bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Rowan Williams and Sharia: Defending the Secular
Authors: Higton Mike 
Published: September 2008

AbstractThe article that follows is in part based on a pair of long blog posts that I wrote on the 11 and 15 February 2008 (‘Rowan Williams and Sharia: A Guide for the Perplexed’ and ‘What is Enlightenment: More on Williams and Sharia’). They were simply intended as an explanatory guided tour through the lecture, though with an implicit interest in undermining some of the wilder misrepresentations that I had then read. These posts did not focus on questions of strategy—on the political wisdom of delivering the lecture, or the handling of the media by Williams and his staff (I dealt with those issues briefly in an intervening post, not reproduced here)—but simply with the content of the lecture itself. I have not attempted in this article to step beyond that original remit: this article remains an attempt above all to explain, without too much by way of my own explicit comment, what Williams said.
Legal Monism and Religious Pluralism: Rowan Williams on Religion, Loyalty and Law
Authors: Chaplin Jonathan 
Published: September 2008

AbstractArchbishop Rowan Williams' lecture on ‘Civil and Religious Law in England’ in February 2008 provoked passionate critical responses, not only in Britain but around the world. While acknowledging ambiguities in the text of the lecture, this article seeks to clarify its central claims and to address some of the misrepresentations to which it was subjected. It defends the lecture as a constructive and profound theological contribution to the ongoing discussion about the proper scope and manner of the legal accommodation of religious minorities within liberal democratic states. It then probes further into the wider question raised by the lecture concerning the dilemma of the plural identities and loyalties of religious citizens in such states. The Archbishop's subtle critique of ‘unqualified secular legal monopoly’ can be heard to contain a timely warning against political hubris.
Philosophers, Politicians and Archbishops: Religious Reasons in the Public Sphere
Authors: McIntosh Esther 
Published: September 2008

AbstractThe Nicholas Wolterstorff-Robert Audi debate surrounding the role of religious reasons in public debate remains unresolved in the United States. Alternatively, but relatedly, when politicians and Archbishops in the UK mention God the media react with force. This article seeks a more balanced reaction to the faith of politicians and Archbishops and a solution to the Wolterstorff-Audi debate. First, this article teases out the extent to which John Macmurray's philosophy of community is or is not evident in New Labour politics; secondly, it expounds Macmurray's alternative ‘communitarianism’ by examining his account of church-state relations; thirdly, it introduces the philosophical notion of supervenience to provide a proper account of the relation between religious reasons and secular reasons in public debate and, finally, it provides an example of a ‘community’ that satisfies the essential criteria of Macmurray's definition. Thus, in addition to revealing the contemporary relevance of Macmurray's work and the misunderstandings surrounding the notion of community, this article engages with an ongoing international conversation on the ethics of religious voices in public places and proposes a solution to the Wolterstorff-Audi debate.
Law, Muslim Majority and the Implementation of Sharia in Northern Nigeria
Authors: Vroom Hendrik 
Published: September 2008

AbstractThis article introduces a valuable work of a thousand pages that describes and documents the implementation of Sharia law in twelve states in northern Nigeria. It describes the content of the volumes; it gives some examples of Sharia laws and where and how Sharia differs from the penal law of Nigeria; it discusses a number of aspects of two cases that resulted in the accused being sentenced to be stoned and considers the overturning of the verdicts in appeal proceedings. Hence, the article looks at the ‘hermeneutical space’ that judges have for leniency in applying the sometimes harsh rules, and it explores the question of whether freedom of religion also entails the freedom to establish religious laws or whether legal pluralism might put the freedom of religion at risk.
Charging Steeds or Maidens Doing Good Deeds? A Re-Interpretation of Qur'āan 100 (al-‘;ādiyāt)
Authors: Younes Munther 
Published: September 2008

