bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Glenn Smiley Was a Fool:The Use of the Comic as a Strategy of Nonviolence
Authors: Cavin Margaret
Published: March 2003

Glenn Smiley is known for his involvement in the civil rights movement, when he taught strategies of nonviolence to Martin Luther King, Jr. and other leaders of the movement. This article focuses on an earlier period in his life, when he spent time in prison for choosing not to participate in World War II. Smiley believed that prison is only secondary to war in dehumanization and violence. In this article I examine Smiley's use of humor to subvert the established authority structures of the prison system. The comic strategy in which Smiley engaged took four definable forms: education, integration, confrontation, and judgment. These comic strategies played a key role in the development and practice of nonviolent strategies he later used to effect a systematic change among activists in the civil rights movement. Support for the findings in this article comes from the author's personal interviews with Smiley, from an earlier interview of him done in the 1960s on behalf of the Washington Documentation Project, and from Smiley's unpublished memoirs, some of which were written during the time he was in prison and the rest later, in the 1970s. I have also drawn from the relevant theories of scholars such as Henri Bergson, Sigmund Freud, and M. M. Bakhtin to establish the force of the comic in authoritative contexts that tend to breed acts of violence.
Questions of Communism and Anticommunism in Twentieth‐Century American Student Activism
Authors: Johnston J. Angus
Published: March 2003

The question of the proper relationship between the communist and noncommunist left was long one of the most divisive in American radical politics, and it has retained its resonance in the historiography of the twentieth century. Before, during, and after the Cold War, American students displayed an extemporaneous, fluid approach to both the theory and practice of organizing, and communist and noncommunist student activists regularly forged significant bonds in defiance of off‐campus pressure. This article traces some of the sources and consequences of that striking propensity.
Trends in Nobel Peace Prizes in the Twentieth Century
Authors: Tønnesson Øyvind
Published: March 2003

This article uses quantitative data to point to some overall trends in the awarding of Nobel Peace Prizes during the twentieth century. Insofar as it is available, data is drawn from four categories of people, corresponding to four stages in choosing Nobel laureates: the nominators, the initial group of candidates, the nominees on the committee’s short list for thorough consideration, and the laureates themselves. Twentieth‐century trends include an increase in the number of nominees and in the consistency of awards made, a growth in the recognition of international institutions, a broadening of awards beyond their initial European and U.S. locus, and an increasing recognition of women peace advocates.
The Nobel Peace Prize in Cyberspace: A Research Note
Authors: Sanders Scott
Published: March 2003

This research note designates and describes some of the most important Internet sites for the Nobel Peace Prize. It includes the most comprehensive sites, including access to all categories of awards and to the Peace Prize specifically: the Nobel Foundation, the Nobel Channel, the Norwegian Nobel Institute, Irwin Abrams, and Norbert’s Bookmarks for a Better World. It also includes a few web sites related to specific Nobel awards: the American Friends Service Committee, International Committee of the Red Cross, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, regarding East Timor, regarding Tibet, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, and Médecins Sans Frontières.
The Political Price of Prophetic Leadership: The National Council of Churches and the Vietnam War
Authors: Gill Jill K.
Published: March 2003

The National Council of Churches (NCC) felt called by church bureaucrats to take a prophetic leadership role on the Vietnam War. Therefore it moved beyond the sentiments of its denominations’ parishioners to articulate antiwar positions on this controversial issue. Council leaders met several times with Dean Rusk to persuade him to change the presuppositions undergirding America’s Vietnam policy, while Rusk tried to sway the Council into accepting the necessity of the government’s actions. The Council’s staff failed to realize that government weighed the NCC’s clout not by the quality of its information, staff, or moral vision, but rather by the number of constituents it represented or influenced. When the NCC took what some perceived as elitist stands more representative of liberal church bureaucrats than millions of voting, church‐going Americans, the White House shunned it as politically useless. The NCC has yet to recover from its loss of status suffered during this period.
The War For Independence and the Myth of Redemptive Violence
Authors: Juhnke James C.
Published: March 2003

We can achieve a more truthful understanding of the American War for Independence, a sacred event in national mythology, if we free ourselves from the myth of redemptive violence. A peace‐minded revisionist view must examine economic, political, social, and moral dimensions of the war.
The Johnson Administration Responds to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's Trip to South Vietnam, January 1968
Authors: Palermo Joseph
Published: March 2003

Due in part to the growing criticism of the war in Vietnam, Sen. Edward M. Ken‐nedy's decision to launch a fact‐finding mission to Vietnam in January 1968 generated suspicion and anxiety within the Johnson administration. This paper focuses on the administration's attempt to discredit the Kennedy mission which it viewed as offering a serious, official, and troubling source of dissent. Although the publication of the mission's findings would be overshadowed by the Tet Offensive, the Johnson administration's response seriously undermines its contention that it desired a negotiated settlement.
Authoritarianism and PoliticalSocialization in the Context of the Arab‐Israeli Conflict
Authors: Tibon Shira , Blumberg Herbert H.
Published: March 2003

This study explored the hypothesis that authoritarianism is negatively associated with peace supportiveness. A sample of 197 Jewish/Israeli university students responded to a questionnaire that included items on attitudes toward the Middle East peace process as well as a personality measure. The results confirmed the hypothesis: Individuals who were less supportive of the peace process were more authoritarian conformists than were supporters of the process. A significant association between religiosity and attitudes toward the peace process was also found; the split between peace supporters and non‐supporters corresponded roughly, though not exactly, to the split between religious and non‐religious. The pro‐peace individual is generally non‐religious, less authoritarian conformist, and less aggressive. Hence, the social cognitions studied—beliefs about the peace process—may be group beliefs. Certain characteristics of the groups in question, such as socialization practices and social structure, may account for the personality features that covaried with the beliefs. The data showing that peace attitudes, religiosity, and certain personality traits form one entity might thus be marshalled in discussing the identity issue and applied to other scenes in contemporary conflicts.
Casual Cynics or Disillusioned Democrats? Political Alienation in Japan
Authors: Kabashima Ikuo , Marshall Jonathan , Uekami Takayoshi , Hyun Dae‐Song
Published: March 2003

This paper examines the structure of political alienation among Japanese eligible voters, using data from the first, second, fifth, and sixth waves of the seven‐wave Japanese Electoral Survey II (JES II). Political alienation can be expressed as comprising two dimensions, political trust and civic‐mindedness. Males and people with more years of schooling are more allegiant in general; that is, they are both more trusting and more civic‐minded. Evaluations of cabinet performance and support for democratic mechanisms are strongly related to political trust and civic‐mindedness. Supporters of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) are no more civic‐minded than average but are more trusting politically, whereas Japan Communist Party supporters are more civic‐minded but a good deal less politically trusting than average. Independents are below the overall average on both the political trust and civic‐mindedness dimensions. Even though party support is unstable, Japan's political system will not lose its stability as long as LDP supporters and independents constitute the majority of Japan's electorate. The advent of a new party capable of providing an alternative to the LDP is important to the future of Japanese democracy.
Correlates of Household Seismic Hazard Adjustment Adoption
Authors: Lindell Michael K. , Whitney David J.
Published: March 2003

This study examined the relationships of self‐reported adoption of 12 seismic hazard adjustments (pre‐impact actions to reduce danger to persons and property) with respondents' demographic characteristics, perceived risk, perceived hazard knowledge, perceived protection responsibility, and perceived attributes of the hazard adjustments. Consistent with theoretical predictions, perceived attributes of the hazard adjustments differentiated among the adjustments and had stronger correlations with adoption than any of the other predictors. These results identify the adjustments and attributes that emergency managers should address to have the greatest impact on improving household adjustment to earthquake hazard.
Benchmark Dose Calculations for Methylmercury‐Associated Delays on Evoked Potential Latencies in Two Cohorts of Children
Authors: Murata Katsuyuki , Budtz‐Jørgensen Esben , Grandjean Philippe
Published: March 2003

Delays in evoked potential latencies were observed at increased exposures to methylmercury from seafood in two cohorts of children. Because this outcome parameter appeared to be virtually independent of confounders, including cultural differences, a joint analysis of benchmark doses was carried out. Comparable cohort members included 382 Faroese and 113 Madeiran children without middle ear infection or neurological disease at age seven years. Maternal hair‐mercury concentrations at parturition in the Faroese cohort ranged from 0.6 to 39.1 μg/g (geometric average, 4.49 μg/g). In Madeira, mothers who had not changed their diet since pregnancy had current hair‐mercury concentrations ranging from 1.1 to 54.4 μg/g (geometric average 10.14 μg/g). The mercury‐associated delay in peak III latencies at two frequencies (20 and 40 Hz) showed similar regression equations in the two groups of children, and benchmark dose calculations were therefore carried out for the two groups separately and jointly. For a doubling of a 5% prevalence of abnormal results of the peak III latencies at 40 Hz in a linear dose‐response model, the benchmark dose for the maternal hair‐mercury concentration was 8.79 μg/g for the Faroese children; 8.04 μg/g for the Madeiran children; and 9.46 μg/g for both groups. Results were similar for the 20 Hz condition. Benchmark dose results were substantially lower using a logarithmic or square root curve function, although the difference in fit between the curves was far from statistically significant. The benchmark results using evoked potential latencies are in close agreement with results based on neuropsychological test performance.
Variability and Uncertainty Meet Risk Management and Risk Communication
Authors: Thompson Kimberly M.
Published: March 2003

