bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
El Mercadeo Relacional y CRM en las Pymes del Sector Textil y de la Confección de Antioquia
Authors: Ruiz-Velásquez María Andrea , Ceballos Lina María , Londoño-Vélez Natalia
Published: January 2021

Esta investigación cualitativa explora las estrategias y actividades de mercadeo relacional y CRM realizadas por pymes manufactureras del sector textil y de la confección del departamento de Antioquia, Colombia (Suramérica). La metodología se desarrolló a través de 13 entrevistas a profundidad con pymes manufactureras del sector y expertos en la industria de la moda y el mercadeo relacional. Se evidencia un bajo nivel de madurez en la implementación del mercadeo relacional en estas pymes. Mayores niveles de madurez se presentan en empresas con mayores capacidades administrativas y empleados con mayor nivel educativo, abiertos a la tecnología, con un enfoque a agregar valor en la oferta, y dispuestos a innovar en términos de procesos y servicios. La falta de lineamientos de mercadeo y limitado presupuesto y personal se convierten en las principales barreras. Se recomienda la implementación de planes de mercadeo relacional, desde una aproximación sencilla y práctica, haciendo uso adecuado de sus recursos.
You Are Right, You Are Wrong: The Effect of Feedback on Intuitive Thinking
Authors: Gambetti Elisa , Marinello Fabio , Zucchelli Micaela Maria , Nori Raffaella , Giusbeerti Fiorella
Published: January 2021

Dual process theories of decision making distinguish between type 1 processes, which are commonly assumed to be fast and autonomous and related to intuitive thinking, and type 2 processes, which require the involvement of working memory and are closely linked to analytical reasoning. The purpose of this work was to study the role of external information about intuitively made decisions, examining whether type 2 processes engagement is modified by exposure to positive or negative feedback. One hundred six participants completed a set of conditional reasoning tasks, adopting a two-response paradigm. Results showed that participants who expected to receive feedback information took longer to make intuitive decisions, but they took less time to give intuitive responses after the administration of positive feedback and more time after the administration of negative feedback; moreover, time spent by participants to provide their reflected responses progressively decreased throughout the experiment. A significant negative feedback effect also emerged, showing an increase in the accuracy of intuitive responses. Results are discussed from a dual process perspective.
Cultural Competence or the Mapping of Racialized Space: Cartographies of Music Education
Authors: Hess Juliet
Published: January 2021

Cultural competence has received great attention in the education literature. In music education, cultural competence typically manifests as the practice of including multiple musics in the classroom and engaging in culturally responsive teaching. I argue that conceptually, these practices are cartographic. Including multiple musics and engaging in culturally responsive teaching involve mapping racialized space. This article first examines how cultural competence has been taken up in different fields in ways that are cartographic. I subsequently explore literature predominantly from the field of geography on cartography in order to consider how practices of cultural competence can be cartographic. I then return to music education to explore how culturally responsive music educators may engage in cartographic practices, as well as account for the ways that such cartographic practices have been resisted by scholars challenging the concept of cultural competence. Ultimately, I consider ways that music educators may resist cartography in their efforts to be culturally responsive, drawing on literature predominantly outside of music education to imagine possibilities.
Hong Kong Anaphylaxis Consortium Consensus Statements on prescription of adrenaline autoinjectors in the acute care setting
Authors: Li Philip H. , Chua Gilbert T. , Leung Agnes S.Y. , Chan Yiu-Cheung , Chan Karen K.L. , Cheung Koon-Ho , Chong Patrick C.Y. , Ho Polly P.K. , Kwan Mike Y.W. , Lai Jeffrey C.H. , Lam Kin-Kwai , Lam Tommy S.K. , Leung Ting-Fan , Li Tin-Yan , Duque Jaime S. Rosa , So Jerome L.T. , Wan Kuang-An , Wong Henry C.Y. , Wu Adrian Y.Y. , Lee Tak-Hong , Ho Marco H.K. , Siu Axel Y.C.
Published: January 2021

Background

Adrenaline autoinjectors (AAInj) facilitates early administration of adrenaline and remains the first-line treatment for anaphylaxis. However, only a minority of anaphylaxis survivors in Hong Kong are prescribed AAInj and formal guidance do not exist. International anaphylaxis guidelines have been largely based on Western studies, which may not be as relevant for non-Western populations.

Objective

To formulate a set of consensus statements on the prescription of AAInj in Hong Kong.

Methods

Consensus statements were formulated by the Hong Kong Anaphylaxis Consortium by the Delphi method. Agreement was defined as greater than or equal to 80% consensus. Subgroup analysis was performed to investigate differences between allergy and emergency medicine physicians.

Results

A total of 7 statements met criteria for consensus with good overall agreement between allergy and emergency medicine physicians. AAInj should be used as first-line treatment and prescribed for all patients at risk of anaphylaxis. This should be prescribed prior to discharge from the Accident and Emergency Department together with an immediate referral to an allergy center. The decision for prescribing AAInj should be based on the severity of previous reactions; including objective signs of respiratory involvement, objective signs of cardiovascular involvement and multiorgan involvement (regardless of severity). Patient demographics and comorbidities, specifically history of asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, should also be considered. Patients deemed eligible for AAInj should be offered avoidance advice and prescribed one AAInj while awaiting review by allergists. AAInj technique should be demonstrated by a healthcare professional or instruction video, and a return demonstration by the patient is required. The patient should also be counseled that the decision on the continued need of AAInj prescription in the long-term should be reviewed by an allergist.

Conclusion

Consensus statements support the prescription of AAInj by front-line physicians with subsequent allergist review when treating patients at risk of anaphylaxis in Hong Kong.
Entrepreneurship and Crisis in Greece From a neo-Schumpeterian Perspective: A Suggestion to Stimulate the Development Process at the Local Level
Authors: Vlados Charis , Koronis Epaminondas , Chatzinikolaou Dimos
Published: January 2021

In economies where most firms are family-owned, there is a risk of poor management and problematic strategic and technological comprehension. Multiple cases prove the existence of a series of socio-economic pathologies in such firms that undermine an economy’s ability to overcome economic crises through innovative and entrepreneurial thinking and adaptability. The paper aims to present the relationship between entrepreneurship and “development and crisis” from the perspective of Greece’s current socio-economic crisis. It first analyzes the neo-Schumpeterian entrepreneurship theory and the structures that allow innovative and competitive models to appear and then links this context with Greece’s case. The “Stra.Tech.Man” theoretical framework of physiological types of entrepreneurship is suggested as the analytical base for elaborating a local development policy instrument for economies where such less competitive businesses prevail.
p-Coumaric acid has an ameliorative effect on peptic ulcer: a macroscopic, microscopic and biochemical analysis
Authors: KOLGAZI Meltem , OZTOSUN Gulsen , YALCIN Muge , UNAN Zehra Neslisah , ARSOY Edanur , ORAL Simge , CILINGIR Sumeyye , ACIKEL ELMAS Merve , ARBAK Serap
Published: January 2021

Objective: p-Coumaric acid is commonly found in edible plants in nature and is known to be an effective antioxidant. This study
aimed to investigate the therapeutic effects of p-coumaric acid on ethanol-induced gastric ulcer model
Materials and Methods: After an 18-hour starvation period, the ulcer was induced in male Sprague-Dawley (250-300) rats by
intragastric administration of 75% ethanol. An hour after ulcer induction, p-coumaric acid (250 mg/kg) suspended in 1 ml tween-80
was administered intragastrically. The control and ulcer groups received 1 ml tween-80. One hour later, all rats were euthanized and
stomach samples were collected for macroscopic examination, histological evaluation, and measurement of myeloperoxidase (MPO)
activity, malondialdehyde (MDA), and glutathione (GSH) levels.
Results: Ethanol induction resulted in gastric epithelial and mucosal injury, increased MPO activity and MDA levels; and decreased
GSH levels. Treatment with p-coumaric acid at a dose of 250 mg/kg markedly improved the gastric injury macroscopically,
microscopically, and biochemically due to decreasing MPO activity and MDA levels while increasing GSH levels.
Conclusion: p-Coumaric acid markedly ameliorated the gastric epithelial and mucosal injury induced by ethanol. The therapeutic
effects of p-coumaric acid could be due to its antioxidant properties and protective role against GSH depletion and neutrophil
accumulation.
Total Edge Irregularity Strength of q Tuple Book Graphs
Authors: Ratnasari Lucia , Wahyuni Sri , Susanti Yeni , Eksi Palupi Diah Junia
Published: January 2021

Let G(V, E) be a simple, undirected, and finite graph with a vertex set V and an edge set E. An edge irregular total k-labelling is a function f from the set V \cup E to the set of non-negative integer set (1, 2, ... , k) such that any two different edges in E have distinct weights. The weight of edge xy is defined as the sum of the label of vertex x, the label of vertex y and the label of edge xy. The minimum k for which the graph G can be labelled by an edge irregular total k-labelling is called the total edge irregularity strength of G, denoted by tes(G). We have constructed the formula of an edge irregular total k-labelling and determined the total edge irregularity strength of triple book graphs, quadruplet book graphs and quintuplet book graphs. In this paper, we construct an edge irregular total of k-labelling and show the exact value of the total edge irregularity strength of q tuple book graphs.
The role of transcription in a didactic process on the examples of chamber works scored for piano for four hands and for two pianos
Authors: Górska-Kołodziejska Agata
Published: January 2021

The aim of the article is to demonstrate the need for employing transcriptions of well-known musical works in the teaching of piano performance for four hands and for two pianos. The origins of the concept of transcription is presented, development of transcription in the context of the history of musical forms is traced back, as well as performance-related aspects of a transcription are analysed. The article shows advantages of a transcription as an arrangement developing the pianist’s technique and art of interpretation. The publication also includes a list of the transcribed pieces available from the Petrucci Online Library, as well as a list of original transcriptions of the 19th-century Polish composers scored for four hands. The article also features a link to the recordings of selected transcriptions of popular operatic, symphonic and chamber works, made by the author of the article together with Agata Kalińska-Bonińska.
Globalização e estratégias locais: as interações global-local no caso do município de Mocajuba, na Amazônia oriental
Authors: Cuenin Pauline , Piraux Marc
Published: January 2021

