigated. Although soil physico- chemical properties favour a low metal bioavailability, pore water concentrations can be elevated compared to pore water in uncontaminated soils. While metal leaching is not considered to be of concern, several plants accumulate elevated levels of Cd and Zn in leaves. Also metal levels in soil dwelling organisms and small mammals, particularly Cd, are elevated compared to reference situations. This raises concern for an enhanced transfer of metals to the food chain. A comprehensive knowledge of metal behaviour in these sites is essential for developing appropriate management options for these sites

An adjustment algorithm for the construction of optimal run orders.

Using a systematic run order can be the proper way to conduct an experiment when a temporal trend is present. The construction of run orders that are optimally balanced for time trend effects is based on the maximization of the information on the important parameters whereas the parameters of the postulated time trend are treated as nuisance parameters. In this paper, an adjustment algorithm is presented to improve the efficiency of the run orders obtained from a search over a predefined set of candidate points. This is done by repeatedly moving the design points or the time points of the candidate list a small amount along their axes as long as an improvement in the efficiency is obtained. It is illustrated that the adjustment algorithm involves substantial increases in the efficiency of the run orders. The use of the adjustment algorithm in addition to a search over a coarse grid of candidate points is especially recommended in situations where the computation time has to be kept within reasonable limits.Optimal;

Assessment of a photogrammetric approach for urban DSM extraction from tri-stereoscopic satellite imagery

Built-up environments are extremely complex for 3D surface modelling purposes. The main distortions that hamper 3D reconstruction from 2D imagery are image dissimilarities, concealed areas, shadows, height discontinuities and discrepancies between smooth terrain and man-made features. A methodology is proposed to improve automatic photogrammetric extraction of an urban surface model from high resolution satellite imagery with the emphasis on strategies to reduce the effects of the cited distortions and to make image matching more robust. Instead of a standard stereoscopic approach, a digital surface model is derived from tri-stereoscopic satellite imagery. This is based on an extensive multi-image matching strategy that fully benefits from the geometric and radiometric information contained in the three images. The bundled triplet consists of an IKONOS along-track pair and an additional near-nadir IKONOS image. For the tri-stereoscopic study a densely built-up area, extending from the centre of Istanbul to the urban fringe, is selected. The accuracy of the model extracted from the IKONOS triplet, as well as the model extracted from only the along-track stereopair, are assessed by comparison with 3D check points and 3D building vector data

Nonparametric time trends in optimal design of experiments.

When performing an experiment, the observed responses are often influenced by a temporal trend due to aging of material, learning effects, equipment wear-out, warm-up effects, etc. The construction of run orders that are optimally balanced for time trend effects relies on the incorporation of a parametric representation of the time dependence in the response model. The parameters of the time trend are then treated as nuisance parameters. However, the price one has to pay for by purely parametric modeling is the biased results when the time trend is misspecified. This paper presents a design algorithm for the construction of optimal run orders when kernel smoothing is used to model the temporal trend nonparametrically. The benefits of modeling the time trend nonparametrically are outlined. Besides, the influence of the bandwidth and the kernel function on the performance of the optimal run orders is investigated. The presented design algorithm shows to be very useful when it is hard to model the time dependence parametrically or when the functional form of the time trend is unknown. An industrial example illustrates the practical utility of the proposed design algorithm.Optimal; Trends;