Surrogaatmoederskap: ’n teologies-etiese beoordeling

Surrogate motherhood is the process by which a woman (the surrogate mother) conceives, carries and gives birth to a child for another woman or couple. Surrogate motherhood is related to issues such as masturbation, artificial insemination, in vitrofertilization (in vitro conception) and experimentation with embryos, which could entail the destruction or killing of embryos. Opinions about these matters would undoubtedly influence one’s perception of surrogate motherhood. Christians believe that conception in or outside the human body is made possible by God God gives life at the moment of conception. Therefore an embryo can never be considered as mere matter From a Christian point of view it is not imperative to condemn surrogate motherhood in all instances. Nevertheless, in view of what is taught in the Holy Scriptures and also because of certain practical implications, Christians cannot but be negative about the whole issue and would therefore hesitate to make use of such procedures

Motion of a sphere through an aging system

We have investigated the drag on a sphere falling through a clay suspension that has a yield stress and exhibits rheological aging. The drag force increases with both speed and the rest time between preparation of the system and the start of the experiment, but there exists a nonzero minimum speed below which steady motion is not possible. We find that only a very thin layer of material around the sphere is fluidized when it moves, while the rest of suspension is deformed elastically. This is in marked contrast to what is found for yield-stress fluids that do not age.Comment: latex, 4 figure

Introduction: Planetary memory in contemporary American fiction

This special issue considers the ways in which contemporary American fiction seeks to imagine a mode of ‘planetary memory’ able to address the scalar and systemic complexities of the Anthropocene – the epoch in which the combined activity of the human species has become a geological force in its own right. As Naomi Klein has recently argued, confronting the problem of anthropogenic climate change alters everything we know about the world: demanding wholesale recalibration of economic and political priorities; destabilising the epistemic frameworks through which quotidian life is interpreted and enacted; and decentring the dominant cultural imaginaries that seek to give form to historical experienc

A chemical ionization mass spectrometer for continuous underway shipboard analysis of dimethylsulfide in near-surface seawater

A compact, low-cost atmospheric pressure, chemical ionization mass spectrometer ("mini-CIMS") has been developed for continuous underway shipboard measurements of dimethylsulfide (DMS) in seawater. The instrument was used to analyze DMS in air equilibrated with flowing seawater across a porous Teflon membrane equilibrator. The equilibrated gas stream was diluted with air containing an isotopically-labeled internal standard. DMS is ionized at atmospheric pressure via proton transfer from water vapor, then declustered, mass filtered via quadrupole mass spectrometry, and detected with an electron multiplier. The instrument described here is based on a low-cost residual gas analyzer (Stanford Research Systems), which has been modified for use as a chemical ionization mass spectrometer. The mini-CIMS has a gas phase detection limit of 220 ppt DMS for a 1 min averaging time, which is roughly equivalent to a seawater DMS concentration of 0.1 nM DMS at 20°C. The mini-CIMS has the sensitivity, selectivity, and time response required for underway measurements of surface ocean DMS over the full range of oceanographic conditions. The simple, robust design and relatively low cost of the instrument are intended to facilitate use in process studies and surveys, with potential for long-term deployment on research vessels, ships of opportunity, and large buoys

On hyperovals of polar spaces

We derive lower and upper bounds for the size of a hyperoval of a finite polar space of rank 3. We give a computer-free proof for the uniqueness, up to isomorphism, of the hyperoval of size 126 of H(5, 4) and prove that the near hexagon E-3 has up to isomorphism a unique full embedding into the dual polar space DH(5, 4)

The radio source B 1834+620: A double-double radio galaxy with interesting properties

