The end of secularization in Europe? A socio-demographic perspective

Much of the current debate over secularization in Europe focuses only on the direction of religious change, and pays exclusive attention to social causes. Scholars have been less attentive to shifts in the rate of religious decline, and to the role of demography – notably fertility and immigration. This article addresses both phenomena. It uses data from the European Values Surveys and European Social Survey for the period 1981-2008 to establish basic trends in religious attendance and belief across the ten countries that have been consistently surveyed. These show that religious decline is mainly occurring in Catholic European countries and has effectively ceased among post-1945 birth cohorts in six northwestern European societies where secularization began early. It also provides a cohort component projection of religious affiliation for two European countries using fertility, migration, switching and age and sex-structure parameters derived from census and immigration data. These suggest that western Europe may be more religious at the end of our century than at its beginning

Positive solutions of a boundary value problem for a nonlinear fractional differential equation

In this paper we give sufficient conditions for the existence of at least one and at least three positive solutions to the nonlinear fractional boundary value problem \begin{eqnarray*} &&D^{\alpha}u + a(t) f(u) = 0, \quad 0<t<1, 1<\alpha\leq2,\\ &&u(0) = 0 ,u'(1)= 0, \end{eqnarray*} where $D^{\alpha}$ is the Riemann-Liouville differential operator of order $\alpha$, $f: [0,\infty)\rightarrow [0,\infty)$ is a given continuous function and $a$ is a positive and continuous function on $[0,1]$

Conceptions of Formative Processes in Western Science and Eastern Philosophy

The central theme of this paper concerns the way Eastern and Western (sometimes termed Oriental and Occidental) thought view the formation of the world; the means of arriving at these conclusions and the concepts or pre-conceived ideas upon which they are based. Western thought has been limited to views that have developed out of modern science, post-1500; they are mechanistic science, evolution, Whitehead\u27s philosophy pertaining to God and modern physics. For the purpose of this paper, the emphasis in Eastern thought is placed on Mahayana Buddhism, especially the Madhyamika school of philosophy. In India it developed in contact with many other philosophical schools, and it if it is to be understood, some of these systems of though must also be studied. Therefore, the Vedanta school of Indian philosophy, Early Buddhism, and one of the creation stories of the Upanishads are used when they help to explain the Buddhist view. Mahayana Buddhism also spread to China and Japan where in developed in contact with Confucianism and Taoism, and so these are considered when they help to explain Chinese Buddhism. While this paper is focused on the views pertaining to the formation of the world, an important aspect of the study is to show what Eastern though understands by the terms higher and lower knowledge. As a further clarification, a chapter has been devoted to illustration how the respective interpretations of the world, in Eastern and Western cultures, are carried out in the everyday lives of the people. And finally, an effort is made to employ Eastern concepts in establishing a new basis for the organization and clarification of the concepts of present day science

Single-dish high sensitivity determination of solar limb emission at 22 and 44 GHz

A large number of solar maps were obtained with the use of Itapetinga 45 ft antenna at 22 GHz and 44 GHz. A statistical study of these maps, reduced using original techniques, permitted the establishment of the solar radius with great accuracy at the two frequencies. It is found that 22 GHz and 44 BHz radiation originates at 16,00 km and 12,500 km above the photosphere, respectively. Excess emission due to active regions was clearly identified at lower solar latitudes above and below the equator, extending up to 26,000 km and 16,500 km above the photosphere, at 22 GHs and 44 GHz, respectively

Short-lived solar burst spectral component at f approximately 100 GHz

A new kind of burst emission component was discovered, exhibiting fast and distinct pulses (approx. 60 ms durations), with spectral peak emission at f approx. 100 GHz, and onset time coincident to hard X-rays to within approx. 128 ms. These features pose serious constraints for the interpretation using current models. One suggestion assumes the f approx. 100 GHz pulses emission by synchrotron mechanism of electrons accelerated to ultrarelativistic energies. The hard X-rays originate from inverse Compton scattering of the electrons on the synchrotron photons. Several crucial observational tests are needed for the understanding of the phenomenon, requiring high sensitivity and high time resolution (approx. 1 ms) simultaneous to high spatial resolution (0.1 arcsec) at f approx. 110 GHz and hard X-rays

Eigenvalue problems for a three-point boundary-value problem on a time scale

Let $\mathbb{T}$ be a time scale such that $0, T \in \mathbb{T}$. We us a cone theoretic fixed point theorem to obtain intervals for $\lambda$ for which the second order dynamic equation on a time scale, \begin{gather*} u^{\Delta\nabla}(t) + \lambda a(t)f(u(t)) = 0, \quad t \in (0,T) \cap \mathbb{T},\\ u(0) = 0, \quad \alpha u(\eta) = u(T), \end{gather*} where $\eta \in (0, \rho(T)) \cap \mathbb{T}$, and $0 < \alpha <T/\eta$, has a positive solution

Valence Bond Entanglement and Fluctuations in Random Singlet Phases

The ground state of the uniform antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain can be viewed as a strongly fluctuating liquid of valence bonds, while in disordered chains these bonds lock into random singlet states on long length scales. We show that this phenomenon can be studied numerically, even in the case of weak disorder, by calculating the mean value of the number of valence bonds leaving a block of $L$ contiguous spins (the valence-bond entanglement entropy) as well as the fluctuations in this number. These fluctuations show a clear crossover from a small $L$ regime, in which they behave similar to those of the uniform model, to a large $L$ regime in which they saturate in a way consistent with the formation of a random singlet state on long length scales. A scaling analysis of these fluctuations is used to study the dependence on disorder strength of the length scale characterizing the crossover between these two regimes. Results are obtained for a class of models which include, in addition to the spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain, the uniform and disordered critical 1D transverse-field Ising model and chains of interacting non-Abelian anyons.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure