The Muslim conquest of the East in the seventh century entailed the subjugation of Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians and others. Although much has been written about the status of non-Muslims in the ...Islamic empire, no previous works have examined how the rules applying to minorities were formulated. Milka Levy-Rubin's remarkable book traces the emergence of these regulations from the first surrender agreements in the immediate aftermath of conquest to the formation of the canonic document called the Pact of 'Umar, which was formalized under the early 'Abbasids, in the first half of the ninth century. The study reveals that the conquered peoples themselves played a major role in the creation of these policies and that they were based on long-standing traditions, customs and institutions from earlier pre-Islamic cultures that originated in the worlds of both the conquerors and the conquered. In its connections to Roman, Byzantine and Sasanian traditions, the book will appeal to historians of Europe as well as Arabia and Persia.
Since the beginning of its history, Islam has encountered other religious communities both in Arabia and in the territories conquered during its expansion. Muslims faced other religions from the ...position of a ruling power and were therefore able to determine the nature of that relationship in accordance with their world-view and beliefs. Yohanan Friedmann's original and erudite study examines questions of religious tolerance as they appear in the Qur'an and in the prophetic tradition, and analyses the principle that Islam is exalted above all religions, discussing the ways in which this principle was reflected in various legal pronouncements. The book also considers the various interpretations of the Qur'anic verse according to which 'No compulsion is there in religion …', noting that, despite the apparent meaning of this verse, Islamic law allowed the practice of religious coercion against Manichaeans and Arab idolaters, as well as against women and children in certain circumstances.
For Native Americans, religious freedom has been an elusive goal. From nineteenth-century bans on indigenous ceremonial practices to twenty-first-century legal battles over sacred lands, peyote use, ...and hunting practices, the U.S. government has often acted as if Indian traditions were somehow not truly religious and therefore not eligible for the constitutional protections of the First Amendment. In this book, Tisa Wenger shows that cultural notions about what constitutes "religion" are crucial to public debates over religious freedom.In the 1920s, Pueblo Indian leaders in New Mexico and a sympathetic coalition of non-Indian reformers successfully challenged government and missionary attempts to suppress Indian dances by convincing a skeptical public that these ceremonies counted as religion. This struggle for religious freedom forced the Pueblos to employ Euro-American notions of religion, a conceptual shift with complex consequences within Pueblo life. Long after the dance controversy, Wenger demonstrates, dominant concepts of religion and religious freedom have continued to marginalize indigenous traditions within the United States.
Improving SO2/H2O resistance at low temperatures is a key challenge for industrial applications of NH3-SCR catalysts. Herein, a novel catalyst with remarkable low-temperature NH3-SCR activity and ...strong SO2/H2O resistance was designed by loading MoOx protective layer over porous kit-CeO2. The in situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS) coupled with basic characterization techniques were utilized to further elucidate the underlying mechanisms, and a dynamic balance between the deposition and decomposition of ammonia bisulfate was captured over porous kit-CeO2. Highly dispersed MoOx species pre-adsorbed with NH3 significantly curtailed the adsorption of NOx molecules, and the catalytic reaction over MoOx/kit-CeO2 primarily followed by the Eley-Rideal mechanism. At 250 °C, in the presence of SO2 and H2O, the Ce-O-Mo pairing site was almost unaffected and the super SO2- and H2O-tolerant property originated from the facilitated decomposition of ammonium bisulfate (ABS) and the shielding effect of Mo protective layer on SO2/H2O. This study provided an important guidance to the application of ceria-based catalysts for environmental control within low-temperature operations in non-power industries such as glass, steel, cement manufacturing, etc.
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•A catalyst with good NH3-SCR activity was designed by loading MoOx over kit-CeO2.•MoOx/kit-CeO2 shows strong SO2/H2O resistance.•The NH3-SCR reaction primarily followed by the Eley-Rideal mechanism.•MoOx/kit-CeO2 can facilitate decomposition of ammonium bisulfate.•MoOx protective layer on SO2/H2O shows the shielding effect.
Efforts to understand autoimmunity have been pursued relentlessly for several decades. It has become apparent that the immune system evolved multiple mechanisms for controlling self-reactivity, and ...defects in one or more of these mechanisms can lead to a breakdown of tolerance. Among the multitude of lesions associated with disease, the most common seem to affect peripheral tolerance rather than central tolerance. The initial trigger for both systemic autoimmune disorders and organ-specific autoimmune disorders probably involves the recognition of self or foreign molecules, especially nucleic acids, by innate sensors. Such recognition, in turn, triggers inflammatory responses and the engagement of previously quiescent autoreactive T cells and B cells. Here we summarize the most prominent autoimmune pathways and identify key issues that require resolution for full understanding of pathogenic autoimmunity.