In the past decade, the use of probabilistic risk analysis techniques to quantitatively address variability and uncertainty in risks increased in popularity as recommended by the 1994 National Research Council that wrote Science and Judgment in Risk Assessment. Under the 1996 Food Quality Protection Act, for example, the U.S. EPA supported the development of tools that produce distributions of risk demonstrating the variability and/or uncertainty in the results. This paradigm shift away from the use of point estimates creates new challenges for risk managers, who now struggle with decisions about how to use distributions in decision making. The challenges for risk communication, however, have only been minimally explored. This presentation uses the case studies of variability in the risks of dying on the ground from a crashing airplane and from the deployment of motor vehicle airbags to demonstrate how better characterization of variability and uncertainty in the risk assessment lead to better risk communication. Analogies to food safety and environmental risks are also discussed. This presentation demonstrates that probabilistic risk assessment has an impact on both risk management and risk communication, and highlights remaining research issues associated with using improved sensitivity and uncertainty analyses in risk assessment.
The Role of Risk Analysis in Understanding Bioterrorism
Authors: Haas Charles N.
Published: March 2003

Recent events have made the domestic risk from bioterrorism more tangible. The risk management process so far, however, has not benefited from many of the contributions that analysts, communicators, and managers can make to the public discourse. Risk professionals can contribute much to the understanding of and solutions to bioterrorist events and threats. This article will provide an overview of the bioterrorism problem and outline a number of areas to which members of the Society for Risk Analysis, and other risk practitioners, could usefully contribute.
Distributions of Total Job Tenure for Men and Women in Selected Industries and Occupations in the United States, February 1996
Authors: Burmaster David E.
Published: March 2003

This article develops and fits probability distributions for the variability in projected (total) job tenure for adult men and women in 31 industries and 22 occupations based on data reported by the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. It extends previously published results and updates those results from January 1987 to February 1996. The model provides probability distributions for the variability in projected (total) job tenures within the time range of the data, and it extrapolates the distributions beyond the time range of the data, i.e., beyond 25 years.
The Tumorigenicity of Mutagenic Contact‐Sensitizing Chemicals
Authors: Albert Roy E. , Magee Philip S.
Published: March 2003

The electrophilic nature of some contact sensitizers, that is, chemicals that cause allergic contact dermatitis (ACD), is also characteristic of genotoxic tumorigens. Electrophiles can adduct protein, which is the basis for ACD, as well as DNA, which is the basis for mutagenicity and carcinogenicity. This suggests that some electrophilic contact sensitizers may be genotoxic tumorigens. To further investigate this matter, we evaluated 146 chemicals that had been bioassayed for tumorigenicity and mutagenicity in the National Toxicology Program, with an analysis of structure‐activity relationships for contact sensitization. Using the data from this analysis and from other sources, the proportion of the contact sensitizers that were both mutagenic and tumorigenic was found to range from 20% to 28%. This finding suggests that there may be in the order of 90 genotoxic tumorigens for rodents among the approximately 384 chemicals that have been validated as contact sensitizers for humans.
Discounting Across Generations: Necessary, not Suspect
Authors: Belzer Richard B.
Published: March 2003

Periodically, ethical objections are raised against the practice of discounting for future effects. Concerns about the potential effects on future generations from long‐term nuclear waste disposal and global climate change have caused these ethical objections to recur. This article rebuts the various ethical objections to future discounting on practical, ethical, and analytic grounds. Discounting for future effects is a ubiquitous practice that cannot be practically prevented. In the event that public policy would dictate against future discounting in public decisions, such a constraint could never be successfully imposed on markets. Market values will always reflect the full, discounted streams of future effects even if governments prohibited the practice among individuals. Ethically, there is no basis for choosing an upper‐bound time horizon beyond which discounting should be rejected. Any proposed horizon is arbitrary and has no obvious foundation. All decisions are fundamentally irreversible, so opponents of future discounting also must define a degree of irreversibility beyond which normal discounting should not apply, and defend on ethical grounds the basis for this demarcation. This task is further complicated by the likelihood that choices are rarely, if ever, as irreversible as opponents suggest. Typical examples given to prove future discounting is inappropriate overstate the degree of irreversibility actually present and understate subsequent opportunities for modifications. Finally, opposition to distant‐future discounting on the ground that burdens are shifted to future generations must face the fact that such shifts are characteristic of intergenerational transfers now practiced widely and with great public support.
Are We Forgetting the Risk of COTS Products in Wireless Communications?
Authors: Longstaff Thomas A. , Haimes Yacov Y. , Sledge Carol
Published: March 2003

This paper addresses the risks associated with the exponential increase in the use of wireless communications and the implementation of wireless as a set of COTS technologies available in most large‐scale computer‐based systems. It describes the critical impact of these trends on information assurance, as well as on the trustworthiness of the infrastructures that are interdependent on and interconnected with wireless communications. A holistic process of risk assessment and management is suggested to prevent future problems.
A Decade of Deficits and Debt: Japanese Fiscal Policy and the Rise and Fall of the Fiscal Structural Reform Act of 1997
Authors: Savage James D.
Published: March 2003

Japanese budgetary and fiscal policy have experienced dramatic changes during the last several years, marked by the rise and fall of the Fiscal Structural Reform Act of 1997. This act altered the budgetary process with the goal of reducing Japan’s rapidly growing deficit and debt. Yet the onset of recession in 1998 led Japan to engage again in large‐scale deficit spending to stimulate the economy, and in the process discard its budget reforms.
Budgetary Reform in Haiti from 1996‐98: A Case Study of Issues and Obstacles in Implementing Change
Authors: Myers C. Bernard
Published: March 2003

With the restoration of democracy and new lending agreements with the international community, the Haitian government embarked upon an ambitious program of budgetary reforms in 1996. For the next two years, Haiti's Ministry of Economy and Finance pursued administrative and legislative changes intended to address significant problems with the country's budget preparation and execution. This article examines the types of problems the Ministry faced and how it chose to address them. The author concludes that though the Ministry made important progress, the ultimate success of the reforms was impeded by weakness in the administrative capacity of the government and a persistent lack of clear political consensus and direction in the country.
Gubernatorial Transition in Florida: A Look at How Politics, Budgeting, and Policy Analysis Interface
Authors: MacManus Susan A.
Published: March 2003

This article details the use of policy‐focused transition teams during Florida's most recent gubernatorial transition. In a marked shift from the past, the most recent transition separated the appointments and policy advisory functions. The inseparable nature of politics, budgeting, and policy analysis are demonstrated via: (1) an analysis of the transition budget; (2) a detailed look at team structures and their role in agency performance evaluation; (3) a calculation of the fiscal and policy impacts of team recommendations; (4) post‐session assessments of the governor's first legislative agenda; and (5) post‐transition interviews with key participants.
State Court Strategies and Politics during the Appropriations Process
Authors: Douglas James W. , Hartley Roger E.
Published: March 2003

This article explores state court budgetary strategies and their effectiveness in the appropriations process as perceived by key budgeting actors. In general, we find evidence of state judiciaries that try to remain “above politics” when dealing with budget issues. The most important strategies to this effect include submitting realistic requests, providing documentation to support needs, and not using budget “weapons” at their disposal (e.g., writs of mandamus). However, the survey results do indicate that state judiciaries use certain strategies that have a more political tint, such as lobbying by court officials.
Audit Issues Related to GASB Statement No. 34
Authors: Engstrom John H. , Tidrick Donald E.
Published: March 2003

This paper discusses a variety of audit issues related to the implementation of GASB Statement No. 34. Ten specific audit issues are addressed. Each issue is defined and discussed, and the relevant professional literature is reviewed. The results of interviews of four experienced auditors of governments are presented with respect to these issues. These auditors identified several additional issues related to the implementation of Statement No. 34. The focus is on gaining insight from the concerns of auditor professionals to assist academics by identifying topics that warrant future research.
Can Courtroom Sharing Reduce Courthouse Construction Costs? A Preliminary Review
Authors: Ebenstein Avi , Musell R. Mark
Published: March 2003

The federal government has a large backlog of office and other space needs. Some policymakers argue that more sharing of courtrooms by federal judges would lower courthouse construction costs and free resources for other purposes. Others worry that sharing of courtrooms would increase trial delays and other costs. Decision makers employ a variety of techniques to better understand and to help guide decisions about issues like courtroom sharing. This analysis applies one such technique to simulate the flow of trials through a federal court system and to assess the impact on trial delays of providing less then one courtroom per judge. The preliminary findings suggest no significant impact.
Credit Subsidy Reestimates, 1993–99
Authors: Torregrosa David
Published: March 2003

Projecting the losses and costs from federal credit assistance is difficult, and errors are inevitable. Although various incentives may exist for agencies to underestimate credit subsidies, the Congressional Budget Office's analysis of corrected reestimates does not reveal any pattern of bias in initial subsidy estimates. However, another problem was uncovered: the reestimates reported in the president's budget are in such disorder that analysts cannot rely on them. A few modest changes in current practice could reduce agencies' errors in preparing, reporting, and accounting for estimates and reestimates.
Letters, Notes, & Comments
Authors: Mackler Aaron L. , Spitz Elie Kaplan , Davis G. Scott
Published: March 2003