Este artigo objetiva analisar e entender, em um contexto de globalização, as interações entre o local e o global que permitam uma melhor autonomia dos territórios locais. Neste objetivo, estudou-se um território da Amazônia Oriental, considerado rural e isolado, mas integrado nos processos de globalização: Mocajuba-Pa. Uma análise de fluxos dentro do município e entre este e o exterior, assim como dos diferentes projetos de desenvolvimento local foi conduzida. Esta análise mostrou os impactos no local das influências globalizadas, tais como a homogeneização dos modelos de consumo e a fragmentação do território. No entanto, destacou-se também iniciativas locais e as suas conexões com o global, enfatizando um local que interage com várias escalas. Essas experiências, baseadas na articulação das diferentes escalas e atores, destacam-se por apresentar potencialidades para uma maior autonomia do território.
O Sistema Integrado de Gestão de Atividades Acadêmicas (SIGAA) na pós-graduação da UFPA: estudo de caso no NAEA
Authors: Vieira José Nilberlanio , Corbin Hisakhana Pahoona
Published: January 2021

Este artigo procura analisar o Sistema Integrado de Gestão de Atividades Acadêmicas (SIGAA) e sua relação com a gestão pública no âmbito organizacional de programas de pós-graduação da Universidade Federal do Pará (UFPA). Para tanto, realizou-se um estudo de caso com a utilização de métodos mistos (qualitativo e quantitativo), no Programa de Pós-Graduação em Desenvolvimento Sustentável do Trópico Úmido (PPGDSTU) oferecido pelo Núcleo de Altos Estudos Amazônicos (NAEA) da UFPA. Os pesquisadores investigaram a utilidade do SIGAA para o gerenciamento acadêmico e administrativo nesse programa na opinião de docentes, discentes e servidores técnico-administrativos. Os resultados apontaram que o SIGAA tem se mostrado útil para o gerenciamento acadêmico-administrativo dos cursos, sendo capaz de fornecer dados e informações que contribuem para o processo de tomada de decisão. Porém, para alguns discentes, o SIGAA poderia ser mais bem explorado, sobretudo por parte de alguns docentes que resistem em explorar todas as potencialidades presentes no sistema.
The Risk of Catastrophic Health Expenditures Due to Direct Non-Medical Costs in Patients: A Study of the Outpatients in Qazvin, Iran
Authors: Asefzadeh Saeed , Ahadi Nezhad Bahman , Norouzi Saeed
Published: January 2021

Background: Out-of-pocket payment encompasses the costs that patients pay for healthcare services, which is an inefficient approach to healthcare financing as it may lead to poverty. Objectives: The present study aimed to determine the risk of catastrophic health expenditures due to non-medical costs in the outpatients in Qazvin, Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional survey was conducted on 341 outpatients referring to the internists of Velayat Hospital and Bu-Ali Sina Hospital in Qazvin. The required data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire and the prescriptions of the patients. Out-of-pocket payments were defined as the direct medical and non-medical costs within one month. Results: The mean out-of-pocket payments of the patients in one month was 49.97 dollars, 75.8% of which covered direct medical cost (disease diagnosis and treatment), and 24.2% covered direct non-medical costs to receive health services. The highest out-of-pocket payments were for diagnostic/laboratory tests (50.3%), medications (21.5%), and transportation (18.2%). In addition, the exposure rate to catastrophic expenditures was estimated at 31%, and the patients with lower income had less exposure compared to those without incomes. Conclusions: According to the results, direct non-medical costs were associated with the increased out-of-pocket payments of the patients, which in turn led to the higher rates of catastrophic expenditures.
The Predictive Factors of Expectation Regarding Aging: The Role of the Sense of Belonging
Authors: Goudarzian Amir Hossein , Yaghoobzadeh Ameneh , Heydarzadeh Fariba , Ghorbanpour Fatemeh , Sharif Nia Hamid , Heidari Tahereh , Mohammadinezhad Mobin
Published: January 2021

Objectives: The present study aimed to assess the correlation between the sense of belonging and expectation regarding aging in the elderly. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 300 elderly residents in Tehran and Ghazvin, Iran. The expectations regarding aging (ERA-12) was used to evaluate the same variable, and the other measurement tool was the sense of belonging instrument. Results: The sense of belonging had a direct, significant correlation with expectation regarding aging (β = 0.466; P < 0.001), so that the sense of belonging could predict various dimensions of expectation regarding aging, such as physical health (β = 0.20; B = 0.08; P < 0.001), mental health (β = 0.40; B = 0.31; P < 0.001), and cognitive function (β = 0.40; B = 0.34; P < 0.001). Conclusions: Considering the obtained results, it is recommended that special attention be paid to psychological factors (e.g., sense of belonging) in order to improve interpersonal relations and healthy aging in the elderly. Furthermore, these factors have a significant impact on the life expectancy and quality of life of this population.
Serum Vitamin D3 Levels in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia and Its Relevance with Clinical Prognostic Factors
Authors: Dehghani Mehdi , Khajeh Anush , Vojdani Reza , Sanei Mozhdeh , Keshavarz Pedram , Namdari Nasrin
Published: January 2021

