Israel in the Synagogue

The synagogue and Israel remain places where we can still find ourselves in an environment where being a Jew is a key to entry, where the dominant culture is Jewish, and where Jewish behavior is the prevailing norm. It is important that these two remain connected, in practice and in programming, and that the connection be continually enhanced

As Goffman Was Talking about Remedial Interchanges, He Took a Glass of Water and Spilled It on Rosenberg’s Lap

This interview with Samuel Heilman, Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the City University of New York, was recorded over the phone on December 1, 2008. After Dmitri Shalin transcribed the interview, Dr. Heilman edited the transcript and gave his approval for posting the present version in the Erving Goffman Archives. Supplementary information appears in square brackets. Undecipherable words and unclear passages are identified in the text as “[?]”. The interviewer’s questions are shortened in several places

Biography and Sociology: Berger on Religion as Choice rather than Fate

Is there a connection between biography and sociology for Peter Berger? The short answer, as demonstrated by his own memoir, Adventures of an Accidental Sociologist, is “yes.” But in his book, he traces this connection to his own arrival and training at the Graduate Faculty of the New School. I would like to suggest that the process begins earlier in his life. Known for his work on the sociology of knowledge, the examination of how “society influences thought,” I suggest an examination of how one’s biography influences thought, the environment in which Berger grew played a major role in his self-awareness, adjustment, human development, and identity. The paper applies this approach, along with Berger’s concept of the sociology of knowledge to sketch a possible understanding of his ideas and work that emerge as a product of his life experiences. The idea here is that people’s lives help frame and explain their own thinking and the way they see the world. Who one is, where and how one has lived and those with whom one has interacted create not only one’s personality and identity but also epigenetically the blueprint of one’s way of perceiving reality and shaping ideas. The intersection of the social and biographical facts of one’s life create the person and his ideas, both the objective and subjective structures of meaning

Non Equivalent: The State of Education in New York Citys Hasidic Yeshivas

Yaffed was founded to address the lack of secular education in many ultra-Orthodox schools. Tens of thousands of children attending these schools, also known as yeshivas, are being denied the education to which they are entitled under New York State law. For more than five years we have worked to educate public officials about this matter. Throughout, city and state education officials have demonstrated ignorance, disregard, and gross incompetence and in all these years have done little or nothing to improve education at these institutions.This report attempts to change that by increasing public awareness about ultra-Orthodox education.It describes the lack of secular education in many ultra-Orthodox and Hasidic yeshivas and the government inaction that has come at the expense of tens of thousands of children. It exposes the array of funding that the government doles out to yeshivas while fully aware that these schools arenot meeting standards. Finally, it sheds light on the grave consequences for the citizens of New York City and New York State were this problem to remain unchecked. We hope that the information provided here will enable readers to stand up for these children and for the proper use of their own tax dollars.After years of broken promises on the part of New York City and State education departments —after phantom investigations and reports, missed deadlines with no explanation, and promisedimprovements that never occurred — it is time the matter is addressed so that tens of thousands of current and future students at those yeshivas receive the education to which they are entitled. It is our sincere hope that this report will make that happen sooner. We invite the public to join us in demanding change

Characterization of the kinetic and thermodynamic landscape of RNA folding using a novel application of isothermal titration calorimetry

A novel isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) method was applied to investigate RNA helical packing driven by the GAAA tetraloop–receptor interaction in magnesium and potassium solutions. Both the kinetics and thermodynamics were obtained in individual ITC experiments, and analysis of the kinetic data over a range of temperatures provided Arrhenius activation energies (ΔH‡) and Eyring transition state entropies (ΔS‡). The resulting rich dataset reveals strongly contrasting kinetic and thermodynamic profiles for this RNA folding system when stabilized by potassium versus magnesium. In potassium, association is highly exothermic (ΔH25°C = −41.6 ± 1.2 kcal/mol in 150 mM KCl) and the transition state is enthalpically barrierless (ΔH‡ = −0.6 ± 0.5). These parameters are sigificantly positively shifted in magnesium (ΔH25°C = −20.5 ± 2.1 kcal/mol, ΔH‡ = 7.3 ± 2.2 kcal/mol in 0.5 mM MgCl2). Mixed salt solutions approximating physiological conditions exhibit an intermediate thermodynamic character. The cation-dependent thermodynamic landscape may reflect either a salt-dependent unbound receptor conformation, or alternatively and more generally, it may reflect a small per-cation enthalpic penalty associated with folding-coupled magnesium uptake

Optimasi Portofolio Resiko Menggunakan Model Markowitz MVO Dikaitkan dengan Keterbatasan Manusia dalam Memprediksi Masa Depan dalam Perspektif Al-Qur`an

Risk portfolio on modern finance has become increasingly technical, requiring the use of sophisticated mathematical tools in both research and practice. Since companies cannot insure themselves completely against risk, as human incompetence in predicting the future precisely that written in Al-Quran surah Luqman verse 34, they have to manage it to yield an optimal portfolio. The objective here is to minimize the variance among all portfolios, or alternatively, to maximize expected return among all portfolios that has at least a certain expected return. Furthermore, this study focuses on optimizing risk portfolio so called Markowitz MVO (Mean-Variance Optimization). Some theoretical frameworks for analysis are arithmetic mean, geometric mean, variance, covariance, linear programming, and quadratic programming. Moreover, finding a minimum variance portfolio produces a convex quadratic programming, that is minimizing the objective function ðð¥with constraintsð ð 𥠥 ðandð´ð¥ = ð. The outcome of this research is the solution of optimal risk portofolio in some investments that could be finished smoothly using MATLAB R2007b software together with its graphic analysis

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Juxtaposing BTE and ATE – on the role of the European insurance industry in funding civil litigation

One of the ways in which legal services are financed, and indeed shaped, is through private insurance arrangement. Two contrasting types of legal expenses insurance contracts (LEI) seem to dominate in Europe: before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance. Notwithstanding institutional differences between different legal systems, BTE and ATE insurance arrangements may be instrumental if government policy is geared towards strengthening a market-oriented system of financing access to justice for individuals and business. At the same time, emphasizing the role of a private industry as a keeper of the gates to justice raises issues of accountability and transparency, not readily reconcilable with demands of competition. Moreover, multiple actors (clients, lawyers, courts, insurers) are involved, causing behavioural dynamics which are not easily predicted or influenced. Against this background, this paper looks into BTE and ATE arrangements by analysing the particularities of BTE and ATE arrangements currently available in some European jurisdictions and by painting a picture of their respective markets and legal contexts. This allows for some reflection on the performance of BTE and ATE providers as both financiers and keepers. Two issues emerge from the analysis that are worthy of some further reflection. Firstly, there is the problematic long-term sustainability of some ATE products. Secondly, the challenges faced by policymakers that would like to nudge consumers into voluntarily taking out BTE LEI

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

Search for stop and higgsino production using diphoton Higgs boson decays

Results are presented of a search for a "natural" supersymmetry scenario with gauge mediated symmetry breaking. It is assumed that only the supersymmetric partners of the top-quark (stop) and the Higgs boson (higgsino) are accessible. Events are examined in which there are two photons forming a Higgs boson candidate, and at least two b-quark jets. In 19.7 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV, recorded in the CMS experiment, no evidence of a signal is found and lower limits at the 95% confidence level are set, excluding the stop mass below 360 to 410 GeV, depending on the higgsino mass