The Charitable Crescent Jonathan Benthall, Jérôme Bellion-Jourdan
2003, 2003-08-22, 20030101
eBook
Islamic Charity Under Suspicion': such headlines have become familiar since the attacks on the United States on 9.11. The Charitable Crescent is a unique and original account of a hitherto ...little-known field of pivotal significance to our understanding of the Muslim world today: the relationship between politics and philanthropy in the workings of Islamic charities. Based on years of research, Jonathan Benthall and Jerome Bellion-Jourdan explain the long tradition of philanthropy in Muslim history and how it is constantly adapted to differing political contexts. The pervasive connections between charity and politics in the Middle East demonstrate how naïve it is to think of humanitarianism as a sphere distinct from politics. The Charitable Crescent covers all aspects of this topic that has become so relevant in today's world: who is entitled to benefit from Muslim alms? Can material relief aid be de- linked from political, or sometimes even violent, action? How can public trust (both Western and Islamic) in welfare delivery systems be won? Who is entitled to interpret Islamic doctrine? Is there one universal tradition of humanitarianism, or many traditions defined by cultural history? This book offers rich practical insights highly relevant to today's highly tense international climate, and also encourages the reader to challenge the common Western assumption that 'we' are the exclusive providers of aid to rescue a passive Third World. "Interesting, rewarding and timely - this is an important book" - 'Caroline Moorhead.'
•ILTER supports collaborative ecosystem, critical zone and socio-ecological research.•ILTER balances requirements of a research community and external user groups.•ILTER has increased its coverage ...and recognition by major partners like GEO.•ILTER fosters the alignment and harmonization of ecosystem research networks.•ILTER provides knowledge required for sustainable development in global collaborations.
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Since its founding in 1993 the International Long-term Ecological Research Network (ILTER) has gone through pronounced development phases. The current network comprises 44 active member LTER networks representing 700 LTER Sites and ~80 LTSER Platforms across all continents, active in the fields of ecosystem, critical zone and socio-ecological research. The critical challenges and most important achievements of the initial phase have now become state-of-the-art in networking for excellent science. At the same time increasing integration, accelerating technology, networking of resources and a strong pull for more socially relevant scientific information have been modifying the mission and goals of ILTER. This article provides a critical review of ILTER's mission, goals, development and impacts. Major characteristics, tools, services, partnerships and selected examples of relative strengths relevant for advancing ILTER are presented. We elaborate on the tradeoffs between the needs of the scientific community and stakeholder expectations. The embedding of ILTER in an increasingly collaborative landscape of global environmental observation and ecological research networks and infrastructures is also reflected by developments of pioneering regional and national LTER networks such as SAEON in South Africa, CERN/CEOBEX in China, TERN in Australia or eLTER RI in Europe. The primary role of ILTER is currently seen as a mechanism to investigate ecosystem structure, function, and services in response to a wide range of environmental forcings using long-term, place-based research. We suggest four main fields of activities and advancements for the next decade through development/delivery of a: (1) Global multi-disciplinary community of researchers and research institutes; (2) Strategic global framework and strong partnerships in ecosystem observation and research; (3) Global Research Infrastructure (GRI); and (4) a scientific knowledge factory for societally relevant information on sustainable use of natural resources.
We present new measurements of electron scattering from high-momentum nucleons in nuclei. These data allow an improved determination of the strength of two-nucleon correlations for several nuclei, ...including light nuclei where clustering effects can, for the first time, be examined. The data also include the kinematic region where three-nucleon correlations are expected to dominate.
Sea turtle reproduction is heavily influenced by environmental temperature. Thus, projected changes in global temperatures are predicted to alter their reproductive output (e.g. hatchling sex ratio ...and success). Management strategies to mitigate potential threats have been identified, but little is known about their effectiveness. We tested how effective sprinkling nests with water and shading is at reducing sand temperature. We compared sand temperature at average green turtle (
Chelonia mydas
) nest depth in a controlled environment with 5 different treatments: (1) shade (S), (2) shade with sprinkling during the day (SD) and (3) at night (SN), and (4) sprinkling during the day (ED) and (5) at night (EN) both exposed to sunlight. Not all strategies reduced the sand temperature; treatments with sprinkling during the day and shading on rainy days had warmer temperatures (0.83 ± 1.20 °C and 0.96 ± 0.41 °C respectively) than control treatments. Sprinkling during the night at an exposed and shaded setting were most effective at reducing sand temperature (with sand temperature on average 2.23 ± 0.66 °C and 1.43 ± 0.94 °C lower than control, respectively). These strategies could potentially be effective in counteracting increases in temperature at nesting grounds used by the northern Great Barrier Reef green turtle by 2030, where predictions are for an increase of 0.2–1.8 ± 0.01–0.37 °C. The effectiveness of strategies will likely vary regionally depending on the beach environment and setting used for the strategy.
New Jefferson Lab data are presented on the nuclear dependence of the inclusive cross section from (2)H, (3)He, (4)He, (9)Be and (12)C for 0.3 < x < 0.9, Q(2) approximately 3-6 GeV(2). These data ...represent the first measurement of the EMC effect for (3)He at large x and a significant improvement for (4)He. The data do not support previous A-dependent or density-dependent fits to the EMC effect and suggest that the nuclear dependence of the quark distributions may depend on the local nuclear environment.
Acute triage is needed to prioritize care and achieve optimal resource allocation in busy emergency departments. The main objective is to compare the FRench Emergency Nurse Classification in Hospital ...scale (FRENCH) to the American scale Emergency Severity Index (ESI). Secondary objectives are to compare for each scale the over and under-triage, the triage matching to the gold standard and the inter-individual sorting reproducibility between the nurses.