AbstractIn A Challenge to Islam for Reformation, Gunter Lüling (2003) argues that about one-third of the Qur'ānic text is based on ancient Christian Arabic hymns that were reworked and given a new meaning by the Qur'ān editors after the Prophet's death. This was possible because the Uthmanic mushaf lacked dots, which allowed for different readings. In this essay, I reconstruct the first five verses of Koran 100 (wa-l-‘ādiyāt) by changing the dotting scheme of four words. Informed by a close examination of the syntactic structure and vocabulary of these verses and a comparison with cognates in Syriac and Hebrew, two languages with a clear influence on the Qur'ān, this reconstruction results in a narrative that is more coherent semantically and syntactically than the traditional interpretation. Whereas in the traditional interpretation these verses describe steeds charging into battle, in my reconstruction they refer to maidens bringing light to the world.
The Discreet Pleasures of the Courtly Hunt Abū Nuwās and the ‘Abbāsid Tardiyyah
Authors: Stetkevych Jaroslav 
Published: September 2008

AbstractIn the hands of the early ‘Abbāsid poet, Abū Nuwās (d. 199 or 200/814 or 815), the free-standing tardiyyah (hunt poem) no longer features the pathos-laden wretched hunter of the pre-Islamic rahīl nor the chivalrous heroic hunter of the fakhr of the pre-Islamic qasīdah, but rather a hunter who is courtly and discreet and, as a persona, almost invisible. In the extensive corpus of hunt-poems attributed to Abū Nuwās, two basic types are identifiable. The first exhibits a subjective perspective in which the poet is the agent of the hunt. This type typically opens with the Imru' al-Qays-derived wa-qad aghtadī (“I would set out early in the morning”) formula and can be characterized as wasf (subjectively-involved description). Typologically and terminologically distinct from this is the second type, the hunt-poem of objectively distanced description (na‘t), which characteristically opens with the formula an‘atu (“I shall describe”). Through selected examples, the study analyzes the thematic and stylistic differences between these two types as well as their overlap in intermediate subjective-objective hunt-poems.
“Is It Because My Face Is Black?”
Authors: Oladosu Afis Ayinde 
Published: September 2008

AbstractThis article focuses on three poems written by one of the late 20th century writers in Sudan, Muhammad Miftāh al-Faytūrī (b.1930), in order to show how the Sudanese have thought about race and racial subjectivities. It situates “al-Tūfān al-Aswad”, “Ilā Wajhin Abyad” and “Thawrat Qaryah” against the postcolonial theories of Frantz Fanon, Albert Memmi, Edward Said and the uncelebrated Sudanese critic, Mu‘āwiyyah Muhammad Nūr (1909-1941). The article reengages postcolonial discourse in and on Africa, retrieves Arabs' perspective on Black politics and identities and tries to show how al-Faytūrī, using Sudan's Afro-Arabic cultural heritage as a reference point, has tried to give agency to Africans even under the unfavourable atmosphere of colonialism in Africa.
Out of the Closet: Representation of Homosexuals and Lesbians in Modern Arabic Literature
Authors: Al-Samman Hanadi 
Published: September 2008

AbstractAlthough a great deal of research and criticism has been done on homoerotic desire in Arabomedieval adab literature, very little has been written on its representation in modern Arabic literature. In order to address this scholarly gap, my study poses the following questions: why is there an increase of homosexual and lesbian characters, at this contemporary juncture, in Arabic fiction? And what are the effects of such an exposure on the status of Arab gay rights? I argue that depictions of male homosexuality in contemporary texts draw on power dialectics of master/slave, active/passive and local/colonial, and as such reflect a sense of overall powerlessness, inferiority and alienation from the political process, while underscoring the Arab male's loss of manhood and of self. In contrast, female homosexuality remains locked into traditional, heterocentric discourse which claims that lesbianism exists only as a prelude to, or as a temporary replacement of “normative” heterosexuality, thus undermining the validity of lesbian body politics. Contrary to the medieval tradition which allowed more fluidity in the depiction of same-sex definitions and practices, and acknowledged the variants of homoerotic desire and action, contemporary Arab cultural and literary engagements of the topic overlook the biological aspect of this desire. Furthermore, they project gay encounters as a symptom of the social deterioration caused by political and economic oppression of the Arab citizen. I conclude that more attention must be given to the biological essence of sexual differentiation, to the body politics rather than gender politics, if the emergence of a recognized, outspoken Arab homosexual or lesbian identity is ever to be realized.
The Swiss Regulatory Framework for Paediatric Health Research
Authors: Junod Valerie 
Published: September 2008

