scholarly journals Contemplation and the Suffering Earth: Thomas Merton, Pope Francis, and the Next Generation

Open Theology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 212-227
Author(s):  
Christopher Pramuk
Keyword(s):  
Spiritual Formation ◽  
Human Heart ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Technology In Education ◽  
Pope Francis ◽  
Us Congress ◽  
The Us ◽  
Thomas Merton ◽  
The Impact

Abstract During his address to the US Congress in 2015, Pope Francis lifted up the Trappist monk and famed spiritual writer Thomas Merton as one of four “great” Americans who “offer us a way of seeing and interpreting reality” that is life-giving and brings hope. Drawing from Merton and gesturing to Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’, the author explores the epistemological roots of the environmental crisis, arguing that while intellectual conversion to the crisis is crucial, Merton’s witness suggests a deeper kind of transformation is required. Reading Merton schools the imagination in the way of wisdom, or sapientia, a contemplative disposition that senses its kinship with Earth through the eyes of the heart, illuminating what Pope Francis has called “an integral ecology.” The author considers the impact of two major influences on Merton’s thought: the Russian Wisdom school of theology, or sophiology, and French theologian Jacques Ellul, whose 1964 book “The Technological Society” raises prescient questions about the role of technology in education and spiritual formation. Arguing that our present crisis is both technological and spiritual, epistemological and metaphysical, the author foregrounds Merton’s contributions to a sapiential theology and theopoetics while asking how the sciences and humanities might work together more intentionally toward the transformation of the personal and collective human heart.

The Impact of In-group Favoritism on Trade Preferences

2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 827-850 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana C. Mutz ◽  
Eunji Kim
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Trading Partner ◽  
Relative Advantage ◽  
Trade Policies ◽  
Partner Country ◽  
The Us ◽  
Trade Preferences ◽  
The Impact

AbstractUsing a population-based survey experiment, this study evaluates the role of in-group favoritism in influencing American attitudes toward international trade. By systematically altering which countries gain or lose from a given trade policy (Americans and/or people in trading partner countries), we vary the role that in-group favoritism should play in influencing preferences.Our results provide evidence of two distinct forms of in-group favoritism. The first, and least surprising, is that Americans value the well-being of other Americans more than that of people outside their own country. Rather than maximize total gains, Americans choose policies that maximize in-group well-being. This tendency is exacerbated by a sense of national superiority; Americans favor their national in-group to a greater extent if they perceive Americans to be more deserving.Second, high levels of perceived intergroup competition lead some Americans to prefer trade policies that benefit the in-group and hurt the out-group over policies that help both their own country and the trading partner country. For a policy to elicit support, it is important not only that the US benefits, but also that the trading partner country loses so that the US achieves a greater relative advantage. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding bipartisan public opposition to trade.

Better ‘Best Execution’

2018 ◽  
pp. 165-196
Author(s):  
Christopher Nagy ◽  
Tyler Gellasch
Keyword(s):  
Securities And Exchange Commission ◽  
Client Expectations ◽  
The Us ◽  
Best Execution ◽  
Public Disclosures ◽  
Investment Advisers ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Disclosure Obligations

This chapter reviews best execution and new disclosure obligations in relation to investment advisers as well as brokers; it also provides an overview of the strategies they use to meet their rapidly changing obligations. Investment advisers and brokers are confronted with increasingly stringent regulatory and client expectations to fulfil their duty of best execution. Regulators in Europe have become active in developing formal best execution obligations, but the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is lagging behind in providing a clear framework for best execution. This chapter first outlines the analogous best execution obligation for broker-dealers and explores the contours of the SEC’s expectations for investment advisers. It then assesses the impact of new European best execution obligations and the role of public disclosures in aiding the fulfilment of best execution duties. It concludes by examining various strategies used by investment advisers to fulfil their evolving duties.

scholarly journals Unwanted Conflict? The Analysis of the Impact of Misperception, Beliefs and Psychology of President Nasser at the Outbreak of the Six Day War

2019 ◽  
Vol 01 (02) ◽  
pp. 1950003
Author(s):  
Janko Šćepanović
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Structural Explanation ◽  
Defining Moments ◽  
The Us ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Six Day War ◽  
The Impact

The Six Day War was one of the most defining moments in the history of the Modern Middle East. This paper seeks to add to the existing scholarship on the subject by going beyond the structural explanation. It gives special attention to the role of unit-level variables like perception, personality, and political psychology of decision-makers. As one scholar noted, threats are not perceived in a vacuum, and are, instead, products of complex synthesis of subjective appraisal of events by the decision-makers. The focus will be on the beliefs and perceptions of the most impactful actor in this crisis: Egyptian President Nasser. As will be argued, his decision-making was shaped by his experience with foreign imperialism, a general misconception of super power intentions, an incorrect analogy between two crucial crisis situations with Israel: the February 1960 Rotem Crisis, and the build-up to the June War in 1967, and especially his complicated relations with the US leaders.