Comment by Aaron L. Mackler on “‘Through Her I Too Shall Bear a Child’: Birth Surrogates in Jewish Law” by Elie Spitz

Reply by Elie Kaplan Spitz

Research Note by G. Scott Davis
Letters, Notes, and Comments
Authors: Sharma Arvind , Barbieri Jr. William A.
Published: March 2003

Letter: Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the World's Religions

Commenting on “Leaping into the Boundless: A Daoist Reading of Comparative Religious Ethics” by Francisca Cho, “Moral Reason, Risk, and Comparative Inquiry” by Robin W. Lovin, “Heuristic Power as the Test of Theory” by Ronald M. Green, and “The Author Replies” by Francisca Cho
Levinas and the Euthanasia Debate
Authors: Nuyen A. T.
Published: March 2003

The philosophers' tendency to characterize euthanasia interms of either the right or the responsibility to die is, in some ways, problematic. Stepping outside of the analytic framework, the author draws out the implications of the ethics of Emmanuel Levinas for the euthanasia debate, tracing the way Levinas's position differs not only from the philosophical consensus but also from the theological one. The article shows that, according to Levinas, there is no ethical case for suicide or assisted suicide. Death cannot be assumed or chosen—not only because suicide is a logically and metaphysically contradictory concept but also because in the choice of death ethical responsibility turns into irresponsibility. However, since Levinas holds that one must be responsible to the point of expiation, he can be said to approve certain actions that may have the consequence of hastening death.
Reading the Silences,Questioning the Terms: A Response to the Focus on Eighteenth‐Century Ethics
Authors: Adams Robert Merrihew
Published: March 2003

It is striking that most of the essays in this Focus do not explore the specifically religious aspects of Enlightenment ethical thought. A principled reason for this may be found in a conception of religion that makes it hard for Enlightenment thinkers to seem religious at all. Neither does this conception fit anything that is likely to be a live option for most people today, and the now prevalent unpopularity of eighteenth‐century piety and religious thought may blind us to important religious possibilities.
Toward the ‘Rights of the Poor’ Human Rights in Liberation Theology
Authors: Engler Mark
Published: March 2003

In this article, the author traces the response of liberation theologians to human rights initiatives through three distinct stages over the past thirty years: from an initial avoidance of the concept, to an early critique, and then to a nuanced theological appropriation. He contends that liberation theology brings a thoroughgoing concern for the poor and an innovative methodology of historicization to the discussion of human rights. In clarifying the treatment of human rights within a specific religious movement, the author also addresses larger questions about the specific role of human rights language. To this end, the article shows how liberation theologians have grappled concretely with the divisions among different ‘generations’ of rights, various rights discourses, and diverse options for rights advocacy.
A Conversation Worth Having: Hauerwas and Gustafson on Substance in Theological Ethics
Authors: Reynolds Terrence P.
Published: March 2003

When a debate is misplaced, new problems are cast in the distorting language of the settled problems of the past while, at the same time, the participants in the debate are assimilated into communities of thought with which they have little in common. The result is that their work, and our response to it, is distorted. This article contends that the polemical debate between James Gustafson (and his followers) and Stanley Hauerwas (and his followers) is just such a misplaced debate. In fact, both can be shown to be Troeltschianhistoricists, and it is only when this commonality is recognized that their very real and deep differences can be rightly appreciated as emblematic of the true sources of disagreement at the growing edge of the discipline.
The Origins of Life: What One Needs to Know
Authors: Fox Ronald F.
Published: March 2003

Many solar systems in the universe may be expected to contain rocky planets that have accreted organic compounds. These compounds are likely to be universally found. In addition, the chemistry of sulfur, phosphorus, and iron is likely to dominate energy transductions and monomer activation, leading to the eventual emergence of polymers. Proteins and polynucleotides provide living matter with function, structure, and information. The conceptual puzzle regarding their emergence is discussed. The fitness of various elements to serve various roles is analyzed from the viewpoint of electron orbitals. Elements with d orbitals are of central importance.
Cog and God: A Response to Anne Foerst
Authors: Reich K. Helmut
Published: March 2003

This response offers considerable agreement with Anne Foerst's analysis in her essay “Cog, a Humanoid Robot, and the Question of the Image of God” (Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 33 [March 1998]), yet endeavors to make her argument even more helpful. The response deals mainly with (1) the concept of symbol and the symbolic approach, (2) the symbolic description of a human being by artificial intelligence (AI) and by the theological symbol, “image of God” (imago dei), and (3) the ensuing dialogue between scientists and theologians.
On Holisms: Insular, Inclusivist, and Postmodern
Authors: Clayton Philip
Published: March 2003