AbstractMedical research on minors entails both risks and benefits. Under Swiss law, clinical trials on children, including nontherapeutic drug trials, are permissible. However, ethics committees must systematically verify that all clinical studies have a favorable risk-benefit profile. Additional safeguards are designed to ensure that children are not unnecessarily involved in research and that proper consent is always obtained. Federal Swiss law is undergoing revision to extend these protections beyond clinical trials to a broad array of health research. The Swiss drug agency also seeks to improve the incentives for pharmaceutical firms to develop new paediatric drugs and relevant paediatric drug labels.
Research with Minors in Germany
Authors: Hart Dieter , Buchner Benedikt 
Published: September 2008

AbstractThe European GCP Directive has been implemented into German law in sect. 40 ff. AMG (German pharmaceutical law). Unlike the Directive, German pharmaceutical law basically differentiates between three constellations of clinical trials on minors: clinical trials on healthy minors, clinical trials on ill minors with an individual benefit for the individual participant, and clinical trials on ill minors without direct benefit for the individual participant, but with a so-called “group benefit”. Particularly the latter possibility of conducting clinical trials on minors even if no individual benefit can be expected is not a matter of course in Germany since due to historical experiences a sceptical attitude towards clinical research on humans prevailed for a long time. German legislature has availed itself of the option granted by Article 3 of the GCP Directive to establish a higher level of protection of clinical trial subjects than the European level.
Legislation and Review of Medical Research with Minors in The Netherlands
Authors: Kenter  
Published: September 2008

AbstractIn The Netherlands medical research with minors is regulated in the Medical Research Involving Human Subjects Act. During the legislation process in the Houses of Parliament in the 1990s the issue of non-therapeutic research with minors and incapacitated subjects was heavily debated. Stringent regulations were formulated for this type of research and the Act became operational in December 1999. In order to implement the Clinical Trial Directive 2001/20/EG, the Act was modified on several issues. However, the Act was not modified on the issue of non-therapeutic research with minors and incapacitated subjects. As a result at present the Dutch law is more restrictive on non-therapeutic research with minors than the EU Directive. Currently, discussion is ongoing to adapt the Dutch law in order to harmonize it with the EU Directive.
Children's Rights as Crime Prevention
Authors: Howe Brian 
Published: September 2008

AbstractThe purpose of this article is to examine the linkage between implementing the rights of children, as described in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and preventing youth crime. Using Canada as a case study and comparing jurisdictions in Canada where youth crime rates are relatively low and high, the article concludes that efforts at crime prevention are more successful where child and family policies in support of children's rights are stronger. What this illustrates is the importance of implementing children's rights as means of preventing crime.
Children's Rights, Confidentiality and the Policing of Children
Authors: Roche Jeremy 
Published: September 2008

AbstractThis article considers particular provisions of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 and the Children Act 2004 in order to advance the argument that despite having ratified the UNCRC, and thereby endorsing the idea of consulting with children and promoting their participation, current policy in England and Wales is still locked within a discourse which sees children either as victims or threats. These discourses of risk operate to undermine and deny children's citizenship claims and to justify an intensification of the policing of children's lives – and thus their families, friends and communities. The article provides a short history of children's rights to set the scene for a critical evaluation of this legislation and then considers key provisions of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 and associated protocols on sexually active young people and how this links with the reconfiguration of child welfare practice heralded by the Children Act 2004. By way of conclusion it poses some critical questions with regard to these shifts in law and regulatory practice and highlights the increasing tension between professionals' commitment to children's rights, including the ‘right’ to confidentiality, and the trajectory of government policies impacting on children and families.
To Be or not to Be? A Critical Appraisal of the Welfare of Children Conceived through New Reproductive Technologies
Authors: Blyth Eric 
Published: September 2008