No Blank Check

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus Müller
Keyword(s):  
War On Terror ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Congressional Debates ◽  
Us Congress ◽  
The Us ◽  
Legislative Branch ◽  
Drone Warfare ◽  
Counterterrorism Policy

Much of the academic debate surrounding the War on Terror focuses on presidential power after 9/11. In this context, the role of the US Congress in directing the outcome of national security policies is often overlooked. This book illustrates how Congress played a key role in the War on Terror during Barack Obama’s presidency. Instead of arguing that Congress was a compliant bystander and incapable of making successful counterterrorism policy, the legislative branch did more than hand the president a blank check. In using an innovative data set on congressional debates and policymaking, the book shows that the interaction between congressional entrepreneurs and senior committee/party leaders determined the outcome of controversial policies, including drone warfare, Guantanamo and the NSA’s mass surveillance activities.

The Impact of Publishing and Patenting Activities on New Product Development and Firm Performance: The Case of the US Pharmaceutical Industry

2003 ◽  
Vol 07 (02) ◽  
pp. 213-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Steven McMillan ◽  
Alfredo Mauri ◽  
Robert D. Halmilton
Keyword(s):  
Firm Performance ◽  
Pharmaceutical Industry ◽  
Product Development ◽  
New Product Development ◽  
New Product ◽  
The Us ◽  
Managerial Implications ◽  
Performance Results ◽  
The Impact

This paper studies the role of publishing and patenting activities as predictors of new product development for a sample of companies in the U.S. pharmaceutical industry. The research also examines the relation between new product development and firm performance. Hypotheses are developed based on the well-established absorptive capacity literature. The results show that publishing scientific articles and stock of patents are both significant predictors of the number of new molecular entities (NMEs) for which a firm receives approval. In addition, the degree to which a firm builds on its own technology (measured as self-citations in its patents) also predicts NMEs, but the regression coefficient had an unexpected negative sign. Finally, the performance results confirm that the approval of NMEs is significantly associated with the market-to-book ratio of a firm. The managerial implications of these findings and study limitations are also discussed.

scholarly journals United States Ending the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Epidemic plan: evaluation of the role of industry funding in published pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) literature

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Somya Gupta ◽  
Reuben Granich
Keyword(s):  
Industry Funding ◽  
Potential Conflict ◽  
Immunodeficiency Virus ◽  
The Us ◽  
Frequent Testing ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
Corporate Support ◽  
Exposure Prophylaxis ◽  
The Impact

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is integral to the US End of AIDS strategy. However, low adherence, high costs, frequent testing and monitoring side effects make delivery of PrEP complicated. Gilead has sponsored PrEP-related research efforts and access as part of its marketing efforts. We review potential conflict of interests (COI) in the scientific literature for the US PrEP related articles to understand the impact of Gilead’s corporate sponsorship.We identified 93 US PrEP articles published in the top 10 medical journals and top 10 HIV/AIDS journals in 2018. There were 289 first three and senior authors in these articles, of which, 34 (11%) declared a Gilead COI and 28 (10%) had undeclared Gilead COI. Only 10 authors accounted for 50% of the articles, with 70% of them having potential COI including receiving grants, fees and study drugs. The 93 articles were associated with 51 leading institutions (institution of three or more authors or participating institutions in a trial). Authors from 12 (24%) institutions declared an institutional Gilead COI and 22 (45%) institutions had undeclared Gilead support. Overall, of the 93 included articles, 30 (32%) had declared Gilead COI. Combining declared and undeclared COIs for authors and institutions provided an overall 83 (89%) articles with a potential Gilead COI. Of the 93 articles, 60 (71%) had favorable conclusions in 60 (71%). Declared Gilead support was significantly associated with favorable article conclusions (p<.05) but combined declared/undeclared author and/or institutional Gilead support was not associated with favorable conclusion. Nearly 90% of US PrEP articles had Gilead support and authors failed to report individual or institutional COI in 70% of articles. Direct corporate support is important for scientific research. However, Gilead’s marketing push for PrEP, undeclared COI, and potential influence of Gilead supported authors are of concern given the potential impact on the scientific discourse and the US HIV control strategy.

scholarly journals Stosunki rosyjsko-irańskie w latach 2011–2019. Pragmatyczny sojusz czy trwałe partnerstwo?