Nancey Murphy's offer to take us “beyond liberalism and fundamentalism” is an exciting one: Who wants to be caught in the clutches of a fruitless theological dispute? She argues that the key to our escape is “Anglo‐American postmodernity.” I analyze what Murphy means by this term and why it may turn out to be a more precarious escape route than one might think. Holism or “post‐foundationalism” is indeed inescapable for science/religion discussions today, but an inclusivist holism is preferable to Murphy's insular holism
Evolution, Sociobiology, and the Atonement
Authors: Williams Patricia A.
Published: March 2003

This essay views Christian doctrines of the atonement in the light of evolution and sociobiology. It argues that most of the doctrines are false because they use a false premise, the historicity of Adam and the Fall. However, two doctrines are not false on those grounds: Abelard's idea that Jesus' life is an example and Athanasius' concept that the atonement changes human nature. Employing evolution's and sociobiology's concepts of the egocentric and ethnocentric nature of humanity and the synergy between genes and environments to produce a “nature,” this essay shows that these two doctrines can be amalgamated to make sense of the atonement in the late twentieth century.
Human Nature: What We Need to Know about Ourselves in the Twenty‐First Century
Authors: Clark Mary E.
Published: March 2003

The Western worldview that now dominates the planet embodies beliefs about human nature that are inconsistent with our evolutionarily evolved natures. Its “logic” at best ignores and at worst creates the symptoms of the modern world, which if uncorrected predict severe crises in coming centuries: population growth, environmental destruction, economic collapse, and increasing social violence. In contrast, there are numerous communities today creating alternative solutions based on different understandings of human nature and human needs: cooperation rather than competition; meaningful social identity; and respect for and trust in the autonomous behavior of all persons. There exist optimistic future models.
The Convergence of Cultures and Religions in Light of the Evolution of Conciousness
Authors: Cousins Ewert
Published: March 2003

This article describes a challenge to the cultures and religions of the world that the author believes is the greatest challenge that has confronted the human race in its entire history. Modernity's search for unity and postmodernity's affirmation of pluralism reflect aspects of our current situation, but more needs to be recognized. We must acknowledge that East and West must face the current challenges together. Multiculturalism and unity encompass all world cultures, and we cannot be content to read our present history only through the lens of western developments. Karl Jaspers's theory of the First Axial period of history, 800‐200 B.C.E., in which all the present world religions have their roots, is useful. It reveals that our present flowering of culture and spirit in the Western world, including our science, is not so much a product of the Western Renaissance and Enlightenment, as it is rooted in cultural events that belong to East and West equally. We are now in the Second Axial Period, which challenges the world religions to allow their energies to move toward convergence, just as in the previous millennia they moved toward differentiation. Teilhard de Chardin's thought is a guide for us, in his vision of a complex convergence of consciousness, in which differences will not be abolished but will be transformed in their coming together. This convergent perspective will also join with the perspective of rediscovering our roots in the earth, and it will repossess the spirituality of the primal peoples, in its understanding of the entire human race to be one tribe. The world religions are faced with the task, therefore, of encountering each other in “dialogic dialogue,” and channeling their spiritual resources toward the solution of real‐world global problems.
Toward a New Concept of Global Morality
Authors: Katz Solomon H.
Published: March 2003

The human community faces today the most serious challenges ever to have confronted the planet in the areas of health, environment, and security. Science and technology are essential for responding to these challenges. More is needed, however, because science is not equipped to deal adequately with the values dimensions and the political issues that accompany the challenges. For an adequate response, there must be cooperative effort by scientists and statespersons, informed for moral leadership by the religious wisdom that is available. The religious communities can provide this spiritual dimension, thereby fulfilling their traditional role, but it will require their coming to terms with the character of the scientific and technological base of contemporary culture. The paper lays the conceptual groundwork for understanding these issues.
The Fractal Self and the Organization of Nature: The Daoist Sage and Chaos Theory
Authors: Jones David , Culliney John
Published: March 2003

The interconnections between self and surroundings in Daoist thought have been explored in the past in a variety of contexts. This paper, however, explores the Daoist version of the relational self from the general perspective of chaos theory and, more specifically, examines the role of the self in creating emergent form and dynamism in nature and society. The fractal self and world merge through the disciplined effort of the sage until the effort becomes effortless. Both self and world are transformed and become one through the emergent moment. This moment represents a new opportunity for subsequent patterns, or attractors, to emerge. We suggest that the self folds itself into the world, creating and being created by a new attractor, or pattern, in the organization of nature, which we argue is Dao. Our current investigation addresses the following aspects of chaos theory and its relation to Daoism: (1) the Daoist notion of wuwei as perfect congruence; (2) yin and yang at the edge of chaos; (3) the emergent nature of the myriad things; and (4) a Daoist warning against fractal disconnections in the world. Finally, we conclude that the self has the potential to become the world. To approach this amplified condition, the self must dedicate itself to and risk open engagement with events across the complexity of nature. Through openly engaging the world, the self is transformed, leaving the world forever changed.
Why Do Theologians Need to be Scientists?
Authors: Grenz Stanley J.
Published: March 2003