Eliminating cytoreductive conditioning from chimerism‐based tolerance protocols would facilitate clinical translation. Here we investigated the impact of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) and ...minor histocompatibility antigen (MiHA) barriers on mechanisms of tolerance and rejection in this setting. Transient depletion of natural killer (NK) cells at the time of bone marrow (BM) transplantation (BMT) (20 × 106 BALB/c BM cells → C57BL/6 recipients under costimulation blockade CB and rapamycin) prevented BM rejection. Despite persistent levels of mixed chimerism, BMT recipients gradually rejected skin grafts from the same donor strain. Extending NK cell depletion did not improve skin graft survival. However, F1 (C57BL/6×BALB/c) donors, which do not elicit NK cell‐mediated rejection, induced durable chimerism and tolerance. In contrast, if F1 donors with BALB/c background only were used (BALB/c×BALB.B), no tolerance was observed. In the absence of MiHA disparities (B10.D2 donors, MHC‐mismatch only), temporal NK cell depletion established stable chimerism and tolerance. Conversely, MHC identical BM (BALB.B donors, MiHA mismatch only) readily engrafted without NK cell depletion but no skin graft tolerance ensued. Therefore, we conclude that under CB and rapamycin, MHC disparities provoke NK cell‐mediated BM rejection in nonirradiated recipients whereas MiHA disparities do not prevent BM engraftment but impede skin graft tolerance in established mixed chimeras.
This article shows that in nonirradiated mice, major histocompatibility antigen barriers are mainly responsible for NK cell–mediated bone marrow rejection under costimulation blockade and rapamycin while minor histocompatibility antigen barriers determine donor skin graft survival. See Sánchez‐Fueyo and Dazzi's editorial on page 919.
The two major mechanisms of plant defense against pathogens are resistance (the host's ability to limit pathogen multiplication) and tolerance (the host's ability to reduce the effect of infection on ...its fitness regardless of the level of pathogen multiplication). There is abundant literature on virtually every aspect of plant resistance to pathogens. Although tolerance to plant pathogens is comparatively less understood, studies on this plant defense strategy have led to major insights into its evolution, mechanistic basis and genetic determinants. This review aims at summarizing current theories and experimental evidence on the evolutionary causes and consequences of plant tolerance to pathogens, as well as the existing knowledge on the genetic determinants and mechanisms of tolerance. Our review reveals that (i) in plant-pathogen systems, resistance and tolerance generally coexist, i.e., are not mutually exclusive; (ii) evidence of tolerance polymorphisms is abundant regardless of the pathogen considered; (iii) tolerance is an efficient strategy to reduce the damage on the infected host; and (iv) there is no evidence that tolerance results in increased pathogen multiplication. Taken together, the work discussed in this review indicates that tolerance may be as important as resistance in determining the dynamics of plant-pathogen interactions. Several aspects of plant tolerance to pathogens that still remain unclear and which should be explored in the future, are also outlined.
No standardised approach appears to exist in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry for the communication of tolerance information on drawings. As a result of this ...shortcoming, defects associated with dimensional and geometric variability occur with potentially severe consequences. In contrast, in mechanical engineering, geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) is a symbolic language widely used to communicate both the perfect geometry and the tolerances of components and assemblies. This paper prescribes the application of GD&T in construction with the goal of developing a common language called geometric dimensioning and tolerancing in construction (GD&TIC) to facilitate the communication of tolerance information throughout design and construction. design science research is the adopted methodological approach. Evidence was collated from direct observations in two construction projects and two group interviews. A focus group meeting was conducted to evaluate whether the developed solution (GD&TIC) fulfilled its aim. The contribution of this paper to designers, to organisations involved in developing AEC industry standards, and to the scholarly community is twofold: (1) It is an attempt to develop a standardised approach (GD&TIC) for the communication of tolerance information in AEC, and (2) it identifies discrepancies between GD&TIC rules and some of the commonly used American and British standards on tolerances.
More than 15 years ago, mutations in the autoimmune regulator (AIRE) gene were identified as the cause of autoimmune polyglandular syndrome type 1 (APS1). It is now clear that this transcription ...factor has a crucial role in promoting self-tolerance in the thymus by regulating the expression of a wide array of self-antigens that have the commonality of being tissue-restricted in their expression pattern in the periphery. In this Review, we highlight many of the recent advances in our understanding of the complex biology that is related to AIRE, with a particular focus on advances in genetics, molecular interactions and the effect of AIRE on thymic selection of regulatory T cells. Furthermore, we highlight new areas of biology that are potentially affected by this key regulator of immune tolerance.
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