Background: Studies conducted in recent years have proposed a protective effect of vitamin D3 (VitD3) against various types of cancers. Thus, in this research, we investigated the serum levels of VitD3and its relation with prognostic clinical factors in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Method: In this cross-sectional study, 86 CLL patients were investigated for a one-year period and evaluated for the relationship between Vit D3serum levels, Rai stages, age, gender, and pathological factors. A control group was added to the study in order to compare the VitD3 levels of CLL patients with that of the normal population. Results: The mean serum VitD3level in CLL patients was 29.76 ± 18.75 ng/ml, and most of the patients were in stage I and II. There was no significant association between age, sex, and Rai stages of CLL with VitD3 level. Except for splenomegaly (P < 0.001), the leukemia-related phenotypes, complications, and prognostic factors had no meaningful association with VitD3 (P > 0.05) level. VitD3 serum level was meaningfully different between case and control groups (P < 0.001). Conclusion: In the current research, there was no significant relationship between VitD3serum levels and investigated variables, except splenomegaly; these findings are in concordance with other studies.
Cultural Theory, Ethics and Politics
Authors: Gruenwald Oskar ,   Institute for Interdisciplinary Research
Published: January 2021

Political culture theory enjoyed a revival during the 1980s despite its alleged inability to account for change, values, conflict, and differences within nations. A new school of thought attempts to remedy the shortfalls of Almond and Verba's The Civic Culture. The grid-group cultural theory, propounded by Thompson, Ellis and Wildavsky, proposes a typology of ways of life as the missing link in a cultural-functional analysis of the formation of preferences. This essay assesses cultural theory as a methodology and a substantive theory or sociology of knowledge. Cultural theory claims that there are only five possible ways of life: Hierarchy, egalitarianism, fatalism, individualism, and autonomy. Yet it fails to address questions of universal values, ethics, power, or human rights and freedoms. There are inherent problems in applying cultural theory as a mode of political analysis. In the absence of exogenous, non-systemic ethical criteria, cultural theory as a social construction of reality begs the question of ethical conduct.
The Rise and Fall of Communism in Nicaragua
Authors: Cuzán Alfred G. ,   Institute for Interdisciplinary Research
Published: January 2021

Communism was imposed in Nicaragua in stages, just as in Eastern Europe. Unlike Eastern Europe, however, communism was never consolidated in Nicaragua. Like their East European analogues, the Sandinistas stripped the state of valuable assets before turning the presidency over to the winner of the 1990 election. The Sandinistas outdid their East European counterparts in retaining greater control of the police and military under the new government. The thesis of this essay is that Nicaragua is unique among post-communist polities in that it voted communism out before it had consolidated itself and while a civil war still raged. These two conditions will probably make it more difficult to solidify democracy in Nicaragua than in Eastern Europe.
Reality and Textuality
Authors: Cooper David D. ,   Institute for Interdisciplinary Research
Published: January 2021

For the past two decades, the humanistic disciplines have been dominated by poststructuralist theories and, more recently, a not unrelated curricular philosophy best defined as hardline multiculturalism, much discussed and often misunderstood. When linked together, they form an internal contradiction that is the moral challenge of liberal education today. Traditional political alignments cannot explain current divisions among the humanities professoriate. Ideological quarrels only obscure a deeper moral debate between an ascendant poststructuralism and a resurgent liberal humanism. It is important to reappropriate liberal humanism in an effort to revitalize humanistic inquiry and renew its place in creative public discourse, and check a danger posed by poststructuralism's fascination with power and epistemological relativism which threaten to erase the ethical border between education and indoctrination.
Thomas Moore and Victorian Ireland
Authors: Consalvo Deborah McWilliams ,   Institute for Interdisciplinary Research
Published: January 2021

This essay examines the political environment in Ireland during the nineteenth century and evaluates the impact of national patriotism upon the social landscape. In analyzing the changing topography of Victorian Ireland, religious ideology played a significant role in carving out the model of Irish culture at the close of the century. Thomas Moore's poetry reflects the cultural significance of both political and religious ideals by his use of imagery and language to unite these two social forces and represent them as thematic cooperatives essential to the identity and survival of Irish nationhood.
The Utopian Tradition and Western Intellectuals
Authors: Molnar Thomas ,   Institute for Interdisciplinary Research
Published: January 2021

The thesis of this essay is that utopianism is an attempt to arrest the course of time, at a point where the Utopian manipulator finds it ripe for a radical transformation. So radical that Utopia will lack human features, personhood, family, reformable institutions, knowledge freely acquired, and art also freely created. The Utopian manipulator himself is the "intellectual" of modem times whose hatred of the human condition as it is---because God created it---is such that everything deserves to be destroyed. Afterwards, it would be rebuilt, but the foundation of reconstruction would be a different human nature.
Prospects of a Free and Democratic Society in Hungary
Authors: Andrássy György , Fülöp Miklos ,   Institute for Interdisciplinary Research
Published: January 2021