The postmodern situation has given rise to a quest for new understandings of the relationship between theology and science. Drawing illustrative material from an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, I look at three paradigmatic answers to the questionn posed in the title—th modern empirical scientific, the renewed medieval, and the post‐modern—with the goal of outlining a methodological approach for an engagement between Christian theology and sciencein the post‐modern context. Drawing insight from post‐empirical philosophy of science and the sociology of knowledge, I argue that both science and theology engage in the task of constructing a world for human habitation.
Genes and Human Behavior: The Emerging Paradigm
Authors: Drew Allan P.
Published: March 2003

The physical properties of human beings and other organisms as well as their social behavioral traits are manifestations of both genetic inheritance and environment. Recent behavioral research has indicated that certain characteristics or behaviors—such as schizophrenia, divorce, and homosexuality—are highly heritable and are not governed exclusively by social environment. A balanced view of human behavior includes the effects of social learning as well as of genetically determined behavior. A new paradigm promotes enhanced understanding and acceptance of human diversity, be it cultural, racial, or sexual, and has the potential to unite scientists and theologians by creating common grounds of understanding.
Minds and Bodies: Human and Divine
Authors: Peterson Gregory R.
Published: March 2003

Does God have a mind? Western theism has traditionally construed God as an intentional agent who acts on creation and in relation to humankind. God loves, punishes, and redeems. God's intentionality has traditionally been construed in analogy to human intentionality, which in turn has often presumed a supernatural dualism. Developments in cognitive science, however, render supernatural dualism suspect for explaining the human mind. How, then, can we speak of the mind of God? Borrowing from Daniel Dennett's intentional stance, I suggest that analogical reasoning regarding the mind of God be abandoned in favor of an ontologically agnostic approach that treats God as an intentional system. In this approach, God's purposive action is an explanatory feature of the believer's universe, a real pattern that informs our values and beliefs about the world and our place in it.
The “Actors” of Modern Society: The Cultural Construction of Social Agency
Authors: Meyer John W. , Jepperson Ronald L.
Published: March 2003

Much social theory takes for granted the core conceit of modern culture, that modern actors—individuals, organizations, nation states—are autochthonous and natural entities, no longer really embedded in culture. Accordingly, while there is much abstract metatheory about “actors” and their “agency,” there is arguably little theory about the topic. This article offers direct arguments about how the modern (European, now global) cultural system constructs the modern actor as an authorized agent for various interests via an ongoing relocation into society of agency originally located in transcendental authority or in natural forces environing the social system. We see this authorized agentic capability as an essential feature of what modern theory and culture call an “actor,” and one that, when analyzed, helps greatly in explaining a number of otherwise anomalous or little analyzed features of modern individuals, organizations, and states. These features include their isomorphism and standardization, their internal decoupling, their extraordinarily complex structuration, and their capacity for prolific collective action.
A Heavy Lift Planning System for Crane Lifts
Authors: Varghese Koshy , Dharwadkar Parmanand , Wolfhope John , O'Connor James T.
Published: March 2003

This paper presents the work done toward developing a computerized heavy lift planning system (HELPS) for planning crane lifts. Initially, a survey of the industry was carried out to define the heavy lift planning process and identify the developments necessary to improve the process. This survey identified eight tasks in the lift planning process. Based on these tasks, a logical framework representing the planning process was developed. The scope of the current work was limited to developing a tool for planning three of these tasks. A visualization environment—Walkthru—was selected to implement the heavy lift planning system. Although Walkthru provided many of the features required for the system, critical functions had to be added. The developmental work for this study focused on (1) developing a shell that could control the visualization environment and related files to provide seamless access to the library of cranes and (2) providing features to perform critical lift planning functions. The resulting prototype system was tested on sample lifts, and all the functions worked as designed.
Possibilities of Workstation Clusters for Parallel Finite–Element Analysis
Authors: Horie Tomoyoshi , Kuramae Hiroyuki
Published: March 2003

Since the computing speed and cost performance of engineering workstations are being improved, parallel finite–element analysis is expected using workstation clusters. Parallel performance of the gaussian elimination method, the domain decomposition method, and the domain partitioned CG method are estimated and compared for various workstation clusters with different computing and communication performances. The accurate estimation is based on basic performance data and models to predict the execution time. Consideration is given to the possibilities of the workstation clusters and to the performance required for the workstation cluster system.
Checking the Stability of a Fuzzy Controller for Nonlinear Structures
Authors: Casciati Fabio
Published: March 2003

