Changing patterns of religious affiliation, church attendance and marriage across five areas of Europe since the early 1980s: trends and associations

This study draws on three waves of the European Values Survey (conducted between 1981 and 1984, between 1989 and 1993, and between 1999 and 2004) across five countries for which full data are available (Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Spain, and Sweden) in order to address five research questions. Question one examined changes in religious affiliation. Across all five countries, the proportions of the non-affiliated increased. Question two examined changes in church attendance. Across all five countries, the proportions of the non-attenders increased. Question three examined changes in marital status. Across all five countries the proportions of the population checking the category 'married' declined, although in Spain the decline was marginal. Question four examined the association between religious affiliation and being married. The religious affiliated were more likely to be married than the non-affiliated. Question five examined the association between church attendance and being married. Weekly attenders were more likely to be married than the non-attenders. Overall these data support the close association between religion and marriage across five European countries (where there are very different religious climates) and support the hypothesis that changing religious values and changing family values go hand-in-hand

Marriage, religion and human flourishing: how sustainable is the classic Durkheim thesis in contemporary Europe?

This paper draws on the three waves of the European Values Survey across five countries (Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Spain and Sweden) to investigate the relationship between indicators of positive psychology (conceptualised as feelings of happiness and satisfaction with life), religiosity (conceptualised as self-assigned religious affiliation and self-reported religious attendance) and marital status. The results demonstrate that religiosity is, in general, positively correlated with both indicators of positive psychology. Further, across all waves and all countries, the pattern emerges that those respondents who are married are likely to report higher levels of happiness and greater satisfaction in life. These data provide contemporary support for the classic Durkheim thesis linking the two institutions of marriage and religion with human flourishing

Approximating the Nonlinear Newsvendor and Single-Item Stochastic Lot-Sizing Problems When Data Is Given by an Oracle

The single-item stochastic lot-sizing problem is to find an inventory replenishment policy in the presence of discrete stochastic demands under periodic review and finite time horizon. A closely related problem is the single-period newsvendor model. It is well known that the newsvendor problem admits a closed formula for the optimal order quantity whenever the revenue and salvage values are linear increasing functions and the procurement (ordering) cost is fixed plus linear. The optimal policy for the single-item lot-sizing model is also well known under similar assumptions. In this paper we show that the classical (single-period) newsvendor model with fixed plus linear ordering cost cannot be approximated to any degree of accuracy when either the demand distribution or the cost functions are given by an oracle. We provide a fully polynomial time approximation scheme for the nonlinear single-item stochastic lot-sizing problem, when demand distribution is given by an oracle, procurement costs are provided as nondecreasing oracles, holding/backlogging/disposal costs are linear, and lead time is positive. Similar results exist for the nonlinear newsvendor problem. These approximation schemes are designed by extending the technique of K-approximation sets and functions.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Contract CMMI-0758069)United States. Office of Naval Research (Grant N000141110056

The three main monotheistic religions and gm food technology: an overview of perspectives

Abstract Background Public acceptance of genetically modified crops is partly rooted in religious views. However, the views of different religions and their potential influence on consumers' decisions have not been systematically examined and summarized in a brief overview. We review the positions of the Judaism, Islam and Christianity – the three major monotheistic religions to which more than 55% of humanity adheres to – on the controversies aroused by GM technology. Discussion The article establishes that there is no overarching consensus within the three religions. Overall, however, it appears that mainstream theology in all three religions increasingly tends towards acceptance of GM technology per se, on performing GM research, and on consumption of GM foods. These more liberal approaches, however, are predicated on there being rigorous scientific, ethical and regulatory scrutiny of research and development of such products, and that these products are properly labeled. Summary We conclude that there are several other interests competing with the influence exerted on consumers by religion. These include the media, environmental activists, scientists and the food industry, all of which function as sources of information and shapers of perception for consumers

Religiosity and corporate financial reporting: evidence from a European country

Using a sample of Portuguese privately-held firms, I examine the association between religiosity and financial reporting quality. The results suggest that firms headquartered in Portuguese areas with strong religious adherence and in the core area of the Portuguese religious cult (the district where the Fátima Sanctuary is located) generally experience lower incidence of earnings management. I provide further evidence that the results are robust to alternative measures of religiosity, and that are not driven by firms headquartered in rural areas. I also conclude that religious social norms, together with other forms of external financial monitoring, represent a mechanism for reducing costly agency conflicts. While the religious practice declined in the last decades in Portugal, I provide evidence that, even in a such context, religiosity is associated with reduced acceptance of unethical business practices, in particular, with reduced acceptance of aggressive accounting practices.I thank participants of the Second Paris Financial Management Conference (PFMC, 2014) and the 3RD Workshop on Business Ethics (EIASM, 2015) for their helpful insights.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Prefrontal cortical control of a brainstem social behavior circuit

The prefrontal cortex helps adjust an organism's behavior to its environment. In particular, numerous studies have implicated the prefrontal cortex in the control of social behavior, but the neural circuits that mediate these effects remain unknown. Here we investigated behavioral adaptation to social defeat in mice and uncovered a critical contribution of neural projections from the medial prefrontal cortex to the dorsal periaqueductal gray, a brainstem area vital for defensive responses. Social defeat caused a weakening of functional connectivity between these two areas, and selective inhibition of these projections mimicked the behavioral effects of social defeat. These findings define a specific neural projection by which the prefrontal cortex can control and adapt social behavior

Muslim Integration into Western Cultures: Between Origins and Destinations

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/91196/1/j.1467-9248.2012.00951.x.pd

Reconceptualizing Profit-Orientation in Management: A Karmic View on "Return on Investment" Calculations

From the perspective of the present day, Puritan-inspired capitalism seems to have succeeded globally, including in India. Connected to this, short-term profit-orientation in management seems to constrain the scope of different management approaches in a tight ideological corset. This article discusses the possibility of replacing this Puritan doctrine with the crucial elements of Indian philosophy: Karma and samsara. In doing so, the possibility of revising the guiding principles in capitalist management becomes conceivable, namely the monetary focus of profit-orientation and its short-term orientation. This perspective allows a detachment of the concept of profit from the realm of money, as the seemingly only objectifiable measure of profit. Furthermore it allows a removal of the expectation that every "investment" has to directly "pay off". A karmic view offers management a possible facility for being more caring about the needs and fates of other stakeholders, as profit-orientation would no longer be attached as a factual constraint to merely accumulate money. (author's abstract