Challenges of Religious Literacy in Education : Islam and the Governance of Religious Diversity in Multi-faith Schools

This chapter seeks take part in an emerging research where religion is approached as a whole school endeavor. Previous research and policy recommendations typically focused on teaching about religion in school, but the accommodation of religious diversity in the wider school culture merits more attention. Based on observations in our multiple case studies, we discuss the multi-level governance of religious diversity in Finnish multi-faith schools with a particular focus on the challenges of religious literacy for educators. The three examples we present focus on the inclusion of Muslims in Finnish schools and in particular on the challenges for educator (1) in interpreting the distinction between religion and culture, (2) in recognizing and handling intra-religious diversity, and (3) in being aware of Protestant conceptions of religion and culture. A theme cutting across these examples is how they reflect the tendencies either to see different situations merely through the lens of religion (religionisation), or not to recognize the importance of religion at all (religion-blindness). We argue that religious literacy should be recognized and developed as a vital part of the intercultural competencies of educators.Peer reviewe

Mutual Information of Population Codes and Distance Measures in Probability Space

We studied the mutual information between a stimulus and a large system consisting of stochastic, statistically independent elements that respond to a stimulus. The Mutual Information (MI) of the system saturates exponentially with system size. A theory of the rate of saturation of the MI is developed. We show that this rate is controlled by a distance function between the response probabilities induced by different stimuli. This function, which we term the {\it Confusion Distance} between two probabilities, is related to the Renyi $\alpha$-Information.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, accepted to PR

Isomeric states close to doubly magic 132^{132}Sn studied with JYFLTRAP

The double Penning trap mass spectrometer JYFLTRAP has been employed to measure masses and excitation energies for $11/2^-$ isomers in $^{121}$Cd, $^{123}$Cd, $^{125}$Cd and $^{133}$Te, for $1/2^-$ isomers in $^{129}$In and $^{131}$In, and for $7^-$ isomers in $^{130}$Sn and $^{134}$Sb. These first direct mass measurements of the Cd and In isomers reveal deviations to the excitation energies based on results from beta-decay experiments and yield new information on neutron- and proton-hole states close to $^{132}$Sn. A new excitation energy of 144(4) keV has been determined for $^{123}$Cd$^m$. A good agreement with the precisely known excitation energies of $^{121}$Cd$^m$, $^{130}$Sn$^m$, and $^{134}$Sb$^m$ has been found.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Q_EC values of the Superallowed beta-Emitters 10-C, 34-Ar, 38-Ca and 46-V

The Q_EC values of the superallowed beta+ emitters 10-C, 34-Ar, 38-Ca and 46-V have been measured with a Penning-trap mass spectrometer to be 3648.12(8), 6061.83(8), 6612.12(7) and 7052.44(10) keV, respectively. All four values are substantially improved in precision over previous results.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, 5 table

Precision mass measurements of radioactive nuclei at JYFLTRAP

The Penning trap mass spectrometer JYFLTRAP was used to measure the atomic masses of radioactive nuclei with an uncertainty better than 10 keV. The atomic masses of the neutron-deficient nuclei around the N = Z line were measured to improve the understanding of the rp-process path and the SbSnTe cycle. Furthermore, the masses of the neutron-rich gallium (Z = 31) to palladium (Z = 46) nuclei have been measured. The physics impacts on the nuclear structure and the r-process paths are reviewed. A better understanding of the nuclear deformation is presented by studying the pairing energy around A = 100.Comment: 4 pages and 4 figures, RNB7 conf. pro

Crystallization and preliminary crystallographic analysis of the major capsid proteins VP16 and VP17 of bacteriophage P23-77

The major capsid proteins VP16 and VP17 of bacteriophage P23-77 have been crystallized using both recombinant and purified virus and preliminary diffraction analyses have been performed

Mass measurements in the vicinity of the doubly-magic waiting point 56Ni

Masses of 56,57Fe, 53Co^m, 53,56Co, 55,56,57Ni, 57,58Cu, and 59,60Zn have been determined with the JYFLTRAP Penning trap mass spectrometer at IGISOL with a precision of dm/m \le 3 x 10^{-8}. The QEC values for 53Co, 55Ni, 56Ni, 57Cu, 58Cu, and 59Zn have been measured directly with a typical precision of better than 0.7 keV and Coulomb displacement energies have been determined. The Q values for proton captures on 55Co, 56Ni, 58Cu, and 59Cu have been measured directly. The precision of the proton-capture Q value for 56Ni(p,gamma)57Cu, Q(p,gamma) = 689.69(51) keV, crucial for astrophysical rp-process calculations, has been improved by a factor of 37. The excitation energy of the proton emitting spin-gap isomer 53Co^m has been measured precisely, Ex = 3174.3(10) keV, and a Coulomb energy difference of 133.9(10) keV for the 19/2- state has been obtained. Except for 53Co, the mass values have been adjusted within a network of 17 frequency ratio measurements between 13 nuclides which allowed also a determination of the reference masses 55Co, 58Ni, and 59Cu.Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.