"Should I, as a Muslim, join or not Catholics in Churches?" Dilemmas of the Italian Muslim Community

Italian Muslims represent 2.6% of the entire population and one-third of all foreigners, constituting a fragmented and pluralistic community. Recently, father Jacques Hamel, a French Catholic priest, was killed by two knife-wielding French men pledging allegiance to the Islamic State. The Muslim French community strongly dissociated from this event. Italian Muslim community heeded this call and also sent delegates to French churches. According to the statistics, about 15,000 Muslims (approximately 1–2% of the Italian community) attended the commemorative event. Using a qualitative approach, we aimed at investigating the reasons that led Italian Muslims to join or not such an event. The following themes emerged: 1) public responsibility and accountability; 2) every murder as a crime to mankind; 3) importance of inter-faith dialogue and initiatives; 4) judging actions on the basis of intention; 5) fear of losing identity and roots; 6) innovation of attending churches even for good purposes; 7) dead peoples of series A and B; 8) useless of the action; and, finally, 9) impact of islamophobia. Our research sheds light on the multiple voices and thoughts of a complex, multifaceted community. We believe that our findings could be helpful for policy-makers and stakeholders, in designing inclusive and truly integrative policies

Neurotheology of islam and higher consciousness states

Generally speaking, human life is characterized by an array of experiences, which, both in health and disease, can have a spiritual/religious dimension. In the last decades, spirituality/religiosity has attracted a huge body of research and neurotheology or spiritual neuroscience is emerging as a modern multidisciplinary field aimed at understanding religious experiences and practices, as well its impact on well-being, with a focus on mental health, and its potential therapeutic implications in the treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders. For this purpose, neurotheology combines a variety of approaches and theoretical frameworks, deriving influences from theology, divinities and religious studies, philosophy, sociology, cognitive science, neuroscience, psychology, and anthropology. Available scientific evidences seem to suggest that Islam and Sufism (prayer and meditation) can contribute to the achievement of higher consciousness states

Ramadan Fasting and Patients with Cancer: State-of-the-Art and Future Prospects

Ramadan fasting represents one of the five pillars of the Islam creed. Even though some subjects (among which patients) are exempted from observing this religious duty, they may be eager to share this particular moment of the year with their family and peers. However, there are no guidelines or standardized protocols that can help physicians to properly address the issue of patients with cancer fasting in Ramadan and correctly advising them. Moreover, in a more interconnected and globalized society, in which more and more Muslim patients live in the Western countries, this topic is of high interest also for the general practitioner. For this purpose, we carried out a systematic review on the subject. Our main findings are that (1) very few studies have been carried out, addressing this issue, (2) evidence concerning quality of life and compliance to treatment is contrasting and scarce, and (3) generally speaking, few patients ask their physicians whether they can safely fast or not. For these reasons, further research should be performed, given the relevance and importance of this topic

ramadan fasting and infectious diseases a systematic review

Ramadan represents the fourth of the five pillars of the Islamic creed. Although patients are exempted from observing this duty, they may be eager to share this moment of the year with their peers. However, there are no guidelines that can help physicians to address the concerns of patients with infectious diseases fasting during Ramadan. For this purpose, we performed a systematic review. of 51 articles. Our main findings are that: 1) patients suffering from diabetes at risk of developing infectious complications should not fast; 2) Ramadan fasting has little impact on diarrheal patients; 3) HIV represents a challenge, and ad hoc drug combinations should be recommended to patients, and the patients should be advised not to take fatty meals that could interfere with the treatment; 4) Ramadan has no effect on the effectiveness of anti-helminthic therapy; and 5) patients with active ulcers should not fast, as they have a higher probability of developing complications

ANR COLOSTRUM (2013-2016) - Données de terrain de la ville de Fès, Maroc, photographies : Affiche du Code national de commercialisation des préparations infantiles placardée dans le couloir d'une maternité (Fès, Maroc)

Dans le cadre de la recherche menée dans la ville de Fès, au Maroc, pour l'ANR-Colostrum, les chercheurs devaient fournir, en plus des enquêtes et avec l'accord et l'autorisation des parents, du personnel soignant et de l'établissement, des photographies accompagnant et illustrant les enquêtes qui ont été menées

ANR COLOSTRUM (2013-2016) - Données de terrain de la ville de Fès, Maroc, photographies : Seringue jetable tire-lait posée sur une table (Fès, Maroc)

Dans le cadre de la recherche menée dans la ville de Fès, au Maroc, pour l'ANR-Colostrum, les chercheurs devaient fournir, en plus des enquêtes et avec l'accord et l'autorisation des parents, du personnel soignant et de l'établissement, des photographies accompagnant et illustrant les enquêtes qui ont été menées

Mind the gap between high school and university! A field qualitative survey at the National University of Caaguaz\ufa (Paraguay)

Paraguay has eight public universities and 45 private universities. The National University of Caaguaz\ufa (Universidad Nacional de Caaguaz\ufa or UNCA), with its main campus located in Coronel Oviedo, is one of the most recently founded public universities, being established in 2007. The UNCA has launched a project aiming at exploring the potentiality of its educational system, as well as its gaps. In particular, the UNCA wants to assess the effectiveness of preparatory courses for preparing students for admission to the degree course in medicine (Cursos Probatorios de Ingreso or CPI), in order to identify the main strong and weak points of the system, the popularity and usefulness of CPI as perceived by the students, the students\u2019 and teachers\u2019 opinions regarding the limits of school, and their suggestions. This paper is based on a field survey and highlights the care that must be taken in order to develop conditions respectful of the wellbeing of those participating in the educational context

The attitudes of the members of two Moroccan Islamist movements concerning the civil state principles assessed through a counterargument task

The aim of this work was to explore how the members of two representative Moroccan Islamist movements (one against the government and the other with previous political and administrative experiences) could deal with the civil state principles, when facing a counterargument task. The results showed that the political association had a significant impact on different civil state principles (secularism, separation of powers, political pluralism, elected governmental institutions, and participative governance), whereas other principles (acceptance of non Muslim governors and democracy) were considered to constitute the strong identity core of an Islamist party and were, as such, rejected by both movements. A significant gender effect could be found only for the principle of secularism

Infodemiological data of high-school drop-out related web searches in Canada correlating with real-world statistical data in the period 2004–2012

The present data article describes high-school drop-out related web activities in Canada, from 2004 to 2012, obtained mining Google Trends (GT), using high-school drop-out as key-word. The searches volumes were processed, correlated and cross-correlated with statistical data obtained at national and province level and broken down for gender. Further, an autoregressive moving-average (ARMA) model was used to model the GT-generated data. From a qualitative point of view, GT-generated relative search volumes (RSVs) reflect the decrease in drop-out rate. The peak in the Internet-related activities occurs in 2004 (56.35%, normalized value), and gradually declines to 40.59% (normalized value) in 2007. After, it remains substantially stable until 2012 (40.32%, normalized value). From a quantitative standpoint, the correlations between Canadian high-school drop-out rate and GT-generated RSVs in the study period (2004–2012) were statistically significant both using the drop-out rate for academic year and the 3-years moving average. Examining the data broken down by gender, the correlations were higher and statistically significant in males than in females. GT-based data for drop-out resulted best modeled by an ARMA(1,0) model. Considering the cross correlation of Canadian regions, all of them resulted statistically significant at lag 0, apart from for New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and the Prince Edward island. A number or cross-correlations resulted statistically significant also at lag −1 (namely, Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan)