scholarly journals Is There Really ‘Another’ Counterexample to the Secularization Thesis? Religious Dynamics in Italy Between 1910 and 2013

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ettore Scappini
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Western Country ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
The United States ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Current State ◽  
Regular Manner ◽  
The Many ◽  
Time Use Surveys

Abstract Background Among the modern Western countries where the issue of religiosity has been studied, the United States and Italy offer the only examples of empirically verified periods when religious practice was consolidated or even revived to some extent. A recent study, however, shows that the nature of religious exceptionalism in the United States does not constitute a real counterexample. This leaves Italy as the only country that might provide evidence of the falseness of the assumption that the secularization process is inescapable. Purpose This study seeks to enhance our knowledge about the case of Italy, where the many surveys conducted over the years have produced a wide variety of often divergent results, prompting a fervent debate among scholars. Several authors argue that the level of participation remained almost constant from 1980 to 1990. Others, on the contrary, claim that the level of participation increased between 1980 and 2000. This paper contributes to this path of study, aiming to shed light on the development of religiosity in Italy between 1910 and 2013. Methods Different data sets—time use surveys, ‘stylized surveys’, direct surveys and other kind of data—and an innovative method will be used to develop the reasoning and trace the trend of secularization. Results As will be shown, there are discontinuities in the pattern of religious practice over time. These fractures were due to attrition caused in turn by factors related to economic phenomena like migration and political/ideological subcultures, which temporarily changed the level of religious practice and, at least for a time, counterbalanced the long-term trend away from religious practice. Conclusions and Implications The trends presented suggest that secularization in Italy developed without any discontinuity, leading to confirmation that modernization and religious action ‘counteracted’ each other in an extremely regular manner. Therefore, according to the current state of knowledge, no documented modern Western country constitutes a counterexample to the secularization thesis. It can thus be claimed that modernization and secularization are inextricably linked processes.

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders: Employment Issues in the United States

2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 58-69
Author(s):  
Marlene Kim
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Asian Americans ◽  
The United States ◽  
Current Data ◽  
Pacific Islanders ◽  
Native Hawaiians ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
High Poverty ◽  
Unemployment Rates

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) in the United States face problems of discrimination, the glass ceiling, and very high long-term unemployment rates. As a diverse population, although some Asian Americans are more successful than average, others, like those from Southeast Asia and Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (NHPIs), work in low-paying jobs and suffer from high poverty rates, high unemployment rates, and low earnings. Collecting more detailed and additional data from employers, oversampling AAPIs in current data sets, making administrative data available to researchers, providing more resources for research on AAPIs, and enforcing nondiscrimination laws and affirmative action mandates would assist this population.

Truth

2020 ◽  
pp. 96-118
Author(s):  
Dan P. McAdams
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Official ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
United States Today ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The Many

“Truth” aims to explain why Donald Trump lies more than any other public official in the United States today, and why his supporters, nonetheless, put up with his lies. The chapter combs the biographical record to highlight some of the most egregious examples of Trump’s untruths and then considers reasons behind Trump’s remarkable penchant for lying. For Trump, truth is effectively whatever it takes to win the moment, moment by moment, battle by battle—as the episodic man, shorn of any long-term story to make sense of his life, struggles to win the moment. Among the many reasons that Trump’s supporters excuse his lying is that they, like Trump himself, do not really hold him to the standards that human persons are held to. And that is because many of his supporters, like Trump himself, do not consider him to be a person—he is more like a primal force or superhero, more than a person, but less than a person, too.

Process analysis of procalcitonin monitoring within community hospitals

2020 ◽  
Vol 77 (8) ◽  
pp. 632-635
Author(s):  
Kelsey Peña ◽  
Mandelin Cooper ◽  
Nickie Greer ◽  
Ty Elders ◽  
Edward Septimus
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Antibiotic Therapy ◽  
Small Proportion ◽  
Process Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Community Hospitals ◽  
Current State ◽  
Multiple Levels ◽  
Peak Value