This essay is an historical approach to the thesis that present changes in Hungary are, despite all appearances, parts and results of a long process. Western liberal democracies have served as models for various Hungarian political movments and social classes for some two centuries, and political changes similar to contemporary ones have occurred repeatedly in Hungary. An important feature of Hungarian political and civil attitudes is that these changes usually take the shape of "lawful revolutions." Most political, legal, and social conditions needed to complete the transition from a communist system to a free and democratic Hungary are now present. However, the process is endangered by a tremendous national debt and national conflicts in the region.
The Nature of Nature
Authors: Marty William R. ,   Institute for Interdisciplinary Research
Published: January 2021

Recent scientific and philosophical investigations have re-opened the question of the adequacy of a non-teleological view of nature. This essay examines the puzzling status of humanity itself within nature, the vexed question of whether the Darwinian principle of evolution through chance mutation, combined with natural selection, can account for what we know of biological life, and the extraordinary implausibility of any nonteleological explanation of the origins of life. The central issue is what can be accomplished by chance mutation and natural selection. The greatest mystery of all is the origin of life itself. The probabilities of life appearing by chance are so infinitesimal that some conclude that life could not have originated on earth. The biological world as we know it still appears to require prodigies of miracle.
Signs and Seasons in Edmund Spenser's Fairie Queene
Authors: Fisher James R. ,   Institute for Interdisciplinary Research
Published: January 2021

This essay explores how the Elizabethan poet Edmund Spenser incorporates a zodiac, calendar, and history into his allegory, each based on the twelve signs, and each Christ-centered, In Spenser's historical allegory, Guyon, the Knight of Temperance, symbolically travels through the zodiac, sign by sign, in a quintessentially Christian odyssey. Guyon's Imitation of Christ in the center of Book II of The Faerie Queene marks the structural transition between classical and Christian temperance, reflected in a physical transition from the lunar to the solar signs of the zodiac. By modelling the world of Book II on the zodiac, Spenser epitomizes the Renaissance theory of poetics: To create a poem modelled on the universe was to worship its Creator.
The Creation Story and Evolution
Authors: Zimmer J. Raymond ,   Institute for Interdisciplinary Research
Published: January 2021

Western culture has two origin stories, the poetic first chapter of Genesis and the scientific evolutionary record. The stories have similar structural features, leading to the question: Does the series of events portrayed in the Creation Story resemble the series of events postulated by the evolutionary sciences? To answer this question, the Creation Story is treated as poetry defined as a confluence of visualization and allusion, and compared to the evolutionary record. Although a resemblance cannot be proven, this approach suggests that images and allusions portrayed in the Creation Story resemble phenomenal features of the evolutionary record.
From Engineering to Apocalypse
Authors: Ensign Robert ,   Institute for Interdisciplinary Research
Published: January 2021

Critics of Scientific Creationism (SC) contend that it is fundamentalist religion rather than science. While SC is, indeed, religion, giving it this vague label is neither useful nor descriptive. By treating SC as a body of rhetoric, one may address the question, "What kind of religion is SC?" SC creates a distinct image of God as a Divine Engineer and uses this image, rather than science, to criticize evolution. Further, SC employs many devices commonly found in early apocalyptic literature. SC, then, reveals a new symbolic universe based on its image of God. The most important contribution of SC lies in its presenting an apocalyptic religion.
Integrative Epistemology and the Search for Meaning
Authors: Shults F. LeRon ,   Institute for Interdisciplinary Research
Published: January 2021

The dis-integration of the arts and sciences is evidence of a cultural and psychological split in the contemporary frame of mind. The roots of this separation may be traced to the dualist epistemology of the modem period in philosophy. The emergence of an integrative epistemology through interdisciplinary dialogue may assist in healing this dualism, illustrated in the convergence of kinetic thinking in theology, natural science, and other disciplines. This essay emphasizes the creaturely nature of the search for meaning and the need for humility and integrity toward open structures of the universe. This relational model serves as a heuristic framework which discloses interdisciplinary invariances in the knowing event. The practical implications of this paradigm for theological inquiry are explored in the context of its personal, ecclesial, and ecumenical dimensions.
Science and Religion
Authors: Gruenwald Oskar ,   Institute for Interdisciplinary Research
Published: January 2021

Contemporary natural science is returning to the question of First Principles concerning the origin, nature, and destiny of man and the universe, while the social sciences bracket man and the question of values, and theologians largely concede factual pronouncements about the world to scientists. This essay proposes that man himself is the missing link between science and religion, nature and spirit. And that the main challenge for science and religion today is to find a common, intersubjectively transmissible language which could bridge the conceptual gap between these two fields of inquiry, A genuine science-theology dialogue would have to "unbracket" man and encompass the totality of human experience via a global approach to all knowing seeking to rediscover the interconnectedness and complementarity between facts and values, knowledge and faith, science and religion.
The Search for American Soul
Authors: Allen Wayne ,   Institute for Interdisciplinary Research
Published: January 2021

