The Secular State Under Siege: Religion and Politics in Europe and America

Throughout human history, religion and politics have entertained the most intimate of connections as systems of authority regulating individuals and society. While the two have come apart through the process of secularization, secularism is challenged today by the return of public religion. This cogent analysis unravels the nature of the connection, disconnection, and attempted reconnection between religion and politics in the West. In a comparison of Western Europe and North America, Christianity and Islam, Joppke advances far-reaching theoretical, historical, and comparative-political arguments. With respect to theory, it is argued that only a “substantive” concept of religion, as pertaining to the existence of supra-human powers, opens up the possibility of a historical-comparative perspective on religion. At the level of history, secularization is shown to be the distinct outcome of Latin Christianity itself. And at the level of comparative politics, the Christian Right in America which has attacked the “wall of separation” between religion and state and Islam in Europe with the controversial insistence on sharia law and other “illiberal” claims from some quarters are taken to be counterpart incarnations of public religion and challenges to the secular state. This clearly argued, sweeping book will provide an invaluable framework for approaching an array of critical issues at the intersection of religion, law and politics for advanced students and researchers across the social sciences and legal studies, as well as for the interested public.

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers: Potential human exposure through household dust and dryer lint

This MPH thesis consists of (1) literature review of the relatively new synthetic persistent organic pollutants (POP), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), a type of flame retardant posing a potential public health hazard, (2) Presentation of data on PBDE levels in dryer lint from Dallas, TX and Hamburg, Germany. ^ PBDEs are used as additive fire retardants in plastics, polyurethane foam and electronic equipment to reduce flammability and thus save life and property. PBDEs have been widely used beginning in the 1970s. They resemble polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in structure and toxicity. PBDEs are found in environmental sediments, sludges, and wildlife and even in human blood, milk and tissues. ^ PBDEs, due to their lipophilicity, accumulate in fat and other tissues and biomagnify up the food chain, with increasing concentrations. Animal studies have suggested potential health effects including thyroid disruption, permanent learning and memory impairment, fetal malformations, developmental neurotoxicity and, at high doses, possibly cancer. ^ PBDE levels are increasing in blood and breast milk in North America, but PBDEs intake unlike PCBs appears to be not primarily through food; food PBDE levels in the U.S. are not markedly higher than in Europe yet U.S. human blood and milk levels are much higher. For this reason various exposure pathways including PBDE contaminated dust and air have been studied to better characterize routes of PBDE intake into humans. ^ The scientific literature on PBDE levels in household dust reports higher PBDE concentration in dust than that found in dryer lint; levels in the U.S are elevated compared to other countries with congeners such as BDE 47, 99, 100 and 209 predominating. The United Kingdom has elevated BDE 209 due to high usage of Deca commercial mixture. These studies suggest that indoor PBDE contamination through household dust could be a potential source of PBDE exposure and body burden especially in young children. ^ PBDE levels in dryer lint from U.S ranged from 321 to 3073 ng/g (Mean: 1138 ng/g, Median: 803 ng/g) and from Germany were from 330 to 2069 ng/g (Median: 71ng/g, Mean: 361 ng/g). High median levels in U.S samples indicate contamination of lint with PBDEs although the source of the PBDEs in lint may be from dryer electrical components or air deposition onto clothes, lint may be one source of PBDE exposure to humans. ^

Abundance and preservation of radiolarian faunas of ODP Hole 122-761B (Table 1)

Sites 759 through 764 were drilled during Ocean Drilling Program Leg 122 on the Exmouth and Wombat plateaus off northwest Australia, eastern Indian Ocean. Radiolarian recovery was generally poor due to unsuitable lithofacies. A few Quaternary radiolarian faunas were recovered from most of the sites. Rare and poorly preserved Oligocene and Eocene radiolarian faunas were recovered from Holes 760A, 761B, 761C, and 762B. Poorly preserved Cretaceous radiolarians occur in samples from Holes 761B, 762C, 763B, and 763C. Chert intervals from Cores 122-761B-28X, 122-761C-5R, and 122-761C-6R contain moderately well-preserved Cretaceous radiolarian faunas (upper Albian, mid- to upper Cenomanian, and mid-Albian, respectively). Rare fragments of Upper Triassic radiolarians were recovered from sections in Holes 759B, 760B, and 764A. The only well-preserved pre-Quaternary radiolarians are in lower and upper Paleocene faunas (Bekoma campechensis Zone) recovered from Site 761, Sections 122-761B-16X-1 to 122-761C-19X-CC. The composition of these faunas differs somewhat from that of isolated coeval Paleocene faunas from Deep Sea Drilling Project sites in the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, tropical Pacific, eastern Indian Ocean, and near Spain and North Africa, as well as from several on-land sites in North America, Cuba, and the USSR.