AbstractOver three million children are believed to have been born worldwide – and over 200,000 annually - as a result of “new reproductive technologies” (NRTs). This paper provides a critical review of the proposition that children are always best-served by being born. Drawing on the specific examples of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI); multiple births; pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) and selecting the characteristics of children, and donor conception it argues that there are defensible welfare arguments for curtailing unrestricted access to NRTs. Increased and wider dialogue is proposed to encourage the implementation of practices and policies that take account of the interests of all those affected by NRTs and which command public support.
Validation of a Simple Steady-State Forecast of Minimum Nocturnal Temperatures
Authors: Kala Jatin , Lyons Tom J. , Foster Ian J. , Nair Udaysankar S. 
Published: September 2008

Abstract
A two-layer steady-state resistance model is compared with routine meteorological data collected from the Western Australian wheat belt during 2000–06. Major difficulties in implementing such a model are the correct parameterization for the incoming longwave radiation and estimation of daily soil moisture, neither of which are routinely measured. These difficulties are addressed by testing parameterizations for incoming longwave radiation calibrated to local conditions and incorporating a soil–water balance model based on routine weather data. The modified model has RMSE and biases ranging from 2.4° to 3.1°C and −0.2° to 0.8°C, respectively, across the wheat belt when comparing all minimum nocturnal temperatures. The model is shown to predict frost events approximately 55% of the time and illustrates that frost damage to foliage may occur when screen temperatures are &lt; 2°C.
Discontinuity Issues with Radiosonde and Satellite Temperatures in the Australian Region 1979–2006
Authors: Christy John R. , Norris William B. 
Published: September 2008

Abstract
The temperature records of 28 Australian radiosonde stations were compared with the bulk-layer temperatures of three satellite products of The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) and Remote Sensing Systems (RSS) for the period 1979–2006. The purpose was to use the satellite data as “reference truth” to quantify the effect of changes in station equipment, software, and operations on the reported upper air temperatures and resulting trends. The products are lower troposphere (LT), midtroposphere (MT), and lower stratosphere (LS).
Four periods of significant shifts in temperatures were found in the radiosondes relative to both satellite datasets. In the first two shifts—around 1982/83 and 1987/88—the radiosondes experienced an accumulated LT and MT warming shift of 0.5 K on average. These shifts coincided with equipment changes. If unadjusted for these shifts, the radiosondes report spurious tropospheric warming of almost 0.2 K decade−1. For LS in the first period, there is relative warming but in the second, cooling. If unadjusted, the radiosondes overstate LS cooling by about −0.15 K decade−1.
The third (early 1990s) and fourth (1998 LT and MT and 2002 LS) shifts are less robustly connected to changes in the radiosondes. Errors in the construction methodology of the satellite products likely account for at least part of the discrepancies but cannot be attributed with confidence to a specific cause. Having opposite signs in the two periods, the last two discrepancies tend to cancel each other. The net effect of these last two shifts on the overall LT and MT trends of ±0.03 K decade−1 is small.
On the Quality of Real-Time Altimeter Gridded Fields: Comparison with In Situ Data
Authors: Pascual Ananda , Boone Christine , Larnicol Gilles , Le Traon Pierre-Yves 
Published: September 2008