This is a prospective observational study conducting among the nursing staffs and nursing students, selected from Caen University College Hospital and Lisieux Hospital Center emergency departments between two months. Each group individually rank 60 referent clinical cases composed by scales designers. An assessment of scale practicality is collected after for each tool. The collected parameters are analyzed by a Cohen kappa concordance test (κ).
With 8151 triage results of gold standard scenarios sorting in two scales by the same nurses, the FRENCH scale seems to give better triage results than the US ESI scale (nurse: FRENCH 60% and ESI 53%, p = 0.003 ; nursing students: FRENCH 49% and ESI 42%, p < 0.001). In the two groups ESI has also a big tendency to under-sort (p = 0.01), particularly for the most severe patients (p < 0.01). The interobserver sorting concordance for any experience gives good results for the FRENCH and the ESI without any difference (nurses : FRENCH K
=0.72 ESI K
=0.78; p = 0.32 ; students K
=0.44 K
=0.55; p = 0.22).
The ESI and FRENCH scales comparison on 8151 sorting results shows direct validity in favor of FRENCH one and similar interobserver agreement for both scales.
The reward circuit is important for motivation and learning, and dysregulations of the reward circuit are prominent in anhedonic depression. Noninvasive interventions that can selectively target the ...reward circuit may hold promise for the treatment of anhedonia.
We tested a novel transcranial magnetic stimulation intervention for modulating the reward circuit. A total of 35 healthy individuals participated in a crossover controlled study targeting the reward circuit or a control site with intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS), an excitatory form of transcranial magnetic stimulation. Individual reward circuit targets were defined based upon functional magnetic resonance imaging functional connectivity with the ventral striatum, yielding targets in the rostromedial prefrontal cortex (rmPFC). Reward circuit function was assessed at baseline using functional magnetic resonance imaging, and reward circuit modulation was assessed using an event-related potential referred to as the reward positivity, which has been shown to reliably track reward sensitivity, as well as individual differences in depression and risk for depression.
Relative to control iTBS, rmPFC iTBS enhanced the reward positivity. This effect was moderated by reward function, suggesting greater enhancements in individuals with lower reward function. This effect was also moderated by rmPFC–ventral striatum connectivity insofar as iTBS reached the rmPFC, suggesting that efficacy relies jointly on the strength of the rmPFC–ventral striatum pathway and ability of transcranial magnetic stimulation to target the rmPFC.
These data suggest that the reward circuit can be modulated by rmPFC iTBS, and amenability to such modulations is related to measures of reward circuit function. This provides the first step toward a novel noninvasive treatment of disorders of the reward circuit.
•MMGF elicited alpha EEG dynamics intermediate between eyes-closed and open.•Alpha peak frequency accelerated in MMGF.•Individuals with faster alpha peak frequency self-reported more fading.•MMGF ...elicited a rich phenomenological experience.
We examined the spontaneous cerebral electrophysiology and phenomenology during short-term perceptual deprivation consisting of an edgeless visual field combined with monotonous auditory input that eliminated potential grounding cues (multimodal Ganzfeld). Subjects (N = 22) were instructed to self-report perceptual fading using a button press. Relaxed wakefulness with closed eyes and viewing of a time-varying stimulus array served as control conditions. The power of parieto-occipital alpha rhythms during perceptual deprivation was midway between the eyes-closed and eyes-open conditions, with a state-specific frequency acceleration. Oscillatory alpha power remained enhanced in the multimodal Ganzfeld relative to viewing time-varying signals, despite no indication of diminished brain arousal. Subjects experienced a range of perceptual phenomena while in the altered sensory environment and individuals with faster alpha oscillations self-reported a greater number of fading episodes. We suggest that alpha-band electroencephalogram (EEG) dynamics signal internally oriented mentation in response to brief perceptual deprivation.
•Destructured sensory fields possess inadequate informational structure.•Exposure to such fields elicits autonomously generated perceptual effects.•Anomalous sensory fields provide a testing ground ...for predictive coding hypotheses.
Destructured sensory fields, involving homogenous stimulation with little or no time-varying structure, provide a fertile ground for testing hypotheses about predictive coding in the human brain. Extended exposure to sensory patterns that deviate substantially from the statistics of natural environments can elicit a bewildering range of perceptual phenomena, up to and including vivid oneiric imagery. We illustrate how this large variety of perceptual effects can be understood as the experiential counterpart of auto-generated neuronal dynamics, unconstrained by parameters that tune the waking sensorium. We synthesize the literature on autonomous neuronal activity across multiple spatiotemporal scales with generative models of brain function and evidence from artificial neural architectures. Perception, we argue, emerges from a process of non-random sampling from an intrinsic distribution of hypotheses rather than a direct transfer of information from the world. The imagery that occurs in altered sensory environments is explained as the outcome of an iterative search through internal world models in which the structural typology of percepts reflects the brain’s intrinsic functional architectures.
Four commercially available silver pastes for silicon solar cells front side metallization were examined and compared. Both rheological and printing experiments were used to correlate pastes ...properties and screens characteristics with printing results. Theoretical printability and spreading behavior were first characterized by means of rotational and oscillatory rheological experiments. Further on, the pastes were printed, dried, and fired in a standard solar cell process on an industrial line using a full factorial design of experiments. This methodology allows to study the effect of the paste, the screen, the aperture, and their interactions on the printing results. Especially, the finger aspect ratio, the finger cross section and its relative standard deviation, which are respectively linked to solar cell efficiency, silver consumption, and process stability, were systematically measured. This work allows finding general guidelines for process optimization. Finally, a confirmation test was carried out, leading to 19% efficiency on monocrystalline silicon solar cells in an industrial environment.
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