Culminating a process that began with modernity, Americans now face a breakdown in society's moral consensus. Questions of an ethical nature long thought settled have risen to usurp the Western tradition of moral continence. This tradition is firmly anchored in the Judeo-Christian virtues brought to America and cultivated during the Colonial period. These virtues reflected a Christian authority internalized in conscience and practiced in community. But this authority came under assault with modernity's creeping secularization. One reason for this is the rise and pervasiveness of secular social theories that have concluded in a socializing theodicy.
Ethnopolitics and the New World Disorder
Authors: Dondelinger Joseph M. ,   Institute for Interdisciplinary Research
Published: January 2021

National and ethnic resurgence has dampened post-Cold War optimism. Predictions of the end of history and democratic universalism confront ideas of a coming clash of civiiizations and a new Cold War between secular and religious nationalisms. At this critical juncture in history, America suffers from leadership fatigue, lacks a coherent vision, and faces significant domestic weaknesses including ethnic, cultural, intellectual, and moral Balkanization. America's global leadership requires a viable and enviable model capable of effectively translating power into legitimate authority. Such a model, in turn, presupposes a moral-spiritual renewal and democratic institutions and practices.
Government, Morality and the Family
Authors: Marty William R. ,   Institute for Interdisciplinary Research
Published: January 2021

The question of government and morality is raised by public clashes over the proper role, if any, of government regulation of morals, or government fostering of things conducive to moral behavior. There are minimalist and maximalist views, akin to the failed ideologies of complete laissez-faire and full government ownership in the economic realm. Between the extremes, which have failed in the moral as well as the economic realm, there is a proper sphere for government support of morality, and institutions that produce virtue and civilized citizens. In particular, there is a need restore authority to the family, moral education to the schools, and parental responsibility and choice in education.
The Politics of Love
Authors: Allen Wayne ,   Institute for Interdisciplinary Research
Published: January 2021

Western culture, at its best, has been a continuous effort to move from the low, the necessities of the body, toward the high, an eternity toward which all men aspire in their capacity for goodness. The purpose of politics, now understood as democracy, has been to regulate the low, the base desires that set men apart from each other. Politics, then, follows culture. But this linkage has been broken by the feminist demand for equality in romantic union, thus destroying the connection between lovers, farmily, and the culture which seeks to protect them The attack on courtly love through the leveling of male and female relatedness is a vicarious effort to undermine hierarchical love, natural and divine.
Restoring the Family as the Primary Human Community
Authors: Palermo George B. ,   Institute for Interdisciplinary Research
Published: January 2021

The thesis of this essay is that the family is the primary socializing agency and that present-day American families are breaking down under socio-economic pressures and new philosophical approaches to life. The institution of the family, which ideally gives its members physical, emotional, and educational support, and teaches them high moral and civic values, is undermined not only by rapid economic and technological changes, but primarily by the lack of personal and social responsibility of its members. Contemporary sociological thought explores some of the negative consequences of the crumbling of the American family. The essay concludes that the reintegration of the family presupposes individual spiritual renewal within the supporting and fulfilling presence of religious institutions.
A Challenge to Suburban Evangelical Churches
Authors: Shank Harold , Reed Wayne ,   Institute for Interdisciplinary Research
Published: January 2021

Many suburban evangelical churches are failing to respond to urban poverty in America, The relationship between these churches and the urban poor may be described in terms of detachment. Biblical passages such as Deuterononvy 15 propose a theological agenda in which a community's relationship to God turns on its ability to relate to its individual parts. People in the ideal community bridge gaps between the "haves" and the "have nots" since God has already bridged the gap between divinity arul humanity. Implications of this perspective include the example of life skills training and other progjrams as a means to implement the theological framework, thereby forming practical partnerships with the urban poor to help lift them out of poverty.
The Inner City in the 21st Century
Authors: Siegfried Michael ,   Institute for Interdisciplinary Research
Published: January 2021

Drugs and crime are resounding issues with regard to contemporary cities. As we approach the twenty-first century, their impact on American cities in particular requires attention. The realities of life facing the residents of inner cities today are leading to a future that may resemble in many ways Aldous Huxley's dystopia. Brave New World. Unless a serious national commitment is made to alter present trajectories, the future may well be one in which drugs, crime, and social pathologies, combined with a lack of educational and economic opportunities, relegate many people to the bottom of society, enslaved by soma and casual sexual gratification, eerily reminiscent of Huxley's genetically-engineered society.
Lewis Mumford
Authors: Donskis Leonidas ,   Institute for Interdisciplinary Research
Published: January 2021