Abstract Purpose Monitoring of procalcitonin (PCT) levels may support appropriate antibiotic discontinuation. The purpose of this study was to determine the current state of PCT monitoring at community hospitals across the United States. Methods Data from adult patients who were admitted to community hospitals affiliated with a large healthcare system between August 1, 2016, and July 31, 2017, and who received antibiotics were evaluated for the number of PCT levels drawn and the timing between multiple levels. Data from eligible patients were evaluated for the discontinuation of antibiotics after meeting prespecified PCT thresholds for discontinuation of therapy, namely, a PCT measurement of <0.5 μg/L or a decrease of ≥80% from a previous peak value. Results PCT levels were evaluated for 103,913 patient data sets collected from 136 hospitals. Of these, 70% of the data sets showed a single PCT level drawn, and approximately 30% (30,887) of the data sets showed multiple levels drawn. The first PCT measurement was drawn within 36 hours of antibiotic initiation in 96% of the patients. Of those with multiple levels, 23% (7,089) had levels drawn 24 to 72 hours apart. A small proportion (20% [6,127]) of the patients with multiple levels were eligible for evaluation of appropriate antibiotic discontinuation. Of these, 1,973 (32.2%) patients had antibiotics discontinued within 36 hours of meeting the prespecified PCT thresholds; these patients had a mean duration of antibiotic therapy of 6.1 days with a median of 4.7. Conclusion Additional standardization of ongoing PCT monitoring and education regarding the appropriate discontinuation of antibiotics when thresholds are reached could aid in the use of this biomarker in support of antibiotic and laboratory stewardship.

scholarly journals Challenges for Monitoring the Extent and Land Use/Cover Changes in Monarch Butterflies’ Migratory Habitat across the United States and Mexico

Land ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 156
Author(s):  
Rafael Moreno-Sanchez ◽  
James Raines ◽  
Jay Diffendorfer ◽  
Mark Drummond ◽  
Jessica Manko
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Habitat Quality ◽  
Danaus Plexippus ◽  
The United States ◽  
Digital Data ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Lulc Changes ◽  
Current State

This paper presents a synopsis of the challenges and limitations presented by existing and emerging land use/land cover (LULC) digital data sets when used to analyze the extent, habitat quality, and LULC changes of the monarch (Danaus plexippus) migratory habitat across the United States of America (US) and Mexico. First, the characteristics, state of the knowledge, and issues related to this habitat are presented. Then, the characteristics of the existing and emerging LULC digital data sets with global or cross-border coverage are listed, followed by the data sets that cover only the US or Mexico. Later, we discuss the challenges for determining the extent, habitat quality, and LULC changes in the monarchs’ migratory habitat when using these LULC data sets in conjunction with the current state of the knowledge of the monarchs’ ecology, behavior, and foraging/roosting plants used during their migration. We point to approaches to address some of these challenges, which can be categorized into: (a) LULC data set characteristics and availability; (b) availability of ancillary land management information; (c) ability to construct accurate forage suitability indices for their migration habitat; and (d) level of knowledge of the ecological and behavioral patterns of the monarchs during their journey.

First Things First: The Pressing Danger of Crisis Instability in U.S.-China Relations

2013 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 49-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Avery Goldstein
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Military Conflict ◽  
Current State ◽  
Near Term ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
The Cold War

Since the mid-1990s, much has been written about the potentially disruptive impact of China if it emerges as a peer competitor challenging the United States. Not enough attention has been paid, however, to a more immediate danger—that the United States and a weaker China will find themselves locked in a crisis that could escalate to open military conflict. The long-term prospect for a new great power rivalry ultimately rests on uncertain forecasts about big shifts in national capabilities and debatable claims about the motivations of the two countries. By contrast, the danger of crisis instability involving these two nuclear-armed states is a tangible near-term concern. An analysis that examines the current state of U.S.-China relations and compares it with key aspects of U.S.-Soviet relations during the Cold War indicates that a serious Sino-American crisis may be more likely and more dangerous than expected. The capabilities each side possesses, and specific features of the most likely scenarios for U.S.-China crises, suggest reasons to worry that escalation pressures will exist and that they will be highest early in a crisis, compressing the time frame for diplomacy to avert military conflict.

scholarly journals Transformations of Trade Unionism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ad Knotter
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
First Century ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Labour Relations ◽  
Trade Unionism ◽  
Transnational Connections ◽  
Generous Financial Support ◽  
The Many