Standard strategies of active control were applied recently to civil engineering structures excited by environmental loads such as wind and earthquake. Attempts to overcome some technical inconvenience by the exploitation of suitable nonlinearities are in progress. Fuzzy controllers are potential candidates to drive the control in the presence of these structural nonlinearities. This paper pursues the identification of the stability checks to be conducted within the design process of such a fuzzy controller.
Neural Networks for Wave Height Interpolation
Authors: Deo M. C. , Rao V. Venkat
Published: March 2003

Information on the heights of ocean waves at a site can be collected by a variety of instruments—each involving different methods of data retrieval and synthesis. Typically, sensing of wave heights by satellite requires the wave information to be presented in the form of values that are averaged over space and time intervals. In order to use such data for operational applications, it then becomes necessary to derive the wave heights over shorter intervals from their values available over long durations. This paper attempts to do this by employing the technique of neural networks. A simple three–layered feedforward network trained with the supervised backpropagation technique was used. The values of monthly mean significant wave heights available at different grid locations around the Indian coastline were given as input to obtain the output of weekly mean wave heights at the same locations. Analysis of the results indicated usefulness of the neural network technique in wave height interpolation problems.
Case–Based Approaches for Preliminary Design of Steel Building Frames
Authors: Yeh I–Cheng
Published: March 2003

A good initial assumption of cross section (i.e., close to the final size) will reduce the number of analyze/design cycles in the subsequent sizing processes. Case–based reasoning (CBR) is a technique for solving new problems by adapting solutions that were obtained by solving old problems. In this article, three distinct CBR methodologies are examined for their efficiency and accuracy in modeling steel building frame design, including conventional nearest neighbor CBR and two novel CBR methodologies, collaborative CBR, which combines several cases to generate a better solution, and hybrid CBR, which hybridizes two important CBR mechanisms, adaptation and combination, to obtain a more accurate solution. The results show that the hybrid CBR techniques are slightly more accurate than back–propagation neural networks and much more accurate than the other two CBR methodologies.
Multimedia Services for Highway Infrastructure Management
Authors: Wang Kelvin C. P. , Li Xuyang
Published: March 2003

Photographic logging systems used by highway agencies provide engineers with information in the analysis of traffic accidents, design improvements, and highway pavement management. However, there exist limitations for such systems in the areas of accessibility, search capability of the image library, and synchronization video data with traditional engineering site data. More important, there are situations in which multiple users may need to examine the video footage at the same time. This capability cannot be provided by current systems. The analog nature of the video signals also presents difficulties in integrating the visual information with other types of data. This paper introduces a type of multimedia service that can be applied in a state highway department environment for highway infrastructure management. This multimedia‐based information system utilizes state‐of‐the‐art technologies in digital video, high‐speed networking, and video server. This paper discusses the requirements of high‐speed networking systems and presents a new computer network that has the potential to become a dominant technology for the transmission of multimedia data. In addition, design concerns regarding the video server and its structure are also discussed. A data‐synchronization algorithm is also presented on how to dynamically display digital video frames with traditional engineering data sets that contain information such as as‐built data, pavement condition and performance, traffic safety, geometric features, and other infrastructure data.
Knowledge‐Based Generation of the Activity Process in Wooden Construction Systems
Authors: Nakajima Masao
Published: March 2003

In order to develop new, improved systems for building construction, it is necessary to evaluate the various factors related to construction methodology. This paper focuses on nonnumerical information such as the assembly order and activity procedures for building members used in wooden construction systems and aims at developing a knowledge‐based system (KBS) for generation and control of this information. The process involves dividing the building construction system into basic units, defining and describing those units, and then inputting this information into a computer‐based KBS. The system then produces a detailed output of the assembly order and processing steps for each of the wooden members used in the structure. This system is applied to various model structures, and the assembly order and activity procedures generated are demonstrated to be accurate. Therefore, the system can be used as a tool for evaluating new wooden building construction systems.
Algorithms for Optimal Design of Smart Structural Systems
Authors: Begg David William , Liu Xiaojian
Published: March 2003

Simultaneous optimal design of smart structural systems is considered in this article. A major augmentation to this multidisciplinary optimization problem is optimal structural layout design in terms of shape and topology. Four algorithms, namely, guided random search techniques, sequential mathematical programming, and their mixtures, are presented and used for the problem solving. A method to prevent singularities when updating structural layout is also suggested. Design variable linking schemes are used to reduce the number of design variables and give reasonable optimal results. Two examples are solved. Comparison of the algorithms on the basis of achieved improvements in system energy, control effort, robustness, and controllability is made.