Lewis Mumford's discursive map, uncovering the trajectories of modem consciousness and Western social philosophy, dates back to Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and the great tradition of American Romanticism However, Mumford's discursive map of the idea of the city cannot be reduced to architecture and city planning alone. His world of ideas draws on such thinkers and concepts as Ebenezer Howard's Garden City, Benton MacKaye's Eutopian ideas, Patrick Geddes' regional planning, and Frank Lloyd Wright's organic architecture (Broadacre City), anticipated by Louis Henri Sullivan. Mumford's theoretical constructions also reflect the worldviews of Simmel, Tönnies, Spengler, and Toynbee, as well as other influential social theories of the last two centuries, Mumford was apparently the first among twentieth-century intellectuals to grasp that human creation, interaction, self-fulfillment, and the search for perfectibility all take place in the city.
Die Kunst in der Zukunftsstadt
Authors: Stankiewicz Zygmunt ,   Institute for Interdisciplinary Research
Published: January 2021

Jede Aussage eines Menschen, sei es dutch Wort, Tat oder Werk, hat eine direkte Beziehung zu seiner Umwelt imd im besonderen zur menschlichen Gesellschaft. Der wahre Künstler ist in den meisten Fällen ein mit der Natur eng verbundener Mensch. Aus ihr nimmt er seine Inspiration zur schöpferischen Aussage. Denn, am Anfang war die Idee, die Idee war bei dem Schöpfer, und die Idee war der Schöpfer. Jedoch, wir brauchen eine neue, verantwortungsbewusste Künstlerschaft. Jeder von uns ist dazu auserwählt---schon seiner Berufung wegen---falls er das Geheimnis des Wandelns und der Wiedergutmachung erfahren hat. Eine umfassende Künstlergemeinschaft setzt voraus, dass alle Künstler, in ihr vereint und um Erfahrungen reicher, mit neuen Ideen der Menschheit dienen.
Augustine's Tale of Two Cities
Authors: Speck Bruce W. ,   Institute for Interdisciplinary Research
Published: January 2021

St Augustine's The City of God has deeply influenced the development of Westem political thought. As a seminal thinker, Augustine provides important insights conceming the future of the city. However, Augustine's politics cannot be separated from his theology, particularly his teaching on original sin and predestination. Augustine's understanding of teleology or purpose, especially with respect to ethics, and eschatology---the end or consummation of all things--—form an integrated whole. Hence, to assess Augustine's politics, one must first grasp his theology. Notably, Augustine's theology invests history with meaning and provides a basis for the inevitable pluralism as well as cooperation between the citizens from the two cities living in the same world with diametrically opposed loves.
A Logic-Based Typology of Science and Theology
Authors: Reich K. Helmut ,   Institute for Interdisciplinary Research
Published: January 2021

The classification, comparison, and evaluation of science-theology relationships is facilitated by employing a high-level abstraction, such as a logic-based typology. The application of formal symbolic logic, fact-related dialectical logic, and the logic of complementarity yields six logical relationship types. Typologies proposed by leading exponents of science-theology interfaces like Barbour, Bube, Drees, Hefner, Miller, Peacocke, and Russell are examined in terms of logical types. Since both science and theology have a role in individual and societal life, the types "overlap" and "complementarity" look particularly promising: the distinctiveness of each domain is recognized, but also their linkages. An analysis of the New Age worldview highlights its deficiencies and suggests an elaboration of more complex logical types as combinations of basic types.
The Quest for Transcendence
Authors: Gruenwald Oskar ,   Institute for Interdisciplinary Research
Published: January 2021

The Quest for the Holy Grail is symbolic of man's quest for transcendence. In a postmodern world, this quest is more important than ever, since postmodernity questions the significance of all quests, values, ethics, morality, purpose, personal responsibility, and community, and thus the very essence of what it means to be human. The resulting desert of the soul reflects postmodernity's radical discounting of all human aspirations. Yet the two most basic human passions---the love of freedom and the yearning for salvation---may be reconciled within a larger conceptual framework which seeks to preserve the essence of each in harmony. The recovery of a teleological conception of the human soul or self as purposeful human action informed by the moral imperative could bridge the epistemic gap between liberalism and fundamentalism. The vision of the Holy Grail as a quest for self-transcendence and an encounter with God represents also the fulfillment of the perennial human quest for meaning redemption, and perfection.
Beyond Richard Rorty's Public
Authors: Roulier Scott ,   Institute for Interdisciplinary Research
Published: January 2021

Richard Rorty argues that various metaphysicians have attempted to fuse the private and the public. These philosophers and religious thinkers posit rules of justice which apply to both spheres, thereby establishing a moral link between the individual and the community. Rorty claims, however, that these universalist traditions have been discredited and that the pnivate/public connection should be severed. This essay contends that Rorty's strict separation of private and public spheres is flawed, that his "private" actually subverts his "public." The philosophical and religions foundations cannot be detached either theoretically or practically from public principles of justice. Also, the boundaries of Rorty's public square are not neutrally drawn, but betray an anti-liberal hostility to experiences of transcendence.
The Grail Quest as Illumination
Authors: Brown Christine , Boughton Lynne C. ,   Institute for Interdisciplinary Research
Published: January 2021