Gestión del paisaje y ordenamiento territorial : Abordajes conceptuales y metodológicos

El propósito de la ponencia es elaborar un panorama sobre la relevancia de la gestión del paisaje dentro del ordenamiento territorial, un tema cuya discusión ha emergido en los últimos años y en base al cual se han desarrollado numerosas normativas y técnicas dentro del contexto europeo y norteamericano. El proceso de globalización ha intensificado las dinámicas homogeneización urbana de dispersión territorial, y especialización funcional. En Europa y EEUU, como respuesta a éstas dinámicas, se han impulsado estrategias de gestión territorial sobre la base del ordenamiento del paisaje. Las acciones emprendidas responden a la instrumentación de políticas, metodologías e intervenciones impregnadas de una concepción de paisaje entendido como atributo de la totalidad del territorio; referido tanto a los espacios singulares y/o destacados como a los cotidianos y degradados. Desde el diagnóstico urbano y territorial comienzan a implementarse instrumentos que profundizan en el conocimiento del territorio desde este enfoque. El establecimiento de acuerdos internacionales dirigidos a impulsar la gestión del paisaje, ha promovido el desarrollo de legislaciones, instrumentos y proyectos que sitúan al paisaje como un componente destacado dentro del ordenamiento territorial y la planificación urbanística, que se establecen dentro de dos líneas claramente definidas: una línea propositiva en la que el paisaje es considerado como reactivador de territorios patrimoniales y una línea normativa, integrada por leyes que intentan guiar la gestión del territorio asociado a la valoración del paisaje. Las experiencias desarrolladas en Europa y en Norteamérica en materia de gestión del paisaje Invitan a pensar en estrategias adecuadas al escenario latinoamericano. Puede verificarse que dichas estrategias presentan cierto nivel de transferencia a otros contextos, dejando en claro que es posible utilizar el concepto de paisaje para dar respuesta a cuestiones de ordenamiento territorial en contextos con menor nivel de desarrollo que el europeo, sin dejar de tener en cuenta que las demandas son diferentes. De esta manera, queda por responder cómo implementar este tipo de proyectos dentro del contexto latinoamericano, resolviendo problemáticas que exceden la escala de los países desarrollados, y donde el paisaje puede constituirse como una herramienta de reconocimiento de la particular identidad local, además de cumplir un significativo rol en el aspecto medioambiental

Guidance in the diversity: a glance from Latin America

Guidance and Diversity, for the majority of the European countries and North America , are related to the attention to children and young people with special necessities, that are attend in an educative institution and for those who are elaborated educative programs directed to obtain one better adaptation to the prevailing social system. In most of the cases is considered that the problematic of the special necessities is imputable to genetic or personal factors that only respond to internal factors to the individuals that display them avoiding the external factors that in some cases can be more decisive determinants at the time of the conductual manifestation. In this work is pleaded because the professionals of the Guidance, as much private or public scenes of the European countries, make more specific considerations at the time of taking care of children, young people and adults, as immigrants, coming of Latin America . In an ample sense one sets out to make Guidance in the Diversity more than Guidance for the Diversity under the conception of a Guidance for All which implies the elimination of the expression "special necessities", whose connotation in our countries is not most appropriate, and than it includes the idea of an Ethnic Guidance. Perhaps the best way of boarding of these conceptions is promoting a process of Guidance from the School and not only in the School.