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-59
Author(s):  
Andrzej Purat ◽  
Paweł Bielicki
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Religious Leader ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Economic Issues ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
The Us ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The Impact

The main goal of our considerations is to analyse the most important conditions and dependencies that characterise Russian-Iranian relations from the beginning of the Arab Spring to the present day. We pay special attention to the infl uence of the United States on the development of diplomatic contacts between Moscow and Tehran and the conflict in Syria.Firstly, we describe the history of relations between the two countries after 1979 and the takeover of power by the religious leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, who, despite adopting an anti-Western course in international politics, did not show a desire to get closer to the Soviet neighbour. Secondly, we describe the relations of both countries from the collapse of the USSR to 2011, focusing on Iran’s role in influencing political processes in the post-Soviet area. Thirdly, we present the position of Russia and the Middle East about the war in Syria and the role of the Kurds. We also examine the impact of US policy on establishing links between Russia and Iran. Moreover, we raise economic issues and Moscow’s growing desire to dominate the Iranian economy and army.In the summary, we try to answer the question of what Russian-Iranian relations will look like in the future, especially in the era of the gradually ending war in Syria. Importantly, we refer to the issue of the US anti-Iranian rhetoric reinforced by Donald Trump and how it can influence the further strengthening of the Russia-Iran alliance.

scholarly journals Predicting urban innovation from the US Workforce Mobility Network

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Moreno Bonaventura ◽  
Luca Maria Aiello ◽  
Daniele Quercia ◽  
Vito Latora
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Scaling Laws ◽  
Census Data ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Innovation Performance ◽  
Professional Networks ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Impact

AbstractWhile great emphasis has been placed on the role of social interactions as a driver of innovation growth, very few empirical studies have explicitly investigated the impact of social network structures on the innovation performance of cities. Past research has mostly explored scaling laws of socio-economic outputs of cities as determined by, for example, the single predictor of population. Here, by drawing on a publicly available dataset of the startup ecosystem, we build the first Workforce Mobility Network among metropolitan areas in the US. We found that node centrality computed on this network accounts for most of the variability observed in cities’ innovation performance and significantly outperforms other predictors such as population size or density, suggesting that policies and initiatives aiming at sustaining innovation processes might benefit from fostering professional networks alongside other economic or systemic incentives. As opposed to previous approaches powered by census data, our model can be updated in real-time upon open databases, opening up new opportunities both for researchers in a variety of disciplines to study urban economies in new ways, and for practitioners to design tools for monitoring such economies in real-time.

scholarly journals Is there a Sheriff anymore? Vietnam’s legacy on US-Nicaraguan relations during the Carter Era, 1977-1981

2011 ◽  
pp. 144-148
Author(s):  
Ivan McLaughlin
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Carter Administration ◽  
Western Hemisphere ◽  
Political Transition ◽  
Working Classes ◽  
Us Congress ◽  
The Us

My project explores the extent to which the Vietnam legacy influenced US-Nicaraguan relations during the transition of power that took place in Nicaragua during James Earl Carter’s presidency. The Vietnam legacy is characterised by the increased influences of the US Congress, press, public and Latin America on US executive decisions. Understanding the role of the Vietnam legacy shows that the Carter administration had not regained the US’s ‘lost confidence.’ The US’s anxiety over Vietnam remained and left a void in the Western Hemisphere when Nicaragua needed guidance and assistance from the US during its political transition. On July 19, 1979, the forty-year old traditionally US backed dictatorship led by Anastasio Somoza Debayle was overthrown in Nicaragua by a coalition of Nicaraguans encompassing the business, academic, religious and working classes. Somoza’s opponents went on to create a new government for Nicaragua. Although they were initially euphoric in the aftermath of Somoza’s ...

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