Western Hindus and 'Global Hinduism' - Discourses on Conversion to 'Hindu-Religions', Acceptance of Converts and Social Engagement

The paper deals with the problem of (the often supposedly impossible) conversion to “Hinduism”. I start with an outline of what I call the ‘no conversion possible’ paradigm, and briefl y point to the lack of refl ection on acceptance of converts in most theories of religious conversion. Then, two examples are presented: Firstly, I consider conversion to ISKCON and the discourse on the Hare Krishna movement’s Hinduness. Secondly, I give a brief outline of the globalsanatana dharmamovement as inaugurated by Satguru Siva Subramuniyaswami, a converted American Hindu based in Hawai’i. In the conclusion, I refl ect on (civic) social capital and engagement in global networks as a means to gain acceptance as converts to Hinduism. I argue in line with Stepick, Rey and Mahler (2009) that the religious movements’ civic engagement (in these cases engagement in favour of the Indian diasporic communities and of Hindus in India) provides a means for the individual, non-Indian converts to acquire the social capital that is necessary for gaining acceptance as ‘Hindus’ in certain contexts.

Enamel matrix derivative in combination with bone grafts: A review of the literature.

OBJECTIVE Over 15 years have passed since an enamel matrix derivative (EMD) was introduced as a biologic agent capable of periodontal regeneration. Histologic and controlled clinical studies have provided evidence for periodontal regeneration and substantial clinical improvements following its use. The purpose of this review article was to perform a systematic review comparing the eff ect of EMD when used alone or in combination with various types of bone grafting material. DATA SOURCES A literature search was conducted on several medical databases including Medline, EMBASE, LILACS, and CENTRAL. For study inclusion, all studies that used EMD in combination with a bone graft were included. In the initial search, a total of 820 articles were found, 71 of which were selected for this review article. Studies were divided into in vitro, in vivo, and clinical studies. The clinical studies were subdivided into four subgroups to determine the eff ect of EMD in combination with autogenous bone, allografts, xenografts, and alloplasts. RESULTS The analysis from the present study demonstrates that while EMD in combination with certain bone grafts is able to improve the regeneration of periodontal intrabony and furcation defects, direct evidence supporting the combination approach is still missing. CONCLUSION Further controlled clinical trials are required to explain the large variability that exists amongst the conducted studies.

Trade Costs, Quality, and The Skill Premium

We develop a monopolistic competition model with nonhomothetic factor input bundles where increasing quality requires increasing use of skilled workers. As a result more skill abundant countries export higher quality, higher priced goods. Using a multicountry dataset we test and confirm the findings in Schott (2004) of a positive effect of skill abundance on unit values identified with US data. We extend the core model with per unit trade costs leading to the Washington-apples effect that goods shipped over larger distance are of higher quality. The combination of high-quality goods being relatively skill intensive with the Washington-apples effect implies that countries at a larger distance from their trading partners display a higher skill premium. Simulating our model we find that a doubling of distance of a country relative to all its trading partners raises the skill premium in a country by about 2.3 percent.