The historical experiences of workers organizing in Europe and the United States figure among the many forms of workers’ resistance resulting from the variety of labour relations in the global past. They cannot and will not be uniformly duplicated or copied from their present form in the global transformations of labour and workers’ movements that we are witnessing today. Nevertheless, in the twentieth century trade unionism as a form of collective agency among workers became a global phenomenon. With growing numbers of workers being exposed to wage labour and labour markets, the cases of workers organizing in the original heartlands of trade unionism in Europe and the United States can provide a historical background for future prospects and transformations. Based on comparisons of long-term developments and focusing on transnational connections, Transformations of Trade Unionism shows that historically there have been many varieties of trade unionism, emerging independently or transforming older ones, and that these varieties and transformations can be explained by specific and changing labour regimes. The case studies all start from Dutch examples, or incorporate a Dutch element, but the comparative and transnational approach connects these histories to general developments in Europe and United States from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century. This publication was made possible thanks to the generous financial support of the Stichting Unger - van Brero Fonds

Speech-Language Pathology in the Peace Corps: Necessity and Sustainability

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-18
Author(s):  
Melissa A. Pierce
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Special Education ◽  
Peace Corps ◽  
People With Disabilities ◽  
Communication Disorders ◽  
The United States ◽  
Speech Language Pathology ◽  
Speech Language Pathologists ◽  
Language Pathology

In countries other than the United States, the study and practice of speech-language pathology is little known or nonexistent. Recognition of professionals in the field is minimal. Speech-language pathologists in countries where speech-language pathology is a widely recognized and respected profession often seek to share their expertise in places where little support is available for individuals with communication disorders. The Peace Corps offers a unique, long-term volunteer opportunity to people with a variety of backgrounds, including speech-language pathologists. Though Peace Corps programs do not specifically focus on speech-language pathology, many are easily adapted to the profession because they support populations of people with disabilities. This article describes how the needs of local children with communication disorders are readily addressed by a Special Education Peace Corps volunteer.

Applying the Devil's Works in a Holy Cause: Working-Class Popular Culture and the Salvation Army in the United States, 1879-1900

1997 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-223
Author(s):  
Lillian Taiz
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
York City ◽  
The United States ◽  
Salvation Army ◽  
Public Meeting ◽  
The Many ◽  
Sunday Evening

Forty-eight hours after they landed in New York City in 1880, a small contingent of the Salvation Army held their first public meeting at the infamous Harry Hill's Variety Theater. The enterprising Hill, alerted to the group's arrival from Britain by newspaper reports, contacted their leader, Commissioner George Scott Railton, and offered to pay the group to “do a turn” for “an hour or two on … Sunday evening.” In nineteenth-century New York City, Harry Hill's was one of the best known concert saloons, and reformers considered him “among the disreputable classes” of that city. His saloon, they said, was “nothing more than one of the many gates to hell.”

Mafias on the Move

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federico Varese
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
Organized Crime ◽  
The United States ◽  
The West ◽  
Market Expansion ◽  
The North ◽  
Economic Transformations ◽  
At Will

Organized crime is spreading like a global virus as mobs take advantage of open borders to establish local franchises at will. That at least is the fear, inspired by stories of Russian mobsters in New York, Chinese triads in London, and Italian mafias throughout the West. As this book explains, the truth is more complicated. The author has spent years researching mafia groups in Italy, Russia, the United States, and China, and argues that mafiosi often find themselves abroad against their will, rather than through a strategic plan to colonize new territories. Once there, they do not always succeed in establishing themselves. The book spells out the conditions that lead to their long-term success, namely sudden market expansion that is neither exploited by local rivals nor blocked by authorities. Ultimately the inability of the state to govern economic transformations gives mafias their opportunity. In a series of matched comparisons, the book charts the attempts of the Calabrese 'Ndrangheta to move to the north of Italy, and shows how the Sicilian mafia expanded to early twentieth-century New York, but failed around the same time to find a niche in Argentina. The book explains why the Russian mafia failed to penetrate Rome but succeeded in Hungary. A pioneering chapter on China examines the challenges that triads from Taiwan and Hong Kong find in branching out to the mainland. This book is both a compelling read and a sober assessment of the risks posed by globalization and immigration for the spread of mafias.

Leaded Aviation Fuel May Present Long-Term Effects on Campus Life from the Adjacent Albert Whitted Airport

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Matthews ◽  
Madhu Pandey
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Particulate Matter ◽  
The United States ◽  
Aviation Fuel ◽  
University Campus ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Aviation Gasoline ◽  
Suspended Particulate ◽  
Descent Line

Propeller planes and small engine aircraft around the United States, legally utilize leaded aviation gasoline. The purpose of this experiment was to collect suspended particulate matter from a university campus, directly below an airport’s arriving flight path’s descent line, and to analyze lead content suspended in the air. Two collection sets of three separate samples were collected on six separate days, one set in July of 2018 and the second set in January 2019.

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