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, a popular motion picture, offers a modem version of a Quest for the Holy Grail. Although this grail legend is new, a survey of medieval through nineteenth-century stories of heroic quests for a grail reveals that grail legends have always differed from each other in significant ways. The grail itself has been identified in some legends as a cup or chalice, and in others as a dish, platter, book, stone, or, possibly, a reliquary. Also profoundly different are the ways in which legends describe the purposes effects of a quest for the grail. What these diverse legends have in common, however, is their association of a quest for the grail with a hero's attempt to reverse the evils that endanger a particular society. This essay traces various grail legends to determine how these popular tales, including the film version, present man's quest for transcendence, and moral and spiritual renewal.
The Anthropic Principle
Authors: Giberson Karl W. ,   Institute for Interdisciplinary Research
Published: January 2021

The Anthropic Principle suggests that the universe may have been designed for human life. This anthropocentric, anti-Copernican, notion elicits a variety of responses from scientists, including some elaborate attempts to invalidate it by trying to show that there may be an infinity of alternative universes. These attempts may be challenged as unreasonably speculative and presumptive. What emerges is the suggestion that cosmology may at last be in possession of some raw material for a postmodern creation myth. If the Anthropic Principle can be integrated with biological explanations of human origins, and the result joined to the traditional Biblical Creation story, what emerges is a possible recovery of a religiously traditional, yet scientifically coherent, creation story for our generation.
Karl Heim and John Polkinghorne
Authors: Schwarz Hans ,   Institute for Interdisciplinary Research
Published: January 2021

During the last two decades, the dialogue between science and theology has begun to yield fruit. This is partly due to the initiative of scientists like Stephen Hawking and Frank Tipler, and pioneering theologians like Karl Heim and John Polkinghorne. Heim and Polkinghorne propose two of the more credible models for dialogue. Heim's model is that of a transcendent God Who is revealed not only in the world, but also in the person of Jesus Christ. Polkinghorne proposes a new natural theology which is less interested in proving the existence of God than in seeking signs of God's hand in Creation and expanding one's knowledge of God by a close examination of the cosmos. Yet Polkinghorne's model points to Heim's assertion that the ultimate cannot be found within our world, even as it reaches into our world Science and theology need each other in order to make human life meaningful and rewarding. Science can teach theology about the "how" and "what" of God's creative activity, while theology can teach science the "why" and "what for" of God's Creation. Recognizing their autonomy, theology and science can complement their respective quests for truth.
The Shroud of Turin
Authors: Trenn Thaddeus J. ,   Institute for Interdisciplinary Research
Published: January 2021

The Shroud of Turin, a linen cloth with but a faint image, continues to capture the interest of many people of diverse beliefs. Although the measured age of the cloth is relatively recent, other scientific findings indicate an earlier provenance. Any firm conclusions regarding the cloth's history remain premature. No satisfactory explanation has been found as yet for how the image on the cloth was produced structurally or stylistically. Iconographic evidence suggests that the image was the source of facial peculiarities found in early works of religious art. The body image bears a striking yet preternatural correlation with Scriptural accounts of wounds. Curiously, the image on the cloth functions as a photographic negative, exhibiting a high degree of resolution, as if the original were produced in pixels. Despite serious efforts to discover some artistic origin md medium, scientific evidence points in the direction that it was not produced by hands. If it is tme that the medium is the message, as Marshall McLuhan wrote, then the Turin Shroud may be a parable for the modern age.
Cultural Origins of New Age Cults
Authors: Hollis Daniel W. ,   Institute for Interdisciplinary Research
Published: January 2021

Western culture abounds in New Age cults, which have grown dramatically in size and influence since the 1970s. New Age cults represent a crisis of cultural identity, a major dilemma of Western civilization at the end of the twentieth century. Such cults reflect and contribute to the disintegration of social institutions, ranging from turmoil in mainline religions, a weakening of business, legal, and political ethics, the tenuous role of science, and the failure of public educational institutions to create informed and independent minds. The New Age, with its multiple historical roots, also gauges a widespread desire for the recovery of a virtuous society, certainty about the material universe, spiritual meaning and a nurturing social and familial unity. The New Age has emerged as one path in that quest. Yet what is needed is the restoration of a culture of virtue.
Relativism and the Promise of Tolerance
Authors: Speck Bruce W. ,   Institute for Interdisciplinary Research
Published: January 2021

Many people claim that they are relativists and proponents of tolerance. Yet relativism cannot foster tolerance in part because it is untenable as a coherent philosophy. There are at least three types of relativists---novice, generous, and radical. All three types demonstrate that even renowned scholars who hold to relativism are not tolerant, since a tolerant relativist is a contradiction in terms. Relativism is also theologically incoherent, since neutrality is impossible conceming truth claims. However, tolerance is essential for the social order to prosper. The ecumenical statement, "Evangelicals and Catholics Together," represents a model of tolerance in interreligious circles with clear promise for the rest of society. Since tolerance is founded on Biblical truths, the Church is responsible for promoting tolerance without sacrificing the truth. Once the Church deals with its own intolerance in a spirit of humility, it can become a catalyst in promoting tolerance to those of varied beliefs.