We present a study of the peculiar radio galaxy B 1834+620. It is characterised by the presence of a 420-kpc large edge-brightened radio source which is situated within, and well aligned with, a larger (1.66 Mpc) radio source. Both sources apparently originate in the same host galaxy, which has a R_s-magnitude of 19.7 and a redshift of 0.5194, as determined from the strong emission-lines in the spectrum. We have determined the rotation measures towards this source, as well as the radio spectral energy distribution of its components. The radio spectrum of the large outer source is steeper than that of the smaller inner source. The radio core has a spectrum that peaks at a frequency of a few GHz. The rotation measures towards the four main components are quite similar, within $\sim\!2$ rad m$^{-2}$ of 58 rad m$^{-2}$. They are probably largely galactic in origin. We have used the presence of a bright hotspot in the northern outer lobe to constrain the advance velocity of the inner radio lobes to the range between 0.19c and 0.29c, depending on the orientation of the source. This corresponds to an age of this structure in the range between 2.6 and 5.8 Myr. We estimate a density of the ambient medium of the inner lobes of \la 1.6 \times 10^{-30} gr\,cm$^{-3}$ (particle density \la 8 \times 10^{-7} cm$^{-3}$). A low ambient density is further supported by the discrepancy between the large optical emission-line luminosity of the host galaxy and the relatively low radio power of the inner lobes.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

Annual modulation in the scattering of J1819+3845: peculiar plasma velocity and anisotropy

We present two years of monitoring observations of the extremely variable quasar J1819+3845. We observe large yearly changes in the timescale of the variations (from ~ 1 hour to ~ 10 hours at 5GHz). This annual effect can only be explained if the variations are caused by a propagation effect, and thus affected by the Earth's relative speed through the projected intensity pattern. To account for this effect, the scattering plasma must have a transverse velocity with respect to the local standard of rest. The velocity calculated from these observations is in good agreement with that obtained from a two telescope delay experiment (Dennett-Thorpe & de Bruyn 2001). We also show that either the source itself is elongated, or that the scattering plasma is anisotropic, with an axial ratio of >6:1. As the source is extended on scales relevant to the scattering phenomenon, it seems plausible that the anisotropy is due to the source itself, but this remains to be investigated. From the scintillation characteristics we find that the scattering material is a very strong, thin scatterer within ~ten parsecs. We determine a source size at 5GHz of 100 to 900microarcsecs, and associated brightness temperatures of 10^{10} to 10^{12}K

Study of the ψ2(3823) and χc1(3872) states in B+ → (J/ψπ+π−)K+ decays

The decays B+→ J/ψπ+π−K+ are studied using a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 9 fb−1 collected with the LHCb detector in proton-proton collisions between 2011 and 2018. Precise measurements of the ratios of branching fractions with the intermediate ψ2(3823), χc1(3872) and ψ(2S) states are reported. The values areBB+→ψ2(3823)K+×Bψ2(3823)→J/ψπ+π−BB+→χc1(3872)K+×Bχc1(3872)→J/ψπ+π−=(3.56±0.67±0.11)×10−2,BB+→ψ2(3823)K+×Bψ2(3823)→J/ψπ+π−BB+→ψ(2S)K+×Bψ(2S)→J/ψπ+π−=(1.31±0.25±0.04)×10−3,BB+→χc1(3872)K+×Bχc1(3872)→J/ψπ+π−BB+→ψ(2S)K+×Bψ(2S)→J/ψπ+π−=(3.69±0.07±0.06)×10−2, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. The decay of B+→ ψ2(3823)K+ with ψ2(3823) → J/ψπ+π− is observed for the first time with a significance of 5.1 standard deviations. The mass differences between the ψ2(3823), χc1(3872) and ψ(2S) states are measured to be mχc1(3872)−mψ2(3823)=47.50±0.53±0.13MeV/c2,mψ2(3823)−mψ2(2S)=137.98±0.53±0.14MeV/c2,mχc1(3872)−mψ2(2S)=185.49±0.06±0.03MeV/c2, resulting in the most precise determination of the χc1(3872) mass. The width of the ψ2(3823) state is found to be below 5.2 MeV at 90% confidence level. The Breit-Wigner width of the χc1(3872) state is measured to be Γχc1(3872)BW=0.96−0.18+0.19±0.21MeV which is inconsistent with zero by 5.5 standard deviations. [Figure not available: see fulltext.