Texture, geochemistry, isotope composition, petrography and epoch at DSDP Site 93-603

Abundant Fe-Mn carbonate concretions (mainly siderite, manganosiderite, and rhodochrosite) were found in the hemipelagic claystones of Site 603 on the eastern North American continental rise. They occur as nodules, micronodules, or carbonate-replaced burrow fills and layers at a subbottom depth of between ~ 120 (Pliocene) and 1160 m (Albian-Cenomanian). In general, the Fe-Mn carbonate concretions form from CO3- produced by the microbiological degradation of organic matter in the presence of abundant Fe + or Mn + and very low S- concentrations. However, there is also some evidence for diagenetic replacement of preexisting calcite by siderite. The carbon isotope composition of diagenetic Fe-Mn carbonate nodules is determined by CO2 reduction during methanogenesis. Carbonate nodules in Cretaceous sediments at sub-bottom depths of 1085 and 1160 m have distinctly lower d13C values (- 12.2 and - 12.9 per mil) than Neogene siderites, associated with abundant biogenic methane in the pore space (-8.9 to 1.7 per mil between 330 and 780 m depth). Since no isotopic zonation could be detected within individual nodules, we assume that the isotopic composition reflects more or less geochemical conditions at the present burial depth of the carbonate nodules. Carbonates did not precipitate within the zone of sulfate reduction (approximately 0.01 to 10 m), where all of the pyrite was formed. The oxygen isotope composition indicates precipitation from seawater-derived interstitial waters. The d18O values decrease with increasing burial depth from + 5.1 to - 1.2 per mil, suggesting successively higher temperatures during carbonate formation.

Guidance in the diversity: a glance from Latin America

Guidance and Diversity, for the majority of the European countries and North America , are related to the attention to children and young people with special necessities, that are attend in an educative institution and for those who are elaborated educative programs directed to obtain one better adaptation to the prevailing social system. In most of the cases is considered that the problematic of the special necessities is imputable to genetic or personal factors that only respond to internal factors to the individuals that display them avoiding the external factors that in some cases can be more decisive determinants at the time of the conductual manifestation. In this work is pleaded because the professionals of the Guidance, as much private or public scenes of the European countries, make more specific considerations at the time of taking care of children, young people and adults, as immigrants, coming of Latin America . In an ample sense one sets out to make Guidance in the Diversity more than Guidance for the Diversity under the conception of a Guidance for All which implies the elimination of the expression "special necessities", whose connotation in our countries is not most appropriate, and than it includes the idea of an Ethnic Guidance. Perhaps the best way of boarding of these conceptions is promoting a process of Guidance from the School and not only in the School.

Gestión del paisaje y ordenamiento territorial : Abordajes conceptuales y metodológicos

El propósito de la ponencia es elaborar un panorama sobre la relevancia de la gestión del paisaje dentro del ordenamiento territorial, un tema cuya discusión ha emergido en los últimos años y en base al cual se han desarrollado numerosas normativas y técnicas dentro del contexto europeo y norteamericano. El proceso de globalización ha intensificado las dinámicas homogeneización urbana de dispersión territorial, y especialización funcional. En Europa y EEUU, como respuesta a éstas dinámicas, se han impulsado estrategias de gestión territorial sobre la base del ordenamiento del paisaje. Las acciones emprendidas responden a la instrumentación de políticas, metodologías e intervenciones impregnadas de una concepción de paisaje entendido como atributo de la totalidad del territorio; referido tanto a los espacios singulares y/o destacados como a los cotidianos y degradados. Desde el diagnóstico urbano y territorial comienzan a implementarse instrumentos que profundizan en el conocimiento del territorio desde este enfoque. El establecimiento de acuerdos internacionales dirigidos a impulsar la gestión del paisaje, ha promovido el desarrollo de legislaciones, instrumentos y proyectos que sitúan al paisaje como un componente destacado dentro del ordenamiento territorial y la planificación urbanística, que se establecen dentro de dos líneas claramente definidas: una línea propositiva en la que el paisaje es considerado como reactivador de territorios patrimoniales y una línea normativa, integrada por leyes que intentan guiar la gestión del territorio asociado a la valoración del paisaje. Las experiencias desarrolladas en Europa y en Norteamérica en materia de gestión del paisaje Invitan a pensar en estrategias adecuadas al escenario latinoamericano. Puede verificarse que dichas estrategias presentan cierto nivel de transferencia a otros contextos, dejando en claro que es posible utilizar el concepto de paisaje para dar respuesta a cuestiones de ordenamiento territorial en contextos con menor nivel de desarrollo que el europeo, sin dejar de tener en cuenta que las demandas son diferentes. De esta manera, queda por responder cómo implementar este tipo de proyectos dentro del contexto latinoamericano, resolviendo problemáticas que exceden la escala de los países desarrollados, y donde el paisaje puede constituirse como una herramienta de reconocimiento de la particular identidad local, además de cumplir un significativo rol en el aspecto medioambiental