Abstract
The timeliness of satellite altimeter measurements has a significant effect on their value for operational oceanography. In this paper, an Observing System Experiment (OSE) approach is used to assess the quality of real-time altimeter products, a key issue for robust monitoring and forecasting of the ocean state. In addition, the effect of two improved geophysical corrections and the number of missions that are combined in the altimeter products are also analyzed. The improved tidal and atmospheric corrections have a significant effect in coastal areas (0–100 km from the shore), and a comparison with tide gauge observations shows a slightly better agreement with the gridded delayed-time sea level anomalies (SLAs) with two altimeters [Jason-1 and European Remote Sensing Satellite-2 (ERS-2)/Envisat] using the new geophysical corrections (mean square differences in percent of tide gauge variance of 35.3%) than those with four missions [Jason-1, ERS/Envisat, Ocean Topography Experiment (TOPEX)/Poseidoninterlaced, and Geosat Follow-On] but using the old corrections (36.7%). In the deep ocean, however, the correction improvements have little influence. The performance of fast delivery products versus delayed-time data is compared using independent in situ data (tide gauge and drifter data). It clearly highlights the degradation of real-time SLA maps versus the delayed-time SLA maps: four altimeters are needed in real time to get the similar quality performance as two altimeters in delayed time (sea level error misfit around 36%, and zonal and meridional velocity estimation errors of 27% and 33%, respectively). This study proves that the continuous improvement of geophysical corrections is very important, and that it is essential to stay above a minimum threshold of four available altimetric missions to capture the main space and time oceanic scales in fast delivery products.
Sea Surface Temperature Estimation from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-12 (GOES-12)
Authors: Merchant C. J. , Harris A. R. , Maturi E. , Embury O. , MacCallum S. N. , Mittaz J. , Old C. P. 
Published: September 2008

Abstract
This paper describes the techniques used to obtain sea surface temperature (SST) retrievals from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 12 (GOES-12) at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Satellite Data Processing and Distribution. Previous SST retrieval techniques relying on channels at 11 and 12 μm are not applicable because GOES-12 lacks the latter channel. Cloud detection is performed using a Bayesian method exploiting fast-forward modeling of prior clear-sky radiances using numerical weather predictions. The basic retrieval algorithm used at nighttime is based on a linear combination of brightness temperatures at 3.9 and 11 μm. In comparison with traditional split window SSTs (using 11- and 12-μm channels), simulations show that this combination has maximum scatter when observing drier colder scenes, with a comparable overall performance. For daytime retrieval, the same algorithm is applied after estimating and removing the contribution to brightness temperature in the 3.9-μm channel from solar irradiance. The correction is based on radiative transfer simulations and comprises a parameterization for atmospheric scattering and a calculation of ocean surface reflected radiance. Potential use of the 13-μm channel for SST is shown in a simulation study: in conjunction with the 3.9-μm channel, it can reduce the retrieval error by 30%. Some validation results are shown while a companion paper by Maturi et al. shows a detailed analysis of the validation results for the operational algorithms described in this present article.
On the Impact of WRF Model Vertical Grid Resolution on Midwest Summer Rainfall Forecasts
Authors: Aligo Eric A. , Gallus William A. , Segal Moti 
Published: September 2008

Abstract
Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model exploratory sensitivity simulations were performed to determine the impact of vertical grid resolution (VGR) on the forecast skill of Midwest summer rainfall. Varying the VGR indicated that a refined VGR, while adopting the widely used North America Regional Reanalysis (NARR) for initial and lateral boundary conditions, does not necessarily result in a consistent improvement in quantitative precipitation forecasts (QPFs). When averaged over a variety of microphysical schemes in an illustrative case, equitable threat score (ETS) and bias values actually worsened with a greater overpredicted rainfall for half of the rainfall thresholds when the VGR was refined. Averaged over strongly forced cases, ETS values worsened for all rainfall thresholds while biases mostly increased, indicating a further overprediction of rainfall when the number of levels was increased. Skill improved, however, for all rainfall thresholds when the resolution above the melting level was increased. Skill also improved for most rainfall thresholds when the resolution in the surface layer was increased, which is attributed to better-resolved surface turbulent momentum and thermal fluxes. Likewise, a refined VGR resulted in improvements in weakly forced cases, which are governed mostly by thermodynamic forcing and are sensitive to vertical profiles of temperature and moisture. Application of the factor separation method suggested that the refined VGR more frequently had a negative impact on skill through the interaction between lower-atmospheric processes and microphysical processes above the melting level.