A Mixed-Methods Study of the Variables that Influence Southern Baptists’ Affirmation of the Inerrancy of the Bible

The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) had discovered by the late 1970s that belief in the inerrancy of the Bible was not consistently affirmed by their leadership. After a twenty year battle, the SBC attempted to clarify the doctrine of inerrancy through the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. A mixed-method analysis was conducted by surveying 502 Florida Southern Baptist (FSB) church members with a 68-question survey instrument to determine the degree to which they affirmed the doctrine of inerrancy. The study revealed that a large percentage of FSB church members affirmed the doctrine, but the underlining beliefs were not always consistently acknowledged

How can Trade Help to Rebuild and Enhance the Economies of the Southern Mediterranean Countries?

Arab countries are experiencing major changes in their governance systems. While the features of the new era are still unclear, what is certain is that a new development paradigm will be adopted and significant efforts will be made to rebuild the economies of these countries, which have been seriously disrupted due to the revolutions and their aftermath. This article seeks to answer the question of how trade can play a significant positive role in rebuilding and enhancing the economies of these Southern Mediterranean Countries

Antonio Gramsci and his relevance for the education of adults

This paper, drawing on original sources, provides an overview of and a discussion on those writings and ideas, in Antonio Gramsci's huge corpus of work, that are relevant to the education of adults. This should provide a fitting tribute to this major social theorist of the 20th century on the 70th anniversary of his death. Among the topics discussed are those of adult education for industrial democracy, adult education and cultural preparation, adult literacy, prison education, adult education and the Southern Question with specific reference to immigration, and, most important of all, adult education in the context of an intellectual and moral reform.peer-reviewe

Do microfinance institutions reach the poorest?

The question raised in the title is an important one to the microfinance sector, especially since the Microcredit Summit held in Washington, DC, in 1997. In order to gain more transparency on the depth of poverty outreach, the Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest (CGAP) supported research at IFPRI during 1999 and 2000 to design and test a simple, low-cost operational tool to measure the poverty level of MFI clients relative to nonclients. This policy brief informs about the results from recent case studies on the poverty outreach of four selected microfinance institutions. The case studies were conducted for four MFIs world-wide: MFI A (Central America), MFI B (East Africa), MFI C (Southern Africa), and MFI D (South Asia).Microenterprises Finance. ,Finance Developing countries. ,Financial institutions. ,Finance Southern Africa. ,Finance Central America. ,Finance South Asia. Finance Africa, East. ,

Germany's Mezzogiorno revisited: Institutions, fiscal transfers and regional convergence

This paper revisits the question: Will Eastern Germany become a new Mezzogiorno? Building upon the established analysis of East Germany's disappointing economic performance since unification, when wages were allowed to far outstrip productivity, the purpose of this work is to provide fresh economic perspectives on why the Former DDR has stalled in its convergence with the Old Lander. The term Mezzogiorno refers to the transfer dependent southern region of Italy. --

Coordination of Foliar and Wood Anatomical Traits Contributes to Tropical Tree Distributions and Productivity along the Malay-Thai Peninsula

Drought is a critical factor in plant species distributions. Much research points to its relevance even in moist tropical regions. Recent studies have begun to elucidate mechanisms underlying the distributions of tropical tree species with respect to drought; however, how such desiccation tolerance mechanisms correspond with the coordination of hydraulic and photosynthetic traits in determining species distributions with respect to rainfall seasonality deserves attention. In the present study, we used a common garden approach to quantify inherent differences in wood anatomical and foliar physiological traits in 21 tropical tree species with either widespread (occupying both seasonal and aseasonal climates) or southern (restricted to aseasonal forests) distributions with respect to rainfall seasonality. Use of congeneric species pairs and phylogenetically independent contrast analyses allowed examination of this question in a phylogenetic framework. Widespread species opted for wood traits that provide biomechanical support and prevent xylem cavitation and showed associated reductions in canopy productivity and consequently growth rates compared with southern species. These data support the hypothesis that species having broader distributions with respect to climatic variability will be characterized by traits conducive to abiotic stress tolerance. This study highlights the importance of the well-established performance vs. stress tolerance trade-off as a contributor to species distributions at larger scales

Italy and development policies from the golden age to the current crisis: the role of the “nuovo meridionalismo”

The first aim of this paper on “L’Italia e le politiche di sviluppo dalla golden age alla crisi attuale: il ruolo del “nuovo meridionalismo” (Italy and its development policies from the golden age to the current crisis: the role of “nuovo meridionalismo”)” is to examine the state of the art concerning the strategies for the development of southern Italy. These strategies have been severely weakened, not only because of national policy choices, but also because of the prevailing cultural bias against Southern issues; this culture took hold even amongst those people of Southern Italy committed to “abolish the South”. Only in recent years has the trend been inverted, as the gap between the regions of Southern Italy and those in the Center and Northern areas has grown wider and wider and the attention has been focused back, at the national level, on an “open problem” such as the backwardness of Southern Italy. In order to perform an effective historical evaluation, this paper will reconsider the starting moment of the “nuovo meridionalismo”, when the birth of the SVIMEZ and the efforts carried out to define the industrialization strategies of the less developed area of our country gave life to a complex of unvaluable reforms, beginning with the extraordinary intervention and with the establishment of the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno. The positive turn impresses by this innovative setup of industrial policy had its roots in those development theories which, from the mid-XX° Century, began to bring the issue of “depressed areas” and of those cornerstone choices necessary to effectively tackle global problems. From them on, all the strategies for productive growth had to contend with defining the gap issue and the dual dynamics of several economies, as it is the (paradigm) case with Southern Italy. Upon the 150th anniversary of Italian unity, to effectively sum up all the main points of this paper, if one wants to meaningfully take on the lesson of “nuovo meridionalismo”, without invoking abstract reasons of social cohesion, a path must be detected. This path should be made of reciprocal interests between two areas: a Northern one and a Southern one; the latter has vast unproductive areas, but also creativity, talents and singe innovative experiences. Within this new and difficult context, the solution to the issues of Southern Italy, if accompanied by a profound conviction and commitment towards the need to stand up to global competition and market choices, can retake its role as a fundamental theme of the national economic policy, in order to benefit the rest of the country as well.Nuovo meridionalismo; SVIMEZ; policies for development; Southern Question; industrialisaton;

Prisoner Experiences: Memoirs of Libby Prison

Numerous books have been written on the contested topic of Civil War prisons and prisoners of war. Scholars struggle with who to blame for the outrageous and horrible conditions of the prisons. Some speculate that the Southerners were crueler to their captives while others say the opposite. As well, scholars question whether the conditions of the Southern prisons were better or worse than the prisons in the North. [excerpt